Chapter 16
Dragon Unleashed
Inside the Foot headquarters, the ninja went about their business, running errands for the higher ups, preparing for missions and more. On one of the floors, in a hallway with reinforced windows facing outward, one ninja caught something in the corner of his eye. Stopping to investigate, he walked over to the windows and looked out into the nightsky.
Speeding towards the building was a large ball of fire.
Taking a step backwards as his brain processed what he had seen, he then turned around and ran away from the windows.
"Hit the deck!" he screamed and threw himself on the floor, covering his head.
A few ninja looked at their comrade as if he had lost his mind, while some looked out through the window and saw what he had seen. But no one had the time to take cover before the fireball struck the windows and exploded, shattering the glass and filling the hallway with fire and glass shards.
Sitting in his throne room, Arashi watched a group of his ninja spar while he sipped some sake and thought about what he would do once the dragon was once again in his possession. He was abruptly brought out of his thoughts when the room shook at the sound of an explosion somewhere not that far away. Some ninja lost their balance and fell over form the shock.
"What the hell was that?!" said Arashi. Picking up his cellphone, he tried to call surveillance, but he couldn't get a signal. He then switched to a walkie-talkie.
"Arashi here, what the hell happened?" he said into the device, only to receive nothing but static. "Report! Somebody answer me!"
Furious over that he couldn't reach anyone, he threw the walkie-talkie at the floor so it broke in front of the nervous group of ninja.
"What are you fools standing around for?! Find out what's happened!" Arashi shouted.
Back in the alley, Donatello had just opened the window by the fire escape, when the seven mutants heard the explosion from the other side of the building.
"Whoa! Was that Tyroth's doing?" said Michelangelo as he climbed up the ladder.
"It has to be." said Donatello. "Unless there is someone else attacking the Foot tonight, with artillery fire."
"I hope that he'll be alright." Sephie said with a worried look on her face.
"I'm sure he will." said Raphael, placing a hand on Sephie's shoulder. "Besides, if it's anything that I've learned about Tyroth, it's that nothing can take him down once he's angry."
Back in the hallway, one ninja was still alive after the explosion. His uniform was burned and torn and he had pieces of glass stuck in his back. Coughing heavily, he tried to get back up.
His colleagues lay all over the hallway, most of them still burning, but even those that wasn't on fire, wasn't moving. They were either unconscious or dead.
Without warning, someone grabbed hold of the survivor's collar and pulled him up off the floor. Feeling lucky and relieved that someone had come to rescue him, that quickly changed when he saw who it was. He was face to face with Tyroth, the dragon's eyes glowing red.
"Oh Shit! The dragon mutant!"
"Where are they!?" the dragon snarled loudly.
"Where are who? Who are you talking about?" the ninja whimpered, squirming to get free.
"Don't play stupid with me! The prisoners! Where are the prisoners that you captured a few days ago!?"
"I honestly don't know who you're talking about!"
"You're lying!"
"No, it's the truth! If I did know, don't you think that I would have told you by now?"
"Funny, 'cause I was just thinking that I should have burned you to a crisp by now!" Tyroth snarled, pulling back his lips to reveal his sharp teeth with flames behind them.
"No! Please don't!" the ninja yelled in panic. "I swear I don't know who you're talking about! But, if they're here, then they have to be in the dungeons. Follow this hallway and go down a few floors and you'll find it. However, you have to go past one of our dojos, the way will be crawling with ninja!"
"Not for long, it won't. They will either get the hell out of my way, or I'll kill them where they stand, and the same goes for you!"
"Please, if you let me go, I promise you won't see me again!"
Tyroth growled loudly, and the ninja closed his eyes, waiting for the inevitable.
To his surprise, he was let down on his feet. When he opened his eyes, the dragon was already walking down the hallway.
"If you hurry, you might escape this place before anyone knows that you survived. But… the next time we meet… I'll rip out your spine without hesitation!"
As Tyroth continued towards the dungeons, the ninja's knees buckled under him as it sank in. He had been spared. He had faced the wrathful dragon and still drew breath. Now all he had to do was to flee, tend to his wounds and go into hiding. The dragon wasn't the only one that would kill him, but he was the one the ninja feared the most.
A bit of a short chapter, but not lacking for force. Tyroth is now inside, and he's not taking any prisoners. I'm pretty sure he's all out of mercy on top of that. See you next time, and we will see what happens next.