"Would you like to enter Prime Empire?" Welcome to Prime Empire: C.J. Style! I should be able to post much more often until the summer, so I hope you guys are looking forward to more frequent updates. Also, if anyone has any ideas for a C.J. Style one-shot, shoot a review on either this story, the C.J. Style One-Shot Collection, or PM me :) Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own Ninjago.

Chapter I: Almost Normal

Cole hummed to himself as he got all of the ingredients to make his favorite chocolate cake with Ganash frosting. He didn't really have much else to do.

His friends had all left to deal with the Mechanic, who, at this point, had been chasing just about every night this week, at. No one really knew what was going on, especially Cole. He had never actually gone with them. In fact, he had been skipping out on a lot of missions so that he could be with C.J., who was currently asleep. After the Never-Realm incident, Cole decided that he shouldn't go on any missions anymore unless it was absolutely necessary. No more random adventures for fun, no more helping out with low-level crime gangs, and no more missions that the ninja could do just fine with without him. His friends had continued with helping the police with criminals to keep in shape and prevent something like Aspheera from happening again while Cole made sure to wake up as early as sunrise exercises every day to get more training in. It was tiring, but he needed to make sure that he kept in shape while he wasn't helping out as much.

Pixal and Wu had also gone out that day to grab some groceries as they were the only ones not everyone knew, making it easier to freely walk through the streets of Ninjago City. This left Cole alone with his son, and now that C.J. was in bed, Cole had some time completely to himself.

Cole now had two bowls, flour, and a bag of sugar stacked on top of each other in one hand and the milk in another. When he reached the counter, though, he realized that putting everything down would be a rather difficult task. He would have to transport the ingredients to the counter one by one. First was the milk, which was rather easy to put on the counter, but he forgot that the chocolate chips were right under his arm, and that crashed to the ground, spilling chocolate chips everywhere. He tried catching it, but he realized that the bowls in his other hand were becoming imbalanced. To save the flour inside of the bowls, he grabbed the bag with his mouth, and everything fell to the floor with a loud bang.

Cole sucked in his breath from the noise for fear that C.J. would wake up, but when he did, he inhaled a ton of flour from the bag, and he immediately started coughing violently, causing the flour to drop to the floor.

Once his coughing fit was over, he groaned as he looked down at the mess. Seriously, it was like he was cursed. Every time he set foot in the kitchen to try to do anything other than eat, something like this happened.

Another loud noise could suddenly be heard behind, but this noise sounded like humming. He turned around to see C.J. with his hands over his ears and a cross expression that was so adorable Cole almost laughed out loud, but he was sure that his son wouldn't take kindly to that as he was positive this was an attempt at a serious face.

"Loud!" C.J. screamed, but due to the fact that he had just woken up, and his young age, the word was only intelligible to Cole.

"Sorry, Buddy," Cole apologized, beating himself over what was happening. It had been such a pain to get C.J. to bed at a reasonable time that night, and now here he was, awake, because of him.

Cole looked down at C.J., who's mouth was formed in the shape of a perfect "o" as he yawned.

"Let's get you back to bed," Cole said as he picked his son up and carried him back to their room.

"No," C.J. yawned. "I wanna he'p."

"You wanna cook? You can barely open your eyes, Ceej," Cole replied with a chuckle. "Besides, I can't guarantee that you're not gonna need a bath afterwards."

C.J. looked at Cole as if he had just made a very offensive comment. The toddler hated baths more than anything in the world. So when he heard that he might need to take one, he immediately let Cole pick him up and put him back in his crib. C.J. then buried himself under the blanket in his crib and fell right asleep.

Cole rolled his eyes, but he had a huge smile on his face as he left the room to continue his cooking endeavors. He knew that he was known throughout the monastery as the "bad cook" but he was certain that Kai and Lloyd were much worse. And Zane seems to have an issue with letting Pixal help him cook dinner, despite the fact that he loves spending time with her so that has to say something about her skills in the kitchen as well. Just to be safe, though, Cole searched all over the monastery and the Bounty to find Zane's secret cake recipe and found it under the floorboards under the ice ninja's bed in the Bounty. Turns out, the nindroid was into using chocolate chips instead of coco powder.

As Cole began baking, making sure to check and double check that he was following the recipe exactly every time he so much as moved a muscle to make sure that he wouldn't completely destroy his favorite treat in the world, he could hear a gasp from behind him. Pixal and Wu must be back.

Sure enough, when Cole turned around, he saw Pixal and Wu standing in the doorway, clearly shocked that Cole was doing something like baking a cake.

"Cole, what are you doing?" Pixal asked.

"Just making something," Cole replied, not wanting to let either of them know that he was using Zane's recipe.

"Why? I thought you were banned from the kitchen," Pixal replied.

"No," Cole protested, remembering his previous conversation with the ninja after the earth ninja attempted to make everyone mac 'n cheese the week before. "They said I was banned from making anything for anyone other than myself. I'm making something for myself," Cole answered.

"What is it?" Wu asked as Pixal began putting the groceries in their designated spots and cleaning the kichen floor. Something Cole swore he was going to do as soon as the cake was in the oven.

"Cake," Cole replied.

Wu nodded but didn't say anything more as he walked out of the room to get more groceries out of the car. Usually, he would've asked Cole if he would like to help to which Cole would reply by saying no, and Wu would say it wasn't a question, but he probably refrained for fear that Cole would burn down the monastery or something, which was actually pretty likely considering how much all of their homes got destroyed.

Cole smiled as he mixed the batter by hand as it stated in the recipe and poured it into the cake pan. He set the timer to 20 minutes and waited for it to be done.

As he waited, the young man sat down at the kitchen table and began reading a book on prioritization. That was until Pixal finished putting the groceries away and sat down across from him.

"How has C.J. been tonight? Has he woken up at all?" the nindroid asked for everyone in the monastery knew that C.J. could not get a full night's rest. It was practically impossible. He was always having some sort of nightmare or having trouble leaving his dad's side. It wasn't nearly as bad as after the oni invasion, but it was still bad.

"He did wake up once, but that was my fault. I dropped a bunch of stuff and it made a loud noise, so he came to check it out," Cole replied.

"He came?" Pixal asked.

"Yeah," Cole answered.

"Without any help?"

"Yeah," Cole continued, not entirely sure where this was going.

"Was the crib not secure?"

That was when it hit him. C.J. got out of his crib all by himself. He didn't even call for help, he just came with ease. And so quickly too.

"Should I get rid of the crib already?" Cole asked. "He's so young."

"I'm not going to pretend I know a lot about children, but it does seem rather dangerous to keep him in a crib if he can easily get out. You won't be able to easily stop him from climbing over the bars."

Cole sighed. "You're right. I'll start looking at beds tomorrow."

"Good," Pixal replied.

She then stood up and left the room, most likely to work on something in the Hangar Bay.

"Any word from the ninja yet?" Wu asked as he entered the kitchen.

Cole startled a moment, not knowing that his young master was there prior to this. He regained his composure quickly, though, and said, "Not yet. I hope they catch him soon. It's been a while since we've been able to just hang out."

"The Mechanic's frequent attacks worries me. He's planning something."

""Maybe he just needs more parts for his body or something?" Cole suggested. "He is, like, half-robot."

"No matter what he is planning, the ninja should stay on guard, and you, Cole, must be ready for anything that may happen. If this turns out to be a serious issue, you may have to go back into action once again," Wu warned the earth ninja.

"I know," Cole sighed disappointedly. "I hope it doesn't come to that, though."

"Neither do I. I enjoy seeing you and C.J. together, and I'd prefer if you were not forced apart once again."

Once everything was put away and the cake was ready, Cole went to take it out, but that's when he realized he made a mistake.

"Aw, man!" Cole exclaimed. "I forgot the cooking spray! I should've known something like this was going to happen!" Cole told himself aloud.

He grabbed a spatula, a knife, a spoon, and a fork and tried to use all of those objects to pry the cake out of the pan.

"Come on!" he groaned as he pulled on the cake. It wasn't long before the utensils were stuck as well.

"Uh..." Cole groaned sadly.

He walked over to one of the cabinets and opened the drawer to grab a fork. He then walked back over to the table and began eating out of the pan.

Why does something like this always happen? Cole thought. I follow the recipe, I try my best, but no matter what I always forget something.

It did taste good, of course. It was cake, after all. In fact, when he was nine, someone made this cake for his aunt's wedding, but whoever made it accidentally dumped a bunch of pepper in it. No one ate it except for Cole, who's parents had to call his grandmother to pick him up so he wouldn't devour the while thing. The earth ninja laughed at the memory. His mother flipped out that day. She was so worried that Cole would get sick from eating all of that cake. She was never the type of person to eat that much. Cole wasn't even sure if he got that from either of his parents. He always remembered how his parents would laugh about how they never had to tell him to eat his vegetables because he would always eat the whole can of them.

He wished that his mom could've met C.J. She would've loved him. His dad sure did. They tried visiting him at least once a month, and all three of them loved every second of it. At first Cole was worried that his dad would push his dance dreams on C.J. like he did with him, but Lou had learned his lesson. He knew what he did with Cole was wrong, and he didn't want to make the same mistake with his grandson.

Anytime they'd ever go over to his dad's house, they'd watch some funny video from when either Cole was younger, Lou was younger, or some old musical that C.J. couldn't stop laughing at because of how many funny dances they did. Sometimes they'd play a new game Lou would've just gotten, and it was practically tradition for them to play with some of C.J.'s toys together. Cole always looked forward to those times. It was a couple days out of his month when he didn't have to worry about being a ninja. He could just hang out as a family with his father and son. Just the three of them.

Cole took one more bite of his cake before placing it back in the fridge. There was just about enough for the cake to have been cut into five normal sized pieces and one small one. He knew that Wu and Nya had never been that big of fans of sweets.

The earth ninja smiled before he made his way back to his and C.J.'s room. It was late now. Pixal and Wu were already fast asleep, but he thought that he might be able to get a little bit of reading done tonight. So he went over to a bookshelf he moved to his room, filled with books for C.J. and him. Most of the books he owned, though, was on the elemental powers. One he read was all about where they came from, one about how powerful each power was, one on this fabled cave of elements, which Wu wasn't even sure if it existed or not, but it was still an interesting legend.

Tonight, Cole decided that he was going to read a book about the green ninja. Misako, Wu, and Zane were able to tell the ninja about it because they were able to read old Ninjargon, but Cole had gotten Zane to translate some of those scrolls, and now he could finally figure out what it was saying for himself. He never liked being a follower anyway.

Cole quietly moved back over to his bed and began reading "The Prophecy of the Green Ninja," but he was asleep within minutes.

The earth ninja was woken up suddenly by the Weekend Whip playing in his ear.

"I don't wanna get up now," Cole murmured in his sleep.

The song continued.

"Dad, I told you I don't like the school," Cole started again, but drowsier.

It seemed even louder now.

"Daddy!" C.J. yelled as he stood up in his crib and covered his ears.

Cole was wide awake now. Someone was calling him.

He jumped up and out of the bed and started searching his room for the source of the song. Soon enough, he realized that his phone was in his pocket. Who could be calling in the middle of the night? And why?

Cole's heart beat began to quicken when he found out that it was Nya. She wouldn't have called this late if something wasn't wrong. She and the others would've just come straight home. Who was it? Zane? Jay? Dareth didn't try to get involved, did he?

C.J. began whining when the song didn't stop.

"Oh! Sorry, Bud!" Cole exclaimed as he quickly answered the phone. He brought it up to his ear and, trying to keep the anxiety out of his voice, said, "Hello?"

"Cole!" Nya's voice was a little too loud and clear, but she sounded terrified. "It's Jay! We-we don't know what happened to him!"

"What?!" Cole asked, his anxiety taking full swing as his mind began traveling to the worst of the worst places. Jay must've got caught in the Mechanic's fire and now he was barely clinging to life, or they just found him hurt beyond repair in some dark hallway or they-No, Cole! Just listen to what she has to say! Maybe it's not all that bad.

"We captured the Mechanic, and we were looking for clues for what he needed some motherboard he was trying to steal was for, but Jay stayed back to play some game-Prime Empire, I think-and now he's gone! We don't know what happened to him or where he even went!"

"Don't worry. I-I'll be there soon," Cole replied before he hung up the phone.

C.J. began whining. Why did he always have to leave?

"I wouldn't be leaving if it wasn't an emergency," Cole told him. "I'll be back by the time you wake up."

C.J. calmed when he heard this and lay back down in his crib.

Cole smiled before he left the room, left a note for Master Wu on the fridge, and left the monastery on his dirt bike. So much for that break.

So that was the first chapter. I hope you all liked it. Leave a review if you'd like.

As always, have a great day/night!

#God'sNotDead