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On the top of the roof of this weird and broken school Cole stood with his three teammates as the Bounty hovered in the air just behind them beside the school. The dangerous Anacondrai had just turned invisible somehow and escaped with the map to the rest of the Serpentine tombs, and left this troublesome kid that started this whole mess alone on one of the roof corners.
"LLOYD MONTGOMERY GARMADON" Sensei Wu called out behind them, "YOU ARE IN A LOT OF TROUBLE YOUNG MAN!".
"Oh ho a lot more trouble than you think brat!" Kai hissed.
"To think that YOU caused us some heck of a pain kid!" Jay spat in anger, "As if ONE snake tribe wasn't enough you set loose THREE?!".
"And with the most dangerous one as well, good thing there's only one of them" Zane noted, "But much damage has been done I agree".
"This kid is a magnet for trouble" Cole thought as he shook his head, "Seriously how did he even find the damn map?! And he unleashed a sinister snake and brought it here?! This is a school for pete's sake!".
"Alright kid, time for a time-out!" Cole said as the four ninja began to close in on the kid from all sides, "You really made one heck of a mess!".
"What am I thinking, this is the son of GARMADON, of course he's nothing but a troublemaker. Like father like son apparently".
The kid looked terrified as he took two steps back for every step one of the ninja took, glancing between them quickly and whipping his head around every few seconds, his stance was cowardly and low.
"Of course he's scared, he knows what's coming. Did his mother spoil him so bad he thinks he can get away with EVERYTHING?! ... I better keep hot-head away from him though, Kai's real pissed with him... Is he still backing up?!".
The kid was still backing up even though there wasn't much room left on the roof, and he looked back and STILL kept backing up?! He was shaking now too as he kept taking quick steps backward, what was the point of this?
"Fellas wait-" Cole tried to say.
"Wait?!" Kai spat in anger, "This kid just made our lives so much harder! And he's the son of the DARK LORD! We can't have him running around!".
"I say we just leave him here for the teachers to take care of" Jay mused.
"This is a boarding school as well" Zane pointed out, "In theory it should work out fine".
Cole noticed the kid look at Jay and Zane with horror as he took a huge step back, and he abruptly stopped as he his foot was at the edge of the roof.
"Stop all of you!" Wu commanded as he jumped off the deck of the Bounty and onto the roof.
"Kid why are you even doing this?" Cole asked in a bit of a softer tone, "Step away from the edge!".
The kid refused to move forward and stood shaking as he glanced at all the ninja and then over the edge of the roof.
"Wait there's no way he's actually thinking of jumping right?" Cole thought, "That would fatal from this height and even he knows it!".
However as Cole glanced over at the others he noticed that Zane looked like he was ready to jump at the kid, but his eyes weren't of hatred or annoyance like Kai and Jay's were; he glanced at Cole and nodded. The fact that ZANE was thinking the same thing was alarming, and he knew how to read people for what they were going to do next.
"Lloyd-" Wu said as he joined Cole's side, and also seemingly ready to act.
The kid moved quicker than anyone thought and he dove off the roof to the side and Zane and Wu tried to jump at him to stop him, but they smacked into each other as Jay loudly gasped in horror and Cole could've sworn he heard Nya stifle a scream (he knew she didn't scream much but that was indeed one of horror too, he could only imagine how this looked from her point of view).
There was the sound of an impact on the shingles of the roof for the floor of the school below with a slight whimper and Zane sighed with some relief.
"He landed on the floor below us!" Zane said as he got up.
"Well he isn't getting away that easy!" Kai spat as he jumped down and gave chase.
"KAI!" Wu yelled as he held his head that was bleeding on the side from the collision with Zane.
"I'll get him!" Cole said as he elected to jump down and chase after the two, but the height of the jump was still high enough that the kid could've easily been injured.
"GET BACK HERE YOU BRAT!" Kai yelled as he jumped down onto another level below.
"Is that kid still going?! Okay son of Garmadon is either very bold or stupid, one of the two".
"KAI STOP!" Cole yelled as he jumped down another level, there wasn't much farther the kid could have gone with how narrow these roof levels were.
There was a crashing sound and an angry yell from Kai around the corner, and when Cole turned around a corner he saw that Kai had stepped on some shoddy roofing and his foot had gone right through and was now stuck; the kid was nowhere to be seen.
"The brat went around the corner" Kai spat as Cole went to help him up, but Kai winced as he pulled his foot up; it was bleeding from scratches made by the weak wood with some bits of it in his leg.
"You stay here" Cole ordered, "I told you to stop and look what happened!".
Kai huffed as Zane jumped down to join them and fell through the roof as he landed.
"I'm alright" Zane called out, "He can't possibly jump down any farther though, there's too far of a distance to the next floor below".
"I'm coming down!" Jay warned.
"Careful! This roof isn't in good shape!" Cole warned, "Kai and Zane fell right through!".
There was a loud sound around the corner and a loud yipe making everyone flinch, but Wu peeked over from the rooftop.
"Lloyd has fallen into the same floor as Zane it seems" Wu said, "Get him SAFELY!".
"I can look for him now!" Zane yelled before Cole could hear Zane rush off.
"Jay help Kai get back up to the Bounty, I'm going after the kid too!" Cole said as he rushed over to a window and rather easily slid it open and he rushed to one of the staircases to get downstairs when he heard fast footsteps and saw Zane disappear around a corner.
"Stop!" Zane said loudly, "You are injured, let us help you!".
"LEAVE ME ALONE!" Lloyd's voice yelled in near terror.
CRASH!
Cole rounded the corner to find Zane on the ground and a small bookshelf on the floor right behind him, so Cole helped him up and saw some blood on the floor.
"Is this your blood or his?" Cole asked.
"His" Zane answered, "He's limping on his right leg and holding his right arm too, I am uninjured but he's still quick and dropped a small bookshelf behind him to trip me up".
"You go down the elevator, I'll go down the stairs and hopefully cut him off!".
"Good thinking!".
The two split off and Cole rushed down the steps finding a little trail of blood, but as he followed it down even more of the stairs and to the ground floor it led outside the front door and then disappeared entirely; he was gone like a ghost in the wind, likely having seen the wound and using that little hoodie of his to cover whatever wound he had, and the Bounty floated above.
"I lost him" Nya said over the speakers, "he fled into the forest at the bottom of the hill".
Cole didn't know how to feel about the kid right now; sad that he had gotten away and injured because of them with that fear in his eyes, or mad that the kid got away that might cause more trouble for them later in retaliation for this like in the village that tarted this whole thing. Admittedly he was feeling more of the former because why would the kid injure himself to get away? Was he really that scared of the ninja? How badly did the kid injure himself to begin with?!
Zane ran up to Cole looking concerned.
"He got away didn't he?" Zane asked.
"Yeah... I'm worried about that kid, that was a decent trail of blood he left until he got to here. He may have caused a lot of trouble but something was off about that whole interaction".
"Indeed, and I have my own suspicions about that".
"Can you two please get back up here?" Nya asked over the speakers, "We need to make a plan with a ninja and sensei down".
Nya lowered a ladder and the two climbed up and headed to the bridge where everyone else was waiting, and everyone was disheartened by all that had happened today; Wu was sitting down with bandages around his head visible under his hat looking at the floor with a frown, Kai was in a chair with his leg wrapped up in gauze and bandages and clearly not pleased with the situation, and Jay and Nya were standing beside each other waiting to see who would talk first.
"So the brat got away?" Kai asked.
"Lloyd is not a brat" Wu said as he looked right at Kai, "He does not have any guidance".
"What about his mom?" Jay asked, "What would she think of this?".
"... I have not seen his mother in some time, nor heard from her since my brother's banishment... I do not believe he has seen much of her either judging by his behavior...".
The tension in the air could be cut with a knife as Cole bit his lip, Jay grimaced, and Kai's anger and annoyance fell away immediately as Nya looked at him with a shared expression.
"... He's injured too" Cole nearly whispered to break the silence, "I found a blood trail and Zane saw him limping".
"I saw him holding his right arm, which seems broken, and he was limping on his right leg" Zane affirmed, "He will not last long like that".
"... But what about the snakes?" Kai asked, "The kid just unleashed another snake tribe, what if they get ideas and let loose all five tribes? That Anacondrai took the map from him right?".
"We can figure it out surely" Nya muttered, "Might take some time... Sensei what do we do?".
Wu sat in silence for a moment before he sighed deeply and brought his hand up to his head clearly thinking of what to do, but this was the first time the ninja had seen their sensei so deep in thought over this; the silence was agonizing all things considered and left everyone on edge.
"... I would like to look for my nephew if we can" he finally said, "If Zane says that he will not last much longer like this, then there is no time to waste".
"Yes sensei" the ninja said at once.
"Kai, you stay here and recover".
"Alright" Kai muttered with his arms crossed.
The rest of the team set out into the forest as cloud cover began to form, but they searched for hours and found no sign of the kid at all; no blood trail, any footprints were gone, it was like he hadn't even gone into the forest. When the sun set Wu had everyone come back to rest and hopefully find the kid tomorrow, if not then they would have to go after that Anacondrai and move on; Cole knew that respectively this was a good plan since they still had a day to find the kid but then move on to the bigger threat at hand if they didn't find him, but something about the kid just made Cole feel bad and sad for him. The kid was so scared of the ninja, of his own UNCLE, that he WILLINGLY jumped off a roof, fell THROUGH a roof, and yet he continued running anyway; the fact that a mere child could outmaneuver and do all this was admittedly impressive, but Cole was scared of the reasons why and how the kid was capable of this. He remembered that there was a kid that once acted like this in school, but that was because he had been bullied and abused to the point that he didn't want any attention on him at all; Cole defended him and helped him feel safe, but he never forgot about that kid even after they parted ways.
"... I'm finding this kid, I have to!".
The weather in the morning had other ideas as rain poured down in dark skies as the rain came down hard and fast battering anyone and anything on the ground and lightning struck across the sky wildly as the wind howled alongside it making the trees shake; Cole's heart sank knowing this kid was out there is this weather, but when he looked at Sensei Wu he felt his heart sink even further as Wu looked out over the forest with his hands shaking. Nya had to park the Bounty on the ground due to the ferocity of this storm and even then the Bounty shook, but Cole grabbed his gi and headed out to go look for this kid; he wasn't expecting to hear footsteps behind him though and he turned his head briefly to see Zane and Jay going with him and Sensei Wu holding his hat as he was behind them.
Despite the rain they searched, and searched, and searched but there was nothing but animals fleeing the weather.
"Guys I gotta go back" Jay stuttered over the comms, "I'm freezing out here".
"I will keep searching" Zane said, "Sensei where are you?".
"I am still searching" Wu said determined, "A bit of cold rain will not phase me".
Cole was about to respond when he thought he heard something over the pouring rain and wind.
Cough... Cough...
It was so faint that Cole barely even heard it, but it was coughing somewhere nearby; the kid was nearby but where?!
He silently walked toward where he thought the coughing came from and saw nothing at first.
Cough... COUGH COUGH... Cough...
Cole could hear it almost somewhere beside him, so he started looking around at the bottom of the trees; Lloyd had an injured arm and leg, so there was no way he could climb... Right? He saw a thick oak tree with a little break in the bottom of it, so he walked over and peeked into it; lo and behold there was the kid, but he was not well.
Lloyd was laying on his left side curled up in the hollow of this tree into a tight ball, he was clutching his right arm tightly as the sleeve around it was stained crimson and making a pool of blood under him, he was soaking wet from the rain and shivering near violently, his skin was pale and Cole could see how the hoodie and torn pants were loose on the kid's body when they shouldn't be, and the kid's face was contorted in pain with bags under his eyes; he looked like a skeleton and barely alive as he kept coughing. He looked and sounded so frail that Cole didn't even want to touch him at first thinking that the kid would shatter like glass, but Zane was right that the kid wouldn't last out here much longer. He went to try to gently grab the kid, but the moment Cole touched his shoulder Lloyd's eyes snapped open and he yiped; Cole recoiled since he didn't expect the kid to wake up that easily and Lloyd tried to push himself up against the wall of the hollow, but he was so weak he could barely move and stared at Cole with nothing but fear in his eyes.
"... I'm not gonna hurt you" Cole cooed, "Take it easy, I want to help you".
Lloyd didn't respond, but his expression was of distrust and fear; Cole didn't even have his golden weapon on him so why was the kid still afraid of him?
"Please, you're hurt and sick, let me help you!".
Lloyd was still shaking, from fear or the cold Cole wasn't too sure about anymore, but he looked so tired despite the fear; after a few moments of eye contact he fainted abruptly going limp to Cole's surprise. Cole gently grabbed the kid and pulled him out from the hollow and into his arms, but Cole could feel how light this kid was and could feel his bones through the clothing; he knew this was urgent and rushed off toward the Bounty in the rain, and apparently Zane saw him.
"Cole?!" Zane called out, "Do you have him?!".
"YES!" Cole spat, "He's not well at all! Tell Nya to get the medbay ready!".
Zane quickly called Nya as he ran alongside Cole as an escort before they made it to the Bounty with Sensei Wu ready with some towels and Nya was lowering a ramp for them, and Cole jumped onto it and rushed below deck before Wu could even say anything; Cole rushed into the medbay and gently set the kid down on one of the open beds while Kai and Jay were surprised by Cole's appearance.
"Holy shit you have him?!" Jay said in disbelief, "You actually got the slippery little-".
"He's hurt and sick Jay!" Cole spat, "Maybe even DYING".
"How could he be dying?!" Kai asked, "He was just fine two days ago!".
Zane, Nya, and Wu rushed into the medbay with Wu rushing to Lloyd's bedside and quickly bringing a hand up to Lloyd's forehead.
"He is gravely ill with an intense fever" Wu muttered, "He hasn't had much food either and needs some desperately, now let's look at that arm and leg".
Wu gently moved Lloyd's right arm and Lloyd whimpered in his sleep, but after pausing for a moment Zane walked up with a small knife to cut away at the sleeve for a better look at the arm; after gently cutting away at the sleeve they found that Lloyd's arm had been stabbed by something like wood and was bleeding and now infected. Wu gasped aloud as Nya gagged and Jay fainted at the sight of the injury, but Zane got right to work beginning to treat the wound and getting some gauze ready; Wu decided to focus on Lloyd's right leg next and found that it was swollen between the ankle and knee, likely from a fracture or break, and irritated.
"Cole can you take Jay to bed please?" Nya asked, "Kai I'm gonna help you to bed okay? You shouldn't see this".
Cole nodded and picked up Jay from the floor and carried him out to the bunkroom while he could hear Nya and Kai whispering over something behind him.
"That couldn't have happened so quickly" Kai whispered, "That kid had to be suffering for a while to be that thin!".
"I know" Nya muttered, "I saw some bruising up his arm too, I don't think that's from the fall".
Cole set Jay in his bed and covered him up for comfort, but his mind still went to the kid as the storm continued outside; today was already a bit of a long day so Cole elected to rest and hopefully put his mind at ease. Funny how a kid he saw as a nuisance not even two days ago was now his primary concern even over the snakes said kid had unleashed.
The next day everyone was circling around the medbay to see how the kid was doing, but Zane told them that Wu had carried him to one of the spare rooms and had been bringing stuff into it all night; Zane quietly showed them to the room and quietly opened the door. Inside was some spare furniture like chairs, a full bedframe, a small bookshelf full of books, and a little nightstand with a lamp on it, but Wu was sat alongside the bed fast asleep and Lloyd was in the bed covered up and in some new clothes along with some casts on his arm and leg.
"Sensei must've been really worried about the kid, I've never seen him sleeping sitting up" Cole couldn't help but think that maybe this kid was acting out of fear or maybe someone forced him to unleash the Serpentine, maybe his own father? Maybe they could set this kid straight on a good path, but for now they let the kid and his uncle rest; tomorrow is another day after all and who knows what can happen next.
"Maybe whoever can win over the kid becomes the green ninja? The Green ninja has to be ready for anything right? Maybe being able to tame this chaotic little gremlin is the test? Guess we'll see later".