A Pure Heart

Chapter 17

Lloyd stood on his one hand, straining. Hikari was balancing on top of him using one foot and one hand, resulting in quite the contortion as she tried to even out her weight and make sure Lloyd didn't have to bear too much more.

"Focus. You must bear the weight of Ninjago on your shoulders, therefore you must first learn to bear the weights of all of us," Sensei Wu told the two. Zane stood on Hikari's back, widening out his feet so it didn't cause Hikari too much pain, and in turn she flattened out her back so he didn't fall straight off. Jay wobbled on top of Zane's left shoulder, and Kai on Zane's right. Cole stood on Zane's shoulders and carried Sensei Wu on his shoulders, making a slightly wobbly tower of ninja.

"Sensei, I'm starting to think this was a bad idea," Jay said, worriedly, as Hikari desperately tried to stay still to avoid unseating them all. "Yeah, Sensei, they're just kids," Cole said and looked down at the straining children.

"Th... this isn't too bad," Hikari squeaked from her very precarious position. Truth be told, her back was starting to hurt... and her other hand and foot were touching each other, making her wobble off balance. If they were all going to topple off right now it would most likely be her fault.

"In order for them to succeed," Sensei Wu said patiently, drinking his tea, "we must all trust one another."

Hikari could hear a truck moving along behind them, but didn't think much of it.

Lloyd grunted slightly as he strained, and suddenly the wall exploded. Everyone was sent flying, and Hikari let out a cry as she was sent hurtling along. She landed on something soft, which grunted slightly. Opening her eyes, she found she'd landed on top of Lloyd, and their faces were now right up against each other.

Hikari apologized, over and over, as she managed to (painfully) stand up. When she turned, she saw a huge wrecking ball hanging there, as glass was scattered all over the floor.

"What was that?!" Cole complained, as she shook her head through the dust.

Two workers stared at them from where they were standing near the demolished wall. Glass was in Hikari's hair, and Lloyd carefully started picking them out. She smiled, even though he couldn't see it. "Th-thanks, Lloyd."

"No problem- you'd do the same for me,"he said, as Dareth came thundering in. "WHOA WHOA WHOA!" he screeched, "this wasn't supposed to happen, until TOMORROW!"

"Tomorrow?" one of the workers asked, "let me see that order." The other worker handed it over, and he chuckled, sheepishly. "O-oh yeah... my bad! Sorry about that!"

"Sorry? Sorry!?" Hikari shouted, making everyone look at her in surprise, "you need to be more careful, you could really have hurt us all badly!" she scolded them. She looked like an angry teacher scolding her students, except she could've been the student and the workers could've easily been her teachers.

The worker winced slightly and managed a nervous smile. "S... sorry. We'll be back in the morning," and then they ran away. Hikari glared at them with a pout on her face as Lloyd pulled the last glass shard out of her hair. Dareth grimaced and picked up one of his bent trophies.

"Uh, Dareth? What is this all about?" Cole asked, frowning as he got up painfully.

Dareth sighed. "Well, I fell behind on some of my payments, and some developer named Darnagom Enterprises is buying the ENTIRE block to put in some stupid Frisbee Golf course," he groaned. "They say if I don't come up with fifty thousand by tomorrow, the dojo is gone."

"But, we already lost the Bounty, we can't lose the dojo now!" Jay protested, eyes wide with horror.

Hikari was staring at the sign and muttering softly to herself. "Darnagom, O Grandma, Garnadom.. Gardamon... GARMADON!" Hikari yelped. Everyone looked at her as she pointed. "Rearrange the M, G, N, and D, and you have Garmadon Enterprises!" she said, staring at the sign. "That... canNOT be a coincidence."