A Second Chance

Part 68 - Call of Duty

"When I was fourteen, the serpentine started attacking schools everywhere, and eventually, they attacked my school. By that time, I'd gotten pretty good with my whip, and felt almost like I earned the master of lightning title, and then one afternoon the Constrictai came up out of the ground right in the middle of the school courtyard"

"My instinct kicked him and I distracted them, allowing everyone to escape. I couldn't say I was prepared to fight them though, because I sure wasn't. They beat me pretty good after that, I'll be honest. I couldn't see out of one eye, nose was bleeding, all that. I got one zap off that just made them angrier and then one of them got me in a full squeeze. It would have been over if I didn't teleport out of pure desperation and ran."

"And then this woman appeared out of nowhere with a wooden bat and just, cracked the snake behind me like it was nothing. Faded hair, red cat eye glasses, and bomber jacket. Want to guess who that was? Your adoptive mother, Edna! She was so badass!"

"We all ran way and we got onto Edna's truck, but the engine wouldn't start. So, I used my lightning and saved us. Then, boom, full speed and we escaped properly. To me, Edna's the second coolest person I've ever met in my life."

"We arrived to their apartment, and that's where I met your adoptive father, Ed. I helped him fixed a device and we had a fun talk about resistors! I had some soup that they gave, and then Edna drove me back to Mount Hayamori. Yeah, I learned that late, but that's where Ice lived!"

"I really didn't know I was sitting in the home of the people who were going to raise you. To me, I thought I'd found two of the most wonderful people in Ninjago on what had otherwise been a genuinely terrible afternoon. I'm so glad they raised you!"

...

"One day, Amy showed up out of nowhere, which, side note, Amy is the elemental master of nature, and before you say anything yes I know that doesn't sound like a real element, she knows, she's heard it, we had that exact conversation. She and Ice went way back and she had a baby at home that she had a pretty weird name for. Don't remember it, but she was chill."

"She then said that the elemental alliance was calling us to fight in the Serpentine War. Ice immediately said I was too young, which, I was fourteen, so yeah, but I'd been training hard and even survived an encounter with them, so we argued. It got pretty intense and he made me stay at Ed and Edna's place."

"Edna tried her best with me that evening. I was completely useless company, just staring at cold soup and not talking, which if you know me at all you understand how bad that was. She gave me a little room and didn't push and I sat in my sleeping bag staring at the ceiling for hours."

"That day, I tried to sneak out at midnight, but Edna was right there, chilling at the garage. She laughed, saying that she knew I would try to pull something like this. But to my surprise, she just let me go and made me promise that I'd keep myself safe. See, that's why she's the second coolest person I'd met. She let me make my choice instead of making it about her!"

"I spend three days climbing the mountain the summit was at. And before you say anything, yes I could teleport short distances but every time I did my head felt like it was going to split open and I nearly passed out twice, so it wasn't exactly a fast process. Also there were a lot of birds. Extremely territorial, angry birds who had very strong opinions about me being on their mountain."

"I made it though... to the entrance of the infamous monastery! I remember standing at the base looking up at the monastery and thinking about how I was actually going to do this, and then I teleported to the roof and almost immediately fell off the roof. Terrible ending to three days of climbing!"