Chapter Text
It was a typical day at the Lee Family Temple in Toronto, Canada. The sun was shining brightly in the sky, with barely a cloud in sight. Meilin Lee and her mother, Ming Lee, were busy showing guests around and teaching them about the history of the temple, and the story of their ancestor, Sun Yee, who had a mystical history and connection with red pandas.
“What’s going on guys?” Mei asked anyone who passed the temple, waving at them in her giant red panda form as they entered. “Welcome to our temple, please feel free to look around!” Ever since she had decided to abort the red moon ritual back in May 2002, she had gained more control over her transformations.
Several visitors took pictures with Mei, posing in a variety of ways as Ming snapped the photos with her Polaroid camera. Others were looking around the temple, learning about the history of the place, as well as the history of the Lee family themselves.
Mei’s father, Jin, was selling red panda themed merchandise to visitors at the gift shop. Some of the merchandise, which included t-shirts that had “Panda Power” or “Fur Baby” written on them with an image of a panda head, panda ear headbands, and fake tails, had been made by Mei’s best friends; Miriam Mendelsohn, Priya Mangal, and Abby Park back when they used Mei’s panda form to raise money for going to the 4*Town concert. Since the incident at the SkyDome, Tyler Nguyen-Baker had started helping after becoming friends with them.
People came from all over the world just to see the red panda, who quickly became the main attraction at the temple due to how cute many people found it, especially after the infamous panda attack at the SkyDome roughly one year earlier, which has since been dubbed Pandapocalypse 2002. Ming still had to pay over $100,000,000 for the damages she had caused during the incident; she was lucky she wasn’t arrested. Raising this amount of money wasn’t easy, however, as Ming quickly found out, and they needed to get more visitors to the temple.
Mei and Ming were both enjoying themselves while they were working, and Mei was able to enjoy herself more than ever, now she had decided to keep her panda side, which allowed her to have fun with both her friends and her family. As the sun started to set, dark grey clouds covered the sky like a blanket, and it wasn’t long before the first raindrops fell. Mei transformed back into her human form as she, and the rest of her family, closed the temple for the night, thanking visitors for their time as they left. They entered their house and went into the living room, where they sat down on a small, grey couch that was just big enough to sit three people. They had to throw out their old couch, which could only sit two people, as it had started to fall apart due to how old it was.
Both Mei and Ming were watching an episode of Jade Palace Diaries, a popular soap opera they were both big fans of and often watched together. Mei looked at the TV with anticipation, hoping her favourite character would find the love of his life. A smile formed on her face when she saw he did find true love right before the end of the episode, and she was eager to see what happens next.
“Well, that was exciting, mom! Working at the temple, I mean, not just the show. How much money do you think we made, today?” Mei said, watching her mom calculate the notes and coins that had been given to them by the visitors, which took her a very long time to do so as she had to count each one individually so as not to make any miscalculations.
“About $200,000. That’s still not enough to cover the damages to the SkyDome I caused last year. I really shouldn’t have gotten so mad at you back then, Mei-Mei, I had no right to be. I never meant to hurt you, Mei-Mei,” Ming replied, looking at her daughter, a single tear trickling down her cheek.
“I know, mom,” Mei said, putting her left arm around her mom and resting her head on her shoulder. Ming wiped the tear with her index finger as a slight smile started to show on her face.
Before Ming could say anything, however, someone knocked on the door. As they weren’t expecting anyone that day, no-one knew who it could be, and they had been very careful not to let in any strangers as they knew they were an easy target for robbers and other shady people.
“‘I’ll get it, Ming,” Jin said, as he got up and headed to the door. He opened it slowly, wondering who might be on the other side. He opened it part way, peering through the gap between the door and the doorframe to see if there was anyone outside and, after seeing there was, opened it fully.
As soon as he opened it, he saw the person standing outside was a young woman, who looked to be in her mid 20s. She had black hair which she had tied back in a ponytail, and Jin could tell just by looking at her that she was of Asian descent, likely Chinese as they were. The woman wore a white shirt that was partially covered by a dark grey jacket, making Jin suspect she was a business woman of some sort, but the thing that really struck him as odd were the black sunglasses that covered her eyes, something most business women don’t wear unless it was a very bright day, which that night certainly wasn’t.
“Who are you, Miss? We weren’t expecting anyone here, today,” Jin asked, not sure whether or not the woman could be trusted.
“Yes, I should probably introduce myself first, before you make your mind up on letting me in. I’ll hold no grudge against you if you don’t, of course. My name is Catherine Moore, I’m a zoologist and conservationist working here in Toronto. But, as you can probably guess, that’s not why I’m here,” The woman answered, as Jin tried to close the door on her. She put her arm up to stop him, “I know you don’t trust me, but please, just give me five minutes. You might want to hear what I have to say,” She sounded sincere, but Jin still wasn’t convinced, as many before her also sounded the same.
“What makes you think we can trust you, though, Catherine?” he said. He looked over towards Ming, as though asking for her opinion, but she remained silent, deciding to let him deal with the situation this time.
“Because, Mr. Lee, if I wanted to break into your home and steal something, I would have done so by now,” Catherine replied. She looked past Jin towards Mei, who was still sitting on the couch and glancing between all three of them in confusion as to what was going on.
“How are you doing, there, kid?” Catherine asked, a slight smile on her face to show she meant her no harm.
After enough convincing she could be trusted, Jin decided to let her inside, but still kept his eyes on her to make sure she didn’t try and cause any trouble. She walked into the house with a slight limp, holding a silver cane in her right hand that had a sparkling blue gem at the top, before sitting down on the couch next to Mei as Jin went into the kitchen to make new bao buns.
“Why are you here, then, Catherine?” Ming asked, eyeing the woman suspiciously. “Surely, it’s a bit odd for a zoologist to enter someone’s home when their job is out in the wild?”
“I came here to warn you. There are some people out there who want you dead, Mei. I don’t know why, but they must seriously have some sort of vendetta against you,” Catherine answered. She brushed a stray strand of hair from her face and removed her shades, revealing her emerald green eyes underneath.
Ming and Mei looked at each other, both had their mouths slightly open and were now both looking at Catherine warily, knowing something bad could be happening, but still suspicious Catherine might be wrong, or even lying. They’ve never been in this much trouble before with anyone. In fact, the only person Mei was aware of who has ever hated her was Tyler, who had since become her friend, but even he didn’t want her dead.
“What kind of jerks would be after me?” Mei said, rolling her eyes in disbelief, “Who did I annoy, this time?”
“They call themselves the Panda Control Agency, or PCA for short. They’re a government organisation tasked with hunting down and eliminating the giant red pandas that have been seen here recently, people like you. The group was founded in June 2002, not long after Pandapocalypse 2002. In fact, they were the ones who got Ming to pay the SkyDome $100,000,000 to help repair the damage she had caused,” Catherine answered, standing up from the couch and walking to the left-hand side of the room. She leant back against the wall, her legs crossed, resting her right hand on her cane.
“Why the heck would these guys be after innocent teenagers like myself? Surely they can’t think I’m that bad,” Mei responded, looking towards Catherine.
“Whoever’s in charge of this whole operation clearly doesn’t see you as innocent, Mei. In fact, they likely think you’re a monster who’s running amok and killing everyone in sight, for all we know,” Catherine said, as she turned and headed towards the door. “But, anyway, I must be going. I have work to do, now. Hope to see you around sometime, Mei.”
Jin strolled over to the door and waved goodbye to Catherine, before closing the door behind her. He walked back into the kitchen and took the tray of bao buns out of the oven, putting them on the side so they could cool.
“So now I’m being targeted by government jerks, how much worse can my life get?” Mei wondered aloud. She looked towards her mom, who remained silent for a few seconds before speaking.
“I have no idea, Mei-Mei! But one thing I know is that they’ll regret going after our family!” she responded. The talisman which contained her red panda spirit, which used to be Mei’s Tamogotchi, started to glow bright red, her eyes were narrowed and her teeth slightly bared.
Mei put her hand on Ming’s shoulder. “It’s going to be okay, mom. I promise no-one will come after me,” She said.
She went to her bedroom and lay down on her bed. She tried to sleep, but the thought of people coming after her kept her awake. She tried to assure herself everything would be OK, but deep down, she knew otherwise. The rain fell down heavier, and lightning flashed in the distance, followed by the rumble of thunder.
After several hours, the sun started to rise, and the rain and lightning had stopped.
Mei got out of bed, her eyelids heavy from lack of sleep. She grabbed her backpack and headed downstairs for porridge, which her parents made for her every morning.
As soon as she finished, she got up and sprinted towards the door. “Bye mom, bye dad!” She said, waving back at them. She had decided to go to school with her panda ears and tail, knowing almost everyone there found it adorable.