Hidden Away || Ninjago AU

Season: 3; Chapter: 4

"Good morning, sir," They echoed in unison, walking into the office one after the other.

"Come in, come in. Take a seat wherever." The principal, Wayne Crue, stood facing the window, peeping through the blinds. To his left, a young boy was seated on a chair, fiddling with his fingers.

"So, how has the holiday been? Prepared to race back into the swing of things?".

"Yes, sir..."

"Good! Firstly, the Outpost Club will be welcoming its newest member."

Skylor and Morro exchange confused glances. Being the only present members of the Outpost club, they weren't expecting anything like this.

"Meet my son, Wayne Jr. Takes after me, doesn't he?"

The principal gestured to the person seated at the end of the room. The group stared at the middle-school-looking boy. Taking in Wayne's black hair and large hazel eyes, they noticed he barely resembled his father with his blonde hair or narrow blue eyes.

"Sir," Skylor spoke up, "Is he a student of this school? No offense, but he looks like a middle school student."

"Yes, most 12-year-olds tend to look like that."

"12?!" They all asked, surprised.

"Sir, with all due respect, we're not babysitters," Skylor stated.

"I don't have much time to explain," The principal stated, "Wayne Jr. will explain things after the meeting. Moving on to our main agenda, I want the E-club and the Outpost club to work together. While you did excellently individually last year, this year will be more hectic. Firstly, the student council elections are coming up, and I want you all to organize it."

"Isn't that the work of the student council?" Morro asked, his hand raised.

"Well, there were complaints last year that the election was biased since the president was a nobody who was friends with the council- the students' words, not mine. You guys don't have friends besides yourselves and can't participate in the elections because you're seniors. It works out."

"Why does that sound offensive?" Jay whispered to Zane.

"It's like he's calling us a group of loners," Zane whispered back.

"Well, how nice."

"Secondly..." The principal continued, clearing his throat.

---

Soon, 30 minutes passed, and the seven were released from the office.

"That'll be all for today. I'll need weekly reports on my secretary's desk every Friday before school ends. Also, take my son with you and show him around. He's a freshman, but he missed the orientation."

"Yes, sir..."

The teens left the office, Wayne Jr. following behind while nervously rubbing his arm.

"Man, that tired me out," Kai groaned, his stomach immediately taking after him. "Does anyone know if the cafeteria is open right now?"

"Should we check?" Cole wondered, stroking his chin slightly. "I think the staff would be around, but I have no idea if they'll have anything ready."

"Will it even be clean?" Morro added. "Seeing as it's the first day of school, they've probably not touched that place for months."

The group chatted as they strode to the Extracurricular Block, where their clubrooms were, taking Wayne with them.

Zane, however, was not in a chatting mood. Something felt eerily off. Ever since they left the office, something didn't feel right. Perhaps it was deja vu from his dream, Zane had thought, but nothing felt different or significant. Was he missing something? Nothing in particular was supposed to happen if things went like in his dream.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!" A loud, high-pitched scream echoed across the populated hallway.

"Who was that?!" Jay freaked out.

"Sounds like the scream came from where the labs are," Nya pointed out.

"It's still too early for things like this," Morro sighed, his face looking more tired the more he thought of what the situation could be.

"EVERYONE RUUUUUUUN!!!!!!" A student yelled as he turned into the hallway they were in. His face was obviously terrified as he hurried past the students. "OUT OF THE WAY!! THERE'S SOME WEIRD CREATURE IN THE CHEMISTRY LAB!!!!!"

Loud, panicked murmurs filled the space.

"What's happening?" Zane questioned, confused and frightened. His sensors weren't picking up on anything. To add to the terror, more students were running in the same direction as the first student, screaming the same thing as him.

"GET OUT OF HERE!!"

"IT'S SUCKING PEOPLE UP!!!"

"RUUUUNNNN!!!"

"Well, guys!" Jay said nervously. "Whatever's happening, I'm not sticking around to find out! Come on, Cole, Zane! We need to get out of here!"

"Wayne, you should leave as well," Skylor said to the petrified freshman, "Just follow the large crowd of people out of the building. Got it?"

Wayne nodded before joining the swarm of students running away in fear. Skylor looked around, noticing the others had already gone. Quickly finding her way into an empty place, she changed from her shirt and jeans into her ninja suit.

The others had split up. Kai and Nya left to investigate the source of the chaos, making sure to switch to their ninja modes. Morro changed into his gi and set off to take care of the students. Jay, Cole, and Zane were, however, occupied.

"Jay, where are you going?!" Cole yelled after his friend. "The situation is that way!"

"I know that, Cole! That's why I'm running away from it!" Jay screamed back. He had found himself running down an empty hallway that led to the back exit.

"Jay! Did you forget we're supposed to handle situations like this?!" Zane called out.

"Didn't you hear? That thing sucks up people! How are we supposed to handle that?!" Jay said, pausing to catch his breath.

"Still!" Zane argued, catching up. "We can't run away!"

"We've trained under Sensei for over two years, and your first instinct when he's not around is to run from the problem?!" Cole scolded angrily.

"Okay, calm down," Jay said, " Before you get mad at me, you must understand that something feels different about this!! From the first scream we heard, it was like my nightmares had been unfolding in front of me!! I can't think of anything else but to try to get as far from that thing as possible!!"

"Nightmares?" Zane interrogated. "What nightmares?"

"I've had them since the apartment incident with the black smoke," Jay admitted, "Everything's dark, and I start feeling this anxiousness come over me. My dream self gets headaches and starts to feel dizzy."

"So, nothing happens in this dream?" Zane asked, confused. "You're simply overridden with uneasy emotions? I've never heard of such."

"Actually, that's almost similar to the one I had last night, except everything was bright instead of dark," Cole added.

"What?!" Zane and Jay gasped.

"This just got more complicated."