Objective: Fire

Chapter 17

" Lloyd watch out!" Jey yells as Morro managed to strike a hit to Lloyd's body, sending him flying into a bookshelf, causing the whole thing to collapse over him.
" Lloyd!" Nya calls out as she watched him.
Cole was about to run over to his fellow ninja when the ground underneath his feet started shaking uncomfortably.
" w..what the!?" He mumbles as he stops up to analyze the situation, and before he knew it, one of the masked x squadron agents attacked him from behind, forcing him down to the ground as the attack was unexpected.
" no, no, no! Cole watch out!" Zane calls out as he sees the ground underneath his brother crack. Cole quickly got to his feet as he sees the large cracks in the ground underneath his feet, and starts to run towards safety... but the ground underneath wasn't strong enough to hold both him and the masked warrior, and before they knew it, the ground broke and disappeared into nothingness.
" Cole!"
The whole battle stops as both Cole and Seliel disappears down the hole into black shadows. Kai swallows hard as he watches both of them fall down. He felt the urge to call out Coles name, but his fear of the others finding out his identity prevented him from saying a word.
" what the!?" Even Morro hadn't expected this to happen and was distracted for a moment.
" what did you do!?" Kai yelled at one of the monks, grabbing him by his shirt.
" I..I didn't do anything!" The poor monk replied, shocked by what happened as well. They had never known this would happen!
Kai wanted to jump down after them, but Morro stoped him from doing so.
" skylor has reported that she and Brine may have found an elemental tomb. Forget about her and let's move on!" Kai hated him for this... he didn't care about their teammate, and he hated the fact that he couldn't do anything about it. Morro was a leader... if he disobeyed.. they would hurt his parents.
Without another world, they both retreated, leaving Cole and Seliel behind. " forgive me..." Kai quietly mumbles to Seliel as he follows Morro out of the library, leaving everything behind.

" Cole! Cole can you hear me!?" Zane yells down to them. He could detect the two of them down there, but it was to dark to see if they were alright.
" Lloyd is hurt!" Nya carefully tries to remove the books off him as she pulls him out from all the mess.
" I'm fine.. don't worry.." Lloyd replies, but something was wrong... his arm didn't seem to work properly and Nya noticed it right away.
" you're okay!? No way! Your arm is broken!" She very carefully tries to tend to his wounds by using her water powers. While she was busy with Lloyd, Jey and Zane tries to contact Cole who so far hadn't said a word. The hole was deep... but was it deep enough for him to not hear them?

Everything around them was dark...
weakly, Cole tries to stand up, but something wasn't right...
" agh... this won't work.." Cole groans in pain as he feels the pain in his back. The fall must have injured him pretty bad, because usually, he would not get injured over something like this. His body was stronger than most people, but this had been different.
He suddenly heard a groan coming from his right and noticed that he wasn't the only one down there. Yet again he tries to move, but the pain only got worse.
" don't move... you're only going to hurt yourself even more..." the voice was strange to him.  No, this wasn't Lloyd or anyone from his team... the person next to him had to be one of those X squadron agents.
" back off!" Cole groans angrily when he feels a hand being laid onto his chest.
" I'm not going to hurt you.. just allow me to help you." The agent replies. He hear a clicking noise and understood that the person next to him had removed his or hers mask.
" can you move your feet..?" This time, the voice sounded different and there was no mistake... this agent was a female. He slowly closes his eyes and tries to focus on moving his feet. Yes, he could move them a little bit, but it really hurt.
" yes... a little at least" Cole replies.
" good, then I believe your back isn't broken, but it may be out of line. Please allow me to help you up to your teammates..." Cole couldn't help but look at her. Yes, it was very dark down here, but his eyes had adjusted themselves to the dark and he could see the female next to him. It wasn't totally clear, and the pain in his body made him feel dizzy, but she did seem nice. Her face was soft, and kind looking... and she seemed to be his age... how did a girl like her end up with the X squadron...?
" why should I trust you..? For what I know, you may just help me half way up and drop me down to finish me off." Cole coldly replies. She did seem nice, but he knew better than to trust the enemy.
" I only have my word, trust me... my team has left me behind, there's no use in fighting you when my battle is lost." The girl replied. He couldn't help but stare. Could he trust her?
The answer was probably no, but right now... he had no choice.
" fine... get me up there... but when we get up, you're under arrest alright?" Cole replies. Maybe he shouldn't have mentioned the last part, but the girl simply nods in agreement. Was she being real...?
" alright then..." Cole finally agreed and the girl opens a small back on the left side of her leg, pulling out a stranger object. She gently puts her finger on it to let it scan her DNA and then she gently takes Coles hand, letting the object scan his finger.
" it's a teleportation device. I'm going to throw it all the way up, and when it reaches the surface, I press this button and it will teleport up to its location."
Cole couldn't believe this. Was this even possible? Who was this girl?
" how...? Did you make that yourself?" He asks, a bit amazed by her.
" I did, and it's nothing to hard to create. Now let's get you up before something worse happen." She then stands up and starts to throw the object. Surprisingly, she managed to throw it all the way up, and before he knew it, he was up with the others again.
" WHAT THE!?" Jey bursts out as he and Zane had just agreed on climbing down the hole to get to Cole. The others were surprised by this as well. What had just happened?!
" it actually worked!? What is this!?" Cold spoke, just as shocked as the others. Seliel couldn't help it but blush a little. It wasn't everyday that people were amazed by her work.
" Cole, are you alright?" Nya walked over to them, gently kneeling down beside Cole, trying to see if there was anything she could do to help.
" I don't know, everything just hurts.." Cole replies, trying to sit up again, but both Nya and Seliel stops him.
" you shouldn't move..." Seliel gently speaks. It was strange to act this way around the enemy... but who were the real bad guys really? Cole finally gives in and lays still. Both Cole and Lloyd were injured... they couldn't continue the journey like this.. they had no option but to return back to their home.
" guys... we have to head back home... this isn't looking good and my healing powers won't help.." Nya confesses and stands up. She looked over at the stranger. What were they supposed to do with her? They couldn't let her go...
" I promised not to run away, so I'm giving myself up.." Seliel quietly holds up her hands, showing them that she wasn't going to fight them. Zane hesitates for a moment but walks over to her and cuffs her.
" thank you for not wasting our time" he replies and forces her gently to stand up on her feet. With both hands cuffed on her back, Zane starts to lead her towards the bounty.
" Lloyd... we have to return home.. you and Cole and can't continue..." Nya now turned from Cole to Lloyd, wearing a very serious expression. Lloyd was hurt, but Cole... something wasn't right, and he needed medical attention right away.
" yeah... I guess we all must head back... live to fight another day.. right?"
Seliel heard them and quickly turns around to reply.
" you guys can't! The tomb of fire and earth is still out there! There's no time to rest!" She sounded very stressed and Lloyd noticed something wasn't right. Why did she care that they hadn't found any of the tombs yet..? Wasn't she supposed to be the enemy? Unless...
" so you're the one who's been talking to us through the communicator"