Onyx and the Rise of the Snakes

Once Bitten, Twice Shy

Onyx listened to Nya give a lecture about an ancient Serpentine skeleton that had been found recently. "Some farmers unearthed the remains of this Fangpyre a few miles from here. It predates the Golden Age, and must be hundreds of years old. Although the venom in the fangs genetically mutates human cells to reptilian, I've learned that there may be a way to stop the effects without the antivenin," she explained.

Onyx and Zane were the only ones actually paying attention. Cole was doodling a picture on a scrap piece of paper, Kai was looking out the window, and Jay was staring at Nya wistfully. Which technically was paying attention, but to the wrong thing. Nya continued. "If one is able to wildly raise their heart rate, hypothetically, it could reverse the venom's effects," Nya's face suddenly flushed pink. "Resulting in diminished... in... I'm sorry, is someone wearing perfume? I'm severely allergic," she said.

Jay immediately turned to Kai. "You told me it was men's cologne!" He hissed. Kai shrugged. "Eh. I get them mixed up," He said. Onyx noticed Zane subtly turning his funny switch off. She sighed and hoped Nya wasn't lethally allergic. "Ah. Looks like class is over. Now let's start stomping some Serpentine before they find a Fangblade." Cole said, getting up and waking away, everyone except Jay following. "How is randomly attacking snakes going to help anything?" Onyx asked. Cole shrugged. "I don't know. I just wanted tickets get out of there," he said. Onyx gave him a look before shrugging. "I thought it was interesting, but fair enough, I guess," she said.

An hour later, Onyx, Zane, Jay, and Kai were back in the bridge, each doing their own thing. Cole was making coffee, Kai was messing with his hair, and Onyx and Zane were playing chess. No one was winning yet. A minute later, Jay entered the room wearing a suit, orange scarf, and black gloves. "Woah, where are you going, Mr. Fancy?" Cole asked.

Jay grinned. "Didn't you hear? I'm taking Nya to a nice restaurant. A really nice restaurant," he answered, emphasizing the 'nice' factor. "Good for you," Onyx said offhandedly, moving her rook to take Zane's knight.

The computer suddenly started beeping. "Uh, you might want to change your plans, because the monitor just picked out evidence of Serpentine activity at Mega Monster Amusement Park," Kai said. The screen lit up with a photo of a group of Serpentine in the middle of the said location. Onyx and Zane stood from their game and crossed over to the screen.

"Hey, that's Pythor!" Jay said, looking at the picture. Zane's eyes narrowed. "Pythor would not be there for fun. We believe a Fangblade is buried underneath the park," he said. "In hindsight, Pythor seemed pretty antisocial, so Zane's probably right," Onyx said. "Like you?" Cole teased, earning him an elbow in the ribs. "I'm not antisocial!" Onyx argued.

"We can't let him get it! Oh, but my date...." Jay said. "Jay, if they get all four Fangblades, Pythor can unleash the Great Devourer. Get your priorities straight, man," Kai commanded, already typing in coordinates for the Amusement Park. 'I bet having a relationship would be hard as a ninja," Onyx thought. It wasn't something she had ever considered. She
was still too young for romance. Though it did seem nice for the future.

The Bounty was hovering above it in less than ten minutes, and the ninja were leaping off, using their vehicles to land. When they hit the ground, Jay and Nya not so mysteriously disappeared, leaving Kai, Zane, Cole, and Onyx to investigate.

The four walked around, searching for anything unusual. "Where is everybody?" Kai asked after a while. Onyx was about to offer a guess when a wave of screaming people ran from a ride to their left. Cole frowned at the attraction, which was meant to be scary. "I came here with Wu once. That ride isn't scary at all," Onyx said. Zane's eyes narrowed. "Venomari," he said.

"Should we get Jay?" Kai asked. Cole shook his head. "Nah, let's not bother the lovebirds. We can handle this alone," he decided. The ninja made their way to the ride, fighting their way through the crowd with a volley of "excuse me's." When they made it, the four slipped inside, eyes sweeping their surroundings, which were blatantly fake fantasy creatures like vampires and werewolves. Onyx shook her head. "Definitely not scary," She mumbled to herself.

"Aha! The first Fangblade is ours!" Pythor shouted suddenly, much closer than the ninja realized. Onyx signaled to the others that he was just around the corner. They all stepped out, weapons drawn. "Not sssso fassst," Kai said, intentionally hissing his S's. Cole gave him a look. "Really? That's the best you've got?" He asked. "I couldn't think of anything on the fly," Kai defended.

"How about 'time to burn,' or 'jump on this fire ride?" Cole suggested. "Well next time, you lead!" Kai said. "Maybe I will!" Cole returned. "Or maybe you guys could focus before the Serpentine kill us," Onyx suggested, jerking her head at the approaching snakes.

"Follow my lead!" Cole shouted as the ninja burst into action. Of course, no one did anything Cole was. "Watch and learn," Zane said after a minute, rising up off the ground and using the power of his Potential. He swung his shurikens, but his aim was off.

Onyx screeched as ice spread over her, rendering her trapped, immobile, and freezing. "Oops," Zane said the best he could, considering the fact that he was encased in a block of ice. Onyx would've snapped back with a smart comment, but her mouth was frozen shut.

And the Serpentine laughed maliciously and just slithered away, the first Fangblade in hand. Pythor rapped tauntingly on the ice as he passed with a mocking grin.

Zane couldn't figure out how to get rid of the ice without moving his hands, and Kai had the same problem with his fire. Onyx struggled to do anything, but she couldn't. She tried to focus on anything except the fact that she was as a starting to lose feeling in her limbs.

It was probably only fifteen or twenty minutes, but it felt like hours before a wave of something sharp and tingly filled the room, causing the ice to shatter. Onyx fell to the ground, waiting for feeling to come back into her body. When it did, she stood. "What was that?" Kai asked, talking about the strange energy.

Onyx thought for a minute. "It felt kind of tingly. Like electricity," she said. "Maybe Jay unlocked his true potential?" Cole suggested. The others nodded. "That makes sense. And speaking of which, we should go find them," Zane said.

The four met up with Jay and Nya at the entrance of the Amusement Park. Nya was wearing her Samurai uniform, but without the helmet. "You really had me fooled. I never would've thought that you were the Samurai," Zane said. "I wish I had a sister like you," Cole commented. "Technically, I was the first to discover her secret, and didn't we agree that the first to find out would be the Green Ninja? The one to defeat Garmadon? Huh?" Kai asked, striking a ridiculous pose.

The others denied it, but Onyx was arguing something else entirely. Kai sighed and rolled his eyes. Jay changed the subject. "You know what I learned today?" He asked. "What?" Nya said. "That no matter what kind of secret you have, whether you're a snake or Samurai, it's important to always be yourself," Jay said. "That's cute and all, but you know what I learned? Pythor has the first Fangblade," Cole said. "But we are getting stronger. Soon we will all reach our True Potential, and Pythor will be stopped," Zane said. "Yeah. And at least we still have three chances left," Onyx said.

"And we figured all this out without Sensei. Not too bad for five ninja," Jay said. Nya punched him in the arm. "And a Samurai," he added hurriedly. Kai looked up into the clouds. "I wonder what Sensei's doing now?" He wondered. Onyx shrugged. "Probably something unnecessarily dangerous that makes no sense," she said, completely serious. Sensei Wu was prone to doing things like that. The ninja began to laugh, not realizing that she was right.

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Yay, another chapter! How are you guys doing? I'm okay. Preparing for a theatre audition. I can't sing worth a lick, but at least I'm guaranteed a part. I'm also putting together a cosplay for a character panel I'm going to do at my local library. I'm doing a red blood cell from 'Cells at Work.' But anyway, I really am looking for advice on entering the Wattys. Does anyone know what they're looking for?