So sorry that I'm late with this chapter. I've been pretty busy, and when I wasn't busy, I've been so scatterbrained. Losing track of time and whatnot, so I haven't written in so long, but don't worry. I'm back, and I'll keep updating every Monday if I can. I hope you enjoy!
Disclaimer: I do not own Ninjago or the lines from the episode The Two Blades.
Chapter IV: The Two Blades
A Shintaran guard was flying around the palace, searching for anything suspicious, as he was ordered to by the king, when he saw Lloyd, C.J., and Wu waving to him from a nearby window. He waved back, glad that their guests were happy and safe before continuing on with his duties.
Little did he know, the ninja, including Lloyd, had gone into the dungeons to save Cole. The Lloyd he saw was merely a cardboard cutout made by Vania, and she was waving from behind.
"Princess Vania?" Wu asked. "Are you sure this is necessary?"
"My father is a good man but very strict," Vania replied as she took a Zane cutout and looked through the holes she made in the eyes. She then put this back down and continued what she was saying. "If he knew the ninja had defied him and gone into the mountain, he would be quite upset."
"I guess you're right," Wu relented. "Will you give Cole another go?"
Vania immediately brightened at the idea as she picked the cardboard cutout up, only to get a whine from C.J.
"Aw, it's alright. Cole will be back soon," Vania told the young boy. She seemed unsure of this herself, though. She turned to Wu and asked, "Are you sure we shouldn't go after them? Just in case?"
"The ninja are capable of handling this mission on their own."
"With Cole as their leader, I suppose they must be well-trained," Vania mentioned as she waved to a passing guard with the Cole cutout blocking her own body.
"Did Cole tell you he was the leader?"
"I assumed it. Based on how courageous and daring he is. Isn't he?"
"They are a team," Wu corrected her, although, he couldn't help but smile knowing that someone could assume such a thing about his closest student, "and I'm sure that they will be fine. In fact, I'd be surprised if they hadn't found Cole already and are on their way back; victorious."
Wu would be very surprised to see every one of the ninja now chained up with mining tools in their hands, slaving away at rocks and wondering what time it was.
As Lloyd struck a huge rock, a small piece fell off. It was black with some glowing, yellow marks in it. He had sworn that he's seen it before, and when he picked it up, he felt weak. He wasn't sure if that was from the mining, though.
"What is this stuff we're mining for? It looks familiar," Lloyd asked Nya as she walked over to her little brother.
"It's vengestone!" Nya suddenly exclaimed. How did she not realize this before? "That's why our powers failed."
The two jolted when they heard the whip snap once again. Opening their eyes slowly when they didn't feel a sting, they saw the skeletons were actually whipping a nearby mino. This made the mino very angry and actually prevented him from working.
"Hey! Leave him alone, You Big Bully!" Cole yelled before he threw his tool at the skeleton, hitting the whip and causing it to stick into a rock wall far behind him.
The skeleton growled as he stole another whip from a nearby skeleton and kicked this one to pieces. He then began marching over to the earth ninja.
"Okay. Um, I didn't think that through," Cole realized.
The skeleton tried to whip both Cole and Lloyd, but they hopped out of the way just in time. The skeleton then tried for Cole again, but Nya grabbed the whip and pulled it out of his hand, knocking him over in the process.
"Hold this for me, would ya?" Cole asked as lifted his ball and chain over the creature's head. When he dropped it, the skeleton was destroyed. For now.
The nearby Munce and Geckles looked to the ninja in awe as they excitedly whispered amongst themselves. Their excitement was short lived, though, as more skeletons came and locked each and every one of them up. At least they got a break from all that work.
"That accomplished very little," Zane sighed.
"Yeah. But it was worth it," Cole said as he leaned against the cage they were in, only to get licked in the back by the mino he saved. When Cole turned around, he said with a smile, "Oh. You again.
Lloyd turned around suddenly when he heard a strange noise and saw Murt with seven bowls.
"For you," he said as he handed one of the bowls to Lloyd. "Murt bring food."
Lloyd looked at the strange glob in his bowl before looking back to Murt and saying, "Thanks Murt."
"Don't trust Munce bearing gifts!" a nearby Geckle warned.
"Don't trust Geckle blade stealer!" Murt replied.
"Guys, come on!" Lloyd complained. "Why do you hate each other so much?"
The two began snarling at each other dramatically before Cole raised his hand and said, "Yeah, I wanna know about this blade stealer thing. What exactly happened between you?"
"Yes. I, too, am curious. Please explain the origin of your mutual mistrust," Zane added.
"Oh. Very well," the Geckle sighed. "I will tell you of the two blades.
"One was the Ivory Blade of Deliverance. The other was the Shadow Blade of Deliverance. They belonged to a mighty warrior named Gilly."
"Milly," Murt corrected.
"Not Milly, You Fool! Gilly!"
"Milly."
"Skip the name. It doesn't matter!" Cole yelled. "Just finish the story, please."
"The warrior came to our mountain many, many years ago," the Geckle continued. "In those days, Geckles and Munce lived in fear, for there was a terrible dragon in the heart of the mountain."
"Mief Bringer," Murt cut in.
"Grief Bringer! Grief Bringer!" the Geckle shouted.
"Oh, boy. Here we go again," Cole groaned.
"Grief-Bringer. Can we move on?" Echo asked.
"Told you!" the Geckle exclaimed triumphantly as Murt lowered his head in defeat.
"For many days and nights, Gilly battled Grief Bringer. In the end, Gilly won! Geckles and Munce were safe again. Gilly returned to the surface, but before she went, she gave to us a parting gift. One was given to the noble Geckles. The other was given to the stinking, traitorous Munce! A gift to help us, if ever another evil should return to our mountain," the Geckle finished.
"Most intriguing," Zane remarked, "but I fail to find the source of your strife."
"Our source strifed when the Munce snuck into our cave and stole our blade! Because they wanted both!"
"Geckle stole blade! Not Munce!" Murt accused, and their snarling battle began again.
"I remember father telling me this story, to pass the time," Echo recalled. "He told me that the Munce and Geckles lived in harmony together."
"But that was broken when their blades were stolen, and they think it was each other who did it," Lloyd whispered.
"What if neither of them stole the blades?" Nya asked. "What if someone else took both blades?"
"Three guesses who," Cole replied with a scowl.
"Indeed. There is an ancient Ninjago proverb that says, 'An enemy divided is more easily conquered'."
"If the Munce and Geckles are fighting each other, they can't fight the Skull Sorcerer!" Nya realized.
"Cole, do you think we can broker a truce between these guys?" Lloyd asked, only to gain an unbelieving look from the earth master.
"Not forever. Just a temporary one. Make a deal. Tell them if they can keep it together and not fight, we might be able to break out of here and find their blades."
"And how are we gonna do that?" Kai asked.
"I'm working on a plan," Lloyd replied, "but first, I need them to stop fighting."
Another look before Cole responded saying, "I'll do my best."
Later, as the ninja were working, Cole turned his head to one of the Geckles and one of the Munce and whispered to them saying, "Secret meeting after Glop Time. Spread the word, and no fighting, or you'll never get the blades back."
The two looked to each other and scowled, but they both traveled elsewhere to do as he said.
"I hope this works," Echo voiced.
"Me too. I don't know what we'll do without their help. By the way, how did your dad know about that story? Barely anyone knows about Shintaro."
"My father said that he had once heard it from an old man who sought shelter in his former home. When he still lived with my brother."
Cole nodded, but he seemed distant. He was having trouble thinking of something he felt was very important. What was the warrior's true name? Was it really Milly? Or was it something else? Billy? Villy? It was right on the tip of his tongue, yet he couldn't find it, and it frustrated him.
Echo noticed the earth master's frustration grow as he hit the rock much harder than necessary, breaking it in half and revealing plentiful amounts of vengestone.
"Well that's one way to do it," Cole laughed to himself.
"What's troubling you, Cole?" Echo asked as the young man began loading some of the vengestone onto a nearby mino.
"Nothing," Cole replied, but Echo did not believe him.
"You're not very good at hiding your emotions," Echo stated.
A deep, long sigh came from Cole as he shoveled more vengestone onto the mino before he said, "Okay, fine! I've heard the story before too, but I can't remember when or where. And the name...it-it bothers me."
"I'm sure it will come to you soon, Cole. Don't worry," Echo smiled to his new friend.
"I hope you're right."
Glop Time came and both Munce and Geckles had arrived, but their intent was much different than the ninja's.
"When do we start the fight?" one asked.
"Yeah! Let's get it on!" another yelled as he threw down his bowl.
"Fight? What fight?" Kai asked.
"Against the Munce!" another yelled as he threw down his bowl.
"No! There's no fight! Who said anything about a-" Lloyd started. He was beginning to get stressed out.
"You said we were gonna have a fight," one Geckle answered Lloyd's question as he pointed to the one Cole talked to.
"I said, 'A secret meeting about the blades. No fighting'!" this Geckle corrected everyone.
Groans and mutters could be heard throughout the crowd, utterly disappointed by their situation, but Lloyd came up and said, "Look, Guys! Do you want your blades back or not? We think the Skull Sorcerer's got them, and if you promise to stop fighting, we might be able to get them back for you. Agreed?"
"Agreed," was the responses he got.
"Now we just have to figure out how to break out of our cage," Nya replied.
"I got an idea about that," Cole announced.
When the ninja were locked back up, Cole noticed a mino coming their way. He reached the bowl of glop out to the creature as far as he could and started whistling, hoping the mino would come closer.
Cole then poured the glop onto the chains keeping them locked up and whistled some more.
"Come and get it," Cole whispered.
The mino did and began chomping on the chains, breaking them all free.
By the time the skeleton guards realized what was happening, they were too late. The ninja had taken all the ones they could see out, and they now had the key.
"You go release the Munce," Lloyd ordered the ninja. "Cole and I will go find the blades."
Cole nodded to his youngest brother, and the two left for where the Skull Sorcerer had appeared twice before. They ran up a rather large and dark stairwell but stopped when they heard skeleton guards coming down. Climbing on the rocks above them, the two managed to get by unnoticed.
When they finally made it to the Skull Sorcerer's main room, they noticed one thing. Crates and crates of vengestone. Cole began looking through it all, completely in awe by the amount, but Lloyd knew that they had limited time before they would be caught.
"The blades! That's all that matters! Find the blades!" Lloyd exclaimed.
Cole's eyes shot up to the green clad ninja. Seeing the look of desperation in his eyes made him realize just how dire the situation was, and he began looking around. Soon enough, he found another hallway. After calling for the green ninja, the two made their way through the hallway and into an even bigger room with a huge pit in the center.
"Whoa! Careful! You don't wanna fall down there," Cole warned.
They then looked up to see a huge hole in the ceiling. Only having fleeing ideas of what it was for, they looked away from this and saw a podium a little farther away with a cloth draped over whatever was on it.
"Look!" Lloyd exclaimed as he pointed towards it.
Cole threw the cloth off to see the green skull that the Skull Sorcerer carried with him. Once it was revealed, it glowed an even brighter green and screamed, "Thieves! Interlopers! Intruders! Trespassers!"
The room glowed green, and the Skull Sorcerer flew down from the hole in the ceiling.
"You have made a grave mistake coming here," the villain rasped.
"Now you will pay!" the skull screamed as the pet flew to his owner only for the Skull Sorcerer to immediately throw him back at the ninja.
Cole hit it up into the air like a volleyball before Lloyd did a roundhouse kick to get rid of it.
The Skull Sorcerer groaned as he flew after his toy, and the ninja ran out of his supposed home.
With the sorcerer chasing from behind and skeletons running at them from the only staircase out, Lloyd and Cole jumped off the railing and down to the ground so they could try to get back to their friends.
"They do not appear to have found the blades!" Zane remarked when he saw the two running away from the skeletons. Luckily, the rest of the ninja had just freed the last of the Munce.
"What they found is trouble!" Kai exclaimed. "Run!"
As they ran, Nya noticed something that could slow the hoard of guards down.
"Get the glop!" she ordered.
While the boys did so, Nya ran off saying, "I'll get the gate!"
Kai, Jay, Zane, and Echo all worked together to pour the glop onto the skeletons while Nya released the minos.
"Go! Go!" she ordered them, and the minos went for the skeletons who were now nothing but lunch in their eyes. The skeletons ran off, but not the ones chasing Lloyd and Cole.
The green ninja looked around for any way out of this until he noticed something to his side. There was no railing, and if they fell of the rocky ledge they were currently standing on, it would mean certain doom, but what Lloyd was looking at was hanging just above the ground far below.
"The cages! Jump!"
Lloyd ran off the ledge and jumped onto a hanging cage, causing it to swerve around. Cole did the same and just barely made it, causing it to swerve even more. A skeleton quickly followed and grabbed hold of Cole's foot, which the earth master quickly shook off.
They still had to worry about one thing, though. The Skull Sorcerer. He flew down at them with his big, black wings and shot blasts of green energy from his skull. Lloyd swung the cage out of the way, but as the sorcerer chased them down, it was clear they needed to move.
The two began hopping from hanging cage to hanging cage until Lloyd fell right onto a mino's back and onto the ground.
Lloyd began running through the chaotic crowd until he bumped right into Nya. She didn't say anything in regard to this, but she did tell Lloyd to follow her and Jay as they followed the Munce.
Kai, Zane, and Echo were following the Geckles, but the sound of the Skull Sorcerer shooting at something caused them to turn around to see none other than Cole, running for his life.
"Cole! This way!" Kai called out to him.
The young man tried to make his way to his friends, but the skull sorcerer shot the rocks on top of the entrance, causing a rockslide that prevented him from going through.
"He'll have to take another tunnel," Zane replied before the three continued running through the caverns
Cole ran for another path, one completing devoid of life, but a mino blocked it. Cole rolled under the belly of the creature and continued running, but the mino was zapped many times by the skull's green blasts, so the Skull Sorcerer was able to follow the young master of earth. As he flew through the tunnels, though, he realized one thing. Cole was lost, and the Skull Sorcerer was never going to find him in this mess.
Again, I'm so sorry that took so long. Next chapter should be out on Monday, though.
Have a great day/night!
#God'sNotDead
