Jay exited the bus at the stop right in front of the child-friendly amusement arcade. He entered the venue and started looking for his young friend.

Usually, Lloyd could here be found playing the 'Starfarers' video game (which also happened to be one of Jay's favourite) but he was not seen near one of these machines – or any of the video game cabinets for that matter.

The blue Ninja then went to check the air hockey tables and also the bowling alley, in case the kid had skipped class with one or more of his friends and was now playing with - or rather against - them, before he took out his phone and dialled Lloyd's number.

His heightened senses detected the faint ringing of the boy's mobile from a far corner of the hall. Jay followed the signal and found the phone hidden in a fake flowerpot, but there were no signs of Lloyd.

With a sigh, Jay pressed the red button and called the Ninja's headquarters instead.

"This is Steep Wisdom, good afternoon." The Master of Earth answered the shop's phone. "How can I help you?"

"Hearing your voice say this phrase makes me wonder if Wu's picked the right name for his business." Jay joked. "But that's not why I'm calling. I'm at the arcade now, I found Lloyd's phone but the kid's not here."

Cole 's immediate reply consisted a couple of short words that Jay sincerely hoped the younger children around him could not hear. After all, the Ninja were supposed to be role models, even if hardly anyone knew that he was one of them. "Sensei Wu won't be happy to hear that, you know how worried he is about Lloyd." The black Ninja then added.

"That's why I'm calling you rather than sending a message to everyone." Jay replied. He then went to briefly explain how and where he had found the device. "It almost looks like Lloyd's left the phone here on purpose." He remarked. "It was not visible but I could still find it quite easily. He must have expected us to track the signal and come looking for it. Just as if he wanted to give us a hint but not to find him right away."

"Did you steal some of Sensei's tea?" Cole questioned. "That's a surprisingly smart idea coming from you..."

"Can you unlock the phone for me from the laptop?" Jay suggested, undeterred by his best friend's comment. "I want to check his caller list to see if he's talked to one of his friends."

"Lemme get Zane to do it. The kitchen is closed now and PIXAL has just left, so he can do all the nerd stuff with you."

"All right, thanks." Jay waited for his teammate to get back to him.

"Greetings, Jay." Zane's voice came through the speaker after a short while.

"Hey, Zane." Jay replied. "How was the date?"

"It was very pleasant. But I am afraid we have more urgent matters at hand right now than talking about this."

Jay personally could actually not think of anything more important to talk about (and the curious young man was dying to hear how PIXAL's visit to the tea shop had turned out), but as the blue Ninja of course he had to agree with his teammate's statement.

"Has Cole told you what I found?" He asked. And who I didn't find...

"Only very briefly." The white Ninja answered. "And he isn't here with me, someone had to stay at the kitchen and do the dishes for me, while I am needed in the office."

So Jay explained the situation again to the Nindroid, who was able to remotely unlocked the phone for him.

"He hasn't made any phone calls today, and there were only a few missed calls from Sensei and from Kai." Jay checked the list. "And no messages or social media feeds."

"What about the map?" Zane enquired. "Has he marked any locations?"

"He was at the costume shop just across the road at 10:17 this morning." Jay noted. "Why would he check in there?"

"As you have suggested earlier, maybe he wants us to follow this lead."

"Alright, I'll check our that one." Jay agreed.

"Please keep me up to date with your investigation." Zane requested. "And if I may also ask you to keep an eye out for any surveillance cameras around the arcade. Please send me their IDs and exact coordinates, this way it will be a lot faster and easier to access today's recordings."

"Sure, will do. I'll call you back."

"Good luck, my friend." The Master of Ice said. "I will inform Kai about your findings, but we should not cause any more worried to Sensei Wu until we know for sure. Lloyd could as well just be playing hide-and-seek with us."

If that's the case, Lloyd's gonna be in a lot of trouble. Jay thought. We Ninja have better things to do than chasing after a bored teenager.

He had spotted a few cameras inside the arcade so he sent the requested details to his friend before he put away his phone and headed out of the arcade and across the busy road to the small fancy dress shop that Lloyd had visited earlier this morning.

"Looking for a costume, pal?" The owner, a man in his late 30s, with shaggy auburn hair and a rather strange looking eye-patch (which to Jay's trained eye appeared to be more than just a fancy prop), asked.

"No, I'm looking for a friend." Jay unlocked his phone to show him a photo of Lloyd. "Have you seen this kid, Mr- ...uhm..."

"The name's Ronin. And I may or may not have seen this boy." Ronin smirked, rubbing the stubble on his chin. "But nothing in life is free."

Jay's eyes widened. "You're not expecting me to pay you for this, are you?"

"Hey, don't act as if I was trying to rob you." Ronin claimed. "I'm merely selling you some valuable information, and if you're nice I'll even give you a receipt. My shop, my rules."

"Great." Jay replied sarcastically.

Unfortunately, there were no cameras inside the shop that Zane could hack, so this was indeed the only way to obtain the required information.

He pulled out his wallet, hoping that Sensei would refund his expenses. And that Ronin wasn't just playing him but really had seen Lloyd. "So, how much?"

"Two hundred."

"What? Two hundred?" Jay exclaimed incredulously. "I don't have that kind of dough."

Ronin shrugged. "Everyone's got something."

"I can get you free lunch at the tea shop where I work." Jay offered.

"Not interested in a tea shop." Ronin crossed his arms. "Unless you own any shares..."

"Oh, I wish I would." Jay said. "What if I work it up?"

"Look around, kiddo. Do you see enough customers in here to keep even one salesman busy, let alone two?"

"Alright." Jay sighed. "Look, I really need the information now, can't I bring you the money later?"

The shopkeeper suspiciously eyed the auburn haired man. "How should I know that I can trust you?"

Because I'm a Ninja. Which was of course something Jay couldn't say. "Because my parents have raised me to be an honourable person." He claimed.

"Well, good for you, but unfortunately that's not enough for me." Ronin retorted. "Do you own anything of value?"

"I do have a motorbike." Jay said reluctantly. "It's kinda old but it works. And it's just been serviced recently."

"How recently?"

"This morning."

"Deal." Ronin grinned. "Where is it?"

"My girlfriend has it at the moment." As Ronin's face fell Jay pulled a little document from his wallet and gave it to the older man. "But here's the registration certificate. It has my name and everything on it. I'll leave this with you until I bring you the money."

Ronin whistled. "Damn, this kid really must be important to you."

"He is." Jay nodded. "So, do we have a deal?"

"We do." Ronin handed the form back to Jay. "You've proven that you really mean it, which deserves a little reward. No, don't get your hopes up, I'm not giving you a discount but I trust you to keep your word. The boy was here this morning. He bought one of those."

Ronin pointed at a blue Serpentine costume.

"A Hypnobrai costume?" Jay wondered. "What was he doing with one of those?"

"That's none of my business." Ronin shrugged. "But he got the deluxe version, with the red goggles and everything. He's even paid a bit extra so that he could put it on in the backroom and had me even do the face painting for him. Maybe he wanted to join the party?"

"What party?" Jay asked.

"Any more questions, and I'll have to increase the price." Ronin warned him. "But this morning, there was a huge Serpentine crowd in the area, all dressed up and looking rather excited."

It's strange that we did not pick this up. Jay wondered. That can only mean they haven't caused any trouble to the people... so what were they up to?

"But strangely enough, they didn't do anything." Ronin continued, confirming the Ninja's theory. "They were just waiting for some bright green busses to pick them up. And then they were all gone."

Wait, does that mean Lloyd went with them? Jay didn't dare to ask but Ronin still gave him the answer.

"As was the boy." He said.