Disclaimer: Ninjago isn't mine,but everything to the OCs, art I post on my tumblr, etc, is mine!
Hey guys, we're back! Time for another HoT chapter! Sorry for delay, but I would like to say that I've been working on the Legend Undone title cover, art reveals of characters, chapter art, and mostly, chapters!
So yeah, I kinda stretched myself a bit with my Fanfic duties, but I have been considering an epilogue/ sneak preview at the second book after the final official chapter of this book is put up! It would be fair since the book might end on a slight cliffhanger. Who knows? Wait, I do!
Now let's dive on in!
Chapter 37: The Hatching
It had almost been a day since Sensei Wu was attacked by Acronix, and even though he said that there was much to discuss, the Ninja had to wait as soon as they reached the temple. Sure, they needed to rest after an exhausting day, but as they arrived, Misako had told them of how time sorta "skipped ahead." No doubt it was Acronix's temporal energy displacement that proved to reach farther than New Ninjago City in terms of effects.
It was one of the things that kept them up that night; questions that kept swirling in their heads, the thought of how injured Sensei was, and the fact Dareth and Ronin didn't finishing unpacking so they slept on their beds without their sheets that were lost amongst the boxes and boxes of stuff that needed unpacking.
But today Sensei and the Ninja gathered in a room while he was sipping away at healing tea, cup after cup, as though nothing had happened. He kept acting very absentmindedly by looking out the window and just sipping away. After he finished his cup again, he asked Misako once more, "Another cup, please, Misako?"
"Okay, she with a chuckled as she refilled his cup, "but drink it slower this time. Healing tea doesn't work on a burnt tongue." Despite her warning, Wu began to gulp it down again.
"Sip!" she insisted as she began to leave the room. "You're quite impatient."
"They same could be said of them," Sensei Wu said, finally acknowledging his students.
Cole was the first to step from the group. "Ok, Sensei Wu, you've had your tea. Now can we talk?"
"Ask any question you wish." Just as he said that, the Nina fired away their questions spontaneously.
"Who did we fight in the monastery?"
"That was Acronix, right?"
"From the painting?"
"Is he really a myth? *"
"Why didn't you tell us?"
"..or was it Krux?"
"Was he from the future?"
"How did he speed up time like that?"
"Was he from the past?"
"Who ate my pudding cup?!"
The Ninja stopped and stared at Jay as he held up an empty pudding cup, disappointment on his face. "What? He said ask any question," Jay explained. "I put my name on this. Just because we're in a new dojo, doesn't mean we disobey the refrigerator rules!"
The silence and looks he was given gave him the message that his question was a bit irrelevant to the conversation. "Right, sorry," he said, understanding their looks. "Guy in monastery. What's his story?"
"To answer that, I must begin at the end," Wu explained. "It was 40 years ago, shortly after the Serpentine Wars, when I was a much younger man." A distant look appeared in Wu's eyes as he remembered older times. "As you know, we fought valiantly but our enemies were stronger and our powers alone were not enough.
"It was the discovery of the magic flutes that allowed us to defeat the Anacondrai. Their leaders were banished and peace had returned to Ninjago. An alliance that couldn't have been achieved without the elements of smoke, metal, lightning, shadow, fire, water, and time."
"Hold on a sec," Cole interrupted, "so that guy at the monastery is an actual Elemental Master of Time?"
"No," Wu firmly said, "Acronix was a Elemental Master of Time, like his brother Krux." The Sensei stopped to take a sip of healing tea before continuing. "After helping us win our hard fought peace, they betrayed me, Garmadon, and the others. The so called Hands of Time felt as that they controlled the most powerful element; therefore, entitling them to rule all of Ninjago."
"What did you do?" Nya asked.
"We had to stop them, and it would take all of us. Garmadon, myself, and every Elemental Master."
Kai and Nya looked at each other with a bit of hope and sadness in their eyes before Kai asked, "Even…our parents?"
"Of course," Sensei replied. "Kai, Nya, your mother and father were great fighters, but it appeared they had met their match. Acronix was a skilled warrior, one of the best I've ever seen, but his real power was his ability to control the forward movement of time. By sending himself forward in time, he was always ahead of the action, as if he had super speed."
"So, in our fight yesterday, Acronix was just sending himself forward in time to beat us?" Maria asked.
Sensei nodded. "Indeed, his power was not to be doubted; however, a slow progression can be just as effective. Different power but equally effective. One Master of Time was bad enough, but like the hands on a clock, there were two."
"Acronix and Krux," Zane thought aloud. "If Acronix could move time forward and slow it down, then Krux-"
"Krux's powers were the opposite of his brothers," Wu finished. "He could reverse time, it was an advantage in combat. Know your opponents next move, know how to counter it. He could even control time to the point of halting it; of course, he didn't halt himself. We knew we had to prepare, fearing that next time we would not be so lucky."
A silence fell over them as they thought about what Sensei had said. Just hearing how they struggled against the Time Twins made them think what would've happened if both twins were there to fight them. Time was the very force that controlled everything.
Lloyd broke their thoughts as he asked Wu, "You said the Hands of Time were unbeatable, yet you beat them. How?"
"The way one often defeats an enemy by taking away their weapon," Wu explained.
"But their weapon was time," said Zane, confused.
"Indeed, our only hope we four blades hastily forged from chrono steel: the Time Blades. Garmadon and I fought them, making them use their powers in a rage. You see, chrono steel is the only metal that can absorb elemental energy. Stripped of their powers, Acronix and Krux were two ordinary men, easily subdued."
"Acronix had a blade that made him sorta vanish," Maria said. "So that was one of the Time Blades, right?"
"It was," Sensei answered, "and the ability to control time was too great for anyone to possess. Garmadon and I knew the Time Blades themselves were a threat that must be eliminated forever. We created a temporal vortex to dispatch the blades to be lost to the ages. But Acronix and Krux refused to admit defeat; they thought they were more powerful than time itself."
"So what happened to them?" Cole asked.
"Krux disappeared into time itself, and I knew Acronix was going to appear yesterday, so I waited. He was the remaining loose end to tie." Misako had come back into the room and walked over to help Sensei out of his chair and onto one he could lie down on. It kinda worried the Ninja, Sensei was acting so…old. "Now he is no more."
Lloyd looked a bit confused. "Wait, you mean, like, permanently?"
"Never my intent, but it was his fate," Sensei explained. "Now Acronix is gone forever, along with that Time Blade. It took four decades, but the Hands of Time will never again threaten Ninjago."
"One question," Lloyd said to Sensei, even as his eyelids were drooping, "how did you know that Acronix was gonna return to the monastery at that exact moment?" Once again, the other Ninja began to ask their questions almost all at one time.
"Why didn't you ask for our help?"
"How many Elemental Masters were there?"
"...how many Time Blades?"
"….our parents, you said they were there?"
They didn't get their answers, Sensei Wu had fallen asleep and was snoring like an old man….well, an average old man. Misako ushered them out quickly. "No more questions, your Sensei fought a powerful enemy. He needs time to recuperate."
As Cole was the last one to leave the room, he closed the doors and turned to face the others with a look on his face. "Hey, I just realized the mural we saw at the museum…that must be the battle Wu just told us about!"
"But Dr. Saunders said the Hands of Time were a myth," Nya replied.
"True, but history is art," Zane said to her, "not science. Even an expert such as Dr. Saunders can be mistaken from time to time."
Jay laughed in agreement. "True that! Know how I know? 'Cause Acronix was a so called myth and we totally busted him!"
He high-fived Kai who quickly deadpanned, "Except now there's nothing to do."
"Or course there is!" Maria cheerfully said. "We've been fighting other myths for a while, I'm sure something will happen that will need us to step in."
"I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but we haven't seen any activity from the demons or anything unusual for a long time. Not since you-" Kai stopped as Lloyd was signaling him to stop what he was saying behind Maria. "…not since you..learned to control your powers better," he nervously said.
Releasing a sigh of relief, Lloyd looked over from his place upstairs and saw the scattered boxes that limited their space. "Well, the temple still needs unpacking. That's one thing we should focus on."
They all groaned in frustration. "Lloyd's right," Cole said.
"Kinda wished we hadn't busted him," Jay muttered. When no one was looking, he quickly got Nya's attention as she walked by. "Hey, Nya, wanna hang out?"
She nodded and the two walked off into another room. Kai shouted after them, "Don't get distracted you two!"
"Kai, you'll wake Sensei up," Maria gently scolded him as she tried reaching for a box at a top of a stack. "We can't be so loud, he needs rest."
"She's right, Kai," Lloyd agreed. "If we're gonna unpack, we gotta do it quietly and…Maria, don't do that!" All of a sudden, the Green Ninja had grabbed the Pink Ninja by the waist and set her on the ground. He took the box she had in her arms and scolded her, "You have to be more careful, this is really heavy."
"I'm fine!" she insisted, trying to reach for the huge box that Lloyd held up above his head. "I had it, just let me carry it!"
"We should try unpacking somewhere else, guys," Kai said to Cole and Zane. "We don't want to get hurt."
"I fail to understand what you mean. They're only having an argument," Zane replied.
"I'm serious, Maria!" Lloyd said with more authority as he was putting the box down. "What if your hand slipped and you dropped this on your foot?"
CRUNCH!
Cole let out a scream, making everyone look down to see Lloyd had unknowingly placed the box on top of his foot. Lloyd quickly picked it up, allowing Cole to hop away as he rubbed it to make it feel better. Kai and Zane quickly gave each other a look before following after Cole and leaving the room.
"Why'd they leave?" Maria asked.
Lloyd just shrugged. Neither of them had a clue.
Almost an hour had gone by and they managed to unpack a grand total of three boxes. The process took a bit since a few things were cramped together if they were small enough. Then there was the struggle of getting them out without damaging the contents inside and put them where they belonged. It wasn't until the laptop they shared was found and turned on that they were to realize dark forces had yet to awaken.
"So, what're you looking up now?" Maria asked as she leaned on Lloyd's shoulder. Since he had found it, he browsed through the news to see if any crimes had occurred that needed them.
"Nothing really," he said with disappointment. "I'm trying to see if there's anything trouble but all everyone is talking about is the new Borg Watch."
"What about that video?" Kai asked while pointing at a video in the corner. It was titled Borg Watch and Evil Samurai Reveal. "It sounds serious, I'll get Jay and Nya."
He quickly ran down the hall where Nya's door to her new room was open. Kai was about to get them when he realized they were…having a moment. "Woah, sorry!" he apologized while quickly shielding his eyes from the potential horror of watching them…kiss. "Didn't mean to interrupt, I didn't see anything!"
"What's up?" Nya's voice asked.
"Something you need to see. Hurry!" Unfortunately as he turned to ran out of the room, he forgot to uncover his eyes and bumped into the door. He fell on his back and groaned as his forehead began to sting. Jay and Nya helped him up as they quickly headed out to where the other Ninja had began watching the video.
Lloyd pulled down the screen for them to see just as the video showed Dareth waiting in line at the Borg Store for the new Borg watch. Gayle Gossip was interviewing him as he spoke into the camera. "That's why I never miss a Borg Store product debut!"
He began pulling out his Borg products to show. "Borg Pad, Borg Pod, I even bought the Cyrus PDA. I guess you could say I'm the company's Borggest fan!"
Maria was cracking up at his attempt at a joke while the other Ninja stared at how she struggled to catch her breath after laughing so hard. When she stopped, she noticed their looks and shrugged. "What? That was the funniest thing I've ever heard!"
Shaking that off, they turned back to see Cyrus Borg on the screen as music was being played by Rufus Mcallister, the Doomsday Comix shop owner, for his entrance. "Not so long ago, if you wanted to tell time, you had to look to the sun, or a clock, or a wrist watch, or ask a friend," Cyrus said. "But the point is there had to be a better solution. Something that merged advanced electronics, and there is."
Rufus began playing the music again, but Cyrus shook his head for him to stop. "Today, I am proud to announce-" as Borg raised his hand that held a remote, the music began playing to early again and instead only gave a glare for it to stop. "…that we are changing time itself! I present to you…."
When he had actually expected music to be played, there was only silence. He gave Rufus a final look as he played the music on cue this time, the doors behind Cyrus opened with the push of his button revealing the new product. "The Borg Watch!"
However, instead of cheering, people began screaming and running away in terror. The camera shook as a stance samurai was walking calmly into the store, despite all the chaos occurring around it. The screen shrunk to a video as a newsman began to speak. "That was the scene just moments ago in downtown Ninjago where the launch of the new Borg Watch was tragically marred by a samurai."
"Well, Kai," Cole said, "you said there nothing to do."
"And Ninja-ing certainly beats unpacking! Actually, anything beats unpacking," Jay muttered.
"Yeah, too bad there's only one samurai," Lloyd told them. "They don't really need all of us."
"So how we decide who gets to deal with it?" Kai asked.
Zane got their attention with his choice of deciding. "I suggest we assign each of ourselves a digit, then manually engaging a seven sided figure with graphical representations of each number to make a random, unbiased selection. …roll dice," he explained to avoid any awkward silences.
"Yeah," Nya slyly said, "or we could just see…who gets there first!"
"Race ya!" They all shouted as they quickly ran out the door. Now, it is quite clear that Maria did depend on someone when getting on and off the floating island where the temple rested, so when the other Ninja used their airjitzu to fly down, she had to quickly catch herself from falling off the edge.
"Guys, wait for me!" she called to them. "I can't fly yet, can we start over or..?"
"Too late now, Pinky!" Jay shouted up in reply.
Although she felt tears come to her eyes, she did her best to force them away and headed back inside. A hand on her shoulder stopped her and spun her around. "Get on quickly," Lloyd told her with a smile. "If we're gonna beat them, we gotta be quick."
She smiled and quickly got onto his back. Before they descend, he looked back at her and said, "Don't worry about Jay, I'll deal with him later."
"No need, I'll just eat his pudding cup again," she said with a smirk.
"You did that?" Lloyd chuckled.
Maria's face suddenly turned serious. "He ate my fudge pop that one time when I called dibs and wrote my name on it. You don't mess with Maria Psyche's food when it's chocolate or fudge based. Now let's make them eat our dust."
The Ninja's vehicles screeched to a halt as they stopped by the Borg Store and hopped out. It didn't matter though, they all reached it at almost the same time, it was hard to tell who really got there first.
"We got at the exact same time," Kai said, though it was obvious.
"Oh, darn! Now how do we decide who gets to fight?" Cole asked.
"Is that Dareth?" Kai asked while pointing at a familiar guy in brown. It was hard to make out, but it looked he was fighting the samurai, or attempting to. "Well, maybe he'll-"
He couldn't finish what he was going to say. Dareth's scream had interrupted and came towards them as he was thrown from the store onto the concrete. Maria was the only one who quickly kneeled to his side to aid him. "Dareth!"
"Sup?" he said while trying to catch his breath. "I roughed him up for you, but feel free to finish the guy off."
"Oh, Dareth," she said through tears of joy and pride, "thank you for your sacrifice. You really are a great example of a true Ninja that I want to be!"
Jay leaned over to Cole and whispered, "If she wants to be more like Dareth when we get back to our other mission, then we're doomed."
More people had rushed out of the store in a panic, getting the Ninja's attention. This wasn't the time to be standing around, it was a time for action. Kai looked over at the Titanium Ninja and asked, "Hey, Zane, you still have those dice?"
"I have virtual ones," he corrected. In his mind, P.I.X.A.L rolled the seven faced dice with each of their symbols as he mentioned earlier.
Finally, her voice came out from Zane, giving the name of the Ninja to fight the samurai. "Kai."
"Yeah!"Kai cheered while slipping his hood on and running in.
"Wait, aren't you gonna draw your sword?" Nya asked him.
"I'm good, sis," he shouted back. The Fire Ninja walked in, punching his fists together to be intimidating. He looked the samurai in the eye, not noticing it's unusual appearance, and spoke confidently, "Ok, I don't wanna brag, but the other day I helped stop, like an Elemental Master of Time. So I think I can handle one lousy sa-"
The second Kai touched him with just one finger, the samurai punched him hard enough to be flung back like Dareth had. He fell on his back and dramatically reached his hand up. "Who's next?" he squeaked out.
Zane looked at the Ninja and began to roll the dice again. P.I.X.A.L's voice spoke once again saying, "Maria."
"Pass," Maria called out from the mailbox where she and Dareth stood. "I've decided to stay here and protect Dareth, he's probably traumatized."
Jay stomped over to her and grabbed her arm. "He can live with it," he said while dragging her to the store. "You were picked and none of us can take your turn, so get in there, Pinky! If you care so much about Dareth, avenge him!"
"Fine," she said while puttingher hood on. "I'll go get the samurai, for Dareth!"
"Maybe this was a bad idea," Lloyd said while watching the Pink Ninja go up to the samurai. "Maybe I should go in."
"Dude, we've talked about this," Cole said while putting a hand on his shoulder. "You can't baby her, she'll be fine. She's stronger now, she has a good punch, and she knows spinjitzu. How bad could this end?"
The answer came as Maria flying through air after being thrown by their foe. She slammed into a streetlight and fell, but quickly got on her feet. "Well, I was able to slug him in the face, but it didn't do anything," she said while rubbing her back. "Who wants to go next?"
Once again, the dice was rolled. "Zane," was what P.I.X.A.L had said, making the other Ninja mad. Lloyd shouted at Zane as he was already heading in. "Oh, come on, that was totally rigged! We didn't even see the roll!"
It didn't matter anyways; Zane was immediately flung back into the mailbox Dareth was hiding behind the second he came into range of the samurai. It had became clear that they had underestimated this guy. It would take all of them to defeat him, so they all stood together, ready to face the approaching samurai.
Cole stepped out from them. "Hang on, guys. There's something I've been wanting to try again." He cracked his neck to loosen him up, his fists lit up as he prepared to strike.
"Oh, what, that earth punch thing?" Jay asked with doubt. "Like it worked so well last time!"
Despite what Jay said, Cole jumped and aimed his fist at the core. It was a direct on the center of the samurai's armor, power coming off from the blow. The samurai flew into the air, his armor pieces and a bunch of slithering snakes that fell down in his place.
"You totally disintegrated him!" Jay shouted Cole.
"I-it was an accident!" he nervously replied.
"Look!" Nya pointed at the snakes as they gathered the armor pieces and themselves in a pile. An orange dust veil had the snakes covered as the armor grew and grew. It built up until the dust had ceased and the samurai, with red eyes, a jagged blade, and a face of many snakes, stood before them.
"Ewww! Grosser!" Jay exclaimed.
"Come on, team," Lloyd said, "there's more than one way to stop a snake."
Following his lead, they got into position and shouted, "Ninja-gooo!" They surrounded the serpent samurai, bouncing him off each of their tornados like a pinball. To their success, he fell apart. To their dismay, he began to rebuild himself, laughing at their attempt.
"I'm starting to think we underestimated this guy," said Kai.
"It certainly appears so," Zane agreed.
"You said there was more than one way to stop a snake," Jay frantically said to Lloyd, "which way do you want to try now?!"
"Uhh…any of them?" It was more of a question for him than an answer for a Jay. He pulled out his swords and noticed how the samurai started to ignore them and walked into the Borg Store; it suddenly clicked in his mind. "It must be after Cyrus Borg, let's go!"
As they entered, the samurai had already cornered the inventor and was preparing to strike. Cole quickly jumped right in his path to keep him from getting closer. "Ok, big guy, that's far as you go!"
But the samurai grabbed Cole and threw him into a large phone model. The other Ninja prepared to attack as the samurai began to corner Cyrus again, but suddenly two more samurai identical to the original appeared in their way.
"Is it just me or are these guys suddenly multiplying?" Maria asked.
"You're not alone. Zane," Lloyd said to the Nindroid, "get Cyrus Borg out of here. We'll deal wth the samurai!"
"But you'll need my battle skills," he argued.
"Zane, my creator needs you, too!" P.I.X.A.L's voice pleaded.
It was enough to get him into action. Just as the samurai was about to get him, Zane jumped over the counter and quickly grabbed ahold of his wheelchair. He wheeled him out of there as fast as possible. With Borg out of the store, the samurai turned their attention to what stood in their way: the Ninja.
They quickly locked into combat, two Ninja each taking on one. Lloyd and Maria slashed at their samurai with their respective weapons, making a few snakes fall off from its body. The samurai, however, seemed unfazed and retaliated with a powerful kick, knocking them both into Cole.
Nya used her water powers to shoot a burst of water at hers, but it only went through the samurai's body and ended up hitting Kai. She was about to get hit by its sword as he raised it high just as Jay blocked it with his nunchucks. The two were in a struggle, both trying to knock the other weapon out from their hands.
Ultimately the samurai had knocked Jay's weapon aside, but Nya quickly jumped in front to protect him and used her powers again, making the samurai disintegrate into snakes again. Just as previously, the snakes began to gather and attempt to rebuild itself, when Jay shocked it with lightning, making the snakes screech in pain.
"That's it!" He quickly looked around to see where the others were and found them taking the fight outside. The samurai he fought ran out to aid his allies just as Jay and Nya were right behind him to help their own friends. "Guys, I know how to stop these things! We gotta keep the snakes from getting back in the armor and reforming!"
"No kidding," Cole sarcastically said over his shoulder. "Any idea how?"
"Nya, use your water power!" Jay quickly instructed her. She shot a stronger stream of water at each of the samurai, making them become mere snakes again.
"It's no use," Kai said, "those snakes can swim!"
"Hah, hah, not in this pool!" Jay quickly electrified the water, causing the snakes to squirm in pain. He and Nya continued until they would show signs of defeat. "Look, guys," he said with a laugh, "electric eels!"
His joke wasn't well received as he only got blank looks. "Oh come on, that was a good one!" Jay declared.
The snakes began to squirm away into an open manhole and slithered down into the sewers. "And I thought unpacking was tiring!" Jay groaned as he and Nya had exhausted themselves from using their powers continuously.
"Nice job, they're gone!" Nya said, trying to cheer him up.
"For now," Cole corrected her.
"I wonder," Kai spoke while briefly picking up one of the samurai's helmets, "who were they?"
"Good question," Lloyd agreed. "Zane, can you analyze?" The silence had already answered him. "That's right, he's with Cyrus Borg. Come on," he told his team, "let's go get them."
The Ninja ran down a nearby alleyway where it was most likely the path Zane took. Each called out for Zane and Cyrus Borg, but they didn't have a response. Cole quickly caught their attention as he picked up what turned out to be a new Borg Watch.
"Hey, a Cyrus Borg Borg Watch, but no Cyrus Borg."
"So if that was Cyrus Borg's, then what happened to Zane?" Maria asked.
"I don't know," Cole muttered. "Maybe he-"
"Zane!" Jay screamed while pointing at a darker part of the alley. In the shadows laid the body of the Titanium Ninja, lifeless and inactive.
They quickly ran to his side, gasping as they got closer. They had already lost him once along with Sensei Wu. Whatever evil that was out there had two advantages over them. One: they were watching them, probably even as they were right now.
Two: they knew how and where to hit 'em.
* I had to change that line. Lloyd, that's not a question, we've taught you better!
Remember guys, feel free to ask questions, give comments, anything to get me talking.
Next chapter on Ninjago: Legend Reborn….
A Time Of Traitors
Until then, God is good, all the time. All the time, God is good.