"And you're sure the ones here volunteered to fight for us, right?" Lulloyd asked with a skeptical glance, "You're not making them think they're doing this for retirement again, right?"

"Of course, of course…" Garmadon sighed, "Ugh, it's like talking to your mother. Yes! The only Shark Army guys that we have left are volunteers!"

"Okay…" Lulloyd gulped, "Then, I guess… here goes…"

With a final reluctant groan, Lulloyd hefted up his Warlord staff and held it behind him. Atop a massive brick built wall of black spikes and lava-filled holes pouring out onto the rocks below it, Garmadon stood with an entire line of Shark Army gunners wearing distinctive blue caps. On the grounds away from the wall, three corps of green-painted soldiers stood at the ready behind Lulloyd. They stood on top of a large, brown brick hill with a large lava channel below them and naught but a single bridge to cross it. From the bridge, a path extended of light blueish gray that led to the massive, metal gates of the wall.

"Come on then, Green General!" Garmadon shouted, "What, are you too scared to take my wall? You too frightened of lava?!" A massive glob of it poured out from the wall and onto the ground below, "Oh look at me, I'm Green General and I'm afraid I'm gonna get burned! Hah! That's you, that's literally you right now!"

Lulloyd growled to himself, holding his staff up to tell his men not to move. He wore a new set of armor, one that looked to be a slimmer, sleeker version of his war armor. It shone powerfully against his chest as he held his weapon aloft, brand new-printing denoting him as the Green General. He wore no helmet, letting his hair free as he instead shifted his shoulder pauldrons.

"You're not man enough to take my wall!" Garmadon continued, "You can't do it, can you?! You're just gonna stand there and go 'Oh wait, that wall is like, so super awesome and it's all his, he's so awesome and I'm NOT!' Hah!" Garmadon stopped mocking him for a second to laugh.

"Hold it…" Lulloyd frowned.

"I guess I'll just go get someone else to watch my wall, since you clearly just wanna stare at it!" Garmadon turned around, mock walking down the wall, then jumping back up, "Hah! Actually no I'm not gonna do that! You should see your face, you totally believed I was gonna-"

"NOW!" Lulloyd shouted, causing his troops to shout and charge forward. Lulloyd swung his staff out and crashed it into the ground, churning up bricks and rapidly building the bridge over the lava river even wider. Garmadon gained a stoic look as Lulloyd charged him with seemingly no abandon.

"What? Just, what? Gonna just run at me like that?!" Garmadon groaned out, "Oh yeah, sure, totally smart tactic. Hey, why don't I just do this!" Garmadon pointed, causing catapults on the wall loaded with small rocks to rotate on their turntable, "Yeah! Hah! I got catapults! What you gonna-"

Garmadon's eye flashed. He turned around just in time to see one of his own men pull their fish out and slash at him. He drew a katana from a nearby 4x3 crate and swung around, catching the fish before it could hit him. The formerly loyal soldier pressed his fish against him.

"Oohh, I see, you were waiting for your men to get into position…" Garmadon grinned, not even straining in the slightest, "Smart move."

All around the wall, men suddenly switched sides, trading their blue hats for green ones and drawing their weapons to attack with gusto. Meanwhile, Lulloyd shouted and swung his staff around, smashing apart rocks as he went and sending them hurtling up into the wall itself. As his men raced closer, the entire battlements were consumed with allies betraying one another.

Quickly, Garmadon drew another sword and threw his attacker off the wall. Lulloyd shot forward and caught him on the end of his staff, the single stud plugged into the man's foot. He swung him around and threw him into his main force, which he rapidly joined the charge with. The organized charge funneled across the bridge, soon filling up the space on the other side around the wall's base.

Lulloyd looked up just in time to see one of Garmadon's men reach a catapult and begin rotating it towards his men. Just as quickly, Lulloyd turned to see a charred-black brick tree. He swung his staff hard enough it burst into pieces on the spot, pieces that he rapidly began to build. Harvesting the 1x2/2x2 angle plates, he smashed them together with 1x2 bricks underneath and chucked them at the wall. The resulting SNOT bricks plugged into the wall and formed a perfect step. He used all the pieces that he could, forming half of a literal stairs up the wall.

The catapult began cranking backwards to load a massive, flaming rock piece. Looking around again, Lulloyd thought fast as to what he could use. His men were already jumping to grab hold of the 'stairs' he'd built, leaping one at a time up the wall. Lulloyd's eyes turned towards the bridge they had just used to cross, his eyes flashing with an idea.

The clashing of blades and fish atop the wall didn't stop as the catapult was loaded. Lulloyd jumped backwards and smashed the bridge apart, causing its pieces to crash and fly into the air. As his men turned in shock with their retreat gone, Lulloyd spun around and focused his intentions, imagining it in his mind. The moment he had it, he shot forward and rapidly began building something. It looked like a massive ladder at first, but then it began to spread out and become a massive square instead. He connected it via 1x8 plates to a point in the center, thankfully finding a 2x2 modified tile with technic axle. He plugged the entire thing in and jumped up the wall, plugging it in so the studs faced outwards to create… a massive square wheel that freely spun about its center.

Before the men could question it, Lulloyd leapt up and plugged his feet into the studs, causing him to go horizontal. The wheel spun, carrying him around and all the way up to the top of the wall. Lulloyd bent up at the hips, then drew his staff up and flung it. Just as the catapult was released, his staff crashed into it and broke it apart, causing the flaming rock to break in half and crumble off the wall. Lulloyd pulled himself free and leapt onto the top of the wall itself, grabbing his staff back and swinging it around to knock three more of Garmadon's men down.

With the bizarre way of summiting the wall completed, Lulloyd's men cheered and followed him, jumping up the steps, then plugging in horizontally to the wheel and letting it spin them up to the top. Garmadon, seeing that his position was compromised, grinned madly and drew two more swords and leapt forward, flying above the group.

"CURSED BATS OF NOBUNAGA!" Garmadon shouted, reached back and pulled out three brick built bats. Lulloyd stuck his staff down and swung around its handle, dodging each one as they screeched and violently jerked through the air at him. By the time that Lulloyd stopped, he was forced to snap his staff up into a sword lock with his father.

"You need… bats to take me down now, huh?" Lulloyd grinned, "Sorry, but I've dealt with way weirder than that! Still have your butterflies?!"

"I'm loving that look!" Garmdon's eyes sparked with fire, "You feeling it now, the rush of battle? That pounding in your head?! The fire in your gut?!"

"Maybe I am!" Lulloyd laughed, "Let's see how far it takes me!"

With a heave, Lulloyd swung his staff around and leapt away from Garmadon reaching back and revealing he had his curved sword under his armor. Lulloyd yanked it out and spun both weapons around, then raced right at Garmadon. With all six arms between them full, the two clashed and swung around each other, dancing from stud to stud as they violently crashed themselves back and forth, hitting each other harder and faster as they worked to topple the other one before anything could hope to stop them.

Lulloyd flung his sword at Garmadon and gripped his staff in both hands, holding it across his body. He shouted and flung it upwards just as Garmadon reached him, knocking his father onto his back. Lulloyd let his staff go flying into the air and instead caught his sword, leaping up and on top of his father. A vicious kick sent him backwards as he flung his sword at his dad again. Garmadon lost a katana as Lulloyd's sword came flying back at him. With a corkscrew flourish, Lulloyd caught both blades and clashed them together.

"You've improved, Green General!" Garmadon laughed, "But it won't do you any go-"

"Dears!" Coco shouted, "Dinner time!"

All at once, everyone on the battlefield froze in place. With a massive heave of gears, the four massive walls that created the horizon around them were lifted up, revealing their battlefield simply a single studio-style room inside of the volcano. Through a viewing window, Coco and Unikitty sat, watching the two of them as they fought. With a loud click, bricks were rotated out of the way as the lava was drained down and off the massive diorama of the wall and battlefield, entering into a large pipe below them and going off into some other part of the volcano.

"Awh, what?!" Garmadon shouted, "But this was just getting to the good part!"

"I know sweetie, but Lulloyd just got a call from his friend!" Coco called out, "And I figured he wanted to know about it!"

"Wait, my friend?" Lulloyd, still frozen on the spot with his weapons extended, blinked, "Uh… which one?" Whatever force had possessed him seemed to have faded away.

"The one that's extra grumpy and mean!" Unikitty shouted out, her face turning green, "He makes me queasy trying to talk to him."

"... Oh, Monty," Lulloyd blinked, "Uh, I'll be right down."

Slowly, Lulloyd stood up, as did his father. The others on the battlefield did the same, a massive buzzer sounding off as they all rapidly began to grumble and groan as they began leaving the mock battle. A massive ladder extended from the ceiling for those on the wall, climbing up onto the catwalks above them. Idle chatter began to flare up around the room as they did, casual remarks about the battle and about the rampant cat problem their catwalks had.

"You did great out there~!" Unikitty chirped out as Lulloyd made his way over to them. Both she and Coco descended down stairs from the massive, spindly platform through which they watched the battle.

"Did I?" Lulloyd asked, "I uh, heh. Thanks. I probably could have been even faster on my feet out there. If that was real, I uh, let that catapult get way too far along for comfort."

"What?!" Unikitty gasped out, "No no no! You were amazing! Super duper cool! Normally battles are all scary and frowny, but that was heart-pounding-ly fantastically amazing!" Unikitty giggled, "I kinda wanna join in the fun next time!"

"Think you can handle it?" Garmadon grinned as he wrapped an arm around Coco as she arrived, "It's a stud eat stud world out there. One slip," Garmadon raised his fist, "And everything's gone. Hah, it's what's so thrilling about it all!"

"I think I can do it!" Unikitty giggled, "It'll be super fun!"

"We can talk about it later, okay?" Lulloyd smiled at her, reaching up to pet behind her head. As she let out a happy purr, Lulloyd leaned in and gently rubbed his forehead with her own. For a brief moment, all the two could think about was each other there, in front of a mock battlefield, sharing a moment together.

"You better make sure that later really means later!" Unikitty chirped out, "You better!"

"It does, I promise," Lulloyd smiled, "I'm gonna go see what Monty wants."

"Don't take too long," Coco smiled, "I got us a reservation tonight at that Omakase place!"

"What?!" Garmadon laughed, "Oh I love Omakase! Haha! Oh this will be so great!"

"It's not called-" Lulloyd started to correct them, but upon seeing how Garmadon was lovingly holding his mother, he decided not to say anything. Instead, he just let out a small sigh, then a tiny smile formed on his lips.

"I'll be back, guys!" Lulloyd smiled, "Stay sparkling for me, Uni!"

"Only if you stay greeny!" Unikitty winked at him. Lulloyd gave her one last hug, then quickly turned and raced his way through the volcano to his room.

After a quick change back into his hoodie and black jeans, he threw on a belt and found his wristband. His mother must have come in to get something for him. The wristband was filled with a few messages from Monty, something which he found almost immediately far more unusual than anything else. He frowned slightly, thinking about everything and eventually deciding he just had to go for it. If Monty was giving him a call, he had to go.

Strapping the band on, with a thankfully modified clip that his claw-hand could get around, he tapped in Monty's coordinates and hit the button. He soon fell through a hole in the floor, flying through the void and off into the gap between worlds. By this point, the trip was almost more of a comfort for him than anything else, and one that let him just slowly take a few deep breaths and calm down from the battle. Thankfully, his hair was just as unkempt as it always was.

When the trip ended, Lulloyd landed in front of Ronin's shop. The home that he'd temporarily lived in was still behind him, and from a brief glance, it seemed it'd been converted into temporary storage. With a small roll of his eyes, Lulloyd walked over the thin boardwalks over an angry ocean, the spray and smell of the ocean in the air as he opened the doors to Ronin's shop.

"Finally," Monty, as he had always been, yawned as he leaned against the counter. The only difference now was that the SoS was planted firmly behind him, leaning against the wall away from him, "Thought you were never gonna get here."

"I was doing a training session with my dad!" Lulloyd sighed, "I, didn't have my thing on!"

"Let me guess, you're still doing that warlord thing?" Monty asked with a yawn. Lulloyd blinked, then blushed and started to turn his head away. Before he could, Monty nodded, "Good for you."

"Huh?" Lulloyd blinked.

"Warlording. Good for you. You got the stomach for it. And you can actually stand to be around that guy," Monty waved his arm, "What, you thought I was gonna tell you not to go and do things with your dad?"

"Uh… kinda, honestly," Lulloyd blinked.

"Well, we're wasting time, so let's just get to it," Monty stood up, walking right through the counter and then leaning back against it. With a brand new deep blue cape with several silver buckles across it, for some reason, Monty nodded, "You're right."

"I'm, right?" Lulloyd asked in confusion, "About what?"

"About me. The jokes. The one-liners," Monty reached up and rubbed his head, "You were right all those times you got mad at me. I was making references."

Lulloyd took a moment to understand him. The moment it came to him, however, his world suddenly felt it was rotating and pitching him forward. All at once, the raw emotion of each time that he'd gone and said something came powering through him, leading him to raise his arms up and grip his head.

"Wait, really?! Honestly, you're, really?!" Lulloyd gasped out.

"Mhmhmm," Monty sighed, "Every single time."

"So… b-but wait!" Lulloyd blinked, "S-So… wait a minute, but, how?!"

"Because when we go on long missions, Ronin pops a TV in the back, and we steal a lot of stuff," Monty shrugged casually, "I ended up getting my hands on a lot of it that way. And what I couldn't… well," He spun his gun in his hand, "I got my hands on."

"So… so wait a minute," Lulloyd blinked, "Otorimonogatari!"

"Now I'm arguing with a serpent on the landing to the school's off-limit roof," Monty nodded.

"Nisemonogatari!" Lulloyd continued.

"Sometimes a fake has more value than the real thing precisely because you think it's real," Monty sighed.

"M-My Hero Academia?" Lulloyd asked.

"Oh please," Monty sighed, "Do I even need to quote that one?"

"Death Note!" Lulloyd slammed his hands on the table.

"I'll take a potato chip and blah blah," Monty sighed, "Went downhill after N."

"Chuunibyo!" Lulloyd blinked, "Inou-Battle!"

"I am the Dark Flame Master," Monty raised his hand in front of his face and caused it to burn with wind, "Dark and Dark."

"I-I swear that you quoted Tanya the Evil at some point!" Lulloyd continued.

"The Mary Sue battle was the best so far," Monty nodded, "Fight me."

"O-Okay, Konosuba then! Re:Zero! Overlord!" Lulloyd leaned in closer.

"What, we doing the entire quartet now?" Monty shrugged, "Don't forget Shield Hero in there," Monty shrugged, "I'm not the only one that thought Ophiod might one day pull out a shield, am I?" Monty paused, "Here, I'll add one of my own," Monty began to twist his hand around, "D4C!" Monty suddenly spun his wind around his hand, "Ah wait no, that's Tusk, my bad."

"So you do know JOJO!" Lulloyd screeched.

"Why wouldn't I?" Monty asked, "Hrmm… A Certain Scientific Railgun."

"Coins aren't the only thing my railgun can shoot?" Lulloyd blinked, "I, kinda liked Accelerater too there."

"But Index just got worse every season," Monty nodded his head, "Let's see, oh. Right. Kill La Kill."

"Sen-i-soshitsu!" Lulloyd quoted.

"Ah, here's a really good one," Monty grinned, "Madoka Magica."

"Meguka is suffering?" Lulloyd paused, "I was stupid. So, so stupid. Oh, uh, seen Mai-HiME?"

"It was pretty alright," Monty thrust his arm out, "Kagutsuchi!"

"Uh, out of heavy territory here, why not uh… oh!" Lulloyd smiled, "Misfit of Demon King Academy!"

"Did you really think you could stop me by stopping time?" Monty shrugged, "Kiss, kiss, fall in love."

"...Wait, really?" Lulloyd blinked, "You uh, know that one?"

"You have to watch the classics," Monty shrugged, "Ah," Monty leveled his gun, "Justice gun morphing."

"...That one was uh, interesting," Lulloyd blushed, "Ohhh, I got one for you! Guess which one," Lulloyd cleared his throat, "Cast in the name of god, ye not guilty."

"Getting to the good stuff are we?" Monty chuckled, "I think you've made your point."

Lulloyd realized that he was now completely in Monty's face. Realizing that fact made him blush hard and quickly back up, a fact which Monty seemed indifferent to. When he stopped moving, the reality of what had just happened between them fully came down on him.

"So uh… can we agree the song, that Harumi was singing…" Lulloyd began.

"Fude Ben, Boru Pen," Monty nodded, "I guess anime is a universal constant in a lot of weird ways."

"Uh… wow I'm. I'm kinda… k-kinda freaking out right now," Lulloyd gulped, "I-I mean, I thought… n-nobody actually cared about anime. L-Like at all. You… know a lot."

"I don't know everything, I only know what I know," Monty shrugged, "So. What now?"

"What… do you mean, what now?" Lulloyd asked, "L-Like, uh… what?"

"You know now. I told you. You gonna go and make me seem like an idiot in front of everyone?" Monty frowned, "Not sure what you plan to do here."

"Wha…?" Lulloyd blinked, "N-No! Of course not! Y-You're not, I-I mean. Why would I go and tell anyone…?"

"I dunno, cause people tend to betray you a lot, even in small ways," Monty groaned out, "Only thing I know that won't is me. And maybe the toothpick," Monty pointed at the SoS, "But even that's a bit on the fence right now."

"I… I mean. I promise that I won't do that…" Lulloyd forced his focus together, "I mean. I won't do that to you. You don't deserve to have that h-happen. You trusted me with this, right? So… it's my job, not to tell others. I-I mean, I'm hoping we get to share this now and maybe watch a few we haven't seen together, but uh… you know. I just. I just, am really glad to hear it, okay? I mean… I know that, you kinda use me as an out so…"

"I made friends with you because you were simple," Monty groaned, "And that's not a dig at you. Everyone else had problems or hangups or were Over," Monty rubbed his head, "So you know. I'm just glad that someone around there was normal enough to talk to."

"...I uhm. Thank you," Lulloyd blinked, "I didn't… expect that from you, Monty."

"What you think I can't show at least a little gratitude?" Monty frowned, "You want me to take it back?"

"W-What?! No, no don't take it back!" Lulloyd gasped out, "It's… it's all good, Monty, I-I promise!" Lulloyd rapidly moved his hands, "I-I'm glad you told me, it's… it's making this… it's making it easier for me to say that… you're my friend."

Monty looked for a long while at Lulloyd. For a moment, Lulloyd worried that he'd said something wrong. Instead, Monty stood up and walked around to him, leaning against a nearby rack of swords. As the two stared at each other, Lulloyd felt a strange energy.

"Then you best keep being my friend," Monty raised his pistol and tapped Lulloyd's chest with it, "You're the only one I can stand to call on for help. So make sure you pick up when I call you next time, got it?"

Lulloyd blinked, taking in what Monty was trying to say. As he did, though, he slowly put on a smile and nodded his head, "I-I can do that, Monty."

"Hey, kid!" Ronin's voice emanated from, of all places, under the floorboards, "Get your but and fancy sword down here, we're getting ready to go!"

Monty sighed, "Great. He finished. Well, I gotta get going. Thanks for helping me kill time," Monty waved his hand, "You can go back to whatever weird thing you were doing with your dad."

Lulloyd wondered if he should argue to that. He felt like, for a second, he could. Instead, he could see that Monty was telling the truth. Even if the ghost was never truly showing his genuine feelings, he could tell that Monty had meant what he said. And, for right now, he knew that would be enough for their friendship.

"See you later, Monty," Lulloyd smiled. With that, he hit the button on his wristband, and soon enough he was flying back through the void as though everything had just been on a simple day trip. Soon enough, he was gone, and Monty was alone.

"Who was that, kid?!" Ronin shouted, "Come on, we have to go! I'm not paying you to sit around!"

"You're not paying me at all," Monty grumbled, "We split the profits."

"And you're gonna get your cape split if you don't get down here!" Ronin shouted back, "Let's go! Don't make me count!"

"Count and I'll blast you into the ocean!" Monty snapped. With a sigh, he walked over and grabbed hold of the SoS, sliding it onto his back.

Are we off on another mission, Master? The sword asked with what felt like a smile.

"We're off," Monty corrected it, "Let's go."

With that, Monty slipped down into the trapdoor that led to where REX lay underwater, and the small tube that would let him slide inside without issue. As Ronin waved his hand at him impatiently from the cockpit, Monty grumbled out and slipped inside, the two of them soon off on yet another adventure, one that, even if Monty refused to show it, brought a smile to his face.

Author's Note:

Yes, I did devise this chapter just for that one page. After over 1.4 million words, I believe I've earned the right for at least one flex of how much anime I've seen!