Chapter Two: a minefield of stars (exploding at every touch)

A/N: Alternate Description: Zane dances and smiles and falls flat on his metal face. And what's with the name Spybot?

I have no clue if 'The Clockwork Dance' is actually a book, so I'm a lil afraid about copyright, but if it isn't I'm writing it.

I'm not sure what to call Zane. He's a female body, though I'm not sure robots have set genders, and it's getting really confusing. That's really one of the only reasons that this chapter was delayed- I was struggling with pronouns. For now, I suppose I'll just call him male? The laws of gender are different with robots, I presume. And the ninja call him male, though later on they'll sometimes let it slip their minds the gender they first knew him as and just call him female. He really doesn't care.

I'm so confused and I hope I didn't offend anyone I'm so sorry also I spent 30 hours in a car so I'm dead to the world sorry

Description: Pixal's bright green eyes faded into an icy, beautiful blue speckled with cerulean dashes. Then Pixal/Zane spoke shyly, "so you can tell us apart," the consciousness now properly identified as Zane shifted in their seat. "green for Pixal, blue for me, Zane."

The walk in search of the chanting was generally quiet, aside from the little bits of chatter the ninja occasionally tossed around, most of it revolving around bad puns and Zane.

They'd looted the armor from the oddly dressed guards, and though they'd all been a little reluctant to take the weird skulls atop their own heads, Lloyd and Zane had worked together to convince the other ninja that this was a key part of their disguise. After all, was easy to tell if someone didn't have a massive skull on their heads compared to someone who did.

Other than Zane, the other ninja were deep in thought, which mostly revolved around the Nindroid and their body-share. Though it seemed that Pixal and Zane had already come to terms with their situation, and were happily whispering back and forth. The only loud noise in their conversation was an outbreak of laughter, seemingly from both ends. Zane's voice was a little bit deeper than Pixal's, but it still sounded like the android was talking to herself.

Cole and Lloyd were wondering how the situation would effect the team. The fact that their missing member was back would probably bring it back together, if the events that had transpired so far hadn't already. While Kai and Jay were giddier than wee-children discovering balloons for the first time.

For Kai, it was like something straight out of a movie! It was just so cool in a sense he couldn't explain without sounding straight up insane.

But Jay was ecstatic for other reasons. For one, Zane had asked him to modify her and Pixal's shared body. He was modifying Zane! Actually doing it! Before, Zane had never allowed Jay to tinker with his original design- he held too much love for his father's creation to let that happen. But this was different- as long as he didn't mess with the power source or go completely nuts, he would do whatever to the design with Zane's permission.

There was so much potential here. So much. Jay was creating a robot ninja. Actually doing it. Taking Pixal's body and turning it into a miniature fighting machine.

Speaking of Pixal's body, that was the second reason he was over the moon about Zane's request. Cyrus Borg was a genius. An absolute genius who'd managed to create Pixal, a miracle of machinery. She had free will, emotions of her own. Almost just like Zane, though he was better. But genius of her consciousness was surpassed by many things- most of them in Zane's old body, admittedly- and one of them was her design.

Pixal was incredibly agile, with a small frame that allowed for very swift movement. She had been built originally to assist a genius with technology that stretched the boundaries of most imaginations, and her design reflected that. She could speed around a laboratory all day, fetching wires, switches, and any other miscellaneous items that Cyrus Borg might've had a need for.

Perfect for a ninja.

And she had hidden compartments, too! Already there! Already installed! Pixal's cutting-edge repair tools had great potential as weapons- miniature diamond-tipped drills only being one among a variety of other tools. Maybe it was Jay's video-game accustomed mind at work, but Pixal could've probably been a ninja with or without upgrades.

So maybe he wouldn't touch most of her internal design, for now. But the repair tools he would take out. There was a hidden shuriken compartment with Zane's name on it.

But nobody said the tools would be lost, they would have a nice place in his toolbox.

Suddenly, a thought came to Jay's mind.

"P.X.Z," he blurted, mind going a mile a minute. "let's call you P.X.Z!" Jay exclaimed, steps quickening. The other ninja were snapped out of their own thoughts at this, minds already churning with ideas for Zane's new name, a topic they'd abandoned nearly half an hour ago when Cole had brought up Chen again.

"Spybot's a cool name," Kai remarked, getting two glares thrown at him by the Starfarer fans.

"Spybot was an awful character," Lloyd complained, hands on his hips. His pace had subconsciously quickened to match Jay's. Along with the other ninja.

"I like the name Glacier," Cole said, haphazardly throwing a name out on the chopping block for Jay and Kai to dissect. The two pulled two very different faces that both had the same core meaning- 'but why would you do that to poor Zane?' "What! So you'd like Spybot better?"

Kai nodded vigorously, and it was Cole's turn to pull a face.

"Why not Frostfire?" The Red Ninja asked, but was quickly shut down by a disgusted Lloyd.

"Because it's stupid!" He shrieked indignantly, as if Kai had punched his mother. "Why would you put frost and fire together, anyway?" The conversation soon dissolved into a loud argument between the Blue, Black, Red, and Green Ninja.

While the White Ninja was chatting happily to his lover, promising with wide eyes that he'd teach her to bake and cook, sometime. But the argument quickly disrupted the cheerful conversation.

"Enough!" Pixal yelled over the din, which effectively ended all arguments and turned all eyes toward the speaker.

Now that she held their attention, she let Zane take control again. Pixal's bright green eyes faded into an icy, beautiful blue speckled with cerulean dashes. Then Zane spoke shyly, "So you can tell us apart," the consciousness now properly identified shifted in his seat. "green for Pixal, blue for me, Zane." Zane said, blinking stunning icy eyes.

"Robots are cool." Kai whispered. Zane continued.

"I'd like to use Orianna as my alias. After Orianna Relane, the protagonist in one of my all-time favorite books." He said with a tiny smile on Pixal's face that still managed to be completely Zane. "'The Clockwork Dance,'" the Nindroid continued, dreamily. "a classic at it's finest. I recommend you read it."

The green eyes of Pixal reappeared, and the small smile fell off of her face as Pixal took control. "I have not read it myself, but Zane recommends it as well as many other online sites, with the minimum rating of four stars. It appears to be quite the novel."

Zane's blue eyes bled through and conquered green, and the small smile came back in full force. The Nindroid made an attempt to spin like a ballet dancer, an effort that was rewarded with the laughter of the other ninja, which confused Zane.

"It truly is quite the book." He said once more, before spinning again, this time on he tips of his toes. However, purely out of instinct, Zane's ballet attempt spun him into a partial Spinjitsu tornado and flew through the air, into the left wall. Where his metal body landed with a clang.

The other ninja rushed over, concerned. Pixal's bright green eyes reappeared on the dazed face. She spun accepted a hand and pulled herself up, before spinning once, twice, three times perfectly.

"Only one of us has internet access." The android said, with an unusually cocky smile. "Though only one of us has studied the theoretical literature." At this, shining green was replaced by icy blue.

"I apologize for the concern I may have caused," Zane said blankly, though with a concerned look on his face. "I only wished to test out the move I have heard so much about."

But the ninja only laughed, pausing their walk to revel in the completely Zane moment.

"That's our Zane," said Cole, humor tingling his voice.

"Orianna for the moment, is it not?" Zane asked, and the level of innocence in his voice would've sounded suspicious if anyone else had said it. But it fit Zane perfectly well.

Definitely their Zane.