Alright so here's the next chapter. Some stuff happens but nothing /that/ interesting in my opinion. Bit short too, but hey, my fight scenes are where most of my words come from anyway! Enjoy!
Chapter 9: Elemental Alliance V2
Ever since Cole gave Jay the win in their fight, Chen had put him to work in the factory where all the noodles, fortune cookies, and more are made. Oh great, he thought as he saw guards bring in more people. It seems like yesterday's losers weren't spared either. Oh well. At least it'll give some more company and lighten the amount of work we have to do. Cole saw Tox, master of Poison, and Paleman, Master of Light being brought here. Along with them he saw a boy he hadn't seen earlier. At least the other ninja haven't gotten out yet.
Karlof went up to the new workers and showed them how to use the machines since he was the most experienced of them all. Cole was beginning to become friends with the big guy, and he didn't understand why Kai hated him.
"You use this handle to make noodles come!" Karlof was explaining to them. The boy Cole didn't recognize (or man, because he looked older than Cole?) was just standing there, emotionless. Cole decided to talk to him. "Hey, I'm Cole, what's your name?"
"I'm Chris. I know you're going to ask me about my powers, blah blah. I'll just tell you right now. I am the Master of Water. My twin sister and I, Master of Air, came here late because of some reasons."
"So where's your sister?"
"I challenged Shade Master of Shadow because Shade hadn't fought anyone this round. Chen let me and I lost. My sister still hasn't fought anyone. At least, I don't think so."
"Oh, so Chen took your powers as well, right?" Chris nodded. "Well then, welcome to the club!" Cole gestured to the rest of the factory where everyone else was working on noodles and other food items. "At night, they chain us and take us to our prison cells to sleep."
"Hey! No talking during work!" a guard ordered them. The two went back to work.
Zane, Cole thought. Where are you? I'll find you sometime. You have to be here, somewhere underground, maybe in a secret cell.
It was lunch time above ground in the palace. This time, everyone was sitting around in the main hall with tables arranged to be in the shape of a semi-circle. Food was being passed around and it was great as always. Chen cleared his throat. "Now, I have heard that there is a rumour going about between you elemental masters that I steal the losers' powers at night. I just wanted to ask you: why would I do such a thing? The staff will go to the winner of this tournament! That's why I'm taking people's powers. The winner will get the staff will all the elements in it!"
Everyone but the ninja looked quite convinced, even Neuro considering he looked into Lloyd's mind and saw he was telling the truth. Everyone would much rather believe Chen than the ninja. Then the looks were passed around the table to the ninja, mostly hate and disgust.
"So, what was that about some evil plans, huh ninja?" Shade asked them. They said some more things, but the ninja didn't care enough to listen.
"It seems like their little elemental alliance has been broken," Clouse observed. They saw as Vergo got up and went over to the ninja and whispered something to them. The ninja nodded.
We'll have to tell the others about that later, Kai thought about what Vergo told them.
"It seems Vergo knows something," Clouse told Chen. "I don't like it. We'll have to figure out what he knows."
Later that afternoon, all the remaining elemental masters gathered in Lloyd's room because the ninja had an announcement. Some of them looked grumpy and annoyed that the ninja wouldn't stop pestering them about Chen's "evil plans".
"Alright, alright guys. Settle down." Lloyd told everyone while trying to calm them down.
"What's the matter this time?" Shade rolled his eyes.
"The matter is, we've found out from Vergo that Chen is stealing people's powers. That is, if you lose." Kai said.
"But he said the winner of the tournament gets the staff." Griffin pointed out.
"He's right." Neuro agreed.
"Do you actually believe Chen?" Jay asked them, hoping to change their minds.
They thought for a bit and eventually agreed with the ninja. Neuro decided to look into Vergo's mind to see if he was telling the truth, and he was. Neuro joined the ninja once again, and the rest did too.
"Alright, so it's set! We're going to stop Chen's plans!" Lloyd hollered. Everyone else cheered.
"You know, I'm getting sick of all these guards bossing me around, telling me what to do," Cole grumbled to Karlof. "I think we should teach them a lesson."
Just then some yelling began on the other side of the factory. Cole and Karlof turned around to see what the noise was all about, when they saw Chris trying to fight past the guards and escape the factory. Karlof did a facepalm while Cole crossed his arms to see what would happen to Chris. The former Master of Water broke past the guards and rushed for the door. He got Chamille to help him by opening the door while he was about sneak out. When Chamille opened the door, they saw Clouse coming that way. Cole was about to shout at Chris to not continue, but Karlof clamped his mouth with his hand. Chris went to the door and got scared when he saw Clouse. He was about to turn around and run when Clouse grabbed him by the hair.
"I see you are trying to escape," Clouse whispered in his ear. "Maybe I should have you locked up in a cell forever, chained to the wall." He smiled evilly.
"No, please, don't!" Chris pleaded, trying to run away. "I swear I'll never do that again!" Clouse let go and Chris ran off straight into a factory guard. Chris did not expect Clouse to actually let go of him.
"Chris, go do your work. The rest of you, stop staring at me and continue. I will make regular checkups to make sure there is no more mischief…" his eyes narrowed and glared at Chris. "Now you can thank your watery friend because now I will have extra guards in here." He smiled again when he heard everyone groan.
"That's it. We need to find a way out of here." Cole told Karlof, but the big man didn't say anything.
A man with the light blond hair looked around. He was in a large snowy cavern. He heard something in front of him, and what he saw frightened him a lot. "No! No! Please don't hurt me! I didn't do anything to you!" The large blue dragon in front of him stood there and looked at him. Then the dragon roared and ran at him swiftly and aggressively. The man shielded his eyes so he could not see, but suddenly, the dragon stopped. He saw the dragon was chained.
Wake up, Zane, a girl's voice said from inside. It is just a dream. It is not real. Wake up.
The man, known as Zane, woke up. "W-where am I? Who am I?" He looked around. He saw himself in a dark room, his hands chained to the wall. There was a small opening in the door, so he was assuming he was locked up in a prison cell.
The person who overheard Chen and Clouse talking last night was actually Vergo. Sneaky guy. The elemental alliance was broken, but only for a bit. They plan on defeating Chen, but (slight spoiler alert) that won't happen for a while.
Cole plans to bust out sometime soon and try to find Zane, while Zane has a strange dream that he sees a blue dragon that seemed angry with him. Zane finds out it was all a dream.
Next chapter will have some more interesting things, I promise. Oh, and you still haven't found out what Chen plans on doing, but you will soon enough.
Hope you liked it. Next chapter will be up day after tomorrow.
