He was woken by an alarm clock, and he sat up in bed, confused. The room was dark, and he fumbled about in an effort to find a light. His hand hit something, and there was a thunk as it fell to the floor. A few moments later, the light flicked on, and he yelped as he was momentarily blinded.

"Turn off the alarm clock!" A young grumpy voice reached him. "It's too early for me to be up!"

Once his eyes had adjusted, he could see a young girl standing in his doorway, and he realized that the loud beeping of the clock hadn't ceased. He turned to look at the bedside dresser and then quickly pressed a button on his clock. The noise stopped, and he let out a soft sigh of relief.

"Thank you. It's probably too late to avoid mom being upset, though. It just wakes me up first since my room is closest." She said, rubbing her eyes and yawning.

"Yeah. Sorry, sis. Go back to bed and I'll try to keep her quiet." He told her.

She nodded and left. He stood and stretched, picking up what had happened to be a lamp from the floor. He heard footsteps in the hallway, and looked up as his mother appeared in the doorway.

Before she had time to say anything, he said, "Yes, I know, it's five in the morning, you're tired and would prefer not to be woken up by my alarm clock. Plus, Ferrah has school that she needs to attend and needs her sleep as well."

She raised an eyebrow. "Well rehearsed."

"You say it a lot."

"And who's fault is that?" She asked in a teasing tone.

He smiled. "Mine. Sorry, mom."

"It's okay." She started to walk away, then said, "Oh, Jack?"

He looked up from trying to find himself clothes. "Yeah?"

"Be careful today."

Jack walked along in the darkness towards the post office. He'd been working there for months, and his route had grown longer each week. The early morning walks soothed him. Today, it was misty, and the sun had only just begun to make the sky a shade of grey rather than black. He reached the office, and he opened the door to enter.

Once he was inside, his sack, full of letters and packages, waited for him. He took it, feeling the weight as he slung it onto his back, and grabbed his checklist. He looked it over, giving a silent sigh. This week, he'd been assigned to the monastery. No one liked to deliver there, as it was comparable to the mountain of a million steps. However, the person that took mail there got an extra sum of money, which Jack knew his family, and himself, needed. He stretched slightly, getting himself used to the extra weight on his back, and turned to head outside. He turned the corner of the post office and saw the rack of bikes sitting there, and he made his way to the last one in the row. Jack picked up the lock and twirled the number combination until it read 0-7-2-2, unlocking it with ease. He then pulled it out to the main sidewalk and started walking alongside it, knowing his first set of stops was close enough to him that he didn't need to start riding yet. About ten minutes later, he was sorting through the letters in order to properly deliver them.

He went about his day, biking when he had large distances to cover and walking when his next stop wasn't that far. His bag's weight slowly diminished as the day brightened. When he got to Ninjago City's center, he took a break. He settled onto a bench, his bike leaning against the handrailing, while he took in the sight of the statue. He'd often been strangely fascinated with it, and so he took his morning break here while he pondered what was so special about it that caught his attention. He'd read the engraving on the bottom so many times it was ingrained in his memory: "Here, frozen in time, shall the Titanium Ninja stay."

Jack had asked multiple people what it meant, and most said that it was a tribute to Zane, who was apparently an elemental master of ice. He himself had never seen Ninjago's so-called heroes, but it was impossible to go any length of time without knowing about them in Ninjago City. There were many different versions of the story, but what rang true in each of them was that Zane had given his life to save the people of Ninjago, along with his friends, from a dark being known as the Overlord or the Golden Master, depending on who was telling it. Jack wasn't quite sure how true the story was, as he knew Zane was alive and well today. Even though it was common knowledge that he was a robot, or Nindroid, as someone had dubbed him, Jack didn't know how easy it would be to rebuild a living being the exact same way as it had been before.

As he was breathing in the air, he heard an alarm suddenly go off, and he stood quickly, startled as he tried to locate the source of the sound. He saw red lights flashing from the bank that was visible just beyond the park, and Jack's first instinct was to get away from there as fast as he could. But he stayed, watching, while anxiety grew in him. He knew the police station wasn't far from here, so it wouldn't have taken long for cruisers to show up, but no one came.

People around him started to panic, and muffled voices reached his ears.

"Why isn't anyone coming to deal with this?"

"There is someone! The police aren't too far away."

"Then they should already be here!"

"They called the ninja. They should be here any moment."

The last sentence solidified Jack's decision to stay put. He knew that he would have been able to see the ninja for himself later in the day when he delivered to the monastery, but he selfishly wanted to watch whatever was happening now. Suddenly, cheers erupted around him, and he looked around to see that everyone was looking up into the sky. He craned his neck back and saw that there were two, no, now three dragons circling above the bank. They disappeared, and Jack shook his head. He rushed forward, jumping onto the Titanium Ninja statue's base and peering around it to get a better view of the bank. He saw two people in bright outfits rush into the bank, while a third in a purple outfit stayed outside. As he watched, two more ninja joined the purple one outside, and three men came rushing out of the bank. Almost immediately, a fight started, and Jack felt his muscles tighten, as though hiding wasn't what he was supposed to be doing in this situation. As the fight continued, he felt a jolt of recognition from the moves that each ninja was performing. Suddenly, a miniature purple tornado formed around the person who was wearing the purple outfit, and Jack was dazzled with sudden fright. The person the purple ninja was fighting fell to the ground, and the tornado dissolved around them almost as quickly as it had appeared. The other two robbers had also fallen, and the fight was over. Jack heard cheering from behind him, but he was struck into silence. The alarm stopped blaring, and the three ninja pulled off their hoods. Jack tilted his head as he watched, still in hiding. Two more ninja came out, and Jack recognized the green ninja as Lloyd. They both were pulling another robber out each, and Jack blinked, impressed with the team's apparent skill.

As the ninja piled the robbers up, Jack frowned slightly and pushed his way through the crowd toward his bike. As he got on, pedaling away, sirens reached his ears.

I know one thing, Jack thought to himself as he headed towards his next stop, Delivering to the ninja is going to be one heck of an experience.

When Jack had finished all his other stops, it was after noon. He was biking unenthusiastically towards the mountain where the ninja resided. He'd heard from the man who most often delivered here that he would have to pace himself or it would take him longer to reach the top of the mountain. When he finally reached the place where the stairs started, Jack abandoned his bike. He shouldered his rather light bag and started up the stairs, taking it at an easy pace. The sun was hot on his skin, and by the time he was halfway up, he was panting. He stood still on a step for a few moments before groaning and continuing on, telling himself that he'd treat himself to some extreme relaxation once he got home. When he finally got to the top, he leaned against the huge door, panting. Once he'd gotten his breath back, he scanned the wall. He saw the doorbell button and pressed it, jumping as a huge bell sound erupted. A few moments later, the door opened, and Jack saw the real-life Titanium Ninja.

For a moment, he felt excitement well inside of him, but then he reminded himself that he was here to deliver mail, and nothing more. The metal man opened the door more, and Jack stepped into the monastery, letting his bag slip from his shoulders and rest on the ground in front of him. He reached down into the bag, pulling out the letters that were left. He sorted through them expertly, grouping the letters together by recipient.

"Fan mail for Zane," he said, holding the letter out. The titanium ninja took it, and Jack continued, holding the letters out in turn. "Multiple letters for Kai. One for Jay. Something for Lloyd. A letter for Destiny." When his hands were empty, he noticed a glint at the bottom of his bag and reached down, pulling a box out. "And a package for Wu."

Someone took it from him, and he took a moment to look around the monastery and at each of the ninja. Something about the space seemed familiar to Jack, although he knew he had never been there before. He watched each of the ninja. The ones that had gotten mail were busying themselves by opening and reading them. Even though Jack had never invested much time into learning about the ninja, nor had he paid attention to who grabbed what letters when, he felt sure he could name each of them with ease. And he did. As he looked around, he saw their ninja uniforms and murmured each of their names under his breath. As he watched, Destiny, the purple ninja, sat down on a bench while the black ninja, Cole, stood near her. Jack felt a strange unease rise as he watched the blonde-haired ninja, and suddenly Cole's blue eyes were trained on him. Jack had a crawling sensation up his spine, and he pulled his checklist out, quickly marking that he'd delivered their mail successfully before pulling his bag onto his shoulders and exiting the monastery. Once he was out of sight, he shivered. His heart was racing, so he took a few breaths to calm himself before starting down the long stairwell.

When he got back to the post office, the sun was on its way down the horizon. He chained his bike up and left his bag inside, grabbing his daily paycheck on the way out. His feet and back were aching from the long day, as they always did, and he was beyond tired. The walk home seemed to take longer than it should have, and when he opened the door, he was flooded with instant regret that he hadn't used a window.

"Hey, Jack. How was your day?" His mother asked from the kitchen.

He stifled a sigh and took his jacket off, hanging it up neatly. "Long."

"Any new routes?"

"Always, mom." Jack replied, attempting to sneak by her to head to his room.

She turned around, halting him with a hand. "What new places did you go to? And after dinner, Ferrah needs help with homework."

Jack felt his shoulders sag. "The other side of the city and to the ninja's monastery. And really? Can't you help her today, mom? I'm really tired-"

"I tried. She wants you to help her. Go take a nap if you're tired. Dinner should be ready in about an hour."

Jack sighed and nodded, heading into the living room and lying down on the couch. He was starting to doze off when a delighted squeal reached his ears, and a heavy weight cannonned onto his stomach. His breath was driven from him as he was hugged, and he opened his eyes to see his younger sister clinging to him.

"You're home!" She cried gleefully.

He croaked out a laugh and hugged her back, sitting up to push her off of his stomach so he could breathe again. "Of course I'm home. Where else would I be?"

"Still working. Did anything cool happen today?"

He chuckled. "Come on, Fer, you know I can't talk about it until your homework is done."

She pouted. "Pleeeeeeaaase?" She begged.

"Okay, okay," he smiled. "I can't tell you everything, but something cool did happen today. And you'll never guess who I got to see twice."

Ferrah's eyes got huge, and she gasped, "Who?!?"

He grinned and booped her nose. "You'll have to wait until your homework's done to find out!"

She groaned, going limp in his arms. "Not fair!"

He laughed. "It is fair, because mom will ground me if I tell you stories before dinner."

She sighed and then snuggled up to him. "Want to watch TV with me, Jack?"

I'd rather sleep, he thought, but nodded at her. "Sure. Just try not to kill me with your squirming. You're getting too big to be sitting on my lap all the time."

She stuck her tongue out at him and grabbed the remote, changing the channel while Jack attempted to relax.

He must have dozed off at some point, because he was woken by a repeated shoving on his shoulder and a voice calling his name.

He opened his eyes with a grumble, and Ferrah smiled at him. "Dinner is done. Come on so we can eat!"

She bounded off, and he couldn't help a small grin. His sister had boundless energy, and she never failed to make his mood more cheerful. He sat up with a yawn and a stretch, moving over to the dining room table. His plate was already set, and his mother was sitting in her usual spot, while Ferrah was struggling to sit down in her chair due to how close it was to the table. He rolled his eyes with a smile and pulled her chair back, letting his sister sit before he pushed her in. She smiled at him as he sat in his own seat. Dinner was the usual mess; Ferrah spoke with her mouth full still, and some of her food inevitably ended up on the table or floor. Once she was done eating, Jack and his mother were able to relax for a bit and finish their meals in relative peace. Afterwards, Jack helped clean up the mess his sister had made before calling her to do her homework.

When that was finally done, Jack wasn't sure he had any energy left in order to tell her the stories he'd promised, but one pouty face from her made him sigh and begin. "I saw someone try to rob the bank today, Fer."

"Oh no!" She cried.

"It's okay, though." He told her with a smile.

"Did the police stop them?"

"Even better. I watched the ninja stop them."

Ferrah squealed with delight, and he chuckled. "Really?!?"

Jack nodded, smiling. He knew Ferrah loved the ninja, so his next news would make her even happier. "I also get to deliver mail to them this week."

"No way!" She looked ready to burst from excitement.

He smiled. "Yup."

"Are you allowed to talk to them?" She demanded enthusiastically.

"I don't see why not." He told her with a chuckle.

"Could you get their signatures for me?!?"

He laughed and hugged her, lifting her up from the chair she was sitting in. "I might be able to. I don't want to bother them, you know? They're people too."

She nodded, wrapping her arms around his neck. "If you can talk to them, can you ask Jay about his lightning nunchucks? And his dragon?"

Jack smiled and carried her to her room, saying, "If I get the chance." He laid her down in her bed and tucked her in. "I might not deliver to them for another few days, though."

She nodded, smiling. "Okay. Goodnight, Jack."

"Goodnight, Fer." He left her, flicking her light off and closing her door gently. He yawned and poked his head into the living room, finding his mother watching TV. He bid her goodnight, then made his way to his own room, collapsing on his bed. He set his alarm and fell promptly asleep.