Adventures of Mindroid Part 2: The Great Serpentine Hunt
Show Ninjago
The daring Mindroid the Nindroid was once again on the prowl.
This time he was certain to find clues to Pythor's whereabouts.
It was odd that the reports were around the tea shop/monastery again since he'd already checked there. But this time he double-checked, and it definitely wasn't that annoying group of human children or their Serpentine friends. It has to be Pythor.
Speaking of annoying children…
"Did you really just say 'Speaking of annoying children' just to trail off right when we're about to talk to you?" asked Echo, looking unimpressed.
"So what if I did?" Mindroid snapped back.
"It's very rude," Echo replied.
Mindroid rolled his optics and didn't reply.
There weren't as many children this time. Just Echo, Brad, Gene, Nelson, and Lloyd who were there for their self-defense class. Tiny and the two Serpentine were nowhere to be seen.
"What are you doing here, anyway?" asked Lloyd.
Mindroid surveyed the area with his infrared vision, before stating at low volume, "Pythor has been seen nearby."
Echo frowned hearing that, then glanced at his friends. "How much of that did you get?" he asked.
The children exchanged looks. "I didn't get the first bit or the end, but he said something about 'have be see'," said Lloyd.
"Agreed," said Gene thoughtfully. "Though, given correct grammar, I believe a better translation would be someone or something 'has been seen', and likely the last word is 'here' or something similar due to Mindroid being, well, here."
"And from past experiences, I'd bet a rose bush that someone is Pythor," finished Brad.
Echo nodded at them with a grin, and Mindroid stared at them stunned.
"You understand Binary?" he asked in bewilderment. The humans had definitely not understood a word he'd said last time he'd seen them.
It took a second for them to understand that, but when he did Nelson replied, "Yeah, we've been learning. Can't speak it any good yet, but we've been learning to understand it."
"Why?" asked Mindroid. To his understanding, most humans didn't bother to learn the language of machines.
"So we can talk to you, duh," said Lloyd with a grin. "You seem cool."
Mindroid didn't know what to say to that. He, of course, knew that he was cool. He was the absolute coolest there was in all of Ninjago… He'd just never heard someone else say it before.
Out loud, at least, they were definitely thinking it, he just knew it.
"Anyway, about Pythor," said Lloyd, getting back to the original topic. "Why do you think he's here?"
"Do you think someone saw SJ and Poisinthia again?" asked Nelson curiously.
"Can't be," said Brad. "They haven't been able to visit in weeks. Some Serpentine thing that SJ has to do and he can't leave, and Poisinthia's there to keep him from getting bored."
"It's not them," said Mindroid, shaking his head. "I made sure this time. It's definitely him."
Another moment for them to work out what was said, then Echo asked, "But why? Why would he even come here?"
Gene's eyes widened, and he turned to look at Lloyd. "I think I may have a hunch."
The rest of them turned to look at Lloyd as well.
Lloyd blinked at the sudden attention, then the reason hit him too and he slumped. "Oh," he said dryly. "Great."
Gene, however, grinned wickedly. "It is great," he said. "I have a plan."
Hearing this the others leaned in to listen, leaving Mindroid out.
Well, fine, Mindroid didn't want to know their stupid plan anywa-
Nelson looked up from the huddle. "Come on. Get over here," he whispered, waving at an open spot next to him.
Oh! They did want to include him. Well... he might as well listen so he can make his own plans around it.
Once he joined their huddle circle, they all turned to Gene. "Here's what we're going to do," Gene said and explained his plan.
Mindroid's eyes lit up the more he heard.
He could work with this!
Pythor had once thought his lowest point came when he was trapped within a tomb with the rest of the Anacondrai, but even then, as his fellow Anacondrai dwindled down to one, he was determined to do whatever it took to survive.
Then he thought his lowest point would be when he was swallowed by the Great Devourer. That was a million times worse and more painful than being trapped in a tomb that he had never been happier to be thrown up in his life.
But now! Now Pythor wished he was back in the Great Devourer's gut. Somehow being burned by stomach acid was better than the constant paranoia and exhaustion he felt being constantly hunted by an army of his own creation.
Or rather, that android girl's creation. He wouldn't be surprised if she'd created them to be so determined just to spite him. He'd get her eventually. She was second on his list of revenge he was going to take.
But first, Pythor had to take care of his number one.
Maybe it was the exhaustion talking, but Pythor felt adamant that now was the perfect time to strike back against his enemies. They'd never see him coming! He would have his revenge and be out of there before anyone knew it.
Who would suspect he would be coming here to defeat his mortal enemy? No one! That's why it was perfect.
Besides, more than anything Pythor just wanted something to go right for him for a change.
And crushing that little whelp would be so satisfying.
So here Pythor was. Sneaking around Steep Wisdom waiting for the right moment to strike. It was taking a few days longer than he'd expected, but that's just because the rotten brat never seemed to be alone. Does he really have to be with his friends or family members or flying off on his dragon all the time? It was making him so hard to kill.
Then, his opportunity arose.
Lloyd was out by himself and wandering the woods by the river flowing past the teashop and out of sight of any who could help him.
Finally!
Pythor turned himself invisible and slipped silently after the boy, inching closer…
Closer…
Closer…
Until he loomed invisibly over Lloyd like a wraith ready to strike.
With lightning-fast reflexes, he reached out to snatch Lloyd and finish his work before he could even make a sound.
Only for the image of Lloyd to shutter like static and vanish.
Pythor froze with his arms still outstretched where Lloyd Garmadon's head had been a moment ago as what happened sank in.
A hologram!
A trap!
With a staticy warcry, a small Nindroid leaped out of the trees to land on the back of Pythor's head and cover his eyes. Pythor yelped and tried to shake it off, but the Nindroid was holding on too tight.
Several more warcries followed the first one, and Pythor yelped again as he felt himself being prodded by what felt like practice spears that jabbed into his sides and forced him to scramble away from them, only to be caught by another in that direction, and without being able to see, he never seemed to be able to smack his attackers away with his tail, and only got prodded harder for trying.
Too late Pythor realized that he was being herded before something caught around his tail, and with a final indignant squawk Pythor felt himself be yanked high off the ground to hang upside down from his tail by a snare.
The Nindroid finally toppled off of him when he was snagged and was looking up at him with a gleaming red eye and a self-satisfied stance.
To Pythor's utter rage, the very brat he'd been captured trying to kill walked over to stand beside the Nindroid with a mischievous smirk and clutching one of the spears, the rest of his little playmates joining him similarly armed.
"One Anacondrai, as promised," said the red-haired brat with glasses.
The Nindroid let out a series of whirs and static, which for some reason made all the other children laugh.
Suddenly, they all tensed and looked behind them.
To Pythor's mounting horror, he saw the glint of metal in the distance as three more Nindroids started making their way towards them, and from the way they'd picked up their pace, they had seen him too.
Beneath him, the little Nindroid preened, and the children all stepped back into the trees, clearly making it look like the Nindroid was his sole captor.
Him, Pythor, the last Anacondrai, being thought to have been taken out by a tiny hunk of scrap metal. Pythor seethed! This insult to his pride would not stand!
(He pointedly ignored the fact that actually being captured by children alongside the scrappy Nindroid wasn't much better.)
But with his (poorly thought out) plan for revenge being ruined, and his doom approaching by the second, there was little else Pythor could do except what he does best.
Start talking.
"You rotten little speck of scrap!" he shouted down at the short Nindroid, who tensed angrily at the insults and glared up at him. "I should have shut off the machine long before it spat out a waste of metal such as yourself!"
The Nindroid seethed but otherwise didn't react. Still, from the startled reactions from the other approaching machines, they could hear him as well.
"I don't know what I was thinking?" said Pythor. "Nindroids? Nothing but a bunch of useless junk-heaps that couldn't even defeat four teenagers and their child sidekick!"
Lloyd scowled at him from his hiding spot but didn't move.
"The only thing any of you ever accomplished was to abduct that scientist, and considering he had half a foot in the grave already, that's not saying much!"
The children in the bushes actually had to hold the White Ninja's brother back after hearing that, and the coming Nindroids were now approaching on stomping feet.
"Or should I even call you pathetic wastes 'Nindroids' in the first place? After all, you're not real Nindroids are you? You're really nothing but a bunch of useless, weak Office Bot-"
Pythor's tirade was cut off with a yelp and dodge as one of the approaching Nindroids got fed up with his insults and fired his laser eye at him. The laser sliced through the rope holding him up and he fell to the ground with a 'Thump!'
The small Nindroid buzzed in distress, but before he or anyone else could make a move to capture him again, Pythor dove into the nearby river and was swimming away as fast as his tail could take him.
From the shore of the river, Mindroid was hopping mad.
That stupid, immature, reckless Nindroid had cost him his catch. Pythor got away, and it was all Byte's (he thinks that's the Nindroid's name) fault.
He said as much as they raced alongside the river to catch their quarry, but he was already long gone.
Byte tried to make excuses, but from the glares of the other gathered Nindroids, none of them were buying it anymore than Mindroid was. No doubt Byte would be getting the worst jobs the tribe had to offer for the next month.
Sucks to be Byte.
Still, there were some positives.
"Who would have thought Mindroid would come so close to catching us Pythor?" asked another Nindroid named Rom as she led the way back to their camp.
"Not me," said the third named Drive.
"Never would see that coming," grumbled Byte
"I knew!" bragged Mindroid, taking in their impressed (because it was impressed, not surprise) tones.
"So you did," agreed Rom, having heard his monologues before. "Good work, short stack."
Mindroid preened.
"Let's see if you can do it again," said Drive with a laugh. "Now that would be impressive."
Mindroid froze in his tracks, and the other three walked on ahead of him.
Capture Pythor again? Of course, he would catch Pythor again. There wasn't a single doubt about that. All he'd needed this time was…
He paused at that thought and turned back to see the children all leave the bushes. He didn't want to admit it, but he owed getting this close to catching Pythor to them.
(The Lil'Terrors fought to hide their smirks as they caught that part of his monologue.)
"You will inform me immediately if you hear any news of Pythor again," Mindroid said, trying his best to sound commanding. "It would be logical to assume he might attempt to capture the Green Ninja again, and your assistance in apprehending him was… commendable."
"What was the last bit?" asked Nelson softly, having not fully understood.
"Tell him if we see Pythor again, since he might go after Lloyd, and he thought our plan to catch him was awesome," Echo replied with a grin.
"I didn't say 'awesome'!" Mindroid protested, but the others were all smiling like they didn't believe him. "Stupid humans! Just try to keep being useful to me."
With that the great Mindroid vanished into the night, leaving the humans (and Echo) baffled by his great feat of disappearance.
"He does know we can still see him, right?" asked Nelson softly as Mindroid ducked from tree to tree to try and hide from them as he left.
Mindroid apparently heard him, and activated his invisibility function to actually vanish and started running from the sound of his footsteps.
Echo's eyes glowed slightly as he scanned the area, then shrugged. "Yeah, he's gone," he said. Turning back to his friends, he added, "Alright, I admit it. He has Lil'Terror material."
"Told you!" said Lloyd with a grin.
"Wait 'til Tiny, SJ, and Poisinthia hear what they missed," said Gene. "Bet they'll wish they were here for it."
"That's a sucker's bet," said Brad with a laugh.
"They'll have another chance," said Lloyd. "If Pythor's still after us, it's only a matter of time before we see him again." He then grinned. "And next time, we'll be ready."
A/N Mindroid's at it again. At least this time he almost got Pythor, rather than barking up the wrong tree. He's becoming more and more of a Lil'Terror, even if he doesn't know it yet. The others are getting better at learning Binary, but there's still some of the language barrier up.
Thanks again to Kay Hau for beta reading this and helping to plan it. Brad betting a rose bush is based on a line in a giftfic she wrote for this. Check out all her work when you have the time.
Next Time: Borg comes to realize there may be some bumps in the road when it comes to raising Skylor
