Disclaimer: Neither of us own Ninjago. Not like you really thought we did, though, right? :B

Hello! I hope you enjoy this crazy thing ShinyShiny9 and I wrote. :) All you really need to know is that it's set after season 4. Off you go now. Read on!

"Rise of the Kitten of Doom"
By ShinyShiny9 and Skylark Starflower

Chapter 1

Zane unsummoned his dragon, dropping to the deck of the Destiny's Bounty. Something wriggled in the front of his gi, and he clutched his hands to it, trying to keep it still. The last thing he needed was for it to get loose on the ship.

He couldn't see anyone else around. This was fine with him, because he didn't want anyone else to know what he was up to just yet. Especially Sensei Wu. He made his way to the kitchen and began rooting around in the cupboards. The lump in his gi began to squirm again.

As he was distracted with his task, Jay walked into the room.

"Hey, Zane, what's up?" he asked, startling the nindroid.

"Oh, hello, Jay." Zane immediately grabbed at the thing he was hiding in his clothes, in an attempt to keep it hidden. Unfortunately, all he managed to do was draw Jay's attention to it.

"What's that you've got?" Jay asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Nothing?" Zane wasn't a very good liar. It didn't help that the kitten in his shirt chose that moment to pop its fluffy little head out, accompanied by a tiny meow.

"You guys?" Lloyd poked his head into the kitchen. "Did I just hear a—oh my gosh, a cat!"

He shot eagerly across the kitchen to take the tiny furry creature from Zane's hands, ruffling its ears gently. "It's so thin! What do kittens eat? Can we give it milk?"

Attracted by the hubbub and meowing, Kai showed up in the kitchen next.

"Is that a kitten?" He looked at the new arrival with dismay. "Uh-oh. That can't stay here, Nya has cat allergies."

"But we can't just throw it back out in the streets!" protested Lloyd.

"Seems the cat is out of the bag, as they say . . ." Zane smiled sheepishly before turning back to what he'd been doing earlier, now free of the squirming bundle. "I am sorry, Kai, but I couldn't just leave her out there to starve, and no one else would take her," he continued as he searched the cupboard. Finding what he was looking for, he took one of the saucers down and placed it on the floor. From his pocket, he produced a small carton of formula specially made for kittens and poured a little into the dish. "The man at the pet store suggested this would be best for her," he told Lloyd.

"Yeah," chimed in Jay, "despite what people think, cats are actually lactose intolerant. It can make them really sick." He paused for a moment as everyone fixed him with surprised looks. "What, I'm not allowed to know anything about cats? Sheesh." He reached out to give the kitten a pat.

From somewhere in the distance Nya sneezed.

"Woah," said Lloyd. "You weren't kidding about the allergies."

"This is bad," groaned Kai. "Seriously. Once we visited an aunt who had owned a cat two years before, and Nya started sneezing like crazy. Her eyes got all itchy and red, her nose started running, she wasn't exactly in the best mood because of all that . . . " He shook his head.

"Maybe her allergies were just worse because she was little, and now she's outgrown them? . . . " said Lloyd without much hope.

While the ninja were trying to figure out what to do, the kitten was keeping busy. Having finished all the kitten formula, she scampered across the kitchen floor, grappled her way onto a chair, then sprang to the tabletop. On the tabletop was a bowl of Violet-Berry Soup Cole had been making, undergoing the traditional three-day aging procedure. The kitten propped her front paws against the edge of the bowl, interested.

Lloyd took notice too late.

"Somebody stop that kitten!" he shouted, just as the kitten in question took a daring leap and plopped headfirst into the soup.

The colour seemed to drain a little from Jay's face. "Oh man, we need to get this cat off the ship before Cole finds it." He paused as yet another sneeze echoed through the Bounty. "And before Nya has a full out allergy attack."

Zane hurried over to the bowl to fish out a rather miserable, sopping wet and purple stained kitten. She squirmed about in his grip, trying to get loose, clearly unhappy about her current predicament. "I think she may need a bath," he said. "But Jay is right, I should not have brought her here . . ."

"But where else can we take her?" asked Lloyd, starting to fill up the sink to wash the kitten. "Do we know anyone who might like cats?"

"Maybe Lou would want a pet," suggested Kai. "But we'd have to call him and ask, and only Cole knows his number. So we'd have to tell Cole about the kitten."

A bit of silence as the others regarded the kitten, still dripping with Cole's soup.

"Let's get her cleaned up first," said Lloyd.

The kitten did not approve of bath time. She struggled and mewed pitifully all throughout, splashing water every which way. As if the commotion wasn't enough already, Nya suddenly appeared in the doorway, sneezing.

"You guys, what's going on? Suddenly I can't stop sn—"

Just at this moment the kitten broke free from Zane's grip, leaped from the sink, and made a desperate bid for freedom. Nya yelped in surprise as a tiny soggy still-slightly-lavender furball shot past her and disappeared down the hall.

"What was that?!"

Zane was about to chase after the kitten, but he pulled up short when Nya appeared. For a moment, he stared at her, panicked, before dropping his gaze to the floor. "I'm sorry, Nya. I didn't know you were allergic when I brought her here."

"Brought who here? Wait, was that—"

"Yeah, Zane brought a kitten on board, and we should probably go catch it before Cole does," interrupted Jay, as he slipped past her into the hall. He was about to start searching when he himself was brought up short by someone standing before him.

Sensei Wu's expression was neutral. In his hands, he held the kitten. "Someone care to explain what's going on here?"

"It's, uh . . . " Lloyd gulped. "Zane found the kitten in the streets, and nobody would take her, and we can't figure out who to give her to, but we have to do something because Nya has cat allergies."

Nya sneezed in agreement.

"Awwww, she's so cute, though," she said, sniffling. "I wish my allergies weren't messing this up . . . "

"There are more serious problems at hand," said Wu grimly, holding the kitten away slightly as it batted at his beard. "This is no ordinary kitten."

"It's not?" Lloyd looked curiously at the tiny cat. "It looks pretty normal. A little thin, but—"

"It is anything but normal!" interrupted Wu. "It is the kitten of prophecy! Throughout the ages the ancient manuscripts have foretold the coming of this cat. See, the mark upon its ear, and this other upon its paw."

"Oh, come on, Sensei. Quit pulling our legs," said Jay, crossing his arms. "What's she supposed to do, become the greatest mouser ever? Why would that even be important enough to write a prophecy for?"

"Jay . . ." Wu started, but then his attention was drawn to Zane. The nindroid was fiddling with his hands and staring at the floor, his expression unreadable. "Zane? Is something bothering you?"

"You mean this was preordained? I thought I was just being a nuisance for bringing her here . . ." Zane replied.

"Not a nuisance, no," said Wu. "In fact, it is good that you brought her here. Now that we know of her existence, we can attempt to prepare for the prophecies' fulfillment."

"Seriously, what ARE these prophecies? It's a kitten!" said Kai.

"But this kitten," said Wu, "is the harbinger of doom. It is prophesied that wherever she goes, strange and unpredictable calamities will follow! Corvus the Elder foretold, the very cry of this creature will bring misfortune raining down from the sky."

The kitten herself had been struggling to reach Wu's beard all this time. Frustrated, she opened her small jaws wide, showing off her adorable baby teeth, and gave a tiny but vehement "Mrowrrrrr!"

"We are doomed," whispered Wu.