So, MockingbirdPotato, you have shown who you really are, and revealed yourself as . . . MR. FLUFFYPANTS!!!

Chapter 8: Retrieving the Helmet
“Facmalum is a rare chemical only found in the bodies of two people.” Nya stated. “One of these people had an incontrollable urge to hunt down another person, and the other was intent on marrying a chicken.”
“Marrying a chicken?!?!” Andrew exclaimed with disbelief.
“That’s what it says on the computer.” Nya confirmed.
“That must be it!” Kai said.
“How does being wedded to a hen tell us what made the Serpentine bad?” Jay asked, confused.
“Not the chicken! Evil! Facmalum must make people evil! That must have been what made the Serpentine evil!”
“But how do you define evil? Who is to say what is morally correct? Is the world really divided into good and bad? Is evil just an ethical illusion to-”
“Jay, I told you not to read that philosophy book.” Lloyd reprimanded.
“I was bored, okay?”
“But what does marrying a chicken have to do with evil?” Andrew asked.
“I’m not sure.” Cole said. “Although I suppose somebody could see such an act as a rebel against how humanity and marriage works.”
Kai stared at Cole. “Seriously?!”
“I don’t know; I’m just guessing!”
“Honestly, I just like to say ‘marrying a chicken.’” Andrew admitted. “It’s pretty funny when you think about it!”
“Either way, we should be on our guard.” Wu stated. “We don’t know what this chemical is capable of. On another note, I believe our former enemies are returning chronologically, meaning it is likely the Stone Warriors will be next.”
“The stone warriors?” Jay gulped. “Aren’t they, I dunno, indestructible?!”
“Yes, Jay, they are. That is why we will be going to Dareth’s dojo to borrow the Helmet of Shadows.”
“Y’know, I’m thinking letting Dareth keep the Helmet of Shadows wasn’t such a good thing. Chances are, he probably lost it or has broken it.” Cole noted.
“Indeed.” Zane agreed.

* * * * *

Each of the ninja climbed into their own vehicles, with Andrew in Lloyd’s part of the Ultra Sonic Raider. Wu summoned his elemental dragon, on which he soared several meters high.
“Let’s fly, baby!” Jay shouted from as his jet rose into the air.
“Jay, we’re just going to Dareth’s. There’s no need to get overexcited.”
“But I get to fly a jet! How cool is that?!?!”
As he flew higher, he let out a whoop of excitement. Lloyd then decided to ignore Jay’s excitement. “Let’s go, guys!” He shouted.
At that, each of the vehicles speeded away, leaving large clouds of sand puffed up behind them. Tire tracks were left in the ground as the sound of loud, zooming motors faltered as the vehicles drove away.
Jay, however, may have been going a bit too fast. “WHOO HOO!” He exclaimed as his jet soared past the ninja, leaving white condensation trails behind.
“Jay, slow down!” Lloyd said through his microphone. “You’re going too fast for us to keep up, and you might panic the citizens when they see you going at such a speed!”
“Aw, relax!” Jay said. “I’m just enjoying my new toy! This is so awesome!”
“Jay, you’re going a few hundred miles per hour. At that speed, you might run into something with little warning.”
“Well, excuse ME for trying to make the most out of these vehicles! You forget, I’m a ninja! It’ll be fine!”
On this immature notion, he turned off the sound so he would no longer hear Lloyd’s attempts at communication.
“Jay? Jay?” Lloyd repeated. “Do you read me? Jay! Hello? Are you there?”
Lloyd paused, and then cunningly said: “Nya says if you don’t come back, she’s going to hate you. And spray your video game console with water.”
There was no answer.
“Huh, I guess he’s not there.”
They drove for a few more minutes, through canyons and closer to Ninjago City. Andrew then spoke up. “Can I drive?” He asked.
“No, sorry.” Lloyd responded. “You’re not old enough.”
“Aw, come on! Just for a minute or two! Please?”
“I’m sorry, no. This is a super dangerous vehicle, and you don’t even have a driver’s license.”
“I do too! . . . okay, so maybe I don’t. But the police won’t know! And do YOU have one?”
“Of course I do!”
“When did you get it?”
“Well, when I was the Golden Ninja – no, I just used a dragon. After Chen’s tournament – wait, that was when I got my learner’s permit. In September-”
Lloyd didn’t ever respond to his question, and kept silent. A few moments later, he noticed something. “Hey, Jay’s jet is no longer moving.” He said, looking at his tracking screen.
Five red dots were seen moving to the left at a moderate pace, but a sixth dot at around the middle stood still.
“Maybe he’s waiting for us.” Nya suggested.
“Hopefully so.” Kai said. “He had better not have broken that thing; it was expensive!”
“Expensive? We found it on the Dark Island, Kai.” Cole corrected.
“Either way, I still hope it’s in one piece. Oh yeah, and Jay too.”

* * * * * * *

Finally, the ninja arrived at Grand Sensei Dareth’s Mojo Dojo. Over time, the sign seemed to have been slightly chipped and faded.
“Does anybody know how to park a giant ninja car?” Cole asked as their ninja vehicles slowed down in front of Dareth’s place. There were no parking spots to be seen in the area – especially not ninja vehicle parking lots.
“Why is it these things always have to be so big?” Kai complained. “Couldn’t we have, I dunno, a small car?”
“You told me you wanted bigger vehicles.” Nya reminded him. “You kinda brought it upon yourself. Not to mention, I didn’t make these, we got them from-”
“Yeah, yeah.” Kai interrupted. “I get it.”
“Lloyd’s part of the Ultra Stealth Raider can control the other parts.” Wu said.
“It can?!” Lloyd exclaimed. “We should have used that earlier for Jay! Speaking of which, where is he?”
Wu continued. “Lloyd can use it to park them in the nearby truck parking lot.”
“This is dumb.” Andrew stated. “In those ninja movies and comics I saw, you could just hop out of the cars and jump into action.”
“Media has a tendency to exaggerate.” Zane noted. “Such acts are unrealistic, which is why here, in the real world, we must think through what should be done.”
“Yeah, okay.”
Once the ninja climbed out of their own vehicles, Lloyd began to drive a further down the street, with the four other cars tailing him. He drove slowly, and made an agile left turn down into another street, where a big blue “P” sign could be seen on the left. Lloyd turned there, driving towards the parking.
“We’re ninja!” Andrew said. “We shouldn’t have to park with a bunch of trucks! Shouldn’t we have reserved parking spaces?”
Lloyd didn’t respond, but instead worked on making sure his vehicle was positioned correctly in the parking space.
After a few minutes of painful parking, the two walked out and began to walk to Grand Sensei Dareth’s Mojo Dojo. “Wait-” Lloyd said. “I’ve got a better idea.”
All of the sudden, a sudden flash of green energy bursted beneath him, and in the blink of an eye, a large, green energy dragon was formed. “Woah!” Andrew exclaimed.
“Hop on!” Lloyd invited.
Andrew excitedly did so, and the dragon then rose into the air. The large wings flapped, making huge and loud noises as it did so. It began to head towards Dareth’s dojo.
A couple people gathered from below. “It’s a bird!” Said one.
“It’s a plane!” Another said.
“No, it’s not! It’s Pablo the Purple Partying Potato!” One other said.
Andrew and Lloyd eventually arrived above Dareth’s Dojo, and the dragon lowered itself gradually. Once it was close enough to the ground, Andrew hopped off. The dragon immediately disappeared into thin air, with only wisps of green clouds showing sign of its previous existence. Lloyd fell onto his feet. “C’mon, let’s go.” He said.
Lloyd opened the door to the dojo. Nobody was there. The two then walked into towards a door to the far right, where strings of beads hung from above. They appeared in a completely trashed room with garbage lying about everywhere. The ninja were there, rooting through the stuff.
“As it turns out, he’s lost the helmet!” Nya said, exasperated. “So now we have to go through his stuff, and he lives like a pig!”
“Even a Grand Sensei such as myself needs his own place to relax.” Dareth said, in attempt to re-gain some minor pride.
Lloyd and Andrew joined too, grabbing random objects and tossing them behind their backs.
Suddenly, the sound of screaming was heard from outside the dojo.
There was only one thing Andrew could say to that.
“Uh-oh.”

Chapter 9: The Battle Approaches
The ninja burst out of the dojo, and gazed upon a looming army of fierce and angry Stone Warriors. Each of the warriors marched fearlessly down the narrow street, each snarling and growling with loathing. “Cole, trap them behind a rock wall!” Lloyd commanded.
Cole seemed a bit transfixed by the approaching army, but Lloyd’s voice snapped him out of it, and determination replaced fear as his eyebrows curved down, and shouted “Will do!”
He suddenly punched the ground, and a ten-foot wall made of brown, stone-like dirt rose in front of the Stone Warriors, trapping them behind. Angry shouts and yells came and the sound of the wall being hit with their numerous weapons was muffled from behind the wall.
“Well, I guess you were right about that whole ‘Stone Warrior’ thing, huh, Wu?” Andrew said as he glanced over at Wu.
“We need to go!” Kai shouted. “They’re going to break the wall soon!”
“But we don’t have the Helmet of Shadows yet!” Nya reminded him. “That’s the only thing that could stop them!”
“Guys, guys!” A voice suddenly shouted.
The ninja turned around to see Dareth running out of the dojo, panting and gasping for breath. “I finally remember where I left it!” He said.
“Where?!” Everybody shouted.
“I sold it to the museum!” Dareth said. “They gave me a hundred boxes of Dareth Puffs for it in exchange - a great deal, in my opinion.”
A couple of the ninja groaned. “You mean we’ve been rooting through that place that whole time and it was in another building?!?” Nya asked rhetorically and exasperatedly.
The ninja began to run as fast they could to the parking garage as the wall began to crack and crumble slightly. “Let us use our dragons instead!” Zane said.
Six dragons (including Wu’s) appeared. Andrew climbed onto Lloyd’s, and Dareth climbed onto Kai’s, but Kai had no time to object.
They flew quickly through the air. Andrew felt heavy rushes of wind blow through his hair as they flew. The ninja quickly landed (Dareth wasn’t expecting Kai’s dragon to disappear so quickly, so he fell to the ground) in front of the parking garage, and ran towards their vehicles. “Over there!” Cole shouted as he saw the huge tire of Lloyd’s Ultra Sonic Raider piece stick out from the parking spot.
It was hard to miss. Each of the ninja then climbed into their vehicles. Andrew and Dareth both hopped into Lloyd’s part, and Lloyd had no time to object. They backed out of the spaces and drove to the exit, but a long stick with red and white strips blocked them.
“Looks like we have to pay to get out of here.” Nya noted.
“Ugh, seriously?!” Kai groaned. “Jay, why don’t you just zap that thing to make us get out of here now? We’re in a bit of a rush.”
A couple moments passed before Cole wondered aloud “Hey, where is Jay?”
Before anybody could theorize his location, a loud explosion was heard from the other end of the town. The Stone Warriors had used dynamite to destroy the wall, and they began advancing towards the square.
“We have no time to worry about that!” Lloyd stated. “Let’s just pay what it takes to get out of here!”
He opened the glass cover of his car and grabbed some spare change from a small compartment in the car.
Clicka-chunk. He put a coin in the machine.
Clicka-chunk. He put another coin in the machine.
Clicka-chunk. Another coin fell through the slot. A screen on the machine turned green, and the bar slowly moved upwards.
Lloyd sighed. “This might take a while.” He said.

* * * * * * * *
Screams and shouts were heard as the dark warriors charged forward, using their numerous weapons to destroy parts of buildings and objects. Thankfully, most people had seen the Stone Warriors coming, and had enough time to flee, but others were less fortunate.
“We have to get to museum and stop this!” Lloyd said.
“But we also must protect the people.” Wu reminded him. “Kai, Cole, Nya, you three try to keep the warriors busy! Zane, Lloyd, to the museum!”
The three obeyed and ran towards the army, and Wu came off of his dragon to do so also. Zane and Lloyd’s car zoomed off to another direction. “The museum isn’t far away.” Lloyd stated. “We should be able to get there in time.”
“Indeed.” Zane said through the speaker. “We should be there in only one minute and thirty-three seconds. I hope our friends will be able to hold off the Stone Warriors in that time.”
Lloyd kept driving, until a voice from the back said “Hey, stop pushing me!”
It was Andrew. “You’re crowding me, Dareth!” Andrew whined.
“The Brown Ninja needs his own space!” Dareth said. “You have plenty. You are young and small, therefore in less of a need.”
“I can’t tell what’s bigger: you, or your ego!”
“Hey! Now you’re pushing me!”
“I am not! I’m re-gaining the space that you so unfairly took from-”
“Guys, could you cut that out?” Lloyd interrupted. “We’ll be there in just a minute.”
“He started it!” Dareth said as he pointed to Andrew.
“I did not!” Andrew shouted angrily.
The car suddenly stopped. “We’re here.” Lloyd said as the cover opened up and he jumped out. “Let’s go!”
Lloyd, Zane, Dareth and Andrew all ran into the doors of the museum. A man inside turned around, who was Dr. Saunders. “Ninja, Ninja!” He said. “So nice to be seeing you! What brings you here?”
“We are in need of acquiring the Helmet of Shadow.” Zane said. “I believe it to be in the Stone Warrior exhibit of the museum. Would you be all right if we borrowed it?”
“Of course, of course!” Dr. Saunders said. “Right down there! Ninja business, I would think!” He let out a small giggle.
“Yes.” Lloyd confirmed. “The Stone Warriors are attacking the city! In fact, just turn on the news, and you would probably see it.”
“I despise the news.” Dr. Saunders muttered darkly under his breath. In a louder voice, he then said “Oh, how awful! It sure is great you ninja are here to stop the baddie-baddie-bad guys! It is right down there!”
“Thanks!” Lloyd said as he raced down the hallway.
He and the others ran into a room filled with sculptures of the Stone Warriors, and many pieces of armor and weapons which they used. In the middle, the Helmet of Shadows was on displayed. Lloyd snatched it off the pedestal, and then the four ran back out again.
“Do you think the others are all right?” Andrew asked as Lloyd revved up the engine.
“They have to be.” Lloyd said worryingly. “It’s our only hope.”