Instantly, Nya sprang into action, pulling out her dual daggers and beating back every CySnake within reach. She motioned to Kai, yelling, "Get these civilians out of here!"

"Right, got it!" Kai shouted back. He ran to the front of the stands and waved his arms, trying to get everyone's attention so he could usher them to safety. "Listen up! Head to Game Central Station now. Move it, let's go, go, go!"

Screaming, the spectators stampeded out of the area, making a beeline for the game exit.

Cole stumbled back from the chaos. Glancing around wildly, he saw CySnakes swarming the finish line, attracted to the neon sign.

"What? No!" Cole roared, sprinting over to the creatures. Jumping into their midst, he began punching them away. "Get away. Shoo! Go on, go back to your game!"

Back on the track and completely unaware of the doom dawning on his companions, Zane gunned his engine around a curve. He swerved between two obstacles and gained speed, coming up alongside the competitor who had been right in front of him. To his surprise, Zane saw out of the corner of his eye that the competitor was King Candy. The king seemed just as surprised to see him, his lips forming the shocked words 'the glitch'.

Now even more motivated, Zane swung the wheel of his kart hard, knocking King Candy back and narrowly taking the lead as the duo went through a tunnel.

They had just entered the Nougat Mines, the last section of track before the open stretch to the finish. Struck by an idea, King Candy steered his kart away into a side passage momentarily.

Zane hunkered down nervously over his steering wheel, uncertain of what was going to happen next but still determined to win the race.

Only a second later, King Candy came flying in, almost literally. His kart soared through the air out of a secret shortcut and landed just behind Zane's kart. With a burst of speed from his shortcut, King Candy rear-ended Zane so hard that the boy spun out so that he was facing the king.

King Candy revved his engine and hit Zane again. With a screech, Zane's kart's front end went up on Candy's hood. Zane desperately pulled at his wheel and slammed on the gas, trying to get down.

"Get off this track, glitch!" King Candy hissed. Jerkily, he stood up, snapped the antenna right off his kart, and began whacking at Zane.

Zane yelped and ducked as the antenna whooshed right over his head.

"I forbid you to cross that finish line!" Candy shrieked.

At said finish line, Jay had joined Cole in fighting off the snakes, mainly darting past the cyborg creatures as a distraction so that Cole could catch them off guard. Jay paused for a moment to get his footing and saw a flash of something interesting on the billboard. Pointing, he exclaimed, "Cole, look!"

Cole smacked another CySnake out of the way and stole a glance at the billboard. What he saw made him stumble back. There were Zane and King Candy, grappling while standing on their karts' hoods. Cole gasped futilely, "Kid!"

In the mines, Zane had gotten a hand on the antenna. He was desperately trying to wrestle it away from King Candy, who was trying to wrestle it back in turn. Losing himself in the effort, Zane glitched nervously, causing King Candy to glitch too.

"No, no, no! I'm not letting you undo all my hard work!" The King shouted, but despite his protests, the secondhand glitching had done something to him. From his hands gripping the detached kart antenna up his arms, to his torso and simultaneously through his head and his legs, a change began to happen.

Jay was now staring at the big screen too, transfixed by the transformation that was being shown. "Is that...?"

"No," Cole breathed in disbelief, "it can't be."

On the billboard, the glitches had taken over King Candy's body, revealing a creepy, familiar face.

In shocked unison, Jay and Cole exclaimed, "GARMADON!"

Uncertain of what was going on, Zane shrunk back uncertainly, loosing his grip on the antenna.

The character formerly known as King Candy took advantage of Zane's brief confusion. Taking up a strong grip on the antenna, he swung it, not at Zane, but at the hood beneath Zane's feet. Shaken, the glitch fell back into his seat and grabbed the doors of his kart, precariously hanging on as 'King Candy' levered the antenna under Zane's kart, flipping it on its side and right in front of the 'King's' kart.

"What? Who are you? What is going on?" Zane yelped as the King loomed over him.

"I'm Garmadon!" The unmasked king said triumphantly. "I'm the greatest racer in this arcade! And I didn't escape my game, learn code, and reprogram this game to let you and your obese warthog of a friend take it away from me!"

Garmadon spun his wheel, aiming for a wall up ahead which separated a fork in the road, and revved his engine. With Zane's kart on its side in front of him, he could ram the glitch right into the wall.

Zane realized what was going on immediately and began struggling to flip his kart over, but to no avail as the wall got closer and closer.

Garmadon cackled. "End of the line, glitch!"

"...Glitch..." Zane repeated in a whisper, getting an idea. "That's it."

He concentrated, squeezing his hands into fists and shutting his eyes firmly. "Come on. You said you were not going to do it, but now you will. You can do it. Calm. Concentrate. And... Glitch!"

The second before his kart would have slammed into the wall and broken into pieces, probably taking him with it, Zane glitched. He disappeared for a second, before reappearing safely, kart and all, to the left of the wall.

Garmadon swerved violently, bounced hazardously off the wall, and headed down the right hand tunnel, screaming in frustration.

"I did it. I got it under control," Zane realized. He pumped one of his fists a single time. "Cool!"

Zane stepped on the gas and hightailed it, staying alert. He made it safely out of the mines as he headed for the finish line. Garmadon, on the other hand, lost control in his rage and didn't look where he was going. As he exited his tunnel, Garmadon hurtled right into the open mouth of a CySnake.

Still guarding the finish line, Jay spun to defend his right side and glanced at the mine. He saw a kart through the clear path he and Cole had created. "Cole! Cole, hey! There he is, Cole!"

"Bring it home, kid! The finish line's wide open!" Cole hollered, but even as he was finishing his sentence-

BOOM! CySnakes began exploding out of the ground on the track. Zane screamed and swerved around them, still aiming for the finish line. One burst out right in front of his kart. Unable to avoid it on such short notice, Zane crashed right into it and was sent flying. His kart bounced roughly through a lollipop field. Thrown from his kart mid-air, Zane skidded to a dazed stop in the midst of broken lollipop stems and shattered candy shards.

Abruptly, Cole and Jay abandoned the finish line and ran to the stunned boy.

Cole dug Zane up out of the sugary debris and dusted him off, asking urgently, "Kid, are you okay?"

"I'm fine, I'm fine," Zane insisted, pushing the helping hands away. He stood, wincing but determined. "Let's finish this race!"

"Cole, look!" Jay gasped. He had started watching the finish line intently as soon as he and Cole had deserted it and now pointed back to the place they had been protected.

Cole turned to see that finish line being completely over-run by snakes. The ground cracked and the formerly cheery sign collapsed under the weight of the invaders.

"All those snakes…" Jay murmured. He shook his head incredulously. "I don't know if- I won't be able to- I can't. I can't fix that."

Cole bit his lower lip and quickly came to a conclusion. He decided, "Let's go."

Jay and Cole began to run out of the stadium, but Jay stopped almost immediately, causing Cole to bump into him from behind. Jay peered around Cole to see Zane walking with difficulty to his beat-up kart. Jay exclaimed, "Zane!"

Cole turned at Jay's cry. He promptly realized what was going on and dashed back, picking Zane up and slinging the boy over his shoulder before hurrying to Jay, still repeating, "Let's go, let's go, let's go!"

"No! I still need to cross the finish line!" Zane protested, squirming desperately, trying to get back to the only thing he thought could save him.

"There is no finish line," Cole said grimly. Not knowing he was still speaking, he thought out loud, "And that means that, whatever comes, this is the finish."