"'We'll join your team,' I plant a smile on my face, as I look over to Paris, who forces out a smile. The ninja celebrate, walking up to us and surrounding Paris and I.
'Welcome to our team!' Cole mentions, as he gives me a warm smile."
The Next Day...
Paris' POV:
Waking up to rays of sunshine lighting up the room from the large window, I slowly force myself out of bed, removing myself from the warmth of the gray sheets. I let out a quiet yawn, as my arms fling up into the air to stretch. Observing my surroudings, I let out a small sigh, knowing that things will never be the same as it was days prior. I look over to a wooden picture frame that sat on my nightstand, with a saddened expression. I slowly picked up the frame, observing the people and happy smiles on the picture.
A shorter boy with ginger, gelled hair holding bright hazel eyes wore a neon blue pullover, while leaning towards the blonde girl standing next to him. He was placed at the second to the right of the picture.
An average-height girl with strawberry-blonde hair, wearing light-gray eyes, also leaning towards the ginger-haired boy, wore a light gray shirt with the sleeves covered in a mango-shaded orange. She was placed at the right of the picture.
A taller boy with curly, redish hair and deep, navy-blue eyes wore a dark gray shirt with a black jacket layering it. Staring at the person right of him, he had a smirk plastered on his face. He was placed at the second to the left of the picture.
The last girl, light brown hair with deep green eyes stood, covered in a yellow zip-up jacket. Placing her left arm on the shoulder of the boy with the red hair, she had a bright smile on her face. She was placed to the left of the picture.
Tears flowing down my cheeks, I bring the frame closer to my chest, before whispering, 'I'm sorry...' I slowly open a drawer in my nightstand, placing the frame in there carefully, before closing it. After doing so, I walked into the bathroom connected to my room, to clean myself up from my teary mess. changing into a gray T-Shirt and black yoga pants with a bright-yellow jacket over the shirt in the process. Leaving my bathroom, I walk out of my room to find something to eat.
Once arriving to the kitchen after looking all over the Bounty, I find Kai and Cole aready in there, having a casual conversation. I walk over to one of the cabinets, opening it to grab a Strawberry Poptart. Before closing the cabinet, I remove the wrapper covering the two-stacked poptart, not long after plunging it into my mouth. As doing so, Lauren walks in and comes over to me.
"Hey, Paris!" She smiles, as she leans against the counter as I did. With my mouth half-full of the strawberry Poptart, "Oi, Lauren!"
"Watcha eating?" She questions, while silently laughing. I grabbed the poptart wrapper sitting on the countertop and showed her it, before finishing my poptart.
"You always loved those." My attention was turn towards Nya, Zane, and Lloyd, who entered the area we were all in. Lloyd noticing my presence, smiles and turns his attention back to his friends. Hesitating, I plant a fake smile on my face, then changing it to frown once is eyes were away.
"Look, I know that you don't trust them, but they aren't a bad as you think. Just give them a chance, like you did before." Lauren looks over at the ninja, who are chatting away a storm.
I sigh, "Maybe you are right, I should probably tal-" I was cut off by Jay, who was sprinting into the kitchen, screaming, "I have an idea!" Running into the island that sat in the very middle of the room, and catching everyone's attention.
"What is it, Jay?" Lloyd putting his full attention on Jay, who was panting like a dog. "We should do a tournament! Like what we did in the old days!" Now Jay smiling like an idiot, Kai responds, "Some of us remembers how that ended."
"That was when we didn't know how to control our powers. Think about it, we are much stronger than before, and that was your fault that you almost burned down the Monastery, Kai!" Jay shoots back, leaving Kai in a not-so-happy mood.
"It has been a while, I'll join in." Zane says plainly, "Are you guys going to join in?" Cole looks over at Lauren and I, who were watching them from a distance. I look over at Lauren with a smirk, "Are you sure you want us joining? I don't think you'll want people as strong as us kicking your butts that easily." I say, the smirk still plastered on my face.
"Says the one who got themselves captured." Mentions Kai, "Hey!" Lauren protests and walks closer to the group. "I don't think you want to be put in your place from a master of Dark Magic, now don't you?" Her eyes become darker by each word of the threat, causing Kai to take a step back.
"Then let the best ninja win!" Lloyd announces, as everyone rushed to the deck of the Bounty, hesitating at first, I quickly run after.
"Hey Zane, can you create a bracket for the tournament?" Nya asks while running up the stairs that leads to the deck. "Already done," Zane replies with a grin.
"Who's going first?" Kai eagerly questions, as he quickly stretches and prepares for the battle upon him. "Jay and Lloyd."
Kai grunts, as Jay and Lloyd walk into the center of the deck to battle each other. I walk over to the end of the bounty with everyone else to watch the battle. Sitting down next to Lauren, we looked at each other, knowing the consequences if we were put to fight each other.
"Fight!" Kai yells out, spooking Jay long enough for Lloyd to attack first by sending an energy ball right at Jay's chest, sending him back. Catching his balance, Jay runs toward Lloyd and front-flipping over him, then to turn around and to shock Lloyd from the back. Leaning to the side, barely making contact with the lightning created from Jay's hands, Lloyd jumped back.
Generating another energy ball in the palm of his right hand, he quickly threw it at the brunette. Trying to stop the energy ball hurdling towards him with his lightning powers, he was launched back into the wooden pole of the Bounty. Lloyd walked over to him, and held out his hand and smiled, "I win." Jay grabs his hand and pulls himself up, as he sighs in defeat.
As Jay and Lloyd walked over to where we all were crowded at, I locked eyes with the greenie, who had smiled and waved, before turning to Zane. "Next, Nya and Paris." Zane announces, as he checks Jay's name off of the tournament sheet he had printed earlier.
Standing up, I walked over to the middle with Nya closely following behind. I turned around, "Good Luck," I smiled, as I stood in my fighting stance. "Fight!"
Nya was the first to attack, sending a large wave of waters above my head. 'Trying to flush me out? Smart.' I smirked, as I summoned light from my hands. Pointing the light towards the wave of water in front of me, I began to blind her from the shimmer of the water, before running to the side to avoid being splashed by the water being brought down upon me.
"Nice try, but a little water won't stop me!" Using the light that flowed inside of me, I summoned the only weapon that I ever used in battle.
The Daggers of Light.
Catching everyone's attention, I sprinted towards Nya at full speed. Sending spurts of water towards my direction, I dodged each one. Inching near her, I kicked her down and pointed my dagger at her face to prevent her from returning up from the ground. Smirking, I threw my dagger at the pole above her, landing on it before disappearing from thin air. "Nice try." I held my hand out to help her up, in which she took. "Good job to you too." She smiled.
"I'm not the only one surprised on what just happened." She mentions, as she turns to face everyone staring in awe. Besides Lauren, who was laughing at everyone's reactions. Walking over to Lauren, everyone was still trying to process the situation. "What? None of you have never known that you could do that?"
Clearing his throat, Zane breaks the silence. "Okay, next up. Lauren and Zane" I look over at Lauren, who's smirking at the fact of fighting a simple Nindroid as him, and got up. As she walks over to the middle, she sends a message to me. 'Oh, what easy competation.' Quitely laughing, the same word rang in my ears.
"Fight!" Zane scanned his surroundings, and began to freeze the wooden platform we all were on. Lauren watching his movements, begins to whisper foreign words, as dark, violet flames rose from her hands. Her eyes changing back to the familiar flaming red and black, as she rised from the platform. Continuing her spell, a black smoke surrounded the two, hiding the battle from the rest of us.
Moments later, Zane was thrown out of the black smoke damaged, with Lauren walking closer to him with every footstep. Zane began to stand up, despite his damaged parts holding back from breaking even further. "Not giving up yet? How peculiar." Smirking, Lauren began to cast another spell. A hand of smoke emerged from the wood planks beneath Zane and lifted him above the bounty, hanging him over the side.
Screaming, Zane screached, "Uncle, I give!" Lauren moved the shadowy hand and lowered him down to the platform while smirking. "There's more to that where it came from." Her eyes returned to her regular chocolate-brown eyes as she walked over to sit next to me. Fistbumping her, Zane announces the next two fighters.
"Cole and Kai" Cole, already standing up, walked over to the middle as Kai was sighing in relief, as if he was going to die from his impatienceness. "Calm down Kai, it's not like this isn't the first time that you will lose." Cole joked, in which it created a fume.
"Fight!" Kai threw a kick at Cole's face, full of anger. Leaning down, Kai's kick completely dodged him, quickly turning around, Kai found a boulder heading towards himself. Using his element, he melted the boulder just beneath his feet. While the boulder was distracting Kai, Cole had the chance to move to a different location.
Above him.
Sneakily climbing the pole, Kai was desperately looking around for any signs of Kai. Cole laughing silently, he jumped down, hitting his fists on the ground to cause the Bounty to shake. Kai yelped as he fell off the side of the Bounty, before grabbing on the ledge. Cole walked over to him, and began to summon another boulder, "Surrender, or this will be in your face." Kai frightened by heights, he surrendered. "Fine! Just help me up here!"
Putting away the boulder he had created, he extended his hand. Scuttering back up on his feet, Kai scoffed in defeat. "You know Kai, you could've just used Airjitzu to save yourself." Cole laughed and walked off.
"Round one is now finished. Final Four! First up, Paris and Lloyd!" Zane declared, as Jay worked on his left arm from his battle with Lauren. Standing up, I glanced over at my opponent, who seem to nervous. Smirking, I made my way to the battle arena, as did he. "Good luck." I mention to him, "Thanks, you too."
"Fight!"
Circling around eachother a few times, Lloyd was the first to attack by sending an energy ball towards me. Taking dive to the hard wood platform to dodge it, I scramble to my feet and quickly send a ball of light towards him. Staggering he lunges towards the right and summersalts back to his feet.
"Not giving up so easily huh?" I laugh, while sending another light ball towards the green ninja. Lloyd blocks it by sending his own energy ball towards it to stop the movement. "Not without a fight!" He begins running towards me, as he sends two energy balls at different times. Dodging both by performing a backflip, I find him up close, and throwing kicks and punches. Blocking each swiftly, I began throwing my own set of punches and kicks.
Soon after, we were in the heat of battle, kicking and punching like there was no tomorrow. Noticing the pole behind him, I flipped over him and spun aroud to meet him. Once he turned around, he snapped out his leg and jump forward, not notcing the pole standing behind me. Smirking, I moved to the right and watched him look over at me, before he plumets into the pole.
"Lloyd and the pole," I announced, trying hard not to laugh, "I ship it." The others bursted out in laughing as he slowly dropped to the floor. I walked over to him, and held out a hand, "Nice try." Pulling himself up, he silently laughed. "Heh thanks, you too."
"Next up, Lauren and Cole!"
As us four began to switch positions, the boys were still chuckling at the fact of Lloyd's defeat. I looked over at him, who was rolling his eyes at them. Smirking, I turned to the battle that was about to occur.
"Fight!"
Lauren starts off the fight, muttering words at a speedy pace, as a dark cloud surrounded Cole. Blinded by it, he was greeted with laughter, before multiple figures of Lauren stood before him. Cole tried to attack all of them by sending boulders at each and every one of them, only to be seeing that his attacks flew out of them.
Shocked momentairly, Lauren took the opportunity to strike. Attacking from behind, she threw a kick to the back of his chest, only to make him stumble and get his game on. Lauren quickly hid herself beneath the clones, acting as one of them. Glancing around, Cole randomly threw a boulder, in which it had hit Lauren, and caused the black smoke to dissapear. Furious, she scambled to her feet and attacked head on.
Throwing punches and kicks at inhuman speeds, Lauren began to take her advantage over Cole and his tiredness. By throwing one last punch, she had placed Cole at the coldness of the wooden flooring. "I win." She declared with a smile.
Slowly retreiving himself, he stood and gave a weak smile to Lauren. "Nice job," As both walked over to where we all sat (with most of us in disbelief), Zane began to announce the last round.
"Lauren and Paris!"
Everyone turned to Lauren and I, with a mixture of excited and curious looks of how the battle will play out. We looked at each other, knowing what to do. Standing up, Lauren and I walked over to the battle field, about to give the six ninja quite the surprise.
"Fight!"
At the same time, Lauren and I shot balls of our elemental powers near us, trying not to hit one another. After the first fire, we both just stood there and looked at our audiences. "Why aren't you guys fighting?!" Jay asked, with a hit of anxiousness.
"We can't," Lauren replied back, leaving everyone in more disbelief. "Why not?" Jay questioned once more, desperately trying to find answers.
"Our powers, if we ever started a fight with one another, the balances of dark and light will be unbalanced if there's a vitcor." I explained, "It's similar to the story of the Overlord and the first Spinjitzu master." Lauren added on, with me shiverng to one of the names mentioned.
Lloyd stood up and came over to Lauren and I, with the others soon following him. "We have our winners, Lauren and Paris!" Cheers surrounded us, as we looked at each other with a look of worry.
Will we ever have to fight?
