I'M ALIVE! Barely!
I haven't updated since mid-August, and I apologize. I really should've warned you. But anyway, I'm not dead, I didn't quit, and that's all you really need to know that I've been writing. Slowly, but surely.
It's been only four days since Zane sacrificed himself to save Ninjago. Everyone was still sticking together, but just barely. Tensions were high, communication was low, and nothing was right. And it wouldn't be right for a long time.
It all started with Nya running into the room.
"Guys, we just picked up a lone nindroid signal! It's not far; we should get there pretty fast on foot, even faster with vehicles."
This threw the boys into motion. Jay jumped up and ran around trying to find his nunchuks. Lloyd ran out of the room to get his gi, only to remember it was it the closet, and ran back in. Kai got up so fast he tripped over the table. Cole sadly put down his slice of cake and calmly grabbed his scythe, only for Lloyd to run straight into him. They collapsed onto the floor, Lloyd on top. He started blushing furiously, until Cole pushed him off.
Nya facepalmed. Every time something unexpected happens, they act like this. It's like living with toddlers.
Eventually everyone in the room got settled, and Nya started explaining the plan.
"So, we are here," she pointed at a spot on the map. "You all know this. The nindroid signal we found is here." She pointed at a spot which couldn't be more than five miles away. "That's as far as the scanner will reach now. We get there fast, we find out what troubles it caused."
"Gotcha," Kai said. "Let's go."
They ran out single-file and hopped on the motorcycles. Engines were turned on, and they were gone.
After a few minutes, the ninja arrived to a horrific sight. A delivery truck had crashed into a boulder. It was crumpled beyond repair. But that wasn't the worst part.
There were dismantled nindroids everywhere. There looked to be four of them. Different pieces were broken on each; some arms, some legs, some even their necks were hanging in ways that weren't humanly possible.
There was a shift of metal, almost as if someone was trying to get out, and a crash. Someone was stuck under the truck.
"Guys, underneath!" Cole shouted. They all ran to the truck, and started pushing it up. Kai, Jay and Lloyd didn't really do much of the lifting. It was pretty much all Cole.
Underneath the truck there was a nindroid, and a fairly shy one, at that. It started scurrying behind the boulder as soon as his prison was lifted. Its chest cavity was ripped off, but the power core remained intact. His half of his right arm was missing. Kai started imagining if the scene was with humans. All the blood … so much blood …
It soon became too much for him to handle, and he felt himself falling. The world turned black.
JAY'S POV
I was staring at the nindroid, remembering that it was a copy of Zane. But that didn't have to mean it was bad. Sure, the rest of them tried to kill us, but now that the Golden Master is destroyed, did it change the programming?
I started to walk toward the boulder, when I heard a thump and a yelp from behind me. I whipped back around to see Kai had fainted and landed on Lloyd's foot. Cole immediately took action.
"Lloyd, take Kai back to the base. Make sure when he wakes up, he's okay." Lloyd nodded and picked up Kai. I swear when I saw him look into Cole's eyes I saw him blush. Just a little. I guess he felt a little awkward bringing Kai back to base without anyone else.
OOH! Or maybe he has a crush on Cole! That explains a lot, actually.
He said he wasn't interested in any of the girls he found. That could be because he wasn't interested in girls at all. He's always awkward when Cole is in the room. And just now, he blushed. Hah, I'm going to get him to spill right when we get back to the base.
Lloyd got onto his bike and no more than ten seconds later he was gone. My attention returned to the nindroid. Maybe he changed. Any nindroid we found before started attacking at will. But this one … he was different.
I walked behind the boulder, my right hand gently touching my nunchuks, and saw the nindroid. He looked terrified. I dropped my hand. Fear isn't normally in their programming. Unless this nindroid was reprogrammed...
"Hey there," I started talking to it. "I'm Jay. What's your name?"
The nindroid hesitated, then answered. "Third of Five."
"No no, that's your rank. I asked for your name."
"We are Third of Five."
Now I was confused. It just said that there were more Third of Five's. Or maybe it was some sort of hive-mind? But again, that wasn't in nindroid programming. We managed to get a nindroid offline, and I studied its program. It's just 'all destroy, no emotion'. Perhaps they were experimenting, and seeing how emotion would affect the strength of them. Yeah, that must be it.
"Hey, Third of Five?" The nindroid shot his head up and stood. "Do you wanna come with us? We won't hurt you."
The nindroid stood still. It took a minute before he said, "Third of Five wants to, but Master does not. Third of Five will go." He then ran up and side hugged me. I smiled, and wrapped an arm around him. We got ourselves an online nindroid.
We came back into the sight of Cole, and he gasped. "What the hell are you doing?!" He shouted. Cole got up and grabbed a hold of my left arm, almost pulling me away from the nindroid.
"Cole, STOP IT!" I screamed. "He's one of us!"
"I find that hard to believe, Zaptrap."
"Fine then, Dirtclod. But he's coming with me."
We both managed to get onto my bike and soon we were at the base.
"Third of Five is scared."
I looked into his eyes. "Don't you worry. We're going into there, and I'll make sure everyone treats you with respect."
Third of Five nodded. He can't be Third of Five forever, I thought. He needs a name. I guess that's step one on this list.
We walked into the base, Cole still glaring at me from behind. I could feel his stare. As soon as we got to the main room, we found Nya. She turned to us with a smile, which turned to fear.
"WHY THE FUCK DO YOU HAVE A NINDROID IN HERE?!"
I got so excited when I got to type "Third of Five" for the first time, everyone looked at me like I was crazy. It just felt so nice.
And, though there is mentions of MossShipping, it won't get anything more than a kiss. From a dare, probably. I don't want this to go over T.
Anyway, I gotta update ATOS before Monday, or else my HACE teacher will get mad at me. I might've made a goal about it in class...
Well, this is it for this chapter. I have to go write even more now. Bye.