Secrets 1:
Patience

‘What are we doing this far out from the valley?’ Leonardo thought as he, his brothers, and their latest master Shifu were racing to a building. The four teens were ordered to follow the red panda and ask no question.

“You ready?” Their teacher said to the warriors as they were close to their destination. Most of them wanted to answer and question the older fighter but the youngest beat them to the punch.

“Ready’s my middle name.” The warrior of orange said with a thumb pointing at himself as they continued to run. The five made it to a pair of big wooden doors, and after he caught his breath the slacker spoke again. “What do we got? Gang of terrible rhinos? Crocs? Rabid wolves? Let’s do it!” As he questioned that the ninja faced the door and did basic hops that a boxer is known to do.

“Be warned. This may be the toughest challenge any of you have ever had to face.” Shifu said to them, and without warning the slacker slammed the doors open with a kick and leapt in - expecting a powerful enemy.

“Get ready to fight Dragon Warrior orange and the lightning tossing might of Inazuma.” The young one shouted before scanning around and saw that they were all rabbits - everyone of them.

“Introduction to kung fu class.” Shifu said - clarifying the confusion from all four turtles at the sight before them. The team saw their master looking at something, so they followed his gaze and saw that it was a turtle version of their bear training dummy back home.

‘That kid had some skill.’ Raphael thought with a smirk as he watched a kid kick the head of the orange masked training dummy.

“Can I use the Wuxi finger hold on `em?” The youngest brother said to the others as he saw what his punching bag self received that kick, and did not want to know what that felt like.

“I don’t think that Shifu would like us using that move?” The eldest pointed out and was backed up by the smart one.

“Not to mention that despite this rabbits being loud…they do not deserve what we did to Tai Lung.” The youngest of the group knew that they were right, and sunk his shoulders in defeat.

“Leonardo, Raphael, Donatello, Michelangelo remember this, each generation teaches the next one. And so the art of kung fu lives on in you and now in these…” Shifu explained before stalling due to a child leaping over the teacher, and crashed on the ground. “…delightful children.” He finished before speeding away.

“What?” The gamer said before looking to the doorway and watched as the panda closed the doors on them. “Master Shifu!” The chucker shouted out as he watched the elder walk away.

“Good luck.” He said back while walking away. It was then the four tried to get the young rabbits to calm down and listen to them. Sadly the more that they tried the more the children sparred with one another.

“Got it. Follow my lead.” The aggressive one said to the others as he spotted a gong. To make sure that the complainer helped out Raphael grabbed him by the shell and threw his brother at the gong.

“Get those cottontails on the ground now.” Leonardo said to the young ones while using his angered tone, the same he used when he wanted perfection from his brothers after the explosion.

“The Dragon Warriors.” The rabbits all shouted and gathered around the four heroes of the valley of peace.

“Yes, thank you…” The orange dragon said and saw about to say more but was cut off.

“Are we gonna learn the cool kung fu moves?” A blue kimono wearing male questioned the team with an excited tone. When the rabbits received a nod from all they cheered at that.

“Now we’re really gonna start kicking butt!” A rabbit male in black said with satisfaction.

‘A rabbit after your own heart, Raph.” The eldest whispered to the second oldest who acted as though he didn’t hear that.

“Actually, kicking butt is just a small part of kung fu.” Donatello informed them before adding with a high angled kick. “It’s awesome, but it’s small.” This only confused the listeners.

“ ‘kung fu’ means excellence of self.” The swords-turtle explained to them while giving them only the definition. “Being the best you can be. That’s what it means, fellow warriors.” He added to his first comment and prayed that what he said would help.

‘What’s that?’ Raph thought as he felt some tapping on his leg.
“I wanna learn tigress style.” A young girl rabbit said to the born fighter after she saw that she had his attention.

“Aren’t we gonna learn to fight?” The black clothed one said in an aggravated tone since he saw no point with all of this talking.

“Yeah, like the Furious Five.” Another rabbit pointed out causing all of them to shout ‘yeah’ after hearing that familiar title. The four heard the group shout and decided to use their friends as a means to teach the children some of the main points of kung fu.

“The Furious Five? They are pretty cool, aren’t they? But it wasn’t the fighting that made them amazing. No. They each had to learn the secrets of kung fu before they became excellent.” The one in orange said to them as a mean to set the bait.

“Secrets? What secrets?” The one in black question asked them since he wanted to know the secrets of their power.

“Tell us!” The other children shouted out as one since they too wanted to learn the same thing.

“I’m afraid our brother has already said too much. We promised the five that we would never spill the beans to anyone.” The brainy brother pointed out calmly. It was then they began a suspended: please. The group knew that they were not going to stop, so they ‘caved’.

“Okay, you cracked us. We’ll talk, but you have to promise that you keep this to your selves because we will deny everything.” The one in red pointed out, and it was then the eldest began the first of five tales.

“Even when Master Mantis was but a wee bug, he was fast. Lightning fast! Whenever anyone needed help…” Leonardo said to them as he spoke of his sparing partner, but was interrupted by the comic book expert’s falsetto tone:

“Help.” The three others gave him a look, but the swords-turtle was able to get back to the story.

“He was there.” The blue swordsman continued to where he was left off. The New Yorker then went on about the fight Mantis had with the Ladybug Lunatics. “He was the hero of the valley, but similar to a turtle I once knew…they were both very inconsiderate of others around him.” He explained to the young ones.

‘That doesn’t sound like him.’ Several fans of the warrior in question thought before listening to some more of the tale.

“The world moved too slow for Mantis, or to put it better maybe Mantis was too fast for the world.” The field leader of the team said and spoke of how angry his pal was too the waiter before adding, “Sadly, one day it will get him into very deep trouble.” By this time all of the long eared children leaned forward since the way he was telling this story was getting them excited. The turtle then told the rest of the tale, but unlike his brother did not change his voice:

“A gang of crocodiles stole my village’s supply of…” An innocent sheep citizen said to the insect after going into the restraint he was humored to hang out at.

“Wood.” The green one cut her off.

“Wool coats.” The knitter continued with her statement. “And if we don’t get them back, we’ll…” She was about to explain the urgency of the problem, but was cut off again.

“Look unfashionable?” He questioned back to her since not a whole lot of mammals seemed very appealing to him.

“Freeze to death.” The finished her explanation with a part of her wondering if going with this savior was the wisest move.

“Just as I thought. And where did these scaly savages run off to?” The insect questioned since he wanted to get this mission over and done with as soon as possible.

“They went…” She said, about to answer his question but was cut off.

“West!” He shouted before hearing the rest.

No, east.” She corrected him causing the short-patented man to return to the table.

“What are you…” He almost questioned to her, but was cut off by the mammal.

“Towards the…” She started to explain where to go, but was cut off.

“Hill!” He shouted at her and sped off, but came back when she shouted back,

“No.” He rushed back to the table and leaned on his ‘swords’ to show off how board he was. “The island of…” She was about to say the location, but was dismissed again.

“Rhinos?” Mantis questioned: wondering how much longer was this discussion.

“Crocodile Bandits.” She shouted at him since she was getting as aggravated as he was.
“Crocodile bandits? East? Wool coats! I knew it! I’ll need a boat!” Mantis said after getting the just of his latest mission. Once charting a boat deal was done his beseecher decided to give him some last minute advice.

“You need to be very…” Sheep started to say but was cut off…again.

“Quick.” He cut her off - thinking that speed was all that was needed to settle these things.

“Careful. And take…” She finished, started, and was interrupted.

“A packed lunch?” He questioned since he knew that the boat he was taking already had food in it.

“This map.” She had finished.

“No maps.” He shouted back at her while knocking said piece of paper out of her hooves.

“Mantis, they…” She shouted to the insect, who had already set sail.

“Won’t know what hit ‘em.” He finished while pulling out of the dock.

“Traps! They’re famous for setting traps!” She shouted as loud as she could, but after not getting a response the wool based one feared the worse. On his way down the river a scout spotted something.

‘Better tell the others who’s coming over.’ The scout thought after catching a glimpse of who was piloting the ship. Aside from that the ride went uneventful, and after getting close enough the quick fighter hopped onto the dock.

‘There they are.’ He thought after seeing his objective after peeking past a post he was hiding behind. Right when he was about to snag them something happened, “A trap! Why didn’t anyone warn me?” He shouted in annoyance when he found himself locked in a small steel cage.

“Well, if it isn’t the world-famous Mantis.” One of the foes said after pulling the cage up their eye level.

“Guess you were so fast you forgot to check for traps.” Another thug gloated to the captured savior. The insect was not phased by their words and decided to challenge them.

“How `bout you let me out and I’ll show you how fast I can make you cry?” Mantis stated to them as he was expecting the leather-heads to take him up on that offer.
“Why don’t we leave you in there and see how fast you can grow old?” The leader of the bandits counter offered the warrior. Once they left he tried every tactic he knew to try to get free, but in the end - nothing worked.

“No matter how hard I try, I cannot escape.” The insect said before falling to his back and stared at the sky through his metal bars. At this time Leonardo stepped away from the story and simply spoke to the children.

“He could do nothing but sit and wait for something to happen.” He informed them before adding, “So he waited…and waited…and waited. Until something extraordinary happened. For the first time, the world around him was moving faster than he did. Forced to wait, Mantis entered a trance-like state, and it was then the warrior discovered the one thing he had been missing - patience…and a brilliant plan.” Once the turtle was done explaining things he went back to the story.

“Hey, Mantis. Wake up, It’s time to eat.” One of the crocodiles said as he walked over with a plate of gruel. “Uh…hey you guys.” The food server said to the other two.

“That’s yucky.” The leader said aloud as he, and the others saw what all dead, by natural causes, bugs look like.

“I think he’s dead.” The server said to the others as he was trying to hold in his food at the sight.

“Touch him. Poke him with something.” The leader instructed to one of the others. The third member picked a fallen twig and carefully put it in the cage.

“Mantis had to summon every ounce of chi he could muster. Just to keep from laughing.” Leo informed them before going on about how the third one was poking the bug’s butt. “The crocodiles had fallen for his playing dead technique.” The blue one informed before explaining the fight between crocs and Mantis. “Mantis had finally found the secret of excellence of self, the supreme might of patience.” The swords-turtle said while in a traditional meditating pose, but when he opened his eyes he did not like what he saw.

Copy Rights:
TMNT, and the others, are owned by Eastman/Laird and Fox Box.
Kung Fu Panda, and the others, are owned by Dreamworks.