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“Why is it that we are meeting in the middle of nowhere?” Tony complains.
I just watch, leaning up against a tree. Gibbs decided it was a good idea to have a training exercise in the woods.
‘Doesn’t he know that's where I excel at? I live in the woods’.
Right now all we are waiting for is for the LA team to show up. They’re late, I offered to portal them here, but they declined. Saying something about, “it’ll be more fun to drive”. All though I think they are just too scared for me to portal them.
Finally after five more minutes they pulled up. “Finally, we can get started!” Tony exclaims.
“Yeah sorry, traffic was terrible” Callen says with that famous smirk of his. Walking up with Sam following behind him.
“Uh huh, traffic ” I say sarcastically.
“Where's Kensi and Deeks?” McGee asks.
“They couldn’t make it” I looked at them in disbelief.
“Well, Gibbs, what did you have in store for us?” Callen’s friend and job partner, Sam says.
“Stealth”
Tony, Sam, and McGee groan when they hear this.
“And” Gibbs continues, “we are going to use paintball” most perk up at the mention of paintball.
I don’t, he knows that I don't like using guns. With that in mind I should have been able to guess the next thing he says.
Gibbs turns to face me before he says, “Shadow, are you able to do this?”
I just nod, since it's not an actual gun and it's a training exercise.
“Have you ever even held a gun before?” Tony says, mockingly.
I ignored him, not even looking at him. I can tell that most of them expect that I don’t know how to use a gun, nor would I be any good at aiming and shooting.
“The objective is to get through this forest, without being detected, and get to the clearing that is on the other side. Ducky and Palmer are already waiting. It's 01700 (5:00) now, the training ends at 02000 (8:00).”
“Shadow, no…”
“Yes I know, no portalling and no powers” I interrupted him.
“Hold on, how do we know you won't cheat” Tony annoyingly says.
I glare at him. “I won’t”
“Please It’s just like this movie where this group of people decided to train and one of them cheats, causing the whole group to fail.”
“Yeah and what movie was that, Tony,” Ziva asks sweetly.
“Um, I don’t know, I can’t remember right now.”
“So, basically you're making it up?” He stays quiet.
“If you’re finished” Gibbs dryly says, with a gun already in his hands.
He then points to the paintball guns that were stacked in a pile, on the forest floor. Most were a hand held type, while there were a few shotguns. In a different pile were the clips or magazines. He was indicating that we could go ahead and grab one. One by one we all went up to grab a gun and ammo.
I was the last person to go up. I pick up a hand held gun and five clips, feeling it and testing the weight in my hands. I slip the clips in my bag, ready to use if I have to.
After we all grab one, Gibbs gives the signal to start. We all run in slightly different directions. I was last to leave the area. I expertly put the ammo in, I have about 10 shots, I count. I calmly walk over to a tree and climb it. Since I do the best in trees, having a slight advantage, because I’m higher up.
I start making my way to the clearing. I keep an eye and ear out for any of the other players. I swiftly jump from tree to tree. My black clothes blending in perfectly with my surroundings. I soon hear some rustling coming from below me.
I look down, seeing that it was McGee, I am and pull the trigger, hitting him in the chest. Consequently or not, it was right where the heart would be. Everyone, but me, were wearing black ‘NCIS’ issued vests. I don’t feel the need to wear one, since I almost always have a bulletproof vest on.
I duck back behind some branches where I can still see him, but he can’t see me. I hear McGee exclaim, quite loudly in my opinion. I quietly snicker at his reaction.
For several minutes McGee tries to find whoever got him. After not being able to find anyone, he continues on trying to be stealthy, failing spectacularly. As I watch, I decided it might be a good idea to record, so that's exactly what I did. It was a good thing too, cause not a minute later, a squirrel darts by, making McGee jump and shoot at where the creature was, missing by a mile.
I almost laugh out loud at how nervous and jumpy he is. I aimed again and this time I hit him in the back, which if it was a real bullet, he would most likely have been paralyzed. He lets out another shriek, once again jumping and pulling the trigger, missing badly. This time I did laugh out loud and jump to the next tree. I hear McGee sigh.
I was covering ground quickly, but stopped when I could hear some voices up ahead. I got a little closer, seeing that it was Ziva and Tony arguing once again. Or I guess it could be called bickering. I didn’t bother waiting, quickly aiming I pulled the trigger twice, quickly hitting them in the chest, once again right where the heart would be.
Ziva gasps and turns in my direction, but not looking up at the trees. Tony starts complaining, seriously he complains too much. He too, turns in my direction, this time looking up, but he doesn’t see me. I blend in with the shadows. I just sit there and watch them struggle.
‘Ziva is supposed to be a trained assassin, right? Then how could she not think of looking up in the trees?’
Tony trips over several vines, which causes him to fall flat on his face. He gets up, with annoyance clear on his face. He then starts to loudly proclaim, “Ugh, I hate this! I hate the woods, I hate this game, and now there are ghosts!”
“Oh don’t be such a baby, Tony,” Ziva says.
“I'm not being a baby.”
“Yes you are” they both start to argue and walk away.
As they were doing so I hit them both two more times, in the shoulder and the back. As I did so, I once again, quietly jump two trees over, waiting to make sure they didn’t see or hear me, which they didn’t. I continued on, by now it’s been a little bit over an hour. As I was silently jumping through the trees, I froze.
Something in the corner of my eye caught my attention. I saw the dying light of the sun reflect off of something that was in the tree to the right and in front of me. It took me a few seconds to realize it wasn’t a scope of a gun being reflected, but something much smaller.
I went around the tree, making sure whatever it was couldn’t see me. Once I was behind the tree that held the mystery item, I crept over. I soon realized it was a tiny black camera.
‘I bet this came from Abby.’
I smirked, picking the item up and turning it off, by flicking a switch it had underneath of it. I proceeded to drop the bug in my bag. I continued on through the thick trees. I am making good time. I soon came upon a river, it wasn’t too big, rather small I would say. It's not that deep, and there were some ‘stepping stones’ that anyone could use.
By now it was dusk, which is perfect for me, since I work better when it is darker outside.
Unfortunately I would have to get down, since I couldn’t jump to the next tree across the river without making some noise. Which would be bad cause I can see Callen up ahead.
After another minute or two of listening and making sure the coast is clear, I jumped down, landing softly on the ground, sprinting over the rocks, and hid behind a tree. I leaned out from behind the tree, Callen still hasn’t heard me.
I take aim and fire, the paint landing right between his shoulder blades. I jumped up the tree and proceeded to leap to the next one. Callen had already turned around, aiming for the spot that I was at a moment ago.
He walks over, with his gun at the ready. I decided to have a little fun, smirking evilly, I hit him again, then jumped to the next tree. As I was in the tree, I slid the clip out of the gun and slid a new one in.
I continued to fire at Callen for a few minutes, each time Callen would turn around and run over to where I had been. I could tell he was getting a little frustrated, and jumpy. I stopped when I heard a splash and some grumbling.
Callen had also heard the noise. We both looked over at the river. Sam had slipped when he tried to cross and fell in the river. He kinda looked like a wet cat. Me and Callen shot him at the same time.
“Oh come on!” Sam looked over at Callen, “seriously?!” Callen shrugged.
“What happened to you?” Sam asked looking over at Callen, who looked like a canvas, with red paint splattered all over him.
“You tell me.”
“What, you think I did that?”
“Kind of”
“I don’t even have that color!”
“Well then, I guess it was a ghost. Considering I heard nothing, except for you, and I didn’t see anyone” the ‘except for you’ goes unsaid.
I moved on leaping over tree branches with ease. I put new ammo in since I used up all 10 shots on Callen. I was close to the clearing, where we are supposed to meet up. I have found several of ‘Abby’s bugs’, by the time It's been another hour, when I hear some bushes rustling some feet away from me.
Going through the names in my ‘Sam, no. Callen, no. Ziva or Tony, probably not. McGee, totally not, he was so far behind. There is no way it’s McGee. So that leaves only one possibility, Gibbs’ not a minute too soon, Gibbs emerges and looks around.
He’s the only one who looks up in the trees, but he doesn’t see me. He continues to make his way silently across the ground, his gun at the ready. He and Callen are the only ones who have been the most silent. He is still a little ways away when I take aim and hitting him in the back, between the shoulder blades.
Gibbs whirls around, aiming up at the trees instead of the ground (like everyone else did), but I had already moved. In the new tree, I wait for Gibbs to move. He eventually did, facing me. Once again, paint appears, hitting his chest. I stay still, not moving a muscle, as Gibbs points his gun in my direction. He never fires, just stands there, listening, until finally he decides to move on.
I wait a few more minutes before I continue on through the trees. I eventually reached the clearing. Ducky and Palmer were talking about the history of paintball. I sit in a tree, waiting and watching for others to show themselves. There are about 30 minutes left in the training exercise. Gibbs is the next to show, walking over to where Ducky and Palmer are waiting.
“Jethro! You’re the first to arrive”
I speak up, “Are you sure about that?”
The three of them turns in my direction, but they still couldn’t see me.
“Shadow? Where are you?” Ducky asks with surprise.
“Over here”
I turn on a small flashlight that I had pulled out of my bag, letting them see it before turning it off.
“Ah, well, I guess you’re the second to arrive then” Ducky says to Gibbs.
“How long have you been waiting there?”
I shrug “10 maybe 15 minutes.”
After I responded, we all fell into silence. Well not all of us, Ducky and Palmer went back to their conversation while me and Gibbs stayed silent. We didn’t have to wait much longer for the next people to show themselves.
I could hear them long before seeing them. Callen and Sam walk out of the treeline and into the clearing, bickering about who would be better at paintball, Gibbs or Hetty (Henrietta). They went to stand next to Gibbs. At this time there is about 10 minutes left.
After a couple of minutes Ziva and Tony walked out.
“Ah hey boss. Ziva thinks there may be a ghost.”
“I do not!”
“You do! Back in the woods you told me ‘Tony, there may be a ghost’.
“I did not say that!”
“My brain doesn’t lie or forget!”
“Enough! Both of you cut it out!” Gibbs finally snapped at them. Right as he said that, McGee comes stumbling out of the woods.
“There you are probie! We were about to send out a search party for you.”
“Knock it off, Tony” McGee says with irritation.
“Now that everyone is here, let's see how you did.”
“Um, boss, what about Shadow? She's still not here.” McGee says while looking around at the group of people.
“Are you sure about that?” I repeated from earlier.
Everyone except for Gibbs, Ducky, and Palmer jumps and whirls around in my direction. Their faces were priceless, they all wore shocked and slightly scared expressions.
“Where are you?”
“Over here.”
Once again I turned the flashlight on for just a moment and then turned it back off.
“How long have you been there?”
“About 30 minutes now.”
“Seriously?”
I don't respond.
“Tony”
“Right, sorry boss”
“Duck, lights” Gibbs said.
They had brought some battery operated lights to be able to see how well, or badly, everyone did.
“Unfortunately, someone didn’t charge the batteries before we left” which was Tony's job.
“McGee said that he had done it” Tony said while pointing at McGee.
“Hey! I did not!”
Gibbs hits the back of Tony's head, before saying
“Shadow?”
I nod, “close your eyes” is the only warning I gave them.
I then opened my hand, the palm facing the sky. Before anyone knows it, the whole area is lit with light.
“Ah! Seriously! A little warning next time!” Of course Tony didn’t listen.
“She did,” McGee says, glaring at Tony.
After they all got used to it being bright, they looked at each other. They all looked like a canvas that someone spilled paint on. Tony and Callen looked the worse, having all sorts of colors on them.
Ziva and McGee weren't as bad as the other two. They both had been hit at least once by everyone. Gibbs and Sam were pretty clean looking, only having been shot a few times, mostly by me.
“Ok, Shadow, your turn. Come down the tree and show us.”
“Tony, do you ever shut up?” Ziva asks.
I silently jumped down the tree and stepped into the light.
“What?! How?!”
I didn’t have any paint on me. I just smirk at the group. Gibbs gave me a knowing look as they continued to talk about the paint colors.
“Ziva what color do you have?”
“Yellow”
"What about you, Tony?”
“Pink” Ziva laughs at this.
“McGee?”
“I have dark blue”,
“Sam?”
“Purple”
Sam turns and gives Callen a questioning look. “Green.”
They look at Gibbs “orange.”
“Red” I say before they can ask.
“So you’re that ghost!” Tony exclaims at the same time as Callen.
“Where were you?”
“Trees”
“Ah ha! So you did cheat.”
“No, there were no rules about taking advantage of your surroundings.”
“Gibbs!” Tony whines
“She’s right”
“Come on!”
“Tony let it go, you lost and Shadow won.”
“How do you know that?”
“Well she has no paint on her, so she was and is the most stealthiest out of all, even more than Gibbs.”
“Fine, but I want a rematch!”
“Not going to happen” Gibbs says as he starts to pack up the supplies.
They all start to put their guns and ammo in a black fabric bag.
“Wait, does this mean we have to walk back through the woods, at night?!” even Callen looked a little alarmed at this.
“But there could be snakes!”
“What? Don’t tell me you are scared of snakes?” I ask.
“I’m not, but I know McGee is.” McGee gives a sharp glare at Tony, but doesn’t disagree.
After a few minutes they finished packing up everything. Which includes the guns, ammo, the lights that didn’t work, and a first aid kit for just in case anyone got hurt, somehow. They started to walk towards the trees.
‘Where are they going, don’t they remember that I can portal them to the other side, where we started?’
“Um, Gibbs?”
he turns around, I point at my hand, showing the somewhat gold double ring, called a sling ring, that makes it so I can open portals. He nods before calling the others back.
“Hey!”
“Um, what's up boss?” McGee asks.
Gibbs points, showing that they need to come back. Once they came closer, I opened up a portal. Yellow and orange sparks appear in front of them.
“Oh right! How could we forget about that?”
“After you” I point to the portal.
Ducky and Palmer were the first to go through “Ah thank you Shadow” Palmer smiles as he goes through.
Tony and Ziva go next, followed by McGee. I turn to Callen and Sam, “are you willing to go through the portal now?”
They both looked unsure, “come on, it won’t bite” I joked.
After a few minutes, Sam steps forward, pausing at the entrance.
“Hey, it's ok, nothing bad will happen, I promise” with that Sam goes through.
“Your turn” I turn to Callen.
“Ah, are you sure about this?”
“Yes”
“Ok” he also goes through the portal.
It’s only me and Gibbs that are left. I look at him, making an ‘after you’ gesture. He goes through the portal after looking around one last time, making sure we got everything. I follow, closing the portal with a wave of my hands after I step out.
“See, it wasn’t that bad, right?”
Sam shrugs “it’s ok.”
“It’s not bad,” Callen replies.
“Oh I almost forgot! Gibbs, when were you going to tell us Abby put a few ‘bugs’ around the forest?” I ask as I pull the tiny cameras out of my bag.
I held out my hand for him to see, there were ten of them. He looked at them, saying “She didn’t.”
“What? These are clearly Abby’s.” I gave him a confused look.
“Abby never put any cameras up, she has also never been here.”
“Then who put these up and how would they know we would be here?”