A Touch of the Master's Hand

Looking a Little Green Today

Lloyd tried to rub whatever it was out of his eyes and open them. It hurt. He blinked and cringed, but Zane was coming into focus above him.

"Zane?"

"Hey, he still recognizes us!" said Kai with enthusiasm.

The others were pressed about with Kai.

"Get outa the way!" snapped Garmadon.

He snatched Lloyd up rather frantically, and Lloyd was caught a bit off guard; he let out a little "Mmph!" as he was shook by four hands at once in Garmadon's excitement.

"Luh-loyd? Luh-loyd? Are you okay?" his father demanded. "Do you feel anything funny? Any buzzing? Any queasiness? Any weird hallucinations? Any sudden weird growths?" Here he glanced over the top of Lloyd as though half expecting to see a pair of ears or antennae growing out from his hair.

"Wha—? No?" said Lloyd. Then firmly he repeated, "No, it's okay, Dad. It's okay. I'm not that hurt."

Garmadon released him, and Lloyd stepped onto firm ground. He was a little unsteady at first, but he was okay. They were still in the chamber. Not a monkey was in sight, and some of the X-soldiers peaked out from odd places.

"We should get out of here," said Jay after a moment. "We really shouldn't've gone without Master Wu."

"Oh, pfft! We don't need to get my brother involved in all this as long as Luh-loyd is sure he's okay!" laughed Garmadon nervously.

"I'm fine!" insisted Lloyd grinning.

"Well, unless it was only a bluff, I'm pretty sure I heard the monkey king say that he had something special just for you," said Zane.

"Yeah, I heard that too," said Nya.

Grimacing, Jay added, "And that doesn't sound very good."

"Yeah, we had to make sure, the guy's a master at Pow-Dur!" said Garmadon, but he smiled. "Shoulda known he'd be too chicken to actually think he could harm the Green Ninja, though."

Lloyd's grin turned half-hearted.

"Though," said Garmadon as an afterthought, "if we tell anyone about this, it'll probably have to be your mother."

"Oh, yeah..."

"But don't worry, no one's as tough as Koko Garmadon. She won't overreact!"

#

Koko bit her lip as she stood right at the doctor's side during the examination. Though, that was a bit unorthodox for a mother with a child over the age of seven, it was making the doctor fairly uncomfortable to have the father breathing over his shoulder on the other side. He was sweating buckets but tried to remain calm enough to work.

Lloyd just tried not to think about it and allowed the examination to go through with as little trouble from him as possible. He opened his mouth for the tongue depressor to go up against the painted surface of his mouth. He only winced a little as the doctor checked both his eyes. He sat up straight and breathed slowly for the stethoscope even though it was cold against his bare yellow skin. Blood pressure was healthy, and his heart beat was surprisingly calm considering the circumstance. His joints and reflexes were checked and aside from one arm being a little looser than the other, everything was functioning normally and quite limber.

Lloyd could not help but notice that the doctor did not speak a word as he moved tensely to each task.

At last the doctor stepped back and said with a nervous smile, "Besides your eyes being a little swollen and still a little red with irritation (and that can be taken care of pretty quickly with some eye drops), you're perfectly healthy, Mr. Garmadon."