"Shishi Hokodan!"
  The ki blast streaked toward her targets.

And slammed into a figure in strange purplish armor, knocking her
through the wall and cutting off her scream of "PANDA-CHAN!" midway.
She had noticed some pretty lights from one of the rooftops and had
become slightly distracted by some mice who were running away from
what...LOOKED like some brownies, but made some other strange looking
mice who were eating them die horrible, painful deaths...The others didn't
fare too well either, but at  least she made up for missing half of lunch.

As >>she pulled herself out of the wall, she did a check of her armor...tech

shields down, magic shields severly drained and about as useful as  a

shell >>ofplastic...Not good, she thought as she righted herself, looking
for the >>origin of the blast, her sensors forgotten and relying solely on
her >>cat-enhanced senses.  She spotted a figure in the deep in the shadows,

just barely and let loose a rapid-fire volly of tennis-ball-sized energy
spheres, not noticing the quarry and the assist slipping out the back in

her >>anger at being attacked.

   C-koH snarled in frustration.  "You IDIOT!  First you nearly give the
whole thing away with you damn caterwauling, and now...grrrrrrrr!" She
spotted her prey sneaking out the back way, just as another Panda appeared.
C-koH spared the false Panda a mere glance before leaving him to play with
the catgirl and starting after her true target--the one Vixxy was with.

Meanwhile, in Stargazer's op-center, several scanners started screaming to
get his attention.   "What the...? Ki-balsts, explosions?  Something is

going on

at the dojo."  He 'ports into the dojo, and just barely missed getting hit

by a 

stream of small energy spheres. "Hey what do you think your doing?"  He
fires a few quick rounds of plasma, but because of his surprise and unaimed
shot, he missed.  The sudden flare of light blindes everybody in the room
who doesn't have any sort of flash protection for their eyes, which

Stargazer >does have, knowing what effect the brightness of Plasma can have.

However, he is distracted from getting revenge by something he sees in the
glow.  "Panda, hold where you are.  The Taskmistress whishes to talk to
you."  Panda, of course tries to run away.  "they never want to do things

the >easy way, do they?"

Stargazer gives a small evil grin as he goes to  take Panda down.

   C-koH noticed a bright flash of light to her rear as slipped through the
door Panda had went through.  Fortunately, her eyes had already been
averted.  Paying the chaos no further heed, she followed her prey into the
basement of the dojo.

Panda stopped at the top of the back stairwell to offer a hand to Vixxy as
they climbed out of the dojo's dusty basement. "I hope the Master doesn't
hurt them too badly, although I'm betting that his panda costume will slow
him down a bit. Oh... and where did all those other Panda's come from? I
wonder if the Blue Tigress had a paw in that... "

Vixxy giggled, and took Panda's paw. "Just remember something Pandy. I am
here here to take you back to the Taskmistress. So I am officially on

business."

Panda helped Vixxy to the top of the stairs where the two looked out onto a
"T" junction of narrow alleys. Panda dusted himself off and replied, "Who
says you can't mix business with pleasure?"

Vixxy just smiled, and stepped into the alleyway. After a quick check of a
gadget she was carrying (a non-electronic compass<g>), she finally
announced, "This way!"

The set off in a jog down the east branch of the junction, the harbor coming
into view ahead of them. "I came here in a boat. We can use it to get to the
mainland and from there catch a plane to headquarters."

   C-koH climbed from the basement in time to see the two disappear around
the corner.  She immediately took to the rooftops, leaping from building to
building while keeping her prey in sight from above.  She was growing more
and more frustrated.  All these amatures with their high-tech toys kept
getting in her way.  One more delay, one more idiot interfering, and someone
would die...

Panda nodded, his paws clenched around the cari-sak that contained the
disks with the fanfics on them. At this point he would be happy to see the
Taskmistress and deliver the fanfics. A simple delivery job had turned into 
a minor irritation, and a distraction from writing his own fanfic. Hopefully
he could rest on the flight to California.

The escaping pair slowed down as they approached the dock area, with Vixxy
guiding them through a maze of wooden ramps and narrow walkways. Finally the
panda and the curvaceous woman halted in front of a sleek Scarab powerboat,
complete with rear foil. "Very nice," Panda commented
admiringly. "Seems Taskmistressing pays well-"

"That's far enough," came a purring voice from behind, as the two escapees
hopped into the boat. Panda stood still, the tone of the voice *very*
familiar. He turned and his fears were confirmed. "Hello Sapphire. I thought
you'd never show up..."

   C-koH stopped short, spying the Blue Tigress.  "Oh, chikuso," she
muttered, watching the encounter from her concealment.  "This just isn't my
day."  She stood up.  "So what else is new?"  She'd come too far, gone
through too much, to quit now.  Not even Sapphire was going to prevent her
from collecting.
   Stepping out from her concealment, headbands spinning in her hand, she
announced, "Panda comes with me."  The tone of her voice brooked no argument.

Panda

Kent Magami
Second Deacon of Ryoga, Tracker of the Wandering One
Co-founder and High Priest of the Holy Order of A-ko