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Cole started glumly at the rain pouring out the window.
Down below the bounty, there was an earthquake. Above there was rain. A downpour barricading Cole from any chance of helping anyone who needed it.
He hated it.
He considered sticking his finger out the window, just to feel the acid against his misty skin, but decided against it. The rest of the team may be out helping people, but that doesn't mean he can make stupid decisions.
He supposed that he wasn't allowed to make dumb decisions at any time, but that's a different issue.
There was nothing to do. He was bored. He just had to wait either for the rain to dry (because of course he couldn't just wait until it stopped raining, no, he had to wait for the water to dry as well, or his feet would be put through a living hell, if they even kept themselves together) or for everyone to come back.
He couldn't play video games, as he tried and after his hands went through the controler for the fifth time he decided to give up. Reading was something, sure, but it wasn't fun . He turned on the news for a minute before feeling bad at his inability to help and turning it back off again.
"Kai, you're back-"
"We need your help, Cole," Kai walked to the bathroom, returning seconds later with a towel and he dried his hair, "there's an apartment building. Entrance crashed in. We don't want to destroy the cement because we don't want to make things worse. Or hurt anyone. We need your strength to lift it."
"In case you forgot, I'm a ghost and it's raining," Cole muttered.
"Doesn't matter. I just need to get you down there before the rest of the team makes things worse," Kai said dismissively.
"An umbrella wouldn't help, the ground is wet."
"If you're possessing something, the water doesn't hurt, right?" Kai mused.
Cole stared at him, "If I'm possessing a sword or something I can't do any heavy lifting, and elemental powers don't work through inanimate objects."
"Fine. Possess me," Kai said.
"...What?" Cole asked, "no. That's stupid."
"Why?" Kai challenged, "I'm human. Morro could channel his element through Lloyd, I don't see why it wouldn't work with you. I'm just as athletic as you are so it won't be too much of a change."
"Is this why you were drying yourself off? You already came to this conclusion?" Cole said bitterly.
Kai shrugged, "it was the most logical."
"I... Don't want to hurt you," Cole said quietly.
"You won't. Trust me. The only reason Morro hurt Lloyd was because he was trying to. I'm letting you do this, so I'll be fine, okay?"
"Did you tell Lloyd?"
"Of course not, he would say no and find some other way," Kai shrugged him off.
Cole sighed. He didn't have lungs.
"Are you sure?"
"I'll tell you if it hurts," Kai said breezily.
"How do you know if you would be able to tell me anything!? This is kinda uncharted territory for us both!" Cole pointed out.
"Well... If I don't say anything in a minute, unpossess me right away," Kai said.
"How do you know I won't be stuck? How do you know it won't hurt you in a different way? What if I do something stupid and kill you as well-?"
"Because you're my brother, and I trust you," Kai said, "I think that's good enough. If you hurt me somehow else, well, we'll go save some lives and it'll be worth it. If not, win-win!"
Kai's, stupid, incredibly stupid, confidence was infectious. Stupidly infectious. It made Cole feel bad for even thinking about saying no.
"Okay, but please, don't stay quiet if anything hurts," Cole said.
Kai was warm. Kai wasn't just warm, he was hot. It felt like he was burning up Cole from the inside.
"See? That wasn't so bad!" Kai's voice echoed in Cole's Kai's head. Cole felt like it was that bad.
The thing about being a ghost was that everything was so numb. He could barely feel things such as the television remote or a gaming controler. Sometimes even the blade in his own hand. He couldn't smell or taste either.
And because of that lack of, everything felt so much more .
He could smell the rain from outside, feel each drop clinging to Kai's skin, he could feel the way Kai's gi was fastened around his waist. His katana on his back. His hair. His mask. His his his his-
"Cole!" Kai shouted in his mind, "calm down. We have a job to do."
Cole nodded dumbly. Right.
He held a (not his) hand up, feeling the raindrops coolly hitting Kai's glove.
It didn't burn.
It didn't burn.
It felt... Nice? He hadn't felt the rain in so long. It was as he remembered, Kai didn't have any Master of Fire debuff against rain. It would be funny if he did, with his sister's element and all.
Right, the mission. He wished he could have stopped the earthquake before it happened. He WAS the Master of Earth.
He scoffed. Master of something he couldn't even feel. His grip on has powers had been slipping a bit since he-
"Cole?"
Cole decided to stop thinking about it.
Cole still hadn't practiced Airjitzu as much as the other ninja, and while Kai's body was knocking him a little off balance (he was a fair bit skinner and a bit shorter then Cole was), he was the earth. He was good at balance.
Cole caught a glance at his(?) reflection in a window, and forced himself to turn away. Really, what did he expect?
"Just don't think about it," Kai provided unhelpfully, making Cole think about it even more. His hair was black. His skin was sickly green. His irises were still black.
It looked like when Morro possessed Lloyd.
"Cole, it's not the same. If you were hurting me, I would have told you, and we would have figured out something else," Kai comforted him.
"I know, it's just... It feels the same," Cole said quietly. He was taken aback for a second, by his voice. It didn't have as much of the ghostly echo he was used to hearing parroting and mocking his words, "for me. It feels the same on my end."
"How would you know? Cole, you don't have a single bad bone in your body-"
"I don't have a single bone in my body!" Cole hissed.
Kai paused, unable to respond.
"The point still stands!"
"Sure it does," Cole wasn't that sure if he believed it, but he was trying, "so where is this apartment building?"
"Somewhere to the left, I think." Cole could feel Kai thinking inside him, "can you look around? I can only see out of your - my - eyes."
Cole complied.
"Oh! There it is! That gray and green one, over to the left!" Kai said. Cole noticed it quickly.
"Okay, thanks," Cole said.
The apartment was a mess, Cole could tell that from a while away. With a solid foot (emphasis on solid) on the ground, he could feel it. The earth was listening to him, and sharing its pain. Kai noticed too, based on some small noises he made whenever Cole tuned into its voice, but didn't question it.
Cole's footsteps were quiet. He was a ninja after all. But he couldn't stay quiet for long, not both in the rain, with the puddles, and with his weird, awkward skinny legs.
Lloyd noticed him first. Lloyd was the jumpiest, especially after all he's been through. Lloyd honestly was the one Cole wanted to notice him last . Especially with Kai not telling him anything, like the moron he was.
"Mor-"
"It's just me- It's just me," Cole said quickly, raising his Kai's hands in surrender. Lloyd lowered his hands, and the green glow faded.
"Oh," Lloyd said quietly. Cole could see the gear turning in Lloyds head as he remembered Cole was the only ghost (other then the one's in Yang's temple, he supposed) still in the realm, "right. Sorry. Why are you possessing Kai-"
"He told me to," Cole said.
"Why?" Lloyd asked.
"Because I have super strength? I'm pretty sure that's elemental related somehow," Cole said, a bit confused honestly why it was even a question, "I don't know how to like... Still possess him but let him be in charge." He didn't think he wanted the opportunity to learn. Learning meant he had to do it again.
"Right. Right," Lloyd said quietly, "we didn't need for you to come. We could handle it." Cole could tell the real issue was his mode of coming. He was tired of being left out (though honestly, him being tired of being left out was still lesser then his hatred of what he was doing to avoid it).
"If you could handle it, I don't think Kai would have asked me to come," Cole said, "just let me handle it and I can get somewhere inside."
Cole handled it quickly. Zane helped. Zane seemed to understand why Kai let Cole take his body much quicker then Lloyd did.
(Nya looked a bit hurt. Jay looked a bit lost. They both tried to hide it.)
The super strength thing was a weird part of his elemental powers and Cole knew that. Whatever went through the First Spinjitzu Masters head when he decided literally creating rocks wasn't powerful enough and he also had to have the ability to lift them too.
Cole would have joked about asking him when he died if he wasn't already dead.
The people filed out one-by-one, and once Jay was able to confirm no one was left in the building, Cole was able to leave for next door, a small pizza place that didn't have anyone in it, nor any damage.
Cole didn't care for the water on Kai's flesh burning his ghost form as he left. All he cared about was leaving as fast as possible. He fell on the ground, his skin hissing in contact with the puddles Kai's body created. He tried not to flinch. It hurt. It hurt so much, but compared to what he felt in Kai's body, it felt like nothing, yet everything at the same time. Kai immediately took off a glove and held it out for him. Cole's hand went through him.
"It's fine," Cole muttered. He pushed himself up. His form was a lot more wispy and he tried to pull himself together.
Tried.
"I know I asked a lot for you but... Sorry," Kai said quietly. Too quietly for Kai normally. It just made Cole feel even worse for making a big deal out of it.
"Don't be. You needed my help. I'm the one with super strength," he tried saying a little louder. Anything to get the old Kai back
Kai didn't cheer up, but he did the typical ninja thing they all did where they pretended they did so they could pretend everything was okay for a second, "well, next time, I'll be the Earth Ninja and I'll be able to lift it."
"Maybe if you trained a bit harder-"
"-Not too much harder, of course-"
"-Sorry, did I say you? I meant all of you, maybe then you could-"
"-I bet we can all collectively outlift you-"
"-I'm sure it's entirely fair to bet against someone who can barely hold onto his phone-"
And then Cole remembered what he was saying again. And the silence returned.
"I'm going to go see if Lloyd's doing well," Kai said awkwardly, "and sorry. Again. I know you don't like being a ghost, but it's just... We all have our limitations, and sometimes it's just silly to let them define what we can and can't do? Just because you're a ghost, doesn't mean you can't help people! Think about how happy those citizens were when we let them free! If I didn't convince you, we wouldn't have been able to do it!"
Kai left. Cole paused to think for a second. It was a nice feeling. He still didn't like possessing people, but maybe, if this continued being a problem, he could convince someone like Cyrus Borg to make another nindroid body for him. Maybe.
(He didn't want to. That meant accepting it was permanent.)
He'd think about it.