When Maxwell Styles and Miles Candor started their railway company they had a very simple goal: make money. Incredible wealth was assured to the company that could construct the first transcontinental rail line, connecting the gold cities of the West with the population centers of the East. So, from the moment the Styles & Candor Pacific Rail Line Company was formed, the race was on.

Every part of the railroad construction was subject to controversy. Even the rail heads of the two largest competing companies (both located near the disputed border between North and South) were considered hotly contested. The Secessionists claimed that the North was trying to secure even more of the wealth of the country for itself. The North, meanwhile, assured that they had had no influence on the placement of the rail heads. It had been a simle matter of geographic convenience.

Unswayed by this argument, the Secessionists regularly made attacks on the railroads, trying to capture or destroy them before the Unionists could use them to attain gold resources from the western coast. Both the Styles & Candor Rail Lines and Northwestern Pacific Rail therefore employed their own private security forces to ensure the security of their interests. These amounted to private armies and conflicts between them where the rail lines ran close together were frequent.

Competition between the companies, to say the least, was fierce. Considered the two most likely contenders to first reach the Pacific coast, Northwestern and Styles & Candor seemed locked in a deadly race across the country. Thus far, Northwestern (taking a more northerly route across the plains states) was winning despite some more severe geographic challenges facing them.

Styles & Candor, desperate to gain any edge against their competitors have made it a regular practice to use what are largely considered "questionable hiring practices" to bolster the ranks of their construction foremen. It is well known that they ask few questions about their employees' pasts and turn a blind eye to the practices of their foremen so long as their deadlines are met. Their philosophy is simply "whoever gets it done fastest, gets richest." This has led to a large percentage of work crew leaders on the Styles & Candor payroll being ex-overseers for slave plantations in the deep south. Having been fired from their jobs for abuses of their power for the large part, their apetites for cruelty have been applied whole-heartedly to their new positions.

Made up, in large part, of immigrants from the East, the railway crews came to this country seeking fortune, freedom from oppression or simply a new beginning. They found none of those things in the work crews of the railroads. Worked, in some cases literally, to death, the only freedom some of these crews found was in the afterlife. Effectively slaves, some had even signed away their own freedom in exchange for a pittance of a salary, not understanding what was happening until it was too late. Such was the case with young Rio Aka.

Rio Aka was still a young panda living in southeast Tibet when he witnessed his parents murder at the hands of the rogue Warlord Xin Tan and his clan, the Uhmua horsemen. Aka's father, Rio Liwei, was an accomplished blacksmith and sword maker. His final creation (and some say his finest) was the sword Feng Gang. Hearing of it's greatness, Xin Tan assaulted the village to seek it out. Frightened and panicked, Young Aka hid under the stairs of his family's home and was missed by the marauders. He was still huddled there, watching as Xin Tan stole his father's sword and his clan set the entire village ablaze.

Aka would have burned to death if a storm hadn't swept down from the higher elevations less than an hour after the Uhmua departed, extinguishing the blaze that had been his home but leaving it a charred and useless husk. Even years later, the panda still considers it his shame that he hid in fear while his parents were killed. In fact, it was not until four days later when he finally emerged from the ashes of his home, starving and the only survivor of his village.

Rio Aka wandered across the wilderness of the plateau afterward, searching for someone... anyone that would help him. He felt lost and alone and found himself not caring if he lived or died as he walked over the seemingly endless hills and mountains. By the time he finally stumbled onto the steps of the old monastery, he was uncertain how much time had actually passed. Cold, delerious and on the verge of death from starvation, Aka was discovered by an old Monk named Minzhe Ling and brought inside to be nursed back to health.

After nearly a week, Aka was finally strong enough to tell his tale. Upon hearing the cub's story, Master Minzhe offered to let the young panda stay at the monastery and keep him safe. Aka gratefully agreed and spent many years within the walls of the sanctuary. Master Minzhe taught him many lessons about living and the monk's creed... that anything is possible through the power of the mind. It was during this time that he learned the ancient arts of that lost Tibetan order.

The monks had perfected a means of turning the mind inward, acheiving a state of peace and meditation during even the most arduous or tedious of tasks. In the ancient past, the monks had been called upon to defend their homeland, and the secrets of that fighting art had been handed down over the generations. Using their meditative techniques, they found they were able to fight without emotion... without thought, their actions flowing as if directed by an unseen hand. All of this was passed on to young Rio Aka.

Ever headstrong and troubled, Aka was often punished for his misdeeds. Having never lost his feelings of gratitude for Master Minzhe, he never complained or shirked on his extra duties. It was simply the way of things, and it was a routine which he came to comfortably accept and enjoy. Life within the sanctuary was peaceful and comfortable... so far removed from the pain that he could never quite forget. Through the teachings of his Master, though, he was able to hold those memories at bay, shrouding them as if behind the veil of time.

Until, one day, word of Xin Tan's attack on the port city of Xiamen reached the sanctuary. Xin Tan with his riders had swept in from the west and laid waste to a portion of the city's docks. Even with their more technologically advanced forces, the militia at Xiamen had been unable to repel the attack. Leaving death in his passing, Xin Tan had stolen one of Xiamen's finest sailing ships and disappeared to the East. Though pursued, he had never been caught. And the worst news of all... among the dead was the grandmother of Master Minzhe.

By the time the news reached them, the attack was long over and the rebuilding of Xiamen had begun. For Aka, however, it burned in him like a torch, reigniting feelings he had fought to bury. Now, the nightmares began again. Night after night, the young panda awoke screaming as if trying to warn his parents across the gulf of death. For weeks, he suffered in silence, trying to turn his mind inward but always... always seeing the same face in the darkness: Xin Tan.

At last, he went to old Master Minzhe and confronted him with the idea that had been forming within him, forged in the fire of his hatred for the Warlord. After so many years as his pupil, Aka asked to be allowed to leave. Minzhe was taken back by the request, but showed understanding as ever. Throughout all his journeys, Rio Aka never forgot their last conversation:

"We have taught you much over all these years, young Aka," Minzhe said. "Tell me... what would you do with this knowledge out there in the world? What would you seek with what we have given you?"

"Master," Aka replied, "I will never forget what you've given me. But, I can also never forget the face of my father. His soul cries out to me every night, still in pain after all these years. His murderer, still alive... gone now across the seas. You ask me what I would seek? ...revenge."

"Aka..." the Master said, shaking his head sadly, "Then you have learned nothing from us."

"Master?"

"You have always been a son to me, young Aka. But... I have never been your father," Minzhe said sadly. "So, it is good you should go. This sanctuary is not a prison, and it is, perhaps, made for old men who have forgotten the passions of youth. Yours is a wandering soul, and I fear it will not rest until you have found what it is you seek."

"Thank you, Master Minzhe," answered Aka with a bow as he turned to depart, but the old grasshopper called him back one last time.

"Beware this journey, Aka. For when you reach your destination, you may be faced with a difficult choice. And, when you answer, you may find that what your soul seeks is not what you are looking for."

Master Minzhe's words stayed with Rio Aka as he left the sanctuary and walked back into the world across that desolate plateau that had once almost killed him. He was confused at the old monk's words, but he accepted them, as always, hoping that he would one day understand.

He walked all the way to his old village. After so much time, little was left but some old burned stones where the buildings had once been. Working through the night, he erected a small shrine of stones at the spot where his home had once been and said one of the ancient prayers. Then, turning his face to the East, he set off on the trail of Xin Tan.

Learning of a company from the Eastern lands that was hiring workers in exchange for passage across the ocean and a small salary, Aka made his way to the port city of Guangzhou and signed papers with a representative of the Styles & Candor Railway Company for his services. He learned of his folly before ever reaching the shores of America.

Clapped in irons for the journey, Aka and his fellow workers were barely fed and given no privacy or even freedom to perform basic tasks such as relieving themselves. The stench and horror over the next several weeks was terrifying as disease spread among the "passengers". Aka was one of only twelve to survive the journey, but all were considerably weakened as they were handed off to a bull named William Mason... their "keeper during their time in America".

Aka had been taught foreign languages during his time at the monastery, but his skill with them was never very good. Using only broken English, he learned far too late that the contract he signed was effectively an agreement to indentured servitude. He was to work in exchange for nothing more than food and meager lodging. He was to be granted no freedoms. He was, in essence, now the property of Styles & Candor Pacific Rail.

The workers were brought eastward over land to the current construction site somewhere in the heat of the desert. Aka found the work easier than most, his training allowing him to acheive a meditative state. Even in the blazing heat and performing the most back-breaking work, the panda was able to remain calm and productive. A fact which infuriated the foreman, Mason. At every opportunity, the bull took the chance to ridicule Aka, punishing him with a whip or leaving him chained hand and foot in a metal box for the slightest of infractions.

Aka bore it all in silence, keeping his ears tuned for the slightest hint of the mention of Xin Tan. His fellow workers were not so lucky. Three were dead by the end of the first month, dropping exhausted in the dirt and left to rot. Despite his meditative detachment, Aka found himself unable to stop feeling the anger of injustice at the treatment and death of his companions. Over the long weeks, he spoke with them at length, listening to their stories (so different from his own) and hearing the rumors they spoke of about a female Wolf-Fox who valued freedom so much that she put her own life on the line to save the lives of others. It was a common dream that she would arrive and free them all. Aka, over the long months, came to realize that his newfound friendship with his fellow workers was all that he had left. He vowed that, one day, he would see them all free.

Of Xin Tan there was no word. Having spent what sometimes felt like his whole life either running from or after the Warlord, Aka recognized signs that the locals here could not, however. Word of a man from Western China having set up a shop in a small city reached even the workers of the railway lines. He was a man of considerable wealth and influence named Charlie Wong. It was even rumored that he ran a more illicit and powerful business in the form of an opium den and prostitution house. He was powerful, well liked, and those that spoke against him generally found themselves at the wrong end of unfortunate "accidents".

Xin Tan, it seemed, had gone underground, taking a far more subtle, but no less devious tact here on this new continent. What his goals were were unclear to Aka, but his identity was unmistakable to the panda. The physical description he had heard was an exact match to the Warlord.
And, his hand was evident in a new "clan" that was spreading chaos, terror and death here in America. What the locals referred to as a "gang" called the Demon Riders.

Desperate that he could do nothing to either help his companions or find Xin Tan, Aka hatched a plan. While laying a new piece of rail, he "accidentally" let it slide off its mooring and caused a small rockslide that inundated Mason's tent. The bull, furious, dragged the panda off to the hot box and chained him inside, swearing to leave him there until only his bones were left.

None of his companions or any of the representatives from the railroad ever saw him escape. They only saw the lengths of chain left in the empty box when it was opened the next morning. Though they were punished severely for his escape, his fellow workers felt a surge of joy and hope like they had not since arriving on the continent. "Rio Aka will remember his vow," they whispered among themselves. "He will come back for us."

Rio, exhausted and having made his escape in the dead of night after a sweltering day inside that small metal box, found himself wandering and half delerious once again. For more than a week he crossed the desert, following the rail line back to the east. He maintained a safe distance from the rails when possible, for, he knew, pursuit would be coming. Indeed, more than a dozen times he saw riders racing up and down the rails, scanning the countryside as if searching for someone.

When, at last, he reached the city where Xin Tan/Wong and the lady Wolf-Fox were both rumored to be, Aka was once more deathly close to exhaustion. Finding refuge in an abandoned shack at the edge of a small ranch, he holed up, trying to hunt by night and regain his strength.

Styles and Candor, meanwhile, have been desperate to find the "fugitive", Rio Aka. Fearing that he could expose the practice of illegal slavery in the Western Territories, he has become a liability of the most serious sort. Having Mason killed for his incompetence and replacing him with a new foreman, Styles and Candor declared that the fugitive from China had murdered their worker and fled on foot into the wilderness. With their considerable funds behind them, they have placed a reward on his capture of $100,000. The company has even hired the Sons of Liberty to aid in their search. It's rumored that Ryan Liberty himself is handling the case due to the sum of money involved.

No matter the cost, Styles and Candor must recapture the young panda and see him hanged before he can give testimony against them.

His name altered due to a misprint on the Wanted poster, the fugitive Rioaka is currently unaware of the extent of the hunt for him. He knows only that Master Minzhe's warning to beware his journey has never rung truer. Whatever the future may hold for him, he knows that somehow fate has caused all the paths of his life to lead to this one place... Redemption.


Original character and fursona of Rioaka is copyright to and owned in full by  rioaka

---

I was really fatigued by the point that i did this drawing, and... it's too bad really because it was with this drawing that I really met my good friend and adoptive brother Rio.

He's been such a help to me since then. I hope to redo this drawing at some point and really try to make this a lot better for him to show how much his kindness and friendship has meant to me.

After this panel I took a very long break in the series before coming back to it. My drawing was really suffering from fatigue and really... i just needed a break. And yes, this was written and drawn before the movie Kung Fu Panda came out :P