There is a Reason Why One Should Not Fight Next to a Serpentine Tomb…

Sensei rubbed his chin thoughtfully as he maintained eye contact with the skeleton…uh, skullkin. "Let me get this straight…my brother is back from the underworld and he wants his son…"

Lloyd instantly protested, panic flashing in his eyes. "No! I want to stay here! Can't I stay?!"

Sensei glanced over at the group of friends, a frown on his face. Turning back to his surprise visitor, he spoke calmly. "How about this, I meet up with him somewhere and we discuss this face to face. Lloyd rather likes his friends here and would rather not be separated from them. Does any of this make sense to you?"

"Yes sir. I will go see if Lord Garmadon will agree with the meeting." The skullkin nodded enthusiastically.

Kai crossed his arms as he glared after the skullkin. "I don't like this at all. Why can't Lloyd just stay here and we don't have to deal with him at all."

Sensei shook his head as he walked out of the room. "That's not how it works."

"Why not?" Nya demanded as she crossed her arms in a huff.

Sensei paused to turn around to look at her, but someone else beat him to it. "Because… Lloyd is Garmadon's son; he has a right to take him in."

Sensei sighed, before rubbing his chin again. "Thank you Zane. That was very much appreciated."

Zane nodded calmly, even as he began to shoo the others out of the room. "We best get back to our rooms. Some of us have to finish our first drafts still and we need our sleep."

Groans escaped the friends as they slunk out of the room.

…

Zane hummed to himself as he glanced around the snow covered landscape, fighting the urge to smile over the fact that Sensei had sent them off to explore wherever they desired. Somehow the snowy hills behind Birchwood forest ended up being their final destination.

"Cool! Zane look at these rocks! They're all lined up in a circle and there seems to be a symbol on the ground in the middle…" Jay wiped snow away from his discovery, excitement gleaming in his eyes.

Kai scoffed as he pulled Jay away from the strange phenomenon. "Come on Jay… leave it alone it could be dangerous."

"Says who? We're not in another realm, we're in Ninjago. We're totally safe!" Jay knitted his brows together out of confusion on where Kai was coming from.

"That does not mean it is automatically safe!" Kai snapped as he glared at his fellow teen.

"Does too!"

"Does not!"

"Does too!" Jay made the mistake of pushing Kai back a little, forgetting about how Kai would read that as.

""Does not!" Kai shoved Jay hard, sending him tumbling into Lloyd. Not expecting Jay to crash into him, Lloyd yelped as he tumbled into the ground in the middle of the strange circle. With a loud crack, the ground opened up, swallowing Lloyd whole.

"Lloyd!" "Lloyd! See this rests my case!" Kai ignored the glares being sent his way as he ran over to check for signs of the kid.

Jay growled, before tackling Kai suddenly. "Does not! That could just be a coincidence! Obviously the ground is weaker there!" The two of them rolled around as they started punching and kicking each other. Unfortunately, they did not pay attention to where they were going and ended up falling into the hole after Lloyd.

Cole yelped loudly, before darting over and grabbing Jay by the collar in a poor attempt to stop him from falling down there. All that succeeded in doing was Jay ended up dragging him down with him. Zane and Nya glanced at each other, before shrugging and jumping in after the other four.

~Three Hours Later, with Sensei and Garmadon, in Jamankai Village~

"So…that is it then? We actually came up with a great compromise that we both agree on?" Sensei shook his head as he looked across the café table to his older brother.

Garmadon, who now had four arms instead of two, scratched his chin as he looked at him. "I guess so. Man, agreeing with you feels so…."

"Serpentine!" A customer screamed as he ran into the café.

"What?!" The two brothers, who had helped lock the serpentine away in the first place, sprang out of their seats and bolted out the door.

Sure enough, a tribe of serpentine were flooding the streets of the small mountainside village. Not just any tribe either…it was the Hypnobrai!

Garmadon shook his head as he tightened his grip on his staff, fury dancing in his eyes. "Of all the days that this could happen… how did they escape!?"

"It was Lloyd's fault!" Jay materialized next to the two brothers.

"Was not! You pushed me!" Lloyd appeared out of thin air as he protested against what Jay claimed.

"Did not! I bumped into after Kai shoved me!"

Kai then showed up, scowling at him. "You pushed me first!"

Cole, Nya, and Zane appeared, all of them looking frazzled as an argument erupted amongst the two friends. Sensei sighed, before turning to face Zane, whom he knew was the most levelheaded out of the friends. "What exactly happened?"

Zane cleared his throat, pleased that Sensei trusted him in giving a clear account about what happened. "Basically…Jay and Kai got in an argument…. Things got a little carried away and Jay pushed Kai. Kai to it the wrong way and shoved Jay hard enough that he stumbled and bumped into Lloyd, who was not expecting that and he fell, breaking the seal on the tomb open. Jay and Kai got into another fight over that, which lead to them kicking and punching each other… and then they fell into the hole. Cole noticed what was going on and tried to stop them, but ended up falling with them. Nya and I then jumped down to help them. Uh, the serpentine that appears to be in charge attempted to hypnotize Lloyd but completely failed." Taking in a deep breath, he reached his right hand out to shake with Garmadon. "Hello, my name is Zane. I am a friend of your son's."

Garmadon blinked slowly, before turning to face Sensei. "Maybe I should rethink our deal if these are the kind of people that you allow my son to hand out with."

Sensei groaned, rubbing his forehead, even as chaos erupted all around him. This was going to take forever to clean up…

A/N: Done! So yeah, in a way Lloyd still released the first tribe of serpentine… oops. It was an accident though! And it was totally Kai and Jay's fault! Um, yeah. Please review!

Review!

SkyTalon