Chapter Text
It feels so right
I'm where I belong
'Cause I found my place
I found my place…
The latest pop track from Oh Hush blasted on the radio as Lloyd and Koko were tidying the house.
“Honey,” Koko called, “I know this is a special project, but it doesn’t need to conquer my dining table.” She brought some place mats to the table, bumping a precariously paper pile off the edge of the table.
“Sorry mom,” Lloyd replied, gathering the scraps of paper off the floor. He hadn’t anticipated for this project to be difficult, but something inside him didn’t want to continue. It was almost as if an inner force - natural or supernatural - was denying him the ability to continue.
Focus , he breathed slowly. That’s what Wu was telling him to do more regularly in training. But the breathing could only stave off the funny feeling for so long. He got up from under the table and sighed as he collected the cellophane on the table.
DING DONG! DING DONG!
“Hello, is anyone there?” a familiar voice called.
DING DONG! DING DONG! DING DONG!
“Lloyd!”
“Coming!” He pushed the project materials hastily onto the shelf nearby.
DING DONG! DING DONG! DI-
Lloyd held the bell still, stopping his dad Garmadon from ringing it once more.
“Are you trying to get us kicked out?” Lloyd hissed. “The landlord already has some beef with us because we’re behind on re-”
“Yada yada yada are you gonna let your old man in or not?” Garmadon grinned, pushing past. Unfortunately a few months of strength training was no match against the four arms that held him against the wall. Lloyd’s hesitation about inviting the former terror of Ninjago began to turn into dread of impending chaos that may follow, starting with the fact that there were now traces of mud (he hoped it was mud) on the ground.
“Lloyd, who was it?” Koko called out, not noticing the large figure now standing in close proximity to her.
“Of course it was me, senorita,” Garmadon replied as she turned around. She gave a yelp, dropping the pot of noodles she had just drained. The strands squirmed and squelched as they fell on the floor. Koko swore under her breath.
“You? Now?” she narrowed her eyes at him. “I thought you were coming at 8.”
“I had… unexpected plans change,” Garmadon cleared his throat. “You know, with transport and all that.”
“Right,” Koko drawled out slowly, getting on her knees to try and pick up the fallen dish. “And you thought it was a good idea to scare the person cooking the meal?” She raised an eyebrow at him, as if to say ‘Try your best.’
“Well I thought your reflexes were better,” Garmadon fired back, getting on his knees to help. “I didn’t know time wore you down.” She slapped his hand quickly as he reached out to grab one of the strands.
“How dare you…” she fumed. “While you were out ‘conquering the world’ or whatever, I was raising my son!”
“Mom,” Lloyd peeped quietly, unable to enter the kitchen.
“And I would have helped you, if you had not been so secretive about it!” he shot back.
“Mom…”
“And to think I was once in-”
“MOM! THE POT!” Lloyd butted in, pointing to the now inflamed dish. Koko quickly jumped up, but the noodles were still on the floor. She slipped over them and fell on Garmadon. He grinned at her but she instinctively slapped him and pushed away.
Lloyd used the opening to slide in with a pitcher of water, and threw it on the dish. Fortunately, unlike his strength, his aim had improved over the course of time; he sighed in relief as the extinguished dish let out puffs of smoke in defeat. It didn’t save the dish, but it at least would mean one less reason for the landlord to kick them out.
…
“Are you sure I can’t come with you?” Lloyd whispered, as Koko collected her keys.
“Sorry, but I can’t send him away,” Koko gestured to Garmadon, who was holding an ice pack to his cheek. “I’d love to but he’s still in pain. And as much as it would be good to get out of here, all the good shops would be packed out or too pricey. Plus, I don’t trust him here by himself.”
Lloyd sighed, resigning to his fate. “Fine.”
“Just put on a movie or something,” she smiled, kissing him on the cheek. “I’ll be back in 20 minutes at most.” She closed the door and locked it, leaving Lloyd alone with Garmadon.
As soon as Lloyd turned around, Garmadon had stood up, putting the icepack in the sink.
“Uhh… doesn’t it hurt?” Lloyd pried, raising an eyebrow.
“Ha! How naive,” Garmadon replied, turning around. “It was for sympathy from your mum. The first step to win her over.”
“Firstly, ew,” Lloyd scrunched up his face. “Secondly, why? You don’t exactly seem too intent on spending time with me.”
“Says who?”
Silence settled awkwardly as the blonde heard the echo of his Grade 2 teacher’s words: “You should not assume as it makes an ass out of you and-”
“Do you have any games?” Garmadon began rummaging through their fridge. “There’s certainly nothing interesting going on the TV right now. All the fun stuff happens when kiddos like you go to sleep.”
“I am 15,” Lloyd let out a hmmph.
“And my point is justified,” Garmadon continued, getting up. “I assume you have no games, soooo…” He walked around the room, until he noticed something glimmering in the light.
“Oooh what’s this?” he walked to the shelf, but Lloyd stopped him as he was 3 steps away.
“Uhh… it’s a secret,” Lloyd gulped. Of all the people in Ninjago City, he didn’t want Garmadon to be one of the first. Not at the bottom of the list, but certainly not near the top either.
“Hmm… I’m not convinced.” Garmadon rubbed his chin, trying to think. “Ohh…” he grinned cheekily, “unless…is it for your crush?”
Lloyd flushed a deep pink. “No! Heck no! I don’t have a crush!”
“Hehehehehe,” Garmadon snickered, “it must be, if you refuse to show it.”
“Fine,” Lloyd cursed under his breath. He precariously removed the scraps of material that he had used - cellophane, paper (of different kinds and types) and even washi tape. Garmadon looked over his shoulder in interest as he saw the final product.
“Is that a scrapbook?” he asked.
“Yeah,” Lloyd nodded, opening the cover. “It’s meant to be a gift for my friends.”
“Your lil - litl- liel-”
“Little-”
“Little ninja friends?” Garmadon finally blurted. “Totally nailed it.”
“Yes, those friends. And they’re not just my friends because we’re ninjas.”
“Really?” Garmadon asked, stopping Lloyd from turning the page. “Then explain why the photos start here. You don’t look that much older than you are right now here.” He pointed to a polaroid that was lying on the page, tucked in.
Lloyd carefully extracted the polaroid. “You’re not wrong, but you’re not exactly right. You see, this one happened just a bit over a year ago…”
…
Lloyd held up his phone, cross checking if this was the place that his uncle had directed him to come to. The warehouse did not look that suspicious in the photo. Then again, his uncle was an unusual person.
He had swapped out his normal attire for all-black attire - a black hoodie, black ripped jeans and joggers. He did not want to be found out as the son of Garmadon straight away, especially since these people may not necessarily know him. He adjusted the ninja hood as he walked through the pier to the warehouse. Breathing deeply, he pushed the door open.
“Ahh good, the last one is here.” Wu’s voice sounded quietly as he entered. “Everyone is gathered now.”
Lloyd’s eyes were drawn to the other figures there. They all were wearing some variation of what he was. The quality varied from individual to individual - one wore a brand new cable-knit sweater, another wore a tattered skivvy - but they all sported the same ninja hood masking their faces. A gut instinct told him these were familiar faces, but he decided not to press further.
“Your first and only exercise is to touch me with your hand,” Wu broke through the silence. “You have the tools in this room and nothing else. If you are successful, I will train you to be Ninjago’s next hero.”
A hero , Lloyd thought to himself. Imagine winning others over rather than having to hide your face…
“Move out of the way,” one pushed forward. Their brows were creased, and they had an eyepatch. “I’ll be the hero Ninjago needs.” Then they ran with a great battle cry towards Wu. The latter simply sidestepped, causing the other (foolish) fellow to run into the wall behind.
The cable-sweater fellow spoke up. “My calculations tell me that we just need to-”
“Calculations? This ain’t geometry. You need to chill,” another spoke up. This person was the only individual without arms that were covered up. Instead, they wore a tank top that showed off his muscular figure. “Watch this.” They ran off, hiding behind a couch, then quietly barrel rolled and attempted to catch Wu with a net from behind. Wu anticipated the situation, catching the net by the pole, and swung it out of the hands of the tank top dude. The fellow was left stammering as he realised that there was no point. Wu looked at the others, as if daring them to try. When none of them moved, he sighed
“I’m going to brew some tea, maybe give you all some time to think,” he walked off. “When I return, you’ll have 20 minutes to complete your task.”
There were shouts of horror as he took off. Lloyd looked despondently around. Then an idea hit him. But before he shared his idea, he listened to what the others would say. They all gathered closely - there were 5 of them.
“Is there any rope?” one asked. They were sporting the tattered skivvy. “We could do the old pulley trap.”
“I don’t think that’ll work. He’s too nimble,” the eyepatch guy replied, rubbing their forehead. They suddenly turned and pointed at Lloyd and the cable-sweater guy. “You guys got any good ideas?”
“By my calculations,” the cable-sweater guy perked, “if we hit him with a projectile, then he should be stunned, leaving us enough time to touch him.”
“We don’t want to kill him though,” another voice piped up. Everyone turned to face the new speaker, having previously not been aware of their existence. “I-i-i mean, if the projectile’s fast enough.” They put their face into their hands, as if to hide.
“Well I have one idea based on this guy’s one,” Lloyd finally spoke up. “But perhaps it needs all of us to work together as a team, and it may involve…”
One discussion and an elaborate trap involving planks, metal and the right amount of duct tape later, and Wu had been successfully tapped.
“Well done all,” he smiled, bowing at them. “You will all be accepted as Ninjago’s next heroes!” They all grinned at each other. “Do you want to unmask and introduce yourselves?”
“Heck yes!” Eyepatch guy pulled off his mask. He had brunette hair that was spiky; he was fixing it up into a flame shape as he grunted. “My name’s Kai, and I’ll bring the heat here!”
“Seriously Kai?” The one wearing a skivvy pulled off their mask. “I’m Nya, and I’m this doofus’s sister.”
“Little sister,” Kai added quickly. “Wait, how did you get out?”
“Errands,” she smirked.
“Darn it,” he replied. “I had to work hard all of this week to get out of that.”
“I’ll go next while these guys bicker,” the sleeveless dude pulled off their mask. “I’m Cole, just your average gym bro who loves bass. You’re going to have to learn to appreciate Metallica because they're my jam.”
“Aww sweet I got a gym homie,” Kai smiled as they had a bro handshake. “Nice biceps.”
“I will go next,” the cable-knit sweater dude replied, carefully pinching the corners of the mask to reveal their face. “My name is Zane Julien Nindroid, but you can call me Zane. I speak in fluent English, ASCII, C++ and Javascript. I hope we all can learn more about the world of being a ninja together.” They all nodded in agreement.
“So it’s between you two now,” Cole pointed at Lloyd and the other dude. Before Lloyd could pull off his mask, the other fellow pulled off his own, revealing a mess of curls.
“Uhh… my jame is Nay - wait - my name is Jay,” he stuttered out, “and I hope I can learn more from you.” He smiled awkwardly.
“Cool story bro,” Cole nodded. “Wait… I’ve seen you before.”
“Yeah, at the comic bookstore,” Jay looked down at his feet. “For Starfarer Volume III’s release?”
“Ohhh, right,” he smiled, fistbumping Jay. That left Lloyd. Wu watched from afar.
“Before I unmasked myself,” Lloyd spoke, “promise you won’t judge.”
“Sure, so long as you’re not a serial killer or something,” Kai replied. Nya punched him on the shoulder. Lloyd sighed, then pulled off his mask. There was a pause as the others registered where they had seen the boy with blond hair and green eyes, then…
“ You’re Lloyd?” Nya replied, surprised.
“Uhhh… yes?” he stammered out.
“Nice,” Cole smiled. “Anyone who is an enemy of Chen is a friend of mine. Stuck up cheerleaders.”
“Yeah,” Jay replied. “Plus, I’ve seen you reading Starfarer too. You’ve gotta have good taste.”
“You- you guys don’t care that my dad is-”
“Well so long as you don’t wreak havoc with your dad on Sundays we’re good,” Kai smiled.
“Plus, you’re a great leader,” Nya added. “One who leads and builds on others. We don’t get many like that these days.”
Lloyd smiled. It was the first time in a long time that someone cared about who he was because of him.
…
“Cool story bro,” Garmadon replied. “Lots of mushy feelings.”
“I don’t think you understand how badly my life was ruined because of you,” Lloyd huffed. “This was the first time someone cared about me, not because I was your son, but because of who I was.”
“Really now? Did you never assert your status as the son of Garmadon?”
“I didn’t need to assert,” the blonde sighed. “I lived in your shadow, and it was made clear in how I was treated.”
“Like a noble?”
“More like a noble pain in the a-”
“I kid,” Garmadon tried to grin, but he could see how Lloyd’s smile had melted away, leaving a sense of disappointment. “By the way, how long does it take for someone to get food?” He looked at his nonexistent wristwatch.
“The place she went to isn’t that far,” Lloyd looked away. “Maybe it’s a bit of traffic, that’s all.”
…
On the other side of the city, Koko was cursing Garmadon. She was sure this was his handiwork, looking at the pile up of cars ahead. She banged her head on the wheel, wondering whether Lloyd was ok at home.