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Kai groaned loudly as he forced himself into a sitting position, rubbing his head a bit as he moved. His head was throbbing and his back felt like it was dying. He must have landed on a rock or something. Crash landings were always the worst. So much wood, so many rocks, so much ground. Somehow rocks had this magic ability to always be right where Kai was landing, all the time, and it hurt every single time!
“Is everyone okay?” Kai called out as he stood on shaky legs. “Does anyone have the baby?” He added, trying his best to swallow down his rising panic as he realized not only did they crash land, they crash landed with a baby on board, and he most definitely did not have the baby with him.
“I’m okay!” Jay's muffled voice was like a light in a pitch black room. Kai let out the breath he didn't even realize he was holding. Someone else was alive. At the very least, he wouldn't be alone. It filled him with so much hope to hear another person, especially a friendly voice. It would be really bad if he crash landed with someone he hated or someone who hated him. “No baby here though, does someone else have the baby?” Ah, there's the easily panicked Jay that Kai remembered.
“I have not taken any damage from our unexpected landing.” Zane's voice came next, it sounded further away than Jay's, but not too far. “I do not have the baby either.” Zane's voice was uncertain and Kai could almost hear how Zane was panickedly swinging his head around to try and spot a random child.
Kai went around The Bounty, leaning out slightly to see if there was any danger, but to his relief it was only Zane and Jay among the wreckage. Zane was further back and was lifting a part of the debris from the crash. Jay was much closer and pretty much had zoomies, but Kai imagined that he was running around trying to spot Master Wu. “We lost the baby?” Kai asked as he approached his friends, his arms were wrapped around himself as he shivered a bit. The Bounty seemed to be the only thing in this barren wasteland and it made Kai extremely nervous.
“We also seemed to have lost Cole.” Zane added as he scanned his surroundings quickly. “It might be in our best interest to see if they're inside the wreckage.”
“That's a pretty good idea, Zane.” Kai nodded before hanging his head down low. “Do you think Lloyd and Nya…?” His voice trailed off.
“They'll be fine.” Jay forced a smile on. “Nya is the strongest person we know, and so long as Lloyd sticks with her, they'll be okay.”
“You're right.” Kai shook his head to rid himself of his thoughts. “Let's focus on one thing at a time. Cole and the baby.”
Kai and Jay looked expectantly over to Zane who sighed. “One of us should check the inside of The Bounty while the other two search the surrounding area, but we shouldn't wander far.”
“I doubt Cole's gotten that far.” Kai scoffed a bit as he waved his hand, trying his best to hide his nerves at the idea that they might not find Cole or the baby.
“What if we don't find Cole tonight?” Came Jay's voice repeating all of Kai's anxieties. It sounded so small compared to what it usually was. “We can't let Cole and the baby wander about all night in some strange new realm.”
“No, we can't think like that, Jay.” Zane, despite being a robot, his voice sounded strained, like his throat was getting tight as anxiety rushed through him. “We will find Cole.”
“We can always try and use food to lure him out.” Kai tried to joke, but it fell flat as another realization sunk in. “Oh my First Spinjitzu Master, do we even have food? Did anything survive the crash?”
“We should keep an eye out for food while searching for Cole.” Zane suggested. “I'm sure our emergency supply of food most likely survived.”
“I hope it did.” Jay muttered. “We don't want to be relying on wild berries to get us through. I doubt Zane would know whether or not they're poisonous.”
Kai raised a brow and couldn't help but look around the barren wasteland. “Uh… I doubt we'll find berries in this realm.” Kai couldn't help but point out.
“Brothers, regardless of what we find.” Zane clapped his hands together loudly. “We should begin our search for Cole and the baby before it gets dark. It would be unwise to search for them in the dark and unwise to leave a baby alone in the dark.
“Right, right.” Kai ducked his head slightly.
“We'll get on that.” Jay muttered. “I'll take The Bounty.”
“I'll take the right then.” Kai turned his attention to Zane. “You'll be able to take the left?”
“Of course.” Zane nodded. “We should try and meet up within the hour if we do not find Cole. The last thing we want is to get separated from each other “ He couldn't help but add.
“Snart thinking as always, Zane.” Kai agreed easily. “I'm sure Cole couldn't have gotten too far.”
“Well, let's not waste anymore time.”
~☆~☆~☆~☆~☆~
The search for Cole wasn't as hard as they were expecting. Zane stumbled upon Cole pretty easily, it was finding the baby that proved to be rather difficult. Of course Master Wu would never let them do things easily, even as a baby.
They couldn't deny that they were sick with worry though. They were in a strange land, Lloyd and Nya were facing who knows what back home, and the ninja couldn't even find their master!
“Over here!” Cole's voice shattered through the silence that had built up. The ninja wasted no time in darting towards the sound; and they were relieved, and horrified, to finally see Master Wu. A little bit older, and also standing on a fallen tree that was dangling over a cliff.
“Why must he always make things difficult!” Jay complained as he gestured to where Wu was vaguely. “This is getting ridiculous.”
“Things have never been easy for us.” Zane pointed out. “A child hardly changes that.”
“No, but we are putting a baby in danger.” Cole argued.
“He's safer with us than back home.” Kai countered. “Besides! Why are we standing here arguing? Someone named Jay needs to get him!”
“What? Why me?” Jay exclaimed. “Someone named Kai should do it.”
“It's not going to be me because I already voluntold you to do it!” Kai argued. “It needs to be someone expendable.”
“Rude!” Jay scowled a bit. “Cole is like the second parent, why can't Cole do it?”
Everyone turned to look at Cole with their unblocking eyes. Cole scowled a bit before he waved his hand dismissively. “Fine, fine, I'll get Master Wu from the tree.”
Cole moved immediately after he finished speaking. He flipped onto the tree before he very carefully began to side step up the tree. “Come ‘ere, Master Wu.” Cole spoke quietly as if he was speaking to a stray cat. It would be a little amusing if it wasn't so stress inducing.
Master Wu stared at Cole, blinking adorable before he let out a small giggle and began to waddle his way over to Cole. As Cole took another step forward, a loud crack could be heard from the fallen tree. Every sucked in air, Jay moving his hands to his mouth as Cole stepped back. “C'mon, Master Wu.” Cole whispered as he crouched down. He held out his arms to grab Wu when he came close enough.
Wu seemed unaware of the dangers and continued to make his way over to Cole, making those happy baby sounds as he did so, a loud creaking noise could be heard. Cole bit his bottom lip. “Come on, just a little closer.” He whispered.
Master Wu made another noise and stopped walking as he stared at Cole inquisitively.
“Come on, keep walking.” Cole spoke through gritted teeth as he beckoned his hands. “You're so close.”
Master Wu blinked once, then twice, then finally moved towards Coke again. Cole grabbed Wu as soon as he could and ran off the fallen tree as quickly as he could. It would have been a lot worse if the tree fell or broke as soon as Cole stepped off it, but luckily the fallen tree stayed. If staying still made it seem like Cole overreacted, but everyone knew that tree was probably one bad step from falling apart.
Cole was holding Master Wu tightly as he joined up with the other ninja. “Let's keep a close eye on him.” Cole's voice was a little shaky. “I don't want him climbing up any more trees.”
“I agree with that.” Zane nodded his head. “The last thing we want to do is lose Master Wu.”
“Let's not think about potentially losing Master Wu.” Kai hugged himself. “I don't want to think about the bad things that could happen. We're already stuck here, in a strange land, with no way home, while Lloyd and Nya are facing some of our worst odds back home, alone.”
“Yeah! Let's try and be optimistic!” Jay clapped his hands together. “We found Cole, we found Wu, and we have our emergency food stash.”
“A campfire would be nice.” Cole adjusted his hold on Master Wu. “Let's start a fire and cook some of those hotdogs we have. Do we still have the stuff to make s'mores?”
“We should.” Jay nodded. “I don't see why we shouldn't. The only assumption is that someone might have eaten them.”
“Well the only person who would have eaten them is Cole.” Kai pointed out.
“Lloyd has quite the sweet tooth too.” Zane responded with a shrug. “It is quite possible that Lloyd ate them.”
“Normally I would be mad if he did that,” Cole bowed his head, “but with everything he's gone through in such a short time, I hope he did actually eat them.”
“Why?” Jay frowned and raised a brow.
“Comfort food.” Kai waved his hand dismissively. “He used to make s'mores with his dad I think.”
“Oh right!” Jay clapped his hands together. “I forgot about that. I hope Lloyd and Nya are doing okay.”
“I hope so too.” Kai's gaze dropped down as he bit his lower lip.
“I'm sure they'll be fine, so long as they stick together.” Cole attempted to reassure the two.
“Come, brothers.” Zane clasped a hand on Kai's shoulder. “Let's return to the Bounty.”
“Yeah, I think I'm ready for some hotdogs.” Cole smiled weakly.
~☆~☆~☆~☆~☆~
The crackling of the fire was reassuring in a way no one could explain. Kai and Cole were holding out their sticks with hotdogs on them.
Zane was the one holding the baby while Jay was shuffling through their emergency supplies. “Do we have any blankets?” Jay asked as he pulled out a pack of hotdog buns. He tossed them to Kai who caught them with one hand while continuing to stare at his dog.
“Probably inside The Bounty?” Cole finally tore his gaze from the fire. “They might have holes in them from the crash.”
“Holes don't matter so long as we have them.” Jay moved away from the cooler. “Deserts like this tend to get extremely cold at night and we need to make sure Wu is bundled up properly.”
“Not to mention us.” Zane raised his head. “It would be bad for us to freeze during the night, then no one would be able to care for Master Wu.”
“We should also take turns sleeping during the night.” Kai pulled back his hot dog and put it in a bun he had pulled out during the conversation. “We need to keep an eye on the fire and who knows what dangers are awaiting us in this place.” Kai looked around anxiously before he took a bite of his plain dog, his nose scrunched up a little as he did so. “Crispy.” He mumbled.
“Kai is right, about the night guard thing, not the hotdog, who wants to take first guard?” Zane was holding Wu's hands and was raising them up and down to keep the toddler entertained. It seemed to be working luckily.
“I think I'll take the first watch.” Cole put his dog in a bun as well before passing his stick to Zane and snatching Wu from him, holding him on his lap. “After a few hours, or when I start to get really tired, I'll just wake up whoever is easiest to wake up.”
“That sounds good to me.” Kai agreed easily. “You can always wake me up to keep the fire up. The last thing we'd want is to freeze to death out here.”
“Oh yeah, that would be mighty incontinent if we froze.” Jay suddenly appeared behind Kai and triumphantly held up blankets. “Which is why I went into The Bounty and got the blankets!” He dropped a blanket on Kai's head as he spoke, ignoring the squeaked that escaped from Kai.
“My hair!” Kai cried out as he pulled the blanket off of his head, messing up his previously perfect hair. “C'mon! It survived the crash and everything!” He complained as he wrapped the blanket around himself.
“I should have known you left with how quiet it suddenly got.” Cole scoffed a bit with a fond eye roll, ignoring Kai's complaints.
“Well now I don't know if you deserve a blanket.” Jay held one of the blankets up high as he narrowed his eyes at Cole. “I don't know if I want to share anymore.”
“Hey! Be nice! I have the baby and agreed to do the first watch!” Cole pouted a bit.
Jay hummed thoughtfully before he rolled his eyes and gave Cole the blanket. “Fine, I'll let it slide.” He grinned a bit as he spoke. Jay sat down in between Kai and Cole and stared at the flickering flames for a brief second. A loud crackle from the fire made Jay flinch a bit, but no one made a comment on it. They were all on edge after all.
“I hope we can find a way back home.” Jay's gaze dropped a bit as he spoke. His tone was low and almost sounded like it was filled with defeat?
“You know what Master Wu would say to us?” Zane tilted his head a bit as he spoke, looking at his brothers one at a time.
A small smile made its way onto everyone's faces as they all said at the exact same time. “Ninja never quit.”