to rule the world | a ninjago au

[26] yeah im back

zane

Ice spread quickly across the room, trapping Reggie before he could teleport. Zane sighed a controlled breath of exasperation as Reggie teleported right out of the ice casing behind him. He parried his attack and then swept his foot in a backwards curve to shoot out a layer of ice over the floor. It would make Reggie's teleport landings a little slippery and delay him just enough for a proper attack.

Reggie immediately shied away from Zane and threw down a smoke wall to obscure Zane's vision. He simply switched to a thermal scanner and watched the Smoke Master move swiftly around him. When Reggie lunged out with his gauntlets, Zane dodged and laid down a jagged line of ice, trapping him in ice, on ice, by the Ice Master.

"That was very cool," Zane said proudly. He willed the ice to weaken its hold on Reggie, and it did, releasing a slightly soggy and grumpy Reginald.

"Did you just make an ice pun?"

"I did."

"Look, I have to deal with Jay's stupid lightning puns, Kai's beginning to do them too, and I can't handle you as well. I thought you were supposed to be the smart one!" Reggie exclaimed loudly, storming out of the training hall.

"It was very ice beating you!" Zane called after him. A snake made of smoke wriggled his way and made an attempt to sink its fangs into his ankle. Laughing, Zane just trapped it in ice and began cleaning up the mess they'd made training. It had been a busy morning and a spar with Reggie helped relax the tension that seemed to follow him around everywhere.

Zane had even started having to look behind him in case a trail of icy footprints were left in his wake. One day, Astra had slipped on the ice as they were being briefed on yet another mission and she hadn't said a word as she glared at Zane and marched out of the assignment. Jay had said it looked like she'd peed her pants from behind. His lasagna that night was uncooked pasta sheets layered with burger meat.

"I just—I don't understand why," Jay's voice was trembling, "It was never this bad before, in school."

"I didn't even know you were like that before," Cole said.

"He wasn't like that. It's not a like that thing, Brookstone. Something happened, Walker is reacting to it. We all do it." Astra's sharp voice interrupted them. "Your friend is outside."

"I am here," Zane confirmed, allowing Astra to step outside with a short nod. "Is anything wrong, Jay?"

"I have panic attacks," Jay said carefully, watching everyone's reactions. Zane now realised that Kai was also in this room, picking at his nails. "Because of all of this war stuff."

"And?"

"You're not gonna bully me for it?" Jay looked a little surprised at Kai's response, folding his legs into a criss-cross position.

"Someone I knew used to get something similar when she was younger. Hard having your parents away from you a lot." was all Kai said. "I'm here for you, bro."

"So am I, dude," Cole chimed in. "Whatever you need from us."

"Yes, I am available for anything you need me for," Zane paused to rifle through his thesaurus of words for 'friend'. "My guy."

"Um, well, I did want to try starting a new hobby, maybe. I don't know if it will help, it might not at all, I just thought it'd be cool. And I don't want you guys to walk on eggshells all around me, because Astra is being nice already and that's enough to make me worry for ten hours."

"What's the hobby?"

Jay mumbled something softly, then took a deep breath and spoke louder.

"Knitting. I want to start a knitting club."