Lena's POV
"We have to head back to the monastery," I said.
"That's where the map was leading us to anyway…" Joe said, looking at the map.
"They're likely going to be waiting for us there," Kai said, knowingly.
"We can't go back then," Joe ordered.
"But we have to! Remember, we left Sensei Wu and Lloyd there? They probably will-" Jay started.
"We'll have to leave them then."
"Um, I don't know if this a newsflash for you but they are our family, wouldn't you go back for yours?" Kai asked, staring Joe straight in his eyes.
Joe was silent. Family. We as his friends were his only family. Sure, he had been born in Xeam, but his parents were killed by an onslaught of Sundrels, only saved by Bob himself, who had came too late to save his family but was on time to save him. We were all his family...and yes, he would go back for his family, even if it meant sure failure. He changed direction. "What's the quickest way to get to the monastery?"
"From here?" Joe nodded. "Well, the monastery is in this direction, but since I know we're not traveling by-" Joe picked Kai off his feet and motioned Triston to do the same with Jay. "Whoa! Hey, what's going…"
"Lena, I'm sure you can catch up, right?" Joe asked, completely ignoring Kai's comments. I nodded. "Ready Triston?" He nodded. Joe took off at full speed down the mountain, Kai screaming as they went along.
"Are you sure this is a good- IDEA!" Triston took off without another thought, his trail leaving behind grey Then I took off, leaving behind a trail of red, oh how great it was to run at such a speed!
When we ran at the highest speed, it was like we were faster than cheetahs, our little balls surrounding us as a slight measurement of protection, seeing that sometimes we won't dodge the obstacles correctly. We began to approach a line of trees and this was where it was going to get difficult. Joe guided us through, controlling the trees to sway here and there, making the movements be repetitive and quick due to the speed we were traveling at. If one of us didn't make it through in time, it would be timeout for them for about, oh, about 15-30 minutes, depending on the person. And right now we'd be risking that for two people who had no idea and were now just clinging on for dear life as we ran and ran.
Joe suddenly skidded to a stop at the end of the forest, causing all three of us to run into him, Jay flying ahead into sand, which he began to cough up immediately after impact. "Sorry Jay!" Triston called, jogging over to retrieve him.
"Which way now, Kai?" Joe asked.
Kai was still clinging on for dear life. "Um, this is the Sea of Sand so...there!"
"Alrighty. Triston, Lena, ready?" Joe asked.
Triston grabbed Jay and placed him over his shoulders. "Yep.
"I'm good," I said.
"Ok let's go." Joe once again took off in a speedy direction, followed by Triston and Jay, Jay hollering for them to wait to catch his breath, leaving his mouth open for a fly to come in. Then I took off after them. I began to imagine how the satellites here may begin to track to track our fast moving bodies. I remembered when we traveled to Earth once more, the satellites tracked us as fast moving missiles that were different colors. Turned out to just be us in the end.
"I can see the monastery!" Kai announced. The monastery loomed over the high mountain side, a sign of infestation for sure by the oncoming forces of green and red and black, along ,
We stopped in forest near the mountain. Kai and Jay were placed on the ground and Joe, Triston, and I sat down to relieve our stressed lungs and legs. Sure, the trip was possible, but, by being human, there was still that tiredness by the end of it all. "Ok-" Joe started after gulping in a large dose of air "-what is- the plan?"
Kai and Jay began to muse over a plan. "How many Sundrels can you all take on each?"
"On our own? Probably two at a time, the others being occupied by others," I stated.
"Together at this moment, we can probably take on 5 at a time with ease," Triston said.
"We'd be able to take out so much more if we had Jamie and Monty," Joe said regretfully.
"Where do you suppose they're headed?" Jay asked. The others were silent and he let out an exacerbated sigh. "TO THE MONASTERY! Gah it's like everyone has some sort of film over their eyes today!"
That actually made sense. I had to give credit to him, I mean, he has accomplished much before, but today has been the day that we actually got to take notice. "But from which direction? And how far off are they? They couldn't have been able to run with the three people, no matter how short the distance it would be. It can be a few hours till they get back!" Kai started.
"Or a few minutes away from you." We all turned to see the familiar pair of Monty and Nya, Monty flashing a gleaming smile at us all.
"Monty!" Joe, Triston, and I ran over to him.
"Nya!" Kai and Jay ran to Nya.
"Hey hey, you make it seem as though I were dead for a few years!" Monty said, trying to make us let go of him.
Cole's POV
We sent out Monty and Nya after deciding to send people to look for the others. It's been about seven minutes now. I knew Jay would kill me if I had anything to do with a taken Nya but he didn't want Monty and Jamie to go because then we would be defenseless against the Sundrels. But still…
Jamie must've seen my restlessness because she said, "Monty is a good protector. He has come through many times and no matter what, he will protect her at all costs."
"He wouldn't abandon her, right?" I dared ask.
"Want me to tell you a true story on Monty to calm you down?" Zane lent an ear as well and I nodded. "Ok, one day, while we were on Earth, the city was being attacked by a bunch of Sundrels. We found this lost girl that was looking for her parents and Monty stayed by her side, even in the midst of battle. She almost got run over by one of the Sundrels and guess what he does? He dives in and grabs her just in the nick of time, saving them both. Then, he personally delivered her home. When he has his heart set on a mission, he will follow through with it, risking his life in the process. He is probably the craziest on our team, but he is also the one most willing to lay down his life for anyone."
I tried to think of Monty in such a way as hero worthy. It had only been recently that I've began to open up to the thought of them actually earning their titles as heroes. It seemed likely but it hasn't been till recently that it had been showing. They watch out for one another and others alright. Had Monty and Jamie not been there to save our hides… I honestly believe that it would've ended differently. And I had an admiration for Jamie as well. She had placed her life for all of ours just to save us and she almost died for it… And it wouldn't have just been a knock out only. It would've meant game over...and I couldn't stand to see Monty's face distraught like that...thus leading me to dive in and-
"Did you hear that?" I looked to see Jamie on her feet, looking around cautiously.
I looked around and began to hear a slight rustle coming. I stood up along with Kai. The noise began to come closer and closer, faster than before, the skin on the back of my neck prickling slightly. Then a girl came out of nowhere and before my body attacked, my mind processed it as Lena.
"Jamie?" Lena asked.
"Lena!" Jamie ran into Lena's arms and they embraced, followed by the others that were just behind them. Five heroes...one family.
My brothers and I welcomed one another.
"Ok, so now that we're all here, now is the time to discuss the battle plan for tomorrow," Joe said. "Have y'all seen what we're up against?" Some of us nodded. "Well, if you haven't, then you probably think it's an easy win. Well, it's not. There are approximately 300 or so Serpentine up there along with at least 150 Sundrels. And then of course there is Lord Garmadon there too. But our main targets should be Sensei Wu and Lloyd, correct?" We nodded.
"And maybe we can take back the ship while we're at it!" Jay piped in.
"Maybe, but that's only if it isn't taken over by the serpentine and such, ok?" We nodded. "Cole, I know you are the main one who makes the plans of entry and such and plus you know just about everything surrounding your base so we may need to meet up tonight and make the plan. Monty, Lena, Jamie, and Triston, you guys go and help train the ninja and Nya of ways to defeat the Sundrels, and ninja and Nya, please teach my team the ways of defeating Serpentine. Good?" We all nodded and got to work.
The others went away to let us discuss the battle plans for that night. "Ok Cole, can you draw out a somewhat description of the place we are trying to invade? Like the surroundings and places we should look out for, easy to escape areas, best route of infiltration of the area and I'll see what we got."
I began to draw out the exterior of the monastery, having arrows point here and there, making routes, and trying to see what the best way could be. Then I found the back way would be just fine. "Done."
Joe looked over my routes and precautions. "Ok, now toss that route aside because that is one of the areas we should avoid then."
"What? Well then where should we go then?" I honestly couldn't see another route that wouldn't get us killed.
He grinned. "We come up from the ground."
I couldn't believe what my ears were hearing but it made somewhat sense. "We're only there to recapture Sensei Wu and Lloyd, so all we'd have to do is find out where they are and get them out of there. With Jamie having earth powers like I do….we can probably burrow through the dirt and rock like nothing!"
"And our escape path would be built by Monty and Zane, who would be using his ice powers to create a slide of some sort all the way back down…" Joe picked up a stick and drew the escape pattern, "here." He stopped at where we were currently. "Now, come with me, we need to check on something."
We got up and he looked towards a tree. Then he moved his hand in such a way that the tree began to bend towards us. He grabbed on to some of the leaves of the tree and I did like wise. Then he turned his hand straight and the tree shot right back into its original position. The tree was somewhat small but as Joe's hand rose, so did the tree. Suddenly, we had a full view on the monastery from the front position. My eyes widened suddenly at the look of the troops. "The ship is over there," he said, pointing to the ship in the distance. "Doesn't seem like they've infiltrated it yet. We'll have Lena, Triston, Kai, and Jay after that ship while the rest of us are looking for Lloyd and Sensei Wu, thus also distracting the serpentine away from them. Got it?"
I nodded.
Through the rest of the daylight time we perfected the plan and would present it to the others by tomorrow morning by the coming sunrise for, by the time we were done, mostly everyone was asleep. "I'll keep first watch," I offered.
He nodded and went to go rest. I stayed and watched them, making sure nothing was coming and every once in a while circling them. Little did I know one was up until she sat up. It was Lena. "I can't sleep a wink tonight," she grumbled, "everyone's is worried about tomorrow including myself. Cole, do you think it's going to be alright?"
I truly thought about it before nodding. "When great minds come together, they create many great things. And the plan is great."
She smiled. "I hope so. Thank you for the encouragement." Before she laid back down, she said, "Thank you for saving Jamie as well, we don't know what we would've done had you not."
I just nodded and looked over to Jamie when Lena was asleep. I couldn't help but crack a small smile and then go back to my watch. 'Focus on the work at hand...'