Thanks for your guys' reviews on my first chapter. It means a lot to me. You guys are awesome! Anyway, here's the new chapter I promised you. I hope you like it!
Disclaimer again: I do not own Kickin' It. All rights go to Disney Channel and other respected owner(s).
Jack relaxed in his seat as the passenger jet cruised through the air. They had been flying for at least ten hours so far, which meant, according to the pilot's message that aired a few seconds ago, that they had twenty minutes left until they landed in Japan. Rudy was still asleep in his seat, which was a shocker, while Milton was reading his enormously large book again. Eddie and Jerry were playing cards on the plastic pull-down trays in the row in front of them. Kim had fallen asleep an hour ago and had her head lain on Jack's shoulder. As Jack relaxed in his seat, Jerry sat up and peered over the back of his seat at Jack.
"Hey, Jack, how long until this flight is done?" he asked.
"The pilot said twenty minutes," Jack said. "Weren't you paying attention?"
"Not at all. Twenty minutes?" Jerry asked incredulously.
"That's what I heard."
Jerry groaned. "Well, seeing as though we're going to be stuck here for twenty more minutes, I better use the bathroom." He unbuckled his seatbelt and walked down the aisle past Jack, heading for the bathroom in the rear of the plane.
Eddie laid down his hand of cards on the plastic tray in front of him.
"You wanna play cards with us, Milton?" Eddie offered him.
There was no movement from behind his giant book. "No thanks," Milton said. His voice seemed to echo from the closed-off space between his book and the cabin wall.
"Jack?" Eddie asked.
"I'm good," Jack said. He reached for his backpack, careful not to wake Kim up, and drew out the informational pamphlet on the temple in Japan that Rudy had handed out to all of them before the trip. He partially unfolded it and read the paragraph on facilities. According to the pamphlet, Jerry had been right about the temple's hot springs and training courses.
Kim stirred next to him. Jack paused momentarily, careful not to wake her with too much moving. He read another section on temple life. From what he read, it seemed like a dull life.
"How long does it take Jerry to use the bathroom?" Eddie asked, leaning into the aisle to look down at the restroom.
"I don't know," Jack said. "It's only been a minute or two."
"He's holding up the game," Eddie complained.
Jack laughed quietly and flipped the pamphlet over. He continued to read about the temple's location. It seemed remote, on a mountaintop surrounded by smaller mountain ranges. It seemed affected by the wars throughout history that had been waged in that area.
Typical stuff for an ancient temple.
He unfolded the remaining half and something fell out of it and landed on the floor at his feet. Jack was puzzled. He didn't remember storing anything in his pamphlet. Maybe it was just a perforated slip, like a fill-out sheet, that accidentally got separated.
He picked it up and it turned out to be a sheet of notebook paper, shaped into the two-dimensional shape of a circle. Upon a careless first look, it would seem to be emblazoned with the yin and yang. But upon closer review, it was revealed to be a warped version of the famous symbol. Two filled-in black circles with one white dot were on opposite sides of the circle, leaving a white space shaped like an hourglass in the middle. Jack frowned. This wasn't as symbol that he knew. Maybe Milton could identify it with his book.
"Hey, Milton," Jack called.
Milton's head popped up from his book and he craned his neck to see over the seat. "Yes?"
"Do you know this symbol?" Jack asked, extending the paper towards him.
Milton took it and studied it. "Interesting," he said. He disappeared behind the seat, and Jack could hear the rustling of pages as they were being turned. A few seconds later, Milton reappeared and handed the paper back to Jack. "I don't know the symbol on front, but it's been folded. Unfold it and see what happens."
"Thanks." He took it and started to unfold it. After twisting and turning it for a while, he was take apart the circle. It looked like a normal piece of blank notebook paper, except for the drawing on the front. He turned it over. On it were words that shocked, bemused, and rather frightened him.
Written on the back of the paper, in bold ink, were two words.
Watch out.
He frowned. Watch out for what? He didn't know of anyone going through his backpack besides himself. Who would give this to him? And why?
He didn't have time to ponder it at that very moment. The plane hit a spot of turbulence and Kim jolted awake, sitting up in her seat briskly.
"I'm awake," she said. "Are we here already?" She glanced out the window.
"Almost," Jack said.
"Oh," she said. She noticed the piece of paper Jack still had in his hand. "What's that?"
"Hmm?" Jack asked. He had completely forgotten about the paper when Kim woke up. Suddenly, he felt like this was something that should stay with him. "Oh, nothing." He quickly crumpled it into a ball and stuffed it hurriedly into the open pouch of his backpack. "Just a piece of paper I found."
"What was written on it?" Kim asked, suppressing a yawn.
"Nothing," Jack repeated. "It's nothing important. "
"I've heard that one before," Kim said teasingly.
"This time, it's true." Mostly.
"Okay," Kim said nonchalantly, choosing not to pursue the subject further. "If you say so. Hey, where's Jerry?"
"Bathroom," came Eddie's voice from the row in front of them.
"Oh. I see," Kim said.
"He's been in there for a while," Jack explained. Once the words had left his mouth, he realized their truth value. "Wonder what's taking him so long?" He unbuckled his seatbelt and looked down the aisle.
His eyes scanned down the aisle. No sign of Jerry. Just an empty aisle and the passengers. His eyes found a dark-skinned man in a suit with sunglasses on. His eyes were hidden behind the dark shades, and his legs were crossed casually. It was almost impossible to determine if he was awake or not. There was nothing else suspicious about the man's appearance. His leather briefcase rested at his feet in front of him. His arms were folded across his chest. To any spectator, he looked like an ordinary businessman on a company trip.
Except for the fact that ten minutes ago, he was sitting at least five rows back from where he was now.
Jack sat back in his chair, completely forgetting to refasten his seatbelt. Why would a passenger switch seats on a moving airplane? And why did he seem to be coming closer to them? He looked again. The man hadn't moved a muscle from the position Jack had just seen in him. He was still five rows behind them.
The bathroom door opened and closed from the back of the plane. A few seconds later, Jerry walked down the aisle next to them and picked up his cards from where he had left them in his seat, then sat down and resumed his game of cards with Eddie like it was nothing.
"What took you so long?" Eddie asked.
"Had extra business to take care of," Jerry explained.
"Oh."
Jack's thoughts were interrupted as Kim unbuckled her seatbelt and started to stand up. "Sorry, Jack, I need to get my iPhone from my bag. Mind if I squeeze past you?" she asked.
"Go ahead," Jack said mindlessly, not even pausing to consider the question.
Kim carefully slipped past him and into the aisle. She reached up, opened the overhead compartment, and started to unzip her backpack.
Jack had a cautionary feeling and felt as if he should check on the suspicious man again, to see if he'd moved at all. He began to pop his head into the aisle, but hesitated. He thought if he stuck his head out again, the other passengers would think it was weird if the same boy looked at them for the second time. He quickly came up with another idea.
"Hey, can you do me a favor?" Jack asked Kim, who was still struggling with her backpack.
Kim smiled, as if she knew this was coming all along. "Of course, Jack," she said, not even looking down. "What is it?"
"Look towards the back of the plane," Jack told her.
"Why?"
"Just look back there," Jack repeated.
Kim sighed and stopped fumbling with her bag, but kept her hands on it. She looked down the aisle, leaning her head back to look further down, and then returned her gaze to Jack. "What is it?" she asked.
Jack lowered his voice. "This is going to sound weird, awkward, and somewhat creepy, but by chance do you see a dark-skinned man in a suit with sunglasses and a briefcase back there?"
Kim glanced back down the plane and then at the passengers around them. "Yeah, why?"
Jack's heart rate sped up. "Where is he?"
Kim laughed. "You're joking, right?" She pulled out her iPhone from the compartment. "You haven't noticed him yet? He's sitting right behind you."
Jack's heart just about stopped. His eyes widened.
Kim stopped zipping up her backpack when she noticed Jack's expression. "What's wrong?" she asked.
Jack snapped out of his trance and looked at her. "Why do you ask that?"
Kim closed the overhead compartment with a gentle click. "Well, other than the fact that your eyeballs were the size of golf balls, which I assumed from that you were scared."
"It's nothing," Jack said instantly.
"You always say that," Kim sighed, edging past Jack and sitting back in her seat. "It's impossible to get a straight answer from you."
The man behind them silently listened to their conversation. The boy was onto him. He, among all people, noticed him moving up. He instantly regretted taking this job. The target knew he was up to something. He began to question the sketchy job description his employer gave him. Who in their right mind would want to murder a boy by throwing him out of the plane and pretend it was an accident? His employer had assured him of the boy's importance to be dead to them, but the only reason he took the job was for the money.
He fingered the small remote in his pocket and ran his finger over the single button on it. According to his employer, this would send out an electromagnetic pulse powerful enough to short out all methods of control for the plane and send it into a dive. Then, in the confusion, he would grab the boy, blast the emergency exit, throw him out, and pretend as if he was sucked out during the chaos. It seemed easy enough when explained to him.
He had already set the explosive on the emergency exit door when he was sitting nine rows back from where he was now. All that he had to do now was push the button to activate the pulse, wait for pandemonium to break out, then dispose of his target.
He didn't hesitate. He quickly pushed the button while keeping the remote concealed in his pocket.
The signal immediately shorted out all navigation and control of the plane.
The plane went into a sudden dive, throwing every passenger from side to side as turbulence rocked the vehicle. The lights on the plane blinked on and off at irregular intervals as the gray interior of clouds whipped past as seen through the window. Like many others, Jack was forcibly ejected out of his seat sideways into the aisle. He hit the chair opposite him headfirst. His vision grew fuzzy, and his body went limp.
The man acted swiftly once he saw Jack thrown out of his seat. Leaping out of his seat with perfect timing, he landed on his feet next to Jack and immediately seized the armrest of the nearest chair with his hand for stability. He leaned down and made sure Jack was unresponsive. When he was satisfied that he wouldn't be resisting, he gripped Jack's wrist and started to pull him upwards and back, towards the door. Casting a quick glance at the girl sitting next to him, he was relieved when he saw that she was too busy squeezing her eyes shut and holding on to the armrest to notice him.
The passengers paid no mind to them. The sudden dive had commanded their attention. Some people had fallen out of their seats and were rolling down the cabin's now tilted floor. Some struggled to refasten their seatbelts as the plane started to spin out of control.
The unexpected spin threw the man off balance. For a brief second, he let go of Jack, but before Jack could fall, the man then refastened his grip on him, wrapping his arm around and clinging to the chair next to him with his free arm. The plane was sideways as the plane went into a complete ninety-degree nosedive. All the passengers rolling in the aisle dropped twenty rows to the front and bottom of the cabin.
Jack, dangling high above what was now the floor, was unconscious. He couldn't see anything, or hear his friends screaming as the plane plummeted.
The man expertly but slowly climbed up the chairs towards the emergency exit using one hand and his legs. The plane unexpectedly leveled as the pilots in the cockpit fought for control of the airplane, and both of them landed on the floor. But the trouble was far from over. Passengers were still distracted as turbulence shook the plane fiercely.
The emergency exit was still a few yards away. The man dragged Jack closer. Closer to death.
The man released his grip on Jack briefly to take out a second black remote, and when he pressed the only button on it, the exit door exploded, taking a part of the wall with it. The man immediately grabbed two seat armrests on different sides of the aisle and held on for his life. The pressure was intense. It ripped entire seats out of the plane. Unknowing passengers were sucked out into empty air to drop for a few thousand feet.
The man held the chairs tightly. His feet were off the ground as the air sought to pull him out. Tightening his hold on the chairs, he looked around for his quarry, and spotted Jack underneath the seats in the row next to him. The metal strut that connected the chair to the floor was the only thing preventing Jack from being forced out of the plane. The man stretched his leg over to the row and started to kick the connector in hopes of bending or breaking it. To his satisfaction, between the pressure and his kicks, it started to bend, with Jack powerless to stop it.
Unexpectedly, baggage from the front of the plane cascaded down through the aisle towards the gaping hole.
The man didn't count on the baggage from the front being drawn out. He didn't have time to react to the change in plan. Dozens of bags going at least ten miles an hour slammed into him. They rained on his head, arms, and hands, wearing down his grip on the handles. Eventually, he couldn't take it. His hands slipped from the armrest and he was sucked out without mercy or so much as a second thought.
As the baggage was sucked outside, a backpack that was heading outside hit the opposite row of chairs, ricocheted into the row Jack was in and hit him on the head, jolting him awake. His vision cleared and he had less than a second to react and grab hold of the seats in front of him as the seat he was under was torn outside. His feet cleared the ground as he fought to pull himself up. He knew he had to hurry up. He could already feel the seat bending backwards, about to be sucked out. He had a boost of strength and was able to climb up so he was standing on the chair. He began to climb the row in front of him, just barely managing to grab the headrest with one hand as the row behind him was sucked outside. He dangled from one hand, close to being drawn outside. Outside the window next to him, he could see lakes, forests, and plains. They were alarmingly close to the bottom of the plane.
They were going to crash.
The pilot's voice crackled over the intercom, a bad signal but with the words still discernible. "Brace for impact!"
Jack didn't even feel the crash. He didn't feel anything. He was too busy falling to notice.
There you go! I hope you guys like it! Will update soon but not too soon. Thanks for your support!
-To Glory
