• Requested by @CynicalMess •
Third Person POV
"You're probably wondering why I only asked for the five of you."
The ninja knew better than to whisper random ideas that popped into their heads about the mystery meeting to each other, especially when Garmadon wielded that long staff in his hands. Even Jay sat completely silent, waiting for him to explain himself.
"My brother has noticed you all are lacking something. Would any of you like to take a guess?" Garmadon hummed, looking down at them intently.
Not a sound, only crickets chirping from the outside of the building.
"Uhh," Lloyd rubbed the back of his head as he murmured. "Bad hygiene?"
"Hey, hey, hey, don't look at me! Contrary to popular belief, I actually did brush my teeth today!" Jay interrupted.
Soon, all of the ninja were rushing in with their thoughts on the matter, talking over one another and forgetting why they were there. Garmadon gave a solitary tap to the floor with his staff, making all of the ninja collectively freeze in place.
"I called you all here to help you brush up on one thing," Garmadon announced. He then took his staff and bopped Kai on the chest with it. "You all have very poor self-defense reflexes. Therefore, I am here to remedy that."
Oh.
Before any of the ninja had time to absorb what he said, Garmadon jumped right into the lesson.
"Now, I'm going to need a volunteer. Do I have any takers?" He smiled expectantly.
Oh, no. They all knew what happened to the volunteers. To make a long story short, most would end up flat on their backs, lucky that none of their bones were broken.
"Lloyd, how about you? I know I use you for this a lot, but it seems everyone else lacks enthusiasm."
Lloyd jumped, looking over at his tittering friends.
As Lloyd got up, he whispered, "Thanks for hanging me out to dry, guys."
He stood across from his father, putting his hands up in a combat position. Lloyd swallowed the lingering lump in his throat before nodding his head, giving the all-clear for Garmadon to begin the example.
Garmadon stood his staff upright and immediately threw a punch, which Lloyd caught in between his fists.
"Good," Garmadon commented. "Now, try to hit me so I can actually show you the proper defense strategy."
Lloyd wasted no time. With a quick motion, he sent one of his hands to Garmadon's face, giving him a distraction. Before retracting his hand away, he sent the other down to his side. Instantly, Garmadon grabbed the hand by his side and threw Lloyd over his shoulder, landing him on the ground.
Lloyd rubbed his head, watching as Garmadon took a few steps away to explain what he did to the others. While Lloyd should've been listening in on the point, he couldn't help but wonder. Why was he so protective of that one side of his body? Did Lloyd accidentally hurt him? Maybe he should ask him......or just find out by touching him there without him noticing.
He crawled up behind him as silently as possible. Part of him scolded him for being nosy and sneaky about it, but he just had to figure it out.
"So, when it comes to defending yourself, always remember to-... Ah!"
All eyes fell on Lloyd, especially Garmadon's.
Garmadon took a few steps back, asking, "Okay. What exactly are you doing?"
"Forget that. What kind of noise was that?" Lloyd raised an eyebrow with a mischievous smirk.
"I beg your pardon?" Garmadon smoothed out his robes. "I think you're just trying to get out of a-."
"Are you ticklish?" Kai asked.
A pause. A dark red hue tinted Garmadon's cheeks and was now visible to the ninja. After studying the faces of his curious students, he realized that his deafening silence was speaking for itself. The smart move, or not so smart move on his part, was to deny it.
"'Ticklish?' Ha. No, of course not."
They obviously didn't buy into that.
Before anything else could happen, Garmadon decided to steer back to the lesson.
"Anyway," He spoke as he turned his back to the small group. "Defense is more than dodging. It is also...-."
After turning around to check if any of them were paying attention, he was bewildered to see that they had disappeared.
"Where in the....?" He mumbled to himself. He didn't think he was being that boring.
He turned around again but immediately froze after a barrage of pokes attacked his side. With a yelp, he jumped away from the touch.
"Ha! I knew you lied!" Lloyd exclaimed as the other ninja peeked over his shoulder mischievously.
"Don't even think about it, Lloyd," Garmadon hissed as he pointed a finger at him.
Instead of heeding the warning, Lloyd moved closer. With each step, Garmadon moved back. The straw that broke the camel's back was when Loyd held his hands in the air, wiggling his digits in the air.
Garmadon acted fast upon evacuating the room. Though the thunderous sound of footsteps following him rang through his ears, he didn't dare stop. After a few seconds of running around corners and into buildings, he thought he lost them.
Then he bumped into an annoying face to see when you're running from a group of ravenous, teenage tickle monsters.
"Ah, hello, Brother!" Wu greeted him with a chipper tone. "How was the lesson? You didn't go too easy on them, I hope?"
Garmadon tried to rush through the conversation by sprinkling in those, "Yeah, everything was fine" and "Mm-hm"s. Wu just seemed to be in a rather talkative mood for some reason. When Garmadon heard footsteps behind him, he knew he had to shut it down. "Look, I have to go...uh...I have to...bye..!"
He was sure Wu had questions, but he was on a mission to hide.
He turned a corner only to run smack into Lloyd. Lloyd smirked at him as he backed him into the corner.
"Now, Lloyd," Garmadon enunciated, putting his hands up in front of him. "Don't do anything you might regret later."
The words didn't stop Lloyd. He continued advancing upon him, fingers poised and ready to strike.
"The way I see this is that this is payback for all of those times you made me volunteer," Lloyd grinned. "Ready to pay for it, Dad?"
He wasn't. The second Lloyd attempted to strike, Garmadon grabbed him by the wrists, slinging him aside. Once Lloyd rebounded, he caught a glimpse of Garmadon sprinting away.
The hunt continues.
Word Count: 1,097 Words.
(Hello, everyone! Here's that extra chapter that was supposed to come about two weeks ago! Sorry about that, it's been a bit of a rough few days. But hey, at least I'm fully vaccinated!
Anyways, thank you for reading! The book has reached over 60k views! That's so awesome! I'm glad my little book has made so many people happy.
Thanks to @CynicalMess for the request! I hope it's all you wanted! I had loads of fun with writing it! If there are any typos/dumb stuff in the chapter, let me know so I can fix it!
Thanks again for reading! Stay safe!
- your sleepy author, Abbey :] )