Onyx and the Way of the Ninja

The Tornado of Creation

Light in every color Onyx had ever seen swirled around her and Fade, constantly shifting and bending into new colors that she had no name for.  Fade twisted around bends in the strange tunnel of color, passing multiple offbreaks until they came to one that pulsed with a dark purple light. Onyx could feel darkness around this one, and realized that it was the one the dragons were looking for.

Fade and the other dragons turned into it sharply, nearly throwing the ninja off. This tunnel wound on in a dizzying spiral until it opened and spat them out onto hard, dark stone.

"Is it over? Did we make it?" Cole asked shakily, face pressed to the ground. Onyx stood, brushing herself off. "We're not dead, and we're definitely not in Ninjago anymore. So I'd say yes, Cole. We made it." She said, looking around.

The Underworld mainly consisted of floating platforms made of black stone. "Ugh, it stinks!" Kai muttered. Onyx nodded. "Yeah. It smells like when a mouse dies in the wall and you can't find it," she agreed. The five ninja walked forwards hesitantly, leaving their dragons behind. Then, on a platform above them, they noticed a huge fortress that was decorated with skulls and bones. "I sense that we are in the right place. Sensei is inside," Zane observed.

From where they stood, they noticed that every kart and barrel brought into the fortress was being searched thoroughly but incompetently. "They're expecting us," Kai said. Cole nodded. "So we'll need a plan."

The ninja eventually settled on using the hundreds of stalactites hanging from the islands above the fortress to traverse over the walls. "Okay. Let's do this," Kai said.

"Ninja go!" The team whispered, Jay merely rasping it. They leapt off of the solid ground and grabbed onto the stalactites above the neverending abyss below. They all knew that if they fell, they weren't coming back.

When the ninja were about halfway from reaching the wall, Jay started rasping something frantically and waving his free arm. "Can I be the first to say, it's been an absolute pleasure since Jay lost his voice?" Cole said. Kai nodded in agreement.

Onyx glanced back at Jay, wondering what he was making all the fuss about. She slowly followed his gaze up and froze, her breath catching in her throat. Spiders. "G-guys..." she managed to squeak. They looked back at her, and she pointed up.

Kai, Jay, and Zane followed her hand and instantly froze, seeing the spiders staring at them, pincers clicking hungrily. The ninja instinctively let go of the arachnid legs, dropping right into the middle of the Skulkin warriors.

It was silent as the grave as the two parties stared at each other. Finally, one Skulkin snapped out of his shock and sounded the alarm. "Ninja!" He started yelling. "This.... Is not good," Zane said softly. "Oh, you don't say!" Kai hissed back.

The Skulkins wasted no time in surrounding the ninja. "I count ten of these boneheads for each one of us. I like those odds!" Cole said confidently. A harsh clicking sound started up, and the dove looked up to see the skull-patterned spiders descending upon them. "How are the odds now?" Onyx asked. Cole gave a nervous chuckle. "Anyone got any bright ideas?" Kai asked. There was silence. He cleared his throat. "I'm still all ears!" He said, raising his voice. Kai elbowed Onyx lightly. "That's your cue!" He said urgently. "Well I'm sorry if the skeletons and giant spiders were distracting me! And unless anyone has some sort of pesticide, then no, I don't have any ideas!" Onyx snapped, the stress making her a bit more standoffish than usual.

"Tndocraton!" Jay rasped. Everyone, including the Skulkins, stared at him in confusion. "You... have a strange sensation?" Cole guessed. Jay shook his head and tried to speak again. "You ate a strange crustacean?" Zane asked. "Ooh, ooh, I got it! Two natives on vacation!" Kai exclaimed confidently. Onyx shook her head. "No, something about flea nations." Then she frowned, realizing how stupid that sounded. She thought harder. Then an idea popped into her head. "Maybe it's...?"

Jay sucked in a huge breath. "TORNADO OF CREATION!" He shouted, voice strengthening back to normal. "Oh!" The boys murmured. Onyx grinned. "Nice to have you back," she said. "But it could lead to disastrous consequences!" Cole argued. Kai looked around at the skeletons, who were beginning to advance on them. "We're about to HAVE disastrous consequences!" He said. There was a pause as the ninja all looked at each other. Then their faces hardened in resolve. "He's right. We don't have any other options," Onyx said. Everyone nodded in agreement.

The five spun into Spinjitzu, each shouting their respective elements. "Fire!" "Lightning!" "Ice!" "Earth!" "Darkness!" The light from their Spinjitzu illuminated the dark reaches of the Underworld as they all merged together into one huge tornado.

All Onyx could see was golden light. But she could feel more. She felt the presences of her teammates around her, whirling and tumbling amidst the storm of elemental energy. Onyx didn't know what else to do, so she closed her eyes and let instinct guide her, putting pieces of stone and fragments of bones together with the others, building a structure. Then, once the pieces had all connected and merged together, the elemental energy forced itself away, and the tornado fell apart.

Onyx pushed herself to her feet and looked up. The ninja all stared at what they had created. A huge Ferris wheel stood in the middle of the space, spinning cages containing the Skulkins around slowly. "Um... we could've done better," Onyx said finally. Cole nodded. "Ngh. Come on! We don't have time to waste!" Kai said, snapping them out of their surprise. The ninja nodded. "Right," Cole said as they took off after Kai, following him into the depths of the Skulkin fortress.