Chapter Two: Checking out Bedrooms...

I grabbed Karlof, master of metal if my instincts were correct, by the wrist, yanking him away from the young woman that was wearing a familiar orange hood. Karlof growled, yanking his wrist free from my loose grasp on it. "Who do you think you are?"

'A ninja that is pretty positive that assaulting the daughter of our host is a bad idea.' I signed quickly, before pausing, a look of pure confusion crossed my features. What was that about!?

"Wait... what?" Karlof scrunched up his face, as if he were lost.

Zane materialized by my shoulder right about then, his face carefully blank, though I suspected that he was extremely curious about what was going on in my mind right about now. "He says harassing her might not be the best idea."

I arched one eyebrow upwards, surprised that he didn't translate everything that I just said. Maybe he thought it safer if no one knew that little detail..? "What's going on here?" Clouse approached, fury dancing in his eyes.

Before I could say anything, Skylor spoke up. "Drake was just stopping one of our fellow competitors from stealing my cloak is all. Nothing to worry about." That's right. Skylor's mother was hard of hearing so she is fluent in sign language. Wait... how do I know that!?

Someone smacked me in the back of the head, a familiar voice hissing in my ear. "Breath Drake. Or else everyone is going to treat you like glass and we all know that you are no porcelain doll."

'Thanks Kid.' I glanced back at Lloyd, turning away from our future teammates. What is going on with my mind here?!

Lloyd and Zane led me back to where Jay and Cole were in a deep conversation with each other. "I still think that is not a good plan..."

"Come on Jay... h...she has helped us out with all kinds of missions, why would this be any different?"

"It's against the rules! Besides that, Drake might not be happy with us if we suggest he contacts Samurai X and have her come out to help us out here."

I fought the urge to bury my face into the palm of my hand. I had a very funny feeling that Nya knew exactly where we were at, but was too busy kidnapping Pixal so as to turn her into a Samurai X 2.0... Where did that thought came from..?

"Contestants! Line up! We're ready to disembark!" Clouse bellowed as he suddenly walked to the front of the ferry.

I rolled my shoulders, wondering vaguely how well we can stop the invasion this time. Maybe Garmadon won't need to die! Ok... that's it! 'Guys... can you smack me every other minute while we're here? My mind has gone crazy again... and no, you won't like what it is that I'm thinking about.'

"Seriously? We really need to prove to Samurai X that you do have a really strong sixth sense." Jay grumbled to me as he followed Cole off of the ferry. I didn't respond, silently agreeing with him. I clearly had one, so it didn't make sense that she claimed that I didn't.

...

I glanced around the room that was given to me, feeling somewhat bored as I noted that there wasn't much in there. Hmm, looks like Chen decided against the larger than life poster of me this time around. Then again, I don't have a huge ego anymore. I outgrew that years ago.

I gave my head a quick shake, before stepping out onto my balcony to double check that my balcony was still next to Skylor's balcony. It was. She was leaning casually on the railing, staring out into the distance. Good, she hasn't noticed me just yet. Turning, I slipped back into my room, a single thought flashing across my mind. I know that I know a lot about Ninjago's more mystical part of our history, but I really am not a big reader and could do with less history books in my room.

...

I scanned Zane's room, one eyebrow shooting upwards. 'How come your room is better than mine? He filled it with history books!'

Zane looked up from the cake pan that he was loading into the standard oven that was part of the fully furnished kitchen in his room. "Why would he give you books? You hate reading, and have dyslexia."

'My thoughts exactly.' I flopped onto the comfy white armchair that was in the living room area of his bedroom.

Zane wiped his hands on his frilly pink apron, a thoughtful expression on his features. "Chen appears to have done quite a bit of research on our likes and dislikes." To prove his point, he gestured to the framed photos of icy landscapes, birds... and us when we're relaxing. Photos of us that I recognized as ones that we all have...on our phones. There also was a bird perch for Falcon, and instead of an balcony, a simple door was opened to reveal that he had a small meditation room instead.

I frowned, glancing over at the oven that was now baking a cake. 'I don't think he even remembers that its his birthday.'

Zane rolled his eyes, even as he started pulling out the ingredients needed to make his buttercream frosting. And the things he needed to make his fondant. "It does not matter. We've been talking about this surprise party for the past three weeks. He will have to deal with it."

...

I buried my face into my arms, a silent groan escaping me. Cole dropped a hand down onto my back, gently squeezing my shoulder blades, releasing the tension that was there. "Ok... I believe that I can speak for everyone when I say that we didn't see any of this coming..."

I lifted my head up to glare at him, fingers flying as fury punctuated through my words. 'We can't lose anyone else. And Zane's already made the cake!'

Jay drummed his fingers on the table, his gaze shifting over to where the birthday cake that Zane made was resting on the counter. It was covered in a thin green fondant, decorative gold icing spelling out the words happy birthday over the top, a artistically done drawing of the UltraDragon in the left hand corner. Zane sighed as he lifted the cake up, pulling his fridge open. "I guess we postpone the surprise party until after we rescue him."

'I knew I had a bad feeling about all of this!'

"Drake... we're working on it!" Yeah, not having the kid yell with the others just seems a combination of weird and wrong...

A/N: Done! Um, yeah. If you actually pay attention to the episode... the only reason why Lloyd wasn't out the first day is because Garmadon was there and he stopped Clouse from stopping Lloyd from getting a Jadeblade. Only Garmadon isn't here this time around... and on Lloyd's b-day too! So, we won't see much of Lloyd in this book, sorry! Karlof is still in play though! Um...haven't had them go snooping yet... oh well. Drake/Kai already knows what his plan is anyways! Even if he doesn't remember this little detail...

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SkyTalon