The old ferry slowly came to a stop, a few miles from the town, in the murky water as the waves that once pushed it ahead only gently bobbed it up and down, until the water was flat with an uneasy silence hanging in the air. Nya stumbled forward, her entire body screaming at her as she used up the last of her energy to get the people and them far away until she was just straight up pushing herself past the pain. Jay barely caught her before she fell forwards. Kai and the ninja rushed to her side, Zane then lifted his metallic hand to his ear, calling the destiny's bounty 2.0 to their location, hoping desperately it didn't catch the attention of the dangerous creature as it sailed towards them from wherever the ship was. But it was the only option besides being stuck in the middle of open water with the only one who could help was drained and passed out, and who know how much time the diversion with R.E.X. has given them. The water they had sailed into was one of the murkier and darker parts of the vast and dangerous wet lands, with thick grayish fog, that seemed more like rain clouds, crowding the air, and the tall land masses casting a long shadow, making it even creepier.
Third person limited (Morro):
Morro crossed his arms as he watched the ninja circle around the girl protectively, watching the robot do some kind of scan with his weird glowing blue eyes. He was just glad now the stupid ninja were no longer focused on killing him. Even the optimistic one seemed to stare at him with such rage and hatred. He flinched as he felt a hand rest om his shoulder, relaxing slightly as he saw it was Wu. Wait no, he shouldn't feel safe with Wu. The stupid, stupid old man was still his enemy. He gave him false hope that HE would be the green ninja. He was the reasons he even did all of this. He was supposed to hate him, not let his guard down like an idiot would.
Morro stepped away quickly, snatching his shoulder away from Wu with disgust. Anger filled him with the look of pity and concern Wu gave him in return. How DARE he look at him like that?! He wasn't some little kid anymore. It was the same horrible stare Wu gave Morro when they first met, when Wu caught him digging in the trash with homeless kids, searching for food. Morro loathed that look. It made him feel like a little kid. If only they knew. If Wu only knew what he made Lloyd do, what he made him feel and see, and the hours of torment he put him through. That look of pity with be replaced with anger, which Morro preferred. People made stupid mistakes when they were angry.
"Don't touch me."
Wu's shoulders sagged and nodded softly, taking a long step back, giving him his space . Morro crossed his arms over his chest, not realizing how torn his gi looked from the battle with Lloyd. His black hair was probably a mess of sticks and dust from falling through the air, getting tossed through a window, and rolling around on the ground. He glanced over at the two people who stood off to the side, both with dark circles under their eyes which had a glassy look in them. He recognized Garmadon of course, but the other one, the woman, he couldn't tell. Possibly Lloyd's mom, being uncertain who else it could be. Then there was Ronin. The thief. Morro had possessed him for a short time, to deceive the ninja in an attempt to kill them, to show them what Morro felt as he died in the volcano. Ronin was very easy to take control over, being just a normal human. But his mind was harder to break apart, like a brick wall had formed around it, nearly impossible to penetrate. An aching silence that hung over the ship, even the people up front were remaining quiet, fear clinging to their minds, daring them to speak.
Morro closed his eyes, inhaling softly, before a faint hum reached his ears. He ignored whatever it was, assuming it was his mind playing tricks, annoyingly toying with him. The hum grew slowly louder, stringing together, forming into a whisper with broken words too tangled to make sense before it stopped abruptly. Morro blinked open his eyes, gazing around to see if anyone else had heard it. No one else seemed to notice. Morro turned his head out to the water, and stared into looming fog, circling the ship like a lone island at sea, threatening to lunge at it and tear it down. The ghost rubbed his black eyes, squinting at the thick and cloudy air. A small dark grey dot floated on the horizon, growing in size and closer by the second. A ship? The Destiny's Bounty 2.0 had finally arrived. The large air ship floated by the side of the ferry without so much as a creak. The ninja barely noticed, before Zane glanced up, nudging the others.
The civilians at the front started to cheer, before immediately shushing each other. Ronin jumped onto the Destiny's Bounty 2.0, knocking down the board to connect the two ships to let the civilians on. The people are the front quickly walked across it, glad to get on something that was actually prepared against disasters and giant creatures that was trying to kill them. Jay and Kai wrapped Nya's arms around their necks, carrying her up to the bounty. The others went on, with Wu and Morro remaining behind.
"Are you coming, pupil?"
"I'm not your damn pupil, old man!"
Morro snapped at Wu, gritting his teeth. Morro disappeared from the air, with the creak of the rusty boards following after.
"You lost him a long time ago."
-
Third person limited (Zane):
Zane pushed away roughly a scribbled on paper left on the wide command station, glancing up at the main deck. The civilians were huddled in the middle, staring at the murky water below nervously, like something was going to jump out and snap them up any second. Nya had finally woken up after her body regained some energy and was sitting on the floor, leaning against one of the walls. Kai was helping her drink a cup of water, which seemed to help her based on how her vitals were looking. Pixal was murmuring at the back of his mind, processing the creature for any information that could help them, if it attacked when the ship was taking off. Their chances were much better in the air than down in the murky water. If someone were to fell into the cloudy sea, even if the beast didn't get them, the sea weed that hid just behind the surface was sure to drag them down, deeper and deeper until light could no longer be seen, and any hope of getting back to safety was gone. Jay was by his side, warming up the cannon Nya and the wiry ninja had built recently after the Tournament of Elements, and anything else that could help.
The ship would take at least a minute to get enough power to take off into the air. With the loud rumble and vibrations of the engines behind the water, it wouldn't take long for something or someone to find them. Cole, Wu, and Garmadon stood on the main deck with the civilians, standing guard. Misako was searching through her books, on one of the tables covered with random papers and tools. Morro was nowhere to be seen, but based on how Wu acted, he was probably on the ship with them, unseen, which made Zane worry and a little mad.
Zane was known to be the calmer, cooler headed members of the team, Lloyd following a close second. He could count on just one of his hands the number of times he got so pissed, filled with rage, he thought he was going to hurt someone. After Wu rescued Morro from the dying preeminent, that counter increased by one. Even Zane didn't understand why Wu saved him.
Even if the ninja only had a few hours with Lloyd, most of which was planning, he could tell something was wrong. When they had got him back, he was some what dehydrated and above all, starving. Lloyd seemed fine on the outside, his usual calm and confident self, his stress levels were high, higher than anyone should ever been under. His heart was slightly higher than it normally was, but when someone came close to him, it increased significantly. Once or twice Lloyd caught Zane staring at him while the rest of the team figured out a strategy, and it seemed he somehow forced himself to calm down, to lower his racing heart and avoid any questions he knew the robot was going to ask. Lloyd wouldn't let Zane do a physical check up on him, saying they didn't have time to worry about him, and they needed to plan on how they would defeat the preeminent and the ghosts. Zane regretted giving in. And now, with Lloyd somewhere out there, alone and possibly hurt because of Morro, it had his wires buzzing with rage.
Jay noticed how Zane glared down at the command station and rested a hand on his tense shoulder, bringing him back into the real world. The robot looked up to Jay with angered, worried, and just sad blue eyes. Jay wrapped him in a quick hug, gently patting him in the back in comfort. Zane rested his head on his blue gi, letting out a soft exhale. That was all the two needed before they got back to work. Just a moment to gather their emotions and focus again. Zane stopped his hand before the large lever, inhaling deeply. He slowly pushed the lever up, the engines beginning to rumble to life. Jay, being the nervous bundle of energy he was, shifted his weight from leg to leg, fidgeting with his hands, and looking around, anywhere but on the screen near the lever, which counted down the minutes and seconds before the engines warmed up and the ship was ready to fly.
Every sound besides the rumble of the engines seemed to be ten times louder, the faint creak of a board, the buzzing of a fly, a muffled cough, or a sharp inhale from someone afraid to breath in fear of attracting something unwanted. The counter slowly ticked down to the last ten seconds, he could feel Jay fidgeting even more, walking towards over to the siblings. A soft beep rang out on another one of the glowing screens on the left side of the command station. Zane tried to ignore it, staring the counter that seemed so, so slow. The robot glanced over the screen that had beeped, blinking rapidly before panic set it. The sonar let out another obnoxious beep. A large yellow dot had popped up on the wide screen and was fading into orange, which was never a good sign. With each ping, its location slowly moved around and around in a circle, like a snake coiling around its prey before it opened its mouth wide, swallowing and killing whatever poor creature was a second too late to dodge or run from the vicious predators clutches. Zane had to start it now.
The nindroid reached his metallic hand up, pulling it down harshly. The engines rumbled to life and tilted forward, with high pitched whining sounding above it. Zane glanced at the dot on the sonar, inhaling sharply as he saw it had stopped its circling, and now headed towards them on a straight line, slowly increasing speed. He pressed a square and bright blue button, holding onto the command station as the ship jolted forward, taking off into the air and far, far from the water. A sharp and loud beep sounded above the rumbling, and Zane whipped his head towards the sonar, fearful of what it may show. Nothing. Whatever planned to drag them down was too late. Zane clicked on the auto pilot button and walked over to where Kai, Nya, and Jay stood/sat.
Third person omniscient:
Kai ruffled Nya's wind tangled hair as she took a long sip from the warm water bottle, feeling her energy slowly seeping back into her body. She was surprised she even got them that far from the town, after using her powers to vanquish ghosts and knock down the preeminent with the huge wave, killing her. Nya was glad they were back in the air where it was safer, despite being far away from her natural elemental source. Jay was sitting down on the floor and leaning against the wall by her right side with Kai standing tall with a troubled face on her other side, watching for something. Morro. He was probably on the ship with them, saving his own ass. Nya knew she should have killed him the instant Wu landed with him on the ship. He was probably the one that brought that creepy thing and nearly got them killed. The three looked up to the sharp beep instinctively, ready to jump up, but relaxed as they saw Zane stood in front for the sonar, not reacting. They assumed there wasn't anything wrong.
"Do you have feel any dizziness, aching headache, stomachache, nauseous?"
Zane spoke as he approached his fellow teammates, crouching on the ground in front of Nya.
"Besides an insatiable anger to kill someone, I'm peachy."
Kai let out a snort.
"I second that."
"I third it."
"I fourth it."
Cole walked up the steps to the upper floor, wrapping one of his beefy and pale arms around Zane's shoulders. You could tell just by looking at them that Cole was obviously a few inches taller than the nindroid, the tallest on the team.
"I fifth it."
The four looked towards Zane in slight surprise as he joined in, not used to the nindroid expressing anger, and obviously never his desire to kill someone was well. They understood it though. Someone had possessed and probably hurt one of their friends who was already in enough pain and trauma as it was, then became rescued by Wu, who they all trusted with their lives and looked up to, and now that certain someone was now lurking on the Bounty, their home, somewhere. At least Garmadon was back. With the help of Misako, they could knock sense into Wu. Speaking of Misako... She was now on the main floor with Wu and Garmadon, with an expression on her face that didn't look like she had good news.
"Zane?"
He looked back towards the four, based on the rough voice who called his name, it was Cole.
"Can you do some kind of scan to see where Morro is?"
He could. Why didn't he do that before? He reached up one of his hands, scanning the ship with a thermal view. A green outlined figure stood beside Wu, facing the ninja above. Zane looked away quickly, turning it off.
"He's over by Master Wu, we're... fine."
The ninja each looked towards Wu out of the corner of their eyes even though they couldn't see Morro. At least Zane could see him when the others couldn't. He couldn't be left unsupervised. Well, they couldn't be left unsupervised.
Third limited(Jay):
Jay fidgeted nervously with his fingers, averting his bright blue eyes from Wu to Ronin. The double crossing, narcissistic, no good, manipulative, lying asshole was leaning against the mast on the forecastle deck, staring down below. Even if Jay wasn't known as a violent person, that title went to Kai, Nya, and Cole, but even he thought that prick deserved to be fed to the grundle along with Morro.
"What are we gonna do now?"
Jay looked back to his friends. They glanced around at each other, before averting their eyes down. Some tapped their fingers against their knuckles, while others stood still and silent. Lloyd was usually the one who came up with plans. The one who guided the team through any problem, who could take a part of their different ideas and make something out of it.
"We'll head for Ninjago City and drop them there, we can't go back to Stix incase that thing is still around. Hopefully Misako can find something out about that creature we saw so we can send it back from wherever it came from without someone getting injured."
The ninja nodded at Cole. Jay glanced out the window, watching as the Destiny's Bounty soared over the vast and flat sea of sand. That sounded like a good plan. Well. It would have been if something hadn't gone wrong.
Third omniscient:
A loud and panicked scream erupted from the main deck as the ship suddenly lurched to the right at the same, nearly causing Zane and Cole to crash into their fellow teammates. A loud warning sound popped up on the main screen, flashing brightly while the ninja staggered to get to their feet.
"WARNING: RIGHT ENGINE FAILURE."
Wu, Garmadon, Misako, Ronin, and Morro watched with horror as alarge and deadly claw hooked onto the upper right side of the main deck, another lunging out and grabbing the nearest civilian, causing the other people to scramble away in fear, pushing the other four back. This was all too familiar. A sputtering sound rang out before the ship slowly started to fall with the bowsprit aimed towards the ground, then gradually gaining speed.
Nya lunged at the steering wheel, stabilizing it as best as she could do the Bounty didn't go crashing into the desert below with them on it. Luckily they were high enough so it would take a few minutes for them to crash, if something else didn't happen. The others quickly went into action, and leapt out of the quarter deck as the creature lifted its head above the railing while snarling with menacing teeth, trying to climb up, tilting the ship even more to the right, just like before. Nya tilted the steering wheel as far left as it would go, trying to balance the ship. Kai jumped into the railing, shooting as a large blast of fire at the creature's head trying to keep it distracted, as the others ran towards the trapped civilian, sliding out the aero blades from their back. This was not a good place to fight. It was too enclosed, too many civilians, and one small misstep could send someone flying off and into the desert below. Then again, were the odds ever in their favor?
The creature roared loudly as the bright fire shot towards it, lighting up its purple eyes. Once again, it seemed to merely absorb it. It released its grip on the civilian as it saw the other ninja running at it. Swiping at them without hesitation causing them to dodge out of the way, it pushed itself up further, with its eyes locked on Kai who stood in a defensive position, eyes burning bright with fire dancing across his fingertips. The creature was nearly halfway onto the ship. Jay, Cole, and Zane shot their elemental powers at it, taking advantage while it was focused on Kai. The beast wasn't even fazed. With the screams of the civilians as the large creature grabbed onto the wooden floor, puncturing it, it swiveled its head towards them with a creepy and deadly grin. Dark purple smoke billowed out of its mouth as it slowly opened it. It inhaled sharply before letting loose a powerful burst of a black and billowing of something towards the people. Zane and Cole rapidly combined their powers, making a thick wall of ice and rocks, grunting as they put their full strength in it.
"OUR POWERS ARE USELESS AGAINST THIS THING!"
Cole yelled, his feet beginning to slide against the wood floors, the wall pushing forward. The creature seemed to be even bigger than before, slowly climbing into the ship as it continued its blast. Ronin quickly reached for his musket which was lost during the fight with Morro. He slid his aero blade out of his back, throwing it like a dart towards the creature's leg, which slid halfway into. Ronin could tell it hurt by the way the creature's eyes widened and its leg shook, but it continued, despite having a blade stabbed into its leg. Jay and Kai followed what Ronin did, throwing their aero blades, desperate for anything at this point to save them. Jay's cut into its leg directly above Ronin's, while Kai's stabbed into its side. The wall began to crack ominously before shattering into a million pieces, sending Zane and Cole flying back and crashing into the people. The dark creature stopped its rage filled blast, grabbing the two aero blades with its other claws and pulling them out with a pained look in its bright eyes. A bright purple substance began dripping out as the creature swiveled its head towards Zane and Cole with narrowed eyes. It stabbed the aero blades into the wood, using them as support, and raised its injured leg above them, with the sharp claws aimed down directly. It would have killed them instantly or severely injured them if it had made contact. If.
Morro lept from behind the crowd, landing between Zane and Cole who looked up with fear in their eyes. The monster snarled greatly and lunged down its claw. The ghost threw his green hands out, with a powerful gust of wind forming from them. It stopped the claw in its tracks, just before it sliced through Morro. The creature folded its claw back quickly and slammed it into the wood to keep ahold. Morro focused his power on both legs, the claw and aero aides beginning to slide out. The creature let out a ear shattering cry before the claw and blades lost its grip and slid out of the wood. It desperately grabbed onto the rails before falling out of sight. Kai, Jay, and Ronin ran the over to the side of the ship, watching as the creature fell into the sand, trying to angle itself so it didn't go spinning uncontrollably. Relief washed over them, with a sting of pity, as they saw the creature fall further and further from the ship. That relief quickly died.
The creature had found its balance as was now diving towards the sand willingly. Something was growing out of its back. Skinny and crooked spikes began growing out of its backs like dead wings, spanning outwards with small wing webs forming in between, but not fast enough to stop the beast from falling in total. It was enough to slow the creature's fall as it crashed onto the sand below, making a long skid mark and a trail of dust as it slid across the flat desert. The three stared with stunned silence as the ship sailed on towards Ninjago, and eventually the creature faded out of view. Nothing ever went right, did it?