Ninja Girl

“What have you done?”

Luna stood there, horrified, barely able to react. Holly crossed her arms and frowned in annoyance.

“She should have stopped fighting,” the blond woman responded, dismissively.

A blur passed in between them. It was Nick. In the momentary confusion, his guards had forgotten to keep their hold tight on him. He had slipped out and ran straight for the open window. Without pausing he dove out the opening after Anya.

He did his best to angle himself in the air straight up and down, pulling his limbs in as tight as he could get them so that he split the air like a human bullet.

“Anya!” He called to her as he fell. Her saw her below, falling backwards with her eyes closed as though she were accepting her defeat. “Anya!”

Her eyes snapped open at the sound of her name, and she looked up to see Nick hurtling towards her. She flattened out, stretching out her arms and legs to create as much wind resistance as she could manage, trying to slow her descent enough for him to catch up to her.

Nick yanked the rope off his shoulder, freed the grapple, and tossed it out to his side. Nick was hoping when he jumped that his sense of direction had not steered him wrong, and that this was the side of the building where he had seen the flag poles. His luck held out, and the grapple snagged onto one of the flagpoles just as Nick came into reach of Anya.

The two reached out, and their hands clasped around each other’s as the grapple caught, and Nick was suddenly pulled by the force of the rope in his other hand.

The flagpole had been off to the side, so it did not stop their momentum but rather redirected it. Instead of falling straight down they were now swinging. The pressure and force of gravity were still far too much for Nick to handle. The muscles in his arm and back gave out, and he lost his grip on the rope, and then a second later lost his grip on Anya. The two began spinning freely in the air around each other.

Anya reached out, and managed to grab onto the lose rope while it was still rising from the swing. With her other hand, she grabbed onto Nick’s nearest arm and held on tight.

Then they were falling again, swinging back the way they had come, but the arc was smaller now, the swinging speed slower. Anya managed to keep her hold, and before long they were swinging back in the first direction again.

“I don’t think I can hold on!” Nick called frantically, feeling the muscles in his back quivering at the strain.

Anya looked up to the flagpole. Even if they both managed to hold on, their swinging was loosening the hold that the hook had on the flagpole. The flagpole itself was not in much better shape. It had never been designed to support the weight of two people like this. She could hear the thin metal in the pole starting to tear. One way or another, they would be dropping again in a minute.

“Anya, I’m sorry,” Nick shouted, hoping she could hear him over the wind. “This is my fault. I got us into this mess.”

Anya’s face was thoughtful. She stared off into the distance and did not respond to Nick.

“I probably should have just let you go back to Japan. It probably would have saved both our necks. Because of my craziness, I’ve put you, me, and Ryoichi in danger. I… I may have killed all three of us. I’m so sorry.”

“I have an idea,” Anya said.

Nick blinked, surprised by her reaction, or really her lack of reaction. “Um, okay. Good. What’s the idea?”

“I’m going to need you to trust and do exactly as I say. Okay?”

“Uh, okay.”

“I’m going to swing us. The flag pole will probably snap or the hook will give. Either way, we’ll start free falling again. I’m going to pull you in as we do. Once you’re close enough, grab onto me and hold on as tightly as you can.”

Despite their predicament, Nick’s face went as red as a stop light. “Uh… y-yeah, okay,” he replied.

Anya started to sway, and then started swinging Nick some to help build momentum. A moment later they had a good arc going when the grappling hook suddenly loosened and dropped them. Anya lost her grip on the rope, and once again they were spinning out as they fell. Anya did as she said she would, pulling Nick in towards herself. Nick, with only the slightest hesitation, put his arms around her waist and pulled her in tight.

Then there was blackness.

The blackness gave way to light, but everything was a blur. Nick hit ground, hard, and rolled. The universe seemed to be spinning and exploding all around him. After what seemed like an eternity Nick realized he was lying on his back, but everything still seemed to be dancing and swaying every which direction in the fastest tango he had ever seen.

Nick rolled onto his hands and knees, and threw up.

Even the ground before him seemed to be stretching and morphing, dipping and diving, spinning and revolving with a frenzy that defied logic. Nick tried to block it out, focusing on a single small clump of grass in front of him.

Grass.

It seemed impossible. Was he dead? Had he died and landed in some bizarre afterlife with… grass?

Nick squeezed the grass beneath his right hand, digging up a lump of dirt. He lifted his fist and stared at the bared earth held there.

Then he threw up again.

From somewhere in the dark eternity beyond him, he heard a noise that sounded like his name. He could not be certain it was anything. Maybe it was just the sound of the universe ending.

It sounded again. “Nick!”

Nick’s arms were shaking uncontrollably. He collapsed onto his side, just outside of the pool of vomit. He had never felt so sick in his life. If he was not dead, then all he wanted to do in that moment was die.

“Nick!”

Nick groaned, wanting the voice to just stop forever.

Then someone was there beside him. Someone was touching him, grabbing him, pulling him onto his back. Nick lifted his arms, feebly trying to fight the person off, but with no luck.

“Nick! It’s me! It’s me! It’s Anya.”

Nick blinked repeatedly, trying to clear his vision, and turned to the sound of the voice. “Anya?” he echoed. His tone made it seem like he recognized the name, but it was something out of a distant dream or a long forgotten memory.

“Oh God, Nick, are you okay?”

“Fine,” said Nick, casually. Then he turned away and threw up one more time.

Anya pulled Nick to his feet. He fought persistently the entire way, trying to pull himself back down to the ground, back to his home.

“No!” he protested, shoving weakly at his captor. “I don’t wanna. I don’t! Want! To!”

Standing now, the dizziness spun back out in full force, like someone had just reset a top spinning, and he doubled over, dry heaving.

“Nick, are you okay?” Anya asked, trying to help him stand up straight.

“Blargh,” was Nick’s only response.

“Come,” Anya said, and she pulled him over to something cold and metallic. Nick put his hands down onto it and leaned on them. A strange whistling sound started, and he realized he was standing above a water fountain.

Nick slurped hungrily at the water, rinsing his mouth of the vomit and spitting it out. When he was convinced his mouth was cleaned out enough he began gulping down mouthful after mouthful of the delicious water.

“Is… is he all right?” he heard someone ask.

“He’s uh… he’s fine,” Anya replied. “Just hasn’t been eating right before exercising. I’ve tried to warn him.”

“Right…” the person said, clearly not convinced, but a moment later Nick heard the sound of footsteps trailing off into the distance.

Finally Nick pulled away from the fountain and wiped off his mouth. Before him, past the fountain, was a street filled with cars. That seemed normal enough, but when he looked left and right, all he saw was grass and fields and cement walking paths.

He stumbled backwards, and Anya helped him into a sitting position on a nearby bench.

“Are we in a park?”

“Yes.”

“Okay.”

Then, “How did we get to a park?”

“I teleported us.”

Nick nodded as if the answer made perfect sense. He leaned his head back and closed his eyes. A moment later, his head popped back forwards and his eyes shot straight open.

“Wait a minute, what?”

He turned his gaze on Anya, and she grimaced.

“You did what?”

“I teleported us here.”

Nick’s mouth fell open, and he sat there staring at her in stunned silence.

“How… what? How?”

Anya shook her head and shrugged. “I… I don’t really know. I just… I just could feel it. When Holly did… whatever that was that she did to me in there. I just… I just suddenly knew I could do it. It was like she had flicked a switch inside of me. Whatever it was… whatever it was that teleported me into your room in the first place, I suddenly knew I had control over it.”

Nick continued to stare at her in awe. He could not hide the look of utter shock and amazement on his face.

“You… what… you mean… you mean you risked letting go of that rope on the idea that you might be able to teleport?”

Anya shrugged. “We were going to fall anyway. I figured… what did we have to lose by trying?”

Nick stood up suddenly and took a few steps away. “That’s… that’s just… so AWESOME.”

Anya blinked in surprise. “Wait, really?”

“Hell yeah! You can teleport? That’s like, the coolest thing ever! And you teleported with me? I’m like the first person ever to teleport. Well, the first non-ninja person. That is just so cool. I feel like I’m on Star Jump or something.”

“Star Jump?”

“Yeah, it’s a show.” Nick paused, and turned to point at Anya. “Not a game. Ha! Not all my references are games.”

“I never said they were.”

“I know I just… I dunno. I’m kinda freaking out right now.”

Anya stood and stepped over to Nick. She placed a hand on his shoulder and looked him in the eyes. “Are you going to be okay? We need to go help Ryoichi.”

“Oh right.” Nick seemed to deflate, and he nodded his head solemnly. “Yeah, I’m fine. We can go help him. Hey! Why didn’t you get sick from the teleporting?”

“I don’t know. I suppose whatever gave me this ability also equalizes the forces in my body to allow me to handle it.”

“Nanomachines,” Nick said. “I’m telling you.”

Suddenly, Anya wrapped him in a hug. Nick was so shocked he simply froze in place.

She whispered quietly, “When I came out of the jump and you were no longer holding me I thought I had teleported without you. I thought you had died.”

“Anya… I…”

Nick started to move his hands to her back but she pulled away from him. “After all,” she continued, shifting nervously as though embarrassed, “I have grown a little fond of you. Like a pet. A pet cat.”

“A… pet cat?” Nick’s hands dropped to his sides. “Seriously?”

“What? Cats are a very important animal to the ninja. They are like… a kindred spirit.”

“A pet cat?” Nick said again.

“That’s right.”

Nick stared at her in disbelief for a long moment. Then he turned and started walking away.

“What?” She asked, hurrying after him.

“Let’s just go get Ryoichi.”

“Did I say something wrong? It was supposed to be a compliment.”