The Ninja floated in the weightlessness of space within the ship. No way out. And no sense of when they would get back to Earth. Lloyd clutched tightly onto Anirei's hand, not letting her float away too far from him, while the others were aimlessly floating in different directions within the hold.
"Is this the greatest thing ever or what?" Jay asked, excitedly swimming around in zero gravity.
"Where are you?" Kai shouted, "We're trapped in space and you... Where did you go?!"
"Guys, we're in space. I thought this is stuff only Fritz Donnegan gets to enjoy."
"Fitz Donnegan is a comic book character, Elder brother!" Anirei said as she bumped into the wall of the ship with Lloyd.
"This is real, Jay!" Lloyd shouted back.
"Well, you got me hooked on the character, Lloyd. Would you lighten up and not step of my dreams of being a real Starfarer just yet?"
"Enjoy your dreams later, Elder Brother Jay. We have to find a way to take control of the ship before we reach the Golden Weapons." Anirei said.
"Yeah, if they get the Golden Weapons back to the Overlord, Ninjago doesn't stand much of a chance." Lloyd and Anirei screamed as they were pushed away by a flying Kai. Anirei could only keep her mouth shut since she knew what was going to happen once they return to Ninjago.
"But there's no access to the rest of the ship." Kai pointed out, "The only way out is through the same airlock we came in."
"And if my memory banks serve correct, space has a way of taking one's breath away, in the negative sense." Zane said. Suddenly, they heard a computer beeping near the front of the airlock. Zane floated over towards it and saw a countdown for ship lightening release.
"Enjoy while you can, Jay." He warned, "Because in five minutes, the entire ship is scheduled to lighten up. The supplemental boosters are set to detach."
"Uh, I'm a ninja, not an astronaut. What does that mean?" Kai asked.
"It means that the portion of the ship we are currently stationed will soon detach and we will be abandoned in space with it."
"Hello?" A voice statically said from the computer screen along with a flickering picture, "Kai? Anyone?"
The picture came in much clearer, revealing Nya, Garmadon, Sensei Wu and PIXAL. Everyone was happy to see their friends on the ground and replied immediately.
"We read you loud and clear." Kai announced, making everyone jump for joy and relief.
"They're alive. They're alive." They cheered.
"Good to hear you all." Sensei Wu said relieved, "We're going to help you get home safe. PIXAL was able to find the blueprints for the rocket." A picture of the blueprints appeared on the screen, "You need to escape the cargo hold before it's too late. Near the front of the ship is an A2 storage compartment. Inside are emergency spacesuits."
"That will be a doozy." Cole said, "We can't get the spacesuits unless we go outside. The problem is, we can't go outside without the spacesuits. Any other suggestions?"
"They're completely out of their element." The Ninja heard Garmadon say, though he tried so hard to keep his voice from reaching them, "Even if they get through this, what chance do we have of getting them home?"
"Uh, we can still hear you." Kai said.
"Yeah, we could really use some encouraging words right about now." Lloyd said while Anirei chuckled softly.
"If you cannot change your circumstances, change yourself." Sensei Wu said.
"Hm, can anyone else figure that one out?" Kai asked the group.
"His wisdom usually takes a while to set in."Jay commented, "But we don't have a while!"
Anirei looked around and realized that there was one person in their group that could survive outside the ship without a spacesuit. After all, he did used to meditate under water without any sense of lacking oxygen. Anirei let go of Lloyd's hand and floated over to Zane, placing her hand on his shoulder to grab his attention.
"Elder Brother Zane, if you believe you can, you are the only one who is able to survive outside the ship to get the spacesuits." She said.
Zane nodded, "You're right, I'm the only one who doesn't need oxygen. I must go alone."
Zane turned around and floated over to the airlock doors, taking one more look at the others before sealing the airtight seal behind him.
"Go get 'em, Zane." Kai encouraged.
"I wish you luck, Elder Brother." Anirei said with a smile.
Zane smiled back and went over to the exit door, almost flying out from the pressure released. He quickly grabbed onto a loose wire and pulled himself closer to the ship before beginning to climb over to the cockpit window. However, the Nindroids almost spotted him and in his panic, Zane let go of the ship and floated away.
"No. No. No. No!" He said as the ship became smaller and smaller while he floated away into space.
He slowed down, floating in nothingness but with the determination to get right back to the ship.
"Come on, Zane." He said to himself, "You can do this. You can get back. Ice!"
Zane used his ice to propel himself back to the ship and landed right next to the A2 storage compartment. He quickly typed in every code he could think of before he finally got the right one and opened the storage compartment, revealing five spacesuits, one for each of his fellow ninja to wear.
As for the Ninja, they were waiting for Zane to come back as the booster release countdown was drawing closer to zero. Thankfully, Zane got back in time and the Ninja donned their suits before heading outside the ship just before the boosters were released.
"We made it!" Lloyd said to the others in Ninjago, causing much cheering, "We have our spacesuits and found one way to change ourselves. At least now we can stay on this ride for a bit longer."
"All right, to commandeer the ship, you have to get to the cockpit." Nya instructed, "You'll find an access hatch just ahead of you."
"You know what else is ahead? A desolate void of nothingness!" Cole shouted, "If anyone of us falls off..."
"We'll take it slow. Together." Kai assured just as the ship began gaining more speed from the thrusters. They all screamed and held on tightly to the wing of the ship as it became just a little bit faster.
"I can't wait to see the expressions of those metal chrome domes when they find out we've stowed away onboard." Jay said excitedly.
"They're Nindroids, nimrod, they don't have expressions." Cole pointed out.
"Oh, yeah."
"Then what does that make Elder Brother Zane?" Anirei chuckled, "He's a Nindroid and he has multiple expressions."
"Zane's not like them." Kai said, "Do we really have to go over this right now?"
"It's just so quiet, I'm only trying to fill the space. Get it? Space."
The Ninja continued to climb closer towards the cockpit, when they got unexpected visitors.
"So much for our surprise attack. Look out!" Cole shouted, pointing towards several Nindroids firing their weapons at them.
One of the Nindroids jumped forward and latched himself onto the side of the ship, preparing to fire his weapon when Jay hit him with an antenna. Jay quickly took the Nindroids weapon from him and flipped himself onto the ship, firing the weapon at the other Nindroids, spouting out the classic words of Fritz Donnegan. It was like he was in a dream, but this dream could possibly mean doom for all of Ninjago.
"I'm sorry I introduced him to that." Lloyd apologized.
"Don't be." Kai said, "If we can't change our circumstances, that's one way to change yourself."
The Ninja followed Jay's actions and used their powers and wits to take out every Nindroid that was attacking them. Kai knocked one away with his fire while Lloyd was powering up his light. Anirei decided to help and take advantage of the darkness of space. She created a small ball of shadows and prepared to fire it at the Nindroids, when she heard Cole trying to use Spinjitzu.
He failed and started floating away.
"Cole!" Everyone shouted as he started to float away from the ship.
"Guys! A little help, please!" Cole shouted.
"We can't use Spinjitzu in zero gravity. There's too little resistance." Zane pointed out.
"Too little?!" Lloyd shouted, "I'd say the resistance is a bit more than we can handle at the moment."
Anirei turned around and used the shadows she collected to make as a rope. She latched onto one part of the shadow and lengthened it, grabbing Cole by the leg and pulling him back to her.
"Phew! Thanks, Anirei!" Cole said giving her a short hug.
"Of course." Anirei replied and focused back on the fight. However, just then, Anirei could feel her heart jump in her chest, a familiar feeling that she had when she was near a great source of power. Everyone looked up and saw that the comet, which the Golden Weapons were hidden away on, was getting closer. And they were heading straight for the tail of it.
"You're almost to the cockpit." Sensei Wu said, "Just make sure to continue your course. And focus on the task at hand."
"Sensei?" Kai asked, barely hearing a thing through his radios, "I'm getting interference. I can't hear you!"
"Everyone, get down now!" Anirei shouted, rushing in front of everyone and using the light radiating from the comet's tail to create a barrier around them. Just as she created the barrier, a large pieces of comet debris came flying towards them and was repelled by the barrier.
"Asteroids." Zane said as they kept flying by.
"Cryptor's flying us straight through the tail of the comet!" Kai shouted.
"Don't worry, I can keep this up for a while until we reach the comet's surface." Anirei assured, but her feet were slipping just a little. Anirei was using all of her power at the moment to protect them, but it was clearly pushing her back just a little bit and everyone could see it. They stood behind her and kept her from slipping back any further as the ship prepared to land on the comet's surface.
It was rough, but eventually the ship landed on the surface, safely as well with the Ninja.
They Ninja groaned from the impact, but they were still alive for the time being.
"Oh, we made it!" Jay said, happily 'kissing' the ground and laughing.
"Rei!" Lloyd shouted. Everyone turned around and saw Lloyd kneeling beside Anirei, who was sitting on her knees and breathing heavily. They ran over to her and even in the shadows of space, they could see that she was a little pale.
"Anirei, are you all right?" Jay asked concerned as well as the rest of the team. Anirei looked up and smiled weakly.
"I'm all right." She answered standing up, "Just a little winded from using so much of a foreign light. Nothing to worry too much about." She pressed her hand to her radio link, "Sister Nya, are you there?"
"Dad? Wu? Anyone?" Lloyd tried calling, but there was no answer.
"Maybe the others didn't make it." Kai said as they walked over to the crashed ship.
They went inside and immediately went to the cockpit, but all the lights were off and the entire ship was empty.
"They must have already left for the weapons." Cole said.
"Quick, let's take the ship before they get back." Jay said, rushing over to the control panels, "Agh, they took the launch key."
"Are you telling me this entire ship starts up with a simple little key?" Kai said frustrated.
"Come on, tell me one of you knows how to hotwire this thing?" Cole asked, but knowing how to hotwire a space ship was never on the Ninja training regime.
"Hey, guys, come take a look at this." Lloyd said from the entrance to the storage space below. Inside was a single rover ready to go.
"Of course, they took lunar rovers." Anirei said, "And they left one behind with tracks to follow. We have to hurry."
The Ninja agreed and took the remaining rover all the way to the site. Though it was a tight fit and a bumpy ride, the Ninja came to a cave with a soft Golden glow coming from the inside.
"This must be where the Golden Weapons landed." Kai said. Anirei gripped the area of her spacesuit where her heart was, feeling the energy of the Golden Weapons right inside. Lloyd noticed her actions and placed his hand over hers, making Anirei turn to look at his smiling face.
"Don't worry, everything's gonna be okay, Rei." He assured, making Anirei feel better and just a little more relaxed.
They parked the rover outside the cave and snuck inside. There in the center of the cave were the Golden Weapons, all clustered together in a single ball of golden metal, and the Nindroids had already secured it.
"There's the weapons." Cole said.
"And there's the key!" Kai pointed to the key around Cryptor's neck. They watched as one of the Nindroids tried to touch the Golden Weapons, but as soon as he did, he was destroyed and scattered from the force of the power it contained.
"Still as powerful as ever, I see." Anirei commented.
Just then, a small green beetle crawled onto Zane's hand.
"Well, hello there little friend." He greeted the bug.
"Oh, would you look at that? Can you believe it?" Jay said astonished and took the bug from Zane's hand, "It's an extraterrestrial life form."
"It's a bug, and it's not what's important right now." Cole said.
"Oh, there's so much we could learn from it. So much we could teach it. I'm gonna call him Glowy."
The bug flew away from Jay when Sensei Wu finally came back online through the radios.
"You must not disturb the alien life." He warned, "They are very dangerous. Can you hear me?"
However, the Ninja could hardly hear anything their Sensei was saying.
"I couldn't make that out, Sensei. What did you say?" Kai asked.
"The alien life. They're dangerous." Sensei Wu said again.
"A few years ago scientists studied a meteorite that had fallen to Ninjago." Nya explained, "It most likely came from the same comet you're on. Inside the meteorite, there were the fossilized remains of some kind of parasite that feeds on metal alloys."
Just as Nya was saying this, even more of the strange glowing bugs came around, crawling all over the Ninja.
"They tickle." Zane laughed.
"Stop it, silly Glowy." Jay said, just as one of the bugs bit Zane on the cheek.
"Do you hear me? Whatever you do, don't come in contact with the parasites. They eat through metal!"
"I think it's a little too late for that, Elder Sister." Anirei said, shaking off the insects from her suit.
"Agh! They're eating through my exoskeleton!" Zane shouted as the others tried to get the bugs off of him and Jay. But their screams of effort were alerting the Nindroids below. The Nindroids loaded the Golden Weapons onto their rovers and drove out of the cave.
"What do we do? Any ideas, guys?" Zane asked.
"Space. Why did we come to space?" Cole complained, "If I could change any circumstance, I'd change ever coming here in the first place."
"If you can't change your circumstances.." Lloyd said.
"Change your mind!" Anirei finished.
"Now's not the time to be quoting Wu." Jay said swatting away the bugs.
"No. I finally see what he means." Lloyd said, "This is just like the Starteeth. Come on, I got an idea."
The Ninja followed Lloyd back outside the cave, quickly catching up with the Nindroids with the parasites following close behind.
"Sensei meant instead of focusing on how wrong things are, focus on what's right." Lloyd explained.
"We have to think positive." Anirei added, "Those parasites aren't just a menace, they're a weapon.
They drove closer to the Nindroids and the bugs followed, eating away at all the metal they could sink their teeth into. It was chaos as one by one, the rovers were falling. They had even jumped over a large ravine, but the Ninja made it and jumped onto the other rovers, attacking the Nindroids as they slowly made it to the lead rover with the Golden Weapons attached to the back.
Kai jumped onto the rover and kicked Cryptor, grabbing the launch key and securing their ride back home.
"It got it, let's get out of here." Kai announced, hopping back onto their rover just as Cryptor crashed.
They cheered as they rode back to the ship, but their joyful hope was ruined when they saw the ship being eaten bit by bit by the parasites.
"The rocket... it's.... destroyed." Lloyd said sadly.
"Then how are we gonna get home?" Jay questioned, but everyone knew the answer.
"There's no way back." Cole said.
"You're not the only ones who can adapt!" Cryptor said behind them, the Golden weapons shining behind him as the Nindroids activated their rocket booster feet and lifted off the comet with the Golden Weapons in tow.
"So long, Ninja." He called out, leaving the Ninja stranded.
"They got the Golden Weapons. We failed." Kai said, "I repeat, they got the Golden Weapons."
"Are you on the rocket?" Nya asked, "Can you stop them?"
"No." Anirei answered, "The ship is destroyed. We're not coming home."
The Ninja, now stranded on the comet didn't know what to do. They're only hope was a miracle, but little did they know what that miracle would have to take in return.
But Anirei.... She could only frown. Her dreams were becoming a reality once again. She knew they would make it back. But then....