"We're here Jay!" Cole had mumbled quietly.
Poking his head around the door, he saw Jay curled up on his side on the hospital bed. He walked over to him and pulled the chair to the bedside. He subconsciously stroked Jay's hair from his face as he slept.
Releasing a pent up sigh, he wasn't even aware he'd been holding his breath. "Jay? We're here."
He didn't want to admit it to anyone, least of all Jay, but he knew he was going to miss this time apart. Cole had grown incredibly close to his brother in blue, during the last few weeks. His dreams, the night before were a testament to how he actually felt but he lacked the courage to express.
"Jay?" He scooted closer to him, pulling the chair across the wooden floor until it was as close to the bed as possible. "I've gotta go, I-I'll keep in touch, I promise." He said biting his lip. He chanced a quick chaste kiss, placing his lips onto Jay's cheek, a tingle of electricity was felt and the lightning ninja murmured in his sleep in response.
Wu had been adamant though, it had already been decided. The plans ironed out and rescheduled to mean that once the majority of ninja would be in the city and finding appropriate accommodations, Misako would be taking Jay to the countryside.
Those four uneventful weeks had passed quickly, but not quickly enough for Cole. It was quiet, too quiet without Jay. Kai's incessant taunting had taken place of Jay's whining. Lloyd spent a good few hours training on the deck, Cole often joined him but they felt weaker as a team, as a whole. It felt wrong, like the spark was missing.
The informal meeting with Borg had gone as planned. It was just as Zane had deduced, Borg tower had indeed been infiltrated. It was only a matter of time before it would happen, considering these serpentine were many.
Zane had to hand it to them, the serpentine and their skills of assimilating into their immediate surroundings was impressive, but despite that fact, it was also quite a scary prospect. The parts that had been found previously were now nowhere to be found, there were no clues, no trails at all. Everything had fallen silent like they were lying in wait for something spectacular to happen.
This led the team on a perilous mission to retrace their footsteps from a few weeks past. In a mad scramble to find any remaining clues left from that initial explosion, because without the device and without Borg's help they would never have all the answers needed.
This weapon was deadly, not just in the wrong hands but in general, it was a horrific device meant to control nindroids, if used on Zane it would have allowed him to fall into the enemies' hands. If it had hit Lloyd, all of the ninja would have been defenceless; save for their spinjizu and martial arts training.
Wu had already mentioned that it could affect three of them. It now meant that whatever they did they had to be on their guard, always. Both Lloyd and Zane were keeping watch on board the Bounty with Sensei Wu overseeing the whole operation.
Lying in a dormant building on her belly, whilst looking out of a broken pane of glass was no fun for anyone, Nya knew that much. Although, she didn't much mind Misako's company, she found that the elder woman could be quite sharp and witty.
She grabbed her aqua vita and took a quick drink, "Beta team in place Lloyd, report."
Nya looked to her side and saw Misako. The elder woman was looking through her binoculars. She often found the elder to be very matriarchal and sometimes overly protective of Lloyd.
Cutting her some slack, she thought more about why she was often mollycoddling him. 'Lloyd was a valuable member of the team, he beat the Overlord, mind you so did Zane.'
"Stay in place for mission details,"
Nya smirked at Lloyd's enthusiasm and tried hard to stifle her laughter.
"We're not SWAT or STRIKE members, Lloyd." She shook her head, she could've sworn she saw Misako smile too.
A distorted crackle on the communicator was muffled by Nya, Lloyd had just sworn. "Now now, Lloyd, your mom is right next to me." She mumbled and looked back through her binoculars.
Coming in from a different angle, the outlands of Ninjago City were almost desolate and largely abandoned. "Besides, Lloyd…It's not like a have a Cheytac or AWSM is it? Not complaining really, be quite though handy to pick off any serpentine that even come within a 500-yard radius of this place."
"We're not soldiers Nya!" Lloyd mumbled again down the line.
"Yeah, yeah I know but a sniper rifle would be a better tool against the EMFG though!"
"Zane, Lloyd keep watch, we're going in now." Cole nodded and pocketed his small communicator.
"Nya, Misako stay out of sight, don't make a sound." Kai smiled in the direction he knew his sister to be in before following Cole with a hint of apprehension.
"Whatever happened to our call signs?" Nya groaned down her communicator.
The smallest crackle of a voice could be heard. "Team Alpha, all's clear from what we can see here. Hey uh Cole, no elements remember. Communicators if you need them, otherwise keep the lines clear." Cole recognised the voice as Lloyd's.
"Can't help but agree with Nya though, a side arm would be great against that device." Kai had mumbled.
Cole and Kai were standing outside the same derelict building. But it looked different, the windows were all boarded up and some heavy duty chains were bound around each emergency exit. "It feels too eerie, this doesn't feel right."
Kai bit his lip, he had to agree. Why spend some much money on the place if only to let it stand falling into disrepair build "They put a lot of effort into this place but why?"
"Because they were determined to break us apart, at a guess." Cole shrugged, it wasn't far from the truth or what he felt.
He motioned Kai over as he broke the chains, he pulled the doors open with ease. They both peered inside, taking a tentative step.
Once inside they both pulled their scarves up if anything it provided a mask for protecting from dust. Of course, it gave obscurity, no one had recognised them in all their years of being heroes of Ninjago and it was largely due to the flimsy piece of coloured fabric.
Upon closer inspection, they both noted that the purpose built facility had just been abandoned. Everything was covered in a thin smattering of dust. It had been left as it was from two weeks ago. The plants had wilted, the water in the vases had dried up, the chairs and tables in the reception were still overturned.
It was only because of some digging and research from Zane and Nya that they had found that this was once a factory that specialised in electronics. It made small-scale generators, mostly, and the odd circuit board. Before that, it seemed that the building was built above an underground foundry. The product they mined was vengestone, that explained the walls and the underlying fact that none of the trapped ninja could tap into their elements when they had been stuck there.
Zane had mentioned that the foundry soon closed when vengestone became harder to mine, instead they had moved onto mining for ore, which then required a bigger site and foundry.
Kai had called Cole across. Neither could really remember much of this building, they had only ever seen the reception. "It's an old style lift shaft, doesn't look like it goes down too far maybe a couple of floors no more."
He pulled open the accordion folded door and then the inner meshed metal doors before checking to see if the panel was up and running.
It wasn't, he frowned for a few seconds until Cole found the circuit breakers and pulled the lever, flipping the electricity switches. "Let's make this quick Kai, don't really want to be caught down here after last time."
He quickly joined Kai and reluctantly pulled the lift doors closed. With a shuddering groan, the lift finally started moving. It seemed to take forever and a day to actually move, typical really.
Zane would have mentioned something about it not being able to pick up enough speed in the pulley system to allow it to stop in time, therefore being the reason why it was taking so long.
It bounced off the walls a few times and Kai began to shudder as the darkness seemed to become more noticeable.
Both had been advised to bring torches, considering the place was still surrounded by vengestone blocks. Kai lit his first, holding it under his chin, trying his best to get a reaction out of Cole.
"Doofus, Kai, that's the sort of thing I'd expect to see from Jay." He sighed again, holding onto the side as the lift came to a shuddering halt.
"Wow, sudden!" Kai looked startled for a few moments then straightened up and recomposed himself hastily. "What? I don't like rickety old lifts okay!"
"I'm not saying anything," Cole smirked and flicked his torch on before even stepping foot into the pitch black room.
"Stay back to back Kai, can't be doing with losing each other down here."
"What is this place?" Kai shuddered, Cole felt it and it sent a cold feeling up his spine.
Cole shone his commander torch, activating the flicker setting. Zane had mentioned to him that the flicker setting would be beneficial for 'discombobulating' any potential serpentine. Apparently the flicker setting caused intense pain and confusion, it worked exceptionally well; even when it was shone into Kai's face by mistake.