Hey everyone, happy Friday. Now it is time for an update. I remember how I left you all in cliffhanger before, so here it is, but also fair warning that it always flicker off from one character to the next. But other than that, enjoy.
Chapter 15: Escape
Cole slowly and tiredly pried his eyes open to see his vision was foggy. He still felt tired, but he could see himself in a large tank of water with a band around each of his limbs. He didn't move his arms as he felt paralyze, but felt a mask was over his entire face. The upper half provided visual of his surroundings while the lower part covered his mouth and nose and directly pumped sweet oxygen into his lungs with bubbles escaping from a vent to allow him to exhale; like a respirator. He shifted his eyes tiredly to see he was only wearing his black shorts with something wrapped around his waist and could see his bangs floating in front of his face. He could hear his own breath in the mask and slowly closed his eyes and felt himself floating lazily in the tank while the bands kept him in place.
...
Outside the tank and inside an office above the room that held Cole, General Ross peered through the window to observe the Hulk below him. He looked away to see his team of scientists working and preparing for the experiment. "But general, you don't know what you're doing." his daughter, Betty, said to him as she and the Ninja stood in the back of the room.
Ross sighed as he ignored her long enough and looked at her pleading eyes. He doesn't know the reason why his daughter brought the Ninja to the base, but when he received the call from her, demanding to talk to him, he gradually accepted. "Betty," he began while placing a hand on her shoulders. "We have it under control. Once we conduct this experiment, we'll be able to see this thing in him."
"But what you're doing is madness." she retorted and shoved his hand away. "I've seen him how he changed and you don't know what you're dealing with."
Ross huffed and walked over to a female scientist's computer and looked over her shoulder to inspect on Cole. Zane glared at the back of the general's head and felt anger crawl up since the general was ignoring the danger. "General, you need to reconsider on what you're doing and agree with your daughter." he said. The general stopped and turned to the nindroid. "Our friend is unstable and whatever you're doing can trigger him and cause catastrophic consequences. You must..."
"You can't contradict on what can and can't happen, Android." Ross barked. Zane was taken by surprise that he knows what he was. "Yeah I know what you are." he said, seeing his look. "But what we're doing is foolproof. Nothing will trigger the Hulk and we'll be able to use It." and looked back at the monitor.
Betty felt rise up in her chest that her own father was ignoring the warning signs of Cole. Even on Zane. She suddenly had an idea and reached into her small handbag to slowly pull out a black flash-drive. A different one that was different and didn't have her research on it. She looked down at the boy in green. "Psst. Shorty." she whispered.
Lloyd looked up at her to give her a hard stare. "My name is Lloyd." he stated.
The raven-haired girl rolled her eyes. "I need you to do me a favor." she said quietly and quickly handed him the flash-drive. She looked around in case someone was watching and back at him. "This flash-drive contains a virus to shut down all communications to this base. And somewhere in this base is a motherboard circuit system that runs everything. Since you're small, I need you to climb into the vents and find the control room and insert this virus into them main hard-drive. Can you do it? For Cole?"
The green ninja looked at the flash-drive in his gloved hand and looked at Betty to nod. A secret mission. He's been waiting to do something. "But how do I know where the room is?" he asked.
"Once you're in the vents, the control room gives off heat as the motherboard works." she explained. "So it sends heat up to the vents to keep the circuits cooled from overheating. Then you know you've found it. I'll let the others know your whereabouts. Better hurry now and use the vents behind us." She pointed behind them at grate. "No one is looking. Go. And don't forget the password. Maryanne."
Lloyd slipped the flash-drive into his pockets, nodded on his mission, and quietly walked back while Betty was whispering the plan to the others. He could see the nods and concerns from everyone and his cousin and sister. When the small ninja reached the vent, he quietly moved a cart aside to see the grate on the wall and quickly and quietly removed it from the wall while looking over his shoulders for suspicions from the soldiers or scientists spying on him, thankful that none were. He quietly stepped in, watches his cousin create a misty clone of himself from his powers, and replaced the grate in place and began crawling away. He hoped that he finds the room he was looking for without getting caught.
...
Back in the tank of water, Cole stirred in his slumber after feeling a sudden chill near his lower back. But quickly felt peace and slowly drifted back to his unconscious stage and felt buoyant in the water. Like as if he was a fish. But was still human.
...
"Sir," a female scientist and captain named Haruko called up. "Drills are set. Tee minus ten minutes. We're still running diagnostics."
Ross smirked and walked back to the observing window to see the Hulk buoyant in the water. "Very well." he said.
Betty flinched. Please hurry, Lloyd
...
Darkness surrounded the small ninja as he crawled on his hands and knees in the vents. He felt like five minutes or so passed and can't find the control room. Even in darkness isn't helping him find his way. No matter how much his emerald green eyes gotten used to the dark, he still bumps his head against a metal wall. Lloyd hated to admit it, but he was lost and he didn't want to get caught.
Lloyd kept crawling through the darkness and slowly began to feel faint trails of heat breezing past him. I must be getting closer. he thought and followed after the trail. But as he crawled his movements began to echo in the metal tunnel. He hoped that people couldn't hear him.
"Hey you hear something?" a male voice asked outside the vent. Lloyd quickly stopped and held his breath and not let a squeak escape his lips. "It sounded like something is in the vents."
"Nah." another male voice doubted. "It's probably just another lizard inside that's all."
Lloyd carefully listened to their footsteps and heard them become more faint and distant. He sighed and felt a cool wave of relief wash over him. That was too close. he said to himself. He waited for another minute in case someone else walked past and quietly continued his search. As the further he went, the boy began to feel sweaty like he was in the Lost City of Ouroboros or a sauna. He must be getting close. He can feel it. The green ninja came across a vent to feel both heat and cool air below him and looked through the grate to see diodes, circuit boards, and monitors in long rows. Like it was a larger version of the Bounty's control room. I found it! he said and grabbed a hold of the grate.
After about a minute of unlocking the grate to have it swing open on its hinges, Lloyd poked his head out to survey the area and hopped down and land on a safe thud. To even make it better, he pulled on his green mask over his face. "Now where is the main computer?" he wondered. The small ninja began to tiptoe through the rows of towering diodes to find the one he was searching for until he turned a corner to see a computer attached to one of the diodes. "That must be it." he said as he stood in front of it and pressed a key on the keyboard to have the screen flash on the screen with a lock on it. Locked huh? he thought. No problem. I'll give it a spark. He paused for a second as that didn't make sense and held his hand out. Electricity conducted through him and sparked out of his fingertips to the computer screen to make it fuzzy until an image of an unlock lock appeared.
Access Granted. Welcome.
Lloyd smiled as he done it as he was transferred to the main motherboard of the base. He reached into his pockets to fish out the black flash-drive and used his thumb to slide the usb-port out. He looked around for an outlet to insert it in and found one on the keyboard and inserted in. A password log-in popped on the screen and typed in the eight word password Betty told him. M-A-R-Y-A-N-N-A. "And now let's rescue Cole." he said and slammed the Enter key to have the loading screen appear as the motherboard was now downloading the virus. The screen began to spark and static and Lloyd grabbed the flash-drive and headed back for the air-vents. After he climbed up a diode, he slipped back into the vent and pulled the grate back up to see it was latch into place and began to crawl away.
Mission Accomplished.
...
"Sir," Haruko announced. "We're ready now." She typed on the keyboard to show everyone the drills were ready to dig into Cole's spine. "Awaiting orders."
Ross smiled while the Ninja and Betty were starting to become nervous. "Go for it." he said calmly. Haruko nodded and pressed the Enter key and the drills began.
...
Cole jolted awake suddenly as he felt something pinching his back and began to thrash around to escape the pain. What was happening?
...
Haurko was stunned as the drills weren't digging in. "Drills aren't penetrating skin." she announced. She quickly typed on her keyboard. "Increasing power."
...
Cole continued to thrash around to escape the pain and his water prison, but the bands kept him in place. Suddenly a band that held his left arm snapped free from his uncontrollable strength, but he wasn't transforming yet. The earth ninja then grabbed the band that held his other arms and tugged it to break his arm free and then used both freed arms to grab the bands around his calves broke free and sank down to land on his feet in the tank. He looked up at Ross through the plastic piece of his respirator mask and slammed a fist against the glass. And a spider web pattern formed on the glass with small trails of water escaping. He then drove his heel against the glass to break free to flood the floor with water and glass and jumped out to land in a crouch.
...
Ross and everyone were taken by surprise. Hulk somehow managed to break free. And he peered closely to see his amber eyes slowly changing to green. He gasped and looked at Betty. "Knock him out!" he barked. "Quick!" The team of scientists nodded and slammed a button to the Hulk's respiratory mask.
...
Cole kept glaring at the observing room felt his anger taking hold. He was about to change. But then he began to smell something faint entering the mask that was still wrapped around his face and started to feel drowsy. He then found out it was an anesthetic to put him in unconsciousness leaking from the hose and felt weaker after each inhale and couldn't remove the mask on time before he fell and passed out. His transformation was delayed.
...
Ross sighed for the close call. "Sir," another scientist named Bishop called. "We're starting to have problems with our databanks and servers. We can't do anything."
What!? The general quickly rushed over to Bishop's terminal to see his and the other screens act up. Something was wrong. "What's happening?" he demanded to know answers.
"We seem to be having a sudden virus in our servers." Haruko suggested. She typed on her keyboard on her still functioning computer to pop a video from the security camera in the control room to gasp. "General, we've been sabotaged!"
The general quickly transverse to her computer to watch the video his captain replayed. He watched as a small child in green was over by the main computer of the room and insert something into it. He peered closely to see the child and looked over his shoulder to see it was the very same one, but then materialized into mist. Ross then realized it all. "You five are under arrest for sabotaging official databanks and servers!" he shouted and soldiers surrounded the Ninja. "Find the brat and bring him with the others." He watched some soldiers run off and turned to his new captives. "Betty, away from them." Betty glared at her father and stepped in to join them. The general was taken by surprise. His daughter was joining them. "Get them then." he ordered.
Zane and the others slowly huddled together in a tight circle as troops surrounded them with their pistols raised up. He knew Lucas had to stop the conjuring the mist since they knew they would be seen. The ice ninja and the others slowly raised their hands up and glanced at Lucas. "Lucas?" he smirked. The water ninja smirked back and quickly reached into his leather pouch to fish out his smoke pellets and threw them to the floor. Smoke soon enveloped everyone and the entire room. The Ninja of Ice could hear everyone coughing to the smoke and changed his vision to scan through the thick cloud and spotted the window and pushed and lead everyone to it. He, Kai, Jay, and Lucas began breaking the glass with Spinjitzu and jumped down to Cole after they broke it. He looked up at Betty and Laurie. "Come on you two." he said.
Betty looked down at Zane and then Laurie. She looked over her shoulder to see the smoke was starting to become too thin and quickly jumped down to be caught by Zane with Laurie behind her and was caught by Kai. "How is he?" she asked.
Zane placed her down and hurried over to their team leader and removed the mask off his face. He quickly scanned his body to sigh. "He'll be fine." he said. "The drugs will keep him down for a few hours. But now we must get out of here with Cole. Time to escape. Kai, Jay, I need you to grab Cole. Lucas, Laurie, you two use your powers to give us some cover and help us escape." Kai and Jay nodded and each grabbed Cole's arms and threw the earth ninja between them, arms over their necks. They were ready. Then the alarm went off.
Zane took the lead with the water ninja next to him, Betty behind them with Kai, Jay, and Cole and Laurie brought up the rear. The wind ninja pressed her back against the wall like the others as they peered around a corner, but gasped suddenly. They had forgotten that Lloyd was somewhere in the base and not with them. "Wait what about Lloyd?" she gasped. "He's somewhere in the base and could be anywhere by now. Even in trouble for escaping with Cole." Lucas thought it over and felt the blood drain from his face. Where was his cousin and her brother now?
...
Lloyd heard the alarm blaring in the vents as he crawled his way back. If he knew the way back however. But he knew now that the jig was up. And the others would be on a wild goose chase to get out of the underground base. But that means they'll also leave him behind. Getting him into a heap of trouble. He now hoped that they don't leave him behind.
The small ninja kept crawling in darkness to find an escape route, but his gloved hands missed what was in front of him to cause him to trip and slide down an incline vent. He felt himself speeding up as he slid down. Almost like the time he unlocked the Hypnobrai tomb. But as he slid, he couldn't help but scream as he'll never know where the tunnel will end.
...
"Huh?" Lucas wondered. The water ninja suddenly heard faint screams behind him. And they sounded familiar and coming closer. He looked behind his head to see a grate and opened to see what was inside. "AH!" he yelped to see Lloyd directly in front of him and was swept off his feet as his cousin barreled into him from the vent. He groaned as he laid on the floor with Lloyd sprawled on top of him. "Nice of you to drop by, Shrimp." he groaned while rubbing his head.
Lloyd groaned too while holding his head. "Glad I can make it." he groaned.
"Heh-hum." Jay coughed to grab their attention. "Haven't you two forgotten something? The alarm is going off because we sabotage their equipment and we have Cole and if you two don't get up, we'll be caught. Zane, lead the way. Hurry!"
Zane peered around the corner to see the corridor was cleared. "This way." he instructed and ran down with the others behind him. Lucas and Lloyd quickly recovered and followed them with the green ninja on the grey ninja's back for a piggy back ride to stay close together. The group followed the ice ninja through the giant maze of corridors to find an escape route. The alarm rung through their ears as they turned a corner to skid to a stop as soldiers blocked their path with Blolasky leading them.
"Targets acquired." he said with a smirk and raised his gun. "Sedate them!"
Lucas quickly stood in front of everyone and held his hand up. The pipes along the walls suddenly broke to pour water out and create a barrier for protection. Sedative needles sailed through the air and were stopped by the liquid. Blolasky was starting to get impatient and grabbed a small silver sphere, armed it, and threw it as the liquid barrier fell. Laurie and the others quickly recognized the device from when Skales used it to trap them and capture Lloyd and quickly pushed a gust of wind from her hands to send it back. The lieutenant gasped and jumped away a different hall while his soldiers were pushed back and the device erupted them in foam. Zane quickly took the lead by the corridor to their left as they can't use the other way now. "Do you even know the way, Zane?" Kai asked. "There's like no way out!"
The Ninja of Ice turned his head over his shoulder to meet the fire ninja's gaze. "I'm not sure, Kai." he admitted. The nindroid had to agree with him because he didn't know the entire base to know an escape route. He turned his gaze to another corridor and suddenly stopped with the others. "Over there." he barked while pointing to an elevator. "There's an elevator that might take us to the surface." He ran down to the elevator to stop in front of it and tried to call for it, but nothing happened. He looked down at the control panel to growl a little. "We need a keycard to access this." he said. "But we don't have one though to access it. Our chances of escape with Cole are minimal."
"Hang on. I got it." Betty spoke up and reached into her black pants to pull out a laminated I.D. card of her father's face for the picture. She looked up to receive quizzical looks from everyone. "What? I swiped it from him when we were in that smoke. I'm sure he won't mind." She inserted the card into the thin slot and called the elevator. A minute later, the double doors opened and everyone piled in and she pressed the ground level button. "And don't worry." she continued. "The virus is disrupting their servers. They won't stop us with Cole. You two can take a break now."
The fire and lightning ninja nodded and carefully rested Cole against the metal wall and rolled their shoulders to sigh. Everyone waited and prepared themselves if they had to fight their way to the Bounty. But they don't think they'll have to. The elevator began to slow down as they were reaching the surface and could feel the clock was ticking their time away. Lucas and Laurie stood in front of the doors in case they have to use their powers to escape while Kai and Jay prompt Cole between them. The elevator finally stopped and all felt their muscles tense as the doors opened.
...
Ross struggled to keep everyone calm as the base was on lockdown or if it was if the virus wasn't causing the problem to their controls. He's been watching from the footage from the security cameras to see where the Ninja were taking the Hulk and his daughter. But stopped as they came to an elevator and entered with a keycard of his identity from his daughter. His flesh and blood betrayed him. Working and helping the Ninja. He had to stop them now. "Stop that elevator immediately." he demanded.
"We can't." Haruko said. "The virus is disrupting all communications to the base. We're sitting ducks out here."
"Dammit." the general muttered and took off out of the room to stop them. He came across another elevator and entered the four digit pin number to enter. He waited anxiously to reach the surface and ran out to see soldiers on the floor, unconscious, and out of the facility to the open desert. Sand blew in his face as he instantly shielded his blue eyes from the particles to see a ship taking off the ground and sail through the air. They escaped with the Hulk. The general scoffed the ground to growl. "Game on, Ninja." he grumbled. "Game on."
Yay Cole is safe now. But oh no, they'll be after him now. What will the outcome be? Don't know? Well find out next week and we'll see what will happen. :)