Chapter Seven
Burn
And the moment that Jay had been dreading. His question took most of his friends by surprise and the words from Lloyd's mouth.
With suspicion heavily imprinted into his voice, Lloyd finally gave an answer. "Why do you ask?" He responded, trying to maintain calmness in his words.
Jay searched his mind for a reply, and finally came up with the most generic and common answer he could muster. "I dunno, just wondering."
Kai glanced at the others, and already being on bad terms with the lightning ninja, he went straight for conclusions. "That's a weird thing to wonder, Jay. Planning something?"
Nya punched Kai in the shoulder much harder than he expected, and she shot him a dangerous look.
Jay, a little offended by Kai's assumptions, finally came up with an explanation. "You know, just in case it ever happens again."
"And why would that ever happen?" Lloyd cut in. He highly disliked this subject.
"Hey, you never know. So I was just wondering, like… how did his powers work? So, um, we don't have such a hard time defeating Morro again."
Lloyd sighed, sounding a little relieved. He was afraid that Jay had some bad news to deliver. "Well I don't really know. It wasn't really me, remember? It just felt… different."
"Don't we have to train?" Cole suddenly interrupted. Jay mentally cursed at him.
Lloyd nodded. "We'll talk about this later, 'kay?" Jay reluctantly agreed.
The air was crisp and icy, suggesting that the next storm would bring snow instead of rain. Jay could barely feel his exposed fingers and like the other ninja, he was sure he looked like Rudolph at this point.
Finally training was over, and Misako invited the sextet back into the warm temple. But instead of going straight to video games like his comrades, Jay caught the attention of Lloyd.
"So you were saying?"
Lloyd was secretly hoping that Jay would forget his little promise.
"Alright, but let's go somewhere more private. I don't like talking about these kinds of things in the open." Lloyd responded.
They exited into the empty kitchen, where the aroma of a cooking roast filled the air. Lloyd tried to find the right words. "It was different from using my actual powers." He began
"You already said that."
"Just listen. It felt like that the power wasn't coming from me, but the wind was." Lloyd explained slowly.
"I don't get it."
"Let me talk. But since I could kind of feel what was going through Morro's head, and I was seeing through his eyes, I could make some sort of inference of how Morro was creating that wind."
"How?" Jay asked, a little more demandingly than he meant to.
"Well… he wasn't creating it. The wind was already there. I couldn't feel it, but Morro could. A-and he was doing this thing where the wind was kind of following his breath. Or maybe his breath was following the wind? I couldn't really tell. And I didn't really care. I just wanted to get him out of my body. But anyway it was like Morro was-"
"Breathing like the wind…" Jay whispered under his breath.
"Yeah, yeah! That's what he was doing!"
Jay nodded. "Thanks Lloyd." He sounded a little disappointed.
"Hey man, you okay?"
Jay smiled weakly. "Yeah, I'm fine. Just a bit tired." He lied.
Lloyd could tell that Jay wasn't really fine, but decided not to push it. The two returned to the boys' bedroom, where the other ninja were playing some sort of fighting game and joined them.
Even Lloyd knew how to control the wind element, and he had absolutely no genetic connection to Morro. Jay began to doubt again that he was ever going to become the master of wind.
"Today we are going to try the kite again." Sensei Wu said. It was early morning again, and Jay was about ready to pass out from all the late-night gaming he had experienced the day before.
Jay went up to the brightly colored kite, ready to make an attempt to fly it like he had yesterday. A strong breeze was now blowing through the old monastery, and the lightning ninja was confident that the toy would soar through the air like it was supposed to. But Jay came across a significant problem. The string was now missing from the kite.
Jay picked up the plastic diamond. He turned around to face Wu, who was watching him closely. "Well played, Sensei. Well played." The blue ninja said slyly. The sensei smirked before taking a long sip of his steaming cup of tea.
Jay hurled the toy up into the air, hoping the wind would catch it. And it did. But… let's just say Sensei Wu had to go get a brand new kite to train with.
After strict instructions to keep the kite in one place, Jay racked his brain for a different solution to his problem. He looked around the clearing, but any materials that could have been used as a makeshift kite string were purposefully removed. Jay couldn't figure out how he would attach it to the main body anyway.
Jay eventually came up with another clever solution. He carefully set the kite on the ground, and stepped away. The blue ninja tightened the bright electric-blue belt around his waist and put his hands out in front of him. He wasn't going to try to summon wind this time. In fact, he was going to use an element he was much more comfortable with.
A flash of lightning sent the kite high into the air, and it was again swept away by the wind. Panicking, Jay threw another bolt at it and the kite caught fire. "No-no-no-no!" He cried, rushing after it.
The spirit of Morro must have felt pity on him or something, because a miraculous change in the air let the kite float gracefully back onto the ground; still in flames. Jay stamped on it madly, and the fire ceased.
The kite was charred and burnt. It was unlikely it would ever fly again. Jay picked up the smoldering remains and shuffled towards his sensei.
"I believe you have failed." Wu said when Jay stopped in front of him.
"I think we need a new kite. I'm sorry." Jay apologized. Sensei Wu stood up and walked past him.
"You tried to use a shortcut to achieve something that should be achieved through hard work and concentration."
"A trait of the master of wind, right?"
"Laziness is a trait no elemental master should possess, even the master of wind. You will continue with that kite. You have to learn there are no shortcuts in life. Or in the process of mastering a new element."
"I'm sorry."
"I appreciate your apology, but that won't change my decision. Now I think it is time for us to continue."
Training continued. Even after many days have passed, Jay felt like he had made zero progress and was no closer to becoming the master of wind, let alone the Forbidden Master of Storm.
The only thing Jay felt like for sure was that Kai was getting angrier with him each passing day. At the beginning of the new week, Kai refused to speak to his blue brother for the entire day. The next he purposefully used up all the hot water in the shower just so Jay could suffer right after. But nothing could compare to what he did today.
The sun was setting, and Jay finally had the opportunity to do what he really enjoyed. Jay threw off the white sheet covering his next creation: A prototype of what he called "The Lightning Bike."
The Lightning Bike was supposed to be a motorcycle infused with the power of lightning and was impossibly fast. Jay was eager to ride it. Unfortunately, he only had the frame finished so far.
"Sometimes I wish I had some sort of power where I could build things really fast, and like, know where everything was and where it was supposed to go." Jay mumbled to himself while searching for the welding torch. He was so close to getting the next step done.
"Your wish is yours to keep." A voice said behind him.
Jay whipped around. "Oh so you're talking to me now?" He replied angrily when he saw the fire ninja standing there instead of a djinn.
"It was a joke. Aren't you supposed to be the funny one?" Kai answered a little tauntingly. Kai inspected the unfinished vehicle on the other side of Jay. "What's that you got there?"
"Nothing."
"So you mean I could just…" Kai created a ball of flames in his hand, and inched it towards the creation.
"Hey! Don't touch that!" Jay shouted, forcing Kai's arm away.
"Then it's not nothing! What are you hiding, Jay?" The master of fire snapped back.
"Why don't you go bother Lloyd or someone else?"
"Cuz' if I spend any more time with him, fangirls are going to get the wrong idea!"
They both shuddered at the thought.
"Jay, I'm serious. What are you hiding? You haven't told us anything ever since you started privately training with Sensei. We're supposed to be your brothers!" Kai said, now using a much more serious tone. "We don't know if we should be suspicious or worried. What's going on?"
Jay looked away. "It doesn't matter. Now please leave me alone."
"You haven't been acting like yourself for days. Jay…" Kai looked Jay straight dead center in the eyes. "Nya is getting scared."
That took Jay by surprise. "Why would she be scared?"
"You've been acting strangely. You look like you're always paranoid, like something bad is going to happen. Zane is convinced something is wrong with your health, like you're not getting enough air. Then you ask Lloyd about Morro out of nowhere-"
"It was a valid question!"
"Jay! See how you just said that? You're getting angry and raising your voice for stupid reasons! Did something happen?" Kai asked almost desperately.
Jay thought about it. Maybe he was being a little temperamental these past few days? He shoved the thought into the back of his mind. "It's nothing, okay? Now leave me alone!" Jay growled. He shouldered past his brother and walked away.
Then Kai lost his temper.
There was a loud bang and sudden heat erupting from the direction of the Lightning Bike. Jay turned around to be faced with flames covering the majority of his workspace. And with Kai's powers, so was the bike.
"Kai!" Jay gasped. He tried to get closer, but the heat was too much to bear. All he saw was the silhouette of his beautiful creation falling into pieces and melting.
Kai started to panic. "J-Jay! I'm so sorry! I didn't-"
"What part of 'leave me alone' do you not understand? GET OUT!" Jay screamed, lightning sparking in between his fingers.
The rest happened so quickly it was hard to keep track of it all. Fire alarms echoed through the rooms of the temple. Nya and two fire extinguishers were tasked to put the flames out. All that remained of Jay's workshop were the ashes of wooden tools, charred metal ones, and the melted figure of Jay's Lightning Bike that took him so long to perfect.
The blue ninja saw Kai out of the corner of his eye frantically explaining to Sensei Wu and Lloyd what happened. Jay didn't even wait for them to leave or even stop talking to Kai. Jay stomped up to the red ninja, with everyone's eyes on him, and opened his mouth. "You know what Kai? You know what?" He said, laughing hysterically. "Fuc-"
"Jay!" Nya scolded before he can finish his sentence. She put a hand over his mouth.
Kai couldn't look Jay in the eyes for the rest of the night. Not like Jay wanted to speak to him.
A storm stirred again that night. Midnight it was at its worse. The wind was howling through the nooks and crannies in the walls. Jay couldn't fall asleep. Eventually he just got up paced up and down the hallway. Something was nagging him in the back of his mind. Then through the doorway into the living room he spotted the burnt bright colors of a certain kite. Gears started turning inside the blue ninja's head.
It was a long shot of course, but Jay had a feeling. Maybe, just maybe, today would be the day he made that kite fly.
Please excuse Jay's language XP.
