Slight spoilers for Quest for the Lost Elemental Powers if you have not yet read it.
I'm finally back! I really hope you all like this story. I'm a little nervous about it XD.
Disclaimer: I do not own Ninjago.
Chapter I: Ember
"Remind me why we're here again," Kai said as he and his five friends made their way through Metalonia.
It had been months since the ninja regained their powers and without a threat, they decided to do some smaller jobs for the people of Ninjago. While many of these jobs weren't very exciting, they did the people good, and that was all the ninja needed to know.
"The missing person's case we received this morning," Zane replied, trying to help Kai remember.
"No, I remember that," Kai replied, realizing his poor choice of wording, "but...what happened?"
"A girl went out into the woods yesterday afternoon and never returned," Lloyd answered.
"That's why we're going to find her," Nya replied confidently.
They traveled through a rather poor looking neighborhood before Lloyd suddenly turned up the pathway of one of the homes and knocked on the door. None of the ninja had any time to compose themselves before the door opened to reveal a Metalonian man who looked to be in his mid-fifties. His hair was short and graying and he had many wrinkles along his cheeks and eyes. His silver glasses made his amber colored eyes look incredibly alert. His brown jacket was dirtied with soot and so were his jeans. The man's shoes were very worn out as well.
"Are you...Mr. Flint?" Lloyd asked awkwardly. He wasn't entirely sure what to call him as a last name was never given.
"Yes. Lloyd Garmadon?" Flint asked. His voice was surprisingly calm considering the circumstances.
"Yes," Lloyd replied as the two shook hands. "My friends and I are going to do everything in our power to bring your daughter back home."
"Thank you, ninja. I'm sure Ember is out there somewhere. She went out to the woods to find her mother's favorite flowers. It's her birthday soon, and she thought a bouquet would be the perfect gift," Flint explained, "but she has a horrible sense of direction. I never should've let her out on her own.
"Where's your wife now?" Cole asked.
"Ah we divorced nearly two years ago. She's on her way now to help in our search," Flint replied.
"Do you have a picture of Ember?" Jay asked.
"Yes. Right in here."
Flint led the six ninja into his home, but unlike what his clothes indicated, there was no fireplace or any hint of smoke. Perhaps a fire pit was located outside? Kai seemed to be the only one pondering this, though, as the others were focused on the mission. An example the fire ninja should be following.
"Right here," Flint said as he showed the ninja a family photo. He pointed to a girl who looked to be in her early twenties. She had long, brown hair and wore an orange dress with sunflowers decorated at the bottom and a jean jacket. She had beautiful, green eyes and fair skin.
"Is this your most recent photo?" Zane asked as he noted how close Flint and another woman, who was clearly Ember's mother, were to each other.
Flint faltered for just a moment before saying, "Unfortunately, yes. We've never been much for photos. Luckily, she doesn't look too different now."
"Would you mind if we borrowed the picture?" Cole asked.
"I would," Flint replied. He had to think for a moment before continuing saying, "I'll go with you and bring the picture with me."
"Very well. I have already scanned the photograph, so if you'd like to split up..." Zane started as he looked to their leader.
"Good idea. Kai, Cole, and I will go with Mr. Flint while Zane, Jay, and Nya will search on their own. We'll meet back here at sunset to regroup," Lloyd told them.
Two hours had passed. Lloyd, Cole, Kai, and Flint were searching every crevice, cave, and clearing, but there were no signs of Ember. After a while, Kai walked over to his brother in black and said, "Does this guy seem strange to you at all?"
"No. Why?" Cole whispered back.
"I don't know," Kai responded. "It's just, you'd think he'd be more worried about his daughter being missing for over twenty-four hours but he's so-"
"Calm?"
"Yeah. Plus, his most recent photo of her is from before the divorce."
"Some people just don't take pictures," Cole shrugged.
"For that long?"
"Well...I don't know," Cole's indecisiveness on the matter only made Kai's own confusion worse. And he wasn't the kind of ninja that was okay with being left in the dark. He needed answers.
After speed walking away from Cole and to Flint, he tried to make it seem like he was making normal, pleasant conversation.
"So...Flint. You like fire?" he asked as he showed off a bit of his power.
Flint seemed deeply surprised by this question. Then, a look of realization came over him.
"Ah, the soot. I run our village's local smithy. It can get quite dirty sometimes," was the response given.
Kai was surprised by this and, maybe a little excited.
"You're a...blacksmith?"
"I am."
"I used to be a blacksmith too."
"Oh?"
"Yeah, I wasn't very good at it, but my dad's been trying to teach me a little. You got any good advice? It's always nice to have more than one teacher."
An annoyed groan could be heard behind as Lloyd realized how unnatural Kai sounded. What was he up to?
"Well, I've always found it best to quench your fire as fast as you can for best results," Flint said, not even glancing over at the fire ninja.
"That's not what my dad says," Kai replied, confused. "He says to cool the metal slowly so it won't break."
"It seems he has not mastered the correct method then."
Kai stopped right in his tracks, his anger rising. His dad was the best blacksmith in all of Ninjago! There was no way some nobody had mastered some sort of "correct" method before him!
"My dad is the best blacksmith in all Ninjago," Kai scoffed, trying to calm himself down.
"From what you've said, he is far from it."
There was no control from that point on. His anger bubbled over the top in a matter of seconds, and he had no desire to stop it.
"Look, I don't know who you are, but you are no blacksmith! How do we know if you're telling the truth? About any of this? Do you even have a daughter? Because you aren't acting like it!" Heat radiated from Kai's body as anger overtook him. He could hear Cole squeak slightly in fear and Lloyd sigh in annoyance along with embarrassment. Kai couldn't bring himself to care. He was already in a bad mood that day. What, with having to wear a wet suit after the dryer broke, the others refusing to tell him details about the mission, and now this guy trying to one up his dad? The others could only hope that this wouldn't turn into a blowout.
"Kai," the youngest of them started, but when the fire ninja didn't turn around to face him, he realized there would be no reasoning for a while. So he turned to Flint.
"We're really sorry about our friend. He gets carried away sometimes."
"It is quite alright, my friend. When things don't make sense, it is easy for anger to join in," Flint responded in understanding.
Kai only scoffed in response.
"How big are these woods?" Jay couldn't help but complain loudly. "It feels like we've been walking for hours!"
"That's because we have been," Zane responded.
"Shh," Nya said, looking to Jay.
The three stopped in their tracks, staying perfectly silent as some noises were heard ahead. It almost sounded like someone else talking. A lot of someone else's. The other end of the village.
"Ooh! Finally! Maybe they can give us food!" Jay said excitedly.
"Jay," Nya drew out the word in annoyance. "We're here to find Ember. We can relax at the monastery."
"Right," Jay nodded, honestly glad for the reminder. "Maybe they can help us find her then."
The village was unlike most. Almost every citizen was in some sort of fight. Yelling could be heard throughout the entire village as they were either training or brawling. They were all decked in protective armor, corroded and weakened from many previous battles. If they weren't trying to sell weapons or train, they were eating hearty meals. Even the children were this way, although, their training seemed to look more like play. One of the biggest differences in this town, though, was that no one seemed to pay attention to the ninja. In fact, they barely knew them!
The ninja tried many times to get many different people's attention, but they only ignored them in favor of their fighting.
"This is pointless," Nya sighed as the three met up again near the center of the town.
"Don't say that," Jay replied. "I'm sure someone will listen."
Zane didn't say anything. Instead, he walked forward, ahead of the couple and to a large statue of the founder of the village. He stood on top of it, turned up his volume, and said, "Everybody stop."
Much to the couple's surprise, the people did stop and look to the nindroid to hear what he had to say.
"We are looking for a young woman named Ember, who went missing yesterday. Any aid you can give us in locating her would be greatly appreciated," he said as he showed a projection of the photo shown to him earlier.
Immediately, the crowd began murmuring among themselves, the missing woman's name continuously being thrown around, along with many questions.
As soon as the ice ninja jumped down from the statue, his hands were grasped by a larger woman with black hair and a kind smile. She asked in a heavy accent, "Who sent you?"
"Her dad, Flint. Why?" Jay responded.
At the sound of his name, her eyes widened. Then, became very solemn as she said, "A fire took our dear Ember's life over two years ago."
Flint led the ninja to a cave far away from the village. Their ability to contact the others was lost long ago, and the ninja couldn't help but feel uneasy. The cave was dark and screeches from animals inside could be heard. All they could see through the light of Kai's flame was each other and Flint's silhouette from much farther up.
"Why are we here?" Kai yelled to the older man. He wasn't going to reveal his fear, so it instead came out sounding incredibly frustrated and maybe a little rude.
"This is where Ember went off to yesterday," Flint responded.
Lloyd couldn't help but smile a little. Finally, they were getting somewhere.
It was almost as if this new hope opened the ninja's eyes to what was ahead. A reddish glow appeared at the end of the long tunnel they were in. They continued down this tunnel and entered a large circular room, torches along every curve. There were many crystals located in the center of the room and many objects similar to the different elements.
"I always go here when I need to...think," Flint said as he gripped Cole's shoulder.
The oldest ninja looked to the man in confusion but also weary as he continued saying, "I recovered a very important document and perfected my recipe. With the help of my beautiful Ember, of course."
Cole shakily grabbed the man's hand, which was still steadfast on his shoulder. The energy from the earth master's body was quickly disappearing. He started to feel nauseous and dizzy as black spots entered his line of sight.
"What are you-?" Cole couldn't finish his sentence before he fell to the ground.
"Cole!" Lloyd exclaimed as he ran to his brother. He quickly checked his pulse to make sure he was alright before looking to Flint in disgust, but the man ignored him.
Instead, he used the power of earth to block the entrance with a boulder.
"Amber," Kai gasped.
"You've done your research well, fire ninja," Flint praised.
"But how?" Lloyd asked.
"It was mostly my dear Ember's work. A brilliant mind in love with the elements. Together, we recreated the only man-made element so she could temporarily keep any element she chose, but it was short lived. After she passed, I used my daughter's research to...enhance the element. My amber is better, stronger than what the first amber master created. It takes much more of their power, indefinitely."
Lloyd ran at the man, green energy in tack. He jumped to the side when Flint jumped at him and he managed to kick the older man down. Flint was quick back on his feet and used Cole's power to start throwing boulders at the green ninja. Lloyd dodged most of these but had to use his power to destroy the last few. Kai then came from behind and punched Flint down. The fire ninja was about to take out his sword but Lloyd suddenly shouted, "No weapons!"
Kai groaned in frustration then in pain as the man shoved him to the ground, grasping to Kai's shoulders to keep him from getting back up.
The same feelings that overtook Cole before he passed out hit Kai in an instant. The pain he felt in his chest would've been unbearable had it not been for the pit in his stomach to distract him. It dropped like a ton yet everything he ate felt like it was coming up. He tried to lift his head, but the wave of dizziness that came put him right back down into darkness.
"A power as destructive as fire is not for the light-hearted," Flint explained as he stood back up. "Although your power is not fully gone, fire ninja, it will never be as strong."
"And now you have that power. What's the point of all this?" Lloyd asked, anger threatening to overtake him.
"You'll see in due time, Garmadon."
Lloyd shot his power at the man, but he was lucky enough to dodge it before running away. Lloyd ran after him and almost caught up, but Flint used the power of earth to both destroy the boulder blocking the entrance and cause a rockslide so that only one escaped. Lloyd was left helpless.
The green ninja waited hours, desperately trying to call someone for help, but with them being too far from any signal, no one came.
Finally, Lloyd heard a strange noise behind him. He turned around and saw Cole trying, shakily, to stand up.
"Cole!" Lloyd exclaimed as he ran towards his brother.
"What-what happened?" the now weakened earth elemental asked.
"Flint took some of your power. Kai's too," Lloyd replied. "Do you think you have enough left to get us out of here?"
Cole, too tired to fully care to understand, punched his fists together, but his earth punch didn't activate. It was gone. He walked over to the boulder and, with Lloyd's help, they rolled it away.
"How long is my power gonna be like this?" Cole panted.
"According to Flint, forever."
"Well...let's hope he's wrong."
While his super strength was gone, he was still strong and managed to pick Kai up and over his shoulder. Together, the three ninja left the cave and when Kai was awake and stronger, they helped him walk back to the village. After finally being able to call the other ninja, they met back up in Flint's home.
They all sat in the dining room, trying to figure out what to do next as Kai inspected just what he could do with his remaining power.
He watched as the flame danced along his fingers. It was so much smaller. So much weaker.
Kai grunted in frustration before asking, "Why does this keep happening to me?"
"It did knock you guys unconscious. Maybe he just needed his chance to escape?" Jay suggested.
"Yeah, because some random guy is going to steal our powers just for the heck of it," Kai grunted.
"This is rather concerning," Zane responded. "Let us hope he doesn't do anything before we can figure out what his plan is. Kai, do you mind if we continue on without you?"
"Without me?" Kai asked.
"Do you not have your date?"
"Oh, shoot! I almost forgot!" Kai exclaimed. "Let me know anything you find!" he shouted before he left on his bike towards Ninjago City.
Skylor waited patiently for her date at a brand new seafood restaurant called Dungeness on the west side of the city. Sitting at a table for two, she checked her watch for the umpteenth time to see that twenty minutes had passed since they were supposed to meet and ten minutes since she had been seated.
"Hey, gorgeous," that amazing voice finally came to her ears.
The red head looked up from her watch to see Kai standing, looking pretty nervous. He was wearing a suit with a red tie and actually took his band-aid off. Skylor always told him it didn't make him look as cool as he thought it did.
"You're late," Skylor said sternly as she stood up.
Kai was immediately in awe. Unlike most days, her hair was down and curled. She had make-up on, and a silver burette in her hair. She wore an orange dress that went to the floor with a white belt and heels.
"I, uh, I'm sorry," Kai replied, his face burning with embarrassment.
"You better have a good explanation for this," she replied, hoping that she did well hiding her smile.
"I do, I promise," he said as the two hugged before sitting down.
Before Kai could begin his explanation, though, the waiter came asking about drinks. The two ordered and as soon as the waiter left, Skylor turned to her date and asked, "What happened?"
"A mission," Kai responded.
"You said you'd be finished with it by the time you were supposed to be here."
"Well, there were a few complications. For starters, the girl we were looking for passed away."
"Oh my gosh! What happened?" Skylor asked.
"She was killed two years ago in a fire."
"What? So why were you told otherwise?"
"I'm not sure. But her father succeeded in getting some of us alone and, he stole a huge portion of mine and Cole's powers."
"Again? How?"
"He remade your element."
Skylor's eyes grew wide in terror.
"Well, you caught him, right?" she asked.
Kai looked down in embarrassment.
"So you're telling me that there's some lunatic out there running around Ninjago with your's and Cole's powers and the ability to steal everyone else's? Does it take just as long to lose them?"
Kai shook his head.
"He made it so that he takes the power forever," Kai replied.
"Just another day in Ninjago," she sighed, head in her hands.
"Hey, we'll catch him," Kai reassured her, "and maybe if we had your help..."
"I can't abandon the restaurant, Kai," Skylor appeared disappointed, and Kai couldn't help but sigh due to that same emotion. "But I know you'll catch him in no time," as she reached across the table to squeeze his hand.
"Thanks, Sky," Kai smiled.
"Now, what do you want to eat?"
The master of fire ended up ordering a plate of crabs for the two of them, which they ate gladly. All the while, they told each other stories and laughed at dumb jokes.
"And as she walked out the door, she ended up tripping and spilling her food everywhere," Skylor laughed as she retold her most recent experience with a horrible customer.
"Tell me you made her clean it up," Kai begged.
"Even better, there was a cop there who made her clean it up because it was a hazard. I think he just overheard the conversation because it was most definitely not a hazard to leave rice in a doorway," Skylor replied.
The two laughed, knowing full well this customer had it coming, but suddenly, Kai realized that something was very wrong. He stopped laughing and looked around, trying to figure out what it was. The oxygen in the room appeared to get weaker, the heat climbed up exponentially, and that smell. It could only be one thing.
"Kai, what is it?" Skylor asked, concerned.
"Fire," Kai said and immediately, the fire alarm sounded.
Kai, Skylor, and everyone else in the building calmly walked outside, but something was still very wrong.
"At least your heat sensor is still on," Skylor joked, referring to his sensitivity to temperatures.
Kai didn't respond. Instead, he looked around, trying to figure out why he felt the way he did. Were his powers acting up? Was he going crazy?
"Kai?"
She barely got the word out before the gas station behind them exploded, throwing Kai and Skylor back into the restaurant.
The world around him seemed to stay silent as he groaned. The only noise was the loud ringing in his ears. As he opened his eyes, all he could see was smoke, a destroyed half of a building, and no Skylor. He freaked.
"Skylor!" he called out as he grabbed his now dislocated shoulder.
He continued calling her name as he scanned the restaurant, trying to see through the smoke, but he saw nothing.
Finally, he noticed a shift under a nearby pile of wood. Kai rushed to it and used his good arm to throw it off of her.
"Are you okay?" Kai asked, helping her up.
"Fine, I guess," Skylor groaned.
The roof above started creaking warily, and Kai knew it was time to leave. He took Skylor's hand in his own and ran for the door.
Once they made it outside, they saw building after building in flames. Fire and smoke were everywhere, people were running around and screaming, and at the center of it all, on Borg Tower, one of the only buildings that was unaffected by this, was Flint.
"That's him," Kai's voice was already getting hoarse from the smoke in his lungs.
"The guy who took your power?" Skylor asked.
"Yeah. We have to go after him!"
"We have to help the people!"
"Where do we take them?"
Skylor paused a moment before a confident grin began to spread on her face.
"Up there," she said, nodding to the pirate ship in the sky.
Kai nodded immediately before hearing a man behind him yelling, "Someone help!"
"You help him, I'll go help people evacuate," Skylor said before throwing her heels off and leaving, not even giving the fire ninja a chance to say goodbye.
The brunette had to shake his head in order to stop worrying about her so he could go to the man standing right in front of what he assumed to be his house.
"Sir, you need to get out of here," Kai said as he grabbed his arm.
"My wife and son are still in there!" the man replied, desperation and fear covering his face.
"Don't worry. I'll get them out," Kai said, trying to stay calm for him.
He backed up a few steps before running at full speed towards the house. He jumped in through the window and could immediately hear the sound of a baby crying upstairs. The fire was blocking off the staircase. Kai's only hope to help whoever was up there was to run through the fire.
Taking a deep breath, he ran through, but it felt so much worse than any previous time he had done it. He could feel as his skin turned bright red, and as his shoes began to melt, making his feet hurt like there was no tomorrow. Quickly, he took these off and threw them right back down the stairs.
He ran towards the cry and kicked down the door to see a mother and her baby.
"Help!" she called out to him.
"Don't worry. You'll be okay," Kai said, hoping it to be true.
He looked out the window only to see that the drop was straight down. With a wince he said, "We're gonna have to jump."
"There's no other way down?" she asked nervously.
Kai shook his head.
She took a deep breath before handing the baby to the fire ninja and saying, "Take him first."
The elemental nodded before he jumped out the window, shielding the baby's face from the smoke and the impact of the fall as he rolled out of it. Once he and the child were "safe" out of the house, the man who called to him ran over and grabbed his son, hugging him with all his might. He then looked up as tears were quickly forming.
Kai turned back to the mother and said with as little fear as possible, "Your turn."
The mother slowly crawled out of the window and held onto the edge with all her might. When she looked down to jump, she screamed in fear. Kai wasn't sure what to do. The position she put herself in made it so that he would have to catch her, but he couldn't do that with his dislocated shoulder. Even if he could, someone would get seriously injured.
Suddenly, Cole came over and strained to raise the ground up to her. It took a long time and clearly, it took a lot out of him, but he did it.
"It's okay," he yelled up to her, losing his breath from both the smoke and the exertion. "Just step down and we'll bring you to a safe place."
Apprehensively, the woman looked down to see what Cole had done. With a grateful smile, she stepped onto the ground and ran over to her husband. After a long embrace, she looked back to the two ninja and said, "Thank you. Both of you."
"Come on," Cole gently said to them, "The Bounty is ready and willing to take anyone who needs refuge."
"What about Skylor?" Kai asked.
"Don't know. Pixal and Zane are on the ship making food for refugees. The rest are helping people evacuate."
The ninja worked hard to save as many people as possible, but they were soon overwhelmed by the flames and needed refuge themselves.
Flint looked to the Bounty from the top of Borg Tower, at the center of it all. He could feel the warmth against his face and smoke sting his eyes. It made him angry knowing that someone once had this kind of power for so long, but not anymore. The element of fire was with him now, and he was going to do everything in his power to keep it that way.
"I'll make sure that you never steal anything from me again," Flint growled as he looked to the flame in his hand.
Destiny's Bounty was crowded with three quarters of the city's population. There was barely any room to move about yet somehow, Kai did it. He made it to the back deck and stood on the ledge to get a good look at the city in flames, gripping tightly to the wood above so he wouldn't fall.
It was horrifying to see. It was his element that took so many lives. His element that destroyed so many homes. His element that Flint was using for some sort of twisted revenge against the flames, and Kai was going to stop it if it was the last thing he did.
The fire ninja could hear a sigh behind him. He didn't need to look back to know who it was. Skylor's voice was too distinct to confuse with anyone else's. He could hear as she walked a few steps and could see her out of his peripheral as she sat on the ledge beside him.
"Are you okay?" she asked.
Kai shook his head, tears beginning to fall as he said, "I should never have gotten my power back."
First chapter: Done! I'm thinking there will be about 10 chapters in this story, but updates will most likely be pretty infrequent as June will be a very busy month for me. I hope you all liked this chapter!
Have a great day/night!
#God'sNotDead