Disclaimer: I do not own Ninjago or the lines from the episode the News Never Sleeps.

Chapter V: Babysitting

Wu sighed contently as he sat down. Cleaning the game room was no easy task, especially when you lived with six messy teenagers, but at least they were on their mission now, probably figuring out important life lessons and becoming more efficient as a team. At least, Wu hoped that was what they were doing. Whatever it was they were doing the young master could now do things he had been needing to get done for the last six months.

"I will admit," Pixal began as she walked into the game room, "I was skeptical of how you would ever manage to make this room look nice again after all it has been through, but you have done nicely."

"Thank you, Pixal," Wu replied as he stood back up to face her. "What have you been doing?"

"I have been working on some new vehicle designs, but I cannot figure out what I should work on first," Pixal answered.

"Perhaps you should take a break from that. I do need some help with the laundry."

"Shouldn't we wait until morning?"

"Morning?" Wu asked.

Pixal opened a nearby window to show Wu that it was the middle of the night!

Wu smiled sheepishly, and said, "It would be nice to get some rest."

"Alright. Goodnight, Master," Pixal said as she began to leave the room again.

"Goodnight, Pixal," Wu replied as he did the same.

Suddenly, the monastery was filled with the sound of a piercing cry. Wu sighed as he held onto the door frame. This was the main reason it took Wu nearly two full days to clean the game room. Since Cole was on this mission, Wu and Pixal were now on babysitting duty.

"Daddy!" C.J. screamed.

"Would you like me to get that this time?" Pixal suggested.

Wu smiled at the nindroid before saying, "Go to bed, Pixal. There's no reason I can't handle it on my own."

Pixal nodded and left to do what she was told while Wu made his way down the hall to get to Cole and C.J.'s room.

Why do they still share a room? Wu wondered.

He opened the door to see C.J. standing up in his crib. The crib was brown with beautiful designs laced around the edges. It was also rather short yet very spacious. It looked rather old, which would make sense since Cole's grandfather was the first to sleep in it.

When Wu walked up to C.J., he seemed to relax a bit, but he was clearly still upset.

"What's wrong?" Wu asked worriedly. C.J. didn't usually wake up this late at night unless he was hungry or needed a change, but the toddler smelled alright, and he still had a nearly full sippy cup.

C.J. sniffled as he began wiping his eyes uncontrollably.

"Daddy?" he asked.

"He's not here right now," Wu told him.

C.J. began to whimper.

"But he'll be back soon, I promise. In fact, he'll most likely be back by tomorrow, so you have nothing to worry about," Wu told him.

"Daddy now!" C.J. cried.

Wu picked C.J. up out of the crib and began rocking him back and forth, trying to get him to calm down.

"It's alright, C.J. He won't be gone for long," Wu tried to sooth him, but he just kept crying. "Um...uh..." Wu tried to think of something that would help, but he was at a loss.

"Um, do you want to play a game? Watch a movie? Play with your bear?" Wu suggested as he held C.J.'s teddy bear up to him, which he took and immediately began to suck on his ear, but he still didn't look happy.

Suddenly, the two heard a familiar voice from the other room. C.J. began squirming in Wu's arms, so he put the boy down on the ground, and the toddler ran after the sound. Wu followed close behind and eventually made it to the game room. Pixal was sitting on the couch with the remote watching the recording of Cole singing Glow Worm at Laughy's Karaoke Bar.

"Daddy!" C.J. exclaimed happily.

"I didn't find a problem with giving him what he wanted," Pixal explained with a smile.

"There is no problem at all. Thank you, Pixal," Wu replied.

"Shine up you little bug of lightning!" recording Cole screeched, and C.J. started laughing.

The next day, after C.J. had finished his lunch, Wu decided to look over some scrolls while Pixal set C.J. in his room to play.

"I am going downstairs to work on something. Stay here. If you need anything, Wu is in his room," Pixal explained.

Pixal was about to leave, but she stopped when C.J. began whining.

"What? What is wrong?" Pixal asked the toddler.

C.J. kept whining as he pointed to his mouth. "More?" he asked.

Pixal sighed. She knew exactly what that meant. C.J. hadn't exactly mastered how to say he was hungry or that he wanted food yet, which is kind of strange, considering who is father is. So he would always ask for "more" even if he hadn't had anything yet that day. Unfortunately, this time, he had just had one of the biggest lunches in the history of lunches for one year olds. Cole may have overestimated how much to give him when he wrote the list down.

"How are you still hungry?" Pixal questioned.

C.J. grabbed Pixal's hand and led her to the kitchen. He then took her over to the counter where some snacks were sitting. There was even a box of gummy bears, which C.J. was looking at hungrily.

"C.J., I believe it would be best if you waited a little while. You just had a big lunch, and I do not want you to get sick," Pixal explained to him.

"Aw," C.J. whined. He began pouting a bit, but Pixal didn't relent.

"I'm sorry. Maybe later," Pixal told him before she left to work on a new mech.

C.J. was feeling sad. He had been wanting gummy bears for a full two minutes! Ever since he noticed them on the counter!

Tears began falling as he looked at the gummy bears. They were so smooth, so jello-y, so yummy. And that's when he started wailing.

It wasn't long before Wu had come to find out what was wrong.

"C.J.?" Wu asked as he entered the kitchen. "What are you crying for?"

C.J. just started whining while he pointed to the gummy bears.

"C.J., if Pixal said no, the answer is no," Wu told him. "Maybe later."

C.J. whined again before continuing his good cry.

Wu sighed before suggesting, "Why don't you play with your toys or something?"

"No!" the toddler yelled.

Wu was at a loss. He knew this happened to Cole a lot when he said no to certain foods, but how did he make it stop? Well, he couldn't relent. If he did, C.J. would learn that crying was the way to get what he wanted. That sounded like worst case scenario. He would not give him the gummies. C.J. would calm down on his own, right? Wu decided that this would be how he'd go about it. So Wu went back to his room to read some scrolls, leaving C.J. alone. Seeing that no one seemed to care about his tantrum anymore, C.J. stopped crying, much to Wu's relief.

As Wu was looking over some scrolls, he began to think about the one year old. Not only was he adorable, but he also seemed rather clingy when it came to his father. If he wasn't around, though, he would usually hang around Jay or Kai. Sometimes Zane if the other two weren't available. He's comfortable with all of the ninja, Wu, and Pixal and has a good relationship with them all, but he didn't talk to them much unless he had to. Such as, when he was hungry or when he had a question, but he loved company and hated being alone. Unless he was doing something he shouldn't be doing. That's when Wu realized that he hadn't heard C.J. in a while. What was he doing?

To answer Wu's question, C.J. was in his and Cole's room with the entire box of gummy bears he wasn't supposed to have. But he wasn't eating them. Instead, he had opened nearly every packet of gummy bears and lined them all up as if they were soldiers. He then had his stuffed bear face them.

"Ninja bear!" C.J. yelled as he lifted it into the air and hit it in the middle of his line of gummy bears to attack. He then grabbed one of the gummies that his stuffed bear crushed and ate it, saying, "Hmm, yummy bad guy."

"C.J.!" Wu groaned from the doorway.

C.J. laughed. "Yummy bad guy," he told him.

At around one 'o clock in the afternoon, it was time for C.J.'s nap. Wu's favorite time of day. The time where he could finally get some more things done. Such as sweeping the courtyard, getting laundry done, or putting the weapons back where they go. It really was great, but there was a minor issue today. C.J. wasn't going to sleep.

"C.J.," you need your sleep," Pixal told him.

"No!" C.J. laughed.

"You are not being very good today," Pixal told him.

C.J. pouted a little bit when he heard this. He liked being good. It made him feel nice, so he sat down and looked up at Pixal saying with a tint of sadness in his voice, "I don' wanna."

"But you must," Pixal replied. "You need your rest."

C.J. whined a bit as he laid down, but he didn't even try to close his eyes.

"I wonder how Cole does this so well," Pixal sighed to herself.

"He's always been remarkable," Wu replied. She hadn't realized that he was there. "They never cease to amaze me. I am glad that they are going on this mission. With any luck, they will come back fully prepared for the next time Ninjago is in trouble."

It took a long time for Pixal to put C.J. to sleep. She played many recordings of lullabies and read him a story, but it wasn't until Pixal was stroking his thick, blond hair his eyes began to close, and despite the toddler's best efforts to stay awake, it was no use. He was asleep before they knew it.

A couple hours later, as the sun was setting, there was a knock on the monastery doors. Wu went to open the door and saw two teenagers. A boy and a girl. The boy looked to be about thirteen. He was wearing a purple jacket and had light brown hair while his friend looked around sixteen. She was wearing a black shirt with a brown jacket and had red hair with a bit of black dye in it. They both seemed pretty excited to be there. The boy showing it a little more than the girl, but Wu could see that she was holding herself back a bit.

"May I help you?" Wu asked the two.

"Y-you're-you're," the boy said. He was so excited he could hardly speak.

"Go on. Tell him!" the girl encouraged him.

The boy looked at her a moment before he turned back to Wu, and said, "We found a guy in the city, who crashed into some bushes, riding a fireball, and he told us the ninja are in trouble!"

"What? Where? How?" Wu asked.

"He said they were trapped in a pyramid. In the desert," the boy answered.

"And you came all this way to tell me?"

"Just doing our part, Sir. Like everyone else."

Wu walked closer to the boy and put a hand on his shoulder saying, "Thank you, Young Man. You remind of another young boy, who was once a student of mine. His name was Lloyd. I must tell Pixal. Thank you. Both of you. Straight home now. Go! And please, be careful," he said before closing the doors.

He then walked to Pixal's room where she was currently training, and said, "Pixal! The ninja are in trouble! A young paperboy just told me that they are trapped in the desert."

Pixal gasped when she heard this. She immediately picked up her gold katanas, and said, "I'm on it," before quickly leaving.

As soon as she was out of his sight, Wu sighed. He was worried for his ninja. They were only supposed to be gone a few days, but it sounded like a new threat was on it's way. He just hoped that Pixal would find them in time.

I hope you guys liked that. I'm hoping to post the next two chapters at once as well very soon.

Have a wonderful day/night!

#God'sNotDead