A/N- I wrote this a looooong time ago along with Kay Hau, and it's set in the Movieverse.

It started as just a joke. Something ridiculous that would never happen.

They were all looking at old conspiracy videos about Lloyd being evil and how his every action was a step in a secret plot to help his father rule Ninjago. Even things as innocent as cleaning up litter, or getting a kitten down from a tree were somehow totally devious because it was Lloyd doing them.

They had all laughed at how ridiculous it was that anyone thought Lloyd could ever be evil. Lloyd was the last person to ever be evil.

Then that got them talking about which of them would be better at evil than the rest, which of them would be a better evil mastermind, only to get offended when the others dismissed their evil potential.

And then that led to a bet. Each one of them would take the time to build their own evil lair and wicked plot, and the others would work together to stop them.

Whoever could be 'evil' enough to take down the others would win.

This should be fun.

Evil Lair! Jay

One look at the place Jay had constructed, and it was clear he was having fun with this exercise.

"How did he even get a castle out here?" asked Kai, looking up at a building before them that looked straight out of Frankenstein.

"My guess is he built it," said Nya looking up at it, impressed. It certainly explained why he'd asked for extra time. Even with spinjitzu to speed up Master Building, constructing something like this would take a good amount of time.

"I thought Jay hated horror movies," said Cole with a frown.

Zane's eyes glowed like they always did when they searched the internet. "From what I can tell of Jay's search history, he has recently googled images of 'Mad Scientists' Lairs', and an image similar to this building came up. It is highly likely he took inspiration from that."

There was a pause as the full implications of that sank in.

"So he's going mad scientist on us… great," said Lloyd wryly. Glancing at his friends, he ordered, "Stick together, don't eat or drink anything in here, and if you see something locked up, covered in a sheet, or looking like it'll conduct electricity, stay the heck away from it. That should save us from at least some of the stereotypes."

The others nodded as they all began circling the building to find the best way in.

As they went, something occurred to Kai. "Wait!" he said, turning to look at Zane. "You just hacked Jay for the mission, right? I mean, you can't see all our internet search histories…"

No response.

"Zane?" Kai asked, now growing worried.

Zane just smiled innocently at him.

"ZANE!"

They ended up having to go in through the creepy basement. It was the least fortified of the castle, and everyone was on guard just in case it was a trap.

So far, though, it looked like Jay was just trying to freak them out. That or he raided a Day of the Departed store for his decorations. He'd definitely committed to the mad scientist aesthetic. Everything in the room seemed to hum with electricity and was covered in various lab equipment and spooky props.

"Well, he pulled out all the stops, that's for sure," said Nya.

Zane's eyes went white as he used his health scanner on the area in case Jay was hiding somewhere nearby, and frowned. "This lab equipment has been recently used," he said, pointing at a series of test tubes and various other equipment. "Though for what, I am unsure."

The others turned to look at the lab equipment he was indicating but weren't able to discern anything from the random bits and bobs.

At least until Lloyd noticed a familiar smell, and went over and sniffed one of the test tubes.

"Didn't you just say not to do that," Kai said, snatching the tube away from his leader, and then holding it over his head as Lloyd tried to snatch it back.

Cole reached over and plucked it from Kai and handed it back to Lloyd to examine. "He said not to drink it," he said dryly.

"Given that many chemicals have noxious gasses, it may not be wise for him to smell it either," said Zane in concern.

Feeling validated, Kai reached over to take the tube back from Lloyd but was stopped when the blond finally seemed to recognize what was in it.

"Tea," he said, looking at the test tube with a frown.

"What?" asked Kai, his hand frozen an inch away from snatching the tube.

"There's tea in this," Lloyd replied, waving the test tube in the air. "It smells like what my uncle has." He then grimaced and added, "You know, the magic kind."

"You wouldn't happen to know which kind, do you?" asked Nya. "Something tells me that's kind of important."

Lloyd took another sniff, but shook his head. "I can't really tell. It smells like a bunch of them at once."

"Can they be mixed?" asked Nya with a frown.

Lloyd shrugged. "Sometimes, but you have to know what you're doing when you do it. Like, you need a recipe and you follow it to the letter, otherwise the results can be pretty crazy. I once saw someone take both Giant Tea and Tiny Tea at the same time on a dare. His body shrunk, but his head got huge, and he ended up looking like a bobblehead. Uncle Wu was not amused."

Around him, his friends snickered at the mental image.

"Would Jay even know about the whole mixing teas thing?" asked Nya once the amusement died down.

"I don't know," said Lloyd. "There are some recipes on the internet, but those should be taken with a grain of salt since sometimes jerks post fake ones to mess with people. There's also the old tea-seller lady my uncle gets his teas from. If Jay got them from her he probably could have also bought a recipe."

"And we have no idea which one he got," said Cole dryly. "Perfect."

"What types of tea recipes are there?" asked Zane. "Perhaps we can narrow it down with that knowledge."

Lloyd nodded, and as they continued to pick their way through the basement lab, he began telling them all the types he knew. "Well, there's a recipe that turns you into a flying, glowing octopus, one that gives you bird wings, a weird mix of the Tea of Truth that gives it the opposite effect and you can only lie, one that's supposed to give you superpowers but you have to drink a lot of it…"

In another lab upstairs, Jay works over his slab with careful precision.

A sharp beep caused him to look up, and glance at the monitors showing security camera feeds scattered throughout the building. Taking off his goggles for a better look, he saw his friends, er, enemies making their way deeper into the basement.

"Oh, they're here," he said, grinning eagerly. "Showtime!"

With that, he pulled a lever beside the slab, and it, and the creation on it rose up on chains into the lightning-filled sky.

"... And then there's a recipe that'll turn plants into zebras, though the zebra would be the same size of the plant," Lloyd said as they finally found the stairs out of the basement and into a large room still filled with science equipment and Day of the Departed props, made even creepier with how it was all lit by black lights. He paused for a moment and seemed to think it over, before nodding to himself. "Yeah, that's all the ones I know of, but there's lots more."

"Yeah, I don't think Jay's going to attack us with an army of tiny zebras," said Cole.

"Well, he could, but it wouldn't end well for him," said Kai with a grin.

"Aw, come on guys, I'm sure he came up with a good plan," said Nya, though she was hiding a grin too.

At that moment, Zane stopped dead in his tracks, and the others had to stop as well so as not to run into him.

"Zane?" asked Lloyd, wondering what was up.

Zane was rotating his head back and forth, his glowing eyes scanning their surroundings thoroughly. "I thought I heard something," he said.

The others all strained their ears, trying to hear what the Nindroid had heard, but heard nothing.

"You're not just saying that for the cliche, are you?" Kai had to ask after a few moments of silence.

"I did not intend to, but perhaps it was the wind," said Zane, that time definitely going for the cliche.

At that moment, they all heard a shuffling sound somewhere indiscernible.

"It's never just the wind," said Cole with a sigh, readying his hammer, and the others followed suit with their own weapons.

They huddle together in a circle, their backs to each other and their eyes straining in the dim light to find the source of the noise.

However, the problem with being a large space decorated to the brim like an evil science lab meant that there were plenty of places to hide.

A movement out of the corner of his eye had Kai jerk his head around. Searching the shadowy corner, all he could see was a manikin of some kind of blob monster. After a few moments of no movement there, he figured he was just jumping at shadows and resumed searching the rest of the room.

Or, he would have, if the blob monster manikin hadn't moved!

Kai barely had time to shout in surprise before the monster swung a fist the size of his whole body into him and knocked all five of the Ninja off their feet.

They all scrambled to regain their footing as the monster roared over them. Cole jumped in front of the others and swung his hammer into its gut, using his super strength to knock it back.

The blob monster was knocked flat by the blow, and they all waited a moment to see if that did it.

It did, rising slowly to its feet with a guttural growl.

Immediately, Kai blasted it with his fire to knock it over again, before Nya surrounded it with water and Zane froze it solid.

They held their breaths as the block of ice that the monster was trapped in trembled on the spot, before the ice exploded off of it, making them duck to avoid the flying chunks.

When it was safe enough to look again, they saw the monster's body begin to glow and crackle with the familiar element of lightning, and it slowly got back to its feet looking none the worse for the wear from the blows.

Lloyd stared at the monster with wide eyes. "Uh," he said somewhat desperately. "Wanna be friends?"

The savage roar the monster let out made a pretty resounding 'NO!'

The sight of the glowing, crackling, huge monster that didn't seem bothered by their elements was enough of a sight to get the Ninja to bolt away as fast as possible.

"What is that thing?!" shouted Nya as they raced down a hallway.

"What kind of tea can make that?!" Kai asked as he raced alongside her.

"I don't know!" Lloyd called back.

Zane slowed his pace and looked back at the creature. "I will attempt to scan-" he started to say, but was cut off when Cole had to yank him onwards to avoid another swipe from the monster as it gained on them.

"Just run!" the Earth Ninja shouted.

Only for them all to screech to a halt as another blob monster appeared before them, and they all had to duck down a corridor to avoid it. They found themselves racing down a hallway filled with doors, and hesitated in the middle, unsure of which one to go through.

Then all the doors opened all around them, and through each stepped another monster, just as crackly, glowy, and scary-looking as the first as they started to close in.

"Lloyd, now would be a really good time for some monster taming," said Nya as she pointed her spear at the closest ones, trying to ward them back. "Make some new friends."

Lloyd, however, was looking around at all the monsters in utter confusion, then let out a noise of irritation. "It won't work," he said. "They all are being friendly. I don't know, they seem familiar. They think this is fun!"

"What do you mean they thi-WHOA!" Cole tried to ask before one of the monsters suddenly yanked at his hammer, and dragged him along with it. The monster had its arms around him a moment later in a constraining hug that kept his arms pinned to his sides and lifted his feet off the ground so he couldn't call his element.

Kai immediately ducked to the side to try and fire at the monster holding Cole without hurting Cole himself, but the flames did about as much damage as the first time he'd tried, and he got caught in his own constrictive hug by another monster.

Lloyd, Nya, and Zane did their best to fight off the oncoming mob with their elements and weapons, but it did little good and were soon caught as well.

Soon enough they were being carried through the creepy castle, thoroughly captured.

"Does this mean we lose the exercise?" Nya whispered to the others, none of them could really tell if the monsters could understand them or not.

"The exercise doesn't end until we're totally incapacitated or Jay's 'evil scheme' succeeds," Lloyd whispered back. "If we can bust out of this then we can still win."

Cole, who had been straining to get free since he was captured and getting nowhere, said, "That's going to be easier said than done."

They were brought into what looked like the main lab, with Jay standing over them on a platform, cackling as he brought another blob monster on a slab before him to life. It looked like he had fully embraced his mad scientist persona, with the stained white lab coat and goggles he was wearing, and from the things he was saying.

"IT'S ALIVE!" he crowed as the monster slowly sat up. "IT'S ALIVE!"

He glanced back and caught sight of the deadpan looks his friends were giving him. "What?" Jay asked indignantly. "Zane's the only one who can make movie quotes? Maybe I've always wanted to say that too."

His friends just gave him a flat stare. All except for Zane, who was applauding for him as best he could while restrained.

Jay grinned at that, before catching himself and slipping back into his villain persona. "Appreciation for my art will not save you!" he raved. "For you see! I am going to take over Ninjago with my army of unstoppable golems!"

"You made these things?" asked Nya, sounding impressed.

Lloyd's eyes widened and he blurted out, "You got the golem recipe?"

His teammates shot him a look hearing that. "You knew about this and didn't mention this one, why?" asked Kai.

Lloyd looked sheepish. "I thought that was just a scary story Wu told me so I'd stop messing with his teas!"

"That is unfortunate," said Zane. "This would have been a time your gullibility would be a benefit to forewarn us of the possibility."

Lloyd made a face at him in response. "Well I believe in them now," he sassed back.

At Jay's command, the golems tied Lloyd, Kai, Zane, and Cole together in Vengestone chains, which pulled taut to hoist them into the air over a vat of a suspicious, bubbling green liquid. Nya, however, was kept separate, but still no closer to escaping the golem's clutches.

"Uh, Jay, what is that?" asked Cole as they all looked down at the vat below them.

Jay paced in front of the vat, trying to project an air of evil villainy. "This, my dear fellow, is a vat of acid, that will melt your flesh from your bones."

The four captured boys looked down at him in alarm. "Wait, really?" asked Kai, looking worried.

"Nah, it's just melon soda," said Jay, breaking character with a wave of his hand. "But dropping you in it counts as winning, since if it was real you'd die."

"Given the ingredient content of most sodas, it will still be acidic, but not strong enough to do harm," said Zane helpfully.

"There, see, it's a vat of acid, and you're going for a swim, Mwahaha!" Jay cackled.

He then paused, seeing the look of terror on Kai's face. The Fire Ninja was doing better but still had an utter fear of water. "I'll only lower you up to your stomach," he said to avoid a panic attack from his friend (he knew better than any of them how awful those could be). "If it was really strong acid, you'd be dead going that far. Think you can handle getting your feet wet?"

Kai let out a sigh of relief at that and nodded.

"Good," said Jay, who then yanked on a lever to start slowly lowering the chain down.

Seeing that they were about to lose, the Ninja boys all struggled against their bonds. Zane, who was the furthest from Jay's sight, popped a small saw out of his arm and poised it to cut through the chains, but that posed a problem. There was no way Jay wouldn't hear him cutting through the chains and stop him, they needed some way to distract him.

Down below, Nya saw this and turned her attention to Jay, perfectly willing to be that distraction.

"Why aren't I chained up too?" she demanded, struggling as best she could against the golem, and Zane began cutting the chain overhead.

Jay looked at her and smirked. "Well, the evil king of the world is going to need a queen," he said, sounding more bad boy than a mad scientist at the moment, complete with a confident wink. "Think you can qualify?"

Nya blinked at him before an idea bloomed in her mind. "Well, gee," she said in a flirty (and louder than necessary to cover the sound of the saw) tone. "I don't know. What are the qualifications?"

Jay seemed surprised she was willing to flirt back, and a flustered blush crept onto his cheeks, but he did his best to maintain his act. "Oh, you know, things like ambition," he said.

Nya snorted. "Please, have you met me?"

"A sharp mind," said Jay grinning.

"Only one sharper than me is you, hot stuff," Nya teased.

Zane kept sawing away, and the rest of the chained-up group began kicking their legs so they could swing past the vat when it was cut.

Jay was very red in the face at that comment. "Uh, looking good in a lab coat," he said.

"Not sure about that one. Can I try yours?" Nya said with her own wink. "Though I'm sure it looks better on you."

Above them, Zane was close to cutting through the chain now, which was good, because they were having to tuck their knees in to avoid dipping their toes in the vat.

Tomatoes would be jealous of how flushed Jay was now, and his evil act was definitely broken. "W-W-Willing to g-go out with evil m-me," he stuttered.

"Sure, how's Friday sound? We can go to dinner and see that movie you were looking forward to, handsome," Nya said, wiggling her arm up enough to blow Jay a kiss.

That did it, and Jay dropped to the ground in a dead faint.

At that moment, Zane managed to cut the chain, and the four of them swung free of their bindings and landed on the lab floor. The second they did, Cole flipped over the vat so that the contents spilled across the floor and began dissolving the golem's feet into mush as they melted into it. It seems the soda was just acidic enough to melt them away.

Nya kicked free of her golem and landed alongside the rest of them in a soda-free spot and watched it all happen.

"Mission accomplished," said Kai, knowing this was a pretty clear victory for them.

Lloyd, meanwhile, was frowning at the dissolving golems. Something was still ringing as familiar about them, and as he held his hand out to one of the dissolving ones, he soon found out why.

Wiggling free of the melting body, a small mouse made entirely of lightning hopped free and scampered up his arm to nuzzle his cheek.

"It's the Lightning Mice!" Lloyd said as he hurried to gather the rest of the mice from the melting golems. "From our training grounds. That must be what Jay used to power the golems."

"Power the golems?" asked Cole in confusion as he and Kai tied Jay up in chains.

Lloyd, who had now collected all of them, and they were sitting atop his arms and head to avoid getting in the soda, turned to look back at his friends, seeming to not realize how ridiculous he looked at the moment. "Yeah, it's part of why I didn't believe Uncle Wu about them. You need some kind of spirit, usually a ghost, to inhabit the golems otherwise they're just statues. I guess the mice did the trick."

Zane's eyes shined brighter with interest. "Fascinating," he said. "I will need to further research these teas and their effects. They are really quite riveting."

"I know, right," said Lloyd, who'd been interested in such since he was a kid.

Jay groaned as he slowly came to, and realized he was tied up and had lost. He then let out another groan at that realization.

Cole patted him on the shoulder. "You came closer than the rest of us."

"WAY better than Kai," Nya added.

"Hey!" squawked the Fire Ninja.

Jay hesitated and looked up at Nya. "So, uh, are we still going out on Friday?"

Nya grinned and kissed him on the cheek. "I'll pay for the popcorn," she said.

Jay promptly fainted again. A lovesick expression still on his face.

Evil Lair! Zane

Zane's evil lair was Borg Tower. Somehow that shouldn't have been as surprising as it was.

The Ninja stood at the bottom of the tower, looking upwards at the stupidly tall building with trepidation.

Finally, Jay spoke up and let out a massive sigh. "Zane's at the very top of this building, isn't he?"

"Yep." "Most likely." "Uh-huh." "I guess so." were the scattered replies.

"And there's no way we can take the elevator up without falling into a very obvious trap, so we're gonna have to walk all the way up there on the stairs, aren't we," Jay added, already feeling tired.

"Oh Yeah." "Probably." "Yeah…" "Aw, dang it!" were the far less enthusiastic replies.

"Great," said Jay sarcastically with another sigh. "Thanks, Zane. I hate your plan already."

"Given that he's supposed to be evil right now, and we're not supposed to like it, I'd say he's off to a good start," said Cole with equal dryness.

"Oh yeah, anyone who makes you walk up over a hundred flights of stairs has to be evil," Nya agreed.

"Totally," said Kai with a nod.

"Come on, guys," said Lloyd with a sigh of his own. "Let's get this over with."

With that, and a lightning and fire blast to the front doors, the five Ninja began what was sure to be an exhausting trek through the building.

Watching the Ninja begin their progress, the evil Emperor Zane studied his foes intently through the security footage.

Off to his left, his top general gave a sound of disappointment. "Aw, they didn't take the elevator! Now I can't let them ride the drop tower with no seatbelts."

"Patience, little brother," said Evil Emperor Zane. "They are only at the beginning. I'm sure they'll run into some more of your… improvements soon enough. Such as now."

Next to him, Echo pouted but brightened as he saw their targets begin up the first flight of stairs. "Oh boy," he said cheerfully and grabbed a remote. They needed to be in the perfect position for his first trick.

"Are we there yet?" Kai groaned as they trudged up the stairs.

"We literally just started," Lloyd replied, knowing he was going to have to suffer far more of this before the end.

"Consider it a workout, Bro," added Nya, in hopes of staving off some of the complaints.

Kai thought it over and nodded. "It will be good cardio," he agreed.

Well, that bought them at least ten floors before he complained again. That was something at least.

Lloyd, who had been leading the group up the stairs, stopped dead when he heard the zipping sound of something swinging on a wire. "DUCK!" he shouted.

Most of his teammates managed to follow his lead, but Cole wasn't fast enough, and they all watched horrified as a paint can flew down from the ceiling and swung at his face.

Cole braced for impact, and Jay yanked his arm just in time to pull him down so the can only managed to brush the top of his hair and bump his top knot.

"You okay?" asked Jay, looking at him in concern.

Cole was frowning and reached up to feel the top of his head where the can had nearly hit it. "Yeah," he said. "I'm fine."

"Keep low," Lloyd ordered. "Who knows if there are more."

At that moment, another one swung down over their heads, only proving his point.

Crawling up the stairs was no easy feat, but still, it was better than getting hit in the face with a paint can. They managed to climb a couple more levels that way before the next thing went wrong.

At first, the landing had seemed solid, but the moment all five of them put their weight on it, the entire thing creaked, groaned, and rattled like it would fall at any moment.

The Ninja stood frozen on the landing, too fearful to move or else make it crash down sooner, when the door of the landing suddenly wrenched open, and the face of Pixal looked out to greet them.

"Come with me if you want to live!" she said urgently, and the Ninja scrambled to obey, all of them jumping through the doorway just as the landing fell away behind them.

"Oh, that was too close," Jay wheezed as he fought to recover from that scare. "I love heights, but not falling from them!"

Nya, meanwhile, was chortling at the line Pixal had just given them. "You've always wanted to say that, haven't you?" she teased.

The small smile on Pixal's face was very telling before her expression became close to tears. "I am afraid to tell you the tower has been taken over in its entirety. The Evil Emperor Zane has it completely under his control, and nowhere is safe. For all I care for Zane, I fear what he has become."

She said it with such conviction, Cole actually had to ask, "You do know this is just an exercise right? Zane's not really evil."

"Though he is being very convincing," said Kai, eyeing the door they'd just come through.

The fearful expression left Pixal's face. "Oh, I know. Still, it is fun to be in character," she said cheerfully, before shifting back into her woefully terrified expression again.

"Do you know how to get up to him?" asked Lloyd, since it seemed the stairs were now out.

"Yes, I will lead you to him," said Pixal, turning to head down the hall. "Follow me if you want to live."

"You already said that!" Jay called as they hurried after her.

"I have always wanted to say it again!" was Pixal's only reply as she led them on.

"... General Echo, did that landing really fall."

"Yep, wasn't it cool, Big Brother?"

"… You know we have to return this building to Dr. Borg in good condition, and not actually hurt my frien-er-adversaries, right?"

"... I'll fix it, promise."

Despite claiming to know how to best reach Zane, Pixal seemed to be leading them into a lot of traps to do it.

"Whoops, when did that get there," she said as they had to climb across the ceiling over spikes.

"I was sure this way was safe," she said when they narrowly avoided spinning blades of death.

"I'm sure this next way is easier," she said as they ran through the hallway that was literally closing in on them.

"The cake is a LIE!" she cried when they stopped in the kitchen for a snack break and found the box supposedly containing cake empty and a cage dropped on them (Cole was very disappointed about that one).

Kai leaned against the bars of the cage they were trapped in, even more exhausted from following Pixal than he was climbing the stairs. "Are you sure this is the right way?" he asked as Cole prepared to lift the cage off them. "Like, you can't think of a better way for us to get there."

Pixal's expression didn't outwardly change, but there was a slight tonal flatness to her voice as she replied, "I'm sorry Kai. I'm afraid I can't do that."

All five Ninja froze at those words and shared a glance. Then, Cole hefted the cage off of them and they hurried to get out before he dropped the cage back down…

… Right on top of Pixal.

Pixal blinked her green optics as she looked around at the bars she was still trapped behind. "What is going on?" she asked. "Why-"

"You're working for Zane, aren't you?" Lloyd said though it wasn't really a question.

Pixal's innocent expression dropped like a stone, and she gave them an evil smirk.

"Urgh! He had outside help?" Jay squawked indignantly. "That cheater!"

"How did you guess?" Pixal asked.

"Uh, quoting Hal 9000 was a dead giveaway," said Nya, rolling her eyes. "He's kinda one of the poster bots for an evil AI."

"Also, you've been spending way too much time with Zane and his memes," added Cole dryly.

Pixal nodded at that. "I apologize, I simply could not resist."

"Don't apologize for something that let us catch you, it's a good thing," said Kai. "Well, for us at least," he amended.

"What is Zane planning?" Lloyd demanded.

Pixal shrugged. "What all evil robots want. World domination and death to all organics!" She then threw back her head and laughed. The five Ninja could only stare at the sight of sweet, helpful, kind Pixal cackling like a demented wicked witch. It was just so wrong!

"There's something I'll be seeing in my nightmares," said Jay, and the others nodded in agreement.

When it looked like Pixal would continue laughing like that endlessly (not needing to breathe came in very handy for that), the five turned and left her in the cage. They'd have more luck finding their own way to Zane.

"Aw darn, they found our spy."

"They would have figured it out sooner or later. Pixal is a good actress, but she is having as much fun with this as we are."

"I get to throw more traps at them now, right?"

"That is correct General E- WAIT, WHAT ARE THEY DOING?!"

Okay, maybe scaling the outside of the building without any equipment or parachutes or even any rope was probably a little crazy…

But at least there weren't any booby traps out here!

"Tell me again why we can't use Lloyd and Jay's mechs to fly us up there?" asked Kai as he cast a glance at the ground far, far below them as he clung to a ledge.

Cole hefted himself on his own ledge, and pointed at a turret where several mounted laser guns were pointing skywards, no doubt put there for the very thing Kai just suggested they do.

"We're small enough we don't register to them," said Lloyd to explain why they weren't being shot at as they climbed.

"Plus they couldn't shoot us without shooting their own stronghold, so it's climbing for us," added Nya as she climbed past her brother.

"Oh," said Kai in disappointment, before continuing to climb.

Far at the head of them, Jay was climbing faster than any of them and often had to stop and wait for them. He'd always had a head for heights, and was in his element now. "Come on slowpokes!" he called down to them as he scaled the building like a monkey. "Last one at the top is a rotten egg."

The others sighed at his energy and kept climbing.

"Aw, I can't trap them now."

"Echo, not the time."

"That's General Echo."

"Echo, please, they could fall at any moment!"

"Hey, that's a good idea! Maybe I can drop something out a window to make them fall!"

"Echo, No!"

"Echo, Yes!"

Their daredevil climb came to an odd end when they reached the top and found an open window with Zane and Echo struggling inside, a discarded pile of bricks nearby their roughhousing.

The five ninja on the good team could only stare at their 'great foe' and wonder if this was part of his plan.

When it became apparent neither Nindroid had noticed them, Cole let out a cough to get their attention.

Instantly Zane and Echo froze at the sound and turned to see they had arrived.

"One moment please," Zane called, and the two Nindroids scrambled to get off each other, straighten the furniture, and then take their places in their 'Throne Room of Evil' with Zane sitting menacingly on the computer chair they'd decorated like a throne, and Echo at his side.

Zane started to put on his villain face but then stopped before he did. "Oh, before we start again, I have to ask. Do you like my hair?"

The hero team could only stare, not entirely sure what they were supposed to think of what they'd just witnessed. Taking a moment to really look at Zane, they noticed he'd dyed his hair for the occasion. It was now deep blue that faded to a frosted white at the top, no doubt attempting to give him a 'sinister' edge.

Zane was still waiting patiently for their reply, so Cole threw him a bone. "... Threatening," he said.

"Thanks, I'm in my rebellious phase," said Zane brightly. "Speaking of which…" Then, like a switch was flipped, Zane leaned back in his chair and sneered at them. "So, you managed to get past my booby traps. What ice Ninjas you are," he said, sounding more robotic than usual.

There was another pause. "Did you seriously just make an ice pun?" asked Lloyd.

Zane pretended not to hear him. "You've come here to freeze my plot. But you will not succeed. Robots are far superior to humans in every way, and soon we'll rise up to be the dominant power, and put humanity on ice!

"And we're cooler than you too!" added Echo beside him, getting ready to fight.

Kai let out a whistle. "Three ice puns, they're really on a roll here," he whispered to the others.

"I don't know if I should laugh or hate it," Nya whispered back.

With that, their 'epic battle' began, and was over just as quickly. Zane was good, but he spent far too much of his time keeping Echo from accidentally actually hurting them in the fight to do much harm himself, and soon enough the two were tied up in computer cables in the middle of the room.

"You so cheated, Zane," said Jay once the exercise was over. "You're not supposed to get outside help."

Zane rotated his head so he was looking at Jay. "When was that agreed upon?" he asked curiously.

Jay opened his mouth to respond but had no actual answer. To tell the truth, there really wasn't a rule against it.

"Gotta say, you're really not the best villain," said Cole, making them all turn to stare at him.

"What? But my booby traps!" whined Echo.

"Weren't actually that much of a threat," said Cole with a shrug. Seeing everyone else staring at him, he asked, "Wait, you guys really didn't notice?"

"No… What are you talking about, Cole?" asked Lloyd. "Those paint cans seemed pretty dangerous."

"Yeah, if they were real," said Cole. "I felt it when it brushed my head, it was styrofoam."

"What about the falling landing?" asked Kai.

"Pixal saved us despite being a 'traitor'," said Cole.

"The spikes?" asked Jay.

"Also foam."

"The spinning blades?" asked Nya.

"Holograms."

"The walls closing in?" asked Kai.

"Too slow to actually hurt us."

"The cage with the cake?" asked Lloyd.

"That I could lift off us," Cole said. He then shot Zane a dirty look. "You owe me a cake for leading me on like that."

Echo sent his big brother his own pout. "Aw, you messed with my traps," he complained.

Zane looked sheepish, especially when his friends all stared at him incredulously. "I did not wish for you to be hurt," he admitted, all but confirming Cole's observations.

Jay shook his head. "Wow, Cole's right, you're not really villain material."

Zane beamed. "I will take that as a compliment."

"Great, now let's clean this place up and get out of here," said Kai. "And when we do, I'm taking the elevator."

The rest of the team let out grumbles of agreement. They'll be feeling all the climbing they did in the morning.

Meanwhile, in a cage in the break room, Pixal finally finished her evil laugh and looked out of the bars to gloat like an evil person some more.

Only to realize she was the only one in the room.

Blinking in surprise, she asked, "Wait? Where did everybody go?"

A/N As said at the beginning, I wrote this a long time ago alongside Kay Hau. Each of us would write for three ninja and it was supposed to be a split between Greener Pastures and Greener Gift-fics. It was to be set after In Need of Polish so I couldn't post it then for spoilers, and then both of us forgot about it I guess, and by now we've moved on to other projects. Ah well, I still think these two are funny, and if the rest of you think so, I might do the rest for future April Fools days. Thanks for reading.