A special thanks to NinjagoGirl01, ninja of Light. Yes, there will be a dorky commercial break, like in a real TV show! ;)
Balanced: Heroes of Ninjago
Episode 1: Shadow's Remains
Madisen flicked her pencil back and forth as she listened to her teacher's boring lecture. She was a 7th grader, with her friend, Brittany, who skipped 6th grade.
Madisen's hair was down to her elbows, it was the color of dark coffee, brown, but almost black. Her eyes were flashing off her brown eyes. Madisen was 5'3".
Brittany had light brown hair, nearly blonde, and blue eyes. She was pretty pale. Brittany was also 5'1", and wore a necklace with a whistle on it. She also had a gossamer thin handkerchief around her neck.
"Psst...!" Brittany hisses. She was wide eyed.
Madisen whispers, "What's up?"
Brittany replies loudly, "Is that Zane Julien!?"
Everyone looked, and sure enough, there he was. Zane was smashed on the edge of the window, and gives the crowd a smile before he stood up and charged out into the fray out on the street. There was a large amount of Serpentine. Nothing too prominent, not newsworthy because the Serpentine stragglers who hadn't gone for Skales' plan were currently rebelling against humanity.
The teacher sighs, "Class dismissed, I suppose. It is school rule that every child must fend for themselves against Serpentine."
"Uh, Madisen," Brittany asks, "Can I go home with you instead?"
Madisen merely nodded; Brittany didn't like to walk alone during a raid. It was common sense not to walk on your own. As the duo waltzed down the road, the energy in their bodies urged them to start running. Then the first mistake Brittany made was looking back.
Brittany made eye contact with a Hypnobrai, but broke her gaze immediately.
"Madisen, run!" She ordered, grabbing the taller 12-year-old and dragging her along. She was afraid.
Madisen made the second mistake: taking a shortcut.
Madisen called, "Let's go this way! It's faster!" Her insistent assurance was comforting enough.
So Brittany followed, still running. However, it felt like they made no progress forward. Brittany and Madisen looked down, and saw why. They were standing in a black mass that seemed to hold them in place like mud- but it was grabbing at their arms now!
"Let us go!" Brittany cries out in dismay, fighting against the strange black goo.
As if it was listening, the twining and gluing shadow goo was releasing them, sending Madisen flying across the alley. She feels her arm hit a dumpster.
"That's gonna smart in the morning." Brittany comments.
Madisen growls, "You can be quiet now."
Brittany helps the dark brunette up, and looks at the shadow blob again. It was turning into the shape of a large tiger, and nuzzles her leg. It has dark blue eyes, much like the shade of cobalt Brittany's turned when she got mad.
Brittany exclaims, "Ah! The shadow... Puddle thing... Turned into this tiger! Soooo cute!"
The smaller brunette pets the thick neck, kissing it's fur, and then climbing on it's back. It looked to be almost twice as big as the 12-year-old.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING ON THAT THING'S BACK?!" Madisen screams out loud, attracting the attention of the ninja, "IT JUST TRIED TO KILL US!"
Brittany chides, "Re-laaaaaax! I think it likes me! I wish you had a ride, too..."
The shadows quickly meld into a large gelding, a dark horse from somebody's nightmares. It lowers it's neck onto the area, eyes at her feet. It's eyes were yellow.
"Well... I was kind of hoping for something that DIDN'T want to kill me a minute ago, you know, Brittany?" Madisen asks, "No offense!"
Brittany insincerely snorts, "None taken..."
Then a beautiful white lion came up to her, along with a white and a black wolf. The dark wolf took Brittany's right flank, and the lion took Brittany's left. The white wolf got to the left of the lion, and the white animals looked at Madisen expectantly. The black animals looked annoyed or disgruntled. They were impatient.
"I think the lion wants you to ride it." Brittany offers, "Now, can you get on before my tiger gets angry?"
The tiger let out an annoyed hiss.
Madisen awkwardly vouches, "I can walk! It's okay, I'll walk home!"
Zane lands beside Madisen, and tells her, "I actually think you really should get on the lion's back so that the tiger doesn't try to eat you."
Madisen is star-struck by her favorite ninja's appearance, and quickly climbs onto the lion's back. Zane looks at her expectantly, waiting for something. He stood there as Lloyd, Kai, Cole, and Jay land behind him.
Madisen uncertainly orders, "I want more giant animals for my friends...? To ride?"
As if on cue, the light above them filtering into the area turns into four animals- a white lion, which bows to Zane, and large stallions for the fire, earth, and lightning ninja to ride. However, Lloyd has no animal.
Lloyd frowns, "Hey! Don't I get a magical animal to ride?"
"I can supply yours." Brittany offers, and then commands, "I am looking for another shadow to aid me!"
A second tiger of darkness appears to Lloyd's front, and crouches. When all of them are astride the animals, Kai looks at Cole in a questioning manner.
"They're the ones, Kai. No doubt. But... The question is, do they have any idea that they are?" Cole quizzes.
Brittany and Madisen both answer, "We have weird dreams."
Zane seems interested, "Dreams? What KIND of dre-"
The crash behind them is enough warning.
Don't go anywhere! "Balanced: Heroes Of Ninjago" will be right back!
Next time, on Balanced: Heroes of Ninjago...
Sensei Wu: It appears that Madisen is perfectly heroic at heart, but Brittany...
Everyone leans forward: WHAT?!
Brittany looks up: I'm not going to be like that.
Garmadon: It's okay, we all have a choice.
Brittany appears in front of them with her hair blackened and skin ashen. Her eyes are red.
Brittany: You said we all have a choice, Garmadon. NOW TELL ME THAT!
Brittany realized one thing when she saw what was behind her: this was no average dragon on the road. She stared at it with fear and panic in her eyes. It was huge. The eyes were, once again, cobalt blue. This dragon was pure black, save the pale grey salamander flaps on the side of the head.
It was even scarier to see the bright white dragon with pale blue eyes. It was bigger than the black dragon, but less aerodynamic and not as quick as the little black dragon. There was a large, spiny, webbed top crest, and two smaller spines on either side of it's neck.
Neither one looks too friendly. Especially when a gigantic white dragon lunges at you with intent to kill.
"AAAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEE!" Brittany screams out loud. She didn't move or flinch, just screamed.
"Stop!" Madisen orders the dragon, fiercely.
It doesn't halt the dragon, until Madisen crazily stands between the enraged dragon and her dark friend. This is when the dragon back down.
Brittany actually starts to cry, "G-g-g-g-get me ou-outta heeeeere... (hiccups)!"
"Lloyd, you claimed you were Brittany's caretaker. Get her out of here, as she wants." Cole order.
Lloyd grabs her hand, and takes her tiger close to his, then sets it off at the fastest sprint the cats could manage. Zane orders his lion closer to Madisen, taking her hand in his. He would protect her. The black dragon and the white dragon back away, hissing. The gnash their teeth, and the black one strikes with the speed and ferocity of an eagle, and the thoughts of a demon.
She looks away, but hears a loud ringing noise as the dragon smashes into a wall of ice. A single shard of glassy ice grazes her cheek, cutting it open minorly enough to cause the slightest amount of bleeding.
"Get back." Zane tells her, calm. When she doesn't, he cries out, "MOVE BACK!"
She does only moments before the glassy barrier of frost shatters, and Zane leaps onto it's back, the white lion disappearing. He looks at Madisen, then began to crawl towards the monster's head. The white dragon had dissipated into thin air.
CRASH! THUMP!
Zane had barely avoided being crushed by the black dragon as it throws itself at buildings in the area. He was hanging onto the salamander ears on the side of it's head. He was trapped!
"Gods keep meeeeeeeee!" Shouts Zane as he clutches a vein on it's neck, making it pass out, sending it spiraling to the earth below.
He leaps, and screams his head off- and you couldn't blame him. This was a leap from seventeen stories off the ground, with nothing to land on or use to soften the landing. He was pretty much committing suicide at this point.
Then he lands on a soft, fluffy lion made of light. He grabs it, shaking like a furless dog. He calms down, looking gratefully at his savior.
Zane suddenly turns on her, "Madisen, that was stupid!"
"What! What was I supposed to do- let it eat her?!" Madisen argues.
"YOU COULD HAVE GOTTEN KILLED!" Zane sounds truly afraid, terrified even, but not angry.
Madisen yells, "YOU'RE NOT MY MOM, ZANE, NOW STOP BOSSING ME AROUND!"
"I-I suppose I am not your parent..." Zane sighs, his bout of fear subsiding. He looks away, sorry he spoke the way he did.
The rest of the trip to the Bounty is spent in silence. However, things were not over between Madisen and Zane yet- they had a score to settle...
Brittany, however, had not had such a heroic event going on- in fact, it was awkward. She was still crying and afraid. Lloyd was unsure what to do. He just slips in beside her as she wails in fear and anger.
"You okay...?" Asks Lloyd.
Brittany glares and ignores him with anger in her gaze. Lloyd didn't understand anything! What did he do to her to make her mad?
Finally, Brittany snaps, "Just be quiet, I don't need some nobody like you to protect me!"
"Nobody...?" Lloyd whispers, "Look who's talking, you jerk! I saved the world! Where are you famous, your imagination?!"
"I was an actor in Seventh Kill! I was the cold-hearted Millie Wayde!"
"Oh. She was cool." Now that she mentions it, Lloyd noticed how she resembled the killer, who was the main character, and her acting was really good. Silence once again consumed them.
Brittany whispers, "I'm sorry. I was just scared."
Lloyd smiles, and nods. Then they arrived at the Bounty.