"Listen, I'm only going to say this one more time," Lloyd sucked in a breath, "My name is Lloyd Garmadon. Those two were Krux and Acronix. They're known as the Time Twins. They stole my elemental power and combined it with their time vortex to travel what I think are dimensions. I combined my powers with the Realm Crystal to follow them. I'm not allied with either of them!"
Lloyd currently sat tied to a chair in the middle of a large dojo on the Destiny's Bounty. The shock of seeing the ship wasn't destroyed in this universe was offset by the fact that in front of him was what looked to be his father if he'd decided to wear permanent armor and learn some sort of strange method of movement to bolster his confusion power to enemies. This Garmadon currently was holding Lloyd's Realm Crystal in his hand, toying with it between his four arms. Once Lloyd finish talking, he turned and slowly placed it under his Warlord robes.
"Even if we are to believe your story," Garmadon scoffed, "Which is hard to believe, even for me, what's saying that those two aren't your allies, and you were sent ahead to deceive us?" Garmadon smirked, "Classic battle tactic. Heck, I used it myself! I think that was the Sushi Takeover scheme… no, wait, it was the Dock Worker Submergers! What I'm getting at here," Garmadon gave a massive grin, "I've been in a few hundred fights."
Lloyd groaned and shook his head, "I saved your… son, right? I saved your son's life, why would I do that? Didn't they try to kill him?"
"Just because you saved Lulloyd doesn't mean you actually did anything that we can use to trust you," Garmadon turned around, letting his robes smack Lloyd's face in doing so, "If I were trying to infiltrate my enemy's fortress, this would be my exact method for doing so."
"If you just give me the Realm Crystal back," Lloyd smiled gently, "I can show you the universe we're from, a universe that isn't so… blocky and, where everyone moves like me! I can show you the ninja team I'm apart of, that I lead! I'll prove that I am who I say I am!"
"If we give you this… Realm Crystal," Nya, who was leaning up against the wall with the other ninja around her, "Who's to say you won't just poof off like those two did and lead them right to us?"
"Giving the captive the crystal is most likely to result in an unfavorable situation," Zane added, standing straight up from imitating Nya, "I suggest we move this Lloyd to a more secure location."
Lloyd tried once more to summon some elemental energy to his hands to loosen the strange black rope that was used to tie him up. Yet what little energy he could muster wasn't anywhere near enough to do so. His earlier attempt to demonstrate his powers had earned him the pleasure of learning what getting smacked with the business end of a shark warlord staff felt upside the head.
"I admit that you imitation of my son is rather… decent," Garmadon grinned, "The hair is an exact match, almost like you copied it directly and used it for yourself. Your face in general does a pretty good job… though, your ninja suit is a dead giveaway. Maybe if you inverted the colors, you could have gotten farther. Clearly you didn't impersonate hard enough!"
"I just had my ninja suit redone five months ago," Lloyd explained, holding back an edge of frustration, "I figured that a new suit meant that I should get a new hairstyle too! My whole team did it!"
"Wait, so you just, change your hair?" Jay spoke up, his voice tinged with confusion, "And people don't treat you like a different person?"
"Wait, dudes, didn't we defeat Garmadon five months ago?" Kai smirked, "Like, man, that's kinda a cool uh… what's the word?"
"Coincidence," Nya rolled her eyes, "Seriously, Kai, do you ever open up a dictionary, ever?"
"Uhm, I may have been neglecting my study session with him," Jay pipped up, "Sorry, Nya…"
"Pipe down back there! This is an interrogation, not a victory celebration!" Garmadon snapped, causing the entire group to freeze in place. Garmadon sighed and put his hand on his head, "I really need to start teaching you all about your interrogation techniques…"
Lloyd looked across the room to all of the ninja. Their faces were oddly similar to his friend's own. Their hairstyles matched the new ones that his friends had taken on as of late. Their faces seemed to be match, especially Nya's with the curious little mole that had formed on his Nya's face a few months prior in the same position.
Despite their similarities, however, Lloyd knew they weren't his friends. They were all somewhat different, all somewhat off. Kai had a completely different tone of voice, Jay was shy rather than loud and hadn't hooked up with Nya already, they all just didn't seem quite right. It was like small elements of his old friends had been altered into their core personality traits.
"Perhaps we should check his heartbeat to check if he is lying," Zane offered to a still fuming Garmadon, "All humans like us should have a heartbeat, and it should increase in the event of lying?"
"Can it, robot," Garmadon walked forward, gripping either side of Lloyd's chair, "You know what, I don't wanna deal with any of you, get out of here and go do something useful!"
"Robot? I am a normal teenager," Zane rotated his head back and forth, "I was simply suggesting a classical technique that has roots in basic human biology." Zane was quickly pushed out of the room by a sighing Kai.
As the ninja gave backwards glances to Lloyd, only one of them didn't vacate the room immediately. He had his sword out and was leaning against the wall, his sword rested over his lap. Lulloyd hadn't said anything since they'd captured Lloyd, and instead he was simply staring into his sword and the reflection that was shown back to him. Slowly, he sheathed his blade and stepped forward towards his father, shaking his head and putting his hand on his father's shoulder.
"Dad, don't you have some trinket that can detect if he's lying or not?" Lulloyd asked, pulling his hood off his head, "You and mom are always going on about that sort of thing."
"Your mother has the Amulet of Faresthee back at the Volcano, but she's currently working on rebuilding the city from my victory!" Garmadon grinned hard, but a stern look from his son made his cough and hit his chest, "Anyways, Lulloyd, there are far better ways for us to get him to talk. And yes, us talking like this is apart of the deal."
"You're nothing like my Garmadon," Lloyd paused, "Well… when my dad was alone he could be a little silly, but my Garmadon was far more serious and patient with all of us."
"Oh, really?" Garmadon grinned, "Tell me, where exactly is your Garmadon?"
"My… father is prison," Lloyd looked down, thinking of how to play this one, "He died protecting Ninjago from the Preeminent, until the Sons of Garmadon revived him. He came to try and kill me, we defeated him. Now he's in jail." Lloyd turned his head away, hoping to earn some sympathy.
"The Preeminent? Big giant tentacle monster, kinda green, big home to ghosts?" Garmadon blinked and then smirked, "I conquered that thing years ago. Took me a long time to figure out that ghosts are weak to heat. Just had to equip my army with fire blades. It took longer to have all the blades made than to actually take over the thing! Then again I was still rocking the whole 'dark knight' thing with my army's image, so it looked so awesome."
Lloyd's eyebrow twitched as he pulled at his bindings again, "In my world, ghosts are weak to water. Just one drop and it burns them like acid. Get them wet enough and they poof. Cole became a ghost for awhile. We had to be careful about rain."
"Silence!" Garmadon huffed, "We didn't ask for your commentary, prisoner!"
"Cole?" Lulloyd frowned, 'How did Cole become a ghost?"
"Heard my name," Cole yawned, leaning against the doorframe to the dojo now, setting a boombox down, "I'm not a ghost, but I got Ghostbusters if you guys need some tunes."
"We don't need music, black one!" Garmadon scoffed, "Close the doors on your way out!"
"You mean the screens?" Cole gripped the screens.
"Yes, screens, doors, whatever leads to the outside!" Garmadon huffed. Once the screens were closed, Garmadon sighed, "Your little strike force makes things very, very difficult for me, Lulloyd. He didn't even apologize for wrecking my chance to get those Twins!"
"I can tell you all about my ninja team," Lloyd smiled, "I can tell you all about my friends. I can even tell you how we defeated the Time Twins in the first place."
A silver katana suddenly flew by Lloyd's face, the hilt right next to his left eye. Garmadon picked himself up from his throwing pose, then embedded another one on the other side of Lloyd's head. Garmadon grabbed both of them and leaned so close Lloyd could see the large flames inside of Garmadon's eyes.
"I believe I already told you," Garmadon hissed, "That I only want you answering questions that I ask you. Otherwise, you are not to speak. I will not hesitate to see exactly how many of my swords it will take to make you unable to speak. And just so you know, my record for the most is ten. So I would recommend you speak very, very, carefully, Lloyd."
Lloyd's gaze didn't flinch as he stared right back at the his alt-father, "Understood."
"What was the machine that those Time Twins were wielding?"
"The Iron Doom. They built it so they could travel back in time and redo a battle they lost that made them lose their powers."
"What were their powers that they lost, and how did they use temporal manipulation if they lost them?"
"Master Wu and Lord Garmadon stole their powers and put them inside the Time Blades. They need all four to use their full powers. When they returned in our time, they hunted down the Time Blades and used them to power their device. I knocked their Pause Blade out of the machine before they jumped here. That's why they could only use the Forward and Slow Mo blades on you."
"Why the snakes?"
"Krux bred snakes from the remains of the Great Devourer and named them the Vermillion. From what I understand, their mech is moved by them using helmets to control the snakes inside the machine. They have hundreds of them. By devouring things, they can grow their numbers as well."
"Why are they here?"
"Wu caused them to get lost in the Time Vortex, they got out and somehow figured out how to jump worlds, now they're here to take over your world and make it their own kingdom."
"I see," Garmadon nodded his head, "I do hope you understand this information doesn't do anything to prove you aren't with them."
"What?" Lloyd shook his head, "Come on, I just told you all you wanted to know! Why would I tell you that if I was working with them?"
"Because they want you to gain my trust," Garmadon laughed, "And by only telling me information that I can confirm with my experience in battle, they think I'm an idiot and will let you out to roam free after hearing what I wanted to know."
"I'm not a double agent!" Lloyd shook his head, "I'm Lloyd Garmadon, I came from another dimension, that's what Zane told me! I'm here to take back my elemental power from them!"
"If you were on our side, why didn't you warn us about their attack?" Garmadon leaned back and adjusted his helmet.
"You crushed me with your shark foot!" Lloyd protested, "I didn't come to until you were sent flying into that building!"
Garmadon glared at Lloyd, his expression unchanged from his little self-assured grin. For a few moments, the two stared at one another. Lloyd was already starting to realize that even if his father was stubborn, at least Sensei Garmadon could see reason. He needed to be out there right now hunting down Krux and Acronix, and here he was being held captive by his alt-father! The anger building up inside him made his fists close as he summoned what little elemental energy he still had left, filling his fists and preparing to send it into the ropes again.
"Wait," Lulloyd stepped forward, "You… say that you're me, right? Dad," Lulloyd turned towards his father, "Dad, you know that I would never betray you, right?"
"Debatable under certain circumstances, but yes," Garmadon nodded, "I could trust you to go down with the rest of the army, General Number Son."
"Then, if you really are me," Lulloyd turned to Lloyd again, "There must be something that connects you to our world, right? And, if everyone exists, then we must have something in common. If you can find something in common between us, then, then maybe we can let you go."
"Hmm…" Garmadon moved over and drew his katanas out of the wall then put them on racks on the wall, "That's a clever tactic there, Lulloyd. Yes, Lloyd, prove to me that you and my son are actually just alternate versions of each other, and maybe I'll believe you."
Lloyd looked Lulloyd up and down. Just looking at him, Lloyd was struggling to figure out what was going on. His voice was completely different and had a strange stutter to it. It sounded like Lulloyd was younger than he was. Baring the movement and resemblance, Lloyd was already working to determine their similarities. To separate each other in his head, Lloyd was referring to him as Lulloyd as Garmadon had said earlier.
"Okay, Lulloyd," Lloyd began, only to be cut off.
"It's Lloyd," Lulloyd corrected, "Lloyd, L-L-O-Y-D."
"He's still sensitive about his name," Garmadon scoffed, "I named him Lulloyd, but for some reason he insists that for some reason, the two l's are just one."
"Lulloyd," Lloyd began again, "Our mother, Misako, did she abandon you when you were little?"
"What?" Lulloyd shook his head, "No? My mother took me away from my dad so I could live a normal life here. She, she raised me here on her own…" Behind him, Garmadon scoffed, "And… everybody here calls her Coco…"
"Okay…" Lloyd pursed his lips together, "Okay, what about Wu? Wu constantly taught you that you had some big destiny you had to accomplish and pushed you towards it?"
"Yeah, but, Wu did that for, all of us," Lulloyd turned towards the doors, where the shadows of Cole and Kai chatting could be seen, "I mean, I had to defeat my father, but, that's about it."
"What about Morro?" Lloyd pressed, "The Overlord, Chen, Morro, surely you know them?"
"Uhm… Morro is a transfer student at our school, he's kinda uh, well he's not the nicest guy to be around, doesn't like Wu and us for some reason," Lulloyd thought for a moment, "Never heard of Chen. The Overlord uhm, that doesn't sound like anyone I've faced." Garmadon grinned behind him.
"Then what…" Lloyd felt his breath catch in his throat, "What… about Harumi? Surely you know about Harumi?"
"Harumi? She went to my school. She ran the super unpopular Garmadon Fan Club," Lulloyd shuddered, "She kept painting her face black and wore these red eye contacts, always tried to talk to me. She, uh, she tried to kiss me to get me to join the club too. After my dad joined us she moved away to another school."
"That's… good for you then…" Lloyd turned his head away, "Glad… to hear that she is still around."
"Hah!" Garmadon laughed, making both of them turn to look at him, "You're thinking too literally, Lulloyd!," Garmadon leaned back into a chair, disturbing a pile of shurikens in the process, "Come on, you think your world is the same as ours? How naive. Go on, pick something that only a Lloyd would know. If you can't think of that, then you're just a really convincing actor, that's it!"
Lloyd looked down towards his lap. He had to think of something to prove he wasn't with the Time Twins, and thus something that showed him that he was a Lloyd. He had to think of something that only he would feel. Lulloyd had defeated his father a few months ago, what was it that he could use to that end?
"You didn't want to kill your father," Lloyd sighed gently, " You felt that everyone wanted you to defeat your father, so you clung onto any hope of beating him and thinking there was still good in him. Even when everyone said that you had to take him out, you couldn't do it. It wasn't until something else made that impossible that you were able to bring yourself to deal the final blow. You still wonder about if it was the right thing, though, and how much pain and anger it brought upon everyone else for not toughening up like Wu said and doing it sooner. How many lives wouldn't have gotten hurt if you had trained harder, trained better, and didn't let your feelings make you unable to strike the blow."
Lulloyd seemed to stiffen, as much as his body could that was. He stared down at Lloyd for a few moments, his breath quickening hearing everything told back to him. His gaze turned to his father, then down to himself before he slowly drew his sword and pointed it directly at Lloyd. The little golden tassel hung in the air while he waved it slowly in front of Lloyd's face.
"That, that was pretty spot on right there," Lulloyd narrowed his gaze, "But tell me, what do you know about what happened with my dad?"
"I don't know what happened with him specifically," Lloyd looked away from the sword towards Garmadon, "But I bet he was swallowed up by something bad, something you had to defeat, and by defeating it, you were able to bring him back to you."
"Meowthra…" Lulloyd used his sword point to draw Lloyd's ninja hood back over his head. In particular, he analyzed the little symbol that was emblazoned across the headband, then drew the hood back off Lloyd's head, "Where did you get that symbol?"
"That symbol?" Lloyd shook his head, "I don't know. Wu made these suits for us, he said each symbol meant something about us."
"That's my symbol, Wu told me it represents my element, life," Lulloyd frowned heavily, "Why wouldn't you know what your own symbol means?"
"My symbol used to be a big snake eating itself," Lloyd sighed, "I know, Wu comes up with really weird ideas sometimes, doesn't he?"
"How many times has he sacrificed himself for you?" Lulloyd drew his sword back and sheathed it against his back.
"Oh… maybe two or… let's see, the Devourer, Morro, Time Twins… that makes three at least. The others said he tried again when he was dealing with the Dragon Hunters but I wasn't there." Lloyd responded and leaned back in his chair, "Have I proven that I'm you?"
"One last question," Lulloyd paused, "Why didn't you Master Build us off the street when you saved me?"
"Master… Building?" Lloyd cocked his ehad, "I'm, not sure what that is. Do you mean like… the Tornado of Creation? I need the other ninjas to do that."
"Master Building, you know…" Lulloyd stepped back and shut his eyes. When he opened them, around him pieces began to flash with long numbers. After only a few seconds of analyzing them, his body turned into long rectangular blurs that shot around the room, prying up tiles, floor boards, pieces of training equipment and a few pins from the ceiling. When he finished, he had a table in front of him, a table with a strange black piece jutting up into the air. Lulloyd popped the tassel off his sword, plugged it into the piece, and the sword suddenly swung down into the table, causing it to break in two and slump against the floor. He pulled his sword up and then nodded his head.
"That's Master Building," Lulloyd waved to the table, "Can you not do that? I mean… everyone at least knows about it now, after that whole thing in Bricksburg… which for some reason we can never get to, but, you know."
"I can do Spinjitzu," Lloyd looked over to Garmadon, "If you let me go then I can show you."
"You must think you're pretty clever, now don't you?" Garmadon grinned a big toothy grin, "You know we have Spinjitzu here too, right? It's not something you even really 'show' either."
"Uhm… I kinda wasn't sure what Spinjitzu even is though," Lulloyd rubbed the back of his hair piece, "I kinda assume that's just what our elemental powers are really. I mean, Wu hasn't even talked about it since we started using them…"
"When I use Spinjitzu," Lloyd felt himself burning with amusement, "I summon a little tornado around myself."
"Wait, a tornado, really?" Lulloyd smiled weakly, "I kinda wanna see that now."
"Regardless," Garmadon stood up, "I want to thank you, Lloyd, for telling us all we need to know from you. I believe we no longer have any use for you."
"So… does that mean I can go?" Lloyd led hopefully. His spirits fell with Garmadon's grin.
"Of course not!" Garmadon leaned forward, "What, do you think I'm an idiot? Even if you are a dimensional counterpart of my son, what does that actually prove? That you're just like my son? For all we know, you're just lying. But don't worry, when we see those Time Twins again, we'll get the answers we need."
"What?!" Lloyd yanked at his binds, "I told you everything you needed to know and asked! I need to get something the Time Twins took from me back! You can't be serious!"
"Come on, Lulloyd," Garmadon turned around, walking over towards the screens. He reached out and threw them apart with two rotations, waving his lower arm for his son, "We need to discuss this in more detail."
Lulloyd looked to 'himself' sitting in the chair, then to his father. For a few moments, he looked ready to say something to Lloyd, but instead he turned around with a little sigh. He walked forward and stepped outside the dojo into the low light of dawn. He looked back towards Lloyd staring at the two in disbelief until his father shut the screens again, closing off their view from each other.
"I think he's actually telling the truth," Garmadon put his hand up in front of Lulloyd's face before he could speak, "And yes, I have dealt with dimensional counterparts and that sort of thing before. Never raid an ancient tomb without a patsy for curses. Your mother had one of those for months. She had someone that was her but ended up becoming a shogun years ago following us for half a year! ShoCoco was surprisingly good at a spear, though."
"Then… why are we keeping him prisoner still?" Lulloyd blinked in confusion. Garmadon sighed in response.
"Because until I can get some tools from your mother to tell if he's lying, then I can't make any judgements just yet. You can never be too careful, Lulloyd. Sometimes the smallest of straws can be the strongest of blades."
"Isn't there anything that he can do, just, at all?" Lulloyd asked quietly, "Come on, dad, what if he is an ally here? He knows about those two, and… we haven't exactly been able to find them."
"Don't remind me," Garmadon's tone went dark, "How it is they managed to hide that massive thing is beyond me, but whenever an enemy retreats, it's always to come back stronger."
"Then… anything!" Lulloyd waved his hands, "I, I mean if you'd captured me and you were going to get me to show my true colors, then, how would you prove it?"
Garmadon paused. One hand came up to gently stroke his chin, the other three moving behind his back in a dignified stance. After he had taken his time to think, he looked to his son again and then turned back towards the screens.
"Welp… been awhile since I've used this one!" Garmadon smirked, "Actually your mother was the one that did it last time. Tell your your little ninja guys to go below deck. I'm gonna need the space."
Lulloyd opened his mouth to say more, but Garmadon had opened the screens again. Lloyd looked up in his chair, cocking his head towards Garmadon. The sight of it made Garmadon feel sick inside. Not that he'd ever let someone see it on his face though. He walked over to the edge of the room and picked up one of many Warlord staffs there.
"Alright, Lloyd," Garmadon smirked, "You wanna prove that you're on my side?" He took a step forward, "Fight me."
"Fight… you?" Lloyd blinked, but Garmadon swung his staff up into the air. With a single swipe, the ropes that had been binding him were gone, pulled up and left on the floor below him.
"Yep, fight me. As in we go out there, one on one, just you, me and the sky to record what happens," Garmadon gestured to the walls, "Take any weapons you want. I just need you to go out there, and do your best to defeat me."
"And, defeating you is going to show that I'm on your side?" Even as he skeptically questioned the motive, Lloyd had already taken two katanas from the wall. They weighed almost nothing, and quickly he put them back, "I want the swords I had on me when I got here."
Garmadon nodded his head, striking the floor with his foot. Several tiles popped up and loose, revealing a compartment underneath. Garmadon hefted the katanas up and over to Lloyd, who took them in hand. Their weight made him grip them confidently.
"Oh, it's not about actually defeating me… you never really know someone, until you fight them," Garmadon sighed, almost nostalgically from his tone, "Until you've sparred with them, made them bow and submit to you and you alone, you never really know anything about them."
"I'm going to guess you've never lost then?" Lloyd raised an eyebrow.
"Nope," Garmadon grinned, "I'm Garmadon, baby!"
To emphasize his point, he thrust the Warlord staff into the floor, sending it through the tiles. With that, the four armed warrior spun about and threw the screen doors open, his robes billowing as the wind rushed in. The sun overhead had begun to set, causing the deck to be bathed in its golden light. He strode out onto the deck and kicked aside several boxes, then turned around and glanced back to his opponent. Lloyd cautiously walked forward.
"I'll go ahead and let you have the first strike," Garmadon nodded his head, "But, you should know that once you start, I don't stop for anything. Aside from my foes surrendering, but even then I don't get to always hear that!"
Lloyd readied himself. He turned his body slightly to the left and drew his swords, holding them across his body and pointed out at Garmadon. Garmadon's smile grew even wider somehow, and from seemingly nowhere, four katanas were in his hands. For a moment he relished Lloyd's look of shock, only for the barrel he was in front of to fall over. He only sighed at it.
At the moment, Lloyd wasn't sure of what Garmadon wanted. If he wanted to win… well, he knew nothing about his opponent. If he assumed this was his dad, he'd never beaten him in open combat before. It would take a substantial lowering of the bar for Lloyd to be able to beat Sensei Garmadon in a fight. But this man wasn't his father, even if in this world he seemed to be exactly that. He had to fight to win!
"Alright… here I come!" Lloyd raised his swords, "NINJA-GO!"
Lloyd rushed forward, drawing his blades back to swipe. Garmadon tensed as Lloyd rushed to him… and past him. Garmadon's surprised gaze tracked the ninja as they passed. As soon as Lloyd was behind him, he brought his feet up and his body spun straight into Spinjitzu.
The tornado turned with a nearly zero radius directly back towards Garmadon, crossing the deck towards him with blinding speeds. Garmadon's look of shock wiped away a second later as he leapt backwards. Lloyd tracked him, his Spinjitzu going straight towards him. The tornado was silver with small sparks of green, a far cry from the normally radiant green it once was. For Garmadon, however, it was an ability he had no idea how to handle.
"Oohh now this is fun!" Garmadon laughed, "I haven't gotten to see any new tricks since I took up this teaching thing!"
Garmadon lunged backwards and then leapt into his air, soaring horizontally straight over Lloyd's head. He landed on the long string of lanterns, then ran forward along it, his sword dragging along the length as he went. Clips rapidly came undone, sending each lantern down onto the deck. Two landed harmlessly, then the third met its mark. Lloyd stumbled out of his Spinjitzu form, leaving him dazed as he gained his footing.
Then his opponent was on top of him. Lloyd barely managed to bring his katanas up in front of his face, catching the four swords with his two. Lloyd thrust him backward with a heave, then swung overhead to follow up. Garmadon caught the blades with his two right ones, forcing them aside as his other two swung. Lloyd slid one sword to catch them, leaving his guard down on the other.
Garmadon raised a rectangular leg up, delivering a sharp kick into Lloyd's side. The action made his leg bend, and had Garmadon not seen the unnatural sight once more, Lloyd wouldn't have gained his chance. He thrust Garmadon's blades away and flew backwards away from Garmadon. When he landed, he slowly reached up to draw his hood over his face.
"Ooohhh, are you getting serious now, little Lloyd?" Garmadon grinned, "Though, I've been serious this whole time, so you know!"
"No," Lloyd shook his head, "I didn't want you to have to look at your son's face when I beat you!"
"Meh," Garmadon raised his top arms up in a 'shrug,' "5 and a half out of 10, heard better."
Lloyd shook his head and ran to his left, avoiding Garmadon's leaping attack. Despite looking the way he did, Garmadon felt just as strong, if not stronger, than his father had been before purification. Those swords, which felt weightless to him, suddenly were incredibly heavy against his own. He had little time to process it as Garmadon ran after him with a side swipe.
Once more Lloyd caught Garmadon's blades, this time with his swords horizontal again. He held them back for a few seconds, only for one of Garmadon's blade to slide out from the lock and through the gaps in the swords their clash made. Garmadon held the blade upside down and swung upwards, nearly slicing into Lloyd's shoulder. The ninja, in desperation, let the lock end, but in doing so Garmadon used the hilts to punch into Lloyd's chest. The ninja was sent flying through the air, landing on the studded deck with a pained groan. Oddly enough, hitting the ground with such indentions didn't seem to hurt as much, thankfully. As he leapt back to his feet from the ground, Garmadon just smirked.
"Are you really giving this your all, Lloyd?" Garmadon shrugged, "The red one fights better than you!"
"Kai's the one that taught me how to use swords in the first place!" Lloyd growled, "Don't mock him!"
"That explains why your stance is so uneven too!" Garmadon laughed, "Perhaps you need me to teach you a lesson or two, too!"
Garmadon ran forward to Lloyd's left, then kicked right up into him. Lloyd dodged the attack and felt his back press against the Bounty's mast. He ducked under the next swipe, Garmadon's swords striking the mast and stalling him for a moment. Lloyd rolled out from the mast and then ran across the deck, looking for a vantage point. Seeing the deck sloping upwards towards the front, he made his way there.
After a second, Garmadon grabbed the mast and spun his body around it, letting go and sending him straight at Lloyd. Lloyd saw it at the last moment and had enough time to twist to let his left arm take the brunt. He slammed forward into the slopped deck, more pain going through him. He turned to see Garmadon bringing his swords down again, and this time Lloyd met them by catching the blade and then thrusting his arms out. He brought his feet up to kick Garmadon away, standing up and running backwards up the deck. One he reached the top of the part, he noted the two dragon heads behind him.
Garmadon, recognizing he had the high ground, turned and grabbed hold of a crate in all four hands, spinning and sending it right up into Lloyd. The ninja ducked out of its way, only for another crate and what looked to be papers being sent at him. Lloyd caught one, seeing what looked to be a trading card, but completely solid and abnormally large for a 'card.' He batted it aside and instead looked his opponent in the eye.
The warlord did not take his challenge lightly. He rushed forward, his swords extended and rushing straight up the deck at him. This time, Lloyd planted his foot on the deck -or on a stud rather- and received Garmadon's attacks. His swords rapidly spun and clashed against Garmadon's own, each time their slices cutting into one another and spinning back with a ferocity into their attacks again. Lloyd bobbed and weaved his body around strikes, while Garmadon seemed to spin and snap into position to position, arms and legs alike coming up to attack with a massive strength.
A particularly hard strike rattled Lloyd's arm, giving Garmadon a window. He threw one sword overboard, making Lloyd track it in confusion. Garmadon jumped into the air and then came down towards him, bringing all three blades up for a massive slash. Lloyd's body went on pure instinct, twisting his body to the side and reaching up to grab Garmadon's free hand as he passed. He thrust forward, sending Garmdon forward over the edge.
Rather than shout, Garmadon flung away another blade and instead reached up, grabbing the decorative golden flairs of the left dragon head. He tossed a sword up to his free top hand and then pulled his body up in a perfect pullup, sliding his sword directly along where Lloyd stood. Lloyd was sent off balance as he jumped to avoid it, falling forward over the edge as well. Only by grabbing onto the right dragon head did he manage to avoid going into the strangely natural looking water. Lloyd caught his second sword between his feet before it could be lost.
The two warrior snapped attention to the other. The two swung back and forth, trading strikes with one another as they dangled over the ocean. Lloyd's arm began to burn within seconds, but Garmadon seemed content to hang there for as long as need be. Lloyd, thinking fast, crunched his abs and tossed his feet up into the air, sending his sword up onto the deck.
Garamdon, seemingly taking the action as a challenge, brought his legs horizontal and spun his body up into the air, spinning once before landing atop the dragon head. He grinned down to Lloyd, pointing a sword down at him, "Don't ever challenge me to an abs contest, not even that self righteous bat jerk can measure to m-"
Lloyd let go of the railing, free falling for a brief moment before he brought his hands together. An airjitzu cyclone formed under him, carrying him up and back onto the deck. Garmadon watched the display with confusion, giving Lloyd enough time again to scramble and grab the katana he'd thrown back up.
"How many other tricks do you have like that?" Garmadon groaned, "I want to know now."
Lloyd brought his swords up and slashed at Garmadon, who used his two remaining swords to counter them. Lloyd, seizing his chance, slid one of the the swords between his two and yanked upwards, disarming it. Garmadon spun his remaining sword and countered Lloyd's strikes with it.
With only one blade, Garmadon went on the defensive. Lloyd's jabs and swipes were now being met with a man standing his ground, Garmadon refused to give as he Lloyd did his best to lay into Garmadon.
"This is to prove that I'm on your… side!" Lloyd shouted as he brought his swords down from overhead, the force knocking the other blade form Garmadon's hands.
For a brief moment, Lloyd felt a sense of satisfaction. He smirked, drawing his swords in front of him and pointing them at Garmadon, "Now… surrender, Garmad-"
"Dust of Shao, go!" Garmadon shouted, bringing his hands up and blowing a massive cloud of yellow right into Lloyd's face.
The action caused Lloyd to sputter, the dust not stinging but making seeing anything nearly impossible. Garmadon used the chance to lean back to the railing of the ship, prying up two large tiles and clipping them into his hands. He rushed forward and spun them straight into Lloyd's hands, sending the swords wayward. Lloyd, still stunned by the dust, couldn't react in time to feel the deck under him rising.
Garmadon's stood over Lloyd triumphantly as a portion of the deck hiding weapons now stood raised up, with Lloyd's balance having been completely disrupted. Garmadon tossed the tiles aside and turned around, grabbing hold of Lloyd's katanas that had fallen. He place his foot firmly on Lloyd's chest, then planted the two swords on either side of Lloyd's head, sharp edge turned towards him.
"Hah, the Dust gets them every time!" Garmadon laughed, "Every. Time."
"That… that was a dirty trick…" Lloyd muttered. Garmadon shook his head.
"Nah, it's called fighting, and you pulled out that tornado thing… well, two tornado things twice actually!" He frowned, "I think that I still can pull out one more trick if I wanted."
Lloyd didn't say anything. He stared at Garmadon, his breath coming out in hard gasps. The sheer intensity of their bout was starting to weight on him, and seeing Garmadon literally standing over him drained his desire to fight further. Slowly, his shoulders and body relaxed, leaning his head into the deck. Upon seeing this, Garmadon nodded his head.
"So… you weren't lying," He grinned, "It seems we've gotten ourselves a little ally."
"Wait… what?" Lloyd blinked as Garmadon stood up and backed away, "I… what do you mean?"
"If you were working with the Twins, then your will to fight wouldn't have gone away," Garmadon shook his head, "In fact, I'd have felt it rise from that. But you, oh no you went the total opposite way! Seems as though you either are telling the truth, or you're deluded into telling the truth. You don't seem to be under any memory erasure spells or talismans, so… seems like we're allies in this."
Garmadon turned around, walking over to a grate in the deck. He reached down and popped two sides of it off, lifting it up and barking something down into it. Slowly, each of the ninja climbed up from it, looking to Lloyd as they caught sight of him. The last to climb up was Lulloyd, who turned to see Lloyd standing up with an unreadable expression.
"He's clean," Garmadon grinned, "All of you, meet General Ally One, or Lloyd. When you address him on the comms, use the first one!"
"You giving everyone here a general name just feels kinda demeaning," Nya shook his head, "We'll call him Lloyd."
"But… I'm Lloyd?" Lulloyd blinked.
"I believe we will utilize your father's way of referring to you to help distinguish you two," Zane smiled, "Friend nickname updated as 'Lulloyd.'"
"I never noticed how nice that name is," Kai grinned, "But now I got my man Lloyd and my man Lulloyd! So convenient!"
"But… I was here first…" Lulloyd spoke up, only to be drowned out by Garmadon.
"He's going to be working with us to help find Krux and Acronix," Garmadon informed the team, "I would suggest you get to know your new ally, you will be helping him to secure the location of one Krux and Acronix. Am I understood?"
"Uhm… I'm Jay," Jay slowly reached his hand out, "You, uh, can call me Jay."
"I know your names already," Lloyd smiled, "You guys are actually apart of my team in the other world."
"Oh… uh, sorry for that then," Jay retracted his hand, "So… another universe? What, is it like there?"
"Well… there aren't weird bricks everywhere, for one," Lloyd brought a hand to his chin, "And… uhm, nobody moves as stiffly as you guys do."
"You trying to say something about us?" Cole asked with narrowed eyes. Lloyd opened his mouth to respond, but Cole shook his head.
"I'm messing with ya," Cole smiled gently, "You like some old school beats?"
"I listen to some from time to time… you mean like, rock 'n' roll, right?" Lloyd cocked his head. The look on Cole's face could best be described as a mixture of horror and amusement.
"Cole, this isn't the time to be putting your music tastes on someone we just met," Nya sighed, "Sorry, he's trying to find someone that 'kicks it old school' like he does. It's good to have you apart of the team then, Lloyd."
"Good to be here," Lloyd nodded his head, "You all heard why I was here during my interrogation, right?"
"Yes," Zane smiled. Lloyd awaited a follow up, none came.
"Uh, then, you guys know that the Twins are dangerous," Lloyd gestured to the city, "They can control time by slowing it down, jumping forward and reversing it. That Iron Doom was strong, like you guys all saw. We need to find out where it went."
"Uh… there's not many places, other than the city here… unless they decided to go into the Jungles," Jay peeped up, "But, the only reason that someone would go in there is for some sort of life-changing journey!"
"Then we need to go out there and find them," Lloyd nodded his head, "And make sure that all the snakes in the city were rounded up. They might be using the sewer system to make it outside the city. Does anyone have a map of the city?"
"I can produce several copies, one moment," Zane paused. The sound of an electronic printer filled the air and Zane turned around from the group. When he turned back, he held seven copies of a large tile map.
"Good," Lloyd took one, looking over it. He tried to fold it, but found that such an action was hardly possible. Instead, he let his arm holding it drop, "Thanks, Zane."
"Uh… hey," Lulloyd stepped forward, "So, I'm the leader of the team, do you wanna go and talk about this privately or…?"
"Lulloyd," Garmadon pipped up, "Lloyd is giving the battle plan right now."
"But-" Lulloyd started to speak, but Lloyd continued.
"However long it takes for your mechs to be put back into commission, us the ones that you still have to get searching the city in the meantime," Lloyd looked ou to the buildings, "Some of you should go into the jungle as well and determine any locations that the Iron Doom could be hiding. The Twins built it in a swamp, so they are used to keeping a low profile. I'll give you some descriptions of what they look like, so if you see them, you can capture them. Any questions?"
"Just one!" Kai crossed his arms, "What are we gonna do when we find them?"
"Capture them and make sure they can't escape," Lloyd smirked, "Think you can do that."
"That's a pretty simple plan…" Kai paused, "That's MY kind of plan! I like this plan, I'm excited to be apart of this plan!"
"Good," Lloyd smirked, "Garmadon, I'll tell you whatever else about the Twins you need to know, alright?"
"Sharing information is an essential part of any strategy," Garmadon nodded, "Alright, you heard the man, ninjas! Get out there and make a Warlord proud!"
"Acknowledged!" The group all shouted, sans Lulloyd. As the five of them made their way out to collect weapons, Lulloyd hesitated before turning around.
"General Number Son!" Garmadon called out. Lulloyd paused in his stride, turning to his father.
"Make sure that your ninjas use proper communication channels!" Garmadon narrowed his eyes, "I won't answer any of them that don't call in properly!"
Lulloyd sighed, "Yeah… gotcha, dad."
"Good, General Number Son. Now, let's start the hunt!" Garmadon grinned, "I need to get those two back for making me look stupid defending my city!"
"That stupid boy was Lloyd?!" Krux crumpled the tile of newspaper into wedges with a snarl, "How did we run into Lloyd so quickly in this dimension?!"
Acronix wasn't paying attention. Instead, the twin was bashing away at a red stud and rotating a lever, navigating a little pixelated ship on the arcade machine around. His grin widened as he blasted away a large spaceship in his way, causing his score to rise exponentially. A victory tune sung out from the speakers.
"Look, brother, I just got the high score!" Acronix grinned hard, "We should take some of these machines with us!"
Krux felt his blood boiling. He stood up, walked over, and delivered a harsh punch directly into the machine. The force of impact caused the entire machine to crumble to pieces, falling to the ground with little clicks. Acronix gasped and turned to his brother in disbelief.
"I hadn't saved my score yet!" Acronix protested, "You can't go around breaking machines like that!"
"I've had it with your fascination with this trite, it's nothing more than time-wasting!" Krux spat, "We came to do surveillance and find out more about these ninja, not play petty games!"
Acronix gave his brother a long look then he sighed and crossed his arms, "I am doing research. This dimension has comparable technology to our own, perhaps a bit behind. Didn't you just confirm that the boy riding that mechanical dragon was Lloyd Garmadon?"
"I did," Krux growled, turning and walking his way in and out of the machines while pacing, "Those ninja defeated Garmadon a few months ago, and now they've become allies. If that Garmadon gives us trouble again, we'll need to go to another universe."
"Do we have enough power to do so with just our Lloyd's power we stole?" Acronix asked, "We could just give up and go home."
"Unfortunately not…" Krux sighed, "Elemental power regenerates when inside of a living thing. The chronosteel of our time blades are made up of fossils, which is why they regenerate. But the regeneration rate of the crystals we stole from that island will take almost two months for us to make another jump."
"Why not just take this green ninja's power then?" Acronix had already started playing a racing game, earning the ire of his brother. As he sat down, a man dressed up as a street magician came over and began to rapidly piece the broken machine back together.
"The Iron Doom is too damaged for us to fight right now, and this universe doesn't have any sort of materials like we had. We can't… what are you doing?!" Krux yelled at the magician working on the machine.
The magician stopped, "Oh, pardon me, I'm on a special holiday from overseas, and I saw this broken machine and just had to fix it!" He put the top plate on, causing the machine to turn back on, "Here, I even managed to save your game, good sir!"
"Really?!" Acronix leapt up from his machine, grabbing the controls and quickly playing away at it, "You're amazing!"
"...How did you fix that machine just now?" Krux cocked his head, staring at the magician.
"Oh… well, I'm what you call a Master Builder, good sir!" He passed his wand from hand to hand, "I don't like to brag, however."
"Teach it to me," Krux stated flatly. This caused the magician to laugh slightly, making Krux's eyebrows twitch.
"Oh, I'm sorry, it takes years of training to learn this skill, and I'm not looking for an apprentice right now!" The magician bowed, took his hat off, then made his way out of the arcade, "But I am more than happy to pass your name to my colleagues! I'm certain one would be more than happy to do so. You certainly have the look of one already… however you pull that off that is!"
Krux's eyebrow twitched. He looked to the leaving magician, then to Acronix, who hooped in victory once more. He looked to the machine Acronix was smashing, then he thought about his own machine. After a few moments, he began to ponder harder, at which point an idea crossed his mind. The twin drew his helmet on and focused his mind.
The magician walked by the alleyway between the arcade and the next shop. As soon as he had, a slithering noise came from the manhole under his feet. He hummed to himself, only to feel something sink into his foot. The next second, he was suddenly dragged into it without even time for a scream.
"Come, brother," Krux stood up, "We're going to learn about whatever this, 'Master Building' is…"