Rock, Pirate, Ninja

Chapter Two

Chapter 2

“What? When?”

“I don’t know, Tet. I fell asleep. I tried to stay awake.”

Tetsuo glanced at the door of the room and could see shadows crossing back and forth in the light that shone through the bottom of the door.

“What else do you know?” he asked, not accusingly but for information to plan their next move.

“Three, I think. Two outside the door and one on the catwalks,” she whispered.

The door handle rattled as whoever was on the other side of the door tried to open it.

Vasha looked at Tetsuo, her eyes lighting up with an idea. She cleared her throat, “Who’s there? Whad’ya want?” she demanded in a higher register of her normal speaking voice and with a perfect New York accent.

“We are looking for someone,” a man said with a heavy Asian accent he didn’t bother to hide. It had to be Tetsuo’s old clan, the White Vipers.

“They ain’t here. Go bother someone else or I’ll call the police, ya hear me?” Vasha answered.

Tetsuo dropped low and headed toward the window to try to spot the third assailant on the catwalks. Fear and adrenaline coursed through his veins but he forced it to work for him, taking advantage of the keener eyesight it gave him. A slight shift of shadow on the catwalk railing gave him just the warning he needed.

“Vasha! They’re coming!” he said in a loud whisper just as a dark, hooded figure burst through the window, sending glass and brittle wood framing all the way across the room in a sideways shower.

At the same time, two loud, wood-splitting blows were coming from the other side of the door.

Tetsuo concentrated on the enemy who had burst through the window, trusting Vasha to handle the front door until he could subdue their first opponent.

Tetsuo pounced before the assailant could recover from the crash through the window. Seeing a gleam of metal in one hand, he grabbed his arm. His enemy twisted and pulled, but Tetsuo held tight, waiting for his opponent to over-commit one way or the other. His enemy tried to pull again. Then, the third time Tetsuo let him and used his momentum against him. He merely directed his fall and held his wrist as his enemy’s weight betrayed him and caused him to break his own arm with a loud snap. He cried out in pain, curling around his arm on the floor protectively while Tetsuo kicked the gun away, grabbed his enemy’s head, and with a savage twist, ended his pain permanently.

Vasha glared at him, nostrils flaring. “Why did you kick his gun away? We could’ve used it!” she whispered hoarsely.

Tetsuo cursed under his breath. She was right. He tried desperately to find it but couldn’t spot it soon enough. With one last kick, the door finally burst open, followed by a hail of bullets from two silenced sub-machine guns. The room erupted into a swirling confetti mix of foam mattress and pillow feathers as Vasha and Tetsuo dove to either side of the two goons, using the cloud of debris as cover. Tetsuo closed in as quickly as he could, meeting one of them with an upward elbow strike to his gun hand, knocking his arm upward, his finger still depressing the trigger, sending a snaking chain of bullet holes across the ceiling. His opponent fought back with his own elbow strikes, his other hand grappling with Tetsuo’s head and trying to bring it down upon an upward knee. Tetsuo twisted and sent his backside into his opponent’s hip to upset the balance, giving him just enough room to pull hard on his wrist, twist with his hips, and throw him over his shoulder. He landed hard on the bed stand, shattering it underneath his weight. It was at this time that Tetsuo got a good look at the man. He was large with burly muscles and a shaved head, and he had a tattoo on his neck of the head of a horned bull.