Hey everyone, like as I promised, here is a chapter now that involves with the Ninja. Anyway now, this time from now on, I shall update on every Friday morning. Hope you enjoy the chapter and can't wait to read the reviews. Enjoy.
Chapter 1: Odd Invitations
A blissful cool breeze blew through the chilled weather of October. A single red leaf was plucked from a maple tree and danced across the sky and landed gently on the tip of a teenager's nose. The teen groaned as his sleep was disturbed from the dead foilage tickling his nose and pried his eyes open to reveal the dark amber irises to the afternoon sun. He crossed his eyes to see the red leaf and picked it up by the stem and twirled it with his finger and thumb. A smile grew on his lips as a new season was beginning and blew the leaf away and watched it dance around to gently land on wooden floorboards of the deck, but was then crushed underneath someone's socked foot.
"Hey Cole," someone spoke up. "Are you going to stay up there all day? I thought the earth would appreicate the ground more often. Haha!"
The raven-haired teen, Cole, prompt himself up with his elbows to peer down from the roof of the flying vessel, Destiny's Bounty, to see Jay with a smug grin on his face from his joke. The Ninja of Earth rolled his eyes at annoyance and ignored him and laid back down on the slanted roof of the bridge. He and the others were glad to have the Bounty back after taking it back from Garmadon from winning the Ninjaball Run Race and saving Darreth's dojo. Plus it was starting to get crowded in their old small one room and half bath apartment with two extra people on the team. And after painting it back to its original color, it started to feel like home again.
Jay looked at him and sighed. "Whatever." he said while turning on his heels. "We'll be in the living room if you want to hang out with us." and disappeared back into the ship.
Thank God he's finally gone. Cole thought to himself and shifted back to get comfortable and felt the shingles scratching his exposed arms from his black tee shirt and found the spot. Sensei Wu has decided to allow the team to take the day off today for two or three reasons. For them to have a break from training Lloyd. For Sensei to reunite with his son after four months of separation. And for them to relax since there hasn't been any attacks of Serpentine or Garmadon plots. But the leader would prefer to be on the lookout, but they could at least let their guard down for once and relax to the chilled weather outside while everyone else socializes inside.
The black ninja slowly closed his amber eyes again as the peace and quiet was back and listened to the music of nature. He could hear the chirps of the many speicies of birds perched in the forest in the distance. The gentle howl of the wind breezing softly and calmly through his black shaggy hair. In the distance from where the Bounty was docked, the earth ninja could hear the sound of car horns and tires screeching as it was rush hour. But he didn't mind it as he was far from the city and could relax to the open. Until a small bell began ringing.
The leader's eyes instantly shot open and quickly sat up to narrow his eyes to the noise. "What now?" he grumbled. He looked around to find the source and rolled his eyes to sigh as it was the same time that always come when they train. But this time it interrupted his sleep. Mail call.
Cole got up from the roof and jumped down to the door of the bridge and climbed down the stairs to reach the deck and jumped off the deck with a small cloud of dust rising near his feet after he landed. The mailman kicked the kickstand of his bike and climbed off with his shoulder bag of mail. Cole stood by the ship with his arms crossed as he was annoyed that the only person, besides Jay, to distub him from napping. When the mailman got to Cole, he pushed his wire-rimmed glasses up his nose and gave Cole a hard stare. "What's your problem?" he asked while open his bag.
"Nothing." The Ninja of Earth quickly responded and held his hand out. "Just give me the usual."
"Hold your horses." the mailman snapped back while shuffling through his bag. "I'm going as fast as I can here and make sure I didn't miss anything. The post office doesn't organize much ya know." He finished shuffling and found everything. "Here we are now. Fan letters, letters from your parents, and a package from Creatures, Beast, and Beyond." and pulled out the letters and boxed package.
Cole took the parcels and looked through them and stopped. "What no bills?" he asked bitterly.
The mailman gave him a hard stare back. "You really need to watch that temper and attitude of yours." he spat back.
The black ninja took his words and unstitched his eyebrows from stictching. "Sorry." he said to apologize. "I was relaxing before you came. Just check through again to make sure you didn't forget anything."
The mailman accepted his apology and adjusted his straw hat to keep the sun out of his eyes and searched through his bag. "Nope. I don't see anything el-wait a minute." he paused. "There is something I didn't see before." and pulled out a stack of letters tied together with silver ribbon and held them out to Cole. The black ninja put the other parcels down and accepted the letters.
Cole raised a bushy brow in curiosity as the letters were different. Most of the letters that he and the others received were from fans, but the letters were stacked in an group. "Thanks." he said as the mailman was leaving. He untied the ribbon that was on the first letter and saw a note was attached to them. For the Ninja, it read. Cole removed the note to blink in surprise with the letter of his name: Cole M. Brookstone and the sender, from the left corner, was from the Ninjago City University of Scientology. He was more confused now. Why would a fancy university give him, a ninja, a letter about the university?
He looked at the letter below his and blinked in surprise again as it was the same university and the receiver was: Kai J. Smith. He was more confused now. Why would the same people send him and Kai a letter from their university when he sees Kai dumb as a sack of potatoes when he doesn't listen to his plans? He continued to flip through the mail as each letter had the same university with the names of his team. Jay P. Walker, Zane L. Julien, Nya N. Smith, Lucas J. Wu. Laurie E. Garmadon. And even, Lloyd M. Garmadon. Cole started to become more confused on the letters and picked the other parcels and headed back to the ship to deliver the mail and odd letters.
When the Ninja of Earth reached the lower levels of the vessel, he walked through the doorway to the living room with the odd letters tucked underneath his left arm with the other parcels of mail in his hands. He could see his brothers, Kai and Jay dressed in their regular clothes on their day off, pounding on the buttons of their controllers of their favorite video game Fist to Face 2. Zane was sitting in the corner in a lotus position to meditate with Sensei Wu. Nya was watching her brother and boyfriend play on their game while reading a romantic book on the couch with Laurie Garmadon. And finally spotted Lucas on a bean bag chair with Lloyd on his lap, socializing with his cousin after four months of separation from a coma. While his other cousin, that they never knew of each other, leaned in to know more about him.
Jay was the blue lightning ninja who tends to never shut up and has to crack a joke from time to time. Kai, the red fire ninja, can become a hothead when his anger is acted up in training, combat, and even video games. Zane, the white ice ninja and android, calm and wise with his sixth sense and Cole finds him his second-in-command if something happened to the leader. Nya, the team's samurai and Kai's younger sister, clever with mechanics and strong in combat with exo-suit. And there's Lloyd, the Green Ninja and master of all elements, but still stubborn to train as he's a kid that gets under everyone's skin. Pulling pranks on everyone to be a jokester with his powers and tricks. And even sabotaging his Violet Berry Soup one time and used Jay as a scapegoat. Cole should start calling him the Ninja of Mischief, but finds him and everyone else as his family.
But then, there's the two prophesized guardians of the Green Ninja. Lucas Wu, the grey ninja and master of water. And Laurie Garmadon, the orange ninja and master of wind. Lucas is Sensei Wu's son and Lloyd's cousin whose been on a lead of absence for over four months due to a pirate attack in Ninjago City when the ship's mast fell on him to render him into a coma. But before it happened, he used to be Garmadon's apprentice twice before what they called the Summer Solstice Battle and died in a sacrifice. But he faced terrible times when he followed his evil uncle. He was forced to follow every order from his uncle, forced to kidnap his cousin, and was whipped for betrayal and is left with a dozen long whip scars on his back and one extra one from where the poison blade killed him. So in total, it's thirteen scars or a baker's dozen. But he rose back from the dead as he proved himself worthy to become Lloyd's guardian for his bravery on destroying the Twilight Mirror and sacrifice.
And then there was Laurie. She's Lloyd's older sister, daughter of Garmadon, and Lucas' unknown cousin as he never knew of her as she did on him too. When Laurie first joined the team, she was on a mission to steal her brother from them as Garmadon corrupted her mind to thinking he was kidnapped from the ninja. But after a race against time to save her brother from being turned into a Serpentine, she has proved herself as the Ninja of Wind. But four months after the event, before Lucas woke up, she has been targeted by her father using the Mega-weapon to create a portal to the Underworld to bring a Serpentine goddess back to the world. Her name was Belinda. And the Serpentine favored and feared her the most. The entity haunted Laurie and nearly tried to kill her and Kai until she sacrificed her memories with Kai as they were in love with each other before to save herself from death. And after the entity left her alone, she tried the hardest to remember being with Kai while she had a new threat on her back. A twelve year old trained assassin named Rhea. The mute girl had a past and a dark secret. But after a fight on the Ninjago City Tower's roof, the girl sacrificed her life to protect Lloyd and Laurie from a samurai warrior made from unbreakable stone and a dark shadow entity.
But what makes those two special was that the guardains still have control over their elemental powers. Each ninja used to have a golden weapon of their element before Garmadon stole them to create the Mega Weapon. But after the weapons were taken, the two prophesized guardians are able to control their elemental powers to protect the Green Ninja. But the other four ninjas have no ability to control their powers unlike Lucas and Laurie. They all know that their objective is to protect Lloyd, but Cole and the others were slightly jealous that they still have their powers. Maybe Kai is the most jealous though.
Cole brought himself back and brought the mail to the center and placed them on the coffee table. But kept the odd letters hidden. "Mail call." he said and took a step back before a stampeed happened.
Kai and Jay paused their game and quickly lunged themselves at the mail. Envelopes of mail fluttered in the air and slowly flew down. The fire and lightning ninja were sprawled on the floor as the enclosed letters fell on top of them like snow. Lucas sighed. "Really guys," he sighed. "You have to be childish, don't you? It's just mail."
Kai pulled Jay up and picked the parcels. After passing them around, he sat back down and leaned against the wall. "Jealous that you don't get mail?" he smirked.
Lucas smirked back. He cupped his hands behind his head and leaned back on the bean bag chair with Lloyd following like him as he leaned his head against his chest with a smirk too. "Jealous that you don't have elemental powers?" he smirked back. Kai's smug grin disappeared and stitched his eyebrows and turned away to look at his mail. Cole smirked as the two relatives chuckled. Kai was definitely jealous. The black haired teen caught Lucas glancing at him but his hazel grey eyes were averted downwards. He knew he was staring at the mail in his arm. "Hey Cole, what are those?" he asked.
Cole untied the ribbon and looked at everyone. Eyes were trained on him and he started to feel nervous to say. Why would he feel that way? He was the Ninja of Earth. Strong as a rock. Nothing can push him. He drew in a deep breath and exhaled. "They're letters from the univeristy outside the city." he replied and tossed them in the wired waistbasket. "But I don't think we need anything from them since we're ninjas." and plopped himself down on the lounge chair.
Zane opened his eyes to stand up and stretch his arms and walked over to the basket and fished the letters out. "Perhaps there's another reason why they sent them to us." he persisted. He grabbed Cole's letter and handed it to him. The ice ninja then went to Kai and handed him his and received a confused look. He went to Jay, his own letter, Nya, Lucas, Laurie and looked at the last letter confused and handed it to Lloyd. The young blonde's eyes were wide in confusion and looked at the letter and his cousin weird. Zane looked at everyone as they kept looking at the letters weird and sat back at his spot.
"Well let's see what they could be." Lucas said and drew out a sai and used it as a letter opener for his and Lloyd's letter. Kai ripped his open and pulled out the folded paper along with a golden color ticket. The water ninja insisted to open Laurie and Nya's letter while Zane used a shuriken to his, Jay, Cole's. The water ninja pulled his letter out and read it in silent with an raise scarred eyebrow.
"What does it say, Lucas?" Lloyd asked.
Lucas read the letter over again couldn't think of a way to reply until Zane spoke up. "To the Ninja of Ninjago." he began. "You and your friends are invited as honorary guest to the latest discovery in cellular biology. On the fifthth of October, the university of scientology will be hosting a masquerade ball in honor of the latest discovery. Each envelope holds your ticket of entry for the ball and we would appericate it if you could attend. Sincerely Dr. Thomas Blolasky and Elizabeth Ross." The Ninja of Ice finished rereading the letter and then looked at his ticket. A thick gold colored ticket with bold black letters of admission, time, date, and location. He slid the sleeve of his white long-sleeved shirt up to his elbow and opened the panel of his left forearm. He pressed a few keys on the keypad to raise a light blonde eyebrow. "October fifthth." he wondered. "That's less than two weeks." He closed his panel and slid his sleeve back down to his wrist. "Do you think we should attend?" he asked.
Cole looked at his letter and ticket and rolled his eyes. He didn't want to attend for sure. He didn't want to relive his time at Marty Oppinhiemer Performing Arts and had to dance like his father. Not his dreams. He didn't care for the ball that was honorary him and the team for the Great Devourer defeat and didn't dance much and dealt with Laurie facing against the small assassin till her death. But for this one, they would expect him to dance. So his reply would be 'No'.
The black ninja looked away rfom his letter to see the others looking at theirs and looked at Lloyd. The boy's blonde eyebrows were furrowed in confusion as he kept looking at his letter. "What's a masquerade ball?" he asked. "It's not like that one you tried to make me go last time, is it?" and crossed his arms like he was about to pout.
The samurai chuckled while folding the corner of her page to mark her book. "Not exactly, Pint-size." she replied. Nya took the envelope that held her letter and tore it to become one sheet of paper. She slid her fingers as she slowly folded and creased the edges as she was making origomi. It almost looked like a bird's beak. Once she finished the top half, she grabbed Lucas' sai and sliced two eye slits. "You see," she began. "A masquerade ball is a dance you attend to like the one we went to before, but you would have to wear a mask." Nya demostrated by placing her makeshift mask over the top half of her face; eyes and nose. "Like this." She removed it to move her bangs aways from her light brown eyes. "You wear the mask as you dance and at the end, you remove your partner's to see their identity." She looked at Jay and both blushed to a light red.
Kai rollled his eyes to their love and didn't care as he trusted Jay with her. "So how do you know so much about this, Sis?" he asked while having his hands behind his head.
Nya looked away from Jay to stare at her fiery brother with a smirk. She simply picked her book up to show the illustrated cover. It showed a man in a black suit with black scaly wings behind his back with a black mask over his eyes while a woman was in a white dress with white scaly wings and a white mask over her eyes. How convient to be a masquerade ball. "I read, Kai." she stated. The samurai placed her book back down on the arm of the couch and looked at her invitation. She had an idea. "You know, I think we should go. It sounds like fun."
Cole perked his head up to the idea. She had to be joking, right? Why was she blurting it out? Jay looked at his letter to nod in agreement. "Yeah I think we should." he agreed. "It does sound like fun."
Cole couldn't believe what the others were doing. They were starting to agree on going to the ball. Kai soon joined in on the three while Laurie was unsure and Lucas and Lloyd couldn't decide. The last time Laurie attended to a ball, she nearly got killed during the night after she left and Lloyd was kidnapped while Lucas wasn't around. The earth ninja looked at the ice ninja to see a smile on his face. "I think I'll agree with you three." he said. "I think it shall be fun and fascinating." He turned to Cole. "What about you, Cole?"
Cole looked at them as all eyes were trained on him. He didn't know what to say on his response. Of course he doesn't want to attend as he doesn't like dancing. He was proud to perform the Triple Tiger Sashay; hardest dance move in the world. But he doesn't want to attend. "I think we shouldn't go." he replied.
All were quiet to his response. What did he just say? No!? "Why not, Cole?" Jay asked. "We went to the other one a couple weeks ago and you didn't care for that one."
"Only because we were being honored for the Devourer defeat." Cole rebutted. The Ninja remembered the ball at the community center was for the Great Devourer that was unleashed by Pythor and managed to defeat it with the golden weapons from Garmadon on its weak spot. But since the university of scientology wanted him and the team to attend, he didn't want to. "I think this wouldn't sould like a good idea. We have a reputation as ninjas. Not dancers."
Lucas rolled his eyes. "Reputation? Really?" he questioned him. The grey ninja shifted on the bean bag chair to get comfortable. "Before I joined the team, you guys were doing lots of things that ninjas wouldn't do. Like tying Lloyd to that sign or the Blade Cup competition. You all that reputation?" He looked at his invitation and formed a small smile. "I think we should go. I missed a lot when I was gone and want to be out there. And if I go, Shrimp has to go too." Lucas heard a small groan from the small ninja. "Your sister told me what happened the last time and you're going for your protection."
Lucas and Lloyd looked at Laurie as she nodded. "Yeah the last time we left you home alone, you got kidnapped." she stated. "I'll come along to protect you." That's seven votes of approval now.
Cole now couldn't believe it as everyone wanted to attend. He looked at the elemental ninjas and samurai as their eyes were trained on him. Almost as if Jay would be saying, It's seven to one, Rockhead. What's it going to be?, Cole looked at all of them and sighed in defeat. "Fine." he agreed. "I'll go."
Kai and Jay high-fived each other as they all convinced him. Zane only smiled on his decision and sat back down to meditate. Laurie didn't look sure on going, but still agree to protect Lloyd. Nya, however, didn't smile and silently gasped. "I just realized that we don't have masks." she gasped. "Those that got invited too may have gotten the good masks. And if the ball is in less than two weeks, we won't have any masks to wear."
Cole smirked inside. That means they can't attend. No mask, no entry. Oh too bad, so sad. The sound of snapping fingers brought him back to life and turned to Lucas. He must have an idea. "I have an idea." the Ninja of Water said. "Lloyd, grab your sketch book and jacket. I need you to come with me."
Lloyd got off his cousin's lap. "Why?" he asked.
Lucas stood up and stretched his muscles and straightened his jeans and grey tee shirt. "Because I am gonna do everyone a favor." he replied. "You and I are gonna head for the crafts store to grab supplies. I'm gonna make our masks. And I need your help to help on ideas and supplies. Let's go." The grey and green soon then left the living room and to head for the store.
"So while they do that, what shall we do?' Zane asked.
Cole listened to their rambles of plans and groaned inside as he was so close to not attending at all. He watched Nya drag Laurie out of her seat to go dress shopping as her other dress was runined from the stone warrior they seen when Rhea was alive. But now there hasn't been any after the fight on Ninjago City Tower and peace has been quiet for some time now. No Garmadon or Serpentine causing trouble. Cole had enough of their plans and left as they began to play video games again. The only thing that crossed his mind as he walked down the hall was simple.
This was going to be the longest week and a half.
So what did you think? I enjoy doing this story now and have ideas on what to do for it. So I hoped you enjoyed it, can't wait to see the reviews, and see you all next week. Have a wonderful weekend. :)