I guess I'll share this. This is the original prologue for Ship of Theseus. If you haven't read that yet, this is gonna get spoilery. Anywho, it's not terrible, but I suppose you can all see exactly why I dumped it. This was written before I changed the plot with Gene's plan. Originally, he was supposed to have gotten a job with a game company, and hid the virus code in all copies of the game. To be honest, the rewrite of the prologue that ended up in the story also came before that change; it just turned out that writing Kai being shifty about where he got the game worked to my advantage when I thought up the new direction. The original reason for that was simply because I was too lazy to make up a store name. The initial plan left too many things to chance (how did Gene know the ninja were even going to buy that game, for one), so I was really happy when I came up with the direction I ended up going in. But pretty much, I felt this gave the game away far too readily, so to speak. (Though you may notice I recycled Jay's laying upside down with his legs up the wall pose in the main story. I just loved that mental image. I'm gonna hafta remember to try to draw it at some point.)

Start Scene

The sun was barely up, but the ninja had already been awake for almost two hours now. Even still, they were fairly far back in the line. It snaked around the corner behind them. The hottest new video game in Ninjago was being released today, and they didn't want to miss it. Well, at least some of them didn't want to miss it.

Nya yawned. "Remind me again why I had to be here, too?"

"Because it's a team building exercise?" Cole phrased it as a question, not really believing it himself. Jay had asked him to say it. He shrugged at the blue ninja. Jay swatted him in the arm for blowing it, and then turned to Nya, grinning in an attempt to save the situation.

"Heh . . . What Cole means is that, since we're all going to be playing this game, we should all share in the suffering of standing in line for it!" he exclaimed.

"Ugh, really? Last Legend 18? The last halfway decent game in that series was 12," Nya replied. She turned and started to walk away. "I'm going back to the Bounty. I'll see you when you get back. Tomorrow."

"Nya," Jay whined, but it was too late. She was already rounding a corner, disappearing down the street. Cole slapped him on the back.

"Oh well, guess it's just going to be the five of us," he said with a grin, wrapping an arm around Jay's shoulders. Jay pushed him off, scowling.

"Honestly," Zane spoke up. "I do not understand why all six of us had to come in the first place. Surely it doesn't take six ninja to purchase a video game."

"Not you too, Zane!" groaned Jay theatrically. Zane just blinked, not really understanding why Jay was being so over dramatic.

"I think what Jay's trying to say," said Lloyd, smirking, "is that he doesn't want to wait in line alone."

Jay deflated at the others laughed. Zane pat him on the shoulder in an attempt to cheer him back up.

"Hey, the line's moving, guys!" called Kai, already standing several feet away as the others held up the line. With a quick apology, they all began to shuffle forwards.

X X X

It was late afternoon before the five boys made it back to the Destiny's Bounty, treasure in hand.

"I can't believe we managed to get there while they still had the free giveaway bonus character cards left!" Jay said excitedly.

"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's fire this puppy up!" said Kai.

The group quickly made their way to the gaming room and set up the system. Soon, a familiar theme song began to play as they determined which four would go first. Zane decided to let the others have the honours, content to just watch for now.

"You're not really going to watch everyone else play a video game, are you?" asked PIXAL.

Zane turned his attention inward. "Yes? I don't really understand why that's an issue," he replied internally.

"I don't know. I don't find it interesting, not being the one in control."

"It does not bother me. It's all right if you don't wish to pay attention."

"I will be running some diagnostics, then. Enjoy your game." With that, she popped off his internal display. Zane turned his attention back to the others. They had finally finished with the initial set up, and the game's opening movie was beginning to play.

X X X

It was late. Really late. This was why Wu was really mad.

"What are you five still doing up?" he demanded, breaking in on the video game party. Jay snorted awake. Somehow, he had managed to fall asleep on the floor with his legs propped up against the wall. He was the only one sleeping, though. The others were in the middle of a pitched battle with a sub boss.

"Can this wait a moment, sensei?" asked Kai, not really paying Wu any attention.

"No, this cannot wait a moment," Wu shot back. He marched over and unplugged the game system. Cole let out a startled little shriek.

"We haven't saved!" he cried.

The four put down their controllers amidst grumbled protests and stood. Jay joined them, yawning. Wu stood before the five boys, arms crossed.

"Have you forgotten your training routine? Now you'll only get two hours of sleep before it is time to get up once more. I hope the game was worth it. Now, goodnight." He pointed to the door meaningfully.

The five boys shuffled out of the room, heads hung in shame. Someone sneezed. It took a moment for everyone to register where it had come from. Once it did, everyone turned to regard Zane with confusion. He shrugged.

"Must have some dust in my system," he said. The explanation seemed plausible, and was quickly accepted. Then the ninja went to bed before Wu could start to frog march them.