Dannnng, FFN's been a pain lately. The very servers are rebelling against the concept of Lloydille, it seems. XD
Ahhh, glorious summer . . . There's still time for a concert, if only a fictional one. If you're into electronic music already, pop some on for ambience if you like! Or if you're curious about this electronic deal, go ahead and give the MonsterCat channel on YouTube a try. :)
Guest: Thanks for the review! I can't promise hilarious, but I'll sure try! :)
Angel Star Ninja: Aww, thanks! Say, I made pumpkin munchies; I'll trade you them for the cookies. X3 And remember that bit with Kai you asked for? It's in here!
Darkrainbow: Hehe, got the joke, huh? The title-crafting business gets kinda weird sometimes. XD Thanks for the review! Good call, I'm seriously going to need a diet after this. :P Here, some pumpkin munchies for you too.
The Magic Imbroglio Carnival started at about five in the afternoon the next day. Sixteen hours before that began the "red zone": the point at which Lloyd stopped accepting advice from anyone. Not just about dating matters, about everything—you never knew with these people.
At about noon, the ninja and Nya started getting ready for the concert. They were all heading over to meet their partners one by one to avoid raising any suspicion, so Kai was just starting to get ready while Lloyd was almost finished.
"Have fun with Skylor," said Lloyd, slipping a couple of signal flares into his pockets.
"Yeah, you have fun with Chamille too."
Lloyd made a face, pulling a sweater over his head.
"I don't plan on having any fun, thanks. She's creepy."
"Then why'd you invite her?" asked Kai.
"You know, that's what I keep asking myself," said Lloyd, still flailing about inside the sweater. Kai helpfully tied the sleeves off at the shoulder. After struggling a while longer, Lloyd finally pulled the sweater off again, surveyed it in bewilderment, then gave Kai an unamused look. The older ninja grinned, unrepentent.
"You're definitely set up to impress her if you can't get your sweater on straight."
"Stop trying to make me nervous," grumbled Lloyd, untying his sleeves. Kai chuckled, but quickly grew sober again.
"Hey. Seriously though, be careful out there."
"Sure thing," said Lloyd. "I remember all of Nya's bomb-defusing lessons, and the creeps probably won't be able to smuggle any other weapons in there, so it'll be pretty safe."
"No, not that—well, that too, obviously—but I meant with Chamille," said Kai.
"Huh?" Lloyd looked up, miffed. "Come on. You seriously think I would hurt her?"
Kai was silent for a moment.
"For real?" Lloyd folded his arms. "What do you take me for? I—"
"Aaaactually, I was more worried about you," Kai interrupted, eyeing the ceiling.
"Me?!" Now Lloyd looked outright insulted.
"Well, what am I supposed to think? The first time you spent much time with her, you nearly killed each other on a Thunderblades track. Then the other time, you came home without your shirt and with a tongue piercing."
"That had nothing to do with her!" Lloyd retorted. "It was a disguise for a mission." He felt at the tip of his tongue absent-mindedly. "Kinda wish I could've kept that piercing, though."
Kai rolled his eyes.
"Look, just be careful out there, okay?" He returned Lloyd's irritated look for a moment, but at last sighed and shook his head. "I'm serious. She seems like a rough character, and none of us wants to hear that you've come home bleeding."
"Okay, okay." Lloyd spread his hands. "I'll go bleed somewhere else. Happy?"
"Lloyd."
"How about I promise not to do anything you wouldn't do?"
Kai closed his eyes, giving a long sigh of annoyance.
"Whatever. Just get going, you're gonna be late."
Lloyd grabbed the last few pieces of equipment on the way out. Halfway to the door he relented and looked back.
"Okay, okay, so I will be careful. Relax, will ya?"
"Get lost, kid." Kai gave him a weary smile.
When Lloyd got to the gates of the Magic Imbroglio Carnival, he was ready to meet just about anyone except a teenaged girl with fluffy purple hair. However, that was just what he got. Chamille was wearing a sparkling temporary tattoo on either cheek, but otherwise she looked like her usual self.
"No disguises?" said Lloyd.
"And risk missing out on a free ticket?" Chamille rolled her eyes, then flickered purple and transformed into a young sandy-haired girl in a pixie cut. "I'm disguising now, though, so I don't get seen with you."
"Funny, that works both ways," retorted Lloyd.
The gates were just starting to open, and Lloyd and Chamille joined the eager throng of concert-goers pushing towards the narrow entrance.
"Now remember, this is going to be pretty serious," said Lloyd. "You can pretty much enjoy the concert yourself, but keep your eyes open for suspicious activity and don't get in my way. Especially if anything gets dangerous!"
"Man. So they seriously are planting a bomb, huh?" said Chamille.
"Shhh, not so loud!" hissed Lloyd, looking around to make sure nobody had heard. "You can't tell anyone! The last thing we want is to start a lot of paranoia and panic in the crowd."
"Ohhhh." Chamille subsided. For a moment, anyway.
They soon made their way into the concert area, where warm-up music was already playing and a sizable crowd was already gathering. Lloyd checked in with the manager and started to make a preliminary patrol around the grounds, taking Chamille with him.
He exchanged waves with Zane and Sensei Wu, who were already in the audience. The Nindroid looked concert-ready, with neon-green football stripes under his eyes and a glowstick in either hand, but it was the Sensei who really gave Lloyd a turn. He had painted his entire staff in broad stripes of Day-Glo color, and had dyed the tips of his beard and moustache to match. If anything he looked even readier to party than Zane did; they were both fetching some disbelieving stares (and occasional catcalls) from the more conventional concert-goers. Sensei Wu bonked any dissenters with his staff.
"They should be pretty popular in the crowd," said Chamille, looking like she couldn't decide if she was unimpressed or amused.
Lloyd made a thorough patrol of the entire concert area, including backstage, with Chamille tagging along looking around eagerly. Going into restricted places was a new thing for her. Finding nothing suspicious, they headed backstage again to settle down.
"We have to get into position now," Lloyd called over the rumble of a trap song shaking the speakers. "We'll be able to watch the stage and some of the audience from our place."
"What place?" Chamille shouted back.
"Right here." Lloyd began to clamber up the metal scaffolding holding up some of the stage lights. "We can sit on the rafters right above the stage! Cool, huh?"
He looked back and found Chamille was hanging half-heartedly off a girder near the bottom of the scaffolding, making no particular effort to follow him.
"Come on! Someone's gonna see you down there."
"Keep your hair on," grumbled Chamille, looking first up, then down, and advancing only a few feet upwards. Lloyd waited impatiently as she slowly made her way up to join him. Once she was on the rafter next to him, Lloyd noticed how carefully she was moving, her hands never leaving the edges of the metal beam.
"Wait. You're not scared of heights, are you?" he asked.
"There are things," said Chamille through her teeth, "that I like better."
"Ohhh." Lloyd blinked. He'd forgotten that not everyone went through ninja training. "Uh . . . Are you gonna be okay?"
"Count on it, Minty. Just gimme a second to get used to it, okay?"
"Sure, sure." Lloyd fell silent for a moment. Abruptly he thought of something and laughed.
"I'll push you off this thing," growled Chamille, although it was unclear how she planned to do that without letting go.
"It's not you," said Lloyd, holding up his hands defensively. "Just the Tournament. I just realized I did you a favor, beating you when I did. The next challenge was skydiving."
"I would have loved skydiving," retorted Chamille.
"Surrrrre you would've."
For a while they just sat there, listening to the warm-up music and chewing bubblegum. Chamille loosened up surprisingly fast, and was soon swinging her legs casually over the edge just like Lloyd. For hanging out with a girl, Lloyd had to admit, this wasn't half-bad. There was none of the usual worrying about keeping her happy or accidentally offending her (girls got offended so easily, dangit! By the weirdest things . . . ), no awkward politeness or mushy-gushy stuff. They pretty much hated each others' guts anyway, so they could say whatever they wanted to each other.
The music, though, was starting to get on the green ninja's nerves a little. All the electronic noises sounded pretty much the same to him, and the tunes weren't particularly appealing. But as he kept reminding himself, he was here to foil bad guys, not to take in the soundscape. Besides, Chamille seemed to be digging it—she even seemed to know most of the songs. Lloyd watched her leaning back on her hands, waving her toes in tune to the music and mumbling the words occasionally.
Eventually the real concert started. There were no instruments, just a guy in a sweatsuit fiddling with sliders on a sound machine. Lots of fancy lights and effects though, and it was really cool whenever the swinging spotlights scraped across the rafters, sending a wave of blinding, searing, brightly-colored light blazing all around the two teenagers. The first time it happened, it scared them both pretty badly, and when the light passed onwards they caught each others' eye and grinned.
As to the music, though, it still all sounded the same to Lloyd—by now he was really starting to feel a thirst for a juicy guitar solo and some high-hats.
"Hey," he shouted above the grind of a dubstep drop. "I'm going out to make another patrol. You can stay here if you'd rather watch."
"Nuh-uh, I'm coming," Chamille hollered back, sliding along the beam and grabbing the scaffolding. As Lloyd waited his turn to climb down, he leaned back until he could see some of the crowd in front of the stage. They were an enthusiastic bunch; he squinted, trying to pick out any of his family in the crowd, and for a second he thought he caught sight of a long white beard bouncing somewhere in the jumble. He chuckled softly, then followed Chamille down the scaffolding.
"Took you long enough!" she shouted—at least, he assumed that was what she was saying, because the music was so loud down here that he had to read her lips. The floor shivered beneath their feet with every digital roar of bass and beat, and Lloyd felt his lungs vibrating right along with it.
They made their way farther backstage, where the sound mercifully dimished a little bit. On the other end of the backstage space Lloyd spotted Cole, also heading out on a patrol. The earth ninja waved, and communicated by way of hand signals that he would take the north end of the area while Lloyd took the south. Lloyd signaled his agreement, then watched as Cole headed off. He didn't get a good look at his date, but he glimpsed a flash of pink and aqua.
"Having fun?" asked Chamille as they proceeded around the patrol track and the music sank to a dull roar.
"It's okay," shrugged Lloyd. "Not really into this type of music."
"I expected as much," said Chamille, rolling her eyes. Still, she kept pace with Lloyd, smiling slightly.
"Are you having fun?" asked Lloyd awkwardly.
"You kidding? This is awesome!" Chamille swung her arms happily as she walked. "I, uh . . . thanks for taking me . . . and everything . . . "
"No problem," said Lloyd.
For a minute they were quiet, trading cautious, vaguely significant looks.
"Can we stop being nice to each other?" asked Chamille at last. "It's creepy."
Lloyd laughed, and they kept walking. They went around the far end of the patrol loop and started approaching the main concert stage again. The glitter of light and motion in the darkening evening synced beautifully with the keen and rumble of the music. It caught Lloyd's attention so much that he almost didn't notice the gap in the fencing.
Then his heart stopped. A section of the chain-link fence had been removed, and a large van was backing up to it. The side of the van said "Kopernicus Plumbing," but there was no way that a plumbing service was working here, now.
Heart pounding, Lloyd grabbed Chamille's arm and dragged her behind a stack of girders.
"Get out of here," he hissed in her ear. "I think that's them."
"Oh my god." Chamille's eyes flew open wide. "Where?!"
"In that van." Lloyd peeked between the girders, then gulped. "It's too late for you to run, they're already here."
Chamille pressed up next to him, peeking through the same gap. Lloyd could feel her shoulder shifting with her tense, shallow breath.
"All right, let's move," growled a throaty voice. "Alf, you scope out the area, make sure there's no idiots blundering around out here. Moe, you activate the gizmo. Alf, if the area's clear, get back here, pick the gizmo up, stuff it in, then get back here! And I mean fast, you got it? I'll keep the engine running so we can peel the hell outta here once you've planted it."
Some growls of affirmation. The sound of approaching footsteps. Chamille's hand closed over Lloyd's wrist, digging in uncomfortably tight.
Then Alf came around the end of the stack of girders. Lloyd shook Chamille off gently, but lightning-fast; even as Alf opened his mouth to holler a warning, Lloyd whispered "Ninja-GO!" and threw himself at the man. He almost used Spinjitzu, but at the last split-second he realized the noise and green glow would give away their location. Instead he drove his fist into Alf's jaw, simultaneously snatching the front of his shirt so he didn't fall backwards, into the others' sight. Alf tumbled forward instead, out cold. Lloyd stood over him, wired with adrenaline. His head swam.
What to do? He had a wrist-communicator, but he couldn't speak loud enough to call anyone. Not only that, he had to act fast; the other two crooks would notice Alf's absence long before any of his teammates could get here. For a moment he considered attacking the other two men himself, but Alf had a gun strapped to his belt, and the other two doubtless were armed as well. He couldn't take two guns at once.
For a second he stood there, heart pounding. Then he heard Chamille curse softly behind him, and suddenly everything fell into place.
"Chamille," he whispered, turning around. He could see realization dawning on her face as she figured out the same thing he had. He couldn't believe he was asking this of her, but all the same he swallowed and spoke. "Can you? . . . "
For a moment she looked at him, panic clear in her eyes.
"Take his place?" she whispered at last, nodding towards Alf. Lloyd nodded.
"Can you?" he whispered again, grabbing her wrists to look her in the eye. "If you're not sure you can do this, do not. I'll think of something else."
"There is nothing else, is there?" Chamille set her jaw. "I'll do it."
Stepping over to Alf's unconscious form, she rolled him over and studied his face and clothes. Then she shimmered purple and transformed into a perfect facsimile of the unconscious man.
"He wasn't super-tall, was he?" she asked, her voice forcibly calm.
"No, about my height."
She gave a terse nod and stepped out from behind the girders. As she disappeared around the stack, Lloyd had a sudden impulse to snatch her back. What was he doing?! Sending a fifteen-year-old girl with no ninja training out into a mess of gun-toting psychopaths, to pick up a bomb—he was the one with the training and experience! It was his job to do stuff like this, not hers! If anything happened to her, he'd never forgive himself, never—
"Coast clear, Alf?" barked a gruff voice, causing Lloyd's heart to leap into his throat.
"Yeh, all good," Chamille growled back. Evidently she was patching together an approximation of Alf's voice, based on the brief mumbles of conversation she'd heard before. "Gimme that thing."
"Oi, nervous, are ya, Alf?" There was a malicious grin in Moe's voice. "You like totin' live dynamite around?"
"Shaddup," snapped Chamille. "We've got no time for games, this place is crawlin' with security guards. You want one of 'em snaggin' us? Huh?"
"Fine, fine, shaddup yourself," muttered Moe. "Hey, why're you talkin' so weird, Alf?"
"Uhhh—uhhh—"
"Alf? . . . "
Lloyd's nerves snapped. With a yell of "Ninjaaaa-GO!" he hurled himself out from behind the girders and span straight into the van, knocking Moe cold before he even knew what was happening. The van's driver, alerted by the noise, ran around to the back with a semi-automatic already raised—but Lloyd was already ricocheting towards him, still encased in whirling green. Bullets barked from the gun's muzzle as Lloyd's Spinjitzu tornado struck; when he stopped spinning, the driver was sprawled on the ground and there were bullet holes in the roof of the van. Lloyd whirled, and let out a gasp of relief when he saw Chamille unharmed, pressed back into a corner and clutching a bulky black device in her arms.
"Are you okay?" he panted. "Are you okay?"
"I'm holding a bomb, what do you think?" said Chamille tightly. "Just please take this thing offa me."
Lloyd was struck by a sudden dizzy impulse to hug her, but there were much more pressing matters at hand. Swiftly but carefully he lifted the device out of the Master of Form's arms, laying it gingerly on the floor. As he studied the black metal casing, his heart beat faster and faster; he didn't recognize any of this. Either Nya's lessons had all flown out of his head, or she'd never covered this type of bomb—he had no clue what to do.
He recognized one thing, though: the little countdown timer reading five minutes, thirty-four seconds—and steadily counting down.