Lloyd slowed himself down as he arrived at the docks of the abandoned warehouse. He carefully walked towards the ironed gate, moving his head from left to right to make sure no one was there. He took a deep breath, stepped back a little, dashed for the gate and jumped over it, landing safely on the other side. He brushed himself off and quietly walked towards the door of the warehouse, keeping an eye out if there are people around the area.
After he thought that there is no one, he quietly turned the knob and quickly stepped inside, making no noise as he went in. He closed the door and let out a breath.
Once inside, Lloyd looked around. He saw an open space with a couch in the middle and a big television at the front. A small brown desk is placed in the center of the television and the couch. On the desk, are video game controllers and some other messy stuff.
Lloyd put his backpack on the couch and took out some clothes. He went to another part of the warehouse to change his outfit.
While changing, he was in deep thought. How is he gonna tell his mom that he skipped on his first day? And what about his friends? He left them back there. Ugh. I'm such an awful person. He sighed to himself. I'm so selfish. I didn't even think or ask them if they're alright. I only thought about myself. About running away to never experience that fear and shame of being bullied. What kind of Green Ninja am I? Lloyd thought to himself sadly.
One thing the citizens of Ninjago don't know is that Lord Garmadon's son is actually the Green Ninja. His father doesn't even know that his enemy is his son. And from the moment Lloyd thought of his dad, he felt nothing but shame, anger and sadness that he slammed the locker after he put his clothes in.
He felt ashamed that his father attacks and tries to destroy their city. People blame him for his father's mistakes.
He felt angry that his father has forgotten that he has a son and never even thought of calling him on his birthday or on special occasions.
He felt sad because he had always wanted a dad who is there to teach him everything he knows, to be there for him whenever he feels scared or alone and to spend more time with him like father and son.
But all that is lost......
Small tears start to fall down his cheek but he clenched his fists together and swallowed his throat to stop himself from crying. He slammed his hand on the locker then wiped his eyes before putting his ninja mask on his head. He breathed heavily, hard shaky breaths as he tried to calm himself down. He is not worth crying. He thought and ran back to grab his bag. He put it on and went to climb on his dragon mech.
There are still a few tears in his eyes but he quickly wiped them away as he turned on his mech. He pressed a few buttons and instantly his dragon mech started to make a start sound, like the sound you hear when you start a car. The dragon roared and spewed out green flames as Lloyd pressed the buttons again and the roof of the warehouse opened. Making a way out for his mech to soar into the sky. Lloyd took the controls and carefully flew his mech out through the roof.
His dragon flew above the city, shining like a giant green emerald as the suns rays shined on it. He flew above buildings and towers, looking down below the city as a few people spotted him flying above them.
"Look mommy! It's the Green Ninja!" Lloyd heard a little girl call whilst pointing her finger at him. Her mom looked up at the Hero in Green before smiling at her daughter.
"Hello Green Ninja!" He heard a man shout, waving at him. Lloyd waved back and took the controls to fly to another part of the city. He smiled behind his mask as a few more people called out and cheered on him the moment they saw the Green Ninja flew above their city.
But all that cheering will never compare to how the citizens treated him if he took his mask off. His smile faded as he remembered the people's anger and hate towards him. Why can't I just live a normal life? I just want to be treated fairly, like everybody else. He immediately took the controls and flew off away from the crowd of people. He wanted to be alone, where no one can see or even hear him.
The dragon fly so high above the city that it flew past the tallest building of Ninjago. Lloyd grunted as he tried to fly his dragon even higher from the clouds. It took him minutes before his dragon mech reached the highest altitude. Lloyd pressed a button and in just a few seconds, his mech hovered still above the clouds.
Alone, he took his mask off, closed his eyes and breathed heavily. The air felt fresh and his body felt so relax that he could almost fall asleep. But he reminded himself not to because he need to stay alert in case his father might attack the city again. The mere thought of his father slowly drifted away as his stomach growled.
He took his backpack off and unzipped it taking out his lunch. He got it out but put his hand back in the bag to get his chopsticks. Instead of feeling for the chopsticks, he felt the hard cover of the book he picked up earlier. Lloyd took it out and ran his hand on the cover. The front is just a plain black color, nothing too exciting to see.
He sighed then put it away as he reached inside his bag to get the chopsticks. He couldn't find it, so he carried his bag upside down and began to shake it. He kept on shaking his bag that his things scattered on his lap. Suddenly he heard a click sound. He perked his head and found the chopsticks on top of his things. Lloyd frowned, not too happy that he had to throw all his stuff out of his bag just to find the chopsticks.
I mean seriously, he should've put them in the pocket of his bag.
He sighed roughly as he moved back a little from his seat, knocking over the book that was laying near it. The sketchbook slid down his mech, ready to fall off. Lloyd didn't waste any time, he immediately got out of his seat and reached out his hand to grab the book before it could even fall of the edge. Lloyd gasped for air as he held the book on the edge, not noticing that he accidentally opened it. He heard the sound of paper rustling that he looked at it and found that he has opened the book.
He went back to his seat with the sketchbook in his hands. He sat down and looked at the book with wide eyes. The page he has opened or flipped shows a drawing of the Green Ninja fighting off some shark generals. Lloyd felt curious and amaze as he saw the sketches and drawings. He flipped to another page where it has a drawing of the Water Ninja, sliding down her water mech. He smiled and continued to flip to another page where it showed some unfinished work. Sketches and doodles of the ninja team but mostly about the Green Ninja.
He sat there, looking over the book and sometimes laughing when he saw some funny drawings that he didn't realize he was hovering in the air for 30 minutes. He had forgotten about his lunch and when his stomach squirmed, he woke up and said, "Oh shoot! I forgot about lunch! How long was I been sitting here?" He said aloud to himself. He put the sketchbook on his lap and took his lunch.
Opening the topper ware, he smelled the delicious scent of sushi drifting in the air through his nose. He grabbed his chopsticks and took a piece and put the food in his mouth. He munched the food and swallowed it down his throat. "Mom's sushi never gets old. It still tastes great!" He exclaimed as he took another piece.
While eating he checked the sketchbook again. He flipped the pages, stopping to look at the amazing artworks and sketches until it reached a blank page. He felt a little disappointed since he wanted to see more but had to put it away because he knew this thing doesn't belong to him. He went back to the first page where he found the girl's name written on it. Reading the name, he had a flashback.
A flashback of him tearing up as he ran away down the street.
About the hard crash into a person.
He remembered standing up to offer a his hand to help someone.
Then he remembered that someone having bright blue eyes as she slowly opened them. Though he couldn't quite remember what she was wearing.....
He suddenly woke up from his thoughts and closed the book. "Whoever she is, she's a great artist." He said to himself. "But....."
But there is one problem. "How am I gonna give this back to her?!" He said in a worried tone. "I can't just give this to her being the Green Ninja though I can't give this to her being Lloyd Garmadon as well. If she knew I have her sketchbook, she wouldn't like me and might probably accuse me of stealing." He thought. There are so many negative thoughts going on in his mind that he suddenly perked his head up as he heard a loud booming sound.
He listened again carefully and heard another loud bang followed with the sound of screaming coming from below him. He knew what this is, so he quickly put his ninja mask back on. He put his lunch and the book back inside his bag, took the controls of the dragon mech and flew down to stop his father from attacking the city.
I'll worry about returning the book later. Right now, time to save Ninjago.
______________
We were about to start our second period of class when all of a sudden, the ground shook beneath us as a loud crash was heard not far from our school. Everyone stood up, looking panicked as we heard another loud boom. I look back behind me and saw my sister, Nya looking back at me as well. We both nodded our heads together as we knew what this is all about. Lord Garmadon is attacking Ninjago City again.
"Garmadon is attacking the city! You know what to do students, duck and cover." I heard our teacher instruct everyone in the room as she ducked below her desk. I raised my hand and called out, "Can I have a bathroom pass?" I asked her also hearing Nya ask the same thing. I looked at her and she only gave me cheeky little smirk.
Miss Grace gave us a puzzled look. "It's 'May I- fine just be quick, we'll be leaving the premises as soon as it is safe for us to get out. Now hurry you two!" She yelped and without another second to spare, Nya and I dash out the door into the hallways.
Instead of running to the bathroom, we took a left turn and headed down to our lockers when we both heard the sounds of pattering shoes coming from behind us. I turned around and saw Jay, Cole and Zane running with us. I smiled at them as we all ran down the hallways to our lockers. We stopped running and waited a few seconds to catch our breath.
"Where's Lloyd?" Cole was the first to ask. Me and Nya glanced at each other as Jay and Zane asked about him too. I sighed and said, "I'm sorry but Lloyd skipped his first day." "WHAT?! WHY?!" The three of them said together, making a loud echo in the hallways. I shushed them, reminding them to stay quiet.
"He said he just needed some space." I said but the three of them continued to ask. "Look, can we talk about it later? Right now we have a city to save!" I told them as I opened my locker, the others doing the same. We all went inside, closed the door and instantly slid down a hole in our lockers that will take us to our secret ninja base. On the way there, we changed into our ninja gis.
We finally arrived at our secret ninja base. Nya and the others got out of their lockers, already in their ninja suits. "Come on! The citizens of Ninjago are waiting for us!" I called out to them. We hurriedly went to our own individual mechs. I climbed up my fire mech and sat down. Pressing a few buttons to start it up but before I could even do it I turned my head to the left and saw that Lloyd's dragon mech is not there. He already left without us..... I thought to myself sadly. Nya must've saw me as I turned to look back at the controls. I heard her climbing up the machine.
"Hey, something wrong?" She asked me. "Uhm- no. All is good." I lied but Nya being my sister, she knew I wasn't good. "You do know I can tell that you're lying just by looking at your face?" She said and I can only sigh at her response. "Okay fine I am. I'm not feeling okay and yes there's something wrong." I protested.
"Tell me what happened." She looks skeptical but eager to listen. I exhaled and was about to spill the words out of my mouth when we heard a shout from Jay. "Uhm.... sorry to interrupt you two but, GARMADON IS ALMOST AT THE NINJAGO TOWER!!!" He panicked as he climbed on his lightning mech. "We'll talk later." Nya said as she ran over to her water mech. I nodded at her and put my ninja mask on. We all turned on our mechs and shouted the words, "NINJA GO!" as we flew, drove or walked out the secret base and into the city to prevent Garmadon from conquering Ninjago.
______________
Somewhere in Ninjago City, a news helicopter is hovering above the city trying to film Lord Garmadon when all of a sudden, one of Garmadon's troops fired at them causing the helicopter to jerk and the pilot having a hard time balancing it.
"Looks like the ninjas are a little busy at the moment." A reporter said panicked stricken as another one of Garmadon's troops fired at them. The reporter took the camera and yelped, "Ninjas where are you?!" The video was cut when their news helicopter came crashing down. "AHHH WE'RE GONNA DIE!!!" The frightened reporter screamed while holding onto the camera man. The pilot was struggling controlling the helicopter as he tried to avoid crashing it towards the city. He was trying so hard that when he pulled the lever, it snapped broken causing them to panic even more.
He saw that they were about to crash into the ground. They closed their eyes as they braced for impact when......
"Huh? What's going on?" The pilot blinked, looking confused. "Are we all dead?" The reporter whimpered, as the camera man rolled his eyes and shoved him out of the way, getting a bit tired of him. They tried to move their heads to see what was happening and figuring out how they didn't crash when finally the camera man carefully stood up to look out the window. "Maybe you should take a look at this." He pointed to his fellow workers. They all looked out the window and was amazed.
The Green Ninja used his dragon mech to catch their helicopter just before it crashed. The young hero gently put the helicopter on the streets of Ninjago and climbed down to help them out. "Nothing to be afraid of misters, you can come out now." He said to them as he slid open the metal door. The camera man jumped out, shaking the hero's hand in thanks. "Thank you Green Ninja." The reporter spoke up following the camera man out. "You saved our lives back there." The pilot added, putting his hand over his cap. "Just doing my job gentlemen." Lloyd saluted them before climbing back onto his mech.
"You better get out of here, it's not safe. Better run to the safe houses to avoid the attacks." He instructed them before he took off and the men nodded their heads as they ran off to find shelter.
Kai over the coms: Lloyd, if you can hear me, I just want to let you know that your fa- I mean, Garmadon is almost at the Ninjago Tower!
Lloyd over the coms: I hear you loud and clear Kai. Don't worry, I'm on my way there to stop him.
He replied and cut off communication as he got closer to the tower to prevent his father or Garmadon from conquering the city.
______________
It took the secret ninja force nearly two hours to stop Garmadon and the ninjas are dead tired. When Garmadon surrendered and retreated again, Lloyd and his team went back to their secret ninja base to hide their mechs.
"Woohoo! Another day of saving Ninjago City!" Cole happily cheered as they all parked their mechs in their proper places. Though while doing so, he caught a glimpse of Lloyd's disappointed face as his friend jumped down from his dragon mech. Cole jumped out of his earth mech and went to join the others on the couch. They all exchanged worried and concerned faces but Cole looked at Kai expecting him to tell them everything but the Red Ninja remained silent.
The young man couldn't take the silence any longer so he moved closer to Kai and began to ask for answers. "Would you mind telling us why Lloyd skipped on his first day?" He whispered in his friend's ear. Kai looked at him and was about to answer his question but stopped to look at Lloyd. He felt that Lloyd should be the one to explain to them. After all, he is the one who left.
Kai stepped an inch forward, took a deep breath and said, "Hey uhm- Lloyd, we know you're not feeling okay right now but the uh- others need to hear what's wrong. Whatever it is Lloyd, we're all here to listen." Kai said gently to his friend who's back is behind them. "Hey man, you can tell us anything. Tell us what's wrong." Cole inputted trying to change the awkward silence in the room.
Lloyd was quiet before he answered his friends. He felt hesitant at first but he took a deep breath before turning his head to face them. He looked at them and saw many pairs of eyes staring at him, desperately searching for an answer when he lowered his head. "I-I'm sorry. I shouldn't have left though I also feel like I shouldn't have come to school and I feel like I needed some space." He responded while he buried his head in shame and guilt. His friends felt saddened by his words and Nya was about to walk up to him to give him a hug when Lloyd stopped her. "I- I have afternoon patrols throughout the city. If you'll excuse me, I have to go and-" He stopped to put his bag on the couch before walking past his friends. "I want to be alone." He finished and walked out the door to do his patrol.
As his friends watched him leave, Kai put a hand on his sister's shoulder to comfort her from not being able to ease Lloyd's feeling of pain. Jay and Zane both shook their heads sadly and Cole sighed as he sat down on the couch beside Lloyd's bag.
All of them felt really bad for him. His first day isn't exactly what they thought it would be. Things became hard at first for their friend and they tried to think of something they can do to make Lloyd feel better. But none of them worked and when they saw his sad face, there's nothing for them to do but ask him what's wrong. But Lloyd would only leave their questions unanswered.
Maybe it would be best for them to just leave him alone for awhile.