AN: Beta'd by Sunny Lighter. EMPFangirl02 wrote this entire chapter, so I take no credit for it. Sunny Lighter has the original idea of Garmadon having a holo deck video game system in her fic "In Need of a Polish"-chapter 10-so that credit goes to her. She was kind enough to let use it here. Enjoy!

Movie Ninjago...

Lloyd fired up his dragon mech and made his way over to the volcano for his weekly visit. He waved to the generals as he pulled in, and a few of them waved back. They weren't all bad people once you got to know them a little, and now that Garmadon wasn't firing them anymore, a lot of them became a lot more friendly.

Lloyd made his way to his dad's office, feeling pretty good for once. Now that the city knew he was the Green Ninja and Garmadon wasn't attacking anymore, people weren't treating him like garbage anymore. In fact, he was starting to get fangirls. Lloyd shivered. He was definitely glad to have a break and spend time with his dad…

"Take that! And that! That'll show you to mess with me!" Garmadon shouted. Lloyd froze, then crept forward toward the office slowly, not sure what he was walking into.

"Dad?" Lloyd asked nervously as he looked in, only to find his dad playing Smash Brothers with himself. His upper set of arms held one controller, and the lower arms held another. Somehow, in a terrible twist of fate, both of his characters fell off the stage, resulting in a game over.

"Darn it," Garmadon grumbled, finally noticing his son was in the room. "Hey, Luh-Lloyd! What's up?"

"Not much," Lloyd answered. "What are you doing?"

"Nothing," Garmadon grumbled. "I can't fire people, I can't conquer Ninjago, and I can't even scare people with sharks! I don't know how you people live like this!"

"I meant the video game," he said, pointing at the two controllers in Garmadon's hands.

"Oh, this?" the warlord asked, and Lloyd nodded. "Just a way to pass time. Looks like I'm playing as two people doesn't it?" Garmadon grinned, showing all of his shark teeth, and then he restarted the level and tried again.

"Yeah," Lloyd answered slowly, really thinking that his dad just looked lonely. "Hey, Dad, if you want, you can come over to the warehouse. We've got a bunch of video games there, and you can play with all of us."

Garmadon growled at the screen as one of his characters nearly fell off the edge. "Can't. I'm not supposed to come into Ninjago city, except for community service. It's part of not being an active warlord or something."

Right. Mom had said something similar earlier. "Well, what if we came over here? I know Kai was interested in seeing the volcano." More like Kai wanted to make sure Garmadon didn't try anything, but you know. Same thing.

The former warlord didn't answer, as he tried to go for a special attack, but ended up getting knocked off the stage instead. Lloyd winced.

"Fine. Your little ninjanerds can come over."

"You sure?" Lloyd asked. He knew his dad wasn't overly fond of his friends, but he hoped that having them over might alleviate some of his dad's boredom (so he wouldn't go back to his old ways) and loneliness. (though his dad would never admit that.)

"Yeah, whatever," Garmadon grumbled, miffed at losing again. He wasn't really listening.

"Okay. We'll come over tomorrow. We can check out the new gaming room, maybe even feed the sharks."

That seemed to cheer up his dad a bit. Now to convince his friends…

"You want us to do what?" Jay yelped, wringing his orange scarf.

"Just come over to the volcano, play some video games with my dad, and then we can go back home," Lloyd repeated.

"You want us to play video games with the guy who destroyed our city?" Nya asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I know it sounds crazy, but he's really trying, and I think…" Lloyd hesitated, not sure how well this was going to go over. "I think he's bored. And lonely."

Kai rolled his eyes. "Sure, he is."

"I believe Lloyd is telling the truth," Zane replied. "There hasn't been a Garmadon attack in weeks, and the volcano has stopped erupting. The shark army has even switched to a new technological company. All data points to Garmadon's reformation."

"Come on, this is Garmadon we're talking about. You can't ask us to just sit down and play video games with the guy like nothing happened!" Kai protested.

"You can stay behind then," Lloyd suggested, knowing the Fire Ninja would do no such thing.

"No way! I'm not leaving you alone with Garmadon. Just don't expect me to go easy on him," he answered, folding his arms.

"Alright, just don't set my dad off on purpose," Lloyd told him.

"Not making any promises."

Lloyd decided to take what he could get and turned to Cole, who had been silent throughout the whole conversation. "What about you, Cole?"

The Earth Ninja just shrugged. "I trust you. If you think this is a good idea, I'm in."

"Count me in," Nya added.

Lloyd grinned. Meanwhile, Jay fidgeted nervously in his chair.

"You don't have to come with us," Lloyd told him.

"N-no. I'm coming too," Jay said. "I still don't think this is a good idea, though."

Kai snorted. "You can say that again."

Lloyd sighed. Hopefully tomorrow would go smoothly…

"What are they doing here?" Garmadon demanded.

Kai raised his eyebrows at Lloyd, while Jay shot a nervous I-thought-he-knew-we-coming look.

Lloyd sighed and felt a headache coming on.

"I told you, Dad, these are my friends. You said they could come over, remember?"

Garmadon narrowed his eyes. "No."

Lloyd groaned. "Well, you did. And they're here now. So can we all get along for a little bit? Please."

Garmadon looked at Lloyd, then back at the ninja, then back at Lloyd, whose eyes were sparkling hopefully. "Fine," he relented. "Only for you, Luh-Loyd." Then he glared at the ninja, while Kai and Nya glared right back at him.

"So, uh, the new gaming room is finished?" Lloyd asked, trying to distract his dad from his friends.

Fortunately, Garmadon took the bait. "Yeah, the nerds finished it up last night. Still need to test it though before we can start selling our systems to the public." He paused for a moment, and then smirked. "Wanna try it out?"

Everyone said that they did, and Garmadon led them to the gaming room, bragging as they went.

"It has over 100 different games you can play in over 100 different environments. It's like that VR stuff, but even more awesome, because you don't need a lame headset. You just live it!" Garmadon exclaimed. Lloyd couldn't help but grin, and even Kai was starting to look interested.

"And here we are!" he said as he opened the doors to reveal a large holo-deck like space filled with electric grids and projectors.

"Woah," Jay gasped. "So cool!"

Garmadon snorted. "You haven't seen nothing yet." He took a few steps into the room and—

"Welcome, Lord Garmadon. Would you like to reload your game?"

Nya raised an eyebrow. "Lord Garmadon?" she whispered to Lloyd, who just shrugged.

"It's his avatar. Just roll with it."

Meanwhile, the computer was loading whatever game Garmadon had been playing last. Suddenly, the floor changed to the edge of Ninjago beach, and the walls projected a 3D image of the city. Jay gasped, and even Cole's eyes widened as their home came to life all around them.

Then, the ninja themselves appeared in front of them.

"What the?" Kai exclaimed, face to face with his fire mech.

"Amazing! It's an exact replica of us!" Zane said, then he turned to Garmadon. "What kind of game is this?"

Garmadon opened his mouth, but the computer beat him to it.

"Conquest. The game where you can fight the ninja and conquer Ninjago for yourself. Would you like to choose your mech?"

Images of Garmadon's various shark mechs flashed across the screen, and suddenly all the pieces clicked in the ninja's head.

"You designed a game about conquering Ninjago?!"

"And you put us in it?"

"How could you?"

"Dad!"

"Look, I was bored, okay? I was just playing it for fun. It wasn't like I was actually conquering Ninjago—"

"Can I play?"

Everyone turned to look at Cole.

"What?" he said. "It looks cool. And Garmadon's right. It's just a game."

The other ninja just gaped, while Garmadon grinned. "I like this kid. Go ahead. Tell the computer which mech you want."

Certain mechs were greyed out because they hadn't been unlocked yet, but Cole eventually settled on an old Leviathan mech and suddenly it appeared all around him. Cole blinked, but settled into the mech with a small grin on his face, which was saying a lot for him.

Nya looked dubious, Kai downright upset, and Jay looked nervous at the fact their friend was about to try and destroy versions of them, but before they could say anything, the game started.

Cole pushed his mech forward and began his fight with the coast guard. Then he made his way toward the coast, when all of sudden, Nya's strider mech slid out of the water and used her strider limbs to tangle up the Leviathan's legs. Then she jumped in front of Cole and the words BOSS BATTLE: WATER NINJA flashed above her head.

"Whoo! You got this, sis!" Kai cheered.

"Nah, the water ninja's the easiest one to beat. You just gotta keep her on the beach and then she's useless," Garmadon commented.

Nya glared at him. "Hey! I'll show you easy to beat."

Cole narrowed his eyes and pushed forward. The Leviathan was a lot harder to move than his own mech, and Nya's water strider was able to run circles around him.

"No! You got to tangle her up! Tangle her up! Push her back! Summon the shark army!" Garmadon shouted, which only seemed to make Cole do worse. Finally, Nya toppled Cole over, and he splashed into the ocean.

GAME OVER!

The mech faded and Cole was left breathing hard on the ground. "It's a lot harder than it looks," was all he said.

Lloyd just grinned and was about to suggest a different game, when Zane zoomed forward.

"Let me try!" he said. "I will kick backside."

So Garmadon reset the game and this time Zane chose to be in old shark mech with a gigantic mouth and missile teeth. The game started and the ninja quickly agreed to never let Zane play this game again. He was good. Too good.

He crushed the coast guard, destroyed Nya, then Kai, and a lot of Ninjago. Zane marched into the city and started laughing like a monotone version of those cartoon villains, shooting sharks and missile teeth as he went.

Finally, the ice mech game Zane managed to defeat real Zane. Later, he said that he was just 'getting into character', but it was more than a little unnerving for everyone else watching their friend turn into a conquering maniac. Except Garmadon, of course, who loved every minute of it. He even told Zane that he had potential.

Finally, Lloyd suggested that they play something else, but Garmadon wanted to give the game a go before they moved on. Despite all the suggestions he'd been yelling while everyone else went, he was defeated in the first five minutes by Nya.

"Not so easy to beat after all, huh?" Nya smirked as Garmadon grumbled under his breath.

"I'd like to see you do better," he growled.

"I will," she replied, sauntering over to the starting point of the game.

"Maybe we should do something else, guys," Lloyd suggested uneasily. He wasn't sure this game was going to be the best influence on everyone.

"No, I'm going to show Garmadon how it's done," she said, cracking her knuckles. She chose a stingray mech that glided over the ground and started the game.

Her eyebrows furrowed in concentration and she started the first wave. Before long, she moved on to fighting herself. Water strider Nya never stood a chance. Nya pushed herself onto the beach and blew her up within a few minutes.

"Take that!" she shouted, pumping her fist in the air. Jay and Lloyd just shifted uncomfortably. The next wave started, when game Kai appeared.

"Not so fast, Garmadon!" he shouted. "You're about to get fiiiii-red!" He sprayed flames everywhere and the next boss battle began to start.

Nya snorted. "That's Kai, alright," she said.

"Hey," Kai protested from where he was watching.

Nya ducked and weaved and mercilessly destroyed her brother's mech. Kai winced as she struck a particularly nasty blow that sent him flying through a building.

"No mercy for your brother?" he asked.

"Nope," Nya replied, smirking as she finished Kai off with a barbs from the stingray's tail. Then she beat Zane and began to fight Cole. She seemed to be struggling a little more with him, since he had a smash attack that kept stunning her mech, preventing her from attacking or blocking. Nya growled and tried to attack him from further back with her barb missiles, but Cole just blocked and kept advancing. It didn't help that the earth master had a lot of health.

Finally, Nya was knocked back for the last time, and GAME OVER flashed over her head. She quickly pushed herself back up though.

"MY TURN!" Kai shouted eagerly, as Lloyd stared at him. Kai cleared his throat and tried to look a little less enthused. "I mean, might as well right? Everyone else is doing it."

"Admit it. My game is totally awesome!" Garmadon said, looking rather pleased with himself.

"N-no," Kai protested weakly. "I just want to beat my sister, that's all."

Garmadon just raised an eyebrow. Kai ignored him.

"Bet you can't beat the first level!" Nya called as he started up the game.

"Oh yeah?" Kai grumbled, ready to prove he could totally make it to Cole, if not beat him. He seemed to struggle with the controls though, only firing missiles and not even pausing to dodge. He managed to beat Nya by the skin of his teeth, but then quickly was defeated by himself.

"I just couldn't defeat someone that awesome," Kai said, as Nya smirked at him.

"Sure," she teased, punching him playfully as he passed. Jay squeezed his scarf, not comfortable with all this violence against themselves. Unfortunately, fidgeting just drew attention to him.

"You want to go?" Cole asked him.

"M-me?" Jay stammered.

"Yeah. It's actually a lot of fun," Nya said.

Jay just stared at the ground. "I don't know—"

"Why don't we play some classic video games instead?" Lloyd interrupted. "We can play some Smash Bros, feed the sharks, cool our heads a bit…"

"Spoil sport," Garmadon grumbled, and Nya looked like she agreed with him, but eventually, they agreed to move on. It was a tight squeeze on Garmadon's couch, Zane had to sit on the floor, and there weren't enough controllers for everyone, but a rotation system was quickly organized and the match was on.

Garmadon was the worst at it, of course, but he was ruthlessly competitive. After Kai pushed Garmadon off the ledge in the first round, the warlord came after him with a vengeance. Then, once he managed to beat the Fire Ninja, it was on. The two of them were practically in a game on their own, doing whatever they could to sabotage the other, until Nya came up behind them and knocked both of them off.

Garmadon and Kai stared at each other for a moment, then back at Nya, and then the two teamed up to get their revenge. Still, even together, Nya trounced them both. Lloyd did his best to stay out of their way, but he was pretty competitive himself. He was more sneaky though, knocking people off the edge while they were distracted with their own vendettas.

Cole and Zane preferred to watch, but when they did play, it was a pretty close match between the two of them. Both were good players, but they were more interested in having a good time than actually winning. Jay had chosen to just watch on the sidelines. Eventually, the crazy freestyle tournament came to an end.

"Want to see the sharks now?" Lloyd asked.

"Is it safe?" Jay asked.

Garmadon snorted. "Of course not! We're talking about my great white sharks here."

Jay's face turned deathly pale.

"Don't listen to him, Jay. They're perfectly fine," Lloyd assured him. "They're more like dogs than sharks. They like belly rubs and everything."

"You're no fun," Garmadon muttered, but he quickly cheered up as he showed the ninja his shark collection. Nya was fascinated by how attracted the sharks were to both the warlord and Lloyd. The water ninja was pretty good with them as well, and was surprised how soft the sharks' bellies were. Although they quickly warmed up to Cole as well, once he started giving them belly rubs and petting their noses. One in particular snuggled up to the earth ninja and rubbed up against him like a cat.

"Huh, I guess you can't be that bad. Duke seems to like you a lot," Garmadon commented, looking at Cole with a new respect.

The earth ninja shrugged. "I volunteer at a shelter when I'm not DJing," he offered as an explanation.

Kai, meanwhile, hesitated on the edge of the aquarium, not wanting to step into the water.

"Wuss," Garmadon muttered under his breath.

"Dad!" Lloyd scolded. "He just doesn't like the water. Master of Fire?"

Garmadon just rolled his eyes. "I thought that was just a codename. And who doesn't like water?" he complained. "All the coolest things live there!"

"It can also be dangerous," Nya added cooly, sticking up for her brother.

"Whatever."

"You want me to bring some sharks over to you?" Lloyd asked Kai.

"It's fine, really—"

"They're really cute!" Jay called from where he was standing, petting a small shark. The lightning ninja was shy at first, but after finding a kindred spirit in the little guy, he changed his mind.

"And quite friendly," Zane agreed. Fortunately, most of his electrical parts were waterproof, not that would have stopped him from joining his friends in petting the sharks.

Kai hesitated, and Lloyd took that as a yes. He coaxed a few sharks to follow him into the shallows where Kai could reach them. He slowly reached out a hand, and finally, the shark just rose up out of the water and nosed the fire ninja's palm.

Kai's eyes widened for a moment, before petting the eager shark gently on the nose.

"See?" Lloyd said grinning.

Kai just shook his head at Lloyd, but there was a small smile on his face as the shark rolled over under his hand for a belly rub.

All too soon, it was time to head back to Ninjago. Lloyd said goodbye to Garmadon, and Zane thanked him for letting them visit his volcano. Garmadon waved the Ice Nninja off, rambling as only the warlord could. But Lloyd got the sense that his father was glad they'd come over, even if he still didn't really like them. They were interesting, if nothing else.

"That wasn't as bad as I thought," Jay mused as they headed back.

"Yes. It was quite enjoyable," Zane agreed.

"Yeah. Garmadon's still… Garmadon, but that gaming system was really cool. And those sharks?" Nya shook her head in amazement. "Maybe we can come along next time?" she asked Lloyd hopefully.

"Yeah!" Kai said. "Just to keep you safe and all. Never know what Garmadon might have up his sleeve," he added quickly as the others stared at him.

Lloyd just chuckled. "Yeah, you can come." He was just glad that his friends had enjoyed themselves.

The next visit, the Ninja beelined to the holo-deck, only to find a surprise waiting for them in Conquest. Someone had beaten the current high score and made it all the way to the Lloyd boss battle.

"Jay?!"

AN: We thought it would be funny if Jay mysteriously gets the high score, LOL! Whelp, that's all folks. EMP and I didn't have any more ideas planned after this scene. If you have an idea, shoot it my way, I'll consider writing it if it's reasonable. Thanks to all the faithful reviewers! I also appreciate Sunny Lighter SO much for helping with these bonus scenes as she came up with a lot of these ideas through our conversations. Check out her stories! Remember to check your PM folders on this site for replies. Until next story!