Guest: A friend? I'll have to think about that.

PrincePacman47: Thanks for the review. Unfortunately, Cole hasn't learned exactly where his priorities should be at all times, but he is getting better. As for his love life, that will be in a future story.

Chapter II: Questing for Quests

A day after the ninja faced their humiliating defeat against young Master Wu, Wu was meditating in his room, only to be disrupted by his nephew. He was only about five minutes in, when heard his doors slide opened, followed by his youngest student asking, "Master?" At least they were finally calling him that again. "Is it okay to speak?" Lloyd asked. "I don't wanna interrupt if you're meditating."

Wu decided to ignore his student and continue his meditation. Lloyd should know better anyway.

"You're meditating. I'll wait," Lloyd said, much to Wu's relief, but Lloyd waiting was like when C.J. waited for food. Two seconds and he's one of the most awkwardly impatient things you've ever seen.

Lloyd awkwardly looked around the room, hoping Wu would say something, but he didn't, so Lloyd decided to try his hand at meditating with him. He had done it many times as a child, and he didn't get bored. It shouldn't be that bad, but it was. Literally two seconds later, Lloyd peeked one eye open to see if Wu was done. He wasn't. He inhaled and exhaled sharply to try to get his attention, but that didn't work. Lloyd thought that he might leave, so he stood up and accidentally knocked Wu's candles. Luckily, it wasn't enough to knock them over, just shake them a bit.

Finally, Wu opened his eyes just to give Lloyd a disapproving glare and sighed before continuing.

Thinking that he had gained some of his attention, Lloyd sat back down and began to cough on purpose.

Why wouldn't he leave? Wu thought.

"What, Lloyd?" Wu asked, feeling quite annoyed.

"Me and the guys decided we're going on a quest. To get back in shape and hone our ninja skills?" Lloyd said as he stood up, but it sounded a bit like a question.

"Good," Wu said, looking a little more pleased, but he was confused by Lloyd's tone of voice and why he came in.

"Yeah, except, um...The thing is...we can't think of a quest. We were hoping you had a quest tip?" again, it sounded like a question.

"Quest tip?" Wu asked, wondering what in the world was wrong with these people.

"Suggestion? Idea. For a quest."

Wu sighed deeply as he slowly stood up before yelling, "Don't come to me with a quest tip! Go out and find a quest! You cannot find it sitting on the couch and eating junk! Seek."

"Right! O-okay. We'll seek," Lloyd said before he left the room and closed the doors, but it was a little too harsh, and Wu's staffs hanging on the wall behind him ended up falling down.

"No wonder you wanted me to stay, Faith," Wu sighed as he tried to begin with meditation again.

Meanwhile, the ninja were training in the courtyard while C.J. was happily watching them. Kai and Jay were up against Nya and Cole was up against Zane.

Zane tried punching Cole a few times, but Cole blocked each with his arms. He then dodged as Zane tried to tackle him and did a double front flip all the way over to Jay, who had been left behind once Kai and Nya made their fight a sibling rivalry thing. Cole began to attack Jay, but he ended up spinning around on his head like a break dancer before landing flat on his face at Lloyd's feet.

"How'd it go?" Cole asked as C.J. ran up to his father and jumped on his back, so Cole decided to let him hang there while he stood up.

"He's in, uh, a mood," Lloyd replied.

"Did he give you a quest tip?" Jay asked.

"No. He said we have to figure it out on our own," Lloyd answered.

"I've been thinking about it for five minutes! I'm tapped out!" Kai exclaimed.

"Maybe we need a change of scenery. Sometimes ideas come to you better if you change your surroundings," Jay suggested,

The ninja all agreed and decided that their change of scenery should be the hot tub.

"Nope. Still nothing," Jay said as C.J. jumped from the ledge of the bell into Cole's arms.

Kai sighed in frustration. "We need a villain," he said.

Everyone thought about that for a moment but no good ideas came to mind.

"Okay, just spit out bad ideas if you can't think of a good one," Lloyd said, knowing what his brothers and sister were thinking.

"Ultra Violet," Kai said.

"What is wrong with you?"

"Do you have any idea what she's done to everyone?"

"Worst idea ever!"

"You said spit out a bad idea!" Kai exclaimed.

"But bringing back the one who killed C.J's biological parents and Echo Zane is-" Cole started angrily.

"It is not worth thinking about anyway as she is incarcerated in Kryptarium Prison," Zane reminded coldly.

There was a moment of awkward silence before Nya asked, "What about Master Chen?"

"The Departed Realm," Zane said, wondering why she didn't remember that.

"Pythor?" Cole suggested.

"Whereabouts unknown. Locating him would require some effort," Zane answered, sounding a bit more like himself now.

"Effort? Uh, no," Cole replied before he started slurping his drink.

C.J. responded by hitting his fist into the water, splashing Cole.

"Hey!" Cole exclaimed.

"Bad daddy," C.J. said.

Cole groaned at the comment. Mostly because he knew it was true.

"Man, finding a good villain is hard," Kai said as he sat up on the edge so only his feet were in the water now.

"Let's face it. There aren't any villains left! Except, well, um..." Jay wasn't sure if he should say it as he glanced at Lloyd.

"Say it. My dad," Lloyd told him.

A wave of guilt started to build up in Jay as he looked down. It was always such a touchy subject.

"Wherever he is, he's not really a problem right now. Let's move on," Nya said. Both Jay and Lloyd gave her a thankful look as she said this.

"Who does that leave?" Cole asked.

"Maybe we're aiming too high. Maybe we don't need a villain. Maybe we just need, like, a criminal! Or a gangster," Nya suggested.

Jay scoffed. "I'd settle for a bully," he said.

"Perhaps we should check in with the Commissioner. We might be able to assist him in the prevention of some crime," Zane suggested.

Everyone seemed to agree, and it wasn't long until the street in front of the police station was greeted with the anchor of the Destiny's Bounty.

Inside the Commissioner's office, he was still working on the same model ship as always, painting in almost the exact same spot as always. The man was interrupted a lot. Like right now.

"Commission!" Lloyd exclaimed as he opened the door to his office rather roughly.

The Commissioner just about had a heart attack.

"What? What is it now?" he asked. "Robot pirates? Lava zombies?"

"Huh?" Cole asked.

C.J. was grabbing onto Cole's leg as if it was his only means of survival. In fact, Cole wanted to leave him home with Wu and Pixal, but with all of his screaming and crying, Cole decided not to put that on the two. Especially if they hadn't fully agreed to watching him in the first place.

"No, nothing like that," Lloyd replied. "We just wanna help you catch some bad guys!"

"Oh," the Commissioner realized. "Well, actually, it's been pretty quiet around here. We don't have any outstanding warrants."

"Aw, there's gotta be something for us to do," Kai told him.

"Mmm, not really. Take a look at the board."

All of the ninja looked towards the chalkboard as the Commissioner said to see that the only thing written on it was a little monster.

"Aha! Who's that?" Kai asked as he pointed to the drawing.

"Oh, that? Oh, that's a joke. Someone drew a monster," the Commissioner replied.

"What about an escaped convict? Or a fugitive?" Nya asked.

"Nope. Nothing," the Commissioner replied.

"Um, a felon?" Kai asked.

"No."

"Hoodlum?"

"No."

"A crook?"

"Nope."

"Mobster?"

"Nothing."

All of the ninja groaned in disappointment at this last answer.

Suddenly, the door opened to reveal Jimmy.

"Sir?" the officer asked.

"Oh, what's up, Jimmy?" the Commissioner asked.

"Just got a tip about an illegal bootlegging operation down at the wharfs," Jimmy informed his boss.

"We got it!" Lloyd exclaimed before running out the door.

"Wait!" Cole exclaimed, gaining the attention of all of the ninja. "What about C.J.?"

All of the ninja frowned. The guy didn't have the heart to leave him at home so now they had to deal with it now.

"Cole," Jay slightly whined. "We need this. Especially you."

"I can't just leave him," Cole replied.

"If you guys are so intent on going, I can watch him," Jimmy suggested.

Cole smiled at the offer, but he wasn't sure how well that would work. C.J. hated being away from his dad. Cole even had to move his crib back into his room so he wouldn't be scared at night, and it wasn't like he blamed him. Falling into the darkness was hard on both of them. Cole's was a little more physical, though.

"Thanks, but I should probably stay. Maybe I'll go on the next one?" Cole asked hopefully.

"Okay!" Kai said happily before he began to run, but Nya stopped him.

"You just gotta distract him with something to do. He has to enjoy it, though, or it won't work," Jimmy instructed.

Cole looked at Jimmy, a little unsure about whether this guy knew what he was talking about or not.

Since he seemed hesitant and a little nervous, Jimmy walked over to C.J. and gave him a piece of chalk.

"You wanna draw something, Kid?" Jimmy asked as he held the chalk to him.

His voice got C.J.'s attention in an instant.

He looked up at Cole, who nodded, before he let go of his dad's leg slowly and followed Jimmy to the chalkboard.

As Cole watched, he suddenly felt his arm being pulled so hard, he was dragged out of the room.

"Come on! We gotta hurry!" Lloyd told him.

"But he doesn't know I'm leaving!" Cole protested, but it was of no use. His power still wasn't listening to him, and, in turn, he wasn't getting out of Lloyd's grasp.

As they ran through the police department, Cole could hear C.J. laughing, meaning that he felt comfortable.

"See?" Nya said as she looked over her shoulder to see her brother of earth. "He's fine."

"He'll hardly notice that we're gone," Jay reassured him.

Cole smiled slightly as the ninja exited the police station. This really was going to work.

The ninja ran through the city, flipped over roofs to practice agility, and hide at random time to practice stealth. It wasn't long, though, before the ninja found themselves at a dead end. They were lost. They looked around, checked the GPS, asked for directions, and after about an hour, they finally made it to a door to an abandoned workshop. Maybe.

"Okay. On three, I kick open the door, we storm the place, and take 'em down!" Lloyd told his fellow ninja. "One! Two! Three!"

Lloyd kicked open the door, and everyone jumped inside with their weapons at the ready, but the only one there was an elderly man,a nd they scared him so much that he dropped one of his bottles.

"Do you young fellers wanna buy some prune juice?" he asked nervously.

"Bad tip," Lloyd sighed as he took his mask off.

Upon entering the Commissioner's office again, the ninja immediately noticed the board. Jimmy wasn't in the room anymore, but C.J. was still hard at work with his drawings of...something.

"Where's Jimmy?" Zane asked.

"Oh, he had to take care of a little spill in the break room," the Commissioner answered. "But don't worry. "I've been keeping my eyes on him. Although he's done nothing else but that."

As the ninja tried to decipher how C.J. managed to draw a line starting at the very top of the board without help, Lloyd went up to the Commissioner, and said, "It was a bad tip. Is there anything else?"

"Nothing. Sorry," the Commissioner replied.

"There's gotta be something," Lloyd said.

Giving up on the chalkboard mystery, Nya walked up next to the Commissioner, and asked, "An outstanding warrant? Unpaid parking tickets? Anything!"

Suddenly, there was a quiet knock on the door before Jimmy came in again.

"What's up, Jimmy?" the Commissioner asked, he sounded annoyed.

"Something about a disturbance at the Kryptarium Prison," Jimmy replied.

The ninja's faces beamed in excitement as they put their hoods up.

"Yes!" Lloyd exclaimed.

"Jackpot!" Nya said.

Leaving C.J. with Jimmy was much easier this time. In fact, he was doing so well, Cole thought he'd be fine at the monastery if they would ever have to go out like this again.

The ninja used the Destiny's Bounty to get their quickly. They ran so fast through the prison, no one even processed that they went in with their weapons!

When they made it to the metal door that kept the prisoners locked inside, they could hear sounds of fighting.

"That sounds terrible!" Cole exclaimed when he heard it.

"We better get in there!" Jay said.

"On three!" Lloyd exclaimed. "One! Two! Three!" Lloyd yelled before he punched open the door. As lazy as they'd gotten, their strength was still impeccable!

Unfortunately for the ninja, when they knocked open the door, they saw that the prisoners were just watching what looked to be security footage of a previous fight.

One of the prisoners immediately turned around to shush them, causing the warden to become aware of their presence.

"Oh, hi, Guys!" the Warden greeted as he turned around to face them.

"I don't understand," Lloyd said. "Where's the riot?"

"Riot?" the Warden asked. "Oh, goodness, no. Just a little dispute, but we worked it out, didn't we, Fellas?"

Two prisoners sitting next to him, turned around to face him with friendly smiles on their faces.

"I overreacted, and then I apologized," the man that shushed them said.

"And I'm sorry I expressed myself so poorly," the other man said.

Lloyd took off his mask in defeat before he walked back over to his friends.

"Where now?" Lloyd asked.

"Do you think the prison cafeteria has cake?" Cole asked hopefully, only to gain collective groans of annoyance from his friends.

"Since we are here anyway, perhaps we should check in on Killow?" Zane suggested.

"Yeah, maybe he's up to something," Kai smiled.

The rest of the ninja were quick to agree, and they walked up to his cell. Was it wrong to hope that he would break out right then and there?

"Hello, Killow," Nya drew out the words as if she was upset with him.

"Oh, hi, Guys!" Killow replied with the same friendly smile as the other prisoners. No. His was bigger.

"Don't 'Oh, hi, Guys' me! What are you up to?" Nya asked.

"Nothing. I was just trying to finish my painting. You like it?" Killow asked as he held a painting of a dog holding a stick of dynamite in his mouth up for the ninja to see.

"Eh, it's okay," Jay stated.

"Uh, why does the puppy have a stick of dynamite?" Kai questioned.

"Oh, well, he's an angry puppy, but he's learning to control his anger. Just like me! I find painting very soothing," Killow explained.

As happy as the ninja should've been that one of the most dangerous members of the most dangerous gang in the city had finally calmed down, they were utterly disappointed that they had no one to fight.

The ninja all looked at the big man in disapproval before they began to walk away.

"Thanks for nothing, Killow," Lloyd told him as he followed his friends.

Later, the ninja were all waiting around for something interesting to happen, when Cole asked, "Hey, Zane, can you decipher baby talk?"

"I've always found that C.J. spoke rather clear for a child his age," Zane responded as he walked over.

"Not for speaking, I'm talking about these drawings," Cole told him. "I have no clue what they are."

Zane studied the drawings a moment. They were patterned a little strangely. Especially for a one year old who just wanted to color. It seemed like he was trying to write letters.

Zane smiled as he said, "I believe that is an attempt at writing his name."

"Wait! What?" Cole asked as he looked at the board. If you looked hard enough, you could see something that looked a heck of a lot like a "C" and a wonky "J" right next to it.

"Perhaps he's smarter than we originally thought," Zane smiled as he looked at his friend, who still seemed really surprised, and the ice ninja didn't blame him. THis was around the level of a five year old!

Suddenly, the door opened rather abruptly to reveal Jimmy once again. It seemed like he was always leaving just to come back, which wasn't a bad thing, but still.

Jimmy didn't even wait for anyone to ask what was up before he said, "Got a cat in a tree."

The ninja's hopeful smiles turned into disappointed frowns. They were so disappointed that Lloyd let Cole stay back so the rest could take care of it. The earth ninja seemed more interested in what else C.J. could do anyway.

That left the other five. They ran through the city until they met a little girl yelling for her cat-uh-Mr. Whiskers, to come down.

"Don't worry, Kid," Kai told her with a confident smirk. "We got this."

The young girl was still very worried as she watched the ninja climb up the tree.

"Here, Kitty Kitty," Lloyd said as he got closer to the cat.

Suddenly, the animal jumped onto Lloyd's face, causing him to fall onto one of the other ninja, and they all fell into a big heap on the ground. The cat, however, was perfectly fine as Lloyd's face was close enough to a branch that was low enough for him to make it safely to the ground.

"Mr. Whiskers!" the girl exclaimed as her cat jumped into her arms.

She snuggled her pet and walked away, content and unconcerned about the ninja who fell out of the tree to get her pet back.

The ninja groaned as they got up, starting to wonder why they did it in the first place when they heard screams from the nearby bank.

"All right, Ladies and Gentlemen, this is a stickup!" a robber inside the bank announced with a bat in his hand.

"Cash, watches, wallets! In the bag now!" another robber ordered as he held up a bag.

Suddenly, Lloyd kicked the door open and the five ninja bust in.

Lloyd immediately jumped up and kicked down the robber with ease. Jay then tackled another to the ground while Kai and Nya started punching down different robbers around the bank. Zane then went up behind the last one and tapped on his shoulder to get his attention before punching him to the ground.

"Cut! Cut, cut cut!" the ninja suddenly heard. They stopped what they were doing and looked up to see a director looking very angry. Along with a couple other people who just seemed confused.

"This isn't in the script!" the director yelled. "Who authorized these changes!"

"Oh, boy," Lloyd sighed as the director started yelling about how he had been working on this movie for the better part of his life and what worked had to go into it and some stuff the ninja didn't even understand until Jay, with his big mouth, promised to pay for damages and hospital bills for the guys they beat up pretty bad.

"We don't have that kind of money, Jay!" Kai yelled at his brother as they began walking back to the police station, which wasn't that far actually.

"How else was I supposed to get him off our backs? He wouldn't let us leave," Jay replied.

"You can't just make empty promises like that. We have no way of paying that guy!" Lloyd scolded him.

"Then why didn't you tell him we couldn't do it before we left?" Jay pointed out, gaining silence from the rest of the group.

The group was still mad at Jay when they entered the Commissioner's office again, but no one said a word to him, except for Cole.

"Hey, Guys!" Cole greeted cheerfully.

"Hi," Nya replied sorrowfully as she plopped down on the couch.

"That bad, huh?"

"I'll be honest, at first, I thought you were missing out big time, but then it just got embarrassing," Kai told him.

Jimmy then came in again, and said, "Coffee spill in the break room!"

The ninja sat back down in disappointment as it wasn't a mission.

"Someone used the last roll of toilet paper!" Jimmy said a couple hours later.

Kai rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly, but he didn't admit it was him.

Jimmy kept running in like this with news of spills or toilet issues or dumb jokes to try to keep the ninja's moods up, but it only brought them lower.

Finally, Jimmy came in with donuts. Another disappointment for all of the ninja except for Cole.

"I can't believe this is happening to us," Lloyd said as he looked at the donut in his hand, he still hadn't taken a single bite out of it.

C.J. pat the green ninja's leg from his spot on the floor as he ate his donut.

"There is literally nothing to do in the entire city!" Nya complained.

"Statistically, the absence of a single crime or felony in a city this size is remarkable," Zane mentioned.

"I wish I understood what you just said, but I don't," Cole replied.

"How is it that a city this size has no crime?" Kai translated. "And how is it that you're always working on that model ship and never make any progress?" Kai asked the Commissioner as he was working on his ship.

"What?" the commissioner asked, sounding offended.

"Oh, never mind," Kai replied.

"What is going on with us?" Lloyd asked as he threw his donut onto Cole's lap. "We're getting loopy. We're ninja! We-we need action! Suspense! Danger!"

"You guys could help me with some filing," Jimmy suggested as he walked into the room. A bunch of folders were stacked into his hands.

"How is that dangerous?" Lloyd asked.

"If you're not paying attention, you could get a paper cut!" Jimmy responded as if it was some horrid thing. The ninja soon found out that it was. Seriously, fighting Garmadon was better than the pain those files inflicted on them.

The sun was beginning to set as the ninja came back to the monastery, and they were all scratched up. Even Zane somehow.

"If I ever see another file, it'll be too soon," Lloyd told his friends as they walked through the courtyard.

"Let's never do that again," Nya said.

"So many paper cuts. I can't believe I lost to a filing cabinet," Cole groaned as he carried C.J. with him.

"Let's not tell anyone about this day," Lloyd said as he flopped down on the couch in the game room. "Ever."

"Okay with me," Nya replied as she sat down.

"Me too," Cole agreed.

"Me three," Jay added.

Kai walked over to Lloyd and handed him a bottle of soda before sitting down and drinking his own while Zane turned on the news.

"I'm here with Ninjago's foremost archaeologist Clutch Powers, who's discovered an unknown pyramid buried deep in the Desert of Doom. Professor Powers, what can you tell us about the pyramid?" Gayle Gossip asked as she put the microphone closer to him.

"Absolutely nothing, Gayle," Clutch Powers answered. "I haven't been inside, and I don't plan to."

"But I thought-" Gayle was cut off when Clutch Powers brought the microphone closer to him again.

"Do you wanna know what's inside? Traps. Booby-traps. Butt loads of 'em," he told her. "Pitfalls and blow darts and fake tiles that collapse when you step on them, and big boulders that drop on you. No, thank you."

"But isn't that your job as an archaeologist to, you know, explore and go on dangerous quests?" Gayle asked.

"Technically, yes. What's your point?"

"Well, someone has to go inside."

"It would take a ninja to survive what's in there. Do I look like a ninja?"

"No."

"Point made," Clutch Powers said before running off to who knows where.

"That's it!" Lloyd exclaimed as he jumped off of the couch. "That's our quest!"

"I'll pack my bag," Nya said excitedly.

"And sunscreen. Bring lots of sunscreen!" Cole added.

"Ooh, this is gonna be so much fun!" Jay exclaimed.

"Yay!" C.J. exclaimed as he began jumping up and down.

"Ninja go!" everyone yelled before they ran out of the room to go pack.

I hope you all liked that. The next chapter should be out by the end of this week.

#God'sNotDead