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"Lloyd?" Kai asked, kicking a piece of rock away from his foot as he walked into the courtyard of the monastery to meet up with the youngest member of the team when he was supposed to be watching TV with Skylor, "you're sure that Master Wu said that this was our training for the day?"
"I'm sure."
"Okay, and you're sure that his exact words were "capture the flag will build your skills as a team"?" Kai questioned, watching as Lloyd smirked for a brief moment that if he wasn't highly suspicious of him could have been brushed off as a shadow.
"Kai, when will you learn not to doubt my listening skills?"
"So with this I'm supposed to trust that you listened accordingly, but as soon as it concerns your well-being and you arguing with me every time-"
"Just go get the others!" Lloyd insisted, to which Kai rolled his eyes before making his way inside.
He knew fully well that Lloyd just wanted to play capture the flag and that it wasn't some sort of training exercise, but deep down, he couldn't care less. 'This is gonna be kick ass.'
•••
"Do not pit Kai, Nya and Lloyd against Cole, Skylor and I! That is not fair!" Jay shouted to Zane and PIXAL.
The pair of nindriods had decided that their participation would make things very uneven, resulting in Skylor volunteering to make the teams even; but no matter the combinations, Jay was insistent that the teams were unfair.
"Fine. Jay, you and Lloyd are the team captains. You will go back and forth until the teams are evenly divided up, then Zane and I will go over the rules." PIXAL explained calmly, a stark difference against Jay's loud tone.
"I'm sorry, for dragging you into this," Kai whispered to Skylor so it was drowned out by the argument of how to pick who gets first dibs on team members, "if I had known Lloyd was gonna pull some sneaky shit, then-"
"Kai, relax," Skylor smiled as the argument started to settle down, with PIXAL announcing that Jay got to pick a team member first, "this is going to be fun."
'Let's hope so.' Kai thought to himself as Nya was drafted to Jay's team, a look of mischief on her face as soon as Lloyd called his name.
'I should've known that no one wanted us to team up.' He realized, watching as Jay quietly weighed his options between Cole and Skylor, a hand against his chin.
While Kai was hopeful that he would pick Cole, he wouldn't be that upset if he picked Skylor; yes, his girlfriend did have the ability to absorb any elemental ability from the team, but Cole was built like a mountain and could easily use his strength to get them out of any position they ended up in.
Jay finally made his decision, however, and he called Cole over, resulting in Skylor smiling as she walked towards him. "Looks like I lucked out."
Kai couldn't help but lean over and quickly kiss his girlfriend's cheek, hearing Lloyd's groan of disgust before Zane butted in.
"Let's go over the rules."
Kai knew how to play capture the flag; when he was younger, back before his parents were kidnapped by Acronix and Krux, he would play it with the other kids in the village, and after that transpired, he would watch Nya play as well, desperately wishing that he could join her.
So he didn't need to listen to the rules, and instead, focused on both the faces of his own teammates (Lloyd with an intense focus and Skylor clearly just looked happy to be there), and the other team. (Nya looked just as focused as Lloyd, Cole looked like he had made peace with the fact that this was how he was spending his day, and Jay just had an excited grin)
He only zoned back in when he heard something that probably gave Nya's team the advantage.
"-and no using your elemental abilities unless it's life or death."
"I'm sorry, what?" Lloyd demanded
Kai was thinking the same, watching as Jay's grin turned from excited to downright sinister. 'That little asshole. Oh, he is in for it.'
"It wouldn't be fair, and this a team exercise, not an elemental one," Zane explained, waiting until they all calmed down before handing out two flags, one green and one blue, along with six bandanas to match the coordinating colors, "you have 20 minutes to hide your flag before the game begins, which start now."
Kai made sure to grab Skylor's hand before they had to sprint down the monastery steps behind Lloyd.
He was fit, yes, but by the time they made it into the unchopped trees and unkempt lawn, he was gasping for breath, his legs already aching.
"Okay, we have to be smart about this," Skylor insisted, going over to Lloyd while Kai was still bent over, hands on his knees, "They'll probably have Cole or Nya guard their flag, although I'm betting on Cole. Jay and Nya are small, but fast. We'd be better off getting their flag then keeping them from getting ours."
"Okay. We need two runners, and one person to guard the flag." Kai managed to finally catch his breath and speak, tightening his bandana around his shoulder, "should be a piece of cake."
"No, I think we only need one runner as well as one person near the flag," Skylor disagreed, "if we use their same strategy, one person is going to have to face off against Jay and Nya or Jay and Cole. They'll get our flag instantly."
"But that's just it! They won't expect us to copy their strategy, that's why it's perfect!"
"Kai, Skylor and I just led a resistance. She's right."
Kai relented; he'd go against Skylor or Lloyd on their own, but the two of them were a force to be reckoned with; although he would be fine if the fact he had been stranded away from his sister, girlfriend and Lloyd was never used against him again.
"Alright. But who's running?"
•••
"We are not taking that with us!" Jay shouted as his girlfriend held the chicken that Master Wu had taken in close to her chest, "it hates me!"
"It really hates Lloyd though," Nya explained as she set the chicken down and it immediately rubbed up against her leg which made Jay take a step back, "and we can't use our powers, but a electric chicken has no control. We're going to win this."
"You play dirty," Jay smiled, desperately wanting to kiss her if not for the chicken seemingly guarding her like a dog, "I like it."
"Hey, if you're going to take their flag, maybe stop with the flirting!" Cole shouted from the small hill he was standing on, the flag slightly waving in the tree directly in his eyeline, "Lloyd and Skylor are sneaky and the only way we're going to win this is if you two take their flag first."
"How do you know that Lloyd and Skylor are coming?" Jay wondered, assuming that it would be Lloyd and Kai or Kai and Skylor.
"Need I remind you it's two thirds of their alliance? That, and Kai makes noise whenever he gets up to use the bathroom in the middle of the night. I'm not scared of him when he can't use his fire powers." Cole explained, which made Jay deflate slightly.
Nya gently squeezed his shoulder gently before wrapping her arms around the chicken and the two of them starting to make their way towards where they had heard the giant crash as soon as Zane called the beginning of the game, Jay groaning as they walked.
"I should have picked Skylor."
•••
"Why am I running?" Kai demanded as Lloyd pushed past another branch, "Cole's room is right beside mine, he's gonna know I'm coming!"
"Which is why you're a decoy," Lloyd reasoned, hearing Kai's angry huff behind him, "you always say I'm sneaky, hence why I'm putting it to good use."
"Why are you using the word "hence"? You're like, twelve."
"For the record, I'm at least sixteen."
"We really should get your age confirmed so you can contribute to society-ow!" Kai was cut off as Lloyd pushed the branch back enough so it smacked him square across the face. "You're a little shit, you know that?"
Lloyd just shot him a wide grin before returning back to the branches, "why do I need to contribute more to society? I've been a full time ninja since I was like, ten."
"Yeah, but there's other things you can do, like legally driving a car and being a normal teenager. Maybe even enroll in an online school."
"I think I lost my normal teenager card when I fought the Overlord the first time," Lloyd's tone didn't stay serious for long, however, "we should go into the trees. I hear footsteps."
And despite how much Lloyd's solom statement made his stomach turn with regret about just how much he had missed out on, Kai followed him into the trees.
Because capture the flag was a normal teenager thing to do, and even if he wasn't as competitive as everyone knew he was, he still wanted to help Lloyd win this.
•••
"Stop," Jay insisted, putting his hand in front of Nya and wincing when he heard the chicken wind up, "I heard footsteps."
"You did?" Nya's voice was soft and quiet, which calmed the chicken down enough that Jay didn't fear for his physical well-being, "where?"
"Just ahead. Let's go." He whispered, and with that, he did his best to blend in with the trees, his girlfriend right behind him.
That's when he heard the rustling and brought his eyes up, unable to hold back his grin when he saw it. Kai's bright red gi staring him right in the face.
Jay gently grabbed Nya's sleeve and silently pointed upward, seeing her grin out of the corner of his eye before the chicken jumped out of arms and screeched, which had Nya pulling him to the ground before the lightning strike went off and two screams hit their ears.
'Wait, two?' Jay's stomach turned slightly when he heard the voices, one of which hadn't stopped screaming since they fell.
"That's my arm, that's my arm!"
"Shit, Lloyd!"
The two emerged from the ground and Jay had to swallow back his vomit when he saw the angle that Lloyd's right arm was at as the chicken sauntered over to them, seemingly proud of herself.
"Jay!" Nya shouted, pulling his vision away from Lloyd's twisted arm and to her eyes, "go get Zane and PIXAL!"
Before he could ponder what he had been told, or fully let what had just happened fully set in, Jay was already sprinting up the monastery steps and hoping that they had fully stocked up on medical supplies since the last incident that had involved the chicken
•••
The large room was silent as Nya, Cole and Jay stood with their backs against the wall as Zane casted Lloyd's broken arm and PIXAL stitched Kai's gash in his hand with Skylor by his side.
Jay's stomach turned as he watched the two of them suffer; he knew that he should've convinced Nya to leave the chicken instead of letting her bring it along, but admittedly, he knew he couldn't have brought himself to do it.
That's when Cole finally broke the silence, gaining everyone's attention.
"Well, if it makes you feel better, our team skills are definitely stronger now that we know not to blast you two out of trees." Cole tried to reason which resulted in glares from Zane, Lloyd and Kai.
"You know, that's kind of c-," Kai was cut off by hissing through his teeth as PIXAL slowly stitched his hand back together, "common sense."
"Yeah, even I know that." Lloyd added before wincing as Zane finished tying his arm into a sling.
"We're really sorry," Nya apologized as she looked down at her feet, seemingly not being able to make eye contact with any of them, which led Jay to gently squeeze her shoulder as a reassurance, "I didn't want to hurt you two."
"I'm sorry too," Jay added, shooting Nya a quick smile when she looked up at him with a look that silently said 'thank you.',"I shouldn't have let the chicken come with us, that wasn't fair."
"It's okay, guys," Lloyd smiled at both of them, "it was an honest mistake, you two just wanted to win," he seemingly couldn't hold his chuckle back as he continued, "we're all really way too competitive for this, huh?"
"Definitely," Skylor insisted from her spot beside Kai, "the next time I'm here, maybe we should stay away from anything that can get people hurt."
"Good luck with that." Kai mumbled under his breath which Jay heard loud and clear, not that he could even disagree since the simplest of chores could end with some sort of injury between the seven of them, although it was never usually that serious.
"Yeah, and while we're at it," Cole added, all of his attention going to Lloyd, "no more lying with Master Wu as your scapegoat. We all know you set us up to this."
Jay nodded in agreement with the others, although he couldn't help but regret it slightly when Lloyd's protest almost sounded like he was crying, although that might have been the broken arm.
"We're not busy, it's the weekend, Skylor has the day off and until I fell out of a tree, I was having fun."
The room went silent for a brief moment before Kai shrugged, "I gotta agree with the kid. Until you two almost killed us, that was actually pretty fun."
"But you're right, Cole," Lloyd continued, "I'm not gonna do that again."
"Good," Cole smiled briefly before it turned into more of a cunning grin, "then I'll just reserve the park for another game when you two are healed."
"Wait, you're serious?" Jay questioned as he raised his eyebrow. It wasn't that he didn't have fun, quite the opposite really, but the last person he had expected to agree to doing this in any sort of capacity was Cole.
"Yeah, I'm serious. That being said, we're definitely not bringing any electric chickens with us next time around."