Check it out, my first cross-over, sorta. You'll see why soon enough. Enjoy and Review please!
It was a quiet morning in a small village in the mountains; the rice farmers were busy planting and harvesting their crops, the children were in bed trying to get an extra minute of sleep, and the young blacksmith was hard at work crafting his wares. No one seemed to notice an old man walk along the main pathway into the village. If they did, they only assumed he was just passing by, nothing exciting ever happened here, well except for the passing of the previous blacksmith; fortunately his teenaged son took over the shop along with his sister, who was mostly in charge of the finances and customers.
The boy with brown messy-spiked hair grunted a bit as he pounded the hot metal into the shape of a sword blade and then dipped it into cold water, all while saying, "To forge the perfect weapon, you just need the right metal and plenty of heat. Cool it off and… presto!"
He groaned when he saw that his "perfect weapon" had curled up and became completely useless. His sister (with short black hair and a red sleeve-less mandarin dress), however, was slightly amused.
"You made it too quickly Kai," the girl addressed her older brother, "be patient. If father was still here, he'd say…."
"I know," Kai interrupted, "'no matter how much fire you have, experience isn't something you learn overnight.'"
The two missed their father a lot, but Kai wanted to be like him and more, effective protecting his sister as a samurai would and putting the family shop "Four Weapons" on the map. In order to do that, the young man had to be better than the best-of-the-best!
Returning his attention to the forge, he stated, "That may work for you, Nya, but I'm gonna be a better blacksmith than dad ever was."
Has they were talking; neither of the two noticed an old man enter the shop.
"Hmm," the elder mused, "Your metal is loud and heavy: useful to slow one down, useless in the art of stealth. All tools of a samurai…"
The man paused and banged his bamboo walking staff against some armor before observing, "But nothing for a ninja?"
"Ninja?" Kai said while putting the "sword" away, "You're a long way from finding a ninja in these parts old man."
Then the younger male pointed to the sign on the roof and snapped while walking within an inch of the man's face, "And the shop is called 'Four Weapons' not 'For Browsing.' Either buy something or go peddle your insults somewhere else."
"Ha! Too bad," the old man remarked, "thought I'd find something special here."
Kai looked at his sister who gestured him to show the man around.
"If it's something special you're looking for, let me show…" The young blacksmith never got the chance to finish his sentence or apologize.
The old man left without another sound. Kai looked around a bit before muttering, "He was just…. Forget it."
After putting a helmet away, the boy looked back at the shop's entry wall; he couldn't help but feel lousy and that he was such a jerk. Kai didn't mean to be harsh, but this was the only way he could support himself and Nya. Sure he could just sell the shop and find another career, but she was really all he had left and he had no other way of keeping food stocks than to make and sell blacksmith wares. He only hoped the old man would understand, but the only thing the elder understood was that Kai was not a people-person.
Just then, smoky dark clouds covered the sky and the rice farmers looked up at the sound of motor powered vehicles, both of which were not commonly together in this part of Ninjago. Suddenly, the noise was identified as the sound of bone built motorcycles and monster truck of the Skeleton army!
On the monster truck, there were two high-ranking generals on either side, and the army's leader behind and between them.
"OOO! OOO! OOO!" the general with a metal eye patch and "bone-hawk" begged, "Let me go down there first, please! I'm dyin' to go down there!"
"You nitwit! You're already dead!" the general with the samurai helmet snapped, gestured to the spiky general then to their leader, "Try to control yourself in front of Master Samukai!"
Then, clearing his throat and playing kiss-up, the latter general addressed his master, "with all due respect sir, last time, you did say I could go first."
Looking at the two generals, Samukai stated, "Sorry boys, this one's mine. Just remember what we're after and… FIND. THAT. MAP!"
"ATTACK!" the master then ordered, raising a bone dagger as the signal.
The Skeletons rode into the little village like a biker invasion. Seeing that they were being attacked, the rice farmers charged the invaders; until Samukai shouted "BOO!" which caused a woman rice farmer to scream and the others to their homes, and the skeletons followed.
"What are they?" Nya asked herself and her brother while watching the commotion from their shop.
Weird things never happen here, so naturally she was worried. He was already wearing some of the armor they planned to sell, and a large curved sword in his hand; Kai was prepared for the worse. He lost his father, but he will not lose his home or worse his sister.
"I don't know," Kai answered, putting on a helmet before telling Nya, "Stay here."
Has soon as Kai entered the scene, two foot soldiers attacked: one wielding a thick bone for a weapon, the other had a bone with an ax blade. He blocked them one at a time, and then he took a swing at the bone-armed, only for its head to pop off. So he turned his focus to the soldier with the ax-bone and defeated it. His reward: a sudden pain on his leg.
"OW!" he cried.
Looking down, his saw the loose head bouncing in place.
"Bite this!" the armed blacksmith yelled before he kicked it over the shop's roof.
Two other foot soldiers, for some odd reason, stood by the side lines clapping; unfortunately for them, neither noticed Nya sneak up behind them before she knocked them to the ground. Kai noticed though, and he was agitated.
"I thought told you to stay back," he said with a raised sword and a worried look on his face, more concern about her safety than the dozen skeletons surrounding him.
"And what?" she explained as she jumped in to help take out the soldiers, "Let you have all the fun?"
Behind the sibling's backs, the two generals were sneaking into the shop. Splitting up, they started looking in the suits of armor. The helmeted general noticed that his comrade was actually admiring his reflection as he tried on one of the helmets.
"You're not looking hard enough!" the more focused general shouted, throwing a helmet at the sillier one.
"OW! You're not looking hard enough!" the spiked general countered, throwing the helmet back at his "friend" whose he turned 360 degrees.
The two then proceeded to slap-fight each other until the more serious general punched his companion into the front entrance wall. This caused a chain reaction of the phone falling off its receiver, two swords falling off the front bench, a main support pole for the sign to get loose, and the sign itself to fall. And behind the sign was:
"THE MAP!" the two generals exclaimed.
Pushing off another soldier, Kai turned to find that he was facing their leader, diverting the "samurai blacksmith's" from the two generals. The human laughed and moved into a fighting stance; after knocking down all those other bone-heads how hard can this guy be? Samukai uttered an evil chuckle and pulled out his bone daggers, ALL FOUR OF THEM!
"OOPS!" Kai muttered, realizing his error in judgment; This guy looked like trouble.
Samukai advanced slowly towards the boy, then uttered a battle roar and clashed weapons. Kai was doing his best to block each blow, but the master skeleton relieved the lad of the sword and kicked him down. Then, as Kai stared with a face blank of any fear, the skeleton leader rotated his hands, moving faster and faster to make a sawing effect for the final blow. Just as all was about to end for Kai, an elderly voice cried "NINJA GO!" and a golden tornado knocked the four-armed skeleton around. Getting back on his feet, Samukai recognized his new attacker: the old man who had visited Kai not more than three minutes ago.
"Sensei Wu!" the four-armed dead man mocked, "You're Spinjitzu looks rusty!"
"Nothing like bone to sharpen its edge, Samukai," the old man responded.
After hearing Kai grunt, Samukai turned his head to see that the boy was struggling to get up, and right under a tall water tower. With an evil chuckle, the skeleton threw his daggers at the elder (who dodged them easily) and struck one of the tower's legs, causing it to fall.
"Oh no," Kai muttered as he saw the tower falling towards him.
"Ninja Go!" the traveler shouted has he spun into the golden tornado and pushed Kai away from the tower.
The two heard Samukai chuckle again and saw him boarding the bony monster truck.
"Lord Garmadon says 'take the girl,'" the four-armed master told the helmeted general.
"Lord Garmadon?" the man whispered.
How could that be… there was no way… right?
The helmeted general laughed, even though he didn't go down first, he got to kidnap someone. Activating the grappling claw, he aimed and fired it at Nya who was still fighting off some skeletons. It grabbed her and she screamed.
"NYA!" Kai cried, his arms extended, as if to try to grab her back.
The claw pulled her to the top of the monster truck and the skeletons drove off, Samukai laughing all the way. Kai tried to run after them, but he couldn't keep up.
"They took Nya," he said to himself, a defeated look appearing on his face.
This was the worse day of his life, his sister was gone now, her life in danger, who knew what those boneheads would do to her. Kai tried not to think about that.
"I told you," the old man said, tapping the boy's helmet with his cane, "useless."
Kai growled. The old man obviously knew that undead four armed freak and had some sweet moves, which he used to save Kai but didn't bother to help Nya.
"You could've done something!" Kai yelled, "You could've used your twist-itzu, or your…"
"Spinjitzu!" the man corrected.
"But you did nothing," Kai finished, "I'm gonna get my sister back."
As the armored male walked off, the elder spoke, "where they go, a mortal cannot."
Kai stopped in his tracks; now the old guy wanted to help?!
"That was Samukai, king of the Underworld," the man continued as Kai turned to face him, "and if it is true that he's carrying out orders for Lord Garmadon, then I fear things are far worse than I ever thought."
"Lord Garmadon?! Underworld?! What do we have that's so important to them, and why would they take my sister?!" Kai ranted, gesturing distress with his arms.
"What's so important?! How about everything in Ninjago itself!"
And so the old man explained everything using history…
"Long before time had a name, Ninjago was created by the first Spinjitzu master, using the five weapons of Spinjitzu: the Scythe of Quakes, the Nun-chucks of Lightning, the Shurikins of Ice, the Gauntlets of Energy, and the Sword of Fire; weapons so powerful, no one can handle all their power at once.
"When he passed away, his two sons swore to protect them, but the oldest was consumed by darkness and wanted to possess them. A battle between brothers broke out and the oldest was struck down and banished to the Underworld.
"Peace returned and the younger brother hid the weapons. But knowing his brother's relentless ambition for power, he placed a guardian to protect them, and for fear of his own demise, a map for an honest man to hide..."
"That honest man was your father," the old man concluded, a sitting Kai looking with a somewhat amazed expression, "the older brother is Lord Garmadon, and I need to find those weapons before he does."
"You… you're the younger brother?" Kai realized, "then… you came here looking for the map?"
"No, I came for something greater… you."
Kai was confused, why would an aged warrior who still possessed great fighting skills need a young small-town blacksmith?
"Since my brother cannot enter this realm," the man explained, pointing at Kai when he came to his point, "it's obvious he has struck a deal with Samukai. If he were to collect all five weapons, even I would not be able to stop him again. But you… you have the fire inside. I will train you to harness it, use it; become a Spinjitzu master."
"Look, I'm faltered you think I'm all that, but I gotta save my sister, not get involved in your sibling rivalry," the lad responded.
But as he walked away, the old man attacked, pinning him down, the man's cane inches from the boy's face.
"Ha-ha, clumsy brute," the man addressed his victim, "you are not even ready to face my pinkie toe."
Kai struggled to push the man off, Nya and her safety were too important for the blacksmith, but the armor held him back.
"If you want to get your sister back, you must control the fire that burns inside. Only when you become a Spinjitzu master will you be able to face Lord Garmadon."
Looking up, Kai hesitantly agreed, "Okay, when do we start?"
So Kai had no choice but to agree; he didn't think the man would take 'no' for an answer anyways. But first, he had to follow the man to where he needed to train, which was apparently on the top of a very tall mountain. There was a craved-in staircase leading up to their destination, but no, the old man insisted on climbing up the opposite side, something Kai struggled at but the man took to like a spider. This was great, Nya was so hooped.
After what felt like, and probably was, hours of grueling work, they finally reached the top of the mountain. At the peak was a grand old building surrounded by a large outer brick wall with huge double doors in the front. The elder sat on a large boulder.
"How long is this training gonna be?" Kai asked, "Aren't we in a little bit of a rush since they have the map?"
"Patience," the man replied as he got up from his perch.
Opening the doors to an empty courtyard with a large dragon statue in the middle, the elder walked in while Kai slowly followed.
"You will be ready when you are ready. Not a minute sooner," the man continued.
"A monastery? You expect me to learn how to fight in a place of peace?" Kai panted.
"Not fight… train. To become a true ninja, first you must be able to see what others do not."
"But there's nothing here!"
The old man lightly tapped the post of a smaller dragon statue near the entrance, which then fell backward but was still hinged, revealing a small red button. The lad gasped as he watched the elder press the button. In response, the training equipment rose from its resting place under the courtyard, creating an obstacle course that seemed to be meant to increase ones speed and stamina.
"Whoa! Is this gonna teach me to do that cool move?" Kai asked in excitement.
He then jumped into a crane position onto one of the posts, jumped again this time facing the man, but then the post started to sink into the floor under Kai's weight.
"Oh dear…" was all the elder had time to say.
Kai was then flung off, and fell onto the dragon statue twice before landing on the floor. He looked up to see his "teacher" sitting down on the front steps with a tea set next to him.
"Complete the course before I finish my tea, and then we will see if you are ready," he instructed, pouring some tea into a cup.
The old man then drank the cup quickly while Kai is still on the ground, and set the cup on his lap.
"Today you failed," he said, before entering the monastery, "Tomorrow you will try again."
"FAILED?! But I didn't start to…" Kai protested, but the doors closed.
"Patience," the lad heard the elder say from behind the door.
Over the next few days, Kai slowly improved on each course but failed every time by something that caught him off guard. This drove him crazy and mad, his sister was in mortal danger and here he was, playing ninja but not getting anywhere. So, after many failed attempts, Kai entered the courtyard with a determination like he never had, and the old man noticed it but pretended not to care. This time, Kai moved so swiftly, the elder had to be equally swift to get in his sugar cubes; and as he was about to take a sip, Kai threw his wooden play-sword , knocking the tea-cup out of the man's hands half way through the course. The elder leaned over to start again, but when he looked up, Kai was nowhere in sight.
"Was that one sugar or two?" he heard Kai say; the lad had finished and was now sitting next to the man.
The elder smiled, got up and started to walk into the monastery.
"So… am I gonna learn this Spinjitzu I've been hearing about?" Kai asked.
"You already have. Your final test comes tomorrow," the elder answered before the doors closed," My advice is to get some sleep."
Later that night in the training grounds, four black garbed figures sneaked onto and through the building without waking up the old man. The figures made their way to the bathroom where Kai, now in a pair of striped red PJs, was brushing his teeth.
My advice is to get some sleep, the words reminisced in Kai's mind.
"Oh yeah? Well take this! And this!" Kai said, as he "fought" his reflection.
He waved his brush around forcefully while the figures landed in the room without making a sound, "And this!"
Kai then spun around and stopped, for he came face to face with a figure wielding a scythe. The others surround him. One had two metal shurikens, another held a pair of nun-chucks, and the fourth didn't seem to be armed except for her metal armbands. Of the four, Kai could tell that the armband-intruder was most likely female.
"Oops," Kai muttered, gritting his teeth.
To be continued….