A Second Chance

Part 59 - It's really me

Fugidove paced across the stage while flapping his arms like he was trying to catch a thermal breeze. Clearly, he hasn't stopped his delusions about being a dove just yet. 

He looked like he was having the time of his life under those hot lights. The audience was already chuckling at his feathered costume before he even opened his mouth.

"We all know Kai, the Master of Hair Gel, right?" Fugidove squawked while striking a dramatic pose. "Who doesn't?! The guy's ego is so big that it has its own zip code, and I'm fairly certain he uses a flamethrower just to dry his bangs in the morning. Wait, he does! Here's a clip of him doing exactly that!"

A massive video played on the screen showing Kai, yelling as his hair actually caught on fire. That dumbass actually thought it was a good idea.  

I actually had to slap the table because that was exactly the kind of stuff Kai would do.

He took a quick sip of water before moving on to his next victim. "And then there's Cole, who I'm pretty sure is sixty percent cake and forty percent bad dance moves at this point! Oh, and don't forget he has a serpentine disciple now!" 

The way he mimicked Cole's heavy-footed stomping was so perfect that it sent the whole room into another fit of giggles. But what did he mean by serpentine disciple? He had a student that was a snake?

"But seriously, what's the deal with  Arin and that object spijitsu?" Fugidove asked with a confused tilt of his head. "He's out there spinning a grappling hook, but I've seen pigeons with better aim than that!"

The crowd roared at the mental image, but my laughter died out instantly. 

I've never heard of anyone named Arin in my entire life. Did they get new people as well for their team? I thought it was just Synergy. 

I leaned back in my chair and watched the rest of the set with a knot forming in my stomach. 

So much has changed since I was last here. 

...

The show didn't last for much longer. He cracked a bunch of other jokes, talking about this "merge," and I didn't laugh much, because I had no idea what the merge even was. 

I stepped out into the humid evening air and felt the neon glow of the city soaking into my skin. It's incredibly strange how whatever the merge was, it made Ninjago more weird. I never noticed earlier, but now that I realized it, there was a floating building that seemed to be held up by nothing but glowing blue energy. 

My internal compass was spinning because even the streets I explored throughout my childhood didn't seem to lead to the same places anymore.

I started walking toward the main plaza while I tried to ignore the nagging feeling that I was a ghost wandering through a world that moved on. The crowd, I wasn't looking at them, but what it looked like was a messy blur of people from a dozen different places. There were some serpentine there too!

Since when did we integrate the serpentine with everyone else?

I was so busy looking up at the sky that I didn't even notice the two people walking toward me from the opposite direction.

"Oof!"

I stumbled backward toward a stack of empty crates. I flailed my arms wildly to keep my balance and managed to stay upright by a miracle. A boy in a bright yellow hood was looking at me with a mix of concern and a massive amount of energy.

"Whoa, I'm so sorry! I totally didn't see you there because I was distracted by this cool hook I got!" 

He looked like he was a teenager and he was vibrating with a kind of excitement I usually only see in a mirror.