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03 – Level Thirteen
Echo and Morro joined the Ninja and Pixal on their way to Borg Tower. He was trying to figure out what was going on with the game, hopefully he’ll have an answer.
Borg did figure out what was going on, they had to enter the game to get Jay out.
“I’m afraid Zane, Pixal and Echo cannot enter the game.”, said Borg.
“Aww, why?”, Echo sounded a little disappointed.
“The Prime Empire Code is so complex; it could overwrite your programming.”
“Yikes.”
“I like my ones and zeros just the way they are, thank you.”, said Pixal.
“Then we’ll stay and track down Dyer in real life.”, said Zane.
Cole moved closer to the arcade machine, said: “And I’m gonna reach level 13 and crack this baby wide open!” and began playing the game.
Morro looked at Cole, his decision was made, he turned to Lloyd and said: “I’m going to join you in the game.”
Lloyd just nodded in acknowledgement. All of them understood that Morro didn’t want to leave Cole out of his sight, considering how he felt when the six of them had been stuck in the Never Realm.
As the tower was being overrun by thugs, led by The Mechanic, Borg activated his new security system.
Morro nudged Nya and whispered to her: “He’s just doing this to show off.”
“Totally.”
After the 100th floor was overrun, the ninja had managed to go to Prime Empire, while Pixal, Echo, Zane and Borg escaped all while taking the motherboard with them.
04 – Superstar Rockin’ Jay
As soon as they entered the game, they were ambushed by Red Visors. Much to everyone’s dismay, they lost their powers as well as all their hard-earned skills, frustrating all of them.
They were saved by a group of… Jays? Confusing all of them. They induced themselves as members of the League of Jays.
“Uh, we’re talking about Jay. Our Jay!”, said Kai.
“Who’d want to be Jay.”, commented Morro.
Kai shrugged in response.
They needed to escape. The Jays jumped up the building, Lloyd followed them, only to jump right into the building. Cole suggested to double jump. And surprisingly enough it worked.
As they ran, following the Jays, one of them stated that they were noobs and that they stats were low, explaining why they were so much weaker then in the actual world.
“You’re not making any sense! I hate this place, already!”, yelled Morro. He began to regret joining the ninja on this mission. Why did it have to be a video game?
The Jays told them were to go and they managed to avoid a few more Visors and found the place they were supposed to find Jay. They were greeted by a man named Scott; he led them to a hideout filled with people that looked like Jay.
“I… I can’t believe this, Are we in a nightmare?”, said Kai.
“Yeah, defiantly a nightmare.”, agreed Morro.
They then were greeted by Jay, who, for some reason, had blue skin now.
05 – I am Okino
They had gotten themselves new suits and were ready to get the first Keytana. Kai walked through the pod first while talking to Jay.
“I still don’t get how you got that group of nutjobs to do everything you say.”
“The League of Jays aren’t nutjobs!”, Jay defended them.
“Anyone that likes you this much is.”; said Morro.
The master of wind was promptly hit in the back of his head by Nya. She glared at him; Morro just glared back.
Then they noticed the man standing near them. He intruded himself as Okino.
06 – The Glitch
The Forest was a hell scape. They were lucky if they only one of them got out with a life left.
Luckily they found one of Unagami’s goons willing to lead them to a glitch.
Inside the glitch however, they were ambushed by Red Visors, all of then getting hit multiple times. Okino came to help them, which gave them the opportunity to get out and successfully avoiding the forest.
Outside the forest they looked at their lives. Jay, Nya and Lloyd were down to two lives. Kai hadn’t gotten hit, and Morro and Cole had only one life left.
“This is going great.”, said Morro.
07 – The Cliffs of Hysteria
Climbing the cliffs with some bad rope was a horrible idea, but it was the only idea they had. They had made it to the top somehow, after being surprised by Red Visors.
When all of them were safe on top of the cliff Morro said: “I’m impressed none of us died.”
“Pessimist much!”, mumbled Jay.
“When is he not?”, said Nya.
08 – The Maze of the Red Dragon
Fighting a mechanical, digital Dragon was different from fighting a real Dragon. When Okino showed them the Dragons weak spot all of them took turns hitting the dragon on its back.
Morro hit the dragon and fell of right after. By pure change, Morro was caught by Cole.
“Nice catch.”, Morro said while smiling up at Cole.
Before Cole put Morro down, Jay defeated the Dragon with the Keytana.
“You can put me down, you know.”, said Morro.
Cole reluctantly put morro down. He does enjoy picking up Morro and carrying him around. He’ll just do that later again.
09 – One Step Forwards, Two Steps Back
As they got ready to register for the Speedway, they noticed that they didn’t have enough credits and Kai had a new Avatar.
“Blonde doesn’t suit you.”, said Morro.
“You’re just jealous I have a cool Avatar!”
“I’m really not.”
They needed credit and fast. While the ninja were arguing Morro noticed an advertisement. A dance competition. That’s it! Morro tried to get their attention.
“Guys. Guys!”, yelled Morro.
“What?”
“Finally, look!”, Morro said and pointed up at the billboard. They knew how to get the credits now!
“Oh, this is going to be a disaster! Jay couldn’t dance his way out of a paper bag. Morro, maybe we should enter too.”, said Cole.
“Yeah, no way.”
“Why not? We dance all the time.”
“When we’re alone! I’m not doing that on stage!”
Morro would never admit it but he had a bad case of stage fright. He couldn’t even get himself to dance with Cole unless the monastery was completely empty until recently.
Cole only pouted a little in response. He wasn’t a big fan of the stage as well but he does want to dance with Morro.
Surprisingly enough, Jay and Nya were pretty good. Cole got heated as well. He began yelling advice to them. Letting out the dance inside him.
“Keep those shoulders back! Find your center!”
Morro found it endearing and he chuckled a little. He enjoyed watching Cole acting this cute more than the events on stage.
“Lead with your hips!”, Cole said and grabbed Morro, showing Nya and Jay what to do; “And one, and two, one and two!” Good thing no one, expect Kai and Lloyd, was noticing them. Morro would have fought back otherwise.
Lloyd and Kai watched them and took a few steps back from them. They didn’t want to be dragged into dancing with Cole next.
The fun was cut short when the Red Visors came inside. They were taken care of quickly, while Nya and Jay won.
They could now enter the Speedway.
10 – Racer Seven
Jay led them to Scott’s garage again. There Scott revealed the vehicles he had for them. They just needed to get more information on the Speedway.
“I’m going to check out the Speedway. See what I can learn.”, said Lloyd.
“I’m coming along. I won’t be much help with this.”, said Morro.
The two left the garage.
Before they could get close enough they spotted Red Visors and decided to put on a new Avatar.
Morro’s Avatar had long hair, which changed color. His green streak was now a dark orange and his black hair had a green tint to it. His clothes were also somewhat matched Lloyd’s new aesthetic.
“Hey, we match!”, said Lloyd.
“We do have similar tastes after all, shorty.”
“I’m not that short!”
“Whatever makes you sleep at night.”
They headed to watch the race. They spotted a racer, she was good, but flung out before she reached the finish line. She threw her helmet, which Lloyd caught and only seconds after they were spotted by Red Visors. They managed to escape without losing any lives.
One their way back to the garage the cousins came up with a plan.
Outside they heard the others talk about the unsalvageable car.
“We might have an idea.”, said Lloyd.
“Whoa! What’s up with the fresh new duds?”, said Jay.
“Yeah, I think Morro broke Cole.”, Kai said while waving his hand in front of Cole.
“It’s a disguise.”, said Lloyd.
Lloyd explained the idea they had; Morro meanwhile walked over to Cole.
“You look good. I like the hair.”
“Thank you, maybe I should grow it out.”
Lloyd then leaves again to talk to Racer Seven and convince her to help them.
11 – The Speedway Five-Billion
They didn‘t have much more time. The Red Visors were getting closer. They just needed enough time to leave.
Scott was ready to fight them off, and surprisingly Morro too.
Morro turned to Cole.
“I’ll help Scott hold them off. Win that race.“, Morro said and kissed Cole’s cheek, “I love you.”
“I’ll see after the race.”, Cole said.
“Yeah…”, Morro sounded sad as he left.
Before Cole could say anything, Morro was already fighting the Red Visors alongside Scott and the remainder of their group was leaving.
„You know we‘re going to lose our last lives here right?“, said Scott.
„I know.“, said Morro.
They were driving further from their hide out and Cole could only watch as Morro and Scott get cubed.
“NO!”
Cole was ready to fight the Red Visors but Kai pulled him out of his thoughts.
“Cole, we need to go! They knew what they were getting themselves into!”
Kai was right, they had to keep going.
They‘ll win this race and if it‘s the last thing Cole does.
13 – Ninjago Confidential
Meanwhile in Ninjago
Zane and Echo were on top of a roof as Zane narrated the whole situation.
Then Pixal joined then too.
“There you two are.”
“She said, shining the only ray of light into my dreary world.”, narrated Zane.
“Who are you talking to? And why are you dresses like that?”
Both Echo and Zane were wearing trench coats, Zane also wore a fedora.
“We’re detectives!”, said Echo as enthusiastically as usual.
Zane smiled at his brother and said: “Yes, since we are engaged in detectives work, tracking down a missing person, I have downloaded thousands of detective books and movies as research.”
Pixal looked at her partner. She wanted to be surprised but she really wasn’t, he was just as bad as the others. Instead, she turned to look at Echo.
“Echo, please tell me you didn’t download them as well.”
“Nope, I just think it’s fun!”
At least she would only have to deal with Zane doing this and not Echo as well.
The trio then proceed to leave, they had a lead after all.
Once they entered Laughy’s Bar, Zane just kept narrating everything. The people around them started to look at them.
“Please shut up.”, whispered Echo to his brother. He didn’t want to have a bar fight.
“Perhaps that is enough detective narration for now...”, suggested Pixal.
It didn’t take long for the bar fight to start. Due to Zane’s constant narrating, Pixal and Echo had to do everything.
“I don’t like this anymore.”, said Echo after Pixal punched the last guy.
The guy they were looking for was the bartender, he offered the information he had as well as a drink for each of them. Before Echo could take his drink, Pixal took it from him.
“No alcohol for him.”, she said to Tony. Tony then gave Echo a glass of cola instead. Echo liked that much more anyway.
Their next stop was Buddy’s Pizza. On their way Zane kept narrating everything.
“You are beginning to get on my nerve-circuits. Are you going to talk like that the whole time?”, said Pixal.
“Her eyes showed annoyance, but her heart revealed that she respected my unorthodox techniques.”
“My heart did not reveal that!”
“The voice is getting a little annoying.”, said Echo.
“Thank you!” At least someone was finally agreeing with her.
Inside they didn’t find anything, they were quickly ambushed by The Mechanic and his lackeys. He zapped both Echo and Pixal before leaving with Zane.
Once they woke up they saw that Zane was nowhere to be found, only his hat was left behind. While Pixal put on the hat with a big sigh, Echo took of his trench coat, leaving it on the floor.
Pixal began narrating.
“Urgh, I was desperate and willing to try anything. Even Zane’s detective theory.”
Echo let out a small laugh a little. Pixal sounded as ridiculous as Zane.
Somehow the narrating helped and an arcade machine opened up revealing a staircase. The duo walked up the stairs and was met with Milton Dyer. They had found him, finally.
14 – The Prodigal Father
Apparently Dyer wasn’t Unagami, Unagami was the game itself, the AI that made up the game.
Dyer didn’t seem to understand that Unagami wasn’t just an AI.
“Unagami’s not a real person. Unagami was the game. It was just a harmless program.”, said Dyer.
“This harmless program wants revenge.”, said Pixal, “His emotions are just as real as yours or ours.”
“But you are robots”, said Dyer.
“Uh, we’re nindroids!”, said Echo. He was getting more and more annoyed with Dyer. Everything the man said pissed Echo off. He doesn’t like Dyer at all.
“What you experience as emotions is merely a simulation of emotions. It’s juts ones and zeros.”
Pixal scoffed and said: “As are yours!”
Pixal convinced Dyer to tell them what had happened.
After Dyer finished telling his story, Echo practically blew up on him.
“You abandoned him! For what?! Not being perfect enough!?”
Pixal put a hand on the youngers shoulder and said: “Echo, calm down.”
Echo looked surprised by his own outburst.
“Sorry. I just – This just reminded me of when father…”
“You don’t have to say it”, Pixal said as she hugged Echo.
16 – Game Over
The portal opened and Jay was back on the back of a mechanical looking Dragon, he immediately went to help Echo and Pixal free Zane.
Now they just had to get Dyer and Unagami to talk.
Jay led Unagami to Bog Tower while the others made their way there too. When they were in the elevator Echo heard Jay talk to Unagami, he wasn’t sure if anyone else heard the blue ninja.
“I was abandoned too!”
“Jay was abandoned… like me?”, Echo thought to himself.
At least this meant Unagami was really getting the help he needed. Maybe Unagami could get the closure Echo and Jay never got.
After everything was over, everyone was freed from Prime Empire.
Cole looked around frantically until he spotted Morro.
“Morro!”
He ran over to his boyfriend, picked him up und began spinning.
“Hi”, said Morro smiling down at Cole.
Cole put him down again and took Morro’s face in his hands.
“Never do that again. I love you.”
“I promise.”
They were pulled out of their thought when Lloyd called for them to join everyone else.