Zane's dragon did several swoops through mountains and around clouds in attempt to lose its enemy. But the strange planes the skeletons were in continued to follow. It mimicked the dragon's moves exactly most of the time.

Zane then saw in the distance the dojo.

"Don't fly home," he said, "Send them a warning."

The dragon let out a long cone of ice down on the dojo. That would certainly get the other's attention.

However the pause in order to do such gave the skeletons the advantage. They began to swoop dangerously close the dragon who was barely able to dodge. Finally one plane hit the dragon's wing hard which jostled Zane off the dragon's back.

Zane managed to grab one of the dragon's talons with his good arm. The ground was far below him and he didn't have Jay's artificial wings on him.

Meanwhile, the planes began to swoop distractingly, and his hand began to lose its grip. He tried to grab on with his other arm but the sling, and the pain prevented it.

Zane's hand finally gave out and he plummeted down.

Down.

Down.

SWOOSH!

Zane found himself landing on Cole's lap.

"Hello Zane. Glad you could drop by," said Cole, who seemed unable to resist the cliché joke.

Zane shook his head quickly and looked around to get his bearings. Cole was on his own dragon. Zane's dragon was high above. Zane felt his clothes and was relieved to find the scroll still safe in his inner shirt pocket.

"Thank you," said Zane, "you saved my life."

"We aren't out of the woods yet. I know you only have one good arm, but hang on tight." Cole responded as his dragon climbed to join the battle with the planes and the others and their dragons.

"Those machines can copy our dragon's flight patterns," Zane warned, flipping behind Cole so Cole could direct his dragon better, "you can't outfly them. I tried."

"Maybe not," said Jay, "but let's see them copy this."

The dragons let out their elemental breaths. Dirt clogged the engines of some of the planes thanks to Cole's dragon. Other caught fire from Kai's dragon, and the rest fell to being short circuited by Jay's dragon. As the skeletons struggled to control their planes and do an emergency landing, the ninjas flew home to the dojo.

Cole helped Zane off his dragon to avoid further injury to his sprain.

"You really gave us a scare by leaving with only a note with next to no explanation, Zane. Where in Ninjago did you go?" Jay asked.

"I left to try to find out how the skeletons were crossing from the underworld and back. I have to say I'm a bit surprised you didn't follow me," Zane answered.

"We wanted to, but Sensei told us to do as your note asked and wait a few days. Why didn't you ask us to come?" Kai asked.

"This was something I wanted to do myself, to make myself feel better about this," Zane told them moving his injured arm a little.

Zane then pulled out the scroll and continued," I found out how dragons cross. Given that those machines we fought just now could copy a dragon's flight, I suspect they use the same technique to crossover. Jay, can you do anything with this?"

He handed the scroll to Jay, who opened it and glanced through it.

"If I can confiscate a vehicle at some point, I should be able to get a better look and compare it to what's written here. From there, yes, I can disable the ability to cross over worlds. It would be one difficult mission though. And dangerous," Jay said.

"So long as it can be done, then, as you said, Ninjago will be a little bit safer," said Zane, "we have a way to fight back."

"Thanks to you we do," Cole smiled at him.

Zane could only smile back.

Foot note to windblown and battlekidx2: Thanks for the suggestion you two. I still can't believe both of you asked for the same thing. :P