SOAFP - Part 3

Part 3 – Fury

Still dizzy, Lance nonetheless managed to get up on one arm but could still feel it bugling beneath him. He looked at the approaching Ninja and realized through a haze that his situation was indeed very grim. He needed time to concentrate and gather his thoughts, but it looked like he wasn't going to be granted such!
Desperately he looked around, but the only positive observation he could make was that the three other Ninjas apparently had lost all interest in him, probably seeing him as already done with. Instead they seemed to be busy pulling a struggling figure out of one of the broken windows in the plane's cockpit.

"Another victim" Lance sadly noted.

As his view became partially obscured by the Ninja closing in, he suddenly noticed another figure emerging from the sporadic clouds of dust, a sweater-clad girl with her long brown hair billowing in her wake as she came in fast with an angry predatory gleam in her eyes. In two great jumps she cleared the space from the rubble-strewed hangar-floor to the top of the cockpit and with a cry of rage, continued into the surprised Ninjas, grapping two of them around their necks and pulling them with her over the edge of the plane and out of sight.

The whole episode took roughly five seconds, leaving the remaining Ninja on the cockpit, still with the dazed prisoner, a young man looking roughly familiar Lance noted, staring with amazement after his comrades in arms. The Ninja looming over Lance also turned in surprise of the sudden change in event, a move Lance saw as his one and only chance. He fought the pain, pushed himself up on both hands and used the leverage to swing himself around and with all the strength he could muster, kick the legs away from under the ninja who, caught by the sudden attack, fell backwards amid the rubble.

"Payback!" Lance mumbled grimly as he threw himself at the prone figure, plowing his elbow down in his chest with all his weight behind, following up with a fist to the victim's jaw, knocking him out cold.

Panting he sad down and looked at his downed opponent. "Ironically, it was actually one of your guys who taught me that trick" he whispered with a tired smile "You can say lessons paid off!". With an effort he straightened up and concentrated on the remaining Ninja.

The 4th Ninja apparently hadn't noticed anything as he seemed to be concentrating on what happened to the two teammates the brown-haired girl had pulled down with her. What took place behind the plane sounded to Lance like a pitched battle, slams on metal resounded through the hangar, and suddenly he could have sworn he saw the entire jet shake as something massive apparently struck the jet on the other side. The sudden movement of the plane caught the remaining Ninja off guard, forcing him to let go of his prisoner as he brazed himself.
It seemed like the prisoner in the short time since his capture had regained his posture, cause as soon as he was let go, he straightened himself up and Lance let out a gasp when he saw his face for the first time.

"Colonel Chesterfield!" he gasped! "... or to be more exact" he reminded himself "… the ten years younger Jason Chesterfield!"

Before his departure into time, Doc had once absentmindedly mentioned that the cold-hearted, steadfast and strategically able member of the Board, who nobody ever remembered having made something even resembling a smile, had been quite a different man in the past.  "For once, he had both his eyes" Lance mumbled under his breath as his mind raced over the possibilities this could mean for his mission…and the future as a whole.

As Jason got up he turned to the Ninja, who in the meantime had pulled out a mindwiper and seemed to be aiming at someone in the melee below, without doubt the brown-haired girl Lance observed. "But how in the hell is she able to hold out against two top-trained Ninjas…" he thought, puzzled as to why the sound of battle first now was ebbing out.

Apparently the Ninja had no second thoughts as he aimed the wiper and prepared to bring its mind-stealing beams down on its target. Neither had Jason, and resolute he reached out and caught hold of the Ninja's arm before he could fire and started wrestling him for the wiper. However, still groggy from what damage he must have taken in the crash, he was not match for the British shadow-warrior who slowly pushed him to his knees, bringing his arm around and pressing the mindwiper towards his brow.

Instinctively Lance raised his arm and felt the sleek Bracelaser glide out from beneath his jacket's sleeve to place itself just below his knuckles. He quickly lowered his head and aimed along his outstretched arm, placing the ninja just above his poised fist…and the weaponr now situated there! He was just about to send the mental command that would send a searing laser beam to slice the target, when he suddenly hesitated: "Who am I to mess with the past?"

During the initial preparations to his travel, Doc had drilled him with the facts of time-travel…the theoretical ones that is, since nobody had ever before undertaken such recorded travels before. According to Doc, time was something that shouldn't be tempered lightly with as nobody knew the full effects of time-travel and what kind of impact a person inserted into the past could have on his own future…or on the future as a whole. However, time was running out as the invaders were pressing the resistance, the very last Humans still standing, on all fronts, and the Board had decided that the risk was worth taking if Lance, in the almost lost past, could manage to find the solution for saving the future. Only if he survived the travel would they know more about the possible effects on the time-space continuum…as Doc's colleague put it!

Lance blinked as he once more focused on the silent battle on strength between Colonel Jason and the Ninja over control of the Mindwiper, which was still approaching Jason's brow. His thoughts zigzagged as he felt the weight of responsibility pressing in. Should he interfere and possibly create a time-paradox that could have unknown results? Or stay out, with the consequences that his inactivity would be what CAUSED a time-paradox? Torn between the myriad possibilities his decision could mean, it was suddenly taken out of his hand when a figure without warning seemed to rise vertically up from behind the plane! The brown-haired girl landed with a solid "Thump!" on the top of broken jet, sending Jason's opponent such a look of calculated rage that Lance unconsciously swallowed.