VERNOR BOOK:1

CHAPTER ELEVEN: THE PYTHONS

Krrrr!!! Gape was awakened when the alarm went off. A mysterious letter was on his table beside his bed.
'Is this for me, Mom?'
'Yes, It's from your teacher!' His mother responded by yelling across the living room.

'That's interesting. Sir Yotsu has never written me a letter.What could it possibly be?'
Gape opened the envelope and read the letter inside.

"Now that you're done snoozing off I have a preposition for all of you to see how far you've all progressed during the last months of mastering the basic combat techniques. We're going to play a game called Police and Thief. The rules for the game are simple. I'm the thief and you,Allison,Phoebe and Ash are the police. The objective of the game is to catch me by midnight. Failure to do so...
~Yours sincerely
~Mr Yotsu Isagi"

"What if we don't succeed?" Gape, terrified, questioned himself.

"I'd better get dressed quickly and gather everyone." He texted his friends, asking them to meet him under the tunnel. Gape had finished cleaning and dressing up thirty minutes later and was heading outside with the letter Sir Isagi had left for him.
"Gape, remember to take out the trash!" his mother yelled across the living room.

"Yes, Mom!" Before leaving, he quickly grabbed the rubbish bag and kissed his mother.

"Yo," Phoebe said, waving to him and the others who were waiting for him.
"Can you tell me about the occasion?"
Ash inquired.
"Yeah, you texted us and asked us to meet you. "Mm, and why isn't Mr Isagi here by now?" Allison inquired.
"That's why I texted everyone," Gape responded. "He has a preposition for us regarding our recent combat training."
"All right...so, what exactly is it?" Phoebe questioned.
"You can read it aloud here for everyone."
Phoebe read it aloud to everyone.
"He also left us four handcuffs and four walkie-talkies to help us catch him," Gape explained.
"Oh, that sounds like fun," Allison exclaimed.
"Yeah but if we fail to find him by midnight,there's no telling what he'll do to us",Gape added.
They all began to shiver from that thought.
How are we going to find him in this big city?" Phoebe wondered.
"I believe he would be in one of the training areas we left open." Because of time constraints, I propose that we all break up and go find him. If we see him, we'll alert the rest of the gang for backup," Ash proposed.

"Yes, that's a terrific plan," Gape said. "All right, I'll go to the fields, Ash, to the vacant skyscraper, Phoebe, to where we were hiking, and Allison, to the dojo."
"Heyy... I believe Phoebe and I should collaborate. That way, we could keep him at bay because we couldn't do it alone," Allison explained.

"What?! Who said I couldn't keep him at bay?!" Phoebe responded.
"OK, fine. I mean, I'm the one who might not be able to hold him off until backup arrives," Allison blushed with embarrassment.

"Well, fine, I guess I'll assist you out," Phoebe answered.
"Really?! Oh, thank you very much!" Allison embraced her.

"Not much of a deal," Phoebe grumbled.
"Alright, Phoebe, you'll accompany Allison to the dojo." "Let's go, everyone," Gape remarked.

Everyone was at their posts,however, Sir Yotsu, had been waiting at the fields for some time.
"Very quick thinking. You all guessed I'd be at one of the training locations,"Sir Yotsu said.
"Yes, it was Ash's idea," Gape said.
"Of course, but you all have wonderful intellect as well, so that's enough for me to complement you all," responded Sir Yotsu.
"Okay, if you insist," Gape replied.
Gape grabbed his walkie-talkie and attempted to contact his friends, but was cut off by a knife thrown directly at the walkie-talkie.
"I'm afraid I won't be able to let you do that," Sir Yotsu hinted.
"Oh, they'll see that my walkie-talkie has gone off and will come to my aid right away," Gape said.
"It will take a while, and it will give me plenty of time to depart before they arrive. After I beat you, of course," Sir Yotsu smirked.
"Oh, yeah!" Then I'll just keep you here till they arrive".
"Do you honestly believe you can hold me off?"
"Yeah!" Gape exclaimed.
"Then we'll see." Sir Yotsu charged at Gape, raising his leg to kick him. Gape moved out of the way, allowing Sir Yotsu to launch his strike, which crashed and sank into the ground. Gape tried to take advantage of Sir Yotsu as he was drawing his leg out, but he was able to pull his leg out in time and threw a chunk of dust in Gape's face. Gape was distracted while whipping his eyes, and then came Sir Yotsu with a clean strike on his face, sending him bouncing on the ground as he was blown away.Gape rose up, wiped the blood and dust from his face and mouth, and charged his teacher full on. They were parrying each other's strikes until his master sprang into the air and unleashed a back kick that was promptly deflected but was too powerful for Gape to hang on to, so he was thrown into the air a few inches before standing his feet.
"Do you still believe you can hold me off until backup arrives?" Sir Yotsu asked with a sly grin.
"Well, just so you know you haven't landed a blow on me," Sir Yotsu grinned.
"I'll do whatever it takes to keep you here until they get here!"
Gape spoke up.
"Well done, Gape."
Meanwhile, Phoebe saw Gape's walkie-talkie had been turned off, which raised her suspicions.
"Look, I think there's something wrong with Gape." Sensei most likely has him. "We should go check it out," Phoebe suggested.
"Okay. Should we inform Ash?" Allison inquired.