Jeremiah 29:11 "For I know the thoughts I have toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope."

I know I haven't posted on any of my other stories in a while. I was working on some other stuff for the past month, but after what happened to Kirby, I just had to write this in honor of the beautiful voice who brought the ninja of earth to life.

Cole couldn't breath. This couldn't be real. His mother. The only person who had ever believed in him. The only one who had never uttered a harsh word to him. The only one he really believed loved him, was gone. He couldn't believe it. He needed air. He needed to breath, so Cole ran. He ran as fast as he could out of the hospital.

"Cole!" Lou screamed, but he didn't stop. He refused to stop. He ran out of the building, down the street, and into the woods. Finally, he became too tired, so he cried. He leaned up against a tree, fell to his knees, and began to cry.

After what felt like hours, Cole finally felt a hand on his shoulder.

"Cole, we have to go home," Lou told him.

"No," Cole sobbed.

Lou sighed before he picked Cole up like he was still one years old and managed to carry him back home. In the bed Cole went, but it wasn't his bed.

"Dad?" Cole sniffled.

"Yes, Cole?" Lou asked as he got into the bed next to him.

"You're not sick too, are you?" Cole asked.

"No, Cole. I'm still here," Lou said as he started rubbing Cole's hair.

The next day, Cole woke up on his mom's side of his parent's bed, and he began to cry again as he realized why he was there. Cole sat up, expecting to see is dad, but he wasn't there.

"Dad?" Cole asked through his tears.

He walked downstairs expecting to see his dad making breakfast or anything similar to that, but all he found was a note on the table.

"Sorry. Lots of work to do. We'll talk tonight. -Dad."

Cole didn't say anything. He felt and looked completely expressionless as he ripped the note to shreds and threw it into the trash.

Cole spent that entire day crying in his room, buying and eating three cakes, looking at pictures of his mother, destroying some of his dad's stuff, and working out. He didn't know why he wanted to do the last thing so much, but it seemed to take his mind off of things.

During Cole's workout session, Lou walked through the door.

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

"Hey, Dad. I thought you'd be home later," Cole said as he was working on a one-arm push-up.

"It's 9:00 P.M.," Lou mentioned.

Hearing this, Cole immediately fell to the floor.

"You mean to tell me that I've been doing this for six hours?" Cole asked.

"At least you'll be in tiptop dancing shape," Lou told him.

"Please don't send me back there," Cole pleaded.

"Sorry, Cole, but I have work to do, and I don't really trust you alone."

"This is so unfair!" Cole yelled as he ran back up to his room. He wanted to cry, but he refused to let himself. Instead, he decided to do something productive. Like working out some more.

The next day, Cole still hadn't stopped working out. At six in the morning Lou opened Cole's door to wake him up, but he accidentally hit him in the head with the door as he was doing some sit-ups.

"Ow!" Cole exclaimed.

"Are you okay, son?" Lou asked as he picked Cole up.

"Yeah, I'm fine, but can you please knock next time?" Cole asked.

"Of course, but you have to go soon."

"Go where?"

"Marty Oppenheimer's of course."

"Can't I take a break from that place?"

"You've already been here for two weeks. Besides, I have work tomorrow with my new group."

"New group?" Cole asked.

"Yes. Some of my friends and I have created a new group called the Royal Blacksmiths. Catchy name. Don't you think?"

"No," Cole answered. "I can't believe he cares more about his work than me," he thought.

Cole got packed that very day to go back to school, and his dad dropped him off.

"Write me often!" Lou said cheerfully before he drove away.

"O-okay," Cole said as he began to wave to the speeding car.

That night as Cole was unpacking, he heard a knock on his room door.

"What do you want?" Cole asked.

"Uh...Miss Georgie wants us to come downstairs for lunch," a squeaky voice came from the other side of the door.

Cole walked across the room and opened the door to see a red head, green eyed boy with the most awkward smile.

"I'll be right there," Cole told him before closing the door again.

Dinner was horrible, especially since there were a bunch of idiots who were by far, the cockiest dancers Cole had ever met, were bragging about their achievements the entire time.

Suddenly, he heard someone say something about his parent's former duo. They used to call themselves Perfect Melody.

"It's a miracle that the woman passed away. That group sucked," the kid said.

Cole immediately looked up from his meal.

"I know. I can't believe that they were the most popular singers," another said.

"I'm sorry?" Cole asked.

"What?" the first kid said.

"What's your problem with my mom?" Cole asked as he began to get up.

"That she's your mom, loser," the second said.

Cole took a deep breath to try to calm his nerves, but it didn't work. He walked up to the kid and whispered something in his ear.

"Don't say another word about her, or else."

"Or else what?" the kid asked.

Cole sighed as he turned to walk away before he ran back up to the kid and punched him in the face! It was chaos after that. Miss Georgie tried her hardest to grab Cole while he fought surprisingly well against her grasp. The rest of the kids tried to help too, and he eventually gave up fighting back as he fell to the ground. One kid even decided to sit on Cole to keep him down while Miss Georgie got the headmaster.

"Billy, get off of him. Cole, I want to have a word with you in your room," the headmaster told him sternly as he walked in.

Once Billy was off of Cole, he slowly followed the headmaster back to his room and lay lazily on his bed.

"Cole, will you sit up please?" the headmaster asked.

Cole didn't move.

"Cole, we really need to talk," the headmaster said again.

"Why? No one listens to me anyway," Cole told him.

"How do you know you're even giving people a chance to listen?" the headmaster asked.

"Mom listened to me," Cole told him.

The headmaster kept trying to talk to him, but Cole kept on ignoring him. He could hardly stand talking about her. Especially to someone he knew would never understand.

"I just want someone to understand me," Cole interrupted whatever the guy was saying about attitude and control of emotions and all that crap.

"I'm sorry that I don't," the headmaster said before he got up and left.

"You can't even try?" Cole whispered to himself.

That night, Cole woke up in the middle of the night with the most depressing feeling he'd ever felt. Cole sat up, got out of bed, and walked over to the window. The clear, beautiful sky made him feel so much better. Part of him just wanted to take off and fly into the clouds. Suddenly, he noticed something. A big humongous mountain! It was the only mountain his mother had never managed to climb to the top. The tallest mountain in Ninjago. Suddenly, Cole got an idea. He grabbed his bag, took a few clothes, and opened the window.

"I'll make you proud, Mom," Cole said as he sat on the window ledge. There were only three floors below him. He could make the jump. Little by little, Cole slid closer to the edge before finally, he fell out of the window and landed on the soft grass outside. It still hurt, though.

"Ouch!" Cole said quietly. He then slowly got up and walked towards the mountain.

After what seemed like forever, Cole had made it to the base of the mountain.

"Hey, what's boy like you doin' all the way out here?" some drunk guy asked him. He looked like he had just been in a fight.

"I'm gonna climb the mountain," Cole told the man confidently.

"You sure you don't want a drink first?" the man asked as he handed him his bottle of whiskey. Hesitantly, Cole took the bottle and drank. It tasted horrible, but he didn't want to stop for some reason. It helped him clear his head. Once the whole bottle was gone Cole gave a big whoop before asking for more.

"Listen here, little boy. I don't have anymore, but there's a bar over yonder," he said as he pointed towards the woods. "They don't even ask for no ID there."

"Good, 'cuz they would never let me in there," Cole said before he started running over to the bar, fell over, and started running again. It wasn't gonna be pretty, but he was desperate for more. It sort of cleared his mind a bit, and that was something Cole needed so bad right now.

Once he made it to the bar, he went inside to see that a fighting match was going on inside. On one side of the room was a score board, and on the other side, there was the bar. Cole walked up to the bar and got more drinks than he could even imagine. He slept in the woods for a long, long time and spent his days at the bar watching and fighting in the matches. He even fought in a few.

"Today we have Heartbreaker vs. Bucket!" an announcer said one day. Another match began. Cole against some ugly lady. In the past few months, Cole had changed a lot. He was taller, wore a pair of hiking shorts with no shirt, and he had now gained an eight pack.

"Don't worry, boy. I'll go easy on you," the woman told him.

"Oh really?" Cole asked. "Because no one has ever lost to me. Or survived me for that matter," Cole answered as he swung his little plastic bucket around.

The woman sighed before she charged at him. Cole easily blocked her hit by moving out of the way before he cracked the flimsy bucket in two over her head. The bucket now looked a little more like two daggers now.

"I've heard these can be painful," Cole said as he put one of the daggers up to the woman's neck.

Heartbreak gasped a little as the dagger touched her neck, causing a trickle of blood to fall.

"If you want to live, you yield," Cole told her.

"Never," Heartbreaker told him.

Cole sighed in disapproval.

"You lose then," he told her.

He raised the dagger over his head, about to strike Heartbreaker when he remembered something. "I want you to promise that you'll always stand up to those who are cruel and unjust," his mom's voice rang in his ears over and over again.

"Stop being that tyrant, Cole," he thought.

"Get out of my head!" Cole screamed aloud.

"I promise, Mom. Always," now his own voice came to mind.

"You're breaking your promise," he thought.

"Darn it, Cole!" Cole exclaimed before he picked Heartbreaker up by the arm and threw her out of the ring.

Cole could hear many murmurs coming from the people outside of the ring. They were surprised that he had let her live. Cole had never done that since the first day he stepped into that ring.

Cole bowed to the people outside of the ring and ran out of the bar. Out of that place. He kept running and running until he hit his head hard against something. It was the mountain. Cole looked above him for a long time. The mountain was so big. How would he ever climb it all the way? Before giving it another thought, Cole jumped up onto the mountain and grabbed a ledge. He stayed on. He then grabbed another ledge, and he didn't lose his grip. He kept climbing and climbing until he made it a quarter of the way. He tried grabbing onto another ledge, but something hit him in the back and he fell. He wasn't entirely sure how he was still alive when he landed, but he was. Cole scowled as a bunch of hikers laughed at him.

"Do you mind?!" he asked.

The hikers didn't stop laughing, though, but Cole tried again nonetheless. He didn't even make it as far this time. He kept trying and trying for days and days. One day, he almost made it to the top, but he lost his footing and fell again. This time not as far, but he still had to climb over half of the mountain all over again.

Cole screamed in frustration as he clung to the side of the mountain.

"I can do that," Cole said as he looked up.

After about another hour of climbing, Cole finally made it to the top where...an old man was drinking tea? This was strange, though. He knew he had seen this man before. But where. Suddenly, it dawned on him. He was the man who talked to his mom the day she got sick.

"Hello there," the old man said.

"How did you-? Who are you?" Cole asked him.

"Maybe that is a question for me to ask, but first, why do you climb the mountain?" the old man asked him.

"I...just lost someone," Cole replied. "My father should be sad or angry, but he's just-he's..."

"Yes?"

"He spends all his time with this group, singing and dancing. He's never home, leaving all the chores for me. With her gone, I guess it's up to me to be the responsible one. He acts like nothing's happened. How can he sing and dance at a time like this?"

The old man sighed before saying, "Grief takes many shapes and forms. Some sing and dance, some climb mountains."

"Why did you climb the mountain?" Cole asked. He was still confused how he did it, though.

"To find you, Cole," the man replied.

Cole was confused. He came all this way to find him?

"Th-there must be some mistake," Cole told him.

"Why?" the man asked him.

I just-Why would you ever want me?"

"Why not?"

"The only one who ever cared about me was my mother, and she's gone now."

"I find that hard to believe."

"Sorry, but I'm pretty sure she's gone, pal," Cole told him as he sat down.

"Not that. I mean the part about nobody caring," the man told him.

"Really? Because my father sent me to live with a bunch of people that definitely don't even understand me, I don't have any friends, and..."

"Have you ever thought that maybe you're pushing people away?"

"Uh...no," Cole said as he realized that he had been doing that.

"But a true friend would want to help you overcome your obstacles in life. Come, come. There is much to learn," the old man told him.

"You want me to follow you? I don't even know your name," Cole told him.

"My name is Wu, but you will call me Sensei."

"Wait what?"

"You want to be a ninja, don't you?"

"Yeah. I mean no. I mean what?"

"I am forming a team of ninja, gifted with the elements. Care to join?"

"Does it mean food and a roof?" Cole asked.

"All of that is included. Plus, I live on the Mountain of a Million Steps," Wu told him.

"As long as I get to climb it!" Cole said excitedly. "But how are we supposed to get down?"

"We could use this gear," Wu told him as he showed him the climbing gear he used to get up.

Cole and Wu tied the ropes around their hips and slowly went down the mountain before they began on their long walk towards the Mountain of a Million Steps.

"So," Cole began after a long pause, "you knew my mother?"

"Why yes, I did. I trained your mother to become as great a warrior as I hope you will someday become."

"Okay, you're throwing a lot of information on me at once. Can you just start from the beginning? I mean, why are you making a team? What do you mean by elements? My mother was not a warrior. And why the heck would you want me?" Cole asked him.

"If you want to know, you sit and listen," Wu told him.

"R-right here?" Cole asked as he looked around at the path they were on.

"Sit!" Wu demanded.

"Okay," Cole replied as he sat down.

"Now, long before time had a name the First Spinjitzu Master, my father, created Ninjago using the four golden weapons. The Scythe of Quakes, the Nunchucks of Lightning, the Sword of Fire, and the Shurikens of Ice. When my father passed, he gave me and my older brother the job of protecting the Golden Weapons, but my brother Garmadon was evil and desired the weapons for himself. I was forced to banish him to the Underworld, but I knew that he would someday return. That is why I hid the weapons and entrusted the map to a friend of my mine. Now I must train you in the arts of spinjitzu so we can defeat my brother and keep peace in Ninjago," Wu explained.

"And you need me because...?" Cole asked.

Wu sighed. "Because you are as strong as the rock beneath us, your heart is as beautiful as a gemstone, and I sense loyalty in you like no other. The power of the earth beneath our very feet is within you, and you're the only one capable of harnessing the strongest element of the earth."

"You really think that I'm worthy of this?"

"Of course. The love, loyalty, and kindness in your heart will soon make this world a much better place. I promise you that ."

As the two kept walking, Cole realized something. This man would actually understand him when he spoke. This man might actually care about him enough to help.

"Of course, Sensei," Cole said.

I'm thinking that this story will be about five chapters, and I hope to get at least most of them out by next week.