“You can drown in sorrow,” Kai said, already heading north again. The others followed along behind. “You can drown in debt.”
“Somehow, I don’t think Cole borrowed money from the Phantom Ninja,” Jay said.
“You can drown in other things,” Zane said grimly. “Grain. Dirt. Sand.”
Kai turned to look at Zane. “Sand? Wait a minute, didn’t Sensei Wu say something about a big patch of sand somewhere nearby?”
“No,” said Jay. “I think he said quicksand!”
“That’s it!” shouted Kai, racing through the forest now. “It has to be!”
They had gone only a few hundred yards when they came to a clearing. About one hundred feet from where they stood was a large pool of quicksand, with a black-garbed figure half-submerged in it. The figure was motionless, no doubt trying to keep from moving too much to slow the rate of sinking.
“Cole!” yelled Jay. “We’re here! Hang on!”
The figure in the quicksand didn’t answer. Or he can’t, thought Kai.
Jay rushed forward to save his friend. But he didn’t notice the vine stretched across his path. Fortunately for him, Kai’s keen eyes spotted the danger. The Ninja of Fire leaped, bringing Jay down with a flying tackle. They fell on the vine, which triggered a hail of daggers from a nearby stand of trees. The knives whistled over the heads of the two ninja.
“You saved my life,” said Jay.
Kai got up off the ground. “You were acting like me, rushing in without thinking,” he said, smiling. “And only I’m allowed to act like me in this team.” Kai bent down and ripped the vine free. “Now let me see if I can put this to use.”
Twirling the vine over his head like a lasso, Kai threw it toward the figure in the quicksand. The end of the vine landed right in the center of the pool, but the intended target made no move to grab it. “Cole, take hold of the vine and we’ll pull you out!” Kai shouted.
No response.
“Do you think perhaps he is already … ?” asked Zane.
Kai abruptly turned around and started walking back into the woods. “If he doesn’t want to be rescued, then we shouldn’t waste our time. Let’s go.”
“Wait a minute!” Jay exploded. “You can’t just leave him to die.”
“Sure, I can,” said Kai.
Zane started walking away as well. “It seems the most logical thing to do.”
“You’re both crazy!”
Kai’s voice dropped to a whisper. “Jay, shut up and start walking. Trust me.”
Jay turned back to look at the pool of quicksand. He was sure the figure had sunk lower in the last few moments. How could they just leave Cole behind? But Kai and Zane seemed certain of their actions. Slowly, he started to follow them.
Their journey was halted by an axe that flew through the air and struck the ground right at Kai’s feet. The three looked up to see the Phantom Ninja standing in a tree.
“Just abandoned him to die, hmmm?” he said. “What will Sensei Wu say about that?”
“We didn’t abandon anyone,” said Kai. “It was a dummy in that pool. Which only seems fair since all three of us are dummies, too. Right?”
“If you say so,” replied the Phantom Ninja.
“First, you attack Cole and knock him out, but you don’t leave a mark,” said Kai. “That takes a lot of skill. I don’t think even Sensei Wu could do that.”
“Then, when Kai, Cole, and I were hiding in the woods, you chose Cole as your hostage,” said Zane. “One has to wonder why.”
“Oh, no,” said Jay. “You’re not saying … ?”
“Yes,” said the Phantom Ninja. “They are.” He pulled off his hood to reveal Cole’s face.
“You!” exclaimed Jay.
“Him,” said Kai. “Now the question is, why?”
“Simple,” said Cole, as he made his way down the tree. “The three of you were questioning my leadership. Each of you thought you’d been passed over for the job for some reason. I wanted to show you that isn’t true.”
Cole reached the ground and walked over to them. “Zane, you had the knowledge to figure out the moss clue. Jay, you created the invention that got the team across the river. Kai, your combat skill helped you spot the trap I set, as I knew it would. All three of you have unique abilities, and you know what you can do well … and all three passed the challenges I expected you to.”
“I think I see,” said Zane. “The true role of a leader is not only to know what he does well, but to know what all the members of his team do well. Thus you know how best to employ them on a mission.”
“Exactly,” said Cole.
“So all that stuff about the Phantom Ninja,” said Kai, “you made all that up.”
Cole hesitated a moment before answering. “Well, no. I wish I had. But there really is a Phantom Ninja. He really did ask for money to help the sensei and was turned down. But so far his vows of vengeance are just talk.”
“That’s a relief,” said Jay. “Between Garmadon, Samukai, and the skeleton warriors, we have enough enemies to worry about. But here’s the really important question: Where’s our stuff?”
Cole laughed. “Back in camp. I snuck back and returned it after you left.”
“We should head there, then,” said Zane. “It seems we have a lot to discuss.”
The journey back to the camp was made in silence. As they entered the clearing, Cole stopped, stunned. Not only was all the gear gone from camp — again — but the campsite itself was completely trashed.
“Very funny, Cole,” snapped Kai.
“Really, this is carrying the game too far,” commented Zane.
“Wait a minute, I didn’t do this,” insisted Cole. “When I saw it last, the camp was intact. Someone else must have come here after I left.”
“Correct,” a harsh voice replied. “And that someone was me.”
The four ninja turned at the same time to see another ninja. This one was garbed in charcoal gray and standing at the edge of the clearing. None of them had any doubt who he was, but they still felt a surge of disbelief. After all, how could it be?
“The Phantom Ninja?” said Jay. “You have to be kidding me.”
Faster than the eye could follow, the Phantom Ninja hurled two shuriken. They hit Jay just above the shoulders, pinning the fabric of his ninja outfit to a tree.
“Does that look like a joke to you?” asked the Phantom Ninja.
“What do you want here?” demanded Cole.
“I heard someone was using my name in vain.” The Phantom Ninja chuckled. “It seemed a good time to come and ask for payment. I have already taken your weapons and your campsite. What else do you have that might be of value?”
Jay yanked the shurikens out of the tree. The other three ninja spread out, each ready for combat. “I think we can find something to give you,” said Kai. “But you might not like it.”
The Phantom Ninja leaped high in the air from a standing start, did a midair somersault, and landed on his feet in front of Kai. “Do your worst, boy.”
Kai unleashed a hail of punches and kicks. The Phantom Ninja blocked all of them without even breaking a sweat. Then, spotting an opening in Kai’s defenses, he landed a sparrow strike in Kai’s midsection that left the young ninja gasping for breath.
“You have power, but no technique,” said the Phantom Ninja. “You won’t live long in this business.”
“It is not a business to us,” said Zane, closing in. “It is a duty.”
This time, it was the Phantom Ninja’s turn to attack. But every blow was parried by Zane with ease. Finally, the Phantom Ninja stopped and took a step back, his eyes crinkling up as he smiled beneath his hood.
“Now, you’re interesting,” said the warrior. “Maybe more than you know. Observant … I like that.”
Zane said nothing. He saw no reason to inform the Phantom Ninja that he had noticed a pattern in his combat style. Whenever his opponent was about to strike with his left hand, he would drop his right shoulder
a quarter of an inch. Noticing that had allowed Zane to anticipate and block his moves.
“Shall we try it again?” asked the Phantom Ninja.
“Repeating the same action and expecting a different result is the definition of insanity,” answered Zane, nonetheless preparing for another round of fighting.
The Phantom Ninja took a step forward, dropping his right shoulder. Zane prepared for a blow from his enemy’s left hand. Instead, the Phantom Ninja lashed out with his right, felling Zane with one strike.
“No,” said the Phantom Ninja, looking down at his opponent. “Insanity was thinking you could beat me.”
Cole began to whirl around, using the power of Spinjitzu to transform into a tornado. “Come on, Jay. I’ve had enough of this guy.”
Jay nodded, hurling the two shuriken even as he channeled his Spinjitzu power into an electrical whirlwind. The Phantom Ninja blocked the missiles with little effort. Cole and Jay headed for their foe from opposite directions, intending to trap him between them. But to their surprise, the Phantom Ninja also transformed into a whirlwind, rotating just as fast as they were, but in the opposite direction. When they came close, the force of his cyclone overwhelmed theirs and they were sent sprawling on the ground.
“You … you know Spinjitzu, too?” said Jay, stunned.
“I know a lot of things. This, for example,” said the Phantom Ninja. In the next instant, he had completely disappeared.
Cole sprang to his feet. “Where did he go?”
“I don’t know,” said Jay, joining him. “I never saw him move.”
Zane and Kai were back in the fight as well, though now there was no one to battle. “Invisibility would make an already difficult opponent … unstoppable,” said Zane.
“No one is unstoppable,” said Cole. “He didn’t leave us any weapons, but we’ll make do with what we have. Grab sticks, rocks, anything. Throw them at the spot where you last saw him.”
The ninja readied their makeshift weapons. Just before they were about to throw, the Phantom Ninja reappeared right where he had been before. He took off his hood and smiled at the young men. “Well, now I see why that one is the leader. He thinks on his feet.”
“Interesting illusion,” said Zane. “How did you manage that?”
“Oh, it’s no illusion … not really, not the way you mean. I simply empty my mind of all thought. In effect, I cease to exist mentally. And with no mind, no awareness of self, I disappear,” the Phantom Ninja replied.
All four ninja moved in to attack. As the Phantom Ninja fended them off with little effort, he caught Jay in the midst of a flying kick and hurled him over his shoulder. “You guys should have no problem learning that one,” he continued. “Emptying your minds should be a cinch for you.”
Cole looked around. The other three ninja were exhausted, but continuing to fight. Their opponent was fresh and didn’t even seem to be straining. At the same time, the Phantom Ninja did not seem to be really trying to beat them so much as looking to see what they could do. One way or the other, this fight had to end soon, Cole knew. Otherwise, his team would collapse and anything might happen.
His plan was risky, but it was the only thing left to try. “Close in!” he yelled. “Don’t give him room to move!”
The Phantom Ninja made no extra effort to counter as the four advanced on him. Even as they were coming at him from every side, he simply blocked their blows as he had been doing all along.
Cole waited until he and his team were almost on top of the Phantom Ninja and each other before they shouted, “Spinjitzu! Now!”
Before the Phantom Ninja could react, all four ninja transformed into living tornadoes. It was perhaps the most dangerous thing they had ever done, invoking the power of Spinjitzu when they were so close together. But it was working. The force of their spinning lifted the Phantom Ninja high into the air, and kept him helpless.
Cole waited for one minute, then two, until he was sure the Phantom Ninja must be defeated. Then he signaled the others to cease their spinning. Deprived of the air pressure that was keeping him aloft, the Phantom Ninja slammed into the ground … and laughed, and laughed.
Cole’s heart sank. Was the Phantom Ninja still ready to fight? If so, then what?
But the fallen foe made no effort to get up and attack. Instead, his laughs subsided into warm chuckles and he grinned at Cole. “I guess I lose my wager.”
“Wager?” said Cole. “What wager?”
“Sensei Wu and I made a little bet. He told me about some of the tension in camp. I wagered that, even in a crisis, his team would be too fractured to follow their leader. But you four proved me wrong.”
“Wait a minute,” yelled Kai. “You know Sensei Wu well enough to make bets with him? I thought you two were bitter enemies!”
The Phantom Ninja sat up. “Oh, that’s just the story we agreed to tell. See, I was a bandit, way back when, until Wu caught me. Instead of taking me to jail, he made a deal with me. I would restrict my activities to robbing other criminals, and pass any information I learned about major threats to him.”
“So all this … ?” said Cole.
“… was to give you guys a common enemy when you needed one,” said the Phantom Ninja. “You all want to defeat the skeletons, but you have different plans of attack. That’s why you aren’t working well together. With me, there was no time for arguing about the best plan of action. And look what happened.”
Zane helped the Phantom Ninja to his feet. “Now what?” asked the Ninja of Ice. “You ambush us, batter us, and we are supposed to let you go free and continue a life of theft and banditry?”
The Phantom Ninja clapped Zane on the back. “That’s the score, kid—unless, of course, you want to try and defeat me a second time. But I’m not sure I’d advise that.”
“Why, you …” Kai began, taking a forceful step toward the Phantom Ninja.
“Kai, stop!” snapped Cole. “We’ll take him at his word … for now. If we discover that he’s lying to us about anything, we’ll find him again. And now he knows that we can beat him.”
The Phantom Ninja smiled and shook his head. “Oh, come on … you don’t think I would be ready for that trick the next time?”
Cole walked up to his opponent, stopping when he was nose-to-nose with him. “Then we’ll come up with another trick. Do you want to take that risk? I’m not sure I’d advise that.”
The Phantom Ninja gave a slight bow. “Enjoy the battles to come,” he said to the ninja. “Tell Sensei Wu I will leave the tea I owe him in the usual spot … and you’ll find your gear about one hundred yards behind you in the woods. Farewell!”
With that, the Phantom Ninja vanished into the woods. Kai looked like he wanted to go after him, but Cole stopped him with a look.
“Whoever he is, whatever reason he did what he did, maybe he taught us all a lesson,” said Cole. “Come on, let’s gather our gear … and then we have skeletons to track down. Right?”
Zane, Kai, and Jay looked at one another, and then at Cole. “Right!” they said together. And with that, they set off, knowing that no matter what challenge awaited them, Cole was the best leader to guide them.
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First printing, January 2012
e-ISBN 978-0-545-76593-0
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