#i need more wisps being stupid gremlins please

[elizabeths-dumbassery]

Headcannon that wisps go fucking insane for beads, sprinkles and cereal. Stuff like that

Like someone's necklace breaks and the beads go everywhere? Tough luck the wisps are goin at it like:

That's theirs now. The tiny clacking colorful objects? Theirs.

One of the wisps wander off? Just shake a thing of sprinkles and watch all of the wisps within a ten mile radius come BARRELING through with eyes dilated looking for the colorful objects

[rosiehunterwolf]

@fabro-de-omres HOLD UP BESTIE, I GOT ONE LAST FIC FOR YOUR LIST-

Star-Ninja!

Prompts: Siblings and Competition

Word Count: 5,884

Characters: The ninja

Timeline: Snapshots throughout the series

Trigger Warnings: None

Summary: What happens when the loveable gremlin the ninja adopted off of the streets introduces them to Starfarer comics?

Chaos ensues, of course.

Read on FFN.net

Read on Ao3

Tumblr work under the cut

“Take that! And that! Oh, yeah-” Jay leaped to his feet, grinning. “Die, lava zombies, die!”

Level complete. The words flashed across the screen, and Jay whooped. Only one more level and he would beat Zane’s high score.

“You could’ve beaten it faster if you had taken out the little guys first.”

Jay whipped around to see the little wispy-haired kid draped over the arm of the couch, staring at the TV screen with a glazed, listless look in his eyes.

“What are you doing here?” Jay snapped.

“I’m borrrred,” he whined, kicking his legs against the couch. “Can I play with you?”

“No.”

“Can I use the training course?”

“No, you’re not a ninja.”

“Then what am I supposed to do?”

“It’s not our job to entertain you, kid.”

“I didn’t ask to be kidnapped by you,” Lloyd snapped.

Jay felt his face flush. “So you’d rather still be with the Serpentine?”

“Well no, I just wanna have a choice!”

Jay stared at him for a moment. I don’t know his whole story. He’s a kid who’s been dealt a bad hand in life. He exhaled slowly. “Look, Lloyd, you’re just a kid. I know it’s hard for you to understand- but you’ve caused a lot of trouble. The Serpentine are dangerous, and you don’t know enough to deal with them. You just gotta trust us, okay?”

Lloyd sighed dramatically, sliding off of the couch and onto the floor. “Yeah, whatever.”

Jay rolled his eyes. “Can’t you find something to do for a little while? Please? I’ll talk with Sensei about what we’re going to do with you as soon as he gets back.”

To his surprise, Lloyd actually left him alone, and Jay turned back to his game. He knew it wasn’t a very responsible move, but he had never agreed to babysit the kid. Besides, they were going hunting for Serpentine again tomorrow, so it would likely be Jay’s last chance to have some downtime for an entire week.

By the time Jay had finally beaten the top score, his fingers were sore from playing. Flopping onto the couch, he glanced up at the clock. It had been an hour since he had sent Lloyd off, and he hadn’t heard so much as a peep from the kid.

Jay had only known him for a couple of days, but already that seemed like suspicious behavior.

He headed into the storage room that Sensei had scrapped together into a makeshift bedroom for his nephew. Lloyd was sprawled across his mattress, reading a book.

I guess he’s not up to anything. I shouldn’t have been so quick to judge him. Jay turned to leave before stopping suddenly and whirling back around.

“Hey!” he yanked the book out of Lloyd’s hands. “Is this a Starfarer comic? Have you been snooping around in my room?”

“No! I haven’t touched your stupid stuff. Figures, the one time I actually didn’t do anything wrong, you blame me.”

“Have you not heard of The Boy who Cried Wolf?” “What?”

“Nevermind.” Jay examined the comic. It was an old edition, but not one he owned. Besides, the cover was wrinkled and there were dog ears on several pages. Jay would never treat his comics so harshly. “If it’s not mine, then whose is it?”

“It’s mine. Is it so hard to believe that I don’t steal everything?’

“No, I mean, you like Starfarer?”

“Of cou- I, uh, I mean, Starfarer’s for babies, ha. I’m only reading this because it’s the only book I have and you wouldn’t give me anything else to do.”

“Oh, that’s too bad. I guess I’ll have to go enjoy my Starfarer comic collection on my own, then. Since it’s too babyish for big kids like you.”

“Your what?” Lloyd was suddenly sticking to him like a barnacle. “You collect Starfarer comics?”

“Not just comics.” He grinned as he watched Lloyd’s eyes widen. “Movies, posters, action figures- you name it.”

“No way! Can I see? Please, please? Just for a second-” Jay put a hand on his shoulder, holding him back. “Hang on, kiddo. I thought Starfarer was for babies?”

Lloyd shifted on his feet. “Well, I didn’t really mean that, I just- I was just testing you!”

Jay raised an eyebrow, smothering a laugh. “Uh huh. If you’re such a master, why aren’t you reading the new comics?”

Lloyd looked down, shuffling his feet. “I… this is the newest one I have. We didn’t really get many opportunities to buy what we wanted at Darkley’s. Especially not a book about superheroes. Because we were super busy being evil and stuff, heh.”

Jay felt his heart twist. Am I really pitying Lloyd Garmadon right now just because of some comics?

Although, when he looked at Lloyd now, he didn’t see the annoying, mischievous son of a villain. He saw a wide-eyed, naive kid looking at Jay with such hope that it was hard not to feel a strong urge to protect him from the burdens of the world.

Jay crouched down next to him. “Y’know what? I’ll show you my newer comics. You can even keep some, if you like.”

“Really? You’re not messing with me?”

“As long as you promise not to treat them like that.” Jay gestured towards the wrinkled comic. “Seriously, dude, you better go wash your grubby little hands before I even let you within five feet of my stuff.”

Jay didn’t think he’d ever seen Lloyd be in such a hurry to do anything.

---

“What’s this do?”

Nya snatched Lloyd’s hand away from the control panel. “Don’t touch that!”

“But what about-”

“Or that! Just-” She took a deep breath, running her fingers through her hair. “Don’t touch anything unless I specifically tell you to, okay?”

“Well, then what am I supposed to do?”

“I don’t know, find something. I’m not here to babysit you, Lloyd, I’m managing the comms. It’s important to make sure we stay in touch with the guys when they are on their mission.”

“I don’t need a babysitter,” he huffed. “Why couldn’t they take me with them? I am a ninja now. I could’ve bashed in some Serpentine heads!”

Nya glanced at him, glaring defiantly in his oversized gi. “I’d hardly call you a ninja, squirt. You haven’t even grown into that gi yet.”

“Yes, I have! See, it fits me perfectly!”

“...Lloyd, those pant legs almost completely cover your shoes.”

“They do not! Uncle Wu said I was a ninja.”

“A ninja in training, at best,” Nya corrected.

“What’s the use of being the green ninja if I don’t get anything fun out of it?”

“One day, green machine. You just have to be patient.”

He groaned loudly, flopping onto the chair. “I hate being patient.”

“No! You? Impatient? Who would’ve guessed?”

“Can’t you at least show me how to turn on the alarms?”

“No. Alarms are for emergencies only.”

“It is an emergency! I’m going to die of boredom!”

“Fine,” Nya relented. “What do I have to do to get you to leave me alone- and stay out of trouble? Can I rent you a movie?”

“Ooh, can I watch Zombies: Back for Revenge? Or Ghost Story? Or Dawn of Destruction?”

“Nope, nope, and nope. Too scary, too mature, too violent. Pick something more family-friendly, Lloyd.”

He pouted. “Kai got to watch those movies.”

“Yeah, well, Kai’s older than you and is responsible for his own actions. If you watch those, you’ll be up all night with nightmares and Sensei will never trust me again.”

“I won’t have nightmares! He’ll never know! Please, Nya.”

“No. End of discussion. Pick something else or nothing at all. Remember, it’s my money paying for the movie here. What about those… space wars movies you love?”

“It’s Starfarer,” Lloyd snapped, although his expression looked considerably lighter. “There’s one I haven’t seen yet…”

After Lloyd showed her the movie and she paid for it, Nya turned back to the control panel and checked for messages from the guys. Still nothing.

She really hated when they left her in the dark like that.

There were sounds of explosions from behind her, and a cheer from Lloyd- she glanced over her shoulder to see him grinning gleefully at the screen as the main characters blew something up. She shook her head- what was it with young boys and explosions?- but she couldn’t stop a smile from creeping onto her face. Glancing over at the comms, she double-checked that no one had said anything.

The guys obviously weren’t taking the effort to communicate with her. It wouldn’t hurt to take a quick break.

Sitting down next to Lloyd, she focused her attention on the movie. It seemed nonsensical and boring at first, but after a bit, Lloyd started explaining things to her, and, to her surprise, she found herself happy to listen. As it got later, his talking slowed, and at some point- Nya couldn’t quite identify when- Lloyd was leaning against her side, snuggling with their shared blanket.

Nya watched him carefully. She hadn’t cuddled with anyone like this since she had been younger, with Kai- but then, she had been the younger one, the one being protected. Now, she was experiencing what she imagined Kai must’ve felt, and despite how annoying he could be, Nya felt a strong urge to pull him close and never let him go.

She understood their reluctance to let Lloyd fight fully now. She didn’t want to ever send him off into battle, especially not the Final Battle.

How could this sweet, stubborn little wisp of a child be the green ninja?

Many hours and three movies later, Nya was afraid to even look at the clock. Rubbing Lloyd’s head, she murmured, “It’s way past your bedtime, kiddo.”

“‘m not tired,'” he mumbled in an obviously tired voice.

“I already let you stay up way later than you should be.”

“Just one more movie!” “Lloyd! These things are two hours long!”

“I promise I’ll go right to bed after!”

“That’s what you said after the last one.”

“Well, I really mean it this time.”

“No way.”

“Please?” Lloyd suddenly looked a lot more nervous, twisting his hands together. “Just… just until we hear something. From the ninja.”

“Oh, Lloyd.” She put a hand on his back. “It’s okay. They’re okay. Most likely, they just forgot to report back. They do that all the time.”

“But we don’t know that.”

“...Yeah. You’re right. We don’t.”

“Is it always this scary? Waiting for them to talk to you, not knowing what’s going on?”

Nya nodded slowly. “Yeah, a lot of the time it is, bud. But eventually, you learn to trust them. There isn’t a day that goes by where I don’t worry about their safety, but I know they are strong and capable and can take care of themselves.” Lloyd nodded. “That makes sense.”

He still didn’t look quite content with her answer, though. Nya leaned in, murmuring to him.

“Tell you what. What if we watch half of one more movie?”

Man, she was turning into such a disgustingly gross softie for this kid so fast, wasn’t she.

But the wide, genuine smile that split across his face made it worth it.

---

Kai stood in front of the long expanse of bookshelves, stacked with dozens and dozens of comics.

“Excuse me,” Kai gestured to the nearest bookstore employee, and he walked over. “Which part is the Starfarer section?”

The employee blinked at him. “You’re already in it. This entire wall is Starfarer.”

Kai gawked at the wall in utter amazement. There had to be at least a hundred books there. How were these many Starfarer comics even possible?

“Which one is the best one?” he asked the employee.

The man pushed his glasses up his nose, looking increasingly annoyed with Kai’s lack of Starfarer knowledge. “That’s hardly a straightforward question. Starfarer is our most popular franchise, they’re all popular. It’s impossible to pick one book. If you’re looking for our most popular selling comics of all time, that would be volumes 1, 32, 45, and 79. As for comics trending right now, that, of course, would be the most recent ones, 273 through 282. Although volume 13 has seen a sudden influx in readership. If you are looking for those with the best ratings-”

How do I say, ‘which comic is best for my little brother who was just aged up several years, without warning, and I want to help him regain his sense of childhood?’

Deciding this wasn’t going to be helpful, Kai gently dismissed the employee and began looking on his own. He tried to pick out ones with interesting covers, but ended up throwing many of them back after skimming the summaries on the back.

That wasn’t working very well either, and Kai was just about to throw the towel in and grab some random comics and hope for the best- or worse, call Jay and ask for help- when he decided to open one comic to skim it.

This quickly turned into a mistake, because before Kai knew it, five minutes had turned into an hour, and he had completely finished the comic. One comic turned into two, then five. He only was able to yank himself from his reading when he got a text from Zane asking where he was and that dinner was going to be ready soon.

Gathering up a large handful of the comics he had liked, Kai headed back towards the Bounty on his motorbike.

He found Lloyd on his bed, staring up at the ceiling with earbuds in. He pulled them out when he saw Kai, his gaze darting curiously towards the stack of comics.

“I got you these,” Kai said, setting them down next to him. “I know things are… different now, with you being older, but you’re always going to be my little brother. And I wanted you to know that just because you’re physically older doesn’t mean you have to stop doing the things you love. So if you still want to make doodles for our fridge, or make your food into shapes on your plate, or read Starfarer comics, no one’s going to judge you.”

Lloyd picked up a comic, slowly leafing through it. He was quiet for so long that Kai began to worry that he had completely messed something up. But when he finally spoke, he simply said, “You read it.”

“I… what?”

A smile spread across Lloyd’s face. “You read these before you bought them. Didn’t you?”

Kai spluttered. “I- what? That doesn’t make any sense! You have no proof!”

“The pages are creased over here. You always crease back the pages when you have a book. And there’s a slight depression here that shows the presence of fingers. Too big to be Jay’s or Nya’s, and too small to be Zane’s or Cole’s.”

Kai blinked at him. “You pay way too much attention to people, don’t you?”

“Hey, I paid attention during training, y’know!”

“More than we give you credit for, apparently.”

“I just can’t believe I spent all those months trying to pressure you to read Starfarer and you suddenly pick it up when I’m not even forcing you.”

“Shut up.” Kai shoved him gently. “It was a one-time thing. I was only doing it so I could find a comic you would like,”

“Yeah, so it makes sense you would look at them for five hours.”

“How did you- I mean, I didn’t go to the bookstore right away! I was doing other things! I only went there a few minutes before I came home!”

“Oh, yeah?” Lloyd raised an eyebrow. “What ‘other things?’”

“Uh, very important ninja business, like, um… patrol?”

“Cole returned from patrol two hours ago.”

“Well, this was a super-secret different patrol that Cole doesn’t even know about.”

“Really. Does Sensei know?”

“Nope. Just me.”

Lloyd elbowed him playfully. “You’re gonna have to watch all the movies with me now, y’know.”

“No way. Aren’t there like, fifty of those?”

“Twenty-seven.”

“No, thanks.”

“You have to! It’s part of the experience. Wait until I tell Jay you’re into it now.”

“You wouldn’t.”

“You bet I would!” Lloyd looked over at the pile of comics again, examining them more closely. “Nice, these are some good ones. Which ones did you read?”

“Um. The ones I bought?”

Lloyd looked up at him, his grin fading. “But like… not just these, right? You read others? In between them?”

“No… is this supposed to be some sort of poke at me being a slow reader-”

“No! I just can’t believe you read them in this order! Seriously, you couldn’t have gotten it any more wrong! You’ve ruined the whole series for yourself!”

“Oh, that’s such a shame, guess you better not tell Jay, then-”

“Oh, no way, you’re still getting into the fandom. We’re going to fix this. Come look at my comics. We’re going to read them together, and I’m gonna show you how to do it right.”

“Oh, is that Zane calling for dinner-”

“Nice try,” Lloyd smirked. “But you’ve entered the Starfarer fandom now. You’re in it, good and deep. There’s no coming back from this, Kai.”

“Glad to see your psychotic gremlin tendencies weren’t lost in the tea,” Kai grumbled. “Probably the one thing I could’ve gone without.”

---

“Are you out of your mind? The movie adaptions of Starfarer are way better.”

“Okay, there is clearly no hope left for you, Lloyd. The show is far superior to any of the movies.”

“Are you kidding? The budget for the show was so much lower! They just used a bunch of cheap, corny special effects, the movies were much smoother!”

“Visuals aren’t the most important thing, Lloyd. The show had a smaller storyboard team, meaning their ideas were more consistent and developed. The plot is overall much more in-depth in the show, and the extended time also gives them more space to do what they want.”

“It also leaves a lot of space for pointless filler! The movies are more direct. Every scene is important. Whereas I can name half a dozen episodes from the show- and that’s just on the top of my head- that were completely useless and would not change the plot at all if discarded.”

“You’re insane, every filler episode had importance! Some just showed it in smaller ways than others.”

“They could’ve fit the minor details into the other episodes!”

“Yeah, but filler is nice sometimes. Getting some more chill episodes between all the action is good.”

“No way, they’re boring and ruin the pacing. The movies have you on the edge of your seat throughout the whole thing.”

Zane sighed, glancing over at Jay and Lloyd. Their argument was getting increasingly more physical, with each boy attempting to tower over the other- not an easy task, considering they were both short.

“Can you two please be quiet? Or at least take this somewhere else? I’m trying to watch the news to make sure there aren’t any danger reports in Ninjago City.”

Jay suddenly whirled on him. “Zane! That’s it!”

“...What’s it?”

“Zane should decide! Which is better? The Starfarer movies, or the show?” Turning to Lloyd, he added, “Since he’s a nindroid, he’ll be the least biased of all of us.”

“One problem,” Lloyd said. “Zane hasn’t watched either.”

“Well, then, he’ll have to watch them,” Jay shrugged.

Zane glanced back and forth between them. “You want me to watch twenty-seven movies. And all seven seasons of the TV show. Just to help you win a disagreement.”

“It’s actually eight seasons,” Lloyd corrected.

“Exactly!” Jay beamed. “You’ll do great. Get back to us when you’ve watched them all and have formed an opinion. The sooner the better, so that I can prove Lloyd wrong as quickly as possible.”

“Hey! If anything, I’m going to prove you wrong!” “No way! The show-”

“Okay, okay, I’ll do it!” Zane stood up suddenly, putting his hands between them before another argument could break out. “Just stop fighting. Please.”

“You got yourself a deal,” Jay winked.

Two weeks and over a hundred hours of content later, Jay and Lloyd were staring at him expectantly over the dinner table.

“Well? What’s the verdict?”

Zane blinked at them with glassy eyes. “They were both very good. I enjoyed them. However, I feel like I never want to watch a minute of Starfarer ever again.”

“Seriously?” Lloyd fumed. “We waited all this time for him to not even properly answer the question?”

“Who cares about the question?” Cole grumbled. “Zane was so tired from watching your guys’ dumb Starfarer stuff, he messed up the gumbo.” Cole drew a spoon listlessly through the stew. “This is my favorite meal. I’m never forgiving you guys for messing it up.”

“Starfarer isn’t stupid,” Jay and Lloyd cried at once. They blinked at each other, surprised, and Kai and Nya laughed.

“I think that’s the first thing they’ve agreed on all week,” Nya grinned.

“It won’t last,” Kai murmured to her as the green and blue ninja set on Cole for his statement on Starfarer. “I give them two days to find something else to bicker about.”

---

“Hurry, Nya, he’s almost at the navigation!”

“I’m trying!” Nya bit her lip, an iron grip on her video game controller. “He’s sabotaged the security system!”

“No-”

Game over flashed across the screen, and Jay leaped to his feet, cheering. Nya rolled her eyes, tossing down her controller, while Zane, Lloyd, and Kai watched with disappointment.

“I can’t believe he won again,” Kai huffed. “How is he still undefeated? We’ve been playing this game for weeks.”

“I thought you were supposed to be good at this, Lloyd,” Nya grumbled. “You’re the Starfarer expert. You’ve got so many hours logged on here.”

“I’d like to point out that I’ve gotten closer to beating him than any of you have,” he snapped. “The last time I was only seconds away from winning.”

“Yeah, well, close isn’t good enough,” Kai said. “We need to beat him. Otherwise, it will get to his head.”

“Clearly none of us are going to be winning any time soon,” Nya groaned.

“There is someone who hasn’t played against him yet,” Zane mused. “Someone who has a track record of beating Jay’s top scores in games.”

Five gazes drifted towards the chair on the other side of the room. Cole looked up from his book when he realized the others were looking at him. “What do you want this time?”

“You gotta beat Jay in Starfarer: Alien Invasion 3,” Lloyd insisted, at his side immediately. “He’s undefeated. You know how unbearable he gets when he’s cocky.”

Cole blinked slowly up at them. “I don’t know the first thing about Starfarer.”

“I can teach you,” Lloyd begged. “Just do it. Please. Since when have you passed up an opportunity to beat Jay in something?”

Jay grinned. “Admit it, guys, I’ve defeated you. There’s no way Cole will ever win against me.”

Cole stood up abruptly. “Oh yeah? We’ll see about that. Lloyd, give me that controller. Jay’s about to get a serving of humility.”

For what appeared to be just another mundane rendition of a classic monster-fighter game, it surprised Cole to find it was actually much more complex and engaging.

It would’ve actually been really fun, had Jay not been so ridiculously goated at the game.

“What? Your character is invulnerable to the imperial sludge? How is that fair?”

Jay scoffed. “If you had read the Aliens Strike Back arc of Starfarer comics, you would’ve known that.”

“This totally isn’t fair. You have a bunch of background knowledge on Starfarer that I don’t.”

“It’s not our fault you’re the only one who hasn’t read or watched any Starfarer,” Lloyd said.

“Oh no,” Cole groaned. “You guys are dragging me into this too, aren’t you?”

---

“Where’s my copy of issue 117 of Starfarer?”

Jay looked up from the counter, where he was munching on crackers. “Like I would know, Lloyd. It’s not my responsibility to keep track of where you put your stuff.”

“I know exactly where I put it. But it’s gone now! I left it on my nightstand last night, right next to my bed. I haven’t touched it since.”

“Well, evidently, you have, since it’s not there now.”

“No, I didn’t touch it! Someone must’ve moved it!”

“And? I don’t see how this is my problem.”

“Everyone knows you’re the biggest Starfarer fanboy on the team apart from me, and I happen to be aware that you don’t own that particular comic.”

“I didn’t steal your comic, Lloyd.”

“Oh yeah? Then what happened to it?”

“Don’t ask me!” “You know that’s my favorite issue, Jay.”

“So? You think I’d take it just to spite you?”

“I think you’d-”

He cut off as Kai meandered into the kitchen, eating crackers and reading a comic.

Lloyd’s eyes widened. “Hey! That’s my missing comic!”

Kai glanced up at him. “You said I could borrow it.” “I did not! And give it to me, before you get cracker crumbs all over it!”

Kai rolled his eyes as Lloyd snatched it from him. “Alright, fine, take your dumb comic.”

Jay crossed his arms. “I think you owe me an apology, Lloyd.”

Lloyd stuck his tongue out at him, and Jay returned the gesture.

“Hey!” They turned to see Nya strolling into the room behind Kai, elbowing her brother sharply. “You said I could have that comic once you finished it.”

“Seriously, Kai? You can’t go around giving my comic to people without asking.”

“I wasn’t going to give it to her! She’s lying!” “Excuse me? You literally just said that like ten minutes ago-”

Zane and Cole joined them not long after, glancing around. “Guys! What’s with all the racket?”

“Kai promised me his Starfarer comic after he was done-”

“It’s not Kai’s, it’s mine! And he took it from me without asking and just auctioned it off to Nya!” “I didn’t auction off anything, it’s not like she paid me for it. Although, that's honestly not a bad idea…”

“What is this, a monopoly?” Jay asked. “We’re not paying for comics we already own, that’s dumb.”

“Yeah,” Lloyd agreed, “especially when they were mine in the first place.”

“Liar! Most of them were mine!” Jay insisted. “I should get dominion over my own comics!”

“Just because you own the most doesn’t mean you own all of them,” Lloyd countered. “You may have more comics by sheer number, but I have more rare comics than you and, overall, my comics have a higher value.”

“I’m sick of you two always deciding everything about Starfarer,” Cole said. “Why can’t one of us regulate the comics?”

“Whoever gets control over the comics is just going to have bias and distribute them to their advantage.”

“I think I would be the most responsible man for the job-”

“Stop lying to yourself, dirtclod, I’d obviously be better-”

“Better than Kai, yeah, if you’re trying to set the bar low.”

“Excuse me?”

“Guys,” Lloyd interrupted, slamming his fists down on the table. “There’s only one solution to settle this. We have a competition. Winner gets control over the Starfarer comics for… let’s say, the next six months.”

Kai cracked his knuckles, grinning. “You had me at competition.”

---

“When you said, ‘competition,’ somehow I was expecting something a little more grandiose than this.”

The ninja had gathered around the kitchen table, glancing down at the box Lloyd had dropped there. Starfarer: Galaxy Wars, it read.

“Yeah, Lloyd,” Cole agreed. “A board game? Seriously?”

“Not just any board game. The most popular, most difficult, most fun game out there. It is truly for the Starfarer master. Part roleplay, part strategy, part trivia- it puts your Starfarer knowledge to the test. That way, we know whoever wins this didn’t just get the win out of chance, but actually deserves it.”

Nya raised an eyebrow. “I mean, I guess. But you better not be an expert at this game.”

Lloyd shook his head. “I’ve only played it a few times, I promise.”

“Okay then,” Kai said. “May the best ninja win.”

As usual, that lasted about five minutes until they were all yelling at each other.

“Oh, come on!” Cole threw down his card. “I got stuck in the Imperial Sludge Swamp again?”

“Ha!” Jay leaned forward, moving his piece across the board, jumping over Cole’s pawn. “Next time you know to pick a character with better environmental perks.”

“Cole’s character is more well-rounded, though,” Zane pointed out. “If you are unable to gather enough energy before the end, it is likely the aliens will take you out.”

“Quit your yapping and let me take my turn.” Kai snatched the dice from Jay’s hand and tossed them- landing a perfect 12.

“You’re cheating!” Nya snapped. “That’s the third turn in a row you’ve rolled higher than a ten. Are you using weighted dice or something?”

“He’s using the exact same dice I just used, Nya.”

“It’s called skill,” Kai scoffed. “Maybe someday, you can be as good as me.”

“Rolling dice is completely based on chance! If the best skill you can boast is being able to roll high numbers, I think I’m doing pretty well.”

“Yeah, well, we’ll see how useless it is once I win this thing and get total control over all the Starfarer comics.”

“Fat chance,” Nya huffed as Kai moved his piece.

“Oh, look at that, I found a pile of scrap metal! I get to roll again!”

“Are. You. Kidding me!”

“Wait,” Zane put a hand on Nya’s shoulder. “He’s right by the alien spaceship. If he gets an 11 or less, he’ll be on their turf and they’ll shoot him down, kidnap him, or confront him, depending on his stats. The only way he could possibly get through this without negative consequences is by rolling a 12.”

“There’s no way he’ll do it again,” Cole agreed. “Nya, this is your chance to overtake him.”

“Let’s see.” Kai grabbed the two dice and shook up his hands. He shook and shook, stopped to blow on the dice, then shook some more-

“Just roll the stupid dice,” Cole snapped.

Kai dropped the dice, and time seemed to move in slow motion. Lloyd held his breath, leaning forward-

And watched as the dice rolled one six, then another.

A perfect roll.

“Cheating!” Nya cried. “Cheating, I tell you! There’s no way this is possible.”

“We can’t let him win,” Jay groaned. “He won’t share any comics with us.” “Not true! I’ll let Lloyd have one.”

“Only one?” “That’s better than none at all,” Jay snapped. “At least he’s giving you something.”

“He’s not going to be giving me anything, because he’s not going to win.”

Kai grinned, gesturing at the dice. “Sure, be my guest. See if you can beat me.”

Lloyd rolled, earning a seven.

Jay hissed between his teeth. “Tough luck, green bean- you get injured and robbed by aliens.”

“Actually,” Lloyd said, slipping a card from his pile and slamming it down on the middle of the table. “I don’t, because I play this special ability card, allowing me to pick the number of spaces I travel. I choose 10, landing myself on the abandoned spacecraft. Then I use my character’s high level mechanics skills and use this card-” he slammed down another card that showed scrap metal reserves- “to instantly fix the ship. Then I spend my energy points to get another turn, use the gas from my generator to fuel the ship, and then am able to fly the ship back to the base and restore the artifacts. According to the manual, it would take three days from my location, and Kai, the closest, would take five days in his slower spacecraft, meaning it is impossible for anyone to beat me back, and I win the game.”

For a moment, they were silent, gaping at him.

“How?” Cole murmured. “Dude, how did you do that?”

“He just crossed half the board in one turn,” Kai spluttered. “And I was about to win! That shouldn’t even be possible!”

“How many moves were you planning ahead?” Zane shook his head. “Your strategy appears to be far more complex than any of us were anticipating for this kind of game.”

“I knew something was up when he kept stashing his ability cards,” Jay groaned. “We were all using ours, but he hardly used any- he was saving them up to use them all in a big power move and catch us off guard, the little rascal!”

“You liar,” Nya hissed. “You said you only played this game a few times! This was way too complicated of a plan for a novice player.”

“Technically, that’s true,” Lloyd grinned. “I have only played a few times. But I never said how long I played for each time.”

“You conniving little gremlin.”

“Now, Nya,” Lloyd scolded in a sagely voice, barely able to suppress his laughter, “I’d be careful how you speak to me from now on. If you’re rude, I may not give you any Starfarer.”

“Yeah, this is going to get old, very quickly.”

“I can’t believe it,” Jay sighed. “You never share comics with us.”

Lloyd gawked at him. “Are you kidding? It’s because of my sharing that you guys are even into Starfarer in the first place! Jay was the only one who knew about it before I came, but even he didn’t tell anyone else he was a fanboy and kept stuff hidden in boxes. When I showed interest, do you remember how excited you got? You took everything out, just for me.”

Zane shook his head, smiling. “I still can’t believe you got me to binge the entire series.”

“Or how I spent hours investing in that game and tracking down all that information in the comics just to beat Jay’s high score? Which I crushed, by the way.”

Jay scowled. “For the last time, you beat me by five points! You didn’t crush anyone.”

Cole scoffed. “Someone’s just jealous. If it weren’t for Lloyd, I would’ve never beat you.”

“You showed us all something we love, huh, squirt?” Kai ruffled his hair, and Lloyd pulled away, like usual, but grinned at him, bumping his shoulder gently.

“Remember when you used to get all upset at me for slacking off and reading Starfarer comics during training?”

Kai reddened. “That was different! We were preparing you for the Final Battle, there was a lot to be done.”

“Hypocrites,” Lloyd whispered, giggling as he ducked a swing from Kai.

“Well, what are you going to do now, ‘master of the comics?’” Jay asked. “Hoard all the books to yourself? Read in front of us to taunt us?” “Tempting,” Lloyd said, “but I think first, I want to play another round of the Starfarer board game.”

Cole blinked. “Lloyd, it’s seven pm. And this took us like five hours to get through the first time.”

The ninja blinked at each other.

“Oh, it’s on!”