Hey guys! Hope you're having an amazing day, and I hope this chapter makes it even amazinger! XD
"They should be here by now," Jay muttered anxiously, pacing the main hall.
Zane glanced up at the clock on the wall above them. "It is nearly two-thirty AM," he reported, getting to his feet, "I believe they have either found something to deter them from returning, or got caught. Maybe both."
"You mean, they found something awesome, but someone saw them?" Lloyd clarified. "Possibly," the nindroid nodded, but Cole shook his head. "If they get caught, wouldn't there be alarms going off everywhere?"
Zane considered this. "We cannot rule out any possibilities, but you have made a good point. Let's hope it's a correct one."
"Do we go up?" Jay asked.
Cole shrugged. "Looks like we'll have to."
Lloyd crept up the stairs, poked his head out into the hall, and looked both ways, then returned to the first floor. "I don't see anything too suspicious; just a couple of guards," he informed.
Jay nodded. "Then come on! We're burning daylight!" Then, with a glance out the window at the pitch-black morning, he added, "I stand corrected—there is no daylight. But let's go."
(~&&&~)
She snapped her fingers, and two pairs of metal wristlets flew across the room, clamping onto the two teenagers' wrists. Threads of blue energy connected the bands to the far ends of the room, leaving them partially immobilized. They seemed flimsy, but didn't give when Lindsey yanked away.
"Who are you?" Kai demanded defiantly.
The woman laughed darkly. "Oh, I believe you already know the answer to that question," she replied silkily, turning to face them. Kai wrinkled his brow in angry confusion, but Lindsey's eyes widened as realization dawned. "Julian Renala!"
The woman smiled triumphantly. "I see you are brighter than my minions made you out to be. Tell me, where are your friends?"
"But… we thought—" "That I was a man? Males are often viewed as superior to their female counterparts, but not in this case. You may call me Julia, if you wish."
"Your minions… the monsterbots?" Lindsey managed.
Julia nodded, smirking. "Only the best. I sense you are from my world," she continued, nodding at Kai.
"My world?"
"Are you not from Ninjago?" she replied offhandedly, starting to pace.
The teenagers' mouths dropped open in shock. Julian Renala is from Ninjago? "Would you care to tell me how you came to be here?"
Kai shook his head numbly, stunned. "How?" was all that came out.
"You seek my story first?" she surmised. "Very well. I don't suppose you know of anyone by the name of Garmadon?" Both pairs of eyes hardened considerably. "So you do?" she repeated. If she was surprised, she didn't let it show. "He and I were… partners in business. We planned to rule Ninjago together, side by side. Then we found something that convinced us to alter our plans."
"A portal," Lindsey realized, then looked surprised that she had spoken aloud.
"Exactly. He wanted to enter immediately, but I managed to convince him to remain in our world for the time being, while I scouted out this strange new place. I would call him back through when all was clear."
"But… he never left Ninjago," Kai puzzled. "True, and for good reason. The portal closed unexpectedly," she retorted, making air quote with her hands, "Sealing him out, and sealing me in."
"You sound angry," Lindsey observed wryly. Julia's eyes flared. "He intentionally left me high and dry in this despicable place in an effort to garner our efforts for himself, making me his mortal enemy in the process."
"So you'll help us defeat him!" Lindsey said hopefully. Unfortunately, Julia just laughed. "No, my dear child, my aim is far different. Partner or not, my ultimate ambition is still to dominate Ninjago. Now, however, I find this world quite becoming. Just imagine: supreme ruler over two separate worlds! You probably can't, but I can."
"The monsterbots," Kai finally made the connection, "You're going to invade through the portal?"
"Every last village will be mine," she said smugly, the relish clear in her voice. "All I need is a usable portal, which you have so generously located for me. Now, if you want me to keep them unharmed, you will tell me exactly where your friends are." Then her voice hardened. "Or if you're not in an affable mood, I can find them myself. I'm sure my boys would love to pick a bone in the Under with the ninja who so rudely continue to defy them." Stepping aside, she clapped lightly to signal a quaternion of monsterbots lurking in the shadows.
"You'll never find them," Kai lied, looking desperately around for an escape route.
"I take that as a no?"
They only scowled back, and she shrugged nonchalantly. "Very well. Boys?" She snapped her fingers again, and the robot to the left of her stepped forward and pulled a silver lever. A door in the floor opened, and Kai and Lindsey dangled over it for a moment before the energy beams shut off and they plummeted, once again, to the unknown destination far below.
(~&&&~)
A strategically thrown coin served as ample distraction for the ninja to slip past the guards and into the door labeled 'CEO,' which, surprisingly, wasn't locked. "They must have come this way," Zane deduced, "A CEO would not leave their door unlocked in any nocturnal situation."
"If they were here, then where'd they go?" Jay countered.
Lloyd's eyes got big. "I bet there's a secret passageway!" The others looked at each other as he continued. "It's a bad guy place! There's gotta be at least one secret tunnel!" He darted over and stood behind the desk. "See, I bet he stands here, and, like, pulls the pen back, and a door opens…" The green ninja acted as he spoke, flicking the pen towards him. Then he disappeared.
Well, not actually vanished, as the others found out as they quickly gathered around the square hole that had opened beneath Lloyd. "I guess he was right," Cole remarked.
Lloyd's voice came echoing up to them. "See, I told you so!"
"He's okay! But how do we get down?" Jay called.
"Just jump!" came the reply, "It's dark down here, but a ninja always lands on his feet, right?"
"He has a point," Cole admitted, then yelled, "Incoming!" and plunged into the hole. Zane and Jay shrugged and followed.
Zane landed neatly on his feet, and Cole as well, but when Jay hit the ground, he let out a cry of pain and quickly sat down. "My ankle!"
"You okay?" Cole inquired, concerned for his brother.
The blue ninja winced as he probed his injury. "I'll live, but I don't think I'll be walking anytime soon." He tried to get up, and his right leg buckled immediately. Jay grimaced. "Let me rephrase that: I definitely won't be walking anytime soon."
"Here, lean on me," Cole offered, proffering his arm. Zane did the same, and they helped the blue ninja to his feet—or rather, foot.
"Hey, guys! C'mere!" Lloyd's voice resonated in the darkness. The other three made their way over to where he stood. Zane flicked on his flashlight, illuminating the tall wooden post that the green ninja leaned against.
"HQ Main," Cole read, eyes scanning the top of the post, "Should we go that way?"
Zane shook his head. "More than likely, the headquarters will be very heavily guarded with monsterbots. We would be severely limited in our ability to fight," he concluded, casting a meaningful glance at Jay. The blue ninja got the message and grinned apologetically.
"MB storage?" Lloyd puzzled, "What could there be to find in a storage room?"
Zane smiled grimly. "Possibly everything."
(~&&&~)
Kai tried to slow his descent by scrabbling at the slick walls, but that did nothing, so he focused on landing on his feet. Sticking his arm out on impulse, he discovered the sudden absence of one of the sides of the dark tunnel.
Maneuvering himself around, he kicked off the opposite side and grabbed Lindsey's arm. She let out a squeak of surprise as they thunked down onto a metal shelf; the end of the break in the wall. Kai rolled his eyes. No use landing on his feet in here, when he had been firmly deposited on his backside.
Lindsey grabbed her own wrist in an attempt to reduce the shaking-she had always been terrified of falling, and yet here she was, at the bottom of her second tunnel in the last eight hours.
They stood in the thin space, careful not to hit the ceiling, but it seemed nonexistent. Lindsey waved her hand upwards, but still couldn't feel it. "Kai, you still have the flashlight, right?"
He shook his head ruefully. "I dropped it when we fell. But I have something better!" A moment later, a small flame erupted in his palm.
"Oh, yeah," Lindsey grinned. "I forgot you could do that!"
"Well, it's a good thing I didn't," he quipped, glancing up at the ceiling. It towered far above their heads, and when Lindsey whispered, "Woah," her voice bounced lightly around. The light was brightest around the red ninja, but faded to shadows in the corners.
Kai walked back to the chute they had fallen down, looking first up, then down. "I can't see far in either direction," he reported. She nodded, moving to Kai's side and peeking over. "Me neither; it's probably pretty deep."
Plopping on the ground, she crossed her legs and leaned back. "Now what?"
Transferring the flame to his other hand, Kai turned away from the yawning hole and followed the path of the oversized vent, with Lindsey watching curiously. "There's no way this is just a dead end," he explained, "There's gotta be another way out." Lindsey nodded and vaulted to her feet.
After a minute, they came to a T. "Shout if you find anything," Kai instructed, turning to the right. Lindsey nodded and started to head in the opposite direction, then stopped. "Um… Kai?"
He halted as well. "What?"
"It's gonna be pretty dark in here after you leave…"
He smacked his palm to his forehead. "Oh, yeah—here!" Pulling a tight twist of waxed cloth out of his sash, he lit the tip of it and held it out to her as a torch. She smiled gratefully, and they parted ways again.
She watched as his light grew fainter, while her torch cast a soft glow around that made the shadows dance across her face. Continuing down the tunnel, her mind drifted to Kai, as it so often did. The thought of him tickled at the edge of her mind, and it wasn't all that unpleasant. She smiled and started to hum softly.
Without warning, she ran straight into the wall. "Oww…" Rubbing her forehead, she stepped back, then around the corner, and almost fell in a hole.
A deep, narrow chute stretched out in front of her. A dim light emanated from it, divided into thin, shadowy slots by a flimsy grate that was several feet in diameter. Lindsey got to her knees and carefully pulled it off to get a better look at what lay beneath: a two-hundred foot drop to a huge room.
As her eyes adjusted, she gasped. The room, equal in size to several football fields, was filled wall to wall with monsterbots.
Backing down the tunnel a ways, she called, "Kai! Come quick!" she waited until his heavy footsteps echoed to her before returning to peer into the tunnel.
Suddenly, something barreled into her, knocking her into the chute. She screamed, and for a minute she found herself falling.
Then Kai caught her wrist. "I don't think I've ever been gladder to see you," she breathed, smiling in relief. The red ninja was stretched across the hole, feet on one side, one arm on the other, and one arm retaining a desperate grip on Lindsey. Bracing himself, he slowly pulled her up until she could reach solid ground.
"Sorry," he apologized breathlessly, rolling his shoulder, "I was running. You sounded so desperate! What—" He stopped. "Where's your torch?"
She glanced around. "I think I dropped it down there." He looked to where she was pointing, and his eyes widened in horror. The flickering torch teetered on the edge of a large vat, far below, full of dark liquid. Gasoline-no doubt used to fuel Julia's evil ends. "Run!" he yelled desperately, diving to push her out of the way as the torch tipped.
Then it exploded.
The teenagers were thrown against the wall as a fiery wave of heat slammed into them. The initial blast lasted only a second or two. As the intense temperature subsided, Lindsey went limp.
Alarmed, Kai checked for a pulse and was relieved when he found a steady beat. She had just hit the wall hard enough to rendering her temporarily unconscious. Carefully picking her up yet again and shouldering her precious laptop bag, he rubbed a tender knot forming on the side of his temple, and saw a similar one on the opposite side of her forehead. Both of their eyebrows were singed. "I guess it's a good thing I'm so thick skulled," he thought dryly, "Or I'd probably be out, too.
He peered down the chute. The air carried the overpowering aroma of gasoline, and though the initial blast was over, small fires still burned far below, winking out every so often.
Kai frowned when he saw what they illuminated: rows upon rows of monsterbots. They were blackened, no doubt from the explosion, but by no means destroyed. "This was what Lindsey called me for," he realized. There must have been tens of thousands of monsterbots down there. Just like they had seen in the hologram.
"The invasion party," he murmured under his breath. "It's… here."
Yeah, the big kahuna, right? But what can they do about it? Catch ya later and ptyl!