Chapter 38
Lloyd returned to the Bounty around 15 after he left to drop Cassie off, and it turned out they didn't wait for him to return to resume talking, figures. As Lloyd walked in he noticed Zane, Nya, and Jay were apparently the ones that came up with an idea, as they were explaining something to everyone else who appeared to be… listening? It must have been a really interesting theory.
"So what are you guys talking about?" Lloyd asked
Jay's eyes widened, "Um, well. You see… we were… um… yeah?" Jay suggested
Lloyd raised an eyebrow, what did that mean? "Um Zane, care to translate?" Lloyd questioned.
Zane frowned, but nodded, "Well you remember when you asked us to look in to how Ninjago Gossip?" Zane asked the green ninja.
Lloyd nodded, "Yeah it was just last Saturday right?" Lloyd asked
Zane nodded as well, "It was. Well we did and we came up with an idea, but I'm not sure if you'll like it." Zane warned.
Lloyd rolled his eyes, "Enough with the suspense! Just tell me already! what was the idea!" Lloyd demanded to know.
Nya bit her lip, "It was that, perhaps Cassie has been feeding information to Ninjago Gossip, she was the only person awake at mega monster amusement park, and the only other person with you when you guys went Rough River rafting, it just made sense…" Nya tried to explain.
Lloyd shook his head in disbelief, "No. I'm sorry guys I just really don't believe that, and if that was true then why would she break her foot? She has a running scholarship; it seems unwise to choose to break your foot right before the season starts." Lloyd said thinking of Cassie's emotional state when he dropped her off at physical therapy; if this was all an act then she was a REALLY good actress
Cole looked to Zane, "yeah Zane I've got to agree with Lloyd, everything up to the kidnapping I believe, but breaking her bones on purpose? That is something I doubt she would do." Cole added, siding with Lloyd
Zane nodded, "It's true that Cassie probably wouldn't get kidnapped willingly, but I still wonder if this kidnapper Eva had anything to do with Ninjago Gossip." Zane said, guessing many of his brothers would question how far Ninjago Gossip would go to get a story, though Nya he assumed would be glad to get a reason to shut them down.
Kai pursed his eyebrow, "Um…. I know we all hate Ninjago Gossip and all but…. Do you really think they go as far to kidnap someone?" Kai asked skeptical of the idea,
Nya growled, "Its Ninjago Gossip, you can trust anything about them, I wouldn't be surprised if the overlord was the CEO or something." Nya commented
Zane glanced Nya a confused glance at her... theory? But soon composed himself to tell his team his thought, "Well maybe not the entire company knows about it, that would be too risky, but there would diffidently be more than one person involved, and these couldn't be just your average reporter, it had to be someone with money and influence." Zane explained.
Jay rolled his eyes, "Well that helps! Now all we have to do is stalk EVER Ninjago Gossip worker there is! We can't just go around blaming them! If they did this they obviously made sure that people wouldn't find out! This is one of the most influencing companies in Ninjago! They would have made sure they have ways to silence us if we found out… Well, that is if they actually did this." Jay said
Lloyd shrugged, "Well it shouldn't be hard to pick out a few of the top people working at Ninjago Gossip, and we could do a back ground check on all of them and see where that gets us? Any lead is better than no lead." Lloyd said, trying to couture the doubts Jay just gave everyone.
Nya gave an evil grin and throw her hand in the air, "Finally! We have a reason to kill Ninjago Gossip! You know long I've been waiting for this day?!" Nya asked
Cole frowned, "Um… don't really want to know…" Cole said who was just the slightest bit creeped out by Nya's hate for Ninjago Gossip.
Nya rolled her eyes and turn to Zane, "Hey Zane would you mind doing the back ground check? Honesty I don't trust them Nya pointed to the boys, "To do it" Nya said staring at them, Cole was putting his ghostly hand though Kai's hair, annoying Kai a lot, Jay was humming in the corner, and Lloyd, well he looked like he was either going to murder someone or was going to be murdered.
Zane nodded, "Good idea Nya, it will also be more time efficient, since I can access almost anything without using any electronics, not to mention analyze the data faster than humanly possible" Zane Commented.
Nya nodded as Zane started to go though the data in his head, and after a few long minutes of waiting Zane froze, "Found something".
Five heads popped up, "What?! What did you find?!" Lloyd demanded
Zane however ignored Lloyd and turn right to Kai, "Bryn's last name is Marcus correct?" Zane asked
Kai frowned and nodded, confused how this had anything to do with the kidnapping.
Zane nodded as if he wished Kai had denied that Bryn's last name was Marcus, "Well I didn't find anything necessarily suspicious, though it seems Bryn is closely related to the CEO of Ninjago Gossip." Zane informed the group
Jay narrowed his eyes, "How close is "Closely related" ?" Jay questioned Zane
Zane sighed, "Ava Marcus, the CEO of Ninjago Gossip is Bryn's sister." Zane stated
Lloyd frowned, "Ava… that name is suspiciously close to the name Eva… do you think Bryn could be leaking information about us to her?" Lloyd asked
Zane nodded, "That, I don't doubt, but would she go as far to help her sister kidnap Cassie? Assuming Ava did kidnap Cassie." Zane said
Kai shot to his feet, obviously not happy for his family top all the sudden start accusing his girlfriend of kidnapping, "Whoa whoa whoa! So what they're related? Bryn could have just told her family about her life and Ava could have used it as a story! And Ava might have just known where Cassie was because of Bryn; I doubt she would really do anything like that." Kai said, backing up Bryn.
Cole pursed his lip, trying to think of a way to either clear Bryn's name, or the opposite, "Well you and Bryn could go on a date tomorrow and ask her about it and tell us what she said, so we're sure she's innocent, which, I have to side with Kai on this one, Give her sister a few hints about our life maybe, but kidnap her own best friend?! That seems a little crazy to me." Cole said
Nya nodded, "that seems like a reasonable solution, any objections?" Nya asked
Lloyd shrugged, "Then it's a plan, Kai, you want to tell Bryn where to met you tomorrow for the "Date", it would be weird for it to be unplanned" Lloyd suggested, hoping this wasn't some super villain, that it was just Ninjago Gossip, because as bad as they are, Nya's "idea" that the overlord return would be much worse.
Kai sighed, "Fine" he said as he pulled out his phone to text Bryn.
A few seconds later Kai looked up from his phone screen, "Alright everything's set, tomorrow at five, me and Bryn are going to hangout, and when I get back I'll tell you everything, okay?" Kai asked
Jay nodded, "YEP! Now does that mean we can leave now because Cole just broke my personal record on Fist to Face 2 and I really need to beat him." Jay commented, but was questioning his reasoning for tell his team his reasoning behind wanting to leave.
Lloyd rolled his eyes, "Yeah, we can all leave now, I think we found out what we wanted" Lloyd said as he and his team got up and walked to the door.
10 minutes later
Kai quietly walked up to the indoor training room door, he could hear the punching bags being beat up inside, and quietly knocked on the door, "Hey Lloyd? Can I come in for a sec?" Kai asked
The punching noise stopped, and was replaced with footsteps, and soon the door open, "Hey Kai, you realize this is the training room, you don't really have to ask to come in" Lloyd commented, noticing Kai's change in behavior.
Kai nervously laughed, "Oh yeah, I forgot about that." Kai said as he timidly entered the room.
Lloyd raised an eyebrow, "You okay Kai? You're acting really weird…" Lloyd stated the obvious
Kai sighed, figuring he might as well get straight to the point, "Well I kinda wanted to talk to you… you know, about the money thing." Kai said
Lloyd nodded, "Oh that, what about it?" Lloyd asked, keeping a poker face.
Kai frowned, "Well I sort of wanted to thank you for not telling Sensei Wu, or punishing me, you know what mean…" Kai started.
Lloyd scoffed, "Don't thank me, seriously don't thank me, I was actually just talking to Sensei about your punishment a few minutes ago." Lloyd explained to the dumbfound ninja.
Kai's jaw hung open, "You didn't!" Kai said, thinking this was just a tactic to scare him.
Lloyd smirked, "Oh but I did. You're lucky I chose your punishment, I'd hate to think what Sensei would have done." Lloyd commented, recalling the time they'd skipped training.
Kai growled, "What. Did. You. Do." Kai demanded, not liking where this was going.
Lloyd shrugged, "Oh not much, you'll only being doing my chores till next June" Lloyd explained, knowing Kai would be less than thrilled to do this.
Kai's left eye started to twitch, and he lunged.
The ninja finally know what Bryn's been up to! And are going to confront her about it! Things are going to get very messy very soon! But of course there's also Kai's punishment, we can all assume he'll find some way to get out of it ;)
AHHHH! This story only has two chapters left! And then it's finished! I can't believe it! I've been working on this sense… um… February?! It's already been that long?! I can't believe it! And if you guys didn't notice I'm trying to stretch my updates farther apart because honesty I'm kind of nervous to finish this story and start What Destiny Stole from Us, because that story is going to be a LOT different from this one.
So how was this chapter? How do you think Bryn is going to respond to the ninja finding out about Ava? Please like always tell me in the reviews! -AveXCninja11