A/N: Hey there! I'm back! Finally…took longer to write the one chapter for my one Power Ranger story than expected. Anyways, I can now officially state that I am totally bored…No! I mean sorry! Totally sorry. Due to how long it took me write Rose running away and Billy finding her, I am afraid that we shall be postponing the time-travel chapter to the start of next week. Sorry. I didn't mean to fall behind in updates, then again, I also wasn't expecting to have to deal with semi-writers block. Wonderful.
On to the story! Still considering working Dareth into the Timetravel chapter…
Disclaimer: I own Nothing! Except for any OC name drops that might happen!
Chapter Five: Nooo! I'm small again!
We were flying over Jamanakai Village when I noticed something was wrong. Lloyd was moodily staring over the edge of the ship, his arms folded across his chest. Walking over, I placed my hand on his shoulder.
"Something wrong Kid?" I gently asked, wondering if it was something I could fix.
"No, yes. I don't know." Lloyd sagged his shoulders, frustration flaring in his eyes as he looked down to where there were a bunch of kids his age playing soccer.
Wait… "Kid? Are you…wishing you didn't have to train?"
Lloyd guiltily looked up at me. "Maybe. I just…I haven't played with kids my own age in a long time. I just…I want to enjoy being a kid sometimes."
I didn't exactly blame him for feeling that way. Nya and I spent quite a bit of our childhood complaining that our chores were too great and we never got a chance to play with the neighbor kids. "Come on. Let's try looking at the bright side of things. Umm," I snapped my fingers, an idea popping in my head. "I get to know how great of a kid you are."
Lloyd shook his head, unimpressed with my statement. "I get to spend time with Uncle…but that's normal. What would be nice is for us to swing by Ninjago City. The next comic in my favorite comic series is coming out today. If we hurry, I can still get in line…" Lloyd never finished his sentence, for it was right then that Cole suddenly appeared, one eyebrow arched.
"Aren't you too old for comics, kid?" Cole ruffled the kid's hair.
Annoyance flashed in Lloyd's eyes at that, he quickly swatting at Cole's hand. "I'm not too old for them. I know what I like is all. You should try reading them too. They're really good."
"No thanks kid." Cole stepped back, as Sensei appeared on the deck.
"Nya just called letting us know that Lord Garmadon has been spotted entering the Museum. You are needed, Ninja." Sensei tapped his staff against the wooden floor.
With that, we rushed off, leaving the kid behind to continue training.
…
Nope. Nope. This was not happening. I clung to the fossilized bone of the extinct Grundle as the spell Lord Garmadon cast swirled through the air. This was not gonna end up good. If I remember anything from back home, is that once someone casts a spell, the best way to stop it was to destroy the source, not attempt to tackle whatever the spell was aimed at to the ground! That just makes it so that you end up affected by the spell as well.
"Guys! New plan!" I called out to my friends, uncertain if they could hear what I was saying over the loud noise of the spell shaking the fossil.
"What?! Oh no! He's getting away! After him!" Cole sprung down to chase after Garmadon.
I groaned as I scrambled after Cole, pretty sure that none of us even knew what that spell was supposed to do. "Does anyone know what he was trying to do?"
Zane shook his head fervently, concern dancing in his eyes. "I am afraid not. Due you suspect that is important to know?"
I grimaced slightly as I follow my brothers out of the museum. "Yes! We didn't stop the spell from happening back there. Which translates to, whatever the spell was, we've been infected with it!"
Jay promptly gave a nervous laugh. "That's not good. What're we going to do about it?"
I shook my head fervently. "I have no idea! Come on! The serpentine are stealing that sarcophagus."
With that we immediately took off after the serpentine, our feet pounding the marble flooring. Reaching the large double doors that served for the Museum's entrance, I threw them open, charging out into the cool night air. It wasn't long until we were whipping around corners, panting as we tried to catch up with the serpentine. Worry nag at the back of my mind over the fact that we were struggling to keep up with the Serpentine Generals. Typically we would have caught up with them by now, if not passed by them. I sucked in a breath as I skidded to a halt staring at the ancient artifact that they had dropped next to their manhole.
Cole gasped slightly, confusion flashing across his face. "Has it always been that big?"
Dread filled me as I peered into my reflection glinting off of the sarcophagus. Really not good. "Nooo! I'm small again!" Jay overly-dramatically wailed.
"What?!" "We've been turned to kids!?" "I am sure that we can find the antidote to this strange phenomenon."
I shot Zane a withering look, wondering if he was aware how strange his typical speech sounded in such a small body. Too small of a body apparently, we could see sparks jumping from him overloading his much smaller databanks with his vast knowledge he had gained over the years. Turning, I was about to head out to see if we couldn't get Sensei to pick us up, only to realize that the police were parked right there, looking extremely annoyed.
"Kids robbed the museum? That's just great. Come on you four. We need to take you back to the Museum so that you can apologize to the Curator for trying to steal this thing." One of the officers grumbled as he tried to shoo us into the police car.
Jay bristled at being called a kid. "Kids? We're ninja! See!" Jay then tried to do spinjitzu…only to trip and fall on his face.
The officers burst out laughing at that, his demonstration not helping convince them that we were the good guys.
…
"Why do we have to apologize? We didn't steal anything!" I hissed softly to Cole, careful that the officers and Curator didn't hear me.
"Come on, Kai. Someone has to apologize for the inconvenience of having to move the sarcophagus back into place." Cole muttered out of the corner of his mouth.
"I accept your apologies. Now then, do you know what happened to the Grundle fossil as well, officers? It appears to be missing as well." Curator pointed out the empty display to the police.
Alarm shot through us upon hearing that. Garmadon had aimed the spell at the Grundle fossil… a spell that turned the clock back on us. "Sir! I think Lord Garmadon brought the Grundle back to life!" I tried to get the Curator's attention.
Instead of a respectable adult listening to what I had to say, I had two respectable police officers laughing at me while discussing how they needed to contact our parents. Good luck with that…mine don't have a phone. Zane tapped on my shoulder, pointing out an elementary school class that was walking past. Nodding my head in understanding, I snuck off to slip into the back of the class, my brothers right behind me.
As we walked through several different exhibits, we carefully pulled four sweaters out of the backpacks of various students. Cole immediately groaned once he realized that the sweater he had pulled on was a purple one with glittery stars covering it. Jay grimaced at his luck, a blue sweater with a large light blue butterfly covering it. Zane was unfazed by the fact he had a greenish gray sweater with a large number thirteen on the front. I was the luckiest and had gotten a simple red hoodie. Scurrying quickly, we slipped unnoticed out of the Museum, no one paying any attention to the kids in the back of the class.
"Come on! There's a bus station nearby, we can get a ride home easy." Cole quickly took charge, leading the way down the street.
I hurried after him, knowing that was our best plan of action there.
…
I made a mental note to tell Jay to cut back on the cotton candy. Talk about heavy! Jay was nervously yapping into the pay phone like crazy, as if he felt like pouring his life story out on the kid. "Jay! Keep it short! You don't need to bore the kid to death with your life story! Just tell him to bring our weapons to Buddy's Pizza! Now!" I growled out as I struggled to keep him up.
"Ugh! Fine! Kai's yelling at me to hurry it up so yeah, bring our weapons to Buddy's Pizza. And hurry!" Jay then paused as he waited for confirmation…confirmation I did not agree on by the way, before grinning like a maniac. "Great! Bye kid!"
The second he jumped down, I whipped around to stare at him. "What was up with the smile?"
Jay broadened his smile, a smirk twinkling in his eyes. "What smile?"
I groaned while Cole reached over and whacked Jay, rolling his eyes. "Jay, stop creeping Kai out. We need to get to the pizza parlor before Lloyd, remember?"
Jay fake pouted, before hurrying to the parlor. I sprinted after him, the others right behind me.
…
I didn't think we had changed that much when we were de-aged, until the kid walked right past us with his arms full of sharp weapons. "Psst! Kid! Over here!" Cole hissed waving our youngest member over to us.
"Not now kid. The ninja are waiting for me." Lloyd nearly dropped my sword as he tried to juggle the large weapons in his tiny arms.
"Kid, it is us! Your dear old man turned us into kids." I growled as I yanked him into the booth next to me.
"What?!"
"He also has revived the Grundle in the Museum. Which is double bad since those things hunt Ninja." Jay yapped, ignoring the we-decided-Cole-would-break-that-news-to-him looks we were all shooting him.
"Grundle uh? I think I know someone who can be of help then." Lloyd tapped his chin, an excited sparkle dancing in his eyes.
"Wait…you know someone who can help us?!" Cole demanded, surprise flashing in his eyes.
"Yup." Lloyd smirked as he folded his arms across his chest. "If I introduce you to him though, then you have to accept the fact I am not too big for comics."
"Fine! You are not too old for comics. Now take us to him!" Cole groaned, not liking how the kid was twisting everything into his favor.
…
I wanted to find a wall to bang my head against. Apparently the guy Lloyd was talking about is a fellow named Rufus Macallister, who just happened to be a comic store manager… which we were now standing inside of.
"Hmm, Grundle you say? It is well known that the creatures are nocturnal, thus the illuma-swords will work best if you're planning on taking on down, hypothetically." Rufus pointed out the display case with four illuma-swords neatly lined up inside of it.
"Sweet! We now know how to, uh, hypothetically fight off a Grundle." Jay moved to grab the glowing weapons.
"Whoa there kid! You can't just take these things. You must win them in the annual trivia competition!"
With that, Rufus walked off, leaving us alone with plenty of time to panic before our painful deaths. As if reading my negative thoughts, Cole turned to face Lloyd. "Ok, you enter the competition, and win it… we can't afford to lose. Good luck!" Cole patted Lloyd's shoulders.
Lloyd blanched, before turning to look at Zane. "Help?"
Zane frowned, concern creasing his brow. "I believe that Cole is right. Out of all of us, you know the most about the comic books, and thus have the best shot at winning."
"Not what I meant when I said help." Lloyd muttered under his breath.
I flinched slightly, knowing what he meant by that. He had wanted Zane to back him up, not back Cole up.
…
"Seriously?! All that work for illuma-swords that don't even work?!" Jay yelled as he jumped away from the Grundle, holding a now bent illuma-sword.
Cole grimaced as he threw his defective illuma-sword away. "Of course their props. It would have been too dangerous to just hand over the actual things to kids!"
Lloyd had lost the trivia contest, only for the Grundle to attack, forcing us to take the illuma-swords. All of which bent in half the seconds they hit the Grundle…and all they seemed to be doing was making it angrier.
"We need a new plan!" I yelled as I barely avoided the monster's teeth.
"Ninja!" Sensei barged into the chaotic comic book store right then. Lifting his hand up, he showed us something that he was holding. It looked like a bag of Tomorrow's Tea. "Use this to reverse the Grundle back to a pile of bones! And restore your true ages!"
I quickly glanced at Lloyd who had tried to help us fight of the Grundle. "If we use Tomorrow's Tea with Lloyd this close to us, it will age him! He'll lose his childhood!"
Zane promptly looked at me funny-like. "Kai? Where are you getting these facts? You seem to know a lot of uncommon things that aren't common knowledge."
I quickly shrugged; my mind a slight blank to that question. "I don't know. I have amnesia, remember?"
"I don't care about the consequences; I want you guys back to normal, and the Grundle a pile of bones again!" With that, Lloyd seized the tea, throwing it all over us.
When the dust cleared, we were standing at our true heights, coughing up even more dust. Jay frowned as he scanned the area. "Where's the kid?!"
"Lloyd?!" We all called out, worry filling us.
A minute later, a large pile of rubble shifted as Lloyd stood up. Gasps escaped us upon seeing that he was now our age…
"The Final Battle is growing even closer now." Sensei solemnly announced as he placed an arm around his nephew.
Rufus hurried over with a copy of the new sold-out comic book that came out earlier that day. "Here Lloyd, you deserve it."
"Nah. I already know how it ends." Lloyd shook his head, suddenly much more mature than what he was earlier.
Looks like we have to work double time to get him ready to face down his father.
A/N: Done! I am now free to have a mini-heart attack about the next chapter…*buries face into pillow* Ah!
I'm good now. Sorry about that. Till next time!
SkyTalon