Captain Possible and The Centurion Legacy

Chapter Four: Yamanouchi

Ron Stoppable sat in a lounge chair atop of a mesa in the Arizona desert in his boxers and a pair of sunglasses, with his black GJ uniform piled to one side and a military canteen with a tiny purple umbrella sticking out of it. Beside the canteen sat his radio that he was listening to. For the last few weeks, Kim's dad had been picking up communications chatter from someone fighting Drakken's synthodrones in the area. The problem was that there was no record of any resistance fighters here. Whoever was managing to fight Drakken was doing it exceptionally well.

After putting some more sun screen on his nose, Ron sat back in his lounge chair and smiled, narrowing his eyes against the sun. The sky still looked normal here, where cities had been farther apart than in most other regions of the world, leaving wider areas between the Diablo's rampage. As Ron smiled up at a naco shaped cloud that rolled by, his radio sputtered to life. Synthodrones began coming into range, issuing orders and Ron raised his sunglasses, glaring at the radio that had just interrupted his marinating.

Hirotaka and Kioki were laying flat in the red gravel surrounding a dirty oasis in the American desert, watching as two dozen synthodrones escorted two DoomVees and a hovering tank in search of the bait that the Yamanouchi students had set for them. Rumors of a small, unarmed community of nomads was enough to send a small contingent of synthodrones, but not enough to draw attention from more deadly adversaries.

"Now?" Kioki asked. The young ninja was far too young to be in this battle, in Hirotaka's opinion.

"You watch too many American cartoons." he often told her, irritated himself at how the western culture portrayed the ninja. But Sensei believed that there were individuals everywhere, and in every culture that deserved respect, and Hirotaka respected Sensei. "Remember the Mantis, Kioki." Hirotaka whispered. "We wait until our prey comes into our grasp, not the other way around."

Kioki waited, nearly ready to leap out of her ninja shozoku that made her look like nothing more than a shadow amongst the rock. "Now?"

The hovering tank slowly slid across the pool of water that fed the oasis, passing over a patch of reeds that wavered slightly in the wind. Hirotaka smiled and nodded, flipping a piece of gum into his mouth and pulling his mask down. "Now."

In a shower of shrapnel and sparks, flames erupted from the hovering tank and it began to list sideways, sliding into the water as a group of four ninja rose from the pool of reddish water, discarding their breathing reeds and cutting through surprised synthodrones with their katana.

Hirotaka and Kioki leapt from their positions in unison with several other pairs of ninja, unleashing a midflight flurry of shuriken that quickly swept through half of the synthodrone infantry, draining their synthogoo onto the sandy ground. Hirotaka landed and rolled, throwing two spikes at a group of three synthodrones and catching the outermost two as he climbed to his feet in one swift motion. Dodging a series of energy blasts, his katana swept through the middle synthodrone's rifle, then punctured its husk through the back as Hirotaka spun and thrust the weapon behind him.

Kioki crouched, then sprung to the roof of one of the DoomVees, plunging her katana into the synthetic driver in the cab. As she tried to pull it free for another attack however, the blade refused to draw back. Kioki knew that the Yamanouchi students couldn't afford to lose any of their bladed weapons, and she knelt down, pulling on the hilt of the sword in a desperate attempt to free it.

The synthodrone on the passenger side of the DoomVee readied its rifle as it exited the vehicle, and took aim at the Japanese girl crouched on top. Kioki continued to pull on the katana, sliding it up inch by inch, until her eye caught sight of Hirotaka hurling a shuriken at her. She titled her head slightly, feeling the thin sheet of metal sever a lock of her hair before striking its target behind her. The synthodrone's rifle shot into the air as it fell back and Kioki pulled her blade from the roof of the DoomVee and smiled at Hirotaka through her mask.