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A Slip of the Tongue

* original idea credit/inspired by that one awesome ask by fangirl-616 for kittydemon9000 

Spoilers(?) for Same People, But Not Really

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Shogun had gotten himself into quite a pickle.

And by pickle, he meant the Ninja Force nearly figuring out his identity of ‘Smith’ because of a careless slip about his family life.

He needed a lie, now.

And so, his ever helpful brain had blurted out the first thing that came to mind: a very dumb rumour he’d found trending about Shogun that he’d only known because he frequently checked to make sure his cover hadn’t been blown, which was incredibly annoying because technology didn’t like to WORK with him.

“Ha ha uh yeah Garmadon is totally my dad-”

He regretted those words the instant they left his mouth, physically cringing at the taste of the lie in his mouth. Why, why out of all the rumours, why that one. Especially with the look Lloyd was giving him, a wide-eyed stare of ‘I have several questions’ as if he couldn’t believe- Oh. Oh no. WAIT- “I have to go now,” Shogun said with the confidence of a concussed sheep, trying to subtly turn around and find the warehouse Bounty exit. He could feel Llyod, the actual son of Garmadon, staring at him.

And he wasn’t the only one, as this world’s Zane’s unnaturally peppy voice burst out “Wait, is this why you were so protective when he got kidnapped???” Beneath his gi, Shogun’s face was as red as the colour he wore. “I HAVE TO GO NOW-”

Nya, ever the brilliant addition to any conversation, added in a demanding yet curious tone, “Is this why you didn’t want us to know your identity?!?”

Shogun all but sprinted out of the Bounty, shouting one final “I HAVE TO GO NOW BYE-” before vaulting up the nearest roof and out of sight. He ran for several kilometers across the city, weaving back and forth along rooftops and alleyways to lose any tails, until finally he arrived at his apartment. His gi was flung to the floor and he dove for his bed, hoping that the measly, moth-bitten blanket would shield him from the reality of what he’d just unleashed with one badly-thought out statement.

Hopefully the next day would be better.

---

The next day was not better.

Why?

Simple: Smith had to deal with the Ninja Force not-very-subtly asking him his opinion on the Shogun rumours. It figured that they would want the opinion of their new friend on the legitimacy of the mess he’d left last night, but did they really have to bring it up. He made a mental note to remind Master Wu for those subtlety lessons, if he ever showed his face as Shogun around the Bounty again.

“So what do you think, Smith?” Kai (Smith would never get used to that) said for the group, waving his lunch utensil around to punctuate his question. “Do you think there’s any merit to the rumour that the new guy helping the Ninja Force is actually related to Garmadon? I mean, outside Llyod of course, because we know he’s nowhere near any of the attacks.”

Smooth. Real smooth.

Smith tried to cover the embarrassment and unease churning in his gut as he pushed the food on his plate around (cafeteria food was the worst, how could anyone eat this, it was somehow worse than Cole’s cooking). “I don’t know, I haven’t been keeping up with any rumours or anything. Maybe we should just-”

“I have read every forum multiple times!” Zane piped in helpfully. His eyes flashed, and Smith guessed he’d pulled up a few of the sites now to double-check his facts. “I can easily update you if you would like!”

Crap. If Smith didn’t change the subject soon, he’d be hearing about his blunder for the next 3 hours. And that was NOT something he could handle.

“So, Lloyd, how’d you feel about the rumours? Surely you know how dumb they are.”

Smith was going to enroll himself in those subtle lessons.

Lloyd shuffled in his seat, his tone hinting that he was looking for advice. “Well... It seems pretty out there, but… but if the new guy were to, uh, say it or something, would you believe it?”

Oh, that was just handing him an out on a silver platter. There wouldn’t be a more golden opportunity unless the Megaweapon itself dropped out of the sky with the wish to zap Smith home. “Oh, absolutely-”

He paused. Wait. No, this wasn’t a win-win situation, this was a lose-lose situation. Lloyd trusted Shogun, but he trusted Smith more. If Smith said absolutely not, that could compromise Lloyd’s trust in Shogun. If Smith said nothing more, Lloyd might actually believe his blunder, and it would certainly raise questions, but Lloyd would keep his trust in Shogun.

And he desperately needed that trust in Shogun if Smith was going to keep his little brother safe.

And so, with a heavy heart and infinite regret, Smith shut his mouth. Lloyd looked surprised for a moment, then nodded. Smith resigned himself to the fact that he had doomed himself, but at least he’d doomed himself for Lloyd.

This was going to be a very difficult week.

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

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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.”

The Great Camping Incident, AKA Why To Never Take Smith Camping Again

@kittydemon9000 CLOCKING IN AT MORE THAN 500 WORDS MORE THAN THE PREVIOUS TWO FICS COMBINED, I PRESENT:  The Gang Takes Smith Camping and it goes about as well as you’d expect.

Enjoy.

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Smith Forge was never allowed to go camping again, not after the great Camping Trip Incident.

Allow me to explain.

It all started with Lloyd oh so innocently asking Smith if he wanted to join him and the gang camping. There was a spot in the woods not too far from the city in case the Garm-Alarm sounded, private and bare of other campers.

Smith, of course, agreed, and Lloyd found himself with a pat on his head from his mom as she dropped him and Smith off at the campsite for the night. As usual, she and Smith exchanged some strange emotion in their look, though this time Koko seemed to nod ever so slightly at whatever she saw staring back.

The others arrived shortly after.

It all started with the tents. Specifically, the fact that Smith seemed mystified that they weren’t going to simply sleep on the ground next to a campfire on the sleeping mats Koko had lent them.

Apparently, all he knew from camping was an extreme version of ‘roughing it’. And he meant extreme.

“YOU’VE SLEPT IN A SNOWSTORM?!?”

Yep, that would be Kai.

“The probability of surviving that is…”

Zane, right on cue.

“How much of an adrenaline junkie are you?”

Nya, sounding a little bit awed as if she wanted to try it sometime on her own.

“Are you crazy?!?”

And that would be Jay to round them off, Cole just staring at Smith speechlessly.

Smith shrugged. “A snowstorm, the top of a mountain, near a stormy wasteland…”

“And no tent?”

“No tent.”

Lloyd didn’t know whether to be impressed, angry, or concerned. He settled for all three.

After that, and some help teaching Smith how to pitch a tent, came the gathering of supplies for camp. Cole gathered the stone circle for the pit, Nya set up their water filtration system by the river, and Kai and Smith both volunteered to gather sticks for the fire.

It was on this walk that Kai and Smith got to chatting.

Or, well, Kai did most of the chatting for the first bit, while Smith just nodded and stared into space a little.

“You okay?” Kai finally asked when they passed a bush of yellow flowers that Smith seemed to glower at with loathing.

Smith turned sharply, scar crinkling as his face twisted in surprise. “I-” He sighed. “Sorry, just… lost in thought.”

Kai silently prompted him to continue if he felt comfortable.

“I just… it’s been a while since I was last on a trip like this,” Smith started. “And the last time I slept in a forest like this… I… I made this stupid, impulsive mistake, and the people I care about paid for it. We managed to save them in the end, but… it could have ended up a lot worse. And it did lead to some pretty nasty consequences that might have been avoided if I had just stayed in camp instead of running off on my own.”

Kai nodded. “I get that. Nya and I went camping with our parents when we were younger, and… I wanted to go stargazing. I climbed up a tree to watch in the middle of the night and fell asleep. Boy, did I get an earful from those three when I woke up to their search party.”

Smith cracked a small grin. “Impulsive and instinct-driven to a fault, huh? That sounds familiar…”

“Yeah…”

Smith glanced over at Kai’s quieter tone. The latter quickly hid it with a bright smile. “But hey, that’s what life is! A series of adventures strung together by action.”

“...you’re worried you worry others too much.”

Kai blinked. “Huh…?”

Smith shook his head. “You’re impulsive and a little hot-headed sometimes. It’s protective, it’s loyal, but it’s also stubborn and puts you and the people you care about in harm's way. And you catch yourself wondering if you hadn’t done that action, what would be different. What would be better. And you start to beat yourself up over your impulses but at the same time you can’t get them to simply stop and think.”

Kai was silent.

“But…” Smith said, staring down at his hands. “Your instinct can also be something great. It reacts before anyone else. It warns you when something is wrong, that gut feeling that says don’t go there, don’t trust them, but also yes this is a safe place and that is a trustable person. It’s an invaluable tool. Don’t wish it away. Learn how to work with it and listen. That in turn will help you control your anger and impulses.”

Kai stared at Smith for a long minute. His eyes were wide as moons, his posture slack yet attentive.

Then he swore once, quietly and fiercely under his breath, before tipping his head back and laughing. “I can’t believe I got a Smith ChatTM. I bet Nya that Jay and Lloyd would both get one before me.”

Smith shrugged with a smile. “What can I say, I learned from a wise teacher.”

Kai suddenly pulled Smith into a hug, knocking their meagre gathering of twigs to the ground. The hug was tight, warm- extremely warm, actually, like hugging a hot water bottle, though Smith unknowingly gave off the same feeling- and honest.

“...Thanks,” Kai whispered.

Smith ruffled his hair. “Anytime.”

The two continued walking down the path after that, laughing and chatting. Smith grew a little brighter, as if he needed to hear his own words.

And if the pair trampled any yellow flower bushes for Smith’s sake, well, who’s the say?

---

The second-worst part of the evening was what was henceforth known as ‘The Great Marshmallow Incident’, and was only known as the second-worst after the evening because the top worst had yet to come.

It had started with the hardest event to get wrong; roasting marshmallows. Everyone was having a fantastic time trading jokes (and memes, in Zane’s case), laughing, and enjoying fluffy goodness.

Until one marshmallow, carefully roasted to perfection over countless much-focused minutes, decided that just as it got to that perfect golden brown that now would be a lovely time to take a vacation to the far-off lands of the campfire.

Now, normally such a tragedy would simply end with sadness and a couple laughs, but this was not normal company. And as such, Smith said “I got it!” and plunged his hand into the flames.

There was a moment of stunned silence.

And then the forest filled with yelling.

The first to react was Nya, sitting between Kai and Smith. The only reason she was faster than Lloyd was that she’d honed her reaction skills for these specific scenarios with her brother who did not understand the concept of ‘hot things are hot, do not touch’. Her hand shot out and yanked Smith’s arm up and out of the flames, Lloyd joining a moment later to almost throw Smith out of his seat.

Smith’s eyes were wide. “Whoa, what-”

Lloyd immediately started fussing over his hand (the hand that still clutched the gooey marshmallow that had started it all). “WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT???”

Smith had the audacity to cock his head a smidge and look confused. “Do what?”

“THAT!” Lloyd gestured wildly at the fire. “FOR A MARSHMALLOW!”

Smith stared at the fire with a furrowed brow, slowly taking in the expressions of horror, panic, and worry staring back from around the campfire. The only one who matched his bewilderment was Kai.

“It does not appear he sustained a burn,” Zane spoke. “The sudden way you pulled him from the fire seems to have prevented an injury. I suppose you could say that was quite ‘lit’.”

It took a few moments for the first person to groan once the adrenaline spike from Smith’s actions wore off.

Lloyd let out a tired sigh. “Just don’t do… that, again!”

Cole nodded in agreement, and based on how Jay was rambling into his scarf and tugging at the frayed end, he agreed too. Zane helpfully pulled up a guide started to explain fire safety while Nya lightly whacked her brother in the back of the head before he could reach into the fire too.

After a while, the group returned to eating marshmallows and telling stories. Smith told a particularly riveting tale of a marsh where a type of snake apparently spit hallucination-causing venom.

It was when the sun began its slow march towards the horizon and each person retreated to their tent with varying degrees of hesitation and stubborn refusal (Koko had issued a bedtime, and even the most reluctant of the group were determined to follow it) that the worst incident of the entire camping trip came to be.

Though the effects of the lone person patrolling the camp boundaries out of habit would not be felt until morning.

Kai was the first victim of the incident, though he would be the last to figure it out. He’d wandered out of camp in one of his classic sleepwalking maneuvers, and his body had chosen that the best possible place to stand still was with one foot in the loop of rope perfectly hidden on the forest floor.

Somehow the rope trap catching him like a fly and swinging up upside down to dangle above the ground didn’t wake him up.

The sound did, however, wake up Cole, who poked his head out of camp and took just one small step too many in Kai’s direction, which was how he found himself at the bottom of a pit trap that had somehow been dug overnight. Normally holes like this never bothered him, though it was surprising to find himself suddenly sitting at the bottom with no idea who had dug the trap (especially with its perfect cylinder edges- had some kind of spinning drill dug it out?

Lloyd woke up a little later and started searching for Kai, Cole, Smith, and Nya, all of whom were missing from the camp. Nya he found not far from where Kai was asleep upside down, pounding at the bars of the stick cage that somehow was professionally built enough to keep her stuck. But when he ran over to help, his hand got caught in some invisible thread.

And then his foot did.

And suddenly Lloyd was trapped in a web trap, one much more expertly crafted than any of the pranks from school.

Well then. This was a thing that was happening.

When he looked around, he spotted Cole struggling to climb out of a pit trap with smooth, almost melted walls of dirt. A small spark of light turned his attention a little further off, where he saw Jay caught in a net and panicking from the height. Ironic, considering he flew a jet.

Based on the monotone ‘ouch’ behind him, Zane had also fallen victim to the traps. Lloyd craned his neck; a lump was caught under one of the tent tarps that had been reused as a net since the only true net was already in use.

“Oh no.”

Lloyd struggled to turn his head enough to face Smith’s voice. He hoped his friend hadn’t also gotten caught like the others.

A knife suddenly cut through the webs keeping Lloyd trapped and he tumbled to the ground with sticky strings trailing along his arms and stuck in his hair. He blinked, groaning, as a hand helped him up.

Lloyd shook his head. “Thanks, Smith. Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” Smith said. He glanced at the others with his face twisted with worry, concern, and some weird form of exasperation. “But the others-”

“We’ll get them down,” Lloyd assured him. A faint ‘please’ came from Jay’s direction. “And we’ll figure out who managed to set so many traps so fast.”

“Actually...” Smith scratched the back of his neck. “That would have been me. Sorry.”

Lloyd blinked. Then blinked again. “You…?”

“Yeah. Old, uh, habit. Couldn’t sleep and decided to, uh, fortify the area… sorry, I forgot to warn everyone.”

Lloyd glanced at his team of ninjas, all caught in traps laid by a normal student. “I’d consider them pretty warned now.”

Smith brandished his knife (where had he gotten a knife, Lloyd swore he hadn’t seen it packed). “I’ll… I’ll get them all down.”

And get them down he did, starting with freeing Zane from the tarp. Jay was caught by the robot fellow teen when Smith scaled the tree and cut the net holding him hostage in the air. Cole was helped out of the strangely shaped, literally unclimbable pit trap. Nya was released from the cage (the look on Smith’s face was priceless, a perfect mix of ‘I’m so tempted to tease her’ and ‘Oh First Master she’s gonna kill me’). Finally, the group managed to get Kai down, and only when he was on the ground laying in their arms did he finally wake up.

Smith promptly apologized to the group and everyone laughed it off, though the incident would forever go down in history.

The lesson? Never take Smith camping.

Ever.

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.

: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

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?

Hey look, there’s a part four :3

Tw/blood, panic

Sorry Red, it’ll hopefully get better soon? Also please don’t kidnap- oh. Well. That’s certainly not going to help the misunderstanding. 

And before you say Red’s stunt is impossible, may I remind you of the scene in the movie where he fully picks up and carries M!Cole for a good distance while sprinting. Thank you, canon, for making angst possible :D

-------------------------------------------------------

Cole was 95% sure arms weren't supposed to come off like that. 

The only reason it wasn't at 100 was because Zane's arm had detached once while he was following the different controls on the blueprints, and it had been somewhat similar, except there had still been wires, and connectors, and anything but just a smooth hole.

The guy wasn't a nindroid. Which meant Cole was holding an actual arm that he'd just pulled off.

Cole was holding an actual arm that he'd just pulled off.

He yelped and fumbled with it, shoving it into Zane's arms in a panic. Zane, in turn, just stared in utter shock. If this were a humorous situation, which it defiantly was not, he (or maybe Jay, he always tried for a joke, especially when he was nervous, which was always), might have attempted a 'wow Zane, I can almost see the error message behind your eyes.' He was pretty sure he had the same message in his head, because normal arms did not just come off like that.

The Fake Kai (or Red, as Cole had been calling him internally, for Real E'ffing Difficult) was still laughing, or maybe crying, or both. Cole wanted to help him breath, but he had no clue what to do, and he was still panicking himself, especially since Zane had just handed him the arm back.

"Did you guys get it to talk ye-"

Cole panicked, okay. He turned and accidentally threw the arm at the same time, which meant Nya caught it as she entered the room. She, in turn, took one look at it, looked at Fake Red Kai, looked back at the arm, screamed, and threw it back at Cole. He threw it at Zane, who threw it back at Jay, and now there were definitely more screaming. 

And now they were playing hot potato with an arm. The poor Fake Kai, possible evil clone or no. 

"What the HELL DID YOU GUYS DO?" Nya yelled.

"I DON'T KNOW!" Cole yelled back. "I- We- it was just an interrogation, and then a bit of a struggle and suddenly it just came off in the fight!"

"Right, because that's such a normal thing to happen." Jay, on cue. "Because it's so normal for something like this to happen. For someone's ARM TO COME OFF, PEOPLE!"

The fight continued for several more minutes.

“Alright, alright, let's just... figure this out," Zane finally said. "We- we can handle this. It came off so easily. It should go back on easily too, right?"

Cole's face paled. "Guys-"

“Again, I think we’re forgetting that this isn’t some scrape or bruise but an ARM!” Jay shot back. His agitation came from his panic. 

“Guys-“ “An arm that Cole shouldn’t have been able to pull off that way, Master of Earth or not,” Zane countered, his hands trembling. “We might as well try to put it back on, because whatever magic the wish did-” “Guys, I think that might be real difficult right now.”

Everyone turned to see what Cole was pointing to. The chains lay in smoking heaps around the empty chair.

Red was gone.

-------------------------------------------------------

Red was genuinely not having a good time. 

Wow. Understatement of the century, considering he was missing a goddamn arm.

Right. Focus. Focus, focus, focus.

Please FSM just let him focus this once, let him be useful this once, because he could not afford to make everything worse again right now. Not when he needed to get out, get Lloyd out, and get back to the others.

Everything else could wait. The- the worries, the oc... the ocean, the a-r-m... it could wait. No matter how much worse it made later, he needed to make now a little more bearable.

He needed to get to Lloyd.

The chains had fallen away from his legs while all the Not-Friends were arguing about his arm and he'd slipped off the chair, biting into his other only hand for a moment to keep his breathing quiet before switching to using the fabric of the fake similar gi. He crawled across the floor- honestly, it was a miracle no one saw him, considering his previous stealth records, but it was probably because of the other flash of red being flung around the room at high speeds.

When he made it through the door, he bolted. His sneakers (his Zane would make a joke out of it, surely, and that made him miss his real friends so much more, missed the memes, missed the inside jokes, missed Zane’s in-zane moves and stunts and presence) muffled the sound as he stepped down the hallway. He didn't allow himself to take fearful glances over his right shoulder in case he tripped or fell or made too much noise or something that caught the Not-Friends attention because honestly they were so goddamn terrifying, especially Not-Cole and Not-Nya and he really had to stop thinking and just go back to impulse. Yes. Impulse. He was good at impulse.

He stumbled upon the open door by accident, in a way, though he was glad it was unlocked because his hand was shaking so bad he might not have been able to open it otherwise.

Lloyd. Lloyd, lying still and not moving, knocked out or worse-

Red was running on pure adrenaline right now, a burning worry that consumed all of his pain and worries and fear. The nauseating feeling of emptiness in his shoulder both subsided and pulsed, a lack of pain yet shocks that racked his nerves and spread throughout his upper body. 

He scooped up Lloyd- Lloyd, so still, was he okay? Had they hurt him? If they'd hurt him, he'd burn this f!cking Not-Ship to the ground- and carefully balanced him onto his back. The kid was mercifully light, enough that he was able to carry him with one arm in an odd mix of piggyback and fireman's carry. It took one terrifying long minute to secure the kid using the scarf- thank the First Master that he was ambidextrous and that the wall offered enough support- but he was ready to go.

The sounds of shouting down the hall were starting to lessen.

And the overwhelming flood of panic slammed into the edges of his mind. He was a high schooler. Lloyd was- normally- a high schooler. They weren't... this wasn't... he- breathing- sppiiiinnng- lig ht-   f    u̸  c̴̕

k̴̡͗͐́

Red slapped himself in the face with one hand. He had to keep it together for Lloyd for just a little while longer. He- he could do this. Right. He was determined. He was impulsive. He was- he was the Red Ninja. He got this!

He carried Lloyd out of the room, muttering “I got you, bro, I got you,” over and over again. Hopefully, it would reassure Lloyd. It reassured him, a mantra to keep going.

It was when he was standing on the deck that he realized two problems.

The sound of yelling had completely stopped, and not just because he was out of earshot.

How the hell was he going to use the ladder.

The answer to the second problem, apparently, was to say ‘screw it’ and parkour his way down. He may have sucked at the ‘stealth’ part of ninjaing, but he was surprisingly good at the ‘move around real cool’ part. Granted, he’d never tried with a child slung over his back and his centre of gravity thrown off, but it was amazing how much the sound of footsteps echoing toward him could propel him.

He was further than last time before the first shout of alarm raised behind him. The cry nearly had him stumble into the same hole in the dock but he leapt over it the ocean closing over his head, the horrible thought of sinking this time too deep for Not-Cole to pull him out as the space where his arm was filled with water- and kept running.

He’d gotten caught last time and lost an- an- f!ck, he felt nauseous, bile rising in the back of his throat-

He couldn’t get caught again. Not when they could hurt Lloyd instead. 

The horrible idea of Lloyd, young or normal, lying there with a missing arm. With that void-like hold in his side where his shoulder was.

He. Would. Not. Let. It. Happen.

Red had the added advantage of time and knowledge of the city. He burst off the docks, sprinting for the nearest alley so hard he slipped and banged into the side of it. The jarring motion sent shocks up and down his chest, so sudden his lungs almost, almost managed to constrict on him, but he forced air down his throat and kept running. Left, right, another right, left and straight, just away.

He had no idea that the void had started dripping blood, a spotted crimson trail starting at the wooden docks, splashed across the wall of the entrance of the alley, and sporadic in its placement along the concrete ground. 

Halfway into the city. He rushed past people as they whipped their heads around to stare after him, some random city-goers, others as if from another world. More people than usual- more strange people, so nobody tried to stop him. Those that even paid him enough attention only did so out of bewilderment, not able to see enough of what was going on to be concerned. 

He ducked into a side alley and climbed up the dumpster. His breath came in steamed puffs, lungs heaving and- 

Oh. His lungs weren’t the only thing heaving.

He climbed out of the alleyway onto a roof a minute later, wiping the taste of bile from his mouth with one sleeve before continuing. His head spun, spun and spun and spun like some kind of record, which made him think of Cole, and how much he missed him, and how much he needed a steady rock right now, a calming beat, something- 

Not-Cole pinning him, yanking his arm to the side, back, sharp, pulling, ripping, popping-

He kept running. 

His legs burned; not a good burn, a ‘you’re gonna collapse soon’ burn. His breath came in wheezed gasps at this point, each punctured by another drip of red soaking into the once-yellow scarf. The scarf (and Lloyd, draped across his back and still miraculously asleep) was the only thing keeping the, uh, ‘wound’ from view, thanks to the lack of sleeves of the baggy tank. The black fabric did well to hide the trails of red snaking down his side like water running down a cliffside. 

All this running sent a pang through his heart, yet another feverous stab of longing for his friends. This time he thought of Jay, and how he could keep running and going for miles as if he’d never run out of energy, the same way he could run his mouth in an endearing way for hours if given the space and support to. FSM, to have Jay’s endless energy right now.

Oh f!ck, were the edges of his vision going blurry? Nonono, he couldn’t- 

He slammed into a roof ventilation system and stumbled back, reeling. Lloyd slipped from his back and he had to awkwardly readjust as the scarf tightened around his chest and throat, ow, nope, not fun, not fun-

With a yank on the fabric, Lloyd was pushed back into a cartable position. Red rubbed at the skin of his neck- holy FSM, was that a burn? He never got those. How- right. The green energy thing. It felt more like a weird mixture of torn and rippled skin, like it couldn’t decide if it wanted to be an icy ridge, a blackened bruise, lichtenburg-like scars, or a fiery burn. 

Great. Just great. Boy, he was so grateful for his string of luck. Totally grateful. 

Screw this week. Actually, screw this day in particular. There wasn’t any way he could jinx it worse at this point if he said it couldn’t get any wor-

A flash of blue and white somewhere behind him.

Red bolted from the roof, tumbling down the fire escape with blind panic as the only thing he could see before his eyes was a blaring red RUN outlined in bold marker. Metal collided with his skin, beams and rails and at one point the stairs themselves as he tried, but never Lloyd, no, he would take every hit before it Lloyd would get a scrape.

They were searching the city. For him. With a flying Not-Ship and a flying combat mech suit and dressed up like the-

Like the Ninja force. Even if nobody recognized Lloyd as the son of Garmadon, anyone Kai went to for help now would turn him over to them in an instant. And he was too far away from his home, from the Bounty, from any of his friend’s apartments and houses and trailer homes and- and-

Stupid broken comm. 

How had they found him? Sure, they were still fanning out and searching, but how had they narrowed down the area so quickly? They- they couldn’t be that good, or else he’d never- he’d- he’d never-

He looked up and froze. Oh. Maybe the kaleidoscope of red blood, like rust on the dark steel, painting the fire escape had something to do with it. He’d been leaving a scattered trail throughout the whole city. The only saving grace was that most spots weren’t that bad, with only major patches even visible, but it wouldn’t buy him enough time if he couldn’t find a safe spot for him and Lloyd.

The blare of engines in the sky got him back to his feet and moving again, ignoring how his upper body was ablaze with- to call it pain wasn’t accurate. It was like the false sense of pain, nerves firing confused signals of shocks and sharp tingling. Each step only irritated the feeling more, pounding at the edge of his vision. 

He was pretty sure he’d started hallucinating slightly because he started seeing his sister everywhere. On her bike, sitting on the ledge of the rooftop, standing by the bubble tea line- even with the city in chaos from whatever happened last week, stalls like that were still going strong. FSM, he missed his twin. He could really use her right now. He’d give anything- he’d make a joke about his arm, but it felt too soon- to see her right now. But she wasn’t here, and he shook off the hallucinations. 

Just one familiar, friendly face. Please. Someone to help him right now, because his legs were starting to fail, and his lungs didn’t want to take in any more air, and he just wanted to go home, please FSM, let him just go home-

He crashed into someone. 

For one terrifying second, as he scrambled to catch Lloyd as he fell off, he thought it was Not-Jay. All he saw was brown hair and blue. No, no, please, h-he couldn’t, h-he co-ul -dn’ t b re- a th e-

“-ai? KAI!”

He snapped back to focus, lungs still choking on air, every muscle screaming and shouting at him to stop, trying to centre his blurring vision. A- A familiar voice? Someone, anyone-

It wasn’t one of his friends. But it wasn’t one of the Not-Friends, either.

Standing in front of him, a disposable cup of bubble tea spilled on the ground from where it had been dropped, with a look of panic and worry, was-

…Chen?

A Tiny Spark Leads to a Roaring Flame (But Flames Can Always be Doused by Water)

Heeyyyyy so y’all know the Reverse Thanos Snap AU for SPBNR? Basically everyone but Smith/S!Kai gets sent to the M!verse. Everyone. The entire population of S!verse Ninjago City & a few surrounding areas. Except poor Smith. Essentially it happens because S!Garmadon tries to send Smith to a place where he can’t mess with his plans, and ends up sending everyone away from Smith to take him out of the equation. 

The second part to this AU is that the S!Ninja end up searching for Kai in the chaos and grab the Red Ninja before jetting out of there with the Bounty. Except… they didn’t grab Smith (who’s still home), but rather Red (M!Kai).

Red thinks the S!Ninja are babysitter clones created by Garmadon after he somehow turned Lloyd younger without his memories & is trying to raise him to be his new General #1. With this in mind, he pretends to be S!Kai, and waits for the moment he can rescue Lloyd.

What would happen in the S!Ninja discovered his deception/their mistake of grabbing a wrong Kai and mistake Red for a recreated Aki (aka Bizarro Evil Clone Kai) before he could enact his plan?

Well, this is that idea. (Title inspired by how a crack AU spiralled into a beautiful angst-fest)

Enjoy. :3

—–*—–

Red was going to get Lloyd out of here tonight. 

Away from these Not-Friends made by Garmadon to emulate the Ninjaforce. Away from this flying ship built to emulate Master Wu’s ship, so familiar and yet so off. Away from this false reality and back to the real everything where they could hopefully get his memories back and his age back and everything back to the way it was before the city descended into chaos.

He just had to… bide his time. Be patient. 

FSM, he was bad at being patient. 

His hands itched to grab Lloyd and run now, but he was horribly outnumbered and without his mech. No matter how badly he wanted to, he couldn’t rush this. If he did, he would make everything worse. Like he always did.

But fate- or rather, Lloyd- had other plans.

The little version of his younger brother- yes, they were roughly the same age normally, shut up, Lloyd was still his younger brother- had been… eying him weird all morning. Not like Not-Jay and Not-Cole and Not-Zane, but like Not-Nya. Like he actually knew instead of suspected. These babysitter clones seemed to think he was the Not-Kai, and if that was the opportunity the universe was going to give him, then by the flames of the departed world was he going to skip this chance to save Lloyd.

Currently he stood on the deck of the ship as they parked in the sky a few meters above the docks on the outskirts of the city. It wasn’t the docks with the Bounty warehouse, curse his luck, but it wasn’t the endless sky or the empty ocean (though it was still too close to that murky, haunting water for his liking. Water was his sister’s domain for a reason). At least he could sneak Lloyd off in the cover of night, maybe find someone in the city who wouldn’t recognize the Son of Garmadon this way and would be willing to help them hide until they could make it back to the real ninja.

“Kai,” Not-Zane spoke suddenly next to him. 

Red would never get used to the way his voice… lacked the same effect the real Zane’s had. The effect that Kai and the rest of his team had assured their friend over and over was unique, special, but in a good way. To embrace it. That it wasn’t noticeable, but when it was, that it was so Zane that his friends didn’t care that it was different. 

This ‘Zane’ sounded much too different than his own. He hadn’t recognized Kai’s tested line of ‘road work ahead’ when they passed one of the many construction signs littering the city (even more so since the chaos happened a week ago), and instead had responded with ‘a great deal of work to fix in the city’. 

Seriously, Garmadon, do better research on your clones.

Not-Zane was also much too… calm. Too 'wise’ compared to the wild teen that was Zane. And he walked without heelies or whatever Zane used to slide around like a boss, though he was still silent. And that meant, like now, he snuck up on Red fairly often- and Red was training to be a Ninja, so that took serious talent. 

“Kai,” Not-Zane said again, and Red finally broke his gaze from where he’d been staring over the railing, planning tonight’s escape route. “Lunch has been made for over an hour. Are you alright?”

Red forced his brightest smile. “Course I’m alright! Just trying to figure out what happened, as usual.”

Why Lloyd was suddenly like, 8, and without his memories. Why the Not-Friends were on this Not-Ship and had mistaken him for Not-Kai. Why the city was in a state of disarray and chaos. 

Not-Zane studied him, then turned to give the city a sad look. “I’m not sure myself. My scanners can’t seem to figure out what is happening. It is as if… blocked by some force.”

Red winced, then expertly disguised the move by leaning against the rail. Zane never would use 'my scanners’, despite how often Red and the others assured him it was okay. Yet another reason why this wasn’t his friend.

“You know Ninjago City,” Red said with a weak laugh. “Always one crisis or another. Always those annoying Garmadon Attacks”

This seemed to satisfy Not-Zane, who nodded thoughtfully. “This event definitely seems to have Garmadon’s hand in the mess.”

He patted Red on the back. “Well, don’t worry yourself ragged, Kai. Come in for lunch soon, alright? We have training for Lloyd later.”

Ah, right. Training. AKA what Red assumed was how Garmadon was planning to shape this impressionable version of his friend into his new General #1.  

“I’m ready for training now, Zane!”

Speaking of Lloyd- 

The little gremlin came up from the hull with the rest of the Not-Ninja. Red hated when the entire group was together; it was way more difficult to act as Not-Kai around them, especially around Not-Nya. 

For starters, Not-Jay had a notch in his eyebrow that the real Jay never had. He was missing the iconic freckles, and the scarf, and the fluffy hair, though you could always say it was just a wardrobe change. What you couldn’t change was the personality differences. This couldn’t be Jay. Jay was anxious and quiet, his jokes (while plentiful) said more timidly and his newest ideas shared with hesitance that only shrank after years of encouragement. He would never be this loud, ever. 

Not-Cole was the leader, probably because Lloyd was so young. But even then, in Red’s team, Nya would probably take second-command. Cole was their sturdy support, yes, but he was chill, laid-back. Ready to follow and support his friends to the ends of the earth with his tunes and occasional sarcastic wit, but not lead. Not like Not-Cole, who was more serious and commanding and didn’t. listen. to. music. Red hadn’t spotted a single record or boombox in the room in the hull. That was a tragic oversight on Garmadon’s part. The members of his research team should be Fired.

And then there was Not-Nya. Who wore a dress with confidence that his sister would love but never publicly wear. Who had short hair- Nya had tried that style once, and decided it itched around her neck too much- and jewelry, and a giant flying Samurai mech suit. His sister had the Water Strider Mech, and Not-Nya had a flying combat suit. Sure. Close enough. Personality-wise they were similar. 

Similar at first glance. Nya was fluid and adaptable to whatever role she needed filling. She was spunky, and as fiery as him when it came to tempers, though she knew how to keep hers in check (she had to, right? No one called her hot-headed and impulsive and reckless and blamed her temper for mistakes or damage or whatever the news comments liked to say about the Fire Mech). Not-Nya was also adaptable and independent-minded, but she seemed more rigid. More doing her own thing. 

Point was, everyone wasn’t actually his friends, despite how much they tried to prove they were. And they kept acting like he was this Not-Kai, who was just as hot-headed but apparently more mature and training-oriented and basically the better, cooler (or hotter, perhaps, for the fire theme of the red ninja) him, since his acting never seemed to fully convince them. Trying to impersonate a standard he couldn’t seem to reach, some legendary hero he wasn’t- er, wasn’t yet! Yeah! He just needed to prove himself, be better, and he’d be fine. Just… fine. Yeah.

Mini-Lloyd (Red was tempted to call him L'ilyod in his head, but that felt wrong somehow, like he was infringing on some kind of copyright law) stared at him like a goddamn falcon, and he wasn’t talking about the bird that circled the ship. He had this bowl-cut Red would tease him about endlessly after all this was over- seriously, how had Mr. Fabulous Hair started with this mess? Garmadon probably didn’t even have hair, so there was no way the guy knew how to style it, and it was very evident based on Mini-Lloyd’s hairdo. 

Red noticed that all of them were staring, actually. Despite his relaxed rest against the rails, his fingers behind his back clutched the cool bar with a dull shake. He didn’t notice how the metal seemed to glow red under his touch. 

“Training, right, we should get onto that,” Red tried. “What do you want to start with, Lloyd?“ 

“How about a little game?” Lloyd asked with complete innocence. “What we were playing last week before we got interrupted.”

Oh sh!t. 

“I-I don’t know, shouldn’t we start with stretches? Or how about some sparring, that’s always more fun than a game!”

“But I wanted to continue our game…” Mini Lloyd said, and FSM’s sake, he couldn’t deal with that pouting look.

Okay. Okay, don’t panic. Think logically. What kind of game would an 8-year-old Lloyd like to play with him? Something physical, so no board games- he liked to test his mettle against Zane on those, and sometimes he would almost not-lose. Logic puzzles also fell more on Jay’s area. Trivia, especially music trivia, was a bubble between the anxious motormouth and Cole. Video games fell on team building, and wouldn’t classify as a training warmup.

“Well,” Red said, taking a hopeful stab in the dark. “There’s not too much space on the deck for… tag…”

Lloyd nodded, looking satisfied. The Not-Ninja looked- well, their expressions were hard to read because of how different it was compared to his friends. But Red was a master of deception (well, fire, but eh, technicalities), and he had them fooled, and he just had to keep it up until nightfall so he could rescue Lloyd and explain in a safe location-

“HE’S NOT KAI!”

Orrrrr improvise. Okay, yep, he could improvise. 

Red lunged forward and grabbed Mini Lloyd’s wrist from where he had his hand extended in an accusatory point. He ducked under Not-Jay’s attempts to grab him- fast, but not as fast as his Jay, his Jay who could disappear from an awkward social interaction in the span of a flickering lightbulb- and dragged his younger brother with him as he vaulted over the railing. Not-Zane almost managed to yank him back onto the Not-ship, but his icy grip caught only empty air as Red pulled Lloyd into a tight hold and ducked.

He hit the dock below with a stumble, rolling back onto his feet and taking off with a very stubborn green ninja in tow. It took all his strength to drag Lloyd (kicking and screaming like he was being kidnapped or something when Red was just trying to rescue him, for FSM’s sake. Lloyd didn’t know that, but he could still try to be at least a little more considerate.)

The wooden docks creaked and shuddered underfoot and Red grimaced; whoever rebuilt them after the latest Garmadon attack had shredded them like newspaper clearly hadn’t wasted any unnecessary change. It certainly didn’t help that Lloyd packed quite the punch for someone so small. Red definitely would come out of this with bruised shins and arms from where Mini Lloyd tried to push him away, but it would be worth it to keep his teammate, his younger brother, safe.

Then green filled his vision and broke his hold on Lloyd’s wrist, sending him skidding across the dock planks as he was sent flying. When he finally rolled to a stop, neck and shoulder stinging from where the blast had caught him (no burns, just jitters like he’d been shocked), he had to take a few seconds to re-orient himself. Did the Not-Ship have cannons or something? What hit him from behind, so close it could have hit Lloyd?

Lloyd. Was Lloyd okay?

Red pushed himself to his feet, ignoring the bleeding scrapes on his hands and legs from where he’d gotten banged up by the splintered docks. His gaze, sharp and frantic, searched for signs of green. The warning of more blasts, the flash of the fabric of a gi, anything.

He spotted his brother in the arms of Not-Cole. No, no, no-

And suddenly Not-Nya was there, given a boost by Not-Jay. Her grip was as if she were wearing the robotic mech suit, harsh and powerful and near in-human. She threw Red back to the dock floor as her face twisted with the fury of a storming ocean. A resounding crack rang out over the harbour.

Red couldn’t tell if it came from the planks under him or his own shoulder.

She pinned him to the wood, barking accusations and threats in his face faster than Not-Jay could talk. Red blinked through a haze of pain, trying to focus on her face and words. She was missing the beauty mark on her face, he noticed. Yet another tell she wasn’t his sister.

“-scar on the wrong side-” And it was hard to hear again over the ringing in his ears. He tried to throw her off, get back to Lloyd, anything, but he was-

Useless. 

Her hands suddenly got in his face, slamming his left cheek to the wood. She was close- close to his face, close to his eye, close to his scar- pushing and prying as she tried to do something. Red picked up in his struggling, his attempts to free himself turning to desperate shoves and wild clawing like a trapped animal. He wouldn’t let this creation of Garmadon’s finish the job that teen had started all those years ago. 

“Or better yet, he needs to shut his damn mouth.”

The flash of a knife. His vision half-blurry. Blood- so much blood- and a lasting scar.

“-contacts-” “-red-” “-struggling-” “-we know what he- it- is already-” “-not the real Kai-” “-wish-” “-Garmadon-”

He had to get away. Get Lloyd away from them now.

In one surge of strength- and yep, his shoulder definitely wasn’t okay after that move, as if he’d ripped it not just from its socket but from its very attachment to his body- he knocked Not-Nya aside. If he could’ve seen through the red haze, he might have noticed red embers dancing around his fingertips as his desperation and fear tapped into something deep in his soul.

He tried to shoot to his feet, tried to run for Lloyd (held so tight in Not-Cole’s grip, surely they were hurting him, he couldn’t let that happen-). He roared, “LEAVE MY BROTHER ALONE!”, but before he could take another step through Not-Jay and Not-Zane in his path, the docks gave one last ominous shudder  before deciding it had finally had enough.

The planks crumbled underfoot like charred firewood in a crackling campfire, and Red was sent tumbling into the frigid ocean water below.

Blog Masterpost for Ninjago & SPBNR AUs, Fics, Art, Theories, Translated Comics, etc.

Art Fight: Imp-ulsive_Artist

ART COMMISSIONS OPEN

Guess who’s learning how to operate Tumblr~~~

Gonna update this with the list of fics for easy access around my blog because I only learned today how to add the ‘read more’ button to reduce the insanely long posts when scrolling. 

You can also find things through the tags “Imp’s Writing”, “Imp’s Theories”, "Imp's AUs", “Imp’s Art”, and "Translated Ninjago Comics" (for the translated magazine comics)

Under the "keep reading" is easy-access links to all my stuff :D

Ninjago Magazine Comics Translated

Issue 85, Post-Seabound -- The Sea Monster

Issue 98, Post-Crystalized -- The Kidnapping

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General Ninjago Theories, Challenges, and AUs

The Fuchsia Ninja Theory (Movie Headcanon/Theory)

Fuchsia Ninja Pt. 2

What’s the Deal with Chen the Cheerleader? A TLNM Theory

Timeline Shuffle AU Challenge

Ninjago Focus Season Shuffle Challenge!

Vessel AU (Crystalized AU)

Other Emperors AU

Other Emperors AU 2 (Kai-Focus)

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General Ninjago Analysis, Headcanons, and Ideas

Name Lingistics Headcanons

Show vs. Movie Ninja Analysis

5 vs. 1 Ninja Analysis

Jay's a Cockroach Analysis

Jay's Powers Analysis

Lack of Elemental Dragons Analysis

Other Enemy Options

Other Enemy Options Pt. 2

The Nindroid Obsession with Tits-Out

"Ninja are Cryptids" Rumours (Headcanon)

Dragon's Rising Merge

Movieverse!Bruiseshipping Hcs

Bizarro Ninja Name Hcs

Red & Green Duo Poll Tournament Ninjago Sweep (Art)

Ninjago Fic Rec Week Day 1 - Canon &/or Lloyd

Ninjago Fic Rec Week Day 2 - Movieverse, AUs, &/or Jay

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General Ninjago (Show or Movie) Snippets

A Flipped Scar (Movie)

Movie!Ice Emperor Zane

Icedcoffee Prompt (m!Kai x s!Zane)

Kai Prompt (Show)

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Evil Ninjaforce AU

Evil Dorksquad (Art & Explanation)

Wu & Koko (Ask)

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Dorksquad Forced to be Evil AU

m!Kai of the Fire Snakes (Art)

m!Nya of the Wojira Cult (Art)

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Movieverse Detroit: Become Human AU

The Original Summary

More Rambles

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SPBNR (Same People But Not Really) Ninjago Snippets

Slip of the Tongue

Lava Fall (Old)

Lava Fall (Remastered)

The Great Camping Incident, AKA Why to Never Take Smith Camping Again

The Start of Smith ‘Shark-Pup’ Forge

The Beginning of Heatstroke, AKA Red’s Villain Origin Story

Shattered Dreams & Broken Phones (Smith Garmadon AU)

A Tiny Spark Can Lead to a Roaring Flame (But Flames Can Always Be Doused by Water) (Reverse Thanos Snap AU) Pt. 1, 3, and 4

Same Bugs (SPBNR Hollow Knight AU)

Fire Spirit (Fs! AU)

A Pair of Sunglasses (Aki/Bizarro AU)

First Arrival (Monty + Shark Pack AU)

The Great B-A-T-H Incident (Monty + Shark Pack AU)

That Time At Least Four Kais Met (SPBNR & tGiAG Kaiverse Crossover)

That Time At Least Four Kais Met (Podfic)

One Wrong Word (Calypso AU)

Watch Your Mouth (Cryptid AU)

Hush Now (Cryptid AU)

Red-Eyed Rival (Love Rival AU)

Green Gets Kidnapped (Prompt)

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Other Snippets for Other Ninjago Creators

Twig-Sprigs' Ninjago Sonic AU

demm-210's Morro & Kai Drawing

galaxyhanart's Cabinet Man AU

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My Ninjago OCs

Jayden (movie!Bizarro Jay & an Oni)

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Art of my OCs/AUs by Myself & Others

Dimitri (Mer AU) by angeldrawsstuff

Shiro (Mer AU) by angeldrawsstuff

Bruno (Mer AU) by angeldrawsstuff

Pixal (Mer AU) by angeldrawsstuff

Evil Dorksquad AU by fishybehavior

movie!verse Mural by lavandaray

Elemental Beasts AU Cyan/Nya by drawnasour-ray

Elemental Beasts AU Chen the Cheerleader by angeldrawsstuff

Kaigami (Secret Summer) by ammo0648

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Not Ninjago

Art Fight

Ace (OC)

Fire Spirit

Aye look, a snippet for the Fire Spirit Smith AU for SPBNR! 

AU context: Smith is sent to the M!verse in the form of a fire spirit (sometimes a will o’ wisp, sometimes a dragon made of flames, and sometimes as a humanoid elemental form (aka himself but on fire). This eventually becomes a buddy au with M!Nya and their adventures together, but this is a concept of how their first meeting might go...

Enjoy! 

----------*-----------

Nya Smith was late.

Of course, it wasn't her fault. Her bike, her precious baby, wouldn't start because some absolute dirtbag had been messing with it when she'd walked out of the grocery store. She'd promptly kicked their sorry behind into next week, but the damage had already been done, and it had taken her nearly an hour longer to get home. 

Luckily she'd had the foresight to call her brother, or else she would see the Fire Mech tearing frantically through the streets.

Though, judging by the column of smoke she spotted while driving her now-functioning bike, perhaps that was still an option.

Wheels skidding over concrete and asphalt, Nya pulled her bike over to what should have been a normal alleyway, if it wasn't engulfed in flames. One hand was already reaching for the backup hydro-pump she'd strapped to her bike, the other grabbing the tools to hook it up to a nearby fire hydrant. 

Before she could get far in her attempts to put it out, she spotted something. There was a distinct lump laying in the centre of the alley currently engulfed with flames.

Correction: there was a person lying in the centre of the flames.

There was a person lying in the centre of the flames.

...

OH FSM, THERE WAS A PERSON LYING IN THE CENTRE OF THE FLAMES!

Nya connected her hydro to the hydrant faster than any training attempt she'd practiced. The pressure wasn't strong, nor did a lot of water come out; more like a faulty garden hose than a genuine fire hose, but it was better than nothing. She used it to put out the flames blocking her from entering the alleyway, struggling toward the person that was starting to move.

She was about to wake them up with a splash of water when she realized they weren't on fire... it was like they were made of it.

The person(?) sat up, blinking, before staring at their hands and screaming. Nya screamed in response, which prompted the person(?) to whip around and scream again.

"WHY ARE YOU ON FIRE?!" Nya yelled, still holding the hydro.

"I DON'T KNOW!" The person(?) yelled back, stumbling to their feet. "I'M USUALLY FIREPROOF BUT NOT THIS MUCH!"

Nya was about to yell back 'WHAT DOES THAT EVEN MEAN???' when her hand slipped, splashing water over the person's foot. They leaped back with a startled hiss of pain, wisps of steam forming from where the water contacted them. 

Nya jerked back, focusing the hydro back on the alleyway. Her mind reeled with apologies, but the person shot them down immediately with a rushed "I'm okay!"

One eyebrow raised, Nya shot them an incredulous look. "You're okay. You're on fire- no, made of fire, but you're okay."

"...Yes?" The person rubbed a hand over their face. "No...? I don't know, I don't know anything, where-" Their tone grew more panicked. "Where am I? What's going on? Who-"

"Whoa, whoa, take a breather!" Nya eyed the alleyway floor, where flames licked at newspapers and trash bags and flared at the person's panic. "You're in Ninjago City, I'm not sure what's going on but I can, I don't know, help you figure it out or whatever as long as you aren't here to hurt anyone-"

She winced as hurt instantly flashed across the person's face. Okay, poor choice of words. "Here. We started on the wrong foot. Uh," she glanced at the fire making up the person's right foot, where she'd accidentally splashed them. "Literally. I'm Nya Smith."

That definitely got the person's attention. All the fire in the alleyway suddenly puffed out, leaving just a circle of embers around the person's feet. Without the haze of heat, their form was more visible; they looked to be about her age (if weird made of fire people could be teens), 'hair' spiky with jagged flames. 

"Nya...?" 

They stared at her a moment before their face morphed into a mixture of confusion and joy. "Oh FSM, am I glad to see you. Look, Garm did some crazy thing with the megaweapon, and now I'm on fire but don't panic! It doesn't hurt! A-and we can figure it out. How's Green Bean? Is he hurt? Did the snakes get him? Where's-"

Nya cut them off, a tad defensive as she clamped down on her bewilderment. "What are you talking about?"

The person put their hands to their chest, pointing to themselves. "Nya, it's me! Kai!"

...

WHAT.

Nya took a step back. "No, no, my brother is at home. You're... you're..."

The person's face crumbled with such intensity that guilt bit at Nya's throat. She swallowed hard and pulled out her phone, dialling home. "Come on, come on, pick up..."

"Nya," the person begged. "It's me! Your brother! Please, you gotta believe me. It's the megaweapon's doing-!"

"I've never heard of a megaweapon!" Nya countered, voice hitching as the phone pressed to her ear beeped in voice mail. Whazzup, you've reached the home of Kai Smith, leave a message after the FIYAH!

She had never been so panicked to hear that old dare recording. 

"I don't know who you are, but my brother isn't picking up his phone, and-"

Now it was the person's turn to look bewildered. "Phone? Nya, I don't have a phone. I have the comms, sure, but not a phone. What..." Flames erupted at their feet, growing more agitated. "What did that stupid wish do?"

Nya dialled the phone number again. "I don't know about any wish. But my brother is at home, pretending to study."

"Study? You mean train?"

Nya's gaze hardened, her mood drained even further by the second repeat of that blasted voicemail. She didn't like how that wording implied that... that this person knew about the Ninjaforce. "I meant studying. For school."

At that the person balked. "School? I- Nya, please, it's me, Kai. I don't know what's going on, or what the wish is making you believe, but it's me. Please, sis, you gotta believe me.”

Nya shook her head in denial. "The smoke is messing with your head or something. I'm not-"

"The skeleton kidnapping at our shop. The monastery. The fire temple. The Serpentine. Samurai X. The Fangblades. The Great Devourer. The megaweapon. Come on, sis, you gotta remember something. Please. Garmadon-"

"What about him, huh? Were you sent by him?"

The person jerked back as if they'd been shocked. "No! Nya, he kidnapped me while I was training with Lloyd-"

"You don't- My brother doesn't have training with Lloyd today! Or yesterday! I'm not stupid-"

"No, that's not what- URGH!" The flames roared and slammed into the alleyway walls. Nya backed up, clutching the hydro-pump. "Garmadon used the megaweapon against me! Said he was... I don't know, sending me to a place where I wouldn't pose a threat to his plans or whatever."

Nya hesitated. "Garmadon has a megaweapon? That's impossible, he would have won by now if he-"

"It can't be used to wish harm on others directly. And it drains his energy or whatever. The pirates, the evil doubles, saving the dojo with the Ninjaball run? Any of that ringing a bell? Please?"

It almost hurt to shake her head, the pleaded tone in the person's voice heart-wrenching. It wasn't hard to picture her brother using that tone in this kind of situation. And- and he wasn't answering his phone...

"It doesn't," Nya said slowly. She lowered the hydro-pump. "But… I want you to explain."

-----------------------------

Oh, and don’t worry! Red’s fine! ...probably. Maybe. Not necessarily.

:3

A little snippet that would lead into the rest of the Monty + Sharkpup SBPNR

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All Lloyd could see was gold. Bright golden sparkles, first around his eyes, then wrapping around his arms, legs, chest, brighter and brighter-

When he came to, he wasn't in his dad's lair anymore. No, the cavern walls were gone, and it was loud, and neon, and- and-

His head whipped back and forth, tears quickly pricking his eyes. He wiped them away immediately with his sleeve, but more came when he realized he was alone. Where- where was his family? The five ninja had been there- right there- rescuing him before his dad had made a wish. Where- where were they? What had his dad done?

Where was he? It kinda looked like Ninjago City, but he didn't recognize it. It was... too big. Tall. Different. He was sitting on asphalt, in the middle of an empty road. A streetlamp flickered, its twin on the opposite side of the street shattered; Lloyd must have popped the lightbulb in his panic.

O-okay, he could do this. He was a ninja now. He was strong! He could... he could figure this out! Yeah. Yeah, he just... um... had to contact the Bounty and his Uncle. A-and hope the ninja had been sent there. Yeah! O-Or find Dareth. Find the dojo. Yeah, he could do that! Find the dojo. Find the dojo. Find the- 

Whhaaaatttt are those.

A few meters away from his feet lay a pile of tiny... sharks? With legs? It was hard to tell in the lighting and with how they were tangled together, but there looked to be able five of them based on the colours Lloyd could see: red, blue, silvery white, blackish grey, and turquoise. 

Lloyd scooted back a little as the pile began to move, tiny legs and tails and fins flailing alongside high-pitched yips, barks, and growls that were mixes of pup-like and shark-like. Some kind of... pupshark. 

The red pupshark- no, wait, sharkpup sounded better- untangled first, popping out of the pile and rolling across the ground to land at Lloyd's feet. They shook themselves off rather indigently, a cloud of smoke puffing from their mouth, before they looked up.

Amberish red eyes blinked at Lloyd. Lloyd stared back. 

The red sharkpup stumbled to their feet, standing for a moment on their hindlegs before toppling over and correcting itself on four paws. They made a series of panicked, almost concerned sounding barks, then stopped. Stared at Lloyd.

What, were they asking for a response? Lloyd just stared at them back, then gave a little shrug. This was apparently the wrong- or maybe right, who knows- thing to do, because the sharkpup started yipping at him again. 

Before they could get far, a very high-pitched yelp sounded out. Lloyd rubbed at his ringing ears and looked over at the piles to see that one of the pups- the greyish black one, probably- had stepped on the tail of the blue one as they'd tried to shove each other off and untangle. The blue sharkpup was making a series of yips and barks so fast Lloyd could barely keep up.

Then there was a pause. A stretch of silence. One slow bark from the greyish black pup, almost like a question. And then the blue pup started yelping and yipping like someone had set their tail on fire or something. Something about it was strangely familiar. 

The red pup started to bark and growl, turning their head. They cut themselves off with a higher yelp, staring at the pile as if, like Lloyd,  they'd never seen a sharkpup before. The blue pup snapped their gaze to the red pup, paused, then continued to bark their head off. 

The turquoise and silvery white pups had untangled themselves now. The former looked down at their paws, holding one out and flipping it back and forth. The latter looked- well, almost mechanical in the light, and had the strangest expression of pure bafflement on their face. The greyish black pup let out a couple of sharp barks, the fin on their head flicking, and the blue pup began to quiet down. The red pup barked something out. 

Then, like something out of a horror film, all five pups turned to look at Lloyd. Lloyd leaned back instinctively. "Uh..."

All four pups from the pile made a single bark as one, a noise Lloyd could have sworn sounded like his name but not quite, and scrambled toward him. Lloyd flailed back and the red pup stopped the others, though a couple of them tripped and tumbled and didn’t stop right away, as if they weren’t used to their own paws. Who knows, maybe they weren’t. Lloyd didn’t know sharkpup biology. 

Great, now all the pups were looking at him expectingly. Lloyd swallowed and wiped his face with the sleeve of his black hoodie. “Uhhh…”

The red pup took a hesitant step forward, then another. When Lloyd didn’t move or make any motion of running off (he was tempted to- this was too weird- but they weren’t doing anything to harm him, and they were extremely adorable), the pup placed one warm paw on Lloyd’s leg and looked at him.

Something about the look in their eyes seemed… familiar. Lloyd squinted at them, leaning forward. He could see now a bit of fur in front of the fin on their head, spiked and ruffled like-

“…Kai?”

The pup let out an excited yet relieved bark, and- oh. Oh, he was right then. This tiny red sharkpup was- 

Lloyd started to grin. He couldn’t help it, honestly. Then he started to laugh, giggling and snorting and only falling into harder laughter at the pup- no, Kai’s deadpan look. “You’re… you’re tiny!”

Kai made a sound like ‘gee thanks Lloyd, I hadn’t noticed.’

Wait, if that was Kai, then-

Lloyd looked at the other four pups. Oh. It was rather obvious. Blue, greyish black, turquoise, silvery white (even mechanical, how had he missed that). “It’s you guys, right?”

The rest of his family surged forward to tackle him and Lloyd laughed again, less out of a joke and more in comfort. He hugged all of them tight as they fought to pile onto his chest and knock him over- he had been kidnapped by his dad before all this, after all, and they were rescuing him when the wish had been made. “Guys, stop it, I’m ticklish, get off!”

Zane complied, giving Lloyd a look that just screamed ‘I apologize for this gaggle of idiots’ when the others refused to follow Lloyd’s demands. Whatever. Lloyd was just happy he wasn’t alone here, even if his family had been turned into, uh… shark pups. Tiny adorable sharkpups, and holy FSM was he going to tease all of them about this. 

He was about to make one of those teasing jokes when a voice down the street cut him off; “H-heh, c’mon. L-let’s talk this out.”

Lloyd instantly quieted and turned his head, five pairs of eyes looking around him to follow suit. That sounded like it came from an alleyway. 

It sounded like it came from someone in trouble. 

Lloyd stood, the others hopping off his chest instantly. He wobbled for a moment, a little woozy from the wish sending him to wherever this place was, then corrected his balance and pulled up his hood.

“We gotta go help them!”

SHARK PUP PILE :DDDD

(I did not create Sharkpup, that honor goes to @vress-shark, I highly recommend checking out their stuff, they make amazing art)

That Time At Least Four Kais Met

So uhhh I was thinking about how cool a crossover between @sunnylighter ’s awesome fic series ‘The Grass is Always Greener’ and @kittydemon9000 ’s amazing fic ‘Same People But Not Really’ would be and then I realized that the Kaiverse AU exists so… uh…

I guess the moral of the story is ‘be the crossover you wanna see in the world’?

Smith: Show!Kai (SPBNR)

Red: Movie!Kai (SPBNR)

Spike: Show!Kai (GiAG)

Buddy: Movie!Kai (GiAG)

Aki: Show!BizarroEvilCloneKai

——————————————————

This day had officially gone weird, and there was one thing Buddy thought he was familiar with, it was weird.

Buddy knew the multiverse existed. The proof of it was walking next to him on Garmadon’s volcanic island after one of their shared body-guarding classes. If you would have told him he’d be taking security classes from Lord Garmadon with an alternative version a week before Lil’Loyd had crash-landed in their realm, he would have first laughed and then offered you a hug to see if you were alright. 

And yet, here he was.

Spike was just explaining to him that one move he hadn’t managed to figure out in class when a portal ripped into existence in front of them. Now, that wasn’t actually that uncommon; between the Ultra Dragon and Meowthra, travel between the two realms was remarkably smooth. The unusual part about this specific portal, however, was how much smaller it was compared to when one of the two giant creatures travelled. 

A figure flew out of the portal, stumbling in the sand before regaining his balance He slammed into Spike, shoving Buddy’s counterpart out of the way with a sharp growl and taking off in a sprint in a random direction Buddy recognized as the way to the underwater glass tunnel connecting the volcano and Ninjago City. 

Buddy stood there blinking as Spike yelled after the figure. For a moment he could have sworn the mysterious newcomer had looked a little like Spike, but with glowing red eyes and a paler, almost washed-out look to him. 

But before he could get far in his train of thought, the portal rippled with new shapes, and Buddy’s brain promptly stuttered to a halt.

The first thing he recognized was a dragon- a big, red, freaking dragon that was NOT Ultra, with multiple people riding on their head and back. The second was that there was some kind of knight, and some kid that looked like the Kai-version of Lil’Loyd, and someone that vaguely resembled an Oni from that one book Buddy had read, and a guy with a headband and staff that Buddy had the strangest feeling he should recognize, and some bewildered guy that looked vastly different from the rest of the group and had some kind of… slug slinger? , and-

The dragon skidded to a halt, promptly launching one of the people off their head. The person catapulted into the sand- or, well, he would have, had Buddy not been standing in the way.

When the sand and dust cleared from his eyes, Buddy found himself staring into the eyes of… himself? And not in the ‘this guy is like Spike’ way, but in the ‘genuinely looks like me with the scar on the same side and hair styled like a really cool flame (NOT A BUNCH OF BANANAS, SERIOUSLY, NICK JAY?). The doppelgänger sat up with a groan, then looked down at Buddy. His face split with a wide smile.

“No way! Finally a Kai that looks like me and not Smith! You- are a Kai, right?”

Buddy nodded, too stunned to speak as he noticed that the rest of the entourage looked much too similar to him and Spike (mostly Spike, honestly) to be coincidence.

The doppel Buddy whooped and pumped one fist in the air. “Yes! I’m not the only one who knew this hairstyle was fire! Smith, hey Smith!” He craned his neck to look at another Spike-like Kai climbing off the dragon and hurrying over. “This realm’s Kai is like me!”

Smith- oh, like Kai Smith, clever- stared at Spike, who stared back. “Red? I think there might be two Kais in this realm.”

Red- for the red ninja, also clever- looked over at Spike and deflated in excitement slightly before shaking it off. “Still cool! They’re like us!” He turned back to Buddy. “Hi, I’m Kai Smith, so are most of them behind me, call me Red!”

Buddy sat up, starting to grin. He couldn’t help it, honestly. When it came to multiverse shenanigans, he’d learned to roll with it. “Kai Smith, but you can call me Buddy. That’s also Kai, but you can call him Spike.”

Red snorted. “The hair, right? Smith’s is the same.”

“It’s not that bad!” Spike protested. Smith just looked resigned. 

Red helped Buddy up. “Sorry about crashing into you. It’s a little hard holding onto Drake’s - he’s another Kai, by the way- horns when he hits the breaks. Mer and MK have gotten flung off once or twice. Elias got flung on when we crashed through his dimension for a few seconds and accidentally dragged him along- he’s not exactly a Kai, but we had him fill out the checklist and it lines up.”

“The checklist?” Buddy asked, only really registering the last part of that sentence.

Smith was the one to speak up this time. “Some kind of connection to fire, spiky-ish hair, a found family, pushing aside your trauma and insecurities for the sake of protecting the people you care about- don’t scowl, Spike, we compartmentalize and you know it, it’s not healthy-“

“He’s a hypocrite,” Red whispered to Buddy. “He gives Smith Advice™️ to everyone but himself, which is ironic, considering he technically has by giving it to me. Trust me: you got a problem, Smith can fix it.”

Spike interrupted Smith’s lecture. “Moving on, other than the obvious, who are you all and why are you here?”

Smith shot him a brief glare- they would be returning to the Smith Talk™️ later- before explaining. 

Buddy and Spike listened to a shortened story of how Smith had been wished into Red’s realm by his world’s Garmadon. The conniving lord had thought ahead about his attempts to escape and return home and had sent along an evil clone of Smith as a glorified babysitter, an arrangement neither Smith nor ‘Aki’ were happy with. When they got to that part of the story, Spike winced. “Yeah, I remember the clones. Ouch. Not a fun day of fights.”

Buddy looked at him with curiosity- he’d never had to deal with evil clones, and with the exception of Aki, neither had Red- and listened to the rest of the story. Apparently Aki had stolen Red’s world’s realm crystal and it had shattered during a fight, dragging Aki, Smith, and Red into another realm and allowing them to hop between dimensions. Smith and Red had been chasing Aki across the multiverse and gathering other Kais along the way, hence the small army.

Aki’s latest escapade had apparently led the group here, with Aki having run off after bumping into Spike. 

“He’s headed toward the tunnels.” Buddy realized at the same time Spike said, “If he makes it to Ninjago City-“

A four-letter word that Buddy would not be repeating in front of Lil’oyd rolled over the beach. All heads turned toward where the glass tunnel entrance was.

Red and Smith both took a step back in sync. “What is that??”

Buddy smiled in relief and waved to the giant demon cat that padded out of the tunnel. “That’s Meowthra! She’s friendly as long as you don’t threaten either Lloyd or point the Ultimate Weapon at the city.”

Squirming in the hold of the big cat like some disgruntled kitten was the very angry original figure who had burst out of the portal. Aki, right, that’s what Smith had called him. 

One of the other Kais (the normal looking one, like he had no elemental powers and instead had a- WAS THAT A GUN?- strapped to his belt) let out a long-suffering sigh. “I hate alternative dimensions.”

Meowthra plopped down on the beach next to the group, eyeing the dragon Kai (Drake, Buddy would later learn the name of) like she would Ultra. This squad (group? Gaggle? Flock?) of Kais better be ready to be kittened by her. It was easier once you got it through your skull that it was inevitable. 

“Well, we don’t have to worry about him getting away for now,” Spike said. “Once Meowthra grabs you, there is no escape.”

The evil clone hanging above them continued to swear and kick up a hissyfit. 

Red put one hand on his forehead to shade out the sun as he looked up. “What should we do with him?”

“How about you buttheads explain first?”

The entire group whirled around. Drake started growling, the normal-looking Kai flinched but ultimately looked tired and used to it, and the other Kais made various noises of anger and defence.

Lord Garmadon took a sip of his ‘World’s Worst Recently Remarried Dad’ mug and crossed two of his arms, unfazed. “One of you nerds better start fessing up before the press finds out and throws more fuel into the cloning theory fire.”

So yeah, all in all, a very weird day, if Buddy had to say so himself.

The Great B-A-T-H Incident

Back at it again with more SPBNR AU sharkpup nonsense! This is the Monty + Sharkpack AU where S!Lloyd (Monty) ends up in the M!verse with five shark pups that happen to be the S!ninja. After a bit of taking care on their own, the M!Ninja find the squad and help take care of them. This leads to... shenanigans, to put it lightly. 

Smith = S!Kai, Phoenix = S!Nya, Brook = S!Cole, Boreas = S!Zane, and Robin = S!Jay

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Zane had made a mistake.

Honestly, he’d thought he’d been pretty smart. Monty was staying at his place today- an arrangement where the Ninjaforce made sure the kid was never left somewhere unsafe- and had been playing with Echo and the five sharkpups. Echo was cuddling the silvery white pup (Boreas)- the one Zane could have sworn looked almost mechanical- while Monty played with the turquoise pup (Phoenix) and the red pup (Smith). If Zane didn’t know any better, he would have said that the blue pup (Robin) was staring at Monty, Phoenix, and Smith with jealousy, though Zane couldn’t tell who the pup was truly jealous of. The brownish-black pup (Brook) rested on the carpet next to him.

It was around this time that Zane had noticed the state of the pups. As in, they were covered in dirt and dust and mud, especially Brook. So, being a good brother and a responsible (though still wild) teen, Zane decided to get Monty and Echo’s help with the matter.

“Hey Echo,” Zane had said. He wouldn’t learn his mistake for another minute. “Do you want to help me give those five a b-a-t-h?”

He’d read on the internet that spelling the word had better results when getting pets to avoid getting spooked by things they disliked. Then again, these were shark pups, and surely they would be fine with a little bit of water-

Five pups turned to look at him. Three immediately bolted. 

Zane didn’t even have a chance to blink. One moment, there were five pups in the living room. The next, the only ones left were Boreas in Echo’s arms and Phoenix by Monty. Boreas squirmed a little, though ultimately gave up as if resigned to his fate. 

Echo squealed. “Can we? Ooo, can we?”

Monty was grinning, and that looked a little too mischievous for Zane’s liking. “Yeah, why don’t we give them a b-a-t-h? Wanna help us catch the three loose pups, Phoenix?”

Zane really needed to check his optic sensors eyes, because Phoenix really looked like she was grinning in a ‘it would be my pleasure’ sort of way. He supposed it didn’t matter; they’d need all the help they could get wrangling the three escaped pups.

“Echo, could you draw a bath?” Zane asked. “We’ll start trying to catch them.”

Echo shot him a pleading look. “Can I help? I know every hiding spot in the house for hide n’ seek!”

Zane ruffled his brother’s hair. “Bath first so we have somewhere to put them. It’s really important.”

At this, Echo lit up. “Got it!”

He stood and carried Boreas to the bathroom. Good; Zane hadn’t been lying when he’d said they needed a drawn bath ready. He got the feeling that the three pups would not make it easy to catch them, and would be even harder to keep put. 

“N- Phoenix is good with water,” Monty said, letting the turquoise pup down and standing himself. “She’ll help us look!”

With six eyes on deck, with Echo (and perhaps Boreas) helping search, it shouldn’t be hard. Zane almost laughed to himself at how easily he had added the pups to the list; then again, with how intelligent they seemed, it was only natural. 

Still, it was a small house. How difficult could finding three brightly coloured shark pups be?

The answer, he discovered 20 minutes later with not a single sign of a tail anywhere, was very difficult. Especially when those three shark pups did not want to be found.

Monty was very good at hide n’ seek, but there was only so much he could do with an unfamiliar location. Zane too was having troubles because no matter where he looked (the cupboard, behind every day, his father’s workshop), he couldn’t find a single thing.

Luckily, Echo came to the rescue.

He emerged from the washroom, smelling of three different kinds of shampoo, with bubbles on his arms and his shirt sopping wet. Despite the mess, a bright grin stretched across his face. Boreas (with a freshly cleaned coat sparkling as if it were polished metal or shining snow) padded along at his feet. Echo listened to Zane and Monty list the places the’d already searched, put one hand on his chin, then walked back to the living room they’d started in. Curious, Zane followed.

Echo lifted up the couch- Zane would have to remind him both not to do that then Monty was over (not that the kid seemed to mind or notice, thankfully) and some better lifting techniques- and sure enough, three streaks scattered in every direction. Phoenix leapt in the path of the biggest pup, Brook, as he tried to run for the door. The blue pup Robin and the red pup Smith both managed to dodge Zane and Monty’s attempts to grab them- goodness, they were faster than lightning- and blazed out of the room. 

Phoenix barked a few times. The fin on Brook’s head flopped over in the same way a dog’s ears would lower. Zane was struck with the strangest sensation that Phoenix was making a deal of some kind. The pups did seem to communicate with each other like some kind of family-bound team. Smith and Brook took the leader positions, Boreas and Phoenix seemed to keep them in check, and Robin helped them remember to let loose and have fun. 

But that was ridiculous. They were shark pups.

Still, whatever Phoenix did seemed to work, because Brook wasn’t running anymore. It was as if he’d agreed to help in exchange for something. Bribery? A ‘get out of bath free’ pass? Whatever it was, at least they had one less pup to look for and one more pup helping to look.

Because by the FSM, the two remaining pups did not want to be found. 

Zane, Monty, and Echo searched everywhere. Echo’s calls were heard every few minutes as he found the pups but could never quite catch them before they vanished again; hidden in the kitchen cabinet behind the box of oatmeal, hidden in the trunk of Dr. Julien’s car, hidden in Monty’s spare hoodie lying on the bedroll he would use for the sleepover. Zane’s eye twitched. Damn, these two pups were smart. They always seemed to know how to sneak back into the rooms previously checked, causing Zane to have to backtrack more than once at the flash of blue and red darting around the corner. 

Jay and Cole swung not too much later (Kai was supposed to as well, but he was confined to bed after the, er, ‘incident’ when Nya found him chugging a pot of coffee that had been infused with 5 hour energy at 3:00am) and joined the hunt. Despite the odds being severely in their favour at this point, with five humans and three shark pups searching, those two blasted pups just were nowhere in sight. The shared utter despision the two had for baths was unfathomable and unrivalled. There was no way to catch them; the second someone had one cornered, the other would kick up enough of a fuss for them to escape. 

Heck, Zane had even found the two hidden in Jay’s scarf while he was still wearing it. What, were the two shark pups ninjas or something?

There finally came a point where the sightings stopped altogether and the two vanished. Jay got worried that the two had escaped to outside, and Zane couldn’t help but think what if? along with him. A quick check of all the windows and doors- yep, still closed, though one window might have been pushed on (luckily one you needed opposable thumbs to open)- disproved that theory, but the worry that the pups had gotten lost in the city under his watch persisted. He was supposed to protect those who could not protect themselves!

Though, judging by the skills of these pups, they certainly could protect themselves. 

For FSM sake, it was just a bath! And with how much the two had crawled behind every dusty cubby space and under every piece of furniture and into every grease-stained spot in the workshop, they needed it!

Cole leaned against the wall, clicking on the ceiling fan switch with his back. His headphones hung around his neck. “So how did this whole mess start?”

“I asked Echo if he wanted to help me give the pups and I quote, a b-a-t-h.”

Cole nodded. “Makes sense. Have you seen how smart they are? Wouldn’t be that surprised if they could read.”

Monty sat down on the couch, swinging his legs. “Did ya fall for the conspiracies too?”

Cole snorted. “Course not. Not like Red has. I swear, he’s usually not like this.”

“He’s like Charlie from It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia!” Zane said cheerfully. 

“Yeah,” Cole said. “He fell off the deep end because of these pups, right, Jay? …Jay?”

Zane looked over to see Jay’s face had gone pale- well, paler than usually- his gaze fixated on something above them. Zane followed the line of sight up, up, to the ceiling and the-

There was a blur of purple zinging around the spinning ceiling fan. 

For a moment Zane (and the others in the room) could only stop and stare at the ceiling fan. Zane’s brain crashed, thoughts slamming to a halt, because the two pups had been hiding on the ceiling fan that was now currently on.

The thing was, Zane could perfectly reconstruct how the two shark pups had gotten up there. Boosting each other onto higher ledges, swinging each other by the tails to bridge gaps, climbing higher and higher until they reached the one spot no one would think to look because there shouldn’t be any plausible way for two shark pups to hide on the ceiling fan, and yet here they were.

And then Cole had accidentally turned it on.

The ground suddenly became a scramble of motion. Cole whirled around and slammed the switch so hard the plastic cracked. Everyone who wasn’t standing surged to their feet in a panic, spreading out in case one of the pups couldn’t hold on while the fan slowed to a stop-

And it seemed like one couldn’t.

Like flying out of a bench swing into a tree, the blue pup was yeeted off the fan and tumbled directly into Jay’s arms. The bullet actually knocked him off his feet, and a bolt of relief shot through Zane when he realized that neither Jay nor Robin had gotten hurt. 

Above them, the now-only-red blur was starting to slow down. The fan finally stopped moving and a very dizzy Smith rolled off it, giving Zane barely enough time to lunge forward and catch him in a landing as soft as a snowdrift. 

For a moment, no one breathed. Then Monty started to snicker and giggle, and then Echo joined in, and suddenly the whole room was laughing. Zane handed Smith over to Monty. He could see the pup’s eyes spinning; they’d lasted a surprisingly long time, as if used to spinning real fast (chasing tails, perhaps?), but nothing compared to the ceiling fan whipping them around.

Jay (who looked both like his soul had left his body for a moment and had an immense amount of static clinging to his scarf) handed off Robin to Echo. The group finally, finally, made their way to the bathroom with all five pups. Boreas had already gotten a bath, as had Phoenix during the amount of time it took to catch the others. Brook stood on the edge of the bathtub, shooting what Zane could only think looked like an apologetic look at Smith and Robin. The brownish-black pup had joined in the search, after all, probably thinking to get out of the bath himself.

Phoenix leapt up and body slammed Brook while the pup wasn’t paying attention. He teetered with a yelp and splashed into the water. Zane didn’t think it was possible, but Brook had such a wounded look of betrayal as fading sud bubbles stuck to his fur while Phoenix appeared to be laughing. 

Some kind of weird static crackling hung in the air. Zane frowned, scratching at his ear in hopes of clearing the high-pitched wire whine, but it didn’t stop as Echo approached the bathtub. That was… strange. 

Monty must have figured it out a second before it happened because the kid’s eyes widened. “Wait, don’t just suddenly drop-“

Echo opened his arms and Robin fell into the water that had at this point gone cold. For a moment the scent of ozone filled the room, and then an almighty POP rang out. The lights flickered once, like a shudder, before going out. The group was plunged into darkness with a high pitched noise Zane later registered as Jay shrieking.

Zane blinked, sensors eyes automatically adjusting to the sudden dark much faster than his friends. There was a muted splash, and Zane spotted a dazed shark pup stumbling around his feet. He carefully scooped them up, then scanned the room. Echo seemed the first to recover besides Zane, standing in front of the bathtub. Zane could almost hear the fans of his brother’s processor brain whirling to figure out what had just happened. Monty looked okay, waving one hand in front of him while the other held Smith under his arm, and over to the side stood Cole with Jay latched onto his side- quite literally, with feet off the floor- like a koala.

The backup generator kicked on and brought the brightness back. Brook heaved himself out of the bathtub and shook the water from his fur, pointing a tired glare at Robin laying stunned in Zane’s arms.

“Anyone know what just happened?” Cole asked.

Zane blinked. “Power surge. But I am unable to determine the cause of it."

Monty wrinkled his nose and opened his mouth as if to say something, then decided against it. “I think we need to make a fresh bath."

The kid was right; there was an incredible amount of dirt in the cold water, despite it being relatively clean before Brook was shoved in. Zane handed Robin to Echo (after he got the promise that his brother wouldn’t surprise the pup again) and set to work emptying the water and letting new, warm water into the tub.

It took the combined effort of all five people and three shark pups, but they finally got Robin and Smith to sit still for the bath. Zane had the sneaking suspicion it was Monty and Echo’s combined puppy-eyed look that did it. For whatever reason, Smith seemed almost completely dry after shaking his fur off once, as if the water had merely evaporated, but Zane shrugged it off. He was just happy they were finally done getting all five pups to be-

“BROOK, NO, DON’T JUMP INTO THAT MUD PUD-“

SPLASH

Well, getting all five pups to be clean for a few moments.

YES NINJA SHARKPUPS GOOD GRAVY THIS IS ADORABLE AHHHHHHH- (incoherent screaming)

The Great B-A-T-H Incident

Back at it again with more SPBNR AU sharkpup nonsense! This is the Monty + Sharkpack AU where S!Lloyd (Monty) ends up in the M!verse with five shark pups that happen to be the S!ninja. After a bit of taking care on their own, the M!Ninja find the squad and help take care of them. This leads to… shenanigans, to put it lightly. 

Smith = S!Kai, Phoenix = S!Nya, Brook = S!Cole, Boreas = S!Zane, and Robin = S!Jay

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Keep reading

One Wrong Word (Calypso AU)

Hehehe I had fun on this one. For context, this is based on the Calypso AU for @kittydemon9000​‘s story SPBNR- essentially, instead of S2 Kai/Smith getting wished into the M!verse, it’s S8 Smith tackling Mr. E (who in this AU is Echo Zane) into the summoning ceremony portal and taking the masks with them, ending up in the M!verse. Mr. E/S!Echo decides to use the name Calypso and makes a deal with Smith not to hurt the M!ninja in exchange for getting to keep the oni masks.

There’s a lot more to the Calypso AU that can be found in the discord, but that’s the basic summary for this particular fic.

Deciding to follow Mr. E, one of the new vigilantes and a much more violent one than Shogun, Red (M!Kai) dons his backup secret identity of Heatstroke and sneaks after him.

Unfortunately for M!Kai, things don’t quite work out the way he was hoping...

Enjoy :3

Kai Smith was furious.

It was by simple chance that he spotted the figure following Mr. E- Calypso, as he wanted to be called here out of costume- though it wasn't because the spy was stealthy. Far from it; it was a miracle no one else paid them much attention. Considering they were in a city that got attacked at least once a week, that was both an expected and sad thing.

No, what was interesting about this figure was not how badly they tried to subtly follow Mr. E- though that in itself was familiar- but rather their chosen attire. At first Shogun thought it was perhaps some fan of Mr. E, what with the spray-painted motorcycle helmet and the jacket, but the rigid spikes of fire from perhaps some kind of cosplay caught his attention the most.

Fire. The bad stealth. Stalking Mr. E.

It was one of the ninja. And Kai could guess in one try who it was.

Mr. E, who would have to be the worst (not as in 'evil', but in 'really bad at this') SoG member ever not to notice Red's (as Kai had taken to calling the other Kai in his head) attempts at stealth, finally had enough, it seemed. He vanished into a crowd and Red's movements stalled, unsure where to go next. The helmet visor- seriously, why was he dressed like some villain and not in his normal ninja gi?- swept back and forth.

Then Mr. E appeared behind him, grabbed him by the arm, and dragged him into an alleyway.

At this, Shogun leapt down from his actually hidden perch (though he still suspected Mr. E knew, because of course the bastard would) and stormed into the alleyway after. The two had a deal, after all, and it thankfully covered idiotic reckless teen shenanigans.

He wasn't a moment too soon either as Mr. E had Red pinned to the wall. The firejet spikes were shuttering and puffing smoke, and the helmet was cracked as if he'd been slammed into the bricks behind him. Red clawed at Mr. E's arm, but Kai knew from experience that the nindroid wasn't going to move.

"Enough!" Shogun barked out, catching both of their attentions.

Red's reaction was a little slower, which Kai hoped was just because Mr. E had the reflexes of a nindroid and not because Red had some kind of concussion; the SoG member could hit pretty damn hard, hard enough to take down Titanium Zane, so there was no question what he could do to a regular human who probably wasn't wearing a supportive, semi-shock absorbing gi (though Kai didn't know if that's how the Ninjaforce's worked in this universe).

"You don't get to interfere," Mr. E snarled back at him, the lights of his own visor narrowing. "I caught this one trying to follow me fair and square."

"We had a deal," Kai countered, closing the distance between them with a few steps. Up closer he could see cracks in the brick and shattered pieces of metal laying at Red's feet- or where his feet would be if Mr. E didn't having him dangling in the air by the scruff of his jacket and the wall.

Like a stubborn kid, Mr. E replied, "Deal doesn't count for street punks."

"But it counts for the ninja."

Mr. E scoffed. "That's not a ninja."

"Yeah? Look at him." Kai gestured at the still flailing and very panicked teen in Mr. E's grip. "It's Red."

Mr. E leaned close to Red's face, bumping the two helmet visor's together as the latter tried to lean away only to be pushed further against the wall he was trapped against. "...How about I make sure-"

Shogun sighed. "No, E, you can't take his mask off."

Red, who stopped his pawing at Mr. E's arm in favour of trying to brace himself against the wall, coughed out a weak, "p-please don't-"

Shogun levelled Mr. E with a glare. "Put him down."

Mr. E glared back. "No."

"E."

Mr. E's grip on Red's jacket collar tightened, earning another cough. "No."

Shogun stepped forward with one fist balled. "I said. Put. Him. Down. Or the deal is off."

Mr. E snarled but let go, unceremoniously dumping Red on the ground. The teen sputtered weakly and Kai winced, noting the sharp metal fragments on the ground. "I didn't say drop him!"

"You said put him down," Mr. E said. "You didn't say gently."

Kai scowled, but there was nothing he could do now about it. He balled both fists and adjusted the twin katanas on his belt (one of the only things he'd brought with him through the portal as he'd grappled Mr. E). "Whatever. You know the deal. You don't hurt them, and I don't try to take that from you. Not like how you took everything from me."

Mr. E lashed out, grabbing the front of Kai's gi not entirely unlike how he'd been holding his counterpart moments before but without the lift. "You don't get to tell me what to do, Smith."

Shogun ignored the way Red's gaze snapped to him. He wouldn't let Mr. E see how much that stung, having his hard secret-keeping work flung in his face intentionally or not. "Last chance, Cal."

With an inhuman growl, Mr. E let go of the fabric and stepped back. Good. One thing dealt with.

Kai turned to Red, missing how his fiery gaze made the other wince and shrink back like a flower curling away from a wildfire. "And you. What were you thinking?"

"I- I just wanted to-"

To help. To prove he was the green ninja. To prove he was a good leader. To prove his parents were- good? bad? Wrong in their decision to leave him and his sister behind, Time Twins or not?

Kai felt something hot and nasty bubble in his chest.

"To what? What excuse could you possibly have?"

Red cut himself off with the audible click of a jaw slamming shut. But Kai wasn't done yet; the building storm in his chest had only just started. "You wanted to show you can be the hero, huh? Follow Mr. E anywhere, even somewhere obviously dangerous, just to prove you could take him in a fight, huh? Left everyone behind in your stupid little stunt?”

His words burnt his own throat, the taste of smoke think on his tongue like ash. "You left them all behind. Let them to get hurt in your absence. For no possible reason other than your own impulsiveness. Did you really think you were strong enough to- to-"

To deal with the portal. To stop Mr. E, stop the Sons of Garmadon, stop the Time Twins, stop Morro, stop Master Chen, stop the Overlord, stop Garmadon, stop the Devourer, stop Samukai.

Kai slammed his fist into the wall with a sharp groan of anger and frustration, leaning closer to the reflection of his furious face on glass pressed against the brick. “You can’t do this, Kai! There are people counting on you, people who care about you! You can’t afford to be reckless! I know you think that throwing yourself out on the line in front of them will keep them safe, but it won’t! You need to be there for them, and the only way you can really help them is if you’re going to help yourself!”

His chest was burning, a consuming black hole that broke every wall of the carefully crafted compartmentalization boxes. “You never once stop to think, do you? You could have gotten Lloyd killed!”

A volcano, a blade, a cage.

“You could have gotten Nya- your sister- killed!”

A chain, a flaming sword, a dragon and a temple and a shadow.

“You could have gotten Cole killed!”

He did, he let it happen, let the curse claim his brother until he nearly faded away as a ghost, only getting him back by a slim chance, a roll of the dice.

“You could have gotten Zane killed!”

The Overlord, the Golden Master, and then the Sons of Garmadon, Mr. E, Chen’s island, so many close calls.

“You could have gotten Jay killed!”

He couldn’t remember, didn’t remember, and yet some feeling in his gut told him something had happened, something to do with the sky or pirates or both.

“You could have gotten Sensei Wu killed!”

In the time stream, gone, gone, who’s to say they were gonna get him back, if he even was back, what if, what if-

“You could have gotten them all killed, and it would have been all. your. fault. You and your stupid, reckless, impulsive, hot-headed actions where you try to play hero and take on every role yourself, and yet someone always has to take your place instead and get hurt.”

His family, hurt over and over again, cuts and bruises and busted lips and fractured ankles and still, oh so still chests.

He was panting, smoke curling out of his mouth, eyes ablaze, fists tight as embers threatened to spark from his palms. The word deep in his soul, etched there even since he feared he couldn’t take care of Nya by himself, spat from his lips like hot poison. “Useless.”

He was so close to the shiny visor he could see through it, past his furious reflection at himself. Past to the face under the helmet.

Like staring in a mirror.

A mirror with the scar on the wrong side. With eyes so wide, pupils so shrunken and glazed and reflecting the glow of Kai’s look of pure anger, encased in a ring of hurt like a deep, oozing cauterized wound-

The wave of anger washed away as if Kai had been doused in icy water. Dimly he was aware of Mr. E staring at him with- what was that prickling sensation? Surprise? Shock?- but all he could see was Red, poor Red, who was a Kai but wasn't Kai-

Red, who's breath hitched and chest heaved without air, who had thick globs of transparent tears running down his face, who looked to all the world as if Kai had struck him across the face and then stabbed him with one of Mr. E's knives twenty eight times. Because in a way, Kai had.

"Red- Kai-" Shogun's voice betrayed him, cracking on the name, but it fell on deaf ears as he stumbled back. "I'm- I'm so, so sor-”

Red bolted, scrambling down the alley so fast smears of blood from freshly cut palms and  the metal shards in his legs and back studded the walls and floor. Pieces of his get-up were tossed aside without a care, helmet cracking as it hit the far wall, and then he was gone, for once vanished so swiftly that not even Shogun would be able to spot him.

Mr. E was still staring at him.

Kai took a shaky step, dawning horror slamming into him over and over like the relentless tide. Only one thought echoed in his mind:

What have I done?

A Flipped Scar

You know, I’ve been wondering where Red (M!Kai) got his scar from. It’s on the opposite side compared to Smith (S!Kai), and because they mostly fight in mechs, logically it doesn’t have to be from a GarmAlarm fight. What if it happened when they were younger...?

Did I have fun with this concept? Yes. Did I throw in a couple m!counterpart references? You bet!

This is set in the movieverse. TW for blood.

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Kai knew it was going to happen eventually. Being the friend of the son of Lord Garmadon came with its own brand of dangers.

He should have just kept walking. He really should have.

But he’d heard the three older teens- were they even teens? They looked like college students, or college dropouts- badmouthing Lloyd.

On any other day, he would have kept walking. Barely. But he would have. Not because he wasn’t itching to butt into the conversation with every inch of anger he possessed, but because Lloyd didn’t like it when he did that. And it tended to backfire where it only seemed to encourage people to go directly after Lloyd, whether to say their words to his face or worse. 

But then one teen had brought up the newly formed ninjaforce, and now they were badmouthing Kai’s entire team.

Cole, for being quiet and having ‘bad taste in music’.

Jay, for his panicked screams and yelps during fights.

Zane, for his overly weird attitude and sayings.

Nya, his sister, for being a ‘girl ninja’. 

And Lloyd, the leader, for not being enough to stop Garmadon.

They were just kids, for FSM. Six kids against an army and evil warlord.

Ignoring the jabbing comments about the Red Ninja (he’d heard it enough on the news and on Reddit and in gossip, thank you very much), he stormed into the mostly empty playground (by himself, at night, what had he been thinking- oh wait, he wasn’t) and barked out a sharp “Hey!”

One of the teens, a fourth sitting quietly to the side, startled at his shout, but the others laughed. 

“Whatcha doing out so late, kid?” One hissed out, her voice shrill and thick with smoke.

Kai wrinkled his nose and crossed his arms, holding his ground. “I don’t like how you’re talking about m- the city ninja.” He almost slipped up and said ‘my friends’, but aside from their comments about Lloyd, it wouldn’t make any sense.

The teens laughed. Another leaned closer, a big thug with a skull tattoo painted over his face. He laughed stupidly and shoved Kai, sending the boy stumbling.

The youngest of the teens, the one that had startled at his shout and the only one who hadn’t participated in the vocal jeering, shoved his hands in his pockets and hunched his shoulders. His green-streaked hair ruffled lightly in the wind. “Leave him alone, guys. It’s not worth it.”

“Au contraire,” said a crisply-dressed teen, studying Kai with a calculating glint in his eyes. “I want to hear why he wanted in our conversation.”

The youngest shrugged with a scowl. “Then I’m out. I’m not wasting my time here.” He stood, shooting Kai a look before huffing, turning on his heel, and walking off with clenched hands in his pockets.

The brute teen shoved Kai again, and he turned with a growl to shove back. It was about as effective as shoving a brick wall. Shrill girl shoved him from another side, and suddenly Kai found himself surrounded by the three older teens. 

…he should have kept walking.

“I won’t let you talk bad about the ninja or my friend!” He snarled out, unable to keep his mouth shut. "They didn't do anything wrong!"

"Your friend..."

Kai froze. He didn’t like the tone of the calculating teen. 

“Your friend,” they repeated. “Lloyd Garmadon.”

Kai’s hands clenched at his sides. “Yeah? So what. I won’t let you badmouth him.”

The three teens laughed. Shrill-girl slapped Kai hard on the back. “Oh, this is rich! A friend of the Dark Lord’s son!”

“Ha, funny man!” the brute added. “Jokester!”

The calculating teen was still staring at him oddly. Kai felt a shiver wrack down his spine- and considering he rarely, if ever, got cold, he didn’t like it one bit. Still, he held his gaze with a glare of his own. “You bastards leave him alone, got it?”

“Would you look at that, kid needs to wash his mouth out with soap!” Shrill girl crowed. 

“Or better yet-“ The calculating teen said, reaching for something under his jacket. “He needs to learn to shut his mouth.”

Kai was about to retort with a fiery comment when a knife was suddenly held to his throat. He gaped, ninja instincts trying to kick in, but he hadn’t been the Red Ninja for very long yet, and he was facing three much older and bigger enemies without his mech or any weapons or backup. 

Shrill-girl cackled. “Nice one, Archer! That got him to shut up quick.” She leaned closer over Kai’s shoulder, keeping him from moving away from the knife. “Not so tough now, are you?”

“Not tough!” The brute grunted. “Not tough at all!”

Despite the fear of the blade so close to his neck, Kai bared his teeth at them. His voice only barely trembled when he spat out, “I’m tough!”

The three teens looked at each other before bursting into laughter. Kai kept still, the cold knife-edge pressing his skin without breaking it. He kept his external appearance calm and angry- shoulders hunched, a furious glare, and planted feet ready to spring into a fight. But internally he was panicking, gut twisting into a million knots, warnings yelling too late. 

“You hear this kid, Archer?” Shrill-girl had a laugh like a crazed banshee. “Priceless!”

“Priceless!” The brute echoed with a ghoulish smile. 

“I say we shut him up,” Archer said. “What do you two think?”

Kai tried to bolt but the other two teens grabbed his arms, locking him in place. He struggled as hard as he could without slicing himself on the knife.

“I say go for it,” Shrill-girl hissed in Kai’s ear, and he recoiled at the puff of smoke blow into his face. 

The brute squeezed Kai’s arm so hard he thought for sure there would be bruises the next day. “Fun!”

Archer pulled the knife back, but Kai didn’t feel any relief; not with that cold look in the teen’s eye, nor the ghost of a smirk peeling at his lips. No, he wasn’t pulling the knife back to let Kai go, he was pulling it back to-!

Kai twisted, tried to duck, or spin to the side, or just plan move, and-

“Drat, I was aiming for his mouth to shut him up. Whatever, that works too.”

Kai blinked for a moment with one eye, the other closed from reflex when he’d seen the flash of the blade in the light of the streetlamp close to his face. He wondered for one blissfully fleeting moment why he didn’t open his right eye again after the knife was gone.

Then his face exploded with pain, like a bee stinger had been dragged across his face and then lava- no, saltwater- poured on the wound. Something akin to static- like the dull background noise of a crackling campfire- filled his ears. The two teens let him go with twin hisses like they’d been burned and he dropped to his knees, one hand flying to his eye while the other caught himself before his face could hit the asphalt. Sticky liquid dripped between his fingers and rolled down the back of his hand.

The wind changed direction. A police siren sounded in the distance.

“And it was just getting good,” Shrill girl scoffed, her tone disappointed. “Let’s scram. You did a pretty good number on the kid, Archer. Hate for you to get in trouble because of this brat.”

Kai barely felt the hand cuffing the back of his head as the three teens shoved him as they hurried off, all his focus narrowed on the slick sensation of blood and the iron taste in his mouth. Hiccuping sobs, traitorous noises of pain and fear, clawed out of his throat. No, no, he couldn’t be weak, he couldn’t let something like this get to him-

He furiously wiped the red stream off his face. Leaving a splattered puddle on the playground floor, he stumbled to his feet. Immense relief swept through him when he blinked his eye open; other than the stinging pain and the blood trying to drip into his vision, he could still see. 

He didn’t remember getting home, each footstep fading with the others. When he snapped back to focus, he was standing in front of the bathroom mirror at home, having somehow snuck in before Nya realized he was home. When he glanced up at the glass he quickly dropped his gaze back to the swirling red in the sink. His hair was a mess, plastered to his forehead with blood. His eye- he couldn’t tell what the injury looked like under the smear. He could still see, that was good, but FSM did it hurt. 

Knocking on the door. He startled, slamming his hand into the sink faucet. Shaking it in pain, he stammered out an insisted collection of “I’m fine!” to his sister in the hall. No need to worry his older (by a handful of minutes) twin. Everything was fine. He wasn’t hurt. There were plenty of reasons why he only returned home now, it wasn’t that late. You don’t have to get mom and dad, they’re barely even here anyway.

His shaking hands spilt rubbing alcohol on his face as he tried to clean the blood off, and he yelped as the pain intensified to the point where he felt lightheaded. Suddenly Nya was at his side, the echo of the door banging open in his ears as she took one look at him and shrieked. He was in her arms a moment later, scooped in a hug that hurt his bruises but overall felt so needed. His bones melted and he went limp, the full tidal wave of fear crashing over him.

Nya was crying, saying something, but he couldn’t hear her. Nor did he hear when his parents entered, one of the rare moments where they were home, but he did feel them join the hug. The rest of the evening was a blur; sometime during it someone pressed him for details and he finally coughed out an explanation, and sometime someone must have cleaned the wound because he woke up the next morning with Nya pressed to his side and a gauze bandage wrapped around his eye.

Archer had been arrested the following afternoon as Kai was stuck in bed resting. It pissed him off that the teen would only be in custody for a couple hours maximum until they got the story out of him over attacking a friend of Lloyd Garmadon. Then Archer would probably be released with a slap on the wrist and a waggle of a finger, if even that much.

When he arrived at school the day after, scratching at the gauze mess obscuring half his vision with the sole intent of tearing the cheap knock-off eyepatch off, he was seething. He had to wear this stupid thing for a week, had to get stitches (he could feel them every time he blinked and he hated it), and to top it off, he signalled to the entire school just how weak he was. He wasn’t even through the front doors and he could already hear the rumours pouring out.

“Finally snapped-“

“-knew that kid was trouble, even before he hung out with Garmadon’s spawn-“

“-Just as corrupted as Lloyd-“

“-bet that freak as him doing all his dirty work-“

“-wouldn’t be surprised-“

“-hot-tempered and dangerous-“

“KAI!”

The whispering around them grew hushed as a green blur slammed into his side, sobbing. Kai sent a glare- hard to make it look intimidating with the cotton fluff on his face- at the students around them and carried Lloyd down the hall toward the quieter area of their lockers. When he got there he was pulled into a near-suffocating hug from behind. 

“Zane, buddy,” he managed through his squeezed lungs. “Need- air-“

Zane let him go, but he’d barely had a chance to catch his breath before Cole slung an arm around his shoulder, nearly knocking him over. Jay slammed into his other side, babbling a mile a minute, and Kai huffed, exasperated but also touched by their worry. “Guys, I’m okay, really-“

“You nearly lost an eye!” Lloyd wailed. “Because of me!”

“What- green bean, no-“ Kai hugged Lloyd tighter. “No, it wasn’t because of you.”

Lloyd sniffed and rubbed off his tears in his hoodie sleeve. “But that’s- that’s what everyone’s saying-“

“And you really believe anything those idiots say?” Nya said, coming to his rescue. “The only person at fault is that stupid teen with the knife and his friends.”

Kai nodded. “Yeah!”

Lloyd didn’t look entirely convinced, but he slowly let go and sucked in a breath. Jay too grabbed a lungful of air before continuing his panicked rant about ‘never walking home at night anymore by yourself’, which Kai agreed to when he had a chance ten minutes later to interject. Zane didn’t pull him into another hug but he did continuously bump into Kai’s side in support, listing off a barrage of references to cool characters with scars.

Because of course it scarred after he took the bandage off. It looked wicked, sure, a smooth cut from above his right eyebrow, through his eye, and down his cheek in a curve towards his ear or lower jaw, but it was incredibly annoying. Despite its ‘rough look’ factor, it showed people he was a target, and in a society where intimidation was the best method to keep people from bothering his squad… well, it was like adding blood to shark-infested waters.

Not to mention those stupid rumours. It was only his friends’ concern, energy, and protective natures (usually he was the protective one for them) that helped him get through the week. He was still reminded of his failure every time he looked in a mirror, and it took a while to stop viewing the scar as weakness.

It was a scar he was left to live with, and for Lloyd and his family, he’d gain a thousand more to see them safe and happy.

Watch Your Mouth (Cryptid AU)

Ayeee so I’ve got three SPBNR Cryptid AU snippets for you all, see the previous post for a bit of summary. This snippet follows a cryptid hunt with Red (m!Kai) and m!Zane (featuring some good ‘ol Zane angst!)

Because what are cryptids good at? Not being caught on camera. It’s always blurry or glitchy or missed. So what happens if your eyes are a camera... >:3

Red was sure he was gonna catch the Red Blur tonight. There was no way his foolproof plan could fail. Not a chance. Zippo. Nada. Big fat goose egg. He was going to catch the Red Blur, and he was going to make them explain everything. Such as: 

Who/what are you? 

Why are you haunting Ninjago City? 

Are you training me to be your cryptid apprentice/successor please I'm begging you to explain I've been in the middle of an existential identity crisis for days-

The difference between this attempt to catch the Red Blur and the dozens of other attempts was one thing. No, it was not a lack of caffeine.

This time, Red had an accomplice.

"Ron to Billy, this is Ron to Billy. Do you read me? Over."

"Billy to Ron!" came Zane's cheerful reply through the comms. "I can read you. Over."

Red surveyed the city from his perch on the windowsill of the skyscraper. He'd gotten there by totally not committing a little trespassing during the off-office hours and sneaking onto the twentieth floor. He was dressed in his ninja gi instead of his Heatstroke gear simply because Zane was here and he didn't want to blow his cover, and he knew the Red Blur had been keeping tabs on Heatstroke so he didn't want to grab their attention.

"Do you have visual yet?" Red asked. He might have found a perch a little too high up, because it was difficult to make out what the shapes and lights below were. But it was dramatic and it felt cool and he had a little too much 5 hour energy in his system to change his mind now.

"Well yes, but actually no," Zane replied. 

"So the Red Blur has yet to show their face..." Red mused. "We'll catch them yet."

A few more minutes of silence followed as the two kept watch, Zane at a much safer spot near street level down the block. If Red squinted, he could make out a white smear that was either his friend or a blurry patch in his vision- he'd been having a couple of those 'blind spots' since the first sightings of the Red Blur, and they were driving him nuts.

"Billy to Ron," Zane said after another few minutes. His tone sounded a little less cheerful than before. "Nothing yet..."

Red readjusted his perch grip. "Don't worry, we've got this! Neither of us are gonna miss them, no matter how blurry this Red Blur gets or how hard it is to catch them on camera and stuff. We've got our eyes, nature's best cameras!"

"Yeah... yeah! We have norm- nature's best cameras. Normal eyes."

Red shook his head a little to clear the ever persistent edge of fuzziness, squinting down at the streets below. A prickling sensation was starting to poke at his skin, and not just one of the caffeine's side effects. The feeling of someone staring at him, a feeling he'd gotten well in-tune with during his nightly Red Blur chases. Yet another cryptic bit of cryptid training. 

"Ron to Billy, you sure you haven't seen anything?"

"No." Zane sounded uncertain. "No, I haven't seen any-"

There was a pause. "Billy?" Another few seconds without reply. "Zane?"

"I think I should return home." Zane suddenly said, a little too chipper. "It is getting late, and my mom will be all up in my case if I'm up too late."

Red frowned. "Zane? Are you okay? Are you-" His fingers tightened on the windowsill. "Are you being threatened? Reply with Road Work Ahead if you are-"

"I'm perfectly fine, Kai! I just think I should go home, and so should you. It is late. Being up so late wears out our eyes! Did you know: 35% of teens need glasses?"

Something was up, even if Zane wasn't being threatened after all. Eyes- why did he keep mentioning eyes? Was his vision off? Did the Red Blur mess with his eyesight somehow, like with a smokescreen, or a hallucination (Red had gotten caught in one of those before, so surely it was within the Red Blur's abilities), or a-

It hit Red with the subtly of a freight train. Oh. Oh no, no, poor Zane, no, Red had messed up again, why didn't he ever think this things through, he'd just made everything worse been so excited to have a friend be interesting in hunting down the Red Blur that he hadn't even thought about but when did he ever stop to think cameras, of course, the Red Blur was a cryptid and couldn't be caught by cameras, so Zane- poor Zane must've-

"Hey," Red said softly, trying to keep his voice steady despite the jitteriness from the caffeine. For once he wished he hadn't downed the pot before tonight's escapade. "Zane, bro, I'm- I get it, I'm sorry I-"

"You don't need to apologize!" Zane's voice was still much too chipper. "It is late and the Red Blur isn't showing up tonight, that is not your fault. We should-"

Red interrupted him. "No, Zane, I'm sorry for- for making you feel not normal-"

"I am perfectly normal and don't feel anything but.” Zane’s forced chipperness had a sharp edge to it, like a jagged icicle.

"That's not- I didn't mean-" Red was floundering now- why oh why had he opened his mouth, he made everything worse AGAIN, why couldn't he just say it right why was he always accidentally hurting the people he cared about, why was he so- u̴͊͜s̷̺͒e̷̲̕l̸̨̾e̸͇̅s̶̠̈́s̵̻͐- "Zane, you're-"

"A perfectly normal average teen."

"No- yes- I-"

"I'll see you at school tomorrow, Kai."

click

Red's heart dropped at the deafening silence the comm left him with. "Zane? Zane, I'm- I'm sorry, please don't-"

The white smudge below was moving, walking away, no, no, he couldn't- his friend- 

Red reached a hand forward, as if he could grab his friend from here and bundle him into a hug and apologize a million times, but he couldn't, because he'd messed up AGAIN, and now Zane was hiding his feelings, and- and-  a n d-

Red's foot slipped and he overbalanced.

It's funny. He didn't even notice he was falling until he stopped. 

The feeling of the wind slapping him in the face, the skim of his leg on the windowsill as his body tried and failed to catch him without his mind knowing what was happening, the blur of lights in his face, all didn't register until there was a warm arm wrapped around his middle and he was lying on the roof of a nearby building. 

A strangled gasp pulled itself free from his stopped lungs, heart slamming in his chest as his brain caught up with time. Holy FSM, he'd accidentally slipped off the windowsill on the twentieth floor, how-

The arm pulled him upright and held him, a warm presence at his back. It felt... familiar. Soothing. He went slack, the last of the caffeine burning away. Tears pricked his eyes. Zane-

Something was tied around his leg. Nothing like a chain or something to spark panic, just a piece of fabric. He hadn't realized he'd gashed his leg on the building when he fell, too worried about Zane to realize how far forward he'd tipped. He wasn't even that cold; he hadn't fallen very far before he'd been caught. By-

He knew, and yet he didn't. His brain was going in loops, kept going back to Zane's voice, then to how tired he felt. Tomorrow. Tomorrow he'd go apologize to Zane face-to-face. For now- for now he could- could-

His head tipped down to his chest as he leaned back into the comforting warmth and passed out.

Hush Now (Cryptid AU)

So I got inspired by the song, “The Nowhere King” (NWK) from Centaurworld and this happened. I recommend reading the summary of the SPBNR Cryptid AU & perhaps ‘Watch Your Mouth (Cryptid AU)’ as that is earlier in the timeline, but to quick summarize:

Red (M!Kai) is at the ‘Nest of the Red Blur’ (aka the abandoned apartments Smith took over and stylized to fuel the cryptid rumours about him) when... oh dear, it seems a real cryptid (cough M!Overlord based on NWK) has taken an interest in his apprentice- :3

TW for creepiness, horror, tar, kidnapping, etc.

Waking up in an old decrepit building full of ivy and spiderplants, scrap metal, peeling wallpaper, and washed out paintings of cake was not the ideal scenario, but considering Red had been cryptid-hunting for the elusive cryptid that seemed intent on training him for some reason, the Red Blur, the previous night (or was it still night? early morning? it was hard to tell), it wasn't as frightening as it should have been.

It was still mildly terrifying waking up in the nest of fabric. But he'd been here a few times before, and it was at least appreciating that the Red Blur didn't leave him alone on a rooftop or alleyway in the city when he inevitably ran out of energy and crashed during their late-night runs. 

He untangled himself from the nest and stretched, wincing at the crack of bones. Urgh, he was going to end up like Master Wu at this rate. The Red Blur (in their own way) had shown him the exit (after a bit) the first time he'd woken up in their lair, but he still got lost in the maze of nature-claimed hallways of the apartment ruins. 

Well, at least he could explore then. And it was only mildly creepy wandering around alone. 

But something felt... off. He couldn't quite place his finger on what. Was it that the air was still, a suffocating cold that stung his throat and puffed his breath in little clouds? The way the broken clock on the wall still seemed to tick, chiming just off-key to the steady march of time? The pungent smell of petroleum, something acidic and tar-like like rotten mold?

The apartment creaked and shuddered with every step, which shouldn't have been possible considering it was formed from concrete and carpet. Red felt like he had chugged a gallon of oil; the taste was heavy in his mouth and he wrinkled his nose in disgust. 

𝓗𝓾𝓼𝓱 𝓷𝓸𝔀 (Hush now)

Red froze in the centre of the hallway and batted his ears. He could have sworn he heard a chorus of whispers, sounding both at the ends of the hallway and inside his head. Wind brushed the back of his neck.

There weren't any windows in this hallway.

𝓓𝓻𝓮𝓪𝓶𝓵𝓮𝓼𝓼 𝓼𝓵𝓮𝓮𝓹 (Dreamless sleep)

Red's feet were planted- almost as if frozen or glued- to the old stained carpet. A low creak sent a violent shudder throughout his body, but when he looked at either end of the hallway, no one was there. Though... was it just him, or was the area getting darker, the edges tinted with shadows. 

𝓓𝓪𝓻𝓴𝓷𝓮𝓼𝓼 𝓲𝓼 𝓷𝓲𝓰𝓱 (Darkness is nigh)

No, it wasn't shadows...

𝓠𝓾𝓲𝓮𝓽 (Quiet)

It was tar.

𝓢𝓲𝓵𝓮𝓷𝓽 (Silent)

Tar, leaking from the cracks in the wallpaper. Tar, dripping down from the ceiling in fat droplets and tendrils. Tar, spilling out from underneath the carpet. 

𝓗𝓪𝓽𝓻𝓮𝓭 𝓽𝓱𝓪𝓽 𝓻𝓮𝓪𝓬𝓱𝓮𝓼 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓼𝓴𝓲𝓮𝓼 (Hatred that reaches the skies)

Red couldn't move. All he could do was stare at the tar, a choir of ghostly voices resting phantom hands on his shoulders and singing soft melodies in his ears. His mouth felt sticky and he coughed, struggling to suck in a breath through the choking, acidic air. Something cold and wet dripped down his chin. 

𝓨𝓸𝓾 𝔀𝓲𝓵𝓵 𝓫𝓻𝓲𝓷𝓰 𝓳𝓸𝔂 𝓽𝓸 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓝𝓸𝔀𝓱𝓮𝓻𝓮 𝓚𝓲𝓷𝓰 (You will bring joy to the Nowhere King)

The tar was reaching toward him, forming clawed hands that pushed off from the floor, the walls, the ceiling with a leisurely pace.

𝓦𝓱𝓮𝓷 𝓱𝓮 𝓼𝓮𝓮𝓼 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓵𝓲𝓰𝓱𝓽 (When he sees the light)

It was cold.

𝓛𝓮𝓪𝓿𝓲𝓷𝓰 𝔂𝓸𝓾𝓻 𝓮𝔂𝓮𝓼 (Leaving your eyes)

{---------------}

The Red Blur- or Smith, though no one knew his name nor that he wasn't actually a cryptid, heard the scream. It sounded like- but why-

Smith bolted from his room, the only part of the abandoned complex he hadn't changed to match the 'nest' aesthetic of the building and raced through the hallway.

But when he got to the spot where he'd heard the scream from, he found nothing but a smoking scorched stain on the carpet and a message written in black paint on the wall:

𝓘 𝓭𝓸𝓷'𝓽 𝓪𝓹𝓹𝓻𝓮𝓬𝓲𝓪𝓽𝓮 𝓬𝓾𝓻𝓲𝓸𝓾𝓼 𝓵𝓲𝓽𝓽𝓵𝓮 𝓹𝓻𝓮𝓽𝓮𝓷𝓭𝓮𝓻𝓼 𝓲𝓷 𝓶𝔂 𝓽𝓮𝓻𝓻𝓲𝓽𝓸𝓻𝔂 (I don’t appreciate curious little pretenders in my territory)

A Pair of Sunglasses (Aki AU)

So here’s a fun little idea-

Remember the original version of the Aki AU for SPBNR? Where Smith ends up in the m!verse alongside Aki (aka Bizarro Kai), who’s hellbent on making sure he a. stays put and b. has to deal with as much inconvenience as possible? Sometimes even impersonating him (as Shogun) to mess with him?

What would happen if a certain m!Kai happened to be in a rush one morning, didn’t have time to gel his hair, and happened to get mistaken by Smith for...

:3

----------

----------

Red didn’t even know what he did wrong.

Seriously, all he did was stand next to Jay by the lockers and chat! And he couldn’t remember doing anything wrong during the morning, or yesterday, or-

And yet for some reason, Smith came storming over with a look of pure fury. Fury pointed at him.

“I thought I made it very clear,” Smith growled. “What would happen if I caught you hanging around here.”

Behind his sunglasses & the bangs covering his face- he wasn’t used to his hair being down- Red’s expression furrowed in confusion with an edge of hurt. He started to ask what Smith was talking about but shut his mouth when the other teen jabbed a finger toward him.

“Don’t play games with me, Kai.” There was an odd style to how he stressed Kai’s name, but he couldn’t place what it meant. “I’m not in the mood.”

Red was aware of Jay standing awkwardly to the side, fingers tugging at the frayed end of his scarf. His gaze darted back and forth between the two like he was watching a tennis match. A very volatile tennis match where the tennis ball could explode into flames at any moment. 

And Red? Red was just confused, and more than a little hurt now. At first, he’d thought maybe Smith hadn’t recognized him- his own friends hadn’t the first time he’d ran out of time to gel his hair up before school- but when he used his name it was clear he knew exactly who he was talking to.

Red just didn’t know why. He hadn’t even been drinking a lot of coffee lately, so he hadn’t (or shouldn’t have) done anything crazy in a caffeinated haze (he pulled an all-nighter once, figuring that it would be okay to skip the few hours of sleep his mind would have let him get anyway. Never again). The last time he and Smith had talked, they’d ended on friendly terms, right?

So why was Smith acting as if Red had slammed Jay into the lockers and demanded his lunch money?

“Smith-”

“Don’t you ‘Smith’ me,” Smith interrupted. Red recoiled at the open hostility, the strongest he’d ever heard from Smith. “You know, just when I think I know how low you’re willing to sink, you go ahead and surprise me.”

Okay, ouch. Red really wanted to know what he’d done now.

“I-I-”

The two turned to look at Jay, whose ramble grew muffled as he ducked his head into his scarf and blushed. Smith moved, stretching out his arm and-

Positioning himself between Red and Jay. Okay, what parallel dimension had Red been dropped into that moment where Smith felt he had the need to protect Jay from him, as if Red would whirl around and attack him like some evil minion of Garmadon?

“Hey, it’s okay,” Smith spoke in a soothing tone to Jay. The latter shot Red a confused and apologetic look over the former’s shoulder. “Did he hurt you?”

Did- did Smith really think- think that he- he would-

Red’s heart shattered, and if Smith had been looking, he would have seen how his expression crumbled into devastation. Instead, his focus was on checking Jay for injuries. Every second that passed drove another knife blade through Red’s heart.

Something sputtered in his chest.

“Did- did you really think-” His tone went from hurt to defensive angry, an instinctive reaction to lash back against the undeserving pain. “That I was going to- that I was here for that?”

Smith spun with his teeth bared and Red nearly lost his fire. “What else? You knew you weren’t supposed to, and yet here you are. Why can’t you just leave me alone? Can’t you see no one wants you around, faker?”

This- this had to be a joke, right? Or a misunderstanding? Smith didn’t really say that. He didn’t- he didn’t mean that-

Shoving his shaking hands in his pockets, Red fought to keep the choked sob down. Jay tried to step toward him, to say something, but his voice hitched into a stutter. Smith once again turned to comfort him before turning on Red with the fury of the sun in his eyes.

“What. Did. You. Do.”

Oh FSM, he wasn’t kidding. This wasn’t a cruel joke, Smith was serious. Red swayed on his feet, blinking back tears. He was so, so utterly confused, drowning in hurt and shock and a lack of understanding.

Smith’s hand clenched. “They were all right. You are the absolute worst. There is not a trace of good in your pitiful, shrivelled excuse of a heart. Resorting to this pettiness just to spite me. You’re pathetic.”

Red couldn’t breathe. Heat rushed to his face, and the only reasons he wasn’t crying were his wish not to appear weak at school (he needed to keep his reputation strong to scare off some bullies for Lloyd) and seeing how behind Smith Jay looked furious on Red’s behalf. Though he hasn’t managed to find his voice, the look of support- at least one person didn’t fully believe that- kept Red from breaking on the spot.

“Yeah? And they were right about you.” Red was proud to admit that his voice only slightly wavered. “You’re not-”

And the next moment he was on the ground. 

His face stung. Why was his face stinging? What-

He looked up through the cracked lens of his sunglasses at Smith, standing over him with his fist held as if-

As if he’d just decked Red.

Smith had a mixture of anger, surprise, and smugness on his face, like he hadn’t fully expected to connect but was damn proud of himself for it.

As for Red, the punch had brought more tears to his eyes in reflex, and they were starting to spill over his cheeks. He wanted to wipe them away before they ran far enough for someone to see, but his body was in shock and wouldn’t respond.

“What- What is wrong with you!!”

Oh, Red had not heard that tone in a while. It took a lot to get Jay to explode like that, and it warmed Red’s heart the one that lay in shattered pieces on the floor or the hallway to know it was for him. Smith looked over his shoulder, eyes wide and puzzled, and shuddered like he’s been statically shocked at the intensity of Jay’s glare. The look of sheer anger didn’t last long, though one could argue that the amount of guilt you were slammed with when his expression dissolved into tears was worse. He hiccuped and rubbed his cheek in a rushed stroke, still managing to look pissed despite the water stains splattered across his freckles.

“Hey, hey, it’s okay-” Smith tried to soothe him. “He tried to trick you, but-”

Jay was having none of it, slipping under Smith’s outstretched arm and hurrying over to check on Red.

Smith did a double-take. “Hey- Jay! No, he’s lying to you, you can’t be hanging around him, please, you’ll get hurt-”

“More hurt than what ‘Smith’ here did to your friend.”

The three startled as a fourth voice joined the conversation. At Red’s side, Jay curled in on himself with a soft, strangled whimper, his eyes wide and confused. Smith stared at the newcomer.

And Red-

Red looked up to see himself.

Or, well, what he thought was himself for a moment. Between the crisp leather jacket and aviators, hair chopped in an intentionally short and messy style, the guy was the epitome of a ‘bad boy’ without the cringe. A scar peeked out under his left eye- not that dissimilar from Smith’s, actually- and he had a wolfish grin that immediately put Red on edge and fired off every warning signal in his brain.

“You- how-”

Smith glanced between the newcomer and Red, horror slowly creeping into his expression. 

Between him, Red, and the newcomer, Red noted, they could be mistaken for triplets under the right circumstances.

“My my-” The newcomer whistled, hands in his jacket, posture leisure. “You really did a number on him. That’s going to be a black eye for sure, maybe two! I must congratulate you.”

Smith whirled on the newcomer with refreshed anger fuelled by- Red hoped for a moment it was guilt, then chided himself for hoping that because that would mean Smith was hurt, but based on the dots rapidly connecting in Red’s mind, his words hadn’t actually been meant for him.

They still stung though, and his face hurt worse.

“You-”

“Me,” said the newcomer, unbothered by Smith’s scathing bark.

“You vile, evil, manipulative-” 

The newcomer raised his hands- damn, Red was a little jealous of those gloves, some kind of fancy fingerless style that they once again pulled off effortlessly- and smirked at Smith. “Hey now, that-” He gestured to Red, still sitting stunned in the floor, and Jay, who pressed against his side and shrunk under the sudden attention. “-was all you, ‘Smith’.”

Smith looked less than a fraction of a second from spitting some very choice words in the newcomer’s face, but his pupils slid to Red and his expression dropped back into guilt. “Kai, I’m-“

“Ah, right. Kai.”

Red really didn’t like how the stranger said his name.

“Honestly, I’m not surprised Smith landed a punch on you. If I was allowed, I’d do the same. Though I must admit, I wouldn’t be able to stop after just one; your mug just screams ‘dork alert’. Grow a little spine.”

Red found his voice. “Hey-!”

“Come on now, Kai,” the newcomer spoke over him. “Be a little smart and realize this isn’t a fight you want to pick. Can’t you see the big boys are talking?”

He caught Smith’s punch with one fist before it could hit his cheek, never taking his eyes off Red. “You know what ‘Smith’ here was saying is true. You’re just too stupid and stubborn to realize it. Come on, ‘Smith’. Let’s take this discussion outside away from these losers.”

Smith lunged at the stranger again but he merely sidestepped. “Ah ah ah, don’t want to cause a scene, do we? Would be a shame to involve these two more than we already have.”

Smith sneered at him and for a moment Red thought he’d attack him again anyways, but he bit his tongue. The two walked out of the hallway, one storming, one with all the time in the world. 

At the last moment, the newcomer turned and a chill shot through Red; he could have sworn that behind his shades, his eyes looked crimson in the light. His grin was twisted, sinister even, and Red realized with clear certainty that he wasn’t a student at this school. “I have a feeling this isn’t the last time we’ll cross paths, Kai Smith.”

As he walked off to join Smith outside, Red couldn’t help but feel as though he was right about everything.

Red-Eyed Rival (Love Rival AU)

You even just wake up one morning and decide yep. Time for angst?

Here’s a fun little idea crossing multiple AUs, so hear me out on the summary-

Remember the Aki AU for SPBNR mentioned in this fic? Where Smith ends up in the m!verse alongside Aki (aka Bizarro Kai), who’s hellbent on making sure he a. stays put and b. has to deal with as much inconvenience as possible?

What if I told you there’s a version of that inspired by the variant of the Possession AU (where Smith gets thrown into possessing Red, aka m!Kai, while Red backseat games) known as the Jekyll and Hyde AU (where they switch every time they fall asleep and neither is aware of the other).

The Aki version goes as follows: Aki is essentially like a ghost tied to Smith that can possess Smith at any time, but is careful with it as it leaves memory gaps. Because of this, Smith isn’t aware Aki got thrown along. This AU’s Smith is part of s!Polyninja, and while missing his boyfriends at home, decides to friendly-flirt with their counterparts (unaware that Aki sometimes does the same as well to a more serious level).

Blue (m!Jay), Black (m!Cole), and White (m!Zane) start to fall for Smith a little.

Unfortunately, Red (m!Kai) has been hopelessly in love with those three, and now someone’s come along and immediately gets jealous (and a bit insecure) of his new ‘love rival’.

And Aki does not make things easier :3

Enjoy!

Fine, he admitted it.

Red was jealous.

He's been in love with them for— well, he'd known them for years, and only figured out that he felt a little stronger about Jay, Zane, and Cole at the start of the school year, which, considering his normal track record of noticing these things, was a new record.

Of course, acting on said feelings was a little harder said than done. As it, he'd been hopelessly attempting to flirt with them for ages, but none of them seemed to get it. And yes, he could be a little more straight(ha)forward, but in his defence, feelings were difficult, and no, Nya, I can't just tell them, and-

Well, it was complicated, okay. What if they didn't reciprocate his feelings? He was dealing with not one, not two, but three major variables here. If he messed anything up, he'd be make their friendship- the team dynamic- awkward, or worse-

He didn't want to think about 'worse'.

And just as he'd psyched himself up, and was maybe, maybe ready to start being a little more bold with his flirting, see if any of them (or, maybe, just maybe, all three of them) were interested back, suddenly Smith had entered the picture.

He didn't know what to think of Smith.

Well, that was a lie. As his aforementioned admittance stated, he was jealous.

Because Smith knew how to flirt with them. Knew how to turn Jay into a blushing mess instead of just a rambling friend. Knew how to get into the banter of trading pick-up lines with Zane. Knew how to knock Cole off his cool game in a good way. In the little while he'd been here, he'd completely thrown all three into a tizzy.

The worst was that Kai genuinely wanted to like the guy. He did! Smith was nice, he was friendly, he was protective of them- literally everything that could be great about him was!

And Red... Red wasn't that much compared to him, was he. He wasn't as smart, wasn't as strong, wasn't as pretty, wasn't as smooth, wasn't as charming.

Smith walked around like he was the coolest thing since sliced bread and had them hanging off every word. Red went on long-winding tandems on how the mayor was using Garmadon attacks to cover up the existence of trolls that steal your left socks.

Yeah.

Smith was basically the cooler, prettier, smarter, overall better version of Red. And based on how they'd all been practically scrambling over themselves to hang out with him, the others agreed. Red just... wasn't needed anymore in the friend dynamic.

Heck, maybe he should just pass off the role of Red Ninja to Smith too, he'd probably ace that way better than Red ever could.

And through everything- all the casual flirting, friendly hangouts, everything- Smith had been nothing but kind to him. To all of them. And Red repaid that kindness by being jealous and cold back.

Some friend he was.

...

Although...

In the last week or so, things had felt... more personal. He didn't know if he was going crazy or not (all the sleepless nights tossing and turning in bed, brain going a mile a minute over this whole mess, wasn't helping), but it almost felt like Smith was... mocking him?

His flirting had doubled down. He'd gotten... well, bold, and Red just knew the three were falling for it hook, line, and sinker. Why, just yesterday-

// "Awww~ Jay, Baby, you're so cute when you blush like that," Smith said, putting his hand on Jay's cheek and giving it a little pinch. Jay had turtled into his scarf, sputtering, as Smith side-eyed Cole with a soft smirk. "Don't you think so, Cole?"

Cole shrugged, though his eyes were smiling. Next to them, Zane piped up with a cheerful "your heart-rate has elevated by 30%".

Smith looked at him and put a hand on his chest. "Oh? And what about yours?"

Red did his best not to slam his locker shut as he finished grabbing his books. He quietly walked away, but his skin prickled, and he had the oddest feeling Smith was watching him, as if he did that just to rile Red up. //

Which was honestly ridiculous. What could Smith possibly gain from intentionally flirting with Jay, Zane, and Cole in not-just-a-sweet-and-friendly-way, but just to make Red jealous? It would be cruel, underhanded- and it would be using his friends, which was just- no.

It didn't fit with the rest of Smith's character. Unless he was lying, but he seemed to genuine other than a few specific instances, and even then, it was probably just Red being paranoid and selfish.

Right. Yeah. I-It had to be.

Red shook his head to clear his thoughts, heading toward his locker. He'd find Smith later today and talk to him about it. Yeah. Make sure that- even if... if he'd lost before he'd even tried, that at least the others were taken care of. Because if Smith hurt any of them, on purpose or otherwise, well-

He knew a spot behind the diner on Den Street to throw hands.

But if Smith was genuine, and the others genuinely liked him, then... well... then he was happy for them. And he could bottle up his own feelings to sob into a bowl of ice cream later, because at least they were happy.

And if they decided they liked Red (for some reason)- well, he could daydream a little. Jay wasn't the only one who had his head up in the clouds sometimes.

Red turned the corner, and-

…

He froze.

O-Oh. Oh.

Red tried to take a step back, to leave unnoticed, but there was no way his luck would ever be that good. Smith looked over from where he’d just been snogging Cole. “Oh, Kai! Didn’t see you there.”

Red swallowed, tucking his jacket as if he could shield how his heart splintered just a little more. He plastered on a fake grin. "Smith! Cole! Hi. Sorry to, uh, interrupt you two, just wanted to grab my stuff-"

Cole pushed away from the lockers, fixing his headband and staring just a little to the side so they didn't have eye contact. The tips of his ears were darker with a blush. He hummed in greeting, subtly fiddling with his headphones.

"I'll just-" Red unlocked his locker and fumbled for his books at record speed. "Don't mind me, have a great rest of your-"

"Actually," Smith interrupted. "I wanted to chat with you, if that's okay."

Oh. Oh, so they were going to chat now. Okay. Right. Great. "Sure, yeah, totally!"

Damn, Red was actually pretty proud of keeping his voice chipper. Not Zane-chipper, of course (he was pretty sure that was physically impossible), but enough that he didn't sound like he was dreading the conversation.

Cole gave Red a cool little wave- damn he was so cute- before turning to leave. Smith leaned over and gave him a quick peck on the cheek- ouch, no, keep it together, that wasn't on purpose, stay cool- and waved as a flustered Cole put on his headphones and walked away.

"Look," Red started. He took a deep breath; either he got it all out now, or he never would. "I'm happy for you all. Really! I'm- I'm glad they're interested in you, and I'm glad you like them back, and I'm truly happy they- they like you. I-I still gave you a... a good run for your money, though! A-And-" Why was his stupid voice cracking and choking, stop it, you can't appear weak and-

"Pathetic."

"-you better believe if-..."

Red trailed off with a blink. He'd imagined that, right? He'd thought that internally. So why had it sounded like-

He laughed in a short, quiet way. "That's funny, I thought you said-"

Smith tilted his head and smiled. "You're pathetic."

No. No, there was no way Smith just said that. He was hallucinating even though he hadn't touched coffee in ages, too kept up by his own thoughts to need it. Because there was no way that Smith Forge just called him- that he actually just said-

"You know, Kai-" Smith began. "At first, I thought maybe you were just a little dense. Maybe you just hadn't gotten the hint yet, or that you were kidding yourself. Then I realized 'oh FSM, that guy's actually delusional. You genuinely can't see what's directly in front of you."

Red's throat gummed. No way. His feet were rooted to the spot as Smith stepped closer, still smiling like this was just a cheerful chat between to good friends.

"Did you really think-" Smith laughed. "That you ever had a shot even before I came along? They barely tolerate you as a school friend, they’d never want something more."

He clapped a hand on Red's shoulder and the latter flinched, mind reeling, unable to process everything enough to fight back. Not a single sound sang through his broken voice; not a retort, not a comment, not even a sob.

"Face it, Kai. You're a joke. A weak, pathetic, joke. I'm the newer, cooler version of you, and everyone knows it."

It was one thing when it was just in his head. It was another when it was spit, dripping with false kindness and unbothered cheerfulness, directly in his face.

Smith stepped forward and Red finally moved, tripping until his back hit the lockers. Smith didn't seem to care, only grinning a little sharper.

"You got a little crush or three, don’t you, Kai? Well, that’s gonna make this hard to hear. See, I like seeing how flustered I can make those three. They're rather cute, you know. Real precious. Just the sweetest. And you know what I like the most about them?"

He leaned closer, to the point where Red could feel the heat of his breath sting his cheek. Red was almost afraid of the answer, almost- no, that was ridiculous, but-

As he stood there, lungs empty of air, flooded with so many emotions that his vision was tinted at the sides from the overwhelment- in that moment, he was almost afraid of Smith.

He stared at the dark lens of Smith's sunglasses, watching the glint of sharp teeth in a malicious smirk.

"The thing I like most about them is that if they're with me, they're not with you. I'm with them to spite you. Just because you want them, and I get what you want."

Red was dimly aware that he was shaking, slammed with every emotion under the sun at once. The breath he tried to suck in hitched and caught, nearly choking him. His mind was a hurricane of thoughts.

Smith was a threat he couldn't beat.

Smith knew about his crushes and enjoyed watching him suffer.

Smith was faking being his friend.

---

Red was too weak to stand against him.

Red was too easy of a target, had nothing on Smith.

Red wasn't worth being the friend of Smith.

He was unlovable.

His parents didn't care for him. The school didn't care for him.

Why had he ever thought Jay, Zane, and Cole would.

Smith pinched his cheek with another laugh. "But hey, that's just between us, okay? No need to get the others involved. 'Course, that's if they even would believe you. After all, I'm just poor, innocent Smith who Kai seems to hate for no reason. Because you're jealous. Or maybe that's not the right word;

"Because jealous implies you ever had a chance."

Smith suddenly shoved away from Red, adjusting his hair almost lazily. Red was too stunned to cry; he could feel the urge too, but just... didn't. Couldn't.

"Honestly," Smith said, sticking his hands into his pockets. "It's a miracle those three don't hate you. You're so annoyingly persistent. Just give up, Kai. Save them the trouble of having you tell your stubborn face how they really feel about you. Just go home."

He gave a little wave, eyes almost seeming to glow beneath his sunglasses. "Glad we cleared that up. Toodles!"

Red blinked, and the next moment he was gone. The hallway was deserted once more.

But Red didn't cry. He didn't cry as he numbly grabbed his stuff, didn't cry as he walked home one foot in front of the other, didn't cry when he closed the door to his room and drew the curtains. He didn't cry when checked to make sure Nya wasn't home, nor when he weakly shrugged off his jacket. He slipped under the blanket of his bed.

And then he finally broke.

(For @twigs-sprigs​ and @shadesofvermillionvoid ninjago sonic au)

KA-BOOM!

Smoke pours in thick grey clouds out of every window of the workshop. For the past few hours, a series of almost cartoonish noises had been emitting from the inventor’s shack. Loud crashing, drills whirring, you name it, the sound had been heard. But the explosion was the loudest of all, startling anyone nearby to attention. 

From where he sits on a large flat stone redoing his bandages and ropes, Kai’s tail flares with fire, fur rising like a spooked cat. He whips his head around to stare at the workshop, wondering what could have possibly gone wrong for that explosion to have ripped through the otherwise peaceful afternoon.

A short figure stumbles out of the door, waving smoke from his face. The end of his scarf is on fire, his metal body coated in soot.

Kai rolls his eyes and rises to his feet. “Jay, what did you blow up this time?”

Jay coughs, wiping soot from the outer glass of his bowl with his tentacles. “Oh, nothing much, just the stupid PLANE I’ve been working on for HOURS because some IDIOT decided to use the propellor as a FRISBEE during the last fight—”

He cuts himself off— a very rare thing for him to do— and stares at his bowl.

There’s a tiny crack along the side, spraying the faintest trickle of water.

Jay is quiet for a solid five seconds— a new record, in Kai’s opinion— before letting out an ear-pitching wail. He throws himself at Kai, mech arms grabbing him by the chest strap and dragging him down to his level. “KAI! KAI MY BOWL IS CRACKED! I’M LOSING WATER!”

“Jay, you’re fine,” Kai scoffs. “It’s just a tiny drip. You’re fine.”

Jay shakes him in a panic, leaning all his weight forward onto Kai. “I’M DYING! GET NYA! I NEED LIFE SUPPORT! ANOTHER BOWL! MORE SALTWATER! I’M GONNA DIE!”

Shaking his head, Kai sets him back upright. “Get a grip, man, you’re not dying.”

Jay puts a hand up to his bowl and swoons, collapsing to the dirt. “I CAN FEEL MY LIFEFORCE FADING! GET A CHAOS EMERALD! GET AN AMBULANCE! GET—”

Kai scoops the bowl off his shoulders and trudges off with an annoyed huff. It doesn’t take long to reach his living quarters in their base camp, though with Jay’s continuous whining in his ears, it feels like it takes decades. He kicks open the door, a startled Lloyd crashing off the couch with a yelp. Kai pulls him back onto the couch with one hand, holding the still-yammering-squid-in-a-barely-cracked-bowl under his other arm. 

Lloyd rubs his eyes with a stifled yawn, stretching out before eying the bowl. “Uh, what happened?”

“Jay’s dying, apparently,” Kai says dryly. 

He walks over to the bathtub, turns the water on, and dumps Jay in. He hits the bottom with a wet squelch and looks up at him in surprise, then (to no ones surprise) immediately begins complaining. “KAAAAAAI- I’M A SALTWATER SQUID! NOT FRESHWATER!”

Kai sits back on the counter, tail flicking back and forth. “Just be grateful I didn’t dump you in the toilet bowl instead.”

That shuts Jay up pretty quick.

Thinking about your amazing sonic au now so you're just going to have to accept a bunch of ask spam <3

On a scale of 1-10, how doomed is Jay if his bowl cracks? And can Nya improvise as water/life support if necessary?

not that doomed, he can probably stay on dryness for a while, but yeah nya would probably act as water support JKDWWD

so, like... a 5/10, only half doomed