"Ninjago confidential"
Ninjago City. My city.
I know it like the insides of my own circuits.
Which is why I know...
it has a dark side.
My best friends are trapped inside an immersive video game
called "Prime Empire".
Yeah, you heard that right.
They're being held there by a villain named Unagami.
But "Unagami" isn't his real name.
It's as fake as a used car salesman's smile.
His true identity is Milton Dyer,
the computer programmer who designed Prime Empire.
The only hope for getting them out of the digital world
rests on finding Dyer in the real world.
My world.
I was fishing for leads,
but now, I find myself adrift on a sea of dead ends...
Then she walked in.
There you are, Zane.
She said, shining the only ray of light into my dreary world.
Who are you talking to?
And why are you dressed like that?
Since we are engaged in detective work,
tracking down a missing person,
I have downloaded thousands of detective books
and movies as research.
And that has to do with... hats?
According to my analysis,
100 percent of successful detectives wear trench coats and hats
while narrating their thoughts.
Thus I have adopted the same methodology.
It seems improbable
that hat choice and overly descriptive monologues
are significant factors in an investigative outcome.
I've tried everything else to no success.
This method has to work.
Well... Okay, I guess.
I do have a new possible avenue of inquiry.
-A lead. -What?
Detectives call it a "lead."
Okay... I have a "lead".
A source willing to share information.
Ah... So a "canary" wants to "sing?" Who is it?
Remember this photo from Dyer's childhood home?
I was able to track his friend to Laughy's Karaoke Club.
Perhaps he knows Dyer's whereabouts.
So...
the rumble on the street gave us a hot tip
about a goon we needed to shake down.
It was time for these two gumshoes to beat feet.
Ugh.
I'd been here before.
It was a low-class joint that served cheap boba tea.
As soon as we walked in,
every palooka in the place pointed their ugly mugs at us.
Hey, Is he talking to us? Or about us?
I don't likes it either way!
Perhaps that is enough detective narration for now...
She said, nervously.
Because from the looks of these rowdy nogoodniks,
it was clear we were in for trouble.
Zane! Pixal!
Wow! So good to see you guys!
What brings you to my karaoke club?
Oh. Dareth. Hello.
My memory now accesses the fact that you own this establishment.
Don't tell me! I know!
You need the Brown Ninja's help on a mission?
"Brown ninja?"
Let me guess...
The other ninja are lost in some crazy realm somewhere
and you need to find something to bring them back?
Your guess is... surprisingly accurate.
Yea, It happens a lot to those guys.
Gotta love 'em. Hold on, I'll get my stuff!
Hey. You twos.
I got a bone to pick wit' youse ninja-guys.
You locked my brudder up in Kryptarium prison.
That is quite possible. Who is your brother?
Fugi-Dove.
Who?
Fugi-Dove!
You know, his cry fills the night!
That name is unfamiliar to me.
The lug was as big as an ox, and smelled like one too.
Oh, what did you just say?
He wasn't the sharpest
-crayon in the box... Hey!
...but if it was a fight he wanted,
I was happy to give it to him.
Oh yeah? Let's see about that! Get 'em, boys!
The bigger they are, the harder they fall.
That is why I decided to throw an uppercut to his glass jaw!
Uppercut, huh?
Blocked!
The old suit must have shrunk in the dyer,
cause it's a little tight around the...
Wait, you started without me?
Well, don't worry guys, I got your--
...back!
His power to predict my every move was unnerving,
but I figured a sharp right-cross would stitch him up.
Right-cross?
Blocked!
Now you're mine, ninja-guy!
Huh?
The good news was she had saved my nindroid bacon.
The bad news
was, whoever we were looking for was probably long gone.
Who were you looking for?
A childhood friend of Milton Dyer's.
Dyer, huh? Haven't heard that name in a long time.
Jackpot.
You were Dyer's friend?
Yeah, that's right. When we were kids. Name's Tony.
We would appreciate anything you might know
about Milton Dyer's current location.
You're not the first to ask about him over the years.
Reporters come by every so often, but...
I never told them anything
because old Milty deserves his privacy.
But you're ready to speak now?
With this Prime Empire stuff happening?
Those kids missing?
I guess it's time to talk.
Spill it, where is Dyer?
I don't know exactly, but I know this...
You should check out Buddy's Pizza.
-Why? -It's where Milton played
his first videogame.
That's where he found his life's calling as a game programmer.
He'd call it "Videogame City".
Always went back there as an adult. For inspiration.
Buddy's Pizza was no different
than any other hole-in-the-wall pizza joint.
Except it had the best games in town.
It had been shut down by the fuzz due to the disappearances.
Someone's coming! Let's go!
-Ugh! I almost had a high score!
Kids had been sneaking into the place
to get their fill due to the city's "Videogame Prohibition."
You are beginning to get on my nerve-circuits.
Are you going to talk in that voice the whole time?
Her eyes showed annoyance, but her heart revealed
that she respected my unorthodox techniques.
My heart did not reveal that. Every part of me is annoyed.
I had my work cut out for me.
I had to prove I knew what I was doing.
Pixal! Hit the dirt!
I got wind'a you sniffin' around Dyer's old haunts.
Was only a matter of time before you two buttons showed up here.
Is The Mechanic doing your Detective thing too?
This is just weird.
Let's paste these palookas!
Zane!
-We must--
Unagami will be pleased as punch.
Zane?
Zane!
I was desperate and willing to try anything.
Even Zane's detective theory.
So I put the hat on and went for broke.
There had to be a clue somewhere in this rundown crazy world.
I might have lost my partner, but not my resolve.
The answer had to be somewhere here
in this place Dyer called "Videogame City."
Voice activation password,
"Videogame City" accepted.
I was as surprised as anyone to discover...
Zane was right.
Talking aloud in a funny voice seemed to help.
I decided to stick with it.
Milton Dyer, I presume?
I knew it was only a matter of time before someone found me.
I assume this isn't a social visit?
No, Mr. Dyer. Or should I call you...
Unagami?
I'm not Unagami.
"Unagami" was what we called the game.
It was our working title.
Before we called Prime Empire,
It was "Unfinished Adventure Game One."
But the Artificial Intelligence
that ran the game was so dangerous,
even I realized I should never complete it.
Then who did?
No one.
We locked that program under so much security,
it won't ever see the light of day.
The only way the program could have been finished would be if--
If Unagami completed programming itself.
Oh, no.