Special thanks to ZaneWalker for letting me use this story idea, hope you find this satisfactory!

Disclaimer: Do I look like I own Ninjago? No, if I did, we would not be waiting until 2014.


Fallen, Lost, and Alone

Chapter Three: That Drowning Feeling

Two years, four months after

Cole's POV

It was early in the morning, no one else was up yet, but I was. I was standing on the deck, just watching the sunrise on the horizon. I had been happy to receive the phone call saying that the Serpentine were back. Just three months ago, our team was officially back together. It was a year after Zane had died that I left, I went home to spend time with my dad, I even tried going to the normal public high school, but nothing compared to being a ninja.

I knew that Kai and Nya had gone back to run their father's store and Jay had gone home to spend time with his parents, Lloyd had spent his time with his parents, and the kid even took classes online.

I had tried to get onto the school's science bowl team, but there was this one kid, ZJ Michaels, who always seemed to get one more question right than I did. No matter how hard I studied, I just couldn't beat him. At least I knew I had one thing that made me better, I was a ninja and could probably win against him in a fight. The kid looked like he had never fought once in his life.

"Morning Cole." Kai said, as he walked past me. "Are you coming to eat breakfast today, because if not, Nya said she and Jay were going to throw a granola bar at you, and trust me, Nya used to be a pitcher on our little league team, it'll hurt."

"Yeah, I'm coming." I said, following after him.


ZJ's POV

I woke up and I was very nervous. Today was my first competition in the science bowl, and I did not want to let my team mates down. There were sixteen of us total, twenty if you counted Mrs. Haines, Mr. Ward, Miss Kim and Mr. Trimble, our coaches.

I pulled on the bright yellow t-shirt, even though I could not see the white block letter on the back, I already knew what it said.

ZJ Michaels

NCHS Sci-Bowl competitor

And Nerds Never Quit

It was something that the others had come up with, mainly Mary Daniel and Evan, but we all had adopted, it meant that we wouldn't give up, no matter how challenging the questions got, or how outnumbered we were, or even if the score was zero to fifty, we would give it everything we got, and usually, it ended up alright.

The phone in the hallway rang, and I ran down the hall, sliding on the smooth wooden floors, picking up the ringing phone before it would wake up anyone.

"Hello?" I asked quietly, stepping back into my room.

"Hey ZJ, good to hear that you're up. We have to leave fifteen minutes earlier than planned; they bumped us up so now we're competing against Clearwater Prep in the first match." Mary Daniel said, she sounded like she was excited that we were in the first match, but also upset that she had to lose those extra fifteen minutes of study time. "So can you be at the school in the next ten minutes?" She asked, yawning.

"I will be right there." I said, hanging up the phone and climbing down the stairs, walking into the kitchen. I grabbed an orange out of the fruit bowl, I wasn't very hungry, I never was. Grabbing a water bottle out of the fridge, I pulled on my sneakers, grabbed my jacket, and ran out the door, jogging the four and a half blocks to the school bus lot.

As I was crossing a street I had always found empty, a black car drove up out of nowhere, squealing to a stop right as I jumped back, dropping the water bottle out of shock. No one usually was out driving this early on a Saturday, not out here anyways. I picked up the water bottle, holding it away from myself as cold water dribbled out of a crack in the plastic, sliding down my arm. The driver stopped the car and stepped out, a man, mid fifties to early sixties.

"Are you alright?" He asked, walking towards me, he looked at the water bottle gave me a sad smile. "I'm sorry. I should have seen you walking."

"I should have been watching where I was going." I said, shaking my blonde hair out of my eyes, I was supposed to have gotten it trimmed last week, but between quiz bowl practices, school stuff, and spending time with the Michaels family, I hadn't had the time. I held out my hand. "My name's ZJ. ZJ Michaels." The other man took my hand and shook it.

"I'm Garmadon."

Garmadon. It sounded familiar, wait, was I seriously shaking hands with the former dark lord?! My throat felt like it was closing up, it was the same feeling Catie described when she was telling me about her allergy to nuts. Like you just couldn't get enough air into your lungs, I felt my eyes closing, and there was that feeling I got sometimes when I tried to go to sleep, that feeling as though I was falling, cutting through the air, even when I was flat on my back in the middle of my bed.

It was suffocation.


Me: That was fun! If any of the people I mentioned who were on the Science Quiz Bowl team or the coaches sound familiar, let me know, they're based off some of my classmates and teachers.