CHAPTER SIX: BUMPS AND BRUISES

RI-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-ING!

It was like a laser to the head, that dreaded sound.

After feeling like he could take on the world last night after the defeat of the robot, just moving an arm to smack the alarm clock took too much effort, but Speedy forced his body to comply for the sake of his ears and his aching skull. The light from under the door was too bright, and squinting and blinking he pulled his covers over his head and burrowed deep into his pillow. Dreams began to take hold again, and with a pleasant sweep of sleep reclaiming the weary mind he might have slept for another good five hours. He did not know how long he slept after that, but it seemed mere seconds before he was woken again to the throbbing of his head.

There was a knock on the door this time, and he could hear the moans of Guido from his bunk. He was in no better condition than Speedy.

"Come on, guys," said Francine. "I let you sleep in, but I need you to help me open!"

"I feel like I just turned sixty," muttered Guido.

"Eighty-five …" whispered Speedy.

"One hundred and ten," grumbled Guido.

"Mmph … five hundred …"

"Come on you guys!" called Francine. "I can't run the pizzeria myself!" She had not heard their murmuring.

"We're coming!"

That was Guido. Speedy lifted his head above his covers a little and muttered, "We are?"

They were.

Up they got, slow and stiff and eyes barely open. Showers did little to wake them though the warm water did ease aching muscles. It was difficult to get out again. When they ate breakfast it served to tell them how achy their jaws were, and when they got to work upstairs at last, they saw that Polly, who usually got up long before the boys, looked like she had just gotten there about the same time as they had. The only thing that helped to wake them up and to forget their pains was work itself …

#

"Of course, I saw what happened last night," muttered Nobu after handing Lilly a platter with a tea pot and cups for a table. "You'd have to be deaf not to have woken up from it."

Speedy thought a moment, and with an awkward shrug he said, "Well, yeah, but have you heard of anyone called Dr. Purple before?"

It was later that same afternoon at the slower time between lunch and dinner. After a delivery Speedy stopped by at Nobu's place to get hopefully more input from another head. Someone who used to know the underworld upside down had to have some kind of info to help a dark situation right-side up. At least one would have to think.

But the blank expression on Nobu's face for the first second or two discouraged Speedy greatly.

"Why?" asked Nobu frowning. "Was it written on the robot's foot or something?"

"Hmm, maybe," said Speedy rubbing his chin. "I didn't check. But actually the guy driving the robot just told us that that was his name."

"Well, I could hear someone yelling something that wasn't you cats," murmured Nobu with a sage nod. "Looks like he took a lot outa ya too. You look terrible. Too bad I didn't make it in time to help."

"Pff, nah," said Speedy waving his hand aside; he cricked his back and smiled. "No, we handled that robot just fine ourselves." He leaned against the counter and tried to hide the pain he felt from daring that crick.

Nobu raised a brow. "Just fine, huh?"

"Yeah," shrugged Speedy. "Got a problem?"

"No, but you do."

"Well, we still beat up the robot to smithereens. That's what's important."

"But he'll be back."

"What makes you say that?"

"Why wouldn't he?" Nobu demanded, both he and Speedy's voices had suddenly became rather low so as not to be overheard by the young duck as she picked up one of Willy's pizzas to bring to a table. He turned away as Lilly passed again. "But sorry. I never heard of anyone called 'Dr. Purple'. And there are a lot of mad doctors in the world."

"He said he was working for the Big Cheese!"

Nobu spun around and raised another brow. In a hushed voice he said, "The Big Cheese? He's back too?"

"Yes!" hissed Speedy. "At least, I think so. Maybe Dr. Purple's just new on the scene if you never heard of him. Just some egg-head to take the crows' place in building robots for him."

"I was the one who usually had to make the Big Cheese's stupid designs work in reality."

"Exactly," said Speedy. He paused thoughtfully. "But then couldn't Jerry just design them instead?"

"Jerry couldn't design something like that that just came through last night," sniffed Nobu. "You better go back to work. The customer numbers are picking up again."

A heavy sigh did Speedy release, and with reluctance did he leave the neighboring restaurant for his own. He grumbled something about Nobu being rather snippy for someone who had nothing to hide, but he knew that Nobu would not keep some stupid scientist a secret from him unless he really was working for the bad guys again. He wouldn't, would he?

Speedy paused half way across the street and glanced doubtfully back at Nobu's restaurant.

No. No, he meant it. Bad Bird had truly changed. Otherwise he could not stay with Carla. In the upstairs window Speedy could see Carla in the loft tending to her eggs. Once again Speedy let out a sigh, and turning around he crossed the rest of the street.

However, if he had seen Nobu further Speedy might have had supplementary reason to suspect Bad Bird's sincerity, for as he watched Speedy from the window for a few seconds, he pulled out a sheet of paper from his kimono and glanced down it very suspiciously. He leered down at the traditional Japanese characters written there in a spidery script as though they were orders to complete some sinister scheme. In fact it was truly signed by a ninja's hand. It was signed with the Japanese version of name of the master of the Ninja Crows: Karasu and addressed to Nobu in his: Karamaru. It looked very serious, but most everyone around him would be unable to read it. For a place called Little Tokyo few could actually read its contents even if they saw it.

Closing his eyes very gravely, Nobu glanced quickly behind him as though he half expected to see Jerry there, but he only saw Lilly who jumped to see his horrible grimace.

"A pizza's ready for delivery, sir," she quacked.

Nobu sighed wearily and almost in defeat much in the same way as Speedy had for the past three times. He shoved the paper back into his kimono and grabbed the pizza rather roughly from the duck's hands …

#

A thick fog enshrouded the world in its ominous veil. The pale half moon, when it did shed its light through the clouds, was wreathed with an ethereal glow. Its light filtered through the fog in a manner that although shed some light, caused the ground below to share in its eldritch atmosphere. To see a dark pair of wings swoop past was hardly unwarranted, and that it was the wings of a crow only proved a further omen of malevolence.

This figure however was Nobu. Instead of his bright green kimono he wore what he had once used as his armor against the cats when he had been on the side of the Big Cheese. He was in full gear and full alert in mind and senses as he dropped into the meeting place designated by Jerry. Although Nobu was going where directed by his former superior it must be noted that upon his chest plate he no longer bore the symbol of the Flying Skull and this was by no means an accident on Nobu's part.

Shifting his eyes after his nearly soundless landing he leered through the thickness of the fog to see if he could spot any sign of movement. Even the slightest sound of an insect drew his attention. Being so intent upon the slightest thing, it was as having a sound speaker turned up as high as it could go to hear something very soft and then having it switched to hard rock when the silence was broken suddenly by a daytime, normal-volume voice saying, "Oh, Bad Bird, there you are."

Leaping upright with a start and a cringe, not to mention a strange sort of cawing sound through those clenched teeth, he spun around in alarm and flung out his sword to see Jerry just behind him. His blade happened to be inches away from Jerry's beak.

"I was beginning to think you weren't going to show up," said Jerry crossing his arms. "Will you put that thing away for a moment?"

Nobu sighed and sheathed the weapon with shoulders slumped and a gnarled brow.

"What do you want?" said Nobu.

"You know perfectly well why I called you here," Jerry retorted in a rather casual manner. "I know I've been gone a long time and things happened in between the comet and now, but I'm allowing you to come back now. This is your chance to come back."

He spoke very matter-of-fact as though no time had lapsed since they had last met, as if any tension between them was mere teenager/father misunderstandings — no! As if Bad Bird was a little fledgling who had run away from home for the thrill of joining the circus. And he spoke as if in the times before the comet. Business was business as business usually was, and now it was time for a plan— one of the Big Cheese's ludicrous plans.

"Allowing me?" grumbled Nobu.

Jerry smiled and nodded. "Mmm Hmm."

With a bit a theatrical flair (the bad guys were all drama queens in this city, and that had not changed much for Nobu) Nobu closed his eyes and turned away. "I decline."

Still in good humor Jerry chuckled. "You can't decline from being a ninja."

"And who'll stop me?" Nobu asked.

All pleasantries at an end as well as the answer to Jerry's questions, a deep frown creased Jerry's old face, and his brows set heavily over those simmering coals for eyes.

"I'm not coming back," added Nobu in case Jerry had not gotten the message the first time. "Not now or ever."

"Then why did you come to this meeting at all?"

"To make sure there was no misunderstanding about the fact that I'm not coming back!" Nobu declared.

"I always knew you had the potential to go soft, Bad Bird, but this …"

"I hardly call working for the Big Cheese 'strong'."

Ignoring this comment for now, Jerry continued on the same line of his own thought. "Getting married to that girl. I knew she was trouble from the first moment I discovered you had been hanging out with her. I thought she was back in the countryside when we left for the city. I thought I didn't have to worry about her distracting you from your training anymore, and now this! Working at a pizzeria of all places! Bad Bird! Have you no honor left at all?"

Nobu's eyes widened. "Wait a minute! You were that old traveler at the table, weren't you?!" he gasped, and then slapped his forehead for at own stupidity. "Oh! I knew there was something strange about him! Grr!" He reoriented himself and in a straight and bold manner he said, "And as for honor …"

"Yes, honor," said Jerry. "Leaving behind the ninja, your duty, your clan, your life from which no ninja dares to leave. Your life, your very soul owes itself to it! A ninja lives only to—"

"Die," cut in Nobu curtly.

"Right, right," said Jerry. He hid the fact that he did not know where he was going with that by closing his eyes patronizingly a moment, but he soon moved closer to Nobu beseechingly with arms outstretched to him. "Please, Bad Bird, have reason! Marrying a girl I directly forbade you to have contact with. Starting a restaurant. Actually volunteering in community service …" Jerry shuddered and wrung his hands together as though in fear. "I didn't want to believe that one. Complete dishonor to all the ideals you were bred to have!"

There was a pause then. It may have looked from an onlooker, if there was any aside from the moon itself in that desolate meeting spot which only the Ninja Crows knew about, one may have thought that Nobu had been momentarily defeated in this debate. Far from the case He was only gathering his thoughts enough to express them in actual words.

"What about your honor, Jerry?" He spoke in full somber seriousness. He did not even speak his name with disrespect aside from the fact that he spoke it without his title which quite offended Jerry.

"That's Master Jerry to you!" retorted Jerry with a haughty sniff.

Nobu closed his eyes.

"You led us from our home," he said. "You took us as a clan from our training and trained only a select few. Bad Max sort of flitted away and formed his own gang. Only I was trained after that. The rest were expected to train on their own when they weren't learning how to tinker for years while performing underworld stunts for the Big Cheese until we knew enough to build those dumb robots. We were already so ruined as a ninja clan that the only thing you could rely upon besides from my skill was the robots and … Bad Max when he decided to show his face again, and now you want me to return to that?"

"So you admit that you abandoned us out of cowardliness and fear of failure," scoffed Jerry quite inattentive to most of what Nobu had said.

"The only reason why I even thought about changing sides was that it was only under your rule that I realized what insanity evil is!" snarled Nobu. "And the meaning of the phrase 'false honor'. Just a taste of normalcy was all I craved. Just some sanity."

"How dare you speak about your mentor that way!"

"A mentor who failed me," said Nobu. "I would have died, killed, and suffered long torture for you and never would have considered that there was anything more honorable than being your second for as long as you were in charge no matter what my inner most feelings were about Carla, peacefulness, and solidity in a normal life. And I even enjoyed it at first! You know I did. Breaking down the city and causing everyone to run and scream in panic! And I would have taken over the clan after your honorable death with all the pride a ninja can have."

"That is as it should have been," said Jerry. "I expected nothing less. I'm beginning to think, though, that I should have had someone keep a closer watch on you when you were little and I was sick for so long. You got too many ideas from outside sources."

"An innocent childhood wouldn't have been enough." Nobu shook his head. "Working for the Big Cheese like we did, though …"

"With, Bad Bird, with," said Jerry. "And besides you know that I was only working with him and pleasing him to make our own ends in the end. We were using his power, wealth, and stupidity to make the Ninja Crows the most feared ninja in the East."

Nobu closed his eyes. "Working 'with' the Big Cheese was one thing … but living with him as his servant boy was quite another."

"Oh, you sleeping under the palace at night doesn't make you 'living with him'," said Jerry tut-tutting. "And you were under me foremost not the Big Cheese directly. I knew you were annoyed. I understood your frustration with that stupid fox but—"

"I was talking about you," muttered Nobu.

"What?"

"You were starting to become his parrot rather than a crow. You were with him so much that his stupidity and insanity was starting to make you crazy too," said Nobu. "Don't you see that?"

Jerry stiffened.

"The more I stood and watched you grovel before the Big Cheese, the more it became you joining the Big Cheese. It wasn't fun anymore, especially towards the end. It's like losing all the time had you falling into his delusions. I was having an Animal Farm moment, if you will. I saw no difference between you and the Big Cheese. Except then I started to think you were crazier than him and that the Big Cheese was just stupid."

"I hate that fox, non compos mentis!" Jerry snarled.

"Well, then you became the very thing you hate most," said Nobu, lowering his head with a bit of pity now, which seemed to make Jerry all the more angry.

Nobu's own rage had lessened now somehow. His changing sides truly had changed his heart even if it had not stifled his temper. Jerry had been the closest family member he had aside from his own father before he had died. He recalled now for a moment how much he had loved and admired Jerry when he was little when Jerry had seemed so wise, and now … he could not help but feel some of that love he had had for him, but it was painful to say (and it was quite a different feeling compared to anything Nobu had felt before) that he felt it a great pity to see him now.

A warped old fool. After years of absence Jerry still was working for the Big Cheese. Not to mention that at this point Nobu felt that the ninja life itself no matter who ruled it was any good, and he felt somehow fortunate that the madness of three years ago had at least caused him to realize that, but that did not help Jerry.

Angry with himself for displaying this emotion of pity outwardly, Nobu looked away with a rather childish pout.

"You're going to regret this, Bad Bird."

Raising a skeptical brow, Nobu opened his eyes back upon his old master and uncle.

"I don't think so," he said rather quietly. "The only thing I regret is not leaving sooner."

Having nothing further to say Nobu took flight quite suddenly.

"I mean it, you'll regret this!" Jerry called, but he sounded more desperate than serious.

Regardless, Nobu half-expected the Ninja Crows to attack him from behind, but all was as silent as when he first came upon the scene. Only the sound air rushing past him came to his ears, and as he gave a quick glance back he saw that Jerry himself had disappeared into the fog. With a heavy frown and a huff Nobu headed for home.

On the way he thought briefly that he should have asked about Dr. Purple before he had gone on that dumb tirade about why he left the ninja, but it was too late now. Besides that Jerry probably would not have told him anything unless he had been certain Bad Bird would return under his wing. Now, thanks to his temper, Jerry probably would be more likely to try something like sabotage his restaurant than he would have had Nobu just declined calmly and left.

Oh, he would just keep an eye out.

Besides, Nobu did not have long to think about Jerry when he heard the screeching of missiles when he reached the city limits again and with more destructive power than the night before …