~ Part 3 ~ | Into the Lion's Den

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** CHS Rally Song (Ashleegh Ball)**
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"And you know
At the end
Of the day
It is we who survive!"

- My Little Pony

This song doesn't totally fit but I realized that it would've been great for the last chapter and also I really like it 😂

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This chapter is still dedicated to @Kailor_Ninjago! Thank you so much for the comments and support!

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Master Chen's High School was bigger than any of the tiny, broken-down structures in Ignacia. Kai couldn't help but feel intimidated (only a little bit!) by the humongous building. It was sleek and modern with tan stones and deep purple roofing. The window frames were a bright, shocking red, and framing them were deep violet banners.  Beside the school was a wide field of neatly mowed grass, a nice garden circling it with what looked like a stadium right next to it. Nearby, the parking lot was spread over the school property. It already was full of various vehicles owned by staff and students but now buses and other transportation from the guest schools were pulling in, helping to fill up the giant slab of asphalt. Lloyd whistled beside him, eyes wide and impressed as took he took in the surroundings.

"How much money does this school have?" The blonde asked under his breath.

Cole frowned, an unusually stormy expression on his face. "It's rarely good when a school has this much cash to hand out on things like a stadium and fancy banners." He said with a shake of his head. "Means we're in for some real insufferable people- both students and staff."

"Oh Cole, you worry too much! This tournament brings schools together! I'm sure everyone here is just lovely-" Jay's sweet words were interrupted when a car skidded by them, narrowly missing the boy as he leaped back into Cole with a scream. The fancy sports car was a blinding white, red stripes becoming blurs as it moved. It spun around quickly before sliding perfectly into a nearby parking spot, the door swinging out to allow a young man to step out.

"Oh, did I startle you?" The newcomer asked. It was hard to parse out his expression from the large red shades he wore over his face. Kai could make out light brown hair that was brushed back as if someone had blasted a hairdryer in his face. He wore a white tracksuit shirt with red stripes to match his car and glasses. As he drew closer, Kai could feel annoyance prickling in him when he saw the self-satisfied smirk the other teenager wore.

"Nope. Wasn't scared at all!" Jay pushed away from Cole and nervously fiddled with his silver necklace.

Cole raised a brow at his friend, barely hiding his amusement before he nodded at the human lifebuoy. "Hey. We're students from Master Wu's."

His eyebrows flew up and his face split into a grin. The boy grabbed onto Kai's hand and began jerking it up and down in an aggressive handshake. "I've heard about you guys! Quite a lot to hear, I'll tell you! Welcome to Master Chen's! I'm Turner, Griffin Turner."

Kai took his hand back as politely as possible, hoping his smile didn't look like a grimace. "Wow, I guess we'll be competing against you."

Turner laughed. "I suppose you'll try! Well, it was a nice seeing you all!" They all blinked at the incredibly cheery response, despite the insult underneath it. With a two-fingered salute, Turner marched off, chuckling to himself as he made his way rather quickly into the building.

Cole huffed. "See? Insufferable."

"None of that." They turned at Misako's disapproving click of the tongue. "This is meant to be a positive experience to allow us to show our school to others. We shouldn't sully it with negativity." She smiled fondly at them. "No matter what others think now, they will soon see just how amazing each and every one of you is."

"That was lovely Misako." Nya said, nudging Kai until he nodded. Misako was about to say something else when loud bickering from some of the younger students rose. Most of the kids had remained back at the school, watched over by the sharp eyes to Mistaké (Kai pitied them), while those taking part in the tournaments or coming to support it loaded into either the city bus and Nya's truck.

Misako sighed, looking somewhat jealously at the shiny school buses and many chaperones the other schools had. She gave a stiff smile to the group, shrugging a shoulder. "We're very low on staff for a school." She sighed. "We need more teachers, custodians..."

"It'll be alright, Mom, we can try to post job advertisements somehow." Lloyd assured her. "Some of us can help you with the kids and the others can explore the school. Wu needs to meet with the other headmasters."

"Dibs on exploring the school!" Kai shouted.

"Touch your nose or it doesn't count!" Jay huffed, already pressing a finger to the tip of his nose.

Cole let out a high pitched yelp as he almost jabbed himself in the nostril in an attempt to catch up. "Wait! I wasn't ready!"

Nya rolled her eyes. "Oh my god you're all so stupid. I'll help with the kids. It's fine."

Zane smiled, his blue eyes bright and cheery despite being one of the few forced to chaperone a bunch of unruly children on public transportation. "I will too."

"No Zane." Nya jabbed at him with a finger. "It's someone else's turn. You've been looking after them so often. It would be nice if the rest of you pitched in a little." She shot the boys a dirty look. It was enough to make them step back a little.

"Then Lloyd has to do it." Jay insisted. "We all did nose-goes."

Lloyd rolled his eyes. "Fine. Whatever. It's better than watching over bigger babies." Kai barked out a laugh and grabbed onto Lloyd's shoulder. The younger yelped as he was caught in a gentle chokehold and Kai dug his knuckles into Lloyd's blonde hair, giving him a rough noogie. The green-clad boy instantly let himself go limp, dropping to the ground and wiggling out from Kai's hold before he rolled away.

"Why would you do that?"

"You best be off," Misako cut in as she shook her head in exasperation, though she had a smile on her face. "Wu won't be gone for that long. Take some time to meet the other students and try to locate where events will be held."

"Alright, alright." Kai relented, walking backwards with a wave. "We'll meet up later!" Then he turned to face toward the school and started up the stairs. The rest of them followed, Zane a bit hesitantly, while Jay stuck close to Kai's side- looking a bit nervous about his surroundings.

The other schools were spilling out onto the school property now, many seeming to have the same idea as the Wu Cru ™ and were entering into the building. It was surprisingly easy to pick out the various students. It seemed they all had a lot of "school spirit" and were quite obnoxious about showing it. The students of Serpentine Prep were wearing various snake-themed attire in honour of their mascot. They had on various merchandise, from t-shirts, to snake print, to full on costumes! Soto Academy all donned pirate hats and seemed to think growling out "arr" at people was a normal way of greeting. Skulkin High had skull pins secured to the collars of their shirts. They had a lot of rough looking kids, burly and broad when they grinned they showed off various missing teeth. Darkley's didn't have anything particularly special. Perhaps it was the demeanour that gave them away. They crossed their arms and scowled, sneering at anyone who looked their way. Kai glanced back at Lloyd, a spark of worry working it's way into his gut, but the blonde seemed to be ignoring them for now.

"I forgot how tough the people at Skulkin were." Jay peeped.

Kai raised an eyebrow. "Didn't you used to go there?"

"Yeah, and obviously I was bullied!" Jay snapped, he jerked a finger at one of the biggest looking boys. "Do you see those people?"

"I'm sure it will be okay, Jay." Zane assured him.

"You have no memories of high school, Zane! You don't get to talk!"

"Knock it off," Cole scolded the ginger, rapping on his head with his fist. "I know you're nervous but that doesn't mean you can take it out in Zane."

Kai was about to ask about Cole's high school experience when he noticed a girl standing in the doorway of the school. She wasn't doing much, simply propped up against the frame, looking bored. She had an orange hoodie pulled far over her head but when she glanced up Kai could see her face. The girl was very pretty with deep brown, almond-shaped eyes and beautiful red hair, it's colour lighting up like fire in the sun. Kai was no stranger to beautiful girls but he couldn't help but feel particularly captivated by her.

Putting on his best charm, Kai sauntered up to the young lady, and flashed her a smile. "Hey," he gave her a nod. "Are you heading inside too?" Jay gave an excited gasp, one that was immediately cut off by Cole's elbow. The girl levelled him with a cold look but it didn't phase Kai. He'd lived with cool, collected Zane, had awkward, stilted conversations with socially challenged Pixal, experienced  Lloyd's angsty "bad boy" moods, and of course put up with Nya and all of her attitude for many, many years. Not that he'd ever phrase it like that in front of her. Kai valued his life far too much.

"Just watching the buses come in." The girl said finally.

"SKYLOR!" A loud voice boomed out. They all turned to see a rather large and well-muscled young man storming his way over to them. His booming voice was already intimidating but his big broad shoulders, a full beard and moustache furthered that. It didn't help he also had rather large silver boxing gloves and kept on slamming them together as he stalked towards them.

Kai glanced uneasily at the girl, who's mouth had pulled into a much deeper frown. "Boyfriend of yours?" She shot him a sharp look before straightening from the wall and facing the newcomer head on.

"You cheated at game!" The other guy snarled. Kai was taken aback by the thickly accented words.

"I didn't cheat," the red-headed girl said levelly. "I won fairly. Just because you can't take a loss, doesn't mean you need to take it out on me."

"You disrespected Karloff! Now you must pay!" Jay let out a yelp as a punch was thrown, gloves still on. Skylor's eyes narrowed and she braced herself, but the punch didn't reach her. Kai had grabbed onto Karloff's arm and yanked it, albeit with a lot of trouble, to the side.

Karloff glared at the brunette, slowly turning his attention to him. "Who you think you are, puny boy?"

"It's Kai, nice to meet you." Kai snarked, dropping the arm. "I just thought it wasn't really right to attack someone out of nowhere, especially on school property, and especially this kind young lady." He gave a nod in Skylor's direction.

The broader boy stared at him for a moment before he burst out laughing. "You have much to learn, small person! You do not not get involved in fights-" he leaned down, voice dropping threateningly. "You do not get involved in Karloff's fights." With that, he shoved Kai by the shoulders. Wu's martial arts training helped him stay upright, but Karloff was a solid wall of pure muscle and his push sent him flying back into Jay and Cole. Cole placed a hand on his back to help him recover, while Jay stumbled and fell back on his butt.

"Consider that warning," Karloff growled. "Karloff will not be so nice next time." He gave Skylor one last sneer before he marched into the school, throwing the doors open with so much force that they slammed into the walls- letting out a loud clang!

"Well, he was lovely." Kai grumbled, rubbing at his shoulders.

"You didn't have to do that," Kai glanced up to see Skylor glaring at him. "I had it handled."

"Hey, I was just trying to help-" he raised his hands in surrender.

"Well, I didn't need it." She looked him up and down. "You're new here so I'll assume you're just ignorant. Disputes stay between the two people, you stay out of it. I can stand up for myself." With that, she brushed past the group, tugging her hood further over her head as she entered the building.

Cole sent an exasperated look to Kai. "Really? You couldn't have gone five minutes without starting something?"

"Or without getting distracted by a girl," Jay tittered. Kai shoved him back onto the ground.

"It is strange that no adults noticed the commotion." Zane commented, angling his head to where various teachers were chatting amongst themselves, turning a blind eye.

"It was pretty tame for a... fight? Argument?" Cole waved a hand as he pulled Jay back to his feet. "Whatever that had been. They probably were distracted or didn't want to intervene just yet."

"You're lucky you only got a shove," Jay said worriedly. "These schools are pretty tough. It's not like Wu's."

Kai huffed. "That's for sure. She couldn't have at least given me a 'thank you'?"

"Always focused on the right things, aren't you Kai?" Cole snorted. "Come on, let's get inside." Kai pulled open the doors and held it open for his friends. He chewed on his lip as he watched them enter.

It was strange. Ignacia hadn't been all fun and games either. Most of those living there didn't make a lot for a living and the orphanage didn't have the best living conditions. That kind of environment tended to create a rather dark mood but at least some of the kids at his school had been relatively friendly. Wu's school has been incredibly different, full of light and life and chaos. The small town education seemed even smaller compared to the much bigger school and teachers all the more cruel. Headmaster Wu had so much care for his students and Kai's friends had soon become family. Sure, they too were competitive but it was nothing like the open hostility that Kai had just witnessed.

Kai stepped into the school, running shoes squeaking on the cool, grey, tile floor- eyes adjusting to the much dimmer lighting. Kai's eyes widened as he took in the large hallway, lined with sleek lockers and large banners of Headmaster Chen, a speech bubble beside him saying: Welcome to the Tournament of Elements! Despite the almost eerily cheerful decorations, the students there outright glared as they entered. Kai recognized Turner talking with a green-haired girl. He was one of the only people there who wore a smile, however overconfident it seemed. When they saw him looking, Turner gave him a nod, while the girl curled her lip in distaste. She was petite but obviously tough, she had a large bandage stuck onto her arm, and from her narrowed-eyed gaze Kai would've put money on that whoever had given her that injury had received so much worse.

He sucked in a breath. "This is going to be a lot harder than I thought."

NOTE****
Some of you might have noticed that the old part 3 had mysteriously disappeared... 👻

I realized that in doing that filler chapter it made me need to put more filler in and that was also affecting my motivation to write. So I made the decision to start this chapter over and launch straight into the beginnings of the tournament. The transition between these chapters is a bit weird because the Zane scene is in there a bit random but I like it much better than how it was before!

I hope you do too!

LuckyBugBooks 🐞