OOF Thats A Mood, This With Any Piece Of Writing (fics And Original Pieces)

OOF that’s a mood, this with any piece of writing (fics and original pieces)

Shattered Dreams & Broken Phones (Smith Garmadon)

So you guys remember the ‘Smith Garmadon AU’ from SPBNR? Where Smith wakes up on M!Garmadon’s volcano with amnesia and proceeds to get adopted by the Dark Lord & his generals? And he has a phone with a ton of videos & pictures of his original family that he can’t remember? So there were some ideas thrown around in the Discord server, and (credit to Mink, who’s amazing comic directly inspired this) yeah, now we got this. Enjoy :3 credit to @kittydemon9000 for the original SPBNR

———

The plan, as plans often were, was crude yet simple. Smith Garmadon, adoptive(?) son of Lord Garmadon, had a phone. A phone full of recordings. 

The problem was, nobody knew what those recordings were. And the danger was that those were recordings and photos for Garmadon, including clues onto the ninja's identities.

And for the safety of the group, Nya and Zane couldn't let those get back to the Dark Lord or his generals. So they devised a plan.

It took a lot of convincing to get Jay to 'accidentally' bump into Smith, hoping that they could retrieve the phone under the guise of repairing or returning it, deleting the videos with evidence, and subtly returning it. And the plan didn't even work the first time; nothing broke, and Smith was quick to retrieve it.

When Zane and Nya went for attempt number two, Jay wasn't having it. "Why do I have to do it?" He asked, fingers fraying the ends of his scarf. "Why do we even have to do it all? Maybe he's friendly, we don't know. He's got this look when he stares at the phone, I don't think we should mess with it, you know? And what if he gets mad, or we actually do some damage, or-"

"That's why you gotta do it," Nya assured before he could spiral. "You're one of the closest to him. My brother would spill the beans or refuse, and Lloyd couldn't lie his way out of a paper bag."

Jay squared his shoulders back for once. "No. No, this is a terrible plan. I won't do it. Smith's our friend, and whatever he has on information isn't worth it-"

"And what if he has our identities on tape?" Nya countered, throwing her arms in the arm. "What then? We have to get rid of that evidence, or else we could all be in some serious danger!"

Despite the look of panic on Jay's face at her words, he merely ducked his head into his scarf. His rambled excuses grew muffled.

Zane, who'd been keeping an eye on the hallway, suddenly snapped his head to the side. Smith turned the corner, phone clutched in one hand as he watched something with a small smile. It was now or never; the last period of the day, and if Smith left the school, the data would be in Garmadon's hands. 

That. Couldn't. Happen.

Seeing their plan about to fail, Zane made a split-second decision and a mental apology. 

He tripped Jay.

The blue ninja pinwheeled his arms, surprise and hurt flashing across his face like lightning. He slammed into Smith, who barely caught him with nearly inhuman reflexes before they could both tumble to the floor. The phone tumbled from his hands and-

Landed on his shoe, bounced off, and skidded down the hallway, completely fine. No, no, that wouldn't be enough-

Lloyd, Cole, and Kai rounded the corner just as Smith said, "Whoa, Jay, careful! You okay?"

Jay stuttered out an unintelligible response, a thousand words tumbling over themselves and meshing into one jargoned mess. 

"Hey, no worries, no harm no foul, right? Here-" Smith helped Jay back to his feet, and slowly started to turn. "My phone's okay, it just landed on my foot, I'll grab-"

His head turned in time to see Nya stomp on the technical device hard, shattering the screen and spilling the wires and broken chips across the floor. Shattering like Smith's heart in a single moment, broken memories dropping to the ground and splintering into unrepairable pieces.

His phone. His phone. All the memories of his... his family... 

Gone. 

And it wasn't an accident.

Behind him, through the crackling and roaring in his ears, he heard a quiet, hissed "What?" from Kai, heard the sharp intake of air from Jay who looked like he couldn't breath, heard a faltered misstep from Lloyd, heard Cole's footstep's freeze, heard no movements from Zane, and heard the crunch of the final few tech pieces of his phone under Nya's shoe.

Smith took two steps toward Nya and dropped to the ground at her feet, hand shaking as he reached toward the broken device as if his hand would be crushed next if he wasn't careful. Tears, too hot for normal water, filled his vision and broke over his cheeks, turning to steam as it hit the bottom of his jaw. He slowly tilted his head up to look at Nya, who looked-

Unapologetic. 

"...why."

Nya didn't say anything. Her gaze darted over to catch Zane's eye. With heightened senses, Smith was aware of Cole barely holding Kai back from storming over, of Lloyd standing there slack, of Zane's blank, oh so terribly blank expression, and of Jay, who was much too quiet other than a few choked attempts at breath.

At that moment, Smith's full attention went from grief and disbelief to fiery anger, a cold, burning anger not too unlike the sounds of Kai struggling to butt in behind him. 

He stood, hands clutched in tight, shaking fists at his side. Nya finally looked at him, eyes wide, as he held his shattered phone, his shattered memories, in one hand. "Let's be clear," he bit out, snapping as harshly as a wildfire consuming a smouldering tree. "I did absolutely NOTHING WRONG. And you-"

The words grew thick with emotion, and Smith exploded. Nya jerked back, not from his yelling, but from the way his eyes glowed with fire. 

"YOU DESTROYED THE ONE THING I HAVE LEFT OF MY FAMILY! OF THE LIFE I HAD BEFORE I WOKE UP ON THAT VOLCANO WITH NOTHING! NOTHING! I HAD A FAMILY, PEOPLE WHO LOVE ME, AND I HAVE NO IDEA WHO THEY ARE OR WHERE THEY ARE. EVERYTHING I KNEW ABOUT THEM WAS ON THAT PHONE, SCRAPS OF VIDEOS AND PHOTOS THAT I THOUGHT WOULD SPARK MY MEMORY. BUT IT HASN'T YET, AND THANKS TO YOU, IT NEVER WILL! THOSE VIDEOS ARE GONE. EVERY SCRAP OF MEMORY OF MY FAMILY IS GONE.”

His voice died, and he laughed once, lacking humour or emotion. "Gone. It's gone. I don't know where home is, and I never will."

Behind him, Jay bolted, a blur of blue so fast no one could catch him as he rounded the corner in a blink and vanished. Kai broke from Cole's hold, and Smith didn't even have the energy to turn to face the attack he'd face for yelling at one of the Smith siblings-

Kai stormed past him and shoved Nya. "What the F!CK did you do?"

Nya opened her mouth, then closed it without a sound. Her expression reeled at Smith's words.

It was Zane who spoke for her. "We- we just-"

Kai whirled on him, entire posture ablaze with his anger. "Just what? What excuse could you possibly have?"

"We just wanted to protect-" Zane's voice cracked for a moment on the word protect. "We were trying to protect ourselves from Garmadon."

Kai's hand was suddenly on Smith's shoulder, surprisingly gentle despite the amount of fury hissing in his throat. "Well, congratulations. Come’on, Smith, let's get out of here."

"I know a shop where we can try to repair the phone," Lloyd jumped in suddenly. "I've broken a ton of phones and they're great at fixing them."

Cole looked indecisive on which side to join, eyes flicking from Nya and Zane to Kai and Lloyd. He stepped back, avoiding both sides, and awkwardly gestured to one of the hallways. "I'm gonna... try to find Jay."

He slunk out of the hallway. Kai shot him, Nya, and Zane a scathing look before guiding Smith, who'd gone cold and nearly slack as the full extent of his own words hit him, down the other hallway, Lloyd joining on Smith's other side.

Zane walked to Nya's side. Both didn't look happy with their actions, but what was done was done.

Their identities were safe, if they ever even were in danger. 

But at what cost?

Okay a. I also have 7. & 10. , both slap I have the randomness taste in music so here we go-

1. The Minigame Song from The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds (huh, that game would be a good concept for a SPBNR AU...)

2. Glory from The Score (top tier song & band)

3. Duality by Set It Off

4. Farmer Refuted from Hamilton 

5. New Donk City [Remix by Qumu, who is a fantastic remixer] from Super Mario Odyssey

6. Counting Stars by One Republic

7. Phantom’s Legacy from The Messenger (a great game with a great soundtrack)

8. Termination Shock by Sabrepulse from Just Shapes & Beats (another great game with a great soundtrack)

9. What’s This? from the Nightmare Before Christmas, Cover by Man on the Internet

10. A Town With An Ocean View from Kiki’s Delivery Service from Studio Ghibli  Honourable mentions to ‘Fireflies’ from Owl City, ‘Something New’ from Girls Aloud, ‘Other Friends’ from Steven Universe: The Movie, and ‘Weekend Whip’ from The Fold

@angelmusickittens-blog @orcana-scarhallow @noviablast 

Expose Ur music taste

rules: we’re snooping in your playlist. put your entire music library on shuffle and list the first 10 songs and then choose 10 victims. tagged by @orangemonster33

1. One Call Away - Charlie Puth

2.Talking to the Moon - Bruno Mars

3.Shower - Becky G. (why is this even here?)

4.Crossing Field - LiSA

5. Stereo Hearts - Adam Levine, Gym Class Heroes

6.You & I - One Direction

7.I Know What You Did Last Summer - Shawn Mendes, Camila Cabello

8. 22 - Taylor Swift

9. Make You Mine - PUBLIC

10. It’s Time - Imagine Dragons

I’m sorry y’all. But I’m tagging @syngularitysyn @incognito-lezbean @sassymajesty @aphrodites-law @eroticfishmongerfrenzy @clexamazon @butmakeitgay-blog @100hearteyes that’s not ten but it’s close enough

Don’t you mean the warmest because lava-

But seriously thank youuuuuuu it’s all because of the amazingness of Same People But Not Really (anyone who stumbled upon this by accident GO READ THE FIC IT’S AWESOME and anyone who already knows it GO READ IT AGAIN).

And I’ve got plans for more spoofs and fics, coming out... TBA lol. Next one I’m planning is either ‘Slip of the Tongue II: Electric Boogaloo’, ‘How To Take the Angst out of Chapter 17′, or ‘The Great Camping Incident, AKA Why To Never Take Smith Camping Again’.

Lava Fall

* A sort of AU(?) for Same People But Not Really by @kittydemon9000 based on this idea

Spoilers(?) comes sometime after the latest chapter update alSO OKAY I KNOW I SAID I MIGHT WRITE IT LATER BUT APPARENTLY LATER WAS 5 MINUTES SHUSH SPBNR IS GOOD AND MAKES ME FEEL CREATIVE

———–

Shogun found himself in a rather precarious position. 

As in, tied to a chain, dangling over lava just like Nya back in the Fire Temple.

Garmadon (or at least, this version of him) gloated. “I asked you to join me! Yet you refuse! You’re as stubborn as my buttface of a brother.”

Despite the childish insults, Shogun knew better than to underestimate the dark lord. Instead, he levered the villain with a burning glare. “Let me go, or face the consequences.”

Garmadon smiled- a cruel, wretched thing, honestly- and placed two of his hands on a lever. “Let you go? That can be arranged.”

The lava seemed to draw closer lava that surrounded Lloyd’s cage, surrounded the metal floor and sucked at the bars, as the Fangblade plummeted and Kai lunged forward not for the weapon but for his little brother, too late, he was too late, too unworthy, too much of a failure-

Shogun’s face was the definition of a furious snarl, but before he could spit out a barrage of insults so stinging it could have melted Garmadon’s helmet, one of the doors to the cavern burst open and the Ninja Force came raining in.

“Smith!” Lloyd not his Lloyd but still neither should be near a volcano not after- shouted, green hood pulled over his face. “Hold on!”

Ninja met sea-themed generals in combat, and Kai had never felt so helpless. Well, that was a lie, he just hated feeling this helpless. He could only hang there and watch the battle unfold until it was suddenly halted by Garmadon lowering the chain a smidge.

Silence fell over the cavern.

“So-” Garmadon stretched the word out, savouring the attention. “You surrender, or he drops.”

Shogun had enough. Smith had enough. Kai had enough. With the fury of a thousand suns, he spat out, “Do it, coward.”

An even bigger silence somehow filled the cavern. The Ninja Force and generals alike looked on with horror, the former with fear for their friend, the latter recognizing a phrase that would immediately get any of them fired if they dared utter it.

Even Garmadon blinked. Then his cruel smirk returned. “So be it.”

And with that, the chain plunged Shogun Smith Kai into the lava.

—

Lloyd didn’t know what to do.

Smith had dropped into their lives one seemingly uneventful day, and he’d stuck to them ever since. He’d been the best addition to their friend group they could’ve ever hoped for.

And now he’d been dropped, literally, back out of their lives.

“SMITH!”

The shout came from six people at once, six ninjas scrambling to the lava’s edge where the chain vanished below the bubbling orange surface. Kai, who managed to get closest, dropped to his knees right by the lava shore.

“He… he can’t be gone.” His voice was hollow, un-Kai-like. It reminded Lloyd of how lost Shogun sounded. “He can’t be.”

“…sensors indicate 0% chance of survival…” came Zane’s voice, grief-struck cold and crackling with static. “But… I wish I was wrong.”

Nya had an expression seeped with horror and guilt. “The last thing I ever said to him-…”

Cole stood silent, though his eyes spoke volumes over the turmoil he felt.

Jay was close to a bad panic attack.

And Lloyd… Lloyd couldn’t think. Smith was gone.

And it was his father’s fault.

Lloyd growled, slowly turning to face Garmadon with eyes blazing green and gold. The move caught even the dark lord off guard.

But before Lloyd could move, before he could open his mouth to speak, the lava exploded.

Everyone scrambled back as the geyser of lava swallowed the remains of the dangling metal chain whole. No one, not even Kai himself, noticed that a couple drops landed on his skin without burning him.

And suddenly Lloyd couldn’t breathe.

Because striding out of the lava, completely fine as if he’d merely taken a plunge into the pond in the park, was Smith.

What. The. F-

Smith, reaching land, shook himself off. Droplets of lava hit the rocky floor. Not even his clothes looked singed. The only chance, honestly, was that his stormy expression somehow managed to look even more murderous toward Garmadon. He raised his hand toward Garmadon.

His fist erupted into flames.

WHAT. THE. F-

“So-” Smith drew out the word like it was an inside joke between him and the dark lord. “You asked me to join you. I refused. I asked you to let me go. I’d count that as refusing. So-” The flame grew bigger.

“It’s time you face the consequences.”

:D Glad you liked it!

The Beginning of Heatstroke, aka Red’s Villain Origin

* crashes down from the ceiling * I HAVE FINALLY FINISHED ONE OF MY 5+ CURRENT WRITING PROJECTS! BEHOLD, A WRITTEN VERSION OF THE ‘Red’s Villain Origin AU’, also known as RVO / Heatstroke AU

To summarize the AU for SPBNR for those that don’t now it: 

“Who’d be the biggest conspiracy theorist out of the M!Ninja? The one who drinks 5 hour energy at 3am and spits off the craziest theories and then actually gets it right but nobody gives the theory any merit because the rest of the theories are too crazy?”

The answer: Red / M!Kai

Red: Okay hear me out: Smith is actually an alternative version of one of us sent here from another dimension.

The other M!Ninja: You’re just saying that because Smith’s cool and you want him to be your counterpart

Based on the M!ninja making red cork boards trying to figure out ‘What Is Up With Smith’: Red gets increasingly accurate and nobody will believe him (all pre shogun reveal) and he eventually snaps and takes up a secret villain persona to fight Shogun like 'if they won’t believe me I’ll do it myself’ and it gets awkward when he accidentally does too much damage and catches not only Shogun’s attention like planned, but also the rest of the Ninjaforce, and now he has to keep his own identity a secret

So, without further ado, I present… Heatstroke

————

Red blamed the 5-hour energy coffee blend at 3:00am for this.

It was no surprise that between ‘Operation: What’s Going on with Smith’ & the sudden appearance of Shogun that the resident Bounty red-stringed ‘joke’ cork-board doubled in size and seriousness. It also was no surprise that Red had a corner all to himself and that his theories were… in the words of the others, ‘wildly inaccurate and implausible’.

But this time, he was sure he’d gotten it right.

Smith is Shogun sent here from another continent/planet/dimension with the goal of protecting Ninjago City.

The latest string of laughs and scoffs at his theory was the last straw. He’d show them. He’d prove it!

Which was why he was currently standing on the roof of a noodle house, awkwardly adjusting the spare motorcycle helmet he’d ‘borrowed’ from Nya and painted black and orangey-yellow (red had seemed too obvious). He’d exchanged his Ninjaforce outfit for a soot-burned cross between a bomber jacket and a leather jacket. Down his back jutted a row of flames like the spines of a monster, courtesy of one of Nya & Jay’s unfinished inventions Red had modified- surely nothing bad would come of that!

For tonight, the Red Ninja was off-duty. For tonight, it was Heatstroke’s turn.

He fiddled with one of the weapons he’d ‘lent out’ from Master Wu. It resembled a small arm canon, like a smaller version of the Ultimate Weapon. The plaque under its post had read ‘Elemental Focuser’, which, in cryptic Wu speak, probably translated to ‘you can use an elemental power like something out of Avatar: The Last Airbender’. So far he’d only figured out how to activate a focused jet of fire. Well, at least it was on brand. He hoped it would help him catch Shogun’s attention so he could unmask him.

He’d tried confronting Smith at school, of course. But there were only so many ways of saying ‘are you the new vigilante helping the ninjas’, and Smith has a genuine talent for dancing around the topic. Red could confront him with the name Shogun to get a proper reaction, but that would mean explaining how he knew the name and outing himself as the Red Ninja.

So fake villainy really was the only way.

His plan was to use the Elemental Focuser to cause some minor petty damage, just enough to attract the new vigilante. Perhaps set a trash can on fire, block an alleyway with rocks (if he figured out how to change the setting from fire to earth), small things that could easily be repaired.

Of course, plans were never actually stuck to. One way or another, something was always improvised.

Red’s improvisation just happened to involve him accidentally setting the entire alleyway on fire.

He’d only been aiming for one dumpster, honest! And maybe he’d spotted a couple fliers for a SoG meeting on the ground and happened to burn those too. And a newspaper article blaming Lloyd for the recent Garmadon attack, again. And an article about those ‘Damn Ninja Menaces’ by a S. Sonah Sameson. And-

Okay, so maybe Red had aimed the fire at a few small targets. But just a few! And with good reason and good care, but…

Well, fire liked to burn. Give it enough kindle and it’ll continue to grow, stretching like reaching branches towards each other to join in a massive bonfire. 

So now the entire alleyway was on fire, and Red was panicking. 

He’d luckily chosen an abandoned part of town near the beaches where Shogun sightings seemed most frequent, but with the stupid Elemental Focuser not switching from fire mode to water mode or ice mode or something that didn’t have the potential to burn Ninjago City to the ground, Red had no way of stopping the flames.

And more flames meant more destruction which meant a bigger audience.

Which was why his previously muted comm suddenly flared to life, the only warning Red had before Nya’s water strider mech slid around the corner.

Red scrambled onto a roof as the mech drove past, spraying water at the bonfire to dose it. His sigh of relief was just as quickly dosed as Lloyd’s voice came over the comms; “Status, Grey?”

“Flames are out,” Nya replied. “Pursing the joker that set it ablaze.”

Uh oh. Red took off across the roof, leaping from building to building. Tiles creaked, pebbled and dust scattering underfoot. The sounds of the mech’s engine roaring behind him echoed through alleyways below to create the illusion the mech was everywhere at once. 

As the chase grew on, more mechs started to join in. Red ducked into a narrow avenue to avoid Zane’s tank, then under a cafe overhang to throw off Jay and Lloyd. His heart hammered in his chest and he groaned, filling the inside of the motorcycle helmet with steam. Saying this was going ‘bad’ would be the understatement of the century. 

What had he been thinking? Oh wait: he hadn’t. Seriously? ‘Oh I’ll just pretend to be a villain real quick, that should get Shogun’s attention and not the attention of literally my entire team of fellow ninjas!’ Stupid, impulsive, this was why everyone was always calling the red ninja the ‘hothead’ when he really tried not to be- Lloyd’s voice over the comms snapped him from his thoughts. “I can’t catch them! It’s like they know our every move!”

Red winced as he climbed up a banister and leapt from balcony to balcony. Sorry, Lloyd. 

He didn’t miss how the others asked Nya where Red was. And how she made up excuses the others bought so easily- granted, he’d told those excuses to his sister before setting his plan into motion, but still, ouch. They acted like he was simply being at best too busy and at worst lazy and selfish.

He just wanted them to know the truth! Why couldn’t they at least try to believe him when-

Of course, that was when Shogun dropped out of the sky and tackled him.

Red shouted with surprise as he tumbled down from the second floor, slamming into a few softer bags of garbage to break his fall before rolling and slamming into the unforgiving concrete. A crack formed in his vision as the visor of his motorbike helmet smacked into the concrete ground. One of the fire jets on his back sputtered and sparked, sending a thin wisp of smoke into the air.

Shogun pinned his wrists to the ground and growled. “Who are you?”

Red tried to break free, agony turning his muscles and bones to fire with the movement after his fall, but the vigilante was too strong. Damn, how often did this guy train?

“Who am I?” Red said, a nervous tinge to his voice. He quickly smoothed it over with faked confidence. “Who are you? Who are all of us, really?”

Shogun narrowed his eyes behind his hood. “Did Garmadon send you? Or someone else?”

Red sputtered. Really, the nerve! Garmadon? The thought turned his insides to disgusting mud. “Nobody sent me!”

“Then why are you here?” Shogun spat.

“Why am I here?” Why was he here again? Oh right, the bright idea on how to reveal that Shogun was Smith. “It’s, uh… a valid reason! That I don’t have to tell you!” He tried for a villainous laugh. Stay in character, don’t blow your cover, you got this!

Shogun was unimpressed. “Nearly burning down my home was a valid reason?”

“Well, I wasn’t trying to set everything on- wait, WHAT?” Uh oh. “You LIVE here?”

Now it was Shogun’s turn to look uncomfortable, though the expression was quickly wiped from his face. “Nothing wrong with this district.” 

Red nodded. “‘Course not. Uh, sorry about that… wasn’t my intention, I swear.”

Shoot, he could hear Jay’s jet getting closer. He had to get out of here, but Shogun, annoyingly, didn’t seem to be in the mood to simply let him go. “Then what is your intention?”

“Well, for starters, it’s getting out of here. This really isn’t going to plan and I’d rather just be home right now, or even inventing a time machine like in that book ‘Hands of Time’ to slap my past self in the face for even thinking about this stupid idea in the first place-“

Jay wasn’t the only one that could ramble under pressure, it seemed.

Shogun leaned closer. “What idea?”

Red shrugged as best he could with how he was pinned to the ground. “Well, for starters, I just wanted to prove to my friends that you’re Smith, and things just kinda escalated from-”

The words were out of his mouth before he realized what he said. 

Shogun lurched back, letting go of him. His eyes betrayed a kaleidoscope of emotions; surprise, worry, suspicious, hurt, fear, realization. 

“…Kai?”

Well, f!ck.

“I-“

Red was about to badly attempt to bullsh!t his way out of his identity reveal before it suddenly dawned on him that Shogun had not denied his theory. 

Which meant Shogun was Smith.

And it also meant Smith instantly recognized him as Kai, which, considering his disguise, was aptly concerning. Sure, he was the first one in his group of friends people would think to do something this extreme but give him some credit! Zane was a regular detective, he’d do the same if it meant answers! Or, well, at least something similar. And Nya could be an adrenaline seeker. And Lloyd- well, maybe not Lloyd. Or Jay, either. Cole had his head just enough on his shoulders that he probably wouldn’t do this either.

But come on, instantly guessing it?

Well, at least Smith/Shogun didn’t know Kai was the Red Ninja. That would be a catastrophe.

Right. Back to the current catastrophe at hand.

Shogun- Smith- still had a look as if he’d been slapped, and Red hated it. He hadn’t meant to hurt his friend. Shogun… Shogun hadn’t wanted them to find out his identity. And then Red had gone and done it, just to prove that he could be the smart one, or a leader, or the protector so they didn’t get hurt, or literally anything but just the ‘hotheaded one’. 

…And he’d done it in the most hotheaded, impulsive way possible.

He really was an idiot.

The cracked helmet hid the look on his face, a twisted mess of distraught and shame. But it didn’t help hide how he took stumbled to his feet and away from Smith, nervous that any second he’d spill another mistake and mess up again, like how he always freaking messed up on everything. Don’t pick this fight, interject there instead, no, not there, idiot, there, FMS why are you so useless-

Focus, focus.

Lloyd’s voice, sharp in the intercom and full of static from his tumble, snapped him from his thoughts. “Anyone got eyes on the arsonist?”

Red caught Smith’s eye as he raised his hand to his own communicator. He was so screwed, so busted, so doomed… Smith would report it, and the others would know, and they’d think he was just messing around in an alleyway with some stolen devices and weapons out of curiosity or rage, - and-

“None yet, still looking.”

…What?

Smith stared at him, gaze searching. He looked shaken, more so than Red- who’d just taken a fall from a second story, mind you, it was a miracle he wasn’t more injured than a couple small scrapes and some future bruises-, yet everything from the set of his jaw to the softening of his furrowed brows suggested a change in emotions. Well, not quite change; more like repress and replace.

“You wanted to prove yourself, didn’t you.”

Red flushed, hand instinctually clamping into a tight fist at his side. The still-working fire jets on his back ignited without him pressing any buttons; faulty activation from the fall or something. 

Palms up and hands raised, Smith silently asked to defuse the situation. “Didn’t mean it as an insult. This wasn’t about venting some anger, was it.”

Red’s lack of response only confirmed it. Smith continued. “I won’t say anything about this if you don’t tell anyone my identity. Deal? I know finding it out was important to you, but-“

“Deal,” Red interrupted. Guilt ate away at his core, like a wave of water dousing a candle. “Smith, I-“ He swallowed hard and stared at the alley floor. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to… to…”

Smith’s hand was suddenly on his shoulder and he flinched before relaxing as Smith didn’t move further, nor did the grip tighten. “I’m a little hurt, you’re right. But I’m not mad. And I won’t tell the others, so you can relax. But you better get out of here and get yourself an alibi. We can talk at school or something.”

Wow, he was handling this rather calmly. Red was struck by the sudden memory of- what did Jay call the word? Right. Compartmentalizing. That… wasn’t healthy. But at the roar of Lloyd’s mech somewhere nearby, he didn’t comment further. Instead, he shot Smith a grateful nod and ran down the alley, sticking to the shadows and blind spots of the flying mechs and the tight alleyways where the land mechs couldn’t reach him. 

When he got home, miraculously without further incident (though Shogun leading the others on a wild goose chase over the comms certainly helped there), he ditched the outfit in a bag hidden beneath a loose floorboard in the shed. He’d return the weapon to Master Wu’s ship later, and… well, hope Nya never searched for the missing supplies. There wasn’t a way of fixing it without involving her or Jay, and neither was an option.

Heatstroke was back off duty, and so was the Red Ninja.

For now, he could just be Kai Smith. And there wasn’t any issue with that.

…

Right?

—————

yooOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

THIS IS AMAZING REHJJGFHDESFXJVZ

and ah yes, good ol trauma and compartmentalizing, we love to see it

The Start of Smith Shark-Pup Forge

I LIVE!!!! And for my grand return to Tumblr, may I present... This fic for the SPBNR Sharp-Pup AU :3

Enjoy

---*--- Kai was going to kill Garmadon, revive him with his own stupid Mega Weapon, and kill him again.

That is, he would, if he could just get out of this bag-

Seriously, how had the Mega Weapon transformed the bag previously stuffed over his head into a bag that covered his entire body? And why was he struggling so much to get it off, it was just a cloth bag, it shouldn’t be this hard-

In a fit of frustration, he bit into the fabric and was pleasantly surprised when it shredded and he was able to worm his way out of the hole.

He gaped at the sight around him. Ninjago City. Or, at least he thought it was Ninjago city. It was lit with every colour of the rainbow, drowning out the stars above. But that wasn’t the part that threw him off.

It was how big everything was.

The smallest buildings around him were the size of the tallest buildings in Ninjago City, but they didn’t even come close to the tower in the middle of the city. Kai nearly got dizzy looking at it, and he wasn’t even standing close to it. 

Heck, just the night lamppost was taller than any lamppost he’d seen before. And that alley dumpster- it was taller than him! Taller… by a lot. A weird amount, actually.

…

So either everything was so much taller than normal in this weird Not-Quite-Ninjago-City, or… 

Or he was smaller than normal. A lot smaller.

His question was quickly confirmed when he tried to stand, only to overbalance and fall forward on his paws.

Paws. Not hands.

WHAT IN THE NAME OF THE FSM-

Kai stared at his hands (or lack thereof), and finally got a good look at himself.

Oh. Oh no. Oh nonononnononono, what- 

What was he, some kind of shark… puppy… mix? Pinkish red splotches on small, smooth scales secretly rough as sandpaper, mostly blue with an underbelly of white, a fin spiked up on the top of his head with smaller fins spiked like his hair, and a red collar. A collar. Like he was nothing more than a common house-pet.

Kai growled, then balked at how weird that felt. He ran his tongue over sharpened teeth; definitely some kind of Shark… Pup… thing.

He would ask why, but the answer was ‘The Universe was fucking with him, as always’. 

“H-heh, c’mon. L-let’s talk this out.”

Kai’s head snapped up. The voice sounded familiar in a way, though he couldn’t quite place it. Still, they sounded panicked. Scared. 

His instincts were firing at him.

Stumbling over his paws, Kai immediately fell face-first (snout-first?) into a puddle of mud. When he stood, shaking the dirt from his eyes, he fumbled over to a dumpster and tripped over an open garbage bag. Ewwww… just his stupid luck.

“Th-that’s a nice l-looking knife you have there.”

Kai shook off the garbage and bounded down the street, growing more confident with every step. His movements were fuelled by fire, little sparks and melted paw prints in the asphalt trailing in his wake. Someone was in trouble. A knife. An alleyway. His problems could wait.

“You like it?” A different voice. “It’s my father’s.”

Kai growled again, picking up the pace. The conversation seemed so close, but because of his small size (and general lack of control over his new form, despite getting better at it as adrenaline and protectiveness shoved him forward), the empty street took forever to cross. The streetlamp flickered overhead, casting his shadow across the alley.

“Or, rather it was, before Lord Garmadon’s last attack put him in the hospital.”

That almost threw Kai off balance, but he quickly corrected his movement before he could go skittering into the storm drain- the way he was right now, he might actually slip in- and kept running.

“L-look, I’m sorry, I really am, but hurting me isn’t gonna help hi-” 

A strangled yelp. Kai felt hot fire building in his throat, smoke slipping through his clenched teeth. Almost… there…!

“Oh I know that. Doesn’t mean it won’t make me feel better.”

Kai skittered into the alleyway, snarling. A person holding a knife whipped around to see what had just happened but kept their hand firmly around the throat of a teen in a green hoodie. With mud covering many of his spots, the darkness of night covering the rest, and patches of garbage visible in the splotches of moonlight, he surely was quite the sight even without his new shark pup form. 

Despite the smoke curling out of Kai’s mouth (if the people could even see it in the dim alleyway), the stranger with the knife didn’t seem to be intimidated. They merely laughed. “What, brought your little puppy with you? Your stupid sea dog?”  

As the green teen squirmed, knife flashing too close to their skin, what little patience Kai had evaporated. A jet of fire burst from his mouth. It roared across the alleyway, licking at the walls and charging toward the stranger. 

The stranger screamed and dropped the knife, blocking the fire with their arms. The flames washed over the green teen without burning them. Kai was across the alley by the time the flames flickered away, leaping at the stranger and biting their leg. 

“MOTHERF-“

Kai leapt away from the stranger as they hopped on one foot in pain, finally crashing into the far wall. Ignoring them, Kai grabbed the edge of the green teen’s pant leg (the closest thing he could reach from the ground) and dragged him toward the alleyway exist,

Together they ran for several minutes through the streets away from the alley, until Kai’s stubby little legs outweighed his ninja training stamina. He tumbled as he missed a step, rolling several feet before coming to a whining stop on his back. Ouch, his feet hurt. No, that was right… paws. 

The questions of where was he, what was he, how did he get back to his family and form crashed back into him, tearing at his mind and threatening to strangle his lungs. He buried the feelings down but they kept rising back up, bubbling under his skin and grabbing at his chest, his heart, his head, his thoughts. Stop it, get a hold of yourself, figure out the situation first-

Someone scooped him up. Kai let out a startled noise, weakly pawing at fabric until he realized it was just the green-wearing teen. He calmed a little (just a little; he didn’t like getting picked up, and certainly not by someone this much taller than him at the moment), and finally got a good look at the kid. 

Dear FSM, it was like looking at an older Lloyd. Fix his hair, change his eye colour, and boom, it was like staring at a mirror of the future. Kai could see Lloyd looking like this teen, and it wasn’t just the green hoodie. 

“So, um, hi there…” The teen said. Kai stared at him. “Thank you. For saving me, I mean. Nobody else would have done that. Figures; I’m about to get stabbed and the only one willing to help is a stray shark pup-“

The teen noticed his collar. “Or, not a stray. Let’s see-“

Kai squirmed a little as the teen grabbed the tag on his collar, but the grip, despite being firm, was incredibly soft and gentle. 

The teen flipped the charred name tag; it must have gotten burnt in the alleyway. “All I can make out is Smith… is that your name?”  

Smith? No, his name was Kai. His last name was Smith. But there wasn’t exactly a way he could communicate that right now…

The teen was annoyingly yet understandably oblivious to Kai’s struggles. They ducked their head, the ground suddenly very interesting. “My name’s Lloyd… Lloyd Garmadon.”

No, he couldn’t be Lloyd. Lloyd was, for starters, short. And younger. And- and-

And didn’t get nearly killed in an alleyway by a stranger seeking revenge for something Garmadon didn’t. There was no way the others would let that happen, even with Kai’s disappearance. Cole wouldn’t. Zane wouldn’t. Jay wouldn’t. Nya wouldn’t. Sensei Wu wouldn’t. And yet…

Was… Was this Lloyd after all? Had he’d travelled into the future, landing in this strange form? He stared into Lloyd’s eyes, desperately trying to convey who he was. But Lloyd just looked at him with stinging unfamiliarity, a wariness in his eyes that broke Kai’s heart and tore the pieces to shreds. 

The teen- Lloyd- put Kai back down. “So, uh, in case you didn’t know who I was, you can run now…”

Kai stayed put.

The teen blinked. “Oh, uh, I guess… well, it probably wouldn’t matter to you, huh? Besides, my father-“ the word was said with venom- “Likes sharks, so I guess that means they like me.”

After a moment of thinking, Kai head-butted Lloyd’s leg to mimic how he would give his younger brother one-armed hugs. Lloyd smiled a little; his first smile of the night. “So, uh, Smith, got anywhere to go? I better get home, my mom’ll be worried…”

MOM??? 

Kai filed that away into the ‘freak out about it later’ folder in his brain, right next to ‘repressed feelings’. He stuck close to Lloyd; the chances of running into him in the city while stuck in this form would be impossible, and there was no way he was letting his brother out of sight after the knife incident. 

Lloyd scooped him up again. “Well, uh, I guess if you insist… No promises Mom will let me keep you, but you can stay at my house for the night I guess. I’ve never seen a shark pup that can breathe fire…”

Came with the territory of being the Master of Fire, apparently. Kai scanned the streets for dangers as Lloyd started down the sidewalk. No matter what, he was determined to protect his not-so-much-younger-right-now younger brother in this strange city.

And nothing, not even his strange new form, could stop him.