Within minutes, the NCPD had arrived to secure the scene as well as take The Mechanic to the precinct for questioning as Hayden forced him into a patrol car, placing his hand on his bowler hat. "Hey, hands off the hat, pal!" The Mechanic yelled.
"Get in there and shut up!" Hayden replied, forcing him in.
He heads for the passenger seat before he gets in and the car takes off, passing the Ninja and Navis, sirens wailing. "Great work, Ninja!" Navis said to them while Kai folded his arms curiously. "You guys saved the day."
"Yeah, but what exactly did we save the day from?" Kai asked.
"Um, I don't know yet. The Mechanic's not saying anything. But, we'll take him downtown and maybe we'll get some answers then." A little curious, Jay gets out the hard drive and looks at it. "Let's go, boys! Pack it in!" Navis and the officers immediately took off before Jay could show them the hard drive.
He then looks at it again. "If we only knew what this was for." He said.
"It's a motherboard to a computer." Blake replied, looking at it.
"But, which computer?" Gewuji asked.
"There are 3,412,870 computers in Ninjago City." Zane replied. "Approximately."
"But only one secret lair." Nya said, pointing to a nearby run down arcade. "That's where he was running when we caught him."
"Maybe that's his hideout." Geoff replied.
"Um, an abandoned arcade?" Jay asked as they start to head for it, and became excited about something.
Jay opens the door and heads in first, followed by the others, who look around, curiously. "Look at all these robo-arms." Nya said, noticing loose robotic arms around the place, some even hung up. "This guy has an obsession." They start to spread out.
"Think maybe he has blueprints lying around?" Blake asked. They all curiously start to look at him, and he notices. "What? My prosthetic might need some upgrades." He raises it to show it has a few scuffs and unremovable stains on it.
Suddenly, a robotic arm falls off a shelf and lands on Lloyd's shoulder, causing him to shriek and throw it at Gewuji, who yelps and throws it out the still open door. "Okay, let's make it quick." She said, closing the door.
"Agreed." Lloyd replied, agreeing with his ex-girlfriend. "This place is super creepy."
"No way!" Jay called out. They all turn to see him staring at an old arcade cabinet, which he blows some dust off and turned to the others. "Do you know what this is?"
Almost everyone was a little confused. "Prime Empire?" Blake asked.
"Exactly!"
"What?" Cole asked, pretending to be excited. "No way."
"Look at it!" He turns to the side of it. "It says 'Prime Empire' right on the side!" He soon gasped. "It's real!"
"Excuse me." Geoff said. "Can you guys pretend that we're not all video game nerds, and tell the rest of us what Prime Empire is?"
"It's this legendary game, created by the most famous game designer, Milton Dyer. But for some reason it was never finished. They abandoned it." He heads behind the cabinet to insert the plug into the power point, turns it on, heads back to the front, and presses a button, only for nothing to happen.
"Well, that was exciting." Cole sarcastically said.
"It can't have been that good if they never released it." Kai replied.
"I find old games to be unchallenging." Zane said.
"Yeah, I like new ones, where they really make you feel like you're there." Lloyd replied.
"Can we get back on track?" Nya asked. "There's a lot of nooks and crannies here, and we're not even sure what we're looking for. So let's spread out."
"Uh, yeah, okay, good idea." Jay replied, seemingly agreeing with his wife. "Um, except, I think... I... should stay here and keep checking in... this, uh, area." He waves his hands to the left.
Nya was not amused. "Why do I get the feeling you're just going to putz around with that broken game?"
He scoffs. "What? No. No. I'm just gonna start here first. You know, we don't want to miss any clues. Right?" Nya just glared at her husband, still unamused, while the others head for a nearby door before she joined them.
"Jay, I bet you 10 bucks you can't get that game to work." Gewuji said, peeking out.
"Sure, whatever." Gewuji snorts out of disbelief before moving to rejoin the others. Jay immediately turned back to the cabinet to find out what is wrong.
In the other room, which appeared to be an office, Lloyd, Kai, Zane, Cole, Nya, Geoff, Gewuji and Blake look around it. "Wow, he's got a lot of hats." Cole said, coming up to them.
"Yeah, who woulda thought a guy super into stealing things would have too much stuff?" Kai asked, moving past him.
"Would you look at that?" Blake asked as Kai and Cole came over to him to see him holding blueprints. "He was making an arm with the special addition. That you can feel stuff with it."
"Really?" Cole asked, looking closely. "These look like they're printed off something."
"Well, I gotta have these." Kai and Cole walk away as Blake rolls the blueprints up. "Hope he doesn't mind if I 'borrow' them." He immediately puts them in behind his gi before the others could see it.
Back in the main foyer, Jay was trying to get the arcade cabinet to work. "Oh, come on." He said. "Just turn on." He fiddles with the buttons a little. "This is too cool to not get to play one time." He heads behind the cabinet to the power point. "I have 10 bucks on the line here!" He fiddles with the plug a little before noticing a panel on the cabinet being open. "Huh. You need a mother-" He tries to remember something before realising. "A motherboard!" He gets out the hard drive before inserting it into the slot. Soon, the game's monitor glows red as Jay heads back to the front. "Ha, ha!" He turns to the door. "You owe me 10 bucks, Gewu-!" He cuts himself off when the screens grows brighter and a loud sound emits from it before a sudden energy wave bursts out, knocking him down as it spreads out, throughout the city.
In the office, the other Ninja have felt it. "Huh, what was that?" Zane asked.
"Some sort of shockwave." Blake replied.
"We better keep looking." Nya said.
"Hey, there's a door back here!" Geoff called out, looking behind a shelf.
At NCPD headquarters, Hayden and Caine bring The Mechanic up the stairs as the energy wave passes through them. While the two officers became curious while The Mechanic simply laughed, knowing what was going on.
At an arcade, kids were playing some late night games on arcade cabinets as a young boy watched a teenaged boy play a game called Fist to Face. "Hey, when's it gonna be my turn?!" The young boy asked.
The teen scoffs. "Never, Leroy." He replied, rudely. "You mess everyone else up."
The energy soon passed through, shorting out all the electronics inside, leaving the room completely dark. "Huh? What happened?"
The lights soon come back on, and all the cabinets' monitors have been replaced with a symbol and the words 'Prime Empire' on them. Everyone then curiously looked at their screens. "'Prime Empire'? Huh?" Although still confused, the teenaged boy simply brought his fingers together to stretch them, and started to play it.
Back at the abandoned arcade, Jay groaned in pain as he got up. "Would you like to enter Prime Empire?" The arcade cabinet asked.
Jay turns to the cabinet and chuckles in amazement. "Don't mind if I do!" He said before he started to play it.
Lloyd, Kai, Zane, Cole, Nya, Geoff, Gewuji and Blake enter the room behind the shelf to find the room had boarded up windows, spider webs all over, many folders stacked up in random places and drawings on the wall. "What a mess!" Nya said.
"Maybe he should steal a filing cabinet next." Blake replied, agreeing with her.
Kai then notices a sheet of paper with the same symbol on the motherboard. "That's the same weird symbol that's on the back of that motherboard." He said.
"It's everywhere." Lloyd replied, picking up a folder with some of the same symbol scribbled all over. "But what does it mean?"
A sound was soon heard behind Zane, causing them all to gasp and see something glowing red behind stacks of folders. Geoff and Gewuji move some aside to see it is a computer with a simple line. "Did you locate the motherboard?" A voice asked with the line moving in a graph wave with the voice. Everyone looks at each other in confusion. "DID YOU LOCATE THE MOTHERBOARD!?"
Gewuji immediately tapped some keys to answer. "'Yes, we did.'" She replied while typing it.
"Unagami is pleased. Activate the game." The screen soon shuts itself off.
"Unagami?" Lloyd asked. "Who's Unagami?"
Back in the main foyer, Jay was still playing Prime Empire, exceedingly well. "Oh, you're going down, ogre!" He said as he played. "You're the only thing between me and beating this level, and I am not letting you fire catapult me again!" As he played, he slid his feet back along the floor before straightening himself. "Oh, yes!" He jumps back in victory and spins before pointing at the cabinet. "Take that! Uh huh! What else you got for me, game?"
"Congratulations." The arcade cabinet said. "You have reached Level Thirteen." The Prime Empire symbol, along with 'Level 13', appear on the monitor. "Would you like to enter Prime Empire?"
"Pfft! Hell yes, I would like to continue!" He immediately slammed the red button.
"Now entering... Level 13."
Suddenly, the cabinet started to open like a door as Jay backed away. "Huh? What? What the hell?" He immediately covered his eyes and leaned away as a bright light appeared in the cabinet's doorway. He looks back before becoming excited and heads into the light, completely disappearing in it before the cabinet closes behind him and shuts off.
Not long after, the door from the office opens up, and the other Ninja come out. "Jay, we found a clue!" Nya called out.
"The Mechanic's working for someone who calls himself Una-" Cole cuts himself off upon noticing the empty interior.
"Huh?" Geoff asked as Lloyd moved past them.
He looks around, completely concerned. "Jay?" He called out.
They start to spread out. "Jay?" Nya called out. "Where is he?"
"Well, he has to be here somewhere." Cole replied.
"Not like him to vanish into thin air." Blake said.
"Unless he got too scared and left?" Lloyd asked.
"By himself?" Nya asked. "Without telling us?"
"There is always a reasonable explanation." Zane replied.
Gewuji turns to the cabinet before scoffing. "He's probably just sulking somewhere, because he just lost 10 Ninjagins." She said while heading over to it, and leans on it, unintentionally hitting the buttons.
The monitor soon came on, surprising everyone. "Would you like to enter Prime Empire?" The arcade cabinet asked.
"Wait. Jay got the game working?" Nya started to look around the cabinet as Gewuji backed away, pouting a little. "Damn, I owe him 10 Ninjagins." Nya soon finds the edge of the secret door and pulls on it out of curiosity, shutting the monitor off, and the door opens a little, shocking her. She then backed away for it to fully open, only to find components inside.
"What's the 'reasonable explanation' for an arcade cabinet having a secret chamber?" Kai asked.
Cole shrugs before noticing a security camera. "A security camera!" He replied, pointing towards it. "That'll have the answers."
Blake turns to a nearby computer. "Zane, can you pull up the video on this computer?" He asked.
Zane heads over to the computer, types on a few keys, and the monitor shows some static before clearing to show Lloyd freaking out when the robotic arm fell on him. "Uh, you can fast forward that part." He said, a little embarrassed. "In fact, we should erase this after we're done." Zane and Blake glare at Lloyd, completely unamused.
Zane fast forwards the video up to when the cabinet was activated and Jay coming out from behind it before stopping to let it play at normal speed. The video shows Jay looking at the cabinet before the shock wave appears, knocking him down and spreading out. "Whoa!" Cole said. "Did you see that?"
"Rewind that." Blake said.
Zane rewinds the video to prior the energy wave's appearance. "It appears to be some sort of energy wave." He replied.
"Well, what does that mean?" Nya asked.
"Keep fast forwarding." Lloyd said to Zane.
Zane fast forwards the video to the point where the cabinet was open to a bright light and Jay enters it before the cabinet closed, and everyone came into view before Zane stops the video. "Where did Jay go?"
Cole turns to the cabinet. "He... he never came out." He simply said.
"I'm starting to think this is no ordinary game." Kai replied.
"That thing took Jay!" Nya said.
"Maybe to find Jay, we have to play the game?" Gewuji asked.
"That would be exceedingly dangerous." Zane replied. "Whatever happened to Jay would likely happen to us."
"We can't take the chance." Lloyd said. "Not until we know what we're dealing with. We need answers."
"From who?" Geoff asked. Lloyd tries to think of something before getting an idea of who to speak to.