Eagle Talon turned on Cole with an enraged caterwaul and jumped in front of his sister—their sister. Cole couldn’t stop his blow in time, and his claws found Talon’s face instead. A dark scratch broke the flesh, on the right side. Cole jumped back. Horror at both his werecat siblings and himself made his stomach churn sickeningly. He stared at both of them, and noticed something: Black Blood still had the scratch on her cheek left by Cole in the bandits’ palace. Now a wound identical to hers stood out on Talon’s cheek, also on the right side. Cole felt his own scratch. It was on the same side. They had all wounded each other with identical scratches. Later Cole wondered if there was some sort of symbolism to that. The rain—a soft sprinkle before—now worsened. Fat, gray raindrops splattered on the street and soaked everyone’s hair and clothes quickly. Through the downpour, Cole, Black Blood, and Eagle Talon glared at one another. “Whose side are you on?!” The anger and confusion rising in Cole made his voice almost a scream. Talon glared back, his mouth twisted in a pained scowl—like the one he’d worn when Little Leaf refused to return to the Moon Tribe with him. “I didn’t watch my younger brothers starve before they could open their eyes—” His voice rose to a pitch. “—to go on to watch my surviving brother and sister destroy each other!” “You stay out of this, Talon,” Black Blood hissed. Strands of her long black hair began to plaster to her face in the rain. “You’ve caused enough trouble already. This doesn’t concern you.” “It concerns all of us!” Talon snapped. “We all share blood! We’re supposed to be family!” “I don’t want to fight you, Black Blood,” Cole raised his head, while being sure to grip his tekko-kagi claws tightly at the handles. There was no way to strap them on now. “I really don’t. But—” He hated how his voice hardened. “—I’m not going to let you get away with torturing my friends and overthrowing Ninjago. Family or not, this is wrong.”
“I agree! It’s wrong! It’s all wrong! And it all began when the ancient bakeneko and nekomata clans began interacting with humans,” Black Blood said. “Because of you, our kind is nearly wiped out. I am not a coward. I am not going to stand by and watch my tribe perish without doing anything about it!” “But destroying innocent people? Attacking us? It’s evil!” “I don’t care!” Black Blood’s voice rose to a screech. “You think I care about everyone’s shallow sense of morality? I don’t give a mouse tail! I stopped caring a long time ago! Our world was a garden, but you are polluting it, choking out our flowers with your vines and thorns,” She growled. “Now it’s time to weed you out. In order to save my tribe, I will destroy whatever is poisoning it. And that means all ties to the human world.” Cole’s eyes narrowed at his sister. “Including half-breeds?” The loudest, most furious caterwaul of all broke from Black Blood’s throat. As her body shifted into her dark nekomata figure, she leapt up for Cole. He was ready. He braced himself and swung outwards when she crashed into him. She screeched at the steel claws digging into her shoulders, and squirmed from him. He moved quickly beneath her weight and slashed at her. Then Eagle Talon yanked Cole away from Black Blood. He delivered a stunning blow to the side of his head, sending his human brother sprawling. Dazed, Cole tried to get up. Black Blood fell on him again, biting at his shoulder. Before she could do much damage, however, Talon turned on her, shifting his hands into paws and striking at her face and shoulders. She fell back yowling, angrier than ever. She shoved at Talon, trying to get him out of the way so she could get to Cole. Cole scrambled to his feet, feeling his head reel with dull pain. He held his arms out and concentrated. Almost as easily as a normal person picking up a small rock and tossing it, he summoned a massive clump of earth from the ground, the size of a small fridge. It hovered in midair for a moment before he shoved it at Black Blood.
She saw the clump of earth and rock coming. Standing on her hind legs and retaining some of her human shape, she grabbed Talon and yanked him out of the way just in time. She shoved him against the wall and shielded him with herself. The earth clump flew by harmlessly, smashing into another building behind the alley. No sooner had the earth flown by her face than Black Blood immediately turned and summoned a curse. Violet light brimmed at her now-human hands. The curse flew toward Cole. He rolled his hands into fists, jerked them up together in a short, twisting motion like he was yanking on a horse’s reins, and a fat slab of rock shot out from the ground in front of him. The fiery curse splashed against the rock wall harmlessly in a burst of light. It hissed as it evaporated in the pouring rain. “I don’t want to hurt you!” Cole cried out. “Oh, sweet, caring little brother of mine,” Black Blood sneered mockingly. “You soon will.” Lou Brookstone could do nothing but watch helplessly as his three children threw themselves at one another in a fight to what looked like the death.
* * *
The southern entrance was deserted. All of the villagers had fled safely. The last survivor had been an old lady hobbling by herself, babbling about her neighbor being attacked by a huge cat. Liana wished she could offer reassurance or comfort to the people she ushered away, but all that she could do was send them out and give them instructions to wait for the all-clear signal from the ninja or some other authority. Now that she was alone, Liana’s thoughts turned to leaving her position to help the rest of the ninja. The villagers were all gone. There was nothing else she could do to help. She was only standing there in the empty street, feeling fat raindrops soak through her uniform. She didn’t know her way through the village, though… and she couldn’t see.
The werecat sputtered and swore. Hastily wiping the water out of his face, he glared darkly at the ninja. “Very well, Daughter of Water. Now… why don’t you have a nice little nap!” He made a gesture with his hands as if he were tossing water, but nothing visible appeared. However, Nya could feel a great pressure that flooding over her. It made her vision swim, and she struggled to keep her eyes open. A Nap Attack. She gritted her teeth, fighting the urge to panic. Remember what Matilda told you. She remembered the witch’s words of their first mind-bending lesson: Concentrate on one thought, think about it like it’s the most important thing in the world, and refuse to think about anything else. That’s usually the easiest way to keep a bad presence out of your mind. You just have to keep yourself from being distracted. Concentrate, concentrate, she repeated. Don’t let him in. Don’t you dare let him in. She resisted the urge to look up at Rip Claw across the street. Seeing the malicious look in his eyes would only distract her. Yet she thought she could hear Rip Claw’s breath in her ears, as if he were standing right beside her. Think about something, don’t let him in. Jay. She pictured his face before her: his scruffy auburn-red hair. His bright blue eyes. That eyebrow with a single thin scar running through the middle. The way he always smiled happily when he made her laugh, even at the cheesiest of jokes… Cute, Rip Claw’s voice purred faintly, as if he were speaking though an old telephone wire. Very adorable, human kitten. But you’ll have to try harder than that if you want— Rip Claw never got to finish. Nya summoned a burst of power in her thoughts surrounding Jay, and pushed hard. She shoved against Rip Claw’s presence, and continued pushing him away without relent. Once she felt the mental pressure shift and ease, as if the sorcerer were stumbling, she gained more power and pressed on. She shoved harder, grunting wryly, “I’m—not—sleepy!”
It wasn’t that she couldn’t walk anywhere without someone to guide her—actually, she was quite good about exploring unfamiliar territory by herself—but it would be slow going, and that frustrated her. Even if she ran as fast as she dared in the winding, narrow alleyways and streets of a place she didn’t know, she could still be too late to get to the ninja in time to assist them, or worse, she’d get hopelessly lost. Doubt flickered. Cole had told her to join the villagers when she was sure they were all gone—he told her that he’d catch up with her. Maybe she should follow his advice, and just stay with the townspeople… She snorted in disgust at herself. And since when did ninja hide behind villagers? Like I ever listen to what anyone tells me to do, anyway. She began walking. It was easy to feel the cobblestone street through the soft soles of her boots. You’re not getting rid of me that easily, Cole. She wondered how hard and how long Eagle Talon had run to catch up with Cole to the village using mind-bending. If only he and I could do that, she thought ruefully. That’d make things a lot easier— She stopped. Why not? Her mind raced. We’ve already connected each others’ thoughts before, when Matilda was first teaching us. If I could reach out and connect with him then, surely I could do it now. She started walking again, this time at a faster pace. She concentrated, biting her lip. She imagined Cole was standing right in front of her, that she could feel his presence. She imagined reaching his mind, contacting him through the mind-bending power… Tell me where you are, Cole. She began trotting, though not fast enough she’d run headlong into a building. She followed the path of the streets with her feet, splashing through puddles as the rain continued to pour down. Hear me. I’m on my way. There. What was that? A tingling sensation, coming from the back of her scalp… Just hang on.
They were fighting in such close quarters, Cole was forced to stop using his elemental powers and Spinjitzu, which reduced his fighting techniques to the traditional martial arts, swordplay, and what little he’d learned from Matilda with the tekko-kagi claws. Black Blood knew some martial arts, but not all; knew some swordplay, but was not an expert; she knew how to fight with her claws instinctively, and with a frightening viciousness. So, they were pretty evenly matched. In all his training with Master Wu, Cole had been taught to defeat his enemies with as few wounds as possible. Bruised bodies and sprained muscles were just as effective in putting someone out of the fight. Cole was strong with his hands and body, and he preferred to meet his opponents head-on. Using his katanas was a different art in itself—slightly cruder, seeing that the main point of swords was really to stab and hack at your enemy as much as possible while defending yourself—though still an elegant skill. The way of the warrior cat was different. What few weapons they forged—those strange transparent swords and those knives made of bones—the werecats used clumsily in comparison to the ninja. Many didn’t seem to know how these weapons actually worked. That was why many of the Moon Tribe warriors didn’t bother using human tools, for they had their own natural weapons: their claws and their teeth. They had their own way of fighting that focused on the art of taking down one’s opponent for good. Never before in his life had Cole fought an enemy who was just so angry. Lord Garmadon and Morro’s hot outbursts felt like toddler’s temper tantrums compared to the cold, calculating rage of his half-sister. Black Blood’s translated her rage into every swipe and every snap of her jaws. With all the anger, it would easy for one to lose control and to make a clumsy move. Somehow, however, Black Blood was able to not only feed on her own hatred to give her energy, but to keep her mind to the task at hand—which was clearly getting rid of her little brother.
Cole spoke the truth when he told Black Blood he didn’t want to fight her, though before, he had. He’d wanted to get revenge so badly, after seeing Jay scream in his sleep, Kai, Skylor and more abducted, the rest of his friends brutally attacked, himself being tortured by the Seven Sorcerers, and Liana’s constant fight to free herself from the Dark Sleep. This was wrong, and justice needed to be served. Now, however, he realized he had a brother and a sister, and they were the ones causing his friends all this pain, all this torment. His own siblings. It wasn’t like the time Nya had been poisoned by Dark Matter, or when Lloyd had been possessed by Morro. This was different. At those times, Nya and Lloyd had turned on the ninja against their will, having been attacked and consumed by an evil substance or under the control of a ghost. Black Blood was neither affected by any Dark Matter nor possessed by any ghost. She was turning on Cole because she wanted to. She didn’t care about family. She had just tried to destroy their father. She hated him. The only dark material that was consuming her was pure hatred, and it wasn’t poisoning her because of an accident or because she’d been forced into it. She chose to hate. She welcomed hatred, and used it gladly. Cole’s own sister was the cause of all that had happened in the past month, and she didn’t care one bit. She just wanted to destroy him. For the first time, Cole began to truly realize what Lloyd had gone through when he had to oppose Lord Garmadon. This wasn’t just another crazy tyrant trying to take over Ninjago. This was his family. They shared blood. They shared a father. They shared physical and personal traits. He, Black Blood, and Eagle Talon should have grown up together as kids—should have been a family. They were siblings. They should have been a team. They should have loved each other and fought together on the same side. Instead, Cole found himself trying to protect himself and his father from being hurt by Black Blood while Eagle Talon tried to protect Black Blood from being hurt by Cole.
“Get out of my way, Talon!” Black Blood turned on her brother. He had just shoved her when she’d shot another curse at Cole. “I swear to the ancestors, if you don’t—!” “I’m not going anywhere!” Talon shouted back over the rain. “I’m not going to watch what little family I have left destroy each other!” Black Blood didn’t have time to reply, because Cole chose that moment to lunge himself at her. The girl crumpled beneath him, but shifted into her nekomata body. Cole raked his claws down her flank. Talon smashed into Cole and threw him to the ground. In his human shape, he delivered several stinging blows to the side of his brother’s head. Cole retaliated by kicking him in the stomach. Talon staggered away, huffing. “You can’t protect both of us, Talon!” Cole cried. “I’m your brother. That’s what I supposed to do. Silver Mist would’ve wanted me to,” Talon spat. Cole saw Black Blood move in the background. There was no time to argue. He jumped up and lashed out at Talon with one clawed hand. Talon stumbled back with a yowl, gritting his teeth. Three long scratches stood out on his upper bicep now. Cole felt a pang of mourning guilt—it made him feel sick, sick to his stomach. Black Blood and Eagle Talon may be choosing to turn on their own brother, but so was he. He was fighting back just as furiously as they were, hurting his siblings, trying to put them out of the fight. Right now, he was just as bad as they were. He wasn’t sure who to hate more: Black Blood, Talon, or himself. His half-sister swiped low with one forepaw at Talon’s human legs. The young man was sent sprawling in a heap, and Black Blood leapt at Cole. He held his arms up in a defense position, but her large curved claws found vulnerability at his bare arms and lower torso. Cole felt his gi rip. He choked a pained cry and fell back a pace before retaliating. He defended his sister’s enraged advance with equal energy. He slashed at her forepaws, trying to ward them off, and delivered painful clouts to her upper torso.
She screeched and fell on him. They rolled on the ground. Cole felt claws digging into his belly, tearing through his uniform. He kicked at her own belly, and raked one tekko-kagi claw down her chest. Black Blood shrieked and writhed, and squirmed away from him before immediately cuffing him around the head. This was not the way of the ninja. A ninja warrior did not fight his enemies like this. They were fighting the way of the warrior cat. It made Cole feel like an animal. Black Blood jumped away as Cole struggled to face her. She whipped in a circle around him and fell on him from behind. He was shoved to the ground. Stone and pebbles scraped painfully against his face as he bruised his jaw on the ground. His head throbbed achingly. He was aware of the claws digging into his back. Eagle Talon jumped into the air and fell on Black Blood. The two werecats rolled away in a struggling, screeching heap, leaving Cole to stagger up to his feet. Talon began to shift into his nekomata body, matching his sister’s form. “Dad!” Cole realized his father was still standing at the end of the street, looking helpless. “Get out of here! You need to run!” Lou gaped at his werecat children wrestling on the ground, screeching and biting furiously. “But—” “Go! There’s nothing you can do here!” Cole gestured wildly to the entrance of the alley. “Just go! I’ll be fine!” Black Blood and Eagle Talon were locked in battle. This was the perfect moment of Lou to escape, and he knew it. There was nothing he could do to help his son in battle. Yet he hesitated. It was not in the nature of a father to leave their children in the face of danger. Lou and Cole’s eyes met. Cole’s heart twisted at the sight of the hurt, pained expression on his father’s face. The message in his eyes was clear: I don’t want to abandon you again. “I’ll be fine. We all will,” Cole repeated. He knew how empty his words were. “Just go.”
He inspected it. The cart sat in front of several tall barrels on the sidewalk, along with a few abandoned baskets of freshly cropped vegetables. A mere few yards beyond that was a wall, inherently trapping Jay between the wall and the cats, with the pushcart and barrels in between. He looked back at the cats. The wounded ones were back on their paws and already advancing. “Looks like the end of the road for you, Son of Lightning,” one cat purred. Jay glanced back at the pushcart again and got an idea. “Like a rat in a trap, right? Then why are you being so slow? Are you scared I’m gonna sting you again?” He turned and ran, hopping neatly onto the barrels that stood over the pushcart. “Ya want some of this? Come and get it!” He jumped onto the tallest barrel, turned, and proceeded to wave his rear end mockingly at the nekomata warriors. “What’s the matter? Cat got your tongue?” The Moon Tribe warriors bristled and bared their teeth. The warning growls grew. “Too scared to get me? Are you guys fur real? You’re just a bunch of ’fraidy cats!” One tomcat lashed his forked tails angrily. “Shut up! You’re not funny!” “Hey, why so serious? I’m just kitten around!” “Someone make him shut up!” A female roared as she charged at him. As Jay had hoped, all of them leapt onto the pushcart. The cart’s end was pointed upwards where Jay was, while the other end was on the ground. It looked much like a seesaw. As soon as one nekomata had run onto the cart, with another close behind and already stepping on, Jay jumped off the barrels and landed on the upper end of the pushcart. The platform fell under his weight, and two nekomata cats were immediately thrown into the air. “And that’s why they call it the catapult!” Jay cackled. They flew up, up, up, with shocked screeches and bristling fur, along with the cargo: Cucumbers. Hundreds of fat, fresh cucumbers.
The cats and cucumbers flew in the air, but what goes up must come down. Thus down they came: the dazed nekomata landed on their paws several yards beyond Jay and the pushcart, while their tribe-mates stared on in astonishment. Then, every cucumber came raining down from the sky, littering the street like fat green raindrops. As soon as the first cat saw the cucumbers, pandemonium ensued. It was as if someone had thrown a grenade of exploding fur into the neighborhood street. Every Moon Tribe warrior took one look at the cucumbers falling from the sky and lost their minds. Suddenly dozens of giant cats, warriors in human forms, and smaller bakeneko were running and yowling and screeching like a tornado of flying fur and claws. Jay, Skylor, Nya, and Lloyd could only watch in astonishment as the Moon Tribe army broke ranks and scattered in pure and blatant panic. A pale female nekomata wailed as she fled past Nya, “What are those things!?” “I don’t know,” A tomcat gasped, one of the ones who had been cornering Jay at the pushcart. “I’ve never seen anything like them before! Run!” Werecat warriors in human forms jostled past Lloyd, heading toward the back alleys that led out of the village. “Ancestors save us all!” Multi-colored bakeneko swept by Skylor’s feet. “Don’t let them get us!” “Get out of here! This way!” “Don’t let them touch me!” With that, every Moon Tribe warrior in the village square fled. Gradually, their terrified cries and wails faded into the distance. No sound was left but the distant crackle of flames from the still-burning buildings, and a stiff breeze blowing that warned of rain. Jay, Lloyd, Nya, and Skylor were left alone in the deserted square, standing among the spilled cucumber. It looked like the aftermath of some crazy, vegetable-themed party. There was a long, shocked silence. Then the ninja and Skylor fell to their knees and rolled with loud, hysterical laughter. “I hope Master Wu and Zane are having a good time, too!” Jay gasped.
*snip* Multi-colored bakeneko swept by Skylor’s feet. “Don’t let them get us!” “Get out of here! This way!” “Don’t let them touch me!” With that, every Moon Tribe warrior in the village square fled. Gradually, their terrified cries and wails faded into the distance. No sound was left but the distant crackle of flames from the still-burning buildings, and a stiff breeze blowing that warned of rain. Jay, Lloyd, Nya, and Skylor were left alone in the deserted square, standing among the spilled cucumber. It looked like the aftermath of some crazy, vegetable-themed party. There was a long, shocked silence. Then the ninja and Skylor fell to their knees and rolled with loud, hysterical laughter. “I hope Master Wu and Zane are having a good time, too!” Jay gasped.
* * *
THAT'S RIGHT! They don't like cucumbers!! XD
I may have stupid ideas but at least I'm cOnSiStEnT xD
There was nothing his father could do. They both knew it. Lou Brookstone took a deep breath, then darted for the entrance of the alley. He ran past Black Blood and Eagle Talon—the daughter and son of Silver Mist. He ran past Cole—the son of Arianna. They were all his children. As he ran, he felt his heart tear. “No!” Black Blood shoved Eagle Talon away. She glared at the retreating figure of her father. Her eyes blazed with more fury than ever, if that was even possible. “Don’t let him get away! He’s mine! He’s mine to take!” She leapt up after Mr. Brookstone. Cole’s heart burned with sudden anger. Kin or not, that was his father. As long as he had breath in his body, nobody would touch his father and get away with it. “Enough!” he roared. Black Blood ignored him. She ran for the entrance. Cole threw himself at her. They rolled to the ground once again. He wrapped his arms around her neck. He got on top of her, and shoved her head to the ground. Black Blood choked and struggled beneath his ironlike grip. Under him she rasped, “You… fox— I’ll get him.” His arms tightened around her neck, but she still managed to hiss. “I’ll make— make him pay. You— you’ll all… pay—!” She coughed weakly. Fury burned through Cole’s body. His face twisted into a snarl. “Not on my watch.” He gripped Black Blood tighter than ever, and shook her. “I won’t let you hurt him.” Cole raked his claws down her shoulder. “Not him, not my friends, not anyone else,” he continued. “You made this my fight when you first sent Raven Frost to attack Matilda. Now I’m going to finish it.” Black Blood tried to say something. It ended in a feeble rasp. Her struggles were weakening. “Cole, stop!” Eagle Talon’s panicked voice screamed through the rain. “What are you doing?! You’re ending her!” Cole hesitated. The fiery anger that had burned through him had made his head feel cloudy. His train of thought felt hazy as he slowly comprehended Talon’s words. I’m… what? “Get off her!” Talon grabbed Cole and shoved him away roughly with his paws. He sobbed, “Black Blood!”
Cole gasped for breath. He was trembling. He stared down at the steel claws strapped to his hands. The claw tips were all stained red. “Wh— what have I… done?” he whispered. Black Blood staggered to her paws. Talon bent over her, bristling with worry. She cuffed him over the head, sending him stumbling back. “Get away from me,” she spat. Her eyes fell on Cole. Cole tried to stop shaking. He got to his feet, meeting Black Blood’s gaze. He couldn’t see many of the wounds he had wreaked, but she limped on one paw. Yet, miraculously, she stood straight and tall before him, strong as ever. The Brookstone siblings glared at one another through the pouring rain. Black Blood’s hackles rose, but she grinned mirthlessly. “You should have ended me. You would have had the chance to live another day.” “A ninja doesn’t need to destroy others to win a battle,” Cole said, shaken though he was. “If you really believe that,” his half-sister growled. “Then it will be kitten’s play to destroy you all. If you’re wise, you’ll quit while you’re ahead.” “A ninja never quits,” he retorted. Black Blood’s eyes narrowed. “Neither does a warrior cat.” She crouched, then pounced upon her human brother. Eagle Talon scrambled to his paws. Cole held out his armored arms and hands in defense. If fighting like a werecat was what he had to do to win this fight, then he would do it. A jagged pattern suddenly formed from the back of his hands beneath the claws and up to his biceps, glowing a bright, unearthly orange.
* * *
Misako and Little Leaf ran into Liana coming up the deserted main street of the village. “Liana!” Little Leaf, in her own nekomata form, bounded to meet the older girl. “Little Leaf?” Liana, startled to hear a familiar voice in the empty street, slowed. “Who’s with you?” “Misako is!” Relieved, the werecat purred and nuzzled the human at the legs. “I thought you two were on the Bounty,” Liana said, blinking water of her eyes.
![[derp]](http://storage.proboards.com/6672327/images/YqNTPqyQUocVMYXZgUAI.png)
They don't like cucumbers!! 
XD 
They don't like cucumbers!! 
