It's Friday and I'm sitting at home instead of up at school which is really nice for a change. Okay, time for an update. Please enjoy.
Chapter Ten: Without a Weapon
Zane poked his head around the corner of a brick building. There seemed to be nothing unusual going on in the vicinity. "The coast appears to be clear" the nindroid said, turning to face his teammates. Jay leaned back against the wall and let out a long sigh, closing his hazel eyes. The metal nunchucks attached to his hip dangled lifelessly. "Perhaps we should continue our search elsewhere" the Ninja of Ice offered. "These mysterious foes seem to have Sensei on edge and I feel that we should attempt to find them as soon as possible."
"I agree with you" Laurie sighed, giving Jay a playful nudge in the ribs. The blue ninja's eyes snapped open and he coughed lightly. Realizing that it was only one of his allies he relaxed. Laurie could hear Nya laughing at Jay's reaction and she cracked a small smile. "We need to get a move on, Sleeping Beauty" the red head chuckled. "We need to look for whatever it is we're supposed to be looking for."
Feeling his cheeks burn underneath his mask, Jay crossed his arms over his chest. "I wasn't sleeping" he complained. His gaze fell upon Nya and his blush deepened. "I was taking the opportunity the calm myself and clear my head." The two girls just gave him a look of utter disbelief while Zane just looked confused. "Never mind" the Ninja of Lightning finished, conceding defeat. "Let's just get moving and try to find these weird stone people. I mean, how could people made of stone even move? Wouldn't they be just stiff and heavy?"
Laurie could barely hear Zane engaging Jay in his questions. Her thoughts were on her brother who was currently with the other half of the group. Was this new threat working with the Serpentine? Cole had said that they could not be too careful, that was why they had split into two groups. Laurie had of course wanted to be with Lloyd, but the black ninja had been against it. His reasoning was that if they did happen to be ambushed by the Generals it would be more difficult for them to kidnap both of them if they were separated. Yes, because that had worked out so perfectly the day before. The orange ninja let out a long breath and felt the muscles in the middle of her back tighten. It had not been the best decision to sleep on the chair after she had been injured.
"Are you alright?" a clear voice asked. Laurie blinked, looking up into the face of Zane. He seemed concerned, placing a reassuring hand on her left arm. "It seemed as if you were not presently with us. Is something on your mind, Laurie?"
Yes, there was a lot on the orange ninja's mind. She was still concerned with the sad truth that her time with her family was now limited. Her brother was being targeted by the Serpentine Generals. Well she was being targeted as well, but Laurie cared more about Lloyd's well being than her own. Of course, there was Rhea too. Despite learning more about the young girl Laurie still felt a little nervous around her. She had yet to discover the true motive behind Rhea's actions. "Yeah, I'm just hoping we find these stone people before they find us" she lied, giving the nindroid a smile.
"I don't think that's going to be much of a problem" Nya whispered, gesturing for the others to come towards her. Slowly, Zane and Laurie made their way away from the edge of the brick wall. The four teammates huddled together, scanning the street that lay in front of them. It was more noticeably empty than it had previously been. When had that happened? "Over there" the samurai pointed out suddenly, keeping her voice down. "I think that may be what we're looking for."
Well Sensei Wu had been accurate in stating that the creature was not like anything they had ever seen before. It was very petite, probably around Lloyd's height with a dark skin color that reminded Laurie of her father. Twisting, golden patterns adorned the monster's face, making its florescent green eyes much more noticeable. They were utterly blank and the orange ninja could not tell where it was looking. A red hat that was reminiscent of Sensei Wu's sat atop the individual's head, matching the red and grey armor that it was clothed in. It too was scanning the streets as if it were looking for something or someone, the crossbow in its left hand poised and ready to fire an arrow.
"That's definitely not one of the Serpentine" Jay added. The group could tell he was attempting to crack a joke, but his breath caught slightly on his words, revealing the hidden anxiety that lay underneath. "Do you think it saw us? I don't think it saw us. What if it saw us? I mean, it has a lot of arrows in that quiver on its back. What if we try to attack it and it just shoots us before we can even touch it?! What if…"
Nya held a finger up to her lips. "Calm down, Jay. If you keep this up it will notice us." Her eyes drifted to look at the creature. It moved slowly, walking down the street in a methodical fashion. "Is it looking for something?" she asked. The creature was not mindlessly rampaging through the city like the samurai had anticipated. No, it was definitely here for a reason; a reason that she was hoping they could uncover and quickly. "Maybe we should follow it".
Laurie's stomach did a flip. Follow it? Was that really the best course of action? Taking in a deep breath she attempted to calm her nerves. They had to do something with this thing. Sensei Wu had asked them to check it out, but it was not currently doing anything bad. Nervously, the orange ninja twirled her bō staff around. "I guess we could follow it if we wanted to" she answered, absentmindedly spinning her weapon. Her hair was blowing around her neck and she wondered why.
Suddenly, the strange creature flew off of his feet, smacking into a building on the opposite side of the street. Laurie looked down and saw that she had pushed herself backwards along the asphalt with the force of her wind. "Oh my gosh" she whispered, holding her bō staff behind her back. "I think that I just hit him…by accident of course."
"Well, I think it saw us" Jay piped in, giving Laurie a wary glance. She sheepishly grinned at him in return, feeling apologetic. She had completely blown their cover because she was trying to do something with her nervous energy. Zane stepped out into the middle of the street, eyeing the stone man suspiciously. Nya and Laurie followed suit, running to flank the nindroid. "Hey, guys, wait for me!" called the Ninja of Lightning, hurrying to catch up with his companions. The four teammates stood in a line, weapons out and ready.
The short individual managed to sit up, utterly dazed. His green eyes rested solely upon the four people standing in front of him. Quickly, he realized that one of these strangers was the person he was looking for. With a garbled shout, the stone scout stood up, procuring a single arrow from the quiver on his back and loading the crossbow. A small click resounded as the arrow locked in to place.
Everyone tensed up as the stone creature began to shout, gesturing wildly with his free hand. "I can't understand what he's saying" Laurie noted, widening the distance between her hands on her weapon. "Please tell me I'm not the only one." No one answered as the enemy fired a single arrow. It twisted through the air, its trajectory set. The gleaming metal tip caught the sunlight as Laurie quickly ducked, watching as the arrow flew past where she had once been standing. Her heart sunk.
Managing to grab another arrow from the quiver, the stone scout was preparing to fire again. Something metal whizzed by, breaking the arrow in half and burying itself into the wall behind the scout. Curious, he turned to see the shuriken before facing his enemies again. A knife sailed through the air and hit him square in the chest. Slightly taken aback by the attack, the stone man watched as it fell to the ground after its initial impact. He was completely unharmed.
"That didn't even do anything" Nya gasped, her eyes wide. "How are we supposed to fight something that can't even be injured?" She held out a hand to Laurie who gratefully accepted the help. The orange ninja stood once more, wondering the same thing. Nya's weapon had not even left a scratch. The knife had hit him in the chest. He should have been severely injured, but he was not. "What are we going to do?" the samurai continued, looking for the others to input ideas.
Laurie's mind was elsewhere. It had aimed at her, directed the arrow straight towards her. She frowned, feeling a surge of anger well up inside of her. Why was this happening? First it was Rhea and now this thing? Why her? Without thinking, the orange ninja leapt towards the stone man, not even hearing the cries of protest from her friends. She brought her bō staff around horizontally in a wide, sweeping arc. The enemy was taken off of his feet and hit the ground, arrows spilling from his quiver and littering the asphalt. "What do you want with me?" Laurie growled, bringing one end of her weapon down on the creature's chest. Her right arm shuddered from the opposing force of the enemy's body. It really was made of stone.
Once more, the stone man spouted out utter nonsense, forming strings of sounds that Laurie could not understand. Then he grabbed the end of the wooden weapon that was placed on his chest and tugged backwards. Laurie was thrown over top of the creature, her back hitting the brick wall just behind him. She crumpled to the ground, feeling the nerves in her back scream in agony. With gritted teeth, she attempted to get to her knees. Her bō staff rested only a foot away and the orange ninja stretched out her left arm as far as she could, attempting to grab it.
The stone scout locked eyes with his target, advancing upon her in her weakened state. Something smacked him in the side of the head, but he ignored it. There was the snap of an object breaking underneath of the stone scout's right foot. He raised it gingerly to see the girl's weapon broken. Ignoring this, he continued forward.
Tears welled up in Laurie's ice blue eyes as she watched Jay attack the creature, but to no avail. She knelt on the ground and helplessly watched as the mysterious stone man stepped on her bō staff, breaking it in half. That was her weapon, her way to defend herself. Now it was nothing but splintered wood. The small individual now stood in front of Laurie, his crossbow strung with another arrow. Fear and frustration coursed through her veins. This could not be the end, not yet. "Get away from me!" she yelled, holding her hands out in front of her.
Preparing to launch the pointed projectile at the girl, the stone scout readied his crossbow. He was unexpectedly pushed back by a strong rush of air, losing his footing and skidding across the warm asphalt of the street. The sun blazed down from above, causing him to squint his bright green eyes. Disgruntled, the stone man procured the red rice hat that had fallen off of his head and began making his way down the street, in the opposite direction of his adversaries.
Both Nya and Jay were by Laurie's side, helping her to her feet. Zane frowned as he picked up the two halves of the orange ninja's weapon. It looked like she was going to need a new one. "Are you alright?" the Ninja of Lightning asked, giving Laurie a pat on the back. She sucked in a breath and Jay immediately apologized for his actions. "I'm so sorry! Of course you're not alright and I just made it worse." Zane walked around to the back of his friends, dislodging one of his shurikens from the wall and getting Nya's knife off of the ground as well. "How did you do that?" Jay continued, his voice eager with anticipation. "You just blasted him across the street without any weapon!"
"I-I don't know" Laurie confessed, relieved that the radiating pain from the blue ninja's kind gesture was beginning to dissipate. She watched as Zane stowed his shuriken in the holder around his waist and handed Nya her crescent moon knife. The samurai thanked him, placing it back in the dark red sash tied around her waist. Everyone stared at Laurie who just gazed at her broken weapon. "I was just angry and scared. Then I pushed him away." It was all so surreal. Why was she able to use some of her elemental powers without a weapon in which to channel them through? Now that she thought about it, why was she able to even use her element in the first place? The others could not, with the exception of Lloyd of course. Her bō staff was not a golden weapon, so why was she able to channel her element? "Wait, shouldn't we be going after the stone guy? He kind of just fled".
The nindroid nodded his head. "Yes, we should go after it to make sure it does not attack any civilians." His gaze took in every bit of Laurie. There was the pain that was obvious on her face, both from the loss of her weapon and injured back. Her eyes held a flicker of fear and anxiety. "That is, if you are up for it. You have been getting injured quite a bit over the past two days. Perhaps you should attempt to head home and we will follow the stone man."
"No, I'm going to go with you guys" Laurie stated plainly, stepping away from Jay and Nya. She could stand and walk, it was just painful to do so. Attempting to hide this fact from her friends, the orange ninja held her hands out for the broken pieces of her weapon. Zane reluctantly gave them over to her. It almost felt like losing a friend, even a family member. Her weapon had been with her through so much and now it was broken, never to be used again. Inhaling deeply, Laurie dropped the two halves of her bō staff to the ground. "Let's go after him. If we run into the others we need to tell them about what happened. It's like these things are indestructible."
So this means during the next chapter we'll check up on the other group. It's only fair, right?
Oh and also, you don't have to do what I say, but I'm just putting this out there. My best friend just published his first FanFiction called "Fairy Tail Infinity". So...if you like Fairy Tail then maybe you should go check it out. I'm just saying...
Alrighty. Sorry for the excessive amount of noting today. Another update on Tuesday. Thanks for reading and have a great day. :3