Good day everyone. Quick retcons: One, Laura's father does live in New Ninjago City, I originally put him in another city but no, he lives in New Ninjago City. Two: Lewis is a full on Trekkie. I originally made up some sci-fi show that he was a fan of, but in retrospect its really stupid. I was trying to give Ninjago some identity separate from the real world but since I brought in Romeo and Juliet might as well add Star Trek. Ninjago is still a separate world but has the same popular culture somehow. Also, BADBOYLOVER24 if your reading this, would you mine if I borrow Alura. She's not going to be Skales' sister but the serpentine that the Silver Guardian saved. And yeah that's it, sorry for wasting your time, on with the show. I own nothing.
Clues.
Luna bent over and began picking through the debris of the antique store. She, Lewis, and Cyrus had returned to Traverse Town in order to find any clues as to Xigbar's location. So far, they had not been successful, though Lewis was quite pleased to discover that the fedora he had considered buying had survived. Cyrus let out a growl of frustration.
"Are you sure that Xigbar didn't leave any clues as to his destination?" He asked Lewis.
"Nope, dude just opened some kinda portal and walked into it." Lewis replied.
"Well, maybe if we knew why the organization even came here in the first place, then we would have an idea of where they are." Luna suggested.
"Maybe the only reason they came here was to make more of those heartless things." Lewis countered.
"No, I've seen how the organization works. The only time that any of the actual members come out of hiding is to accomplish some goal." Cyrus said.
"What could the organization want here?" Luna wondered out loud. Then an idea hit Luna. She remembered one of the skills the organization had wanted her to learn when she was being kept prisoner. They had said something about seeing through shadows. Luna closed her eyes and started to focus.
"Um.. What is she doing?" Cyrus asked noticing Luna suddenly friezing up.
"I have no idea." Lewis replied looking at his serpentine companion with worry. Luna wished that they would stop talking but she could not break her concentration to explain, so she ignored them. Instead, her mind flashed back to her time in the organization. She could hear the cocky voice which she could now attribute to Xigbar prodding her into seeing through the shadows. Luna focused all of her energy on that one thought. See through shadows. Suddenly, Luna's eyes turned a dark purple. Cyrus jumped back in surprise.
"Please tell me that's not a normal thing for her." Cyrus exclaimed. Luna looked around. When she saw Cyrus and Lewis, all she could see were black featureless outlines of her friends. Luna then focused on last night. Then she could see the events of the previous night. Luna saw the featureless figure of Guinevere hurdle herself through the window. Then Luna witnessed Xigbar walk through the door and raise his weapon at a display case. Luna, having gathered the knowledge she needed, stopped concentrating. Her eyes returned to their normal color and she stood up rubbing her head which was now throbbing.
"Um… Luna, what in the heck was that?" Lewis asked nervously. Luna just ignored him and walked over to where the display case had been. There were shattered pieces of glass strewn about the floor but no evidence of what had been there. Then something caught Luna's eye. A small piece of metal laying under a piece of wood. She picked it up.
"Okay, seriously Luna, what the heck did you just do?" Lewis questioned frustrated. Luna turned to him and started to explain.
" I used my powers to re-see everything that happened here. And most importantly what Xigbar was after."
"And what was that?" Cyrus asked intrigued.
"Whatever was in this display case." Luna replied. Lewis and Cyrus approached her and then Lewis looked at the piece of metal.
"Ancient Argonain shield, only 499.99." He read to himself.
"What's an Argonian?" Luna asked.
"The argonains were an ancient culture of mountain people. Actually the mountain where they lived is near here." Lewis explained.
"Wait, if Xigbar came this far for this one shield, then he must have stopped in the mountain." Cyrus realized. "The organization must have set up a base of operations there to look at the other shields, at least temporarily. If we hurry, we might catch up with him."
"Then let's be off." Lewis declared dramatically. The three then exited the antique shop and began hurrying to the Argonian mountain.
Here Comes the Man in Black
New Ninjago City police officers Manfredy and Johnson sat quietly at the opening desk shooting the breeze on the serpentine situation.
"Ya know, I still can believe that we're letting those snakes off scott free after all the trouble that they caused." Manfredy said.
"Hey, I don't agree with it, but it's what mayor Borg said." Johnson replied. Before the two could continue the door was dramatically broken open. Through the swinging hinges of the broken door marched Agent Smith and a hand cuffed Fangtom.
"I didn't do anything; you can't arrest me!" Fangtom pleaded.
"Smith, what's going on here?" Johnson asked as Smith dragged Fangtom to the desk.
"Mr. Tom here was caught loitering on the grass of a "do not stand on the grass" area." Smith explained matter-of-factly.
"You can't arrest me for that!" Fangtom howled. "And my name isn't Tom, it's Fangtom." The two police officers exchanged nervous glances before Manfredy spoke up.
"Um.. Smith good collar, but um.. We've been having reports of um.. Rodents in ...Miss Lilly's Flower Shop. We need our best operative to take care of the situation; we'll take care of this guy."
"I'm on it." Smith said before turning and re-breaking the door. The two police officers sat still for a few moments.
"Go see if he's gone." Johnson whispered. Manfredy stood up and tiptoed past a baffled Fangtom and peered out a window.
"Okay, He's going. He's going. He stopped. He's arresting a jaywalker. Okay he's going. He's going. He stopped. He bought a hot dog. He's checking the cholesterol. Okay… now he's arresting the hot dog guy. Okay, he's going. And he's gone." Manfredy announced. Johnson let out a sigh of relief before getting up and taking the hand cuffs off Fangtom.
"Sorry, about that Mr. Tom, but Agent Smith can be overactive sometimes."
"Overactive. He just arrested me for standing on a no standing on the grass zone, who does that?" Fangtom explained.
"Yeah, Agent Smith just wants to make sure that everything is in order in the park." Johnson said.
"Why don't you just arrest him for disturbing the peace? In fact, what's his problem anyway?" Fangtom exploded. Manfredy looked at Johnson, who nodded his head.
"Look, Agent Smith use to be part of the secret service for the mayor. He was an excellent officer but he was kinda paranoid." Marfredy explained.
"How paranoid?" Fangtom asked.
"Well, he actually arrested the mayor himself for putting himself in danger to often." Manfredy said.
"Not to mention half of the city." Johnson added.
"So, he was fired. But he took it so badly that he almost killed himself a couple of times." Manfredy continued.
"So we couldn't let him do that, so the city decided to give him a job where he couldn't do too much damage, cue the office of park security." Johnson finished.
"So, you just let him run around arresting anyone he chooses?" Fangtom asked. The two police officers nodded their heads in union.
"Look, just try to stay on his good side and not break any minor laws and whatever you do, please don't sue us. Okay see ya later." Johnson said pushing Fangtom out the door before the serpentine could get out another word.
Deai
Selma figured the necklace currently warped around her neck with excited caution as if it might simply fade into non-existence. A week had passed since her sixteenth birthday and she still couldn't believe that Skales had actually bothered to get her something. Romero poked his head into her room.
"Come on, Tanca's gettin' impatient, and you know what happens when he gets impatient." Romero said with a bright goofy simile. Then he noticed the necklace. "I see you're wearing your secret admirer's gift."
"O come on, Romero, he's not my secret admirer." Selma replied jovially.
"Well, you've meet him all of twice and he gets you the one gift that manages to outshine all of us." Romero said.
"Is that jealously I detect?" Selma asked with a coy smile.
"What, me? No!" Romero exclaimed.
"The only reason he outshot us is because he's rich. Now can we please go?" Came Tanca's voice.
"Alright, alright, you bloody busy body." Romero called back.
Skales knocked on Cobra's door before entering. He found his adopted brother slouched on his bed reading a book of military strategy. Skales cleared his throat before asking.
"Hey Cobra, I was thinking of heading down to the market. Do you want to come?" Cobra looked up from his reading and thought for a moment before shrugging and standing up.
"Alright, what do you want to do?" Cobra asked only half interested in Skales' response.
"Well, Kalen has a new flavor of ice cream, called it sea-salt; thought it was worth a try." Skales replied relieved that Cobra actually bothered to accept his offer.
" Aren't we a little old for that?" Cobra scoffed.
"Hey, you only live once, why not." Skales replied.
"So what does that mean, salty sea flavor?" Tanca asked as the three walked through the market.
"Well, it means that it tastes like the sea." Romero replied.
"Um. How would he know what the sea would taste like?" Selma asked.
"Maybe, he saw the sea before we were imprisoned." Romero suggested.
"Kalen, really?" Cobra laughed. "He's hardly older than either of us."
"I don't know." Skales shrugged. "Do you think we'll ever see what the sea looks like?"
"Of course we will." Cobra declared. "Once we're freed of this prison."
"You mean if." Skales countered.
"What do you mean 'if'? We're defiantly getting out of here." Tanca said confidently.
"How can you be so sure?" Selma asked.
"Well, we have to get out. You just can't give up hope." Tanca replied.
"We're not giving up hope, we're just evaluating the situation as it is." Romero chimed in.
"Pessimists." Tanca muttered under his breath.
"We're standing right here." Selma reminded him.
"And we've just arrived." Romero exclaimed excited. The three siblings walked toward the stand when a voice broke the air.
"Selma, is that you?" Selma and her brothers turned to see two serpentine around their age standing near the door.
"Skales!" Selma exclaimed in surprise.
"You're wearing that necklace." Skales said noticing his gift around her neck.
"Yes, um… thank you. It was very nice of you to think of me." Selma replied.
"It was your birthday." Skales replied.
"So this is you're secret admirer." Romero said putting his arm on Selma's shoulder and shooting Skales a friendly smile.
"Romero, I told you he isn't." Selma chided him. "These are my brothers Tanca and Romero."
"Hello." The two said simultaneously.
"This is Cobra, he's my friend." Skales said motioning to Cobra.
"Good day. So what are you doing out here?" Cobra asked.
"Oh, we were going to try some of Kalen's new salt-sea ice cream." Tanca said.
"Well, great minds think alike apparently." Cobra mused.
"Really!" Romero exclaimed.
"Yeah, say, why don't you come in with us?" Skales offered.
"What, and spoil our reputation as street rats?" Romero joked.
"If it's no trouble, we'd love to." Selma replied. And so the new friends entered Kalen's shop.