Given the predicament the two had been placed in, Cryptor kept a very close eye on Mindroid, not wanting him to do anything he shouldn't. Mindroid was clearly very annoyed by his shadow and would constantly try to lose the droid. Fortunately for Cryptor, he readjusted to the body a little quicker than Mindroid did, having had past experience in it.
Once again trying to lose Cryptor, Mindroid had ran to the elevator, Cryptor had immediately followed tail, struggling a bit to keep up with the now taller robot. Luckily having quickly slipped his way into the elevator before the doors closed on him, Cryptor frowned when he saw the floor Mindroid was going to and the known current time. Quickly claiming Mindroid couldn't be on the floor, Cryptor had first tried to block off the elevator exit, but miserably failed. Quickly chasing after him, Cryptor grabbed onto his leg to try and stop him, but only fell to the floor in the pathetic attempt.
"Mindroid, you can't be on this floor! Just go back in the stupid elevator already!" Cryptor once again protested, refusing to let go of Mindroid's leg, regardless of being dragged across the floor. Not long after dragging Cryptor down the hall, an employee spotted them and smiled. Said employee waved and approached them with a grin. Mindroid stopped in his tracks and waved back.
"Hey, Cryptor." He greeted, now standing in front of the two android's. Cryptor gasped at the sound of the employee's voice, having desperately wished they could avoid this. The employee glanced down at the smaller and smiled. "So, you are Mindroid? Nice to meet you, little fella." Quickly standing up and staring awkwardly at Jackson, Cryptor got in front of Mindroid and began shoving him back towards the elevator the best he could.
"Get going Mindroid! Do not talk to this guy and avoid all interaction with him!"
"Why do you want me to avoid this employee?" Mindroid questioned, looking down at Cryptor. Then he looked back up and the employee and tilted his head as if confused.
"So, Mindroid doesn't want you to see me, Cryptor?" Jackson questioned, brows quirked and his hands on his hips. "Why is that?"
"I am Mindroid and the small one is Cryptor." Mindroid explained. "Cyrus switched our bodies and Cryptor wants me to leave." Cryptor frowned at Mindroid's answer, finally giving up on getting Mindroid to move, not seeing a point of getting him off the floor anymore. Upon hearing the news, Jackson smirked and looked down at the small android.
"Is that so?" With a huff of clear annoyance, Cryptor crossed his arms, shifting a glare between the two taller he stood between.
"Mindroid, you're an idiot." He growled when his glare was directed at the taller android.
"So, how do you like being in Cryptor's body?" Jackson asked, crossing his arms as he spoke. "It's nice being bigger, right?" Mindroid shrugged and glanced down at his body.
"His body is a lot different than mine." He answered. "I like my own body more... his feels weird and old."
"Well, he is older." Jackson said with a wave of his hand. "Not to mention all of the beatings it's taken. I mean, Cryptor tried walking into ongoing traffic once and got his leg messed up." Cryptor huffed, glaring at Jackson.
"And I have no memory of this event what so ever." He grumbled.
"He once set fire to the building too." Jackson continued, patting Cryptor's head. Cryptor growled, growing increasingly agitated with the conversation. "He tried to fix his own hand and sparks went everywhere. Did I mention that he caught me on fire too?" Mindroid snickered, looking down at the other android.
"Wow. What a dumb thing to do." Mindroid laughed.
"Stop telling him these things." He spat, punting Jackson in the leg.
"Ow." Jackson hissed, grabbing Cryptor by his sash and raised him off the ground, holding him arm's length away. Cryptor yelped at being picked up, struggling for a bit to get free.
"Put me down!" He had immediately protested.
"Anyway, I heard that he was defeated by a bubble once?" Jackson continued.
"A bubble?" Mindroid laughed. "How?"
"Cyrus blew the bubble and it stung his eyepiece." Jackson laughed. "Then he stormed off and pouted like a baby." Finally giving up on getting placed down, Cryptor tensed at the mention if the bubble incident.
"That didn't happen." He rejected the story, hating the reminder of his previous weakness.
"Oh goodness, you haven't heard about the vending machine incident." Jackson continued, ignoring Cryptor. "He couldn't figure it out so he blew it up and got himself covered in soda."
"Really?" Mindroid laughed. "He's such a hot head."
"You should have seen how angry he got when he couldn't spin a pen." Jackson added. Cryptor growled, shooting a death screaming glare at Jackson.
"I can do that now." He huffed with irritation before sighing and looking down at the ground. "I feel like I'm talking to a wall."
"Anyway, since he's small, have you thought of getting some revenge for all the mean stuff he's done?" Jackson asked, sending a smirk Cryptor's way. "He was particularly proud of hanging you in that closet."
"No, I haven't thought of that." Mindroid stated. "Cyrus wasn't too happy with him when he did that to me."
"I think Cyrus would understand." Jackson chuckled, handing Cryptor to Mindroid. "Let's do this." Cryptor's eye widened at what Jackson was encouraging Mindroid to do, immediately going on red alert.
"Don't you dare put me in a closet!" Cryptor spat, immediately and desperately trying to get out of the hold. Without a word, Jackson pushed Mindroid off towards a closet. Fully protesting and yelling at the two as they went towards the closet, eventually Cryptor's mood changed from anger to one of panic. Once there, Jackson encouraged Mindroid to hang him on a hook, and reluctantly, Mindroid did as he was told. Cryptor didn't ever cease struggling to get away, but in the end got hung anyway. Shouting threats at the two, they closed the door on him and Jackson's laughter faded as the two walked away. Eventually falling limp, Cryptor miserably stared at the bottom of the closet and waited for one of them to come back to get him out. After a while he figured out neither of them would be coming back, and began struggling to get himself unhooked from the wall. It took a while, but eventually he got himself off.
Loudly crashing to the bottom of the closet, Cryptor fell on jug containing some cleaner, the plastic container busting open and the substance going everywhere. Miserably and soaked in cleaner, Cryptor waded his way out of the now messed up closet and fell into the hall. Growling, he looked back at the disaster of a closet and down both ways of the hall.
"I hate this body." He grumbled storming his way down the hall to the elevator, frowning when he finally entered the lift.
Standing in front of the buttons, he stared up at the button to the 99th floor. He stood for several moments before reaching up to try and press it, accidentally hitting the one to the 69th floor. Growling with irritation, Cryptor glared up at the button he meant to hit as the elevator began to move, then getting up on his tip toes and trying to reach the high up button only to fall over into the pad and hitting several more buttons. Now raging, Cryptor glared even harsher at the keys.
"How does Mindroid ever hit these stupid buttons?!" Cryptor spat to himself as he stared up at the 99th button. Standing still for several moments as the elevator moved to the other buttons he had pressed, Cryptor glared at the button before eventually sighing. Getting up on his tip toes again, Cryptor strained to reach up, managing to hit the button for the 89th floor. Growling with even more frustration, Cryptor threw his arms in the air and making a short walk away from the buttons. "Why is this body so short?!" He shouted to no one, hating that he couldn't even hit a simple button. Dropping his arms and looking back at the pad, Cryptor sighed before walking back over to it. With a grunt, Cryptor jumped off the ground and reached for the 99th floors button once again, his aim being slightly off and just barely hitting the 100th floors button and the wall. "I hate this! This is so dumb!" He spat with clear frustration.
Staring at the door, drenched in irritation, it eventually opened to the 100th floor and Cryptor stood, staring at Cyrus with a look so done with everything. Upon seeing Cryptor, Cyrus looked puzzled. Why was Cryptor up here? Cryptor then tore his gaze from Cyrus, grumbling and turning back to the buttons, once again on his tip toes trying to reach for the 99th floor. Cyrus finally had his answer as he saw Cryptor jumping for the buttons in the elevator. With a sigh, Cyrus steered himself to the elevator.
"What floor do you need?" Cyrus asked with a raised brow. "I assume the one below?" Cryptor frowned when Cyrus came over. He was very disappointed that he couldn't hit the button himself, and greatly wanted to reject the inventors offer to help. Plucking a bit at the wet part of his clothes, Cryptor sighed.
"I hate having to ask for help, but yes." He grumbled with a nod, pointing up at the 99th floors button. Cyrus did not understand Cryptor's beeping, so he ignored it. He noticed that Cryptor was wet, but decided to let the android be on his way. Without a word, Cyrus hit the button for Cryptor before putting his chair in reverse and letting the doors close.
Cryptor sighed when the doors closed to the elevator, shifting a glance up at the button before the elevator stopped and he got out. Sulking his way over to his room, Cryptor slumped against a wall with in it where he decided to wait out the rest of the day.
After leaving Cryptor in the closet, Mindroid was found by P.I.X.A.L. Although he wanted to stay with his new friend, the android had to leave to continue his lessons. Following P.I.X.A.L., Mindroid was led down to one of the many office floors. It was quite boring, but he was used to it by now.
Listening as P.I.X.A.L. talked, Mindroid looked around with a bored look. He hoped that they could go somewhere more exciting today.
P.I.X.A.L. led Mindroid through various areas of the floor, but it was made quite obvious by Mindroid he wasn't very interested today. Having to lead Mindroid in Cryptor was a bit odd for the droid, and she didn't understand why Cyrus had given the two the odd punishment. She didn't see how it would change anything within their relationship, and had only seen more arguing from the two. She was a bit concerned when she had found Mindroid earlier to find Cryptor not with him, as the now shorter android would always be found with Mindroid during this swap.
Given the task at hand, P.I.X.A.L. wished she could teach Mindroid more useful skills, but while Mindroid possessed Cryptor's form, they were very limited to what they could do. Not really having much options, P.I.X.A.L. continued on with the lesson at hand. It wasn't a very complicated one, and she would probably let Mindroid off a little early. As the lesson continued on, Mindroid became more and more bored with his situation. Finally he had enough.
"Can we please go down to a more significant level?" Mindroid grumbled, crossing his arms over his chest. "I already know this stuff you're teaching me, so why not move on?" P.I.X.A.L. sighed at Mindroid's request, stopping the lesson and turning look at him.
"No we can't." She answered him. "Given your current condition, we're very limited to what we can do. Until you are returned back to normal we'll have to stick to the upper floors. I'd rather not risk taking you to one of the more significant rooms." Mindroid sighed and pouted.
"I do not understand why I can't be seen in this body." He murmured. "What's the big deal? I'm seen in my body in the lower floors all the time. Why is Cryptor any different?"
"For the same reason we can't speak of him so freely." P.I.X.A.L. stated. "People don't know you're not Cryptor, and if you were to be seen, would cause Cyrus a lot of problems. He has enough on his hands, and doesn't need any more to deal with."
Mindroid nodded slowly. "I understand I suppose." He murmured. "We can continue now..." With a nod, P.I.X.A.L. briskly turned back around to continue on. Mindroid mumbled something inaudible to the other android as they resumed the lesson He was not in a very good mood today. Perhaps Cryptor's body just made any AI feel pissy about everything.
"I don't think I'm charged enough, I'm feeling low." He grumbled. "May I be excused?" P.I.X.A.L. sighed, turning again to look at him, analyzing his condition quickly. He didn't really look too low and could probably go for a few more hours, but she didn't bother questioning it.
"Yes you may. Do you need any assistance returning to your room?"
"I can get to my room on my own." Mindroid huffed as he turned to leave. As he headed off towards where they came from, he lost balance. He tried to regain balance but failed, toppling to his backside. Grumbling to himself, Mindroid got up and continued off towards the elevator. Boarding the elevator, he hit the button to go up to the ninety ninth floor. Once on the floor, Mindroid stormed off to his room and entered abruptly to find Cryptor fiddling with something.
Within the room, Cryptor was very concentrated on his work, working slowly to make sure he got everything right. He worked for a while, but hardly got anything done. Absorbed in his work, when Mindroid entered the room Cryptor practically jumped out of his borrowed mainframe. Quickly scrabbling to try and hide it, he looked to see how miserable of a job he had done, then looking up at Mindroid with a glare.
"I thought I told you to knock." He gritted his teeth, looking back to the watch and more carefully collecting all its parts. Hopping off the chair, he carried the pieces away to hide them.
"Right, I forgot." Mindroid murmured with arms crossed over his chest. He was in no mood to put up with Cryptor's attitude. Mindroid entered further and sat in the chair Cryptor had once sat on. Through his peripheral vision, he watched Cryptor hide his little watch.
"Why do you keep fiddling with that stupid watch?" Mindroid mumbled. "Is it special or something?"
"It's none of your business." Cryptor huffed, shifting another glare at him.
"Whatever. I bet it doesn't even work, brat." The now taller android growled, tapping his foot against the floor. "Why you would focus on something so stupid is beyond me..." Cryptor growled at Mindroid, glaring harshly and clenching his fist.
"It doesn't work because I don't know what I'm doing!" Cryptor snapped at him. "I wasn't built to build things! I'm messing with it so it does work!"
"Wow, admitting that you can't do something? How grown up of you." Mindroid retorted with blatant sarcasm. "Maybe you shouldn't be doing something you weren't built for, dimwit." Cryptor scowled at Mindroid, stomping a few steps towards Mindroid.
"I would be doing something I was built for if I was able to!" He hissed.
"Well, are you no good at what you were built for too?" Mindroid barked. "I assume that's why you can't go certain places. Because you are a failure, tin can."
"I AM NOT A TIN CAN!" Cryptor quickly bellowed to Mindroid. Frowning, Cryptor looked down at the ground. As much as he didn't want it to show, the robots words still hurt. "It's not like you do anything significant." Cryptor grunted back. Mindroid just sighed and shook his head. Without a word, he snagged Cryptor and held him in a tight hug. He held his previous body on his lap, keeping Cryptor's arms to his sides. For the moment of silence from Mindroid, Cryptor was anything but silent. Giving a yelp at the unexpected assault from Mindroid, Cryptor struggled, demanding to be released and claiming how he wasn't a teddy bear and wasn't something to be cuddled with.
After a while of sitting, Mindroid mumbled to himself. "I wish I had a more interesting directive... I wish I could go outside too." He mumbled. It wasn't until Mindroid spoke again that Cryptor locked up, finally giving in and looking down at his lap.
"You know, interesting isn't always better... It's better to be in here than out there..." He mumbled back to Mindroid.
"How would you know?" Mindroid murmured. "Were you built for something more exciting than being stuck here?" Cryptor shook his head with a grumble, looking up at Mindroid from the awkward angle.
"How much do you even know about me?"
"I know that you are mean and not allowed on a lot of floors." Mindroid stated. "I know that you have some sort of troubled past or whatever too." Cryptor sighed, looking back down at his lap and shifting awkwardly.
"So you don't know why I can't be everywhere... I guess I should tell you if you want to go out there and get yourself killed." Sighing again and shifting on Mindroid's lap once again Cryptor began. "I guess I should begin from the start... I can't actually say much about that though. I know that in the beginning I had a lot of problems in the construction of my body, it made it hard to walk and eventually I had to get turned off. My first day wasn't even a whole day and I stayed off for about a month while the tower was still under construction. A lot of the details for my first couple of months are very choppy though. Apparently I got abused a lot and damaged a bit. I would probably remember it all and maybe be a completely different person if I haven't had several of my memories deleted.
"I don't really know much about how that happened... I know that day Cyrus had reprogrammed me to follow orders better, but he didn't set down any rules. Apparently he fell asleep and someone told me to get hit by a car, so I did it. Fortunately Jackson saved me from getting hit head on but then some other employee decided to shut me off and 'fix' me while Cyrus was asleep. She ended up deleting a lot and changed my purpose all together. Cyrus fixed me though." Cryptor paused and sighed.
"Jackson and Cyrus worked together to re-teach me things so I could do my job. I had to relearn a few parts of my combat training and even simple things like what a light bulb was." Cryptor chuckled a little before sighing and looking out the window. "I never did get to do my directive... I was supposed to protect the people of Ninjago... I should be out on the streets, fighting crime.
"I got a little sensitive with how the public treated me like I didn't have any emotions, One day I ran out of the city all together wanting to be destroyed. I guess the public never liked me ever... When I went out of the city someone brought me back, he just happened to be friends with the robot I was modeled after. His name is Zane, Zane Julien. He and I both have the same directive, although he seems to be a lot more successful than me. He's perfect, everything I'm not. I hardly even scale next to him, the public loves him, he's very nice, heck, he doesn't even look like a robot." Cryptor sighed.
"I hate him. He ended up coming here once to talk to Cyrus about me. He didn't really like me either I don't think. I think he was trying to convince Cyrus to start over with me. I ended up sparing with him after an argument, ended up ripping off his face." Cryptor chucked once again. "I have to admit, he deserved it, although I regret every moment of that incident. The public caught word of it and..." Cryptor frowned, falling silent and looking down. "They made Cyrus turn me off. I was discontinued. A failed project. I was too dangerous to be active." He sighed staying silent. "I was powered off for an entire year. A whole year passed me in the blink of an eye. I wasn't powered back on until a few months ago. Cyrus says he's trying to get my life back on track, but I don't think he's doing anything and doubt he ever will. Trying to get me adjusted to the new world, he ended up building your body, this one. Your body was supposed to be mine. He built it so I could go out into the city without anyone knowing. I used it once and hated every moment of it, never used it again. He however didn't want to waste the body, so he made you to fill it." He laughed for a moment. "To think, if I had actually liked this, you wouldn't exist." Mindroid had throughout Cryptor's entire monologue. He was shocked by what Cryptor told him. The older android had been through a lot. He felt bad for the things he said to Cryptor. Now that he knew what had happened to the other android, he realized just how harsh his words were.
One specific part stuck with Mindroid though. He had been told about Cryptor previously hating his body, but it had never sunk in that his body was supposed to be Cryptor's. Mindroid was nothing more than a body filler, created only to use a body that would have otherwise gone to waste. With a frown, Mindroid let his head rest on Cryptor's.
"I had no idea…" He murmured. "What you went through is very terrible... Wh-why didn't Cyrus fight for you?" Cryptor frowned, looking down at the ground.
"Cyrus fought against the public for months before he gave in. I guess it just got too out of hand..."
"Oh... What made him decide to turn you back on?" Mindroid asked.
"I don't know." He sighed. "Missed me to much or something I think... I wish he didn't. He's just going to have to power me off again."
"Can't we do something to make people like you?" Mindroid asked with a furrowed brow. "There has to be some way for you to do what you were built for."
"No." Cryptor huffed in response. "I can't do anything and I doubt there's anything you could." Mindroid shook his head slowly, feeling sorry for Cryptor. With a sigh, he picked Cryptor up and set him on his feet.
"I'm sure there's some way you can do what you were built for." He murmured. "Even if you have to do it in secret." Cryptor snorted at the recommendation, crossing his arms.
"That's ridiculous, I can't even leave the tower. How would I even do it in secret, it's not particularly easy to cover these things up." He said tapping on his eye piece.
"Right, that idea is pretty stupid." Mindroid mumbled. "I guess there's nothing we can do for you..."