Chapter 15 – Jay the serpent
The ninja, including Zane, arrived back at Destiny's Bounty, and everyone was gathered in the computer room.
"…and then killed the queen ant, or whatever," Jay finished explaining.
"A Nindroid?" Nya asked flatly.
"That's so cool, a robot ninja," Lloyd said with smile.
"See Zane, you are too unique to, you know, commit suicide," Kate said sheepishly.
"Yes, I know that now, and until the day of my fate comes, I'm going to make the best of my life with all of you—and I will also bid my father's wishes: to protect those who cannot protect themselves. Because, I may not be human, but I'm also no ordinary machine. I'm just—Zane," Zane said softly with a smile.
"Well said Zane. Now, go make dinner," Kai piped up.
The others laughed, and Zane sighed, but with a smile. But Just before Zane made a step to walk away, a warning sound came from the computer, and the computer screen began to come on and flash red.
"What is that?" asked Kate.
"It's the new Ninjago Monitor system I put in, this computer can hack into any surveillance camera, news channel, or even police scanner that senses danger, and it reports it back to us," Jay explained as he rushed to the computer and pushed the buttons to make it stop.
Suddenly, the computer stopped making a warning noise and stopped flashing red.
"Danger located in Mega Monster Amusement Park. Problem: Serpentine," the computer said in a female robot voice.
"Ooh, cool, amusement park, I'm totally there!" Lloyd cheered.
"Sorry runt, this is a job for ninja," Kai chuckled, making Lloyd stop cheering and shoot Kai a glare.
"Exactly, now get going," Nya pointed out.
With that, the ninja put up their ninja masks, grabbed out their golden weapons and headed out, eventually mounting their dragons and leaving.
"Can't believe he called me 'runt,' I mean, I'm the grandson of the First Spinjitzu Master, and who's he the offspring of, huh?" Lloyd asked angrily.
"A blacksmith," Kate simply replied.
"Exactly," said Lloyd.
"Ahem," Nya cleared her throat while shooting Lloyd a death glare, and Lloyd smiled sheepishly as he looked at Nya, "and what's so bad about being the daughter of a village blacksmith?" Nya asked angrily.
"Uh, sorry, didn't make a list of flaws, goodnight!" Lloyd exclaimed in fear and dashed out of the room.
"Ugh, I don't know how you got the guts to kiss that kid," Nya sighed.
"You know, you're lucky you're the only one that doesn't make me feel neglected because of my sex, or I'd be strangling you right now," Kate said flatly.
"Fair point," Nya replied, "oh, but hey, gotta go and, uh, put some new bandages on the wound here," Nya said quickly and sheepishly as she put her hand gently over her bandages.
"But, you put new bandages on about an hour ago," Kate pointed out with a quirked eye brow. Nya began to panic.
"Well, I still got to put some more Hydrogen Peroxide on it, so goodbye!" Nya said quickly, and left the room before Kate could protest again. Kate turned and looked confused at Wu, who was also in the room, drinking tea.
"What's up with her?" asked Kate.
"I'm not so sure," Wu sighed, and sipped his tea, "but I want to ask you Kate: how good are you with that bow?" Wu asked as he reached for a cube of sugar for his tea.
But Kate quickly took her bow from her shoulders, took an arrow from her quiver, and strung the arrow. In the blink of an eye, Kate shot the arrow and it immediately pierced the small sugar cube in Wu's hand, but it also took the cube with it, as the arrow head impaled the ship's wall. Wu still had his hand in the position when he was just holding the sugar cube. Wu stared at his hand, and then at the pool impaled sugar cube with an arrow through it. Wu chuckled and looked at Kate again.
"You have very good reflexes and accuracy," Wu complemented as Kate relaxed herself and lowered her bow, "oh, and one more thing," Wu began before he took one more sip of tea and set it down, "training begins tomorrow," Wu continued.
A giant and lit up amusement park sat in the middle of a nature like environment; as the night sky filled with the moon and stars blanketed the area. Rides like roller coaters and ferries wheels were alive as their multi-colored were blinking and flashing.
But as many citizens were eating cotton candy and corn dogs in the park, little did they know that scaly danger was emerging just outside the park. A Constrictai, that looked a lot like Skalidor, dug his way out of a whole he just created in the solid earth, and used his clawed hands and clawed bipedal legs to pull himself out of the large hole. Soon, Skales appeared and hung out his hand to the Constrictai. The black snake grabbed Skales' hand and pulled Skales out of the hole, and Skales slithered off with a sneer. Pythor soon appeared in the hole right after Skales, but Pythor ignored the Constrictai, even though he offered a hand to Pythor, and Pythor just slithered out and looked at the amusement park with Skales. Clutched in Pythor's claws was the map, the map of the Four Fang Blades.
"Really, the map sssaid a fang blade wassss located here?" Skales asked as he scowled at the joyful amusement park that he despised.
"I'm not happy either, but at least we can strike fear into more souls at once," Pythor said with an evil look.
"True," Skales admitted, "but how are we, Ssserpentine, jusssst ssssupposssssed to waltz in there?" asked Skales.
"Look, I've never been to an amusement park, but I know for certain that every sssap who goessss there will fall for about anything, even costumes—costumes like thessssse," Pythor hissed with a grin as he looked at his shimmering violet scales. Skales' red ringed eyes went wide with confusion as he looked at Pythor.
"Cossstumes?"
"Come," Pythor said with beckoned claw as he, Skales and a few other Serpentine from the other tribes, who just emerged from the hole, walked into the large, loud and festive amusement park. The sign in the gate way read in all caps MEGA MONSTER AMUSEMENT PARK.
"Now, most people don't even know we exist, and in this century; they think everything is fake; watch," Pythor whispered to Skales, and the purple snake quickened his slithering and approached a couple of young adults with a young boy. The women was first to notice Pythor, and she had a camera strapped over her neck, so she gasped and smiled when she saw Pythor and the other Serpentine.
"Oh, my gosh, nice costumes. Can we get a photo op with you?" the lady asked as she took her camera off her neck. Pythor quirked an eye brow and looked back at Skales, and Skales nodded at him, and then Pythor looked back at the people in front of him.
"Oh, but of course, and welcome to Mega Monster Amusement Park," Pythor said with a fake friendly smile. The woman handed Skales her camera as the trio and Pythor gathered around for a picture as Skales held up the camera.
"Ssssay cheesssse, everyone!" Skales said enthusiastically.
"Cheese!" they exclaimed as they posed and smiled. Skales took the picture, and the flash was on, so after the picture was taken, Pythor scowled and blinked the brightness out of his purple eyes.
"If you want the photo shipped to you, that'll be ten bucks, extra five for free shipping," the boy piped up after Skales. After the trio left the Serpentine, Skales hissed towards the boy, even though no one noticed.
"Calm yourssself, Skales, after we find the fang blades, they will perish," said Pythor.
"Let'ssss hope sssso," Skales hissed.
Four dragons, the ninjas' dragons, have just arrived outside the lit up colorful amusement park. The four grown men dismounted their dragons.
"Why the heck would something as vial as the Serpentine come here?" Cole asked with anger, "this place is for kids, I don't get it; only an idiot would love this place," Cole sneered.
"I love this place!" Jay exclaimed happily with a big grin on his face.
"I rest my case," Cole sighed.
"Um, it may be too sudden, but my computer knowledge is telling me the Serpentine are looking for an ancient artifact; no doubt to be used for evil," said Zane.
"Dude, you found out you were a machine less than twelve hours ago and you're already using the gadgets in you?" Kai asked with a quirked eyebrow.
"It would appear so," Zane replied.
"Well, delve deep into what you know; we need details here," Jay cut in.
"Well, my knowledge is limited, but what I do know is that the Serpentine most likely have a map to help them find their main objective," Zane explained, "but we, ourselves, might as well throw darts at a map," Zane sighed.
"Or, we could follow the snakes and ambush them," Kai pointed out.
"Good idea, hot-head, now let's go," Cole said and he began to walk towards the park, with the others trailing behind him.
But while Cole, Kai and Zane were walking, they didn't notice Jay stopped as he winced and he clutched a hand to his neck where the two puncture wounds were. Jay grunted softly in pain, and as he did, he jaw hung open, and Jay didn't notice his K-9 teeth start to grow to a long sharp point; like that of a snake's fangs. Jay's eyes popped wide as he licked the two fangs in his mouth and realized that they were fangs.
"Oh no," Jay whimpered, and he quickly pulled his ninja mask over his face.
"Jay?" Zane's voice startled Jay, "what are you doing?" asked Zane.
"Uh, n-nothing, I-I'm coming," Jay stuttered while his voice was a bit muffled by his mask, and he scurried away. Zane quirked an eyebrow at Jay's behavior, but then he just shook his head and continued on as well.
Inside the park, a large group of people were strolling through a fun house with a very scary theme. Scary things like fake vampires in coffins, a Frankenstein, and even robotic mummies were set up in the scary themed fun house. A robotic vampire jumped out of a coffin and made cackling noises as it jumped out at a grown man. The man winced at first, but then he scoffed.
"Man, this place is a rip-off. 'The Purge' is scarier than this dump," the man said flatly. The group of not-so-scared people continued to walk through the fun house until they came up to a large window with the control room of the fun house on the other side.
But the people gawked into the control room when they saw the operator not at the controls, but being strangled to death by a Constrictai Serpentine. The black boa was not alone though; other snakes from the other tribes were with him, and Skales and Pythor were there too. But Pythor was trying to dig his claws into the floor boards and rip the boards from their place, while Skales glared at the people. Skales then turned to the few members of the Constrictai tribe, and then he nodded his head sideways toward the people on the other side of the window.
"Ssssick 'em," Skales hissed. And in the blink of an eye, the Constrictai boas lunged themselves at the window and smashed through, causing glass to shatter everywhere.
Now the people were getting scared and began to scatter in fear as the Constrictai chased them. One Constrictai was chasing a full grown man, and when he caught him, he clutched the man by his shoulders with his claws, as the man whimpered and stared into the snake's yellow eyes. The snake slowly grinned evilly and chuckled darkly as he slowly reached his tail up to the man's neck. The Constrictai wrapped his tail tightly around the man's neck, and suddenly jerked his tail; causing the man's neck to break with a loud SNAP, and the man died instantly. So the black boa humanoid dropped the man to the ground.
Meanwhile, Pythor was still ripping wood boards from the floor. Pythor grunted as he struggled to pull the floor board up, but soon the light reflected off of a shiny object just beneath the floor boards. The light reflected and shined into Pythor's eyes, getting Pythor's attention as he caught the glimpse of the shiny object between the cracks in the floor. Suddenly, a member of the Venomarai tribe approached Pythor and stared down at the board Pythor was clutching. The Venomarai spit some acid venom from his mouth and at the board. When the acid hit the wood, it immediately began to burn the wood; a large hole, big enough to fit a fist through, was being burned into the wood. The acid seeped through, and it dropped onto the shiny object below. Pythor grinned as he reached for the object, and when he pulled it out, he chuckled darkly.
The object he pulled out was a silver blade shaped just like a snake fang, and it had designs carved into the silver blade, and even a slight blue glow emitted from the blade too.
"Behold, brothers: the firsssst Silver Fang Blade," Pythor announced to the Serpentine, and they all hissed in reply.
"So that's what you rodent eaters are after?!" Cole's voice suddenly boomed into the room. The Serpentine were not happy to see the four ninja, masks up and golden weapons bared.
"How dare you?!" Pythor yelled in rage, "get them!" Pythor demanded the other Serpentine in the room, and even the other Constrictai came back to attack as well.
Cole immediately swung his golden scythe at the neck of one of the Constrictai coming up from behind him, and decapitated it. Cole then glared back at Pythor and Skales.
Suddenly, the wall behind Pythor and Skales were smashed by a giant fist. When the dust cleared, a hole in the wall revealed that the fist belonged to the samurai robot, the same one from the toxic bogs.
"You!" Jay exclaimed and glared at the red robot.
"Activating magnet," the robot said in his deep mechanical voice, and with a few whirs from it, it stuck its palm out to face Pythor, and soon the silver fang blade in Pythor's claws was ripped from Pythor's grip, and was pulled towards the magnet in the robot's hand. When the robot had the fang blade in his metal claws, he soon gripped it harder and began to run from the scene.
"No, don't let that metal beast get away, get that blade back, at all costs!" Pythor yelled, and the rest of the Serpentine sprinted after the robot. The robot stopped and tried to activate its rocket boosters in its feet, but sparks and smoke soon emitted from the rockets, and it couldn't blast off.
"A minor malfunction," the robot said, and continued to run from the Serpentine, but the Serpentine's powerful bipedal legs made it quite easy to keep up with the samurai robot. But the ninja were still stuck with Pythor and Skales.
"You!" Skales yelled at Jay, "Fangtom told me about you—have you told your friendssss about 'it'?" Skales asked with an evil grin at Jay.
"Jay, what's he talking about?" Cole asked firmly. Jay didn't respond as he sheepishly reached his hand to his mask and rubbed his hands through the mask where the bite mark on his neck would be. Cole noticed Jay's hand on his neck, so he jerked Jay's hand away and pulled Jay's mask off of his face, revealing the bite marks on his neck
"Jay," Cole began, "why didn't you tell anyone you were bitten?" Cole asked. Kai and Zane saw the marks too and they gasped.
"Becaussssse—I-I didn't want to harm you," Jay said, as his tongue formed into a thin snake forked tongue. When Jay spoke, they also noticed the fangs in his mouth. Suddenly Jay grunted in pain as he clutched his skull with his hands.
"Jay?!" Kai asked with concern.
"The transssssformation is jusssst beginning, sssoon, he won't belong to you, he will be Sssserpentine—and he won't even remember you," Skales explained darkly. Kai cried angrily and wielded his Sword of Fire.
"Silence, you scaly cur!" Kai exclaimed. Kai lunged his golden sword toward Skales, but just when he was about to hit Skales; a dark green scaled, clawed fist came out of nowhere and clutched the blade before it hit Skales.
The three ninja were surprised to see Jay standing there holding the golden blade of Kai's sword and actually grinning at them. Kai took his sword away from Jay. Pythor and Skales grinned at Jay as the dark green scales on his hands began to travel up the skin on his arm, and slowly all of the skin of Jay was becoming scales.
"Jay, please don't fall to the Serpentine," Cole pleaded. Jay grunted and clutched his head again as his smile went away.
"I can't fight it—no matter what happenssss to me—tell Nya I love her," Jay said meekly, "I'm ssssorry," Jay continued, but at the last word, all of his skin was covered in scales, a long dark green tail grew from Jay's back, Jay's legs became clawed bipedal legs, and his blue eyes went thin and looked like evil snake eyes. Jay let out a small hiss before shrieking like a monster.
"We have a new warrior," Skales said to Pythor.
"Good," said Pythor, "you take care of your enemies, while Skales and I go," Pythor instructed Jay, and soon he and Skales slithered away, leaving the three ninja to battle their best friend, Jay.
Jay began to circle the ninja, and the ninja circled Jay to keep away from him. Jay whipped his tail as he scowled and growled at his used-to-be friends.
"What are we going to do, we can't fight, he's a teammate," said Cole.
"No, but we can tie him up and find a cure for him later. Lucky for us, I know how to make an ice bolo," Zane said as he grabbed out a bolo with balls made out of solid ice at the end of the rope. Zane twirled the bolo and threw it at Hay's bipedal legs. Jay couldn't dodge the bolo and the bolo quickly caught Jay's legs, and Jay fell to the ground. Jay shrieked angrily, but Cole rushed over to Jay before he could get up and put his hands together behind his back.
Meanwhile, the Serpentine chasing the samurai robot jumped from the ground and they all piled onto the robot, causing it to fall over. Pythor and Skales just caught up, and they slithered onto the chest of the robot. Pythor opened the cockpit, and hi eyes went wide but he grinned at the driver of the robot.
"Well, well, well—if it isn't the sister of the fire master," Pythor said darkly as he stared down at none other than Nya, sitting in fear in the cock pit. And she wore a metal suit that looked similar to the robot samurai.
"Yes, you are right to be afraid in my presssssence," Pythor said softly to Nya, but then he turned to the other snakes, "she's useless to me, just take the fang blade and go," Pythor demanded.
The Serpentine ripped the Silver Fang Blade from the robot's grip and soon ran out of the park with the fang blade.
"But we will meet again," Pythor whispered to Nya as he lowered a claw to Nya's bandages on her arm, and quickly ripped the bandages with his claws. Pythor chuckled and slithered away with Skales, and all of the Serpentine disappeared back down the hole. But when Pythor clawed at the bandages, Nya winced, and the bandages even slipped from her arm, revealing a pail x shaped scar engraved in her skin.
The ninja caught up to the collapsed samurai robot, and Jay's wrists were tied behind his back, and he was reluctantly walking with the ninja. Nya popped her head out of the robot and the ninja gasped to see Nya.
"Nya?!" Kai exclaimed, "you were the one that shot me with a tranquilizing dart!" Kai continued angrily. Nya got out of the robot and walked up to them.
"I know, I know, I'll explain later, look, I tried to get that fang blade from them, but they stole it back—and where's Jay?" Nya asked.
Her question was answered the hard way when jay suddenly jerked forward and snapped his jaws at Nya, but Cole was bale to hold Jay back. Fear was visible in Nya's wide eyes.
"Is that Jay?" asked Nya.
"Yup, this be your boyfriend alright," Cole replied.
"What happened?" asked Nya.
"We don't know when, but Jay must have been bitten, by the Fangpyre most likely, and he kept the bite hidden—because he said he didn't want to hurt us," Zane explained softly.
"But we're going to take him back to the Bounty and lock him up until we find a cure for him," Kai added. Nya almost began to sob softly at the sight of her loved one turned evil. But Jay noticed Nya's sad behavior, and he cocked his head as he watched her, and his thin black pupils dilated and became a little bit wider. Jay even cooed in curiosity.
Dawn was just barely beginning to crack over the horizon where Destiny's Bounty rests in the desert.
The ninja and Lloyd were asleep in the room they shared, Wu was meditating in his room, and Kate was sleeping in her bed in the room she and Nya shared, but the other bed was empty, and Nya was nowhere to be found.
But Nya was standing in the doorway that lead out to the deck. A cool desert breeze blew through the air as Nya watched a figure that was tied to the ship's mast. It was Jay.
Jay's hands were tied together b chains behind the mast as he sitting against the mast with his head practically buried in his knees. Nya closed her eyes and took in a deep breath before she opened her eyes again and slowly approached Jay. Jay could here Nya's soft footsteps on the deck, so he jerked his head up and bared his teeth. As Nya got closer; Jay only growled and glared at her. Nya stopped when she was a few feet away from Jay as he stared up at her.
"Yes, I know you're angry that I let them tie you up," Nya said and squatted down so she was at the same eye level as Jay, "and I'm sorry," Nya said softly. Jay's growling died down, and he huffed as he continued to scowl at her. Nya closed her eyes, but then she suddenly lunged herself at Jay and wrapped her arms around Jay's neck as she sobbed. Jay winced and growled again.
"You can do what you want to hurt me, or even kill me—but I won't let you go," Nya sobbed, "because I love you," Nya said as her voice began to break. What Nya just said made Jay stop growling and he looked confused. Nya took her face from Jay's shoulder and looked him in the eyes with her tear stained eyes.
"And I don't care if it will hurt—even if it'll be the last; it was still be worth it," Nya said in a shaky voice, and suddenly crashed her lips onto Jay's. Jay was taken back, but he didn't growl, he didn't glare, and he didn't pull away, he just stared wide eyed. Jay's eyes began to roll back into his head, but before his eyes were shut his black slit pupils began to grow wide again; wider than before.
Nya finally pulled away and buried her head in Jay's chest as she continued to sob. There was silence for who knows how long, and Nya and Jay didn't move. But suddenly a pale hand rose and was placed on Nya's head of short black hair. Nya noticed the feeling of a hand, and she shot back, and there sitting in front of her was Jay. But not the snake, evil Jay; the normal Jay, with no tail, scales, bipedal legs, or snake eyes. Nya began to cry tears of joy as she looked into Jay's, normal, blue eyes.
"Jay?" Nya whimpered with a smile.
"Nya," Jay began, "I love you too," Jay said softly, and he and Nya shared a big hug.
"Nya?" Kate's voice was heard, and Jay and Nya stopped hugging and turned to see Kate standing in the doorway. Nya quickly rushed to get Jay's hands free of the chains, and his no longer clawed hands soon slipped from the bundle of heavy chains. Jay and Nya stood up and walked up to Kate, who was wearing a smile on her face.
"I saw everything," Kate said softly.
"But you can't see," Jay said matter-of-factly.
"I know," Kate said as she nodded, "which is why I saw a flash again," Kate explained.
"Why didn't you tell us sooner?" asked Nya. Kate chuckled a bit.
"Because—l'amoiré isn't something you meddle with," Kate replied. That made Jay and Nya smile.
"Now, if' you two love birds will excuse me," Kate began as she leaned down and grabbed her bow and quiver of arrows that were resting unnoticeably on the other side of the wall, "I've got training to do," Kate said as she walked out onto the deck.
"What, this early?" asked Jay.
"Yes, this early, Jay," Wu's voice was heard from the top deck. Everyone looked up to see Wu leaning up against the rail and looking down at the main deck.
"And, it's good to have you back, Jay," Wu said with a smile.