Lightning stood atop one of the tallest buildings in Ninjago, gazing down upon the lights and shadows cast all around the city.
"Huh," He thought. "I'm not normally the first one here."
He stood at the edge of the skyscraper, dark navy blue cape fluttering in the wind, the hood pulled over his head, concealing his short brown hair. A masquerade mask with its ribbons tauntly tied, covered about half of his face, electric blue lightning streaking across the smooth plastic. The rest of the outfit consisted of a long sleeve shirt, pants, gloves, gauntlets, and converse all of which were royal blue except for his gloves which were black and his gauntlets which had the same electric blue lightning branching across the stiff leather. He stood there maybe 5 minutes more before another presence joined him.
"Hey." Lightning greeted, turning to face the new person, smile spread wide across his lips.
A monotone hello was all he received in reply. Lightning turned to continue gazing at the bustling city, but he could feel the cold stare burning into his back from his companion.
"Alright." Lightning surrendered, turning once again to face his companion.
"I know I'm mysterious and whatnot." Lightning joked. "But seriously, if you have a question, just ask. Just staring at me it's kind of creepy me out."
Ice quickly apologized in his monotone tone. "I am sorry. I didn't mean to bring you any discomfort."
Lightning simply waved his gloved hand, waving off the apology.
"Nah, it's cool." He replied, tone light and playful.
"Anyhow," he continued. "Why were you staring anyway?"
"Oh, I was just trying to deduce why you're here first. Based on past patterns, you have always arrived second, except for this time." Ice explained, voice void of all tone and posture straight like a soldier's.
Lightning simply shrugged. "You know, I was wondering the same thing as well."
Lightning turned his back to the noisy city, finally taking in Ice's appearance. He wore an outfit similar to Lightning's, long-sleeve shirt, pants, gloves, and converse. The shirt and converses were as white as freshly fallen snow. The pants, a charcoal gray. The gloves, as black as the darkest midnight. The gauntlets and simple mask bore shards of blue ice, easily overlapping each other. His white cloak shifted in the wind, the hood pulled up. Lightning always wondered what his companion looked like, but he knew better than to pry. They were masked for a reason. Before another word could be exchanged, a red clad presence interrupted them, directly followed by another blue presence. Lightning turned his attention towards the newly appeared pair.
"Fire, Water. How are you?" Lightning greeted with a smile and a wave of his hand.
"Fine." The boy replied.
"Yeah, pretty good." The girl chirped.
Their outfits were similar, but yet there were some key differences. The biggest one being the color. Fire's costume was obviously a bright fiery scarlet and Water's was a gentle watery teal. They both share the same base, long-sleeve shirts, pants, gloves. All right, you probably get the picture now. Fire's outfit differed with his mask. It was still smooth thick plastic tied behind his head with ribbons, but the base was a darkish red with a raging fire dancing around the surface.
Call Lightning the curious type, but he always wondered what Fire's eye color was. His and Ice's masks both allowed people to see their eyes, his a crackling lightning blue and Ice's a solid icy blue. But Fire's was concealed behind a bright orange mesh spanning from one side of the eye hole to the other. Water on the other hand had a mask like Lightning's and Ice's, though hers had waves crashing against the smooth surface. She also bore a bandana, covering the lower half of her face, waves interwoven within the threads.
"So…" Lightning started cheerfully. Drawing the attention of all three of his companions.
"Has anyone seen Earth?" He questioned.
Normally he would be the first one there, ready to get a jump on patrol. Ice simply shook his head.
"Nope." Fire popped his p, crossing his arms and shifting his weight to one side. The painted fire that blazed across his gauntlets shimmered slightly as stray light from a nearby street lamp shone upon them. Water shook her head apologetically, she had seen no hid or hair of their black clad leader. Her water blue cloak shifting with her movement, the hood concealing her hair. Lightning shifted uncomfortably, biting the inside of his lip.
"Do you think we should wait for him?"
Fire promptly replied. "Are you kidding!? I say we go for it. We are strong enough even without Earth." He said pumping his fist into the air. Ice put a cooling hand on Fire's cloaked shoulder, face impassive as he spoke.
"I digress. I say we wait a few more minutes for our fearless leader."
Fire snorted. "Fine."
Once again crossing his arms and probably rolling his eyes, indicated by the tilt of his head. Water simply shrugged, not caring what they did, so long as they all agreed on it. Seconds slowly ticked by, becoming minutes at a snail's pace. Fire was just about to open his big mouth when a shadow peeled away from the rest. And there stood their missing comrade, shadows still attempting to cling to him.
"He-" Earth started, only to be cut off by an enormous yawn.
"Hey guys." He finished once he got his mouth back, his voice heavily laced with sleep. "Ready to go on portal?"
Lightning quirked an eyebrow at the display, something was off. Earth had never been this tired before. Lightning studied Earth a moment as Ice took a quick scan of their teammate. Right off the bat, Lightning noticed the slump of Earth's shoulder's, how he almost seemed to be curling in on himself. Earth almost blended into the shadows with his nearly black costume. The only pieces of his costume that weren't black were the earthy shards of stone decorating his gauntlets and mask, though the base of the mask was still black. Clearly Earth took the whole secret identity thing to the next level. Not only was there earthy brown mesh covering his eyes, he also had a black bandana, rocks crumbling across the threads, naturally. But the rest of the outfit mirrored his friends except for the darker color scheme. Black cargo pants, black long sleeve cuddled up and black converse.
Fire was the first one to respond. "Aww yeah, Let's go!"
Fire shouted, pumping his fist into the air before sprinting across the grey concrete roof. Smirk spread wide over his lips. One by one the others followed Fire's example. But before Earth could join in on the fun, a hand clamped onto his shoulder preventing him from running across the rooftop. Earth turned, but he only saw a white blob at his shoulder, Earth strained his eyes and was able to have the blob solidify into Ice.
"Are you alright?"
Earth barely heard Ice, relying more on reading Ice's lips then hearing his words. It sounded like waterfalls had taken residence in his ears, drowning out all other noise.
"You appear to be displaying the symptoms of sleep deprivation."
Earth shook his head, to wake himself up and to stop the insistent ringing in his ears, sadly the ringing persisted, growing in volume as his head shook from side to side. Suddenly the world tilted sideways and Earth had to blink several times to rid his vision of the growing black dots. Though clearly he was just coherent enough, because apparently he said something that reassured Ice for he gave him a brief nod and released his hold on him. (Start here) Ice disappeared from Earth's sight a moment later and Earth pieced together that he probably was following the others, jumping from rooftop to rooftop for patrol.
Earth turned his head slightly and spied a flash of whitish gray. Then replying mostly on muscle memory, Earth pursued the rest of his team. But as he went to make his jump, his vision went wonky and he miscalculated his step and he ended up catching the lip of the building. He tumbled ungracefully forward, a manly shriek escaping his throat involuntarily. Maybe if Earth had been a little more awake, then he would have been able to catch himself easily. But he wasn't thinking clearly, nor was his reaction time up to par. Instead Earth instantly curled, arms wrapped protecly around his head, and legs curled tightly into his stomach. Earth waited for the inevitable fall and pain that would shortly be accompanying it. He gritted his teeth and eyes squeezed shut, wind whipping past, threatening to tear his hood off his head. All the air left Earth's system as something solid and cylindrical slammed into his chest.
Earth wheezed as his body tried to replenish his oxygen supply. His vision going black with lack of air and before his knew it, he was gone. Lightning had taken a glance back, no surprise he was worried about their leader. He was acting off, which could only mean that something was up. It was a good thing too. Lightning got a front row seat to Earth's fail. And before he even knew what he was doing, he had launched himself back over the gap between the buildings. He managed to snag Earth with one arm around the chest before slamming into the brick wall opposite with a loud smack, hand and feet stinging slightly as he clung to the wall like a spider. Lightning signed as the adrenaline faded. Lightning turned his head to tell Earth off, eyes hard and mouth set in a frown when Earth went completely limp in his grip, arms and legs dropping down with the help of gravity.
All anger and annoyance melted as concern flooded Lightning's system. He shook Earth slightly as his gloved hand dug into the cracks of the older bricks, his voice cracking as he called Earth's name. It only resulted with Earth's head lulling to the other side, away from Lightning's worried expression. Lightning panicked and scrambled up the wall, hauling Earth's dead weight behind him. He winced when his nail caught the wall just right and bent it awkwardly, sending pangs of pain down his arm, not that he paid it much attention. He was more concern about getting to the top of the wall.
Lightning cursed under his breath as his shoes refused to give proper traction, opting instead to skid on the crumbly stone, but in the end he managed to make it to the rooftop. Lightning grunted as he pulled himself and Earth over the lip of the building, grazing his knee and Earth's back in the process. Lightning panted as he gently laid Earth down on his back. Lightning then attempted to remove Earth's mask and bandana to get a better idea as to what was going on, but they both remained firmly in place, almost as if they had been glued on. Worry clawed at Lightning as he realized there was nothing else he could do by himself. With his hands shaking slightly Lightning clawed at his collar, his panic growing as he failed again and again to nab the pendant that hung around his neck and hid under his shirt.