Hope was stretching as the others walked in.
"Hey, Hope. What's going on?" Ace asked.
"I'm just stretching. We're doing the climbing wall for Gym class today." Hope said.
"I see. Well try not to get Vertigo, okay?" Ace asked.
"I won't. I don't climb that fast." Hope said. "You ready for some Rock Climbing, David?"
"Uh huh. I'm a pretty good climber myself, so I shouldn't have too much of a problem." David said.
"Well, I'm pretty sure I can one up the two of you." Asta said.
"Do you have to one up people on everything?" Hope asked.
"Uh, last I checked, you didn't make it past the first round in Furious Sports either." David said.
"Tennis was your forte anyway. Besides, Illuma was way out of most of our leagues." Asta said.
"Tell me about it. It was only through sheer endurance that we were able to beat her." David said.
"Yes you did, but most of the stadium got destroyed in the process, which was accidental." Simon said. "Look, let's not fight amongst ourselves and just have good time at rock climbing, alright?"
"Kinda hard to do when you got people as competitive as these guys." David said.
"Right. But not every sport has to be competitive all the time, sometimes you just enjoy it and have fun. That's all." Simon said.
"Tell that to Ulrich. He's been trying to get the edge over William so much that it's hard to see when he isn't competitive on him." Mayumi said.
"I just hope he doesn't do anything stupid today." Akane said.
Later in Gym class, Odd just finished up his run.
"I'm the King of the World!" Odd valiantly proclaimed.
"Well come on down and let someone else have a turn, "your majesty"." Aluche joked.
Smiling, William went up to Ulrich. "First one to to the top."
"Yeah...you're on." Ulrich said as both started climbing.
"I knew he was gonna do something stupid…" Hope sighed.
"Come on Ulrich! You rule man!" Natsu said.
"Wait, something's up." Wendy said as Ulrich was starting to slow down with his climbing.
"I've seen this before. I think he's getting vertigo. He's afraid of heights, isn't he?" Flamberge asked.
"Definitely. But it looks like he's gonna fall!" Aluche said.
"He's falling." Jesse said.
"I got him!" Aluche said as she dashed in and caught Ulrich in time.
"A girl saved a boy!" One of the boys in class said as they laughed.
"Is it supposed to be that funny?" Aluche asked as she gave them a death glare.
"It's the death of his manhood!" another of them said as they kept it up.
"At least he actually has a girl. How many of you can say that?" David asked.
Many of them just looked away.
"Yeah. That's what I thought." David said. "You doing okay, Ulrich?"
"Fan-tastic. But, thanks for the save, Aluche." Ulrich said.
"No problem. We're just glad you're okay." Aluche said.
"I'm not okay." Ulrich said as he took off running.
"Man… He took it all worse than we thought." David said.
"I'm sorry. I was only trying to help." Aluche said.
"You did the right thing, but Ulrich doesn't take Humiliation well. I don't think any of us do." Indigo said.
"She's right. Just...give him some space. He'll be fine." Lacy said.
"Alright." Aluche said.
"On another note, there's been some sighting of strange things in the woods. I was gonna check it out. Anyone wanna come?" Zexi asked.
"The woods? Yeah, no. Every time one of us goes in there, there's always trouble like a bear or something." Indigo said.
"I will go with you, Sir Zexi." Lilliana said.
"You sure you two will be okay in the forest together?" Flamberge asked. "I'd better come too, just in case a little firepower is needed."
"Alright, thank you Lady Flamberge." Lilliana said.
"Berge, this cannot be stressed enough, but...please be careful out there." Francisca said.
"Chill, Franny. I'll be okay… no pun intended with that Chill reference though…" Flamberge said.
"Let's go." Zexi said as they headed out.
Upon entering the woods, the three of them look around cautiously as Zexi looked at some tracks at the ground.
"Hmm. Several paw prints. And it looks like the same animal. Only one thing...wolves." Zexi said.
"Oh my. What should we do, Sir Zexi?" Lilliana asked.
"It's strange. They normally never come this close to settlements. Something's wrong." Zexi said before they heard croaking. "Huh?" He asked before stepping out were several bipedal frogs with bulging orange cheeks. "Croagunks?"
"Another attack from Viperia? This isn't good." Lilliana said.
"Ah...so we have finally found some of these Dimensional heroes." A voice said as standing on a tree was a purple frog with red claws on its hands. "I am Toxicroak of the five ninja masters. Now...you die!" he said leaping down.
"Ultimate Color Blinding Fist!" Zexi said punching at Toxicroak as he jumped back covering his eyes.
"Sir Zexi, we must fall back and let the others know!" Lilliana said.
"No way! If my master were here, he'd stand and fight!" Zexi said.
"Yes, but we're completely outnumbered here. Even if we fought them all we may not have enough energy to escape." Lilliana said.
"I'm not running either." Flamberge said.
"If I were to run here...I have no right calling myself Jexi's successor!" Zexi shouted.
"If I ran, how could I face my siblings, and call myself the Bringer of Flame?" Flamberge asked. " Lillianna, you have to understand, you can't run if there's something you can fight for."
"I...suppose you're right. If I run now, I wouldn't be able to look Al and Rue in the eye. I shall fight too then." Lilliana said.
"Attack!" Toxicroak ordered as the Croagunk jumped at them.
"Ultimate Color Whirlwind Kicker!" Zexi shouted swinging a leg sending them all flying.
"We're not letting you get away!" Lilliana said as she stopped time around Toxicroak, freezing him. "Lady Flamberge, now!"
"You've got it! Burning Spiral!" Flamberge called as she flew like a flaming torpedo at the Toxicroak. "Zexi, the final blow is all yours!"
"Ultimate Color…" Zexi said bringing his arms back. "Final Launch!" He shouted hitting Toxicroak sending him flying very far away.
"Sir Zexi, Lady Flamberge, we did it." Lilliana said as she took hold of each of their hands and smiled.
"That leaves only four ninja masters, right?"
"But first...anyone of you guys wanna be next?" Zexi asked the remaining Croagunk before they ran.
"Guess not." Flamberge said.
"Hard to believe there were ninja waiting for us. That was awesome." Zexi said.
"Awesome? We almost died of poison. But this is you, after all." Flamberge said.
"But we managed to push through against them. Let's head back, I think the others are waiting for us." Lilliana said.
"I think that might wait." Zexi said seeing wolves starting to surround them. "Seems they were waiting for us to finish before they strike."
"Not good." Flamberge said as the wolves pounced on them. But before they could bite, they froze for a moment before some vanished as others fell to the ground as a black substance left their bodies. "Huh?"
"XANA must've possessed these poor wolves to attack us, but it seems Aelita managed to deactivate the tower that was used." Lilliana said.
"Good… I didn't wanna hurt animals today." Flamberge said. "What? The Kingdoms are an execption!"
"We weren't thinking about that." Zexi said.
"I know it's just that…" Flamberge said.
"Hey, you have your business, we have ours." Zexi said. "Let's just head home."
"Yes. I'm sure the others will be happy to hear we defeated one of the Ninja Masters. Although, they be worried as well." Lilliana said as a white dome expanded, taking them back to Ulrich's rock climbing match against William.
"So how'd it go you three?" Aluche asked.
"Perfectly. One of the ninjas is taken care off. Nothing to worry about." Flamberge said.
"And there's still 4 remaining, but we will be able to deal with them, hopefully." Lilliana said.
"No...we can deal with them." Zexi said.
"Isn't that what I said, Sir Zexi?" Lilliana asked.
"There was some doubt in what you said." Zexi said.
"Sorry. I know we will able to deal with them, we just have to be careful about it, that's all." Lilliana said.
"And they call me overcautious." David said as he caught Ulrich as he fell.
"I'm sorry. I'm not very good at bringing people's spirits up." Lilliana said.
"It's okay. Were still happy you're part of Ace's team. You're a great friend." Hope said.
"Thank you, everyone." Lilliana said before she and the others saw Ulrich pull out a spider, frightening William.
"Who would've thought that William is afraid of spiders? Way to exploit that, Ulrich." Flamberge said.
"Yep. Looks like Ol' Spider Man and I are even now." Ulrich said.
"Color Gods, I love those pop culture references." David said.
"Speaking of, Aelita actually turned completely invisible before we fixed the cure we programmed." Miu said.
"She could've been like Sue from the Fantastic 4." Aluche said.
"I'm just glad she's back to normal. But it's back to the drawing board for that Anti-Virus." Hope said.
"Looks like it. We'll find a cure for the virus...someday." Miu said.