"Mhm… you know," Ronin paused between sipping noodles from his bowl, "I've told Skylar, she should totally work on franchising this place more."
"Yes, you've told her that at least ten times…" Monty groaned, barely picking at a bowl of his own, "Face it, Stiix isn't a good location for one."
"She could make it work," Ronin shrugged, "Come on, she's the daughter of Master Chen, I'm sure she could figure out something. If her dad did all that, imagine what she can do!"
The group of five currently were seated in a large circular booth, with Ronin sitting on one end, followed by Monty, Lulloyd, Harumi and Lloyd. Initially, Harumi had tried to sit down away from Lloyd, yet after attempting to ask Monty a few questions, she'd gotten the cold shoulder. She'd instead opted to put the quietest member of their group along with the ghost instead. Lulloyd had said a simple greeting to Monty, gotten nothing, and decided himself not to engage him.
The restaurant they currently were in was indeed the one in the midst of Ninjago City. Ronin had insisted that they go to the original location to get the most authentic experience. He'd taken the group out back behind the shop to a small pier that overlooked the vast ocean outside of the bay Stiix rested in. After flipping away the wood on top of a pillar to reveal it had a control panel under it, a few buttons pushes had brought REX in all her glory out from the ocean depths.
"I keep it under there so idiots don't try to hijack it… or take it for joyrides," Ronin directed that last comment at Monty. Monty had opened his mouth to angrily retort, yet Lulloyd's questioning at the machine had silenced him.
And thus, half an hour later, the group had REX currently parked in a garage several blocks away and were in the original store. Harumi smiled cheekily at Ronin mentioning the franchise location, hitting her watch and tilting it so Lulloyd saw the location in her timeline had gone up to nearly 50 locations. Every so often, Lloyd could see a flash of bright red hair coming from the kitchen.
"So, Skylar runs this place?" Harumi had beaten Lloyd to the punch.
"Hmm? Oh, yeah," Ronin pointed towards the kitchen doors, "Has for awhile now. She's really gotten it up. Love coming here."
"That makes one of us…" Monty groaned.
It hadn't taken much doing for the group to find something they liked. According to Lulloyd, noodles were a popular thing in his Ninjago City. Garmadon had always crushed at least one noodle dog cart on his weekly to biweekly rampages. Thankfully, it seemed noodles themselves were similar in both their dimensions, as Lulloyd easily found himself a few bowls that suited his tastes. The strange thing of 'food' being compatible was one that Harumi put a note down to study later, especially upon Lloyd mentioning he had eaten what looked like plastic but somehow been perfectly fine. Lloyd and Harumi, having eaten at the place many times, had no issues.
"Why don't you like Chen's?" Lulloyd asked Monty.
Monty stopped mid-bite and cast an annoyed glance at Lulloyd. Monty's attitude had already made him out to be quite the ball of sunshine, if said sun was covered by stormclouds. Unlike Ronin sitting upright, Monty was slouched back into the booth, picking at his food with a fork and looking up at the ceiling as much as he was at the three strangers across from him. He had intentionally taken the fork over traditional chopsticks.
"Alright, now that's a story I gotta tell you all about!" Ronin grinned.
"It's my story," Monty turned to Ronin, "Maybe I should tell it this time."
"Last time you told it you bored that girl to death," Ronin smirked. Monty just gave a hard groan and shook his head.
"Great, this again…" Monty groaned, leaning back in the booth and putting his hand up to his face. Ronin ignored him.
"Okay, so, get this," Ronin leaned forward with one arm on the table, "Monty here gets invited to this crazy Tournament of Elements thing. Tells me he's going out for something he needs to do, nothing more to it. This is on an Island, way out in the endless sea. It's not even on any map whatsoever. So, he gets there, and fights in the tournament in one on one matches. Then, boom, he loses to Morro in the middle of the semifinals. You know Morro, right? Green ninja, kinda quiet, super dedicated?"
"We know him," Lloyd affirmed, "Though, he wasn't quiet when we met him."
"Really? Huh, looks like Monty isn't the only one having an off day. Well anyways," Ronin looked over to Monty, "He gets his windy thing stripped away from him, locked in a cell for months, and guess what?"
"Chen just forgets about me."
"Chen just forgets about him! Right up and forgets him in a vengestone cell. So I have to go hopping island to island, scouring the whole thing until finally I figure out where his ghost butt was!" Ronin huffed and threw his arm up in the air.
"I had a plan to get out," Monty sighed, "Not that I'm saying I didn't want to get out of there faster."
"So, Skylar has been offering him free noodles for life to make up for it. She always offers. And guess what!"
"I never accept."
"He never accepts!" Ronin sat back, "Seriously, don't look a gift horse in the mouth is what I say. Heck, that's what my father used to say-"
"Your father didn't 'use to say' anything," Monty growled, "He left you before you could remember him. Spare them some made up story about him as a deep sea diver that talked about how air would work as you went up or whatever!"
"Firstly, he was an adventurer. Heck, he knew Clutch Powers in his hayday! But as he said, don't go up too fast or you'll crack under the pressure, just like building towards your dream in life," Ronin continued, "But yeah, so Monty here has a free lifetime of noodles, and won't take them."
"I don't think Skylar knows what she's getting into offering me that," Monty rolled his eyes, "A lifetime for a ghost is probably far longer than she'll be running this chain."
"How long do ghosts live for?" Harumi spoke up, hoping to interrupt this strange little argument they'd been witnesses to.
"No idea," Monty shrugged, "Pretty sure I'm here to stay until I either get wet or leave. Now that the Cursed Realm is gone, I'm sure I can actually die now. But, you know," He raised his arm up, letting light refract through it, "It's not like death means anything to me."
"You and me both know you're incredibly popular with the ladies though," Ronin smirked, "Speaking of which…" His eyes drifted towards two women chatting away at a nearby booth.
"We have guests," Monty hissed, "I'm not playing wingman for you right now."
"You might wanna get your mind out of that gutter there," Ronin pointed a bit further beyond the two, showing a large bowl of desserts coming down the conveyor belt, "You like those, don't cha?"
Lulloyd and Lloyd had both taken the time to eat rather slowly. In truth, all they'd eaten at Kai's house the previous night for them had been more than enough food, and while they were a little hungry, a place that was partially all-you-can-eat was a bit too much for them. For a moment, the question had come up if ghosts could eat. Lloyd then specifically noted that Monty, despite picking at his noodles, had devoured a bowl of Puffy Pot Stickers.
Harumi was a bit more hungry due to what had happened to her the previous few days. She was eager to dig into food that she had excitedly claimed was the 'original' and taken to grabbing anything off the belt she saw that looked good. While she ate, she intentionally seemed to avoid speaking. When Monty hadn't been looking, she turned and flashed her watch at him, causing it to scan Monty's body. Lulloyd looked to her curiously when he saw this, only garnering a little suspicious nod from Harumi in response.
"So, uh, how'd you two… meet?" Lloyd asked slowly, "Like, I always got the impression that like, you were a bit more of a loner guy, Ronin."
"Huh, not many people know me well enough to get that impression. Have we met before?" Ronin sat down a bowl of noodles to lean over the table towards Lloyd. His lips curled into a grin while his eyebrows raised.
"Somewhat, yeah," Lloyd nodded his head, "I heard of you when I was a lot younger. And I saw you work a few times."
"Probably just some kid that saw you fly off on REX after some heist," Monty rolled his eyes, "Gonna have to add another tick to the Ronin Fan Club," He muttered, "It's still smaller than the Monty Fan Club though. Kids love ghosts, apparently."
"That story is a little less interesting," Ronin shrugged his shoulders, ignoring Monty, "Found Monty about ... fifteen years ago maybe? I'd have to look up the exact date to be sure. Here he is, this lonely ghost wandering around Ninjago, earned himself the reputation of being the Wandering Spirit. So, of course, I go out and track him down. Didn't know if this was actually something I could make money off of."
"And he finds me," Monty interjected. Ronin shot him a glare.
"Yeah, found him right there, all alone. Now, you gotta understand that ghosts, we don't get a lot of those in Ninjago. Ever," Ronin tapped the table with a chopstick, "Most people that get cursed go right to the Cursed Realm. The only way out is if someone opens a way out for you. Monty here hasn't ever told me how he got out. And I haven't asked, cause I respect my partner."
"Right," Lloyd tried to put this right in his head, "You and Monty are full partners, then?"
"Yep," Monty grimaced, "You got that right. You want some noodles for figuring that out?"
Lloyd gave Monty a bit of an annoyed glance. Monty just shrugged and picked his bowl up. He ate a few bites, then sat it down and slid it to the side. He dove right back into a second bowl of Puffy Pot Stickers Lulloyd had snagged without another word, leaving Ronin to finish his tale.
"So a few years before that, I made a deal with a guy called Soul Archer," Ronin explained while leaning back and putting his feet up on the table, much to Harumi's chagrin, "Guy helped me get rich quick. Used that money to buy REX and my shop, right? Well, the guy made a deal that after a bit I'd have to pay him back. Wasn't going so hot. Thankfully, he dies, goes right to being a ghost. So I think I'm out of the deal. But then I find out that the deal didn't go away, and that if I don't pay him back when Soul Archer comes back to Ninjago, I'm off to the Cursed Realm myself. And then… I find little old Monty here, a nice fresh ghost right out of that place. Think you can see where I'm going with this?"
"Our deal was we'd become partners and split the profits, and in turn I'd protect him from Soul Archer if and when that guy got out," Monty spoke up rudely again.
"And then, just a few months ago actually, he does!" Ronin sits up, "Turns out that Garmadon just straight up sacrificed himself to stop Chen after his little Tournament thing led to Ninjago getting invaded. Now, now, I wasn't there when it happened. I was looking for his little smiling ghost face at the time. But in doing so, he lets out Soul Archer, and guess where he goes? Morro. Heck, we just actually finally got the Ninja off our back after we had to go and help them out with Morro. We actually saved the Ninja from a big death trap too! Well Monty here did."
"They were gonna believe an obviously forced message to get lost in the Caves of Despair!" Monty chuckled, a surprisingly positive noise after spending so long in a negative mood, "Seriously. I got to them right before those idiots would've gotten trapped in and died."
"Wait," Lloyd shook his head, "Why'd you have to send that message in the first place?"
"I was going to make good on our deal," Monty shook his head, "See, there are only two things that kill a ghost: water, and another ghost. So I got myself a good aeroblade and Ronin stole the Sword of Sanctuary and we got within a literal inch of winning. Course, right when we're about to finally run him through he jumps right into Morro again," Monty growled, "...Even if I hate that green guy, I wouldn't kill him for that. So we get caught, and I escape to get the ninja from dying. Simple as that."
Lloyd and Harumi were building a profile events off of what Ronin was saying. Monty was involved in events in their timeline, but Morro was the Green Ninja. The events of when Morro escaped the Cursed Realm appeared to line up somewhat. Yet despite that, something was off about everything that was being said. Lulloyd, however, didn't have any knowledge of this, so he was the one to thankfully ask the questions they didn't want to.
"Uh… so, what's your relationship with the Ninja..?" Lulloyd asked slowly, "Like, do you know them well?"
"Oh, we've run into them a lot. First major time was with the Fang Blades," Monty answered this time, "We do whatever job we're paid to do, don't care who it is. This guy called Pythor hired us, and so we were off getting them. 'Course he just went and vanished right after we got them."
"And that's why we take half the payment in advance now," Ronin grinned, "We are running a business here, you know. Which… is part of why we wanted to talk to you guys."
Harumi, Lloyd, and Lulloyd sat down their bowls. Ronin looked to Monty, who summoned wind to blow the bowls in straight lines down towards the end of the table. Despite Lulloyd's protests, the bowls managed to stay perfectly upright and not spill at all. Ronin took a device off from the inside of one of his armor plates and sat it down on a table. It spread out over the surface to show what looked like a checklist.
"You want us to help you with business?" Lloyd raised his eyebrow, "What exactly is your game here, Ronin?"
"Let me lay out our business terms here before you make any judgements," Ronin turned to Monty, "Or actually, Monty will. He's good about giving just the facts."
"I just don't like aimlessly rambling on about useless information to people," Monty sighed and leaned forward, "Long story short, we have a job to do. We have a collector that's all into Serpentine items. Fang Blades, Staffs, war relics, weapons, venom, all that. We found a place where we can get all of that. Problem is, we need to hire some help on for this job."
"What… sort of help?" Harumi spoke cautiously, "Are you wanting us to help steal?"
"Oh no. No, no, no, no, no!" Ronin laughed, "Trust me honey, I only trust myself and this guy right here to do any of that. We need you guys to act as… well, Monty, what's a good way to put it?"
"Insurance," Monty replied deadpanned, "Basically, we might end up running into some trouble once we get the items. We need you guys to ensure that we don't end up having all of that taken from us when we make our way home."
"Ohhh… you want us to be rear guards!" Lulloyd smiled proudly. As the others looked at him somewhat oddly, his smile fell as he turned his head to the side, "I-I mean that's what my dad would call us, at least…"
"Well your dad sounds like a smart person, stiff-legs," Ronin grinned, "By the way, what artifact did you get your hands on to get stuck moving all like that? Seems kinda inconvenient."
"Uh… the… Beam… of… Meowtrha!" Lulloyd improvised poorly, "Y-Yeah, I got hit by the Beam of Meowthra, so, now I can't move my arms in any way but up and down and my legs back and forth! It used to be annoying but, now I've finally figured out how to live with it."
"Mhm, hit me up about that later, we might be able to strike a deal to help fix that," Ronin offered casually, "But yeah, we want you guys to basically be some hired help."
Lloyd started to speak, but Harumi cut him off, "And what would be in that for us? You two are stealing, and you want us to put our lives on the line for you. Seems one sided."
"Wasn't finished there yet, chest-window," Monty scoffed at her, causing Harumi to grip her hands into fists, "You want information on this Lloyd Garmadon? Well, information isn't cheap. You help us with this job, then maybe we'll see if we can find them for you. How about that?"
"Well…. Firstly, I have a question," Lloyd leaned on the table himself, "Why even offer the job to us? We're basically strangers to you."
"Ever heard that saying, don't go storm chasing with a weather guy?" Ronin shook his head, "It's best to go on jobs with guys you don't know. That way, we don't have to feel bad if you run off on us. And you don't know enough about us to do anything to try to steal from us either," Ronin chuckled, "Plus, you three seem pretty unique. So… now how about that?" Ronin leaned forward, "You scratch our backs, maybe we'll take a scratcher to yours."
Lloyd considered that offer. The ninja had already thrown them out, and for what felt like no reason. If they went back to them, they'd never find out anything about this universe's Lloyd. Then again… this was Ronin they were talking about. Even after fighting alongside the guy for months back home, he would only trust Ronin as far as he could throw the guy. Which, given how heavy the weapons he carried were, wouldn't be too far.
"You didn't tell us where the job is," Lloyd stated pointedly, "We should know about that."
"That's not for you to know," Monty stately plainly to him, "We don't know anything about you, and you don't know anything about us. We're keeping it that way. All you need to do is sit in REX and then move when we tell you to. Can you handle that?"
Now Monty's tone was getting to Lloyd as well. He and Harumi shared a look, then they each gave a little shrug. Lulloyd watched them do this without being sure what they were even doing in the first place.
"Give us a minute to discuss this," Harumi stated firmly, "We need to figure out what we're going to do."
"Sure, sure," Ronin nodded his head, "Come on, Monty, let's go pay for all this. That be enough time for ya?"
"Should be," Harumi smiled at him.
"Good," Monty slid out of the counter, then turned to Ronin, "You're gonna have to pay for this one. I didn't bring my wallet."
"Wait, what?" Ronin frowned, "Monty, you know I don't bring cash with me. You're the cash guy!"
"You've never said that…" Monty growled hard, "I don't have the money to pay."
"Well unless you wanna get us thrown out of here, you better think of something!"
"Maybe I'd like to get thrown out, then we wouldn't have to come back to this place…"
"You know, there's a simple solution to this. Go into the kitchen, walk up to Skylar, give her your best non-angry expression and simply say 'Oh, Skylar, we can't afford to pay, can we take you up on that free noodle thing you were talking about?' That's it, nice and simple."
"I'd rather go jump into the sink in there than go and beg a girl whose father imprisoned me for months to give me pity food."
Ronin slowly growled at Monty, then turned to the three of them. He leaned forward and put his hands on the table, "You three got anything? We'll get you some cash when we get back to the shop."
"I still only have my bills…" Lulloyd whispered.
"All our currency is digital now…" Harumi whispered, turning her head away in shame.
The entire table turned to Lloyd. The ninja looked at all of them, then he sighed hard in exasperation. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his wallet, putting down all the bills he had onto the table. Ronin gave him a toothy grin, then snatched the bills up and walked away.
"He better pay me back," Lloyd groaned, "I was gonna use that to finally complete my Starfarer collection…"
"You have a near complete Starfarer collection?!" Lulloyd gasped, "Wait, can I borrow it sometime?!"
"Can we talk about Ronin first?" Harumi stopped Lloyd from answering again, "Are we going to do this, or not?"
"Have you ever met Ronin?" Lloyd shook his head, "There isn't any good that'll come of us going with him."
"True…" Harumi sighed, "But we don't exactly have any leads on how to find Lloyd in this place. It's either them or we spend weeks trying to find him ourselves."
"Uh… can you remind me why it is that we need to find Lloyd in the first place?" Lulloyd asked, "I mean… besides like, the obvious."
"Because the Time Twins must be looking for him," Lloyd pointed out, "Think about it. They don't know where Lloyd is. They have to be planning something. They'll go and try to find Lloyd, and then maybe use him to refuel their army or whatever. They don't know who Morro is. If we can find Lloyd first and figure out what happened, then we can get the Ninja on our side and maybe find the Twins before they get back to full strength."
"Given how much damage Karlon did and Lulloyd's fall must have done," Harumi tapped her watch a few times, "I… suspect that we might have three days. If they scrounge enough pieces then they can rebuild pretty quickly, or at least given how those snakes acted that's what it looks like. The biggest issue is going to be them needing to breed and then raise more snakes. I don't know how fast the Vermillion grow, but I'm lowballing this."
"Uh… what are you doing with your watch there?" Lulloyd asked curiously.
"Oh, I'm running simulations," Harumi didn't look up from it, "Like I said earlier, the Borg Watch basically does everything. I think Kai pointed out that Borg has caused some headaches for them in past with all that."
"Wait, I forgot! We scanned for the Time Blades using the chrono-scanner thing!" Lloyd beamed, "You can scan for the Time Twins!" Lloyd grinned, "We can take them out now and we won't have to deal with Ronin!"
"Alright tried that," Harumi shot him an annoyed look, "Nothing. My watch still hasn't fully assimilated the map of Ninjago. There's a program on here that can emulate earlier versions of Borg Tech, but that's kinda finicky. I'm trying to run version 2.0 which would be a lot closer to what you guys would have…. It's honestly so primitive that I can hardly make it work. Plus, they'd have to be using time energy to get me to see them. It's not like radiation I can just pick up and scan at any point," She scoffed.
"I guess you are a girl from the future…" Lulloyd sighed, "I like my smartphone as it is now."
"But should we trust Ronin on this?" Lloyd brought the question at hand back up, "He's… Ronin! And none of even know who that Monty guy is. Should we do this?"
"Do you have a better option right now?" Harumi tapped her watch, "We're on a time crunch here. We need to find Lloyd, get the Ninja on our side, and take out the Time Twins before they get back to their full strength. Either we take the route that we know will get us what we need, or we gamble. Can we afford to take those odds?"
Their time to debate was over as Ronin came back over. He stretched his back out once he was back over, setting a receipt down in front of Lloyd. There was no change given. Monty stood behind Ronin with a vacant gaze as Ronin extended his arm out towards the three.
"So… what about it?" Ronin grinned, "Partners?"
Lloyd looked to Harumi, then to Lulloyd. He formed a small miniscule ball of green energy in his hands, then looked to that too. After a few seconds, he let out a small sigh, reached his hand out, and shook Ronin's hand hard.
"Partners," Lloyd grimaced, "Let's go steal some stuff."
Lloyd had never realized that REX had the ability to extend a thin metal canopy over the back of itself. Behind the main cockpit was a little open deck that he had always ignored. When they'd arrived, it only had a few boxes on it. They'd ridden here with it open, and thus the wind had constantly been somewhat deafening. Yet this time, as the three had gotten onto the deck, Monty had phased through the glass to the cockpit and hit a button, which caused a thin red shell to extend down to cover the area where he, Lulloyd and Harumi stood. Lights turned on above them, then the craft shook as Ronin's voice came over the intercom.
"Alright, we're off!" Ronin grinned, "Feel free to make yourself comfy. Don't open anything back there though. If you break it, you're buying it."
"Does he not trust us to see where we're going?" Lulloyd remarked.
"Pretty sure he doesn't…" Harumi looked to a metal door that led to the two-seat cockpit where Ronin and Monty were, "You'd think he'd want to stop at home first to get some tools, right?"
"Ronin has a habit of being a one-man arsenal when it comes to arming himself. A lot of that armor is hollow for a reason," Lloyd remarked, "He probably brought the stuff he needed with him too."
The three descended into silence as the dull sounds of winds outside of REX filled the space. Lulloyd found a spot to sit on top of some crates, leaning his head back and resting his eyes. Harumi leaned against a wall near the door to the cockpit, doing the same. Lloyd got down and laid his head on his wrists, thinking.
"What exactly are we going to do with the Time Twins when we stop them?" Harumi asked out of the silence.
Lloyd perked up slightly, "Well… I, figured I would take them back to my dimension and imprison them in Kyrptarium like we do with most of our villains."
"Oh, right," Harumi sighed. Her reaction made Lulloyd lean onto his side and look at her curiously.
"What were you thinking of doing with them?" Lulloyd asked, "I mean, what else can we do other than imprison them?"
"Forget it," Harumi huffed quickly, "It was a dumb question."
Lloyd knew that angry voice. He slowly began to speak, "Harumi, we're not going to kill them. We're Ninja, not judges. If we kill them, we sink to their level."
"I know that," Harumi hissed, "You- He- My father taught me that. I'm not an idiot. It was a dumb thought. That's why I said forget it."
Lloyd gave Harumi a look. He wasn't sure how to respond to what she just said, so he didn't. He pulled his hood up slightly over his eyes to act as a sort of blinder. He sighed softly as he tried to get a bit of rest. The room descended into silence once more.
"...I wonder what my dad is doing right now…" Lulloyd muttered.
Harumi looked towards Lulloyd. Lulloyd realized he'd said that out loud, and his face went bright red. He nervously sat up from the crates and started to roll his hands together as his arms rotated out of their sockets.
"I-I mean… I kinda, just left really fast…" Lulloyd sighed, "Like, the Time Twins took my power and all my team's own and then… then my dad told me to leave and get them back. So, I did. But, I barely even said goodbye to my team…"
"Your team sounds like they're strong," Harumi pointed out, "You all managed to reform your father and held off the Time Twins. Not even my team could do that. I'm sure they're fine."
"Heh… it's, actually not them I'm worried about…" Lulloyd winced, "I… I kinda left my dad to tell mom that I was leaving…"
"Hmm…" Harumi shook her head, "I'm sure she'd understand. You were attacked and now you have to get back what they took. That's noble enough for her to accept, right?"
"I guess, she always talks about how fighting someone is about showing you're the superior one and not about winning…." Lulloyd thought, "Actually, my mom has been, a lot crazier ever since she got back together with my dad."
"What sort of crazy?" Harumi asked.
"Like… uh, the other day we were in the middle of training, and Nya said that she admired my mom. So my mom came over and flipped her over her shoulder, slammed her into the deck, then spun her out into the water, saying something like 'Admiration only brings distance!' or something like that. Nya only got even more excited after that."
"Oh, I see…" Harumi paused, "Well she sounds like she'll understand that you had to leave. You'll be fine."
"Yeah, I'm just, worrying too much is all," Lulloyd looked up, "I'm, kinda felt a little weird ever since I started this. Like… you two are so different from me, it's like, I'm almost out of place or something."
"You're the one that managed to send the Iron Doom off the side of the Mountain of a Million Steps," Harumi pointed out with a grin, "That's pretty impressive. Even if you feel out of place, I'm glad to have you around."
"T-Thanks Harumi…" Lulloyd blushed, pulling his hood over his face, "T-That's really nice of you."
"It's no problem," Harumi smiled back to him, "We're going to get your power back, and get you back home where you belong, kay?"
"O-Okay," Lulloyd nodded his head, "But, first let's go and handle this thing with Ronin."
Harumi gave Lulloyd another warm smile before she went and resumed her silence. Lloyd tried to think of something to say. She'd managed to get Lulloyd's spirits up before he could piece out the root of the problem. Trying to talk to her, however, proved more difficult. Trying to find something that could at least get him talking with Harumi felt daunting; She had just been so nice to Lulloyd, why was it that she was, cold to him?
"Hey, Harumi?" Lloyd smiled, "Maybe, we should discuss some plans for dealing with the Time Twins?"
"I think we need to focus on Ronin right now," Harumi shook her head, "Your plans haven't been successful so far either, Lloyd. So let's follow Ronin's plan, then we can discuss one later."
That made Lloyd fall silent again. He sighed and pulled his hood over his face, using it to try and get some rest. He had no idea where it was that they were going, and Ronin was behind a door. He sighed and decided to try to get at least a little rest.
Thankfully, Wu's training meant that Lloyd knew how to rest his eyes without falling asleep. One he relaxed his thoughts, he found his breathing calm and he decided to rest a tad bit more. The trip seemed to take almost an hour, which meant they could very well be spanning the entire length of Ninjago. Where is was that Ronin was taking them, he somewhat wished to know.
Lulloyd, in the meanwhile, was playing around with his sword. He didn't have a brick to sharpen it against, so he instead was spinning his hand around to spin it rapidly in the air. Harumi had her hands in front of her, slowly forming and unforming Rhotatae discs of various sizes and shapes. She would cast glances to both of her fellow friends by her, then she would turn her head away and just go back to what she was doing. Overall, it was a boring trip.
Roughly an hour later, the three would be greeted by Ronin's attempted pleasant voice coming over the intercom: "Heya, we've arrived. You three just wait there, alright? We'll be back up with the goods in a few minutes."
"More waiting…" Lloyd sighed, then spoke louder, "Alright, Ronin, just tell us when you need us!"
"Assuming all goes to plan, we won't," Ronin grinned, "But in case I do, well, you'll tell by the feeling of REX getting pummeled. Under no circumstances do you get into the cockpit, you hear me?"
Right as Ronin finished speaking, suddenly a loud crash sounded from the left side of the ship. Lulloyd was sent tumbling backwards as REX leaned hard to the right. Lloyd managed to take hold of a crate and Harumi the piece of wall she was leaning against to stop themselves sliding. As the room rocked, Ronin spoke up again.
"Sorry guys, Monty triggered the anti-aircraft sensors," Ronin sighed and veered the ship back upright, much to Lulloyd's relief, "Thankfully I prepared for this."
"I told you they'd install them after last time!" Monty's aggravated voice could be heard faintly, "I'll go take care of them."
"Right, anyways, we're off! REX is on autopilot, so don't worry about getting shot down. Just hold onto something and wait for us to get back!"
Harumi could see through the window the cockpit of REX opening up. Monty and Ronin both leapt up from their seats and down towards the ground, with Monty using his Wind in order to control both of their descents. Once the two were out of range of the window's view, Harumi looked back to Lloyd with a curious expression.
"I'm thinking it too," Lloyd walked forward, "What sort of place has anti-aircraft guns?"
Lloyd made his way up to the door, gripping it and trying to pull it open. Nothing happened aside from the door stubbornly refusing to move. Before he could try again, another round of gunfire shook the cabin, causing the three to stumble backwards for perch.
Lulloyd slowly groaned, "Ugh… my dad doesn't believe in arming his volcano with guns! Why would someplace have guns?!"
'Maybe it's just something we can wait out," Harumi grimaced slightly, "I'm sure Ronin and Monty have control over what they're doing. Yeah, I'm sure this will stop soon."
Another round of gunfire sent the entire ship careening off to its right. Harumi fired off three Rhotatae discs, catching Lloyd and Lulloyd on them. She stood on one herself and focused, keeping them all in place. By the time the ship stopped spinning, she panted and released the discs for them to hit the floor.
"Okay… maybe this isn't safe…" Harumi groaned.
"Alright, I need to see what this place is!" Lloyd groaned, "Harum, help me get through the door!"
"Guys… Ronin said not to," Lulloyd shook his head, "I'm sure that this gunfire is just, uhm… some other ship, and, REX will take care of it…"
One more round shook the ship. Lulloyd groaned hard and looked somewhat sick as he moved to pop his limbs out to stretch around and grip a crate.
"I can get us through, it's just a simple lock," Harumi held up her hand, forming a miniature disc within it. She imbued it with energy, then held it up to the side of the door. The rapidly spinning disc began to cut right through the lock system like a tiny buzzing saw. Harumi released the disc so it shot out and slid through the door. She dissipated it quickly before it could hit anything vital to REX with a flick of her wrist.
Nodding his thanks to Harumi, Lloyd opened the door, Harumi rolled her eyes as she followed after him. Once the two were standing in the cockpit region of REX, with two seats situated one above the other, they took in their surroundings. Outside of the glass windscreen was a massive stretch of lush, vegetation overgrown jungle. The hot Ninjago sun was beating down over the area, making small amounts of moisture condense on the glass. Lloyd made his way over towards the window, sliding by Ronin's chair as his eyes widened.
"Wait a minute…" Lloyd looked around, "I've… I've been here before!"
Lloyd shot his head to the side. He could see a tiny sliver of stark white and purple between some of the trees. He traced the strange bands over towards a series of anti-aircraft turrets that looked ready to fire once more. Once he saw the coloration continued into the turrets, his eyes bulged.
"We're in Hiroshi's Labyrinth!" Lloyd gasped, "Ronin and Monty are stealing from the Ninja's vault!"
"Wait, vault?" Harumi paused, "...Right, you used to keep things in a vault."
Lulloyd made his way into the cockpit, finding it incredibly cramped. He looked to the two of his allies staring about the glass, then looked up towards the seat situated above them. A small series of indentions on the wall let him swiftly hop up until he was able to slide into the seat. Once he did, a small cape slid down the back of the chair, floating down towards the floor. Lloyd stared at it in confusion and kicked it aside.
"Wait, wait, is that why Ronin wanted us as 'insurance?'" Lloyd shook his head, "If I remember how Zane and Pixal wired this place, then just those guns firing should have alerted…"
"I thought we told you to stay out of the cockpit," A robotic voice emanated from outside REX, "Apparently you three aren't even able to follow simple orders."
The three turned to see a white and purple colored Security Drone hovering in the air using the jets on his feet. He had a large bag strapped to his back that was far larger than he was. His rifle was sheathed on his hip, and he had his arms crossed in front of the cockpit.
"Monty?" Lloyd asked curiously.
"What gave it away, my voice?" Monty replied through the drone, "Turns out the Ninja haven't possession-proofed all their stuff yet. Which is good. I'm keeping this body. Also at least three more in case this one goes down. Now go help Ronin load all the stuff onto REX before I kick you out of my seat. I'm more than willing to give you personal advice on how to possess things, Lulloyd."
Lulloyd shuffled off at the veiled threat, moved into the back to see part of the shell had retracted. Ronin, using hover boots of a similar design as the security drone, was struggling to hoist up another deactivated drone onto the ship. Lloyd grimaced and ran over, grabbing one of its arms. Ronin smirked at him and the two hoisted it onto the ship, letting it drop to the floor unceremoniously.
"Heh, thanks," Ronin gestured down, "I'm grabbing one more for Monty, so get ready to help. Also, take these!"
Ronin shoved a bag into Lloyd's face, one that was surprisingly heavy. As Lloyd took hold of it, the bag shuffled around awkwardly in his hands. He turned around to set it down on top of a create, when a piece of silver glinted out from the inside of one of the bags. He looked to Ronin, then peeled part of the bag away.
"The… the Fang Blades?" Lloyd stared at the Fangpyre blade in confusion, "Why'd you steal these? They're worthless now that the Devourer is destroyed, right?"
"Yeah, but like I said earlier, HUGE collector of Serpentine memorabilia. Monty has the Staffs with him. Also," Ronin grinned, "I took a few other blades just for keepsakes. Tell you what, I'll sell one of them to you guys at half off just for this job."
Ronin saluted and leapt back out of REX, hovering down until he could grab another drone. As he did, Harumi slowly peeled away the bag a bit further to reveal a glint of green inside of the bag.
"Are… are these Jade Blades?" Harumi blinked in confusion, "I thought they were all destroyed when Master Chen was banished. Didn't they all go to the Cursed Realm?"
"Nah," Ronin laughed out between growling as he hoisted up another drone with Lloyd's help, "Those… were… inside… Chen's… personal… weapon room! GAH! Why do these have to be so heavy?!"
Lloyd and Ronin gave another hard heave, sending the second drone onto the floor. Harumi sighed and gestured to Lulloyd, and the two dragged the drones with surprising difficult to prop them up against a crate. Monty flew up behind Ronin and passed him the bag he had, and Ronin tossed them inside REX. The metallic clanking and shine of gold made it clear these were indeed the Serpentine Staffs.
"You clearly don't appreciate the fact that I mowed down almost ten of those guards myself without even suffering a scratch," Monty landed on REX with a loud clang and shrugged the robot's shoulders.
"It's not like you would be the one that got hurt if they shot you in the first place," Ronin shook his head.
"Then it's a good idea I went ahead and possessed this guy quickly, don't you think?" Monty retorted.
"Fine, I'll keep one backup for you, I'm selling the other one. Those things can be worth a bunch if we sell the parts!"
"No, you said you'd grab three of them so I could have two backups!"
"You want another one? Go get one yourself!"
The robot didn't move for a moment. Then, without warning, it leapt backwards from the opening in the shell and back down towards the ground. After roughly thirty seconds, Monty returned in the robot body carrying another decommissioned robot effortlessly. He slung the robot into the cabin, nearly striking Ronin head on with it.
"Hmm… I sell the rifles and one of them, how about that?" Ronin picked the rifle up off the robot and attached it to his own belt
"Fair," The robot responded before Monty stepped out of it, causing it to collapse to the ground, "Now come on, those alarms went off nearly ten minutes ago, it'll take the Ninja at least twenty to get here, so we only have another ten to find a better place to fight."
"Why not try to avoid a fight?" Harumi offered hopefully. Monty turned to look at her, then he just shook his head with an annoyed sigh.
"We hired you here to help us out fighting them, I thought you would've figured that out by now," Monty groaned out, "They'll be coming for us soon, so get ready for a fight, got it?"
Harumi looked ready to snap at Monty for his curt tone. Lloyd just nodded his head, while Lulloyd was struggling to try to drag the robotic body Monty had unpossessed back with the others. Monty stretched for a moment, flapped his cape up with his hand, and then made his way off into the cockpit along with Ronin. The shell closed fully once more around the back section. Ronin felt the broken lock on his door and gave the three a long look, rubbed his hand together like holding coins, and shut the door behind him.
REX lurched forward, this time flying at a far faster pace if the sound of the wind outside the ship was any indication. Lloyd made his way over and helped Lulloyd finish propping all the four total robots together. Lulloyd slumped down as Lloyd looked towards the window.
"Are… we going to have to fight, uhm, ourselves?" Lloyd asked, then saw Harumi raising an eyebrow, "Or, at least, the Ninja?"
"I don't know if we are," Harumi sighed, "But we were prepared to fight when we took this job. We hadn't done anything so far. Let's just see where this goes."
An uneasy silence descended over the cabin. As the three tried to wait it out, nearly five minutes had passed. The hope that perhaps they had avoided a confrontation, for a bit, felt tangible. It was upon the three letting out a collective sigh that the intercom came on again, and this time it wasn't Ronin's rough voice going through it.
"Ronin," Pixal's automated voice came through the speakers, "We have received an alert of a break-in at our vault. I believe that you have taken something that belongs to us."
"Hey, you don't know that we did anything!" Ronin sighed, "Seriously, a guy just can't fly REX around Ninjago without being suspected of crimes, now can't he?"
"Your trajectory roughly can be traced back to the vault's location. Given the proximity of your ship to the vault and your current speed, it is a safe assumption that you were indeed the one that caused this break in. We will be arriving to intercept you shortly." Pixal spoke calmly.
"How about you go ahead and remember the fact that we were the ones that kept you and Zane from getting murdered in those Caves and helped defeat Soul Archer, ever think about that?" Monty growled angrily to Pixal, "Why not just take that little piece of information deep inside your robotic heart and just turn away from all this?"
"You and I both know that won't happen," Pixal stated plainly, "We'll arrive shortly."
"That was Pixal?" Harumi asked curiously, "She sounds… weird. And did you say she wouldn't' get a body until later?"
"She's a program inside of Zane's harddrive right now," Lloyd informed her, "We, kinda helped us her to automate all of our systems, including our communication lines."
"Oh," Harumi paused, "Right. Of course."
REX lurched once more, this time with its entire speed being halted, sending the three jerking forward, followed by the sound of screeching metal. The three looked up to see a large harpon had been stuck into the side of REX's hull, with large metal protrusions holding onto the ship.
"Okay, okay, okay!" Ronin shouted over his comm, "How about instead of damaging my ship, you just let us go and land so we can have a discussion like civilized people?"
"Yeah, I would hate for me to possess Zane and start kicking the crap out of him with his own robotic fists before you could regain control of him!" Monty shouted. Ronin rolled his eyes, but he was smiling..
"Very well," Pixal responded, "We will meet you on the ground shortly."
REX began to downwardly descend through the air. The three felt a bit of dread forming in their guts as Ronin opened the door to the hanger. His smile was gone, and now was replaced by what could best be described as an outwardly irritated scowl.
"Alright, grab whatever weapons you need," Ronin stated calmly, "And get ready to hold up your end of the deal."