We approached the docksman as he scratched his head, looking at the broken dock.
"You look a bit troubled, sir. Is there anything we can do to help you?" Cole asked, smiling. The docksman turned, looking pleased to see our presence.
"Ah, yeah. I've been trying to repair this dock for a while now, but it's becoming impossible," the docksman said, taking off his cap for a moment to scratch his balding head.
"Let us help you then! We can get this done in no time," Jay said positively.
"Really? Well, okay, tell you what. If you guys are able to fix this dock, I'll pay you greatly," the docksman offered. We all nodded. Hopefully it's enough to get the scroll, or aeroblades. Whatever we're after.
"We won't let you down!" Cole said, smiling and jogging over to the dark. We all followed him.
"Okay, so, Kai. You work the crane," Cole said, pointing at the crane nearby, then he turned to the rest of us, "As for us, let's get the hammers and nails. Lilly, you sure you're gonna be fine doing this? With your hand and all?"
Lilly sighed, as if she were annoyed. "Just because my hand's broken doesn't mean I can't do stuff," she said.
"We just want to make sure your hand's condition doesn't get worse. You don't want them to amputate your hand when we finally get you to a hospital, do you?" I said. She shrugged.
"I dunno. Getting my hand amputated and getting a robotic hand would be pretty cool, not to mention the robotic hand would definitely look badass," Lilly said. Ugh, amputation isn't a good thing!
"Alright, let's get to fixing this dock, before we lose anymore time," Cole said walking over to a section of the dock. I nodded and went to different section, nailing a board into place. Zane started to shout cheers as we worked, lifting our spirits and motivating us. To be honest, I didn't know androids could become cheerleaders in a flash. I honestly wonder what Zane would be like if he were a cheerleader at a highschool or something.
I had to rest after nailing a few more boards into place, as my headaches started up again. They throbbed, as if someone inside my head were trying to shatter my forehead open with a hammer. I watched my friends work along as Zane shouted cheers in a positive voice. I smiled. If only Lloyd were here to see this, right? He'd be so happy. Well, I'm sure he's seen his team work together like this many times before but, I don't know, this just seems so great. It's something I'd never see the sports teams from school or my old friends do. Everyone is just working together in perfect harmony. It's something I thought I would have seen in a big battle or a movie, but no. I'm seeing it when we're fixing a stranger's dock. And really, there's nothing wrong with that. I'm just happy to see my friends working together so well.
Just when I thought things were going great for us again, bad luck decided to return and screw things up again. I saw the crane arm swing and drop a pile of heavy logs onto the dock. My eyes widened and I quickly moved out of the way of the logs. Unfortunately, I tripped over the edge of the dock, but I grasped the edge just in time before I fell into the dark water. Phew. That was close. But is everyone else okay? More importantly, why did Kai drop the logs onto the dock!? Or did he mean to?
I started to climb back onto what remained of the dock when I felt something wrap itself around my leg and tightened. It tried to pull me into the water too. I looked down to see something green wrapped around my foot. It looked like a snake at the time. I would later learn what it really was.
I let out a shriek, thinking some kind of mutant sea snake was trying to pull me into the water so I could become its snack.
I quickly crawled onto a remaining piece of the dock, continuously hitting my foot against the boards, trying to get this thing to get off my foot. It finally let go of my foot and receded into the water as Jay ran up to me.
"Are you alright?" he asked. He probably heard me shriek earlier.
"Why was there a snake trying to pull me into the water!?" I shouted, shaken up by what just happened. My headache hurt even worse now though.
"Snake? Oh, you probably got caught on some strangle weed," Jay said. Strangle Weed!? Who gives a plant that kind of name!? It sounds more like a name you would give a murder!
"I've encountered that stuff before. It's pretty scary the first time it catches you," Jay said, offering a hand to help me up. I took it and stood up.
"Is everyone okay though?" I asked as we walked down a sliver of what used to be the dock.
"Well, Zane's speech and voice got screwed up. I could try to fix it, but it wouldn't be easy. If only we had trusted someone other than Kai to pilot the crane," Jay sighed, "Other than that, everyone is fine. No injuries."
I felt relieved, but a little mad now. Zane was a huge help for this whole thing! Now we won't possibly understand him at all! Ugh, why are we suddenly being stricken with all this bad luck!? Did we do something to deserve this!? If so, what!?
The docksman was pretty upset to find his dock had been destroyed, and obviously, we didn't get any money. Jay tried desperately to fix Zane's speech with the only tools he had, but all he could do was get Zane's speech to be in reverse. Just our luck, huh? Now how are we supposed to get the scroll!?
"I'm sorry Zane, you tried to lead, but I guess it didn't work out too well," Cole said.
"I guess we're stuck now, huh?" Kai said, looking guilty.
"What are we, a bunch of quitters!?" Jay exclaimed, looking disappointed at all of us.
Lilly raised her hand slightly. "Um, I didn't say I quit," she said.
Jay, ignoring Lilly's statement, continued on, "Sure we don't understand Zane now, but did we ever?" Zane turned to look at him, giving him a what-did-you-just-freaking-say face. I expected Zane to push him into the water for that statement.
"Kai's the last person I'd ever I would want to follow. But now I'm the one in charge, and we may not have money for the scroll, but I say we don't need it," Jay continued. What did he mean 'we don't need it'? Wait, he doesn't mean-!?
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"We're gonna steal it," Jay smiled. He meant it. I knew it. But, stealing is against my morals! I know if I steal I'll get in trouble, but is this an exception? I didn't know how to feel.
"Jay, we're ninja, not thieves!" Cole said, crossing his arms. I nodded.
"Yeah, but we're stealing from a thief," Jay reminded Cole. He was right. Ronin did technically steal my mother's chestplate, as well as many other things. I guess it can't be that bad to steal from a thief...
"I don't really think it would be a good idea, Jay. This could turn violent quickly if Ronin is the right kind of person," Lilly said. Jay huffed.
"Hey! I'm the leader and what I say goes!" Geez, so being leader allows you to act like a mild tyrant? "After Ronin locks up tonight, we're gonna steal the scroll of Airjitsu."
I still didn't like the idea of stealing, but I had no choice. It was our last resort to get the scroll and save Lloyd. If I have to go against my morals to save my best friend from this evil ghost, so be it. I'll do whatever it takes.
We silently waited for Ronin to lock his shop, then we made our move. Under the cover of night, we snuck roof to roof to his shop. We made our way to the shop, being delayed when Jay fell through the roof of a home, causing a woman to shriek. I tried not to laugh at the noise, but I couldn't help it.
"Eh, let's try to be a little more quieter. We're ninja, remember? Not elephants," Cole said when Jay regrouped with us. Cole broke a window, allowing us to get into the shop. Gee, never knew I'd be doing something like this. Stealing from a shop. My parents would be disappointed in my actions, but it's for good, right? I'm sure they'd understand.
I looked around, trying to find the scroll, despite my sudden nausea. I had a feeling this wasn't going to go well. Why? Because, look at what's happened so far today! Ronin won't give us the scroll, the dock we were fixing was destroyed, and Jay fell through someone's roof, possibly alerting the authorities. How could this go any better? I'm sure our bad luck followed us into this shop.
I listened to Jay brag about how he was going to be the "great leader that saved Lloyd", and Cole thinking he found the scroll, but it was actually the blade cup. I get it's dark in here but Cole, how could you not tell it was the blade cup when you picked it up!?
"I'm taking this back," Cole said, holding onto it, "My dad danced hard for this."
Suddenly, I heard a shriek escape Jay. "Holy lights! The organ's got me! The organ's got me!" he panicked. I turned to see the pipe of an organ wrapped around Jay. He struggled and kicked, trying to get out. "Water! Water!"
He seemed to forget none of us had water on hand.
"You know, if that goddamn ghost didn't break my hand, I could have gotten you out by now," Lilly said, trying to remind Jay she didn't have her powers. I saw Cole suddenly give his dad's trophy to Zane, then run up to what looked like a jug. He poured water from the jug onto the organ. The organ released Jay, dropping him onto the floor. He crawled away from it, shaken. Zane said something, but I couldn't quite understand him.
"I think he said 'That must have been one of Morro's friends'," Cole guessed. I'm sure of it. It's not everyday that an organ restrains someone like that.
"And there's more where that came from!" someone shouted from the other side of the shop. I turned to see Lloyd, no, Morro standing there, a smile on his face. With the armor he was wearing, he summoned more ghost allies. They floated around us, their ghostly moans sounding like something similar to a movie. You know what? No. I'm not dealing with this. I want to fight Morro, not these stupid ghosts!
"Morro, you coward! Quit summoning ghosts and take us on like a man!" I shouted, evading a hit from a ghost.
"A confident one, huh? Ha, I remember when I used to be like you," I heard Morro say. I felt a ball of dark magic grow in my hand. Woah, I guess I can use it with thinking sometimes! I threw the ball towards Morro, hoping I wouldn't hurt Lloyd too much. I mean, whatever Morro does to Lloyd's body, Lloyd is going to feel it and notice it when he comes back into control. Or, that's at least what I know from movies.
Morro dodged it, hidden by sudden fog that was appearing in the room. I turned to see my friends using the aeroblades. It looked like the aeroblades killed the ghosts from that I could see. I ran over and grabbed mine. I threw it at a ghost floating above Kai. The aeroblade flew back to me, like a boomerang. Now this is nice! It's the only good thing that happened to us today! Maybe we actually do have some good luck! Suddenly I heard a crash, my friends yelling "The scroll!", and the sound of a whistle. The building shook then. Well, just our luck. I actually thought we were going to be lucky for once, but I was wrong. I know I always say I was wrong when I thought something, but this time, I was big time wrong. So wrong I could have failed a class on this. Very, very wrong.
