Ninjago: A Malicious Lullaby

4 • The Adventure Begins

After searching for Cole for another hour, the ninja, unfortunately, failed to find any leads. Dareth wasn't much help either since he couldn't stop complaining about his stolen pizza, and Lloyd couldn't remember anything else besides what he already told them. With that, they decided to regroup at the Bounty and come up with a plan.

With no one tending to it, the Bounty had been landed in a safe location just outside of the city, because Wu, Misako, and Nya weren't anywhere to be seen. The cloudless sky let the afternoon daylight shine on the entire deck, while the ninja landed and hopped off their elemental dragons as they disappeared in fragments of elemental smoke.

After a surprise attack like that, the ninja weren't in the best shape. Being the only ninja that was still generally okay, Zane took a quick examination of his brothers' well-being. With the help of Pixal's instructions, he created ice in the appropriate shape for each of their injuries in hopes that later they would find better treatment. Lloyd and Jay thanked him in words, whereas Kai only gave him a dismissive nod.

Kai was hoping the fresh air would help him think of a plan, but it only made the fire ninja feel like he shouldn't have the chance to enjoy the weather when his friend was missing and probably hurt....

"Something's on your mind, Kai," Zane said, placing a hand on the fire ninja's shoulder, "Would you like to talk about it?" Zane said.

Kai took a deep breath, lifting his head to address the people around him. He fiddled with the packed ice that was shaped to his wrist and furrowed his brow.

"I think Cole's with them," he seethed, speaking his thoughts aloud.

Lloyd blinked and looked at him in disbelief, almost dropping the ice in his hand that before was being held against his head. "Wha— how on earth would you think Cole would go with those crazy—"

"No," Kai shook his head, "Obviously he wouldn't go with them voluntarily..."

"...but he might if they were able to gain control of him," Zane finished, while Kai waved a finger in his direction in agreement. "Exactly," the master of fire said, "They definitely have some sort of special hypnotic power that can control people... so I don't think that's too far-fetched of an idea."

Lloyd sighed. "Who knows where they went..." he took out Cole's phone from his pocket and looked at it before letting his hand hang down by his side in exasperation. "And if Cole still had his phone on him, we might have had a chance to locate him. So much for that idea."

"Ok- wait, wait, wait, what about their singing? And how it literally made us mindless zombies?!" Jay cried. "Are we going to address that ?!"

Tapping a finger to his chin, Zane added, "I, too, am at a loss to understand how they performed that."

Kai shrugged. Power like that wasn't anything he'd encountered before. Their singing abilities seemed to be more of a mental attack, as opposed to the other villains they've fought in the past. "Maybe it's another one of those dark spells that... er... can amplify their voices... or something."

"Could be." Lloyd agreed, "From what we know that's the only thing that makes sense... which sucks. I really hoped we'd be done with all that dark magic stuff..."

Jay crossed his arms. "Well, it's making a comeback whether we like it or not."

"It doesn't seem like they have much of a plan though," Kai said, "They're just kinda working off unbridled rage right now."

Zane took a deep breath. "But that's what makes them even more unpredictable."

The green ninja shook his head. "Right, the entire time it felt as if they didn't really have much of a plan," he exchanged looks with everyone, "...and that goal seems to be to kill me. Somehow," he added with a cocky smirk in an attempt to lighten the mood. "And obviously we're not gonna let that happen, will we?" Kai grinned, putting a hand on his shoulder. Lloyd shuddered at the sudden cold on his back, which reminded Kai that he still had that ice brace, so he quickly raised it and apologized. Lloyd shrugged it off with a smile.