Prompt: Vacation in Ninjago
Takes place in the gap between seasons 7 & 8 ~
Jay leaned back in his chair and stretched, his back making satisfying cracking sounds. That was enough gaming for one day, even for him. It hadn't helped relive Jay of his stress, anyway. His thoughts immediately drifted to the problems the ninja were currently dealing with.
Master Wu missing for months, and nobody had found any lead whatsoever yet. Cole disappeared a few days ago, leaving a brief note reassuring the others, but his sudden solo trip left everyone concerned. They had all waited a few days for him to return before Lloyd finally decided it was time to continue the search for Wu. Cole could handle himself and had left willingly, unlike Wu who was lost in time, possibly missing his memory as well. Cole had been Jay's search partner, but in his absence Lloyd had immediately burdened himself with being the one to continue the search alone. Jay was with Nya now. He wished Cole well on whatever journey he was on, but Jay was even happier with his new partner. They hadn't been paired up initially because Lloyd knew the two would only distract each other, but there weren't any solid leads to follow anyway.
Nobody wanted to say it, but things weren't looking good. They'd scoured most of Ninjago, and found nothing. Not to mention summoning their elemental dragons was getting harder and harder. Jay realized he was pacing around the room, spiraling mentally from the stress of multiple unsolvable issues. Video games had failed him. Though there was something else that never failed to cheer him up...
~
"So I was thinking," Jay approached Nya from behind and wrapped his arms around her, "maybe we stay here another few days?"
"Lloyd wants us back out there. We should've left already. I told him we'd start at the lighthouse Zane's dad was kept in just in case..."
"We already went there," Jay reminded her gently, "He wasn't there."
"Maybe we can find something we missed, a clue. For either of them. Maybe Wu would have left something there." Nya and Jay had already returned to the lighthouse after the events they were calling 'Skybound', but Echo Zane was gone. Still, Jay knew she was right. They hadn't been there since Wu disappeared. He might've left something as a hint, or even be there himself.
"Alright. Sounds like a good place to start, in a few days. And before you say no, what if Cole returns? Honestly it would be irresponsible of us to leave, there would be nobody here if he returned."
Nya exhaled and relaxed into Jay's embrace. "Okay. I could use the opportunity to work on the Bounty. It still hasn't been fixed since the Vermillion shot it down."
"I still can't believe they couldn't come up with a better name" Jay snickered.
"Yeah, it is pretty bad" Nya couldn't hold back a smile.
They both stood in silence for a moment before bursting out laughing.
~
"The scanners are down, the hull is shattered, the boosters are shot..." Jay groaned, "maybe we should just play some video games for our time off."
"Or maybe we're not thinking big enough... why fix the hull when we could replace it? We can increase the size, add a bigger vehicle bay, a tech hub below deck, whatever we want!"
"Oh, and we can add new thrusters! More powerful engines in the back with a few in the front as counterbalance, like the first one had. I bet I could even make it so the thrusters could completely reverse..." Jay mused.
"I just had a great idea," Nya turned to Jay grinning widely, "let's add a second head to the prow! Two dragon heads!"
"Yes, I love it! This is gonna be the fiercest version of the Bounty yet!"
~
Lloyd's elemental dragon faltered and briefly disappeared. He dropped down, narrowly avoiding the ground before he corrected his course. The green ninja decided to continue on foot; he was almost at the temple by now.
Before he could worry about reaching their floating home, Lloyd was distracted by lights coming from the ruins of Destiny's Bounty on the ground. He approached to find a complete mess. Half of the old thrusters had been taken off the ship, and there was an entirely new hull next to the broken ship.
"Jay, Nya!" he called out. "I know you guys are around here somewhere."
Jay's head popped up from the ruins, grease all over his uniform. Nya jumped out of the new hull, sporting a similarly ruined ninja gi.
"Oh, Lloyd! We, uh, weren't expecting anyone back so soon" Jay said.
"My lead wasn't far away and it didn't actually lead to anything. I thought I'd come back to see if Cole had returned, but apparently I didn't need to check because someone else never left! It's been over a week! You guys haven't left yet? What if Master Wu is out there in trouble?"
"We were about to go looking again, but we had some ideas for renovations to the Bounty, and-" Jay was cut off as Lloyd continued his tirade.
"This is why I didn't put you two together to begin with. We don't have time for projects, we already have a mission!"
"Yes, but this will help us," Nya pointed out, "imagine how much easier it will be for at least one team to search Ninjago when we have a flying ship again."
"Well... but what is all this?" Lloyd gestured to the brand new thrusters and dual dragon head prow. "Why are you remodeling the entire ship?"
"Because, the... damage the Bounty sustained was too extensive?" Jay offered. It wasn't exactly true; some systems needed replacing, but most of it could have been pieced back together instead of remade entirely. Still, anything to avoid one of Lloyd's speeches, which seemed to happen with increasing regularity.
Lloyd sighed and rubbed his eyes. They were changing as he connected with his powers, and sometimes they ached. "Fine, just.. finish as fast as you can and get back out there." He walked away from the construction site, towards the temple.
"That went well. Any situation where we don't have to listen to a speech of some kind is a win in my book. Nice save, too."
"Thanks. I prefer not to listen to a lecture myself, but he's right about finishing this up. We got carried away again" Nya admitted. "Although, we could use new sails too..."
~ I've had this idea for a while that Jay and Nya call season 6 Skybound in universe. It's easier than saying "Our fight against Nadakhan" or "The events Jay erased". And nobody else knows what that means so they can refer to those events privately. As always, I'm open to feedback on all things, but especially this. Curious how other people receive the idea of one of the season names being used in-universe.
I mean seriously, how did the second version of Destiny's Bounty fly without any engines in the front? How did they not just do a nosedive with huge thrusters in the back? If they drop momentum they wouldn't be able to remain in the sky. All 3 other versions have two smaller front engines.
Also for those wondering, Cole going on his own trip is a reference to the semi-canon Way of the Departed. Seeing as it's written by the producer and built to fit into the canon (and answer big questions like the fate of Airjitzu and elemental dragons), I consider it canon until it's confirmed one way or the other, or something in the show contradicts the story in any significant way.
