heart2heart | Ninjago Bruise

Chapter 12

The sunset over the horizon was something the ninja truly cherished. They often went for nightly strolls along the city harbour, or went for quick flights on their new elemental dragons. The pretty blues, oranges and pinks always reminded them of the freedom they so rarely got, but enjoyed.

However, this time, the ninja weren't here by choice.

Since the tournament of elements, the ninja team had spent months waiting for something big to happen again, whether that be snakes, skeletons or maybe even zombies. This time it was a quick side mission to capture a large fish attacking fishing boats just off the coast of the city of Stiix. The whole team likely wasn't needed, but it was much better than helping set up Wu's tea shop.

Five elemental dragons soared across the vast ocean, a bright green energy dragon leading slightly ahead. However, that didn't last long before the fire ninja decided to over take with a chesty laugh.

"Getting ahead of yourself, Kai?" Lloyd called out with a smile, "I'm leading this charge."

Pulling gently on the reigns, Lloyd's dragon sped up, cutting in close behind the fire dragon. The two raced off, swerving in and out of each other until the energy dragon's wing sliced across the water, splashing the red ninja. Kai screeched.

From behind, the lightning master let out a laugh.

"That's one way to cool off a hothead," Jay chuckled.

Kai took the moment to look back at his friend, "hey! Nobody messes up my hair."

Soaring on once again, Kai's dragon swooped down, it's wings, too, crashing against the waves. A splash of salty water hit Zane, causing him to cough.

Cole laughed, pulling up beside the nindroid, "you okay there, Zane?"

"Affirmative," Zane grinned, "it'll take more than a little water to take me out."

"What about a big fish?" Jay's tone shifted to panic, looking behind him and pointing towards the sea, "incoming!"

'Big' was an understatement. When the group had been told about a large fish attacking boats, they expected nothing bigger than a shark, however, this fish was enormous . It was bigger than all of their dragons combined.

The creature followed closely behind the ninja, chasing them up and down the current. Every now and then it would leap out of the water, attempting to snatch one of the elemental dragons.

"There he blows!" Cole exclaimed.

"Pixal says this is the one," Zane smiled.

Lloyd nodded, "and now that he's taken the bait, we can reel him in and get him to the aquarium."

As they continued heading back towards the village's harbour, the dragons continued swerving around, trying to distract the fish as much as possible, and to prevent it completely swallowing then alive.

"Let me guess, Kai, you caught that one big once?" Jay questioned with a slight chuckle.

"Heck no!" Kai grinned, "he was twice the size."

The monster leaped out of the water, aiming for the tail of Kai's dragon, who only narrowly missed.

Jay smiled, "he's almost as hungry as you, Cole."

The earth ninja laughed, "and twice as ugly as you, Jay."

"Was that a compliment?" the man in blue raised an eyebrow.

As the team laughed and joked around, Lloyd glanced back at them with a wide grin.

"It's time for the catch of the day," he beamed, pointing towards a small fishing boat in the distance, "in line formation!"

All the elemental dragons lined up behind Lloyd, aiming straight for the boat ahead of them. Taking glances back every and now then, they did their best to stay in formation. When finally approaching the fishing ship, Lloyd called to debunk the arrangement, the team finally taking a last minute split above the boat. The fish leapt up out of the water and landed aggressively onto the fishing boat.