We thundered further and deeper into the island, speeding our way over hills and through valleys. Motion suddenly caught my attention and I picked up heavy rustlings in the leaves over the roar of the chopper engines.

"Lloyd, I hear something," I called down to the green ninja. He glanced up at the ridge above us before swerving to a stop, the other ninja just behind us.

As the cross hatches of the choppers popped up, Nya inquired, "What's wrong?"

"I thought I saw something up there," Lloyd pointed up on the ridge, "An animal."

"I heard it, too," I added, "whatever it was, it sounded big."

"We're in the jungle, Lloyd," Jay dismissed, "There's lots of animals. And how did you hear anything over the chopper motors, Celine?" He shot me a skeptical look.

"Hey, hey, don't ignore it when Celine says she hears something big. Last time I did that, there was a close call with a lava monster," Cole interjected, catching my eye and winking.

I squinted at Cole incredulously. Did he really just stick up for me?

"Hey, by the way, did anyone bring a snack?," Cole asked, changing subjects abruptly, "I'm starving."

"I did," Jay responded with a grin.

"Great!"

"But it fell in the ocean," Jay continued.

"Oh, thanks for getting my hopes up," Cole moaned, plopping to a sitting position on top of his chopper.

I briefly took a mental inventory of what I had stashed in my utility belt: life straw, emergency blanket, a pocketknife, paracord, but no food.

Lloyd shifted his attention to Twitchy, who appeared to be on the brink of a mental breakdown, "What kind of animals are there on this island, Twitchy?"

"Uh," Twitchy stammered, "Poisonous pythons, poisonous jaguars, poisonous frogs, poisonous eels, poisonous piranhas, poisonous birds!" he exclaimed loudly as a small flock flew over us.

"Poisonous birds?" Nya questioned skeptically.

"Don't you mean venomous pythons?" I added quietly.

"Pretty much everything on this island is poisonous!" Twitchy went on, "Especially those berries." He pointed towards Cole, who was munching on some white berries growing nearby.

Cole bolted to attention, stared at the berries in his hand, and promptly spit them out.

I rolled my eyes, "Did no one ever teach to not eat something if you don't know for sure what it is?"

"Whatever is on this island," Lloyd spoke, gearing up to keep riding, "It won't stop us from finding my mom and Master Wu."

"And Clutch Powers," Nya reminded brightly.

"Huh? Oh yeah, right. And Clutch," Lloyd corrected skeptically. The crosshatch of the chopper slammed down and Lloyd cranked the vehicle into gear, shooting us, once again, through the jungle.

After a few miles, we skidded to a stop and one by one we leapt out of the choppers.

"Let's leave the jungle choppers here. There's no way we're gonna drive through that," Lloyd voiced as we approached and inspected a particularly dense part of the jungle.

A low growl from behind caught my attention.

"Ha, you weren't kidding, you really are hungry," Kai joked at Cole, "I can hear your stomach growling from here."

"Uh, that wasn't my stomach," Cole replied nervously.

"Well, if it wasn't your stomach, than who's-" Kai started, the two boys glancing at me.

The growl came again and I whirled around, searching for the source.

A few feet away, Twitchy cried out in anguish before crumpling to a fetal position on the ground.

"What are you doing?" Lloyd exasperated.

"Assuming survival position!" Twitchy answered with a shout before huddling into a tighter ball.

Across the canyon, leaves rustled on the rim, alerting me of the creatures whereabouts. I tracked the source of the noise the whole way around the canyon.

"Celine?" Lloyd whispered harshly.

"It's circling us," I breathed in reply.

Out of the blue, a coconut dropped to the ground. My focus swung around, follow the trajectory back up to the ledge of the cliff. Within seconds, a turquoise dragon flew through the air, tackling Nya to the ground.

"Dragon!" she screamed out as she was pinned to the earth.

As we readied out weapons for an attack, the dragon leaned down and wiped it huge, slobbery tongue across Nya's body before backing off of her.

"Ninja-!" Kai began, preparing to battle the dragon, but Nya cut him off.

"No! Wait! Look at him. I don't think he's dangerous," Nya smiled, pointing to the dragon who was now... panting? As he stood over the coconut, a crazed but playful look in his eyes.

The dragon sat up like a dog, before bending down again and nosing at the coconut, then knocking it (very forcefully) towards Cole.

He shrieked as he jumped out of the way just in time, before realizing what was thrown at him.

"Was that a coconut?" He inquired hopefully, chasing after the rogue fruit.

Just as Cole was stooping to pick it up, the dragon swooped in and scooped it up with his tail, knocking it into the air before catching it on his nose. He dropped the coconut and gently rolled it towards Nya.

"I think he wants to play!" She spoke, picking up the fruit. "Fetch!" she lobbed the coconut up into the air and onto the cliff ledge. In an instant the dragon hopped up the ledge with a howl.

"It appears quite docile," Zane noted.

"Yeah, it might be friendly and all-" Lloyd began, but was interrupted by the dragon roughly nudging the coconut to Nya next to him.

"Zippy!" Jay exclaimed, "Oh, let's call him Zippy!"

"Okay," Lloyd tried again, holding the coconut under his arm, "Zippy might be friendly and all..." he was once again cut off as Zippy licked him rather forcefully across the back, managing to lift the green ninja into the air simultaneously. "But we don't have time to be playing fetch with dragons. We're trying to find my mom and Master Wu."

"And Clutch Powers," I added with a bit of a tease. I caught Nya's eye and winked, causing us both to chuckle.

Lloyd sighed, almost dejectedly, "And Clutch Powers."

"Are you sure? He's so cuuute!" Nya scratched at Zippy's face and the dragon rolled over in pleasure, begging for more. Lloyd scowled, crossing his arms, unimpressed.

"Okay fine," Nya admitted before turning to the dragon, "Zippy, look, you're a real good boy, but we're on an important mission and you might be a little huge and loud for us, okay?" Nya picked the coconut back up and turned back the way we had come, "Super fetch!" She launched to coconut further into the jungle using her water abilities and Zippy happily chased after it.

Twitchy, who had been nervously shaking on the ground the whole time, stopped and stood up, "Survival mode successful again!"

"Let's go, quick!" Lloyd urged, and we dove back into the thick jungle.

Hacking through the underbrush, a coconut suddenly fell onto my sword. Glancing around, I noticed Cole kicking at a tree.

"Ahem."

He turned towards me, "Yes! Finally!" he removed the coconut and held it up, hesitating as Kai paused in passing us, lending a judgmental glance.

"What?" Cole retorted.

"Is it possible for you to think about anything except food?" He spoke skeptically.

"Yes, I'm thirsty too," Cole shot back. I stifled a laugh at the potential double meaning of the words.

Without warning, Zippy appeared out of nowhere and stole the coconut right out of Cole's grasp.

"Give me back my drink, thief," Cole yelled after the crafty dragon.

Zippy reappeared behind us, the coconut on the tip of his tongue, very obviously teasing Cole.

"Hey!" Cole leapt towards him only for the dragon to scoot backwards, causing Cole to fall flat on his face. Zippy popped up again a few feet ahead and Cole launched himself towards the dragon, again, only crashing to the ground.

Shaking my head, I walked up to where his was and offered my hand to stand up, "You know, I do have a life straw on me if we find a water source."

"Really?" Cole's eyes glowed hopefully, "You're the best Celine!"

I smiled shyly, briefly thrown off by the compliment, if only for a moment, "Come on, let's catch up with the others."

We hurried to where Zane, Nya, and Lloyd were standing, intensely studying the ground. My gaze dropped to the earth, mentally analyzing every branch and scuff in the mud.

"This is most strange," Zane murmured.

"What's wrong?" Cole probed, worry seeping into his voice.

"The trail appears to stop here, I see evidence of a struggle."

"Yeah," I muttered in response, kneeling on the ground to get a closer look.

"What kind of struggle?" Lloyd pressed, walking up behind us.

Zane and I appeared to come to the same conclusion as we followed where the path ended in a couple of thick bushes. Together, we peeled back the underbrush, only to gasp in surprise. A huge, stone, totem statue was nestled in the bushes. Moss and vines overgrew the statue, but something about it seemed off.

Zippy whined before running off into the jungle and Twitchy curled up on the ground again, "Survival mode!"

"Will you guys relax?" Nya stated, stepping up to the statue and tapping it with a stick, "It's just a statue! See?"

Instantly, the statue spring to life and chomped down on the stick! Nya screamed as she stumbled backwards away from the statue. It's yellow eyes narrowed at us a moment before it leapt from the rock it was seated on, producing two giant swords.

"There's more!" I shouted as I sensed tremors in the earth. No sooner had the words left my mouth than a second and third totem leapt from bushes on both sides of us.

"Uh, the statue has brothers!" Kai called as we drew our weapons and backed towards one another, circling out to face the enemy.

"Ninja Go!" Lloyd yelled, and, spinning into spinjitzu, he attempted to attack the statue. The other ninja followed suit. All except me. I tried to spin myself, but only ended up with a head rush.

"Gosh darn it!"

Glancing skyward, I caught sight of Cole jumping up to meet one of the statue, only for it to knock him down to earth roughly. He stuck the landing, and swung his hammer into the ground, sending a quake towards the statue. My jaw dropped in disbelief as the statue absorbed the force of the quake, spun around in the air, and sent it straight back towards Cole!

I scrambled from the ground quickly as Cole was flung right at me from the force of the quake, barely managing to stay on my feet.

"What the heck?" Cole mumbled.

Kai jumped up behind us and launched a fireball at the statue, who swallowed it and sent it back!

The three of us quickly flipped out of the way, "It just ate my fire blast and spat it back!" Kai exclaimed angrily.

Zane made his way to us as he dodged another set of blasts, "They appear to be channeling our elemental energy!"

"Yeah, no kidding!" I responded.

My gaze flicked across the clearing to where Jay was fighting the third statue, quite unsuccessfully. As his kusarigama were tossed aside, he squared up against the statue, fists glowing with lightning.

"Wait, if that's the case-" I began.

"Jay! Do not use your!" Zane finished, but it was too late.

Jay ran screaming as the statue chased after him, shooting lightning at the blue ninja.

We dodged and ducked and jumped as the statues flew into the air, rotating their swords at lightning speeds, cutting up the trees around us.

"Escape maneuvers!" I swiveled towards Twitchy's voice in time to see him worming his way out of the clearing and back into the jungle.

We did our best to fight the statues with our weapons, but soon enough we were all strewn about the jungle floor.

The statues growled as they jumped on top of one another, the sky darkening to the same angry purple I had seen from the Bounty, forming a massive totem pole. Purple lightning shot down from the clouds and struck the top of the totem, charging the statue with energy before it promptly spat it back out towards us. We scattered out of the way, scrambling for safety.

"I don't think lightnings your thing anymore!" Kai shouted to Jay over the crash of thunder.

"Yeah! I know!"

"Look out!" Lloyd screamed as the statues began to chase us through the forest.

We took off running, barely dodging the blasts.

As we tore through the jungle, Nya glanced back from the front of the group, "Oh no! Where's Lloyd?"

"And the other guy," Jay asked breathlessly, "I wanna say... Nutty Ned?"

"Twitchy Tim!" I responded, "I saw him crawl away earlier. Lloyd, I have no clue."

Ahead, Nya skidded to a stop as we reached the edge of a cliff. Jay nearly knocked her off as he stopped, but quickly grabbed her and swung her back onto solid ground.

"They're still coming, what now?" Kai spoke urgently.

I surveyed our surroundings quickly, "Over there!" I pointed towards a rope bridge a few yards off.

Cautiously, we approached the structure.

"Oh, are you kidding?" Jay groaned, "A rope bridge? Rope bridges always break!"

I paid him no mind as I delicately but swiftly traversed across the bridge, the others close behind, careful where I stepped as some of the wood was starting to rot.

We reached the other side and stood, waiting, as Jay slowly, painfully, crossed over.

"Keep moving, Jay!" Nya called to him.

"It's gonna fall. It's gonna fall. It's gonna fall. It's gonna fall!" Jay muttered as he finished crossing the bridge, eyes squeezed shut.

As he kept walking onto solid land, eyes still shut, Cole spoke up, "Maybe open your eyes now."

"Haha! No way! We actually made it all the way across a rope bridge without it breaking! Haha! I guess everything's gonna be-" He was cut off by a sickening snap as the bridge broke. "See? I told you."

Rustling in the bushes caught my attention. I quietly slunk to where I thought I had heard the noise. Pushing back some branches, I was met face to face with a purple man. No sooner had I processed what I was seeing than I felt electricity pulse through my body. The last thing I heard was someone screaming my name just before everything went black.

I blinked rapidly as I became conscious again. I tried to sit up, but was restrained from doing so. I lifted my head slightly and noticed I was roped to the bow of some sort of ship. Just above my head, I felt someone else stirring.

"Wha-? Oh come on!"

"Nya?" I inquired.

"Celine? Are you okay?" Nya asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine," I responded. Somewhere further behind me I heard Kai struggling against his own bonds.

"Hey! Untie me!"

"Kai?" Nya spoke again, "Kai are you okay?"

"Nya? Yeah, yeah I'm okay," Kai grunted as he struggled against the ropes, "Where are they taking us? Can you see anything?"

"I have no idea," Nya gasped, "I can't see a thing. Celine?"

I listened closely at the sounds around me. The waves beating softly against the sides of the boats. Breathing coming from the other figures on the vessel. Crackling flames and a sort of pulsing electric current sounded as though they were coming from land.

"I can see a dock," I answered, "there's torches all along it and a bunch of purple creatures."

A few moments later the boat was docked and Jay, Cole, and Zane were prodded awake and shoved ashore as our restraints were undone.

"Is everyone alright?" Cole asked, glancing from face to face, his gaze lingering on me a moment longer than the rest.

We nodded in agreement as we were led onto some sort of wooden structure that seemed to function as a monorail of sorts, ferrying from one end of the island to the other.

"Hey! Watch it with that!" Jay cried as one of the natives poked him with some sort of staff. The top of the staff held some sort of purple stone that appeared to channel electrical current. Jay was poked again as we made our way onto the ferry, "Ow! Okay, I'm going, I'm going."

The ferry glided off the platform it had been resting on and lifted us up into a hidden village suspended perfectly from the trees. Rope bridges crisscrossed across treehouse like buildings, the trails illuminated by the same purple stones. In the center of it all was a massive stone structure and it looked like we were headed straight towards it.

As we got closer, I could get a better look at the creatures that had taken us captive. Their skin almost glowed an iridescent purple and they wore armor made from tree bark. I peered again at the stone structure I was able to pick out a sort of throne room near the top. One of the natives of the island stood in the center, probably their chief or ruler judging from the headdress dotted with turquoise stones that crowned his head and the bejeweled armor on his chest. Beside him, two other natives, probably bodyguards, held shields and spears and behind them all was a huge, round stone, adorned with colored carvings of... a dragon?

When the ferry had landed, we were marched straight to the throne room.

"What do you want?" Nya demanded of the chief, "Why did you attack us?"

"Silence!" the chief ordered, sneering at us, "I know why you are here. Like those who came before you, you seek to steal the amulet."

"We're not here to steal anything," Kai argued, "We're here to rescue our friends."

"You do not deceive me," the chief answered calmly, "Others have come before you. Others have tried, and failed, for we uphold our vow. We are the Keepers of the Amulet!"

"What amulet?" Jay questioned.

The chief flicked his spear around and jammed it into a socket by his feet. As it glowed, the stone behind him rotated to reveal a purple amulet with the silhouette of a dragon set in gold on it.

"I'm guessing that one," Cole voiced.

"It is the Storm Amulet," the chief explained, "pried from the head of the sleeper of the deep, she who existed long before time had a name. Wojira!"

"Wojira!" chanted the Keepers around us.

"Wojira," I echoed silently, "Where have I heard that name before?"

"We took a sacred oath to keep the Storm Amulet safe from those who would seize it. We harnessed the power of lightning, and became one with the storm. Our forefathers kept the oath, and their forefathers, all the way back to the beginning."

"I can assure you, we have no intention of purloining your artifact," Zane rushed.

"You have seen it," the chief spoke, "You know too much."

"Then why did you should it to us?" I protested.

"There is only one way to ensure it remains safe now," the chief continued, an ominous threat leaking into his tone.

"Why do I feel like I'm not gonna like this?" Cole worried.

"You will be our prisoners, forever!"

"Wojira!" the Keepers shouted again, closing in on us, spears at the ready.

"Yeah, don't like it," Cole added glumly.