~~ Ch44:Thur3, Training Storm ~~
"Look who I found!" cheered Libber, pulling Lloyd after her into the indoor pool area, already dressed in his swimsuit. Or rather, one of the many the Gordon's kept on hand for Jay.
"Lloyd!" "There you are!" "Hey, bro!" The others shouted their greetings at spotting him. They were already changed too, including Nya, who'd been allowed to choose from Libber's swimsuits. (Libber was a little disappointed that she'd chosen a wetsuit style top and shorts rather than anything super cute. Libber herself had chosen something a little more modest than usual for Jay's sake, and she laid back in a beach chair next to her husband rather than interfere more with the teens.)
Lloyd hurried over, instantly feeling better at seeing the wide smiles of his friends and how they gestured for him to join them. Nya and Kai were sitting in the hot tub, with Cole on the ledge between the hot tub and the full size pool. Jay was in the pool behind Cole and looked like he'd been caught in the act of about to yank him in.
"Lloyd! Lloyd!" cheered Nya, even louder than the others. "Look!" With a look of fierce concentration, she held her hands out over the water, then flung her arms upright. The water arced into the air, splashing Jay and Cole right in their faces!
Kai laughed at the looks on his ninja brothers' faces while Lloyd, giggling, jumped into the water next to Nya and gave her a high-five.
"That's so awesome, Nya! Congratulations, Water Ninja!" Lloyd gushed excitedly.
"You should try it boosted," suggested Cole, climbing down into the hot tub himself. Jay hopped over from the pool into the hot tub to join them.
"I dunno if we want to flood the pool area..." fretted Jay, obviously remembering Zane's winter explosion back at the Warehouse.
"Don't worry, kids!" called out Cliff Gordon, from where he was stretched out on his beach chair next to his wife's.
"There's all sorts of drainage and backup drainage for flooding. It won't get into the house," agreed Libber.
"Go for it, Nya!" cheered Kai eagerly, bursting with pride for his sister. Cole nodded. Jay grinned eagerly and nudged Lloyd, who hopefully held out a hand swirling with green sparks.
Nya took a deep breath, looking uneasy but determined, and reached out to set her hand on Lloyd's. They both began laughing in delight, and a silvery cyan blue danced around Nya before bursting out, suddenly as water droplets hovering in the air. Nya waved her free hand and clouds formed just under the glass ceiling. A gentle, barely-there, rain began to patter down, causing ripples in the pool and hot tub, and with another flick of fingers, the water in the pool began dancing like a fountain show.
"That's so cool, guys!" praised Jay, and without thinking he clapped a hand against Lloyd's shoulder in approval.
There was a loud rumble as the clouds turned dark, then a flash. Realizing they were still in the water, they all let out various panicked sounds and scrambled out, just as a bolt of lightning struck one of the beach chairs.
The thunderstorm didn't disappear as Nya and Jay let go of Lloyd, and they all ran for the entrance back into the main house.
As the glass doors closed behind them, Cole began laughing hysterically at the situation, and Kai quickly joined him.
"Jay!" shouted Nya, angry at basically her show not just being stolen, but ruined.
Jay held out his hands in front of him defensively. "I didn't think! And how was I suppose to know they'd combine like that?!"
"It's beautiful!" gasped Lloyd, not noticing the friction behind him (and still a little buzzy from Green), facing the glass and clearly in awe over the indoor thunderstorm raging inside the other room.
The others turned to look also, and sure enough, it actually was an impressive sight. After a minute, they began sitting down to watch the storm together. It was beautiful.
"I hope it doesn't cause a power outage," murmured Jay. Everyone ignored him.
~~ ! Go Ninja Go ! ~~
"Hey, Libber, did you show the kids your old training room?" suddenly asked Cliff Gordon.
We were all sitting around eating lunch. Libber had ordered teriyaki bowls and sushi from a local chain that delivered. I pity the poor delivery guy, who had to get past the reporters, and my dad's generals, and Meowthra. She said she tipped him well, but still.
"The bunker? No, I don't think so. Jay, did you show them the bunker?"
Jay's eyes lit up. "No, I didn't! Hey, think we can we practice in there?"
"Probably," commented Cliff easily. "It was designed for Libber to be able to blast Lightning around, so it should be able to handle Fire and Earth. Can't see Water being a problem either. And she doesn't need it anymore, so you kids have fun."
"Awesome!" cheered Jay. "I'll take them down right after we finish!"
We hurried through the rest of our lunch, and then Jay rushed us all to a basement. A very, very, deep basement. We reached the bottom of the really long, dark staircase, through another long, dark corridor, and finally came to a huge vault door that looked more like it belonged in a bank! Jay turned the huge, concrete door and we came to the aptly named bunker, an enormous open area, probably around the size of the Warehouse, which seemed to be made mostly of concrete.
There were various simple but useful training objects against the walls, such as cardboard boxes, wooden pallets, metal bars, a variety of balls of all different materials and sizes, and spray painted targets. But besides those things, which honestly couldn't cost more than a few hundred bucks in total, it was surprisingly spartan. No exercise equipment, nothing electronic or mechanical (beyond the lights, anyway), no shower or sink for cleaning up.
Surprising, considering the rest of the Gordon estate. Every other room and area had been extremely elaborately designed and decorated (and this is coming from an admittedly quite spoiled kid that grew up in a volcano).
"Watch this!" called out Jay, apparently to me (but I saw that side-eye in Nya's direction), as he leaped on top of a stack of wooden palettes and whipped himself into a spinjitzu tornado.
To my shock and delight, and definitely Nya and Kai's too, the tornado sparked and flashed with blue lightning, twirling faster and faster until we heard Jay shout "Ha!" He flung himself into the air, the momentum flinging him skyward, or ceiling-ward rather, where he easily caught a long bar bolted way up there for probably that exact purpose.
The wooden pallets were toast, having taken the brunt of Jay's lightning as he launched himself up. They were impressively split in half, black and burnt but not on fire.
Jay's control really is amazing. As were his acrobatics up there on the ceiling, practically dancing from bar to bar, swinging and flipping and belting out, "I've been practicing!"
Cole, obviously not new to the bunker or Jay's antics, winked at the three of us, then went over to stand next to Jay's split stack of pallets. At first it just looked like he was posing, flexing his impressive arms, but then I felt it. Felt it before I could even see the orange glow and almost violent pulsing, and then Cole smashed his fists onto the top pallet.
The whole stack shattered into splinters.
"I'll leave the flying to Jay, but I haven't been skimping on practice either," commented Cole, quite sassily actually, and ooh he was definitely challenging Kai with that look as he blew off his red-hot knuckles.
"Oh-ho! You think you can out-heat the Fire Ninja?" mocked Kai, his own fists already aflame and eyes looking around for something to light up.
"Oh, Earth owns Fire, Kai. Ever heard of magma?" Cole gave right back, smirking.
Heehee, oh this was gonna be fun!
I looked over to Nya, whose eyes had turned from Cole and Kai's blow things up challenge to stare longingly up at Jay's playing up near the ceiling.
And, why not?
"Water flies all the time," I commented casually, twirling a hint of Green around my left hand. It whirled into a cloud. "Need a boost?"
She probably could get up there on her own, but with the fires and explosions Kai and Cole were creating, there couldn't be that much humidity left down here. Not a problem to Green, though.
Nya smiled in thanks, setting her hand in my right. Just a dash of Green and she was using water like a jet, spraying it out from her palms with such force it shot her right up to the bars to play up there with Jay, who loudly began singing her praises.
Naturally the water absolutely drenched Kai and Cole, who barely paused in their macho battle before deciding having all their boxes and wooden pallets soaked just made everything more interesting.
Deciding Jay deserved a bit of time to make things up to Nya for stealing her show at the pool, and probably emulating my father a little too much, I aimed finger guns at the stack of drenched cardboard boxes Kai had just failed to set aflame and Cole had only managed a mushy dent into.
Ignoring me. Shame on them.
Boom! Heeheehee! Total disintegration! And not one splinter or ember that could hurt anyone. Nice. I'm actually impressed with myself!
"You really think Earth or Fire can top Energy?" I mocked their stunned faces, which both immediately broke into fierce grins.
"Oh, you're on, short stack!"
~~ ! Go Ninja Go ! ~~
Author's Notes: Lol! Well, I had fun this chapter - hope it wasn't too much fluff for you all! Lloyd and the rest deserve some time to just mess around, I figure. And if they get to practice and fool around with their powers at the same time, what can that hurt? Believe it or not, there actually is something in this chapter that's plot-relevant! Anyone want to take a guess what? (Not Sunny, since she obviously already knows!)
Thanks as always to Sunny Lighter! At least partial credit goes to her for the theme of this chapter! I believe the storm may have been her idea, and that they just have some time to play around with their powers definitely is!
Next chapter we get back to the prophecy! Anyone ready for some answers? And maybe more mysteries? Because it's never that simple. (Or is it?)
