Good Fortune

But of course, her enthusiasm was immediately dampened by the voice of reason.

"Please sit down, Skylor." PIXAL requested. "It would be unreasonable to rush into anything without having even the slightest idea where to go and what we are going to do."

And of course, the female Nindroid was right.

Skylor plopped down in her seat again, and the five people around the table silently eyed each other, unsure what to do next.

"So, any suggestions?" Someone finally asked. Master Lloyd, the Green Ninja, the team's leader, the one usually to take the initiative had ran out of ideas.

"I-I want to see my mum and dad." Nya said meekly. "They need to know about Kai and..." She buried her face in her hands. "Oh no, what are we going to tell Ed and Edna? And Lou?" She groaned.

"The truth." Misako gently placed her hand on the Water Ninja's arm. "But we can't do everything at once. I think visiting your parents is a good starting point."

"I am not leaving." Lloyd crossed his arms, determined to stay even though he had absolutely no clue what he was going to about it. "How will the people of Ninjago City feel when they learn that four of the Ninja are dead and the others have run away?"

"We are not leaving for good." Misako reasoned with her son. "But it won't cause any harm to get out of here for a while until you have fully recovered."

"And until we have an actual plan." Skylor agreed. "I am in."

"But..."

"Son. Ray and Maya deserve to hear from us what happened to their son. And spending some time together will help them and Nya."

"And there is a high probability that the Sons of Garmadon will also start targeting former Elemental Masters." PIXAL added.

"But what about the people here." Lloyd pleaded. "I don't want another child to grow up believing that their heroes haven given up on them."

"Maybe we can somehow leave them a message." Nya suggested. "Just anything to show them that we are still fighting for them."

Skylor smiled. "And I already have an idea how we're gonna do that."

The Master of Amber closed her eyes and took a deep breath, trying to steady her shaking hands that were carrying the heavy styrofoam box.

No used to the high heels of her black leather boots, she rather unsteadily walked across the bridge towards her destination. To complete her outfit, she was wearing a short, tight black skirt and a rather revealing orange tank top, displaying the purple mark of the Anacondrai that had been tattooed onto her shoulder. She was glad that not many people were around this part of town, especially not in this early hour.

"Who's there?" A sharp voice belonging to one of the guards asked as she approached the gate of the former Royal Palace, now the Emperor's residence.

Skylor and her new teammates were currently distributing their 'gifts' all over Ninjago City.

The redhead had volunteered to deliver the message to the most dangerous addressee possible, Garmadon himself, being that she was the only one the Sons of Garmadon hadn't encountered before.

In order to avoid being recognised as a Nindroid, PIXAL had decided to follow in Zane's footsteps and pose as a member of the biker gang. She randomly dropped little 'Master Chen to go' boxes while riding one of the Ninja's motorbikes through the city, a helmet covering her artificial face.

To Skylor, it had been very interesting to discover how many different outfits and vehicles the Ninja had hidden in secret locations all across the city and apparently the whole country.

Nya had gone to the police station. With tears in her eyes, the Water Ninja had presented herself in a fake uniform, claiming that she 'had been there before and knew her way around, even the password to the computer'. But when Skylor had asked her about that particular mission, Nya had wordlessly put on the ugly black moustache, placed the cap on her raven hair, and had left without a further word.

Although his teammates had strongly advised against him going outside on his own, Lloyd had insisted on visiting the poor families that lived by the river. In addition to their parting presents, he was also carrying some take-out boxes with noodles as well as a bag containing all the leftover fruit and vegetables from the restaurant.

Still holding the keys to the building, Misako had chosen to supply the Ninjago Museum of History, a place often visited by school classes.

"Hey, why did you get to ask?" A second guard complained, snapping Skylor out of her thoughts. "It was my turn."

"Well, you've just missed it." The first one retorted. "Better luck next time."

Hearing them argue with each other, the new Ninja could feel herself relax. The guards strongly reminded her of those idiots that used to work for her father – Chope and Kapau if she remembered correctly – and hopefully these two would just be as easy to fool.

"My name's Scarlet Red." Skylor lied. "And I am delivering a gift from Master Chen's Noodle House. Master Chen is an old friend of the Emperor's and was delighted to hear that he has finally found his way back to the dark side." She told them, placing the box in the second guard's hands.

"Well, that was very nice of your Master Chen." The first guard remarked. "It smells nice."

"Can't we just poison the food?" Nya had suggested as they were preparing the dishes for the palace.

"No, we can't." Lloyd had replied. "They will probably make the prisoners try anything before they give it to Garmadon or Harumi."

"In this case, I'm gonna add a few puffy pot stickers for Dareth." Skylor had said.

"I will let the chef know." Skylor said. "But don't you dare try anything, especially not the fortune cookies. They are a special gift from Master Chen for his friend, and he has personally counted them."

"Awww, fortune cookies are my favourite." The first guard whined.

"Well, good thing I have brought some for my new friends." 'Scarlet' handed them two treats she had carried in her pocket. Unlike all the other fortune cookies that were currently given to the people of Ninjago City, these two had come from the restaurant's regular supply.

It had taken the five Ninja & Friends almost the whole night to prepare enough noodles and fortune cookies for the new team's first mission. But having something to do had at least temporarily distracted them from their grief.

"I remember, when we got the invitation to your father's tournament, Cole swallowed one of these in whole." Lloyd remarked, operating the fortune cookie machine.

"Yeah, he really liked his treats." Skylor, who was cooking the warm meals, agreed. Until recently, the black Ninja had been a very regular customer at the noodle house. As had Kai, although he had dropped in not necessarily just for the good food. "They all did..."

"And Sensei just liked his tea..." Nya stated. She and Misako were carefully cutting paper into small pieces to go into the cookies, each of them showing a picture Sensei Wu's face, an image widely known as the sign of the so-called 'Wu-Cru'.

Lloyd chuckled. "Speaking of Sensei, I bet if Jay was here, he would say we're making Fort-Wu-ne cookies."

Had anyone told Skylor a few hours ago that she would ever laugh again, she would have not believed it. But here she was, laughing so hard that it physically hurt. And the others were laughing right alongside her.

"Lloyd, that was a horrible pun." Nya gasped, holding her stomach. "And Jay would absolutely love it."

"You will meet someone special tonight." The first guard read the message from his fortune cookie. "Must be my lucky day, because that has already happened." He winked at Skylor.

"Hey, that's not fair." The second guard complained. "Mine just says Never let your guard down."

"Better luck next time." His colleague told him once again. He then turned his attention back to the female Ninja. "And I hope there will be a next time that I see you, Scarlet." He said.

"Oh, you can count on that." Skylor smirked. But I'm afraid it will not be your lucky day when we meet again. She thought as she turned around and walked away.

When she arrived at the meeting point behind the museum, her teammates were already anxiously waiting for her.

"Sky." Nya exclaimed, embracing her friend. "We were getting really worried about you. I thought the guards might have gotten suspicious."

"No need for that." Skylor reassured her. "All went right according to plan. They must have picked the two most stupid villains for that job."

"Good thing we had a smart Ninja to do our job." Lloyd gave her a pat on the back.

"Yes, great work everyone." Misako agreed. "But there's no time to waste, we really should get going now."

She pressed the button on the remote in her hand, unlocking the doors of their getaway vehicle. After she had finished cutting out little Wu's, Nya had repainted one of the noodle truck in black and purple, the currently predominant colours in Ninjago.

Misako, their designated driver, and Lloyd got in at the front, while the three younger females climbed into the back of the truck.

"According to my simulations, we have around forty minutes left until Garmadon receives our message." PIXAL explained. "So, let us hit the road."

"Goodbye, Ninjago City." Lloyd mumbled, looking out of the window as they were heading out of the town. "I promise, we'll be back."