Chapter 9
"You four call yourself ninja's, if you can't do a simple task!"
Garmadon had the ninja's in his four arms, holding them by their throats. The ninja's were gasping for air as the dark lord was choking them for not capturing Lucas and Lloyd. Garmadon was enraged by their failure and wanted to kill them. But he needed them to take over Ninjago and instead throws them to the ground. The ninja were staggering at their balance to stand up, but they had trouble to stand due to the lack of oxygen. They removed their hoods and stood infront of Garmadon to explain their failure.
"We thought we had them on the bridge," Cole explained, "Till your apprentice drove off and escaped in Scattered Canyon."
"And thanks to your training to him, he's a skilled ninja as we are." Kai added.
Garmadon grew annoyed at the fire ninja's attitude and wanted to harm him for disrespecting him. But he drew back as he know it's the venom in them to make them like this.
"You better think of something." he says still furious, "Or I'll make sure your lives are ended short."
They all nodded and began to walk away from the venom room. Zane lets out a whistle, and off from a perch, comes Zane's falcon and perches itself onto his arm.
"Falcon, I need you to search for Lucas and Lloyd outside the city, while we look for them in the city." he commanded his robotic bird, "Make sure they don't spot you."
The falcon let out a high-pitched cry and flaps its wings off Zane's arm and flies into the darkness that led into the venom room. The falcon flew in ease through the darkness and flies up between a sewer grate to the afternoon sky. It lands onto a lightpost across the street. It turns its head in a three-hundred and sixty degree turn, and began it search to locate the grey and green ninja across Ninjago.
Lucas slowly opened his eyes after a cool breeze woke him up. He lets out a yawn and feebly tried to sit up as his bones popped one after another for sleeping on the hard ground. Once he was up, and after brushing the dirt off his shoulders and legs, he walks over to his sai's to check on the camouflage. He looks down at his sai's and smiles that they were still spraying the mist to surround the cave and walks outside. The evening breeze felt cool to get his blood running. The sun was setting in the horizon; leaving the evening sky with an array of red, orange, and yellow lights. Lucas knew he had a long night ahead of him to help search for his father, brother's, and sister, and walked back inside.
As he walked through the spray of mist, beads of water clunged onto his suit, and absorbed into the fabric and dried up. He scans the cave to find his cousin and spots something green on the ground. He walks up to inspect what the mysterious object was. As he came closer, he face-palms himself for he was worried it was something else, but it was Lloyd, curled up in a ball, asleep.
"Lloyd, wake up." Lucas says while shaking his cousin's shoulder, "We have a...big day ahead of us."
Lloyd grunted in protest to wake up and turned his back on Lucas. Lucas grew annoyed to his stubborn cousin. He was doing everything in his powers to keep them both safe, and all he wanted to do was sleep through it. He snaps his fingers as an idea came to him and decided to play it as a joke.
"Alright Lloyd, if you don't wake up in five minutes, I'll leave you here all alone to be vulnerable to be captured by our brother's or your father." he says while snickering.
And at that exact moment, Lloyd's eyes opened wide, and jumps to his feet to face his cousin.
"You wouldn't even dare?" Lloyd asks while glaring at him.
"Try me." while smirking at him.
Lloyd's eyes were still wide as if he was serious and brushes the dust off. Lucas chuckled at his cousin for falling for it and picks up his sai's. The mist disappeared around the cave, to reveal the evening sky a bit more, and Lucas steps out of the cave with Lloyd behind him.
"Alright so I've been doing some thinking, and I think there might be a way we can find the venom and rescue everyone." said Lucas, "But in order to do that, we might find something back on the Bounty to help us. But we'll have to be quick before they look for us."
Lloyd nodded to the idea and throws his hood over his face. Lucas threw his down, grabs Lloyd's arm, then tapped his sai's together. Then flash of light surrounded the two ninja's and disappeared to reveal Lucas's vehicle. Lucas pushes the lever foward, and the engine whines to life and beginto move forward. Lucas steers his way out of the canyon and began to feel comfortable to his upgrade on his vehicle. The way he steered on his stomach made it look like he was swimming through water and it was cramped before when he had his motorbike, but now it's more spacious. Once outside the canyon, he drove at high speed to Jay's parents junkyard to retrieve the ship.
After an hour of driving, Lucas and Lloyd reached their destination. Lucas transformed back to normal and begans to walk to the ship, anchored high in the sky, with Jay's parents below it.
"Jay, are you up there?" Jay's mother shouted, "Answer your mother."
"Jay answer your mother." Jay's father shouted with her, Or we'll come up there oursel- wait Edna, someone's coming."
Lucas and Lloyd walked up to Jay's parents and stood near the anchor. Jay's parents look at Lucas with puzzled looks, for they never seen Lucas before.
"I don't think we seen you before." said Jay's father, "Who are you? And are you a friend of Jay?"
"I'm Lucas Wu." Lucas introduced himself, "Sensei Wu's son and Lloyd Garmadon's cousin."
Jay's parents still gave Lucas a funny look after he introduced himself. They couldn't see his face underneath his hood and thought he was lying to him.
"Remove your hoods so we can see your faces," Jay's father told them, "I don't like funny business."
Lucas and Lloyd look at each other and did as they were told. They lifted their hoods beneath their chins and revealed their faces. Jay's parents looked at them in surprised as the faces were revealed and studied them for a moment. They kept turning their heads at the brown haired and hazel eye ninja, then they turned to the blonde haired and green eye ninja.
"The resemblence does show, except for the hair and eyes," Jay's father pointed out, "But they do look like they are related."
Jay's mother nodded in agreement. Lloyd and Lucas smiled in relief that they convinced them both.
"Well then, let me introduced ourselves. I'm Ed Walker and this is my lovely wife Edna." Ed introduced himself and his wife.
"Nice to meet you both." Lucas says and holds out his right hand.
Ed hands out his right hand, grabs Lucas's and shake for their introduction.
"So what brings you and your ship to our home?" Edna asked.
The hand shake stopped after she asked him that. He didn't think of a cover story on the way over. He thought of a quick one and hoped for the best.
"Well...we were on our way over to look for parts for our vehicle, but then the serpentine's were attacking Jamakai Village." he lied, "But I forgot to anchor the ship...and it flew itself all the way here. So for my responsibility, I have to retrieve the ship."
"And your cousin came along because?" she asks about Lloyd.
Lucas staggered to answer the question. But couldn't think of anything till Lloyd spoke up.
"I wanted to come because he's my long lost cousin." he said to convince them both.
"Really?" Ed asked, "You two haven't seen each other for a long time?"
"It's a long story." Lucas replied, "But I have to get the Bounty back to the others and retrieve them."
"Ok, we understand." said Ed, "Please do stop by when you have the time and or need parts."
"Will do." and Lucas begins to climb up the chain to the ships bow with Lloyd behind him.
As the two ninja's reached the ship deck, Lucas runs to the bridge and takes the ship rudder. Flips a switch, and the chains rattle, as the anchor is lifted off the ground and is back where it's posted on the bow. He steers the rudder in the direction of Jamakai Village, to convince Ed and Edna, and soars off. Not knowing that Zane's falcon is perched on top of the bridge.
After half an hour of flying, Lucas flips a switch and the anchor flies towards the ground. With a klank, Lucas knows that the anchor hit its target. He flips another switch and the floodlights brighten the ships deck. Lucas and Lloyd walked out of the bridge, onto the deck, and stood infront of a chest reading: Jay's inventions one. Lucas picks the lock with his sai's, and with a click, the chest opens.
"So what is it that we are looking for?" Lloyd asked.
"Well Lloyd, since we know that Jay likes to invent." Lucas exclaimed, "So maybe he may have invented something that could help us find them in the sewers better."
Lucas rummaged through the chest and pulled out an assortment of inventions. Some inventions had springs popping out, wires sticking out, some that looked completed, but with a push of the buttons, the thing would break into pieces. After searching through the chest and reaching the bottom, Lucas had scattered Jay's invention everywhere and couldn't find one that would help them. He looked to his right and spotted another chest reading: Jay's inventions two.
"Lloyd, hand me that chest over there." Lucas told Lloyd and pointed at the chest.
Lloyd ran across the deck and stood near the chest, grabs onto one of the handles, and drags it to Lucas. Same as last time, Lucas picks the lock and looks at Lloyd.
"I want you to search the chest and see if you can find anything." He says to Lloyd, "While I get two bags packed for us to leave. Got it?"
Lloyd nodded and began to search through the chest. Lucas rushed down to the inside of the ship and heads towards the room he shared with his brothers. Once he reached the room, he opens the door slightly and peeks through, as if he was waiting for an ambush. Surprisingly, he found it empty and walks in. He walks over to his bunk, he shared with Lloyd, and grabs the green and grey backpacks that were hanging off the sides of the beds. He packs a sleep mat into each one and extra ninja outfits of their colors into the bags as well, and Lucas decided to pack his flute to entertain himself and Lloyd. Once they were packed, he slings them over his shoulders and runs out of the room.
He runs up to the stairs and walks into the kitchen. He walks over to the pantry and packs granola bars and water bottles into each bag and a few matches into his bag. Once he was completely packed and ready to go, he runs out of the kitchen and out onto the deck to see it littered with Jay's inventions. Lucas places the bags down and walks through the unfinished gagets. He turns his and spots something on top of the bridge. He squints his eyes to see it clearer and see's it's a dark blue falcon with glowing blues. Lucas thought it was odd that it didn't fly away when he spotted it and turned his back to talk to Lloyd, who was still rummaging through the chest.
"Lloyd, is there anything I don't know about our brother's since I'm new." he asked.
"Well you know Kai is a hot head when it comes to fighting and video games." Lloyd replied as he searched and tossed gagets aside, "Cole was a dancer before he ran away and became the leader. Jay is love sick for Nya, which you already know. And you know Zane is a robot. But I don't think you seen his falcon before."
"Falcon?"
"Yeah, it's his since his dad passed away, and it's also a robot too that always helps us search for danger."
"Is it dark blue with glowing eyes?"
"Yeah. Why?"
"Oh nothing peculair." as he drew out a sai.
With a quick turn around, he throws his sai, like a knife, and aimed it at the bird. The falcon was late to realize what was about to happen as the sai pierced its chest and landed on the deck with a thud. Lloyd stopped rummaging through the chest and turns around to see Zane's falcon on the floor with the sai in its chest.
"Why did you do that?" he asked as Lucas pulled the sai out.
"That thing was spying on us for your father." Lucas pointed out, "And I want to see what it knows before we leave."
Lucas picks up the bird and runs to the bridge. Once he was inside, he places the bird on the table and looks at it; wondering how to open its chest. He presses a hand on the part where he struck the bird and suddenly the chest compartment slides down over its legs to reveal the cogs and wires that control the bird. He removes a memory unit and connects it to the computer.
"Computer, I need you search the memory of the falcon from this morning to now." Lucas commanded.
The screen turned blue and then it showed a dark room. Inside the room, it showed a pool of green liquid, with Garmadon standing infront of it with the ninja's being held by their throats. Lucas and Lloyd couldn't hear what Garmadon was saying and he threw them to the ground. They watched them staggering to stand up, but after a couple of minutes of watching, they start to leave and the screen starts zooming towards Zane.
"Falcon, I need you to search for Lucas and Lloyd outside the city, while we look for them in the city. Make sure they don't spot you."
They heard a high-pitched cry and the screen is zoomed away from Zane and traveling through the darkness. They watched as the falcon slipped through a grate and landed on a lightpost across the street. The falcon turned its head in a three-hundred and sixty degree turn and took off.
"Go back for a minute." Lucas says to the video.
The screen rewinded to the part where the falcon slipped through the grate and did its head turn.
"Stop it right there." and the screen stopped playing with the bird turning its head facing its back.
The screen showed a few acres of empty lots outside the city. Lucas studied the image and saw the city in the distance on the right side and the left of more barren land.
"Can you print that out for us?"
The screen began to scan the image and out from the controls comes out the picture. Lucas grabs the picture, folds it half, and places it into his pouch.
"We're taking the bird with us." he tells Lloyd, "He may be useful to us."
Lloyd picks up the bird and they stepped outside. Lloyd places the bird in his backpack and zips it close. They both slung the bags over their shoulders, threw down thier hoods, and stood near the edge. Lucas drew out his sai's, grabs Lloyd's arm, and both jump off the ship. The wind was blowing in their faces, howling in their ears as they flew towards the ground. Lucas tapped his sai's together, and the flash of light transfomed them to Lucas's jet and flew off towards Scatter Canyon.
They reached their hideout, Lucas transfomed back to normal, and they walked into the cave. Lucas struck the ground with his sai's and the mist formed around the cave to camouflage it. He then found stones and formed them in a cirle, and found sticks around and inside the cave and places them in the stone circle. He removes his bag and pulls out the matches and begin to strike them to start a fire. One by one after each strike, the small flame on the stick would burn out instantly. After his last match went, Lucas grunted that each stick had a small drop of water on them. Being the ninja of water can be difficult when it comes to starting fires.
"Here let a pro show you how it's down." said Lloyd.
Using one hand, he formed fire around his hand and places it in the sticks to start their campfire. Lucas chuckles for his cousin being a show off, and pulls out his sleep mat, unrolls it, and warms himself to the fire. Lloyd does the same, and they ate their granola bars and drank their water that Lucas packed for them, and ate in silence.
"So how come we're not at the city and searching for everyone, like before?" Lloyd asked to break the silence.
"Well Lloyd, I thought of this on the way over." Lucas says after finishing his bar and tossing the wrapper in the fire, "When we were down there at night, they were patrolling the sewers. But in the morning they would be out searching for us. So it would be wise to be there in the morning, while they search for us and while we search the sewers for the venom."
"Oh I see." and Lloyd tosses his wrapper in the fire.
They quickly changed the subject and discussed how Lloyd unleashed the serpentines. Lucas found it fascinating that his cousin wanted to be like Garmadon, until they betrayed him and then he became the green ninja. Lucas pulls out his flute, brings the mouth piece to his lips, and blows through to make music.* Lloyd listened to sweet music that Lucas played with calm hands, until he let out a yawn. Lucas saw the yawn and stopped playing.
"Don't push yourself Lloyd." Lucas says and places the flute back inside his bag, "You'll need your energy for tomorrow."
Lloyd nodded as his eyes were drooping and laid on his mat, using his bag as a pillow, and drifted into sleep. Lucas watched his cousin sleep peacefully, but remembered in his past that this was the same kid he harmed with his sai's, kidnapped for his uncle, and nearly turned him evil. And those to protect him were his brother's; but now it's the other way around now, he's protecting him from the others. He shakes it out of his head and watch the fire slowly die off. As the last ember flickered its life out, the fire was left with no heat, but in smoke. Lucas laid down on his mat, used his bag as a pillow, and begans to wonder if his plan may work. He cleared his head as he knows his plan will work, closed his eyes, and drifted into slumber.
* I was listening to this flute melody from the Lord of the Rings series and I thought this was a beautiful song for my character to play on his flute. Type in this link and listen to it while reading that part. watch?v=3Sbnun3juUs on youtube. Let me know how it was.
Also has anyone seen the finale battle? Pretty epic wasn't it?