Kung Fu Panda 3 Movie Novelization

by Tracey West

  As Mei Mei danced with her ribbons, he called, “Faster, faster! Twirl those ribbons!”

  Dim and Sum were off to the side, catapulting themselves with the hammocks. “Higher!” Po said. “And a little more to the left this time—you can do it!”

  Then Po took a basket full of dumplings to Bao and the kid pandas. “I don’t want to see any of these hit the ground,” he coached, before tossing the dumplings into the air.

  The kids kicked the dumplings just like they’d kicked the jianzi.

  Outside the kitchen hut, Li and Mr. Ping were transforming kitchen supplies into weapons and armor. Tigress walked around, still trying to figure out what Po had in mind. Lei Lei followed her everywhere.

  “Wait, wait, Stripy Baby!” she cried.

  As Po studied the pandas, he gave them each a different weapon. He handed Mei Mei some nunchucks—two sticks attached by a chain, a weapon used in kung fu fighting. Then he took away her ribbons.

  “Good, now try it with these!” he said.

  Mei Mei twirled them expertly, though she accidentally hit Tigress in the process.

  Then he inserted firecrackers into the dumplings the kids were kicking.

  The final test: Po held up a board for each of the pandas to break.

  Bao kicked a dumpling clean through the board!

  Big Fun hugged the board until it splintered to pieces!

  Even Grandma Panda was willing to take a swing at it . . . but she missed and kicked Po in his tenders.

  By the end of the day, every panda in the village was turning their own panda skills into awesome battle skills—even though it still looked like they were playing and having fun. Po stood on a hill to watch them all in action. Tigress hobbled over, Lei Lei clinging to her leg.

  “They are ready,” Po said confidently.

  Her golden eyes widened. “What?”

  CHAPTER 17

  The Battle Begins

  After training, Po gathered the pandas at the big banquet table to lay out his battle plan. The pandas looked exhausted but excited as Po used a bamboo stick to point to the details on his plan, which he had drawn on a large scroll.

  “Okay, pay attention, ’cause I’m only gonna go over this ten more times,” he said. “The only entrance to the village is here.”

  He pointed to the bridge at the top of the ice wall.

  “The Dumpling Squad will take position here.”

  He slid a bowl of dumplings into place on the map.

  “While the Cookie Squad will take position here.”

  He slid a plate of cookies onto the map.

  “Now, on my signal, the two squads will—”

  He stopped. The dumplings and cookies were gone! Two little pandas looked innocently at the sky, their cheeks stuffed with food.

  Po sighed. “Right, the Noodle Squad will—”

  He reached for the noodles, but another panda kid was already slurping them up.

  “Well, anyway, the important thing to remember is that THIS is the spot where—”

  Crunch! One of the pandas bit the pointer right in half!

  Po tossed the pointer aside. “Okay, I saw that coming. If you only remember one thing, it’s distract the jombies until I get close enough to put the Wuxi Finger Hold on Kai. Got it?”

  “Yeah!” the pandas cheered, and they ran off to eat dinner. Lei Lei dragged Tigress off in another direction.

  Po took out the scroll that Tigress had given him—Oogway’s scroll, the scroll that had survived Kai’s destruction. That had to mean something.

  Po stared at the image of the pandas healing Oogway with their chi.

  “I wish I could’ve taught you this, son,” Li said, coming up behind him.

  “It’s okay, Dad,” Po said. He wasn’t angry with Li anymore. “I’m—”

  Suddenly, the ground started to shake. Startled, the pandas all looked up from their dinner plates.

  Tigress looked up from her tea party with Lei Lei.

  “He’s here,” she said.

  And he was. Kai sank his blades into the ice wall and used them like grappling hooks to climb to the top.

  Po stood there, waiting for him by the village gate. The two warriors faced each other like gunslingers. Kai laughed maniacally, and the sound bounced across the hills.

  “Whoa! That’s what I call a dramatic entrance!” Po said.

  When Kai looked at Po, he saw a figure glowing with superstrong chi.

  “You must be the Dragon Warrior,” Kai said.

  “And you must be Kai,” said Po. “Beast of Vengeance. Maker of Widows.”

  “Yes! Finally! Thank you!” Kai said, glad that someone had finally heard of him. “Almost makes me want to spare your life.”

  “You want to spare me? How about you spare me the chitchat?” Po countered. His eyes narrowed. “Let’s do this.”

  Kai began to boast. “I’m going to take your chi, then the chi of every panda in—”

  “Chitchat!” Po interrupted him.

  “In the—”

  “Chitty chitty chat chat!” said Po.

  “In the—”

  “Chat chat chat!” Po continued.

  “In the—”

  “Chitchat!”

  “Oh, you pudgy little . . .” Kai had had enough. He looked down at the jade amulets on his belt. He removed them and then started to spin his chain blades as Po slowly backed away.

  “Round them all up!” he ordered his jombies.

  Using his chain as a sling, he f lung the green amulets at Po. They landed in front of him, instantly transforming from tiny amulets into green glowing warriors. The last five to transform were Mantis, Crane, Viper, Monkey, and Master Shifu. Po looked at them in horror—nearly all of his friends had been defeated by Kai and turned into jombies.

  “Oh no, it’s true,” Po said. “You guys have all been turned green . . . except for you, Mantis, you were already green.”

  Behind Po, Dim and Sum were hiding behind some rocks.

  “Now?” Dim whispered.

  “Wait for the signal,” Sum whispered back.

  Kai was impatient. He jumped on top of a rock and pushed his hands forward, sending the jombies storming at Po.

  “Here we go!” Po cried. “Incoming!”

  He turned and ran straight into the village. The jombies chased him. Jade Crane swooped down, but Po f lipped head over heels to dodge the attack.

  “Dumpling Squad!” he cried out.

  Now Dim and Sum were in their bamboo catapults.

  “Ready?” Dim asked his brother.

  “Go time!” said Sum.

  They launched into the air, with a cry of “Wahooooo!”

  Smoosh! They smashed into Jade Crane from either side with their ample bellies.

  Kai shook his head in disbelief. “Seriously?”

  Po looked behind him and saw Jade Crane fall. But he had plenty more jombies on his tail.

  “Sorry, Crane!” he called back.

  Jade Croc leaped at Po from behind, snapping at Po with his massive jaws. Po was just inches in front of him.

  “Uh-oh,” said Po.

  As he zoomed past a hut, a panda hand passed down a heavy metal wok to him. Then he jumped up and took off across the roof of another hut.

  “Spring Roll Squad! Time for some takeout!” he commanded.

  A group of pandas rolled down from a nearby hill.

  “Hup!” they replied.

  They rolled down the hill and across the rooftop, building speed.

  Bam! Bam! Bam! They knocked down three of the jombies chasing Po like bowling balls taking down pins.

  “Yeah!” they cheered.

  Po called to the rest of the jombies. “Yoo-hoo! Over here, Mr. Jombie!”

  They took off after Po as he used the wok to slide down the slanted rooftop. He hopped out of it and then high-fived a panda paw jutting out from a snowbank.

  Jade Monkey had the lead in the jombie chase. But before he could reach Po, Big Fun emerged fro
m the snowbank. He wrapped Monkey in a huge hug!

  “I don’t know who you are!” Big Fun said cheerfully.

  The other jombies were hot on Po’s heels as he continued to race through the village.

  “Noodle Squad!” he yelled.

  Red ribbons immediately lashed out and wrapped around the two Jade Badger Twins. Mei Mei pulled the jombies close.

  “Get ready to dance . . . with danger!” Mei Mei cried, whipping out her nunchucks.

  “Sweet!” Po cheered as he kept running.

  Kai didn’t like what he was seeing. “Wait? What? No!” he fumed.

  As Po continued on, Tigress sprang out and battled Jade Croc. The little panda girl tottered toward her with her arms outstretched

  “Stripy Baby!” she cooed happily.

  “Uh-oh!” said Tigress. She scooped up Lei Lei in one hand and fought Jade Croc with the other.

  Lei Lei reached out and hit Jade Croc on the nose with her Tigress action figure.

  “You’re mean! Hi-yaaaa!” she cried.

  Tigress backed that up with an even harder punch. “Ya!”

  Po kept running. Now Jade Bear was behind him, raising his axe. Po tumbled out of the way of the blow as . . .

  “Fire in the hole!” yelled Bao.

  Bang! An explosion lit up near Jade Bear’s face, stopping him in his tracks. Bao and the panda kids were kicking fireworks-stuffed dumplings down onto the jombies.

  Bang! They took out Jade Porcupine next.

  “All right, kids!” Po cheered.

  He glanced behind him. The pack of jombies chasing him was dwindling as the pandas did their jobs. They whacked the jombies with nunchucks, crushed them with hugs, and frazzled them with fireworks.

  Now one jombie was closing in on Po—Jade Master Shifu.

  “Oh no! Master Shifu! I can’t hit Master Shifu!” Po cried.

  Then . . . smash! Jade Master Shifu ran straight into a frying pan.

  Mr. Ping, wearing armor made of cooking pots and pans, smiled. “I can!”

  “And so can I!” Li added. He was wearing a massive bamboo replica of Master Flying Rhino’s battle armor that he’d tried on in the Jade Palace—and Mr. Ping was strapped to his belly!

  “Double Dad Defense!” the two fathers shouted together.

  They leaped into battle against Jade Master Shifu.

  “We’ve got this, son!” Li assured him.

  “Go, Dads!” Po cheered.

  He jumped up on another rooftop and saw that the remaining jombies were all tied up in battle with the pandas—and losing. Po pumped his fist.

  “We got ’em now!” he said.

  Back at the ice wall, Kai struggled to keep track of the battle as he saw it through the eyes of all his jombies. He saw a crazy jumble of ribbons and nunchucks and dumplings and big, furry, squeezing arms. It was too much.

  “Stop! Stop! Enough!” he cried.

  Po knew the jombies were not going to be a problem anymore. There was only one thing left to do.

  “Let’s finish this,” he said.

  He dove down from the rooftop and landed past the waterfall into a pile of snow. He rolled and rolled down the hill, turning into a giant panda snowball. He hurtled over the ice toward Kai. Mr. Ping and Li looked on anxiously.

  Boom! The snowball hit Kai and exploded. When the snowf lakes cleared, Po was pressed against Kai, his pinky raised in the air, ready to strike with the Wuxi Finger Hold. Po had used the powerful move to annihilate the evil Tai Lung in his very first battle with a big bad guy. Nobody could escape the Wuxi Finger Hold. It was a massive, powerful display of kung fu awesomeness.

  “Sorry, buddy,” Po told Kai. “Gotta send you back to the Spirit Realm.”

  He dropped his pinky on Kai’s finger. “Skadoosh.”

  Po waited for the spectacular explosion of golden light . . . but nothing happened.

  “Okay, that didn’t work. Let me try one more time,” he said. “Skadoosh!”

  Nothing.

  “Skadoosh!”

  Still nothing.

  “Skadoosh, skadoosh, skadoosh!” Po cried, desperately repeating the move.

  “Hold on, wait . . . it’s working! No!” Kai wailed, but he was just psyching Po out. “No, it’s not. Did Oogway teach you that little trick? Too bad. It only works on mortals. And I am a Spirit Warrior.”

  He called out to his jombies. “Come!”

  The jade masters transformed into green streaks of light and f lew back to Kai’s belt. As each one returned, Kai gained energy. He began to pummel Po with mighty blows. Then he tossed Po into the air, jumped up, and delivered a powerful kick, sending Po f lying.

  Slam! Po hit the ground. The pandas, Tigress, and Mr. Ping all rushed to his side. He lay there, still, looking battered and beaten.

  “Son!” Li cried.

  “Po!” Tigress knelt beside him.

  “I was wrong,” Po said weakly. “I’m sorry. Run . . . Run!”

  CHAPTER 18

  Po’s Sacrifice

  Nobody ran. Everybody stood by Po.

  Kai’s chain blades struck the ground behind Po, pulling Kai with them. He yanked the chain blades back to his hands. Then he looked down at Oogway’s amulet and laughed.

  “So, Oogway, this was the one destined to stop me?” he taunted.

  He loomed over Po.

  “I will have his chi,” he promised, and then nodded toward the other pandas. “And all of theirs.”

  He hurled out one of the chain blades. It cut a groove into the ground around Po and the other pandas. Smiling, he took another step closer to Po.

  Po looked around at his friends and loved ones. He had failed them. He couldn’t defeat Kai. He just wasn’t powerful enough.

  “And you, you really thought you could send me back to the Spirit Realm?” Kai asked boastfully. “You’re just a stupid mortal.”

  A light went on inside Po’s head. “It only works on mortals. . . .” Po realized he didn’t have to fail. He could save them all.

  Well, almost all.

  Po turned back to Kai.

  “You’re right, I can’t send you there,” he said. “But I can take you there.”

  Then he borrowed a trick from Master Shifu. He pointed behind Kai. “What’s that?”

  Kai turned in the direction Po was pointing, but there was nothing there. In an instant, Po leaped up and landed on Kai with his arms wrapped around him.

  “Po?” Tigress asked, her eyes wide.

  Po raised a pinky and looked and his family.

  He smiled, then . . .

  “Skadoosh.”

  Po dropped the pinky on his own finger.

  “Son!” Li and Mr. Ping yelled.

  “No!” wailed Kai.

  BOOM! The power of the Wuxi Finger Hold rocked the mountain with a huge explosion of golden light, blinding the villagers, Tigress, and Mr. Ping. As the light faded, peach-blossom petals rained to the ground.

  Po and Kai were gone. In the spot where they had stood was a yin-and-yang symbol made of peach petals.

  “What happened? Where’s Po?” Li said, his eyes filled with shock.

  “He took Kai away,” Tigress said softly. “He saved us.”

  “He saved us,” said Mr. Ping. “But who’s saving him?”

  When Po opened his eyes, he found himself in a land filled with clouds and mountain debris.

  “Whoa, the Spirit Realm!” he said. “It worked!”

  Po looked down and realized he was sitting on top of Kai.

  “Get off me, you . . .” Kai’s voice trailed off as he grumbled, trying to squeeze out from under Po. He looked surprised when he saw the clouds. “You brought me back?”

  “Don’t blame me,” Po said. “I tried to finish this in the regular realm.”

  Kai’s eyes narrowed. “Then we’ll finish it here!”

  His chain blades shot out, and Po dodged them.

  “Whoa!” Po cried.

  But Kai’s blades had latched on to a f l
oating temple. He yanked the chains and sent the building hurtling toward Po.

  Bam! It hit Po from behind and pushed him toward Kai, whose massive fist was waiting for him. Pow! He delivered a strong punch to Po’s nose.

  Kai quickly wrapped his chains around Po. He held out his hands and started to take Po’s chi from him. Helpless, Po watched as his feet began to turn to jade. The jade crept up to his knees and then his belly, until it reached his face.

  Back in the mortal realm, Li picked up handfuls of peach blossoms.

  “Come on, son, fight,” he said. He turned to the others. “We have to help him. Everyone, gather around! That’s it, come in close. We can do this!”

  Li felt an energy pulsing from the peach blossoms. Po’s energy. Li knew it deep down. In the depths of his spirit, something ancient kicked in.

  He brought his hands together, like he had seen the pandas do in the scroll. The other pandas gathered around him and mimicked his moves.

  “Po,” Li said. “You taught us who we were meant to be.”

  Li pushed his right hand forward, and his palm began to glow.

  “A father,” he said.

  A glowing panda paw print appeared on Po’s chest.

  Tigress pushed her hand forward. “A friend.”

  Bao pushed his hand forward. “A dumpling kicker.”

  Big Fun performed the move. “A hugger.”

  Grandma Panda added her hand. “A lethal fighting machine.”

  Every panda in the village gathered chi and pushed it toward the f lower petals. As they did, more and more glowing prints appeared on Po’s jade body.

  “A kung fu chick,” said Mei Mei.

  “A Stripy Baby,” said Lei Lei.

  Mr. Ping joined in. “A father.”

  Every hand in the village was now pointing at the peach-blossom petals. Every hand was glowing with beautiful chi.

  The glowing handprints became brighter and brighter on Po’s chest. The f lower petals began to swirl . . . and the jade entombing Po exploded into pieces!

  The force sent a shocked Kai f lying backward.

  “Nooooooooo!” he wailed.