Out in the hallway...
The massive halls of the Estate were quieter than usual due to the lack of manpower after the attack. Still, there were a few ninjas on guard.
The men and women exchanged nothing but a language of hard looks and long stares at each other as they manned their posts on high alert.
It was an utter miracle, then, that the boys evaded their notice.
Carlos, James, and Logan let the smallest grunts of exhaustion and exertion slip from their mouths as they struggled to carry their sleeping cargo.
He had it so easy.
Moving from pillar to pillar and from different types of cover like samurai armor and fireworks equipment, they narrowly evaded capture...
...until their luck inevitably ran out.
It was at a conference room they were hiding out in. They were all hiding under a couple of the tables that were large enough for them to duck under.
The Latino suddenly looked at the other two awake ones with a very worrying expression. It looked like...
"Hold it in, Carlos!"
The pretty boy was almost pleading in his whispered voice. "Don't do it, man. Not when we're so close!"
"I'm...trying..."
Despite herculean effort on his part, it happened.
"Ah-CHOO!"
As if that loud over-dramatic sneeze wasn't enough, it was hard enough to make a smaller noise...come out of the other end.
"Gross..." Kendall mumbled.
"Seriously?!" Both Logan and James hissed. The boy at fault just shrank back and shrugged as much as he could've from his position.
"Sorry..."
"Ahem."
Two ninjas, one male, one female, eyed them, with the former having cleared his throat.
"Yes...?" All three harmonized and got out under the table with their leader in tow, seeing that the jig was up.
"You're not supposed to be here," the woman said before her counterpart spoke, closing his eyes as he did so.
"Allow us to escort you back..."
The woman opened her eyes to see puffs of smoke where the two boys once were. Logan (trying to carry Kendall) was the only one left in the dust.
"Really...?"
The pair blinked at the remaining boy, who looked at them with an apology written all over his face.
"Sorry...uh... I'd come quietly, but I promised I--"
"Just go. We'll give you a head start for your honesty."
Even the smart boy was shocked at this turn of events. "Wait. Really?!"
The nod he got gave him all the incentive necessary to get going as quickly as he could.
Even his partner couldn't believe what he'd just said. Are you trying to get us fired, you fool?"
"What? We're much faster than some random kids, anyway. Besides, he seemed to have some more respect than those other guys, waiting for us and all that."
She sighed exasperatedly before turning around and running after them with him in tone.
They'd have to alert their comrades ASAP...
Following their escape, the boys wouldn't have the luxury of a head start or even just running away. Backup came, and they wound up having to fight their way through.
To even their own surprise, the ninjas fell to their fists with surprisingly little effort.
Suspiciously little effort, noted the smartest of the group.
Even something this straightforward wasn't without hijinks, though, namely James having to use his drowsing buddy as a battering ram after the group began to tire. Logan obviously had his qualms...
"You know he's gonna hate you for this, right?"
"He's...probably gonna...hate us anyway!"
It took some more searching around to find the hangar (they'd actually passed it a few times in their haste), but finally made it to the spot.
Two things shocked them upon arrival. One, it was actually sunrise. How long had they been at this?!
Two, there were a couple of very annoyed women standing in their way.
Very familiar ones.
"What have we here, Cammy?"
The Brit was already in a fighting stance.
"I spy a quartet of hooligans who need to be taught a lesson!"
All the boys could do was stand there and wave awkwardly as the two women stood there, arms crossed.
Neither were moved by the display, though if one looked closely, they could catch the tiniest glimmer of mirth in Chun-Li's eyes.
"Um..." Carlos started hesitantly. "We can exp--"
"Wake him up," came the order from Cammy, its tone leaving no room for argument. Recognizing the tone from his father, particularly when he was on the job, he dared not do anything but comply and uneasily rouse his still sleeping band mate.
"What...Wha--" The Latino had to instinctively dodge a punch that came his way for his little wake-up call.
The boy spent his first seconds of wakefulness scrambling up from the ground.
He looked around at his three friends that were very purposefully backing away from him as everything steadily came back to him.
"Guys... Where's Katie and Mom...?" He asked in a disturbingly calm voice that made the other boys want to flee. He hadn't even been this angry when the darker skinned member of the group got the bright idea to try to super-glue his hockey stick collection together to make a teepee.
Logan shot James and Carlos an expectant look. What exactly did they plan to do about this?
The boys remain dead silent. What were they going to tell him?
Mercifully, James eventually decided to take the bullet. "You weren't dreaming, man. A couple of weirdos really do have Mama Knight and Katie..."
Carlos knew he needed to to try and avoid the inevitable. Quickly, soothingly, he went...
"...but, it's okay, 'cause we're going to get her back, right guys?"
The other two laughed nervously as they subtly backed away and put their guards up.
The two women looking at were mildly curious as to how this would turn out.
The explosion was immense, but thankfully, the boys were on their guard. They had even managed by what had been a group effort to pry their raging leader off of James...only for him to Dogpile the helmeted boy and start the chain of action all over again. This would loop around for a few more minutes until…
"Enough!"
The Brit's loud call was enough to break through the madness. They all look looked up at her from their rather compromising positions on the ground as she walked up to them and pulled the offending boy away with just a little bit more difficult than she liked to admit.
"Now here's what's going to happen, boys," the Interpol agent laid out in a calm, yet stern manner not too unfamiliar to the boys. They knew it from Mrs. Knight and Kelly (in the rare event she was pushed to use it) alike. You didn't ignore it if you knew it was good for you.
"You've made quite a mess back here."
She motioned back from whence they came, clearly referring to the piles of downed ninjas they'd left in their wake.
Logan still wasn't quite sure how they pulled that off.
"So, then," she continued. "Since you… and especially you," the spotlight turned specifically to Kendall here, with him and Cammy actually exchanging glares. The boy might've balked at this had he been in his right mind. "…are so eager to fight…"
"We just want to get Ken's mom and sister back!" James stepped up, distancing himself from a certain somebody as he did so.
"Prove that you can handle yourselves, then," Cammy ordered, cutting her friend off before she could continue as she was clearly tired of waiting for things to play out. She even took a fighting stance. "We'll either send the four of you back to your handlers with interest, or you'll manage to beat us and we'll allow you to come along. Deal?"
Kendall's refusal to back down or even think twice about the deal was a testament to how bad a mood he was in.
"Works for me," were his only words before he charged at the British woman.
Cammy was not concerned about evading. Until the perfect moment came, she merely observed his approach.
In a blur of movement, she dodged his punch and then highered him with a kick to the face that sent him reeling back.
It took the boy a second to register that he'd even been struck.
She let a smirk slip and played up her accent a little in a taunting manner. "I'm terribly sorry. Were you actually trying to attack me?"
Snarling, Kendall kept coming at her, only to be just as deftly dodged andback burnerth kicks.
He wasn't the only one, either. Chun-Li had taken the opportunity to engage the other three...all on her own.
The first to go down was the Latino boy, though it wasn't for lack of trying. His attempts to come at her from the air, even with his friends acting as a distraction, were eventually met with a series of kicks that carried him up high along with her.
"Tensho Kicks!"
Logan and James both were impressed at the height she managed to get, even as they feared for their brother's safety. The woman, naturally, landed with much more grace than Carlos.
She quickly regained their attention with a "bring it on" gesture.
Very reluctantly, they forced the obvious worry to the backburner as they continued thsummarily A few exchanges later, and James found himself crossing kicks with his opponent.
"Wow," he couldn't help but say, maybe not even realizing that he was speaking aloud, "I didn't think I had that in me. Seriously!"
"Hm... You need training. Good try, though."
Breaking the stalemate, she forced him to block in order to buy the time necessary to do a quick handstand and send herself spinning upside down like a helicopter rotor.
"Spinning Bird Kick!"
Logan had just managed to evade the attack while the pretty boy was hit head-on, sent sprawling to the ground.
Trying to force down the urge to panic, the smart bandmate tried defending himself, only to end up defeated himself when he was sumarily tripped and kicked in the face on the way down.
As for the leading boy, he surprisingly enough didn't get very far at all in his own fight, ending up on his stomach passing out from the pain of one of Cammy's submission holds.
Getting up from her position, the British woman stretched while looking at her friend. "Well, that was a mild workout. Are you sure you don't want to send these kids to their room?"
The raven-haired woman lightly shook her head. "No, no. They clearly have the strength, at least collectively, to hold their own."
The blonde raised an eyebrow. "What are you talking about? We just trounced them, unless…" She took a closer look at the flickers of sadness and compassion in her gaze and in her head started connecting dots. Her eyes widened.
"You… You're not seriously considering—"
"Wouldn't you do the same thing, Cam? After all, I seem to recall several times that you've disobeyed direct orders from your bosses in order to hunt down Shadaloo and save your own sisters. How is this any different, really?"
"They're children. We're highly-trained professionals."
"…which is why we'll be there to keep a leash on 'em," she added with a reassuring half-smile before getting back to business. "Besides, as much as I don't like Birdie, even I wouldn't want to leave him to have to deal with the tantrum Kendall would throw if we just had him tie him up and leave him in his room."
Logocally, Cammy knew that this still made zero sense, letting them tag along. Emotionally, however, she could really sympathize with what the fear they were going through.
With a heavy sigh, she conceded. "What's the plan?"