Children of Destiny
I can't believe it! I'm finally at the end of 'Part 1' of this story! Time sure flies fast!
Get ready for a lot of action in this chapter & I have an important announcement at the end of this chapter so stick around. In the meantime, read on!
Chapter 39: Tornado of Harmony
Not even a minute passed since the ninjas caught up with the Overlord that the battle began.
The war machine suddenly shot out a laser but the ninjas dodged it just in time but it provoked them to face the monstrous mechanism. Even if it didn't work the first time, the ninjas still used their elemental powers but their efforts were met with the same results.
"Chances of the ninjas being victorious is four percent." Cryptor glared at the dirty humans.
"Will you shut up already!?" Jay was really tempted to kick the evil nindroid's shiny metal ass.
"Give up!" The Overlord boasted, "You may have defeated me once but that was because you had your youth and now look at you! You're all mere shadows of what you used to be!"
"We may become old but we'll never be weak!" Zane glared at the dark lord.
"I could give you the powers you've lost… if you can correct the errors of your ways and come with me…"
"Like hell I would!" Kai stared at the sentient orb like he was the ugliest person he's ever seen.
"My lord, may we suggest fighting them on ground?" Ash tried to persuade his master, "If they get distracted, you'll be free to take over the city."
"For once you've proven useful outside of building machines."
The humans and Serpentine got off while the Overlord and Cryptor remained in control of the war machine to fight their enemies.
The ninjas were back at it with their sworn enemies like they did at the monastery. Ronin made it obvious he still had a bone to pick with Wu and Garmadon, Cole and Karl butt heads with one another, among others.
"Give up already!" Jay zapped Ash with a lightning bolt.
"You never know when to shut up, do you?" The corrupt inventor glared at the chatty ninja.
"No. No I don't." The lightning wielder answered dryly before zapping him again.
With Cryptor hooked to the machine, Ash had no one in this 'every man for himself' brawl but he wasn't entirely defenseless. He knew a thing or two about fighting and tackled Jay again. The inventors exchanged fists and continued the battle they started at the monastery.
"Ice!"
Zane covered much of the area around him in ice. The Serpentine kept slipping and those who got close to the former ninja found out the hard way that he hadn't lost his touch.
But his wife noticed a red snake sneaking up behind him.
"Behind you!" Heather pointed at her husband, which thankfully saved his life.
Fangtom loomed behind the former nindroid with both mouths agape but thanks to the former kunoichi warning him, Zane saw the two-headed snake at the very last second and rolled out of the way from his fangs. If he were even one second too late, he would've become a snake.
"Thank you."
"You can thank me later! We have bigger things to worry about!"
The ice ninja simply nodded in understanding and fought alongside his faithful spouse.
Jacob eyed Kai amongst the brawl but a sudden and powerful gale swept him off his feet before he can even reach him. The former blacksmith was sent flying and crashed against the remains of a wall.
"Don't you ever lay a finger on Kai and our children!" Aria growled at the Overlord's henchman.
"You also like to fight rough do you?" Jacob glared at her while coughing up his spit he was sure contained blood by the coppery aftertaste.
The kunoichi of wind simply held her ground and the henchman lunged at her but her husband had other ideas.
"NINJA-GO!"
A tornado made of fire spun in front of Aria as if to protect her. The flames dispersed to reveal Kai looking more pissed than she had ever seen him.
"Stay out of this!" Kai warned his wife, "It's me he wants! Not you!"
"I won't let you
"A husband and wife fiercely devoted to one another… how sweet…" Jacob sneered, "It makes me wanna throw up!"
The fiery couple paid no heed to the arrogant man's insults and charged at him…
"Vasser!"
Luna unleashed a tsunami to fend off her attackers but some, including Karl, were persistent.
Karl swam through the torrent and grabbed the water wielder from behind her. The former idol grimaced with disgust at the feeling of one hand gripping both of hers behind her back and the other groping up and down her body and even grabbing her there, making her shriek in disgust.
"Such a shame you gave up your gift just to be that boorish oaf's trophy wife." Karl whispered as he sniffed the sweet scent of vanilla in her auburn hair.
Luna felt her blood boil hearing her former producer relentlessly insult her husband. This will be the last time he'll ever say anything nasty about the man she chose to be with.
"Give up already! I'll NEVER feel for you the same way I do with Cole! He may not be the most intelligent man around but he has heart! If there's anyone who's boorish, it's you!"
Karl snarled at the aqua-eyed woman and rose his hand to strike and his hand would've met her face if not for her outraged significant other.
"NINJA-GO!"
Karl was caught in a rocky twister and was thrown out moments later covered in bruises. Cole loomed over the Meerheim native with a look that would've killed him if possible. The former ninja didn't say a word as he tackled his enemy before he could get up.
The new generation used their true potential but all they can do was delay the war machine but not demolish it and other enemies kept distracting them.
"Get off!" Akira shoved Clouse off of him but was immediately ambushed by Skales.
"Earth!"
Amy split the earth beneath her with a slam of her palms to throw her enemies off balance but it did nothing to hinder the war machine.
Alex tried to keep her eye on the war machine but Acidicus popped up in front of her and spat in her direction but she was lucky she blocked him with the folded Fans of Gales at literally the last second.
"You're assssss feisssssssty asssss your mother… I like that." The four-eyed snake leered at her, much to her disgust.
"Well too bad because we share the same opinion of you!" The orange kunoichi summoned yet another gale right in his face.
Meanwhile, Chris tried to aim at Cryptor but with the war machine constantly moving around, he just can't get a clear shot.
"Pitiful human," The evil android literally looked down on the lightning ninja, "Your aim is full of faults compared to the perfection of mine."
The blue ninja's anger got the better of him and blindly threw a bolt of lightning at the machine but the powerful bolts barely made a scratch on the mechanical monstrosity.
It seemed that no matter what the ninjas do, the machine just won't let up.
"It's no use!" Kyle punched the pavement in frustration, "We'll never win!"
"We WILL destroy that war machine! Where there's a will, there's a way!" Forrest exclaimed.
"But the problem is we don't know the way!" Chris complained.
"We gotta try doing the Tornadoes of Creation and Time again!" Melody attempted to goad her teammates, "Just because we couldn't do it the first time doesn't mean we'll fail again!"
"But what if we do!?" Alex retorted.
"You have to do it." A wise voice goaded the ninjas.
The new generation turned to the green ninja who continued to give them advice.
"Part of being a hero is taking risks," Lloyd reminded his former pupils, "Life as a whole is about taking risks and only you can decide the consequences. You must either try or let the Overlord win. Which would you prefer?"
The ninja and kunoichi hesitated while remembering what their parents taught them since the day they discovered their powers. It wasn't going to be easy but true to their name, they must endure their hardships as ninjas and overcome countless obstacles.
Their biggest obstacles was not the enemies but the barricades within themselves and that was not the whole issue. They were each unique and each of them were just one part of the team. Akira was fiery and always tried to motivate the group while Melody had the strength to look at the brighter side of things and keep everyone's chins up. They had their disagreements that got in the way but in the end, they were one.
If only they can combine their elemental powers as one…
"Is it possible for us to combine all of our powers instead of half of us at a time?" Amy asked.
"You mean combine both tornadoes into one?" Alex responded with another question.
"I mean all of us become one tornado instead of half of us working at a time." The kunoichi of earth continued but was met with doubtful exclamations.
"Do you think that's even possible?" Forrest stared at his teammate as if she had gone mad.
"We won't know until we try."
"The First Spinjitzu Master didn't say anything about all of us combining our powers! What if it creates something worse?" Kyle fretted over the worst case scenario.
"What could be worse than a machine destroying Ninjago that we can't beat!?" The blue ninja yelled at his older brother.
"You don't have to yell!"
""Guys, please! This is the worst time to pick fights with one another!" Liana tried to quell the brothers' argument.
The Walker brothers pouted but were aware of the real danger so they relented.
"This could be our full potential Misako was talking about!" Forrest suggested, "Do any of you remember what she said before we found our true potential? The true extent of our elemental powers will awaken at the very last moment!"
"But this may not be the final battle!" Alex argued back.
"No, but we learned so much and are much stronger compared to when we first started off on our adventures. This is our chance to show the world what we've learned so far."
"Whether we fail or not is something only we'll decide and none of us want to fail, right?" Amy goaded the group.
"Yeah!"
"The let's do it!" The ever hotheaded Akira led his team on to make their biggest move yet.
"NINJA-GO!"
The ninjas concentrated on their part within a whole group before attempting to combine their powers into one.
"Fire!"
"Wind!"
"Lightning!"
"Metal!"
"Water!"
"Earth!"
"Ice!"
"Nature!"
One at a time, the new generation of ninjas consumed themselves in their elemental twisters. Then the eight tornadoes blended into one another, creating a maelstrom so powerful that the original ninjas used every ounce of strength they had not to get caught in the tempest. Even the war machine buried its legs through the concrete to stay aground. The tornado grew so large it soon dwarfed the Tornadoes of Creation and Time. The original ninjas and their allies stared at the massive hurricane in stunned silence.
"They actually did it…!" Lloyd was shocked but not unpleasantly by the ninjas' new skills.
"Not even I would've thought of such a feat would be possible." Zane stared in surprise.
"This is the next level the scrolls have spoken of…" Misako observed with astonishment.
"But I've never read of such a thing." Iris replied.
"Because this was something for your children to learn." Wu said.
The tornado engulfed the war machine that finally met its match.
The wrecked gears of the mechanic groaned as they fell apart and the machine collapsed onto itself. Large chunks of its surface fell away to reveal the gears and circuitry within. Even with the naked eye, one can tell that this machine was highly advanced with its intricate details.
"NO! NO! NO!" The Overlord cursed in his rage.
"Power levels of enemy forces have exceeded the machine's capacity," Cryptor droned, "It will be a matter of minutes before it will fall apart."
Every time he felt like he finally won, the pestilent ninjas tear victory straight from his grasp.
"What can we do?" Leon and Willow asked their parents while watching from the sidelines.
"Do what you must at the right time," Lloyd answered cryptically, "You are the green ninja and kunoichi of time and space after all, right?"
The young Garmadon siblings reflected on their place among the group. They may be different from the elemental ninjas but they were just as important. They may be the ones that will face the Overlord in the real final battle but they can't do it without the ninjas. They were all part of one team. They needed each other to play their part and this was their chance.
Willow drew back an arrow and tried to focus on her target.
'Come on Willow. Concentrate.' The pink kunoichi told herself while trying to steady her aim.
At last, all the training she went through paid off. The arrow hit the war machine smack dab in the center of the machine just below the Overlord's pseudo throne. The effects of time worked against the monstrous mechanism, slowing down the flow of time until its movements became slow like a slow-motion scene.
"Leon! Now's your chance!" The youngest kunoichi summoned her sibling.
With a fierce battle cry, Leon summoned a mass of pure green and gold energy and threw it at the war machine. In its already weakened state, the mechanism couldn't stand a chance.
The machine completely keeled over and a cloud of dust rose from the impact. The big twister shrunk and the divided into eight elemental tornadoes. The ninjas' twisters dispersed and they tried to hunt down the dark lord and his underlings through the dust storm.
"Come out and fight unless you're a coward!" Chris tried to provoke him.
Even amidst the smoke, the Overlord still had the final say.
"This won't be the last you'll see of me! You may have won this battle but when the time comes for me to fight you myself, you won't be so lucky!"
The war machine can no longer handle the overwhelming power of the green ninja anymore. Its mainframe short-circuited and exploded, sending debris everywhere. Everyone took cover from the large chunks of metal littering the remains of the city but the ninja and kunoichi lost sight of the Overlord and his underlings. They could've sworn they heard the dark lord's voice hidden in the smoke.
The smoke has finally cleared and the ninjas knew they won because the shattered remains of the war machine were strewn in the former battlefield. The ninja and kunoichi made sure that there was no way to reactivate it before thinking that they were victorious.
"I… I can't believe it…!" Liana was still shell-shocked by everything that just happened.
"We actually did it!" Akira felt overjoyed that they actually destroyed the war machine.
"The machine's destroyed but one thing's bugging me…" Kyle pondered.
"What's that?" Chris questioned his brother.
"There's no sign of the Overlord or anyone else working for him…" The yellow ninja observed.
"Did we actually defeat him?" Willow gingerly asked.
"I highly doubt it," Her grandfather shook his head, "The Overlord is the epitome of all evil. It'll take a lot more than a demolished machine to take him down."
"So it's not over…?" Melody asked with slight apprehension.
"Far from it," Zane answered, "Even to this day, all of us still have much to learn."
"This isn't the end but I must say you all have come a long way." Misako commended the new generation of heroes.
With the threat of the Overlord gone… for the moment… the new ninja and kunoichi can finally have a moment with their families.
"Akira! Alex! As long you're safe, that's all I need." Aria kissed the twins' cheeks, much to their embarrassment but they were grateful for her love.
"I'm so proud of both of you," Nya embraced her sons, "You've really grown up."
"My little princesses are growing up!" Cole squeezed his daughters in yet another bear hug.
"You have learned so much," Zane kissed his children, "But no matter what happens, you're still you and you'll always be my precious little ones."
"That tornado… I've never seen anything like it…" Haruka looked back at the duel that occurred mere moments ago.
"Does it have a name like the Tornado of Creation?" Leon asked.
"The tornado you've created is named the 'Tornado of Harmony'," Misako examined the scrolls yet again, "It's an apt name because you've finally learned to work as one."
"So we finally won?" Alex asked with slight hope in her robust voice.
"This victory is yours but you mustn't forget that this is far from the end. The Overlord and his zealots are still out there, waiting for the perfect time to strike." The solemn Garmadon warned the young heroes.
"So when do we really get to fight him?" Akira asked, "He bragged that he's not gonna go easy on us when we really fight him. Now I wanna prove otherwise…"
"Don't press your luck Akira." Kai warned his son.
"The Overlord might strike again today, tomorrow, or whenever he wants but no matter what, we'll be ready for him." Leon vowed.
"And what about those lackeys working for him?" Chris brought up the dark lord's underlings, "He's far from the only threat for us."
"We'll handle them," His father answered, "We are the ones they want. We can still fight."
"You didn't become ninjas to replace us. You were meant to pass down the way of the ninja so it will never vanish. You are our heirs but we still follow the way of the ninja." Zane said.
"And you couldn't have asked for a better teacher…" Dareth started… "ME!"
Everyone laughed at the good ol' brown ninja's antics. Some things just never change.
But what did change was Ninjago City. Once the busy capital of Ninjago, it was now a bunch of ruins littered with debris.
"What a wreck…" Leon examined the chaotic mess left behind from the battle.
"It's going to take a lot to rebuild the city…" Iris gazed at the ruins of the once bustling city.
"We're gonna have to clean it up." Lloyd answered.
"WHAT!?" His former students were flabbergasted at his 'solution'.
"We made this mess so we'll have to clean it." The original green ninja said like it was nothing.
"But it's the Overlord's fault the city's now a hellhole!" Alex tried pointing fingers.
"Partially. You also had a hand in all this destruction, no?"
The kunoichi of wind tried to talk back but she hated to admit her teacher was right. They may be on the good side but they did end up destroying parts of the city in the process.
The young heroes all groaned in defeat, which brought a chuckle out of their parents.
They may have grown a lot but deep down, they were still children.
"Being a ninja isn't all about Spinjitzu, battles, and heroics alone," Cole started, "It's also about helping make Ninjago a safe place for everyone and that includes making this city inhabitable, and that includes cleaning it up."
"I guess…" Amy relented.
"Wherever the road of destiny takes you and no matter what obstacles will come your way, you must remember… a ninja never quits."
The new generation took in all they learned up to this point. They were a team and their bonds were what made them succeed. They may be young but they showed their true potential.
The former ninjas looked on with pride at their children celebrating their greatest victory yet.
They knew Ninjago will always be in safe hands.
Evil will eventually come back but when it does, the new generation will be ready.
For as long as they had someone or something to protect, the ninjas will always be there.
Wow…
I have no idea what to say. It's amazing to see how your own characters evolve and how deeper your stories go. As an author, it's quite an experience…
But I also have that announcement to make…
I know a lot of you will be pissed but I'm gonna take a little hiatus from this story. No, I haven't given up & I do have a lot planned. It's just that I need some time 'fine-tuning' it & it'll take some time. But don't worry about my other stories. I'll still write Beauty in the Beast & Within Destiny, it's just this story I'll be taking a break from.
Before this story goes into hiatus, I just wanna say thank you to everyone who've read & enjoyed this story. It means so much to me and no words can describe my gratitude to you all but let me just say… thank you!