Chained Elements, Book One: Green Fire

Chapter One: Lost

An icy wind blew, messing up the boy's golden blonde hair as he walked through the streets of Ninjago, hands shoved into his pockets for warmth. Spying his destination across the street, he crossed the road and entered the safe, warm refuge of the shop, the welcome bell singing. "Hi!" a young girl greeted him from behind the counter, the glass display cabinet filled with cakes and biscuits. He smiled at her in return and scanned the display cabinet for a sweet that took to his liking. "Can I please have two cappuccinos, one long black and two espressos please?" the boy asked, taking out his wallet and shuffling through the notes. "Sure. Anything else?"

"Uh, just a bit of that carrot cake please."

"Ok, that'll be $12.60." The boy handed over the money and the girl smiled, almost fakely at him. He had just noticed that the girl looked like the cupcake type (NfaN reference), what with huge almond eyes lathered with eyeliner and mascara, and heaps of foundation, what with half of her lips covered with it. "Can I please have a name for that order?" The girl asked brightly, smiling painfully again. God. It was hurting his eyes. "Uh, Lloyd," he replied. "Thanks, your order will ready in a few minutes." Lloyd sat down on the small red leather couches, the material giving way as he nestled down into it. Why did they need my name? He pondered, staring at nowhere in particular. There's no one else in here. He shrugged it off, it was nothing over important anyway.

"Ok, Lloyd, your order is ready," The girl beamed. Taking the cups and the small bag, Lloyd muttered a quite 'thank you' and went on his way.

-Lloyd

Whew, the air was freezing. It was hard to not shake the coffee so much that it spilled over, what with my body chattering so much.

It seemed like forever until I reached the comforting glow of the apartment lobby, my home. It had three years- very long ones- since I had defeated the Overlord. After the victory, there was nothing much left to do, I mean, the other ninja and I cleaned up the town, and then the whole Techno thing took over. Now we live in a spacious apartment, in a tall tower, in New Ninjago City. No one recognised us any more- we were basically a bunch of nobody college students just living our everyday lives.

Cole and Jay had, well, sort of detached from the group. Jay ended up marrying Nya, and Cole had gone- well, elsewhere. We never heard from him anymore- heck, we didn't even know what country he was in. It was just me, Kai, Zane, Sensei and my parents now. Every week we spent at college, and the weekends were spent skateboarding and playing video games. Jokes aside, we were pretty much losers.

"Hey Lloyd," the lobby receptionist greeted. "'Sup," I slightly raised my hand in welcome and climbed into the elevator, pressing floor 54. The elevator started to whizz as it climbed upwards, and I got that heavy feeling that I always got when I went into an elevator. It actually sort of made me feel sick.

My stomach was interrupted as the elevator came to a jolting stop. "THE ELEVATOR IS BROKEN. PLEASE WAIT FOR ASSISSTANCE." A female voice said, coming from the speaker built into the walls. "Well, peachy. Just peachy," I muttered under my breath, already feeling utterly bored. Putting down the coffees, I pulled out my phone, and dialled the lobby number. Pulling it up to my ear, I tapped my foot impatiently until there was a crackle on the other end, meaning someone had answered it. "Uh, hi," I said harshly, "The elevator is broken. You should really service this stuff, I mean, the last time I saw you service this thing was like-"

"Lloyd," a scratchy, low voice said on the other end. "Um, yes, this is Lloyd. Have you finally added me to your phonebook?"

"Grave danger, my master is he. Tick tick tock, cut run chop." Wait, what?! "Ok, my guess is this is a prank. It's not funny. As soon as I get out of this damned elevator-"

"Mylon is almighty. Brothers he will kill. Throats he will slice-" I hung up, breathing heavily, my head still processing this sudden situation I had gotten myself stuck in the middle of. I had to find a way out of here. I looked up, spying the square outline of the escape hatch in the almost rusty ceiling. Climbing onto the railing that lined the elevator, I reached up and gave the hatch a strong shove. Confused onto why it wasn't opening, I studied the edges. Then I remembered- they had permanently closed the hatch a couple of years ago, obviously assuming that they elevator was perfect and would never break down.

Frowning and starting to panic, I jumped down, the elevator giving an ever-so-reassuring jolt, the coffees spilling everywhere. There must be a way out, I thought, but to no use. The doors were firmly shut, to no avail accepting to open, and there were no buttons even responding. Just as I was about to go have a panic attack, there was an ominous descending sound as the power suddenly simply just clicked off, leaving me in a disturbing and complete darkness. Taking a deep breath, I closed my eyes and tried to calm down. But trying to calm down was as hard as getting Sensei Wu to give up drinking tea.

I slammed my back against the elevator and slid down the metallic silver wall of the suffocating, claustrophobic hunk of a thing, my head in my knees. I had no idea whatsoever on how to get away from this abysmal place. Then, an idea popped into my upset brain. Slowly, my head lifted up, formulating a genius (at least, I thought it was) plan. It was fool proof. All those years… I had forgotten basically the only life skill I had ever learned. I was a ninja.

I stared down at my hands. They were dirty, the creases black with elevator scum and dust. It was hard to believe that all that time ago, energy that could take down monstrous black demons had come out of them. Fire, the power to cause devastation, and utterly destroy. Earth, the power to split whole cities, while sucking in every unfortunate being that just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time into the clutches of its darkness. Lightning, the power to cause catastrophes in a blink of an eye. And lastly, ice, the power to ultimately kill in every form.

Closing my eyes, my eyelashes fluttered. Slowly, I reached my hand up, afraid that I couldn't harness the destroying elements anymore. Concentrating, I thought of ice, I thought of it sliding up into the air, bringing everything it touches into an eternal sleep. Peeking with one eye open, I gazed as a white trail of white started drifting up from my fingertips that were shaking with immense power. It was beautiful, little unique snowflakes coming separated from the main group and resting on my nose. I smiled, my teeth showing. I had done it. I didn't have to be stuck in this hellhole of an elevator for forever!

Eventually, I started laughing. They were small little chuckles, but they seemed to lighten the whole atmosphere. But can I tell you, if someone was in there with me, they would probably have thought that I was crazy. Even without the ice.

As soon as the ice touched the metal ceiling, the whole rood froze. Small little icicles glittered, hanging. I wished I could be that free. Now, for the next part of my 'grand master' plan, as I had come to call it. Taking a big breath, I stomped my foot down on the ground. A pulsing, violent shudder ran through the whole elevator. The ice shattered, half of the roof disappearing along with it. Jumping up, I spun around, and was soon surrounded by my ever-so-familiar Spinjitzu. I found myself on the top of the elevator, next to a thick rope that barely looked like it was holding on. Looking up, I found, much to my disappointment that the next level was rather high up, even for my Spinjitzu. Jumping down back into the elevator, the frown that was on my face turned upward, my lips curling the other way. I placed my hand gently on the elevator wall, shuddering at the metal's sudden coldness it brought through my body. I sent a small but effective little spark of electricity out of my hand. I could see it climb upwards through the metal until it nestled itself into the wires. The whole electrical circuit came back to life, and the elevator started whizzing upwards, until it unfortunately stopped just below my floor, the uncomfortable whizzing sound occurring again, my whole world- and my mood- going dark. Well, at least it was something.

Rocketing myself up onto the roof, I could feel the power running through my veins. Leaping up with all my possible strength, I flung myself into my whirlwind, my hair going astray as I almost flew upwards. I landed safely of on the small ledge that was supposed to separate the elevator from the secondary door.

I stopped and looked down. Boy, that was a big jump- no, let me correct myself- that was an inhuman jump. I already had everything planned out. It was part of my nature, I didn't improvise. I had to have something solid to copy from, otherwise I would be utterly gobsmacked when I ran out of manoeuvres. Taking a small step back in caution, I turned my head slightly away as I let loose a big inferno from my hands. Surprisingly, I didn't feel any heat, but it seemed the metal door did. As the flames stopped, I coughed and flung the smoke that was filling my lungs away with my hand. And there, directly in front of me, was a big hole in the door. The edges were crisp, red and utterly destroyed. I stepped through the gaping almost-circle, being extremely careful not to touch the red-hot flames, or I could kiss my ass goodbye.

Turning right, I continued down the hallway, counting the rooms as I passed by. The small numbers whizzed past, as I ran in panic towards the apartment. "Whew. At last," I breathed as I came to the door that I had become so accustomed to over the years. Reaching into my pocket, I felt for my keys, but all I could feel was a pocket full of scrunched-up tissues. I looked down, remembering that I had very stupidly left them on the counter at the café. Only then did I realise the runny crimson blood splattered on the dreary coloured carpet.

I literally almost had a heart attack, right then and there, in that hallway. "KAI?" I screamed, rattling the door handle. I shoved and pushed but it would just not come unlocked. Stepping away, I screamed again. "ZANE? MUM? SENSEI? DAD?!" Tears threatened to spill over, and I found myself gulping. What can I do? I asked myself. I was stuck in the (almost) worst situation one could find themself in. Looking down at my hands, I saw them shaking, and wet with tears. Sniffing, I held back the weak approach, and stood up straight. No. I was not going to let a stupid door stop me.

I focussed so hard, my hands shaking even more than before. Holding my hands slightly apart, I started to grunt as green energy started appeared in my hand and started to gradually grow. I could see wisps of sheer power running through it- that's what was swimming through my veins. With one last grunt, the energy ball was released, right into the front of the powerless, inanimate door.

There was pause before life seemed to be sucked out of the room. My ears rung- smoke started to choke me.

I stumbled into the room, the whole door and part of the roof and floor inexistent. I almost fainted at the sight I saw in the living area in our once-comfortable apartment- there was crimson, runny blood splattered on the carpet, the once daisy-yellow carpet now a crime scene. The window was broken- yet no evidence of how a person could of escaped from a 54th storey building- jumping from this great height was basically suicide. It was inhumane.

The only conclusion left was that our criminal wasn't actually human.

It had enough of it. I'd had enough of all the crazy mutant snakes, unbelievably powerful dragons. Now it was probably happening again. I never got to deliver the coffees. They were still in that godforsaken elevator. Oh well, at least I had my bit of delicious carrot cake. Yum.

Pulling the brown paper bag out of my pocket, I nibbled on it. It was a bit too dense for my liking, but at least it calmed me down a bit, allowed me room to think. It was comforting, almost. The only thing that was stopping me from raging out the window myself in search of my brothers.

Then I spied the piece of paper- a white, little note flapping in the breeze, partially trapped by a thick magazine. Walking over to the table, I picked it up, and started to read.

To my dearest Green Ninja,

You are so gullible.

You are going to pay the price for being so.

My soul craves blood- it crazes the pleasure of killing. You are so alone, so vulnerable- heh, you probably think you can possible stop me.

Well, sorry to ruin your day bub, but it isn't going to happen. I've got your fellow ninja, and everyone you love. Everyone who cares about you. Soon, nobody will. I'm sorry, but you do have another option.

Sacrifice yourself. Come to the place where the devils reap, where shadows rule. There, we will have our duel.

Tick tock, cut run chop ninja, you have nowhere to hide.

Yours sincerely,

Mylon

Clenching my fist, I almost didn't care when my whole body caught on fire and burned the note to a crisp.

"Watch your back, Mylon. One of us is going to die, and it's not going to be me."

Well, there you have it. The first chapter, and the first conclusion to the very epic Chained Elements series.

This chapter (and probably the rest of the book) is dedicated to the dearest KairiVenomus, who's basically a sister to me, even though she doesn't notice. Thank you so much for reading!

I've got to say sorry for putting Can't Keep A Secret on hold. And discontinuing the Old Green Fire. I've just got so much happening in my life right now, and I can only afford to have one story going at a time. Also, after taking my six month break from Fanfiction, I realised how much better my writing could be. So I discontinued it. Can't Keep A Secret, I promise I will try and get to that as soon as my very busy schedule clears up. It will be an about once to twice a week update, sorry. I swim competitively, and you don't know how much training and energy it takes.

Thank you again, and please rate, review, follow, favourite and keep reading!

Also, go have a fantasfabulous day/night! (Yes I did Kairi. Yes I did.)

-1dninjagolloyd, aka Steph :D