Chapter Text
The warm light of a sunset filtered in through an apartment window, reflecting off a metal spoon immersed in a cereal bowl. Sitting at a kitchen table sat a blond sixteen year old, Lloyd Garmadon.
Lloyd was staring at his phone in his hands, hood up, his food long since forgotten. His eyes darted across the screen, scanning the many posts and replies on Chirp.
@brickroll
wild how we let the son of an actual warlord walk around like he didn’t just wreck half the city
>@dad.tudabone
He attended school with my child! I un-enrolled immediately!!!
Lloyd scrolled down.
@chadcheers
NUMBER ONE WORLDWIDE HIT BOO LLOYD 1 YEAR ANNIVERSARY! NINJAGO CITY BEACH 2:00 TOMORROW! ALL INVITED! (obvi not Lloyd)
Lloyd’s phone flashed with a notification. A message.
Anonymous: kys
The phone went dark as Lloyd turned it off and slid it across the table. It slowed to a stop before lighting up with more notifications.
Lloyd stood up and brought his bowl to the sink. He dumped the contents of the bowl out and watched as the milk ran down the drain. He paused for a moment, staring at the place where the milk had disappeared.
Lloyd blinked and grabbed the faucet, turning on the water to rinse the cereal out of the sink.
He glanced at the key rack attached to the wall next to him, his mother‘s keys weren’t there, she had taken them to work that morning. Lloyd grabbed his own keys before shoving them in his pocket.
He left the apartment, taking the elevator to the bottom floor. The door opened and he stepped into an empty lobby. The city outside was busy, with people crowding the sidewalks and rushing to their destinations. Lloyd walked outside, keeping his head down as people turned to look at him. Someone shouted something at him, but he just walked faster until he came to a quieter street.
He recognized a bakery, the display window showed a picture of his face with the word BANNED in red. Lloyd kept walking before his gaze locked on two people ahead of him, Chad and Maggie.
The two cheerleaders were walking in their uniforms, Chad, wearing a letterman jacket over his shirt, was talking animatedly to Maggie. Lloyd waited for a car to pass before darting to the other side of the street. He pressed himself against a wall in an alley, making sure his schoolmates couldn’t see him.
There was a rustle behind him before a shrill voice spoke.
“Well, well, what do we have here?”
Lloyd whipped around to see at least ten men with purple tattoos twisting like snakes along the edge of their face. The man who’d spoken had black hair that was pulled into a ponytail, long sideburns, and a goatee. His clothes were red and purple, and he had a necklace that looked like a fang.
Lloyd backed away with his hands in the air.
“I– I didn’t mean to interrupt.”
“Too late!” The man grinned. “Hee hee! You’re the Garmadon kid, aren’t you? I have a surprise for you!”
Lloyd turned to run, but two men with purple tattoos shoved him to the ground. The man with the fang necklace pulled out a knife.
Lloyd fought, kicking and trying to twist out of reach. The man on his left let go of his arm and grabbed his head instead.
“No! Please, I didn’t do anything!”
The man with the knife just laughed before swiping at Lloyd‘s face. Lloyd threw his free arm up without thinking.
The blade of the knife cut through his jacket, creating a deep gash in his arm.
Lloyd cried out, curling into himself. His face was unscathed, but dark blood was already beginning to stick to his sleeve.
Lloyd pressed his forehead against his arm. He winced as the world swam, the sound of cars and footsteps fading before everything turned black.
***
By the time Lloyd could sit up, the men were gone. Lloyd stood on shaky legs, putting pressure on his injured arm with his other hand.
The sun had set and the city was now lit by street lamps and building lights. People walked past Lloyd, either ignoring him or nodding to themselves satisfactorily.
The apartment was dark. Lloyd’s mom wasn’t back from work yet. Lloyd kept the lights off, save for his bathroom light, which he turned on as he searched for bandages. Lloyd threw his hoodie on his bed and wrapped his arm with the medical supplies he found. His room was quiet, the only noise coming from the distant buzzing of the bathroom lights and Lloyd’s shallow breathing.
His gaze flicked over the furnishings and decor in his room. Lloyd inhaled slowly. He moved his lips, muttering something to himself. He paused, focusing his gaze onto the bloody hoodie at the end of his bed.
“I could be kidnapped,” he whispered.
The words hung in the air as Lloyd continued to think. He nodded slightly as he surveyed his room.
And he began to tear the place apart.
Lloyd dragged his hand across his shelf, sending a Fritz Donnegan statue, spaceship, and his collection of Starfarer comics crashing to the floor and sending broken shards of clay into the carpet. He threw his blankets off his bed and tore down his curtains. The curtain rod clattered down, ripped out from its place in the wall. Lloyd slammed open drawers and threw his photo album at the wall. The book landed with its pages splayed out beneath the cover, destroying the photos inside.
Lloyd stood in the middle of the destruction, breathing heavily.
“Good,” he sighed.
His closet door slid open easily, and Lloyd reached towards the back of the closet for his black gi.
Lloyd began dressing into his gi, wrapping it around him with a near reverence. He tied the green belt around his waist but stopped changing when his mask was in his hands. His thumb idly traced the two “L”s embroidered at the top before pulling it over his head.
The Green Ninja stood in the middle of Lloyd’s room. He turned to the window, analyzing it before giving it a hard kick that broke the frame and sent shattered glass raining onto a balcony below. The Green Ninja judged the distance between Lloyd’s apartment and the roof of the building next door before jumping out the window. Something jerked him backwards, throwing off his trajectory and causing him to fall towards the edge of the roof.
He hit the roof hard and threw his arms over his head. The momentum flipped his body over his head and cold concrete scraped against his skin underneath his gi.
He looked back at the broken window. The bottom of his uwagi had ripped on part of the metal frame, leaving strings dangling off his gi. Pushing himself up, he leapt across rooftops until he came to a construction site near the docks.
The air was filled with the smell of seawater and oil. The Green Ninja pressed himself against a pile of shipping containers as he crept through the shadows.
He looked at the docks, noting the absence of Sensei Wu’s ship, Destiny’s Bounty.
The mech garage was dark, meant to look like an old warehouse. A small keypad lit up as the Green Ninja punched in the access code. The doors screeched with the scraping of metal on metal as they slid open. The Green Ninja kept the lights off and closed the doors.
In the corner, beneath the mechs, was a small living area, with a couch and a few arcade games. The Green Ninja pulled off his mask and looked around. A few blankets and pillows were shoved in a closet. Lloyd took a few and laid them on the couch, creating a makeshift bed. Lifting the blanket up to his shoulders, he closed his eyes and tried to sleep.