Clash Of Worlds (8 page)

A person in ninja attire quickly jumped out avoiding the bullet. The ninja landed right next to James and kicked the gun out of his hand before landing a punch to his stomach, which surprisingly sent James hurdling to the ground. James coughed on the floor clutching his stomach; the punch had clearly winded him. James was stunned; normally a punch from a regular person didn’t faze him at all. The rest of the squad, besides Alberto, advanced on and attacked the sole ninja. Sophie threw a knife in the ninja’s direction but he quickly kicked the knife whilst it was in mid air to divert it away. Cody had to duck out of the way to avoid having his head taken off by the knife. The ninja easily floored the remaining squad members. James picked himself up from the ground and launched a huge punch at speed towards the ninja’s head, utilizing his ability’s somewhat. The ninja causally caught James’ fist with his hand and began to laugh.
I’ve heard that laugh before.

The ninja removed his mask with his free hand revealing what James suspected. A young man with dark hair and brown eyes lay behind the mask. It was Chad, now twenty-two years old, a year older than James. Chad was a little taller than his friend and cut a slightly more muscular figure.

“You took your time getting here didn’t you?” Chad said to James whilst glancing around at the other squad members.

“Where have you been? We’ve been looking everywhere for you. For that matter where is everyone else? Where are the full active members, and the rest of your squad and why are dressed like that?” James Demanded.

“Slow down, one question at a time.” Chad did not enjoy a question overload at the best of times.

James was very impatient however and just wanted to know what was going on. “We were meant to meet up with the other members at the beach but they weren’t there.”

“Well you won’t find anyone out here expect those ninja types I’m sure you’ve bumped into already.” Chad deducted this fact by the condition of Alberto’s hand, which he had noticed whilst listening to James ramble on.

“Come on Chad, what’s going on?”

“All the other squads are in there,” said Chad, pointing over to the large stone tower that could be seen from the cliff the group were stood on. “They all got taken inside.”

“Everyone?” James asked.

“Yeah they were all rounded up by these ninja characters all over the island. I’m a little disappointed to be honest. I thought full members were meant to be tough.”

“They are tough,” said Cody sounding very defensive. “These ninja’s fight in a style we’ve never seen before…”

Chad interrupted Cody. “Or maybe this government group are not as good as they think they are…a bit like you!”

“What?” Cody said, sounding even more defensive.

Chad grinned. “I saw how badly you got your arse whipped back there in the forest. You were like a little child.”

Cody became boiling with rage. “You were watching? Why didn’t you help us?”

“Because once in a while you have to stand on your own two feet Cody.” The sarcasm in Chad’s voice was evident. Chad’s ability and skill had made him a little arrogant over the years. He was good and he knew it. He also had no problem letting others know this fact.

James tried to restore a little order. “So you’re the only one who avoided being captured then?”

“Not exactly.” Chad put two fingers in his mouth and whistled out. Three people in ninja costumes jumped down from the trees. They took off their masks revealing Rick, an African American from Miami. Rick had a shaved head and was very tall in size; around 6ft 5ins. He was also very well built, even more so than Chad. The other two were the female twins, Jade and Rachel. Both brunettes who; at first glance seemed quite timid. However, the pair were excellent acrobatic fighters. These students comprised the members of squad D.

“So what do we do now captain?” asked Jade putting her arm on Chad’s shoulder and leaning her chin on it in an affection way. Chad had a close bond with these twins. Ever since he joined the trainee programme for the secret organisation, the twins had latched onto him. They often socialised together in their spare time and even as they grew through their teenage years, they still remained close friends. In fact, the twins loved him dearly. They were a beautiful pair and could easily rap many of the young men on the training camp around their little fingers. Chad was above all that, though. People looked up to Chad on the facility, as did the twins. Jade and Rachel had feelings other than just friendship for him, but they would never admit that to anyone. Chad was a cool customer and knew this all too well, but he kept it to himself. If truth be told he liked the attention.

“Let me speak with my friend here for a second,” Chad said to the girls. He motioned for James to join him at the cliffs edge. The two crouched down and lay flat on the floor to observe the tower over the cliffs edge without fear of being seen by the ninja guards below. “What do you think then?” Chad said with a hint of excitement in his voice.

“What do you have in mind?” James asked, but he already knew the answer.
He’ll want to mount a full on assault.

“Let’s storm the place!”

James rolled his eyes. “How did I know you were going to say that?

“Why? What’s the matter with that?”

“Everyone else has been taken in there right? We can’t just storm in there all guns blazing.”

Chad seemed bemused. “Why not? They can’t handle us. You know that as well as I. We could take them all down, get the hostages and get right out of there.”

James shook his head. “Exposing ourselves to everyone.”

“James, I’m sick of holding back all the time.” There was a hint of bitterness in Chad’s voice

“We’ve been through this, besides, now is not the time nor the place.”

The two talked for up to ten minutes. The longer they talked, the more animated they became. The conversation between them began to get heated.

“Are you two all right?” asked Sophie.

“We’re fine!” James shouted over from the edge of the cliff, not even caring to turn to her as he spoke. James continued to address Chad. “I’m not having this argument again with you. Let’s just find a way to get quietly in the tower and see what we find, ok?” James made his way from the cliffs edge without even waiting for Chad to reply.

Chad stood up from the ground and followed, not looking best pleased.

“Alright we’re going to sneak into that tower,” James said to the members of both Squads.

“How are we going to do that?” asked Rachel.

“We can use the ninja suits we have as a disguise,” said Chad as he re-joined the group from the cliff’s edge.

“What about us? There is not enough suits for everybody,” said Sato.

James and Chad looked at all the squad members and then looked at each other as if a plan had come to mind. They tied up the hands of the group members who didn’t have a ninja uniform on, Sophie, Cody, Sato, and Alberto. James took Rick’s ninja gear and put it on. James had come up with the plan of marching down the cliff disguised in the ninja uniforms and pretend to have prisoners. This way they could gain access to the tower and roam freely without raising suspicion. It would also allow them time find out what the strange ninja group were up to in the tower. Chad had overheard some of the ninjas say that they invaded the island to specifically take control of the tower in order to obtain something from it. If squads A and D launched an assault on the tower, besides the fact they would be heavily outnumbered, they wouldn’t have the opportunity to look around and find out exactly what the ninja’s wanted to obtain. Only James and Chad thought this was a good idea though. The others were heavily against it, especially as they were the ones being used as bait.

The twins didn’t mind, but then they were still disguised in ninja uniforms and pretty much went along with whatever Chad said. Also, Sato and Cody thought that the squads were going beyond the call of duty. This was after all an exam, and they were meant to be following the orders of the full members on site, not rescuing them. James and Chad were squad leaders though and part of the exam was to obey the squad leader’s commands so they really had no other choice.

“This is the dumbest idea ever,” said Sato as James tied his hands together.

“You hear that, he called you dumb,” Chad said, referring to James, who was the one that had first come up with the plan of a sneak attack, whilst using the others as bait. James was definitely the more organised out of he and Chad and it was, for this reason, he took control of strategy. Chad would rather have just stormed into the tower all guns blazing, which would have been fine for him and James, but the others wouldn’t have lasted long if the group launched an all out assault against the huge numbers of ninja’s likely to be inside the tower.

The plan in full was for the group to gain access to the tower without causing a scene. They would then hand over their ‘hostages’ to the ninja’s inside the tower. James had deducted that the ninjas would lead the new hostages to the place where the other members were being held captive. This enabled the group to learn where their friends were being held, without having to waste time searching the tower themselves. Whilst all this was going on, James and Chad planned to slip off and investigate the tower further. Chad was intrigued to know what the ninjas had taken control of the tower for. James however just wanted to get their friends out and make their escape. Their mission was to take back control of the island from the enemy force, nothing more. Exploring why the ninja’s were here was not their concern but Chad insisted. James simply went along with it; he didn’t have a choice really. Chad was a squad leader on the exam, just like him, and they had to share decisions because of the capture of all other members.
And I can’t be bothered with having another argument with him,
thought James.

“When you find the hostages, radio me quietly,” said James who had hooked up wires to the two twins. “Don’t make a move until we say so, understand?”

The twins nodded. They were a little nervous if truth be told. This was the first time they had ever been involved in a live mission situation, and they hadn’t expected this type of scenario.

Chad picked up on their nerves and stood in the middle of them. He put his arms around the pair trying to raise their spirits. “Don’t worry about a thing girls. I’m not going to let anything happen to you, am I?” The girls seemed a little happier after that. “You’re my girls remember! We’ll be partying it up big time tonight, mark my words.”

“Alright let’s move out,” ordered James and the whole group began to descend the huge cliff.

They approached the doors, which were heavily guarded. The ninja guards greeted them friendly enough. The accents of the ninjas varied and James couldn’t make out where they originated. Their faces were covered, so he couldn’t tell just by sight alone which continent each man might have come from. They entered the tower via a large door. The main door stood over twenty feet tall and due to its weight, took several of the ninja’s to slowly pull it open. The group went inside with their hostages and the door shut behind them. The corridors of the tower were dusty, old and very dark. Along the cold, narrow corridors, fire torches were perched on the walls and were the only source of light inside the tower. A ninja led the hostages, along with James, Chad and the twins through the corridors for around twenty minutes. They took many different turns. Left turns, right turns and turns that at some points, felt like they were going back in the direction they came from. James tried to memorize the path, for he knew that they would be making the trip back without the man that was guiding them.

They reached a large metal door, which looked out of place within the ancient stonewalls of the tower. The door looked only a few years in age, whilst the tower walls looked several hundred years old. The ninja knocked on the door three times and it opened up. Inside the foot of the tower was a lift and quite a modern one too! Another two ninjas stood inside.

“Put them with the rest,” said the ninja who had guided the group through the long corridors. Everyone went inside, everyone that is except James and Chad who were no longer with the group. The pair had slipped away from the pack around five minutes earlier to set off with the task to exploring the layout of the tower to try and find out the real reason for the ninjas occupation of the building. They knew they could cover more ground quickly if it was just the two of them. James and Chad moved a lot quicker than any of the others could dream of doing. Over the years, they had developed the extraordinary skill of running at least double the speed of a regular person. For instance, James and Chad could run the one hundred metres in around five seconds flat, compared with the nine-second average speed of the fastest Olympic sprinter.

Chad is right. They do hold us back,
thought James as they ran.

The pair whisked through the corridors, moving quickly enough to not been seen by any of the guards that manned them. Chad had discovered an old staircase and he and James ran through the ancient looking hallways, floor by floor. They decided to split up to cover more ground. Chad searched the lower levels of the tower, whilst James journeyed further up.

Whilst investigating the upper section of the tower, James came across a large stone door. The door was over twenty feet high and was heavily guarded. The door began to open slowly, scrapping along the stone floor as it did so which made a horrific sound. James hid in the shadows an observed them. A man dressed in archaeological attire came from behind the door accompanied by two ninja guards. The man turned to one of the ninjas who was stood guarding the door.

“Tell your boss I am nearly finished here,” he said in a very posh sounding French accent. The Frenchman didn’t seem that bothered about the fact he had nearly finished whatever it was he was doing. He began to huff and puff before speaking to the guard again. “Another thing, tell him he isn’t paying me enough for this shit!”

“Excuse me?” said the ninja, not sounding at all pleased.

The Frenchman, who was smoking a cigarette, blew smoke in the ninjas face. The Ninja began to cough a little. “I’ve been stuck in this room for hours. Your boss could have at least provided me with the correct equipment to complete the excavation properly.”