Author's Note: Hello, everybody! I was going to finish up "Habits of Home(lessness)" before I wrote or posted anything else... Then I got excited about this story, opened my notes just to look at it, and suddenly it was forty-five minutes later and I had a first chapter. Whoops. Oh well. The more writing, the better, am I right? This is my second piece for the Tumblr Ninjago Bingo event. It's for the prompt "swap," and if the summary didn't tip you off to what this story's about, I think the prompt sums it up pretty well. This one'll probably be about five chapters. I hope you enjoy! Here we go, and don't forget to leave a review!
"Really, blue is the ultimate best color," Jay said confidently but lowly, trying to be quiet.
Kai snorted from right next to him, also trying to be quiet even though neither of them was really succeeding at that task. "Yeah, right."
"It is," Jay insisted. "It's the best."
"Best at being the worst," Kai teased.
"No, just the best," Jay said.
"Best for what? Being laughed at?" Kai said.
"When you tell a hilarious joke and everyone gives you a huge laugh because you're so funny, yeah," Jay said.
"More like when everyone gives you a pity-laugh because your joke wasn't actually that funny at all," Kai said. "Besides, red is obviously the best color."
"Ha!" Jay scoffed, not even really laughing, just saying the word loudly in.
"Shhhh!" Four voices scolded in quiet but intense unison from over the comms.
"Jay, can you keep it down?" Lloyd added through the comms.
"Kai's fault," Jay said more quietly.
"Jay's fault," Kai returned.
"I don't care," Lloyd said. "You two have been ninja longer than I have, why don't you have being quiet and stealthy down yet?"
"It's not that big of a deal, it's not that important," Kai defended.
"We're on a stakeout, Kai," Nya's voice stated. "This is the most important time to be quiet and stealthy. No one knows we're here, and we'd like to keep it that way."
"Nya speaks accurately," Zane's voice added. "The element of surprise is key to this mission. We must keep a hold of it."
"And the elements of fire and lightning are less key," Cole's voice said dryly.
"We're key!" Jay defended himself.
"Not so much, not here," Cole said wryly. "These crooks are hiding out in an old oil plant, remember? We really don't want anything here to get a hold of a spark and, you know, explode."
"Yeah, explosions aren't good," Lloyd agreed.
"They can look cool, though," Jay pointed out.
"Please focus," Zane said. "We positioned you two as lookouts for a reason. If anyone perceives us and attempts to escape with any evidence before we finish collecting what we need, you two will be needed to bring them to a halt."
"We can do that," Kai said. He turned, looking Jay up and down. "Well. I can do that. Not so sure about Jay."
Jay shoved Kai. "I can too!"
"Can not," Kai said, shoving back.
"Can too," Jay said, shoving harder.
"If you two are going to argue like that-" Lloyd began as Kai and Jay paused their shove-fest.
"Because, yes, of course, they are," Nya said a little wearily.
"-Then mute your comms," Lloyd finished. "We're going in to get the evidence, and we need the comms as silent as possible. Keep listening, but mute yourselves."
"Fine," Jay said, then he turned his communication device to mute.
"Talk to you all back at home," Kai said before doing the same.
"Anyway," Jay said cheerily but quietly. "You're out of your mind."
"Me? You're the one who thinks blue is better than red," Kai said. "And we've been arguing this since we met, but you still won't admit you're wrong."
"Because you're the one who's wrong," Jay said.
They continued back and forth, each doing his best to convince the other that his own color was clearly the best. Their eyes were on the oil plant, their ears were tuned to each other and the comms, and their minds were occupied with the argument at hand. They were focused on their conversation and, to a much lesser extent, their mission. They didn't notice anything else.
They didn't notice the strangeness forming around them, the smell of incense, the sight of patches of air shimmering in turns, not even the sound of a slight whisper in the wind murmuring, "So these are our 'heroes,' or so they're called…"
Jay and Kai didn't notice any of it. If they had, they might not have been a little more guarded, a little less lax, a little more present… And a little less surprised at everything that happened next.
"Zane, Cole, did you get your part?" Lloyd whispered through the comms.
"We have finished," Zane reported quietly.
"Us too," Nya said. "Now we meet up and get the last bits of- oh!"
"What?" Cole said immediately.
"Runner," Lloyd reported. "He saw us, and he's got something in his hands. He's going out the west end! Kai, Jay!"
"On it," Kai said, not realizing that his comm remained off. He took off over the rooftops.
"On it," Jay repeated, taking a moment to turn his comm on to repeat Kai's affirmation, then turning his comm off again as he sprinted after Kai. "Wait up!"
"Too slow, too bad," Kai called back. "We have to catch him!"
Jay and Kai ran for the west end of the building and beyond, looking through the streets below as they crossed over them.
"There!" Kai yelled, pointing ahead and down to a person in dark brown clothes and a black hat running through an alleyway. "Wait, he's heading north now!"
"He must be going for the docks! Let's cut him off!" Jay called, gesturing to the side. "If we go that way, we should reach the intersection of Rose Avenue and 2nd Street before he does, keeping him from the docks!"
"Lead the way!" Kai called back, turning to follow Jay easily.
The two of them raced across the rooftops, skidding to a stop on top of a tall building.
"Here," Jay said breathlessly. "Now down, into the alley!"
They hurried down the side of the building, leaping between windowsills and fire escapes to land in the mouth of the alley.
"He won't get away now," Kai said confidently, advancing into the alleyway.
"Not a chance," Jay said, following him.
They walked forward, looking and listening carefully.
"Do you hear that?" Jay whispered after a few moments.
"What?" Kai asked. "I don't hear anything."
"Me neither," Jay said.
"Then why'd you say 'do you hear that?'" Kai asked accusingly.
"Because if the guy was still coming this way, we would've heard his footsteps by now," Jay said, quickening his pace.
Kai sped up in turn. "Do you think he went another way?"
"He must've, or-" Jay began. He stopped, both in his words and in his tracks.
"What-" Kai started, then he saw it too.
Wrapped in ropes, gagged, and dangling upside down from a lamp pole was a man dressed in dark brown clothes. Laying on the ground beneath his head sat a black hat and a box filled with what looked like various mechanical parts.
"Is that our guy?" Jay asked.
"It looks like him," Kai said slowly. "But did he just tie himself up for us?"
"Doesn't seem like a very competent criminal," Jay said doubtfully.
A new voice rang through the alley. "And you two don't seem like very competent ninja."
Jay and Kai whirled around, going back-to-back in similar fighting poses to survey the alleyway as one.
"Who's there?" Kai demanded, his fists up in front of him. "Show yourself!"
"That's what you're leading with?'" Jay asked skeptically. "'Who's there? Show yourself?' That's weak, Kai."
"You weren't leading with anything," Kai defended.
"Even now, you're arguing with each other rather than working to defend each other," the voice rang out. "How sad. Really. It makes me sad."
"You know what makes me sad? When people are cowards," Kai said conversationally. "Come on out and face us like a man!"
"I'm no man," the voice said pleasantly. "And I won't be facing you, and you won't be facing me. You won't even be facing each other. In fact, you'll be facing yourselves."
"What's that supposed to-" Jay began, then he coughed heavily, then he coughed again and went to his knees, gasping for air. "What-"
"Jay!" Kai said, turning to see Jay fallen to his hands and knees, coughing and wheezing. Kai whirled around again, looking from side to side. He set his fists aflame, glancing around wildly. "What's going on? What did you do to him?"
"Kai, I can't-" Jay gasped out. "I can't-"
"He can't breathe!" Kai said. "Stop it! Whatever you did to him, stop it!"
"It's a little too late for that now," the voice said, sounding almost apologetic. "But it's for the best. For both of you. For all of us."
"What's that supposed to-" Kai started, in his anger and fear not realizing he was saying the same thing Jay had said just moments before. Then he paused his words, and he coughed. Then he coughed again. Kai's fists stopped burning, and his blood went cold. "Hey! Stop, stop it, I-"
"Kai," Jay wheezed. His eyes rolled around in their sockets, then they closed. Jay gave one more cough, then he went still.
Kai slumped to one knee, then both, then his hands and knees, coughing and gasping for air as he scrambled toward Jay. "Jay, Jay, you've gotta wake up, Jay, please-"
It was too late. Jay was out, and Kai probably wasn't far behind.
Kai gagged, choked, and wheezed. His lungs begged for air, and his eyes rolled around. Blinking hard, Kai finally slumped face-forward onto the ground. He heaved himself up just enough to roll slightly onto one side, grasping out in front of him.
He found Jay's hand. Kai gave Jay a desperate squeeze. There was nothing else he could do. Coughing once more, Kai's eyes shuttered closed and his body went limp even as he strained to get up and fight.
The last thing Kai heard was a quiet sigh.
Then all was silent.