For some people, falling asleep in a new place, and in a completely different environment, wasn't too difficult. For others, it was as easy as breathing. For Kiba, well, it proved to be more difficult than she had expected.

Then again, she always had a bit of a problem when it came to adjusting to sudden changes in her life, and the past twenty four hours had brought around quite a few of those sudden changes. One of those being that she was now sleeping in a room at the Monastery. It had taken a couple hours that were spent tossing and turning in the bed before sleep had finally managed to take hold, and even then, she found herself waking up at frequent intervals during the night.

The cyan eyed female gave up on trying to go back to sleep for the seventh time when the first rays of light started to peak over the horizon and into the bedroom window. Letting out a slightly frustrated sigh, Kiba tossed back the sheets and set about getting dressed, ignoring the pains that shot through her elbow as she forced it to move. Thank goodness Lloyd had allowed a pit stop for a clothing pick up.

She internally cringed at the thought of wearing torn up sweat ridden dirt smeared blood stained clothes.

Don't judge her, alright? She liked to be clean.

A black t-shirt, black cargo pants, and a grey hoodie made up today's outfit, and she had just been in the process of putting her hair up into a ponytail when there was a knock against the sliding doors. The cyan eyed female paused for a moment.

She was naturally an early riser. Arin and Sora, were not. They usually woke up a couple hours after her.

And that meant that she should be the only one awake.

...Unless...

"Kiba? You up?"

Kiba facepalmed for a moment before moving her hand back up to her hair.

"Yeah, I'm up" she called.

Of course. How could she have forgotten about Lloyd? He was here too. Heck, he lived here!

And from how cheerful and wide awake his voice was, it sounded like he was an early riser himself.

The cyan eyed female pulled her hair through the final twist of the hairband she was using, and turned around when the sound of the doors sliding open reached her ears.

"Ah, good. You're all ready for the day" Lloyd asked as he took a step into the room and set his hands behind his back.

Kiba, as she hummed a bit, noted the fact that the blonde haired male was already dressed in his ninja suit, and he had a wooden staff with some kind of tape that had somewhat frayed edges wrapped around the middle of it fixed across his back.

"If you don't mind my asking, how long have you been up already?" she asked, digging her thumbs into the front pockets of her pants and slightly tilting her head to the side.

"Oh, about an hour now" came an nonchalant reply.

Damn, and Kiba thought she was an early riser.

"I'm about to go and wake up your siblings. Wanna help me out?" Lloyd asked as he turned and began walking out of the room.

"Knowing them, Arin's definitely going to be easier to get up than Sora" Kiba replied as she followed the Ninja out, going along with Sora being labelled as her sibling.

I mean, they sure acted like sisters, so why try to deny it?

"Huh. Good to know"

Moving along, silence fell upon the two as they took a couple turns through the Monastery before coming to a stop in front of two sliding doors. Lloyd pushed both doors open and marched into the room with his hands clasped behind his back.

"Rise and shine! Time to train!" he called out, coming to a stop and looking at the two younger teens.

Peaking inside, Kiba caught sight of Arin, who had bolted upwards at the sound of Lloyd's loud voice. How he managed to do that in a hammock, she would never know. Sora was laying on her stomach in the only bed that was in the room, and she was much slower than Arin when it came to actually waking up.

"Huh? Not just a dream? It really is my first day of Ninja training! Yes! Awesome! Maximum awesome!" the dark skinned male cried out as reality caught up to him.

Riyu, who had been curled up asleep in a chair that was hung from the ceiling, gave a yawn as he stretched out his body before hopping to the ground and trotting over to Arin. Sora let out a groan as she stirred awake, and she propped her upper body onto her elbows to look at the clock before turning herself to look at Lloyd with a slight hint of annoyance.

"It's the crack of dawn" she stated, tiredness heavy in her voice as Arin and Riyu ran out of the room.

Presumably going off towards the courtyard.

Kiba did her best to hide the smirk that was playing at her lips as she watched Sora rub the sleepiness from her eyes while Lloyd began talking again.

"I know, I thought I'd let you all sleep in for your first week. Meet me in the courtyard in ten minutes!" he said before putting his hands together behind his back again and walking out of the room.

Kiba crossed her arms as she watched him leave, wincing slightly at the pain the movement brought to her elbow, before assuming an amused expression as she looked back at Sora, who had managed to shift her body into a sitting position with her legs hanging over the edge.

"Sleep in?" the tech junkie muttered to herself, looking at the floor.

She was quick to catch the look on Kiba's face when she looked up again.

"What?" she stated, her voice sharper than intended.

Kiba's grin got a little wider.

"...Need some coffee your grumpiness?" she asked, beginning to giggle a little.

"You know what Kiba? Shut up"

...

Upon getting to the courtyard, Kiba only exchanged a few words as a greeting with Arin, who was doing some workout thing to get his body warmed up, and said hello to Riyu, who was adorably copying Arin in whatever he did, before settling into some stretches. She focused mainly on arm based ones. She didn't want her elbow locking up at all today.

It was already stiff and hard to move enough as it was.

And having accidentally slept on the injured joint definitely didn't do her any favours.

She was sitting on the ground, her hands wrapped around one foot to stretch out her leg when Sora finally came out to the courtyard, hand clasped over her mouth to hide a rather big yawn as she shut the door behind her.

"Go do some stretches. That might wake you up a bit. And get you ready for whatever Lloyd has in store for us today" Kiba told her as she rested her upper body against her outstretched leg, her hands now touching the top of her shoe.

"Yeah, yeah" Sora replied as she got closer to the trio.

She looked around for a moment before setting a hand against her hip and waving her hand around towards the courtyard.

"Why are we training way up here? We're becoming Ninja to help people! Shouldn't we be around... people? You know, like in the crossroads?" the tech junkie questioned.

"Be around people? Ugh, sounds like a nightmare" Kiba commented as she switched up her stretch from one leg to the other.

"Kiba, did you forget what today is? Sora just wants to go to the Crossroads Carnival, don't you Sora?" Arin stated with a knowing smile as he looked from his sister to his best friend.

"Oh shit. I forgot about that"

"Well duh! Don't you?" Sora practically cried, ignoring Kiba's comment in favour of pulling out a rolled up piece of paper from somewhere in her racing suit.

Unrolling it, she turned it around to show it to the two siblings. On it was a picture of a carnival tent surrounded by bursting fireworks and bold print symbols the read 'Crossroads Carnival'.

"We never ever missed one" she said.

Arin let out a hum as he stood up and set a hand against his chin while Kiba crossed her legs and leaned back against her hands, which were now pressed against the rocky ground behind her.

"True" The dark skinned male stated, agreeing with Sora's previous words.

"And I was determined to win the pie baking contest this year. Grabarg wins every time. I've been perfecting my recipe all year!" he said before letting out a big disappointed sigh.

"Let's ask Lloyd if we can go" Sora suggested as she rolled up the poster and put it back in her pocket.

"I'm not so sure of that Sora. Today's our very first day of training. He's gonna want us to focus on that as much as we can. Chances are, he's probably going to say no" Kiba put in, pushing herself to her feet and dusting herself off before placing her hands into the pocket of her hoodie.

"Still, never hurts to ask if we can go, right?" the tech junkie countered, smirking a little as the cyan eyed female gave an 'alright then' expression.

The sound of doors sliding open caught the group's attention, and everybody looked over to see Lloyd walking out of the Monastery, one hand behind his back, and a steaming mug on a small plate in the other.

"Go where?" he asked as he approached a table that was positioned at the bottom of the stairs that led to the entrance of the Monastery.

Kiba looked at Sora, and motioned a hand towards the older male. 'You go ask him' was the silent message that was sent. Sora rolled her eyes, even adding a bit of a head tilt to the action, before she approached Lloyd, with Kiba, Arin, and Riyu in tow.

"The Crossroads Carnival. Where everyone from the combined lands celebrates their traditions. There's a ton of food and games, and a huge fireworks show by this fireworks genius named Dorama" she explained.

It was adorable how her eyes practically lit up as she talked about the annual event. When she paused to actually take a breath, Arin took the chance to jump in.

"Plus, a pie baking competition! It's super fun!" he cried, making Kiba smile a bit at his enthusiasm over pie.

"It does sound fun" Lloyd agreed with his own light smile.

"Buuut, it also sounds like a distraction from something even more fun. Training!" he added.

"I told you guys he was probably going to say no"

"Kiba, now is not the time to rub it in. Besides, what the heck are we supposed to train on? There's nothing here!" Sora hissed, motioning a hand towards the courtyard that only had a dragon sculpture fountain right smack in the middle.

"Ahh. To become a Ninja, you must see potential, where others do not" Lloyd told her, taking off and spinning his bo staff a couple times over his head before pressing the end of it against a hidden button that was on the ground.

Kiba gave a start as the ground began to shake a little, and then looked over in surprise as a large portion that surrounded the fountain began to literally fall away. It managed to go down seven to eight feet before there was a spluttering noise, and everything grinded to a halt. Things were silent for a second, and then Kiba began slow clapping.

"Wow. That was, one of the most anti-climatic things that I have ever seen" she said, pushing her hands into the pockets of her cargo pants.

She let out a puff of air from the pain in her elbow, and considered asking for some pain meds before deciding against it. Besides, Lloyd was too busy lamenting the loss of some grand reveal.

"What?! This always worked when Master Wu did it! Ugh! It's a whole big impressive reveal!" he cried.

"Sounds like your mechanisms haven't been maintained. When junk gets into gears, it can ruin everything. When'd you last clean em?" Sora told him as he walked out from behind the table to the edge where the ground fell away.

The Ninja jumped with a grunt before looking back at the teens.

"I was supposed to be doing that?" he asked in surprised before looking at the ground below him.

"Uh yes, actually. Any mechanism requires some kind of cleaning every once in a while, otherwise you run the risk of rust, contamination, or under performing show stoppers like this" Kiba told him as she got closer to the edge herself and braced her hands against her knees.

"Huh" Lloyd hummed in realization.

He then seemed to get an idea.

"Maybe if I..." he said before jumping up and landing back down on the platform.

He let out a yelp of surprise as the platform suddenly dropped down, and Kiba was quick to back away from the edge as he quickly rose back up into the air, balancing on a metal hoop that kept moving up and down, which elicited gasps of surprise from Arin and Sora.

"The training course!" the green eyed male crowed as he spread out his arms.

It actually was rather impressive. Not a single component, from the hoops, to the platforms, was stationary, save for one large hoop that quite literally lit itself on fire.

"Well damn / So cool!" Kiba and Arin chorused in hushed breaths.

Sora had been rendered speechless.

"One more thing" Lloyd called out before he flipped to the ground and got behind the table again.

"You must complete the course before I finish my tea" he stated, causing Kiba to lower an eyebrow in confusion.

Why not just use a stopwatch to time their speed?

After he was done speaking, Lloyd raised the steaming mug to his mouth and took a sip, which he automatically spat out.

"Augh! Oh, I burnt the tea! I didn't even know that was possible!" he cried as he set the mug down.

"How the hell did you manage to burn the frick frackin tea?" Kiba asked, her voice monotone as she stared at Lloyd with an unimpressed look on her face.

"Ugh, I don't even know" he replied, now staring at the tea with apprehension.

"I can't drink this. How do I time your performance now?" he wondered out loud, setting his hands against his hips.

The teens in front of him all shared a look of curiosity before Sora spoke up.

"Why were you gonna time us with a hot beverage anyway?" she asked, lowering an eyebrow in confusion as she tilted her head to the side.

"I had the best teacher. My uncle, Master Wu. That's how he did it" Lloyd answered before walking off to a spot in the courtyard that was sheltered from the sun by quite a few wooden panels.

On the wall hung a picture of an old man. His yellow eyes held years of wisdom, as did the white beard and mustache that were long enough to reach his hips. His garment consisted of a white robe with golden edges that was tied with a golden colored sash and a wide brim straw hat.

In front of the portrait was a thick meditation carpet and a small coffee table with flowers strewn across it. The realization that this was probably a memorial of some kind hit Kiba like a train, and she opted to stay silent, hanging back a little while Arin and Sora followed Lloyd, who hopped up and then knelt down on the carpet, motioning towards the portrait as he began to speak again.

"As your teacher, I wanna do everything like he did. That's why I come here, and kneel on his favorite old meditation carpet. And ponder how to be just like him" Lloyd explained, pressing his hands together for a moment like he was about to start praying as he kept his eyes on the portrait.

He turned his head towards the teens.

"It's also why I grew this beard" he said, which threw Kiba, and her companions, for a loop.

"Beard?" Arin questioned, looking rather confused.

"You're too far away to see it" Lloyd told him, shuffling on his knees to angle his body towards the approaching trio.

"Still not seeing" Sora commented.

"Even closer"

Even Kiba stepped forward a bit, squinting her eyes slightly, and doing her best to suppress a scoff.

This guy did not have a beard.

At all.

That one tiny hair that was on his chin did not pass for a beard.

"Closer"

"...I guess I kinda see... something..." Arin said hesitantly as he backed away a bit with Sora.

"Trust me it's there" Lloyd quickly stated, looking between the trio before focusing on the obstacle course behind them.

"Now train!" he cried.

Looking back at the course, Arin gave a nervous giggle.

"Kiba, you're the most athletic one here, besides Lloyd. Why don't you go first? Me and Sora will follow right behind you" he said.

"...Gee thanks" Kiba deadpanned at him before moving towards the beginning of the course.

"For the record, I'm never making you mac n cheese again"

"Wait what?!"

...

The hours that followed were, to say the least, absolute hell.

Riyu had it easy. He just sat off to the side and watched as Arin, Sora, and Kiba were made to go through the entire training course without stopping, and exhaustion had been a little quick to settle in. Kiba may have been quite fit and flexible, but not even she was used to pushing her body like this, and when Lloyd finally called quits once the sun began to dip below the horizon, she was panting hard along with her brother and best friend, skin and clothes drenched in sweat.

Once Sora made contact with the ground after jumping off the obstacle course for the last time, Lloyd examined his mug, which had been emptied of the burnt tea.

"Hmm. Without tea, I have literally no way of knowing if you guys did that fast enough" he said.

"Just use a damn stopwatch... Time yourself going though all of that... Then time us... and then compare the times... Bam, problem solved" Kiba panted, with her hands against her waist.

"Hmm, that might work. Anyhow, I think this was a pretty good first day. Get some rest and we'll start again at dawn!" Lloyd called out as he walked back into the Monastery and closed the doors behind him.

Kiba let out a harsh exhale as she hung her head, Sora groaned, and Arin let out a "Woo!" as he fist pumped.

After cleaning up and changing into some not sweat drenched clothes, Kiba laid sprawled on the floor in Arin and Sora's shared room, almost every muscle in her body protesting against any form of movement she exhibited. Sora's body was draped over the couch as she chugged a bottle of water, and Arin was the only one, besides Riyu, who was actually one his feet. He had busied himself with making a pie while the two teenage females behind him sulked.

After a little bit, the pie was finally done, and Arin used oven mitts and a large spatula to pull out the baked dish. The aroma coming from it was enough to make Kiba's mouth water, but she wasn't in the mood for any kind of consumables at the moment. Riyu begged to differ, as he tried to hop up on his back to take a bite, which Arin prevented by pulling the pie away.

"Smells good, huh buddy?" the dark skinned male said with a light chuckle before his face fell.

"Too bad no judge will ever taste it" he stated, frowning as he looked at his creation, which he set down on the table.

Kiba peeked an eye open at the sound, then turned her head towards Sora when she began to speak.

"Do you guys think every day of training will be like this? I already need a break" the tech junkie stated as she looked towards the ceiling.

"Feels like you've been run over by a train?" Kiba asked as she closed her eyes again and let out a soft breath.

"You know it"

Silence stretched across the group again, until the sound of couch fabric shifting made Kiba peek her eyes open again.

"Here's a thought. What if we just... sneak out... to the carnival?" Sora asked as she sat up.

"Bad idea. Lloyd's a fully fledged Ninja. There's no way in hell he's not going to hear us" Kiba stated, her eyes focusing on a small splinter of wood that was separating from the ceiling.

Her eyes shifted over to Sora's face when the tech junkie leaned over the edge of the couch to peer down at her.

"Lloyd's asleep. We would just have to be extra quiet" she informed the cyan eyed female.

"...Huh"

Both teens looked over at Arin as he began to speak.

"Of course I want to go. But, we have a chance to train as Ninja. And under the legendary Green Ninja! I really don't wanna mess this up" he said, coming over to the two of them.

Kiba, despite her muscles protests, managed to sit herself up with the help of the table, and cross her legs.

"Arin, he'll never find out! We'll be back way before dawn. Plus, sneaking out will test our stealth skills. Even Lloyd would approve of that" Sora informed the dark skinned male.

"Uuhhhmm, I don't know guys" he said, still unsure of this course of action as he began to walk away. Kiba let out a hum as she looked at the pie was on the table, and breathed in it's sweet aroma.

"I gotta say, this is very good pie. Might even be good enough for first place too" she commented, looking between the dish and her brother.

She let out a noise of surprise, that was quickly followed by a small giggle as Sora put her hands on the cyan eyed female's shoulders and leaned over her body to breathe in the smell herself.

"Gotta agree with Kiba. That's definitely a first place pie. Wouldn't want it to go to waste" the tech junkie baited as she looked at Arin, who seemed to be trying to not smile from the two's antics.

He let out a sigh as that smile began to peek through, and he looked down at his creation.

"It does smell like a first place pie, doesn't it? Okay, I'm in" he said, finally relenting.

"Well alright then" Kiba commented, tilting and twisting her head so that she could share a look of victory with Sora, who held up her fist.

Kiba bumped her own fist aginst the appendage, and Sora got off of her and slid towards the end of the couch, where Riyu was chirping and bouncing out of excitement. Sora let out a giggle as she gently stroked the dragon's head.

"Okay Riyu. You can come too" she said.

But that posed a bit of a problem, something that she seemed to realize pretty quickly.

"But a dragon in the Crossroads will attract a lot of attention, so, you need a disguise" she said.

Kiba watched as the tech junkie tapped a curled finger against her chin, deep in thought. After a couple seconds, Sora snapped her fingers.

"And I know just the thing!" she stated.

"Why do I suddenly have a bad feeling about that?"

"Oh hush Kiba. It's gonna be brilliant!"

...

Taking in a deep inhale, Kiba enjoyed the different sights and smells that flooded her senses. The Crossroads Carnival was a time for fun, for swapping stories, enjoying different cuisines, and experiencing different cultures, and in some cases, making new friends outside of your own species. Every year, there was something new.

And Kiba was really looking forward to trying out whatever it was that new food stalls had to offer.

"Ooohhh, something is smelling good! Makes my mouth trying to figure out what it could be!" she said as a particularly sweet and savory scent wafted itself by her.

She heard Sora laugh a little from somewhere behind her.

"Are you gonna buy something from every food stall again like you did last year?" the tech junkie asked, a hint of teasing in her voice.

Kiba gave her a knowing smile as she turned around to face her best friend, now walking backwards.

"Don't be making fun of my gluttonous habits when you're the exact same way Sora! I saw how you devoured that whole bag of crab chips in minutes" the cyan eyed female replied, turning to face the front again.

She heard Arin give out a laugh before the trio fell silent, simply enjoying the sights that the carnival offered. After a little bit, Arin spoke up again.

"You know, I'm not too sure this... shaggy dog... costume, will fool anyone" he said.

Turning her head, Kiba looked towards Riyu, who had a basket on his head with holes cut into it for his eyes, two filled socks that were tied together with a rubber band to resemble droopy ears that were also on his head, and a blanket filled with pieces of Lloyd's meditation carpet draped over his body. He looked rather odd, but from a distance, or with a simple passing glance, one could maybe mistaken him for an actual dog.

"It's carnival time! Everyone will be too distracted to look at him closely" Sora reasoned with an air of casualness as she waved her hand a bit.

Kiba had to agree with her best friend. There was simply too much going on around them that would allow someone without a trained mind to focus on just one single thing. Besides, people weren't really going to pay attention to other people unless they were part of an attraction.

And speaking of attractions...

"Hey guys? Look ahead. Check it out" Kiba stated, motioning with her hand to the first attraction.

There was an tent with it's front wide open, and inside was a skeleton, that was juggling three skulls. The most notable thing about that was the fact that the skeleton's own skull was missing. The skeleton kept juggling for a few more seconds, before it tossed all of the skulls into the air.

It caught two of them, and the third landed right on the skeleton's spine, much to the amazement of onlookers. Riyu gave an excited chirp that Kiba giggled at.

"Welcome to the Crossroads Carnival Riyu!" Arin introduced as the group continued walking.

One of the attractions they went past was run by a Munce from Shintaro.

"Come wield the traditional Munce hammer and test your strength!" the Munce cried out in a deep and somewhat raspy voice as he held up a large wooden hammer with metal plated around the handle.

One of the younger onlookers decided to take a chance, and Kiba, along with a few others, winced a little when the child fell backwards off the stage. The kid was quick get up, so, things seemed fine. The sound of familiar tranquil flute music caught the group's attention on one of the attractions that were farther down, and the group was pleasantly surprised by who they saw.

Mikloshe, a Hypnobrai, was standing next to a trashcan in his own tent, fingers expertly darting around to cover the holes in his flute, which produced a sound that seemed to turn Kiba's brain to mush. At least she was able to fight off the effects, unlike the human that rose out of the trash can, body swaying and eyes devoid of emotion.

A common thing for one that was hypnotized.

"Sweet person-charming Mikloshe!" Sora praised as she and Arin clapped.

The hypnobrai closed his eyes and dipped his head in thanks before the group moved on.

"Hey guys! Look at that!" Arin suddenly said, his voice full of surprise as he pointed at something.

Off to the side, out of the way of foot traffic, was an ice cream truck that was being run by Geckles who also came from Shintaro, and surprisingly Labo, the little robot who won the Mech Master Five Thousand race. He managed to rein in customers by promising to buy the ice cream for them. An odd way to earn absolutely no money at all, but hey, whatever brought in attention, right?

"I guess Labo's blowing through the prize money he won from the Mech Master Five Thousand race" Sora noted amid Kiba's giggles.

"Oh, you think? He's probably gonna be out of it by the end of the week, if that" the cyan eyed female commented with a smile.

"Pfft, that he might if he keeps that whole thing up" Arin agreed, walking away as Labo began to toss out some of the coins from the bag he held.

Going on their way, Kiba checked up on Riyu, make sure that his costume was still holding up. Thankfully, it was, though she couldn't help but noticed how the blanket didn't seem as thick as it had been before. Might have to stop somewhere and get some more stuffing if the blanket's padding continued to fall out.

Thankfully, it didn't seem to be up at that point yet, so the group continued on.

Walking a little farther put them all right at the center of the Carnival grounds, where a large and rather important tent stood. Arin was the first to notice it, and he was quick to point it out to the others.

"Look! Dorama's tent!" he said, instantly changing his course to head towards the structure.

"Ah yes, the tent of the big man himself" Kiba commented, pressing her hands into the pockets of her pants, making sure to not get them caught on the sleeves of the jacket that was tied around her waist.

The moment the group came to a stop, multiple small scale fireworks began to shoot up, each exploding over the tent with enough distance to ensure that nothing was set aflame. The gathered crowd was already impressed enough but there were quite a few cheers that rang out when a projection of Dorama himself appeared in front of the tent. His sense of fashion was certainly something, with his glittery purple suit with peaked shoulders, frilly white collar that stuck out at the neck of the suit, and a matching glittering purple top hat.

"Don't miss tonight! My best firework show yet!" the projection cried out with a bright white tooth smile.

"I love how he says that literally every year" the cyan eyed female noted with a smile as she glanced toward her brother, who meet her gaze.

"Well, to be fair, his shows are always more impressive than the previous ones that he puts on" Arin reasoned, looking excited to see what tonight's show would hold.

A sudden offended gasp from Sora had Riyu and the two siblings looking at her, and before anybody could question her on what was wrong, she pointed out the situation herself.

"Hey! Those are the pieces of our SA Mark One!" she cried.

Looking past Dorama's tent, sure enough, the SA Mark One sat there with it's legs and arms folded up as robots from the junkyard danced around to some questionable music in front of it.

"The junkyard crew must've salvaged the mech's wreckage and used it for their display. That stuff belongs to us!" Sora hissed, starting towards the Mech with a ticked off look on her face.

"Oh boy" Kiba muttered.

She knew of her best friend's tendencies for, harsh, confrontations, and honestly, she wasn't in the mood to deal with the possible aftermath. Even if she did strongly agree with Sora. Thankfully, Arin, being the quick thinker that he was, practically ran to catch Sora's arm before she could take another step further.

"I gotta go enter my pie! The deadline is, like, now!" he cried before grabbing the tech junkie's wrist to pull her along with him as he started running.

"Oh shit. I forgot about that! Sorry Arin! Riyu, come on!" Kiba yelped, taking off after the two younger teens as they ran.

Luckily, the pie baking contest wasn't too far away, so the group arrived just in time, panting as they pushed their way through the crowd to get to the desk, where a few other pies were lined up on a long table with white clothe draped over it. The cards of fate seemed to be on their side too, because tonight, Mr. Frohicky himself manned the contest. He seemed to perk up when he spotted the group.

"Ah! Arin, Sora, and Kiba! Oh I knew I'd peep you scallywags before the deadline. You weren't going to miss a shot at that bling, were you chef Arin?" he greeted, turning his head to look at the trophy that sat at the edge of the long table.

Arin gave a breathless chuckle as he revealed his pie.

"This is my year Mr. Frohicky" he stated as he began to hand the dish over.

However, a passerby purposely slammed into him, making Arin toss up his pie, which Frohicky thankfully caught before any damage could be done.

"Hey! Watch it!" Arin and Kiba both snapped at the person who had bumped into him.

It was hard to not notice the snail shell, and considering the white chef garments the snail person wore, it wasn't difficult to know who it was. Especially when the person turned around, holding a pie in their hand.

"Hmph. Ready to come in second again kid? Cause your pie looks as messy as your weird little dog" Grabarg taunted as he looked down at Riyu.

Arin looked a little offended as he set his hands against his hips, Sora and Kiba both narrowed their eyes at Grabarg, and even Riyu growled at the snail person, taking up a protective position in front of Arin.

"Watch it Grabarg! We're not-" Sora began to say as Kiba prepared to give the guy a piece of her own mind, but before anything could continue, a commotion from the other side of the street caught everybody's attention.

A truck that was driven by some Whack Rats skidded to a halt beside Labo, who paused in tossing out his coins to try and take in what was going on. Two Whack Rats, who had been in the back of the truck jumped down on both sides of the little robot, who began panicking when his bag of money was taken from him and tossed into the truck bed.

"Alarm! Alarm! Is this the end of Labo?!" the poor robot cried as he too was pulled into the back of the truck much to the horror of those who were witnessing this event.

Labo began yelling his name in terror as the truck began to speed away, and Arin was quick to leap into action, running out into the street as he took out his grappling hook.

"I'm on them!" he called, firing off the device.

The grappling hook attached itself to the back hatch of the truck, and Arin was quick to grab a lid off of a trash can that was nearby to use as a sled.

"Follow me!" he called as he began to skate away, the trash lid kicking up sparks as it was pulled along the ground.

"Follow?!" Kiba cried, confused.

"Uh, follow how?!" Sora shouted after the dark skinned male, who was very quickly dragged out of earshot.

Riyu suddenly made a few grunts and chirps as it faced the parts of the SA Mark One, bringing both female's attentions to it. Once the little dragon was sure that they were looking at it, he got behind Sora and began nudging the back of her legs, gently pushing her towards the Mech.

"Riyu, it would take me hours to reassemble that thing" the tech junkie protested as Kiba watched the perplexing behavior with furrowed eyebrows.

"If we're gonna help Labo, we have to-" Sora began before cutting herself off as Riyu's eyes began to glow.

The cyan eyed female looked on in amazement as that familiar stream of light went from the dragon and disappeared into her friend's chest, causing her eyes and hands to glow a pinkish purple color. The junkyard bots ran away from, probably unable to process what the hell was going on. Once the beam of light disappeared, Sora quickly turned around and hurriedly pressed her palm against the glass of the SA Mark One.

The pinkish purple light was quick to spread all throughout the pieces of the Mech, and they each disassembled themselves a bit before they all came together to form not a Mech, but an awesome looking motorcycle that was already powered on and revving it's engine.

"Sora, you never cease to amaze me. This is fucking awesome!" Kiba cried out, her hands on her head and her eyes wide from the shock and amazement that spread throughout her body.

"I know, right?! Now come on!" Sora replied, hopping into the seat.

Riyu followed her in, and a glass covering lowered down over the both of them. Kiba climbed up onto the back of the vehicle, and gave Sora the go ahead once she had a secure grip. She couldn't help the whoop of laughter that left her body when Sora practically floored the gas, causing the motorcycle to rear up on its back wheel for a moment before falling back down to the ground.

What would Lloyd say if he ever saw that?

That thought made Kiba have a realization.

Man, I'm so glad he's asleep right now. Otherwise he would definitely know we aren't in the Monastery by now, she thought to herself with a smile.

*At the Monastery*

Lloyd was, to say the least, concerned.

I mean, all of his students had been rather quiet. Sure, he didn't fully know any of them all that well, but he knew enough to know that they were never fully quiet. And that was what had prompted him to check out the Monastery, seeing if he couldn't find what they were all up to.

One could imagine his slight confusion when he opened up one of the doors leading to Kiba's room, only to find it vacated with the bed made. Alright, she was probably camping out in her brother's and best friend's room. No biggie.

Except it became a biggie when he opened up both sliding doors to reveal another completely empty room.

"Arin? Sora? Kiba?" Lloyd asked, slight concern in his voice as he walked farther into the room.

There was no sign of his students anywhere, and that worried him a bit. Turning on the spot to do a full sweep of the room, his bright green eyes landed on a piece of paper that was resting on the nightstand. It's edges were curled, suggesting the paper had been rolled up at some point.

Getting closer to the paper, the Green Ninja noticed the imagery that was printed upon its surface, and grabbed it in his hands for a closer look. Using the light from the moon, he was able to make out the words 'Crossroads Carnival', which sent a spark of surprise and slight anger through him as he realized what had become of his students.

"They snuck out?! Oh you've got to be kidding me! We never would have done this to Master Wu!" he cried, lightly glaring at the paper with furrowed eyebrows.

After a moment of thinking, he deadpanned at himself.

"...That's a lie. We totally would have" he quietly muttered to himself.

Setting the paper back on the nightstand, he turned tail and ran out of the room, mentally thinking over the lecture he was definitely going to give to those three when he found them.

*At the junkyard*

Rolling through the gate with seconds to spare before it closed, Sora was quick to slow her pace and simply coast, bringing the motorcycle engine from a loud rumble to a low hum. Kiba pulled up the scarf that was around her neck so that it covered her nose and mouth, and kept her head on the swivel, her eyes open for both the Whack Rats and her brother. By now, he would have probably disengaged his grappling hook, and hidden himself somewhere among the massive compacted blocks and rising piles of metal and trash.

Continuing on, Sora followed the tire tracks that were left behind from the truck, she and Riyu also keeping a lookout for any sign of movement.

The trio had just passed another pile of junk when Kiba began to hear voices from somewhere up ahead. They were quiet, but they both sounded rather familiar. Knocking on the glass, the cyan eyed female waited until Sora was looking at her, and then she pointed up ahead before pressing her hand down.

Her best friend got the message, and waited until Kiba had a secure grip again before flooring the pedal, heading in the direction that Kiba had pointed out. Her brother's voice suddenly rang out over the noise of the engine, causing the female to whip her head around, trying to spot him.

"Oh no you're not!" he cried, and up ahead, Kiba watched his grappling hook make contact with a crane.

His body soon followed, and Arin landed on a junk pile, looking a little ticked. The cyan eyed female smiled under her mask when he looked back thanks to the sound of the motorcycle engine, and watched as his ticked off expression turned to one of amazement. Sora gave the motorcycle a boost of speed before hitting the brakes and turning the handlebars, sending the vehicle skidding and spinning to a halt.

When it did, Kiba jumped down from the back and landed on the ground, keeping her footing despite the sudden pain that shot through both limbs.

At least it had been quick to fade away.

"Tch, Kreel. I should've known you were behind this" she spat, glowering at the unfortunately familiar woman before her as the glass top on Sora's motorcycle raised up.

Kreel let out a laugh as she put the back of her hand against her hip.

"Ha! Where have you three brats been? No one's seen any of you since you ran off after that dragon" she said, a smirking smile on her face.

"Why should we tell you?" Kiba asked, furrowing her eyebrows and narrowing her eyes as she tilted her head to the side.

Arin, of course, took the woman's question as a literal one, and began to answer with an air of excitement.

"Oh, thank you for asking! Some pretty amazing stuff has happened actually. We met-" he said, more than ready to launch into the entire story, but Kreel was quick to interupt him as she raised her had to stop him.

"Yeah, stop. I don't actually care. But, now that you're here, I can get back at everyone who ruined the race for me all at once" she said, her face slowly twisting itself into the look of somebody who had no good intentions as she spoke.

Kiba ran her fingers across the back pocket of her cargo pants, silently relieved when she felt the cold metal of her pocket dagger and wondering if she would have to bring it into use. Kreel pointed a finger at the group of teens, a devilish smile set into her lips.

"Get them!" she ordered, and the Whack Rats that surrounded her surged forward.

A couple more that had been hiding around in the junk also made their appearance, and Kiba had to dive out of the way to avoid getting pounced on by one that had landed right beside her. The Whack Rat ended up getting a mouthful of dirt as it fell right on it's face. Curling her body in on itself a bit, Kiba somersaulted forward, rolling on her back, and used her moment to not only get back on her feet, but to spin herself into a spider man crouch, with her pocket dagger now in her hand.

She hadn't clicked the blade out yet, but she had her thumb on the button, and she made sure the Whack Rats saw that.

"Alright then, which one of you bastards want to go first?" she asked them.

Out of the corner of her eyes, she saw Sora speed away with a Whack Rat holding on tight to the back of the vehicle. Worry started to settle in, but that was quick to fade away when the tech junkie reached a clearing and made her vehicle move in a circle at a fast pace, making it harder by the second for the Whack Rat to hold on. Focusing back on her opponents, Kiba moved herself so that she was laying on her back, and brought her legs in, swiftly kicking them out at the rat that was running at her.

A spark of satisfaction flared up in her when she felt her feet collide with her target, who let out a loud yelp of pain and stumbled backwards, clawed hands covering their nose and mouth. Flipping herself onto her feet, the cyan eyed female ran at her next target, who was also running at her. Jumping into the air with one foot, Kiba made her body spin parallel with the ground a couple times before she kicked out her leg, nailing the Whack Rat in the face and sending them sprawling against the ground.

Landing on her feet again, she gave the next one a hard uppercut before hitting their exposed throat, leaving the Rat gasping for air. She began advancing on the two others that remained, ignoring the sound of coins hitting metal and the rev of an engine, though she did glance over when Arin began talking.

"That was awesome, spinning em off like that!" he cried, gushing over Sora's move with the motorcycle.

"Right?! Just like we did on the obstacle course today!" came the reply.

Sora suddenly looked surprised at the words that had just came out of her mouth.

"Wait... Did I, learn something from training?" she asked no one in particular with an incredulous tone.

"It would seem like it!" Kiba called out, rushing forward to deliver a hard punch to the stomach of a Whack Rat, which brought them to their knees, wheezing hard.

The cyan eyed female let out her own hiss as pain erupted across her knuckles and her elbow, and she wondered why until she remembered the armor these guys wore. It was honestly easy to forgot that the Whack Rats came from the video game world of Prime Empire, what with all the different creatures that roamed the Crossroads. Shaking her hand a bit, and wincing at the pain in her elbow, Kba prepared to take down another Rat, when Kreel finally intervened.

"Enough!" she cried out in frustration, putting herself between Kiba and the Whack Rat, which thoroughly confused the cyan eyed female as she took a couple steps back towards Arin and Sora.

"Ugh! You fools! None of this gets me any closer to my precious targle!" Kreel wailed, looking both frustrated and hurt.

Or was that worry that was etched in the maniac's face as she let out a frustrated sounding growl?

"Uuhhhh, who what huh now?" Kiba asked, putting her pocket dagger back in her pocket as she pulled down her scarf.

She had a feeling she wouldn't need it at the moment.

"D-uh, hold up. What's a, precious targle?" Arin asked, looking just as confused as his sister felt.

"Not what! Who! My right hand minion. He was taken by a mystery kidnapped demanding an enormous ransom! I was trying to get my money from Labo so that I could save Targy. I have to get him back!" Kreel explained, her face twisting with an odd mixture of anger and worry.

Kiba was officially confused, and Sora was quick to voice the reason why.

"Since when do you care so much about your little henchmen?" the tech junkie asked, leaning forward a bit as she put her hands on her hips.

"She's got a point" Kiba commented, loosely crossing her arms.

Kreel looked downright offended by that.

"He's not a henchman!" she snapped, looking very ticked off for a moment before her face fell.

"...He's my... only friend" she finally admitted.

She was oblivious to the Whack Rats that exchanged a look and a shrug behind her.

Sora wasn't convinced by the admission.

"You have a friend? Come on" she scoffed, looking very skeptical.

Arin, as usual, had a different take on the matter.

"Uh, guys? If someone needs saving, we have to help" he said, looking rather empathetic.

"Arin, this is one of Kreel's goons, that we're talking about here" Kiba reminded him, shooting the woman a narrowed side eye before looking back at her brother as she set one hand against her hip.

"Minions"

"Oh shut the hell up. I'm ticked off with you enough as it is"

"Guys, Ninja help everyone. And we're Ninja now... Well, kinda. How about this?" Arin reasoned.

He then approached Kreel with a proposition.

"We track down Targle, and you let Labo go" he said.

"And stop trying to steal his money!" Sora added in.

Kiba gave a nod as she looked from her brother and best friend to Kreel, who looked conflicted for a couple seconds.

"My money, but fine. I need Targy back. Find him and this weird little orb guy is free to go about his weird little orb life" she said, relenting to the deal as she looked over at Labo, who somehow managed to burp and spit up a few coins.

"Deal" Arin stated, fist pumping with a confident smile.

Kiba let out a sigh as she crossed her arms again.

"Alright, now where did you last see this guy?" she asked.

Kreel suddenly had an odd look on her face.

"I can do better than that" she replied.

...

Kiba let out a sigh as she shivered a bit.

"I don't like this" she stated simply as she looked around the dark fog filled alleyway.

Despite it being a warm night, it was unnaturally cold here. Cold enough that the group's breaths appeared in the form of slight mist.

"Are you guys sure this is where Kreel said the ransom drop would be?" Arin asked, looking a little nervous as his eyes flitted around.

He and Sora both had their hoodies pulled over their heads, and Kiba's scarf was back up over her nose and mouth.

"Yup. Start looking for clues" Sora replied.

Riyu, whose disguise was looking more deflated than ever, hopped up onto a large dumpster and began sniffing around, letting out a chirp a few seconds later.

"Wha'd you find Riyu?" Arin questioned the little dragon as he and the others came around.

After a moment of examining the dumpster, he and Sora pushed against one side of the garbage holder, and Kiba pulled on the other side. Together, the group managed to move the whole thing a few feet to the side, revealing a lever that had been hidden behind it.

"A hidden dumpster lever?" Arin questioned, lowering an eyebrow in confusion.

"Yeah, that counts as a clue" he stated, looking a little happy now with the find.

Sora, with a bit of difficulty, pulled the lever down with a soft grunt of effort, and the group was a little surprised as a small section of the ground quite literally moved down a bit and slid away out of sight, barely making a sound. Kiba was also surprised by the fact that there was a ladder and something that was producing light inside whatever hidden room the ladder led to.

Sora was more impressed by the mechanisms.

"See? That's how smoothly a mechanism can open when it's gears are properly maintained" she said.

The group gathered around the hole in the ground, looking down the rather long rock shaft.

"Time for those stealth skills" Arin whispered, sharing a look with his best friend and sister.

"Told you guys sneaking out was good Ninja practice" Sora stated with a rather smug look on her face.

"Yeah, yeah. Now listen, after we're done with this, we need to stop by somewhere and get some padding. Riyu's costume is starting to fail" Kiba told the two as she began to descend down the ladder, pausing only to give the young dragon a gentle pat on his wicker basket head.

"Oh crap. So it is" Sora commented as Kiba went down further.

*Somewhere in the Crossroads*

Lloyd let out a groan as somebody pushed their way past him. Again. At least those kids in the tent earlier had been nice.

It had filled him with awe and happiness when he discovered that he and his friends were still being remembered, though after three years of not being seen by the public, it didn't really come as much of a surprise that nobody really recognized him. And nobody seemed to be willing to talk, which came as a big problem for Lloyd, considering he had the entirety of the Crossroads to search for just three people.

"Ugh, I'm never gonna find them" he softly hissed in frustration.

Maybe he should head back to the Monastery and wait for the group to turn up. That would probably give his students quite the turn around, coming back only to find him waiting right there at the entrance. Lloyd let out a soft breath of slight annoyance as he turned his head towards the ground, contemplating on what to do now.

However, his train of thought was put on pause when he spotted something on the ground. It looked like a piece that had been cut from a carpet of sorts, and the color of it seemed rather familiar. Picking up the snippet, Lloyd was surprised to discover a new thing about it.

"Feels... familiar" he muttered to himself, furrowing his eyebrows a bit as he brought the carpet snipping to eye level.

A thought crossed his mind, but he was quick to dismiss it, knowing his students would probably never do such a thing.

"No, there's no way they're running around town with my meditation carpet" he stated with a small chuckle as he dropped his hand and looked ahead.

On the ground were a couple more pieces that looked very similar to what he held in his hand.

Oh, what the hell?

Why those little-

"They're running around town with my meditation carpet!"

*Somewhere underground*

Coming upon some double doors, Arin and Sora pushed them open, revealing what looking to be a giant theater room that was completed with a stage that had a red curtain drawn and a large fan laying off to the side on it. In one of the aisles that was between the many rows of seats, a long treadmill-like track stood. The only thing that was weirder than that was the cage on the stage that was covered with white sailcloth and had a light shining down on it.

"Secret underground theater? That's not creepy at all" Kiba muttered, her voice beginning to echo as she walked in, doing a full three sixty spin as she moved down the aisle towards the stage.

"Definitely looks like a bad guy lair to me" Sora commented, as she followed along.

She let out a groan of disgust as she sniffed the air.

"Smells like one too" she hissed.

The sound of something rattling against metal had everybody freezing in their tracks, and Kiba will admit that her first thought was that the place was haunted. She was somewhat relieved when Arin pointed to the cage that was on the stage.

"What was that?" he asked rather quickly.

"Don't know, but let's go check it out" the cyan eyed female stated, increasing her pace to a light jog.

Getting to the stage, the group hopped up onto it and approached the clothe covered cage, which didn't make a sound. Riyu sniffed the base of it and let out a soft growl which prompted Arin and Kiba to hesitantly pull off the cover. All three humans sucked in breaths from the sight that laid itself before them.

Inside the cage were a few Whack Rats, all of them sitting against the cold metal bottom and all of them completely unresponsive. Kiba wasn't sure if their chests were moving, but she reached inside the cage nonetheless and pressed two fingers against the neck of the one closest to her. She let out a soft sigh of relief as a pulse lightly thrummed against her fingertips, but the relief was tempered with worry, as the pulse was not only slow, but weak as well.

"It's like their drained, or something" Sora commented somewhat quietly as Kiba checked on the other Whack Rats, finding them to be in the same state as the first.

"Why would anyone do this?" the tech junkie questioned, looking between the siblings.

They didn't give her an answer, but someone else did.

"For entertainment of course!" a male voice crowed as a small explosion took place, filling a small section of the seats with thick purple smoke.

A rope descended from the ceiling into the smoke, and after a moment, it began to raise, pulling something up into the air as small scale fireworks exploded around it. The large fan that was beside the cage suddenly turned on by itself, making more than one person jump with surprise, and when the purple and grey smoke was blown away, it revealed someone very surprising as they were set down on the stage in front of the group.

"Dorama?!" Kiba cried out, looking at the fireworks master with shock.

Why was it always the big shot guy that turned out to be the bad one?!

"The fireworks guy?!" Arin asked as he smacked a hand against his forehead with a groan.

"Everyone loves you! You can't be a villian!" he cried as he looked back at the firework magician.

"Do not typecast me! I can excel in the role of the heavy" Dorama replied, sounding a little offended as he waved around his magician's staff.

"Look, I'll admit, that was a great entrance, but your whole kidnapping Whack Rats for ransom ends right now" Sora snapped at him, adding emphasis to her words with a few hand gestures.

"Set them free, or we'll make you!" Arin hissed, his voice full of conviction as Kiba took up a fighting position with her fists help up.

"Here in my theater, I call the shots" Dorama replied rather gleefully as he spun his staff and slammed into a hole in the ground.

He moved it to the side like it was a joystick, and flames were fired out of a mechanism that was mounted at the top in front of the curtain, forcing the entire group to jump backwards off the stage to avoid being roasted alive.

"Well that was just rude!" Kiba snapped as she stood up all the way, though she let out a yelp as the ground below began moving backwards, sending her stumbling to her hands and knees, sending a jolt of realization through her that they had all landed on the damn treadmill track thing that she had seen earlier.

Which was apparently made out of some kind of anti-slip steel grating.

Arin and Sora both let out their own noises of surprise as they also stumbled a bit though they managed to keep their footing. Small mechanisms similar to the ones at the top of the stage raised up on both sides of the moving track, and each one of them began spitting fire towards the opposing side of the track, forcing the group to duck multiple times. Even then, Kiba wondered if she would get blisters from the sheer heat alone as it blasted across her exposed skin in unrelenting waves.

At least Riyu would be alright. Those scales of his would be hard to penetrate, baby dragon or not.

A whirring sound from behind them caused everybody to either turn or look over their shoulder, and the group watched with dread, and slight annoyance as two cut outs, each resembling the head and lower jaw of a dragon, raised up from the ground or lowered down from the ceiling, and came together at the end of the track. Another mechanism appeared in it's opened mouth, and surprise, it also spat out flames.

"Seriously?! Is everything about fire with this guy?!" Kiba yelled in annoyance, turning her head and dropping to her knees to avoid a blast of heat to the face as one of the flaming mechanisms that lined track activated at that moment.

"Who knows?!" Sora replied, looking a little ticked herself.

"Uh, guys? Look out!" Arin warned.

A glint of light reflecting against moving steel was all it took for everybody to either hit the deck or jump backwards to avoid the giant axes that came swinging down from the ceiling.

"Oh, now we switch things up!" the cyan eyed female hissed as she lightly pushed herself up off the track and tossed herself forward, scrambling to her feet as soon as she deemed it safe, well, safe enough to do so.

Riyu had a moment of brilliance, and rushing forward, despite everyone telling him not to, the little dragon jumped high enough to land on top of a swinging axe that was just passing by the group. The relief that Kiba felt now that Riyu was out of the way was quickly short lived as a javelin hit the track, missing her foot by a mere couple inches and sending her scrambling backwards with a yelp of surprise. More of the pointy weapons were shot out of holes below the booths that were mounted on the walls, forcing those that were still on the track to duck and jump around in order to avoid getting shish kabobed.

The cyan eyed female wasn't aware of how close to the edge she was as she flipped backwards to avoid getting speared and burned alive, but she definitely noticed the falling bit. Her body collided with one of the many seats, but thanks to the odd angle she had landed at, she simply rolled off of it onto the floor. Moments later, she was taken by surprise when the seat she hit suddenly launched itself into the air, landing on the track before bouncing off of it and landing on the other side, somehow not burned, impaled, or sliced open.

And unfortunately, she didn't get the time to warn the others about this development, since both Arin and Sora had jumped off of the track in an attempted to escape the hell they were being forced to endure.

They both got a nasty shock when the seats they landed in catapulted the two back on the track.

"Arin, Sora! You guys alright?!" Kiba questioned, worry filling her.

The surface of the track was definitely not the most smoothest thing to crash land on.

"We're okay!" Arin replied, looking around.

He seemed surprised to not see the cyan eyed female anywhere on the track.

"Okay! I'll admit it! Lloyd was right! There are times to use obstacle course training in real life!" Sora cried out, keeping her body flat against the track for the time being.

Arin, seemingly having enough, pulled out his grappling hook and fired it at the approaching giant axe blade that Riyu had hopped on. It made contact, and the dark skinned male was promptly pulled up and out of range for just about everything. Holding on to the thick pole, he manuevered himself so that he was looking at Dorama.

"Why Whack Rats you weirdo?!" he cried, sounding a little ticked off as he was swung back and forth with the little dragon.

"To put on a better show!" the firework magician replied, pulling his staff out of the hole in the ground as he began making his way over to the cage.

He was unaware of Kiba slowly sneaking her way towards the stage, keeping herself as low to the ground as possible while doing her best to avoid making any kind of noise at all.

"They have a unique energy which I can extract, and use to create incredibly vibrant and colorful fireworks" the older male explained, pausing when he was just a couple feet away from the bars of the cage.

Lifting his staff, the purple glass orb that sat at the top of it began to glow rather brightly.

"That's why my Carnival Finale, is always so spectacular!" he cried, aiming the staff at one of the Whack Rats.

A beam of light shot towards the poor creature, who gave a few feeble movements as a pink colored mist was pulled from it. The mist disappeared into the orb, and Dorama gave an evil sounding laugh as he stopped the process and thrust his staff into the air, making it shoot off a few small scale fireworks. Kiba had to physically stop herself from crying out when Dorama aimed the staff at Sora and shot a beam of light that made contact and blasted her heels over head with a cry of pain off of the track and into the seats.

The beam that was shot at Arin thankfully missed due to the younger male being in a constant state of movement.

"Oh you son of a bitch, you're gonna be paying that one" Kiba quietly growled, glaring daggers at the man onstage as she crept closer.

"You're draining these poor creatures just to make your fireworks display a little better?!" Sora asked in disbelief as another beam of light made contact with Arin, making him yelp in pain and shooting him down from the axe into the seats below.

Both teens let out yells as they were catapulted into the air, landing harshly back onto the track.

"Of course! I may be the most celebrated entertainer in the Crossroads, but you've seen that Carnival now. People from so many realms, bringing so much exotic spectacle! I will not be upstaged!" Dorama snapped, raising his staff once again.

"Sora!" Arin and Kiba cried out as the beam of light that was shot at her knocked the tech junkie backwards.

She seemed too dazed to even try and get up.

"Just a little further" the cyan eyed female muttered to herself.

She was so close to where the stage rose up into the air that Dorama wouldn't even see her at this point even if he were to look in her direction.

Which he did, though he quickly looked back at Arin as he began talking again.

"But people love you already!" he cried, trying to put some sense of reason in the magician's head.

"And I intend to keep it that way!" Dorama replied with an evil smile as he rose his staff up into the air.

"Not my brother you bastard!" Kiba spat as she flung herself onto the stage, taking the man by surprise as he turned his head so fast to face her, that she swore she heard something crack.

Now that Dorama's attention was fully on her, he was completely unaware of Arin, who used his grappling hook to get himself up on the stage. Using his Spinjitzu to swiftly grab a wooden prop hammer that had been laying on the floor, the dark skinned male spun himself over to the hole in the floor, and slammed the prop into it, giving a hard tug as he went. Sora, who had managed to get herself back up, let out a yell of fear as she neared the fire spitting dragon at the end of the track.

Luckily, Arin's timing had made a swinging axe blade stop right in between her and the fire, effectively blocking her from the flames. She and Kiba both let out sigh of relief, after after Riyu joined the tech junkie, they both began making their way towards the stage.

"It's over Dorama!" Arin hissed, tossing away the prop as he took on a fighting position.

Dorama, surprisingly, didn't look all that upset.

"Oh puh-lease. Do you honestly believe I wouldn't have a understudy waiting in the wings?" he asked rather jauntily as he marched over to a different part of the stage.

Spinning his staff, he shot a beam at a heavy sandbag, which fell and allowed the thick red curtains to open, revealing a dark void behind them. Kiba could just make out the outlines of something quite huge, but it wasn't until the lights flicked on over that she realized what it was. A giant puppet, made out of wood and controlled by ropes that descended from the ceiling to it's joints.

The thing let out a rather terrifying clacking sound as it began to move, moving from a hanging hunched over position to standing at it's full height. The thing's head snapped towards the group, making Kiba gulp and take a step backwards out of fear. This was, simply put, all kinds of wrong.

"Now that's just unnerving" Sora commented, shivering slightly as she and Arin also backed up a bit.

Dorama, looking rather gleeful at their hesitation, darted over to a gramophone and cranked the handle, causing some older times horror music to start playing at a bit of a fast pace. Once the music started up, the puppet reached for it's side, and yanked out a giant katana, much to the surprise of it's targets.

"Oh what the hell?!" Kiba yelped before she along with everyone else, dove out of the way as the puppet brought down the weapon, making it hit nothing but the wooden planks of the stage floor.

Arin, who had jumped backwards, used his grappling hook to catch himself and began to swing forwards with a laugh, reeling himself up into the air as he went, but his small victory quickly came to an end as the puppet reached a hand forward and tightly closed it around the dark skinned male's body.

"Arin! No!" Kiba cried out, pure unadulterated fear spreading through her very being like a wild fire as the puppet brought its victim closer to it's hinged mouth.

Arin had squeezed his eyes and held his arms over his head, as if that would ease his situation. He was only a few feet away from the wooden blocks that made up the puppet's mouth when a new voice rose over the din, making everybody, even the colossal puppet, pause in their movements.

"Leave my student alone!"

Whipping her head around, Kiba's eyes searched the back of the theater, looking for the owner of the voice, and was not only surprised, but fully relieved to see Lloyd standing on the edge of one of the wall booths, hood and mask up with his sword drawn and eyes blazing with anger as he glared at the puppet. With a few jumps and flips, the Green Ninja landed on the stage, and a quick sweep of the leg sent him into a familiar Spinjitzu tornado that rose up into the air, cutting the ropes that held the puppet up and sending it crumbling to the floor like a rag doll. Arin was released as the hand that held him thumped over when it hit the ground, and his sister and best friend wasted no time in getting to his side to make sure he was alright.

And to get him on his feet and away from the giant puppet.

Lloyd stopped doing Spinjitzu and twisted his body so that he landed right behind Dorama, causing the fireworks magician to whirl around in surprise.

"This performance is cancelled!" Lloyd spat at him, looking extremely ticked off as he sheathed his sword while pointing a threatening finger at the male before him.

"Correction" Dorama hissed with a smirk as he backed away a bit and turned towards the giant puppet.

"Time for an encore" he stated mysteriously, raising both hand and staff as he spoke.

"Oh please no" Kiba muttered, her eyes wide as they locked on the puppet's hand, which had begun to twitch.

The thing slowly rose into the air, chest first, until it was standing in a hunched over position. Then, it's head snapped towards Lloyd, and used both hands to aim the tip of it's giant sword at him. Now Lloyd looked worried, and Kiba wondered if he ever dealt with something like this as he began to back away himself.

"This is like that nightmare I had" he stated, looking up at the puppet with wide eyes.

"This is a nightmare everyone's had!" Sora told him, keeping her eyes on the puppet as she and everyone else took a couple steps back.

Her voice alerted the puppet to the fact the teens were still there, and it turned it's head towards the group, moving one of it's wooden hands off from the hilt of the sword.

"Ah shit. Scram!" Kiba yelled, already moving to the side.

Arin and Sora followed her lead, but this time, Sora was the one who was grabbed, and she was pulled into the air with a fearful yell.

"Sora!" both siblings cried out, but they each had to fling themselves out of the way to avoid the giant blade that was brought down on them.

The tech junkie junkie let out a strained sounding noise, like she was trying to breathe as she tried in vain to use her arms and force the hand open. Arin used his grappling hook to yank the horn part off of the gramophone, and looked up as Sora let out a strained yell, that damn hand closing tighter around her body.

"I can't - I can't breathe!" the tech junkie managed to get out, her struggles to get free from the hand getting more desperate and erratic by the minute.

Something inside Arin seemed to snap at that, and he let out a furious sounding yell as he did his form of Spinjitzu, which transferred to the horn he suddenly threw. The horn, aided by the Spinjitzu it was now being powered by, slammed into the torso of the puppet which enough force to break the boards that covered that part of the thing's body and send it reeling. The giant puppet took a couple unsteady steps backwards as it's head spun and it's grip on Sora loosened, allowing her wheezing body to drop against the ground as the puppet slumped over a bit itself.

Arin looked rather shocked for a moment as his own actions caught up with his mind, and the dark skinned male looked at his hands in surprise as Kiba darted forward, sliding the final few feet on her knees and coming to a stop by her best friend.

"Sora! You alright?" she asked quickly, grabbing Sora's hand and letting her use her body as a crutch.

"Ugh. I will be" came the reply as the tech junkie set her free hand against Kiba's shoulder and pushed down on it.

Arin joined them right as Sora managed to get to her feet, though he looked over his shoulder as Lloyd jumped down beside him.

"How did you do that?!" the Ninja cried, referring to Arin's move with the gramophone horn.

"I don't know" Arin answered honestly, looking a little confused about it himself.

"You transferred Spinjitzu to an object!" Lloyd stated with a few hand gestures.

A few familiar clanking noises had Kiba looking over, and she paled slightly as the puppet loomed over the group in a threatening manner, it's sword now pointed them. Sora alerted both males to the danger by patting Arin's shoulder.

"Not making sense to me either!" the teen replied to Lloyd's statement, who set a hand against the hilt of his sword as the whole group began backing away again.

He drew the weapon as everybody jumped out of the way of the puppet's sword, which hit nothing but the ground again.

"Okay, this, is starting to get annoying" Kiba hissed in frustration sliding to a stop and taking a few more steps back for good measure.

She heard a small noise of surprise from behind her, and looked over her shoulder to see Lloyd, who had a look of realization in his eyes.

"It has gears?" he questioned.

"Uh, yeah? What about it?" Kiba told him confused.

There was a puppet that was trying to kill them, and Lloyd was more focused on the fact that it had gears?

What the heck?

The cyan eyed female continued to switch her gaze between the puppet and the Green Ninja, who began moving towards the other side of the stage where a large ventilation fan stood.

"Uh, Lloyd? Far be it from me to question you, but what the hell are you doing?" Kiba asked him, furrowing her eyebrows.

"That thing has gears, and I have this!" came the reply as Lloyd dug around in his pocket and pulled out a fist full of familiar carpet cuttings.

"Huh. I was wondering about how you managed to find us" the cyan eyed female stated as she faced forward.

The puppet, which had been about to attack Arin and Sora, paused and turned as he turned the fan on, tilting it's head in apparent confusion. It only took a couple seconds for Lloyd's plan to formulate itself with Kiba's mind.

"He's gonna gunk up the gears. Brilliant!" she whispered to herself with a smile.

With it's gears now turned towards him, fully exposed, Lloyd released the carpet clippings, which were sucked into and blown out of the fan towards the puppet, who began to raise it's sword, unaware of the fate that had been lined up for it. The clippings caught themselves up in the gears of the puppet, which began letting out loud grinding and scraping noises as the gears started to catch. Finding themselves under too much pressure, the mechanisms began to catch flame and disengaged, causing a couple of small scale explosions that sent the puppet flopping down to the ground.

Remembering what had happened after Lloyd cut the ropes, Kiba was hesitant to claim victory, but after the puppet made no attempts to get up, she pulled down her scarf and heaved a sigh of relief.

"Thank. God. That is over!" she called out as she let her head fall back for a few moments, her voice echoing around the theater as she panted a bit.

"How'd you know to do that?!" Arin cried as he and Sora ran over, each of them pushing off their hoods, one of which was replaced by cat ear headphones.

Lloyd, whose breathing was slightly laboured from all the action, pushed back his hood and mask, revealing a smile victory.

"Well, this morning, someone told me that when junk gets into gears, it can ruin everything" he said.

Kiba gave a soft breath of amusement and a smile as everyone began to giggle or chuckle. But the sound of Riyu growling brought everyone's attention to a fireworks magician that was running through the aisle towards the doors in an attempt to escape.

"Go get him little buddy" Kiba stated with a smile as she looked towards Riyu, motioning her head towards Dorama.

Riyu promptly took off running, with Lloyd, Arin, and Sora following at a more leisurely pace, and tackled the magician to the ground just before he reached the doors.

"Agh! Stop! This can't be the final act for the Crossroad's greatest showman!" Dorama cried out.

Kiba let out a huff of laughter at his theatrics before a soft groan from somewhere beside her caught her attention. Looking over, she realized with a start that the Whack Rats were starting to come around. Moving quickly, she took out a bobby pin that she always carried around, don't ask her why, and bent into into the shape she needed before kneeling down to start picking at the lock.

"Hang on. I'm gonna get you guys out of here" she promised, her voice low and comforting as she maneuvered the pin this way and that.

It took a couple seconds, but the lock finally fell open with a click, and Kiba replaced the bobby pin back in her pocket before standing up to remove the lock and open the door.

"How're you guys feeling? Any pain? Headaches?" she asked as she stepped one foot into the cage and knelt down again, checking over the closest Whack Rat.

It was crazy to think how just a little bit ago, she had been throwing these guys on their asses, and now, here she was, checking them over for injuries or other ailments.

"Just real tired" one of the Rats drawled.

Kiba nodded a bit. That was to be expected after having your energy constantly drained.

Chills began to run up her spine as a thought crossed her mind that made her falter in her movements.

Just how many Whack Rats had Dorama used for entertainment? Entertainment that she herself had enjoyed. He had said something about how their unique energy had been the fuel for his fireworks.

Fireworks that he had displayed at the end of every single Carnival for the past three years. And obviously he couldn't use the same Whack Rats over and over, so he would have to obtain new ones, and he couldn't let the old ones go otherwise they would tell everyone his sick dark secret.

But, that would mean...

Kiba sucked in and released a sharp breath. No, not even someone like Dorama would...

But then again, he had shown that he had been willing to try and destroy her, Arin, and Sora, so why not Whack Rats?

"Yo, you good?" one of the Rats in the cage asked, breaking Kiba's horrific train of thought.

These guys probably didn't know just how close they came to being on death's doorstep, so she would spare them of that kind of information.

"Uhm, yeah. Yeah, just... assessing you guys" she said, trying her best to not think about how many of these creatures were sacrificed in the name of entertainment.

"Alright, so it doesn't look like any of you have any injuries that I can see, but all the same, I recommend taking things easy for the next couple of days, give yourselves a chance to recover" she stated, resting her hands on her bent knees.

"What are ye? A doctor?" the Whack Rat farthest from asked.

Kiba gave a chuckle.

"Oh, far from it my guy. But you don't deal with hyperactive people without gaining some kind of medical knowledge. Now, I know you're all tired, but are any of you able to stand?" she said then asked, looking between the captives.

"Eh, I thin' we can try" the Whack Rat on her other side stated.

With that, he did his best to stand, and took Kiba's hand when she offered the limb to him. Guiding him out of the cage, the cyan eyed female repeated the process until all the captives were out on the stage.

"Before I forget, are any of you named 'Targle' by any chance?" she asked, remembering the deal Arin had made with Kreel.

One of the Whack Rats, a pink haired one, raised his hand.

"Tha' would be me lady" he drawled.

Kiba gave a huff.

"I know someone whose gonna be really happy to see you" she told him as she moved towards the front of the stage.

Her friends and teacher had been discussing what to do with Dorama that would ensure that he stayed here until the authorities arrived, and looking back at the cage the Whack Rats were kept in, Kiba had an idea.

"I think I might have a solution to your problem!" she hollered, gaining their attention.

"Oh yeah? What do you have in mind?" Lloyd asked.

Kiba smirked a little as she jabbed a thumb towards the cage.

...

Pressing her hands into her pocket, the cyan eyed female couldn't help but smile as Kreel came into view, eating an ice cream cone as she shared relationship advice with Labo. Oh, the look on her face would be priceless.

"Kreeeeelll, someone wants to see you!" Arin called out in a sing song voice, gaining everybody's attention.

Just as Kiba expected as she stepped off to the side with the others, Kreel's face lit up in an expression of sheer joy the moment she saw Targle, who started forward at the same time she did.

"Targy! You're safe!" she cried, tightly embracing the Whack Rat, who was in returning the gesture.

Upon letting go, the woman turned to look at Labo, who had floated a little closer during the exchange of affection.

"Labo, you're free to go" she declared, motioning for the robot to get the heck out of there.

"Labo was always free... Up here. Labo Labo" he replied, motioning to the top of his own oversized head.

"That's some Labo wisdom for you" Kiba commented, looking at Lloyd as she crossed her arms.

Her teacher gave a huff of laughter, and then turned to Arin as the dark skinned male began to speak.

"Master.... Uh, Lloyd. We're, sorry for sneaking away without permission" he said.

His words made Kiba freeze up. She had been so focused on everything else, that she had forgotten they were technically not supposed to be here.

"Aaand for taking your carpet" Sora added, looking rather apprehensive as she looked towards Riyu's costume.

At this point, you could just barely see his wings pressing against the small blanket that covered his body.

"...I'm sorry too"

Well, that wasn't the response any of the teens were expecting.

"Wait, what?" Kiba asked, her voice somewhat small as she looked towards her teacher in surprise.

"For pushing you all so much today. I was so serious about my teaching, that I forgot this could also be fun" Lloyd elaborated, facepalming a bit at his own actions.

"We all new at this, we get it. No problem" Sora told him.

Lloyd gave a grateful smile as he released a small breath.

"So, um, are you mad? With the, whole, sneaking out, and the..." Kiba hesitantly asked, motioning towards the blanket that Riyu had.

Lloyd set his hands on his hips as he gave the dragon's costume a contemplating glance.

"...Not as mad as I probably should be" he finally said, and that was all Kiba could hope for as she gave a small sigh of relief.

"Hey! If we hurry, we can make it to the pie contest!" Arin suddenly said.

"Oh yeah, aren't they about to announce the results?" Sora asked.

"Yup. Let's get going!" Kiba stated, moving at a fast pace out of the junkyard.

...

It was nice not having to rush through a crowd to get to the front. At least that's what Kiba felt as she came to a stop and pressed her hands into the pockets of her pants. She remarked the purple and gold trophy that now stood alone on the long white tablecloth, and knew that her brother had seen it too, considering how he was bouncing on the balls of his feet in hope and excitement.

Knowing how much he wanted to win that first place trophy, Kiba kept her fingers crossed in her pocket, hoping he would prove victorious tonight. Her eyes, which had been flitting over the chattering crowd, immediately locked on Mr. Frohicky as he appeared, and all chatter died down when he grabbed that trophy.

"And in first place is..." Frohicky called out, and Kiba smiled as Arin held his fists against his chest in anticipation.

"...Chef Grabarg, congratulations!" Frohicky cried, handing the trophy over to the snail man.

Arin deflated faster than an untied balloon that had been released, and he let out a disappointed sigh.

"And in second place, Arin!" Frohicky stated as he approached the group with a silver ribbon in hand.

"Sorry kiddo, but it's still a great pie" he said, handing over the ribbon.

Arin quietly took, and waited until Frohicky walked away to smack the ribbon against his head.

"You're gonna poke your eye out if you keep doing that. But if it's any consolation, you'll always be number one in our books" Kiba told him with a soft smile as she gently bumped her shoulder against his.

"...Thanks Kiba"

"Ah, don't worry. You'll win next year" Lloyd told the teen, putting a hand on his shoulder as the Ninja moved so that he was in front of him.

"Wha-next year?" Arin questioned, tilting his head up to look at his teacher.

Lloyd gave a huff of laughter as he moved the ribbon from Arin's head to his chest.

"Of course! We can't miss the next Crossroads Carnival!" he stated, setting the back of his hand against his hip.

"And this year's Carnival isn't over!" Sora piped up.

Riyu pushed himself up so that he was sitting back on his haunches, which put his head to waist level for the teens.

"Sora's right. The night's still young. Plenty of things to see, plenty of things to do" Kiba agreed, giving the dragon's neck a couple of gentle scratches.

"And plenty of food to try! I had my eye on some candied mushrooms from the Realm of Lee" Sora added, gently stroking the creature's head before looking at the rest of the group.

"A snack tour is exactly what we need before training starts again tomorrow. At the crack of dawn" Lloyd said, crossing his arms as he gave Sora a knowing look.

Kiba gave a laugh as she looked at the tech junkie.

"Yet another play on your words Sora" she stated, pressing both hands back into the pockets of her pants as she began to move away in the direction of the food stalls.

"Now come on. I've got an empty stomach that I need to satisfy" she said, much to the amusement of her companions.

That sweet and savory smell from earlier was back, and this time, she was determined to find out what it belonged to.