Kai slowly opens his eyes to meet the endless void above him. His movements are heavy, and he shifts a little over a heap of something soft beneath him. His hands reach for what feels like thin leaves, and he pulls them to his face to see golden petals. Pulling himself up, he ignores the slight headache and looks around to see an empty room, completely devoid of anything except the flowers and himself.
He steps forward and instantly notices the feeling of grass grazing his feet. It tickles a little, but then his foot hits something.
"Oh... what the—?"
He grabs a red and white sneaker and inspects it. Looks a bit old and torn, but he slips it on his left foot anyway. Must've fallen off when... wait...
"How did I even...? Where am I?" Kai mumbles to himself. He crawls forward and searches for the second shoe, digging through the flowers to find it. When he finally has both sneakers on, he takes a moment to think.
"What the hell is this place?" Kai scans the room and begins to yell out for anyone. "Is there anybody in here? Come out and show yourself!"
Only his echoes ring through the eerie chamber. There's nothing there. Only a dimly lit opening glowing hundreds of feet in the air. In fact... there was no other option... he fell from all the way up there.
"Okay, but how in Ninjago did I even survive that fall? How am I even alive?" he asks aloud. "It's already weird that I don't remember falling to my 'death', but now I'm perfectly functional?" He shakes his head and starts to mutter. "There's some weird shit going on..."
Kai regains some of his energy after a few minutes and hoists himself on his feet. Hesitantly, he walks around and eventually notices a narrow hall. He instinctively reaches behind him, eyes suddenly widening as he realizes he doesn't have his weapon with him. Cursing angrily, he continues to sneak ahead, one slow step at a time.
Nothing was jumping out at him from anywhere, so he was in the clear for now. But he was considering whether he should just turn around because of how long and endless this tunnel was. Seriously, he was walking for about... five minutes straight? Maybe? Well, yeah, he was slow and alert, but he takes a mental note that limitless roads were definitely not his thing.
Minutes upon minutes keep building and using up his time. His feet begin to throb from the gradual pain of walking so much after waking up so recently. Who knew how long he was out for! He sure didn't!
Before his anger could overwhelm him, his eyes spot a weird, monumental-looking door. Well... more like an entrance. It was made up entirely of stone, some cracks seeping in from sides and corners. There was also this arc at the top that had an odd symbol embedded into it. Looked like some fairy icon you'd see in The Legend of Zelda.
Kai doesn't think too much on it and shrugs. Where else is he meant to go anyway? He walks in, still wary of his surroundings, but what he sees... definitely leaves him by surprise.
"What in the name of... who are you?!" he demands immediately. Spruced just a few feet away from him is a bright, golden flower. Except it had a face. A creepy one, at that.
"Ah! That isn't a very polite way of greeting someone, is it?" it asks surreptitiously. Its eyebrow shoots up and it sends him a sneaky glance. Kai's heart pounds.
"You can talk?" he says loudly. Nothing like this happens in Ninjago. Not that he recalls anyway.
"Of course I can, silly! Now, let me give you a real introduction," it chuckles innocently. The yellow petals around its head give a little shake and flutter eagerly. "Howdy! I'm Flowey. Flowey the Flower, that is!" A light shiver runs down Kai's spine when he receives a teasing wink from the thing. He forces himself to swallow when he laughs like a giddy child.
"But I must ask... why'd you make me introduce myself?" Flowey inquires. His stretched smile is still plastered on his face, but Kai can tell he's probably forcing it out by now. Even so, he was just about ready to tell Flowey that he made the decision of presenting himself first, until... "It's rude to act like you don't know who I am."
"What are you saying? I've never seen you in my life! I didn't even know talking flowers existed!" Kai shouts. His hands feel all fidgety.
Flowey's petals bristle again. "Wow. Someone ought to teach you proper manners, don't ya think?" he says joyfully. "You can't go around hurting people's feelings like that. But I guess little old me will have to do! Ready?"
"Hold on, say what now?"
"Here we go!"
"Wait!"
Kai's weight suddenly shifts and yanks him forward a little. He feels an uncomfortable tug around his chest. Then, looking down, he's suddenly stricken with horrible fear when he notices a red, glowing heart. Just floating there. He frantically pulls and grasps it, trying to get a hold of probably the most vital organ in his body, but it doesn't give in to his touch.
He hears Flowey cackle nearby. "See that heart?"
"YEAH, I SEE MY HEART!" Kai bellows. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO ME? I SHOULDN'T EVEN BE ALIVE RIGHT NOW!"
The golden flower grimaces at his voice, then he proceeds when Kai finally shuts up. "That's actually your SOUL. You know, the very culmination of your being!" This doesn't make matters any better, and Kai quivers a little. He's able to move around, but the feeling of the occasional push-and-pull is still there. He isn't in any danger either, but just looking at his heart... soul, or whatever... how could anyone not freak out?
"Your SOUL starts off weak but can grow strong if you gain a lot of LV," Flowey explains simply. Kai tilts his head and scrunches his face. What the heck was this, a videogame?
His expression must've been very obvious, since his new game instructor apparently held all information of this universe and talked about that too.
"What's LV stand for? Why, LOVE, of course!" he laughs. Kai nearly gags. Sure, he fell in and out of relationships before, but this was just making him sick to his stomach. "You want some LOVE, don't you?"
Uh, not from some psychotic flower, I don't! Kai thinks in alarm.
Flowey gives a little scoff and bounces around from where he's planted. "Don't worry over there! I'll share some with you!" He winks and sticks his tongue out as a small bonus. At this point, Kai wonders if he'll inject him with a weird substance or something.
He isn't that far off when, out of absolutely nowhere, these white things that look like pills suddenly appear around the flower. They circle around the air as if that isn't the strangest thing on the planet. Or wherever he is.
"Are you trying to get me to take drugs? What are those things?" Kai drawls. He tries to force down his growing fear, but he has a feeling this guy can sense it. A sudden flicker crosses Flowey's face, but it went as soon as it came. His cheeky grin flashes again.
"Um... no. Down here, LOVE is shared through..." there's some hesitation, and Kai catches onto that real good, "little white... friendliness pellets!" He even tells when Flowey's eyes dart away like he's hiding something pretty obvious. Something's up, and he isn't taking shit for it.
"Are you ready?" he asks, smiling widely.
Hell no, Kai thinks, but he stays quiet. His eyes skim the pellets—still unprescribed drugs to him, he doesn't care what that thing calls it—and continues to watch very closely as they begin to tremble even more.
"Move around!" he says shrilly, so much enthusiasm in his voice. The white pellets advance toward him and cross each other to get to him. "Get as many as you can!"
Kai doesn't know what it is, but he has no trust in anything right now, even if a goddamn talking flower were to be his guide around this darkened place. Yeah, he isn't that old, but he isn't so young to follow a stranger into their van to get a hold of candy. Thankfully they weren't that fast, so he easily avoids them by stepping away.
Almost immediately the mood darkens, and a frown creases Flowey's face. He still holds a forced smile on his face, but his look definitely says otherwise.
"Hey, buddy. You missed them," he points out. The golden petals on his head slightly droop, but he doesn't look sad or anything. He seems kinda pissed. "Let's try again, shall we?"
What is it with you and not taking any hints? Kai almost retaliates, but he manages to hold back at the last second. Instead, he provides a small nod of his head. Flowey's grin brightens once more, and a second round of pellets appear. They come for him again, but the brunette lets out a short yawn and steps aside. Again, he feels the environment change to something a bit worse, but he kinda expects it. He knows he's a troublemaker, he should know.
He sees the tiny flower bristle. "Is this a joke?" he demands angrily. "Are you braindead or something?!" Kai slightly fumes at his words, but what he hears next surprises him.
"RUN. INTO. THE. BULLETS!" It's so loud and clear in the open room they were in, but Flowey wiggles around and tries to shine for him. "Friendliness pellets, I mean! You know how it goes!"
Kai quickly moves to the other side when the pellets aim for his previous spot. He patiently waits for this bozo to get the dialogue moving. "Look, pal, I totally appreciate the gesture and all, but I have no idea where the hell I am, and I honestly don't think these things are gonna help out much. You get what I'm tryna say here—?"
And then he sees it.
Face now warped and hellish, black holes fill Flowey's eyes, leaving two dots piercing his literal soul. His mouth stretches right to the ends of his head to form a malevolent smile. He opens his mouth and speaks in the most terrifying voice Kai thinks he's ever heard from what he can remember.
" ' , D O N ' ?"
"Woah, what the—?! Your voice isn't even the same anymore! I knew something wasn't right!" Kai rears back and curses when he nearly trips over himself. "Holy shit, what happened to you? What is going on in this place?!"
" ! !"
Kai stands, baffled. "Hang on a sec, I just woke up not too long ago! How was I supposed to come here knowing some freaky murderous flower was gonna leave a terrifying imprint in front of my eyes?"
This time, a full ring of white pellets circles Kai all around. They continue to rotate and block all exits to survive. Flowey barks out with malicious cackling and huffs out uneven breaths to catch up on breath. He's wheezing and hacking, but he keeps mocking Kai and spewing awful words.
"Y O U ' , ' ?" he screams. He pulls forward from his rooted stem and writhes around violently. He curses his name, wishing I'll upon him and, finally, glaring so hard he could kill the human with just his look.
Kai tries to run around and find a possible route out of his imminent death, but he makes sure he's careful not to touch any of the bullets. Just being near them makes him believe it's game over sooner than he may think. But he decides to mock Flowey anyway. He was starting to get really annoying, let's be honest.
I can make it out of this, no problem, he thinks heatedly. He's just a lousy leaf compared to me. I can try to jump past those white things and go for him—
Flowey seethes beneath his breath and pushes the ends of his distorted mouth into one last grin.
"D I E , ," he growls, every bit of his tone mad with unbridled menace, and he directs the bullets forward. They spin faster and faster and shoot straight for him. Kai frantically looks around, but the horrible laughter of this satanic plant floods his ears. The bullets close in on him, and he knows he's running out of time too fast.
He doesn't waste another second as he puts some of his weight on his feet. Mind fogging up, he suddenly runs forward and jumps as far as he can. His arms and shoulders manage to surpass the front line of Flowey's attack, and for a second his chest soars with relief, but then he feels a very hard knock against his legs. The impact burns and sends a flash of bruising pain through his limb, but he's confused when he doesn't find himself dead on the floor.
Kai lands on the floor—ungracefully if you will—and rolls on his side. He hisses at the lingering pain, but it soon disappears into nothingness. Flowey's shrieking subsides to soft grunts of confusion, and he quickly frowns at this revelation.
"W-what happened...?" he mutters, kind of addled. Kai honestly feels the same—he thought for sure he was a goner, but apparently not? He wasn't complaining, though. Hooray to surviving another day from a random hysterical doomsday flower?
From the corner of their eyes, a bright ball of light catches their attention. Subtle flames lap the empty air and begin to hurdle toward the two of them. Kai watches, enthralled and also terrified at the random appearance of a huge ball of fire. He gets ready to book it until it averts him and crashes into Flowey. He takes a moment to take in what just happens, but he shrugs and watches the flower fly across the room, screaming furiously all the while.
"Huh. Well, I guess that takes care of that," Kai says, pretty impressed. He turns his head to look for the source of the attack, eyebrows shooting up when he finds something—or someone—he doesn't quite expect.
"What a terrible creature, torturing such a poor, innocent youth..."