Happy (late) New Years everyone! Hope you had a great holiday season!

Thank you to everyone who showed their love since the last chapter, either in review, favorite, or follow form, and I don't have the time tonight to thank you guys personally, but know I saw it and appreciated it.


It was a day like any other. The Destiny's Bounty was flying high above Ninjago, while the scanners searched for signs of Pythor.

The only exception? The son of the ninja's worst enemy was now living with them. Kai was currently set up in the recreation room, for lack of a better term, loading up his favorite game. Fist to Face 2. "Hey Kai" the young voice called, causing the red wearing ninja to jump and whirl around. "Oh" he said, rubbing his hand along the back of his skull in embarrassment "Hey kid, what'cha up to?" he tried to make it sound like he had totally meant to whip around, and spun back into his seat, keeping an eye on Lloyd through his peripheral vision. "I saw Cole playing Fist to Face 2 earlier" Lloyd said with a slight chirp "He totally crushed your record" Kai scoffed as he selected his character profile "You're thinking of Ground Assault, Fist to Face is my game." Lloyd frowned but shrugged "If you say so. See you later Kai"

As the kid walked out of the room, Kai frowned, and then shrugged, muttering "Eh, can't hurt" and selected the High Scores option from the menu.

He then proceeded to drop the controller and all but faint in shock. There were five slots in the High Scores Menu.

And every single one of them was filled by Cole's player and initials.

"COLE!"

{Go-ninja-ninja-Go}

In the galley, Cole was busy. He had been working on the dish for Thursday, which was his night to cook, for almost five days now. As he stirred the dark purple liquid, Lloyd wandered in and heaved himself up onto the counter. "What are you cooking?" he asked, reaching a hand towards the pot. Cole quickly grabbed the kids hand "Violet Berry Soup" he said "If it's not made exactly right, it spoils instantly" Lloyd's brow furrowed "Does Jay know how to cook it?" Cole scoffed "He ruins toast kid, there's no way he can make a complicated dish like this" his eyes narrowed "Why do you ask" Lloyd tilted his head and gave Cole a confused look "Well, I saw him in here earlier, he was adding spices and...I think I saw strawberries? Or maybe it was raspberries...some sort of red berries" Cole cleared his throat, and Lloyd blinked, before nodding "Sorry, anyways, he was adding all sorts of stuff to your soup. When I asked him about it, he said your cooking could use it"

Cole let go of Lloyd's arm, and glared down at his soup suspiciously. Lloyd slid off of the counter, not-so-subtly grabbing a strawberry from the open pack sitting across from the stove. "Bye Cole!" he called through a mouth-full of strawberry as he left the galley.

Cole leaned down and sniffed at the violet liquid, stumbling backwards and nearly puking directly into the pot the second the smell hit his nose.

Gagging, Cole grabbed a lid and slammed it down over the pot, snarling as he shouted

"JAY!"

{Go-ninja-ninja-Go}

Jay was out on the deck. It was a beautiful day, and he had finally finished making his robot training dummy. It had taken him almost a week to make it, not to mention the thirty phone calls to his dad to ask about programming. Slipping on a Kendo mask, Jay held a nunchuck in one hand, and a remote in the other. Shifting his nunchuck so it was cradled under his arm, Jay punched some buttons on the remote, muttering to himself "Let's start off real simple shall we? Level two" before he could see the number flashing on his screen, Lloyd's voice causing him to turn "Hiya Jay" the kid chirped. His hood was pulled down in the sunlight, revealing his pale blonde bangs. "Oh, hi Lloyd" Jay said "I was just about to do the first official run of my Sparring Bot, you want to watch" Lloyd shook his head "No, I've got to go grab Kai's laundry for him...but, I thought this was Zane's robot? I mean, I saw him working on it for half the morning." Jay paled, and turned his head to look down at the number 9 that was flashing on the remote. He barely registered Lloyd's "See you later" as the robot began glitching and sparking while it advanced on him.

"ZANE!" came a very high pitched scream

{Go-ninja-ninja-Go}

Zane, was walking out of where the washer and dryer were kept. Ninja Gi were made of very delicate material, and thus couldn't handle a dryer. So he was taking them onto the upper deck to dry. Jay was no-where to be seen by now, and his robot was half in pieces on the lower deck, along with quite a few pieces of blue gi and splintered nunchuck. Zane frowned curiously at the mess, but was distracted by Lloyd walking up to him "Is that the latest batch?" he asked, pointing at the basket. Zane turned to him and nodded "It is, I just pulled my Gi out, if you require anything to be washed" Lloyd shook his head, and pulled the basket lower and towards him slightly, Zane shifting his arms to allow this. "Nah, I just need to grab Kai's Gi. He asked me to toss one in with yours. The younger blond rooted around in the basket for a few seconds, before beaming and pulling out the chest, pants, and mask of a bright red gi "There they are! I've got to get these to Kai. Bye Zane!"

Zane paled slightly, and looked into the basket for the first time, shifting the cloths inside for a better look. Bending over, Zane set the basket down, and pulled out a shirt-piece.

An extremely pink shirt-piece

"KAI!"

{Go-ninja-ninja-Go}

The sound of ninjas arguing could be heard throughout the whole ship.

"You couldn't just be happy with beating me, you had to rub it in!" That was Kai, glaring fireballs at Cole, who was snarling at Jay

"It took me five days to make that soup Jay, FIVE DAYS!" Jay however was preoccupied with snapping at Zane

"It's an unspoken rule, you don't mess with another man's robot!" But Zane, dressed in pajamas was a bit busy glaring at Kai, though with much less fire behind his glare, and holding up a full set of bright pink gi.

"How am I supposed to strike fear in this? It's Pink!"

"ENOUGH!"

The sound of a shouting Ninja Master is not a sound one usually hears, especially when said ninja master is roughly twenty miles directly above you. The people of Kyrolinai Village were quite startled by the word 'enough' ringing through the mountaintops at 3:00 pm.

Back on the Bounty, Wu had managed to silence the four fighting ninja, who were now looking quite sheepish as they all stared down at the wooden floor like it was the most interesting thing in the universe. "Everything you think about today's troubles, is not the fault of the person you think it to be" Kai opened his mouth to protest, but before he could, the unmistakable sound of a Garmadon cackling rang through the bedroom, and each of them turned their heads towards a closet. Wu smiled, and using his staff, pushed open the sliding door.

Revealing Lloyd, a toolbox, a piece of paper with Cole's Fist to Face 2 password scrawled on it, a cookbook, and the pieces of Kai's Gi he had collected earlier. Lloyd himself was currently collapsed on the floor, all but dying with laughter. "The brat pranked us all" Cole growled, and Kai lunged forwards, trying to tackle him, but thankfully for Lloyd Wu held the hot-headed ninja back. "Lloyd was following my instruction" the elderly man said, effectively gaining the attention of four very angry, very confused ninja.

"But...why?" Cole asked finally, breaking the silence that had followed Wu's statement. "To teach you all the destructive power of rumors" Wu retorted "And clearly, it worked. If you had just taken the time to find out if Lloyd was telling the truth, it would not have come to this."

Cole frowned and said "But, why not teach us something else?" Kai nodded, and added "Yeah, like how to tell if an enemy is lying by the twitch of his nose, or how to defeat an opponent with only a piece of paper?" Wu shifted his golden glare towards Kai and snapped "Because not all skills are about fighting!" It was Sensei's turn to look sheepish as he added "And I...seem to have misplaced my lesson book"

Cole rolled his eyes, and through that act managed to spot the lump in the back of Lloyd's cape. Leaning over, Cole reached under the black fabric, causing a squeal to escape from Lloyd's lips as the raven haired teen pulled out a thin book written in ancient Ninjogian "You mean this lesson book Sensei?" Wu turned a half-glare half-confused look on his nephew, who yelped and slammed the sliding door back shut.

Wu sighed, and pinched the area between his eyes. Before he could say anything however, a beeping noise rang through the ship, indicating that Nya, who was up on the bridge, had activated the speakers. "I hate to interupt" Nya's voice was slightly distorted by the speaker microphone, but not too badly that they couldn't make out what she was saying "But we still have a Pythor situation to deal with. Come on up to the bridge"

{Go-ninja-ninja-Go}

The ninja were currently split up into teams of two. Kai and Jay were somewhere in the Toxic Bogs, seeking out the Venomari tomb, and Cole and Zane were nearing the Mountain of a Million Steps where the Constrictai tomb was supposed to be located.

It wasn't until they got there that Cole realized that the name was not a metaphor, but instead very real. Looking down at his own Tread Assault and then at Zane's Snowmobile, Cole frowned and said "We're not going to be able to get these up those tiny stairs" Zane frowned, and tilted his head upwards "But we don't have much time" Cole smirked "We'll take the shortcut then." Turning his vehicle back into a scythe, Cole gave Zane the universal 'get over here' sign, and as soon as the pink wearing ninja was within range, Cole grabbed him and tossed him on his back.

Zane safely secured, although most likely insanely confused, Cole walked over to the mountain, and began to climb it, just like he had back when Master Wu had found him. "Am I too heavy?" Zane asked, when Cole's breathing began to be slightly labored "Light as a feather pinky" Cole said with a strained grin "Light as a feather"

{Go-ninja-ninja-Go}

Upon reaching the top, Zane walked over to investigate an opening in the middle of the definitively serpentine patterns while Cole caught his breath. "Pythor has already been here" Zane reported, nodding to the rope dangling into the hole. Cole frowned "well...maybe he left something behind? It's worth a check" Zane nodded, and the two climbed down.

Finding a torch crammed into the ground, Zane picked it up, and looked at the walls of the circular room. "These carvings" Zane whispered "Cole, listen to this. These carvings depict a tale of the five tribes uniting, and awakening a...Great Devourer...there is also mention of four...Blades of Fangs?" he frowned, then he shook his head "Sorry, Fangblades, the Serpentine have quite a large lacking of grammar knowledge."

"Fangblades, Great Devourer, we've got to get back to Sensei" but before they could even move, the ground began to rumble and a pitch black serpentine burst out of the ground, winding it's large tail around Zane. Cole quickly whipped out his Scythe, and slammed it into the ground, causing an earthquake which made the snake released Zane and retreat underground. "Get out of here!" Cole snapped, but before Zane could do anything, the snake burst out of the ground again and grabbed Cole with his hands. Cole struggled, and managed to grab the Sacred Flute Wu had lent them, even getting out a few notes before the snake wrapped his tail around Cole's neck. Zane lunged for the flute, and pulled up his mask halfway, playing the ancient instrument. However, before he could get very far in the song he was playing, a raven scaled hand snapped forwards and wrapped around Zane's neck, cutting off his air supply.

Zane wheezed, but kept playing until finally, the Snake released both him and Cole, using his hands to hold his head, while his tail lashed wildly. Cole took the opportinuty and smacked the snake upside the head with the blunt end of the Scythe of Quakes, knocking him backwards. The snake hissed at him, and retreated underground.

The two ninja stood tensely for a few minutes, Zane still holding the flute to his lips, before finally the decided the snake wasn't coming back. "He was waiting for us" Zane said. "Which means Jay and Kai are walking into a trap!" Cole realized "Come on, we need to get out of here!" Cole grabbed hold of the rope and began to climb up, Zane close behind.


See you guys soon(ish)

remember to review~

~Savannah