Breakfast was just about finished on the sailing Bounty, and it seemed like everyone was fully awake by now. The ninja brought up the Serpentine, and are currently testing Lloyd's knowledge on the snakes.
With her arms crossed on the dinner table, Alyssa raises an eyebrow towards the blond in front of her. "Okay, so what do you do when a Serpentine goes to attack you?"
Lloyd bounces in his seat, already coming up with a battle plan that he excitedly lays out for them. "First, I'll stomp on his tail. Then when he turns, a thunder clap to his ears! Then when he's stunned, I'll disarm him!"
Cole laughs breathily and shakes his head. "Too late, he's already hypnotised you and now you're under his control."
Zane, sitting besides Cole, nods his head softly. "Or he's already put you in a squeeze." He clenches his hand into a fist to demonstrate his words.
Kai places a hand on Lloyds shoulder while his other arm wiggles in front of the boys face. "Or spit on you with his hallucinatory venom." He chuckles, lightly hitting the table with a shake of his head. "Trust me, bad stuff."
Lloyd groans and looks towards Wu with a frown, "Uncle, what's the best way to stun a Serpentine if you don't know what kind they are?"
Wu, who had just entered the room with a large grey box, carefully sets it down on the table with a frown. Taking a seat with a small sigh, he shakes his head. "Sadly, it was the Sacred Flute you five carelessly lost."
Jay tuts loudly and shakes his hands in the air, "Hey, no, no, no, we didn't lose it. Pythor stole it." He corrects, though it doesn't improve Wu's deadpan expression.
"We didn't have much choice over that." Alyssa mutters, finger circling the rim of her cup with a small frown.
Wu reaches for the teapot on the table and pours himself a steaming cup of tea, eyes slightly narrowed. "Whatever the case, without it I fear we have nothing to combat their powers. We may have prevented them from uniting in the past, but they will try again, and one day they will be stronger."
Cole places a hand to his chest, "Don't worry. I've almost reached my Full Potential, and when I become the Green Ninja, we're not gonna need any magic flute."
This instantly sets off Kai, who raises a sharp eyebrow over at Cole. "You're gonna be the Green Ninja?" He chuckles sarcastically and quickly cuts himself off by pointing a finger at him. "Don't make me laugh."
"We're really doing this again?" Groaning into her folded arms, Alyssa shakes her head. She was tired of hearing about this conversation. It was always the same.
Zane tilts his head and looks between both Cole and Kai, who were currently having a glaring competition. "I thought it was decided that I was destined to become the Green Ninja."
Jay only chuckles and lays a hand on Zane's shoulder, tightly shaking the boy. "Oh, the only thing decided about you, Zane, is that you're weird."
An argument was quick to spread around the four, all while Alyssa just lifted her head from her arms to send Lloyd an unimpressed expression, one that he was matching. She quietly mouths the words 'help me' towards him, making a smile twitch on his lips.
Quick to end the girls suffering, Lloyd pushes himself off his seat to wander over to Wu's side, "Yeah, yeah, yeah. " He rolls his eyes at the arguing and points to the box in front of Wu, catching the attention of the others. "What's in the box?"
Wu smiles, eyes squinting as he takes the lid off the box, "Your new uniforms." This causes them all to gasp in excitement, even Lloyd was staring at the box with sparkling eyes.
Each reaching out, they grab their new uniforms that were neatly folded in a case. They knew which box was theirs easily, their represented animals on front of the packaging. Alyssa takes hers last from the pile, smiling down at the griffin symbol.
The boys instantly awed over every detail on their new uniforms, pointing out the new armour and such. Lloyd, watching them gush with excitement, frowns and turns towards his Uncle. "Nothing for me?"
Wu quickly tries to lighten the boys mood, fingers drumming against the empty box. "You get, uh, the box?" He pushes the box towards Lloyd, who's face only drops more.
Just as the ninja were about to try on their new gear, alarms blare loudly across the bounty, red flashing lights covering their faces. Everyone was quick to jump out of their seats to rush towards the Bridge. A small screen shows a map, and when Cole presses a simple button, it zooms in on a certain area, which looks to be an amusement park.
Cole glares heatedly when the screen zooms in even closer to reveal exactly what had set the alarm off. "Sorry to break up the moment, guys, but a small faction of our slithering friends are stirring up trouble at Mega Monster Amusement Park."
Lloyd brightens up at the four words, raising his arms as he bounces on his toes. "Amusement park? Can I go? Can I go with you, please? Let me make things up! I can help!" He tries his best to convince them all, almost begging to each of them as he circles the group.
When he finally stops at Wu, the old man sighs softly down at him. Which was great, Alyssa was almost tempted to break just so the kid could enjoy some rides. "I'm sorry, nephew. You will stay here, where it's safe."
Lloyd's happiness was instantly destroyed, the boy dropping his arms as he mumbles, kicking his feet into the wood. "Ninja get all the fun."
"Maybe next time?" Alyssa tries her best to cheer him up, sending him a tiny smile which he only crosses his arms at with a sigh.
Jay places a hand on her shoulder, snapping her out of her small daze as he grins at her and the other ninja. "What do you say, guys? Time to try out the new merchandise?"
When she was finished putting on her new gi, Alyssa takes on last glimpse of herself in her mirror. She shifts the armour around on her shoulders, the little extra weight needs a bit of getting use to, but it was otherwise comfortable. Sliding her necklace underneath her shirt, she shuffles out of her room and closes the door behind her.
She meets up with the others on the deck, where she hears them chatting about their new suits. "You guys look great, I think I prefer these compared to our old uniforms." She takes in each of their forms, noticing that each one was just a tad bit different armour wise.
"You can say that again." Kai grins, tapping the armour on his shoulders. "Where were these bad boys when we needed them?"
Jay sighs loudly and waves around his nunchucks at them both, "You wanna strut your stuff on the catwalk, or get down to that amusement park so we can go on some rides?"
"You mean take care of the Serpentine, right?" Alyssa raises an eyebrow at him before pulling down her mask. She almost melts at the new clothing smell.
"That's definitely what he meant." Cole shoves Jay out of the way of the railing so he could jump onto it, pulling out his scythe and balancing himself on the wood. "Meet you slowpokes down there." With that, he jumps off the railing to speed towards the ground on his summoned vehicle.
The others are quick to dive down after him, leaving trails in the clouds around them. With the amusement park right under them it only took a few minutes to get to the ground. Their vehicles burst into colour as they all easily land on the dirt of the amusement park, not a speck on them.
"Check that out." Cole places his scythe on his back and grins, hands on his hips as they walk towards a small clustered group of people, "And not a scratch on me."
A group of mainly women cheer, their backs facing the approaching group of Ninja. That doesn't stop Jay from chuckling, "Ladies, relax, relax, we have arrived."
"I don't think they're cheering for us, Jay." Alyssa mutters, leading the group through the crowd that she pushes past just to see a group of Serpentine tied together.
"Uh," Kai furrows his eyebrows and taps a nearby woman's shoulder, "What just happened?"
The woman sighs almost dreamily, "Oh, you totally missed it. There were like, icky snakes, and then this mysterious Samurai came in and saved everyone."
The woman on the other side of him nods, hands on her cheeks as she swoons. "He was, like, gorgeous."
Kai's eyes widen, and though he was annoyed, he was more curious at that moment. "You saw his face?" His face falls when she shakes her head, lost in her daydream.
Out of nowhere, Nya comes up to hand the two women some ice cream with a smile, shocking them all. "Nya, you're here." Jay blinks rapidly at her, making sure she was actually there.
Nya shrugs with a smile, "Yeah, you just missed all the action. He just flew in, took care of business, and then flew off. It was pretty cool." Her voice was a tad breathless, but no one mentioned anything as she turns to leave them.
Overhearing some of the conversations of passing people had some of the ninja annoyed, no one seemed to be interested in ninja anymore, it was all about the Samurai now.
"Ugh, who is this guy?" Kai groans, glaring at the wriggling snakes in their binds as if they knew who the Samurai was.
Cole watches the group of people disperse, each chatting excitedly about the mysterious warrior. "Whoever he is, he's stealing our thunder."
"And we just got these cool new ninja suits." Jay stares down at his new black gloves, only to clench his hands into fists with an annoyed huff. "I'm gonna say it: I hate Samurai." He crosses his arms, most likely pouting under his mask.
"Do I hear a hint of jealousy?" Wu, like Nya, emerges out of nowhere, cotton candy in his hands as he approaches the group. "Maybe this can be a lesson for you."
Jay groans, "Not another lesson - Hey, how'd you get here so quick?" He cuts himself off, eyeing the Sensei up and down.
"I was about to ask the same thing." Alyssa taps a foot on the ground, almost staring at the sweet treat with jealousy. Would she have enough time to sneak off and grab some for herself?
"The lesson is iron sharpens iron." Wu ignores them, pointing the cotton candy at them all with a small grin.
Zane frowns, trying to run the words through his mind to decipher them. "I do not follow, Sensei."
"Healthy competition can help you reach your True Potential faster." Wu walks past them, the five quick to get out of his way, "Do not be jealous of this Samurai, let it inspire you." He suddenly gasps loudly, "Ferris wheel!"
Alyssa swears she's never seen her mentor run as fast as he did towards that Ferris wheel in her entire life, and she was suddenly concerned with his health if he was running that fast.
"Inspire?" Jay mutters, glancing at the others to see if they understood anything Wu told them.
Kai taps his chin through his mask, "Wait a minute. Maybe the old man's right."
Scoffing, Cole crosses his arms with a shift of his footing. "You want us to compete with the Samurai? He's got all the cool gadgets, we don't stand a chance."
Kai shakes his head, a hand out to stop the others from agreeing. "No, not with him. With us. I say we turn this into our own competition. Whichever of us is skilled enough to catch this mysterious Samurai is probably the best of the bunch." He takes out his sword, almost slicing the tip off a random guys hat.
Jay hims lowly, the idea starting to sink in. "So whoever learns the identity of this Samurai is the one who will become the destined Green Ninja." He chuckles loudly, "I love it!"
Cole grins next, "Then it's a bet. May the Green Ninja win!"
"What?" Alyssa was finally able to get in, about to put out her own worries when they all suddenly sprinted off to summon their vehicles. "Guys! This is a terrible idea!" She sighs, dropping her outstretched hand as she slowly walks after them. "That's not what Sensei meant at all."
Not even an hour after being back on the Bounty, the sound of alarms go off once again. Nya clicks franticly on the control panel, eyes taking in as much information as she could. She turns to the others when they come rushing in, most of them almost too eager for the situation. "Multiple snake sightings! They're everywhere!"
"You know what to do, guys!" Cole leads the pack out to the deck, unaware of the missing ninja who stays back with Nya.
"Alyssa?" The girl raises an eyebrow at the purple ninja, who only rolls her eyes after her team. "Why're you still here?"
"I think they have it all handled." She sighs, turning to head under the deck, "I'll look after Lloyd, so feel free to do as you please with your spare time." She calls over her shoulder and instantly heads towards the gaming room, where she has a feeling that the young kid would be distracting himself.
She was right. Lloyd sits crossed legged on a pillow, a bored expression on his face as he lazily presses a button on the controller in his lap. He doesn't seem to react at all when his character dies, and only sighs loudly. "Bored?" She asks, making him yelp in shock and fumble with the controller.
"Alyssa!" He tries to play it cool, clearing his throat and placing the controller safely on the ground in front of him. "I didn't hear you come in, what're you still doing here? I thought there was an emergency?"
She shakes her head and leans against the doorway, arms crossed as she tries to hide her annoyance at the thought of the stupid bet her friends were currently partaking in. "Nothing that needs me. So, I though I could keep the both of us busy, if you're up for it?"
She watches him light up, eyes wide with an excited smile. "Yeah!" He jumps up, now fully energised as he bounces up to her, rocking on his feet that makes her chuckle. "What're we doing? Where are we going?"
"You'll find out when we get there, come on." She grins, his excitement almost contagious as she leads him to the deck. "You afraid of heights?" She asks, pulling herself onto the decks railings with ease.
Lloyd nervously plays with his hands, watching her for a moment before glancing down to the open sky beneath them. "Uh, no?" He wasn't quite sure himself and with her small grin, he felt like he might not have answered honestly.
"Great, then hold on." Alyssa reaches over and grabs him by the hood, yanking him up and over the side of the railing. The wind rushes through their hair, and she has to stop herself from laughing at the kids shriek of horror.
She reaches behind her with her free hand, fingers touching the hilt of her katana. Making sure Lloyd was close to her side, she summons her hover bike, blinding them both for a few second. She blinks away the small blur in her eyes and feels Lloyd shaking in front of her, hands clinging to the front of her gi.
Revving the engine, she speeds towards the ground, trails of neon purple being left by her turned wheels. The city comes hurling at them, and Lloyd thought they were about to crash straight into the road. He breathes out a loud sigh of relief when the bike hovers sharply along the road, flopping back into Alyssa who chuckles.
"Sorry." She apologies once she slows down to a reasonable speed, over taking a driving car with a small crooked smile. "It was the fastest way down."
Lloyd swallows thickly after getting over his fear, and he slowly starts to get use to the feeling of the hovering wheels that trail along the road. "I...I wasn't scared." He doesn't need to look back to her to know she was grinning from ear to ear.
They take a few turns, smoothly passing any slower vehicles until Alyssa starts to slow her bike. An arcade sign glows just ahead of them, and just as Lloyd started to get excited, it immediately vanishes when he takes the place in. The bike comes to a stop, and with a flash, it was gone.
Alyssa catches Lloyd by the forearms before he could fall face first into the road and helps him stand on his feet. He regains his footing to glare up at the sign, pointing a finger at the bright writing as he shoots her a look. "Kiddie Arcade? Seriously? Isn't there a decent arcade around here?"
The tall girl only shrugs, her eyes following a pair of kids who giggle happily as they enter the arcade. "Probably, but this one seems more your style." She chuckles. Ignoring his groan, she pushes him gently towards the arcade with a hand on his right shoulder. "Come on, give it a chance."
They enter the arcade and are instantly hit with the sound of laughing children, the smell of greasy food and rowdy machines. The overall noise has Alyssa wincing, knowing she was going to leave the place with a headache. Lloyd notices her expression and grins, arms crossed over his chest.
She stares down at him and sighs almost tiredly. "Don't even say anything." She grumbles, moving around a group of kids with their newly achieved prizes and stands in front of the front desk. She rummages around in her pockets and pulls out a wad of cash to lay it on the counter, "However many tokens this'll give me, please."
The cashier happily snatches the money and brings her back a bag of tokens that jingle loudly as they are passed to Alyssa. She thanks them and turns back to find Lloyd already at a machine, bright eyes taking in the most likely violent game.
She silently joins his side and drops the bag of tokens in front of him, "Think this'll keep us busy for a while?" She watches him marvel at the brown paper bag, his hands already digging in to grab a silver token.
"How much did this cost?" He breathes, peering into the bag with wide eyes. "This must've cost a fortune! We'll be here all day!" He gapes up at her, all while she scoffs playfully and waves him off.
"Doubt it, shortie." Alyssa reaches over and takes the silver token from his hand and slides it into the slot, starting up the game. "Now add your token and show me how to play this thing."
Lloyd raises an eyebrow and fishes himself another token to add it to the machine, the Player 2 lighting up. "You've never played an arcade game before?" He questions, moving around his joystick to select his character.
She shakes her head, eyes squinted as she debates on her own character. "Haven't had the time, to be honest. But," She finally decides on a strong looking female character and side eyes Lloyd with a small smile, "With you as my teacher, I should learn fairly quickly."
The round ended quickly, Lloyd coming out the victor while Alyssa's character disintegrates into nothing but pixels. Lloyd bites back a grin at her defeated look that reflects back at her in the black Game Over screen and takes out two more tokens, holding one out for her. "Looks like we'll be here for a while."
Two hours pass and they've gone through almost every machine in the arcade. Lloyd had won most of the games, though Alyssa had finally picked up the basics when the first hour had passed. Their token bag was getting lighter and lighter, until only a few were left.
Lloyd was gazing around the arcade, trying to find a game they hadn't played yet when something caught his attention outside. Green scales. The Serpentine. He almost drops the bag in shock when he catches sight of Skales figure that slinks off around the corner.
"Ready for another round?" Alyssa comes up next to him, cracking her knuckles loudly while Lloyd tries to think up a quick plan, "I think I might be able to win this time." She chuckles, unaware of his internal battle.
"Uh," Lloyd quickly dumps the bag of tokens into his hoodie pocket when she looks away from him, "Looks like we're out of tokens! You wouldn't mind getting some more, right?" He smiles up at her, holding the bag out as he pulls the best puppy dog eyes he could.
Rolling her eyes, she takes the empty bag with a small laugh. "Sure thing, kiddo. I'll be right back, don't get into any trouble while I'm gone, got it?" Patting his head, she shuffles around him to pay for some more tokens.
When Alyssa was deemed far enough, Lloyd took action. If he was going to fix his problems, he was going to do it himself without dragging her into it. Only a few minutes later, Alyssa goes back to where she left Lloyd, only to frown at his disappearance. "Lloyd?"
The crisp morning air drifts past the flying Bounty, the sails dancing in the wind. Four ninja and Nya sit around the dining table, all dressed in their usual attire.
Cole drums his fingers along the wood of the table, annoyance in his tone as he speaks. "Trying to find out the Samurai's identity is more of a nuisance than the snakes. Any luck with you?" He turns to Jay who sits on the other side of Zane.
"The guy's elusive. He's like a ghost. One moment he's there, the next he's gone." Jay huffs, arms crossed on the table as he glares at his cup of water.
Zane slowly nods, "I am starting to believe we might never catch him." He frowns, on the verge of giving up on the whole bet.
Kai grabs his cup and purses his lips, "I think it's safe to say, none of us are closer to proving we're the Green Ninja." He sighs, taking a long sip of his drink.
Sliding open the door to the room, Wu paces in and quietly shuts it behind him as he smiles at his students. "Looks like iron is sharpening iron. I feel you are getting closer to your True Potential." He looks over Cole and reaches out to lightly squeeze his arm.
Cole only frowns and pulls his arm back, "Ow!"
Wu chuckles softly and takes in the rest of the ninja, only to furrow his eyebrows at the loss of two people. "Where is my nephew? And where is Alyssa?"
"Alyssa took Lloyd out yesterday." Nya frowns slightly, pushing her cup away from her as she now notices that she hadn't seen them come back.
"I thought Kai was on babysitting duty yesterday." Cole raises an eyebrow towards Kai, who bites the inside of his cheek.
"Well when I looked around for the little guy, I thought you took him out, Cole." Kai fires back quickly, hoping to shove it off onto someone else.
"Me? I looked after him the other day! Jay was-"
Jay quickly shakes his head, "Don't bring me into this. I babysat yesterday morning!"
Zane sighs and turns to Wu, "Sensei, we have not seen them."
Suddenly, the door was slid open with such a force that it had the entire deck shaking. Alyssa stands there, disheveled with tears running down her face. She breathes heavily, chest heaving as she tries to speak through her hyperventilating. "Lloyd- I lost him! We...We were at the arcade and...and I turned away for one second and then he wasn't there so I searched around and when I couldn't find him I panicked and didn't even think to call you guys so-"
"Whoa, whoa!" Cole slowly raises his hands and rushes to her side, noticing a panic attack when he sees one. He rubs a hand along her back and subtly urges Jay to bring a cup of water over. The boy in blue quickly grabs his water and passes it to Cole, who hands it to Alyssa with a frown, "Calm down and have some water, okay?"
She swallows thickly and nods, taking the cup with shaky and cold hands. She didn't notice or care that it was Jays and chugs the whole thing, most likely dehydrated from crying for who knows how long. When she finally finishes the cup, she wipes her mouth with a sniff. "Sorry." She mumbles, ashamed of her public breakdown.
"Don't be." Cole smiles in reassurance and takes the empty cup from her to hand it back to Jay, "Now try to explain what happened."
She wipes her hands on her pants and feels her panic slowly rise again. "I took Lloyd to the arcade yesterday and somehow lost him. I looked all over the place and when I couldn't find him I tried to look around outside the arcade. I kind of just panicked and searched the whole city and stupidly didn't even think to call you guys." She groans, rubbing her eyes, "I was out there all night trying to find him."
Wu reaches over and places a hand on one of her shoulders, eyes full of worry for both her and Lloyd. "It is not your fault. We must find the boy before he gets himself into trouble."
She nods shakily and fumbles with her fingers, "I lost him in Kiddie Arcade, we can start there and then-"
Cole shakes his head and gently pats her back, "Oh, no. You're not coming with." At her look of utter astonishment, he continues, "You were up all night looking for him! The only thing you're doing now is sleeping while the rest of us go find him."
"But-"
"Not listening. Come on, bed time for you." Cole knows that the only way he would win was by dragging her to her own bed. He guides her by the small of her back, missing the tired yet pleading look she sends Wu.
She ends up sighing in defeat, letting him take her to her room. She was too exhausted to fight back at this point. They make it down the hallway and Cole even opens the door for her, revealing the comfort of her bed.
"Lay down, and I better not catch you up when we get back." He mutters, hands out under her just in case she slipped while getting into bed. When she rests her back against the mattress, he pulls the covers up to her neck and smiles down at her, "Comfy?"
She only frowns, blurry eyes staring back into his as she shuffles under the covers. "You'll find him, right?" She asks quietly, almost afraid of the answer.
He doesn't hesitate to answer her, even if he wasn't truly sure they would find Lloyd or not. "Of course we will." He watches her body relax instantly at his words and he doesn't regret them as her eyes drift to a close.
Stirring in her bed, Alyssa tries to drown out the loud noise of people speaking next door. She sighs when the chatting seems to quiet down and almost falls back to sleep if her body didn't jolt awake at the sudden realisation that it was the others talking in their room.
Quickly scrambling out of bed, she spots the twinkling stars outside her window. She had slept the whole day away, all of it while the others were out looking for Lloyd. She should have been the one looking for him, she was the one to lose him in the first place, it was her fault.
With hope that they at least found him, she leaves her room to step out into the hallway. It was then that she took notice that her shoes were off. Cole must have really taken the big brother roll then, and it warmed her heart that he cared so much, even after she snapped at him all those nights ago.
She doesn't bother fixing the rest of her attire, instead taking her long hair out of its ponytail and leaving her gi all crumbled. With the boys just next door, she was there in a minute. She closes her eyes in a silent prayer before knocking gently on the bedroom door, waiting patiently for someone to answer.
It was Cole who creaks open the door, dressed in his striped black PJ's and ready for bed. His eyes widen momentarily at her presence, and his face crumbles at her quick question. "Did you find him?"
"Well, we did..." He starts, internally wincing at her smile, "But the Serpentine have captured him. I'm sorry, Alyssa."
"The Serpentine?" She whispers quietly, eyes unfocused as she stares right past him. "They have him? How? What...What happened? We need to go and save him!"
Cole hears the others in the room mutter between each other in hushed voices, so he steps forward and closes the door behind him. He sighs heavily, "We can't. Pythor's united all the tribes, and if we tried to save Lloyd again, it'd be suicide."
"We can't just leave him there!" She runs a hand through her hair, taking a few steps back until her back hits the wall, "Who knows what they'll do to him, I can't let him be hurt because of my carelessness."
"Hey, none of this is because of you and we're not giving up on him, I promise you that." He narrows his eyes, kneeling down just enough so he could meet hers. "We'll get him back, I know we will."
She blinks back the incoming tears of frustration and nods, and when he opens his arms she almost let her walls break once again. She reaches out and wraps her arms around his shoulders, and his warm embrace has hope rising inside of her once again, a fickle thing that she was trying to keep in one piece.