Chapter 15

Movie Ninjago

In the pitch-black desert night, a set of gleaming yellow eyes crept silently up to the Serpentine village.

It stopped atop a dune and peered down at the buildings below, searching for possible targets.

Most of the Serpentine people were asleep in their beds, but there were still several vigilantly patrolling the streets. Some were soldiers sent from the capital to protect the village. Others were civilians who knew of the disappearances and had volunteered to protect their homes. All of them circled the outer streets of the village, searching the desert sands beyond it for any sign of trouble.

They would not make good targets. They were expecting the attack and would put up a fight and make a scene if they were captured.

Sadly, they did not expect their enemy to burrow under the ground.

Softly pushing its head out of the sand, the Snake Mech surfaced in a garden behind a small bungalow. Its head came to a rest on the ground, and a sealed door on the side of its neck slid open. Silently, several figures wearing snake masks and face paint slipped out of the door and crept towards the house.

From the looks of the garden, there was a family living there. One with children if the toys scattered throughout the yard was any indication. The disappearance of such was sure to cause an uproar and get several of the villagers scared, and more whispers of the Golden Master were sure to spread.

One of the masked figures tried the door but found it locked. However, looking up, they could see an upstairs window was open and the curtains hanging on it were fluttering in the breeze.

Perfect.

With a quick toss of a rope and grapple, the window was hooked and the intruders began scaling the wall to get inside.

However, just before the leading goon could reach the window sill, a burning flash of light flew through the air and ignited the rope, causing it to snap and the would-be intruders to fall back into the garden with a startled yell.

Looking up, the masked men saw three figures in red, green, and black perched on top of the house, glaring down at them through masks of their own.

"It's the Ninja Force!" one of the men yelled, knowing any chance of subtly was gone.

Without taking his eyes off their opponents, the Green Ninja said, "Kai, signal the soldiers! Cole, block their escape!"

Hearing that, the goons scrambled to get up and flee to their mech, but before they could do so, the ninja in black jumped down from the roof and focused his energy into the ground, causing a large boulder to burst through the sand and block the hatch into the mech.

From the roof, the Fire Ninja raised his hand into the air and sent up a tongue of flame into the night sky, undoubtedly seen by any nearby troops.

With their way out blocked, and the cavalry sure to arrive soon, the masked goons were as backed into a corner as one could get.

And when one is backed into a corner, one tends to get desperate.

To the ninja's alarm, one of the goons pulled a bomb out of pocket and set it alight, throwing it towards the newly formed boulder.

"Watch out!" Lloyd shouted, and he and the Fire Ninja ducked for cover.

Down below, the door to the house opened, and a Fangpyre came out with a rake in his hands. "Whoever you are!" he shouted. "Get off my prop-!"

But before he could finish, Cole jumped in front of him and formed another boulder to shelter them both as the bomb went off.

The first boulder shattered from the force of the explosion, and flaming chunks of rock were sent flying in every direction.

Including, to the ninja and Fangpyre's horror, straight through the open window and setting the curtains ablaze.

"Poisssinthia!" shouted the Fangpyre in alarm, reaching up towards the window, before running back inside.

The fire in the house was spreading fast and any still inside were in danger, but the bomb had done its work and the hatch to the mech was now open to squeeze through, as several of the masked men were now running to do.

"I'll help the family! You guys stop them!" Lloyd ordered to Kai and Cole.

"Uh, wouldn't it be better if I-" Kai said hesitantly, but he wasn't able to get the sentence out before Lloyd swung from the roof past the curtains into the burning room.

Seeing as it was too late to protest, Kai leaped down to join Cole in trying to take out the goons before they could escape.

Even with their elements on their side, there were only two Ninja and more than enough goons to go around. It didn't take long before one of them managed to slip away from the fight and dive inside the mech.

A few seconds later, the Snake Mech surged to life with a loud hiss from its pistons. It's tail burst out of the sand and swung at the Fire and Earth Ninja, sending them scrambling back and allowing the rest of the goons to escape. Once all of them were on board, the Snake Mech reared itself up and dove towards Kai and Cole with its blade-filled mouth open wide.

The two Ninja narrowly avoided being minced as they leaped out of the way. The Snake Mech, however, continued on to burrow into the ground where they once stood and soon vanished back into the earth.

The Serpentine troops they had hailed arrived just in time to see the tip of its mechanical tail vanish from sight.

Cole scrambled to his feet and tried to stomp his foot on the ground to trap it, but stopped at the last second as he realized doing so might level the village.

In the burning building behind them, the Fangpyre with the rake came running back out with a female Venomari, likely his wife, alongside him. Lloyd followed them out a moment later with a small Fangpyre girl held in his arms, his mask wrapped around her head so that she wouldn't inhale the smoke.

"Poisssinthia," the Venomari woman called, reaching for the child in Lloyd's arms.

"Mama!" the child called tearfully, and Lloyd handed her over to her parents as Cole began using the sand as best he could to smother the flames on the house.

The captain of the guard observed the burning house and the two large holes in the garden the Snake Mech had left in its wake, before moving over to speak to Lloyd.

"They were here then, Green Ninja," he said, sounding like he wished it weren't true. "Your prediction wasss correct. How did you know it would come here?"

"We've been trying to track it for days now," Lloyd explained. "Searching for it from the air or with night vision wasn't doing any good, so we thought we'd try searching under the ground. Earth Ninja's mech could use is speakers for a sonar scan of the earth, and we tracked it's movement here."

The captain nodded. "Our sinceressst thanksss, Ninja Force."

"No thanks is necessary," said Lloyd humbly. He then glanced over to the dying flames of the house and rubbed his right arm as his face fell. "Sorry we couldn't stop them."

"You three sssaved my family tonight, green one," said the Fangpyre with a rake, who had dropped said rake and was embracing his family. "You saved my little Poisssinthia. Believe me, our gratitude isss warranted."

"He isss right," agreed the captain as he and his troops went to examine the hole. "We are grateful for your asssissstance."

Lloyd looked flustered, and Kai noticed a red mark on his cheek.

"Hey, wait a minute, were you burned, bro?" the Fire Ninja asked as he hurried over to his best friend to take a closer look

Lloyd blinked and reached up to touch his cheek and winced. "Oh, I guess I was," he said as he pulled out his burn ointment and a bandage. "It's fine, Poisinthia needed the mask more than I did."

Kai let out a frustrated sigh at his friend's lack of self-preservation and took the ointment and bandage from him to apply it. "It might have been better if you let me go in instead. I'm fireproof, you know," he said as he put the bandaid on. Fortunately, from his first aid training in bodyguard lessons, he could tell the burn was minor and likely wouldn't leave a scar.

Behind them, Cole managed to put out the flames with sand and then used his powers to fill some of the holes in the bungalow's walls with stones. "Sorry I can't fix the burns, and your place might be a mess, but at least it's in one piece," he said to the Serpentine family.

"That isss more than we would have had, thank you," said the Venomari mother as the family went back inside.

Before she followed, Poisinthia ran over to give Lloyd back his mask. "Thanksss, Green Ninja," she said with a fanged smile. "When I grow up, I'll bite you ssso I can marry you." She then hugged Lloyd around the middle, before running to join her parents.

Lloyd could only stare after her as he tried to process he'd just been proposed to. By a little Serpentine girl no less.

"You've got a new fan," Kai teased, poking Lloyd in the side.

"Think she can pass the Nya Test?" asked Cole in a teasing tone as he joined them.

"No way," Lloyd said as he shoved his mask back over his head so they wouldn't see him blush.

As happy as he was the little girl admired him, he knew he'd never live this down.

To say Chen was unhappy to hear of that night's events was a massive understatement.

"They found you? How could they possibly find you?" he demanded in outrage. "You've been keeping the mech on burrowing mode to prevent just that!"

The trembling goon who had been unfortunate enough to tell him the news stammered. "Th-they d-don't know, sir. They were j-just there when our men t-tried-!"

"SILENCE!" shouted Chen, raising his fist to mash onto his chair's button.

The goon paled at the sight. "M-Master Chen! Please! I wasn't even there! D-Don't shoot the messenger!"

"I don't shoot messengers," said Chen icily. "I drop them."

With that, he slammed his fist on the button, and the goon fell screaming down the trap door.

Once the door swung back shut, Chen slumped in his chair and massaged his forehead. "I'm surrounded by incompetents," he grumbled irritably, before shouting "CLOUSE!"

"Sir, I am right here, you do not have to shout," Clouse said dryly from his position next to Chen's chair.

"Whatever," Chen scoffed. "I volunteer all the men who were in the mech tonight for your new test subjects. Make certain they are suitably punished for failing me."

The grin that spread across Clouse's face could only be described as sinister. "As you wish, Master Chen," he said.

Chen sighed and then straightened in his chair. "With the Ninja Force able to track the mech, it will only be a matter of time before all the Serpentine know it is a ruse, and I'm sure that the king's coming meeting with the Green Ninja and Her will only make it worse. We will need to act quickly."

"Sir, there is little possibility of us completing our plans in the time before the king's meeting with the Green Ninja and his mother," said Clouse, knowing that if he let Chen continue his thoughts he would become unreasonable. "Might I suggest a different method. One that, with the help of our little friend, might force the Serpentine King's hand."

Chen turned to scowl at him, his face making it clear that if he didn't like Clouse's suggestion then he'd quickly be joining the messenger through the trap door. The scowl quickly turned to an absolutely gleeful look of manic delight when he heard Clouse's plan.

"Call him!" he said cheerfully. "Get it done."

"Yes, Master Chen," Clouse said and turned to leave.

He'd barely taken a step before Chen shouted, "WAIT!" despite Clouse still being in perfect hearing range.

Rolling his eyes, but not otherwise complaining, Clouse simply turned back around and said, "Yes, sir?"

"We still need to stop the Ninja Force from ruining our plans," Chen said as he schemed. "We need to know if Skylor has become powerful enough to combat them if necessary."

"She claims she has absorbed the powers of all the ninja," said Clouse. "Including, if you are correct, the ability to enhance her own powers from the Green Ninja."

"In theory!" Chen growled in frustration. "Most of the information I could find on the power of Green is either stupidly vague or looks like it's been sabotaged. And if I can't figure out what the power specifically does, what hope does my daughter have?"

Privately, Clouse thought she had a far greater a chance, but knew to keep that to himself.

"I need to see it," Chen said, sounding like he was beginning to get excited. "I need to know what it does. That way I'll get to watch the delightful show as the Ninja Force realizes their own powers are their undoing."

"Would you like for me to send for Skylor, sir?" asked Clouse. "Have her come and give a demonstration?"

Chen thought about it, before saying, "No. As you said, time is short. It would take too long for her to get here, and then back into position among the Ninja. In that time we could lose valuable information on what they're planning."

He then spun his chair around to face Clouse. "Pack your bags, Clouse. You're going to Ninjago City."

While irked this would pull him away from his experiments (and he'd just gotten new test subjects too), Clouse nodded and said, "As you wish, Master Chen," before turning to leave.

"AFTER YOU CALL THE GUY TO DO THE THING!" Chen reminded him loudly before he even got through the door.

"Of course, sir," said Clouse, rolling his eyes again as he did so.

Sometimes he hated his job.

A/N Well, Lloyd has a new fan. Part of this was to show that the Serpentine are just people like the rest of Ninjago, and need the Ninja's help just as much. Fortunately, they were able to help them tonight. Chen didn't get any more prisoners, and he is not happy about it. He's stepping things up even quicker, and likely Skylor will pay the price. Neither of them really know much about the power of Green and how it works, but they do know it can make powers stronger.

A big thanks to Kay Hau for Beta Reading and contributing to this chapter. Poisinthia was my initial idea, but Kay Hau liked her so much she contributed a lot of ideas for her character. Also, some of Chen's coming plan was from her too.

Next Time: Nick Jay goes to Movie Ninjago to beg Cyan Nya for the name of her counterpart's perfect match. Meanwhile, Pep Zane and Penny continue to be adorable.

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