Chapter Text
Morro slips through the crack in the Cursed Realm. It was easy enough to escape the Preeminent’s notice, what with all the Anacondri warriors being summoned. He simply followed the crowd.
Is that a flying ship? he thinks, before reorienting himself with the reminder that Wu replaced him and there’s some imposter Green Ninja stealing his place.
There are ninja on the ship until they jump off. And Wu. And some random old lady. It’s a bit hard to keep the ninja straight during their fight with… living Anacondri? Huh. Morro didn’t think there were any. Anyway, ninja: hard to follow when they’re spinjetzuing all over the place. There’s a blue one, a black one, a red one, another blue one? Wait no, that’s the same guy. He’s got lightning and stuff. Oh, there’s also a silver one? Strange. Morro could’ve sworn ice was white.
There is a glaring lack of green. Green ninjas, specifically. The ancient Anacondri are green, because they’re dead. Morro is green, because he should’ve been the Green Ninja.
Perhaps the imposter is on the ship?
Nope.
While the ship is filled with odd metal objects and bizarre flashing lights, there are a total of zero Green Ninjas. Excluding Morro, of course. He gets a bit distracted by a piece of glass that is also a map that moves. It has little pictures that move with the people fighting outside! But, alas, defeating the imposter is more important than the magical miracle map. He’s fairly certain that he didn’t miss any fake Green Ninjas during his… completely valid side quest of staring at the battle representation.
So, no Green Ninja.
They aren’t on the ship and they aren’t fighting outside. Rude. Their teammates were failing epically until the deader Anacondri sent the more living Anacondri to the cursed realm. Weird, but maybe it’s a family tradition.
Morro considers the possibility of the Green Ninja (faker) being off fighting somebody else. Maybe they’re having the Final Battle. Not that they’d win, since they aren’t the real Green Ninja. But no. Wu would’ve gone too.
It’s a good thing Morro knows how to catch a ninja, he decides as he flies off towards a weird-looking town-city-monument thing.
…
The red one shows up to the museum. Which is stupid because Morro went through all the effort of figuring out how these newfangled telephones work specifically to ask for the green one.
He throws the statue he’s currently holding to the ground. Red jumps and flings a fireball in Morro’s general direction. It passes through, because Morro doesn’t care about his stupid fire.
This was a complete waste of time! All that havoc, and the Green Imposter thinks they’re too self-important to show up!
You could get the Allied Armor, something whispers in the back of his head. Gather your army. Free the Preeminent and prove how wrong they were to forsake you.
No! There’s no point if the little faker who stole his place isn’t there to watch! But your sensei— Oh! Yes, good ol’ Wu probably knows where his precious little Green Ninja is. Because now he gets a student he actually cares about. Someone who’s probably off saving orphaned kittens or something and being better than Morro. Probably laughs about it too. They’ll be back at the monastery, telling Red oh, you went to investigate flying objects? Well I was rescuing baby sea turtles on the beaches of the Dark Island from sharks. And the Emperor himself just had to have me over for tea. We’re great friends! I’m engaged to his daughter now, haha!
If Morro were the Green Ninja like he deserved, he’d never be too busy having tea with the Emperor to save people. Ever. No, Morro would be so much better than this fake. He trained his butt off for years just to have a shot at it, and some random bootlicker got it by virtue of existing.
He fumes all the way to the tea shop he terrorizes. The owner, a man who could’ve been Wu if Wu were at least eight centuries younger, cowers in fear and calls the ninja himself. Good, because his “phone” thing isn’t attached to any wires or cords or pipes or whatever that thing was and Morro isn’t sure if it’s operated differently.
“Ask for the Green Ninja,” he demands the shopkeep. “Or Wu. I’m not picky.”
The shopkeep stutters a request for the Green Ninja.
Guess who showed up?
Not the Green Ninja, not Morro’s not-father.
The Red Ninja! Again!
Clearly something is being lost in the telephones. Morro resolves to find a telegraph instead, because he knows those are reliable.
He flings some teabags at Red and leaves.
Except guess what else? No one has a telegraph! Not the library, not the police station, not even the post office. He leaves a tornado-trail in his wake, filled with paper and terrified civilians. And every. Single. Time. The Red Ninja shows up! Red!
He’s starting to look pissy that he keeps getting called out to have various improvised projectiles thrown at him, but that’s what he gets for being the wrong ninja. Seriously, is this Green Ninja really so self-absorbed that they can’t answer a single distress call? Wow. What a jerk.
“Where is Green?” Morro demands, ignoring Red’s scream of who are you where did you come from why are you throwing paper everywhere.
He waits for the man to calm down, because unlike the Green Imposter, Morro is full of patience and benevolence and all of those other really important -ences.
“Where is Green?” Morro asks again.
“Um. What?”
“Green?”
“Like… the color?”
“No, stupid. Like the ninja.”
Morro considers the possibility that the Preeminent is secretly colorblind. Maybe She got the Green Ninja confused with Red here. She wouldn't ever lie to him ever, but She could've been mistaken.
Red stares at the ground and abruptly throws his sword at it. What kind of battle strategy is that?
“Lloyd's gone,” Red says, voice thick.
Who is Lloyd and why should I care? Morro thinks before realizing that might just be Green’s name.
“He's gone? What do you mean he's gone? How do you lose a ninja?”
“I don't know! Okay? He just… went out on patrol and never came back.” Red blinks like he's trying to hold back tears, but thankfully doesn't start bawling in the middle of the post office.
“How long ago was this?”
Red glares at him. “Why do you care?”
Morro considers this.
“Is he dead?” Morro asks because that would kinda ruin his plans.
“No!” Red throws another fireball. And another, and another.
Morro decides to leave before Red burns down the post office. Because he's nice like that.
So. Green is gone.
Morro isn't sure how to feel about this. On one hand, it's kind of ironic that the guy who stole Morro’s place was such a loser that he just disappeared one day. No body, no note, nothing. On the other hand, this kinda gets in the way of Morro’s whole vengeance thing.
How is Morro supposed to ruin this guy’s life in front of him as he lies helpless to stop it if the Green Ninja isn't even there? How? Morro’s spent decades planning this, centuries even, and this loser doesn't even have the decency to show up! All that planning ruined!
You could always free the Preeminent to draw him out. Ooh, now that's an idea. He can't lure the guy in with mass terror, of course. He'd probably just get Red again. But Morro is dead and doesn't need to eat or sleep or obey the laws of physics. He can just find him!
Except…
Ninjago is big. And if the ninja haven't found him by now, then no one knows where to start looking. He could be on the Dark Island or something, and Morro would have to cross the Endless Sea under the potential threat of rain. He might be hiding out in some remote village somewhere that no one’s even heard of. He might’ve gotten trapped in one of those moving pictures Morro keeps seeing. He might not even be in Ninjago, and then Morro would have to go to the place he literally died in to find this loser!
Now, Morro is all for excessive revenge and all, but that’s a bit much, even for him.