Chapter 3: Can Opener
"I can't believe I'm supposed to live with a Serpentine," Kai growled to himself. "Lighten up, Solo's nice," Cole told him. "You cannot judge a book by it's cover. I sense that she has goodness within her," Zane told the Fire Ninja. "Right, right, whatever," Kai shrugged it off.
The ninja were training on the deck of the Destiny's Bounty. "The enemy of my enemy is my friend," Sensei Wu rebuked Kai. "Until she becomes our enemy," he snorted. "That remains to be seen. But for now, I believe that we can trust her," Sensei Wu sagely continued.
"Where is she, anyway?" Jay frowned.
X
"I sssuppossse I should know my way around here," Solo shrugged, making her way down the central corridor of the Bounty.
The Destiny's Bounty had a simple design. A long corridor stretched the entire length of the ship, with several rooms on either side. Nya's quarters consisted of a single room near the left side of the ship's prow. It was the door to this room that Solo was approaching.
The snake's forked tongue flicked out and tasted the air on instinct. "Metal and fire?" Solo frowned thoughtfully, flicking her tongue again. "Thisss ship'sss made of wood, fire could be a big problem," the Serpentine gulped. It's coming from that room," she decided, reaching out and swinging the door open.
Nya shrieked in shock. "Don't look at the robot! Or me!" she demanded.
She was holding a welding iron and standing on he shoulder of a massive robot suit that was decorated to look like a gigantic samurai. Notably, she was also wearing skintight, padded crimson and gray armor and a matching helmet adorned with golden horns.
Solo frowned in confusion. "What in the name of the Great Devourer isss that thing?" she frowned.
"The Great Devourer?" Nya repeated uncertainly. "Ssserpentine expletive, don't worry about it,"
Nya sighed. "Please don't tell the others about this," she begged. "You're Solo, right? I, uh, guess we haven't properly met. I'm Nya," Nya pulled her helmet off and jumped to the ground, taking in Solo's appearance.
Like all Anacondrai, her scales were predominantly purple. Three pink lines intertwined in a spiral pattern running down her back, and her underbelly was cool bronze, with thin, straight horizontal segments. Her fangs were two and a half inches long, polished white and matching her red eyes and black irises. Her neck was only half as long as Pythor's was, but still several times as large as most other Serpentine.
"Nice to meet you too. And I'll keep your sssecret if you tell me exactly what'sss going on," Solo countered. "Fine," the sister of Kai sighed. "I'm just sick of the boys getting all the fun. I never get to go out there and fight the Serpentine - uh, no offence," she hastily cut herself off, holding up her gloved hands out of instinct.
Solo sighed. "I'm usssed to it. Heck, maybe if I knew why they were all ssso angry at you humans I'd be on their ssside,"
"Uh, anyway," Nya decided to ignore that last comment. "This is the armor and battle suit of Samurai X, mysterious masked warrior who defends Ninjago with high-tech gadgets and science, not some crummy magical Golden Weapons or whatever. Who needs those stupid weapons anyway?" she fumed.
"Sssomeone'sss in denial," Solo muttered to herself.
"But yeah. As long as I have the big guns, I can fight the sna- uh, the, ah, them, no problemo," Nya smirked.
There was a knock on the door. Nya gulped. "Distract whoever it is! I'll hide this stuff!" she told Solo. The Anacondrai rolled her eyes and hissed, "Sssure, now I'm your accomplissse," but went towards the door. Moments before she opened the door, though, she had a thought and turned back. "How do you intend to -" she started, looking back at the mech, but was stunned to see that it had vanished. "Where did that -"
"Don't ask, just distract!" Nya snapped. Solo obligingly opened the door as Nya rushed behind a curtain to change out of the Samurai X armour.
Lloyd Garmadon, still wearing his black hood and cape, was behind the door. "Oh, it's you, Solo," he sighed. "And isss there sssomething wrong with it being me?" Solo snorted, crossing her arms.
Lloyd tried to peep past the Serpentine. "What are you doing in Nya's room? Did you do something to her?"
Solo was really starting to get irritated at the child, but Nya saved her, by shouting, "I'm fine, don't worry!"
"Are you sure you didn't hypnotise her into saying that?" Lloyd asked suspiciously. "Do I look like a Hypnobrai to you? I'm an Anacondrai and proud," Solo snapped, then paused, "though I doubt any of my ansssestorsss would be," she sighed.
Lloyd looked like he had just come up with an idea. "Okay, then. Anyways, bye now!"
The intercom crackled to life. "Can everyone please assemble on the bridge?" Sensei Wu requested.
Nya and Solo looked at each other. "Come on," Nya beckoned, acrobatically twirling around the Serpentine. Solo looked on with interest as a couple of twirling flares of crimson energy winked into existence for a brief moment around her, before vanishing as she stopped moving in that strange, rotational fashion. She opened her mouth to question it, but Nya was already rushing towards the ship's stern, so the Serpentine obligingly followed.
X
"Good, we're all here," Sensei Wu smiled, before looking directly at Solo. "We can all agree that Pythor, as Lloyd tells me that massive Anacondrai's name is," The child grinned at the mention of his name, "is our most dangerous foe. Solo," The sensei turned towards her, and she visibly flinched, "You spent years in that tomb with Pythor. Do you have any idea what he's planning?"
Solo frowned, shrinking back a little as she felt all eyes fall on her. The Serpentine thought back. "I remember he often hummed a rhyme to himself, 'When the five fangsss unite asss one, the path towardsss the Devourer hasss begun,'," she recalled.
"The five fangs," Sensei Wu repeated, stroking his beard. "That surely refers to the five tribes of Serpentine,"
"But only three of the tribes have been released," Cole put forward. "That is correct," Zane agreed. "The Constrictai and the Venomari remain sealed in their tombs,"
"So we need to get to those tombs first and make sure they stay shut," Nya surmised. "Well that's just brilliant. We have no idea where they are! For all we know, we might as well throw darts at a map!" Jay protested.
"Not necessarily. Nya, plot a course to Domu," Sensei Wu commanded. Nya frowned. "Domu? Isn't that that ancient monastery library place? Why are we going there?"
"Pythor has one copy of the Map of Dens, which shows the locations of the Serpentine tribes. Do you really think that our ancestors would be so foolish as to make only one such map?" Sensei Wu snorted.
"So there's another map that will tell us where the tombs are at this Domu place?" Cole asked for confirmation. "Almost definitely. Whether we can find it, well, that's another matter," Sensei Wu shrugged and walked towards the door.
Kai followed him, but first cast an uncomfortable glare at Solo, who sweatdropped. As Kai left, Zane placed a hand on her shoulder. "Do not worry. I sense he will warm up to you in time,"
"I hope ssso," Solo nodded.
X
"You ruined my high score!" Kai yelled at Cole. The earth ninja, though, was occupied by shouting at Jay. "Do you know how long it took me to prepare that casserole? Three days. THREE DAYS!" he raged. Jay, though, was brandishing a remote control at Zane. Notably, the blue ninja looked rather beat up. "What about don't touch my machines do you not understand? Look at what that thing did to me!" the youngest ninja glared. Zane, though, had his own problems, brandishing what looked like his ninja suit on a coathanger, with one notable difference. The uniform was bright pink. Also, Zane, unlike the other ninja, was wearing his pyjamas. "How am I supposed to look intimidating in this? IT'S PINK!" The four-way argument rapidly dissolved into a series of squabbles. "How could you?" "What made you think you had any qualifications to -" "You wanna talk about qualifications, Sparky? You are not qualified to put salt on roast chicken!" "A man's high scores are all he has!" "How can you think about high scores, you hotheaded imbecile? My uniform is pink! I will not go down in history as the pink ninja!" "Pink schmink! I wear baby blue 24/7 and it doesn't bother me! How would you like it if your training robot broke your nose?!" "To hell with your robot! No one messes with my high -" "Oh, you did not just say that about my robot!" "Don't! Cut! Me off!"
"ENOUGH," Sensei Wu interrupted them, rapping his staff against the ground. "Whatever your arguments with each other are, settle them. You four are a team," their master told them. "Did you ever even think about whether the accusations were true?" he demanded.
"With respect, Sensei, this seems extremely conclusive," Zane frowned, holding up his pink gi. "That does not mean you ought to blame each other for them," Sensei glared as Solo and Nya entered behind him. "You're right, Sensei. It was probably all her fault!" Kai glared at Solo, accusatorially pointing at the Anacondrai. Solo yelped in surprise. "What? I haven't done anything, I swear! she exclaimed. "What are we even talking about?" she added. "You know," Kai growled, but Nya stepped in. "I can vouch for her," Kai's sister told him. "She was with me all morning,"
"But she's an Anacondrai, can't she do that weird invisible teleporty thing like Pythor?" Jay pointed out. "Exactly," Kai growled. Sensei immediately stepped between him and Solo. "No. Solo had no part in this," he angrily glared at Kai. "The culprit lies over there," he pointed at a set of doors behind the ninja, which slowly slid open to reveal Lloyd grinning. "You did all this?" Cole demanded. "I put him up to this! Sensei Wu barked. "I wished to show you all the destructive power rumours possess! And," he paused awkwardly, "I, ah, misplaced my lesson book,"
Cole looked back at Lloyd and frowned, spotting something sticking out of his pocket. He walked over and snatched it from Lloyd's shorts as the child grinned nervously. "You mean this lesson book?" he suggested. Sensei's mouth opened slightly, before he sternly glared at Lloyd. "Yes. That would be the book in question," he sighed, taking his book from Cole, before glaring at Lloyd and closing the doors, locking him in the closet. A muffled "Hey! Let me out!" was heard, but everyone happily ignored him.
X
"Attention everyone, we have arrived at Domu!" Nya reported. "I will retrieve the map. Zane, I believe you would enjoy seeing the library. Please meet me at the prow so that we may depart," Sensei Wu added through the speakers. "Er, Sensei, you aren't in the control room with me, how did you . . . ." Nya trailed off in confusion. "Some secrets are best left untold,"
X
Once again, everyone was gathered in the control room. "According to the map we found at Domu," Zane read from an old-looking piece of parchment, "the tomb of the Venomari tribe is deep in the Toxic Bogs,"
"And the Constrictai tomb is at the top of the Mountain of a Million Steps," Sensei Wu continued. "The what?" Solo frowned. "It's a big mountain that looks like a dragon head," Cole told her. "Ah. We always called that the Many-Fanged Spire," the Anacondrai shrugged.
"So the solution's obvious. We split up," Nya grinned. Cole, Zane? You two go find the Constrictai. Kai and Jay, head to the Toxic Bogs and make sure that the Venomari stay locked up," she commanded. "What about me?" Lloyd raised his hand in excitement. "Stay on the ship," Sensei off-handedly told him. "I will see what I can decipher in the Spirit Smoke,"
X
The ship seemed empty and quiet without the four ninja on board, Solo reflected as she made her way down onto the main deck. Not looking where she was going, her tail accidentally knocked a small pedestal near the bottom of the stairs that had a silver dragon on it, revealing a red button. "What'sss thisss?" Solo frowned, pressing the button.
In an instant, four large pillars rose from the training course. Automated axes and swords appeared, complemented by a course comprised of logs that led between them and a larger pillar in the middle that had a training dummy and a large punching bag hanging from the Torii gate above it. "Impresssssive," she blinked.
"I had wondered if you might take an interest in the ways of the ninja," a voice came from behind her, and Solo jumped in surprise at the sight of Sensei Wu behind her, who had seemingly appeared out of nowhere. "Sssorry, I jussst sssaw the button and wanted to know what it did and -" Solo nervously apologies, but Wu held up a hand to stop her. "This is a perfect replica of my father's training course, which he created specifically to educate people in the ways of the ancient martial art of Spinjitzu. Anyone can learn this art," The elderly man's eyes crinkled in a smile. "Even a Serpentine," He casually stepped over her tail and began to walk away, before tossing a scroll over his shoulder, which Solo caught with ease. "I found this in Domu as well. I thought you might enjoy it," the Sensei nodded.
Solo opened the scroll. "A Comprehensive Guide to the Ancient Serpentine Art of," she paused in shock. "Fang Kwon Do?"
X
"Wait, what happened?" Nya giggled. "He spent the entire fight curled up in a little ball, screaming about elves!" Cole laughed, patting Kai on the shoulder. "That venom appears to be extremely potent," Zane commented.
Apparently, Zane and Cole had found the Constrictai tomb opened and had to deal with a single, incredibly strong Constrictai king. Meanwhile, Kai and Jay had walked into an ambush of both Venomari and Constrictai, which had been orchestrated by Pythor, and had almost been killed. However, a mysterious armoured warrior in a massive robotic samurai suit - Solo had almost done a spit-take at this, but Nya had surreptitiously gestured not to reveal that she was Samurai X - had appeared and held off the snakes, before tranquillising the four of them. When they woke, the Serpentine were gone and the Bounty was overhead, waiting to pick them up. Unfortunately, during the battle Kai had been afflicted with Venomari hallucinogenic venom, and was imagining that everything in the vicinity was one or other of his worst nightmares. Of note, in Solo's opinion at least, was the fact that he appeared to hold a deep-set phobia of all things related to Christmas.
"Aah! A snake!" Kai shrieked, pointing at Solo. "Get it out! Get it out!" The others rolled their eyes in irritation. "We've been over this, Kai. Solo's not evil like the other snakes, she's unusual," Cole patiently explained. "And she's nicer than you usually are," Nya frowned at her brother.
"How long until this venom wears off?" Jay demanded. "Shouldn't she know?" he continued, gesturing at Solo in irritation. "It can last anywhere between five and twelve hours," she shrugged, swallowing a piece of chicken whole, bones and all, and missing the disgusted stare Jay was giving her at her eating habits.
Kai nudged Zane. "Look at Sensei's beard!" he whispered. "It's moving like snakes!"
Solo yawned, having just finished devouring an entire roast chicken. "Oh, that wasss good. Thanksss, Zane," she nodded with a slightly shy smile. "You are most welcome, my friend," he nodded. "I feel sssleepy," the snake said, staggering, before righting herself on the table. Nya stood up and wrapped her arm around Solo's shoulders. "I'll take you to your room," she offered with a smile. "I have a room?" Solo asked in equal parts drowsiness and disbelief.
A/N
A/N
For the record, Solo finding out about Nya being Samurai X before anyone else is in no way intended to be a stab at my character being some kind of OP goddess like some FFN authors do. I can understand no one finding out that Nya was Samurai X. I just find it so unrealistic that no one would spot a huge-ass mech on a cramped boat. Sooner or later, someone SURELY would have noticed it. This is just the first of many plot holes that I intend to fix up and I do intend to deviate a little from the TV show, as evidenced this chapter. The second one is how the ninja knew Pythor wanted to open the tombs of the Constrictai and Anacondrai. I mean, they thought all the tribes hated each other so how would they know to even bother dealing with the potential threat of them being released? I've personally fixed this by having Solo explain that she overheard Pythor talking to himself about uniting the tribes, but in canon . . . . . Yeah. Aaaaand the third is that there was only ONE Map of Dens. You'd expect the ancient people to be smart enough to make copies.
Also, if anyone's wondering, the majority of snakes pronounce sounds like 'suppose' with the 'sss' hiss, 'sssuppossse' but the 'sh' sound, like 'she', doesn't get hissed. Also, words with 'x' should be hissed, like 'expletive', but I just don't know how to put that in the written word. So I'll just put the 'x' as normal and you imagine the hiss yourself. For some reason, unlike other snakes, Pythor barely hisses his 's's at all from what I've seen. Not sure why.
I additionally do not take the 'fake' Anacondrai during what I now know to be the Tournament of Elements arc as being genuine representations of average Anacondrai, however I also feel that they had to have gotten some stuff right. So I kind of mixed up the designs of those fake Anacondrai and Pythor, took some 'feminine liberties' and used that to create Solo's design.
Anyway. I really don't want to just rewrite everything that happens in the TV show exactly as has already been done, so anything I skip over, just assume that it happened exactly as it did in the show.
And I think that covers the longest A/N I've ever done. XD Peace!