Ninjago City, Alex's Building, 10:01 pm
"D-Did it work?" I though I heard Lloyd's voice whisper quietly. Am I alive? Is this just an illusion made to make me believe I'm actually returning to them? What is even true anymore? I struggled to open my eyes, only opening slightly before closing them again.
"I think her eyes just fluttered..." I heard Cass's voice. She and Cole must have run into Lloyd after the incident...
I tried open my eyes again, successfully opening them. I could see Cass's face to my left, a glimpse of Cole's, and Lloyd's face on my right. Lloyd looked as though he had been crying, and Cass looked worried. I couldn't see Cole's expression.
"She's awake..." Cass gasped, then broke out into a smile, "You did it Lloyd!"
A small, relieved smile came to the boy's face as he pulled me into a hug. I could feel Cass and even Cole joining in on it too, making it a huge group hug. I had to admit, I really felt like I was home again. And I was. I just wasn't in the right building.
Even after Cass and Cole let go, Lloyd was still hugging me. Geez, he must have really missed me, but it feels like he's crushing my ribs.
"It's good to see you too...Lloyd," I said quietly, patting his back. He slowly let go, sitting back. His eyes were watering, as though he were about to cry, yet he looked so relieved and happy.
"I'm sorry...I just really thought I...we had lost you forever," Lloyd tried smile again, but it fell into a frown, and the tears that were being held back actually began to fall. "I-I'm really sorry! I...I closed my eyes when fighting Alex and I...I...I didn't mean to! I-".
"Lloyd," I interrupted him, "It's alright. I know it was an accident. Everything's okay."
I wrapped him in another hug, listening to the few sniffles he made. Now that I think about it, what happened to me could have reminded him of his father's death. I mean, it wasn't that long ago that Sensei Garmadon passed, leaving Lloyd and his mother forever. Was Lloyd afraid of losing me forever, too? Did this even trigger memories of Sensei Garmadon's death? I mean, something like this may have brought back memories of Luo's death to me, but I wondered if it was the same with him, except with Sensei Garmadon instead.
"Awww," a voice behind me caused me to snap out of my thoughts, making me let go of Lloyd. I turned to see Jay walking up, smiling like a mother spying on her daughter's first date. "How adorable!"
I broke into a small blush and stood up, helping Lloyd up as well. "Jay? Aren't you supposed to be with Zane?"
"We kinda got separated...that teleporting dingus screwed around with us then ran off. Zane followed him and I just couldn't keep up. Good thing I found you guys though," he shrugged, looking down the hallway. But isn't Jay one of the fastest runners on our team? Well, he could be having an off day...
"Huh, Alex must be trying to separate everyone then," Lloyd observed, to which Cole nodded.
"That could be his plan. He can't take us all on by himself, so he's separating us all so he can eliminate us all one by one. If he still believes Karma is dead, he could have a major confidence boost right now, and if he is like Kai when it comes to confidence, he could become reckless. We could still stop him if we can get his confidence to cloud his thoughts," the ghastly ninja rubbed his chin. Cass raised her eyebrows in surprise, as did I.
"You must have some serious strategy knowledge or something, Cole," Cass commented, to which Cole shrugged.
"I guess you could say that. It's more like thinking like the enemy. What would I do if I was a small guy with the ability to teleport at will? Where would I hide? How would I eliminate those who oppose me?" the earth ninja replied. I had to admit, that was a great strategy. Think like the enemy. I'm surprised I've never done it before.
"No wonder the guys say that you bring books to battles sometimes..." Lloyd smiled. Cole shrugged yet again, smiling.
"Just because I'm all muscular and stuff doesn't mean I don't have a brain," he said.
Jay yawned loudly, catching everyone's attention.
"Hey, can we get back to our current situation? I kinda was supposed to go on a date with Nya tonight and I at least wanna get close to that," the master of lightning claimed, to which I raised an eyebrow. Since when were they back together!? Cole narrowed his eyes and stepped towards Jay. He pulled his scythe from it's holder on his back and pointed the blade at Jay's throat, making the lightning ninja jump back in shock.
"What the hell bro!?" he exclaimed, glancing at Cole with an expression mixed with panic and anger. The master of earth continued to point his scythe at Jay.
"You're not Jay," he claimed firmly, his expression serious. The master of lightning gave a confused look.
"What do you mean!?" he questioned. I looked to Cass and Lloyd, seeing if they had any reactions, only to see that they were just as concerned as me.
"During missions, Jay would never rush us. Sure, he would complain and freak out, but he'd never do what you did. Just to add, Jay is one of the fastest runners on our team. I've seen him run. He can keep up with Zane and more than likely keep up with Alex," Cole explained, "Besides, Nya would have mentioned something if he really had a date tonight with her."
"Jay" looked surprised at first, then broke into a laugh, a more relieved one if you ask me.
"Ah, fantastic job Sherlock, you caught me," he smirked, his hair, skin, and eyes transforming, just like how Bizarro Kai's did. Though, this time, a pair of sunglasses appeared on Bizarro Jay's head before sliding down over his eyes. So, Alex really does have more than one Bizarro. Though, now that I think about it, could this guy have been the owner of powers similar to Jay's that the blue ninja sensed? I couldn't tell.
Cole didn't even flinch or show a reaction at the transformation like the rest of us did. Instead, he continued to point his scythe's blade firmly at the clone's throat, his bushy eyebrows pointed down, making him look angry.
I saw Cass pull out her kusarigama in a flash, standing by Cole, ready to fight. I took my staff from my belt and extended it into it's active stage, standing at Cole's other side. The clone lightly pushed his shades down the bridge of his nose with a finger, licking his lips like a hungry man looking at his huge 7 course dinner.
"Ah, feisty already I see?" he smirked, "I like them feisty."
I glared at him. Gosh, he must be the same kind of scum as Bizarro Kai. At least Bizarro Kai had better acting skills though. Everything was silent and at a standstill, until Bizarro Jay placed a hand on Cole's scythe, sending an electric shock through it.
Same time, same place
Zane walked quickly down the hallway, checking his surroundings every five seconds. He's been searching for where Alex has been keeping Pixal. So far, he's been unsuccessful, and so has Jay, their only clue being the various channels of electricity Jay could feel throughout the building.
"Zane...I'm having that feeling again..." the master of lightning informed him as he ran to catch up with him. Zane looked at him, concerned.
"Which feeling?"
"Remember the one I had in the forest that I told you all about?" Jay asked, to which Zane nodded. "That one."
"That same person you sensed in the forest might be here. They could be a colleague of Alex," the nindroid claimed as they entered a large room. It was littered with assorted papers and a few tables. A laptop sat on one of the tables, displaying a wallpaper with various pictures of serious looking hooded men. On the wall to the laptop's left sat discarded metal pieces, leaving Zane curious. Before he could go examine the parts, Jay grabbed his shoulder, pointing to the wall across from the parts. Zane eyes widened in shock as his eyes fell upon what Jay was pointing at.
Four mechs stood there, painted a shiny black. They were as tall as Zane's mech, maybe even taller, and looked to be completed. Shadows hid parts of them, hiding any possible guns or weapons from view. The nindroid was shocked. Was this what they kidnapped Pixal for?
"Beautiful, aren't they?" a woman's voice chuckled from behind them. Both Zane and Jay turned around to see a woman with long auburn hair. She wore a lacy, short, cream-colored dress and silver heels. A golden bracelet wrapped around her left wrist and her lips were painted a deep crimson. Zane was confused on why she was so dressed up. If she is supposed to fight us, why is she wearing heels? You could easily break or sprain your ankle fighting in heels, the nindroid thought to himself.
"Where is Pixal!?" the android questioned the woman, believing that she had to be one of Alex's colleagues. The woman chuckled and reached into the torso of her dress. She then produced a bright white flash drive. Zane's eyes widened.
"Is this the thing you're looking for?" she smirked. Zane stepped forward.
"Give her back!" he demanded. The woman gave a fake surprised look, then smirked again.
"And you'd think a robot would have manners. Looks like you didn't program him correctly, blue ninja," she made a fake sigh, offending the nindroid.
"Lady, I think you're the one who doesn't have manners!" Jay replied in a shout, defending his nindroid friend, "Now give him his companion back!"
The woman placed a hand on her chest, scoffing. "None of the men on this Earth have manners," she pouted, before producing two silver sickles from her back. Jay immediately pulled out his nunchucks and held them at the ready as Zane took his sais from his belt. He armed his system, extra metal plating sliding over the exposed wires in his neck and the wires beneath his titanium skin.
"Such a shame, I thought you two would be wonderful young men. Oh well, it's too bad. Au revoir, garçons," she spoke softly before breaking into a dash towards them. Zane braced himself for the fight, moving into a defensive stance with his sais. If this is the way I have to take to get Pixal back, so be it.
Same time, Same place
Hunter hummed as he and Lilly entered the building through the door they were instructed to use. He looked around at the hallway they had just entered, surprised at how clean it was.
"Huh, you'd think Debbie would make the place look abandoned. Guess not," he observed. Lilly shrugged, pulling some kind of high-tech mask from one of the pouches on her belt.
"He's probably a clean freak or something," she assumed, putting on the mask. Hunter stared at it.
"What's that thing?" he asked.
"It's a mask I used to wear when I separated from the team. It can detect elemental energy and used to give me night vision...up until Kai cut it off my face one night about a year ago," she informed him, "Now the eyes cannot glow and I can't access night vision. At least I managed to fix the rest of it though."
"Must have been some intense training," Hunter raised his eyebrows in response. Lilly snorted.
"Ha, yeah, training," she responded, recalling that very night. When Karma didn't even know how to use her powers. When she acted like she disliked Kai. The time when she knew so much less than she did now. The time when Anthony wasn't just some guy high off dry erase markers...actually, he was always that way.
"So, Hunter, what's your story?" she asked the orange ninja, catching his attention. He scratched his chin, trying to recall everything.
"Well, I grew up in the same village as Cass. Nathan and I became orphans at a young age...and we technically survived on our own like Kai and Nya did. Up until Cole met us and started training us to be elemental masters. That's about it," he told her as she scanned the area.
"Huh, a lot of us have dead parents then," Lilly observed, sighing. Hunter raised an eyebrow.
"But aren't both of your parents alive?" the male master of wind questioned. Lilly didn't react.
"My mom is dead," she stated simply.
"But-" Before Hunter could say anymore, Lilly stopped and said firmly, "My mother is dead."
Hunter paused for a moment, then nodded, understanding what she meant. Though, he couldn't help but wonder what her mother did to her to make her act this way towards the mention of her.
Lilly began to take a step, but then froze, holding a hand up to stop Hunter from proceeding. She stayed frozen for a solid three seconds then pulled her katana from it's sheath, swinging towards a wall. Before the blade reached the wall, it paused, centimeters from Alex's throat. The master of psion gasped, realizing how close the blade was.
"Ho...holy shit. You're fast. How did you know where I was going to appear?" he panted, his lips curved in a panicked smile.
"Your elemental energy appears before you do. Keep that in mind," she stated simply. Alex gave a nervous smile, moving his hands towards each other, hoping she wouldn't see. It was already too late though.
"Hunter! His hands!" she shouted, to which Hunter ran over immediately, pulling Alex's arm away from his body. The master of psion cursed, still showing a nervous smile.
"Well," he sighed, still looking panicked, "I guess you got me..."
Lilly smirked, still holding the blade at his throat as Hunter muttered "I'm still gonna spin kick you to the sun." Suddenly, Alex's panicked look evolved into a determined one, his lips curved into a smirk.
"NOT!" he shouted as Lilly's katana freed itself from her grasp and flung itself into the wall. He then kicked her to the ground and used the arm being held by Hunter to grab the wall, swinging his knee into the orange ninja's face. Alex tumbled back to his feet once he was freed from Hunter's grasp, chuckling as the two got up.
"How the hell!? What the crap happened to my katana!?" Lilly exclaimed, running to pick it up. Alex smirked.
"Haven't you idiots ever looked up the definition of psion?" he questioned, then paused for a brief period before speaking. "Here, let me save you two imbeciles the trouble. The name of my elemental power is short for 'psionic', which means my powers are related to the paranormal and psychic, allowing me to use teleportation and telekinesis. In other words..."
A glint of pink shined in his navy blue eyes as both Lilly and Hunter's weapons floated to Alex, as well as a number of sharp objects from other rooms within the hallway. They floated above his head, pointed at the two. A villainous smile came to the master of psion's face as Lilly and Hunter stared at the blades, shocked.
"...you both are about to die."