Nya was pacing worriedly around the bounty. It had been a while since the boys had left and Nya and Wu were getting worried and the pacing was slowly starting to annoy Calli as the younger girl did nothing to mask her growing feelings.

Eventually Nya stopped and turned to Wu and the reading girl. 'They should be back by now.' She worried.

Wu nodded, sharing the samurai's feelings on the matter. 'I fear something horrible has happened to them.' The man turned towards his nephew, who quickly tossed aside his comic for a lesson-book. If Wu noticed, he wasn't showing it. 'Lloyd, you and Calli will be in charge of the bounty while Nya and I have a look around town.'

'I'll call if they send a message.' The redhead promised as she tried not to squirm from the worries... sometimes being empathic had its downsides.

Wu nodded and as soon as he and Nya turned their backs, Lloyd changed back to his comic.'Yeah, sure thing.' The blond muttered as he went to find the page where he'd left off. 'Fritz Donogan, looks like it's gonna be you, me and the imperial sludge.'

'Ye've got an hour, after that, we're back to training.' The redhead had to stifle a chuckle as she heard him groan and hit his head against a surface.

About five minutes later the Green Ninja had switched to playing videogames on a low volume. The two had both lost track of time when the phone rang and snapped the both out of their activities.

'I'll get it!' Lloyd tried and managed to do so, even if he dropped it and had to put it on speaker because he couldn't pause his game. Calli could vaguely hear Jay's voice on the other end of the line, it sounded a bit higher than usual, but then again it mostly did when he was panicing or something went horribly wrong.

'Jay?' Asked Lloyd. 'Where are you and why haven't you retuned? Sensei is out looking for you guys!'

Calli stood as she could hear the blue ninja groan. 'Apparently, you need parental permission to take the bus and we can't seem to get out of the city.'

Lloyd and the redhead shared a look. 'Uh, what?' The two chorussed.

'Oh never mind, it's a bit complicate. just meet us at Buddy's Pizza in ten minutes. And bring our weapons.'

'Weapons?' as Lloyd asked the question, he managed to fall out of the seat he was in due to him leading towards the phone, but there was no answer. Jay'd already hung up.

Calli on the other hand rubbed her forehead. 'I don' even want to know what happened this time.' She sighed. 'Give me a few minutes to get dressed, we can take my bike.'

'Shouldn't someone stay behind?' Lloyd asked as he managed to get up.

The redhead raised a sceptical eyebrow. 'And yeh think i'mma let yeh go alone? Who knows what happened?'

'Fair point.'

'You're, uh, uh, Small!' Lloyd stuttered at the scene.

To be honest, Calli had no idea if she should laugh, but she really wanted to and thus opted to snickering behind her hand. Kai on the other hand didn't think the situation to be so funny and tossed a fry towards her head which she caught and put in her mouth.

'Ugh, salty.' She grunted.

'Garmadon's mega weapon not only turned us into kids, but unleashed a creature whose soul purpose is to hunt down Ninja.'

'Typical Garmadon.' Cole huffed and crossed his arms, dressed in a purple sweater with a butterfly on it. Calli giggled at his puffed cheeks.

'I think ye'all look adorable.'

'Stop laughing! every time we try to tell someone they won't believe us, cause we're kids.' Jay all but screamed, only to be hushed by Cole and Zane.

Lloyd burst into laughter as he placed the weapons on the table.

Kai glared. 'What's so funny?' He asked the younger two.

The green ninja tried to stop his snickers as he answered. 'I guess you now know what it feels like to be treated differently.'

'This is serious.' Zane brought the subject back to the forefront. 'If we don't turn big so that we can use our Spinjitzu, we do not stand a chance against the Grundle.'

The green ninja raised an eyebrow. 'What about me? I know Spinjitzu.'

Kai scoffed. 'Yeah, but you don't know the Grundle. We all need to be at full strength. What we need to do first, is find someone who might know how to defeat one of those things.'

Calli noticed Lloyd's eyes glide toward some kid reading a comicbook and noticed the lightbulb that turned on inside the kid's head.

'Lloyd!' Cole snapped the kid out of it. 'Focus.'

'I am!' The blond defended himself. 'I think I know just the guy.'

The confusion was obvious when Lloyd led them to the comic-book store with a widespread grin.

Cole was the first to voice it. 'You brought us to a comic-book store.' Calli elbowed him in the shoulder, one perk of the whole situation, as she was now at his hight instead of a feet smaller.

'Trust me. if there's anyone who knows how to defeat a monster that doesn't exist, I know just the person to talk to.' Lloyd countered but Kai grabbed his arm.

'We're not here to pick out your stupid comic!'

Lloyd just shrugged his arm off en led his embarrassed friends towards the counter. 'fellas, meet Rufus MacAllister, AKA Mother Doomsday"

The man behind the counter looked up and then smiled at Lloyd. 'Well, if it isn't Lloyd "Hemorrhoid" Garmadon.' He greeted the green ninja. 'Sorry if you came looking for the latest "Starfarer," I'm all sold out.'

'Wha- Sold out!' Lloyd pouted but quickly composed himself when he realized why they where here. 'Actually, mother Doomsday, we need help.'

Rufus put away the magazine he was reading. 'Color me intrigued.'

'We have a problem. There's a Grundle on the loose and we need to know how to deal with it.'

'Oh, a theoretical question.' The shopkeep misunderstood.

The green ninja coughed. 'Yeah, theoretical. Can you help?'

The man walked out from behind the register and took a stance that reminded Calli of Wu when he was teaching.

'Dromaseric theropod grundalicus. Although extinct, there has been a plethora of film, television and comics exploring the mythology around the predator.' Rufus grabbed another comic with the creature on it. 'Supposedly, they always get their prey.'

'Sounds like he knows his stuff.' Kai whispered to Zane. Lloyd pushed trough his friends.

'Can it be stopped?'

Rufus continued. 'First thing you need to know is its thick shell-like hide is invincible to swords, scythes, nunchucks and throwing-stars. So your cheap imitations will do nothing to slow him down.'

Cole scoffed. 'Swell.'

'Second of all, it's nocturnal and will only hunt at night.'

'Oh good.' Jay breathed in relief. 'It's still daylight, so we can relax for a bit.' Everyone glared at him as Rufus looked at them suspiciously. 'I meant theoretically.'

'And the only way to defeat it is with light.' The man put the comic back down. 'Like a vampire, with enough of it, it could potentially destroy him. If i had my weapons of choice, may I recommend the Illumiswords?' He pointed proudly to a display with four glowing swords. Though Calli thought they looked more like police battalions. 'These are authentic replicas that would come in handy where you to live long enough to actually face a Grundle. and if swords are your thing, Maybe I can interest you in an authentic ninja Gi.' Rufus showed them another display case with the Gi's of all the ninja. 'Signed by the very ninja that saved the city.'

Calliope choked in a snort as she saw the faces the boys pulled.

Kai snapped out of it the first. 'We'll just take the light swords.' He tried to grab one but Rufus stopped him.

'Not so fast. This "Starfarer." combo pack can only be won in the Fritz Donogan Trivia Battle Royale.' He pointed to come cosplayers. 'You have what it takes to be the best?'

Jay was the first to stand behind Lloyd. 'You can do this!'

Lloyd nodded with a confident look. 'Sign me up.'

'I'll go and scout outside. It'll be dark soon.'

The others gave her a worried look.

'Are you sure? Your knee still hurts.' Cole noted.

The girl quickly put her ringlets in her signature ponytail and nodded. 'It's just scouting don't worry as soon as I see something I'll let you know. Just make sure you win this thing.'

Lloyd nodded. 'Don't worry. I will.'

'It's down to the final two!' Rufus exclaimed 'This question is for Lloyd.' the crowd started to cheer for the green Ninja. 'What is Fritz Donogan's famous catchphrase?'

"Fear?" Lloyd stated. "Fear is not a word where I come from!"

There was a small pause. 'Correct! we're all tied up!'

Meanwhile Calli found herself on the rooftop a few blocks away. The air was getting colder and she was regretting not putting on a jacket before leaving with Lloyd.

The streets were unusually quiet for Ninjago City but she didn't really mind. This made it easier for her to spot giant prehistoric lizards.

She quickly spotted it, walking towards the comic store. She knew she promised to warn the others but she could at least slow it down.

The girl easily made her way towards the comic-store, standing on the roof as she threw up a shield getting the creature's attention. It worked well enough. The large creature backed away just slightly at the little light it gave off and went to look around for the source. Calli swallowed as it spotted her.

Lloyd pouted as he lost the quiz. There went their only chance at defeating the monster. But once the group wanted to leave the store the lights started to shake before the power went out.

Rufus stood up. 'Who shut off the power?' There was no answer, only the store sign falling to the floor.

Kai backed up just a bit. 'It's here.'

Rufus looked at them in confusion. 'What's here.'

'You know that theoretical discussion we had earlier?' Jay chuckled nervously as all the kids huddled into the corner.

The store-owner swallowed nervously as the head of the creature became visible on the glass roof. His look focussed on the girl in front of him.

'We have to get out of here!' Zane was the first to move and tried to open the door which had been blocked by the fallen sign. 'The door is jammed! We can't get out.'

Jay on the other hand still had his eyes on the ceiling. The grundle charged at Calli, tossing the two of them though the glass.

Calli hissed as she felt a shard cut her cheek and landed on the ground with a loud thud.

'I thought you'd warn us!' Kai exclaimed as she sat up.

Calli groaned as she sat up and glared. 'I didn't exactly have time.'

The red ninja didn't have a chance to answer as Jay started to scream. 'We're doomed!' He cried in a higher pitch then anyone thought possible.

The grundle swung it's tail towards Rufus and the children, they all managed to dodge but the display with the Ninja's Gi shattered on impact.

Jay shouted for the others to follow him as Calli fell back, staying back to protect the other kids if need came, and not that she could do much with her now even worse hurting knee.

Zane and Kai grabbed a Illumisword and Jay grabbed Kai's Gi as Cole tried to get the Grundle's attention.

'Hey, Mcnasty! I thought Ninja were on your menu.' The black ninja shouted as Kai tossed him a lightsword. It seemed to work as the creature backed up, screaming in discomfort.

Jay was the first to charge forward, slamming the sword into the Grundles head, but it broke, The same happened with Zane and Kai and the creature took the opportunity to smash the kid-ninja into the counter. Lloyd jumped into the register, trying to save his friends. The green ninja focussed himself and used his energy, lighting up the whole store in a green light making the grundle back up.

Angered, the grundle roared and smashed his tail into the five. knocking them back.

During all the commotion no-one had noticed that the door wasn't blocked anymore by the fallen sign until Nya burst trough the door, quite literally. 'Everyone out!' She commanded with Wu on her heels. All the kids burst out as Wu tossed an item to them. Calli joined the two, leaning against the doorframe as the adrenaline left her body.

Jay caught it. 'What is it?'

'It'll turn forward the hands of time, turning you old and reducing the grundle back to dust and bones!' The four jumped on the counter. 'But be careful, there's no turning back.'

'Grundle!' the blue ninja held the jar up. 'Prepare to be extinct.'

Cole stopped him just in the nick of time. 'No, wait!' He held the last light-sword high to keep the grundle away. 'What will happen to Lloyd? He'll grow old too!'

'Just do it!' Lloyd argued.

'You'll miss out on the rest of your childhood!' Jay countered.

Kai agreed. 'We can't do that to you, it's not fair.'

At the same time the Grundle smacked the Illumisword out of Cole's hand. Leaving them open for an attack.

This made the jar fly out of the hands of Jay and next to Lloyd. The green ninja jumped back onto the counter. The grundle roared at him and prepared to strike.

'Fear? Fear is not a word where i came from.' The blonde cried and tossed the jar towards the creature. Hitting it in the middle of its head. The grundle roared in pain as purple mist enveloped the store.

'Its working!' Nya exclaimed as she could make out the grundle being turned back to bones.

The four ninja groaned as they stood up. 'What happened? We're not kids anymore.' Cole huffed as he and the others removed his hood.

Nya jumped up and down enthusiastically. 'It worked!'

'But what about Lloyd?' Wu asked as they all looked around. as he spoke, Lloyd stood up, groaning as he rubbed his head. 'I'm... Older?' He muttered as he looked at himself. His voice was deeper, though not much as he looked much more like a 14 year old than a 11 year old kid. He was taller, about 5 ft 1 (154cm) and his hair was a blond mess instead of the usual bowl-cut he had.

'The time for the green ninja to face his destiny has grown nearer.' Wu told his nephew.

Lloyd smiled as his friends joined them. 'I'm ready.'

Calli huffed as she sat crosslegged on the table. Bandages all over her body as Zane tried to bandage her last scratch. Lloyd was laughing at her as she tried to dodge the nindroid's attempt to put the white bandage on her cheek. She hadn't objected to him bandaging her knee... until he saw the scratches.

'Just because ye'r now an inch taller then me doesn't give ye the right to laugh at me kid. I'm still older.' After this the turned to Zane. 'Is this really necessary?'

'Yes.' was the only answer zane gave.

Another chuckle brought the attention to Cole who walked into the room, Her bike-ring in hand.

'Stop laughing. I look ridiculous.'

'Sorry.' He chuckled as Zane went to put away the first-aid kit. 'You still up for tonight?'

She gave him a smile, ignoring the sticky bandage as she carefully jumped off the table. 'Let's go. I'm still driving.'

'Not a chance.' he held the ring out of her range as she went to grab it. Chuckling as she glared and crossed her arms. Lloyd on the other hand pulled a face and buried himself back into a comic he gotten from somewhere.

The redhead pouted. 'Fine.'

Whoo back to another ususal length chapter before i'm off to work. I know i posted a lot this week but that's going to change since i'll be getting busy with Exams-preperation on school and work. So hopefully i'll get back to 1 chapter a week but no promises on that one.

With that being said. Let's go onto the reviews:

MightyShipper: Glad you liked it :)

Papilie:Haha glad you liked it :) It was a very spur of the moment idea when the song popped up on my phone whilst i was on the train.

Well, I hope you enjoyed and i'll see you in the next chapter.