Author's Note: Over a hundred reads on AO3. It might seem minuscule to the majority of the site but I never thought it would happen.
Hopefully, things will start picking up a bit. I don't think it will until after chapter four but I have hope yet.
Chapter 3: Following Rumors
Despite his fiery nature, his medium dark cyan-blue eyes were trained intensely on the dummy ahead of them. A fierce look overtook them while a hand twitched at the side. Kai's form was steady and he looked ready to pounce. The spiky-haired brunet gave a low grunt while the dummy before him seemed to mock him with its rice hat and glowing number on its front. Jay made the thing months ago when they were first getting acquainted with their new home, Destiny's Bounty. The master of fire watched as the sparring bot rolled on its wheels side by side, seemingly taunting it. Kai swears Jay made it able to mess with him specifically.
"Try not to blow it up, Kai." He remembered him saying.
Finally, it rolled up to him at a fast speed, swinging one of the small staves in its claw at him. Kai managed to step a few paces back before jumping forward and sending a hit at one of its sectioned parts. It just rotated that section and swung the other short staff at him but Kai blocked it with a padded forearm, pushing it back. The upper section spun around and Kai was honestly glad he put on Kendo gear for this. The crane on its section had an iron ball and chain, nothing like that giant wrecking ball but still. He felt it hit the side of the helm and nearly hissed at the strike, getting frustrated at the thing. He growled and grabbed at the lobster-like claw on its upper section, pushing back on it and he swore he heard it creak at being forced to turn the opposite way.
It was sudden but the machine had stopped. The number on it was no longer glowing and the arms angled away. The multiple eyes circling its head dimmed. Kai gave a huff and pushed it back, getting it out of his personal space. He panted, feeling sweat seeping through to his Kendo gear. The brunet heard footsteps coming up behind him and made his head turn to see the inventor of the sparring bot.
"Kai! I told you not to break it!" He barked at him.
"No, you told me not to blow it up and it's not blown up." Kai pointed out, pulling his Kendo men off his head.
"Ooh, you're lucky I turned it off before it actually did blow up to smithereens." Jay went to the sparring bot, setting a hand on it to pet the head of it and muttering just loud enough for Kai to hear, "It's okay. The big, mean, red guy won't hurt you. You're alright. You'll get fixed up later and be good as new."
Kai rolled his eyes and shook his head at him before he turned away and began taking off the Kendo gear, putting it away with the others.
"Oh!" Jay popped his head up from behind the sparring bot at the panel. "I came out here 'cause it turns out Zane's been messing with his falcon for a bit and now he can see through his falcon vision, right? And it looks like he spotted something in the city when he was testing how far away he could see with the bird. Nya wanted to do a quick debrief of the situation while we fly over there."
Kai was glad that he didn't tune out Jay at that time. He didn't need to have his little sister give him a stern look that'd match their mother's face even though she got dad's eyes. Somehow, it's like they swapped eye colors or something despite the few years apart. The fire master paid no mind to the master of lightning getting his head smacked by the bot while he was putting it away. Finally, he made his move to the main bridge and before he knew it, he blinked and was already walking through the door to the room.
He could see the others in here. The others were Nya, Zane, and Cole. Zane's eyes were aglow before dimming back to their normal light cyan color again.
'Must've been him looking through his bird's eyes. Freaky.' Kai thought.
He looked over to Cole and well... Try as the Earth Ninja might, Kai could still see Cole acting a little off. He didn't see why he should act that way. Cole unlocked his true potential before him.
'Why would he be acting weird? Shouldn't he be proud of it or something?' He questioned with a short huff leaving him.
Kai shook his head, watching his teammate stare at the map on the screen and flicking his eyes almost mindlessly looking for any sign of something, anything. More than likely, trouble.
"So I'm sure Jay said that Zane spotted some Serpentine activity with his falcon, right?" Nya asked.
"Well, he didn't give me any specifics. Just that Zane was staring through his bird like a flying telescope." The newly-discovered Nindroid looked over to him.
"He's not a flying telescope. He's my friend." He told him.
"Never mind that. The falcon still did spot some strange things happening with the snakes." Nya said and Jay just managed to rush into the room in time, looking a little beat from the sparring bot he was putting away.
"You don't suppose the Serpentine are planning something else?" Zane inquired.
"You took the words right out of my mouth, Frosty." Cole nodded, finally putting his two cents in.
"But that is physically impossible." Zane muttered with confusion.
"It's just a saying, Zane. It's not literal." Jay chuckled at him.
Nya shook her head before continuing on. "With all the rumors of Serpentine around the edges of Ninjago City and this recent sighting, I wouldn't doubt they'd be planning something."
"What is it though? A diversion while Pythor finds the last fang blade? Or is it where it could be? Something else entirely? A coup against the king of snakes?" Jay almost kept blabbering on had it not been for the spiky-haired one of the group sending a glare at him.
Jay shot a look back at him, putting his hands on his hips and leaning in with some exaggerated sass. "I'm just saying, Kai."
Nya shot a glare back at her brother. Honestly, he had been more frustrated lately and it was showing quite a bit.
"So how do we go about this then? Just ask around, follow the rumors, and find out what their scaly butts are up to?" Jay suggested.
Cole hummed. "Sounds as good as it'll get. Now no fighting unless it's necessary, we're just grabbing info, alright?" Cole said, "That goes for you too, Kai."
Kai shot his head in his direction. "What?"
"I mean you have gone off on your own before."
"That was ages ago with those skeletons." Kai defended himself.
"Yes, and all of us, including yourself, simply wish to leave that behind," Zane noted right before Kai rolled his eyes and sighed in response.
"Yeah, whatever. How fast can we get there?"
Jay had a grin. "Fast enough." He pressed the button and the rocket boosters on the ship roared to life and blasted them off into the distance.
While the city came into view, Cole had felt a sudden unease. Odd, he usually wouldn't turn down a fight if it came up but somehow, something about this felt off.
"Hey, Cole, you coming or what?" He heard Jay already at the edge of the Bounty, ready to nosedive off and into his jet. The master of earth finally pulled himself together enough to do this.
"Yeah. See ya!" He smirked underneath his hood and rushed past his best friend, already diving before he could.
"Hey!" The bluebird screeched at the black bear and jumped after him.
Cole grabbed onto his scythe, pulling it from his back and spinning it in his hands before the shine of the weapon grew brighter and suddenly the inside of the Tread Assault, his trademarked vehicle surrounded him.
'Still gotta apologize to Rocky when he returns for replacing him with it.' He thought with a soft chuckle. Jay's voice came through the communication system.
"I'm gonna guess and say you feel a bit better now?" He asked.
The master of earth pressed the button and responded, "Somewhat. Still having that off feeling but it's not so bad now." He quickly went to change the subject. "Aside from that, how are we doing this?"
"Might I suggest that we split apart and cover more ground?" Zane's voice carried through the communicator.
"Good idea. We find a serpentine, try to follow and if things go awry we signal each other. Whether anything happens or not, we meet back at the center. Plain and simple, right?" Cole added on.
"Sounds good. Now Kai, try not to get too deep into trouble now." Jay joked.
Kai's voice gave a scoff and Cole swears he can already see his eyes rolling with the sound. "Yeah. Yeah. I'll let you know if something's up. Let's go."
The group separated in different directions. Cole gave a soft sigh when the communicator was off.
'They'll be fine,' he reassured himself. 'They can take care of themselves.'
His Spinjitzu vehicle, the Tread Assault slowed to a halt. The engine to it quieted down while Cole let up on the pedal.
'I should really consider a stealth mode for this thing.' He thought.
If the Serpentine were plotting something, he needed to sneak up on them the best he could to get any info, any clue of what they were doing in the city, what they were planning. The others were on different sides of the massive city, so it'd be a while for them to meet up. The top opened up and he hopped right out. In tandem, his vehicle disappeared and his scythe returned to his back with the snath sitting snugly in the loops of the custom sheath.
His steps were careful and light. Despite his stature, he is almost considerably the most sneaky one of the group, if he didn't account for Jay deciding to be creepily quiet at times and spooking everyone with that. Their ninja master, Wu, didn't seem to be affected by that at least or sometimes he wasn't. Cole gave a soft humph at that before he caught a glance of a tail. The shinobi pressed himself against the wall and peeked around the corner.
His eyes were set on the Serpentine before him. The snake had a regal blue to him, assuming the snake was a guy. With the shade of his scales and the cobra-like hood on him, he was right to say the Serpentine was a Hypnobrai. The only things that struck him as odd were the markings, the clothing, and a large drawstring bag that looked ready to burst with how full it was. The markings on the small tail looked too dark to be a Hypnobrai. In fact, they almost looked like Anacondrai markings. However, even all that didn't throw him off like the clothes did. A dark burgundy robe that laid over one shoulder with a shade of gold along the bottom while the strap of the bag was securely across his front.
'When did Serpentine ever wear clothes?' Cole didn't get any time to ask or observe the Serpentine because the Hypnobrai flicked his tongue out and snapped his gaze over to him.
The snake had sniffed him out. Cole's eyes squinted together, ready to shut them if he heard the rattle on the snake's tail going off. He didn't hear the rattle shake, however. Instead, he heard the Hypnobrai hiss out a word.
"Aithyass."
He didn't know what that meant. Probably something in Serpentine. Though, if his expression and the way he bolted off the second he could was anything to go by, Cole could guess he let out a curse in their tongue.
"Hey!" Cole followed after the snake.
Cole went for his scythe and swung it down, stabbing it into the ground and causing it to quake underneath their feet. The snake man's feet were unsteady beneath him and he nearly fell over but he kept himself balanced. Cole pulled his scythe out of the ground to stop the quake from continuing on and potentially causing some sort of property damage to the environment. Last thing he needed to hear was some complaints about he and his team carelessly throwing around their powers. That was the snake's chance to bolt and boy he was fast. The earth ninja chased after the anthropomorphic snake, watching him turn a sharp corner, and just when he followed after him.
He was gone.
"What the... Where'd he go? How'd he..." He asked, looking around.
There was no trace. He saw a Hypnobrai, didn't he? He knew they didn't just disappear like Pythor did. Well, whatever the snake did, Cole lost him. The black ninja growled in a low tone and let out a sigh in frustration, putting his scythe back. Oh, the guys were not going to let him live it down the moment he said something.
Unbeknownst to him, someone was standing at the very edge of the alleyway she was hiding from. Her eyes followed his form and she felt hesitant to approach. Who could blame her? For all anyone knew, he was someone gaining a name for himself and she looked like someone that'd be forgotten and left behind in the dust. Her legs twitched a bit, obviously she wanted to move but she still felt frozen.
The same thing from before happened again.
A small gust of wind pushed her forward and almost immediately like a deer that was finally unstuck, she rushed out of there.
Just in time, the Black Ninja turned upon hearing the sounds of footsteps running at him and he almost grabbed for his scythe again at the sudden spook but stopped entirely when he saw it was a person. She had tan skin, long, messy-looking brunette hair, a set of bangs sweeping over and covering her right eye, or more like the right half of her face. The girl just jumped up and wrapped her arms all around him.
The master of earth stumbled back quite a bit at the sudden tackle, but he quickly steadied himself on his feet before he could fall over. His eyes went wide in shock and his arms were up, freezing awkwardly at the sudden hold.
Cole stood in surprise at the hug that came from out of nowhere. It didn't feel like a hug though. It felt like this stranger, despite everything, was holding onto him for dear life, squeezing herself against him with everything she had, which was saying something since he could still recall how Skalidor was holding him. He could hear her muttering something, stuck between a language he couldn't quite understand and Ninjargon, the language of their world Ninjago. It was three words that were constantly repeating yet somehow they left him dumbfounded.
"I've found you."
EDITED: Still having quite a time with this.
Also I just realized I never translated the word that Vasuki says.
"Aithyass." = "Shit" (Yuan-Ti)
I was looking up some Yuan-Ti and even if they have their own translator on LingoJam it's very limiting so it'll be a mix of Yuan-Ti and Draconic the next time we see more Serpentine characters. It'll be more prevalent in book 2.
Author's Note: Hope you guys enjoyed Vasuki's first appearance in this fic because he won't be appearing until the next one. (Yes I'm already planning ahead to make a few fics based around season one's plot. I've got so much to show you guys!) If you guys don't know who Vasuki is just check out my Tumblr ninjakitten1699 or my DeviantArt Gamer-Katie to see him and his info there. His info will have to be updated to fit the storyline but nonetheless at least you guys could understand what he looks like.
Oooooh, I'm so excited for the next part. Gimme a bit, Imma give you guys two chapters in one go on this fic! See you all on the other side!