StoryMaker7: Honestly, I feel the exact same way. I try to incorporate him as much as possible, so I hope I did well with chapter.
Disclaimer: I do not own Ninjago or the lines from the episode Into the Dark.
Chapter II: Into the Dark
"See? I told ya! Amazing!" Jay exclaimed as the ninja, C.J., and Wu looked down to the city. It was so beautiful. The city was filled with so many people wearing long, white robes. Some of them were even flying by with golden wings and waved to them happily. All the buildings were tall with intricate, gold and blue designs. They could tell that whoever built the city put much care into his work.
"I'll admit, I wasn't sure it could live up to the legend, but it's even more beautiful," Nya replied as she looked to Jay.
"It truly is a masterpiece," Echo remarked.
"Agreed," Zane replied.
"Great!" C.J. exclaimed in awe. A nearby Shintaran seemed to hear and started waving to the toddler. C.J. immediately hid his face in his dad's chest, leaving Cole to have to do the waving back.
"The Ivory City of Shintaro. Incredible!" Wu exclaimed.
The ninja continued to look in shock and awe as the Bounty landed outside the palace, and they entered. There were so many guards inside, adorned with royal attire in the colors of gold, white, and blue. They stood proudly as the ninja entered, smiling at them as if they were all old friends.
"It is with great honor, King Vangelis, that I present the famed ninja of Ninjago," Hailmar said as he flew up to his king sitting in his white throne. The throne was located on a platform in the center of the room that rose high above the ninja. There were gold and blue markings that encircled this platform and sitting in the throne was a thin man with black hair, purple eyes, and golden wings. There was also the imprint of a purple gem in the middle of his forehead. He wore long robes that were designed with the same sort of markings on the throne in the same colors as well.
"Welcome, welcome!" this man said cheerily as he stood up. "I'm most pleased you were able to accept our invitation. It is an honor."
"The honor is ours," Wu replied as he, along with all the ninja bowed. C.J. didn't partake as he was too busy hiding behind his dad's leg. "Shintaro is beyond anything we imagined," Wu continued.
"I am only a mere figurehead. The citizens of our proud city are the heart of Shintaro," King Vangelis replied.
"Oh! They're here!" an excited voice exclaimed to their right.
Everyone looked towards the sound of the voice to see a girl, not too much older than Cole, flying down with two guards behind her. She wore a white dress with a blue sash tied around her waist and kept her golden hair tied up in a bun. She had the same purple imprint on her forehead and amethyst eyes as the king as well.
"And please meet my heart," King Vangelis continued as her guards took her golden wings, "her royal princess Vania."
"I am such a fan!" Vania exclaimed as she ran up to each of the ninja. "I've read all about your adventures. It was my idea to invite you to my birthday," she said, looking right at Cole.
Cole couldn't help but smile when he looked into those eyes. They shimmered in excitement as her mouth curled upward in a big smile. Her golden hair practically glowed in beauty, and her skin seemed to have no imperfection.
"Well, it's an honor to be here, Princess," Cole replied, barely even getting his dumbfounded mouth to say anything.
"Yeah!" C.J. suddenly exclaimed, surprising everyone.
"Oh!" Vania startled when she noticed his presence. She quickly regained her composure, though, as she knelt down so she was at eye level with the child and asked, "And who are you, may I ask?"
"C.J.," C.J. said a little quieter.
"He's your's?" Vania asked as she looked up at Cole.
Cole nodded, but he had a sudden urge to explain. What if she thought he was taken?
Why do you care, Cole?
"I adopted him a year and a half ago after finding him with the Sons of Garmadon."
"The Sons of Garmadon? How did that come about?" Vania asked as she stood up to face the master of earth now.
"Oh, the stories we have for you," Kai smiled. Always eager to show off.
"I need to hear them all!" Vania exclaimed, barely able to contain her excitement.
Cole couldn't help but chuckle at her enthusiasm. He reached his hand out to hers for reasons he will never figure out, but his view of the maiden in white was suddenly blocked when Hailmar got right in front of him. King Vangelis then gestured for Hailmar to move, so he could take the earth master's hand and shake it.
"First you should follow me," the king said to him. "Tomorrow will be a very busy day for all of us."
As soon as Vangelis let go, Cole took C.J.'s hand so he could easily follow the ninja while Vania ran over to Cole to catch up with him.
"Cole, the earth elemental. What is it like to command the very earth?" she asked him. "Is it as fun as it sounds?"
"Yeah, pretty much," Cole replied.
"Huh. Weird. The princess seems to like Cole. I mean, he's my best friend and all, but...Cole?" Jay said to Lloyd, who hadn't smiled since Vania arrived.
"Yeah. Weird," Lloyd agreed. He watched the princess's every move as she would not stop blabbering on to Cole about the mountain, and his power, and how she thought it would be so cool to have a power like that to run the kingdom. And then she wouldn't stop gushing over C.J. and how cute he was and how she admired Cole so much for taking him in. Of course, when she asked any question, it was always directed to Cole, to which he would reply nonchalantly or Kai would jump in, but the situation was oddly familiar to Lloyd, and he couldn't shake the feeling that someone in the room had far from good intentions.
That night, C.J. climbed into the humongous bed in one of many guest rooms. It had white covers with gold details and a brown bed post.
Cole followed as he placed his shoulder pad on the bed post and sat down on the other side. The bed was so soft, Cole felt that he could lay there forever.
"You excited for tomorrow, Buddy?" the earth master asked.
"Tomorrow!" C.J. exclaimed.
"Shh. We don't wanna wake anybody up."
"Tomorrow," C.J. said, much quieter.
"It's the princess's birthday tomorrow, which means that you need to get your rest."
C.J. whined when he heard that.
"Fine. Fine, but you know...if you act up tomorrow because you're tired, we can't go to the party," Cole replied.
Knowing that his dad wasn't bluffing C.J. immediately grabbed his green blanket from home and threw it over his face so that it only went down to his waist. When Cole fixed this, C.J. put it right back how it was.
Sighing, Cole laid down and closed his eyes, thoughts of the upcoming party tomorrow floated around in his head. He thought about the princess and all the things they could talk about. It was strange yet somehow calming.
"Daddy?" C.J. asked.
"Yeah, Buddy?" Cole replied, not opening his eyes.
"Lloyd here."
"What do you mean Lloyd's here? Ah!" Cole suddenly screamed when he saw the green ninja standing at the edge of his bed, staring at him.
"Hello, Cole," Lloyd said.
"Lloyd?! How did you sneak in here?" Cole asked.
C.J. shushed his father saying some unintelligible stuff that sounded slightly similar to what Cole told him when he wanted C.J. to be quiet.
Lloyd's face appeared blank as he looked to the toddler, then back to Cole and said, "I'm a ninja. Remember? I'm here to warn you about the princess. I think she's lying, Cole, and I think she's up to something. I can tell. They're all the same."
"All princesses?" Cole asked. "That seems a little bit judgy. Wait a second. Is this because of Harumi?"
"No!" Lloyd replied, a little too quickly. "Not at all!"
"Because that's literally one example of that. Besides, I don't even like Vania like that," Cole replied, mostly trying to convince himself. "We just met," there was no reason he should have any feelings for her besides friendly. "Calm down Lloyd."
"Yeah. Vonny good," C.J. nodded.
Lloyd scoffed before leaving the room, but Cole knew that he'd be fine once he saw Vania for who she was. Or at least once they left. Whichever came first.
Now that his youngest brother had left the room, Cole lay back down and tried to fall asleep, but this task seemed a bit harder than usual. Mostly because there was the sound of someone standing over him and breathing heavily. Was Lloyd really this angry about the princess?
"Lloyd. Look," Cole said as he sat up, only to come face to face with a yellow eyed purple creature.
The three in the room shrieked before the purple creature yelled, "You're not Gilly!"
"Gilly!" C.J. exclaimed.
"You know Gilly?" the creature asked him.
Cole threw the pillow he didn't know he had been holding when he realized that the creature started coming towards his son. He then tackled the creature down saying, "No, he doesn't!"
It was then that he noticed something very strange hanging around the creature's neck. A locket. A locket with a picture of two different people. One was of his father and the other of a woman with shiny black hair and eyes the color of chocolate. For once, she had healthy looking skin and wore a genuine smile. Much different than the last time he saw her.
"What?" Cole asked, breath faltering as he looked at the picture. Why had he never seen this? Why did this creature have it and not him?
Suddenly, Cole was knocked into the nightstand when the creature kicked Cole off of him. The locket flew into the air, and they both lunged for it. The creature ended up being the victor, and he shoved it into a pocket, grumbling as he ran off, only to vanish.
"Hey! Get back here!" Cole exclaimed as he ran after him, but he was gone.
"What?" Cole asked as he looked to C.J., who just shrugged. He wore a smile on his face, though, as if he enjoyed watching the fight.
"Sir, is everything alright?" some guards asked as they burst through the room.
"There must be a-a secret passage or a trap door somewhere. That's how he got in!" Cole said, mostly to himself.
"Uh...'he', sir?" one of the guards asked.
"There was a-a little purple creature in my room! He attacked me and my son in bed!" Cole told them.
The guards just shrugged to one another before saying, "We'll make sure to guard the doors."
With that, they left, and Cole knew that, once again, he was not believed.
Turning to C.J., the earth ninja asked, "You saw him, right? You saw the creature?"
"Scare," C.J. shivered as he buried himself under his blanket again.
"Yeah. He scared me too," Cole said as he sat back down on the bed and started rubbing circles on the boy's back. "The other ninja will help me catch him, though. Before you wake up, I think."
After a moment of silence, Cole checked under the blanket to see that C.J. was, indeed, asleep. It was time to gather the team, but he couldn't leave C.J. What if the creature came back? So instead, he carefully picked him up so as not to wake him and brought him on his journey to wake the other ninja.
It took a while, but after forty minutes of getting Kai to stay out of his bed, all of the ninja were gathered on the stairs in the forty-seventh floor lobby. There, he told the ninja the whole story.
After a very awkward and for Cole, tense, moment of silence, Jay said, "So, let me get this straight. You pulled me out of the most luxurious bed ever...!"
"It felt like a cloud of warm contentment," Nya added as she struggled to keep from drifting off.
"Because you saw a creature in your bedroom?" Jay asked.
"Yes! I told you. It tried to attack me and C.J., and when I fought back, it ran off somewhere. It disappeared! But get this, the weirdest part is that the creature was wearing my mother's necklace," Cole exclaimed. He was clearly very hurt and worried about this situation.
That was the part where the ninja looked at each other warily, disbelievingly, and confused. Cole never brought up his mother to make conversation or to give his friends any information about himself. The only reason the ninja even knew he had a mother was because of he few times they've had to help him out after having a nightmare. Never in a million years would he ever talk about her unless he just had a bad dream.
"Cole, um..." Lloyd said, not knowing exactly how to press on with this subject. "Are you sure this really happened? Like, in reality?"
"What do you mean?" Cole asked.
"I believe he is implying that you were dreaming," Zane responded.
"It wasn't a dream. I recognized it right away," Cole said. "It had a picture of my parents inside it."
"So, where is it?" Nya asked, honestly way too tired to deal with this now but knowing that her friend wouldn't sleep without one of them believing him.
"Well, I don't have it on me. The creature grabbed it back before he vanished."
Kai yawned before saying, "Cole, Buddy, go back to bed."
"It must've been a dream, Cole, because I've never even seen your mother with a locket," Wu told the young adult.
"She did! I've seen pictures of it," Cole pressed on. "We have to tell King Vangelis."
"We are guests in his home. We cannot disturb him unless absolutely necessary," Echo replied.
"You don't find this necessary?" Cole asked.
As he looked from ninja to ninja, he found that they truly didn't care. They didn't believe him.
"We can discuss this in the morning," Wu told his student before going back upstairs where he, and the rest of the ninja, would go to bed.
"Come on, Echo," Cole pleaded with the only one who stayed.
"If it makes you more comfortable, I can stay with C.J. while you go back to bed," the young nindroid offered.
Sighing, the master of earth handed the toddler to Echo, who said, "Please get some rest. It will do you good."
Cole would've tried to go back to sleep, but between his fear of the creature coming back for C.J. and his anger over the ninja not believing him, he wasn't even tired anymore. He had to find this creature, and he may still be in the palace somewhere, so the earth ninja decided to pace the hallways. As he did so, he could hear the quiet footsteps of someone following him. Ducking behind one of the poles, he waited until he heard whoever was following him become close enough so that when he grabbed them by the collar, he could use his earth punch and see that he truly wasn't crazy. Unfortunately, this didn't all go to plan as when he grabbed the person, he found that it was none other than Princess Vania.
"Oh. Princess Vania?" Cole asked as he quickly deactivated his earth punch and brought his hands right back to his sides. "Oh, wow. Sorry! I thought you were someone else, I swear!"
"I heard what you said back there," Vania said as she walked closer to the earth master, very much unphased by the incident. "About the little purple creature."
"Great! Another person who thinks I'm imagining things," Cole sighed.
"Oh, I don't think that at all."
"You don't?"
"When I was a child, I thought I had an imaginary friend. A little purple creature who used to follow me around. Now I'm starting to wonder if my imaginary friend was a real friend. Follow me. This way!" she said as she grabbed Cole's hand and ran off through multiple hallways that Cole did not recognize until they had made it outside.
"Here!" she exclaimed once they made it.
"The palace gardens?" Cole asked. It was the same place the ninja had told Vania all their stories. It was a beautiful place that Cole would stay in forever if he could, but there was no time for that now.
"This is where Mr. Sparkles and I used to play. That's what I called him," Vania admitted with a chuckled. "All the adults insisted I dreamed him up in my head, but I swear, he used to come right up out of...there!" she said as she pointed to a golden gate that was closed off. It wasn't large and was easy to miss. The perfect place for a little purple creature to come out.
"There used to be some mines under the city, but my father ordered them all covered up for the public safety," Vania continued.
"Mines?" Cole asked.
"Long ago, before my people settled here, there was an older city run by this super evil sorcerer who built tunnels and mines and dungeons deep in the mountain. He's gone now, but the dungeons are still there, so my father forbade anyone from entering them. It's too dangerous."
"Look, Princess, forbidden or not, I have to find out how my mom's necklace ended up with that purple dude," Cole told her.
"Okay. I'm in," Vania replied before taking out two torches from seemingly nowhere.
"Uh, are those-? Where did you-?"
"'Always onward', the adventurer's motto."
"Well, if the king finds out..."
"I'm not some small child anymore. I'm old enough to decide things on my own."
'Well, in that case," Cole activated his earth punch and pulled the golden gate out of its spot. He then took one of the torches from Vania and moved forward into the dark cave. "'Always onward', and into the mines of an evil sorcerer."
As the two trekked through the dungeons, Vania decided to fill the silence. Somehow, it wasn't as annoying as Jay's blabber. Her stories were actually pretty interesting, and they weren't told by an incredibly high-pitched, whiny voice.
"I remember so many incredible stories about the evil sorcerer told by candlelight," Vania told her new companion. "He was called Hazza D'ur. Isn't that creepy? People had weird names back then, I guess. And he had all these evil powers and-Ooh, look! Train tracks! I wonder where those go."
Cole followed Vania to the end of the track, which was right at the edge of a cliff leading into a pool of lava.
"Let's take the other tunnel," Cole said, now leading after seeing this.
"So anyway," Vania continued, "a long, long, long time ago, the evil sorcerer was vanquished, and they say his bones are still down here in this mountain somewhere. Maybe we'll see them. Wouldn't that be great?"
"Uh, yeah. Great," Cole replied, trying to be polite. As great as he found her, she creeped him out sometimes.
The end of the tunnel showed Cole and Vania a large dungeon filled with green fire and different creatures mining for some strange looking rocks as they yelled and growled at each other. There were minos pulling carts filled with these rocks, and black skeletons watched over them all, whips in hand.
"Oh, my! Look at all these creatures!" Vania exclaimed. She then pointed to some purple ones and said, "Those look just like Mr. Sparkles!"
"Yeah," Cole breathed, "and just like the one that was in my room, but who are those guys?" Cole asked as he pointed to some green creatures with long, black hair.
"I don't know," Vania replied, "but they don't look happy. They're all chained up."
The two watched as a very tired mino dragged one of the carts filled to the brim with the rocks but just as it was about to cross with the green creatures, one of them dropped his ball and chain and fell in fatigue. The mino began growling as he tried not to run over this creature, and everyone froze in fear. Even the skeleton guards.
Suddenly, a waterfall of lava opened like the curtains to a window to reveal a wooden door. The door fell down, and a black winged man with a creepy white mask and long, black robes flew out, carrying a bright, green skull.
"Who dares?" this man asked. "Who dares disturb the work?"
"Who's that?" Vania asked as she and Cole hid behind a nearby rock.
The winged man flew over to where the commotion had happened and yelled, "I warned you, all of you! The work must not stop, or there would be punishment!"
"Punish them!" the skull in his hand exclaimed. "Punish!"
The winged man responded by letting the skull discharge green bursts of power and shot it at all the workers involved. The mino, the line of green creatures that were trying to get by, the mino's purple driver. Everyone.
"I don't know what's going on here, but I know a bad guy when I see one, and that is a bad guy!" Cole told Vania. "Get back and tell your dad what's going on. Tell him to bring his guards and wake up my friends."
"What about you?" Vania asked.
"I'm the elemental master of earth, and I'm surrounded by earth. I'm going to do what I do best."
Vania nodded before running off, confident that he knew what he was doing.
"The next to defy me shall feel-!"
"Hey, Buddy!" Cole called out to the winged man as he jumped down to his level. "Hey there. Name's Cole. Ninja. Uh, I heard there was some jerk down here, chaining people up, making them work. You seen any jerks around?"
"Get him!" the winged man screamed.
Immediately, hordes of black skeletons jumped up from the ledges above and came at the earth master.
Cole responded to this by activating his earth punch, except...it didn't work.
"What the-? Oh, come on!" Cole exclaimed.
Without his power, Cole was at a very clear disadvantage. He tried to fight all the black skeletons off, and after a while, they were all dismantled. It seemed easy enough.
"Alright, now, how about you give me the key to all of these chains before I really get angry?" Cole told the winged man.
"You have meddled in the wrong place," the winged man replied. "Now, you will witness my true wrath! The wrath of the Skull Sorcerer!"
He began chanting in a creepy language, bringing all the black skeletons back to life. Cole stood no chance against them now, and he was soon taken over. All faded to black.
Well, I hope you all liked that. I've been trying to do better with incorporating C.J. and Echo into the story, so I hope I did well. Next chapter should come out on Monday.
Have a great day/night!
#God'sNotDead
