Zane groaned as his eyes opened. He gently shook his head, attempting to sift through the grogginess in his mind. He blinked a few times and looked around. The room was dark, save for the light beaming in through the door nearby, and although he had no idea how he got there, he wasn't restrained in any way – just very confused. Last he remembered, he and Pixal had boarded the ferry at the New Ninjago docks, unsure of their ultimate destination but anticipating a mutual meeting place to re-join his team. He stood up and brushed himself off, only to realise that he was no longer wearing the suit; his new ninja uniform was on show for all to see.
Suddenly, he heard a loud and very familiar scream.
"Pixal!" He yelled, bolting out the open door and down a long corridor.
He ran past clusters of men walking around and carrying things, their heads adorned with reptilian skulls and their faces and bodies embellished with purple markings. None of them seemed interested in stopping him, not that they would have succeeded if they tried. Another scream echoed out and he screeched to a halt. Panicked, he glanced from left to right, trying to locate the source of the pained cries. Eventually he took off and burst through a nearby set of double doors, which opened into a large, opulently decorated room.
In the middle of the room was Clouse, the man who had greeted Pixal and himself at the ferry.
"Where is Pixal?" Zane demanded.
"I was wondering when you would awaken, Master of Ice," Clouse smirked. "I must apologise, it appears that the men treated you a little too roughly."
"Where is Pixal?" He repeated, becoming very agitated.
"Ah yes, the young lady…" Clouse clapped his hands.
Two of the purple-clad, skull-wearing men appeared from behind a nearby pillar, as Pixal squirmed uncomfortably in their grasp. This infuriated Zane and his eyes began to glow a fierce blue.
"Zane!" She whimpered.
"Let her go…" He growled.
"I would love to, but Master Chen has plans for her," Clouse mused smugly. "and for you."
"I said, let her go…" Zane angrily echoed his previous statement.
Clouse, highly amused by this reaction and hoping to push it further, stared the nindroid down with a sinister grin. With another clap of his hands, one of the men twisted Pixal's arm behind her back, eliciting an unbearable cry of pain. Ice began to form in spikes along Zane's shoulders and trailed down his back. Even as the ice came around and entreated upon Clouse's personal space, he didn't flinch, in fact he clapped his hands again. On command, the man twisted her arm even further. Pixal screamed. She couldn't stop the tears from falling and she looked to Zane bravely.
"I am okay." She said weakly.
"I am giving you one final warning…" Zane bellowed, his eyes narrowing furiously. "Let. Her. Go!"
Clouse chuckled and this time, gave a short, high-pitched whistle. Suddenly, the other man – who thus far had done nothing – pulled out a portable circular saw from behind his back. With the press of a button, the saw surged to life, and before they knew where they were, the man had sliced through Pixal's shoulder. As her now severed arm hit the ground, she let out a piercing shriek of such magnitude that both the men holding her, and Clouse, dropped to their knees and covered their ears from the awful noise. Zane was filled with horror. He ran over and caught her as she fell, still wailing from the excruciating pain she was in. He tried to comfort her, but as the tears began to fall from his eyes and onto her face, he was too overwhelmed to be of any use.
"Pixal…" He wept, helplessly watching the sparks fly out from her shoulder. "Do not worry, we will get you out of here, we will fix your arm; everything will be alright."
"I-I am o-o-kay…" She mumbled, before shutting down from the intense pain.
He pulled her close and apologised profusely. He picked up her disconnected limb, his eyes still full of tears, and tucked it safely in his uniform. He lifted her in his arms and stood up, desperately looking around for an exit. With her debilitating cries stopped at the source, Clouse and the two men were no longer incapacitated.
"Now that you know what we are capable of, perhaps we can arrange the conditions of your surrender." Clouse sneered confidently as he got up.
"You declare war, and then immediately expect me to submit to you?" Zane muttered, not looking at the arrogant man behind him.
"What other choice do you have?" Clouse pompously asked. "There are hundreds of men here on the island, all under my command; you are outnumbered."
In an instant, Zane's head turned 180 degrees and his eyes began to glow white with hatred.
"You tried to destroy my world, allow me to return the favour!"
Zane realigned his head to the correct position and he let out an echoing, anguished roar. An arctic wind began to blow violently in the room. Wave after wave of uneven ice fragments jutted up from the ground by his feet. The two minions shoved their way through the heavy main doors and ran like frostbitten cats. Even Clouse opted to cut and run as the ice spread out and swallowed the floor in jagged clusters.
The polar mist circled around Zane and Pixal, and hardened to create a spherical shield. More shards shot upwards and outwards, going clean through the high ceiling of the room they were in and breaking the thick pillars like toothpicks. He stormed out the main doors just as the building came crashing in on itself. He went in search of Clouse, lashing out at anyone who came near him. He made his way through the swathes of minions ordered to take him out and sent every one of them flying with his glacial spikes.
The tears continued to pour down his cheeks and froze into crystal droplets before they fell. He deftly held Pixal close and endeavoured to find an escape. Everywhere he looked, he saw unfamiliar buildings and more angry peons, and soon he realised they were on an island so isolated that there was nothing but ocean on the horizon. Swallowed by his unwavering anger, Zane proceeded to lay waste to everything on the island, consumed by the desire to cause as much destruction as possible. Icicles fired in all directions like pointed quills that pushed back the wave of oncoming enemies, followed by large hail stones that broke through walls and brought down several smaller buildings.
Clouse meanwhile was watching the devastation from a safe vantage point.
"Master Chen will be furious when he sees what's happened to the island." Fretted a nearby hireling.
"Yes, but at least we have confirmation of the nindroid's power," Clouse said, wincing as yet another building was destroyed. "the hard part now is calming him down."
"How, though? He's on a rampage!"
Clouse turned around and opened a nearby closet – he came running into this room for a very specific reason. A sinister chuckle escaped his lips as he pulled out a long weapon with two metal points at one end. He thrust it into the serf's hands and grinned wickedly.
"This is a high-strength, custom-built cattle prod; capable of delivering half a lightning bolt worth of electrical charge," Clouse demonstrated, as with the mere press of a button, an electrical current crackled and flashed between the two prongs. "aim for the back of his head and scramble his robotic brain until he's unconscious."
Clouse was perturbed to see the man still standing there, giving him an uncertain glance.
"Well? Get on with it!" He yelled.
"Yes sir!"
He watched the clueless man run down the stairs and out the door, dutifully following in Zane's icy wake. Clouse silently encouraged the nameless minion as he stalked the nindroid, narrowly avoiding a number of attacks that were periodically being thrown at all angles. The nindroid appeared to be locked in a trance, not only tearing around the island like a violent sub-zero squall, but completely unaware that he was being followed – and at fairly close range too. While Clouse watched his cautious lackey waiting for the right moment to strike, he realised that the low-ranking follower was right; Master Chen would be finishing his nap any minute now, and he would blow his lid when he saw the level of annihilation Zane was causing. They'd be lucky if there was anything left to salvage if they didn't act fast.
Meanwhile, the man following Zane realised that the droid had to be stopped, and the longer he waited, the worse things were going to get. He took a deep breath. In one swift motion, he broke through Zane's ice barrier with one end of the weapon and quickly zapped him with the other end. He looked at the staff and realised it was set to 100 milliamps. The nindroid's body seized and jolted as some 200,000 volts were sent through him. When the weapon was finally taken away, Zane stood for barely a moment before falling forward. Small sparks of electricity came off him and he curled around Pixal protectively.
Clouse came running up to the minion and patted him on the back in a laudatory fashion.
"Congratulations," Clouse said to him with a sly grin. "from now on we shall call you Raiden."
"Wow, thank you sir!" He replied.
A handful of other followers came over. They too congratulated him, both for stopping the nindroid and for gaining an official name – something that did not happen very often in this particular circle. Master Chen was quite the demeaning man, while he did not interfere with his agents on the mainland, he insisted that anyone who joined him on the island had to abandon their given names. Often, he simply addressed them as "you" or "minion" when he needed to give directions. He did, however, bestow upon them a different name once they had earned it. The newly named Raiden was known as Ryan on the mainland, so it wasn't too far off where being renamed was concerned.
"What in the name of flying spicy noodles is going on here?" Master Chen yelled as he seemingly appeared out of nowhere.
Clouse heaved a weighty sigh. He was hoping to at least get some damage control done before Master Chen arrived.
"Raiden, you and those two there get this nindroid into one of the cells," Clouse hissed. "and make sure he's chained up properly."
"But what about the girl?" Raiden asked.
"Put her in the cells too, I need to see if she has any valuable components." Clouse ordered.
"I go for a quick nap and this is what I wake up to?" He shouted belligerently. "How am I supposed to have my Tournament of Elements in this mess? It'll take months to get this place knocked back into shape!"
"Forgive me, Master, but further to your instructions I tested the nindroid's power to make sure he was one of the elemental ninja," Clouse bowed. "as you can see, his power is phenomenal and will be of great use to you."
"Yes, yes, he will be a great addition to my plan," Chen chuckled ominously. "now we have one of the ninja, we can send them the message and lure them here!"
As if on cue, an ice-coated chunk of a nearby building fell, narrowly avoiding Chen in the process.
"Perhaps it would be best to put off sending the message to the other ninja until we have fixed the island." Clouse suggested.
"But I wanted to send it as soon as that one got here!" Chen pouted like a whiny child.
"Master, there is nothing I would rather do than follow your instructions as and when you give them, but they would be suspicious if they saw evidence that there was a problem," Clouse looked around. "and with all due respect, it doesn't look good."
"I have decided!" Chen yelled, banging his staff on the ground. "Inform my minions that they must repair all the damage to my island!"
"Yes Master." Clouse bowed as he walked away.