The last bassy cords of music faded away as a cheery voice slightly autotuned to sound just a touch robotic talked over it "And that was Aria's remix of Simple and Clean! For those just tuning in welcome to Reaper Radio where we offer not only the top of the charts but unique music your never gonna hear anywhere else cos us Reapers are the ones who made it!"
"Right you are Chiptune!" The second voice was also altered to sound robotic but was still distinct from their friend "Though for now it's time for the Reaper Review a lowdown of events that have just gone on-"
"And a heads up of what's yet to come! We're your hosts Chiptune and Synth now sit down, shut up and we'll get back to the music you actually came here for soon."
Synth snorted with laughter at his friend "First the shit that's gone down, last week we can conform that the Shadow Ghosts apparently got sick of us on the borders of their territory and decided to make a stink about it attacking a couple of Reapers in Mask. No doubt they thought 'Those stupid Reapers never want to fight and their leader is all for pacifism right? They'll be easy to take out'." He let out a bark of laughter "Oh Trance was happy to correct their idiocy, while we'll never start a fight be reassured, we'll end it."
"Course that lead to Trance and Classic butting heads, but after a good ol' slug fest between their Melodies it was decided the Shadow Ghosts had learned their lesson and that we should let them lick their wounds in peace." There was the shuffling of papers from Chiptune "We had three new Reapers join the crew! Woodwind, Samba and the talk of the town right now Pop. Why's everyone buzzing 'bout Pop? Cos she's been a Reaper for a week tops and already earned her Tatts!"
"Yup our spunky little Pop decided when she saw the Blue Ninja going after Goth and Composers ass she wasn't having any of that shit and turned him into the orange and green Ninja." Synth snorted with laughter "Deserved, I think he suits it better then blue."
"And of course we have Goth's newest unnamed art piece -Because getting him to name his shit is like pulling teeth I swear to god- Check out Reaper. NJ for the poll for what we're naming it. Current leaders are 'Fuck off Serpentine' and 'Snakey McSnakepants'. Why do we let idiots on the internet name anything?"
"Hey I voted for Snakey McSnakepants!"
Chiptune sighed "Sometimes I wonder about you bro."
"In upcoming news while the date hasn't been confirmed yet Folk has reassured that he's gotten all the forms together for our charity street party!"
"Does it still count as a street party when we literally take over the town centre?"
"Folk says it does and I'm gonna trust the guy who reads legal books the size of my head for fun, he probably knows his shit." Synth chuckled "And that's it for today's Reaper Review, sorry we're a little scarce on the ground for upcoming events but we should have more soon!"
"And would have had more before now if Goth bothered to tell anyone before he decides to do his big shit. This is Chiptune!"
"And this is Synth signing off, next up well let's have a listen to the current top ten shall we?"
Cole jumped as a weight flopped onto his legs the Earth Ninja tearing his eyes away from the window he'd been zoning out of. He rolled his eyes seeing it was Jay grinning up at him, the Lightning Ninja asked something Cole blinking and taking off his headphones.
"Huh?"
Jay chuckled shaking his head "I asked what your listening to." He folded his arms behind his head.
"Reaper Radio." Jay huffed at the admission a sour look on his face "Hey you like their music!"
"And I don't like them at the moment, You saw what they did to my jet!" Jay grumbled "It took me six hours to get all that paint off. Six. Hours."
"Why didn't you just change it back to the Nunchucks?" Cole asked turning off his phone not that interested in the music currently playing, like Jay he preferred the Reaper made music over the public stuff.
"I did, when I changed it back to the jet the paint was still there!" Jay groaned Cole make a sympathetic sound in his throat the pair lazing in the comfortable silence. After a few minutes Jay shifted a little "You staying tonight?"
Cole shook his head "Dad's doing a dance class tonight he wants my help with." While Jay's expression didn't change with him lay on his lap Cole couldn't the disappointed slump and winced. Jay had mentioned before that the Bounty had been pretty lonely with him and Zane being the only ninja living full time on it, Kai and Nya's village was close enough to the city that they could come and go as they liked and since his and his dad's recent reconciliation he'd been spending most of his time in the city living with him trying to settle into a new normal. Thinking Cole smiled and lightly shoved Jay's shoulder "Hey when I come back tomorrow I promise I'll bring half a ton of junk food and we'll spend all weekend gaming-Training and Serpentine permitting of course."
Jay snorted though he smiled "You hate junk food unless it's cake Mr 'My body is a temple'."
"Ya well I've been ignoring my living garbage compactor of a friend lately and I know he'll do anything for a triple cheese with olives and extra mushrooms."
Jay cooed putting his hands to his heart "Aww you really DO love me!" Cole snorted and tipped him off his lap letting Jay fall to the floor with a yelp.
"Don't let Nya hear you say that." He teased Jay pouting at him the pair looked up at the sound of someone coming in Zane smiling a little tablet in hand. "What's up Zane?"
"The Mayor has asked that one of us work security at a high profile art exhibit in a few days. Mostly as a visual deterrent as well as to attract people to spend money." Zane shrugged not looking all that impressed with the request "With us still searching for the final two Fangblades I can send him a rejection."
"I dunno." Jay scratched his head still sat on the floor "I mean Cole's dad had a Fangblade in a trophy, for all we know the Fangblade could be in one of the pieces they have there."
"If it is we're not going to be able to afford it even with donations coming in to supplement us." Zane frown working on the tablet to check
"Hey we're the Ninja, we can probably ask who ever it is to give it for the good of Ninjago." Cole shrugged.
"Should I put you down on rotation as working the event then?" Zane asked, Cole grimaced.
"Uhrg, no thanks I had more then enough stuck up pricks at Oppenheimer's."
"Didn't you only attend for like a day?" Jay asked.
"Exactly my point."
"Myself and Jay cannot as that day is when the next shipment of parts for upgrading my systems come in." Zane hummed "We could put it off..."
Jay shook his head "No way Zane even with me and Nya performing daily maintenance on you, your systems are janked to hell from years of neglect." Zane winced at that looking embarrassed "You need these upgrades as soon as we have the parts to do so."
"So that leaves Kai and Nya." Cole hummed "...I'm leaning towards Kai, both because Nya isn't quite ready for a solo mission having started training later then the rest of us." He smirked a little "And our resident hot head could stand to learn a little patience don't you think?"
Jay sniggered at his friend "Cole you are EVIL. He's going to be wanting to set the place on fire within five minutes."
"Eh my moneys on ten."Cole grinned.
"I texted Nya, She will tell Kai and her moneys on twenty." Zane sighed "Am I acting as bookie again or...?"
"...An art show. Their sending me to a fucking art show."
"Language." Nya teased smirking as she scrolled through e-mails on the smithy's laptop checking over what commissions where pending. "Also the breastplate in the fire is about ready."
"I can do my job Nya." Kai grumbled using a pair of tongs to pull said half formed breastplate out of the forge and set it on the anvil. "Why not send you? Or Zane he could download everything he needs to know!"
"Zane isn't getting internet installed till we're sure his firewalls can handle it." Nya rolled her eyes "And he's getting upgrades day of, Sorry Kai but you have the short straw. Consider it an exercise in patience. Besides you might run into someone cute, you've been complaining about not getting any lately. Repeatedly." Nya grumbled shooting him a glare.
Kai groaned glancing over at the design sketch they had for the armour piece and started to hammer it to the right proportions. Neither spoke finding the rhythm of the hammer shaping red hot metal soothing and meditative.
As the metal started to cool to where it couldn't be safely worked Kai placed it back in the fire stepping on the bellows to feed more air and make them burn hotter to bring the breastplate back up to a malleable temperature. "You gonna give me any details on this art thing then?" Kai asked watching the fire.
Nya rolled her eyes "You could say please." She sighed pulling up the website and skimming though "They have a Banksy piece, mostly contemporary art."
"Smaller words please?" Kai chuckled as Nya rolled her eyes.
"Modern art, made recently." She deadpanned "Not a lot on the guest list, apparently the main draw is a local starling living in the city. Got all that fluff about 'The new Renaissance master' and stuff made to sound impressive. Not sure why, looking at his stuff he doesn't take any inspiration from any renaissance piece I've seen."
"Got a name sis?"
"Hamachi, I'll give them this, their cute in a dress." She turned the laptop so Kai could see the image on screen of the artist, Kai let out a low impressed whistle.
"Well that's just adorable...Wonder what they look like out of it." Nya groaned rolling her eyes and threw a ball of screwed up paper at his head Kai easily dodging without even trying a broad grin on his face.
"You are such a horndog Kai."
"You love me really."
"To my eternal despair unfortunately." Nya deadpanned though there was a smile on her face, Kai rolled his eyes but grinned pulling the breastplate out of the fire the siblings lapsing into comfortable silence.
Cole sighed as he closed the door, despite it being a few weeks now since their failure to get the second Fangblade and his reconciliation with his father, a lingering knot of nerves and apprehension kept making it's self felt whenever he walked over the threshold of his childhood home. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath mentally reaching out to the earth under his feet. The knot loosened and Cole let out the breath he was holding hanging up his coat and bags.
He arched a bushy eyebrow seeing that there where more coats and bags on the guest coat rack "Guess they got here early." He shrugged heading into the dance studio.
"Awww come on Mr Brookestone you'd make a great Reaper!" Cole paused at the unfamiliar voice staying out of sight, he heard his fathers throaty chuckle.
"I think I'm a little old to be running around all over the city spray painting don't you?"
There was a chorus of no's from the small group "Aww come on I'm pretty sure Sonata's in her fourty's, and you can't be a day over thirty."
Cole snorted a little holding in a laugh clearly able to hear his dad's own startled laugh "I'm fifty this year thank you." Smiling Cole knocked on the door-frame and peered in proper, there where three people there other then his own father, one a girl who seemed to have decided that Jack Skellington was the best thing ever considering her pinstripe suit and the skull mask. A guy in a neon green and yellow suit features obscured behind a domino mask and...Well he honestly couldn't tell with the last one other then 'Neon rainbows' and 'Oww my eyes are starting to bleed'. "Ahh Cole! So glad you could join us."
Not so long ago that sentence would have had Cole bristling and wanting to bite back at his father ignoring the light teasing tone in his voice. "Hey dad, these the students?"
Rainbow nodded "Yup, I'm Cadence, Greenies Aria and Jack over there's Nightcore." Cadence peered at him "Hey, ain't you the guy who won the Fangcup?"
Cole puffed up a little with pride "Me and my friends."
"You did the Tiger Sashay!" Cadence squealed "Can you teach us!"
"Hey hey I thought we where gonna do a simple routine!" Aria yelped looking panicked "You said we'd do something simple!"
"Aww come on Aria don't you want to impress people at the party soon?"
"You mean the Reaper Street party?" Cole asked Nightcore nodding.
"Ya, their gonna set up a stage for people to go up and embarrass themselves on with either dancing or karaoke, me and Aria lost a bet to Cadence so their dragging us along to humiliate ourselves with a dance." Cole snorted lightly with laughter as Cadence pouted.
"You two are the worst friends ever."
"Why don't we see where your skills are, before we start talking about routines?" Lou chuckled shaking his head. "Cole would you mind? My knees starting to go."
"Sure thing dad." Cole nodded as Lou gave him a grateful smile walking off to rest his leg. "So, you guys are Reapers."
"Yup, Nightcore for about two and half years, me a year and Aria six months." Cadence looked him over and smirked "You know we're always-"
Nightcore lightly bapped Cadence on the head "Will you stop trying to recruit people while we're trying to learn this stupid dance?" Cadence huffed looking put out, though Cole hummed filing away his thoughts for talking over with the others.
"Alright, let's start with some stretches then we'll see where everyone is skill wise."