They made a breathless pit stop back at the Temple of Airjitzu to tell Wu and Misako the news and prepare for a mission to Cloud Kingdom. Sensei Wu said he'd stay behind to guard the temple in case more strange things happened. Misako agreed to look after the Bounty after the ninja reached the Wailing Alps. Everyone else was going realm-hopping.
"Pack all your weapons! And maybe some lunch!" called Lloyd, as everyone scurried around preparing. "We don't know what's going on with those monks up there."
Cole skidded into the laundry room to get a new mask—his current one was dirty from the streetlamp stealing it. He yelped in surprise when Sensei Yang suddenly popped out of a basket of laundry.
"Hey, ya mind?!"
"I should ask that of you," said Yang bitterly. "I'm trying to get a moment's peace here."
"Stuff still happening?" said Cole, beginning to dig frantically for his mask.
"I should say. While you were out the temple turned upside-down, then everything made of metal suddenly caught fire, and then for a while all the halls were simply crawling with creepy little girls in pale-blue dresses."
"Oh wow." Cole slowed his search, grimacing. "That sounds bad. I hope it's okay to leave Sensei here . . . "
"Nonsense. He may be several centuries my junior, but he's quite a competent man." Yang shrugged. "Besides. I could look after him a bit."
"Could you?" Cole looked up with a hopeful smile. "That would be awesome."
"I have my moments. Now get going." The ghostly Sensei's expression softened. "Stay safe."
"Thanks." Cole finally found his spare mask and put it on. "Phew. I promise, next year we're going have a nice normal April Fool's Day. You'll like it."
"I think not. I already told you, I have no patience for fools." Yang tilted his head. "With perhaps one glaring exception."
"Thanks a lot." Cole was already heading out, but he stuck out his tongue over his shoulder, too hyped to worry much about respect. As he jogged down the hall he could hear Yang's impassioned strains of "wretched, cheeky, irresponsible modern youth, they ought to all be—" dying away behind him. He chuckled softly. Being the only one to know about a cranky, troublemaking ghost was a headache sometimes, but when it came right down to it Sensei Yang was really all right.
They flew the Bounty at top speed over the countryside, heading for the Wailing Alps.
"You're gonna be okay going back there, right Lloyd?" said Cole, as they all stood on the deck. "Last time wasn't really under the best circumstances."
"Ahh, I'm okay. I'm kinda eager to see the place while I'm in my own head," said Lloyd, smiling ruefully. Jay gave him a bracing nudge, while Kai reached over to ruffle his hair.
"I never got to see the place at all," said Nya. "I'm looking forward to this."
"Good thing you learned Airjitzu!" said Kai. "You're gonna need it."
"Whatcha looking at, Zane?" said Lloyd, looking to the Nindroid.
"The countryside," said Zane, peering over the ship's railing. "Clearly it was not spared."
The others joined him looking down. Far below, the landscape was indeed in chaos. Train tracks had been rearranged to form rollercoaster loops. Sections of fields were just rippling gently like the surface of a pond. Random geysers of water were spurting from the ground.
"Look out!" cried Zane suddenly, as a particularly motivated geyser shot towards them. Everyone dove to the deck as the jet of water struck the ship's hull, sending it pitching.
"Ugh," groaned Nya once the turbulence was over. "I hope we make it to the Wailing Alps in one piece."
Some Wallobers flew by, graceful on their pure-white wings.
"I think I'm going back inside," said Kai.
They couldn't arrive soon enough.
"ETA in three minutes," called Misako through the intercom. The ninja assembled hastily.
"Is there possibly some way to get up the mountain without actually climbing it this time?" said Jay. "Last time was the worst. And we don't have our mechs anymore!"
"Well, I think we might have an easier time now," said Nya, peering out the Bounty's front window. The others looked and exclaimed in surprise. The steep snow-covered sides of the Wailing Alps were now cascading with bright, shifting colors, like the lights on a carnival ride. The trees around the base were oddly blocky, almost like they were . . . pixelated . . . and there were large flat slabs of earth floating up and down the mountainside, like a cable-free ski lift.
"Who turned the Wailing Alps into a video game?" said Jay.
"We'll know soon enough." Nya bundled on a parka and headed outside. The other ninja followed her. As the Bounty drifted past the train of cycling platforms, the ninja all jumped over the railing and landed on a platform going up.
"Take care!" called Misako, waving. "I'll keep the ship hovering here and stay in contact with Wu."
"Good luck Mom!" called Lloyd, waving back. Then he settled down next to the others. "Well, this is definitely a lot easier than last time."
"Yep. Looks like this thing runs all the way to the top!" said Jay, settling back happily. "Now this is travel!"
The relaxing trip was somewhat marred by the arrival of savage turtles and bug-shaped robots, who jumped up onto the platform and tried to attack the ninja. It turned out you could defeat them by just jumping on top of them, though, so it wasn't a major hassle. Jay hadn't been this happy in untold ages.
"Be careful," said Zane anxiously. "We do not know what will happen if you are struck."
"Struck by what?" said Jay, booting a turtle off the edge of the platform. "These kids couldn't hit a—"
A large crab-shaped robot bonked him with one claw. It wasn't a particularly damaging hit, but without warning Jay went up in a jingling explosion of giant golden rings. It gave them all the worst of heart attacks.
"Are you okay?!" asked Nya. Jay was sprawled back on his hands, looking rattled. One of the golden rings bounced into him and vanished with a cloud of sparkles and a "ka-ching!"
"I think I'm done," said Jay thinly.
They finally reached the top of the Wailing Alps, without once encountering any problems with wind squalls. They jumped off onto the peak, which was now made of multicolored flashing squares. Far above in the distance, the Blind Man's Eye whirled ominously.
"At least the storm hasn't been shut off or anything," said Kai.
As the portal to Cloud Kingdom drew closer, everyone geared up to Airjitzu into it.
"Heh, this looks so much easier now that we're good at Airjitzu," said Cole. Nya chuckled nervously; she was still a bit of an amateur.
"Want a hand?" said Kai. "No shame."
"I'll be fine." Nya tossed her head.
The storm finally drew overhead, and one by one the ninja launched into whirling Airjitzu funnels, boosting easily into the center of the storm. Jay gave Nya a questioning look, but she shook her head and made a shooing motion. Jay spread his hands and took off without her.
Nya summoned her funnel without issue, and she just about made it into the Blind Man's Eye too. Over the last few feet, though, the teal bubble surrounding her flickered, and she began to wobble slightly. She dug her teeth into her lip, glancing down to the blinking colored squares of the mountaintop below. They seemed awfully far away.
"Hey!"
A hand closed over her arm just before she could fall. She looked up to see Jay, who had slowed his own funnel to stay on her level. He pulled her briefly into his own blue Airjitzu sphere, checking if she was okay. Then he gave her a wink and tossed her up, boosting her Airjitzu so she could land safely—and without any evidence of outside help. He barely made the landing himself thanks to the delay; Nya, brushing herself off, gave him a grateful smile.
Soon they were all standing safely on the springy cloud-ground of Cloud Kingdom.
"We made it! Everyone okay?" called Lloyd.
Before anyone could answer, there was an earsplitting crash. Everyone's attention snapped to the glistening city not far away. Now that they took notice, there was a continuous dull roar coming from that direction.
"Well, at least we know we've come to the right place," said Cole. "Let's see if the monks are okay."
As they walked towards the city, they could see gray-robed figures running willy-nilly amongst the buildings, scurrying in and out and sometimes sailing right off the edge of a roof somewhere. There also seemed to be random scuffles taking place in the streets.
"What is going on?" said Nya.
This time when they approached the gates there was nobody to greet them. They were fine with that—they slipped in unnoticed and stood unobtrusively by a building, watching the chaos.
"I don't see anyone except monks," said Zane. "They are not fighting an external invader. They are fighting amongst themselves."
"But why would they do that?"
They headed for the Hall of Scribes, Airjitzuing from island to floating island as needed. Luckily flying-boat traffic seemed to have ground to a halt, which made sneaking around easier.
When they got to the kingdom's grand main hall, they were greeted by the final boss of Perfect Chaos. All the building's doors were wide open, and clattering and hollering rang from within. Chairs and writing desks were overturned. Ink was splashed all over the floor. Quill pens were strewn every which way. Scrolls and parchments, in various states of unrolled-ness, were festooned over everything or piled in careless heaps. Monks were dashing around through this mess, pulling more scrolls out of cubbies in the walls, slapping them down on the nearest semi-flat surface, writing with great flourishes of quill pens. There was much shouting and cackling.
"What are they doing?" whispered Nya, bewildered.
Just then a monk caught sight of the little group peeking through the doorway.
"NINJA!" he bellowed. "They've come to interfere! GET THEM!"
"Uh-oh." The ninja backed away as a horde of angry-looking monks all turned towards them and started to advance.
"We should go," said Jay.
And go they did. It took a lot of running, and some skillful use of Airjitzu, but they finally lost their pursuers. They slid to a halt in a quiet side street somewhere, panting.
"What in all the realms was that?" gasped Cole, leaning his hands on his knees. "'Interfere'? Why would the monks think we're interfering?"
"They didn't seem worried or stressed," said Nya, scratching her head. "Just . . . chaotic."
"But it's definitely them messing up Ninjago," said Lloyd. "With the mess they had in there, and all the crazy writing they were doing, it's amazing Ninjago isn't rubble yet!"
"Don't jinx it," groaned Kai.
Suddenly Zane's head pricked up at the sound of a soft whisper.
"Psssst!"
"Did you hear that?" Zane looked around.
"Pssst! Over here!" The whisper came again. One quick search later, the ninja found the source.
"Hey!" said Kai. "You're the little monk who helped us the last time we were here!"
"Yes, it's me," said the little monk. He looked worn-out and frightened. "Quickly, come behind this wall! I can't let them see me."
"What's going on? Are they looking for you, uh . . . "
"Nobu," said the monk, as the ninja hopped behind the wall to hide with him. "And yes, they are."
"Why? Is everything okay?"
"Oh, it's all my fault," groaned Nobu, slumping back against the wall. "All of this!"
The ninja looked at one another, remembering the chaos back in the Hall of Scribes. It sure didn't look like one little monk could cause all of that.
"You remember, when you were chasing Morro the last time you were here?" said Nobu. "You remember how Nimbus stopped Fenwick from following you?"
"Yeah . . . "
"That was because of me. I changed Fenwick's destiny scroll. I only wrote for Nimbus to chase him, but . . . he never came back."
"You killed Fenwick?!"
"I-I think so." Nobu cringed. "At least, everyone thought so. A-and because I had killed the Master Writer, that made me the new Master Writer."
"This place sure has some sophisticated governance," said Nya acidically.
"And I'm a terrible Master Writer!" wailed Nobu. "I can't make anyone listen to me. The scribes have been getting restless for months now. For April Fool's Day they wanted to bring chaos to Ninjago, and when I said they shouldn't, they overthrew me. There's no stopping them!"
"There'd better be stopping them," said Cole. "Because I don't feel like living the rest of my life in a Ninjago full of killer cakes."
Nobu shook his head despairingly, digging his hands into his hair.
"You see," said Jay. "This is what happens when a place doesn't have video games. Slow descent into madness."
"Zip it, Jay."
"We need to think of something," said Lloyd. "Do you think any of the scribes might be on your side? Could we talk some sense into them? Is there some way we can undo what they've done to Ninjago?"
Nobu had been shaking his head to each one of these questions. On the last one he shrugged.
"I could write a reversal clause, but the other monks would immediately start writing up chaos again. They're enjoying this too much to be stopped."
Cole muttered some dangerous things between his teeth.
"Here's a question, though," said Nya. "How do you guys even make things happen in Ninjago at all? You just write stuff down on a scroll, and it comes true? How?"
"The ink is magic," said Nobu.
"Of course," sighed Nya.
"So are the pens and parchment," Nobu continued. "But the ink is the most important . . . part . . . " His eyes widened. "Ohh. Maybe there is something we can do!"
"What, what?" The ninja looked at him eagerly.
"Well, we do need a constant supply of ink," said Nobu. "Our magic ink is specially produced using an ancient ink machine. It's the only one of its kind, and the technology is so old it's been lost to the ages. So . . . hypothetically . . . if we were to break the ink machine . . . "
"Then there'd be no more ink, and the scribes couldn't write any more destinies?"
"Right." Nobu rubbed his head. "But it would be nearly impossible. To break the ink machine we would have to go into the Hall of Scribes, and there's no way any of us could get in there unnoticed."
"Huh." Cole looked back in the general direction of the great hall, remembering the seething masses of scribes. "Well . . . what do we do now?"
"We could give up," said Jay, plunking down next to the wall.
"Oh, stop it. There must be something we can do."
"Like give up."
"If you're not going to help Jay, can you at least quit being a downer and let us think?"
"No, I've done my thinking," said Jay. "You guys do what you want. I'm giving up."
