Chapter Text
Ninjago City…
One of, if not the largest cities in the world. With tall buildings and several districts, from fully urban locations to rural hills and mountains, the city was one of the most amazing locations in the world. Ninjago City is home to many businesses, shops, and a rich and mysterious history. Said history spanning back several decades, centuries even, telling the story of an ancient and powerful dynasty. One that has lasted to modern times.
However, there was a slight scene in one of the local high schools, Ninjago High. It seemed the left side of the wall of the front side of the building had been tagged by some overzealous artist. The faculty was trying to figure out who was the person that had defaced the wall, knowing that they would not be able to clean it up in time for the students to arrive. One of the faculty members, however, looked at the mural and was impressed. The image seemed to depict five mysterious figures, each with a different color as part of the armor they wore, and a sixth one in green as their leader. The six had energy swirling around them knocking back a group of shadowy figures… it looked like an epic battle was taking place…
Speaking of the mural… in a separate area of town, a young man heard the telltale sound of his bedside alarm clock going off. Groggy, he slowly woke his eyes, going through the typical teenage act of not wanting to wake up just yet. He went through the same routine as he did in middle school, he brushed his teeth and combed his long hair. The young man then washed his face and stared at his reflection in the mirror, at the green eyes he had. Then he heard the voice of his mother, “Lloyd! Breakfast!”
Lloyd was a bit more awake from the refreshing water, he then called back, “Right, I’ll be right there mom! Let me just get dressed first!”
A few minutes later he was downstairs, fully dressed. Llyod was wearing a green shirt with a dragon design on the front and gray jeans. “Morning sleepyhead,” his mother, Koko said, “Did you sleep well?” She walked over to the small kitchen where there was a dining area next to it. “Um… yeah. Yeah, I slept fine,” Lloyd replied, trying to hide his grogginess.
“Are you sure you didn’t do anything…? Like sneaking out again?” Lloyd went wide-eyed at this. Then Koko showed him a social media post about his wall art.
Lloyd, swallowed nervously at this, “W-Well-”
“Lloyd, we talked about this, you can’t be sneaking out at night.”
Lloyd suddenly felt sad, “I know mom… but… but it-”
Koko then calmly placed a hand on Lloyd's shoulder, “Listen, sweetie, you know I only want what’s best for you, right?”
The young man merely let out a sigh, “Yeah… I’m sorry. I just really need to think about some things.” There was a brief pause before Lloyd asked, “Hey, mom? Um, could we talk about dad?”
Immediately Koko cringed; Lloyd’s father was always a sore subject, “Lloyd, you know I love you, right?” Her son nodded, “I promise you I’ll tell you everything you want to know about your father when you are ready.”
Lloyd’s face immediately began to sour; that was ALWAYS her excuse. That Lloyd simply ‘wasn’t ready yet.’ “Fine…”
“Alright,” Koko said, gesturing to Lloyd’s breakfast, a Japanese style Breakfast; a small, roasted salmon, a block of cold tofu with soy sauce, a small bowl of rice, and another small bowl of Miso soup, “Now eat up before your food gets stale, you’ve got a big day ahead of you!”
Lloyd looked at her, then nodded with a small smile, “O-Okay. Thanks, mom.”
Later in the day, Lloyd was walking down a few blocks. Within a few minutes, he was at the high school. He looked at his handiwork. A few of the students were looking at the mural on the wall of the school. Others were taking pictures. Lloyd smiled at this and simply walked by…
He passed a guy and a girl who looked alike, twins, both working on a motorcycle. The boy is asked by his sister, “Kai, can you give my bike a little gas?”
The young, spiky-haired guy, Kai replied, “Alright. But uh, Nya, do you think that this will solve the problem with the throttle, or are we doing this for nothing?”
Nya, with dyed, black hair done in a bob cut, ponytail combo, replied confidently, “You know I haven't been wrong about this kind of stuff. Trust me, it’ll work.”
“Alright, here we go,” Kai said. Then with an arrogant smirk, Kai turned the ignition. The bike roared to life and crashed into a group of trash cans. The bike itself ended up crashing into a small tree knocking it down. Nya went to go help her brother and the bike. “Kai, are you ok?” She then suddenly switched gears, “Ugh, My bike! This is going to take forever to fix!”
Kai, soured by this said, “Gee, I’m fine too, thanks for asking.”
Nya then realized what she said and added, “I’m sorry Kai, I’m glad you’re okay.”
“Are you now?”
The two both froze upon hearing that third voice. It’s the vice principal. The woman was sharply dressed. She looked more like a killer-shark lawyer at a law firm than a member of the school staff. Her hawklike eyes showed from behind her glasses. “Look at what you’ve done! This place was already a mess and you two had the gall to do something like this! Do either of you even have a permit for a personal vehicle to be on school property?”
Nya froze… she realized that she forgot her permit at home. The look on her face said it all to the woman, “I see… What are your names?”
“K-Kai Smith…”
“Nya Smith…”
The vice-principal, mood unchanged, said, “Well then Mr. and Ms. Smith, the two of you have detention. Follow me…”
Later, during lunchtime, Lloyd was picking up his tray of cafeteria food. The food seemed generic but seemed okay. A tray of mashed potatoes, some gravy, and mixed vegetables. With a carton of milk and a side of applesauce. However, he was eyed by a bully, a prankster with red sunglasses and decked in white and red, who looked at this kid, and smirked. The guy picked up his applesauce and said, “Hey loser! Heads up!” Lloyd, in surprise, looked up and managed to see the messy projectile come his way, and was able to dodge it! However, the applesauce did hit someone as they were walking by. It caught them by surprise, making them drop their lunch tray causing his lunch, a burger with fries and a fruit smoothie, to get ruined, the smoothie turning everything soggy. Both Lloyd and the prankster were suddenly VERY intimidated. The unfortunate victim was a pretty big student, who looked like he spent a lot of time in the gym, and to GOOD effect! Angry, the guy turned to the crowd and saw Lloyd close to him. He then picked up the tray of ruined food, then walked forward a few paces, then said, “What. The heck! What’s the big idea, huh!?”
“Wait, WHAT!?” Lloyd was scared now! This guy thinks he did it! “But, I didn’t-!”
“Save it!” the guy yelled with anger. He then threw the whole tray at Lloyd’s direction Lloyd then dodged again! Only for the tray to land its contents all over a kid with a big brown hairdo. Who looked around and threw some food at a random nearby person, assuming they threw the food.
Within seconds the whole cafeteria was in a full food fight! Then the vice principal walked into the lunchroom and said “What is going on here! All of you stop this right now!” The students stopped throwing food, intimidated by the woman, “Who is responsible for this!”
Almost immediately the prankster yelled, “Them! they did it!”
Everyone looked and saw Lloyd and the big guy, halfway through throwing a handful of mashed potatoes at each other. “You two,” she said, “Detention!”
Later, during the school day at the campus library, one of the students, with blue eyes and oddly pale hair, was sitting at one of the computers surfing the internet, and looking up a few extra facts to help with his homework. Another student was reading a book on basic machinery as well as the history of cars and welding. Eventually, the one with the books, a guy with reddish-brown hair and a nicked eyebrow, got bored and decided to look up some jokes on the internet. He glanced over at the monitor to find a free computer to use, only to come across the monitor of the computer the blue-eyed student was using. He said “Do you happen to know any good jokes?” then the pale-haired student said, right out of the blue.
“I think I have a few good ones-” Suddenly, an odd sound came from the computer. The reddish-brown-haired student began to freak out, “Uh-oh, what’s that!” The pale-haired student stared at the screen, then said, “How odd, what is that, and why does it look so odd?”
“It’s a computer virus!” the redhead stated, alarmed, he then grabbed at the keyboard and tried to fix things. But messing with the keyboard only made things worse, the computer virus started to spread through the computer, causing the system to overheat. Then suddenly the computer shorted out! The screen went black, and faint smoke rose from the computer itself. “Oh geez…” the redhead said, he looked at the pale-haired student saying, “Do you think anyone noticed?”
“Oh, I noticed alright…”
The two slowly turned around at the sound of the voice. It was the vice principal! “You two are coming with me…”
Later, the six were sitting at a bunch of chairs next to, and in front of, the door to the principal’s office.
Then suddenly, the principal, an odd-looking man with black hair, walked up to the group. “Students,” he said, “I must first say how disappointed I am in all of you. Six first-years in detention on their first day of high school… Hmph. Rest assured you will only have to serve detention for the day, as a sign of good faith. Considering this is your first offense and all… I have also made a point to inform each of your families and legal guardians about this.” This made some of them widen their eyes in panic. “Anyway… ah, there you are.”
He seemed to be talking to someone else. The six saw an old man walk toward them. He was dressed in a simple outfit, one that screamed traditional feudal era at them. He was old, possibly in his mid or late sixties, and wore a type of old style straw hat as well. His eyes were surrounded by wrinkles and had a long white beard that complimented his elderly appearance. “Students, this is Wu,” the principal said, “He often acts as an auxiliary aid to the school. He’ll be in charge of detention today.” He then turned to the elderly man, “Do with them what you will, detention lasts for an hour. Good luck.” And with that, the man simply returned to the office. There was a brief second where the six students merely looked at the old man, each with a different expression on his face.
“Hello,” the man told them in a simple, calm tone of voice, “If you would all follow me? I have a van waiting to take us where we need to go.”
Indeed, he had a van. It looked as if some one took an old-school, traditional van and modernized it into a makeshift RV. Lloyd was forced to ride shotgun while everyone else sat in the back. It wasn’t so bad, the interior just smelled like tea for some reason.
Eventually, they reached their destination, which made most of them groan. “The Ninjago History Museum?” the brown-haired twin, Kai, asked, “Really?”
“Yes, young man. Really,” Wu said.
A few minutes everyone was outside and in front of Wu by the entrance, “Lloyd, Kai, Nya, Zane, Jay, Cole,” he began addressing each of them in turn, “We are going to help move some supplies from the storage closet and move them near the front desk for the overnight workers to prepare for tomorrow’s new exhibit. Any complaints about this task will not be heeded.”
This made some of them groan as they then entered the building.
The Museum looked old. It resembled an old, feudal era temple, only with modern windows and wiring, connecting the place to a security system. The typical surveillance cameras were there as well, but all of this wasn’t that curious to most of the group of students. Neither were the things displayed there as only Zane seemed to be looking at some of the exhibits with interest.
And with that, the six begin to move boxes to the front desk...
After a few of the boxes were moved, Kai said, “I’m so bored! I’m sick of just moving boxes, when are we going to be done with this and go home!?”
Nya, bored, added, “I agree with Kai on this one, I got to work on fixing my bike!.”
Cole also added his statement, “Yeah moving these boxes around is getting kind of boring.”
“Speak for yourself!” Jay said, lifting a big box with some difficulty, “Urgh…! Sheesh, what’s in these things!? Dumbbells!?”
“Ugh,” Cole approached him, “Hold on.” He then took the box from Jay and carried it himself. He had less trouble lifting the box and was able to put it with the others easily.
Jay was shocked, “Yikes! What do your parents feed you!?”
Cole was suddenly mute; evidently, the mention of parents was a sore subject.
Lloyd suddenly had an odd feeling. He felt something, that felt familiar, that was close by…
He slowly began to wander around until he ended up in what would only be described as a storage chamber. The place looked like a small warehouse area, with several artifacts lining the shelves. Lloyd looked at them, actually curious. However, that strange sensation grew stronger. Lloyd looked around and something caught his eye. An ancient scroll case that was almost completely black, adorned with small jewels on the sides. There was a reddish-purple outline running through it, giving the object a sinister look. And yet it seemed to call out to Lloyd, wordlessly…
Slowly… he began to approach it. Part of him knew that this was probably a bad idea, but another part of him seemed too… entranced to do anything else. Eventually, he took the scroll, picking it up, slowly. It seemed both warm and cool to the touch. It unnerved the young teen for a second. Then he felt something, an unknown force in both him and the casing. Within a few seconds, he opened the scroll casing, and therefore the scroll inside…
Suddenly a large amount of swirling, black vapor seeped out from the scroll with the force of a strong gust of wind. Strong enough that it knocked Lloyd back several feet! The scroll fell to the ground but the sinister mist kept seeping out. Suddenly Llyod heard an ominous voice coming from the black sinister mist, “After all of this time… being stuck in the Realm of Madness… I’m finally free!” The voice was familiar yet scary. The figure appeared from the black mist, he had four arms, shadowy skin, and what seemed to be a samurai shogun helmet. Said helmet had a demonic feel to it. He then spoke further, “My skeleton army, the time has come to wreak havoc upon the mortal realm! Rise. Rise and claim this land as your own!!”
Suddenly, Lloyd saw a bunch of dark holes appear out of nowhere, also made up of shadowy mist. Then, a small horde of skeleton-like monsters appeared from the black mist, each of them armed, each of them frightening at first glance. Lloyd tried to slowly walk away, but then they heard someone yell in the background, “Lloyd? Are you there?”
The figure turned around, his deep red eyes glowing as if they were on fire. This intimidated Lloyd a bit.
Especially when those eyes landed on him. “Ah, so you are the one whose powers set me free…”
Lloyd was partially confused. Powers? What powers? Still, he was more scared than confused and began to run away. The shadowy man could be heard yelling out, “After him!!”
Lloyd ran into the lobby of the museum, and Jay asked Lloyd, “Lloyd, where were you?”
“Lloyd??” Zane asked, noticing the panic on Lloyd’s face, “What’s wrong?” Then the group heard a roar from behind Lloyd, the group looked over Lloyd’s shoulder and saw the shadow skeleton monsters right behind him.
Jay instantly screamed, then said, “What are those things!?!?”
The horde seemed to be interested in the others as they were in Lloyd
Kai was the first to speak, “I think the best option is to run, and if we get cornered, we’ll have to fight those things.” The group tried to escape the shadow skeletons by running down one of the halls. One of them actually knocked over a bookshelf in an attempt to block off the path, but one of the monsters simply took out a sword, seemingly out of nowhere, and slashed the bookcase in two, then proceeded to chase the groups alongside its fellow troops.
“Oh come on!” Jay yelled in exasperation, “They have swords!?”
Eventually, they ended up in a dead-end room. The group tries to block the door with whatever they could find. However, their barricade wasn’t good enough as the skeletons were able to make it through.
One of them readied their sword, preparing to strike Jay. Lloyd, in a frantic panic, ran into it, yelling, “Jay, look out!” He then ran up in front of Jay in an attempt to get in the way of the sword’s path. Then, suddenly, something weird happened. Lloyd’s body began to glow for a second. He then emitted a green energy pulse that sent the skeleton flying out of the room and into the other skeletons trying to get in, knocking them over. Everyone was shocked and was trying to figure out what happened just now.
Jay was the first one to speak up
“That… was awesome!” he looked at Lloyd, “How did you do that!?”
Lloyd, still shocked, looked at his hand and said in a shaky voice, “I… I have no Idea…”
Suddenly they noticed that some of the skeletons that were knocked back seemed to disintegrate, fading away into dark mist, before vanishing altogether, shocking the group. “Whoa…” was Kai’s reaction. However, the remaining skeletons recovered and brandished their weapons. The teens suddenly felt scared again, the remaining skeletons readied their weapons, then a whistling got their attention. Everyone there turned and saw that old man Wu was there, now with a serious look on his face and what looked like a martial arts staff in his hand. “I suggest you stand down and return to the Realm of Madness where you belong, or suffer the consequences.” He had readied his staff. As soon as he got all of their FULL attention he said, “Lloyd, I want you and your friends to close the door right now. Don’t open it until I tell you it's safe to come out!”
Lloyd nodded and shut the door…
Immediately the group heard a large series of bangs and smacks and such. Lloyd, curious, reached for the door handle, only to be stopped by Kai, who whispered, “Dude, what are you doing!?”
“Come on, we should at least check,” Lloyd said, and without another thought, he opened the door. Just a crack, so that the six could see what was going on…
Wu was performing crane kicks, beating the skeletons with his staff left and right, using swift and precise moments. One skeleton tried to slice him from behind, but he turned around and blocked the attack with his staff, then bashed its skull with it. Then Wu jumped and hovered in the air for a brief moment and kicked one of the skeletons' skull-heads clean off his head. The headless skeleton stumbled around looking for his head skull while Wu blinded one of the skeletons with his beard and threw him into the path of one of his comrades. The remaining skeletons were baffled by Wu’s fighting skills and prowess. Especially considering that he’s an old man.
The same bafflement hit the teens. “Whoa…” Kai said.
“Yeah,” Cole added, “Just who is this guy anyway?”
“I… don’t know,” said Lloyd, “but I have a feeling I know him from somewhere…”
Wu had then knocked a few more of them to the nearby wall. The defeated skeletons faded back into dark mist, Wu then twirled his staff some more, then stopped back in the same normal standing position he was in before the fight began. He asked the remaining skeletons this question, “Do you want to continue fighting, or are you going to go back to the Realm of Madness?”
The skeletons took a second to look at him… then they vanished into the dark mist, which then dissipated…
Wu then looked around and saw the teens peeking out of the door, “Come with me…”
A minute later, it was just before sunset and the teens had a lot of questions.
“What were those things?”
“How did you do that!?”
“What was that ‘realm of madness’ stuff?”
Wu turned to face them, “If you truly wish to know, then hop in.” He got into his van, “We need to go someplace safer now that he has returned.”
The teens looked at each other. He??
During the car ride Wu explained a few things. Just a few, “Those creatures you saw are called Shadow Skulls, personal soldiers created out of dark energy.”
“And you know this because…?” Cole asked.
To which Wu replied, “Because I actually faced them long ago. Unfortunately, now that their master has returned, he can summon his army and use it to take over Ninjago.”
“Wait,” Jay said, “Did you say, ‘take over’? Like some kind of supervillain?”
“And he will destroy anyone who gets in his way…” Wu paused for a moment, in which the teens began to fill with worry, then he said, “I felt that odd surge of energy young man. Do you know what it was?”
Lloyd’s eyes widened at this, then he looked down at his hands, “So… wait, I really did that?”
“Dude,” Kai said, “You basically knocked those things back with some weird green power.”
Wu seemed to have perked up upon hearing the word green. “Hm… Well then, it seems that the odds might be evened out in our favor. Anyway, we’re here.”
The van stopped near the docks on the southernmost end of the city. There, they saw a nice houseboat. It looked like a small, oriental house, only modernized and, well, in boat form.
“This is my home,” Wu explained, “The Destiny’s Bounty.”
Within a few minutes, they were all on board and inside. “Wait there for a few seconds,” Wu said as he went off somewhere else. This gave the teens some time to look around. The interior of the Destiny Bounty was filled with sliding doors with a bamboo design. An antique tea set was on a small table in the middle of the room, with pictures of what seemed to be a younger Wu and a few other people on a nearby end table. There were also scrolls hanging on the wall that have writing and pictures of what seemed to be a great battle.
“Whoa…” Lloyd said.
“Impressive isn’t it?” Wu said, holding a tray with a smaller tea set, as he walked back into the room, “Those scrolls depict a battle for Ninjago that took place many eons ago.” Wu began to pour tea into the cups as he continued, “Long ago, this land was once a small series of simple villages, when all of a sudden, a great and terrible, dark force appeared one day and began to terrorize the people. It began to do wondrous and horrible things. It seemed that all hope was lost. That is, until one day, a powerful warrior appeared. Using the power of the very elements themselves, he was able to banish the darkness away, sealing it into an alternate plane of existence… the Realm of Madness.”
“Whoa…” Kai said.
“But eventually,” Wu continued, “The dark entity that now resided there began to seep out and tempt people into accepting its power, hoping to corrupt the land and bring forth a new era of darkness. However, each and every time the darkness arose, heroes would always step up and drive the darkness away.” Wu then held out the tray for the group, “Here, drink something, it will help you relax.”
The six teens each took a cup of tea, some hesitant, some unsure. Wu then explained, “In more recent years a new dark ruler appeared, corrupted by the power of the great darkness himself.” He seemed to pause for a second, “I stopped him years ago when he tried to take over the city.”
“I’ve read about such an attack,” Zane said, piping up, “The authorities could not understand much about some unknown criminal, his abilities, identity, where he came from, or even where he went.”
“... He calls himself Garmadon,” Wu said. This stirred something within Lloyd. Garmadon, why did that name ring a bell…? “Unfortunately,” Wu said, “One of you was drawn to the scroll that imprisoned him in the Realm of Madness, setting him free.”
Lloyd visibly flinched upon hearing that, something everyone noticed.
“Wait, YOU brought those skull things to the museum!?!?” Kai said with shock, then anger.
Lloyd replied with anger himself, “Hey! Not on purpose, I didn’t know that scroll contained this Garmadon person, I felt like something was calling out to a part of me. If I knew that was the scroll that contained some evil freak, I would have ignored it!!”
“Yeah! A likely story,” Jay added, “Haven't you ever heard the phrase, ‘Curiosity killed the cat’!?”
“So what, you would have done the same thing if you were in my position!!”
“ENOUGH!” Wu called out to them, “We cannot change the past. What we can do is prepare for what lies ahead. Especially now that the six of you are involved.”
“Wait, as in ALL six of us?” Nya said.
“You do not honestly believe that only Lloyd has some ‘unknown energy’ within him?” Wu asked cryptically. The others stand there in silence, thinking about what happened with Lloyd and how it saved them from earlier that day. How he released that energy pulse. “You mean,” Kai said, “We could do stuff like that too?”
“But of course,” Wu said, “I believe the six of you are just the ones I’ve been looking for.”
“Wait, what!?” Cole said in shock.
“Perhaps things might change later on. For now, I’m going to take each of you back home before your families and friends begin to feel worried for you. We can talk more about this tomorrow…”
The teens then decided to listen to Wu and returned home before their friends and families started to worry about their whereabouts and waited for Wu to ask them to meet again.