WAR OF DARKNESS CHRONICLES

Book Two: A New World

Part Three: Golden Weapons
Chapter VIII: The Super Bolt

The Elemental Temple; Billingsley, Alabama
Earth
Thursday November 1, 2018…

The Guardians stood on the eight pedestals around the fountain in the Elemental Temple, Golden Weapons in the hands of the six who had claimed them. They were positioned clockwise in the following order: Lloyd, Zee, Kasey, Cole, Mack, Kai, Danny, and Jay.

"We are nearing the end of our mission on Earth," Mack said. "Once we have revealed and retrieved the Super Bolt, it will be time to return to Ninjago."

"So what do we do?" Cole asked.

"As I suspected would happen," Mack replied, "I had a dream last night of this very moment. It wasn't a vision of the future, I don't think, but rather a set of instructions."

"Those of you with Golden Weapons will point them toward Lloyd. He will reach out and connect with each Weapon, one at a time, until all six of their semi-consciousness energies are present in his mind. I don't know how, but at that point, the Super Bolt's location will be revealed."

"I don't mean any disrespect at all," Kai said, "but if Lloyd is revealing it, why doesn't the Super Bolt belong to him?"

"I don't know," Mack answered after a moment of thought. "I've been asking myself that since we received this mission. The best answer I can give is this: elemental energy is carefully ordered, and the part of that energy represented by the Super Bolt matches my own, not Lloyd's."

"I'm sure Kai didn't mean to doubt you," Lloyd said, to which Kai enthusiastically shook his head. "None of us do. We're ready to follow you into our battle with Rikayla once you claim the Super Bolt."

Mack swallowed his emotion. "It's an honor."

After exchanging a look with the Guardians and the other ninja (plus Garmadon, Anna, and Mack's parents and brother who were also in the room watching), Mack nodded firmly.

"Let's do this. Zee, direct the Daggers toward Lloyd."

Zee pointed the Daggers of Wind in Lloyd's direction, and the Golden Ninja immediately began to glow with golden light.

The rest of the Guardians followed suit, one by one, in the order of the elemental cycle: Wind, Water, Earth, Fire, Ice, Lightning. Each time, Lloyd glowed more brightly.

When Jay was pointing the Nunchucks of Lightning at Lloyd, the light became so bright that one would think everyone in the room had to avert their eyes. But the brilliant light was not offensive or harsh. It was warm, pleasant, elegant.

Balanced.

Mack peered into the light, a look of rapture on his face. In the next moment, the light disappeared and Mack collapsed.

Mack skipped up the driveway by the woods, not a care in the world. What was there for a ten-year-old country boy such as himself to fret over? Especially since he had just been given permission to spend the night with Nanny tonight.

He didn't understand why, but his parents didn't let him stay at her house very much anymore. He didn't understand; they refused to explain their reasoning, and it made him a little angry.

But today, he was carefree. And it was even his birthday! Maybe that's why his parents were going to let him spend the night with Nanny tonight, even though he could tell by their faces that they didn't really want to let him do so.

He skipped up the hill, past the Hut, and right up to Nanny's back porch. Mom said she already called and said he was coming, and Nanny had said "tell him to just come right in."

So, Mack opened the door and called out, "Nanny, I'm here!"

There was no response.

Mack looked all through the house and couldn't find her. Maybe she was in her rocking swing on the porch.

As Mack opened the front door, he still didn't find Nanny.

Now worried, he was just about to go back inside and call his parents when he caught a glance of two figures walking from the highway in front of the property and up to the house. When they got a little closer, Mack could recognize the tall woman with curly white hair. The other figure was a policeman.

"Nanny!" he called out, beginning to run towards them.

Before he could, however, his dad pulled up to the house in his white pickup truck.

"It's time to go, Mack. Nanny's sick."

"Sick?" Mack asked as his dad picked him up and put him in the truck. "How can she be sick? Look—she's fine!"

"She's just sick, okay? She's gonna be okay but she needs to rest right now."

Mack's dad was unwilling to offer any more explanation and stepped away to speak with the policeman. Mack overheard that Nanny had been wandering down the middle of the highway and was almost hit by an eighteen-wheeler.

The officer asked Nanny why she was out there like that, and she replied with a blank look on her face, "Little Mack has to go to the cave in the lesser forest. I had to go first, to make sure it was safe."

Mack blinked away the tears in his eyes. He was only ten, but he understood now. Nanny's mind was sick. That's why mom and dad didn't want him to spend the night with her anymore.

She wasn't herself anymore.

Mack was contently doing his classwork on a dreary day. Being eleven-and-a-half, he decided, was hard work. Between the intensifying schoolwork and fending off his toddler-age brother, the kid was spent.

Not to mention visiting Nanny's bedside every day.

Her mind had been sick for the greater part of two years, and now her body was just as sick as her mind. She had been in the hospital for a while, and the doctors sent her home last week. Not that she noticed the change of scenery: Alzheimer's had done its work and done it well.

The only person she recognized anymore was Mack, and that's why he visited every day: so she could be herself again for a few minutes every day.

At around 1:00pm, one of the school office aides came into the classroom. "Sorry to interrupt, Ms. Hubbard. Mack is checking out."

There were many odd looks cast around the room, as usually if a student was checking out, the office would simply call over the classroom intercom to notify the teacher. Shrugging his shoulders, Mack gathered up his things and followed the aide down the hall.

Instead of leading him to the front office, however, the aide led him down the hall towards his grandmother's office (she was the music teacher at the school), where his grandmother was waiting in the hallway.

When they reached her, Mack's grandmother bent over slightly to meet his eyes and simply told him, "Nanny's gone. We're going to the house."

Mack didn't say a word throughout the short ride to Nanny's house, except to voice his agreement when his grandmother told him, "We've lost a wonderful lady."

By the time Mack and his grandmother got to Nanny's house, the entire family was there. Each member of the family had tears on their face.

Except for Mack. He couldn't help but feel relief on Nanny's behalf, for he knew she could finally reclaim that which made her who she was behind the fog of Alzheimer's that her loved ones had grown accustomed to.

Mack's grandfather handed him a folded-up piece of paper.

"Before Mom passed," his deep but warm voice said, thick with emotion, "she had a moment where she was alert and aware. She told me to tell you something; I didn't understand it, but I wrote it down."

Mack unfolded the paper and read it aloud, "Little Mack, you're so close and I'm so proud of you. Now, find the cave in the lesser forest. Your Nanny loves you."

"Does that mean anything?" his grandfather asked.

Mack remembered several months ago when she said something similar after she was almost hit by a big rig on the highway. But he didn't understand, either.

"I don't know," Mack settled.

A year after Nanny passed, Mack and his parents and brother moved into her house. Every now and then, they would find something odd that she never threw away and either laugh in amusement at the object or experience a memory of hers that was new to them.

One sunny afternoon, Mack's mother found a little book and opened it. The first page read, "My Little Mack. Year 11."

Nanny had written a prayer for him every single day since he was born, and this book contained her thoughts toward him during the last year of her life, when her mind was so far gone that she perceived the rest of her family as strangers.

Mack's mother turned to the last page with any writing and read the entry.

April 17, 2011

There are strangers in my house, but I don't have the strength to make them leave me alone. I can't get out of bed. I can hardly find the strength to write. I wish Little Mack would come and see me. Ronnie and Sharon won't let him, I know they don't want him to see me sick.

I don't want him to see me sick either, but I have something important to tell him. None of the strangers in my house have any clue what I'm talking about, but he'll understand. He has to.

If he doesn't find the cave in the lesser forest, I don't know what we'll do. I wish I could just see him so I could tell him.

Maybe he'll come by later.

Confused, Mack's mother flipped through some of the previous pages, only to find that the last twenty entries in a row were verbatim the exact same entry.

She called for Mack and asked him if he knew what she was talking about. He reached into his pocket and pulled out the folded-up piece of paper with her final message to him on it (which he always had on him) but said he didn't know what it meant.

Mack gasped as his eyes shot open. He was lying flat on the floor, his head held laying on Zee's lap. The other Guardians, ninja, and his family were crowded around, concern on their faces.

"All along," Mack gasped. "She knew all along, somehow."

"Are you alright, man?" Danny asked, helping Mack to stand.

"And what are you talking about?" Cole asked.

"I don't know how," Mack began, "but my great-grandmother knew where the Super Bolt is. She had Alzheimer's, and in the last year or so of her life she would occasionally mention that I have to go to 'a cave in the lesser forest,' as she put it."

"You still remember her saying that?" Mack's father asked. "She passed like six years ago."

"I had forgotten about it, but I just had a vision where I saw flashbacks of her talking about it."

"That's nuts," Jay exclaimed. "But so is everything else that's happened since we met you."

"So," Kai prodded, "where is it?"

"Lesser forest, lesser forest," Mack thought aloud. "Which way was she walking on the highway that day she almost got run over?"

"She was on 82 West when the sheriff picked her up and brought her back," Mack's grandmother answered.

Mack snapped his fingers. "That runs right through the west part of the Talladega National Forest, which is also the smaller part."

"The lesser forest," Mack's mother inferred. "How did she know that?"

"I have no idea," Mack replied. "But she did, and now, so do we."

Talladega National Forest West; Alabama

The ninja teleported to where U.S. Highway 82 goes by the western part of Talladega National Forest, and Mack immediately felt a pull toward the center of the forest.

"Follow me," he said, and he led the group toward the pull.

"Nanny said there was a cave, so be on the lookout for that."

The ninja hiked through the forest in the cool morning air for an hour before Mack stopped.

"There it is," he pointed forward to a large but inconspicuous stone on the ground.

"Are you sure?" Zee asked.

"That's just a rock," Jay added.

"If he says this is it, then this is it," Kai said firmly.

Mack did not respond; instead, he approached the rock and scrutinized it. When he touched it, it shook violently, cracked, and then crumbled, revealing a hole in the ground.

"Told ya," Kai playfully sneered at Zee and Jay, who good-naturedly rolled their eyes at the fire master.

"Everyone, follow me," Mack said before jumping into the hole.

The rest of the ninja hesitated to jump after looking into the hole and seeing only darkness.

"The cave will slow your fall!" Mack called up.

"I'm a ghost," Morro snickered. "Why am I worried? Good luck, suckers!"

Morro jumped into the hole, holding his nose for comedic effect.

"What he said," Cole laughed before diving in.

The rest of the ninja jumped one after the other until only Jay and Lloyd were left.

"See you on the other side," Lloyd winked. Jay laughed nervously as Lloyd jumped in.

"Okay, Jay. You can do this," he said to himself.

The Blue Ninja took a deep breath and jumped into the hole, screaming bloody murder all the way down.

As his fall slowed, Jay stopped screaming and took in his surroundings. The ninja stood in an ornate circular shrine with strange and beautiful markings all around.

"Whoa…" Jay marveled, his voice echoing off the stone walls and dome ceiling above that at its highest point gave way to the hole through which the ninja entered.

There were six depressions in the walls around the ninja; on one side of the room was an ornate door with an inscription of the Guardian oath.

"What?!," Kai gasped.

"How is that there?" Morro asked, referring to the oath.

"I told y'all," Mack replied. "There's an order to all this."

"What are those things drawn on the door?" Cole asked, pointing out drawings flanking the inscription.

"Looks like two tridents," Danny suggested.

"Tridents have three pikes. The weapons depicted here have two pikes," Zane pointed out. "They're bidents."

One of the drawings depicted a bident with white pikes, while the other had black pikes. Both were golden in color.

"Weird," Lloyd said.

"Notice the depressions in the walls," Mack said. "They have your elemental symbols written above them. Place your Golden Weapons there at the same time, and Lloyd will be able reach out with his mind and open that door."

"Somebody tell Rikayla to start getting ready," Danny said as the ninja moved to their respective depressions.

"Count 'em off, Mack," Lloyd nodded when the ninja were in their positions. "I'm ready."

"Okay," Mack barely whispered. "One… Two… Three!"

The Guardians with Golden Weapons pushed the Weapons into the depressions and the door gave off a brilliant golden light.

Lloyd held out his hands and the door opened. Green light poured out of the space within before slowly dissipating.

When the lights all died away, Mack spoke up again. "The door is open now; you can take your Weapons back… Come look."

The group peered into the Super Bolt's chamber and saw the weapon floating on a raised pedestal. It was a strange object; it looked like a Scythe, but it had a blade on both ends of its staff, the blades pointing in opposite directions. The weapon was golden like the others, but the blades looked as if they were polished fine crystal.

"Go get it, bro," Danny clapped Mack on the back.

Without responding, Mack walked into the Super Bolt chamber and stopped a foot away from the key to balancing the universe. He didn't understand what exactly that meant, but he trusted that he would in time.

Mack reached out and firmly grasped the middle of the weapon's staff.

The Ninja Residence; Ninjago City
Ninjago
The same moment…

It was a calm morning in Ninjago, clear and beautiful, but with a cool breeze.

At the ninja's house/dojo out the outskirts of Ninjago City, the three current occupants were doing various chores around the house. Sensei Wu took to organizing the equipment in the training room, and Nya was doing some work on the van.

As Misako was sweeping the porch, she noticed the sky darkening. She looked up and saw dark clouds rolling in; the clouds seemed to be emitting a brilliant green aurora.

Misako gasped and called Wu and Nya to come outside.

Wu grinned. "We should work on getting a nice dinner ready. I think they'll be home tonight."

Rib Kage Park
The Underworld

On yet another boring day in the Underworld, a pair of high-ranking members of the infamous skeleton army stood around bouncing ninja revenge plots off of each other.

"What if we build a giant spider-robot and—"

"Nuckal, no."

"Aww, come on, Kruncha! Don't be such a—"

"Hey, look!" Kruncha pointed at the sky.

"Would you stop interrupting me?" Nuckal whined, but did look where Kruncha was pointing.

"Whoa…" both of the skeletons marveled at the beam of green light shooting across the sky.

"Maaayyybe we ought to leave the ninja alone," Nuckal said.

"Yeah," Kruncha agreed. "Looks like they're busy."

Southern Fields
The Cursed Realm

Soul Archer was running some routine military exercises in an attempt to get the Cursed Realm's ghost army in better shape in case another universe-takeover plot came along.

Bansha was demonstrating some counterattacks using Goultar as a dummy when the entire field stopped and looked above their heads at the thunderclouds rolling in, bright green lightning issuing from them.

"Looks like something those ninja would be up to," Bansha observed.

Soul Archer nodded. "They've always seemed power-hungry to me, like Morro was. I say we should increase defenses in case they get the idea to march into our domain."

"Agreed," Bansha replied.

The Plains of Insanity
Realm of Madness

The Queen of Darkness was observing her troops training from atop her cliff overlooking the Plains of Insanity. Around her were Tenebris, Scio, Dubito, and two of the Imperia that she had selected to be her personal attendants. The rest of her close allies were down on the plains training with the army.

Suddenly, Rikayla's legs became weak, and she went to her knees, her grip on the hilt of the Hammer of Night standing against the ground the only thing keeping her from completely collapsing into the dry soil.

Naturally, her allies immediately swarmed her.

"Master!" and "Dark one!" they cried.

"I'm alright," Rikayla said between heavy breaths. "Back away, I can stand."

Her allies slowly backed away to give her space. As they did and as Rikayla stood up, the sky above brightened and took on a vibrant green color. The emerald rays appeared to emanate from every point above.

"The key," she said, barely above a whisper. "He has the key. The Super Bolt."

"You predicted he would find it," Tenebris tested the waters, wanting to see how the Queen of Darkness would react to this development.

"Yes. I did." She was calm; from her face it was clear she was stunned by this display of power shining from the Super Bolt across the Ethereal Divide into her realm.

"You are powerful, master," Scio tentatively offered. "More powerful than our enemies will ever dream to be."

"You have created a great army," Dubito added, "and you have prepared them well."

Something snapped in Rikayla. She let out a horrendous roar, blasting a nearby rock—not with the Hammer, but sending the blast from her bare hand—and turning it to fine powder.

Rikayla's explosion into rage continued: "Do I appear afraid to you? Is my enemy so great that I should be filled with fear? Should I tremble at the thought of our coming battle?"

Scio and Dubito shrinked away while Tenebris fought to contain his frustration. If they were going to win this war, they needed Rikayla to keep her head on straight. This outburst was anything but that.

"He is the one who will quake in fear as I stand above him, the Hammer of Night an inch from his nose in his final moments before I reduce his person to a seething stain in the dirt!

"I have no fear! I have no obstacle! I will not be stopped! And I have no need of your patronizing, your 'reminders' of my great power."

None of Rikayla's allies dared to speak. They simply allowed her a moment to calm down.

The dark queen took several deep breaths and then continued.

"Nothing changes. The Green Ninja and his band of Guardians will meet the most powerful army in the universe in twenty days on the Sea of Sand. We will destroy them all."

Rikayla closed her eyes. Her voice again barely above a whisper, she repeated, "Nothing changes."

The Hut; Billingsley, Alabama
Earth

Unlike with the other Golden Weapons, the Super Bolt did not teleport the ninja back to the Hut. So instead, the ninja gathered up their weapons from the slots in the main room of the ancient temple and teleported back themselves.

When they arrived back at the Hut, celebration ensued. The positive energy as the ninja rejoiced was tangible in the air. Mack's family told them that they had seen a beam of green light shooting into the sky a few minutes ago, from the direction of the forest from which Mack retrieved the Super Bolt.

Amid the hooting and hollering, Mack was quiet and thoughtful, holding the Super Bolt in his hands and staring down at it.

Cole and Danny noticed and approached him.

"Hey bro, we got the Super Bolt!" the ghostly Black Ninja exclaimed.

Danny continued: "We're getting closer to whacking Rikayla—why aren't you happy?"

Mack cracked a small smile. "Of course, I'm happy. It's just…" he hesitated.

"What is it, Mack?" Morro asked.

Garmadon placed a hand on Mack's shoulder. "What did it show you?"

Mack took a deep breath.

"When I touched the Super Bolt, I felt its energy going out into all the realms. It sent out a visible message to let everyone know that balance is coming.

"I realize now whose voice has been telling me all these things that we've had to accomplish to fight Rikayla. It's been this weapon calling out to me, all along. It called out to my great-grandmother when her mind was too far gone to question what she was hearing, and it used the combined power of all the Golden Weapons to project flashbacks to me so that I would remember."

"Hmm," Zane pondered. "It's as if the Golden Weapons have some sort of sentience—minds of their own, unified and directed by the wisdom of the Super Bolt."

"Wicked," Jay grinned.

The others nodded in agreement and the room went quiet.

"So…" Kai said after a minute, "now what?"

"With the Super Bolt, we have the power to return to Ninjago, and we should do that as soon as possible. Today, if we can. It's time to prepare to face Rikayla."

"Today?" Danny sighed.

"Later today," Mack replied with a knowing smile. "Go home and spend some time with your little sister before we go."

He then addressed everyone. "It's around 10:00 now, let's plan to teleport out of here at 5:00. Zee, Kasey, Danny: get out of here and spend the day with your families and say your goodbyes."

County Road 40, Autauga County

Danny teleported to within close walking distance of his family's house so that he could approach without scaring his mother and sister. As he walked up to the house, he saw his mother hanging sheets on the clothesline in the front yard.

He tried to make some noise with his walk so he wouldn't startle her. She saw Danny coming and waved him over.

"Mom," Danny said when he reached his mother, "you need to know something."

"Good," his mother sighed. "I need a break from laundry. What is it?"

Danny took a deep breath. "When I became a Guardian, I told you I was doing this protect you and Emily, and that when the time came, we would have to go into another world to fight our enemy."

"It's time, isn't it?"

"It's time," Danny repeated, nodding.

Danny's mother took him by his shoulder and looked up into his eyes (he was about a head and a half taller).

"Your father would be so proud of you, young man. I know I am."

She hugged her son tight. "I'll be praying for you every minute until you come back to us. I love you, Daniel."

Danny explained that they would be leaving at 5:00, so the family made the most of their day together. They had lunch, made homemade ice cream, and played their favorite board games. Before anyone knew it, it was for Danny to leave.

They gathered in the yard to say goodbye.

"I'm gonna be in a whole other world for a while," Danny said. "Are y'all gonna be okay?"

Danny's mother nodded. "We'll be alright—especially since we know you're out there protecting us. Right, Emily?"

"My Bubba is gonna kick some butt!" Emily exclaimed.

Danny and his mother laughed, and the family embraced in a tight group hug.

"I love you both so much," Danny choked out, swallowing tears.

When they separated, Danny took a few steps back and gave his family a big smirk.

"Watch this, Em," he said before suddenly teleporting away.

Mack's Family Property

It was finally time. Mack had said his goodbyes to his family before the ninja all gathered in the back yard, so his family simply stood by watching as the ninja prepared to leave.

"This is it," Mack called the group's attention. "This is truly our declaration of war on the darkness. Tonight, we return to Ninjago. In twenty days, we finally face our enemy."

"Will we be ready?" Lloyd asked. "Are we strong enough?"

"We'll be ready, Lloyd." The conviction in Mack's eyes was contagious.

With that, all was said that needed to be said. Mack raised the Super Bolt to the sky, and the ninja and Garmadon gathered around, making sure they were touching the Green Ninja. The Guardians were holding their Golden Weapons.

Above them, the sky became overcast, and the clouds reached down toward them in a tightening funnel. When the funnel connected with the Super Bolt, the weapon's blades emitted a brilliant green light. The funnel became a pillar of green light that swallowed up the ninja and became blindingly bright.

As soon as it started, it was over. The light disappeared, and the ninja were gone from the realm of Earth.

End of Book Two