"How's it going on your end, Green Bean?" Cole's voice asked over the phone speaker.
"I have the first end of the wire connected," Lloyd reported, unraveling a length of cord to trail behind him as he walked through the sewers. He kept a watchful eye on the cord, and couldn't help but compare the task to vacuuming floors. The wire grew tight time and time again as he walked and let more cord hang as needed. Losing track of the wire's tension and letting it pull off of the first energy source he had attached it to wouldn't be the same as accidentally pulling the vacuum cleaner's plug from an outlet. He'd already laid over a mile of wire on the sewer floor, and the very thought of backtracking now to reattach the wire's end exhausted him. His arms were already protesting under the weight of the monster spool of cord Nya had supplied him. His neck ached, too, his head crooked to support the phone between his chin and shoulder.
"Good," Cole's voice said, a little crackled over the phone. "I have my wire attached to the second quarter of the city's power. We should be able to meet up and attach both of ours to the third power source.
Lloyd hummed."How much wire do you have?"
"Just enough to make it there, but barely."
Lloyd's lips tugged downward. "That means you can't be choosy with your path."
"Yeah, but I'm kinda learning to block out the sewer smell. I'll be fine."
"That's not what I meant. The most direct path from where you are to the third source goes right next to where we found those Serpenteels."
Cole's end of the line filled with nothing but his sloshing footsteps for a few seconds. "I'll be okay."
"Why don't you wait for me to come get you and then we'll complete your route together?"
"Actuallyyyyy, I'm in the middle of the danger zone now. It'll be safer for me to keep moving."
"What?" Lloyd's head shot straight up. He felt his phone slipping down his shoulder and hurriedly pinned it in place with his cheek. "If you recognized the place, why didn't you say anything?"
Slosh… slosh… slosh…
"Cole."
"Let's just get this done with, okay?"
"Cole, be careful. You're in the middle of enemy territory."
"Um, yeah. I just told you that. Did you think I didn't know?"
"Well, since you didn't tell me until just now, I thought maybe you needed a reminder because you're obviously not looking after your own safety!"
"What does it matter? With everything going on, it's not like everything will be fine and dandy at the end, anyway!"
Lloyd froze, and from the sudden silence on the other end, he could tell Cole had, too.
The venom in Lloyd's voice melted into something much softer. "Cole…"
A breath shuddered through the phone speaker. "Look. We get this done as fast as possible, then we move on to other things. Moping around isn't going to make it any better for us, so we zip it and focus on the tasks ahead of us, got it?"
Lloyd opened his mouth to respond, but Cole cut him off before he could even take a breath.
"Good. I'll meet you at the third station."
Lloyd summoned his bravest voice. "Hey. It's okay if you're upset, but shutting down is only going to-"
The disconnecting beep of his phone cut him off. He let it slide down his shoulder and caught it in a palm to see the words CALL ENDED bannered across the screen.
Lloyd let out a sigh and tucked the phone into his belt. "Tch. Typical. I'm supposed to talk about all my problems, but as soon as they have something…"
Lloyd knew the others respected him as their leader now, but under the obedient nods and honorary titles they used for him, he knew they still thought of him as the youngest; as the little boy they had saved all that time ago.
Sometimes, Lloyd could work that perception of himself to his advantage, but other times…
The Green Ninja sighed again and continued unraveling the wire as he walked.
Other times, he wished they'd never gotten to see him in such a small and fragile state.
They thought they could trap him so easily.
Jay kicked a pebble on the sidewalk, ignoring the jolt it sent through his punctured shoulder. He pretended not to notice how the wound throbbed even after the sudden movement had passed.
Maybe not even trap- maybe they thought they could defeat him before the party.
Jay chuckled bitterly to himself. If that was the case, they had less than an hour. Good luck.
Despite the energy crackling through his every fiber, his legs started to protest from walking for so long. He glanced around to make sure no one was looking before picking a little patch of wall along the sidewalk and laying against it with a heavy sigh.
He was tired- not the kind of tired from not getting enough sleep, though he had undoubtedly missed quite a few hours over the past few days. Perhaps it was the energy coursing through his being that prevented him from becoming fatigued in that way.
No, Jay was tired from everything being too much. The monotonous greys and brick-reds he'd been treading by for hours was starting to wear on his eyes, and the electricity that sparked through his muscles started to become more of an annoying sensory distraction than an exhilarating feeling. He probably had enough energy to run a marathon, and yet the thought of exhaustedly flopping into a bed was enticing, not for the promise of resting his mind, but for the simplicity of it. It would be warm and soft, and he could turn the light off and pull the blankets over his eyes to rest his eyes with the simple, pure darkness. If he was exhausted in a way that left him with no energy, then the electric currents would stop coursing through his body and he could lay back without being constantly aware of the electricity swaying to and fro and intermingling in sparks and bursts.
And he was hungry.
Jay groaned and clutched his stomach. How long had it been since he'd eaten?
He briefly considered visiting a grocery store or restaurant out of sheer hope that maybe an employee would recognize him and offer him something on the house to eat, but no. If the team wanted to catch him, they would have a strategy, and maybe that strategy depended on him needing food. Maybe the ninjas had eyes out for him at grocers and the like, waiting for him to cave to his need for nourishment.
He groaned and let his head bonk against the wall behind him.
He hated running and hiding. Movies had made being an outcast look fun, but what seemed like an act of adventure and daring in fiction turned out to be a harsh reality, especially on his own.
But he wasn't on his own.
Jay rested a hand over the glowing power source tucked into his belt. "This sucks, huh, Zane?"
The half-heart glowed brighter for a moment and buzzed as if in response.
"I just wish I could stop running from them- stop hiding- but I don't have a way out of the city, and the only other way is to make sure they don't… come after… me."
Jay blinked and sat up. He furrowed a brow as his eyes flickered in thought. "Say, Zane," he said, standing. "The Blue Ninja is supposed to make an appearance at the arcade about now."
It was a trap. Of course it was a trap. They expected him to cave and come back crying to them as soon as he realized he was too pathetic to last without him.
So what if he came but gave them the opposite response?
"It'd be a shame if we missed it— it'll be quite the appearance."
Kai's face was starting to hurt from the fake smile he had plastered on it.
He worried that perhaps people would see through his facade because of how often his grin slipped from his face, but no one really seemed to mind that matter. Perhaps that was just what they'd subconsciously been conditioned to accept from celebrities: fake smiles and friendly gestures, the insincerity of which went known but unvoiced for the sake of celebrating the rush of the moment of actually getting to meet one's hero.
He tried to keep his posture open and his facial expression positive, he really did— for FSM's sake, it was the one measly task his team had trusted him with and he had no intention of proving he was even less capable than they thought him to be— but his smile kept faltering and his eyes kept trailing towards the door.
He'd memorized every detail of that door now; he could probably paint a photorealistic picture of it from memory despite his lack of arts training. There was nothing quite special about that door, and yet he found himself checking it and its surrounding wall of windows every few seconds, just in case it changed. Just in case it opened another time…
The party was well into its later hours. Kai knew that. Everyone coming had most likely already arrived, and was swarming around him in the arcade, dancing in the lights or playing the games along the walls or struggling to push their way through the crowd to get a picture with the Red Ninja himself.
Once upon a time, Kai would have considered this a dream. Crowds clamored around him, calling over one another for his attention, exchanging tales of his daring feats with one another, gawking at the sight of him as though they couldn't quite believe they weren't dreaming. Yet, Kai had long since fallen deaf to calls of "Red Ninja!" and "Fire Ninja". The only time his head swiveled to look at who had called him was the sparing use of "Kai!" scattered throughout the crowd— but the voice wasn't his. It was never his.
Of course it wasn't. The only person who had promised that Jay would magically walk through those doors was Kai himself, and it was the emptiest promise he'd made in his life, topping even the time he was five and told Nya he wouldn't eat her candy.
Kai sighed and slumped where he stood.
Of course Jay wasn't coming. Why did Kai let himself think his disaster of an accidental invitation would miraculously reach Jay?
Even if Jay had caught wind of the party, he had no reason to come— and people were starting to catch on.
Kai put his smile back on as a man managed to muscle through the crowd to see him. "Excuse me, Fire Ninja?"
"That's me," Kai said. "Want an autograph?"
"I was wonderin' where your friend was,'' the man said. "He is supposed to be here, right?"
A number of people turned to watch and listen.
Kai gritted his teeth. More people were getting suspicious than he realized. "Oh!" He laughed and rubbed his neck. "Funny you should ask! Jay actually has… a pretty low social battery. Settings like this drain him really fast. He's off in a restricted area of the arcade until he feels good enough to come back."
The man put his hands on his hips and raised a brow. "Really? 'Cause I was here from the start, and I didn't see-"
Kai's phone buzzed, and he restrained himself from letting out an audible sigh of relief. "Hold on. This might be important." He glanced at the screen. "Yep, I just got a text from Lloyd. Might have to do with saving the city and whatnot. I better take this."
Without giving the man time to respond, Kai backed up against the wall and opened the ninjas' group chat.
GREEN BEAN
cole and i have the wires placed. pix, nya, you said you wanted to check out the third station before we powered it on in case of an overload or smth?
NINDROID PART II: ELECTRIC BOOGALOO
Good work. We will be there shortly.
SIS
Kai, how's it looking on your end? I heard you were throwing a party- nice job on keeping things under control.
Kai felt a frown pull at his lips. Hopefully she hadn't heard much about the party. The way she talked about it, though, he doubted she knew he'd promised Jay's presence.
ME
party is going suh-weet! wish u all could see the insane lights! total rave vibe XD
He added a few sunglasses emojis for good measure and tucked his phone back in his belt.
Screams rang out as the overhead lights died out, followed by the party lights and arcade games within the second. A commotion swept over the partygoers as a few phone flashlights dotted the room. Kai caught scattered bits of their conversations.
"What's going on?"
"What just happened?
"Another power outage. Wonder what caused it this time-"
"Ugh, my home's still out of power, and now here?"
"How far down the street does it go?"
Kai weaved between his fans to the windows by the door and glanced around the darkened street.
Thankfully, a couple of the partygoers started to entertain themselves by blasting music and dancing with the lights from their phones, and the crowd was slowly abandoning their concern, though a few still stayed to check out the situation.
Kai hummed to himself and turned back to rejoin the partying crowd, hoping this was the potential power overload Pixal had texted them about, and not…
It seemed a little soon for her and Nya to have arrived at the station, but maybe something had gone wrong before they'd arrived— something Cole and Lloyd did. As capable as Cole and Lloyd were in most situations, neither of them were exactly tech geniuses, and they shared a bit of chaotic energy that multiplied when they were around each other for too long. Kai wouldn't put it past them to screw something up.
The people still at the window let out an almost collective gasp and started chattering excitedly among themselves.
"Look! It's him! He's really here!"
Kai furrowed his brow. He hadn't heard the door open; everyone at the arcade had to have known that he was really there, so why…?
Before Kai could complete the thought, a subtle wash of blue light faded into the room, and partygoers rushed by him to press themselves against the windows again.
Kai's heart froze. The mixed excited calls of everyone around him bubbled faintly like mud in the back of his mind.
He slowly turned to look over his shoulder, jaw slack.
Jay stared directly at him from the other side of the window, making direct eye contact with Kai before the ninja in red could even fix his own eyes on him.
The lightning ninja walked slowly and deliberately by, his movements graceful and fluid despite their pace, like someone had edited the moment they lived into slow-motion. Blue lightning crackled around him, dozens of strong flickers individually branching out from his body in each passing second. His curly hair, tips licked dark with slight charring, swept with their current as if underwater, and with the lightning flickering as it did, it almost looked like he was. The ebb and flow of blue lighting gave the impression he was floating lazily a few inches under the dancing halos of a clear chlorine pool― one that had the aquamarine floors that colored it like a Caribbean ocean.
That seemed to be all the detail that the fans bustling around Kai saw. They exchanged exclamations of "he must be here to fix the outage" and "it's really him" and "here just in time" and "quick, get a picture".
Kai was fixated on other details.
The fire ninja's eyes settled on Jay's hand. Deep scabs traced the ends of clawed fingers like rings. Maybe it was a trick of the ever-changing light, but Kai could have sworn part of the crimson rings was too shiny to be scabbed over.
Kai's eyes then focused on a patch of cloth around Jay's shoulder that refused to be lit up despite the lightning flickering around. The stain would not be illuminated, stubbornly blending into the darkened street. Kai knew the stain would be there, but his stomach churned upon seeing the size of it. "Jay…" Kai started to squeeze through the crowd towards the door.
The next thing to grab his attention froze him in his tracks.
Jay's irises glinted with each new electric wave, clearly revealing the pinpricks of pupils fixated on Kai. It was like the blue in Jay's eyes could freeze Kai if he moved an inch. The lightning flashed by one set feature of Jay's face at a time, giving his skin a grayish tint and darkened permanence— a cold, hard, unchangeable glare directing venom into every cell of Kai's being.
Kai took in a shuddering gasp like the poison of Jay's contactless attack had already seized him.
Before the ninja in red could gather himself and shake free of the blankness Jay's stare had struck his mind into, the lightning ninja had already strolled across the length of the arcade's windowed wall, and the blue glow about him was fading from view.
Kai sputtered and shoved his way through the crowd, flinging the doors open the moment he was within reach of the handles. He raced out into the street and followed the sidewalk down to an intersection, fervently glancing every which way for the blue glow but only finding himself in darkness once more.