Dedicated to Bookkeeper2004 for telling me to "Get that boy to Cyrus" in a PM :)
Also a huge thanks to everyone who reviewed the last chapter: EchoJulien, Syren Nolbuluuki, Isabella camovic, Bookkeeper2004, nindroidzane, JBomb217, LucyBrick123, Dr. Fluffmuffin, Piggon. You guys are awesome!
Isabella camovic: You almost teared up?! YAS! *evil laugh* I'm so glad you liked it! I'd love to know what you think of this one!
JBomb17: Thanks so much! :)
Sixth Chapter: Echo goes to meet Cyrus Borg to discuss further upgrades for him. While there, he meets PIXAL, and something happens to his heart.
Continuation of 'Upgrades' storyline...
Skyscrapers really did scrape the sky!
They pierced the blue, cloudless expanse overhead, the impossibly high tops demanding Echo's attention despite the blare of vehicles surrounding him. Ninjago City towered over everything, grand and chaotic, lights on and flashing even in the daytime. It hosted apartments with so many windows they appeared made of glass entirely, neon signs, a thousand messages broadcast from electric billboards, cars, lights, pavement, more lights, and more pavement.
"Are you okay?" Jay asked at Echo's shoulder.
"Yes." He just needed his let his sensors load all the information pouring in: Swarms of people marching up and down the streets, in between buildings, and darting through traffic. Cars rumbled by constantly, emitting exhaust, and occasionally honking their horns. The air clamoured with never-ending noise.
"This way," Nya touched his elbow and gestured down the street. Echo followed her, trying to take comfort in Zane's, Jay's, and her presence, focusing on them instead of the cacophony all around, where nothing could be focused on.
They had steered the Bounty in over some lower buildings to avoid scraping anything, then - all four of them in casual clothing to hide from the public eye - Jay, Zane, Nya, and Echo had leaped onto a flat rooftop. Echo's clock shuddered on impact, something loosening even further. They took the fire escape down to the street, where even with every distraction throwing itself at Echo's senses, his ticking pulse pounded against his thoughts.
I really do need to be fixed.
Soon they arrived in front of the tallest building yet: a grand, black steel skyscraper with a round, blue symbol at the top under a sharp spire. As they climbed the steps to the wide front door, Echo noted that, unlike the other buildings, which tended to be built with straight sides, Borg Tower widened and thinned several times, reminding him of the lines on a computer chip.
Upon entering the building, the street noise disappeared, replaced with the quiet buzz of human conversations. The lobby was large and well lit, and their footsteps tapped on the shiny floor.
"Well, this is it," Jay said, looking around.
Echo felt strangely numb as he examined his surroundings. He was thankful to have left the crowds and chaos, but he knew that the man - Cyrus Borg - who worked in this building had the ability to take him apart.
Nya continued on to the far side of the room, where a dainty woman wearing a suit and her hair in a bun sat at a smooth, silver desk. What was it made of? Not metal, steel, or stone. Echo tilted his head from where he stood slightly behind Zane.
"Is Borg waiting for us upstairs?" Nya asked the woman.
She looked up from her computer and smiled in recognition. "Yes of course. He's always in his lab, and willing to see the Ninja. Go right on up."
"Thank you," Zane nodded, and the group moved on.
Once they reached the wall, Zane pressed one of the multiple buttons there. Two smooth doors slid apart, startling Echo, who let the others walk in the confined space before him.
"Is it a secret room?" he asked.
"An elevator," Zane explained.
Echo stepped in beside them, and the doors closed. The floor jolted underneath him, then began to rise. Outside the glass walls, he could see the ground getting farther and farther away.
"An elevator..." he murmured to himself.
It did not stop rising until it had reached the top floor of the building, and now the ground outside was very far down indeed. With a ding, the doors slid open, and the group stepped out into the hall.
Almost complete silence reigned this high up. As they walked the halls, Echo's sensors detected few people in the rooms on this floor.
A door opened ahead of them, and a young man in a white lab coat walked out. When he spotted them, he started, and held open the door for them. "Go right on in, Ninja," he said, eyeing Echo as they passed.
The room, spacious and sporting a floor to ceiling window looking out over Ninjago City, was a tech geek's dream, and the most impressive lab Echo had ever seen. It was nothing like his father's lab in the lighthouse, cluttered with hand tools and spare parts. This one's wall space was dedicated to computers, monitors, and all manner of electronics. The epitome of modernisation.
"Well! My, my, look at you!"
Echo turned as a wheeled - wheeled! - man with black hair combed to the side, glasses, and a permanent, quirky smile dimpling one side of his mouth rolled over from the right side of the room. His hands gripped the large wheels of the chair, halting it in front of them. His delighted eyes flickered over Echo, looking him up top to bottom.
"A different colour and you could be Zane's twin, now couldn't you?" he chuckled. "It truly is a pleasure."
The smiles on his family's faces helped him put away his shyness. "Why does your chair have wheels on it?" Echo asked, eyes shifting from the wheelchair to the man sitting in it. Such a curious invention! He'd never seen anyone else with on before.
"Why, to help me get around, of course. These wheels work better than my legs do."
"Your legs don't work?" For the first time, Echo looked him in the eye, feeling sympathy. He wasn't aware that humans' body parts could lose function. "Are you an nindroid, too?" In photos, he'd seen Zane's appearance like a normal human's, perhaps this man was the same.
"No," the man's voice tilted, but his deeply dimpled smile never wavered. "Some people are just born unlucky, with legs or other appendages rendered useless. Though I'm not sorry in my case. It all worked out for good, giving me that extra motivation to invent, and eventually build up Borg Industries."
Cyrus Borg! Echo's features stretched in surprise. He had expected... well, not someone in a wheeled chair.
Borg turned to the others. "Jay! Nya! Zane! So good to see you, as always." And addressing Nya, he asked, "What exactly did you wish to see me about?"
"About Echo, sir," Nya said. "As you can see he's... not exactly up to date. We've come across more than a few hiccups trying to repair him."
"Hmm..." Borg rolled his chair closer to inspect the steampunk droid. Echo took half a step back.
"He's, uh, quite nervous about this," Zane defended, his and the others' expressions falling.
"I assure you there is no need," Borg smiled, but he noted Echo watching him carefully, and backed away. "I'd love you to feel as at home here as I do, Echo. I have a feeling we'd get along if we continued our acquaintance. Would like to see the rest of the building?"
Echo shrugged, shy again.
Borg's smile attained a certain fondness as he looked at the young nindroid. "Made of so little material, yet so much individual personality. Whatever they want me to fix, I certainly won't have to tamper with the mind - Dr. Julien's design cannot be improved upon."
That caught Echo's attention. "You knew my father?"
"Not personally, no, but he greatly inspired me."
Cyrus Borg became steadily more fascinating to Echo. Maybe they could be friends.
Still, seeing that Echo was not ready to let him close, Borg proceeded to ask the other three some questions:
"I assume that he requires a technical upgrade, and judging from his mismatched appearance, you have already tried doing so?"
"Yes, but..." Nya bit her lip.
"It didn't go so well." Jay finished, looking nervous.
"Ah. What seems to be the trouble?"
They continued to discuss, in minor detail, their mistake, and, in more detail, what they had removed and added. They talked about the difficulty in removing his power source to replace it, and about the glitches that had arisen.
Echo, unwilling to listen, began to roam about the room. He supposed it did feel homey - at least to someone like him. The designs on the floor reminiscent of computer chips, and the machines in the corners of the room seemingly built to support a robot such as him, he could hardly feel out of place.
A tone sounded from a speaker on one of the desks, a small light blinking on beside it.
"Excuse me," Borg said, wheeling over to answer the intercom. "Yes?"
"Sir, PIXAL is here to see you."
"Delightful! Send her in!"
"PIXAL?" Zane said, lighting up like a bulb.
"Indeed. She heard you were coming, and our dear Samurai X promised to drop in." Borg smiled knowingly at Zane's reaction.
Echo listened in again after hearing the familiar name. He'd heard the name PIXAL spoken multiple times, but had yet to meet her. He recalled someone mentioning that Borg was her creator - her father. What would she be like?
A few minutes later, the doors opened and a (unmistakably) feminine nindroid entered the room. Beaming, Zane hurried over to her.
"PIXAL!" he greeted, going in for a hug. She smiled, and they both embraced.
"So good to see you, PIXAL!" Borg grinned.
Echo didn't hear if anyone said anything else. PIXAL walked further into the room, stride confident. Her hair, shaded pure silver, framed her face where it fell loose from her ponytail. Lines of violet traced her white cheeks, and several dots were drawn beneath her vibrant green eyes. A smile graced her full lips. Echo's eyes went round.
"You must be Echo Zane," she greeted.
"How did...?"
"I regularly download information from both Borg Industries and the Destiney's Bounty to aid my missions. I learned you would be coming here after communicating with my father this morning." Her voice, though robotic, was deep and soothing. A pleasant sensation wriggled in Echo's stomach. "It's a pleasure to meet you."
"And... I you," Echo breathed.
Echo's sensors picked up on PIXAL scanning him. Her face remained pleasant and friendly.
"You have quite an outdated design, but if you are anything like Zane was, that should not stand for anything. I greatly look forward to working alongside you in the future."
"Oh, tha-a-ank you." He ducked his gaze with a timid smile.
"You are here to be upgraded?"
"Oh, um, per-er-haps?"
"Nothing we plan to rush into," Borg answered.
PIXAL detected Echo's unease. "You have no cause for anxiety. My father is Ninjago's leading expert on droids. He has always treated me with the utmost precision and care. I'm lucky it is he who built me."
"He d-i-i-id a very good job."
His comment drew quiet giggles from the others. PIXAL emitted a short laugh, and Borg chuckled under his breath.
"Do you and the ninja get together often?" Echo asked.
"Lately, not as often as I would like."
"You should co-o-ome visit the Monastery some time soon! It is such a beautiful place. You would lo-ove it the-e-ere."
She smiled. Her smile was so warm! "Indeed, the Monastery is magnificent. I should drop in some day this week."
"I would like that." Now he smiled. He wanted to get to know her! Here was another droid - meaning he and Zane weren't the only ones. In that moment, he felt less different. He felt excited. He looked at PIXAL and he looked at Zane.
"How ma-a-any nindroids are there?"
"Oh, many!" Borg spoke up. "And they were all built here."
"Though not all of them are like you, Zane, and PIXAL," Nya added.
Experiencing a whirl of emotion, Echo looked away and looked all around the room. "It is all so fa-a-ascinating," he murmured. As well as being friendly, Borg and PIXAL were so optimistic, so confident, so calm. They spoke of creating other robots as if it were an everyday thing. Did he dare trust them with his repairs? Had Borg ever made a mistake before? He couldn't picture the inventor damaging him - purposely or accidentally - but then, he hadn't pictured Nya and Jay capable of it, either.
"So, Echo," Borg sat relaxed in his wheel-chair, "now that you have moved in with the renowned Ninja, what will you be doing?"
"Uh..." Echo turned to his siblings.
"Settling in," Zane said.
"He's settled in, Zane," Jay smiled, rolling his eyes a bit. "Once he's fixed up, he can come with us on patrols and missions, like he did before!"
"I have some upgrade ideas for that," Borg smiled.
"Are you programmed to fight?" PIXAL queried, tilting her head.
Echo cheered up at her question, and jumped into a fight stance, feet braced and fists clenched and ready to punch. He pounded the air, glancing at PIXAL to see what she thought.
"His limbs didn't fall off this time," Nya murmured to Jay, who grinned at the memory of the first time they'd met him.
PIXAL leaped into a fight stance in front of Echo. Startled, he flung up his fists to protect his face, eyes wide. To his surprise, she mirrored him. He lowered his hands, shoulders unclenching, confusion written on his features. She nodded to reassure him, copying his posture to a T.
Hesitant, he pulled back one fist and extended his palm. She moved with him, as if linked. He swept his foot out over the floor and repositioned it, and again, she did likewise.
Huh... A smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. She smirked.
Echo karate chopped the air, vertically and horizontally. He bent his knees, crouching, then spun and kicked his foot high in the air, level with his head. PIXAL remained in synch with him. Their eyes met, and Echo beamed at her.
Their "dance" quickened. They spun, kicked upward again, crouched, sprang up, punched with a flurry of fists, dropped and did the splits, rolled, and faced each other with a knife hand. The floor rang with their metal footsteps.
Without warning, PIXAL swung wide at his head, breaking their routine. Though she most likely had no intent to hit him, Echo ducked and darted backwards. He glanced over his shoulder. Behind him, between much machinery, was one bare strip of wall. He turned around, saw PIXAL approaching, and, with a laugh, he dashed over to the wall. Without pausing, he leaped up onto it, his feet sticking like a gecko's. When he looked down, PIXAL had halted in surprise.
"Incredible!" Borg gasped.
Echo's chest swelled at the praise.
Something shifted by his clock. He felt it grind against the nearby metal. With a sharp gasp, Echo dropped to the floor, barely landing on his feet, and bent halfway over. He clutched his heart, breaking down into a state of quaking.
"Echo!" Zane exclaimed, the others matching his expression of concern as they all rushed forward. "What's wrong?"
"I-i-i-t hu-u-r-rts!" His trembling increased, terrified glitches wracking his voice. What was this?! Black spots burst across his vision. He'd never experienced such pain - not even when he'd shut down. What was happening!?
"Easy now," Borg said, calm but fully serious. He wheeled over, everyone moving aside to let him through, his hand raised to steady the malfunctioning nindroid.
Knees shaking, spasms of pain knocking against his heart, and too frightened to move, Echo allowed Borg to gently unzip his sweater and open his chest compartment.
"The last of several vital parts is disconnecting from his main power source," PIXAL informed from where she stood near his shoulder, eyes locked on the exposed chest cavity. "If not repaired quickly, there could be disastrous consequences. Echo, you must remain completely still."
Borg's fingers brushed the glass face of the clock. The hands inside jerked forward, then backward, causing Echo to gasp in pain. Borg scowled.
The great inventor set to work, first tightening the parts that had come loose, which included wires and the casing underneath the clock's frame. Zane paced around them, never taking his eyes off his brother. Jay went from biting his lip to biting his nails, and Nya grabbed his hands in hers, not only to stop him from damaging his cuticles, but to give herself something to hold onto.
After the casing had been tightened, securing the contents inside, Echo let out a deep sigh as the pain subsided. This allowed Zane to relax somewhat.
Borg gently lifted Echo's hand away when he tried to rub where it was sore.
"PIXAL, kindly retrieve an Energy Capsule from its safe."
PIXAL went to the other side of the room where she pressed a button on a panel. The hydraulics underneath extended with a smooth hiss, and a compartment containing several, pill shaped capsules - supposedly Energy Capsules - rose out of the desk. She unplugged one, a dark grey cylinder that could rest in the palm of her hand, and glowed with blue light at each end, and brought it over.
"Here you are, sir." She handed it to him.
Without a word, Borg adeptly clipped it to Echo's clock, then fixed it in place. After pondering it a moment, he wheeled back a pace.
"How do you feel?" Borg asked.
"I feel... fine." Echo sounded surprised. Just like that, all the pain had gone, as had the shaking and black spots. He looked up into Borg's grey-blue eyes. "Thank you."
"It was hardly any trouble on my part. I'm just glad you were here when it happened. Your clock - your power source - has been altered, and those alterations seem to have been interrupted. Left incomplete, your heart went into overdrive to power you, and it did not have the parts to sustain itself. There are many more fancy words I could use to explain the simple event that just occurred, but essentially, as PIXAL pointed out, the remaining vital pieces came loose. The Energy Capsule I have installed will act as backup power, and ease the strain on you for awhile."
"Th-thank you," Echo stammered, words distorted by his scare rather than his glitch.
His siblings inched closer, and when Borg and PIXAL made room, they surrounded their little brother. Zane hugged him, and Echo hugged him back. Nya and Jay weren't far behind.
"Are you alright?" Zane asked, eyes heavy with concern.
Echo gulped and nodded.
"Are we going home?" he asked, voice nearly a whisper.
Zane hesitated.
"Perhaps it is in your best interest to stay," PIXAL said. She and Borg wore no smiles now, concern etched on their faces.
"I will not force you, if it your wish to leave," Borg told him, catching his gaze, "but I do hope you'll come back."
"I want to come back," Echo insisted. "Tomorrow!"
Nya sighed with relief. Echo trusted Borg. He would be alright.
Shoulders together, and Echo's hand touching Zane's arm, the ninja moved to leave. Borg and PIXAL followed them to the door.
"I will see you tomorrow, then," Borg said. "It will be the first thing I look forward to."
A small smile graced Echo's lips.
The doors opened in front of them, and they walked through. PIXAL joined them in the hall, accompanying them to the elevator.
"Are you co-o-oming with us?" Echo asked her.
She shook her head. "Only to the street. I'm leaving on a mission, and I wanted to say goodbye."
"What's the mission?" Nya asked.
PIXAL smiled. "That information is currently classified."
As they ascended the steps outside the building, sunlight glowing on the pavement, a rumbling shook the air. Echo looked up, expecting the Bounty, but instead a giant mech swooped in, smoke pouring from its thrusters. He halted on the sidewalk, his jaw nearly falling off as the metal battle armor landed nearby, shaking the ground under their feet.
PIXAL strode toward it, and the front opened for easy access. Before she climbed in, though, she turned to her friends to bid them farewell.
"Goodbye!" she waved.
"Bye, PIXAL!" Zane and the others waved back. Echo looked from them to her.
"Will you come back?"
PIXAL smiled. "I'll be here tomorrow. It was delightful to meet you."
Echo ran forward and hugged her. She stiffened, eyes wide, then smiled and returned the affection, stepping back after a short moment.
"See you tomorrow." With that, she leaped up into the mech. The hatch closed, seeming to swallow her. She put on her helmet, which hid her entire face. You wouldn't ever recognise her. Facing the sky, she powered up the thrusters, and rocketed into the air, disappearing behind a building.
"She is very nice," Echo remarked.
"Just don't steal her from Zane, ok buddy?" Jay rested an arm on Echo's shoulder and steered him down the street.
Echo looked at him, cocking his head. "Steal?"
"You know... they're a thing. They're together."
"We cannot be friends?" Echo's brows drew together.
"No! Of course you can! I just meant romantically!"
"Just be quiet, Jay," Nya rolled her eyes. Zane had already face-palmed in embarrassment.
"What is romantically?"
"Okay... Echo, just... just forget everything I just said."
"Okay."
Nya glanced at Zane. Behind his hand, it looked like he was trying hard not to laugh.
'Upgrades' storyline finale next chapter...
I'M DOOOOOONE!
I'm SO sorry you guys had to wait so long for this chapter! SO, SO, SO sorry! I wanted to rewatch Season 3: Rebooted to make sure I could write Borg and PIXAL accurately, but on top of that I had horrible writer's block. :( After the long, angsty chapter I posted last time (I didn't mean to give Echo PTSD, I really didn't! D:), I wanted to write a less traumatic one, but somehow ended up putting Echo through pain anyway, and trying to balance that out with fluff gave me a rough time.
Once I actually got my rear in gear, I was surprised how much fun Borg was to write! He's definitely my favourite part of this chapter. He's so charming. :) (When I watched Rebooted the first time, I liked his character immediately) I also loved writing Echo and PIXAL's "dance". I don't ship them, but it was exhilarating to write. I hope you liked it! If you didn't, I'd love feedback.
Thanks sooooooo much to everyone reading this! Again, I'm sorry this chapter took so long. God bless you all, and have an amazing day!