Ninja's Creed: Awakening

Chapter Three: So You're, Like, HITMEN?!

  Lloyd wasn't sure when he regained consciousness, but one fact was proven when he opened his eyes: he wasn't in the alley anymore. There were three indications that he had been brought somewhere after the alley fight; 1) the natural sunlight had been replaced with one bright, semi-blinding light, 2) the trash bag he'd fainted on wasn't there, and now he could tell he was stretched out on a couch, and 3) there were four other teenagers standing over him in their PJs, looking down with concerned eyes.

And why the hell is the floor moving?!

  "Aaaand...he's awake", one of them, a spikily-haired brunette crooned, sitting on a nearby coffee table. A sense of panic washed over Lloyd, but then again, he still felt like he was recovering from a drain-cleaner hangover, so none of his senses would really be useful to help him escape now, anyway.

  "Yeah, but we don't have eyes, do we, Kai?" another one, with shaggy black hair and a muscular frame, replied, rolling his eyes. "Yes, we all have eyes, Cole", a third teen with a white military cut and a strangely robotic voice chimed in, obviously oblivious to 21st-century pop culture. "There is, however a condition in which—" "We get it, Zane!" the first teen snapped, annoyed. "It's not like—"

  "Uh, sorry to interrupt anything", Lloyd cut in, "but what the fat hell is going on?! And if you kidnapped me, at least have the decency to tell me who you are before you kill me!" He looked around, still uneasy because of the moving-floor feeling. "And where!" The fourth teen, who sported a messy hairstyle and a had shy azure eyes, said, "Well, it's kinda hard to explain..."

  "Well, let's break the ice with a little introduction", the spiked-up teen volunteered, stepping forward. "I'll go first. My name is Kai, and we all know it's pretty clear I'm the hot one around here!" The second teen with the black hair let out two fake coughs, muttering the word "slut" between them. Kai shot him a fiery glare, then smiled sweetly. "And why don't we let the figlio d'un cagna over there go next?"

  The second teen shrugged and stepped forward. "I'm Cole, and I'm the one that saved you while Kai was off woman—or, better yet, woman-and-regular-man-izing—some poor, unfortunate soul who probably called the cops with reports of a spikily-headed perv trying to fend off wave after wave of Templars and keep them from ruining said hair. Who's next?"

  Lloyd bit his tongue to keep from bursting into laughter, glancing at Kai to see how he was taking that. The color of his face made every shade of deep red look like pastel pink. He shot a mountain-moving, pissed-off glare Cole's way. Cole just smiled triumphantly in response. At this point, Lloyd couldn't take it anymore and out came a bout of laughter that eventually caused everyone (except a still-pissed Kai) to join in. "First of all, thank you. Like, so friggin' much. But seriously, though, who's next?"

  "I will go next", the robo-teen said. "I am Zane, and I am a perfectly normal teenager." Lloyd raised a half-curious, half-unsure-whether-I-should-make-a-break-for-it eyebrow. "Ooookkkaay...I don't know what that was", he said, breaking the silence that had fallen over them, "but when I counted off weirdly-styled heads, there were four of you. And since I'm not half-bad at math—but God, do I hate it—one of you hasn't said an intelligible word since I woke up. I assume it's Blue Bunny in the corner over there?"

  The brunette teenager in the blue pj's shuffled his feet uncomfortably, as if embarrassed that he'd suddenly been thrust into the spotlight. "Hi...?" he mumbled, backing further into the corner he was standing in. "Buddy, you hang out with—and probably are one—highly trained killers, but introductions make you piss your robe thingy?" Lloyd asked in his usual deadpan, cynical manner.

  Knowing that his words were true, the blue-clad boy sighed and promptly turned a bright shade of pink. "Mmnjay," he mumbled.

"You're okay?! Well, that's freakin' obvious, nothing happened to you!"

"Mrnamijay!"

"You're gay?! Sweet! Um...congratulazioni?"

  "No! I'm Jay!" the boy said intelligibly at last, turning even redder at Lloyd's guess. "Oh, you aren't? The color of your face sure says otherwise—and FTR, I don't judge—but I believe you. Even if it is a racist statement to lobsters..." The other three teens had been trying to suppress their laughter throughout the exchange, but after the last sentence, they all completely dissolved into giggles, guffaws, chortles, and whatever unknown synonyms there are for laughing hysterically. Even Jay giggled a bit.

  "Hey, wait a minute!" Cole said to Lloyd after the last laugh died down. "You just spoke perfect Italianò..." Lloyd shrugged. "It's a hobby. I also know Arabic, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, and Greek. Screw the Rosetta Stone app, though—I mean, who makes you pay twenty bucks a month for membership?" "Preach! What is wrong with the world now? Beside the fact that we're the one country overflowing with perverts, corrupt government officials, and a school shooting every other month?" Cole agreed. "But, back to your perfect ability to speak Italian..." He turned to his three friends behind him. "Would you excuse us for a moment?" Zane asked in his usual polite manner.

  "Sure! Take all the time you need," Lloyd said. "Oh, and by the way, can you please point out the fridge? I actually haven't eaten since before the explosion..." "Down the hall, second door to the left," Kai instructed, jerking a thumb in the direction of a brightly-lit corridor nearby. The four waited until the blonde was out of earshot, then huddled into a tight circle.

  "Soooo...how do we tell him what he's really doing here?" Jay asked, looking around nervously at his friends. "God only knows if he's already met Wu and he never told us!" "Maybe, but did you hear his Italian? And all of the foreign languages he knows...he could be a key element in our plan!" "I don't know, Cole," Zane chimed in. "Are you sure that sending Lloyd onto the battlefield is the most satisfactory course of action? We do not even know if he's ready to shed blood without question when the time comes to act!"

  "Then, of course, there's always the question of what to do in times of doubt of whose side he's on", Jay added. "Garmadon is his dad, whether Lloyd's evil or not. If we send him to kill Garmadon, that one overlooked factor will make things decidedly more complicated!" "Well, we're gonna have to tell him somehow, and if we have a choice, I say you grow some balls and do it now!"

  "Whatcha talking about, guys?" Lloyd's voice asked from behind them. The boys broke up the huddle and turned to face him. They all exchanged slightly nervous glances, then looked back at the green-hoodied blonde. "Remember when you asked us why you were brought here?" Jay inquired of him. "Yeah, why?" Lloyd replied, narrowing his eyes suspiciously.

  Cole took a deep breath, then let it out quickly. "Lloyd, there's a reason why I saved you from that Templar soldier today..." He took another breath. "We want to recruit you."

"Recruit me? For what?"

  Zane cleared his throat. "You see, you aren't just an ordinary teenager, Lloyd. You are...well, we have someone we want you to meet. Grand Master Wu!"

  At that moment, an old man, adorned in white silk robes with golden details and holding a beautifully-crafted jade walking stick, emerged from behind a paper dressing screen, sat down on a nearby couch, and peered at the blonde teen standing in front of him. "Hello, nephew", he greeted Lloyd. "I've been waiting for this day for seventeen years."

"Um...who are you?" the boy asked in response.

"I am your Uncle Wu, and you, my nephew, are an Assassin on Koko's side of our family."

  This news made Lloyd freeze in shock. "So, you're, like...hitmen?!" he inquired weakly. "Essentially...yes," Cole replied, "and we need you to help us stop your dad by any means necessary, so we're going on a little mission."