#I guess they weren’t paying attention until Lloyd was revealed to be the green ninja

[mittenslikescats]

E

I swear to god when I go onto the ninjago fandom on instagram especially on instagram reels I keep seeing those ‘who should have been the green ninja?’ Videos and the 2 options are always Kai and Lloyd. And the amount of people in the comments saying things like ‘it should have been Kai!’, “Lloyd doesn’t deserve to be the green ninja”, “Kai should be the green ninja cus he’s the main character’ and yaddy yada. Like guys it’s been what 13 years and you’re still complaining about this?

Also clearly these people didn’t understand Kai’s character, if he became the green ninja then he wouldn’t have developed as a character. A large part of his character development was learning that he didn’t need some sort of special prophecy or whatnot for him to be important or smth. But I guess the people on instagram reels skipped that whole part of the show and went on to say ‘Boo hoo Kai isn’t the green ninja’.

[kelphero47]

The Marvelous Adventures of Echo Zane - Chapter 5

Another chapter for my lovely readers (if I have any).

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Echo was bored and alone as he walked through the ship's main hallway on his way to find someone to play cards with him (Tree had lent him a deck). He reached the kitchen as a crash came from inside the room. Slowly, the android slid open the door to reveal a fog of flour blocking his view of the room almost entirely. When the dust settled and the air cleared he could make out the shape of his brother covered in flour with a sheepish looking Cole stood beside him without a speck on him.

They pair looked as if they had been in the middle of baking something judging by Zane's pink apron being on his person and the ingredients strode out across the countertop. "Um..." Cole began as Zane took a scarily slow turn towards him. Whatever expression his brother's face held was enough to make even the ghost seem paler than he already was so Echo decided to take his leave from the room as quietly as he could to leave the pair alone.

He continued down the hall for a while before hearing commotion in another room. Echo debated going inside for a while listening to the loud noises coming from behind the door. Until he noticed the smell of burning in the air that was too close to be from the kitchen. After cracking open the door slightly the android poked his head through the gap to see Kai practicing moves on a dummy. The fire ninja seemed heavily focused on his unmoving opponent to the point that he didn't seem to notice the fact that was leaving scorch marks on the floor, let alone the other presence in the room watching him.

Echo spent some time deciding whether or not to break the other out of the flow he was in. He found his answer when the floor underneath Kai actually caught fire causing him to leap forward, pushing the ninja over, so he could stamp out the flame. Said ninja yelled in surprise when his back connected with the floor and watched as his friend stamped on the floor loudly. "What the heck?!"

Echo turned to look at Kai after his exclamation, "I apologise for the surprise contact but your training was damaging the floor and you set it alight." With this new information Kai took the time to notice the new black lines and footprints littering the floor around them. He chuckled shyly rubbing over one of the burn marks, "Whoops?"

"Are you hurt at all?"

"Um..." Taken aback by the android's question Kai looked down at himself quickly then back at the other, "I don't think so but thanks for worrying." The fire ninja stood up and dusted himself off before glancing around again. "Could you do me a favour though, and not tell Sensei Wu about this for the time being."

"Why?" This question was accompanied with a head tilt to this side.

The fire ninja sighed before smiling at him, "Tell you what if you do this one favour I'll give you my dessert for a week."

"That doesn't really answer my question but if you want it that badly... Okay." Echo nodded as Kai patted him on the shoulder before ushering him out of the room. The door was closed quietly behind him allowing him to hear Kai muttering to himself. After a moment of silence Echo decided to leave the hallway entirely, deciding to take his chances finding company outside.  

The other three ninja were on the deck, with Jay and Nya focusing on a game of chess and Lloyd sat far away from them in meditation. Not wanting to bother the blonde in his quiet activity unless he needed to Echo made his way over to the pair at the table. Jay seemed to be contemplating his next move as Nya sat back with a knowing smirk on her face. Every time he reached out to move a piece she would shift slightly making him quickly retract his hand before going into deep thought again. Echo watched this happen a couple times before sitting down at an empty side of the table. Nya smiled at him but kept quiet while Jay hadn't seemed to have noticed him being there at all.  

"Who's winning?" Echo asked as Jay went to move a piece again.

"Who do you think..." Jay grumbled causing Nya to grin and he finally moved a piece forwards. Nya didn't miss a beat as she moved her piece almost immediately. "And that's checkmate." Jay put his head in his hands which made the other two sitting at the table laugh.

"Re-match?" Nya patted her boyfriend on the head, trying to comfort him.

"What's the point? You always win." Jay whined burying his face into his arms as he sulked against the table.

"Oh, come on, the score's only... Ten to Zero?" She sheepishly smiled slightly as Jay finally looked up from his arms to give her a small frown in return. "Okay, okay. I get it you don't want to play chess anymore... Um..." Nya grabbed the game's box and shook it, "How about we play checkers?"

"I guess..." Jay sat up straight as Nya set up the game then he lazily glanced around. He was startled to see Echo observing the board being set up, the android sitting in perfect silence. "Err... Do you want to play or something?"

Echo turned his head to pay attention to the blue ninja, "No, thank you."

"So, what you up to?"

"Trying to find someone to play cards with." Echo watched the couple make eye contact with each other before Jay re-focused on him.

"I'm sure we can play with when we're done with this, which is after..."

"He wins a game." Nya finished before tapping the board lightly, "Which should hopefully be in the current century." She joked making Echo laugh and Jay to turn bright red in embarrassment.

"Okay then... I'll go wait somewhere else for you two." Echo stood up waving shyly to the pair, "Have fun."

"You too", Jay replied before focusing entirely on the game in front of him. Echo left them alone at that point and decided to head for the only ninja he hadn't spoken to yet. Lloyd was still sat cross-legged in complete silence like he had been when the android had first come on deck. As Echo got closer he could hear a faint sound that resembled mumbling coming from the green ninja. It was apparent that said ninja wasn't actually doing the mumbling as his lips weren't moving. Not wanting to disturb the other right away Echo took a seat on the floor sat across from him.

Lloyd was sat almost complete still for the time Echo spent watching him, unsure what to do in that moment. The mumbling sounds continued all that time despite a few short pauses here and there. He was really starting to wonder where that noise was coming from. It wasn't until the green ninja sneezed quietly that Echo realised where the sound was coming from. In Lloyd's ear, hidden behind his hair which had shifted during his involuntary movement, were a pair of earphones. The android followed the cable of said earphones with his eyes until it went into his gi where they were probably connected to his smartphone.

Isn't meditation a quiet activity, Echo wondered to himself as he listened closer to the now apparent music playing in the other's ears. It was playing quite loud by how well he could actually hear the melody. Despite the volume Lloyd continued to look peaceful in his thoughts so Echo thought it best not to warn him about the dangers of playing music loudly. The android stood up again and tiptoed away from the green ninja, not noticing the other open one eyes slightly watching him leave with a small smile on his face.

When he had reached a faraway enough distance from Lloyd, Echo sighed to himself leaning on the rail at the side of the ship. Out of options for people to spend time with he considered heading back to his room or waking up Gizmo to play with him like he used to, when he was alone. The android pushed himself up off the rail before heading back inside the Bounty. He shuffled to the game room where he had left his deck of cards to sit at the low table by himself.

**Back to the Bounty's deck**

Lloyd had watched his friend thinking to himself on the ship's railing before leaving to inside. After Echo left the deck he stretched, leaving his sitting position, and flopped back onto the floor in a starfish shape. He gazed at the sky for a second before jumping up of the wood to stand on his feet. The green ninja reached into his gi to take out his phone which he used to pause his music then took out his earphones.

He watched as Nya beat Jay at their current round of checkers before going over to the two as the blue ninja sulked make her giggle. "Hey guys, how's it going?" Lloyd waved at them which only Nya really responded to.

"Well... For me at least anyway." Nya laughed when Jay slid the board and pieces off the table entirely.

"I just can't beat her Lloyd. She just too good, at like everything." Jay lifted his head up to look at him pointedly, "You hear that, my girlfriend is just too amazing."

"Loud and clear buddy." Lloyd laughed as Nya lightly punched Jay in the arm for his ridiculousness.

"Anyway... Is there something you wanted?" Nya began clearing away the checkers and board back into their box.

"Um... Yeah, I was wondering if you two would like to hang out with me and Echo. He looked kind of down earlier..." Lloyd rubbed the back his neck looking over at the door.

"Sure, he wanted to play cards with us when we finished."

"Cool! Could you two go and get Kai though. I'm gonna go and get Zane and Cole from whatever they're doing."

"We can do that." Nya smiled as she dusted herself off after standing up. Jay followed her lead while tucking the box under his arm.

**In the game room**

Echo slumped against the table lazily reading a book about Ninjago's history he'd borrowed from the library the day before. Ninjago had been an interesting and dangerous place even before the Ninja with the Serpentine and the Elemental Masters and so many other things the book went on about. Although the frequency of dangerous, world ending events had increased after the Ninja had formed a team almost like their very existence was acting like a catalyst for it. Yet Echo didn't dwell on that thought for too long as continued to enjoy his reading.

He had heard the faint sound of the others moving about the ship but nobody had come to see him so he wasn't bothered by it much. That was until the door slid open. Echo set down his book before turning around to see the Ninja stood in the doorway. Cole and Zane were still somewhat covered in floor with the former looking slightly more dishevelled from when Echo had last seen the two. Kai himself looked like he'd just run a marathon in the rain by how wet and tired he was leaning against the door frame. He had been furiously cleaning the floor in the training floor when his sister and Jay found him. He was just thankful he managed to make the floor look somewhat normal despite the amount of water he had used to remove the scorch marks.

Lloyd smiled at the front of the group as Echo sat there blinking owlishly up at them. "Sorry for the wait, I had to get everyone else. Now you want to play cards, right?" Lloyd clapped his hands together happily as Echo continued to stare at them.

"I guess... You don't have to, if you don't want to..." Echo began turning back to the table and reaching for his book.

"No, we want to." Lloyd went to sit at the table before looking up at the other ninja, "Right guys?" Various forms of confirmation came from the other five as they joined the pair on the floor. Echo smiled at his friends, no his family, as they watched him shuffle on the deck. "So, what are we playing?" Kai asked from his spot lying down on the floor.

"Old maid." Echo answered as he divided up the cards, "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, just give me a minute."

"What happened to you anyway, you look like you just got blasted by Nya... That isn't what happened was it?" Cole asked looking between the two siblings.

"Of course not." Nya waved off his curiosity, "I was just there for the aftermath."

"So, what happened Kai?"

"So much... So, so much." Kai sat up finally to look Cole in the eye tiredly.

"Okay..." Cole looked at the others for a better answer but got none, apart from Echo's small smile, so he decided to drop the subject. The group fell into a comfortable silence as they started the game. Said silence lasted for a while even when it was down to the finally two players, Jay and Cole. Before the loser could be decided though Lloyd noticed something, "Does anyone else smell burning?"

"My cake!" Cole jumped up, quickly dropping his cards, and raced out the room. All that could be heard after was the loud sound of him running and coughing from the kitchen. Kai got up to go and help him clean up whatever mess he was in. The others looked between themselves nervously until Jay spoke, "Anyone want to eat out tonight?"

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