The Glade and Its Glitch: Book 4 Escape

Chapter 6

All the ninja stood out in the courtyard. They'd decided it would be best, and safest if their parents stayed at the monastery for a while. It wouldn't be for long, just long enough to make a game plan. Then their parents would know what's going on and be better prepared in case the Glade attacked them. They'd attacked Misako, they could very well attack their other parents.

Kai and Nya ran to the big doors as their parents walked through. They were embraced in a big bear hug, and the other ninja smiled and chuckled to themselves at the sight.

Cole's dad showed up not long after and father and son shared a tight hug. Cole was glad to see his dad. He'd been through a lot, and seeing his dad was refreshing and a comfort.

Zane and PIXAL watched on with some sadness in their eyes. Dr. Julien was dead, and Cyrus Borg didn't visit the monastery much. To make her feel better, Zane kissed PIXAL's cheek. She smiled and rested her head on the crook of his neck.

Jay soon heard the loud chatter of his parents. He sped up into a slight jog and grinned. Ed and Edna's loud chatter soon reached the large doors and they widened their eyes when they caught sight of Jay.

By this time, Kai and Nya had finished hugging their parents, and Edna reached out and pulled Nya into the hug too. She may only be Jay's girlfriend, but they may as well have been married for ten years.

Once the Walkers released their tight hold on her, Nya went back to her family. But not before giving Jay a small peck on the cheek.

He blushed and grinned at his parents. "I told them. About Nadakhan and Cliff."

"Aww, Jay we're so proud of ya." Ed put one of his hands on his hip.

"We love ya Jay, no matter who your parents are." Edna smiled and looked like she was tearing up, "We'll always love y'all."

"I know Ma," Jay hugged his mother, "Don't cry."

Edna waved her hands, "I'm not crying, I'm fine."

"Come on hun you're embarrassing 'im."

"No Dad, it's ok."

"I'm sorry, Jay."

"Dad, Ma, it's ok. I'm glad to see y'all too." Jay hugged both of his parents again. He was slightly exasperated, but it was drowned out by the happiness of seeing his parents again. It had been quite a while.

Ray clapped his son on the back. "I heard you had a battle. How'd it go?"

Kai laughed, "It wasn't bad, it wasn't great either. But Skylor hit one of them with a big blast." He waved to his girlfriend and Ray turned to see her.

"Nice job! Whose power did you do it with?"

"Hers. I don't know what it was." Skylor walked over and stood next to Kai. "But it sure was something."

Cole and his father embraced for a long time. Cole relaxed into his dad's grip. "It's good to see you."

"Good to see you too son." Lou stepped back to get a good look at his son. "You look healthy. Less than I'd have hoped but better than I'd expected."

Cole chuckled and pulled his dad back into a hug. But he had to release him again when Master Wu came out of the monastery.

Misako was at his side and Garmadon was a little ways behind them both.

"Thank you for all agreeing to meet here." Wu addressed them all. "We know you can only stay a week but we hope that will be enough time to figure out what to do."

"Is it true we're fighting the Glade?" Maya spoke up. Her husband clutched her hand, they'd both fought in the Serpentine Wars. And they'd both made friends during that experience.

"Lilly was friends with someone from the Glade. An older woman, elemental master of plants. I think her name was Rose, and I think she had a young son named Naveen."

"I think most of us were friends with people from the Glade. Wu, weren't you friends with their leader? Protector?" Ray asked.

Garmadon snickered and Wu shot him a glare. "Yes. Many of us had friends from the Glade. But now they have attacked us, and they've taken Lloyd. We have no choice but to fight back now."

"What if it's all a misunderstanding?" Edna knew she and Ed weren't elemental masters and they didn't know much about the Glade. But she wanted to try and help. "What if we're going off of assumptions? Shouldn't we try and talk it out first before fighting?"

"We tried that," Wu's face was somber, any hope he'd had of reconciling with Protector had gone out the window weeks ago. "There's no other option."

"Then you're going to need as many elemental masters as you can get your hands on." Ray folded his arms across his chest, thinking. "Maya and I will help, but the Glade is full of elemental masters of all kinds. You're going to need a whole lot more."

"Edna and I may not be elemental masters," Ed rested his hand on Ray's shoulder. "But we'll help too. In any way we can."

"So will I." Lou looked at his son, he was determined to help.

Skylor looked over at Wu, "I'll see if I can get the elemental masters we met at my father's island. Most of them will probably want to help us."

"Do you think Ronin will help us?" Jay suggested, "I know he's been on our side and on the opposing one. But we could try him. And maybe others from Kryptarium prison will want to help us."

Zane shook his head, "We can't risk it. Ronin is too unpredictable."

"And he broke out of Kryptarium prison almost six months ago." PIXAL added, "We have no idea where he is."

"So we can get the other elemental masters on our side," Nya said, "Who else can we get?"

"What about the people from the first realm? We were just there like a year ago."

"We don't really have an easy way of getting back there. Plus the Dragon Hunters didn't like us that much."

"The people of Jamanakai Village?"

"Too dangerous, we shouldn't drag them into this."

The ninja and their parents continued to throw out ideas and shut the bad ones down. Darreth popped up at one point and suggested freeing ghosts from the Departed Realm. The ninja just stared at Darreth in disbelief. How dumb was he?

"Ok, we need more people. We know that, and we've known that. But what are we going to do about Soar? He can't be with the Glade. And Skylight mentioned something called Glitch before he left. Who's Glitch?" Cole brought everyone back to the current dilemma and away from Darreth's stupidity.

"Yeah, what is Glitch?"

"Have you heard of it, Master?"

"Never," Wu sighed. He knew what he had to do. "I will try and talk with Protector one last time. I'll go alone. One last chance."