Chapter Summary: The friends find what is left of the dig site...

Chapter Nine:

Lloyd moved slowly through the partially dismantled camp, his gaze sweeping through the various tents. Having spent some summers tagging along on his mother's adventures, he recognized the mess hall tent, the pavilion tent for protecting their finds from weather, as well as the tents that they all slept in. He paused next to one with a large green patch on it, recognition flickering in his eyes. Reaching a hand out, he fingered the fabric, his gaze sweeping the area. "What...what happened?"

Nya shivered as she rubbed her arms, her gaze flickering from left to right as she took in the abandoned campsite. "Who knows? This is just bad with a capital b. Let's get out of here."

"How are we supposed to get out of here?! We don't even know where we are to begin with!" Jay cried out, flinging himself dramatically down to the ground.

Sighs rippled through the group, none of them suddenly feeling like dealing with his dramatics like they usually did. Cole paused suddenly, staring intently at something that was just to the left side of the camp. "Uh...think that might have something to do with the disappearance of everyone?" He pointed to a large ancient looking temple that rose above the camp.

The friends gathered closely together, eyebrows knitting in confusion. Zane was the first to speak, his voice full of uncertainty. "I sense many lifeforms trapped somewhere inside."

"Mom..?" Lloyd didn't think about it, the hope filled question falling from his lips.

"You know... if we can find Dr. Garmadon, then Lloyd doesn't have to bounce around or be sent away to a foster home." Kai cautiously commented on, his eyes flickering between Lloyd and the large temple.

Lloyd gave a slow nod, hugging himself tightly as he tried to calm his breathing. "Mom told me that old temples like this are usually booby trapped for some reason."

"To protect the treasures inside from tomb raiders. We're not after the treasures though, we're after the people that went missing looking for artifacts inside of the temple." Cole finally spoke up, almost marching his way forward. "We've got magic, we can do this easily."

"Not dressed like this though." Lloyd stopped Cole's advancement. "We might have magic now, but we live in the twenty-first century. We need to cover our identities... code names and the whole shebang."

"Like super heroes!?" Jay squealed, reminding the friends about his odd fascination with comic books.

"Sure... but ninjas. At least, Uncle Wu believed we have the makings to be ninjas." Lloyd bit his bottom lip, suddenly wondering if there was even a spell that could change their outfits.

"Let's do this!" Nya closed her eyes, taking in a deep steadying breath, even as water suddenly surrounded her, whipping up into something that looked like a tornado.

When the water finally died down, her entire outfit had changed. She was wearing a cyan ninja gi with maroon stripes, the hood pulled up to completely cover her face except for her eyes. The back of her gi had a dragon curling in on itself. Upon seeing that his best friend had changed, Lloyd closed his eyes, allowing his mind to shift to what he figured he would need for his outfit. Obviously, he would need a gi, but maybe a mask to cover his face underneath it in case something happened to his hood? Warmth suddenly surged up and down his arms, before disappearing all together. Opening his eyes once more, he found himself wearing a green gi with gold detailing, without looking at his back, he somehow knew that he had a dragon rearing up to strike down on enemy located there...not only that but it had four heads instead of one. "Cool..."

The last four friends quickly copied the younger members of their group, disappearing into a tornado of earth, ice, lightning, and fire respectively. When they came out of their tornados, they looked over their new looks as well. Cole was wearing a black gi, with his right sleeve being orange, a sleeping dragon on his back. Zane was wearing a mostly white gi, though it did have some silver detailing on it similar to Lloyd's, a dragon posed as if acting as a sentry on his back. Jay was wearing a blue gi with a dragon on the back that appeared to be midflight. Kai was wearing a red gi, his back presenting a dragon that appeared to be lashing out at something.

"Ooh... what should we do for our new super names!?" Jay really was hooked up on the idea that they were turning themselves into super heroes... at least for now.

Truthfully, Lloyd highly doubted that they were going to do this again after today. "Nya was covered with water when she transformed... maybe hers should be something water based?"

"Like Aquagirl?" Nya suggested, humor lacing her voice.

"That's a good one... what should be my name?" Jay bounced where he stood.

"You had lightning covering you up." Lloyd supplied helpfully. "Zane had what looked like ice, only it wasn't clear at all and seemed to move in a way that scientifically cannot be explained. Cole had earth, mainly rocks covering him and Kai had fire."

"Hmm... so Firelad, Captain Winter, and I'm thinking I'll go with Whip Storm. That just leaves you, Lloyd!" Jay quickly picked names for himself and the other two. While Zane nodded in agreement with the Captain Winter name for himself, Kai looked rather dejected that he was assigned Firelad... though it did go with Aquagirl quite nicely.

Lloyd bit his bottom lip, suddenly uncertain about this whole thing. "Oh...um... what exactly covered me up when I changed?"

"The color green." Kai bluntly informed him.

"It had gold specks in it!" Nya oh so helpfully butted in.

Lloyd could feel himself wilt at that bit of information. Colors... his friends got different elements, while he got colors? Shaking his head, he moved closer to the large temple. "Come on... we better get a move on before I lose my composer and lead us farther away from the temple."

A/N: Done! I'm still alive! I just... have writers block on my one Ninjago story and been ignoring all other stories while I fight that one. My apologies. I decided to skip it and update this one first. So yeah... Do you Know Who I am is currently on Hiatus. Sorry if you were reading that one too.

Reviews:

Guest: Glad you're loving this! Sorry, I have long waits between updates. Possibly because I have a lot of stories to update... and a life outside of fanfiction... yeah. Hmm, never had anyone requests songs before... uh, what is the song that you are referencing called? Presuming that I have only ever seen the movie once and it was years and years ago.

Review!

SkyTalon

Next Chapter: Lloyd and friends start searching through the temple for the missing archaeologists...