Ninjago Highschool: Chapter Eighteen: Revalations
Harumi schemed in her lair...well, her room. But she had the lights off, so it was dark and lair-ey. She had her laptop on, doing a video call with her gamer team. "So, let's discuss what we're gonna do to get Lloyd back in the club." "Do we have any sort of blackmail on him?" Harumi tried to think of something, but had nothing. "Nope, we really don't." Killow adjusted his camera, since he was so big you could barely see him. "Let's use violence. Violence always works!" Harumi dismissed that right away. "Maybe in games, Killow. But not in real life! If we beat him up he'll tell his dad, and we're out of the school! No Esports team for us then!" Killow was quiet. "...Are you sure?" "YES! My parents won't fund our team so we NEED Lloyd's dad!" E didn't have his webcam on, he just texted on the text channel. "Emotional manipulation." Was all he typed. Harumi was intrigued. "Explain more, E." E kept typing. "If you get him to think you like him, he will likely stay for you." UV pretended to gag. "Don't do it Harumi, you wouldn't wanna date him, even if it was fake!" E continued to type. "the Sons of Gaming need Lloyd. This is the easiest way to get him to join. It might work, since it will get you close to his family. His DAD." Harumi smiled evilly. "You're a genius E!" If E ever reacted to anything, he'd be joyful for her praise. "UV, Killow, start training your squads, I'm gonna work out how to trick Lloyd's heart!" She and her crew started laughing, which would look VERY weird for anyone else. Harumi's laugh was interrupted by a knock at her door. She groaned, muted her party, and got up. She opened the door and huffed. "Mom what do you want?" Harumi's mom was dressed in a fancy...dress. "Harumi, get ready, we're heading out to eat. Get something good on." Harumi was annoyed, she wanted to scheme with her gamer friends, not eat at a fancy food place. She told her friends, logged off, and got ready. While there though, she'd think about how she'd get Lloyd's trust...
Cole sat in bed. He couldn't game while thinking about what happened. That guy at the club had the exact same mark as the guy who attacked him at the alley yesterday. He tried to rationalize it, maybe it's just a trend, and it was only a coincidence? But how come he's never seen such a marking before elsewhere? Until another answer showed up, Cole was sure the thug and that guy were the same. But what about the other thugs...Cole remembered the guy claiming his friends were all sick...maybe that was a cover story, and they got their shit beat in by Cole. Whatever the case is, now Cole needs to connect this all to figure out what's going on. First though, he had to get Lloyd and tell him what the hell happened. He knew Lloyd wouldn't take it well, but he couldn't keep him in the dark over this. Cole got his phone out and called Lloyd.
Lloyd was texting Brad about Minecraft, when his texting was interrupted by a call, from COLE, who never calls or even texts him. Lloyd thought it was a misdial, but answered it anyway. "Cole?" "Lloyd, I have very important news for you!" Lloyd stood up. "Hold on, what're you on about?" "It's about the alley incident!" Lloyd's heart sunk a bit. That situation still freaked him out, even though he wasn't hurt from it all. "What the hell are you talking about?" Cole tried to think of a way to explain his findings. "Uh...okay so the leader of those thugs. He had a purple marking on his eye. Okay?" "Okay...and?" "I found a guy with the same marking...at the gaming club." No one spoke for a good ten seconds. Lloyd broke the silence with a weak "What?..." "Yeah man. It's weird. And, his crew wasn't there at the club because they were 'sick'. I think they were with him in the alley too, man." This was a lot for Lloyd for take in. WHY would they do that though? "That's fucked up! What the hell am I supposed to do Cole? I can't go back there with the guys who attacked me!" Cole tried to calm Lloyd down. "Chill man, they aren't gonna do anything, especially at school. Right now we need to tell the others, because this is far from some random mugging now." Lloyd agreed with that. "Should we tell everyone to meet at Kai and Nya's?" "Sure. I'll explain to Kai the whole thing."
In about a hour or two everyone arrived at Kai and Nya's. Of course, their parents were out of the house, what a surprise. Everyone was in the living room, sitting, waiting for Cole to explain what they're all doing here. "So Cole, why exactly are we here?" Jay asked. "Okay, so this is gonna be a bit, and there may be some questions, let's get this over with." Cole said. He told what happened after he and Lloyd left Chens. There were alot of questions just by that point. "Were you hurt Lloyd? Why didn't you call the police?" "Did you kill anyone?" Cole answered them all quickly. "No he wasn't hurt. We didn't wanna stay any longer. No I didn't kill anyone. Can we move on?" Everyone agreed to let Cole continue his story. He told how the gamer club guy had the same marking, and how his team was gone. Now it was their turn to be surprised at the scenario. "Huh...that's certainly something..." Jay said. "I know, it's some bad shit." Cole said, crossing his arms. "I don't know what to do." Kai stood up from the couch. "Before we start pulling accusations, we need to make SURE you're right." "What're you talking about Kai, they had the same eye marking! And his friends weren't around the next day!" "I know that Cole, but do you think that's enough? There has to be more to connect this all." Kai wasn't wrong, they had to connect as much of this as they could, to make sure it made sense. Zane spoke up. "What were they wearing again?" Cole thought about it. "Brown bandanas and jackets. Only knew the gamer club guy was there because his sunglasses fell off." Cole answered. Zane shook his head. "No, I mean at the club. What was this leader guy wearing." Cole tried to remember. "Uh, it was something with purple. Can't remember anything else special though." "That is the same color Ultra Violet wears, right?" Cole was confused. "Yeah...her team in the club wears purple." "Remember UV being at the noodle house, WITH her gang?" No one said anything. "UV and her gang was there before the attack. The eye marking guy was at the attack, AND the club. You know what that means?" A thread connected UV into this now. "Holy shit, you think UV was in on this or something?" Nya asked. "She could be. But why would she attack you two?" Kai asked.
"You're right, UV doesn't hate ME, I haven't done anything. Wait, maybe they didn't expect me to be with you Lloyd!" Cole said. "That would make sense I guess. I know why UV would order that, she hates me...Do you think Harumi had something to do with it?" Cole knew he was gonna have to release a smaller bomb of information now. "No no, Harumi needs you, she wouldn't hurt you." Lloyd narrowed his eyes. "WHY does she need me?..." "Welllll she told me that she wanted you, so she could get on your dad's good side, so her Esports team could get money." Lloyd has had people try to get favors, solely because of his dad's job. And every time, it annoyed him. This just made him even madder. "Are you kidding me? I spent days trying to get into that club, just for it to be because I was gonna be used?" Cole shrugged. "Basically." "Oh dammit, I can't believe that." Kai interrupted the angst. "Hey, let's focus on this UV thing, okay? We can deal with this other thing later." Lloyd relented, still mad. "Okay, we know one of UV's grunts led this attack, or at least have a good reason. And we have reason to believe UV LED the attack...what now?" Jay piped up. "Let's tell Mr. Nadakahn!" Nya smacked his head lightly. "All we have is Cole's word on the guy, and he and Mr. Nadakahn aren't exactly on good terms." Cole chuckled a little. "Heh, yeahhh, me and him are enemies." Kai thought about it briefly. "Well, we're gonna have to wait until something happens again. Maybe we'll find evidence. Until then, Lloyd, get out of that club." Lloyd nodded. "Yeah, I'll be leaving for more than one reason..." he said. "Okay, everyone else, keep an eye on UV, and maybe the rest of the club. Cole, you can be the inside man. Got it?" Cole did a over-the-top salute. "Yes sir." Everyone else agreed to the plan. "Alright...now let's all go before my parents come home and yell at me and Nya."
Everyone dispersed out of Kai and Nya's. Cole stopped Lloyd before he got far though. "Hey, Lloyd?" "Yeah?" "Soooo if Harumi tries to get you to rejoin the club, can you NOT tell her you know she's using you?" Lloyd was confused. "Why? I want her to know I know what she's trying to pull!" "Lloyd, listen. I was there when she said that. If you tell her that information, she'll know I told you. Not like Killow E or UV would tell you that right?" "Why do you even wanna stay in that damn club though? Didn't you see how they treat me man?" Cole defended himself. "Do you know how hard it is to find gamers in our school? Hell the gamer club members aren't even FROM our school! I need this!" Lloyd was mad that Cole was staying in such a scummy group, but didn't have the energy. "Fine, stay in the damn club, I don't care. I won't snitch on you either." He walked off before Cole could thank him. The real game has begun.