After successfully interrogating… or well, turning a Venomari to the light so to speak, the ninja knew where the last Fangblade was. But… there's a pretty big issue.
"The Venomari's right. By the time we cast off, clear sail to the other side of Ninjago, Pythor will have already beat us to the last Fangblade." Nya admits.
"Oh, come on guys. This, is the last one! We gotta get it." Jay argues. "There's gotta be something we can do." The ninja think for a moment, before Lloyd speaks up.
"We only need to steal one Fangblade, right? Well, what if we steal the other three?" He offers. "Pythor wouldn't risk having them all on him. He's probably hidden them somewhere while he goes for the fourth."
"It's so simple." Cole admits, but agrees.
"It can't be that easy." Jay notes.
"Easy? My algorithm suggests taking the other three would be far more dangerous." Zane retorts. "Pythor would undoubtedly have them protected by his top Generals."
"Even if you could steal the other three, you don't even know where they are." Garmadon reminds them.
"He's right. For the past few weeks, there have been almost no Serpentine sightings. How are they moving around?" Wu questions. "It's like they're ghosts."
"Or snakes." Nya notes. "Bridge, give me a sonar sweep of Ninjago." At her words, the map on the bridge shows no detection of Serpentine life.
"See? Nothing. Like Sensei said. It's like they're ghosts." Cole states.
"But what if they aren't travelling above ground? They're snakes, right? Snakes burrow." Nya explains. "Bridge, give me a sonar sweep of Ninjago but 20 feet below the surface." The map then shows a mass of tunnel systems all leading to the Constrictai tomb.
"All the tombs have been interconnected to make one massive fortress." Cole states in shock.
"Imagine that, under our noses all this time." Jay states, a hint of sarcasm laced in his tone.
"Or feet." Zane adds.
"Seems the old Constrictai Tomb is the most protected, let alone being in the centre of their tunnel systems. The Fangblades are most likely to be there." Kai notes.
"Then what are we waiting for?" Wu asks. Nya immediately takes the helm, inputting the course.
"Already on it. We'll be there by sunrise." She informs.
The Bounty is held just above the entrance of the Tomb, atop the Mountain of a Million Steps. Nya's Samurai-X Mech has a seat for Wu to join, so everyone bar Lloyd and Garmadon would be on this mission. Kai leads the way down, rappelling down the rope as fast as he can. When down below, however, there is nothing around.
"I thought you said this place would be heavily guarded." Cole intones.
"Forgive me, but Nindroids can make mistakes." Zane retorts. Kai simply looks to Nya.
"What do you see?" He asks simply. Nya looks around, her gaze focusing on a ninja drawing on the wall across from them.
"The moustache is mechanical." She states. Kai walks over to the shitty artwork, and places his hand on the moustache. It depresses, and the wall slides open, revealing one of what was likely many hidden passages. They follow the tunnel, soon coming up on a large open area, where the four Serpentine Generals stand guard. Deciding the use the shadows and sneak their way through, the ninja begin their assault. But it's immediately a bust.
"I don't think Stealth is gonna help us." Kai admits. Above them, Serpentine of all kinds begin to rappel down the massive chains hanging from the roof.
"Lloyd, can you hear me?" Nya asks, her voice echoing in the cavern. She grunts out in frustration. "I'm not getting anything." Static was her only reply through the comms after all. One Serpentine tries to climb up the mech and get Wu, only for the Sensei to scald him with his tea. The serpent plummets to his death.
"Forget about that for now. We need to fight back." Wu states. As the ninja fight off their attackers, one type of Serpentine going for a separate ninja, Kai comes face to face with Scales.
"You're surrounded, young fire starter." He taunts.
"You sure you want to follow that Anacondrai?" Kai asks. "Because if the Great Devourer is unleashed, none of you will be safe." Scales hesitates, but orders his underlings to attack, not even bothering to stay. He falls back, awaiting something within the shadows as Kai slices through scaly flesh.
"Hate to interrupt." Zane calls out, being the closest to their objective. "But we do have Fangblades to take." As they all converge, however, restraints spring up, and spear towards them, the serpent-like chains grasping the ninja. A cage then forms around them, made from vengestone.
"Fuck." Kai curses, sensing a familiar presence.
"Come come, can this get any better? Seriously. The fell right into my trap." Pythor states, a greenish-silver Fangblade in his hand alongside a duct-taped staff. The cage they were all encased in was being lifted by pulley system, leaving them hanging, quite literally. The cage was made of vengestone, their weapons are taken away, and the mech suit is chained just out of their reach. Nya manages to still use the comm system, the rocks on the floor of the cage still able to activate the mech's systems, surprisingly.
"Lloyd? Lord Garmadon? Is anyone there?" Nya asks.
"I'm here, Nya. How are you guys holding up?" His voice comes back somewhat static-y, an Nya pelts another rock at the mech, somehow fixing the problem.
"We're relatively fine. But, a little uh… held up… at the moment." Nya admits. "Our weapons have been taken and we're locked in cages."
"And I'm not willing to commit mass genocide." Kai adds. "Oh, and Pythor's returned with the last Fangblade."
"Lloyd, where did your father go?" Zane asks.
"I told him to leave." Lloyd admits. "He was trying to steal your files from the Bounty."
"Of all the times…" Kai trails off.
"Don't worry. I can still save you." Lloyd attempts to assure us.
"You're not ready, Lloyd." Bot Kai and Wu warn in unison. The Serpentine begin chanting below them, and Cole speaks up.
"To be honest, if we can't get out of here, we're toast. Pythor will unleash the Great Devourer and Ninjago will become a buffet." He notes.
"Don't worry. I'll be there in shortly." Lloyd states, before cutting the connection.
"Goddammit kid." Kai mutters. "At this rate, I will have to commit genocide." Kai then sighs, letting his impatience flow out of his body. He takes a seated position. About five minutes later, Lloyd tumbles in, right to Pythor, stopping just in front of him.
"Well, if we don't meet again, Pythor." Lloyd begins, his voice carrying throughout the cavern. "Unhand the ninja, or suffer humiliation against… The Green Ninja." At this, Pythor begins to laugh, as do the other Serpentine.
"Oh yeah? You and what army?!" Pythor bellows out in askance. The ninja all look on in concern, but Kai speaks up.
"He'll be fine. He's got some unexpected backup." He assures.
"How about this army." The familiar voice of Garmadon echoes from above. Alongside him, is a legion of the skeleton army.
'Seems the Null decided to return your prisoners from before.' Vex notes in amusement.
"Dad?" Lloyd asks.
"Lloyd. You made me realize I do have a choice. If anyone is going to threaten Ninjago, it better well be me!" Garmadon announces.
"The Skeleton Army? Why would they fight beside you? You betrayed them and Samukai years ago!" Pythor questions.
'How does he know that?' Vex wonders in Kai's mind.
"Because everyone hates snakes!" Kruncha retorts to Pythor's question. The two forces immediately collide.
"The moment the door opens, jump through." Kai orders. The same doorway that he appeared in when he unlocked his Full Potential opens up, the orange gateway menacing in appearance. The ninja, Nya and Wu all jump through,Kai following last, the doorway closing behind them. They find themselves just beyond where the skeletons and Serpentine fight. They grab their equipment as quick as they can and join the fight. It's pure luck that has Pythor bumping into Kai, who quickly turns around, sword pointed at the throat of his enemy. "Oh, where you going somewhere?" He asks, taking the Fangblades out of the Anacondrai's grasp. Pythor then vanishes, his natural ability hiding him from their sight.
"Where'd he go?" Cole asks.
"Doesn't matter right now. Let's get out of here." Kai immediately lets the familiar vortex of Spinjitzu cover his body, as he begins to clear a path back out for everyone else. Kai gives off a salute to the Skeleton Army, showing his thanks for their support. The ninja make it back aboard the Bounty, and take off, leaving for Torchfire Mountain.
The Bounty halts, hovering just above the mouth of Torchfire Mountain. The ninja, each with a Fangblade in hand walk to the edge of the deck, finding Sensei Wu already waiting, and looking a little forlorn.
"It is beautiful, is it not?" Wu asks rhetorically.
"Sensei, we are ready for the destruction of the Fangblades. Yet, you seem disinterested." Zane notes.
"You do not need my approval to finish the task." Wu states solemnly. "There will come a time when you will have to go on without me."
"Wu, you're not one to reminisce about the possibility of your own death. What's wrong?" Kai asks.
"In meditation, my smoke visions have come to an end. Tomorrow, I cannot see. This worries me." Wu explains.
"I suppose that has two meanings." Kai notes. "Either you pass away today, or the world ends." Before they can continue, the Bounty shudders, leaning to the right, and unbalancing Wu. He stumbles, before falling over the edge. Kai is quick enough to grab him, and the others continue to grab each other, forming a chain with Cole the only one still technically on board. The Fangblades are discarded, as they battle to get back up. "Nya!" Kai shouts. "What's going on?!"
"Someone or something has overwritten the system!" She calls back, the megaphone carrying her voice in the air.
"PYTHOR'S ON BOARD!" Lloyd's panicked shout catches all their attention. They all look back, finding the Anacondrai with all the discarded Fangblades in his grasp, looking at them with a smirk of contempt.
"Sorry if I don't lend a hand, but I'm really in a rush. Got this whole, 'Devourer' thing going on. Toodle-oo" He then tries to slither away, only for Lloyd to block his path. Samurai-X soon joining in. While this is going on, Cole manages to drag Zane and Jay up, with only Kai and Wu remaining. The sound. Of a helicopter alerts them to Pythor's escape route. They are unable to do anything beyond watch as Pythor drops off the side of the Bounty, catching the Fangpyre Chopper of which Scales is also aboard. As they fly away, Lloyd heads inside to grab our weapons.
"If Pythor gets the Fangblades to the City of Ouroborous, he'll awaken the Great Devourer." Wu states.
"Yeah, we kinda got the gist of that." Kai admits. "But remember, we aren't gonna stand idly by." Lloyd then returns, the case of weapons in his hands.
"What about me?" He asks.
"We need you to stay with the Bounty, keep her ready for assistance if we need it." Kai explains.
"But did you see me kick Pythor's face? I'm-" Lloyd is cut off by Kai.
"Patience." He warns softly. "At the moment, you're too important for us to risk. You need to stay out of harms way until we can get you trained and able to hold your own." Kai then takes out his personal katana, running his fingers across the flat of the blade, a quiet tune flowing out. The weapon then shatters into millions of pieces, which then begin to reform into a jet aircraft, reminiscent of an F15E Strike Eagle. Kai leaps into the cockpit, closing the canopy quickly. The other ninja immediately leap off the Bounty, their own vehicles forming mid fall. Kai smiles, before throttling up, the afterburners kicking in as he shoots off, leveling of beside Jay and Nya, with Zane and Cole directly below. They pass by the stranded tourists, when Jay calls through the comms.
"I have eyes on the tour bus." He calls. They close in, intent on taking it out of commission. Kai fires a missile, the seeker homing in on the bus. Before it could impact, it's shot out of the sky, as a tail then forms at the end of the bus, two spherical Anti-Air turrets poking out on either side on the carriage before the last. The turrets then aim for the three in the air, opening fire immediately. Jay banks left, while Kai goes right, weaving in and out of the stone structures covering the area around them. Nya stays the course, dodging the shots rather expertly in her mech suit.
"Jay, draw their fire on the left. Kai, do the same on the right." Nya orders. "Zane, cool those carts down." Both Kai and Jay immediately draw the turret's fire. With that opening, Zane passes by without issue, leaping onto the carriages. He kicks away the meagre opposition from the Serpentine on the top of the carts, and swiftly decouples the two final carts, letting them roll back with a wave of his hand.
"Good work, Zane. Now, lets board that bus." Jay flies ahead beside Nya, with Cole directly below them. Kai hangs back, trailing just behind the bus.
"Keep moving. I'll cover from up here." Kai states. The ninja make their way through the bus, the only bit of trouble being when Nya fails to duck and gets hit by a sign post. At least she was in the mech.
"Alright. We made it to the second cart." Cole's voice calls through the comms. "Sensei? What are you doing?" His words give Kai pause, as he watches the carts detach, leaving the driving cab alone. Kai immediately opens a connection with Lloyd.
"Kid, you there?" He asks.
"Yeah. Where else would I be?" The sound of the Bounty in flight and on the move gives away the fact Lloyd isn't still at Torchfire Mountain.
"If I'm hearing things correctly, you're already following us. For once, that's good." Kai lets out a sigh of relief. "The ninja need a pickup. I'll be following Wu and Pythor. Just get everyone ready and to Ouroborous." He cuts the connection and raises his altitude to 3500 meters, high enough for the mirrors on the bus to miss him. He watches, and follows, as the bus begins to tilt, lifting onto half of it's wheels, before flipping on it's side, right at the gates of Ouroborous. Unable to get a clear view of the inside of the city, Kai circles around, waiting for a sign, or even word that everything was over, though the knot in his stomach was saying otherwise.
Clouds begin to form around the city, dark and brooding. A faint glow from the centre of the city has Kai on edge. The Bounty arrives, the torn apart tour bus carriages hooked beneath it. The ninja disembark, Nya alongside them.
"Nya, give me a view of things down there." Kai orders. His sister complies, as the screen displays her mech's view of the city below. At the centre of the lost city, the floor is crumbling, the stones falling into an abyss. The statue of the Great Devourer that once stood proud, is gone, likely swallowed by the pit. Wu has Pythor in a choke hold, keeping him in place. Below, two glowing red eyes move closer to the surface.
"You must do everything in your power to stop The Great Devourer. Go, ninja. Go." Wu speaks his final words, as the ground erupts, and the Serpent snaps it's jaws around Wu and Pythor. From his aircraft, Kai can see the form of the Devourer, and dives for it.
"Get clear!" He warns, firing the 20mm cannons upon the creature. The shells merely bounce off, ricocheting through the city. Then three missiles are fired, and still no damage is dealt. Kai breaks away, and the tail of the Devourer shears the right rudder off completely. Kai ejects, the sword reforming in his grasp as Nya catches him with her mech. She leads the ninja back towards the Bounty, Lloyd landing her for the ninja to quickly board. As the ninja jump on, Nya and Lloyd set the Bounty to full speed, taking it away from the Great Devourer before it could take a bite out of the ship. It extends it's frills and lets out a furious cry.
"Uh, hate to say this, but objects in the mirror are closer than they appear!" Jay screams, watching as the snake chases them, matching their speed with ease.
"Is there anything you can do to help?" Kai questions, Vex's fire form emerging for all to see. The flames seem to flicker, before he responds.
"That thing is a primordial being/creature. I alone can't do anything to kill it, let alone seal it away. You would need someone to use the Golden Weapons, all four of them, at once, emitting all their elemental energy to even make a scratch on that thing. And even then, I don't know for sure it will kill it if we don't find a weak spot to pierce through it's scaly hide."
"Well fuck. We can't do that." Nya admits, cursing for the first time. "The best I can do right now, is try to get us to Scattered Canyon."
"The probability of us making it that far-" Zane begins, appearing from nowhere, before Vex cuts him off.
"Never tell me the odds, Golden-Rod."Zane simply looks at him in confusion, A shudder wracks the Bounty as Nya avoids an attempt from the Devourer to chew them apart. "Oh god, it really is the Millennium Falcon all over again."
"Nya, we're losing speed. We'll drop to the ground pretty soon!" Lloyd yells in concern.
"Throw everything overboard!" Nya exclaims, much to the shock of the ninja. "We need to lose some weight!"
"Port side!" Lloyd warns, but it's too late to do much, as the Devourer tears half of the back right thrusters off, swallowing them instantly. The ninja begin to throw everything overboard, the heaviest things first. The entire Kitchen is thrown out first, followed by anything porcelain.
"That thing's a glutton if I've ever seen one."Vex notes in Kai's mind. "Is it…"
"It's getting bigger! Don't throw anything else over board!" Kai warns. The Devourer halts momentarily, it's body morphing grotesquely as it grows, shedding an entire body of scales in one movement, before it continues the chase.
"We've made it to Scattered Canyon. Hold on!" Nya warns. She weaves around each stone monolith and structure. Kai is the first to notice that the Devourer disappears. Cole is the vocal one, once he notices the same.
"We lost him!" He celebrates too soon. Directly in the path, the Devourer dives right in front of the Bounty, it's tail shearing through the left side thrusters, forcing the Bounty down.
"All hands, abandon ship!" Kai and Nya bellow simultaneously. Without hesitation, the ninja, Lloyd and Nya, depart, and watch as the Bounty crashes. Moments later, the Devourer erupts from below, and crunches its jaws through the Bounty, not even fully eating it, as bits of wooden shrapnel lay scattered on the ground, before it departs once more.
"There's no time to rest. We need to warn people before it becomes bigger." Zane states.
"Bigger? Bigger?! That thing in one big bite just crushed our entire ship! No, we need to save as many as we can. We need to make a refuge, somewhere the Devourer can't get too, save as many people as possible… The Tombs! They're safe! Course, we'll be without sunlight for months-" Jay begins to ramble.
"Hey, you expect us to just give up?!" Cole asks in anger.
"Cole! You know as well as I do that there's nothing we can do about that thing!"
"Stop it!" Kai cuts in. "Listen to yourselves. Is this what Sensei Wu would have wanted? Us fighting among each other? Running and hiding? Giving up?"
"But, he's not here anymore." Lloyd states solemnly.
"Yet his teachings still live on. Sensei once told me, its not the size of a ninja in a fight, but the size of the fight in the ninja. All this training, all these battles, we've persevered through all of it. We can't just give up now. A Ninja always picks himself up when he's down. A Ninja never quits. Which is exactly what Sensei Wu would want us to do right now." Kai explains.
"But, how do we destroy a snake of that magnitude?" Zane asks.
"A Death Star."Vex answers semi-rhetorically.
"It's not like we have another Sacred Flute just lying around. Or, how about our awesome dragons? Oh, I forgot… THEY'RE GONE!" Jay exclaims.
"Uh, actually, Jay, you might be on to something there." Nya admits, turning to Zane. "Do you have any sound recordings of when the flute was played?" Zane goes still for a moment, before opening a part of his forearm, revealing a sound player, that immediately replayed the Sacred Flute.
"I believe that should answer your question." Zane states.
"Good… Now, we just need something to play the sound… something that can amplify it to an insane proportion…" Kai begins to think aloud.
"Hey, guys, do you remember when Sensei spoke of the Tornado of Creation?" Cole speaks up, catching everyone's eye.
"But didn't he also say it could cause disastrous consequences if done wrong?" Zane asks.
"We're in the worst case scenario already. We either win, with the Tornado of Creation, or lose to it, or lose to the snake." Kai retorts. "Jay, your home should have enough scrap for us to use, right?"
"It's a junkyard. Of course it would." Jay rolls his eyes.
"Then that's our destination."
"With these blueprints." Kai unrolls the schematics that Nya had been able to make in the short time to get to the junkyard. "We can have a weapon that will harm that thing. Zane, you will have to input the sound file yourself, or simply plug in." The ground rumbles, as the Great Devourer nears. "We've got little to no time. Let's do this! FIRE!" The familiar vortex of spinjitzu covers Kai.
"EARTH!" Cole follows Kai.
"LIGHTNING!" Then Jay.
"ICE!" Lastly Zane.
"NINJAGO!" As the vortexes combine, a massive, multi-coloured vortex as large as the Great Devourer takes shape, sucking in bits of scrap and electronics, as it's power begins to turn them into usable parts, slowly forming the vehicle in the blueprint. With everyone already in place, Zane fires a concentrated sound wave towards the primordial, missing by centimeters.
"Zane, this isn't target practise!" Cole admonishes.
"May I remind you that we just built this heap of junk." Zane retorts. He fires again, with the snake dodging easily.
"We need to hold him down, or we'll never get a hit." Kai explains. Jay activates the clawed hooks, digging into the scales and allowing the ninja to pin the creature as Zane fires again, this time with success as the sound waves hit, and continue to hit. As the primordial moves and shifts, Kai notices a faint, glowing spot on it's forehead.
'A weak spot.' Vex affirms in his mind.
"Guys!" Kai's voice, however, is drowned out by the sound of the flute, the vehicle not being soundproofed showing as a weakness for the ninja.
"What?" Cole turns back to Kai. As he turns, he fails to see the tail burrow below ground and re-emerge behind them, until it spears through the back of the vehicle, taking Zane and the sound cannon with it.
"ZANE!" The ninja shout. As the Devourer retreats, the ninja immediately go to check on their nindroid brother, only to watch him emerge, half of his face missing, revealing the mechanical truth behind what everyone knows him to be.
"I'm alright. That was close." Zane notes.
"Too close." Kai agrees.
"Perfect. Now that was a total failure!" Jay complains.
"Not a total loss at all. Did you guys notice on it's head, it has a weak spot?" Kai questions.
"Oh, great, let me make a note of that; giant snake, has wee, itty bitty weak spot, that'll be TOTALLY IMPOSSIBLE TO GET AT BECAUSE THE THING IS TOO RIDICULOUSLY HUGE TO DO ANYTHING TO STOP IT!" Jay shouts.
"Are you done?" Nya asks, to which Jay takes a deep breath.
"Yes."
"Because things just got worse." She points to where the snake is making its way to Ninjago City.
"If it consumes the biggest place in Ninjago, there really will be no stopping it." Kai warns.
The ninja arrive just in time to stop the Devourer from consuming Jay's parents, along with the rest of the people there for the awareness festival. Nya, in her mech, grabs a light pole and shoves it into the jaws of the Devourer, keeping them open.
"Get out of there, Nya!" Kai shouts in concern.
"I can't! I'm stuck!" She calls out. As the pole begins to bend and morph, a large four headed dragon impacts with the back of the Devourer's head, knocking Nya free.
"Is that?" Jay asks.
"Rocky!" Cole exclaims.
"It seems dragons go through a metamorphosis when they reach adulthood. They too, have found their true potential." Zane notes. The Ultra Dragon, as the ninja would later call it, used it's surprise arrival to it's advantage, gaining several decent hits against the Devourer, even denting it's scaled hide in a few places. But it soon comes under attack. As it worked its way around for another strike, the Devourer's tail erupted from below, punching the dragon heavily, knocking the air out of it's lungs, before knocking it to the ground. Behind them, a familiar signature stands before them. Vex materializes and turns to face him.
"So, you returned." He notes aloud, resulting in everyone turning to face Garmadon.
"Give me the weapons. I am the only one who can handle all of their powers at once. They are the only thing that can take down the Devourer." Garmadon explains in a hurry. Without hesitation, Kai, uncharacteristically, tosses the Sword of Fire to him.
"Kai?" Jay questions.
"Vex mentioned it before. Zane?" Kai turns to the nindroid, who was running each scenario through his servos.
"He's right. That is the only scenario that we would win." He affirms solemnly, handing the shurikens over. Cole and Jay then hand theirs over as well.
"On his forehead, is a weak spot. Once we get him to keep still, hit him there." Kai explains.
"You just make sure he stays in one place." Garmadon warns. The ninja begin to bait the Devourer, leading it around in a circle, until it eventually bites it's own tail.
'It's fitting that the symbol of the Ouroborous, at this one's demise.' Vex notes with glee. As Garmadon leaps down, all four weapons poised to strike, the ninja watch. The resulting explosion of green fluids and acids covering the entirety of Ninjago City. Garmadon, however, disappears, the Golden Weapons being taken with him. In the goo left behind, however, is a joyous surprise for the ninja, being Sensei Wu.
With the battle over, the ninja move to help the citizens of the city with clearing out the scales, and help with rebuilding. Kai collects the scales himself, intent on making future weapons and armour out of the tough material. As they do their work, Vex wanders around the city. He soon finds a young girl, her demeanour is one of being in shock. He helps her up, and looks into her eyes, noting a darkness deep within. He guides her to the nearest medical tent, and leaves her there, before returning to his wandering, looking through the town for any more lost survivors, and perhaps, a few lost souls to guide on their way as well.