Chapter 35 Strung Along
Show Ninjago
In Chen's manor, Buddy Kai let out a growl of frustration.
Yet another room searched and no sign of Yesterday's Tea.
Beside him, his twin sister was growing equally frustrated.
"That's all of the off-limits rooms," Cyan Nya said, "and we haven't found a single tea leaf."
"It's gotta be somewhere," Kai said, not ready to give up just yet. "Is there anywhere else we can look?"
"Skylor might have a better idea," Nya said. "But off the top of my head, maybe that weird cult chamber in the dungeons. We've checked everywhere up here, so down there is the only place left."
Kai grimaced. "Yeah, and down there is where all the guards are."
They had been lucky so far in their search that almost all the guards were busy outside Chen's manor trying to find the Fuchsia Ninja and Luh-Loyd as well as monitoring the tournament. This left the inside of the building sparsely protected and let them sneak around fairly easily.
The dungeons, however, were a different story.
They weren't sure why (though it couldn't be anything good), but the tunnels below the manor were swarming with Chen's goons.
"Guess we have to brave it," said Kai, knowing it was the only place they hadn't looked.
Nya nodded in agreement, before turning to start walking.
Kai stared after her. He knew he was bad at directions, but- "Uh, Sis? I think the dungeons are that way," he said, pointing in the opposite direction that Nya was going.
"They are, I'm just running to the kitchen for snacks and drinks," Nya replied. "That way I can explain why I'm down there. If they found Zen and Lloyd, then they're probably a little suspicious of Kabuki wandering around for no reason right now."
Kai nodded, seeing the logic in that, and followed after his sister.
Still, the twins both couldn't help but feel like they might be walking into the belly of the beast.
There was a light at the end of the tunnel, and it was the most beautiful thing Cliff Cole and Zen Zane had ever seen.
They also knew it had to be a trap. No way Chen hadn't posted some of his men at all the entrances of the cave to catch them.
Still, if they wanted to help their friends, they needed to spring that trap.
As the ice dragon faded from Zane's sight, he glanced over at Cole. "How are you feeling?" he asked, running a health scan as he did so to check his injuries from the cave in.
"Well, my head's still aching, and, man, am I going to be sore tomorrow, but I think I can manage," Cole replied, hefting his stone hammer up into a ready position, before glancing back at Zane. "You?"
Zane twirled one of the sai Luh-Loyd had Master-Built for him in his hand and nodded. "I am fine. In some ways, better than I have been in a while, minus the lack of my element."
Cole nodded remembering that revelation in the caves.
Zane's eyes then narrowed in determination and the LEDs in them glowed dimly. "Let's take care of this so I can get back to my brother."
"You got it," Cole agreed, tugging his mask over his face as Zane did the same next to him.
As quietly as they could, they crept up to the entrance of the cave. Ducking behind a rock just inside the mouth, they peered out to see two bored guards standing there.
"Aw man," said one of the guards. "I can't believe Eyezore stuck us with this crummy job. We always get the crummy jobs!"
The other sighed. "Well, if a foot soldier like Eyezore can move up the chain of command, why can't we?"
"We aren't the ones who managed to get that tea onto the Green Ninja," said the first guard pointedly.
"True," said the second. "That would be tough to beat. Still, the guy's only got one good eye and we've each got two. We could spot a ninja twice as fast as he could."
The two ninja that the guards' eyes couldn't seem to spot exchanged a quick glance making a note of that name and description to ensure he got extra payback by the time this was through.
"But he's got a mohawk," said the first guard in admiration. "And his name, Eyezore. It's got a real ring to it and it's practical, you know, what with his creepy sore eye and all."
The second guard suddenly bounced in place excitedly. "That's it! That's it! We need names! You know, something that will make us stand out."
As the two guards began brainstorming names, Zane glanced at Cole in confusion. "I do not understand," he whispered to his friend. "Shouldn't they already have names? I do not think someone could grow to adulthood without one."
"Nah, they've got names, they're just trying to come up with more villainous ones," Cole whispered back. "Kinda hard to be taken seriously as a threat if your name is, like, Bob, or something."
"True, that is not a very intimidating name," Zane agreed quietly.
"But I'll tell you one thing," Cole said as the two guards seemed to settle on the names 'Chope' and 'Kapau'. "We are not going to be taken out by these chumps. On three?"
Zane nodded.
"One…" said Cole as he and Zane prepared to spring their attack. "Two… THREE!"
He and Zane burst out of the cave!
… Just in time to see Chope and Kapau slump to the ground after getting surprise-attacked by Princess Skylor and the Fuchsia Ninja.
Seeing the work already done for them, Cole deflated. "Aw man, you couldn't have saved one for us?"
The Fuchsia Ninja seemed to grin under his mask and gave a cheeky, "Surprise!"
"Snooze you lose, boys," said Skylor in agreement.
At that second, a new set of footsteps could be heard coming from behind Zane and Cole, approaching too fast to be normal.
The two ninja wheeled around to see a second Fuchsia Ninja sprinting towards them at superhuman speed.
"Wait what?" Cole said as the new Fuchsia Ninja skidded to a stop in front of them.
The Fuchsia Ninja that just came out of the cave huffed and said, "Typical. I finally found you two and you've already freed yourselves."
"Bad luck, my friend, but at least they are free now," said the first Fuchsia Ninja who was over next to Skylor.
Zane looked between the two pink ninja. "I… am confused," he said.
"You're not the only one," Cole said.
"Yeah, I haven't gotten a full explanation myself," agreed Skylor.
Cole and Zane were even more confused when the two Fuchsia Ninja pulled off their masks, revealing them to be the Griffin and Karlof from Skylor's Ninjago. "Oh, just our friend group doing a little Bunshin no Jutsu," said Griffin cheekily.
"Did you really think Morro would sit back and do nothing when his little cousin was in danger," added Karlof. "No, we all help. Always have."
Cole and Zane remained confused, but Skylor snapped her fingers as if she remembered something. "Oh, Bunshin no Jutsu, I've heard of that. It was in Master Wu's Ninjology book. Um, it's when Ninja all dress the same or dress up dummies to look like them so they can trick people into thinking they are in two places at once, right?"
"Exactly," said Griffin, giving a little congratulatory clap. "Someone's done her homework."
"The Pixals had it quiz them on it, and I might have read a few chapters too," said Skylor with a shrug. "It was actually a pretty interesting book if a bit too full of metaphors."
"Master Wu in a nutshell," said Karlof as he shoved the unconscious goons into the cave and began shoving a big rock over the entrance to keep them from causing any trouble when they woke up.
"So what now?" asked Zane, deciding to let the sparse explanation slide for the moment.
"Now we try to find Lil'Loyd and his dad, as well as any other fighters still free," said Skylor, turning to head back into the forest.
"I take it the tournament is officially over?" asked Cole, knowing this was coming sooner or later.
"Yes," said Skylor, grimacing. "Chen's having his men capture everyone who's left, and they've already got Spike, and my cover's been blown."
"So regroup and rescue," said Cole with a nod.
"But wait," said Zane. "Should we not attempt the backup plan?"
"What backup plan?" asked Karlof.
"Take Taffy back to your Ninjago and get some dragon back up," explained Cole. "Then full-scale assault."
Griffin whistled. "Sweet plan, but just one problem. Our goal is to bust that staff and get everyone's powers back. What do you think will happen if we get the chance to do that and you're off-world?"
Nobody had an answer for that. But there was a very real possibility that without them nearby it could mean Cole or Zane's powers could be lost to them if that happened.
Skylor then slapped her forehead as the obvious answer occurred to her. "Or we could, just, you know, call them!" she said. "Pixal's still over there. She'd jump at the chance to get in on the action."
"Freckles and Pep are still there too," said Cole, warming up to this change in his plan. "If you tell them what's going on, they can get the dragons to help out too."
Griffin, who had been rapidly transcribing the entire conversation to Morro over his phone said, "Chief and Lloyd say go for it," he said, holding it up for the rest to see. "With everything going on, we need those reinforcements yesterday."
"Yesterday may very well have been the optimal time to have them, yes," said Zane. So much had gone wrong since yesterday.
"Already on it," Skylor agreed, hitting Penny Pixal's contact information on her dimensional phone.
Zane then hesitated, and asked the Amber Samurai, "And… if I may, could I please request my brother accompany them? I… we have… There are things I need to say to him."
Skylor sent Zane a quick grin. "You got it."
Time to get some reinforcements.
DJ Cole groaned as he regained consciousness and immediately wished he hadn't.
Waking up to find yourself dangling over the edge of a cliff by a rope over the ocean will do that to you.
Behind him, Cole heard Red Nya groan, and he realized the two of them were tied back to back and bound together by Vengestone chains.
He could tell the exact moment Nya realized this too, as she gave an alarmed squeak, and wiggled a bit, trying to get free despite the sheer drop that would await her if she did.
Cole, meanwhile, glanced to the top of the cliff to get a look at the pulley system holding him and Nya up like a giant fishing rod, as well as the ones who put them there in the first place.
On the edge of the cliff face, several of Chen's goons stood grinning as one with a bad eye and a mohawk not so subtly held his hand over the pulley's controls.
At the front of all of them stood Clouse, smirking at them, though the effect was ruined somewhat by the large bandage plastered around his nose from Cole breaking it.
"Ah, good, you're awake," he said in a falsely pleasant tone despite the still nasally edge to it from his voice.
"Let us go, you-!" Nya started to say, but Clouse waggled his finger at her like a teacher correcting a misbehaving student.
"Ah, ah, ah," he said. "Poor choice of words, girl. I think you should reconsider what 'letting you go' would mean in this context before you finish that sentence."
Nya glanced back down at the drop, before turning her glare back at Clouse and didn't finish her insult, though, from the fury radiating from her, Cole knew full well the one she wanted to give him was a doozy.
Clouse's smirk only widened. "Good girl," he said.
Nya growled at him.
"So," said Cole, deciding to cut straight to the chase before his fellow captive could get any angrier. "Why are we still alive?"
Clouse turned his attention to the Earth Ninja. "Impatient, are you?" he asked mockingly. "So ready to meet your fate?"
"Just wondering how long you plan to string us along," said Cole with a completely straight face.
Nya's growl cut off with a strangled sound behind him as she realized his pun, but it seemed to have gone over Clouse and the other goons' heads. "Why does Luh-Loyd think you're cool!" she hissed at him so only Cole could hear.
Cole shrugged as best he could through the chains, which wasn't much but he knew Nya could feel the movement. The pun worked in keeping her head clear from anger. "Beats me," he said back. "But it rocks."
Nya stifled a groan. "As if I don't hear enough bad puns from my team."
"Sorry, they can't all be gems," Cole whispered back, making Nya kick him.
"Ah-HEM!" Clouse coughed pointedly, not appreciating their lack of focus.
Both teens glared back at him.
"Now that I have your attention," Clouse said snidely. "I may reconsider your demise if you can give me some information. Such as the location of your wayward friends?"
"We're not telling you where Lloyd and Kai are, jerkface!" snapped Nya, insulted he would even ask.
But Clouse only scoffed. "As if you would know where they are, given the fighters were scattered to the wind. No, we will find the other Ninja soon enough. I meant your little spy friends. Where are the Fuchsia Ninja and that blasted blonde kabuki girl?" he demanded, saying the last with an angry growl.
Cole gave Clouse a nonchalant shrug. "I dunno," he said. "Around."
"Around where?" Clouse snapped.
"Places," Cole replied.
"What places?" Clouse asked, quickly losing patience.
"There," said Nya, catching on to Cole's ploy.
Clouse's face was steadily growing redder with rage. "There? Where is there?"
"The opposite of here," said Nya and Cole in unison.
Clouse let out an incomprehensible string of growled curses, before fixing the two teens with a venomous look. "I see I can gain nothing of value from you miscreants. My time will be better spent elsewhere." He glanced at the goons manning the controls of the pulley. "Make sure they suffer before they die," he said, before turning on his heel and marching back into the forest to continue his search.
The goons all grinned and agreed, and began picking up rocks.
It was with that Cole realized what their slow and untimely demise was set to be. The cultists were going to turn their own elements against them while the vengestone kept them from fighting back. They'd pelt them with stones before dropping them into the frothing ocean below.
The irony was not something Cole appreciated, and he was pretty sure Nya didn't either.
"What do we do?" Nya hissed over his shoulder.
With that reminder he was still acting leader at the moment, Cole eyed the cultists on the cliff as they argued over who would get to throw first. "Can you move at all?" he asked trying to think of a plan. "If we can swing then at least we won't make an easy target."
Nya pumped her legs, which caused a bit of motion. "Yeah, some," she said. "If we both do it, we should be able to keep in motion. But what about getting out of here?"
To that, Cole had no clue. "Hope Taffy finds us before we drown," was all he could say.
"That's your plan?" she asked.
"I'm not usually the leader," he whispered back. "I'm out of my depth here, and am very open to suggestions."
Nya, apparently, couldn't think of any either and she groaned. "I wish I had my mech right now," she said.
Cole, however, saw the end of the cultists' Paper Scissors Clamp competition, and said, "Get ready to start swinging."
Nya was already kicking her legs, and Cole did his best to match her rhythm.
On the cliff, the goons pointed and scowled that they now had a moving target, but nonetheless, the first one lifted up his rock and prepared to throw it.
Cole and Nya braced themselves.
This was going to sting.
But before he could, a tree log erupted from the forest and caught all of the goons by the backs of their knees and sending them flying off the cliff into the ocean.
"STEEEEE-RIKE!"
DJ Cole let out a breathless laugh as Red Nya let out a whoop behind him.
Never had he been more grateful to hear Lord Garmadon's voice than he was at that moment.
A/N I am not completely back. This story is still on semi-hiatus while I very, very slowly work on the remaining chapters. I had this one and the next one written for a while (though I won't post the next chapter until my beta reader gets back to me, which might be a while due to injury). Anywho, I figured I might as well post this one rather than just keep sitting on it (also I drew a picture for it, check it out on my Tumblr).
Anywho, people are starting to coalesce back together to strike back against Chen. Buddy Kai and Cyan Nya are heading down to the tunnels, Cliff Cole and Zen Zane finally made it out of the cave and got Princess Skylor calling in some sorely needed backup. We find out what Clouse had in store for DJ Cole and Red Nya, but hopefully Lord Garmadon's grand entrance means they won't be stuck there for much longer.
Big thanks to my beta reader, Kay Hau, for checking over my work, and suggesting I end the chapter with Lord G's bowling skills.
Next Time: Red Nya is further irritated by DJ Cole's puns, Freckles Jay and Pep Zane get a call to action, and there's a family reunion.