Grumpy Boy. (affectionate)

Grumpy boy. 😠 (affectionate)

hhhheeeeeeyyyy

Hey, you guys see the resemblance, too! An addition, if I may.

@techwrecker I don't know what exactly you wanted, but I did this. When you said about Milo and Tech, that's just the first image that popped into my mind. Atlantis x tbb: 1 2 3 4

Broke through a little writers block on "The Lighthouse" via mentioning a spider web. I was like, yeah, there's a spider web in the corner, and then the transition from one scene to the next became clear. What even is writing? 🕷🕸🤷‍♀️

I finally got around to hanging these up on my wall! They look so good! @joshuad17 , your art is so awesome!

I don't know if he still has posters available for purchase right now, but Ninjago fans, do yourselves a favor and go check out @joshuad17 's work. It's so detailed and gorgeous!

Yes! Yes! Yes!!!! They both support each other so much!!! Gosh I love this ship so much!!! 😍

It matters where you are 🩵

@the-ninjago-historian @only-lonely-stars

Finding Balance

Chapter 3 : New People, New Places

(For @ninjago-fic-fest)

Chapter 1 Chapter 2 - Chapter 4

Summary: After he is retrieved from the lighthouse by his brother and new friends, Echo must adjust to his new life. Even though his new home and family are amazing, it's still so different from what he's used to. Maybe a walk in the city will help clear his mind.

Chapter 3

New People, New Places

Echo felt his pants pocket for about the tenth time since leaving the monastery. Yep, the communicator was still there.

He’d probably forget to check in as much as Zane wanted him to, but he promised himself he’d call his brother at least once on his outing.

At some point.

But not right now, there was too much to see!

And this place was like nothing Echo had ever seen before.

The streets bustled with cars and motorcycles of all shapes and colors. Tantalizing smells wafted from street vendors and out of restaurant doors. Bright signs advertising sales and 2 for 1 specials, sat outside of businesses, trying to bring in as many costumers as possible. People lined the sidewalks, arms full of the wares they had bought at the previous store, headed to the next vendor on their list.

It was so beautiful. The city was filled with more life and color than Echo thought possible.

And the buildings were all so tall! Sure, the lighthouse had been pretty sizable, but these buildings were ginormous!

Echo craned his neck to see the top of a particularly large building that looked to be near the center of the city. It’s shiny glass sides shone in the sun. The walls kept going up and up and up; crowned at the tippy top with a shimmering blue hologram that looked a bit like a stylized letter “C”. The hologram shimmered and warbled with static as a bird flew through the center of the digital image.

There were quite a lot of birds around, actually, Echo noticed. Pigeons strutted through the streets, larger black birds, probably crows or ravens, soared through the spaces between the many buildings. There were even some robins perched on some of the power lines that lined the roads.

Echo was looking at a particularly large black bird perched comic-ly on a rather small streetlight when a kid on a bike almost crashed into him.

“Wwhhhooooaaa!!!!” the kid yelled and swerved at the last second as Echo stumbled in the opposite direction. Both the bike and the kid fell to the pavement with a crash.

When he had recovered his balance, Echo rushed over to the kid sprawled out on his back and offered a hand to help him up.

“Are you okay?”, he asked urgently. He sincerely hoped the boy was alright; it had looked like a pretty nasty crash. But the kid suddenly jumped up from the street unaided, as if nothing had happened.

“Oh, don’t worry, I’m fine!”, he exclaimed, “I’ve crashed my bike hundreds of times!”

The boy looked a little disheveled, but he didn’t seem to be hurt too bad.

“Hundreds of times?” Echo asked, flabbergasted.

“Well, maybe not that many times, but I do crash a lot,” the kid answered, “I’m Nelson by the way, what’s your name?”

“Oh, I’m Echo,” the android replied, and stuck out his hand for a handshake like his brother had taught him to.

Nelson accepted his hand and shook it enthusiastically, “Nice to meet you, Echo! And um, sorry I almost ran you over,”

“It’s okay. I am glad that you are fine as well,”

“Thanks!”, Nelson replied with a smile.

Then his smile broadened, and his eyes widened.

"Whoa…sorry - this is - I just have to say – I can’t believe I’m meeting a real life nindroid!”, Nelson stuttered out, “This is so cool! I’ve seen some nindroids around town, but I’ve never actually met one before,”

Echo smiled wide.

He didn’t think anyone had ever called him “cool” before. It felt good. And from the sounds of it there were other nindroids in the city as well. That was an encouraging thought.

Pausing their conversation, Nelson crouched down by his bike to examine it.

“Oh no…” he groaned, “my mom’s gonna kill me...”

Echo gave Nelson a concerned look.

“Oh! Not really. It’s just an expression,” Nelson added with a laugh, seeming to understand Echo’s confusion. “She keeps telling me to be more careful when I bike in the city. So, she’s not going to be happy when she sees this,” he gestured to the overturned bike.

Echo took a closer look at the bike and saw the reason for Nelson’s distress. Not only had the chain come off the gears, which in and of itself would have been an easy fix, but the gears themselves were missing entirely!

He looked around for the missing gears, and finally spotted them scattered on the sidewalk a few feet away. He quickly retrieved the bike gears and went to hand them to Nelson.

“Are these what you’re looking for?” he asked.

“Oh, you found them! Thanks Echo!” Nelson exclaimed excitedly. And then he paused, seemingly deep in thought, “Now, how do I reattach these…”

Echo squatted down next to Nelson to get a closer look at the problem.

If there was one thing he knew, it was mechanics. He had reattached his own arm multiple times and had kept Ty-Dee in tip top shape over the years in the lighthouse. Echo figured he could reattach the gears easily.

With the right tools.

Which he didn’t have on hand.

“Hmmm. I think I can fix it, but I don’t have the tools right now…”

“You’ll help me fix it? Aw man you’re a life saver Echo!”

Echo stood up and considered their options.

“If you would like, we can take your bike back to my house and I can fix it there,”

“That sounds great! But I’ll have to ask my mom first,” Nelson rolled his eyes, “She doesn’t like me going to other people’s houses without her permission,”

“Hm. That seems like a good rule for her to have” Echo replied.

“Yeah, I guess,” Nelson admitted, “I’ll ask her and maybe I can come over with the bike tomorrow,”

“Sounds like a plan,” Echo nodded his head in agreement, “I suppose I shall see you tomorrow. It was very nice meeting you Nelson.”

“It was nice to meet you too,” Nelson replied with a smile.

Echo waved a quick goodbye and was just turning to leave when Nelson interrupted.

“Hey, I was headed to the Dairy Dragon for some ice cream. Y’know, before I almost crashed into you and all. But it’s kinda boring eating ice-cream all by yourself. Do you want to come?”

Echo considered the offer. The whole reason he had wanted to explore the city was, ironically in a city this size, to get away from people. But honestly, after talking with him for a bit, Echo kinda wanted to hang out with Nelson some more. Who knows? It could be the start of a new adventure.

“I would love to accompany you. But, um, what is ice cream?”

“You’ve never had ice cream before?!”, Nelson blurted, flabbergasted.

Echo thought back to all the different meals he had tried with his new family. Ice cream. Like the cream cheese frosting on his welcome home cake?

“Um. Is it like cake?”, Echo offered in response to Nelson’s bewilderment.

“If you like cake, you’re going to love ice-cream!”, Nelson replied, “Be prepared for deliciousness my friend! It’s this way!”

Nelson gestured for Echo to follow him as he wheeled his bike down the sidewalk towards a row of small shops.

Echo didn’t move from his place on the concrete.

Friend. He had made a new friend.

Echo stood smiling for a moment longer before Nelson shouted back to him.

“Are you coming, Echo?!”

“Coming!”, Echo shouted back and ran to catch up with his new friend.

It wasn’t exactly the alone time he had planned for the day, but that was okay.

He was glad to have met someone as nice as Nelson.