That was a nightmare
please never make me speak in public ok thanks
so I have to leave in like 2 minutes so there's no time for review replies buuuuut I figured y'all would want an update sO here ya go
Chapter 14
"Where are they…" Bansha muttered, tapping her finger on her staff. "They should be here by now."
"Do you think something happened to them?" Indigo asked, sitting on the ground where the dirt met the sand. Bansha shook her head.
"Maybe. But the city is huge, perhaps they just got lost."
"It's been three hours!" Indigo threw her hands up in the air. "Something's not right!"
"I'm sure they're fire." The blademistress said with a sigh. "Perhaps they got here first and left without us."
"But they said they'd wait for us!"
"Maybe they thought we left without them." Bansha slid her staff into its sheath and sat down beside her. "We'll wait another hour. If they haven't show up by then, we'll leave."
"Okay." Indigo sighed, leaning back on her hands. "Thanks for showing up when you did. I don't think I could've broken Morro out on my own." Bansha nodded.
"How did you escape?"
"The evil Morro had me chained to a pole in his throne room, so he could mock me or something. He unchained me to…" she shifted uncomfortably. "He unchained me, and he didn't know I'm an elemental master, so I drained his energy and ran."
"Hmm."
"But I don't think I could've gotten the keys, or broken the door down, even with my enhanced strength. Has anything happened to the rest of the group?"
"Dyana was poisoned, but the Sensei managed to cured it and she's recovering. That's why the other Lloyd refused to come after you and Morro, he said that her safety took first priority."
"Oh. So… it's really just you and Lloyd? I thought that was odd." Indigo frowned. "So the others are… where?"
"Hopefully back at base." She could only hope they hadn't followed them. Indigo glanced at her wrist.
"I still think something's wrong."
"We'll see." The rest of the hour passed in a similar fashion, mostly silence and small talk with Indigo occasionally expressing her fear for the others. Finally, an hour passed, and the boys still hadn't appeared, so they started across the desert. Bansha could only hope they found Morro and Lloyd on the other side.
TheDarknessReturn
Lloyd woke up to darkness.
The blond boy blinked his eyes open, peering into the pitch blackness in front of him. Were his eyes even open? The darkness felt… smothering. He quickly lifted a hand and summoned a ball of light, lighting up the small room. It seemed to be a normal, mostly empty room, with a door on one side and a window, table, and two chairs on the other. Huh. He stumbled to his feet, stepping towards it. His head kinda hurt, but he had been knocked out, so that was to be expected. He twisted the knob. It turned. Carefully, he pushed it open to reveal a dimly-lit hallway, with four other doors. Where was Morro? He had been with him before he was knocked out, wasn't he? Stepping out into the narrow hallway, he tried one of the doors. It was locked. The one next to it wasn't, though, he discovered as he turned the knob, and inside was a small, glowing green figure lying in a corner.
"Morro!" Lloyd hurried towards the figure, kneeling next to him and tilting his head up to confirm that, yes, it was him. He was unconscious, but otherwise looked mostly unharmed, except for the broken fingers, of course. Letting his head slump back down, Lloyd shook him gently. "Morro, wake up." The ghost didn't move. "Morro, wake up." The blond boy repeated, shaking him harder. Finally, the wind master shifted and blinked up at him.
"L-Lloyd?" He croaked, then coughed to clear his throat. "What happened? Where are we?" He asked in a stronger voice.
"Not sure." Lloyd shook his head, pulling him up into a sitting position. "I glanced around outside in the hall, but I didn't see anyone else. Let's go, the girls are gonna be worried about us." He tried to tug Morro to his feet, but the ghost resisted.
"Just… just let me rest for a minute first." Lloyd shrugged, sitting down. "…my hands hurt." Morro muttered after a few seconds.
"Oh." Lloyd looked at the ghost's mangled hands sitting in his lap. "Is there anything I can do to help?"
"I think wrapping them would help…" Morro nodded. "Indigo did it once before, but… then the other me tore them off and broke my hands more." The ghost looked down.
"Oh." The green ninja said again. "I'm sorry."
"It's not your fault. I'll just be glad when we're back at the base and all this is over." The wind master sighed, closing his eyes for a moment. "Use my shirt for bandages, it's half-gone already." Morro started trying to pull the garment off, but gave up when he realized he couldn't grip it with his broken fingers, so Lloyd helped him tug it over his head. Once it was off, the blond boy began tearing it into long strips before starting to bind Morro's fingers together, following the murmured instructions the ghost gave from time to time. Once his fingers were wrapped tightly, Morro allowed Lloyd to pull him upright, leading him out into the hall and picking a random direction before heading left.
A quick exploration later, the two had determined that the building, at least, what they could get to, was empty, but there was no way out. The only door that appeared to lead out was stuck, the handle would turn but Lloyd couldn't get it to move. Finally, he brought Morro to a dark window, then struck the glass with his elbow, causing it to shatter. As it fell away, Lloyd reached through, and was surprised to feel something cool and smooth just outside.
"Morro, can you come up here?" The blond boy asked the ghost, who was sitting against the wall beside the window. "There's something through here, and you glow, so…" Morro nodded, lifting his hand for assistance and letting Lloyd take him by the wrist to pull him upright. Carefully, he stuck his hand through the broken glass, lighting up and revealing what looked like a bunch of intertwining green tubes. Morro carefully brushed his fingertips against them, then frowned.
"I… can't go through it. I think it's some sort of… plant?"
"Leaving so soon?" Lloyd jumped at the unfamiliar voice, whirling around to see the silhouette of a teenager standing in the doorway of the dark room. The blond boy tried to get a good look at him, but the hood over his hair overcast his face with shadows. After a moment, Lloyd's gaze dropped to the floor be the boy's feet, where something was slithering around the corner into the room. A vine? No. Lots of vines. They followed the boy as he took a step forward, splitting and growing until they grew back up within a foot of Morro and Lloyd, who shrank back against the wall. This must be their captor. He must be blocking the windows and doors. Morro couldn't go through the vines… they could hurt him. Would the boy attack?
"Oh Gray, stop showing off." A second figure appeared in the doorway, accompanied by a female voice. The boy paused, then the vines receded. The girl flipped a switch and turned on the light in the room, revealing her and the boy's appearances. Neither one looked familiar. "Can't you see you're scaring them?" The girl continued, stepping forward as she twirled one of her long, black braids.
"That's the idea." The boy – Gray – muttered as he pulled the strings of his hood tighter. The girl continued to approach, stopping in front of Lloyd and extending a hand. "Name's Claire. Nice ta meet'cha. Officially."
"Uh… hi." Lloyd hesitantly shook her hand. "What do you mean 'officially'?"
"I knocked you out in the alley earlier, but that doesn't really count."
"…okay." The blond shook his head. "Uh… why?"
"Would it be cliché if I sang 'I'm the bad guy'?"
"Sang what?"
"I'M THE BAD GUY!" She yelled, causing Lloyd to flinch back at her shout in his face. "I'm gonna hand you over to Morro – the real Morro – and become rich and powerful! One the dummy stops refusing communications, that is." She folded her arms with a huff.
"How do you know I'm not the real Morro?" Morro spoke up.
"Pshh. The real Morro would never hang out with Lloyd." She rolled her eyes. "I heard some rumors that Morro was keeping an imposter in his castle, so when I saw you two running around, well… it was too great an opportunity to pass up." She grinned, the offered a hand towards Morro to shake. He just stared at her.
"What? Don't you know it's polite to shake hands when you meet someone?"
"You captured me and locked me up. That's not polite either. Besides, all my fingers are broken." She rolled her eyes, then grabbed his wrist and shook his limp hand. "Nice to meet you."
"Wish I could say the same." Was all Morro replied.
"Anyway, back to the point. You two can't get out, mmkay? Don't bother trying, Gray'll kick your tails. Feel free to wander around, but don't go through any closed doors. Those are off limits. If you're good, we'll feed you. Comprendo?" The two boys just stared at her. "Good. C'mon, Gray." Claire turned and walked out, the grumpy boy following behind her. Lloyd stared after them for a moment before sinking down against the wall.
"Oh no." He said softly after a moment. Morro sat down beside him.
"We'll get out somehow." He promised. "I don't know how, but I know we will." Lloyd sighed, leaning his head on the ghost's shoulder.
"I hope you're right." He paused, then said, "Do you think the girls made it out alright?"
"Probably." Morro nodded. "They're both ghosts, and they both have powers. They should be fine."
"Okay." Lloyd stared at the far wall. Maybe coming here was a mistake. So far, all they had done was get captured. He could only hope and pray that all the others were still safe.
I really wish I could give all the OCs a major role in the story. All of them are so cool and complex and I could do so much with them
but noooooo I have a plot to follow
...
on an unrelated note, rakan and xayah are officially the coolest champs in league k thanks