"What A Rollercoaster That Was.." - A Lloyd x Brad Fanfic: Book 1!

★ Prologue: The Beginning of a Beginning ★

Set in Season 4: The Tournament of Elements.

It was just a normal day in New Ninjago City, after the Overlord has gone for good this time. The ninja are all missing their friend, Zane, who sacrificed himself for the good of Ninjago's citizens. All his friends are broken. Jay has become a Game Show Host, Kai's fighting random small time criminals in a bar for some action, Cole is somewhere no one knows who he is, Misako and Garamadon are helping Nya sort some things out at her Samuri X cave, and finally Lloyd is with Wu and Cyrus Borg helping with some security. Zane is supposedly dead and P.I.X.A.L is nowhere to be seen. 

 "Lloyd," Wu starts, "Where are the other ninja? I asked for all of you to take part in this test."

 "Uh, they, uh, they really wanted to be here, but they, uh... all had other plans." Lloyd stuttered.

 "I understand perfectly well. The loss of Zane has affected us all." Cyrus said, " I haven't even heard word from my assistant Pixal since his memorial. It's heartbreaking. "

 "If we dwell too long on what's missing, we fail to see what can be gained." Wu replied to Cyrus's understanding talk. "The absence of Zane will either tear you four apart or bring you closer together. The choice is yours."

"I'll do what I can but... It won't be easy." Lloyd sighed.

 "The greatest lessons never are."

 •~~~~ TIME SKIP TO RESTAURANT MEET BECAUSE THAT'S TOO MUCH FOR ME ~~~~•

 "Jay?" Kai asked, surprised.

 "Ha. You too?" Cole said, upset. Calm down, honey, your soon-to-be boyfriend is here.

 "The runt tricked us all." Jay added, also clearly upset.

 Lloyd stopped Kai from grabbing some sushi. "We talk first, then eat."

Cole scoffed. "Trust me, do you know what kind of restraint I've had to have staring at all this noodle goodness? You're late!" 

 Kai rolled his eyes. "Make it quick."

"I know without Zane things have been different, but we have to move on. The reason I brought you all here is because..." Lloyd paused, "Maybe we should add someone new to our team." 

 They all looked at him in disbelief.

 "A new ninja?" Kai asked, shocked.

 "ARE YOU CRAZY?!" Jay screamed.

 "Come on, Zane's irreplaceable!" Cole added.

 "I cared for him too, but now it's time to think about this team." Lloyd frowned.

 "Maybe, without Zane, there is no team." Kai spat.

Literally right after he said that, three goons entered the store and went to the cashier. The one with a mohawk demanded the money, and when he received it he didn't feel like it was enough. The ninja were enraged, but when mohawk guy started using violence, Cole broke.

 "That's enough! Put the money back and leave!" Cole yelled.

 "I'd listen to him if I were you." Kai started, "He's not fun to be around when he's hangry." Honestly, I understand Cole.

The goons started to attack the ninja, so they started fighting. Jay and Kai were fighting the two extras by the thing that moves the food around (Idk what it's called, sorry!), and Cole fought mohawk guy by the cash register. Kai was throwing punches at his opponent, while Jay was throwing plates of food. Honestly, such a waste. Anyway, said plates were dodged and they were going over Cole's head and almost hitting goon 1. Some did hit him. Cole used his chopsticks and managed to catch some of the food flying off of the plates. He ate some bits but the main goon punched a plate out of the way.

 "Hey! I was going to eat that!" Cole whined. Now he was very mad. 

He used his chopsticks and made the goon smile a really ugly smile, then he kicked him into the till thingy. This made the goon land on top of the ones Kai and Jay were fighting as they were thrown into each other. They seemed to be in a bit of a daze until a woman sitting in a booth started hitting them with her plate to protect her daughter. Once they had fallen into the floor, they got up immediately and ran out back. Mohawk guy turned and grinned creepily before running outside with his goon buddies.

 "Hey! They escaping out back!" Jay exclaimed.

 "Is that even allowed?!" Cole added.

 "Who cares? After them!" Kai yelled.

They ran outside to see that no one's there. Instead a piece of paper, with a picture of Zane on it, was hugging the wall and a knife holding it there. The four looked at each other in confusion.

 "What in the name of the First Spinjitzu Master is that, and what is it doing with a picture of Zane on it?" Jay asked.

 "It's paper. And who knows why it has a drawing of Zane on it. We are all seeing it for the first time too, Jay." Cole replied to Jay's obvious question. Jay scowled.

 "Quit it, you two." Lloyd said, walking towards the paper with his friends.

 "What does it say?" Jay inquired, taking a fortune cookie. Cole scoffed his down while the other three looked at him with a face saying 'Are you serious?'.

Cole looked back in confusion. "What? I'm hungry."

 "You do realise there's a fortune in that, right?" Lloyd said while Jay tried his hardest not to laugh.

 "Ohhh, so that's why they're called that." Cole answered. Cole, I love you but you're an idiot.

 "Anyways, what does it say?!" Jay asked again, irritated.

 "It says look in your fortune cookies, and consider what they say. You may get a chance to see your beloved Ice Ninja again. We might have him alive, you should arrive and all will be revealed. My beloved island can help you unravel the mysteries that have you addled." The ninja looked shocked.

 They all, but Cole, looked at their fortunes from their cookies. They read them aloud, one by one. After, the papers exploded and they all looked at Cole, who just sorta exploded from the inside. Understandable-

 "Well, at least I know I was invited." Cole joked, which scored a few chuckles.

A.N. The next chapter will be starting the proper plot. We just have to lead up to it. The letter didn't rhyme as much as I wanted it too but I did my best while editing this. The next chapter shall feature starting on the boat, but Kai doesn't like Skylor. You shall see, until my next chapter. I'm aware this first chapter's quite short but hopefully the others will be longer. 1094 words.

Edit: 31/07/2023

Basically, I changed the speech to make it up to date with what I'm doing in my current chapters. I'm also gonna change all the names slightly to have the Chapters before the title, if that makes sense. So basically this one was ★ Prologue: The Beginning Of A Beginning ★

I hope this makes sense! This will be in every chapter hopefully as I'm making changes to the titles. So bye!