Yay, new chapter! And a long one. I have nothing else to say really, except this: hope you like it!

Chapter 11: Laser Tag

It was early morning. Sensei Wu and Garmadon had told the three ninja to come into their room at 7 o'clock sharp. The ninja got there, but all of them looked tired and groggy. Jay was still rubbing his eyes because he just woke up.

"Good morning, students," Wu greeted them.

"Good morning, sensei," they replied back. Lloyd yawned. They weren't used to waking up so early in a few months ever since Zane left them.

"So, what are we here for? I don't mind sleeping again." Kai said. Jay and Lloyd nodded their heads, agreeing with him.

"We called you three here because my brother and I have something to tell you." Wu said.

"Whatever it is, please make it quick," Jay said. "I need my beauty sleep."

Wu ignored him and continued. "What we wanted to tell you today is to be careful." He waited for their reactions.

"That's it?" Lloyd said in shock. He expected more from both his sensei.

"That's what we came here for?" Kai complained.

"To be told what we've been told all our life?" Jay put in.

"Let him finish," Garmadon snapped.

"As I was saying, you cannot trust Chen. He will try to get you out now more than ever."

"Yes, and the same goes for Vergo, though he is not here." Garmadon told them. "Chen will try to get you four out first, because you are the biggest threats to his plans, whatever those may be. Misako told me she, Nya, and Skylor will be spying around the palace, dressed as kabuki servants to find out what Chen is planning."

Kai nodded. "Yeah, Nya told me that."

"He will try to pit you against each other so one of you will have to be out," Wu said. "We both know him well. He is mischievous, and he will do whatever it takes to get what he wants. He always has his way. I cannot say what this next round will hold in store for you, but I do know this: do not EVER trust Chen, and work together like you always have to stop him."

"I never knew the reason why, but Chen sided with the Serpentine during the first Serpentine War." Garmadon told them. "I told that to you all that before, but Chen doesn't like peace. Neither does Clouse. They have to have some sort of plan to take over Ninjago and make us angry, which is why we need to stop them. I know you may have already known most of this, but we thought it was a good idea to tell you anyways."

"Now we just have to hope the girls can find out what their plan is soon." Wu said. "We'll leave that to them."

The ninja understood. "Can we go back now?" Lloyd asked.

The two sensei nodded. The ninja headed back to their respective rooms to sleep. They woke up again at 9 and did their usual morning routines. After lunch was when the long awaited announcement came.

Chen's voice was heard. "Good afternoon everyone, it is time for our next round! This time, could everyone please gather in the main hall? I'll tell you rules there. See you!"

Everyone had no choice but to follow his instructions. They all gathered in the main hall and awaited Chen's rules. "I see everyone is here!" Chen exclaimed. "Now, the rules. Everyone is participating in this! It is a free-for-all round! This is the only fight that will not have jade blades involved. You will be playing a game of laser tag all around the island!" He and some guards cheered. "The rules are simple: you have to wear this vest at all times," he showed everyone a black padded vest with a dark yellow circle in the middle. "See this circle?" he pointed to the dark yellow circle. "If a laser gets you there, you lose! You will be out! Last two people standing will advance! Now get ready and put these on, laser tag starts in 15 minutes! Pick where you want to start!"

Everyone took a vest, wore it, and scrambled off. The ninja, however, still stuck together. "What do we do?" Lloyd sighed. "We can't all win, and if we stick together we'll become a big target!"

"I think we should split up, but have a truce," Jay said. "None of will go after each other unless we're the last one left."

Kai nodded. "I agree."

"Then it's set. We'll have a truce." Lloyd said.

They all put their hands in and yelled "Ninja Go!" Then they each found a place to hide.

"Begin!" Chen screamed and everyone all over the island heard him and started searching for others.

Kai saw Jay and they met each other's eyes but they knew they wouldn't attack each other because of their truce. They were in the middle of the forest, and they had no idea where Lloyd had run off to. On the other side of the forest, Lloyd was being very cautious, looking everywhere if he could spot anyone.

After 20 minutes of fruitless searching, everyone decided to slowly go back near the palace, and this was completely unplanned. The first person to attack anyone was Vergo on Griffin. Luckily, Griffin's fast reflexes allowed him to dodge the laser, but the Master of Speed also knew Vergo would be able to match his speed even without teleporting. Griffin aimed his laser gun at the circle on Vergo, but missed as Vergo ran before he could get proper aim.

Skylor was hiding behind a tree, and she knew Neuro was nearby. Then she heard some leaves rustle. She jumped out but Neuro knew she was there and starting making Skylor see things. She collapsed and Neuro was about to get her out when Kai saw this from close by and shot fire at the Master of Mind, burning his hand. Skylor got up and got a clear laser at Neuro's center and he was out. He went down a trapdoor. Skylor smiled at Kai. "Thanks."

"No problem," Kai told her with a love-filled smile. Then Kai heard something behind him and looked. It was only a squirrel. He got scared there for a second. Kai ran off to find someone else and Skylor did too. It seemed they had a non-verbal truce. Kai soon found Christina and they fought. Christina swiftly knocked the gun out of Kai's hand, which made him shocked. Then she used her wind powers to knock him back on to the ground. She stood over him and grinned, but Kai didn't give up. He jumped up and kicked Christina in the chest as she stumbled backwards. She shook her head like a dog shakes his/her fur when they are wet to regain concentration. In the meantime, Kai picked up his gun and tried aiming for her circle, but Christina saw this and jumped over him and kicked him in the back. Then she used her win again to pin him against the wall. Kai managed to break free and escape the incoming laser and nail her with some fire. Then he flew up into the air with his fiery hands, using them like an engine and aimed his laser gun at her in the air. He shot and got her. The Master of Wind is out.

Jay had found Griffin hiding in a bush, but when Griffin knew he had been spotted, he ran off, with Jay chasing him. Eventually, Jay got to a point where he didn't know where the speedy guy went. Then he looked up and saw Shade in a tree. Shade looked alerted when he saw Jay point his laser gun, so he turned into shadow and went away silently and unseen. "No fair!" Jay shouted. I have to get out from here, maybe go back to the palace. I don't know where the Master of Shadow could be. He turned around and headed back towards the palace, where he encountered Shade again.

Lloyd had been looking for someone on the back side of the palace, not knowing everyone was at the front. That's when he saw Skylor. He quietly hid on a tree branch at the beginning of the forest and aimed for the circle on Skylor's vest. She ran away, not knowing Lloyd was there but just having the feeling someone could see her. Lloyd sighed and jumped off to go to the other side of the palace.

Kai found nobody around. He counted in his head the people that were left. They were Jay, Lloyd, Vergo, Skylor, Griffin, Shade, and himself. Then suddenly Vergo appeared around 10 meters in front of him. Kai knew better than to straight up attack him, as Vergo would easily win. Instead, Kai decided to sneak around and try to get him out.

Jay and Shade were about to fight. Jay made the first move, punching Shade right in the nose, but Shade counterattacked with a kick in the stomach. Shade aimed his laser gun at Jay while the blue ninja was on the ground, but Jay just barely dodged it. He jumped back up and tried kicking Shade, but he sidestepped and Jay's kick went straight into a tree. "Ouch," he muttered. Shade shoved him aside and aimed his gun at Jay. The laser sped out and hit the circle. A trapdoor opened and Jay went down.

Kai decided to stop going after Vergo and went after Shade. However, he didn't Shade has beaten Jay. Kai did a sneak attack on Shade by jumping out from a bush and tackling the Master of Shadow down. Shade kicked him off and Grffin came into the mix. Griffin sped right by both of them, sending them both around for a spin. Then Griffin came at the Master of Fire with a super-fast punch, but Kai blocked it…barely. Shade kicked Kai over and they both got ready to shoot a laser at Kai, but Skylor popped in and saved him because he saved her earlier. Skylor kicked the gun out of Griffin's hand which made Shade lose his focus and missed Kai, and instead hit the palace wall.

Kai got up and quickly thanked Skylor and threw Shade into the wall. Then Kai shot a laser at Shade's circle and Shade went down the trapdoor and was out of the tournament. Skylor and Griffin were still fighting, and what the Master of Absorption lacked in speed she made up for with intelligence. She was able to predict Griffin's punch and dodged accordingly, then punched the gun away from him once again. When Griffin was left defenseless, Skylor got a clear shot right on him. Griffin was out.

Then Skylor turned around and to Kai and said "Sorry, Kai." She aimed her gun at him and smiled. She shot and Kai was shocked. He was out, and soon darkness closed around him as he realized he was falling down a trapdoor.

Lloyd and Vergo were standing right in front of each other. Then they started attacking one another. Vergo had a clear advantage because had much more combat experience as well as more speed giving him an advantage there as well. They both ran at each other at the same time, but at the last second Lloyd jumped over him and used Vergo's head as a trampoline to go even higher up. Lloyd reached the tree branch he was aiming for and grabbed on. He lifted himself and found Vergo on the branch above. "Plasma lightning," he said and a bolt of lightning shot down at the branch and cut it off clean. Lloyd fell on the ground and the branch fell on top of him. Vergo jumped down, only to be surprise attacked by Skylor, who climbed on to his head and made him tip over on to the ground with her weight. She and Lloyd picked him up but that was what Vergo was waiting for. Vergo squirmed around and kicked Skylor's hand away and zapped Lloyd with some more lightning. Lloyd got up and punched Vergo in the face which knocked him on his knees. Skylor attacked Vergo again by jumping on top of him. Vergo teleported and shouted "Plasma arrow," and two high-powered energy arrows formed above him. He gestured his hand to hit Lloyd and Skylor and the arrows sped at them with such speed and force they were both knocked into the palace wall. Vergo aimed his laser gun at Skylor first and got her. She fell down a trapdoor and was out. Vergo and Lloyd were the last two remaining, so now they would fight in the next round: the finals.

Zane used the drill to break out of his cell. It was still mid-afternoon, so he figured none of the factory workers would be sleeping their cells. He managed to knock the guards unconscious and ran over to the factory. He thought the door to the factory would be guarded, but he didn't see any there. He knocked on the door first to see if any guards opened it, and if they did he would have to deal with them first. Instead, the door was opened by some man he had never seen before. The man got scared by seeing his face, as it did not look human. In fact, Zane had rebuilt himself using titanium after he defeated the Overlord. "Um…yes?" the man asked him.

"I would like to enter the factory, please," Zane told him.

"Sorry, no can do. You seem like one of Chen's men." With that, the man punched him in the stomach. Zane didn't feel much pain so punched him back. Zane jumped over him, turned around, and slapped the strange man on the side of his head which made crash into the door, dazed. "Now do you understand to have let me in?" Zane asked calmly. The man nodded and got up and lead him inside.

Cole came up to the man and asked him "What was going on over there?" Then he took notice of Zane. "Oh my god…I can't believe it…is it you, Zane?!" Cole cried, nearly in tears because of his joy. No, ninja don't cry. Cole fought them back as he hugged Zane.

"It is good to see you again, my brother," Zane hugged him back.

"Wait…you two know each other?" The man from before looked confused.

"Yeah, we do. We're both ninja who trained under the same sensei," Cole explained to him. "Zane, this is Chris, Master of Water. Chris, this is Zane, Master of Ice."

"So you're an elemental master too, huh?" Chris held out his hand. "Nice to meet you."

Zane returned the handshake as well. "Pleasure to meet you too."

"Now, Zane, we have a lot of catching up to do, but just tell me first: what the heck happened to your face?" Cole asked him.

"After I defeated the Overlord, I rebuilt myself with titanium, also to become compatible with P.I.X.A.L. Her neural drive is inside my processor."

"Wait, what?" Chris asked, completely unknowing Zane is a nindroid. "Neural drive, processor…are you a robot?"

"Yes, I am. Or as my brothers call me, a nindroid."

"Well, you're still the same Zane I knew before and still do. It doesn't matter to me what you are on the outside as long as you're still the same on the inside." Cole smiled. "Come on, I'll show you to the rest of the crew. You can also help us. I have a feeling you will be of great help to us." Cole lead Zane to where all the other elemental masters.

Cole got everyone's attention and showed them the newcomer. "Hi everyone." Zane said in a friendly tone.

"Hello," they all replied, some cheerfully, others with a "who is this weird guy?" face on.

"Who are you?" a girl with a green shirt and green hair asked him.

"And more importantly, what are you?" a man with grey and black shirt and grey hair asked him.

"I," Zane said loudly and proudly, "am Zane, a robot, the Titanium Ninja of Ice."

So the remaining competitors of the Tournament of Elements play a free-for-all round of Laser Tag. Only two will advance. From Kai's perspective, Skylor betrays him because she was the one who got him out. Lloyd and Vergo advanced to the finals.

Zane is reunited with Cole and soon the other ninja (Jay and Kai because they lost). He and Cole have a lot of catching up. What can Zane do to help the elemental masters that are in the factory? He doesn't even know about their plans.

Anyways, next chapter will come tomorrow or day after, hope you liked this chapter and story so far!