(Sips water) so it's been a hot minute hasn't it
so uh, I would like to ask for prayers from yall if you happen to be the praying sort. I have been… really pretty sick for about four months now. I don't want to get into too much detail, but I've had to restrict my diet considerably and I've lost a lot of weight from just not eating because I constantly feel sick to my stomach. We don't know what's wrong with me yet- I have a hunch, and I see a doctor next monday, but I'm emotionally exhausted and it's just. a lot.
If you follow my profile you may have noticed that I have, in fact, been writing fic (a considerable amount of it!), this one just overwhelms me because oh GOSH what have I gotten myself into but today I was imploding over some stuff that will probably happen in the third book (see what I meant about what have I gotten myself into) so I sat myself down and finished this chapter. woooo
so uh, thanks for being patient with me and again, please pray. thank you yall :)
Jay leaned out from the pillar they hid behind, then whimpered quietly.
"Man, I would feel a lot better if there were four of us."
"There ARE four of you." Nya's voice crackled through his radio. "And I'm in position. Just give the word, Cole."
"Roger that." Cole nudged Jay out of the way, scrutinizing the arena in front of them through the gap in his mask. "Now remember- we need the Generals' staves to keep the serpentine from creating the map."
"Assuming they haven't done it already." Zane chimed in. "Lloyd said that hadn't at this point, but our timeline clearly has undergone several changes from the original."
"Right." Cole agreed. "Anyone have eyes on the generals?"
"No, but I see the staves!" Jay pointed, and Cole lifted his gaze to some kind of viewing platform that stood above the bleachers. The five serpentine staves were resting on a table, apparently unguarded.
"No sign of Pythor." Cole mused. "Or the other generals, for that matter."
"Pythor can turn invisible." Jay pointed out.
"We'll have to hope that Nya's distraction draws him out." Cole straightened. "Nya, let's go."
"Aye aye." The glee on Nya's voice was clearly audible, and a moment later the Samurai X mech was smashing through the far wall of the arena.
Nya's sudden entrance, as expected, plunged the arena into chaos. Many of the snakes seemed to recognize the mech, and had varying reactions to it, most of them fleeing in terror while a few braver ones made to attack. A few of the Fangpyre immediately tried to bite it, but Nya was prepared for that, singling out the red-and-white serpents and flicking them away effortlessly. With most of the serpentine occupied, the three ninja leaped from their hiding place and made a beeline for the staves.
"There! Ninja!" A voice shouted, and Cole grimaced as some of the snakes turned to face them.
"I've found the generals." Zane pointed down, and Cole followed his gaze down to the middle of the arena, where four of the generals - Pythor was still missing - were clustered into a nervous huddle.
"Huh." Cole didn't spare the time to dwell on what they were doing down there. Their mission was to get the staves, Nya would take care of the snakes.
A constrictai burst from the ground before them with a spray of blinding sand, and Cole had only just recovered when a pair of meaty arms seized him in a vice-like grip. He gasped, struggling, and caught a flash of blue directly before Jay flying-kicked his attacker off of him. Cole choked out a thanks, drawing his scythe and slamming the blunt end of the blade into the constrictai's skull. The snake dropped, and Jay popped upright, dusting himself off.
"Come on, you two," Zane urged them. "Nya won't be able to hold them off forever."
"I'm trying!" Jay protested as he took off running again. "It would be nice to have Kai here!"
"Yeah, well, he'd find a way to break his other arm as well." Cole hurried to match his pace. "We've gotta do this one on our own, boys."
"You're not ON your own." Nya cut in irritably.
"Right, Nya, sorry."
Cole was the first to reach the side of the platform that the staves rested on, and he knelt down, bracing his hand at about shoulder-level to make a step for the others. Zane was the first to climb up to the next level, then Jay, and both of them reached over the edge to pull him up when he jumped after them.
"There are stairs on the other side." Zane reported as he clambered over the railing. "Up to the staves. Come on, they must know what we're doing by now."
"Probably." Cole agreed. "Stay on your guard." He took the lead again, rounding the wall to where a staircase led up to the viewing platform.
They could already see the snakes from the bottom - eight or ten of them, gathered around the table with the staves. Cole wondered briefly if they were loyal enough to their leaders that they wouldn't take them for themselves, or if they were just too terrified of Nya to consider it. His second consideration was whether or not they were united now, since they seemed to be working together pretty well.
"Give up, ninja!" One of the Hypnobrai hissed. "You're outnumbered!"
"Yeah!" A venomarai cut in. "And, we have the high ground!"
"You guys need some help over there?" Nya asked.
"Nothin' a little spin-jit-zu can't handle." Jay struck a pose, eyes crinkled up in a trademark grin. "Ninjaaa, go!"
Jay's initial attack took out three of the serpentine, sucked in by the flashing blue tornado and dumped over the edge of the platform to fall about thirty feet into the arena. Zane and Cole were quick to follow, Cole bashing a venomari in the face before it could spit on them and pushing it down the stairs while Zane froze a constrictai's feet to the ground. Jay stumbled out of his spinjitzu tornado and immediately drew his nunchucks, spinning them around his head to charge up a lightning bolt before directing it into the remaining serpentine, causing their bodies to spasm and seize before collapsing to the ground.
With the only remaining serpentine frozen, Cole hurried to the table and gathered up the staves.
"Nya, let's get out of here!" He called, jumping up on the table and glancing at the stairs to make sure they weren't being attacked.
"Where is Pythor?" Zane demanded as he climbed up beside him. "Shouldn't he be here, guarding the staves?"
"Yeah, and he's not an idiot." Jay followed them up. "So if we're getting off this easy, this must be his plan, right?"
"Don't overthink it." Cole told them. "Let's just get the staves and get out. Without these, they can't make the map."
"But we don't know if they already have." Jay protested.
"If they have, we're still not losing anything by taking these, right?" Cole told him. "Let's just get back to the others."
"Thank you for choosing Nya Airlines!" The Samurai X Mech landed beside them with a resounding boom, and she extended a hand for them to climb aboard. "Your flight to the Destiny's Bounty will be non-stop and snake-free. In-flight refreshments will not be provided." Jay and Zane each grabbed a couple of the staves and clambered onto the mech's shoulders, leaving Cole to hold the last one and find a foothold on its torso. Nya took a step back, and the rockets on the mech's back kicked into gear as she prepared to take off.
And then the ground dropped out from under them.
The ninja shouted in alarm as they went down instead of up, the arena floor having abruptly begun to tilt under the weight of the mechsuit. Nya managed to grab ahold of the solid ground, stopping their descent. The rockets roared, but they barely moved, and Cole could hear worrying grinding noises coming from the suit's insides.
"Uh, I think Nya Airlines forgot to turn on the no-smoking sign!" Jay yelled over the sound of the rockets.
"You guys have to get off!" Nya exclaimed. "I can't get up from this position, there's- there's too much stress on the engines!"
"Get up, guys, come on!" Cole ordered, and the other two quickly obeyed, clambering up the mech's arms and hopping onto the edge of the arena. Nya was already beginning to move when Cole followed them up, and she managed to free herself from the pit, the rockets sputtering a bit as she shot into the sky.
"Well, Nya's out, but we just lost our ride!" Jay shouted, hugging the staves protectively as the remaining serpentine began to close in.
"Look for a - there!" Cole cut himself off, pointing to a scaffolding-like structure. "Up there!"
"We can't climb very quickly, if at all, with these!" Zane protested. Cole looked at them, at the scaffolding, then to the approaching serpentine.
"We just need one." He decided. "They need all five to make the map, so we'll just take one. Come on!" Gripping his staff tighter, Cole sprinted for the scaffolding, hauling himself up onto the first segment with one arm. Obediently, Jay and Zane abandoned the rest of the staves and followed.
They followed the scaffolding up to the top of the arena, where they ran along the bleachers to the outside ring. Nya met them there, hovering in the air on the other side of the wall.
"Can you carry us?" Cole shouted as they approached.
"I think so," Nya answered. "But we have to move quickly before the engines overheat. Come on!" Cole was only too happy to obey, jumping and landing on the mech with the staff in hand. Jay and Zane followed suit, and Nya took off, angling towards where they had left the Destiny's Bounty.
"Which one did you get?" Zane called, and Cole looked at the colored orb on the front of the staff.
"The anacondrai staff." He called back. "Not that it really matters. All that matters is that we got one, so that they can't make the Map of Fangs."
"And we did it!" Jay cheered. "We did it just the three of us!" Nya's sigh was audible even without their earpieces.
"I'm right HERE, guys."
"Kai, you're starting to make me dizzy." Lloyd complained, sitting cross-legged on the couch in the game room. "Can't you do anything but pace in circles?"
"You don't get it, Lloyd, it's my little sister's first mission." Kai continued to pace. "I'm just worried."
"Actually, her first mission was rescuing the boys from under Ninjago city." Lloyd pointed out.
"Her first mission without me!"
"Lloyd?" Wu poked his head in through the door, and Lloyd sat up straight. "May I speak to you for a moment?"
"Of course, uncle." Lloyd hopped to his feet, padding out of the room to join him. "Is something wrong?"
"No." Wu shook his head, shutting the door quietly as they stood out in the hall. "Quite the opposite, in fact. I just wanted to say that I'm proud of you." Lloyd blinked, then a small smile crept over his face.
"Proud?"
"Very." Wu bobbed his chin in a nod. "I know that you are not… who you are supposed to be, at this moment in time. Your knowledge of the future weighs on you greatly, an urgency to make things right. It is a great burden for anyone to bear, much less someone of you… physical age. But you manage it well." He ruffled his nephew's hair fondly. "As I would expect from the destined savior of Ninjago."
"Thanks." Lloyd grinned, pushing his mussed hair out of his face. "I, uh… hope I can save even more than I did the last time around."
"As do I." Wu took a step back. "I will leave you to manage Kai."
"Actually, I think I need a break from Kai." Lloyd shuffled away from the door, turning towards the deck instead. "I'm going to go get some air."
"An excellent idea." Wu gave him a smile, then turned back towards his own room.
Lloyd emerged out into the sunshine and took a deep breath, enjoying the slight breeze that offset the heat of the desert sun. The air smelled nicer than it did in the future, he noticed. All the technological advancement in the world couldn't completely negate pollution. Maybe he could have a talk with Cyrus Borg about it, when the time came.
The deck creaked behind him, and he looked up, momentarily confused when he saw no one there. Then an invisible hand seized him by the front of his shirt and hauled him up off the deck.
Lloyd cried out in shock as Pythor faded into view, baring his fangs as he gave him a sickly grin. "Hello again, pipsqueak."
"P-Pythor!" Lloyd yelped. "How are you- what are you-"
"-doing here?" Pythor hummed. "Well, I fancied myself a little time away from Ouroboros- it is so stuffy this time of year."
"G-get off!" Lloyd grabbed his wrist, kicking at him, but his legs were far too weak to do more than annoy the anacondrai.
"Oh, no, I don't think I will. You see, I've learned that you could be much more useful to me than as a snack." His tongue flickered out of his mouth on the s, and Lloyd shuddered.
"What do you want from me, then?" He gritted out.
"I want your knowledge, savior of Ninjago." Pythor hissed. "A map is one thing, but what about a boy who can tell the future?" Lloyd's blood ran cold.
"Kai!" He shouted. "Sensei!"
"Oh, stop screaming. They won't get here in time anyway." Pythor's neck craned to look over the railing. "Now, how far up would you say we are? Three, four hundred feet?" He shifted closer, his long tail winding around the railing.
"Are you crazy?! What are you doing?" Lloyd continued to struggle, his meager strength nothing against his captor. Why couldn't he use his powers on command?!
"Lloyd!" A horrified shout came from behind him, and Lloyd turned to see Kai frozen in the doorway of the bridge. He had no time to respond, though, before Pythor leaped over the edge, sending them both plummeting towards the Sea of Sand.
i want yalls best guesses on how pythor survives this. wrong answers only