"Cole, for the last time, you look fine." Kai said in attempt to calm his friend, who was constantly running his hand through his hair. The group were currently on the bounty, flying towards Ninjago City for Cole's date. "I highly doubt Seliel cares how you style your hair."
"Yeah, that's supposed to be Kai's job." Commented Jay, who was getting ready for his own date with Nya.
"Not true! This hair is all natural!"
"Kai, I can see the gel in your hair." The blue ninja just sighed and turned back to Cole. "Listen buddy, you'll be fine. Me and Nya are having a date at the same cafe, and Kai will be with Skylor at her shop across the road, so if you really need moral support, we'll be there."
"Thanks Jay." The black ninja gave his friend a thankful smile. Within minutes, the bounty was docked in the City's port and the group went their separate ways. Zane, Lloyd and Pixal headed to Borg Industries to finish some work for Cyrus, Kai went to Skylor's noodle shop and the rest went to the cafe for their dates.
Upon arriving at the cafe, Cole immediately spotted Seliel waiting at a table and he started getting nervous again.
"Remember, be yourself. Don't try to impress her by acting like someone you're not." Nya said before following Jay inside. The black ninja stood outside for another thirty seconds before taking a deep breath and gathered the courage to go inside.
"H-Hey Seliel. I hope I didn't keep you waiting for too long?" Seliel gave a small smile to her date as he sat down. "Not to long. I hope you don't mind, but I've ordered us both large slice of Chocolate fudge cake. It's your favourite, right?"
Cole just nodded, unsure of what to say. He looked over to Jay and Nya, who both gave him a reassuring thumbs up. Remember, just be yourself.
"So, what's your top ten favourite types of cake?"
"Sorry it took so long." Said Skylor as she sat in a chair opposite Kai, with two bowls of noodles in her hands.
"It's fine. I know how busy lunchtimes can be." The two dove into the food as they talked about recent events.
"Really, Cole has a girlfriend!" Skylor was surprised upon hearing about Cole's date. From what she heard about the master of earth, he had never shown any interest in anything other than food, let alone any woman. (Well, other than Nya, but that was in the past.)
"Well, kind of. He's only on his first date. She's called Seliel. She's from Nom, and is a self trained ninja. According to Jay, all they've talked about in the past hour is cake."
"Sounds like they're perfect for each other." Skylor noticed there was a crowd around the TV in the restaurant, and turned the volume up wanting to know what was going on.
"I have just received word that there has been a break out at Kryptarian I'm not just talking about one or two criminals here folks. All of the prisons inmates have escaped and are currently at large." Gasps and nervous whispers echoed throughout the noodle house. Whilst there had been one or two 'attempts' at breaking out of the prison, not once in the history of Ninjago has the entire prison escaped.
"I'm sure it's fine. The ninja will recapture them, right?"
"Yeah! And don't forget about Samurai X!"
The Ninja in the room, however, didn't look so sure. That prison housed some of Ninjago's worst criminals and villains.
"According to the prison's CCTV footage, the inmates were assisted by the Serpentine Pythor, and what seems to be an army of Nindriods." There were more gasps and the people seemed more panicked.
"You don't think this is connected to the attack on Nom, do you?" Skylor asked
"Well it definitely isn't a coincidence. Pythor and whoever he's working with is planning something big."
"SOMEONE HELP ME PLEASE!" The door burst open and everyone looked over to the restaurant's entrance to see a young hypnobrai running in, clearly in distress with tears running down his face.
"Hey, isn't that Skales Jr?" Recognising the Red Ninja, Skales Jr ran over to him and attached himself to his legs. Kai was surprised, trying to pry the snakelet from his legs and tried to calm him down whilst Skylor told everyone to leave and shut the noodle house down for the day.
"Whats the matter? Are you okay? Are you hurt?" Kai asked, patting Jr's back. Unfortunately, his crying did not stop.
"Y-you've gotta help m-me! My Mum and Dad are hurt real bad. S-someone attacked us a-and they're trapped underground." Kai and Skylor shared a look.
"Don't worry, we'll help you kid." Jr mumbled a small thank you, wiping his snot and tears on Kai's gi, who just sighed in annoyance.
"I'll go get the Ninja. You look after Jr and go get some medical supplies. I have a feeling we'll need a lot." Kai rushed out the building and across the street, sending a quick message to Lloyd and the two Nindriods as he ran into the cafe.
"Guys we have a situation."
"What happened?" Asked Nya as she and Jay stood from their table.
"The serpentine were attacked. They're currently trapped underground and are injured, according to Skales Jr."
"Skales Jr? Is the little guy okay?" Asked Cole.
"He's fine. He's currently with Skylor, but we really need your super strength for this one Cole." Cole looked between Kai and Seliel and sighed.
"I'm sorry Seliel, but I need to go and-"
"It's fine, I'll come with you."
"Huh?" The ninja looked at her confused. "From the sounds of it, you're gonna need some help."
After meeting up with the others, and grabbing as many medical supplies as they could carry, the ninja followed Skales Jr down into the sewers.
"They're in there." Jr pointed to the pile of rubble that was currently blocking the pathway. Cole walked towards the pile of rubble, punching his hands together.
"Okay, let's get to work." The ninja started clearing out the rubble, noticing the odd metal arm or leg from a nindriod.
"Well, I guess we know who attacked them." Said Lloyd as he removed yet another arm from the pile. "But why would they go for the serpentine?"
"Who knows, but we'll get some answers tomorrow, hopefully." Kai noticed light coming through as he removed the rubble, along with voices and calls for help. "Hey guys, I've found an opening. Hello, is anyone there?" Kai called out, hoping to get a response from the other side.
"Pleassse help ussss." Through the opening, the ninja could see a pink hypnobrai approaching. "We have many injured down here."
"Don't worry, we'll get you out. Just hang on." Soon, the ninja made a big enough opening for everyone to get through.
"Mommy!" Seeing the pink Serpentine, Skales Jr ran past all the ninja and straight into her arms.
"Junior! Thank goodness you're safe." The hypnobrai, who the ninja now recognised as Selma, held her son close. "Mommy, I got the Ninja. They said they're going to help us."
Selma looked up at the Ninja and noticed the bags of medical supplies in their hands. "The injured are thisss way."
"What happened exactly?" Lloyd asked Skales as he attended to the hypnobrai's injuries. The situation wasn't as bad as they thought it was. Only a few were badly injured, and there were no casualties, although the fight had made a mess of their home.
"It wasss that treacherousss sssnake Pythor. He and hisss Nindriod army came marching down here, demanding that we should join him. Sssaying we could retake the sssurface if we followed him. When we refused, he ordered hisss army to finish usss off." Lloyd finished wrapping the bandages and helped the Serpentine King to his feet.
"Will all of you be fine?"
"Will be fine, green ninja, and thank you for helping usss."
The group left the sewers filthy and tired. The entire day had been a roller coaster of emotions. A prison break out and a nindriod attack was a lot for one day but hey, this was just another day in Ninjago.
"Sorry we had to cut our date short." Cole apologised as he walked Seliel to the bus stop, noticing the the others were not so secretly spying on them. How any of them became ninja, Cole did not know.
"It's fine, really. I enjoyed today, and we could go on another date if you want?"
"Sure!" There were a few moments of awkward silence between the two, other than the muttering of Jay, Lloyd and Kai wondering why the two weren't making a move, and Nya whispering at them to shut up.
"So are we an official couple now?" Cole blurted out, his cheeks immediately turning red as soon as the words came out of his mouth and multiple gasps came from the bush behind him. "I mean, only if you want to..."
Seliel was shocked, but quickly recovered and gave Cole a small smile and took a hold of his hand.
"I would like to be your girlfriend Cole." Cole returned the smile and gave his now girlfriends hand a small squeeze. "Although your friends could be a little quieter when spying on us." She gestured to the bush where the others where cheering for the new couple.
The bus came, and the couple said goodbye with a small kiss. "You guys can come out now." Cole said to the bush as they all came stumbling out.
"Way to go Cole!" Shouted Kai as he slung his arm around Coles shoulder. "Now we've all got a girlfriend."
"Well, everybody except..." Zane pointed to where Lloyd was standing, and everybody started feeling a little bad.
"I still don't think he's over Harumi."
"What are you guys talking about?" Lloyd asked.
"Nothing!"
"Yeah, nothing! Come one, let's get back to the monastery! We've got a big day tomorrow."