Last time on Lloyd and Samurai X's journey, Lloyd took his last test, the Test of Will to get his power that was stripped from him back. He met Nadakhan and his crew and had to use all three wishes without wishing it all away. For his first wish, Lloyd wished for Nadakhan's sword but ended up getting a normal sword. For his second wish, Lloyd wished that he had the same advantage of four arms. Over time, his second wish was starting to make Lloyd evil, so he wished that Nadakhan's pain would go away, trapping him into the Sword of Souls.
Lloyd woke up soon after in his own bedroom at the Temple of Airjitzu, not remembering a thing that happened but more powerful than he's ever been before.
Chapter XXV: The Mask
It had been a day since Lloyd woke up, and he still couldn't understand what exactly happened to him. He felt stronger, braver, and Skylor kept mentioning how Lloyd seemed to be more focused.
"I guess I know what I have to do," Lloyd told her every time she said anything about it.
At the moment, Lloyd was on his way back to Borg Tower. They had just gotten more titanium so Lloyd was hoping to grab some.
"Why hello, hello, Lloyd!" Cyrus greeted when he saw Lloyd exit the elevator.
"Hello, Cyrus Borg. I was hoping you had some titanium I could use. You see, I'm trying to build a machine to bring Pixal back, or at least her mind," Lloyd explained.
Cyrus seemed overjoyed with the news. He hadn't seen Pixal since Zane's memorial years ago.
"Well, we just got another shipment of titanium, but it is in surprisingly high demand at the moment," Cyrus explained.
"Can you let go of any of it?" Lloyd asked.
"I do have a bit of it that I make sure to have in case of emergencys," Cyrus replied as he wheeled over to a nearby closet.
Cyrus opened the closet to reveal that stacks of metal was filling every corner of it.
"How much do you usually need for emergencys?" Lloyd asked.
"Whenever you ninja go on a new mission, I have to use as must extra metal as possible to make new vehicles, but seeing as this is Pixal we are talking about, I will gladly give you as much as you could possibly need."
"Thank you, Cyrus," Lloyd thanked before he grabbed one stack of metal.
"Oh, and do you have a neural transmitter?" Lloyd asked as he was about to walk out.
"Of course," Cyrus replied before he wheeled over to his desk and handed Lloyd a small item that looked a little like a USB cord. "And if you need a place to work, we have a free lab on the 41st floor."
"Thanks, that helps a lot," Lloyd thanked as he took the stuff and went to the lab.
Lloyd brought the blueprints to Borg Tower to make sure that he wasn't forgetting anything, so he already had everything he needed to make the con.
It took a few hours, but he managed to do it, and it was beautiful, at least in Lloyd's eyes. He never actually successfully made anything before. Of course, he never actually had blueprints of his own. Just Jay and Nya, and Nya sometimes stressed Lloyd out.
Lloyd used the Destiny's Shadow to get back home. Once Lloyd got there, he went to his room and took Pixal's neural net out of his drawer and connected it to a cord on the con he made. After a few minutes, a red button on the machine turned green. All Lloyd had to do now was connect the little machine he made into a computer to put Pixal's mind in there. That way, she could help the ninja team in so many ways.
As Lloyd was on his way downstairs, he heard the alarm go off.
Lloyd ran faster to his destination to see that the Sons of Garmadon were robbing the bank!
Lloyd quickly plugged the con into the main computer before he ran back outside to the Destiny's Shadow. He flew as fast as he could to get to the bank to see that the police were already there.
"Is everyone okay?" Lloyd asked once he got out of his vehicle.
"We're all fine, Lloyd. It turns out that we're too late," the Commissioner replied.
"What was stolen?"
"$1,000," Samurai X replied as he got out of his car.
"They couldn't have gotten far, though. Come on, X!" Lloyd called as he ran back over to the Destiny's Shadow, but Samurai X wasn't following.
"What's wrong?" Lloyd asked.
"You're going to chase them in that?" he asked.
"Yeah, why?"
"I was just speaking to Cyrus Borg, and he says that he has a new gift waiting for you."
"But, I was just there."
The Samurai just shrugged before he went back into his car and drove away.
As soon as Lloyd got back into his own vehicle, he heard a very familiar voice coming from his intercom.
"Do you require my assistance, Master Lloyd?" Pixal asked.
"Pix!" Lloyd exclaimed. "It worked!"
"I believe it did. What do you require of me?" Pixal asked.
"I wanna know what's with this new vehicle," Lloyd told her.
"I'm sending it to you now."
Lloyd could see on his GPS tracker, something moving fast towards him. He started flying in the direction the gang members went.
As he was flying, he noticed a bright green car driving below him. It didn't have a roof, but it was pretty big, and Lloyd could see a few golden weapons on the sides.
Lloyd pressed a button on the Destiny's Shadow to put it on auto-drive before he jumped out off of the Shadow and into his new car.
"Sweet, drive!" Lloyd exclaimed as he looked at all the new options.
"The Ninja Night Crawler. A highly advanced off-roader. It has three different ways to attack with infinite bullets and arrows," Pixal explained.
"How is that even possible?" Lloyd asked as he looked at his settings to make sure she wasn't lying.
"It makes the necessary materials inside. There are also no speed restrictions," Pixal informed the young ninja.
"No restrictions?" Lloyd seemed intriqued by this. "I think we'll catch 'em in no time."
Lloyd went as fast as he could, without hurting anyone, until he saw the bikers walking away.
"What are you hiding?" Lloyd asked quietly.
To avoid being spotted, Lloyd backed his car into an abandon alleyway before he started following them.
He followed three bikers down five blocks before they finally stopped. He hid behind a nearby corner of a building close to them to hear what they were saying.
"Ugh! I'm so tired of waiting," a man with a red mohawk complained.
"I know! Apparently, we have to wait for Mr. E. How could she choose him over us?" another man with a mohawk asked. He was a lot shorter than the first person, though.
"Will you boys calm down?" a girl with a long black ponytail asked. She had one pink streak through her hair, but all of them wore skull facepainting. Similar to the first group Lloyd ran into a few months ago. "All we have to do is wait here until Mr. E and the others get here. He has the disguises, anyway."
"What time should we be there again?" the taller man asked.
"20:00," the girl answered, she seemed a little distracted.
"Uh, what does that mean again?" the shorter guy asked.
"I don't know. I'll look it up," the taller guy answered as he out his phone.
"Don't use your phone!" the girl yelled as she hit the guy's hand, causing him to drop his phone. "If someone finds out about our heist, the Quiet One will kill us! If we have any hope of getting the oni mask, we cannot have anyone bothering us."
"Oni mask?" Lloyd whispered to himself.
Once he got back home, Lloyd immediately went on his computer to look it up. Apparently, there's only three in all of existence. The Mask of Vengeance at Borg Tower, the Mask of Deception at the Palace of Secrets, and the Mask of Hatred in an unknown area.
"Palace of Secrets?" Lloyd asked himself.
He had never heard of that place before, yet he found out that the royal family lived very close to the gardens, which he and his friends had been to very often.
Lloyd looked up a little more about it to find out that the Emperor and Empress adopted the princess when she was around age eleven. He looked at a few pictures of the princess and fell in love with everything she did. She had eyes colored like emeralds, and white hair. It looked almost like snow. She was wearing so much makeup in all of the photos, though. Like so much makeup that he couldn't even tell if the site was lying that it was makeup or a bunch of facepaint from some sort of festival.
Speaking of which, Skylor had just come over to tell Lloyd that she closed her restaurant for the night.
"Why did you that?" Lloyd asked her.
"Did you forget? It's New Years Eve. People get away with a lot of crimes on holidays, and I want to help you," Skylor replied.
"That's today? I need start looking at my calendar more," Lloyd said as he looked at his Green Ninja calendar above his bed.
Skylor started to laugh at Lloyd's confusion. "Is there anything?"
"Just one," Lloyd replied. "Ever heard of the royal family?"
Thank you so much for reading. Next chapter should be out next Saturday. Please review.