Zane outwardly kept his composure, but he cursed under his breath when he sprinted up the stairs of Borg Tower. He had not bothered to wait for the elevator and just assumed that the other ninja would somehow catch up with him on the rooftop. They had to get into the helicopter, and fast.
He perfectly understood now why Pixal and Nya had been so confident setting out on their own. Only a nindroid and a water ninja would be able to locate and retrieve the white cue ball. They had not wanted to attract attention. There had been no need to involve the boys. They had been convinced to do the right thing.
Except that they were missing a crucial piece of information: the white ball contained something far more dangerous than another memory card.
This lack of knowledge could be Pixal's doom.
"Where ... are ... we going?" he heard Lloyd panting a dozen steps behind him.
"Trust Zane," Jay gasped out, taking two steps at a time. "We'll ... explain later. Just ... hurry up!"
Further down, Kai and Cole scrambled up the stairs as fast as they could. By the time they had reached the rooftop, Zane was ready to start the helicopter.
"Hop in!" Jay called out, extending a hand, and he and Lloyd helped the other two into the cabin. They fell into their seats and fastened the belts while the rotors started moving, and the helicopter took off.
"To the Plaza?" Lloyd asked when he realized where they were heading.
"Yes," Jay agreed, still out of breath.
"But why?" Cole frowned. "Pixal and Zane scanned every single white ball there, and none of them was in any way suspicious."
"Not every single white ball." Jay shook his head. "In fact, there are at least a dozen more of that size at the Plaza. You wouldn't know, because you haven't been there, but the swimming pool at the spa is literally full of them. Fake pearls of all sizes, in glass cases on the walls, under water, on that sculpture in the middle of the pool ... We were so stupid not to think of it right away! You can't just take them out to check them, because you'd destroy the whole underwater display, but Nya is capable of moving the water wherever she wants, allowing Pixal to examine the pearls."
"But I still can't see how a billiard ball could possibly have got into the pool ..." Kai began, looking confused. "It can't have enclosed itself in a case under water."
Lloyd slapped his forehead. "Why, yes! Scootie! During the redecoration!"
Now it dawned on Cole and Kai as well.
"That cheeky little cleaning robot! He must have slipped into the game room and snatched up the ball Gayle put on the floor," Cole inferred.
"And then, he wheeled through the open door to the spa area and dropped it among the other balls. They were all laying around the empty pool, because there was no water in it last night. The workers were still there," Kai chimed in. "It all makes sense now."
Jay nodded. "Exactly. Nya and Pixal must have arrived at the same conclusion. After they'd tricked the Dartfrogs into confirming that they were still on the hunt for the white ball, I bet the girls headed straight for the Plaza."
"Which is right below us," Zane pointed out from the pilot's seat. "I'm descending now."
They waited impatiently until the rotors stopped and it was safe to get off.
"Listen, guys," Lloyd advised, "we don't want to create a commotion. We just act naturally and ..."
"Are you trying to be funny, Lloyd?" Cole interrupted and pointed at the little crowd gathering around them. "Landing the Borg helicopter right in front of Ninjago City's largest hotel isn't exactly the way to go incognito."
"Oh, ok." Lloyd looked momentarily taken aback.
"No problem, let me handle that." Jay cheerfully waved at the bystanders. "Hi there, no need to become all excited. Just forgot my toothbrush here last night, haha. We'll be off again in a minute."
Kai rolled his eyes. "Yeah, as if they'd buy that." He turned to the nearest group of porters and addressed them with a conspiratorial smile. "Don't let anyone else know, we're here for a little commercial. The ninja on a secret mission at the Plaza – but it won't look so secret in the video if you're all staring at us, so please just act as if you hadn't seen us at all."
"You're coming, or what," Cole called over his shoulder. They quickly followed Zane who already awaited them inside. He had resisted the urge to run straight to the spa area, but he could not hide the worry on his face.
Lloyd put a hand on his arm. "Nya and Pix knew what they were doing, and there's no reason to believe they're in trouble. It doesn't need more than a couple of us to tell them they have to handle that ball very carefully and Pix must stay away from it. Jay, you know your way around the spa, right? Cole do you want to go with him?" He gave Zane an apologetic smile. "Sorry, I think it would draw too much attention if a droid was heading straight for the swimming pool ..."
Zane gave a faint smile. "Yes, it probably would."
While Jay and Cole swiftly made their way to the stairs, he, Kai and Lloyd found a lounge in a somewhat secluded corner that allowed them a good view of the entire reception area of the Plaza. Lloyd was right, there was no reason to be anxious, but Zane found it hard to wait. A flicker of doubt arose in his mind. What if his conclusion had been wrong, and Pixal and Nya had not come here after all? What if they were wasting their time and the girls really needed them elsewhere?
Just when he started to wonder how long it would take Jay and Cole to find them, they heard a loud crash, glass shattering, and Nya yelling angrily. At the sound of his sister's voice, Kai jumped up and ran off before the other two had even gotten to their feet. Zane was about to follow him when a hand firmly pressed him back into his seat.
"Not you, Zane." Lloyd's expression was serious. "If anything went wrong in there, you're one of the only two people who are in real danger."
Zane opened his mouth to protest, but had to acknowledge that his friend was right. He slumped back, and Lloyd briefly squeezed his arm. "Trust us." Then he darted off after Kai.
The following minutes seemed to drag on forever; it felt like the longest time Zane had ever been forced to remain idle. Hotel staff ran around, someone called for the police, and in the background, he could hear his friends shouting among the noises of what seemed to be a violent fight. Zane had begun to pace around the club table, his eyes fixed on the hallway where his friends had disappeared. When their figures eventually came in sight again at the top of the stairs, he froze in his step and took a sharp breath: Cole, treading carefully and swaying slightly under the additional weight, slowly descended the steps with an unconscious girl in his arms. She was dressed in a white bathrobe, and long, silver hair fell over Cole's arm.
Pixal.
Cole was followed by Jay, whose agitated face clearly revealed that something had gone wrong.
Very wrong.
Zane watched in horror as Cole gently laid the droid girl down on the sofa.
Jay took his arm. "Zane, I'm so sorry."
"What ... is she ..." His voice faltered.
Jay avoided his gaze. "I shocked her. I forced her into shutdown. It was ..."
"It was the only way to prevent more harm to her system," Cole interjected quietly.
"Oh, Zane, I had no idea ..." Nya joined them, on the brink of tears, and Zane noticed that she was wearing a swimsuit and bathrobe like Pixal. They had made every attempt at avoiding attention when they searched the spa, but had apparently failed.
"A woman ... She must have followed us! Pix and I were so sure that we had lost the Dartfrogs who were on our trail, but this one must have entered the spa shortly after us, and she must have watched how I parted the water so that Pix could scan those fake pearls and retrieve the one that was filled with ... whatever that stuff is. I had no idea it was so dangerous for her."
Zane sat down next to the shut down droid girl and stroked her hair. The world around him became blurred – the many, many people bustling around, Kai and Lloyd holding firmly onto a struggling woman who spat insults at them, police officers arriving and marching her away in handcuffs. They didn't matter right now. He automatically took Pixal's hand, as if to feel her pulse, a useless, human gesture; he knew she could not feel it, and he knew he would detect no pulse. They would have to take her home and reboot her very carefully to check how much damage had been done to her system. Pixal must have been in contact with the Purple Goo.
"Zane?" Jay's soft voice made him look up. "I'm really, really sorry. We arrived just in time to watch through the large window how that woman surprised Pixal, kicked her from behind and snatched the ball away from her when she stumbled. Nya quickly summoned a massive orb of water to stop her; the woman slipped, and fell, and Nya wrestled her down. It seemed all to go well. But suddenly … one of them dropped the ball. Pixal immediately went to catch it, but it hit a sharp edge, and scattered, and … the goo spilled onto her fingers." Jay took a sharp breath. "She looked at it in surprise, and at that moment, one of the two fighting behind her bumped into her. She tried to support herself, but slipped on the wet floor and went down, and suddenly the goo was all over her face and hands. Cole smashed the window to give us access to the pool area, and I ... I really didn't know what to do. I only knew that Pixal would sustain less damage from that stuff if her system wasn't running, so I shocked her. She shut down. I ... I may have injured her badly. I'm so sorry." Jay buried his face in his hands.
Zane looked down at Pixal again. Following his glance, Jay hastened to add: "I did everything I could to clean her skin and remove every trace of goo I could find. It is safe for you to touch her now."
Zane let out the breath he had held and nodded. He had not even thought of the danger for himself. "You did the right thing, Jay. You're not the Master of Lightning for nothing. Thanks for reacting so quickly." He let go of Pixal's hand.
"You probably saved her. Droids like us survive a forced shutdown. How many times did you have to reboot me?" Zane managed a weary smile. He meant it, he was indefinitely grateful for Jay's intervention.
"What happened before the shutdown worries me more," he added quietly.
Jay's face clearly showed that he was equally concerned. There was no way of knowing how fast Purple Goo acted on a droid and how much harm it had caused by the time he had been able to clean Pixal's face and hands.
Only a thorough system check and reboot would tell whether she would have to suffer irreversible consequences. Going by Cyrus Borg's explanations, any possible effects of the Purple Goo would be most likely to become manifest in her memory store.
Zane clearly recalled the last words he had spoken to Pixal the night before. He hung his head in shame. What if the only thing she remembered about him was his statement that he never wanted to be her partner again?