It was a normal day at the Destiny's Bounty.
Well, maybe except the snake attack that was going on right now.

Fighting in your own house was very unconventional. It created a mess and everything around was getting smashed.

"Not our console!!" Jay's furious yell could've been heard probably dozens of miles away. Kai only hoped that the blue idiot managed to save their precious possession.

"Hey, I'm ssstill here sss!" His opponent reminded agrily, trying to hit him. Oh, right. He forgot. The red ninja got back to hitting the snake with a frying pan.

Right next to him Cole was keeping a group of reptilian warriors out of the kitchen, making them an easy target for Zane, who quickly froze them.

-

When the trio was done, they ventured out to find the kid who started it all in Jamanakai two weeks ago, and was now probably hiding in the closet.

-

As soon as they came out onto the corridor, they heard a feminine scream coming out of the living room.

It must've been Sky.

The trio barged into the room, only to see their s̶i̶s̶t̶e̶r̶ friend screaming bloody murder and beating up five snakes with a chair.

Kai smiled a bit. It was three weeks since they met her, and he was already beginning to consider her a sister.

Guess she was right after all. Dangerous situations really do bring people together.

-

Now that the team has acquired the fourth person to roam corridors with, they were back on track in their search to find Lloyd.

The kid was a menace. Not very wise, or skilled but it will surely soon change with them teaching him.

They found him in the bathroom, using a broom like a sword, sparring a snake. He was using a sink to get a higher ground, and therefore had advantage.

The two weeks of training were paying off. The kid used almost every pointer and tip the team gave him. He really was a quick learner.

But then Sky stepped in. "Don't use the broom as a sword!" She sounded angry. Was she mad that he'll snap the cleaning utensil? Kai was ready to defend the kid, who was doing an overall good job, but he didn't have the chance before Sky spoke again. "It will serve better as a bō staff. Just-" This time she got cut off by Lloyd. "Yes, I know, don't use it as a bat. You told me that one too many times." He sounded bored. It wasn't surprising, given the girl's passion for criticizing incorrect use of the weapon.

Bō staff was almost sacred for her.

If Kai had to guess, it was because of one of her shows.

-

Jay was obviously in the game room, defending the console with his life from another group of snakes.

-

When all of the reptile enemies have been defeated, the ninja kicked them all out of the Bounty.

That wasn't, however, the end of today's adventures, as the 'snake alarm' started blaring.

Everyone immediately ran to the bridge.
Sky started pressing some buttons and broke the news, without getting her eyes off the screen. "A group of snakes have been spotted in the Megamonster Amusement park."

Another time? Wow, those reptiles were really getting on Kai's nerves.

The ninja jumped down from the ship and turned their respective weapons into different vehicles, leaving Lloyd and Sky behind.

The power to transform his sword into a motorbike comes in handy. Kai was really glad that Sky showed them how to do that.

-

When they got to their destination after a quick ride and, of course, making an appropriate?? entrance, the guys discovered that someone was quicker.

"W- What happened?" Jay asked, confused. Despite his question not being aimed towards anyone in particular, a woman in front of them turned around.
"Oh, it was the Dragon Warrior. He totally kicked all the snake's butts! And he was so handsome..." She finished dreamily.
"Girl, you didn't even see their face. How could you know that?" Sky suddenly popped up from the crowd with an ice cream cone to correct the girl.

"And what are you doing here?" Cole asked, confused.
"Oh, you know, the usual. Riding roller coasters, spying on you because I can't figure out how to put subcutaneous trackers on you, eating ice cream... Maybe I'll win a plushie in a game or something..." Sky answered like she was visiting this place every day- "Wait. Trackers? You're spying on us?!" Jay cut off Kai's thoughts, screaming.

She just shrugged.

-

Next weeks were awful. The Dragon Warrior was really annoying the ninja! They were always one step ahead, doing guys' job, catching snakes instead of them. Luckily not every time.
Kai was quite proud of all the bank robberies he and his team managed to stop, before the dragon jerk even showed up.

The ninja had enough. Dragon Warrior was somehow always quicker, smarter. They even tried to catch him? them? Ugh! Everything surrounding this person was infuriating. They were never falling for traps, and if they did, they were able to just shapeshift and get away! Like, how unfair is that?!

-

It was fair. At least she tried for it to be.
Sky, thinking about her new role as a vigilante, made sure to set some rules first.

First. She will not stop crime. That was for police and ninja. Her role was to save and protect people from harm. Nothing else.

And second. She will tell nor show no one her secret identity.

Well, technically she already broke the second rule by telling Lloyd, but come on, how could she not? After all, it was mainly his idea.

She lifted the new grappling hook she just finished making up to her face to examine her work.

Her, mostly grey outfit hid many secrets. It had built-in tranquilizer gun, wrist blades in sleeves, a glider, and now also a grappling hook.

It had many gadgets, yet the best surprise was hiding in the name.

Sky was very proud of this one. See, the name 'Dragon Warrior', or mostly the dragon part, was relating to her dragon heritage. She was half dragon, and so possessed powers typical for Chinese dragons, such as shapeshifting, levitation and ability to breathe underwater.

They were, in fact, weaker than in case of any actual, pure blooded dragon, due to her human side, but they still served good and proved to be useful.

Yet, some gifts come with a curse. And the price she had to pay was the need to keep balance between her two, clashing natures. If she stayed in her human form too long, she would start having nosebleeds, and overusing dragon side resulted in bloody coughing fits.

So vigilantism was the best solution to keep the balance and not get caught.

"Sky! help! We can't find Lloyd!" Kai's scream yanked her out of her thoughts. "He wasn't at the arcade, where I left him!" Red ninja sounded desperate and panicked. Wait... Isn't it...?
Sky only now caught on to what episode they were in. And, of course, gave her l̶i̶l̶ ̶b̶r̶o̶ friend adequate advice. "Try to check nearby cameras. He can't be that far." Well, if you consider desert 'not far'.

-

As soon as he left, Kai gathered the rest of the team and drove back to the city to follow Sky's advice and check the security footage.

Getting it was surprisingly easy, and soon he found out where the kid had gone. It was extremely stupid of Lloyd to follow a group of snakes and drive with them in a bus, FSM only knows where.

And he was supposed to watch the kid. He was supposed to be the one to ensure Lloyd wouldn't do something like this. What if something happened to him? The snakes surely discovered him already, and he's their prisoner.

"Hey, guys, do you think that's it?" Jay's voice rang in his right ear, bringing him back to reality.

Now, right before their eyes was a city, the color of sandstone rising amongst the desert sands.

Ninja transformed their vehicles back into weapons and began silently sneaking into the city.

There seemed to be many snakes in the centre of the city, around something looking like a giant arena. He looked one way and another, and wanted to move along with the mission when he didn't spot Lloyd anywhere. But suddenly steel bars erupted from the ground and snapped into place trapping the boys in a cage.

The shock caused them to let go of their weapons in fear.

So now, unable to get away or break free they were brought onto the arena.

"Now we see who really is stronger! The ninja or the dragon Warrior!"Pythor's voice rang across the whole arena, and the stands erupted into cheers.

Right after that, the Dragon Warrior was brought onto the arena in chains.

H̶e̶ They? were probably being kept prisoner before. Kai, to his little surprise, wasn't really shook by that. Kidnapping was a normal part of being a vigilante. H̶e̶ They should've seen it coming.

Although if they were being kept prisoner, that means there is some kind of material that disables his shapeshifting.

When the Dragon Warrior was freed from the chains, the ninja expected h̶i̶m̶ them? to start attacking. Yet h̶e̶ ̶d̶i̶d̶n̶'̶t̶ they didn't?

Okay, first Kai had a little question.

So, before the battle started, he went forward and asked. "Hey, um, what are your pronouns?" It came out far more awkward than he wanted it to.

His question seemed to baffle not only the figure in front of them, but also his teammates.

"What?! Are you out of your mind?! This is not a tea party! We're supposed to fight this guy, not ask him stupid questions!"

"I know we hate them, but that doesn't mean we can just misgender them!" Besides, Kai simply didn't know how to address t̶h̶e̶m̶? Maybe her? No, they sound more masculine...

-

"Oh, I actually use they/them." the Dragon Warrior answered, noticing a few snakes grumpily exchanging money on the stands. Had they bet on their pronouns? That's just funny.

Oh, Lloyd will have to hear about this. Oh, right... Wait, isn't that him? They squinted their eyes, upon finding the little human in a cheap costume in the crowd.

Yep. It was Lloyd.

Shoot. Getting him outta there will be one hell of a challenge.

"Okay, formalities aside. Now we can fight!" Kai's shout rang through the whole city it seemed. Did it always have such good acoustics?

Anyways. Kai sprung forward, attempting to attack the Warrior, but they just dodged. Next Zane attempted to kick them, but they, again, just moved out of the way.

They did the same when Jay tried to punch them and jumped away. Cole tried to sweep them off their feet when they were landing, but it was ineffective. Cole's leg just went under them without any contact.

-

It was impossible. His move is undodgeable.

The fight looked pretty much like this the whole time. That is until the Dragon Warrior suddenly lunged forward seemingly to punch Kai. They were unbelievably speed and agile, but instead of actually landing a hit, they aimed right beside Kai's head.

"We have to pretend to fight a bit longer." Kai looked at them offended.

Pretending? Ninja weren't pretending. Was this only an act for the Warrior? Were ^they^ only pretending? What could they actually do if they weren't holding back?

A clang of metal brought him back to reality. It came from the Dragon Warrior, who, using a magnet, recovered their weapons. What came next will surely haunt Kai's nightmares.

The person in front of him suddenly started shifting their body in weird shapes, until it seemed to have converted into a fluid like form, which then began growing and stretching until it looked like a giant snake. Then it solidified, and suddenly before him was floating a giant dragon. It's deep green mane flowing on a non existential wind, long, scaled body of dark teal color twisting in mid-air like a snake. The only contact they had with the kot sands of the desert was through their giant arm-like front legs, which then lifted off the ground and snached the ninja up to carry them out of the city.

They really were holding back in the fight.

-

At some point of the flight over the sea of sands, the Dragon Warrior lowered their course and carefully left the ninja with their weapons in the middle of the desert.

They continued their flight towards the Bounty. The tiring feeling overflowing their whole body with every minute. Although having completed a four-year training of their skills, they were still a beginner, and couldn't use their powers for long.

A new spark of energy came to life as soon as they saw their destination. Despite their body screaming from pain and exhaustion, they pressed on, not daring to slow down.

That maybe wasn't the best idea.

They had a bit too much kinetic energy and hit the deck. Hard.

They ignored all the bruises that began forming on their body, and just laid there, in the open.

After a few long moments they got up slowly, and began walking to their room, steadying themself on the walls. Mentally noting all the bruises on their side, they started putting together an excuse for all their injuries.

Finally walking into their bedroom Sky took off the costume and hid it carefully. The next thing she did was flopping onto the welcoming surface of her bed and falling into refreshing slumber.

She couldn't, however, sleep for long, because 20 minutes later the ninja returned from their mission, and woke her up with annoyed shouting.

Sky got out of her room and began wobblily walking down the hallway. Wait, no. She was supposed to be professional. She can't show her face in that state. Especially if she was gonna pretend she fell off the stairs.

So she stopped in her tracks, straightened her back, assumed a confident but bored face , and only then resumed walking.

"Why are you so loud?! And where's Lloyd?" She asked as soon as she came out of the corridor. She knew the answer, but, hey, a facade is a facade and she gotta keep it up.

"He got kidnapped, a-and we followed the leads, but then this stupid Dragon Warrior had to mess our mission up!" Jay started on the topic, but quickly circled back to complaining.

"It's okay. We'll go get him tomorrow. Now! Come on, the Starfarer marathon is starting!" She shooed?? all of them to the living room. Hopefully, with them occupied with the show, she can get a bit of sleep.

This is a rewrite. Original chapter can be found in my new work called scrapped chapters. <3