Challenge: Garmadon and Kai have been forbidden to fight so they battle over chess, before G turns good.
Kai absolutely hated having the Lord of Darkness as a roommate. Deep down he knew that it wouldn't be right to deny the man help in saving his son, no matter how evil he was, but he wished it didn't have to work out this way. Not only was Garmadon the most annoying houseguest ever, Kai was also not allowed to fight with him, no matter how much he itched to punch him in the snaggly-toothed mouth. Sensei Wu would have his head. Heck, even Nya would probably be ticked with him.
But now Kai had found a loophole. He might not be allowed to battle Garmadon, but he was pretty sure he could get away with all-out war—on a chessboard.
"What do you think you're doing?" he said, with loud casualness. Garmadon didn't even jump; he only looked up from toying with the chesspieces standing on the table and grinned wickedly. Zane and Jay had paused mid-game last night, and now it looked like Garmadon was rearranging the pieces to swing the game in Zane's favor.
"Nice try," said Kai tersely, stepping over and sweeping the pieces off the board with his arm. "You're not ruining their game for them."
"I'm ruining their game?" Garmadon smirked. "You're the one who just wiped it out."
"That's because I'm starting a new one," retorted Kai, setting up the board again. "Up to a challenge, Lord Garmadon?"
The dark lord's eyes glinted with sinister amusement.
"Always, boy," he hissed, sitting down opposite Kai.
The game was ferocious. The two opponents glowered at each other across the board, grinning savagely whenever they made a good move, growling and brooding whenever things went poorly. Nya passed by in the hall; she saw them through the doorway and stopped, amazed. Eventually she smiled, shook her head, and walked on. Maybe Kai had finally decided to try being friendlier to their houseguest.
Nya was overoptimistic. The chess war was getting more and more intense.
"Check," said Garmadon, shifting his queen. He cackled internally. This was too easy; the fire ninja was much too brash and rash, making daring moves without any of the careful planning necessary to chess. He was already on his last legs.
Kai was sweating bullets. He chewed his lip, squinting at all the pieces in turn with knitted brows. There had to be a way to turn this around. There had to.
His eyes widened when he saw that he could capture Garmadon's queen. Perfect! It would get him out of check, and capturing the powerful queen would cripple his opponent.
"Ha!" he growled, knocking the opposing piece triumphantly from the board. Garmadon merely raised an eyebrow and casually shifted one bishop.
"Checkmate."
Kai's mouth fell open. He stared at the board in disbelief; sure enough, there was nowhere his king could safely go. He continued to stare in baffled fury.
Meanwhile, Garmadon yawned and stretched, making no effort to hide a supercilious smirk.
"Honestly, that was rather disappointing," he said. "I had been hoping for a challenge." He glanced out the window as the ship suddenly rolled beneath them. "Ahhhh, delightful! We seem to be encountering a storm."
He headed out to do some sunbathing. Kai stayed behind at the table, his head in his hands, staring at his deadlocked king. Finally, with a frustrated growl, he swept the pieces off the board and stomped off to help Zane steer the rolling ship.