[M/n] despised Wu's teaching at times. He strongly believed that the old man was putting Lloyd through lessons that even the other four would struggle with - and they were all, technically, adults. A small part of himself even wondered if he'd be able to complete the tasks Wu set.
Today, Lloyd was at the bottom of a human pyramid, channeling his superstrength, something that inherently came alongside being a Master of Earth. Forced to be in a handstand, the rest of the ninja were then balanced on his feet - Zane was standing on his feet, with both Kai and Jay on his shoulders, Cole balanced on their shoulders so the young man could hold Wu and [M/n] on his own shoulders.
10 minutes into the exercise and Lloyd had only just begun to tremble, trying to shift his hands to better balance. The ninja shared looks as he grew increasingly unsteady.
"Focus," Wu ordered, pouring himself a cup of matcha. "In order to bear the fate of Ninjago on your shoulders, you must first learn to bear the weight of your teammates."
His trembling grew worse.
"Focus," Wu repeated.
"Sensei, I'm starting to think this was a bad idea," Jay hissed, trying not to let Lloyd hear.
"Yeah, Sensei, he's just a kid. This seems like a bit much," Cole agreed.
"In order for him to succeed, we must all trust one another."
"This is not an exercise of trust," [M/n] hissed. "This is being set up for failure."
Before he could lay into his teacher, the wall of windows was smashed inwards by a wrecking ball. Lloyd lost his balance, sending them all towards the floor. [M/n] twisted, landing on his feet before dropping into a crouch. He was quick to go for Lloyd, who had simply tipped over, luckily ending up only a little dusty and uninjured.
Cole groaned, "Che cos 'era questo?" He rubbed at his shoulder as he stood. (What was that?)
The group looked towards the wrecking ball, finding a construction worker and foreman wearing hard hats staring back at them in shock. Dareth came flying out of the backrooms, horrified.
"WHOA, WHOA, WHOA!!!! This wasn't supposed to happen until tomorrow!"
"Tomorrow?" The foreman questioned, turning to the construction worker. "Let me see that order." The worker pulled a wrinkled, crumpled set of papers from his overalls and handed them over. Reading it over, the foreman nodded, "Oh, yeah. My bad. Sorry 'bout that. We'll be back tomorrow afternoon."
Scowling, the worker turned and signalled the wrecking ball worker to back away, making the others in the background begin leaving as well. Dareth buried his face into his hands as they left, obviously miserable.
"Uh, Dareth? What is this all about?" Cole asked, awkwardly resting his hand on Dareth's shoulder.
"Well, I-I fell behind on some of my payments and some developer named 'Darnagom Enterprises' is buying the entire block to put in some stupid frisbee-golf course. They say if I don't come up with 50,000 by tomorrow, the dojo is gone," Dareth explained, tears gathering in his eyes.
"But-but we already lost the Bounty! We can't lose the dojo now!" Jay panicked, hands flapped.
"My dojo, oh my dojo!" Dareth wailed, sobbing loudly. Cole hung onto his shoulders, unsure of how else to comfort him.
Lloyd looked up to [M/n] noticing the frown twisting his face.
"Wait a minute. "Darnagom"? When you rearrange the letters, it spells-"
"O Grandma?" Jay asked, interrupting Zane.
"No! Garmadon!" Kai snapped.
"Right," Jay giggled nervously. "That would make more sense."
YOU ARE READING
Querencia
Fanfiction(n.) A place where one feels safe, a place from which one's strength of character is drawn. [M/n] Caelestis has no memory of who he is, relying entirely upon Sensei Wu to fill in the gaps. With knowledge, a history, skills, and a willingness to kill...
