For those wondering, this is three days after the date. :3
What happens when a person with gaming abilities enters a real game in person?
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In Ninjago City, a citizen playing Lava Zombies on his phone bumps into another citizen on her phone. They wave and move along. A noodle truck drives by. Clutch Powers finds the Teapot of Tyrahn and opens it, where a poof of orange smoke appears. Gayle Gossip walks by Laughy's, where Dareth escorts two ladies out. He sees Gayle and chases after her.
Jake is playing on his phone in a car driving by. Vinny has stopped by a noodle food cart and wafts in the noodle smell delightedly. Nelson and Antonia team up to deliver newspapers throughout the city. Sammy waves as they both take off.
The Noodle Truck reappears and drives into an alley during the night. The Mechanic and his henchmen jump out from the back of the truck. The Mechanic uses his robo-arm to break down the door of an old electronics warehouse.
"We're in, boys!" said the Mechanic.
"Huh, look at all this old junk." said the first henchman.
The Mechanic grabs him. "Just because it's old doesn't make it junk, just forgotten." Tosses him away. "Find the motherboard!" He walks down the aisle while his henchmen search. "There! The top shelf." One of his henchmen puts up a ladder and climbs it. He loses his balance when grabbing the box, and everything in it comes crashing down. He lands inside a box of Styrofoam, and The Mechanic grabs him out and tosses him away. "Careful with those!" He picks up the box and tosses it away.
"What are we looking for, Boss?" asked the second henchman.
The Mechanic eyes the motherboards scattered and picks one up. "This is it. A needle in a haystack. A very, very valuable needle." Lights immediately turn on and they cover their eyes.
"Sorry to crash the party, boys!" said Nya and Nova, as the ninja jumped down from above to face them.
"Guess our invitations got lost in the mail, huh?" Jay reaches behind to grab his weapon.
"No weapons, guys. These are just low level thugs." said Lloyd.
"Lame, and here I thought I could test out my fully build weapon." said Nova.
Cole punches the air. "My fists are my weapons."
"Normal beat down it is then." said Nova with a sigh.
"I would not classify the Mechanic as low-level. He's suspected in thirty-six unsolved criminal cases." said Zane.
"Thirty-seven." The Mechanic extends his robo-arm and knocks Zane back into a pile of boxes.
"Huh, I'm surprised he's keeping count." said Nova.
"Nova, focus on the mission." said Lloyd.
"You're not getting away that easy." said Jay.
"Who's trying to get away?! There are more of us than you!" The Mechanic looks back to see his henchmen trying to escape, Nova tries holding back a giggle by watching this. He gestures them to come back, and they do so reluctantly, pulling out their bats. "And we're not afraid to use our weapons." He lights up his fire arm and sticks it out at them.
"Whoa." Cole backed away.
"Whoa." Lloyd jumps over it while the others move back.
Nova summoned her warfan and easy blocked the fire. "Haven't you heard, pointing at people is rude." She went on to knock him back by kicking him in the guts, which he was able to block with his fire arm.
"I have no problem using these!" Jay takes three floppy disks and tosses it at The Mechanic. "Take that, obsolete file formats!" One of them hits his arm holding the motherboard, and it goes flying through the air.
Kai dives for it and catches it. "Unh." He looks up to see the henchmen surrounding him, and they start dog piling him, fighting for the motherboard. "Hunh-ahh!" He tosses it, and it lands in one of the henchmen's hands. He smiles and climbs up the ladder.
Lloyd throws down one of the henchmen. "I got him!" He leaps up onto the shelf and chases him to the last shelf. The henchman takes out his bat and starts waving it at him.
Nova put away her warfan as she went on to throw a henchman into another henchman.
Cole smashes a henchman against a shelf. "Use the VCRs!"
"What's a... VCR?" Lloyd scratches his head and looks at the henchman, who shrugs at him.
"It's that old machine Wu watches his ninja movies on. Idiot." said Nova, as she used her grappling hooks to swing and went full spider-man mode on the henchmen. "I see why spider-man likes using his web to come around and catching thugs, this is fun."
Some of the henchmen had started running away as Nova came swinging at them like crazy. "Oooh, boys, come over and play.~" She said in a taunting voice.
"Run!"
"Get away from me!"
Nova laughs, swinging around and had one of her gauntlets, change its mode to a little blade shooter and began shooting at them, as she got them stuck to a wall or the floor so they couldn't move.
"I think Nova is having a bit too much fun." said Jay.
Lloyd shook his head at Nova swinging around and shooting little blades, as he sees three machines and presses three buttons. "Eject! Eject! Eject! Well, any time now." The henchman slowly makes his way towards Lloyd, but three VHS' fly out, knocking his bat out and punching him. Lloyd seizes the opportunity and runs up to him, knocking him back. The motherboard flies out of his hand and Nya slides in from below, catching it, just as the shelf tips over.
"Got it!" said Nya as Lloyd jumps away, and the shelf comes tumbling down on the henchmen.
"Well, that was fun." said Nova as she landed back on the ground.
"Nova, I told you no weapons." said Lloyd with a sigh.
Nova rolled her eyes. "Hey, I was being careful and, beside, my weapons hardly did anything to them. Besides trapping some of those henchmen on the walls and floor."
The Mechanic sneaks behind Nya and snatches the motherboard back. "I'll take that!"
"Hey!" said Nya.
"Get him!" shouted Nova.
The Mechanic runs away. "Thanks! Haha!" The ninja ran out just in time to see him leave on his Noodle Truck. They run into an alley and follow him in the Rock Cycle and ATV. The Mechanic sees the ninja in his side mirror and pulls out a claw from his truck. The claw grabs a lamp post, and he whips the truck around.
Nova rolled her eyes as she summoned her fully build weapon, and had it change into its hoverboard mode. "Last one takes the trash out!" She shouted as she went after him on her hoverboard.
"Hold on!" shouted Nya.
"Whoa!" The ninja and Nova go around him and make a sharp U-Turn, pursuing after him. The Mechanic knocks his truck into boxes and cars, sending them flying at the ninja. They accelerate and Kai catches up to the Mechanic. The Mechanic rams his truck into the ATV.
"Look out!" shouted Jay.
"Unh. Hey! Watch the paint job!" shouted Kai as the Mechanic speeds away, leaving them spinning.
Nova was still following close behind the Mechanic, as she pointed her blade shooter at the tires and was able to blow one of them up. "Haha!" She looked behind as she sees Cole catching up, so she quickly moves to the side so he could get through.
Cole launches a claw at the back of his truck and it catches on. He speeds ahead of the Mechanic and whips the rest of the chain around a lamppost.
"Aw, come on!" The truck jerks to a stop, breaking down. He jumps out. "So close!" The ninja immediately surround him.
"It's over, Mechanic! Give it up!" said Lloyd, to which the Mechanic throws his hands up in surrender, growling.
"I'll be taking this!" Jay snatches the motherboard and stares at it, confused.
"Well, that was easy." said Nova as she unsummoned her hoverboard.
*Later, The ninja are outside The Mechanic's headquarters with the police. Wu's chicken has stolen a policeman's hat. The policeman chases after it, but the chicken chases him back.*
"Ahh!" The ninja watch as the Mechanic is put in the back of a police car.
"Great work, ninja! You guys saved the day!" said the Commissioner.
"Yeah. But what exactly did we save the day from?" Kai asked.
"Uhh, 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." said the Commissioner, as Jay pulls out the motherboard and looks at it. "Let's go, boys! Pack it in!" Jay tries to get the policemen's attention about it, but they leave.
"Hmm. If we only knew what this was for." said Jay.
"Well, it's a motherboard to a computer." said Cole.
"But which computer? There are 3,412,870 computers in Ninjago City, approximately." said Zane.
"But only one secret lair! That's where he was running when we caught him! Maybe that's his hideout!" said Nya.
"Um. An abandoned arcade?" They walk inside to a mess.
"Look at all these robo-arms. This guy has an obsession." said Nya.
"I have to agree, this is a little creepy." said Nova.
A robo-arm falls down onto Lloyd's shoulder, and he screams, throwing it off him. "Ahh! Oh, okay, let's make it quick. This place is super creepy."
Nova couldn't help but start laughing when he screamed. "That was too good, I should have taken a picture of that!"
Lloyd glared over at Nova. "Oh, really now." He walked over to her, with a raised eyebrow.
Nova stopped laughing as she noticed that look, from when she stole his comic out of his hands before they went on their quest. "Oh, would you look at this. It looks a bit like a horror game I saw in my old world."
"What kind of game was that?" Lloyd asked, wrapping an arm around her so she couldn't escape, well, she could, but she still needed to be careful with her powers.
"For short, it was called fnaf, but it's full now is Five Night's At Freddy's." said Nova as she went on to explaining about the game, and its lore.
"That is, very creepy." said Lloyd, not liking the lore for it. "Have you played it?"
"Me? Nah, I can't handle playing horror games. But I don't mind watching others play it." said Nova.
"Hmm." Lloyd leaned over and blew air against her neck. Making her jump with a red face. "W-What the fuck, Lloyd!? We are on a mission here!"
"That's payback for laughing at me." said Lloyd, with a teasing smirk.
"Jackass." Nova growled at him, as she crossed her arms.
Lloyd chuckled a bit before kissing her cheek. "Relax, butterfly, if you want, I can make it up to you back at the monastery."
Nova's face started turning red as she pushed him away. "N-no, I'm good," She said and went on to take a look around and focus on something else. While she didn't mind spending time with him, she just didn't want any of the others to walk in on them, which had already been very close the day after their date.
"No way!" They see Jay blowing and sweeping dust off the Arcade Cabinet. "Do you know what this is?! It's Prime Empire!"
"What?! No way!" said Cole.
"Cool! Let me see!" Nova quickly rushed over to join them.
"Look at it! It says Prime Empire right on the side!" Jay gasps. "It's real!" He closes his eyes and jumps.
"Oh, my god, I've always wanted to play this!" Nova smiled, as seeing the TV show made her wish she had been there, even with all the chaos it brought later.
"Excuse me." Jay opens one eye. "Can you three pretend that we're not all video game nerds and tell the rest of us what Prime Empire is?" said Nya.
Jay was about to answer, but Nova was faster as she beamed with excitement. Which was a surprise to everyone but Lloyd, after seeing it on their date. As this was a very rare sight to see.
"Oh, it's this legendary game created by the most famous game designer ever! . But for some reason, it was never finished, and they abandoned it." Nova explained while Jay plugs in the plug and presses a button.
"I've gotta be honest here, I'm not sure how I feel seeing her this excited." Kai whispered.
"Well, that was exciting." said Cole.
"Can't have been that good if they never released it." said Kai.
"I find old games to be unchallenging." said Zane.
"Yeah, I like new ones, where they really make you feel like you're there." said Lloyd.
"Sounds like VR." said Nova, looking at Lloyd with a raised eyebrow.
"Cannn we get back on track? 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!" said Nya.
"Uh, yeah! Okay, good idea, except I think I should stay here and keep checking in this, uh, area." Jay unconvincingly points at the ground.
"Yeah, same here. After all, two is better than one." said Nova.
"Why do I feel like you two are just going to fuss around with that broken game?" said Nya.
Lloyd gave Nova a questionable look, he would have liked searching with her but looks like she wanted to search with Jay.
"Pfft, what?! No, no, We're just gonna start here first. You know, we don't want to miss any clues. Right?" Nya stares at Jay, unconvinced, and heads in with the others. As soon as she leaves, Jay and Nova gets back to working on the game. The rest of the ninja walk around, looking at the Mechanic's stuff.
"Wow. He's got a lot of hats." said Cole.
"Yeah, who would have thought a guy super into stealing things would have too much stuff?" said Kai as Cole shrugs and moves on.
"Aww, come on! Just turn on! This is too cool to not get to play one time." said Jay.
"Jay! Over here." said Nova, pointing at a plug and sees an empty slot.
"Huh. You need a mother—a motherboard!" Jay pulls out the motherboard and puts it in. He grins as the screen lights up, turning red. Then he and Nova backs up, and a red energy wave knocks him and Nova down. "Gah!" The flash continues spreading out.
Zane gets up. "Uh. What was that?"
"We better keep looking. Hey! There's a door back there." said Nya.
Jay groans, getting up, with Nova, who was rubbing her head.
"Well, that was a blast." said Nova.
"Would you like to enter Prime Empire?" said the Game Voice.
"Oh ho, don't mind it, I do." Jay starts playing.
"Hey, don't leave me out of it, how about we switch places after each level?" Nova suggested.
"Huh, oh, yeah we can do that." said Jay, not minding that idea.
Nova smiled as they switched playing each level, hardly having much trouble when getting the hang of it. She had gone on to let Jay play level 12 and 13.
"Oh ho! You're going down, ogre! You're the only thing between me and beating this level, and I am not letting your fire catapult me again!" Jay knees slides back a little as he enjoys the game. Fire noises sound and he finishes, dancing. "Oh ho! Yes! Take that! Uh huh! What else you got for me, game?" He said as he high-fives Nova.
"Congratulations. You have reached Level 13. Would you like to enter Prime Empire?" said the Game Voice.
"Pfft. Heck yes, I would like to continue!" Jay presses the red button.
"Now entering Level 13." The Arcade Pod opens up for them.
"Huh? What—What the heck?!" Jay backs away and shields his eyes. Then he looks up and smiles, entering inside with Nova. The Arcade Pod shuts behind them and blackens as soon as the rest of the ninja open the door.
"Jay! Nova! We found a clue!" shouted Nya with the rest of the ninja come out from behind her.
"The Mechanic's working for someone who calls himself Una—huh?" said Cole.
"Jay? Nova?" Lloyd looked around confused, and a bit worried as he didn't notice any movement in the shadows.
Throughout Ninjago, echoing. "Would you like to enter Prime Empire? Would you like to enter Prime Empire? Would you like to enter Prime Empire?"