Hi all! Are we having fun with Season 4 yet?

Now that the season's airing in the US, I thought I'd go ahead with this! There's always a few little oddities here and there, so I thought I'd whip together some extra snippets about what goes on in between the episodes. Major spoilers, obviously! I'm mainly aiming for humor, but I suspect it might get more intense as the episodes themselves do.

This one takes place between Episode 35 (The Invitation) and 36 (Only One Can Remain).

Disclaimer: I don't own Ninjago.


As the mysterious ferry churned its way closer to Chen's Island, the crowd of passengers at the bow railing grew. Waves from the ship's wake and rear paddle began to slap against the dockside, sending up sprays of seafoam, while the heavy craft rumbled its engines, slowing down for the approach to the dock.

There was some puzzlement among the invitees when the ferry drew to a complete halt a good twenty meters away from the dockside, still rumbling and frothing water every which way. What was the holdup?

Garmadon kept his eyes mistrustfully on the island he'd sworn never to return to, but with his ears he sifted through the growing puzzled murmur of the group until he latched onto a familiar voice. Clouse was arguing with one of the tattooed crewmen, his condescending voice raised only ever so slightly in annoyance.

"This ship transports trucks full of noodles on a daily basis. Surely the docking procedure must be well-ingrained by now?"

"Don't look at me," said the crewman sullenly. "I'm just wunna the dockhands. Most of us are, ya know? We load, we unload, we drive the trucks and handle security. We don't steer this tub, and we sure don't know how to fix it."

"How did something manage to malfunction during a trip this short? Did you not make sure the ship was in working condition before we started?"

"Sure, we checked," grumbled the crewman. "We usually have an automatic docking system that lands us just fine, but it got totaled when those two weirdos were having a brawl and knocked in the roof."

By now the ninja were surreptitiously listening too; Jay smirked and elbowed Kai, earning an eloquent eyeroll in response.

"Then dock the ship manually," said Clouse impatiently. "The pilot cannot be that inept."

"Can't do that either. We'd need the hand rudder. It was fine when we started, but now the handle's broken clean off."

From his left Garmadon heard Cole gulp suddenly, followed by Lloyd hissing, "I told you that thing was important!"

"I barely even touched it!" Cole snapped back under his breath. "The wood must've been rotten—it would've broken when they tried to use it anyway!"

"Oh sure," cut in Jay, "because they'd definitely—" Garmadon tuned the squabble out and turned his attention back to Clouse's conversation.

"—still have to dock this ship. Get someone to fix the rudder." Chen's right-hand man was starting to sound distinctly peeved.

"I'm telling ya, we can't," retorted the crewman. "We almost never used the blasted rudder, so only Mujo knows how to fix it."

"And where is this Mujo?" asked Clouse dangerously. "Did he not show up for this vitally important trip?"

" . . . That was the guy Garmadon kicked off the boat."

A moment of silence. At length Clouse gave a sharp breath of frustration.

"We shall have to pull level with the shoreline and use a gangplank, then. This was not the landing ceremony Master Chen had in mind. He will hear about this!"

"Seriously, don't look at me," muttered the crewman. "I've been runnin' this circuit for three years and haven't seen as many accidents as this one trip. Give me noodle trucks any day!"

As Clouse stalked off to make arrangements, the small party by the railing exchanged awkward glances, realizing they had half-crippled the entire ferry without even trying.

"Uh . . . how long have we been on this ship again?" asked Lloyd at last.

"Less than an hour."

". . . Master Chen doesn't stand a chance."


A/N: Bit of background: you know how in later episodes it turns out the ferry normally transports noodle trucks to Chen's Island? Look at the scene in Episode 36 where they're getting off the ferry. There's a flimsy gangplank set up on top of a parapet so that you have to jump down to get to solid ground. They can not be loading trucks full of cargo every night using a contraption like that, so I took the liberty of explaining why they weren't using a proper ferry ramp. Yes, you five back there. It's your fault. I hope you're pleased with yourselves. :P