Chapter 34

Show Ninjago

The Ninja and the Serpentine could only stare at each other in a standoff. Skales looking tense and prepared to fight for what was obviously his family if it came to that, and the Ninja blinking in surprise having overheard Lloyd's whisper and recognizing the kid themselves.

They hadn't realized Skales having a family had been something both versions shared.

The standoff was broken when the Skales Junior (Lloyd mentally decided to just call him Junior to tell them apart) spoke up again, "Who are they, Daddy?"

"They were jussst leaving," said Skales pointedly, glowering at the Ninja.

"He is correct," said Pixal, not being aware of their history and knowing they were on a tight schedule. "The others' distraction of the Nindroids will start in t-minus ten minutes. We must reach Borg Tower before it commences if we wish to free the city."

The Ninja nodded slowly and began walking away in the direction Pixal had indicated.

"Oh dear, don't go that way," came a voice behind them, and they looked back to see Selma reaching out to stop them.

"Why not?" asked Echo.

"It will take far too long if you only have ten minutesss," said Selma. She then glanced at Skales and said, "Right dear?"

Skales scowled, no doubt not liking the delay in them leaving, but admitted. "Yesss, that way isssn't the shortessst you could take."

Pixal frowned. "My internal maps indicate that this is the correct route," she said.

"The easiessst perhaps, but not the shortessst," said Skales.

"You know a shortcut?" asked Kai dubiously.

Skales crossed his arms and glared. "Maybe I do," he said.

"Then would you please tell us of it?" asked Zane, trying to be polite, but this was his father on the line. "We are in a hurry."

Skales scowled, and didn't look inclined to help them.

"Show them, dear," said Selma, taking them all by surprise.

"SSSelma?" asked Skales.

"They are trying to sssave the city above," Selma said. "If they fail, how long will it take for thossse terrible machinesss to come down here as well?" She then smiled. "Besidesss, you had been hoping to turn over a new leaf with the humansss. This isss your chance."

The Ninja glanced at Skales, who looked embarrassed over that last part. "Yesss, well, I suppossse I could show them the way," he muttered reluctantly.

Junior brightened next to his mother. "Really, Daddy? That's ssso cool! You'll be like a hero!"

That perked Skales up, and he said, "Of course, Skalesss Junior. As I sssaid. It'sss time for a new change."

"Are you going to help the ressst of the humansss too, Daddy?" asked Junior innocently.

"Oh, um," said Skales, looking like he was trying to find a way to say no without losing his new hero status.

"That sssounds like a good idea," said Selma thoughtfully. "We could sssneak them out of the city through the sssewers while the fighting dissstracts them."

"But-" Skales started to say, but his wife and son were looking at him with such proud and expectant expressions, he couldn't find it in him to say no. With a put upon sigh, he said, "Oh, very well. Pleassse inform the generalsss. Come on, Ninja, the shortcut is thisss way."

The Ninja exchanged glances. "Are we really going to trust this guy?" Kai asked skeptically. "I mean, it's Skales!"

"I think we can," Lloyd muttered, still looking at Junior and remembering how King Skales was willing to put aside his own grudge with Lord Garmadon for his counterpart's sake. "He won't want to disappoint them."

"Besides, they're right. It's only a matter of time before the Nindroids come down here too. And given how things ended between them, I highly doubt Pythor would do so with friendly intentions," added Zane. "If we handle the threat before that, then his people will be safe."

The rest of the group collectively shrugged, seeing their point, and moved to follow the Serpentine.

The trip was made in relative silence, with Skales leading them through tight tunnels that Pixal claimed were not on any of her maps.

"As far as we can tell, sssome of thessse tunnelsss have been here sssince before the city above wasss built," said Skales cooly in reply. "The sewersss connect to them, but they were not built by the humansss, therefore were not on their mapsss."

"Interesting," said Zane curiously. "I wonder if there is anywhere they lead."

"Who knowsss," said Skales with a careless shrug. "They go deep into the earth, but the lower ssssections are unssstable, and we do not venture there." He paused and glanced down one side tunnel that seemed to have a steep incline downwards and shuddered. "Not to mention, they give me a bad feeling."

The Ninja exchanged a glance but made no comment. Still, if there was something that disturbed even the underground dwelling Serpentine, it might be something they'd need to look into later.

Finally, Skales brought them to a stop under a ladder leading up to a manhole.

"Here'sss your ssstop," he said dryly, waving up at it. "Borg Tower. Now go be good little Ninja and deal with thesssse robotic pesssts."

Kai shot him a suspicious glance, before going up the ladder first and taking a peek. He then glanced back down at the rest and nodded. "Yeah, this is the place. Borg Tower is right across the street."

"And the distraction should be commencing in-" Pixal checked her internal clock. "Three… two… one."

On cue, a loud explosion rocked the city above, and there was the booming sound of Nindroids racing towards the source in any means they could, be it by mech, plane, or on foot.

Checking the coast was clear, Kai slowly climbed out of the sewer and reached down to help Lloyd climb out.

"Thanks, Skales, for all the help," said Lloyd as he climbed out Echo and Pixal close behind him.

Skales, clearly not expecting the thanks, only grumbled, "Perhapsss he can be that future version after all." It seemed he still thought Luh-Loyd was his time-traveling future self.

Zane started to climb the ladder, but paused halfway up and glanced over at Skales, who was already making his exit to rejoin his people.

"By the way, Skales," Zane said, his tone making it clear he had more to ask.

Skales rolled his eyes and glanced back at him. "Oh, what isss it?" he asked, feeling he was already doing more than enough for them.

"Something we were informed of recently has caught our attention… and our concern," said Zane. "Have you ever heard of someone called the Golden Master."

Skales went rigid, his terrified expression was more than answer enough.

Zane nodded seeing it and began climbing the ladder again. "We have no time to further discuss it, but my team and I would like to get in touch with you later to learn more about this threat. We very much wish for it to not become a reality." Reaching the top, Zane glanced back down one last time with an almost friendly grin. "Stay safe, Skales," he said, replacing the manhole cover, leaving Skales alone in the dark.

It took a full minute before Skales recovered from his shock, and processed that information. Once it finally sank in, he let out a bitter laugh that echoed through the sewer tunnels.

"Yearsss of war, imprisssonment, and battlesss and they're finally ready to lisssten," he said dryly, remembering why the Serpentine War had started in the first place. "SSStupid humans."


At the edge of the city, the Ninja started their assault on the city off with a bang.

Literally!

Using with Jay using Kai's jet and Cole commandeering Zane's helicopter, the two of them flew into the city with guns blazing, Nya's Samurai X mech following close behind launching her own missiles, and the Bounty careening in after her with Garmadon at the helm and Misako and Wu dropping bombs and other unpleasant things onto the Nindroids down below.

Even so, it looked like the Nindroids had expected them to come and were ready for such an attack and came at them in droves.

"Well, this is one heck of a welcoming committee!" called Cole over the radio.

Jay, who was weaving through the onslaught of fighters in the jet replied, "No kidding! We're never going to make it through all this!"

"We don't have to," Nya replied as she punched a flying car out of the air and cut off a wing of a plane with her sword as they came at her. "We just have to make it look like we're trying to."

"Yeah, but how long can we keep this up until they blast us out of the sky?" asked Jay.

It was quickly becoming clear that the answer to that was 'not long'.

Given that their distraction attempt was so similar to their attack the day before, the Nindroids's attacks were relentless. It was only with some skilled maneuvering sheer dumb luck that they were lasting this long under the onslaught. The Bounty especially was taking heavy fire, being both bigger and slower than the rest of their vehicles, but the adults were still standing strong.

Still, it was obvious that they were losing, and to commemorate that, it seemed Pythor couldn't resist coming out to gloat.

"I cannot believe you Ninja were dumb enough to try the sssame attack twice!" he called gleefully through a megaphone as he had Nindroids drive him out on a fancy-looking flying convertible. "You didn't even bother to requisssition new vehiclesss! Really, I expected better from you pesssky do-gooders! I'm actually disssappointed!"

"Disappoint this, Slimbucket!" Nya shouted as she launched a volley of missiles in Pythor's direction.

Pythor merely smirked, and with a wave of his hand, several Nindroids drove their planes between him and the projectiles, taking the hit for him. Even as they went crashing to the ground, even more Nindroids took their place, effectively walling the Anacondrai off from any assault.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk," said Pythor, shaking his head with a mocking smirk. "SSSo unladylike! You can clearly sssee your attacksss do no good! Jussst give up like good little Ninja and maybe I'll ssspare this wretched city!"

That was definitely not an option, as Cole vocalized vehemently. "NINJA NEVER QUIT!" he yelled, launching his own missiles at the Nindroids surrounding Pythor, knocking a few out of the sky, but none managed to hit the snake.

Pythor gave a careless shrug, clearly not surprised. "SSSuit yourself," he called through the megaphone, before sitting back to enjoy the show.

And just like that, the Nindroids' attacks doubled in ferocity, and it was all any of them could do to avoid being shot out of the air.

"We can't take much more of this!" said Jay over the radio. "But we haven't bought nearly enough time for the others!"

"We have to keep their attention," Garmadon replied firmly, though it was clear from his tone he knew they wouldn't be able to last much longer.

"Focus on your reason to fight," Wu added sagely. "Let your motivation guide you no matter the odds."

"Yeah, Jay," said Cole encouragingly. "Just picture these Nindroids are Nya's perfect match. Nothing will stop you from pounding them then."

"But they weren't around when Nya saw the guy! I know it's not them!" Jay wailed.

Hearing that, an idea began to hatch in Nya's mind. It was underhanded, and maybe a little cruel, but given Jay's rage these last few days…

Well, the Nindroids hadn't been around when she saw her perfect match, but there was someone else who had.

"Jay, I have a confession to make," she said.

"You do?" asked Jay.

"Is now really the time?" asked Garmadon, seeming to sense the oncoming teen drama.

"I, uh, might not get another chance," said Nya mentally preparing herself for what she was about to do. "The truth is, Jay, that day at Borg Tower, my perfect match…"

"What? Who was it?" asked Jay, sounding frantic. Despite the situation, the question had been eating at him for days.

"... It was Pythor!" Nya finished.

For a moment there was dead silence over the radio and it was sheer luck none of them were shot out of the sky as all the vehicles practically stalled when they heard that.

"Oh my," said Misako softly, breaking the silence.

"What?" asked Garmadon, sounding like he couldn't believe what he was hearing.

"The?" added Sensei Wu, also bewildered.

"HECK!?" Jay bellowed incredulously.

"Yeah," Nya lied through her teeth. "You can see how that messed me up, right? I was questioning everything the moment I saw that. I was sooo glad to hear the machine was inaccurate, but still…"

"Oh my," said Misako again, sounding like she was trying not to laugh.

"Seriously, Nya?" asked Cole.

"Sorry," Nya said apologetically. "I just- I had to get it off my chest. I'm so sorry, Jay."

There was silence over the radio for a long moment.

Then with an ear-splitting roar of rage, Jay propelled his jet at the Nindroid army so fast a sonic boom erupted from it, knocking several of them out of the sky as he made a beeline for Pythor.

The Anacondrai looked alarmed to see him break through his defenses in such a way, and then fearful as Jay began bearing down on him with missiles and lightning blazing. The Nindroid driving his ride barely was able to maneuver them out of the way from being blasted to a crisp.

Jay was still screaming incoherently as he curved the jet back around to take another shot, ripping through any Nindroid that dared try to get in his way.

Looking panicked, Pythor signaled for another swarm of Nindroids to come and protect him, blocking him from sight, but they were quickly dispatched by Jay too.

Still, by the time the Serpentine's flying convertible was visible again, Pythor was nowhere in sight.

The disappearance of his enemy only seemed to further insight Jay's rage, which he began focusing on the rest of the army's vehicles on the off chance Pythor had hidden in one of them.

The rest of the Ninja could only watch as Jay took on the entire army singlehanded.

And was winning.

"Oh my," Misako said for a third time, this time in awe.

"The flames of rage and hatred burn hot," Sensei Garmadon said solemnly. "Devouring everything in their path."

"Indeed," agreed Sensei Wu. "Not a fuel that I would normally encourage, but I suppose I should be grateful for it this day."

"I do not want to be Pythor right now," Cole agreed, sounding both tired and also sort of relieved, having been the one to contain Jay up to this point. "That has been building up for days now, and Jay was set to pop. Couldn't have happened to a better jerk than Pythor, though."

Nya winced but had to agree. "Yeah," she said as she watched Jay decimate Pythor's troops. "No jerk can compare."


A/N Sorry this is late. I had a hectic morning. Anywho, I said in the Next Chapter Summary that Nya would give Jay answers... I never said that she'd give him the truth. So now Cole's in the clear, and Pythor has Jay's everlasting ire for all eternity. If anyone noticed from my Triple the Ninja, Triple the Fun fic that Nick Jay was especially angry at Pythor as they roasted him, this is why. Meanwhile, Skales was roped into helping the Ninja out because he can't say no to his family, and Selma and Junior are sweet.

A big thanks to Kay Hau for helping with this chapter. I think it might have been her idea to make Nya tell Jay that Pythor was her perfect match, and that was just too funny of an idea not to use.

Next Time: Penny makes contact with the Ninja Force, and Skylor is given devastating news.