Chapter 7- Shadows of Death

Matt led them farther down the path and into the dense forest surrounding the main campus. "The designers of this layout must have been geniuses."

"What do you mean?" Drake asked.

"They decided to make the path between the docks and the main building a long, winding thing that goes through this forest. And then they obstructed the way that didn't have the path so you couldn't just run that way."

"And that makes them geniuses…?"

"He's being sarcastic." Keith said.

"Oh yeah!"

"Yes, I've always wondered what they were thinking when they made this path." Bentz said. "It doesn't make any sense. It would have been much more economical and practical to make it a straight path. Instead, they made a path that goes past the airstrip and then turns around and goes back to the docks."

"Of course." Matt said, smiling. "That didn't stop me on the way here."

"You climbed the arches?" Drake asked. The massive arches that served as gates to the shadow realm and had apparently been constructed a considerable amount of time ago had been left standing. The builders had filled the holes with cement and filled the hole in the center with a wall of steel, creating a 40-foot high façade on the academy's front.

"No. I jumped over them."

"How did you jump that high?!? That's physically impossible." Keith said.

"Because I am shinobi." Matt stopped. "Hang on. I feel… something."

"What is it?" Drake asked.

"I don't now… it has human form." Matt said. "But it has this dark aura I'm not sure I'm fond of. Ready yourselves for combat." Drake set Julie's body on the ground and cocked his rifle. Keith readied his SAW. Matt whipped out several shurikens. They all tensed, waiting for whatever it was.

Flynn walked around the corner.

"Flynn!" Drake said. "You got out?"

"Hm? Oh! Yeah, I did. I didn't expect to see you guys here." Flynn said. Matt looked suspicious.

"How did you escape?" He asked.

"I knocked the guards out and stole the keys." Flynn said. He moved in between them. "I see you've picked the Chancellor out of a rough spot. Nice work." He moved to pat Drake on the back. Matt caught his arm before it connected. "What are you doing?"

"You're not Flynn." Matt said. At some point he had pulled his headband up. Drake had never seen Matt's irregular eye this close up. There were small black spots in it, about eight of them, and they began swimming around the iris in a rapid circle.

"What are you talking about?" Flynn said. "Of course I'm Flynn."

"Then explain to me…" Matt twisted Flynn's arm and forced his hand open. A small metal device was in his palm. "…why you are trying to plant a bomb on Drake's back." A very nasty look crossed Flynn's face. He wrenched his arm from Matt's grasp and backed away.

"How did you know?" he said.

"Primarily, most people have a color in their iris. Yours is simply white. A very milky white, at that. Secondly, Flynn never fails to make eye contact with those that he speaks to. You failed to do so." Matt slipped the shurikens into his cloak and pulled out a single kunai. "What are you?"

Drake was confused. He had never noticed either of the things that Matt had just spoken of. Has Matt really lost it? He thought. Keith looked absolutely astounded. Flynn's outline suddenly got fuzzy. Then it was quite less than definite. He lost all color and turned into a black pool of… something on the ground. Then it reformed into a sort of shadow. It didn't lay on the ground, though, this thing stood straight up. Its edge was slightly spiky. It had no feet, just a large area where the black stuff met the ground. It had a large yellow mouth with pointed black teeth, so black that the teeth looked like they were a part of the face. It had slanted yellow eyes that lacked pupils.

"So… you saw through it. But now you die!" It slid across the ground toward them at a frightening pace. Drake panicked and grabbed Julie's body from the ground, prepared to get out of the way, while Keith slung his SAW and looked ready to get out of the way. Matt lazily stood his ground. The shadow creature raised one fearsome clawlike hand, laughing, and prepared to strike Matt with it.

"RUN!!!" Drake shouted. It was over in an instant.

All that was left of the shadow-thing was shreds of black on the ground. Matt had cut it in so many ways that Drake didn't want to think about it. Matt was standing over the black shreds, his kunai held out in front of him at the end of his last strike, his eyes closed, a faint smile on his face.

"Hehe." Matt spun the kunai around a few times, then flipped open a conveniently-sized pouch on his belt and tossed the knife in. "That kind of attack rarely works."

"How did you identify that so fast?" Keith asked.

"Well, obviously I saw the shadow energies surrounding that Shadow with my shadow eye." Matt said. "But it's mostly just old ninja training. You gotta be on your toes around other ninja, cause most of them are masters of disguise. You learn to recognize the mannerisms of your friends, so that no one can get you by masquerading as your friends."

"Did anyone ever do that to you?" Drake asked.

"No. Everyone I ever cared about is dead- well, everyone but Brooklyn and Matt Jurik."

"Wow… I never knew."

"It doesn't matter. We need to get going. This path is still really long. Just stay on your toes." Matt said. "It looks like the third level of the Shadow Realm has been opened."

"What do you mean?" Bentz asked. "There are levels to that place?"

"Yes. I knew about the shadows, having seen one once before when I accidentally sent myself to the third level of the shadow realm, which is almost impossible to escape from without the key. I had never seen the Shadow Mutts before, so they must have come from level two. All I know that is that there are six levels, total, and I'm not sure I want to find out what's on level six. After all, the door to the sixth level is supposedly marked 666…"

"Huh?" Drake said. He had no idea why that would be bad.

"666 is the number of the beast." Keith whispered in his ear. "It's generally associated with ultimate evil."

"Oh." Drake scratched his head. "So what if whoever it is unlocks the sixth level? Are you saying we're screwed?"

"Yes. But there's a catch to opening the sixth level, there's some other requirement that has to met. I'm not sure what it is, though." Matt admitted. "Don't worry, Matt Jurik has set up Brooklyn with all the technology and researching power one could ask for. Brooklyn'll figure it out, after all, Matt himself decided to work on that! But for now we need to try and prevent further damage. After the fourth gate is open, the shadow creatures will no longer be limited to coming through the arches. They will be able to materialize anywhere on Earth where there are two vertical structures within forty meters of each other. That means almost any major city."

"Okay then, let's stop talking and get moving!" Bentz said, finally getting the sense of urgency. Julie groaned and sat up.

"Nice of you to join us." Drake said.

"Ow… my leg hurts." She said.

"Can you walk?" Keith said.

"Yeah, I think so." She stood up and gingerly put some weight on it. She grimaced. "I should be okay."

"Okay then, nothing to stop us now." Matt said. "We need to get moving, if I'm right, there are still a lot of other things between us and Flynn."