Did... did y'all not see the last update? It's kinda really discouraging when y'all complain about a character and then I go to all the trouble to make her pay for her actions and then redeem her and like 2 people even acknowledge it (you two, I love you)
Review replies:
Ebony: She's had a hard life.
Aurro: If you could turn on PMs I could try to walk you through it haha, but if you google it you may find a guide? Or look for help on the site?
"She's here!" Lloyd shouted, pointing out the window towards the east. The other ninja flocked to the windows, watching in what was almost excitement as the Preeminent appeared on the horizon.
It had been almost a week since they had arrived back in Stiix, and the Preeminent had finally made her entrance. She was still many miles away, and moving slowly, so she wouldn't arrive for at least a couple days, but she was obviously confident enough in her ability to defeat them that she didn't bother trying to hide her approach. Which was a good thing, it meant she didn't think they had any way to stop her.
"Alright, this is actually happening." Lloyd clapped his hands together, turning from the window to face the others. "She's coming. Zane, judging by her speed, when will she get here?"
"According-" both Zanes started, then stopped to let the other speak. They exchanged glances, then Zane 1 said, "According to current data, she will arrive in 37 hours, 26.7 minutes. Roughly a day and a half. If her army moves at the same speed, we will have to fight at about nightfall tomorrow."
"Thank you. Alright, I need constant surveillance on the Preeminent, and patrols around the city to make sure the people aren't panicking. I'm going to go and try to convince everyone that they're in good hands. Kais- no, just Kai 1, you're with me. They're not fond of ghosts." Kai 2 rolled his eyes, nodding.
"Yeah, I heard."
"Nyas, Maya, start filling the water reserve." Lloyd continued. The Coles had opened up a pit near where they had dug the geysers, to fill beforehand so they could simply move the water instead of having to create it when it came to be time to set off their trap. "Let's go, we're on a deadline!" He clapped his hands together again, and the ninja moved to obey him as he headed out the door, Kai 1 following him out.
"I don't think I'm going to be able to sleep tonight, knowing that thing is coming for us." The red ninja muttered, nodding towards where the Preeminent hovered in the distance. Lloyd elbowed him playfully.
"Great. You can take the night watch." Kai grinned, elbowing him back.
"In your dreams. Which you won't be having, 'cause, if I'm staying up all night, you're staying up with me."
"I can't do that! I'm the leader! I need my sleep so I can make good plans!"
"What kind of leader makes a member of his team do something he wouldn't do himself?"
"I would do it, but this battle tomorrow's gonna decide the fate of the universe. As the leader, I need to be alert."
"Drink some coffee!"
"Coffee won't be good enough!"
"Hmph. It works for me."
"Then you stay up all night and you drink it."
"Nuh-uh, if I'm staying up you're staying up with me."
"I can't, bro, I'm the leader."
"Well- oh, there are panicking citizens. We should go deal with that." Kai stopped in his tracks, pointing towards the sound of shouts and screams. Lloyd sighed.
"Yeah, we should." Spinning around, Lloyd airjitzued up onto the roof of a building, charging a ball of energy and releasing it to destabilize and disappear in a flash above the city.
"Hey!" He yelled, catching the attention of those who weren't already staring at the source of the light. "Please, calm down! We have everything under control!"
"How can you say that?" A woman demanded. "The Preeminent is coming to wipe us out! Last time she was here, she took over the world!"
"Listen to me!" Lloyd yelled as the crowd began to clamor again. "The Preeminent can read minds at close range, so I can't give you any details for fear of her learning our plan. But, I promise you, we have everything under control. The Preeminent doesn't have a hope of beating us." The crowd quieted a bit, murmuring to each other in confusion. "I know you're scared, and I would be too." He was scared. "But I promise you, everything's going to work out fine. I'll make sure of it." The crowd, apparently satisfied, began to disperse, hopefully to spread the news. Kai, airjitzuing up next to him, commented,
"Nice speech." Lloyd sighed, sinking down on the rooftop.
"I hate lying to them."
"Lying?" Kai echoed in surprised.
"I don't know if we're going to win. I definitely can't promise. I don't… I don't think we can pull this off." The older ninja sat down next to him.
"What makes you think that?"
"She's just- she's so strong. And we barely know the extent of her abilities, I just feel like we're going to be taken off guard…"
"Even if we do, we're the ninja. We've been faced with tons of wacky things, many of which we've had no warning before being forced to deal with. We've done this plenty of times, it's unlikely that we'll fail."
"But if we do, what then? We might not ever get another chance…" Lloyd fell silent, and Kai patted his shoulder.
"Then we'd better win the first time." He said firmly.
"I guess so." Lloyd shuffled to his feet, offering Kai a hand up before jumping off the roof and using Spinjitzu to cushion his fall. "Come on, let's go finish our patrol."
TheDarknessReturn
"Ta daaaa!" Nicole spun around, holding back her hair so Morro could see the black, stud earrings in her ears. "Small enough that they won't be noticed by a bad guy, secure enough that they won't come off accidently, but easy enough for me to take off if I need my powers!"
"Nice." Morro A grinned, giving her a thumbs-up. "And black goes with everything." Nicole stared at him.
"How do you know that? You're a boy."
"Just because I was a horrible tyrant doesn't mean I couldn't be fashion conscious." Morro pressed a hand to his chest, striking a pose. "Besides, Reena was always complaining about the lack of variety in fashion that I offered her."
"That's not fair. You had a big job to do, ruling a kingdom and stuff. You had executions to oversee, peasants to tyrannize…" She trailed off as he looked at the ground. "Not funny? Sorry."
"It's okay." He waved it off. "I just don't like thinking about it."
"Well, that's a good thing. Now come on, I heard shouting earlier. I think something's happening." Nicole took his hand and lead him out of her room towards the meeting room, where she found chaos that… wasn't quite panic. The ninja were running around, chatting indistinctly, but no one seemed particularly concerned.
"Is… something going on?" Morro asked, raising his voice a bit in order to be heard over the noise. Jay B skidded to a stop as he passed by them.
"The Preeminent is coming!" He announced. "We just spotted her in the distance. We're making preparations for her attack, which should happen sometime tomorrow evening." He then ran off again. Frowning, Nicole turned to face Morro, who had paled a bit and was staring stiffly at the window. The dark-haired girl followed his gaze to the window, then beyond it to the horizon, where a giant, tentacled monster was floating slowly, steadily towards them.
"Wow." The dream mistress exclaimed, running over to the window and pressing her hands against the glass. "She's so big. It's been so long since I've seen her that I forgot how big she is."
"She is big." Morro agreed quietly, following her over. "And cruel, and manipulative- worse than you, even. Because she can read your thoughts, too."
"Oh. I guess you would know. You worked for her for a while." His girlfriend tilted her head. Morro sighed.
"Going on forty-five years, yeah." Nicole spun to face him.
"Wait. You're old." He laughed.
"About sixty, yes. I didn't age while I was a ghost, so… I'm still a kid, really. I've just been here a while."
"Oh. Interesting." She looked back out the window. "Still, I swear she wasn't this big before."
"She… grows, actually. The more souls she curses, the bigger she gets."
"Oh." The dream mistress blinked. "So… not optimal. Bigger means stronger and harder to kill."
"Yeah." Morro sighed, staring through the window at his former boss. "I really hope this works."
"Me too." Nicole folded her arms on the windowsill, resting her chin on them. "Should we find something to do, or just sit here and brood?" Morro chuckled.
"We should probably help. I'll go find Lloyd and ask him what we can do."
"Okay. I'll come too." Nicole straightened up, fighting back the urge to try and give him confidence. Not that her earrings would let her, being made of vengestone, but she had to break the habit. Taking a moment to adjust one of the earrings, the dream mistress followed her boyfriend out of the room, trying to think of some way to cheer him up that didn't involve cheating. It was a few minutes, but finally she said,
"Hey, Morro?" He turned to face her, an eyebrow raised. "Don't worry about the Preeminent, okay? She can't beat us. We might not be able to beat her, but we can't lose this fight." He frowned a bit, considering this, then nodded.
"You're right. With three water masters and an entire ocean… she really can't get at us."
"Yeah. We'll be fine, see?" He smiled a bit.
"Well, we'll still have her floating around, but yeah."
"Then we can leave, right? If it fails?"
"Oh, yeah. It's better than nothing." Morro paused. "We should probably tell Lloyd about that idea. See if he thinks it's plausible."
"Even if he won't leave, we can. You don't have to stay and fight the Preeminent if we can't beat her." Morro frowned.
"And… just abandon the others here?"
"Not 'abandon', but, yeah. You shouldn't have to fight her."
"But I really should." He protested. "After all, I brought her here."
"You did say she was really manipulative, didn't you?"
"…yes."
"And she manipulated you into helping her?"
"Technically, yes."
"Not your fault, then."
"But I still-"
"If I trick someone into thinking a certain way, it's 'cheating', and, 'all your fault, Nicole'." Nicole interrupted him, stopping. "But when the Preeminent tricks someone into thinking a certain way, it's 'just bad judgement on their part', and 'they should have known better'. I've had it with these double standards." Morro cracked a smile.
"Still, you weren't there."
"And you said she's worse than me."
"I really should have known better. If I hadn't been bitter and angry and looking for opportunities for revenge, she wouldn't have been able to manipulate me."
"All manipulation is contextual. If you hadn't been like that, she woulda found another way to get you to do what she wanted." Morro frowned.
"I guess."
"Especially since she can read minds. She must be very good." Nicole mused. "Now come on. Enough self-blaming, what would Lloyd think of you?"
"Uh-"
"Let's go find him and ask." She grabbed his hand, starting down the hall again.
"Wait, Nicole-"
So anyway, I've been sucked into The Greatest Showman fandom, and might actually... post some writing for it.
~FFF