"What is it?"

Nya raised an eyebrow, glancing down at the device she had set on the table. "Um, a phone? Haven't you ever seen a phone before?"

Lloyd barely looked up from his video game to look at the phone and then up at Nya. "Well, my dad never had a phone when we lived together, and the one at Darkley's kind of got broken when I first got there. So…I've never really used one before."

"It's not hard to use," Nya said, holding up the corded end. "See? You hold the end with the cord to your mouth and the other end to your ear. And when you dial, you just push the buttons on—are you listening to me?"

"Huh?" Lloyd shot her a quick glance before getting back to his game. "Oh, yeah, sure."

Nya narrowed her eyes suspiciously, but continued. "Okay, if anyone calls, just tell them they reached the Destiny's Bounty, and ask them what they want. It's simple. Got all that?"

"Aw, why do I have to answer the phone?"

"Because I'm busy working on the ship's computer mainframe and you're the only other one here. In case the guys have an emergency and call, you'll need to be here to answer, alright?"

Lloyd didn't look away from his seemingly very important game. "Uh, sure. Whatever you say."

"Alright, I'll just leave it here then."

"Okay."

Twenty minutes later, Lloyd had just hit level twenty of his game and he was very proud of himself. With all the time he spent on the Bounty, as he wasn't allowed to go out with the other ninja, Lloyd managed to beat most of the video games on the ship. He had beat every high score the other ninja had made, making Kai extremely unhappy. But with all his free time, Lloyd just played and played and played. He probably should have been training, but he wasn't really in the mood. Then again, he was rarely in the mood for training.

RING!

Lloyd nearly fell of his chair as the phone rang. The controller flew out of his hands, and the television turned off. "Darnit," Lloyd hissed, walking over to the phone and picking it up. He held it in the air for a moment. Now how had Nya told him to hold it? Was the cord up or down? He shrugged and held one end up to his ear. "Um, hello?"

"Hi!" came a voice he did not recognize over the receiver. "Would you be interested in buying some soap?"

Well, that couldn't have been right. The noise wasn't coming through his ear. It was by his mouth. He hurriedly switched the phone around. "What did you say?"

"Would you like to buy some soap?"

"Nya? Is that you? Why are you calling me? And why is your voice all funny?"

"Pardon me?"

"And I already have tons of soap. You should know that!"

"Excuse me, am I missing something?"

Lloyd held the phone out a few inches. "Um…this is Nya, right?"

"No," came the voice, "my name is Karen."

"Why are you calling? You're not a ninja."

"I'm not a what?"

Lloyd held the phone out. "NYA!" he yelled, "WHY IS SOMEONE CALLING WHO ISN'T A NINJA?!"

Nya poked her head into the room, looking a little confused. "It could just be a telemarketer."

"A what?"

"Someone who sells you stuff over the phone. What do they want?"

"They want to know if I have soap." Lloyd turned back to the phone. "Sorry, lady, but I don't control the finances of this ship. You'll have to call my uncle."

"Oh, alright. Well, goodbye."

"Bye!" Lloyd slammed the phone back down. "Well, that was weird…"

Lloyd had read through this comic book more than once, but he liked it all the same. He was well versed in the comic book universe. Anything with bad guys, heroes, and inter-dimensional creatures was good enough for him.

Ring.

Lloyd sighed and picked up the phone, not really concentrating as his mind was already focused on his comics. "Hello, Destiny's Bounty. How can I help you?"

"Hello, would you like to invest in stock today?"

"Uh, Zane, is that you?"

"If so, press one."

"Um, no, I don't think I'm really interested."

"If you are unsure and would like more information, press two."

"No, I think I'm really go—."

"To speak with the manager of this company, press seven."

"What the heck is stock?!"

"If you would like to speak to someone personally, press five."

"NYA!" Lloyd shook the phone. "WHY WON'T THIS GUY SHUT UP?!"

Nya sighed and poked her head in. "Just hang up."

"Hang what up?"

"The phone."

"Where?"

"UGH!"

Lloyd was sick of the phone, really sick of it. Not only did Nya never answer it herself, but Lloyd had to deal with talking to either random people or automated voice recordings. And he was getting tired of it.

Ring.

Just ignore the phone, he told himself, just focus on your game.

Ring.

All you have to do is ignore it. Focus. You're almost done with this level.

RING!

Lloyd's finger slipped off the controller, and before he knew it, his dragon was down.

GAME OVER.

"ARGH!" Lloyd picked up the phone. "WHAT?!"

"Afternoon sir. Would you be interested in buying—."

"For the last time!" Lloyd shrieked, "I'm not interested in soap or stock or broccoli or whatever else you're trying to sell!"

"Not even comic books?"

Lloyd nearly dropped the phone. "Wait, did you say comic books?"

"Yes, sir! Twenty of the never before seen 'Marvelous Monty' comic books, only forty dollars for the whole package. A bargain, really. Are you interested?"

"HECK YEAH!"

Sensei Wu never could figure out why he was suddenly short of cash. If Lloyd was good at one thing, it was hiding.

"Are you selling comic books?"

"Uh, no."

"How about televisions?"

"No, I'm—."

"Video games? Cause, I just beat my last one."

"Lloyd, it's Jay. I'm not selling you anything. And why are you picking up the phone anyways? I'm calling for Nya. Is she there?"

"What, Nya? Oh she's busy. If you could please hold, I'll get her for you. But…are you sure you don't want to sell me something?"

"Well, if you want, you can buy up all my socks! I don't need those anymore."

"Sorry, not interested." And Lloyd hung up the phone. He paused for a second. "Oh wait, that was Jay…why did I hang that up again?"

Hmm...so not really my usual style with so little description, but this time I wanted to leave it up to the reader's imagination. It was a good exercise for me, as I'm usually extremely descriptive in my writing. My friend is a really good writer and she suggested I try and write scenes with just dialogue for practice, so some of this is from that exercise.

Anyhow, off hiatus and back in action. Now I just have to actually, you know, write the next chapter of Silver City (*sighs*) I have a lot of work to do.

Anyhow, hope you liked it! My sister and I had a good laugh over this one :)

~Pixie