Chapter Eleven: The Hidden Entrance

"And then we had to retreat."

Wu thought for a minute after hearing what had happened before speaking. "It appears what I have feared is true."

"What's that?" Cole asked.

"There are other things that I have not told you," Sensei Wu said. "You are not the only people with elemental powers."

"What?"

"Please, no interruptions. As I was saying, there are many others with powers, some I have met and others I have not. I fear they have joined together and united against people without elemental powers because they thought they were better than regular people. There was once a man who thought himself above ordinary people, but his followers were few and his ideas soon died down but not completely out. I am afraid those ideas have again arisen."

"Why would they then take Lloyd and Kai?" Lydia asked.

"Not only are you ninja elemental masters, but even without your special powers, you can still fight. You would be invaluable to their group."

"Yeah, but why would Lloyd join them?"

"This I do not know. Only time will tell us," said Sensei.

Nya came bursting through the doors and onto the bridge.

"Okay, the Bounty's all set and ready to go. So what's the plan?"

"Well, we need to find where all these people are hiding," Jay said.

"That's it, that's your plan?"

"Umm, yes," Jay said sheepishly.

"So we're just supposed to fly around and hope we spot them?" Nya asked.

"Pretty much," Cole said.

"Isn't there anything to go off of?" Lydia said.

"Perhaps I can sense something," Zane said. The others were quiet while their nindroid friend tried to use his sixth sense. "I sense cold. I am not sure if it is with Lloyd or Kai, but I definitely sense cold."

"Perfect," said Nya, "A cold climate reduces where to search. I'll go take us there now."

"Hold on," Lydia said, "I think I should leave before you go."

"What? Why?" Nya asked.

"It's just that it's my fault that Kai and Lloyd were captured and I will just end up getting in the way. Besides, Kai hates me."

"It's not your fault Lloyd and Kai were kidnapped," Jay said.

"Yes, it is. Lloyd was going to visit me when he was kidnapped and I'm the one who put Kai on edge, causing him to go off on his own," Lydia said with sadness in her voice.

"Listen, Lydia," Cole began, "you're an honourary ninja and ninja never quit. I don't care what Kai thinks or what happened before; you are a part of our team, my team and we need you now more than ever. We are missing two main gears of the team-Lloyd, our main source of power and determination, and Kai, our main attacker. There is no way you're leaving now too."

Lydia looked up at Cole, smiled, and said "thanks".

Everyone else was amazed that Cole had such a speech in him. Sensei Wu was proud of his student for becoming the teacher.

Soon, Destiny's Bounty was up and flying again, heading straight towards the snowy forest. (It's that place where Zane used to live with the treehorns. Does anyone know what the real name is?) It didn't take long to get there and luckily it wasn't too big of a place. They were feeling confident about finding their brothers. That confidence was soon worn out after they had flown around the entire forest twice with no sign of any organization.

"Maybe it was a glitch in your sixth sense," Cole told Zane.

"It couldn't have been. It never had any problems before," Zane assured Cole.

"Maybe the room they were in had great air conditioning," Jay suggested.

"No, I do not think so. I sensed colder than air conditioning, much colder."

Lydia ran onto the bridge. "Quick! I think you're going to want to see this."

Everybody ran onto the deck where they saw about four unusually dressed people walking in the forest apparently oblivious to the giant floating ship above the trees.

"Who are they?" Jay asked.

"I do not know," Zane answered.

The people then stopped and part of the forest floor began to lower at an angle. They walked right in and the floor rose up again without a single trace of its existence.

"That must be where they're keeping Kai and Lloyd," Nya said.

"Great," Cole said, "let's go!"

"I don't think I'll be able to find a landing spot in this forest and I can't get low enough for you to jump. We are going to have to land a bit away and walk," said Nya.

"I have an idea!" Jay said. "We could always get down by using the anchor again."

"No!" the others exclaimed. "We are just going to have to walk."

"That will waste so much time though. I mean, we could do that or just do this," Lydia said.

With a running start, Lydia leapt off the Bounty and onto a tree. She then proceeded to climb down the tree without as much as a branch snapping. It was really quite graceful, and when the black haired girl reached the bottom, she waved up at the ninja. They just sheepishly waved back; they didn't know the girl had it in her. She didn't seem to be the one to do something so spontaneous as what she just did.

"Come on!" Lydia yelled from the forest floor.

The ninja weren't too sure about it and Zane volunteered to go first. He leapt from the Bounty and grabbed ahold of the same tree Lydia had leapt onto. The nindroid slowly inched his way down the tree, breaking off some smaller branches along the way.

Cole went next and just grabbed onto the tree, nearly missing it completely. Once he was in the tree, he was fine. The ninja swung down from branch to branch before meeting Zane and Lydia at the bottom.

Jay was last to go and the most frightened. He was never good at climbing up or down trees but he still knew this had to be done. Jay was able to jump off, yelling all the while. Once he grabbed onto the tree he thought it wasn't so bad and began to ever so slowly crawl down.

"Come on, Jay, we don't have all day!" he heard Cole yell from below.

The blue ninja stepped onto a branch, and once his whole body weight was on it, it snapped under him causing him to fall. Some branched he took out along the fall slowed his landing so he didn't have any serious injuries.

"Are you alright?" Zane asked.

Jay stood up and wiped the snow from his ninja outfit and hair.

"Super."

The Bounty flew away, leaving the four alone.

"Now all we have to do is find out how to get in," said Lydia.

Hi again! Sorry I didn't update earlier this week like I usually do, but I've had a cold and an unearthly amount of school assignments. I probably won't be updating twice a week any more unless my story gets super popular and lots of reviews because that always puts me in a good mood. Oh, and yesterday was my one year anniversary of having an account, so yay!:)

Anyway, thank you The Mayor of Ninjago City, GamerGirl597, Kai's Girlfriend, Kairocksrainbow, and lamkathyb so so so soooooo much for reviewing/following/favouriting my fanficXD 54 reviews! Maybe by the end, I'll have 100:D

Kai's Girlfriend: I know what you mean and I'm more Yin than Yang.

Thanks again and please review. God bless!