Guess what? I'm back! ;D
Review Replies:
Jens: That's good to hear! Yeah, but Lloyd can't get off that easily. I still have to finish the season off. ;P
TheAmberShadow: At least, lol. XP
NinjagoMLP: Yeah, I know. He needs cookies. And the ninja definitely need to save him...eventually... ;P
"Mayday! Mayday!" Nya called out to her brothers as Bansha's unmistakable screams filled the atmosphere, emitting a sound-wave that sent chunks of ice fragmenting everywhere. Buckets of snow dumped from the summit above, followed by a loud, splintering noise. A wall of the mountain was coming down!
"I'll alert the others!" Jay responded over the cracking of ice and raging flurry of snow. It was increasingly becoming harder to perceive his surroundings, but Jay still managed to feel his way to the stairs leading into the hull.
"Man, I wish I could use my fire right now!" Kai shouted to nobody in specific, running up to the bridge. Someone had to maneuver them out of this mess.
"Ah! Melted snow means water, and water means bad news!" Cole dodged past sheets of falling ice, tailing after the red ninja. Turning into green goop was the last thing on his agenda—by far.
Another shriek rang out, and Kai froze. That was his sister.
"Nya!" The master of fire whipped around, panicked. Not bothering to use the stairs, Kai jumped onto the main deck, landing in a barrel-roll. Sprinting for the bow of the ship—the source of the sound—the brunette tripped on something, falling onto the deck with a jarring thud.
Upon closer inspection, he realized what he had tripped on wasn't just an ordinary something; it was Zane, a shard of ice protruding from the right side of his head. He was out of commission.
Shaking his head, the fire master rightened himself, rising to his feet. He squinted his eyes to see through the steady downpour of snow, but they widened when he caught sight of a hand sticking out of a pile of snow. It was Nya! She was buried alive, and if Kai didn't dig her out of there in time…
No… the red ninja made a beeline for the mound, sliding onto his knees as soon as he was near and initiating the process of upturning snow. He had to get her out. No exceptions.
"Kai! Get over here!" Cole yelled over the chaos, but the fire master purposely ignored him. "Kai! What are you doing?! You'll be buried alive!"
But before Kai could respond, another section of the mountain disintegrated, lurching the ship to the side and sending everyone aboard reeling. Immediately, Kai vanished underneath another shower of ice, getting submerged in its wake.
"KAI!" The earth ninja shouted as he lost his footing, toppling over as the Bounty began to slide off its pedestal and over the edge of the deep gorge below.
Another wall came crashing down, smashing through the roof of the bridge and sending pieces of wood flying in every which direction. Mortified, Cole watched as more and more snow settled overtop of the water and fire masters, ice creating holes in the deck and every other surface of the ship.
There was total devastation. How could he stop this? How could he rescue Kai and Nya in time? Were the others okay?
Time to try out his new ghost powers.
NinjaChief547
Lloyd stared in utter shock as the Bounty was immersed in heaps of snow and rock alike, the avalanche wreaking havoc upon the hull of the ship. For awhile he had been able to make out his friends' figures scrambling for safety, then nothing at all as a slab of mountain had collapsed on top of them. It was agonizing to see his team so helpless and unprepared, getting ambushed like this, but there was nothing he could do about it. He could only sit and watch in heavy silence as the skiff glided over snow. Morro had taken up the task of steering the ship with his wind, navigating it around the occasional rock or tree that popped up. And Lloyd could only stare in horror.
Once there was hardly anything left of the Bounty peeking out from underneath the the rubble, the ship grinded to a halt with a low groan, and Morro began laughing, as if proclaiming his undoubted victory. While he was laughing, Soul Archer and Bansha took it upon themselves to fly off to go examine the wreckage. Lloyd on the other hand, felt like crying and vomiting. This wasn't supposed to happen. His friends weren't supposed to be lost underneath tons of snow and ice.
"Give up yet?" the master of wind peered down at the master of energy once he had his laugh, who was fending off tears. It took the blonde all he had to look the ghost dead in the eye, though mustering the courage to speak was much, much trickier.
"N-Never," Lloyd stated, but his voice came out ragged and hoarse. He swallowed to salivate his cottony mouth, but it still remain drier than a desert.
"You sound confident," Morro remarked, and the blonde scowled, his vision clouding over with tears. Rapidly, Lloyd blinked to bid them away. He couldn't show Morro how defeated he felt. He had to remain stoic; at all costs.
"You know, you don't have to hide it," the ghost began, unsheathing the Sword of Sanctuary from his back and twirling it once. He proceeded to glance at its blade, and seeing nothing, decided to test its sharpness.
"Hide what?" Lloyd croaked, cringing at the scratchiness of his voice. Definitely not stoic.
"They way you feel," Morro answered absently, arcing the golden blade for the mast of the ship. "It's obvious you're broken. Everything you've ever fought for taken from you in the blink of an eye... Doesn't it feel terrible? Knowing that you failed the people you cared about the most?"
Shameful, Lloyd's eyes drifted down to his lap. The green ninja felt horrible—miserable inside. He wasn't there to lead and guide his friends, and now this had happened. Bile rose in the back of his throat, but he forced it back down. Now was not the time for self-pity. Morro was trying to get inside his head.
"You know that I can tell what you're thinking." Lloyd looked up, finding the master of wind's slitted gaze trained on him.
"How so?"
"I could read your thoughts while I was possessing you. Don't lie to me. You've always had a fear of being a disappointment, of not being able to live up to others' expectations. You blame yourself for the Overlord's return, your friend Zane's death, and last of all—your father's own banishment to the Cursed Realm," Morro explained in a cool tone, practicing more swings with his newly acquired weapon. "You know, if you'd allow me to free my master without conflict, perhaps I could help you free your father. It'd only be an…exchange, no less."
The master of energy could only gape at the ghost. A negotiation? Freeing his father? Working with Morro to curse Ninjago? Why was he asking him this?
For some strange reason, Lloyd found himself inquiring about such a bargain. "How would that benefit me?"
"The liberation of your father."
"Yes, but what else? Cursing Ninjago is a kinda big deal…" the blonde trailed off, giving Morro the impression he was actually talking business. But he was only probing for information, not a secure seat in the so-called "cursed" future of Ninjago.
"And…" Morro appeared to be torn by his next few words, almost even hesitant. "And I'd let you keep the green ninja title. I wouldn't make anymore attempts at stealing it." Lloyd perked up, but only for play. Really? Would he really do that? He didn't believe it for a second.
"But we haven't agreed on anything yet, so don't get your hopes up too high," the ghost added, slicing at the pole with efficiency. Though nothing Morro did or said could change the green ninja's mind. His decision was already justified.
"I'm not, because I don't accept the offer," Lloyd answered firmly, shifting his bound hands into a more comfortable position behind him. "You may be right about my fear of being a failure, but as long as I'm living and breathing—I haven't failed. There's still a fighting chance, no matter how fruitless a situation appears to be. When there's a will, there's a way. Always." Morro kept cutting away at the mast, his motions turning rougher, until he finally broke it off entirely. Scowling, he stalked over to Lloyd.
"How do you do that? How do you still have the spirit to look at the bright side of things?! Your friends probably are dead, and you're still so keen to fight?!" he shouted at the blonde, waving the sword fervently. "Even when I possessed you, I noticed this...this undying flame of hope! You always believed that your sad excuse of friends were coming to save you! How could you just tell they would arrive?!" he shouted with ire, letting the tip of his blade drop and scrape the against wooden deck with a grating noise.
The green ninja didn't have to ponder a single one of his questions. To all three, he answered with a single word: "Faith."
"Faith?"
"Faith," Lloyd gave a curt nod, and Morro frowned.
"Is that it?" he asked with his eyes narrowed.
"Yes."
In a huff, the master of wind resumed in his chopping, this time on what was left of the jagged-ended mast while he awaited his underlings to return. Morro hated to admit it, but he could see why the Writers of Destiny had decided it was Lloyd to be the chosen one. He fit the bill perfectly.
Yet he still refused to accept the undeniable facts. He was just as qualified to be the green ninja, perhaps even more so. And there was no way he was surrendering the title to Lloyd:
It. Was. His.
NinjaChief547
The master of earth came to with a spur, jolting upright. He was lying is his bed inside the Bounty, somehow. Had it all been a dream? Did they really get taken out by an avalanche?
After a brief glance around the room, his gaze locked on the sleeping figures of the water and fire ninja, both of them dressed their sleepwear and lying in the wrong bunks. Kai was lying in Lloyd's, while Nya was in Jay's directly above, and they were both submerged underneath a sea of blankets. But none of the other ninja were present. Huh. Where was Zane and Jay?
"Hey you're awake," Cole lifted his head at the deep voice, looking up to see Ronin enter the ninja's quarters. "And I didn't even know ghosts could fall asleep in the first place. Unless you were exposed to some sort of water and it sapped your energy somehow, then I guess it's possible. But I'm just taking a shot in the dark, so don't take my word for it," he chuckled, taking a seat on the bottom bunk across from Cole. The black ninja frowned.
"What happened?" he asked, genuinely bewildered. What had happened?
"What happened you ask? Either your plan to cause an avalanche backfired or Morro pulled a sneak attack and did the dirty work himself. None of us really know," Ronin shrugged, taking a bite out of an apple the earth master had just noticed he was holding. "We were down here when the incident occurred, so my details probably aren't accurate."
Cole nodded, but something with Ronin's supposition just didn't add up. "How did you know we were planning that? You left before any of us could start brainstorming."
"The blue one said so, but that's all I caught," the con-artist signaled to the door with a thumb. "He was talking too darn fast."
"Well, that figures," Cole remarked. At least he knew one of his brothers was alright.
"It's good he warned us in time," Ronin continued. "We found those two just in the nick of time," he gestured to Kai and Nya. "They were on the verge of hypothermia...asphyxiation... Ya know, the whole shebang."
Cole shuddered at the thought. That had meant they had almost lost two members of their team. "What about Zane? Where is he?" he asked, but the grim expression on Ronin's face didn't relay him a good message.
"Ironically, he was damaged by the falling ice. One embedded itself in his internal mainframe, shutting him down on the spot. According to Jay, it is possible to bring him back online, but it's out his league. He said that Nya usually specializes in that type of stuff, but if you couldn't tell already, she's not exactly up and running either," the ginger-haired man explained, and Cole frowned. That definitely wasn't good, especially with Morro out on the loose. With dwindling numbers, their lack of the Sword of Sanctuary, and Lloyd captured, things weren't looking so hot right.
"So how did you guys find me?" the master of earth asked after a moment, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. It was still strange to barely even feel his hand on his face, even though it was visible and he knew it was there. Just a light sense of pressure, nothing more. It was one of the many downsides of being a ghost. The only good things transitioning into a ghost had to offer was the enhancement of his other four senses. Especially his sense of sight, since he could now see everything so clearly, it was almost a bit overwhelming. Was every human's vision restricted? Or did he just have terrible eyesight to begin with? He didn't know, but this was certainly better than what he had before.
"We figured the snow had passed right through you, and we found you lying on top of it. How you fell unconscious, though, is beneath me." Ronin took one final bite out of the blood-red apple, before tossing it into the trash bin right next to the door with the flick of a wrist.
"Oh." Was all that Cole could say as his gaze drifted back to the lumps on the bunk bed across from him. They moved up and down with every rise as fall of of the fire and water master's chests—an indication of stable life. With a sigh, the black ninja lowered his head. Even though this had been an utter disaster, at least they were alive. It could have been worse. How much worse, the earth master wouldn't allow himself to think about. It was unthinkable.
"But we do have an idea where the tomb is," Ronin said at last, as he could feel Bansha and Soul Archer's presences in the room behind him. If all he had to do was lead the ninja in the wrong direction to reclaim his cursed soul, he'd have it back within the next day. Though if they weren't caught in the avalanche it probably would have been much sooner.
"Where?" Cole raised his head, his brown eyes steadfast and determined. Ronin cracked his traditional sly smile.
"The Caves of Despair."
Whew! Now it's time to rewrite the next episode with this plot incorporated! This is surely going to be interesting...so tune in for the next chapter! If any of you have any ideas of what I should do, feel free leave them in the reviews! I really have nothing planned from this point on.
NinjaChief547...
OUT!