Legends of Ninjago: Book 3: The Four Fangs

Chapter 20: Return

Twilight was swiftly approaching—the last of golden hour's light silhouetting Pythor's face as he looked down at Jay with a contemptuous, almost curious, expression.
"What have we here?" He asked, slithering up to him. That long, arched neck leaned in so close, Jay could make out the individual scales on his nose.
"Get back!" Jay shouted, firing up his lighting, but it started to pop and fizzle like a fire cracker, rather than the big bolts he was sued to. He tried again to relight it, but the same, sparkling energy appeared.
Pythor watched his hands carefully for a moment, but a smile quickly spread across his lengthy face. "Having trouble?"
"No!" Jay hissed, and he raised up his fists, still sparkling. "You take one more, uh—s-s-step—clos-s-ser, and I'll shock you s-s-so bad your tail will fall off!"
"IS THAT SO!?"
Jay fell back as the purple Serpentine lunged at him, and for half a moment, he thought he was going to sink his fangs into his face, his heart leaping out of his chest. He quickly had his fist of electricity at the ready again, but with Pythor looming over him like that, it was clear who still had the advantage.
Those bright eyes of his squinted in the twilight. "You're still a hatchling, aren't you? And you've somehow managed to get yourself in quite the situation, haven't you?" His deep chuckle sounded far too pleased. "Allow me to elucidate. You see, funny thing about us Serpentine—" if it were possible, he leaned in even closer, "—you never cross the alpha. And, why, that just so happens to be me!"
While he was getting caught up in his little speech, Jay thought he might try to shock him, but sadly, it seemed that snakes had much faster reactions than he did.
"Aah!!"
"Naughty, naughty," Pythor chided, squeezing Jay's wrist.
Two arms suddenly appeared around the Serpentine's neck, grabbing a hold of him, and maybe trying to choke him. Nya screeched as Pythor started writhing about trying to shake her off.
"You little brat!" He cried. "Unhand me at once!"
Jay knew he needed to do something, and if he hadn't started running at them, he might not have been there to catch Nya when Pythor eventually threw her off. Then... the room was empty again. Or rather, it appeared empty. Jay could still smell him, circling around like a vulture.
With the force of a small car, both Jay and Nya were knocked to the floor, and the air was pushed out of their lungs. It had to be Pythor, his long coils pushing hard against him chest and eventually moving up over his mouth.
"Let this be a lesson to you ninja," came Pythor's low, disembodied voice, and then his face gradually began to reappear above him, one scale at a time. "The Serpentine are—"
"Jay!?" A far away voice called.
"Jay, come on!"
"Do you see him?"
Pythor instantly hid his face again, and Jay imagined that he was looking around. "It seems you're not as alone as I thought... No matter. I can still squeeze the life out of the two of you and take the Fang Blade before they even realise we're here."
Jay tried to move his arms, or his legs, but Pythor was just so heavy, it was like trying to escape a whole dog pile of people, and the pressure of only increasing. He could still hear Kai, Cole, and Zane's voices—they had to be outside—but they were already starting to fade, and with the museum already closed, the odds of them getting in before he blacked out were very slim indeed.
He tried again and again to move the invisible tail from his torso, pushed his muscles until they they were shaking and he felt sweaty, but he remained pinned to the floor. He had to do something, or else both he, and Nya, were about to enter the Departed Realm.
There was nothing else for it. No other option that he could see.
As blackness began to rim his vision, he forced his face to move until his mouth was touching the cold, concrete floor, and nothing else. Then, with all the remaining air in his chest, called out,
"HELP—"
His voice cut off right as Pythor smothered his face again, but as the blackness encroached upon his psyche, he could still hear it echoing through the hallways.
He wasn't sure of what happened next. All he remembered, was someone slapping him in the face and being able to breathe again.
"Jay! Wake up or I swear I'm gonna—"
"Cole?" he croaked. "What the heck, man?"
"Thank the First Spinjitsu Master," he muttered, letting go of Jay's jacket front.
"We thought that perhaps we were too late," said Zane next to them.
Jay let his head roll over, feeling his skull press into the stony floor, and saw Kai holding Nya, relieved. There was still someone he could not see, however.
"Where is-s-s he?" He asked, looking around and behind his friends. "Where'd he go?"
"Who?" Cole was suddenly very alert.
Had he run off when the other ninja arrived? Or was he still in the room? He flicked his tongue out at once, searching for his scent. Oh yeah. He was definitely still here. But the questioned remained: what was he planning on doing next?
Red and white lights suddenly stained his retinas and quick, chirping alarms stung his ears. Of course, there was only one place to look for trouble. The Fang Blade. Its cover was thrown over and the trophy itself seemed to be walking off.
"Hey!" He shouted at it, trying to get up.
The trophy quickened its pace and would have escaped, had it not run straight into the security grate that locked the windows down.
"Oh, pooh," it said in a posh accent.
"There's nowhere to run!" Jay was on his feet now, clutching a stitch in his side. "Hand over the trophy!"
A sudden chill swept over the room as elements began to tingle at the ninjas' fingertips, and the Blade Cup carefully sank to the ground with a delicate thunk. It didn't move for an uncomfortable amount of time.
"AGH!!" Jay suddenly choked as he was lifted into the air and pushed back into the entryway's security grate. It bounced and buckled against the weight of him, all the while tearing into his scaly skin.
"Jay!" Cole yelled.
"I should've just killed you properly when I had the chance!" Pythor snarled, still invisible.
A blast of snow coated half the room, burning to the touch, and much to the dismay of the Serpentine, who's invisibility was rendered useless now that he was covered in snowflakes. He shook violently and hissed at the other ninja, bearing his long fangs and letting his tongue stick out hungrily.
Jay saw an opportunity and took it. He fired up another round of electricity and drove it straight into Pythor's wrist, making it tense up and freeing his throat from his death grip.
Cole moved first after that, using the floor for ammunition, smashing case after case of trophies, but Pythor was fast, and seemingly had a sixth sense about when the next rock would come wizzing by his head. Then, quite unexpectedly, one of those very same rocks came flying back at Cole, and he had to duck to keep his face from getting smashed in.
The next thing anybody knew, he and Zane were on the floor, grappling with the snake's massive tail. Zane, who seemed to be quite wrapped up, was trying to get his hand free so that he wouldn't freeze himself, but it wasn't coming easy.
Fire illuminated the room with its blazing light, letting everyone know that Kai meant business. Before getting singed, Pythor released his captives and retreated to the nearest corner.
While Jay was free, he spotted the trophy, glinting at the opposite end of the room. It was all too easy to run over and grab it, but then of course there was a catch.
"Who are you!?" Kai was yelling at Pythor, pinned down at last by Kai's threatening, flaming hand.
"I wouldn't come any closer if I were you," he glowered, lifting up Nya in his coils.
"Nya!" Kai blurted.
"You there!" The snake snapped. "Give me the trophy, or the girl dies!" His eyes were locked onto Jay, and everyone else followed suit.
What were his options? There was nothing else in the room besides broken glass and trophies, all the exits were shut, and the police were probably about to arrive. In the meantime, Pythor was gently squeezing down on Nya's body, keeping her from moving.
"Don't do it!" Nya suddenly said, tears in her eyes.
"Give him the blade!" Kai yelled over her. "Do it! Now!"
Reluctantly, they were out of options. With his head hung low, Jay walked over and handed the trophy to the scaly Serpentine.
"Now there's a good boy," Pythor crooned.
"Let her go!" Jay snapped.
"I'm not finished yet," he said, getting very close to his face again. "Open the window for me."
"Why would I—"
"I'd choose my next words carefully if I were you." He lowered Nya, wrapping the end of his tail over her mouth.
He swallowed. Pythor seemed to have this strange ability to make himself appear bigger and more threatening whenever it suited him, and right now was one of those times. Jay felt as though he'd shrunk to half his size as the Serpentine Chief glared at him, and he knew that there was no way he'd be able to win in a fight.
Unclenching his fists, he turned toward the nearest window and summoned as much scraggly energy as he could. The glass should break easy enough, though he might need to try a few times before the metal grate broke, and—
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw movement. Cole's hand, by his side, was trying to say something. For the love of Wu's beard, please let him remember what all those secret signs meant.
"What's taking so long?" Pythor growled.
Cole's hand was moving fast, but Jay was able to figure out the gist of what he was saying.
Distraction.
"Open the window!"
"Think fas-s-st!" Jay threw his small ball of electricity at his precious Fang Blade, which sent him into a tizzy. While he was busy trying not to drop the whole trophy, Cole brought part of the ceiling crashing down. It landed square on Pythor's tail.
"YEEOOOOOWW!!!" He wailed, releasing Nya at once as he tried to dislodge himself from all of the debris.
Zane moved in, probably trying to get to the trophy, while Kai ran over and grabbed Nya's arm, pulling her out of harm's way.
"I'll get the door," said Cole easily, and he lifted up and massive chunk of the floor and flung it at the window.
CRASH!!!
"Let's move!" He called, leading the way through the glass-edged window frame. Jay and Kai were right behind him, with Nya and Zane behind them, and Pythor cursing their names from inside the broken building.
Jay was relieved beyond belief to be out of there. So relieved, in fact, that he was finally able to feel all of the pain he was in.
"Jay!" Zane cried, seeing him stumble and fall into the grass of the museum garden.
It was Cole who doubled back and scooped him up, urging the others to keep moving. Nya gave out as well, not long after, but Kai was able to carry her.
Jay could still feel the venom warping his insides, twisting up his organs and frying his nerves as he bounced on Cole shoulder. There were police sirens everywhere, and they had to take a quick little detour through the sewers to avoid them, but eventually, they were jogging along the alleyways, heading home.
"Wait!" Nya suddenly said, stopping the whole group before they left the suburbs. "The medicine! I bought medicine for Ann and Keaton—I left it by the skatepark."
"Leave it to me," said Zane, depositing the blade he had snagged into Kai's hands and turning back. "I'll catch up!"
"Can you walk again?" Cole asked Jay.
"I... I think so," he said, not wanting to sound weak. In all actuality, he was still in sever pain, and every step felt like daggers being sliced across his skin, but he wasn't about to moan and whine about it.
"So what happened back there?" Cole had his stern face on, and Jay decided not to make eye contact. "Answers, now."
Jay sighed. "I got bitten by one of the Fangpyres-s-s," he finally admitted, and all at once this great tensity seemed to leave his chest. "I... I thought that maybe... if I was s-s-strong enough... but whatever. Nya followed me and... that's when we got ambushed. Ngh!" He grasped his side again as the pain swelled up. Cole was by his side instantly, helping to prop him up.
"All you had to do was tell us what was happening, you big dummy," he grumbled. "We would have figured something out before it got out of hand."
Jay stared at the sidewalk.
Like it was so easy. Cole was strong and brave... and everything Jay wasn't.
"We can't afford to have stuff like this happen," Cole went on. "We can't afford to lose a member of the team."
Ah. So this was just another way Jay had inconvenienced the team and made a mess of things. That totally made him feel so much better.
"You've gotta get it into that thick skull of yours." Here it was. "Your teammates have your back." Jay looked up at Cole. "You're still operating as though you're a one-man show. Don't push us out, Jay. A team needs all of its members to play their parts. Together."
"You're starting to sound like Sensei Wu," Jay chuckled.
"Yeah, well... let's hope the real Wu shows up soon, cause I have no idea what we're supposed to do about your..."
"New look?" Jay offered. He could feel his tail steadily growing behind him—it was down to his calfs now.
He looked up ahead and saw Nya riding on Kai's back, half asleep. Their little, uh... conversation in the museum was certainly going to be stuck in his mind for a little bit. The way she'd looked at him... how would she ever like him after this? He'd really made a mess of things all the way around.
But... maybe it still wasn't too late to do better.

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