"No!" yelled Skales, still banging on the door.
The serpentine had been stuck underground for so long. Although they did not know it, Ninjago was at peace. The dark Lord had been defeated and Garmadon was good again. Everything was resting after the big battle, but the serpentine were not. They were determined to make it out of the stone prison that held them. All they had been able to eat were the rats that had somehow made it in. None of them were crazy enough yet to turn to cannabilism like the Anacondrai.
Skales banged the door again and this time it opened. On the other side was a masked man and Pythor.
"Well, well," said Pythor,"Look at what we have here. You fools need some help?"
At the Destiny's Bounty
The ninja were called to the bridge. As soon as Zane entered he saw the screen. This is not good, he thought.
"What's going on now?" asked Kai, impatient as always.
Nya pointed to the screen,"The Serpentine are back."
It was easy to see what they were doing. The serpentine were driving people out of a village. They were pulling people out of their homes, throwing the old onto the streets and locking the doors. Other serpentine were herding everyone out of the village. These gave screaming children to random people and chased them out,literally. It looked like an intense game of tag.
Nya turned around,"Well, you guys-," she started to say, but they were already gone.
People were still running, panicking, when the ninja arrived. With one look at each other, the ninja were off. They found it easy, after everything, to defeat the serpentine. Or, at least, they thought it was easy. There was no way for the ninja to know that it was a trap.
"You missed me,"said a hypnobrai to Kai, whose back was turned.
He whipped around expecting to defeat a little serpentine and instead found himself face to face with Skales. Or should I say eye to eye.
"One ninja down," Skales said to himself.
Not far away a similar thing was happening to the black ninja. After fighting, and defeating, ten serpentine, Cole ran over to help Jay. Halfway over he felt somebody behind him.
"Cole, don't turn around!" Jay yelled, but all Cole heard was his name.
Already he had stared the hypnobrai in the eye. Jay closed his eyes and attacked the remaining serpentine that he had already been fighting. He looked at the ground before opening his eyes and saw that the only ninja still fighting was Zane. Zane had watched Kai get tricked and when he felt someone behind him he kicked it without turning around.
"Ow!" yelled Jay, he had been the one behind Zane.
"My apologies," said Zane,"I had thought that you were a serpentine."
"Yeah, well I'm not," Jay winced as he was pulled to his feet.
Meanwhile the Serpentine were running away with Cole and Kai. They ran towards a dense forest.
"They're getting away!" yelled Jay.
"We should stop them before they are able to hide in the woods," Zane said as they began to give chase.
At the edge of the city the ninja were stopped by two hypnobrai who jumped out of the shadows.
"All ninja down," chuckled one of the snakes.
The serpentine with Cole and Kai had already made it to the forest and were out of site, not that anyone on the ground cared. Zane and Jay were behind. On the outskirts of the forest was a small house. It looked deserted, but when the two hypnobrai, Zane, and Jay reached it they heard a girl singing. The music pulled Zane and Jay out of their trnace and caused the serpentine to cover their ears and slither away. All at once the singing stopped.
Jay went to knock on the door, but Zane stopped him. They did not know what was inside. As Jay withdrew his hand the door opened. In the doorway stood a girl with long brown hair and dark blue eyes. She was dressed in a purple tee and jeans. She motioned for them to come in and then turned and walked inside. With some hesitation, both Jay and Zane followed.
They ended up in a kitchen where the strange girl was pouring them some tea.
"One sugar or two?" she asked them.
Neither answered so she set the sugar in the middle of a small table.
"You can sit, you know. I'm not dangerous," she said while she set the table with three cups, a teapot, and cream.
Jay sat down, but Zane remained standing. The girl finished setting the table and noticed Zane still standing.
"Really," she said,"you should sit."
Reluctantly he sat down. The girl added sugar to her tea, seemingly unaware that the ninja were staring at her.
After a while Jay couldn't stand it any longer,"Who are you?" he asked.
The girl looked up in surprise,"I'm sorry, did I forget to introduce myself?"
The ninja nodded their heads.
"Sorry, I'm Willow," she told them.
"I'm Jay and this is Zane," Jay said.
Willow laughed,"I know who you are, everyone does."
"Oh, right," Jay said.
"Were you the one singing?" Zane asked suddenly.
"Me? Yes. Why do you ask?" Willow replied sounding unsure.
"We were under a trance, courtesy of the hypnobrai, but it seems that it broke when we heard your voice." Zane told her.
"Well, that's strange," she said, although she didn't sound like she thought that it was strange at all.
"Hey, we should bring you back to the ship so that you can meet Sensei Wu,"Jay said.
Willow's eyes lit up at the thought.
"That would be awesome," she said,"I just would have to pack. I'll be right back."
And with that she ran out of the kitchen. When she returned she was carrying a small suitcase and an empty bag.
"What is the bag for?" Jay asked, indicating the empty one.
"My tea set," Willow replied while she pack up the teapot and cups.
The ninja were reminded of Sensei Wu. He always had tea with him.
"What about your parents?" Zane asked Willow.
After a moment she admitted,"I'm kind of an orphan."
Everyone went silent. Outside the sun was beginning to set. The trio left the house in a matter of minutes.