I am so sorry that this took longer than it was supposed to, but I'm here now, and I hope you all like it.

Disclaimer: I do not own Ninjago or he lines from A Rocky Start.

Chapter III: A Rocky Start

It was a very peaceful day in Ninjago. Except for at the monastery. That was chaos. All of the ninja were in a rush to pack their bags and get everything they needed for their upcoming journey into the desert.

"Has anyone seen my sunscreen?" Cole asked as he ran back towards his room.

"No!" Kai called back in annoyance as he entered his own.

"Where's my sword?" Lloyd asked as Jay charged through the hallway with a cooler over his head.

"Are you bringing sneakers or boots?" Nya asked anyone who might be listening.

"Sneakers!" Zane replied as he ran past her.

"Boots!" Kai yelled back just to mess with her. As he was running, though, he nearly ran into Lloyd!

"Hey, is that my Starfarer comic?" Lloyd asked as he noticed the graphic novel in Kai's hand.

"You lent it to me, remember?" Kai told him.

"Like a year ago!" Lloyd argued.

"Ugh, take it!" Kai said as he shoved the book into his brother's hand before running away.

"You're not bringing that, are you?" Zane asked as he walked up to Cole with a handful of folded clothes.

"My soda-guzzler? You bet!" Cole replied proudly.

"I thought we were only bringing essential items," Zane told him.

"This is essential!" Cole protested. "How am I supposed to quest and stay hydrated at the same time, Zane?"

Cole then began slurping his drink as he began to walk away, but Zane noticed C.J. following close behind.

"What about him?" Zane asked in a slightly nervous manner.

"He seemed okay at the police station," Cole answered. "He should be fine staying back with Wu and Pixal."

Zane smiled at this statement. If they had anything close to a repeat of last time, he didn't know what they could do.

Suddenly, the ninja heard Jay yelling, "Anyone have room for my travel pillow?"

"No!" everyone yelled back.

Jay put his arm down in defeat, but he noticed that the chicken was trying to put his neck through the pillow. So Jay jerked his arm away to keep it away from his stuff.

Once the ninja had finished packing, they dumped the mountain of luggage in the courtyard to make sure they had everything.

"That's the last of it," Lloyd announced.

"What are you doing?" Wu asked as he looked up at Mt. Luggage. Pixal was right next to him.

"We're off on our quest. Remember? To hone our ninja skills," Lloyd replied.

"How long will you be gone?" Wu asked.

"I dunno. A day or two?" Jay answered.

"It's like you always say, 'better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it'," Cole told him.

"I never said that," Wu told him.

"Ha! And you say we never listen!" Jay said as he got up really close to his master.

"I never said that either," Wu said once the blue ninja got out of his face.

"Master Wu, perhaps this is an opportunity to field-test the new joint-tactical vehicles," Pixal suggested.

"Oh! What new joint-tacti-What?" Kai said.

The ninja, Wu, and C.J. followed Pixal into the game room and watched as she took three shurikens out and threw them at the dart board. Each one landed right in the middle, opening the way to a hidden button.

Pixal walked over to press the button, and the TV went under the floor to reveal an elevator.

"Wow!" Nya gasped while the others were rendered completely speechless.

The ninja again followed Pixal into a very spacious elevator. So much that it could be mistaken for an empty room if you didn't know it was an elevator.

Lloyd walked over to Kai and Cole, and asked, "Did anyone know this was here?"

"No," Cole replied.

"Ah, nobody tells me anything!" Kai complained.

"We've been working on it for the past six months," Pixal informed them.

"I didn't even notice any construction!" Jay exclaimed.

"You were playing video games," Pixal reminded him. She didn't seem amused.

Now that Jay thought about it, he did remember hearing some disturbing noises while he was playing Lava Zombies or Fist to Face.

"Lazy ninja," C.J. laughed.

"Well, we're trying to fix that," Cole told his son.

Suddenly, the elevator stopped, and the doors opened to reveal a humongous room full of different vehicles. Some, the ninja didn't even recognize.

Everyone ran out of the elevator in excitement while Jay went up to Lloyd and started shaking him while screaming, "We have a secret base!"

"What's that?" Nya asked excitedly as she pointed to something that looked a bit like the Destiny's Bounty, but it had off-roader wheels.

"It is a heavily armored six-wheeled mobile command vehicle. I call it, the Land Bounty," Pixal answered.

"Dibs on the cycle!" Cole announced as he held onto the treads of a rather large bike. C.J. began clapping happily from beside him.

"I got the red one!" Kai yelled as he jumped onto a red monster truck, much to Jay's disappointment.

"Each vehicle is equipped with an operations manual. Please be sure to thoroughly read the-" Pixal stopped talking when she realized that nobody could hear her. In fact, they had already left.

"Yee-haw!" Nya yelled from the inside of the Land Bounty.

"Epic quest, here we come!" Jay said.

Pixal, C.J., and Wu walked through the garage that connected to their base to see the ninja driving very fast towards their quest.

"Did they even bring the luggage?" Pixal asked Wu, who shook his head in disapproval.

"Bye bye," C.J. waved after the ninja. He was ecstatic to see that Cole was waving back from his bike.

Pixal and Wu smiled when they saw how happy C.J. still was. Maybe this wouldn't be so hard.

A few hours later, the ninja had made it to the Desert of Doom. It actually didn't look too bad compared to some other things the ninja had faced in their lives.

"Ah, yes, I've missed this life," Jay said as he relaxed in his seat in the Land Bounty right next to Nya. "The open road, life on the go, adventure around very turn!"

Nya rolled her eyes good-naturedly at her boyfriend before turning to Zane to ask, "Whatcha reading, Zane?"

"A travel book about the region we are entering," Zane answered. "It is called the Desert of Doom. My data-files are incomplete on this subject."

"Really? Why do they call it that?" Lloyd asked. The desert seemed really peaceful.

"According to ancient legend, local tribes once worshiped a giant thousand year old beetle named Beohernie. One day, for no apparent reason, Beohernie became displeased with their prayers and destroyed their village."

"Really?" Lloyd asked in disbelief.

"I have so many questions about that, I don't know where to start," Nya said.

"Well, it's clearly a typo. Beohernie isn't even a name. They obviously named him Bernie," Jay told them.

Zane and Lloyd shared a look of confusion right before they heard Cole's voice come over the intercom.

"Hey, guys. Anyone else starting to get hungry? Because I see a cool, little oasis coming up," the earth ninja said.

Lloyd looked out the window to see Cole beginning to drive over to said oasis.

"Good idea. Lunch break, Everyone!" Lloyd announced.

After parking a little ways from the oasis. They set up a picnic blanket and umbrella to have their lunch break. It was so peaceful and nice. Even Zane was starting to think the desert could use a name change.

"Oh, yeah," Jay sighed after he had finished his food and laid down. "That hit the spot."

Zane sighed as he kept on reading his travel guide book when he could've sworn he saw something near the cooler. He quickly diverted his attention away from the book, but nothing was there.

He shrugged when he didn't see anything. It kind of reminded him of what he just read.

"Listen to this. Another interesting anecdote," Zane told his friends as he began reading again. "'Travelers entering the Desert of Doom should be wary of encountering mirages'."

"Uh, mirages?" Jay asked as he sat back up again.

"An optical illusion often seen at sea or in the desert," Zane explained.

"Cool! I wanna see a mirage!" Kai exclaimed.

Cole groaned as he sat back up. "Is there another PB&J?" he asked.

"Check the cooler," Nya replied before she took a sip of her soda.

Cole got up and walked over to the cooler, but when he was about to open it up, it disappeared!

"Woah! Did you guys see that?" Cole asked.

"I saw it! Unless it was a mirage," Kai suggested.

"Mirages do not eat coolers," Zane told him.

Suddenly, the ninja heard a loud rumbling sound right before something erupted form the ground.

"Oh, no," Zane said.

"It's-" Nya said.

"What? What is it?" Cole asked.

"It's Bernie!" Jay screamed as the giant beetle roared at them.

"Run!" Lloyd screamed as he and his friends put their hoods up and sprinted for their vehicles.

"Oh, why did we park so far away?" Jay asked.

It wasn't long before Jay, Zane, Nya, and Lloyd were in the Land Bounty and Kai was in his truck driving away, but Cole was still out there, and the beetle was catching up to him!

As he ran, he tripped over a loose stone and fell over causing his guzzler to fall off of his head.

"Cole!" Jay whispered, hoping that history would not repeat itself again. Or worse.

Cole felt his head when he realized that something was missing.

"My guzzler!" he exclaimed as he looked back to see it was about to be swallowed by the beetle. And him if he didn't get out of there.

"Forget it! Run!" Lloyd's voice was filled with desperation and panic.

Cole began screaming in fear for his life as he ran as fast as he could away from the beetle that was getting closer and closer to him by the millisecond.

"Don't look back, Cole! Trust me! Just run!" Lloyd told him.

Fortunately, Cole made it onto his bike right as Beohernie went under the sand and disappeared.

"Uh, where is it? Where did it go?" Jay asked.

Kai stopped and opened the hatch to his vehicle to try to see if he could find it.

Suddenly, the Land Bounty began to shake as the ninja could feel themselves being pulled.

"It's under us!" Lloyd exclaimed. "Get us outta here, Zane!"

"Hold on, Everyone!" Zane said as he took control of the vehicle and tried to go, but the beetle wouldn't let them.

"Give it more gas!" Lloyd told him.

"The engine is at maximum acceleration!" Zane replied.

Suddenly, the Land Bounty began to move, but it was moving the wrong way. Beohernie was pulling them!

"Hold on!" Lloyd told his friends.

"To what?" Jay asked. When he didn't get an answer, the blue ninja decided to pick up his travel pillow and put it around his neck as if that would protect him.

"Cole! Kai! We need help!" Nya yelled.

"On my way!" Kai responded.

He drove as fast as he could towards a rock that jutted up in the air. He used this rock as a ramp and pushed a lever so a blade would come out from underneath the truck. He used this to cut off a rock on Beohernie's shell, and the bug let go of the Bounty and fell over.

Beohernie then looked over at Kai and jumped up to face the fire ninja.

Kai began laughing in triumph until he realized what was actually going on.

"Ooh, I think he's angry!" Kai said.

"It's gonna charge. Get outta there!" Lloyd ordered.

Kai began to reverse incredibly fast to try to get away form the beetle. He didn't even know where he was going.

"Hang on, Kai!" Lloyd called to his older brother.

"Man, this thing is fast," Kai said as he watched the beetle chase him.

"I'll try to distract him," Cole said.

He revved up his engine to go faster and began to drive on top of Beohernie's shell! From the sound of it, the earth ninja was enjoying his little stunt. Cole seemed to be more of a tiny annoyance to the beetle that he could easily shake off, though. Much to Cole's disappointment.

"What kind of weapons do we have?" Nya asked the others in the Land Bounty.

Everyone began looking at each other awkwardly to hopefully avoid this question. They had no clue.

"Didn't anyone read the manual?" Nya asked sounding annoyed, although she didn't read it either.

"Uh," Lloyd began.

"I was gonna read it," was Jay's weak excuse.

"Oh, never mind!" Nya said before she ran out the door and up the steps to get to the top of the Bounty, where what looked to be a cannon was.

She took a shot, and the grapple lodged into Beohernie's shell.

"Slam the brakes!" she immediately ordered Zane, who was quick to comply.

"Ha! You got him!" Jay cheered.

"Nice shot!" Lloyd told her.

As much as Zane tried, though, the beetle was too strong for the Land Bounty, and he began dragging them through the desert all while still chasing Kai.

"I think he's got us!" Zane exclaimed as he tried to break free from it's hold.

Suddenly, a warning could be seen onscreen.

"The engine's overheating!" Lloyd told them as Nya came back.

"We have a problem!" she added.

"We have to slow down!" Lloyd told Zane.

"I'm trying!" Zane replied as he pulled back on the wheel.

The warning kept beeping at them as the meter was getting way too far into the red. Lloyd ran out the door, up the steps, took out his sword, and cut the grapple. Once Beohernie was free from the ninja's grasp, he stopped chasing Kai.

Everyone stopped as they seemed safe for the time being.

"What's he doing now?" Kai asked.

"What do we do?" Jay asked.

"We need to get off the sand," Lloyd told them. He was now holding Zane's book. "Zane, what is that?" Lloyd asked as he pointed to a distant object up ahead.

Zane's vision zoomed in on the object to see that it was a cluster of rocks, and he told them so.

"If we can make it to those rocks, we might have a chance," Lloyd said.

"It's worth a shot. If the engine holds out..." Nya said. "Guys, there are some rocks due north. Head for those okay?" Nya told Kai and Cole. "On three. One, two, three!"

Everyone revved up their engines and raced for the rocks. Their movement disturbed Beohernie, though, and he began chasing them again.

As they began to get closer, the rocks seemed a little blurry. Cole rubbed his eyes to see, but it completely disappeared!

"What the-?" Lloyd asked.

"It's a mirage!" Zane exclaimed.

"Now I've seen everything," Kai said. He then rubbed his eyes, and added. "Or nothing."

Everyone began looking around for another place of shelter when Nya noticed some more rocks to the left.

"Over there!" she said as she pointed to them.

"Hard left!" she and Lloyd yelled together.

Unfortunately, it wasn't long before it disappeared too.

"Another mirage?" Zane asked.

"Oh, man!" Nya exclaimed.

They began looking around again before Lloyd noticed another cluster of rocks right in front of them.

"Please be real! Please be real! Please be real!" Jay begged as they came closer and closer to them.

Suddenly, Beohernie grabbed onto the Land Bounty and swallowed a piece of her! Zane began to lose control of the vehicle, but he managed speed up just enough to drive over a rock and make it safely into the cluster. Kai and Cole soon followed, panting, and out of breath from the stress.

Kai tried to rev up his engine again, but it wouldn't work. He then started banging on the glass above his head to get out. It was a struggle, but he managed to get out of the tight space quickly.

The others had an easier time getting out of their vehicles, and they all met up in a group.

"Everyone okay?" Lloyd asked as he exited the Land Bounty.

"Yeah," Nya replied.

"I think so," Zane answered as he looked behind him for fear of the beetle coming back.

"Oh, this is the worst quest ever!" Jay screamed.

Lloyd began walking back over to the Land Bounty to see the damage Beohernie caused, but he suddenly heard him roar close by. The green ninja walked over to the edge of the rocks to see three beetles circling the rocks, waiting for them to get back onto the sand.

"This is not good," Lloyd said as he saw this. "This is really, really not good."

I hope you all liked that, and again, I'm very sorry about the long wait.

Have a great day/night!

#God'sNotDead