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The supernatural weren’t a big deal in modern-day Ninjago as they were back in ancient times. However, some incidents still require there be a specialized team of exorcists should some devil, demon, or monster decide to play evil. Reports of supernatural activity would flood into the local police station to then be sorted and given to the head of the special unit.
Such was the case on a rainy Sunday afternoon; a lone cup of steaming black coffee resting inches away from the stack of important documents laying on a dark wood desk. Sighing, thick eyebrows don’t move from each other from where they meet above the bridge of his nose--instead, they move even closer together, looking as if they’re about to merge into one.
Cole sighs as he sets down the report he was reading. A laugh comes from beside him, and the human looks up to see his half-android, half-ice fairy partner standing above his chair.
“Look who’s working hard,” Zane laughs, smiling down at the human. Cole grunts in greeting, but tips his head back and raises a hand to trace Zane’s cold metal cheek. The wired ice fairy leans into the touch, warm smile contrasting the chill of his cheek.
“Ew, gross, I did not come here on my break to see this sappy shit,” a new voice says, and Cole sighs as he braces himself for added weight. Jay does not disappoint, and the storm spirit jumps over Cole’s desk and into his lap. For air, he sure is heavy , is always Cole’s thought before having his neck suffer an intense nuzzling.
“May I remind you that you are a part of this ‘sappy shit,’” and Cole respects himself enough to not do air quotes with his fingers, instead hoping his tone got it across. Judging by the way Jay huffs charged air against his neck, the storm spirit got it. Good, Cole wasn’t feeling up to banter with Jay right now.
“Now Cole, you and I both know Jay loves ‘sappy shit,’” and Zane doesn’t respect himself enough to not do the air quotes, so he does, and Cole groans.
“I do not! But anyway, what’s got your brain all up in a tizzy?”
“Please never say that again,” Cole says, pushing at Jay’s chest as the spirit laughs. “But to answer your dumb question, it’s about that new demon.”
Zane hums as he gingerly picks up the report Cole tossed onto the table. “The self-proclaimed ‘Son of Satan’ if I’m correct?”
“Yea, that’s the one,” Cole says, grunting as Jay climbs up higher on his lap to see the report in Zane’s hands. The storm spirit whistles (which sounds a lot like a plane falling from the sky in the movies) at the amount of attacks the demon’s caused.
“How come we still haven’t caught him? I mean, four cases of arson and multiple sightings all throughout this one week…”
“And he’s been active for quite a while. Three months to be exact.” Zane frowns as he flips through more of the reports. “Jay’s right, it’s odd how they haven’t yet called for us to handle this situation. There’s a lack of human and nonhuman casualties right now, but it looks like this person might be aiming to hurt soon.”
Cole grunts. “You know how the higher-ups are. They’ve been very adamant that they don’t need magic or other nonhuman help.” At this, Zane’s lips thin and Jay huffs.
“Well, since the reports reached your desk, that means…?”
“It means they’ve given up and have finally handed over the reins.” Cole pushes Jay off his lap to stand and stretch, cracking his neck and ridding his back of kinks. “Get ready. I want to leave and start scouting before this guy strikes next.”
“Yea, okay, but how do you know when he’ll strike next, huh?”
Cole shoots Jay a look over his shoulder, a small smirk edging the corners of his lips. “This Son of Satan character launches an attack every Wednesday and Thursday, depending on the week before. Last week he struck on Thursday, today’s Wednesday, and no new headlines have appeared on the news yet. Let’s not waste time.”
“And that’s why you’re our head exorcist,” Zane says fondly, smiling as he lifts a red-faced Jay. Cole’s look was devastating, yes, but Zane could put off kissing Cole till after they’ve clocked out.
Jay could stand to pick up that habit too.
The files never stated anything about this, Cole thought as he dodged a hot ball of red fire and ducked under a wave of even hotter blue flame. Briefly, Cole felt the cool chill of Zane’s ice coat his back as another blue wave hidden behind the first shot towards him. Cole isn’t a religious man by any means, but thank God for the Leidenfrost effect or he’d have severe burns right now.
“Aw, an ice fairy’s on the field? So uncool, but smart.” The Son of Satan laughs as his body twists out of the way of Jay’s lightning, the fire encasing him flowing behind him like ribbons as he jumps over rooftops and laundry lines. If Cole wasn’t aware he could die from them at any given moment, he’d have described the Son of Satan as beautiful.
“He’s not a will-o-wisp and definitely not a Phoenix...I reckon he’s a halfling.” Cole’s earpiece crackled to life, Jay’s voice filling his ears. Zane immediately started listing off the many different creatures and mixed breeds the Son of Satan could be, and Cole groaned.
“Zane, you can see what’s ahead of him and us, right? What is it?” Both Cole and Jay could hear the distant whirring of gears turning as Zane’s eyes zoomed in and out to decipher what was up ahead.
“He’s leading us into the concert hall. According to the schedule my systems have pulled up, there’s an orchestra playing today and the mayor is rumored to appear.”
“Great,” Cole says as his eyes narrow. “Jay, you’re faster in your air form, so rush there and evacuate the civilians. Zane, cover him while he’s defenseless.” Seeing Jay nod in his peripheral vision and shoot forward in the form of pure air made Cole pick up his own pace, and he didn’t know how tense he was when the Son of Satan launched a plume of red fire towards Jay’s barely visible form. His breath and tension only released when a wall of ice appeared to block the flames from cutting through Jay.
“Hey buddy!” Cole yells at the Son of Satan, who turns around, and it’s the first time Cole’s seen the guy’s face--or at least what can be seen of it. Flames wrapped around the arsonist’s face, covering from the bridge of his nose down to his chin, and there was a whole bunch of fire erupting from his head. The only features Cole could make out were the brief glimpses of brown hair and the halfling’s eyes, but he was a good distance away so Cole couldn’t see their color.
“Slow down a bit would ya?” Cole asks, not to be polite, no, but without Jay around and Zane being the silent calculating type, Cole was feeling pretty lonely and he enjoyed talking.
“Why would I do that?” And as if to spite Cole, the Son of Satan speeds up, causing Cole to speed up to not fall behind. Thank god he worked out often.
“It’ll be easier to capture you that way,” Cole says with absolute seriousness, and the Son of Satan laughs. In a flash of cockiness, he’s performing a frontflip to clear an alley below him, and his feet are free of their flame armor.
Gotcha , Cole thinks as he sees Zane take advantage of the opening and shoot binding rope at the arsonist’s feet, effectively getting the criminal to trip and stumble. Taking action, Cole shoots forward and tackles the still-flaming male, grabbing his wrists and tying them up with handcuffs blessed with water magic gotten from Jay’s firefighter friend. Upon contact, the fire that cocooned the arsonist was extinguished. Cole laughed, a tad high-pitched and frazzled.
“Nothing like a Leviathan halfling’s blessing, right?” Cole asks rhetorically. “Now, let’s see who you are,” and Cole flips the arsonist over, keeping a solid grip on his shoulders and plenty of weight on his legs.
Cole’s vision narrowed in on the culprit’s eyes, and nothing else existed for the longest time. The Son of Satan truly had spectacular eyes, flickering with the colors of embers sparking to give life to a larger flame. Abruptly, Cole is brought back to reality by a cold hand on his shoulder, drawing him away from a fantasy where a monochrome sunrise exists and a pair of eyes radiate the stolen light.
Zane pulls Cole off the now captured criminal, letting Jay go through the power lock-up process with him. The ice-fairy nindroid goes on to drone about procedure and reports, and usually Cole would laugh and listen to Zane while keeping an eye on Jay, because that was routine.
What wasn’t routine, however, was Cole falling in love a third time.