"And the grass child is still there," Martel told us as he and Kyle entered the training area. Oh good he's awake we can finally become useful to the team. Shadow turned to Martel and Kyle and embraced the purple eyed boy, both of them falling to the ground as she did.

"You're awake!" she squealed in delight as Martel gently pushed her away as he tried to free himself from her bear hug. "I beat up Echo while you slept! He was weak, kinda like Cade but much much much much much much much weaker!"

Ouch. I really felt that one. Martel ruffled Shadow's hair as he finally was able to escape her embrace and nodded to everything she had said, giving her a smile. "Yeah, Kyle told me about it. You whooped his donkey. F-word this body! You know what I mean, good job Shadow. Oh and practice makes perfect Echo, or whatever."

Double ouch. Were they trying to verbally hurt me just because I lost. I would like to remind them I won twice before this thank you very much! It's not like it was a fair fight anyway, I never used chakra once so there! I gave myself a handicap when I had no obligation to do so! Shadow should be thankful I held back my true strength since I didn't want to completely overwhelm her with my amazing skill at fighting.

Yeah keep believing that, a voice in my head said. I recognized the voice as my conscience, I mean Minerva, and turned to the elemental child of mind. The glare I sent her only made her giggle more and I rolled my eyes. I guess Martel was right. She really could be a troll at times. I returned my attention to Kyle, noticing Martel had left while I had been distracted.

"Alright, Martel's gone to tell Sensei Wu the news," Kyle started before turning his head to the door of the gymnasium. He unsheathed his sword and pointed to the door as if he planned to slice it in half. "Prepare yourselves, we're about to be attacked in 10 seconds."

Actually it only took 9 seconds but I wasn't gonna be a jerk and tell him that. Instead I slid my sword out of its sheath and held it, watching as grass began to rapidly spread and grow across the floor. Justin slammed his staff into the ground and the grass stopped inching toward us. Marquel blinked and sliced a literal blade of grass that had been thrown. He spun his sai and guarded against two more blades before clapping his hands together. Yellow energy crackled between his two hands as he spread them away from each other and placed them on the ground. The energy from his hands jumped across the ground before floating into the air, a shield beginning to form in front of us. "Gravity shield," he explained as he jumped up and began floating in the air. He covered his hand in yellow energy again and the door flew open to the outside. "Follow me minions."

Marquel flew out the door and we followed suit and stood before the Bounty which was now completely covered in grass. Marquel flew to the top of the Bounty along with Violet and Dusty. The rest of us summoned our dragons before doing the same. Grass crumpled under my dragon's feet as I landed on the deck and dissolved the beast, coming face to face with Riley for a second time. Her eyes were glowing and I noted that the grass was wrapping itself around her ankles, kinda like a vine and a tree. Marquel went to say something to her but Kai interrupted him as he charged toward Riley, his sword a blazing inferno around its blade. Kai swung his weapon downward and fire erupted from the blade and burned a path straight toward Riley, who lifted up a hand and blocked the attack with a shield of a bunch of, now burning, grass.

"How did you escape your cell?" Kai asked the girl as more flames generated from his sword. Riley continued to defend against the onslaught of fire, not stopping to answer his question. She then made a twirling gesture with her hands and grass shot at Kai. He easily evaded the attack but was caught off guard as the blades of grass pulled in and wrapped itself around Kai's body. "What the?"

Electra's eyes glowed bright blue as static filled the air, lifting the hair on my head a little in the air. Small flashes of electricity crackled all around us until balls of lightning winked into existence, surrounding Riley. Well that was easy. I went to sheath my weapon before feeling something grab at my legs. Tiny hands made of grass were grasping at all of our legs. Electra got distracted by this and the lightning balls vanished as Riley now snapped her fingers. The hands became sharp blades and I jumped back as they tried to shred away at my legs. Marquel, Dusty, and Violet each entered their dragon forms and spat fire at the grass trying to cut us to ribbons. Riley was completely in control of the situation and there was nothing we could do. Well at least that's what I thought. Kyle had managed to cut away the grass around him and he carefully made his way to Riley, cutting a path to her. "Do you plan to stop us all?" he asked her, soon up close to her.

"Well I can't do that, too many of you," Riley answered as she stepped back, slowly walking toward the edge of the grass covered Bounty's starboard side. "I'm simply making my escape." Kyle realized too late and went to grab her but the girl had already jumped and summoned her bird. The bird flew inside of her and wings of grass sprouted from her back as she took to the sky. "Have fun with my warriors."

Warriors? The blade of grass rose out of the Bounty's deck and began to take another, more samurai-like form. Oh god. I cut the air in front of me, sending a sonic boom through the air and stopped the grass warrior from forming. Well at least I thought I did. More warriors started to form in their fallen comrades place and I stepped away as they finally pushed themselves up. "Everyone, defend yourselves!" Kyle shouted before disappearing. When he reappeared beside me the grass warriors that had surrounded him were cut to ribbons.

I quickly ran to my sister's side and the two of us fought back any of the grass samurai that came near us. Aaralyn leaned back to avoid a sword strike and moved around the samurai, confusing it as she cut away at its body. The warrior in front of me glared at me with eyes made of dirt. I quickly cut his life short as I thrust my sword into his chest. Kai continued to use his fire powers to his advantage and the dragon ninja each followed his example with blazing attacks of their own. Justin used his staff to manipulate the grass warriors and had them fight each other before joining Bernardo. Shen used wind to either push the warriors away or tear them apart with extreme gales. Kevin, Tommy, and Electra lit our opponents up with lightning and the grass warriors began to diminish in size. I stabbed another grass samurai before my blade met another. The samurai lifted its sword in the grass but was stopped when Aaralyn ran past me and sent a horizontal slash across the samurai's stomach. She then jumped and caught him in the eyes with the tips of her daggers.

Toxin used her poison to melt those that dared come near her as Dash slowed down several with his weapons before Marquel sent them to oblivion with small blue colored stars. Only a few more formed and even less remained as the Bounty began to shed its grass appearance, returning to its former glory. I guess Riley had gotten far enough away. "Finish them off Martel and Sensei," Kyle spoke as he turned his back on the warriors and sheathed his blade. Where did he see-?

"Dragon darkness!" I heard a familiar voice yell and jumped back as a purple flaming dragon flew past me.

The dragon spat black flames from its maw and scorched several of the grass samurai, leaving a trail of smoking and blackened grass in its wake. Martel landed beside me in his dragon form. I moved away from one of the purple wings that came with his dragon stage and noticed he was breathing hard. Guess that attack took more energy than he would have needed if he were still big. Principal Wu landed in front of the samurai and smiled a little. "Why Riley is quite impressive isn't she?" He then began to spin around the samurai as they tried to attack him. Golden energy flew from his hands and began to surround him until he transformed into a golden tornado. He then dispatched of the samurai as he spun around them. "Too bad she doesn't know what I can do."

"Was that all of 'em?" Dusty and Marquel asked as they walked up to us, also out of breath. I took a look at Violet and noticed she was too. We really had to get them back to their proper age and soon.

Martel's purple eyes flashed before he exited his dragon stage and nodded, giving them a thumbs up. "Yeah, I don't see their souls. Well the spot where their souls would be anyway. I can see a grass soul but only faintly. I'm guessin' grass girl is gone."

I nodded sadly and Sensei Wu sighed as he walked over to the rest of us. "My students. Emily. We must inform the others of what has happened when they return. For now we must find a way to quickly reverse what has happened to the dragon ninja, Kai, and Kyle. It may seem foolish to the rest but I am putting Echo's team in charge of finding the solution. The rest of us must focus on M.A.D's bases."

"Great so we gotta find something to fix them while everybody else gets to fight," Bernardo grumbled in annoyance. He let out a pained sound and held his stomach as Kyle growled and elbowed him. Even for a kid he was still plenty menacing.

"Unless you wish to live without a tongue you'll do as Sensei has instructed, do not complain and do not disobey him," he spoke in a cold tone and I saw that his red eyes had taken a deadly glint instead of their usual calm demeanor.

I think everyone realized the atmosphere of the situation because no one spoke up or even questioned Kyle for his actions. Instead Sensei told my team what we were looking for, a description of it, where and how to find it, and how to handle it with care. He then dismissed us and had us all do whatever we needed to do to keep occupied while the others came back.

Aaralyn, Justin, and I took it upon ourselves to learn more about Dragon Ninja since we've been neglecting our studies. We headed to the library and each of us took a book of off the book cases. "So we're really just supposed to fix something that the Dragon Ninja had done to themselves even if it's not our fault?" I asked suddenly.

"They're just trying to give us something to do that'll keep us occupied and away from the real danger even though we've proven we can take care of ourselves in the face of danger," Aaralyn sighed, putting down her book. "It's not fair, why should we be treated like this just because we're kids?"

"Because you still got mo' experience to gain," Dusty said as he entered the library. I never really paid much attention to the sand ninja but now that he's here I noticed that he was usually by himself when we were on the Bounty. "Look, this may not sound as fancy as it would coming out of Kyle's mouth, but you all need to improve a whole lot mo' if you wanna start going on missions. Caden's team didn't have a choice but to go on missions since there was a villain immediately after another. You all haven't experienced that yet and by the time you do all of your abilities will be so much better. Shadow kicked yo' butt earlier so that's one reason we don't feel you're ready. If you can't beat a nine year old girl then you sure as heck can't defeat no highly trained assassin."

I went to point out that we beat robots and samurai no problem but then realized the new robots had bested us while the grass samurai had been weak due to Riley leaving, weakening the samurai by a lot. I hung my head and Dusty sighed before punching me in the shoulder. "Don't be like that. You gonna get betta. Marquel, Martel, Violet, and I are gonna help you as soon as you help us get back to normal. I may be extremely cute as a kid but I love being a handsome black ma-er boy than a cute dark chocolate kid."

"I think you're past dark chocolate Dusty, you're more the color of dirt than dark chocolate, no offense to you."

"Don't worry I know what you meant. Anyway you keep reading like the boring people you are. I'm gonna see if Marquel wants to spar with me."

I nodded and watched as he left, keeping his words clear in my mind. They weren't as encouraging as Martel, Kyle, or Tai would've made them but that's alright by me. They were the way Dusty would say them and still influenced me to stop reading and to go train as well.