Chapter 20
Intrepid

.:Jay:.

"For the next round, you all will be facing your fears. There will be four stages of this round and I will admit the last one, you three will struggle due to the absence of Mr. Tudabone but considering you won this round, I suppose it doesn't hurt to give you a thirty second head start just for that stage."

"Thank you, Uncle Wu. We appreciate it."

"The first three stages, again, you have to nominate a team member to compete. The last one, one of you will compete to face their fear while the other members work together to get them out. Now, I cannot tell you what exact fear people will be facing in each round other than these simple riddles. For the first one, you're be facing an insect that many are commonly afraid of. Next, a man if lying dead in the middle of the field with an unopened package next to him. How did he die? For the third, for the most fearful one as nothing is more fearful than little critters with an electronic counterpart. The last one is for the one with the greatest bravery as they'll be in the dark until their team can get them out. Any sudden move or sound, it'll strike. That is all I can say."

.::.

It was the next day. A new day. A new challenge – but this time, Jay knew what the challenge was going to be. After hearing Wu's riddle/hint for the challenge, the trio quickly worked out what each of the stages were: the first one was being in a small enclosed place with a lot of spiders, the second one having a student skydive from a plane (which Jay was so excited for), the third was probably having to complete a course with a bunch of mice, and the last one, someone having to be in the dark with a bunch of snakes and they'll stay in there until their team can quickly get them out.

For Jay, he had immediately volunteered to do the second stage because Jay wasn't scared of heights at all. Heck, he loved it. He loved the thrill of the air rushing past him and watching as the ground comes closer and closer to him. The stage he really didn't want to do was the last one because he hated snakes. Heck, he was petrified of them because you could never hear them coming and they can kill you two ways! They could squeeze you to death or eat you! Heck make it three since some snakes were venomous!

For Lloyd, he was... well not happy but willing to do two of the stages. The remaining three stages all got to do things crawling all over him, but he was willing to do the one with the spiders and the mice… Which lead the last stage, the most terrifying one with snakes, to Nya.

Jay honestly thought she would have freaked out because he was certain with their little snake chat before, she was just trying to be brave and just be like her brother, but no! She was honestly fine with snakes. She was fine with dark places. She was… somewhat okay with tight enclosed places. Then, Nya brought up a good point that if the rest of the team must get this entrapped member out, it would be better if it was Jay and Lloyd since they were the best of the group and have worked together for a couple years already.

"You guys ready for this?" Jay asked his two members as they waited with the other remaining nine teams.

"Ugh, no," Lloyd sighed. "While you love heights and Kai is alright with snakes, I'm not fine with spiders."

"You want me to take two stages then?" Nya asked.

"No no, you got snakes. Plus, I got my reputation as the headmaster's nephew and being my father's son. If people hear I took the easy round, they won't let me live it down," Lloyd grumbled.

"Stop complaining about it then," Nya simply said, crossing her arms over her chest. "The choice is already made, just go with it."

"Fine fine fine-"

"Good morning, students!" Wu's voice called out, ending all discussions and making silence fall over the courtyard. "Welcome to another beautiful morning and to our fifth challenge: fear. That's right teams, it's time for the fear round."

Jay listened around, hearing many of the teams murmuring worriedly while the audience were getting riled up – like who didn't like to listen to teenage boys screaming in fear? Having the handicap for this challenge was more than an advantage. Why? Because it allowed them to get mentally prepared. You would have time to prepare yourself to face your fears whereas the other students, who only just got told, would have a short amount of time before being thrown straight into their fears…

"There will be four stages, each stage, one member must be nominated to represent their team – but, each member must do a stage. No one can do two or more… unless your team is missing someone than yes, you need someone to do two stages. Now, you have two minutes to decide your first representative, then we'll announce the first stage."

"Does it feel weird I feel sorry for these other groups?" Jay curiously asked as he heard multiple of boys worrying about facing sharks, spiders and electric cobras - yeah… that was a fear challenge on Jay's first year.

"Yes, why are you feeling sorry?" Lloyd asked. "Kai won the handicap fair and square. Plus, we're already at a disadvantage with one less member."

"True. Anyway, good luck," Jay sighed as he clapped the blond on the back.

"Yeah, I need it," Lloyd shivered as he left the two and walked towards where Sensei Garmadon and Professor Borg were standing in front of four steel boxes, each as big as a house. Yep, it was big.

"Knowing Cole and Zane, they'll probably organise it that the most scared one goes first and the least last," Nya whispered to him, her eyes watching as Gene, Cole's newbie, walked over to the two teachers.

"Yeah. I mean if we really had to rank the easiest to the hardest stage, it would be the third one, then the first, then last then second. Wu really mixed it up."

"It's supposed to be a challenge. It's supposed to be hard. I would call our headmaster dumb if he did organise the challenges to go chronologically easiest to hardest."

"True-"

"Okay!" Sensei Garmadon shouted, grabbing everyone's attention. "Now that the representatives have be selected, let's dive into what the first challenge will be. Borg, if you can do the favour."

On cue, their professor pulled out a little remote from his pocket and clicked a button. Immediately, the box came to life as the front wall rolled upwards to reveal ten horizontal coffins with screens above the box, already on and showing a green-hue screen… probably a night-vision view of inside the coffins.

"Yes, as you can see already, our representatives will be inside a coffin, which have locks on the inside. The way to get out is to find the keys inside the coffin and then unlock the locks. This stage already will make you face your fear of the dark and in tight places – but is that all? No. The keys will be dropped through slots at the stop of the coffin, along with tarantulas."

While the crowd cheered, Jay could hear many of the representatives gasping, meanwhile Lloyd shivered.

"The quicker you unlock your three locks, the quicker you can get out of the coffin. Now let's get everyone situated."

.:Lloyd:.

Lloyd didn't need his vision to know that there were spiders crawling all over him because he could feel every single one scuttling in seemingly random directions. He could feel all their little feet tickling across his skin (exposed and through his clothes!).

The blond did everything to not panic, knowing that panicking and screaming would result spiders crawling into his mouth or agitate them more. Yep, Lloyd definitely did not want that- AHHHH!

All thoughts about not panicking went out of the window when Lloyd felt a spider on his face and a hairy leg reaching into his nose. Adrenaline flooded into his system, pumping and beating around as if it was trying to escape. The blond wanted nothing more than to get his body out of the spider-infested coffin and then run as fast as he could for safety… But he couldn't, he needed the keys to get out.

Blindly, Lloyd was using his hands to dig through the spiders on either side of him and search for three keys – which he was fortunate when his fingers finally brushed over the metallic key. However, the spider on his face started to crawl over his nose, making the adrenaline to escape surge so fast that Lloyd could feel the saliva thickening in his throat, in preparation for the vomit.

Lloyd flinched when he heard the shrillest scream from the coffin next to him, and a lot of thuds from within.

Don't panic like him. Don't panic like him. Stay calm, it's just spiders. Just spiders! Just spi- AHHHH!

An involuntary yelp came from his lips when he felt a spider crawling into the leg hole of his pants. The blond frantically wiggled his leg to get the spider out, resulting the other dozens of spiders to move faster over him, and resulting him to struggle to put the key in the keyhole-

WAIT IT'S IN NOW!

Lloyd felt a surge of relief in him when the lock unlocked, but he still had two more to go. Not wasting any time, he frantically searched for another two (while also hitting the spider off his face). Fortunately, he found them quickly and unlocked his coffin.

He rushed out to get out of the box – he could hear kids laughing and cheering in the audience, but Lloyd didn't care. He could still feel spiders all over him! Ahh! Looking down he could see the spiders on him!

"Congrats, Lloyd," Lloyd heard his father say as he came over, but the blond could only spin in circles, trying to frantically swipe all the spiders off him. "You're the first one out-"

"I don't care! Get it off! Dad! Help me!" Lloyd shouted before another involuntary yelp came from his lips.

"Hmmm, this is much more entertaining."

"You're the worst father ever!"

"I love you too, son."

.:Jay:.

"Okay, now that we have our representatives for our second stage, I'll announce what everyone will be doing. This stage, you'll be facing your fear of heights. The representatives will have to jump out of the plane and each parachute bag will have an altimeter which we can see to see far each of you can fall while enduring through your fear before pulling the cord. But due to safety precautions, the bag will have an automatic release if the chute hasn't at seven-hundred feet. If that is the case, you'll get a zero. The student who have the shortest altimeter at the time that their parachutes deploy, unless the chute deployed itself automatically, then he will be at the top of the leader board. Now let's get started."

In all honesty, Jay was beyond excited. He knew the other nine students weren't. They were all nervously sitting in their seats, most very pale.

"Okay, get ready! I'm going to open the door in five… four… three… two… one!"

The side door opened, and the winds immediately rushed into the plane, making Jay feel more energised than ever. He walked to the opening and looked down to the view below and it was simply breathtaking. He could just see the beautiful tapestry of the green and luscious country fields of Ninjago through the thin clouds. He could see some roads swirling, rising and falling with the gradients of the terrain… all before the cold air made his goggles mist up.

"Okay!" Borg shouted from the front of the plane. "There's a timer on top of the door that will count down from ten but if you're not off this plane before that timer hits zero, your team will be disqualified-!"

"WHAT?!"

"Professor Borg! That's isn't fair!"

"I didn't come up with that rule. But the timer starts now!"

Jay wasted no time in leaping out of the plane. The cold air rushed past as he accelerated faster and faster, the grin on his face getting bigger and bigger. He could feel the delightful thud of his heart beating against his ribcage with the thrill of free falling. In all honesty, Jay had no idea how people could find this terrifying. It was liberating. It was freeing. Heck, he no longer felt like he was falling but floating instead.

However, the trees on the ground were getting larger and closer, and Jay knew his time was coming to an end. Moving his eyes from the beautiful scenery, Jay checked his altimeter, and saw the digits rapidly decreasing towards seven-hundred feet. He looked up and saw only five others have jumped off the plan and only three of them had already had their chutes opened. It didn't surprise Jay to see Griffin was still falling while a junior student was screaming and still trying to pull his cord.

Jay looked back to his altimeter and knew it didn't matter whose chute was out first because they all jumped off the plane at different times. Jay attentively stared at the rapidly decreasing digits. From the position he was falling at, a stable belly-to-earth position, he was falling at one hundred and twenty miles per hour, making that one hundred and seventy-six feet per second. Although he was already holding the cord to activate his parachute, it would probably take three whole seconds for the chute to deploy… meaning he would need to time this precisely if he wanted to get as close as possible to seven hundred feet.

Immediately, the numbers started spinning inside of Jay's head.

Okay, seven hundred feet. I'm falling one hundred and seventy-six feet per second. Three whole seconds from pull to the chute deploying. Three multiply by one hundred and seventy-six… Uhhh… five hundred and twenty-eight feet. Add seven hundred is a thousand, two hundred and twenty-eight feet!

Jay quickly looked to his altimeter, see the digits in the four thousand range – meaning he had approximately twelve seconds!

Looks like it's the end of the ride.

Jay sighed but mentally counted twelve seconds in his head while staring at the altimeter. Once he saw the digits hit a thousand, two hundred and twenty-eight, he yanked on the cord hard.

It took three seconds, like the brunet had estimated, for the parachute to open. Jay stared above, watching the canopy unfolding and opening, the creases in the material smoothening out as more of the clear blue sky was obscured from his vision. Then, with a sudden jolt to his body, the canopy extended fully, slowing his descend. However, his leisure decline only lasted a few seconds as the ground wasn't too far below him – the ground where he could hear an onslaught of cheers from the body of students below.

Jay couldn't resist it. He gave out his biggest, wolfish grin and did the loudest 'woohoo' he could possibly give.

How could he not? He had just jumped out of a plane and it was exhilarating! And, there was no doubt, that he had won this stage for his team like Lloyd had for the last one.

There was no way they were losing this round today as well.

.::.

There was no way Lloyd was winning this challenge. In fact, Jay was even ashamed that Lloyd was his teammate. Heck, he was ashamed that Lloyd was even his friend! Double heck! He felt bad for Master Wu and Sensei Garmadon who were face palming to the side!

This stage was set up the same way as the first one – coffin with mice. The difference this time was that there were four metal numbers in the coffin, about the size of a matchbox and whoever was in the coffin needed to figure out what numbers he had and try multiple of sequences with those numbers to unlock the digital lock and only then will the coffin open.

So pretty much the same thing as the first challenge with spiders, just a tricker way to get out and with mice. You would think this would be much easier and definitely not as scary as the first challenge, right?

Well, not for Lloyd.

Jay winched as Lloyd let out a petrified shriek, erupting laughter from all the boys in the grandstands, along with Cole's entire team – yes, Zane got out of the coffin within a minute.

"GET ME OUT OF HERE! THEY'RE BITING ME!"

This got howls of laughter from all the boys. Jay took one look to Nya and saw that she looked like she wanted to be anywhere but here.

"Lloyd, these aren't as bad as spiders." Jay heard Sensei Garmadon sighing as he stood right next to Lloyd's coffin.

"NO, THEY'RE AREN'T! THEY'RE BITING ME! AHHHHH! ONE IS IN MY PANTS!"

Jay saw Cole drop to the ground, holding his stomach as he was laughing hysterically. The sight of it made Jay's jaw tighten.

"Hey," Nya said from his side. "They won't beat us."

"After this stage, they will," Jay sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"First two stages we got first. They only got first for this round. Next one, although we have one less person, we got a thirty second head start, remember? Plus, snakes. We had a team earlier pull out because of the spiders. We had three teams pull out with the skydiving. That means there's six teams left for this final round. It's likely two teams will pull out because of the snakes."

"Yeah but what about Cole's team?" Jay muttered worriedly as he casted another looking at his rival.

So far, on the overall leader board, Cole's team was first while Jay's team was third. Jay couldn't care less if they were third – he just didn't want to be below Dirtclog. He didn't want to give that idiot to believe he's the better student, that their fight was all because of Jay's fault when in actual fact, it was both of them!

"Cole is the representative for the next stage, and he'll be in a box. If it's Gene, Griffin and Zane working together to get Cole out, they won't work that well together – especially if it's manpower."

"How do you know if it's manpower and not intelligence?"

"Because Master Wu told us we would be greatly disadvantaged just because we're down one man – so manpower. Cole bears all the strength and power in that team, without that, you got Zane who's all brains and accuracy, Griffin with speed, and Gene with… well, he's not that strong at anything. Plus, is Cole scared of snakes?"

"Well… I think he's scared of dragons."

"So, reptiles. Plus, if we happen to be in a coffin with these snakes, Master Wu is most likely to say that as soon as he sees panic, he'll get the student out due to safety and so on. So, if Cole freaks out, we're fine."

"And what about you?"

"Like I said, I'm not scared of snakes."

"Ugh… I really hope you're right."

Ahhhh sorry if it seemed short and rush. I was going to add the final stage to this chapter, but this chapter would've been loooonng. And sorry for the long wait! Ever since I got back to work after wisdom tooth removal, because I transferred to another store, my hours suddenly bumped up to 36 hours of work a week. My manager and boss mentioned something about a promotion so I've been making sure I put everything into work so I can get this dang promotion quicker hahaha.

Massive thanks to: IDidn'tSignUp4This, unknown, naoninja, NoYouCan'tHaveACookie, Inspirations of Life, Endeavor16, JSNI and all my silent reviewers for reading!

I'll try to update next weekend – although that may be hard since it's my mum's birthday weekend and Sunday I'm baking a massive cake to bring to work (maybe I can bribe the manager and boss with it… HAHAHAHA). But I'll see you all next time to see whether or not Nya accomplishes and wins the last round, or not. Xoxo – ZaneLoverFan88