Ch 6
Looking over the outfit in the mirror, Alex admired the design of the Green Ninja outfit. The green complimented her eyes, while the gold accents on the armor really took the whole ninja style to a new level. She smiled, adding her dagger to the belt at her side, and headed for her first training lesson, which Nya had reminded her of about ten minutes ago.
Speaking of which, Nya was waiting outside the room to inspect Alex in the outfit. As she stepped out, Nya gave a wide smile. "It looks great, now put up the hood as the last touch." Alex obliged, and lifted up the mask, which was soft against her face and allowed her to easily breathe.
"Awesome. I think this Green Ninja is ready to show off some skills! C'mon, let's go." Nya led Alex up deck to where Cole was waiting for them. The other three were busy sparring, using their elemental weapons and a strange twister that complimented their gi color.
"About time. Girls always seem to want to make everything look perfect. We're only training." Cole looked exasperated, but there was a playful look in his eyes. Alex smiled and retorted, "Just want to learn how to defeat my enemies in style."
Cole and Nya both laughed, and Nya responded with, "Well good luck in training, and try not to beat up on her too much Cole. She is the chosen one."
"Yeah, yeah, don't worry."
Once Nya had left, Cole turned to Alex, "Well, I think we'll start off this lesson with you finding a weapon best suited for you."
"No need. Already got my dagger." Alex pointed to her belt.
"That works, but you never know what you'll find here," Cole said as he lead her to a room full of different kids of weapons. "Take your pick."
Alex examined each weapon with interest. She had always felt comfortable with bladed weapons, so that eliminated some options. She grabbed a pair of butterfly swords, testing their weight in her hands, Possibly, but let's move on.
She tried a lethal looking axe, but the weight felt a little overbearing. The bo staff she grabbed ended up flying around the room, barely missing the two, and Cole had immediately steered her away from that sort of weapon. Alex finally looked to a bow and sheath of arrows, which seemed like an interesting change of pace. "Can I try this one out?" she asked Cole. "Why not? Target's outside."
He led her to the target, and Alex began to position herself with the bow. The string wasn't too tight, and the bow felt fitted, so she fitted an arrow, aimed, and let it fly... into the floorboard of the ship a few feet in front of the target. "What do you think?" she asked Cole. "Maybe, have you tried throwing your dagger before?" "A couple of times, but I'm not sure I'm very accurate." Cole looked at her, "I think you'll be fine. You did kind of look too tense using two separate tools."
Alex took her dagger, aimed again, and... the knife hit the target straight on. "Nice! Bull's-eye!" Alex took a bow and went to retrieve the dagger. Feeling good about herself, she turned away from the target, "Let's try this looking away." She flung the dagger, and heard a yell, as well as Cole's laughter. When Alex turned around, she saw her dagger and a freaked out Jay; apparently the knife had been way off, and had missed Jay's nose by an inch.
"I get that you're just starting out but can you PLEASE avoid killing me?" Jay asked, as Kai and Cole chuckled and Zane merely strode up to the knife, and handed it back to Alex.
After Cole had finished, he looked to Alex, "Well, as long as you don't look away, you seem pretty handy with the dagger. Do you want just that, or maybe another blade?"
Alex went back to the room and chose a pair of butterfly swords to use as an additional weapon. "All done?" Cole asked. Alex nodded. "Good, now we can begin."
Cole took her to a sort of training obstacle course inside the Bounty. "Here is where you can begin to learn Spinjitzu. Just complete the obstacle course in the shortest amount of time possible. Can you handle that?" Cole looked to Alex. She looked back and nodded, and made her way to the beginning of the course.
"Ready? Go!"
Alex quickly began the course, only to get knocked off her feet and land face first on the floor. Cole chuckled a bit, "Don't worry about it, took a while for me and the others to grasp the idea too. Try again."
Alex tried again, making it a little bit farther before becoming acquainted with the floor. She kept up this way for a couple of hours, each time progressing a bit further. Dodge, punch, jump, c'mon almost there, don't give up now.
By the time she finally finished, Alex felt exhausted and bruised, but proud at her accomplishments. "Well look at you, you learn fast. Bet Kai will be happy to know you beat his record on this course." Cole smiled, "Well done."
Alex gave a small smile back, "But seriously, how does this help me create a tornado?" Cole looked to her, "Apply what you learned from the course and work out the movements. Then you'll see what happens."
Alex began to use her muscle memory to work out the movements. First here, then there, here comes the dummy. Before she knew it, Alex was surrounded by a flow of green, and laughed out in excitement. "I did it! I actually did it! I... whoa!" In her excitement, Alex lost control of the tornado and spun out onto the floor, dizzy and exhausted.
"I... did it..." she panted out, and Cole laughed, "Yeah, chosen one, you did."
He helped her up onto her feet slowly, and then said, "Well I think that's enough for today. You've really come far, and your past fighting experience helps the process become a little easier. Great job today." Alex smiled, "Thanks; for teaching me and for putting up with my antics." Cole smiled back, "It's cool. To be honest you're a lot easier to handle when you're not hanging off the side of the ship." Alex rolled her eyes and laughed, "Aren't you hilarious."
The two made their way inside, Alex heading straight for the shower. On the way she bumped into a dark figure: Lord Garmadon. "Sorry," Alex said, moving out of the way for the dark lord to pass. He glared at her for a moment before leaving, muttering under his breath. Well someone's cheerful, Alex thought as she entered the bathroom and began to clean herself. What was the guy's problem? The only thing she ever did to him was existed, and the incident that just occurred.
As she was changing, Alex began to wonder if it was because of the whole Green Ninja thing. She was supposed to vanquish evil, so that would include Garmadon, so maybe he had already begun to treat her like an enemy. Well fortunately for him she had just received the memo, since Alex knew she was the wrong person to mess with, especially when someone messed with others that meant something to her.
It was then that Alex truly believed that she trusted her new team. They seemed so accepting and so laid back with having her become part of the group, and they had seemed understanding of her troubled past, since they never mentioned it after that moment. Alex felt glad to be accepted; she liked these guys and now she was sure that they liked her too.
After a nice dinner, courtesy of Zane, who was by far the best cook ever, and a video game tournament with her and Lloyd versus Jay and Kai, Alex fell asleep with a smile on her face and a mind filled with emotions she hadn't experienced in so long. When she woke up, she happily donned on her Green Ninja gear and headed for the training room.
When no one appeared to be there, Alex headed for the bridge, where she found the others, who were looking grimly at a highlighted map on the screen.
"Whoa, what's with all the long faces?" Alex inquired as she walked up to the others.
Kai turned to her with a somber look on his face, "The Serpentine are at it again."
So yes, I brought the Serpentine into this. The next chapters will coincide with the series, staring with the episode All of Nothing. I don't know if I'll stick to the series completely, but for now, it will.
Hope you enjoyed this chapter, because I put a lot of work into writing this stuff today, since with semester finals and bowling season ending, I'm not going to have time for the story until possibly later this week. Not entirely sure about when, but I'll get at least one chapter up.
Thank you for your consideration and I hope you enjoy this story
