Disclaimer: I do not own Ninjago or the lines from the episode Ninja Vs Lava.

Chapter VII: Ninja Vs Lava

It had been nearly a full day, and the ninja were still chained to the wall of Aspheera's prison. Everyone was extremely bored, their wrists were going numb (not enough unfortunately), and Kai was still unconscious. Jay, however, had found joy in reading Clutch Powers' book that Hageman had once owned.

"That Clutch Powers guy might have run off to save himself, stranding us here, but I have to admit, his book is pretty good," Jay told the others. It was the first time someone had spoken in the last five minutes. The last one being Jay.

Suddenly, an explosion could be heard, worrying the blue ninja, but he decided to ignore this and hope that someone was just coming to rescue them.

"It has a section for everything," he told his friends. "Even "What to Do When All is Lost." He recommends vocal exercises, like, Bro bro goo goo. Bro bro goo goo!"

Lloyd finally was annoyed enough to ask, "How is saying a bunch of nonsense possibly gonna help us?"

"It says it keeps you calm by relaxing your face," Jay replied. "Bro bro goo goo."

As Jay kept singing his weird new words, Zane told Nya, "Perhaps Clutch didn't abandon us. Perhaps he went to seek help."

"Sure, and maybe the evil snake queen we just accidentally released from an ancient tomb is heading to Ninjago City for some sightseeing," was Nya's sarcastic remark.

"I find that highly unlikely," the nindroid responded.

"We need to update your sarcasm circuits, Zane. If we get out of here."

"We wouldn't even be hanging here if Jay hadn't opened that crypt!" Cole angrily blamed.

"Me? Zane's the one who didn't warn us in time," Jay replied.

"How can you blame Zane?" Lloyd asked. "Who opens a possibly cursed tomb without checking it out first?"

"Opening a tomb is how you check it out!" Jay said as he pulled the chain to drag Lloyd closer to him and began shaking him a little too violently and accidentally flipping Kai over so his face hit the wall. "What about Kai? He's the one who let her steal his powers."

"Hey! Watch it!" Nya yelled.

Jay chuckled a little in fear, hoping that she would forget about this later.

"She's right. How's he doing, Zane?" Lloyd asked.

Zane began scanning Kai before answering saying, "His vitals are stable. He should recover shortly."

"Good. Now we just have to figure a way out of here," Lloyd said. "Any ideas?"

Jay gasped. "Maybe there's something in Clutch's book," he suggested. "He's got a chapter entitled "Escaping from Close Calls."

"Really? What does it say?" Cole asked.

"Let me check," Jay said as he began reading the book, but all the torches went out, and he couldn't see anything. No one could.

"Ah, great! Now I can't even see!" Jay complained.

An orange light then began glowing from below, allowing him to see again.

"Oh, that's better," Jay said.

"Uh, Jay. Not better," Nya said as she pointed to something below him.

Everyone looked down to see lava coming towards them from Aspheera's tomb.

"Incoming lava. Don't panic!" Jay screamed. "Clutch has a whole chapter on rising lava. I just have to turn to that page."

Jay lifted his legs up and put the book there so he could turn the pages, but it wasn't stable enough and quickly fell into the lava.

"No! Oh, that book was our only hope!" Jay exclaimed.

"Everyone," Lloyd said as he flipped himself over so his feet were now on the wall, "we need to get out of this room. Follow my lead!"

Seeing what Lloyd was doing, the ninja all flipped over to their legs and began pulling on the chain to try to free themselves. They all broke at once, and they began falling. Luckily, Nya was able to grab hold of another chain before anyone was injured. Although Jay was a little too close to the lava for comfort.

"Oh, thank you, Nya. I love you," Jay told her.

"Just...hold...on!" Nya yelled as she used all the strength she had to swing the ninja over to a nearby ledge, and they all landed in a heap.

"Nice work, Nya," Lloyd said as he got up. "Now, let's get out of here and save Ninjago City from Aspheera. What do you say, Ninja?"

Everyone cheered as they all began running in several directions, but the chain was still keeping them all linked so they ended up bumping back into each other's heads.

Everyone groaned as they stood back before Lloyd said as he pointing in the direction he was going towards, "That's how we came in. How about we all go that way together."

Everyone began running in the direction Lloyd said while Cole and Zane dragged Kai along. They had to stop when they made it to a big pillar blocking the path again.

"Alright, Cole. Do your thing," Lloyd told him.

It was a good thing the chains weren't made of vengestone, or else they would've been trapped there for a while. The earth ninja walked up to the pillar and activated his earth punch so he could lift the pillar out of the way.

While he was doing that, Jay noticed that the lava was still getting closer to them. He began to panic and run towards the path as soon as it was open. This, in turn dragged Lloyd along, which pulled Cole from under the pillar so he had to let go, but since Cole's chain was connected to Kai's, he was nearly crushed by the pillar when he was dragged under!

"Cole! You could've smashed Kai!" Jay immediately blamed.

"Me? You yanked me out!" Cole yelled.

"Guys! We need to stop fighting and work together," Lloyd told them. "Look. It's time we faced it. Master Wu was right. We've gone soft. Not just individually, but as a team. We have to put aside out differences and-"

"Uh, Lloyd?" Cole started.

"No. Let me finish," Lloyd said. "-And work together or else Ninjago will fall before-"

"Lava!" Zane warned.

"No! Not lava! I was talking about Aspheera!" Lloyd yelled back.

"No! Lava! Right there! Right now!" Nya yelled.

Lloyd looked behind him and realized that it was about to burn him. The green ninja screamed as he began running with the rest of his friends out of there.

In the next room, there was a sarcophagus in the middle of the room. Second nature caused them all to try to go around it, but Kai ended up falling in the middle and having his face smacked against the sarcophagus, causing all the ninja to fall over.

"Oh, man. I hope Kai's not going to remember any of this," Cole said as he sat back up.

The ninja all backed away when the door opened and a mummy fell out. It looked like a serpent the same race as Aspheera.

"Woah! A serpent mummy," Lloyd said.

"That's two things I don't like in one," Jay told everyone.

"I don't think you have to worry. Ancient dried up snakes aren't much of a threat," Cole replied as he patted the mummy's head.

"No, but that is!" Jay yelled as the lava started pouring into the room they were in.

The ninja all ran in the same direction around the sarcophagus this time, but they couldn't help but notice that the lava was bringing all these snakes to life!

"So, I'm starting to think that maybe this isn't your ordinary garden-variety lava," Nya said.

"What gave you that idea?" Jay asked, his voice teaming with fear.

Three snakes mummies then started running towards the ninja.

"Uh, aren't mummies supposed to be slow?" Lloyd asked.

"Don't worry. We'll just open a can of spinjitzu on they're bandaged butts. Ninja go!" Jay screamed.

"Wait!" Lloyd yelled, but it was too late. Jay was already doing spinjiztu, sucking the other five into his tornado.

Using spinjitzu, Jay took out every one of the mummies that were attacking them, but he also tied them all together in the chain.

"Okay, I'm willing to admit that was a terrible idea," Jay said.

Suddenly, the mummies began to get back up, but they were clearly dizzy.

"Come on. Let's get out of here," Lloyd said before they all started hopping away.

On their way out, though, Cole kicked a wall, causing the doorway to cave in and block the snakes out. They were home-free!

"Ha! That should slow 'em down," Cole smiled.

It felt like forever before they finally hopped into the next room. This was the one filled with spikes at the end of the stairwell, now slide. They all fell down to the ground in exhaustion, Jay right in front of the skeleton's face. He screamed in surprise and fear when he saw this.

"Relax. That's just Hageman," Cole said as if this was a still living person they had been friends with forever.

"You say that like I should be totally cool running into a long deceased explorer!" Jay yelled.

The rest of the awake ninja stood up, keeping Jay down in the process, while Nya went over to the skeleton.

"A long deceased explorer with a backpack full of gear we need to make it up that passageway!" Nya said as she picked up the pack.

Everyone put on climbing boots and ran up to the slide that dropped them down there.

Nya groaned as they were all climbing.

"Did anyone know Kai was this heavy?" she asked. "What did he eat for dinner last night, a cinder block?"

"Seriously. I am done with cake jokes from Kai after this. No more cake jo-!" Cole stopped talking when he lost his footing and began falling, causing everyone to slip and Jay to nearly have his face taken out by some spikes below. It was a good thing Lloyd was there to catch him.

"Bro bro goo goo," Jay tried to calm himself.

"Nya!" Lloyd and Zane exclaimed.

"I'm okay," Nay replied, "but...I can't move, or I'll lose my grip!"

"Nobody move!" Zane yelled as he flipped over to his back so he could grip the slick slide with his boots better, allowing him to use both hands to pull everyone back up. He then pushed Nya a little farther up where she could get a better grip, and they all managed to get out safely, and a few steps away was the bridge.

"Oh, yeah. This thing," Jay said. "Come on, we're home-free-"

Jay tried running across the bridge, but the wood immediately gave out, and he fell through! The chain connecting him to Lloyd was the only thing saving him from certain doom.

"Ah! Pull me up! Pull me up! Pull me up!" Jay screamed as Lloyd pulled him back up.

"I gotcha," Lloyd assured him.

"Maybe that was just a bad step?" Nya suggested as she walked over to the bridge and stepped on it very slightly. This caused the rest of the bridge to break.

"Bro bro goo goo," Jay said to get over his recent scare.

"Will you stop that?" Lloyd asked. "It doesn't help!"

"You haven't even tried it," Jay responded.

"We need a plan!"

"Like what, Lloyd?" Cole asked. "What kind of plan could possibly help us get out of this mess? There's no bridge!"

"Then we make one!" Lloyd exclaimed.

"Make what?" Zane asked.

"We become the bridge. We link our arms and hands, and we make a bridge!" Lloyd told them.

"A ninja bridge!" Jay exclaimed excitedly.

"You see, you say that like it's a thing. That's not a thing," Cole told them.

"We're gonna make it a thing. Look. We all know we haven't been working together the way we used to, but Ninjago is relying on us. We're the only chance they have! And if we can't bridge our differences and work together, then there is no hope," Lloyd said.

"I'm not usually big on crazy plans, but we don't have much choice," Cole said as he noticed lava beginning to drip in from behind.

"He's right. Let's do it," Nya agreed.

It wasn't long before the ninja had managed to stack on top of each other. Jay on the bottom, Nya at the top, and Kai on Cole's back.

"Okay. On three, we topple. One, two, three!" Lloyd counted.

The ninja all began to topple over, and Nya managed to grab onto the other side.

"Okay, Jay. On three you let-" Nya said, but Jay couldn't do it anymore. He let go of the other side, causing him and Kai to smash into the wall on the other side.

"Why is it always me?" Jay asked as the lava came too close to him again.

Nya managed to climb up onto solid ground while the others followed.

"Ha! It worked!" Cole cheered. "Ninja Bridge is officially a thing! It's a thing!"

"Ugh!" Nya groaned in exhaust as she stood back up. "I never wanna see another pyramid in my life!"

Everyone began to run out, but when they exited out the window on the top, lava surrounded them on all sides! There was no way out.

"What do we do?" Cole asked, beginning to freak.

"I-I'm sorry," Lloyd said. "I failed us."

"No. We failed each other," Zane corrected.

"Oh, he's right. We're all to blame," Jay agreed.

"This can't be happening!" Cole said, burying his face in his hands.

Jay sighed as he sat down with the rest of his friends, and said, "Bro bro goo goo. Bro bro goo goo."

Zane joined him in saying this ridiculous phrase, then Lloyd, then Nya and Cole. They chanted the phrase a couple times before they saw Pixal flying in a copter to rescue them.

"Yeah! Alright!" the ninja cheered.

"Pixal!" Zane exclaimed.

"Glad to see you," Nya said.

"Hold on," Pixal replied.

The female nindroid flew over to the ninja and let down the grappling hook to save them. Cole hooked the chain up to it, so she could fly them out of there, and she set them down next to where they had parked the Land Bounty.

"Thank you, Pixal," Lloyd said. "We would have literally been toast without you."

"How did you find us?" Zane asked.

"The paperboy told us where you were," Pixal answered.

"Paperboy?" Nya asked.

"It's a long story," Pixal replied. "Come on. Let's get these chains off you. There is no time to waste. A serpentine witch has raised an army and is laying siege to Ninjago City," she said as she began using a device to zap the chains off of them.

"This is bad," Lloyd remarked.

Suddenly, Kai began groaning as he sat up, and asked, "Where am I? What happened?"

"Kai! Buddy!" Jay exclaimed happily.

"Your awake!" Nya exclaimed.

"Long story short, the serpentine witch that stole your powers is attacking Ninjago City, and we've gotta stop her. Fast," Lloyd told him as Pixal removed his chain.

"Okay, but-" Kai groaned, "why does my face hurt so much?"

The ninja began to remember all of the times Kai and been smacked into a wall or other hard object and being literally dragged across the pyramid face first. Instead of telling him how badly they cared for him while unconscious, though, they all began to act clueless and wonder "Why was his face hurting after we accidentally hit it on many, MANY different object?"

"Here's the important thing," Lloyd told him. "We're free again and ready for round two! Aspheera has no idea what she's in for now. Ninja go!"

#God'sNotDead