Seabound

A Big Splash

I stood knee-deep in a rice paddy, watching, listening. The cool water was a welcome relief from the blistering sun of another summer day in the rice farms outside Ninjago City. I glanced a few yards off where Kai, Jay, and Lloyd were also waiting, rice hats pulled low to conceal their faces. We had been given an anonymous tip that a crime ring would be meeting to smuggle materials in one of the villages surrounding Ninjago City. After doing some digging, we had managed to narrow down an approximate time and place that the smuggling would be happening, so all we had to do was wait for the thugs to show up.

My attention flicked towards the road that twisted through the rice fields, connecting the village with the outside world. I felt the vibrations in the earth and the rippling of the water around me before I even saw the trucks barreling into view.

"They're close," I whispered into my intercom.

"And we're ready," came Lloyd's reply. I smiled softly as I watched three large black trucks appear on the horizon. It was my first big domestic mission with the ninja, and I was anxious to prove myself helpful to the team.

The trucks zoomed down the road, screeching to a halt at an intersection. A few hooded thugs hopped out of the trucks, one knocked on the back door to one of the trucks. The door flew open and a young woman jumped out. I sized her up, taking in her red mohawk, overly dramatic eye makeup, and what seemed to be a flame thrower mounted on her back. Should be a piece of cake.

Patiently, I awaited Lloyd's signal, all the while watching the woman's every move. She moped about the circle of thugs, snapping at them as they made small talk before firing her flame thrower at one of them.

"Why'd they want to meet out here, anyway?" the woman complained, "We're in the middle of nowhere!"

"Probably so those nosy ninja don't find us," one of the thugs offered meekly.

"Too late for that!" Lloyd exclaimed. At the signal, the four of us made ourselves known, throwing off our farmer disguises and squaring up in the middle of the road.

The woman's demeanor actually seemed to brighten as she saw us, which caught me off guard. "Oh wow, I've been waiting for this!" She exclaimed, "I've worked so hard to make it to the top. And it's actually happening! Oh, wait, wait, wait, I had a line for this. Oh yeah, I've got a warm welcome planned!" She blasted the flamethrower at us, which we expertly dodged.

"Get the trucks out of here," she called to the thugs, "You four, get the ninja!" She ran towards one of the trucks and four of the thugs descended on us, baseball bats swinging. I blocked a bat with my sword, the metal biting into the wood of the bat, holding fast. The thug smirked, thinking he had me. Instead, it was quite the opposite. I quickly spun into Spinjitzu, hurling the man across the road and straight into the mud of the rice paddies.

I returned my attention to the woman, who had jumped onto one of the truck, blasting her flames and loudly calling out, "So long boys and girls! I hope our paths cross again!"

As the trucks drove off, Cole sped towards the convoy on his cycle. I watched in admiration as he faced down the trucks before pulling his bike into a wheely and blasting fireballs at them. The first two trucks where hit and flew across the road, crashing, and Cole yanked his bike to a standstill. The last truck, with the woman in tow, kept coming, picking up speed as it approached the earth ninja. The woman fired her flame throwers at Cole, and he jumped clear just in time.

As Miss Demeanor's truck sped away, the contents of the trucks, which were now spilled across the road, caught my eye. I punched one last thug in the face before hurrying over next to Cole.

"Oh, my gosh," I breathed, staring down at the road.

"Vengestone?" Cole voiced next to me. The trucks had been loaded with the ore, mined in perfect blocks.