Lies Of The Serpent: A Ninjago AU

Chapter 19: Fighting Cole

Zane's POV

As I lead my friends to Lloyd's tree house, Kai said, "I don't even think Zane knows where he's going!" I stopped to wait for the others.

Panting, Kai said, "Tell us again how you stumbled upon Lloyd's secret headquarters."

"I followed a bird," I replied.

"Why did you follow a bird?" Jay asked, sounding very confused.

"Because it danced," I replied.

"Oh! Okay. Was it a cuckoo bird?" Jay said, and everyone laughed. Why were they laughing? Was it because of Jay's question?

I decided it would be better to just answer Jay's question.

I said, "Of course not. Everyone knows cuckoo birds are not indigenous to these forests." Everyone stared at me confused.

I ran ahead. I needed to focus.

We soon got there, and I heard Lloyd yell, "Watch it! No, bigger! Come on we don't have all day! It's not time for a lunch break!"

"Holy cannoli! Frosty was right!" Cole said, sounding shocked.

"We can't let that brat and those snakes get a foothold in Ninjago. We gotta destroy that thing before it becomes operational," Kai said.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Are you sure? It looks like a pretty cool tree house. There's a rope course. Oooh! A tree swing!" Jay said.

"Hey! Remember whose team you're on. All right, guys, what do we do?" Cole said.

Kai said, "It looks like the entire place Is being supported by those three trees," Kai pointed to three trees before continuing, "Once those ties are severed the whole thing is gonna fall like a house of cards."

"But why would one make a house of cards? Such construction would be carless," I said, wondering why anyone would build such a poor structure.

"Travel in shadows, boys!" Cole said before falling over.

"Are you okay?" Jay asked.

"Y-Yeah. Just a bit dizzy is all," Cole said as he regained his balance. I could tell that things were worse than they seemed. Either Cole was ill or he was hypnotized and was not currently being controlled.

Over the years I had done research on the serpentine and now knew all the signs of someone being hypnotized. I also knew that it was possible for someone to be hypnotized but not be controlled, and the signs of that were sudden dizziness and blacking out randomly. There were probably more, but since the hypnobrai had been underground for several years people knew very little about the subject.

I had noticed Cole black out for a second yesterday, so I was quite sure that he was hypnotized. I started thinking of ways to fight him without actually hurting him.

We all ran to the tree house, hiding behind trees as we ran.

Lloyd said, "It's almost finished. Soon my fortress will be complete. You!," he pointed to a random hypnobrai, "Hold up that sign for me," the sign said no girls or ninja. He pulled a lever and yelled, "Booby trap!" as the hypnobrai fell through the floor.

"I don't want to be rude, but can you please stop hurting my friends?" the hypnobrai girl from the night before asked.

"You're lucky I don't kick you out. With how much you've been disobeying me. And you're a girl! That alone should've gotten you kicked out."

"What does being a girl have anything to do with you kicking me out?" The hypnobrai girl sounded enraged.

"Easy, girls are gross, and ugly, and rude, and bossy and-"