The Child of Silver

72

The ninja group sat at a table to catch their breaths after searching for Clouse.

"Uh, no sign of Clouse?" Lloyd asked as he sat down next to Anirei.

"I don't get it. You'd think they'd remember seeing another ghost." Cole said.

"I know. I haven't been asked to give a single autograph. Not that I want the attention." Kai said, the people around them shushing him for being too loud.

"Perhaps this is a sign for you to no longer seek attention for your actions, Elder Brother." Anirei said, just the tiniest bite to her words, which did not go unnoticed by her brothers and boyfriend.

"Rei, are you okay?" Lloyd asked.

Anirei sighed and shook her head, "There's something around here that I can't shake off. It's like... something was here and then just disappeared, leaving behind a shadow."

Anirei didn't want to speak about her strange dream to the others until she knew exactly what it meant, and her dream was somehow related to her strange feelings in this town. There was no escaping that fact.

Just then, before they could talk anymore, the tv nearby started playing the Ninjago News.

"Where are the Ninja? This reported has the answer." The reporter said.

"Hey, can you turn it up?" Lloyd asked.

"Hey. No one here cares for them fruit-colored ninja." One of the men at another table said.

"Excuse me. What fruit is black?" Cole asked.

"Uh, blackberries?" Jay said.

"Shut it."

The news continued with the report, "They're calling it the Crime Wave of the Century."

"Guys, listen." Nya said drawing everyone's attention back to the screen.

"Earlier today, Green Ninja Lloyd Garmadon as caught on tape robbing the city bank."

There on the screen in full view was Lloyd taking out a large bag of money from the vault, his face pulled into a grin as he laughed.

"Whoa! That looks like me." Lloyd said, but quietly so no one could catch on.

"And that's not all." The screen changed showing Zane creating chaos at the amusement park by freezing the rollercoaster tracks.

"Zane was on a rampage of vandalism and mayhem."

"Hey, wait. My memory has no recollection of that." Zane claimed.

"Someone's pretending to be us." Jay declared.

"But for what reason?" Anirei asked, "It's not easy to impersonate us, especially with using our elemental powers.

The news kept talking bad about the Ninja, they had even caught up with Jay's parents.

"Any comment on what your son has done?"

"Jay would never do this." Ed claimed, "And if he did, he had a good reason. I hope."

"You hope? It wasn't me, Dad!" Jay shouted just a video of him stealing a painting from the museum.

"You believe them?" The man from earlier asked the group, "They destroy our village, act like they saved the place, and then go around doing as they please."

"Yeah. You're right. Ninja, ugh, hate them." Kai lied to please the man, "Maybe it's time to leave."

"The ninja are at large." The chief of police said on the tv, "They are armed and dangerous. And they have legs. As well as the Silver Ninja of Balance on their side, a girl with incredible powers that control the Ninja, a we have heard. If you see them, do not approach. Call local law enforcement so that we can apprehend."

Zane immediately picked up his phone and called the police, as he was programmed to obey the law even if the ninja were guilty of nothing.

"Hey, aren't you--" The villagers said.

"No, no. We're not the ninja. We're that other group with a nindroid, a ghost, a girl---" Jay said nervously, but it didn't help their situation.

"Ah! Six on seven. This is not a fair fight in the slightest." Kai said as the group backed away from the villagers that etched closer to them.

"We're not gonna fight them." Lloyd said, "Right now, it's us who looks like the bad guys."

"How are we supposed to defend ourselves? Witty banter?" Jay asked sarcastically before they all ran away.

"Statistically speaking, your banter tends to only get us into more trouble." Zane pointed out.

"Not helping, Elder Brother." Anirei shouted back.

"I liked it better when they were fans." Kai said.

The group ran even faster, but as they turned the corner, they were quickly met by the police searching for them. They stopped and resorted to climbing up onto the rooves of the houses to escape. They jumped from roof to roof, the ninja using Airjitzu to escape, but just as Jay was about to jump, he reached out to Nya to take her with him, but she frowned. 

Jay didn't take no for an answer and simply took her hand. The two smiled at each other as they escaped with Airjitzu.

"Thanks for the help." Nya said.

"I've got a visual!" The police shouted from below.

"No time, we have to go."

Again, the ninja continued to run away, but eventually as they touched back down to the ground, they were cornered.

"There's nowhere to hide." Cole said.

"There may be one place." Kai said. He spun around performing Spinjitzu and burning a hole into the wooden ground. The group then jumped down into the hole to escape, jumping from pillar to pillar holding up the floorboards.

"Mom, we're in a bit of a jam." Lloyd said contacting his mother.

"I saw the news and I'm en route." Misako informed, "Looks like you've gone from fame to framed."

"And we'll never find out who did this to us unless we get out of here."

There was a lot of shouting up above the floorboard, when all of a sudden, one the cranes from the town crashed into the floorboards, nearly hitting Anirei. Thankfully Lloyd pulled her away from the crashing crane.

"Rei, are you all right?" Lloyd asked.

"Yeah, I'm okay." She answered.

"There! I saw the Silver Ninja right below us!" One of the men above shouted.

The ninja continued to run, jumping from one stilt to the other while avoiding the cranes dropping down on them. Eventually, the ninja got tired of jumping and hopped onto one of the cranes, the crane rising into the air with them on top and fooling the people below.

"Look!" Cole said, spotting the Bounty close by.

"Ha! Home sweet home!" Kai said relieved.

But that relief was short lived as the police drove across the docks right behind the flying ship. They stopped the Bounty before Misako could get close enough and weighed it down with grappling hooks. The Ninjas' only shot of escaping this insanity was now grounded. Just then, the crane they were standing on began to descend while the people were still searching.

"We need to split up." Lloyd suggested.

"Split up? But we're all in this together." Cole said.

"I agree with Lloyd on this one." Anirei said, "We'll have a better of getting out of here if we split up."

"Nothing good ever comes when we're split up." Jay said, "That's when bad things happen. Chen's island, Yang's temple, Morro's possession. All bad things."

"We have no other choice. We have to go." Lloyd said and everyone split up, the mystery of what was to happen and what happened to their reputation still remained unsolved.