Disclaimer: I do not own Ninjago or the lines from the episode Booby Traps and How to Survive Them.

Chapter V: Booby Traps and How to Survive Them

"This is Gayle Gossip, from the desert, where a mysterious pyramid has been discovered. What's inside? Nobody knows, but at this moment, the ninja have arrived and are preparing to enter the pyramid with famed explorer Clutch Powers."

The camera moved over to show Clutch Powers' tent, where the ninja and Clutch were currently discussing going inside the pyramid.

"Your assistance would be very helpful," Zane finished his plead to the explorer to help them.

"Nope. No way. Nein danke," Clutch Powers answered. No question about it.

"But nobody knows what's inside. There could be valuable historical relics," Lloyd tried to convince him.

"Treasures," Kai added.

"Gold and diamonds!" Jay exclaimed.

Clutch Powers was slurping his smoothie with disinterest.

"You are the foremost expert of ancient structures, and your book, Booby Traps and How to Survive Them, is considered a seminal work," Zane complimented.

"Flattering, but still no," Clutch Powers replied.

"Professor, isn't there anything we can do to convince you?" Nya asked.

Suddenly, a young man with glasses, brown hair, and an explorer's outfit similar to Clutch Powers' came up in front of Nya, and said, "Professor Powers! There's a call for you."

Clutch Powers seemed as if he didn't care as the man handed a phone out to Clutch. In fact, the archaeologist seemed annoyed.

"Now, Dwane, I told you I don't want to be disturbed," Clutch said.

"But it's the Explorer's Club," Dwane told him.

"What? Give me that!" Clutch said as he threw his drink out the window in surprise and snatched the phone from Dwane.

Clutch then cleared his throat, and said in a much nicer, more professional voice, "This is Professor Powers."

"Professor Powers," came a British old guy's voice from the other end of the phone. Very proper sounding and slightly passive aggressive for some reason, "Cecil Putnam at the Explorers Club. I regret to inform you, Sir, your membership is being revoked."

"What? This is an outrage! I demand an explanation!" Clutch was already raising his voice as he stood up from his seat and began stomping.

"Of course," Cecil said, sounding as calm as ever. "The club's exploration clause requires all members to explore. You, sir, have not explored in over ten years."

"I just discovered a pyramid!"

"But you have not explored it. And, as we are not the Discovery Club, I'm afraid I can't count that. Sir? Are you there?"

Clutch stopped his silent tantrum of flailing his arms and stomping his feet angrily and put the phone back up to his ear before saying, "Yes, yes, I'm here. Don't cancel anything! I'll get back to you."

After hanging up the phone, Clutch threw it behind him carelessly and sighed in annoyance.

He lifted his head to face the utterly confused ninja, and said, "Well, Guys, you're in luck. Clutch Powers is open for business."

As soon as Clutch had gathered his things, the ninja and explorer set off to the pyramid, which was right next to Clutch's tent. The seven ran inside, in a line, before Clutch suddenly stopped to turn around and shine his light in all the ninja's faces.

"Now, before we take another step, I hope each of you has read my book. It could save your life," Clutch told them.

"Of course," Zane said with a smile.

"Yeah, I love...that book," Kai lied.

Satisfied with his answers, Clutch kept moving until they made it to a room with a chasm. There was a rope bridge to get across.

"Chapter 8: Rickety Old Bridges. Only one way to cross 'em. Fast and first," Clutch explained before he sprinted as fast as he could to the other side. "Last person in line usually doesn't make it!"

The ninja looked at each other nervously before they began sprinting across. First Nya, then Kai, then Jay. Jay was going too fast, though, and bumped into Kai, causing them both to fall down. Cole ignored this and jumped over them while Lloyd jumped onto Kai's head as he was getting up to get across. Kai was then finally able to go across, leaving Jay and Zane, but Zane carried Jay over his head to make sure they both got across safely.

"That wasn't so bad," Jay said once Zane had put him back down.

"Huh. It was actually pretty sturdy!" Cole remarked.

"Yeah, we got lucky," Clutch agreed, "but luck runs out."

The ninja continued following Clutch Powers until they made it to a stairwell. Jay was about to go down, but Clutch grabbed his arm.

"Don't!" he warned the blue ninja.

Clutch looked down at some cobwebs blocking the steps and took off his eye patch so he could see with both eyes. Jay gasped when he noticed this. He couldn't even trust how many eyes this guy had, how was he supposed to trust him to lead them through a spooky, dark pyramid?

Jay turned around to his friends, and asked, "Did you see that?"

"See what?" Cole asked.

"I don't like the look of these," Clutch Powers said as he stood up from his investigation.

"Uh, they're cobwebs," Kai replied, slightly confused.

"Yeah, well, that's what they want us to think," Clutch turned around as he said this. "Jump over 'em. Like this!"

Clutch demonstrated with a little hop over the cobwebs. The rest of the ninja followed his lead until the only one left was Jay. He walked over to the cobwebs, and, still upset about the eye patch thing, stepped over them instead of jumped, but his foot got caught on the webs, knocking them over. Suddenly, the sound of a string snapping, and machinery clanging around could be heard behind the walls.

"Gumdrops!" Clutch yelled right before the steps turned into a really steep slide, and they all began sliding down.

"Grab onto something!" Lloyd screamed.

"I'm trying!" Kai replied.

"There's nothing to grab. It's too smooth!" Jay yelled.

"Guys? Guys? Guys?!" Cole screamed as he saw something at the end of the slide. A bunch of spikes to impale the ninja and archaeologist.

Everyone screamed in fear when they saw it.

"I got this!" Kai yelled as he created a fire ball in his hand and shot the ball at the spikes just as the ninja fell in.

Kai had destroyed the spikes right in front of them, so they could fall in without getting impaled, but it still hurt.

"Ow!" Jay groaned as he sat up. Maybe Clutch did know what he was doing.

"He said to step over them!" Cole immediately yelled at Jay as everyone sat back up.

"I did!" Jay told him. He then looked down at his foot to see the cobwebs still stuck on his shoe. Seeing this, he gave Cole a sheepish smile. He knew he was in trouble.

"If you did, we wouldn't be lying here in a pit with-" Cole stopped talking when he noticed the weird looks on his friend's faces. "What? What are you guys staring at?" Cole screamed when he looked behind him and immediately backed away. It was the skeleton of a man that had been impaled by one of the spikes.

"I wonder who that was," Zane said.

"Someone who didn't stop in time," Kai replied.

Jay walked up to the skeleton with Clutch just as the archaeologist took off his eye patch to investigate again. The lightning master tried to point this out to his friends, but Clutch had put the eye patch back on before anyone could even know what he was pointing at, so he walked away in defeat.

"Hageman. A competitor. He was good. Very good, but he didn't read my book, and it cost him his life," Clutch Powers explained.

As Clutch was speaking, Zane picked up a book in Hageman's belongings, and said, "Actually, he did read it."

"Ah, let me see that!" Clutch exclaimed as he snatched the book from Zane's hands and opened to the bookmarked page. "Aha! He stopped on Chapter 8. Cobweb traps are in Chapter 9."

Clutch threw the book behind him, and it hit the skeleton, causing it to shatter. He then shined his flashlight on the wall behind the skeleton, and noticed that it looked a bit different than the other walls. He pushed on this, and it immediately slid open to show another room full of sarcophagus'. Before moving to the next room, though, Jay decided to pick up Hageman's book to see if it had any other useful anecdotes.

"Nobody touch nothin'," Clutch warned the ninja.

After making their way through the room, they were stopped by a giant pillar that had fallen in their path.

"Gumdrops," Clutch Powers said.

"Cole?" Lloyd asked.

"I got this!" Cole replied with a smile.

The earth ninja walked over to the pillar and used his earth punch to gain extra strength, managing to lift the pillar, but it was still very heavy.

"Any day now," Cole said as the others were just looking at what was on the other side.

Once everyone was through, Cole pushed the pillar up, so he could get through unhurt.

The next room they made it into was the biggest one of all, but it had almost nothing in it except for a picture puzzle on the wall.

"What is this?" Lloyd asked as he looked at the puzzle.

"It appears to be an ancient locking mechanism. If the image is properly assembled, the chamber will open," Zane answered.

"Ooh, like a puzzle game! Oho! I'm good at these!" Jay exclaimed before he and Nya ran up to the puzzle to work on it.

As the ninja were watching the lightning and water masters attempt to figure out the puzzle, Zane noticed some ancient writing on the other wall next to him.

"What does it say?" Lloyd asked.

"'Beware ye, who enter the serpent's tomb, for her anger nearly did consume all Ninjago. Until a foolish boy, with a staff of power her evil did destroy'," Zane read.

"What does that mean?" Lloyd asked.

"Gobbledygook. Who knows? I haven't seen an inscription yet that made a lick of sense," Clutch replied.

As the explorer kept talking, Zane began to remember his visions. They were talking about the serpentine he saw in them!

"No, don't!" Zane warned his friends solving the puzzle, but it was too late. They had already solved it!

Once the puzzle was successfully completed, it exploded into a million pieces, letting the serpentine Zane had seen in his vision out. She began laughing manically as she slithered out of her prison.

"Free at last," she said.

Lloyd groaned as he looked up from the ground he and his friends were now laying on.

"Where is he?" the serpent asked.

"Who?" Lloyd asked.

"The Treacherous Deceiver. The one who imprisoned me. Tell me where he is, and I, Aspheera, will show you mercy," the serpent answered.

As the others sat back up, Zane whispered to Lloyd, "I believe she is looking for the boy mentioned in the hieroglyphics."

"What do I tell her?" Lloyd asked.

"Tell her the truth. We don't know," Nya replied.

Everyone stood up to face her nervously while Lloyd said, "Um, that was a-a while ago."

Aspheera responded by shooting a burst of magic from the staff she was holding, blasting Lloyd into the wall.

The ninja responded to this by putting their hoods on and shooting all their elemental powers at her at once.

"Let her have it!" Jay yelled.

"Uh, I'll get help," Clutch said before he began running away.

Aspheera managed to block most of the powers with her staff, but even after being hit by the fire, she was still standing and laughing even more than before.

"You," she said to Kai. "You're a fire elemental?"

"Yeah, and the name's Kai," Kai answered before shooting another burst towards her, but it still remained ineffective.

"Your fire warms me," Aspheera told him. "For too long, I have been trapped in this cold, dark place. I will take your fire."

"Oh, yeah?" Kai asked.

He activated his fire and was about to shoot again, but Aspheera used her magic to knock over every ninja but Kai. She grabbed Kai with her magic and began sucking his power from him. It wasn't long before he went limp in the air.

"Kai!" Nya called to her brother.

"What's happening?" Cole asked.

"She is stealing his elemental powers!" Zane answered. "We must stop her!"

"Ninja go!" everyone screamed as they went into their spinjitzu tornadoes to stop her. Seeing this, Aspheera let go of Kai for just a moment and took them all out with her own spinjitzu.

"She knows spinjitzu," Lloyd groaned.

"How?" Jay asked.

Finally, Aspheera finished taking Kai's power and dropped him hard on the ground.

"Kai!" Lloyd exclaimed as he ran over to his unconscious friend.

With this new power, Aspheera was able to change her appearance to a golden serpent with fire on the back of her scales to give her more of a intimidating appearance for those who didn't already know what she was capable of.

"I thank you, Elemental. In return for your gift, I shall spare your lives," Aspheera said.

She used her magic to lift the ninja up and chain them all to a nearby wall.

"May you enjoy your time in this place as much as I did. Farewell," she said before leaving them.

"You won't get away with this!" Lloyd yelled.

Clutch kept running and running and running until he finally made it to a little doorway on top of the pyramid. There had to be a way down from here.

"I made it!" Clutch said happily. "I'm alive! Oh, I gotta tell someone what happened!"

"You," Aspheera said from directly behind the man.

Clutch turned around slowly to see the serpent looking even scarier than before!

"Gumdrops," he said.

"Take me to the nearest village," Aspheera ordered.

"Village? There's nothing for hundreds of miles. Nothing until Ninjago City."

"Take me to Ninjago City."

"Uh...never!" Clutch said, trying to be brave.

Aspheera pointed her staff towards Clutch's chest, but the explorer responded by taking out an ancient relic and showing it to her.

"This is an ancient Minkan amulet of protection. Y-you cannot harm me!" Clutch Powers told her.

"Are you sure?" Aspheera asked.

"Yeah, I'm sure. Pretty sure. I hope so. I'd be really bummed if he lied about it."

"Let us find out."

Aspheera began chanting in a language Clutch had never heard of, summoning lava out of the top of the pyramid as if it was a volcano.

Clutch Powers then jumped down the pyramid and began using the slope as a slide, all the while begging to the amulet, "Please be real, please be real, please be-"

The part of the pyramid he was on suddenly burst out from under him, launching the archaeologist far away.

Once he was gone, Aspheera went back into the pyramid and brought a giant snake, her former pet, back to life using fire. She then rode it out of the pyramid and ordered, "Take me to Ninjago City. Revenge shall be mine!"

#God'sNotDead