Chapter 3 Den of Storms 

Elsewhere 

The hooded figure from the jungle rushed down the narrow hallway. She stopped abruptly at the door. No one was grading it, so Alpha must not of been doing anything to important. She pulled her hood off and let her raven black hair fall over her shoulders. Then she slowly and quietly opened the door. It was a fairly large room with tapestries on the walls. Plus the room was dark, dimly lit by some skylights on the ceiling. Some small steps led up to a more elevated part of the room, and the whole room was made of stone. ( just like the rest of the building. ) Alpha was standing in the center of the room, three young men she had never seen before stood before of him. They were wearing normal street clothes.
New recruits. She thought. 
She closed the door behind her and stood by the back wall. Waiting and listening for her turn to speak with him. 
He was explaining the ranks to them, something you have to learn right away in order to function with the rest of the group. He was saying,
"the ranks are simple, so long as you remember the rules and benefits of each, ranking up will be much easier. Now the rank you start with is Student Rank, when you are a student you refur to me as Master and nothing less. So from now until you rank up, you three are to refur to me as Master. Now when you rank up to Pack Rank, then you refur to me as Alpha, and you will be trusted with more secrets and responsibly. And finally, if you work hard and are loyal. You will rank up to Wolf Rank, and be like family to me, as well as a general." He now paused and looked to see if they were understanding all of this. She couldn't see his face though, since it was somewhat dark and she far away from him. But even though she couldn't, she could tell he seemed pleased. He then pulled out a chart with wolf paw symbols on it and said,
"This is how you can tell what rank others are. If they have a wolf paw on their uniform, they are Pack Rank, if the wolf paw has two strips through it, they are Wolf Rank, if someone has no wolf paw symbol at all, they are Student Rank. Now here are some special cases, if someone has a wolf paw with one strip, that means they are loyal to me, but do not fight as usually. Like the cook, medic or the macanic. And if someone has a wolf paw with three stripes, that means they are related to me. Now I hope that all makes sense, any questions?" He looked around at the three young men. One of them slowly raised his hand. 
This better be good... she thought coldly. It felt like she had been waiting here forever since she had heard all this already. 
"Wa- what does the comet symbol mean? The- the ones that are on our uniforms and-"
"And some of the tapestries, capes, banners and elsewhere?" Finished Alpha,
Oh no no no, not now! That's a long story! 
Alpha continued ,
" It's actually a meteor, and it will bring us our power we need to finish of every last elemental master in existence when it falls to Ninjago, it's quite an interesting story, but for another time." He paused thoughtfully and then said. "Go now, it is getting late, your real training starts in the morning. But remember, we are all in this group together, I am merely the head of it, to keep it going and active. So rest tonight students and rise early, because Ninjago needs us to save it from those who are to powerful. " and with that he motioned for them to leave. 
The three young men glanced at her as they left the room, one risked a smile, but she did not return it. Wasn't in the mood to. 
Once they had left, she walked over to Alpha and did a respectful bow. She could see his face now, he had very long dark gray hair with hints of it's previous very dark auburn, and short gray facial hair on his face. His clothes were black with a gray wolf paw symbol with three stripes. And he had cape over his left shoulder with a gray meteor symbol on it. But the most shocking thing about him, especially if you hadn't seen him before, was that half of his face looked as if it had been burned off. And only one gray-black eye stared in her derection. 
Now she had mostly gotten used to his strange looks. But she could see how he could quite terrifying to anyone who wasn't used to such things. She was about to speak to him about what see came here to see him about, but before she could, Alpha did. 
" I remember when you first came here like that. You've done so much since, has it really been a year already?"
"It has Alpha." She replied respectfully. 
"Indeed,"said Alpha, and then he said " what did you come to see me for? You seem upset."
Finally, she thought. 
"I've come to discuss some things that have been on my mind." she replied,
"Tell me then." he said 
"Well, for starters, why must we search Hiroshi's Labyrinth for relatives of elemental masters? I mean aren't there at least a dozen other targets we already know the exact locations of?" She asked,
"True, I'm glad you ask these questions, because they deserve answers, but I'm afraid I can't answer them because they hold information I only share with wolf rank."He replied 
"But Alpha, isn't it dangerous? Didn't someone get hurt for no reason? What if more of us get hurt or even smash because of looking for them? Not that we're unwilling to do so, but what about our plan to destroy all of the elemental masters? We want to see that, or at least be apart of it. " she said 
"I see, look, how about this, there is one way to speed up the process of finding them and then eventually future targets. But it's dangerous, more dangerous than Hiroshi's Labyrinth. But, it would only put one person at risk." said Alpha 
"Really? Why haven't you used this plan yet then? What is it?" She asked 
"There's a device at Borg tower that was built to track down criminals almost anywhere in Ninjago. It's said to be very complex technology. And has been used to track the location of some of Ninjago's worst criminals. But it's very heavily graded. We tried sending a team in there once... All of them ended up in Kryptarium Prison... " he frowned, "So I didn't want to send anyone else in there yet. But we did find out where it is in there, the only problem is we don't know what happens if you try and take it. For all we know you could get fried by lasers or something, that's the dangerous part." he finished. 
"I'll do it. Alone." She said coldly, 
"Now hang on, I'm not making you or anyone else do this you know." He said 
"I know."
" And you know that if you get caught, we can't help you."
"I know."
"Alright then, as you wish. But I want you to train hard and prepare before you go, understand? " Alpha said 
"Understood." She replied.
"Now was there anything else on your mind before you go?" He asked,
"Yes..." She said, "You know Calvin? The one who broke his leg in the jungle, and helped discovered the location is Hiroshi's Labyrinth?" She asked 
"Yes. What about him?"Asked Alpha.
"Why hasn't he ranked up to pack rank yet? We joined you at the exact same time, and trained together, yet he is still at student rank. Why is this?" she asked 
"People rank up at different speeds, you know that." He said 
"But he has done everything I've done if not more. What makes the difference?" She said 
" I can see I must be honest with you, so I will, just don't go talking about it. I don't want everyone thinking stuff that isn't true." He said 
"Yes Alpha." she said 
"The thing is, he reminds me to much of someone else, someone I knew and trusted to well, and then he betayed us... " he frowned again, 
"The traitor?"
" Yes the traitor."
"Why'd he betaye us?"
" I very strongly believe it had something to do with Gravis' relatives, and that he may very well be among them as we speak, which is why we are to be careful once we do find them. Because we do not smash our own, even if they are a traitor." Said Alpha, 
"That makes sense I guess. But Calvin would never do that." she said. At least I hope he wouldn't... She thought. 
" That's what I thought too before he betayed us. So I'm just being safe, and not letting him rank up until I feel he's ready." 
"Ok Alpha." she said with a hint of a smile. She was glad he had good reasons for not letting Calvin rank up. 
"Oh and if you're wondering why the one who went with him to get the information from that village hasn't ranked up yet either. It's because he has no respect for me or anyone else when I'm not watching him and he thinks he's in charge to often. " said Alpha, his voice now sounding amused.
She smiled and said 
"actually I wasn't wondering about him, it's pretty obvious."
" Alright then, you may leave now Azalea. Oh and tell Max to come see me about how the mining is doing."
"Yes Alpha." she said as she left the room. 
Once the door closed behind her, Alpha grinned.