Aeria's POV
I could hear the singing and feel the abrupt yet rhythmic jolts of the surface beneath me before I even fully opened my eyes.
"~We've got Garmadon~
~And these random kids~
~We are going to kill them~
~Oops, we shouldn't have said that.~"
I opened my eyes to see that I had been shoved into the cage with Lloyd and his dad as we were making our way through a crumbling village filled with the fired generals. As I sat up, groaning while rubbing the back of my head where I was hit, I heard Garmadon order,
"I command you to release me, my son, and his girlfriend. That's an order, Generals."
"Not his girlfriend." I groaned out as I started to stand up, Lloyd grabbing my arm to make sure I didn't strain myself too much.
"You alright?" Lloyd asked me after he hesitantly let me stand on my own as I put a hand to my forehead.
"Yeah, just a little groggy… and my knee is killing me." I sat back down to rub the knee that was throbbing and felt like it was on fire as Garmadon started "commanding" his general,
"~I can't hear you!~" One general sang out.
"I said, I command you to release us."
"Hey, the reason Bob can't hear is 'cause his eardrums blew up after you shot him out of the volcano!" Another general explained pointedly.
"~I can't hear you!~" Bob sang out again before the second general mocked,
"You stupid butt!"
"What? Can you believe what they're saying? It's like I'm being treated worse than anyone in the history of the world. A good thing you never have to experience anything like this, La-Loyd. You either Purple Ninja."
"Violet…" I growled under my breath as Lloyd told his dad sarcastically,
"Yeah. Yeah. No one ever says mean things to me when my dad knocks over their Pilates studio-"
"-their waxing salon or kayak repair store-" I added in before Lloyd finished with,
"-or that place that sells toner cartridges."
"Mocks the color of your uniform as if it was already hard enough for a girl to be taken seriously in a team with only two other girls." I spoke bitterly as I took my cloth belt and wrapped it around my knee as a makeshift bandage.
"And you better believe no one ever makes fun of me, for not knowing how to throw or catch a ball."
"Whoa, whoa, whoa hehe hold on I know it's funny, but what kind of jerk would make fun of you for that?"
"You're kidding, right?"
"You gotta stand up for yourself, and shoot them out of a volcano. That's how I roll. You gotta get yourself a volcano, kid."
"Pfft Yeah. Blowing stuff up and never putting it back together. That is what you're best at, isn't it?"
"I still can't believe you were the one to go to my parent's wedding." I mumbled, but Garmadon must've heard me because he remarked,
"Tiny Ri Ri? I knew I recognized you!"
"Hey, only my friends get to call me that!" I shot back defensively.
"Yeah, besides her parents who…" Lloyd added but he could tell he made a mistake bringing them up as I sniffed and wiped my eyes with my sleeve quickly.
"Who what?"
"It's none of your busin-"
"No Lloyd, it's fine," I looked Garmadon in the eye before saying, "My parents died in a car accident a year ago."
"Wait, Ronnie's gone?
"Ronnie?" Lloyd questioned before I answered before asking,
"My dad. You knew him?"
"Sure did, I was his best man at his wedding."
"More like the worst man." I smirked and Lloyd held back a chortle as Garmadon sighed and told us,
"Ronnie was my best friend before I took on the whole 'conqueror' dream, his mastery of wind was like nothing I had ever seen."
"Wait my dad was an element master?" I exclaimed and before Garmadon could answer, the Slurpee lady from before jumped onto our cage and laughed maniacally,
"Well, hello! We have got a present for you."
"Fire him! Fire him! Fire him!" The general continued to change from around us as a giant volcano came into view from behind the village the generals had made for themselves.
"Oh, an exact reproduction of my volcanic lair. And let me guess, you're going to fire us out of it." Garmadon asked a bit bored.
"Oh, no, we're gonna fire you into the volcano. The 15 million kelvin magma will melt your skin before you can even feel the heat!"
"Dark…" I muttered before I felt the lady grab my arm from through the bars to pull me against them and hiss in my ear.
"You bet sister."
"Hey back off!" Lloyd pulled me away as the Slurpee lady commanded another general,
"Omar, take them to the top."
"Okey-dokey." "Omar" pulled a lever and our cage was brought up to the top of the volcano where another group of generals were waiting to unhook the cage and started pushing it, and us, toward the center of the volcano.
"Fire him! Fire him! Fire him!"
"Uh guys? Not seeing a way out of this!" I tried bending the bars to create a space but they held firm.
"Woah!" Lloyd was about to be burned from the side by a spurt of lava before I pulled him out of the way and we held each other as we were pushed closer to the edge.
"Oh boy…" I muttered before realizing that Lloyd was still holding me even though I let go and looked down blushing a little before Garmadon started talking to his son,
"La-Loyd…"
"Yeah…?"
"Um... I… I just…"
My ears picked up the sounds of pained grunts along with over dramatized ninja cries.
"Wait, do you hear that?" I pulled myself out of Lloyd's grip to grab onto the bars just as the others punched their way through to us.
"Lloyd! Aeria!"
"Guys!" Lloyd exclaimed with some relief.
"Oh, hey!" Garmadon waved a bit awkwardly.
"Oh, my gosh! How did you all get up here?"
"Oh, man. We did all that stuff that you and Master Wu told us to do."
"Ninja style, bro."
"Whoa!"
"All right. Let's get outta here and make it to the Ultimate Ultimate Weapon." Nya unlocked our cage and we stepped out.
"That's not gonna be easy, other girl ninja. Because I fired a ridic amount of generals." Garmadon motioned to all the generals that were gathering to climb the mountain to us.
"Another reason why not to turn against your own employees, they'll always revolt in the end." I mumbled to myself before Lloyd devised a plan,
"All right, all right. I got an idea. If we can hold these generals off long enough, we can build a way out of here." Lloyd devised before Garmadon added,
"Great idea. You kids start building. La-Loyd and I will throw you bricks."
"Lloyd, I need a two-by-two." Kai requested pulling up some of the ground.
"Here it comes. Guh!" Lloyd tried to throw a brick but it ended up flying backwards.
"That was terrible." Zane stated.
"Throw me a couple one-bys." Nya asked.
"I got it. Check this out. Huh!" The piece landed right at his feet as the others began to comment,
"How can you be so bad at this?" Kai questioned as he slapped a brick onto their creation.
"Yeah. You got a mental block?" Cole asked, slightly worried.
"Hang on, everybody. You ninjas, keep at it. La-Loyd, you're coming with me. I'll be in charge of the tunes." Garmadon pulled a device from under his cape as I critiqued,
"Is now really the time for dramatic theme music?"
"It is precisely the moment. I'll just put it on shuffle here. Please not Jim Croce, please not Jim Croce."
Right on cue, Jim Croce's "I Got A Name" song played and I had to slap my hand over my mouth to keep from bursting out in laughter.
"Ah! Jinxed us. Whatever. All right! Ninjas, keep building! La-Loyd, I'm gonna teach you how to throw."
"Let's just hope this goes better than the bridge..." I mumbled before helping the others push their creation off the edge as it rolled down the volcano side and we continued to build while simultaneously fighting off the fired generals.
A shattering noise caught my attention before I saw a broken window and Lloyd and his dad running away with grins on their faces and Lloyd laughing, making me smile at the sweet, albeit not very good timing, father child moment
"Lloyd! Over here, I'm open." Cole climbed up the mast and waved his arms around to catch a piece.
"You can make it Lloyd! Go for it!" I shouted up to him with a supportive fist pump.
The two by one flew through the air, nailing Cole in the face with enough force to make him, everyone else, and the machine fly backwards a bit.
"Nice! Dude, that was awesome!"
"You did it, Lloyd!"
Kai and Jay cheered while the others expressed their excitement through whoops of excitement.
Pretty soon, Lloyd was throwing bricks and pieces left and right, even managing to throw one to Cole backward and another to Xia upside down in midair.
Everyone voiced their praise to Lloyd as he and Garmadon got onto the helicopter before Garmadon started to panic,
"La-Loyd, something's happening to my face. It's turning upwards in an unfamiliar motion. Oh, I think they've deployed nerve gas! It's happening to you, too!"
"Listen, listen. We're smiling!" Lloyd explained as his face also displayed a giant grin.
"What is this 'smiling'?"
"Go with it! It feels good, right?"
"It does. Oh, this whole experience is so foreign to me."
"I know, right?" Lloyd said as he climbed the walls of the village to retrieve the last piece we needed for the helicopter to actually fly.
"Yeah!"
"All right, here it comes." Lloyd hoisted the piece onto his shoulder ready to throw it when we caught sight of the Crazy Slurpee Lady behind him with an insane grin on her face.
"La-Loyd!" Garmadon tried to warn him.
"Look out!" I cried out before she tackled him off the tower to the ground.
"Can't you get this thing to move any faster?!" I asked Nya.
"May I remind you that we just whipped up this piece of junk in the last 10 minutes?" Nya retorted back as she pulled a lever and the accelerators kicked in just in time for the lady to be knocked back from Lloyd as she drew a sword on him. The helicopter skidded past him, but Garmadon was on his son in a heartbeat, the others following behind us more slowly, pulling him up from the ground and leaning him against a hill,
"La-Loyd, are you okay?"
"Yeah, yeah! I think it was my arm. Is it bad?"
"Whoa!" Garmadon and I flinched back as he saw that his whole arm was missing.
"I don't wanna look!"
"It looks okay, I guess." The others caught up with us and they all flinched back as well, looks of horror on their faces.
"Scale of 1 to 10, how bad is it?" Lloyd asked nervously.
"Oh, I'd say it's about a seven-point… Arm-ripped-off."
"My arm is what? What did… Say it one more time?"
"Just, don't look down. Don't look down below your neck."
"Don't do that face. Why are you doing that face?"
"It's just a harmless little… I gotta puke. It's disgusting." Garmadon gagged in disgust trying to hold onto Nya's shoulder before she shook it off.
"Should I look?" Lloyd's gaze went down to the space where his arm should be and scream before trying to scoot away in surprise,
"I looked! I have no arm! I have no arm! No!"
"I told you it was bad." Garmadon said and I harshly elbowed him, ignoring the look he gave me as Lloyd continued to freak out,
"Ah! That's way worse than anything I could have thought! That's bad!"
"You're gonna be fine. Let me text your mother." Garmadon pulled out his phone and started doing so.
"Dad, no! I need you! Stay with me! Be here with me right now, all right? Do something." Lloyd pleaded with his dad with large, teary eyes.
"Besides if that Temple of Fragile Foundations doesn't kill us, Koko will when we get back to the city." I snarked with my arms crossed.
"All right, I'm gonna find it. What does it look like?" Garmadon devised before Lloyd supplied,
"It looks like my left arm, except it's the right one."
"Oh, of course, yes. Okay, everybody, fan out, form a grid. Find La-Loyd's arm."
My attention was caught by Slurpee Lady as she was starting to get up and was looking pretty ticked off.
"Imma have you leave you guys to that, I gotta deal with this lady first." I informed the two of them as I grabbed a bamboo pole from the ground and ran toward the lady full speed, or as full speed as I could with my knee still burning.
"Rah!" She grabbed another pole with a broken end and started trying to hit me with it, but I dodged it with blocks and ducks before sweeping her off her feet and pinning her in place.
"You're on the wrong side sister." She told me crazed again before I groaned and told her,
"Ok look, I'm not too crazy about Garmadon either, but he is my best friend's dad so I kinda hafta deal with him. And what's with the whole 'sister' thing, I've never seen you before in my life?"
"All who have or will be turned will be related forever!" She cackled out before I deadpanned
"Oh I get it you're just crazy." Before she kicked my knee, making it pop slightly, but I still stood my ground before punching her hard enough to knock her out.
"Oh look at that," I remarked to myself as I started kicking my knee around and the pain was gone, "I must've dislocated it in my mech crash earlier, thanks for that." I patted her shoulder before using my pole to pin one of her collar spikes to the ground and ran back over to Garmadon just as he announced,
"Found it!" Holding up Lloyd's arm as he cheered,
"Here we go!"
"Okay. I'm gonna pop that arm back into place." Garmadon's grip shuddered as he neared the arm back to its socket,
"Okay, wait, wait, wait. But it's only gonna hurt for a second, right?"
"Hurt for a second? No! This is gonna be agony for a while. Who gave you that misinformation?"
"All right, all right, all right. Just do it, just do it, just do it." Lloyd closed his eyes as he readied himself.
"Okay. On the count of 12…"
"No, no, no, no. I don't wanna do 12. Let's do... Let's do, like, a, you know, three."
"Okay, three. One, two… Ah! I wish your mom was here to do this." Garmadon pulled away as his hesitation worsened before Lloyd urged him,
"You're killing me. You got… You gotta just do it."
"All right. One, two, three."
Lloyd's arm went back into its socket with a small pop before Lloyd opened his eyes back up to remark before moving his arm around freely,
"Wow. It, uh… Feels, uh… It feels pretty good."
Garmadon sighed in relief at his son as Lloyd continued to move his arm around to make sure it was alright.
"Feels pretty good. Heh You did that, put my arm back on like a real dad." Lloyd looked up as his dad with admiration in his eyes.
"You… You called me 'Dad.'" Garmadon smiled as he said that.
"Yeah..."
"Wow! I guess I… I guess I did. I really stepped up there in kind of a 'Dad' way."
"Right?"
"You both handled yourselves pretty well..." I smirked, patting Garmadon on the shoulder as he and Lloyd both realized I was there.
"Ari!" Lloyd jumped up and threw his arms around me, surprising me.
"Oh my gosh your knee, what-" Lloyd pushed me away to see that I wasn't limping and looked back up in confusion.
"I'm alright, turns out it was just dislocated too." I pushed his hands off before messing with his hair to where it went into his eyes and I turned to see the others calling us to leave as more generals approached in the distance. After the three of us boarded the helicopter, Lloyd announced,
"Let's get moving." Before Garmadon added,
"Come on, everybody, let's go! Temple, here we come!"
AN- Hey Guys! I'm really sorry this is beyond late, but with all the Corona Virus drama that's been happening, I'm going to be home from school for a month. On the bright side, that means I'll be able to work on more chapters since I already get ahead on my homework for the week and I should be posting another chapter later this week or next week for this story, my Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy OC Inserts, and a new story for my Short Story book over on my MCSMGamerGirl account.
Through these rough times, if you guys ever want to talk about anything, I'm going to be pretty unoccupied so feel free to PM or send me a message if you need to vent or just want to talk ^^
See Y'all in the next chapters!