The first thing Nya was aware of was how bright everything was when they left the warehouse. "Ow!" Jay yelled, covered his eyes with a paw. "Geez, the sun is bright!"
Zane looked around. "The sun is at its highest in the sky. It must have been a few hours. It would make sense because that would be long enough for us to transform."
Lloyd glanced around. "Uh, is it just me, or is there no sign of bad guys whatsoever?"
Zane smiled. "The villain was using a large amount of Dark Matter. I could scan the area for-" He stopped, sighed, and clapped a paw over his face. "Never mind. I'm not a nindroid."
Nya piped up. "But Pixal still is, right?"
Zane nodded. "You're right, we can ask her. We'll head back to the Bounty." However, the ex-nindroid's expression was still one of forlorn sadness and the feeling of not being able to come to use. Nya had felt that a lot in her earlier years with the ninja, while she was deciding to become Samurai X. Poor Zane. How many times had he changed bodies again?
She mulled the thought over in her head while the ninja traced their steps back to the place where the Bounty had been parked. It wasn't there, but as they watched, their ship drifted over and hoisted down the anchor. Pixal and Sensei Wu, who she must have picked up, were leaning over the deck and waving. The ninja began to climb up, except for Lloyd, who flew up by testing the dragon wings that had grown freshly from his shoulder blades.
"What the-?" Nya heard Pixal yell along with the dull thud of Lloyd landing on the deck. "What happened to you, Lloyd? And-" Nya climbed over the deck, followed closely by Jay being held by Kai. "Oh, dear. Did this happen to all of you?"
"Yep, thanks to old fur face," Kai snarled. He released a deep lion growl and made Jay jump off him and step back. Nya's expression softened slightly as she noticed Jay was becoming a lot more skittish around Kai. She walked over to the fox and curled her tail around him. He looked up to see who it was and smiled.
Pixal was dumbfounded entirely when Zane boarded. "Zane, what happened…"
"It is a long story that I can tell you while we are searching for the Shadow," Zane replied. To Pixal's confusion, he added, "According to Lloyd, the Shadow is the name of the villain. He- Woah!" Cole had just boarded. Being a 350-pound bear, around doubling Cole's human weight, was not helping. The Destiny's Bounty had actually tipped just a bit before restabilizing itself.
"Uh, sorry. I'm like half a ton now." Cole apologized. "Must be the cake."
Jay smiled and rolled his eyes. "When is the last time you've eaten cake?"
Cole grinned back, showing off gleaming white teeth. "Can't imagine you did it, you scrawny mutt."
Nya shook her head at the boy banter, but a few seconds later became a hypocrite as she chided her turn at Kai. "Well, out of all of us, Kai should be the happiest." She ruffled his dark brown mane. "He still has hair to grease with gel!"
Sensei turned to the ninja. "Now is not the time to make jokes and play games. This villain, the Shadow, is probably wreaking havoc on Ninjago City. First, Pixal will take you to the medical bay and test your DNA so we can figure out what happened. Then, we're going to figure out where this villain went."
The ninja followed Sensei down to the medical bay. Nya slowed down as she noticed Jay was walking further back and trying to nurse his broken arm. "Are you okay, Jay? I mean, besides the fact that your arm is broken."
The lightning ninja smiled, though with a strained face. "I'll be fine as long as I'm with you, Nya. And," he lowered his voice, "You know that chocolate cake slice Cole had been saving but got stolen?"
"Yeah?" Nya replied. She then stopped and narrowed her eyes playfully. "Wait a second."
Jay grinned mischievously. "It was delicious."
"Jay!" Nya chastised loudly. Jay's black ears flattened against his head and he looked over at Cole. She couldn't help thinking that even though his body had changed, he was still pretty cute.
"Do you think fox lips can kiss?" Jay whispered sneakily in her ear. It was almost as if he could read her thoughts.
She shoved him playfully, and lightly for their size difference, and whispered. "Maybe not right now, blue Jay. Kai's in a mood."
"I almost want to be a blue jay now," Jay confessed as they entered the medical bay. "I'd be able to fly."
"And Kai would be able to threaten you with eating you," Nya responded.
"Touche."
The medical bay was clean and well done quite recently since the ninja had had their injuries cleaned up after their trip to the Never-Realm. Pixal ushered them over to one bed and had them sit down one by one so she could swab their mouths with a Q-tip and test their DNA. It passed quite smoothly, although Cole insisted on sitting on the floor for fear of breaking the bed, and Lloyd's surprising new number of teeth almost scratched the female android.
When they were done, the ninja followed Sensei up to the main hangar to try and find the location of the Shadow while Pixal identified the DNA samples. Zane tried helping by telling his sensei what he knew. "The Shadow created a large machine known as the Primordos, using large amounts of Dark Matter. My assumptions were that he would stay here in New Ninjago City, but apparently not."
Jay chuckled. "That would be a funny headline, though. 'Fox Thing on Another Fox Thing Turns Everyone into Fox Things'." Everyone stared at him awkwardly. "What?"
"You're a fox thing," Kai retorted, sending the ninja into laughter. Eventually, they all fell away from the search to jokes and games as Sensei Wu had feared, save for Zane, who was trying valiantly to reprove himself a decent member of the team.
Nya glanced over briefly to see what they were doing. For some reason, they had narrowed their search for the Shadow down to... the Wailing Alps? Apparently, either the Shadow could travel epically fast, or he could teleport. Either way wasn't good.
Pixel came up with the results from the samples. "There was indeed an alteration in your genes. Although, it was a bit hard to sort out Jay's and Nya's genes. Apparently, there was evidence of their DNA in each other's mouths that occurred within a 24-hour time period."
Lloyd and Cole gave identical "Oooh!" noises and Kai glared at Jay, whilst Jay and Nya both blushed and looked at each other. They hadn't been French kissing that night, had they? Nya couldn't really remember; she was half asleep the majority of it. She mouthed a "talk later" to Jay, who quickly nodded and mouthed an "okay" back.
"The Shadow has somehow invented a chemical that has the ability to alter gene mutations in animal cells." Pixal continued. "Since you are all humans, and the chemical is not strong enough to drastically change your cells, you all assumed the forms of mammalian carnivores with the exception of Lloyd. They were altered based on your other DNA and your genes. For example, Jay transformed into a fox most likely due to his reddish hair. But…" Pixal looked at Zane sympathetically. "I have no idea how you were changed. However, the DNA code swabbed from you compares to the previous Master of Ice."
"Interesting," Zane mused, but obviously he was still upset.
Nya looked at the screen, the other ninja following her example. "It appears you've tracked our villain to the Wailing Alps."
Kai's eyes widened. "But remember last time we went to the Alps? We had to use mechs to climb up it, and there were plenty of avalanches, and it was so…" He rubbed his paws together. "...so, so cold."
"To be fair, Kai, we were climbing the steepest mountain in the range to reach the Blind Man's eye, from what I can recall, and it doesn't look like the Shadow ventured there," Zane commented.
Sensei Wu tapped the interactive map, bringing up a 3-D visage of the Wailing Alps mountain range. "This villain is seeking refuge in this mountain." He motioned to a form with more width than height, looking more like an elaborate hill than a mountain. "There is a passage of mining shafts inside this formation. Be careful, ninja. Most villains lay out traps, so tread lightly, and be sure not to disturb the natives."
"Natives?" Jay pondered.
"Monks live on top of the hill, where they seek isolation. They are supposed to peaceful beings, although if what I fear is true, the Shadow has probably used his weapon on them. Be wary, and if everything is quiet there, there shouldn't be anything wrong."
"How quiet?" Lloyd ventured.
"The strongest lengths of the monks is absolute silence. They try their hardest to prevent themselves from needless noises such as sneezing and coughing. They seem to be a strange civilization, but that is probably why they seek refuge."
Zane, still showing obvious signs of discomfort with his animal situation, ran over to the controls, typing coordinates as he spoke aloud, "Destination: The Silents Monks of the Wailing Alps."
