What a good start we have. :3
(with her hair slowly grown, she decided to change it into a ponytail)
(image)
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*In the Monastery of Spinjitzu, Cole is playing Prime Empire when Lloyd walks in with laundry.*
"Are you seriously playing video games right now?" Lloyd asked.
"It's my day off. Why wouldn't I be playing video games?" said Cole.
"We've been gone for weeks, Cole, and this monastery won't clean itself! We've got laundry to do, leaves to rake, firewood to chop, and don't even get me started on repairing the sentry cannons outside the wall." said Lloyd with a sigh.
"That sounds like a lot of work. Sure, you don't wanna play?" Cole asked.
"Did you just hear me? Cole, we've got a ton to do and - wait. What game is this?" Lloyd couldn't help getting curious about what game he was playing.
"Prime Empire." Cole answered.
"What?" said Lloyd.
"What "what"? What's wrong?" Cole asked.
"Oh, nothing. Except we were just trapped in that game and got cubed! Don't even get me started on, Nova's panic attack!" said Lloyd.
"You need to let go of the past, Lloyd. Anyway, it's totally safe. Unagami and Dyer worked out the kinks, and it's really fun. Look, I gotta concentrate. Just about to beat this level." said Cole.
Lloyd sighs, then throws his laundry aside to join Cole on the couch. "I guess one game wouldn't hurt."
"You've gotta be kidding me." said Nova, who had just walked by, and saw the two playing video games. "Are you two seriously playing video games right now?"
"Hey, she said the same thing as you just did, a few minutes ago." said Cole.
"We are just taking a little break, and checking out the much better improved version of Prime Empire." said Lloyd, getting a little nervous by the cold glare she was giving them.
Nova glanced at the basket of laundry on the floor and then back at the two. "I come back from finally repairing those sentry cannons, and you two are just sitting here being lazy." She let out a frustrated sigh as she rubbed her temple.
"For your information, this is my day-" Cole stopped in his sentence when he saw the growing anger from Nova, as her eyes were glowing purple along with her tail and horns showing up.
"You two have 20 seconds to do your parts in cleaning this place up, or I'll make sure we wouldn't have a kitchen anymore in the place for the rest of our lives, and don't even get me started on your comics, Lloyd." Nova growled angrily at them.
Cole and Lloyd gave each other a nervous look before rushing out of the room to clean up the monastery, along with Lloyd quickly grabbing the laundry.
Nova sighs as she calms down and her tail and horns disappeared. "Idiots." She walked over to the couch and picked up the controller, and began playing the game while she lay on the couch. "Finally, some peace and quiet to play some Prime Empire, time to see where I last left off."
She played for a few hours as she was getting closer to the last level along with maxing out her character, until she heard footsteps and saw that it was Wu walking by, not even noticing her playing.
"Damn, he is really in a funk." Nova mumbled before saving the game and turning it off, before leaving the room and going to her own, as she had another weapon to finish. Or more so, her old room, since she was now sharing the same bedroom with Lloyd.
When she got to her old room, which was pretty much now her workplace, she walked over to her workbench and began adding the last few things to her new weapon.
"There, that should work, much better than my first one." Nova smiled when she was finished and went on to switch it out with her old warfan that was looking pretty beat up.
(her new fan is smaller, but is made of deepstone so can pretty much block anything.)
After unsummoning her new fan, she could hear the others outside talking, so she headed outside to see what was going on.
"This is incredible!" said Kai.
"Aaah, right, the letter from Shintaro. I was so focus on other things, I almost forgot about this." Nova thought to herself when walking over.
"Are you sure this isn't a mistake?" Nya asked.
Jay gasps. "It's real! It's gotta be! It's addressed to us, look!"
"Of course it's real, do you guys see anyone other ninja around living at the same address." Nova crossed her arms, raising at eyebrow at them.
"What? What is it? Bad news?" Lloyd asked as he was coming over, wondering what was happening.
"It is highly unusual." said Zane.
"Ooh, we gotta get ready!" said Jay.
"What? What happened? Someone's located the Teapot of Tyrahn? Uh, Pythor's back? My father's been found? What?" Lloyd kept asking, not understanding what was going on.
"We got an invitation. To Shintaro!" said Nova, smiling at him.
"Shintaro?" Lloyd raised an eyebrow looking at her.
"Mm-hmm, the Ivory City! You don't deliver one of these every day. No siree." said the Postman.
Jay opens the invitation. "Oh ho! Fancy card!"
"That's the fanciest card I've ever seen. Oh, it even smells good." said Cole.
"I did not want to know how it smelled, Cole." Nova shook her head with a sigh.
"Shintaro? As in, Shintaro?" Behind Lloyd, Wu's chicken chases the Postman away.
"No silly, the circus Shintaro. Of course, it's the real Shintaro!" shouted Nova in excitement.
"Please bring back the old Nova, I can't handle seeing her all this cheerful, it's not normal." Kai whispered.
"As in the remote and exclusive mountain kingdom of Northern Ninjago." Pixal went on to explain.
"Invitations to Shintaro are exceedingly rare. In recorded history, there have only been a handful of outsiders allowed into the Ivory City." said Zane.
"I've heard it's incredible! It's the most beautiful city in the world. And the people have wings. Haha! You can't beat wings." said Jay excited.
"What's it say? The invitation." Lloyd asked while grabbing Nova's hand.
"Ahem. "King Vangelis of the Northern Kingdom of Shintaro of the Sky Folk, kindly requests your presence," of course he does, "as honored guests," oh, that makes sense, "to celebrate the birthday of the Princess, Vania." Jay read out for them.
"Princess Vania. Who's that?" Cole asked.
"Apparently, the daughter of King Vangelis." said Nya.
"Little is known about Shintaro. Up until recently, it was still considered a mythical place." said Zane.
"Which makes this much more interesting." Nova smiled, leaning against Lloyd's shoulder.
"Well, it looks like we're gonna see it. In person!" The ninja cheer.
"Let's go!" shouted Nya.
"Ooh, I'm gonna pack!" shouted Jay.
"Let's get the Bounty ready!" shouted Cole.
"The faster we get moving, the faster we'll get there!" shouted Nova, excited.
"What's this about Shintaro?" Wu asked.
"We've been invited to the Kingdom of Shintaro, to attend Princess Vania's birthday. Master Wu, this is just what you need. This will get you out of your funk!" said Lloyd.
"I am not in a "funk". And I'm not going. I'll stay here with Misako and Pixal. I can assist her in the hangar bay." said Wu.
"He's in a funk." Lloyd and Nova whispered to Misako.
"But how often does a chance to visit a legendary, fabled kingdom come your way?" Lloyd went on to ask.
"Yeah, besides it's gets boring if you just stay in the same place, for so long without going out and explore." said Nova.
"I've visited my share of legendary fabled kingdoms. Once you've seen one, you've seen them all. You go. Enjoy yourselves. You don't need me tagging along." said Wu.
"Now, you listen to me, Wu. I've had about enough of this moping around. You are going with the ninja!" said Misako.
"Your mother is scary when she's mad." Nova whispered to Lloyd, who gave her a raised eyebrow.
"I'm pretty sure you're more scary when mad." Lloyd whispered back.
Nova gave him a confused look. "I'm not that scary when I'm mad, just a little upset is all."
"Didn't look like that earlier." Lloyd whispered, wrapping an arm around her.
"I can't go charging off to far-flung places! Adventures and legendary kingdoms are for the young. You of all people should understand that." said Wu.
Misako angrily glares at Wu. "Why should I understand?"
"Oh, shit that was the wrong thing to say, to a woman." said Nova.
Lloyd gave a slight nod. "Women can be scary when they want to be, mostly if it's someone's parent."
Wu realizes his error. "Uh, w-what I meant to say was, uh, um -"
"You listen to me, Wu. You are going on this journey, and you are going to like it! Is that understood?" said Misako.
"But-but I - the chicken need -" Wu tried explaining.
"Understood!?" Misako shouted, before turning to Lloyd and Nova. "He's in."
"Yes! This is gonna be just what we need!" said Lloyd.
"Great, now let's go and get packing!" said Nova, smiling.
*The Bounty sails between mountains.*
"Though, my optic circuits are inputting full visual data, somehow the zeroes and ones of my code cannot convey the grandeur of this moment." said Zane.
"Yeah. It's like - like - totally super cool!" said Jay.
"That really captured the moment beautifully, Jay. Thanks!" said Nya.
"It really is beautiful, isn't it, Master Wu?" said Lloyd, but Wu only sighs. "What do you think, Nova?"
"It's very beautiful, you don't get a view like this every day." said Nova, while keeping an eye out for any danger that she knew was gonna show up at any moment.
"Yeah, beats doing chores back at the monastery, that's for sure." said Cole, until something screeches.
"What-what was that?" Jay asked.
"Trouble." said Nova as she summoned her dual daggers.
"There is something you should know. Early accounts of the mythical city of Shintaro claimed that the mountains surrounding it were home to a vicious species of bat, called the "Dire Bat." Zane explained.
"Dire Bat?" Cole asked.
"There is much debate among historians as to whether Dire Bats are real or fiction." said Zane.
"Pfft. Haha, that's gotta be made up." A Dire Bat swoops and grabs Jay off the Bounty. "Huh? Aah! Not made up! Not made up! Not made up! Aah!"
Nova quickly dodged a Dire Bat trying to grab her and threw her dagger at it, cutting its ear as it flew away. "Stupid bat." She summoned her thrown dagger back in her hand.
"Jay!" A Dire Bat knocks Nya over and lands in front of her, but Lloyd kicks it away. More Dire Bats land on the sails and start to destroy them.
"Uh! They're trying to take us down!" Kai shoots fire at them. "Shoo! Shoo, bats!"
"I'm coming for you, buddy!" Cole leaps onto a Dire Bat.
"Wait! Hold on! Can-can we be friends? Aah!" The bat drops him, and Cole catches him.
"You - owe me!" Cole's bat throws them both off, and they scream.
"Hang on!" shouted Nova as she used her gaming abilities along with her grappling hook and swung down to them, using her hoverboard to give them a temporary platform as she swung up and kicked it upwards. Giving them a boost to get back on the deck. While she used double jump and her grappling hooks to also get back on the deck, with a heavy sigh. "To damn close."
"What do we do? How do we stop them?" Nya asked.
"Use your Elemental Powers!" shouted Wu.
Nova looked at her hands but couldn't get herself to do it, she hadn't been using them for weeks and even though she had been drinking the tea Wu gave her. She was scared of the pain she had gotten the other times, and the cracks showing up again.
"Master Wu!" shouted Lloyd as Zane tackles Wu just before a bat attacks him. The ship starts to tilt.
"Nya!" shouted Jay.
"Nova!" shouted Lloyd.
"I'm fine! Lloyd!" shouted Nova as she used her grappling hooks to hold on to the Bounty so she wouldn't fall off.
"Hang on!" shouted Cole until suddenly, all the bats retreat.
"Brace for impact!" shouted Lloyd as the Bounty nearly crashes into a mountain, then stops and is slowly lifted.
"How?" Nya asked.
"Uh, guys? You're not gonna believe this." said Kai.
Nova let out a relieved sigh as she switched her gauntlets back to normal mode.
The ninja look down and see winged guards carrying the underside of the Bounty. The leader of the guards, Hailmar, flies down to the ninja.
"Greetings, honored guests! I am Hailmar. Right hand of King Vangelis. I welcome you to the Kingdom of Shintaro." Hailmar bows.
"You just saved our lives!" said Lloyd as he got over to Nova's side, making sure she was okay.
"It was the least we could do. The Dire Bats are a plague. They are one of the many reasons we discourage visitors, for their own safety. But come, let us put our woes behind us and welcome you to the Ivory City of Shintaro!" said Hailmar.
*The Kingdom of Shintaro is seen beyond the horizon.*
"Well, you don't see that every day." said Cole.