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Chapter 5: What Was Left Behind
Kai jolted awake, sitting straight up with his hands clutched into fists. Clearly, he startled those that surrounded him. "Whoa, whoa! Calm down, Ninja. you're safe." The very calm voice belonged to a gray-and white haired man with a goatee, wearing gray robes. Despite his hair color, he seemed fairly young. Kai eyed him for a moment before scanning his surroundings:
They appeared to be within one of the larger igloos that he was attacked near. Besides the gray-and white haired man, there was a short man with an afro, black glasses, and a guitar, who handed Kai a small bowl of stew. Another, much broader man, had a black beard and was wearing black-and-silver metal armor. The third man had no face, but his invisible figure wore sunglasses, a red suit and a hat. Next to him was a woman with green hair and eyes. Near the entrance was a man with slicked back hair, wearing a white-and-red karate uniform and red sunglasses. Finally, in the center, facing Kai directly, was the woman in an orange hooded-suit, which lightly resembled a Ninja outfit.
"Welcome, Kai Smith, Master of Fire." She extended her arm to help him up. He gladly took it, allowing himself a moment to look at all who surrounded him. "Thanks. For the hand, the soup, and the rescue. But who are you?"
An abrupt chuckle circled from them, and the maroon-haired woman gave a light smile before answering. "I told you. We're your mission. We're the remaining Elemental Masters. This is Neuro, the Master of the Mind. Next to him is Jacob, the Master of Sound. Then there is Karlof, the Master of Metal. Paleman, the Master of Light. Our toxic friend here is Tox, Master of Poison. The sentry is Griffin, Master of Speed. And I am Skylor, Master of Amber."
Kai couldn't believe it. All of the remaining living Elemental Masters. "I can't-wait, how did you know I was looking for you?" Skylor smiled towards Neuro. "The Master of Mind has been working tirelessly to find you across the land. I was already tracking him when he discovered your intentions. It appears you and I had the same idea: gather the Elemental Masters to face whatever threat comes next."
This seemed too good to be true. "So then, you know about..." He didn't need to finish his sentence before they all hung there heads. They had indeed heard about Jay's sacrifice. Griffin walked forward to Kai. "The Master of Lighting gave his life to stop the Dark Army. In his death, the Element of Lightning is now absent from the balance, along with the Elements of Wind and Time, as no heirs to the elements were born or chosen. After Skylor explained to us what had happened, we knew we had to stay together." Kai nodded at the logic. "I already found the other Masters: Nature, Gravity, Smoke, Form, and Shadow. They'll join us when necessary. Until then I have allowed them to continue with their lives."
Skylor grimaced at the news. "That may not be a good idea. The run in with those bikers was not our first. Somehow, they've been finding and attacking us. If they found you, they may have found them too."
Jacob moved his head towards Skylor's direction to face her, but not entirely. That's when Kai realized the short man was blind. "If that is true, Skylor, then we don't have a moment to lose; we must go to them!"
"That's a good idea, but my ride was damaged in the crash!" The Master of Fire expected several other worried faces, but was met with satisfied looks. "What?"
"Karlof here is a brilliant engineer. Using the bikes we used to get ourselves here, he fixed up your ship. Its outside." Such a feat would have taken a normal man days. Even an elemental master couldn't have done it so quickly, unless he had help from a certain master of Speed. "Then let's get out of this storm and contact the remaining Masters!"
Only a few miles past the storm, at the mountain range below the Blind Man's Eye, Lloyd and Mystake approached the windy cycle in the Ultra Jet. "You're sure this is the only way to the Cloud Kingdom?" If the old Oni was annoyed with Lloyd's pestering, she didn't show it.
"Yes, Lloyd. Funnily enough, this is technically the easiest way to travel to another realm, unless you have a dragon with you."
"Well, we're fresh out of dragons, I'm afraid. The Ultra Dragon left us after the defeat of the Overlord." Mystake nodded, knowing full well that they likely went back home. But that wasn't important enough for Lloyd to know right now. "There it is."
The old woman pointed up at the center of the swirling cloud, which opened up into a circle of light. It was a small portal to the Cloud Kingdom. "OK, I'm taking us in at full speed. Brace yourself." True to his word, Lloyd activated the jet's secondary engines, sending them forward at ramming speed towards the portal. The winds barely had any effect on their course as they got closer.
But the two incoming missiles had an affect.
"LOOK OUT!" The approaching missiles caused Lloyd to move the jet from it's course before they entered the portal. "DAMMIT! Who fired?" They both looked out of the side view to see their attackers. "Oh, you've got to be kidding me!" On their left came three Nindroid carriers and one Rattlecopter. Through the open channel, a particularly sly voice came through the Jet's mic.
"My, my Lloyd, is that you?" Lloyd let out a light growl. "PYTHOR."
In the Rattlecopter, Pythor stood behind the two serpentine Pilots beside Cryptor. "Yes, yes, I'm back. How are you? We haven't had the chance to really speak since we captured you. In fact, the last time I saw you was when that insufferable Ninja died. Jay, wasn't it?"
Lloyd didn't respond. He was gripping onto the jets controls too tightly, floating still in the air across his attackers.
Pythor took the silence as an opportunity to keep talking. "A tragedy, really. He didn't have to die. But others did. Like his parents. I looked forward to telling him about the rush I got from it myself, but alas, you'll have to do."
"We will stop you once and for all, Pythor."
"But you're always too late, Lloyd. You were to late at the Junkyard, and you were too late at Ninjago City."
"I seem to recall the Overlord was defeated." The silence Pythor emitted told Lloyd he had hit a sore spot himself. He looked back to Mystake, who could tell that the young Sensei was ready to snap. "Lloyd, we have to go now." Pythor heard her.
"OH! Lloyd, you brought a guest. How unfortunate for you. Now you'll both have to die." He shut off the radio and nodded to Cryptor, who relayed orders to the three carriers. Within seconds, all four crafts fired missiles at the jet. Lloyd took evasive maneuvers to avoid getting hit, starting with speeding once more towards the portal. "Almost there!"
Pythor saw it too. "STOP THEM!" The four crafts followed them up, but they were too late. The Ultra Jet made it through the portal.
And so did they.
"Very good, Brad. Gene, you've got the speed, but you need to work on your defensive positions.' Zane's methods of instruction were by far the most complicated for the new class of students. But compared to Dareth's straightforward basics, everyone's method was a little complicated.
In the training hall of Borg Tower, all 100 students were going through their new maneuvers taught by Zane, from 1 to 5. But that wasn't what made it complicated; they had to practice as they ran around the incoming projectiles and dummies. Little did they realize what they were really learning. "Brad, you are up!" From the observation platform, Cyrus Borg watched with Pixal and Dareth as Brad mad his way through the course.
He ran to an incoming drone with its sword aimed at his head. He jumped up and extended his right leg, shouting it's form number. "One!" Knocking the drone down, he dodged several incoming blunt arrows from the wall by landing on his hands and kicking the last arrow from the side, away from him. "Two!" Flipping back on his feet, he managed to quickly slide under the next two drones as the swung their weapons at him, allowing him to knock them off-balance with his forearms and kick them mid-air. "Three!"
Cyrus was astounded at the boy's skills. "Impressive!" Pixal nodded in agreement. "Yes, Brad has been our most eager learner. They have al come so far these past months, and they have had great teachers." She looked to Dareth with a smile, who slightly blushed at the compliment before adding in his own opinion. "Yeah, they're great students. Sensei Wu would have been proud." Despite the hint of sadness that lingered with the comment, they agreed with the sentiment and watched Bradley continue his exercise.
He was now jumping off of the floor blocks that were rising from the ground-up, making his way down with quick maneuvers "Four!" After he jumped down to the surface, he stopped, confused at his last obstacle.
Zane stood in front of him in a fighting stance. "Sir?"
"Come on, Brad. You still have to complete form five." He extended his hand and made the "come at me" motion with his it. Shrugging and (hesitantly) returning to running position, the young boy ran forward, stopping to block two punches from the right, then left. The, as Zane kicked up, Brad stepped in his incoming leg and jumped off, allowing him to make a roundhouse kick...
Right before he summoned a silver tornado of Spinjitzu.
"WHOA!" "Did you see that!" "Brad did Spinjitzu!" The students all clamored at their friend's achievement, which lasted only a few seconds before he spiraled out of control, knocking right into Zane. "OOF!"
Cyrus Borg was holding his hands to the back of his head in awe. He looked to Pixal and Dareth, who simply grinned; they knew exactly what was happening. "Wait... you were expecting this? But if you were teaching it, then-" Before he could finish, both of them spun to answer his coming question. They could also do Spinjitzu: Pixal's was also silver, and Dareth's was a dark brown, similar to Cole's but without any orange or black mixed in. "Incredible."
On the training floor, Zane helped Brad up. "Well done, Brad. You have completed basic training." He looked to the rest of his students. "You all saw; once you all achieve a tornado, then we move on to more advanced work. Now, who is next?"
Every single student raised their hands.
Clouse and Harumi were consulting with Lord Garmadon at the base of the almost completely-constructed temple. "My Lord, please forgive my ignorance... but this new teple seems to be an exact replica of-"
"The temple of Resurrection. But no, Quiet One. Not an exact replica. Clouse?" His red eyes looked to his former rival, who turned his head and nodded at two incoming figures. Garmadon and Harumi looked to see who he was looking at.
Walking through the camp was a cyborg with a mustache, a red suit, and a fancy hat. It was clear a number of his new appendages were from Nindroid scraps. Next to him a man with a bandana over a goggled eye, with a red straw hat and green-orange body armor. Behind the two of them was an approaching red ship on Auto Pilot, carrying several crates in its undercarriage. As they walked forward, they both got on their knees and bowed in respect, allowing Clouse to make introductions.
"My lord, these are two of our faction's most valued employees. The Mechanic, who helped construct every single Anacondrai mech and jet in our fleet. And Ronin, who has been most useful in acquiring unique artifacts for Chen's collection such as Zane's Pink Gi and the Peg Leg of Captain Soto. Men, have you completed your task?"
Ronin stepped forward. "Yeah, we went to every location and collected what you asked for." He let out a whistle, summoning his ship down behind them. surrounding warriors had to rush to avoid being crushed.
"The R.E.X. here has been very handy in getting there and carrying what we couldn't." Pressing a button on his wrist, the crates were released, allowing the Mechanic to open them up. At this point, everyone nearby in the camp was watching, not just Clouse, Garmadon, and Harumi. The Mechanic took out each object and handed them to the nearest foot soldiers to carry into their new temple. "Let's see... from the Temple of Light on the Dark Island, we have texts carved from the four pillars. From the Fire Temple, we have some writings from the First Spinjitzu Master himself. And from the Temple of Airjitzu, he portrait of the disgraced Sensei Yang. From the Temple of Tiger Widow Island, a vial of Tiger Widow Venom." Both he and Ronin shuddered at the memory of retrieving that before handing it to a Nindroid.
"OK, these last two were especially difficult to retrieve without detection, but hey, dem's the breaks. From the Temple of Fortitude, two Stone Armor plaque's. And from the authentic Temple of Resurrection…" Ronin opened up the final crate to reveal a ceremonial back stone table. "...this. But I can't get it out. Took us both to barely get it to the R.E.X." Killow walked forward from the crowd with the mask of Deception, allowing him to telekinetically raise the table into the air. Ronin gave an impressed look to the hulking figure before returning his attention to the Dark Lord. "So, uh, anyway... that's what was left behind."
Killow and all of the others who carried the retrieved artifacts looked to their Master for instruction.
Garmadon motioned them to take their new artifacts within the temple, they did so, leaving the sight of everyone else in the crowd and outside. As they did, Harumi tilted her head, wondering what the full endgame was. But she still had complete faith that the Dark Lord knew what he was doing.
"You have done well, Ronin and The Mechanic. Help yourselves to the feast. Then I wish to discuss your next assignment after your meal."
I'm sorry for the lateness of this chapter, I have three tests this week. But I will update as soon as I can! PLEASE REVIEW