TOURNAMENT

4 (Cole)

The streets of Ninjago were full of trouble. One form of this trouble was in trash. Litter.

Cole frowned at a empty plastic bag that once was filled with chips. He picked it up and crumpled it in his fist and stuffed it in the trash. He then put his hands inside the pockets of his black hoodie and kept walking.

Kids in school used to tease Cole, although he never let it bother him. It was more playful, because he knew they were scared of him.

And Cole did not blame them one bit. He was a big guy. He was tall with dark features. He had a stocky build and large hands. His eyes were dark as night, which contrasted with the pale of his skin. 

Plus, he generally wore black.

Not that there was anything inherently evil or wrong with the color black, but it still made people a little weary when they saw him on the streets.

But he felt comfy in black. It was easy to hide behind. 

Cole remembered when his friend Kai had told him to try wearing pink.

"You should try it, man," Kai had said, slapping Cole's back.

"Absolutely not," Cole's other friend, Asta, had said. "Black suits him well. Much better than it suits you."

He missed those kind of conversations, even if Asta and Kai were almost always at each other's throats. They both had notoriously stubborn temperaments. And, often, Cole, Lloyd, and Orco would have to break them up.

Orco. 

Cole knew that she would be brought up. He had agreed to come meet with Lloyd at Chen's Noodle House tonight. He figured the kid would try and convince Cole to come back. 

Cole didn't say it, but he was the tiniest bit excited. Ever since he saw Lloyd at the lumber yard, he had realized just how much he had missed him.

Cole scrunched his nose up when he was within a mile of Chen's. The smell of greasy, Chinese food. He ran his tongue over his lips. It sounded good right about now.

But once he got inside, he stopped dead in his tracks. 

Right in front of him, sitting in a booth for four, was, not only Lloyd, but Asta and Kai.

Cole couldn't help it. He broke into a smile. "Guys?"

Kai smiled up at him. "The runt tricked you too?"

"The little punk," Asta grumbled, slumping in her seat, her curly hair covering her face. She always was the tiniest bit dramatic, but Cole really missed her. He slid into the seat next to her.

She sat up and looked at him. She tried her best to keep her normally stern face, but it morphed into a small smile. "It's good to see you, Cole."

"A-HEM, where was that greeting when I showed up?" Kai said, cocking his eyebrow. "You know I missed you, too, Firecracker?"

Cole tried his best not to laugh. "Firecracker" was the nickname Kai had given Asta when they had first started training together. The Master of Air and Fire did not get along very well, especially since Asta was anger prone and Kai knew just how to make her mad.

"Maybe stop calling me Firecracker and I'll actually say hello," she grumbled.

"You got it, Hot Tamale."

"That is it!"

Asta reached for one of the plates of sushi sitting on a booth nearby, but Lloyd grabbed her wrist just in time.

"Will you two stop? I brought you here to talk."

Cole rested his chin in his hand. "What about?"

There was a sinking feeling in his stomach, because he knew what this was about.

"It's...well, everything. I know we are all still shaken up about Orco, but I think we...we need to move on."

Cole's eyebrows furrowed. "Move on?"

"Like...get back together. Like how they used to be...kind of." Lloyd looked awkward.

Kai's cheeky smile from earlier had disappeared. "I already told you, Kid. There's no way."

Asta crossed her arms. "Why do you keep trying to make this happen? It won't. We need all 5 elements. And last I checked, our Master of Water was presumed dead."

She ducked her head down, her hair falling over her face. Cole could only assume she was crying, but there was no way Asta would show it. She hated crying.

Cole set his eyes on Lloyd, his voice sullen. "It's nice of you, Lloyd. But there is no way it's happening."

Lloyd opened his mouth to say something when the door slammed opens so hard it was nearly rocked off its hinges. 

Cole twisted in his seat to look. Six or seven guys rough-looking guys walked in. They had on street clothes, although most of them went shirtless. They had lots of piercings scatted all over their faces, and strange hairstyles tinged purple. But weirdest of all were their tattoos. 

They were long and purple, twisting around their chests and backs and arms. There were strange patterns. Cole squinted. He could have sworn there was some sort of creature tattooed on one of the guys chests.

Great, he thought, irritably. Just when I was getting ready to eat.

The guys grabbed the cashier by the collar and quickly made him empty out all the cash behind the counter. Cole stood up.

"Cole--" Kai started.

But he was already walking over, Asta scrambling behind him. 

The four of them stood next to each other, facing the crooks. The other people in the restaurant exited, wide-eyed and scared. 

But Cole had been waiting for something like this, without even realizing it. He felt his feet settled right above the Earth. He could feel it. Just a turn of his foot and--

No, he reminded himself. No powers. You'll destroy the whole place. Stick to the old-fashioned way.

"I'd put it back," he said.

"It's just a bunch of kids," one of them said.

"Can it," the one with the money said. He must have been the leader. "Just take care of them."

Cole ran his eyes over him. He was the one with the tattoo of the creature. It was a snake. A long. purple snake.

But before he could analyze it more, they attacked.