Hey everyone, happy Friday, time for an update. So last week, I left you all in a cliffhanger, love doing that, and now the search for Cole begins. But will they find out it's him. Find out in this chapter. Enjoy.
Chapter 7: Searching for the Missing Brother
Silence. That was all that was heard. The streets of the largest city of Ninjago were quiet. Except for the hums of passing vehicles driving down, buzzing of neon signs and the soft footfalls of five ninjas and one samurai as they walked down the road near the center of the city; lookout for whatever took their leader.
Laurie gripped her wooden weapon nervously as she walked behind Zane, Kai, and Jay with Nya and her cousin beside her. She kept fixing her gaze around her surroundings to see lights flickering in the buildings, any movements on the streets, or the others. She was nervous on what she saw and thought of Lloyd. It reminded her when Rhea lived with them and had the two children stay when they went to find Skales and the other generals. But Lloyd had to sneak out and nearly taken prisoner if it wasn't for the small assassin saving him. She was worrying if her brother performed the same trick and crossed the dark green monster. She didn't want her brother getting hurt. Sighing, the red-haired girl pushed it aside in her mind and looked at her cousin. "So Lucas," she began to break the silence. "Lloyd has told me interesting things about you."
The grey ninja's gaze kept shifting to look for danger and stared his hazel grey eyes at her. "Oh…he has?" he inquired, his voice muffled a little under the material of his mask.
The orange ninja nodded. "He has told me about everything that happened when you guys first met as my father's apprentice." she said. "Is most of it true?"
Lucas looked at the second guardian to nod. It was true. Being Garmadon's apprentice. Kidnapping Lloyd to almost turn him evil by the Great Devourer's venom. Join his father as a ninja when he unlocked his True Potential to know who he was. Fleeing with Lloyd as the others were evil and sold himself to save the others from evil. Collecting shards to repair the Twilight Mirror. Being whipped for betrayal to have long scars on his back. And sacrificing his life to die in his father's arms after ending the Solstice Battle. But did come back to life to become Lloyd's guardian. "Whatever Shrimp told you," he said. "Is true. All of it."
The wind ninja looked at him and nodded. "Alright then." she said quietly.
Everyone kept walking down the roar in utter quietness now. Laurie didn't bother asking Lucas anymore questions about his past. The Ninja and samurai walked past the Doomsday Comic Store to hear the bright blue neon sign buzzing and flickering. Where was the green thing Laurie saw and said? There hasn't been any sign of destruction or cry for help. Where was it?
"Someone, help!?" a voice cried.
Laurie stopped to feel her blood turn to ice and gasped. She knew that cry from anyone she knew. Lloyd. He snuck out again and was in danger and no one was there with him. "Lloyd." she gasped. "Lucas, we need to find…" she paused as her cousin was right beside her was gone. She was confused. "Uh… Wasn't my cousin here like a minute ago?" she asked dumb-folded on how quick and quiet he left.
The others looked at each other to smirk underneath their masks. The Ninja of Wind was still confused on her cousin's disappearance and wondered why they were all smirking. They all heard Lloyd's shout, but then Lucas disappeared from the group. Why were they smirking? "Typical Lucas." Kai simply said while crossing his arms and shaking his head with a smirk. Laurie furrowed her brows in confusion on what he meant.
…
Lucas ran down the deserted streets as fast as his legs could let him. His footfalls echoed loudly from his shoes as he tore across the asphalt to save the one who made that cry. Lloyd. When he heard that scream, he had to run to save him from danger. He hated it when his cousin was in trouble; especially when sneaking out. He didn't know what he got himself into this time. First skeletons, Serpentine, Belinda, Serpentine again, then the stone people from when the others told him when he woke up from his coma. This time it could be the generals or worse, the thing on the Bounty. To that, Lucas became more worried and sped down faster with his sai's in hand.
"Someone! Anyone! Help!" Lloyd cried in the distance.
I'm coming, Lloyd. Lucas said to himself. Just hang on. and jumped.
The water ninja concentrated on his powers and felt cool liquid surrounding his body and felt himself airborne as his powers enable him to be surrounded in a jet of water to take flight. Something he learned after he save Lloyd from falling off a cliff in the Misty Forest after he kidnapped him and when he escaped to not see where he was running towards. Now uses it to escape from danger or seek out trouble.
The grey ninja felt airborne and loomed over the buildings to seek his cousin. He closed his eyes to concentrate on his hearing as water allowed to heighten his hearing and heard Lloyd's shout to the right of him and directed the jet to the direction. He scanned around the ground and saw something move into an alley and saw something green with it and had no doubt that it was Lloyd and dove to the ground to land in a crouch with his weapons in hand. "Now you have two options." he said coldly, voice sounding like malice and steel while lifting his head up. "Either you let my cousin go or suffer…the…consequences." his voice cracked in utter surprise to what was in front of him.
In front of him was a large, thick muscular, dark green giant with thick black shaggy hair with emerald green eyes. He looked three or four times larger than Cole would look. Even the black pants stretched to their limit to remain on. But what surprised Lucas the most was that in its massive hand was Lloyd, kicking his legs as the large fingers were pinning his arms to his sides all the way to his hips. Almost like a Constrictai. Laurie was right. There was something that was with Cole. But where was he?
Lloyd stopped his attempts on escaping and nervously smiled and laughed at his cousin underneath his mask. He knew he was in trouble for sneaking out and was gonna get a huge talk from his guardians. "Lucas, help!" he shouted.
Lucas stood there amazed to see this giant in front of him and shook himself back. "Give me back my cousin now!" he demanded. "Or face my bad side." The giant looked down at the puny human and shot glares at him. He simply growled and swung his free hand out at him. "Whoa!" the Ninja of Water shouted and ducked the massive hand and watched it slam into a dumpster like it was a tin can. "Alright you asked for it." he barked and jumped to his feet and charged at it.
The green figure roared and brought his hand back with a piece of the metal dumpster and threw it. Lucas saw it coming and jumped up to land on the brick wall and used the momentum to launch himself to the fire escape while the piece of metal was thrown to another alley. The giant screamed and reached up to grab the metal stairs to tear them off the foundation with Lucas on the floor above it. Lloyd felt himself being shaken like a ragdoll to the monster's movements and groaned as he felt his back slam against the wall. Lucas maintained his balance as the fire escape was breaking apart from below and saw his cousin. I got to save him before this monster kills him. he thought. The grey ninja felt the floor give way and jumped while holding out his hands and fired pressurized water from his palms to the giant and landed.
The giant groaned to the pressurized liquid hitting him in the face and released his grip on the boy as he stumbled back. Lloyd landed clumsily on the dirt ground and puddle and quickly ran to his cousin while holding his chest. He should've stayed on the ship because his ribs were aching after being shaken around. "I'm fine, Lucas." he lied. "Ninja Recover."
Lucas rolled his eyes at his cousin's fib. He knew he wasn't alright. Both the grey and green ninja heard a groan and turned to the thing as it glared at them and took a step forward. "Get behind me, Lloyd." he said to his cousin.
The giant took another step and clutched his fists tightly. Lloyd saw the threat and quickly stood in front of his cousin and brought his hands together and closed his eyes tightly. He felt power and energy swell up in his chest and shifted his hands to open his eyes and saw himself surrounded in a green aura orb. Lucas saw the power his cousin was using and took a step back. He had seen that power once when his uncle brought deceased pirates back from the dead to fight on the Black Bounty and Lloyd used his powers to cause the mast to fall on top of him to render him into the coma. "Light him up!" Lloyd shouted and clapped his hands to push the sphere forward.
The aura of green light traveled in quick speed and collided into the giant. He groaned and fell to one knee while holding his head like he was having a migraine headache. Lucas saw what his cousin had done to stun the figure and sheathed his sai's and grabbed Lloyd's hand. "Good idea to stun him, Shrimp." he complimented. "Just real quick, have you seen Cole before all of this?" Lloyd looked up to shake his head. Lucas groaned in annoyance to not find the earth ninja and looked at the thing as it slowly stood up, but fell to one knee still. The grey ninja studied the thing and looked at the hair to be almost like…Cole's. The bushy eyebrows. He averted his gaze to the pants and saw something gleam on the right leg and peered closely to see a silver dragon head textured like rock.
The Ninja of Water gasped in surprise. The hair. Bushy eyebrows. The muscular body. The black pants that looked like sweatpants with the silvery rocky dragonhead; symbol of the earth ninja. Could it be? There's a reason now why they can't find Cole. It made sense now. "Cole." he gasped.
That thing was Cole itself.
The small ninja looked at his cousin confused. What did he just say? He said that thing was Cole, right? That can't be right. "Lucas, what are you talking about?" he asked. "That thing isn't Cole."
Lucas ignored his statement and slowly took a step forward to approach him. Cole groaned to clear his headache throbbing a little and looked the grey ninja walking up to him and growled to take a step forward and reach out to him. The grey ninja saw what was happening and quickly raised his hands up to defend himself. "Cole, stop!" he shouted and removed his mask. "It's me. Lucas."
Cole stopped his hand and looked down at the one called Lucas. Why does he recognize him? Does he know him from anywhere? He looked at the brown-haired, hazel grey eyed teen and at his hand to look down at a puddle of water at his feet. The street lights reflect the dark alley to reflect the puddle to see his reflection and saw it shift to show his real face instead of green. He blinked in surprise and looked at Lucas and Lloyd. He now remembered them. They were his teammates. But what happened to him?
Lucas saw the reaction and nodded. "That's right, Rockhead." he smiled. "It's us." Lloyd raised an eyebrow on what was happening in front of him. His cousin claimed that the green giant was Cole. How? He studied around the body to an idea if it was him or not until he got this face. The thing has black shaggy hair and bushy brows almost like…Cole. He studied the face more to see the green eyes like the ones of the stone warriors that killed his friend Rhea and blinked in surprise when he looked closely to see it resembled Cole's face. The boy gasped. It was Cole. "Cole, what happened?" Lucas asked.
Before Cole could speak, if he could, he looked up to growl. "Lucas! Lloyd!" Zane shouted. Lucas quickly saw Cole's anger and turned his head to see the others running up to the alley with their weapons drawn out. Everyone stopped to gasp and felt speechless to what was in front of them.
"Whoa!" Jay screamed. "Laurie wasn't kidding! But what the heck is that thing?!"
"Oh my gosh." Nya gasped. "Laurie was right. But I don't know what it is either.
Kai shook his head back to reality and gripped his katana tightly. "Whatever it is," he said. "I say we take this thing down. That thing took Cole." Everyone brought themselves back, still startled, and charged towards Cole without knowing.
Cole clenched his fists tightly to the oncoming brigade and growled to the threat. Lucas saw Cole's anger and quickly pulled Lloyd beside him and stood in front of Cole to protect him. "Guys stop!" he shouted and raised and crossed his arms over his head. A wall of water sprouted from the ground and shielded in front of the three to stop the others. The water ninja slowly lowered the wall and stood in front of Cole more with Lloyd beside him. They could see the others were surprised to what they were doing. "This thing is Cole." he exclaimed.
The four elemental ninja and samurai looked at the grey ninja confused. Did he just say it was Cole? That's impossible! There was no way it was Cole. "Uh Lucas?" Jay said confused. "Are you sure that coma of yours didn't make see things and be crazy?"
Lucas shot glares at him and walked up to him to smack him upside the head, hard. Jay glared at him while rubbing his sore head. "I'm serious guys." said Lucas. "It's Cole. This...Hulk is our earth brother. Laurie said that it was in the room with him when it was him." He looked up at Cole and carefully walked up to him. Everyone saw what was happening and felt their muscles tensing up while gripping their weapons tightly. Cole looked down at him and huffed. It was like taming a wild beast. Lucas slowly reached out to his right leg and pulled the tattered fabric to show everyone the symbol. "Do you see what I see?" he asked. "The symbol of the earth ninja."
Everyone slowly relaxed and looked at the giant claimed to be Cole and studied it and looked at the symbol. Their mouths slowly dropped as they see it now. It was Cole. "Cole?" Zane asked. Cole looked down at his hands to not say anything. "It makes sense now. All of it. The tattered clothes were Cole's and he broke the wall to escape. It's like the apartment when Lloyd was kidnapped. But no one broke in to kidnap Cole because it was him. It would be the logical reason."
Everyone looked at Cole to think over the events and saw it now. The shredded clothes were Cole's due to his rapid growth. The bent floorboards from his weight. And for the hole in the wall, it was like the apartment, but different. If someone was breaking in, the debris would be in the room, not outside. Cole was the one to make that escape. And now the symbol on his leg, it made sense now. It was Cole.
"Well that's just great!" Jay exclaimed. "Cole is this Hulk that could've killed us if Lucas hadn't stopped us and even destroyed the city. How did this even happen to him?"
"Plus," Kai added and looked at Lloyd. "Lloyd, we told you to stay with Sensei. How did you even find yourself here?"
"Cole is my friend too and I wanted to help." the green ninja barked. "I went looking for him, but he found me instead. I was glad to have Lucas rescue me on time before he crushed me."
Laurie gasped and gave her little brother a hard stare. It was like the time he crossed Skalidor and Rhea saved him before he was taken to Skales. She took her eyes off brother to see Cole. The wind ninja couldn't believe that it was him that nearly gave her a heart attack on the Bounty. "If he changed into that, is there any way he can change back to himself?" she asked while lowering her wooden weapon.
Zane placed his shurikens into the hoister attached to his hip and walked up to Cole to open the panel on his left arm. A faint blue light casted around the green giant to reflect a shadow on the brick walls as the ice ninja was scanning Cole until his databank report an error. Odd. It didn't recognize Cole. He closed the panel to roll his sleeve down to his wrist to stare at the others. "My algorithms can't compute Cole's state." he stated. "The only hypothesis for us to wait for Cole to transform back to normal so I can understand more of this. If he changed into this, there could be a way back."
"Meaning?" Lloyd asked confused, while scratching the back of his head.
Before Zane could continue, Nya stepped up. "It's like a werewolf transformation." she plainly stated. "His body changed and can be reversed to normal if we wait."
"So what can we do to wait for Cole to return to normal?" Kai asked while sheathing his sword. He looked around and no one had an idea.
Suddenly, sirens began blaring in the distance with the sound of a helicopter nearby. And it sounded like it was coming near. If the police arrive to see Cole, they wouldn't hesitate to pull out their guns and open fire. Lucas saw what happened when he and the others made him angry before and that would leave a catastrophe to the city. "Cole, you need to get away from the city." he said quickly. "We don't want you to attack the city and harm many citizens. Go! We'll find you if you ever change back. Just get out of the city."
Cole looked down at the others as they nodded in agreement. It looked like the only choice to agree to. But could he change back though? He could hear the sirens and helicopter coming near and looked at the others. Time was up. He had to go. He turned around to start heading down the alleyway, stopped to face the others, and turned again to start running again. Everyone watched the dark green Hulk disappear in the darkness.
Cole continued running down the alley and jumped to climb on the side of the wall, bits of brick falling under him. Then he jumped to grab the walkway that connects to two buildings and swung on it like a monkey on a jungle gym to swing himself onto the roofs and continued running and saw light behind him. The earth ninja used his hands to vault himself over an air conditioner and ran up the inclined side of a fire escape and used it to jump over to the next building and light shined past him and landed on the rooftop. He hoped that they didn't see him and kept running till he was outside the city. But there were only two questions though.
Where will he go?
And was he able to transform back to himself?
And I left you all in another cliffhanger. So what did you think? Can't wait to see all the reviews. I am having so much fun with this story. Have a wonderful weekend and see you all next week. :)