So funny story, I actually had like, half of this written from my old account, which I then lost. So writing this was really a battle between myself and my dignity.
Also why is the cut button so close to the copy button.
Just move it please.
I'm tired.
Walking into Chens secret scary island is probably not the worst idea Nya has ever had, but it was up there.
As she walked in, there were people playing the drums from the gate to the front door, as some form of a greeting. It was actually very extravagant for an Island in the middle of nowhere, owned by the same guy she sees on noodle packets in the grocery store. Kai looked at her from the side and she knew him well enough to know he was about to make some joke about becoming noodles.
They'd to walk up more stairs until they got to the main doorway. Inside was a round room that showed three different floors above them with banners hanging from the railings. Everyone seemed to be gathering in the middle and sitting down around the edge of the carpet so Kai and Nya did the same, so they didn't stick out too much.
Chen seemed to have a red, gold and purple color scheme going on around here, not that Nya minded, she'd always liked red -not as much as blue of course, but it was still cool-
"I still can't believe you came." Kai huffed, interrupting her thoughts.
Nya looked at him with a confused and slightly annoyed look, he just continued to sulk, she rolled her eyes. He needs to stop trying to be the hero all the time. "Stop being a baby Kai, you knew I was coming." He just crossed his arms and looked away. "You came too." She said after a moment.
"That's different." Kai defended, turning back to her.
"How- is it because I'm a girl?" Now she was getting mad. Does he really not think she can handle herself out there? She practically raised herself, with Kai's help, but that doesn't mean she can't do things on her own.
"What, No, why would that be why?" He groaned in frustration and balled his fists up like he does when he can't get a sword to look a certain way or the helmet he's making turns to mush. "It's just that this is dangerous."
"I know it is, but I want to know what all this means. I'm here for the same reasons you are." Nya protested. It's not like Kai didn't know her, he knew why she'd come and she knew why he came even though neither of them had said anything.
"Nya, you don't understand, I'm supposed to protect you." Nya didn't like how that sentence made her feel.
"I can protect myself."
"No you can't."
A gong rang through the room, pulling her attention towards the front. Everyone quieted down and watched as a man with a skull head, no shirt and some sort of paint all over his chest turned on a record player. The man from the boat came forward and started talking.
"All rise for Master Chen." He announced with his hands held neatly behind his back that he then threw up in the direction of a floating chair.
Everyone began to stand up so Nya followed.
Nya had to wait a second to take in the chair. It was so big for only one person. It had animal teeth sticking out of it and a golden snake right above Chens head. Chen was also a character himself, with a purple snake hat completed with the bones of some snake Nyas sure she's seen in one of her history books back home before, something beginning with A? He also had red robes to go with the color palette of the rest of his island, and a necklace of, again, animal teeth. FSM these people really loved bones.
"Welcome to the Tournament of Elements!" Chen began. "Now everyone can all die!" He screamed, throwing his fist out towards all of us, which signaled the front doors to slam shut. Everyone turned towards them and gasped.
"-rect your attention to me." He started laughing, kind of like an evil genius.
Nya isn't going to like this guy, or his penchant for theatrics.
"Never before have so many Elemental fighters been under one roof.."
He stood up out of his chair and started to walk towards us.
"I see, Master of Fire!" He points to Kai, who looks up at him with a surprised look, but Chen moves on quickly. "Earth, Shadow, Speed, and many more of course!" Chen says with enthusiasm that seems a little overdone.
"This symbol before you is for the Anacondrai-" Anacondrai, that was it. Nya knew it began with an A. "-fiercest Serpentine warrior to ever roam this land. It's creed: 'Only one can remain'" Then the gong crashes again. The serpentine talk explains all the snakes anyway.
A gong went again but this time it opened up to show brackets with everyone's pictures on them.
Kai leaned over to her, "Good, looks like we're in separate brackets, we won't have to face each other for a while at least." he said, then smiled.
That was good Nya supposed. She was kind of starting to worry if they would even get the chance to face each-other.
"Behold a Jade Blade." Chen announced once more. He flung his arm to his right to show that boat guy holding a purple blade. "Here, it represents life. Obtain it, move on. Allow your opponent to take it..." He paused.
He really does love the dramatics.
"Loser!" He screamed out at everybody. Nya and Kai look at each other.
"The rules are simple. Every match will be different, no two fights will be the same, your powers will keep you in the tournament." They shared another look, this one more worrisome. "Use it or lose it!"
A grumble comes from the left, Nya leans forward to get a good look at who it could be.
"What does Karlof win?" Karlof, she was guessing, said.
Chen gave an annoyed side-glance before answering with, "Win and stay on the island. Win it all, and you'll receive fortunes beyond your wildest dreams." He said spinning and flailing his arms wildly. "-and lifetime supply of Master Chen noodles." Great self-promotion Chen, Nya almost wants to scoff, but she won't because she doesn't know what that'll get her.
"But no one is here because of noodle, you want the glory of being the greatest fighter in all of Ninjago!" Everyone cheers and shouts, throwing their hands up into the air.
"And what happens if we lose?" Someone says from the end of the line.
Everyone goes silent and turns to face him, he's got incredible posture and seems like someone you'd go to if you needed the answers to the homework. Chen glances down at him and makes a face, "Lose? Who here likes to lose?" He says mockingly and everyone begins laughing together.
The poor guy looks so confused, he'd only asked a question. Chen turns back and starts walking back to his chair.
"Please, enjoy my island. It's a super-fun-happy place!" Chen laughs in that creepy, fake, psychopathic way he keeps doing. "Fun time on me!" He drags out the e's with a high-pitch until his voice cracks.
"You'll now each be shown to your rooms." His 'right-hand man' -probably- speaks. He claps briefly and it summons Kabuki servants out of the doors behind him. They come rushing out together.
She faces towards Kai who is already about to start talking. "Stay together, don't let them split us up."
"Oka-" Nya tries to respond, but a Kabuki servant grabs her wrist and pulls her back. She looks back toward Kai only to see him being pulled the opposite direction.
By the time she gets up to her room, whatever Kai was trying to shout at her the whole time is muffled and gone.
Instead, she decides to check out her room, settle in a bit. There's the basic necessities like a bed, chair and desk but they all have water designs to them, probably because of her being the 'Master of Water' or something. The thing that stands out the most would probably be the huge aquarium she has in the middle of her room, there's also some smaller ones in the walls, with posters of the types of fish kept inside. It sort of reminded her of an aquarium.
If she wasn't so freaked out by the whole situation she would probably sit down and read them all.
Nya huffs, turning towards the wall. It's plain. There's wallpaper but that's all, and a scorch. She walks over to it, it's actually a really pretty design, gold with swirls and curves, kind of oceanic. She runs her hand across it, "cute." Nya hums, then it juts downwards suddenly.
For a second, Nya thinks she's broken it and curses every name under the sun trying to push it back up, then, the wall opens up and a stairs forms in front of her.
"Holy sh-"
Music plays over the intercom and before she knows it they're fighting.
Jay should really see to getting himself a bubble bath for the trailer park, although he has no idea where he'd put it, the trailer is far too small for something like that.
But this was heaven itself, especially after the day he's had. He doesn't think he's ever been this relaxed in his entire life.
Then, of course, the intercom has to go off, making some plant man barged in, interrupting his lovely bath.
So now Jay was currently running out of his room with nothing but a towel on to look for that blade that Chen was talking about this morning. The good news is nobody seemed to be paying attention to the fact that he was half naked because they were too busy trying to save theirselves from being eliminated.
There were way too many people out here for his liking. Big people, who were probably strong too, and could probably take him out by sneezing.
Jay looked down to the ground floor. He could see Cole in a scrap with three different people over a blade, and there was Zane close by but looking a bit hesitant to join in -Jay doesn't blame him- on the fight. Lloyd was higher up, second floor, although after Jay saw him he ended up jumping down to the first and running through a set of doors with a blade in his hand. Hm.
"Coming through!" Jay looked left and saw a white blur sprinting towards him. He was about to move but it was too late and he ended up spinning out of control. He clung onto his towel in hopes it'd stay intact, -fsm griffin- and eventually got his balance back.
Then he looked to his left again and saw another blur running towards him which ended up ramming into him this time, making him almost lose his towel completely -thank the fsm for almost- and topple to the ground.
"Sorry!" A girl called out while running towards the stairs. Jay felt a metallic taste in his mouth and cursed under his breath, bringing his hand up to his lip. He pulled his fingers away and surely enough, there was that annoying red liquid coating them.
He groaned. Why him? Jay looked up to see if the girl was gone yet, and she was, but then he caught a glimpse of something shiny.
The blade.
He wiped his hand against his towel and ran towards the object. It was hidden under a bench, very smart. The FSM must really be looking out for him -despite the blood- because he was able to sneak past the group of people without receiving several broken bones and make it into the room with his blade and his towel still intact.
It is a bit weird that he's still in the towel, but in his defense, when was he supposed to change? when the scary plant man was attacking him?
Mostly everyone is back now -including Cole, Zane and Lloyd- which means there's more people to stare at him.. This isn't too great.
Thankfully, that guy made of metal storms in and declares he's won, which takes the eyes off of Jay and onto him. Chen yells and everyone follows his lead, except for the girl from the boat.
"What? Where's Kai? Where's my brother!" She demands towards Chen.
"He didn't return a Jade blade, like everyone else." Chen shrugs, and looks out towards Karlof.
There's a squeaking sound that makes everyone else turn. Karloff's' gauntlet falls to the floor with a loud thud.
"Ah, looks like you got a screw loose." Kai says, laughing and lunging forwards towards the blade. He grabs it and runs towards the rest of the blades. He looks at it a second before shoving the Jade blade in and turning toward the crowd throwing his arms up, then looking to the side, another cheer goes around.
"We have a loser!" Chen announces and everyone turns towards Karloff.
He's got this terrible look of pity on his face as he screws his gauntlet back on. "That's not fair. He cheated." He states and he sounds like a child about to throw a tantrum.
"I did what I had to do." Kai counters coldly, he shrugs his shoulders and smirks.
It's people like that who scare Jay, he does not what to be on the receiving end of anything to do with Kai.
"Fine. I lose." Karloff says defeated. It was a bit sudden to give up like that, but Jay guesses he can't blame him for not wanting to fight anyone on this when he'd been humiliated like that, this is coming from Jay, who's still in a towel. "Karloff never wanted to be on stinking island." Although that was a bit immature.
"Oh, I'm sorry to hear you did not enjoy your stay." Chen said, in the way business owners say when they get criticism for something they're never going to change. Chen is a business owner after all, maybe he's had practice. "I guess this worked out for the best."
Karloff had a smile on his face now, probably because he was getting off this creepy island, Jay envied him.
"This is goodbye!" Chen casually pushed a button that sent Karloff plummeting down a massive trap door screaming bloody murder.
Safe to say Jay didn't envy him anymore.
"As you can see, lose and you are out." One of Chens henchmen were at the brackets from earlier. "Break any rule, you are out. Never bite the hand that feeds you.." The henchman breaks the gold Karloff in his bare hands, which makes Jay gulp down a massive lump in his throat. "-Master Chen delicious noodles!" What did he get himself into.
"Now rest up, tomorrow the tournament will recommence", and with the final crash on the gong the doors re-open and we're escorted out.
I was waiting in line for food, which would usually be the best part of my day because it meant i'd get to talk to my parents, well 'parents', and they'd actually be happy to see me. The people he was with right now didn't seem to have the same welcoming aura surrounding them. Fsm, I miss home already, and it had only been a day. I'd never known how hard it would be to be away from home, I mean kids did it all the time when they went on sleepovers, maybe if i'd been on one before I would've been prepared for this moment, but if little kids can do it I should be able to as well.
I still can't get Karloff out of my head. He just disappeared underneath the hole, and he was screaming for a while, what if it's a really deep drop. What's even down there. Is that going to happen to everyone who doesn't win, because if it does then i'm going to be in trouble.
I was pulled out of my thoughts by a tap on the shoulder. "Hey, look I'm sorry about earlier." I turn around to see who's talking. "I guess the heat of the game got to me."
It was the girl, the one from the boat, the one he was starring creepily at, and now she's talking to him, and he's just standing there, staring creepily at her again. "Hi." I say, way louder than I anticipated, which earns a few looks from other people.
"Hi." The girl replies. "I'm Nya by the way."
"Hi." Stop saying hi Jay. "I'm Jay."
"So like I was saying, I'm sorry about before, during the game." Nya says, her gaze leads down as she finishes and she flashes a half smile.
"It's okay, don't worry about it." I didn't really know what she was talking about but I still wanted to speak to her and this was the perfect meet-cute, well not perfect but something.
Nya gets a look on her face like she's just eaten a bad lemon. "Oh fsm, did I do that to you." She holds up her hand and brushes it across my lip, now it's a meet-cute. "Here take this." Then she places her tray on a nearby table and opens her napkin, putting some ice into it. Her fingers danced elegantly over the napkin, I couldn't help but stare. "Here." She holds it out in front of me to accept. "For your face."
I take the napkin out of her hand, it's not the best homemade ice-pack in the world, but it'll do for the circumstances they're under. -plus he's hardly gonna pass up getting an ice-pack from Nya- "Thank-"
"Nya!"
She turns and looks over at the guy who's calling her, then sighs. "Right well I better get over to my brother." She says hesitantly.
I'd like to be the type of guy to protest against that, but I had just met her. Also, her brother is giving me the biggest stink eye i have ever seen and I wasn't about to end up like Karloff. "Yeah you probably should."
"Well it was nice to meet you, Jay." Her lips turned up at the edges and her head tilted to the side slightly.
"You too, Nya."
Then she's gone, picking up her tray and making her way towards her brother, who's still staring at me like he wants to throw me out the window but I was too busy lost in her trance to care. Nyas ponytail swings side-to-side as she walks and I can't help but smile at that.
"Who's that guy." He hears her brother ask her.
"Nobody." Nya pushes him along and drags him into another booth, their voices drown out the further they walk and it leaves me with a weird feeling in my chest.
What was I doing? Right, food. I walk towards the lady, grab a tray and get my ration. Then I try and find Cole, but there's so many people it's kind of hard. I can see a head of hair that looks suspiciously like his so I begin to walk over to it. Praying this isn't some random person, I make my way over and see Zane sitting on the other side so it's safe to assume that was Cole.
I slide in next to Zane, they're in the middle of a conversation so I don't say hello. Zane's talking about Karloff falling down that trap door and his theories of what's down there. Cole looks like he's only half listening, his face is being stuffed with noodles. I kinda feel bad for Zane, he looks very into this trap-door thingy.
"I mean the trap door was invented to facilitate the hoisting of grain up through mills, but that doesn't seem to be the case this time. Although it has played a pivotal function in the operation of cargo ships, trains, even booby traps-" I giggle into my sleeve, and Cole stops for a second to give me an unimpressed look, Zane doesn't notice and just keeps ranting.
"-and more recently theatre and films. This isn't being recorded for television as far as i'm aware." Gosh I would've never agreed to that. "It can serve as an escape route, storage, or even a surprise element in performances, which seems to be the interpretation Chen is giving us. Treating us as the entertainment." He stops speaking and looks to us as if for some input.
Hearing Zane talk about all the possibilities has made me remember my thoughts on the Karloff trapdoor situation.
"At least the chow's good." Cole says, still focused on his food.
"Argh! It's killing me! What's under the trap door, what happens when you lose?!" I panicked. Making hand gestures and almost tipping over my glass because of my clumsiness.
"We don't have to worry about that right now." Cole comforts. He stops eating his noodles and sets his chopsticks down, putting a serious look on his face. "Don't think about it."
"It's all I can think about. I moved on." I look over to Zane, "I feel guilt." Then back over to Cole. "These are not good feelings!"
"Look, our mission is simple. We do the tasks Chen asks us to do, then we get out of here and never have to see any of these people again." Cole says and throws up his hands at the end in a concluding way.
Never see any of these people again. He was right, but it didn't sit right with Jay that he'd never see Cole or Zane again. I wonder where Lloyd is. "How are we supposed to do that if we don't know what's under the trap door?" I protest
"That's a valid question, if we don't know what's ahead of us what's to stop us from worrying about the possibilities." Zane says it like it's a statement but i'm pretty sure he meant it as a question.
"You heard Chen, break a rule and we're out. I'd rather stay on his good side than go poking our nose in what's not ours." Then, Cole lifted up his tray and slid out from the booth. "I'll see you guys tomorrow morning."
We watched him walk away, then I turned towards Zane who seemed unaware of Coles' hostility.
"I hope Lloyd didn't get lost." Zane spoke, quickly changing the topic. He lifted his head above the backs of the seats to look around, then sat down again and didn't say anything so I assumed he didn't find him.
"Maybe he just doesn't want to eat with us." I reply back. It wouldn't be surprising, he didn't really seem to warm up to us at all when we met.
"I hope he knows he could if he wanted to." Zane says, turning back to his noodles.
Nya sat across from me, eating her noodles. Kai was supposed to be as well but instead he kept looking around, he was trying to figure out his competition. He knew his first battle would be with some gay in all gray so he was eyeing him.
"Are you going to eat anything." Nya said, annoyed. She narrowed her eyes at Kai and gave him a look so he picked up his chopsticks but if that guy gives away his only weakness while he's eating Nya will be sorry.
They ate in silence for a few minutes before Kai broke it. "So, who was that guy you were talking to." He wasn't even asking to tease her, he just wanted to know.
"I told you, nobody." Kai wasn't satisfied with that answer. He knows he's always been somewhat protective of Nya but in his defense she is his baby sister.
"Didn't seem like nobody." Kai replied bitterly. He stuck his head downwards and looked into his bowl. Nya didn't say anything to entertain him with, so they melted into silence again.
Kai looked around once more, there was so many people here. That meant so many people to beat, but Kai had already won against that metal guy, Karloff, to be honest he felt a bit guilty because of it. He didn't know he'd be dumped down a trap door, he just kind of assumed he'd be escorted off of the island, nicely.
Kai was beginning to wonder if maybe he'd put a target on his back because of his stunt. He was the last person to get a jade blade as well, that means he's the weakest link, even weaker than that kid he saw on the boat and during the fight for the blades actually. To be honest, he knew how to handle himself, he was just so small. It was kind of freaky, like Chucky, but Kai guesses that's the irony of it.
There he was now actually, walking towards the door with a tray of half-eaten food in his hands dumping it on his way out.
"Kai can I tell you something." Kai looked up at that, "But you can't tell anyone." as if that was even necessary.
"Who am I gonna tell?" He gave her a smile to let her know she could trust her. She sighed and sat up straight. Then looked around, then again, and finally she leaned forward and began to speak.
"So, I was in my room today, you know, looking around." She checked if anyone was listening again. "Anyways, I found this lamp that was in an odd space, because it was so secluded."
"Yeah?"
"And when I touched it, it moved, and at first I thought I broke it but I didn't." She spoke the next part quieter than before, "A secret passageway opened up, with a stairs and everything." A secret passageway? Kai gave her a skeptic look.
"What do you mean secret passageway?" He questioned.
"I mean a hidden passage that opened when I moved a lamp, Kai this is like spooky haunted house 101." Nya was still whispering but she began to get more frantic with every word. "We have to go down there."
Kai practically jumped from his seat, his eyes widened. "Are you insane?!" He yelled at her. People from surrounding booths looked into theirs and whispered. -It's not like they haven't been shouting at each other enough already, they get the point- He needs to work on how he expresses himself. "Nya we're not going down there, I can't even begin to imagine all the risks that could have, what if you get lost, what if you get caught, what if you get hurt, what if-"
"Okay, fsm calm down. I'm not going to get lost, or caught, or hurt or anything." She takes his hand in hers and smiles. "I'm just going to go see what's down there." Her eyes dart to the left and she drops his hands.
Kai huffs and throws his hands into the air, "You've got to be kidding."
"I'll see you in my room at midnight." Nya says then winks and runs off throwing her tray into the stack by the door. She looks back at Kai and smiles. If she wasn't his little sister he'd have let her go alone, sadly she was, and also maybe a tiny part of him wanted to see if there was anything to do with his parents down there.
Nya has always loved the ocean, although she hasn't seen it many times, but there's a pond in Ignacia that she makes frequent trips to. She's always felt a pull towards the water. The Master of Water thing makes sense to her now, but it's still confusing, she doesn't even know what it means. It's times like this when she wishes she still had her mum around to tell her what to do, or maybe she wouldn't even know, maybe she'd be just as confused as Nya was. They still don't know if this is an inheritance thing or if it's just dumb luck, Nya's praying the island will give her the answers she needs.
When she got back from dinner, she pulled the scorch again just to make sure the passageway was still there, and it was, so they were all set for midnight. She'd been lying on her bed ever since. She could hear the clock ticking in the background, reminding her every second closer she was to finding out what was hidden behind there.
But Nya wasn't as concerned with that right now. At the top of her bed there was a canopy designed with oceanic symbols paired with swirls and curls for the water, and animals jumping out from it. There was a whole underwater scene. Nya loved it, she wished she had the same one back home but fsm knows that's only a pipe dream.
A loud thump came from her balcony, then a grunt. Nya didn't bother to look up.
"Why is your room so far away, do you know how many balconies I had to climb across." Kai said, disheveled, he looked into the mirror beside him and ran his hands through his hair in an attempt to fix it, though if it were up to Nya he'd have cut it by now.
"I hope you didn't make as much noise on the other balconies then." She spoke still separated from the world.
A few seconds later Kai leaned over her giving her a thoughtful look, "What are you looking at?" He turned his head upwards in an attempt to see it from her perspective.
"The ocean." She sighed dreamily.
Kai gave the canopy a look. "That's a canopy."
Nya glared at him then sighed and sat up on her bed. "Let's just do this."
"Okay, cool. Where's this lamp." He turned and twisted around, jumping on the spot.
Nya walked over to the part of the wall she was looking at earlier. She raised her hand and grabbed onto the scorch, pulling it downwards and waiting for the movement from the walls. They moved soon after, separating from each other and revealing the stairs forming, just like earlier that morning. She could hear a little gasp from Kai beside her but said nothing when he tried to cover it up with a cough.
Once it was fully open, they looked at each other. "Ladies first." Kai smiled awkwardly and gestured forward in a 'polite' way. Nya just gave him a look, rolling her eyes and making her way down the stairs with Kai following close behind.
It was dark down here, thank fsm Nya thought to go back for a light before we got too far. She was ahead of Kai by a foot or two, looking at the walls, but keeping close enough that she could still see ahead of her.
The left walls were made from hard rock with a few cracks in it, while the right was parts of the wall from their rooms, there must be passageways all throughout the island. The strange thing about this was that some parts of the walls were covered in arrows and scribbles, Kai ran a hand over them. It feels like they've been here for years. He pulled the candle over to the scribbles in an attempt to make out what they were trying to say.
"Kai, I need the light." Nya scolded. She turned back and took it from him before storming back down the passageway.
"Hey!" He whined, running up to her side. "That's my job." Kai said making a pout with his lips. It's not like he knew what he was doing when it came to mysterious wall carvings anyway.
He moved his arms forward to grab back his candle but Nya pulled away before he could get a grip. "If we don't keep moving, we'll never get where we need to be." He retreated his hands to his side in order to not upset Nya anymore, even if it was his element, he should be in charge of it. He wondered if he could make his own fire, that'd show Nya, with his own hands and everything. Actually, that could hurt.
"And where is it we need to be?" Kai questioned. He looked around at the walls again, he could see more arrows, they all seemed to be pointing forwards so at least it was good they were following them, maybe.
"We'll know when we see it." Nya replied.
That was good to know. They walked for a little longer, silence overtaking them but neither minded, they were more focused on looking for clues to something. Then, Kai started hearing grunts coming from the walls, his face scrunched up.
"What is that?" He asked.
"It sounds like it's coming from above us?" They looked up, Nya holding the candle above their heads. There was two tiny holes of light in the wall way above.
Nya made a noise, probably a grunt, throwing the candle into Kai's hand before she started climbing the wall. Kai waited, holding the candle. Nya grabbed onto rocks that stuck out and some crevices put there by time. When she got to the top she used the openings in the wall as eye holes, maneuvering herself so that she could see through both of them at the same time.
Kai looked around, he didn't like the feeling of standing down here, on his own, not being able to see what was ahead of him apart from the little light the candle shed. "Are you done yet, this isn't worth the-" He began.
"I think it's Skylors room, and it looks like she's training." Nya butted in.
After that all of Kai's fear had magically washed away. "Let me see! Let me see!" He ran up the wall after her and started shoving her aside to see through the hole.
"Looks like someone's got the hots for her." Nya said teasingly, wiggling her eyebrows. Kai just shoved her again, making her move backwards a bit but it just encouraged her to make kissing noises instead.
"I do not! She's competition, I just wanna know what powers we're up against." Good save, he thought. He went back to peering through the peep hole.
He started to think about the boat trip over when he helped her with Karloff -who almost killed him- and the more he thought about it he realized, he still didn't know what her power was, sure, he helped her when it came to Karloff attacking her but she never actually showed any element in order to defend herself because he was too busy doing it for her. Maybe he should let people fight their own battles.
Skylor was still doing push-ups, which Kai took a second to look away from, but he'll never admit that to Nya. Instead, he began looking around her room for clues, his room was filled with fire symbols and flames and Nyas' had water and waves, so there's got to be something here giving away her element.
Kai groaned. "Her room doesn't reveal anything about her power." Nya sighed next to him. All of a sudden, as if the fsm himself was listening to their conversation, she revealed her power. Her fist went up in flames as she punched the air, stopping for a second to admire its beauty. She was fire.
Kai's element.
They both gasped simultaneously, turning to each other with horrified looks on their faces.
Before they could properly process what had just happened they hear footsteps coming from down the hall, they looked into each others eyes silently asking what to do. Nya looked around then at the candle and promptly blew it out. They were in total darkness now. The footsteps grew closer, getting louder with every step then they stopped. Kai held his breath.
There was silence, then the fizzling sound of someone striking a match filled their ears. There was light in the tunnel once again, they both looked down, expecting to see one of Chens henchmen ready to capture them for trespassing but what they saw instead couldn't be further from that.
"Why are you hanging from the wall?" The boy asked, head tilted to the side. The match in his hand was going out quickly, and with a final hiss they were in darkness again. The boy moaned then lit another. Kai felt Nya shift, then she started to move down the wall and back to the ground. She walked right up to the boy and held out their candle, unlit, to which the boy lit it for her then stomped out his match and put the box into his pocket.
Nya held out her hand, "I'm Nya." the boy accepted and they shook hands. Nya then gestured up towards a Kai with her spare hand, "and this is Kai." Kai gave him a little wave, he didn't really know what else to do if he was being honest, plus he was more focused on what he'd just witnessed than the boy.
The boy didn't seem to mind. "Lloyd." He said with a small smile. He dropped Nyas hand and turned his head to the direction he was walking in before. "So.. do I need to ask again?" He questioned, giving Kai a confused look, when he didn't answer Nya butted in.
"We were looking through secret peep holes." Nya answered. When she realized how that sounded she hastily added, "we didn't know what they'd lead to, we were just curious."
Lloyd threw up his arms. "I'm not a cop."
Then he looked back towards where he was walking again, glancing at the walls before narrowing his eyes. Kai tried to focus on them instead, by attempting to figure out what Lloyd was looking at, he could see another arrow on that wall, the ones he was inspecting before, maybe he was using them as well. Kai slid down the wall and landed -surprisingly on his feet- in front of Lloyd.
"If you're following the arrows as well, maybe we could go together." Kai offered.
"You're following the arrows too?" He looked surprised.
"Yep." Kai said proudly. He leaned back against the wall, underestimating the distance between him and it and almost falling over.
"We are?" Nya said, looking back from where they came from shining the light from the candle in that direction. She saw the other arrows, Kai had been watching, scratched onto the walls. "Huh, I guess we are." She turned back towards them.
"Thanks to me." Kai gestured both his hands to himself, giving a smirk. To which Nya just rolled her eyes at. Her and Lloyd began walking further down the tunnels.
As they got deeper into this mess, more tunnels appeared at the same time, with arrows pointing down each of them. This was where Kai's knowledge of the arrows ended, he was only following them because they were pointing in a certain direction. Lloyd on the other hand seemed to know a bit more when it came to navigating them. At every crossroads he'd walk up the the arrows, Nya following him with the light, and ran his hand across the symbols and squiggles engraved on the walls.
Kai didn't really know what was happening, maybe his elemental power was navigation or something, but Nya seemed to be interested in it. She'd offer her knowledge -limited as it was- on the topic and Lloyd would guide her in the right direction. If he was being honest, Kai felt a little left out. He knows he wouldn't be of any use but he still wanted to help, and the more he sat on the sidelines the more time he had to think about Skylor.
It's freaky she has the same element as him, right? Kai doesn't know much about the elemental powers but he's pretty sure there isn't supposed to be more than one of them. It just doesn't feel right, but he can't think of any other solution other than them being, maybe, connected. Although that could mean they're related and Kai really didn't want to think about that.
"So, how do you know all of this?" Kai speaks up, desperately trying to get his mind off of whatever was going on with Skylors powers, his powers.
"Know all of what?" Lloyd answers. He's tracing the swirls on the walls, his face concentrated on them.
"I don't know, navigation, cave paintings." Kai raised his hands towards them and shrugged his shoulders. Lloyd stopped what he was doing to glance over at him.
"It's in an ancient language." Lloyd answered. "Nobody uses it anymore, that's probably why Chen put it down here."
That actually made a lot of sense, but it didn't explain how Lloyd knew how to get around. Why does a kid even know some ancient language nobody uses anymore, when he was a kid he wouldn't have learnt something that boring if you paid him, well, maybe he would've, for the right price.
"How do you know it?" Nya questioned, reading Kai's mind as usual.
Lloyd gave her a quick side glance before getting back to de-coding the walls. "My school taught it." He hummed for a second. "It was mandatory, c'mon." Then he started to make his way down the tunnel, motioning for us to follow. Nya was in the middle with Kai close behind, not wanting to lose the light.
They came to a big hole in the ground, with a ladder attached. They each climbed down after another, with Lloyd going first and Nya following after him. Kai was last down the ladder, the new area was sort of different. Instead of there being two different walls, now there was one big wall made completely from large rocks. They went right over their heads and Kai was a little scared they'd fall on him, but Nya reassured him he'd be fine.
Then they came up to a booby trap, which Kai almost ran into before Nya put her arm out to stop him. In his defense, he was still a little bit out of it.
"From here on out, we have to watch our step." Lloyd instructed. Why are we even listening to the kid anyway. He's like, what, twelve? He should be listening to us giving him orders, Kai could've told them not to walk on the very obvious wire across the floor -that he didn't see-
Chanting noises could be heard ahead of them, it was very cult sounding. "Do you hear that?" Kai asked. The other two looked up towards the end of the corridor. "Everyone be quiet." He added.
They made their way forward, using a boulder to cover them as they peeked over to see what was going on. A group of Chens henchmen were walking in a line down the pathway. They seemed to be going in small groups, another one came around the corner. Lloyd tried to signal something to them before he jumped over the boulder and started taking out some of the henchmen. Nya and Kai looked at each other before frantically climbing over as well and trying to help by throwing messy punches Kai learned from back home.
In the end, they managed to get all four henchmen down. Lloyd started taking their uniforms and helmets for a disguise. He handed them a helmet each then they each shoved on a uniform. Nya and Kai dragged the bodies behind the boulder they'd been hiding behind before, while Lloyd made some weird face paint from the dirt, -it was really just dirt- he painted the markings that were on the henchmen from before.
After they were all ready they made their way, in the formation they'd seen the others in, into a big area beneath the palace. Everyone seemed to be chanting something over and over again in another language, Kai wondered if Lloyd knew what they were saying. All the henchmen were moving back and forth in a sort of worshipping movement with their hands together, so they copied what they saw.
Chen came forward, holding a giant staff with bones and a snake skull decorating it. -what a surprise- As a result, all his 'worshippers' knelt down and brought their bodies to the ground. Kai felt the blood rush to his cheeks as he stared directly at Chen on his podium, he quickly copied the others, Nya and Lloyd doing the same, and hoped Chen didn't recognize them.
"Bring out the loser." Chen announced, signaling more of his followers to carry Karloff out from another entrance.
Karloff groaned, "Get hands off Karloff!" He wailed, begging to be freed from their grasp, he struggled to break away from them, lashing from side to side and kicking his legs before he gave up. "Karloff wish he never sign up for this." He said, sounding defeated.They brought him to the front of the group and threw him onto the floor, where his fists banged loudly against the stone.
"What is chanting for?" He questioned, looking towards us, then back to Chen. He looked scared and weak, like he'd lost all hope for getting out of here. Kai wondered what he'd been doing for the past few hours that they'd been having dinner and supposedly sleeping.
"Uh, they're saying.. Only one can remain." Well that answers his question from earlier then.
Karloff's eyes went wide, his jaw opening slightly. Nya turned to me making a face Kai hasn't seen for a while.
"Like I said, use it or lose it." Chen explains, nonchalantly. The henchmen grab onto Karloff and Chen lunges forward bringing his staff in front of him and pointing it at Karloff. A blue mist comes out of the snakes mouth that covers Karloff completely. He makes a pained noise and starts to scream. Chen doesn't care and continues to shoot whatever it is at Karloff. The mist retreats back into the staff and Karloff loses his silver tone seemingly like it was just wiped off. Karloff falls to the floor and Chen laughs holding his staff in the air.
"He's stolen Karloff's power." Kai whispers as if it's just hit him, the others don't reply.
"What happened to my metal?" His voice breaks in the middle of his sentence and he bangs his gloves together like a child.
"Your metal?" Chen asks in a mocking tone. "Oh, it's mine now." He swings the staff around and hugs it before giggling. "But now I will let you go." He says, throwing his hands into the air.
"Really?" Karloff replies. He wipes his face and brings his hands down to his side.
"To the factory!" Chen declares.
Karloff cries out and begins to be dragged towards the door he came out of before, while screaming and kicking and demanding to be let go of. Right as he's dragged through the door Kai feels something wet slip off of his face, at first he thinks it might be sweat from how hot it is in here but when he looks down to the stones below him he realizes what it is.
"Kai, your face." Nya whisper-shouts to him, pointing to his makeshift face tattoos. He looks at her face and can see the same dirt slipping from her cheeks and onto the ground.
"My face?" He looks to Lloyd to see if his is the same. "All our faces!" He exclaimed. They all raised their hands to their faces and felt the wet mixture against their skin. "It's melting!" As if on cue, the henchmen all began to sit back up and look behind them to figure out what all the whispering what about, they all gasped and started discussing our identities right in front of us.
Kai looked ahead of them and saw Chen staring directly at them. He made a face that looked like they had just ruined his birthday party then screamed, "Intruders!" All of his henchmen began to run at them so they sprinted towards the passageway. "They must not escape!" Kai heard him command as they were running through the opening they came through.
They ran past the boulder where they'd tied the people they took the uniforms from, with the others trailing not far behind but they still had the upper-hand of a head start. Well, they did, until Kai decided to glance behind himself right on time to trip over the only wire he was supposed to avoid. Now they were defiantly goners.
Until he looked behind and saw that the wire had triggered a trapdoor to come down right in front of the people chasing them, blocking them from even getting near. Kai celebrated, before two bone spears came out of the walls ready to crush them, which led a chain reaction of more spears falling.
"Run!" Lloyd shouted, making his way to the ladder already.
Kai ran backwards, grabbing Nyas arm and pulling her with him. Lloyd was pretty far ahead of them already. Kai could feel the spears getting closer, every time another one dropped he felt a swoosh of air right on his back. He was getting close to the ladder when he saw Lloyd turn into a corner, his head turned, confused. Nya pulled on Kai's arm and dragged him in behind them. The rest of the spears landed and the end of the ladder got chopped in half. Kai grimaced at the thought of being there when that happened.
"That was close." Nya said, out of breath. She was still holding onto Kai's arm, she loosened her grip and dropped her hands to her sides.
Before they could get time to breath they heard another noise that Kai had a feeling he wasn't going to like either. They looked around them, to their sides, above, then down, which is when they saw a giant snake hissing at them, curled up in a clump at the bottom of the hole. "That has got to be the biggest snake I have ever seen!"
The snake immediately jumped up to try and grab them, to which Lloyd jumped onto the wall above them and started climbing.
"What are you doing?!" Kai asked frantically.
"Not getting eaten!" Lloyd answered.
In the spur of the moment, Kai's adrenaline got the better of him and he ended up following Lloyd up the wall, it was hard at first because it was mostly smooth but the more he got up there the more he knew what he was doing. He looked below him to see if Nya was following because fsm forbid anything happened to her because of this, and thankfully she was, but so was the giant snake, and it was getting uncomfortably close.
"This was a terrible idea, I told you Nya, I told you!" He complained as he climbed the wall. "You never listen to me, even though i'm older and I have more experience with-"
"With what, giant snakes!?" She bit back sarcastically.
"With life!" He shouted down to her.
"And at what point in life do people usually get chased by a giant snake after participating in a creepy cult!"
"As much fun as it is listening to you two, could you maybe focus on getting out of here!" Lloyd shouted from above them.
Kai groaned, unwilling to admit he may have a point and instead did as he was told and tried to focus on getting to safety rather than eaten. The more he concentrated the more he could feel the snake getting closer, and if he could feel the snake then he didn't even want to imagine how Nya must feel.
His palms began to get sweaty and he found it harder to get a grip on the stones. He didn't know how much longer he could do this for, and the climb seemed to be never ending. Thankfully, Lloyd must have heard his prayers and found a solution.
He climbed into a nook in the other side of the wall, Kai got there shortly after and prepared himself to jump but he made the mistake of looking down before, and seeing the snake snap it's jaw shut inches from Nyas foot, which messed up his jump sending him flying down the drop.
Lloyds hand appeared above him and he grabbed a hold, Kai really wishes his palms weren't so sweaty, but Lloyd was able to pull him up anyway. Nya got there, pushing off of the wall and grabbing hold of the edge of their hideout, quickly pulling herself in just as the snake snapped his head up behind her.
They all crawled deeper into the crevice to avoid the snakes' jaws, but it was only so big. The snake kept shoving its head through the hole and cracks began to appear above them, it was only a matter of time before the snake made the whole thing collapse.
Nya felt the snake grab onto her pant leg and tear a piece of fabric from it, leaving a stinging sensation on her ankle. She hissed and pulled her legs up to her chest right before the snake could launch itself at them again.
Kai shoved his elbow back and hit the wall, which made a clicking sound. Not again, he thought. He snapped his head back to check what trap he'd signaled now and it turned out to be a red button, before he could warn the others they began to fall from their crevice screaming.
They landed on top of a bed, Kai's bed. Their helmets flew off and landed onto the floor. The snake let out one final roar before the trap door shut and everything was hidden once again.
Kai could hear Nya and Lloyd panting beside him, their chests rising and falling quickly. Kai took a second to realize what'd just happened. Where were they, how did they get here, we're they still alive? He could feel something soft below him but his vision had a bunch of red spots in it.
"Are we..?" Kai asked, sitting up straight on the bed.
"Yeah, barely." Lloyd replied, still out of breath. He moved, throwing up his arms over his face then bringing them down and rubbing his eyes.
"Did we just fall from the sky?" Nya asked, holding her head as she sat up as-well. She hissed in pain and brought a hand to her ankle.
"No more sneaking around. From now on, let's just follow the rules."
Kai groaned, falling back into his bed, which was a mistake because now his head felt like he just hit it off a ton of bricks, maybe he had? He was kind of on autopilot during that whole ordeal, the adrenaline got to him.
Nya looked at both of them, lips pinched together. "This tournament isn't about glory." Lloyd pulled his hands away from his face and used his elbows to prop himself up. "It's about Chen stealing all of our elemental powers."
"But why, what's he planning?" Lloyd questioned.
"I don't know, but if we're gonna find out we have to play by his rules." Kai said, giving Nya a hard look. "Agreed?" He asked, eyeing her specifically. She looked over to Lloyd, who gave her a blank expression then shrugged.
"Agreed" They both decided.
"Good thing we weren't spotted though, that was close." Lloyd added in, standing up from the bed to pull his jumper back onto his shoulders and brush himself off before taking a look around the room.
"Yeah, too close. " Nya replied. She looked down to her ankle, the fabric was torn and there was a small cut where the snake had scratched her. No blood though, which was good, they didn't need another thing going wrong after that nightmare.