It had been two weeks since the memorial service and Cole was getting ready to go for a run. Just because he was on this mission didn't mean he was going to shirk his exercise. Exercising is what made him feel energized and made him stronger. He stepped out into the brisk morning air and started running. He noticed that several people were staring at him like he was crazy. He ran five blocks and worked up a sweat. He slowed his pace to a walk, he appeared to be near some kind of strip mall. There was a gym in it. Sure running was good cardio but he needed to work out his muscles too. He mused at the name, Buff Jerks. He walked into the gym. There was a man at the front desk with a bored expression on his face.

"You have to be a jerk to join this gym" he said.

"Oh yea? Well I'm a super jerk" Cole leaned on the counter.

"Oh? How much of a jerk are you?" the man asked.

"This one time I stood this woman up on a date, and then I brought another significantly hotter woman to the same restaurant where I was to meet the first one, she came over to me crying I'm talking tears and make up pouring down her face then she asked me why I had done that to her, I simply told her because she was ugly and this woman was much hotter" Cole said.

"Ooh, that is pretty jerky, but I'm gunna need more than that" he said.

"Oh I've got plenty more, this other time I was at the Ninjago City fair when this sick kid came, it was his last day of freedom before her was admitted to the hospital…permanently, he just wanted a blue balloon, well I bought all the blue balloons and popped them in his face while he cried, no blue balloons for that sick brat" Cole smirked.

"You sir are downright cruel, you can exercise here anytime" the man said.

"Pfft it's about time, never doubt my jerkiness" Cole walked away. He was going to lift weights when this really buff dude came over to him followed by an entourage of women.

"Look at this little man, what is a pipsqueak like you doing here at the gym for jerks" he said in a loud and obnoxious voice.

"Uh to work out obviously, great you're one of those meat heads, you're buff but have no brains up there do you" Cole sneered.

"How dare you! I bet I could lift more weights than you" he said.

"I doubt it" Cole brushed him off.

"That's it! I'm going to lift more weights than you and send you running home to your mommy crying like a baby" he was furious.

"If you say so" Cole said disinterestedly. The man grabbed a dumbbell and put weights equal to three hundred pounds on it. He smirked at Cole as he lifted the dumbbell ten times.

"Pathetic" Cole said as he grabbed one and kept adding and adding weights. "Hmm, is six hundred enough? Nah" he added some more. He even had a couple people sit on it. Then he proceeded to lift it with one hand.

"How is that humanly possible?" the guy's eyes were bugging out of his head.

"Well you see, I draw my strength from my jerkiness and that's just how much of a jerk I am" Cole turned and swaggered away leaving stunned men with their mouths agape. He chuckled ok he had to admit this part of the job was rather fun. He took his tank top off and started doing sit ups to work his already chiseled abs. Women were gawking at him. He blushed at some of the things coming out of their mouths.

"Ooh I'll be your spotter, but can I straddle your waist instead of holding your feet down" a brunette woman flirted.

"Hey there big guy, my place isn't far from here, why don't you show me all of that rugged chiseled body of yours" a blonde said seductively.

"Ooh you're so strong, I bet you are so rough in the bedroom, can I find out?" a brown haired woman said.

He tried to ignore their flirtatious comments. The obnoxious buff guy from earlier was getting jealous that the women were no longer paying attention to him. He came over and once again tried to upstage Cole who did way more sit ups than him. He finally accepted that Cole was better than him and sulked off to do squats in a corner. When Cole had decided he worked out enough he left happy to be out from under the lustful eyes of the women and away from the dirty comments. I mean Cole knew he was hot but dang, those women were getting a little crazy.

He was strolling down the market district when suddenly he was tackled. With a startled yelp he fell onto the ground. He looked up just in time to dodge a fist that was aimed at his face. He noticed the red gi and realized that it was Kai that was accosting him.

"YOU'RE GOING TO PAY FOR WHAT YOU DID TO COLE!" Kai went to punch him again. Cole quickly grabbed his wrist and easily shoved Kai off. He jumped to his feet.

"Haha! Not today red pajama freak" Cole shoved Kai to the ground and ran away. Unfortunately for Cole he was strong but speed isn't his thing. Kai quickly got to his feet and was running after Cole, quickly gaining on him. At this point a crowd had gathered to see what the commotion was.

"YOU'RE NOT GETTING AWAY THAT EASY" Kai had this crazy look on his face that Cole could only describe as murderous. With Kai being a hothead Cole had seen Kai angry plenty of times but never this angry. Since Kai was faster than Cole he quickly caught up to him, he tackled Cole to the ground again. Cole wasn't prepared for the flurry of fists that came his way. And he took a couple to the face. He knew he had to get rid of Kai, but how without hurting him?. Cole shoved Kai off again. Kai began shooting flames at him with no regard for the people nearby. Ok now it was ok to hurt Kai before he hurt some innocent person. Cole turned around and punched Kai square in his face making sure not to hit him too hard. Kai fell to the ground unconscious. He hurried away and contacted Wu.

"Sensei I thought you said you were handling the other ninja, I just got attacked by Kai, he's laid out on Ninjago Avenue, you might want to scoop him up before the police do" Cole said.

"Don't worry, I'll take care of it" Wu said. When Cole looked up he saw that he was nearing downtown. He realized just how far he had walked. As he looked around he saw The Royal Blacksmiths heading to the theater. He assumed they had a performance there. But strangely his father wasn't with them. He crept within earshot of them.

"Man how are we going to replace Lou? He was the best dancer in the quartet" the man with the mustache said. Cole felt kinda bad for not remembering his name.

"I know, he just had to quit right before our big performance at the Ninjago City Theater" the man with the goatee groaned. Again Cole was terrible with names.

"Hey, you guys are being really uncompassionate, his son was just murdered, he is going through a really hard time, dancing is the last thing on his mind" the third man scolded his friends.

"It's still hard to believe that little Cole is dead, I still remember the day he failed miserably to do the Triple Tiger Sashay" the goatee guy chuckled. Cole blushed in embarrassment, really? that was the only memory he had of him.

"I'm just really worried about Lou, I've never seen him so utterly devastated before, I suppose the death of your wife and son will do that though, poor Lou" the third one said. Cole never thought he'd see the day where his dad would quit The Royal Blacksmiths. He felt awful that his dad was doing so bad. He felt too guilty to keep listening and backed off. He decided to head to the bar, maybe Bap and Bam's annoyingness would cheer him up.

As soon as he walked in the bar Bap and Bam were in his face.

"Hey Rocky! Where have you been?" Bap asked.

"Oh I was committing crimes in another part of town, scored a lot of loot too" he said. A glass of boba tea was set before him. He took a sip and was repulsed, trying not to vomit he pushed it aside.

"You could have let us come too" Bam huffed, crossing his arms.

"Oh by the way Rocky, we want you to meet our younger brother Pow" Bap said. A man with a light blue bandana around his head and aviators came over. He briefly removed his aviators to scrutinize Cole before putting them back on.

"Hi Pow, I'm Rocky, so I just have to ask, are those really your names or are they just nicknames?" Cole asked.

"Those are really our names" Bap responded. Cole thought their parents must have hated them to name them that. Just then his Borgwatch buzzed. He glanced at it. It was a message that read.

Call us asap!

"Well boys I have to get going, Pow it was nice to meet you" Cole said. Pow just nodded in acknowledgment.

"What? But you just got here" Bap said.

"Yea, I'm late for my…..Jerky Jazzercise class, got to stay in shape to rob you know" Cole said and stood up to leave.

"Wait Rocky before you go" he heard from behind him. He turned to see Celia headed his way.

"I was wondering if you wanted to go on a date tonight" she anxiously played with her hair as she awaited his answer.

"Yea sure" Cole responded. Her eyes lit up.

"Great! See you tonight" she said. Cole gave her a thumbs up before leaving. He headed back to his apartment and contacted Simon.

"You said to call you asap" Cole said.

"Yes, we heard rumors of a big plan that The Overlords are talking about, we are concerned as to what it is, so we need you to try to find out what it is" Simon said.

"Ok will do" Cole said.

After he hung up with Simon. He was thinking about this date tonight. The last and only time Cole went on a date was when he was a teenager back in the school for performing arts. That date ended with her throwing her drink on him and storming out. He still to this day has no idea what he said or did that made her so mad. If Cole learned anything from Nya it's that women can be confusing. Now there was a woman that gave him whiplash. One moment she was all in love with Jay the next she wanted him to leave her alone, then she was interested in him apparently, then she was still hating on Jay then all of a sudden she's in love with him again. Like what the heck woman make up your mind.

Right getting off track he was supposed to be thinking about his date tonight. Even though Cole got a lot of attention from women he doesn't really have a whole lot of experience with them and he's worried he's going to totally blow it tonight. He'll just call her baby a lot, women liked that right? And since she seemed to like his bad boy attitude he'd just act too cool for school the whole time. Come on he's Cole master of earth he could totally handle this. Now what to wear? Should he get dressed up or just stick with his bad boy clothes? He was rummaging through the closet looking at the different outfits. He decided on a black leather vest that had skulls on it and some black slacks with a brown leather belt with a skull buckle.

Since he still had a while until his date he was talking with Wu and the Commissioner about how he can gain more favor with The Overlords, clearly just murdering Cole wasn't enough. But he told them that he was going on a date with the leader's daughter. And they basically told him not to screw it up. So now there was even more pressure not to blow it. Maybe Cyrus Borg could help him he got on his Borgwatch and researched dating tips. When he finished that he decided to get ready.

He showered since he exercised earlier. He put on some Coleogne. Hehe Coleogne. He always wanted his own Coleogne line he would call it, Essence Of Earth. It would be a real earthy smell, a real manly smell, who doesn't love a man that smells like earth. After all, who's manlier than, Cole Master Of Earth. He winked at himself in the mirror. Thank goodness the other ninja didn't see that. He'd never live it down. He got dressed and headed to the place where they were to meet. She was already waiting. Oh no, did he already blow it by being late? Was he late? Ok calm down you've got this. When she saw him she waved him over.

"Hey Rocky!" she gave him a hug. Cole was starting to think that he underdressed. She was wearing a royal purple cocktail dress with sequins. Her hair was done up in a bun, she had purple wedges and a very expensive looking amethyst necklace with matching earrings. He's going to go out on a limb here and assume her favorite color was purple.

"Wow you look absolutely stunning baby" he said. Yes, nailed it with the baby.

"Oh thank you" she blushed. They took sat down.

"So what was the first crime you committed?" she asked. Cole took a sip of his drink before answering.

"When I was eight, I lived in this small village and there was this bakery that had the best honeybuns ever, well I walked in there one day and I really wanted one of those honeybuns, so I grabbed one, the jerk at the counter asked me if I had any money to pay for it, so I told him I don't need money and grabbed another one for the road before leaving" Cole said cooly.

"Wow you are so bad" she said.

"I know baby, what about you? Have you committed any crimes" Cole asked.

"Oh yes, being the daughter of the leader of The Overlords I've committed tons of crimes" she said. Cole could tell she was lying but he didn't dare call her on it.

"So what got you into the life a crime?" she asked.

"Well my mom and dad were, upstanding pillars of the village so naturally I was expected to be a good boy, but I decided I would live my life the way I wanted it, and I always wanted to be a bad boy just to humiliate my goody goody parents" Cole said.

"What was the worst crime you've committed?" she asked.

"Triple homicide, I once killed a woman and her two children, you see I broke into their house not realizing anyone was home, so when the mom confronted me I stabbed her, and then these two snot nose brats can into the living room so they got some of it too" Cole said. He noticed that she looked rather disturbed. Uh oh maybe he went too far with that one. But he had to keep going. Maybe this would reach her father somehow and he would be impressed with his cruelty.

"Yea I love me a good ole murder, its really invigorating wouldn't you say, ending a human life, hehe it's something I think everyone should experience" Cole said. Cole was glad that they were in a private section or he would have been arrested by now.

"Infact why don't we go commit a crime together?" Cole suggested.

"Wait, right now?" she looked worried.

"Yea, don't worry baby I'll show you the ropes, come on!" He grabbed her hand and pulled her behind him.

"Oh but wait, we haven't eaten yet or paid the bill" she said.

"Pfft, oh please, we don't need to pay the bill, we eat for free everywhere we go, and we can eat later, this will be fun I promise baby" Cole said. Man he has been on fire with the babys.

"Well, ok" she said. As they got on his motorcycle. He drove her to the strip mall. They got off and he led her to one of the shops. They peered through the window and there were a bunch of very expensive purses, shoes and jewelry.

"See anything you like?" Cole asked.

"I don't know…" she seemed hesitant.

"Come on baby, let me do this for you" he said.

"Ok…uh I like that red purse with the bow" she pointed to it.

"Excellent" he said as he entered the shop. He was approached by a clerk.

"Can I help you find something?" he asked.

"You sure can sir, you can help me….Think fast!" Cole shoved a rack of hats over on the man. He then ran over, grabbed the red purse and ran out. While the man called for help. The shop owner ran after him. But Cole was already on his motorcycle, he gave the man a salute before speeding off. Once they got a safe distance away Cole stopped.

"Your purse milady" Cole handed her the purse.

"Thanks" she said.

"Baby what's wrong? Aren't you having fun?" Cole asked.

"Of course I am, sorry that was so exhilarating it took me a minute to catch up, thank you for the purse Rocky" she suddenly changed her tone and rested her head on his shoulder. You know for her being the daughter of a crime lord she sure didn't seem to enjoy crime that much. She made an excuse to end the date early and they went their separate ways.

Cole was sure that he had totally blown it. But maybe there is some good that will come from the failed date. Maybe she would go home crying to her dad about how terrible her date was. And her dad would be impressed that he stole her a new purse on their date. Or maybe he would just be really angry and want to kill him. And that would put him even further from gaining his favor. Ugh why is being a criminal so complicated. Then again if his hunch is correct it seemed like she didn't enjoy the crime life. Surely her dad would be disappointed that he's a powerful crime lord and his daughter doesn't enjoy crime. So maybe he would be happy that Cole was a bad influence on her. Cole headed back to his apartment. Ok so Cole still sucked when it came to women but perhaps this wasn't a total bust. Well he supposed he would soon find out.