A Second Chance

Part 60 - Are you like, a cop or something?

I sat across from Ray and Maya in the quiet warmth of the shop while the scent of hot metal and charcoal stowed in the air. I explained the whole strange encounter with Fugidove and the weird photo he showed me. 

It certainly didn't help that they both looked at me like I was crazy. Made it even more awkward because I really needed their seasoned perspective on this mystery.

"The City of Glass?" Maya mused while she leaned against a heavy wooden workbench. "We've never heard anything about a place with a name like that." 

She looked over at Ray and he just shrugged his shoulders with a skeptical grunt. He was busy sharpening a small chisel and he didn't even look up from his work for a second.

"Are you absolutely sure your feathered friend isn't just drunk or making things up for attention?" Ray wondered aloud. "Wasn't he just sitting in a jail cell a little while ago for some ridiculous stunt?" 

I shook my head quickly because I knew exactly what I saw on that phone screen. Fugidove might be a clown, but he didn't have the imagination to fake a symbol that specific.

"Nope, this came straight from his fan mail, and I'm telling you that photo was the real deal," I replied. "And that symbol in the shot is from an organization that I fought back when I was in that  other realm. Really long story, but they're also operating somewhere in Ninjago,"

I didn't want to get into the gritty details of every battle right now, but I knew I was right.

"Everything points to this being the place where they've been hiding all this time," 

Maya gave me a supportive nod and offered a small, encouraging smile. "Well, if your gut is telling you this is the path, then we wish you nothing but good luck on the journey," 

I thanked them both and headed back to my mansion to do some actual research on my laptop. I figured the best place to start was a standard web engine just to see if the city even appeared on a map. 

...

"Ok, let's see,"

I typed "City of Glass" into the search bar and hit the button with a shaky finger. I wasn't expecting much, but the results actually loaded up within a couple of seconds.

The metropolis in the pictures looked incredibly advanced and the buildings seemed to be made entirely of shimmering crystal and chrome. It rivaled the skyline of Chicago itself. Maybe not quite on the level of Singapore, but it was definitely more modern than anything in the central districts. I scrolled through a few more images and felt a pit growing in my stomach.

There was a listing for a six-hour bus drive that went straight there from the main Ninjago station. I

 checked the ticket price and almost fell out of my chair because the cost was absolutely insane. It was expensive enough that the average citizen would just have a "forget about it" mindset the moment their eyes locked on the first 5 digits. 

That probably explains why nobody ever bothered talking about the place or visiting it.

The city was basically inaccessible from the rest of Ninjago for anyone without a massive pile of spare cash. Luckily, I could afford the ticket, even if I'd have to track my budget a lot more carefully for a couple of weeks. 

It didn't even seem to be a vacation spot because the descriptions were all about industry and strict laws. Begs the question why would anyone bother going to a place that was nearly impossible to reach and didn't care about the rest of the world?