Salt: A Ninjago story

5: Breakfast

Jay and Nya finally made their way down to the kitchen where Lloyd was sat at the table surrounded by his three teammates. Dishevelled and tired, Lloyd jerked his head up off the table as they entered and took the large mug of coffee that Cole pushed in front of him.

'Took your time' Kai reprimanded them.

'I think you'll find that's a good thing' Jay said sarcastically.

'Huh?' Kai replied.

Cole shook his head 'Kai, I think you have a serious blind spot going on there'

'What?' Kai replied again, looking confused.

Nya whispered to Cole 'I swear he'd spontaneously combust if he actually acknowledged... uh, well, you know'

'True dat!' Cole joked behind his mug.

'Shh shh shh' Kai waved his hands in the air 'just... shh'

Zane stood 'everyone, please be calm. Lloyd is very tired and needs to tell us his news'

'Thanks bud, but y'know, listening to you guys is more fun' Lloyd smiled at Zane, who again took his seat and smiled back.

'So what happened to you?' Nya asked pouring a cup of coffee for Jay and her.

'I had a night on the tiles, so to speak' everyone remained silent, so Lloyd continued 'I was hanging out on top of a roof downtown' he paused, realising just how much he was leaving out. Coles dark eyes locked onto his in the momentary silence and Lloyd quickly continued 'I encountered a Shadow Ninja and decided to follow'

'Man those guys are getting out of control' Jay commented

'That's why I followed. This new rise in underground Ninja seems sudden, but they must have been in training for years. Whatever this secret syndicate is, its not new, but unless we do something about it now, Ninjago will be taken over from the inside out'

'Agreed' said Cole 'What happened when you followed?'

He... she... they, travelled a fair distance to the far suburbs in the north and ended up at an old villa. It was a typical courtyard style settlement with buildings coming off one main and an outer wall. It was nestled behind the main streets and was well hidden from view. I watched our guy drop into the courtyard and knock a code out on the door'

'Did you see anyone else?' Cole asked.

'Not at that point. The door opened and they went inside'

'Not at that point?' questioned Zane.

'Uh, well...' Lloyd rubbed the back of his neck 'I dropped in after them and repeated the code...'

'WHAT?' Nya stood.

Cole cut in 'Lloyd, you don't do that. That's been agreed. We are a team, you don't take that kind of risk alone'

'I know, I know. I don't even remember making the decision to do it, it just happened!'

'And what happened?' Nya asked firmly. Jay pulled her back down to sit.

'Well, I thought the door wasn't going to open, but it did eventually. It was a young girl. She knew I wasn't meant to be there and then some kind of Ninja squad appeared from nowhere behind me. There were about ten. I just don't know where they came from. I scoped out the property beforehand and there weren't any other entrances. They must have used secret hatches or...'

Nya was becoming more agitated '... Lloyd, this is bad. They now know we know about them. If you'd held back we could have worked the place, maybe infiltrated it...' she took a breath and caught herself 'But at least you got away, I'm glad for that'