Prologue: Part 1: Day of the ninja

  In an old village a young girl, Nya Smith, forges a sword in a blacksmiths workshop. She pulls the blade from the fire and sticks it in a big bowl of water. When she pulls back her blade, it is all warped and brittle. A laugh is heard. Her elder brother sits in an old wooden chair, laughing at her mistake. "KAI!" She yells, angry. "Not my fault you went to fast." He says in a cool and even tone. He gets up and walks over, taking the blade from her hand. "Let me." He says. He beats the blade against the counter, shattering it in seconds. He tuts before grabbing a different blade in need of repair. He lays it over the fire and fixes it real quick, once he pulls it back, he watches as it cools from glowing red to nice grey metal. He looks to Nya when this is done. "Let it regain it's color before settling it in the cold water. If you don't wait, it won't come out right." He says before settling it in the water. "Now, why don't you man the shop while I finish up the repairs. I know you want to be a blacksmith, but if you keep refusing to take your time and keep up never listening to my lessons, then it isn't going to happen sis. You asked me to teach you, but you refuse to listen to my lessons. I might be forced to drop you as my apprentice if you keep this up, and remember, I'm the only blacksmith willing to teach a female." Kai warns her sternly. Nya sighs and rolls her eyes before heading out to the shop, grumbling all the way.  

  She sits at the counter with an impatient look to her face. An elderly man walks in. He has short grey hair and a black & white outfit resembling a gi. He carries an old bamboo staff with him that has inscribing on it in an ancient language carved in. He gives Nya a good once over before smiling and turning to look at the merchandise. He taps a samurai suit with his staff. "Tools for a samurai, but nothing fitting of a ninja? No shurikans, no nunchucks, only swords and katanas? The armor is good and heavy, perfect for throwing your weight around, but useless for stealth." He says, looking around. Nya comes out from behind the desk and up to the man. "Your a long ways away from ninja in these parts sir." She says before standing tall in front of him. "Now, if I may, please do not insult our merchandise. I ask that you either buy something or leave before I have to call my brother." She says sternly. He smiles more. "Thought I'd find someone special." He says before turning to leave. Nya looks confused. Someone special? What?  

She shakes her head as she turns to go back to the desk. Her brother comes out. "I heard mention of me?" He asks. "Just some crazy old man." Nya says. "What did he say?" Kai asks, setting some swords up. "Just going on about ninja and insulting samurai." Nya answers, waving her hand around to dismiss it. "But... It's strange. He mentioned looking for someone special instead of something. It's weird. You know what? I bet he's just crazy!" She says, feeling frustrated. "I don't know Nya, the elderly are very wise. He may have had different reasons then what you think. Maybe something big is coming our way." Kai says in a calm tone of warning. Nya huffs. Not believing him.

The next thing the siblings know, the sky turns dark and a loud engine is heard. They look to see giant vehicles rolling into town that where purple with skeleton designs. "What the?" Kai says before Nya runs out in samurai armor with a sword to fight as skeletons jump off the vehicles and attack. Kai runs out with two katanas. The siblings fight, having each other's backs the entire time. The old man shows up after a while and fights with his staff. Nya & Kai end up separated as the fighting continues. Then a big skeleton comes over and ends up fighting Nya. Nya is fine with it, until he shows his second set of arms. She then freaks and panics, but fights anyway, knowing she must protect her village. 

The skeleton puts her on the ground with a kick and when the old man shows up, the skeleton backs up one step before getting cocky again. "Garmadon, your looking rather old and senile." He says threateningly. "Your spinjitsu looks rather rusty to." He gloats some more. The old man, Garmadon, smirks. "Nothing like bone to sharpen it's edge and rejuvenate ones body Samukai." He counters with a small chuckle at the end. Samukai throws his daggers, Garmadon doges perfectly, but they hit the water tower and it starts falling, aimed for the girl trapped on the ground by armor to heavy for her. Garmadon uses his spinjitsu and saves her just in time.

Samukai hops back on his vehicle where a strange living shadow whispers in his ear. "Lord Wu says to take the boy!" He shouts. A giant claw shoots out of the vehicle to grab Kai, and succeeds. "KAI!" Nya shouts and reaches out for her brother. The vehicles drive off and Nya lets her tears fall. "Where are they taking him?!" He whips back on Garmadon. "To the Underworld. A place no mortal can go." He answers as he watches where they left. "And their working for Lord Wu, then I feel the worst is yet to come." He says calmly. Nya begins to shake in fear for her brother.

"Now, come, I will train you to harness the fire within." He says, walking in another direction. Her eyes go wide. "What?!" She says in shock. "What about my brother?!" She questions, her thoughts only of her lost brother. "If you want your brother back, then you must fight Lord Wu and win. Something you must be prepared for, train for, no matter how hard. You must be the red ninja." Garmadon explains. "But I don't get it. Who is Lord Wu anyway?" She asks.

Garmadon sighs. He had a feeling she would ask that. "Long ago, the first spinjitsu master created Ninjago using the four elements of spinjitsu. Earth, lighting, fire, and ice. He used the four golden weapons of spinjitsu to harness these elements, the power of the weapons to great for any one mortal to handle all at once. He had two sons before his death, but the younger brother turned dark and evil. He tried to take the weapons for himself, causing his elder brother to banish him to the Underworld. The elder brother then hid the weapons, placing a guardian with each weapon, and in case of his own demise, a map for an honest man to hide. That man was your father, Lord Wu is the younger brother, and I need to find those weapons before he does." Garmadon answers her question, but leaves her with even more. "Wait.... Your the elder brother, aren't you?" She asks and he nods in answer. She looks to the sky. "Then why do you need me? And why does he want my brother?" She asks, blinking back tears before looking at him again. "I haven't any clue what he wants with your brother, but I need to find four special individuals to help me, and you are one of them." Garmadon answers her again as he walks. She follows closely behind. "But why? Unless you need a blacksmith I'm no good, and I'm not even good at that either!" She says. "Just come, I will train you, you will save your brother, and we will save the world." He says. "You're sibling rivalry has gotten why out of control. I hope you know that." She says with annoyance hinting her voice.

  When the two reach a monetary atop a humongousley tall mountain, Garmadon opens the doors and walks in with Nya behind him. "Wait, a monetary? I'm going to learn to fight in a place for learning peace?" Nya questions as she looks around. "Do no solely judge on what you see alone." Garmadon says as he goes to stand by a gold dragon statue. Nya becomes even more confused. "Wait, what?" She asks as he uses his staff to flip the statue, revealing a red button. He uses his staff to press the button, and a training course shoots up from the ground.  

Nya walks up to the course and Garmadon goes to the other side, sitting on the wooden porch with some tea. "When you can finish this course before I can finish my tea, you will be ready for the next step." He explains. "Wait.... What? But that's-" Nya is cut off when. He quickly downs the tea and stands to leave. "You have failed today, try again tomorrow." He says, going inside the building. Nya stands there flabbergasted.

  After her fist day, Nya continues to train, failing several times, she keeps getting back up, determined to save her brother. When she finally feels ready, she stands at the starting point, staring Garmadon down. Garmadon sits with a smirk and his purple tea set. They begin and Nya goes through the course without a single fault. Once she finishes, she runs over and sits on the railing behind Garmadon as he finishes the last drop of tea. He puts the cup down and is surprised to not see Nya anywhere. She holds a hand over her mouth, stifling a giggle. When he finally turns around, he jumps in surprise and drops his cup which luckily doesn't break. "So, when am I going to learn... What did you call it? Spinjitsu?" She asks. He stands up with a smile. "Your final test comes tomorrow. Now get some sleep." He says and walks inside.  

Nya stands at her bedroom mirror at a little past midnight, unable to sleep after awakening from a nightmare about finding her brothers corpse. She sighs before splashing some water on her face. She looks at her expression. She frowns. What she done to deserve this? What had Kai done deserve his luck? Why did the world hate them? Tears leek from her eyes. She wished so much to be back at home with Kai learning to be a blacksmith and dealing with his nagging about having patience and what metals are the best for specific weapons. She missed him so much. She splashes some more water on her face and as she comes back up, three male ninja appear in her room, but she fails to see them in the shadows. She takes a deep breath in and lets it out, a technique Kai taught her to control her emotions. She looks back in the mirror with a determined gaze.

  Nya pulls back from the reflective surface in front of her she closes her eyes to collect her nerves before practicing some fighting moves and stances. "Haaaaaa!" She lets out as she throws a round house kick, one of the ninja just barely keeping his chin from being bashed in by her foot, his bushy eyebrows raising in surprise. Next she throws a punch with closed eyes and just barely misses another ninja, his smooth eyebrows rising in surprise as well, the nick in his right brow appearing larger as his eyebrows reach position. Then she does a backflip and narrowly avoids taking the third ninja down who has no apparent reaction to her besides backing up two steps. When she's done she stops and finally notices her intruders. "Uh oh." She says shyly before the four start fighting. Nya holds her own well and the fight is taken to the outside before to long. She gets and Idea and turns on the training course. The one with the bushy eyebrows holds his scythe firmly and he charges forward, the one with a notch in his brow uses his nunchucks expertly, and the stoic one uses his shurikens expertly. Nya grabs a random sword and fights perfectly now that she had a weapon she was use to. Kai taught her how to fight with a sword, he was the guy who perfected fighting with two double sided swords.  

She grinned as she soon found the upper hand. After a bit, a loud "STOP!" Is heard booming throughout the monastery. The four stop and look to Garmadon. "Yes Sensei." The three ninja say, bowing to their master. "Wait, Sensei? Their your students to?" Nya says, walking to him. "Yes." Is all he says as the boys come forward. "NINJA GO!" Garmadon shouts as he breaks into his purple Spinjitsu and goes to each of his four students, giving the three ninja new gis & Nya one of her own. He pulls back and stop afterwards. "Wait.... Why am I the only one still in black?" Says the one to Nya's right as he removes his hood, revealing dark brown eyes and caramel brown hair. Garmadon taps his staff on the one to Nya's far right. "Zane, blue ninja, master of lightning. His sixth sense will aid us well." He says and Zane removes his hood, revealing royal blue eyes and white spiked hair. He then goes to the one in black. "Jason, ninja of black, master of earth. His technological skills might just come in handy." Garmadon says then moves to Nya. "Nya, ninja of red, master of fire. It burns bright in you." Her reddish brown eyes glimmer before he moves to the one in white who removes his hood to reveal black hair and his pale, icy blue eyes shine with strength. "Coleman, the white ninja, master of ice. With his quick thinking he will lead you to victory." Garmadon finishes. Coleman turns and shakes hands with Nya. "Just call me Cole please." He says and she nods. "And me Jay." Says the black ninja. Nya nods to him as well. All seemed right as she stood with them, almost like destiny.

"Now, come we must head out now." Garmadon says as he walks off. "Wait! What about my brother?!" Nya asks frantically. "Don't tell me we're saving a dude!" Jay says with a look of disappointment. Nya glares at him. "Shut up dirt clod!" She shouts before turning back to Garmadon. Cole snickers a bit at the scene and Jay huffs, glaring at Cole.

  The next thing the ninja know, their pulling a carriage with Garmadon in it sipping his tea.  

  "So, where did the old man find you three?" Nya asks. "Well... Let's just say that if he'd never found us we wouldn't even be seen together." Cole answers to begin with. "I was testing my limits." Cole says, flashing back to Garmadon finding him at the summit of a snow peaked mountain. "I was testing my invention." Jay says, flashing back to Garmadon finding him testing out a robot meant to make gardening easier. "And I was testing myself." Zane finishes, flashing back to Garmadon finding him meditating at a different monastery. Nya looks shocked. "Well then. Your right. We wouldn't be seen together." She replies. "What were you testing?" Jay asks. Nya looks confused. "I wasn't testing anything." She says. "Then what where you doing when you first met Sensei?" Jay asks. "Studying to be a blacksmith under my elder brother. I'm his appearance. I've been studying under him for four years now." She explains. "Wait... Four years?" Cole questions. "Yeah. The way of the blacksmith is more complicated then it looks." She says with an embarrassed blush coating her cheeks. Their conversation gets cut short when they arrive at their destination.  

  The ninja sneak a pawn a ridge to view the skeletons digging in some minds. Nya sneaks ahead, getting on top of a water tower where there mini command center is and looks through a hole in the roof to see Samukai with the map. When the others finally notice her absence, she's on the roof already. "How did she move so fast?" Cole wonders. "Don't know. Don't care. We better catch up to her." Jay says in reply and takes off with Cole & Zane right behind him.  

Jay takes one look at the seen in the room and wants to face palm. "The maps upside down! They diggin in the wrong spot!" He complains and Nya sinkers a bit. Cole has an idea. "Let's grab the map." He says. Nya, Jay, and Zane all look to him like he grew a second head. "We can't get spotted man." Jay says. "Just trust me." Cole counters. "Sensei did make Cole leader." Zane says. "Well, maybe he's just a crazy old man." Jay argues. "I would agree, but my brother once said that the elderly are very wise, and have learned lessons from experience. Our father preached the same, so I'm with Zane and Cole." She says, thinking back on her elder brother.

  Jay sighs and agrees, realizing he's outnumbered. Jay grabs Cole's legs, Cole grabs Zane's, and Zane grabs Nya's. Nya is slowly dropped down to grab the map while Samukai isn't looking and then is hoisted up quickly. They get off the roof and behind a boulder before the living skeleton can turn back around.  

Nya rushes off ahead once she gets a quick look at the map and the others follow, trying to catch up with the hot headed red ninja. Nya makes it to a giant cave and over to a boulder when the others catch up. "What is with you?!" Cole whisper yells. Nya just rolls her eyes and tries to push the Boulder out of the way. Jay rolls his eyes at her before giving up and helping her. Cole and Zane jump in after Jay. When they get the Boulder moved, they walk in to see old carved out samurai heads and in the center lays what seems to be a dragon head detail holding the golden nunchucks of the earth. Jay does a flying backflip to grab the nunchucks off their tall perch and when he lands, they are sheathed and handed to Nya to carry as 'punishment' for running off twice.

The three head out when Jay sneezes. The loud sneeze echoes throughout the caverns and all the skeletons hear it. Jay whiles his nose. "Whoopsie.... Heh.... You don't think that was to loud, do you?" He asks innocently. Nya face palms at his stupidity.

The next thing the ninja know, the skeletons show up and they start fighting. "There's to many!" Jay whines. "Then start muffling your sneezes you motor mouth!" Cole yells. "It was an accident! You can't stop a sneeze! It's unhealthy to do so!" Jay yells back. "Just zip it rock head!" Nya shouts at him and he shuts up.

Jay starts to enjoy fighting when he notices how similar it is to the training course. "HAHA! Guys! It's like the training course!" He shouts with glee. He mutters the steps as he fights, letting his body go through the motions and soon enough, he erupts into spinjitsu, a black and brown funnel forming around him made of earth. "JAY! How did you do that?!" Cole shouts. "Aha! I'm just going through the motions! It's just like the training course!" He shouts back. Cole tries it and erupts into white icy spinjitsu. Next is Zane with his blue electrical spinjitsu. Nya tries after that and erupts into red fiery spinjitsu. The skeletons freak at this. "They know spinjitsu!" One shouts before they all panic and take off.

  The ninja calm down and meet up in the center of the room. "OK, awesome!" Jay says excitedly. Nya and Cole smile and roll their eyes at him. Zane just smiles along side his friends. Suddenly, Zane remembers something. Cole looks behind them and sees a giant earth dragon. He starts stuttering. "G-g-guys? D-d-d-d-d-d-d-" He continues like that as Zane speaks up. "Didn't Sensei say there was a guardian protecting each weapon?" He asks. Jay & Nya suddenly remember. "Then where is it?" Jay asks. That's when Cole finally finishes. "...d-d-DRAGON!" He screams and the others turn around. "RUN!" Jay shouts and they all go running. The dragon goes after them, and traps them in the cave. When Nya has had enough she unsheathes the nunchucks. "What are you doing?!" Cole shouts. "Sensei told us not to use them!" Jay calls. "Then keep your motor mouth shut!" Nya calls back before banding the nunchucks to the ground. The cave starts to crumble and the ninja climb up and out to safety.  

The ninja dust themselves off before finding Garmadon glaring at them. "I told you not to use the weapon." Garmadon says in a lethal voice. "I know, but I had to!" Nya argues. Garmadon simply raises an eyebrow as if to say 'Go on' in a challenging sense. "I didn't, then the whole team would be dragon food right now! We were bout two seconds away from loosing our lives, so I wasn't thinking about your rules, I was thinking about getting my team out of their safe and sound. Sometimes? The rules are what put us in danger more then our own actions. That's one thing I listened to growing up." Nya states her case angrily. Garmadon huffs, deepening his glare on her before turning and leaving. Jay comes up, resting his hand on her shoulder. "It's okay." He says. "Yeah, the old man just doesn't like when someone else wins." Cole adds, putting his arm around her. "Get off.... BOTH of you." Nya says and they both draw their hands back as she walks forward, planning to leave.

-&-

Sorry for being a day late! I thought I'd have it finished before yesterday, but I was wrong.

Well, better late then never I always say.

My update schedule is every Thursday, and that Friday if I'm late.

I a not listing a time because that is one thing I could never stick to. So just stay aware of updates until it's up on those days.... OK?

For now, however....

What do you think of...

Nya?

Kai?

Jay?

Cole?

Zane?

Garmadon?

The story thus far?

Any questions?

Theories?

Concerns?

Let me know!

Bye!