Hey! I'm not dead! :D In case you didn't know, I took a break from this story to work on a Christmas-themed story. But now I'm back, and will hopefully finish this by the end of the month! To make up for my absence, here's an extra long chapter!

Grammarosprey— Ah, sadly, I'm not skipping the whole thing, just the unnecessary clips (mostly fight scenes). But yes, I am putting a little more detail in their friendship with the dragons! Sorry to disappoint. :( And um... I guess it's just the metal's reaction? I dunno, it's a cartoon. XD Thanks for reviewing!

ColdWaterChicken— Oof, I've been there. My cousin's crazy lab escaped a couple years ago, and I tried to chase it down. Didn't really work. But, her stepdad came and got him, so it's alright now. I'm glad I'm making you feel better. :) Thank you so much for reviewing, and you can talk to me anytime!

. . .

"John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt... his name is my name tooo..."

"Jay."

"Whenever we go out, the people always shout..."

"Jay, come on."

"There goes John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt, fa la la la la la la—"

"Jay!"

Jay whipped around and glowered at the two teens that were many stair steps behind him. They had, finally, reached the end of the week, and were headed back to the monastery to continue their lessons with Sensei Wu.

If only the monastery wasn't built on the highest mountain in the land, and we didn't have to climb about a million steps to get to the top while carrying everything we packed for the trip on our backs...

Cole rolled his eyes when Jay stuck his tongue out like a two-year-old would, and continued to climb.

"We have almost reached the top," Zane observed, looking up at the few hundred steps that were left. Cole nodded, skipping the next few steps so he could get to Jay's level— when the little rat tripped him.

He caught himself just before his nose collided with the hard stone steps, choosing to ignore Jay's chuckling. It was Zane's turn then to roll his eyes, and clapped Jay on the back of the head as a suitable punishment.

"Look, I know we're all tired, but can you please behave yourself, Jay, you're acting like a child—" Cole stopped.

Jay stepped up next to Cole and looked where he was staring. "What's wrong?"

"Look."

The two followed the line of Cole's pointed finger to the monastery in front of them. The doors were left wide open (usually that would be a student's doing, Wu put the task of closing the gate before dusk on one of them), and two lights were left on inside the building that they could see through the windows: Sensei's bedroom... and theirs.

"A shadow," Cole added, turning to their bedroom window. A figure was up and about, and it certainly wasn't their sensei.

Jay tensed up, and so did Zane. Cole's hand reached for his hood.

"Let's get moving."

. . .

The trio searched the monastery from the rafters of the building, stepping from beam to beam on cat's feet. Quiet as a mouse, silent as a breeze, as Sensei taught them. Their dark robes left them practically invisible in the dim light that filtered in from below.

Luckily, Sensei Wu was unharmed. Cole found him dozing peacefully in his bedroom. But in the next room, a stranger clad in red flannels was (brushing his teeth?) in their bedroom.

Zane squinted his eyes to see better. The most prominent feature of the trespasser was his hair— brunet, auburn— which was gelled in random spikes going in all directions. From the look of it, he was preparing for bed, but all that Zane's cluttered mind could think was intruder, intruder.

"Oh yeah? Well, take this!" the stranger muttered out of the blue, waving his toothbrush at the mirror as if it were a sword. Jay took this as an opportunity to drop noiselessly into the room, landing where the stranger couldn't see and staying inconspicuous.

The stranger started to throw hits more strategically, sparring with the breath of air behind him. He got uncomfortable close to where Jay was hiding, but fortunately he backed away at the last second. "And this!"

Zane followed Jay's example and landed behind the intruder.

"And this!" The stranger spun around, pointing his toothbrush-weapon right where Cole had landed in front of him. Now, he was cornered. He looked around at the three in befuddlement, before quickly realizing his predicament.

"Oops."

The three brandished their weapons— Jay had a pair of nunchucks, Zane wielded a pair of steel shurikens, and Cole held a scythe— and the stranger flinched, shifting into a stance similar to the one they had been taught. His eyes were bright and furious as he shoved the toothbrush in Zane's mouth through his mask, which he spat out quite violently at Jay, then it bounced off him... right down Cole's shirt. This distracted them while the stranger had the chance to escape through the rafters.

Zane managed to catch up with him and aimed a kick to the face, but he dodged, causing Zane to lose his balance and tumble into the kitchen. The stranger laughed, but was stopped by a tackle from Jay. That knocked him straight through the roof and out into the courtyard. When he recovered, the other three had already spilled into the courtyard with him.

Then he activated the training course, which knocked down all three of the unsuspecting students. When they got back on their feet and were ready for a real fight, the stranger egged them on with a cocky smirk.

Three to one. Should be easy, Jay thought with a smile.

The fight continued. Punches were thrown, kicks landed in places that hurt, but their fighting styles were so similar that, in a one-on-one, they would most likely end in a stalemate. For now, they had to rely on their numbers. The intruder had Cole locked underneath him, so Zane tackled him and Jay tackled Zane, leaving the four in an awkward dog pile, when...

"Stop!"

At the commanding voice of their sensei, the three jumped up on their feet instantly. The fourth reluctantly pulled himself off of Cole, and joined their line. Jay stared at him in confusion. This... isn't usual trespasser behavior.

"Yes, Sensei," he, Zane, and Cole replied, bowing as if on cue. The intruder glanced at them curiously, then stepped forward.

"Wait a minute!" he began, gesturing to the three. "They're your students too?"

Sensei Wu nodded, and Jay gaped. This guy was one of them? So that explains it...

"This was my final test, wasn't it—"

"Woah, woahwoahwoahwoah," Jay interrupted, stepping up from where he stood on the new student's right. "You never said anything about a fourth. It's always three! Three blind mice, three musketeers, three—"

Cole stepped forward. He was on the stranger's left. "Uh, what he's trying to say, Sensei Wu, is that the three of us have trained together. We're solid." He made a gesture with his hands to indicate this.

The stranger in flannels laughed. "Didn't look so solid to me."

Last, Zane stepped forward. "Master, what is the meaning of this?"

Wu came closer. "Each of you have been chosen. Each in tune with elemental properties."

Elemental properties?

"But first!" Wu prepared for another use of Spinjitzu, using the same stance he always used when he would demonstrate it. He swept by each one of them, and when he was done, they were each wearing new robes, all in different colors (somehow they reminded Jay of Skittles).

Zane was in white. Jay was in blue. Flannels was in red (he was now also holding a katana), and Cole's robes were still the color of midnight. Thin cord was hung from their right shoulders to the opposite hip, and another cord from their left shoulders connected to it in the middle. Where the cords connected, there was a tiny gold symbol of a dragon.

"Woah!"

"How'd he do that?"

"Look what color I am!"

"Wait a minute, I'm still black?"

Then, Sensei stepped up to the stranger. "Kai, Master of Fire," he said. Something in his eyes twinkled. "It burns bright in you."

In the rest of their minds buzzed the name, Kai.

He moved over to Jay. "Jay is blue, Master of Lightning."

"Heh, that's not all I'm the master of," he replied. Cole and Zane shook their heads. "I do a little inventing, I dabble in model building, touch a' cooking, little poetry..."

Cole moaned. "More like 'mouth of lightning'."

"Black ninja is Cole," Sensei continued, ignoring their quarrel. "Solid as rock. Master of Earth."

Cole swung his scythe, and spun around. At Kai's chuckle, he aimed his scythe at the red-clad ninja's neck.

"Nice to meet'cha, kid," he replied. "I got your back. And for the record..." he flipped off his mask, revealing messy ebony bangs that kept trying to get in his face, and hard eyes that reminded Kai of coffee and spice. "There ain't nothing in this world I'm afraid of."

Jay snorted. "Except for dragons," Zane pointed out innocently.

"Dragons... aren't from this world, Zane, I said 'in this world'," Cole argued, flustered.

"...And white ninja is Zane," Wu kept going. Zane bowed in respect, spinning his shurikens, before making them disappear. A trick he loved to show off. "Master of Ice. And seer with six sense."

"I sense this one takes things a little too seriously," Kai added under his breath.

Apparently Zane had heard him, because he replied, "You too have the gift?" pulling off his mask as well. His blonde hair was white and significantly neater than Cole's, and his eyes were a curious arctic blue.

Jay chuckled nervously. "Hey, he's just makin' a joke, Zane." Under his bright blue mask revealed patted-down ginger hair that looked as if it wanted to curl, and a nose covered in freckles. He lowered his voice, "Remember what we talked about? Your sense of humor, huh?"

Zane blinked, then nodded. "Yes. It was a joke. Ha-ha."

"Pay attention!"

Kai took off his mask last, showing off that same dark shade of auburn, and the same tempestuous amber-brown eyes. He had a scar over his eye, like Jay, except it was older, longer, and completely covered the eye instead of just cutting his eyebrow.

Jay snapped back to his position. "You four are the chosen ones, who will protect the four weapons of Spinjitzu from Lord Garmadon."

Kai stepped forward, and snarled, "But what about my sister?"

Jay gasped in surprise, then grinned. "We're saving a girl? Is she hot?" He nudged the teen in red, and Kai gave him a look of pure disgust.

"Jay," Cole chided.

"Eh, I just wanna know what we're getting ourselves into!" he turned back to Kai, however, and asked, "Does she like blue?"

"Back off."

"When we find the weapons, we will find your sister," Sensei Wu answered. "It is time. We will go to the first weapon."

Cole cut in. "Woah, hold on a minute. You said you were going to teach us Spinjitzu."

Wu gave another one of his cheeky grins. "Spinjitzu is inside each and every one of you. But, it will only be unlocked when the key is ready to be found." He was quiet for a moment, then, "Come! My feet are tired. We will take the horse carriage."

"Great. Now we have to find a key?"

"Yeah, I'm feeling like he's taking us for a ride."

Kai frowned, pushed past them, and headed inside. "Well, if it means finding my sister, then sign me up."

. . .

"What a surprise," Jay muttered wryly. "Thank you so much for the welcome home gift, Sensei Wu, we really appreciate it!" He folded his new robes and put them on the end of his bed.

Cole sighed. "Come on, he's not that bad. Sensei probably just needed another week to train him. There's got to be a good reason why he didn't have Kai train with us."

"What, because he's hostile? Irritating?" Jay rolled his eyes. "The guy's a nightmare."

Zane pulled back the covers of his bed— which was on the bottom of the opposite bunk— gently, climbed in with just his bare feet and white long-sleeved button-up pajamas, and said quietly, "He does seem a bit like the reckless type."

Cole shook his head. "You two are terrible with guests."

Speaking of Kai, the hothead stormed in, practically leaving a cloud of smoke in his wake. He grabbed his stuff from the bunk above Zane's, including a nearly ragged pillow and two thin blankets with colors faded from use, and began to climb down the ladder with all in his arms, but not without struggle. Cole grabbed all of it without a word, letting Kai climb down safely without breaking his neck. Kai loured. Cole rolled his eyes.

"Gimme that," Kai ordered, taking the blankets forcefully out of Cole's hands before turning to leave.

"Where do you think you're going?" he asked.

"I'm not sleeping with you three," Kai insisted. "I'll just stay in the living room."

Jay scoffed. "Well, that's offensive!"

"We don't bite," Zane replied.

Kai hummed in response, then left.

Cole sighed, and shook his head. "That guy."

Zane stepped gingerly out of his bed, watching the door. "Perhaps we should go to him. Do something, some sort of bonding activity, to kindle a friendship with him. Then he won't push himself to sleep somewhere else."

"Wait, don't we have to leave at like five?" Jay asked from the top of his bunk. "And we have to push the horse carriage, too," he groaned.

Cole checked his watch. "We have an hour. And if we settle down then, we'll still get a full eight hours."

Jay sighed. "Alright, fine."

. . .

Stupid other students. Why didn't Sensei tell me about them? I thought I was going to do this alone.

Kai didn't really want to sleep on the couch. But, he didn't want to sleep with them, either. They had been here longer than him, they had been training harder than him, and that was their room. They probably looked down on him, because of that. They didn't want to sleep in the same room with him.

And... he didn't want to have to deal with the awkwardness, either.

He was about to climb in and be done, when a curly ginger head popped out from behind the back of the couch.

"Hello!"

Kai jumped about fifteen feet in the air (he didn't scream, FSM forbid Sensei Wu wake up), but he did fall backwards, narrowly missing the coffee table.

The teen (the one... the one in blue, I think?) burst into a fit of giggles. And his pajamas were, in fact, blue. Two teens taller than him walked in after that, one in black, and one in white.

Kai frowned, scrambling to get back on his feet. "Do you need something?"

The one in black put a hand on his hip. "Considering we have an hour before we actually need to go to bed, we thought you wanted to do something before then."

"I'm good."

The blue one leaned closer. "C'mon, don't be a party pooper!"

Then, the one in white cleared his throat to get Kai's attention. "We wanted to properly introduce ourselves to you, since Sensei's way was—"

"—Not how we wanted to, um, meet you," said the one in black. Kai tried to remember their names, he really did, but to be honest he wasn't really paying a lot of attention back in the courtyard. This one... was... Joel? No, um... His mind had been on his sister. In fact, it hadn't changed from that ever since she was kidnapped.

White nodded. "Yes. You see, Sensei Wu made it very formal, but we wanted to know the, well, real you."

Kai's brow furrowed. He didn't have time for this. These guys were just his comrades in battle, the rest of the team that would help him save his sister. Though, he supposed getting to know them better would be a good thing.

Kai nodded. "Get on with it, I guess."

The one in blue took his opportunity and leaped over the back of the couch and stood on the cushions, for... drama, he guessed. Kai noticed the white one tense up a little at this. "I'm Jay!" He extended his hand, and Kai shook it awkwardly. "As Sensei said, I'm like lightning, or something, I dunno."

Kai smirked. "You're kinda short."

The one in black hid a laugh. Jay scowled. "Don't push it."

"And I'm Zane," the white one greeted.

The one in black only nodded. "Cole. Sensei made me leader."

Cole! That's it. Jay, Zane, and Cole. Alright.

Kai hummed. "Okay. I'm Kai. And my sister's—" he bit his lip. Should he say? Would she have wanted this? "My... my sister's name is Nya." Then, he gave them the most determined look he could muster.

"She's who I'm after. Not the weapons."

. . .

I... had a lot of trouble with this chapter. Not only was the length a problem but I kept noticing a bunch of flaws I forgot to take into consideration... like, say, I forgot about Zane's six sense! Oh well. Here it is, and hopefully not a lot of people care too much for the little details.

Please review, and thank you so much for reading!