Rusted Lockers | Lego Ninjago Movie

Chapter 1 - Golden

With the new gossip, an effective cheer practice was short-lived. Chen was proud of himself, however, this new rumor was not only interesting... but it was true. The cheerleader slammed his locker shut after throwing his duffel bag inside, huffing lightly. He wondered if that group of kids were still here. Specifically, he wondered if "Zane" was still here.

His luck was higher than he thought today. As he traveled back down to the hall he had originally  spotted the group at, Chen heard shuffling. Inside of a teacher's room, Zane was rummaging inside, supposedly organizing papers. Chen raised his eyebrow, leaning on the doorway, watching the robot a moment longer.

Suddenly, Zane sensed another figure, and the male's head shifted to look at the cheerleader, confused. "Chen, is cheer practice already over? I thought it would not be over until another twenty minutes." He was speaking mostly to himself, blinking slowly as he took a stack of papers, and flicked through them. Once decided his organization was thorough, he put them away in a drawer.

"What are you still doing here then, weirdo? Shouldn't you be off with your fuckin' 'friends?'" Chen scoffed, making air quotes with his fingers as he leaned on the door frame.

"I was organizing papers for Ms. Gale, she prefers how I do it." The white-haired boy then tilted his head, eyebrows furrowing, "That gesture indicates sarcasm.. Why do you do that?" This caused the bully to scrunch up his nose in annoyance, he didn't like how Zane talked. "I mean that they aren't really your friends," the male explained, "they just feel bad for you. Don't think I don't know your secret, freak."

"My secret..?"

Chen huffed, smirking, before grabbing Zane by his shirt collar, slamming him hard against the wall. The stronger male had him pinned, holding him but his shirt collar. The boy squirmed with fright for a moment, before looking down at the strong jock, eyes nervous.

"I know you aren't a human. I know that you're just tryin' to blend in with all of us... But you never will, you know that? Not as long as I'm around, freak." His grip was firm, the nindroid frozen in place, a deer in headlights.

The robot swallowed, eyes swirling as he processed the statement. "I-" The cheerleader dropped him, cutting him off, and the boy hit the ground with a thud. "Save it, you made a mistake trying to fit in." This caused the other to look up, seeming bewildered, having a hard time understanding.

Before Chen walked away, he looked at his hands, curious. It had been a long while since he had thrown his hands into someone, the last was Lloyd Garmadon.

Yet, after the Smith siblings began to draw to close, they watched his back like hawks. But no one was here now. No one would expect the robot to get hurt. Could he get hurt?

It seemed it was up to the jock to find out.

Zane began to get back up, a neutral expression, seemingly undisturbed by the entire experience. He dusted off his pants, eyes pointed downwards, not even having a moment to process the fist that punched against his chest. The nindroid let put a broken wheeze as he was knocked back down, hitting the wall again.

"Huh, for a piece of scrap metal, I thought you could handle a bit of roughing up." The voice from above laughed, teasing the figure down below.

That figure under Chen looked absolutely bewildered, clutching it's chest tightly. The bully didn't know it, but he had almost hit Zane's core. That was the thing powering him, and nothing could replace it. If it was broken, it was over for him, the probability of recovering this rare of technology was very slim.

Normally, Zane would protect it better, like while doing shifts as the White ninja. Yet, he couldn't be invincible if he wanted to pose as an average teen. So, he just swallowed the lump in his throat as he wheezed in some air. None of this made sense to Zane, why was he being attacked? He had not done anything wrong, not to Chen.

It was only a few more moments into Zane's thoughts that Chen kicked the figure on the ground, causing it to whimper. Pain was not a pleasant experience, but Zane had never felt it in such a high degree, at least not in a situation he didn't expect it. It made artificial tears prick his eyes, as he felt the other grab his collar again. Wincing, he flinched, shutting his eyes tightly.

A fist collided with his face, head hitting the back of the wall, and his audio processing began to ring. As much as Zane could fight back, he also couldn't. It would surely reveal his identity as the White ninja, and then he would have bigger problems to deal with. The news couldn't get there hands on this.

He didn't want to think about all the flashing cameras, or questions about if he's really a robot... He just wanted to be Zane. He wanted to be the White Ninja. That's it.

He was snapped out of his thoughts as he felt the violence stop, and he was released. Slumping down, he dared not to look up, he didn't want to see Chen's smug expression. At least, it was a high probability it was smug. It always was, wasn't it?

Zane felt blood trickling down his face, the entire area was throbbing. The source of the blood was a gash on his forehead, and his nose. He was not surprised of the latter of course, it had been impacted multiple times. Luckily, Zane learned to disguise his core fluids, which helped power him, as blood. All it had taken was simple masking in his programming, and it seemed to be very convincing.

However, very was not good enough for Chen. The male scoffed, scowling at Zane. "You really have it all figured out, huh? Well, you aren't gonna convince me, bucket of bolts." One last kick was given to Zane's hip before the jock finally gave up.

He was gone.

The robot felt tears slip uneasily down his face, if they had been in the hall, a camera would have caught Chen. Yet, in here, there was nothing to save him. A few clicks and beeps sounded as he got up, walking slowly out of the classroom with his bag, begrudgingly stepping down the hall.

Each time his foot hit the floor it seemed to ache more, pain shooting through each of his limbs. Maybe he should increases his protection a little more? Yet, Chen may notice, and then he would really know. Sighing deeply, The nindroid made it to his locker, and then collapsed.

As a few more tears slipped down his cheeks, he stared out the window, hiccuping as he gasped out sobs. 

It was golden hour.

And that meant he was late.