On a String

Chapter 14

"It's a piggin' string time!" Jay laughed. "Let's hog tie 'em boys... and bring home the bacon!"

"You pig," Cole muttered.

"Boaring pun there, Cole," Jay shot back, waving his arms around in a comical manner. "Whatcha got now, bro? Ah... nothing! That's what I thought!"

Sensei Wu's staff rapped against the floor. "Enough! Stop horsing around!" he ordered, causing everyone to pause and burst into laughter. "This lounge is not big enough for this! I'm not running a rodeo here!"

"Whatever yer say, Sheriff," Jay chuckled, unable to resist pushing things a tiny bit further by turning to the rest of the team while gesturing at Sensei. "Dis here man's the big bad," he cackled with a smug smirk.

Sensei Wu raised a resigned eyebrow at his bubbly student and sighed. "I hate to ruin your fun, but you have training tomorrow- you do realise that, don't you? It's four thirty in the morning now, and I expect the lounge to be cleared up before you go to sleep!"

"Awww, but Sensei-" Jay began.

Sensei Wu pointed a finger at the pile of pillows on the floor. "I'm sorry, but you do need to get some sleep tonight. Git along, little doggies!" He ordered with a chuckle.

After sleeping in for several hours, the team woke up and had 'breakfast'- although it was closer to lunchtime- and assembled on the deck for training.

Sensei Wu stood under the main sail and looked at the team of Ninja. "Today, Kai will be assessing your co-ordination and sense of balance and looking at ways to improve it. Kai, could you take over, please?"

Kai nodded while making his way up to where Sensei stood under the main sail. "All of you are good at fighting. But no matter how good you get, there's always room to learn more. Good co-ordination and agility can mean the difference between life and death in a fight because by possessing those abilities, you can pull off movements and block strikes your opponent cannot,"

Jay raised a hand, waiting until Kai gestured for him to speak before stating, "We're Ninja! We already have brilliant balance! How is this going to help us fight?" he asked, curiously.

Kai shifted into a relaxed stance, but Cole noticed that his eyes didn't stop looking out and around, assessing everything. He was still uncomfortable instructing the group, but for the time being, that was okay.

Kai was doing well. "Most of the gang members are street fighters, with little to no traditional martial art experience. They will manipulate the playing field to their advantage- and they don't play by the rules. When you go against them, expect to be outnumbered, possibly cornered and threatened with anything- steel pipes, guns -whatever, while you have no weapons. But this actually gives you an advantage, as they don't have any 'Ninja' training. Most of the gang's members can't do some of the basic things we can- such as landing a fall in a roll or scaling walls. So that is how we must fight- by changing the playing field to our advantage. Today, we're going to set up an obstacle course which will test your ability to improvise weapons and take down opponents while on the move,"

Jay chuckled, not bothering to raise his hand this time, but jumping straight in with, "Don't we do that already?"

Kai gave the faintest (ghost) of a smirk and shook his head. "Not like this. Here, I want you to be fighting upside down, on an angle, in mid-air- the sooner you take down an attacker the better. If you're in the middle of a jump, there's no reason why you shouldn't also be stopping the enemy. Don't waste time in a fight. Get in, get out, and take out as many as you can along the way,"

When no more questions were forthcoming from the group, Kai stepped off the platform and began the lesson by gesturing at the two piles of equipment on the deck. "I want two people to set up the wooden beam with a target on it down one end of the deck. There also needs to be a three meter high wall in the centre of the deck and series of pipes down the other end of the deck. I want targets scattered everywhere, as well,"