Setting foot out of bed this morning was probably one of the worst things he could have done. Sure the day started off like usual, Jay barging down the door to everyone's rooms yelling about morning exercises, but he didn't think it'd devolve from there.
"KAI-" The shout from his sister shook him out of his thoughts just as the third bucket of water fell on his head today, getting a hollering wail of laughter from Jay and Cole. Standing in the doorway, once again soaked head to toe as he glowered, clenching his hand on the doorframe as he shot a deadly glare towards the two. Lloyd sat in the back of the room with a mixture of amusement and concern, although it probably wasn't aimed at him.
"The two of you are so lucky I don't want to be forced to run the steps to the Monastery for the rest of the day," He hissed.
"Sorry- sorry! That wasn't even- even meant for you this time, promise!" Cole apologized in between snickers.
"What so it was meant for Nya?" He grumbled, pointing over his shoulder at his sister, who he had been walking into the room with.
"Jay wanted to get back at her for some mechanical prank she pulled on him last week,"
"Oh really now?"
"Yeah really, if only your brothers' head wasn't so big he caught it all instead," Jay replied, giving them both a teasing smile. This caused Kai to huff in annoyance before turning around.
"I'm going to go dry off. Again." He grumbled. As he left he heard the remnants of their conversation, mostly about how water wouldn't have even done much with Nya, but the laughter echoing the halls was enough for him to begrudgingly understand they were still laughing about his third dump today.
After spending another thirty minutes drying himself off, changing his clothing and brushing his hair back to it's usual flame-like spike style he finally managed to get to the couch and sit down. He was thankful that laundry was only done a few days ago, otherwise he'd have run out of his red plaid pajama pants from being soaked continuously. He almost ran out of T-shirts though, being stuck with a baggy plain white T-shirt, silently praying no one decided to spill a cup of juice on him this time. When he had gotten back to the room, the giant sloppy puddle that had accompanied his latest drowning was already completely clean, with the group focusing on a movie they had put on the TV. Jay and Cole had grabbed him a drink while he had been drying off as an apology, so it wasn't all the worst in the end. At least they went out of their way to apologize unlike the last two times today.
"Looks like someone finally decided he'd just flaunt his scars as payback eh?" Cole chuckled.
"Hah, no, just because I'm wearing one of my only surviving T-shirts doesn't mean I wanna go around all the time with my bare arms flaunting burn scars Cole," He rolled his eyes as he took a swig of his drink.
"Oh really? Do you mean that when you run around on any other day seeming proud of them?"
"It's better to be proud about a scar than to sulk over it, you of all people know this I'd figure," Cole rolled his eyes at this, but laughed anyways.
"Yeah yeah," He returned, right before the alarm started ringing off, causing Jay to shriek in surprise, knocking over the popcorn bowl right on to Cole's lap. It didn't take long after for Zane to come barging into the room.
"We have a problem, it appears we have a new threat wrecking havoc in Ninjago City," He declared, sounding urgent with a concerned expression. That's when we all immediately got up, Cole sloppily brushing residue popcorn off of himself as he scrambled to head to the debriefing room within the Monastery.
"It appears that the new villain is a type of Serpentine much like Aspheera, although there isn't anything indicating they have relations based off the readings we're getting from here," Nya stated as she looked over the monitors.
"Greaaat, can't we fight anyone new?" Jay complained, getting a look from all of us.
"Oh, new you say? Wanna take a jab at a spider overlord? Perhaps a zombie horde to accompany Samukai's Skulkin army that still has it out for us 3 years later," Kai retorted.
"Maybe some dragon version of the Serpentine, or some new race of vengeful trolls," At this point Jay looked very much like he regretted saying anything.
"Ok ok I get the point! We've just fought Serpetine what? A bajillion times now! I thought it was over with them until Aspheera showed up, and now we have another snake to beat up?" Kai grumbled at this, Jay had a point. They's fought enough snakes that he felt sick even thinking about it, especially after Aspheera. The name itself sent dreadful chills down his spine as he remembered the chilling emptiness he felt being without his fire that long, and how being in the Never Realm without it had caused him suffering he refused to acknowledge to the group, mainly to save his own hide of being taunted for his abnormal internal temperatures again like he used to be.
"Ahem, maybe we should stop arguing about who it is and just get down there to kick their butt so we don't got a week of city work we gotta do," Cole disrupted the conversation as he put his hand down on the table, ignoring the messy lock of hair falling in his vision as he rolled up one of his sleeves.
"Well then we better get ready, distress signals are popping up like a flu during winter," Nya agreed as she took off out the door, everyone else following to go get into uniform.
The city was in ruins when they arrived, at least, the part of the city they had been sent to. Buildings were toppling on others, cars were flipped, roads blocked and much more. Jay whistled as he assessed the damage.
"Looks like someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed today," He joked.
"I do not believe the Serpentine themself was able to cause all of thsi damage, my only idea is if they have projectile weaponry or special powers to aid them," Zane stated as he scanned the area.
"I can say there does not appear to be any injured civilians under the rubble, which is good news,"
"You're tellin' me, last thing I want to worry about is injured civilians if I can help it," Cole leapt onto one of the lamp posts to get an overhead over the rubble blocking the roads in front of them.
"Can't see any snakes but there's definitely commotion ahead,"
"Than what are we waiting for? I'm itching to set this guy on fire," Kai ran up to the rubble and used some loose stone as steps to propel himself clean over the blockade and onto the ground on the other side. The rest of the gang followed just as swiftly, before they raced ahead.
They came to a large open intersection that was rather worse for wear. Citizens were fleeing the area just as what appeared to be purple flame-like manifestations were taking ahold of the area.
"This looks like some Garmadon type of stuff... or Oni magic," Nya commented, looking at the destruction with a concerned expression.
"Took the words right out of my mouth," Lloyd replied, looking rather disturbed by the situation, before catching eye of their target. A large cobra-looking Serpentine sat in the middle of the intersection, void scales complimenting the purple robe-like cloak adorning their neck as they waved a scaled hand about, which was enveloped in the same purple aura the manifestations were made out of. There was a rather familiar symbol on the back of the cloak they wore...
"Oh come on, another evil Garmadon worshipper? Can't we catch a break from these guys?" Kai groaned.
"There's no way that's the 'Sons of Garmadon' symbol.. Lloyd?" Jay side eyed Lloyd.
"Well, no, you're correct on that but it sure isn't worshipping the concept of 'Sensei Garmadon'," Lloyd grumbled, getting a sigh from Jay.
"Better we get it over and done with, be on your guard, we have no idea what that magic is," Cole warned as he started approaching the Serpentine. Kai mentally wished the First Master would just snap this guy out of existence, but he followed cautiously behind the others. It didn't take much to get the snake to notice them, yellow eyes swiveling to ensnare them in their gaze, a soft hiss following.
"Ahh... I wasss wondering when you would show up ninja..." The voice rang in Kai's head like that of a bell, causing him to internally wince. The voice sounded feminine, with an underlying tone of calm malice.
"Who are you and why are you wrecking havoc on Ninjago City?" Lloyd stepped forward, his tone stern as he questioned the Serpentine. She clasped her hands as a smile slipped onto her face, sending a chill down Kai's spine.
"Ahhh, where are my mannersss? My name is Kobeula, it'sssss a pleasure~" Her tone was rather cold, even with the wavelengths of warmth she injected into it.
"Ok, Kobeula, he asked why you're destroying the city," Kai quipped, narrowing his eyes at her. Not once did her demeanor shift.
"Well, I presume you noticed my lovely cloak, no? You tainted Garmadon by inflicting a ssssense of 'kindnessss' into hiss afflictionsss... I am sssimply one of few attempting to carry out hissss legend where he no longer can..." Great, once again we have a rebel who wants to harm people in the name of Garmadon.
"And we said originally that this wasn't someone from 'The Sons of Garmadon'," Cole leaned over and whispered, Kai nodding in agreement as he crossed his arms.
"Wanna make a bet on it? No way she didn't at least talk to them," he whispered back, getting a half hearted snort followed by an eye roll.
"We can't let you do this, you're harming and endangering countless innocents," Lloyd stated, getting a guttural laugh from the cobra.
"Green ninja... that'ssss the point... although I know neither of ussss are coming out of thisss without a fight, sssso why don't we make thissss quick~?" She raised a hand once more, before swiping it at the ninja, a wave of purple energy came blasting towards them. They all jumped out of the way with ease, beginning the engagement as they all drew their weapons, charging at Kobeula. Jay ran in on the side with his nunchucks while Nya and Cole flanked opposite, trying to utilize a pincer maneuver while Kai and Lloyd took assault turns in the front. Kobeula was able to knock Lloyd away with her tail before slamming a power-manifested sword at Kai, who threw both of his swords up to block, wincing from the impact as he strained against the force. Jeez, this snake has some muscle. The struggle didn't last too long, though, as Jay was able to to hit a kick to her side to off balance her, allowing Kai the ability to fall backwards into a roll to safety. He studied how his friends were moving to base his next attack, dodging the throws from Kobeula to try and keep the blows even.
Each kick, blast and punch seemed to irritate Kobeula more and more, but it didn't come without a cost. Everyone had been thrown off more than enough, narrowly dodging her power blasts only to get a punch to the gut in place, and with every lost kick came a toss from her tail sending them off balance. The fight hadn't even gone on that long, and already Jay, Lloyd and Nya were looking too roughed up, panting a bit as they fought. Kai had taken the least amount of blows, but that wasn't good. It looked like Kobeula was trying to single out limited injuries to him, which he was starting to find rather odd... he wasn't able to dwell though, having to catch Cole before he took a massive blow against a nearby building.
"Jeez... this snake is tough.." He coughed, wiping his mouth before getting up, grabbing his scythe. He was a bit wobbly, which concerned Kai.
"Yeah, and she seems to be avoiding dealing mass damages to me yet is going almost all out on the offensive against you guys.."
"Then get your butt in there and take main offense," Kai nodded, making sure Cole would be fine before leaping into action, charging at Kobeula in her blindspot before delivering a roundhouse kick to her, sending her spiraling with a hiss. She turned to look at Kai with narrowed eyes.
"I wassss trying to be nice, ssssince you ssseem to be brash and clumssssy... but it appearssss you want a beat up," Kai was about to retort to the remark she made before he was suddenly clocked on the side of his head with someone heavy. He hissed as he stumbled downwards, vision swimming as he fought passing out from the blow. He heard his name, although he didn't know who it was from. He pushed himself upwards, ignoring the pain in his hesd as he grabbed his swords again, perparing to attack Kobeula again. However, he failed to notice, until it was too late, the snake coming in with a charged beam of her power, which hit the mark of his stomach and caused him to go flying from the source. Searing pain erupted in his gut as he landed, the accompanying bloom of agony from his back winding him completely. He slide against the wall he'd been launched into, falling to the floor as he tried to regain his breath, leaning his aching head against the wall. He could only just make out the fight that was still raging, catching the immense waves of power Kobeula was emitting, which were dissipating only just out of reach of him, leaving him to try to recover as fast as he could.
As his senses came back into focus, he felt every wave of pain that latched onto his body, causing a major struggle to slow his breathing. All he could think about was getting back into the fight, knowing that his friends were struggling right now. Ignoring the pain, he slowly pushed himself back up, stumbling a bit. He almost fell back over, before feeling someone step behind and catch him, causing him to flinch as he snapped his head around, meeting the gaze of his worried sister.
"You should probably stay out of the fight for now, Lloyd's thinking of falling back due to injuries-"
"No, no I'm fine," He hissed, wincing at how strangled he sounded from still trying to slow his ragged breathing. She didn't buy this at all.
"You took a giant blast to the stomach, a major hit to the head and got thrown into a building hard enough the surface cracked," She pointed to the building behind them, gesturing to the now very obvious cracks creeping across the surface from the impact point where he'd been flung. He looked at it in exasperation.
"Ok, I get it but..." He turned to look back at his friends, of which Cole looked ready to pass out, Jay had blood trickling from a wound on his head and Lloyd was panting like a dog, using his sword as a crutch as he prepared for another attack. Seeing his friends like this tugged at his heart in a way that both infuriated and devastated him. He looked back at Nya, realizing how pale she was now. She had a large gash across her cheek, her ponytail in a ragged mess with a few tears in her gi.
"Lloyd wants to fall back," She repeated, worry turning into a nervous sweat, but it sounded hazy to him. He looked back at the fight, Kobeula with a sickening smile on her face, looking hardly injured at all.
"R-right, we-" He started to speak, before a chilling laughter stopped everyone in their tracks.
"Assss much fun assss thiss hasss been... I think it'd be eassssier to remove you all from disssturbing my planssss again.." She waved her arms together ominously as she spoke, before energy started to rapidly charge in mass, creating a compact ball of energy that looked highly unstable. Lloyd's eyes widened at this.
"EVERYONE TAKE COVER!" He shouted, rolling behind sone rubble desperately as he did so. Everyone else took his advice, and Nya did her best to shuffle herself and Kai over to a smaller pile of rubble. She tried to get him to go behind it, but he realized it'd only fit one person securely. He looked towards the ball of energy, panic rising. There wouldn't be enough time for Nya to take cover if I take this spot, he realized, blood running cold.
"Kai, please, you need to-" She began, before yelping as he wriggled out of her grasp and shoved her behind the rubble. She took a second to realize what he'd done, before her eyes widened in distress as she tried to leap back out to grab him. He shot her an apologetic look, much to her dismay, before Kobeula released the energy. The entire area was lit up with a wave of pure dark power, the force engulfing Kai instantaneously. His body immediately lit up in immense pain, and he barely even registered hitting something as the world faded, pain mixed with the negative energy overwhelming him into a void of silent darkness.