The Truth Seekers

Chapter 1

Warning: slight mention of blood and underage drinking.

Ninjago was once ruled by the tyrant, Lord Garmadon. He ruled over Ninjago with an iron fist and he killed a lot of people. A resistance rose up against him and managed to kill the dictator. Unfortunately, the government that replaced him wasn't much better.

The current emperor and empress only really care about the wealthy people in Ninjago. They get invited to all the parties and get gifts from the royal family. The rest of us are left to fend for ourselves. Anybody who tries to speak out against this new government was either arrested or killed. Anytime the government killed someone, they made it look like an "accident."

This is how life has been for years. There has never been any hope to get things changed.

"Come on, guys! We have to finish this before the cops get here!" a boy whisper-yelled at his two friends and they were spray painting over a mural. He was wearing a blue beanie, a blue hoodie, jeans, and blue sneakers. The two boys he was with were wearing similar outfits, except one wore green and the other wore black. All of their outfits looked old and worn-out.

"We're working as fast as we can, Jay!" the boy in green, Lloyd, said.

"The look on the emperor and empress's face is gonna be priceless.  If only we could see them," the boy in black, Cole, said.

They finished up and took a step back to admire their work. It was a mural of the royal family: the emperor, the empress, and their daughter. The three boys spray painted words like "murderers" and "dictators" all over it. Vandalizing murals that the government had put all over Ninjago City is something that the three boys enjoyed doing. Of course, they only did it at night when it would be harder to see them.

All of a sudden, they started hearing sirens coming closer. They looked at each other and nodded before they ran off in different directions.

Cole ran to the left and noticed a few cops chasing him on foot. He ran through some stands people set up to try to make some money, knocking a few things over and making a huge mess out of the area in the process of trying to run. He yelled the occassional "sorry" to some of them. Luckily for him, the mess he made managed to cut himself off from the cops which left him an opening to escape.

Lloyd ran to the right and noticed a couple of cop cars chasing him down and he knew how much of a disadvantage he had running on foot. He found a bike that someone parked next to a building. "I'm sorry to whoever owns this bike, but right now, I need it more," he said out loud to no one in particular before grabbing the bike and taking off with it. He was still at a disadvantage, but at least he had wheels now. He started making a bunch of random turns at every intersection he came across to try to lose them. He managed to confuse one after a few times which caused that car to turn the wrong direction, but was having trouble shaking the other car. He finally got lucky at one intersection where a car didn't listen to the pull over if you hear a siren rule and crashed right into them. Lloyd laughed to himself as he managed to get away.

Jay ran straight and was being chased by cops on foot, but also knew there were some cops in their cars trying to cut him off. He ran through some stands with people selling stuff much like Cole did, but he didn't cause as much of a mess as Cole. Although, he might've taken a couple things without paying. Including an apple that he bit into while running. He continued running until he went into an alley. He got cornered by all of the cops who were chasing him. He looked around and then jumped onto a dumpster to help him jump over a wall while the cops started shooting at him. One bullet did manage to scrape his right arm causing him to bleed a bit, but other than that, he managed to get back up and continue running. Luckily, he lost all the cops that were chasing him.