Ninjago - One-shots and short Stories

Flump Sho(r)ts // Part II

While Flumptober only officially ends tomorrow, I'm skipping the last few promts to work on my other stuff, including a little Hallowe'en story (not sure of it's gonna be any good though...).

Anyway, here's the second (and final - unless I decide to still cover some of the themes at a later stage) part of the Flumptober Shorts.

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Day 2 - AU: Kai Smith and the Staff of Elements / Raiders of the Lost Staff

As the title suggests, this is an 'Indinana Jones' inspired AU. I didn't post this one on my message board, because it ran so much over the character limit that I just wasn't able to shorten or cut it in a way that would still make sense.

"You wanted to see me, Professor?" Kai asked as he slowly pushed open the heavy wooden door, trying not to let his nervousness show in his voice.

But it wasn't every day that the Head of School would request an urgent meeting with a lowly postdoc.

"Ah, Doctor Smith." Much to his relief, he was greeted with a bright smile. "Thank you so much for taking the time to see me. Please sit down."

"You must be wondering why I've called you here at such short notice." Professor Garmadon said after they had sat down on the round meeting table. "Don't worry, you're not in any trouble. In fact, your classes seem very popular. And I have read your latest manuscript. Very impressive."

"Thanks." Kai mumbled, in an unusually modest fashion.

"But that's not why I wanted to see you today. According to our records, you obtained your degree in Archaeology at Orobourus University, and you did your Thesis with Professor Chen on the ancient Anacondrai tribe. Is that correct?"

"Yes." Kai confirmed.

"In his reference letter, Chen expressed disappointment about your decision not to pursue your PhD in his department but chose to join us here instead. May I ask why?"

"Uhm..."

"I understand that you don't want to be disrespectful towards your former supervisor, but it is very important that you give me an honest answer."

"I really enjoyed the work, and I would have liked to stay on, but Chen... he seemed a bit too obsessed with Anacondrai. Almost as if he worshipped them. And it was getting worse..."

"I see." Garmadon smiled knowingly. He unfolded a piece of paper with a rough pencil sketch and placed it on the table. "Do you know what this is?"

"The lost Staff of Elements." Kai replied. "It is supposed to hold powers controlling the forces of Nature, like Fire, Water, Earth and so on. And-" He briefly hesitated. "Chen believed that those powers could bring back the Anacondrai."

Garmadon nodded. "This matches very well how I remember him. You probably don't know this, but Chen and I, we go back a long time. We met at university and became good friends, but then our interests simply... drifted apart."

"But why did you want to talk to me about him so urgently?" Kai wondered. "You must know that Chen is dead."

He had died about two years ago, during an expedition in search of the Staff.

"Always straight to the point, I like that." The older Archaeologist said. "You are right, of course, and for a long time we thought that this would be the end of this story. But we've now got word that his former assistant-"

"Clouse" Kai muttered. "That guy always gave me the creeps."

"Understandably." Garmadon laughed. "But it seems that not everyone thinks that way. He has just received funding from the Overlord Foundation to continue Chen's work."