Lloyd crouches in the vent, face pressed close to the grate. Below him, three men alternate between yelling at each other and yelling at their phones, handguns glinting on each of their hips. The group of hostages crowded into a corner of the room flinch away whenever one gets too close.
Lloyd gulps. This is his first official mission as part of the team. He won't- no, can't- let the others down.
Something calls two of the men up the stairs. Lloyd counts down as they disappear from his sight. Once he hits zero, he shifts his weight and drops through the ceiling, landing in a silent crouch behind the lone man remaining.
One of the hostages screams. The guard jumps, lifting his gun, but Lloyd is quicker. His hands fly up, smacking the gun from the guard's hand so it goes skitting across the floor. They grapple for several moments, ending when Lloyd gets his arm around the man's throat and sends him to the ground.
He straightens, tossing back his sweaty mop of blond hair. He needs a haircut, he thinks for the hundredth time. Magic growing tea also grew your hair, who woulda thunk.
Someone makes a muffled noise behind him. Lloyd jerks back to himself- oh right, this isn't just a robbery situation. He spins around. The hostages- a small group of about five- regard him with fear. The boy who screamed has a hand slapped over his mouth, eyes wide as saucers.
Lloyd tugs his mask down. He tries for his best reassuring grin, heart thumping wildly in his chest. "It's okay!" he whisper-shouts, holding up his hands, palms out, to show he's unarmed. "I'm one of the good guys!"
Lloyd can tell the exact moment they see his fangs. The boy lets out a whimper and a teenage girl at the front of the pack does a very obvious double-take. Lloyd tries not to let it affect him, the way that they flinch back. He's proud of who he is, dang it, and on a normal day, he might even be more understanding of their reactions. It's not like their interactions with the serpentine- which his own teeth have to remind them of- leave them with feelings of friendliness.
However, they don't have the time for hesitance. The ninja were supposed to capture the other two men, but if they hadn't, then they could be back any moment now. Lloyd reaches out his hand for the girl, pleading with his eyes for her to take it.
He almost chokes on his sigh of relief when she does.
"Good, yeah, let's-" When he pulls her towards the stairs, the rest of the hostages follow. Lloyd pauses at the bottom of the steps. The wail of a police siren drifts down, along with the sounds of muffled yelling and someone- Kai's- loud shout. The tension in Lloyd's shoulders lifts, and he smiles his first real smile of the day. The ninja came through. It's all good now.
Sunlight slaps him in the face as they exit the bank, so sudden and bright after the dim indoors that a hiss escapes through his teeth. Through the glass doors of the lobby, he sees the criminals pressed up against police cars. Zane stands next to them, nodding along to something one of the cops is saying.
Lloyd turns back to the hostages, giddy relief straining his cheeks. "The police will help you from here," he says. "If you need medical help, then, uh, there's probably doctors too."
He doesn't think he's done a bad job explaining- he's giving himself a mental pat on the back, even, for not stumbling over his words or looking like an idiot- but the teenage girl at the front of the group has gone ashen white staring at him. Lloyd's heart skips a beat. Immediately, his brain starts playing back every tiny detail of the rescue and concludes that- nope, his initial assessment was mistaken. Turns out he actually flubbed up everything. Good going, Lloyd. Why are you allowed out of the house, again?
His mental flagellation is interrupted by a breathy whisper. The teenage girl's eyes dart up to meet his own, hesitating over his mouth for a brief instant. "You- you're sparkling ," she says, blinking rapidly as if she can't trust her eyes.
It's so unexpected that Lloyd's brain changes course and promptly drops the catalog of the twenty-seven ways he went wrong in the last ten minutes. Sparkling? What the-? He catches sight of his hands. And then he wants to facepalm. Because, seriously? They are actually idiots. How did they not think this through?
"Sorry about that," he says, rubbing the back of his neck. "It's not contagious." It's not contagious? What is wrong with you?
The girl is still staring at him as he awkwardly makes his escape, walking as fast he can go while still being considered socially acceptable toward Zane and the cops.
"Lloyd!" someone shouts. "Way to go, squirt!"
A body slams into him, then one or two more. Lloyd grunts exaggeratedly, unable to help the grin pulling at his face. He pulls back. There are his friends, all safe and sound- and yep, there are the Golden Weapons, glittering at their backs. Lloyd feels his own skin heat again, reflecting their glitter back.
"You guys," Lloyd whines dramatically, collapsing into the nearest person's chest. Of course it's Kai's, whose grip tightens so quickly on his shoulders that Lloyd nearly chokes.
"What's wrong?" Kai demands, pushing him a step back. "Did you get hurt? I knew we shouldn't have sent you on a solo mission. You only took the tea, like, a week ago."
Lloyd almost feels bad for making him worry. Almost, because he's nothing if not a drama queen and he's gonna milk this for all it's worth. "You almost gave away my position with those stupid Golden Weapons," he grumbles. "The bad guys could have looked up at any moment and seen me sparkling!"
Kai groans, half-relieved and half-exasperated. "Is that it? You nearly gave me a heart attack, kiddo!" He knocks Lloyd good-naturedly on the back, and naively, Lloyd thinks that's all there is to him lighting up like a Christmas tree in the middle of a hostage rescue mission.
Boy is he mistaken.
"Guys! Have you seen this yet?
Jay stands in the middle of the doorframe, chest heaving. In his hand is a magazine, a little bent around the edges and in the middle where he's clutching it tightly. "Look! It's us!"
One second Nya is sitting beside Cole, and the next she's standing at Jay's shoulder, snatching the magazine from his hands. She ignores his cry of "Hey!", flipping through the pages until she finds what she's looking for, scanning quickly. Then she snorts. Loudly.
"What?" demands Kai. "What is it?"
Nya tosses the magazine to him, whacking him on the side of the head. Kai yelps. "It's not about you," she says. "At least, not all of you." Her eyes lock with Lloyd. Lloyd feels suddenly like a creature of prey, and he doesn't know how or why that is.
One by one, the rest of the ninja cotton on to what she's saying. Jay, moping at having his prize taken from him, perks up at the promise of information. Even Zane, knitting in the corner, looks interested now.
"What?" Lloyd wants to ask, and he can see by the glimmer in Nya's eye that she wants him to. Well, ha. Now he's not going to. He crosses his arms, glaring back. But it's hard . He's dying to know now. Nya sees his predicament and smirks harder.
Suddenly, Kai breaks out into laughter. Not his sarcastic laugh either, but the full-blown dolphin screech that the neighbors have complained about before.
"Oh, this-" he gets out between wheezes- "this is gold ."
Lloyd can only catch glimpses from between Kai's fingers, but he gets enough of an idea, he thinks. Very clearly that is his face, plastered on not one, but two whole pages of the magazine. He's absolutely befuddled. They're known now, sure, but not enough to have news articles dedicated to them, much less magazine spreads. Lloyd frowns and goes to snatch it from Kai's hands.
"Nope!" cackles the fire ninja, jerking it away from him.
Lloyd crosses his arms. Fine, then. If that's how they want to play it, then fine. He'll just steal it from Kai's room later. No big deal.
But then the Stone Army thing happens, and his dad turns into a scalie, and then a full-blown dragon, and then a frail old man, and he defeats the most ultimate evil™ in the world. So between all of that, he really can't be blamed for letting a small magazine slip past his radar.
It's nearly three months later, as he's on his way back to the city, that he's reminded of it again.
Lloyd's on his dragon, golden wings cutting through the night sky. It's not that late, really, the sun hasn't even set yet, but his eyes are heavy and his hands hold the reins loosely in his lap. He's nearly dozed off twice now, which- not a good idea when the dragon you're riding is made of mist and entirely controlled by your mind. He needs to land, and like really soon.
That's why, when the familiar buildings of Ninjago- no, New Ninjago City come cresting into his vision, he nearly sheds a tear.
Lloyd knows he shouldn't complain. Really, he does. He knows that he's better off than practically everyone else, what with the fame and the dragon and a roof over his head. But it's tiring, having to go from town to town, accepting their rewards, fumbling through speeches, smiling awkwardly as grandmas pinch his cheeks and coo about how perfect he'd be for their grandchildren.
All he wants to do right now is collapse in a real bed for a week and not move at all. But he's only in the city for tonight and tomorrow, and half of that time will be spent in meetings with the Mayor.
He dismounts his dragon, sensing more than seeing it turn to mist behind him. His clothing shifts too, losing their sparkle, and he stretches his arms above his head with a satisfying pop in his back. Man, is he going to sleep well tonight. He is going to go straight to the ninja's place, do not pass go, do not collect $200, do not stop to help those workers in the street-
So he stops to help those workers in the street, fite him. It's just that they're working so hard to fix the damages Lloyd and his friends caused, and he feels guilty to be getting all these rewards without having done any of the work. ("Uh, you defeated the Overlord?" says Kai incredulously in his head. Lloyd elects to ignore him.)
He chucks another broken beam into a truck. Someone claps him on the back as they pass, and Lloyd revels in the animosity of the action. He straightens, looking for another area to clear. Across the street, a man is bent over underneath a flashing neon billboard. A billboard that's leaning, leaning, leaning, swaying on its too-thin support beam.
Lloyd knows his instincts. That billboard is about to fall.
He doesn't think- just propels himself forward with a little bit of lightning and gets underneath the sign right as it topples over. The weight comes crashing down on his back. His knees buckle beneath it, but he grits his teeth and sends a boost of strength to his muscles. Groaning, he shifts the sign to the side and lets it crash to the ground.
The man he saved stares at him. "You just saved my life." Awe colors his voice and sparkles in his eyes.
Lloyd brushes the dust off his clothes. "It was nothing," he says self-consciously, rubbing the back of his neck. "Just doing my job."
The man's eyebrows pull together slightly. Lloyd sees the exact moment he puts together the blond hair and red eyes, the baby fangs glinting in the corners of his smile, because his mouth parts and his expression goes slack.
"You're the Golden Ninja," he says.
Lloyd can't help but wince at how loud he says it. Everyone has stopped to stare at them, but he hopes they're all too far away to hear. "Yeah," he says. "But, uh, would you mind not telling anyone? I'm technically not getting in 'till tomorrow afternoon."
The man doesn't respond. By now, the other workers are approaching the pair of them, voices growing louder and louder with their excitement. Lloyd takes stock of his options and decides his best option is to run for it.
"Thanks for all your hard work!" he hollers, parkouring up the side of a building and disappearing over the roof.
The next day finds Lloyd slouching over a bowl of cereal, muscles stiff, feeling particularly unimpressed at the morning antics of Kai and Jay.
"Turn on the tv," Kai is saying, bedhead of hair sticking every which way. He ruffles Lloyd's hair, to the protest of Lloyd. "Looks like our little kiddo is out saving the world again."
"It was one sign, hardly the world," Lloyd grumbles, successfully smacking Kai's hand away. "It wasn't even a big deal. I don't know why people are talking about it."
"It's because it's you," Cole says from across the room. His eyes are warm as he looks at Lloyd. "The city loves you, Lloyd. You deserve the recognition."
Lloyd can feel the red creeping up his neck. Groaning, he buries his face in the couch cushion. The ninja laugh above him.
"Why's Lloyd dead?" Nya asks disinterestedly, pouring her third cup of coffee that morning into her limited-edition Mega-Monster-Amusement-Park-exclusive Samurai X-cuse u mug.
"People are praising him again and the poor baby can't handle it," Jay says. Even without looking, Lloyd can hear the grin in his voice. He swats at him, feeling gratified by Jay's startled yelp.
"Ah!" shouts Kai. "Here it is!"
Begrudgingly, Lloyd sits up. There on the screen is the man he helped last night, sitting opposite the TV host of whatever program Kai's drawn up.
"You said you encountered Lloyd Garmadon last night in the city?" the host asks.
"He was helping with the city cleanup," says the man. "One second I was about to be crushed by a billboard, and then in the next, he was right beside me, holding up something that should have taken six men to hold like it was nothing."
"Superior speed and superior strength," muses the host. "Yet another nail in the coffin, pardon my pun, for the theory that New Ninjago City's very own Golden Ninja is a-"
Lloyd wrestles the remote from Kai, finally switching the tv off.
"Hey!" says Kai. "I was watching that!"
"Yeah, well, it was stupid."
"You're stupid," Kai shoots back.
And what's Lloyd supposed to do? Take that lying down?
"Well, at least now all of Ninjago knows you're here," Jay says helpfully, over the sounds of their scuffling.
Cole rolls his eyes. "Alright, alright, that's enough," he says, hauling himself out of his chair. He separates them easily, though not before Lloyd sticks his tongue out at Kai in a fit of maturity.
Kai pinches his tongue between his fingers, though, and Lloyd has to concede his win.
He slumps down on the couch, brooding. "And here I was hoping to go out to Doomsday before the meetings today."
"I'd be glad to take you afterward," Zane offers.
Lloyd sighs. "Thanks, but no," he says, remembering the last time his location got out to the public and he had to definitely, actually flee for his life.
"Cheer up," Nya says, patting his head like a dog. "Your official work isn't all that bad. I mean, you're getting the key to the city today!"
Lloyd wants to say that the key doesn't even open anything and he plans to be bored out of his mind the entire way through, but the head pats feel nice and he doesn't want her to stop just yet.
Flash forward several hours, however, and Lloyd is unpleasantly unsurprised to find that he was right on the mark.
The event is taking place outside, on a stage set up in the recently-cleared central park. It's not his turn on the stage yet, so Lloyd's waiting behind it with the other ninja feeling bored-er by the minute. Jay and Cole have taken to playing scissors-paper-rock over the inanest things in whispers, shaking their fists silently when they're really feeling the results.
Zane sidles up to Lloyd, his presence comforting as always. "Are you nervous?" he asks.
"Nah," Lloyd says, appreciative of his attention all the same. "This is like the third time I've done this. I'm just holding out for the snacks afterward."
Zane nods in understanding. Lloyd's suddenly grateful that it's him checking up on him, because the others wouldn't be so able to accept his words as the truth. And he's not lying! The waiting is boring, not stressful. The only thing remotely interesting he can see is a trio of kids his own age standing at the side of the stage, whispering and jostling each other as they steal looks at him.
Lloyd can tell the exact moment that Kai sees them because his lips curl into a distasteful frown. "What's their deal?" he hisses. "They're disrupting the ceremony."
"I'll go ask them," Lloyd says, desperate for literally anything to do. He tells the aide hovering at his side that he has to use the bathroom and jumps off the stage.
Nya snickers. "Lloyd? Talking to other people? It's more likely than you'd think."
"Ten bucks says he says "hey, fellow kids"," Jay snickers back.
Lloyd does not say, "hey, fellow kids," because he's not a loser. He knows how to talk to other people, thank you very much.
He props himself up against a telephone pole. "What is up, my dudes."
The three teenagers jump, mouths dropping open when they see who he is. Lloyd takes a moment to feel smug about his intimidation skill- suck on that, Darkley's! But the teens recover their shock quickly. One frowns, looking over him like how the ninja do- even Jay, as much as he tries to deny it- after each battle.
"Hey, man, is it okay for you to be out in the sunlight right now?"
Lloyd blinks. He glances up at the sky. "It's cloudy," he says, not following.
For some reason, this makes all of their mouths drop open in long "ohhhhs".
"Do you actually have fangs?" asks the nearest boy eagerly.
Lloyd's tongue automatically runs along the pointed nubs of his canines. "Yes-" he stutters- "no- what?" He looks back at the other ninja for help, but they've collapsed in a pile of helpless giggles, utterly useless. Lloyd huffs. He honestly doesn't know why he expected something different.
He turns back in time to catch the fang teenager jerking his hand back as if he'd been burned.
Lloyd stares at him. "Were you going to just- check?"
The other teen shrugs. "Yolo?"
Okay. Whoever decided that the Overlord was the scariest creature in Ninjago had obviously never met a teenager. Lloyd needs to disengage- now, before they start dissecting his eyes or something.
He takes one slow step back. "I think I need to go that way…" he starts weakly. But suddenly the park brightens as the sun comes out from behind the clouds, and the three teenagers' tittering starts up again.
"You don't glitter," says the fang teenager, a note of disappointment in his voice.
"Dude," says the one in the back, rolling his eyes, "of course he doesn't. That would be lame ."
Glitter? Lloyd freezes. The only thing that Lloyd can think of that might make him glitter are the Golden Weapons, and he automatically glances to his teammates. Of course the weapons aren't here, having been destroyed in the explosion that also took care of the Overlord. Lloyd narrows his eyes. He was under the impression that their personal secrets were secure, but if some random teenagers are aware of the Green Ninja prophecy, then what else could they know? And even more importantly, who else could know it?
So as much as Lloyd wants to yeet away, he makes himself turn back around. If there is actually a leak, it's something he needs to find out.
"Why would I be glittering?" he asks.
The teens fall deathly silent. Being questioned directly seems to have knocked the wind from their sails, and Lloyd can't help the stab of vicious satisfaction that goes through him to be on the other side of it for once. They share furtive glances, silently urging the other ones to answer.
Eventually, the first boy who spoke to him gets shoved forward. He glares at his friends, who shake their heads with wide eyes and mouths pressed into thin lines. The boy hangs his head. He glances up and winces when he meets Lloyd's eyes.
"Uh, because you're a vampire?"
...
...
...
"I'm a WHAT?"
And that's how Lloyd Garmadon- Green Ninja, Golden Ninja, one-time world saver and ex-bad boy- finds out that the entire country has been thinking he's a freaking vampire for the better part of a year.
(When the Golden Weapons are reforged, Lloyd nopes out of there.
"Not again!" he hollers. "I cleared this up once already! We are NOT doing this again!")