“Yes, President Ninja. Say ‘We surrender’ and that will be the end of it,” said Eldin.
Steve watched the president thoughtfully twirl his moustache.
“Then perhaps the people of Ninjastoria should say the two words with me. They should join me as we say two words that will affect all of Ninjastoria and the history of our village. Two words that I will be forever known for saying.”
Steve smiled. Prince Eldin had no idea what was coming next, but Steve and all of Ninjastoria’s warriors were ready.
President Ninja shouted, “Prince Eldin, the people of Ninjastoria would like to say two very important words to you, so that you know that all of us truly mean it. Ninjas! On the count of four: one, two, three, four!”
At once, in unison, all of the ninjas on the battlefield screamed at the top of their lungs, “SHUT UP!”
And they began the fight once more, despite the odds and despite the exhaustion.
Steve saw Darcy and the sisterhood were nearby, turning their energies back toward Drogar’s tanks. Darcy’s ghost fire was blazing and Steve was glad to see that she wasn’t hiding it anymore. She could do amazing things, and even though her talents were different from everyone else’s, it was something that made her valuable.
Steve’s parents landed beside him.
“We should help the rest of the sisterhood,” Steve said.
“Fine, just stay with us, Steve,” said his dad.
The tanks fired off a series of drill bullets that scattered the ninja forces
Steve and his parents wound up with Darcy and Gertie. They tried another charge and were once again driven back by the tanks’ superior firepower.
Steve’s parents and Gertie all performed the spell of dragon breath, which was enough to melt down the front of one of the tanks. Another tank immediately took its place.
“Mom and Dad,” said Steve. “Are we going to lose?”
DARCY
“Things are not looking good,” said Steve’s dad, and Darcy knew it was the truth.
“We’ve all shown incredible toughness,” said his mom. “I’m afraid it hasn’t been enough, though. We need to prepare to retreat and see if we can find another way to continue the fight.”
The moles had defeated the bureau, and they were going to conquer Ninjastoria, too. Months ago, if someone had told Darcy that all of this was going to happen, she never would have believed it.
“I wish the samurai were here,” said Ninja Steve.
Gertie looked at him and snorted. “If wishes were armor, we’d all be samurai.”
Darcy had never heard that phrase before. It made sense, though.
“No, I’m not talking about having armor,” said Steve. “Their earth-shake magic. The moles have an advantage because they can tunnel and dig. Our border wall didn’t do anything to keep them out. The samurai could have detected their tunneling, though.”
“Border walls are always bad at keeping people out,” said Gertie. “I remember when that idiot leader of ours first proposed building the thing—not President Ninja, mind you. One that came way before him. He was the worst.”
Darcy couldn’t focus on what they were saying. She could only focus on the mecha-moles, whose forces looked even bigger and stronger than before.
Then, up in the sky, she saw something.
It looked like…it looked like…a group of flying armadillos?
STEVE
“Yes!” shouted Steve, as he spied the reinforcements in the sky. “They’re here.”
He could barely contain his energy.
From the sky, a thousand samurai descended on their flying armadillos. Although the gray, winged armadillos were naturally armored, each animal wore a battle helmet.
At the head of the charge, wearing silver armor striped red, blue, and green, was Four-Star General Aaliyah Nakashima.
General Nakashima stood up on the back of her armadillo and drew two wooden swords. Steve watched in awe as she did a swan dive off of the armadillo. The battle beast curled itself into a ball. Hundreds of curled-up armadillos fell like cannonballs on the mecha-moles’ drill tanks, destroying them.
Half of the samurai forces struck in the middle of Drogar’s gathered battalion, putting their earth-shake magic to use. The ground rumbled and rolled. The tunnels that the moles had used to swarm into Ninjastoria were being closed.
Steve was watching his homeland get healed right before his eyes.
Ninja Amari was helping Sensei Raheem walk away from battle while Sensei Chow fought off any mecha-moles who tried to take a cheap shot at the injured Raheem.
Even with the samurai forces, there was still one huge problem remaining. Prince Eldin was not going to pack up and leave.
Steve watched as his parents, Ninja Gertie, and President Ninja all squared-off against Eldin once more.
He turned to Darcy. “I think I know how we can end this.”
DARCY
When Steve told her his plan, she knew it was a good one. While she didn’t love the idea of Steve acting evil, she knew that the end result would play out perfectly. Well, there were two possible end results, although she was ninety-nine percent sure she knew which scenario was going to unfold.
She watched as Steve approached the spot where Prince Elom still lay, pretending to be unconscious. Darcy found it remarkable that he was committed to staying still until the battle was over.
Then, Steve yanked the prince to his feet and put him in a full nelson.
“Ouch!” said Prince Elom. “Let go of me, ninja, before the infectious bacteria in your breath gives me a disease.”
Darcy stood by as Steve got Eldin’s attention. “Prince Eldin, I have taken your son as a hostage!”
Then, Steve did his best impersonation of a villain’s laugh. It was loud and it was terrible. Ninja Steve was not a great actor.
“If you want your son back, unharmed, you will order your forces to leave Ninjastoria,” Steve said.
Darcy got ready. This was the part where Eldin would attack Steve in order to save his son. Darcy would get between them and use her ghost fire to melt his armor. Then, hopefully, the other ninjas would join in to defeat Eldin.
Eldin smiled. “Keep him. He will break free of any prison you put him in.”
Steve’s blank stare let Darcy know that he hadn’t been expecting that, either. There would be no charge to rescue Elom. Which meant…
Darcy closed the distance between herself and Eldin. She unleashed her ghost fire. She aimed her palm strike at Eldin’s chest plate.
He sidestepped with incredible speed, grabbed Darcy by the elbow, and threw her into the air.
As Darcy hurtled away, she watched as Ninja Steve’s parents managed to sling Ninja Gertie into the sky, on a collision course with Darcy.
Gertie held out her palms and said, “Marcy, pretend my palms are the ceiling.”
Darcy flipped so that her feet were pointed toward Gertie. When her heels touched Gertie’s palms, they stuck there for an instant, a perfect lock.
“Go get him, girl,” said Gertie. “Burn bright.”
Darcy thought back to Ninja Gertie telling her to be proud of the things that made her strong. Yes, she had tiger stripes on her upper arm. Yes, her ability stemmed from a curse. None of that mattered. The ninjas wielded the elements through their techniques. This was her technique.
Darcy launched off of Gertie’s palms and shot back down toward Eldin, who had his hands full fighting President Ninja and Sensei Chow.
Fire coated her left hand. She hit Prince Eldin’s armor on his left shoulder pad, which immediately erupted in flames. With a yell, he unhinged all of the armor on his upper body and flung it away.
That moment was all they needed.
President Ninja threw a jumping, spinning back-kick that blasted Prince Eldin across the battlefield. He crashed into the cockpit of Drogar’s drill tank.
Sensei Raheem, still a little unsteady, used a technique that made an ordinary tomato become twenty t
imes the size of a drill tank. With the help of Ninja Amari, Sensei Chow, and Steve’s parents, they hurled the gargantuan tomato right onto Eldin and Drogar. It totally flattened their tank and left half of the mecha-mole army covered in tomato pulp.
The ninjas had seized the upper hand.
The moles began to retreat.
STEVE
Steve was left holding onto Prince Elom. While the young prince had been trying to break free at first, he gave up the moment his father left him as a hostage.
There was no need to keep Elom in a full nelson anymore. The mecha-mole had gone completely slack and sank to his knees. He started crying.
“My father abandoned me,” said Elom.
He had. Steve was sure that Eldin believed in his son’s ability to escape from Ninjastoria, which told Steve that Prince Eldin refused to see the truth about his own son. Elom was not going to be a great fighter. He wasn’t going to be a great military commander like his father, either.
“Your dad thinks you’re strong, Elom,” said Steve. “He didn’t leave you to be mean to you. He thinks you’ll be able to find a way out on your own.”
The prince sniffled. “I won’t, though. Everyone knows that ninja prison is the worst place you can end up. They feed you glue for breakfast, the prison mattress is stuffed full of cactus needles, and the floors are all blocks of ice.”
That was a very creative approach to prison. Steve was glad that none of the ninjas had ever thought to do those things.
“Elom, I went to prison once. It’s nothing at all like that,” said Steve. “Ninjas are mostly very nice people.”
Elom didn’t hear or pretended not to hear. A squad of ninjas came over and carried him away. Steve wondered if anything would ever change Elom’s mind or if he would forever feel like ninjas were lying, abusive creatures. He had little doubt that the mole prince would be scared and alone, despite whatever outward appearance he tried to put on.
Steve’s parents came by.
“We’re proud of you, Steve,” said his mom. “You’ve acted like a true ninja.”
“Are you ready to go home?” asked his dad.
He wasn’t sure what kind of homecoming it would be. What if the house had been damaged by the moles? Or, even worse, what if it had been completely destroyed?
“We might have some maintenance work to do,” said his mom, her thoughts in line with his.
“Nora and I can help,” said Steve, finishing the sentence before he remembered the truth.
His dad’s eyes teared up. His mother looked down. Steve wished that he could tunnel away like the moles.
“I’m sorry,” said Steve. “I didn’t mean to…”
His dad hugged him. “It’s okay, Steve. We’ll get her to come home.”
Steve nodded.
They’d find a way.
They had to.
DARCY
She saw Steve and his parents coming her way. They looked so tired and she knew that she must have looked the same.
“Marcy, you might be the toughest ninja we’ve got,” said Ninja Steve’s mom.
“Careful with the compliments,” said Gertie. “If she hears too many of them, she’ll get carried away and then she won’t train as hard.”
“Fine,” said Steve’s mom. “Marcy, once we’ve got Ninjastoria in a better state, you’ll be hearing from Ninja Amari. The Sisterhood of Butt-Kicking is going to hold an induction ceremony. I’ll be recommending you as a new recruit.”
Darcy stood a little taller. If they were willing to have her, she would definitely join.
Steve’s parents backed away for a moment to speak quietly about something else, which left Darcy and Steve together.
“You had a great plan,” said Darcy.
“You had cool moves,” said Steve. “It’s hard to believe that you haven’t always been a ninja.”
Darcy thought about what her life could be like if she stayed in Ninjastoria. She could learn more techniques. She could train with the Sisterhood of Butt-Kicking. She could make new friends.
“So, Steve, I think that we’re going to have to postpone our ice cream run for a little while,” she told him. “But once everything’s open again, we should totally go.”
“You got it,” said Steve.
She gave him a hug and waved goodbye as he left with his parents.
As they walked away, Darcy wondered what it would be like in their house tonight without Nora. She knew that Steve’s family was not going to have an easy road ahead of them, not until they found her and brought her home.
Darcy wondered about her old home. Now that the moles had been driven out of Ninjastoria, would they also abandon the bureau headquarters?
Before she could think too much about it, Gertie flagged her down.
“Tonight, Marcy, we are going to cook up a storm,” she said. “Biscuits, jalapeño mashed potatoes, spicy chicken, and a six-layer pudding for dessert. I’m going to call it, ‘The Marcy Victory Special.’ How’s that for a name?”
“I approve,” said Darcy.
Later that evening, as she sat at the dinner table with Gertie and Morris, Darcy considered her good fortune.
“The past is gone and this is your life now,” she thought.
And, for the first time, that thought brought a smile to her face.
STEVE
The first week that followed the war was not easy, despite the fact that their house was left almost completely untouched by the moles. That made Steve’s street one of the lucky ones.
Many of the ninjas closer to the center of Ninjastoria had lost their homes entirely. President Ninja and the Sisterhood of Butt-Kicking were busy converting the school and the university into temporary housing for the ninjas who needed a place to live.
Although Ninjastoria had driven the mecha-moles out, it had left Steve shaken up. If Ninjastoria couldn’t defend itself without the help of others, then he didn’t feel safe.
He was sitting on the ceiling in the living room and he was venting his frustrations to his parents. “We have all of these techniques and all of this training. How come it wasn’t enough?”
His mother and father didn’t seem to have a good answer for him.
“And another thing,” Steve said. “We have ultra-powerful level four techniques and no one is allowed to use them. Couldn’t a few of them have turned the tide of the war? Isn’t there some kind of technique that can blow up The Mole Republic?”
This time, they had an answer.
“Yes, Steve, there was a spell like that,” said his mother. “A spell that could destroy an entire country. The ninja who created it never told anyone how to do it. She never wrote it down on a scroll. She knew it was far too powerful and that one day the wrong ninja would use it and it would be a disaster for our entire world. We are very thankful that it doesn’t exist. One day, I hope you will be, too.”
Steve couldn’t perform the spell of dragon breath, but he felt like he was about to breathe fire, anyway. “That’s so dumb! It could have prevented this entire war. Then, I’d be back in Sensei Raheem’s class, Nora would still be here, and Samurai Sam wouldn’t have left.”
Suddenly, the fire Steve felt was turning into tears. He couldn’t hold them back. Steve jumped down from the ceiling and ran to his room. He paced up and down the walls.
After ten minutes of fruitless pacing, he called Samurai Sam. No answer. Yesterday, they had spent an hour talking about everything that had happened. Even with the war being over, Sam said his family wouldn’t be coming back to Ninjastoria for at least another month.
When he was sure that his parents weren’t going to come after him, he cracked open his door and then silently made his way to his sister’s room. He turned the knob and walked inside. Everything was exactly as it always was: swords on display, shuriken pouches at the ready, Shinobi-Onsay poster on the wall. Perfectly arranged and perfectly empty.
“Why did you do this, Nora?” he asked.
He was about to leave her room
when he heard his parents talking about Nora.
“President Ninja has plenty of people looking for her,” said his mom. “They’ll find her and she’ll come back to us.”
“What if she’s out there with Hiro, trying to find a Nexus key?” his dad asked. “What if they open it?”
That sounded like something Nora would do. It was a challenge beyond anything anyone had ever presented her. He didn’t want to believe it, though.
“I doubt it. If anything, I think we’ll see her turn up at the Unlimited Power Tournament,” said Steve’s mom. “Hiro talked about finding her a teacher, right? The tournament would be a chance for her to prove her skills.”
“The tournament isn’t for another six months,” said Steve’s dad, and then he started to cry.
Steve felt his own heart sink way down. He retreated back to his room, found Sensei Raheem’s book, and opened it up to the table of contents. Chapter twenty-five was entitled, “How to Enter and Win the Unlimited Power Tournament.”
If there was even a chance that Nora was going to be there, then Steve wanted to make sure he had a reason to be there, too.
DARCY
Two weeks after the end of the war, Gertie was teaching Darcy the art of moving meditation. Darcy enjoyed being in the training room for a peaceful lesson, because normally her time spent in that room made her sweat and get hurt.
For the past hour, they had been doing their moving meditation while on the ceiling. Whatever magic Ninjastoria seemed to have, it had finally found its way to her. Now she could stand on walls and ceilings whenever she wanted. That meant it was only a matter of time before she could start working with more powerful techniques.
When their meditation wrapped up, it meant that there would be thirty minutes until the next lesson began. Darcy always used this time to ask Gertie lots of questions about ninja life.
Agent Darcy and Ninja Steve in...Mecha-Mole Mayhem! Page 12