AUTHOR'S NOTE:

Howdy! This is The Mayor of Ninjago City with a brand new story in honor of Valentine's Day which, as of today, is just a little under five weeks away.

This short story is based on the great fanfic authored by measuremesky: The Fire Within. It can be found on this website.

The story you are about to read below takes place just a few months after The Fire Within, and it focuses on the continuing relationship between our favorite fire ninja and his love interest, a cute college girl named Sam. The relationship has been going on for several months at this point. Sam is going to be meeting one of the many villains that Kai and the ninja team face as part of their duty to protect Ninjago.

I owe big thank-yous to the following authors, and I encourage everyone to check out their writings:

1) measuremesky, a family member of mine, who gave me permission to use her material to create this story, and

2) lovesgod12, for letting me borrow some material from Chapter 4 of her current great fanfic Lloyd's Story, so that Sam can visit the same World History Museum founded by Clutch Powers in Chitow City. Thanks again, lovesgod12!

Hope you enjoy this first chapter…

Chapter 1 - A Villain Appears

A warm fire burned in the fireplace of the Bounty late on a Friday evening in February. The flames illuminated the faces of the red ninja Kai and his girlfriend Samantha as they relaxed next to each other on the living room sofa, sipping hot cocoa topped with Bunny's Marshmallows.

Bunny's Marshmallows had been a regular item in the Bounty's pantry for several months now, ever since the day the couple had met in the toilet paper aisle of the grocery store. Minutes after that brief encounter, Sam had inadvertently left behind a purchased package of the white confections on the counter of the grocery store's self-checkout lane. Kai had found the package and brought it home to keep until he could figure out a way to return it to the cute blonde girl, whose name he didn't even know until the next day, when they ran into each other again - at the grocery store. The pretty college student had returned to inquire about her missing marshmallows, and Kai had returned with his teammate Jay to purchase a better brand of toilet paper that would feel more suitable to the sensitive posterior of the blue ninja.

That second encounter between the couple led to yet another one, and though that specific package of marshmallows did not survive more than a few days on the Bounty, thanks to a craving for something sweet on the part of Jay, the relationship between the fire ninja and the blue-eyed beauty endured.

Tonight, Sam sat on the sofa with her feet tucked under her. With her shoulders encircled by the right arm of the red ninja, she nestled against him. Kai's own feet were resting on the ottoman in front of him. His right foot was encased in a cast which Sam had decorated with yet another one of her smiley face drawings just a little while earlier.

Only about a month ago, the ninja brothers had been involved in a battle with Sebastian, an enemy of Ninjago who was actually just a few years older than themselves. Sebastian was a sorcerer but was only able to practice dark magic with the help of a sorcerer's ring. His father had been a master of sorcery who possessed the power of dark magic inside of him.

A few years ago, Sebastian had been looking forward to his 25th birthday, the day on which his father would officially pass the title of master of sorcery to his son, and Sebastian himself would then be able to perform dark magic without the help of the ring. However, before that day came, his father had been sucked into the Cursed Realm while trying to destroy Garmadon, the father of Lloyd, the green ninja. Sebastian blamed Garmadon for his father's fate, but even though Garmadon subsequently ended up in the Cursed Realm as well, Sebastian desired to take out his revenge on Lloyd.

Sebastian was unsuccessful in taking revenge last month, but he managed to escape capture by the ninja brothers. During the revenge attempt, however, Kai broke his foot and now had to wear a cast and maneuver on crutches for several weeks.

Kai's mobility was temporarily limited, but that didn't stop him and Sam from spending time together each weekend. Ever since they had patched up their relationship, which had hit a rocky period last summer while she lived on the Bounty during her internship at Borg Industries, they had made regular face-to-face communication between them a priority. So for the last few weeks, the Ninjago University student walked from her dormitory over to the Bounty to visit the red ninja.

"I'm going shopping tomorrow to get ready for my archaelogy class' overnight field trip to Chitow City. Can't believe it's next week already!" Sam said as she sipped her cocoa. "Professor Brown finally revealed the big surprise of the trip during our class today. On one of the days of our stay there, we're going to get a personal tour of the World History Museum from none other than Clutch Powers himself!"

Kai knew of Clutch Powers from his teammate Cole, who was a big fan of the great archaeologist. Dr. Powers had founded the World History Museum in Chitow City, several hours away from Ninjago City, and filled it with treasures and discoveries not only acquired by his own self but by renowned scientists and historians around the world.

"Cool!" Kai nodded. "Cole will be jealous! What day is it that you leave?"

"Tuesday, in the afternoon. And we're coming home on the redeye train that arrives back in Ninjago City on Saturday morning, so I should be back in time to celebrate Valentine's Day later that day," she grinned. "When I go shopping tomorrow, I might also be looking for a Valentine's Day gift for a certain someone. Is there anything special you'd like?"

The red ninja slowly turned his head to look at his girlfriend. "Who? Me?" he asked innocently, though his twinkling brown eyes made it clear that he was teasing.

"Oh, Kai, not this again," Sam laughingly protested. "You said that to me at Christmastime - remember? - when we all were going to Hayward's and I asked you what you'd like for Christmas!" To her, Kai had seemed especially mischievous that night as their group headed to Ninjago City's fanciest department store.

"Well, after that, I did give you an answer to your question, didn't I?" Kai grinned as he pretended to be indignant. "I said that the only thing I want is you and a nice cozy fire to sit in front of. Hey," he chuckled, "right now you're sitting here next to me and we're sitting in front of a cozy fire!"

"But, you know," he smirked, "when I talked about sitting in front of a fire, I meant more than just sitting." His one-armed embrace around her shoulders grew tighter as he leaned in closer to her, resting his forehead on hers.

Sam blushed, knowing perfectly well what he had meant back then and what he had on his mind right now.

But just like Sam had done that night at Christmastime when Kai seemed extra mischievous, she redirected their conversation. "You also said you wanted a new sweatshirt, which looks like it now has some hot cocoa on it," she pointed out to him. Indeed, the bright red garment that she had given him for Christmas, and that he was now wearing, was sporting a few fresh stains from the hot drink in his hand.

"Ack!" he exclaimed, pulling back from her in order to get a better look at the mess she was referring to. "How did that happen?"

"Here, let me go get something to wipe up with," Sam said. The blonde quickly leaned over the red ninja to set her mug of cocoa down on the end table before rising from the sofa and proceeding into the kitchen to retrieve a dampened paper towel. She tried to be as quiet as possible so as not to disturb the sleeping residents of the Bounty, who had gone to bed over an hour ago. When Sam returned to the living room, she handed the paper towel to Kai.

"Thanks, Sam," he smiled at her as he immediately began dabbing his sweatshirt. "You know, I'm the one who should be asking you about Valentine's Day. Do you wanna go out to dinner? I should be getting rid of my crutches next week," he said.

If she did want to dine out, he hoped she wouldn't want to go to Mama Li's Italian Restaurant. That was the restaurant they had eaten at last summer on the night their relationship began to become unglued - the night he thought he spotted Skylor, his earlier love interest, on a street in downtown Ninjago City. He was glad to have reconciled with Sam since that night, but they had not returned to that restaurant. He thought that they should start going there again, so that they could begin to erase the association of negativity with a perfectly fine eating establishment, but Valentine's Day probably wasn't the best day to start.

"Sure, dinner sounds good," she replied enthusiastically as she seated herself on the sofa next to him once again. "Would you want just us to go or should we go in a group?" At Christmastime, Sam and Kai had gone on a triple date with Jay and Nya and with Cole and Brooke, Sam's dorm roommate who was now the earth ninja's girlfriend. The six of them had dined at one of the fancier restaurants in downtown Ninjago City.

Before Kai answered her, he examined his handiwork at wiping off the cocoa stains. "Good, they're almost gone. This sweatshirt needs to go in the laundry anyway," he muttered to himself.

Then, setting the paper towel on the end table, he turned toward Sam, encircling her shoulders with his arm as he was doing just a few minutes earlier. "Our triple date was fun, but on Valentine's Day," he softly replied to her question as he cupped her cheek with his free hand, "would it be OK if we let Jay and Cole come up with their own plans for their girlfriends, and just you and me celebrate by ourselves?"

And with that, he leaned in to savor the strawberry-glossed lips of the blonde-haired beauty next to him. He'd been anticipating the opportunity to do so all evening.

"Mmm-hmm," was all Sam could say at that point. She rested her arm around the red ninja's waist as they enjoyed the last few minutes of their evening together, exchanging sweet tokens of affection.

Sam eventually pulled away, reluctantly. "I probably should get going," she murmured.

Kai smiled, gazing into her soft blue eyes. "I suppose. You need to get your rest for the big shopping day tomorrow when you buy me all those presents!"

Sam playfully scrunched her nose at him as she rose from the sofa. "You never did give me any ideas, so don't be disappointed at what you end up unwrapping!" she teased as she helped Kai to his feet.

"You can surprise me and I'll surprise you," he smirked.

Despite his need to use crutches, Kai walked Sam to the door and helped her with her coat before she put on the winter boots she had left at the entryway when she had arrived at the Bounty several hours ago. She put her purse over her shoulder and then, upon opening the door, the couple was greeted with chilly air, and they discovered that light snow had started to fall quietly on the windless night. A thin layer of white already covered the ground.

"How peaceful," Sam commented.

Kai agreed. "Enjoy your walk home. I'll call you sometime between tomorrow and Monday night before you leave on your trip so we can finalize plans for next Saturday."

"Sounds good. 'Night, Kai."

"'Night, Sam."

After they exchanged one final goodnight kiss, Sam descended the steps of the Bounty and was gone.

Kai didn't close the door right away. He stood there and breathed in the crisp cold air, thinking of his girlfriend as he admired the distant lights of Ninjago City that could be seen through the gently falling flakes of snow.

"She's beautiful, inside and out," he smiled to himself. "How did I get so lucky?"

Suddenly, a flash of light erupted into the night sky. Its source came from a point beyond Kai's line of sight.

"What th-" he exclaimed.

And then he heard a blood-curdling scream.

"Sam!" he shouted.

As fast as he could on his crutches, Kai hobbled out the door of the Bounty and down the steps to follow her tracks in the light dusting of snow, all the while calling her name.

For about fifty yards, there was a straight path of her footprints.

Then he came upon her purse lying on the ground next to messed-up snow, and the trail abruptly ended.

As if she had been lifted up and carried away by something...

"Kai! What's going on?" exclaimed voices behind him. His four ninja brothers, awakened by his shouts, and concerned that the front door was wide open, had followed the tracks to reach him. They had hastily thrown their winter jackets over their pajamas to keep warm in the cold night air.

"It's Sam! I heard her make this horrible scream and now she's disappeared!"

Suddenly a giant ball of glowing light about ten feet in diameter appeared in front of them. Its brightness caused them to shield their eyes for a second.

"Hello again, gentlemen," a familiar voice greeted them.

"Sebastian!" Kai hissed.

"Yes, it's me," the voice chuckled. "Don't worry, I haven't come to fight this time. Instead, I have an offer you definitely won't want to refuse."

"Forget it, slimeball," Lloyd scoffed. "We're not interested."

"YOU may not be interested, my green friend, but I'm sure the red ninja will be quite interested."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Kai demanded.

The voice chuckled again. "Allow me to elaborate." Another flash of light from the ball, even brighter than the last flash, temporarily blinded them. When their eyes recovered, they could see that the ball was now filled with the image of Sebastian standing there. In his arms he was carrying an unconscious form of a young woman - Sam.

"You monster! Let her go!" Kai yelled. He lunged toward the glowing ball but his crutches slipped on the snow, causing him to lose his balance and fall forward. Jay and Cole rushed to help him stand up again as Sebastian laughed heartily.

"Aww, true love is so sweet," Sebastian said mockingly. "Well, I will be happy to let her go, in about 24 hours from now, as long as the green ninja surrenders to me at midnight tomorrow night at the pier by Lake Ninjago. Otherwise..." Sebastian looked down at the unconscious Sam in his arms.

"What a lovely young woman. Someday she'll make a beautiful bride of some lucky man. Perhaps that man will be me!" Sebastian laughed again, especially when Kai lunged at him again. Cole and Jay held him back.

Then all of a sudden, Sebastian's mood switched from jovial to menacing.

"So you got it, Fire Boy? Persuade our green friend to surrender at the pier at midnight tomorrow, or else your girl becomes my girl, FOREVER!"

The glowing ball radiated one more bright flash, and then it disappeared into the quiet wintry night.