Chapter 4

All Cole could see as he came to was the blinking light of one lone lightbulb hanging by a wire on the ceiling. The rest of the small room was dark, but the earth ninja could see just enough to find he had a chain around his left arm made of venge stone.

fohich means I won't be able to use my powers wherever I am. That's just perfect.

He heard heavy breathing right beside him and saw it was Jay lying right next to him, snoring louder than ever. The lightning ninja was in the same predicament as he was chained with venge stone on his left arm. Growing tired already of such a terrible snoring noise, Cole shook him awake.

"Jay, wake up." No matter how much he shook his friend, the blue ninja was a stubborn one. When shaking didn't work, Cole decided to kick Jay in the back. "Get up!"

That worked like a charm. Jay shot up and placed himself in a ninja stance. "Alright, buddy, come on out and fight me!"

Cole sighed. "Relax, Jay. It was me."

Jay turned around, relieved to see his friend. "Oh, Cole. Glad it's you. For a second there I thought you were Murtessa."

"Why would you think that? Murtessa lives underground back in Shintaro."

"Well, somehow, she ended up here in Ninjago City and now she's working with Ultra Violet for some reason."

"Okay, back up. What exactly happened to you? You never came back to the bounty. It was supposed to be a quick trip to the hardware store and back."

"And that's how I had it planned. Go in and get out, but when I got out, I heard someone crying and thought they might have been in trouble. So being a noble hero and the brave master of lightning, I went to go see who it was when I found out it was all a trick to lure me over there and before I could run off, I end up getting punched in the face by Ultra Violet."

Cole nodded. "Well, that explains the bruise. But why am I here?"

"I don't know. All I know is when you came through that door, I knew I was fishing bait and you were the fish they needed to catch."

Cole gave him a confused look. "What?"

Jay groaned. "Never mind. Do you remember anything that happened after you found me?"

"I remember you telling me to look out and before I knew it, I get a sharp blow to the back of the head."

"Well, I remember trying to call for help and then Ultra Violet covered my airways until I passed out. They must be planning something and it must involve us. They knew you were going on an undercover mission, but how did they know I was going to the hardware store?"

"They didn't. You were just there and they were just using you to get me for some reason."

"Exactly. I was the bait and you were the fish."

"I still don't understand that."

"It's just a figure of speech. Don't worry about it. The only thing we need to worry about is getting out of here." Jay tried using his lightning powers, but they wouldn't work. "What the heck? Why aren't my powers working?"

"There's venge stone chained to your arm." Cole held out his arm to show he had the same thing. "They made sure we wouldn't be able to use our powers to get out of here."

Jay plopped down on the ground. "That's just great. What are we supposed to do now?"

Cole sat down next to him. "I don't know. All this is just confusing. It's a natural instinct that Ultra Violet could be behind all this considering she's evil, but Murtessa? She's our friend, isn't she? Our ally, at the least. Why would she also be behind this?"

"Thinking already?" A familiar voice sounded inside of the room. And lo and behold, it was Ultra Violet. "I wouldn't worry about trying to escape since with venge stone, that's highly impossible."

"What are you doing here, Ultra Violet?" Cole asked.

"And what do you want with us?" Jay asked.

"Keep your cool," Ultra Violet said, "I was just coming by to see how you were. And I brought you breakfast." She dropped two paper plates filled with food, some of the contents spilling onto the floor from the fall. "Just be lucky we had plenty of leftovers. So how did you sleep?"

"Save the politeness, Ultra Violet," Cole said, "Just tell us what's going on? Why are we here?"

Ultra Violet rolled her eyes. "Well, you don't have to be rude about it. The reason you're here, Cole, is because I need you for a matrimonial ceremony between you and me."

Cole literally vomited a little in his mouth when he heard those exact words coming from the crazy biker woman. Matrimonial ceremony? Between me and Ultra Violet? No way! "Sorry, Ultra Violet. Not gonna happen."

"You don't have much of a choice. The ceremony will be taking place this evening and whether you want to or not, you will be a part of it. Besides, out of all the ninja, I find you quite…attractive." Ultra Violet blushed, something that couldn't really be seen due to all the make-up on her face. "And strong. And very, very handsome."

"Sorry to say I don't share the same feelings with you."

Ultra Violet shrugged. "Oh, don't worry. Once the ceremony happens, you'll change your mind."

"I still don't understand," Jay said, "If Cole was the one you wanted, why did you need me? I mean, I wanna get Cole out of here, but I'm still wondering why you kept me hanging around here."

"Well, first of all, if I let you go, you would've gone squealing my plans to the other ninjas," Ultra Violet said.

Jay rolled his eyes. "Well, what would you expect? I'm not just gonna sit around and let you take my best friend."

"Well, there's another reason. You know that barbarian woman, Murtessa?"

Jay groaned. "Is she still saying that I'm her betrothed? Because I'm not!"

Ultra Violet smiled maliciously. "Yes, she is. She came up to me out of the blue and when she saw you, I had the perfect plan. I promised her that if I got you for her, she had to help me get Cole. I would allow her to share in my ceremony with Cole and I and make a double wedding out of it."

"WHAT?!" Jay shouted at the top of his lungs, "WHY WOULD YOU PROMISE HER THAT?!"

"If it means getting to spend the rest of her life with you, that's all that matters. Besides, I love making people's lives miserable."

Jay felt as though he would throw up and would've ended up doing so had he not swallowed it back down. He leaned up against the wall and slid down on the floor, placing his head in his hands. Cole felt bad for his friend, wishing there was something he could do. He couldn't use his powers and fighting her with only hand to hand combat wouldn't work as well since she had a few killing moves up her sleeves. So his words seemed like his only choice.

"Listen, it's me that you want," Cole told the biker woman, "Jay ended up getting caught in the crossfire. You have to understand that Murtessa doesn't have a lot of brains. No offense to her or anything, but it's the truth. She basically sees people for their looks, not their personalities. So at least let Jay go. If Murtessa asks, just tell her he escaped."

Ultra Violet laughed. "Sorry, but when I make a deal with someone, I hold my end of the bargain. Especially if there's ninja involved. So you two just sit here and be the good little heroes you are and we'll be back in a few hours to collect you for the ceremony. Sound good? Yeah, that sounds good." She gave off an evil cackle and left the room, locking the door behind her.

This left Cole and Jay to sit there and pretty much wait until help arrived. They hate sitting idle, but what else could they do? Their communication devices had been taken and an escape attempt was futile due to the fact they were chained with venge stone.

There was nothing else they could do.

They were trapped.

NEXT SCENE:

But what Cole and Jay didn't know was there were two heroes coming to their rescue. And of course it was Nya and Carol as they stood out in front of the old factory building hiding behind some giant abandoned crates. They wished they could just waltz in and get the boys out, but there was a pair of guards blocking the entrance to keep anyone from trying to stop the matrimonial ceremony. This must be some kind of important ceremony if they had to keep it under guard.

Luckily, Nya expected there to be guards. Now it was time to commence phase one of their plan to get rid of them.

"Okay, Carol, you know what to do," Nya said.

Carol nodded, closing her eyes and creating a light purple ball of smoke in her palms. "Ochitsuite." The magic coming from her was a calm lavender scented perfume. When it came up to hit the guards in their faces, it caused them to pass out in a deep sleep. If there was one thing they needed, it was a nap.

Nya smiled. "Yes. Good work, Carol."

"You ready?" Carol asked.

Nya nodded. "You bet."

Carol placed her hand on Nya's arm and a bright green and gold light shined around them. When the brightness disappeared, the two of them were turned into a small little pair of mice.

After training with her aunt to stay in control of her powers, Carol's shifter skills seem to work in the strangest ways. One of those strange skills is being able to turn others into animals by placing her hand on their arm and transforming them. But the spell only works temporarily for the person who is not a shifter and usually last for a few minutes before they turn back to normal. So they had to run fast and stick together.

They ran faster than their little legs could take them. Once they got inside, they hid inside a crate where Nya automatically transformed back into her normal self and Carol turning herself back human also.

"I won't be able to help keep you as any animal throughout the whole time," Carol said, "What do we do from here?"

"We'll use the art of old fashioned ninja skills," Nya said.

Carol sighed. "Sorry to say I'm not trained in learning the way of the ninja. I seriously should've taken Sensei Wu up on his offer to let him train me."

"Don't worry. Just follow my lead."

The two began to sneak around, hoping to find Jay and Cole and some information on what the heck is going on and why this matrimonial ceremony is happening. Both girls were wondering who the wedding ceremony was actually for and who they wanted to marry off together. Was it Jay or Cole? Either way, they were going to find them and get them out of here before anything like that happens.

If there's one thing you don't take away from a woman, it's her man.

Ochitsuite (Japanese) = Calm (English)

Oh, MAN! WHAT IS THE DEAL WITH THIS WHOLE MATRIMONIAL CEREMONY? THERE HAS TO BE A REASON BEHIND ALL OF IT!

HURRY, NYA AND CAROL! JAY AND COLE NEED YOU!

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