Jay gripped his arm so tightly it felt like he might pop a vein. The realisation that his wound had been the result of a Fangpyre attack still had his mind running in bewildered circles, and the words of his sensei were looping in his ears,
“Listen, children, whatever you do, do not let yourselves get bitten.”
“What happens if they bite you?” Jay had asked.
“You become one of them.”
Now, as Jay looked at his hands, oddly greenish and covered in hard bumps, he saw it for what it truly was: his skin turning into scales. And his eyesight also seemed to be improving as well.
“Everything okay, Jay?” Cole asked through the tunnels.
“Fine!” He squeaked back, then coughed and repeated, in a more even tone, “fine.”
He leaned back against the sewer wall and but his lip, only to find his teeth were becoming far more sharp, and he desperately tried to think of what he could do before it was too late. Was there an antidote? Some way to slow down, or better yet, reverse the effects? There had to be some way he could handle this on his own, without letting the other guys know how badly he had messed up. But as he sat there, wracking his brain, the pain was getting worse, the bumps on his skin were growing bigger, that ache in his tailbone was becoming unbearable, and an odd sensation was pulling at his gut. He might have let out a gasp when he bent over, his hands bracing him against the concrete floor, but he wasn’t sure of much right now. Everything was getting all fuzzy and hazy and blurry.
“Jay?” Kai called. “You sure you’re alright?”
No. He couldn’t see him. Not like this. He needed to get away. As far away as possible.
* * *
“Jay?” Kai asked, getting up and inching closer to the disturbing noises coming from around the corner. Cole and Zane were still seated, but on high alert. That sound just now had not been anything natural, not even for Jay. It was almost like a snarl or some sort of choking. “You sure you’re alright?”
Jay didn’t answer.
Then, scuffled footsteps.
“Jay?” Kai called, far more urgently. “Jay!” He stared around the corner, not sure what he’d find, and was startled when he saw a figure running down the tunnel. “Jay!”
Cole and Zane were behind him, trying to keep up as they chased after Jay, who still would not respond to his name.
“What’s the matter with him?! Cole cried, rounding another tight corner and nearly slipping in the slimy water.
“Ask him that!” Kai yelled, glaring in the lightning ninja’s direction.
Jay couldn’t run forever, though. Eventually he found himself run into a corner—a brick wall at the end of a long tunnel. Kai’s firelight still couldn’t reach that far, so from where he and the other boys stood, slightly out of breath, he appeared like a shadow, his hands against the wall and his back facing them.
“Jay, what—“ Cole had begun, but then, without warning, Jay flung himself around, a ball of lightning in his hand, and shouted,
“S-s-stay away!”
The lightning boomed and cracked around them, obliterating the walls and ceiling in one big flash of light. Kai had to duck low to the ground to avoid getting hit in the head with a brick as everything caved in.
The concrete crackled, dust flew wildly through the air, and a pair of feet could be heard scurrying away long before Kai was able to stand up again.
“Which way did he go?” Zane asked.
“I don’t know, let me just look at my Jay-locating device,” said Kai, blinking in the sudden sunlight and coughing once or twice. He looked up at the orange sky, and he could hear worried voices and a few shrieks from passersby. “We gotta go,” he said as Cole finished dusting himself off.
They turned around and crawled over the heaps of rubble, disappearing back into the sewer system before the authorities and first responders arrived. At every turn, Kai would look down the branching waterways, searching for any sign of movement. Specifically, a gangly ninja frantically running through the dark. So far, the only things moving around down there was themselves.
“This is just like Jay,” Kai grumbled.
“What?” Cole asked, slowing down.
“Jay! He’s always pulling stunts like this! Always running off and making a mess of things.”
“Yeah, you wouldn’t know anything about that, right?” Cole smirked.
Kai coughed again and made a face.
“So what’s our plan to find him?”
The others turned to Zane and thought for a moment.
“Well,” said Cole, “I’m not sure. These tunnels could go under the entire city for all we know, he could be anywhere.”
“The real question is: why did he run off in the first place?” Kai pointed out. “He didn’t seem all that… together.”
“Stress?” Zane guessed.
Kai caught sight of Cole just then, and his brow seemed for furrowed than usual. “Cole?”
He took a breath. “Just thinking… for a little while now, I kinda thought Jay’s been looking a little… I dunno, green? At first I thought it was due to stuff like sea sickness, but now… and not to mention, there was that moment, a little while ago, when I could have sworn he…”
“What?”
“I know it sounds weird, but it almost sounded like he… hissed.”
Now Kai’s brow was furrowed. “But that’s…”
“I know. Impossible.”
“Actually, it’s not,” said Zane quietly. “Remember the Fangpyres? What their special ability is?”
Kai felt his eyes widen. “No way.”
“We have to find him. Now,” said Cole, and he took off again.
* * *
Nya was getting real sick of running. If she ever had to do something like this again, it would be too soon. Thankfully, she had officially entered city limits and was now jogging along the sidewalk of a suburban area. If people didn’t look too closely, perhaps she’d seem like a simple jogger, out for an evening stroll. She really hoped so.
She had no other sense of direction besides “go toward the giant buildings,” and so, she’d been keeping her path relatively straight, but what if she was missing opportunities to get to a convenience store faster by taking a detour? The not knowing part of this whole mission was killing her!
She was grateful that hardly anyone was out and about this time of day, but she had to keep herself from looking into their dining room windows to find out why. This was no time to get all depressed and lonely. Her friends needed her.
‘Who built these suburbs?’ She mentally moaned. ‘They just keep going!’
Just then, there was a slight rumble. So faint, she almost missed it. But then she shrugged it off as being a minor quake and carried on.
Finally, finally, FINALLY, other buildings besides houses started to appear. There was a laundr’o’mat, a pizza place, an antique store, stuff like that, but no convenience store.
“Come on, please!” She growled. She just needed one place where she could buy cold and flu medicine. One place!
There was a tattoo parlour, a closed down real estate place, a pet store, a diner, a bank, a shoe store, a music store, a boutique—basically everything except a drug or convenience store. And it was really starting to tick her off.
“Hey, you! Ma’am!” She called to the first pedestrian of the night who looked relatively nice. “Excuse me, but is there a place nearby that sells medicine?”
The woman took a moment to process the sudden question, then said, “Oh, uh, there’s a drug store down on 39th.”
“Which would be where?” Nya prodded.
“Down this street, take a right, then a left, follow that until you hit the skate park, then take another right, it’s the first drug store on the block. You can’t miss it.”
“Thank you!” Nya took off, repeating the instructions over and over in her head. The lady had made it seem like the store was nearby, but it was still several blocks over, and Nya’s legs were hating her more and more each minute.
* * *
The sewers were dark and damp and warm. The perfect place for him, it seemed. The pain still swelled as more changes consumed him, elongating his nails, turning his skin hard, and, as he soon discovered, growing a Serpentine tail.
He had to go deeper.
No one could ever see him like this.
The most disturbing part of it all, by far, was the inner voice that had appeared. Jay could only assume it was some sort of animalistic instinct, and it was becoming very powerful.
“What was that?!” It would say when he heard even the slightest noise.
“Food!” It shrieked when it sensed a rat or mouse.
“Hibernate…” it cooed whenever it felt cold.
“Shut up!” Jay yelled, grasping his head, and hurting himself with his sharp claws. His knees buckled again and he gasped for air.
He’d had enough of this. For months now that wound had been festering, its venom biding its time until it was strong enough to infect his system, and now, thanks to his inaction, it had started taking over. Soon, he might not even remember his own name.
There was a sound nearby, and his instincts took over. His keen eyes searched the dark, and his forked tongue flicked, sniffing the air. It didn’t seem like anything other than the tunnels settling, until their scent finally reached him. They’d found him.
Well, it wasn’t like he couldn’t lose them again. These sewers were a maze, one that those mere humans couldn’t possibly hope to navigate without keen senses. Jay shook his head, startled at the fact that he’d referred to his friends like that.
All thought of trying to fix things had thoroughly been replaced by his need to hide, and he ran further and further, willing himself to get lost down there in the dark forever.
* * *
“Come on! It had to come from over here!” Kai called to the others. He knew he’d heard Jay’s voice coming from this tunnel; there was nothing else it could have been. There was no way he was going to lose them that easily.
But then, they came to a triple fork in the road.
“Darn it, Jay!” Kai snarled.
“Cole, can you find him?” Zane asked.
“I’ll try.”
He put his hands against the wall and closed his eyes while Kai clenched and unclenched his fists.
“There,” Cole pointed. “There’s something big running down that tunnel.”
Off they went again on their endless chase. If they truly wanted to catch him, sooner or later, they’d need to start thinking bigger.
* * *
Nya was panting like a dog when she eventually arrived at the drugstore, and she took a moment before going inside, where she was greeted by row upon row of medicine bottles. As quickly as she could, she scanned their names and decided to get some of everything. Cough syrup, cough drops, nighttime medicine, daytime medicine, cold syrup, flu syrup, cold and flu syrup, plus some stomach ache medicine, pain relievers, and a few masks, just to be extra careful, then plopped it all next to the cash register.
While the lady at counter slowly scanned each item, she noticed a tv in the corner and suddenly got déjà vu. However, this time, the news channel was not covering a story on five runaways, but of a sewer collapse in the city. Scary stuff.
This trip was considerably quicker than the last time Nya had gone shopping in Ninjago City, and she was back out on the street with her bag of medicine before the sun had even set. She was cutting it close, but she just might make it in time.
Before she really got going, however, she noticed a lack of activity over at that skate park. All the kids over there who had been happily skating when she’d first run by, were now huddled together in groups looking at something.
Then the ground started to shake. It was just a little tremor, but the news footage from the drugstore suddenly made her very aware of the fact that right now, on the sidewalk, she was standing right on top of a sewer system. That might have just been the push she needed to bolt out of there lickety-split. There was no way she was going to run however many miles to Ninjago City only to get swallowed up by some gross sewer.
She was just about to turn right, away from the park, when another tremor hit, bigger than the last. It actually got Nya to stop and steady herself.
‘Please don’t die, please don’t die, please don’t die,’ she pleaded to herself.
Then everything calmed.
She would have wiped some sweat from her brow if her hands weren’t being weighed down by the heavy plastic bag of medicine. The very same bag which was unceremoniously dropped to the ground when a nearby manhole cover suddenly flew from the ground and a startlingly familiar face popped up behind it.
“Jay?” Nya gasped, her mouth gaping. But he was far from the Jay she knew. This Jay was green and scaly, with fangs and slitted eyes, but she’d still know that face anywhere.
When Nya called his name, his neck spun around to stare at her, and then he sprang up and ran into the nearest alleyway.
She stared for one more moment before shaking her head and taking off after him.
“Jay!” She cried, seeing him rounding a far ahead corner. In the back of her mind, she was vaguely aware of the fact that this all might be some sort of Serpentine trick, designed to lure her in with a familiar face, but since she had no idea where the boys had ended up after they went after Jay, she couldn’t say that it would surprise her to find out that they had managed to get all the way into Ninjago City. After all, wasn’t she in Ninjago City? The real question was why was Jay running around the sewers like some sort of alternate teenage mutant ninja Serpentine?
Despite the fatigue in her legs, new strength seemed to be pulsating through them as she chased her friend down. She was sure that all the people who lived in this part of town did not appreciate the noise they were both making, shoving aside trash bins and running into things, but she didn’t really have the time to worry about that right now.
“Jay, what happened?! What’s wrong?!” She tried to yell, but once again, he ignored her. And… was that a tail, or was she just seeing things?
When they were a decent few blocks further into the city, Nya’s stamina finally gave out, and she couldn’t run another step. Jay was simply too fast, and she’d gone past her limit ages ago. She bent over, hands on her knees, dripping sweat. As she removed her jacket, steam floating up from her in the frigid winter air, she thought she heard footsteps behind her. To her immense relief, she saw Kai and the other boys running up to her.
“Nya!” Her brother shouted. “What are you doing here!?”
“Better question: what are you doing here? And why does Jay look like Godzilla?” Nya countered.
“Better, BETTER question, which way did he go?” Cole asked.
Nya pointed and the boys bolted in that direction, with Kai turning back to shout, “Get back to the ship before it gets dark!” Over his shoulder.
She stood there, watching them go, and then turned around, thinking of the long path that lay ahead of her if she turned back now. But then she turned around again and thought about Jay, who had looked so… scared. Was she really supposed to just give up, go back, and hope everything turned out alright?
Suddenly, she remembered Greta Junction again. How she had felt so sure about leaping into action at first. That feeling of needing to do something—to help someone she cared about—it was something she’d been trying to avoid ever since that incident. Because she knew that if an opportunity presented itself… she wouldn’t be able to say ‘no.’
Her legs were bone dead tired, yes, but who said anything about running? She turned to her right where a fire escape was bolted to an apartment building wall and she started climbing up, all the way until she had reached the roof. With a bird’s eye view, she tracked down where Jay was; aka, wherever the most chaos was. It seemed almost as though he was trying to get somewhere specific.
She practically slid back down the fire escape and ran out to the sidewalk where people were walking and cars were driving nearby.
“Taxi!” She hollered, raising a hand as a yellow cab nearly rushed passed. “Take me to the Ninjago City Museum,” she told the driver. “And step on it, please.”
“You got it, little lady,” he replied with a strong city accent. He took out a thin comb from the glove box, perfected his already perfectly smoothed brown hair, and then peeled out into the street, narrowly avoiding a head-on collision with a passing truck.
Nya found herself clutching the backseat for dear life as the driver swerved with reckless abandon, just squeezing through yellow lights and passing other cars whenever possible. Of all the cab drivers in all of Ninjago City, she had to end up with the totally insane one!
Then, the car gracefully came to a stop outside the steps of the museum.
“That’ll be six hundred yen,” he said, leaning back and watching Nya peel herself from her seat.
Still shaking somewhat, she paid the man and got out of there faster than his manic driving. She turned toward the museum and pulled her beanie further down over her hair and ears. This had to be where Jay was going, it just made sense. He was clearly running in this direction, from what she saw, and the whole reason they’d come to the city in the first place was to come here and steal the Blade Cup. Now she just needed to figure out what she was supposed to do once he got there.
* * *
Jay was taking the alleys now, after Cole had started using his powers and making the sewers far more dangerous to travel in. He knew that the earth ninja would be forced to keep his power usage to a minimum out in public, but that meant potentially exposing himself as well. Still, it was the lesser of two unfavorable circumstances.
This was what the human part of his brain was thinking. The other was simply screaming “run away!”
He needed a new place to hide, somewhere that would be safe, somewhere that would be easy to get to. Suddenly, the Ninjago City Museum sprang to mind. It was safe, there were plenty of places to hide, and it was nearby.
Was that why he needed to go there, though? Wasn’t there something else? Something important there?
The Fang Blade.
Something about that name resonated with him. He needed to get it. More than anything else, he knew that it was important.
Toward the Ninjago City museum he ran, scaring the living daylights out of anyone who saw him. But they were a secondary concern now. The urge to take the Fang Blade was steadily growing bigger and bigger in his mind.
Several times he heard the other ninja behind him, gaining ground, but his new Serpentine agility saw to it that they never had an advantage for long. Even his new tail was coming in handy, balancing him whenever he made a tight turn. The pain was still keeping him from unleashing his true potential, but aside from that, it truly felt like he was letting out his wild side.
He approached the museum from a side entrance—one that was far less public—and used his electric powers to short fuse the security cameras in the area. He slunk inside, using his claws to scale the walls and avoid the security guards locking things up for the night.
Where was it? Where was it? Where was it?
He tried to think it through logically, but then his head started to get all fuzzy again.
Where would the trophy be kept? Where?
He tried and tried and tried to think, but it was like he was ramming his head against a brick wall. He just felt an incredible desire to move and search. He could probably sniff it out with his tongue. He didn’t need to think.
Yes, this felt better. That trophy would be his in no time at all.
Or, rather, the Fang Blade would be his.
There were so many rooms in the museum, he lost track of them all, and none of them so far had the scent he was looking for. He recalled what the replica had smelled like—the metallic tinge and polish scrub was quite distinct—and although there were some things here that were similar, he could tell they were not quite a match.
Then, it hit him.
He had the trail now.
Still clawing his way over the ceiling, Jay scurried all the way into the trophy section of the museum, and that’s when he saw it displayed front and center for al the world to see: the Fang Blade Cup.
He dropped from the roof and landed on all fours taking out any nearby cameras with a single shot of lightning. Then he straightened up and stepped over to his prize like it was already his for the taking.
Suddenly, he flicked his tongue and smelled something else.
“Stop!”
Her voice bounced hard off the smooth museum walls. If she wasn’t careful, Nya would foolishly alert the entire security staff to their presence.
Wait…
He whipped around and saw her standing at the entrance to the wing, a dagger in her hand. Not again… it was bad enough she saw him the first time!
“Jay…” she said slowly and firmly. “I don’t want to hurt you, but you need to stop running and tell me what’s going on.”
“Don’t look at me!” He said, turning his face away in a panic. “Don’t look at me.”
He could hear her heavy breathing and could smell her fear.
“I don’t have to,” she eventually said. “Just tell me what happened to you. Please.”
He turned his back on her, and instead looked up at the trophy, glistening in the warm light of sunset.
“Jay?”
He closed his eyes and imagined her face. Her eyes. Her smile.
“…I… I’m a mons-s-ster… a S-s-serpentine…” He growled at the sound his mouth made whenever he tried to say the letter ‘s.’
“But why?” She pressed, and he could hear her trying to take a step closer.
“Don’t!” He yelled. “Don’t move. Don’t look at me.”
“Jay, you’re not a monster.”
“Really?!” He whipped around and bared his fangs, revealing his hideous face. “This-s-s does-s-sn’t look like the face of a mons-s-ster to you?”
Nya only looked startled for a moment. Then she set her jaw.
“What happened to the Jay I know? Hmm? What happened to the guy who liked telling cheesy jokes and-and could build jetpacks and fix boats? Where’s that Jay?”
He turned away again and swallowed hard.
“I don’t need your help.”
“What?”
“I can handle this-s-s on my own.”
“Really? This looks like an easy-to-handle situation to you?”
He growled at the reversal she’d just done.
When the silence stretched on and on, Nya took the opportunity to take that hesitant first step. “I’m not leaving,” she said bravely. “Not without you. You’re my friend.”
Jay felt his insides crawling with a million unpleasant feelings. Namely, his animalistic side wrestling his human side for control over what he should be doing right now, mixed with the ever-present pain still attacking his nervous system.
Just then, a loud sound came echoing through the hallways, like a heavy metal door had been shut. Red laser lights flicked on at each entry way, and the only things that didn’t come online were the security cameras Jay had taken care of. It was pretty safe to say that they were locked inside the museum now.
“Well, well, well… guess it’s just us then.”
Jay’s tongue flicked out at once, and the smell he picked up would have curdled milk. He started looking around frantically, trying to spot him, but the only thing he could do was smell and hear him.
“What a pity those other pesky ninja aren’t here to see this.”
“Where are you?” Jay cried. “Show yours-s-self, now!”
Suddenly, a great big purple Serpentine appeared out of thin air right in front of him.
“My, my, someone’s impatient, aren’t they?”
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