"Misako! At my side." Wu shouted as he sprung awake.

"Of course. As I always will be. And as you always will be for me." Misako said.

"What is it, Wu?"

"I haven't told anyone, but when I fought Acronix at the monastery, something...happened. Something bad."

. . .

Nya supervised Zane in the Samurai X cave.

"This is bad. I told everyone to go back to the Airjitzu Temple while I got you back online and still nothing." Nya walked to the computer.

"All I got left is trying a total system reboot." She pulled the switch. Zane started to twitch and then he jumped off the table.

"Nya!" Zane exclaimed. Nya smiled.

"Oh, I'm so glad you're--"

"That potato was a flange 41-823. A narwhal horn is too red as weather is greater than pudding. Fifty sheet auto doc feeder!" Zane exclaimed, walking past Nya. She directed Zane back to the table.

"Okay, Zane. Take it easy. That's it." She said.

"Banana curtain nine."

"Oh, come on! I've tried everything. What is going on in there?" She bonked Zane's head with a screwdriver. Three times.

"What is going on is I'm trying to unscramble Zane's neural pathways so we can go rescue Cyrus Borg." Pixal shouted in Zane's head.

"And you haven't tried everything. You need to realign Zane's neural inputs. Can you hear me? Hello--"

"Hello? Hot dog rainy day in seven." Zane said.

"Okay, maybe what you need is..." Nya thought.

"Don't say a new binary power core."

"A new binary power core! I'll be right back." Nya ran off.

"Wait, no! Don't leave!"

"Plate! Show! Clipboard!" Zane shouted instead.

. . .

"And at the monastery, Acronix hit me with what he called the Time Punch." Wu explained to Misako.

"Now I'm rapidly aging. I would estimate one day every hour. The effect is accelerating and will continue to do so until--"

"Master Wu?" Lloyd knocked on the door.

"Say nothing. The ninja must not be distracted at this crucial time." Wu whispered to Misako and then leaned back on the bed.

"They might be able to help you." Misako whispered back.

"May I enter?" Lloyd knocked again.

"My fate is inevitable, Misako. Like the sun rising in the east, like fall turning into winter..." Wu trailed off and closed his eyes.

"Master Wu?" Lloyd entered the room.

"How is he?" He asked.

"Still recovering." Misako replied.

"So little time, so many lessons! Fight with your back to the sun. Eight cups of water a day is a myth. You should have been there when I fought Acronix. But I-I--" Wu sprang up but then went back to sleep.

"He's right. I should have been at his side. I failed my Master. I will not make that mistake again." Lloyd said.

Morro stood outside, under the window of the room. He shook his head and went to spar. Kai was training with a bot and Jay was helping Cole with targets on his hands.

"Zane is down. Folks disappearing all over town, and we can't do a thing to help!" Cole punched.

"If we just knew why Acronix and Krux are taking people." Cole said.

"You know, my theory." Jay said.

"For the last time, they are not hostages." Cole said.

"How can you be sure?" Jay asked.

"No ransom note." Cole said.

"Maybe they're gonna hypnotize them into being an army?" Jay suggested.

"Krux and Acronix already have an army. Of Samurai snakes." Cole punched again.

"Well, you know my other theories." Jay saud.

"Do not say alien abductions again, or dimensional rifts, or elven magic portals!" Cole got frustrated and jumped up, using his earth punch, he cracked the ground. Jay fell back.

"Sorry. It's just...I'm tired of speculating. We need to take action!" Cole helped Jay up.

The two turned their attention to the ones sparing with bots. They looked to Morro first who was moving pretry fast with a pretty unhappy expression. Morro semmed to get angry and punched the bot, breaking it into pieces. Morro shook his hand and looked around.

"Aiya... I haven't seen him fight like that since like, two seasons ago." Jay said.

"That must have hurt his hand."

"And then there's Kai." Cole pointed. Kai kept hitting the same spot over and over again, sometimes, punching with fire.

"Kai? Kai? You okay? You haven't been the same since you squared off against Krux. Did...did he do something?" Cole asked.

"More like said something. No, Nothing. I'm fine." Kai said.

"Good, 'cause I was just saying it's time to stop guessing and to start fighting!" Cole clapped his fists.

"So you're saying we capture one of those snake guys and bring them back here for Wu to question?" Kai asked.

"I just want to fight somebody. But okay, we could do that too." Cole said.

"That plan won't work." Lloyd announced from the stairs.

"Why not?" Kai asked.

"Because Master Wu still hasn't recovered from his battle with Acronix." Lloyd said. Morro broke another bot at the mention of Acronix. Everyone jumped a bit.

"Ow." Morro shook his hand.

"He rambles. He passes out. I think he's a lot more hurt than he lets on." Lloyd continued.

"Ugh. Great. All this and now we have mo master either?" Kai sighed.

"Uh, that's not exactly true...." Lloyd cleared with throat.

"With Wu out of commission the uh, logical successor would be uh..."

"... The Green Ninja." Cole said.

"...yep." Lloyd sighed.

"I don't know. I mean, are you ready for that? You're only a master in training." Kai said.

"Yeah, is there any other way?" Jay asked.

"Yeah.... Yeah...!!" Lloyd turned his head.

He looked at Morro who was still running drill. Lloyd walked over to Morro. They had a conversation from afar. The others couldn't hear them, well, the brothers weren't even talking out loud anyways.

Morro shook his head. Lloyd clapped his hands together. Morro started to walk away. Lloyd grabbed Morro by his gi's collar and dragged him over to the others.

"New Master!" Lloyd exclaimed.

"No." Morro tried to walk away. Lloyd kept Morro's gi in his hand.

'Morro. I can't lead. I'm not ready.'

'Alright listen. I'm not fully leading. You'll be the leader, and I'll reinforce you.'

"YES!" Lloyd exclaimed.

"Alright, Master Lloyd." Morro said.

"Temporary, Master Lloyd." Kai said.

"In training." Jay added.

"Okay, Temporary Master Lloyd in training, we mere Ninja await your words of wisdom. Which I assume, involce kicking some butt until we get a few amswers right?" Cole ran off, Kai and Jay high-fiving him as they ran.

"What?! No!" Lloyd exclaimed.

"Stop, you three." Morro said.

"Okay, what then?" Kai asked. Morro looked to Lloyd.

"We should... Make a plan. Here. Before anything. It-... It's what Wu would do. Come on!" Lloyd walked up the steps. Morro placed his hand on his face.

"Ugh..." He sighed.

Kai, Jay and Cole hesitantly entered the temple, Morro trailing not far behind.

. . .

Dareth looked at his trophy shelf, but there aren't any trophies. He paused then looked back.

"Aah! My trophies! Why would someone steal them? Why? Why!?" He shouted, running out of his dojo. Metal all over Ninjago City had been disappearing.

. . .

"Yes! Soon we will have all the metal we need courtesy of the Vermillion warriors." Raggmunk watched from a rooftop with the other generals.

"Really?" Blunk asked.

"What?"

"All the metal? Like, that's it? Finito?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Nothing. Nothing. It's...fine. Acronix and Krux signed off on it?" Blunk asked.

"Oh, who cares? Now let me concentrate! Increase Operation Heavy Metal!" Raggmunk waved his hand in the air.

"Really? That's the name you're--"

"Oh, it doesn't matter!"

Down on the street, Dareth screamed as he made his way to Ronin's shop.

"Someone stole my trophies!" He said, throwing the door open and shaking Ronin.

"I have an alibi! Wait. Why would anyone steal your fake trophies?" Ronin asked.

"I know! They were irreplaceable. Which is why I'm here to buy replacements." Dareth exclaimed.

"You want world championships this time or just intercontinental?" Ronin looked at his shelf.

"Uh, um, let's mix and match." Dareth decided.

"One sec." Ronin turned back to the shop and saw two Vermillion rumaging in the material.

"Uh, they're not with me." Dareth said.

"Fellas, we have a very strict store policy against shoplifting." Ronin said. Dareth looked out the windoe to see more Vermillion outside.

"Hey, those are my trophies! Give them back!" Dareth ran after the Vermillion. He tried to take them, but Ronin used his Salvage M.E.C. to get Dareth out of trouble.

. . .

Lloyd pointed his pensil at the board.

"So I think we can safely rule out--"

Jay slurped his drink.

"--These places as hiding spots for the missing people."

He did it again.

"These are too small. These are to public. And these are too obvious."

Jay slurped his drink again.

"Or are they so obvious that they're actually the perfect hiding spot?" Ha asked.

"Hm. Interesting." Lloyd turned back to the board.

"What are you doing?" Cole asked.

"I'm bored. So I'm messing with him." Jay said. Morro took a paper and smaked Jay's head.

"Enough." He said, pulling Jay's chair back.

"You stop. If you want this to go faster, help." Morro pointed at Cole and Kai.

"You need to take one thing and go with it." Morro pointed to Lloyd. The Green Ninja could tell he was testing Morro's patience.

Ronin and Dareth came in.

"Sorry to interrupt what looks to be the most boring party game ever, but the city's under attack down there." Ronin said.

"Yes!" Kai, Cole and Jay exclaimed.

"Oh, I mean, that's horrible." Jay said.

"Terrible." Kai nodded.

"The worst." Cole added.

"There's a bunch of Samurai and snakes stealing every piece of metal they can find." Ronin explained. Morro narrowed his eyes at the statement.

"They took my trophies. My trophies!" Dareth cried.

"Any sign of Krux or Acronix?" Cole asked.

"Who?" Ronin asked.

"Doesn't matter. Let's go!" Cole waved.

"W-wait. This doesn't make sense. Why are they after metal?" Lloyd held out his hand.

"We can ask as we pummel them." Jay said.

"No. It might be a diversion to draw us away from the Temple so they can finish off Master Wu." Lloyd said

"We can't just ignore the damage they're doing." Cole said.

"Nor that they have my trophies." Dareth added.

"I'm not leaving Master Wu unprotected again." Lloyd almost stomped his feet.

"But we're going." Kai said.

"I'm ordering you to stay!" Lloyd exclaimed.

"And we're ignoring that order." Kai and the other two walked off.

"So..." Ronin started.

"Just go." Lloyd waved them off. He looked up. The room wasn't empty. Morro was still there.

"What? Aren't you going?" Lloyd asked.

'I'm waiting until you know what to do."

Morro crossed his arms.

'And I decided you can just go. Besides, I know you would make a much better plan than me in a matter of seconds.'

Lloyd looked away.

'You decided to give up. I'm not doing anything until I get real orders.'

Morro leaned on the chair.

. . .

"Okay, Zane, I--" Nya entered the csve again but saw Zane surrounded by thr Vermillion.

"Zane!" She dropped her stuff and ran to Zane.

"Nineteen! Gargle my pudding! My pudding!" Zane cried.

"Get off my friend!" Nya knocked the Vermillion back, making them drop Zane.

"C'mon, Zane. Let's do this!" Nya stood him up.

"Executive cucumber!" Zane swung windmill arms and fell onto Nya.

"Or...maybe you should sit this one out." Nya said.

She got up from under Zane and started to fight, Zane still on the ground.

"Fiber zinc taco! Fiber zinc taco!"

"Brace yourself, Zane. I'm rerouting all existing power to your chest. In three, two, one." Pixal finished the countdown and a powerful blast blew all the attackers away. Zane then fell limp.

"Aw, total electrical overload! Nice move, buddy. I knew you were in there somewhere!" Nya exclaimed, sitting Zane up.

"Of course, now I have to reboot you again, but that--" Nya turned her head to see an empty stand. AN EMPTY STAND?!

"They stole my Samurai X Gear!" Nya shouted.

"I hate not having tines on the ride, but the USB port is the only way to power you back up. Those snakes stole from the wrong girl." Nya scowled.

. . .