Titanium Jay has challenged the authors on this site to write a story based on their username (you can find the link on my profile!). And while I take this challenge very seriously, I obviously cannot write a very serious story for my own username. So, here we go…

Btw, the setting of this story is after Skybound (i.e. Titanium Zane, Ghost Cole, Water Ninja Nya, and Jaya 2.0).

Disclaimer: I do not own Ninjago. And I do not even own the OCs in this story (except one)!


Prologue: Desperate times, desperate measures

The six ninja were sitting around the dining table on board the Destiny's Bounty, their – currently not so mobile – ninja headquarter.

"I can't believe the rocket boosters are broken again." Cole complained. "I thought you had just upgraded them recently." He addressed Nya and Jay, who were sitting next to each other on the opposite side of the table.

"Oh, we have." The Water Ninja replied. "But that still doesn't mean that they can survive everything…"

"This time, we'll make them fireproof I think…" Jay added, while shooting a glance at Kai.

"Hey, it wasn't entirely my fault. Lloyd was challenging me…"

"It doesn't matter whose fault it was." Cole interrupted him firmly. "What matters is that they are gone and need to be replaced. Did you already make an estimate what materials you need and how much this is gonna cost?" He asked the two skilled engineers in their team.

"Unfortunately, yes." Nya handed him a folded piece of paper. The ghost opened it and, when he saw the final number, he turned even paler and greener than he already was.

"Zane, what's our current financial situation?" He asked, passing on the paper sheet to the nindroid.

"Considering Ronin now owns our shares of the tea shop and that we…"

"Just the short answer, please."

"Not good at all. And most certainly not good enough to replace the rocket boosters."

"Jay, could we maybe use some of the money from your inheritance for now?"

"Uh, ahm, I-I don't think so." Jay replied, his cheeks turning bright red. "It's… uhm… pretty much… uhm… all gone."

"Jay, you idiot!" Cole exclaimed. "How could you have possibly spent already all the money you inherited from your birthfather? We'll never get to fix the Bounty this way if we don't start saving…"

"Well, excuse me. I didn't expect Sparkplug here to make some pretty fireworks with our rocket boosters." Jay tried to defend himself. "Besides, I've never heard any complaints from you when we play video games. Maybe because I can't hear them with the AWESOME NEW SOUND SYSTEM we got for the game room."

"And we should acknowledge that it was not Jay's fault, when we had to replace some of the kitchen appliances due to severe water damage." Zane added.

"I already said that I am sorry." Nya was apparently annoyed that her big blunder was brought up again. "I told you there were black smoke and a horrible smell coming from the kitchen, so I thought there was a fire – which wouldn't have been too unlikely – so I just wanted to help!"

Kai grinned "But it just turned out to be Cole making toast… man, he was very lucky that you didn't hit him!"

"And that's why we've installed ghost sensors all over the Bounty now, so I'll never use my powers again with him around!"

"Can we please stop diverting from our original topic?" Cole still felt slightly uncomfortable talking about this very close experience. "We really need some money, and fast."

"Maybe we shouldn't have fired Dareth as our manager. We've done a lot of charity work recently, but we haven't had any paid jobs in ages." Lloyd commented.

"We are not hiring him again." Nya stated firmly.

"Well, we've kept all the job offers we got since he left, why don't we check them ourselves?" Jay supported his girlfriend's claim.

Cole nodded. "Good idea Jay." He got up and went out of the dining room, only to return a bit later with a large pile of unopened letters that he dumped on the table. "Alright, let's have a look."

The ninja began to open the letters.

Lloyd was the first one to read out his letter. "This one is from Golden Dragon, the energy drink. They want to become our official sponsor." He shook his head. There's no way we are going to advertise that horrible stuff!"

"I have an invitation for us to attend a store opening." "Me too." Zane and Jay told their friends.

"Bo-ring." Kai commented and read the next letter. He whistled.

"Wow, did you know how much these magazines offer for exclusive interviews and photos? And they pay most for… let's see… mmh, weddings and babies…" He then looked at his sister and her boyfriend. "Just so you know, we are not that desperate yet, okay?"

Soon, almost all the letters were opened and in a massive discard pile.

"Looks like there is only one letter left." Cole took the pink envelope from the table and opened it. "Ninjago TV would like to invite you to compete in The Great Ninjago Bake Off..."

"A baking competition, that's sooo much fun!" Jay called enthusiastically. "When I was little, my mum and I came second in the mother-son cupcake decorating competition…"

Zane agreed. "Baking is a very enjoyable activity. I would like to participate in this contest."

Cole also liked the idea. "Yeah, let's show all of Ninjago that ninja don't just fight, but that they also have some great kitchen skills!"

"Well, some more than others …" Kai mumbled with a side glance at the black ninja.

Lloyd hesitated. "But… what about her?" He asked, pointing at the picture at the bottom of the letter. It showed a young woman with short blond hair and brownish-green eyes. "Nellie, the host of the show, is one of our crazy fangirls…"

Kai smirked. "If you find her so annoying, what were you and Cole doing at her book launch event a few weeks back?"

"Uh, I-we…" Lloyd blushed.

Cole laughed. "If you're asking why we went there, that's easy. They had free cake. And lots of it. But if you really want to know what Lloyd was doing there - and why he doesn't want to meet her again… let's just say that the most entertaining moment of the party was when someone tripped and fell face first into a Black Forest Gateau…"

Jay burst out laughing. "Ah, how could we forget about it? The Cream Ninja was on the front page of pretty much every newspaper in Ninjago the next day..."

"Haha, very funny." Lloyd sulked. He hadn't touched a single piece of cake since that night.

"C'mon, it was funny. And you would have thought so too, if it had happened to someone else…" Cole commented. "So, are we going to enter? Or should we rather go back to the Birthday Party Entertainment requ…"

"I vote for the baking contest!" Kai shouted. And the other ninja, apart from Lloyd, agreed.

The green ninja sighed. "Alright. Let's do this. It can't be worse than my last encounter with cake – and with Nellie…"

Cole grinned. "Don't worry too much about her. She probably won't even recognise you without the cherry on top…"