Chapter Text
Nya walked through the dark hallways of the monastery. She really had to stop her habit of working until the witching hour, her sleep schedule's already fucked up as it is.
But rustling from the scroll room stopped her in her tracks. Last she checked, everyone else had already gone to bed.
Unless.
Quietly, she slid open the bamboo doors. The whole room was a mess. No matter how many times Mr Frohicky tidied up the scrolls, someone, usually Lloyd, always managed to create another mess.
Speaking of Lloyd, the blonde in mention was currently hunched over the table, with only a lantern to light up the darkness. The light making his hair seem golden with the glow.
"What are u doing awake?" She asked, startling Lloyd.
"O-oh, Nya!" He stuttered as he scratched the back of his neck sheepishly, "I was uhh doing some last minute research! Yep, totally what I was doing!"
Apparently the walls of the room were much more interesting than her face.
"Lloyd, you know you can't keep avoiding those nightmares.." He physically slumped at the reminder.
"I know, I know. But hey! At least I'm making some progress!" He poked the scroll multiple times to emphasise his point.
Nya looked over his shoulder. Many scrolls overlapped one another and a few open books were scattered here and there. Most of the scrolls depicted a group of four, consisting of a human, a pig, a monkey and a demon of sorts with a horse accompanying them.
What took the main centre stage was a map with a red emblem that resembled a fire. The map mostly consisted of mountains, a vast ocean and the moon for some reason.
"Is this about that King Monkey or something?" Lloyd nodded madly with stars in his eyes.
"Yep, and it's Monkey King. Or the Great Sage Equal to Heaven, or Sun Wukong, OR-"
"Okok! I get it the guy has alot of names," Nya chuckled, "Get to the point nerd,"
Lloyd pouted as he rifled through the mess before pulling out the scrap of paper that became a makeshift map of the merged lands.
"East of the Wyldness and across a sea, there's a group of flaming mountains that no one knows where they came from."
Lloyd pulls a rather thick book towards the two of them from across the table.
"Coincidentally, this source of the 'Journey to the West' records of Flower Fruit Mountain being across the East Sea,"
He flips to a page of his tiny notebook filled to the brim with scribbles.
"And apparently I found, from somewhere I forgot so don't ask me, that Flower Fruit Mountain is surrounded by Flaming Mountains. Just like the ones East of the Wyldnsss!"
Nya blinked once. Then twice as she allowed all that information to sink in. Before deflating.
"So?" Her brain isn't awake enough to connect the dots yet so sue her.
"Soo, there's a big possibility that Flower Fruit Mountain exists! We didn't even know majority of these realms existed before the merge so there's a high chance that Flower Fruit Mountain once existed in a once unknown realm!"
Nya sighed as she pinched the bridge of her nose. "So, basically, all your information is gathered from scattered texts and translations and perhaps deliriousness. Yet you still believe that a myth exists?!"
Lloyd shrugged, "Yea well, I'm the grandson of a god so it's well in the possibility,"
"We knew he existed!"
Lloyd stuck out his tongue at her in childish retaliation making her sigh and pinch the bridge of her nose. Sometimes she wondered how they dealt with smaller and brattier Lloyd.
She picked him up by the scruff of his collar. "Come on, we're gonna peer pressure Kai to allow us to crash on his bed,"
"Nya!"
"You can propose this to the group in the morning. Then we can decide as a group if we wanna make such a long journey there, alright?"
The hum from him was the only answer Nya needed.
—
“I think it's stupid,”
“Wha? Kai?!!” Lloyd exclaimed as he slammed his hands on the table making everything on the table jump an inch into the air.
“Please don't slam the table..” Zane said, judgement clear on his face as he pulled Lloyd back down to his seat.
“Look kid,” Kai started, “We barely even know if we're going to a real place or not. Do you really want to travel hundreds of miles just for nothing?”
“But it's not entirely for nothing! We can expand in the map we made and there's still the possibility of finding other people,” Lloyd countered back.
“Or more enemies,” Wlydefire bluntly stated oh so loudly. Sora elbowed the other girl. “Hey!”
“I think it's worth the trip,” Zane added on, “Even if we don't find this Flower Fruit Mountain, like Lloyd said, we might find new discoveries,”
“Thank you Zane. Sora, Arin, Wlydefire?” Nya directed the question to the younger ones.
“I think it might be fun! And we get to meet a god!” Arin brightened up.
“We already have a god at home,” Kai jabbed a thumb at Lloyd who reacted in feign offence.
“He's not even a demi-god! He's like less than a demi-god!” Wlydefire exclaimed, which actually offended Lloyd this time.
“I don't really know. I mean I don't mind but I don't really want to get involved in another fight again..” Sora stated which everyone agreed with. As much as it made life less dull, everyone could (and should) go a few weeks without having some sort of injury.
“I'll go wherever Kai goes!” Wlydefire exclaimed while pointing at the mentioned man.
“Nya? You're the tie breaker,” Lloyd said.
Nya took a moment to think. And took another moment to scrunch up her face as though it was the hardest decision of her life.
She sighed, “Let's go find that mountain!”
Lloyd and Arin whooped in victory while Kai slumped in defeat, making the white ninja next to him pat his hand in comfort.
—
The Monkie Kid sat on the edge of the cliff, not even the slightest bit afraid of falling off. He's been through more perilous situations afterall.
He let out a heavy breath which did little to ease his woes.
The pillar had been fixed, the world hadn't fallen apart on itself. Yet why did this have to happen?
Why did a vortex have to appear and suck in everything within its vicinity?
Why can't the world just be at peace for once?
Why-
“Heyy bud!” Monkey King greeted as he sat next to the boy, “What's got you thinking so hard?”
MK's throat made a weird noise as the boy himself made a constipated face, “Just, a lot of things. I'm mostly worried about Pigsy, Tang and Sandy,” He took out his phone from his jacket pocket.
“Pigsy's last text was a week ago and since then none of my texts have gotten through..”
Monkey King wrapped an arm over MK's shoulders, pulling him closer. “Relaax, they're the reincarnations of my buddies from Journey to the West. I'm sure they'll be fine,”
“But but, why can't Macaque just shadow teleport them to us??”
“No can do kiddo,” Macaque replied as he appeared next to the boy, frightening the mentor - mentee duo.
“But why not?!” MK whined, “You were able to do it for the three of us!!”
“That's because the lands were still intact. I need to know the exact location before teleporting. Now I barely even know where Megapolis is, or if it’s even in one piece”
MK felt disappointed at that explanation. He would've felt more hope if Macaque had just said that he was lazy or somewhere along the lines. Because at least then he’d have a chance at convincing the monkey, it’s one of his “specialties” after all.
Sensing MK’s disappointment, Macaque set a hand on the boy's head. “Cheer up, they've been through the same things you have. I doubt a thing like this would kill them,”
MK took a moment to let the monkey's words sink before nodding. “Yea. Yea, you're right,”
“Hey MK!!” Mei shouted from behind them, “Red boy's making a new invention wanna see!!?”
Like a spring, that made MK instantly cheer up. He ran towards the other girl, both eager to hang out and/or disturb the third member of their group.
The two monkeys stared as the pair yelled in excitement. The moment of somewhat normality being silently cherished by two.
“Anything from the Lotus Prince?” Macaque asked suddenly, breaking the peace. Wukong made a sound as Macaque took a seat next to him.
“Somewhat. The Astral Projection was weak so Nezha was only able to give me a brief overview,”
“Heaven's in chaos. Again. Since there's still no new Jade Emperor, the Heavenly Council is working double time to calm the rest of Heaven and to figure out what happened.
Nezhy said he'll try to sneak out to join us once he finds the chance,”
“Sneak out?” Macaque questioned with a raised brow, “Surprised the Lotus Prince would be willing to,”
Wukong smirked before letting it fall. “His whole family is being involved with the Heavenly Council-”
“Everyone?”
The ginger simian nodded, “All three brothers and father and all. Anyways, they're currently having trouble reaching the second brother so it'll take awhile. But once all of them are gathered, Nezhy said he’s certain there'll be a time for him to sneak off and join us for abit,”
Macaque sighed, “I hope you didn't force him to. I doubt Heaven would be happy knowing that one of them sneaked out to meet The Great Sage,”
Wukong spluttered, “I would do no such thing-ARGH!”
The whole mountain suddenly shook with great force, almost tipping the two monkeys over the edge. (Not that it would really affect them)
The trees of the mountain shook, causing various items like bananas, coconuts and mangos to fall off. The citizens of Flower Fruit Mountain ran out of caves and down the trees, clenching onto the young, the old and each other.
It took a whole minute before the shaking died down. And even then, small tremors still remained.
Worried yelling could be heard coming closer and closer. The younger trio rushed to the monkey pair, absolutely scrambled.
“What was that?!” MK asked, already looking over the edge of the cliff. Redson used the hood of MK’s hoodie to slowly pull him back from the edge, muttering phrases like ‘just because you’re the Monkie Kid doesn’t mean you can’t die’.
“Oh my gosh,” Mei started, “Is it another demon?!?!” Both MK and Mei asked at the same time, hugging the other tightly.
Macaque shook his head. As though immensely disappointed at their could-be enemies. “If there are demons, they're a bunch of stupid ones,”
“There's more than one?!” MK shouted.
Meanwhile, Wukong summoned his trusty cloud. Once he settled himself on it, he picked up MK and dropped his mentee next to him.
“Welp, me and the kid are gonna investigate. OK, BYEEE!!” And with that, the pair whisked off.
“HEY WHAT?!” Mei shouted as she watched as the two slowly became a mere dot amongst the trees.
“Macaque! Send us down there!” She ordered while pointing at the dark haired simian.
“Already ahead of ya,” A shadow portal materialized underneath Redson.
“Wait what?” Was all the Bull Prince could say before he started yelling as he fell into the shadowy abyss.
Below, MK and Wukong hid in one of the many many trees that Flower Fruit Mountain had.
The sight before them might be one of the most unusual they've ever seen. And that's a tough bar to beat
A crashed ship laid on the beaches of Flower Fruit Mountain. But that would be impossible?! The fiery mountains prevents particularly any and all ships from passing through. And ignoring that, what could have caused it to be destroyed this badly??
Broken boards started shifting and falling to the ground, making the other two realise that there were likely people within the wreckage.
From the mess, a brown haired guy, who's hair reminded Wukong of chocolate ice cream, and a silver skinned guy emerged.
“Hey MK, doesn't that guy look like you?” Wu Kong asked, nudging his mentee
“Hmm, nahh I don't see it,” MK replied while squinting his eyes, “Does that silver guy look like a demon?”
Before the god could reply, more people started emerging from the mess.
One was a blonde guy, who was helping two smaller, likely younger, people out.
One was a dark skinned boy with black hair while the other was a girl with pink hair.
Just when they thought that was it, another girl appeared from the mess while holding a younger tanned girl with red hair in her arms.
“Man, that's a big group,” MK commented as the other three of their group appeared behind the pair, “Are we able to defeat them if we have to?”
Wukong hummed in thought, “Nah, I’ve fought bigger groups before, they won’t be a toughie.”
Mei huffed as the group of three descended from above from the shadow portal, “Whatever! We took on plenty of powerful enemies before,” She punched her hand into her fist, a mischievous smirk on her face.
Suddenly, Red Son made his way to the front, pushing aside MK and Wu Kong. “Hold on a minute, that peasant’s a fire demon?!”
Sure enough, the tall brunette’s whole hand was engulfed in a flame, similar to how Red Son's often look during sparring sessions within the trio.
—
“At least our powers still work,” Kai noted glumly as he put out the fire in his hands. It's bad enough that their only mode of transport is destroyed, for what felt like the millionth time, it would be even worse if their powers decided to be a no-show once more.
“Nya, Zane,” Lloyd started, “Think you're able to repair the bounty anytime soon?”
Zane scanned the exterior of the Destiny's Bounty while Nya started climbing back into the wreckage to check on the interior.
“Very unlikely,” Zane said once his scan was complete, “Unless we're able to find the right tools and materials on this island, I doubt we'll be able to get back into the air anytime soon,”
Nya's head popped back out, hair now obviously way more messier with pieces of debri stuck to it. She shook her face that was covered in a thin layer of soot and dirt. “No luck here either. It'll take a miracle to get it back up and running,”
Kai turned his head to look at his younger brother, who was busying himself with making sure the kids (mainly Arin) were safe and unhurt. Or as unhurt as you could be from falling thousands of feet in the air.
Nya came over with some barrels, most of them being food and water. “Luckily, we still got some food to last us about..” She started counting with her fingers, “A week and a half? Give or take,”
Lloyd grimaced as he walked over to them, Zane coming over from the other side of the siblings. “Wlydefire's a big eater though, you sure that's gonna last us that long?” Nya made a face at that.
What they all failed to notice was Zane fixating on a particular spot within the trees. The darkness made it harder for him but his sensors detected presence from that area. It could be just an animal but his instincts said otherwise. And his instincts were rarely wrong.
He shot an icicle in that vicinity.
“ZANE?!”
“WHAT THE FUCK!??”
At the very same moment Kai yelled out in shock, a surprised and startled yelp came out from the bushes.
Instantly, the older ones shifted into fight stances, while also making sure that the kids stayed behind them.
“Whoever's there, come out right now!” Lloyd yelled.
A tense silence filled the air as they waited.
And waited.
And waited.
“Jeez, these newbies are slow!” Wlydefire complained as she fought against Kai, desperate to have a spot in the possible fight. Kai pushed her back with a little more effort he would've liked to use.
From the rustling of the leaves emerged a young male wearing a bandana around his forehead. If Kai had to estimate, he would likely be around his early 20s like Lloyd.
And Kai had to admit, the guy's got great hair, and he knows great hair.
The male stared at the group. And the group stared back.
Until the smallest of smirks made its way onto the guy's face. “NOW!” He yelled as he pulled out a staff from his ear.
‘Wait, how does that work??’ Kai wondered but that question was eventually lost into the depths of his mind as new figures emerged from all around them.
To the left of Kai stood a girl with black hair and green highlights who clutched a Green Jade sword. And it didn't look like it was merely for show either. The way the girl stood and how she smiled at them as though challenging them to fight her head on showed that she had experience in fighting.
To Kai's right stood a guy with red hair that seemed to defy gravity. He wore a long coat with a tiny pair of sunglasses on his nose and wore a necklace that had an emblem engraved onto it. Unlike the first two, he didn't hold a weapon, but the last thing to do is to underestimate anyone when being surrounded.
If Kai were to turn his head a little, behind him he could see a ginger simian on a cloud, crouching as though reading to pounce at any moment. Like the red boy, he didn't hold any weapon, but with the way he stared intensely at them, Kai knew that he shouldn't gloss over the monkey.
“Lloyd,” Nya whispered, “Isn't that the Monkey King you were talking about?”
From the corner of his eye, Kai could see Lloyd nodding his head.
“Yea, though he looked better in the scrolls,”
“I heard that!” The simian yelled from behind them as he waved his fist around like an old man yelling at a bunch of kids.
“What do you want from us?” Zane questioned the monkey as he was directly in front of him. “We do not mean any harm. We just crashed onto this island on accident,”
The red haired boy scoffed, “There's no way you peasants are able to crash into Flower Fruit Mountain! There isn't even a direct sea to reach here!”
‘Flower Fruit Mountain? Wouldn't that mean-’
“AHHH!” A shout shook Kai out of his thoughts. Turning to his left, the blonde that was once there had disappeared into thin air.
But how?!
There wasn't any vegetarian near enough for Lloyd to be dragged into. And with a stomp of his feet, Kai knew that there wasn't a trap door beneath them. And Zane, with his scanners, would have immediately alerted the group if there were any.
Everyone had their eyes on their opponent and none of them had made a single move towards them.
‘Unless one of them has duplication powers? Or speed power like Griffin Turner. No, that doesn't make sense. Or..maybe there's another person we hadn't seen yet.’
Too many possibilities but too little answers.
“Look,” The male with great hair started, “We don't wanna fight and I don't think you guys wanna fight either. How about we all set our weapons down and have a talk?”
“WHAT?!” The green girl and red boy shouted at the same time. Notably, the red boy's hair turned into literal fire.
“MK, are you crazy?!” The girl frailed her arms around widely, “You're making us defenseless!! What if they have some…I don't know! Secret weapons hidden in their clothes?!”
“You really cannot go a second without spewing nonsense can you noodle boy?” The red boy said as he pinched the bridge of his nose.
MK (what did MK even stand for anyway? And how does it relate to noodles?) sheepishly scratched the back of his neck.
“Only if you give us back our friend,” Nya insisted, “Fair trade, wouldn't you say?”
“That's barely a fair trade,” Red guy complained but was shushed by the staff welding brunette.
“Um, it so is!” Sora called out, taking up Lloyd's space that the elder 3 had forgotten to fill up.
“Only the two of you have weapons,” She pointed at the staff and sword wielders, “While most of us do! Giving us back our friend is the most fair trade you can give us!”
Kai would like to point out that she blatantly left out the fact that the majority of them were elemental users. They truly grow up fast.
Kai heard a groan from within the vegetation and with a snap, yelling came from above the group as a shadow slowly became closer and closer.
—
Wukong couldn't help but laugh at the sight before him.
The group that had been acting high and mighty before them had now been subdued into a mere pile of bodies, a mop of blonde hair at the very top like a cherry on a sundae.
A blonde that somehow survived a fall that would normally cost a few broken ribs.
The sound of a shadow portal opening up caught the god's attention. Macaque soon appeared next to him, still hiding in the trees’ shadows.
“So?” Wukong questioned.
Macaque lowered his head further, his mouth and nose now covered by his scarf. “He's definitely not a mortal. He has too much power flowing through him, more than what a mortal body can handle,”
“So like the kid?
Scratch that, the kid isn't mortal either,”
“Not exactly. His power levels match up to MK’s but his body looks totally human. With that amount of power, it’s impossible to retain a human form forever. Sooner or later, his true form would show,”
“So you think he’s a demon?” Wukong raised an eyebrow. Macaque shrugged.
With multi-creature offspring becoming more prevalent with recent years, it gets harder and harder to figure out if one was truly of demon descent. Nowadays, demi-demons tend to follow their non-demon ancestor’s roots, with little to none physical demon traits. Something to do with genetics evolving or something. Wukong was never one for science.
“Demon or not, we still can't fully trust them. Only the little boy lacks any power, and those that do have significant amounts of it. Especially the blonde,”
Wukong made a face at the new revelation. It wasn't like he would lose to them, maybe a little beat up sure, but with all the strange stuff happening, he wouldn't be surprised if these new people didn't follow the rules of physics.
There was no knowing what level these new people were on.
“I think my bones are cracking,” The little boy whined from, unfortunately, the very bottom of the pile along with the two other younger ones.
Immediately, the blonde slid off from the top, followed suit by the rest of the older ones, each one besides the silver man helping one kid up.
“Green, are you hurt?” The silver guy asked the blonde, placing a hand on his shoulder. The blonde shook his head.
“Where did you even go?” The older girl asked.
The blonde took a moment to grasp what he had experienced just a minute before. “I-I don't know? One second I was next to you guys and the next all I saw was darkness,”
That surprised Wukong.
“You didn't bring him to another location?” He muttered.
Fortunately, none of the newcomers had noticed Macaque hidden in the shadows, and they'd like it better like this.
“Too risky. The world's too messed up and there isn't a guarantee that I'd be able to relocate him again,”
“So you left him hovering in darkness?”
The dark haired monkey nodded with a smirk.
The clanging of weapons brought back the two monkeys' attention to the newcomers.
—
“Wha? K-Red!” Lloyd exclaimed as the red ninja took Lloyd's dao from its sheath, “What are you doing?!”
Kai threw the dao as well as his own katana into the pile of weapons. Was he crazy?!
Kai at least had the decency to be sheepish about it, “Sorry bud, part of the deal,”
“What deal?!” Lloyd cried, quickly becoming more and more exasperated. But with the slowly growing pile of weapons, he quickly connected the dots (Not that there were many dots to connect in the first place)
“You made us defenseless to get me back?! That's the stupidest move you could ever make!” He seems to have forgotten that 6 out of 7 of them were elemental users.
Just as Kai was about to defend himself, Arin interjected.
“Actually! Even they're discarding their weapons!”
Lloyd followed the younger boy's finger that was pointing to the girl with green highlights and the guy with the bandana, who were in position to throw their weapons as far away from themselves as possible.
“WAIT KID!” The ginger simian shouted from behind them.
However, it remained futile as the guy's staff hit the sand.
Only for sand particles to start flying in all directions, threatening to knock everyone in the vicinity off their feet.
Lloyd held on tight to Arin and Sora, hugging the younger two as close to him as possible while using his body to block out as many sand particles as he could.
Soon, the man-made sand storm calmed down and everyone was finally able to stand without threatening to be flown off their feet.
Most took their time rubbing the sand out of their eyes and hair, but a certain red haired individual stomped over to the main cause of the sand storm.
—
“YOU!” Redson grabbed MK by the collar of his hoodie and started shaking the other back and forth, “WHAT IN THAT NODDLE BRAIN OF YOURS THOUGHT IT WAS A GOOD IDEA TO THROW A 17 THOUSAND POUND STAFF?!?!?!”
MK took a moment to stop the world from spinning before nervously chuckling.
“I…forgot…?”
“FORGOT?! HOW IN STARS-
I CAN'T EVEN-
HOW IN BUDDHA'S NAME-”
Mei came over and egged on Redson as said demon was currently questioning his life decisions and how he managed to associate himself with such an idiotic fool.
MK looked away from his friends and instead took interest in the colourful group of 6, who also found it more interesting to either watch Redson's descent to madness or talking amongst themselves.
Wait a minute.
MK quickly recounted the number of people in the new group. Math was never his strong suit, but he was pretty sure there were 7 of them earlier.
His apparent look alike seemed to have realised the same thing as his face turned to horror.
“Oh First Spinjitzu Master…WILDFIRE GOT BLOWN AWAY!”
Like a hive mind, the rest of the group immediately turned their heads to the red male.
“Everyone, spread out and search in different directions!” The green one said, “Kids, pick someone to follow and stay with them!”
And with that, they were off.
Damn, they were efficient.
MK would've spent the next few hours marvelling at the group if Redson hadn't grabbed his wrist and started pulling him along.
“C'mon MK!” Mei shouted from in front of Redson, whose other hand was held by the dragon girl, “We gotta follow them!”
“Which one?!!”
“The green one!” Wukong responded as he hauled the trio onto his nimbus without warning. Macaque was already dissolving into the others’ shadows.
“Wha-But I wanted to follow the girls!” Mei complained but gave no further indication of getting off the cloud.
So, with no other voice outs, the gang set off into the skies, off the search for the green fellow.
.
Which turned out to be an easier said than done scenario seeing that Flower Fruit Mountain is covered in trees.
And wouldn't you know it, trees are green.
MK couldn't help but ruffle his hair in frustration. They literally had to go after the most camouflaged person in the group, whose idea was this?!
Oh, right. His mentor's.
Mei wasn't doing any better either, she honestly looked tempted to jump off the cloud in search of their target.
“That guy's literally a blondie! It shouldn't be this hard to find him?!”
Macaque, whose head being the only part of him that emerged from the shadows, flinched at Mei’s voice.
“Quiet down will you?” He grumbled as his 6 ears flicked in annoyance. Macaque rarely let out his extra set of ears so with all of them full out on display made MK wonder if there was something more he didn't know.
Macaque's ears flicked again for the second time but instead his face morphed into something akin to realisation rather than annoyance like before.
“There!” Both him and Redson called out, the latter pointed his finger in a vague direction.
Following the demon's finger, MK caught a glimpse of a red figure falling from a palm tree. And if he strained his ears hard enough, he could hear a faint ‘cannonball’ being carried by the wind.
“Woah, how'd you see that Red boy?!” Mei asked while squinting her eyes as though it'll help her see better.
Redson, obviously choosing to ignore the stupid nickname, smirked. “We demons have much better senses than you pruny mortals!”
As much as MK loved Redson, he found it much easier to tune him out than to listen to his ramblings of demon heritage. He'll ask again on a later date.
As Wukong's cloud started to evaporate, the crew jumped off one by one, using the trees and bushes as cover once more.
There seemed to be a new addition to the pair, the addition being the red figure from before, likely being the ‘Wildfire’ the group had split up to look for.
The blonde of the group was rubbing the side of his lower ribs, his face strained with pain.
“That does not get any easier,” he grumbled as he removed his hand, revealing the rather large hole in his top.
What could've done something like that? And in a rather weird shape too. A straight rip, yes believable, but a circular hole? Unless he took off his top, there was no way that could've formed.
“You wouldn't need to do that if you could catch me properly,” The younger girl said, disapproval clear in her voice.
“I wouldn't even need to do it in the first place if you had just waited,” The blonde retorted back whilst knocking the top of the girl's head.
While the two were having their mini petty argument, the orange boy was handling a flare gun. Once he deemed it functional, he aimed it at the sky before pulling the trigger.
A green winged dragon appeared in the sky. But the most shocking thing would be the fact that it roared.
Like an actual dragon.
“Oh. My. GODS!! THAT'S THE COOLEST THING I'VE EVER SEEN!!!!” Mei yelled, scaring their group and alerting the other group of their presence.
MK and Redson tried to drag her back into the bushes but alas, their cover was blown.
“How long have you been standing there?” The green one questioned, subtly positioning his body in front of the younger ones.
The six-eared primate's ears twitched as he caught the sound of horror and suspicion simultaneously.
“Not long, we promise!” MK reassured, waving his hands to reinforce his statement. However, that didn't sway the blonde as his eyes narrowed.
—
This wasn't good.
While the boy opposite him seemed to have good intentions, Lady Luck has never been on Lloyd's side.
And he's far from learned how looks can be deceiving.
Even though their group consisted of a humanoid monkey, notably The Monkey King, he wasn't sure how accepting they were of onis.
Sure, onis were a type of demon, but he didn't exactly know how far their reputation stretched across the 17 realms.
If they had seen his four arms, they might connect the dots.
Maybe he could brush it off as a typical demon feature? There were some demon species that had multiple limbs. But if one were to look too deeply into his energy signature, that claim wouldn't hold.
A power? No, that's their trump card. If the group finds out that their realm had access to powers, it could put them in a sticky situation.
Rustling came from behind Lloyd, making him stiffen even further.
‘Shit, was it more enemies?’
He didn't have his dao, thanks Kai, and he really didn't want to reveal his powers just yet. The only thing he could do was hand-to-hand combat. But he was never the strongest and had an over-reliance on tools like his powers and weapons.
If he was unfortunate enough, which was very likely, he could end up defeated.
Technically he could run away but he had a feeling that wouldn't work either.
“Lloyd!” The pink haired girl burst out from the bushes, “We saw the dragon, did you find Wlydefire-oh!”
Sora stopped in her tracks when she noticed the ragtag group in front of her. Moments later, Nya appeared behind her, almost instantly pushing her way to Lloyd's side when she also noticed the additional people.
“Sooo,” The green girl started, “Lloyd, was it?”
Why couldn't they be deaf goddammit?
“You don't want to fight, and we don't want to fight. Why don't we try and work together!”
“THAT'S WHAT I SAID?!” The bandana wearing male shouted, waving his arms widely. The girl promptly covered his mouth with her hand.
Only to redraw it almost immediately, her face scrunched in disgust.
“DID YOU JUST LICK MY HAND?!”
“YES, AND IT TASTED DISGUSTING BY THE WAY!”
The red boy smacked them upside their heads.
Lloyd and Nya looked at each other, somehow telepathically weighing the pros and cons together.
They hadn't tried to attack them even when they had every opportunity to do so.
They hadn't given their group a reason to attack.
They were the ones offering the peaceful option, twice.
It would be good to have more allies.
Lloyd sighed as though it was the worst decision he ever had to make.
“Alright, let's shake on it,”