The Ninjago Tournament of Elements!

Chapter 3

Contestants remaining: Kai - Fire, Jay - Lightning, Cole - Earth, Lloyd Garmadon - Energy, Skylor - Amber, Tox - Poison, Neuro - Mind, Ash - Smoke, Bolobo - Nature, Gravis - Gravity, Jacob - Sound, Camille - Form, Shade - Shadow, Riptide- water, Twilight- wind

Losers: Griffin Turner-speed, Paleman-light, Karloff-metal

Cole's Account

"Hiyaaa!" Cole's yell echoed throughout his suite as he hit the target he was aiming at with a mound of dirt. As the Master of Earth and self-appointed leader of the ninja team, Cole knew he had to be the best he could be during the tournament, even if it meant training in his down time. "Time for a break," he said to himself, opening the refrigerator. Endless supplies of Master Chen Delicious Noodles awaited him inside, he knew. His mouth watering, Cole picked a package from the shelves, and opened a water bottle. The package was full of his favorite kind of noodles, and he ate them all. When he finished, however, he started to feel a bit sick. Maybe he shouldn't have eaten them all, he decided blearily. Either it was just his usual horrible luck, or destiny had decided to pick on him today, but at that moment, Master Chen's strange voice echoed from the walls. "Hurry to the Great Hall! Jadechess will begin in five minutes!" Cole groaned and dragged himself away from the coach and into the Hall. He was the fourth one there, after Lloyd, Sensei Garmadon, Tox, Twilight, and Riptide. The latter two were a bit strange, Cole thought, eying them. They wore almost-identical ninja suits, and both had dyed hair and that linked ring symbol tattooed (or burned, Cole wasn't sure which) on their forearms. Slowly but surely, the other contestants began to file in. Chen sat on his throne, bouncing up and down excitedly, while Clouse scribbled away at a piece of paper. "Attention!" Chen screeched into a microphone. Many contestants covered their ears or at least winced, the exception being Jacob, Master of Sound. He didn't have to do anything to protect his hearing. "Clouse will hand you each a sheet of paper with a number on it. You have ten minutes to find the competitor who shares your number. However, there are two numbers that do not match up with any other number. These will find our competitors for this competition!" Clouse ripped up the sheet of paper he'd been writing on, then put the pieces in the blue ceramic bowl Chen had used before. He then passed the bowl around to the contestants, letting them each reach in and take a number. Once Cole had made the draw, he looked at his number: 13. "Anybody got a thirteen?" He called out, but his voice was lost in the chaos. Elemental masters began finding the matches, and everyone began to group up until there were only two people left: Cole and Riptide. "Oh, no..." Cole breathed, noticing at last that he'd been chosen for the competition. Chen smiled evilly, then motioned for everyone to follow him. He began briskly striding down the hallway. Cole noticed the apparent lack of fear in Riptide. Her posture was straight and even, her electric blue eyes snapping back and forth as if searching out possibly threats. Cole examined her. He'd need to know what his opponent was like. Riptide had hair dyed in layers, like the ocean zones, getting darker along the length of her hair until it was almost black. The symbol of the three linked rings was stitched onto her aquamarine ninja suit, leaving Cole to wonder about how she and Twilight knew each other before the tournament. Riptide rolled up her sleeve and looked at the tattoo\burn on her forearm. It was then Cole realized that the rings each contained a unique symbol. He squinted, trying to make out the details. The first ring contained a water droplet. Not surprising, as she was, after all, the Master of Water. His eyes widened as he noticed the second ring's symbol: a bolt of lightning! Lightning was Jay's power! Maybe the symbols had nothing to do with powers; after all, Twilight had the rings imprinted on her, too. Before he could see the third and last marking, Master Chen opened a door and walked through it. Riptide pulled her sleeve down again, sensing the competition was near. The other symbol was probably wind, as that was Twilight's element. Cole hoped he looked tough and hard to beat. He wondered what Sensei would say if he lost. He shook off the thought as the room came into view. It was giant, larger than any kind of arena Cole had ever seen. A giant projection of a chessboard hovered over the floor, and glass pedestals floated along it. On both sides of the chess boards, where the players would normally sit, were two towering spires, complete with complicated-looking panels filled with buttons, switches, and levers. "Welcome to Jadechess!" Chen announced. "Each Elemental Master not competing will stand on a pedestal! They will be the chess characters for the competitors to use, and all the captured pieces," Chen grinned an evil grin, "will go in there." He pointed to two large cages big enough to fit quite a few people inside. On that note, Chen began handing out roles. "The roles only affect how you move, like a queen or a knight or a rook or a pawn," He explained. "If you land in the same space as someone, you fight to see who can push the other off their pedestal first. The winner remains, and the player who was pushed off gets 'captured'. Any questions?" Riptide raised her hand. "What are the towers for?" Chen grinned. "I was hoping you'd ask that! Each tower is where the main competitors, in this case, Cole and Riptide, move the pedestals. Basically, this is a high-tech game of chess with real players!" Nobody had any questions after that, luckily, because Cole was itching to get this life-or-who-knows-what's-down-there situation over with. "Then everyone, get on your pedastals!" Chen announced, signifying the beginning of the game. Cole raced up towards the opposite spire from Riptide, climbed the stairs, and sank into the seat at the top. Once there, he discovered that the seemingly-complicated panel was actually a simple touchscreen where he could slide his players around. Cole watched as his players' suits turned black, and Riptide's turned white. "White goes first!" Chen hollered, causing Cole to jump slightly. Riptide moved a knight. Cole moved a knight. Riptide moved her other knight, and Cole responded with his. After an interminable series of moves, they were down to five players: Riptide's Bishop, King, and Knight, and Cole's King and Pawn. Cole moved his players, certain he was going to lose, when his pawn reached Riptide's end of the board! Crowning it a Queen immediately, Cole followed up with a series of moves that captured Riptide's knight. Glancing over at his opponent, he noticed Riptide's face was now a mask of concentration. Cole grinned. If she was going to play against him, he might as well make it hard for her. Suddenly, in a move Cole would never have guessed, Riptide's bishop, Gravis, knocked Kai, Cole's king, off his stand. Cole nearly choked in disbelief he had lost? What did this mean? "Winner!" Chen declared, pointing to Riptide. "Loser." He announced, glaring at Cole. Cole saw his teammates horrified faces, and tried to smile and wave back to them. He closed his eyes, preparing for the terrifying, steep fall down the trapdoor. But none came. Looking down at his feet, he noticed a sheet of pure white ice under his feet, preventing the fall. Zane? He thought hopefully. "What is this?" Chen roared, punching his buttons. The floor all around the ice collapsed, and, although the ice spread fast, it wasn't fast enough. Cole found himself falling, falling...

In the distance, he heard Chen's voice: "Sleep well, everyone! Tomorrow we have a wonderful day planned, where we'll knock not one, not two, but three competitors out!"

Author's Note:
I bet nobody was expecting that, huh? A ninja actually lost! At least it wasn't Kai though, right? :) I'm not the world's biggest Cole fan, although he did mature a LOT during the Tournament season! And I've introduced a mystery, too! Where did the ice come from? Nobody knows but me and the culprit... >:) Was it Skylor? Zane? Chen? Or does a competitor have a second power?