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"BREAKING: THE GREEN NINJA IS WHO? THIS WILL SHOCK YOU!
The ninja team - Ninjago's very own heroes, who have protected the city against evil Lord Garmadon's attacks countless times. Led by the green ninja, our masked vigilantes fearlessly encountered the biggest villain Ninjago has ever seen.
Recent events have changed the perception of our saviors entirely.
After unleashing doom on Ninjago City, the group leader's identity has been revealed to the general public as no other than sixteen year old Lloyd Garmadon, the Overlord's son himself.
And the people have questions! Who are the other members of the team? Has Lloyd Garmadon been working with his father the whole time? Did they stage the fights as well as-"
Lloyd closed out of the article with a frown. Opened it again, only to copy the link and share it with his friends' group chat.
"Have you seen this?" he typed along with it.
Cole was the first to respond. "Yes."
Jay followed with, "You're still all over the news, dude!!" Lastly, Zane sent an, "Are you okay, Lloyd?"
"Uhm. I guess so," Lloyd responded, even though he wasn't quite sure. He exited out of the group chat, sighing deeply as he got up from his bed.
When he left his room, the teen could hear the noise of the tv running in the living room. No one was there to watch.
Watching his steps, Lloyd peaked into the kitchen, where his mother was sitting at the dinner table. She was bent over, studying some documents.
The letter had arrived this morning. It had been addressed to Koko, and all she told him was that it had something to do with his fights as a ninja. Something about breaking the law and all.
His mom looked like she had been crying.
-
A lot of city property had been damaged during Meowthra's rampage. The local high school wasn't one of those destroyed buildings.
The following monday, it was time for Lloyd to go back. Back to school, back into the public eye, which he had escaped for the last few days while sorting out things with his parents.
His dad had been forced to let go most of his employees but refused to move out of his volcano. It was one of the only places in Ninjago where he was able to avoid police custody, after all. Surprisingly, his father actually texted Lloyd at least once a day asking for a video call. Those calls usually consisted of awkward questions, and "Anyway, has Koko been asking about me? Not that I care."
Walking down the apartment building's stairs, Lloyd gripped his backpack thight. Hood drawn up, blonde hair covering most of his sight above the ground - the usual. He wasn't exactly prepared to face the kids at his school, now that everyone knew about him being a ninja. What he also wasn't prepared for was the crowd waiting for him outside, although maybe he should have been.
Journalists. Cameras. And lots of them.
Immediately, the small crowd gathered around him, shoving those tall microphones in his face and asking questions.
"Lloyd Garmadon, how did you become the green ninja?"
"Can you tell us the full names of your teammates?"
"Who built your dragon-mech?"
Lloyd got overwhelmed very quickly. He took a few steps back, only for the strangers to follow him.
"I... uh -" he stumbled over his words, unsure of how to handle the situation. Someone took a few pictures of him, and the flashing lights made Lloyd draw his hands up in order to protect his eyes.
"Have you faced any legal issues for vigilantism?"
"Who would force a minor to risk their life for Ninjago?"
Thankfully, the nearby front door opened once more. Waving her arms around, Koko forced the reporters to move back. She appeared slightly out of breath from hurrying downstairs, but her demeanor was intimidating in a way the teen didn't see often.
"Enough with this," she spoke forcefully, "I am Lloyd's mother, he is a child, and we are not giving interviews. End of discussion."
Of course, that wasn't the end of the discussion. While some journalists retreated, others pushed back. A lot of "Ma'am"s and "Miss"s got thrown around, which was just about everything Lloyd could make out at this point. The words became a chaotic stream of noise, and he pressed his eyes shut until he could feel his mother's hands on his shoulders. Koko gently maneuvered him through the wall of people, staying back herself to argue with them even as Lloyd was half-running down the street.
He only slowed down once he was a few streets away. No one had followed him, and the amount of stares he got was only slightly above average. The rest of his way to school almost felt normal.
Zane, Nya, and Kai were already waiting for him in front of the schoolyard. As Lloyd walked up to them, his mind was racing. Sure enough, they had made up and all, but they hadn't seen each other since taming Meothra, and a lot of stuff had gone unsaid. And right now, wasn't he endangering his friends by seeking out their company? How long would it take for someone to start stalking them and figuring out their secret indentities?
Despite his anxiety, his friends didn't address what had happened. Upon watching him shift in place, all Kai said was, "That bad, huh?"
"It's... complicated," Lloyd replied.
-
Their first few periods passed, weirdly enough, pretty uneventful. Except for a moment during Lloyd's art class, when suddenly someone tapped his arm. As the teen turned around, one of his classmates passed a note to him, merely gesturing at a group of girls on the other side of the room.
Lloyd pressed his lips together thightly. Unfolded the small piece of paper, only to find nothing less than, "Wanna go for ice cream sometime? - Cindy xx" A couple of hearts had been doodled around the neat handwriting.
He looked up, unable to hide his awkward expression. The girls were grinning to each other, but it wasn't malicious. Lloyd was no stranger to prank confessions and practical jokes, but somehow, this seemed different.
One of them, a tall girl with dark hair and braces, waved at him ever so slightly. He assumed that it must be Cindy.
Lloyd shook his head at her in order to reject her confession. He ducked his head and went back to his assignment at hand, not wanting to see her reaction and entertain whatever this was.
When he told his friends later on, between periods, Nya said, "Don't stress about it too much. The green ninja is bound to have some fans."
It turned out, despite unleashing the Ultimate Ultimate Weapon on Ninjago City, quite a lot of people wanted to be associated with him all of a sudden.
One of them was a rather familiar face.
It was Chen, the cheerleader, who came up to him at the beginning of lunch. The guy was a smidge older, a great bit taller, and had made it his goal over the last few years to torment Lloyd to his best abilities.
Even so, popularity was a powerful thing.
"Hey, Garmadork!" Chen called out when he saw the kid's blonde hair peaking out from the crowd of students in the halls. Lloyd couldn't help but roll his eyes.
"Not now, Chen, okay?"
No matter the fact that he wasn't welcome, Chen's cheerful expression persisted. Much to Lloyd annoyance, he stepped closer. Yet, when he spoke again, he made sure that everyone heard. "I never said happy birthday, did I?"
That caught Lloyd kind of off-guard. He turned to face his bully, rather irritated. "Huh?"
"Your birthday was last week, wasn't it? I remembered, of course." Also, the news covered it.
Chen folded his hands in front of himself and continued, "I mean, we basically grew up together, I'd have gotten you a little something, too, but I'm short on the bucks. You like those... those kid's books, right?"
"They're comics," Lloyd told him, his attention on the guy gradually fading away. He got out his phone in an effort to end the conversation and made his way to the cafeteria.
Although glad to meet his friends at their table, Lloyd couldn't help considering his encounter with Chen once more. The others had their phones out as well, discussing the news, and for a while, Lloyd was left to his thoughts.
He was aware that Chen didn't have a sudden change of heart. That girl, Cindy, probably also didn't have a crush on him.
Folks didn't like Lloyd. They liked the green ninja. But for the first time since meeting his friends, he had actual people on his side other than his mother.
Lloyd didn't need people to truly like him. What he needed was going into town and not accidentally scaring little kids away. What he needed was adults to stop making hurtful quips for something that was out of his control. What he needed was a sliver of self-esteem, even if it was all for show.
"I could use this," it burst out of him, interrupting his friends' chats, "I'm- yeah, I'm gonna use this whole situation to my advantage."
The others appeared confused at that. Cole furrowed his eyebrows and wanted to know, "How are you gonna do that?"
"This is my thing. Not my father's," Lloyd explained, now growing a little excited, "For the first time, I get to start off positively and shape how people view me. I can be anyone I want to be."
Lloyd lifted his head, a small smile on his lips, and paid the students around them a quick glance. Some of them were obviously staring, a few even filming them.
"And I know exactly who I am. I'm the green ninja."
His friends didn't seem very convinced of this idea.
"I don't think that's the best way to go about this," Zane responded. Kai agreed with him. "Yeah, Zane's right. Maybe it would be better to lay low for a while, just until things quiet down."
Lloyd shook his head. Maybe this was a childish idea. Selfish, even. But he was a hero. People owed him some respect, didn't they? Maybe this was his only chance to redeem himself.
But then again, they were a team. Lloyd hadn't apologized yet, for getting his friends into his mess. It was only a matter of time until someone would connect the dots and figure out who was behind the other masks. He had been too busy with his life, wallowing in his anxiety and trying to fix his mistake with Meowthra.
What would he even say, though? What was there to say, to fix? He had changed all of their lives irreparably. And now it was his responsibility to ensure that it wasn't for the worse.
"You're right," he spoke, then, but kept the idea on his mind.
-
It took until the end of the school day for word to get out. Pictures were going around, comparing Lloyd's group of friends to the ninja team.
It was in the details, really. Like Jay's freckles, or Zane's piercing blue eyes, or the scar above Kai's eyebrow. A mask was just that, after all. A piece of frabric.
Reporters were waiting for them outside school. Parents as well, and not only their's.
"Oh my God," Jay started panicking as he focused on his parents in the crowd, quickly ducking away from the school's windows. "My mom's crying. Yep, I've made my mom cry. That's not a great thing to do. At all."
"My dad looks pretty angry," Cole commented, scrunching up his face.
Lloyd, as their leader, struggled to figure out a solution. They had to face the consequences of their actions eventually, had to make do with the tears and the yelling and the cameras.
He wanted to panic, too, right then. But what good would it do?
Things turned around when the teen realized one major thing. This was like a fight, and his team needed guidance. If he couldn't provide that, it was time to ask for some help.
He called his mother first, who was a sure way to buy them some time. When the call went straight to voice mail, he called his uncle next. Wu had said surprisingly little about the situation, besides some more or less fitting wisdoms. Still, he was their Sensei and had to have considered the problem of an unwanted identity reveal at least once before.
The call didn't go through either.
At last, Lloyd decided on his father.
Garmadon picked up rather quickly.
"... yeah no, that one's for the trash. That one, too. Not that one! What if I want to roast myself a steak with a laser?"
"Dad?" Lloyd asked. Immediately, the noise on the other end came to a halt.
"Sorry, kid," came the reply, "I meant to call you. I saw what happened with your little ninja friends."
"We need help. We're stuck at school, and- there's people outside." He had lowered his voice, eyeing his friends around him. All of them looked stressed out.
"I have just the thing for that." The words were spoken in a haste, his dad's voice cut off at the edge because of the bad connection. Yet, it was comforting to some degree. Garmadon was experienced with handling both his personal life and public perception simultaneously. Also, he was an adult. And, despite being the team's leader, Lloyd very much wasn't. That was one thing when it was just about him, but another thing entirely when it affected his friends as well.
"Listen, I need you to go to the police, or the news, or whatever," his father told him, "Then, you're gonna speak out against Wu."
"What? Why would I do that?" Lloyd mumbled, suddenly very glad that the others weren't listening in on the call.
"He put you up to this whole thing, right? Your friends can't be much older than seventeen, are they? Incriminate my brother, and they'll lay off of them, their families, and Koko."
Lloyd winced as his heart skipped a beat. "I'm not sure if I can do this." He owed his uncle so much. The Sensei had introduced him to his friends, had taught them all kinds of things. Even if he wanted to, his friends would never agree to this plan.
"Trust me on this, Luh-Loyd."
On that note, Garmadon hung up. Probably to add to the dramatic effect, Lloyd caught himself thinking.
The blonde lowered his phone, considering things while also avoiding eye contact with the others. He needed to think, and to make a decision.
He thought of the topic they had over lunch.
And that was... something, wasn't it? Something to go off of; to help them. Lloyd could very well change the conversation.
It wouldn't fix things. But he needed to protect his friends, and his dad had a point. Kai and Cole were turning 18 soon, but right now, all of them were underage.
"I have a plan," he said, finally. "You're going to take the exit to the warehouse. Stay there for a while."
"What about you?" came the immediate question.
Lloyd swallowed down his anxiety and balled his hands into fists as if to steady himself.
"I'm gonna go out there and talk to them."
It took a short while, but reluctantly, the team agreed to go. They trusted him, after all.
Once he was alone, Lloyd turned to step outside. Crossed the schoolyard until he was on public ground.
With a motion of his hand, the teen shut up the reporters' questions. He was the focus of attention now, and for once, it felt good.
"Uhm... Hi. My name is Lloyd Garmadon. I'm the green ninja, and I have something to say."