The Master of Nature

Rescue

Hope felt helpless. She watched Kai pace around, Jay and Cole play chess using random items, and Zane meditate.

"Sorry that we got captured on your first mission," said Nya.

Kai wasn't going to give up easily. He grabbed a tube of hair oil and rubbed it all over himself.

"Hey, that hair oil was just about to be kinged," said Jay.

"Eww, is that necessary?" asked Hope.

Kai ignored them. He did his best to squeeze between the bars- and succeeded!

"Now, we quietly do a little ball and chain," said Kai. He quietly slid down a chain and started swinging.

Hope and the others tried to help by running across the cage, but eventually Pythor caught them.

"Uh, uh, uh. Trying to escape, are we?" he asked.

The next thing Hope knew, the whole team was now chained to the cage.

"Great, we're in such a better place than we were before," said Cole sarcastically.

Nya insisted that she had faith in Lloyd. Hope was a little worried though.

Earlier, Lloyd had informed the team that his father had tried to steal secrets and had left the Bounty after Lloyd had told him to leave.

Hope wasn't sure if it was worse to have a cruel abusive parent or to have one that genuinely loved you but you were stuck having to fight someday. From what she knew about her new friends' backstories, it seemed that Jay was the only one who had a normal childhood in spite of having grown up in a junkyard.

Correction, not friends. Siblings. They had told Hope that they were like a family, and honestly, Hope could understand that.

She now saw Kai, Jay, Cole and Zane as her older brothers and Nya as her little sister. Even though she hadn't known Lloyd for long, she now thought of him as her little brother too.

Alyssa was a big sister to Hope. That was something she really treasured.

Funny, Hope had seven surrogate brothers and sisters despite being an only child by nature.

Just then, Hope spotted a tiny green figure walking down the steps. But then, he suddenly tripped and fell all the way down.

Hope cringed. She prayed that Lloyd wouldn't break his neck. It seemed awfully painful to fall down like that.

Lloyd landed in the middle of the Serpentine gathering. As he stood up, he muttered, "I really gotta grow into this thing. Well, if we don't meet again, Pythor. Unhand the ninja, or suffer humiliation against the Green Ninja!"

As expected, the Serpentine didn't take him seriously and just laughed. "You and what army?" asked Pythor.

"How about my army of fists?" asked Lloyd, throwing around some punches. But he wasn't very successful.

"Or this army?" came another voice. It turned out that Lord Garmadon had come with the Skulkin army.

"Dad!" said Lloyd.

Soon, there was a battle between the Skulkin and the Serpentine. However, there was another problem to worry about. The cage was starting to descend into a vat of venom.

"Not good not good," whispered Hope.

Luckily, Lloyd was able to pull a lever that freed them in the nick of time. The ninja, including Hope, burst into Spinjitzu immediately.

Pythor tried to get away, but he accidentally bumped into the ninja and Cole took the chance to take the Fangblades from him. However, Pythor disappeared quickly.

"Where did he go?" asked Cole.

"Who cares?" asked Kai. "We have the Fangblades. Let's get out of here."

And that's what they all did.

~🌷~🌷~🌷~🌷~🌷~🌷~🌷~🌷~🌷~🌷~

Later that night, the ninja were celebrating having found the Fangblades. Cole had made some Snogfruit Punch (whatever that is) and it was surprisingly good.

Soon, Lloyd came in, looking sad.

"He left, didn't he?" asked Nya.

Lloyd nodded.

Nya gave him some juice to make him feel better. Hope gave Lloyd a hug. "I'm sure that you will see your Dad again someday," she said.

"I know," said Lloyd.

"Look, you were really brave today," said Hope. "Things may seem bad now, but maybe one day they will get better."

"Tomorrow, we arrive at Torchfire Mountain to destroy these Fangblades once and for all," said Wu. "And it couldn't have been done without your father. I'm going to miss him."

Lloyd smiled a little. Hope turned around. Strange. She had felt like she was being watched.

"Excuse me," said Hope. "I'm going to use the bathroom."

Hope left the room, but not to use the bathroom. She was going to find out who was spying on the team.