Chapter Text
A barrel of dynamite thundered down onto the street. The second it had made contact with the asphalt Jay had turned back to run while Kai had leapt over it. Neither strategy worked, however, as they were both blasted off their feet, dust and debris scattering in all directions.
"I'm going after that lantern!"
Jay hadn't even begun to work on blinking the dust out of his eyes when Kai had begun surging forward again. From Kai's perspective he was simply telling Jay he was going to keep going, mapping out a path to reach the pirate's ship for Jay to follow behind once he'd recovered. He couldn't stop when they were so close. Jay would be a few meters behind him and catch up in a matter of seconds anyway, it barely counted as separation.
To Jay it was the worst thing he could've said. Feeling the clammy hands of dread all over him, because only he fully understood the severity of something as seemingly harmless as momentary separation.
Kai had just put his life in danger.
"Wait! We're supposed to stay together!" He scrambled to his feet, panic spreading further along his body.
Much to his own horror, he was able to predict the next few moments. Clancee landed in front of him almost the second he'd jumped to his feet, no weapons or conceivable way of incapacitating him, sent by the pirates with the sole intention of delaying him, preventing a chance of him closing the gap between him and his partner while another pirate informed the captain.
Kai was too busy mapping a path onto the deck, too focused on finding a way to protect the city from its new assailants, to notice his sudden lack of safety. There was no time, Jay had to close the gap because Kai had clearly been selected as the next target. Without thinking he electrocuted Clancee and bolted forward, unsteady and almost tripping over a piece of debris.
Kai had been so efficient in scaling the building he was currently running on that Jay couldn't even see the route he'd used and was now out of earshot. The panic was really setting in now as he noticed Monkey Wrench swing and jump onto the Port side cannons, hooting with joy as he began to take aim at the fire ninja.
Kai had definitely noticed him. It was clear (to Jay, at least) that the monkey had no real intention of harming him (unless he was that much of a lousy shot), as he began aiming past Kai by well over a meter, hoping to keep him stationary for at least a second for Nadakhan to close in.
Jay practically smacked into the building's external stairs, before scaling them at speed.
Kai leapt onto the next roof, effortlessly sprinting along its edge.
Misfortune's Keep made their first mistake.
Too busy focusing on Kai, the ship had quickly deterred off its initial course and was now flying too close alongside another building, and began to scrape against it.
The entire ship jolted, only a millisecond before Monkey Wrench would have fired, and the cannon swung on its axis, Monkey Wrench almost collided with another and shrieked. Unable to really see what had happened from his distance, Kai slowed down, watching the cannon continue to swing maniacally around. What sort of strategy is that? He'll be lucky to fire in his direction, much less hit him.
Mistake or not, it shouldn't have mattered as the pirates had achieved what they were trying to do anyway, Kai was busy occupied watching the Monkey to hear the faint poof of Nadakhan materialising behind him. It did matter, however, as Monkey Wrench also hadn't spotted him, scared of being punished for his mistake, he swung the cannon around and took aim in a frenzied panic, lighting the fuse-
"Not me, you fool!"
Nadakhan's voice bellowed out. Kai spun around, startled, flames rushing to his fingers as he launched a fireball on instinct.
He hadn’t even seen the Djinn before firing but Nadakhan had been practically breathing down his neck, leaving no room to dodge as the flames seared the Djinn's chest. He shrieked in pain, stumbling back.
"Get off of me!" Kai yelled, both hands lighting up as he practically scrambled away.
"Leave him alone!" Jay's voice piped up from behind the Djinn.
It was all too fast, too much confusion and panic. With Nadakhan's back blocking Kai from his vision, Jay assumed by Kai's cry that the Djinn was holding him and about to poof away. He sent a large volt of electricity at Nadakhan, who was already in the process of distancing himself from the fire ninja, and thus evaded the attack.
Kai, who in turn hadn't been able to see exactly where Jay was standing, was less fortunate. The volt slammed his shoulder and spread across his body instantly. Jay could only watch in horror, his eyes widening. Stunned and with his surroundings suddenly blurred, Kai was unable to dodge the cannonball now soaring in his direction.
"KAI!" Jay screamed.
The shot was unintentionally precise, thankfully from a still unstable cannon fired by a frenzied monkey, and thus still missing him, instead lodging into the concrete at his feet, but the blast threw him violently off his feet. With so much dust and debris, Jay lost sight of his partner and began to hyperventilate.
"KAI! ANSWER ME BUDDY!"
Jay sprinted over, forgetting Nadakhan who was now poofing away from the scene but he couldn't care less, Kai could've just died because of his mistake. It should be noted that hyperventilating is a hard thing to do with so much disturbed dust, and Jay quickly began to choke, tears pricking his eyes from the constant irritation, he couldn't see anything. His mask was dropping more dust on his face, he pulled it off, turning it inside out and holding over his mouth. He could hardly breathe.
Nadakhan appeared back on Misfortune's Keep, aggressively shoving Monkey Wrench off the cannon.
"You imbecile! You were supposed to slow his down, not kill him! And why did you fire when I was there, huh?!"
He grabbed the monkey by the tail and continued to shake him, oblivious to what was happening below.
Kai pushed himself up with his hands, coughing from all the dust.
"Here… Here, I'm alright Jay…"
There was so much dust everywhere, Kai couldn't seem to avoid getting it in his mouth despite his own mask. He coughed again.
"Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry, I didn't see you! Are you sure you're okay? Are you hurt anywhere?" Jay babbled, distraught.
"It's alright Jay, I'm okay." Kai assured him. It wasn't true, he hurt all over, but with all the sudden adrenaline he couldn't feel anything other than-
"Just a few bruises, probably." He chuckled weakly.
"Are you positive? Let me check-"
"Jay! I promise I'm fine, calm down." Kai could sense that Jay was almost over the edge, ignoring the aching in his shoulders to reassure him.
He was right. Jay almost burst into tears right there, from the guilt of almost killing his friend to the sheer relief of seeing him okay and narrowly avoiding Nadakhan.
As irritating as it was, the dust had been serving as a wall around them and was now beginning to lower, they wouldn't be able to stay much longer.
"O-Okay then, let's go, can you run?"
"Of course I can run," Kai scoffed, oblivious of how awful he looked. They ran to the edge of the building and jumped onto the next. "what, did you seriously think that I'd let those guys take me out like that?"
Jay let out a little chuckle as Kai smirked, and they continued along the rooftops. Kai then grunted, landing on the next building hurt more than it should have, but if he was actually bruised then it made sense. He didn't say anything, Jay was close to a breakdown and he knew there was nothing they could do about it anyway, they needed to distance themselves from the ship to think about their next course of action, he just had to suck it up and keep going.
"That's not the point!" Jay suddenly retorted, and the two quickly began to bicker.
Back on Misfortune's Keep, Monkey Wrench was back on the cannons, this time firing at Cole and Lloyd. Lloyd dodged, watching the ball of metal soar centimetres past his waist. Cole blinked onto the ship and behind the metallic nuisance before hurling it overboard.
Cole looked pleased with himself, pretending to dust off his hands.
"Now, where is the lantern?" He asked himself, leaving to explore the ship. He was too caught up in his search to remember what was really at stake and who was in danger.
He'd left Lloyd alone.
Nadakhan poofed next to the cannons, clearly furious about the days recent events and curious as to all the racket from a moment ago.
Lloyd had already began climbing down the buildings, unable to keep up with the ship and instead trying to lose himself amongst the alleys. He looked down and hopped onto a lower roof.
It was too late, Nadakhan had already seen him.
"You'll do." he grinned, before poofing away once again.
