Hey everyone, happy Friday and as usual time for an update. So I don't have much to say for this chapter, but enjoy it.
Chapter 16: Back Home with a Plan
A groan escaped from a teen's lips as he stirred in his slumber. His eyes slowly fluttered to reveal the amber irises. He slowly observed his surroundings as he was somewhere new and slowly sat up to feel something brush the top of his head. He raised his hands up to feel what it was and it felt rough and softly tapped it to hear it was hollow and muffled. He looked up to see wooden planks and looked down to see a familiar blanket over his lap. His gaze then turned as he looked to his surroundings more.
Cole gazed around the room as it wasn't the cell from the base. But the bedroom that he shared with the other ninjas. He was home. The Destiny's Bounty. But how did he get back was the question. He remembered being in a tank of water with something pinching his back and then darkness. That was it and nothing else. But then again, was he really home? Or was this a replica to make him think he was home like he seen in a movie once? Cole groaned while rubbing his eyes. "What happened?" he asked himself.
The sound of the door being opened brought Cole's attention back and turned to the right to see a familiar face. One he thought he would never see again. "Betty?" he gasped to see the girl at the door.
The raven-haired girl created a small smile on her lips to finally see the black ninja was awake. She slowly walked towards him the dark-haired teen and sat next to him on his bed. Her smile was still plastered on her face while he had a bushy brow raised. "I'm glad to see you finally awake, Cole." she said while wrapping her arms around him. "I've been worried about you. For everything."
Everything? Cole wondered. Does she know about him and the transformation? He felt the girl's body raking a little and slowly wrapped his arms around her. "You know everything?" he asked. "About my...anger issues?" Betty looked up from laying her head on his shoulder to slowly nod. Cole sighed. Probably everyone in Ninjago knows by now. he thought. He looked over her shoulder to see his shared bedroom again and lets go of Betty to look into her light blue eyes with his amber eyes. "Betty, what happened?" he asked. "And am I really home or is this all a set up?"
Betty looked at him confused and shook her head. This was the real ship. He was home. "No." she replied. "You're back with the Ninja. Not in the base anymore. We escaped with you and are far from them."
Cole felt his heart skip a beat and slowly smiled. He was home. Away from that prison and back with his intermediate family. But what about the Force's plan? "Did they...ever cure me?" he asked. Betty looked at him and slowly shook her head. The earth ninja felt his heart stop. "What?" he inquired quietly.
Betty looked away to think on her words and looked at Cole. "They weren't gonna cure you at all." she explained. "They were gonna use it as a weapon. Those Nanomeds kept you alive but are making you stronger than ever. My father wanted me and Blolasky to create a new weapon for them and Blolasky was a success. He too has the Nanomeds from when our research was about to destroy the ball, but he can't change like you. You're different. You took more of the gamma blast and that's why he wanted the Hulk."
Cole was quiet. After what they done to him at the base was a lie. They weren't gonna help him, but use him. He should've seen it more when he had that conversation with Blolasky and when he beaten him to unconsciousness. The Nanomeds made him that strong like him. And from the blood extractions back there were for further studies. "What am I supposed to do now?" he wondered. "They'll come after me now and there's no way to cure me."
Betty looked at him as he may be right about him being hunted and slowly reached into her pockets. Cole watched her reach into her pockets and pulled out a lanyard with a clear-ish flash-drive attached to it. He looked at her confused and puzzled. What was it? "This here is my data and research for the Nanomeds." she explained. "I got all of it before the ball. My father stole all of my research but this. This has everything about the Nanomeds that my father or Blolasky don't know about. Everything."
Cole was stunned now. This tiny flash-drive had everything about the Nanomeds. Everything. "Even a way to cure me?" he wondered. "Is it possible to search for a cure for me?"
The raven-haired girl at him to softly nod, but wasn't quite sure. Cole looked into her eyes and saw the uncertainty in them. "There could be a chance." she sighed. "But I know someone that could help us, but we have to get this to him in order for it to work."
"Well let's find him and I can be me again." Cole suggested.
"It won't be that easy." Betty retorted softly. "My father will be hunting you down along with your family and me as your accessories of escape. I would send him the data here, but I don't trust the servers here. We could be bugged. So Jay and Zane are checking to be sure."
"So where are we gonna deliver the data then." the Ninja of Earth asked.
Betty thought it over and came to a solution. "Tomorrow when the heat is cleared," she began. "We'll go to the university and e-mail him the data. The servers there are large and will be hard to pinpoint our location exactly and we'll sneak out like we weren't there before." She slipped the flash-drive back into her pockets to smile.
Cole thought it over in his head and nodded as it sounded fool-proof against them. "Sounds like a plan then." he agreed. He had to agree with her intelligential brain on the plan because he wouldn't have thought of it. He's great on coming up with battle plans for combat or stealth missions. So he'll go with her plan. "So now what?" he asked.
Betty gently pushed him back down to his bed until his head rested against the pillows. "Get some rest because you still look exhausted." she said. "I'll talk to the others and let them know of the plan and that you're recovering."
Cole looked up at her to feel like pouting to get up and talk to the others but felt that she was right. He can talk to them tomorrow or tonight when they come and retire for the night. "Alright then." he said. "If it's what I have to do and I'll do it then." and threw his left arm behind his head to prompt his head up.
The raven-haired girl smiled and slowly lowered her face closer to his and pressed her lips against his. Out of the tough times, he's been through; Betty began to develop feelings for him. The earth ninja was by surprise and slowly fell deep into the kiss. The kiss ended quickly and Betty looked at Cole to see the blush on his cheeks. "Get some rest, Rocky." she said. "We'll see you tomorrow."
"Alright." the earth ninja said and watched her head for the door and left. He shifted around to have his arms behind his head as a second pillow and stare at the board planks of Kai's bed above him. He didn't feel tired at all, but a little weak to support his weight well. He kept thinking over Betty's plan to deliver the data that'll cure him, but kept worrying about Ross and Blolasky hunting him down as the Hulk with them hurting his family. He shook his head clear as he knew Betty's plan will work and kept staring up at the bunk above him to think of something else to clear his head.
"Betty." he said quietly to himself and slowly closed his eyes.
...
The raven-haired girl stared at the door to sigh for Cole. She couldn't take her mind off of him nor the kiss she implanted on his lips. She was worried for him to become the thing that causes destruction in anger while her father and old partner. Old partner. Those made her want to vomit since Blolasky betrayed her. But still she couldn't take her mind off of Cole. She had feeling for him.
Personal.
She could imagine and feel the strong, muscular arms of his and think of his thick black shaggy hair; dark as hers. His eyes were an amazing color of amber she had ever seen. She's been on dates before with guys back in high school, but none of them seemed like long-term relationships. But Cole, to her, seemed perfect. Strong, fearless, and brave. She kept thinking of him to tell her feelings towards him, but was nervous to do so. She cleared her head quickly and head towards the ship's bridge.
When the youngest scientist climbed up the stairs to the deck and walked across, she climbed up the flights of stairs to reach the bridge and entered. She gazed around to see Lucas steering the flying ship through the night with his small cousin by his side. Jay and Zane near the large computer mounted on the wall with the blue ninja under a cabinet underneath the computer with the white ninja having wires connected to him to scan the computer. They must be checking for any bugs in case her father was spying on them. Then she looked over at the table to see Nya and Laurie having a conversation with Sensei Wu with Kai next to Zane to check the map for any locations. All were determined, but she could see that they were nervous. All of them.
Zane fumbled on the keypad on the panel of his left arm in concentration and pulled the connection wires out of his arm and computer to close the panel and roll his sleeve down. "I checked through our servers and databanks multiple times and found no traces of a bug." he said. "I think we're in the clear and our bird isn't roasted."
"It's goose, Zane." Jay stated and pulled himself out from the cabinet to look at him. "Our goose isn't cooked." He stood up to stretch his arms and back from lying on the floor for a long time and dusted himself off. "But I agree with Zane because I searched everywhere on our monitors, diodes, and wires. Nothing. We have no bug tracing us." But the Ninja of Lightning then grew concern. "But guys," he continued. "You know what this means? We're now fugitives since we escaped with Cole and ruined their control room and will be hunted down. We're hooped now!"
Kai grabbed the blue ninja's shoulders. "Jay, calm down." he exclaimed and shook him like he was a ragdoll. "We can't start freaking out right now. Especially in this situation."
"He's right." the ice ninja agreed. "We can't become more paranoid than we already are. What we done back at the base made us fugitives now, yes. But we must remain calm and come up with a plan to keep Cole safe."
Lucas looked over his shoulder to furrow his brows. "How can we?" he questioned him.
"Yeah how can we?" Laurie agreed with her cousin. "They won't stop hunting us down and they have advance weapons. I saw how the one named Blolasky had that familiar foam grenade. Now we know where Skales got it. But what are we gonna do?"
Betty watched around in worry as they all were. She knew her father won't stop at all to capture Cole again, but she knows in her head that her plan will work tomorrow and they can cure Cole from his change. "Listen," she spoke up. Everyone looked at her as she grabbed their attention. "I know we're all worrying, but we need to stop and help Cole."
"And what can you do to help?" Kai barked. "Your father wants to hunt our brother down and maybe even kill when he's done with whatever he's plotting."
Betty glared at him slightly. "Listen to my plan and this will stop my father from hunting all of us." she snapped back. Everyone became silent now. "Good. So this is what I propose..."
...
In the same room with the Ninja and a raven-haired girl, a tiny android, the size of a fly, crawled on the walls of the bridge. The android was equipped with hard but thin plastic wings in order to fly from its controller through radio frequency. It was even equipped with a camera the size of drop to record and send live video feed. The tiny android was being controlled to take flight and land quietly on the mahogany table in the center of the room and zoomed in.
...
Back at the base of Ninja Special Forces, General Ross watched over Haruko's shoulder to receive the live video feed from the drone spy they inserted into the Ninja's ship. He listened carefully on his daughter's plan to help them fix the Hulk to smirk in satisfaction. They were one step close to recapture the Hulk. The drone was being controlled by Haruko's commands on the joy stick to survey the room until it was focusing on a girl in a red blouse and black hair. The girl noticed the drone to cringe her face like it was an actual bug and grabbed a newspaper. She rolled it up and smacked it to make the screen become static with a high whine from the audio to make the captain and general wince to the pain.
Ross still smirked while removing his headphones. He got what he needed. "Soon." he muttered. "Soon."
...
Everyone looked towards the samurai as something broke the silence. They noticed she had a rolled up bundle of paper in one hand with an annoyed face on her with something small on the table. "You alright, Nya?" Kai asked.
Nya didn't look up while she swiped the dead insect off the table. Of course she was fine. It was just a bug. Like it could do any harm. "Yeah I'm fine." she said. "I hate flies."
Betty shrugged her shoulders. "So we know the plan then?" she asked. Everyone agreed and nodded that the plan to cure Cole will work. "Good." she sighed in relief, glad to not repeat herself. "Let's just hope my father doesn't find us when we send the data. If it gets into the wrong hands, it's over. Let's do this then. For Cole."
The Ninja looked at each other to nod with determine and concerned faces. "For Cole." they said.
Yay Cole is alright, but I guess I left you in another cliffhanger, but will this plan work or not? What do you think? Well find out next week and see what'll happen. Have a great weekend and I'll see you all next week. :)