With a small flash, Lloyd, Hariumi and Lulloyd all appeared in front of a withered statue. Harumi looked somewhat sick as she moved over and leaned up against the statue, coughing heavily and taking deep breaths. Dimensional transport had been disorienting in a way she'd never felt before, making her stomach churn. Given this was his second trip, Lulloyd had fared much better. Lloyd was already looking back at the statue to confirm something he wondered given what Harumi had said before they'd jumped.
The statue was indeed of their grandfather -or for Harumi her great-grandfather- sitting cross legged. The stone statue didn't show his face, similar to both of the previous ones. Around the man's body was a stone dragon that wrapped around him, The dragon's head was curled around his neck, with the statue's right hand seemingly petting the top of it. From the expression of the face and beard, all three confirmed whom it was.
"So… any idea where we are?" Lulloyd looked around, "This place doesn't look like my universe…"
"It looks a lot like mine," Lloyd commented, "But we never know what could be out there."
Harumi looked over to him, frowned, and slowly moved to tap a few buttons on her watch. She lifted it up as a holographic screen popped up she tapped. A light from the side of it scanned the statue, then both Lloyd and Lulloyd. It turned back in on itself before finally sending results onto the screen.
"Well, it's not your universe," Harumi commented dryly as she scanned the air and then him, "You both give off completely different energy signatures. But it's far closer to yours than it is his." She gestured to Lloyd then Lulloyd.
"Your… watch can do that?" Lulloyd asked curiously.
"The Borg Watch has over a thousand features that I haven't even fully touched," Harumi explained, "Last night while I was… getting ready, I saw it had an energy reader. I just tested it to see that the radiation coming off you guys has a different wavelength than me."
"I'd say that's silly," Lloyd sighed, "But then again, Borg put a Temporal Scanner in all his watches in my time, so that sounds like something he'd do."
Lloyd frowned at her even as Lulloyd rushed over to something in front of them. A massive swatch of land in front of them had been cut down, and given the size of the track, it was clear what the creature was. Wordlessly, the three nodded to one another.
Lulloyd threw his mech dragon brick out in front of him as Harumi summoned her dragon. Harumi took off into the sky as Lulloyd and Lloyd hopped into the cockpit of the formed mechdragon. They circled about until they were able to see the area to its fullest extent. Harumi stopped to look down at their surroundings.
"This is the Whitetail Woods," Harumi commented into her earpiece, "My statue was in the middle of the city. Should we follow the tracks?"
Harumi indicated to what looked like a large pile of snow disturbed in the distance. The area was still snowing, however, and thus the tracks were now little more than indents into the ground. They veered in various directions as well, making the destination unclear.
"No,"' Lloyd remarked, "It wouldn't be a smart idea. The Time Twins probably expect that we're following them even if they don't know how. They probably planted a trap for us along that path."
"Lulloyd, where do you think we should go?" Harumi asked.
Lulloyd sighed, "I hated it when my dad called me that, I really don't like it when you two do…" He looked up slowly towards the sky, "I, uhm, have no idea. I don't know much about this universe."
"Well… if this place is anything like my universe, then maybe…" Lloyd slowly pulled his ninja suit's top open slightly to remove a tiny circular pad from the cloth, "Nya put these trackers on us so that if we got knocked off the Bounty she could find us quickly. They can track the Bounty too. Now… if this is like my universe, and Nya built them the same way here, then maybe… just maybe…"
After a few seconds of the tracker blinking, the light became solid. Lloyd smiled, "Yes! Alright, we just gotta follow this now! We can warn this universe's ninja and maybe see about preventing this before it all starts this time. Maybe they've dealt with the Time Twins already."
Harumi didn't say anything. Instead, she let the mechdragon take point in front of her. The two dragons followed the signal, the wooded landscape under them flying by. Lulloyd looked to his screen several times, but was hiding the fact he was looking back towards Lloyd, whom was looking to Harumi behind him.
"Harumi," Lloyd spoke up, "Does your watch have a temporal scanner?"
"I just told you it has everything, so yeah, of course it does," Harumi responded curtly, "Lulloyd, let me fly up to your dragon's computer."
Lulloyd stalled the jets enough to let Harumi catch up. As she flew closer, she pointed her way at the screen. After a couple seconds, a message reading 'SYNC COMPLETE' popped up and the date appeared on Lulloyd's screen.
"There, now you and I should be synced, Lulloyd," Harumi tapped her watch to cause it to turn off, "See what you can make of that data."
Lulloyd stared at the data on screen even as he let his dragon jet forward. He shrugged at it to Lloyd without much recognition. Lloyd, however, stared at it and then nodded his head softly.
"This is only a few years before I left in my universe… I, think I was being possessed by Morro at the time," Lloyd grimaced at the memory and pushed away those thoughts quickly.
"Wait, we're that far back?" Harumi asked, "...That means, I'm in the past? I… I'm in the past!"
"Uhm… what's so special about that?" Lulloyd asked curiously. Harumi suddenly let out a somewhat excited squee over the line.
"I'm in the past! I can meet my parents before everything happened! Well… not exactly them but, I can see what my dad's team was like before he had me!" Harumi gasped, "I… I can see my dad's team in their prime!"
Lulloyd looked to Lloyd at that statement, who just began shaking his head. Harumi continued to think excitedly over what she could do in this universe over the comm enough that the two cut off her line.
"Wasn't she super upset at you a few minutes ago…?" Lulloyd asked curiously.
"If you got the chance to go see your dad during all his conquests that he talked about while he was interrogating me, wouldn't you be excited?" Lloyd asked back. Lulloyd started to disagree, then a few moments of thought made him reconsider.
It seemed this Ninjago was near identical to that of Lloyd's own. As the two soared out of the Woods, they began to bank towards the west. That was odd; the Samurai X Cave was usually where they parked the bounty when it wasn't in flight, and that was to the east. They seemed to be heading towards the coast. The signal wasn't moving either, which made the location they were heading towards even more confusing.
Soon enough, the two had crossed into the desert region, with Lloyd suspecting they'd pass the Anacondrai tomb soon enough. The signal took them along the end of the mountain chain that led towards Jamanikai Village. It was once they were in sight of these mountains that they caught sight of the Bounty. It suddenly became readily apparent why it wasn't moving.
The Bounty was currently parked next to a large rock. A large plume of smoke was rising from the back jet of the ship, with what looked like a massive shiny rock stuck inside of it. The ship looked as though it had crashed softly, if Lloyd knew his crashes well. All six ninja were on the deck of the ship, all in full gi. Lloyd's eyes instantly recognized the gi as the Deepstone armor that Wu had fashioned for them during the Preeminent crisis.
Currently, said ninja were facing what a creature that was coming over the rock. It appeared to be a massive black lizard, easily the size of the Bounty from head to tail. Its entire body, however, was riddled with what looked like massive jagged crystals. The way it was staring at them showed that it clearly wasn't happy. A massive hole looking more like a sinkhole, was opened in the mountains further up the slope of the bounty. The creature's pointed face roared at the crew on the Bounty as it bore down on them.
"That's a Crystal Lizard…" Harumi spoke up quickly, "I thought that they went extinct!"
"Well, maybe we should help them endanger the species," Lulloyd steered his dragon down towards the Bounty, "Let's help them!"
Normally, a Crystal Lizard was a species that remained underground for its entire life. It fed on minerals in the earth, which converted to the crystals that grew from its body. They generally stayed around mountainous or volcanic regions, with myths stating they were the cause of earthquakes. Given their massive size and angry temperament, when one did show its face on the surface, it was never a good thing for anything that lived nearby.
A blast of ice from Zane froze the side of its face. The lizard snarled and ejected a crystal spine from the side of its face, shattering the chunk. Kai leapt to the front of the snow colored ninja, sending fire blasts into the thawed spot. The lizard only blinked at the flames tickling it.
"Our elemental powers won't be of use against something that large!" Zane shouted, using his ice powers to boost himself upwards to the top of one of the Bounty's sails, "We'll have to find another way to bring it down!"
"Oh yeah?" Cole's voice filled the air as he scoffed, "Let's see it handle THIS!"
Cole leapt forward, driving his fists into the rocks. He ripped a boulder nearly four times the size of himself from the mountainside and launched himself up into the air with a hard kick. He swung the boulder as hard as he could. The lizard responded by opening its mouth, firing crystal shards into the boulder to break it apart. Cole's eyes widened and he shrieked as the shards flew right at him… only to look down and see them pass right through him. The ghost sighed in relief as he dropped back to the deck.
"We have to defeat this thing quickly," Kai called out from the deck, "I think Wu's cabin was hit when we crashed, Someone should see if he needs help!"
"I'm on it!" With a flash, the Green Ninja was already rushing below deck.
"The Bounty isn't moving," Nya shouted from the upper deck, "The cannons are offline too!"
"Then we're doing this the hard way?" Jay whined, "Oh great, I think this is the easy way for him!"
The lizard didn't give the group time to talk anymore. It raised its tail into the air and then swung its body in a circle. Crystal spikes on the tail discharged and flung right down into the Bounty's deck. The Ninja scrambled as said deck gained a massive amount of new holes. One spike struck the main sail, causing it to creak. Zane leapt down onto the deck to avoid getting crushed by it.
"Jay!" Nya shouted, "Those crystals are conductors!"
"Huh?! Oh!" Jay pulled out a pair of nunchucks and rapidly spun them up, forming an electric current. He leapt forward and thrust the nunchucks forward, "Have a shock free, on me!"
The electricity struck the crystal spines, arcing right down into the lizard. The lizard shrieked as its body was shocked. In response, its tail raised up into the air and then slammed right down into the deck, nearly throwing Jay over the edge. A shot of water by Nya and flash freeze by Zane created a ramp to catch Jay. The blue ninja shouted as he slid back down the ramp onto his feet on the deck.
"Zane," Pixal appeared on Zane's HUD, "I'm detecting two dragons flying in from the south."
"More Elemental Masters?" Zane asked hopefully. Pixel was silent for a moment, then shook her head.
"One perhaps, but it does not match a dragon I have on record. My sensors indicate that one of the dragons is a machine. Given its design, it doesn't appear to match anything I have on record." Pixel responded.
"A machine?" Zane's mind flashed to the Overlord's mechanical beast, "How peculiar…"
"Look!" Kai pointed a sword up to the sky. As the group turned their attention, they noticed a strange blocky figure clad in black leaping from the mechanical dragon. The dragon rapidly began to shrink down until it looked to be no bigger than a suitcase. A second figure, dressed in green, appeared beside him, both in freefall. The second figure caught the case. Both were glad in full gi and had their hoods drawn.
"NINJA-GO!" The second figure suddenly rapidly spun into a sparking green tornado. The blocky figure landed on top of it and suddenly was shot far up into the air. The spinning one fell to the deck out of his tornado, sending the blocky figure up into the sky. He brandished his sword and narrowed his eyes. He reached his hand out, grabbing one of the spines of the creature just before impact and swinging himself in an arc around it to use up his momentum. He seemingly stopped right in midair and thrust downwards with all his might, driving his sword down into the creature's hide. It clinked against the skin but did not pierce.
The third figure, dressed in strangely familiar robes, let their dragon suddenly swoop in low, extending its wing for the blocky one to grab onto. It was just in time as the lizard reared its back to try to throw him off. The dragon rider flew upwards into a spiral, then dispersed their dragon in midair. Her hands formed two energy discs, sending both of them the two's feet. They clung to the dragon tightly as it carried them down towards the deck, landing soundly. The blocky figure quickly shot out and struck the deck's railing, turning it into bricks he rapidly assembled into a makeshift net to catch the falling one in.
"WOAH!" Jay shouted, "THAT WAS SO COOL!"
"Who are they?!" Kai gasped, "And why are they wearing green?"
"Does it matter what they're wearing?" Nya landed on the deck with water balls on her fists, "I think they're here to help!"
The blocky figured corrected as he waved his hand in a motion that seemed unnatural, "Hey! We're here to help!"
Harumi had landed with her own hood up, which she rapidly spoke through, "We need to destroy the crystal spikes along its spine," Harumi pointed up to the largest ones that ran directly down its back, "If any of those are damaged, it'll retreat underground to regrow them!"
Zane put a hand on his head, "Pixel indicates that those are made of solid crystal, it would be impossible to break them without something of the same material."
"Pixel?" Harumi looked around rapidly, "Where is she?!" She looked around excitedly, much to Zane's confusion.
The lizard roared in anger at seemingly being ignored, raising its front left foot. The crystal-laden tips of its toes slammed down into the deck, piercing through the wood easily. Lloyd shot out and grabbed Harumi, throwing her out of the way just before she was struck.
"Hey!" Harumi growled, "What are you?!" She looked to where she just stood and silenced herself, "I would have dodged that myself!"
"Pixel will get a new body later, right now she's a program inside of Zane's head," Lloyd hurriedly whispered, "Focus on the battle!"
Harumi glared at him angrily, but said nothing. The two stood up as Lulloyd seemed to be lost in thought for a moment.
"Wait, you need something made of the same material?" He looked to the spikes had were now jutting up from the deck and his eyes widened, "Here, I got an idea!"
Lulloyd ripped the tassel off of the stud on the end of his sword and turned it upside down. With the bricks he'd used to build the mini net, he pulled apart bricks with studs on all sides and attached four of them to the end of it. He raced out and his eyes focused. Master building like this wasn't as easy as it was back home, but if he focused hard enough, he could start to see the bricks that each piece would break into. If he could find a way to attach the crystals…
Lulloyd yanked several crystal spikes up from the deck and struck them as hard as he could. His hand burned, but the crystals partially converted to anti-studs on the bottom. He did the same process with four more spikes and laced the bottom of his sword with the crystals in a hammer-like formation. The sheer weight of it caused him to drop it to the deck with a massive groan.
"I can't lift it!" Lulloyd groaned out as he tried to pull on the handle, "These crystals are too… too heavy!"
"Cole!" Lloyd yelled out, "You gotta lift it!"
Cole blinked in confusion as his name was used by someone he hadn't even met before. After a moment, he rushed over and grabbed the handle. Just as Lulloyd stated, it was incredibly heavy. Even just lifting it up into the air took almost all of his super strength.
"INCOMING!" Kai pointed up towards the lizard. The creature had sprouted more spines on its forearms and all were getting ready to fire off. Thinking fast, Harumi fired off ten small discus into the air and aimed them at the spikes that were about to fly off towards them. They struck each spike just as they fired off, sending them harmlessly away into the air. She stumbled slightly from the strain of controlling so many discs.
"Cole!" Lloyd shouted, "I'm gonna throw you, break as many of those things as you can!"
"W-What?!" Cole shouted, just as Lloyd grabbed him. In his shock, Cole had solidified his body.
"NINJA-GO!" Lloyd shouted again, spinning Cole around in his Spinjitzu tornado as fast as he could. When he let go, Cole was sent flying up into the air at a high velocity.
"WWWWAAAAHHHHH!" Cole's shock barely kept him from letting go of his new hammer. Despite his terror, as the lizard came into view, Cole's eyes flashed with understanding.
Focusing hard, Cole suddenly gained a brown aura. After a few seconds, the aura rapidly swirled up around him and up into the air, pooling together above his head. The aura colheased and then exploded outwards to form a massive grizzly bear that roared outwards towards the lizard. The bear leapt up into the air in front of Cole, baring its fangs at the creature. A moment later, Cole's trajectory carried him directly into the path of the bear, which seemingly faded away into his chest.
Cole's eyes gained a burning brown blow that pulsed from the sides of his face. He let out a massive animalistic roar as the hammer that had previously been hard to lift was swung over his head like a stick and brought it down in front of him with ease. The speed and force of the swing shattered one of the spines on the back of the lizard straight down all the way to the skin, which violently cracked upon impact. Cole landed on the creature's back and swung his makeshift hammer in a massive circle, shattering another spine right behind it.
With a bellow of pain, the lizard sent a ripple along its back, sending Cole flying back into the air. The glow in his eyes faded as he let out another shriek as he was now free falling back down towards the Bounty. The bear appeared in front of him and quickly sparked away. Harumi shot another disc at him, catching his back and gliding him back down towards the deck safely.
The lizard whipped around in fear. Its tail fully broke the main sail of the bounty with the swing. The creature rapidly began to flee back into the mountain. The spines that had previously attacked them shot into the mountainside to crack it apart, letting it burrow with ease back into the dirt and rock. Its tail went up into the air as it rapidly descended into the earth.
Once Cole had gotten to his feet, he dropped the hammer. Lulloyd walked over and hit the top of the makeshift weapon, causing it to all break apart to just his sword. He placed the tassel he'd picked back up on the end and sheathed it on his back. The ninja team formed up in front of Lloyd, Lulloyd, Harumi and all let out a massive cheer of victory.
"Thank you so much for your help!" Nya gasped out.
"That was AWESOME!" Jay shouted at them, "That thing you were doing with the discs, and that little spinny thing you were doing, and then you were flying around and made that hammer, you guys were so cool!"
"Thanks, we really appreciate your help!" Kai smiled at them and then smirked, "But uh… who exactly are you guys?"
"Your choice of outfit is rather peculiar," Zane scanned them, "Your attire seems to be directly inspired by that of the Green Ninja, yet to my knowledge there is only one. One of you also appears to be moving in a rather robotic fashion."
"Hmm… you're right," Cole rubbed his chin, "You guys do look kinda weird!"
"Where is the Green Ninja?" Lloyd asked. The group was about to answer, but at that moment the ninja himself raced upwards from the interior of the ship with several weapons in hand. He was in his deepstone garb with his hood drawn up.
"Guys, Wu said that we have to break the spines on the lizard to…!" The Green Ninja looked up towards the mountainside, then looked to the three strangers. He cocked his head in confusion.
"Heeeyyy, nice of you to finally join us!" Kai grinned, "Sorry, but the lizard's already gone."
"Yeah!" Jay put his arm on Harumi's shoulder, "These guys helped us out!" Harumi blushed under her hood.
The Green Ninja walked forward, his face filled with confusion. As he got close to them, the three shared a look to one another. Lloyd nodded his head and slowly nodded his head.
"Okay…" Lloyd put his hands up, "This is going to be a surprise, but we can explain…" On cue, he, Harumi and Lulloyd all pulled their hoods upwards to reveal their faces. Lloyd smiled awkwardly, while Lulloyd brushed his hair aside to mimic Lloyd.
"Me a little less so," Harumi smiled awkwardly with her face revealed.
The Green Ninja looked on without a reaction, "Uh… am I supposed to know who you are?" Slowly, he reached up to draw his hood back, "Sorry, but I don't recognize you."
As soon as his face was revealed, both Harumi and Lloyd gasped.
"Morro?!" The two shouted in confusion. Morro slowly smiled and nodded.
"You three fought extremely well from the looks of it!" Morro smiled warmly, "It's a shame we haven't crossed paths until now. Allow me to extend my gratitude for helping us with that Crystal Lizard." He bowed his head slightly.
Lloyd remained in a state of complete shock, his lips frozen. Lulloyd looked onto Morro without any knowledge as to how this was shocking aside from the fact the Green Ninja wasn't himself. Harumi managed to compose herself the most and spoke up for them.
"It was nothing," She extended her hand, "We've already told the others, my name is Harumi, this is Lloyd and Lulloyd." Behind Harumi, Lulloyd put a hand to his face and groaned.
Morro accepted her handshake with a hard and firm grasp. He shook it heartily, almost making Harumi jerk forward with the force. The rest of the ground dispersed slightly to go and assess the damage to the Bounty in full.
"Why are you all wearing green though?" Jay asked once Morro let go. Morro shot him a look.
"Let's not be rude, Jay. They just helped us defeat that Crystal Lizard. Though, I wonder if this meeting was purely by chance?" Morro asked with another smile.
"It actually wasn't," Harumi shook her head, "We were on our way to talk to you and Master Wu. There's a matter of grave urgency we need to warn you about. Wu knows a lot more about it and can help fill you all in."
"Well then," Morro nodded, "I'll go get Master Wu for you, it'll just be a moment." He turned and once more disappeared below deck.
As soon as Morro was gone, Lloyd and Harumi stopped waving at him and instead they turned to one another, turning around and huddling in close to speak. Lulloyd paused for a moment before he was dragged in to talk with them.
"This doesn't make sense," Lloyd looked to Harumi, "Morro, he should be dead. Or, he shouldn't be human. You read about him, right?"
"Yeah, Souma talked a bit about him, and my dad told me the stories," Harumi muttered, "Something must be wrong here. Morro was Sensei Wu's apprentice a long time ago, right? Even if he didn't run away from being his apprentice, then he would be way older than he looked."
"Uhm… I don't wanna barge in but, can you explain this bit about Morro?" Lulloyd asked sheepishly, "Like, I know you were talking to him with Zane in the last world, but, uh, like I said there we don't have the same frame of reference?"
Lloyd looked around to ensure the other ninja were off doing other things, "A long time ago, maybe like, thirty years before I became a ninja, I'm not sure when exactly, Wu found a young boy called Morro who turned out to be the Master of Wind. Wu trained Morro up for years, and soon thought he could be the Green Ninja. Morro wasn't, and when he saw this, he got angry and left. He ended up dying in the Caves of Despair trying to prove he was strong enough to be one. Well, he got cursed and became a ghost. He escaped a few years ago for me, and when he did, he tried to unleash the physical embodiment of the Cursed Realm into Ninjago. He died trying."
"That's the puzzling part…" Harumi nodded her head, "If Morro was born around the end of the Serpentine Wars, then he'd have to be at least fifteen years older than you. He died still young, so his ghost reflected that. But he looks your age…"
"Who are these visitors that you have brought me?" A wise old voice rang out from the entrance to below deck.
The group whipped around to see Master Wu walking forward. His attire was still in his battle robes, specifically those he'd taken on in preparation for storming the City of Stiix. The golden bands shone against the small bits of armor he wore underneath them. The clicking of his cane was followed by Morro smiling at him and gesturing to the group.
"They aided up in our battle against the Crystal Lizard, Master," Morro nodded his head, "They were on their way to meet you. They have incredible powers, I think you should see for yourself."
Wu chuckled, "I'm certain there are few abilities I can see that will impress these old bones, but I'm certain… certain that…"
"Master Wu, my name is Lloyd, this is Harumi and Lulloyd," Lloyd gestured to his group, "We've come with news of an impending danger to Ninjago. Can we speak to you?"
Wu's eyes were unreadable as he took in the group. He stood still, a few feet away from Lloyd. Lloyd extended his hand further, ready to shake to fully introduce himself. Morro smiled expectantly at Wu. For a few seconds, Wu stared at the group, completely still.
Then Wu's staff spun upwards, cracking out into Lloyd's hand and knocking it backwards. The end of the wooden staff pointed up into Lloyd's face as Wu's eyes filled with an anger that Lloyd had only seen when the Master had faced the Time Twins themselves.
"Leave," Wu's words were laced with venom, "Leave this place and never return."
Lloyd's eyes widened, "B-But Master Wu, we need to warn you-"
"LEAVE!" Wu shouted, the staff spinning again and smacking Lloyd again, "You have no place on this ship! Do not return to us, if there is a threat, we will deal with it ourselves!"
"Master!" Morro shouted in shocked, "What are you doing?!"
"Hey, what was that sound?" Jay piped up, walking over. The other ninja slowly began to converge on Wu.
"These are trespassers, they have no place here anymore than they do among this world," Wu hissed, "Leave now, or I will remove you!"
"Wu…" Harumi spoke sadly, "Please, we simply need to warn you, this is just-"
The woman was cut short as Wu's eyes suddenly glowed golden. Aura formed around him and converged on his staff he thrust up into the air. From it, a beautiful golden dragon formed. The dragon was roughly as long as the staff, and its serpentine body wound around the pole as it flew up into the air. The dragon hovered over Wu once it was fully summoned, his jaws snarling. Wu spun himself in a circle and then pointed his staff forward. The dragon shot down into Wu's chest, filling his body and causing Wu to gain a bright golden glow around his body. Lloyd could feel power emanating from Wu just as he stood there, staring Lloyd down.
"I said, I will remove you," Wu's voice sounded distant yet loud, as if it was being projected from far, far away, "Do not make me, or you will regret it."
Lloyd tried to speak again, but this time it was Lulloyd that stopped him. He walked forward and slowly stood in front of Lloyd, then bowed down by hinging at the waist. Wu stared at him as Lulloyd sighed, "We… we will go, we apologize for intruding, Master Wu…"
Wu took a long breath. The power that was in his body seemed to fade as he planted his staff back on the deck. He said no more, and instead turned around and waited for the group to leave.
"I'm… sorry that, it had to be this way," Morro sighed, "It appears that our paths were not meant to cross."
"More than you know…" Lloyd muttered before speaking at regular volume, "It's fine, Morro. We'll be leaving now."
Lloyd turned around, signalling for the two to follow him. The stunned ninja team watched as the three were forced to leave, each sliding over the side of the wrecked Bounty onto the ground. As soon as they hit the ground, Harumi pointed to Lulloyd's brick.
Harumi and Lloyd gave another look back at the Bounty. Wu was looking at them with a side glare harshly. Lulloyd threw his brick onto the ground as it rapidly unfolded out into his dragon, which he helped Lloyd climb onto. Harumi summoned her own dragon, taking off into the sky. The mech dragon didn't make a sound as its jets carried it up into the sky as well, taking the three far away from the Bounty.
As the ship faded into the clouds, Lloyd's mind was racing. Part of him was painfully hurt by Wu's harsh words and a very physical threat against him. This was Master Wu, and from what Harumi said, this was before anything like the Time Twins. He was shocked at being rejected like just like that. Was it his appearance? His name? Why had he reacted so harshly to him being the one to introduce himself?
"Should we try to warn them about the Time Twins when Wu isn't around…?" Lulloyd, his voice showing an equal level of confusion, asked, "They, need to know that there is a threat…"
"We shouldn't bother," Harumi responded over the comm, "You saw that threat. Something happened to Wu, and he doesn't want us helping. We might make it worse if we even try to contact the ninja."
"What was that all about…?" Lloyd asked half to himself, "Why would Wu, be angry like that? At, us of all things?"
There was a long silence. Their dragons flew up into the sky until they were far enough away from the Bounty for some form of comfort. Harumi stopped her dragon, and Lulloyd shifted his thrusters to simply keep his dragon up in the air in place. He muttered something about needing some fuel soon.
"...Something had to have happened to Lloyd in this world," Harumi surmised, "Wu reacted to you trying to shake his hand. He was looking at you, not us. I don't know how, but, let's assume that Wu at least, knows Lloyd. Something must have happened to him for Wu to be angry."
"Even assuming that he did, the other ninja didn't recognize us," Lloyd shook his head, "And again, there's the age difference thing."
"That might just be dimensional circumstance. This is an alternate universe," Harumi pointedly stated, "Maybe Lloyd was born earlier or later in this world. If Morro was born later, than that fixes the age gap."
"But where is Lloyd?" Lulloyd pipped up, "The team, should have recognized us with our hoods down. That means that Lloyd never met them either?"
"Something might have happened to Lloyd before the team could meet him," Harumi mused, "Maybe… but, we wouldn't be able to know unless we found Lloyd or could talk to Wu."
"Can, we stop referring to this, other me in the third person?" Lloyd asked, "It, feels weird talking about myself as a separate person."
"You got lucky that Lulloyd has a nice nickname and I'm from the next generation," Harumi scoffed, "Not every world will have some convenient name for us to give to ourselves."
"Okay," Lulloyd groaned, "I still wish you guys would find another name for me, but, where exactly are we going now?"
Lloyd thought for a few moments. He tried to piece together what they could do now. They were in this universe, and tracking their elemental power was only good for getting into the world. The ninja were their best bet, and it's worked twice so far.
"Oh!" Harumi pipped up, "What about Uncle Dareth? Maybe he'll give us some help!"
"Uhm…" Lloyd shook his head, "No, that's, Dareth just has a small dojo in this world. Plus, he won't even know who any of us are."
"I know, but, I wanna see what Dareth was like in the past!" Harumi excitedly clarified, "Maybe he can even tell us some stuff about Lloyd!"
"I doubt it," Lulloyd spoke up, "Dareth is… uh, many things but, I don't think he'd know about that."
"You have a Dareth too?" Harumi perked up, "What's he like?"
"Basically like your Uncle," Lulloyd paused, "Except, my Dareth constantly tries to build a mech to be the Brown Ninja."
"Dareth IS the Brown Ninja!" Harumi shouted over her mic, "He's the best ninja!"
Lloyd tuned out what the two were saying. Where could they go for information? The ninja were out, and that also ruled out Misako lest they want to anger Wu when he learned they spoke to her. The ninja's ongoings weren't generally publicized until Dareth took over for their PR, and that didn't seem to have happened yet. They needed someone they could go to that knew the ninja, and maybe knew things that an average citizen wouldn't...
"Regardless of how great Dareth is," Lloyd shook his head, "I think, I have an idea."
"What idea?" Harumi and Lulloyd asked in tandem.
"Well… ever heard of a guy called Ronin?"
As it turned out, the ramage of the Preeminent had only been a few months ago. That became readily apparent as the two dragons landed just outside of Stiix. The city itself was reduced to scrap in several places, with a clear path able to be drawn from where the Preeminent had covered itself in buildings. The entire western half of the city was nothing more now than junk floating in the water and broken poles sticking up with splintered tops. Those buildings that still stood were overcrowded as those that lost their homes needed places to stay. Large cranes were erected, and appeared to be dredging up things from the bay.
"So… this is Stiix?" Harumi shuddered, "This place was rebuilt back home for me…"
"Yeah, we weren't exactly welcomed back here after Morro destroyed the place," Lloyd shook his head, "Thankfully this time we don't have to come in disguise."
"Wait, disguise?" Lulloyd asked as the two stepped forward onto the plank bridge to the city, "Uhm… do I want to know?"
"Power hungry Djinn making us out to be Ninjago's most wanted, or so I'm told," Lloyd stated plainly, "Come on, let's find Ronin."
As soon as the three were in the first stretch of buildings, the sight of the city's destruction was evident. Or, perhaps that was just the natural element of Stiix. There was a purveying stench throughout the streets, one of unwashed men and the ocean's spray underneath the planks. Those that stayed in the city wore ragged or dirty clothing, many of which sporting harsh glares as the three walked by. The streets were crowded with men carrying new planks or equipment, working to repair the damages. More than once, Harumi almost found herself getting her head knocked off by a man swinging something about without looking.
Asking around about Ronin often times earned them scoffs or snarls. The more people they asked, the deeper they went into the grime and darkness. Lloyd felt a pang of worry as he saw a small group of men leering towards Harumi as she walked by. Her ninja outfit had a hole that showed the underside of her chest in a large window very clearly, and while he knew it was symbolic of her moving forward, it didn't help that he knew others were looking at it.
"Harumi," Lloyd slowly paused, "Do, you think you wanna, cover up a little bit?"
"What?" Harumi frowned, "Why?"
"Your… uhm, suit, the hole…" He gestured to the little cutout, "It's, attracting attention."
"Are you saying I can't handle myself?" Harumi scoffed at him, forming tiny little Rhotatae discs in her hands, "I'm not covering this up. This is my suit. My dad died in this thing, I'm not going to cover up the reminder of what happened. And I am wearing underwear, if that's what you're asking."
Lloyd's face lit up with bright red as he snapped his head forward, "T-That wasn't what I was thinking at all! I'm, just saying we're not in the nicest of places is all!"
Harumi thought about that for a moment. Then, she reached up and pushed Lloyd aside. She walked up to the nearest man she could see. His grizzled and dirtied face, along with workman's clothes with several tears in them, looked to her for a moment. Harumi smoothed her hair back and then smiled at him with a warm and obedient smile.
"Hello sir," Harumi giggled slightly, "I'm looking for a man called Ronin. Do you think you could help us find him?"
"That deadbeat?" The man slurred, "Heh, I know where he is. What exactly are you wanting him for?" His eyes started to drift to the hole in her outfit.
"Oh you know… I've heard a lot about him!" She flipped her hair back, "I just want to make sure that I can thank him for saving Ninjago!"
"That guy didn't do nothin' for nobody. Him and his stupid little friend only cause trouble. Now… if you want me too…" His lips curled into a grin, "Maybe I can help show you where he is…" His eyes were drifting lower.
Harumi smiled for a moment, then she suddenly it dropped into a frown. Her hand rapidly formed a small Rhotatae disc as he slammed it forward into his chin. The disc shattered on his chin, sending far more than the force of a normal punch into his skull. Her knee shot up and hit him in the chest, making him double over in pain. Her other hand grabbed his hair and pulled him upwards so he was facing her.
"My eyes are up here," Harumi stated coldly, "How about instead of that, you just tell me where I can find him?"
For a moment, the man blinked heavily at her. His thoughts were unfocused as the pain of getting stuck like that pulsed through him. Then, he slowly turned and began to babble off directions, pointing with his hand at the paths she would need to take. Harumi nodded to each of them, then she giggled again and dropped him back down onto the ground.
"Thank you so much, good sir," Harumi turned around, "I'll make sure to follow that to a T." She winked at him, then stalked forward to Lloyd.
"Follow me," Harumi stated to him firmly, then turned around. Both of them were left stunned at the actions she'd just performed.
"Wow…" Lulloyd muttered, "That's, your daughter?"
"...Apparently…" Lloyd shook his head, "Come on, she got us directions to Ronin's place. Let's go!"
Harumi confidently led the three of them down several paths, a few of which led them through alleys with men sleeping up against the sides of wooden buildings. More than once, Lulloyd almost fell into the ocean below. Harumi said nothing and only continued to lead them forward. The two had nearly reached the very edge of the city, the buildings thinning out and become far newer when they found themselves at their destination. The building was unmistakably newly built, and was separated from the homes around it by a long walkway up to it. The general exterior, however, was clearly that of Ronin's shop.
"Huh… guess he rebuilt this place…" Lloyd shrugged, "Alright, let's go inside. Ronin can give us some information."
"Your Ronin must be different from mine," Lulloyd frowned, "Our Ronin always tries to steal our mechs in battle and then sell them back to us…" He looked to his mech dragon brick, "...There's a reason why I make it so my dragon has so many extra limbs stored up inside of it now…"
"I only know the stories about him," Harumi shrugged, "But, the guy back there said something about a friend? I don't remember any of that."
Lloyd shrugged and then moved forward to open the doors. There was a massive creak despite the new wood. As soon as they entered, the large purple rug in front of them and little bits of blue light that trickled in from the mostly covered windows instantly put him back into the memories of this place. He muttered to himself as he stepped forward into the seedy shop.
Around them, various boxes filled with weapons were pilled up, many of them unorganized. A few scrolls and banners hung on the walls, cluttering up the space further. It was impossible to tell what was genuine and what was fake just from looking. How Ronin had built up this much of his inventory back after having his place destroyed was beyond Lloyd. He could only guess how much more stuff was hidden on site. The items, however, wasn't the strangest thing about it.
Across the room, there was someone at the counter. At first, the three thought it was Ronin. Yet as they stepped forward, the dull light of the shop revealed it was anyone but him. The first thing that stood out about the figure was that he was green. There was a strange way that light passed through him. As they took a closer look, they realized that the figure was none other than a ghost. A ghost was manning the counter of Ronin's shop.
The ghost had messy unkempt black hair that was somewhat slicked back against his forehead. His eyes had large bags under them, and his gaze was filled with boredom. He wore what looked to be body armor, similar to what Ronin would wear. It covered him in pieces, going up and down his arms, legs and torso. Each piece was colored either maroon, yellow or black, with each piece being tinted green from his ghostly nature. Across his left arm, he wore a massive side cape that was black with two bands of maroon and yellow going down it vertically. On his hip were a pair of daggers plainly placed for all to see. He looked young, perhaps 17 or 18 at first glance.
The ghost slowly looked up from the counter. He yawned slightly and then spoke in a somewhat scratchy voice, "Hey. What do you want?"
As he yawned, his eyes focused on the group in front of him. He looked from Lloyd, to Lulloyd, and then to Harumi. When he looked back to them, he slowly put his hands on the counter and pushed himself upright. This plate armor he wore shifted slightly as he did so, and he grumbled as he tightened the straps to it.
"Uhm… is this Ronin's shop?" Lloyd asked curiously.
"Yep, this is our place, we have a big selection of exotic goods and weapons, if you're looking for weapons at decent prices and questionable legality, shop Ronin and Mon…. Aaauugghwh…" The ghost yawned again, "I'm Monty, what do you want?"
"We were hoping to get some information about where we can find someone named Lloyd Garmadon," Harumi stepped forward, "Can we talk to Ronin?"
Monty paused, "Lloyd Garmadon? Never heard of him. You want weapons? Armor? Anything else I can get you to get you out of here faster?"
"No, we're, looking for Lloyd Garmadon," Lloyd affirmed, "We need information on where we can find him, and we heard that if you need information, you talk to Ronin."
"Ronin is out," Monty shook his head, "You're not wrong, though. This is a good place for information. Bunch of useless stuff, but something good comes up every once in awhile. Why you looking for this, Lloyd Garmadon?"
"That's our own personal reason," Harumi spoke up, "We weren't able to get anywhere with the Ninja, so we decided that perhaps you would be our next best bet."
"Course you didn't," Monty scoffed, "You won't get anywhere with them. Now, if you wanna try talking to them, turn around and leave. Otherwise, let me say this again: you want anything specific? Ronin is out right now, so if you want to talk to him, yoo bad. Right now, you're loitering in the store. Either tell me what you want or get out."
"...Uhm…" Lulloyd thought fast, "Uhm, Harumi here is looking for a weapon!" Lulloyd grabbed Harumi's hand, "She, uh, doesn't use weapons! She was in the market for one!"
Monty looked the group over for a moment before he just sighed and nodded his head. He phased through the counter and walked up towards Harumi. Once he was outside of the counter, now the team could get a full look at him. His arms and legs were strong, yet his overall frame appeared to still be underdeveloped. The armor he wore gave his torso more bulk than it likely had. He brushed his side cape around his back as he stared Harumi up and down.
"Weapon?" Monty reached out and grabbed her arm. His hand was covered in what appeared to be some sort of glove, and when he focused his hand to physically touch her, she found feel that the glove itself felt almost tactical in design, "Well just from your muscles, you're not doing anything overly heavy. What exactly are you looking range wise?"
Harumi pulled her arm away from Monty as quickly as he grabbed her. Monty just stared at her and then sighed, stepping back and walking over towards some crates. Harumi looked at him oddly before she sighed and decided to go along with Lulloyd's idea.
"Well, ideally something close range. I've relied on my fists for awhile," Harumi paused, "But, I need something light. I don't do well with swords either."
Monty yawned, "Well then, aren't you special?" As Harumi twitched, Monty walked over to a large wall with large boxes and barrels filled with several weapons, "Alright, ever thought about just gauntlets? Pure things to put over your hands?"
"I've… considered them, but I also, don't like the feeling of them," Harumi didn't want to let on right now she charged energy in her hands, "I also need to use my hands for, some special things."
"Getting even more unique by the second here girl," Monty shrugged, "Well I'll go ahead and look around for something. We mainly have novelty weapons here, but I'm sure we can find something…."
As the ghost trudged off into the store, it gave the trio a time to turn around. Almost instantly, Lloyd's mouth was moving and filled with questions.
"How did a ghost get away from the Cursed Realm? And why is he with Ronin, of all people?" Lloyd blinked and turned to make sure Monty was still searching, "It doesn't make any sense!"
"I don't know… the only ghost I ever know that escaped was Morro, and that was due to Wu…" Harumi muttered, "Lulloyd, do you know anyone named Monty in your universe?"
"Uhm, no, but like I said we have a Ronin," Lulloyd smile before he winced, "Oh…. great, I just realized he probably stole Kai's fire mech when the Time Twins hit it and sold it back to my friends…"
"Focus on the here and now," Lloyd stated firmly, "We need to talk to Ronin, he always has answers."
"And find a place to stay," Harumi pointed out, "We're not exactly swimming in options here. We can still go to Dareth though!"
"I'm, not sure Dareth would appreciate three strangers dressed up in green ninja clothes just showing up on his doorstep!" Lloyd affirmed, "Though, maybe we should get a change of clothes…"
Just as Lloyd was about to say something else, the sound of something whizzing filled the air. Lloyd turned his head just to see a shuriken flying past his skull, embedding into the wall behind him. As he saw the cold metal reflecting his face back to him, he saw Monty sitting up on the desk casually playing with another.
"Hey!" Lulloyd shouted, "You could have killed us!"
Monty leaned forward, "Well what's so wrong with being dead?" He kicked his feet idly, "And I already said that if you won't buy anything, you're loitering. That was your warning. Next one will shave off some of that golden hair you got there."
Lloyd was about to say something, but Monty raised his hand. A light breeze entered the room, swirling about from under the door. Wind slowly colheased together around the shuriken in the wall, wrapping around it like fingers. Then, suddenly, the weapon shot backwards from the wall, once more nearly clipping Lloyd as Monty's outstretched hand caught the gust of wind and the weapon it brought back with it.
"You're the Master of Wind?" Harumi gasped.
Monty groaned and leaned forward, "You all clearly aren't from around here. Everyone here in Stiix knows that I can blast them clean off into the ocean whenever I want. What, you want an autograph?"
"What? No, no it's just," Lloyd began, "Morro was the master of wi-"
"Don't talk about the ninja in here," Monty stated coldly. His tone dropped from dismissive to venom laced in a heartbeat, "Even if you were stupid enough to bring them up in the city they were destroyed in, don't mention Morro to me."
"Oh, don't mind him," A friendly gruff voice came from behind a curtain behind the counter, "Monty is just in one of his moods it seems."
From the curtain spread apart the figure of Ronin. Lloyd could recognize that armor anywhere. His large red straw hat sat atop his head, his eyepiece still in place and armor still dirty and tough as ever. Almost nothing about him seemed to have changed from the last time that Lloyd met him. Ronin casually strolled over towards the counter and stood beside it.
"I'm not in a 'mood' Ronin," Monty huffed, "They're loitering and talking about the ninja."
"Hmm… must not be from around here then," Ronin chuckled, making Monty roll his eyes, "Well, what brings you all the way out to Stiix in the first place?"
"You said Ronin was out!" Lulloyd protest to Monty.
"Yes, he was out. Now he's back in," Monty huffed, "They came in asking for some Lloyd Garmadon, I told them I didn't know him and then they said they wanted to talk to you."
"Talk to me?" Ronin smirked, "Well, guess they're getting what they wished for. Though, can't say that name rings any bells. Now if you're looking for just Garmadon, well, I can tell you where he is, though you ain't finding him."
"He's dead, yes, we know," Lloyd spoke quickly, "Are you sure the name Lloyd doesn't mean anything to you? Nothing?"
"Nope," Ronin shook his head, "Though, speaking of names, what's yours? I like to get to know my customers a bit."
"Yes, he's such the popular guy around here," Monty sarcastically gasped, "The other day, he had to fight his way past three guys he ticked off!"
"See, mood!" Ronin chuckled, "And those three guys owed me money. I was just trying to collect some money so we'd be able to get some repairs done on REX."
"We're not getting into this again!" Monty snapped, "You three, names, now!"
"Uhhh… Lloyd," Lloyd stated awkwardly, "This is Harumi, and he's Lulloyd." This earned yet another sigh from his bricked dimensional counterpart.
"So, you're named Lloyd, and you're looking for Lloyd?" Ronin shrugged, "Bit of a coincidence there, don't you think? You trying to find some rich twin or long lost relative of yours?"
"Let's just call him someone we need to see," Lloyd answered smoothly, "You think you can help us with that?"
"Hmmmmm…." Ronin looked the three up and down. The lens in his eyepiece shrunk, as if it was analyzing them in some way. Ronin looked over to Monty for a second as he winked with his uncovered eye. Monty stared back at him blankly and then looked back forward to the group with Ronin.
"Well," Monty shrugged, "We don't know a Lloyd, but we could help you dig up some information about him. If you'd be willing to hear us out about a job we were going to work on hiring some muscle on."
"Like… bodyguards?" Lulloyd asked.
"Something like that," Ronin smirked, "Well, Monty and I were going to go out to get some food here soon. Why don't you all come and join us?"
"Us? Join you?" Harumi asked curiously, "You just met us."
"You'll never get to know someone if you don't talk with 'em," Ronin countered back, "And what, is eating lunch a bad thing?"
The answer to that question was already answered for several people in the room. Harumi, however, seemed curious as to where this could lead.
"Sure thing," Harumi smiled, "We haven't eaten in a bit, so why not?"
"Alright then," Monty slid off the counter, "So where are we going tonight, Ronin?"
"Oh, I had a few ideas…" Ronin let that trail off. It took Monty a few seconds, but the ghost suddenly scoffed and shook his head.
"Really?" Monty huffed, "You really wanna go there? Again?!"
"Hey, we haven't been there in at least a week!" Ronin shot at Monty, "You picked the place last time, now I'm picking it this time. Fair as that."
"You know it's named after an insane lunatic that locked me in a dungeon for months, right?"
"Course I do. Doesn't mean the food is any less good!"
"Uh…" Lulloyd blinked, "Where exactly are we going?"
The two partners halted there bickering. Ronin looked over ot Monty, silently asking him if he wanted to explain. When Monty just stayed silent, Ronin spoke up.
"Ever been to Master Chen's?"