Chapter Text
A few bunk beds are built up, but for the most part, the chow house’s main room is filled with single beds. They’re lined up similarly to the way that the beds were lined up in Walker’s prison; straight rows, except these are more crooked and out of balance.
Danny didn’t have much on him in his room, but he grabbed the toothbrush, toothpaste, towel, and hairbrush that Chen so graciously gifted to him for free, and the extra set of clothes that had been left on his bed. The clothes that looked like what the ninja were given to wear, but he didn’t want to wear them. He shoved it under his pillow.
They’d probably been put in there purposefully, as another dig at the ninja.
Of course, it didn’t mean Danny was able to sleep all that well. Being surrounded by so many people was anxiety-inducing, especially as the bed he’d grabbed, furthest in the room and closest to their now shared three-stall bathroom, was right next to someone who had just stopped snoring a few minutes ago.
The storm had finally subsided, at least. Nothing but the unpeaceful sound of other tournament participants snoring echoed in the room, and the shifting of uncomfortable mattresses on wooden, rickety beds.
…And that person is snoring again. Great.
Danny turned in his bed. He was still wide awake, adrenaline and an urge to move, move, do something, help them, help them keeping him up. But he didn’t know what the future held in store yet; and even if things were all as it should be (surely Clockwork would help him out if he was in danger of messing with the timeline, right?), there’s still no telling what would happen to Danny if he did anything out of the ordinary.
He hadn’t mastered duplication yet, either. Damn. It’d be easy to pretend to be two distinct people (Danny and Phantom), where he could keep his cover safe but still help the ninja out at the same time. Life sucked.
He heard shifting from the other side of the room, where the ninja had all claimed beds next to each other. He couldn’t make out the words, but before he could sit up to try and hear better, the lights flickered on, and a couple of Chen’s soldiers (or goons, Danny think the term goon fit them a lot better) came in, banging on a small hand-gong.
Except, instead of Chen, it was him. Clouse.
The goons began to surround the remaining tournament-goers, pulling sheets off of beds and hitting the person snoring with a pillow. Danny sat up, rubbing his eyes at the bright light.
“Good morning, fighters.” Clouse said with a smirk. Oh, Danny so wished he could just run up and sock the man in the chin. It wouldn’t be payback for everything he’d done to him (such as literally kidnapping him from his home), but Ancients, it’d feel good. “Or, well, it is rather early, is it not?”
Yeah, they’d gotten back to bed at a little after midnight. It was now three in the morning. Witching hour.
One of the goons approached Danny when he was too busy glaring daggers at Clouse, and the man ripped the blanket off him and strapped something to his feet.
“Hey—” Once the goon was done, Danny could see that a pair of roller-skates were attached to his feet, locked on by a golden lock. Seriously? He wouldn’t immediately take them off, c’mon… The goon got away with the key before Danny could grab him.
Everyone grumbled as they all got up, quite a few (such as Kai) slipping around, unbalanced on the skates. Danny slid off his bed, making sure the skates were even on the ground, before deciding, no thanks, screw this and screw you, and very carefully started to use the smallest bit of ectoplasm to help him balance. It wasn’t quite flighting or floating, his feet were weighed down by the heavy skates, but it kept him from falling flat on his face.
It is so much easier to skate when one doesn’t have to worry about the issue of gravity. He took a test run of it, getting halfway through the room, slowing down by the beds where the ninja were supposed to be sleeping (he knew they weren’t).
Lloyd groaned as he pushed himself forward. “Let me guess, another one of Chen’s impromptu battles?” The one the night before, between Skylor and the sound guy, was impromptu, as was the change for the fight between Cole and Jay.
“This won’t be so bad, Lloyd!” Jay said, easily skating by both him and Danny, showing off with a twirl. “I love skating! Did you know I placed first place in the Ninjago City mother-son skate-off?”
Wait. Danny had barely gotten ahold of the knowledge that this land he’d been dumped into was called Ninjago. Is there a city called Ninjago City in this realm? What the hell? There wasn’t, like, an America City or Earth City to his recollection in his own realm. Or, at least, one he knew about.
Whoever founded that city must have been awful at names.
…Then again, most of the Fenton inventions are just regular inventions with the name Fenton placed in front.
Maybe he shouldn’t judge too much without trying to look inwardly.
Clouse cleared his throat, catching everybody’s attention. “Master Chen wants everyone in the Royal Arena in five minutes. I wouldn’t be late if I were you. May be instant disqualification…”
Yeah, uh, Danny isn’t about the let’s find out how this realm’s rules work on me today thing, so he definitely won’t be late.
“Hey, wait.” Skylor, the girl who had fought mere hours ago, skated to the front door, catching Clouse before he turned. Danny, curious as ever, skated up quietly, catching himself on one of the room’s many pillars. “Most of us have already fought in this first realm. Why are all of us in skates?”
“Well, Skylor.” The man spoke her name with an… eerie familiarity. Danny put that in his memory for later (hopefully he wouldn’t forget). “While there will only be two of you fighting tonight, the rest of you will have an opportunity to affect the outcome.”
Affect the outcome. Things were beginning to change quickly. What Danny had assumed would be just a tournament of fighting, like some sort of anime arc, was quickly evolving into something else completely. Were they all just entertainment to Chen, as he probably plotted some weird world domination thing?
As they all skated into the Royal Arena, Danny noticed something right away. The whole room had been changed into some sort of roller derby arena, from what it usually was, just a large, octagonal room. Where there were once seats for an audience, a ramp took its place. Master Chen had a platform in the middle, where instead of a throne, he had a seat that would allow him to turn easily, in order to see everything happening around him, like some reverse panopticon.
Or maybe that was a panopticon?
Danny couldn’t remember, one video essay Sam had shown him months ago had used that word and it stuck in his brain because it was a fun word to say, but he forgot the exact meaning of it. Pannnopticon. Pan-opte-conn.
Focus, Fenton. Focus.
“Welcome, welcome, challengers!” Chen announced as they all slid awkwardly into the room. A few (Kai) were worse on their skates than others (Jay), but most of the participants were able to keep them balanced. Or they were using secret abilities to keep them balanced because they weren’t about to be like Kai. He skid to a stop right next to Lloyd, holding on to another pillar for a bit of support. “I hope you are all awake and ready for the next round, since everyone will be participating. Yay! Tonight will be… the Master of Form versus… The Green Ninja!”
The Master of Form? Danny glanced around, looking at all the participants. Kai skated by him easily, and—wait a second.
“Who’s the Master of Form?” Lloyd wondered aloud, turning to Kai, who appeared on his left.
“You haven’t heard?” Kai(?) asked, skating an easy circle around Lloyd. His voice was a little… lighter, than normal? “I hear she can turn into anybody, be anyone, and you wouldn’t be none the wiser. She could get under your skin, figure out all your weaknesses, and you wouldn’t even know.”
“What? How do you—” Lloyd squinted at Kai(?), turning around and watching as Kai slipped down and fell face-first, sliding down the side of the ramp.
Not-Kai laughed, and his skin shimmered, before fading to reveal a younger woman with cropped short purple hair. “Watch your back, green ninja.”
“Ahem!” Chen’s voice cut through the crowd. “Now, it is time for my favorite event… Thunderblade!”
Thunderblade? Danny had never heard of that before. Neither had most of the participants, either.
The guy in the wicked sunglasses and all-white suit smiled. “Hey, I know that game—”
“No, you don’t!” Chen yelled, turning to the guy who spoke up. “This is my game, I made it up, copyright me!” He then cleared his throat. “Anyway. The rules are simple.” Behind him on the table were two different Jade Blades, and two helmets—a purple one, and a green one. Chen picked up the green helmet and one of the Jade Blade, handing it to Lloyd. The purple one went to the Master of Form (Camille, Danny’s pretty sure). “Lloyd, Master of Power, will be on the green team. Camille, Master of Form, will be on the purple team. Each lap you complete with your Jade Blade, you will get one point. Whoever gets the most points before the time expires, wins.”
“But what about us?” Danny didn’t even think before he spoke up. He hadn’t spoken up much since getting there, only really to the ninja, or the nice kabuki ladies who helped him with his stuff earlier, but whatever. He was tired, he was pissed, he wanted to go home, but no, some fruit loop from another realm had to drag him in to nonsense.
“Yes, yes! At the bottom of the ring there should be more helmets.” Looking down, there were roughly about ten helmets of each color, purple and green. There weren’t twenty people left, but there was probably a buy ten get ten free sort of deal, at the superstore where all evil dudes get their things for evil deeds. “The rest of you get to help or hurt whoever you wish. You’re free to choose your side, I am not a dictator!”
Not a dictator, my ass, Danny thought, but instead of letting any more ectoplasm flow through his veins out of anger, he bit his lip. He was risking a lot just by using a bit of his power to keep him steady. Any more and he’d definitely start to look a bit strange to the people around him, and the last thing he wants any of these people to know is that he’s not exactly human.
A few murmurs echoed through the crowd, and he watched as they began to build up teams. Kai (helped by Lloyd to the helmets) and Jay obviously grabbed a green helmet each, but everyone else went for the purple one.
Well. Danny didn’t know the other tournament goers that well either, but he helped the ninja before. He skated down and picked up a green helmet, which was a little too big for his head. They were clearly not built for a fifteen-year-old in mind. But it would have to do.
And anyway, not like it was dangerous for him to go without one. Can’t kill something that’s already dead, or whatever.
“Yeah, these odds aren’t great.” Jay looked at Danny as he approached. “Oh, uh, hey, buddy, think you picked the wrong color—ack!” Kai ran into his side, nearly knocking the two of them over.
“Are you sure, Danny? Everyone’s going to be against us. The odds aren’t fair.” Lloyd said, as he helped the other two ninja up.
Danny glanced down at his helmet, then back at the other team, before trying to fix it up on his head. Six versus four. Not bad odds. “No, I’m sure.”
Hey, if Danny had taken down Pariah Dark, disgraced former ruler of the Infinite Realms, a match of roller derby was no issue for him.
“Teams! Line up!”
Danny wished he could say that everything was going to be fine, but even he doubted it.
As soon as Chen shouted, “Go!”, Lloyd and Camille both took off skating. They each had a ten second head-start before another horn went off, and the teams were allowed to go. The guy in the white tracksuit sped by—speed, right, what was his name, Clint? Cliff? – easily.
Well, no time like the present. Danny took that as his time to get going. Neither team had any time to plan or strategize before starting, so he’d do his best to make sure Lloyd made it to the next round. He’d promised them, after all, that he wanted to help—a promise he would keep as either Fenton or Phantom.
Skating started getting easier as both Camille and Lloyd caught up to them, both finishing their first lap at the same time. Most of Camille’s team crowded together in a line. There were enough of them that it was impossible for anyone to get through, except Camille, of course. The toxic girl from the first night sent a glare at Danny, which, fair, but hey, she hadn’t lost yet!
Jay tried to help by shocking a few people out of the way, which cleared a small spot for Lloyd and Danny to both break through. Kai barreled through, knocking him and Lloyd over onto the ground.
Danny skid to a stop, stretching out an arm to help Lloyd up. “Are you guys okay?”
“Yeah, yeah, we’re fine.” Lloyd groaned.
“Kai, watch out! We’re supposed to be helping Lloyd, not hurting him!”
“I am bad at this. What do you want from me?” Kai retorted, before turning to Lloyd. “Why don’t you use your powers to get ahead?”
“I want to stay on the track, not get thrown off it.” Lloyd sighed. He held tight onto the Jade Blade and started skating off again.
It kept going like that—Lloyd fell behind and Jay stuck himself next to Kai, to prevent any more accidents from happening.
04 – 03
How had they gotten ahead quickly?
Danny willed a little more ectoplasm to leak through, turning himself slightly intangible to make himself a little lighter on his feet. The skating was getting easier. It was like ice skating, but just with wheels instead, and he easily slipped underneath the arms of the much taller adult Elemental Masters who were trying to block his way to Lloyd.
The other members of the orange team who weren’t blocking Lloyd had trapped him, two on the side and one in front. Right before Danny could get a chance to break through there, he heard something click, and the floor underneath the three of them swung up, creating a ledge to fly off. It caught everyone off-guard, and even Danny felt himself hesitate, but it gave Lloyd the perfect opening to push through and flip off, landing on his feet a few feet ahead—if a little shaky.
There was still a good amount of distance between Lloyd and Camille. Danny pushed ahead, catching up next to Lloyd. “I wanna try something.”
“What?” Lloyd asked. He still looked a little hesitant that Danny had decided to join their team, but thankful.
It was a trick he had learned back at the Far Frozen. While he had trained himself quickly with the yetis, most of their land was coated in snow or ice. While the cold never bothered him anyway (and now, he knew why it never did in his previous visits), unlike the yetis, he didn’t have claws that would allow him to easily walk over it. The solution was simple—focusing enough, he could attach small blades to the soles of his feet to get around faster.
It wasn’t something he’d thought of until his brain made the connection between the ice skating and the roller-skating. While as a ghost, he had more control over his balance, and didn’t really need to walk over the ice and could just float instead, it wasn’t like he had to float all the time as a ghost, either. He wasn’t tethered to the ground, but he could be, if he wanted to, and he was still more used to walking than floating.
Danny focused his thoughts on the palm of his hand, allowing the cold ice energy to grow. Normally, he would charge it with as much ectoplasm as he could, to keep it a strong and solid and unmeltable as possible, but this time, melting and cracking would be okay. He was fighting humans, he had to hold back, or he’d hurt somebody. The cold energy grew into a snowball again, and he spun around on the skates before throwing it to the ground.
Immediately, a sheet of ice began to spread over a section of the ramp. It wasn’t as thick as he needed it to be, but it was thick enough that most of the other team stumbled over themselves. Kai did, too; unfortunately bringing Jay down with him, but before either he or Lloyd could fall, Danny made sure that the ice spread over their roller-skates and turned them into blades instead. He tried to reach out to Jay and Kai, but they might’ve been a bit too far away.
“What the—” Lloyd watched all of it in shock, before looking at Danny and grinning. “You’re pretty good with your ice powers, huh?”
Danny shrugged. “Eh, I dabble a bit, I guess. Now, c’mon, let’s catch you up.” He reached his hand out again, and Lloyd took it, and Danny pushed all of his strength (human and ghost) into arm-whipping him as hard as he could, and Lloyd went flying to the front.
The ice wasn’t as strong as he’d liked, and didn’t stretch all the way around the arena, but it at least caught the other team off-guard enough.
9 – 10.
Lloyd barely had a one-point lead, thanks to Danny. The ice had all melted, and Danny knew not to try it again, but they were closing in quickly. Only four minutes were left in the round, and Camille was catching up, quickly.
The speed guy (Griffin) and the shadow guy (Shade) were both at Danny’s sides, bumping into him and grabbing him to slow him down. Kai had been knocked out by one of the toxic girl’s (Tox, finally got her name, but it had to be a nickname, right?) clouds of poison. Jay and Lloyd were in similar positions with the rest of Camille’s team as she took advantage of the moment to speed ahead.
“Hey, kid, why’re you on his team, anyway?” Shade asked as he pulled Danny’s arm back. If it weren’t for his hypermobility, Shade might have dislocated it. It was clear that’s what he was trying to do, at least. “It doesn’t matter who wins this round, there can be only one winner.”
“Yeah, and it’ll be me!” Griffin chimed in.
Shade rolled his eyes and ignored Griffin, pulling more on Danny’s arm, and wrapping his other around Danny’s neck in a headlock. “You’re just a kid, anyway. Why are you even here?”
I don’t want to be here. I was brought here against my will. They kidnapped me. They’re just using me, using us. Danny could say a lot more. He could spill the beans, say everything, if he wanted to. He doubted the adults would believe him. They never seemed to believe him when it mattered most.
So, well, Danny did the next thing that a sleep-deprived, half-ghost teenager from a different realm would think of.
He bit into Shade’s arm. Danny didn’t mean to draw any blood, but he tastes the familiar metallic taste a small bit as he dug his fangs in. Shade screamed, letting go of Danny, and allowing Danny to propel himself forward.
“What the hell, kid!”
“Oh for First’s sake, you bit him?!”
“All’s fair in love and war!” Danny retorted without turning back, pushing himself towards Kai, who had finally picked himself off the ground (again). “Are you okay?”
“I’m good—oh sh*t, is that blood?”
Danny wiped at the side of his face. There was a bit of blood smeared across one cheek from Shade. Not a dangerous amount—Shade would survive, as long as he got proper medical care after the round (and he would, no doubt). “…It’s not mine.”
Kai opened his mouth like he was about to say something, thought about it, then closed it again. He reached out to grab Danny’s arm to help his balance as they started to skate again. “…Uh, okay. Anyway. How are the points?”
“Lloyd’s ahead, only by one. They’re all teamed up against—” Before Danny can finish, he heard the bell go off, again. “Never mind about that lead.”
“This isn’t going to work with all of them against us like this.” Kai said, though it was more him talking to himself, then talking directly to Danny. Jay shocked the other team who was holding both him and Lloyd, and arm-whipped him ahead, though Lloyd didn’t get as far as he did with Danny. “Even if we manage to win this round, they’re all still going to be our enemies.”
“Why’s everybody gotta be your enemy?” Danny asked.
“Huh?”
Danny shrugged. “I mean, like. You ninja really haven’t been all that nice to everybody else. You’ve been a bit weird with me, and that’s it.”
“Well…” Kai sighed. “Look. Chen isn’t as nice of a guy as he seems, and you don’t seem to be working for him, so I’m gonna tell you the truth. He’s stealing our powers, and he’s going to use them for some sort of spell.”
I’m going to pretend I don’t already know this information. “Oh. Really?” Danny blinked at him.
“You’re not working for him, right?”
“Ew, gross, no. I don’t even want to be here—" Danny said, before clearing his throat. “—uh, anymore. I just wanted the free noodles.” Nice save, Fenton.
Kai was none the wiser, it seemed.
“Well, if you’re so worried about Chen, why don’t you tell the others? That sort of information is something everyone would like to know, you know.” Danny added.
“I guess you’re right. But I don’t know if they’ll listen to us.”
“Won’t know until you try.” Danny glanced ahead. The other team was trying to surround Lloyd again. “Hey, I have an idea.”
“If this is another ice thing can you give a warning next time—” Danny whipped Kai forward with all his strength, sending him flying straight into a group of the other team. He didn’t even hear the last half of the Master of Fire’s sentence.
Well, if they’re gonna start telling the others about the true reason Chen is hosting the tournament, maybe I can… No. Ridicuous thought. Danny shook it from his head, before pushing forward to catch up.
Lloyd pulled through a win out of pure luck.
It’d been neck-and-neck, the last minute of the rount. Danny didn’t even know time could last that long (except, with all the paperwork he’s been doing over the last few months, it sure could drag sometimes), but even though Camille passed the finish line first, she forgot one small thing.
Her Jade Blade.
“What?” Chen yelled, jumping out of his chair. “No, no! He cheated! He must have. Master of Power loses—”
Oh, no. Danny skated forward, a bit. He was a little tired, he still had Shade’s blood smeared by his mouth (which he would apologize profusely for in a minute), he was sweaty, he was tired, and he was starting to get fed up with this realm. “Hey! No, he won that fair and square! If anything, you’re the one who cheated with all those ramps and stuff.”
“No, this is my tournament. So, my rules!” Chen jumped back into his chair, crossing his arms.
The master of light, the guy who was partially invisible (Danny could see his whole face, he pretended to not look at it) crossed his arms. His name was Mr. Pale, or something. “And what rules are those?”
Chen stayed silent, though Danny could see the fruit loop simmering with rage.
“If Lloyd’s out, then so am I.” Mr. Pale said.
“Yeah, me, too.” Kai said, finally kicking off his skates so he could walk like a normal person (and not fall on his face anymore.”
“And me, three!” Jay added.
“If you kick us all out, what sort of tournament will you have then?” Skylor asked.
Chen relented. “Fine! Have it your way. Master of Form loses. Master of Power… wins.”
The other cheered for Lloyd as Camille fell through the floor. While he did feel happy for the winner, knowing exactly what Chen was doing—gathering their powers for some sort of spell—he felt guilty for Camille, and all the losers before her. Sure, he had to pretend to not know that one fact when Kai told him. Still, the knowledge of what awaited Camille…
They’ll find a way to stop Chen. And then, maybe, a way for Danny to get home.
