Chapter 4 Ulterior motives
Back on the Bounty a week later.
The Bounty was docked a couple of blocks away from the hospital, but within easy and quick access in case they had a phone call regarding Jay's health and in the event of sudden deterioration.
Cole's pov
Cole was pacing his shared dormitory, he was alone and he was beside himself with worry. His memory was an image forever burned into his brain of Jay being electrically charged with a defibrillator. Jay wasn't breathing, smiling, his eyes were open but there was nothing there, his eyes though…the colour of them didn't look right, they had lost their jewelled appearance and now resembled a cloudy angry sky.
Cole suddenly felt completely afraid, he felt something inside break, then tears started flowing freely. He had been holding these emotions inside for a whole week, he had spoken to Wu who had tried to persuade Cole to join in with his meditation sessions in order to relieve some of his pent up aggression and anxiety.
Cole had decided against meditating and had instead resigned himself to pacing in the bedroom, after a while he sat down and eventually fell asleep, Kai walked in with Zane who were approaching their respective bunks as Cole was beginning to stir.
"Sssh,Cole's asleep" Kai muttered, a second too late as Zane closed the dormitory door with a click.
"Oops, sorry bro, didn't mean to wake you, are you ok" Kai asked as he gently sat next to Cole.
"H…hey guys,what's up?" Cole yawned, rubbed his eyes and flicked his long black bangs out of his line of vision.
"Nothin bro, we're planning on visiting Jay at the hospital, do you wanna join us" Kai asked quietly.
"We might find out if he is able to be discharged from the hospital today", Zane added positively, leaning on the wall opposite the bed Cole and Kai were on.
"Apparently he is recuperating quicker than they had anticipated, so if all is well we can transfer his care to the Bounty" Zane said with a smile.
Cole's face instantly lit up at this positive news, the last few days had been a blur for him, he had stayed away from the hospital as he didn't want to see Jay in pain, truth be told he couldn't handle seeing others in pain knowing there was nothing he could do.
"Cool, lets go then Frosty, are ya coming Fireboy" Cole leaped up off the bed all anxieties gone for the moment. All that was on Cole's mind now was getting him back on board and safe and then they could hopefully find out as a team why the serpentine attacked them.
Meanwhile in the serpentine tomb
Pythor and Skales were holding a meeting with all the remaining serpent brethren which had just been adjourned, there had been previous rumours that the ninja had been injured and the troublesome blue ninja was dead, however upon closer inspection and some reconnaissance missions by the serpent new news began emerging that all ninja were alive and accounted for. Yes there were injuries as was expected, the serpent were not expecting an explosion so lost some of their own kind.
"Good, good our plan has worked, we have effectively weakened them" Skales hissed gleefully to Pythor.
Not sso fassst" Pythor yelled, "we need to find thiss out for ourssselvesss " We need to find some willing followersss to go and check on them without being sspotted".
"Issn't that a bit risky, conssidering how angry the ninja would be? Surely they will be on the highest guard, besides they weren't expecting thiss" Skales said somewhat curious
"What exactly was this weapon you got me to use anyway?" Skales asked.
"Well I'm not entirely sure Pythor said, it was a prototype we found in Cyrus Borg's tower, I think it was meant as an EMFG, in effect it should have been used for the nindroid army if they became rogue or unstable." Pythor explained.
"And pray tell, what is an EMFG" Skales rolled his eyes.
"Oh, its an electro-magnetic field generator, I got this little beauty from General Cryptor before he left this realm"
Pythor admired the buttoned device with intrigue and pride, it was currently connected by a system of wires into a modern looking generator.
"He died you sssee but before he passsed, I asssked him to make something that would negatively affect one of the ninja, we were planning on Zane though, he would have been an easier target and ssso much easier to corrupt…although I had no idea it would affect the lightning ninja what with being human and all" Pythor laughed.
"But he is the elemental master of lightning, surely he can wield energy and create it" Skales added.
"Well yessss, we know that now", Pythor hissed "however what the ninja don't' know isss that there beloved blue ninja ssscum is now powering our underground base with the energy we harnessed from him hahahahahaha. Anyway if the EMFG didn't kill him, it would have rendered him weak and vulnerable and when he regains some of his strength we will try again".
"How are we supposed to do that, what are you suggesting Pythor?" Skales asked incredulously.
"If we run out of power down here we'll have no choice but to live on the surface again surely" Skales added.
"What and mingle with the surface dwellers I don't think so" Pythor said and shook his head, "we're outcast, we don't belong up there anymore than they belong down here".
"Why live up there when there is a powerful electrically charged ninja that could sustain our power down here for generations?" Pythor asked.
"So what are you saying Pythor, you're being very vague about this? Can you at least tell me what the weapon did" Skales added, he was getting annoyed at being kept out of the loop, the constant questioning made him feel like a petulant school child.
Pythor looked away but continued to tinker with the weapon admiring it and then said with a huff:
"The gunshot effectively weakened the ninja so his element would overload if subjected to something as powerful as this EMFG".
"Why didn't thissss weapon affect Zane..." Skales asked
"The simple answer to that Skales is because Zane's element protected him, he was not injured at all...that I'm aware of".
"Back to the original quesssstion, the bullet was simply used to cause pain and harm, which is nothing less than they all deserve…...I should add I thoroughly enjoyed participating in it" he added with a sly smile.
"The injury caused his physical human body to go into shock and his element was rendered uselessssss, effectively ssssstripping the blue ninja of his element and ability to protect himself and otherssss".
"Thisss then allowed me to harness his power when you pressed the button, the ssssubsequent explosion I admit I wasn't expecting that to happen. It seemsss there was too much power for this unit to absorb, which means it'll need to be upgraded".
"Sssso if thissss weapon or the bullet didn't kill him what do we do next, Pythor?" Skales asked.
"We wait, we can't attempt anything yet, the ninja will be far too protective over their fallen comrade, however when the time isss right we will ssstrike and finish him once and for all" Pythor angrily hissed and then laughed evily.
Skales then asked quietly "but surely if you kill him, he won't be able to power our underground sanctuary, I thought that was the plan".
"Yesss, yesss of coursse…...you're right, but if plan A doesn't work then we can utilise plan B"
"Plan B before you ask is to end his life...kill him, terminate him...which ever term you prefer Skales...you and I will kill him" Pythor added gleefully.
"Besides he never showed me or my brethren any remorse when he and his clan attacked us in the past and if plan A fails we can send a message to the ninja that they'll never forget and it'll start with their beloved blue ninja and end with his worthless tortured body being beyond any of their reaches when we're finisshed with him" Pythor hissed and his laughter made the other serpentine look around.
Wow guys, 3 days running now and these words just keep coming...Please review.