Ninjago & TLNM: To Be Green
Chapter Eleven: Trust
With tears in his eyes, Lloyd raced across the giant warehouse. He couldn’t believe it…Master Wu is alive!!
The older man was clearly shocked at Lloyd’s reaction to seeing him. However he barely budged as Lloyd lunged on him and wrapped his arms around his master. “Master…you’re okay!”
Even Jay and Nya had stopped their work to watch Lloyd crush Wu. After a few seconds of being in a tight embrace, Master Wu spoke. “I didn’t expect this much of a reaction from returning from my nap.”
Lloyd’s blood went cold. He knew Master Wu’s voice more than he knew his own father’s or mother’s. The voice that Lloyd heard was one of a complete stranger.
The green leader reluctantly pulled away and stared wide-eyed at his not-Master. Besides more wrinkles, this man was a spitting image of Master Wu, but his voice… it had more of an accent than Kai and Jay combined. It was actually miraculous Lloyd had made out the words he had said…
“Master…?” Lloyd forced the words out of his mouth. “Not you too….”
The master sensei took in a breath and then looked Lloyd from top to bottom. After a few seconds of silence, Wu regained a straight composure. “Are you a Lloyd from a different world?”
The green ninja didn’t have to look behind him to know that the other five ninja had lost their jaw to the ground. With a sigh of relief, Lloyd smiled and nodded. “One second I was in my Ninjago and the next-“
“How interesting.” Wu nodded. “I imagined Ninjago to only have one world….I do not know what this means.” There was a long uncomfortable pause as the whole warehouse reflected on Master Wu’s words.
Suddenly Wu slapped his staff on the floor, a sound so unexpectedly sharp that Lloyd flinched in surprise. “Whatever, I guess.” Master Wu shrugged and walked past Lloyd to the table with the map, leaving Lloyd and the orange-haired warrior.
Lloyd stared at Wu as he talked with Cole, Zane and Kai about the battle plan. He shook his head a little in disbelief.
“Is he different too?”
The green ninja turned with wide eyes filled with shock. He didn’t recognize it before but the familiar voice struck him like a staff to the stomach.
The lady in armor was none other than his mom. Or-well, you get it right?
Her eyes flashed wide in response to Lloyd’s shock. “What? Is there something wrong with my hair?”
“Your a warrior??” Lloyd gasped in shock. To that, Koko chuckled. “Oh, this. Yes, I am a warrior. My fighting alias is-“
“WE ARE GOING OUT ON A MISSION WITH LADY IRON DRAGON???”
Koko grinned as Nya, in full sprint, launched a hug onto the warrior. “My dreams are coming true!!”
Her dreamy eyes turned to Lloyd. “Can we be paired up?? Pleaaaaase please please please?”
Lloyd was about to say, “Sure,” when he realized what he originally needed two more people for. After realizing this, he shook his head sadly. “Sorry Nya, I need Mo-uh, Lady Iron Dragon and Wu as a strike team to get Garmadon as fast as possible.”
Both Koko and Nya’s grins slowly faded. With a scowl, Nya dejectedly turned away and walked back to the dragon mech with a comment of disgust. Lloyd tried not to listen to it but it still hurt his heart.
“How grown up of you.” Koko nudged Lloyd. The ninja shrugged his shoulders. “I have to put the plan first. We have to get Garmadon back. You and Wu will be the ones in charge of retrieving Garmadon from…wherever they are keeping him.”
Koko crossed her arms. “Have you made a lot of battle plans in your life?”
Lloyd was confused by the question. “Uuuuuh, kinda…?”
His not-mom leaned in close. “Here’s a little advice, warrior to warrior. Always trust your team more than the plan.”
Chuckling, Lloyd put his hands on his hips. “Oh, I know that.”
Koko raised an eyebrow. “Do you?” Leaving that question hanging in the air, she walked towards Wu humming an unfamiliar song.
Always trust your team more than the plan. Lloyd knew that, right? Of course he did. He’s the green ninja, leader of the best team of ninja in the-
Mid-inspirational thought, he watched as Jay accidentally slipped on a piece for the dragon and elegantly fall to the ground, hitting about ten pieces on the way down. “Ow,” the pain-filled echo from Jay topped with the laughter from his whole team shrouded Koko’s advice just a little in his head. He could trust his old team with his life but these…. imposters were a little harder to trust.
“I’ve got to get home ASAP,” Lloyd grumbled as he jogged over to make sure not-Jay was alright.
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“….and now Meowthra has a spot to live a little west of Ninjago. It’s been peaceful for a few weeks but yesterday the Shark Army launched an attack on the city and captured my dad. My efforts to save him were….” Lloyd searched for the right word while spinning his chopstick in his bowl of noodles. “…worthless.”
He slowly raised his eyes to see how the others were responding to the events from his ‘realm’ in the past month. All he saw from everyone (including the new girl, Skylar? Skyler?) were wide eyes, dropped jaws, and untouched food.
It took a few seconds but finally the host of the restaurant Kai picked found the first words to respond to Lloyd. “There is a little something wrong with your world,” Skyl?r chuckled as she continued to wipe down a counter with a rag. “A giant cat? C’mon, that’s just a little ridiculous.”
“I mean,” Kai shrugged and lifted his hands in defense. “We did have a giant snake attack the city a few years back.”
“A giant snake?!” Lloyd repeated in shock.
“Oh yeah, it was huge!” Cole dangled a long noodle off of his chopstick. “It was as long as like, fifty blocks. If we hadn’t of stopped him-“
“I thought Garmadon stopped him,” Skyl?r interrupted with a side grin.
Jay slapped his hand in the table and Zane almost lost his drink. “What is up with everyone thinking Garmadon saved the day?! I mean he turned it into a huge wave of green goo but we did all the hard work!”
The fire ninja shook his head. “So under appreciated.”
“Talk about being under appreciated,” Lloyd mumbled. “Try having the whole world hate you.”
“Seriously?” Zane picked up Lloyd’s words as if he had said them clearly. “Why did everyone hate you?”
Lloyd sipped his water. “Cuz my dad attacked Ninjago City almost three times a week for like, half a decade. Everyone hated Garmadon, and therefore everyone hated me. Simple, really.”
Nya crossed her arms on the table. “But, they knew you were the Green Ninja right?” Lloyd shook his head. “They didn’t?!” Nya was taken back. “Why?”
The Green Ninja shrugged. “Secret identities. It was to protect us. Didn’t y’all have secret identities?”
A chorus of no’s and nope’s met Lloyd. One “yes” spoke up, but it was from the red head.
“Oh, hush- you were a spy!” Kai laughed at Skyl?r as the group of Ninja laughed at her joke. Lloyd, who didn’t get it, chuckled but caught eye of a flashing blue and red blur as it flew by the window behind all the ninja. He glanced at the team; in the moment of joy, no one had seen the cop car.
They are having fun, Lloyd decided in his head. I’ll let the cops handle this one.
“Nya had a secret identity!” Jay inserted into the conversation.
“Oh yeah?” Cole smirked. “Being my girlfriend?”
The empty restaurant erupted in hysterical laughter with Lloyd nervously chiming in. Jay, meanwhile, scooted away from Cole with a look of betrayal. “That’s…that’s not funny!! I’m serious!! Y’all…”
EYEOFTHEWOLFE HAS RETURNED AND BLESSED US ONCE MORE!!!
i take full responsibility for her absence
im a distracting influence
