Chapter 6 – The one and only Montgomery
The ninja and their dragons arrived at a small village that rests on a mountain side. Cole's dragon climbed up the mountain slope, but it wasn't that steep, and of course the others were flying, until they all landed on a lower rock ledge just below the village. As the ninja were dismounting their dragons, a few screams of terror were heard coming from the village.
"Seems like we weren't too late," said Jay.
"Come on," Cole said as he grabbed out his golden weapon, along with the others, and they all ran up to the village. They got to the small town and saw people running and screaming and fleeing into their homes. And that's when an evil laugh was heard from a near by alley, but this was a rather pathetic evil laugh. The evil laugh was actually a childish one, and it had a light husky tone. When the laughing got louder, a boy about Kate's age and height emitted from the alley.
The boy was dressed in a black hoody and baggy black pants with a purple sash, and wore black sneakers as well, the boys had his hood up, but a blond bowl cut was slightly visible beneath the hood, the hoody he wore had a small green number five in the corner of its chest, but painted over the torso of the hoody was the same skeletal design as Garmadon, and the oddest thing about the boy was his eyes, his irises were completely blood red, but had specks of green.
"I am Lloyd Garmadon, future heir to the dark throne—now give me your candy!" the boy or Lloyd Garmadon, called out to the village in a light husky voice, and he did another stupid evil laugh.
"Who's this disordered kid?" asked Jay.
"If I remember back, I think Sensei said something about Garmadon starting a family—maybe this Lloyd Garmadon kid is Garmadon's son," said Kai.
"But any other way, if he was causing all the trouble, we cannot fight him, he is only a child," Zane pointed out.
"Which stinks because now I'm bored," Cole complained.
"Come on, let's go straighten the half-pint out," Kai sighed, and he and the other boys made their way to Lloyd. But Lloyd didn't notice them, he only noticed a local fountain and hopped on top of the edge to get more attention that he already has.
"I said give me candy—or I will release the Serpentine on you all!" Lloyd yelled, getting a bit too cocky.
"Serpentine?" asked Kai.
"Serpentine don't exist," Jay scoffed.
"But if there was anything I hated more than dragons, it was snakes," said Cole.
Lloyd was fidgeting in one spot knowing he wasn't getting candy. So Lloyd grabbed out a can, and opened it, only for it to be a peanut-brittle prank and plastic and rubber snakes jumped out at the villagers. The villagers got angry at this, so they started throwing vegetables at Lloyd.
"Hey, I said candy not vegetables!" Lloyd snapped while trying to shield himself from the flying foods. Kai walked up to one of the rubber snakes from Lloyd and flung it directly at the kid, causing him to lose his balance and fall back into the fountain and into the water with a splash. Lloyd stood up, and hopped out of the fountain. "You'll all regret this!" Lloyd yelled, on the verge of sobbing, and ran off and away from the village.
"Sweet kid," Kai said sarcastically.
"Alright, alright, boys, that's enough action and disappointment for now, let's just head back to the monastery," said Cole, and he and the three ninja headed back to their dragons.
"Last one back to the monastery has to cook dinner tonight," Jay said with a smile.
"Well then, make sure Cole doesn't lose," Kai sighed.
"Hey, my cooking's not that bad," Cole said angrily.
"Oh really, remember that one time when you made Duck Chowder—you really think I was quiet throughout all of dinner?" asked Jay. Everyone, except Cole, chuckled at this.
Dark clouds hovered over the arctic lands as cold winds blew. Lloyd was trudging through the snow, but his eyes were closed. But then Lloyd's red eyes finally came open.
"Ow, my legs, how far have I been walking?" Lloyd asked as he looked up and around at his surroundings, "clearly a while if I'm in the arctic lands," Lloyd said with realization. "Ah!" Lloyd suddenly shrieked when he tripped over something and landed face first in deep snow. Lloyd brought his face slowly from the snow as he glared at nothing in particular. "Alright, what'd I trip over this time?" Lloyd groaned as he turned over to look at his feet and what he tripped over, but what he saw surprised him.
The object Lloyd tripped over was some metal bar coming out of the ice and snow, and this bar was in the carving shape that ended in the shape of a snake head with its fangs bared.
"What the heck?" Lloyd asked as he stood up and put his hand on the bar, but then the bar nudged a bit. "Oh, it is a lever or…" Lloyd asked as he pushed more on the bar that was actually a lever so his voice trailed off.
After Lloyd pushed as far as it could go, nothing happened at first.
"Stupid dud lever," Lloyd complained. But suddenly the grounds in front of Lloyd and the lever began to move, but there were two pieces of land, and they moved apart. The two grounds that moved apart were most likely not part of the real icy grounds. Lloyd gawked down into a giant icy hole where the ground opened. Lloyd also noticed old icy stairs leading down into the whole.
"Something tells me there's something down there," Lloyd said and began to carefully make his way down the stairs. As Lloyd made faint footsteps across the ice, he looked around only to notice the hole lead to a giant and empty ice chamber. For so he thought it was empty. "This place is deserted," Lloyd scoffed when he stopped walking.
"It wasssss very unwissssse to have traveled thisssss far, juvenile," said a dark and calm male voice. Lloyd gasped and turned to see the owner of the voice. The one who said that was a strange snake humanoid.
He was covered in blue, white and yellow scales, and he was as tall as a six foot tall grown man, the snake had a very long tail with a rattle snake rattle at the end, and the snake did have human arms, but his arms were covered in blue scales and his hands faded into dark grey colored scales, and his hands weren't normal, he had very long lands with long claws, the head was in the pointed shape of a snake, and a hood was atop the snake looking creature's head, like that of a King Cobra snake, but the hood was more upright and pointed. There were yellow scaled spiral patterns inside the hood, and down the snake humanoid's tail, back, head, hood, face, and torso were yellow and white scale designs. The snake's scale design was captivating, but not as captivating as his eyes, his eyes were completely red, no whiteness in his eyes, and his irises were a dark red, and there were multiple dark red rings around the iris to make his red eyes hypnotizing. And clutched inside the snakes claws was a long golden staff that was almost as tall as him, and coiled around the staff handle was a golden snake design, and the top of the staff ended with a snake head with a rounded King Cobra hood, and there were two golden fangs, and encrusted in the staff was an orb, and orb that glowed a bright blue color. The snake hissed and stuck out his red snake tongue, but Lloyd was looking at his big fangs.
"W-who are y-you—w-what are you?" Lloyd whimpered.
"I am Ssslithraa, general of the mighty Hypnobrai Tribe," the snake humanoid, or Slithraa, replied as he began to slither slowly with his snake tail trailing behind, and toward Lloyd.
"Tribe?" asked Lloyd.
And his question was answered when more hissing was heard from the dark nooks and crannies of the ice chamber. Other snake humanoids appeared, but unlike Slithraa, they walked on two legs and walked up right like humans. All of the other snakes had blue scales, arms with clawed hands, and grey and yellow designs, but none like Slithraa's. Some snake humanoids had shorter blue hoods with black scale designs, while others had big rounded white hoods but they all still did have red ringed eyes. Though they walked on legs, each snake still had a tail that was just long enough to almost touch the ground. There was one snake humanoid in particular who was standing next to Slithraa, and his face and head was shaped just like Slithraa's unlike all the others, but he still had different scale designs.
"We are one of the many Ssserpentine racessss," Slithraa hissed, earning other hisses from his snake humanoid tribe now called Serpentine.
Lloyd gulped as Slithraa continued to slither his way to Lloyd, resulting in Lloyd trying to back away.
"Sssstop moving sso I can hypnotisssse you," Slithraa demanded, but still in a soft voice. Lloyd shook his head in fear and tried to turn around and run out of the icy chamber, but due to the ice, he had a hard time of keeping balance. When Lloyd tried to pick up speed, so did Slithraa. Lloyd was beginning to run up to a few big sharp shards of ice sticking from the ground, and they were smooth enough to almost be classified as mirrors. Slithraa slithered faster up to Lloyd, and by the time he reached the boy, Lloyd had finally slipped and fallen face first onto the ice.
When Slithraa tried to look Lloyd in the eyes, Lloyd had already fallen, but he fell in front of the clear ice shards, so when Slithraa tried to hypnotize Lloyd, Slithraa looked at his reflection by accident. When Slithraa looked at himself in the ice, he could see the hypnotic red rings in his eyes begin to twirl, ironically hypnotizing his own self.
"Ugh, I think I broke my nose," Lloyd groaned as he sat up and rubbed a hand to his slightly bruised nose. Lloyd forgot about Slithraa for a moment and stood up, but not in front of Slithraa's gaze in the ice. Lloyd finally took notice of Slithraa again, but when he noticed Slithraa wasn't looking at him anymore and instead his reflection, he looked confused. Lloyd would look at Slithraa, and then Slithraa's reflection and then back at Slithraa and so on, and so on. When Lloyd realized what Slithraa did to himself, he snickered. When Slithraa heard the snickering, he blinked her red eyes and was pulled out of his own trance, and he looked wide eyed at Lloyd.
"Masssster—what do you want me to do?" Slithraa asked.
This made Lloyd stop snickering. Lloyd looked around even behind himself before looking at Slithraa again.
"Are you talking to me?" asked Lloyd, with a quirked eye brow. Slithraa lost his patience a bit.
"Yesss, you idiot-I mean my masssster—we are now forever under your control, sssso what do you want usss to do?" Slithraa snapped at first, but then calmed himself. Lloyd pondered this, and looked behind Slithraa at the Hypnobrai Tribe, or now his new slaves. Lloyd grinned.
"Yeah, you're right, I'm your master now, all of you—and the first thing I demand you to do is to steal a few things for me," Lloyd announced to his new snake army.
"General Ssslithraa, thisss issssn't right, we can't take orderssss from a boy!" a Hypnobrai that looked a lot like Slithraa, most likely Slithraa's right hand man, spoke up, but in a crazed childish and scratchy voice, getting Slithraa's attention.
"You do not protesssst to me or the boy, Sssskales—I am your general, and he isss your massster now; what ever we ssssay, goesssss!" Slithraa immediately snapped back at the Hypnobrai called Skales. Skales was taken back by this, but when Slithraa turned his attention away from Skales, Skales glared at his general.
"Yessss—General," Skales hissed under his breath, and stuck out his snake tongue in anger.
Back in Jamanikai Village, where the ninja had just recently had there encounter with Lloyd, the sun was out and the people were happy now that Lloyd and his tricks and demanding of candy were around anymore.
Surprisingly, Nya and Kate were in the village now, and Nya still wore her bandages, and Kate never left without her bow and quiver full of arrows. As Nya and Kate just walked through the village, they were chatting.
"So, why are we here again?" asked Kate.
"Well, we're here for two reasons, one: we never get to have a girls' time out together," Nya replied.
"True," Kate cut in before Nya could continue.
"And two: I wanted to see what the trouble here was, Kai gave me a call on his cell phone, and said there was no trouble, it was just some boy with a can of worms trying to steal candy," Nya continued. Kate scoffed.
"Oh boy, what an idiot—at least I have sticky fingers," Kate said with a grin.
"Say what?" Nya quickly asked.
Suddenly, as if to prove her point, Kate grabbed out Nya's flip phone from behind her back. Nya stopped in her tracks, and Kate did too as she shot Nya a grin and shook the phone in her hand. Nya snatched her phone back from Kate and put it away and both girls continued walking.
"You little snake," Nya sighed with a grin.
Suddenly, just ruining the funny moment, some cries of terror were heard not too far from the girls. Just a few yards ahead at the out skirts of the town, people were seen running and screaming from something approaching the village. Nya and Kate gasped when they saw Lloyd with a bucket of candy in his hand, and they were especially surprised to see the Hypnobrai tribe behind the boy. Nya looked around in panic.
"Quick, back here," Nya said quietly to not get the approaching Serpentine's attention, and Kate had no choice whether or not to follow Nya because Nya grabbed Kate's arm and dragged her into an ally to hide. Once Nya let go, Kate grabbed her arm that Nya yanked in pain.
"Ow, what were you trying to do, yank my shoulder out of its socket?" Kate asked angrily, but Nya didn't answer because she was too busy looking around the corner of the ally to make sure they were followed by the Serpentine.
"Shhh!" Nya hushed Kate when she turned to look at the preteen girl, "you go back out there and protect any villagers from those, uh, 'things'—I'm going to call Kai and tell him and the ninja to come here," Nya said as she grabbed out her phone.
"How do you expect me to fight away all those snake humanoids?" asked Kate.
"I don't care, use your bow and arrows if you have to, just go!" Nya demanded.
Kate took her bow from her shoulders and loaded it with an arrow head soon after, and she made her way from the ally. As Kate made her way carefully out into the open and towards the Serpentine, she spotted and elderly woman and a young girl huddled together on the ground due to a Hynobrai soldier towering over and hissing at them. Kate aimed at the Hypnobrai, and eventually shot the arrow. The arrow head flew through the air, and soon impaled the snake humanoid right in the head, the arrow even coming out of the other side of the snakes head. Of course, the snake instantly died and collapsed. Kate approached the old lady and the little girl while loading another arrow head.
"Are you alright, ma'am?" asked Kate.
"Y-yes, t-thank you so much," the lady whimpered, and continued to whimper until Kate cut in.
"Ok, it's ok, now get up and get to safety, both of you, now," Kate demanded and beckoned the two with her bow to get up. Eventually, the two civilians got up and ran off, but the old lady look back one last time at Kate and noticed a Hypnobrai approaching her with his fangs and claws bared.
"Oh, look out!" the little girl cried out before the old lady could.
Kate immediately took action and drew the arrow back as far as she could right as she whipped herself around just in time, but also causing the Hypnobrai to notice the arrow head aimed at himself and his hood drooped as he began to slide on his back side as if he were at a base ball game. The snake stopped sliding and was just inches away from Kate. The Hypnobrai was so scared he couldn't even find himself to hypnotize Kate.
"You know, God can't look upon sin—which means he probably can't look upon you either," Kate said with a glare. The snake closed his eyes tight and began to sob softly, "but if I killed another of your kind, He wouldn't want to look upon me either," Kate said, still scowling at the snake. The snake opened his eyes, and dared himself to look at Kate.
"Get up, and don't come back, you here me?!" Kate exclaimed, the snake nodded rapidly, and immediately scampered back to his tribe members, "go cower back to whatever hell hole you crawled out of," Kate grumbled.
Meanwhile, back with Lloyd and the Serpentine, Lloyd was smiling down at his giant bucket full of candy, and General Slithraa and Skales trailing behind Lloyd.
"General Sssslithraa, you're letting a boy usssse usssss to sssteal sweetsss?" asked Skales.
"If I have to tell you again, Sssskales—I'll make you wish you never hatched," Slithraa replied while still slithering and not looking at Skales, making him intimidating.
"A Hypnobrai can hypnotize itsssself, but one Hypnobrai can't hypnotize another Hypnobrai," Skales grumbled under his breath and shook his head in aggravation.
"Masssster, are you pleasssed with the candy amountsss we have helped you gather?" Slithraa asked Lloyd.
"Yeah, I'm very pleased, my slave, so keep it up," Lloyd replied. Lloyd then looked up from his candy and looked at Kate once, who was still standing in the open with her bow, but not loaded, but then Lloyd did a double take.
When Lloyd got a full good look at Kate, his red eyes went wide and his mouth agape. Slithraa looked at Lloyd, confused to what he was looking at, but when he followed Lloyd's gaze and saw Kate too, realization hit him.
"Massster Lloyd, if you wish, I can have my Hypnobrai capture her, sssso you can make her your mate," said Slithraa. This snapped Lloyd out of his trance, and he panicked for a moment.
"Mate?! I-I never said anything about love!" Lloyd exclaimed, but then he calmed himself, "I-I just think she's pretty," Lloyd admitted softly as he began to make a goofy smile while looking at Kate again.
"Hmm, asssss you wish, Massssster Lloyd, but jussst give ussss the word when you want her," said Slithraa.
"Yeah, whatever," Lloyd said while brushing Slithraa off, and he stopped in his tracks just to admire Kate some more.
Meanwhile, with Kate not noticing she was being checked out by Lloyd, she gasped.
"I can't see my next target," Kate said to herself as she reached for an arrow head and eventually loaded her bow with the arrow, and she looked right at Lloyd, "but I know it's right there," Kate continued softly as she drew her arrow back and aimed it right at Lloyd. Lloyd didn't notice Kate looking at him or the arrow aimed at him, but Slithraa did, and he wasn't going to give up on protecting his master.
"Massster, watch out!" Slithraa exclaimed.
"What?" was all Lloyd could say before he turned his head to look at Slithraa, but the arrow was just shot as well.
Slithraa acted fast as he snatched Lloyd's bucket of candy, resulting in the candy spilling, and put the bucket in front of Lloyd's face, which was where the arrow was headed. Lady Luck was on Lloyd's side at the moment as the arrow pierced the bucket, and no one was impaled. Lloyd gasped at the arrow in the bucket, and then he shot a glare at Kate.
"You nearly killed me!" Lloyd snapped. Hearing Lloyd's voice, since she couldn't see him, made Kate's face soften and made her lower her bow.
"Wait, you don't sound like one of them!" Kate called to Lloyd.
"Of course I don't, I'm a kid like you!" Lloyd yelled back, and Kate realized she almost struck down a human, so she gasped.
Suddenly a deep and loud ear piercing roar was heard throughout the village, causing everyone there to cover their ears. The roar came from Rocky, meaning the ninja have just arrived on their dragons a second time at the village. The four boys hopped off their dragons, their golden weapons ready, and ran towards the Serpentine tribe.
"Guys, I know we said they didn't exist, but I'm pretty sure we're running right towards the Serpentine," said Jay.
"Yeah, if that's not a Serpentine, I don't know what is," Cole added.
"Actually, none of you are wrong, they are the only things that can be classified as the ancient Serpentine," Zane added once more while thinking logically.
"Guys, can't we just call these things a bunch of snake humanoids, keep it at that, and fight?!" Kai exclaimed, but no one was able to answer, because by the time Kai finished talking, the boys were in combat with the Hypnobrai.
Cole used the Scythe of Quakes to cut a large wound across the torso Hypnobrai warrior he was fighting. The snake hissed in pain and clutched his wound with his arm and tried to run back to the other Serpentine, but Cole didn't let this one get away, so he took the scythe and cut the snake all the way down his back. Blood splattered from the snake humanoid as he fell to the ground, now breathing his last rasping breaths.
Lloyd, Slithraa, and Skales, were only a few yards away while watching what Cole did to the Hypnobrai.
"Retreat!" Skales called to the other Serpentine before his Master Lloyd or his General Slithraa had a say to anything, and the other Hypnobrai fled away from the village. The ninja cheered as they saw their new enemy flee. Kate wasn't cheering, she was scowling at Slithraa, who was now also cowering away with Lloyd close by his side.
"If I could kill one of their warriors, then I can at least injure their leader," Kate said as she grabbed out yet another arrow head and loaded her bow, drawing all the way back.
"Kate, what are you doing?!" Jay called to Kate, but Kat didn't take her blind eyes off Slithraa.
Kate also didn't answer, she immediately let the arrow fly, but the arrow flew a little bit low. Kate didn't want to kill again, so she aimed not at the head, or the back, but in the section where Slithraa's human like body met his long snake tail. The arrow head soon pierced the lower regions where Slithraa's tail was, and Slithraa grunted in pain and stopped in his tracks, and though he now stood hunched over, he still stood. Lloyd stopped running too, and looked worriedly at Slithraa. Slithraa used his golden snake staff to keep himself up as Lloyd rushed to his aid.
"I'm fine—you are ssstill my masssster, ssso I am ssstill willing to protect you—let'ssss go!" Slithraa replied, and Lloyd kept moving, but not without letting Slithraa lean on him as he slithered on, but not too fast.
Meanwhile, back with the ninja, the girls, and the villagers, the villagers started to emerge from their homes or hiding spots after the Hypnobrai left, and the ninja and the girls walked over to the dragons to leave the village.
"I still can't believe that runt was able to get those Serpentine to follow his lead," Kai complained.
"Who?" Kate asked, confused about who Kai was talking about.
"It was the same boy, Lloyd, who made our first trip here worthless—guess he's actually smart enough to get his own slaves to do his pointless work," Kai replied.
"He's also Lord Garmadon's son—at least that's our theory," Jay added.
"I didn't know Garmadon had an heir," said Nya.
"That's what we said when we heard the brat rambling on about him being the son of Garmadon," said Cole.
"Which means I almost killed not just a human—but also almost the son of the possible future dark lord of Ninjago," Kate said with wide.
"Hey," Cole said as he nudged Kate in the arm, getting her attention, "I kind of wish you did, sure he's young, like your age I think, but he was willing to use a dangerous snake humanoid army to do anything just to make them do the kid's pointless plans—even if it meant them killing a few innocent people," said Cole.
"But killed or not, you did the right thing, Kate," Zane said softly.
"Yeah, I guess you're all right," Kate said in defeat.
"Of course we are, now because we were called back here, we didn't get to finish our race, so it's still on," Jay said with a grin as he and the others finally approached the dragons.
"By the way, how did you get here before we did—unless you two grew wings or something," said Kai.
"I called a friend, and had her drive us here," Nya replied.
"Since when did Ninjago step into the modern world?" asked Cole as he mounted Rocky.
"Actually, I believe it was-," Zane began, but Cole cut him off.
"That was a rhetorical question," Cole cut in flatly.
Soon Kai, Zane, and Jay began to mount their dragons too. Jay made a goofy grin as he offered a hand down to Nya so she could ride with Jay on Wisp. Kai noticed Jay trying to flirt with Nya and scowled at this. Kai was about to go and yell at Jay, but Kate stepped in his way and stopped him.
"Maybe give Nya this chance," Kate said softly. Kai inhaled and exhaled.
"Alright fine. Nya's just been through too much already, I don't want her to go through more. I want her to stay protected," Kai said in defeat as he mounted Flame. Kai watched as Nya got on Wisp and sat behind Jay, eventually wrapping her arms around Jay's waist. But the whole time, Kate wasn't staring at anything in particular as she had a sad expression.
"Yeah," Kate said as she finally turned her head to look at the others, "and now with you being part of the ninja team, the guys are like your family too, and so is Wu—I can see why you would want them protected, and for all of them to live a long and happy life," Kate continued, but in a sad tone, and even a small tear rolled down her cheek. Kate turned her face back towards Kai, and Kai noticed her depressed look.
"You ok?" asked Kai. Kate rubbed the tear away and shook her head.
"Yeah, I'm fine—just remembering a bad dream from last night," Kate replied.
"Oh, well, ok, and you can ride with me if you want," Kai aid as he extended a hand to Kate, and she gladly took it and sat behind Kai on Flame.
"Come on guys, I'm still going to beat you all back to the monastery!" Cole exclaimed with a smile as Rocky stood up and was ready to run.
"Uh, yeah, you are, we still don't like your cooking!" Jay exclaimed to Cole as his dragon, Wisp, and the other two dragons, Flame and Shard began lift off. The others laughed at Jay, except for Cole.