Hey everyone, happy Friday again. It is time for another update with a soundtrack. I think that this one sets the tone and mood perfectly for Cole at the ball. Type up the link, watch?v=GXP5q1hS_KI, and when you see the mark, *. Enjoy.
Chapter 4: A Ball that has Gone Wrong
The soft strum of violins filled the air. Roses decorated on the round, white sheeted tables to give off a sweet aroma. Guest of the party filed into the large dance room and mingled with one another. So far it's a ball than a party. That's what everyone saw together. But to Cole, he saw it as a waste of time.
After showing the valet their admission ticket, the Ninja were finally in the ball. Cole looked around the large area to think that he travelled back in time. The building was brick-walled to be authentic. The room was low lit by candles on the wall, but three crystal chandeliers helped flood more light to the center of the dark red carpet floor. An actual band was playing gentle violin music and orchestra music. And in the center of the building was a large area filled of hardwood floor to accompany as the dance floor. Cole knew now that he no longer thought about time travelling. He knew he went back in time.
Cole looked away from everything that makes the ball a ball to look at his right to see a stage in front of a large window. He saw that on the stage was a mysterious object covered by a silver sheet behind a podium. No doubt in mind that was the scientific discovery hidden underneath that sheet. But exactly what does it do?
A bell chimed from a clock tower outside and everyone became silent. The Ninja and guest looked over towards the stage to see a man walk up in a black tuxedo with a fox designed mask. Must be the host, Cole thought. I'll call him Foxman.
Foxman tapped the microphone on the podium to hear a high-pitch wail that lasted for a second and cleared his throat. "I would like to thank you all for coming to attend and witness our ball and discovery." he began. The guest and Ninja clapped after him like a thunder cloud. "My name is Dr. Thomas Blolasky and my partner Elizabeth Ross, who is somewhere in the building thank you too for coming." There were a few loose chuckles and claps. The man under the fox mask peered closely to smile. "I see that our honorary guest, the Ninja of Ninjago, have accepted our invitation. He clapped first and soon the guest joined after him to favor the ninja. Cole and the team felt honored. "Now," he continued. "How about we start off this ball with a dance with the Ninja leading."
Cole was a bit stunned to the uproaring cheers. To lead off the ball with a dance already. The others were baffled too, but quickly came over it. But the problem for Cole was that he didn't have a partner. Jay and Kai already had dates. He watched Zane ask a girl in a purple dress and mask that had an iris flower in her black hair. And next to her was a girl around Lloyd's age with black hair too in a pink dress and mask to show her chocolate brown eyes well. Then looked over his shoulder to see Lucas locking arms with a girl in a yellow dress with pink cherry blossoms in her curled black hair and a mask that looked like it was woven together by weeping willow branches to have her green eyes contrasting brightly. For once Cole had to admit that he didn't have a date.
"Care to ask a girl for a dance?" a female voice asked.
Cole turned his head to see who was asking to give out a silent gasp to what he saw. A girl around his age with raven black hair as his fixed in a bun with two decorative hair sticks inserted in the bun while the loose strands were curled and the bangs neatly trimmed. A black strapless dress hugged her slender body with heels shorter than Laurie or Nya's. A black mask with clear rhinestones as Cole's were traced in elegant swirls around her eyes and edge of the mask. And her eyes were a rich color of blue with smoky eye shadow and lips were red as cherries. Cole was stunned as he felt like he was recently shot with an arrow to the throat to swell it shut for him to talk. "Uh..." he stuttered.
The girl giggled to his stuttering moment. "Are you always this shy?" she asked. "From the earth ninja, I thought you would have more guts."
Cole shook his head clear to bring himself back. "Uh..." he stuttered again. He drew a deep breath to collect himself. He felt nervous as he never asked a girl out before. Most of the times he was assigned to a partner that hated his guts because he kept stepping on their feet to receive a kick in the shin. This was the first time for him. Nervously, he bowed with his right hand out. "W-would you like to dance?" he asked.
The raven-haired girl giggled. "You may." she said while curtsying like a lady and took his hand. Cole wrapped his arm around hers and escorted her down to the dance floor with his team behind them. He found himself in the center while the others were surrounding him and his partner in a circle and got into position. "I hope you know how to dance and start off?" she asked in a low whisper. There was a tapping sound and Cole saw the conductor preparing the ocherstra. "Grab my waist. Grab my waist!"
*"What...Oh..." Cole quickly placed his right hand on her waist and grabbed her hand with his left while she placed her left hand on top of his shoulder and both began moving as the violins began playing. He and his partner made a quick box as the tempo was fast and quickly shifted hands to make another box. Cole knew exactly how to dance to this sympathy as he was forced to participate the dances as always. The earth ninja looked away to see Blolasky joining the group with his partner, a female in a brown dress and owl mask, with an applause after them. Cole placed his hands on his partner's hip to give her a little hop while twirling and continued dancing.
The tempo began to increase smoothly as more and more guest weaved in to dance with the Ninja. Everyone seemed to be sync to the music as they began to dance in a circle. With the Ninja of Earth and partner in the center. Even Lloyd and his partner were keeping up with the dancing group. He kept looking at his partner to see her giggle as he whisked her away in a twirl and gently pulled her back into his hands to dance. The earth ninja began to feel his cheeks warm up as it was the first time he felt like this before. He hoped the others weren't seeing him actually blushing or at least his partner to feel embarrassed.
The dancers continued to waltz in the circle around the Ninja and gave their partners another hop. Cole heard the music slowly down and low and beginning to pick up the tempo to normal tune little by little and then gave out a burst of music. He knew the music was almost over. And to make it special, he looked at the others to nod. To finish the waltz, the Ninja surrounded them and their partners in their Spinjitzu of their elements and stopped as soon as the violins ended. And to Cole's surprise, he was tipping his partner under his arms to blush brighter.
The surrounding crowd applauded loudly to the Ninja for the dance. Cole pulled his partner to her feet and smiled and waved to the crowd as everyone did. The earth ninja looked at his partner to see her blushing a light pink and smiled back. He now knew what he had to do next from when he was forced to attend a masquerade ball. He had to reveal his partner's face. He gently placed his hands on her mask and slowly slid it up to be touching her bangs and smiled to see her face; high cheek bones and small nose and the blue eyes better.
His partner smiled back and slowly pushed his mask up to his forehead. "My my." she said kindly. "I guess the earth ninja does have guts to be a dancer and a ninja." She slowly brought herself closer to Cole's face and pressed her lips against his. Cole was taken by surprise on the affection and slowly lost himself until the warm lips left his. "Thanks for the dance." she said and walked away and disappeared in the crowd.
Cole was left dumbstruck in the center as the guest were walking away to mingle or dance to the soft violin music. He didn't know what just happened, not that she just left him, but what she did before that. She kissed him. He received his first kiss. He never felt this way before. He felt though that he was sucked in a vortex as he felt those red lips pressing against his and couldn't think straight. He's been on dates before he became a ninja, but never got to kiss on the first date. He now understood how Jay and Kai felt. He was love-struck.
The earth ninja felt something jabbing him in the ribs and looked to see Jay elbowing him. And he didn't like the look of that sly grin on his face. "Way to go, man." he whispered while winking. Cole gave him a small glare as he and Nya walked away from the crowd to find a table to sit. Lucas, Zane, and Lloyd lost their dates as they had to be somewhere else. So he wasn't alone now. The black ninja lead the team through the rows of circular tables to find one that wasn't occupied and could seat nine people till they came across one that was in front of the stage with a tag on top and labeled for the Ninja. "Sweet." Jay said. "Front row seats." and took a seat that had his name in front of it with Nya next to him. Soon after, everyone found theirs and sat down.
Once everyone found their seats, some slightly leaned against their chairs, while others were getting handshakes and congratulative thanks from the mayor and other guest. Some for keeping the city safe from the Serpentine, the dance, and even complementing their masks. After the fiasco, the Ninja were relieved. Zane slipped his mask off and rubbed his eyes to relieve them. "I must say that this was an extraordinary night to attend to." he said and placed his mask down.
"I agree, Zane." said Nya as she leaned closer to Jay. "This was a great idea. Now the entire team can go since Lloyd didn't want to go to the last one. He really missed you, Lucas." Lucas chuckled while ruffling Lloyd's hair as they sat next to each other. "So now it's the discovery and more dancing. Am I the only one whose acting childish to this?" she asked and received a few nods and shaken heads. "Well at least it's good to know my answer from half of you." She heard the violins being strummed to smile. "Come on Jay, let's dance some more." and dragged Jay away back to the dance floor.
Cole rolled his eyes while sipping his glass of water that was on the table. Dance, done. Scientific discovery, next. The leader kept turning his head to find the raven-haired girl he danced with and couldn't spot her anywhere. Where was she? Cole found it a bit rude that she left after the first dance, but she looked like she was in a hurry. But where was she though?
Cole cleared his thoughts of her out of his head and looked at Lloyd with a smug grin. "So Lloyd, I happen to noticed that girl you were dancing with." he smirked. "Care to tell us about her?"
"I could say the same to Lucas and Zane." Kai added. "Care to elaborate?"
Lucas rolled his eyes while Lloyd groaned and Zane just looked at them across the table. The ice ninja cleared his throat to speak. "My dance partner's name was Iris Rock." he explained. "And to answer for Lloyd's groan, his partner was her little sister named Korinna. And the reason why they were attending was because their father helped fund this mysterious contraption." gesturing the hidden object underneath the silver sheet. "Mind if I ask who your partner was, Lucas?"
Lucas removed his mask to scratch his nose. "Her name is Dawn Mori." he replied. "She's here because her mother is an archeologist and helped fund this discovery and ball." He turned to Lloyd as he slumped in his chair. "I got to say though but my cousin danced really well for someone who never danced before."
"Only because Nya forced me to." Lloyd complained. "But Cole helped me though."
Everyone looked at Cole as he smirked at them. "What?" he questioned them. "It was so he didn't dance like an idiot."
"Hey!" Lloyd exclaimed while furrowing his brows. And everyone laughed to his outburst.
Everyone listened to the slow music being played while those dancing to the music danced. The music slowed down and stopped and everyone applauded to the performance. Cole took another sip of his water as Jay and Nya waltz back to their table and seats. "Oh I feel like Melody in my book as she loves dancing." she said while removing her phoenix mask, leaning closer to Jay. "Anything we missed?"
"Nope." Cole replied and took another sip of his water. There was a high-pitched whine and the earth ninja began to throw a coughing fit as the liquid went down his windpipe. He pounded his chest while Zane patted his back. He no longer felt his throat burning and felt a bit shaky and waved Zane away. The earth ninja took a deep breath and looked at the team. "I'm fine." he breathed. He looked up to see what Blolasky wanted to announce and blinked in surprise to who it was.
His partner was up on stage with Blolasky.
The raven-haired girl tapped on the microphone as the lights were shined on her while the room grew darker and everyone took their seats. She cleared her throat. "I like to thank you all and the Ninja for attending to our ball and latest discovery." she began the crowd applauded. "For those that do not know who I am, my name is Elizabeth Ross. And my partner and I thank you all for coming. And we all thank you for the funding's to make our discovery become a dream come true." She turned to her partner. "Blolasky?" Her partner nodded and walked to the sheets and grabbed onto and nodded at her. "Behind this lead blanket reflects the radiation of our discovery. And now will be presented. We present to you the Nanomeds." and Blolasky pulled the sheet off to reveal the mysterious contraption while the sheet fell like a silver stream of liquid.
Cole couldn't believe it that his dance partner was one of the scientist who worked on the machine. He gazed at the egg-shaped contraption with a clear inflated bag with wires connected to another device that was rectangular shaped to fit a person inside it, but had a small pedestal in the center. Next to the contraption were a set of computers monitors. And on a small pedestal next to the computers was a frog croaking in a glass dome. The audience and Ninja applauded to the new discovery. But what does it do?
Elizabeth smiled and began addressing to the audience of the device. And to the long speech was on how the device works. Failed attempts with Roger's one through eight when coming in contact to the Nanomeds. What the Nanomeds were and how gamma radiation was gonna help Ninjago in medicine. Cole kept listening to her voice as he couldn't believe that the person he was dancing with was a co-founder on the Nanomeds at a young age and also kissed him. He suddenly began to feel different and kept looking up at the stage and gazed at Elizabeth.
Cole heard a groan from Lloyd. "This is so boring." the boy yawned while slumping in his chair while his eyes kept blinking.
Lucas looked down at his cousin and lightly nudged him in the ribs with his elbow. "Sit up straight and be polite, Lloyd." he whispered. "We all think this boring, but we're guest and have to be polite. If you don't sit up, I'll take your stash of candy away." Lloyd's eyes grew wide and quickly sat up like a polite young man. "Better now." said Lucas and ruffled his hair while his cousin was slowly slumping back down in his chair without him noticing. Cole let out a low chuckle and continued listening.
"And now, ladies and gentlemen," Elizabeth continued. "Blolasky and I shall demonstrate the Nanomeds on our frog again, Roger 9." The audience applauded until they toned down. "Blolasky?" Blolasky nodded and walked over to the monitors to turn them on and typed on the keyboards. Something flashed on the screen in the compartment and he walked over to inspect it. He peeked in and noticed a wire stuck to one of the vents and carefully opened the panel to reveal more wires and saw the broken connection. The lead scientist pulled the one wire out of the vent and twisted the two together. A small spark shocked him to make him yelp out a little and fell back. A small humming began to roar and Blolasky sat up to see the red light buzzing to life. Elizabeth saw what was happening to gasp. "Blolasky, stop it!" she screamed.
Cole watched the crowd become paranoid as she sounded distraught. Something wasn't going right. Blolasky quickly recovered and ran to the keyboards to pound on the keys to stop the machine. As he typed, he could hear a hissing sound as the vents were slowly opening in the chamber and looked at the screen to see them all, but the Nanomeds, opened. "Ohno." he gasped silently. Cole and everyone slowly stood up from their chairs as they were starting to become more paranoid. Something wasn't definitely right. Blolasky kept typing on the keyboard as fast as he could to close the lead doors to contain the radiation before it spread. But the monitor flashed error signs that it couldn't work. This was gonna end horribly. "Everyone get out before it's too late!" he screamed to warn them.
Everyone, but the Ninja, quickly scattered away as sparks began to emit from the machine. It was now a race against death from gamma radiation. Cole and the others quickly jumped into action and calmly evacuated everyone before they trampled over one another. The earth ninja looked over his shoulders to see Blolasky escorting Elizabeth off the stage and ran to the front of the chamber and grabbed onto the lead doors and struggled to pulled them together; hopefully to seal the doors. The sound of static filled the air and a rouge electrical discharge erupted in front of Blolasky and struck him in the chest to push him away.
Lloyd turned to gasp as the man flew back and landed on top of him. The small ninja felt himself crushed as Blolasky was passed out and couldn't remove him off; no matter how much he tried. "Lucas, help!" he cried to his cousin.
Lucas helped some elders out of the building and turned to the shout to gasp. His blood turned to ice. "Lloyd!" he screamed and ran over to him. Cole watched the water ninja run across, jumped over toppled tables, and even Spinjitzues to reach his cousin. The leader heard a hissing sound and saw a red light flashing and turned to see the vent under the plastic bag was slowly opening and gasped as the three were in front of the upcoming blast of light waves. He ran over to the stage to jump up and attempted to seal the doors himself, but no luck. Time was running out. He looked at Lucas as he tried to lift the unconscious man off of Lloyd and saw the bag was slowly being deflated. Time was now running out even faster.
The earth ninja went to the wires to see if he can pull them out, but nothing happened as the machine was in chaotic mode. He was running out of time of options to stop this thing. Cole looked at the bag as it was almost empty and looked at the reactor to ponder. He couldn't shut the doors, remove wires, nothing worked. His teammates were going to die soon if he doesn't do anything.
Until something came to him.
He looked at the chamber that looked like it could be blocked by a body to the stop the blast. But it was suicidal though. He heard that, from Elizabeth, anyone coming in contact with gamma radiation could die. But if there wasn't a way to stop it, it was his only option. Lucas and Rhea sacrificed their lives before, but now it was his turn. To protect the team as the leader.
Cole looked to his right to see the silvery sheet on the floor and back at the struggling water ninja to remove Blolasky off of Lloyd and had an idea. Elizabeth said that the sheet was laced with lead compounds to reflect the radiation away and saw it has a barrier for the three. He ran to snatch the sheet up and off the stage to aid them. When he reached the three, he looked at Lucas without saying a word. The water ninja looked up to stare at Cole with the large sheet in his hands. "Cole, what are you doing?" he asked. "Help me get him off of Lloyd." Cole didn't respond and threw the lead sheet over the three and ran back to the stage. Lucas thought it over what he just done and realized. "Cole, don't!" he shouted. "It's suicide!"
"I'm taking one for the team!" Cole shouted back and jumped onto the stage.
"Nanomeds entering the chamber." a computerized voice announced. "Warning. Chamber doors aren't closing. Please stay clear of area."
Cole looked over his shoulders to the now deserted room as all, but Lucas, Lloyd, and Blolasky, evacuated safely. Lucas and the other two will be safe under it. He looked at the chamber as he was committing the ultimate sacrifice to stop the radiation from spreading. He looked back at his memories like times he spent with his father and when Sensei Wu formed the team and named him the leader and earth ninja. Strong as a rock. And that's what he'll be. The strongest rock to protect.
He looked back at the bag as it was now deflated and the lights stopped flashing as a humming sound grew larger. Time was up. The Ninja of Earth quickly stood in front of the chamber and wedged his body between the doors. He felt a salty stray tear cascade down his cheek to the sacrifice he was performing and looked straight. He ignored all sounds and heard the chamber growing louder with a flashing red light. He remained still as he saw a flash of green light and then darkness as he fell back.
It happened.
Oh I love it when I leave you all in suspense. Do you all think Cole has survived or not? Who knows. Find out next week. Have a wonderful weekend and see you all next time. :)