Cole Read online

  TITLE PAGE

  FROM THE JOURNAL OF SENSEI WU

  THE REAL HERO

  THE PHANTOM NINJA

  CHAPTER 1

  CHAPTER 2

  CHAPTER 3

  CHAPTER 4

  CHAPTER 5

  CHAPTER 6

  CHAPTER 7

  CHAPTER 8

  COPYRIGHT

  Cole is the leader of my ninja team. I did not assign him this job. To do so would have been to force him into a role he might not have been right for, and to force the others to become followers. I allowed the true natures of the four youths to shine through. It became clear that Cole’s nature is to take charge in any situation.

  It fits, therefore, that he is my Ninja of Earth. Like the ground beneath our feet, he is solid and steady. He puts his friends first, preferring to focus on succeeding in the mission than gaining personal glory. He did not join my team out of a need for revenge, like Kai; or curiosity, like Zane; or a need for adventure, like Jay. No, Cole became a ninja because it was the right thing to do.

  Well, perhaps that was not the only reason.

  When I first met Cole, he was climbing a mountain most felt could never be climbed. He was quite surprised to find me waiting for him at the top. As I talked with him, I learned that this was not the first time he had attempted something no one else could or would do. From sailing an unexplored ocean to skiing down an iceberg to hiking through trackless jungle, if it seemed impossible, Cole would try it. Yet, success brought no real satisfaction — it simply encouraged him to look for greater challenges.

  Cole has many excellent qualities. He is strong, brave, smart, and disciplined. But he lacked purpose. He was like a razor-sharp axe, with no tree to cut down. All the things he did to push himself to his limit served no other purpose than testing his endurance. Cole needed to know that all the things he could do, all his years of training, could in some way help others. I showed him that by learning to be a ninja and mastering Spinjitzu, he could be a part of saving this world.

  How has he functioned as a leader? It has not been a simple task. His three partners are strong willed, unique people, each of whom is part of the team for his own reasons. Add to that the urgency of our mission and there has been very little time for anyone to get used to functioning as a team, let alone having a leader.

  Cole has handled this situation well. He never announced that he would be leading the team, for he knew that would cause an argument. Instead, he simply took command in the field as if it was the most natural thing in the world. In the heat of battle, there was no time for the others to dispute his role. Once it became obvious that his first priorities were the mission and the safety of his friends, the others started to accept his authority.

  Still, there is a darker side to all this. Cole takes his position very seriously and worries that he will let his teammates down somehow. The night before a fight, Cole rarely sleeps, preferring to stay up and plan a strategy. He trains constantly. The standards he holds himself to are far higher than those he measures others against. Cole will not tolerate any weakness, hesitation, or failure on his part.

  “These guys depend on me,” he once told me. “If I freeze in battle, or I give the wrong order, or I haven’t planned for every possibility, maybe someone gets hurt … or worse. That would put the mission in jeopardy, but more than that, it would mean a friend was harmed because I wasn’t smart enough or quick enough. I won’t let that happen.”

  And so, I watch Cole with some concern. He drives himself harder than anyone I have ever known, and no man can do that for long. He will exhaust himself and that will not serve him or the team well. Even Earth will crumble if too much pressure is applied.

  For now, Cole will continue on. He will try to keep Kai from charging blindly into danger. He will encourage Jay to put his inventive skills to good use. Zane may well remain a mystery to him, but Cole will try to make the Ninja of Ice feel part of the team. And just as they turn to Cole for guidance, I will try to remain someone he can go to for the same.

  “Oh, you have got to be kidding me,” said Jay.

  “Why would we have done such a thing as a joke?” asked Zane, honestly confused by Jay’s reaction.

  “We’re wasting time,” snapped Kai. “Get out of the way and I’ll go.”

  “No, I’ll go,” said Jay. “You’ll charge in and get into who knows what trouble.”

  “Personally,” said Zane, “I think I am the logical choice to —”

  “We’ll all go,” said Cole, steel in his voice. “We’re a team. Time we started acting like it.”

  The four ninja stood on a high cliff overlooking a vast ocean. Dark clouds threatened overhead, bolts of lightning warning of the storm soon to come. The icy wind cut like a dagger and only Zane seemed to not feel a chill. That wasn’t surprising, considering that one of Zane’s hobbies was meditating at the bottom of half-frozen lakes.

  The team had been successful so far, recovering two of the Four Weapons of Spinjitzu. Their quest had led them here in search of the Nunchuks of Lightning. But it wasn’t the cliff or the storm or the cold that made them hesitate. It was the sight of an impossibly huge golden chain hanging in the air before their eyes. The links disappeared into the clouds far above.

  There was only one way to find out where it led, and that was to climb. Cole wasn’t worried about that. He was an experienced climber, after all. What concerned him was his team: Kai, always so quick to rush into danger; Jay, constantly talking to cover his own fears; and Zane, so cold and humorless he almost seemed like he was from another planet. Each was brave and skilled, but each also wanted to be the hero on every mission. It was Cole’s job to keep them working together, but it was far from easy.

  Cole glanced back at Sensei Wu. The sensei nodded once. Cole turned to his team and said, “Let’s go.”

  Leading the way, Cole began to climb. He had learned long ago not to look down or to think about how far one might fall. Doing either one would keep a person from getting very high. Behind him, the others climbed in silence.

  It felt like hours had passed before Cole’s head broke through the clouds and the climb was over. If the chain itself had been a startling sight, what the Ninja of Earth now saw was even more amazing. Before his eyes were the ruins of an entire city — a floating city!

  Cole pulled himself up and found his balance on an iron beam. The others quickly followed. “Wow,” said Jay. “I wonder what the rent is like on this place.”

  “Fascinating,” said Zane. “I have never seen anything like it. Who built it? How does it float in air? Does anyone still live here?”

  “Can we save the questions?” said Kai. “The only thing that matters is the Nunchuks of Lightning. In case you’ve forgotten, Samukai and his skeleton crew have my sister as prisoner — and we know his warriors aren’t very far behind us.”

  Kai took two quick steps along the beam. Suddenly, he lost his footing. Cole lunged and grabbed him before he could fall, pulling him back to safety.

  “No one has forgotten anything,” said Cole sharply. “But you won’t do your sister any good by getting yourself hurt. Now let’s search this place. The Weapon must be here somewhere.”

  “It would be faster if we split up,” suggested Zane.

  Cole shook his head. “Too dangerous, Zane, we don’t know anything about this place. Now, move out, but be careful.”

  The ninja began to search. The city was ancient and looked like it had been abandoned for many centuries. The design of the buildings looked like nothing anyone had ever seen before, but now the structures were covered in dust and spider webs. That would not have been so bad, except — as Jay discovered, to his regret — the spiders were four feet wide with sixteen legs and spat venom.

  There were no obvious clues
as to who built the city, how, or why they left. There was no sign of any current occupants, other than the spiders, some birds, and other wildlife. Here and there were scattered bits of rope, pieces of wood, fragments of cloth, and other items. Some of the buildings were almost completely intact, while others looked like they might fall down if anyone breathed too hard. All the while, lightning flashed overhead, as if the sky itself were angry at the trespassers in the city.

  As the ninja moved farther into the city, Cole began noticing lightning symbols carved into the walls. At first, he thought they were just decoration. Then he realized that the bolts were pointing in various directions, almost like signs.

  “That’s it,” Cole said. “The lightning carvings are pointing the way to the Nunchuks. All we have to do is follow them.”

  “Let’s hope that’s all they’re pointing toward,” said Jay.

  The ninja moved swiftly through narrow, winding streets. At last, they reached a dead end. Before them was a vast building made of what appeared to be marble. When Kai brushed against the stone, though, sparks flew and so did he. As he got up off the ground, he exclaimed, “What was that?”

  “This is not any known type of building material,” said Zane. “It’s more like … solid lightning … but that makes no sense.”

  “If you expect things to make sense,” chuckled Jay, “you’re hanging around with the wrong people.”

  “We go in,” said Cole. “Be careful not to touch the walls … and let’s hope the floors aren’t electrified, too.”

  Inside, the building was dark. Then a lightning bolt from above would suddenly illuminate it, the light streaming through holes in the roof. The floor was dirt and actually seemed to rise and fall beneath their feet. The interior walls crackled with electricity. All four ninja could feel their hair standing on end from the energy in the air.

  It was Cole who spotted the Nunchuks. They were hanging from a metal hook high upon the south wall. It didn’t take a genius to know that raw power was flowing from the wall through the hook and if anyone touched either, it might be the last thing they ever did.

  “I’ll get it,” said Jay. “I’m supposed to be the Ninja of Lightning, so …”

  “No,” said Cole. “Stay put. Zane, you know what to do.”

  Zane nodded and took a Shuriken out of his belt. He flung it at the east wall. It ricocheted off that to strike the north wall, then flashed to the west wall. Striking that, it shot for the south wall. The rotating blades sliced through the hook, and both hook and Nunchuks fell.

  Jay took two steps, leaped, did a midair somersault, and caught the Weapon before it hit the ground. He landed on his feet with a smile on his face. “Got it!”

  The dirt floor suddenly heaved, knocking all four ninja off balance. Considering that the team had already run into an Earth Dragon and an Ice Dragon on their quest, Cole had a bad feeling he knew what was about to happen.

  “Run!” he shouted.

  Even as the ninja fled the building, a Lightning Dragon erupted from beneath the earthen floor. With a roar, it charged toward the ninja. Amazingly, it did no damage to the building. The solid “stones” of the structure turned ghostly, allowing the dragon to pass through as it pursued the heroes.

  “The chain — head for the chain!” yelled Cole. Behind them, the dragon was breathing lightning bolts. One narrowly missed Cole, singeing his robe. “Kai, scout ahead, but keep it quiet!”

  Kai moved with great stealth to the place where the ninja had entered the city. He peered down the chain and saw armed skeleton warriors climbing up. Fortunately, they had not seen or heard him.

  “We have company,” he warned the other ninja.

  “Great,” said Jay. “Skeletons in front of us, Lightning Dragon in back — we’re going to wind up sandwich meat.”

  Cole thought fast. “Maybe not,” he said. “We just have to learn to fly.”

  Later, Kai, Jay, and Zane would tell Sensei Wu of their adventure while Cole secured the Nunchuks. It was the fastest job of inventing Jay had ever done. He lashed the pieces of wood together with the rope to form four frames shaped roughly like bird wings. Then he stretched the pieces of cloth across them to make crude hang gliders. Using these, the four ninja were able to escape the city with the Nunchuks, soaring right past the enraged skeletons.

  “So you were the hero,” said the sensei.

  Jay shook his head. “No, not me … I mean, Zane was the one who threw the Shuriken so we could get the Weapon.”

  “Then Zane was the hero,” said Sensei Wu.

  “Well … Kai was the one who spotted the skeletons coming up the chain,” said Zane. “If not for him, we might have climbed down into a trap.”

  Sensei Wu gave a slight smile. “I see. Kai was the hero, then.”

  Kai frowned. “No, that’s not right, either. Maybe it was Cole? He suggested that Zane use his Shuriken, and that I scout for us, and that Jay come up with a way for us to fly out of there. Is that being a hero? He didn’t really do anything … did he?”

  Sensei Wu looked at the ninja. “Young ones, from what you have told me, Cole let the three of you use your skills to do what you do best, rather than trying to do everything himself. Sometimes, the real hero is the one who lets others be heroes.”

  Kai, Jay, and Zane would think about that for a long time.

  Cole crouched at the edge of the cliff, peering down at the skeleton camp far below. Only two skeleton warriors were posted as guards this night. The rest were sleeping, no doubt dreaming of raiding villages and frightening innocent people. Before the night was over, they would be awakened to a far worse reality.

  Jay, Zane, and Kai flanked Cole. Each of the four ninja had his own ideas of how to attack the skeletons. However, despite those different opinions, they had learned to work together as a team. Sensei Wu had made Cole the leader, a responsibility he took extremely seriously. He had to, for it was far from an easy job.

  “What are we waiting for?” Kai said in a fierce whisper. “Let’s go down there and smash them.”

  “We might be able to capture the lot of them and make them talk,” offered Jay. “I have a new invention made just for bagging skeleton warriors.”

  “Impractical,” Zane replied. “We have no cage in which to hold them. Far better to beat them and drive them off. Perhaps they will lead us to their headquarters in this region.”

  “Quiet,” Cole said. “We have a plan in place. We attack from the south and herd them toward the river. One of us will spring the trap that’s set there and catch one skeleton that we can try to get answers from, if any of those boneheads knows anything … which I doubt.”

  “I don’t remember voting for that plan,” Kai answered. “Driving them away just means they come back again later. Spinjitzu ’em into a pile of pieces and you won’t have any trouble from them anymore.”

  Cole closed his eyes for a moment and took a deep breath. When he opened them, he looked right at Kai and said, “You are still relatively new to this team, so I will remind you how we do things. I come up with the plan and we follow it as best we can. That’s to keep the three of you safe and to make sure no innocent people get hurt in our fights.”

  “Cole is correct,” said Zane. “But it may be that someone else would be better suited to map out our strategy. It is something to consider.”

  Cole pointed down below. “Let’s debate after the battle. Jay, you use your flying harness to distract the guards. Zane and I will mount the attack. Kai, you head to the river and make sure one ends up in the trap.”

  Kai shook his head. “Change of plan,” he said. An instant later, he had run off into the darkness.

  Cole wanted to call after him, but the noise would wake the skeletons. He turned back to Zane and Jay, only to find Jay was gone, too. “Where did he go?” he asked Zane.

  “I assume he wished to try out his new invention before Kai ‘messes things up,’” replied Zane. “I suppose they saw flaws in your plan.”

  “
Those two,” Cole began, then stopped. There was no time to be angry. Kai and Jay were putting themselves in danger. “Let’s go, Zane, we have to stop them.”

  But Zane was gone, too.

  “All right, I’ll do it myself,” muttered Cole.

  He was about to head down the mountain when he saw a bright flash from below. In the sudden illumination, he could see Jay holding a large contraption that was designed to shoot lightning bolts. Unfortunately, it had shot its bolt in the wrong direction. With a startled cry, Jay went flying through the air. He crashed hard into some trees.

  The light and the noise awoke all the skeletons, just as Kai charged in. Now, instead of facing two guards, he was up against a dozen. Cole knew there was no time to waste. He dashed down the winding trail that led to the camp.

  By the time he got there, Kai was in the midst of battle. Cole’s eyes took in the whole scene, including the skeleton warrior about to strike Kai from behind. Cole launched himself into the air, intending to bring down the skeleton with a leaping kick. But before he could land his blow, there was a harsh cracking sound off to his right.

  Cole couldn’t help but flick his eyes in that direction. To his horror, he saw a huge tree falling right toward him. Using all his agility, he twisted his body in midair and managed to stop his leap. He landed awkwardly on the ground and the tree followed right after, crashing into the camp just a few feet from him.

  Kai was shouting in frustration. The falling tree had cut him off from his foes. Now the skeletons were fleeing toward the river. As he got to his feet, Cole spotted Zane emerging from the woods. One look at the young ninja’s face told Cole that Zane had been responsible for knocking down the tree.

  “This is great,” Cole snapped as he helped the dazed Jay to his feet. “Well, we won’t be catching any skeletons since no one was there to spring the trap. What kind of teamwork do you call that?”

  “It was a stupid plan anyway,” grumbled Kai. “If we had all hit them together, we could have taken the whole camp.”