A Very Ninja Christmas - Part II

As promised, here's Part II of three!


A few hours later……

"Once they killed the secret agents, the pirates took him. However, we found none of Santa's elves with the dead. What we did find were several scared elven townsfolk and a bunch of frantic reindeer. None of them could tell us what happened. Santa's workshop elves have disappeared as well." Colonel Bliksem debriefed a crowded room full of generals, colonels, the secret service, one very embarrassed Ryan, and an attentive Blue.

An enlarged screen above Bliksem flashed images of gutted secret service agents dressed as elves. Their bodies decorated the now not-so-festive Christmas town grounds in the North Pole.

In the brief silence that followed Bliksem's debriefing, Blue stood and pulled out her phone from deep within her cleavage and tossed it on the table. It took the men a moment to pick up their jaws from the floor before Bliksem took Blue's phone and displayed the pirate note on the overhead.

"…Brethren Court?" he asked, looking up at Blue. "We need to find the ship!" Around the room, people voiced their agreement.

"We've already got personnel trying to track down the pirate ship, Colonel," another commander volunteered.

"That isn't good enough." Blue stated. "We need to do something now! Look, read it again. Santa's being held hostage on the Flying Dutchman. THE Flying Dutchman." Gasps before the room went eerily silent. No one had been able to locate the Flying Dutchman. No one. It was a ghost ship that sailed the seas forever. Although the Disney movie, "Pirates of the Caribbean" idolized it as a ship that ferried souls, the ninja and the US Government knew better.

The Flying Dutchman was the last pirate ship to ever exist. During the Ninja v. Pirate conflict, ninja raided the ship and killed every living creature that inhabited it; down to the cat-sized bilge rats. Its captain swore, just as he was being gutted, that he would never leave his ship nor his crew. Since this was a very noble deed for a pirate, he was granted his wish. His dead spirit, along with the crew, would sail the oceans forever. The military has yet to detect, much less find, a ghost.

"Ghosts." Blue mused, thinking deeply to herself. "They must've hired a pirate-like crew. I can't imagine that any of the ghost pirates would be able to do anything more than levitate a candy cane. There must be living men on the ship." Blue said, getting more and more worried by the minute. She chewed on her lower lip while she began thinking of a plan.

"Suggestions?" Bliksem asked.

"OH!" as if on cue, and before any one else could speak, Blue hopped up with a jiggle. "K, I've got a plan! You guys distract. I can teleport through Santa's shadow and send a locator beacon to you. Ryan will parachute onto the deck to protect Santa." Blue drew a boat on the white board, then added a rotund red stick figure and a blue stick figure with breasts. The pirates she represented by multiple stick figures with eye patches. She then drew a plane above, and used an arrow to show Ryan stick figure parachuting down to the deck.

"As soon as Ryan lands, I can…" her eyes glazed over and she grabbed the red pen, popped off the cap and turned to the board, "KILL AND GUT THEM ALL!!!" Blue began to draw glorious depictions on the board of stick figure bits sprinkled liberally with red marker, adding sound effects. "It'll be a slaughter the likes of which Christmas has never seen!!!" She added, drawing red all over the board. "DIE DIE DIEE!!!" She paused to turn. "Ehm… can I have another marker? she asked, looking embarrassed. "This one's out of red ink.".

Everyone was staring at her. "Tee hee?" she smiled cutely as Ryan groaned and slid under the table.

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Christmas Eve

"Blue, don't forget that if you pull this, everything goes KABOOM, okay?" Masa said through her blue tooth as she walked with escort on the aircraft carrier.

"Hai! Masa, don't worry. I'm well armed thanks to you guys!" she replied, pulling down her aviator glasses to gaze at the long runway with the line of jet fighter planes. Toshi, Blue's weapons and clothing designer, thought she'd look incredibly adorable in a curve-hugging military jumpsuit, complete with accessible pockets for her vials of poison gas, hollow point needles, shuriken, and kunai. He even included an accessory backpack to conceal her katana and wakisashi. Blue smiled in amusement when one of the troops tripped on his own foot and fell into the man in front of him. Toshi was right. She did look cute!

Blue snapped her gum, and gave one of her disarming, patented bright smiles when Ryan walked towards her; the other officers snapped into a V formation from behind. Before anyone could speak, Blue flung herself into Ryan's arms and delivered a kiss that would make DiCaprio from the Titanic jealous. "Be careful," she said softly, patting his chest and steadying the lieutenant on his feet.

Bliksem cleared his throat, and said, "Miss Blue, are you okay with this? Remember that once you-"

"…get on the ship, press the beacon." Blue finished, patting the top of her right breast where her embroidered name spelled out, "Lady Blue." It was also the place where Toshi had put the button for the beacon. "Gotcha." Blue winked and then stood on her tip toes to kiss the Colonel's cheek. "I'll be fine. Just make sure you can extract Santa before things get bloody!"

Understanding the urgency of the situation, Bliksem nodded, and signaled for everyone to step back. Ryan climbed into his airplane. Ensign Pike, Ryan's wingman, gave him the thumbs up in the jet next to him. Blue's acute hearing caught her telling him, "Don't worry sir. I'll be right there when you need me." Good. At least Ryan would be okay.

In unison, Masa, Toshi and Seiji, Blue's Crew, spoke into her ear, "We'll be with you every step of the way Blue!" Once everyone was in place, Blue closed her eyes, concentrated, and stepped into Bliksem's shadow. Comforting darkness surrounded her as she quickly located Santa. He was a hard one to miss!

Blue peered, looking up from the ground where Santa's shadow lay. She could see that he was tied to a chair with his hands behind him, manacles on his ankles. Three pirates stood guard. Something was very odd about them. Blue tilted her head, studying them curiously. Real pirates…were a lot smaller than she imagined!

As Blue emerged, she pressed her homing beacon, then threw three hollow point needles into the necks of Santa's guards. They silently sank to the floor in a permanent sleep. With half her torso still in shadow, Blue cut Santa's wrists and bindings free. She picked the locks on Santa's ankles as he ruffled her hair playfully, giving her a wink with his twinkling eye. He whispered to her, "Blue, look at the pirates carefully."

Once she ensured that Santa was unharmed, Blue knelt beside one of the still breathing pirates, and moved the familiar tri-cornered hat off his head. She saw…pointy ears!

"Elves!" Blue whispered in surprise. "Elves?!" She looked up at Santa, confused. "But…WHY?"