Cole had to manually pry the so-called "automatic" doors open to enter the police station. He held them open for Kai, Nya, and Lloyd before entering the dark building himself.

Within a few steps inside, four flashlights clicked on, their beams sweeping the lobby.

Nya shuddered. "Spooky seeing the police station like this." Her beam rested on an officer doing his best to carry on with his duties in the dark, and she yelped, fumbling with the flashlight. "Usually whenever we enter a place that feels like this, whoever's inside isn't happy to see us."

"Well, this is different," said a familiar voice from behind them.

In spite of themselves, the ninja jumped and whirled around, focusing their lights on the Commissioner.

"We're quite glad you came." When he saw the ninja relax, he added, "Sorry for startling you. I admit, with the power out, this place can get a little… unsettling."

Kai let out a weak chuckle. "Aha… we weren't scared."

Nya raised a brow at him.

The Commissioner had the grace not to dwell on it. "The power outage was deliberate. There is some sort of foul intention behind this, and for the sake of the city, we must find out what. I have an itching suspicion those Serpentine are behind this. Thank you for coming… for the second time. We appreciate your efforts with the first."

The ninja shifted uneasily.

The recent failure wasn't the only reason it was an uncomfortable topic.

Sensing he had struck a nerve, the Commissioner added, "I'm sorry we couldn't give you more information about the Serpentine, especially on such short notice. Our officers are very grateful to you for taking the fight; admittedly, we are not equipped for dealing with the more… mythical forces. I hope we did not put you in any danger you were too unfamiliar with." His eyes scanned over them, and bushy eyebrows shot up. "Your numbers do seem a little thin."

Nya crossed her arms and stared at the floor. Lloyd's gaze grew unfocused.

A sickly pallor clutched at the Commissioner's face. "The fight! Did- did everyone return from the fight?"

Cole let out a long sigh, closing his eyes. Kai shifted his weight.

The Commissioner removed his hat and held it close to his chest. "First Spinjitsu Master…"

"Everyone came back from the fight," Lloyd said, "But something… happened."

A relieved sigh, almost a chuckle, escaped from under the Commissioner's bushy mustache as he returned his cap to his head. "The power source. I know. That is no fault of yours. You did what you could."

"That… wasn't all that happened."

The Commissioner prompted them with an attentive silence and wide eyes.

The ninja exchanged glances.

"Jay turned on us," a voice said from behind the ninja.

They collectively yelped and jumped to face the newcomer.

It didn't take a flashlight beam to know who stood in the doorway. The glowing blue eyes were enough to highlight the contours of her grim, metallic face. Titanium simulations of cheekbones glistened in electric blue, along with the bridge of her nose and her firmly-set eyebrows.

"Pixal," Nya greeted. "There you are."

Pixal nodded towards her. "Yes, I got your text."

The Commissioner sputtered. "What do you mean Jay turned on you?"

"He has demonstrated beyond a doubt that he no longer wishes to associate with us, and would resort to drastic measures to stop our plans."

"What do you mean by drastic?" The Commissioner absently waved a cup of coffee in his hand, searching for words. "Are you sure he doesn't just need a break? Surely he wouldn't do anything too crazy."

Pixal's hands curled into fists. "He! Attacked! Zane! Zane could be gone!"

The echo of her words ricocheted off of the walls. Even in the dark, the gazes of all of the passing officers weighed on the ninja.

The Commissioner barely even had to whisper to be heard when he asked, "Why?"

Cole shook his head. "We don't know."

Mutters in the shadows overtook the precinct.

"Jay? Wasn't he the Blue Ninja?"

"The Blue Ninja turned… I don't know, I'm trying to listen…"

"...Ninja's a traitor."

"...Kinda makes me wonder what the rest of them have up their sleeves…"

"Officers!" The Commissioner roared. "This is not the behavior I expect from professionals such as yourselves. Now! This is confidential information, so I expect you not to discuss it unless it is to another officer in the terms of plans. Do I make myself clear?"

Meek murmurs of "yessir" bounced around the room, and the voices shuffled away.

The Commissioner let out a scoff before returning his attention to the ninja. "Do we know if the Blue Ninja is a threat to anyone other than Zane?"

"He attacked all of us, actually," Nya said. "Zane's just the one he managed to…"

"I see."

"He fried my mech and caused this power outage," Pixal reported. "And he shows no signs of remorse." She kicked at the ground, and lip curling, continued, "He referred to Zane as a pawn in his plan."

Nya quirked a brow. "Wait, but you weren't using your mech when we fought him."

A moment of collective realization silenced the room.

Cole rushed forward and seized Pixal by the shoulders. "You mean you found him?"

"With the mech," Nya added, shaking her head. "You went after him."

Cole shook Pixal like a ragdoll. "What did he say? Is he okay?"

Nya stormed towards Pixal. "You WENT AFTER HIM?"

Pixal held them both at arm's length. "I suspected you may have been right," she explained. "Jay's recent behavior is most unlike him. I decided to pursue him, to see if an anomaly had overtaken him— possession or mind control or the like."

Cole pushed her hand aside to step closer, his eyes practically popping out of his head. "And?"

Pixal crushed them all with a solemn shake of her head. "I scanned him. He is in complete control of himself. Jay knows what he is doing."

Cole wilted in front of her with a strangled sound.

Kai looked around for anyone to meet his gaze. "What will we tell everyone?"

"We mustn't tell the people," the Commissioner said.

"What?" Pixal approached the Commissioner. "Jay is a threat. The people put their trust in him right now, and they deserve to know that that trust is misplaced!"

"And if they know that they can't trust one of the few heroes they've looked up to, how will we get everyone to cooperate when we need them to, concerning the Storm of Ruins? For their own protection, they must have a voice to follow if the city is to endure this crisis! Do you really think they will follow you if their trust in your team has been freshly broken? It's not just what has happened to Jay, either. If news gets out that he turned, there will be nasty rumors cooking and spreading all over the city; horrible, false ones. We need the city to stay calm, for their own safety."

Pixal crossed her arms. "And just how safe will they be if Jay attacks them?"

"I don't know," Cole chimed in. "Jay doesn't seem like the kind of person who would attack people for no reason."

Pixal swivelled to stare him down. "Are you blind?"

"Look, I know everything looks bad for him now," Cole acknowledged, "But when he attacked us, he seemed… scared. Sure, he was nuts to fight us, but I think there was some level of reasoning behind it. He's not gonna just start zapping people for laughs. The guy cries over cartoons, for FSM's sake. He might be unstable, but he's not- he's not evil!"

"I agree with Cole," Nya said.

"Okay, so we don't tell the people anything," Lloyd said. "They'll still start getting suspicious when Jay and Zane don't show up for any of our missions. They're gonna know something's wrong. In case you haven't noticed, we're publicized to the Never Realm and back. People are gonna start picking up on the fact that they're not with us, and there's hardly anything we can do to stop that.

Kai hummed, tapping his chin. "Maybe we can't change that, but we can change that the people think we know about anything going wrong. If they think we're fine, they'll think the city's fine."

"Oh?" Nya turned to him. "What did you have in mind?"

"I dunno. I was hoping someone else would finish that thought for me."

Nya sighed and shook her head.

Lloyd hummed, then snapped his fingers. "What's the last thing people would expect us to be doing in the middle of a crisis?"

"What?"

"Relaxing."

"Unfortunately, we cannot," Pixal reminded him. "We cannot relax in the middle of a crisis to pretend that there is not a crisis for us to work out, because we have to be out and very much not relaxing, working out that crisis that we're pretending doesn't exist."

Cole pursed his lips. "I barely followed that."

Pixal sighed and facepalmed.

"It doesn't have to be all of us," Lloyd said. "One of us would be enough, as long as that person draws enough attention to themself while the rest of us go out and take care of the city and try to figure out what to do about Jay." He nudged Kai in the ribs. "What do you say, Kai?"

Kai blinked. "Wha- me? Why do I have to be the one out of the action?"

"Yeah!" Cole said. "Why does he get to kick his feet up?"

Lloyd addressed Cole. "Because you're Jay's best friend. You'll know more about him if we have to fight him again, and will be more likely to be able to talk him down. Besides, Kai's always been somewhat of an attention hog."

"Hey!"

Lloyd quirked a brow at Kai. "Do you wanna say otherwise?"

Kai crossed his arms and pouted.

Lloyd patted his arm. "You'll be perfect for the job. Just go out and make public appearances and have a good time. Talk to people. Party on. Make sure people are talking about you."

"But- what about Jay?"

"We'll take care of him."

Kai stared at his feet.

Lloyd rested a hand on his shoulder. "I know you want to help him, but it's important that we're looking after Ninjago, too."

Pixal pinched the bridge of her nose. "This method of helping the city is highly questionable at best."

Lloyd grimaced. "Sorry, Pix. Everything's a little uncertain right now."

"Understatement," She muttered.

"We're doing the best we can do with the information and resources we have."

"So what do the rest of us do?" Nya asked.

Lloyd inclined his head towards her. "Nya, you and Pixal work on figuring out another power source for the machine. The storm's getting closer every day."

Nya and Pixal nodded.

"Cole, you and I will try to track down the Serpenteel- uh, Serpentine. Try to figure out what exactly it is they want, and figure out how to stop them. Kai, go sign some autographs or something. Everyone clear?"

Lloyd received several confirmations, including a very weak one from Kai, and everyone dispersed to start on their assigned tasks.

Nya and Pixal set down the mech at its new temporary spot.

The fried machine looked anything but graceful, slouched over awkwardly and sparking near the entrance of the Samurai X cave, but it was far too heavy to carry any further.

They'd had to tow it to the cave, and even then, dragging it just a few meters was enough to leave them huffing and puffing.

Nya choked on the foul, lingering stench of burnt rubber. She brushed away the water in her eyes. "Let's work on the machine. We can move this more when we have pulleys or something."

Pixal nodded, partially bent over and resting with her hands on her knees. "Agreed."

They made their way into the main area where Zane still lay motionless on the counter.

Nya read the monitors. The computer indicated that the scan of Zane's system was almost finished, but not quite. "Man, this scan is taking forever."

"It must be due to the damage to his system," Pixal speculated. "If his circuitry is damaged enough to not be communicating with itself properly, then it also has difficulty communicating with an outside source. The computer must have run alternate diagnostics to gather the information it needs, instead of directly contacting his localized database."

"Yeah, makes sense. I just wish it would hurry up, y'know? I wish I knew what I could do for him… if I could do anything for him."

Pixal's brows knitted together as she noticed Nya's downward gaze.

Nya looked up, feeling a cool, metal hand on her shoulder.

"Come on. Let us do what we can at the moment."

Nya nodded and followed Pixal over to the table that housed their blueprints for the new machine.

"I made some adjustments to it for efficiency," Nya said. "What do you think?"

Pixal hummed, processing the changes to the design. "I think the edits that you made will save us time and materials. It looks like this prototype is ready to be built."

"One problem, though."

"Still no ideas on the power source?"

Nya shook her head. "You?"

Pixal tapped her chin. "Something occurred to me while fighting Jay." Catching Nya's wince from the corner of her eye, she added, "Sorry."

"It's… okay. You did what you had to."

Pixal decided not to mention how forced Nya's words came out. "He tapped into a section of the city's power and absorbed it."

Nya started. "Absorbed?"

"Yes, it was quite interesting to watch." Interesting and terrifying, but Pixal decided against saying the latter. It wasn't Nya's fault. Starting an argument between them would be unwise at such a crucial time. "But if we were able to capture the same idea— use all the power in the city at once to power the machine— it would be enough."

"But would that still be the case with a quarter of the city's power being…" Nya clenched her teeth. "...Jay's?"

Pixal pulled up calculations and data on her internal visual screen. She calculated how much power that section of the city had used, subtracted it from the city's total, then compared it to how much power the machine would use. "There is a significant margin of error in calculating how the machine will run since it is yet a prototype." Pixal closed the calculations and returned her visual sensors to the outside world, to Nya's face. "But if we are careful when constructing the machine, I believe we can narrowly scrape by."

"Alright." Nya tossed Pixal a wrench. "Let's get to it."

Cole gagged on the fumes of sludge. At least, he thought of it as sludge. He decided against letting his mind wander down the path of what he and Lloyd were really wading through in the sewer. "Ugh, don't the Serpentine ever choose someplace decent to hide out? Like a tropical island, or maybe a clean tunnel?"

Lloyd swept his flashlight beam around the tunnel, settling on a trail of gelatinous sludge that looked like it had been unsettled. "There's an art to stealth. It's hiding where people won't look for you." He traced his light down the path of goop, which crawled out from the ankle-deep pool and trailed along a higher, dry tunnel. "This way."

"I wouldn't look for them in another dimension," Cole muttered. "Why couldn't they go there?"

The shift to dry ground, at least, was an improvement, although now Cole felt dirty, trailing globs of who-knows-what onto the old, weathered masonry.

Lloyd raced ahead to an intersection in the tunnel. "Hey, look here!" He knelt at the intersection, tracing his fingers along the ground.

Cole shuddered, but joined his side regardless.

"Look at this path," Lloyd said, pointing his flashlight to the right. "The cracks in the stones have been caked in with sewer goo. It must be well-travelled for enough sludge to have been dragged over to fill all the cracks."

"Oh. Great."

"We'll just follow this trail; it should lead us straight to them."

Cole grimaced. So much for hoping Lloyd's clue into the sewers would come to a dead end. His head already felt like a swamp of the stench.

"Come on!" Lloyd took off down the path, trailing the uncomfortably smooth stones with his flashlight beam.

Cole groaned and followed.

They weaved through tunnel after tunnel. It was a while before Lloyd held up a hand, signaling Cole to stop behind him.

Lloyd put his ear next to the corner of the next intersection. "Do you hear that?"

Cole tilted his head to the left, then to the right, as if the few inches would make all the difference in his hearing. He shrugged.

"There it is again!" Lloyd hissed, daring to peek around the corner. "Sounds like slithering."

Cole stayed deathly still for a few moments. "I don't hear any-AAH!"

In an instant, Cole found his head dangling above the ground, all the weight of his body suddenly straining against his ankle.

Lloyd whipped around. "Cole!" His eyes darted to something behind Cole, and he pulled his green mask over his face.

Cole pulled his own mask on, which proved to be a little challenging when upside-down.

Lloyd assumed a fighting stance, glaring at what Cole assumed to be his captor. "You!"

"You kidsss have come acrosss the wrong part of the sssewersss. What isss your businesss here?"

Lloyd jabbed a finger in the Serpenteel's face. "To kick your butts and save Ninjago City?"

An awkward few seconds of silence followed by Lloyd lowering his accusatory hand told Cole that the declaration hadn't had the intended effect.

"You ssstill have a plan to ssstop usss?"

Lloyd blinked. "Uh, yeah. We're the Ninja. We stop bad guys. Is that not- did you not know we weren't gonna give up? Is this your first time in- OH, THIS IS YOUR FIRST TIME TRYING TO CONQUER THE CITY."

"Interesssting," the Serpenteel hissed.

Cole sent a firm kick behind him, causing the Serpenteel to drop him. He flipped and landed next to Lloyd, mirroring the Green Ninja's fighting stance.

"Soldiersss," The Serpenteel bellowed.

Like a flash of lightning, an army of eels swarmed the tunnel.

"Attack them!"

"Sssir, are thessse kidsss a threat?" one of the Serpenteels questioned.

"Yesss," the first replied. "Thessse kidsss are the onesss we fought on the rooftopsss, and are the protectorsss of thisss cccity."

Lloyd let out a weak chuckle. "I think we might have made a mistake."

Cole turned to face him with a lot more energy than necessary. "Oh, really?"

The Serpenteels kept gathering, with more and more brimming from the tunnels surrounding the army already stationed there.

"Attack!" the lead Serpenteel repeated.

The army started slithering forward.

"Uhh, what's the battle plan?" Cole asked, taking a step back.

Lloyd grabbed his arm and spun him to face the direction they'd come. "Run!"

Cole didn't need to be told twice.

"After them! Do not rest until you run them down and ssslaughter them!"

"Definitely a mistake!" Lloyd called.

"Yep!" Cole skidded to a halt. "Wait! The tunnels are made of stone!" He faced the approaching army, still a few seconds away, then punched the ground.

A line of stones on the floor between them and the army rose and crashed into the ceiling with a loud THUD, effectively sealing the Serpenteels away from them.

"Nice work!" Lloyd said. "Now, quick! It won't take them long to find another route. Let's get out of here!"

They ran until they found a ladder to a manhole, and hearing the cries of the army steadily approaching, shimmied up to the surface.

Lloyd helped Cole out, but they didn't have enough time to put the manhole cover back on before the army started passing by underneath.

The light filtering down might draw their attention, but they were certain to be caught if they risked putting the cover back on now and all the clanking noise that came with moving metal.

They just peered down into the sewers, hoping the soldiers down below would charge forward and pay no mind to the patch of light.

The more determined Serpenteels surged on, too focused to be distracted by such a small detail. Before long, the tail end of the army came into view, with the less athletic soldiers struggling to keep up.

Just when they thought they were in the clear, the very last soldier stopped to look at the patch of light.

Cole and Lloyd abandoned their perches looking down and stepped back. They held each other's petrified gaze, both wanting to check what was going on down below but neither willing to be the one to get them caught.

Cole counted to a full minute— or at least he hoped he had; with his mind going a mile a minute, it was hard to tell— before peeking into the sewers. He let out a breath. "It's okay. They're gone."

Lloyd visibly relaxed and put the cover back over the manhole. "Well, that was a bust, huh?"

"Well, we thought they were chasing us, and now they really are, so, uh." Cole shrugged. "Back to square one, I guess?"

Lloyd shook his head at him.