Ninjago: Ripped World

7: The Assault

Both Kai and Jay had rushed forward to the portal.

            Kai used his elemental flames as boosters to raise him up in line with the Portals' centre. A final burst propelled him forward, his legs out stretched, careening towards the whirling eye. Expecting to move through the Portal, his legs made contact, smashing into a solid layer between him and the maelstrom.

            'Gaagh' Kai shouted, his legs buckling at the unexpected result of his assault.

Zane rapidly created an ice chute to break Kai's fall. Kai shot off the end and rolled to his feet, stable and ready to attack again. His eyes watering from the impact, he refused to surrender to the pain. His sister was gone, taken by this monstrous gateway.

            The Realm Crystal. Shouted Zane. It's stored in the vaults at Hiroshi Labyrinth Stronghold. It may be necessary to deal with the Portal.

            'You're right' said Lloyd. 'Can Pixel get over there in the Bounty?'

            'Pixel?' Zane enquired into the ether.

'I am here Zane'. Came the soft monotone reply in Zane's sensors.

'We need the Realm Crystal, as a matter of extreme urgency. How long will it take for you to retrieve it?

'I am leaving for the Stronghold as we speak Zane, I will be 53 minutes.'

'Thank you Pixel' Zane replied and relayed the news to the Ninja. 'I Fear The Realm Crystal will not be here any time soon'.

Jay let out a howl. 'We have to do something'. We can't just wait around for the Crystal.

Quite what they were supposed to do with the raging maelstrom escaped them. What could they do but match power with power? Lloyd shouted through the howling wind 'Ok Ninja. There's a glass surface covering the portal, perhaps we can shatter it. We're going to give it what we've got. Zane, Ice it'.

Zane spun his Ice sheets into chiselled drills. They came from every direction, but shattered and disintegrated on impact. He tried shards and ice boulders, he froze the whole thing, but the vortex swirled and eddied under Zane's translucent prison.

'Kai, Light it up'.

Kai directed two powerful streams of flame into the heart of vortex. Would the extremes of ice and fire cause the face to shatter? The ice simply melted away and the team watched as the subsequent flames hit with fiery fingers radiating outwards in a spectacular orange starburst.

'Jay, if you wouldn't mind?'

Jay crackled, his body crawling with jumping blue particles. He balled up his fists, drawing the energy into focus to be released in spasmodic, jerking bolts. But it jumped and arced off of the Portal, making no impact at all.

They all looked at each other, this was turning out to be pretty useless.

Lloyd, looked aggrieved. 'Right guys, let's rip!' He rose up, his green aura manifesting. He raised his delicate hands, wisp's of a slow snaking energy forming. 'DO IT'. He threw his life into the attack and his teammates answered his call.

With the fullest force they could afford; Kai, Zane, Jay and Cole joined their young leader in the assault. The bombardment was pure chaos, raw power mixed with anger and desire. The combined elemental onslaught blackened the sky and sent plumes of steam and choking earth into the air. Lloyd gave a signal to stand down. As the air cleared, the Vortex remained unmarked, taunting them. They had not made a dent.

Looking at his exhausted team mates, Cole let his frustration get the better of him. Raising his fists he released an earth punch at the vortex. Fully expecting the forceful tremors to bounce off the portals' surface they watched as it receded to become a swirling concave dome, absorbing the punch as if breathing in.

All ninja were silent. Lloyd nodded at Cole to continue. He followed up by throwing a few fair sized rocks at the Vortex. The swirling mass, a solid gate between worlds now resisted under the impact and received the Black Ninja's gift willingly.  Cole threw a couple more boulders and the glassy mouth sucked them through. Cole looked over to Lloyd 'I'm going in' he shouted with a look of gleeful determination and Lloyd agreed.

Lloyd barked his command. 'Focus on Cole. Get him through'. But Cole needed no help. Astride an earthen charger ripped from the ground, he offered himself forward. The Vortex flexed and pulsed outward, a hungry inter dimensional rift ready to consume and in the blink of a great glassy eye, he was gone, the Portal too.