Fun Fact: Writing it out is actually better than imagining it, especially if you have a very busy and messy brain like me. It forces you to fill in the blanks. Anyways…
Chapter 5: The Power of Positive Thinking
POV: Nya
I'm having a very hard time concentrating now because I finally let myself think about the situation rather than ignoring it and hoping it's going to be fine. It just feels like a dam exploded and all of the thoughts I pushed off to the back of my mind are flooding back in.
"Nya?"
I suddenly snapped back into reality. "Hmm?"
I looked at Lloyd, and he had the 'Are you okay' expression written all over his face. Then I took a look around the room to see that everyone was looking at me with similar expressions. How long has he been trying to talk to me?
"Sorry, I'm listening now."
"Are you okay?"
And there it is. I wasn't really expecting Lloyd, or anyone for that matter, to go on without saying something.
"Yes, yes of course– I just zoned out."
After shooting me a glare, Lloyd continued. "We were picking teams, and I already know what team you're going to be in, I just wanted you to be aware of who's doing what. So, who wants to stay at the monastery instead?"
"Arin and I can stay here," Sora replied, probably thinking that it wasn't her place to be looking for a missing ninja when there were other people who were closer to Jay and cared more in a personal way. If I were in her situation, I would feel out of place and uncomfortable too, although Arin seemed pretty unhappy about Sora pulling him out without his consent. He didn't say anything about it though.
"I will stay here too," Wyldfire was probably excited at the opportunity of being the only 'fire' wielder for a little while.
"I do not believe it is wise to leave you alone at the monastery without knowing what could happen; you are all still pretty early in your ninja career," Zane pointed out.
Arin, realizing what he could gain by staying in the monastery, turned to Lloyd and said, "Oh, come on, at least give us a chance. This is our chance to prove that we're capable of handling situations ourselves. I mean, when would we get the chance to do this again?"
He then added a 'Pleaaaase' after Lloyd gave him a skeptical look.
"We could test it out when we're all together and able to jump in if something goes wrong anytime, I agree with Zane."
"We will call the second something goes wrong! What could possibly happen?" Now Sora was joining in on the conversation.
After thinking for a moment, Lloyd decided that they could come back at any time, it wasn't like they were going to fight to get Jay back. (hehe)
"Okay, but you have to call the second you see a problem bigger than a couple of street thugs. Okay?"
"Yes, of course!" Arin seemed really excited. Something tells me he's not going to call until the monastery starts burning.
After a moment of Lloyd rethinking his decisions, "Okay then, Arin, Sora, and Wyldfire stay here at the monastery while Zane, Nya, Kai, and I look for Jay."
But where do we even start? The merge made Ninjago over 10 times larger! He could be anywhere, and it's not like every merged realm has a city where you can ask people and look at security footage. Do the people there even know us? Would they trust us to tell anything? Would they trust us to look at their security footage? DO they have security footage? Do they even know who Jay is? What if–
"Nya!"
Kai was standing right in front of me. After looking me in the eyes for a moment, he sighed, realizing I was not going to share the reason for my distractedness, and said, "We're going to start packing. We'll meet back here in an hour."
I realized that, as Kai was walking away, most of the people had already left. Just as I was about to leave, I felt a hand holding my wrist and turned to see Sora.
"Are you sure you're ok?"
I tried to take a deep breath without making much sound and replied by saying comforting words about me being ok and just getting distracted easily, then left for my room.
Stop worrying. What would Jay say? 'The power of positive thinking!' Look on the bright side… um… we're finally piecing ourselves together again! Yeah! We've already got most of the team back and it's only a matter of time before we find him!
'Only a matter of time?' In 16 merged realms?
Well… at least I'm not going to be searching for him alone!
Yeah… only 12 more people to go! 12 more people and then 1 person can search an entire realm!
I'm not sure if I sighed out loud or mentally sighed.
How did Jay ever manage to think so optimistically?
1 Hour Later…
Unfortunately, I was the last one to arrive outside the monastery, which probably made them worry more.
I'm not the one they should be worrying about.
After glancing at Kai specifically, to tell him that I was just late and not having a panic attack, I made my way to my motorcycle. We had all decided that it was best if we used vehicles that would blend in nicely instead of brightly color-coded jets and overgrown gunned vehicles. Kai and I had dull red and black motorcycles while Lloyd and Zane each decided to have a gray and black one-person car without a roof and 4 tiers that looked like they could climb a mountain.
After getting situated on my motorcycle, I turned my gaze to Lloyd. "So, what's our plan? Where are we going to go to first?"
"I think we should all go and check out Imperium first," he received a few timid looks at that, and quickly added, "With disguises of course, just to be on the safe side."
Noticing that Kai hadn't eased up a single bit, Zane added, "It does logically make more sense to first go to Imperium, which is by far the only realm that contains a modern city with the exception of Ninjago. It should also make our search easier to some extent if they allow us to look at their security cameras."
"I know that they've become all democratic now, but I'm willing to bet there's still a decent amount of Beatrix supporters out there making their little cults and lurking in the shadows," Kai responded.
"We all know the possible risks that come with it, Kai, which is why we're going to be undercover. We're still going to have to search it regardless of where we go first, so might as well get it done with." I could tell Lloyd was a tiny bit relieved to hear me pitch in the conversation.
"You remember how it was before I officially joined the team, Kai. It's 3 to 1 and you're the official weirdo." I smirked at Lloyd's comment. I remember how the boys used to decide what to do or where to go during their free time. It was usually Zane who was declared the 'weirdo' of the argument.
Kai and Zane seemed to remember it all too well because they were grinning too, with recognition sparkling in their eyes. It also seemed to have brought Kai on the same page as he grumbled a rather amused "Fine."
FINALLY! Yessssssssssssss I am PROUD- I finally made a bigger chapter!