Chapter 13 – What am I?
Cole and Zane has climbed up the stairs and were just now above the clouds around the mountain.
"I…hate…The Mountain…of a Million Steps," Cole said between heaving breaths.
"I am not tired, and I know you can continue, as well," said Zane.
"I always hate it when you're right," Cole growled. After more heaving and trumping up the steps, Cole and Zane arrived at the top. The top of the mountain had big rock spikes surrounding it, and inside the spikes was a big hole that lead into the mountain. Cole grabbed out his golden Scythe of Quakes, and pointed the blade horizontally at the spiky rocks. Cole closed his eyes, and lifted his scythe quickly, but then he lowered it slowly. And at the movement of the scythe, a path to the hole was being cut in the rock right before their eyes. When the path was cut to the ground, Cole opened his eyes and put his scythe away.
"Nicely done," Zane complimented. Cole said nothing as he and Zane walked through the cut and up to the whole. But they were greeted to see that a rope was tethered to a spiky rock as the rest of the rope was swaying down in the deep dark hole.
"Something tells me Pythor has already been here," said Zane.
"Really? I didn't know, Captain Obvious," Cole said sarcastically, "come on, let's get down there to see if we can find anything," Cole said as he dropped down to the edge of the hole, gabbed the rope and began to slide down slowly into the hole, and Zane followed Cole. The whole was many yards deeps, and when the boys got to the bottom, there was nothing but darkness. Cole and Zane looked around, but when Zane looked down on the concrete ground they were standing on, he gasped.
"Cole, look," Zane said as he walked back a bit. Cole looked down and his eyes went wide as he stepped back too. It was the symbol of constriction engraved into the ground.
"This symbol—it means constriction. I sense that this tribe is a very strong one," said Zane.
Suddenly deep and echo like hisses were heard in the tomb.
"You hear that?" Cole whispered. Cole and Zane were on alert as they looked around. Suddenly, behind Cole, a human sized hole burst open from the ground, and a Serpentine shot out from it, Cole was able to dodge the snake, causing the serpent to lunge forward and crash onto the ground, but then he whipped around at Cole and Zane.
He was a tribe general, and out of all the Serpentine tribe generals, his tail was the longest, but he was also the shortest, he had a very bulky body and head. He had a boa snake like appeared since almost his entire body was covered in black scales. He had glowing yellow eyes with black slit pupils. He had a short, bulky, yet curved horn on his nose, and had larger horns starting at the back of his head and leading down his back, he had grey and dark orange scale designs on his torso and head, and he had bulkier fangs than usual. He had ribbed biceps, and his arms were almost shorter than most, and his massive clawed hands and arms were covered in black scales.
The snake lunged forward again, and unlucky for the two ninja, he was able to get a hold of them. He grabbed Cole with his tail and wrapped it tightly around Cole's throat, and he grabbed Zane's throat tightly with his claws, and he lifted both men off the ground so their feet weren't touching the ground. Cole struggled to get out of the black serpent's tail grip around his neck as he coughed from being choked. The snake looked into Cole's eyes and chuckled darkly.
"You idiotsss should be ssssmarter than thisss to come into the Constrictai'ssss domain," he said in a deep, muscular voice.
"Go to Hell," Cole spat in a strained tone.
"Where do you think my kind came from? And where elssssse do you think I'm going to send your ssssssoul to?" the snake asked darkly, "look into my eyesss—I, Sskalidor, want to ssssee you die," the black snake, called Skalidor, hissed as he squinted while looking into Cole's emerald eyes.
Cole stared into Skalidor's eyes with no choice, and then his eyes rolled into the back of his head, as his arms dropped and his breath began to fade away. Soon Skalidor grinned at Cole's motionless body as he dropped him carelessly to the ground. Skalidor turned and glared at Zane.
"You're next," Skalidor growled.
"I hate it when I am always right, too," Zane sighed with fear. And Skalidor began to tighten his grip on Zane's throat. Zane closed his eyes with worry as he waited for the pain of being choked. But Zane was not gasping for breath, no matter how hard Skalidor was squeezing his neck, so he opened his silver eyes.
"I don't need oxygen," Zane breathed with wide eyes. Zane got angry, and so he acted fast by just leaning his head down to Skalidor's arm and bit it pretty hard.
"Ow!" Skalidor shouted as he dropped Zane and let him go. Zane rushed over to Cole, who still wasn't moving.
"Pythor had an ambush planned for you two, sssso I'll tell you that your other friendsssss are being lead into a trap too," Skalidor said angrily. Zane only glared at Skalidor as the black snake general hissed harshly and dove back into the hole he came out of, literally. Zane's face saddened when he looked at Cole's lifeless body.
"Cole?" Zane said Cole's name softly, but Cole didn't do anything. Zane gently placed two fingers on Cole's neck to check for a pulse, and then he sighed with relief seconds lets, meaning Cole still had a pulse.
"Thank goodness, you're still alive," Zane sighed, and then looked up at the rope, "oh, but it won't be easy to carry you back up there," Zane said sadly.
Jay and Kai were literally hopping from branch to branch above the burning acid bogs.
"You think that's the tomb?" Kai asked as he took a breath and spotted the fattest tree in the bogs sitting on a small piece of land.
"Only one way to find out," Jay replied. Jay and Kai continued to hop across the branches until they were in the big tree, and carefully climbed down it. When they were on solid ground, they realized there was big rock door that opened up to a dark tunnel in the tree's trunk.
"Shoot, Pythor beat us to it," Kai hissed. Kai lost interest and looked around the place and even began to walk around the tiny piece of land, while Jay was staring into the tunnel.
"Hello?!" Jay exclaimed into the tunnel in a sing song voice with smile, and he heard his words echo.
"How are you?!" Jay exclaimed, only to hear his voice echo back to him again. Jay got angry.
"Copy cat!" Jay called into the tunnel and his words echoed again. Jay thought for a moment at what to say next.
"I'm an idiot!" yelled Jay. But Jay didn't hear his echo. When a few more seconds went by, he heard his voice echo back to him and say: "Idiot!"
"Alright fine, but now that I'm whispering, I won't be able to hear you copy me," Jay whispered.
Seconds past.
"Idiot!" Jay heard his voice exclaim to him from the tunnel again, which made Jay's eyes go wide.
"Uh, Kai, wait for me!" Jay exclaimed. As he ran from the tunnel's entrance and met up with Kai.
"I don't get it, there's no one here," Kai said as he looked around. As Kai and Jay examined the area, they didn't notice the over-sized snake like motion in the toxic green liquids swimming ever so stealth like towards them. Kai walked up to the edge of the island, but he didn't notice the little frog sitting on a small clump of green algae. The frog croaked loudly, scaring Kai and making him jump, but when Kai saw the frog, he laughed awkwardly.
"You scared me little guy, so please don't do that aga-," Kai began as he smiled at the frog, but he stopped talking when the algae the frog was sitting on moved. It was actually a green scaled Serpentine head the frog was sitting on.
The snake had long green scaled arms and black scaled clawed hands, and so he reached a clawed hand and snatched the frog from the top of his head. The snake smiled evilly at the innocent frog, and so he put the rather plump frog between his jaws and big down on it hard with his fangs. The frog let out one last strained croak, and then the serpent threw his head back and swallowed the frog whole. Kai was horrified at the moment.
"Poor frog," Kai whimpered.
The snake jumped out of the green swamp liquid, and Kai jumped back as he got a good look at him. This snake was also a tribe general, with his long tail. Unlike the other snakes, he had four eyes, two on each side of his snake face, and his eyes were yellow with black slit pupils. He was about a foot taller than Kai, too. His body was covered in dark green scales, and he had yellow, orange and red scaled designs on his head, back and torso. He had fairly large fangs, as well. He also had six horns on top of his head, three on each side, and even two large inward curved horns on his cheeks. The snake had a head somewhat shaped like a Hypnobrai, with a pointed snout, and a very short green hood.
"Too bad you'll end up jusssst like that frog—killed by me: Acidicusssss," the green snake general, Acidicus, hissed. Suddenly Acidicus opened his mouth, and a spear of light green venom shot from his mouth, and towards Kai's face. Unlucky for Kai, Kai wasn't prepared for the venom, so it landed right in his brown eyes. Kai screamed in pain as he rubbed his eyes. Acidicus chuckled at Kai's pain, and when Kai took his hands away from his eyes, the whiteness in Kai's eyes changed into a sickening green color that surrounded his brown irises. Jay ran over to Kai.
"Hey Kai, I heard screaming, you ok?" Jay asked, but he skidded to a halt when he saw Acidicus, and began to back up. But Jay suddenly backed up into someone, and he turned to see it was a Serpentine.
The snake had green, black, yellow and red scale designs, so it's most likely he and Acidicus were the same kind of Serpentine. He had a vine strap tied over his shoulder that had small curved bottles of a mysterious red liquid tethered to the vine. This snake had no horns atop his head like Acidicus, but he did have a very large light green scaled hood, shaped like a Hypnobrai's, but he also had four eyes like Acidicus. The hooded green snake hissed as he raised his arms and claws at Jay.
Jay was so scared, that, even though he didn't know it, that through his veins a black liquid was traveling through his body and made its way to Jay's heart, and his heart pumped the black liquid faster through Jay's body.
Time started to slow down as Jay's hand began to become covered in dark green scales, and his fingernails became long sharp claws. Jay threw his transformed hand behind him, so that he could thrash it forward towards the snake in front of him. And when Jay swung his claws, he struck at one of the snake's four yellow eyes, causing it to fly right out of its socket. The snake cried in such pain from losing one of his eyes, and as things sped up again, his eye just flew through the air and bounced away. Jay was shocked, he was panting while he was staring at the snake as the green serpent held his claws to his wound while blood was seeping from his eye socket and through his hands. Jay stared at the green serpent for another moment before he stared at his hand, the one that struck the snake's eye. And when Jay looked at his hand, he caught a quick glimpse of black and green scales on his hand, but then they quickly faded away and returned back to his skin. Jay grabbed his once morphed hand by the wrist.
"Oh no," Jay whimpered. Jay slowly looked back up at the snake he injured, but at the same time, the green snake slowly turned his face back to look at Jay. And what Jay saw was nothing but gore written all over the snake's face.
The snake removed his claws, revealing his snarling and bared fangs, and especially the open and bloody eye socket on the top right corner that was on the snake's face, and that used to have an eye. The serpent let out a loud and blood curdling hiss combined with a growl. Jay then whimpered as he flashed a sheepish smile at the snake.
"You will regret ever hurting one of ussss," the snake hissed at Jay.
"And, what kind are you, exactly?" Jay asked awkwardly.
"The Venomarai!" the snake yelled at Jay. He then began to creep his bipedal, clawed legs towards toward Jay, and whip his dark green scaled tail as well.
"Uh, Jay, a little help, here!" Kai exclaimed worriedly as he ran while stumbling up to Jay, his eyes still a toxic green color,
"I can't see! I'm blind, and I'm not joking!" Kai whimpered. Acidicus was slithering quickly toward Kai and Jay. Suddenly, a tall lavender colored Serpentine with a long tail slithered dramatically out onto the scene and slithered toward the injured Venomarai snake, it was Pythor.
"Oh, that is one big snake," Jay whimpered as he stared wide eyed in fear at Pythor.
"Where? Where? I don't see it!" Kai asked rapidly as he looked anxiously around, and Jay ignored him.
"Hmm, as much as they desssserve it, don't waste your blinding venom on them, just—sssscar them for life," Pythor said as he looked at the Venomarai beside him and at Acidicus, making both the Venomarai grin evilly at Kai and Jay.
"Oh man," Jay whimpered.
"What? What's happening?!" Kai asked anxiously.
"This must be the 'Pythor' guy Lloyd was babbling about," Jay said to himself.
"Pythor? Where? I don't see him!" Kai said impatiently.
But suddenly, a whistling sound, as if something had been shot, came from the distance. And the source of the noise was coming from a tranquilizing dart that was shooting from the trees and was heading right toward Pythor, but no one noticed at first. But before anyone said anything, the dart impaled Pythor's elongated neck.
Pythor winced and then yanked the dart out of his neck, but when he saw what it was, he gasped.
"Alright, so we can't win thisssss battle, so retreat," Pythor said to Acidicus and the other Venomarai snake beside him. The two green Serpentine nodded and rushed back to the green liquids in the bogs, and dove in and disappeared into the acid pools. And before anything else happened, a massive object landed right behind Pythor, making a big THUD and also making Pythor and the red and blue ninja get thrown a few inches off the ground from the heavy impact.
The object was a giant metallic red samurai robot, with samurai like metal armor features and a helmet, and golden claw hands, and walked on two large legs. The cockpit was located in the torso of the red samurai robot, but a large piece of metal, that looked like could open and close, blocked off any visuals of the driver of the robot. Pythor shook as he quickly turned to look at what was behind him, and when he saw the robot, he shrieked in fear.
"Serpentine detected—activate Termination Mode," the robot said in a very low, electronic and robotic voice. And with a few shudders from the gadgets inside the robot, the machine reached one of its clawed hands for Pythor.
But Pythor was quick to react and dodged the hand, soon after, he slithered between the legs of the tall red machine and slithered rapidly and out of sight. The samurai robot soon looked at Kai and Jay.
"Am I hearing things?" asked Kai.
"Hey, thanks dude, I'm Jay. And, who are you?" Jay asked the robot with a smile. But the robot said nothing, for he only lifted one of his hands so that his metallic palm was facing Kai and Jay.
"Uh…" Jay said as his smile went away.
And suddenly a whole opened up in the robot's hand, and within the blink of an eye, two tranquilizing darts shot out from the robot's hand and immediately shot after Kai and Jay, afterwards, one of the two would pierce either Kai and Jay in the shoulders.
"Ouch!" Jay and Kai both exclaimed at once, and they pulled the darts out of them quickly.
"What the hell is wrong with you?!" Jay asked angrily.
"We shall meet again," the robot simply said, and with that, rocket boosters on the bottom of the robot's feet were activated, and the red samurai robot blasted away.
"Hey, come back here!" Jay called after the robot.
"Hey Jay, you ever get that weird feeling where the room is getting dark and you're going down?" Kai asked sleepily as he waved a pointed finger around and looked at nothing in particular as he wobbled around. But then Kai just dropped sleepily to the ground face first. After that, Jay's eyes started to become dilated and he gave a goofy smile.
"Yeah, yeah, I do, and I see pixies and pies everywhere, just floating, it's, like, 3-D—I'm gonna die," Jay mumbled as he wobbled around too, and at the last word, he just dropped to the ground too, right next to Kai. But just as Jay's eye lids were about to close, loud and low flapping noises were heard as strong winds swept through the area, and just when Jay's eyes fully closed, there was a loud and familiar roar. But then all was dark and quiet.
It was dark over the desert where Destiny's Bounty, but Jay was sleeping alone in the ninjas' room in his bed. Suddenly Jay woke up and immediately sat up, only for him to hit his head on the ceiling with a THUD, since he had a top bunk bed.
"Ugh, head throbbing," Jay moaned and got out of his bed without even bothering to climb down the bunk bed's ladder. Jay trudged over to the bedroom door that was left open and walked down the halls, until he got to the lit up computer room where everyone was.
"What are you all doing in here?" Jay asked sleepily. Everyone then noticed Jay, and Jay saw the worried expressions on their faces.
"Uh, how long have I been out?" Jay asked with a little worry.
"Eh, for about a year, I think," Cole replied, but with a grin. Jay's eyes popped wide and he squeaked.
"Cole, stop scaring him—you've only been unconscious for a few hours, Jay," Nya said as she glared at Cole, but then smiled at Jay, "lucky for you and Kai, Flame flew in and took you back here—e-even if she caused the bogs to blow up afterwards," Nya said with a sheepish chuckle. That made Jay sigh in such relief.
"Ok, and Kai, did you tell them about that robot dude?" asked Jay.
"Yeah, I did, and I'm so not happy with the guy; sure, he came in and saved us from the snakes, but then he shoots us with tranquilizing darts, I mean, who does that?" Kai said angrily.
"Well, maybe he wanted to keep his identity a secret, that's what super heroes do," Nya pointed out.
"True, but he wasn't a super hero, he was some samurai robot," Kai protested.
"Well, I couldn't care less about all that stuff now, 'cause I'd hate to miss out on everyone's birthday while I was unconscious," Jay said with a smile.
"Yeah well, the only thing I'd rather not miss out on is birthday cake—or any cake for that matter, right Zane?" Cole said with a smile, and elbowed Zane gently. But even though Zane was sitting right next to Cole, he was completely zoned out, and didn't listen to anything. When Cole noticed Zane wasn't responding, and turned to look at Zane with concern.
"Hey buddy, you alright?" asked Cole. At this, everyone looked at Zane and looked at him worriedly. Seconds of silence passed.
"I didn't need oxygen," Zane said softly, breaking the silence, and not looking at anyone.
"What was that?" Wu asked out of curiosity. Zane sighed before replying.
"When Cole and I faced the Constrictai general, Skalidor, he had Cole and I in a death grip; he choked Cole until he thought Cole was dead, but he wasn't, luckily—but when he tried to kill me in a choking grip—I couldn't be choked," Zane explained with sorrow.
"Um, how can you not choke?" Kai asked, his eyes not staring at anything in particular since his eyes were still green, and he was still blind from the Venomarai venom.
"Yeah, and I'm not following, you're making this sound like a bad thing," Lloyd added.
"That's because it is bad!" Zane snapped while shooting everyone a glare, taking them all by surprise, "it could mean I'm not like the rest of you, not at all, and if that means I'm not human, then I don't know what I am!" Zane exclaimed, but not as loud as before.
"Zane, we've been through this before, we're all different, and if you don't like the word 'different,' then try 'unique'," Kate said as she placed a hand on Zane's shoulder. Zane had an angry look as he closed his eyes and sighed as he looked down.
"If none of you will listen to me when I say that I'm different; then believe when I say that I'm just—not the same," Zane said softly.
Suddenly Zane opened his eyes and looked down at his feet, where he placed his golden Shurikans of Ice on the floor. Zane leaned down and picked both of the shurikans up before placing them on the table.
"Zane, what are you-?" Jay began, before Zane cut him off.
"I can't be a part of this team until I know who and/or what I am," Zane said firmly as he stood up and walked passed everyone and up to the door way. Zane stopped in the doorway and slightly turned to look back.
"Goodbye, for now," Zane said softly, and with that, he left. Everyone exchanged sad glances at each other.
"What are we going to do now? We can't work as a ninja team of three," Kai said breaking the silence.
"Sensei, do you think Zane will come back on his own?" Nya asked as she looked at Wu with sad eyes and held the wound on her arm with her hand, and that wound was still wrapped in bandages. Wu's blue eyes were full of sorrow too, as he tapped his fingers on his staff.
"Hmm, I don't know, Zane knows that there is no 'I' in 'team'—but he must have realized that there is an 'I' in 'ninja'," Wu sighed.
But while Wu and Nya were talking, the other three ninja, Lloyd, and Kate were looking at each other. Lloyd and Kate were quietly beckoning the ninja to go after Zane. Cole, Kai, and Jay looked at each other and nodded before they crept out of the room. Seconds later, after the ninja left, Wu and Nya noticed the boys were gone.
"Where did the others go?" Nya asked Lloyd and Kate.
"Eh, they decided to head to some pub joint in Ninjago City; said they wanted to 'get their minds off Zane'," Lloyd replied.
Meanwhile, Zane was outside on the ship's deck while leaning against the rail. The ninja remained a fair distance away from Zane so he wouldn't notice them.
"Ok, obviously the guy stretched the truth when he said he was leaving," Jay whispered.
"Maybe, but we can't meddle into the poor guy's life, it's his life, and he knows what he believes," Cole whispered back.
"Hey, guys look," Jay said as he pointed up. Cole followed his gaze, but Kai didn't since he was still blind.
"Have you forgotten that I'm still blinded by this stupid venom?" Kai whispered harshly, and rubbed his green sore eyes.
"Whatever, but it's a bird, and it's—it's just flying right over Zane," Jay said as he looked above the moping Zane and saw the hawk flying over him, but Zane didn't notice it.
"Wait, didn't Kate say something about her and Zane following a hawk that lead them to the Fangpyre tomb?" Kai pointed out.
"It looks like a hawk to me, maybe it's the same one," Cole added. Suddenly, Zane finally looked up and saw the hawk, and then he surprised the ninja when he left his spot and ran off the deck when the hawk began to fly away, and he ran across the desert to follow the bird.
"Is he serious? He's gonna get himself killed in a desert all because he wanted to follow some winged raptor," Jay said angrily.
"Well then, let's not sit around like a bunch of Jays, let's go after him," Cole said, and he and Kai ran off after Zane, but Jay remained still as he glared at Cole.
"I will have you know that I am very inventive!" Jay called as he finally ran after Cole and Kai.
The Hypnobrai and the Fangpyre tribes remained in the icy tomb of the Hypnobrai. Mezmo, one of the Hypnobrai, walked up to Skales, who was talking with Fangtom, the Fangpyre general.
"General Ssskalessss, we have ssssspotted company heading our way—Sssserpentine company," Mezmo hissed.
"Hmm, sssoundss dire. Fangtom, let'ssss go and talk to them; sssee what they want," Skales replied. Afterwards, Fangtom and Skales slithered out of the icy tomb, and were greeted by Pythor, the Anacondrai general of his deceased tribe, Skalidor, general of the fairly large Constrictai tribe, and also Acidcus, general of the also fairly large Venomarai tribe.
"What are you all doing here—did that blond brat let you all go assss well?" Skales asked darkly.
"You could say that, but we come here in peace; all I ask is that we gather all tribes for a meeting," Pythor said in his charming tone.
"Vhen?" Fangtom piped in.
"Immediately," Pythor replied.