Having hidden the new vehicles, the ninja managed to find a place to lay low, somewhere that no one would look. Garmadon's new place.
"What are you guys doing here?" Misako asks, coming across them.
"The Overlord's back." Lloyd explains, hugging his mum. "New Ninjago City is under his control. He has Sensei Wu."
"Wu's tough. There's a reason he has lived so long." Misako assures.
"Where's dad?" Lloyd asks.
"That's a good question. Where is Garmadon?" Cole agrees.
"Here, he goes by Sensei Garmadon. And he won't be back until this evening's lesson." Misako explains.
"Sensei Garmadon?" Jay questions.
"The past is the past, as much as it may bring us pain. Garmadon is on our side now, and with Wu captured, his help would be extremely useful." Kai admits.
"Come on. I'll take you inside, but your weapons are not allowed." Misako warns."Ever since Lloyd saved his father, Garmadon has sworn an oath never to fight, in hope to make up for his evil past."
"We're meant to watch over these with our lives. Never let them out of our sight." Kai states with a sigh. "You guys go on ahead. I'll take care of them. Skylor, can you be my eyes and ears in there?"
"Sure thing." Skylor answers, squeezing Kai's arm gently, before heading in with the others as they leave their weapons with him.
As night falls, Kai continues to watch over the weapons, while the earpiece continued to relay the conversations from inside, that Skylor could hear. As Kai thinks about Skylor, he remembers how things have changed. How they met at her bar with Kai suffering from his visions and needing a way to block them out.
Skylor was open late for the night, having had to deal with unruly customers. As she was cleaning up, Kai entered, and for some reason, they felt a connection. Nothing emotional, at least not to begin with, but something that tied them together.
After a few more repeats, and Skylor staying out late on the nights that she just 'felt' Kai would arrive, and she began to ask about his visions, and about why she just 'knew' when he would be coming. Kai couldn't give a proper answer, but he admitted that he had theories, and explained them, about his Element, and his curse, about how he felt his energy flow into Skylor when she used her Amber to absorb his element.
"Tonight's lesson, is the art of the Silent Fist." Garmadon's slightly muffled voice explains through the earpiece. "To fight without fighting." Lloyd volunteers to be a demonstration, and from the sounds of things, Garmadon shows his mettle of skill in turning one against themselves. "The key is balance. Let your opponent fight himself." The fight continues audibly. "Let enemy tire himself." Kai notices as one of the blades vanishes in front of him, and closes his eyes, feeling for the energy of the land. Looking for the disturbance. There. As the assailant attempts to grab the rest of the blades, Kai stops them in their tracks, the Null element holding them in place.
"Hello, Pixal." Kai greets calmly, before letting her go, allowing her to try to fight him. He does what Garmadon did, letting Pixal attack, and use her momentum, her movements, against her, letting her slam into trees, denting her metallic body over time. As she becomes more and more damaged, Kai intervenes, once again holding her still as she screams. Keeping her in a hold, he collects the blades, and takes them to the monastery, where the other ninja were beginning to leave to check on him.
"Pixal? What are you doing here?" Zane questions. Kai simply gives him his blade.
"Following her programming." Kai answers, continuing to hold her in place. "I figured you would like to do the honors." Zane nods, activating his blade.
"No! I-" Garmadon tries to intervene, but Jay stops him.
"Don't worry, it's not a weapon. It just hacks things." Jay assures, as Zane converts Pixal, her eyes turning green as they were when everyone first met her.
"Where am I? Why am I unable to move?" She questions. Zane nods to Kai, and he releases her.
"You were under the control of the Overlord. How did you find us?" Zane asks.
"They've mined Sensei Wu's memory. The Overlord knows all of your hiding places." Pixal explains.
"My brother? Is he okay?" Garmadon asks.
"For now, yes. But the Overlord wants your son. His Golden Power is the only way he can escape the digital realm and become real." She answers.
"Why did Cyrus give us these Techno-Blades to protect? What is so important about them?" Kai asks curiously.
"Because together, they can reboot the system, wipe the master computer clean, and destroy the Overlord Virus. For good." She answers, before gasping.
"You didn't come alone." Kai determines, the energy disruptions in the area increasing.
"Who else is with you?" Jay asks.
"Nindroids." With that, several black figures de-cloak, surrounding the ninja. "5 vs. 18. Probability of survival too low to quantify." As we fight for our lives, only Jay is swiftly outpaced, and knocked out Cole is able to hold his own due to his enhanced strength, and Kai is able to use the Null against these enemies, giving him a greater advantage. But Zane is quickly swarmed, and the Nindroids begin to pull him apart, before Lloyd manages to get him out.
As even more Nindroids swarm the monastery, the ninja maker their escape Pirates of the Caribbean style, taking the water wheel of it's axle, and using it to mow through the Nindroids, allowing them to reach their vehicles and set them to autopilot and escape, drawing the Nindroids to them, while the ninja were instead, hiding in the water wheel, until the coast is clear.
"It won't be long before they figure out we used autopilot. We need to move." Cole warns.
"I'm coming with you." Garmadon declares. "If the Overlord wants my son, I'm not letting him out of my sight."
"I'll watch over the monastery." Misako assures, heading away.
"I'll hang around." Skylor adds. "I think an extra hand will help you guys a lot."
"Wait, if the Overlord wants me, and the Techno-Blades as well, wouldn't it be best that we split up? Just in case, so that if he gets one, he doesn't get the other?" Lloyd asks, and Kai receives a flashback of his nightmares, of them not splitting up, of everyone getting captured, of the Overlord returning and controlling all of Ninjago while the ninja are chained in vengestone to watch everything unfold, as Lloyd is drained of his power, to the point he is killed.
"As much as I would normally be against this." Kai sighs, his body shaking. "It's the best thing to do. If the Overlord finds all of us, there will be nothing we can do to stop him." Skylor notices his shaking, and put a comforting hand on his shoulder.
"I have a Samurai-X base that Sensei Wu never knew about. Zane's falcon knows it, however, so you can go there and get whatever you need to get as far away from us as possible." Nya agrees.
"Secret cave? I thought we knew everything about each other." Jay moans.
"Girl's gotta have her secrets." Nya shrugs.
"Nya can keep secrets better than anyone I know, its better that she has enough for situations like this." Kai assures.
"But what are you guys gonna do? Those Nindroids aren't gonna let you step one foot into the city." Lloyd notes.
"We're gonna shit down the power." Nya answers with a grin.
Finding a travelling Circus was a godsend. With actual magic being involved, the magicians could easily hide the Ninja from the Nindroid checkpoints. After the fifth one is passed, the magicians open the box, allowing the ninja to jump out.
"We can get you just outside of the Storm Farms, but you'll have to get to the power substation on your own." The magician explains.
"Thank you, for helping us." Kai bows.
"The people need to learn to support one another in times like these. We all play our part." The magician explains, grasping Kai's hand in a shake. "Good luck." With that, he lets go, and Kai finds a tarot card in his sleeve, which he leaves there until he can look at it properly, after the power is shut down, preferably.
"So Nya, shutting down this power substation. Can we really destroy the Overlord and his Nindroids by simply flipping a switch?" Cole asks.
"Cripple them, yes. Destroy? No. Once we've powered down his army, we still need to reboot the central computer with the Techno-Blades. And don't forget, that since he knows we have them, we're not gonna be able to just waltz in." Nya explains.
"Woah, wait a minute. If shutting down the power turns off everything connected to it, wouldn't that mean Pixal too?" Jay questions.
"Zane will figure out a way. He already knows." Kai admits.
"Actually, where is Zane?" Cole asks.
"Getting repaired." Kai answers.
"We need to be careful. They farm the electricity from the eternal storms here. A single strike will end us." Zane warns, as lightning continues to strike the metal relays. The main relay, however, was heavily guarded, and the ninja could see that they were in for a fight.
"We'll need to stay out of sight. We can't fight all those things off." Nya adds.
"Hopefully the storms can scramble their sensors enough that these suits can work their best." Kai notes, gesturing for the others to follow him. As they climb the supports, they overhear the Nindroids being briefed and told to stay alert. As they enter the main control room, with access to the core, things begin to go downhill. Cole and Jay aren't that quiet, and it manages to alert the Nindroids. Alarms blare as Pixal's arrival sets off the proximity traps. Zane immediately goes out to help her, letting in the midget Nindroid.
"Oh, great. Now they come in fun size." Jay complains, dodging a strike from said Nindroid. As the ninja continue to take the attention off of Nya, the Nindroid fires a blast of plasma, as the ninja are backed against the core. As they dodge, the blast manages to crack the cover, which their weapons could not.
"Fight without fighting." Kai notes with a smile.
"This is no time for a lesson, Kai." Jay argues.
"Hey, half pint, over here." Kai goads, the Nindroid taking the bait and firing again, as Kai dodges, another crack marring the cover of the core. "We need to provoke him more."
"Or, more Nindroids." Cole corrects. "Nya, open the door!"
"I see where you're headed." Nya affirms, opening the door for several Nindroids to barge through, each firing at the ninja, who continue to dodge, allowing the bolts of plasma to hit the cover again and again, until the smaller Nindroid goes to kick Jay, who manages to dodge, sending said Nindroid through the cover, into the core, and causing it to send out an electromagnetic pulse that disabled most electronics, barring Zane, who had a different and abnormal power source. As the Ninja find Zane next to a powered down Pixal, Skylor places a hand on Kai, who begins to shake again.
"This is far from over." He admits, gazing towards Ninjago City. "We need to finish this before things can get worse."
A/N - Alright. Not too sure if I'll have Authors notes for the rest of this arc, as the time I am writing these notes, I had completed the whole arc a week ago. No, the day I upload this won't be the day I finished them one week later, but it would be that way from the last chapter I uploaded. Anyway, take care and stay safe.