[A/N: I had fun writing this. Updating From Normal to Ninja was becoming a chore.]
It started with losing the feeling in his arm. He could still move it, so he assumed it was asleep. It stayed that way the entire day, and then he went to bed and hoped it'd be better in the morning.
It was worse in the morning. One of his fingers was missing, leaving a gap between his pointer and ring finger, plus his arm was still numb. He stared at it, fingers splayed out, before finally touching the area where his finger should've been. He felt nothing and screamed in shock.
"What's wrong, Cole?!" Kai asked, looking over at him from his bunk.
He held up his hand, but Kai acted like he couldn't tell what was wrong. "So?"
"I...um...got a splinter," he lied. If he doesn't see it, I'm not giving him a reason to think I'm crazy, Cole thought.
Kai rolled his eyes. "Wimp."
If his mind wasn't on the finger situation, Cole would've argued over Kai's comment.
"Who's a wimp?" Jay's voice said, "Did I say that out loud?"
"Yeah. Why?"
"I don't hear myself."
"Do you hear me?"
Jay nodded.
"That's weird. Maybe you should tell Sensei," Cole said, "I have something I've been meaning to ask him, so maybe I can come with you." And I'll see if I'm hallucinating, he thought. Jay shrugged.
"Where's your finger?" Jay said to Cole in the hallway.
"Oh, you see it too?"
"Guess so."
"Kai didn't see it."
"Cause I'm not tricking him," said a sorta high-pitched voice.
"Who was that?" Jay said, looking at Cole, who shrugged.
"Me."
"Who are you?" Cole asked. The ninjas looked around in an attempt to pinpoint where the voice was coming from.
"To some people, I'm a magician. To others, I'm a lunatic. To you, I'm a trickster."
"What's your name?" Cole tried again.
"I've been called many things: wierdo, thief -but you can call me Seth."
"Just show yourself already!"
A young boy around 7 or 8 appeared.
"Oh, that explains the voice," Jay said.
"What are you even doing here, kid?"
"Using the power of illusions. It's fun. You 'lose' a finger," -he pointed at Cole-"and your own voice is lost on you!" the little blonde chuckled at his own private joke.
"That's you?"
"Course it is."
"Then stop!"
"Why should I? Do you have any candy or cake or ice cream to bribe me?"
"You are not touching my cake!" Cole shouted. Jay shot him a look that said, Really?
"Suit yourself. But it only gets worse from here." The little boy snapped his fingers and disappeared without a trace.
"This has to stop!" Cole yelled one morning when he realized he had no arm at all.
It was a week since Cole and Jay had seen Seth in the hallway, and everyday was worse than the last. Jay had gradually went from not hearing his voice to not having a voice at all. Beginning the day before, he couldn't speak, and he hated it.
"Will you give me something sweet?" Seth's voice said, the first time they'd heard it since he'd snapped his fingers and left a week ago.
"I guess I can go buy some candy or something."
"That'd be OK, I guess. But it ain't worth an entire arm and a voice."
Cole sighed. "What do you want?"
"At least you and Lloyd will take me out for ice cream, chocolate, and I can get all the toppings I want. You guys can get ice cream too, but you're paying. And pretend I'm like your best friend so I can make Davey and Alex jealous."
"Wow... Let me wake Lloyd and then we need to get dressed."
"Good, I don't wanna be seen with ninja in their pajamas. Then again, the pirates thought your regular ninja outfits or whatever were p.j's."
"How do you know about that?"
"I'm one of y'all's biggest fans. I saw you fight pirates, and I watched you sail off to the Dark Island, and I cheered for you at Ninjaball Run, and I signed up at Grand Sensei Darreth's Mojo Dojo 'cause I thought maybe I could learn spinjitsu, but all I've learned is dumb animal impressions."
"Why in the world would you think Darreth could teach you spinjitsu?" Cole laughed.
"Because he says he's the brown ninja. But what kind of element is hot air? Wind or just air would make more sense, don't you think? And he didn't have a Golden Weapon either. Say, what happened to those anyway?"
Gosh, this kid reminds me of Jay! Cole thought. "It's a long story."
"I bet you and Lloyd will have more than enough time to tell me. I eat my ice cream real slow so I don't get brain freeze."
"Let's get this over with. Lloyd, get up," Cole said, walking over to Lloyd.
"Five more minutes and then I'll train, Uncle!"
"Lloyd, this is Cole."
"I won't train with you either."
Seth suddenly burst out laughing.
The boy forced himself to stop long enough to say, "Come on, golden ninja! Come with us please!"
"Who's that?"
"We're taking a kid out for ice cream. Get up and get dressed."
Lloyd finally sat up, his hair a mess.
"Fix your hair, too," Seth added.
"Why am I coming exactly?"
"Because if Alex and Davey see me with the 2 most powerful ninjas they'll finally let me in their club."
"Shh, don't let Kai hear you say that," Cole said, "He thinks he's the best ninja."
"I didn't know you could be funny too."
"What club?" Lloyd asked.
"Like I said, we'll have plenty of time to talk later."
"Can't you just make people think Lloyd is dressed and stuff?"
"Not on that many people at once. I'm not some all-powerful wizard!"
"And yet you can influence Jay and I for an entire week."
"So that's what this is about. Cole, we can all see you have an arm!" Lloyd exclaimed.
"Would Jay really go silent this long for a prank?"
"Fine, I believe you."
"It's been draining my energy all week. I've fallen asleep in class twice. Besides, I'm pretty sure Jay talked in his sleep the other day," Seth replied to Cole's earlier comment.
"You'd sacrifice that much for ice cream?"
"What can I say? I've only had it at Shadow's 18th birthday party a few years ago."
"Who's Shadow?"
"She's my sister, but she acts more like me and Toto's mom."
"Toto? Isn't that the dog from the Wizard of Oz?" Lloyd asked.
"My sister was named Shadow, but you question the fact that my brother's named Toto?"
"Good point. How old are you again?"
"8 and a half, but I'm like to think I'm smarter than average. Now hurry up! We've wasted enough time with all this chit-chat!"
Lloyd turned his attention to Cole. "So we're just gonna let ourselves be bossed around by an 8-year-old?"
"I really don't have a choice."
"But he has no control over me."
"Actually, I dropped Jay's last night and I could do anything I wanted to you, even if you are the golden ninja."
"I'm really suppose to belie-" he suddenly stopped mid-sentence and gasped.
"What the heck did you do?!" Cole shouted at the boy.
"Who are you yelling at? Hey, my voice is back!"
"Oh, great. Jay's up," Seth said.
"Is that who I think it is?"
"If you think it's Seth, then yes," Cole replied.
Jay got out of his bed.
"Do you all wear those dumb striped pajamas?"
"What'd you do to Lloyd?!" Cole said again.
"Relax, Cole. He's fine," he said before snapping his fingers.
"What in the world did you just do to me?!" Lloyd yelled immediately.
"Wake up the whole ship, why don't cha?" Seth commented, "Now are we going for ice cream or not? 'Cause I can do much more. My imagination is the only limit, and mine is over active."
"Seth! What the heck do you think you're doing?!" a young woman was standing in the doorway.
"Shadow! Why are you here?!"
"Andy told me you were here."
"The little traitor!" Seth muttered.
"I'm sorry for any trouble he may have caused," Shadow said, grabbing the boy's arm, "Now undo anything you did!"
"You're no fun," he pouted, snapping his fingers with the other hand. Cole saw his arm reappear out of the corner of his eye.
"Don't be so hard on him," said another voice, "He was just having some fun."
"He made my arm disappear!"
"He stole my voice! It was horrible!"
"I think it's been pretty peaceful," Cole said.
"Go home, Toto!" Shadow said to the teenager behind her.
"Don't boss me around. Come on, Seth!"
They all left, leaving the three awake ninja staring.
"That's not how I expected this to end..." Jay said.
"How the heck did you expect this to end?!"
"I dunno. I guess I thought he'd become the ninja of illusions or something. That's how all the fan fictions end."
"Jay?"
"Yeah?"
"Why the heck do you read fanfictions?"
"Do I have to answer that?"
"If my brother's illusions, can I be animals? I'm a shapeshifter!" Toto suddenly said, poking his head into the bedroom and turning into a wolf and back again as proof.
"I thought you left."
"Come on, you idiot!" Shadow shouted at her brother, "...but if we're picking elements, I call light."
"I think Lloyd's light, Mrs. Invisibility," Toto told his sister.
"No, he's just the Ultimate Spinjitsu Master," Seth informed his brother.
"Are you going or not?" Jay said.
"Yeah," Shadow answered before her brothers could.
"See you later."
"Oh, heck no!" Jay shouted, "If I ever see you again I'll tell Sensei you drank his tea!"