The vehicles on the ground all zoomed away from the starting white line the millisecond that buzzer went off.

"Come on, boy!" Lloyd gently whipped the reins of the dragon. As it shot up into the sky, he shouted, "Woah!"

Scarlett gripped his shoulders as a reaction. "Easy, Lloyd! Don't scare him, or we're all going down."

"Sorry... still getting used to it."

As they flew above everyone else, the four ninjas on ground drove the Radar. Unfortunately, they didn't get five feet away from the line when it completely crashed on them, sliding at an angle and skidding to a stop.

"What happened?" Zane nervously questioned.

Cole found part of the tire had come loose on their left. "We've been sabotaged!"

On the road, many racers were calm. Some, such as Soto's pirate crew, decided to use nasty tactics that ended up backfiring on them anyway.

Jay's parents seemed to have a blast.

However, in the skies, the new members of the team were clearly struggling. Lloyd couldn't seem to gain control of the dragon.

It was headed in the opposite direction of the track. "No, no, wrong way! We're headed the wrong way!"

"Lloyd!" Scarlett shouted with a heavy frown. "At this point we'll be out of the race!"

"I'm not doing it on purpose!"

Despite not being on the main road, they were able to hear the white suit announcer's booming voice. "It seems some new competitors have entered the race! Meanwhile, the Ninja remain at the starter's line in dead last!"

"What?" Lloyd unintentionally lifted the reins again, causing the dragon to stop flying forward. It just stayed in place, flapping its wings.

He sighed.

Scarlett looked around her. They were sort of in between buildings, but it wasn't too hard to catch them.

She grabbed the top of his head and turned it so he could look at her. "Babe, listen to me. This race is a bunch of bullshit. There's no rules except be the first to finish. I mean, you just heard the asshole; the others are stuck somehow and someone else just joined the race. It's all entertainment."

The child blinked. "Uh-huh..."

"So just follow my lead. I'm gonna get us as far as I can."

"What do you me—?"

He was cut off by her jumping off the four-headed beast unannounced. His eyes widened.

"Scarlett!? What are you doing!?"

A bright light blinded him for a hot second. Lloyd shut his eyes and looked away.

When it subsided, he found his partner to be that scarlet dragon he rode when she found her true potential. A wide smile creeped up his lips.

A happy feeling replaced his previous fear and worry. "Cool!"

She roared in front of the Ultra Dragon. It did the same back. Whatever dragon language they spoke, it worked; as soon as Scarlett dashed off in the air, her companion beast did the same.

"Woah!" Lloyd cried as he tightly held on to the reins.

Soon, with her help, the main track was visible again. The excited child cheered again. "Wooo!"

At the same time, the ninjas had been struggling to fix their issue. Jay was pissed after hearing the announcer call them out.

"Great, now we're out of the fucking race!"

Cole popped up from behind the wheel. "We can't quit now, not with everything that's on the line! Help me lift this thing!"

It took a little bit of figuring out, but once the four were able to strap the bottom leather of the wheel back on, the rest was an easy fix. Eventually, the wheel was put back in place and the four hopped in.

"So that's how this is gonna go," Kai muttered as he hopped into the top seat. The clear hood closed in on them as he flipped his own red cloth over his head. "Alright, boys. Let's do this!"

From the bleachers, Nya let out a sigh of relief as the Radar zoomed off to catch up. "Oh, good. They're finally back in the race."

"Yeah... anything goes in this thing," Red apathetically replied. "This is just the beginning."

"And it seems another competitor has taken advantage! Ninjago City's very own Scarlett Dragonfire has turned into just that; a dragon! It's already getting interesting."

The samurai then smiled, glancing up at the screen which panned to Lloyd, the Ultra Dragon, and the teenage beast herself. "Well, at least your sister's getting the hang of it. If the boys get stuck again, we have those two to rely on."

Red looked up as well. "Yeah."

By now, the main competitors had passed through the Sea of Sand and were nearing the Crashcourse Canyons. The Darkley's students in a bus fought it out with the pirates, but unfortunately the latter ended up crashing into the canyon right at the entrance of the crack.

"Ouchy-mama! Pirates are out of the race!"

The Royal Blacksmiths had lots of audacity to sing as they slowly passed by the wreckage along with everyone else. And because their vehicle was fast and efficient, the ninjas weren't too far behind.

Jay cheered. "We're no longer in last! Things are looking up!"

And then a large shadow ironically from above halted their excitement. The dark Bounty flew high in the sky, and the team knew exactly who the leader was.

"Oh no, Garmadon!" Kai announced the name of their nemesis.

Jay was somehow surprised. "What?"

For a moment, the ship merely followed them. The lord himself didn't do anything, but he did have the snakes prepare a cannon that would definitely take them out if hit.

The ninja in blue shrieked. "Aah! We're sitting ducks... there's nowhere to run!"

The white suit announcer gasped. "And are those cannons? I would not wanna be in the Ultrasonic Radar right now!"

The green cap covered his eyes. "I can't watch!" And then he removed them to smile at the crowd. "But you, the fans, can! In glorious high definition."

Red's simple look quickly turned into a slight glare. "So much for this."

Nya frowned. "They can't get out of the way!"

Dareth actually covered his eyes in genuine fear. "I can't look!" He truly did feel terrible for letting them race for his dojo.

As the serpents were about to release the cannon, the four-headed dragon swung around from the side. Lloyd had a bit more control of it... sort of.

Which is why he couldn't exactly stop his ride from knocking into the Bounty.

"Out of the way!" he shouted before making impact.

That hit came right on time. The ship rocked and the cannonball launched in the air.

The explosion appeared close, but the ninjas ultimately came out of it unscathed.

Kai looked back. "Nice going, Lloyd!"

The child found himself flying off when the wind was too strong. Fortunately, the reins also went with him and he grabbed onto the set right in front of his friends.

Cole smiled at him through his mask. "You saved us!"

"I did?" he muttered under his breath before coming to the realization. "Oh, I did!"

"Where's Scarlett?" Jay asked.

"Uh... somewhere! We lost her so he kinda started going haywire again."

That's when the scarlet dragon appeared about half a mile ahead of them. She let out a roar to signal where she was at.

Lloyd turned his head back halfway. "Oh, my bad!"

He then faced the four inside once again. "Hey, what do you say we all work together!"

"Yeah!" Jay agreed with a raise of his fist. "I say let's show them what we Ninja are all about!"

"Ninja, go!"

Lloyd was brought back in the air. With that, the six went the same way. The dragons stayed in the sky, leaving Garmadon to watch with anger.

"They're getting away!" he called, pointing his finger at his enemies escaping.

But he wouldn't give up so easily.

The ninjas began to rack up more support from the bleachers. Seeing their perseverance on the screen, everyone began to cheer.

Finally, the leading racers entered the Birchwood Forest. Not many were left, as some had gotten lost in the canyon. Jay's parents, the serpentine, and the Royal Blacksmiths continued on.

Except the last group drove right into a devastating pile of snow and momentarily halted their singing.

Until each popped out one at a time.

"Too big

Too slow!

We had a lead but let it go!"

As the ground ninjas passed by, Cole sighed in embarrassment. "Oh, man..."

Kai quickly observed their surroundings. "We'll never get through those trees to catch up."

From above, Lloyd nodded. "I'll find a shortcut... up, boy!"

He was shocked that lifting the reins got his dragon to follow up. "Huh! You actually went up. Ha!"

From such an elevation, he was able to take in nearly the entirety of the forest. There, he found a passage that wasn't easier, but faster.

Scarlett remained a little higher up as he flew back down. "Follow me!"

It was a bunch of sharp turns, but Lloyd was actually enjoying himself. He loudly whooped, finally having more control and confidence than before.

Even the others noticed. Jay chuckled. "Wow. He's getting the hang of it."

"And it looks like we made up the lost time!" Cole added.

But their celebration was cut very short. The racers—the little Darkley's boys, the mailman, and the skeletons—trailing at the same pace managed to see all three groups of ninjas.

The monsters didn't exactly like them teaming up. And so they released their chain grappler, only able to reach the height of the four-headed dragon. Without hesitation, the skeleton driver swerved to the left and brought the poor thing down.

Lloyd fearfully screamed as they fell and roughly hit the snow. Like idiots, the skeletons laughed without paying attention to the road.

And so the chain ended up getting caught on one of the strong tree barks. It circled around multiple times before completely breaking off, launching the skeletons into the snow as well.

Everyone saw both winter collisions on the screen. They all let out a unified gasp.

The white suit fake winced. "Oh, a nasty crash! More racers are out of the race. Hope they're okay."

"Yeah, but if they're not, stay tuned for the slow motion replay!" the green cap encouraged with a charming smile.

The skeletons bickered, as they usually did during their screen time. Both were stuck in the snow. There was no way they were heading back into the race.

Lloyd groaned as he rose to his feet. He rubbed his little head.

His concern then flew to the dragon, who remained unmoving. "You okay fella?" He rubbed the poor beast's head, who nodded in reply.

The child smiled as he looked back toward the path and found his friends driving off. "Well, we got them back in the race."

But once again he didn't see his dragon companion.

Because she ended up right above the two. He blinked in confusion as in seconds, that familiar light returned and the human girl fell from the sky.

Right into the snow. She sort of faceplanted, unable to catch herself in time.

Before Lloyd could call her name, she lifted her head. Snow fell from her face and some remained in her hair. Surprisingly, she didn't seem to care much about that.

The teen frowned. She tried to contain her heavy breathing by silencing it and talking faster than usual. "Are you... are you guys okay? That was a nasty fall."

"Yeah, we're okay..." Lloyd responded. "How come you came back? Shouldn't you be racing with the others?"

"And leave you guys here alone? Absolutely not." Scarlett weirdly stood up, her legs kind of wobbly. Yet she managed to walk the few steps needed to make it to the two. "Those guys suck for that."

The child noticed her strange breathing pattern. "You okay?"

Not really able to hide it anymore, she allowed herself to kind of wheeze out, heavily breathing for the next minute or so.

He blinked.

She placed a hand on her chest, speaking in between her puffs. "That's... that's the longest I've ever been like that. Kinda exhausts you after a while... like a lot. Just need a minute!"

She plopped herself next to the Ultra Dragon, leaning back against its body. "Besides, I never wanted to be in this stupid race anyway... if not now, I would've collapsed in the next leg. I'm glad this is how I lose."

Lloyd sat down next to her with his legs crossed. "That would've been bad. I really hope they win..."

"Have faith in your friends." She lightly elbowed him, an amiable smile creeping up her face. "Besides..." Afraid the camera would catch her sentence, she leaned closer to his ear to whisper, "even if we lose, I can just buy the place. I have more than 50k saved up, we're set."

Lloyd smiled. "Cool!"

While they weren't too stressed about their predicament, Dareth was in full-on tears. He couldn't bear to see the heroes he befriended getting hurt because of something he felt responsible for.

He kind of stopped when a microphone was shoved in his face.

The white suit had actually pulled up right next to the amateur sensei, glancing at not only him but Wu, Nya, and Red as well. "Excuse us! But you're all friends of Scarlett and the boy dragon rider, aren't you? Tell us how you feel."

And he had no problem going all in. "Oh, I feel terrible. This is all my fault. The only reason they and the Ninja entered this race was to help save my dojo. If they don't win, developers are gonna tear it down, leaving all my poor kids without a training center to help enrich their tiny little lives..."

Even his students dropped their heads, upset at the idea. He made sure not to mention Scarlett and her money, though.

And clearly no one thought about it. Because after a unified aww, the crowd stood up and began the same chant: "Dojo! Dojo! Dojo!"

Even the white suit sort of lost his charming, carefree attitude and frowned. "I... don't know if you can feel it up there in the booth, but down here it appears the crowds have found their favorite racer... the Ninja!"

The green cap widely smiled. "Oh-ho, I feel it all right! But they better buckle their seat belts, because up next is the most dangerous part of the race: the Glacier Barrens!"

Even as they spoke, the audience continued to cheer for the ninjas. Dareth couldn't take it anymore and began to loudly sob, his hands over his face.

Nya turned her head to the left, beaming warmly. "This is so cute. They've gotta win this race now."

Red couldn't help the small smile tugging at his lips. "They will. Even from here... I'm sure they can sense the rise in morale."