Chapter Text
It had been months since the Crystal Council had been defeated. Cleanup was remarkably fast after the whole chaos, and at this point the Ninja were more than ready to take a break before returning to their usual jobs.
… Unfortunately the world didn’t wish to give them that luxury.
Nya huffed, staring up at the computers, exasperated.
“Okay, why is this an issue again?” she questioned.
“This amount of problems spawning in one go isn’t normal.” Zane said.
“But they’re so minor!” Kai groaned. “I don’t get why we need to look into this.”
“The mayor is growing frustrated with this, that’s why. He said it was the least we could do to make up for our…” he trailed off, staring at Nya.
“... Right, Aspheera.” she muttered.
“And stealing her staff back.” Lloyd said.
“But it was worth it.” Jay cut in. “We’re just happy you’re back, Nya.”
She softly smiled, her eyes drifting towards him. “Thank you, Jay.”
“Besides, I doubt I’d ever be able to live without my little sister.” Kai hugged Nya close before letting go. She laughed a little.
“Thanks, you guys.”
“If this feels so minor, it wouldn’t hurt to check.” Cole suggested.
“True…” Lloyd hummed. “Besides, it should just be the usual investigation over something weird.”
“Usually when we do that something bad happens.” Kai said flatly.
“That only happens 64.335% of the time, Kai.” Zane said. The fire ninja slowly turned to stare at Zane, fighting between being offended at the percentage or bewildered that there was a specific number for it.
“Okay…? I wasn’t expecting that big of a percentage.”
“Hey, at least it’s a little over 50/50! We can work with those odds!” Jay chirped.
“Yeah! Look, this still has a good chance of things not happening. Let’s just see how it goes and go from there, okay?” Cole said.
“... Okay, fine.” Kai pushed himself off from the console, moving towards the rest of his team.
“Doesn’t mean that I don’t think this’ll go well…”
Zane ran through the calculations again over the repeated patterns. Things just weren’t adding up here… Everyone else had gone up ahead of him, leaving him behind as he ran through the data for the seventh time today. There wasn’t much luck from everyone else, just a bunch of minor incidents according to the mayor like broken pavement causing tripping hazards and random slick spots that sent cars spinning.
They already had to assist over twenty people who nearly got injured, or straight up kept losing their things.
But… There was always this lingering trail of energy around everything. Tiny sparks, like leaving fingerprints on a crime scene. Zane’s eyes narrowed over the sight, because for whatever reason when someone interacted at the area of the trail, there was an incident. But the ninja were seemingly unaffected. It was puzzling him more than he’d like to admit.
“Got anything else?” Nya called, fixing up another lamppost as Cole repaired the streets.
“No… Not that I can tell. Besides the usual city destruction and string of bad luck lately.” Cole said.
“Yeah, I don’t think broken fire hydrants or people slipping on nothing is much of a coincidence.” Jay commented, charging up the broken lights.
“Or the reported cases from the police of temporary blindness or deafness.” Nya agreed. There was something else going on here… But what?
“Zane? Do you have any ideas?” Lloyd asked, turning to look at the nindroid.
“Well, yes. The patterns here are… Strange.” he began carefully, looking around at the remaining destruction.
“Strange? How?” Kai asked.
“Well, look.” Zane gestured to the wreckage. “It’s… Small. But everything that’s around seems to be made with the intent to cause minor harm or be inconvenient. Not to mention my scanners are picking up traces of magical energy in each contact point.”
“Wait, you can see those too?” Lloyd asked. “I thought that was just me…”
He nodded. “Indeed. And have you noticed that the incidents were whenever someone-”
“Passed through the energy left behind?” he finished.
“Correct. Which leads me to believe that we need to find the matching energy signature to locate the culprit.”
“Good idea. Do you know where the last trail was?” Lloyd asked. Zane’s gaze shifted, looking around at the surroundings. He hummed, locking in the outer skirts of the city, at the Wildwood Forest.
“That way.” he pointed to the woods.
“Didn’t we go there in one of our first adventures?” Jay asked.
“Yes! My falcon led us to the treehouse fortress where Lloyd was being held captive.” Zane recited the memory.
“Oh, geez. I think my memory tried to block that out.” Lloyd weakly laughed. “It’s been so long ago… And honestly a bad decision on my part.”
“You did release those snakes after all. What did you expect to happen?” Kai caught up to his side.
“For them to help me steal candy! Which…” he frowned. “Sounds bad when I say it aloud.”
“Nah, you’re fine.” Kai waved him off. “It’s all in the past, you’ve grown a lot since then!”
“Let’s just figure out where the trail goes.” Zane cut in between them, already starting to walk off.
“Hey! Wait up!” Kai ran after him, everyone else following. The team quickly caught up to the nindroid, who was already scanning through the forest.
“What kind of trail are we even trying to find?!” Jay exclaimed, gasping slightly.
“Something to link us to the city’s problems.” Zane said.
“Oh okay. REAL helpful statement.” he remarked sarcastically. Cole elbowed him lightly.
“We’re working with what we got Jay, it’s alright.”
“And I’m well aware of that, Cole.” Jay ran his hands through his hair. “But after the last incident, I don’t want any more incidents to happen to us.”
“We should be fine.” Nya piped up in between the two. “Investigations usually don’t lead to anything besides more facts for us to work with.”
“Yeah, and getting attacked. Or captured. Or both, for crying out loud!”
She paused. He did have a point… There were too many incidents on record where they went to go check something out, only to get attacked or captured, sometimes both.
“... Yeah, that’s fair.” she admitted quietly.
There was a sudden rustling in the bushes. Zane stopped, the rest of the team immediately drawing their weapons. That had to be it, there was something in the woods that was the cause of this whole mess they just had to come out of hiding-
A tiny orange fox leapt out, staring up at the six curiously. The ninja paused, slowly lowered their weapons as Zane inspected the animal.
No trace of the magic signature on it. Lloyd frowned, noticing it too. His tail curled around his leg as he just stared at it.
“Ha… Haha…” Jay weakly laughed. “Guess it was just a fluke after all?”
“I… Guess so?” Lloyd tilted his head.
“Ah, okay! Cool, let’s go home!” Jay took a step to the right. Zane’s sensors immediately went off.
“JAY STOP-”
“Wh- AH!” His screams blended into everyone else’s as the six were thrown up into the air, trapped in a dark grey net hanging from a tree, piled on top of each other. There was a startled pause between them before everyone kept trying to adjust their positions.
“Ow, don’t elbow me-”
“I feel like my chest is getting crushed-”
“Will you stop pushing me into the net?!”
“Guys!” Lloyd tried to yell over them. There were too many people talking, it was already overwhelming his ears.
“Everyone we need to stay calm and-”
“ZANE NOW ISN’T THE TIME FOR THAT-”
“OW OW OW GUYS-”
“BOTH OF YOU STOP TRYING TO KICK ME-”
“GUYS!” Lloyd yelled over them all, finally making them all shut up. He gasped, pushing himself up and away from the others as much as we could.
“We shouldn’t be bickering like this. We should be trying to find a way out of this net before something bad happens.” he reasoned.
“Yeah, but how are we supposed to get out of this?!” Jay exclaimed.
“With a bit of my fire, of co-” Kai stopped, his spark going out immediately. He froze, staring at his hand.
“Oh… No wonder I was feeling lightly sick.” Lloyd weakly laughed.
“Wait, WHAT?!” Jay freaked out again.
“Since when was that a thing?!” Cole asked.
“I’m really good at hiding it… Vengestone makes dragons and dragon hybrids feel sick. It’s… Nothing too bad. I can handle it…” He paused. “Granted it’s not for too long.”
“Hm. I feel like my scanners should’ve been able to pick up this trap. It felt too… Obvious.” Zane pondered, staring at the ropes. They were definitely vengestone now that he was looking at them.
“Yeah… How did you not notice?” Nya asked.
“I am not sure.”
The leaves rustled above the net, soft giggling rippling through them. The team tensed, trying to pinpoint where the sound was coming from.
Lloyd caught a spark of the magic trail in the corner of his eye. He glanced at Zane, who was watching it too. The spark flew around the net before a cloud poofed into existence, fluffy fox ears popping out as white fuzzy hair emerged. Piercing green eyes stared at the six, a little too giddy for their liking. There was a black splotch on their right cheek, their hands also blackened from something. They had a simple dark teal sleeveless turtleneck with a faded purple wrap top on, dark purple baggy pants with a light orange cloud print on the ends, and a pair of dark cyan shoes.
“Oh… My goodness… Haha! I DID IT! I GOT THEM I GOT THEM I GOT THEM!” she cheered excitedly, zooming around the net.
“Who the hell are you?!” Jay yelped.
“Ooh, little ol’ me?” She came right up to Jay behind the net, her hair tentacles forcing him to look at her. “I’m flattered you wanna know, but that’s not important right now!”
Zane’s scanners were working overtime at this point, trying to keep watch over the fox as she kept zooming around the net.
“Then what are you trying to do?!” Kai yelled. “Because from what we can tell you just threw us into a net!”
The fox giggled, having way too much fun with this. “Because I did~”
Lloyd’s ear flicked. He growled slightly, glaring down at her.
“Can’t you just get to the point, already?” he snapped.
“Oh, where’s the fun in that?” she patted Lloyd on the head, making him bristle at the touch.
“Your behavior explains a lot.” Nya muttered.
“Explains what, cutie?” She brought a cloud tentacle up to her chin. Nya immediately swatted it away.
“Don’t touch me.” she grumbled, only for the clouds to wrap around her face like a gag. She bit down hard on it, trying to force it off, but it wasn’t budging.
“NYA!” Kai yelled, trying to reach over to her. A cloud tentacle grabbed his wrist, throwing him directly into Cole before binding their wrists together using her clouds.
“Grk- Hey! Let go of my sister right this instant!” He tried to tear his arm free, but it wasn’t moving at all. The fox simply giggled, clinging onto the net like it was a toy.
“Aww, you’re very cute when you’re mad!” she teased.
“So you’re just here to mock us or something?” Jay snapped.
“Hm…” she hummed, letting her hair coil around the ninja’s neck. “Sure, let’s go with that.”
Jay’s breathing hitched, any further words dying in his throat. He reached up to the tendrils, trying to pry them off.
“You do fit the appearance of a trickster.” Zane said rather matter-of-factly.
“Well, I’m so glad you’ve noticed! That’s rare nowadays!” she laughed, coming up from behind him.
“Then I have only one query; Is the only purpose you have for doing that as entertainment or something more than that?” he asked.
The cloud fox paused, humming lightly as her hair coiled around his wrist.
“Since you asked so nicely, my reasons are pretty simple… I thought it’d be funny. And I knew it would draw out my little prizes!” she flew around over to Lloyd, tapping one of his horns. He swatted her hand away, only to have his wrist caught by her hair as well.
“So that’s it, then?” Zane’s eyes narrowed, keeping watch over her. His gaze flickered over to the arm that was bound, scanning over the energy. The fragments were spreading… Wait a second.
His danger sensor was going off at it, looking up at everyone else. He silently muted the noise in his head to ignore the bickering, staring at the fragmented sparks, which were actively spreading from the contact point all over the bodies of his friends.
Shit.
He looked back at Lloyd, the green ninja tensing up the moment he locked onto his gaze. Lloyd quickly shook his head, trying to concentrate on where the cloud binds were. The sparks were already showing on his face.
He froze, immediately trying to tear off the band from his wrist. It wasn’t budging, why wasn’t it moving?!
“Aw, looks like time’s up. Gotta go, but here’s a quick goodbye gift!” the fox fell back, summoning a small bag.
“What’s that supposed to be…?” Jay asked hesitantly.
“Sleeping powder. Here’s a neat party trick!” she poured it into her hair, staining it blue.
“Okay, cya!” she poofed away, the smoke completely enveloping everyone. The effects felt too overwhelming, lulling everyone into sleep. Zane wasn’t sure why he was being affected by the smoke as well, his systems powering down before he collapsed as well.
His head felt heavy.
That was the first thing Lloyd felt.
His hands tightened on the blades of grass below him. He felt… Much warmer than usual. Which didn’t seem that odd, but that was his only other thought. He groaned, sitting up as he held his head. It was throbbing so hard it was painful.
He winced, blinking slowly in an attempt to gain his bearings. Everything hurt, and his friends…
He snapped out of his thoughts, looking around frantically. Where were his friends?! Were they okay?!
Lloyd staggered to his feet, only to feel something brush the grass behind him. He quickly spun around, panting slightly as he looked around. Was someone there? Watching him? They had to be, there was no way-
He heard the rustle again, spinning around to nothing.
“O-Okay… Lloyd. You’re probably hallucinating or something.” he told himself, raising his hands up defensively. “There’s no one here except…”
He heard it again. His ears perked up, this time much more harshly to what felt like a crystal clear sound. He hissed, pressing his hands up to his ears. Something was definitely wrong, maybe if he could-
Something soft brushed up to his leg. Lloyd spun around, only to lose his footing and land back into the grass. He groaned, sitting up. A blonde monkey tail poked out from his side.
Lloyd stared at the tail, wide-eyed as he leaned away. The tail didn’t do anything, just laid down on the grass. He frowned, reaching out to poke it.
The fur was… Soft. Real, definitely real. He tugged on it, hissing slightly at feeling something getting tugged-
… Wait a second.
Lloyd let go of the tail, standing back up again. He looked behind him, seeing the blonde monkey tail right behind him.
He immediately ran over to the nearest lake, looking down at his reflection. Clear as day, a slightly spiked monkey mask curving up into a rounder shape was on his face, not to mention his hair was way longer than normal. Lotus shaped ears were poking out from underneath his hair. His eyes looked like they were red too, was that a part of it? He wasn’t sure…
He sat back from the water, pulling up his sleeves. There was fur as well, perfectly concealed with his gi. He pulled his sleeves back down, tugging at his hair.
This felt… Wrong. He wasn’t his usual dragoni self, he was now a monkey. How did this even happen?
… He frowned, staring at his hands. The lingering sparks of the cloud fox’s power. Did she- No. There’s no way she did. Unless that was her plan all along, but then what about his friends?
His ears perked up to the sound of gasping and coughing, one that felt too familiar. He whipped around, recognizing that voice immediately.
“KAI!” he bolted from the lake, scrambling back towards the sound. Was he okay?! What happened to him? Was he hurt?!
The coughing stopped as the sound of flowing water echoed in his ears. He slowed to a stop, pushing through the trees to where he last heard the sound, moving into the clearing. Lloyd froze, his ears falling as his tail went limp.
Nya looked like she was merged with the sea again, holding onto Kai in her arms.
“Nya…? Kai?” he hesitantly stepped forward. Nya glanced up at him, her eyes widening slightly.
“Lloyd?” She tilted her head a little. “You look different…”
“Don’t worry about that. Are you and Kai okay?” he asked. Nya flexed her fingers, maintaining her water form completely fine.
“I… I think so? I mean, I’m okay.” she quickly said, still holding onto Kai. Lloyd’s gaze trailed down to him, even through her translucent arms he could make out his features.
The first thing that caught his eye were the ears, they were almost fish-like, dark crimson red with red folds, and a mismatch of both of those colors for scales dotting his cheeks, and from what he could see his shoulders too.
He paused, noticing the gills quietly expand and recede back into place on his neck. He lightly shook Kai’s shoulder. He hissed, staring towards Lloyd before realizing who he was.
“Uh, hey Kai… Were you unable to breathe earlier?” Lloyd awkwardly asked.
“I… Y-Yeah…” Kai quickly looked away from him, trying to cover his gills. Nya gently pulled his hand down.
“That’ll just make it worse.” she eased.
“But I can’t just stay like this!” Kai pushed himself off of her, trying to cover his gills with his hands. Nya immediately pulled him back down to her, pressing her hands up to his neck. He shakily exhaled, trying not to feel so lightheaded.
“So… You…” Lloyd slowly turned to point at Nya. “Turned back into the sea, s-somehow. And your form is completely stable?”
“Yeah, I just woke up like this.” She pulled her hand back from Kai for a moment, leaving her other arm to take up the job of covering over both sets of gills.
“And Kai is… A mercreature?” Lloyd pointed at Kai. He huffed, crossing his arms.
“Yeah, that’s very obvious isn’t it?” his fish tail flicked lightly behind him. Lloyd hummed, lowering his hand.
“And you’re a monkey?” Nya asked, confused. “That’s weird… And your eyes. They only go red whenever you lost your powers.”
Lloyd’s head snapped towards her. “I didn’t lose my pow-” he stopped, staring at his hands. He tried lighting a spark of his energy, only for nothing to come out.
Shit.
“Okay, so maybe I have. But it’s fine! Uh… How about you two? Are your powers intact?” He turned back to the siblings.
Nya hummed, trying to flow more water out from her form, only for nothing to come out. Kai pushed himself away from her, holding his hand out as to not hit her with his fire, only for frost to hit Lloyd squarely in the face, coating his fur.
Lloyd blinked, quickly brushing it off, staring at his older brother, startled. Kai stared down at his hand, horrified.
“I… I have ice. Then that means-”
“Zane.” Lloyd immediately ran off, pushing through the trees as he returned to where he woke up.
He looked around, finally spotting Zane in the distance. Except… He looked human. Did his cloaking feature come back on again after everyone blacked out? That could’ve happened…
Lloyd crept over to him, kneeling down as Nya came up from behind him in the distance, still holding onto Kai.
“Zane…?” Lloyd shook his shoulders.
Zane grunted slightly, wincing as he held his head. Everything in his body worked, how long was he offline for…?
He slowly sat up, holding his head as he tried to steady himself. He felt… Weak, strangely off balance. Everything was so hazy, it was taking too long for his eyes to adjust. It felt… Weird.
“Zane?” Lloyd called his name. The fog in his mind started to clear as he blinked wearily, his eyes landing on the monkey.
“Lloyd…?” he blinked, trying to adjust his vision. Why weren’t his sensors working? His body should’ve been back up and running again by now, not this… Sluggish. He shook his head, his hair falling over his face-
Hair? No, his hair was usually metallic. It hadn’t looked like this since he cloaked himself. Usually platinum blonde or white hair, and it was blonde again. He frowned, holding up a strand of his hair before trying to flick his control panel on his arm open.
Nothing opened. His fingers brushed against something too soft, fiddling with it. He could barely pinch it, which was even more strange because that only happened with fabric not titanium, and ESPECIALLY not because of his usual disguise.
“Uh, Zane?” Lloyd spoke up again, snapping him out of his thoughts.
“Ah, Lloyd. My apologies, I was just…” he trailed off, staring at his arm again. “Something feels off.”
Lloyd gently took his arm, pressing his thumbs down on it. It felt… squishy, not stiff like titanium. His ears flattened as he kept studying his arm, his nails unintentionally digging into his arm. Zane hissed, pulling his arm away.
“That hurt.” he muttered, holding his arm. He felt something warm on his palm, pulling his hand back away. Red liquid drizzled from the claw marks.
“Gah! Zane, I am so sorry-” Lloyd immediately panicked, trying to find his first aid kit tucked in his gi. Zane held his hand up, making him shut up immediately.
He looked lost in thought, studying himself all over again. His sensors and vital scanners weren’t in his vision anymore. He felt sluggish and hazy, his hair was actually moveable, his skin was squishy, and he could bleed…
“Lloyd. I believe I am human.”
Lloyd froze, his tail going limp behind him. He blinked once, then twice, trying to adjust his mind.
“You’re… What?! Zane, don’t be ridiculous-”
“Nindroids don’t bleed. Nindroids don’t have flexible metal skin. Nindroids don’t feel tired or drained. This is not a nindroid!” he panicked, gesturing at himself.
Lloyd looked at him for a long moment, his eyes darting all over his form before he shakily exhaled.
“S-So… You’re human, I’m a monkey, Kai’s some fish thing, Nya’s been merged back into the sea-”
“WHAT?!”
He flinched, his ears pinned back at the sound. Lloyd pulled them down to try and calm himself. “Y-yes?! And she’s stable at least, she’s not falling apart!”
“Lloyd…” Zane huffed. “You made my chest feel too tight for my liking.”
“I… Stressed you out?”
“That’s a word for it? I mean, I know the word I just didn’t know you used that word for physical responses too-” he stopped, hearing the soft groaning of Jay. Zane and Lloyd glanced over at him as he stirred, holding his head.
“Jay!” Lloyd tried to help him up. Jay stared up at him, bewildered.
“Uh… Lloyd? Think ya need to get your eyes checked.” he pushed the monkey’s hands away.
“But you look untouched, Jay! Are you feeling alright? Sick? Dizzy?”
“I’m fine, and stop calling me Jay! It’s me, Cole!”
Lloyd froze, his ears falling yet again.
“W-wait… Then you- And him…” he pointed to Cole. ‘Jay’ looked over, only to tense up at the sight.
“Lloyd, why is my body on the ground?!” he exclaimed.
“Your body- Oh shit.” Lloyd’s eyes darted to the two, taking a step back. ‘Cole’ winced, sitting up as well, only to freeze up at seeing ‘Jay’.
“Uh- Cole?! Is that you?!”
“Jay?! Why are you me?!”
“I should be asking you the same thing!”
“It appears they’ve swapped bodies.” Zane whispered to Lloyd.
“Y-Yeah, that’s…” Lloyd slid down to the ground. “Oh great FSM… What have we gotten ourselves into?”
“Getting cursed, apparently.” Nya cut in, still holding onto Kai.
Lloyd was trying desperately to make a mental recap on this situation. Simple terms… He was now a monkey with zero access to his power. Nya got merged back into the sea and is somehow stable, and she also has no powers. Kai’s now a fish with Zane’s ice powers, and Zane’s human with Kai’s fire powers. And then both Jay and Cole swapped bodies… Jay is Cole, Cole is Jay. Totally not confusing at all!
… Oh, he’s not fooling himself in the slightest.
Lloyd buried his face in his knees, just staying there. Kai stared at him for a moment before prying himself away from Nya, kneeling down to the monkey.
“Hey… Lloyd?” He placed his hand on his shoulder. Lloyd lifted his head up, staring at Kai before realizing Nya wasn’t with him.
“Kai?! You-”
“Hey. Listen to me first.” he cut him off. Lloyd clamped his mouth shut.
“This isn’t hopeless, we’re still alive aren’t we? This isn’t like the crystal council or the overlord, they’re taken care of. It’s just us, and we’re unharmed besides these changes. And we’re gonna stick together to fix this, alright?” he assured him.
Lloyd stared at him for a long moment before quietly nodding.
“Good… Because I don’t think I can do this anymore my skin feels like it’s on FIRE-” he hissed, Nya quickly grabbing ahold of him then.
“I suppose I’ll have to contact Pixal to come retrieve us.” Zane said.
“Okay, you do it.” Jay tossed him his communicator, letting him catch it.
“Thank you.” he tuned into it, placing it up to his ear.
This was going to be a very long next couple of weeks, wasn’t it…?