Roots of Earth ~ A Ninjago Fanfiction

Chapter 92: True Brothers

For a few moments they stood together in an awkward half-huddle while they let their eyes adjust to the shadows. Then Cole cried out and pointed to the right.

The most of the confusion seemed to be taking place in front of a large hangar built into the structure of the warehouse. A quickly-growing throng of nekomata were screeching, rolling around on the floor, hissing and scratching at two figures fighting desperately against them. One made the room flash every so often in a bright, pale blue and white light as his ice burst out. The other was a nekomata like her own, but she was turning against her tribe-mates and staying close by the side of the human figure.

"Zane!" Lloyd bounded toward the fray. Nya and Jay followed, unsheathing their weapons. Cole started to yank his sword out of its sheathe, but Liana snatched at his arm.

"How high up are we?" she demanded.

"About five feet. They're around twenty to thirty yards away on your right," he replied. "Why?"

"Are you all wearing your trackers? The one connected to the sight bow?"

He nodded. "Yeah!"

"Keep your heads up," Liana said grimly. "I don't want to accidentally shoot anybody on our side."

Cole felt a small smile beneath his mask. She snatched her bow from the attachment on her back baldric and nocked an arrow from the quiver at her side.

He turned away and spread the word among his friends. "Keep an eye out, Liana's shooting!"

Together, the ninja threw themselves into the battle. Nya summoned a gush of water that came out like a firehose and threw several astonished cats off of their paws. Jay's nunchucks flashed through the air and smashed into his targets. Lloyd's tekko-kagi flashed against the firelight. Cole shoved, kicked, and slashed his way through the furry crowd of enemies until he found himself face-to-face with a battered Zane.

The nindroid's titanium face has suffered a couple of long scratches down one eye, and the miner's outfit he wore was torn and shredded. Yet he gave Cole a gently sardonic smile. "What took you so long?"

"Haven't you heard the term 'fashionably late', lug-nut?" With a savage grin, Cole whirled around to slash one cat across the nose with his katana. The hairy ginger caterwauled and stumbled away.

The cries of rage and pain from the Moon Tribe warriors increased when arrows began flying down. Liana's aim was not always accurate, but she hit enough cats to send six to the ground, a few more stumbling, and the rest looking around nervously and trying to avoid her arrows. Her face against the flashing light of the fires was cold, her lips set in a straight, thin line. Never once did she hit one of her friends.

Within the thick of the battle, Little Leaf found herself face-to-face with a young warrior she had grown up with in the tribe: Wolf Paw. The older girl recognized her.

"Little Leaf!" Her mouth fell open in astonishment. "What are you doing?!"

"You're all on the wrong side!" Leaf cried. "Black Blood has lost her mind! I'm fighting for the right side!"

Wolf Paw bared her teeth furiously. Her lithe female figure shifted into a nekomata's black-pelted, white-patched body. "Traitor!" She leapt for Leaf.

Zane whirled around and shot a blast of ice; Wolf Paw was thrown off her paws when a clump of ice the size of a bowling ball hit her in the chest and sent her flying. Her enraged screech rose above the others' voices before she hit the floor.

"Haha, all right, Zane!" Jay whooped.

Zane didn't seem to hear Jay's praise. He whirled around and shoved his way through the crowd. When several nekomata pounced in him, he summoned a Spinjitzu vortex; they were sent flying through the air like Wolf Paw had. Zane spun his way out of the fray and into the hangar—right up to an astonished-looking Spark Pelt.