Akira Ying

"He's not one of us!"

"So, I'll teach him. I'll teach him everything I know"

"Like I'd want THAT!"

Viper, Akira, and Zeo contemplating "The Human"

Akira Mai Ying was the only daughter of Akira and Voulumeh Ying, and the wife of Zeo RyDer. She was originally made by Dreamworks. As a child, Akira was an orphan living in the Bagu Orphanage, located in the Valley of Peace. The residents of the orphanage lived in fear of her, due to her violent temper and frightening strength. Unsure of what could be done with the child, the caretakers of the orphanage put Akira in a seperate room from the other children, and summoned the help of Master Shifu.

Hearing about the trouble at the orphanage, Shifu came to help and met Akira. He introduced her to a game of dominoes, which required a still and disciplined hand to master. At first, Akira couldn't place the dominoes correctly, often breaking the fragile wooden tiles in her grip, frustrating her. But Shifu was a patient teacher and taught her for several months to control her temper and her strength, teaching her discipline. Finally, after months of training, Akira presented her hard work to the adults and other children of the orphanage by skillfully placing the dominoes correctly with precision and agility, and when she finished, she tipped the placed dominoes to form the symbol of Ying and Yang, earning the trust and friendship of the caretakers and other orphans.

Sadly, even then, the adults who came periodically to adopt new children were still afraid of her. So Shifu took her in as a daughter, giving Akira a new homen name, and a family. Even then Akira felt unaccepted, due to Master Shifu's closed and often stern personality, and she strove to better herself to gain his approval and love that she craved.

Over time, she was joined by four other students: Monkey, Mantis, Crane, and Viper, and the group collectively became known as the Furious Five. Akira became a Master in the Tiger style of Hung Gar Kung Fu, and as the unofficial leader of the Furious Five she and her comrades gained great fame across China with their many accomplishments in battle.

Even with all her accomplishments, Akira still felt the need to prove herself to her Master that she was not a second Tai Lung-- and her chance to prove herself came sooner than she expected, when one day Grand Master Oogway had a vision of the powerful Snow Leopard breaking out of prison and returning to the valley. Alarmed, Master Shifu sent a messenger to Commander Vachir in an attempt to prevent the vision from coming to pass, and then (on Oogway's suggestion) announced a tournament to declare who the Dragon Warrior would be out of the Furious Five.

On the day of the tournament, each of the Five publicly exhibited their talents one at a time, Akira not even being able to perform, when Master Oogway pointed at her, and her name rolled off his tounge. suddenly, a fat panda seeminly fell out of the sky, and landed right in front of Oogway's pointing claw. Confused, Akira asked if the old tortise was pointing at her, but Oogway was convinced that 'Po' had been chosen by the universe, and the panda's appearance was not by accident. He proclaimed the panda as the Dragon Warrior-- much to Akira' and Shifu's horror, and as Po was carried off to the Jade Palace Akira apologized to Shifu for failing him. The diminuative red panda stopped her, saying that if he hadn't made the panda quite by the next morning then it was he who failed his students.

Through the rest of the day, Shifu did his best to discourage Po and try to make him leave- he tried to intimidate him by showing him the training hall and allowing the panda to be duely humiliated in front of the Five. The derision that Shifu felt was echoed by Akira herself; she was offended that a fat, flabby panda like Po would be chosen over a loyal student like herself, and she made sure that Po knew her opinion of him-- going as far as to tell him that night that he was a disgrace to Kung Fu and that if he respected the martial art at all he would be gone by morning.

To their dismay, Po didn't leave the next morning. He was still there, as stubborn and disturbingly fanboyish as ever. Attempts were made through the day to dicourage Po and make him go home, but he persevered and made it through the second day-- athough he was pretty beat, having to spar with most of the Five and tumble down the seventhousand, sevenhundred seventy-seven steps. While he recieved accupuncture from Mantis and Viper, Akira confided to Po why Shifu acted the way he did by telling Po the story of Tai Lung's betrayal, and in so doing she revealed why she acted as she did towards him-- and later on during dinner, they all recieved terrible news from Shifu: Tai Lung had indeed escaped prision, and to make things worse, Master Oogway had just passed away. Akira begged her Master to allow herself and the Five to stop Tai Lung, stating that it was what he trained them for. Surprisingly, Shifu said no. He was now convinced that it was Po's job to stop Tai Lung after all; and nothing she could say would change his mind. She decided to go and try to stop him anyway, leaving that night on her own. To her surprise she found that Viper, Mantis, Monkey, and Crane had known she would try to leave and they followed her, and they stated that they wanted to help her in her endeavor.

Traveling as fast as they could, it took days to finally intercept Tai Lung-- at the Thread Of Hope, a network of rope bridges that connected the mountain tops. Akira finally got to meet her adoptive brother face to face in combat, the ensuing battle made difficult by the rope bridge itself as well as Tai Lung's great strength and skill. Had it not been for her friends, Akira would had fallen to her death after Tai Lung had managed to overpower her and entangle her in the ropes, effectively strangling her before she accidentally let go. Rescued by the quick thinking Crane, Akira switched tactics and worked together with the others, displaying her greatest strength as a team leader/player and managed to overpower the snow leopard in a stunning show of strength and cunning. At first they assumed that they had vanquished him completely, but Akira had her doutbs, and sure enough Tai Lung reappeared, swinging back from the opposite peak with the ropes from the now destroyed bridge and landing behind the startled team. Taking advantage of their unpreparedness, Tai Lung used a technique that Shifu had not taught them-- Chi Blocking. Jabbing each of the Five in vital pressure points, he paralyed them all, only leaving Crane to relay the message.

It was with great shame that Tigess faced Master Shifu and Po when released from the effects of the chi blockback at the Jade Palace, feeling that she had failed Shifu. He quietly rebuked her, telling her she could have been killed and that Tai Lung's attempt to strike fear into their hearts wouldn't work: he had been busy training Po while the Five were absent, and he felt that the panda was now ready to recieve the Dragon Scroll. Wasting no time, they all assembled in the Palace, where Shifu retrieved the scroll and proceeded to give it to Po. Upon opening it, Po relayed a most distressing bit of information: the legendary scroll, thought to endow the Dragon Warrior with unlimited power, to which he failed to comply to.

There was nothing else that could be done: Shifu ordered the Five and Po to evacuate the Valley in a last ditch effort, while he stayed behind to stall Tai Lung as long as possible. He expected to die during the battle, and his parting words to them were the ones that Akira had always longed to hear from her adoptive father: that he was proud of them and that he was honored to be their master. The dismal feeling that everyone felt as they left had to be pushed aside once they started gathering the villagers, Akira fell into her role as leader and began to lead the evacuation in spite of her sadness. When a burst of yellow light caught her eye, she recognised the Wuxi Finger Hold. Curious, and courageous, she led the evacuation back to Bagu, to find that the panda had killed Tai Lung. When a villager yelled "PO!" she thought it outraging, SHE was the Chosen One. SHE was supposed to defeat Tai Lung. SHE threw seventeen years of her life away, in order to defeat him, and what did he do in that time? SELL NOODLEs! She couldn't take it any more. She screamed. Using her magic to grab her Tigerclaw swords, she brutally maimed Po. The onlookers were shocked. She sheathed her swords, running to her adopted-father. He asked what happened, and she started crying, saying she'll have to go away. It all spilled out, how she wanted to be The Chosen One, the one to defeat Tai Lung. How she attacked Po. Shifu confided her, saying he'll cover for her as she ran. She had nowhere to go, nothing except her swords, and her fear.