"I'll say this much: they don't call your friend Crush-It for nothing," Kai declared, looking down at the trail of destruction Cole had accidentally laid through Sugar Rush.
Ignoring her brother, Nya pointed. "There's the shuttle! Let's go."
She ran up to the ship, daggers readied. Kai followed, circling it with his sword held high.
Cautiously, Nya leaned around the corner and peered into the cockpit.
"Is he in there?" Jay asked, coming up behind her and standing on tip-toe in an attempt to see into the ship.
"Nope," Nya replied curtly, stepping back and sheathing her daggers.
"Lucky for him, otherwise I would have slapped his corpse," Kai muttered.
"Shut up, Kai, you're scaring the fix-it," Nya sighed. She gestured towards Jay, whose eyes had gone wide.
"It's his own fault for wanting to come along!" Kai protested.
"No sign of the CySnake either," Nya continued. She pulled out her snake sensor and started away, scanning in side to side sweeps.
Kai copied her, pulling out his own sensor. "We've got to find it before..."
"Before what?" Jay asked, unnerved by the pause.
"Before it lays eggs," Kai elaborated.
Jay gasped. "They can do that?!"
Kai groaned and ran after his sister, hoping beyond hope that Jay wouldn't be able to keep up.
Jay kept up.
Soon, Nya stopped in front of a taffy pit. She looked at her sensor, which was beeping and sparking. Frowning, she yelled, "Kai?"
"What?" Kai yelled back from a few trees away.
"Don't do that," Nya scolded lightly. "I thought you were far behind me!"
"He was, but then he caught up when you stopped," Jay informed helpfully from her side.
"Is your sensor scrambling too?" Nya asked, cutting off the beginning argument.
"Yeah, why?" Kai asked.
Nya groaned. "Ugh. This atmosphere is full of sugar particles, and it's jamming our sensors. Great."
"I can fix it," Jay offered. He bopped Nya's sensor with his hammer and it cleared up.
"Hey, not bad," Kai said appreciatively. He held his own sensor out. "Do it to mine too."
Jay obliged, grinning.
"Sweet," Kai declared.
Nya frowned. "But now mine's scrambling again."
"My sensor isn't- oh wait, now it is," Kai said, disappointed.
"I guess there's so many of those -what did you call them, sugar particles?- that my fixing only works for a moment," Jay figured.
"And we can't have you tapping our sensors every other second, so we'll have to go with what we've got," Nya concluded. "Let's keep going."
A little more comfortable now, Kai asked as he walked, "So, what is it with this Crush-It joker? Why'd he go AWOL?"
Jay paused and looked back at him. "Sorry?"
"Why did he game-jump?" Nya clarified, pushing him gently as a reminder to keep moving.
Jay sighed, beginning to walk again. "I wish I knew, ma'am. He was acting all squirrelly last night, going on about cake and medals and all sorts of funny stuff. But I never thought he'd go Garmadon."
"Go Garmadon?" Kai echoed.
"That's right, you guys just got plugged in," Jay remembered. "Okay, so back in the eighties, when the arcade first opened, Go Garmadon Go was by far the most popular game."
"Even more than yours?" Nya checked.
Jay nodded unabashedly. "Yeah. It was a racing game and everybody loved it. Now, Garmadon was pretty ugly by today's standards, all burnt black skin and reddish eyes. But he was the main character."
"Obviously," Kai interjected. "Title character, it comes with the territory."
Jay ignored him. "His catchphrase was 'Garmawesome!' and he pretty much always won. The kids flocked to his game and Garmadon thrived on the attention."
"What happened?" Nya asked, examining a tree for clues. "Something had to go wrong, it always does."
"Well, Wu noticed how popular Go Go Garmadon was and decided to get another racing game. It was a brand-new console called RoadBlasters. As soon as it got plugged in, it got lots of attention and everyone forgot about Garmadon," Jay explained. He shuddered. "Boy, was he jealous!"
"What's he do?" Kai asked, genuinely interested.
Jay dropped his voice to a whisper, making the two samurai lean in to hear. "He abandoned his game!"
"So?" Nya asked bluntly. "We leave our game all the time. None of us three are even in our own game right now."
"Not as a visit," Jay explained. "Garmadon crossed over to Roadblasters and stayed there during the daytime. He tried to take over. The gamers even saw him racing around in there! Meanwhile, Go Garmadon Go was missing its main character and the gamers assumed it was broken."
"And when a game is broken, it gets unplugged," Kai put together.
"So Garmadon ended up putting both games, and himself, out of order. For good," Jay finished. He carefully stepped onto a fallen peppermint tree acting as a bridge over a hole.
Nya nodded thoughtfully, following him onto the tree. "So now, if someone leaves their game and it seems like they mean to never go back, you call it going Garmadon."
"You got it!" Jay exclaimed, wobbling a little. Nya grabbed his flailing hand to steady him.
"Jay and Nya, standing on a tree," Kai sung, his face as straight as he could manage. "H-O-L-D-I-N-G hands!"
"Shut up, Kai," Nya said sternly, dropping Jay's hand.
Kai pretended to lock his lips and throw away the key, stepping onto the tree as well.
Looking back, Jay laughed, then sobered quickly. "Anyway, that's why I have to get Cole home. If he doesn't come back, the same thing's gonna happen to our game. We're already temporarily out of order. Soon, it could be permanent."
DING! DING! The three looked down as one. The entire tree shook beneath their feet twice, its double stripes blinking.
"Huh?" Jay wondered out loud.
Nya and Kai whipped out their weapons and pointed them at the tree.
It was too late. With one more flash, the tree disintegrated. Screaming, the trio fell into a pit full of dark brown glop.
Kai wiped a splatter of goop off his face and flicked it away from him disdainfully. "Nasty! What is this?"
"Look!" Nya pointed to a sign attached the cliff wall. She read it out loud. "Caution: Nesquik Sand."
"Oh, brand-name quicksand. Lovely," Kai remarked sarcastically. "I can already feel myself sinking."
"Quicksand?!" Jay asked fearfully. Being so much shorter, the quicksand that wasn't even up to Kai and Nya's waists was already mid-torso on him. "Okay, I'll hop out and grab one of those vines!"
Nya and Kai stood still and looked around calmly, sizing up the situation. Jay, on the other hand, flailed in his attempt to hop out of the quicksand. Instead of escaping, however, he was sucked down a bit deeper.
"Quicksand 101: moving makes you sink deeper faster," Kai offered.
Unfortunately, Jay was too busy freaking out and sinking deeper to listen. "I can't hop. I'm hopless! This is hopeless! We're gonna drown here!"
"Stop thrashing around!" Nya ordered. "Stop moving, you're making us sink faster!"
Jay didn't listen to her either, wringing his hands frantically.
Nya looked at Kai, who shrugged and raised his hands in a 'whatcha you gonna do?' motion.
Turning back to Jay, Nya resorted to what she knew best: physical and verbal discipline. "Get a hold of yourself!"
SLAP!
Jay's hands flew to his cheek. He looked at her, shocked.
Nya pulled back, blushing. "Sorry. I- sorry."
The sound of giggling split the air. They looked up to see the vines Jay had wanted to grab giggling like there was no tomorrow. With every laugh, the vines stretched lower and lower.
Jay gasped. "Those vines. They're- they're Laffy Taffy."
"So?" Kai prompted, somehow managing to sound bored.
"So. they're attracted to whatever makes them laugh!" Jay exclaimed. He turned to Nya. "Here, hit me again."
"No, I couldn't," Nya protested.
"Just do it," Jay pleaded. He gestured to himself, the quicksand almost up to his shoulders. He had to hold his arms up to keep them from getting stuck.
She tapped him on the cheek lightly.
"Awww!" The taffy vines hummed in disappointment. They began to shrink backwards.
Jay groaned. "That's not funny enough. Do it again, but harder."
Nya hesitated.
"I'll do it!" Kai said cheefully. He put out an arm and strained to reach Jay. But the fix-it had been in the lead and Kai had been bringing up the rear, so he couldn't quite reach. Jay even leaned towards him helpfully, but they were still too far apart.
Sighinh, Nya explained, "Look, you're a nice guy. We can't just-"
"No, ma'am!" Jay interrupted, the unusual amount of force stopping Nya in her stacks. "The arcade is depending on us. Now do your duty. That's an order!"
Nya's face went blank. She pulled her arm back and full-on belted him.
Jay reeled with the blow. The taffy howled with laughter again. Kai joined in, always amused by violence.
"Owwww!" Jay whined. He looked up at the vines. "Ooo, it's working. Hit me again, Nya!"
Nya glanced at him and frowned. "But your eye."
Kai hissed sympathetically.
Jay felt at his face, tracing the edge of his blackening eye. He smiled, completely unworried. "Don't worry. I can fix it."
He hit his eye with the hammer. Kai and Nya gasped, but when Jay was done, the beginnings of his black eye were gone.
"Sweet," Kai approved, back to laughing. "We could use that in our game."
Jay laughed. "Okay, Nya. Do it again."
"You're sure?" Nya checked.
"You're acting like you've never hit somebody before," Jay teased. "Of course I'm sure. Now go ahead."
WHAP! The vines laughed harder.
Jay smiled at Nya, a tooth missing. Her hammered his mouth and reappeared, fresh-faced and ready. "Fantastic! Again!"
Nya contemplated him for a moment, then aimed a punch at his shoulder.
"Ow!" Jay shrieked theatrically. Before Nya could react, he winked and fixed himself. "You really mean business, don't you? Ow! Yikes on bikes!"
"Sorry," Nya apologized, eyeing his right ear which she had just boxed.
"It's fine," Jay reassured, tapping his reddening ear. "Look, the vines are almost here!"
"Good thing too," Nya said wryly, glancing at Kai. The samurai was having trouble not falling over and sinking, he was laughing so hard. "One more time should do it."
"If it's a big one. Put all your strength into it," Jay instructed.
Nya took a deep breath. She slapped him fight across the face, in exactly the same place she had hit the first time.
Finally, a pair of vines stretched into reach. Jay swung one towards Kai, grabbed hold of the other, then held a hand out to Nya.
Almost shyly, Nya wrapped her arms around his shoulders.
Jay grinned widely. "Hold on tight, m'lady."
The vine, disliking the blatent lack of humor, began to shrink up. It pulled them up and out of the Nesquik Sand, Kai first, the Jay with Nya hanging on.
The world seemed to slow down. Nya looked up at Jay and smiled softly. He looked down and grinned back goofily.
Someone or a group of someones was singing quietly, a beautiful, gentle chorus. The trio landed on a branch high above the quicksand pit.
Jay and Nya gazed into each other's eyes, awestruck. The background music swelled. Suddenly, Kai's voice began to howl along.
Shaking her head fiercely, Nya came out of her daze in a jolt. She looked around.
It was the Laffy Taffy singing, she noted with irritation. They'd even formed a heart shape around the two. Kai, the jerk, had been encouraging them.
Enough was enough. In one smooth motion, Nya pulled out her daggers and slashed three times at the surrounding vines.
Kai only laughed harder, bent over with his hands on his knees. Jay was giggling too, face pink with lack of breath.
Nya smothered her personal thoughts of 'Jay is so cute when he laughs' beneath thoughts of 'duty' and 'honor' and 'get the CySnake'. "Alright, that's plenty of time with the goo-goo eyes and comic relief."
Kai groaned, holding out his arms. "But it's so much fun!"
Climbing off the tree and gesturing for the other two to follow, Nya observed, "We've completely lost the CySnake."
"Yep, so we can give up now. It probably fell into a sugar-coated death trap and died," Kai suggested, helping Jay down from the tree.
"No," Nya said simply, turning away. "Let's go, boys. We'll get a better view from the air. Jay, think you can fix that shuttle?"
"Can do!" Jay chirped enthusiastically.
The trio walked back towards the shuttle, inexplicably yet infinitely more at ease with each other and the world.
Their comfort was premature.
Down below the tree, unbeknownst to them, something was burrowing into the ground. A deep hole had been made and it was getting deeper by the moment.
From the shadows of the hole, the purple CySnake emerged, its efforts making it hungry. Eyes gleamed, it eyed a nearby candy cane almost as big as the blue fix-it who had passed overhead just moments earlier.
With one gulp, the CySnake swallowed the candy cane whole. It shivered and shook, then turned from its former purple to white with light purple stripes.