Ninjago: Future

Chapter 5: A Familiar Face

(Daily dose of Llorumi ⬆️)

"I can't believe I'm actually at the Monastery! The Monastery!" Arin exclaimed, whilst walking up to one of the bookshelves, "Although, it does look a bit... weird compared to how I imagined it."
"The weird stuff is new," Kyle replied, whilst looking through some of Master Wu's old scrolls.
"This place got really strange after the merge." Lloyd added.
Arin continued to walk around the room, before he accidentally bumped into Sora.
"Come on, Arin, focus!" she began, "I get that you're excited, but we need to get the baby Dragon back to his herd. Otherwise, the Claws of Imperium could capture him!"
"The 'Claws of Imperium'?" Yue questioned.
"Basically, they're a team of Dragon Hunters that come from the city of Imperium. The guys we were fighting." Sora explained.
"I've seen Imperium. It looks beautiful, even from a distance." Lloyd replied.
"Don't be fooled by its looks. It's a horrible city." Sora muttered back.
"Okay, has anyone found anything?" Yue questioned.
"Not yet." Lloyd replied.
"Nothing here." Arin remarked. Sora shook her head.
Just then, Lloyd turned around, only to find the baby Dragon standing in front of him with a yellowish scroll in its mouth.
"What've you got there, little buddy?" he questioned. The Dragon opened its mouth and allowed the scroll to unravel on the floor in front of it. The scroll had a picture of three mountains with a poorly-drawn Dragon on the front.
Arin, Sora and the twins all gathered around the scroll.
"The Land of the Three Mountains," Yue began, "I've seen pictures of it. It's a beautiful place. But it's pretty far from here. And the only airship we have is..."

A little later

"...the new Bounty!" Lloyd exclaimed. Arin simply stared at the ship with wide eyes.
"It's nice, isn't it?" Lloyd began, "Although, I can't get the engine to work. Heck, even Minnie couldn't do it!"
"If the tech genius of the team can't do it, then you know it's close to impossible." Yue remarked.
"I can get the engine to work!" Sora told Lloyd, before turning to face the baby Dragon.
"I could use some help, though, buddy."
She attempted to absorb her powers from the Dragon, however, nothing seemed to be happening.
"Aw, come on!" she exclaimed.
"It's probably because you haven't achieved your true potential yet," Kyle began, "But, don't worry, you'll get there eventually."
Sora sighed, "I'll take your word for it."
She walked into the Engine Room of the ship and began humming the first song that came to her head.
"Does she always hum while she works?" Lloyd asked Arin jokingly.
"No, sometimes she sings. Loudly." he replied, "Trust me, the humming is better."
"You two have been friends a long time, huh?" Lloyd queried. Arin nodded.
"We met after the Merge, when the Crossroads were just starting to be built by folks from nearly all of the merged realms," Arin began, "Sora came from Imperium."
"I remember seeing it once from a distance. It looks pretty impressive." Lloyd replied.
"Well, like you saw earlier, she doesn't think so," Arin remarked, "She ran away and... she won't tell me why. I came to the Crossroads because my parents got lost in the Merge... and, sadly, I'm not the only one who had to experience that. Although, I thought you Ninja had disappeared, too, but you didn't!"
"...not all of us stuck around." Lloyd muttered.
"What've you been doing since then?" Arin questioned.
Lloyd looked over at the twins.
"Keeping the world from destroying itself." he replied after a moment.
He began to tell Arin his story about the Merge.
"The day started pretty normal. It was a nice summer day, and I had gotten the day off, so I was spending time with Rumi and the twins. Or, I guess you'd know them as the Empress, the Prince and the Princess.
Suddenly, I saw a black vortex-looking thing right above the palace. I summoned my Dragon, and we all got out of the palace as fast as we could. We went up to the Bounty and we met up with the other Ninja. After that, we headed into the city and started bringing a bunch of people to safety... I guess that's when we first met. After I'd taken you to safety, I headed back to the Bounty, but it had split in half cause of the storm... all of the Ninja had been dragged off of the ship by the wind by then. Thankfully, the kids were all okay. Afterwards, the kids and I woke up in the Monastery. We needed answers. But we didn't know anything about the Merge, and most of Master Wu's scrolls were destroyed, or so I thought at the time. Anyway, around five years later, I still couldn't figure out how we had ended up at the Monastery... or how half of the old Bounty had ended up there. I thought we were the only survivors... I was wrong. I found Kai. He was living with us for around a week, and, within that week, we found some more of Master Wu's old scrolls still intact, but we also found a new threat... Mergequakes. They're like Earthquakes, but they open up a rift to another part of the Merge. I'm guessing they're some sort of after-effect of the Merge. For some reason, elemental powers can stop them. Kai and I found that out before he left yesterday to do some more research on Mergequakes. Then came the Mechmaster 5000 race a few hours ago. That's where I saw you do Spinjitzu on the bridge."
"Ohhhh, so that's why you thought there would be a Ninja on the train." Arin remarked.
"Yeah, although, I didn't expect to find someone who taught himself Spinjitzu, and someone else with Elemental Powers tied to an adorable baby Dragon." Lloyd replied jokingly.
Just then, Sora poked her head out of the Engine Room.
"So, who's up for a flight?" she said with a smirk.