We were doing some studying on the Fangblades today, and Kai seemed to have woken up on the wrong side of the bed.
He must've been mad that three of us had unlocked our Full Potentials first.
"They may have found the first two, but there's still two more and we only need one to stop Pythor. They have map, and we don't. So the question remains: how are we gonna find them first?" Nya made us think.
Jay finally broke the silence. "I still can't believe that you were the mysterious Samurai. Is anyone else blown away like I am?" "We're over that! Can we move on?" Kai snapped.
"Woo! Someone's a little hot under the collar!" Jay teased. "Yeah, man. Lighten up." I shrugged.
"It appears his impatience is because he has not found inner peace and unlocked his Full Potential like the three of us have, Jay." Zane said a bit provocatively.
"Great observation, Mr. Roboto, but Cole hasn't found it either!" He defended. "I've got it!" Cole exclaimed.
"YOU UNLOCKED IT?! UGH, WHY AM I THE ONLY ONE?!" He fumed. I had to laugh, as did Nya, Jay and Zane.
"No, I know where I recognize the Fangblade from. I have a picture of it!" Cole ran off. "Oh. Is that it? Good." Kai calmed down.
"And that's a preview of the tantrum he's gonna throw when he unlocks his dead last." I chuckled. Cole ran into the room with a picture book.
"I've got it." Cole placed a picture of a trophy on the table. We checked it out and were amazed! "That's it!" Jay exclaimed.
"Back where I grew up, there's this pretty big competition where the winner gets the Blade Cup. My dad's won it multiple times." Cole bragged.
"You never told us your father was an accomplished athlete. What sport?" Zane asked.
We all expected it to be something really awesome, like shark wrestling, or cliff diving or something. "He's a, uh... blacksmith." Cole said nervously.
"Nothing wrong with that. My father was a blacksmith, too. But I've never heard of a competition-" Kai stopped.
"That's because he's not a blacksmith blacksmith, he's a... royal blacksmith." Cole flipped to a different page in the book.
There was a middle aged, black haired man, that looked kind of like Cole. Jay struggled not to laugh. "That's your dad?" He asked. "But how did the Fangblade become a trophy?" Kai questioned.
"Well, it was supposedly made by this guy who collected priceless artifacts. His name was something like Dutch... no, Clutch! Clutch Powers. Anyway, it gets passed down to each years winner." Cole said confidently.
"Who has it now?" Zane asked. "I don't know. I haven't talked to my father in years." Cole said confessed. "Well, than we'll call him up." Kai suggested.
"You can't!" Cole exclaimed. "He thinks I'm at the Marty Oppenheimer School of Preforming Arts." He confessed.
"He wanted me to follow in his footsteps. And when I couldn't sing or dance, I ran away. When he sees I can't dance, he'll know I was lying in all the letters I sent him." Cole explained.
"He doesn't know you're a ninja?" Zane asked. "What, you gonna crack some joke that my old man wears a tutu?" Cole asked sarcastically.
"No, but if we're gonna have any chance of getting that Fangblade before they do, we're gonna have to get our own act in tune." Kai comforted. "Let's suit up!" I ordered.
We all rushed to our room and put on our armor. "Guys, let's not put on our armor. In fact, let's take off our ninja suits." Cole told us.
"Why?" Jay asked. "Because, stupid, he doesn't know Cole's a ninja!" I said. "So why can't he just be a normal person?" Jay continued.
"Because it would be suspicious if he was hanging out with crazy ninjas." Kai explained. "We're wasting time." Zane said.
We all threw on the first outfits we could get and jumped off the ship. We got to Cole's dad's house and he opened a briefcase. "All right. Hand 'em over." He smiled.
"But no mortal shall poses all five." Jay snickered. We handed over our weapons into their respective slots. "Very funny." Cole said.
"You want to remind me again why we can't keep our weapons?" Kai asked.
"I told you, my dad can't know I'm a ninja. And I don't feel like making up excuses about why I'm carrying a giant Scythe around with me. Just remember the plan. We find out who has the Fangblade trophy, snatch it, and then get the heck out of town." Cole smiled.
We nodded. "Makes sense." I said. He knocked on the door. Soon after, a man opened it and looked at Cole. "Dad! How long has it been?" Cole exclaimed.
"What? You too good for the doorbell?" Cole's dad slammed the door in his face. "Oh, well time to go." I turned around, but Zane grabbed me by the back of my shirt.
Cole nervously presses the doorbell. It sang a strange, 'welcome' and then a cheery man opened the door.
"Come on in son! It's been forever. What did you bring, a quintet? Come in! Come in! I've got a kettle of lemon honey tea right now." Cole's dad welcomed.
We walked inside and took a seat. His dad gave us some cups of rather good tea. Jay was moving his head to a tune playing from an old-timey machine.
"Did my son tell you I broke my foot? It was the cha-cha, but I swore the percussionist had it in for me." His dad told us.
"No dad. I didn't tell them about your silly stories." Cole groaned. "Silly stories?" His dad asked angrily. "What he meant was we've been so busy training at the, the..." Kai searched his memory for the name of the school.
"The Martha Oppenheimer." Jay said slowly. My eyes went wide, and so did Cole and Kai's.
"Martha Oppenheimer?" His dad asked suspiciously. "What he is trying to say is the Marty Oppenheimer school of preforming arts." Zane corrected.
"Yeah, well, you see, we have this final research paper we're doing on the history of Ninjago talent, and we want to know, how do we get our hands on the Blade Cup?" Cole asked.
"You're talking about getting your hands on the Blade Cup. The most prized and heavily guarded award in all of Ninjago. The symbol of excellence in harmony and grace. You can't just get it. You must earn it! You have to exhibit style! Perfect pitch! Push the boundaries of artistic license and, win this years Ninjago talent show." He finally ended his speech.
"Perhaps there's an easier way." Zane offered. I nodded in agreement. I really didn't want to sing or dance. I mean, I can play a keyboard pretty well, but still.
"Is this why you came? You knew I was injured and when my quartet insisted, 'we shan't go on', you five have come to take our place! Ingenious!" He threw his hands into the air.
"My son, bringing forth the next evolutionist the Royal Blacksmiths! Let me hear the sweet, sweet sound of harmony." He leaned to us, ear first.
We looked at each other nervously and actually started singing 'harmony'. We were so off key, it hurt. Cole just shook his head as his dad winced.
"Look, dad. We just need the trophy." Cole said straight. "Yeah, we're bringing home the gold, and we want you to train us." Kai said. "Yeah, you're obviously a lot more skilled." I added.
"I've never been more proud. If you'll excuse me, I have to write a song about my feelings." He shuffled into a room and shut the door behind him.
"What are you doing?" Cole asked through his teeth. "Look. We enter this competition so we can get closer to the Blade Cup. Once we get the Fangblade, we leave town. How hard can that be?" Kai shrugged.
Cole thought. "Calm down, Cole. It'll be fine as long as nothing crazy happens." I assured. "Uh, in case you haven't noticed, wherever we are, crazy can't be far behind." Jay countered. "Let's just focus on the plan." Zane suggested.
So much for avoiding crazy. We had to do this song and dance routine. "Bop till you drop!" Kai said enthusiastically. "Give it till you live it!" I continued. "Shake it till you break it!" Jay squirmed. "Move it till you lose it!" Zane sang in a solid voice. "Spin it till you win it!" Cole finished.
I can never live this down. "Stop! Stop! If my ears weren't attached to my head they'd be running away. Kai, love the energy, hate the hair. Omar, your voice sounds like you have a cold. Fix it! Jay, you're giving a lot, but I need more. Zane, you're like a machine, don't change anything. And Cole, try to act like you want to be here." His dad critiqued.
I rubbed my head for the hard clonk it received from his cane. "He's worse than Sensei Wu!" Jay whispered to Kai.
"Okay, moving forward. Let's take a look at the big, show-stopping climax. Cole, we can't have history repeating itself.
"Dad, it was the Triple Tiger Sashe! I was seven!" Cole said slowly. "What's the Triple Tiger Sashe?" Kai asked.
"Only the most difficult dance move every created." Cole told him. "It can't be that hard." I shrugged.
"It's true. Many professionals have tried, but it's never been successfully completed." Coles dad confirmed.
"Hence, my father though a seven year old could! But I ended up falling on my face, humiliating myself, and letting my quartet down." Cole yelled.
"If you're going to win, you have to go big! Okay, time for a break, take five." Cole's dad walked out of the room.
"I'm starting to see why Coles so closed off. It cause twinkle-toes here couldn't deliver the goods. It's that why you ran away?" Jay asked.
"Oh, I could deliver the goods! Look. I'll deal with my father, but let's stick with the plan. All we have to do is keep this charade up long enough till we can get our hands on the trophy." Cole restated.
"I don't know, I'm starting to think we can win this thing..." Jay said. Cole huffed angrily. "Okay, okay. We'll stick with the plan." Jay backed off.
Then, we went outside and did our rehearsal again, and I have to say, I thought we could win this think too! We practiced all day, and for the next few days.
Finally, the Ninjago Talent Show was here. Time to show our skill. "And kick ball chain, barrel roll, barrel turn, and we all do the double wings-" Cole narrated, but Jay ran into Kai who ran into me.
"What happened?" I asked. "Dude you've gotta follow me!" Jay shoved Kai. "Follow you? You're two beats off!" Kai responded. "More like three." I grunted. "Actually 2.72 off of the beat." Zane corrected.
"Guys, guys! Let's not make this any harder than it needs to be. We just stick to the plan, and keep up this charade until the trophy is revealed. Once we steal the Blade Cup, we can argue all we want when we get back home." Cole told us.
"I'm starting to have doubts about this stealing thing." I whispered to Zane. "Yeah, this is your home town, Cole! Don't you want to at least try and win it?" Jay asked.
"Ugh. The only dance move I want to preform is, 'get me out of this nut house, and let's burn these memories from my head'." Cole groaned. "What?" I heard a voice from behind us.
We all turned to see none other than Cole's dad. "Dad, I..." Cole gasped. "You were going to, steal it?" He asked slowly. Cole walked up to his dad.
"Dad, I didn't mean for you to hear that, but I'm glad you did. There's something I've been wanting to tell you. All these years, I haven't been track be a singer or a dancer. I found something new that I'm really good at! Dad..." Cole stopped to do Spinjitzu. "I'm a ninja."
We took our hats off, listening to Cole's speech. "And the truth is, if we don't steal that Fangblade, I mean, Blade Cup, there's other people that will. Bad people. Serpentine. And we need it to save the world. And I know how ridiculous this sounds, but I'm proud of who I am. And I want you to be proud of me too." Che finished.
"Wow. That kid's committed." I sighed. "I can't be proud of any son that thinks stealing is right. And I'm not going to wait around to watch you make a mockery, of our family's legacy." His dad walked away.
"Dad, I..." Cole trailed off. We all walked up to him. His dad walked out and slammed the door behind him. "I'm sure he didn't mean that." Kai comforted. "Maybe of he just saw you in action." Jay said. "No, it's okay." Cole sighed.
Then, we saw some snakes, horribly dressed, waking out of a room. "Treble Makers?" Kai asked. "Wait a minute, what are they doing here?" Jay grimaced.
"Looking to get beat up, that's what." I cracked my knuckles. "You do not look fearsome in that outfit." Zane told me.
We were all wearing dorky suits, of course we don't strike fear. We then heard Pythor's ugly voice over a microphone.
"It looks like we're not the only ones planning to steal the Blade Cup. "Pythor's here." Kai told us. "This complicated things." Zane said nervously.
"Then I say we make our move. We can't risk losing out again! I say we steal it!" Jay encouraged.
"We're not going to steal it. We're gonna win this competition, but we're gonna do it, our way." Cole said. "Our way?" We asked nervously.
We all spun into our ninja suits and waited to go in. "If we're gonna do this, I want everyone to see who we are." Cole said.
"I have butterflies in my stomach." Zane told us. "Don't worry about it, man." I said passively. "Yeah, c'mon. That's just nerves." Jay assured.
"No, I really do have butterflies." Zane opened his chest compartment to release three, yellow butterflies. "Okay. Glad he got that out of his system." Jay said slowly.
We heard another call for us to come on. "Let's do this. For Cole." Jay said. "If we can do the Tornado of Creation, we could score perfect tens out there!" Kai exclaimed.
"I can say anything, and it will only elevate our team unity." Zane said. "Yeah, if I could make a Time Warp, that would be the coolest thing ever!" I pumped my fist in the air.
"I'm glad you guys are my friends. Let's do the whip!" Cole shouted. "Ninja-GO!!" We all Spinjitzued out of excitement.
The thing is, when we were on stage, we danced in rhythm, and we actually sang! I was even shocked in myself! We knocked out a couple of snakes and did Spinjitzu to build applause.
More snakes tried to stop us, but we just beat them off the stage, and ended in awesome poses. Then, something big happened.
Cole jumped in the air, and as the tackled three snakes, he did, "The Triple Tiger Sashe!" Zane gasped.
The crowd erupted with applause as the announcer ran up onto the stage.
"No! He! Didn't! The Triple Tiger Sashe! He's danced the impossible!" He yelled. As if the microphone didn't make him loud enough.
We waited the scores from the judges and Pythor. We got two tens from the first two, but Pythor gave us a big, fat zero, much to the audiences disappointment.
Just then, a hand reached out from his mouth and wrote a one in front of the zero, making it a ten!
The crowd erupted with screams and laughter and clapping as Cole was handed the Blade Cup. Then we played it cool as we walked backstage to celebrate. Not.
"I've never felt so alive!" Zane exclaimed. "We did it!" Jay yelled as we broke into a little dance. "What are we doing?" I asked. "Celebrating." Kai answered.
"We should stop, there's probably cameras around here." Jay rationalized. We stopped dancing, but we're still pulsing with happiness.
"No, Cole did it! Because of you, Ninjago will sleep safe tonight." Kai confirmed.
But Cole started to give the trophy to Kai. I would never do something like that. Wouldn't even think of it.
"Thanks, but, go on and celebrate without me. Winning this just doesn't feel right without my dad being here to-" "Cole!" His dad shouted.
Cole whipped around and ran towards his dad, and squeezed him tightly. "I saw it all son. I saw it all." His dad whispered. "You saw me dance?" Cole asked.
"More importantly, I saw you fight. Those snakes were up to no good and I saw my son stand up for what is right! I was wrong. I shouldn't have pushed you so hard to follow in my footsteps. Everyone is born with with a talent that's just waiting to come out. And you were born to be a ninja." His dad apologized.
"You're not mad?" Cole asked in surprise. "How could I be? My son's a hero!" He exclaimed. The moment was then ruined by one, disgusting hiss.
"Sorry to break up this touching moment, but did you know, it's me. Pythor!" He tore off his ugly, fake beard. "You weren't fooling us, Pythor." Cole grunted.
"I didn't want you to miss our big, show-stopper!" At that moment, a mountain of stage equipment fell from the roof and almost killed Cole's father.
Cole chucked away the trophy and jumped on top of his dad to shield from the weight. Dust clouded the air, and all we heard was Pythor cackle as he slithered away.
"He took the Fangblade." Jay wheezed. "I'll get him, you guys help Cole!" I ran out of the dust and tackled Pythor. He started clubbing me with the trophy, but I held on!
"Eat foot, you purple worm!" I kicked him in the jaw, when I saw the Scythe of Quakes glowing. Pythor slithered away, while I watched in awe as Cole emerged from the rubble with his father.
"How did we survive that. Son?" His dad asked shakily. Cole didn't say a word. He just smiled and lifted into the air.
"He's found his True Potential! His relationship with his father must've been holding him back!" Zane said, elated. "He's indestructible!" Jay exclaimed.
"Great. Now I really am the only one who hasn't found my special power." Kai stomped.
Cole finally came out of it. "What happened? Is everyone okay?" Cole asked. His dad chuckled. "We're all okay, son."
We slept over at Cole's dad's place that night. "So tell me again why you get to sleep on the bed?" Jay asked. "Because it's my room, for starters." Cole bragged.
"And second, Cole unlocked his True Potential. You had the chance to make us sleep on the floor. But you missed it." Zane said smugly.
"Okay, who turned on Zane's funny switch?" Jay grunted. "Uh, I need to be somewhere else." I said. "Yeah, but if we wake up my dad, he'll make us sing until we drop." Cole sighed. "Night guys."
The next morning, we were getting ready to leave when the inevitable subject came up. "I guess the scoreboard now reads, 'Pythor, two Fangblades, Ninja, zero.'" Jay groaned.
"Yeah, but we only need one, and there's still two left to find." Cole said optimistically.
"Who knows? Maybe when I unlock my True Potential, I'll turn into the destined Green Ninja." Kai boasted. We all sighed and laughed at him.
"The only thing you're destined for is a more inflated ego." Cole told the Red Ninja. Cole's dad walked into the room, holding a small picture frame.
"It may not be the Trophy, but it'll still look good on my wall." He said as he hung the frame. I made a mental note to ask for a copy of it later.
"As far as I'm concerned, you're all family now." He congratulated. The two of them shared one last hug before we headed outside towards the Bounty.