Our friend is back, yay!
Dude, don't ask him for our chances
At getting barbequed.
~~~
"Zane?!" All of them shouted in unison, that honestly kinda scared the nindroid.
"Uhm...hello...friends." Zane paused between words, his smile looked terribly forced.
"Zane, where were you? We were so worried!" Lloyd exclaimed, he had a wide smile on his face and Zane just could not make out why is it that they're so happy to see him. He came back, what's there to be happy about?
"We thought you got blown off somewhere or...or...." Jay chimed in, he clenched his fists and looked like a time bomb on the verge of exploding, "I..I thought we'd lose you again, you jerk!"
Zane's forced smile turned upside down, "I'm sorry, I won't do it again."
Everyone just stared at him as if he was wearing a jester costume, humiliating himself but clearly wasn't enough to make anyone laugh.
"Zane..." Cole couldn't express his feelings in words. He was happy that Zane was okay, on the other hand, he wanted to drop an anvil on his head to see if he was still the Zane he knew. He couldn't help but notice there's something weird about the nindroid, it's as if he came back a different person. (Or a different nindroid.)
"Zane!" Another robotic voice crashed into the conversation. Within seconds, Zane found himself in the arms of another nindroid.
"...Pixal?" Zane remembered the girl's name faintly, but he barely remembered anything about her. Was she supposed to be his girlfriend? Maybe? But really, he doesn't understand the purpose of having a lover. He's not sure whether if he understood love even, he probably did before but he doesn't now.
As Pixal embraced their hug, Zane wrapped his own arms around her torso after what felt like ages.
"As long as you're safe, we're glad to have you back buddy." Kai chimed in, he smiled.
Seeing this, Zane forced out another smile. Though, really, was it actually forced? Because it didn't feel as weird as it did the first time.
"Okay, that's one problem solved, but we still have a rogue elemental master to worry about." Lloyd sighed, he tried to recall what Neon did to them in the past few months.
Let's rewind, shall we?
Cole got stabbed, a giant piece of crystal pierced his abdomen. Ouch. Yeah, then Jay got pushed off the Borg Tower. He didn't die, totally fine. Nya got attacked in the hospital, woohoo! And then the monastery got blown up, twice. Life couldn't be better!
"I'm getting a little tired of this, she's always one step ahead of us. We need to stop her, once and for all." Lloyd crossed his arms. The tension in the atmosphere started building itself up again and Jay just deadpanned as if saying: Whatever happened to the wholesome moment of having Zane back in the monastery?
"Wonderful. Except, like you said, she's always one step ahead of us. How are we supposed to stop her if she's always prepared? We need to find a way to take her by suprise." Cole chimed in.
At first, Zane didn't intend to do anything at all. Heck, they could imagine him as a statue and he wouldn't even care, because he had no purpose in getting involved with the conversation. But a voice rang through his mind, the voice he was told to only respond to.
Suggest for them to come to my hideout.
Zane blinked. He started talking, against his own will. It's weird, because he doesn't seem to mind at all.
"May I suggest to raid her hideout and take her by suprise? That is, if she's there. If not, we can still scout for information." Zane spoke, all eyes turned to him.
"What a great plan!" Jay exclaimed, sarcastically. "It's not like we don't know where her hideout is or anything, right?"
Give it up for Jay, the master of sarcasm, everyone.
Lloyd was about to say something, when Zane abruptly turned his attention towards Kai. His gaze ever serious and that sort of took Kai by suprise.
"Why don't we ask Kai?" Zane said.
It was that, Kai could feel his body stiffen. His feet glued to the ground, although every part of his body screamed: RUN!
"What?" Nya spoke, finally.
Kai bit his own lip. He glanced at Zane, and the sudden appearance of so many questions in his mind confused him. One of them being: How did Zane knew I knew where Neon's hideout was? I didn't tell anyone about what happened...did I?
"Kai, what is Zane talking about?" Cole asked. He urged Kai to speak, supposedly getting impatient, but with his hand on his shoulder, he expressed only concern.
"I..." Kai muttered. Seeing everyone looking at him, he suddenly felt weak. Yes, the all-so-confident Kai Smith, felt weak.
Kai swallowed a whole urge to just run away like a scared little mice, whether he liked it or not, he had to confront his friends. "I...well...I might of accidentally found Neon's hideout when I snuck out, just a little before the monastery exploded."
"Wow, I totally believe you, Kai." Jay said, sarcastically. (Sigh, let's just call Jay the sarcastic ninja instead of the lightning ninja from now on, 'kay?)
"Okay, not 'accidentally'." Kai admitted.
Lloyd growled in annoyance. "Kai, seriously? You could've gotten killed!"
Kai looked seriously offended, that's what he looked like. "I can take her! If only she didn't distract me with her change of heart, which by the way, was super fake. I saw right through it, but she opened up this hole in the ground and I fell-" Kai wanted to continue on, but all of his friends were looking at him, disappointment hung over their faces like big sign boards highlighted in flashing colours, he stopped. (Except for Zane.)
"Okay, nevermind that. So you know where her hideout is?" Lloyd spoke again, this time, his voice a bit softer this time.
"...Yeah."
•••
Kai believed in justice. Sure, of course he does.
But the way his friends were giving him sour looks because he sneaked out that night, and almost got himself killed, that was just not justice. If he hadn't snuck out, they wouldn't even know where Neon's hideout would be.
But alas, he gave himself a good slap in the face and told himself that he was being selfish for thinking that. No matter what, sneaking out and almost getting himself killed was still his own fault.
Everyone gave him sour looks except for one particular person---Cole. (Oh, wow, totally didn't expect that.)
He didn't look at all disappointed, maybe he was but he did a great job at hiding it. Because all he did was just stare at Kai, his eyes communicating with him as if whispering: It's okay, I'm with you. over and over again into his ears.
Yeah, pfft, maybe Cole wasn't disappointed with him, but Kai was sure disappointed with himself.
Hooray, what a great day to let down your friends.
"Kai." Ah, the usual tone Cole gets into when he calls out Kai's name. And usually, Kai would lighten up when he hears that tone. But in this situation, he just sat there, staring out into the pool of multi-coloured paint splattered all across the sky, forming a beautiful view.
At least, only Cole found it beautiful.
"Kai, are you alright?" Cole sat down beside him. He stared at the sky, and for moment he was mesmerized. But then he averted his gaze and looked at Kai, it's as if he decided Kai was more beautiful than the sky.
"Kai, tell me what's wrong." Cole asked, he kept his voice patient.
Go on Kai, tell him what's wrong, he'll definitely pat you on the back and comfort you. You need comfort, right? Said Selfish Kai.
No! I can't have him worry about me all the time, if I do then I'm not a good boyfriend at all. Said Guilty Kai.
But if he worries about you, then you'd receive the comfort you totally deserve! Countered Selfish Kai.
I don't deserve anything, I'm terrible. Guilty Kai responded. Selfish Kai had no say in this.
The brunette sighed, he looked downwards, suddenly interested in the concrete floor he's sitting on. Flowers sprouted from the cracks, they swayed along the wind as if greeting him.
"It's just that..." Kai started, he barely said a few words and already felt lost for words.
"Hm?" Cole hummed, encouraging him to continue. And continue, he did. Well, he tried to.
"I...I feel terrible for what I did, and I know I was putting my life on the line just so I could...get revenge." Kai's voice curled, making it seem as if he was asking himself a question with an answer he wasn't even sure if it's true. "I know it was a stupid thing to do, but..."
Cole waited.
Kai gave another sigh, he decided the floor was getting boring to look at so he pulled his gaze back to the sky again, "...who am I kidding, there are no buts. That's just it, I know I'm horrible."
"But you did it, you sneaked out anyway." Cole added.
"Oh wonderful, thanks for reminding me." Kai deadpanned, he still wouldn't bring himself to look at the raven-haired boy.
Cole chuckled. Kai swallowed back the need to just say: Dude, I'm trying to be angsty here, chuckle again and I will chuck the life out of you.
"But you're not horrible either." Cole shifted closer, their shoulders brushed. But Kai didn't seem to pay any attention to Cole's actions. "You just like to act before you think, which is something I sometimes do. So it's not at all horrible."
"Says who?" Kai shot back, his eyes started to burn in a fiery colour. (No, literally started to go up in flames.)
"Says your incredible boyfriend." Cole gave a small smile. (The flames subsided as quickly as it started.)
Kai finally threw back a smirk. "Incredible?"
"Duh," Cole rolled his eyes. "everyone knows I'm incredible."
Kai finally laughed. It was a laugh Cole missed hearing, he subconsciously smiled. It reminded him of the kind of laugh someone would give when you tickle them. Wait, that's a terrible description.
"If you're incredible, then I'm incredibly incredible." Kai joked. Oh, amazing, who invited his big ego into the conversation?
"Woah, how original." Cole said sarcastically, not forgetting to chuckle along the way.
As their conversation came to a temporary stop, they looked back at the front to enjoy the view again. But only then noticed, that the beautiful colours that had embedded into the sky had turned weirdly dark. Thunder cracked the sky and lightning being shot out from the eerie clouds like KRANGGG! Being an all-time ninja, that is not normal, ever. Usually it's something like Zeus giving a heads up: Hey, just a reminder, you're all gonna get zapped. Hahaha, bozo. (Speaking of which, that's definitely something Zeus would do.)
That can't be good.
•••
"How are we supposed to take off in the Bounty in that storm? Chances of us getting zapped into barbequed wood and meat are definitely concerning!" Jay yelled through the howling wind, the storm came so suddenly, but at least the rain hadn't started pouring down just yet. The wind was seriously tugging at its chances of blowing whatever's left of the monastery away.
Please don't blow the monastery away.
"Where the hell did that storm come from anyway?" Cole chimed in as he and Kai joined the others whom were outside the monastery, staring at the grey fluffs of cotton floating above them.
Lloyd grunted in annoyance, "That's not important! Zane, can you calculate our chances?"
Zane flinched, as if not used to suddenly getting called out. "Yes, I can."
About like, 5 seconds of waiting for Zane to finish his calculation. He finally snapped out of his trance and looked at his friends.
"70 to 75 percent." Zane said blankly. The wind howled, desperately trying to cover Zane's voice into a muffle.
Jay activated his sarcasm, "Great, that's so great! Totally not at all concerning!"
Cole gave his best friend a good nudge in the ribs.
"OW!" Jay howled. Ha-ha, trying to compete with the wind?
Lloyd glanced upwards. What a coincidence, the moment he did, tiny drops of rain started descending from the eerie clouds above. They tainted his face and he blinked in annoyance.
"Great, indeed." Lloyd wiped the water drops away from his face, "It's raining-"
"No shit, Sherlock." Jay muttered. Everyone shot him annoyed glances.
"-and even if the Bounty could function in this weather, we'd still get zapped. Best storm I've seen all month, to be honest. But we still gotta undergo our plan." The rain was getting heavier by the second, everyone held their hands over their heads. (Except for Zane.) Though, that never really helps. Humans, such smart species, don't you think?
"May I suggest we move to someplace else whereas we can take cover from the rain?" Zane suggested. Even though water doesn't bother him the slightest bit, (Hey, Cyrus Borg should make waterproof nindroids soon. So maybe they won't go down so easily by just squirting water using water guns at those highly weaponized bots. Trust me, it has happened before, a kid decided it was fun to shoot water at a random nindroid.) it really wasn't in his nature to stand in the rain like an absolute idiot.
"Yep, cover is good." Cole murmured, he didn't like being wet. In fact, his eyes glistened like: I'm a wet dog, woof. Please dry me.
"Yes, we have cover. Inside the Bounty." Lloyd shook his head and ran towards the direction of the Bounty parked outside the courtyard. Everyone exchanged glances and followed Lloyd.
Between footsteps and the howling rain (and wind), Kai yelled, "I thought we all rebelled against the idea of being tasty targets of lightning!"
Hearing her brother talk, Nya just couldn't keep her voice at bay anymore. Probably it's because every time Kai opens his little mouth, she has the urge to slap him across the face. Because he would always say something dumb, "Yeah, but what can we do about it? Remember, our objective is to stop Neon."
"We can't really stop her if we're barbequed, I totally like the idea of going up to her doorstep and introduce myself like: Hey, I know I smell delicious and cooked but please don't eat me. And don't stab me in the stomach with a piece of crystal." Kai responded as he took the ladder up aboard the flying ship.
Jay looked oddly proud of Kai's sarcasm.
"Don't jinx us, Kai. We're not cooked, yet." Cole complained. Though his voice came out strained because he did not like to be reminded of what had happened the day they met Neon in Ninjago City, he slowly touched his abdomen where his scar still faintly remained. He was healed, but somehow, thinking about it made his scar ache. He bit back a groan.
As they each climbed the wooden ladder up aboard, Lloyd started up the engine and the thrusters flared up to life. The rain clattered against the deck and it was really slippery to walk on. With a push of a button, the Destiny's Bounty shot up into the air, and into the raging thunderstorm. (Woah, there's the chapter title! Applause, anyone? No? Okay, whatever.)