"I'll catch up later..." Jay panted, waving off the others as he slid down to rest on the curved rock at the top of the cliff.
They'd been chasing that falcon for what seemed like miles, pushing the limits of their endurance. Whenever Zane saw that falcon there was something big that it would lead him too, like their ship and home, the Bounty. This time, when the other three saw it, they thought 'I want to be there to make that discovery, too.' Of course, that had been at the start of their journey. Now they were starting to fall behind one by one while Zane just kept on going as if it were nothing.
It stung his pride a bit to be the first to give in to the exhaustion, but he told himself that he'd just have to hurry and catch up so that he didn't miss any of the action.
He was the fastest of the four, after all, it wouldn't be hard.
When he'd felt rested enough, he climbed to his feet and looked out into the distance, where his friends had left only footprints to indicate where they'd gone.
Taking a deep breath, he gets into position and then takes off like a bolt of lightning, running full tilt.
There was something exhilarating about running as fast as he could. It was like he was flying, wind whipping his hair around his face, heart pounding in time with his feet... It was like nothing could stop him. He didn't often get to feel this, the Bounty was too small to really run on and during missions he always made sure to stick close to his friends, as well as pace himself so he'd have the energy to fight.
This was a rare chance for him, so he enjoyed it while he could.
When Cole came into view he slowed down, allowed himself to catch his breath before he'd reached the other ninja, and waited for him to get up before they set off at a much more reasonable pace.
A pace that, after the rush of before, made it feel like he was dragging his feet.
He'd tried to strike up a conversation with the other ninja, but Cole could barely get out two words before needing to take a breath, so Jay gave up after it became apparent that, even if he could hold the conversation on his own, the other wasn't exactly interested.
They stopped for a few seconds when they'd reached Kai, who had told them that Zane had gone further into the snowy forest so as not to lose the falcon.
They'd found him inside a literal tree house that stretched down into the ground.
"Zane?" Kai called out as they entered.
"Wow, would you look at this place!" Jay couldn't help but say as they descended the spiraling steps. The amount of work that must have gone into building this place was impressive, managing to mimic the trees around it on the outside while appearing to be patched together metal, all welded together on the inside, the place spreading out to the size of a small house underground... if his dad could see this, he knew the man would want to figure out its secrets.
And then there was their friend, sitting on the floor with his head in his hands, derailing Jay's thoughts. "Zane, what's wrong?"
They all rushed to his side, worried that something had happened.
"Are you hurt?" Jay asked, remembering the fallen machine they'd come across just outside.
"Are you ok?" Cole asked a split second after.
Zane let out a tiny sigh, looked over to the table near him, and took one of the blueprints. He stood and looked it over once before he let it flutter to the ground and opened his chest. The other three let out yells of shock, looking horrified before what they were seeing actually registered.
Metal.
"You're a robot?!" Kai asked, his shock speaking for him.
"All this time... And I never knew." Zane said, a sad note to his voice.
"That explains why you're always acting so weird, right?" Jay asks with a nervous laugh, trying to lighten the mood a bit and failing.
"The reason I never had a sense of humor was because my funny switch wasn't on." Zane explains, flipping a switch before closing his chest.
Music starts to play and he begins to dance and sing.
After his short number is over, Jay bursts out laughing while the other two just looked confused. Zane turns around to flip the switch back off before facing the others, sighing and sliding back down to sit on the floor again.
"Uh, it just makes you more special." Cole struggles to reassure his friend despite his own trouble with the sudden revelation. "You're still the same Zane just, uh, more gears."
"No matter what you're made of, you're still our brother." Kai adds, voice calm, as he'd gotten ahold of his disbelief.
"Really?" Zane looks up at them, surprised by their easy acceptance.
"In fact," Cole goes on, sounding a lot surer of his words after Kai had spoken up. "I bet it makes you an even better ninja."
"Yeah!" Jay suddenly speaks up, still sounding a bit nervous and kind of twitchy. "And how cool is it that I can honestly say that my brother is a nindroid."
It was the best he could think of at the moment; wouldn't it be bad to start telling him the kind of genius it would've taken to not only make a robot that could pass as a human so well that even he didn't know, let alone the kind of programming that could create an A.I. that advanced? But he had to say something to reassure his friend that he'd accepted him, just like the others.
"A nindroid?" Zane gives the blue ninja a puzzled look at the term.
"Now, come on." Cole cuts in, putting a hand on the white ninja's shoulder. "Pythor is still out there looking for the first fang blade and we need you."
While the black and red ninja were worried that Jay not so subtly implying that Zane wasn't human was going to upset the blond, Cole had done a less than stellar job changing the subject.
Zane steps back and shakes his head.
"You'll have to go on without me." He turns away from the others, looking instead at the blueprints on the table. "I just don't feel right..."
Without it needing to be said, the three all agree to leave the nindroid alone and head back outside.
"We just have to give him time." Kai says, speaking as if he was sure, yet looking for confirmation. "I'm not sure how I would feel if I was told I was a robot."
"You mean a nindroid." Jay corrects the red ninja, already appearing to have gotten over it.
"Yeah, whatever." Kai says with a shrug, giving the blue ninja an odd look.
"How the heck do we get out of this place?" Cole asks, gesturing to the expanse of trees and snow around them. Their footprints were gone, buried by the light snowfall already, so they'd have to guess as to which direction they had come from. "What's that?"
They pause for a moment, listening to the thumping that seemed to be getting closer.
"Cute, tiny birds?" Jay suggests hopefully, knowing that whatever made that sound had to be much, much bigger.
They all pulled their hoods on and began to look for the threat.
The seconds ticked on and for a moment Jay wondered if they'd been hearing things, and was about to say as much until one of the trees lifted up off the ground and moved.
"Did you see that?!" Cole asked the other two, disbelief clear in both his eyes and tone.
"I didn't see anything!" Jay quickly denied, as if that would make them disappear.
"I saw it too." Kai confirmed the others' fear. "Treehorns!"
A huge group of them seemed to appear, surrounding the ninja and blocking any chance of escape. They pull out their weapons, and Kai glances at the fallen machine nearby, suddenly realizing something.
"Aw great, I think that thing was supposed to protect this place." He groans. "Guys, it's up to us."
The three ninja sprang into action, managing to knock down a few at first, but they were quickly outnumbered and overpowered.
They had barely rested after the long journey, too...
Jay could almost hear Sensei Wu admonishing him for wasting so much energy earlier; the creatures were slow moving and if he could've used his full speed, he'd at least be able to draw their attention while Cole and Kai attacked.
As it was, they were all struggling to stay on their feet, let alone retaliate. Kai was trying to use his fire to try and ward them off, and even Cole was struggling under the weight of their attacks. But they were doing alright, fully focused on their own battles, holding up well enough... So it was a mistake for Jay to spare even a second on making sure they were alright.
It had only been a glance in their direction, not even a split second, and then he'd felt one of those trunk sized limbs slam into his side. Pain shot down his arm, his grip went slack and his weapon flew off into the snow and out of his reach.
Gritting his teeth, he struggled to stand, clutching his shoulder in a vain attempt to stop the pain. He had to get his weapon, he was defenseless without it.
With a burst of adrenaline he darted towards where he'd seen it fall, quickly kneeling down to grab it, only to feel the full force of one of the creatures stepping on his leg. Something snapped with an audible crack, and he was about to scream from the pain when another treehorn hit his face, causing him to blackout momentarily.
It was the pain that brought him back and it didn't take long for his blurry vision to make out the red staining the snow. He felt sick, his stomach twisted in knots and fear making his heart race. He could see the blurry figure of another treehorn approaching him and he tried to scramble back with his good arm and leg, only for one to his side, out of sight, to reach out and pin his good leg.
Another crack and then he felt the force of the other treehorn stomping on his chest, forcing the air out of his lungs as a pitiful wheeze. It stomped on his chest twice more and then it had stopped, the pressure on his leg let up... They were leaving.
Breathing was hard, each breath in hurt, his vision was starting to go dark.
Just before he lost consciousness, a thought crossed his mind.
'Sorry Mom, Dad... I don't think I'll be able to visit anymore.'
fin
