"Ah! Guys! I see something! I see something!" Jay's panicked scream floated back to us through the fog of the coastline.

The Keepers stood, watching in silent reverence as whatever was out there made it's way closer and closer to Jay.

"Can you describe it?" Nya called out anxiously.

"Can you define 'something?'" Zane probed.

"Does it have teeth?" Cole yelled.

I tuned them out, struggling against my restraints. I managed to wiggle one arm a little loose aaaannndd... Got it! My fingers closed around my pocketknife and I quickly flicked it out, blindly sawing away at the ropes that bound me.

As I stumbled to the ground after freeing myself, I turned and noticed that Kai, as well, was free from his ropes. We nodded at one another and swiftly set to work freeing the others.

No sooner had the rest of the ninja been cut loose than the chief saw us freed from our restraints.

"Stop them!" he ordered.

As Keepers advanced towards us, we cried out in unison, "Ninja-Go!" spinning into Spinjitzu. Knocking the villagers out of our way and proceeding towards the edge of the dock. We switched from Spinjitzu to hand to hand combat as we neared the peer, throwing villagers of the dock left and right.

Nya caught my eye, "You learned Spinjitzu!" she exclaimed.

Cole and I glanced at one another fleetingly, "Yeah, I guess I did."

We hurried down the dock, and as we reached the edge, Zane froze over the water, providing a path for us to get closer to Wojira, or whatever had taken Jay.

"Somebody, help! There's definitely something out here!" Jay's faint cry drifted towards us, "Something big, and snaky, and glowing!"

At that moment we reached Jay, sliding across Zane's ice. But we were just out of reach of the blue ninja.

"Jay!" Nya called to him.

He swiveled towards her voice, "Oh thank goodness! It's so good to see you guys!" Jay bubbled.

Something in the fog seemed to groan, and a huge fireball launched towards us, sending Jay's raft and the ice we were standing on in opposite directions.

"Over there! I see something!" Nya pointed to a shape in the mist. As purple lightning struck in the distance, a crude outline of a sea serpent with glowing orange eyes moved back and forth in front of us. But something didn't quite seem right. I could have sworn I heard some sort of mechanical clicking coming from the being, but I shook off the notion.

Nya collected a water ball and launched it at the creature, but it made no impact on the being.

"What is it?" Kai called across to Jay.

"I don't know, but it's big!" Jay returned, "Get me out of here before it comes back!"

Again, Zane created ice floats in the water and Lloyd hopped across them, landing on Jay's raft where he began to attempt to untie him.

The thing let out a chilling roar as it advanced towards Jay's tiny boat.

"Hurry!" Jay urged.

"Just stay still," Lloyd spoke.

"Lloyd!" I shouted, grabbing the green ninja's attention. I lobbed my pocketknife across the divide. He caught it and started chopping at the ropes Jay was tied with, but another fireball launched by the creature sent Lloyd over the side of the boat and away from Jay. I searched the waves anxiously, praying he was alright. Lloyd surfaced, and just as Jay was saying he thought he could get loose, he was suddenly gone.

"Jay!" we screamed as he disappeared from sight.

"NO!" Nya cried out.

"AAH! IT'S GOT ME! AHH!" Jay's shouts faded away as the creature dragged him off.

"Say something! Where are you!" Kai yelled.

But it was no use, Jay had simply vanished.

"It ate Jay! It really ate him!" Kai exclaimed.

I was too stunned to speak. Lloyd swam back over to our little ice raft, clutching something in his hands.

"I think it's fake," he said calmly.

"What do you mean? We just saw it eat Jay!" Cole lamented.

"No, look," Lloyd held out the piece of wood he was holding. It seemed to be shaped like a tooth. "I think someone's been stealing from the Keeper's by pretending to be Wojira," he explained.

As we reached the shore, breathless from the swim, we were immediately surrounded by Keepers pointing there spears at us.

"You fools! You risk angering Wojira? If the beast returns, you will be the next sacrifices!" the chief yelled angrily.

"No we won't," Lloyd answered in defiance, "because Wojira doesn't exist."

"Blasphemy! You saw her!" the chief responded.

"We saw something," Lloyd answered cooly, "But tell me: do sea monsters have wooden teeth?" He tossed the wooden tooth at the feet of the chief, who inspected it suspiciously.

"I don't understand..."

"It's a con. You've been tricked into giving sacrifices to a fake monster," Lloyd elaborated.

The Keepers, shocked, whispered amongst themselves.

"But, that's impossible," the chief protested.

"Why don't you tell us how all this started," Lloyd urged, "From the beginning."

The chief sighed, "For thousands of seasons, our people have been entrusted with the protection of the amulet. Entrusted by the First Spinjitzu Master himself to keep it from Wojira, for if the serpent ever obtained it again, the seas would rise up and swallow all the world. But Wojira slept, and all was peaceful, until one day, I received word that something big and strange was close to the coastline. We all thought it was Wojira. We were clueless as to what to do about her. I don't know where the idea came from, but someone suggested that we sent gold and jewels to appease her. We figured it was worth a try, so we sent a small boat filled with gold and gems into the sea. We thought we had appeased her, but only a week later, she was back. Soon our treasures were gone, so we gave fruits and coconuts, whatever was left. But we needed something to placate Wojira forever. We needed an ultimate sacrifice."

"So you thought you'd sacrifice our friend?" Lloyd demanded.

"We were commanded to defend the amulet at all costs," the chief argued, "Not some costs, all!"

"Sacrificing Jay cost you nothing!" I shouted, "but it could cost him everything!"

"You lost our friend," Nya seethed, "And you're gonna help get him back."

"How?" the chief questioned.

"First, your gonna draw me a map of the coastline," Lloyd ordered, "and show me any place near the water where someone could hide something really big."

Within minutes we had a roughly draw map of the coastline and were headed towards a secluded cave that might just be big enough for someone to be hiding something of a magnificent size.

As we approached the outline of the cave, I could already hear voices. Whoever it was wasn't making much of an effort to hide their whereabouts.

"Guys, there's definitely people down there," I commented quietly as we snuck closer to the rim of the cave, "And from the sound of it, a lot of them."

"Prepare for the worst," Lloyd ordered, "We don't know what we're up against."

Reaching the edge of the cave, Nya and I moved to jump down right away, but Lloyd stopped us, "I want the timing just right."

I scanned the cave below us, noticing immediately the imitated Wojira, which turned out to be a sad tugboat crudely outfitted with a fake head and some buoys attached at the back to take the shape of the serpent's tail.

I let out a small gasp, "Guys, look," I pointed to the few dozen people milling about below, all dressed in prison uniforms.

"The Kryptarium breakout..." Kai mused.

"I think I know who's behind this," Lloyd added before positioning himself to swing down, "Now!"

We quickly swung down vines into the cave, attacking the thugs that surrounded us on contact.

"Aww, good to see you guys!" Jay exclaimed, as Cole rescued him from being tossed out to sea by two of the thugs, "How'd you find me?"

"Once we figured out this alleged sea monster wasn't real-" Lloyd grunted as he fought of a prisoner.

"We had a little talk with the leader," Cole added, knocking another prisoner into the water, "who told us about a cave-"

"Where some thugs just might be hiding a big monster!" I added, fighting off a few thugs by hand before throwing them off using spinjitzu.

"Celine! You learned spinjitzu!" Jay smiled before continuing, "Smart thinking, guys! But this is a pretty bizarre crime ring going on here. Any idea who's behind it?"

"We figured that out too," Lloyd explained as he fought off more of the thugs, "Remember there was a breakout at Kryptarium Prison? All kinds of criminals back on the streets?"

"Yea?" Jay probed him on.

I stopped where I was, an ever so slightly familiar pair of footsteps had made their way into the grotto of the cave. My gaze swung around to face whoever it was.

The figure threw off his oversized rice hat, "Ronin!"

"I was gonna say the Mechanic..." Lloyd trailed off, "But Ronin fits too."

"I was just thinking how stupid it was for the police department to hire you," I glowered at the man.

"I thought you always worked alone, Ronin," Kai remarked.

"I usually do," Ronin shrugged, "But when the police hired me to track down all those escaped prisoners from Kryptarium, I realized I had an opportunity to put them to work, for me!" Ronin hurriedly began gathering up baskets of gold and heading towards the fake Wojira ship.

"Oh no you don't," I shoved off the thug that was attacking me and chased after him.

"Too bad you went through all that trouble for nothing," Cole spoke as he, too, prepared to go after the rogue bounty hunter.

"Not for nothing!" Ronin monologued, "These islanders are sitting on a small fortune of gems and gold bullion! But if they're starting to sacrifice people, I guess I've cleared them out, so I'll cut my losses while I'm ahead. So long, ninja! Keep them busy, boys!"

As he cranked the ship into gear, I threw myself at the boat, scrambling onto the lower deck. Ronin failed to notice me. Maybe he wasn't looking, as he would have no prior knowledge that I had joined the ninja team. Or maybe he was too set on making his getaway. But either way, he didn't see me sneak up the to the upper deck.

As I was preparing to clobber him over the head, I paused for a moment as an object in the distance of the ocean rapidly made its way closer, glowing with the electricity of the storm.

"Twitchy?" I heard Lloyd question from behind me.

"Woah, hey! What are you doing? You're going to sink us both!" Ronin screamed at the crazed man barreling straight towards him.

"That's the plan!" Twitchy yelled as the catamaran rammed full force into the side of Ronin's ship.

Ronin pitched onto the lower deck on impact, and I swung down after him.

He stood up slowly, dazed, and as I squared up in front of him, he cocked his head curiously at me before turning tail and running straight across Cole's leg, tripped across the deck.

"Okay, okay," he groaned, "You got me."

I smugly walked up next to Cole, who smiled warmly at me, "You're gonna see the inside of a jail cell for this, Ronin."

With Ronin and his cohorts locked up on the island's prison, Cole and I doubled checked that they were secure. Maybe, just maybe, gloating a little as well.

"We would have gotten away with it if it wasn't for you meddling ninja," Ronin spat from inside the cell.

Cole and I exchanged knowing glances, "Why did I have a feeling he was gonna say that?" Cole rolled his eyes before we made our way back up to the throne room, joining the rest of the ninja.

"Let me offer my sincerest apologies, my ninja allies," the chief offered to us.

"For what?" Cole inquired innocently.

"Having our Stone Guardian attack you, locking you up, sacrificing your friend to a monster, that sort of stuff," he listed off.

"Ah, forget it," I brushed off.

"Yeah," Cole added with a grin, "Happens to us all the time."

"I'm just happy they captured Ronin and his thugs, and found my mom and Master Wu alive and well," Lloyd admitted.

"And Clutch Powers," I encouraged.

"Oh yeah," Lloyd dismissed.

"On behalf of the Keepers of the Storm Amulet of Wojira-" The chief began, motioning up towards the stone behind his throne, "What! Where-?"

The amulet was gone!

"Where's Clutch?" Nya questioned, turning towards Dwayne, his intern, who simply pointed towards the shoreline.

Nya and I exchanged glances. Who did this guy think he was?

On the dock, Clutch was scurrying towards one of the catamarans, holding something close to his chest.

Nya, who had grabbed one of the Keeper's staffs, prodded him from behind, causing the explorer to fly forward from the shock, releasing the bag he was holding. As it tumbled across the dock, it opened and the Storm Amulet slipped out.

"I don't think that belong to you," Nya glared down at the man.

With the amulet safely returned to the chief, we prepared the catamarans for the sail back to the Bounty. The storm had broken, and the sunrise over the ocean was quite breathtaking.

As we packed up our bags, I let my mind wander. Even if Ronin's Wojira was a fraud, was the real one still out there? Would she rise from her slumber? And if she did, was Ninjago really as doomed as the Keepers believed? I shook off the thoughts as Lloyd returned from the docks with Misako and Master Wu.

"Alright guys, let's head home."