Miraculously from Ninjago | Stranded in Etheria

38 - The Horde

Shoutout to Flordites for all the enthusiastic comments! They really make my day <3

————Adrien's POV————

At the border of the Fright Zone—the Horde's base—Kai, y/n, Lloyd, Zephyr and I waited behind some kind of wall while Entrapta and Catra went to see if it was safe to move forward. Scorpia stayed behind with us, just in case a Horde soldier found us. If they did, she'd make up a cover story.

"So, uh," Scorpia started. "I don't think we've been properly introduced."

"I'm Adrien," I said. "And this is y/n, Zephyr, Kai, and Lloyd."

"Nice to meet you! You know, I don't get to meet people from other planets very often," she continued. She seemed to be very talkative, which was odd, considering she was a part of an evil organization. "In fact, it never happens."

"Well, now you can say you have," I said. "Met people from a different planet, I mean."

Catra suddenly poked her head out from around the wall. "Here, put these on," she said, throwing us some clothes.

"What are these?" Kai asked.

"Cadet uniforms. So you won't be spotted."

"It smells funny," Zephyr said.

"Just put them on!" Catra hissed. "Unless you want to be caught."

We put on the uniforms, then snuck through the courtyard. Nobody asked us any questions, thank goodness. Catra said we had five minutes before the guards finished their rotation, so we'd better hurry to Entrapta's lab.

"Where'd Entrapta go?" Scorpia asked.

"Up through the vents again," Catra said. "You know how she is."

The group of us stopped as we could hear footsteps from further down the wall. Scorpia assured us we'd be fine—we were disguised—but I didn't want to make any interactions. Catra's ears perked up, and she tilted her head to the side, as if trying to figure out who was approaching based on the sound. After a few seconds, she gasped.

"It's Hordak!" she whisper-shouted. "Quick, hide!"

"Why?" I asked. "Who is he?"

"Hordak is the leader of this place," she explained, opening a door. "He wants me dead, and I'm sure he'll be suspicious of any people that seem to trust me."

We all ran through the door into a broom closet, and pressed our backs against the wall. The footsteps got louder, and I held my arm out against y/n protectively, just in case. Soon enough, the footsteps went away.

"He's gone," Lloyd said, and then he pushed my arm off of y/n. I stared at him in confusion; why did he look so angry at me?

"It's clear," Catra said, after peering out of the closet. "Come on!"

We followed her through the Fright Zone. There were a lot of twists and turns, and after going down a long, dark corridor, we finally found the lab.

"Oh! You guys made it," Entrapta exclaimed as Catra opened the door.

"We almost had a run in with Hordak, but yeah, we're here," Catra replied, putting a hand on her hip. "What are you doing?"

"I'm looking for a similar substance to the miraculouses," she replied, rummaging through a bin. "So far, I haven't found anything."

Catra shook her head in annoyance. "You're not going to find anything. Their jewelry was made with something from a different world, and even if we could find the substance on Etheria, the Horde is running low on materi—"

"Found it!" Entrapta cried, triumphantly holding up a piece of metal.

"Huh?" Catra questioned, likely confused at where the material came from.

"I just have to make sure the two metals' have a similar particle composition," Entrapta said, held up a strange device.

Y/n took out her shell clip and held it out to Entrapta. The scientist scanned it, and checked the data.

"Well, they definitely aren't the same, but this should work," she concluded.

"Uh... what should work?" Y/n wondered.

Entrapta pulled down her mask and activated a blowtorch. Y/n shrieked and jumped away from the flames.

"Don't worry! I won't destroy it," Entrapta assured her, sticking her hand out for the miraculous. "Or at least, I won't try to."

Y/n seemed to realize that she didn't have another option, and handed it over.

"Please don't hurt Ripple," she said.

"Who?"

"Ripple. My kwami."

"What's a k-kwA-me?" Entrapta asked.

"Hello!" Plagg said, flying out from my shirt, "Do you have any cheese?"

"Ooooooh, what are you?" Entrapta asked.

"The name's Plagg. And I'm hungry. Do you know what Camembert is?"

"Uhhhhh... no."

"Dammit! I want food."

"Here you go, buddy," I said, giving him a piece of his precious cheese. He devoured it in one bite.

"So... the kwamakeys live inside the miraculouses?" Scorpia asked.

"Kwamis," y/n corrected. "And yes, they do. But I haven't seen Ripple since the accident."

"Hmmm..." Entrapta mumbled, rubbing her chin. "Hiding life inside an inanimate magical object... ingenious!"

"Sorry to interrupt your train of thought, but could you maybe get a move on?" Zephyr asked. "I have other places to be."

"Yeah, yeah. Now go occupy yourself with something else so I can concentrate."

"You heard the boss, let's go," Scorpia said. "Uh... Entrapta? How long is this gonna take?"

"I don't know. Check back in an hour or two. Hopefully I'll have made some progress by then."

"Great! Okay. Let's go find something for you five to do."