Querencia

S1 E12: Day of the Great Devourer*

"Sensei," Kai croaked, watching the Great Devourer lean back, shaking her head as if the bite had disgusted her. None of them moved, too shocked and horrified.

"Oh FSM," Jay whimpered, trembling. [M/n] forcibly unhooked Lloyd's fingers from his GI, movements hidden by Cole's bulk, shoving the boy back towards Nya, who lifted him up into her cockpit in understanding. However, the movement of her brightly colored mech seemed to catch the Devourer's acidic violet gaze, her long sinuous neck twisting as she observed them. "Oh, maybe if we stand perfectly still . . ."

"RUN!!" [M/n] commanded, yanking Jay into motion just as the Great Devourer lunged for them with no warning. Nya took off, stuffing herself back in the cockpit with Lloyd. The Devourer slammed into a statue that had been behind the group, shrieking in pain as they raced back through the streets towards the Bounty.

[M/n] continued to nearly drag Jay along as he struggled to get his feet back beneath him, screeching, "Don't drop me!!" When he finally managed to get his feet under him, he was released and immediately took off, outpacing the rest of them with ease.

Behind them the Devourer came after them, muscles propelling her across the sand though she seemed to be struggling to move from her time spent underground. [M/n] purposefully hung back, letting the others climb up the chain first, even though he had no chance at holding her off – to him, those numbers did not matter, their safety did. He hurried after them, having little issue climbing up the chain after the others as the Devourer fell behind.

Already at the Bridge, Nya and Lloyd were already working on getting the Bounty ready to move, the ninja filing into the room, panicking.

"Uh, hate to tell you this, but objects in the mirror are closer than they appear," Jay said, having run right to the wall with the smaller, circular window to watch the Devourers approach.

"Working on it," Nya snapped. [M/n] crossed the room to hover over Lloyd, allowing him room to move around to continue readying the Bounty. Lloyd's shoulders relaxed minutely. "Blasters on full."

"On it." Lloyd pushed the lever forward all the way, the Bounty lurching into motion beneath them. The other four ninja cheered, Cole sweeping Zane and Kai into a tight hug.

"Woo-hoo! Take that, you 愚蠢的蛇!" Kai whooped, only to earn a howling, demonic shriek from the Devourer. (Stupid snake!)

"Oh FSM, I think it heard you," Jay whimpered, trembling.

"Nya, we gotta go faster," Kai urged. "That thing is gaining on us! And fast!"

"We're going as fast as we can. I'll try to make it to Scattered Canyon."

"Probability of us making it that far is less than 8 percent."

"Never tell me the odds!" Nya pushed the Bounty to go faster, but she could only do so much.

"It's coming in for another attack, port side!" Cole warned, Nya swerving the Bounty violently to dodge the lunge.

"We're losing speed!" Lloyd cried. "We'll drop down to the ground pretty soon!" The jerking was grinding the Bounty's gears, and they were losing power quickly.

"Throw everything overboard!" Nya commanded, earning gobsmacked looks.

"What?!"

"We need to lose some weight!"

"Port side!" Lloyd yelled. Once more they violently swerved, [M/n] bracing his palms on the console to keep Lloyd from being knocked down, while the ninja stumbled out the door onto the deck.

Once the Bounty leveled out, [M/n] looked out the circular window himself. He watched as the Great Devourer began eating the supplies that were thrown overboard.