(The ninjas go undercover as a dance troupe and enter a talent contest in their quest to win the Blade Cup, where one of the Fangblades are hidden.)

Season One: Episode Nine
Words: 2.0k

"(Y/n), wake up," I hear Cole say as he gently shakes me.
"What happened," I groan as my head pounds.
"You passed out screaming, 'get out of my head!'," he says.

"Oh," I pause, "I'm fine," I get up out of bed, stumbling around.
"You are so not fine."
"I am," I grumble.

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"It appears his impatience is because he has not found his inner peace and unlocked his full potential like you and I Jay," Zane says.
"Ok Mr.Roboto but (Y/n) or Cole hasn't either," Kai says salty.
"I got it," Cole yells.
"You've unlocked it," Kai asks, "oh! Why am I the only one!"

"No dumb dumb, I figured out where I recognize the Fangblade from," Cole says. He runs out of the room and comes back in with a picture.

He hands me the picture, "back where I grew up, there's this big competition, where every year the winner gets the Blade Cup. My dads won it multiple times."
"Cute," I say ruffling his hair. He blushes.
"You never told us he was an accomplished athlete," Zane say also looking at the photo.
"Oh, no, he's uh, blacksmith."

"There's nothing wrong with that. My father was one too," Kai says.
"No not that kind," Cole says, "he's a Royal Blacksmith." He boys start laughing as Cole shows them a picture of his dad, I've seen it many times.
"But how did it become a trophy?"
"Well, supposedly, the Blade Cup was made but this guy who collected priceless artifacts."
"Clutch Powers," I ask, "Yeah, anyway, it gets passed on to each year's winner. But I don't know who has it I haven't talked to my father in years."

"Well, let's call him," Kai says.
"No we can't. He thinks I'm in Ninjago City training at the Marty Openheimer School Of Preforming Arts," he groans, "he wanted me to follow in his footsteps but when I couldn't sing or dance, I-I ran away. When he's sees I can't dance he'll know I've been lying in the letter I've been sending him."

I grab his shoulder, "he doesn't know you're a ninja?"
"What you're gonna crack some joke that my old man wear's a tutu," he asks, "no, but if we're gonna have any chance at getting that Fangblade before they do, we'd better get our own act in tune."

"What are you saying," I ask, nervous. Kai looks at me and smirks.

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We cheer jumping off the ship and landing on the ground, "it feels so different doing that in normal clothes," I say looking at my purple hoodie and black pants.

Cole pulls out a case, "hand them over."
"But no mortal should possess all five," Jay jokes. I slide off my guards and hesitantly place them in the case.
"Wanna remind me again why we can't keep our weapons," Kai asks.
"I told you, my dad can't don out I'm a ninja, and I don't feel like making up excuses why I'm carrying a giant scythe around."

"Mkay, pretty boy," I pull the strings on his hoodie, "Hey! Just remember the plan, we find out who had the Fangblade trophy, we snatch it, and get the heck out of town."

Cole knocks on the door and his father open it. He then says something about 'being too good for a doorbell' and slams the door closed.
"Use the bell, son," I hear him say. Cole presses the bell. He opens the door hugging him, "Come on in some. It's been forever. What did you bring a quintet," he asks seeing us behind Cole.

He hands us all a cup of tea and I take a sip as he starts talking, "it's was the cha-cha I broke my foot on. But I swear the percussionist has it in for me."
"No, dad, I didn't tell them about your silly stories."

He looked mad so Kai bumped in, "What he meant was we've been so busy training at the...," Jay cut him off, "Martha Openheimer."
The music abruptly stopped, "Martha Openheimer?"

"What he meant to say was," I begin but Zane cuts me off, "The Marty Openheimer School Of Preforming Arts."
"Right. Well, um, see, we have a final research paper we're doing on the history of Ninjago talent, and what we really wanted to know was, how can we get our hands of the Blade Cup?"

"You're talking about getting your hands on The Blade Cup? The most prized and heavily guarded award in all of Ninjago, the symbol of excellence in harmony and grace? You can't just get it, you must earn it," he explains, "you have to exhibit style. Perfect pitch. Push the boundaries of artistic license and win this year's Ninjago Talent Show!"

"Um," I say trying to think of an easier way. "Is this why you came? You knew I was injured. And when my quintet insisted we shan't go on, you four have come to take our place."
"Ingenious! My son, bringing for the next evolution of the Royal Blacksmiths," I laugh at Cole's surprised face.

"Let me hear the sweet sound of harmony," he says making my eyes widen.
Each of the boys take their turn singing harmony while I stay quiet.
Cole gets up, "look dad we just need the trophy," Kai jumps up, "Yeah we're bringing home he gold and we want you to train us."

My jaw drops at Kai's words. There's no way! "I've never been more proud. If you'll excuse me I need to write a song about my feelings," he says closing the door.
"What are you doing," Cole asks as I flail my arms.
"Look, we enter this competition so we can get close enough to the Blade Cup. Once we get the Fangblade, we leave town. How hard can this be?"

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"Five, six, seven, eight."

"Bop till you drop."
"Shake it till you break it."
"Move it till you lose it."
"Spin it till you win it."
"Oh, woah, woah, yeah," I sing my part. 

"Stop, Stop, Ugh. The only good one was her. Do you sing," he asks me, "no, uh, I do more of academics than the arts but...I go to their practices so I picked up a few things," I give him a nervous smile.

"Maybe you should teach them," he mumbles, "If my ears weren't attached to my head, they'd be running away! Kai love the energy, hate the hair," he hits Kai's head, "Jay, you're giving a lot, but I need more," he shows Jay, "Zane you're like a machine, don't change anything."

"And, Cole, try to act like you wanna be here," Cole rolls his eyes.
"Let's take a look at the big show-stopping climax. Cole, we can't have history repeating itself."

Cole groans, "dad, it was the Triple Tiger Sashay. I was seven."
"What's the Triple Tiger Sashay?"
"Only the most difficult dance move ever created."
"True, many professionals have tried, but never successfully completed."
"Hence, my father thought a seven year old could, but I ended up falling on my face, humiliating myself, and letting my quartet down."

"If you're going to win. You have to go big," he says, "alright time for a break take five."

"Ugh, all we have to do is keep this charade up until we can get our hands on the trophy."
"I don't know," I say, "I'm starting to think we can win this thing."
"(Y/n) I'm gonna hit you," Cole warns making me laugh, "okay, fine, we'll stick to the plan."

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"Then kick ball change, barrel roll, barrel turn, and we all do the double wings," Cole gets interrupted as Kai and Jay hit each other.

"You were two beats off, catch up!"
"Guys, come on, let's not make this harder than it needs to be. Just stuck to the plan and keep up the charade until the trophy's revealed. Once we steal the Blade Cup, we can argue all we want once we get back home.

"What," I hear, "you we're going to steal it?
"Dad, there's something I want to tell you. All these years, I haven't been training to be a singer or dancer. I found something new that I'm really good at. Dad...I'm a ninja," he says spinning into his suit.
"And the truth is if we don't steal that Fangblade I mean, Blade Cup. There's other people that will bad people. Serpentine. And we need it to save the world. I am proud of who I am and I want you to be proud of me too.

"I can't be proud of any son who thinks stealing is right. And I'm not gonna wait around to watch you make a mockery of our family's legacy."
Cole tries to stop him but he walks away.

We try to cheer him up but see Serpentine walk through the door dressed up. "I can't help it if I offend anyone, my only job is to tell the truth."

"Looks like we're not the only planning to still the Blade Cup. Pythor's here."
"We need to steal it," I say.
"We're not gonna steal it," Cole says, "we're gonna win this competition, but we're gonna do it our way.

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"If we're gonna do this I want everyone to see who we are," Cole says, "oh, I'm nervous," I say.
"I have butterflies in my stomach," Zane says, "yeah me too," I tell him.
"No, really," he opens up his mainframe and butterflies fly out.

"Okay? I'm glad he got that out of his system," Jay says.
"If we can do the Tornado of Creation we can score perfect tens out there."
I tighten the guards in my wrist and take a deep breath, "I'm glad you guys are my friends," Cole says.

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We go out there and start doing our dance as spotlight are on us and people are cheering.
Serpentine start coming onto the stage.

I do a backflip and kick two away.
"Jump up, kick back, whip around, and spin," I dance along with the music.
I flip on Cole's back and knock down another snake as more come. "And do the weekend whip."

I gasp as Cole does it, "the Triple Tiger Sashay!"
"He danced the impossible," The announcer says. I run up and jump on him, hugging him, as we get a perfect score.

We all walk backstage as Cole holds the Blade Cup. "That was amazing," I cheer happily besides Jay who's jumping from excitement.
"Thanks, but winning this destiny feel the same without my dad being able to," he gets cut off as his dad calls his name.

"I saw it all, son."
"Those Serpentine we're up to no good, trying to steal the show, and I saw you stand up for what is right," he says hugging him.

We walk towards them as he talks to him dad, "my son is a hero!"
"Eh, sorry to interrupt your little reunion, but it's me, Pythor."
"You can't fool us," I say.
"I didn't want you to miss out big show stopper," Pythor yells as Cole runs to cover his dad as speakers fall on top of them.

"Look," I point to Cole's weapon to see it shining, "his true potential."
"His relation ship with his father must have been holding him back."
Cole pushes all the equipment off and helps his father up.

"Great so we're really the only ones who haven't found it yet," Kai sighs making me laugh, "don't worry we'll get it soon."

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"Ugh the scoreboard says, Pythor: two,  Ninjas: zero."
"Hey But we only need one and there's two more to find," Cole says being optimistic.
"I don't know, maybe when I unlock my true potential I'll turn into the destine green ninja," Kai says cocky.
"The only thing you're destined for is a more inflated ego," Cole says making up laugh.

His dad walks out with a picture of us and hangs it on the wall, "alright," I high five Zane.
"As far as I'm concerned, you're all family now."