(Underneath Ninjago City, the ninjas discover secrets about the Serpentine when they fight alongside them against the Nindroids.)

Season Three: Episode Four
Words: 1.3k

"What happened? It's like a desert."
"No power, that's what happened," Cole flails his arms.
"Are we too late?"

We walk along the street, jumping when a pile of cars fall in front of us. A crowd charges us, weapons in hand. "Outsiders must answer to the Postman!"

"Return to sender!"
I snort as Kai shrugs his shoulders at Cole's confused face.
"Ah, you finally made it."

Cyrus miraculously makes it down the pile of junk without falling. "Don't mind the savages. Since the power went out, everyone here has grown a bit...bored. Their imagination knows no bounds."

"I can see that," I give a confused smile. "Pixal! You're...powered."
Nya walks up next to me, Pixal going to Cyrus.

"We have real problem to address. Pixal what's powering you?"
"Zane, gave me half his heart," she stares dreamily at Zane with her newfound emotions.

"Thank you, Zane. Unfortunately, the hard drive was stolen with the digital imprint of the Overlord. You'll be unable to erase him with your Techno Blades until we find it."

Jay steps forward, pushing past Cole. "Aw, don't worry, we already had a little run in with the red-handed suspect, or should I say white-handed." Jay holds up the white scale.
"Guess what, he's Serpentine."

"Unh. Lucky for us, the last Serpentine were sealed within a tomb, right under the city," Cole lifts up the pot hole. "So it's about time we pay them a little visit."

I head down the ladder first, Nya comes after me. "Watch your step Nya. We don't know the last time this ladder was used," Cole says, sweetly.

I roll my eyes and continue to make my way down, dropping to the ground after skipping the last few rungs.

"That's thoughtful of you, Cole."
"Hey! How about you watch where you're going, Cole? Huh?"
Jay makes a series of noises as Nya's rung gives out under her.

"Uh, guys? A little help?"
"There not gonna listen," I groan, rolling my eyes as Nya falls. "Ah, aah! Unh," she screams, getting caught by me.

"My knights in shining armor," I roughly put her down at the statement, dusting myself off, the boys coming down.

"It was his fault!"
"It was his fault!"

"Let's keep our eyes peeled. Our mystery suspect could be anywhere down here," Zane stops the bickering of the boys.

The boys pull out glow sticks as we start to walk. "Serpentine. Never though I'd see them again."

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"Tomb of the Stone Army. It's been sealed since the Serpentine were trapped here."
"It appears the seal has been opened," Zane takes a closer look.

"Aah! Not you again!"
I turn around at the sound of a familiar voice. "Scales. Something told me you'd be behind this. Search his bag."

I huff at Cole, grabbing Jay's glow stick while he searches Scales. "Aah! This is harassment," he lisps. "I've done nothing wrong!"

"Except steal the hard drive. Where is it? What are you hiding," Jay threatens him.
"He's hiding," Kai searches his bag, "groceries?"

I pick up the newspaper, "and the latest issue of Ninjago Times."
"What can I say? I'm a sucker for the crossword."
I tilt my head, Scales closing his bag.
"Sorry, you've got the wrong snake."

"Daddy? Are you okay?"
I gasp, turning around to see a smaller, child-like version of Scales.
"Scales Jr, stay inside."
I choke on my own spit at that sentence.

"Scales Jr? You have a son?" Kai stammers over the idea.
"We've been busy since you left us. And we prefer to keep it that way."

"Is this about the Golden Master," his son asks. "Is he going to hurt us?"
"That is only a story, son. They were just leaving," Scales glares at us.

"Golden Master," I stop him from moving, "Is this about Lloyd?"
He backs away at my defensiveness. "Like you, we have our own legends. But I guess in ours, you are the bad guys."

"What legend?"
"They have a right to know," his wife whispers in his ear. "If we're going to shed a new skin, we must open our home to others."

"Oh! Alright. Let's go, surface dwellers. If you'd like to hear the Curse of the Golden Master, follow me."

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"After a rather humbling scrap with those indestructible Stone Warriors, we've made amends with our warring past and found ways to help better ourselves."

"So you got a few snakes to go straight," I stick my hip out, giving less pressure on my legs. "Doesn't mean there's not one bad apple."

Kai stands next to me. "Fangpyer have white scales don't they?"
"A few. Is this about the missing hard drive?"
"This is about the Overlord."
"Aah! The Overlord. Glad we weren't around for that mess. No, we have no desire to meddle in the affairs above. As you can see, we stick to our own."

"Have a seat," they lead us over towards a campfire. "You could learn a thing or two about your beloved Golden Master."
"Hello, hatchling," their elder chief comes up to us.

"Do you seek to learn about the Curse of the Golden Master?

"When the First Spinjitzu Master crested Ninjago, deep in the ground he created the Serpentine.
Since the first dawn, our elders knew of the Curse of the Golden Master, when he who had the powers equal to the First Spinjitzu Master would rise and usher in the last of the setting suns.
With no equal adversary, his power will go unmatched. His destructive rule will change the face of the world, and he will not stop until every man, woman, and her Serpentine are enslaved under his control.
The Serpentine tried to warn the land dwellers, but they wouldn't listen. They thought we were the enemy, though we were only trying to prevent the prophecy of the Golden Master's terrible reign.
After the Great Devourer failed to scare the unbelievers below ground, it is we who retreated beneath the soil, promising never to return, even now that the end is inevitable."

———————————

"I can't believe they think Lloyd could become the Golden Master."
"Well, he is the son of Lord Garmadon," Jay nonchalantly replies.

"What I want to know is, if none of them took the hard drive, who else could it be," Nya puts her fists together.

"We're under attack! Protect the young!"
"Nindroids," Cole shouts, the Serpentine running away.

"Ugh! These toasters never know when to quit."
"I can't believe I'm saying this, but...protect the Serpentine!"

I dodge a hit from a nindroid, in the result it breaks the tree. "You know," I say out loud, grabbing a stick and whacking the head of one, "when we first found out Zane was a Nindroid, I loved the idea of there being more," grunting, I flip over a wall, landing on more droids, "now, I'm not very fond of them."

"Get off of him," I side-tackle a nindroid off of a kid, "you alright?"
They run back to their parents.

"How do we defeat them," I exasperatedly ask, "they don't stay down!"
"If we could figure out what powered them, this would be a whole lot easier."
I hop next to Jay, sliding my mask over my mouth.

One grabs my legs, dragging me to the floor.
I kick my legs out, causing them to crashing into the wall.

"Hey! They're powered by some sort of eel thing inside their back!"
"Ngh! Good riddance," I pull the wire connecting the tank to the nindroid, powering it down.

I chuckle, the powered-down nindroids falling around me like dominoes. "Yeah," I high-five Zane. He stops cheering, getting grabbed by one of the nindroids.

"The Overlord?"
"You've unknowingly left me straight to the Golden Ninja. And this was merely a diversion to keep you busy."

Zane grunts, taking out the wire powering the nindroid.
"We need to find Lloyd, now!"
"Oh, wait! One more thing. There's only one Serpentine whose had a history of being so fond of using the Electro-Cobrai."

"Who?"