The Mother Earth Force decided that the 3 traditional ninjas were into expensive fine art pieces. And in fact were daring the Mother Earth Force into combating them for their next robbery. The time would of course be at night while Near Absolute Hero was needed to battle a fire. But there were no other centrally located premiere art galleries in the Big Smoke.
However, on the outskirts of town was the McDavid Collection, a quirky mix of Group of Seven art and the like, mixed with indigenous art. The Group of Seven were quite well known all across the nation and would have fans in the underground markets.
Which left Mother Earth and Modern Ninja to wonder about the extreme lighting of the three traditional ninjas.
“I can shed some light on the bright lighting of our ninja enemies,” started an image of Mother Earth’s face on Modern Ninja’s laptop.
“I might have an idea on that myself.” answered Modern Ninja.
“They want to see your shadow in a place they expect it to be.”
“Yeah, I had thought of that. Multiple lights from various angles can be confusing when they can only see your shadow and not you. If they have the brightest lights on their heads pointing in front of them, they will know by your shadow where you will be. They can thus attack you successfully.”
“Only because your own pixels of your suit would betray you. But you can program them, you see,” said Mother Earth.
“Then I can attack the 3 ninjas successfully yet again.”
“If things go as we have planned.”
“You’ll help me with the program?” asked Modern Ninja.
“Of course it would be my pleasure. We’re two of the best coders in the world. It shouldn’t take long.”
The next night, Near Absolute Hero had to help out at a fire around 2 a.m. The rest of the Mother Earth Force also got out but they headed to the McDavid Collection instead. They parked a block and a half away and hid in a stand of trees. The SUV that pulled up had them almost straining to attack. But they didn’t see anyone exit.
There were also no bright lights. They stared at it as it left hoping to see something through its dark windows.
Mother Earth was in their ears and said quietly, “Just a 2:30 check by a security company.”
As the memory of the security faded, in came a second SUV. Just as its bright lights went out, three new lights appeared. In an instant they were in a triangle formation lighting up everything around them.
Modern Ninja headed toward them as they smashed the entrance doors. Alarms went off as they stepped inside. As the lights entered the building, Tail headed toward the SUV.
Modern Ninja waited at the entrance. They would be back. Tail set off the SUV’s alarm as he broke in to the door. Of course thieves would try to guard their things. Tail turned off the alarm and started the SUV. He drove it to the far side of the parking lot.
The three ninjas came back, each with a couple paintings. They knew something was up with the SUV and thought they were ready. Modern Ninja took down the first of the three with a good roundhouse. She turned off the light of the downed ninja. The other two knew he was gone so they were back to back. They moved quickly toward the SUV.
Modern Ninja leapt and kicked as hard as she could at the closest ninja’s head. As she hoped, the first ninja’s head hit the second ninja’s head. But the second ninja didn’t go down. He spun and caught a glimpse of Modern Ninja who was turning off the second light. But a tail pulled him toward the ground.
Tail’s fists caught the last ninja while his tail was wrapped around the ninja’s upper arms. It was an unfair fight and finally the ninja slumped.
Sirens could be heard above the alarms from the building. So Tail and Modern Ninja slunk through the trees to their awaiting vehicle. They were gone in only a moment.
