Lou didn't realize it, but he gave the ninja a big clue as to which Hermes was the one they were looking for. Twenty-two men named Hermes had a wife with Kelly as her first or middle name. They walked up to the house of Hermes number fourteen. It was a tiny house outside of Jamanakai Village that looked like it could fall down at any moment. There couldn't have been more than four rooms inside, and even that seemed like a generous guess. Garden gnomes littered the yard. An old woman sat knitting on the porch, but she looked up when the group approached.
"Excuse me, but we're looking for a Hermes Knight. Is he here?" Lloyd asked.
"Hermes! Some kids are trying to sell us magazines again!"
"No, we don't want to sell you magazines. We're trying to locate the old Master of Earth. We know his name is Hermes, and we know he had a daughter named Morgen who married Lou Burtchenelli," Kai said.
The woman stared at them. The door slammed open. A tall man with messy white hair wearing a gray tank top and jeans stormed onto the porch. He was carrying a baseball bat.
"You have three seconds to get off my property!" Hermes glared at them, tapping the bat in his hand.
"Please, just hear us out. We're here about your daughter!" Lloyd pleaded, raising his hands as if he was surrendering. The others followed his lead.
Hermes looked at his wife.
"They know about Morgen," Kelly told her husband.
"Alright, speak," Hermes spat.
"You were the Master of Earth," Skylor said.
"That was a long time ago. Morgen is the Master of Earth now."
"No, she's not. Her son is," Kai said, lowering his arms.
"What son?" Hermes looked at Kelly in confusion.
"Morgen told me the child didn't survive. She told me Lou beat her and made her lose the baby," Kelly said.
"Oh please. Lou couldn't hurt a fly," Nya scoffed.
"His name is Cole, he's twenty years old, and he is the current Master of Earth," Zane said.
"He's also in critical condition. Morgen tried to take his powers from him, and now he's in a coma," Lloyd added.
Hermes and Kelly looked at each other, not sure what to say. Hermes lowered the bat slightly.
"I don't know what Morgen told you, but we're telling you the truth. We want to bring Morgen in, but we need help. I'm the Master of Amber, and I copied Cole's power a few years ago, but I've never used it. I don't know how. I need a teacher," Skylor explained.
"Morgen's child… is alive?" Kelly whispered to Hermes.
"Yes, and we need your help to save him," Kai pleaded.
"How can we trust you? How do we know that punk didn't send you to mess with us?" Hermes demanded. He pointed the bat at the group.
"Punk?" Jay asked.
"That no good Burtchenelli kid."
"Are you talking about Lou? 'Cause I'm pretty sure he was born with that bowtie on."
"Bowtie? Kid had a mullet when I knew him."
"Herm, that was over twenty-five years ago," Kelly said softly.
The ninja looked at each other, trying to picture Lou with a mullet. They couldn't. Lou was way too sophisticated to do anything like that. No one knew what to say.
"Just get off my property!" Hermes grabbed Kelly's arm and dragged her inside before slamming the door shut.
They could hear the shouting as soon as they stepped off the elevator. The ninja had been called to help stop a disturbance. They ran towards the sound and couldn't believe what they saw. Lou and Hermes were shouting over each other, and the MPs and security were trying to keep the two apart.
"What's going on?" Lloyd asked, but he was drowned out by all the shouting.
The ninja worked to separate the two men. Kai, Jay, and Skylor managed to get Lou back inside Cole's room while the others slowly escorted Hermes to the waiting room downstairs.
"Lou," Kai started.
"No! Stop! Just stop! This is all your fault! How could you go to him?! I told you not to go to him!" Lou screamed, pacing in front of them.
"But-" Jay started, but Lou interrupted him.
"You knew! You knew it was a trap! You knew, and you still let Cole walk into that cave! Now Hermes is going to go to Morgen and tell him that Cole is still alive! She's going to come here and finish what she started! And it's all going to be your fault! I don't want to see any of you near my son again!"
"No, we-"
"Get. Out. Now," Lou growled.
Defeated, the three ninja left the room. Once they closed the door behind them, Lou glanced over at Cole. He hadn't heard a thing and was still unconscious. Lou turned around and stared out the window. He couldn't look at his son. He fell to his knees, tears forming in his eyes. Two weeks' worth of emotions he had forced down came welling back up. He hadn't cried since Anna died, but since Cole couldn't see him, there was no need to hide the pain this time.
Downstairs, Kai, Skylor, and Jay joined the others, who were still trying to calm Hermes down. He stopped screaming when he saw their faces.
"What happened?" Lloyd asked.
"Lou… He blames us. I've never seen him that angry before. I didn't know he could get that angry," Kai said.
"He said none of us are allowed to see Cole," Jay said, sniffing.
"Oh, Jay," Nya said, hugging Jay, fighting back her own tears.
"… What exactly happened to Cole?" Hermes asked after a while.
No one could answer.
"… Morgen. She baited him into a trap. She tried to take his powers from him. She had him hooked up to this machine that did who knows what to him. And now, Cole is… Cole is dying." The words didn't feel right coming out of Lloyd's mouth. But they couldn't beat around the bush anymore. Everyone was silent.
"Miss Amber, let's go." Hermes turned and walked out of the hospital, a look of anger and determination on his face. The others ran to keep up with him.
"Where are we going?" Skylor asked.
"To teach you how to move Earth."