Chapter 13: The Lucky Chapter The Transformation
“Those candles smell awful. I think my nose is gonna fall off.”
Wu sighed at Andrew’s distasteful remark. “We are not focusing on the scent, young Andrew.” He stated. “You must focus on the power which lies inside you – the power which you must grow, build, and release. To find your strength, you must block out your other weaknesses, and focus on what lies inside you.”
A couple silent moments fell, until Andrew piped up: “What lies in me is organs and bones, and my weakness is the stink of those candles.”
Wu sighed once again. “Just try to channel your powers, all right?” He asked.
Andrew tried to ignore the smell. He didn’t really understand how to uncover his powers, and the “meditation” didn’t seem to help. Suddenly, Andrew realized he DID feel something. Yes, there really was a feeling deep inside him – something powerful and amazing! A deep urge ached in his gut – which he then recognized to be hunger. Unfortunately, it was Cole’s night to cook, so he didn’t really have anything to look forward to.
Obviously, what he was currently doing wasn’t working. “Perhaps it’ll come to me if I just THINK about the transformation. Andrew thought.
Hence, Andrew tried to imagine the feeling. He thought about the idea of his bones shrinking and curving into new ways. He considered how it could feel if his muscles stretched and morphed. He imagined fur growing from his body suddenly. The visions were surprisingly vivid.
Andrew opened his eyes from mediation. Of course, nothing had happened. This was a big waste of time, so Andrew asked Wu if he could leave.
“Mrrow?” Andrew asked.
Wu opened his eyes, and almost jumped from surprise. There, where Andrew used to be, was a small, white cat.
“I can’t believe it! It actually worked! Look at me! This is amazing! Wow! This is so cool! My mind is blown! I have a tail! This is so weird!” Andrew shouted excitedly – however, it came out as: “Mrreow! Mew mew! Rreaw! Mew!”
Andrew paused. Why was he meowing and not speaking English? “Andrew? Is that you?” Wu asked.
“Yes, it is me! I turned into a cat! It’s amazing!” Andrew responded.
However, once again, only cat noises came out. Wu looked at the feline with confusion.
Suddenly, the door burst open. It was Nya, whom was wearing her suit with a panicked expression. “Somebody broke into the stronghold in Heroshi’s Labyrinth! We’ve got to get there – fast!”
Wu quickly hopped up from where he was sitting and ran out the door.
“Wait for me!” Andrew mewed as he ran out the door – and tripped, as he was not used to his new legs.
Wu ran out to join the other ninja in their hectic scramble to grab weapons and run out the door. They didn’t notice the little white cat running with them. They divided katanas and sai between themselves, pulled up their masks, and then ran out the door. “Where’s Andrew?” Jay asked.
“We have no time to worry about that! The Realm Crystal may be at stake! Ninja go!” He shouted as he spun into an Airjitzu rift and fell down to the vehicles below the floating temple.
“Ninja go!” The others shouted as they did the same.
They landed upon the desert ground safely, and began running towards their vehicles. “Augh!” Cole shouted. “Why is there a cat on my back?!”
He pushed it off, and the cat flew off with a screech. Cole ran to his Rock Roader, too rushed to consider the oddness of the recent situation. The cat ran and hopped into the main part of the Sonic Raider where Lloyd began to close the cover.
The engines roared and suddenly drove off speedily, leaving a storm of sand in the air behind them. “How long is the drive?” Cole asked.
“It should take approximately thirteen minutes and thirty-two seconds, if all goes well.” Zane responded.
“Aw, c’mon! That’s not nearly long enough!” Jay complained. “The guy will already HAVE the Realm Crystal by that time!”
“Or gal!” Nya reminded.
“It’s the best we can do, team.” Lloyd stated. “For most people, it would take a whole hour to get from the Sea of Sand to Hiroshi’s Labyrinth. We’re lucky to have such – ah-CHIEE!” He suddenly shouted.
“What was that?” Jay asked.
“It was – ah-CHIEE!” Lloyd shouted once more.
“Is he . . . sneezing?” Cole asked.
“That is the cutest sneeze ever!” Nya laughed.
“Ah-CHIEE!” Lloyd sneezed. “Berry fuddy.”
The team began roaring with laughter. “Man, what’s going on back there?!” Cole laughed. “Is there pollen in the Stealth Raider or something?!”
“Bo! I don’t hab a bollen allerby!” Lloyd shouted. “Bi onby allerby I hab i’ a cab allerby!”
The team laughed once more. “A WHAT allergy, Lloyd?”
“A cab allerby!”
“Sorry, I didn’t hear that! What is it again?”
“A cab allerby!”
“Come once more?”
“A – ah-CHIEE! CAB allerby!”
“A cab? Like a taxi?”
“A CAB! It hab four legs and go meow!”
“Could you repeat that?”
“. . . You’re doing bat bintentionally, baren’t you?”
Jay laughed. “Yes, I am doing it “bintentionally,” Lloyd. I didn’t know you were allergic to cats!”
“Why would a cat be in the Stealth Raider?” Nya wondered.
“Ah-CHIEE! I bon’t bow, but as soon as be bet to da dronghold, be bill bet bit bout!” Lloyd said.
“Sorry Lloyd, but I didn’t understand a word you just said.” Cole noted.
“I didn’t either, but I love it!” Jay exclaimed.
“We are nearing the stronghold. We will solve the issue then.” Zane stated.
The vehicles began to shake on the unstable ground as they sped through the jungle and vines smacked their windshields and blew away. A large building could be spotted in the distance of the jungle as the roaring engines began to soften whilst they slowed down.
The ninja jumped out of their vehicles and ran towards the building, where a battle was already ongoing. A cloaked figure was jumping about the area, with some odd titanium weapon, shooting at the vast army of white nindroids, protecting the stronghold. The nindroids shot several laser blasts towards the figure, but the person turned his weapon sideways as all the lasers ricocheted right off and towards the nindroids, leaving some on the ground as sparks flew from the places of impact.
The nindroids then pulled out silver swords and charged at the intruder, but he (or she) hopped around the area, jumping onto crates and avoiding the nindroid fighters.
“Who IS this guy?” Jay wondered aloud. “It’s as if he’s already had training in martial arts!”
“I don’t know, but he won’t be fighting for much longer!” Nya declared. “Let’s go!” On this, the ninja charged towards the stronghold, unsheathing their shining weapons. The intruder turned around to face them.
“Oh, look.” He said in a fake-sounding electronic voice. “Here’s the ninja to join the fun! Let’s play.” Despite this, he suddenly ran left into a corridor inside the stronghold, away from the ninja’s sight.
“Don’t let him get the Realm Crystal!” Lloyd shouted fiercely. “That thing is too powerful to fall into the wrong hands!” The ninja ran inside the stronghold and into the same corridor the villain did, in pursuit of him.
“Yeah!” Cole shouted as they ran, their feet pounding against the metal floor with a nindroid army behind them. “Like Jay’s hands!”
“Hey!” Jay laughed. “It’d be worse in YOURS! You’d use it to go to the cake realm to get free desserts!”
“Is that so, zap-trap?” Cole responded jokingly. “You’d use it to go to the video-game realm to play video games all day!”
“No, I wouldn’t!” Jay corrected. “I’d use it to go to the Starfarer realm, to meet Fritz Donnegan and become a Starfarer!” The two ninjas then laughed.
“Boys!” Nya shouted aggressively. “We need to focus! We have no idea what that guy could throw at us, and we have to-” Nya suddenly paused. They had run into a room, and there, at the left wall of the room, stood the cloaked figure. The ninja barricaded the doorway.
“Freeze!” Zane shouted. “And if you don’t, you will do so quite literally.” The figure was standing right by a large lever on the wall.
“Of course!” The thing said in its fake voice. “I will stop right here, and put my hands –” he paused. He raised his arms towards the ceiling, but as he lifted his right arm, it pulled up the lever beside him. “-up.” He finished.
Suddenly, all of the nindroids cocked their laser guns and aimed them towards the ninja. The ninja turned around.
The nindroids were no longer good.
All at once, the guns fired, and the ninja ran out of the way to the corners of the room. They then ran out of the other corridor at the other end, attempting to escape the looming army.
The ninja raced through the hallways, dodging to rapidly firing lasers shooting all around. “Zane, watch out!” Jay shouted as a blast began to near his back.
It struck Zane, but immediately bounced off towards the nindroid who shot it. The nindroid fell over as the rest of the army kept running by. “You must remember, Jay,” Zane stated. “I’m titanium – bulletproof.”
He turned his head back to the army, when another last blast struck him into the face, and he fell over. “Zane!” Lloyd shouted as the titanium titan fell.
“We have to keep moving!” Nya declared, even though she wore a horrified expression as well. “We can’t let them take all of us!”
Regretfully, the ninja kept running, energized by the fear and worry pulsing within them. They soon saw the entryway where they had come through – they had run all around the building. Sunlight poured in, stronger than the artificial light from inside. The ninja charged towards the exit, running out before the nindroid army reached them.
Right as they had all escaped, Cole hit a red button beside the exit and the doors of the stronghold suddenly shut, trapping all the nindroids inside. Muffled sounds of banging and clattering were heard.
“Come on! We’ve got to get out of here!” Lloyd said as they ran towards their vehicles, left lying on the jungle ground. They each climbed into them, when Lloyd sneezed once more. “The cat AGAIN?!” Cole asked.
“Geb oudda here!” Lloyd shouted as he grabbed an orange cat from behind his seat and tossed it out of the car.
The cat landed on its feet with a screech. Lloyd pulled down the cover with the push of a button. The cat immediately jumped back onto the windshield and began to claw at it.
“Bo abay!” Lloyd yelled to it.
“What’s wrong with that cat?” Jay asked. “That doesn’t seem like normal behavior.”
“Yeah!” Cole agreed. “It actually wants to GO to a human!”
Jay laughed. “It might even come when you call it!”
Nya looked slightly offended. “Cats are still nice!”
She hopped off her motorbike towards the cat. The cat was still attempting to get into Lloyd’s vehicle, when Nya grabbed it. “The boys are right.” She noted. “There’s something odd about this cat. We can worry about it once we get to the temple, but considering how odd it’s acting, it seems wrong to leave it here.”
“This isn’t just because you like cats, is it, Nya?” Lloyd asked.
“Of course not!” Nya lied as she took the cat to her motorbike.
“Like she said, we can worry about it later.” Cole said. “I’m not sure if the nindroids can use their technology to open the door or anything, so we should probably get out of here.”
“Right.” Lloyd sniffed, his allergies still remaining lightly. “Let’s go.”
The vehicles suddenly took off, driving (or flying) out of the labyrinth and towards the temple.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
“What about the Realm Crystal?” Wu asked.
Lloyd gasped and struck his face with his hand. “How could we forget?! The Realm Crystal is still in danger!”
Nya suddenly ran in with her Borg Technology™ laptop. “I’ve got the security footage of the stronghold right here!”
“How did you get that?” Cole asked.
“We’re the ones protecting the Crystal. We own responsibility to the stronghold.”
The ninja stared hard at the screen. “Look!” Lloyd shouted. “There’s Zane!”
Nya clicked something and the screen zoomed into a metal figure lying on the ground. “He’s not moving! What’s wrong with him?” Cole wondered worriedly.
“It looks like he’s offline.” Lloyd stated.
“Where are the nindroids?” Jay wondered.
Nya clicked a few times. A couple different viewpoints of the stronghold were seen until one showed a close-up of the door. “Those fiends!” Jay gasped. “They used their lasers to cut through the door!”
“That means we only have a bit of time before they attack Ninjago City.” Lloyd announced in worry.
“What about the Realm Crystal? They must have stolen it since we locked them up in there!” Cole asked.
Nya changed the camera to show the room where the Realm Crystal was held.
“Wait . . . what?” Lloyd asked in disbelief. “They – didn’t steal the Crystal.”
“Then what did they go in for?” Jay wondered.