Chapter Text
It was a peaceful day in Ninjago and the ninja were all at the monastery. Kai, Zane, Cole and Jay were all watching TV in the living room. They were flipping through the channels, attempting to find something interesting to watch. It felt like every time they found a good show to watch, it was at the end of the episode already or it was a bad episode none of them wanted to watch.
Kai let out a groan. “Isn’t there anything on?”
“Perhaps we could watch the news?” Zane suggested.
“The news!?” Jay complained, slouching on the couch. “The news is boring!”
“There isn’t really anything else to watch,” Cole said. He grabbed the remote, changing it to the news. The screen changed, showing the weatherman pointing to a map of Ninjago.
“Great, the weather,” Jay continued complaining. “That’s the most boring part of the news!” Jay let out a quick yawn before leaning over to lay on Cole’s lap. “Wake me up when something interesting happens.”
The other ninja laughed quietly at Jay being overdramatic. The ninja all turned their attention back to the TV as the weatherman continued talking.
“A cold front will be moving into Ninjago City, making it colder than usual, ” the weatherman informed.
“Strange,” Zane commented. “This area of Ninjago is normally quite warm. It doesn't normally reach temperatures this cold.”
Kai shrugged. “The weather is weird,” he said. He casually wrapped his arm around the nindroid. “You know, Zane, if you get cold, you could always come warm up in my room.”
“Don’t worry, I will be fine,” Zane assured, clearly unaware of Kai’s flirting. “I’m a nindroid, I don’t get uncomfortably cold like humans do.”
“Whatever,” Kai replied, disappointed.
“Wow, Jay was right, this is boring ” Cole commented. “Are you sure there isn’t anything else on?”
“Oh, be careful Cole. Try not to move too much,” Kai warned, a smirk on his face.
Cole was confused at first. He looked down at his lap and saw Jay was completely passed out of his lap.
“Woah, he actually fell asleep?” Cole said. “Guess he really was bored from the news, huh?”
“He seemed perfectly awake a while ago,” Kai responded. “Why’d he pass out so quickly?”
“Perhaps he stayed up too late playing video games,” Zane joked.
“Ha, no,” Cole laughed. “If he did that, we would’ve heard him.”
Jay mumbled slightly, turning his head towards Cole and burrowing his face into his shirt.
“Alright, I’d better take care of him,” Cole said, quieting his voice slightly so he didn’t wake Jay up. “I’ll be right back.” Cole carefully scooped the blue ninja into his arms before standing up. He left the room, heading for Jay’s room. He quietly opened the door before walking over to Jay’s bed and carefully placing him on it. Jay made another soft grumble noise, turning away from Cole as he covered him with the blanket. Cole gave Jay a soft smile before turning away, leaving the room and closing the door behind him.
Cole got back to the living room and heard Kai giggling. He looked over to the couch and saw Kai on top of Zane, cuddling the nindroid. Zane’s synthetic skin has turned a bright red.
“K-Kai, Cole’s going to be back and-” Zane stammered.
“Really? I was gone for like, two seconds!” Cole interrupted.
Kai and Zane both sat up, looking at the black ninja. “Sorry, Cole,” Zane apologized. “Kai was just in one of those moods.”
“I’m ALWAYS in the mood to love my boyfriend!” Kai interjected. He gave the nindroid a quick kiss on the cheek, causing his circuits to heat up.
Cole chuckled, walking over to a separate chair to give Kai and Zane some space together.
“Kai, you love finding excuses to get close to Zane, don’t you?” Cole teased.
“Hey, Jay does the same thing to you!” Kai argued.
“Fair point,” Cole agreed. He grabbed the remote and turned the TV off. “Well I don’t know about you guys, but I’m still bored.”
“Yeah,” Kai replied. “But what else are we gonna do?” Kai turned towards Cole who looked like he had an idea. “What are you planning?”
“You guys wanna play Jay’s new video game?” Cole asked.
“But if Jay finds out we played it without asking him first, he will be very mad at us,” Zane responded.
“Not if he knows it was my idea,” Cole assured. “He can’t stay mad at me for long periods of time. He’ll just yell at me once and then forget about it.”
“Well it beats just sitting around doing nothing,” Kai said. “Let’s do it.”
The three of them turned the game console on and started up the game, making sure to start a new profile so they didn’t mess with Jay’s save. The three of them ended up playing for a long time. By the time the sun went down, the three of them were still too focussed on the game to put it down. Eventually, they all decided it was getting really late and they needed to stop playing. Kai and Zane were both heading towards their rooms while Cole turned the console off.
Cole yawned as he looked at the clock. “Dang, we really played for a long time,” he said. “Looks like I won’t be getting a lot of sleep tonight.”
Cole made his way to his room, closing the door behind him. He shivered slightly. “Wow, they weren’t kidding about it being cold,” he commented. “I better grab my extra blanket.”
Cole quickly grabbed his spare blanket from his closet and went over to his bed, laying down. He wrapped himself in both of his blankets and closed his eyes, ready to fall asleep. He was quickly interrupted as he heard a loud THUD sound. Cole sat up, looking around his room. Nothing in his room seemed out of the ordinary, so he just shrugged and layed back down. Cole attempted to get himself comfy again when he heard a CRASH, even louder than the previous sound. Cole threw his blankets off and got up, leaving his room. He looked down the hallway but didn’t see anything.
“Cole? What’s going on?”
Cole turned around to see Kai blinking sleepily with Zane close behind him.
“I don’t know,” Cole replied. “I just heard a loud crash.”
“We did too,” Zane informed.
Cole turned around again and walked down the hall towards Jay’s room. He saw the door was wide open which worried him slightly. He looked into his room to see if there were any clues to what he heard.
“Jay?” Cole called quietly. He looked around the room, but Jay was nowhere to be seen. Jay’s blanket was ripped off of his bed. Different pieces of blue cloth scattered the floor. Cole looked down and noticed strange claw markings scratched into the floorboards. He kneeled down to get a closer look at them.
“Is Jay there?” Kai asked, poking his head into the room.
Cole turned to Kai, his face full of fear. “He’s gone!”
“What!?” Kai asked. “Where’d he go?”
Zane entered the room and instantly started scanning the claw marks Cole found.
“You finding anything?” Cole asked.
“Strange… I don’t recognize whatever creature made these,” Zane informed. “But it seems that whatever came through here took Jay.”
“We have to go find him!” Cole urged, standing back up.
“Should we go get the others?” Kai asked.
“There’s no time.” Cole argued. “Jay’s in trouble, we can’t waste a second!”
Cole ran out of Jay’s room, heading for their vehicles. Kai and Zane looked at each other before following Cole into the night. A cold wind blew through, causing Cole’s hair to blow in his face. He didn’t seem too bothered as he just pushed it aside. He made it to his earth driller and opened it so he could climb in. Kai and Zane quickly ran up to meet up with him.
“We have to split up,” Cole ordered. “That way we can find him easier.”
Kai and Zane nodded before running to get their own vehicles. Cole started up the earth driller and quickly rode towards the city. He figured that would be his best way to track down Jay. He attempted to find a signal indicating where Jay was, but it seemed that Jay’s tracker was broken. Cole assumed whatever this creature was broke it when they took Jay.
As Cole continued driving down the streets of Ninjago City, he noticed similar claw marks on the side of different buildings.
“I must be heading the right way,” Cole figured. He eventually made his way to an alleyway. He wouldn’t be able to drive his earth driller down it, so he opened it up and climbed out. He instantly wished he could stay inside the driller as the cold wind blasted against his exposed arms. “Remind me again why I didn’t put any sleeves on this outfit?” Cole asked himself. He took a deep breath before slowly walking down the alleyway. He saw some more claw marks in the ground, along with another small piece of blue cloth. Cole leaned over to pick up the cloth, clutching it in his hands. “Whoever did this is going to pay.”
Cole was interrupted from his thoughts as he smelled something rotten. He looked over and saw a dead rat on the ground. Cole stepped back slightly. The rat looked freshly killed which worried Cole. Cole shivered slightly as another cold breeze blew past. He looked up as he heard a quiet noise in the distance. A rabbit quickly ran away from something, turning the corner towards Cole. Before Cole could fully process what was going on, a larger, mysterious creature lunged at the rabbit, killing it instantly with its sharp claws.
“WHAH!?” Cole cried out, stepping back in fear. He couldn’t make out what the creature looked like due to the poor lighting. The creature leaned towards it’s kill, sniffing it a couple of times before opening its jaw wide, grabbing the rabbit and swallowing it whole. “Eww,” Cole winced.
The creature snapped its head towards Cole, its bright yellow eyes shining in the shadows. Its eyes seemed to narrow as it stared at Cole. It slowly started to crawl towards him, causing the ninja to slowly back away. The creature started hissing at the black ninja as it started getting closer and closer. As it entered the light, Cole was able to get a better look at it. It seemed to resemble a snake, but it was far different from any serpentine Cole had seen before. It had messy, dark green hair. Their scales were a dark, lime green color and its long tail twitched slightly. The creature's body was also covered in ripped clothing, although it was hard to tell what the clothes looked like before. The creature flexed its claws as it looked at Cole, it’s yellow eyes piercing to stare back at.
Cole continued backing away from the mysterious snake until he hit a wall. The snake continued to slowly approach him when Cole’s communicator went off.
“Cole?” Kai’s voice sounded from the device. “Have you found Jay yet?”
“No,” Cole whispered, “but I think I found the thing that took him.”
“Really? Can you tell what it is?”
“Well I- ACK!” Cole yelled as the snake suddenly lunged at him.
“Cole? COLE!?” Kai panicked, “Cole, what’s going on!?”
“Can’t talk right now!” Cole responded, managing to click the communicator off.
The snake had Cole pinned down, it’s sharp claws digging deep into his shoulders. It hissed at Cole again, bits of its spit flying onto the ninja’s face. Cole winced as he struggled to free himself from the snake’s claws. The snake leaned it’s face closer to Cole’s, sniffing the ninja. It then let out another hiss before attempting the bite at Cole’s neck. Cole managed to kick the snake off of him before it could bite him. The snake was sent flying at the wall, letting out a painful yelp as it hit the wall. Cole slowly stood back up, wincing at the pain in his shoulders. He noticed blood slowly spilling from the cuts, but he tried his best to ignore it.
He turned his attention back to the snake who was slowly getting back up from Cole’s attack. It shook his head before turning back to Cole, growling at him. Cole attempted to run back to his earth driller, but the snake was able to quickly run in front of him, cutting him off. Cole started to back away from the snake again as it hissed at him.
“What did you do with Jay!?” Cole demanded.
The snake just continued growling as it slowly crawled closer. It tried to lunge at Cole again, but he moved out of the way. The snake quickly turned back, attempting again to attack Cole. As it jumped past him, Cole managed to grab the snake’s tail. He yanked on it before throwing the snake again towards another wall. Small cracks formed in the wall as the snake’s body slammed against it. Cole started to approach the snake again. He punched his arms together, creating his lava arms.
“I’m gonna ask you again,” Cole said with an intimidating voice. “What did you do with Jay?”
The snake seemed scared of Cole now. Before Cole could get up to it, the snake ran past him, trying to escape.
“Hey!” Cole yelled, his lava arms fading. “Get back here!”
The snake continued trying to run, but was stopped as Cole grabbed his tail again. He threw the snake back again, although not as hard this time. The snake shook its head as it tried to recover before glaring at Cole, letting out a soft growl. Cole kneeled down to meet the snake at eye level.
“Where is he?” Cole asked.
The snake paused for a moment as it looked at the scratches on Cole’s shoulders. It leaned closer to Cole, sniffing the scratches. Cole started to feel confused and slightly uncomfortable. He looked around and saw the sky beginning to brighten up slightly. He turned back to the snake who was still sniffing him.
“What’s your deal?” Cole asked, confused.
The snake finally stopped sniffing Cole and leaned in to lick Cole’s scratches.
“Uhh…” Cole started feeling extremely uncomfortable. He started to push the snake away from him, which made the snake angry. It growled at Cole, looking like it was about to attack again. “Oh no, not again!” Cole yelled, preparing himself for the attack. Cole flinched, closing his eyes as he prepared for the worst. However, nothing happened. Cole slowly opened his eyes. He looked up and saw the sky was getting even brighter now before looking down at his lap. The snake was laying in his lap. It let out a yawn as it seemed to be falling asleep. Cole was taken aback and wasn’t sure what to do about this snake creature that had fallen asleep on him. He was interrupted from his thoughts as he heard his communicator go off.
“Cole? Is everything ok?” Zane asked. “Kai told me you were in trouble.”
“Yeah, I’m fine,” Cole assured. “I found that creature that kidnapped Jay and they attacked me, but I’m ok now.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah, I just got a couple of scratches, nothing major ” Cole replied. “But that creature I was fighting, uh, they kinda fell asleep on me.”
“What?” Zane questioned. “It’s sleeping on you?”
“I don’t know, it looked like they were gonna attack me, but then they just fell asleep on my lap!”
“That’s very… strange…” Zane thought. “Well, have you been able to find Jay? Kai and I aren’t having a lot of luck.”
Cole let out a sigh. “No, I-” Cole was cut off as he heard the snake start to mumble. It sounded like it was in pain. Its breaths suddenly began getting shorter and shorter while its claws dug into the ground. It also started squirming around, making Cole feel very worried that it might kick him or claw at him. The snake then let out a scream of pain as its scales began to disappear, it’s skin turning to a paler color. Its tail started shrinking until it disappeared completely and it’s grip to the ground seemed to soften as its claws seemed to disappear as well. Cole gasped as he watched the snake transform, his face completely full of shock.
“Cole? Are you still there?” Zane asked. “What’s going on?”
Cole paused for a moment before turning to his communicator. “I found Jay.”