Dark Waters

Chapter Nineteen: Escape

Chapter Nineteen: Escape 

  

"What happened back there?" Rainier asked as soon as they were escorted back to their cell. "It seemed like you went crazy back there."

For the first time since they were captured, Leopard felt trapped. He walked over to the corner and knelt, staring silently at the door. Rainier was about to demand again when he started speaking in a low voice.

"I don't know." Leopard frowned. "I don't remember losing control before but..."

"But what?"

"Big sister, it told me it happened when I..." Leopard's voice trailed off and his expression darkened. "We need to get out of here."

Rainier blinked at the sudden subject change. "Hey, hey. Hold on. Weren't you the one who said we need time to plan a way to get out of this prison?"

"Already have." He handed the other ninja two card keys. "I swiped them off those two guard that carried that lump of carcass out of the mess hall."

Daniel frowned as he and Mikey approached the two of them. "What about our weapons? Those soldiers took them all earlier. We'll need to get them back."

"Done." He unbuttoned his bright orange prison uniform to reveal his black Dark Flame shinobi outfit and reached under a dark gray shoulder guard to reveal two smoke pellets before pressing a spot on his right gauntlet. "I just activated the tracking beacon on my swords. It should tell us the location of our weapons in this facility." He slid out of the jumpsuit and sat down. Rainier and his brothers watched as Leopard did something to the heel of his left boot.

Rainier blinked as his twin slid open a hidden compartment and delicately plucked out a pair of long and, to Rainier, really wicked looking throwing knives. Huh. That was... pretty cool, really.

Rainier whistled softly between his teeth. "So that's why you wear boots instead of tabi like the other ninjas we encountered... I've always wondered about that."

Leopard smirked and also drew out a small coil of what looked like woven black wire. That Rainier recognized. He'd seen garrotes before, though he'd never used one. Leopard wound the wire around his spiked arm-guard, where he could get to it in a heartbeat.

Finally, he pulled over his mask and cowl over his face, revealing only a pair of cold blue eyes. "You three ready?" He asked Rainier and his two brothers, who both had gotten out of their prison outfits.

"We're cool." Rainier replied and then eyed his twin warily. "You sure you can handle this on your own?"

Leopard nodded. "I've gotten out of prisons before, Mizu." He shrugged. "Get up to the ceiling now."

Leopard walked calmly over to the door and rapped sharply on one of the bars. He then stepped to the side, out of line of sight from the tiny window. The throwing knives gleamed in his hands.

Rainier and his brothers didn't remember hearing the door scraping open, or of the soldiers storming into the apparently empty cell. But they watched from above and saw the first guard was barely into the cell before Leopard moved, his motions blurring. Rain saw a guard suddenly sprout a knife where his left eye used to be, and then Leopard was on the second man, and the guard was clutching at a throat spurting blood and crumpling to the floor.

The third guard got in a single swing with a truly nasty looking bowie knife. Leopard blocked the strike, caught the hand and spun the man to slam into the cell wall. Before the soldier could suck wind back into abused lungs, the ninja executed a really beautiful spinning side kick... or at least, that was what Rainier thought he remembered their grandfather calling it during their ninja lessons in the home dojo.