Defender ||Lloyd x Reader||

Chapter 28: Duplicate

Hey guys! So it's been a little while.... or maybe a long while- a long, long while. However, on a good note, I still plan on finishing this book! (Despite what some of you guys might have been thinking) I'm currently in my senior year and I want to finish my two main books before I complete it and go off to college so this one should be done in less than a year.

Other than that, to answer a few of your questions as to why this wasn't updated in so long I kinda have fallen out of this fandom. I still have so many great memories with it and occasionally read a book or two for funzies but it's harder to focus on this book. (Also I kinda just became obsessed with Arthur Morgan from Red Dead Redemption 2) I also tend to not get anything done during the summer so every time I said I'm gonna do something during the summer, I end up not doing it.

At least on the positive side, I've taken a whole year of AP English III and passed my exam so I am officially a better writer than the last time I posted.

Also on that note, this chapter specifically (I don't think) is that great because I have forgotten about half of what the plot is in this book and I was just trying to get this done with tonight.

Anyways.... ENJOY! :D (and sorry again for temporary death)

Word Count: 4835

The rumbling of bones marching through the moist and obscure air echoed through the walls of a stagnant city. The ground shook with every perfect beat of calcium.

One of Lloyd's hands were clutched on a firm steel bar, using hardened strength to hang himself off the side of a fire escape latched to the side a an ugly, brick apartment building. Nya was sitting cross-legged on the platform of the fourth floor thinking, and Zane was leaning against the side of the rough brick analyzing.

Only a few blocks away from the very confused trio were a city of citizens huddled together, shivering in brisk fear. Lloyd gathered his two teammates back together to discuss the information they had gained from dispersing across the similarly different city.

Before they began to chatter, Lloyd scanned up and down the street, making sure no one- no thing- was around to hear them. Once the place was considered dead, he turned his attention back to his team with a plethora of questions.

"Did you find anything? Any answers? Any ideas?"

The atmosphere was silent, the questions lingering in the air while Nya and Zane reviewed their data in their heads.

Nya was the first to pipe up, "Those... people," she began to say, bringing the trio back to their sighting of ninja in reinforced mechs, "The ones that looked like ninja, the ones that looked like us- or at least what we used to back in high school- gosh, high school was something- they weren't us obviously, because I think I would remember-"

"What Nya is trying to say," Zane interrupted, causing Nya's ramble to halt, "-is that she thinks we should infiltrate the mechanism situated in the center of the city so that we can have a better look at what has over a 65 percent chance of bringing us here."

Lloyd nodded thoughtfully, examining the risks and solutions that would come about walking into foreign and possibly enemy territories.

"Any ideas for a plan?" Lloyd asked. His green eyes scrunching as he focused on one of the stained steel bars around him.

"There is an exhaustion pipe connected with the air conditioner in the back. If we can get in while the machine is stationary and less heat is fluctuating through the pipes, we should be fine. After that, we slip into the air conditioning vents which, theoretically, should be big enough to crawl through. Cold air blows through that so we shouldn't have to worry about being scorched" Zane informed.