Ninja's Creed: Awakening

Chapter Eleven: I'll Always Be Here For You

  Everyone rushed to pack up their belongings, and in fifteen minutes they were aboard the Destiny's Bounty, explaining the situation to Grand Master Wu before sweeping the aircraft with an electronic scanner and conducting a physical search for GPS trackers or bugs.

  "Clear!" Kai called from the dojo half an hour later. Lloyd, Cole, and Jay walked into the room and sat on the floor, worried expressions painting their faces. "The spa and weapon storage are clean, too."

  "Same for the kitchen and our sleeping quarters", Cole reported, raking a hand through his shaggy black hair. "Nothing in the control room", Jay said, at a more regular volume than usual."Or on the main deck", Lloyd added, stretching. It hadn't been easy, seeing as as had to look more closely at the deck than he'd looked at anything else before, but it had been done, and he was proud of himself for it. "Has anyone seen Zane?"

  "I think he had the living room and prisoner cells", Kai said, standing up and beckoning the others to follow him. "Come on, let's go see what he found."

  Holy s**t, they have prisoner cells?! Lloyd thought as they walked. They've already got a ship, a house, and a jet rolled into one huge package! What's next, a nightclub?!

  The other boys stood up and followed the spiky-haired Assassin to the living room, where Zane was on the floor, examining the area under the coffee table. "Hey, buddy", Kai greeted him, kneeling down to see what his friend was doing. "Didja find anything?"

  "No, I'm afraid not", Zane replied, standing up. "But I do have two theories as to how Garmadon May have tracked our movements in Italy." "Whatcha thinkin'?" Lloyd asked, intrigued. "Any guess is as good as the next one!"

  "My first theory", Zane began, "is that the decoy Apple was not only a bomb, but the tracker that we speak of. Assuming that this is correct, the tracker has been destroyed and we are now safe from detection."

  "Excellent thinking, Zane", Wu's voice complimented his pupil, causing everyone to jump and everyone except Lloyd to pull daggers from the folds of their clothes. Sure enough, there he was, sipping tea in the doorway behind them. "That could very well be the case, but, if I may say this, I doubt my brother would do that only to have to destroy it a short time later."

  "Jesus! When the hell do you find time to arm yourselves to the teeth like that?!" Lloyd wondered, watching the others put their weapons down on the nearby coffee table. "And...how long has that been there?"

  "It's standard Assassin protocol to have at least one piece of weaponry on us at all times", Kai explained. "Don't wanna go to Drag Queen Night at the club and get ambushed without at least a prison shank on hand, am I right?" Everyone else, even Wu, murmured and nodded their agreement.

  "Y'know, my cousin was a drag queen back in '07", Cole declared, rubbing his chin with his fingers. "Oh, yeah, Britney Queers?" Jay spoke up, grinning. "She always did cause a Blackout!"

  "Wait, you guys went to—y'know what? Never mind", Lloyd said, shaking his head. It kinda surprised him in a way that he didn't have a problem with it, but he still couldn't believe that four professional killers had the time to go to Drag Queen Night.

Or had family.

I'll have to ask them about that later, he noted mentally.

Then he remembered something so huge, he didn't even know how he could've forgotten.

  "Wait just a second", he said. "You guys said that after Italy, I was free to go back to Ninjago City to live out the rest of my sad, lonely life! So if you guys could drop me off at the airport in London with a little cash, I'd greatly appreciate it!"