A different path {Ninjago AU}

Chapter three - A difficult situation

The first school week passed quickly. Nya, Skylor and Pixal got much closer, in fact Pixal revealed to her friend that she wasn't human but she was one of the creations of Cyrus Borg, she was a droid.
After hearing that, the two girls were a little surprised, but not as much as Pixal expected.
Her way of speaking and her high knowledge was something out of the ordinary for a normal human being, so the news didn't surprise them as much.
The droid was relieved and happy that her new friends accepted her for who she truly was; she told them of how she was mistreated and misjudged just because she wasn't human. Nya felt a little sad for her. She could never understand how much her droid friend suffered, so she reassured her, making sure to let her be as comfortable as possible.
In the same week, Nya managed to hang out with Jay, one of Kai's friends, he seemed nice, and as he had his locker near hers, they started to talk a lot. Even if the start of their relationship was awkward, they started to know each other better, and notice that they had similar interests.
A new week started, and as always the two siblings walked towards the school. On the way to the building, Nya started to ask questions to her brother about those additional classes he was attempting in the afternoons, but Kai always invented different stories, letting his sister think that he wasn't actually going to those classes, but having fun like he always had. She really didn't care though, it wasn't her life after all.
As they arrived at the building, the two siblings noticed a little blonde kid, with gray-green eyes, and a strange shade of red around his pupils, wearing a black hoodie with a skeleton ribs case on it, threatening the students of the school.
"It is I, Lloyd Garmadon! I demand all the candies in school! Or else!" The little boy shouted jumping on the fountain in front of the school entrance.
All the students didn't even look at him, ignoring his shouting and kept talking to each other, making the kid upset, so he continued his threatening speech.
"Give me your candies, or else I will release the Serpentine on you!" He shouted again, throwing fake snakes at the nearest students walking by him, making them lose their patience and start shouting at him.
"He's gonna have to do a lot better than use an old bedtime story to scare people." Kai looked at him while his sister nodded in agreement.
"The serpentine are real Kai, they are not something to joke about." a familiar voice said, walking towards them. It was Zane, followed by Cole and Jay that were looking at the little kid with an annoyed look on their faces.
"Serpentine? Real? We're talking about the ancient race of snake people who once ruled Ninjago and were supposedly locked underground?" Kai replied, looking at them.
"Sealed in five different tombs, to separate the tribes and ensure that they don't unify to exact their revenge upon those who put them there!" Jay said to Kai.
"It was an old tale to teach kids not to poke our noses where they don't belong! Don't you think it's a little suspicious that no one ever found one of their tombs?" Kai looked at his friends.
"That's because you'll be a fool to look for one" Cole said, walking with Jay towards the little kid still screaming on the fountain, blocking and holding him tight then sighed looking at the students that were still screaming at Lloyd.
"Don't worry folks, we'll take care of this, nothing to see here." He then said, taking away with Jay the little blond moron that was trying to free himself.
"Unhand me! Bow down to me, or suffer my wrath!" The little kid screamed at the two boys taking him away, followed by Zane and the Smiths siblings.
"I'll give you the count of three! One...two...!" The kid tried to say, but Kai interrupted him.
"What are we supposed to do? Spank him?" Kai looked at the other, making all of them laugh.
The group then decided to hang the little blond kid on a locker by his hoodie, and then watched him as he tried to free himself.
"That's what you get for not listening to your uncle!" Jay said, smiling at the little kid while Cole was laughing next to him.
"Uncle?" Kai and Nya asked.
"Lloyd Garmadon is the nephew of the principal Wu." Zane responded, looking at them.
All the students passed in front of the scene, laughing at the little kid still trying to free himself.
"What's happening here?" A familiar voice said. Nya turned around to see her two friends, Skylor and Pixal walking towards them.
"Little Lloyd is still threatening students for candies?" Pixal asked, giggling.
Skylor was looking at the blond kid then looked at Pixal.
"Still? You are telling me this isn't the first time?" Skylor asked.
"Correctly, in fact every year he tries a couple of times to get some free candies from the students of the school, running away from his school since no one really looks for him that much." Zane responded, while Pixal nodded.
Then the bell rang and the group separated, going to their respective classes.
The school week went by, Nya managed to talk with Jay a couple of times between the lessons and at lunch times. She really started to like him; his freckled face, with deep blue eyes mesmerized her but she just tried to ignore her feelings, since she knew him for just a couple of weeks.
Then Friday arrived. Before the end of school day, Skylor invited Nya and Pixal to her father's noodle restaurant for dinner and the two girls happily accepted.
In the afternoon, the three girls went for a walk around the city, visiting shops and having fun together, then in the evening, they went to the restaurant. It wasn't a big building but there was a large sign at the entrance with a man holding a noodle bowl in his hands. The inside was pretty cute. The cooks were in the middle of the room, surrounded by a counter and the conveyors to serve the food at the tables around it. The brown walls, covered in different decorations representing strange looking snakes, catch the attention of the raven-haired girl that was following Pixal and Skylor. Maybe it was an ancient symbol of Chen's family, still, Nya didn't want to bother her friend with stupid questions.
The three girls then sat and ordered their food, while beginning to chat about a cool project Pixal was working on, showing them the blueprint.
"Is that a mech?" Nya asked.
"Exactly, for protection purposes," The droid said "It's still a work in progress, since I started it yesterday."
"Protection purposes? What for?" Skylor questioned.
"Didn't you hear about the release of the Hypnobrai?" Pixal asked.
"The Hypno what now?" Nya said, confused.
"The Hypnobrai, one of the serpentine tribes, known for their hypnosis abilities." The droid girls explained.
"You really believe in that stuff?" Skylor asked her.
"The serpentines are real, and there were several alerts letting people know that they were released and were attacking small villages around Ninjago city!" Pixal objected while their food finally arrived.
"I think that some lunatic decided to prank people and managed to do so! There aren't videos or real proof of those snakes!" Skylor said.
"Because the ninjas managed to make them go away before the cameramens and the reporters could arrive," Pixal said, making Skylor huff.
"And you believe in those ninjas? I think they are just a group of idiots wearing strange clothes and act cool just for fame, especially that new one with the red suit." She said, starting to eat the noodles. In that week, a new ninja with a red suit appeared in the news, helping prevent crimes with the other ninjas. Skylor seemed to be no fan of them, while Pixal was really trying to defend them.
"They prevented different robberies and promised to protect the city, they seem pretty nice to me" Pixal ended, making her red-haired friend's eyes roll.
"Let's talk about something more interesting," Skylor said, forming a smirk on her face, looking at Nya who was eating beside her.
"When are you going to ask Jay out?" She elbowed her, making the raven-haired girl blush in embarrassment, while the droid girl giggled.
"Are you nuts?! I've only known him for two weeks and I don't even know if he likes me back!" Nya said, trying to cover her face while eating her noodles.
"Do you see how he watches you? He's always in awe and makes a lover's face while you talk!" Skylor said.
"And his heart rate rises" Pixal added, agreeing with Skylor.
Nya sighed, looking at the almost finished bowl in front of her.
"I'll see when," She ended.
"Well, you can ask him now" Skylor giggles, receiving a confused look from Nya. Pixal then pointed towards a table near the entrance, where Zane, Cole, Kai and Jay just sat in.
"Speaking of the devil" Pixal added, while Skylor was still elbowing Nya, that then lost her patience and gave a punch on her friend's arm to make her stop elbowing her, causing the red-haired girl burst into laughter and stop her elbowing.
"Okay okay, I'll stop." She then said, looking at her raven-haired friend that was already lost in her mind just by looking at Jay.
Pixal and Skylor gave a little smile to each other, while looking at their friend in awe just by looking at her crush and then giggled, continuing their chat.
After a while, the four guys got out of the restaurant, while the three girls still remained there to talk until midnight. When they got out, Nya invited her two friends over to her house for a sleepover. Pixal declined the invitation, since she had to help Cyrus Borg the following day, but Skylor accepted it, so the three girls  accompanied Pixal to her house that was nearby the restaurant, and then after leaving their friend at her home, Nya and Skylor started to walk towards the Smith's house.
The large pedestrian street that was always full of people during the day, was now silent, the only thing that made it still alive were the streetlights and the colorful shops with cute lights and decorations still on. The two girls were talking to each other, relaxed by the calm atmosphere surrounding them, but as they walked closer to Nya's home, at the suburbs of the city, a loud noise allerted them. They could see a group of people in the distance, throwing down a garbage can. They couldn't see them very well, since that strange group was in the shadows and too far from them.  The two friends decided to increase their pace towards the house, but as soon as they turned around the corner, they could see another group of figures in front of them,well lit unlike the figures they spotted before. The girls were petrified at what was in front of them. A group of snake looking people was now crawling out of the sewers not far away from them. They were covered in cyan and light gray scales with yellow details, and all of them had big red eyes. The two girls stepped back, waking up from their petrified moment, when some of the snake people spotted them and started walking towards them hissing.
Skylor grabbed Nya's wrist, and turned around with her, wanting to run away, but they then discovered that the group of figures they saw before, was now behind them.
"I hate when Pixal is too much right!" Skylor exclaimed, letting go of Nya's wrist and looking at her.
"Can you fight?" she then asked her raven-haired friend.
Nya looked at her, still trying to process what was happening, then she looked at the snakes that were surrounding them, whispering something with their hisses. Nya couldn't understand what they were saying, she could just hear something about elemental powers. She gave up trying to figure out what they were talking about and looked at her red-haired friend.
"I know one thing or two." She then responded, getting a nod from Skylor that then punched one of the snakes near her. Nya followed her friend's lead, punching and kicking some other snakes near them, but they soon noticed that their punches weren't enough. The snakes continued to stand up, leaning towards the two girls, who were starting to lose their strength for the fight.
Nya looked around, but as she backed up trying to get away from one of the snakes, she tripped, falling down on the ground. She raised her gaze trying to rise herself quickly but met one of the snakes' gaze. For a moment all her thoughts disappeared as her entire body froze while everything was starting to spin. The snake was hypnotizing her, just like Pixal said, they were known for their Hypnotic abilities. All her thoughts were vanishing as she was slowly falling under the hypnotic control of the snake.
Suddenly, the spinning stopped and she shook her head putting a hand on her forehead, while still sitting on the ground.
She raised her head, trying to understand what had just happened.
The snake that was standing in front of her was gone, instead, there was now a blue figure, turned back in front of her that had just beaten the snake that was hypnotizing her. Her gaze was fixed on the blue guy, still confused about the situation.
Then he turned his face around to meet her gaze. At that moment, she felt that the time had stopped, her heart lost a beat as she made eye contact with him.
The thing that the raven-haired girl immediately noticed were the deep blue eyes of the figure highlighted by the blue suit he was wearing. She could feel the blood in her veins stop, as her cheeks aroused, just by looking at those eyes matching with the color of the suit he was wearing. She felt lost, but at the same time, she felt safe from the situation they just were in, as she started to sink in the sea of thoughts in her mind, while continuing looking at the eyes of her savior, still standing still in front of her.