Lloyd gasped for air, not even bothering to force his eyes open. Sadly, he was getting used to this.
Fifth time. If he assumed he was either blasted into or out of consciousness each time. He really couldn't be sure what they were doing when he was completely out of it. Which was an extremely disturbing thought.
At least he was flat on his back again. Which meant some pressure off his dislocated shoulder, and feeling back in his good arm. (Yeah, the bad arm was still agonizing, but he was trying to be positive.) Another bonus, Chen wouldn't be able to touch him anymore. It was seriously freaky having that creep grab his chin and pat his head.
Of course it also meant being trapped in a giant jar again. That was gonna do some weird stuff to his psyche. Provided he ever got out of here to see a therapist.
No. Nope, not gonna think like that. Not three, maybe four days now, into captivity. He had to be positive or he would break. And he couldn't break. He was the Green Ninja. He would face this head on! Ninja never quit!
Which meant he had to open his eyes.
Lloyd groaned and allowed his eyes to open, staring up at the curved glass walls and strange metal lid to his jar. Same as the first time. Though probably stronger. And the first one had been too strong to bust out of quickly enough. Crap. He had no clue what to do. Where to start, even.
Come to think of it, it would probably surprise most of the people in Ninjago to know this sort of thing had never happened to him before. It's pretty much a staple story arc of every comic book, movie, and TV show. The hero gets captured for some nefarious reason and has to stay sane and plan their escape to stop whatever villainous plot was in the works.
Of course, Lloyd's only "villain" had been his dad, and Garmadon had never actually captured any of the Ninja. As far as Lloyd knew, he'd never even attempted to - instead trying to defeat them with sheer numbers and overwhelming firepower.
Chen was an entire different brand of villain. As evidenced by the fact that no one in Ninjago City knew he was a villain, even with his face plastered on advertisements all over the place. Chen's Noodle House was extremely popular.
Lloyd sighed to himself. He'd better get his act together. What would he be telling his friends if they were here with him?
Hang on. Help is coming. Find out what the bad guys want.
He'd been telling himself the first two from the beginning, and the third seemed pretty obvious.
Power.
But why Lloyd's power? Lloyd hadn't even known he had power, and certainly not some sort of coveted green energy. Why not Kai, for his fire? Fire was an excellent source of power. Or Jay - lightning was even better, especially if they wanted energy for mechs or electronics. Really, any of his friends could be used as a "battery", as Chen had called him the first day. (He assumed it had been the first day.)
It was a bit of relief that it was him, though. He hated to think of any of his friends in this situation. He was their leader, after all.
Anyway, green energy. Why "Green Energy"? What even was this power?
Master Wu knew everything, pretty much. So what had he told Lloyd about his powers? What had Lloyd missed?
Green. That was all Master Wu had said. His element was Green. Not nature, not life, not connection, just... Green.
Green. The color of the forest, surrounded by lush plants of all sorts. But it wasn't nature. When Lloyd had said it was what ties everything together, Uncle Wu hadn't corrected him. In fact, he'd looked quite proud.
Green ties everything together. Green ties people together. Animals together. Plants together.
He thought about his 'piece'...
Elements together?
Chen and Clouse has apparently been studying Skylor's amber power for years. That was somehow related, somehow important. The power to replicate other powers. So the amber power... became other powers? Copied their elements? But she couldn't copy Green, not well anyway.
Because Green wasn't an element? Or Green was too powerful or too different?
Well, what has he seen Green do? The first time he saw it, it was crackling and swirling around a coil, kind of like a green version of Jay's blue lightning, but more... fluid?
When Skylor tried to copy it, absorb it?, control it?, it had burned her. Power? But Clouse was able to direct and store it, so energy?
Okay, moving on. Next time was around his fist as he focused his spinjitzu. That had certainly never happened before. But it hadn't felt strange and wasn't at all painful. If anything, it had strengthened his blows to the glass. So maybe something like Cole's super-strength? It could enhance him somehow?
Maybe. What else...
Chen had said it made his eyes glow when he used his power, and when his power was drained. None of his friends had anything like that, though Zane's eyes were ice blue (but Lloyd was pretty sure those were just lightbulbs) and Skylor's could be called "amber". But he couldn't recall them glowing in connection with their powers. Or maybe he just hadn't noticed?
The sparks had swirled around his shoulder when Chen dislocated it. Which you'd think would mean it was trying to heal him or protect him or something. That didn't work with it being some energy that could be channeled into a weapon or used to run a computer. A shield, maybe? Usually the team used Zane or Nya when they needed a shield. Cole could too, in a tight spot, as long as they were on land. Kai or Jay would just cause damage if they tried something like that. Or to heal? But it hadn't helped the pain at all, and certainly didn't fix his arm. And why would a villain even want something like that?
Ugh, this didn't make any sense! If only he had learned about this before! If only he had some clue what Green was or how he used it or what Chen and Clouse knew!
Lloyd took a deep breath, then another. Getting upset wasn't helping. If only he could... well, why not?
They must have a camera on him. How else had they known when he'd been about to escape the chains? Skylor hadn't been touching anything, and he didn't think she would've stopped him anyway. So, cameras. He'd have to be careful.
Lloyd made a show of, or rather made no attempt to hide, his pain, as he used his three good limbs to roll over and push himself up. Looking around, he saw no one in the room. He sat back against the glass and positioned his useless arm in his lap, holding it by the forearm with his good hand, then pulled up his knees to press his forehead against them.
A position of weakness, pain, that would scream helpless to his captors if they were watching him.
After a few minutes in which he was left alone, he leaned ever so slightly back. His face was still hidden, as well as his good hand. He took a deep, steadying breath, and focused.
Green sparks flickered around his hand. They were warm, and didn't seem to cause any static. They also glowed, and actually left little trails of green light wherever they danced. It was very odd, and sort of pretty.
He focused a bit more and the sparks swirled around themselves until they began to combine and glow steadily, soon forming a small flickering ball. Much like Skylor had demonstrated, but he had no problem holding it. He was fairly sure he could even make it grow, if he wanted it to.
Shield, thought Lloyd to himself, frowning at the ball. Protect. Block. Guard. It slowly flattened and expanded. Lloyd was deeply focused on keeping it small enough to hide between his torso and legs. The energy seemed to, condense, for want of a better word. Harden. When he ran his thumb over the solid energy, it felt similar to the glass he sat against.
Heal, thought Lloyd hopefully, concentrating as he curled to hopefully hide his dislocated shoulder from whatever cameras they must have. The small, green, glasslike plate around his hand seemed to melt back into the earlier ball, then to the sparks. He pressed his hand against his shoulder as gently as he could, but nothing seemed to happen. Rats.
Well, he wouldn't be a Ninja if he didn't at least try to fix his shoulder, right? He'd studied how to do this after his arm had been dislocated on the quest for the ultimate ultimate weapon.
Either they stopped him, or they didn't. Either way was going to be agony. He might as well try. The longer he waited the worse it would be.
Shakily getting to his feet, keeping his senses alert to any changes in his surroundings, he grit his teeth and positioned his bad arm just so against the glass. Man, the book could've warned that a dead arm was actually quite heavy and extremely difficult to maneuver with only one good arm. (And painful, but that was kind of a given.) He finally got his arm in position, angled his bad shoulder just right, then SHOVED.
There was a disgusting crack/thunk sound, but immediate relief from his shoulder and feeling in his right arm. It burned and buzzed as nerves came alive, but that was nothing compared to the earlier agony of dislocation.
Green sparks swirled around his shoulder, then wound down his arm, this time sinking in and providing immediate relief. Lloyd could only stare in wonder as he flexed his hand, his arm, his shoulder. Huh. It couldn't fix something broken, but once something was back in place it, what, advanced natural healing or something? All he knew was that within a minute his arm felt normal again.
He remembered some random lecture at school about how energy traveled through the body, connecting all the nerves and communicating with the brain. Uncle Wu talked about stuff like that too, during ninja training.
Though he still was no closer to knowing what Green was. It seemed to be, well, anything.
Anything?
Fire, he thought, cupping his hands and staring at them, no longer trying to hide. Either they would stop him or they wouldn't. Either they weren't paying attention to him... or they were as curious as he was.
A flickering flame-like wisp of energy appeared in the bowl of his hands. It was warm, and actually grew hotter the longer he held it.
Lightning. The flame shifted into bolts, sparks, zipping back and forth and around. The hair on his arms stood up - static.
No way, thought Lloyd, staring in shock. But he had to keep going at this point.
Water. The sparks seemed to melt into a goo, then shift into a liquid he could actually pour from hand to hand, though not one drop spilled.
Ice. The liquid froze, for want of a better word, transforming into a lovely crystal with a noticeably lower temperature. Same as with the 'fire', the longer he held it, the colder it got.
This was impossible. Completely impossible.
"And earth," Lloyd murmured aloud, this time not sure what he was expecting. Cole usually pounded his hands together to form a shockwave or punched the ground, either causing a quake or rocks to burst from underground. He also could lift thousands of pounds and punch through over six feet of solid concrete.
Perhaps because Lloyd didn't know what he wanted, the energy stayed as ice.
Earth, thought Lloyd, trying again. Strength. Ground. Rock. This time the 'ice' reformed, shimmering back into sparks that swirled and sunk into his forearms. Without thinking, Lloyd fisted both hands as he'd seen Cole do and punched them together.
There was a tremendous BOOM that rocked the room. Lloyd himself was flung against the wall of the jar by the force, and crashed flat on his stomach once it was over. Unfortunately, the jar and all the equipment in the room seemed intact.
And, yeah, that caught the bad guys' attention.