IK, IK, it was only going to be a matter of time before I wrote one of these, lol, but to be fair, I asked for prompts from some of my online friends to help with the testing season a few months ago (is it bad that I've only finished two of their prompts? Oh well, I'll finish all of them eventually...). This was one of the prompts and let's just say, I'm half tempted to make this into a multi-chapter bc I had the most fun writing this. I'll leave it up to you guys, though. So let me know what you think!
Oh, the prompt: The Ninja swap elements
And a special thanks to my beta reader for being amazing and helping me make this even better.
Now on to the fic!
It was one of those days where the Ninja were bored out of their minds. So bored that all they could do was complain. Complain complain complain.
They had trained for quite a while, to the point where it all became routine. Mind-numbing routine.
They didn't need mind-numbing, they needed stimulation.
Even cleaning sounded better than training, but the Monastery was spotless, and anyway, it always ended up more of a mess when the Ninja "cleaned" it than if they had left it alone in the first place.
Normally, when there came a day like this, Zane would rope the Ninja into helping him around the kitchen, be it baking some treats or cooking up the next meal. But it was a hot, windless summer day and no one felt like spending it in a kitchen with the oven going.
And for some reason, ice cream sounded unappealing to the Ninja (which…is just plain weird, people).
So, they complained and it was. driving. Master Wu and Pixal. CRAZY.
Which was why Master Wu had called Pixal into his study to look for some scroll.
The Ninja exchanged confused, curious looks at each other, trying to see if the others had some insight that they were missing, but no one did, and the only way to get answers was to risk spending all day in the study looking through dusty scrolls and no one wanted to risk that.
They were bored, but they weren't that desperate.
Instead, they lazed about the Monastery, doing absolutely nothing until they spotted Pixal leaving through the courtyard.
Curious, each Ninja made their way to the courtyard, asking Pixal what she was doing.
"You shall see," she replied.
"What– what does that mean?" Jay asked as Pixal continued out of the courtyard.
She glanced over her shoulder, shrugged, and left.
Zane frowned at her retreating form, having just attempted to communicate with her using their shared abilities as Nindroids. She did not answer nor did she acknowledge him, which she had always did if she didn't want to answer or couldn't. So what was she planning? "Perhaps we do," Zane thought aloud. He blinked and looked at his friends gathered around the courtyard, addressing all of them as he said, "It would be best to prepare."
"But for what?" Jay asked, feeling the need to point out that they had no idea what Pixal was planning, and they all knew she was planning something.
"We have no idea what they're planning!" Kai said, missing Jay's meaning, and he glanced around the courtyard, as if he expected an attack at any moment as he continued, "I can't spend all day being paranoid. It's not good for you."
"They?" Cole asked, frowning.
"Master Wu's in on it. I'm telling you, they were scheming in there. You know, when he called Pixal in there? Probably payback for something," Kai explained.
Nya rolled her eyes and shook her head, saying, "We gathered."
"I didn't," Cole mumbled, looking at the ground.
"Well, either way, we need to be ready," Lloyd said, bringing everyone back to the matter at hand and not some useless argument about the obviousness or lack of obviousness of Kai's words.
"But for what?" Jay pointed out again.
"Worrying is pointless," Zane replied, surprising the other Ninja.
They turned to the Nindroid, giving him weird looks and uncomprehending minds. Zane was the logical one. The fact that he wasn't worried – especially since whatever Master Wu and Pixal were planning would most definitely be a punishment of some kind – was unsettling. Maybe he was in on it too?
"Worrying is pointless," Zane repeated, before adding, "Until Pixal returns. Then we may expect a shock." He turned and walked back inside the Monastery, calling over his shoulder, "Then you should be ready."
"But for what?" Jay asked for the third time, looking frantic and nervous. He didn't like it when someone as smart as Pixal was hanging a threat over him. Not. At. All.
With that, the Ninja looked at each other, then spread out, beginning to prepare for Pixal's impending return and the chaos that was sure the follow it.
They were not prepared.
Pixal returned with shopping bags, each one heavy with all kinds of food. Cole and Jay eyed the bags at first, but quickly relaxed, laughing about their paranoia. Kai made no effort to hide his suspicions, unlike Nya, whose actions made it hard to tell if she was suspicious or not. Zane and Lloyd had decided to be aware of their surroundings, but that there was no point in being tense.
Pixal brought the bags into the kitchen and set to sorting them. Some she left out; evidently, they were to be part of the dinner she had planned. Others she put away. Zane watched, helping once he figured out what meal she was planning, noting the new tea that she left out.
He had never seen that particular type of tea before. He reached for it, hoping to get a good look at its label, but Pixal slapped his hand away and pulled it out of his reach before he could grab it.
Zane looked at her quizzically, making a sound that could only say, "What was that for?"
She ignored him and continued preparing the meal. Realizing that he would never get an answer from her, he turned to help.
And so, the rest of the night was spent making dinner, luring Kai out of his room with the promise of food, and eating it before everyone dispersed to do their own thing and eventually went to bed.
The next morning, when Lloyd pried his eyes open, he noticed that his eyelids felt like Vengestone and his eyes burned. As if he spent the entire night wide awake, watching videos and messing around playing video games, but he didn't. He went to sleep fairly early. And he was never that tired when he woke up. He found himself considering making himself a cup of coffee – Nya was not a morning person and was sure to have some somewhere.
Sitting up because he didn't think he could get himself to wake up further, he froze at the sight that greeted him.
His floor was covered in water.
Puddles and puddles and puddles. He could barely see his floor and what he could see was still submerged.
Had the sprinklers gone off? No, his bed was dry. If the sprinklers had gone off, then he'd be drenched. But he wasn't.
Still, he knew one person who could probably answer.
"Nya!" he called.
"What?" she yelled back.
She must have started running to his room because Lloyd heard the sound of feet pounding the floor and then —
— something glass cracked and shattered.
"Nya?" he cried, jumping up and slipping on the floor, hitting his head, his momentum forcing the door open; the floor was slick enough to keep him sliding a few inches before he stopped.
"Are you OK?" Jay shouted, running up to them and helping Lloyd up. He was about to run to Nya to see what was wrong before stopping short a few feet away from her. "We're going to need a broom."
Nya nodded, her arms spread wide like she'd fall over into the glass scattered around her if she held them close to her.
"What happened?" Jay asked as he walked to the closet and grabbed a broom out.
"Well…Lloyd called me so I was going to him and the light bulb exploded," Nya replied, looking at Lloyd for his explanation.
"My room's a swamp," he said, pointing to his open door and the puddle that had formed when his crash had slammed the door open.
Just then, the Monastery seemed to shake, like it did when Cole was mad and stamped his feet. But it wasn't Cole who had yelped in pain as the floor clearly cracked out from beneath him. It was Kai.
Instinct took over as they rushed to the Fire Ninja's room, Nya flipping over the glass.
The floorboards had broken beneath Kai, leaving him in a pit with the cracked wood.
"I have questions," Jay announced.
"Yeah, well, so do I," Kai replied, before adding, "Help me out."
"Ah, ah, ah! Youforgotthemagicword!" Cole said, bounding into the room.
"Huh?" Kai tried climbing out, but he grabbed an already broken board and it broke off, making him fall back into the pit. He hissed in pain and tried to get out again, but had the same success as the first time. That is to say, he didn't have any success.
Lloyd and Jay stepped closer to the pit, careful not to put weight on any of the boards that might give out; then they reached over, grabbed each of Kai's hands, and pulled him out. Kai hissed in pain again as the boards scratched at his legs, but other than that, he didn't make a sound as they set him on the ground.
"Seriouslywhatiswithyourlackofmanners," Cole gibbered, bouncing on the balls of his feet. He then felt the need to say, "I'vebeenupsincemignightitmakesnosensebutIfeelsoalive."
"What?" Jay asked.
"Can you talk so we can understand you?" Kai said, glaring at the Earth Ninja.
"He said that he's been up since midnight and that he doesn't like you forgetting 'please' and 'thank you'," Lloyd translated. After yawning, he added, "Wish I felt like that."
Cole shook his head. "Noyoudon't. It'snotagoodfeeling.""Better energetic than sleepy," Nya pointed out. "Guess you getting up super early every morning is finally getting to you, Lloyd."
"Uh, guys?" Kai said, looking at them. "Zane–"
"We need to figure out what's going on," Lloyd said, cutting across Kai. That would be the smart thing to do. Not panic, the way Kai was clearly doing.
Cole nodded quickly several times as he said, "YeahandfastbecauseIdon'tlikethis."
Nya opened her mouth to say something right as Kai grabbed Lloyd's arm and shook it, shouting, "GUYS! ZANE'S ON FIRE!"
"WHAT?" Jay looked out of the door, and sure enough, there Zane was, waving his arms frantically as the flames shot up them. "WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL US!?"
"I TRIED BUT SOMEONE INTERRUPTED ME!" Kai shouted back.
Lloyd wasn't sure why he couldn't just shrug it off, but he felt the need to defend himself. "HEY, DON'T BLAME ME!"
"WILL YOU STOP YELLING!" Nya interjected. She then ran off to help him, leaving the four stunned young men behind.
They stared blankly at each other for a second but quickly remembered that Zane needed help, and though they couldn't do much – especially Kai with his fire powers – they wanted to be there in case they could.
So, when they rushed out, and Nya's hands were pulsing with bolts of lightning, the rest of the Ninja's minds went into overdrive.
That is to say, they freaked out. Which, in turn, made Nya freak out and accidentally squeeze off another bolt of lightning.
It shot off the wall and headed toward Lloyd, who yelped and ducked, shooting a blast of his own power.
But it wasn't his power. It was Nya's. He had just used the Elemental Power of Water. And it was a weird feeling. He hadn't been aiming, but luckily his burst of water doused Zane, putting him out.
Since the most chaotic part of the whole thing was Zane freaking out (for the other Ninja so often relied on his and Cole's relative calm and had a hard time remaining calm when they weren't) and he was no longer waving his arms wildly about, the rest of the Ninja managed to bring themselves to a stop. Nya was no longer shooting lightning bolts, Kai and Jay had stopped yelling, Cole was silently twitching in the corner, and Lloyd had stopped spouting off water.
Zane sighed in relief, slumping against the wall as he said, "It appears that my powers have been replaced with Kai's. I couldn't seem to put it out. Thank you."
"That's what's been going on!" Jay cried. "We switched our Elemental Powers, but how?"
"Thetea?" Cole guessed, shrugging."I knew they were up to something! Pixal and Wu found a tea to switch our Elemental Powers, and now Lloyd's got water, Zane's got mine, and Nya's got lightning. Today's going to be chaos if we don't get back our normal powers. Like, now," Kai said.
"ButwhohasLloyd's? Andwhatabouttherestofus?" Cole asked."It's safe to say, you have Lloyd's, buddy," Jay replied, patting Cole on the back. "Look, Lloyd's about to fall flat on his face, and you're acting like you drank a gallon of pure caffeine."
"I don't think my power helps me with stuff like that. I'm just tired," Lloyd said, "It's super weird. I slept all night last night."
The other Ninja gave him weird looks that screamed, "I can't believe you just said that."
"Uh, Lloyd, that is normal," Jay told him.
"You're a growing teenager," Zane reminded, "Teenagers often require more sleep to deal with their growing bodies."
"I think the reason Cole's going crazy and you don't is because you know how to control your power," Nya hypothesized.
Lloyd yawned as if his body wanted to prove their point. Too exhausted to argue, he nodded.
"So…whose power do I have? And what about Jay?" Kai pointed out.
"Earth," all of the Ninja said at once.
"So, I have ice?" Jay asked, waving his hand around and trying to summon his power.
"I believe I do," Pixal announced, appearing seemingly out of nowhere with her hands glowing the way Zane's did when he called his power, the crackle of ice forming as she created a tiny icicle to prove her point.
"So, what, I'm powerless?" Jay cried. "We need to fix this. Right. NOW."
"I don't know," Kai said, "I kinda want to see what Pixal'll do with her elemental power."
"You mean Zane's power," Nya pointed out.
"Oh, yeah. Umm…this is getting confusing," Kai replied, rubbing the back of his head. "Maybe we should go get Master Wu to fix this?"
Lloyd nodded, swaying for a second. He really needed something to wake himself up, and the sooner they got this drama over with, the better. The others quickly agreed, Cole looking more than enthusiastic to rid himself of Lloyd's power, Zane seeming reluctant to be set on fire again, and Jay wanting his power back as soon as possible.
They headed off in the Monastery to look for Wu….
So, when Wu walked into his study, he was surprised by the sight of five Ninja and two Nindroids having trouble with all the wrong powers. His scrolls were on fire and the fire seemed to have come from Zane's hands, Nya had sneezed a few times and shattered a few light bulbs, Jay was sitting on the ground and grumping over his misfortune of not having a power, Lloyd was frantically shooting balls of water everywhere, and Kai and Cole were…doing something. It looked like they were trying to keep each other from moving, like the drama was too much for them to handle and if one of them let go, then the whole Monastery would fall down.
Wu's surprise was quickly forgotten when he remembered the tea he had given Pixal. Chuckling as he remembered their boredom the previous day and how it was sure to be forgotten now that their day was no longer the routine they had thought they'd been promised, he asked, "I suppose you are finding yourselves occupied?"
"'Occupied'? Does this look 'occupied' to you? 'Cause it sure does to me!" Kai shouted. "I'm trying not to make it so we have to rebuild this place again!"
"Canyoupleasehelpusgetournormalpowersback?" Cole asked, deciding Kai would probably make Master Wu mad enough to refuse to help them if Cole didn't step in.
Like Lloyd, Master Wu didn't seem to have that much trouble understanding Cole, and he nodded, saying, "If you would rather go back to routine."
"Yes! Please! Let's do that!" Nya said as she struggled to keep a bolt of lightning from wrestling away from her.
The other Ninja all made sounds of agreement as their chaos continued.
"Very well," Master Wu said, walking over to a box he kept in the study in case he wanted some tea. That was where he had put the tea that would switch the Ninja's powers around and set them to the right Ninja. Opening in it, he noticed —
— "Oh dear," he said, slamming the box lid shut and looking up at the Ninja. "Excuse me."
And then he quickly walked out of the study with the box tucked under his arm, gripping his conical hat tightly, leaving the Ninja with their messed up powers (or in Jay's case, lack of power) and demanding answers that followed him as he left.
Only Lloyd seemed to have understood.
"We're stuck with these powers," he murmured, but everyone heard him. He finally managed to put out the rest of the fire from Zane and Nya's switched powers, then he walked out of the study, calling, "I'm going back to sleep!"
Cole translations in case it was hard to read (in order):
Ah, ah, ah! Youforgotthemagicword! = Ah, ah, ah! You forgot the magic word!
Seriouslywhatiswithyourlackofmanners = Seriously what is with your lack of manners? and I'vebeenupsincemignightitmakesnosensebutIfeelsoalive. = I've been up since midnight. It makes no sense but I feel so alive.
Noyoudon't. It'snotagoodfeeling.=No, you don't. It's not a good feeling.
YeahandfastbecauseIdon'tlikethis. = Yeah, and fast because I don't like this.
Thetea? = The tea?
ButwhohasLloyd's? Andwhatabouttherestofus? = But who has Lloyd's? And what about the rest of us?
Canyoupleasehelpusgetournormalpowersback? = Can you please help us get our normal powers back?
I'd love to hear what you think! And I'll be keeping this open in case I feel like making this a two-shot or maybe even a multi-chapter fic. Of course, if y'all have other opinions, like if I should continue it, how I should continue it, etc, I'd love to hear! Thanks for reading and have a nice day! Hope this made you smile at least once.