Disclaimer: I don't own Ninjago or any of its small LEGO peoples.

"Can you not," said Cole, leaning wearily against the door.

He wasn't going to lie, there were lots of wonderful things about moving into the old Temple of Airjitzu. Each of the ninja got their own rooms now, and the dojo downstairs was great. The floating island meant they didn't have to worry much about security. There was lots of space, and after some dusting the temple proved to be a bright, cheery place to live.

Thennnnn there was Sensei Yang.

Things had been awkward at first. After a whole night of death battling, psychological warfare, various attempts at taking over Ninjago, and ultimately Yang sacrificing himself to allow Cole to become mortal again, they didn't really know how to behave towards each other for a while. For good measure, it quickly became clear that Cole was the only one who could see or hear Yang. The former evil Sensei was grouchy about that.

He was grouchy about a whole lot of things, actually.

"What do you youngsters get up to these days?" he groused, rummaging through Cole's top drawer. Most of the contents were already scattered on the floor. "What is this? Moth-eaten trousers?"

"They're called ripped jeans, and they're very in," said Cole, starting to pick up his things. "And have you ever heard of privacy?"

"Privacy," scoffed the ghostly Sensei, tossing himself back and floating across the room. "You, walking around with gaping holes in your pants, lecturing me about privacy! Next the youth will be wandering around with no clothing at all. Modern society!"

Cole rolled his eyes, hiding a smile as he dumped the last of his stuff back into the drawer. Several centuries of being a crazy evil guy locked in a temple didn't just go away overnight. Sensei Yang was a grouchy old coot most of the time, with no interest in modern Ninjago and very little approval for anything anyone did. He even dissed Sensei Wu frequently.

But over time Cole had found he was really quite a softie, somewhere in there, and with a pretty wicked sense of humor to boot. They forged a squabbly sort of friendship with mentor-student undertones; Yang sometimes offered advice just as good as Wu's. Cole came to see the old ghost as a sort of cool grandfather. Which was nice—he'd never known his real grandparents, and he kinda liked feeling that he could keep this elderly man company, take care of him a little bit.

Although honestly he sometimes felt he was the one who needed caring for, what with Yang's shenanigans.

Forcing his drawer closed despite the disarray inside, Cole grabbed a pad of paper and flopped down on his bed. Sensei Yang had started meditating, floating upside-down in the corner, but eventually he opened one disapproving eye.

"What are you doing now? Planning some devilry, no doubt."

"Actually, I am," said Cole, smiling sweetly. "Lots of devilry."

Sensei Yang's scowl deepened. Cole wondered briefly how his beard continued pointing to his feet even though he was upside-down.

"You know what tomorrow is?" he said, pointing to the calendar on his wall. "April first. April Fool's Day. Did they already have that before you became a ghost?"

"If they did, I wouldn't have approved of it anyway. I have no use for fools."

Cole rolled his eyes again.

"It's a day when people play tricks on each other. I know a lot of the others are already coming up with tons of new ideas, what with the new base and all, and I need to hold my own."

"Hmph! Frivolity." Yang shut his eyes.

"It is frivolity," retorted Cole. "And it's fun."

"Which is deeply evidenced by your sour expression," said Yang, not opening his eyes.

"Ahhh." Cole tossed aside the writing pad with a sigh. "I'm just a little strapped for ideas, that's all. It's less fun when you're only on the receiving end." After a moment he lifted his head to look at Yang. "Sayyyy. You can still pick stuff up and move doors and everything, right? Do you think you could help me out?"

"Most certainly not." Yang opened his eyes and glared.

"Awwww, come on, please? You'd be the perfect accomplice!" Cole adopted his best coaxing tone. "Come on. Just make a few things move around, maybe float a little? You can't stay locked up in this temple for three thousand years without having a little fun."

"Frivolity aside, it would simply be impractical," said Yang, floating back upright. He shook his head. "Your little blue friend seems unhinged enough without the intervention of a poltergeist."

"His name is Jay, and he's not unhinged." Cole flopped back again. "Ugh. You're right, though. I went to all that trouble convincing everyone that this temple isn't haunted, and Jay's still really paranoid. No use undoing all that work now, I guess."

"Precisely." Yang folded his arms. "My advice would be to get yourself out of this temple tomorrow and actually do something useful with your life. For a change."

"You're one to talk," grumbled Cole, making irritated marks on the writing pad. Then he winced and looked up. "Sorry. That was—"

"Youth these days," muttered Yang, and puffed himself out through the nearest wall. Cole sighed, letting his forehead thunk to the drawing pad.

The next morning Cole was awoken by a scream from downstairs. He bolted upright, his heart pounding. The next second he realized it probably had something to do with April Fool's Day, and relaxed. Then the second after that there was a ton of crashing and hollering downstairs, and he went tense all over again. That sounded a little too intense to be a prank.

He scrambled out of bed, forgetting even to be cautious while opening the door. Luckily nobody had rigged it. He hurried down the hall, getting more anxious by the second—was that wind he heard?

He found the living room in disaster. Moving boxes were overturned everywhere, the sofa was lying on its back, and Jay and Nya were sprawled on the floor, looking terrified.

"What just happened here? Did you use Spinjitzu indoors?" asked Cole.

"Are you kidding? The freaking window opened on its own!" said Jay, pointing. Cole's mouth fell open. Beyond the window there appeared to be outer space.

"It opened and all the air started to rush out of the room!" said Nya shakily. "I nearly got sucked out!"

"You're . . . kidding, right?" said Cole. Somewhere in the back of his mind he wondered if the two of them had stuck a very fancy window cling to the window, messed up the room themselves, and then made the story up.

Kai, Lloyd, and Zane had appeared by now.

"Woah, what's with the mess in—hooooly cow!" Kai caught sight of the planets and galaxies floating outside. "How did you do that?!"

"We didn't!" wailed Jay.

At that moment the window suddenly slid open again, all by itself. The ninja cried out in horror as air started to rush out into the vacuum of space, tumbling boxes end-over-end and sending the curtains flailing. Everyone grabbed onto someone else or something heavy, struggling to anchor each other safely. Most of them ended up bracing behind the overturned sofa.

"We need to close the window!" shouted Kai above the whistling wind.

"No, don't go there! It'll drag you out!" cried Nya. Kai tried to stand up, then immediately stumbled from the force of the wind and started sliding inexorably towards the open window.

"Gotcha!" Zane grabbed his hand and started dragging him behind the sofa.

Just at that second the window slid shut, and the wind stopped. Everything that had been tumbling or flapping about crashed to the floor, including the ninja. For a few moments there was only panting and groans of relief.

"What is this?" gulped Nya.

"I told you this temple was haunted!" yelped Jay. "You remember when we were here at night and we tried to get out the door and there was just a huge void? IT'S HAPPENING AGAIN!"

"That was a void, not outer space!"

"I don't care what you want to call it," said Kai, standing up. "I'm nailing that window shut."

He approached the window with a grim but slightly nervous step, clearly worried it would open again. He got close without any incident, though. He paused for just a moment, peering with wide eyes into the abyss of space.

Then a giant spaceship suddenly hove into view, charging a white-hot ion cannon on its front. It was aimed straight at the ninja temple, like an angry glowing eye. Kai gave a yelp of terror and yanked the curtains shut, and everyone threw themselves to the floor and shielded their heads.

They waited a long time, barely breathing, but nothing happened. There was no sound of laser fire, certainly no molecule-shattering explosion. After what felt like an eternity, Kai slowly sat up and looked at the others. Then he clambered to his feet, teeth gritted, and pulled aside one curtain just the teeniest bit.

Sunshine. A blue sky, sweet puffy clouds, a happy bird fluttering by for good measure. Blinking, Kai pulled the curtains all the way open and looked outside.

"It's our yard. Everything's . . . normal."

Everyone looked at everyone else.

"That was too weird," said Lloyd at last. Jay laughed shakily.

"I'd like to meet whoever rigged that up. They must be a genius." He looked to the kitchen and groaned. "Ughhh, now our prank is ruined."

"'Our'?"

"Nya and I teamed up this year."

"Of course you did," said Kai.

"What were you gonna do?" asked Lloyd, already mostly recovered from the space ordeal.

"Well, we were gonna switch the bags of cereal between the cereal boxes—"

"Pshh, seriously?" Kai folded his arms. "Amateurs."

"That was only the first step!" said Jay. "The first step of, uh, a very complicated and intricate plan!"

"Really?" Zane raised an eyebrow. Jay and Nya shared a glance before heaving defeated sighs. The others laughed.

"Amateurrrrs," sang Kai.

"Oh, shut up." Jay shoved him lightly, and they all began to pick their way through the mess in the living room towards the kitchen, exchanging good-natured insults. Cole hung back to lock the window, just in case. He looked out at the sunny yard for a moment, his brows knitted. Then he shook his head and headed to the kitchen as well.

They gulped down breakfast hastily, cautious about the salt and sugar. Everyone disappeared in different directions soon afterwards, clearly plotting.

Suddenly there was an uproar from the kitchen. Zane and Jay were the first to hear it, and they went rushing in to see what was happening.

"Okay, this is even weirder," said Jay.

A chocolate cake seemed to have developed a mind of its own. It was currently galloping all over the kitchen (difficult, since it had no legs), snapping at Cole's ankles (also difficult, since it had no teeth).

"Back! Back, you!" Cole was defending himself with a frying pan. Finally he chased the cake into a cupboard, slammed the door, and rubber-banded the knobs together.

"Phew." He swiped at his forehead. "That was crazy!" He looked at the two ninja standing in the doorway. "Somebody pinch me. I'm hoping this is just one of those really nasty nightmares."

"I don't think I can be awake in someone else's nightmare," said Jay.

"I am quite sure I cannot," agreed Zane. The cake growled and rattled the doors of its cupboard prison.

Then there was another commotion nearby. Everyone rushed that way. This time they found Kai emerging from the bathroom rubbing his eye.

"I was attacked by a toothbrush," he groaned. "A freaking toothbrush!"

"Are you okay?"

"I think, yeah. Just . . . not really sure what I'm supposed to tell the dentist during my next checkup."

"We should tell Sensei," said Zane. "This is becoming unsettling."

While looking for Wu they found Lloyd being plagued by rabbits. There were great fluffy swarms of them piling around him, trying to scrabble up his legs. He couldn't walk for fear of stepping on one.

"Rabbits?" said Cole.

"Don't look at me! They came out of nowhere!" Lloyd tried in vain to scoop his way out of the seething mass of bunnies. One of them had somehow managed to crawl down the back of his shirt. Another was chewing on the cuff of his sock.

"I gotta say, you got off easy," said Kai.

"Oh, you would be surprised how hard they bite," said Lloyd, trying to shake a rabbit off his arm. "A little help here?"

The others started helping to peel rabbits off the green ninja.

"Awww, hi there, Fluffy!" grinned Jay, pausing to cuddle one particularly sweet-looking rabbit. The creature promptly emitted an altogether too deep snarl and bared a set of razer-sharp fangs. Jay yelped and dropped it.

"We really need to talk to Sensei!" said Kai.

While Zane and Jay stayed to help Lloyd herd out the last of the rabbits, and Kai went looking for Sensei Wu, Cole went looking for someone else entirely.

"Master Yang?" He poked his head into the dumbwaiter. The ghostly sensei often liked to meditate there, but now it was empty.

"Master Yannng?" Next Cole checked the laundry room. There was no black-bearded Airjitzu master sitting cross-legged atop the dryer.

"Hey, Master Yang!" Cole checked up the chimney.

"I'm here, boy, what do you want?" asked an irritated voice behind him. Cole pulled his head out of the chimney flue and looked around. He finally noticed Sensei Yang, poking his head out of a decorative urn. The lid was perched atop his hat, and the urn itself was much too small to actually hold a Sensei, but when you were a ghost such things didn't matter.

"Master Yang!" Cole scowled. "Okay, I know I shouldn't have said that last night, and I'm sorry, but this is taking things a little too far. These jokes aren't funny."

"I haven't done anything." Sensei Yang allowed the urn's lid to fall through him into its proper place, and oozed his way easily out of the container. "I've seen the nonsense that's been going on today. Windows opening to space? Killer cakes? Plagues of rabbits? You think such things are within my powers?"

"Well, I . . . thought you might be possessing stuff or something," said Cole, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly.

"Don't be foolish, boy. I certainly couldn't pull such capers. Amusing as your confusion is."

"Oh, you're real helpful," said Cole drily.

"Hey, who are you talking to?" said a familiar voice. Kai stood in the doorway, looking at Cole oddly.

"Oh, uh—" Cole looked around, seeing only Yang. "My . . . self?"

"Okay?" Kai kept looking at him strangely. Cole realized he was all sooty.

"I was, uh, checking up the chimney," he said, hastening to brush himself off. "What with all the weird things happening today, I thought there might be another portal to space, or . . . Santa, or . . . something."

"Brilliant save," said Yang flatly. Cole caught himself before he could give the snarky oldster an irritated look. Kai looked pretty convinced, though.

"You're probably closer to the right track, honestly," he sighed. "Sensei Wu doesn't know what's going on either. He and Misako are beating up a rug. With brooms. Apparently it tried to go flying carpet on them."

Suddenly Nya came bursting in from the outdoors.

"You guys, I was just on the Bounty," she yelled. "We have like five million distress calls! Ninjago City is in chaos! EVERYWHERE is in chaos!"

"Oh no!"

Everyone started rushing around getting suited up and ready for action. Sensei Yang settled down in the fireplace so people would stop running through him.

"Good luck in the city, boy," he called. "I really fail to see what you youngsters find 'fun' in all this madness."

"This is not what is supposed to happen!" grumbled Cole, and ran out the door after the others.

They flew the Bounty down to Ninjago City, which was indeed roiling. Trees had pulled up their roots and were dancing in the city park. Skyscrapers were wobbling like towers of jello. All the stoplights were flashing completely random orders, and the electric billboards were printing out insults instead of advertisements.

"Now that's just indecent," scowled Jay, hands on hips as he looked up at one of the boards.

"We've got bigger problems right now," called Lloyd. "Everyone split up, make sure the people are safe! See if you can get any clues about when this started or what caused it. We'll regroup here in half an hour."

Everyone dashed off in different directions. Cole checked through a few skyscrapers, making sure that everyone had evacuated safely. Most citizens had already headed for the outskirts of the city, actually fairly calm considering the situation. Living where they did, they were used to deranged disruptions.

Cole found himself being harrassed by streetlamps. They had suddenly developed bendy necks, and they kept bending down to nudge him with their lightbulb heads. One poked him between the shoulderblades. When he turned around to look, another gave him a solid kick in the pants. When he whirled around that way, a third one bopped him on the head. Then it stole his ninja mask.

"Heyyyy, give that back!" Cole grabbed, but the streetlamp quickly pulled back and rose up to its full height, taking the mask with it. Cole groaned, craning his neck to look woefully after his stolen mask.

"Oh my. Having a bit of trouble, are we? Can I be of assistance?"

Cole blinked at the cultured, slightly British voice behind him.

"Ah, no, but thanks." He only gave a brief glance back, but then he registered a double-take and snapped his head around. There was nobody there.

"Down here, old chap."

Cole's gaze shifted downwards. A miniature poodle stood at his feet, tail wagging.

"There, that's better!" it said amiably. "Are you quite all right?"

Cole sputtered.

"You're—y-you're a—a dog?!"

"Well yes, I suppose you could say that." The poodle ducked its nose a bit, evidently offended.

"But—how—why—"

"Ugh." The poodle tossed its head impatiently. "If all you can do is make incoherent noises, I suppose I had better leave you to it."

It pattered off, collar jingling. Cole rubbed his hands over his eyes and dragged them back through his hair, lost beyond words. Finally he sighed and started climbing up that lamppost to retrieve his mask.

He did fine until he'd actually got the mask in his clutches, at which point the lamppost suddenly went limp, dumping him into the street. He tumbled to a halt right in the square where he was supposed to meet the others. Nobody commented on his undignified entrance; they were all starting to look a little wild-eyed and frazzled. Zane was dripping with melted ice cream.

"What is going on?" wailed Jay.

"Nobody knows!" said Lloyd. "Everyone says it suddenly just started. And it just keeps getting weirder and weirder!"

"Too weird," groaned Nya. "It's like—I don't know, like someone's messing with the very fabric of reality! I'm gonna lose my mind!"

"Wait." Zane suddenly went still. "That's it! Someone is tampering with the fabric of reality!"

"What?" Kai gave him a dismayed look. "That's impossible. Nobody has the power to mess with reality."

"Wait." Realization was dawning in Lloyd's eyes. "Nobody . . . nobody except for—"

"Cloud Kingdom!" everyone shouted.

"That. Explains. EVERYTHING!" Jay shook his fist at the sky. "Those crazy bathrobe people thought they could get one over on us!"

He was lucky it was already such a crazy day in the city, otherwise he'd really have attracted some strange looks from passerby.

"Okay, those 'bathrobe people' have some 'splaining to do," said Cole, jamming his mask back on. "Everyone to the Bounty!"