Soooo... in exactly a week I will be having surgery on my finger (again). So I'll be taking a break from writing for a little while after that while my hand heals. Cough. I think this story will be done by then, though. Also today is my dad's birthday so HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD *throws cake* whoops. I knew that confetti tasted odd.
Review replies:
Dragonborn: My favorite Ninja is Lloyd, and my favorite villain is Morro, or, if we're counting him as a good guy, the Overlord.
Count Raptor: Nuuuu. That would spoil it. And I actually don't remember where I saw it. :P Maybe I'll give out some more hints.
Angel: Hey, foreshadowing is cool! :D Don't u dare stop making one-shot ideas I love writing them. Lol that short story idea made me laugh and I will totally write it. You probably won't see it for a while, though, 'cause I've actually written... three other one shots on paper and have yet to write them in. *facepalm* Oh well. I'll try to work on that. AND I STILL HAVEN'T WRITTEN WIND RIDER DARNIT
Catiefurballgirl114: Aha! I knew I wasn't the only one who said snap! :D
KRR: Seriously? That's... horrible. And yet funny at the same time. xD Those doctors need to learn not to carry bricks around. It's supposed to be a hospital, not a death trap!
Chapter 50
"What?! The volcano's going t-to WHAT?!" Jay demanded, the rumbling making his voice vibrate.
"Erupt." Zane replied. "Lava will flood most, if n-not all, the tunnels in this mountain."
"I KNOW!" Jay yelled over the rumbling. Zane looked confused.
"Then why d-did you-" he was interrupted by Kai, who yelled.
"We don't have time for this! We n-need to get out of here, NOW!"
"I agree with Kai," Morro said, trying to remember the way out. "but it took us days to get through this mountain before. How will we get through before it erupts?!"
"We'll just have to run as fast as we can." Cole said grimly. "There's no time for anything else. Let's go!" the black ninja ran towards the edge of the gap, jumping towards the rope that still hung in the middle and grabbing it, swinging safely to the other side. Jessica, Kai, Jay, and Gin followed. Zane paused as he was about to jump and turned to Lloyd and Garmadon.
"Can you make it across?" he asked the older man. Garmadon opened his mouth to answer him, but Clouse spoke first.
"I have another way." he murmured a spell and a glowing, purple bridge appeared across the chasm. "Hurry! It will not last long!" Morro grabbed Indigo's hand and they and the others still on that side ran across the bridge, which vanished just after the last one stepped off.
"Which way?" Jessica shouted over the rumbling, pointing at three tunnels out. Lloyd hesitated for a few moments before saying,
"Zane, do you know the way?"
"Yes." the nindroid replied. "I have a mental map of the tunnels we traveled through. This way." he led them down the center tunnel. Pebbles began to fall from the ceiling, and the travellers ran faster. They ran for almost 15 minutes straight before they came to the lava-filled chamber with the rope across it where they had split up before. Kai didn't even stop to rest before grabbing the rope and starting to climb across, hand-over-hand. The others started to follow, and after a couple minutes only Morro, Indigo, Garmadon, Lloyd, Ming, Tara, and Clouse were left. Lloyd turned to his father with a worried expression on his face.
"Dad..."
"I can do it." Garmadon assured his son.
"But you can barely walk!" Clouse exclaimed from behind him.
"I didn't know you cared." Garmadon smiled ruefully. "But it's not like we have any other choice. Unless you-"
"Uh, guys?" Indigo pointed into the pit. "The lava's rising." Morro looked down and, sure enough, the deadly liquid was rising towards them, slowly but steadily.
"Indigo, can you climb over?" Lloyd asked the ghost girl. She looked doubtful.
"Maybe..." she started.
"You can't." Morro shook his head. "You're not used to being a ghost. You would go through the rope."
"Oh..." she reached up and passed her hand through the rope. "Right."
"I can't climb over either." Ming piped up. "What do we do?"
"I don't know! There's Vengestone in the walls, so we can't use our powers, and it's too late to go around! Clouse, can you make another bridge?" Lloyd turned to the sorcerer, who shook his head with a frown.
"Too far. It would take too much energy and wouldn't last long enough." the seven stared at each other in panicked silence for a few moments until a large chunk of rock dislodged from the ceiling and splashed into the lava, sending a wave of the glowing, red liquid crashing against the cliff they stood on.
"We're going to die." Indigo whispered. Morro blinked and turned to Lloyd.
"Lloyd, you and your father can climb across. We'll find a way to join you."
"Alright..." Lloyd said slowly. "Come on, Dad." They both grabbed the rope and started to climb across it.
"You can get across." Indigo pointed out. "So can Clouse and Tara. It's just Ming and I who can't."
"I'm not leaving you behind." Morro shook his head. "We'll find a way."
"We better." Tara muttered, looking at the rising lava. Morro turned to the other side and saw Garmadon letting go of the rope on the other side and collapsing to the ground. Lloyd jumped onto the ledge and helped his father to his feet.
"Got it!" Ming exclaimed. "You can carry us across!"
"How? Our hands will be full holding onto the rope!" Morro frowned.
"We can ride piggyback." Ming replied.
"It's the best plan we've got." Tara nodded gravely. "I say we do it."
"For once I agree with her. We don't have any other choice, except staying here to die." Indigo agreed. "And I don't like that option."
"Alright. Tara, you get Ming. I'll take Indigo." Morro instructed. "Clouse, you go ahead. Tell the others to keep going, we'll catch up." Clouse nodded and started to climb across the rope. Ming climbed on Tara's back and they were about to go when Morro stopped them, tying her and Ming together with a short piece of rope. As they started off, Morro saw Clouse arrive on the far side. A few seconds later, he and the others ran off down a tunnel. "Come on." Morro said, to Indigo, who nodded and climbed onto his back, wrapping her legs around his waist and holding onto his shoulders tightly. Once he was sure she was secure, he murmured, "Hold on tight." before grabbing the rope and starting the perilous journey across the rising lava.
ReturnToTheCursedRealm
Lloyd ran through the dark tunnels, lighting the way with a green orb in one hand and supporting his father with the other. He was reallt worried about Morro and Indigo, that chamber was filling with lava fast. He was afraid for the others too, but he wasn't as close with Ming, and frankly he bore no affection for Tara. His father stumbled and Lloyd slowed to help steady him, reminding himself to stay focused as he did.
"Zane, take the lead!" he yelled to the nindroid. "Guide us through the tunnels!" the nindroid nodded as he sped up in order to move to the front of the group.
"Guys! Wait up!" Ming's voice echoed through the tunnel behind him. Lloyd slowed down a little, calling for the others to do the same. After a few moments, Ming and Tara caught up to them.
"Where are Morro and Indigo?" he asked them loudly over the rumble of falling rocks.
"Don't know." Tara replied with a shrug. "Wasn't paying attention to them."
"I was." Ming piped up. "They're a couple minutes behind us. Indigo almost fell and is kinda freaked out."
"So... they're alright?" Lloyd asked with a frown.
"Probably."
"Right." A chunk of rock dropped from the ceiling at their left, crashing to the ground and causing a crack to grow up the wall. Lava started to flow out, slowly at first but getting faster. "Zane, How much further?" Lloyd yelled desperately. The ice ninja was silent for a few moments before replying.
"At our current speed, we should be there in twelve and a half minutes." he informed them. Another rock fell and the resulting tremor sent Lloyd crashing to the ground, bringing his father with him. Lloyd struggled to his feet and tried to pull his father up as well, but the older man shook his head.
"I can't run anymore..." he murmured breathlessly, almost inaudible with the crashing around him.
"You have to!" Lloyd pleaded, pulling on his arm. "We have to get out of here!" Lloyd heard footsteps behind him, but didn't look up until he felt a hand on his shoulder.
"Lloyd." he jumped at the voice behind him and spun around to see Morro and Indigo standing there.
"You're okay!" he exclaimed.
"We won't be if we stay here much longer." Morro pointed to the tunnel behind them and Lloyd turned to see a red glow on the walls. Lava.
"But we can't leave my dad here!" he insisted. Morro reached down and picked up the older man, who thanked him quietly and closed his eyes.
"Now let's go." Morro started running down the tunnel, away from the lava, Lloyd and Indigo quickly following. They soon caught up with the others, who had stopped when they realized Lloyd had fallen. They started running again, barely gaining on the wave of lava that crept slowly towards them.
ReturnToTheCursedRealm
Wu walked into the computer room of the monastery to see Misako sitting in one of the chairs with her laptop, frowning at something at the screen.
"Something wrong?" he asked, walking over to her.
"Mount Vetruvius is erupting." she replied gravely, tilting the laptop towards him so he could see. On the screen was a live feed of the volcano, from a nearby helicopter. Lava was starting to leak out of the crater of the mountain.
"Oh dear." Wu muttered. "I hope the ninja aren't in there."
"Look!" Misako exclaimed suddenly, pointing to a spot about halfway down the mountain. Wu saw a tiny blue figure running across a ledge and jumping off into space. A few seconds later, a bright blue elemental dragon materialized and the figure shot into the air. He flew close to the helicopter and waved.
"It's Jay." Wu said in surprise. Misako nodded and the two watched as about ten more figures emerged from the volcano, a couple of them following Jay off the cliff and onto their dragons and the rest stopping on the ledge. One of them appeared to collapse, but was pulled to their feet by someone else and they all jumped over the cliff as lava began to spill out of the hole they had come out of. A flock of dragons were soon hovering near the mountain as lava flowed down the sides. After a few moments, the dragons turned and began flying down to the ground, but before theu could get out of the camera's range, Misako gasped and pressed a button on the keyboard. She clicked on something and her screenshot came up on the screen. Wordlessly, she pointed to something on the screen. Wu looked closer and saw that, sitting behind Lloyd on his green dragon, was a figure with grey hair.
Yep. Now they're happy. And the ninja and co. didn't even get burned to a crisp in the volcano! :D Gotta be excited about that.
Kai: Are there any questions for us?
FFF: One. None for you.
Kai: Rats.
FFF: The one we do have is for Garmadon. It's from Count Raptor. "how come when you have four arms everybody freaks out but when samukai, those stone warriors and the overlord have four arms no one cares?"
Garmadon: Samukai and General Kozu are/were monsters. I was a mortal man. A poisoned, evil one, but still a man. And the only reason the Overlord had four arms was because he was possessing me.
FFF: Makes sense. Oh, and, Garmadon, NinjaMelissa says "hi".
Garmadon: Hello!
FFF: By the way, did I tell you about the dream I had last night?
Nya: Nope.
FFF: The boy that my sister has a crush on was at our house and he was threatening to burn it down.
Kai: Good for him!
KRR: As much as I like burning things up, Kai, shush.
FFF: And then Morro showed up.
Morro: Nice.
FFF: And it was so realistic I told my mom in the dream that "If this was a dream, I would have woken up by now".
Kai: Perceptive.
FFF: Shut up! Wait. You can spell now?
Kai: Nah. I went to spelling lessons, but mostly I just learned how to use spell check.
FFF: Almost as good. And then Morro and I defeated the evil Bae Leaf.
Lloyd: Bae Leaf?
FFF: That's what my sister calls him.
Lloyd: ...okay. Then what happened?
FFF: Then I woke up and forgot my dream for about two hours before remembering it. Well, I gotta go. Sayonara, everyone!
Lloyd: What does "Sayona-
~FFF
