Chapter 2

I know, it's been a long time coming but here's an update! I hope it's enjoyed!

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BeachHead let them water themselves before grouping them up. "Lifeline! Where is that.. there you are." The medic tucked his hands into his pockets. "What's the report?"

Lifeline gave a light shrug. "Folkson has a sore thigh, might have strained something when Jinx landed on him. Haberton will have a bruise, but he's fine. Other than a few bumps from point-blank paintball shots, everyone is fine to continue. Do you know if the ninjas are fine?"

BeachHead looked at the warehouse. "I'm sure if they ain't, they'll come to you. Did Kamakura go back inside?" He was given a wary nod. "I know he was out here, Snakes told me." Lifeline relaxed. "I don't care, he wasn't needed for the exercise apparently." He raised his voice to address the group.

"Alright, better time, but you were working against ONE NINJA. ONE! So we're gonna do better. First advice from our esteemed ninja master is to watch three-sixty, you're too used to paying attention to ground level. Second, you need to figure out who is gonna be shooting, and they need to keep low, so you don't end up taking out half your own squad with friendly fire trying to hit a ninja in the middle of your troops. We're gonna assign at least one man with each team to do nothing but consider grenades, and when and how to get a grenade to a ninja. So far you've been killed with your own ordinance, and that is UNacceptable." He puffed out a breath, looking them over. "Look at yourselves.. how many of you were hit by friendly fire? That is UNacceptable. This is gonna be a REAL LIFE SITUATION, real danged soon! I do not want to be writing no letters home to your mommies, telling them you're dead. So we're gonna do this again.. and again.. and again.. until we learn to kill ninjas."

He picked up one of the paintball rifles. "I'm gonna lead one team.. Miller, as one of the longest lived guys so far, you get to lead the other one. Form up.. let's go kick some ninja butt." He waited for the teams to separate. "We're going in low, Williams, Teryis, you're point, check three hundred and sixty degrees at all times. Haberton, you're our grenade man.. we got plenty of grenades, so use 'em. Just don't kill any of US with one." He moved up to the doorway. "Miller... you ready?" At the nod from the determined young man, Beach tilted his head sideways, hearing his neck crackle. "Alright... go." His pointmen crouched and moved in quickly, headed directly for cover, spinning to check the crates nearby and then the spaces that attack could come from.

BeachHead moved in next.. drifting in quietly, motioning his men into position and controlling their progress. They made it halfway down the first aisle before they heard a spate of paintball gunfire. He gave a short attention wave, then signaled for them to continue. The first shadow that moved, he stepped sideways away from, even as he swung his gun around. Williams got off the first three rounds just before he fired himself. Certain they had both missed, Beach stepped backwards, already swinging around to check the surrounding crates. Williams moved in closer to check, finding nothing.

The first attack aborted, they moved only twenty feet before a dark figure dropped almost on top of Williams. He fell to a sword stroke, Kamakura already sliding past him to slash two more men before heading directly for Beach. He dropped to one knee, ducking the sword blade, and struggling to swivel enough to shoot him as he passed by. Instead he barely missed, his paintballs splattering the crates just behind his retreating form. There was a loud bang of a paint grenade going off beside him, and he cursed. Wiping bright blue paint off his left eye, he sat down against the crates and shut his mouth.

Haberton stammered slightly. "Sorry Sergeant Major!! I thought I... I mean..." Beach just glared at him, being dead. Teryis took over the patrol and moved them further along. They only made another fifty feet before Kamakura dropped in again, coming from the rear. The troop swiveled around, firing at the ninja attacker, spending their ammo on the corridor they'd just traveled down as they missed the agile figure. BeachHead flattened out on the floor, covering his head with both hands as paintballs hit him and the other three 'dead' men. The wild sprays of ammunition shifted to the ceiling as the remaining live greenshirts dropped down low, firing upward as Kamakura leapt over a potential victim. BeachHead looked up as the ninja apprentice was hit twice. He looked extremely upset and came to a stop, kneeling in place immediately, placing hands on head.

His disgruntled voice made BeachHead grin. "Dead."

Haberton, one of only two living survivors in the team, grinned hugely. "You gotta lie down and be.." There was a bang and the grenade he'd been holding in his hand went off, splashing not only himself but the other surviver in a coat of yellow paint. He'd apparently pulled the pin, intending to toss it at Kamakura, but forgotten once the ninja had been 'shot', holding it instead of throwing it.

BeachHead spoke up, dead or not. "Haberton.. your hand okay?" The young man shook it but nodded, carefully laying himself down. Snake Eyes suddenly appeared, making the two greenshirts laying next to those crates jump involuntarily. He reached towards Haberton's arm, motioning for him to show his hand to the ninja. After checking it, Snake Eyes motioned him out, signing to BeachHead with Lifeline's name sign. "How bad?" The sergeant major climbed to his feet. "Come on.. we'll move it out..Kamakura.. out too."

His squad got up to file their way out. Once he saw them out and yelled at the medic to check everyone, BeachHead moved back inside. He moved towards the catwalk, intending to oversee Miller's group if they were still alive. Halfway up the steps, he was tackled bodily and knocked flying into the metal railing. "Oomph... get offa me!" Despite the speed at which he grabbed for her, Jinx slipped away, leaving him liberally 'stabbed' in several spots with dye. "I'm already dead, dang it!" Realizing he'd automatically carried his paint rifle with him, he cursed and got back up to get on top of the catwalk.

The second team was down to four members, although Jinx was 'limping' very convincingly with a second 'wound' splattered green across her upper thigh. Beach leaned on the railing, watching them move across the floor carefully. They'd adopted the technique of creeping along crouched fairly low, with their grenader towards the middle. They weren't conserving ammo in any way, letting fly with shots if they thought they spotted Jinx. He winced when a paint grenade was tossed over some crates into the middle of them. This time someone managed to kick it further down the aisle, even as the grenade thrower chucked one back into the same spot they'd just been attacked from. Both grenades went off without wounding anyone.

Just as they were turning to continue, Jinx spun down into them, flicking throwing stars into the front two, and slicing the back two, although she did take another paintball to her stomach this time.

BeachHead clapped from his vantage point. "Very very good. You wounded her once, and killed her, although you died too. Better and better. Outside again.. Jinx! Go see Lifeline. SNAKE EYES!?!" His bellow echoed off the back wall, and he heard the finger snapping from behind him and turned to see the ninja lounging on a loop of cargo rope. "Oh.. there you are.. you wanna come on out too? I figure we need to break, discuss some options and I'd like you to advise us on plans."

Rolling off his rope, Snake Eyes landed softly on the balls of his feet and padded down the stairs. BeachHead followed him, rubbing at the half dried paint seeping through his mask behind his ear. By the time he'd gotten outside, Lifeline was just getting done checking the last greenshirt.

"You'll have some colorful bruising." The medic handed the young woman a bottle of eyewash. "Go rinse it until it doesn't sting anymore. The paint is non-toxic, just irritating." He turned to look at Beachhead with raised eyebrows. "Did you get MORE paint on you?"

Beach gave him a irritated look. "Yeah.. ninja stabby dye, thanks to Jinx not realizing I was already dead. As if the half gallon of paint wasn't obvious." He was handed a wet towel. "Thanks.." He peeled off his mask, grimacing at the paint on it. Using the towel, he wiped paint off his face near his eyes carefully.

Lifeline insisted on checking his eyes quickly. "Are they stinging? I think you should have had goggles on. At least the greenshirts have goggles to wear to protect their eyes, when they remember to put them on." He glared at the returning woman who held out the bottle of eye wash sheepishly. The medic turned to Kamakura who was standing nearby. "What? You're fine.. a few paintball bruises."

The apprentice nodded and looked away, rubbing his neck awkwardly. "Uh-huh, I'm good. Did you have butterscotches?" Lifeline sighed but dug into his thigh pocket to find the hard candies and Kamakura took one and beamed at him. "Thank you!" He wandered off to where Snake Eyes and Jinx were. The three ninjas huddled in a discussion of some sort.

BeachHead took a deeper breath. "Alright... gather up. Everyone is fit to continue. Good job this last pass. You're still droppin' like flies to friendly fire. Gotta stop that. Half the dead are from friendly shots or grenades. Then there's Haberton... "

He strode over to stand in front of the paint spattered young man. "When ya pull Mr Pin... Mr Grenade is no longer yer friend! What part of this lesson fails to impress ya? I hope it ain't the part where it goes boom in yer own hand."

Haberton looked at the ground. "Yes Sergeant major."

Beach twisted to look at them all. "Alright.. any suggestions on how ta improve yer ninja killin' ability?"

Mouth snorted loudly. "I say we take off and nuke the warehouse from orbit.." He paused slightly. "Only way to be sure."

Despite the spatter of snickers and chuckles, BeachHead didn't seem amused. "Well ya don't get to make that call. Haberton.. YOU will carry grenades again. You will learn to throw grenades safely if I gotta beat ya every time ya do it wrong!"

Turning to stalk down the lines of assembled greenshirts, Beach spoke up sharply. "Everyone will try to stay low.. shoot upwards when possible.. check 360 at all times and remember that once the ninja disappears into a crevice or over a crate, he's not gonna stay there just outa sight fer you to shoot at. Grenades go to ninjas.. not to us. I do not wanna be killed by one of our own grenades again. Spend some ammo.. ya all did great at that. Remember.. ammo is cheap.. life ain't."

SnakeEyes was giving his apprentices a stern lecture. *Kamakura, you were sloppy attacking over the tops that way. Once you were airborne, you were helpless to dodge. Flying through the air looks dramatic but stay on the ground when possible."

Jinx smirked slightly. "Air time needs to be a minimum whenever possible. You never use thrown weapons enough." Kamakura frowned at her but refused to respond.

SnakeEyes turned to her. *You should remember that thrown weapons are 'distance' weapons. Use the distance. Either of you should be able to take out a twenty man team with distance weapons alone. That might not be the real aim here.. we're training the greenshirts to defend against attacking enemy ninja and to attack ninja without dying. But you should remember to use the distance weapons first and foremost from cover.*

Throughly chastened, Jinx nodded. "Yes Sensei." Her eyes glanced at her apprentice brother. "I did outlast you. I didn't die at all the first few times. You were killed much sooner."

"I died but I took out a lot of the soldiers before I died. It was just a lucky shot!" Always ready to rise to her baiting, Kamakura stiffened in anger. "You just always have to point out that you're the senior apprentice!"

"Not only senior but better. If you were capable of mastering the basics, you could move on to the advanced forms." Jinx's eyes narrowed.

SnakeEyes swatted out casually, thumping Jinx in the head and sending her tumbling to the ground. Kamakura ducked ineffectively as the commando swung a leg to kick him backwards to land sprawled on the pavement. They both jumped to their feet in ready positions facing him.

Jinx bounced to the side and suddenly dropped in low to weave in, trying to land a punch in the lean ribs. She caught a second blow to the head, slinging her aside as SnakeEyes lifted one leg to kick an oncoming Kamakura in the chest and knock him flying backwards again. Before his foot touched down, he twisted in the air to kick around in a perfect arc to take out Jinx a second time as she jumped him from behind. Before Kamakura could regain his feet, SnakeEyes was on him, a forearm locking down across his neck. A quick twist and a blur of movement and the apprentice was pinned facedown easily, his arms tangled in one of the ninja master's, his thigh pinned to the ground by the older man's foot.

"Unngh.. mmmuuuhhhh-thheeee.. mmuuutheeeee.." Kamakura's indistinct surrendering plea made SnakeEyes release him. The lean form stepped towards Jinx who was just managing to get to her knees.

She held up her wrists. "Mercy!" He walked over and took her forearm to drag her up to her feet. "Sorry Sensei!"

He pointed at her. *Sharp tongue.. you'll sharpen every blade in the Pit.. even the scissors in the office desks.*

He twisted to point at Kamakura. *Lack of temper.. you will serve as a body for hand-to-hand for all beginning classes for the next week. Lose your temper again, I'll give you to BeachHead for a week.*

He bowed deeply. "Yes Sensei. I apologize Sensei." Thinking more quickly than his apprentice sister he turned and bowed to her as well. "I apologize sister Jinx for losing my temper to your teasing."

She scowled but gave him a short bow in return. "I apologize most sincerely for teasing you, brother."

The surface reconciliation satisfied their master and he pointed at the building. *Back inside, work together for the next exercise. One more fight between you and I will tie you together by the wrist for a week and see if that solves the issue.* His sharp movements as he signed at them made them understand it was no idle threat.

He watched them scramble into the building at top speed, disappearing immediately. His good humor with the exercise had disappeared with his apprentices sniping and then challenging of him. Normally even-tempered in the worst conditions, he was on edge already after a minor disagreement with Scarlett. Now he was downright irked.

BeachHead cleared his throat. "Annnnnnd.. now that the ninja squabble is over..." SnakeEyes turned to glare at him. "It IS over right? I mean.. if ya'll need a few more minutes to tussle around on the ground... I'm sure we can jus' wait."

The single finger sign needed no interpretation. SnakeEyes stalked off to stand next to a nervous Lifeline.

The Sergeant major snorted in amusement. "And see that's why I'd never make a good ninja.. I'm not liable to go hauling off and havin' a knock-down over a little insult or two. But ninja are all happy to have unstable type people obviously." He cast a glance over towards the ninja only to see the black form almost on top of him already. "HEY!! YAaaaalllp!"

His body was flung forwards, yanked to a stop by a strong hold on his shoulder strap and twisted backwards over one outstretched leg. "UUUhhhhhngg.. leggo.." Beach tried to figure out how his arm ended up twisted underneath him, not to mention how he'd ended up bent backwards over SnakeEyes' knee pinned in a extremely uncomfortable position that was making snarky remarks rather impossible at the moment. Breathing wasn't all that fun either, come to think of it. "Leggo.. crazy freakin' ninja.." SnakeEyes reached with his free hand to pinch his nose shut through the balaclava cloth. Forced to suck air through his mouth, Beach contemplated the fact that he had all four limbs pinned effectively by a ninja who STILL had a hand free to poke him with. "Sorry... leggo now?"

He was released and flipped forward to land on his hands and knees gasping. "Danged ninja.. I get it.. 'don't tease the ninja'.. dang.." Struggling up to his feet, he twisted his neck a bit and shook his left arm out some. "Alright.. show's over.. get formed up. We got trainin' to do here."

The greenshirts wisely kept the snickering and amused looks to a bare minimum.. even Mouth. BeachHead chivvied them back into formation. "Get yer butts geared up.. goggles ON, dang it Folkson.. those goggles don't do ya any good up on yer danged forehead."

Getting all of them formed up into the smaller groups, he hazarded a look over at the Jeep. Lifeline gave him a palm's up shrug to indicate that he didn't know, then pointed to the warehouse. Taking that to mean the ninja master had already entered the building, BeachHead shouted for the recruits to shape up.

"Alright.. same teams.. I'll take my team in second.. remember, no friendly fire this time." He hefted the paintball rifle and watched Miller send in Mouth, then Folkson. The rest of his team followed cautiously, going in at a crouch and moving to cover quickly in a professional manner. They disappeared among the crates as they took the left hand walkway.

BeachHead led his team in this time.. taking point and covering for the rest of the team to come in and take up positions. He stayed low, checking the crates overhead constantly, flicking the rifle barrel to cover gaps and crevices. His team followed his example, Williams sticking behind him to cover the opposite spots efficiently.

A slight hiss made Beach twist to see Teryis point up at a crate forty feet down the corridor. He gave a slight nod and sped up, moving down the walkway at a low crouch silently, pointing upwards with the barrel of his gun. Williams stuck behind him, checking the opposite side of the corridor in case the ninja had moved already.

As Beach feared, the shadowy form that detached from the concealing crate and dropped into the group did so further back from where he was headed. Before he could twist around, Kamakura had taken out three greenshirts and dodged back between crates. Haberton pitched a grenade over the crates to where the ninja should have emerged. When it popped, they all heard cursing. "Dead!" BeachHead grinned to himself.

"Good job.." His low voice carried a pleased note. First encounter, and although he'd lost three men, they took out a ninja. He turned back down the corridor and went down immediately under the smaller form of Jinx who slashed at his neck with her dye blade before she kicked off of his chest, driving him the last foot into the floor. The loud thud of his back hitting the concrete was followed by his struggles to get air into his lungs. The unexpected attack had completely surprised him and the tiny ninja apprentice had driven him into the ground so hard it had knocked the breath out of him.

Thrashing about, he struggled to breathe, feeling his head swim he hoped he wouldn't pass out. Jinx was really too small to be able to knock him down this hard. He managed to roll over and suck in air finally. Coughing wildly, he tried to avoid breathing in the dust off the floor as the blackness receded and his brain began to reoxygenate itself. Someone helpfully patted his back twice. "Sergeant major?" Of course it would be Williams. "You alright?"

"UUhhhhh.. " Beach drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly. "I'm fine." Levering himself up and gaining his feet again, he shook his head and looked around at the multitude of dead troops. He coughed again. "Alright.. everyone is dead. Get up.. head out the entrance." Before he could finish going up the stairs to his observation post, he found the rest of the soldiers had been killed. "Alright.. EVERYONE OUT!"

Once he had his troops gathered up outside. "Much better. Took down a ninja with only three casualties. No friendly fire? Okay.. two friendly fire. That's much better. Think about what ya been doin' different. Haberton.. nice grenade work on killin' Kamakura."

In very short order, he had them formed up to go back in. Lifeline rattled off a list of minor bumps and scrapes that everyone had accumulated. Since there was nothing major, he dismissed it and headed back in, sending Miller's team in first this time. He watched the cautious movements of the team ahead of him.

This time Jinx attacked first, sliding out from between crates to slash and stab. She threw a purloined grenade forward only for it to be swatted aside by Miller. Williams swung around as the woman flipped through the confusion, his rifle coming up even as he yelled. "Down! Down!" The two greenshirts in his line of fire dropped as she came near, and Williams took several shots. Jinx easily dodged out of the way, disappearing between a crate and a stack of plywood. Williams' last shots missed entirely.

"OW!!" The yelp from outside made Beach lift his head from where he'd ducked to avoid the shots.

He stood and held up a fist. "HOLD!!! ALL HOLD!!!" The call went through the warehouse and Beach trotted down the walkway to the open doorway.

"Lifeline? Ya okay?" He was treated to the medic hopping around beside the Jeep, gritting his teeth and howling with pain. "Geez.. how'd ya get hit out here?"

The slender medical officer gripped at his now purple-painted knee. "Ahhhh!!! I was just standing there!! And suddenly boom! I got hit in the kneecap! Man!! It hurts!" He hobbled a step or two on it and then hopped again. "OW!!"

BeachHead reached to steady him a second and bent to twitch the pants leg sideways a little. Poking at the knee, he felt the joint carefully, ignoring the yelps of pain. "Stand on it." Lifeline stood still for a second. "Aww.. yer fine. It's jus' bruised. Walk it off, ya pogue."

Given a light shove, Lifeline hobbled a wide circle while grumbling to himself. "I'm not supposed to get shot, I'm outside and I'm the medic. Walk it off... more like limping it off. Heartless bastard." He glared at BeachHead who hefted the paintball rifle and looked like he was contemplating shooting him. "Don't you shoot me! Once is enough!"

"Are ya sure?" BeachHead grinned under his paint spattered facemask. "If'n I shot ya in yer other knee.. ya wouldn't limp in circles.. make it all even?"

Getting a disgusted glare as a reply, Beach just shook his head and went back inside the warehouse to wave everyone back into place. "He's fine.. silly fobbit got hit by a stray paintball. Try not to shoot out the doors."

Williams nodded. "Sorry Sergeant major.. is Lifeline okay?"

"He's fine.. he'll limp and have a new appreciation for those of us that get hit by these paintballs. Lifeline's tougher than ya think." Beach raised his voice. "ALRIGHT!! GO LIVE AGAIN!" He crouched and clicked the safety off of his paintball rifle again. Crouching down, he waved his team into positions and pointed at Teryis to take point.

She moved down the walkway easily, checking all the various spots that a ninja could attack from. When the first attack happened, it was from above, two of them going down to throwing stars hitting them hard. A bare hint of movement heralded Jinx's disappearance before anyone could aim.

"Move forward.." His low voice urged his team to continue moving. He crouched and looked upwards, searching the upper catwalk for SnakeEyes. The second scan spotted the ninja by the purple blotches on his uniform. He gave a quick up and down wave to attract his attention. Fingerspelling out *m.i.l.l.e.r.* slowly, he watched SnakeEyes hold up seven fingers and give a thumb's up. He was pleased that Miller had seven live men left at this point. Checking the time, he found they'd been live fire for almost twenty minutes.

Just as his attention returned to his team, Jinx attacked again, slipping through the group as they scrambled to be able to aim at her. Half of the greenshirts dropped to a knee to shoot upwards, the other half were busy trying to dive or dodge out of her range. Teryis took a nice shot to 'wound' the slender ninja in one arm. Jinx dropped her blade in that hand but tossed a throwing spike to take out his pointman in retaliation.

His voice rose. "DOWN!! Take her out! Watch your six! Check the rear!" She ducked towards Williams who took a hasty shot which missed. Beach twisted to scan behind the team and spotted Kamakura just as he appeared to attack while the greenshirts were concentrating on Jinx. "TO THE REAR!" He popped off two rounds as Kamakura dodged to the side. Dropping to one knee, he hoped he was out of the line of fire for the rest of his team. Williams stepped up and fired over BeachHead's shoulder.

"AUUGH!!" Kamakura clutched at his face and went to his knees. "Ahh.. dead DEAD!! Argghh..."

BeachHead shouted loudly "ALL HOLD!" Within a few steps he grabbed to tilt the young apprentice's face up. "Lemme see.. you hit in the eye?"

"No.. no.. I don't think so.." Kamakura's face had a splatter of pink paint across his cheek and eye. "Just missed my eye.. hurts though." Beach lifted his voice to shout across the warehouse for Lifeline to come in.

The medic poked his head in the open doorway. "Where at?" Williams waved at him from his perch on a nearby crate.

BeachHead shouted again. "STAND DOWN! Head outside." He peered at the rapidly swelling knot. "I think you're fine.. looks like it hit the edge of your eye socket.. you guys need to have goggles on I think."

Lifeline rushed up just as SnakeEyes arrived. "How bad is it?"

Kamakura shook his head and tried to wipe gingerly at his face. "I think I'm okay. Took a face shot." He let SnakeEyes examine his face while Lifeline looked on. "I'm sorry.. I thought I was hit in the eye at first. It's pretty painful."

The medic took a closer look, probing along the eye itself. "I need to rinse this out good. Let's go outside where I've got better light."

A few minutes of eye rinse made Kamakura declare he was fine. Williams looked pretty hangdog and tried to apologize. The young ninja smiled at him. "It's fine, that's what you're supposed to do. I guess we should be wearing more safety equipment but this is training for us as well. No use to train while wearing equipment we won't have on during real life missions."

Lifeline gave him a significantly disapproving look. "Safety equipment could have kept you from this injury which could have put you on medical leave which would have prevented you from going on those oh-so-important missions."

Kamakura sighed at him. "Yes Lifeline." He cast his eyes over at SnakeEyes who threw his hands in the air. "Sorry Sensei.. he's a medic.. he'll ground me and I won't be able to do anything at all."

*I'll break both your arms and you won't be able to do anything at all.* The unamused ninja crossed his arms and waited.

Kamakura looked to Lifeline. "Sorry.. he ranks you in this." He wiped the last of the pink paint off his face. "I'm fine.. I'm ready to go back in."

Mouth had walked up casually and suddenly grabbed Kamakura around the chest from behind. "I got a ninja!" He grinned at the black-clad ninja master who was staring at him. "Sergeant SnakeEyes.. you owe me a cake."

There was a loud thud as he landed about ten feet away on his head. Kamakura stared down at him with the point of his very sharp katana blade at his throat. "I was dead.. not captured." The blade flicked aside as he stepped away.

Mouth rolled over and sat up holding his head. "Ow.. okay okay... got it."

BeachHead stepped over to look down at him with a disapproving glare. "Well.. have we learned our lesson about not grabbin' ninja? Didn't I tell ya that ninja are sharp and pointy and shouldn't be grabbed at?"

"Yes Sergeant major.. I was just making a joke." Mouth got to his feet, still rubbing at his head while looking embarrassed.

"Yeah well, we all found it real danged funny.. I particularly liked the part where ya landed on yer head.. ya wanna do that part again? I almost cracked a smile." Beach turned to the rest of the group. "This is why ya'll wear protective equipment.. 'cause we're too smart to get maimed on a trainin' mission. So don't be as stupid as to not use yer safety gear.. or I'll hafta stick ya in the ninja group where the not-so-bright fellers end unnghh...." His neck bent at a poor angle as a hard set of fingers dug into his jaw and he shifted his eyes to the side to SnakeEyes visored face. "Nnng guh..." The grip eased and he found his tongue able to work again. "Testy today aren't ya?" He was suddenly released and coughed slightly. "Don't tease the ninja.. gawd yer in a poor mood."

By the time he turned, SnakeEyes was gone, as he'd expected. "Danged spooks." He itched at his neck slightly, feeling the bruising from the day beginning to form already. "Alright.. so form up.. now that we know we ain't broke our ninja, we need to get ready to head back in. Yer doin' a lot better so keep it up. There's two ninjas in there, so don't get so focused on one opponent that ya forget the second man." He hefted the rifle. "So.. let's do this AGAIN!"

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End Chapter:

I intended to finish this off, but obviously it's not quite done yet. I hope it's enjoyed and please, feel free tor eview or message me as always. Thank you for reading!