The next day was tiring to say the least. None of the boys had any battles to participate in, but I did. Today I was matched against the Master of Color. She was a very colorful girl: She wore rainbow clothes, had rainbow hair with color changing eyes. We fought in a relatively large arena, decorated with tall trees and thick bushes. It was terrain that I was familiar with, and judging by the grin on her face, she was too. The Jadeblade was placed on the topmost branch in the tallest tree.
"Tasha, Master of Dark Power, versus Iris, Master of Color," Chen announces. "Fight!"
Immediately, I summon a ball of energy to my hands and throw it at her. She jumps out of the way and I charge after her, but before I can get close, a wall of lava appears in my way. I come to a sudden stop, nearly loosing my balance and falling. But then Iris appears through the wall and kicks me hard in the face. I fall backward onto my butt and the wall of lava disappears.
Iris comes for me again and this time I roll out of the way. I stand back up and turn to face her when suddenly I'm trapped in a large metal cage. Iris smirks and starts towards the tree with the Jadeblade.
I summon a large ball of energy to my hands and let off a burst, but the power glides through the cage as if it's not there. Perplexed, I try to touch one of the bars, but my hand glides right through. With an angry huff I run out of the imaginary cage and towards the tree, which Iris is already halfway up.
"What's wrong, Tasha?" She asks tauntingly. "Struggling with my mirages?"
I summon a large ball of energy to my hands and throw it at her, but the energy pass through her and suddenly she disappears. It was another mirage.
Suddenly I'm kicked hard in the back. Turning around, I see Iris standing behind me and this time I know she's real. I throw a ball of energy at her and she jumps out of the way.
We go back and forth like this for a short while more before I get fed up with her tricky little games. I force my opened hands at her and she freezes, a translucent purple aura now floating around her. I grin to myself and direct my left hand up towards the Jadeblade. Some of the purple aura moves from her and to the blade; it zooms out of the tree and into my hand. I drop my hand to the side and Iris's energy is returned to her person.
"Winner!" Chen cries. "Loser! Master of Dark Power moves on."
Chen presses a button on his chair and a trapdoor opens up beneath Iris, dropping her into the unknown. I turn towards the stadium, expecting cheers and praise, but everyone looks unsure -- scared, even. Dad stares down at me disapprovingly and I realize my mistake.
~
"At least the chows good," Cole said later that evening.
"Oh, it's killing me!" Jay bursts. "What's under the trapdoor? What happens when you loose?"
"Don't think about that," Dad says tensely.
"It's all I can think about," Jay says. "I moved on. I feel guilt. These are not good feelings!"
"You think you feel bad? Imagine how I feel," Kai says. "Our mission is simple. We find Zane and get off this crazy island."
"And just how are we supposed to do that?" Cole asks. "You heard Chen. Break a rule and we're out. He's not gonna let us roam around."
"Then it's a good thing we're Ninja," Kai replies. "Meet me in my room at midnight."
"You mind if I join you?" asks the Master of Light.
"Disappear, pal!" Jay says loudly. "This is private."
The paleman goes invisible.
"I know you're still here. I can see your lunch tray."
The man reappears and sighs sadly before shuffling away from us.
"Wow, Jay, you were really mean," I say, eyebrows raised.
"How am I supposed to know if we can trust him?" Jay retorts. "See what this island is doing to me? It's corrupting me! It has to stop. I'll see you tonight."
~
That night, just before midnight, I grabbed my daggers and crept out onto my balcony. Kai's room was on the opposite side of the building, a few floors down. I jumped up to the roof and ran silently to the other side. Lloyd came out onto his balcony and I dropped down to meet him.
He jumped, placing a hand over his chest. "Tasha! You scared me."
I smirk. "Constant vigilance, Lloyd. Constant vigilance."
He rolls his eyes, but doesn't respond. Together, we drop down to Kai's balcony and Cole joins us moments later. Kai ushers us quickly inside and my jaw drops. His room is so Kai, it's not even funny: yellow hardwood floors, red rugs, mirrors in every corner and posters of himself on every wall. I knew he was a bit egotistical, but this room amplifies the trait so much that it's almost sickening.
Cole immediately jumps on his bed and starts eating chocolate covered shell peas from the bowl on the bedside table. Next to that bowl was a picture-- the same picture that I found in my room. He hadn't thrown it away like I did. Does that mean he still cares?
"Woah-ho-ho," Jay says, gazing around. "Nice digs."
"I know," Cole exclaims. "His room is so much nicer than mine. Look, chocolate covered shell peas, I love these! And look how soft your pillows are. Man, mine are made of rock! What a crock!"
"Okay, it was almost impossible to get here," Jay says, ignoring Cole. "This place is swarming with guards. Any ideas on how we search the island?"
"We travel by shadow," Kai says. "Cover every square inch of this place until we find him.
"The island is big," I say. "We'll need to split up."
"No, we stick together," Lloyd argues.
"Uh, guys," Cole interrupts, "this bed is, uh-"
"Cole, I get it!" Kai says annoyed. "You like my bed. Would you stop playing around?"
"I think I know how we can search the island," Cole says, grinning.
A moment later, all five of us are laying across Kai's bed.
"Okay, I feel ridiculous," Lloyd says.
"Ah, you're right," Jay says with a sigh. "The pillows are soft."
"Is this a joke?" Lloyd says, sitting up to look at Cole.
"I must've done something to trigger it," Cole replies. "I was laying here, then I stretched-"
Before he can finish his sentence, the bed flips over and suddenly we're hanging from the ceiling of a tunnel.
"Woah! A secret passageway! Cool!" Jay exclaims.
We drop down and Kai sets his hand on fire to provide light.
"Nice work, Cole," Kai says. "Maybe Zane's not on the island, but in it."
A loud grunting sounds above us, a woman's grunt.
"Quiet," I hiss. "Do you hear that?"
"Oh! Secret peep hole!" Jay says, pointing at the wall ahead of us. "Sounds like someone's fighting on the other side of this wall." He rushes to go look through it.
"What do you see?" Cole asks. "Who's fighting?"
"It's not a fight. It's Skylar's room. And it looks like she's training."
Kai extinguishes the flame on his hand and rushes forward. "Let me see, let me see!"
I roll my eyes and glare up at him. "What, you got the hots for her?"
"No," Kai protests, "she's competition. I just wanna know what powers we're up against."
"Not what it looked like last night," I grumble, but he's too busy arguing with Jay to pay attention.
"Guy's, this is an invasion of privacy," Lloyd says.
Kai groans. "Her room doesn't reveal anything about her power."
Then him and Jay gasp dramatically.
"What was it? What did you see?"
"She's. . . fire. . ."
"Wait a minute," says Lloyd, glancing at me, "if we're all decedents of Elemental masters-"
Cole bursts out laughing and begins to sing, "Kai's heart is on fire. Kai's heart is on fire. Kai's heart is on fire."
"Can we please just keep moving?" Kai grumbles.
Him and Jay step away from the peep hole and Kai reignites his hand. Cole grabs his bowl of chocolates and the five of us start down the tunnel.
"It's like a maze down here," says Kai. "Good thing you're leaving a trail back to our room."
"I'm what?" says Cole, glancing back at the melted chocolate he left behind. "Oh, yeah, I meant to do that."
We come to a large hole, at least fifteen feet deep, and climb down. Now, instead of the tunnels being made of drywall, they are made of stone. We must be underground now.
"Everyone stop!" Lloyd shouts, grabbing onto Kai's shoulder. He bends down and pokes a string across the ground. "Booby traps."
"Booby traps! Even cooler!" Jay says, laughing gleefully. Lloyd and I turn towards him, eyebrows raised. "Or, I mean, kinda cool. I mean, they're totally not cool, you know, because they're dangerous."
"From here on out, we have to watch our step," I announce.
"Do you hear that?" Kai says. "Everyone be quiet."
Ahead of us, a low chanting carries through the halls. The five of us step over the booby trap and follow the sound; it leads us to a bunch of shirtless men with purple snake tattoos all over their body, walking through their hallway in an orderly fashion.
Lloyd pokes us and points to the five men walking a few meters behind the others. As soon as they're close enough, we each grab one by the neck and knock them out. We take the outfits and snake skulls they wore and put them on, painting our faces with chocolate to match their tattoos. Then, we follow the sound of chanting men into a great cavern, which is filled with even more chanting men, all on their knees. We join their ranks and do our best to mimic the sounds they make.
"Stop licking your tattoos," Kai scolds on my right.
"It's chocolate. I cant resist," Cole retorts.
Lloyd shushes them. "Can you at least try to fit in?"
Suddenly, the chanting stops and all the men bow down. Chen walks out infront of him, a condescending smile spread across his face.
"Bring out the looser," he says.
Two more tattooed men--the thugs that we fought in Chen's noodle shop--walk in, dragging Karlof between them.
"Get your hands off Karlof! Karlof wishes he never sign up for this!" The thugs throw Karlof to the ground and begin chanting again. "What is chanting for?"
"They're saying, 'only one can remain,'" Chen says gleefully. "Like I said, use it or loose it."
Chen points his snake staff at Karlof and ice shoots from it. Karlof's body starts to shudder as a silvery dust seeps from his skin and into the jewel embedded in the staff. Karlof collapses, drained of his power.
"He's stolen Karlof's power!" Kai says.
"And he used Ice," Cole adds. "That means he must have already stolen Zane's power too.'
"What happen to my Metal?" Karlof asks, looking at his gloved hands.
"Your metal?" Chen says mockingly. "Oh, it's mine now. But now I will let you go."
"Really?"
"To the factory!"
The thugs grab Karlof's arms and start to drag him away again.
"No, no! Let Karlof go! No, no!"
Lloyd gasps. "Jay, your face..."
"My face? All of our faces!" Jay exclaims. "The chocolate's melting!"
"Who are they?" asks one of the men in front of us.
"Intruders! Stop them! They must not escape!" Chen yells.
Instinctively, I grab Kai's hand and run back the way we came. We run through the halls, past the thugs we tied up, all the way to the booby trap. Cole accidentally trips over it and fortunately it blocks off the way we came so that the cultists cant follow us.
"Aha! Yes!" Kai exclaims. He spoke too soon because axes start falling from the ceiling. "Oh, no."
We run, the axes following closely behind us. Lloyd pulls us into a side hall and we escape the raining axes, but now there's a strange hissing noise.
"That was close," says Cole.
"That sound," says Jay.
At the end of the tunnel, a large purple snake slithers slowly towards us.
"That has got to be the second biggest snake I've ever seen!" Kai yells.
"Quick, climb!" I shout, jumping up towards the tunnel we climbed down. The snake slithers after, snapping at our feet. I crawl into a smaller space that the snake cant follow, not taking into account that the boys are bigger than me. They smush me against the back wall, kicking and pushing to get away from the snake. Then the floor disappears beneath us and we fall onto something soft and cushiony.
"Are we..."
"Yeah, barely," Lloyd says, panting.
"Did we just--ow."
"No more sneaking around," says Jay, climbing off Kai's bed. "From now on, let's just follow the rules."
"We may not have found Zane, but we found something just as important," says Kai. "This tournament isn't about glory. It's about Chen stealing all our Elemental Powers."
"But why," says Lloyd, "what's he planning?"
"I don't know, but if we're gonna find out and find Zane, we have to play by his rules," Kai says before I can restate my snake theory. "Agreed?"
"Agreed," the boys say in unison.
"Good thing we weren't spotted," says Cole. "That was close."
"Yeah, too close," Jay says, showing the hole in his pants from where the snake almost got him.
"Well, it's very late now and we all need to be up early," Lloyd says. "We should probably go to bed now."
"No, Lloyd, I think we should stay up and party," I say, winking.
He glares at me and shakes his head. Cole, Jay, Lloyd and I start walking back towards the balcony when--
"Tasha, can you wait a minute?"
My entire body tenses at Kai's words and I stop walking. Cole, Lloyd, and Jay pause out on the balcony, looking back at me curiously.
"Yeah, sure," I say.
Cole and Jay look at each other before leaving. Lloyd stays for a moment longer, only leaving after I give him a nod. Then I turn around to face the boy I've been wanting to talk to for months.
~
CLIFF HANGER!!!! Yes, I love to torture you. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed! Until next time, Wacky AWAY!
Word Count: 2444