Chapter 21 - Live Bait, Dead Tails

The Jaymobile took them deep into Constrictai territory within a good amount of time. However, if the team of misfists wished to reach the city, and by default the temple, they would be forced to climb up the rocky mountains. Since the task could not be done by the Jaymobile's round wheels, the rest of the way would have to be done on foot. Trudging through the impossible terrain of the Constrictai's country, the ninja tired easily. They were sweaty, stinky, and their bodies were nearly dropping from exhaustion. All of them except for Zane that is. The robot urged everyone forward, using key phrases to keep them motivated.

When Cole began to slow, Zane would scowl. "You're supposed to be as tough as earth? If you were, you would easily conquer this land."

The merchant's pride would spark up with these words. A bit of his strength would be recovered, and he would move ahead of the team again.

When Kai's breathing grew hard, Zane would shake his head. "You will not be able to beat Pythor. Not if you cannot reach the Constrictai temple to begin with."

The blacksmith's anger would flame up inside him. This would give him enough strength to go on without encouragement for a couple of hours.

When Jay stopped moving, Zane would sigh. "I do not know if we will be able to save Nya at this pace..."

The puppeteer's love would engulf him. That one phrase had been enough to fuel him for the rest of the climb.

And when it came to Lloyd, Zane would push him forward. "You're the Golden Master, Lloyd. You have a great responsibility. You cannot be allowed the luxury to rest."

Lloyd would whimper, forcing himself forward even though everything inside of him shook. His body didn't have the strength of the others, but his stubborn mind was enough to keep him from falling behind. He wasn't going to mess up. Not again.

Whether the duration of the climb actually lasted for hours, or if it had just felt that way, they could not be entirely sure. Kai knew the last thing he wanted was for Zane to actually disclose that information, so he kept his mouth shut. As the blacksmith felt his bare hands grip the rough edge of where the mountain plateaued slightly, relief overwhelmed him. They were halfway through with meticulously collapsing the strength of the country. Just a little bit longer and they could go save Nya. When Kai's feet finally rested firmly against the ground, he collapsed.

"Whoa now, buddy," came Jay's voice. Hands gripped Kai under his arms and lifted him back onto his feet. The blacksmith glanced back at his friend and gave a small smile. "We're all tired. If I don't get to rest, you certainly don't get to rest," the puppeteer continued to joke, giving Kai a hard pat on the back. Turning his attention towards the area in front of them, Jay squinted against the intense light of the descending sun and noticed that the temple seemed barren. "Where are all the guards? You know, with the stabbing spears and stuff?"

Zane finally got himself up and over the edge of the cliff-side, happy to have brought up the rear. "The Constrictai do not normally get visitors or, rather, assailants here. There is normally not a need to guard the outer perimeter. Unfortunately, that does mean that there are quite a few guards inside the actual structure." The android caught Lloyd giving him a nervous look, but he refrained from addressing it. "Though stealth is usually the best option in these types of situations, I am not sure how well it would actually work in our favor this time around."

"Well, what are we planning to do?" Cole chimed in, breathing in the thinned air that surrounded them. "If we can't necessarily be sneaky, how are we going to take this staff?"

"We can't sneak. We can't jump out in the open. We can't waltz in and nicely ask for the staff," Jay sighed. "It's hopeless. Let's just go get Nya!"

"No, Jay." Cole shook his head, rubbing his temples. "We just have to think."

"If we could figure out the Constrictai's weak point, maybe we'd have enough of an advantage to get to the staff..." Kai paced around, trying to clean the numbness away from his tired muscles. "But those snakes are pure strength. I've heard they can snap a man's body in half with one flick of their tails..."

Jay nodded. "That's true. I've seen 'em do it. I was putting up my show at one of their cities, and they caught a thief and...well, one second he was whole and the next he wasn't."

"That's gross...and that could have been you," Kai shuddered. "You were that close to them and you saw them do that and you still set up your little show?"

Jay shrugged. "I'm okay, aren't I?"

"You're just unbelievably lucky."

Lloyd wasn't listening. His mind was still frozen upon Kai's first words. If we could figure out the Constrictai's weak point. That was the key, and Lloyd knew exactly where to find that key. He fumbled for his satchel, pulling out his heavy golden book. "H-hey, Zane. You said this book contained the Serpentine's weaknesses didn't you?"

"Indeed, I did," the android stated, holding out a single hand towards the Golden Master. Lloyd slowly gave his prized possession over to his friend and watched him carefully leaf through the pages, feverishly scanning every single word with unimaginable speed. After only a minute, Zane snapped the heavy book shut, startling his companions, before giving it back to Lloyd who looked more than grateful. "Constrictai are virtually indestructible," he started, hearing the others groan hopelessly in response. "This does not mean that they are impervious to everything though. Despite having their versatile and strong tails, they have developed a weak immune system as a species over time."

Jay chuckled lightly. "So, are we gonna sneeze on them and give them the sniffles?" Just the thought of watching the heartless Serpentine attacking townspeople with runny noses put a smile on his face.

Shaking his head, Zane stopped Jay's train of thought as soon as he recognized the expression on his face. "Not quite," he answered, attempting to think of how to better explain himself. "There is a plant that grows sparse among the dry climate here in this kingdom. It is called the lathyrus sativus and the seeds that the bulbs produce can be poisonous when consumed or touched." This immediately caught everyone's undivided attention, so the android promptly continued with his plan. "I can vaguely recall Pythor mentioning something about the plant before, now that I am really searching through my memories. He wanted them all picked and stored...here, in the temple."

"Whoa, whoa," Cole scoffed, raising an eyebrow. "Why would the Constrictai keep something that could be used against them in an important place like this?"

"It is the best place to grow it," Zane explained. "And Pythor demands it. In humans, it can cause extreme hallucinations, something he enjoyed using as torture for his prisoners, but when exposed to it, the Constrictai have a different reaction. The poison completely paralyzes the lower portion of their body."

"And they wouldn't be able to make us into mashed humans!" Jay smiled. "It's brilliant! And the plant is here? This is amazingly simple."

"Not quite," Zane shook his head. "Did you really think the Constrictai would leave such a powerful weapon of theirs unguarded? It is deep inside the castle, near the throne room itself if the outlines of the castle in my data base are to be believed."

"We're back to where we started then," Kai growled in frustration. "We. Can't. Sneak. How the heck do we get anywhere near the plants for this stupid plan?"

"I can distract them," Lloyd said, softly.

"What?" Cole turned towards the Golden Master, hoping he had heard wrong."You want to be the Serpentine's bait? Ha, that's a good joke..."

"You're too valuable..."Jay muttered.

"Exactly," Lloyd nodded, speaking a bit louder. "They'll send as many people as they have to get me. You guys will have an open path. You'll just have to hurry and get the staff before I actually get hurt..."

You can't let him do that, Kai's thoughts protested, but he swallowed the words that wanted to escape his throat and quickly conjured new ones. "He can do this," the blacksmith answered, his brown eyes bouncing back between both Jay and Cole. "It's just like he said, they'll take the bait. We get the seeds, take care of their leader, grab the staff and get Lloyd out of harm's way as quickly as we possibly can." Then, Kai focused solely on the Golden Master. He was trying to make up for his actions, and the blacksmith appreciated that, but it did not mean that he could be reckless. "Just try and keep a good distance between yourself and the Serpentine until we come back for you. If they get you, it could be over for all of us."

Lloyd nodded in understanding, his green eyes shining mischievously. "I know. I'm not gonna let you guys down again."

"Let us begin then," Zane said, gesturing for the others to follow him towards the entrance to the town area. It was rather lackluster compared to some of the other places they had visited. Short and somewhat bland, the mud colored walls and geometric shapes of the columns that flanked the entrance were very uninviting. Taking a quick peek behind his shoulder, the android saw the determined looks on his teammates faces and finally opened the main doors.

As expected, guards could be seen everywhere. In each corner, in each shadow, and sitting upon each roof. Thick sharp spears were rigidly held by each of them, causing Lloyd's heart to start beating at an uncomfortable speed. He could do this. With one last look at his teammates, he ran inside the town. Within seconds nearly every eye was upon him, but they were slow, their eyes seeing a small boy rather than the country's most wanted outlaw. He had to do something, get their attention now.

"People!" Lloyd shouted without thinking. He stopped in the middle of the town's small square center, where most of the inhabitants shuffled through to get from place to place. "I am the Golden Master! I am the one who will release all of you from the Serpentine's rule! Gather your families and spread the word. Freedom is coming!"

Lloyd wanted to laugh. He felt so silly, yelling those words out into the crowd of strangers. Silly or not though, the plan had worked. The Constrictai's eyes all flashed with recognition.

And their spears all pointed towards Lloyd.

Kai shook his head, Lloyd's idea seemed utterly hopeless now. It took all of his strength not to run to protect the boy the moment he was recognized. "He's going to get himself killed..."

"C'mon, believe in the guy a little," Jay shrugged. He'd forgiven Lloyd far easier than the green eyed boy had expected. Truth of the matter was, the young puppeteer had never been any good at holding grudges. "His idea is all we have."

"Jay's right," Cole added, watching as the guards relentlessly pursued their most valuable teammate. They had to just get in and out as quickly as possible or Lloyd could get hurt. "So let's move now before it's too late."

Zane nodded and quickly lead his teammates through the bewildered crowd and up to the temple itself, holding the doors open for everyone to file inside. The doors slammed shut behind them and the android held up a hand. "Cole, we may need your area of expertise to help us get into the room with the plants, straight down this corridor."

As the merchant stood to follow his friend's directions, Kai held him back as a flock of new guards stormed past them and out the door. "Thanks for that," Cole breathed, seeing Kai nod in response. With that, the group quietly and quickly made their way towards the room where their new weapon was being held.

When they reached their destination, Cole understood Zane's words. The door was shut, a heavy metal lock holding it closed along with a couple of steel chains. Grabbing ahold of the obstacle, Cole closed his eyes, channeling his strength into both of his arms. The chains creaked and protested, too stubborn to give away. The merchant kept trying and, finally, the chains snapped apart. They slithered to the ground like a pair of lifeless snakes, then the door before them opened.

A powerful smell hit them first. It was sweet, yet bitter, leaving an uncomfortable taste inside all of their mouths. Inside the room, the plants were spread everywhere, growing where they pleased, taking over nearly every inch of space. The flowers were a pale tint of purple, and inside, bright green seeds awaited. Jay stepped forward ripping away a bit of fabric from his shirt in order to grab one of the seeds. It instantly turned into powder, its fragile shape pulverized at the simplest touch.

"It's like powder...we're...we're gonna need something to shoot it with. Like um...a bow and arrow. Yes. That would work."

"Brilliant let's do that," Kai faked a smile. "Except we don't have a bow, Jay."

"Well we can't go up to the Constrictai leader and rub it on him! We'd get poisoned ourselves! I don't want to hallucinate, thank you very much." Jay turned to Zane. "There's gotta be some sort of weapon closet inside here. Check your magical map."

"I do not have a magical map," the android stated plainly. "It is just the entire layout of the building in my head. No magic involved, Jay." This elicited a drawn out sigh from everyone else as Zane closed his eyes and quickly leafed through the schematics of the building. "I see there is a weapon storage area east of this room, down another corridor. There are not many guards present in the structure anymore. Almost all of them have gone after Lloyd now."

"Just...let's hurry it up then," Kai stressed, opening the door that led out of the room, hearing Jay complain about the powder in his possession. Following the corridor as quickly as possible, the group eventually found their targeted destination. With a twist of the door knob, Kai opened up the small room and saw glittering, pristine weapons on display. "You want a bow, huh?"

Jay started rooting through a pile of weapons in the corner, picking up a pair of metal sticks attached by a single chain. Scoffing, he threw the nunchuks aside. "Well, I'm definitely not gonna use those things to fight. Yes, Kai, I want a bow."

"Well I found one," the merchant smirked, his hand gripping the taught string of the weapon as he hoisted it upwards. "It looks like there's a quiver under here too, but it only has two arrows left in it."

Inhaling deeply, the blacksmith eyed the lack of weaponry. "In that case, you better make every shot count then, Jay."

"Oh," the auburn haired man replied, slinging the quiver over his back. "I plan to."

"Okay Zane," Kai urged. "Let's go find the Constrictai."

Once again, Zane closed his eyes. "I believe he is still in the throne room. He would not leave the staff unguarded. It should be easy to take him down, follow me."

Zane ran forward, guiding everyone towards the throne room. Jay rubbed a bit of the powder onto one of the arrows, leaving some of it intact in case he missed the first time. They reached the room and Jay placed the arrow on the bow, pulling back and ready to aim. Cole pushed open the heavy doors.

The throne room wasn't quite as large as all the others had been. This one was compact and simple, with nothing excessive. Due to this, spotting the Constrictai leader was simple enough. Jay focused, relaxing his body and aiming right at the snake's tail. Then Jay allowed himself to look up at the serpent. Mistake. His yellow eyes were glued onto Jay, burning with so much hatred and anger that the puppeteer shivered.

Right before setting the arrow free.

It fell, harmlessly hitting the floor beside the Serpentine's body. The snake laughed, a deep, booming laugh. "Is that the best you can do? You're those kids who took the other staffs, aren't you? Well let me tell you something. Your path stops here. I will strangle the life out of all of your pathetic bodies."

Kai felt his heart skip a beat and then regretted it. He should not let this serpent intimidate him so much. Of course, he personally thought that the Constrictai were the most dangerous foes they had come across so far. Yes, the Fangpyre could turn you into a creature simular to themselves and the Venomari could make you very disoriented, but the Constrictai just killed. One wrong move and you were history. "You missed, blabbermouth," the blacksmith growled, trying extremely hard to hide how anxious he was about their plan now.

"I-I didn't mean to miss," Jay breathed, still feeling the muscles in his arms tremble slightly. This had been their only plan and he had been so confident that he could pull it off. The serpent before him was very intimidating and Jay just...he could not find the inner strength that he needed to do his part in all of this. Of course, there was still the other arrow. He could always try again. As the puppeteer reached behind himself to procure the remaining arrow from his quiver, a hand grabbed his wrist. "K-Kai...what are you doing?"

Releasing his friend, the blacksmith just gave him a hard stare. "You only have a little bit of that stuff left. If you dust it onto the arrow and miss again we're practically done for." The gears in his head were turning relentlessly. They had to figure out a way to make sure the Constrictai leader would get paralyzed. Failing was not an option. With his mind settling on a certain plan, Kai sighed and quickly grabbed the powder from the bit of fabric that Jay had been keeping it in.

The effect was instantaneous. He felt dizzy, weak, cold, hot, light headed, and heavy all at the same time. The world around him flashed into strange shapes and his friends and enemy all blurred together into one mesh of color. He felt the world flip upside down right from under his feet.

"Kai what did you do?" It was Jay's voice, but it didn't seem to be Jay's face. It was the face of a monster. Black skin, sharp fangs sticking out from the sides of his mouth. The creature leaned towards him menacingly and Kai was tempted to throw the rest of the powder onto its face. But no. That wasn't the plan, right? There was something else.

"You useless creature." That voice. That voice was his target. Kai turned quickly, watching a green shape slide forward towards him. Green. Green? Green was Lloyd. What was Lloyd doing here? "You've poisoned yourself. Now you'll make it easier for me to finish you."

"Lloyd?" Kai asked, disoriented. How could Lloyd be here? Why was he talking like this? What did he mean Kai had poisoned himself? He looked back down at the powder in his hand. That's right. He had poisoned himself. So he could beat the Constrictai. But the Constrictai wasn't itself anymore. It was Lloyd. Memories, jumbled memories, began to fall into Kai's lap. Someone...someone mentioned the powder was used as means of torture. Why? Why!? Hallucinations! Yes. The things Kai was seeing weren't' real. And Lloyd...

Kai threw the powder straight at him.

There was a startled cry and Kai tried his hardest to keep himself balanced while the floor tilted mercilessly under him. He watched Lloyd fall to his knees, screaming in both pain and frustration. It's not him, Kai reminded himself, repeating the phrase over and over. The person before him was his enemy. The blacksmith stepped forward, trying to keep his mind focused on the task before him. They needed the staff. That was what they had come here for.

"Pitiful, spineless humans," Lloyd spat, his image wavering as Kai slowly approached. "You may think you have the power to defeat us, but what of Pythor?" The blacksmith stared straight into his enemy's piercing yellow eyes and watched as Lloyd slowly morphed back into the Constrictai leader. "Even if we fall, he will not. You will all fail."

Narrowing his eyes, Kai ripped the golden staff from the serpent's stubby arms. "I don't think so," he rebutted, gripping the item in his hands tight. Despite being able to see clearly once more, Kai still felt light headed and a bit weak. "Once we finish collecting the staffs, we'll take down your precious Pythor." With those words, the Constrictai tried to lunge towards the brunet, but failed miserably, falling over onto the floor with a loud thud. "So now this staff belongs to the Golden Master," Kai continued to gloat, turning on his heel and seeing the worried faces of his teammates.

He meant to reassure them that he was fine. He meant to apologize for being so reckless in a moment of desperation. Despite all of this, Kai just felt his face fall as he said, "we need to go help Lloyd."