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colesluvr · 10 months

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Hello ⊙⁠﹏⁠⊙‼️ can i request a movie! Lloyd x male reader where they are both best friends (who obliviously have a crush on each other but are clueless) and like one day m!reader gets in danger and the green ninja just saves him⁉️ and then like m!reader just like fanboys over the green ninja and rants about him to Lloyd ⁉️

Never Meet Your Idols, They Say | Lloyd Garmadon X Male Reader

hellooo anon! how are you doing?? ty for the request, this was so fun to write! movie!lloyd has my heart, so does the full movie! i really hope you enjoy this, sorry for any spelling mistakes. whats funny is that english is my first language. lmaooo. also this the crappeist shit i've ever written, why does this seem so cringe. cursing warning!

"Who ya' texting"

You let out a scream, jumping at the sound of Kai's voice just by your ear. You turned around to see the brunette smirking. You felt eyes all fall onto you as Kai leaned against the locker beside your open one. You place your phone into your pocket as you calmed your breathibg.

"Bastard, you scared the living hell outa' me!" You slapped his arm as you covered your face with your sweater as everyone went back to their own thing.

"Aw, is Y/N a lil'scaredy cat?" Kai teased, pinching your cheek like a little kid. You glared at your friend before grabbing his hair in an attempt to mess it up.

"Ay, ay, ay! Hair is off limits, y'know that, man!" Kai shouts, letting go of your cheek, all eyes on you both once more before they all just ignored you both.

You let go of Kai's hair, seeing a patch of it messed up. You grinned, feeling proud of yourself as Kai glared.

"I was just coming over to say hi, is that a crime?!" Kai cried, trying his best to fix his hair with his hand as you opened your locker door and placed your backpack inside it, taking out your textbooks for todays class.

Suddenly, the doors swung open and Zane and Lloyd entered the school. Everyone around who say them turned away or walked the opposite way to avoid the boy.

"BRO!," Kai smiled as he jumped and shouted for his friend. "Dude, give me a hug, man, give me a birthday huug!" Kai smiled as he trapped Lloyd in a hug, lifting him off the ground his feet barely touching the floor. "Kai," he laughed as he was lifted off the floor, "That's a good one,"

"Birthday hug?" Zane suddenly smiled as he spoke, "Let me get in on that," Zane opened his arms and scooched his way toward Kai and Lloyd. "Zane!-" Lloyd warned as he got closer, "-I'll increase the pressure dramatically," "Zane! ZAnE!"

The blonde squeaked as Zane hugged both him and Kai, now lifting Kai off the ground. Lloyd was stuck between them like a piece of meat in a sandwich.

You laughed at the sight, suddenly feeling a tap on your shoulder. You turned around to see Cole and Jay standing behind you.

"Oh, hey guys!" You greeted them. Cole replied with a nod before vibing to his music from his boombox that was rested on his shoulder, and Jay smiled and waved at you saying hello.

You looked back to the other three to see them walk toward you, Cole, and Jay. You and Lloyd made eye contact and a smile formed on your lips. You took a single step toward them before suddenly a motorbike engine caused you to jump fright, again.

Nya soon game swirving through the end of the hallway on her motorbike. She had a grin on her face as she skids to a stop, leaving bike tracks on the school floor behind her.

"Hey guys!" She greeted.

"Hey Nya." Everyone replied.

"Hey Nya, where'd you get the new bike, at the...great..stuff store?" Jay chuckled nervously, hiding his blush under his orange scarf as Cole rolled his eyes.

"Guys! Check out my new paint-job!" She smirked, you all looked down to see her new design on her motorcycle. Just by her foot, "The Lady-Iron Dragon!" She told, "My HERO!"

Before anyone could say anything about it, "Hey everybody, look!" Chad's voice caused you all to look down the hall to see Chad and two cheerleaders grin at you all evily, "It's Garma'DORK' and the DORK'squad!"

You rolled your eyes,, crossing your arms as Chad continued to talk. "You want to hear our new cheer?"

Oh god

"L-L-O-Y-D,, his dad is bad and so is he. Boo Lloyd,, Boo Lloyd."

"BOO LLOYD!" Chad screamed the ending. Everyone gave them a 'what-the-fuck' look but Lloyd gave them a awkward smile. "Greeat chant! I'll bet you got a number one hit on your hands!"

As soon as Lloyd said that, the bell rang. Everyone soon scattered the hallways getting to their class. You all said bye before heading to class, but before you and Lloyd left you waited until he closed his locker and locked it.

"Hey, happy birthday!" You handed Lloyd agreen wrapping paper with a darker green bow decorated on top of it. Lloyd hesitaded for a moment before smiling and taking the present.

"Thanks, Y/N. See you after school? We were planning on ging to that new bubble tea shack that just opened up, there treat apparently, probably because it's my birthday. Although they don't all need to get me bubble tea, but it would be nice-"

"Garmadon and L/N!" The princopals voice caused you and your best friend to flinch. "Get to class or you both will be on hall duty for the next week!" You both said goodbye before heading different ways daon the hall to get to class, refusing to make eye contact with the principal.

It was the end of the day and through the middle of the day Garmadon's forces attacked. Thankfully the secert Ninja force jumped in and stopped Garmadon's forces from taking over Ninjago, for the millionth time this year.

Seriously, when is that guy going to get the hint he will never win.

Anyway, you were on the school bus home where you would walk to meet up with the others. Since Lloyd texted your the address, you assumed you would quickly run home before leaving.

The bus ride was smooth, sure some kids were being loud and just being teenagers, but that's how you act around the others so you didn't say anything because we all know you act the same way with your friends.

You had your ear buds in, unable to hear anything in the outside world. As you looked out the window you could see something in the distance by the beach. The bus was driving on a freeway that shows the entire beach and water. You squint your eyes to get a better view of what you were looking at.

You gasp when you realized.

More of Garmadon's shark crew were arriving once again for a second try you assumed, but this time they seemed more prepaired. They had jets, land machines that overran the beach in seconds.

As you took out your phone to dial Lloyd, your mouth gaped open slightly seeing something emerge out of the water.

It was a large black mech with the head of a shark. And in the driver's seat was no one but, Lord Garmadon himself. More kids on the bus soon saw it and made their way toward the window, pushing you out of the way and onto a seat.

As the driver tried to get the kids to sit back down, you quickly dialed Lloyd and placed the phone to your ear.

"Pick up, pick up, pick up, pic-"

"Y/N?" Lloyd's voice was heard on the other end of the phone. "There you are, we're waiting for you by the bubble tea shack, I thoughy you said you-"

"Lloyd! Your dad's back! And he seems pretty ticked off! There's these weird shark mechs running around, destroying everything. it's bad."

Lloyd and the others looked at each other, and before he could reply, shark airships were seen fly over the city in less then two seconds, them hitting buildindgs, shooing lasers.

Everybody soon started to panic, scream, and run around to get to safety has Garmadon attacked the city. The group nod before running off.

Lloyd put his phone by his ear, "Y/N?! Where are you?"

"Uh- on the school bus just by the freeway. We are-"

The sound of clashing and crashing and people's screams caused Lloyd's heart to sink. "Y/N!?" He called out multiple times, waiting for a response. He ran faster to the warehouse, where he would meet up with the others.

"Crap!" Lloyd cursed under his breath when the phone line cut off, leaving you in who knows what.

"Shit!" You yelled as the bus was hit by a laser beam, the bus struggled to stay on road, your phone flying out the window. Everyone swirved to try and stay put and not fall over, but the road was basically destoryed.

The bus skid off to the side, falling on it's side causing evryone on bored to fall to the floor, forcing themselves to hold on top something.

Suddenly, the bus stopped. You were hidden under a seat as you tried to protect your body the best you can. However, something seemed off. You felt like something was off. You leaned over to peek out the window. Rookie mistake. You covered your scream to not move the bus too much because one movement could send this bus falling to it's doom.

It was inches from falling off the edge of the freeway.

"Is everybody okay?" You called out, making sure nobody was hurt. Thankfully, nobody was injured. "Okay, good. Nobody move!"

"What do you mean?" A boy cried out, "I'm getting out of here, this was the worst bus ride ever!" As he go up, you tried to shout at him to sit down. "BOY I WILL STRANGLE YOU, SIT YO' ASS DOWN!" And so he did. However this caused everyone to get all riled up, trying to look out the window to see what the problem was.

Suddenly this one girl screamed when she saw the bus was inches away from falling. "OMG WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE!"

"WE AIN'T DYING, SIT DOWN AND DON'T MOVE AND WE'LL BE FINE!"

"Screw you, man! I'm livin' , you however can stay here and fall to your death!"

"Omg-" You whispered under your breath as the driver, you, and most kids tried to get kids under control until help arrived.

You, yourself started to panic. What if the Ninja's don't rescue you in time? Are the others okay? Anything coul have happened to them! Why couldn't Garmadon wait to attack UNTIL you've gotten home?! That way you could be with the others and know their okay.

Throught your thought the bus suddenly started to move. Everyone thinking it was falling forward and about to hit the ground, you all hugged each other and screamed. However, that wasn't the case. You peeked one eye open to look out the window. You saw buildings fly past as you did.

The bus was in the air, not falling to the ground. Most kids pushed each other away, your buddy did the same to you realizing they weren't falling.

You all ran to a window and looked up to see the Green Ninja's dragon hold up the bus. All the kids started to cheer for the Ninja.

You, however, were smiling like a dork. Out of all the Ninja's that culd save you you're favorite Ninja saves you?! Tell me your dreaming?

You felt the wheels on the bus hit a safe patch of road, the emergency back opening and all the kids ran outside to see the Ninja. You were the last to come out, You saw the Water Ninja in the distance, checking to see if kids were okay before leaving in her mech.

As you exited the bus, you were suddenly in the arms of the Green Ninja. He squeezed you tight, a relief laugh escaped his mouth.

"Oh thank goodness your okay! I on't what I woul do if-" Suddenly he stopped talking and you are literally just standing, frozen in shock and exciement. He pulled back and dusted off your sweater and cleared his throat, "If-If I didn't come and save you all." He awkwardly pats your shoulder and moved back, not wanting to scare you anymore.

"Are you okay?" He asked and you nod, slowly, still progressing that you are talking to the Green Ninja. "Good...good. Uh, I-I'd advise you stay inside, find shealter and don't come out until the all clear is given. You know, the ususal."

"I love you."

Silence.

"What?"

"Sorry! Sorry, that-that came out...weird. Uh,-" You chuckled awkwardly. You could see the blush the Ninja gave you as you said that. Even though his face was covered, you could see he was flustered by his stutters.

"Your-Your my favorite Ninja! You-You remind me so much like a friend." You admitted, your cheeks turning hot by the second.

"Uh-No-No I don't. Even if I did, who would-would that be?" He coughed.

"Uh, he's-he's name's Lloyd. And-And he's the best friend I can ask for. He talks alot, he cares a lot, he always makes sure I'm okay....like you did just now."

Shoot. Lloyd thought he was caught, but, "And I love that about him. He's just amazing in everyway! He's hair is soft, he's an amazing hugger, he makes me laugh when I'm at my worst. I just wish I could pick up the courage to tell him...I love him...."

You and the Green Ninja made eye contact. He was too stunned for words. You felt your legs shake as you realized what you have said.

"I-I'm sorry! You-You probably have no idea what Im blabbering about, or even who I'm-" "-I do!"

You gave him a confused look, "Huh?"

"I-I mean, I-I don't know..w-who you're talking about, b-but he seems like a nice guy...I-I just understand...how hard it can be...to tell someone you love them...." He chuckled sheepishly.

You both were quiet for a moment before you both coughed awkwardly, understanding the moment. You noticed the Ninja looked up and back down to you after he nods, "Uh, well. I'm glad your okay, sir. Please get to safety and...good luck..with that Lloyd dude, I have a feeling things will fo smoothly with you two." He pats your shoulder before running back to his dragon.

You watched as he saluted everyone who thanked them one last time before flying off.

Your pounded against your chest. A smile formed on your lips as you watched him dissapear behind a building. "Yo! Loverbird!" A voice threw you out of your trance. You looked over to see a kid from the bus cal over to you.

#lego ninjago #ninjago #lego ninjago x reader #lloyd garmadon #lloyd x reader #lloyd garmadon x reader #ninjago movie #ninjago lloyd #lego ninjago movie #ninjago lloyd x reader #ninjago imagines #x reader #imagines #colesluvr writes ★

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greenygreenland · 2 years

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Can I get a oneshot of the reader taking care of the kid ninja during child's play

-i died -but then i lived -so i am very sorry for being late -but since this is still in my ask box i will deliver -sorry i am so late omg -this is going to be a bit goofy since they're all children

(Y/n)'s Daycare For Troubled Kids: Reader x Platonic! Children! Ninja

This had to be both the best and worst day of your life. Scratch that--probably the latter. With four tiny children half your size sprinting through the streets at the speed of mere fifth graders, you had to keep your eyes peeled.

Especially for the giant trunk (Chen's Noodle House, you loved that place!) veering to your left towards the crosswalk. Jay was the first to notice since he was, well, Jay. Those electric blue eyes of his snapped open as he threw out a hand towards the vehicle.

"Does anybody else see that giant truck heading our way?!" he demanded. Cole finished off a loose tie on his gi with a roll of his eyes. "Jay, of course there'll be loads of trucks. We're in the city, what do you expect--?"

Being in the city did not mean trucks speeding at a hundred miles per hour were normal. You threw out your hands and yanked the two ninja off the street. "Did you fry each others' brains out or what?" You gave them both a slap over the head. "Just because I had to sneak you out of the museum because the police thought you stole the golden sarcophagus doesn't mean we're in the clear yet! Focus, you two!"

Kai grabbed at his hair with a strangled screech. It vaguely reminded you of this one bratty kid you saw screaming and crying on the floor (some tantrum). "How are we supposed to focus when the grundle could be roaming around Ninjago City as we speak? The bones looked like they walked out of the display!"

You pinched the bridge of your nose with a long, tired sigh. The only one who hadn't been panicking this whole time had been Zane, but he got a free pass since he was a Nindroid. Now, if only your three stooges could get a grip, then you'd be able to focus and think your way out of this.

The faint blare of police sirens snapped you out of your stupor. You glared down at the four half-pints, motioned for them to follow. "Okay, first thing's first: avoid the police. Second, Zane, do you know anything about the grundle?"

He dutifully nodded as you all scampered into a lone alleyway. "The grundle is an ancient creature of the wild that once roamed free hundreds of years ago. Its specialty is in hunting ninja. Weaknesses are unknown unless one relies on brute strength."

Brute strength? That wasn't exactly something any of you had. Even if the four boys were at full strength, they weren't nearly as strong as a full-grown-ninja-hunting-dino.

You picked up your pace into a jog. "Okay, so no known weaknesses? Great, where's Nya's mech when you need it?" Kai scoffed. "You think her mech can deal with the grundle? I don't think so."

Jay stuck out his tongue and you began to wonder if this de-ageing magic made your four friends more immature. "What's wrong with Nya's inventions, huh? I bet she'd be able to fix up something quick. And it's not like you have any better ideas, Kai."

Another scoff rang out from the group, this time from Cole. He mercilessly glared down the two boys with a shake of his head. "Well, instead of being whiny, you could think of an actual solution, Jay."

"Shut up, Cole. Not like you're smart enough to think of a plan!"

"Oh, you're telling me to shut up? I'm just trying to keep our heads in the game!"

"You both are being stupid," Kai cut in, "we don't stand a chance against the grundle as kids!"

You exchanged a long look Zane. He seemed to always be the only sane one around. "Any chance of finding a payphone around here? I don't think we'll get anywhere unless we meet up with Lloyd. He can get your weapons from the Bounty."

Zane's gaze focused on an invisible horizon you could not see. "Take a left and there will be a payphone beside the bus stop." You smiled gratefully at him. What an angel. "Thanks Zane. Alright, kiddos, follow me!"

A long trail of 'who are you calling a kid?!' and 'we're the same age!' rang out from the three troublemakers. Once again, you exchanged a look with Zane. He smiled sweetly as he always did and it was just enough to keep you from losing your mind.

At least you learned something new about yourself. If you were a daycare worker, you'd probably end up in jail for strangling a room full of kids on your first hour.

#unedited #ninjago masters of spinjitzu #ninjago x reader #lego ninjago #ninjago #ninjago kai #ninjago jay #ninjago cole #reader insert #lego #ninjago zane #kinda short #sorry #greenland's asks

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flockofcrowsinatornadoofcreation · 1 year

Text

Birdcage, Chapter 14

Ghost Town

It's been a week since the Ninja found Morro, and Lloyd has noticed something strange.

It doesn't make sense with what he knows about the former ghost. When he was their enemy, he was manipulative, aggressive, and jealous, with an ego to rival Kai's.

But now... Lloyd can't help but wonder if someone switched Morros on them. This Morro is painfully self-deprecating, obviously touch-starved, and reserved.

When he rescued Morro from Kryptarium, Lloyd realized that it's nearly impossible to hate this new Morro. He's just so... human.

Lloyd hoped they could be friends, and he thought Morro felt the same. But when Morro snapped at him after the fight with Kai...

It hurt. It was like the old Morro came back to yell at him more.

Then Morro fell off the roof, and when Lloyd asked him what happened, he had looked at Lloyd with a dull fear in his eyes before passing out from the concussion.

Which was weird, because Lloyd hadn't given Morro a reason to be afraid of him.

Asking the other Ninja did little to quell his suspicions. Apparently, Morro was acting the same as before around the other Ninja; cocky, aggressive, and sarcastic. Wu said Morro's been avoiding him. Pixal said that Morro is rude, then proceeded to give examples. Echo only just met Morro and doesn't count.

When Lloyd mentioned how Morro has been acting around him, everyone looked at him strangely.

Which means that Morro is only acting like that in front of Lloyd.

"Lloyd!"

He jumps, dropping his fork into his plate with a clatter. Looking up, Lloyd sees everyone at the dinner table staring at him with varying levels of exasperation.

"What?"

"We've been trying to get your attention for three minutes," Jay says with an eye roll.

"Yeah, you've been acting weird all day," Cole adds.

"I have?"

"Uh, yeah."

"Yes."

"Definitely.

"Affirmative."

Kai stays mercifully quiet.

Lloyd rolls his eyes and goes back to his food. He has a few bites before noticing the dead silence at the table. Everyone is still staring at him. He sighs and puts his fork down.

"Okay, I'll bite. What am I doing wrong."

"You've been staring off into space, you've been way quiet, and you haven't been responding to our questions," Cole rattles off.

"Not to mention you're avoiding Morro again," Zane adds. "I thought you were getting along with him."

Lloyd flinches. Way to cut right to the matter of things, he thinks dryly. He glances at Kai, who hasn't said a word the entire time. Which is odd behavior for him. Unfortunately, Kai suddenly finds the dents in the worn table before him quite interesting.

Thanks for supporting me, Kai.

As if a switch has been flipped, Kai stands.

"Let's go to the mall tomorrow," Kai says casually, as if he hadn't noticed the conversation about Lloyd's wellbeing.

Nya blinks at him.

"Why?"

Kai rubs the back of his neck.

"Well... I noticed that Echo and Morro keep having to borrow our clothing, and they don't really have any belongings to call their own, so... yeah?"

Kai seems to shrink under the stares from his family. He mumbles something unintelligible before straightening.

"Look, are we going or not?"

Lloyd hums, resting his chin in his hand.

"It's a good idea," he admits. "To be honest, I feel bad about not noticing before. But I have to ask, Kai. Why are you doing this for them?"

Kai frowns.

"I don't want them stealing my clothes."

Upon meeting his family's disbelieving expressions, Kai tosses his hands into the air, blushing.

"Fine! I feel bad about my argument with Morro and want to make up for it. Happy?"

That earns him a couple laughs, but in the end, everyone agrees to the mall trip. After dinner, Lloyd pulls Kai aside.

"What is it, Green Bean?"

"Thank you, doing this for Morro," Lloyd says with a smile. Kai waves him off.

"Don't worry about it. I'm still keeping an eye on him, so don't you think I've gone soft!"

Lloyd laughs.

"Dude, you've always been soft."

Then he turns and runs, knowing full well that Kai is hot on his heels.

▪︎<◇>▪︎

Ninjago City Mall is loud.

Babies wailing, shoppers chattering, machines beeping and clunking; it's overwhelmingly noisy.

Morro winces under the onslaught of sound, feeling a migraine forming. He keeps the hood to Cole's borrowed sweater pulled up and tries to muffle the sounds.

Echo, to Morro's chagrin, bounces between the stores in a blur of excitement.

"Friend Morro! Come look at this one!" Echo exclaims, holding up a brightly colored shirt with stripes. Morro grunts before turning to look for anything that catches his eye in a more... comfortable way.

Where's the black? Literally any dark color will do at this point!

"See anything, bud?"

Morro jumps before turning to glare at Lloyd, who must have snuck up on him with his limited peripheral vision. The one downside to hoods.

Lloyd looks nervous, but doesn't flinch under Morro's glare. Guilt flares in Morro's chest, and he looks away, remembering the way he snapped.

"Not yet," he replies softly. "Everything is too bright for my taste."

Lloyd narrows his eyes thoughtfully, humming. Then he turns away, beckoning to Morro.

"Come on. I think I know what you'd like."

And that's how Morro finds himself walking through a store entirely filled with black and gray clothing. He blinks, then grins.

Now that's more like it!

"Here ya go!" Lloyd chirps. "Shadow Apparel! The best emo store in Ninjago City. Pick out what you want and I'll pay for it."

"Really?"

Lloyd laughs.

"Yeah, Whirlwind. Go crazy." He pauses, then amends his statement. "But not too crazy."

Morro looks at him in surprise.

"You called me Whirlwind."

Lloyd blinks, then hurries to explain.

"Y-yeah, I just... it felt like a good nickname at the time. I won't call you that again if you don't-"

"No, it's fine!" Morro interrupts. "I've just never had a nickname before."

"Oh." Lloyd sounds sad for some reason, but Morro's already turning towards a rack of leather jackets.

About five minutes later, Lloyd speaks up.

"You know, you look different without your eye markings."

Morro freezes, almost dropping the shirt in his hands.

"What?"

"Your eye markings. You don't have them anymore," Lloyd says like he didn't just overturn Morro's world. "Did they come as part of being a ghost?"

"No, I-" Morro pauses. He hadn't even realized that his markings were gone. It makes sense, he supposes, I haven't been doing my morning ritual of applying the eye shadow.

"It doesn't matter," he says, feeling like he's lost an important part of him. If Lloyd notices, he doesn't comment. Morro notices him sneaking something into the bag as they check out, though.

As they leave the store, Morro feels the back of his neck prickle. He sees a shadow move in the corner of his vision.

He whips around-

To see nothing. Just shoppers, milling about.

"Morro?"

Morro looks back at Lloyd, who raises an eyebrow. His face burns as he realizes that he pushed Lloyd behind him protectively.

"What's wrong?" Lloyd asks, mercifully skipping over the fact that Morro was protecting him.

"I don't know," Morro responds truthfully. "It... it's probably nothing. Just had a feeling."

They make their way to the front of the mall, where the rest of the Ninja are waiting. As soon as Kai sees them, he stomps over.

"You guys just disappeared! You could have told us where you were, but nooo, you just run off!"

Morro looks around, leaving Kai to strangle Lloyd. Something catches his attention; a burly man looking at him and reaching for a device on his belt.

He curses. He's been dead for a while, but he knows enough to recognize a security guard when he sees one.

"Guys, we need to get out of here. I've been seen."

Cole glances at the guard, who's now speaking into the device.

"You didn't steal anything, did you?"

Lloyd forces a laugh.

"Well.... I may have... brokenhimoutofprison," Lloyd blurts out all in one breath. The Ninja look absolutely gobsmacked, which would be funny if the guard wasn't approaching them.

"Wha- When?" Zane cries.

"When you were getting Echo, time to run!"

Morro takes that as his cue to make a disappearing act, but a heavy hand clamps down on his shoulder.

"Excuse me, sir. I'm afraid you're gonna have to come with me."

Morro closes his eyes, silently counting to ten. Opening his eyes, he sees Echo looking at him with horror and confusion. The Ninja haven't moved, but Morro can see how tense they are.

They're gonna run.

He turns to the guard with a sigh. A few more guards have appeared behind the first, raising the enemy numbers to five.

"What do you want?"

"Are you Morro?"

Morro makes a big mistake.

He hesitates.

"Who?"

The first guard reaches for something on his belt. Morro tenses, but suddenly Kai launches himself into Spinjitsu and throws himself at the guards. Cole grabs Morro and pushes him and Echo into the middle of a protective circle the other Ninja make.

Morro looks around in confusion. Nya sneers at the guards. Zane looks at them coldly, eyes flashing. He can't see Cole's face from behind him, but his shoulders are squared. Jay's got his nunchaku in his hands. Kai is absolutely thrashing the guards, having yet to come out of his Spinjitsu.

But Lloyd's face is what he focuses on. His eyes are glowing neon, pupils slit, and his too-sharp teeth are bared in a snarl. It's such a stark contrast with the kind expression he usually wears.

It reminds Morro that Lloyd isn't completely human.

His attention is drawn back to the situation at hand when Kai skids to a halt at the front of the protective huddle, glaring at the guards.

"Like hell he's going with you," Kai spits. The guards get back to their feet, reaching for their weapons. The Ninja shuffle closer together, effectively hiding Morro from view.

They're about to fight, Morro realizes. For him.

He opens his mouth to speak, to tell them to stop, to save themselves, to leave him-

But Echo beats him to the punch.

"Wait!" The bronze nindroid pushes to the front of the circle. "Wait. I have a solution."

"Echo, get back!" Zane whispers urgently.

Echo ignores his brother, looking steadily at the guards.

"I have a solution," he repeats. "Are you willing to hear it?"

Morro stares at him, expecting the guards to attack. To his complete and utter surprise, the guards lower their weapons.

"Alright, kid," the first guard says, gesturing to Echo to continue. "What's your solution?"

"What are the crimes you think Morro has committed?" Echo's voice rings out, clear and to the point.

"Kid, everyone knows what he's done," the guard splutters.

"Humor me," Echo replies calmly. The guard sighs.

"Several accounts of arson, property damage, trespassing, attempted murder, and at least one account of kidnapping."

Morro can't help but glance at Lloyd, who subtly shakes his head.

"Thank you for telling me the alleged crimes."

"Alleged? Kid, he actually did the crimes! There's proof!"

"But was he doing so of his own free will?" Echo counters. Morro freezes, feeling the blood drain from his face. He knows exactly what Echo is talking about.

"As a ghost in the Cursed Realm," Echo continues, "You are under the control of the Preeminent. You no longer have the power to make your own choices. Any action you make is only to further the Preeminent's goals, never your own."

"Kid, what are you talking about?"

"When did Morro commit the crimes?" Echo asks softly. When the guard pauses, he smiles.

"He committed the crimes during his time as a ghost of the Cursed Realm. Therefore, his actions are under the responsibility of the Preeminent, not his own choice. He is not to blame."

The guard gapes at him, then sighs, pulling out a device. The Ninja tense, but he waves them off.

"Relax, I'm just calling the commissioner."

He speaks into the device for a moment, nodding occasionally. Then he clips the device onto his belt and drags a hand down his face.

"Alright. You'll have to stand trial, but we won't take you in... yet."

The Ninja break into a cacophony of voices. Morro can't make out the different words, but he gets the idea; they're cheering.

The guards walk away, leading the Ninja out of the mall. As they walk through the huge glass doors, Morro feels a prickle on the back of his neck. He turns, but again sees nothing but civilians.

Echo appears at his side, effectively distracting him.

"Morro? You okay?"

Morro grabs him by the shoulders, shaking him slightly.

"Why did you do that, huh? You didn't need to do that. You could have gotten hurt!"

Echo smiles softly, and something in Morro's stomach does a flip. He drops Echo like he's been electrocuted, marveling at this strange feeling. It's not entirely uncomfortable, but not entirely welcome.

What the-

Why did-

How-

It's just a smile! Why am I reacting this way?

"You are my friend," Echo cuts over Morro's panicked thoughts. "I do not want to see you harmed."

Morro isn't sure how to respond to that, so he does his best.

"Oh... well... thanks? I mean, we still have to stand trial, whatever that means, but.. thanks."

Echo just smiles again and turns away, going back to Zane's side. Morro's stomach flips again, and his hands tingle where he grabbed Echo.

What is going on?

#ninjago #flockofcrows #g&gficverse #morro #ninjago birdcage fic #g&g birdcage fic

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tourettic-brookstone · 3 years

Text

Jay's tics usually relate to what he's doing

For example, one night at like, 2 in the morning, he and Cole were in the kitchen sneaking some ice cream

And Jay's tics went "lick it" and shoved the ice cream scoope into Cole's face hitting him smack dab on the nose

Ice cream got all over his face

Cole's tics retaliated by slapping the whole tub of ice cream out of Jay's hands

Jay practically cried

They woke up everyone in the Monastary

They got grounded

#ninjago #ninjago au #jay with tourettes #cole with tourettes #ninja with tourettes #tics #tourettes #wu put a padlock on the freezer #he meant to do that a long time ago #*cough cough when zane just chilled out in the fridge offering people cheese cough cough*#kai got mad cause he also snuck food during the night #coles nose bruised and jay tried to make it better by putting an ice pack on it #and by ice pack i mean zanes hand #which jays tics used to slap cole in the face again #cole avoided him and zane for three days

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impulsivefanwriter · 3 years

Text

The Great B-A-T-H Incident

Back at it again with more SPBNR AU sharkpup nonsense! This is the Monty + Sharkpack AU where S!Lloyd (Monty) ends up in the M!verse with five shark pups that happen to be the S!ninja. After a bit of taking care on their own, the M!Ninja find the squad and help take care of them. This leads to... shenanigans, to put it lightly.

Smith = S!Kai, Phoenix = S!Nya, Brook = S!Cole, Boreas = S!Zane, and Robin = S!Jay

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Zane had made a mistake.

Honestly, he’d thought he’d been pretty smart. Monty was staying at his place today- an arrangement where the Ninjaforce made sure the kid was never left somewhere unsafe- and had been playing with Echo and the five sharkpups. Echo was cuddling the silvery white pup (Boreas)- the one Zane could have sworn looked almost mechanical- while Monty played with the turquoise pup (Phoenix) and the red pup (Smith). If Zane didn’t know any better, he would have said that the blue pup (Robin) was staring at Monty, Phoenix, and Smith with jealousy, though Zane couldn’t tell who the pup was truly jealous of. The brownish-black pup (Brook) rested on the carpet next to him.

It was around this time that Zane had noticed the state of the pups. As in, they were covered in dirt and dust and mud, especially Brook. So, being a good brother and a responsible (though still wild) teen, Zane decided to get Monty and Echo’s help with the matter.

“Hey Echo,” Zane had said. He wouldn’t learn his mistake for another minute. “Do you want to help me give those five a b-a-t-h?”

He’d read on the internet that spelling the word had better results when getting pets to avoid getting spooked by things they disliked. Then again, these were shark pups, and surely they would be fine with a little bit of water-

Five pups turned to look at him. Three immediately bolted.

Zane didn’t even have a chance to blink. One moment, there were five pups in the living room. The next, the only ones left were Boreas in Echo’s arms and Phoenix by Monty. Boreas squirmed a little, though ultimately gave up as if resigned to his fate.

Echo squealed. “Can we? Ooo, can we?”

Monty was grinning, and that looked a little too mischievous for Zane’s liking. “Yeah, why don’t we give them a b-a-t-h? Wanna help us catch the three loose pups, Phoenix?”

Zane really needed to check his optic sensors eyes, because Phoenix really looked like she was grinning in a ‘it would be my pleasure’ sort of way. He supposed it didn’t matter; they’d need all the help they could get wrangling the three escaped pups.

“Echo, could you draw a bath?” Zane asked. “We’ll start trying to catch them.”

Echo shot him a pleading look. “Can I help? I know every hiding spot in the house for hide n’ seek!”

Zane ruffled his brother’s hair. “Bath first so we have somewhere to put them. It’s really important.”

At this, Echo lit up. “Got it!”

He stood and carried Boreas to the bathroom. Good; Zane hadn’t been lying when he’d said they needed a drawn bath ready. He got the feeling that the three pups would not make it easy to catch them, and would be even harder to keep put.

“N- Phoenix is good with water,” Monty said, letting the turquoise pup down and standing himself. “She’ll help us look!”

With six eyes on deck, with Echo (and perhaps Boreas) helping search, it shouldn’t be hard. Zane almost laughed to himself at how easily he had added the pups to the list; then again, with how intelligent they seemed, it was only natural.

Still, it was a small house. How difficult could finding three brightly coloured shark pups be?

The answer, he discovered 20 minutes later with not a single sign of a tail anywhere, was very difficult. Especially when those three shark pups did not want to be found.

Monty was very good at hide n’ seek, but there was only so much he could do with an unfamiliar location. Zane too was having troubles because no matter where he looked (the cupboard, behind every day, his father’s workshop), he couldn’t find a single thing.

Luckily, Echo came to the rescue.

He emerged from the washroom, smelling of three different kinds of shampoo, with bubbles on his arms and his shirt sopping wet. Despite the mess, a bright grin stretched across his face. Boreas (with a freshly cleaned coat sparkling as if it were polished metal or shining snow) padded along at his feet. Echo listened to Zane and Monty list the places the’d already searched, put one hand on his chin, then walked back to the living room they’d started in. Curious, Zane followed.

Echo lifted up the couch- Zane would have to remind him both not to do that then Monty was over (not that the kid seemed to mind or notice, thankfully) and some better lifting techniques- and sure enough, three streaks scattered in every direction. Phoenix leapt in the path of the biggest pup, Brook, as he tried to run for the door. The blue pup Robin and the red pup Smith both managed to dodge Zane and Monty’s attempts to grab them- goodness, they were faster than lightning- and blazed out of the room.

Phoenix barked a few times. The fin on Brook’s head flopped over in the same way a dog’s ears would lower. Zane was struck with the strangest sensation that Phoenix was making a deal of some kind. The pups did seem to communicate with each other like some kind of family-bound team. Smith and Brook took the leader positions, Boreas and Phoenix seemed to keep them in check, and Robin helped them remember to let loose and have fun.

But that was ridiculous. They were shark pups.

Still, whatever Phoenix did seemed to work, because Brook wasn’t running anymore. It was as if he’d agreed to help in exchange for something. Bribery? A ‘get out of bath free’ pass? Whatever it was, at least they had one less pup to look for and one more pup helping to look.

Because by the FSM, the two remaining pups did not want to be found.

Zane, Monty, and Echo searched everywhere. Echo’s calls were heard every few minutes as he found the pups but could never quite catch them before they vanished again; hidden in the kitchen cabinet behind the box of oatmeal, hidden in the trunk of Dr. Julien’s car, hidden in Monty’s spare hoodie lying on the bedroll he would use for the sleepover. Zane’s eye twitched. Damn, these two pups were smart. They always seemed to know how to sneak back into the rooms previously checked, causing Zane to have to backtrack more than once at the flash of blue and red darting around the corner.

Jay and Cole swung not too much later (Kai was supposed to as well, but he was confined to bed after the, er, ‘incident’ when Nya found him chugging a pot of coffee that had been infused with 5 hour energy at 3:00am) and joined the hunt. Despite the odds being severely in their favour at this point, with five humans and three shark pups searching, those two blasted pups just were nowhere in sight. The shared utter despision the two had for baths was unfathomable and unrivalled. There was no way to catch them; the second someone had one cornered, the other would kick up enough of a fuss for them to escape.

Heck, Zane had even found the two hidden in Jay’s scarf while he was still wearing it. What, were the two shark pups ninjas or something?

There finally came a point where the sightings stopped altogether and the two vanished. Jay got worried that the two had escaped to outside, and Zane couldn’t help but think what if? along with him. A quick check of all the windows and doors- yep, still closed, though one window might have been pushed on (luckily one you needed opposable thumbs to open)- disproved that theory, but the worry that the pups had gotten lost in the city under his watch persisted. He was supposed to protect those who could not protect themselves!

Though, judging by the skills of these pups, they certainly could protect themselves.

For FSM sake, it was just a bath! And with how much the two had crawled behind every dusty cubby space and under every piece of furniture and into every grease-stained spot in the workshop, they needed it!

Cole leaned against the wall, clicking on the ceiling fan switch with his back. His headphones hung around his neck. “So how did this whole mess start?”

“I asked Echo if he wanted to help me give the pups and I quote, a b-a-t-h.”

Cole nodded. “Makes sense. Have you seen how smart they are? Wouldn’t be that surprised if they could read.”

Monty sat down on the couch, swinging his legs. “Did ya fall for the conspiracies too?”

Cole snorted. “Course not. Not like Red has. I swear, he’s usually not like this.”

“He’s like Charlie from It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia!” Zane said cheerfully.

“Yeah,” Cole said. “He fell off the deep end because of these pups, right, Jay? …Jay?”

Zane looked over to see Jay’s face had gone pale- well, paler than usually- his gaze fixated on something above them. Zane followed the line of sight up, up, to the ceiling and the-

There was a blur of purple zinging around the spinning ceiling fan.

For a moment Zane (and the others in the room) could only stop and stare at the ceiling fan. Zane’s brain crashed, thoughts slamming to a halt, because the two pups had been hiding on the ceiling fan that was now currently on.

The thing was, Zane could perfectly reconstruct how the two shark pups had gotten up there. Boosting each other onto higher ledges, swinging each other by the tails to bridge gaps, climbing higher and higher until they reached the one spot no one would think to look because there shouldn’t be any plausible way for two shark pups to hide on the ceiling fan, and yet here they were.

And then Cole had accidentally turned it on.

The ground suddenly became a scramble of motion. Cole whirled around and slammed the switch so hard the plastic cracked. Everyone who wasn’t standing surged to their feet in a panic, spreading out in case one of the pups couldn’t hold on while the fan slowed to a stop-

And it seemed like one couldn’t.

Like flying out of a bench swing into a tree, the blue pup was yeeted off the fan and tumbled directly into Jay’s arms. The bullet actually knocked him off his feet, and a bolt of relief shot through Zane when he realized that neither Jay nor Robin had gotten hurt.

Above them, the now-only-red blur was starting to slow down. The fan finally stopped moving and a very dizzy Smith rolled off it, giving Zane barely enough time to lunge forward and catch him in a landing as soft as a snowdrift.

For a moment, no one breathed. Then Monty started to snicker and giggle, and then Echo joined in, and suddenly the whole room was laughing. Zane handed Smith over to Monty. He could see the pup’s eyes spinning; they’d lasted a surprisingly long time, as if used to spinning real fast (chasing tails, perhaps?), but nothing compared to the ceiling fan whipping them around.

Jay (who looked both like his soul had left his body for a moment and had an immense amount of static clinging to his scarf) handed off Robin to Echo. The group finally, finally, made their way to the bathroom with all five pups. Boreas had already gotten a bath, as had Phoenix during the amount of time it took to catch the others. Brook stood on the edge of the bathtub, shooting what Zane could only think looked like an apologetic look at Smith and Robin. The brownish-black pup had joined in the search, after all, probably thinking to get out of the bath himself.

Phoenix leapt up and body slammed Brook while the pup wasn’t paying attention. He teetered with a yelp and splashed into the water. Zane didn’t think it was possible, but Brook had such a wounded look of betrayal as fading sud bubbles stuck to his fur while Phoenix appeared to be laughing.

Some kind of weird static crackling hung in the air. Zane frowned, scratching at his ear in hopes of clearing the high-pitched wire whine, but it didn’t stop as Echo approached the bathtub. That was… strange.

Monty must have figured it out a second before it happened because the kid’s eyes widened. “Wait, don’t just suddenly drop-“

Echo opened his arms and Robin fell into the water that had at this point gone cold. For a moment the scent of ozone filled the room, and then an almighty POP rang out. The lights flickered once, like a shudder, before going out. The group was plunged into darkness with a high pitched noise Zane later registered as Jay shrieking.

Zane blinked, sensors eyes automatically adjusting to the sudden dark much faster than his friends. There was a muted splash, and Zane spotted a dazed shark pup stumbling around his feet. He carefully scooped them up, then scanned the room. Echo seemed the first to recover besides Zane, standing in front of the bathtub. Zane could almost hear the fans of his brother’s processor brain whirling to figure out what had just happened. Monty looked okay, waving one hand in front of him while the other held Smith under his arm, and over to the side stood Cole with Jay latched onto his side- quite literally, with feet off the floor- like a koala.

The backup generator kicked on and brought the brightness back. Brook heaved himself out of the bathtub and shook the water from his fur, pointing a tired glare at Robin laying stunned in Zane’s arms.

“Anyone know what just happened?” Cole asked.

Zane blinked. “Power surge. But I am unable to determine the cause of it."

Monty wrinkled his nose and opened his mouth as if to say something, then decided against it. “I think we need to make a fresh bath."

The kid was right; there was an incredible amount of dirt in the cold water, despite it being relatively clean before Brook was shoved in. Zane handed Robin to Echo (after he got the promise that his brother wouldn’t surprise the pup again) and set to work emptying the water and letting new, warm water into the tub.

It took the combined effort of all five people and three shark pups, but they finally got Robin and Smith to sit still for the bath. Zane had the sneaking suspicion it was Monty and Echo’s combined puppy-eyed look that did it. For whatever reason, Smith seemed almost completely dry after shaking his fur off once, as if the water had merely evaporated, but Zane shrugged it off. He was just happy they were finally done getting all five pups to be-

“BROOK, NO, DON’T JUMP INTO THAT MUD PUD-“

SPLASH

Well, getting all five pups to be clean for a few moments.

#spbnr #spbnr aus #same People but not really #shark pups #shark pup au #monty and sharkpup #monty and shark pup #monty and sharkpup au #monty and shark pup au #monty and shark pack au #monty and sharkpack au #monty and sharkpack #monty and shark pack #ninjago #lego ninjago #lego ninjago movie #the lego ninjago movie #Imp's Writing

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goldenavenger02 · 3 years

Text

Pillow Fights and Long Nights

5 Times Kai was in the hospital for Lloyd, 1 time Lloyd should have been in the hospital, and 1 time Lloyd was in the hospital for Kai.

Dedicated to @rosiehunterwolf

•••

'I should've been watching him.' Kai thought to himself as they all stood in the waiting room of Ninjago City hospital. Since there were multiple doctors in Ignacia, he and Nya had never needed to be here.

However, hearing Jay's horror stories about multiple failed inventions landing him in here for days at a time, or hearing about Cole's failed dancing resulting in at least two different injuries, not to mention the Triple Tiger Sashay incident, was definitely not calming his nerves.

He shouldn't have left Lloyd alone with the training equipment he didn't know how to use, when there had been multiple other people who could've been checking where they were while waiting on a Serpentine sighting.

When he had been forced out of the Bridge because of Jay screaming, saying that Lloyd was bleeding on the deck, Kai had only ever felt that sinking feeling in his stomach twice before.

When Nya was taken by Garmadon, and when Lloyd nearly sank into the lava inside of the Fire Temple.

Which led to where they were now. The hailed "protectors of Ninjago" leaning against chairs and the wall of the hospital, staring at the door that Sensei, Lord Garmadon and Lloyd had disappeared behind, and pretending that they were not there at all in order to keep their heart rates from getting out of control.

"-which is why I stopped trying to climb the piles of junk." Jay's voice rang back in his head, snapping him out of his thoughts and he could feel fire against his hand.

"Kai, calm down," Nya's voice perked up, gently setting her hand on his arm, and Kai allowed himself to take a deep breath, the fire extinguishing from his hand, "I know you're upset, but if you burn down the hospital, you're going to be in a lot of trouble. This is probably a place we don't need to get banned from."

"Yeah, I'm just worried. He's been in there for over an hour and we haven't heard anything," Kai explained, letting his eyes flutter closed with worry, "I shouldn't have left him alone."

"You didn't know he would get hurt," Cole explained, putting his hand on his other shoulder, "you can't put that on yourself."

"But I knew that he was still getting the hang of the training equipment, and I knew that you guys were standing by and waiting for the Serpentine sighting." Kai argued, but Zane just shook his head before speaking up.

"We've gotten hurt multiple times using that equipment, and it wasn't this bad. You were probably just expecting a bump or bruise at the most, even if it was more so an instinct than an actual thought."

"Yeah, no one blames you, dude." Jay added, putting his hand against Kai's back when finally, the door opened and Sensei came out.

"He's going to be alright," he assured before any of them could say a word, and Kai couldn't keep his sigh of relief in, "He has a concussion, and he has to stay overnight so he can be monitored, but he's going to be just fine."

"Can we see him?" Kai asked, and had to swallow when Sensei shook his head "no", because while he knew Garmadon wouldn't hurt Lloyd after they just got him back, he still felt uneasy with him being around Lloyd by himself.

"He's sleeping now, and his father is with him. We'll come back in a few hours, but we still have to stay vigilant and make sure that Pythor doesn't get the last Fangblade."

"Yes, Sensei." All six of them groaned and made their way back to the Bounty, and Kai had to force his feet to go and avoid disrespecting Sensei yet again, no matter how tempting it was.

"Well, the good news is that Cole's going to throw out expired spices now." Kai joked, sitting on the edge of Lloyd's hospital bed, phone in hand as he updated Nya on Lloyd's condition.

Due to a flu going around, only one person was allowed to visit at a time, and Sensei had decided that Kai should stay with him while he went to stock up on healing teas for this exact scenario in the future.

"Not funny, dude," Lloyd groaned, curling up on his side, "my stomach still feels like it's going to explode."

"I think it already did." Kai chuckled, immediately regretting it when he saw the look of pure misery on Lloyd's face, which had him shoving his phone in his pocket before looking right at him, "sorry, I'll stop. Can I get you another ginger ale?"

"I'm just going to throw it up," Lloyd sighed, rubbing a hand over his face before turning on the TV.

Unfortunately, they were immediately greeted by Gayle Gossip talking about how Garmadon had seemingly gone missing, which Kai reached over and turned off, seeing Lloyd put his head in his hands, "on second thought, I'd rather throw up."

Kai couldn't help but smile sympathetically at him, gently squeezing his hand. "You've got us, Lloyd," that's when an idea popped into his head, "let me text Zane, see if we can figure out a way to smuggle some of his chicken noodle soup in here."

"Don't let him use the expired spices," Lloyd groaned as Kai pulled out his phone again.

"It'd probably taste better than the food in here." Kai teased with a smile, receiving a glare from Lloyd; and in hindsight, the pillow he received to the face from Lloyd was most likely well deserved.

"Just a sprained wrist, Kai," the doctor smiled softly as they wrapped bandages around the cut that covered his left arm, "you're very lucky."

Kai nodded, although he wasn't focused on the pain in his wrist, and more so on the fact that they maybe had two minutes of peace before Lloyd had passed out against him due to the absolute exhaustion from the final battle.

And while he knew that he had his uncle and parents, he couldn't stop the worry from clawing at his heart as the moment replayed in his head.

•••

"There's no way of knowing what's around the corner, but as long as there's something worth fighting for, there's always a need for a ninja. And we'll be ready." Kai insisted to Sensei, watching as his team approached him.

He couldn't keep the grin off his face as they looked to the brightness, one hand on Sensei's back and the other on Lloyd's shoulder. 'Little Lloyd Garmadon saved the day.'

However, just when they looked away from the sun, and the others started to spread out, that's when Kai noticed just how pale Lloyd was, even with a smile on his face. "Lloyd? You okay?" He asked softly, nudging his shoulder.

"My leg hurts…" Lloyd mumbled, his words slurring slightly, but before Kai could alert the others, Lloyd was already unconscious and slumped against his chest.

"Sensei!" He called out, gently maneuvering Lloyd so he was on his back, watching as the others ran back towards him, "Sensei, a little help!"

•••

Kai made his way to the waiting room with instructions to avoid using his left wrist, and kept back the disappointment when he didn't see Lloyd, but he couldn't hold back his relief to see Nya and immediately engulfed her in a hug which she returned just as tightly. "I'm so glad you're okay."

"I'm glad you're okay," she smiled before pulling away, glancing down at his arm before looking back at him, "well, mostly."

Kai couldn't ignore the bandage against her cheek, and when he looked back at his other teammates, it seemed as though Zane and his father were the only ones unscathed.

Cole was absolutely littered in bruises nearly everywhere that there was bare skin, both of Nya's eyes had bruises around them along with scratches that covered both of her arms, and he could tell that Jay's ribs were at least bruised by the way he was breathing, not to mention the stitches that were peeking out from the neckline of his gi.

"How's Lloyd?" Kai asked softly, unable to stop holding onto his sister, watching as her face switched from a smile to a soft frown. 'That was never good.'

"He's absolutely drained, not to mention his ankle was nearly shattered. The doctors think that it was the adrenaline that kept him from feeling it. They're not letting anyone who isn't family see him until after they do surgery on it."

"They don't have the right to call us anything other than his family." Kai scowled, pushing past Nya as his chest burned, determined to find Lloyd even if he burned the whole hospital down around them.

Luckily for the staff, Lloyd's room was easy to find and Kai immediately walked in, resulting in the turn of Sensei, Misako and Garmadon's heads.

"Kai, calm down." Sensei insisted firmly, holding a hand out towards Kai but he couldn't stop him from going to Lloyd, which forced him to swallow.

His skin was the palest he had ever seen, even compared to when he had gotten food poisoning a few months back, his ankle was wrapped up, but Kai could still see the bruises stretch up his leg, and his under eyes were dark, like he hadn't slept in weeks.

"Kai, it might be best for you to wait with the others." Sensei suggested softly, putting his hands on his shoulders, but he shook him off and grabbed Lloyd's hand instead.

"I made a promise to protect the green ninja, to fight beside him; with all due respect, Sensei, I can't do that in a waiting room. And if any of you try to make the argument that I'm not family, I'm going to fight you tooth and nail," Kai stopped for a moment to look at Lloyd's sunken face before turning back to his three parental figures, "Lloyd's my brother, just as much as Nya is my sister. I'm not leaving him."

To Kai's surprise, Garmadon was actually the one who approached him and set his hand on his shoulder before he spoke, "no one is going to kick you out, Kai. And if they try, they'll have to go through me."

Kai nodded, and despite the fact he was no longer evil, he was still a little shocked that he was agreeing with Garmadon.

But at the same time, as he held Lloyd's hand in his, he had never been happier to have him on his side.

"I can't believe how awesome your powers are, Nya." Jay admired, resulting in a smile from Nya, which Kai watched from afar.

He knew that Nya viewed them as friends, but with the way Jay looked at her, he had a flicker of something telling him that they would get together again someday

"I can't believe that I'm still being put on the pediatric ward," Lloyd mumbled, throwing a crumpled up piece of paper at the trash can, "I'm one of Ninjago's protectors and I'm still being treated like a kid."

That brought Kai back to the present as all five of them had crammed themselves into Lloyd's hospital room after the events of what had happened in Stiix.

After all, nearly losing Lloyd to Morro was nerve wracking for all of them, and after the events of the battle against the preeminent, Lloyd had all but passed out on the way back to Ninjago City due to being sleep deprived and malnourished.

"In their defense, Lloyd, you are under the age of eighteen, which means unless there were special circumstances, you are required to be put with other minors." Zane supplied, which only received a sarcastic response from Lloyd.

"Thanks, Zane. Real helpful." And with that, he threw another piece of paper at the trash can.

Kai shot a glance towards Cole, silently telling him that he needed to talk to Lloyd alone and hoped that he got the newly turned ghost's attention, even though they were all still coming to terms with the change.

Luckily, Cole was still Cole, and got the message loud and clear before turning to the others; "Hey, let's go check out the cafeteria, see if we can find anything worth smuggling up here to Lloyd."

After Zane, Jay, Nya and Cole left, and Kai could no longer hear Jay's questions about if Cole even needed to eat anymore, he turned to Lloyd and sat next to him on the bed, taking in Lloyd's condition.

His under eyes were very dark, his skin was way too pale and Kai could see just how much muscle mass Lloyd had lost, and how he seemed like a shell of the lively kid who loved candy and pranking his brothers.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Kai asked softly, gently squeezing Lloyd's right shoulder since his hand had an IV in it that was currently pumping him full of fluids and electrolytes.

"My dad...is really gone," Lloyd stopped to wipe the tears that started running down with his left arm, even though more followed immediately after, "I-I don't know what to do anymore."

Kai didn't stop himself from pulling him into a hug, feeling the warm tears leak through his gi as Lloyd gripped onto him tighter. "I've got you, Lloyd," he felt the tears against his cheek while squeezing his brother tighter, "You've still got me."

Kai couldn't keep his foot from tapping on the ground as he waited for Lloyd and Misako to get to the waiting room.

After Cole had become human once again, and Morro had disappeared, the majority of the group got to work on emptying out the Airjitzu temple, except for Kai, Misako and Lloyd.

When he saw the fact that Lloyd had a massive cut running from his left cheek to his jawline, and heard that Misako was taking Lloyd to the hospital despite his protests that "he'd have the coolest battle scar", Kai had offered to drive them to the hospital.

The only thing he knew about their Day of the Departed was from the hushed whispers that they had shared on the drive, which had the key words like "Pythor" and "my father", so he knew it was just as bad as what he and Nya had gone through with Chen, if not way worse.

The hospital was nearly empty, so his foot was tapping on the floor and he had his phone open to social media, trying to keep himself from losing his mind.

"Mom, I'm fine." He heard Lloyd insist as two sets of footsteps approached him, and he put his phone in his pocket, smiling when he saw the two of them, the younger of the two sporting a giant bandage against the left side of his face, which Lloyd seemed to take offense to as he snapped, "don't even start making jokes, Kai."

"Hey, hey, relax, Green Machine, I'm smiling cause you're okay," Kai insisted, wrapping his arm around Lloyd's shoulder as they made their way to the car before whispering, "if you need to talk to someone besides your mom, I'm here for you, okay?"

"I don't need to talk, but…" Lloyd trailed off, glancing at his mom before returning eye contact with Kai, "it'd be nice if I wasn't alone tonight."

"We'll figure it out, kid," Kai smiled, shuddering as they were met with the freezing air, feeling Lloyd get closer to him, "I swear."

5.5

"How could Lloyd be so...so stupid?!" Kai shouted, his hands going to his hair in anger, "he should've waited for us to come up with a plan!"

"You know that you did this once too, right Kai?" Cole piped up, and Kai couldn't respond with anything but a glare, because he was right.

Kai himself had fought Garmadon without a plan and even locked his team out of the room, but he thought that the golden weapons were being stolen, as for Lloyd…

Well, now that he thought about it, Lloyd had good reasoning as well; he wanted to bring his father, all of his father, back, and with how many nights he had fallen asleep in his arms, eyes full of grief, Kai couldn't even blame him.

He let out a frustrated sigh, the worry striking his heart like a loaded cannon that had just gotten new ammunition. 'I can't lose Lloyd, not now. Not after everything.'

Kai felt a cool, soft hand against his shoulder, and he didn't stop himself from clinging onto Zane while starting to chew on his lip, feeling his teeth start to make small indents against his skin.

"That's him!" PIXAL's voice rang in Kai's head as the Bounty slowed to a stop, Jay, Cole and Nya immediately rushing out, but Zane continued to hold onto Kai.

"Let me go!," Kai shouted, his vision going red as anger burned in his chest as he started to fight against Zane's hold, "I need to see Lloyd!"

"It would be unwise for you to see Lloyd until he's back on the Bounty, as we are trying to get out of here as soon as possible," Zane explained, the tight hold still feeling gentle against his shoulder, "they'll bring him aboard soon."

"Nya, how is he?" PIXAL asked over the comms, bringing Kai's attention to them as he focused in on his little sister's voice.

"We need the gurney, he's… He's in really bad shape," she explained, a sniffle cutting her off before she continued, "Kai, Zane, be ready to take him to control; it's still set up from where we fixed Zane."

"We're on it." Kai insisted, his heart beating so loud that he could hear it as he and Zane sprinted outside as the gurney was lifted on deck while the others climbed the ropes; Kai couldn't keep his gasp in when Lloyd's face hit the light.

His nose was definitely broken, both of his eyes were black, and the rest of his face was covered in scratches and bruises; he didn't even want to know what was under Lloyd's gi.

As he and Zane lifted Lloyd, the hot skin against their hands, he let out a groan that made Kai wince. 'Lloyd is the level headed one, he doesn't do this. He doesn't run off into danger.'

But as the two of them laid Lloyd down, Kai swallowed harshly, because Lloyd had in fact run into danger before...for his family.

As the others ran into the room, minus Nya who was calling Misako, and started to patch up Lloyd's injuries as best as they could, Kai couldn't help from speaking up. "He needs to be in the hospital. He's way too hot, and way too injured."

"Where would we even go? Harumi and the Sons of Garmadon are patrolling the city like crazy, we'll be lucky to even make it in, let alone get him inside of the hospital." Cole explained, gently wiping the sand off of Lloyd's face.

Kai relented; he knew Cole was right, there was no way to get him professional medical treatment, and he just had to hope that Misako had some idea of where to take him, cause he also knew that there was no way that Lloyd was going to live if they only used their limited medical knowledge and supplies.

Lloyd's wheeze was what brought Kai out of his thoughts and he instantly wrapped both of his hands around his left one before whispering in Lloyd's ear.

"It's going to be okay, we're going to save you. Just focusing on staying alive."

He had pushed himself too far.

As Kai sat in his room in the burn unit, looking at his fully bandaged arms and wrists, he knew that. He also knew that he was extremely grateful for the pain medication that kept him from feeling both the burns and the frost bite.

"So this is what the normal ward looks like." Lloyd remarked as he got up from the chair and sat on the end of Kai's bed with a smile.

"Yeah, not as many fun decorations, squirt," Kai joked before going serious, "I don't wanna see you in here unless you're visiting someone else, you got that?"

"Unfortunately for me, being the "prophesied green ninja" doesn't give me that luxury," Lloyd lamented before glaring at Kai, "and don't call me squirt, I'm finally gaining up on you."

"You could be six four and I'd still call you squirt, it's my job as an older brother, ask Nya. As for staying out of the hospital, you're supposed to humor me, chosen one," Kai snorted, receiving a pillow to the face, "hey, I can't retaliate!"

"I'd prefer being a kid over being the chosen one and you know it." Lloyd explained, glaring daggers at Kai, to which he raised his hands in surrender before asking.

"Alright, I'll stop. Where are the others? They usually don't let you walk around unsupervised."

"PIXAL and Zane are on a date, Nya insisted that they hang out together after we got back from the Never Realm; Jay and Nya are working on some upgrades to the Bounty, and Cole and my uncle went shopping, something about chicken feed," Lloyd explained before smiling at Kai, "besides, I'm not unsupervised, I'm hanging out with you."

Kai couldn't keep the smile from spreading across his face as he managed to sit up and ruffle up Lloyd's hair, even though it was immediately followed by a rush of searing hot pain from the movement.

"Alright, hot head," Lloyd laughed, gently pushing Kai back against the pillows, "leave my hair alone and get some rest; for once, let me take care of you."

"Pretty sure that's illegal." Kai retorted, immediately being smacked with another pillow, although not as hard as the first one, "can you stop doing that?"

'You better think of a creative threat against him.' He thought to himself.

"What're you going to do about it?" Lloyd challenged, picking up a third pillow, which led Kai to smirk before putting on his best pouting face.

"I'm going to tell Nya that you were being really mean to me when I'm injured and weak, and have her deal with you accordingly."

Whatever punishment Lloyd had thought of Nya giving him was enough for him to drop the pillow immediately with a look of terror on his face, and Kai couldn't even blame him; Nya was never a force to be reckoned with, whether you were an enemy or family.

The room went silent for a few minutes after that, until Lloyd sniffled, which made Kai's ears perk up as he sat up again, wrapping his upper arm around Lloyd's shoulder so his wrist and hand wasn't touching anything, "hey, hey, what's wrong? If it's about throwing pillows, I-"

"No, not that…," Lloyd's voice shook before he turned slightly and hugged Kai around the stomach tightly, nearly knocking the wind out of him, "I can't lose anyone else. Not anymore. I almost lost you and Zane, and I… Not again."

Kai pulled Lloyd towards him closer so he could cry against his shoulder, despite the fact that it sent the same searing pain through his body again, "I've got you, Lloyd. You're going to have a really tough time getting rid of me, you know that."

After a few moments, Lloyd emerged from his shoulder, now glaring at him again, and Kai knew exactly why this time; might not be best to joke about loss to the kid who had been abandoned by his mom and lost his dad twice now.

"Yeah, throw the pillow at my head, I deserve that this time."

Kai didn't expect the hit to be so hard that his head almost spun all the way around, but seeing the smirk on Lloyd's face made all the neck and jaw pain worth it.

69 notes · View notes

rosiehunterwolf · 3 years

Text

There's Sand Everywhere!

(quick shoutout to @fires-of-ninjago for the title idea and inspiration for this- you remember that ask game where people suggested titles for fics and you had to come up with a story to go along with it? Well, he sent in this title, and I came up with this, and liked it so much that I screenshotted it and- here we are!)

Prompts: Summer and Heist

Word Count: 7,922

Characters: The whole gang (including Pixal) :)

Timeline: Between seasons 12 and 13

Trigger Warnings: none (holy shit that's never happened before-)

Summary: It was just supposed to be a day off. A simple beach day. But when your family consists of six ninja and a samurai, including a nindroid convinced he’s a detective, his reluctant sidekick, an aquaphobe, a girl who can command the sea, an unassuming teen who seems to attract every animal he crosses paths with, and a bunch of argumentative idiots, nothing is ever that easy.

Read on FFN.net

Read on Ao3

Tumblr work under the cut

“We,” Kai proclaimed, surveying the room, “Need a day off.”

Lloyd shrieked at the fire ninja’s sudden outburst, falling out of his chair. Jay broke into snickers, and Lloyd shot him a glare.

“Kai,” Zane sighed, “get off the table.”

Kai stuck his tongue out at the nindroid, but hopped down, anyway. “Look at you guys!” Kai waved his hands at the group for emphasis. Papers fluttered to the ground where Lloyd had knocked them in his fall, Jay and Nya were sitting on the ground, surrounded by stacks of books tall enough to be mistaken for some kind of fort, Pixal was gathering some of the papers that had gone everywhere, while Cole and Zane had only just paused in their task of boxing up and carrying crates to the far side of the room. “Filing documents and organizing? Boooring.”

“Tasks which you’ve been a big help with, by the way,” Lloyd grumbled, as Cole offered him a hand and pulled him to his feet. He turned back to the desk, shuffling papers off of the keyboard of his laptop, the screen filled with lines of script and dozens of files that made Kai's brain hurt just to look at.

Nya pushed her reading glasses up her nose. “Jay and I technically aren’t working. We chose to do this of our own free will.”

Kai rolled his eyes at her. “What kind of psychopaths read for fun?”

Jay kicked his leg out, aiming for Kai’s ankle, but Cole quickly stepped between them, stopping the conflict before it could escalate into anything worse.

“We’re not reading them, we’re sorting them in order from most potentially useful to least so. They’re mechanics and engineering books. You never know when they might come in handy in a pinch.”

“Oh, because that’s so much more interesting. If you guys wanna spend all your free time geeking out, fine, what do I care. But what about the rest of you? C’mon, Lloydster. You don’t really wanna spend your entire day doing this,” he gestured at the laptop and paper-strewn desk- “do you?”

“It’s not about whether or not I want to. This stuff is important, Kai.”

“Lloyd’s right,” Zane agreed. “With all the crazy missions we’ve been on lately, we’ve neglected all our paperwork, and taking care of the Monastery.”

“It’s because we’ve been gone so long that we need a break!” Kai argued. “We just got done saving the entire city from an evil video game AI! If that’s not worth celebrating, I don’t know what is.”

“Technically,” Nya remarked, not even glancing up from the book she was skimming, “That was Jay who did that.”

Kai spluttered, ignoring the smug look on Jay’s face. “Okay, yeah, but we helped! And what about Aspheera? Or the Never Realm? That was all of us. And we didn’t have time to properly recuperate from that before we got launched right into Prime Empire!”

Pixal’s brow furrowed. “Y’know, he has a point…”

A frown flitted across Zane’s face. “I suppose we have been working for a long time…”

“That’s what I’ve been saying! Come on, let’s do something fun.”

“Not video games,” Cole groaned. “Jay and I spent the last three days playing a Lava Zombies tournament, and I’m all gamed-out.”

“No, let’s actually go somewhere. Like the-”

“The library!” Jay pitched.

“Or the museum!” Zane suggested.

“No!” Kai snapped. “Man, you guys are so lame. I meant somewhere fun. We should go to-”

“The beach!” Nya cried suddenly, standing up so quickly that she sent a pile of books toppling over. “Brilliant idea, Kai!”

“Wait, no,” he yelped. “That’s not what I was going to-”

But no one heard him. They were already scrambling to their feet, murmuring excitedly to one another.

“Guys, wait!” he cried. “Why would you want to go to the beach? It’s all sandy, and wet, and-”

“Don’t worry, Kai,” Nya giggled, “we won’t let the ocean hurt you.”

“That’s not-” he felt himself turning red as the others laughed. “That’s not what I meant! I just thought… wouldn’t laser tag or something be a lot more fun?”

The others glanced at each other, uncertain. Zane stepped forward. “Let’s take a vote. All in favor of laser tag, raise your hands.”

Kai lifted his hand, but no one else did. He scowled at them.

“And all in favor of the beach?”

Six hands went up.

“Seems like we have a clear winner. Let’s get going, shall we?”

---

“Do you have the towels?”

“All here!”

“What about the sunscreen?”

“Hold on- Jay, did you grab the sunscreen?”

“What?”

Lloyd cupped his hands around his mouth, yelling louder. “Did you grab the sunscreen?”

“Oh yeah, it’s here! Wait, do you have my-”

“Your what?” Lloyd called, walking over to him, passing Pixal and Zane as they came out of the kitchen. The female nindroid sighed.

“Can’t anything get done around here without everyone making such a racket?”

“Nope,” Nya elbowed her playfully. “When you’ve been with these idiots as long as I have, you get used to it.”

Pixal’s eyes widened. “I can’t imagine ever being used to all this.”

Nya smiled. “Did I mention I’m slightly deaf?”

“We finished making the picnic,” Zane told her, holding out the basket he was carrying. “Is everyone ready to go?”

Nya eyed the guys, who were running around the Monastery, barely avoiding tripping over one another. “‘Ready’ is an overstatement.”

“Hold your horses, we’re almost done,” Cole grunted, heaving the large beach bag over to them. “Have a little faith in us, Nya.”

Nya put her hand on her hip, waiting- and a second later, there was a crashing sound followed by an angry chorus of yells from Kai, Lloyd, and Jay.

Cole grimaced, rubbing the back of his head. “Okay, maybe you’re right to not have any faith in us.”

---

After an intense, fifteen-minute argument about what mode of transportation they would take, they ended up deciding on the city bus, and finally, finally got out the door. The bus ride went off without a hitch, for once, (except for a brief panic about not having the proper change for the bus fare, but luckily Zane had a few extra dollars on him), and before Nya knew it, they were staking out an area on Ninjago City beach. She was beginning to think this could actually work out.

Maybe.

“Check out my abs, dude.”

“They’re the same as last time.”

“Are not! I’m way more shredded than last time we went swimming.”

“Okay, that’s just a straight-up lie. I saw you sneak that extra piece of pie last night.”

“You better not be disrespecting my muscles, Flat Stanley.”

“Hey! I’m way more muscly than I used to be.”

“Are you kidding? We call you ‘green bean’ for a reason, and it’s not just because you’re the green ninja. You’re a twig!”

“I’m a twig? Have you seen Jay?”

“Hey, don’t rope me into this, green machine, and, for your information, I weigh a whole fifteen pounds more than you!”

“Yeah, well, you’re also two years older than me!”

“I think the lesson we need to learn here is that neither of you have abs anywhere near as pronounced as mine-”

Zane sighed, rolling his eyes. “Here, guys,” he held out a pouch to the group, “this is a waterproof pouch, you can store all your valuables in here.”

They quickly filled the pouch with phones, watches, and wallets. However, as Lloyd pulled back, he tripped over Jay’s foot, and half the guys collapsed into a pile, groaning.

“Jay! Get your foot out of my face!”

“Right after you get your elbow out of my ribs!”

Nya turned away from them, shaking her head. Glancing at Pixal, she asked, “Wanna help me get set up?”

The nindroid nodded, and they pulled the large picnic blanket out of the bag, unfolding it to lay it across the sand.

“Lloyd Montgomery Garmadon,” Kai cried, “You get back here right this instant!”

Nya looked up from the blanket to see Kai running through the sand after Lloyd, his feet sinking into the sand with each step, making it difficult for him to retain his balance. He waved a bottle of sunscreen at the green ninja. “It’s sunny out today! And you know how easily you burn!”

“No way!” Lloyd whined. “You always make me stay out of the water for at least twenty minutes to let it set, and it’s way too hot for me to wait that long! I wanna go swimming now.”

Kai lunged for him, and Lloyd yelped, barely dodging out of the way.

“Over here, Lloyd!” Jay cried, already wading into the shallows of the ocean. “He won’t follow you into the water!”

Lloyd hurried after him, splashing up water as he went, accidentally splattering Kai and causing the red ninja to flinch back with a yelp. Sure enough, he froze at the water’s edge, glaring at Jay and Lloyd, where they stood, only about ten feet away, laughing at him.

Zane rubbed a hand over his face, sighing. “They’re both going to get skin cancer, aren’t they?”

“At the very least, they’re going to be bright red tomatoes,” Cole laughed. “Oh, it’s going to be a blast when they take showers.”

Zane stared at him, horrified. “Please don’t let Jay do that again. He had the worst blisters, last time-”

Cole held up his hands. “It was a joke, Zane! A joke!”

Zane narrowed his eyes and didn’t reply.

Nya laughed, grabbing Pixal’s hand. “Come on. Wanna go bodyboarding with me?”

Pixal glanced at her. “I don’t know how.”

“That’s fine.” Nya stepped on the board, flipping it up into her hand and handing it to Pixal, before grabbing a second one for herself. “I can teach you!”

“Thanks, Nya.”

As they walked down towards the shore, they passed Kai and Cole, who had finally managed to get Jay and Lloyd out of the water. Cole had his arms locked around Jay, preventing him from running away as Kai slathered sunscreen across his face. Lloyd was sitting in the sand beside him, pouting, his face already smeared in white.

Nya grinned at him. “Can you guys handle yourselves for twenty minutes if Pix and I go out bodyboarding?”

Lloyd stuck his tongue out at her, and Kai rolled his eyes. “We’ll be fine, Nya. I think you’re forgetting we save the city on a regular basis? We’re perfectly capable.”

Nya put a hand near Pixal’s ear, whispering loudly into it. “Betcha anything the beach will be on fire by the time we get back.”

The two ran off, giggling at the sight of Kai’s smoldering glare, before he could set them on fire.

---

To Kai’s credit, he did not set the beach on fire, or anything, for that matter, but when Nya and Pixal returned, they found him and Cole shoveling sand onto Zane, who was chest-deep by this point.

“Zane!” Pixal exclaimed. “Are you alright?”

“When Kai told me he had something fun to show me, this wasn’t quite what I had imagined.”

“Aww, come on Zane!” Kai grinned. “I’m having a great time.”

Pixal shook her head, and stepped forward, grabbing Zane’s hand and pulling him up, sending sand cascading down everywhere. Cole and Kai groaned.

“Aww, come on, Pix, that took forever!” Cole muttered.

“Yeah, we were gonna shape it into a mermaid tail. Don’t you know how funny that would’ve been?”

“Humor is subjective.” Zane rubbed at his wrists. “Augh, now I’m going to have sand in my gears for weeks.” Shooting a glare at Kai, he added, “I’ll remember this the next time you ditch your swimming lessons.”

“Hey!” Kai yelped. “That’s totally different! Sand is warm, and solid, and most importantly, not dangerous!”

“You could suffocate,” Zane pointed out.

Kai scowled. “You’re a nindroid, you wouldn’t have suffocated.”

“You’re related to an elemental master of water. You won’t drown.”

“Being related to a master of water and being a master of water are two very different things! I control fire, not water, I can’t do anything to protect myself.”

Cole rolled his eyes. “You’re so lame. Remind me again why we brought our friend with aquaphobia to the beach?”

“Technically,” Zane said, raising a finger, “the word you’re looking for is thalassophobia. Kai doesn’t fear water in general, only large bodies, such as-”

“It was his idea,” Nya interrupted. “If it weren’t for him, we’d still be at the Monastery, filing papers.”

“I never suggested the beach!” Kai snapped. “That was your idea!”

“Yeah, well, your suggestions were lame. The beach was the obvious choice.”

“Hey,” Pixal interjected, suddenly realizing they were missing a couple of people. “Where are Jay and Lloyd?”

Cole sighed, pointing up towards their stuff, where Jay and Lloyd were struggling with a large, yellow duck inflatable that was very much not inflated at the moment. Jay had his lips around the mouthpiece, his face red.

“Blow harder, Jay,” Lloyd insisted, hovering by his side. “You’re hardly doing anything!”

Jay pulled his head back, breathing out heavily as the redness faded from his cheeks. “I’d like to see you do better! You’d probably pass out after a minute.”

“Would not!” Lloyd snatched the floaty away from him, blowing hard into the mouthpiece, putting even less air into the floaty than Jay had. His face reddened as he huffed desperately, although he still wasn’t making much progress. After a few moments, Jay pulled it away from him.

“Okay, that’s enough. I don’t want you to actually pass out.”

Lloyd glared at him, panting. “I wasn’t… going to… pass out.”

Jay sighed, grabbing the inflatable and staring at what looked to be the eyes and a very flat, crumpled-looking beak. “At this rate, we’re never going to get Mr. Quackington blown up.”

Lloyd’s nose wrinkled. “Mr. Quackington?”

Jay blinked at him. “Yeah, that’s his name.”

“No, it’s not! His name is Mr. Waddles!”

“Mr. Waddles? What kind of juvenile name is that?”

“Oh, like Mr. Quackington is any better!”

“It is! It’s loads better!”

“Nuh-uh.”

“Is so!”

“It’s not!” Lloyd snapped, green energy sparking between his fingers. Jay glanced down at them thoughtfully. “Hey, what if…”

Lloyd was evidently catching on to Jay’s train of thought, his eyes lighting up. “We can use my powers to inflate Mr. Waddles!”

Jay narrowed his eyes. “Quackington.”

Lloyd bared his teeth, the small fangs glinting. “Waddles.”

Jay sighed. “Okay, whatever. We can use your powers to inflate Mr. Waddles.”

Lloyd grinned widely, whether about the promise of getting his inflated duck or having won the name debate with Jay, Pixal couldn’t tell. He held up a hand and formed a basketball-sized sphere of green energy. Jay’s eyes widened, and he held the mouthpiece up to the energy. Lloyd channeled it inside, watching with glee as the duck puffed up, the yellow plastic slowly tinging green, making the duck look like he was about to be sick.

Zane took a step forward, holding his hand out. “Lloyd, wait-”

There was a sharp snapping noise as the floaty popped, and Lloyd and Jay cried out in horror as the yellow pieces of plastic fluttered to the ground. Lloyd fell to his knees, gripping the busted plastic and wailing, and Jay landed next to him, crying, “No! Mr. Waddles, you were so young!”

“I can’t believe he’s really gone,” Lloyd sniffed. “He was my best friend in the whole world.”

Kai threw up his hands. “Great. You spend the last several years of your life looking out for him only to get replaced by his inflatable plastic duck.”

“Oookay,” Nya said, walking over to Jay and Lloyd and ushering them towards the picnic blanket. “Someone’s obviously been out in the sun too long. Go sit under the umbrella and let’s have something to eat.”

“Good idea,” Zane agreed. “I’m sure we’re all getting hungry. Jay, could you grab the picnic basket? It’s right behind you.”

The lightning ninja grabbed the basket, peering inside briefly as he carried it towards them. “I hope you brought the Pringles. I could really go for some of those right now- augh!”

Before anyone could stop him, Jay was falling to the ground, the basket flying out of his hands and landing sideways in the sand.

“Jay!” Kai cried. “Look what you’ve done to our picnic!”

“Hey! That was totally your fault! Why did you leave your shoes right in the middle of the sand, perfectly positioned for someone to trip over?”

“Why were you clumsy enough to get in the way of my shoes?”

“Guys, guys, it’s okay,” Zane assured. Walking over, he carefully lifted the basket out of the sand. “I’m sure it’s still salvageable.”

“Yeah, but now all our food is going to taste like sand,” Lloyd moaned.

“Lloyd, the food barely touched the sand,” Nya pointed out.

“Doesn’t matter. Every time you go to the beach, if the food gets even remotely close to the sand, it always gets sand in it. Every time. It’s one of the great mysteries of the universe.”

“Well, I think you’ll survive,” she said, passing Lloyd a sandwich and a bag of pretzels. Lloyd took them, but narrowed his eyes.

“Brings a whole new meaning to the word ‘sandwich.’”

“Just eat your food, mister.”

Lloyd shot her a glare, but grudgingly obliged. As Pixal bit into her own sandwich, she realized Lloyd was right, she could feel granules of sand between her teeth as she chewed.

“Hey… at least it adds a little crunch, right?” Cole grinned.

Kai grimaced. “Next time, I elect we don’t let Jay anywhere near the picnic basket.”

Jay chucked a grape at him, but Kai turned at the last second, catching it in his mouth. “Ha!” His gleeful expression faded as he caught sight of something behind Jay. “Um, Lloyd, you have someone you wanna introduce us to?”

The group turned to see a seagull had approached them, tilting its head where it stood only a couple feet away from Lloyd. The green ninja was staring at the bird with wide eyes, an awed expression on his face.

“Lloyd,” Nya sighed, “please don’t tell me you fed it.”

“He’s not an it,” Lloyd snapped. “His name is Scully.”

“Great.” Nya rubbed her hands over her face. “We’re already into name territory.”

“Scully?” Kai’s nose wrinkled. “Isn’t that the name of the seagull from The Little Mermaid?”

“No, that’s Scuttle,” Lloyd sniffed. “They’re completely different.”

“Lloyd,” Pixal scolded, reaching for Lloyd’s wrist just as he tossed another chunk of his sandwich at the seagull, “Feeding wildlife is not a good idea, it can be dangerous-”

Lloyd shrieked suddenly as the bird launched itself at Lloyd’s face. He scrambled to his feet, screaming, and Kai lunged forward, pushing the others out of the way. “Move, move!”

“Get it off me, get it off me!” Lloyd shrieked as the bird’s wings flapped in his face, sending feathers everywhere.

“Blast it with your powers!” Kai called, looking worried but keeping a respectable distance.

“I can’t! He’s on my face!”

“Well, I can’t do it, I’ll set you on fire! Nya, you do it!”

“I’m trying, I’m trying,” the water ninja spat through gritted teeth, globes of water already forming in her hands. “I just need to get a clear shot! For the love of… Lloyd, stop moving so much!”

Lloyd hardly seemed to hear her. “He’s going to claw my eyes out,” he wailed, batting weakly at the creature.

“Nya!”

Nya quickly thrust her hands forward, sending a large ball of water at Lloyd’s head, drenching him and the seagull. The bird squawked angrily, falling to the ground.

“Oh my gosh, are you okay?” Nya and Kai darted over to him, Nya taking his face in her hands as Kai peered over her shoulder. A small red scratch stretched across his left cheek, but apart from that, he appeared unharmed, just frazzled.

“Dude!” Kai cried. “You just got attacked. By a seagull!”

“It owned you!”

Lloyd shot Jay a glare. “Did not.”

“You should have seen your face!” Jay laughed. “Oh wait, you couldn’t- there was a bird in the way!”

Lloyd crossed his arms. “I’d like to remind you how you reacted that time when my uncle set that berserk chicken on us.”

“The chicken had lightning powers. Hardly comparable to a simple seafowl, bud.”

“Ugh, I hope this doesn’t get infected,” Nya muttered, running her finger along the scratch. “We should probably get you checked for rabies when we get home.”

“Nya, I’m fine,” Lloyd groaned, pushing her off. “A seagull isn’t going to give me rabies.”

Nya shrugged. “With your luck, I can never be sure.”

“This is why you don’t give food to wild animals, Lloyd, it makes them bolder-”

“Watch out, Lloyd!” Jay shrieked suddenly, and they whipped around to see the seagull had caught its second wind, squawking as it charged at Lloyd.

Lloyd shrieked, taking off down the beach with the seagull in pursuit. Nya sighed, putting a hand on her head. Kai grinned, walking over to her and putting a hand on her shoulder. “Do you think he’ll learn his lesson?”

“No,” Nya said without hesitation. “Absolutely not. That’s the sad part.”

“Hey,” Cole said, pointing a finger down the beach. “The volleyball court’s just opened up. You guys wanna play?”

“Sure. Tell Lloyd he can join us when he gets that seagull taken care of.”

Nya glanced towards the green ninja, who was currently lobbing balls of energy at the bird and missing by an embarrassingly wide berth. “Looks like it could be a while.”

---

“Great job, team!” Nya cheered, high-fiving Pixal and shooting a grin at Cole. “Although, if I’m being honest, the rest of you didn’t put up much of a competition.”

“Hey, don’t look at me!” Kai snapped. “I was carrying the team! Jay, Lloyd, were you planning on helping me anytime soon?”

“I was trying!” Jay insisted. “But you kept getting in my way!”

“Because every time I let you get the ball, you dropped it!”

“Hey! I never said I was good at volleyball, okay? Why are you attacking me, Lloyd sucked too!”

“It’s not like I ever had time to fit in volleyball practice between all my green ninja training! It wasn’t exactly a top priority!” “Are you telling me you’ve never played before?” Kai spluttered.

“I’ve played!” Lloyd insisted. “Uh… once or twice.”

Kai facepalmed. “Why did I let you come on my team?”

Lloyd grinned widely. “‘Cause you love me.”

Cole elbowed him. “It’s because he lost the coin toss and Nya got to pick first.”

“Hey!” Jay yelped. “Are you telling me you would have picked me last?”

“After I saw you play, yeah,” Cole snorted.

“I’m still not convinced on some of those calls, Zane,” Kai said, walking over to the nindriod. “I don’t think that one play near the third point was a foul.”

“Hey, the ref’s call is law,” Nya smirked. “Stop trying to cheat your way to victory, Kai.”

“I’m not cheating! Zane’s girlfriend is on your team! He’s obviously biased!”

“I’m a nindriod, Kai. I cannot be biased.”

“Stop being a sore loser, Kai.” Behind her, a wave swelled up. She raised her hand- then pointed it forward at Kai.

Her brother shrieked as the seawater drenched him.

“Nya! What’d you do that for?”

“You deserved it, with all the whining you were doing. Besides, you looked hot. I was just doing you a favor.”

“It’s alright,” Lloyd laughed. “You can share my towel, don’t worry.” As he handed Kai the towel, the fire ninja eyed it shrewdly.

“It’s got ducks on it. Of course it does.”

“Hey, you want the towel or not?”

“No, I’m taking the towel.” Kai wrapped the towel around himself, shivering, unfurling the ducks for all to see. Cole snickered, and Kai shot him a glare.

“Should we pack up, then?”

Zane nodded. “If we want to be back in time for dinner, probably.”

The team trudged back to their blanket, wet and sandy, but chatting amiably. They had nearly packed up all their things when Lloyd cried out suddenly.

“Where’s my wallet?”

Zane frowned. “Didn’t you put it in the valuables pouch?”

“I thought I did, but…” he paused. “Oh, wait. I tripped over Jay. I must’ve forgotten to put it in after that.”

“Well, then, it’s gotta be around here somewhere. What color is it, Lloyd?”

“What do you think? Green.”

They spent a good ten minutes searching through their entire bag and the surrounding sand, to no avail. It quickly became clear that if Lloyd’s wallet had ever fallen around here in the first place, it wasn’t here now.

Kai shrugged. “Oh well. It’s not that big of a deal. You don’t have any cards, and I don’t think you were carrying any of the cash. We can get you a new one.”

“No, but I had the things in there!”

Cole frowned. “The things?”

“You know.” Lloyd lowered his voice. “The things. That the mayor gave us?”

“What?!” Jay yelped. “Those were in there?” “You lost them?” Kai cried. “Lloyd, how could you?”

“It’s not like I did it on purpose!” Kai groaned, rubbing his face. “We should’ve never trusted you with them. Or at least split them up, so they weren’t all together.”

“I still do not understand.” Pixal frowned. “What are these things that are so important?”

“They’re a top-secret gift from the mayor,” Jay whispered. “We’re not supposed to tell anyone we have them. Not that telling anyone now would matter anyway, because we don’t have them anymore.”

“It’s not my fault!” Lloyd insisted. “It’s that stupid seagull’s, he’s the one who distracted me-” Lloyd paused, his eyes widening. “That’s it! The seagull must’ve swiped my wallet when it was chasing me!”

“Looks like we have a lead,” Kai growled.

“Wait a minute, does anyone else hear that mysterious music-”

“Oh no,” Pixal muttered, putting a hand on her forehead. “Zane, please don’t tell me you’re going to do this again.”

“It seemed that, after only a few weeks, it was time for me to crack yet another case.” The odd, deep voice rang out, and they turned to see Zane slipping on a fedora.

“Where did that even come from,” Pixal despaired. “I’m positive you didn’t bring that with you. Positive.”

“Again, I was to be accompanied by my trusty assistant, but this time, my highly trained ninja associates would also be coming along, all determined to reclaim what someone had stolen in the heist.”

Jay glanced between Pixal and Zane. “What is happening right now? Am I supposed to know what’s happening?”

Pixal shook her head. “It’s a long story. Just go with it.”

Zane tipped his hat down. “Already, we were off with a very promising lead. I suspected the culprit to be the feathered fiend that had been spotted lurking around at the scene of the crime only an hour prior.”

Kai snorted, placing a hand on Jay’s shoulder. “Oh, this is gold! Did you mess with his voice again, Jay?”

“No, I didn’t touch him! Pixal, you didn’t…”

She shook her head. “Believe me, I wouldn’t do this if you paid me. It was all him.”

Jay grinned. “What do we do next… detective Zane?” He and Kai simultaneously burst into laughter, leaning against each other for support.

Zane side-eyed them. “The primary suspect was as clear as a black bear in a snowstorm, yet the whereabouts of the creature were still unknown. It had vanished into thin air, without leaving so much as a trace in its stead.”

“Hey,” Lloyd said suddenly, leaning down to pick something up off of the sand, “What about this?”

“It appeared to be part of the plumage of a species of avian native to these shores. Could it belong to the specimen we were looking for?”

Kai plucked the feather from Lloyd’s fingers, examining it. “The feather was white with a dark tip, definitely having originated from a seagull- although the spiked, disturbed edges implied that this was from no ordinary gull- it was from one who had recently been in a fight.”

Jay grinned. “It seemed like we had hit the jackpot. Already, we were one step closer to tracking down this culprit.”

Pixal groaned. “Don’t you two start, too. It was bad enough with just Zane.”

Nya grimaced. “Yeah, this is already getting annoying.”

“How is a feather going to tell us where the seagull is now?” Cole asked.

“I could sense the wind was blowing in from the northwest,” Zane narrated. “If we wanted to find the culprit of the caper, we would have to walk upwind, hopefully leading us to the source of the feather.”

“Alright,” Pixal sighed, “let’s get this over with.”

“And so,” Zane grinned, “The Great Gull Caper began.”

The team trudged up the beach for about twenty minutes, to no avail. They passed many other beachgoers, pointing and staring as the ninja passed, but no seagulls were in sight.

“Are you sure about this, Zane?” Pixal asked.

“The feathered suspect had gained an hour’s head start in its escape from the scene, meaning we would have to hasten our pace if we ever hoped to catch up.”

“Oh, I am not walking an hour just to find this thing. Are we sure it’s that important?”

“Yes!” the guys yelped in unison.

“It’s a very important gift from the mayor! It would be rude to lose it,” Jay said. “We have to get it back!”

“Couldn’t you just ask for another… whatever they are?”

“No! They’re one of a kind!” “Well, can we at least hurry this up? Frankly, I’m getting quite tired of Zane’s shenanigans.”

Zane grinned at her. “Although she voiced her disapproval, my assistant knew the efficiency of my methods, as they had gotten us out of a pinch the last time things had been amok.”

“First of all, I was the one who successfully found Dyer last time. You just ended up getting caught.”

“Perhaps, but you used my techniques.”

Pixal huffed. “Second, I don’t appreciate that you keep calling me your assistant. If anything, we’re partners!”

Zane adjusted his fedora. “So it was a promotion she was after, eh? Well, if my assistant could prove her worth by properly complying with my techniques in this case, she may find herself with a loftier position in the future.”

Pixal sighed. “Whatever. Let’s just find the stupid bird, and go.”

The group trekked after Zane again, and Pixal wondered how long they would be here, when Zane suddenly stopped, causing half of the gang to crash into him.

“What?” Jay yelped. “What’s wrong? Why’d we stop?”

Zane pointed near his feet. “It seemed like the culprit had been careless enough to leave behind tracks in the sand.”

Pixal peered over his shoulder. Sure enough, the tracks of some avian species left a trail in the sand- and after consulting her database, it appeared to match the foot of a seagull.

“We’re getting closer!” Cole said. “It has to be around here somewhere.”

Nya’s eyes went wide, and she pointed towards something in the distance. “Look!”

Down the beach, a large group of seagulls was flocking around a half-eaten pretzel, flapping their wings and squawking as they tried to push past each other.

“It could be any of them,” Lloyd despaired. “How are we going to know which one was the one who stole my wallet?”

Jay smirked. “There’s only one way to find out.”

Lloyd eyed him nervously. “How?”

“One seagull, in particular, has come to associate you with food. One seagull has been known to chase you down.”

“Oh,” Lloyd paled, taking a step back and waving his hands. “Oh, no, I do not like where this is heading…”

“Come on, Lloyd, do it for the team,” Cole pleaded.

“You are the one who lost them in the first place,” Kai agreed. “It’s only fair.”

Lloyd groaned. “Why do I let you bully me into these things?”

“Go on,” Nya gave him a gentle shove. “We don’t have all day!”

Sticking his tongue out at her, Lloyd stepped forward, towards the seagulls. Several of them looked his way, a few flapping their wings anxiously and squawking in warning. Lloyd stopped, swallowing.

“Um. Hey. I don’t suppose any of you have seen a green wallet around here?”

Jay rolled his eyes. “They can’t understand you. Get closer!”

“Okay! I’m going, jeez-” he broke off with a yelp as a seagull darted in front of him, nearly tripping him as he stepped on its tail.

The seagull shrieked, and, in a flurry of feathers, the flock broke into a frenzied panic. Lloyd’s eyes widened, and he cried out, running away and frantically ducking swooping seagulls.

He darted behind Kai as a last nervy seagull hopped after him. Kai held up a fist, which burst into flame, scaring the bird off. Kai glanced back at Lloyd, amusement sparkling in his dark eyes. “You okay, bud?”

Lloyd glared. “Don’t look at me like that. These birds are vicious!”

“Look!” Pixal pointed at a gull that had remained behind. With the others out of the way, she could see the small, green wallet between its beak.

“That’s the one!” Cole cried. “After it!”

For ninja, the group was embarrassingly unstealthy as they clamored after the bird, shooting elemental powers at it and screaming as they narrowly avoided each other’s blasts, so that by the time the seagull reached the water, the beach was a mess of crystalized sand, crevices in the ground, and various burn marks from fire, lightning, and energy.

“It’s a seagull!” Nya cried. “We’ve faced giant snakes, lords of darkness, elemental masters, Oni, more criminals and gangsters than I can count, and an evil video game AI, yet we can’t catch one measly seagull? It shouldn’t be this hard, you guys!”

“It’s getting away,” Jay cried, pointing at the bird, who had finally taken flight and was heading out over the ocean.

“No!” Lloyd moaned. “Now we’re never going to get it back!”

“Not on my watch,” Nya growled, racing past them towards the docks. “Come on!” “Oh no,” Kai groaned. “Nya Smith, whatever you are thinking, stop it right now, because I’m not doing it.” “Come on, Kai,” Lloyd insisted, grabbing his wrist and yanking him along. “We have to hurry!”

They raced after Nya, who was running down the dock towards a man who was examining the boats. Kai followed them more slowly, taking careful steps.

“Sir, we need to use a boat, right away! We’ll pay for it, we promise!”

The man shook his head. “Sorry, ma’am, but these are all private boats. The only one we have is that one,” he pointed to a small, worn-looking fishing boat, “and the motor’s broken, so it’s of no use to anyone.”

“It doesn’t matter, I can take care of that. Everyone, get in!”

“W-wait,” the man stuttered, looking flustered.

“We’ll bring it right back, I promise! Now, come on, we don’t have much time!”

“No!” Kai insisted, as everyone else piled in. “Nuh-uh. No way. Not in a million years. You are not bringing me out into the middle of the ocean in a tiny, crowded boat with a busted engine!”

“You don’t need an engine when you’ve got me!” Nya raised her hand, and the water swirled under the boat, rocking it slightly. “Now, come on, we don’t have time for this!” “Y’know what.” Kai took a couple of steps back from the boat. “I’m good. I’ll stay here. You guys have fun finding the wallet. I’ll cheer you on from the beach. The dry, dry beach.”

“Nope.” Cole reached forward, grabbing him by the arm and pulling him in. “This is your gift we’re saving, too. If you want to get part of it, you’re coming with.”

“Finally!” Nya huffed. The water rippled beneath them, and suddenly, it was propelling their boat, and they were off.

“Where’s the bird?” Nya asked. “Does anyone see it?” “Over there!” Cole pointed slightly towards their left, where the seagull was gliding away with surprising speed. Getting into the boat had slowed them down, and it had gotten a large head start.

Nya gritted her teeth. “Hold on.”

“Don’t go faster!” Kai yelped from where he huddled near the middle of the boat, protectively sandwiched between Lloyd and Cole. “If you tip this boat, I will never forgive you.”

“I know what I’m doing,” Nya growled, although the boat slowed slightly as they continued.

“Our team continued to chase the thief, determined to put an end to the Great Gull Caper and put the culprit to justice. Even when our path took us across the raging waters of the ocean, with nothing but a rusty, broken old boat, and deep, swirling waters around us, filled with the dark abyss and the creatures that lurked there…”

“You mean like sharks?” Lloyd perked, peering over the edge. “Did you see any? I wanna see one!”

“Nope,” Kai yelped, pulling himself into a ball as he sat down on the floor of the boat. “Nopety nope nope nope. I’m done. I’m outta here.”

“The prospect of sharks was a dire one, but one we were willing to take. We would get that wallet back, no matter the cost- even if it meant competition from this fierce predator of the sea.”

Kai screamed into his hands. “Just end me now!”

“What Zane means to say,” Pixal said, elbowing Zane sharply, “is that sharks are actually very off-put by the taste of human flesh, and do not go after humans on purpose.”

Kai stared at her. “Oh joy, now a shark can devour my flesh by accident, what a relief.”

“Do not worry, Kai,” she told him. “There is only one estimated death by shark per year in the greater Ninjago City area.”

“Knowing my luck,” Kai grumbled, “I’ll be that one.”

“Did anyone bring their phone with?” Lloyd asked. “I wanna get a good picture when the sharks come for Kai.”

“I call dibs on his katana,” Jay exclaimed. “Y’know, the super flashy one with the flaming dragon carved into the handle?”

Lloyd wrinkled his nose at him. “Why would you want a fire dragon on your katana? You’re the lightning ninja!”

“Hey, just because my element is lightning, doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate a super dope fire design when I see one-”

“Guys,” Cole sighed, pushing his way between the two arguing boys. “No one is getting eaten. We’re perfectly safe here, on this boat.”

“Cole’s right,” Pixal agreed. “The sharks around this area are smaller, reef dwellers, and won’t come after us. They may, however, come after our seagull friend if he gets too close to the water.”

Kai made a noise in the back of his throat, and Cole scowled at her. “Thanks for the help, Pix.”

“Nya,” Jay whined, “the seagull’s getting further away! We have to go faster!”

“Don’t!” Pixal cried. “This boat has not been manufactured to withstand a lot of weight. With seven people, especially when two of them are titanium, going too fast would be sure to capsize us.”

“I told you I should’ve stayed behind on the shore,” Kai wailed.

Lloyd leaned further over the edge, raising a hand to his forehead to keep the glare off of his face as he peered intently into the water. “Is… is that a shark?”

Kai stared at him. “Shut up. You’re just baiting.”

Lloyd shook his head, his eyes lighting up in a way that was not reassuring in the slightest. “I’m not! It’s a shark! It’s a real, live shark! I’ve never seen one this close before! Except at like, an aquarium!”

Kai closed his eyes, rocking himself gently. “You’re lying. You stupid liar, I hate you.”

Cole peered over, following Lloyd’s gaze, and promptly bit his lip. “You have got to be kidding me.”

“This is a dumb prank, you guys!” Kai was half-yelling by this point.

“Stop being so loud,” Lloyd hissed. “You’ll scare it!”

Kai blinked at him. “I’ll scare it?”

Lloyd crossed his arms. “A scared shark is an aggressive shark.”

Kai’s mouth snapped shut.

“I can’t believe this,” Cole muttered. “Did we really not bring any weapons?”

“No!” Lloyd yelped. “Cole, you wouldn’t!”

“I would if it kept us from being eaten.”

“For the last time, sharks don’t eat humans!”

Cole ignored him. “Well? Did we?”

Nya snorted. “Why would we bring weapons to the beach?”

“Hey, with how often this city gets attacked, I wouldn’t be surprised.”

Nya rolled her eyes. “It was supposed to be our day off.”

“It’s fine,” Pixal reported, keeping a careful eye on the shark. “It’s swimming away now. As long as we leave it alone, we’re safe.”

Kai frowned. “Looks like the gull isn’t so convinced, though.”

Pixal glanced up. Sure enough, the seagull was eyeing the shark nervously, pumping its wings as it flew higher and higher above the surface of the water.

“Do something!” Jay shrieked. “If we don’t stop it now, it’s going to get away for good!”

“Lloyd!” Nya cried. “Is your wallet waterproof?”

“What?”

“Just answer the question!” “Yes! Yes, it is!”

Nya gritted her teeth. “Hold on, everyone!”

Suddenly, a vast wave rose out of the water, looming over the seagull.

Kai’s eyes widened. “Nya, be careful, you’ll hit us too-”

But it was already too late, the wave crashing down, downing the seagull, and soaking them in saltwater. The team cried out, and Kai screamed, throwing his arms over his head in a futile attempt to protect himself. As they all tried to lurch away from the spray, the boat rocked precariously, and, for a horrifying moment, they were suspended there, on the point between balance and capsize.

And then that moment was over, and they were all falling into the ocean.

Pixal’s world immediately dimmed as she plunged into the water, quietness enveloping her like a blanket. For a moment, she was too shocked to do anything, until a foot thrashed past her face, snapping her out of her trance as she swam towards the surface.

A couple of feet before she reached it, a metal hand snatched her wrist and pulled her the rest of the way up.

“Pixal!” Zane cried, his detective voice dropped. “Are you alright?”

“I’m fine. What about everyone else? Are we all here?”

Zane nodded his head behind her, and she turned to see the others all within a couple of feet. Cole had his hands on the now upside-down boat, trying to use his strength to push it over, but it was hard for him to get a good grip and stay afloat at the same time. Just behind him, Jay was spitting out a mouthful of seawater, sending ripples across the surface of the ocean as he treaded water. Lloyd was doing the same a couple of feet away, only the green ninja was struggling a lot more because of the arms wrapped tightly around his neck.

“Don’t let me go, Lloyd!” Kai yelped, although the feat would’ve been impossible even if Lloyd had wanted to- the fire ninja was clinging to him like a barnacle. “I can’t swim!”

Lloyd sighed. “I know that, Kai. It’s the only reason I’m letting you hold on to me like this.”

“I can’t believe this happened,” Kai cried. “We’re going to die out here. This is the worst day off ever.”

“Hey!” Lloyd snapped. “It’s not my fault this happened!”

Nya shot them all a sharp glare from where she was drifting alongside the boat. She didn’t even bother to tread water like the rest of them, instead using her powers to keep herself afloat. “It was going to work until you guys made such a big fuss about getting a little wet and tipped the boat.”

Cole sighed. “We’re not going to die. As soon as I get this right side up again, we’ll climb up and get out of here. Can you give me a hand, Zane?”

As the nindriod moved to help him, Kai suddenly went rigid.

“Lloyd,” he whispered.

“What, Kai?”

“Something just bumped my foot.”

“It’s probably just seaweed, Kai,” Lloyd sighed, looking down- and promptly froze.

“No one. Move.”

Jay squeezed his eyes shut. “Oh no, oh gosh, don’t tell me that’s what I think it is, this is not happening-”

“Jay, shut up,” Nya whispered, her face pale as she watched the dark shape lurking below them in the water.

“Everyone, stay calm,” Pixal murmured. “Don’t make any sudden movements and try to look it in the eyes.”

“Please, the last thing I’m gonna do is look at it,” Kai breathed, burying his face in Lloyd’s hair.

After a moment, the shark slowly swam past, losing interest.

“It doesn’t care about us,” Zane realized. “It wants the seagull.”

Several yards away, the gull was floating on the water, still trying to shake off the moisture from Nya’s wave. Suddenly realizing the danger it was in, the bird raised its wings- and launched itself into the air, just as fierce jaws snapped against empty air where the seagull had been less than a second ago.

Kai’s fingers dug tighter into Lloyd’s shoulders, and Pixal caught Jay biting his lip as he swallowed back a scream, but, its prey lost, the shark was already swimming away.

“Gotcha,” Nya murmured, reaching a hand out and snatching up the wallet, which the seagull had dropped in all the commotion, before it could sink to the bottom of the ocean.

“Okay. That’s great. We got it. Now can we get out of here?” Kai pleaded.

After a minute, they finally got the boat flipped over, and Cole hauled himself aboard before helping to lift the others. Ten minutes later, they were all safely out of the water and on their way back to the dock, and Pixal had never felt more relieved by the fact.

“So,” Jay asked, as the boat glided through the water, leaning closer to Nya. “Did they survive all that?”

“Let’s see,” Nya murmured, opening up Lloyd’s wallet. Pixal leaned forward, anxious to see what all the fuss had been about.

“Yes!” Jay cried, pulling out seven slips of paper. “They’re all here!”

“Wait.” Pixal snatched one from his hand, quickly scanning it. “A summer pass for free all-you-can-eat ice cream from the Dairy Dragon?”

“Yup,” Jay smiled, passing them out to the others. “The mayor gave them to us as a gift after we saved the city from Prime Empire. That’s what we were going to do today, after the beach, actually.”

“You’re telling me,” Pixal deadpanned. “That we just risked our lives. For free ice cream.”

“Free ice cream is free ice cream, Pix.”

“You’ll understand once you’ve tried their butter pecan,” Nya told her. “It’s to die for.”

“Butter pecan?” Jay spluttered. “No way, the Ninjapolitan is best.”

“You heathen, chocolate fudge is obviously the best flavor-”

“What are you guys talking about, mint chocolate chip is superior!”

“You just like it because it’s green.”

“Do not!”

“Do so!” Nya sighed, putting her head in her hands. “Here we go again.”

“Calm down, all of you,” Pixal said. “You can get whatever flavor of ice cream you want. Just do me a favor and try not to end up capsizing us in the middle of the ocean this time.”

Jay hummed. “No promises.”

#ninjago #ninbingo #my fic #rosie writes #ninjago kai #ninjago pixal #ninjago nya #ninjago zane #ninjago lloyd #ninjago jay #ninjago cole #i cant believe i actually wrote something that is 100% fluff #that's never happened before #it feels... weird #but it was a lot of fun #and yes Lloyd loves sharks and I will die on that hill #thanks for reading!#reblogs and comments greatly appreciated!

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ninjaslegos · 3 years

Text

Mutualism

Part 2 of Symbiosis

Where Morro gets a little more friendly with the ninja, and a lot more closer to you.

For @uwuhuffelpuff !! I’m glad you liked the first one, and I hope this is to your liking as well!

“I wanna throw Jay in the pool so bad.” You laughed.

“What?!” He shrieked. “You better not!”

You and the ninja were making plans this weekend to go to the water park and relax, and since you were one of the tallest, rivaling Zane and Cole in height, you constantly teased Jay about his tininess. “But Jay, you’re so toss-able!”

Morro was laughing away in your head, and Jay could tell. “Not you too, Morro! You know, you’re not much taller than I am!”

He briefly took over your body so he could argue with and tease Jay some more, “but look at me now, I’ve got a new elbow rest!”

“Come on, now.” Kai grinned and walked up to the three of you, “don’t tease him too much.”

“Thank you, Kai.” Jay huffed.

“Any time, shortie.” He stuck his tongue out at him and ruffled his hair.

“Not you too!” He yelled, then ran off outside. “Nya!”

Morro high-fived Kai, snickering together before he retreated back into your body. He thought things were going pretty well with the ninja, he’d never really had friends before. "We're not swimming, are we?" He asked you in your head.

Well duh! That's the point of a water park! Besides, you're not even a ghost anymore, so stop worrying, you baby! You thought back to him, and he pouted. "I am not being a baby!"

Time passes as it always does, and before he knows it, it's the dreaded water park day. The ninja drove there, meaning Jay was behind the wheel, Nya was in the passenger seat, Zane and Cole were in the way back, and you/Morro were crushed between Lloyd, who was wiggling excitedly in his seat, and Kai, who was flirting with you. His words seemed to fluster you, and for some reason, Morro couldn't help but feel irrationally angry. You were his human.

"Keep it in your pants, Fireboy!" He finally snapped, "don't forget (Y/N)'s not the only one in this body!"

He just gave him a cocky grin, "I can get behind that."

"Kai, I swear on my grandfather I will put you in the ground if I have to hear another line from you!" Lloyd yelled. "You're making me uncomfortable by saying that to my best friend and my former rival, and you're making Zane uncomfortable by saying anything at all!"

"Actually," Zane corrected, "I am learning a lot from Kai's strange courting rituals."

Morro fumed, "this is my human, and I don't want to hear anyone else talking about them!"

"Woah, Morro, I didn't think you could get jealous over love. I thought you could only feel jealousy over things like being-" Cole was cut off as Jay turned to face the bickering ninja in the backseat.

"I will turn this car around if the five of you don't shut up!" He yelled.

"JAY KEEP YOUR EYES ON THE ROAD!!" Nya shrieked, grabbing the wheel to avoid running into a large truck. The driver flipped them off, and for the rest of the ride it was stone silent and uncomfortable.

All was forgotten, though, as they pulled into the parking lot, and everyone grabbed their things. Morro had you bring two towels, a spare change of clothes, snorkeling goggles, snack money, and bandaids with ointment in case you tripped while running on the concrete. He was so worried about the swimming you almost forgot to pack your actual swimsuit.

You just wore it under your clothes, and boy did Kai enjoy watching you take your shirt off. He whistled, and Morro immediately took over. "Stop doing that! I'll tell Lloyd!" He threatened.

Usually Morro didn't mind showing off the skin of his body, but this wasn't his body, and he felt vulnerable, almost naked. It took a while to get used to you, and he was completely flushed the first time you had to take a shower, telling himself to not look down no matter what. It was especially annoying to have Kai practically undress you with his eyes, and he hated the feeling. Only he was allowed to see you or even think of you as naked, but he couldn't control the situation.

"Jeez, Morro, there's a difference between liking me and being jealous over Kai of all people." This was met by a 'hey!' from the teen behind you. "Don't tell me you're head over heels in love with me?!" He could hear the teasing tone in your voice as you talked aloud to him.

"No way!" He protested. "It just feels like he's flirting with me too. It's weird."

You wanna enter a polycule with him? Maybe Cole and Zane too? More teasing from you.

"No!" His outburst caused him to take over without meaning too, and it gained the attention of a couple bystanders. Flustered, jealous, tired of the teasing, and frustrated all at once, he slowly let you take control again.

"Ah, sorry Morro!" You didn't know how to comfort him since he wasn't there to pat or hug, so you just pat your own arm. "I didn't mean to make you do that."

Of course you didn't, you just liked to have fun, and sometimes didn't know your boundaries. "It's fine." He assured you. "Let's just enjoy ourselves." You headed over to the lazy river first, floating around with Nya and Zane, the latter of which was wearing sunglasses and lounging around on his float while the former raced you around the river. Morro had to admit, although he'd never been to one before, water parks were pretty fun.

After a bit of racing, you and Nya got out and went hunting for Lloyd and Jay to drag them to the big pool so you could challenge them to basketball pool.

"Put me down!" Jay squealed, squirming under the combined power of your and Morro's grip. He, too, wanted to see Jay tossed into the pool. He also just came from the hot tub, so he was was going to absolutely freeze. "No!" He shrieked as you swung away from the pool, then he screamed as you used the momentum to yeet him into the deep end, and he flailed around as you, Morro, Lloyd, and Nya laughed. "It's cold!" He complained in his usual whine, until Nya came to comfort him and warm him up with her own body heat.

Morro wished he could hug you...

After a few rounds, you/Morro and Lloyd won. "Ha, you owe us slushies now!" You pointed at them.

They rolled their eyes, but smiled anyway as you all headed to the food court. They only had blue raspberry and cherry, so they ordered two of each and let you pick out what you wanted.

"Lloyd, look at my tongue." You stuck it out to show him, and he laughed.

"Not just your tongue, but your teeth!" He cackled, and the two of you giggled like children. "We shouldn't go swimming after eating...wanna go down the water slides while we digest?"

"Ew, Lloyd, don't say gross words." You crinkled your nose and playfully shoved him. "I'll beat you there!"

You met Cole at the top, who had apparently spent his whole time there so far. "What? When you're me, after climbing so many mountains, sometimes you just want to have a good slide downwards instead!" He defended.

"What, twenty-seven times?" Lloyd joked.

"Hardy-har, Greeny." He ruffled his hair and hoisted his pool ring higher onto his shoulder as he waited in line.

You went down the smaller slides a few times before Cole got you, Lloyd, and Jay to go down one of the bigger, more intimidating slides. It was one that dropped you, then threw you up the sides back and forth. "I dunno," you nervously spoke as you stood there, last to get in on the four person seater, "are you sure I have to go on?"

"I can do it for you." Morro offered, not as scared of the ride as you were.

You nodded, to the confusion of the ninja. "Thank you, Morro." Then they understood.

Morro regretted doing it for you as soon as he hit the drop, "my body isn't ready! I'm gonna be sick!" He shrieked. He couldn't even enjoy the rest of the ride, he just felt dizzy.

Lloyd, being the caring friend he was, actually helped Morro with the pain in his head by advising him to go to the hot tub. “It should help your body relax.”

He immediately regretted it as soon as he settled in the water. “Hey, hot stuff!” Kai greeted and made his way over.

Was it him, or was this headache getting worse? He tried to sink into the water so his nose and eyes were above the surface, and mingled with the people around him to try and lose the flirtatious brunet, but it failed. “What do you want, Kai?”

“You’re the one who came here, I dunno why you’re complaining.” He grinned, putting an arm over your shoulders.

You forced Morro back into your head as you started to speak, “have you been in the hot tub all day? Isn’t that bad for you?”

“You forget, dear (Y/N), I am the master of fire. A little heat never killed me.” Morro took over one of your arms so he could get Kai’s off of you.

“Since you’re still alive, technically nothing has killed you.” You smirked.

He thought about it. “You got me there.” He shrugged. “Hot tubs just feel like regular pools to me, besides, my body heat would just warm up the cold water around me-“

“And people will think you peed the pool?” You finished teasingly.

As Kai flirted with you less and less, Morro realized the way to get him to stop wasn’t to threaten him, but to rather tease him back. “That’s not true! It’s just that, uh, I don’t want to get in trouble for, like, making another hot tub, is all.” He sheepishly replied, rubbing the back of his head.

You laughed. “You’re so silly.” You sat in a hot tub seat and leaned against the wall, sinking into the relaxing jets. “Don’t tease Morro so much, either. His temper rivals yours.”

“It’s funny, though. He clearly likes you, but if he takes too long, I might just have to snag you for myself.” He smirks.

Once again, Morro was all riled up. He forced himself out, intent on ripping Kai a new one, but once he felt the warmth of the water, he shuddered and started to relax a little. “Lay off, Smith.” He hissed. “This is my body too, so (Y/N) belongs to me.”

“A little old fashioned, aren’t you?” Kai sighed. “Don’t forget that (Y/N) is their own person, and can make their own decisions. Unless they’re like, into all that possessive type of stuff.” He started to laugh, “jeez, (Y/N), I didn’t take you for a kinky type.”

You took back over, “Kai, you don’t-!” You yelled, splashing him, “there are kids here!”

He looked around. Luckily none were in earshot, so he was safe, but Kai felt embarrassed suddenly. “Oops.” He sunk into the water until the top of his face was showing, and he blew bubbles with his nose as he tried to cool off.

Soon the slushie you drank caught up to you, and after leaving the hot tub to go around the lazy river a few times to chat with Zane, you realized you had to go to the bathroom. Running past Jay, you pushed him in the pool, then ran off still before he could yell at you. Pushing through the crowds and accidentally bumping into someone, you finally made it to the bathrooms.

You had gotten used to basically having a second person there to watch you go, and you were in and out in no time, washing your hands at the sinks.

Morro could feel a sudden change in atmosphere, and he didn’t like it one bit. From looking in the corner of your vision, he could see in the mirrors that someone came into the bathrooms; a stronger looking male who looked ready to hurt someone, and while it wasn’t unusual for someone to enter a restroom, this man was standing right behind you.

Oblivious to the man about to grab you by the hair and yank you around like a doll, Morro realized he would have to protect you. But how? He couldn’t possibly take over and react fast enough to block the grab and throw a punch of his own.

Yet somehow, he did.

“What the-what the hell?!” The man yelled out, tripping over his own feet to try and get away.

Morro didn’t understand what happened. Did he just come out of your back?! He looked at his own hands, which looked sticky and greenish, like the rest of his body. He couldn’t dwell on it now, the urge to protect you was so strong. “Don’t you dare lay a filthy finger on my (Y/N).” His voice was deeper than he remembered, accompanied by a guttural growl that made him feel powerful.

The man couldn’t even speak, he just got the hell out of the bathrooms, and presumably even the water park.

Morro relaxed and turned to face you. He had come out of your body, but not completely. His mind was still connected to yours, along with parts of his body. His instincts told him that water wouldn’t kill him anymore, but that leaving your body completely would. It wasn’t like he minded, he enjoyed being close to you, closer than anyone else could even imagine. He wanted nothing more than to love and protect you.

He could feel the heat in your face, and his body mimicked it onto his own, strange body. His next course of action was to do something he’d always wanted to do.

Before you could slow down to collect your thoughts and feelings, Morro had grabbed you by the cheeks and pulled your face down to his level, kissing you roughly, hungrily. You knew he had felt this way for months, but didn’t bring it up because you didn’t want him to feel hurt by his inability to do so. You had also felt this way towards him, and didn’t hesitate to kiss him back with just as much energy. He hugged you tightly against his own body as you copied his actions and held his head against your chest.

You giggled, “should we tell the others or keep this a secret for now so we can scare them all?”

He grinned against your collarbone, “for now, we can. I just want to get back at Kai.”

“...how are you...how come you can do this?” You asked, letting him sink into your skin and disappear.

“I dunno.” He mentally shrugged. “I just-I felt like I had to, in order to protect you. I don’t think I can do it ‘at will’ yet, but trust me, I’m going to practice.”

“You better.” You felt the heat come back to your cheeks. “The kiss was nice.” No matter how quiet you were talking aloud, Morro would always hear it.

“Hey, (Y/N), you in there?” Lloyd asked, banging on the door to the bathroom you were in.

“Yeah,” you exit and stood in front of him, “what’s up, dude?”

He grinned, “Zane fell asleep in the lazy river, so Cole and I bought a bunch of sunglasses to see how many we can put on him before he wakes up.” He grabbed your wrist, tugging you along. “Everyone’s waiting for you!”

You laughed and followed him to the lazy river, where Nya was already lowering the first pair over his original sunglasses. Morro was right, you could tell the other ninja about what happened later. Right now, you just had to put glasses on Zane’s head!

#a little bit of humor and a little bit of spice... perfect #possessive morro got me like <3 #ninjago #ninjago morro #morro x reader #oneshot

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jackdaniel69nice · 3 years

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Ninjago ATLA au book 4: Air

(Book 1: Fire, Book 2: Water, Book 3: Earth)

Cole is unconscious for three days. In that time Jay sticks close to his side, actively trying to avoid Kai. Kai is constantly with Lloyd who still hasn’t woken up. Nya has to alternate between healing the two and mediating their hostility. Kai is mad at Jay because he kept the secret of his bending for so long, Jay just doesn’t want to talk about it.

Kai forces Jay into a confrontation trying to force him to bend. But Jay’s bending is unstable because of his emotions and he ends up hurting himself. Kai really looks at him for the first time and sees his pain and scars. He takes him back to Nya and isolates himself

(Kai has been through a lot of shit in a short time. Losing his nation, constantly supporting the team, having his face scarred, Skylor’s betrayal, losing Zane, finding out about his parents, AND now Lloyd’s in a coma has put a lot of stress on him. Jay was just the camel that that broke the straws back.)

When Cole wakes up he isn’t very happy about the division between the team. Under Cole’s urging (and reassurance) he is able to tell Nya about his past. He says he was left with the Walkers as a baby. He assumes his bio-parents were fire nation fugitives that fled to the earth nation but has idea who they were or why. He has no explanation for why he seems to be able to only bend lightning either but it has always been something that comes naturally to him. He’s able to sense the energy in the world around him with ease and found a way to manipulate it. Everything he knew about lightning he had to learn himself, he ended up blowing himself up more then a hundred times. His skill and knowledge is why he was able to invent electricity. He was finally able to use the lightning bending scroll to be able bend properly. He has always had to keep his ability a secret because then the earth nation would know he was fire nation and he would be arrested. It’s been a constant weight over his head his entire life. He wasn’t able to talk about it before because of his fear of their reaction and his fear of himself. They comfort him and thank him for being honest. Unbeknownst to any of them, Kai had listened in.

Cole finds out Kai had attacked jay and was reasonably pissed. When he goes after him Kai apologizes (like bowing down head to the floor apologizing). Jay says he’s sorry too for lying and they’re alright. For the following weeks while lloyd is still healing they train together

When Lloyd wakes up he’s a mess. He failed and lost everything. He’s bitter and hateful towards his father and desperately wants to take him down so after he recovers he dedicates his time to training. Their invasion plan is still underway with a smaller group (elemental resistance anyone?).

Lloyd decides he wants Jay to try and teach him lightning bending. Jay says he barely knows anything but is willing to give it a shot/It goes about as terrible as possible because Lloyd is emotionally unstable but Jay sees some potential in him.

Jay tells Lloyd about how he never knew he was adopted and only found out after his element appeared. The kept it a secret from him and it hurt him just like Garmadon’s betrayal hurt Lloyd. But his parents still accept him and love him dearly just like Garmadon loves Lloyd and refuses to hurt him.

Lloyd gets upset because his father has killed innocents and holds no love for him anymore. Jay says he doesn’t have to forgive the bad but recognize that there is still good in him. Lightning is all about separation of positive and negative energy just like separating positive and negative feelings. Until Lloyd recognizes his feelings towards his father, he won’t be able to bend lightning. Lloyd storms (ha!) off

They are quick to visit the air temples in search of any wisdom they can get on air bending. At the northern air temple they meet dr. Borg, a nonbender but amazing inventor. Him and Jay are able to create amazing flying technology that unfortunately falls into the hands of the fire nation (the term “air ship” is used a lot more literally here).

Morro is busy “contemplating his place in the universe” and visits the southern air temple on his own, his old home. He sees the team but decides to do nothing about it.

At the western air temple Lloyd finds...his mom!?

Lloyd learns he’s air nation from his mother which is why he became the avatar. She’s a nonbender and left the air nomads very young going to live in the earth nation then fire nation. After Garmadon started his decent to madness she couldn’t live with him anymore and she knew Lloyd was the avatar so she tried to flee with him. Unfortunately she couldn’t get away with him and he was left behind and she was assumed dead. She came back to the air temples in hopes of preserving their history and stayed in hiding.

She can’t actually teach him air bending but she will help with the invasion and gives him advice. If there is anyone out there that can teach him air bending, they will find him.

Kai and Nya get word that the Time Twins have their parents and go rescue them

Invasion goes the same as canon

luckily if there’s one thing Morro is good at it’s finding Lloyd. So yeah the whole shebang goes down with training and what not

Misako gave them stuff on airbenders she was able to save and it tells of a tribe of dragon riders. So they go there and meet Faith and pass the dragon test and see first born.

Air bending is about peace and fun, definitely not morro’s vibe, but he’ll relearn to control it. Lloyd figures out he really does need to lock down on his spirituality.

Air bending training goes well after that

Reuniting with master wu! Morro apologizes but there was never any need, wu already forgave him.

Wu tells jay about his parents. The Gordon’s were a line of very powerful fire benders that could only use lightning. Garmadon saw Libber as a threat and tried to kill her and jay. She was able to slow the assassins down enough for Cliff to escape with him where they fled to the earth nation. Libber died but Cliffs whereabouts are unknown. Neat

Skylor and Vania go against Harumi and escape. They get to the ninja gang and Kai is still pissed at Skylor but you know what this might as well happen

Nya rescuing Pixal from prison, sure why not

Final battle

Lloyd is forced to use lighting so he sees this weird vision where garmadon is chained up in his own mind with the overlord controlling him. Garmadon calls out to Lloyd and apologizes and says he loves him before lloyd is ripped away. He realizes he needs to help his dad if he’s ever going to save the world and let’s go of his emotional issues with him.

Overlords escape tears a hole between spirit realm. Lloyd is able to unlock his avatar state. Forces OL back into spirit realm.

Kai and Nya fight Harumi

Jay and Cole taking down the flying ship army. They succeed but are stuck and Cole falls. Skylor and catches him though hah (jay was legit scared for a second there)

Lloyd locks the overlord back up and purifies the world of the dark matter he was spreading. He purified his dad too and brought him back. Yay garmadad!

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crystalgirl259 · 3 years

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How to Train Your Dragonblood 3: The Dragonblood Alpha Ch4

"Ground all dragonbloods!" Cliff shouted at the top of his lungs as he ran through the underground stone corridor to the hanger. Jay and Kai were trailing after the chief as he ran ahead, bellowing orders to anyone who would listen. Cole and Ed were also following them, also concerned about Cliff's fear. The others were following Cliff's orders and locking down the island, even though some of the dragonbloods weren't happy about it. They hated being controlled and ordered around, especially after all those years of being enslaved by that monster at the nest.

Unfortunately, as they were living on Cliff's island, they had to live by his rules.

As soon as Jay confirmed Iron Baron's name, it was like Cliff suddenly became a completely different person. One not seen by his family or anyone in Ninjago. As he was growing up, Jay had seen his father in chief mode, father mode, over-protective mode, and sometimes he could just be an insensitive and condescending jerk. This Cliff was very different, however. He looked downright terrified as he ran around the hanger, and it was very unnerving for Jay to see.

"What?! Why?" Jay cried in shock, but Cliff ignored his son.

"Seal the gates! Lower the storm doors!" He shouted as they entered a bigger cavern. Jay tried to keep up while Kai followed him, just as bewildered.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Wait, wait, what is happening?" The brunette asked as everyone rushed around.

"Come on, you heard the man, lock it down!" Ed echoed around the underground cave with dragonbloods and humans milling around as the group climbed down the stairs, one-half alert and the other half confused. People began to pull down levers and the gate that led outside slowly closed.

"No dragonblood or man sets foot off this island until I give the word!" Cliff bellowed and dragonbloods and humans start running around in near panic at their Chief's sudden alarm. Cliff ignored the stairs and jumped down the platform along with Kai and Ed.

"Wait, all this because some weird guy you knew is stirring up troubles on some faraway land?" Jay asked in shock. He had never seen his father run from anything in his life. Without warning, Cliff suddenly got into his son's face, a look of fear, anger, and determination plastered on his face.

"Because Iron Baron is a madman, without conscience or mercy, and if he's built a dragonblood army... Gods help us all!" He muttered in horror before he started to scream orders at his men again as he paced around. Jay wasn't discouraged by this and caught up to him, cutting off his path. Ed had to give the kid some points for audacity. He had always known the lad had it in him to stand up to his own father.

"Let's ride back out there," Jay suggested, trying to be positive. "We'll follow those trappers to Iron Baron and talk some sense into him."

"No! We fortify the island!" Cliff insisted.

"It's our duty to keep the peace!" Jay argued.

"Peace is over, Jay! I must prepare you for war."

"War!?" Kai exclaimed in shock. He could tell Cliff was scared of the Iron Baron, so was Kai, but the brunette didn't expect it to go so far.

"Dad, if this Iron Baron is coming for the dragonbloods, we can't wait around for him to get here! Let's go find him and change his mind!" Jay pushed, but the chief was too stubborn to listen.

"No, some minds won't be changed, Jay; Ninjago is what you need to worry about! A Chief protects his own!" He snapped at the young man before turning back to the panicking humans and dragonbloods running around the hanger. "Secure the stables! Latch every stall!" He ordered as he ran ahead, leaving Jay and Kai alone in the middle of the hanger. As he left, Jay looked at Kai and gave his hotheaded boyfriend a comforting look, sensing his unease.

The Fire Dragonblood then went and gently touched his arm, already knowing he was up to something from his determined look.

"Jay, don't!" He tried to reason with his boyfriend, but Jay was just as stubborn as his father.

"I have to baby, you know that." He replied as he leaned down for a quick peck on Kai's cheek and that was all it took to convince Kai into transforming into his dragon form. Cliff saw the flash of Kai's transformation, but before he could turn around completely, Jay was already on top of Kai's dragon form and then they were in the air and swooping underneath the closing hanger gate. The couple tried to find a way out as the windows and other openings of the cave were closing off.

Luckily, they managed to get into the open air before the last gate was closed.

As the Chief and Ed watch him go, another dragon swooped down behind them and takes after them. When they saw what was happening, Pixal also transformed and she and Zane chased after the pair. Zane frowned as the gate slowly rose and the light was blocked but in the last second, he and Zane were out right before the entrance was locked. Cliff sighed and shook his head as he watched his son and Zane fly off into the distance...

****************

As the sun began to set, a ship was sailing in the icy sea near some huge cliffs. At the front of the ship stood Clutch Powers, watching the horizon before he walked back on the deck where his men were working and pulling ropes. They all had to keep their eyes peeled. With this wind, they would reach Iron Baron by daybreak so they had to fill up the ship with dragonbloods and quick. It was no time to be picky. Not with riders showing up to rescue their targets almost every night.

He just couldn't understand how anyone could like those flying, murderous, monsters.

As Clutch examined his maps, trying to pinpoint the most recent dragonblood sightings with their route, one of the sailors looked in the sky, and Clutch noticed that and followed his gaze. Everyone was watched the two dragonbloods appeared in the distance and flew towards them. Clutch brightened up at the sight of two healthy-looking targets.

"Get them, lads! Take them down! He ordered as he aimed the crossbow with a satisfied smirk. It was wiped off, however, when he realized who the dragonbloods were. The same riders and dragonbloods that they had met earlier that day. As the men around him yelled and prepared themselves for capture while Clutch frowned and pulled the machine.

"You're not getting away this time!" He shouted at the riders.

"Jaybird, please tell me you have a plan at least." Kai gulped mentally as they flew closer to the ship. The ginger-haired man didn't say anything to his boyfriend, however. He wasn't confident enough to even look at him. "YOU DON'T HAVE A PLAN!?" He roared, catching Zane and Pixal's attention.

"Is everything alright?" Zane asked in worry, but Jay gave him a comforting smile.

"Yeah, we're good, Kai's just being paranoid as per usual." He reassured as he petted the Fire Dragonblood's head. Kai only snorted in disbelief, but before he could respond, Clutch started firing net at them. The launched nets were gracefully avoided and Kai got closer to the ship until he could leap on the deck with Pixal following seconds after. Jay removed his helmet while Zane spun his large shurikens and Clutch takes out his blade.

"And here I was worried I may turn up empty-handed," Clutch smirked as he prepared for the riders to make the first strike.

"Nope! It's your lucky day, we're here to give up." Jay chirped as he held out a hand for Zane to put down his weapon and for Pixal and Kai to return to their human forms, which they all did. The hunters and Clutch were shocked to see the dragonbloods transform into humans. They knew dragonbloods could do this, but they rarely saw this. When they all finally registered Jay's words, everyone blinked in shock. Even Kai and Pixal were confused, and Kai practically shared a mind with him.

What was his human boyfriend up to?

Zane looked at him like he was crazy as Jay put his arms up in surrender. Everybody else was too busy gawking to even remember to pick up their fallen jaws. Clutch also almost dropped his knife as he raised a confused eyebrow. Jay and Zane walked away from their dragonbloods and Jay leaned down to take a net.

"That's one Fire Dragonblood, one Ice Dragonblood, and two of the finest riders from the sunny island of Ninjago; that ought to make the boss happy, right?" He smirked as he suddenly threw the net over his three friends all froze in shock. Kai really hoped Jay did have a plan or else the human would be sleeping outside for a week. Mutters of insane and worried rumbles flew in the air around them. Pixal mentally begging the crazy boy who apparently was willing to sell them to a bunch of hunters to explain himself faster or she would happily freeze him right where he stood.

Jay said nothing to his friends as he pushed Zane's shurikens into Clutch's hands, who was still rooted to the spot and watching Jay in disbelief. He backed off when Kai bared his fangs at him to follow.

Jay then shoved out of the way the weapons of the dumbstruck crew while Zane, Kai, and Pixal finally got the net off. They all climbed down in a cage built below the ship while the men are still watching.

"What are you doing Jaybird?" Kai hissed at his boyfriend as Jay followed after him, pulling down the barred opening. This only made Kai more worried as he was a bit lost by his boyfriend's actions. They were among enemies yet the boy and Zane were not aggressive. Granted he somehow doubted Jay would ever intentionally be aggressive. He just didn't seem to carry that type of intimidating aura like his fellow humans. He was also concerned that he willingly entered a cage.

He whined in his throat at Jay's confusing gestures that made a dragonblood as mighty as he behaves like a mother watching its hatchling from falling out of the sky.

For the life of him, Kai just couldn't understand his human, boyfriend, rider sometimes.

"Kai, just relax." Jay pleaded as he turned back to the hunters. "Dragonbloods don't really care for cramped spaces, but they won't be any trouble." He promised, but this had a very opposite effect to what he was hoping for. The people suddenly pointed all of their weapons at the Fire Dragonblood, making Kai jump in fright as he transformed, eyes like needles and back arched like a cat. Pixal quickly followed his lead, also feeling incredibly threatened.

She had spent many long and grueling months locked up in a cage in the arena back in Ninjago, so this was all brought back some very painful memories.

Zane seemed to sense this and gently rubbed her head to help her relax. It worked, but only a little bit. Kai lowered his body to the ground and growled. Jay resisted the urge to roll his eyes as he poked his head through the bars. Clutch stared at him with a flat look. Beside him, a hooded man fidgeted with his weapon. After a short staring contest, Clutch rolled his eyes to the sky when a sword sticks out of the cage. The crew jumps back when it lit up in flames.

Jay popped out again, hitting his head as if reprimanding himself for not remembering.

"Can't have armed prisoners." He smiled as he gave the sword to a man while down below Ka, Zane, and Pixal watched everything unfold with trepidation.

"How is this a plan?" Kai mentally glared at the back of his head. But Jay was more focused on the trappers and gaining their trust.

"Just what every dragonblood trapper needs." He smiled as the men inspected the device he made curiously. One end coated the blade in saliva from Kai's dragon form and the other sprayed gas from Tox. As the men looked at the weapon, they accidentally activated the gas. They desperately tried to shut it off, and Clutch stepped away while another man clicked the lighter by mistake. Jay ducked below as an explosion rocked the deck. The two men that caused the explosion were covered in soot and coughing.

A spark was floating around and glided into the cage.

Without thinking, Kai and Pixal leaped onto their back legs and played with it, trying to be the first to catch it with their paws. Jay almost squealed at the sight and Zane smiled. Despite being intelligent, powerful creatures, dragonbloods were still animals deep down. Jay would even use light reflecting off his knife to make a little dot for Kai to chase like a cat. When he finally regained his senses and the spark faded, Kai moaned and covered his face with a paw.

He hated it when he acted cute when he was supposed to be daunting and remarkable.

He always told Jay and anyone that he was a fearless creature, not some cuddly toy. Having enough of the show, Clutch stomped to the men and grabbed the sword before he turned to Jay.

"What game are you playing?" He demanded.

"Eh, no game, ee just want to meet the Iron Baron." He shrugged innocently.

"Why?"

"Because I'm going to change his mind about dragonbloods." He replied, looking more serious than Clutch had thought the small man was capable of and the crew started to laugh. Zane sighed in disagreement but said nothing.

"Some minds cannot be changed, Jaybird, you really have to understand that." Kai mentally mumbled with a tired thought when Jay caught his eye he shook his head and that visibly hit the ginger-haired man judging by his surprised look. The teen was silent as he stared back until he finally gathered his thoughts.

"Well, you changed yours, so did my Dad and all of Ninjago." He shot back just as determined but a tad more subdued, and Kai looked away. Zane and Pixal shared a look, knowing that the couple were having a private talk, and were feeling very uncomfortable at being in the middle. When he knew he had won their short argument, Jay slowly climbed out of the cage and was joined by Zane and the two dragonbloods. The trappers raised their weapons but waited for Clutch's command.

"He can be very persuasive," Zane added, trying to help his friend.

"Once you gain their loyalty there is nothing a dragonblood won't do for you." Jay smiled as he scratched the Fire Dragonblood's ear fondly, demonstrating their close bond and showing Kai he wasn't upset with him. But Clutch was still not convinced.

"You won't be changing any minds around here." He snorted.

"I can change yours right here, right now." He promised as he reached for Kai's flying gear, pulling a lever that spread the prosthetic tailfin.

"You sure about this Jaybird?" Kai asked nervously, but his boyfriend sent him as much love and reassurance as he could through their link. Once he was sure Kai would be alright, Jay turned back to Clutch.

"May I?" He asked as he extended his hand for Clutch to take. Only he didn't get the chance to do anything because all of a sudden, a dark green shape moved across the ship and snatched him away. Another dragonblood flew by and ripped the sails. Within seconds, the trapper's ship was surrounded by a few dragonbloods. The sailors tried to stay on their feet as Clutch glanced around at the sky for the assailants. Fearing for his boyfriend, Kai leaped onto the mast and sails growling loudly, until he stopped when he saw they were the other riders from Ninjago.

He was relieved to see Jay in Morro's claws.

"Put me down! Harumi, what are you doing?!" Jay screeched as he struggled in the Wind Dragonblood's claws, but Harumi and Morro had to suddenly duck with everyone else as the trappers started firing nets at them. As most of the riders managed to dodge the nets, Dareth and Tox weren't as fast and one of the nets wrapped around them. They would have fallen into the icy sea if Rocky hadn't caught them in the air. The Earth Dragonblood hovered in place as Cole climbed down and cut the net away with a knife, freeing the pair.

While they were all distracted, Jay finally managed to push his legs up and released himself from Morro's grip.

As he fell headfirst he looped his hands through the bands around his legs and unfolded his wings. On the deck, Zane rushed Clutch and pushed him away from the catapult, but the net was still fired. Luckily, Jay avoided it as he glided back down to the ship. He grabbed a rope from a sail and slid down on the deck. Kai jumped beside him as he took off the wings and nuzzled the human affectionately. He would have transformed and hugged Jay, but he still didn't feel safe enough to do that yet.

"What are you guys doing here?!"

"We're here to rescue you!

"We don't need to be rescued!

"Enough!" A voice suddenly boomed and a large dragonblood made of metal landed behind a sail, with Cliff Gordon as the rider and Ed as a back passenger. This was Karloff, a large Metal Dragonblood. A couple of years ago, Jay finally convinced his father to partner up with a dragonblood like almost everyone else in Ninjago. After many failed attempts to connect with a dragonblood, Cliff met Karloff in a local tavern and the two of them hit it off right away.

They were now regular drink buddies and partnered up whenever Cliff needed a dragonblood.

Karloff roared in agreement with his rider and Jay turned just as the Chief hopped down with a thud on the floor.

"Well, you just picked the wrong ship!" Clutch sneered as he gestured angrily at them. Cliff just heaved a sigh in frustration. Before the lead trapper could say another word, the chief grabbed his face without a word and pushed him away, being in no mood to deal with other people with attitude problems. He slid down and as he tried to stand, Zane hit him in the head, knocking him back down. Before he could get up again, Pixal suddenly pinned Clutch down, her icy breath leaving bits of frost in his face and hair.

Clutch was smart enough to stop struggling.

"Does anybody else want to try anything?" Cliff growled and the crew reluctantly lowered their weapons. They may be skilled in the art of Dragonblood hunting, but they weren't stupid enough to take on eight different Dragonbloods and nine humans. "That's what I figured." Cliff huffed and turned to glare at Jay. "You, saddle up; we're going home."

"No." Jay snapped. It was so blunt that Cliff almost fell over. That ungrateful, idiotic son of his! What had he done to deserve so much grief from his family? First Libber and now Jay? It must have come from her side of the family, no doubt about it.

"Of all the irresponsible–"

"I'm trying to protect our dragonbloods and stop a war! How is that irresponsible?!"

"BECAUSE WAR IS WHAT HE WANTS, SON!" Cliff shouted louder than he had in his life. The exasperation in his voice had Jay freeze and Cliff realized he had to explain. With a heavy sigh, he began to tell the story of Iron Baron. "Years ago there was a great gathering of chieftains to discuss the dragonblood scourge we all faced." He started and Ed gripped his friend's arm tightly. The Chief was rubbing his eyes and frowning. Ed had a feeling that by the end of this his friend would have aged decades.

Who could have thought that something so old and gone would surge from the folds of the past and haunt him so much?

As Cliff recounted his encounter with the Iron Baron, his mind flashed to the past. A younger Cliff looked around at the other chiefs sitting on high chairs as a pale, hunched figure was stepping in their middle.

"Into our midst came a stranger from a strange land, covered in scars and draped in a cloak of dragon skin; he carried no weapon and spoke softly, saying that he, Iron Baron was a man of the people devoted to free mankind from the tyranny of dragonbloods." He said as he remembered the man speaking to the chiefs and Cliff leaned down in his chair, scratching his chin as he listened with the others. "He claimed that he alone could control all the dragonbloods and that he alone can keep us safe if, we chose to bow down and follow him." He sighed sadly as the sound of the other chiefs laughing rowdily at the man's boldness still ringing in his ears.

In the present day, the teens all started laughing too, Dareth and Plundar the loudest.

Ronin was laughing so loud that he had to wipe a tear from his eye.

"Yeah, we all laughed too; until he wrapped himself in his cloak and cried out: Then see how well you do without me." Cliff shuddered at the memory. "Then the rooftops of the meeting hall suddenly burst into flames and from it armies of dragonbloods descended, burning everything to the ground!" He hissed angrily before it melted into a look of sorrow and regret. "I... was the only one to escape." He muttered and everyone on the deck fell silent at the confession.

Jay still wasn't convinced, however, and everyone could see it.

"Men who kill without reason cannot be reasoned with." Cliff tried to convince him, but as usual, his son was stubborn.

"Maybe, but I'm still going to try." Jay insisted as he walked away. Clutch followed Jay with his gaze as the younger man Jay hopped onto the Fire Dragonblood, just as surprised as the chief. "This is what I'm good at, and if I could change your mind, then I can change his too." He added, sounding sincere but determined at the same time. Ed smiled at his apprentice's courage while the Chief shook his head. With one thought from Jay, Kai took off and Cole runs over to Rocky to follow.

"Let's go!" He ordered to the other riders, but Cliff grabbed his arm.

"No, lead the others back to Ninjago; I've had enough mutiny for one day." He growled as he stepped away from the Earth Dragonblood and his rider. Down with Clutch, Pixal still had him pinned to the deck until Zane managed to pull her off. As quickly as they had appeared, the riders all flew from the trappers' boat, with Ed and Cliff chasing after Jay and Kai and the others heading back to Ninjago. Clutch couldn't move from the deck, too shocked and confused by what just happened...

#how to train your dragonblood #ninjago #ninjago jay #ninjago kai #ninjago cole #ninjago zane #ninjago pixal #ninjago harumi #ninjago shade #ninjago plundar #ninjago dareth #ninjago ronin #ninjago morro #ninjago tox #plasmashipping

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fanfalc-616 · 3 years

Text

The Rights Of A Nindroid

Chapter Twenty-Seven

(Previous Chapter Here)

Hey guys on a scale of one to ten how much to do hate me?

I bet that number’s about to go up a few notches~

Cole can’t focus on his work.

He’s trying, he’s doing everything he can, but his brain refuses to cooperate, instead going back to one single fact.

Today is Zane’s birthday.

Or, well, ‘creation day’, as he would say in a fondly exasperated tone.

No matter how hard he tries to focus on right now, the only thing he can think about is how happy they all were together.

It’s been so long, so, so, so long, and Cole curses himself for not being able to remember all the details. The little angles of his smile, the brightness of his blue eyes, the softness of his synthetic skin when they held hands… it’s all so hazy now.

But when he closes his eyes, he can still remember how they were when they were together. How startled he had been when they realized Cole was strong enough to pick him up- and how much he laughed and half-heartedly lectured him when Cole abused that ability. How he started pranking Jay by pretending not to understand metaphors and jokes that he actually had already figured out. How he would insist on keeping their bedroom clean and organized even when Kai would absolutely trash it two days after he picked it all up.

His mind is just flooded with memories of him, images and events and feelings- Zane is the only thing he can think about.

He would always insist on pointing out how ‘illogical’ birthday wishes were, he would refuse to let anyone else make the cake- well, at least after Cole’s failed attempt at it.

Zane… he’s irreplaceable. And they- they’ve lost him before. After they fought the Golden Master, after he died. The team split up, they couldn’t even look at each other without painful memories attacking them.

Because… Lloyd leads them. Cole holds them together. Kai keeps them going towards their goal. Jay makes jokes and keeps their spirits up. Nya stops them from falling into their own self doubt.

But Zane? Zane was the one who brought life to them.

He helped Lloyd when he didn’t trust himself enough to lead. He helped Cole when he fell apart. He helped Kai when he felt he couldn’t keep going. He helped Jay when he woke up from nightmares he refused to explain. He helped Nya when she second-guessed herself.

Zane was always there, always bringing out the best in them, always protecting them from whatever tried to hurt them.

Cole can’t let this keep going. He can’t let the purest, kindest, gentlest person he knows be hurt like this.

Whatever they’re doing to him there, he can’t stand for it. He can’t fail, he can’t give in, he will do anything and everything to save him.

He loves Zane with everything he has, and Cole refuses to let them keep him from him.

Zane may not be human, but Cole wouldn’t want him any other way.

They will never take away the one he loves.

{ { { { { { { { { { ~ } } } } } } } } } }

Another wire is pulled on.

Another set of circuits is jostled.

Another panel is pushed to the side.

Zane stares blankly ahead, doing everything in his power to avoid acknowledging it. He had even turned off his artificial respiratory system- with the way his chest plate is open and inner workings are exposed, his circuits don’t need the extra cooling.

A hand pulling his power source almost out of his chest makes a strangled whimper escape the back of his throat. The pain is overwhelming, but he grits his teeth and forces it down.

Showing emotion gets it hurt. And it doesn’t want to get hurt.

After a few more moments of struggling with his own thoughts, he allows himself to listen in on what the people working on him are saying.

The one typing notes into his computer frowns in thought. “Was it- yeah, I think it was actually built today. The exact year isn’t here, but I think it’s sixty? Seventy? Somewhere around there?”

Zane feels himself tense up. He- it’s his birthday? Well, more technically, ‘creation day’, but the others had always insisted on referring to it by the more human term. They-

“Hey, Original. What year were you built?”

The direct question grabs his attention, and he takes half a moment to think back- it’s been quite a long time, given that he watched his father grow old.

“My original body was completed and activated sixty-three years ago. My current body was completed two years, one month, two weeks and six days ago,” he answers, forcing his voice to remain emotionless.

Something is aching in his chest- and it’s not because of the way his workings are being probed.

Has it really been that long? It’s been… over eight months. He’s been here for- for so long, he-

Another weak whimper is forced out of it with the manipulation of his power source, and he once again tries to muffle it.

His birthday. It had always had such good memories attached to it.

He can remember the time Cole had taken it upon himself to be the one who baked the cake. Flour, sugar, eggs- the ingredients ended up almost everywhere except for in the baking sheet. It had been extremely amusing- but in the end, Zane had decided to spare him from his repeated failed efforts and make the cake himself. His attempt was, thankfully, edible.

With that memory, he’s reminded of another- when Kai had somehow gotten it into his head that he must get Zane the best present. The hours and hours the red ninja had spent researching and trying to find what he would like the most actually did serve a use- Zane didn’t think that any copies of that book were still around, and it was very much a pleasant surprise when Kai gifted it to him.

Not to mention the first birthday they celebrated, the one after they had missed the first year due to Zane’s amnesia. Jay had decided that it needed to be perfect, with absolutely no room for error. He spent so long looking into details and small factors that really made no difference, but the pride he had showed was too endearing for Zane to be willing to point that out.

But… in the end, he honestly couldn’t care less about the food, gifts, or decorations.

What really made it special were his friends.

Zane can hear its own processor working as he tries to push the memories into the back of his mind. He- he doesn’t want to remember, it doesn’t want to think about what he used to have, he doesn’t want to acknowledge that he’s never going to have that again, he-

No, no, he needs to stop, it needs to get the thoughts out of its head, if he keeps this up he’ll likely begin to cry, and he doesn’t want to get hurt again, he’s so tired of being hurt, he-

/“Hey Frosty!” Jay had chirped as he pushed the cake towards him. “Happy Birthday!”

“Hey, hey, someone turn off the lights!” Kai waved his hand around as he tried to get someone’s attention. “I’m gonna light the candles!”

Zane’s mouth had quirked up. “I highly doubt blowing out small fires on a pastry will grant any wishes,” he pointed out for the upteenth time, well aware of the response he would get.

“C’mon, Zee, don’t be so technical about it. It’s a birthday wish!” Cole had rolled his eyes, but his annoyance was clearly playful as he flicked off the light switch.

With the candles lit, Zane had smiled as he listened to the poorly tuned singing of ‘Happy Birthday’ from his boyfriends.

When the song ended, Zane had chuckled before blowing the candles out, even though he had no wishes in mind.

He didn’t need any birthday magic- not when he had his friends beside him./

Against his will, his respiratory system is reactivated, his breathing coming in raggedly. Fighting back the urge to cry, Zane breathes out a few quiet words.

“I… I wish I could see you again.”

Once they escape, it’s like a dam had been broken. Despite his best efforts, there’s nothing he can do to stop the sobs torn from him.

The memories… he has just enough of them to torment him without comfort. He can remember their experiences, but not their faces. He can remember how he felt, but not the details of the events that caused the coded emotions.

It can hear the way he’s ordered to stop, but the voice seems so distant, almost muffled. His body refuses to follow the command, and he continues to cry, wishing with everything left inside of him for one thing, just one small, simple thing.

To see his friends.

Just one last time.

They can take him back after, if they wish, and he will return. It will allow them to take him here if he must, if only he could only talk with them once more, just to tell them one final thing.

Just to tell them goodbye.

He’s not going to last here for much longer. He knows this. And it pains him to know that he will never truly see them again. Even if they find him later, once he has truly shattered in their grasp, he… he won’t be Zane anymore. He won’t be the one they recognize. He’ll simply be a puppet, a thing for them to command and control.

And it’s not that that he’s scared of. He knows that this will be his fate. He’s already numbed to their commands and actions against him.

What hurts is knowing that he will never be theirs again. He’ll never be their teammate, their friend, their lover…

He’ll only be a shadow of the one they had loved.

He will not love them in return.

And they will have no choice but to accept that.

His chest panel is closed, and he’s roughly taken from the table, towards the training room. Even as he chokes on his own sobs, it doesn’t resist them.

And even if he can’t truly say it to them, even if they won’t ever hear it… he can tell them. He can tell them what he needs to say.

“I will love you to the very end, my friends.”

“Goodbye.”

#the rights of a nindroid #ninjago fanfiction #trauma #psychological torture #torture

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greenygreenland · 3 years

Text

Riptide: Cole x Reader

-HAPPY 10th ANNIVERSARY NINJAGO!! -I write for females (just as a side note) because I’m a girl and it’s easy for me soooo yeah :/ -i know jay and cole are besties, but for this, let’s just say jay still likes to tease cole (friends do that anyway tho??)

Summary: Cole finds you at the beach trying to drown yourself. When he rips you out of the ocean, he realises you look familiar.

WARNINGS: Near-death (drowning)

The waves quietly lapped against the edge of the sand, tickling Cole’s toes as he made his way across the wet grains. The moon stood high in the sky, shining brightly overhead like a lighthouse. Cole promised to catch up with the others, but he couldn’t rip himself away from the calm of the waves.

His heart stilled with the quiet waves, sinking into the wet sand like his feet. A cool breeze passed over his face and it brushed through his windswept hair. If only Ninjago could stay this calm. If only he could be like the ocean, free, never ending.

Cole found himself walking deeper into the ocean and away from the banks. The waves slowly met his ankles, then his knees. It soaked into his rolled up trousers, travelling up until he was waist deep. He didn’t worry about being so far out since it was low-tide. And even if he did find himself getting swept out to sea, he still had his powers.

Something softly splashed over to his left. He whipped around, immediately taking a defensive stance. As ineffective as it was, he’d rather be safe than sorry.

Cole eyed the smooth waters. He wondered if it was a shark, or worse, a mystical beast he never heard about. For a few moments, it was quiet, save for the waves, the calm breezes, and Cole’s steady breath. “Maybe it was a fish.” he whispered to himself with a chuckle. Something brushed his leg and he reared back with a squeal.

“Not a fish not a f--First Spinjitzu Master!”

The first thing Cole saw was a shirt, then a bundle of floating hair and a face hidden among it. He wanted to freak out, but a girl was laying in the sand underwater. Underwater. He plunged under the cool waves, wrapping his arms around the girl’s torso and hauling her up. “First Spinjitzu Master... First Spinjitzu Master...” Cole placed a hand on his earpiece.

“Guys! I found a girl in the ocean. She’s unconscious and...I don’t think she’s breathing. Come quick!”

“We’re on our way.” said Zane. The nindroid’s voice was a relief to hear. “We will arrive in five minutes, and as an extra precaution, I have phoned nine-one-one.”

“Okay, great, great.” As Cole laid the limp girl on the grainy sand, he frantically looked her up and down. Even through the curtain of hair plastered over her forehead, he could tell her face was unnaturally pale. So much, that it could have been a mirror of the bright moon.

It suddenly occurred to Cole that he had to do something. The girl wasn’t breathing and she’d die if he didn’t do something. “Gyah! I’m not the smart one!” He ran a hand over his face. There was one thing Zane did bother to teach everyone in the group, whether it be for civilian use or themselves. Cole pictured Zane standing by his side.

Place the heel of your palms on the centre of the chest.

Cole placed his hands on the centre of the girl’s chest.

Interlock your fingers. Remember to press two inches down.

Cole interlocked his fingers.

I have read somewhere that pressing down to the beat of Stayin’ Alive is said to ‘do the trick’ and make it easier.

And so Cole did just that. “Ha... Ha... Ha... Ha... Stayin’ alive... Stayin’ alive...” He wasn’t sure if it was working, or even if he was doing it right to begin with. How would pressing two inches down on someone’s chest do good? How would this save her from being killed?

Suddenly, she jolted upward, coughing and sputtering out a load of water right into Cole’s face. He didn’t care though. That meant the water had come out of her lungs, right? The danger had been avoided, at least for now.

“COLE!”

He whipped around, letting out a loud sigh of relief. Zane and Pixal took Cole’s place, reviewing her vitals and diagnosing her with whatever. He wasn’t sure what they were doing, so he stood off to the side as Jay babbled away. “What happened? Are you okay? How did you find the girl? You didn’t have to swim out there did you?”

Kai looked at Jay weirdly. “Do you think Cole would swim out that far to begin with? He probably found her washed ashore.” Cole wanted to say something, but he was in a daze. The more he thought about the girl, the more he wondered where he saw her from. It was like a smell you know you’ve smelled before but can’t put a name or memory to.

He ignored the background chatter and zeroed his gaze on her limp body as Zane carried her to the ambulance. When Zane turned around and motioned for him to come over, Cole finally came back to his senses. He could think about the girl later, right now, he had to answer some questions.

Three weeks later

“Urgh,” said Cole. “Why do I have to go with Jay?” Sensei Wu raised a brow at him as if to say, ‘really?’. “What is wrong with Jay?” he inquired. “He is a brother, and brothers should be respected.” Off to the side, Jay loudly applauded. “Period. Brothers should be respected, Cole.” He rolled his eyes with a sigh.

“Now,” Wu interjected. “I want you both to visit Jamanakai Village. You will find Mystake’s tea shop. Get these and only these.” He handed Cole an old drawstring bag. It had a label on the string, but the handwriting was so wonky that Cole couldn’t read it. “If she tries to kick you out, tell her I sent you. That is all, I expect you both back by Thursday.”

Jay let out a long groan. “Why can’t Kai do it? Or Zane? Or Lloyd?” He smugly glanced at Cole. “Or even my wonderful girlfriend Nya? I thought they were the responsible ones.” Wu raised a brow and Cole snickered. “You will both go to Jamanakai Village. That is final. While you are out, do not forget to eat and whatever you do, no Elemental Dragons and no vehicles. You will walk the entire way to the village, am I clear?”

“Yes, Sensei.”

To say the walk was gruelling was a nice way to put it. There were tens of thousands of other words Cole could have said to describe the terrible pain of having Jay around. Of course, he didn’t actually mean that, but hypothetically, the walk was terrible.

“You know,” said Jay, “these birds are said to have been exported from the Dark Island.” He pointed to a nearby tree, where three or four birds sat. Their oily wings were like liquid obsidian. Funnily enough, the colour matched both Cole’s gi and hair. He watched as one of them flew away, fluttering straight over his head and into the sky above.

Cole wondered if it would be nice to live life as a bird, but then he realised he wouldn’t have a bed or cake or chocolate and candy.

“I’m guessing they were exported before the Dark Island became...you know.” added Jay. “I mean, how could these cute little guys be from there?” He reached out to pet one of the birds. It squawked and bit his finger. “OW!” Jay rounded on the tiny bird, who actually appeared to be laughing. “Bad bird! That’s a no-no! You don’t bite people like that.”

Jay ripped off his glove and sucked on his poor finger. Cole stared at him as he whimpered. “Is it bleeding?”

“Gwee, I fondt knowh.”

Cole dug a hand in his pouch. He felt around and pulled out a band-aid along with a small alcohol wipe. “Here.” Jay took the band-aid and wipe, gingerly dabbing it on his wound and wrapping the band-aid around his finger. “Thanks.”

“Yeah.”

They continued on in a comfortable silence, caring only to watch the leaves sway in the wind. When they arrived in Jamanakai village, their feet were sore, and they were tired. Jay’s stomach grumbled, and so did Cole’s.

“I knew we should have eaten before we left.” Cole muttered. Jay let out a long yawn. “Sensei Wu said we were supposed to be back by Thursday. That’s three days away without video games. Do you think I can survive like this? Do you Cole?”

He wasn’t listening. A heavenly smell reeled him in like a fishing line. It was sweet, yet it smelled like green tea. Maybe it was cake; Cole hoped it was cake. “Do you smell that?” he seriously inquired. Jay knitted his brows together. “The bakery? Oh, it’s right there.” He pointed to a small shop to their left, where a girl stocked freshly baked cakes and buns.

Cole could already imagine how pillowy and soft the buns would be. They would have sweet fillings that melted in his mouth, and the cake would be the perfect texture with the right amount of cream. He made his way to the bakery, keeping a keen eye on the fresh chocolate cake.

“Cole, we’re not here to buy cake.” said Jay. “If we’re gonna eat, we might as well eat a real meal.” Cole rolled his eyes and pointed to a slice of chocolate cake. “I’ll take one of that, please.”

The cashier took out a pair of sparkling tongs. “Will that be all?” she inquired with a smile. “My grandma just finished steaming the buns, they’re fresh.” Cole whipped towards the cashier. For some reason, her voice sounded so familiar. It was again, like a smell that reminded him of something he couldn’t quite place. Sweet, nostalgic, kind.

That’s right, he thought. This was the girl he saved on the beach. But before then, he knew her as the studious (Y/n) (L/n) from the Marty Oppenheimer School of Performing Arts. When Cole had no one to talk to in class, she was there. When he forgot his lunch, she shared it with him. When he decided to run away, she promised not to forget him.

(Y/n) walked out from behind the counter. She handed Cole a bag of two containers. “It was you, wasn’t it?” Her voice was rather soft, like she were embarrassed anyone else would hear. “You saved me, on the beach.”

“Y-yeah, I did.” Was it just Cole or was it getting hot out here? He didn’t need anyone to tell him his face had gone beet red. “Thank you Cole. I might have snuck ‘a few’ more cakes in the bag. That guy’s your friend, right? There are some buns in there for him too.”

Cole met (Y/n)’s bright eyes. They weren’t as lively as he remembered, but they still held that warm glow that always made him feel safe. “I--uh--(Y/n)...”

“Yeah?”

“Uh...do you still go to the Marty Oppenheimer School?” Do you want to hang out sometime? “I mean...uh...” How have you been? “T-thank you for the food.” He let out a nervous laugh and (Y/n) chuckled a little. “If you’re wondering, I graduated last year.” she said. Cole’s eyes widened. Had that much time already passed?

“I live in Ninjago City now.” she added. “I didn’t think I would make it this far, but I did. I’m here in Jamanakai for the next three months before I go back to the city. I heard you’ve been up to things too--ninja stuff. Saving lives.” She smiled at Cole, as if the two shared an inside joke.

“(Y/n)! Help me carry this, it’s too heavy for me!”

(Y/n) glanced over her shoulder. “One second, grandma!” She turned back to Cole and wrapped him in a tight hug. It was brief, it was sweet, and it made Cole remember just how close they used to be. “I have to get back to work. See you soon Cole?”

“Yeah.” he awkwardly replied. “See you soon.” He watched as she disappeared out back. When did he finally become taller than her? When had she actually spoken so nonchalantly? Last time he saw her, they were still kids. They were young, and even with responsibilities, they were still free.

“Sooooo, you’ve got yourself a girl?” inquired Jay. He took the bag from Cole and made his way over to the fountain. The two sat on the ledge as Jay sifted through the food. There were buns filled with red bean paste, lotus paste, and even barbeque pork. Under that were five different desserts. Two velvety chocolate cakes, one egg tart, and three pieces of perfectly wrapped mochi.

Jay took one of the meat buns. “Wow, this is really good. Tell your girlfriend to teach you how to cook.” Cole let out a short sigh. “She’s not my girlfriend, Jay. I haven’t even seen her in years.”

“What? Why?”

Cole closed one of the boxes. He dug around the bag for a fork, but he grasped a small slip of paper instead. Jay peered over Cole’s shoulder with wide eyes. “Ooooo she gave you her phone number? See! Dating. Case closed. I’m gonna tell everyone when we get back.”

“No you aren’t.” Cole retorted. “Like I said, I haven’t seen her in years. She probably only wanted to get back in touch.” Jay raised his brows and Cole elbowed him in the stomach. “Get your mind out of the gutter.” He pulled out one of the buns and took a big bite out of it. “We went to the same school together as kids. We became friends there, but when I ran away from home, we lost contact.”

“So go talk to her!” exclaimed Jay. “Before we go, I’m setting you both up on a date, or at least a night out together. We’re not going home on Thursday, got it? We’re staying ‘til Saturday and that’s final.” Cole raised a brow in amusement. “I thought you said you wanted to play video games.”

“If your girlfriend has a phone, then she has video games.” said Jay smartly. Cole let out a bright laugh. All he really knew now was that he’d have to come to Jamanakai Village more often.

NOTE: I will make a part two soon, so stay tuned! Tip jar

#ninjago #lego ninjago #ninjago x reader #lego ninjago x reader #ninjago cole #ninjago cole x reader #x reader #fanfic #ninjago 10th anniversary #happy 10 year anniversary

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themadauthorshatter · 3 years

Text

Time to check back in in Kai.

PG-13 NINJAGO REWRITE PILOT EPISODE 2!

We open on Zane as he ninja flips and parkours ahead of Wu and Kai. Wu's fine, but Kai's tired and asking if they can take a very fast five minute break.

Wu complies and they take a seat on the grass, Kai falling flat on his back, reminding Wu that they had a deal.

Yes, they did. And Wu says Kai can ask whatever he wants.

First question: Why did they take Nya?

Garmadon's doing. Who's that? The guy that ordered Samukai to attack Four Weapons and take Kai's sister. There you go, happy? Next question, please.

What did they want with the map? Wu explains, not as fed up this time, that the map leads to four golden weapons, which Wu is trying to find, so they need to go get it back.

What makes these weapons so special? They're elemental. Fire, earth, lightning, and ice. And they can do some pretty cool stuff, though Wu's never seen it happen, because he helped hide them. Supposedly, though, they have the power to get people in and out of the Underworld, which makes Kai's eyes widen.

Kai jolts off his back and asks what they're waiting for and tells Wu to keep leading the way.

Wu, in a mood, asks what happened to taking a break, but Kai says that can wait becuase they need to go.

Wu obliges and they continue onward, though find Zane standing in front of them, about 10 to 15 feet away. Kai asks him if he could get moving, but Zane doesn't respond. Kai and Wu get closer and see he's trembling and seizing, crumbling to the ground and jerking around as his eyes roll back.

Wu acts quickly and holds onto him until he stops siezing. Kai doesn't see it fully, but does see Wu help up Zane and hold an arm over his shoulder.

They continue, which we see in a time montage, which shows Wu half carrying Zane, until Zane gets better enough to run ahead of them again, until Wu is leading Kai to the monastery, where Kai, quite tiredly, questions, why Wu expects him to fight in a place of peace.

Wu corrects him: he's not fighting, he's TRAINING, and his first lesson is patience.

Wu commands Kai to sit tight and wait while he goes in to grab some things for him.

Kai watches him go inside and has a big brain moment: He turns his heel and spins, continuing until his body burns and he falls down.

Wu returns and shakes his head; LESSON. FAILED.

Kai asks how they're training, if there's nothing there and Wu reveals the training equipment. Kai will train alone in the beginning, and must complete the training course.

Kai gives it a go and gets beaten off by a spinning mini obstacle course.

Kai lies there and asks if this is the only way he can save Nya. Wu replies, beginning that he knows Kai is frustrated and just misses his sister, but must focus. Kai cuts him off and asks again if this is the only way to save Nya.

Wu sighs. Yes. This is the only feasible way Kai can save his sister. He knows because, once upon a time ago, he was Kai. He lost his brother, so he tried getting him back on nothing but his wits and whims. The world beat the EVER LOVING F*CK out of him for it. Wu needed a Wu in that moment of his life. He doesn't have a Wu. He has a Kai, and Kai needs a Wu, so he's got one.

Kai nods and gets back up, ready to try again. He has a question, though: how long does he have to complete the course?

Wu sits cross legged, places a cloth on his lap, and prepares and drinks some tea from a small cup.

Kai's annoyed at this, because Wu did all that in a matter of seconds, and asks how he knows Kai can do all that in the same amount of time. He's a blacksmith, not a gymnast.

Wu picks up the tea, cup, and cloth, and states that Kai is his father's son, and Ray was a man who was nothing, but ambitious to accomplish his goals.

Kai asks if Wu really knew his father and Wu goes inside, telling Kai to keep practicing.

Kai only watches Wu leave and then looks around. TV perspective, we get Kai's perspective as he looks around. The training course and equipment is now bigger and there's more space between them. The only thing we hear is the wind and some bird song, but, out of the perspective, Kai tenses up and hugs himself. Cut to a bird's eye view of Kai in the monastery as he looks around, the empty space more than obvious when we see him on his own.

While still in this shot, we see a couple figures leap over the training equipment, all of them in black. Kai doesn't notice them, but the camera does, focusing on the two. One is much of built and muscular than the other, who is more expressive, giving Muscles a confused glance before turning back to Kai.

They observe the anxious Kai, who stands and does just about nothing until Wu returns.

We cut to this happening and Wu asks why Kai hasn't been training, seeing as he's hell bent on saving his sister.

Kai counters that he can't exactly train properly, if there's no one to give him pointers on what he could improve.

Wu is suspicious, but takes a seat anyway and tells Kai to practice.

Kai nods and takes a breath, running and leapong onto the obstacle course.

Which jumpcuts to him faceplanting on his new bed, fully clothed, bruised, and groaning from the massacre that was training.

Wu, standing at the door, remarks that tripping and getting swept up in the obstacles is not a massacre, but lets Kai be overdramatic just a little longer.

Kai sits up and asks if they're doing this again tomorrow.

Wu nods. They're doing this every day until Kai gets through the training course.

Kai sighs and nods, willing to training even though he's going to be hella sore tomorrow.

Wu commends him for getting here and at least doing training and lets him go to bed, so he can rest.

Once he's gone, Kai changes into some pajamas and lies down in his bed on his back, staring out the window. He then turns on to his back to stare better, and to just reflect.

This is the furthest he's been from home, and the longest he's been alone. And not having Nya with him isn't helping.

He hears the floorboards creak outside his door, and Kya jumps to his feet and throws the door open, looking into the hallway; "Nya!?"

Nope. No one's there, much to Kai's dismay, which we see clearly as he goes back to his room and gies to bed.

TV perspective, the camera pans away from Kai's door to the not-as-muscular ninja as he's on the ceiling, having wedged himself in a corner to avoid detection(so ninja).

We zoom/cut in on him as he's joined by Zane, who swings down to him, hanging upside down by his knees, and silently greets him.

Jay- if this was legit, we wouldn't know by now, but this is for simplicity sake, sorry- almost says, "Hi," but Zane shushes him and points to Kai's door.

Jay nods and Zane points down the hall and gestures, 'outside.'

Jay nods and we cut to Wu in his room, meditating as three figures surround him from behind and kneel down. Wu turns and faces them, greeting them with a head bow, which they return.

Wu asks for what they found and we cut to the Underworld, more specifically Nya being thrown to the ground with her hands tied behind her back as Samukai takes a knee, apologizing for his absence and tardiness to Lord Garmadon himself, who we and Nya see as the camera is panned up.

He's shrouded in smoke and darkness, the smoke because of some dying embers that act as an insense that make him strong, for magic BS reasons I can't come up with other than it just looks cool and would look cool.😅

Garmadon asks if Samukai was just wasting his time on tormenting people like Nya, who looks between them in fear.

Samukai denies wasting time, because he found the map for finding the four golden weapons.

Garmadon chuckles and commends him for finding the map, and then asks why the hell he's standing around and wasting his time, when he should be working and getting his ass and army to the surface, so he can find and retrieve the weapons.

Samukai reports his army got weekend whipped by Sensei Wu and his rag-tag team of ninja, which confuses Nya. Garmadon notices her confusion and politely commands she voice her thoughts, please and thank you.

Nya does so, saying that her brother said ninja weren't around anymore, not a group of them, at least.

Garmadon laughs and approaches and kneels down in front of Nya, telling her that if she's in the Underworld and seeing living skeletons, there are ninja left in the world, and she will bring them right to him.

Nya's confusion returns, along with some fear, and we cut to Kai as he trains, wearing a uniform provided by Wu.

He does well enough, but fails when he notices Zane agility his way to Wu and whisper something to him before leaving.

Kai asks who that was, but Wu tells him to be patient because, for now, that was no one of consequence and Kai will meet him later. Now, however, he'd better be focusing on training.

Kai does so, but in an awesome montage that shows him training and slowly realizing he's not alone, which we see when Jay hand springs behind Kai while Kai's brushing his hair, Cole meditates beside Wu while Kai trains, and, and this is going to freak people out, but trust me on this, Zane crawls across the ceiling as Kai sleeps, at least until Zane falls and Kai races out of bed to see what it is. He finds nothing, because Zane threw himself out the windkw and is caught by Cole, who gets him back inside.

After a week or so, in the early morning, Kai steps out to the training course with Wu next to him. Kai stands resolute, determined and focused before noticing Zane, Cole, and Jay take their places on different points of the roof, though Zane is next to Cole😉. Wu readies a cloth on his lap and barks for Kai to begin.

We see a split screen view as Kai races forward and Wu picks up his little teacup. Cole leans forward a little bit and Jay, who was sitting, hops into a crouch. Kai passes the first two obstacles with almost sheer ease before noticing Wu filling his cup. Thinking fast, he flips and throws a sword at Wu as he reaches the next obstacle. Wu ducks out of the way, which almost gives Jay, Cole, and Zane heart attacks. He's fine, which he shows by taking a sip of tea, but stops as he looks at and shakes his cup, like uppends it. Damn Kai, made him spill his tea😔. Speaking of Kai, he races through the last obstacle and practically launches himself beside Wu, picking up his tea kettle and offering a cup.

Wu stares up at Kai, impressed with him, and a little offended, because you don't touch Sensei Wu's tea, but holds up his cup.

Kai pours him some tea and takes a seat as Wu drinks, asking if this means he passed. Wu, not pausing from his tea, nods. Kai then asks, very excitedly if it also means they're going to save Nya. They lock eyes and Wu gives a, "Mm-mm." and finishes his tea.

Kai, thrown through a loop here, asks what they're doing then, what all that training was for, if it was nothing at all, but enjoyment for Wu, who tricked him into joining.

Wu picks up his cloth, cup, and tea, and explains he gave Kai a choice, and Kai chose the better of the two. He was not manipulated, at keast not in the way Kai thinks, which is, "if you want your sister back, come to my side, which is the dark side." The training wasn't for nothing, either. He's going to need it later.

Kai asks what that means, but Wu leaves, telling Kai to rest for the day, because he's earned it.

Kai gives a look of confusion and that fades/transitions to Kai in a bathroom as he brushes his teeth. He's worrying about Nya again, but he's also thinking about what Wu said, about how he needs his training. Kai wonders what he needs it for, and is too distracted to see Jay, Zane, and Cole sneak up behind him.

Kai finishes up his dental hygiene(keep those cavities away, Kai👍), and stares at himself in the mirror, mentally promising to save Nya, then notices too late that Jay is behind him.

ACTION TIME! Jay pounces and grabs onto Kai from behind with an arm and his neck. Kai tries shaking and throwing Jay off him, but ultimately does so by elbowing him in the ribs and face, which makes Jay let him go.

Before Kai can celebrate or ask who this guy is, he gets his legs swept out from under him by Cole, who also kicks him. Kai turns to fight him, but Cole is joined by Zane. All three glare at him and Kai glares back, readying himself for a fight.

Cut to Wu as he meditates and is in a state if hearing nothing but bird song, leaves ruffling, and wonderful outdoor noises. TV perspective, we stay focused on Wu as Kai is kicked into frame by Zane, who kips up to keep fighting.

Kai more or less pushes himself up and punches Zane away before shouting for Wu. Jay stops that with a tackle. Cole runs by, stops, but continues with Zane following.

Kai is quite literally thrown outside as Jay races around him, no cool visuals other than he's there one second and gone the next in a blur.

No time to worry about that because Cole leaps into the fray with Zane hopping off of any high place he can until he's in a battle stance next to Cole and Jay.

Kai backs up a little, but gives an, "AHA!" as he picks up and draws a katana.

The trio respond accordingly, Jay showing off his nun-chuck skills, Cole unsheathing and twirling a scythe before holding it out to Kai blade first, and Zane holding out his hands and "magic tricking" shurikens in between his fingers.

They all charge toward each other, Cole and Kai going at it for a bit before Kai pushes and kicks him away. Zane throws his shurikens at Kai, who deflects them with his katana, and Jay races forward, which leads Kai to have to ignore Zane for a bit to take care of him.

He dodges the nunchucks and grabs Jay, throwing him down and punching him hard in the face.

Cole spots this and literally throws Kai off of him.

"Enough!" Wu shouts.

All three stop, though Zane helps Jay to his feet and Kai sits up. The three bow and reply, "Yes, Sensei," like before, but this time Zane is completely silent.

Kai stands and asks if these three maniacs are Wu's students as well, and Wu nids, which leads Kai to kick himself.

Jay also has confusion: If Kai's this new kid Sensei told them about, then why didn't Wu tell them sooner? And why four, because last time he checked, there was always three in a group. When Jay starts stuttering and can't form words, Cole puts a hand on his shoulder and carlifies that they're all confused at the new arrival of a fourth ninja, seeing as the three are all close with one another already.

Wu grins and admits hes glad for the question and spinjitsus towards and past all of them, giving them plain gold emblems that are tied around their gis, though Kai gets his own now, too. They're all still in black, but that'll change, trust me. They also have their weapons, as well, so there's that.

And here, Wu introduces the ninja to Kai, and vice versa, and us the audience.

Muscles and strongest of the group, leader of the team, is Cole, who's as grounded and strong as stone. He's been training under Wu the longest and has since become his confidant and right hand; so if Wu's not around, Cole's in charge.

Speedy is Jay, who's as bright, as powerful, and as fast as a lightning strike. Jay removes his hood and first greets Kai and admits he's a little more than all that. He builds too, and dabbles in poetry, from time to time("But, OP, I thought you said Jay doesn't like reading?" I said from time to time, so don't worry about it), has tried and failed at cooking, but did fix the oven in the process, and lots of other things he's about to go into before Wu taps his staff against the ground to politely silence him.

Dropkick is Zane, whose as silent and dangerous as a winter's night. He's the most practically skilled, too, being able to cook, track, see the future, sort of, and be just about anywhere anytime. He's the newest after Kai, having been training for only a year under Wu's wing. And in that time, he's seldom spoken a word.

Kai asks if anything happened to make him mute and Jay stage whispers to him that 'seldom spoken' doesn't mean 'mute.'

Last, but not least, is Kai, who burns hot as a flame and just as quick to act.

With the meet and greet over, Wu gets to the point: Samukai and his army are on the move, and they need to act NOW because if that bonehead gets his hands on the weapon, there'll be hell to pay.

Kai asks about saving Nya, which gets Jay curious. Wu tells Kai to cool it because they'll save her soon enough, for now they need to catch up with Samukai.

Wu tells them all to go to sleep, so they're all rested for tomorrow, and retires for the night, leaving the boys alone.

Jay wonders if Wu was being serious about tomorrw, but Cole removes his hood and tells Jay not to worry. They've all fought the skeleton army before, so this will be a cake walk.

Zane and Jay exchange a galnce, Zane giving a shrug, and Jay asks if there are really dragons guarding the weapons, like Sensei said, correct him if he's wrong.

Cole shrugs it off. Kai asks if he's got a problem with dragons, but Cole simply says he has a team, a new kid, an army of bastard skellies, and four weapons on his plate, no room for dragons, thank you very much.

To change to subject, Jay inquires about who this Nya girl is, and Kai snarls that it's none of his business. Cole barks at Kai to be nice, because Wu never had to ask Kai to come along.

Kai sighs and states that if this is voing to help him save Nya, then so be it before he leaves to get some sleep.

The other three watch him go. Jay gives a, "huh," and wonders if this is an 'Orpheus and Eurydice' situation or if this is a family matter, but Cole tells both Zane and Jay to keep an eye on Kai; as much as he trusts Wu's judgement, he isn't ready to trust Kai, who's settling into bed.

The episode ends with match cuts of Kai in the monastery and Nya in the Underworld. Both are lying flat in a bed, but Kai is in his room while Nya is in a cell, guarded by a pair of skeletons.

#ninjago #ninjago rewrite #ninjao jay #ninjago kai #ninjago zane #ninjago cole #ninjago nya #PG-13 Ninjago #au #ua #seizure tw #seizure implication

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only-lonely-stars · 3 years

Text

The Future is Bright, Chapter 1

[Chapter 1 (Beginning) - you are here!] // [Chapter 2] // [Chapter 10 (End)] (FFN)

Credit for the inspiration of this newest story goes to @hot-anime-plundar! I finally got around to writing it in full (10 chapters). :) Thank you for allowing me the use of your idea! Updates will be on Sundays.

Summary: What would happen if Cole had indeed had a reflection in the tomb of the First Spinjitzu Master? How would that have changed his life later? What would it have been? This story follows what might have happened if he had seen something, and what it was; who he would have become. What if his future was already decided?... (Rated T for safety. Alternate title: the Cosmic Spoilers AU.)

Chapter 1: The Tomb and the City

The arrival of ghosts was not something any of the Ninja expected, and certainly not something Cole had thought would happen to them. No, he hadn't expected anything like what had happened; what’s more, he really didn't like being stuck as a ghost.

Of course, it wasn’t as if he could change the fact that he was a ghost. It was… irreversible.

Days, weeks later– how long had it been?– he was stuck in an underwater ship, going to Lloyd's grandfather's tomb. It was a wild goose chase, but they were there to hunt down a magic crystal and hope that Morro hadn’t killed the youngest of his brothers. It was a dire thought, but there was at least a little levity; the irony of it all made it at least a little bearable.

The seawater crashed against R.E.X.’s walls as they descended, and Cole tried to ignore it by cataloguing the events since Morro’s return. As he thought back to the beginning of this mess, it was a bit of a blur in his memory. One moment they’d been trying to advertise the tea shop, the next they were fighting for their lives and Lloyd’s freedom; it was all just too fast to keep straight.

He was too tired to remember.

No, he couldn’t say that anymore. Of course. Cole couldn’t blame tiredness, or hunger, or thirst, or anything he felt, for how messy the whole deal was. Now that he was a First-Master-forsaken ghost, he couldn’t feel anything but cold and emptiness… how fitting.

It was almost a relief when conversation resumed and they were attacked by a giant squid. Then they were at the tomb, with R.E.X. gone… and everyone else felt just as cold as he did.

-----

When they reached the ice maze, they knew Morrow was ahead of them, but it was hard to ignore the grandeur of the place despite him. Around them, great walls of ice reached up, dwarfing the Ninja as they regained their breath from the slides that went down to it from the chamber with the golden staff. Ice coated every surface but the rocky floor, making for traction but not the same amount of reflection. There was a source of light somewhere unknown, filtering through the ice in its watery way, and it made the area almost feel sleepy.

As he took in the surroundings, Cole couldn’t help but look up, up, up at the walls and wonder what the caves were for. Were they always there? Did the First Master make them? It was a curious thought– had the creator of the realm made something without the Golden Weapons, too?

The four didn’t take very long to stop and marvel, resolving to continue in and follow Morro. After all, they had to beat him to the Realm Crystal. However, they stopped again when they reacted the first of the ice walls.

When they reached it, Zane approached the wall alone, curiosity written on his mechanical features. “My reflection… is that me?” He paused, examining it and turning his head this way and that. “I look older, but my attire is… different. This is not what I look like right now at all.”

“Really?” Kai followed him. Then he stared at himself, taking a moment to redo the spikes in his hair a little. “Well… mine looks like me, but older. There’s a bunch of magic junk in this tomb; makes sense that the ice walls are magic too.” He grinned. “By the way, I aged super well.”

“Wait, really?” Jay ran up to his own with a beaming grin. “Let’s see!” He looked himself over in glee. “Woah ho ho! I get an awesome eyepatch!” he yelled, voice echoing through the caverns.

“Shh!” Kai hissed. “Jay! Morro’s in here!”

“I know, I know, give me a break!” Jay laughed. “Magic ice is telling me I’m gonna be a pirate, and he knows already.” He touched the ice. “There’s just a thing next to me– a blur. What is that…” Jay stopped talking and watched as the blur shifted, and then sighed, sounding completely smitten. Now he whispered. “...I end up with Nya.”

Cole tried to hear what Jay said, but for once, he was too quiet. Cole only shrugged to himself– it was probably nothing. No, he walked up to the ice wall as well, taking a moment to look at the others before his reflection. “I wonder what mine is.”

“Well, look at it!” Kai called. “We don’t have forever!”

“Fine.” After a moment of trepidation, Cole looked to the ice.

As soon as Cole caught sight of his reflection, Cole couldn’t help but stare. Looking back at him in the ice was himself. He didn’t smile or move if Cole didn’t, but it was no vision of his current self… it really was the future.

In the ice, Future Cole’s hair was longer. He wore white and blue, not black– a sort of robe that tied at the waist, with a belt that had his dragon symbol for the clasp. However, two things were most surprising: a yin-yang pin on his chest, and an orange scar on his very much not ghostly temple, reaching halfway down his face. He was everything that Cole was not right now.

As Cole took in the image, he couldn’t help but grin. Future Cole grinned too, and laughter lines appeared by his eyes. He stared, taking in the sight of himself, until he heard the sound of Kai’s impatient footsteps behind him. “Well? What do you see? You got all quiet.”

Cole turned to him, still grinning wildly, and couldn’t help a little laugh. “I’m human again!”

“What? That’s impossible!” Kai cried. “I mean, it’s good, but it’s still impossible!”

“Apparently not!”

“Kai, you forget that we believed ghosts were impossible before recently,” Zane interrupted, coming over to look as well. “Cole, what do you see?”

“I… well, I’m human.” He examined it again in awe. “There’s… there’s a weird scar on my temple, but otherwise it’s like nothing ever happened.”

Jay laughed. “That’s awesome! You don’t stay a ghost!” He tore his eyes away from his reflection and came up to Cole’s, looking at it curiously. “That’s weird... You’re dressed differently than I am.”

Cole tore his eyes away and looked at Jay. “Really? What do you mean?”

Jay shrugged. “I’m wearing something like, I don’t know, a sensei’s robe. You’re wearing a dress!”

“It’s not a dress! Those are formal robes!” He looked back at it, frowning. “Though… white and blue isn’t like the Ninjagian royal family, so that can’t be it. Plus, a yang pin…”

Kai gaped. “You’ve got a yang?!” The sound of his shout echoed through the ice maze, shrill and bouncing off the ice.

“Quiet!” Zane hissed, covering Kai’s mouth with one freezing cold hand. “Remember, Morro is here. We must stay focused!”

Cole grimaced as Kai recoiled from Zane’s touch. “Crud– okay, yeah. Having a yang is not so great, but let’s talk later!” He glanced back at the ice one last time. “We’d better find Morro.” Still, that was his future self...

He frowned again. Was his reflection glowing green, like a ghost? Why would it glow like that if he was human?

Realization crashed down with even more ghostly coldness as the glow darkened and grew. It wasn’t his reflection, or anything like it.

The words ripped from his throat before he could think. “Morro’s here! LOOK OUT!”

-----

For years, the memory of the First Spinjitzu Master’s tomb was one that stuck with Cole more closely than he would admit to anyone.

Long after Morro and the Preeminent had been defeated, he still found himself sometimes thinking about what he’d seen. Some days he’d ignore it, knowing he’d recognize his path when he saw it. Other days it would weigh on him, much more than it ever did on the others. After all, he had a different fate than them, and apparently a yang to go with it. What did that leave for him to decide?

Nevertheless, and despite Cole’s worries, it didn’t seem to come. Years passed with no sign of any of his brothers’ futures coming to pass– the only exception was Jay, whose relationship with Nya was rebuilt stronger than ever. Even so, the rest (including the eyepatch) didn’t seem to happen, and Cole wondered if it ever would. Maybe it was a trick, or a test from the First Master. What if it wasn’t real at all?

Whatever the truth was, the vision slowly faded from his mind, and he eventually conceded to let it come to pass when it would. There was too much to do and think about, anyway; a biker gang, being stranded in another realm (or three), and evil emperors were just a few of them. There was never a rest, never a break, until after they’d liberated the prisoners of Prime Empire. It was only then that he remembered the vision… and promptly tried to ignore it again.

Despite Cole’s desire to avoid his memories, another adventure came too quickly for his liking. It was an invitation to a place he’d only heard stories of, mostly from his mother as a child. It was to the mythical city of Shintaro, deep in the mountains in central Ninjago. On the surface, it looked like a vacation, but Cole knew better; it was bound to become yet another mess to clean up.

When they at last arrived, the Ninja looked in awe upon the ivory city. There were spires and minarets on every building, and especially the palace. The city’s flagstone streets were perfectly clean, the roofs were gilt, the people were the fairest-skinned people Cole had ever seen– all in all, it was a true wonder to see.

The city’s force of winged guards escorted them to the palace as honored guests, having saved them from horrid direbats as they entered. As they went into the palace, their eyes caught on the vaulted and painted ceilings, buttresses, and columns everywhere. Every wall seemed to be inlaid with gold and carvings, or painted beautifully enough that they would stop looking where they were going. That was what happened when Kai walked into Lloyd, who had stopped to stare– they’d hit their heads, and rubbed them ruefully as Nya rolled her eyes.

Despite their distraction and awe, the Ninja eventually reached the throne room, and without injury. When they reached it, two Shintaran guards opened the doors. The captain of the guard–a man named Hailmar, if Cole had heard him correctly– led them in, gesturing to them and bowing to the throne.

“It is with great honor, King Vangelis,” he cried, “that I present the famed Ninja of Ninjago!”

At his announcement, the king stood from where he’d been sitting on his throne to greet them. He wore white and blue robes that struck Cole as being very familiar, but he struggled to place the familiarity. The king didn’t seem to notice his confusion, as he smiled at them and spread his hands.

“Welcome, welcome! I’m most pleased that you were able to accept our invitation.” The king bowed in greeting. “It is an honor.”

“The honor is ours,” Sensei Wu responded with a matching bow. “Shintaro is beyond anything we imagined.”

The king smiled benevolently. “I’m only a figurehead. The citizens of our proud city are the heart of Shintaro.”

“Oh!” A cheerful voice came from the side of the throne room. “They’re here!”

Cole looked over to its source. The voice belonged to a lovely young woman, dressed in white and blue robes to match the king’s. She was grinning excitedly, and bowed in greeting hastily. Cole’s eyes caught on her– she was beautiful, in a young sort of way, and he immediately knew she was the princess. The colors were still so strangely familiar...

The king beamed at his daughter as she entered. “Ah! Please, meet my heart– her royal Princess Vania.”

Vania happily approached them, coming to stand in front of the Ninja with barely-contained excitement. “I am such a fan of yours. I’ve read all about your adventures! It was my idea to invite you to my birthday.”

Cole couldn’t help but smile at her. Her enthusiasm was infectious! He hadn’t realized it, but she was at least half a head shorter than him– not that her small stature contained her enthusiasm. “Well, it’s an honor to be here, Princess.”

She smiled back, cheerful and bright, and looked among them. “So, is it true that you’ve been to Hiroshi’s Labyrinth?”

“Affirmative,” Zane noted cheerfully.

“Competed in the Tournament of Elements?”

“Oh, do we have stories for you,” Kai added with a grin.

She gasped. “I need to hear them all!”

“Where shall we begin?” Cole was about to tell her a story, but he stopped, for Hailmar had descended between them. He was frowning, clearly protective and watching Cole distrustfully. However, he stepped aside for the king, who set a hand on Cole’s shoulder.

“You can begin by following me!” the king interjected with a smile. “Tomorrow will be a very busy day for all of us; I will show you to your rooms here.” He led them to hallway, and the whole group began walking together.

“Cole, the Earth elemental,” Vania began, coming up alongside him with no sign of losing her excited smile. “What is it like to command the very earth? Is it as fun as it sounds?”

He grinned back at her– it wasn’t hard. “Yeah, pretty much.”

“That’s what I thought. Personally, it sounds amazing! Imagine what you could do with the mountains!”

“Oh yeah, just about anything you can think of! It’s pretty cool.”

King Vangelis hummed in interest. “Are you quite strong, Cole?”

Cole looked to him, then shrugged sheepishly. “Well, uh, I guess. Not the strongest person– that’s probably Karloff– but I can move a lot.”

Vania flushed a light pink. “Come on, Father! He’s the Master of Earth. I’m sure he’s very strong.”

“But of course,” the king said indulgently, though not with the same enthusiasm. “I’m sure the Master of Earth is more than a match for our mountains.”

Cole grinned self-consciously. “That’s really nice of you to say, your Majesty.”

“Think nothing of it,” the king dismissed. “I simply hope you find Shintaro as lovely as we do during your visit. I have personally seen to it that you will want for nothing while in our borders.”

Cole smiled properly at the king. “That’s really nice of you, your Majesty. Thank you.”

“Consider it thanks for all you’ve done for us.” Vangelis smiled flatteringly. “After all, Ninjago’s business is our business. We’re at your service.”

“Yes, we are!” Vania repeated. “I’d be happy to show you around the palace, actually.”

“Well, we’d love a tour,” Cole responded hesitantly. “All of us are super excited to see Shintaro.”

“Of course.” A little wind seemed to be taken out of her sails, but she quickly bounced back. “I’d love to show you all around! I think there’s a spot in the garden you’ll love…”

From there, conversation flowed easily. Cole was completely engrossed in it, even as the king fell behind to talk to the others more, mostly with Master Wu. Behind the group, Jay stopped to whisper with Lloyd and Nya, watching Cole from behind.

“The princess seems to like Cole!” he remarked. “I mean, he’s my best friend and all, but… Cole?”

Lloyd glared at Vania’s back. “Yeah… weird.”

Nya elbowed Lloyd harshly. “Not every princess is like Harumi! Plus, Jay... you’re not subtle.”

“Nya, my darling, my yang, love of my life–”

“Jay.”

“–all I’m saying is that she has a thing for him! When has that happened?”

Nya was about to retort back, but paused, considering what he said. “...You know what? It’s been a while for him.” She pointed at Jay. “That’s really cool, but don’t tease him!”

Jay frowned, muttering. “I have to, he’s my best friend.”

Nya reached over and smacked him.

“Ow!”

“We’re in the presence of royalty!” she hissed.

“Fine,” he whined. “I won’t tease him in the presence of royalty.”

Lloyd gave him a curious look. “Is that code for ‘I’m going to bug him later?’”

“Yes. Yes it is.”

Lloyd snickered. “Do it.”

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