AN: 23 REVIEWS! Thank you all so much. In other news, you know you've been thinking about Ninjago too much when you're writing something else and you automatically spell mistake as 'mystake'. T.T I'm looking at my life and I'm looking at my choices...

Also, I'm not sure if FF will allow the characters I used for Q*Bertese 'words'. If there's blank spots, let me know and I'll try to find a substitute. In the meanwhile, just pretend it's all there.

Lloyd wandered through the arcade, looking for something new to do. He'd played all the old games millions, no, billions of times and Samurai's Duty was messing with his brain, so that was a no. (Plus it took a whole dollar to play. He could buy three suckers, a pack of gum, and a candy bar with that kind of money!)

One pair of connected game consoles caught his eye. "Sugar Rush," Lloyd read aloud. "This is the 'build your own kart, new racers daily' one. Sweet, variety!"

Two big boys almost twice his size were racing busily. Lloyd walked up and placed a quarter on the cabinet. "I've got next game."

One of the boys knocked it off with a whole roll of quarters, more than Lloyd had ever had at once in his life. "Beat it, pipsqueak. We're playing through all nine of today's racers. It's gonna take all day."

"Yeah," the other said. Then, as an afterthought as they turned back to their game, "sorry."

Lloyd huffed and picked up his quarter. "Whatever."

Walking away, he headed to his all-time favorite game: Fix it Jay Junior. There was something about the characters that drew him to it daily.

Lloyd dropped a quarter in the slot and pressed start. He grabbed the familiar joystick as the automatic backstory played. He felt bad for the crusher. You didn't even get to know the guy's name in normal play, but Wu had found the name 'Cole' in a game manual and told Lloyd. His uncle knew how much he liked it, he was always talking to the main characters as he played. They seemed even more like his friends than all the other characters in the arcade (except for Kai and Nya from Samurai's Duty, there was potential there).

Lloyd came back to reality as the actual gameplay started. An 'I'm gonna crush it' word bubble popped up but Cole wasn't there. Lloyd frowned. That had never happened before.

Then something even weirder happened. One of the Nicelanders peeped up, saying, "Where's Cole?"

"Keep it together, Mary," the redheaded mayor hissed in his nasally voice. "Stick to the program."

Lloyd blinked in confusion as the Nicelanders screamed, "Fix it, Jay!"

Jay ran on screen. "I can fix- oh no!" His gasp was clearly audible and Lloyd's eyes widened.

"Cole," Jay was saying. "Quarter alert. Game on. Cole?"

It was almost as if the characters were alive. Lloyd had played these games many, many times and he'd never seen anything like this. He fiddled with the joystick, making Jay jump up the building and 'fix' the windows.

"Do something, Jay," a voice whispered.

"Don't worry," Jay's voice managed to say. "I'll fix it."

Lloyd let go of the joystick with a startled yelp. It was moving on its own as Jay climbed down the building, sidled away slowly, and then ran, yelling, "COOOLLLLEEEE!"

"Uncle?" Lloyd called, racing away from the game. He quickly returned, dragging Wu behind him.

"What's the matter, Lloyd?" Wu asked, freeing himself from the boy's strong grip.

"I think I broke it," the boy in green said nervously, pointing at the screen.

Wu peered at the screen, where the pixelated people were running around wildly. "Huh. Look at that. The game's gone cuckoo..."

"Like my dad?" Lloyd asked innocently.

Wu winced. "Yes, I suppose. I'll have someone in to look at it tomorrow, see if they can fix it."

"What if they can't?" Lloyd looked up at his uncle anxiously.

"Then I'm afraid it might be time to put ol' Jay and Cole out to pasture," Wu said sadly, patting the screen.

Lloyd sighed, shoulders slumping. As he walked away, he muttered, "Also like my dad."

Chuckling bitterly, Wu nodded and taped an orange sign to the console.

The Nicelanders froze and looked up as a shadow fell over them. The sign had completely covered the screen, turning any light into orange. They each read the backward words silently.

Gene gulped. "Ladies and gentlemen, we're... Out of order!"

"Sweet mercy! Without Cole, we're doomed!" Mary realized.

"They're gonna pull our plug!" Brad shrieked girlishly, hugging a flowering bush in panic.

Everyone gasped and screamed as chaos ensued again.

With forced positivity, Jay said "Okay, everybody calm down. Cole probably fell asleep in the washroom of Tea Tapper's again."

Just then, a light approached their little train station. Jay pointed at it hopefully. "See? I bet that's him now."

Everyone rushed to the little train. To their surprise, Cole wasn't there. Someone else hopped out of the cart.

"Hey, it's Q*Bert!" Jay said happily, recognizing the orange character. "What brings you here?"

"§ 👣 ?‰ •" Q*Bert exclaimed immediately, not bothering with formalities. "+🌂#— »&👾"

"What's he saying, Jay?" Gene asked suspiciously.

"Hold on, my Q*Bertese is a little rusty," Jay warned. He bent down to Q*Bert's level and scrunched up his face, thinking quickly. "¥ /\/\ 🐙🔥{ } Uh, 🔑$ ) 🎬"

"🎯8 () &$& 🀄% -_-🍓💃" Q*Bert squeaked gravely.

Unsure of exactly what was going on, Jay frowned in thought. "🎵¢ §🔲₩M 💢💀"

"🔲₩M 💢💀, 🏆; ; 🔨" Q*Bert said with added emphasis. " 🔲! 💀"

Jay gasped. Without thinking about how those around him would react, he repeated, "Cole's gone Garmadon?!"