"Guys! There's something seriously wrong with the sky!" I hear Jay screaming. We all rush over to the window. There's a big black cloud over the city.
"I don't think that's the Overlord," Kai tells Jay without looking up from his phone, where he's updating his social media account.
"How is it not?" Jay yells. "That looks like the Garmatron just shot a cannonball over the city!"
"Someone turn on the TV," Nya says.
Cole and Jay both make a mad dash toward the remote, but Zane reaches it before them and turns on the TV. Sure enough, there's a frightened news reporter standing in the TV news building.
"Scientists are yet to pinpoint the cause of this giant cloud of darkness, but citizens are advised to take shelter . . ." That's when a giant rock drops from the sky. It hits the building next to it and the window next to the reporter shatters. She screams and the screen lets out a burst a static.
Some sort of portal opens above Ninjago city and a giant ship comes out.
"Now what the heck is that?!" Jay screams. "It's a UFO!" He grabs Kai's phone and snaps a picture.
Actually, ship might be an understatement. It's completely metal and it's dark hull doesn't reflect anything. "I don't think the Bounty would stand a chance against that," Cole says.
"It looks like it just came through a portal." Kai remarks. "You think it could be from another realm or something?"
"I don't know." Cole answers. "But the realm crystal was destroyed aboard the Misfortune's Keep, which is the only way to travel between realms. This is something else."
"Hey, that never happened," Jay says. "Remember? So the realm crystal isn't destroyed. It's supposed to be protected in the chamber by Borg's security nindroids!"
"Well how are we going to get rid of that thing without the Bounty? It's wooden hull wouldn't stand several hits from their cannons!" Cole points at the imposing cannons jutting out from both sides of the ship.
"We must protect the people," my father says just as one of the cannons fires. It destroys an entire block. "But we must stay out of sight."
"Let's go," says Kai, putting on his ninja mask.
"Woohoo!" Screams Jay as he jumps out the window and summons his dragon.
"Not so loud!" Wu tells him, though I don't think Jay cares. "And stay low!"
We approach the city on our dragons, then take cover behind some trash cans.
"This smells horrible," Jay complains.
"Pixal, I need a danger analysis," Zane tells her. Pixal scans the area with her computer vision.
"There are groups of them around the city," She says.
"Groups of what?!" Jay asks.
"We should stay together," my father says.
The deeper into the city we go, the more chaotic it gets. The warship is right above the news building.
"There's so many of them!" Jay complains.
"Keep fighting!" Kai yells.
I backflip over one of their soldiers and kick him into a wall. There's a whole bunch charging so I create an energy shield and blast them all away.
"Ninjaaaa-gooo!" Jay screams. We all do spinjitzu to clear a path toward the building.
"Why are there so many of them near the TV building?" Jay asks.
"There's more on the roof!" Zane points at more of their warriors before I can think of an answer.
But it's a bit too late. They half jump and half fly down to us. These are much more powerful, and it's easier to tell. The armor is much more sophisticated, and they're much taller.
One of them lands on my chest and pins me to the ground. I gasp in pain and summon an energy ball to blast him away but he merely stumbles backward a few steps.
The other ninja are struggling to fend off the rest of them. Kai stabs one in the neck and black blood spurts out onto the ground. Jay accidentally steps on the puddle.
"Yuck!" He glares softly at Kai. "You could've warned me!"
I duck under his giant blade that's glowing with black fire and jump, then unsheathe my sword in midair and jam it into his shoulder. He roars and goes down. I jump down to avoid being crushed.
"Why are they even attacking for no reason?!" Jay screams.
"I don't know!" I yell at him as I hear a dagger whiz past my face.
I create another energy shield to shield me and Cole from being crushed with one of the flaming swords, but when it hits my shield, I feel the the fire is so strong that I struggle to maintain it. My shield disappears and me and Cole roll in opposite directions, but I'm not nearly fast enough and the tip of the blade slices a deep gash in my side. I scream and crash into the wall.
"Lloyd!" I hear my father yell. A blast of purple light makes the warrior stumble away as he rushes over.
"Look out!" I point behind him. A warrior is bearing down on him. He ducks as another grabs me by the neck.
"Nooooo! Lloyd!" He screams.
I pry at his fingers but they won't budge. I summon a weak ball of energy and blast it at him, but his armor deflects it and sends it right back at me. An intense pain shoots through my chest as the energy beam reflects.
"You need to concentrate!" I hear Wu yell.
I start generating another energy ball but lose my focus. He squeezes tighter and black spots cloud the edges of my vision. I can't breathe, let alone focus.
"Let him go!" Zane yells as he freezes his feet to the ground. The warrior growls and tries to move his feet to no avail. Cole then blasts the ice away and it loses its balance and tosses me into the wall. I drop to the ground, gasping for breath.
"Lloyd!" Garmadon runs over and embraces me.
"We need to get out of here!" Nya yells as she blasts a warrior with a ball of water.
"Go where?" One of them asks in a guttural tone that I can barely understand. The cannons of the warship swivel around and are pointing right at us. "We already have half the realms on our side!"
Half the realms? I think. For what cause?
"Ice!" Zane yells as he freezes the cannons.
"That won't stop the cannons for long!" Cole warns. He summons his dragon and jumps on.
"Garmadon, look out!" Pixal yells.
We look up just as the hilt of one of the swords slams into my jaw and I collapse against Garmadon, then black out.
I wake up and take a rasping breath. I'm on my bed in Garmadon's monastery. Every breath feels like rolling around on broken glass.
"You're awake," He breathes a sigh of relief. He gestures toward a cup of tea.
I prop myself onto my elbow and take a sip. My jaw hurts from where I was knocked out.
"Do you think you can heal yourself?" He asks.
"I don't know," I answer. I still feel a bit lightheaded, and aside from that I feel that I have a broken rib.
Garmadon closes the door. "It's worth a try. The others are still very worried."
I realize that there isn't any noise coming from outside. Jay isn't screaming or playing video games, and Cole isn't listening to music either.
I brace myself and press one hand to my side. A bright glow emanates from my hand and I scream in agony as the cut starts closing up. That's the thing I don't like about my healing, it takes double the pain that the injury was caused. The cut closes up and I release my hand, breathing hard.
Next, I press my hand against my jaw, where I was struck with the sword and concentrate. The pain is so intense and I fight the urge to take off my hand but I don't.
I relax when the pain goes away. "I'm fine," I tell Garmadon as I take another sip of one of Wu's healing teas.
"Now, let's go. We have a lot to discuss." I follow my father into the main room where the others are waiting.
"Who were those people?!" Jay bursts out. "Are they from another realm? What do they want? Why would they randomly attack the city? Why were they going for us?"
"Slow down," Wu says, calm as usual.
"There is a lot we do not know," says Misako. "But it is certain that they are from another realm. I think it's the realm of darkness, but I'm not sure. But not only do we need the realm crystal to cross over, but we also must sail through the River of Night."
"Wait a minute," I say. "One of them said that they already had half the realms on their side . . ."
A grin splits across Jay's face.
"So we should get the other half," Nya finishes. "We need to rest up. We have a journey to make."
"But what about the Bounty? Don't we need to upgrade it or something?" Jay asks.
"We'll do that tomorrow," Nya agrees.