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"Can anyone hear me?" Lloyd shouted into his communicator, he wiped the sweat off his forehead while darting his eyes around the cave. This whole situation was pretty inconvenient.
Basically, he and Jay were on a duo mission, not a large one, they'd already dealt with the problem. A village nearby had sent reports of very large spiders eating their crops, oversized as in monstrous, nearly as tall as them, so they couldn't be defeated with bug-spray or trapping them under a cup.
They traced the origin of the spiders to a cave a mile away from the village, they were an invasive species, as told by Zane when he sent the image over. So, when they attacked, they blasted the dozen spiders away, they were done for now.
Except, he really didn't like spiders, nor did Jay, and they'd begged not to be assigned to this, but they insisted anyway. Wu said they must overcome their fears, you never know when you will have to fight comically large spiders in a high pressure, dangerous situation.
Jay now, was on the ground, he was hit by a rock during the cave-in.
Right, there was a cave-in.
They used their powers not so carefully.
Through fighting the spiders, they were both pretty jumpy, Jay wouldn't stop screaming, while Lloyd blasted his power wherever he detected a single movement, in total panic. Even now, he kept whipping his head to the sight of a single movement, but that movement was usually the cave getting more… caved in.
Which wasn't much better.
It was a lot worse than spiders, actually. At least they were gone now.
But Jay was on the ground, the others weren't responding, and not an inch of sunlight got through the tight, huge pile of rocks at the entrance. He charged his powers up into a ball for light, and the green illuminated his face, and it wasn't good at all.
First, there was blood running down his head, a few trails that ran from under a rock pressed against it. They ran around his already sweaty forehead, down his eye, which made him blink it away, then crawling to the top of his GI or to the ground. Cold and wet, Lloyd quivered and stepped closer.
He wouldn't panic now, Jay was hurt, so he had to do what a leader should do and help him.
Wu would be pleased with him if he safely dealt with the injury; they hadn't been the best fighters, but he could be the best first-aider right now.
Taking another step over the tiny and huge rocks, he zoomed into Jay's face, shrouded in dark until he put his powers close by.
Oh no.
His eyes were closed.
"Not good, not good." He mumbled, stepped around again in the awkward bundle of rocks and got as close to his completely relaxed face as possible, not even a slither of pain passing through it - he was completely unconscious. "Jay, Jay, wake up!" He shouted, and even that caused some pebbles in the rock pile-up to tumble down.
Well. Jay was at the bottom of this rock formation, so he was afraid that moving him could send the whole thing down. Rock pile ups weren't good, but if Jay was the thing holding it together, he may just have to deal with being under there for a while. Just the sides of his head were under it, but when Lloyd grabbed his shoulder and shook it the tiniest bit, he had to avoid a larger rock tumbling down.
He froze completely, 'Time to concentrate.' he told himself.
Tapping Jay's shoulder woke him up, but half conscious and still very quiet awake, but he was awake at the least. Lloyd sighed and kneeled down while pressing the call signal again.
Nothing could come through but maybe an amergencynsifnal could wrangle through the rocks and get to the ninja in an hour or so.
"Jay, are you okay?" He placed a hand on his shoulder, moving his other hand up and down to look at his body. Some small pebbbles on him, some marks on his GI, and scratches on his skin where it had been cut through, but nothing serious. What was bad was his head, it was way too much blood.
"Jay?" He asked again louder.
At that, his face grimaced; his eyes slammed together and he squirmed his body around, his head didn't move for a few seconds, it was probably hard with the rock on top of it, but he ended up doing so. It caused several rocks to come stumbling down, and all he could do was blast his power at them and hope none of the fragments would blast into Jay, or cause a domino effect of a total cave-in.
"Jay, stay still." He told firmly, and watched as the final rocks tumbled down and into a dark corner.
He was no longer buried under the rocks, that was good, he could move him.
"Jay," he kept repeating his name, he needed him to hold onto reality, "are you hurt anywhere else? I'm-I'm gonna move you." He stuttered when he noticed his now exposed head-wound, pieces of rock inside, quite deep, way too deep.
Jay only continued to squirm, take jolting breaths, then squirm around again. His hand, when he reached up for his blasting head, was shaky, Lloyd grabbed it, "Don't touch it," he took off his own hood and held it in his mouth, his hands weren't free when he was dragging his friend across the cave, he muffled, "I'm gonna wrap it with this, 'kay?"
There was no response, only more groans, twists and turns from him.
Dragging him by the legs wasn't the best idea, but he seriously couldn't see a thing, and his legs were the one place he was sure weren't injured.
Once he believed he was as far away from the pile-up as possible, he stopped, and ignited his powers again. He whipped around to Jay, still flat on the ground, and much more still.
Hopefully the signal went through.
"L-Lloyd, where…" Suddenly, Jay mumbled, his fingers dug into the ground, shaky and weak, just like his voice that scratched with each breath.
"Jay!"
Watching as he struggled to speak, he knew this was really bad. Head injuries were no joke, as Zane and Wu have said many times before. "Where am I?"
Lloyd got his hood and pressed it to Jay's head, he squirmed and squeezed his body up at the touch, but it was much less intense than before. He was previously wary of moving him, but seeing he can squirm his head around and move all his limbs (as best as he can right now) meant it must just be his head.
"You don't remember?" He pressed harder into his head, then with his sleeve, wiped the blood dripping down him.
His breath was hoarse, his chest rose unevenly and sharp - head trauma can do a lot to your body, it was scary, but he also had no idea if there was more. The other ninja had to get here quick or he'd go mad, and Jay could…
"Jay, give me your communicator." He remembered, but also forgot that he was incapable of a lot at the moment, and only realised his mistake when Jay moved his arm just an inch, then it flopped to the ground. "Sorry, let me just- just grab it."
Once he had it, he tried contacting the ninja again. His didn't work before, well, he couldn't get a response, so maybe his was damaged in the pile-up.
Miraculously, when he replaced his shabby communicator with Jay's, voices were shouting through.
"Jay, you okay? Come in."
"Where's Lloyd? He's not responding."
The voices were harsh and low quality, so he couldn't make out who was talking, but there was clearly panic.
"Guys!" He yelled, flinched, then lit up the room with his hand more, worried of the cave in being more… in this cave. He paused for a second, the voices frozen waiting for an answer, "We dealt with the spiders, but…"
Someone responded, but it took a few seconds, so the cave-in probably made a delay in their communications. "But what, Lloyd?" Kai groaned, he knew that was Kai, there was way too much aggression in his tone for it not to be him.
Looking down at Jay, he kept pressing even while more blood still seeped out of the wound and through his thick hood. His breath shuddered when he spoke into the comm again, "Jay's hurt, there was a cave-in."
"He's hurt?"
"Are you okay?"
Zane's voice was clear too, the nindroid-y texture more obvious than the others. Lloyd responded, and talked a little louder to power over the loud, gruelling sounds of Jay. "A rock hit his head, he's bleeding."
"Ble-e-eeding—"
The line cut out.
"Ugh!" He groaned, his powers unlighting for a moment, but he heard Jay do more squirms and moans, so he rushed to ignite it again. "This is bad, um- uh-" he stumbled, pacing around in circles.
"Okay, maybe they can track the signal from the comms. Then- then they'll get us out and—" he wiped his face, it was getting hot in here. He paused when Jay did yet another squirm, and he realised he'd completely left him. He really needed to concentrate.
"Lloyd, what happened?" He groaned and looked around the room, lit up in a green tint by his power.
"Jay." He rushed, but mentally relieved; he seemed more aware, his voice still weak and scratchy, but he was able to form a sentence. Wiping the blood again, he leaned closer to him, and decided that he would stay right there. "You in pain anywhere?"
No answer, that scared him again.
"Well, 'course you're in pain, you're bleeding, a lot." He stated and leaned against the same wall he'd propped Jay up on, "Sorry, don't mean to panic you, the others will be here soon. I… think."
"The others?" He sounded groggy again, his voice trailing off after each weak word. Jay fell to his side but jumped straight back with a snap and groan, heaving on the wet, rocky wall, one hand to his chest.
The others really had to be here soon, "You- you okay?"
Sucking in a sharp breath, he leaned into the hood providing pressure to his head, so at least Jay understood that he was injured and wasn't trying to waltz around the cave for an exit himself. But, he probably couldn't do much even if he wanted to, the rock to the head messed his state of mind up.
Again, Jay said he didn't remember earlier.
"What do you remember?" He asked, Lloyd knew that all he could do was keep him in the same place, stop or slow the bleeding, and most importantly, keep him awake. Zane said the best way to do so was to ask questions, ones that make them really think and not the simple ones like 'what is your name?'
But Jay answered, slow and confused, but he spoke, "We were… on some mission, right? Just the two of us?" he nodded and asked him to continue.
"There's a cave-in, rock, head hurts." He mumbled, and dipped his fingers into the few drops of blood still escaping his hood and down his forehead.
"Yeah. We went hard, fought some spiders, you remember them?"
He paused, hummed for a few seconds, then nodded. Lloyd decided to press down harder, which probably came with either so much pain that all be could do was stay limp, or it didn't do anything at all, which means Jay was probably extremely out of it.
"Yeah…" he answered, and squinted his eyes tight. "You got those spiders, hah." He punched the air and grinned a wobbly grin.
There was no possible way to sss where the ninja were, but Zane knew exactly where they were, having debriefed them of the situation, so they would be found eventually. The main problem was getting them out of this cave, rocks were unstable, and the place was pitch black without his powers, so there must be a lot of those rocks.
Maybe they were lucky that only one had banged Jay up.
Lloyd laughed, he knew the others would be coming with the Bounty soon, so they just have to wait. But they were probably freaking out with the signal being cut, as they do. Though, that just means they're probably going full-speed to get to them after his mention of Jay being hurt.
"Yeah." He relaxed, and almost forgot to keep speaking once he realised that they'd probably be okay, having calmed downed from his initial panic. "Right, so- so…" he struggled to think of a question, and tried instead occupying Jay's mind with the tapping of his feet and constant mumbling, "you banged your head up , you don't feel it?"
Jay's breath trembled with his chest before he answered, "A little." He sounded more aware again, he constantly switched back and forth.
"I want longer answers than that so I know you're still awake."
His legs kicked and his head flopped to the side, "Why?" He moaned, "Wanna sleep." At that, Jay's head plummeted forward along with the rest of his bust, Lloyd almost didn't catch him.
"Jay, Jay!" He yelled, shaking his entire body, for a few seconds, it uselessly wobbled as he moved him, a limp weight, but again, he woke up suddenly as if he never scared him half to death. "I said don't fall asleep." He breathed deeply, letting out all the tension in his body that built up that moment, but not the overall terror about this whole situation.
Jay grabbed at the cloth pressed to his head, but also, as he was holding it too, placed his hand on top of Lloyd's.
The weak and shaky hands were now cold, but also sweaty and grimy, just like how the rest of his body fought between two sides; consciousness or unconsciousness, hot or cold.
Lloyd gripped Jay's hand on top of his with his other, three of them stacked on top, each cold or hot, but all three just an inch away from a whole lot of blood.
Blood that kept seeping out even with how hard he pressed.
"Like a sandwich." He suddenly blurted.
"What?"
"Our hands, like a hand sandwich."
Lloyd noticed and chuckled. "Yeah, like a sandwich." He looked to his face again, eyes half-lidded as always, but they weren't fighting to drop right this moment, but things have been changing very quickly down here, so that's why the others have to get here quickly. "Bet they're all really scared right now, our comms went offline and all they know is that you're hurt."
Bringing attention to his injury made Jay notice the pain again, he winced hard and dug his body further into the wall. It took a few seconds for him to stop, he did so with a big sigh and turned to Lloyd. "Ah, sorry."
"Don't apologise for anything." He removed his hand from the 'hand sandwich', as Jay called it, and wiped more blood from his cheek.
"The spiders were huge." Jay mumbled with a shiver.
Lloyd winced, they really were huge. "Yeah, but we got 'em!" He shouted a little too loudly, both for Jay and this cave.
"Not so loud." He snapped back immediately, gripping the hand on his head tighter.
"Sorry, sorry- you okay?"
"Yeah…" he aired, his hand got looser, but it still held on, so he wouldn't panic yet, "you know, this reminds me of a Starferer comic." He said, staring into the other side of the green-lit cave. Lloyd looked at the rocks at the entrance, then back at Jay, everything terrified him, but the state of his friend scared him more than anything.
But he was meant to be the leader - calm and collected, so he can get them out of any situation. But right now, his hands were tied, one hand physically unable to remove itself from Jay's head or else all the blood in it would come spewing out.
All they could do is talk.
"Oh, yeah?" He listened and leaned closer, gripping his hand again.
Usually, Jay was the one supporting him.
He was so close to all the ninja, each of them basically raised him, watched him grow from the bratty child to the "legendary" green ninja. Despite that status, he was always the one being caught by them, always having injuries patched up, or suffering the worst of them all, so he didn't know what it was really like to be on the other side.
But he would do his best, because Jay needed him.
"Yeah, an old issue." He continued, his voice clearer, "When Fritz Donnegan was on his way to the home planet of Imperial Sludge, his rocket ship was hit by a piece of a comet. He was stuck, and the lights went out."
Lloyd chuckled and looked around their cave, dark and stuck, "How'd he get out?"
"Had to wait for rescue, for once."
"Oh, well…" Lloyd took a peak under the hood holding the blood in Jay's head, but when he got close enough, his eyes snapped shut. He really didn't want to look or think about it for much longer, "I'm sure he wasn't scared"
Immediately, Jay shook his head, but it send him flopping around for a moment, dizzy and (still) slightly delirious.
"No, but- but you're allowed to be scared. You're not just the green ninja, you're also just… Lloyd."
He didn't know how to feel about that, so he just hummed and continued wiping more blood that still wouldn't stop seeping out.
"You read the latest issue yet?" He asked, noting when Jay's head started tipping again. He shook his head, "Then I'll go buy the latest issue, and we can read it together while you recover."
"When we're out of here?"
"Yep, when we're out." He hummed and looked to the pile-up again, and… it looked like there was more natural sunlight peaking through the smallest of cracks that weren't there before. He jumped up, keeping hold of his hood, "I- I think they're here, Jay!"
The rock wall was tumbling down in the other direction, then suddenly, all collapsed in a controlled manner - Cole appeared on the other side when all the natural light blasted in.
"Guys, they're here!" He shouted and waved for the others to come down. Jay was gripping his head and flinching his eyes shut at all the light and noises, but the ninja were here now, and things would be fine.
Kai and Nya appeared next, they zipped down the ropes and rushed for Jay. "Hey, hey, Jay, can you hear me?" Nya knelt at his side, cautiously touching his shoulders. The other zipped around and rushed for him.
"Lloyd!" Kai ran for him and wiped the sweat off his forehead, he hadn't been in this hot cave, so it was probably a complete panic sweat. He grabbed his shoulders tight and looked around his body, "Are you okay? Injured? The cave-in get you?"
He grabbed his hands and pulled them away, but never let go, because maybe he really needed something to hold onto right now.
Though, maybe he'd like for it to be Jay.
"I'm fine, I'm not hurt." He smiled, and half-looked at Kai's rushing face; he mainly looked at Jay, already being whisked out the cave with the gurney, Zane grabbing the ropes to pull it up by the Bounty.
Finally, as he walked out the cave and all the sunlight hit him, he realised that Jay might have helped him back there too. Only when he was safe and on the Bounty did he let himself cry, and finally be scared.