Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Waking up feeling like you’d been hit by a truck was probably a bad thing.

That half-aware thought was all Arti managed to muster, due to the aforementioned colossally bad feeling. Her entire body ached in a way she’d never felt before. It wasn’t fatigue, and she was pretty sure she’d remember if she’d been seriously injured.

Or maybe she wouldn’t, she’d never been concussed before. 

With a tired, barely-audible groan, Arti opened her eyes.

And she swiftly realized something was extremely wrong.

Arti’s immediate surroundings did not consist of her comfortable, familiar apartment. Instead of brightly painted and simply-decorated walls, or the feeling of her bed underneath her, she found herself in an alleyway. A somewhat cold but surprisingly clean alleyway. 

Did someone try to kidnap her? Why would someone try to kidnap her? What kind of kidnapper leaves someone in a random alleyway? 

At that thought, Arti quickly stands up— and immediately is hit by a horrible sense of vertigo. She leaned up against the wall of the nearby building, waiting for the world to start spinning. Is this what getting drugged feels like? The kidnapping theory may have more weight than Arti thought. Her heart pounds in her ears, drowning out the sounds of the city. 

There’s a groaning sound from nearby that breaks up the panic-induced spiral Arti had fallen into. Her attention snaps to the sound like a magnet to a fridge. Someone else was in this alleyway.

Cautiously, keeping her steps as light as possible, Arti moved over to the source of the sound. 

It was another girl, and if Arti had to give a guess, she was about her age (not that her estimates of other peoples’ ages were necessarily the most reliable). And—oh. Arti paused, all other thoughts were put on hold. She knew this girl. 

“LILY?!” Arti shouted. “What the fuck?” 

Lily was one of the few people who’d shown their face to their little online friend group. Even if it wasn’t super frequent, Arti was a solid 80% sure this had to be Lily. Which only raised more questions. Lily lived a good few states away from her, how in the actual hell was she here? Again—kidnapping theory had some merits. But—

“Huh-” Lily? Probably Lily, looked up at Arti, and scrambled away. “Who are you?!”

“Arti? From Discord??” Arti offered, “I know my voice is pretty normal but we watched the Ninjago Movie a few weeks ago, so I’m pretty sure its you—” 

Lily stared at her dumbfounded for a minute. “. . . Either this is the weirdest setup of all time, or I’ve gone crazy.”

“Yeah, what the actual fuck —” Arti started, but got cut-off by Lily.

“LANGUAGE!”.

“Sorry, sorry, what the actual hell. Is hell allowed?” Arti quickly backtracked. 

“Yeah, I use hell—sorry. I’m a lot more strict about language and stuff IRL.” Lily explained.

“Okay, okay—I apologize in advance.” Arti said, “I— I kind of start cussing like a sailor when I get stressed.” 

“Got it. I’ll try to not correct you constantly . . . okay yeah you’re definitely Arti I’m like, Recognizing your voice more the more we talk.”

“Okay, awesome, awesome— can we get back to the ‘what the hell is happening’ bit?” Arti managed, “Because everything about this is so so concerning —” 

“I have no idea either okay—” Lily paused, looking down at herself. “Wait, why the hell am I in my pajamas?!” The redhead grabbed at the dark blue fabric of her long-sleeved fleece shirt, before scrambling to her feet to try and brush off her matching pants patterned with lighter blue lines of white snowflakes and stars.

“Oh—” At that moment, Arti became distinctly aware she was also in her pajamas. A pair of black shorts, and a pink chef Kirby sweatshirt. 

“Either this is a kidnapping or an isekai and I don’t know which one is worse,” Lily stated, giving Arti a concerned look.

Arti raised an eyebrow, “Isekai? You—you’re joking right. Please tell me you’re joking because that's so many different levels of impossible.”

“Look we could also be kidnapped I think I might prefer an isekai depending on where this is. Also it would not be the first time I got isekai’d in my pajamas if we count my Pokemon anime self insert story that I really need to actually write.”

“. . . Okay, how about we look around then?” Arti offered, “I know the city I live in pretty well, so if we’re not isekai’d, I know where I’m going.” 

“Well I know for a fact we’re not where I was, I was in—Arti?”

Arti had already poked her head out of the alleyway, fueled more by impatient anxiety than anything, taking a look left, a look right, and a look upwards. She was quiet for a solid thirty seconds at least, before speaking up again. “Okay, we can rule out the kidnapping theory. I don’t know how to feel about that.” 

Arti motioned for Lily to come look at what she was seeing. Lily, who was already doing that, picked up the pace a bit. The city they were in stretched out before them—mainly the downtown skyline, which had perfectly captured Arti’s attention. Specifically, one particular tower with a unique yet familiar shape.

“. . . Arti? Is that freaking BORG TOWER? FROM NINJAGO?!”

“That is freaking Borg Tower.” Arti said in complete and utter disbelief. “What the f —frick?” 

“I KNOW I WAS THE ONE WHO SUGGESTED AN ISEKAI BUT I DON’T THINK I ACTUALLY BELIEVED IT —” Lily ranted in disbelief, gesturing up at the tower in baffled confusion. “ HOW?!?! ”

“I don’t know!” Arti exclaimed. “I don’t know! I don’t even know!” 

The two girls couldn’t help but just continue to stare up at the Ninjago City skyline, trying to process what all of this meant.

But one thing was for certain.

They were in Ninjago now. As unbelievable as that was.

And they had no clue what to do about that.

Chapter Text

“Well, at least I still have my purse,” Lily mused from beside Arti as the two girls walked down the street. “Whatever sent us here at least gave me that much. Wish I had my backpack too, though, I’m probably gonna die without my laptop.”

“I have mine too—thank freakin’ god.” Arti sighed, looking down at her phone, “I can’t message anyone, though.”

“Well, yeah, we’re in another dimension, I’d be surprised if we had multiversal cell service . . . heh, imagine if we somehow got connected to the Archives group chat,” the ginger replied jokingly. “Fictional coincidence and all that, if we’re in Ninjago this just kinda proves it as an actual theory! Which is not something I ever expected but I’ll take the win.”

“That's one win at least. . .” Arti muttered, and then smiled, “. . . and I’ll take them where we can get them!” 

Stranded in another world— even if it was one they understood — was terrifying. Especially considering it was Ninjago, where the average citizen had to put up with some villain destroying Ninjago City every season or so. Maybe that meant rent was cheap?

Then, a thought occurred to Arti; “Hey… when do you think we are? Because I think that's important to figure out.”

“Yeah, probably,” Lily said. “Based on how everything looks, I’d guess we’re somewhere in the range of seasons 4 to 7 . . . ? We’re at least post season 3.”

“. . . You can tell at a glance?” Arti asked, both impressed and confused. 

“Well, there’s Borg Tower, but everything isn’t hyper-futuristic, so it HAS to be past Rebooted. The exact time range is a guess, though, but everything just kinda feels like the original era of the show. At the very least it’s also not the Oni Trilogy or the city would be bigger-feeling.”

Arti nodded along, keeping an eye on her surroundings as she did so. Everything lined up, at least. “So at least, most of the villains aren’t our immediate problem!” she finally said. “Good, great even.”

“. . . I was gonna make a comment about ‘what do you mean not a problem’ but then I realized that wait, yeah, unless it’s Skybound then my initial estimate doesn’t have many huge attacks on the city.” Then Lily paused, looking a little concerned. “If I’m wrong and we’re in the WildBrain era, though, then that’s another story.”

“For the sake of well . . . our lives and our sanity, let's hope you’re right,” Arti said. “. . . Okay, unrelated thought—where are we going to live?”

Lily stopped in her tracks, her expression falling into one of even more concern. “. . . Dangit you’re right—where ARE we gonna live? The only place I can think of is that one run-down apartment from season 2 but I don’t know where that is.”

“I mean, any city has to have some hotels or motels,” Arti reasoned, “An apartment would be too expensive, especially considering we don’t have jobs. . . or legal documents.” 

“Yeah, good point. I don’t think a Texas driver’s license would have any legal standing in the Sixteen Realms . . . Okay, maybe the Administration would somehow accept it, but we’re not touching that.” Lily shook her head, looking back through her purse. “At least we somehow have working cash.”

“Again, another win for us!” Arti grinned. “Here’s the plan; we get a room—probably at a motel—and work from there. Once we have a roof over our heads, we can figure out the rest.”

“Got it! Now we just gotta . . . figure out where the hell to find a motel. Because I think we’re still lost.”

“Well,” Arti shrugged a bit, thinking back to all of her relevant travel knowledge. “Motels are usually on highways, further outside a city. So basically; we go away from downtown.” 

“So away from Borg Tower,” Lily noted with a nod. “Got it.”

With a plan in mind, the two girls started on their way out of the city. 

After about half an hour of walking and some money spent, Arti and Lily had a place to call their own. It wasn’t an impressive place, by any means, but the motel room was just enough for the two of them; two beds, a tv, even a minifridge and kitchenette. 

“Huh, this place doesn’t even smell bad.” Arti commented as she toyed with the key to the room in her hands. “That's a plus at least.”

“Makes you wonder why the ninja had to settle for THAT tiny place,” Lily quipped, sorting through the contents of her purse. “. . . Huh. Forgot this was in here.” She held up a squishy green Christmas Tree shaped toy in confusion. 

“. . . What even is that?” Arti asked. 

“Stress ball thing, I think,” the redhead replied, squishing it. “No clue how I got it, I don’t remember, but I know it was in here before.”

“Is there anything else in your purse?” Arti asked, digging through her own bag, “I’ve got a wireless phone charger. . . and that's about everything that's useful.” 

“Let’s see . . . small hairbrush, emergency whistle, emergency alarm that I don’t know how to use, instructions for the alarm, calculator, tin of Mario mints, chapstick, owl measuring tape, and—hold on I just remembered something.” Lily zipped open a smaller pocket on the side of her purse, and pulled out a large . . . key-shaped thingy made of a goldish metal. “Weapon!” The girl started trying to figure out how to grip the thingy correctly. 

Arti stared at the collection of things Lily had pulled out of her purse with a mildly shocked look. “So, you've got way more stuff than me, but I have more cash, I think . . . that balances out. Speaking of, we should probably get food, if we’re gonna stay for. . . however amount of time.”

“Yeah, probably . . . Arti, you’ll need to remind me we don’t have much room so that I don’t buy too much. I’m good at shopping but I’m a lot more used to a bigger budget and more storage.”

“Don’t worry,” Arti said confidently. “I’m an expert when it comes to shopping on a budget, and staying on task. We will not be tempted by random snacks with me around!” 

“Oh thank goodness.”

Chapter Text

“You know this city is fictional, because it’s actually walkable,” Arti commented as the two headed back to the motel, now loaded down with groceries and other essentials. “If we needed a car, I think we’d be royally screwed.” 

“I still have my backup van keys, but obviously no van,” Lily replied somewhat dryly, adjusting her grip on the bags she was carrying. “At least I’m missing the normal set, which means that the keys are still in existence back home. So it’s not un-drivable.”

“That's good,” Arti agreed. “And if we had to drive. . . well, I’d rather you do that.” Arti would shrug, but her arms were loaded with bags. “I’ve been told I’m scary to ride with.”

“. . . Yeah, I’m definitely gonna be the designated driver for us.” The redhead looked visibly nervous. “I can be a really nervous backseat driver when someone is being fast.”

“. . . Yeah you’d hate driving with me then.” Arti nodded a bit. “But—”

Arti very quickly went quiet, rather unsubtly glancing over her shoulder. Only to be met with empty air. She grimaced, worried. 

After a moment, she moved closer to Lily. “I think I may just be paranoid, but I feel like we’re being watched.” 

“We . . . oh. I don’t like that. Now I feel paranoid.” Lily said. 

“Yep. . .” Arti sighed, “Should we take a weird route—? Just in case someone actually is following us.”

“We could try but the issue is I don’t know what routes . . . would be weird.” Lily seemed extremely anxious. “I really don’t like this.”

“Side streets? Alleyways? Wait, that's probably more dangerous.” Arti thought. “I don’t know.” 

“Dear chaos, we did not think this through . . .” Cautiously, Lily unzipped the small side pocket of her purse and took her undefined weapon out, gripping it tightly.

“Yeah, we really didn’t huh?” Arti’s voice wavered. 

Lily chuckled nervously. “In my defense, I somehow didn’t connect that the danger of being out at night would be like in rea—A—”

Arti swiftly turned around, ignoring the fact that the bags she was holding smacked her as she did so. She had much bigger worries. Lily was struggling against the hold of a larger man in a mask, trying to thrash and poke her handheld weapon into the man’s body while he kept a hand over her mouth. Meanwhile, another domino-masked man beside him was drawing closer to Arti. 

For a second, her brain completely shut down. No plan, not even an urge to run. Just. . . nothing. 

“Just come quiet, kid,” the approaching man said with a snicker. “We don’t gotta hurt ya.”

“. . . no- no I—” Arti stuttered out, taking a step back, then another.

She couldn’t run, she couldn’t leave Lily either. She wouldn’t leave Lily.

Arti’s heart pounded in her chest, echoing in her ears. But she didn’t move. In her head, she had no idea what she was doing. But her heart seemed to. Her hand balled up into a fist. With a lot to lose, but a concerning amount of blind confidence, Arti moved.

She slipped the bags she was holding off her arms, running up to the man holding Lily and letting her fist fly. It didn’t connect, but something else did. 

A deep, midnight blue liquid burst from Arti’s hands, staining her fingertips as it did so, splattering across the man’s mask and face. 

“What the—” Arti exclaimed, but quickly decided it’d be best to keep her mouth shut. 

Lily and both men’s eyes widened in similar shock, but Lily managed to recover faster and take advantage of this to wrench herself free and run over to Arti. 

“A—alright.” Arti started, gaining some semblance of confidence, “What next?” 

“Yeah, you—We will attack you!” Lily frantically added, holding out her weapon threateningly. “We have the power of whatever that was on our side!”

The second man scoffed, “A little trick like that couldn’t hurt a fly.”

“Uh, but I can’t see,” the first man, the one who’d been holding Lily, interrupted, trying and failing to wipe the liquid out of his eyes. “I don’t think that’s not hurting—”

“Shut UP ,” the second man yelled at his companion, shooting him a glare. “If it’s not killing you, it can’t hurt!”

“Not true, but okay.” Arti said, shifting her stance. She. . . well, there was no way around it. She had elemental powers. But she’d unpack that later, right now it was time to fight. “See what you think of this!” 

She swiped her hand through the air, causing a slash of ink—because that’s what the liquid was, ink —to hit the second man. Ink being well… just ink, it didn’t do much, other than push the man back a few inches, and stain his outfit. 

But that gave Lily enough time to try to hit the man in the face with her unnamed weapon, leaving a nasty impact to his cheek and jaw. 

“Nice—!” Arti exclaimed as the man reeled back in pain. She even went back to pick up her dropped bags. She was not gonna let those get ruined. 

Lily had turned her attention to the first, still-blinded man now, and went to hit him in the face as well— 

—as a vibrant trail of something followed her hand while she swung, further knocking over the man along with the initial impact. The particles of whatever had just been summoned scattered around the man’s prone form, littering the ground in specks of several colors.

Lily didn’t seem to have noticed the extra effect of her attack, instead trying to catch her breath while leaning against one of the nearby buildings.

“Lily—” Arti’s gaze swapped between her friend and the knocked-down man. “Did you see what you did?! Did you see that?!” 

“Yeah, I—” The ginger paused for a breath, then continued. “I just punched—two guys—in the face!” She looked slightly manic with adrenaline, staring down at the two men sprawled out in front of her. “Oh my goodness—”

“Not that! You—” Arti exclaimed, but shook her head, “We’ll talk at home, let's just get out of here!” 

Not wanting to stick around for another second, Arti and Lily all but ran back to the motel. Arti swiftly got to putting the groceries away first. However, that brief distraction did absolutely nothing to stop her racing thoughts.

“. . . We have elemental powers.” Arti said abruptly, all of her movements stopping.

“I mean, yeah, you do—wait, we?! ” Lily whirled around, giving Arti a baffled look. “What do you mean we, not just you—”

“You blasted one of those guys with . . . something! I don’t know!” Arti threw her hands up in the air. “Either way— what? HOW?!” 

“I DID WHAT?! ” The ginger sounded utterly flabbergasted. “I DON’T KNOW, HOW SHOULD I KNOW?!”

“Try it again, try it again!” Arti encouraged. “I’ll try too.”

“Okay but how?! I don’t even know what I did to begin with!” Lily threw her hands down, and started pacing around the room.

“Well. . .” Arti paused, drawing a blank on what Lily did exactly. She made a frustrated noise. “. . . I don’t know either—”

She paused, watching as Lily paced, swirls of what looked like multicolored sand forming around Lily’s feet with each step in a small but furious cyclone. 

“Actually, uh. . .” Arti spoke up after watching the sand for a moment, “Look down?”

“I am loo— oh. Oh that’s not supposed to be happening. ” Lily stared down at the sand swirling around her feet in stunned silence, her eyes widening as, with her finally noticing, it stopped mid-cyclone and fell to the ground. “. . . Yeah, that’s. That’s probably a power.”

“. . . So we have powers now.” Arti said. She took a seat on one of the motel beds, immediately flopping backwards onto it. “. . . now what?” 

“Well . . .” Lily held out her hand, before motioning upwards experimentally. As she motioned, the sand followed her hand, lifting from the floor and coalescing into a shifting, orb-like mass above her palm. “If we’ve got elemental powers now, we should probably, you know . . . train them?” She turned to look at Arti with a shrug.

Arti nodded, smiling a bit. The fact that she was horribly nervous was plain on her face, but she sounded enthusiastic regardless. “Then lets train!”

Chapter Text

“So, remind me again why we’re going to the noodle shop that may or may not currently be a front for a cult of scalies?”

“I need to know if the food is good.”

The two girls were standing outside the entrance of Mr. Chen’s Noodle House, staring up at the neon sign above the door, and the animatronic “Mister Chen” above that. They’d been in Ninjago for about a week now, and Arti had decided it was finally time to satisfy a very specific curiosity of hers.

Lily gave Arti a sideways glance. “. . . Really, Arti? You want to check out the food? ”

“What?” Arti shrugged, “I’m a foodie! I need to know if this place has food good enough to fund the secret scalie cult!” 

“I . . . I guess? I’m just not sure I’ll enjoy the food, I’m more of an Italian noodles person than an Asian noodles person.” The ginger sighed. “I never did actually try the Japanese Pan back at Noodles and Co, did I. I just stuck to my buttered noodles with chicken parm. And not to mention Derek’s love of Basil Pasta and Fettuccine Alfredo.”

Arti nodded along. “All good choices, I personally think there’s no bad noodle dishes, per-se. I just adore the flavors Asian dishes have.”

“Yeah, my issue is mainly the amount of vegetables and just how generally picky I can be. Also low spice tolerance.”

“Well, despite being a ‘noodle house’, if I remember right, there’s more dishes than just noodles. I’m sure there’s something on the menu you’ll want to try!” Arti said. 

“Hopefully . . . but the only other thing I can remember them having is sushi. Which, I am also very much not a seafood person.” Lily looked fairly unenthused. “Imagine if they had a hibachi chef, I wish this place had a hibachi chef . . .”

“I mean, there’s probably a fried rice dish?” Arti offered, “I’d be surprised if they didn’t have like. . . a variety of items, considering this place’s popularity.”

“But I’m also not really a fried rice person . . .” Lily just looked more dejected the more she shot down. “I might just have to get cake. And I don’t really know if I want cake for my actual dinner.”

“. . . is there any Asian dish you like?” Arti prompted, fidgeting a bit. 

“Sweet and sour chicken, and orange chicken, though I’m really particular about the sauce. In fact, the only sweet and sour sauce I actually like is from this place I get food from with my grandma sometimes whenever I stay with her—”

Lily’s ramble was cut short by Arti pulling her out of the way of the entrance. Her grip on the other girl’s arm remained firm. “Maybe we don’t block the door. . .”

“Agh, right, good point—what the hell . . .” The redhead trailed off with an air of disbelief, nudging Arti in an attempt to get her attention. “Arti. Arti do you see this.”

“I am seeing this which is why I moved away.” Arti lowered her voice to a whisper. 

“ Dear chaos why is Kai Ninjago here. Is this season 4. Arti I think this is season 4. ”

Arti went quiet, clearly running through the possible scenarios in her head. “Or he’s seeing Skylor? That’s a real possibility.” 

“ ARTI I THINK THIS IS SEASON 4. DON’T YOU THINK THEY WOULD HAVE REBRANDED SOMEWHAT AFTER SEASON 4. ”

“I don’t think they ever did in canon?” Arti muttered.

“ Do we ever see the shop enough in canon to know if they changed anything? Because I don’t remember! ” Lily looked like she was about to implode. “ I really think this is tournament and that this might be the first episode. ”

“. . . Let’s go inside and find out for sure then,” Arti said firmly. 

Upon entering the restaurant, Lily started scanning the room, her eyes landing on one booth in particular next to the conveyor belt of food. Arti could hear the redhead counting the people in the booth under her breath, before turning to give her a knowing look.

“Yeah, this is definitely The Invitation.”

“Okay, what does that mean for us?” Arti said. “Aside from the fact our dinner is gonna be interrupted.” 

“I have no idea. It’s not like Chen knows about us, right? And if he does, that just means we end up in the Tournament.” Lily shrugged, and the two girls found a spot in another booth. “. . . Hey, maybe I could just buy like, half a dozen fortune cookies to snack on. I probably won’t, but it could happen!”

“Honestly, that sounds pretty tasty.” Arti shrugged, looking over the menu. “. . . Dang, they’ve got pretty much everything on here.” 

“Wait, why don’t I just get white rice?” Lily looked almost mad at herself. “I could literally just get some white rice, I’m so stupid.”

“Heck yeah, that’s a good choice.” Arti smiled, “I’m. . . really glad you found something, I think I’d feel awful if you didn’t.” 

“It’s fine, if worst came to worst I’d have just tried to make a special request—hey Arti wait the ninja are fighting do you wanna watch them argue?” The ginger pointed behind Arti to the booth where Lloyd was now being yelled at by the other three ninja present.

“Are you crazy!?”

“Come on, Zane's irreplaceable!”

“. . . Not particularly!” Arti chirped, trying to stare straight through her menu. Her attempts to distract herself failed, and she ended up having her attention drawn to the fight.

“I cared for him too, but . . . now it's time to care about this team,” Lloyd was saying, trying to calm the others down.

“Maybe without Zane, there is no team,” Kai snapped back.

“ Arti, can you believe we’re getting to see the show happening in real time? ” Lily whispered, her voice far too excited for the actual tone of the scene happening beside them.

“. . . It's kind of surreal, honestly.” Arti nodded, “. . . I also don’t like staring, this feels weird.” 

“Come on, aren’t you just a little curious?” Lily held up her hands to her chin in a giddy sort of excitement. “Like, we’re getting to see the actual ninja! In real life! This is like, I’ve written fanfics about this kinda thing! None that I ever completed, let alone posted , but there was still ‘I’m A Master’—”

“Okay, fair, fair,” Arti sighed a bit, smiling. “But, if the ninja are here. . . doesn’t that mean—”

Right on cue, a trio of Anacondrai-tattooed thugs sauntered into the restaurant like they owned the place. . . which, they sort of did? Lily and Arti watched as the trio of thugs began making a scene, which had to be intentional, honestly. Robbing the cash register, and threatening the cashier.

“You know, given Chen runs the place, why are his own goons attacking?” Lily wondered, her brow furrowing in confusion.

“I bet he did that to lure the ninja out,” Arti commented, placing their order on the console at their booth. “That makes the most sense to me at least.”

“. . . Wait, yeah, that’s a good point. It was absolutely to get the ninja’s attention.” Lly facepalmed. “Heck, don’t they outright imply that in the episode at some point?”

Arti just shrugged in response to that. “I really hope this fight is over quick. It probably is, I don’t remember.”

“Yeah, it was fairly quick, though maybe hold off on our order until it’s over. I know that a lot of it happens on the conveyor belt and messes with the food. And as much as I like the ninja, I don’t want Cole stealing my rice or anything.”

Arti withdrew her hand from the console. “Good point. Withholding until this fight scene is done.” 

It sure was an interesting fight scene to watch, in all honesty, given it happened entirely around the girls while leaving them and the other customers entirely untouched. At some point during the scuffle, Arti swiped a plate that flew past her, taking the shrimp tempura off it. 

“. . . Hey, what’s in tempura shrimp?” Lily asked. “I actually kinda like shrimp sometimes.”

“It's just a type of batter, it’s pretty airy and crunchy,” Arti explained. “It’s pretty good, in my opinion.” 

“Could I try one, maybe?”

Arti slid the plate to the middle of the table. “Enjoy!” 

Lily snagged one of the shrimp off of the plate, before taking a bite. “Oh, nice, it really is just shrimp! Nice . . .”

“Yeah, it's pretty good in some sushi rolls too,” Arti noted, finally placing their order as the fight came to an end. 

“. . . Do you think they’ll charge us for the extra shrimp?”

“Only if anyone actually saw us,” Arti said. “Which. . . I doubt.” 

“Eh, right now the place is run by a mafia boss, we should be fine.” Lily paused. “At least, on a moral level we’re fine.”

“And it's going to be under new management within a few days,” Arti added. 

“Yeah . . . Skylor is so cool.”

“Heck yeah.” Arti nodded.

Thankfully, the rest of the duo’s dinner was pretty uneventful. Lily enjoyed her rice with some extra shrimp tempura she’d made sure Arti ordered, while Arti stared down her bowl of noodles shortly after finishing it.

“It's . . . really good. I don’t know if I should be mad about that or not,” she said. 

“I mean, given the ninja enjoy it, I think we’re allowed?” Lily shrugged.

“Yeah, fair enough.” Arti shrugged, cracking open the fortune cookie that came with the bill, and. . . pausing. Her expression shifted, her brow furrowing before a somewhat sickened look crossed her face.

“. . . Arti, does that look mean what I think it does?” Lily asked in concern. “Because I can only think of one thing that can come from a fortune cookie here that could make someone concerned.”

“. . . Master Chen has personally invited you to participate in his Tournament of Elements,” Arti read off in a shaky whisper. 

“. . . So . . . that’s a yes.” The ginger gulped. “Well, guess he actually found out about us somehow . . . ?”

“Somehow,” Arti repeated. “. . . We’ve barely done anything with our powers, we’re going to get our asses kicked—”

“LANGUAGE!” Lily interjected. “We’re going to get our butts kicked.”

“Whatever—!” Arti threw her hands in the air. “We’re screwed! We shouldn’t go.” 

“Hey, I’ve been getting pretty good at my sand!” The redhead looked a little offended. “Also, have you considered we might not have a choice? ”

“Oh . . . yeah, fair.” Arti sighed, slumping over a bit.

“Like, think about it,” Lily continued. “Chen obviously needs all the powers, and even if ours might not actually be required as far as we know, I don’t think he’d want to pass up getting our powers. After all, he did lock up Zane, no tournament required.”

“Okay, okay, we’re going then,” Arti said, before pausing as a grin crossed her face. “No, no, we should absolutely be going.” 

“. . . What are we planning, Arti?” Lily looked immediately intrigued, leaning forward to listen better.

“We know what’s going to happen next, right?” Arti started, “We know the twists and turns of the tournament, and everything else after.” 

“. . . OH CHAOS WE CAN SAVE GARMADON.” Lily’s jaw slowly dropped in realization, her mouth gaping open like a codfish. “OH MY GOODNESS . . .”

“Exactly!” Arti smirked, standing up. “We should get going, we’ve got a ferry to catch.” 

“At least we don’t have much we need to pack,” Lily joked, also getting to her feet. “Let’s go crash a tournament.”