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The battle was going….not well. But it was going. The team was actively fighting and not getting their asses handed to them, which was great, but they weren’t exactly winning. That was fine though, it was usually how things went with the villain of the month. The villain would pop up out of nowhere and monologue, the ninja would fight and run into a problem, and then they’d figure out a solution, defeat the villain, and make it back to the monastery in time for dinner. Peace of cake. Walk in the park.
Except, the sun was getting low and they’d yet to come up with a solution to beat this dumbass villain’s powerful bursts of energy, from his stupidly portable gun, that flung the ninja around like toys. Zane freezing the damn thing was currently their best bet, but the villain wouldn’t let him get close enough to try. And they guy seemed to have a sixth sense whenever they tried to sneak up on him! Totally unfair.
Kai dived to the ground as Zane was sent sailing at his head. The nindroid bounced off into the woods that surrounded the lake with a few comical thuds, before disappearing into the foliage once again. The autumn leaves and the setting sun made the forest look like it was on fire, reflecting off the lake with a beautiful glow. It was exactly the kind of place Cole would insist they stop for a picnic, and Kai was sure once they handled this dude he’d bring it up. The downside of the beauty was the amount of fallen leaves and branches that littered the lakeside, easy to slip over and get stuck in like Zane seemed to be. The nindroid hadn’t appeared out of the woods yet.
Kai huffed in irritation as he pushed himself up, zigzagging to avoid the blasts of the three pronged gun. The man’s ugly, neon yellow coat made for an excellent target, and Kai threw fire as cover, though it was only waved away like an annoying fly. The fire ninja did not appreciate being compared to a bug, even if he was the one doing the comparing.
“Give up, you worthless bugs! You can’t defeat the great Antigravity King!” The villain crowed, and Kai internally rolled his eyes. Now he was being compared to a bug! And what kind of stupid name was Antigravity King? The gun didn’t even affect gravity, it just launched them!
“Hey! Mr. Highlighter!” Jay yelled, running in from the side. He had a leafy twig stuck in his hair. “Where’d you get the fancy gun? You obviously weren’t smart enough to build it.” The villain turned in outrage, mouth open to no doubt make some dumb retort, but he didn’t get the chance when he got a facefull of lake water from a smirking Nya.
Kai saw the gap in the villain's defense and lunged for it with a sharp grin. The villain spluttered on his back, a fish wiggling in his coat pocket, and Kai had prepared to absolutely roast the idiot when some button flashed on the machine. It activated and Kai had a brief moment to think ‘Uh oh.’ before he was being launched really, really high into the air. Shouts sounded below, but faded quickly. Kai, momentarily weightless, realized that the villain didn’t have a sixth sense, the gun just activated when anybody who wasn’t holding it got close! The guy had nothing besides the gun going for him! How had they not beaten him yet?
That was a question Kai didn’t have the time to answer as his upward momentum slowed and his stomach leapt up to his heart. His eyes widened as he turned to face the ground and realized he was way higher than any of the rebounds had sent the ninja previously. And he was over the lake. Like way over. It was a pretty big lake and he’d been sent almost to the center.
Kai’s heart stuttered as the dark water approached at increasing speeds. His breath was stolen from his lungs, fire sputtering at the lack of oxygen in his frantic attempts to slow his descent, to send him closer to shore, anywhere but the looming water below him. A flash of blue told his fear fogged brain that Nya was heading towards him, but he knew she wouldn’t get there fast enough. The water was so close and he hated water, hated it ever since he was a kid and his little sister slipped into the river, ever since he nearly drowned trying to pull her out. Dread spread from his core like ice and Kai shut his eyes tight, one hand pushing out in a last ditch attempt to save himself. Darkness didn’t take long to claim him.
Kai hissed in pain as he gradually rose from the dark, the void of his subconscious dragging at him, urging him to fall back into its grasp. He was tempted, but a thudding urgency made him sluggishly fight to wakefulness. He’d been doing something, fighting someone, and he knew the battle wasn’t over yet. Kai blinked against the light of the setting sun, bones aching and stiff. He’d have a big bruise on his back by tomorrow, if he hadn’t broken anything. Something tickled his nose, and he went cross eyed in order to see…frost? It was only then that Kai realized he was floating, or at least the thing he was on was floating. It was hard, cold, and a bluish white. Ice, he distantly realized. He was floating on a jagged chunk of ice that stretched up like the edges of an impact crater. But…he didn’t see Zane? The sun didn’t look like it had moved much, so he couldn’t have been out for very long. He wouldn’t have missed Zane arriving, catching him with ice, and then ditching. Kai was in the middle of a lake, how would Zane even get over here? It had been Nya he saw coming towards him, right?
Kai breathed out, and was immediately distracted by the sparkly, visible puff of air that escaped him. That was odd. This Autumn had been very temperate, the weather rarely reaching anywhere near the negatives, and the breeze that was brushing him now was only a little chilly. The coldest thing was the ice against his back, and even that was more of a gentle kind of cold.
The ice platform rocked beneath him, and suddenly there was someone beside him, someone in light blue and gray, with a worried pair of dark brown eyes. Nya. His little sister. Kai smiled sloppily at her, but that only seemed to make her worry more. Oh, she was talking. He should probably listen, but he was feeling rather lethargic. It felt like his blood was moving slower than it usually did. Was his heart beating slower too? The ever present crackling flame in his chest was silent. Gone? No, it was still there, but it wasn’t moving, wasn’t burning, almost like it was frozen. Everything was still around his heart, in his mind, like a blanket of snow had covered every worry, every frantic thought with a gentle hug. It was calm. Was this what Sensei Wu was trying to get them to achieve when he asked them to meditate? Kai had thought he just liked to torture him, but this was actually kind of nice. Everything seemed clearer, unblurred by motion and activity. The ice he was cradled in, ice that had always freezed him to the touch was now comforting, a wall between him and the terrible depths of both his mind and the lake.
A hand grabbed his shoulder and warmth shot through him. The ice around his inner flame began to crack, as his blood thawed and his breaths came stronger. Kai blinked hard, before focusing on his sister's face. This time her words reached him.
“-ai! Kai! Can you hear me?” She was worried, and now he realized why. Her finding him near unresponsive after falling from a great height was probably terrifying.
He coughed and shook his head in an attempt to dislodge the frost that had grown to cover his throat and the ends of his hair. The flame in his chest sparked, able to draw from its own warmth now as the ice melted around it. Beneath him, his makeshift raft grew colder. “I can hear you.” Kai responded, voice rough.
Nya pulled him up into a rough hug, and he winced as pain tore through his back and shoulder blade, but he didn’t protest. Her body heat was only speeding up the thaw. “Oh thank the First Spinjitzu Master.” Nya muttered, before pulling back and punching his arm. “Don’t do that, Kai.”
He grinned a little at that. “What? Don’t go flying tens of feet into the air? I’ll try.” Kai moved to stand but halted as his back once again argued against it. Falling unconscious was starting to seem real appetizing. Nya’s face drew a worried frown again. “I’m fine, my back just hurts a little.”
“Well no wonder , Mr. I’d Rather Land On A Hard Chunk Of Ice Than In A Body of Water.” Nya sniped, pulling his unhurt arm over her shoulder and helping him stand. “By the way, how the hell did you do that?”
Kai glanced down, nervous as the melting ice chunk wobbled. The ice chunk that, evidence given, he summoned. “I have no idea.”
“Well, whatever it was, we’ll figure it out. The others handled the weirdo, so you don’t have to break your back any further.” Nya led them to the small, broken-off piece that let them access the water, placing a careful foot on the still, black surface, before looking at him to do the same. Kai hesitated, but only for a moment. He hated water, but it wasn’t so scary with his sister at his side. Water was her domain, she controlled it , not the other way around. Trusting her to keep their heads above water was as easy as breathing. They were a long way and a long time from that river after all.
She smiled warmly at him and he couldn’t help but return it. His flame burned fiercely in his chest, crackling with its familiar roar as all of the ice was finally chased away. He’d missed it, he realized. As comforting as the ice was, the fire was him in a way no other element could be. Kai blazed with passion, strength and the warmth of the sun, and he’d have it no other way.
“Let’s go home.”