Befriending the Criminal

The Past and the Present

"Well, I'm perfectly happy with my life. Thank you very much."

The footsteps grew louder.

"No you're not. I can tell. You made a lot of choices you regretted, didn't you?" Kai smirked when he noticed the other shift uncomfortably.

Cole couldn't deny it. Kai was right after all. Cole knew the path he was following still left him wretched and lost. All it took was one wrong move after the other. A part of himself hated himself for running away. Another part of himself was content with all he did - he threw himself in the middle of danger without realizing the costs. He worried Garmadon. He worried Wu. He lost his parents. He lost his arm. Working for Chief Garmadon was just something he'd always dreamed of since a kid, and losing an arm didn't stop him from running into near-death situations. But Kai had a point. And Cole knew what he was trying to do.

"Guess we could fix that somehow… You know… If you let me out of here, free of harm, my sis and I could let you hang with us. We can do whatever you want, anything that would feel like it would, ehh, I dunno - sort of even out the playing field?"

Cole's arm blinked furiously and as the footsteps drew nearer, he waved his hand near the gun he had stolen from Kai.

All too suddenly, a wave of cops rolled in, guns in their hands as they flew past Cole and surrounded Kai. "Hands up where we can see them! And drop the bag!"

For a second, Kai looked to Cole, thinking that Cole had rejected Kai's words. He saw Cole's eyes dart around hesitantly, avoiding any eye contact with Kai.

Before the criminal could let go of the bag, a gun clicked from behind the officers. "Put your guns down, now." Kai felt a smile curl on his lips. An officer turned around and lowered his gun when he saw Cole raising the gun up at him. "And tell the rest of your friends to do the same."

As the officers lowered their guns, confused and scared of what was going on, Kai walked around them casually, the book bag still within his grasp. He met up with Cole, winked, and put a hand on his shoulder. "Looks like you did come around."

Cole ground his teeth together, annoyed by Kai's cocky attitude. Before he followed the criminal down the flights of steps, he raised his metallic arm up at the officers with a threatening look in his eyes. "The gun might be facing the other way, but you guys know how strong this arm is."

***

Present day. The day after Flintlock and the explosion.

It was getting incredibly warm and Cole couldn't help but continue to shift uncomfortably wherever he was. He couldn't even remember what exactly happened before. He tried to sit up but winced at the sore pains all over. So he opened his eyes instead and boy, did he regret it.

The light was so bright and it hurt.

When his vision finally came to focus, he observed what he could and instantly recognized it as Jay and Lloyd's shared house.

When and how did he get here?

He tilted his head to the coffee table, noticing a bowl of steaming soup and a glass of water next to it. And right there on the right was a stick of gum.

"Umm…" Fighting through the soreness, he sat up and faced the table, hunching closer to the table. He moved to pick up the gum but then saw the spoon beside the bowl and he picked it up, debating whether or not he should enjoy the soup that was laid out before him.

"Er, did you want me to pick him up?"

Cole's head whipped to the kitchen where the voice had come from.