Chapter 13: Lure, Fight, and Riot
That night, Lloyd couldn't sleep. He couldn't sleep knowing his friends are out of the tournament, and that Chen would come after him next. I have to save them all, he thought. But how will I do that? Lloyd thought for an hour, and then he got a simple idea. All he had to do was find Chen and break the Staff of Elements. Lloyd had no time to waste. He got up and snaked around the palace to head for Chen's room.
As he was trying to find Chen's room, he got another idea: what if he freed all the prisoners and then went for the staff? Change in plans, Lloyd, he told himself. He went back to his room and used the same trick Cole used in Kai's room on their first night when they went looking for Zane. Sure enough, it worked. He made it. He was underground.
Lloyd walked around, looking for a way to get to the cells or the factory. He didn't know that the factory was a bit below what he was standing on right now, basically on a level below. Suddenly, Lloyd tripped over a rock. He stumbled one or two meters forward until a trapdoor opened under him. Lloyd went down the trapdoor and fell flat on his back. "Ouch," he said to himself, hoping nobody heard him.
Unfortunately, someone…no, something heard him. He looked in front of him and saw two big, red eyes looking at him. Lloyd had no idea what that was, but it didn't look nice. He ran backwards, desperately looking for a way out when the creature, which turned out to be a giant snake, chased him.
Kai appeared in front of Lloyd, peering through a small tunnel route. "Kai!" the green ninja shouted at him. "Help me!"
"Lloyd, grab my hand!" Lloyd reached near Kai and caught his hand. The fire ninja pulled Lloyd sideways to where Kai was standing. He escaped the snake, but only by a bit.
"How are you free?" Lloyd asked his brother in wonder as they ran, trying to escape.
"Don't worry about that. Follow me. I know how we can get back up." Kai was holding a torch so at least they were able to see where they were going.
Soon they found a ladder-like thing. Kai climbed it first and then Lloyd did. They found themselves in a large room, but Lloyd didn't know which room it was. "Sorry, Lloyd," Kai said sadly. "You'll understand what I mean soon enough…" Kai blew out his torch and left.
"Wait! Kai! What do you mean?"
The lights turned on. Lloyd realized he was in the main hall of the palace, and Chen was laughing right in front of him, with the Staff of Elements in his hand. "Did you really I think I wouldn't know you were sneaking around the palace?" Chen sneered at Lloyd. "Some of my guards saw you sneaking around, so I especially made that trapdoor for when you reached there. I knew you would go there to save your precious friends." Chen laughed once again.
Lloyd groaned. "You tricked Kai into believing you! You might've gotten him, but you won't trick me that easily! You'll pay for all you've done!"
"Oh, dear. The green ninja has become furious. Don't worry. I'll set things right by defeating you and taking your powers! If I win, I'll take your powers. If you win, I'll let your friends go. How does that sound?"
Lloyd hesitated and thought for a moment before giving an answer. "Fine. Do you promise?"
"Yes, I promise that I will free your friends if you win…which you won't, of course."
The fight began. Lloyd made the first move by flying at Chen with a kick. Chen risked a block with his Staff. Chen used the power of ice to try and freeze Lloyd, but Lloyd dodged it. "Ice?!" Lloyd cried. "So Zane is here!" They continued fighting with Chen using a smokescreen to try and block Lloyd's vision, but all the green ninja did was jump up and come back down on Chen's head, feet first.
"Ouch!" Chen screamed. Lloyd punched him a few times before Chen knocked Lloyd off. He shot fire at Lloyd, burning his ninja gi. Then Chen used the power of Nature to summon vines and they held him up in the air. Chen waved his Staff to the side and that's exactly what the vines did: throw Lloyd to the side. Lloyd hit the wall, head first, and looked a bit dazed. He stood up slowly. "Well, aren't you quite powerful," Chen grinned wickedly. "It sure will be fun taking your powers!"
"You won't." Lloyd said firmly, his head up and eyes glaring at Chen. Then Lloyd used his powers and created an energy ball. Chen blocked it with a mix of elements, including Fire, Water, Earth, and Lightning. Then Chen used Poison to blind Lloyd for a few seconds, and when Lloyd opened his eyes, he used Mind to make Lloyd fall over. Then he used Gravity to make Lloyd float up fast into the ceiling and come back down even faster. Chen laughed at beating up the green ninja. Lloyd got up once more and tried punching Chen, but Chen used Speed and ran to the other side quickly. Then he used Shadow and struck Lloyd square in the back with his Staff. Lloyd fell down and was taken to room where Chen steals elemental powers.
Chen laughed viciously. "I defeated the green ninja, said to be the most powerful person in all of Ninjago!" He narrowed his eyes evilly and looked at Lloyd. "But not anymore." All the guards around him in that room cheered with joy. The Staff of Elements glowed and took Lloyd's powers. "Now, you will stay put here. Alright?" Chen smiled and laughed when he saw the horrified expression on Lloyd's face.
"Alright, so you guys understood the plan?" Cole asked everyone in their big huddle of angry elemental masters. They were about to start the riot. The plan was to open the factory doors and charge down underground tunnel until they meet guards. Then they will fight. They hoped Clouse wouldn't decide to make his daily rounds at that time, else they will be in for a lot of trouble, and, more importantly, pain. Everyone nodded, showing that they understood the plan.
"What about an attack formation?" Christina asked.
"Oh, yeah, right. I forgot to tell you guys about that. We'll attack in small groups in different sides of the tunnel. If we become overwhelmed for whatever reason, join together and create a circle and fight like that."
"What are the groups?" Shade asked, raising an eyebrow.
Zane handed Cole a piece of paper which had everyone's names written down in a group. "Ash, Chamille, and Bolobo," Cole read aloud. "You three are in one group. Shade, Gravis, and Tox, another group. Misako, Nya, and Jay in another group. Zane, Chris, and Christina in another. Neuro, Griffin, and Karlof are in another. Paleman and I will be in the last group."
Everyone got into their groups and got ready. Cole and Paleman opened the doors to go outside. "Let's go everyone!" Cole shouted and everyone cheered. They all ran out. The riot was about to start.
They ran up the tunnel past the cells they slept in after their shift in the factory was over. Soon enough, a ton of guards were running towards them, ready to fight. Leading them was Zugu. "Attack!" Zugu yelled at his guards.
"Attack!" Cole shouted to his friends. And so the fight started. At first, they were doing good, splitting into their small groups and drawing the guards away from the other groups. After a bit, Zugu understood what they were doing and sent all his guards to attack them. They began to get overwhelmed and could not keep up. Zugu himself joined the fight and started fighting Cole until Bolobo slapped him aside. "Get into the circle formation!" Cole shouted and everyone obeyed. They turned themselves into a ring.
They fought like this for a while but there were just too many guards for them to watch. Within the next two minutes, people began to get tired. Chen's guards began to advance on them as the elemental masters slowly began to move back, closer and closer to the factory by the second. Misako got punched in the stomach and she fell to her knees. "Misako!" Zane and Nya cried together. They went to defend the older lady from the guards.
"Stay back!" Zane growled at them, but the guards paid no heed. By now, the elemental masters were right beside their cells. The guards pushed right past Zane and Nya and picked Misako up. They put her in a cell and locked her up. Misako was the first person to fall. Nya happened to be next. While she kicked away one guard, another came from beside her and before Zane could do anything to stop him, the guard shoved her down and kicked her on the ground. She was lifted up and thrown into her own cell.
"Nya!" Jay cried. That was a big mistake he made because he got punched in the face, but Jay got angry and fought back harder than ever. Gravis and Tox were the next to go down. Gravis was punched down while Tox was picked up and thrown into the wall while the guards laughed at her pain. They were put into cells. Ash and Chamille were next. Ash was slammed into the wall while Chamille was tripped from behind and she hit her head on the ground and lost consciousness. Cole realized they were losing people every 30 seconds but there was nothing he could do about it. It made him furious so he fought harder with Jay right next him.
Chris and Christina were older than most of the people there, but they were still in their prime and had lots of energy. Sadly, the energy did not prove to be enough. Both brother and sister were already worn out and were overwhelmed in an instant. Chris was kicked in the knee as the former Master of Water clutched it and fell. His older twin sister, Christina, didn't fare much better. She was punched in the stomach twice which made fall over. Griffin tripped over them from behind because he didn't notice. He fell on top of them and was swarmed by guards. He gave up; he didn't have any energy left to fight back either, so Griffin, Chris, and Christina were locked up in cells.
Zane did a quick head count. The only ones left were Jay, Cole, Shade, Karlof, Bolobo, Paleman and himself. He saw as Paleman didn't have enough energy to fight the two guards in front of him, so he was slammed on both sides by each of them. He crumbled to the ground. Another person down, Zane thought sadly. He quickly counted the remaining guards as well. There were exactly 35 guards and only 6 of them to fight them all. Zane wasn't about to lose hope, though.
Bolobo, Karlof, and Shade were fighting back to back to back. All three of them were tired and didn't have much energy left. Shade was the first to go down of the three. He got tackled down by a guard and couldn't fight back. Jay, who was beside them, fighting alongside Zane and Cole, also fell as he got kicked in the stomach. Bolobo didn't have any energy left. He fell to the ground without even being hit, but as he fell he got kneed in the face. Ouch.
The only three that were left were Cole, Zane, and Karlof and they had about 25 guards to still beat. They were heavily outnumbered, with the rest of their friends locked up in the cells. Cole got punched as he zoned out for a moment, and his head hit the chest of Zugu. Zugu kicked him down and slapped him with the flat part of his spear right on Cole's stomach. Cole was down. Everything rested on Zane and Karlof, though everyone doubted they could win without their powers. Karlof was trying as hard as he could, but his body gave up. He stumbled over someone's foot and fell. The last one standing was Zane against around 15 guards. Zane was fighting off three guards at once until Zugu came from behind and punched the nindroid in the back of his head. The former ice ninja fell to the ground and was kicked around by the guards a few times until their amusement in that left them. Zane slowly closed his eyes as he was thrown and locked up in another cell.
From the cell across Zane's, Cole looked sadly at everyone, sitting or sleeping like they were lifeless. We failed, Cole thought sadly in his head as he decided to do what everyone else was doing: rest.
So Kai betrayed Lloyd and left him to fight Chen with his Staff of Elements. Kai feels bad about this.
Cole and the others had a riot in the underground tunnels. It seemed the guards knew that would happen and they gathered a lot of guards to overwhelm the elemental masters. The elemental masters were defeated because they had no power and are locked up in cells.
Are you wondering what happened to Wu, Garmadon, and Vergo? You'll find out in the next chapter.
Thanks, hope you guys liked it!