As promised, this chapter hasn't taken as long as the previous one, yay 😁. And more good news, the next chapter, which will be co-written by daniaanlyn , is already work in progress!

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Chapter 19: Ninja vs Samurai

"I never thought I'd say this." Kai muttered, when the four captured boys spotted the five Samurai fly into the stadium. "But just for once, I'm actually happy to see these guys."

"I wouldn't get my hopes up." Cole remarked, as the colourful mechs flew right across the arena, towards the other cage holding Lloyd, instead of heading down to them. "I don't think they're here for us."

"But what do they want with the kid?" Kai wondered, concerned for his honorary little brother.

"And they wouldn't leave us behind, right?" Jay questioned. Not after he had told Nya where to find them. "The Samurai may not be our friends, but when it comes to the Serpentine, we're still fighting on the same side."

"I agree." Zane nodded. "It is thereby safe to assume that-"

"I've been waiting for you." The loud call of Pythor's voice interrupted him, and Zane froze mid-speech.

Literally.

When Jay turned to his white clad teammate, he saw that the robot's body had gone limp, and his icy blue eyes had turned dull grey.

"Zane?" The blue Ninja shook his unresponsive friend. "What's going on here?" He shrieked, on the edge of panicking.

Silence.

And it wasn't just the Ice Ninja who didn't make a single sound, no, the complete stadium had fallen silent. But this only lasted for a brief moment before the sound of polyphonic screaming could be heard from above.

The Ninja turned their heads to see the mechs drop from the sky like dead birds.

"NOOOOO." Jay jumped up, joining into their yelling.

"Calm down, sparkplug." Cole told his friend. "They're not gonna fall onto us."

"B-but th-they m-might get h-hurt..." Jay stammered, close to tears. Nya, the love of his life, might get hurt.

"Serves them well, leaving us here to rot." Kai stated smugly.

The blue Ninja didn't reply. With shaking hands, he held onto the bars of their cage, his eyes fixed at the red Samurai as she fell.

"Please, be okay, Nya." He whispered.

His trained eyes noticed that she had somehow managed to turn her suit around, with the mech's mechanical knees bent. Upon impact, she dropped onto her side and rolled out of the fall. And even in the bulky armour, her movements looks elegant to him.

When the mech finally came to a halt, he held his breath. Was she alright?

Still firmly strapped into her position, the girl managed to turn her head, just enough to glance at him before she passed out.

"Phew." Jay released his breath in a sigh of relief, turning around. "What? Was That?" He gasped.

"EMP." A robotic voice replied as Zane's eyes started to flicker.

"A what?" Kai questioned.

"An electromagnetic pulse, disruptive to all electronic equipment. Including AIs, as it seems." The recovering Nindroid explained. "Pythor must have expected all of us to turn up; he was prepared not only for the Ninja but also for the Samurai."

"And you've forgotten to mention that the interference can in some cases also cause permanent damage." Jay added. "Are you sure you're alright, Zane?"

"Some of my auxiliary units and subroutines are still rebooting, but all essential systems are fully operational." The robot confirmed. "I have an advanced power source with surge protection, but I my preliminary damage analysis suggests that the power supplies of the Samurai's mechs have been discharged."

From the corner of his eyes, Jay could see some struggling Serpentine dragging the heavy suits across the sand, towards a cell below one of the stands, a heavy gate falling shut behind them.

"What's gonna happen to them?" He wondered aloud.

"Will you stop worrying about them?" Kai snapped. "It's not like we're in a much better place... argh... if only I had my sword..."

After the Ninja had been captured, the four Golden Weapons had been taken away from them. Not that the Serpentine seemed to care much about the powerful weapons, they had been simply thrown on a pile well out of the Ninja's reach, in a far corner of the arena.

"This cage is made out of vengestone, even if you had your sword, it would not be of much use." Zane informed his teammate. "All you would be able to achieve is to heat up the metal."

"Thanks for your encouragement." Kai said sarcastically as he slumped down while the sun was rising over the desert. "I hate this. I hate this. I hate this. Just sitting around like this makes me feel so useless."

"Agreed." Cole nodded. "I'd much rather fight."

And, just as if the Serpentine had heard the boys' complaints, the cage was suddenly lifted up, freeing the Ninja, while Pythor announced: "You say you wanted a battle, and I give you one. I give you Ninja versus Samurai!"

And the gate to the tunnel was also opened, as the snake king continued:

"I want to see once and for all who is the greatest hero. Is it Samurai, or Ninja? Only the victor will be allowed to leave."

"I don't trust him." Kai muttered. "Why would he let some of us go? That doesn't make sense."

"I agree." Cole nodded. "He probably just wants us and the Samurai to take out each other – and entertain is people at the same time."

Jay exchange a quick glance with Zane, it seemed that they finally a realistic chance to convince their teammates not to fight against their girlfriends in disguise.

"Why don't we team up with the girls?" He suggested.

Kai suspiciously raised an eyebrow at his teammate. "Girls?"

"Uhm..." Jay blushed. "Yes?"

"While fighting alongside them at the Mega Monster Amusement Park, Jay discovered that the red Samurai is female." Zane explained. "As are the other four."

"And you haven't told us?" Cole asked accusingly.

"Yeah, and not to forget befriended not only our enemy, but also a girl behind my sister's back." Kai glared at the blue Ninja.

"The Samurai are not our enemy, Pythor is." Jay stated firmly.

"No wonder you've been so keen on working with them..." Kai muttered. "When we get home, I'm gonna tell Nya."

Do that. Jay thought. I'm gonna tell her everything anyway.

"But first, we have to get home." Cole reminded his teammates. "And - something I never thought I'd say - motormouth's idea is probably our best option."

"Gee, thanks." Jay stated sarcastically.

"Desperate times call for desperate measures." Cole shrugged. "We should fight them one-on-one and-"

"But we are four, and they are five." Kai interjected.

"Without our elemental powers, Cole is the strongest fighter between us." Zane stated.

"So, I'll take on two, hopefully we won't have to fight them for real." The black Ninja agreed. "Let's just pretend-fight while we try and talk to them. If Zane is right, then their mechs can only be operated manually, so they are no match for us and should be happy to join forces."

"The suits are equipped with solar panels, they will start recharging as soon as they get out in the sun." Zane informed his friends. "This means they will become stronger, the longer the fight takes."

"I'll take the red one." Jay quickly requested. "We've fought together once, so I might have a better chance to convince her."

"No funny business." Kai warned him. "I'm keeping an eye on you."

Kai is strange when it comes to his sister. Jay thought. On one hand, he doesn't want me to be with Nya, but at the same time he's worried I'm cheating on her... something I could never do.

"As long as you also keep an eye on your own opponent." Cole remarked. "You fight the orange one. And Zane, you'll fight the night blue one. I'll deal with grey and green."

"Ninja-Gooooo." The four boys exclaimed, taking on a fighting stance and waiting for the mechs to appear from the tunnel.

As he got ready to 'attack' the red coloured Samurai, Jay noticed that the night blue one was missing.

"You fight the green one instead." Cole instructed the Ice Ninja. "One less to worry about..."

Of course, Jay knew that PIXAL's absence actually caused a lot more worries to his Nindroid brother, while he himself was relieved to see Nya having recovered from her fall.

He half-heartedly charged at the slightly dent red armour. "Are you alright?" He enquired, easily dodging an unusually imprecise and weak punch from her mech's fist. "I saw you fall. The landing was quite spectacular."

"Thank you." Jay was sure Nya was blushing under her helmet. "And don't worry. I'm fine. How about you? How did Pythor capture you guys?"

"Oh, we were just being stupid and didn't pay enough attention..."

"Sounds familiar." Nya remarked. "That's pretty much how they got me that other time at the Ghost Ride. How's your back, by the way?"

"Not too bad." Jay smiled. "My girlfriend took good care of me."

"Yeah, I went to see my boyfriend after that fight as well." Nya said. "He was so sweet and caring and I-I still haven't told him and ..." She choked.

"I'm gonna quit." Jay blurted out.

"You're what?"

"I don't want to keep lying to my girlfriend anymore, so I'm gonna leave the team after this mission."

"That's really sweet of you." Nya sighed. "I was going to tell him but I guess I don't have to worry about that anymore, I'm probably gonna get fired from the team when we get back to Ninjago City."

Jay wanted nothing more than to hug and comfort his girlfriend, but of course this was not an option, so he simply asked instead: "Why that?"

"I-I made a stupid mistake." She obviously didn't want to go into detail here and now. "And I even dragged my friend into this mess as well..."

Her friend... was Nya by any chance talking about PIXAL? Was this maybe about their double date? And... - he took another quick glance around to confirm she still hadn't joined in the 'fight' – where was PIXAL?

"Speaking about friends, weren't there always five of you?" He questioned.

"You are right." Nya confirmed. "One of my friends has lost her pow-... consciousness." She quickly corrected herself. "But she's not dam- injured."

It seemed that, unlike Zane, the female droid had not been able to reactivate by herself after the EMP, her power source had possibly been discharged, just like the mechs". If only there was a way to restart her system... wait, there was!

"Do you think it would work to shock her awake?" If PIXAL was human, this would be a very stupid and careless suggestion, but they both knew all too well that she wasn't.

Nya thought for a moment. "It should be... but how?"

Jay smiled. "Can you help me get to my nunchucks?"

"No." Nya answered. "But I should have just enough power to get them to you. Duck."

She pressed a button on her arm. 'Magnetiser activated.' A robotic voice announced as the golden nunchucks came flying towards them.

"Here." She handed them to him. "Good luck, Ninja."

"Thanks." Jay grabbed his weapon and sprinted towards the tunnel, just as spikes started shooting up from the ground. 

He skilfully jumped over then and headed inside, where he found the inactive robot inside one of the cells, lying on the floor. Her face was still covered by her helmet, but the other girls must have taken her out of her mech to make sure that her systems hadn't been damaged.

He tightened the grip on his nunchucks, spinning them as fast as he could. And, hoping that her physiology wasn't too much different than Zane's – he had neither the time nor did he actually want to check – released a shot of lightning at her chest panel.

Crackles of electricity could be heard as sparks spread across her body.

"Where am I?" PIXAL gasped, looking around. "What happened?"

"EMP." Jay replied briefly. "You were out."

He quickly explained the situation – luckily, he was a fast talker, and the robot able to understand him nonetheless. "Pythor has set us up to fight against each other. He announced that the winner gets to leave but I just don't believe him." He concluded.

"Never trust a snake." She spoke in reply, glancing at the glowing nunchucks. "But, as I have learned, it may have been a mistake not to trust each other. Thank you for your help, blue Ninja."

"No problem." He smiled under his mask. "And it wasn't just me. Ny- Samurai X has used her mech's magnetiser to get my nunchucks, but she's completely without power again now."

"It was a lost cause anyway. The solar panels were only developed recently, we are still working on them. Even in full sunlight, it will take approximately two hours before we can use our jet packs." PIXAL stated. "I doubt that we can hold off Pythor for that long."

"You want help recharging your suit?" Jay offered, shooting another blast of electricity at her mech.

"Impressive." She remarked. "Would you be able to do the same to the other four mechs as well?"

"If I use a little bit less energy, I should be." He answered. "But if I help the five of you, then you'll have to fly the four of us out as well. Deal?" He held out his free hand.

"That sounds reasonable." She accepted before she asked: "This means your teammates are fine? All of them?"

"Yes." Jay confirmed.

He hesitated briefly. It was clear what she really wanted to hear, meaning she knew the truth anyway so he might as well tell her. The blue Ninja took a deep breath before he spoke again. "He was able to reboot by himself, no major damage to his system."

"I am glad to hear that." PIXAL replied happily. "But I would like to suggest a slight modification to your plan. If we all work together, there is a 97% chance that we will be able to get all ten of us home."