Happy Friday everyone, time for another update. I'm sorry but I don't have a soundtrack for this chapter. Usually I would for something to happen in these chapters, but I don't have anything that comes to mind. I am sorry if you wanted to hear a soundtrack for this chapter. Anyway here's my update of the water ninja meeting the lightning ninja. Enjoy. :)
Chapter 15: Jay Walker
I have been traveling for hours now. My uncle managed to find me and I asked him why I couldn't conjure my Spinjitzu vehicle like before. Turns out that it was an extension of my mind from my weapons and I have to stay focused. Apparently I didn't stay focused at all as I came to Ignacia Village. But since a new day started, I managed to recreate my vehicle and drive down the road. I like this new bike. The way I have to lie on my stomach to drive as if I was swimming with the canopy over me to block the wind. Even the sound of the engine is relaxing. It's electric. I can tell the difference from the bike than the ones the skeletons use in the Underworld. Out of everything else, I think I'll get use to it while Storm is away.
As I drove down the road, I noticed that I was in the outskirts. And in the distance ahead of me was the largest city in all of Ninjago. Ninjago City. So that's where the road is taking me. But I felt like that I didn't want to go there and turned left to head West. I think it was a perfect choice. I felt that I wasn't ready to head into the city as I'm slowly adjusting to civilization. Being in the Underworld for six years can keep you away from people of your kind. It's best to take things slowly. Like when I was with Kai and his family. Slow and steady. That will win the race.
After driving for an hour or so, I began to hear something beeping. I averted my gaze away from the road to see the monitor on my right. The screen showed the exo-skeleton of my bike with a warning sign flashing with parts blinking red. Possibly damage. Perfect. Just perfect. My vehicle needs to be repaired and I never did anything wrong to it. I need to find a place to stop and check it over. I turned my gaze back to the road and saw a sign that read: Ed and Edna's Scrap n' Junk ahead. What luck. When there's a junkyard, there's bound to be junk. And when there's junk, there's bound to be parts. And with parts, I can fix my vehicle. Just never knew though that my Spinjitzu vehicle needed to be repaired when I can make it appear whenever.
After driving for another fifteen minutes, I finally reached my destination. I drove under the brightly lit neon sign of the owners names and slowly idled my bike into the yard. This place was filled with...well junk. Various parts and scraps were all piled around the walls while there was a mountain in the center. I noticed the small tin camper on the side and it got me wondering. Who would live here?
I looked around in my vehicle to see if there was a way out for me without it having to disappear. I noticed on the dashboard were a few switches and I flipped the one that was on the right seeing it what it can do and waited. Suddenly I heard a hissing sound and looked up to see the canopy splitting in half and flipped over me to move to the side to create into...wings of a plane? That's one way out. But this bike was weird. I climbed out and zipped my sweatshirt off and tossed it and my bag inside the bike and scanned around the deserted yard. "Hello?" I called out. "Anyone here?"
Silence. Suddenly. "Hey over here!" a voice cried.
Without hesitation, I ran to the source. I ran around the source to the other side to the center and stopped to see a boy around my age. The boy had a mop of hazel auburn hair with hazel eyes. He even had a vertical scar that ran down his right eyebrow almost hitting into his eye, but was different than Kai's notched eyebrow. But he was in trouble as he was tied up with his arms pinned to his sides by rope and was hanging on a light pole while kicking his legs around. "Uh...hey, are you okay?" I asked him. Obviously he wasn't. "What happened?" Who would do this to a person?
The boy stopped frailing and looked at me. "Oh I'm doing fine actually." he replied with a stern look. I can tell he was using sarcasm as on me. "I thought it would be a perfect way to hang out-of course I'm not okay! Can't you see that I'm tied up!?"
I raised my hands up to my shoulders in a small defense. "Alright alright calm down." I told him. I looked down at my waist to find my sai's and they were gone. I remembered that I put them in my bag. "I'll get you. Just remain calm." and I ran back to my vehicle. I unzipped my bag and fished out my sai's and ran back to the boy. "I'm back." and held one back to throw it at the length of rope hanging by his back.
The boy's eyes grew wide and started to shake. "Whoa! Where did you get those!?" he asked.
"A friend of mine gave them to me." I replied and calculated my target. "Hold still." I threw my sai at the length and made my cut. The boy gave out a shriek and faceplanted into the dirt ground. I ran over to him. "Are you alright?" I asked him and pulled him to his knees.
The boy spat out dirt and sand from his mouth and nodded. "Yeah thanks." he said. I picked up my sai that I used to throw and cut him free and helped him to his feet. He stretched his arms and then shook my hand rapidly. I felt his hands were rough and greasy from oil and could see spots on his blue tee shirt. "Oh thank you so much." he said. "If you haven't come any sooner, I would've been there for hours now." He stopped shaking my hand and took out a rag from his jeans to clean his hands off. "Where are my manners? My name is Jay." and handed me the rag.
I took the rag and cleaned the grease off. I can tell that he was the talkative type of people based from his hand shake. I finished cleaning my hands and handed him back his rag and shook his hand as an introduction. "My name is Luke." I introduced myself and drew my hand back. I looked up at the pole from where he was hung and back at him. "So what happened?"
Sighing, Jay took a seat on a battered old TV. "Being the son of an inventor and living in a junkyard as it downfalls." he replied. "People mock me for living with junk and it gets annoying. My parents left to get a few things and I've been working on my own inventions until these people come in to cause trouble. They mocked me, took my invention, tied me up, and left me hanging. Hehehe." laughing on the last part. Obviously he was a jokester too. "So what are you doing here?"
I blinked in surprised. So he lives here. I can see why people would do such a thing to him. But that's awful. I heard the sound of snapping and brought myself back to see Jay snapping his fingers in my face. Oh right his question. "Oh...uh, I was driving down the road on this motorbike I have and it suddenly acted funny." I replied. "I thought it was a coincidence that I happen to see this and thought someone could help me."
Jay lightened up. "Well since my dad is away for awhile," he said while getting up. "let's go take a look."
I smiled back. "Thank you." I said and lead him around. I slipped the side guards through my belt loops and really need to consider a belt or at least the one from my suit. We finally came to the entrance and showed the bike. "Here it is." I said as we came closer.
I looked at Jay to see his mouth open in awe. I think I surprised him well. "This is yours!?" he asked surprised. "This is awesome! How did you get it!? I never seen anything like it before."
I looked at him and quickly thought over a story. Has to be different than Kai's as he has now seen my vehicle. "Uh...my uncle made it for me." I lied. Can't let him know my uncle is a dark lord. "My birthday was yesterday and he gave it to me for a birthday gift as I turned sixteen."
"You're sixteen?" Jay asked. I nodded. "Lucky. I don't turn sixteen until September." he pouted and began to chuckle. I couldn't help and laughed along with him. "So what's the problem?"
I brought him closer and showed him the monitor and flipped it on. "See those red parts?" I asked him and he nodded in reply. "My uncle made this feature to warn me if my bike had any problems. I guess he really cares for safety." Not really. He doesn't care if I cut myself from weapons training. Or sprain something.
Jay inspected the screen and carefully studied the locations of the redden areas and inspected my bike. He looked underneath to see in surprise that there were jacks underneath instead of my front wheel. This is one weird bike for sure. He then went back to the monitor and went behind my bike and back at the monitor. He tapped his chin in thought and turned to me. "Answer me this." he demanded not harshly but calmly. "Is it gas powered or electric?"
"It's a electric." I replied and demostrated by placing my hand on the lever to push it up quick and down to show him the engine revv. "See."
Jay chuckled and reached into his pockets of his jeans to pull out a pencil and positioned it as a pointer. "To clarify," he began and pointed to the redden areas. "see these areas of your bike?" Duh I can see them. What does it have to do with anything? "Well to be honest, I find this odd in most vehicles. Both gas and electric." I looked at him with an raised eyebrow of confusion. Jay caught my look and pointed at the redden areas in the back. "See here." he continued. "These parts happen to be the muffler and axises of the bike while the one in the center is the engine." and pointed to the center. "Now what makes it weird is that your bike is overheated."
Wait really? My bike is overheated. Never knew. It was odd, but weird. My vehicle can appear when I focus on my golden weapons and can get overheated. I guess it's another extension to understand my weapons. Sighing, I crossed my arms and ran my fingers through my short hair. I had to trim my hair was it was starting to be a bother to me and want my shaggy hair back. "So now what?" I asked Jay. "How long would this take?"
Jay threw the pencil back into his jeans and scratched the back of his head to ponder. "Hard to say." he replied. "My best guess would be an hour to a few. You seemed to push the limits on them to make them overheat and need to cool down."
Perfect. Just perfect. My magical vehicle needs to cool down because I pushed the limits. I'm glad to meet Jay to give me tips as he knows more than I do on vehicles. "So what can we do to pass the time?" I asked.
Jay shrugged his shoulders and then snapped his fingers as something came to him. "Hey would it be a bother if you help me with something I'm working on?" he asked. I shook my head as he looked in need of help. A smile grew on his face. "Great." he nearly squealed. "I really needed an extra hand on this. Come on, I'll show you.' and slowly lead the way with me behind him.
"Hey look!" a voice shouted. "Rat-boy escaped and has a friend."
We both stopped to turn around to see six people by the entance. These people were big and small and all looked like a gang. Their hair was greased up to have their bangs combed over to the back. And they even wore leather jackets with a snake as the igsignia. Who are they? I noticed Jay was shaking a little while he glared at them. "Who are they?" I asked him.
Jay looked at me as if I never heard or seen them before. Which in fairness I didn't. "They're the Serpentine Gang." he replied sourly. "They honor the Serpentine and cause trouble to me all the time. They're the ones that tied me up and took my invention away."
The Serpentine. I heard of them before. My tutor and uncle told me about them. Long ago in ancient Ninjago, the Serpentine once ruled the lands. There were five tribes name the Hypnobrai, Fangprye, Constrictai, Venomari, and the Anacondrai. They all hated each other and each had a special advantage when in war. The Hypnobrai can control people. Fangprye's can turn people into serpents like them. The Constrictai can give people a squeeze till they die. Venomari spit this hallucinogenic venom take make people face their fear. And the Anacondrai can turn invisible. But the people retaliated and created the sacred flutes to use against them and seal them into their tombs. No-one knows where they are and are most likely extinct.
I glanced over the one in the center of the group, which I suspected was the leader, and gave him a death glare. My vow was of protection was taking hold. No-one should do this to anyone and take their things away. Especially Jay. I took a step forward and glared at him. "Give Jay back his invention and get out of here." I demanded.
The guy in the center step forward and pulled out a comb and combed his hair. "I don't think we met before, kid." he said in a synthetic Italian accent. "The name's Butch. Now I don't think you heard of us, but we cause trouble in these parts. But I don't take orders from anyone." He moved his sleeve up to show me a watch. "Ya see, I like this watch he made for me and like to keep it." What's so special about it? "It's a hologram." He pushed a button to show a hologram of the time and noticed my bike. "And this bike looks nice too. I might even take it a spin."
"Don't you dare touch it!" I exclaimed and drew my sai's out and held them like dagger. Just to threat them.
The gang saw the threat and didn't flee. "You see this, boys?" Butch laughed. "This kid wants to tussle with us. Let's show him our code." and pulled out a length of chain. The others slowly pulled out bats and knives and slowly walked to us.
Crap. What did I just got us into? I found myself stepping back to Jay and we both were slowly walking back to the base of the center. We were now surrounded. Hope Jay can fight like Kai. "Jay, can you fight?" I asked him and felt my back pressed against the junk.
"Uh...a little." Jay replied, slightly scared. That's not good enought though. "But I'm a fast person to run. I even made these myself." and pulled out a pair of homemade nunchucks and spun them over his head.
Nunchucks! Yeah that's good. Even with speed. Let's see, Jay dealt with all of them at once, so let's even the herd. So Jay can't see me as a ninja. "Jay, I have an idea." I announced.
"Lay it on me, Luke." he said.
"Start running and attack those that follow." I commanded like a leader. "I'll stay here and hold the fort."
"Got it." Jay agreed and took off running. Like a lightning bolt.
Wow! He wasn't kidding. He was fast. And yet, I felt the same feeling in him as I did with Kai. It couldn't be. I must be imagining it. But yet he and Kai had the same feeling I can sense in them like in my uncle and father when they do Spinjitzu. Butch saw what was happening. "Two of you go after Rat-boy." he commanded and two ran after Jay. "The rest stay and we'll show this new guy our code." and took his coil of chain and swung it around.
I glared at my share and stood in a defensive stance. This will do fine. Butch swung his chain at me and saw it coming towards me. I quickly stepped to the side and the links rattled by my ears. And if time has slowed down, I saw a chance to slip my sai blade through the link and gave it a pull. I heard Butch gave out a surprised scream and saw him stumbling towards me. I had my back turned on him and used my left elbow to make contact to his abdomen. Once I heard him grunt in pain, I quickly turned around and sent a kick to his chest and watched him fly back and collapsed into crates.
Butch laid on the ground with the wooden crates crumpled under his weight. A groan of pain escaped his lips while clutching his chest. He lifted his head to glare at me while moving his bangs out of his face. He turned to his colleagues. "Don't just stand there!" he shouted. "Get him!" The three nodded and charged towards me.
I glanced at the greased blonde, messy red head, and shaggy burnette and stood my ground. The blonde swung his bat at me and I ducked and crossed my sai's as he brought the piece of metal down. We both pushed against each other until he drew back and I heard the sound of feet shuffling and looked to my right to see the red head running at me with a knife. I quickly jumped over him as he continued running and crashed into a light pole and held his nose as blood was gushing out. Once I landed, I was caught off guard and was recieved with a punch to the jaw and a kick to my abdomen from the burnette.
I clenched my jaw and felt it swell a little and tasted copper on my tongue. I spat out the blood and growled at them. They kicked in my bad side. "You three have done it now." I said and looked over my shoulders in case Jay was around. Thank God he wasn't. I smirked at them. "Ninjaa-Gooo!" I shouted and created my Spinjitzu. I can see through my misty tornado and saw their shocked expressions and directed it towards them as they remained frozen. I landed a punch and kick and sent them off their feet and watched them land by the entrance and stopped spinning. I looked down to see I wasn't dressed in my ninja suit and then glanced at the three members as they slowly stood up. I glared at them and took a step forward.
The three gave out a small yelp and scrambled out as fast as they could. "Get back here, boys!" Butch shouted while getting up with one arm over his chest. But they never came back. He growled at me and drew out a knife. I heard two more yelps and saw the others that were chasing Jay running away and stood by the entrance; waiting for their leader.
Jay was running up and stopped beside me. I could see he fought well against them as bruises were shown on his arms and dried blood on his nose. He was breathing heavily and glared at Butch. "Give it up, Butch." he wheezed to catch his breath. "They're gone and you're all alone. Now it's time for you to slither away. Hahaha." he laughed on the last part. I laughed along with him as it made sense to their dumb snake gang.
Butch growled at us, dynamic dou, and turned to Jay. We can tell he was angry at us for mocking him and his gang, but we didn't care. No-one does this to anyone. Especially to my new friend. "Hey freak." he addressed me. "Let's see if you can stop this." and the knife by the blade and threw it at Jay.
A silent gasp escaped my lips as I saw the blade slicing through the air towards Jay. He was ludicrous now. Not only him and his gang tie Jay up, but attemping murder. That's just awful. I caught Jay closing his eyes as the knife drew closer to him as he was ready to embrace the pain. In a quick reaction, I caught the knife by the handle; inches of the blade by his heart. A cool rush of adrenaline ran in my veins and I sighed in relief. Jay opened his eyes and looked at me, shocked. "I know now isn't the good time, but friends?" I asked.
Jay looked at me if I was crazy, but smiled. "Friends." he agreed.
I smiled that I have another friend. A weird way to make one though. Untying him from a pole, introducing ourselves, and fighting off a gang, and saving his life. I dropped the knife and turned to Butch. "My turn." I mumbled and drew my sai's back and took a step forward to throw them. My sai's sliced through the air as Butch raised his hands up to defend himself and the side guards caught his wrists and pinned him against a sheet of wood. I watched the greaser struggle to escape and I found myself walking up to him. He started shaking as I stood in front of him with my arms crossed and with Jay next to me. I looked down at his wrist and removed the watch to retrieve and looked at him. "Night night." I said and slammed my right fist into his temple and watched him hang his head with his eyes closed; unconscious.
I plucked my sai's free and quickly jumped back as the leader fell limp to the ground. A cloud of dust rose up and surrounded and trailed behind him as the remaining two drug him away. "Yeah that's right!" Jay screamed at the gang. "Slither away and never come back!" I laughed in victory and handed him his watch back. He smiled and latched it around his wrist. "Thanks man." he said. "Glad you were around to help."
"No problem." I replied. We walked over to my bike and check on how it was doing. Sighing, the bike was still overheated. "Well my bike is still overheated." I sighed. Not that I don't want to get out of here real fast or anything, just saying. What kind of friend would I be if I left instantly after helping Jay with dumb gang members? "So you want to get to that invention of yours before we got interrrupted?" I asked.
Jay fumbled on the notches on his watch and made the hologram disperse from the light. That's impressive technology. Even from a teen around my age until next month and then he'll be sixteen. He turned to me to smile. "Sure." he replied and took off running. I quickly ran behind him and everytime I look up, Jay was ahead of me by twenty feet per second. He was a fast runner for sure. Jay stopped in front of a pile of junk and I finally caught up to him and was breathing heavily. Wow! I'm a fast runner, but he runs much faster than me. Once I gained my breath, I watched Jay remove a tarp to reveal a door and opened it to walk into the hollow hideaway and came out with a box. "My parents don't know about this place, but it's my own personal workshop." he said and pulled out a tool box and closed the door.
"Or a laboratory." I chriped in a joke.
We laughed in on the joke as Jay hid the door with the tarp. He walked over to me with the box and opened the lid to reveal two watches. Does he have a thing for watches like Kai does with swords? "So you know that I'm capable to make this hologram watch." he began and pulled out the two watches. "But now I'm making these two as communication devices for my parents so I can contact with them with mine." and reached into his tool box. "But now I'm still working on the kinks. I really need to get these finished since their anniversary is coming up and can really use the help." I took one of the watches and nodded that I would help. "Great." Jay perked. "Let's get to work." and pulled out a screwdriver and handed it to me.
...
All day was exhausting. The sun has been baking on the back of our necks with sweat dripping down. We may even have sunburn a little. My hands are rough with little callouses forming and greasy with oil. Not from watches, but after we finished with them, Jay introduced me to his other inventions such as this robot he's been working on. Apparently he's been working on an android, or artifial being of a human, and we've been busy with that all day. All day with tinkering with wires, getting covered in oil and grease, and working with the cogs and wires to get the limbs moving little by little. It paid off though to be his extra hand, especially when chasing those Serpentine wannabes away. But it's interesting to know about mechanics. Even when someone whose close to my age until next month.
The sun has started to set as we both been busy with the android. Jay recieved a call from his parents saying that they'll be staying at his Uncle Ben's and Aunt Mary's house for a visit and the night in Ninjago City. So it's just us then. He lead me up to the center of the junkyard and climbed up with me behind him to the top to see a small makeshift patio. "What is this?" I asked him as we stood on the wooden platform and heard a small groan underneath our feet. Was this even stable?
Jay moved pieces of junk away with his shoes and flipped a bucket to sit down. "This is my hang out area during the summer." he replied with a small smile. "Every summer I come up here to hang out and stay for the night. The view is awesome and the sunset is amazing. Take a look."
I turned around to stare in awe. He was right. It's amazing. The sun setting in the horizon with the rays blending into amazing warm colors. It was magnificent. But then, something came to me and I turned to Jay as he fiddled with the nunchucks. "Jay, when did you become fond of those weapons?" I asked him. "How do you know how to use them?"
Jay placed them down and looked at me. "I have no idea." he replied. Really? "It came to me in a dream. I'm an inventor's son and that's how I get my ideas. I found myself with these and was fighting off clowns." Clowns? "They're my worst fear. So then on, I made my own and find them awesome. How did you get into those weapons?"
The tables have turned now. Can't tell him that I'm a ninja. Even when I exposed myself to that gang. "I once saw a pair and then used two branches to fight with for fun." I lied to keep it a secret. "So then on, I got a pair of my own. So you've been into inventing?"
"Ever since I can remember." Jay replied and his smile disappeared slightly. "I don't enjoy living in a junkyard, but it allows me to invent. I also do cooking, poetic work, and the occasional inventing. Since I have my downfalls on the failures, I rise back up in victory."
I chuckled. "Reminds me of a saying my father told me when I struggle on a task." I said to him. "It doesn't matter whether you're getting closer or not. It only means you're getting stronger or better." I sighed as memories began to flood into my mind as I thought of me, my mother, and father. I can see us together as a family we used to be. I've been gone for six years now from his life and in the Reflective Pool, I can see him aging than before and alone in the dojo. Something is wrong with me now. I'm starting to develop...feelings for him. Why?
"Proud words from him." Jay agreed to bring me back to realitly. He looked at his watch and pulled his jacket on. "Say it's getting late, want to stay for the night while your bike cools off?" he asked.
I looked at the evening sky and noticed the sun disappeared and the stars were starting to show. I smiled at him and nodded. "Sure." I replied and pulled my sweatshirt up.
Jay told me to wait and climbed back down the mountain and into his trailer. A few minutes later, he came out with two sleeping bags and pillows and ran back up to me. A campout. Sounds like fun. All through the night, we've been talking the night away. I was right. Jay is a talkative person. A fun one even that's great with inventions and jokes. It's nice to socialize with someone. With Kai, we just sparred. But with Jay, we socialized.
...
Morning has come for both of us. After a light breakfast of junkfood, my bike has cooled down and I was all packed and ready to go. Seems a bit upsetting that I have to leave Jay, but there's more of Ninjago to explore and he understood. We both stood by my bike and I slipped my sai's into my bag and set it down in my bike and looked at Jay. "Well this is good-bye, Jay." I told him. "I had a great time and thank you for the hospitality."
Jay smiled. "Hey it's no problem." he said. "You helped me get rid of gang members to stop bothering me and helped with my projects. I had fun." He held his right hand out. "Hope you have a good time on your adventure and hope to see each other again."
I nodded and shook his hand. "Thanks." I replied. "Hope we do more of that robot together."
Jay nodded. "Will do."
I smiled and let go of his hand. I climbed into my bike and laid down on my chest and waved him a good-bye. And he waved back. I flipped the switch that opened for me to climb out and heard the familiar hiss as the canopy cast a shadow over me as it closed and the engine whined to life. I was ready. I pushed the lever up and I was off. Taking the same road down to wherever it takes me? Upset that I had to leave a friend like him and Kai, but they understood my reason to leave. But it was also to keep my identity a secret.
I hoped you enjoyed this weeks chapter. I had fun writing this chapter. Now who's Lucas gonna meet this time? Find out next week. Have a wonderful weekend and see you next week. :)
