Behold! My un-proof-read disasterpieace.
Nya’s face flickered into view as she logged into the meeting, hair pulled back from her face in a ponytail. She waved and Lloyd grinned.
“Hey Lloyd,” she said. “Cole.”
Cole hummed his greeting, fiddling with the meeting settings. “This is so complicated,” he mumbled, voice raspy in the mic.
“No, it’s not, wait, hangondon’ttouchthat!” Zane’s muffled voice rose in panic as Cole accidentally muted everyone. Lloyd chuckled as Zane figured it out.
The sound returned, revealing Nya laughing loudly while Cole grumbled something about technology.
Zane looked like he wanted to explain something when Kai’s image appeared on the screen. “Wait, Jay! Come back!” He hollered, turning away from his phone. “Is this even working?!” He waved the phone in what Lloyd assumed was Jay’s direction, giving everyone a blurred view of a dimly-lit apartment.
“It’s working, Kai,” Zane offered, looking like he was trying not to laugh.
“Oh! Hi,” Kai, said, whipping the phone back around so he could see it. He looked a little out of breath, and was that… a black eye?
“Yikes,” Nya chuckled, squinting at her screen. “What got you?”
“What? Oh,” Kai said, hand going to his eye. “It was an epic battle. I won.”
“You tripped into a door!”Jay hollered from across the room. “And you lost!”
Kai blushed in embarrassment as everyone started laughing. “Like everyone else hasn’t done it,” he mumbled.
“Nope, I’m pretty sure it’s just you,” Lloyd teased.
Kai sunk lower on the couch until only the tips of his hair were visible. Luckily, he was saved from his shame as Nya squawked in outrage, dropping her phone on it’s side. This gave everyone a perfect view as she chased a dog around her shop. Not only this, but the dog was soaking wet and covered in mud. Pixel appeared, helping Nya chase the creature out. (After it left muddy streaks on Nya’s tools and scrap metal.)
Nya flopped back down at her table, with a sort of adorable muddy paw print on her cheek. The boys lasted about three second before telling her, eliciting a groan of defeat. “It won’t stop coming back,” she grumped, rubbing at the mark with a garage rag. It smudged oil into her skin and Kai barked a laugh.
“Pixal! Come recite the List of Dumb Things Kai’s Done so I can find a towel!” Nya demanded, flashing a smirk in Kai’s direction.
“Zane, mute Nya’s phone!” Kai said immediately.
Cole and Zane both shook their heads, grinning as Pixal complied with Nya’s wishes. “Number one, Kai shoved his flaming hand into a container of popcorn kernels and popped them all at once. Number two, Kai drew mustaches on everyone in sharpie on April Fools Day.” She paused, smirking thoughtfully. “Shall I add tripping into the door handle to that list?”
Kai tossed up his hands. “Let me die in peace!” He said. He threw the phone at Jay, and when Lloyd was able to see again the camera was pointing at the roof and the mike was picking up Jay’s outraged squawk.
“I’m back,” Nya declared, face clean. “Where’s Kai?”
Jay appeared onscreen, but they couldn’t hear him. He’d muted himself, but he figured it out pretty soon and fixed the problem. “Kai said-”
Another screen opened up, this time with Kai’s face in it. “I stole Jay’s phone,” he announced. “Who wants to know what his background is?”
“KAI,” Jay shrieked, and both screens went black soon after that. Nya chuckled. “I predict that they are wrestling,” she said.
“I predict that Kai is winning,” Lloyd says.
“No way, Jay’ll get his phone back,” Cole laughed.
“Five bucks says Kai comes back first,” Lloyd said.
“You’re on,” Lloyd grins. “You better bring your money with you this weekend. (They planned to regroup at the monastery this weekend, having finished their various missions across Ninjago the day before.)
“Well,” Zane said as they waited. “How did everyone else fare these last few weeks?”
“Pix and I did great,” Nya announced. “We swung by Jamanakai since we had time.”
“I noticed you were in the shop,” Lloyd said.
“Yeah, I wanted to grab some tools to bring back to the monastery,” she replied. “How’d your hunt go?”
“Boring,” Lloyd said. “I can’t believe you guys stuck me with library duty.”
“Baby brother luck,” Cole informed him.
“I’m technically older than Pixal,” Lloyd pointed out. “And possibly older than Jay.”
“Bah,” Jay said, popping back into the meeting. He stuck his tongue out at Lloyd, who groaned loudly as Kai also reappeared.
“Kai, you failed me,” Lloyd moaned theatrically.
“Pardon?” Kai asked. He appeared to be sitting upside-down on the couch - sure enough, Lloyd could see a blue sock next to his head.
“Lloyd bet you would come back first,” Zane filled him in.
“Ooh, who bet for me?” Jay asked.
“I did,” Cole said. “Lloyd owes me ten bucks.”
Someone hollered in the distance on Cole and Zane’s end, prompting Cole to slam his forehead into the desk. “We have to go,” he mumbled, throwing a hand up. “Master Wu needed us for something.”
“Have fun,” Jay giggled, pushing Kai’s foot out of his face.
“See everyone in a few days,” Nya said.
Nya’s face flickered into view as she joined their meeting, shadowy in the dim lighting of wherever she was. Lloyd waved hi as she glanced over, fiddling with settings.
“Nya,” Master Wu said by way of greeting.
“Hey,” she said as her image flickered a bit. “Sorry, I dropped my phone the other night and it’s been acting up.”
“Speaking of which,” Zane said, sitting next to Lloyd, “How’d your mission go?”
“So-so,” Nya said, tilting her hand from side to side for emphasis. “The phone thing. I swear, every time I fix this silly thing, it breaks again. It’s annoying.”
“But helpful,” Lloyd said, fidgeting with the hem of his sleeve. He and Zane were sitting at a computer in a study room in a library, so they had reasonably good internet. (Plus, with Zane around, Lloyd didn’t have much to worry about, luckily. Zoom baffled him.)
“Does anyone know where-”
Master Wu was cut off as Cole appeared, soaking wet. “Hey everyone,” he said, voice raspy in the microphone. It looked like he’d been caught in a storm.
“What happened, Cole?” Zane asked.
“It started raining while I came down the mountain,” Cole said. He set his phone down, giving them a view of the cloudy, grey sky. From the sound of it, he was wringing his thick hair out. “I got the map, though. It’s dry.”
“Very good,” Master Wu said. “Come back with all speed.”
“Yeah, I know,” Cole mumbled as he picked his phone up again. (He looked just as wet as before.)
Minutes ticked by as they compared their missions, everyone excited to meet up at the monastery in a few days. The next leg of the journey would be complicated, but at least their team would be whole for it.
Speaking of which. “Nya, d’you know what’s taking Kai and Jay so long?” Lloyd asked.
“How should I know,” she snorted. “Kai has chronic late disease.”
“But Jay’s with him,” Cole pointed out.
At that moment, Kai’s phone logged into the meeting before exiting again after a few seconds. After a moment, it popped up again. His camera was off.
“Nope, it’s me,” Jay’s voice supplied. A crash sounded in the background, followed by some shouting.
“What is Kai doing?” Nya asked. Something else crashed and she added, “Or do I not want to know.”
“He’s catching up,” Jay said. “We kinda got ambushed after, and they chased us here. So Kai said to go ahead and meet you guys so nobody would be worried! He said he’ll be done in a bit.” Jay’s camera turned on, revealing him glancing towards the door of a mostly-dark room. The phone’s glow seemed to be the main light source.
“Where are you?” Cole asked, sounding mildly concerned.
“Some abandoned apartment building?” Jay said. “I was kinda busy when I came in, the name escaped me. He turned back towards the camera, giving everyone a view of a magnificent black eye purpling his skin.
Cole snorted. “What kinda ambush was it,” he said.
“The surprise kind,” Jay said, blushing in embarrassment. Someone shouted. “Kai says he’s coming,” Jay translated.
Kai burst into the room, flinging the door open in an explosion of static. “I HAVE ARRIVED,” he exclaimed loudly, shaking out his hands to extinguish them.
“Hello, Kai,” Zane said. Lloyd looked over; the nindroid was smirking in amusement.
Kai flopped on the couch, rolling up his sleeve and doing something out of view of the camera. “How’s life?” he asked. It seemed like he was in a good mood.
Kai chuckled and asked Jay to help him wrap a bandage around his wrist. “Nothing bad, don’t worry about it,” he told them, tucking his sleeve over the bandage.
“Alright,” Master Wu said. “Pixal, could you…?”
Pixel appeared next to Master Wu, leaning in front of him to type on the keyboard and help him load files. Lloyd smiled. Technical ineptitude must be a family trait. Good thing Zane and Pixal were around to keep them afloat.
A few minutes later, after Kai accidentally muted himself a few times and Nya got booted from the meeting once (even Pixal couldn’t figure that one out) they finally got the briefing rolling, each ninja explaining what they’d found to their sensei.
Edit: This was every bit the disaster I expected and I absolutely freaking love it!
Also, FIRST EVER POST SUBMITTED TO MY BLOG MILESTONE
