"You're late."

Lloyd resisted the urge to roll his eyes. "I had to take a shower."

He readjusted the straps on his backpack and scratched at his shoulder. The nurses had replaced the heavy plaster bandages with a lighter elastic sock thingy that morning, which itched like hell.

"Beats standing out here for hours." Kai grimaced.

"Fifteen minutes," Zane amended quickly, shooting a reassuring look at the youngest one. "Do not mind him. Sleep deprivation leads to difficulties performing higher cognitive functions like estimating time passage."

"What?" Kai said.

"Not getting enough sleep makes you dumb," Lloyd translated.

"Oh." He yawned.

"I did not say that-" Zane's protest was cut off by a red SUV pulling up beside the group. The driver opened the door and walked up to them. He had on a green and yellow shirt and his long hair was twisted into dreadlocks.

"Gadoan, right?" He stuck his hand out. Garmadon shook it. "Nice to meet you. I'll be your Uber."

"What's an uber? I ordered a taxi."

This time Lloyd really did roll his eyes. "An Uber is a taxi, dad."

The inside of the car had two bench seats, so Cole, Kai, and Lloyd crawled into the back while Jay, Zane, and Nya took the middle. Garmadon took the passenger seat, much to his chagrin.

"You guys want some music?" He passed back a phone that was open on Spotify. Jay took it and scrolled through the playlist options before hitting Indie Pop - not a crowd pleaser, but safe enough. Upbeat acoustic guitar sounds filled the vehicle.

The taxi driver - Uber driver, whatever, like Garmadon cared - chatted over the music as he drove down the I-70.

"Nice weather we're having, isn't it?" He said, pointing up at the clear sky. "Would've been a drag to drive all this way in the rain."

"Mhmm."

A few minutes of silence passed. Then,

"You're from New York, right? So, are you more of a Yankees or Mets guy?"

He tried asking a few more questions, each one responded to with a noncommittal shrug or cryptic one-word answer. When it was clear the man next to him wasn't interested in carrying a conversation, he directed his attention to the back.

"You kids in school?"

"...um, yeah." Jay answered after awhile. Lloyd tuned them out as he looked out the window. Grass, grass, more grass...wait, there was a billboard! Thrilling.

"...you?"

"Huh?" Lloyd sat up a little bit.

"Do you have any pets?" the driver repeated.

"Just a fish."

"Only one?" There was a hint of amusement in his voice. "Doesn't it get lonely?"

"It ate the other fish."

"Oh." he paused. "That's...nice."

A flash in the side mirror made Garmadon look back. A black van was behind them, its front windows tinted opaque. Their own car was in the slow lane, but they weren't passing around them.

"What about a dog?"

"A dog would be cool," Jay said. "I don't think my parents would let me, though."

"I'm more of a cat person," Lloyd confessed. Thinking of cats made him think of Claudia, and he felt a twinge of guilt. Hopefully she had recovered from the sushi poisoning he gave her.

The van put on a burst of speed and swerved around in front of them. Two more appeared to the side and back.

"Uh," Cole looked out the window apprehensively. "I'm not the only one seeing this, right?"

"Oh, crap." Nya breathed. Lloyd slid lower in his seat until he was practically on the ground.

"Wow. That's strange." The driver said nervously. "But don't worry, I promised I'd get you to your destination safely-"

"Get out." Garmadon said lowly.

"What? We're in the middle of the highway, I can't just-"

"Get. Out."

The woman on the radio crooned about unrequited love, I know that she won't love you like I love you. The driver found himself staring down the wrong end of a pistol.

Like I love you like I love you. He slammed on the brakes and raised his hands. The car next to them, not expecting a stop, went on for a few more yards.

"NOW!"

"Okay, okay!" He unbuckled and yanked the door open, almost somersaulting onto the grassy median. The van behind them had stopped. One of the doors opened.

Garmadon crawled into the driver's seat and quickly shut the door.

"Hey!" The driver - former driver - recovered a little from the shock.

"Sorry!" Jay yelled out the window. "We'll give you a five-star review!"

"Buckle up, everyone." Without bothering to check that they were, Garmadon slammed on the gas. The SUV swerved around the vans and shot off at breakneck speed.

"My car…"

A sedan pulled up next to him. "Dude, what was that?"

"No idea." He patted his pockets, cursing when he realized his phone was in the vehicle. "You got a phone I can borrow?"

"Sure." She handed it to him.

"Hello, 911? I think I just got carjacked."

X

Everyone was holding onto something, be it an armrest or a person, and shrieking at every minor traffic infraction. Cutting off a semi-truck? Screaming. Crossing the double white lines? More screaming. Making a u-turn in the middle of the road? Even more screaming.

"Will you stop that racket!" He snapped. The vans had been lost a while back, but he was still cruising at a relaxing 130 kilos per hour. They quieted, now he could hear the radio again.

"And turn that radio off, for gods' sake!"

Jay swallowed and turned the knob. Music swelled until the volume was overpowering.

I'VE GOT FEELINGS, YOUR LONELY HEART COULD USE SOME HEAL-

"Oops, sorry, sorry, my bad!" He twisted it the other way until the sound was completely muted, leaving nothing but complete and total silence in the car.

"So," Lloyd said casually as they passed another sign for Pataskala. "You know you're going the wrong way, right?"

Garmadon shifted into the next lane, casting one more glance behind him. "Right now, the 'right way' is whatever direction that doesn't end in getting us both killed."

"Who were those guys anyway?" Kai asked.

"Bad news."

"Great answer," Lloyd muttered under his breath.

X

Ow ow ow ow ow. Koko hadn't had this much of a headache since the morning after her coworkers' bachelorette party. Was she drunk? No...but her memory was fuzzy...and she didn't know where she was. It was dark here. And cold. And hard. And did she mention her head hurt? Man, when she got her hands on the guy that-

Memories flooded into her and her eyes shot open, which fixed the darkness problem but did nothing to help the head problem. Koko sat up on her knees, fighting off any lingering pain as she took in her surroundings. She was in an abandoned warehouse of some sort, with concrete walls and floors and windows near the top that let in enough natural light to see by. Catwalks crisscrossed above. She herself was in a large cage, like one a cage a circus might use to hold a tiger. She wrapped her hand around one of the bars and concentrated. No use. Whatever metal was used to form it, it was non-ferrous, meaning her powers had no control over them.

Footsteps clanged above her. She looked up at the catwalk. One, no, two people came into view, a white man with a military cut and an Asian woman with her hair in a sidecut. They were wearing some sort of military uniforms, but they were mismatched; the woman had even tied the jacket around her waist. So they probably weren't working for a government.

They were signing to each other, but it was too far away to try and read it and Koko was too tired to try interpreting. Talking in another language wasn't uncommon for captors trying to withhold information from detainees, and although she prided herself on the linguistic knowledge that had helped her in the CIA (and later endeavors) she only knew American Sign Language.

"I'm not getting you a drink!" the woman signed.

"But it's so hot in here!" the man signed back. Huh. So they were talking in ASL. Koko shifted to get a better view, but the dust particles suddenly kicking up made her sneeze.

The woman saw her move. "Oh hey, you're awake!" She said out loud as she signed, moving to the bars and crouching down. "Are you okay? Do you need a drink?"

The man rolled his eyes.

"It's Misako, right? I'm Vi, this is Bob."

Bob waved.

"Let me out."

"Sorry, that's the one thing I can't do." She laughed. "How about that drink? There's a 7-Eleven a few miles away with killer slushies."

Bob tapped Vi on the shoulder. "Is he coming back soon?"

"Not that I know of," she replied. Koko looked between them in confusion. In times like these, it was best to feign ignorance.