Through the Looking Glass: Penance: Chapter 3-A
Tai Lung: Chapter 3
Tai Lung woke up relatively early the next morning. Noticing that Miles had somehow woken up much earlier than him, the kung fu warrior sat up as Miles was preparing a fire in the pre-dawn light.
"Good morning, Miles," said Tai Lung.
"Morning," said the kitsune softly as he poked the fire. "I hope you don't mind that we're having beast again."
The leopard's eyebrow rose in curiosity. "You caught a beast?"
"Yeah," replied Miles absently, almost as if he was not really there. "I made a trap and it walked right in."
"Huh," said the snow leopard as he began pacing around the fox. "You surprise me yet again, Miles."
The kitsune shook his head. "I'm more used to working with metal and stuff," he said. "But I only just realized I can work with wood, too."
"Really?" asked Tai Lung, quite interested in this. "You said you were an inventor earlier. Tell me; what did you make?"
The inventor shook his head, shrugging. "Oh, stuff," he said. "Airplanes, laser guns, walking tanks, loca--"
"Wait, wait, wait," interrupted Tai Lung, kneeling back down to Miles' level as he let down the others. "Airplanes? Laser guns? Walking tanks? What are those things?"
"Uh..." said Miles, unsure of where to begin. "Airplanes... let people fly... Laser guns shoot light and breakthings. And tanks are essentially war machines; I've made some that walk like we do."
Tai Lung was utterly flabberghasted at hearing all of the technology he never thought existed. "You...?" he asked. "You have that kind of technology? I didn't even think it was possible to make a machine which allowed people to fly!"
"Yeah," Miles replied, his voice seeming to get a little happier as he spoke. "It's one of those things I loved to do. Before I came over here, I would slave for hours in my workshop, doing absolutely nothing but making things and tweaking them to my satisfaction. It was like a match made in heaven. I loved to make the technology." The kitsune looked up as the sky began to light up. "But I left that when I left my old life," he continued. "My workshop is one of those things that I'll miss. I hope that people at least have the sense to keep it intact; I don't want my workshop going into ruin..."
The cat nodded to this, his eyes closed slightly as he adjusted his position next to the kitsune. "I see..." he said. "Do you have something with you?"
Miles paused as he quickly sorted through his memory whether he had taken a piece of his technology with him or not.
"Hm..." he hummed, bringing his pack closer as he felt it for something, anything that might have been in his old workshop. When he felt around, however, his hand fell on something small and compact. As his lips curved upward, he took his hand out of the pack and looked down at the video recorder he was surprised he still had.
"I do, actually," he said, showing Tai Lung the little thing. "This would be a video recorder."
The snow leopard raised his eyebrow. "A video recorder?" he asked. "What does that do?"
The kitsune gestured for Tai Lung to stand up and hit the power button, praying that the camera had enough battery life left in it. He had never used it if the fact that he had forgotten it had said anything, but he was not willing to take any chances. As the cat stood up, the camera turned on, and then Tails opened a flap to the side to see the ground beneath him in a set of pixels.
"Yes, it works!" said Miles, standing up and looking at the kung fu warrior as he hit record and focused the camera on his companion. "Now, do something. Anything at all will work."
The cat shrugged, and then decided that something would work. He quickly jumped in the air, a kick flying out from his person as he landed on the ground. He swung his arms around real wide after this, and after a few revolutions of his arms he brought his hands forward in a palm strike, pausing in this position briefly. Smirking, he turned to Miles as he pressed stop.
"That good enough?" asked the kung fu warrior.
"Yeah, that's fine," said the kitsune as he walked over to his companion. "Now, I'm going to hit a few buttons, and you'll watch yourself on this screen here..."
Tai Lung paid attenton to the thing that Miles had called a screen, and he was surprised when it managed to play back all of his movements right down to the way his tail had invluntarily moved.
"Amazing..." he said as it stopped abruptly. "I never knew anybody could have such technology..."
"Yeah, it's rather new where I came from..." replied the kitsune. "It's crazy that they don't have anything like it here in China."
"You would not believe some things here..." replied Tai Lung as he looked in the direction they had been heading. "We should eat as fast as possible and get moving."
The kitsune nodded, turning the video recorder off and storing it back in his pack before turning his attention to the small beas he had captured and killed earlier.
Miles was again holding on to Tai Lung as he barrelled throughout the landscapes of China, mountains seeming to pass by at a very slow rate.
"You know, if you're so bent on revenge, I wonder why you can't just have me fly you over there," pointed out Miles.
"I prefer to move my own body," said Tai Lung. "Besides, I'm not in any particular hurry here. I will arrive at the Jade Palace when I arrive at the Jade Pallace."
This answer seemed to be enough for Miles, and so the kitsune promptly decided to keep quiet.
"You know, you haven't talked an awful lot about yourself other than the fact that you're an inventor," said Tai Lung tentatively. "I think you should tell me tonight."
The fox would have protested, except that he realized that the snow leopard had a rather valid point; there was no point revealing information about oneself if the other party was not going to give them information in return. After all, they were travel companions and he would have to spill it eventually.
"Okay, I'll tell you," said Miles, going through his head to see what information he should hide from Tai Lung. "But it probably won't be easy for me to do."
Miles and Tai Lung had stopped by yet another tree in the emptyness. However, they were able to make out a rice field in the distance, the farmers plaintively wrapping up their duties for the day as the two vagrants watched from their seated position, their backs to the small tree they had found. The orange glow of the sunset seemed to make everything a little more melancholic at that time, and a question popped up in Miles' head.
"Why not attack them?" asked Miles. "I mean, no offense... but..."
The predator groaned in distaste. "Unlike what some people like to believe, I still have a shred of my sense of honor," Tai Lung replied. "When I rampaged twenty-one years ago, I was angry at everything, so I rampaged everything. But they are not my target now. Hence, why I'll leave them alone."
The kitsune nodded as he looked down at this scene as the sun was setting over the night sky. "And when you escaped from Chohr Gom?" he asked. "Did you do anything to those guards?"
Tai Lung nodded at this. "They were in my way, though," he said. "I would've had to deal with them eventually. So I just kicked their asses is all. Hey, if I hadn't, they would've locked me back up."
The fox frowned at this. "Actually, that makes me wonder..." he began. "How did you get out of Chohr Gom the second time."
"Why do you ask?" asked the snow leopard as his gaze turned to his young companion.
"By all accounts, you shouldn't have been able to escape if Chohr Gom is a prison that's only mentioned by name," he pointed out. "Plus, the first time you escaped, you were in full health. So there must be something else..."
The cat snorted, Miles instantly taking it as a hint. "So there is something else!" exclaimed the kitsune.
"Yes, there is," replied Tai Lung. "Someone sent a scout to free me in the middle of the night."
Miles' eyes widened. "A scout?" asked the two-tailed fox.
The kung fu fighter nodded, eyes trained on the rice field below him. "He freed me in the middle of the night," he said. "It was really wierd. He just picked the lock of my cell silently and free me of my chains and... well... he literally carried me out. All without the guards noticing."
Miles grimaced slightly, thinking about something else. "But why would anyone want to free you?" he asked. "You're the most feared criminal in China. I don't think anybody would want to free you..."
Tai Lung crossed his arms in front of him. "I don't know," he said. "I asked the scout about that, and all he told me was that I would be very useful to his master. I didn't even get a name out of him."
"So he expects you to find out who you're supposed to be of use to before you meet him," said Miles, chuckling bitterly as he thought about this. "I think we both know that makes no sense."
"My sentiments exactly," replied Tai Lung as the sun slowly began to sink behind a mountain, ushering in the twilight with its departure. "Who am I of use to?"
"Who knows?" asked the kitsune, shrugging.
The snow leopard nodded in agreement with his younger companion. "But enough about that," he said. "You were supposed to tell me a little about yourself right now."
Miles tensed for a split second, but he did not let this show as he nodded slowly to Tai Lung. "Okay," he said. "I... I'm really not sure how to begin this... I never knew my parents, sort of like you did. But, I did have a brother figure. I told you all that."
"Yes, yes you did," replied Tai Lung softly. "Now, what else happened?"
Miles shrugged. "My friend had a long grudge with this man," he continued. "His name was Ivo Robotnik, but we always called him Eggman because of how fat he was. He was an inventor, too... Only... he made things to try to take over the world."
Tai Lung nodded as he understood this. "Taking over the world, huh?" he asked. "Sounds like something that should be stopped. I may be after the Dragon Warrior, but believe me, taking over the world is one of those things I'd completely bristle at."
"Oh, trust me, my brother and I stopped him more times than I care to count," Miles said, rolling his eyes as he did. "Eggman was... really stubborn... Always stubborn right into the end..." The kitsune blinked, batting a few tears that he knew he could not cry as he swallowed soundlessly. "There were always good times with that. Even when other people became involved, my brother and I still had a good time... We kept on saving the world for many, many years."
"So then why are you here?" asked the snow leopard, eyebrows raised in curiosity. "I mean, you had a good life, compared to me..."
"Because my brother died," he said. "I told you that already. It's just... the circumstances were so unusual..." On the verge of breaking down, Miles decided this was a good place to stop. "I can't go on. It's too sensitive for me to talk about what happened to cause his death. All you need to know was that I was at the center of it..."
Tai Lung nodded as he wordlessly shifted slightly so that he was no longer leaning his weight against the tree. "That's good enough, at any rate," he said as he lay down on the grass. "At least I know a little more than I did before. And that's saying something, considering how silent you've been on that."
"Yeah, I have been cruel, haven't I?" asked Miles as he too edged away from the tree they had been leaning against.
The cat's eyes widened just a little bit, but the kitsune did not notice this as Tai Lung's back was to him. "I wouldn't say that," he said. "More... unfair, if I want to put a word to it. I'll see you tomorrow, then."
Tai Lung was falling asleep when he heard "G'night," coming from behind him. Still mulling over the fox's choice of words in his last question, the cat fell asleep.