Chapter 4
The Cursed Illness
"Today must me the worst Serpentine fighting day ever!" Kai exclaims while catching three Hypnobrai on fire with his sword.
They yelp, running away as more advance, brandishing swords and spears and surround the fire ninja. "Give up!" Scales says, pointing his staff at Kai.
"No way!" the red ninja retorts, thrusting his fiery blade at the general's throat.
"Wait! Nobody move!" the snake general drops his staff and holds his hands up in a defensive posture.
Everyone stares, waiting tensely for something to happen, but nothing does for two anxious minutes. Kai gazes into Scales red eyes, suddenly finding them prominent, beautiful, the only thing in his sight…and mind. It's lovely. It wants me to destroy the other ninja and I will do anything for it, just as long as I can see those eyes.
Kai starts to waver, his flames on the sword extinguishing and he drops the weapon. "I will…not do…what you…want."
"You will follow my every command," Scales says, white circles emanating from his eyes into the fire ninja's brown ones, which become the same.
"I will obey your every command," Kai bows before turning to see Cole enter the bank.
"There you are!" he exclaims, drawing his scythe but stops in his tracks once he sees his brother growling at him with Hypnobrai eyes.
"Please be okay Zane. Please be okay," Jay keeps saying aloud as he flies to the mountainside, preparing to land.
Flashback
"Hello? Zane, it's me Jay. You doing okay?"
"Is this Jay Walker?" a familiar voice comes over the device, but it doesn't belong to his brother.
"Yeah, and who are you and why do you have Zane's earpiece?"
"Quite the inquisitive ninja aren't you? I am Skalidor and I have Zane Julien with me. You might want to come to The Mountain of a Million Steps, or else you might not see him again."
"No!" Zane screams in the background, "Jay, don't come alone!"
The device hangs up and Jay looks at Cole concerned. "It was the Constrictai general. He has Zane."
The earth ninja nods his head calmly before saying, "Kai's not doing the best either so we'll split up."
"Okay!" Jay responds.
End of Flashback
"Hang on frosty. I'm coming to get you," Jay tells himself before converting his jet into his nunchucks, landing and nearly slipping off the mountainside from the wet mud. "Woah! That was close."
Down in the cave, Zane and the Serpentine holding him are hearing the lightning ninja's most prominent ruckus. "Is he always that loud?" the Venomari General asks.
"That's Jay for you," Zane responds. "It's the others you won't know about if they come."
"Oh, that's a slippery rope over here!" Jay's voice echoes throughout the cave, and the ice ninja rolls his eyes.
"Does he have to be so obvious?" Zane mutters. "He's a ninja for goodness sake."
Skalidor snatches the Nindroid by his hair, only to have a clump come off, much to his surprise. "What's wrong with your hair?" he says, taken aback.
Zane stares at him in confusion, but red words appear like fresh blood on his gi:
I am cursed by a shadow named Gehenna who resides in the lake of fire.
"Let go of him! Get him out of here!" the general's scream at the same moment, while the ice ninja's eyes become bloodshot, hungry, purely evil. The Serpentine release Zane, who is not even aware of what he looks like, and Jay slides down the rope.
"Ready to-" Jay's face pales when he sees his brother, and the lightning ninja passes out into Zane's arms.
"This is not going over so well!" Cole comments as Kai hits him again with the Serpentine staff. "Ouch! Seriously!"
"I knew it would work!" Scales boasts, "Just wait until the other two show up and things get interesting."
"Like heck!" Cole shouts, driving his scythe into the floor, and cracks it, making everyone else fall. "Oh, dang it. Now I'm going to have to fix the floor."
He grabs the staff Kai had dropped and pulls out the gem from it, pocketing it in his gi before resuming the fight. After about five more minutes of the hassle, Zane enters the bank, setting an unconscious Jay on the ground.
"Ah!" some of the snakes screamed.
"What is that?" Scales yelps, pointing wildly at the ice ninja in terror.
"It looks like the white ninja," one of the snakes notes.
Scales squints his eyes as a new message appears on Zane's forehead.
All who try to harm the cursed one shall be cursed as well.
Zane throws his shurikens at the terrified general, pinning him to the wall. "No, don't curse me!" Scales screams, trying to get away.
"Curse him?" Cole raises an eyebrow before catching a glimpse of his brother's face. The earth ninja drops his scythe, mouth agape, and merely stares in disbelief.