Ninjago gen 2, New Bloom

Chapter 8: The Siren

Winter landed on her side, slamming hard into cold metal. Her eyes stung with sudden newfound brightness as well as her arm being squished by the figure she'd taken with her.
She shook them off and looked around to gather her thoughts. It looked as if she was in some sort of metal room, surrounded by steel paneled walls, grey with age. The place had definitely lived it's purpose, as it was no longer a shiny new building. The walls were crammed in with cargo boxes, as was the entire room, including a narrow clearing between boxes they'd landed in.
Winter stood up and looked at the stranger she'd brought. They were clearer in most regards, as Winter could see they were wearing a black long sleeve shirt, black cargo pants and black gloves and lace up boots. The person had a hood and gas mask covering their unconscious face, and Winter took that opportunity to remove the mask. Once she did, she was slightly shocked at the face that she'd uncovered. The fight between them was a blurred, but even then Winter felt like whoever she was brawling was a younger person as they were shorter than her and had little restraint in their sudden celebration.
The face she was staring at was a pale faced boy, with young, cherub like features, like big eyes and soft skin. Although, their skin wasn't perfect. The face was ruined by scars and bruises, seemingly from fights, or at least something. Winter rationalized that her skirmish definitely wasn't enough to do that damage.
She searched around the cold, cargo store (Or at least that's what she thought it was) for a few seconds before diving back to her hiding spot. She noticed a camera, dashing around the room and could only pray it didn't see her. She should've guessed if her friends were hostages, it'd be significantly more difficult to save them than she'd hoped.
She leaned on a big wall of cargo boxes behind her and started to divise a plan. Then she thought of the tea again. She knew there was a good percentage left from when she last used it, so she checked the teapot hanging on the side of her hip. Yep, about half left. So, Winter decided to do some speed portal jumping. She looked at the kid she'd just fought, and decided this was her core destination. Then she decided her first location would be Niki. She took a deep breath, poured, and jumped in.
When Winter opened her eyes again, she was distorted, and stumbled a little bit.
"WMFUH!" she heard muffled behind her. She shook her head then turned to meet eyes with a distressed Niki. She had a thick metal band over her mouth, most likely to keep her from speaking, and her head had a notable scab thing, dry blood down the side of her face. Winter didn't have enough time to think about Niki's appearance though, because in the basically airtight holding room, they were out in about as much time as it took Winter to get there.
They landed back in the storage area within seconds, and Winter's head started thumping. She started to feel vertigo within seconds alongside a blood rush to her brain. She winced as it hurt. This must've been a side effect from portal jumping, and it was not a fun side effect.
Niki looked at Winter, as her face scrunched up in pain, then noticed the boy laying unconscious. She rubbed her eyes to make sure he was real, and when he was still there, she tried to pull off the metal sheet. Once she'd gotten it off, she threw it to the ground with a loud Clank! Her eyes darted at the person and then Winter. "I have a lot of questions, but the biggest one is prolly about the corpse just laying there." She said in exasperation.
Winter held the bridge of her nose, trying to stop the headache. "He isn't dead." Was all she mustered.
Niki's expression twisted into sympathy, and she crouched down to Winter's side. "Are you alright?"
"No. My head hurts really bad." Winter said softly. "Must be a side effect of the tea."
Niki glanced at the tea kettle and understood what Winter was talking about. She then gently took the pot away from Winter and poured tea on the ground.
Winter looked perplexed. "You shouldn't mess with that. I'll be okay, just give me a little break and I'll-"
"No. Stay here, I'll be back with Jaydn." Niki said with surprising confidence.
"Are you sure?"
"Absolutely. I think. I'll probably be fine." And Niki was gone again.
Winter lied on her back for a moment and rested her mind for a minute, despite her anxious and worried feelings.
Just when she was finally recharging herself the boy next to her started stirring.
Winter scrambled up, then immediately felt her headache follow behind her, then rush into her eyes.
She stumbled at the sudden pain flooding back. The boy looked at her, but his eyes were wide and filled with terror. they were possibly the greenest Kelly green eyes she'd ever seen in her life.
"AAAH!" He managed to scream in sheer distress. His eyes welled up in tears and it seemed his first instinct was to back away from the stranger. He slipped on a box behind him and struggled to gain balance.
His sudden breakdown was happening so fast, Winter actually was a little scared. He looked like a wild cat trapped in a box, disoriented and probably dangerous.
He skidishly reached into the box he slipped on, apparently opened, and without looking pulled out a metal pipe. "WHAT'S GOING ON!?" He shouted in between troubled gasps for air.
Winter tried to look as fierce as she could, but with her headache that seemed extremely difficult.
The boy looked around the room, only moving his head around. He realized he didn't recognize the place himself.
"T-t-tell me where we are. Now!" He shuttered, his voice being unsteady.
"I don't know." Winter responded simply.
The boys face was hardened, although in his eyes something changed. "Then how did we get here?"
Winter was about to respond when a portal above them answered for her. Jaydn landed headfirst onto the metal floor, Nicole landing on Jaydn's back, nearly snapping the poor girl in half. Niki dashed her eyes around for a minute, and looked dizzy.
She shook her head vigorously and caught the boy's gaze, as he yelped and dropped the pipe in surprise. He stumbled backwards on the box, landed on his head and regained his balance and hid himself behind the box he was sitting on.
Niki immediately shot up and pulled the boy up from behind the box like a cat. He instantly squirmed and threw his limbs around in protest. "LET ME GO RIGHT NOW! I KNOW HOW TO DO STUFF!"
Niki set him down in the middle of the circle."Answers, now." She demanded.
He scrambled back to the pipe and held it up at Niki. "I actually need answers too!" He squealed.
Jaydn hopped over to Winter. Winter noticed she had a massive bruise on her elbow.
"Where...?" Winter asked. She wanted to ask 'Where'd you get that?' , but her head was just completely engulfed in pain.
Jaydn looked bewildered, and just didn't answer, her big doe eyes watching quietly.
The boy glanced at Winter and noticed her pain. He tried to step over to her, but Niki blocked his path.
"Explain what you know, and why you were kidnapping us." She growled.
The boy looked at her, desperately. "She's hurting." He said. The way he worded it solidified Winter's suspicions of him being a younger person, and questions of why he might be kidnapping people, especially when he is only a child, flooded Winter's brain, and her thoughts were muffled again by dizziness and her brain thumping.
Niki glanced at Winter, looked at the boy and granted him access to Winter.
He pulled what Winter initially thought was a shield off his back and rested a coolie hat on Winter's head. She thought it was Wendy's for a moment but realised this one was more scuffed and looked much more beaten up.
The boy looked at Winter. "keep your eyes out of too much light, it'll make you hurt more." He explained.
To her surprise, Winter's pain subsided to his advice.
"So, I don't have any clue where we are." He said, cautiously making his way over to the box sat beside Jaydn, who was plopped criss cross on the floor.
"But if we get a look around someone might recognize it."
"I think it might be cargo storage unit." Winter quipped.
He nodded. Nicole then piped in. "Why are you kidnapping us?"
He looked at her dead in the eyes and said "I dunno." Without hesitation.
The atmosphere went into shock. "Wait, so you don't know why we're being hunted down even though you're the one hunting us down?" Jaydn asked,  confused as everyone.
He nodded again. "Yeah."
"So you're a bounty hunter? Do you at least know who's hunting us down?" Niki asked.
Winter supposed the fact he was a bounty hunter kind of accounted for his age. He looked at the ground. "I... I don't wanna get in trouble again." He said.
"What do you mean?" Niki asked.
"I can't say or I'll be in trouble." He said, a single tear drop soaking into the fabric of his pants.
"By the other guy who chased us? Is he the one behind this?" Niki asked, sentiment seeping into her voice.
The boy snapped his head up, as in Niki said the most offensive thing in existence. "No way! L- uh, Campfire would never ever hurt me or anyone else!" He defended, glaring at Niki as if she knew that was the most obvious thing in the world.
"Really? Cause last I checked he yeeted me through a portal after nearly dislocating my elbow." Jaydn said saltily.
The boy looked over, solid confidence in his eyes. "Doesn't mean he wanted to." He pouted.
"So you don't want to kidnap us?" Niki asked, dazed.
"I can't really say, either." He said depressingly.
Jaydn opened her mouth to say something and was promptly cut off by a loud alarm and flashing red lights illuminating the whole room. A voice rang over a loudspeaker and echoed through a doorway on the side of the room the camera was on. "Prisoner's escaped. Everyone begin a sweep for a tall, black haired girl and a shorter girl with long brown hair. Both of them are Important Prisoners, be on high alert."
Niki frowned. "Could be anyone?"
Winter glared at the boy. "So they're also trying to kidnap us? So you lied about not knowing where we are!?" She shouted, feeling slight betrayal. She sort of saw it coming, but it still hurt.
He seemed to struggle for words and stuttered in response. Winter was ready to throw this kid all the way to Jemonikai village, or at least leave him behind when they escaped. The rotten kid deserved to get in trouble, because he was about to get a beating from Winter.
But to Winter's surprise, Jaydn came to his defense. "Stop! Don't jump to a conclusion like that, we both know how that goes." She snarled.
Winter was taken aback for a moment but to get her point across she took off the hat and threw it to the boy's feet.
"So, what do we do?" She asked, hurrying to Niki's side. Niki scanned the room, searching for an exit.
"If we don't get out fast, they'll find us here in a blink of an eye. So we just need to run for it." Niki concluded.
Winter nodded and flicked her hand for the other two to come over and on three they'd all run at once.
3...
2...
1....
Niki's face suddenly sparked in excitement. "Wait! We can use the t-"
"THERE THEY ARE! GET THEM!" A man shouted from her left.
"TIME'S UP!" It all went so fast Winter couldn't even identify who said it.
They mad dashed to the door with the camera following their every move, the boy taking the lead. Winter bumped into Jaydn in an attempt to get out first, though in the process she accidentally cut Niki off.
They thought all four had made it into the hallway, but after they slammed the door they heard a horribly heartaching shout from the other side. They had a couple seconds to see Nicole caught and the travellers tea she'd been carrying spill on the ground. They only caught a glimpse of her falling backwards into the tea and the guards trying to follow her before their vision was blurred by a barrage of men charging the door.
"NICOLE!" Winter shouted, running in the opposite direction.
"MY TEA!!" The boy cried, running beside Winter.
Winter felt her sorrow for her lost friend dissolve into anger. "NONE OF THIS WOULD HAVE HAPPENED IF YOU NEVER TRIED TO KIDNAP US!" She spat.
"WE WOULD BE ABLE TO ESCAPE IF YOU DIDN'T STEAL MY TEA!" The boy fired back.
"NIKI JUST DISAPPEARED AND YOUR WORRIED ABOUT TEA!?" Winter roared.
"BOTH OF YOU SHUT UP!" Jaydn yelled, probably louder either of them could muster. "LEFT!" She yelped, and they all slid out of the way of an oncoming wall. Jaydn now took the lead and when an opportunity to hide presented itself, she took it. She spotted a large metal icebox looking thing and dived over to it, the boy and Winter following. They heard heavy footsteps pad away, and after another few minutes of waiting, only hearing each other's breathing and the alarm still ringing, they left cautiously.
Jaydn then stealthily lead them over to a pile of boxes for them to hide in and devise a plan.
"So, you really don't know where we are?" Winter asked.
"I mean, you could ask those guys who chased us down." He responded sarcastically.
"Wait, is that a fish?" Jaydn asked. Winter and the boy looked in her direction and saw she was looking out circular windows, heavily bolted with 8 inch glass. They did in fact see a fish, A little blue and magenta one at that. They were in the depths of the ocean. Winter began to wonder where they actually were globally.
The boy looked disoriented.
"Sorry." Winter said to him softly.
"It's okay." He just said simply. It wasn't mean, condescending or snarky, but it was a kind, quick forgiveness.
Winter decided she'd remember that.
"Okay, this changes a big thing, uh. How will we get out, A, and B, where do we go if we do?" Jaydn narrowed down.
" I might have a way out, but I have no idea what we will do when we escape. Plus we have only one shot to get it right." Winter suggested. She knew it could go horribly wrong, but they were relying on her to get them out.
"I like those odds." The boy said, marching over to Jaydn, who was still by the window.
"I don't see any other suggestions." Jaydn shrugged.
Winter nodded and walked to the window.
"Are you gonna break that?" The boy asked.
Winter frowned. "That's the plan. Once I do, hold your breath and swim up." Winter said simply.
She put her hand against the cold metal bolts and pressed her other hand on the opposite side. She held it tight, took a deep breath, and pulsed her energy into the metal, freezing the thick iron clean through.
"Hey, in case we die can we at least know the name of the guy we're dying with?" Jaydn asked, much more casually than the words actually implied.
Winter kicked the wall and immediately the room flooded with water, salty smells filling the whole boat.
"I'm L-"
"THIS PLACE IS GONNA SINK!" Winter shouted, cutting the boy off. The rest of the wall bent to the extreme pressure of the ocean bursting into it.
With a huge splash, they were sucked out of the underwater boat and into the ocean. Water filled Winter's ears and mouth, and she swam up as far as she could before she realized that this wasn't just a boat, but a huge submarine hybrid with a boat and they were much deeper than she originally thought.
She desperately pulled herself up towards the surface and floating around her was the boy, who seemed to not know how to swim, and Jaydn, swimming up with him slung on her arm.
Winter started blacking out, and everything eventually blurred together except for one thing.
Just before she was completely out, she saw a floating metal sheet with the words "The Siren" spelled out on it.
So that's where they were