Ninjago's Tournament

1: The Invitation (Part 1)

~~~No POV~~~

Lloyd hides behind a patch of tall flowers, watching the nindroids who are unaware of him, as they guard the entrance to his target. One walks past, gun in hand, and he darts away slipping behind the trunk of a tree. Cautiously he peers around back into the clearing of the forest, his green eyes flashing from nindroid to nindroid. Then he attacks.

One by one they fall, unbeknown to the others. With a hailstorm of throwing stars, the nindroid guards are wiped out and Lloyd continues to his target.

He drops down into the tunnel, the earthen walls are packed hard and the passages twist on and on for miles in a seemingly endless maze. But Lloyd already knows which way to go. He looks around and realizes that she isn't with him. Swallowing hard, he forces himself to not call out her name and continue down the tunnel.

Carefully he flips, dodges, cartwheels, ducks, and spins through a series of lasers. Once clear of the lasers, he lands in the middle of an intersection if three tunnels. A small force of nindroids spot him and run forward. They raise their guns and start blasting at Lloyd. He nimbly dodges the deadly blasts that scorch the tunnel where they land. Then, using his spinjitzu, Lloyd toples them like bolling pins.

Before they can collect themselves and get back to their feet, he slides into a side tunnel just as one manages to grab one of the fallen guns and fire a laser, singing the top of Lloyd's gold-blond hair. The small side tunnel opens up and Lloyd scrambles to his feet, sliding a bit on the dirt and gravel that he dislodged from the side tunnel. A small click fills the silent air as he slides to a stop on a skillfully hidden presser plate.

A rumbling gradually grows louder and Lloyd looks over his shoulder for a millisecond before pelting down the tunnel, a round boulder in quick pursuit. A rope lays on the ground of the tunnel one end tied to a rock on the side of the tunnel the other losse by a small opening in the dirt. Lloyd throws himself onto his side, aiming for the opening and grabbing the end of the rope.

He falls into the opening a hair before the boulder is upon him, rolling past. As he falls, Lloyd ties the rope around his waist and he catches him from hitting the metal floor, a few feet below him. Hanging spread eagle in the air, he looks up and sees his target several feet in front of him.

Floating on a raised pedestal is silver armor, looking like a rib cage, is his target in the circular metal room with the ceiling and tunnel high above him. He swings himself back and forth, using his momentum to reach the armor. At the height of his swing, his finger tips are just inches away and he falls back, failing. He hangs like a rag doll by the rope around his waist and sighs.

He looks up again in time to she her appear, leaning on the pedestal. "Took you long enough." She says, amused to see him hanging there.

"Leray! Where where you?!" Lloyd splutters.

"Well I started just the same as you and then shifted to an ant and crawled al the way down here to wait for you." She plains. "And you thought the ant would never be useful."

Lloyd has no comeback to that so she just reaches out and touches her finger against the armor.

Half of the wall of the room falls away and the pedestal and armor disappear as the simulation ends. Lloyd unties the rope and drops down to the floor, pulling his green mask down. Leray pulls her own silver mask off her nose as well and follows him out of the simulation.

"Very good Lloyd, Leray." Cyrus says, sitting in his wheelchair in front of the simulation with SenseiWu standing beside him. "You two got farther than I thought you would."

Lloyd sighs. "If I couldn't make it then I don't think anyone can."

"As long as they can't shape shift, I think that the Over Lord's armor is safe." Leray agrees.