Dark Waters

Chapter Thirty One: Stand off

Chapter Thirty One: Stand off

The following day.

As the sun set and turned the sky purple, several shadows gathered on the roof of the small grocery on the other side of the street, just opposite an abandoned condemned building. The old man locked up the doors and pulled down the iron curtain to block any thieves, then started the walk home, never spotting the men on top of his shop. The renegade Dark Flame Elites stood close to the edge, tentatively sniffing the surroundings.

“Saito is reported dead.” One of them spoke up. “His body found in that warehouse explosion in the docks two days ago.”

“An accident?” another one asked.

The first one shook his head. “No. My police contacts told me that he died of poisoning from a few stab wounds.”

“Leopard.” A third Elite whispered in fear. “And what of his followers?”

“We are unsure. But it is rumored that the Blue Leader, brought them back to the Towers for the Grandmaster to decide their fate.”

“Impossible. We were with the Grandmaster when the TRCI building when it exploded.” Another Elite spoke up in disbelief. “No man could have survived it.”

“I am insulted by your lack of faith, Elite.” A familiar cold voice rang in the air, causing all twenty Elite Ninjas to jump in surprise.

“Who are you?” the first Elite shouted. “How dare you sneak up on us like that? Show yourself!”

“Who am I?” the cold voice spoke up. “You should know your own Master, ninja.”

The shadows parted. The Elite Guards looked up in surprise, to see the Dark Flame Grandmaster, complete in his spiked battle armor, standing on the building across from theirs and was flanked by the Commander of the Black Elites.

“Grandmaster,” the first Elite whispered as all of them immediately got down on one knee, their right fist on their hearts. “We Elites hereby give you our loyalty and await your command.”

The Commander of Black Elites made no movement and watched as the Dark Flame Grandmaster stepped forward. “Arise, my loyal ninjas.” He began. “Too long has the Dark Flame Clan been divided in my absence. But now that I’ve returned, we shall stop this chaos and bring this city under our power once more! Follow me! We return to the Towers!” He commanded, and with flourish of his dark red cloak, the Dark Flame Grandmaster disappeared once more into the shadows, followed by the Commander of the Black Elites.

The remaining Elites looked unsurely at each other before following after them.

***

Somewhere in the city, on the streets below.

The streets resembled a battlefield; Barton Sullivan thought in panic as he punches his way through the roof of the crashed truck using his half-mechanical arm and emerges out of the ruined vehicle, followed by an equally shell-shocked Papa Guerro.

How could everything get so fucked up, the bionic scientist wondered in the back of his mind. He and the mob boss was just heading back to their headquarters in order to win the war on this damned city, when that damn fool Hank showed up with his bunch of hooligans, the Red Basilisks.

At first they didn’t seem much of a threat. After all what could a bunch of low life punks could do to them? But unfortunately they weren’t prepared for such sheer numbers or the amount of high grade military weaponry, that Kuraihi Natsu’s blond lackey had been arming the erstwhile street gang.