Pixal panted heavily as she stood over the remains of the final droid, having blown its head clean off with a plasma cannon that was built into her arm.
All around them were the defeated droids, laying on the floor like obsolete hardware.
Kai and Lloyd were impressed to say the least; with just one flesh wound (so to speak), Pixal had gone from passive to aggressive in a matter of seconds. She had taken out her fair share of the droids that set upon them, in a much more hostile way than they expected – most of them had smoking craters where their limbs had once been, one of them had a hole in the middle of their torso, and some of them had their heads unceremoniously sliced off.
"You okay, Pix?" Kai asked.
"I am fine, thank you." She replied, as her breathing slowed back to normal and her eyes returned to their usual green.
"Come on, let's keep going." Lloyd suggested.
As Pixal moved away from the droid she had beheaded, she wobbled a little, before she ultimately collapsed. Fortunately, Kai had managed to catch her before she hit the floor.
"Pixal, can you hear me?" He asked, gently jostling her.
"I think she's out cold." Lloyd surmised.
"Speaking of cold… is it just me or has it just gotten a lot colder around here?"
"Zane…" Pixal mumbled.
As Lloyd opened his mouth to respond, he was distracted by the thick trees nearby as they began to brutally shake.
Fearing another droid attack, Kai took a protective stance around Pixal, while Lloyd readied himself for another fight. A thin frost spread out on the ground before them, giant pieces of ice began knocking down the trees one by one, and a vicious squall whipped through the trees that were still standing. Through the newly formed gap in the greenery, Zane appeared, and on his face was the image of seething rage.
"Zane?" Kai had never seen his friend looking so furious.
Zane didn't respond, but his expression was unbendingly irate, and his posture was combative; he held himself ready for battle, and as the arctic tempest continued to spin around him, an outward spiral of jagged ice formed at his feet. He stared around intently, and his eyes came upon Kai and Lloyd, protecting an unconscious Pixal. His fury promptly subsided. The heavy wind faded away and the glacial armour on his body broke apart.
He ran over to them and dropped to his knees.
"Is she alright? What happened?" He demanded.
"She's fine, she just over-exerted herself," Kai assured him in a hushed tone. "you would've been proud of her; she kicked some serious butt."
"Besides, we could ask you the same thing, you looked possessed when you first came though those trees!" Lloyd noted.
"I heard a high-frequency signal, and then I went into a trance," Zane answered, lifting Pixal from Kai's arms and into his own. "it was just like the last time, when I had to cause as much destruction as possible…"
"It… It happened to me too." Pixal mumbled as she slowly came back online.
"Pixal!" Zane gasped, holding her close to him. "Thank goodness!"
"Now that you mention it, Pixal did let out a loud squeal when she was caught off-guard by a droid," Kai mentioned, gesturing to the chunk taken off her shoulder. "I noticed a really low vocal sound after that, and it was constant, like a ringing in the ears."
Zane winced as he realised that the arm she had injured, was the same arm she'd had sliced off the last time they were on this island.
"Pixal caused a considerable amount of damage," Lloyd nodded at the droid nearby with the scorch mark where it's head once was. "she fought like someone who had years of training."
"I was not in control of myself," Pixal admitted. "I was content to use defensive manoeuvres, but suddenly I was overcome by an uncontrollable rage…"
"Fascinating…" Mr Borg murmured to himself, as he reviewed the footage caught by the drones. "I must tell Sensei Wu!"
Mr Borg left the console room to find the aging Spinjitzu master, while Shiro turned to one of the other technicians.
"I had no idea how strong the sub-routine was going to be," Shiro leaned back in her chair. "that was just amazing!"
"I was expecting more," the technician replied. "I heard that he practically levelled this island the first time..."
"Oh come on, Tony, you can't be serious! It was fantastic!" She looked at him in disbelief. "We even got to see Pixal's reaction too!"
"I wonder if we could trigger it again, only stronger." Tony mused.
"You wouldn't dare… you'd get the sack for sure." She warned him.
"Pfff, as if – I was one of the people who picked up the slack after you galivanted off with that woman from accounts," He scoffed, as Shiro glared at him. "I didn't program this 'Angel subroutine', but I can certainly set it off again…"
"You really think it'll be that easy?" Shiro laughed. "You're even dumber than I thought!"
She carried on laughing heartily, as she stood up and wandered over to some of the other technicians.
He watched her chatting casually to his co-workers and became silently infuriated. How could they be so chummy with her? After she went swanning away with Marilyn, they were left to handle her workload as well as their own. Late nights, early mornings, having to come in on days off to manage the construction of the VR fighting simulator. And then, to go back to being her subordinates when she eventually drifted back from her honeymoon; it was more than he could stand.
"Stuck up wench," He fumed, taking out his personal tablet and typing heatedly. "I can figure this out, all I have to do is find the right frequency…"
"Hey, Tony, whatcha doin'?"
"Cheryl!" Tony jumped, and placed his tablet face down on the chair left vacant by Shiro. "Please don't sneak up on me like that!"
"Sorry hun, just wondering if you want me to get you a coffee?" She replied, batting her eyelashes. "You're all on your lonesome over here."
Tony smiled politely, but secretly hoped she would stop hovering around. If it were anyone else finding excuses to be near him, he would be flattered, but he was well aware that her older brother was head of security, and he wouldn't like it at all. Tony and Hedges never got on, because Tony always thought he was full of hot air; what else was he to make of a heavily tattooed security officer who only got his job because of his influential father?
Cheryl started working for Mr Borg shortly after her older brother, but she got her job on the merits of her qualifications. Still, he was the reason that Tony hesitated in getting too close to her.
"I'm fine thanks, Cheryl," He insisted. "I was just about to go for a breath of fresh air anyway."
Without giving her a chance to respond, he grabbed his tablet and swiftly strolled away. He made his way onto the deck of the catamaran, where Mr Borg and Sensei Wu were discussing something of a rather serious nature – or at least, that's what he assumed from the serious looks on their faces. Tony waved to them as he passed, jumping the small gap between the vessel and the wooden dock.
One of the deckhands was smoking a cigarette at the nexus between the dock and the island's white sands. The man gave Tony a nod of acknowledgement, and precious little else, as he flicked the excess ash from his cigarette and took another drag.
"Don't wander too far, fancy boy." The man growled as smoke emerged from his mouth.
"I won't, just going for a walk," Tony assured him, before lowering his volume. "ugh, I dread to think where Mr Borg got that guy from."
He wouldn't be told what to do by some sub-servient serf who smoked like a chimney. As soon as he was out of sight of the catamaran, and that ghastly deck hand, he set about attempting to re-trigger the Angel subroutine.
It was simply a matter of hacking into the drones' speakers and cycling through as many wavelengths as possible; just like those spirit boxes which could supposedly allow spirits of the deceased to communicate with the living. Not that Tony believed in such things, he was far too concerned with real world matters, like proving that Shiro was a weak-willed fop who had no clue what she was doing.
Suddenly, he came upon just the right signal, and – with a smile on his face – pressed the relevant buttons on his tablet, waiting to see the real result of the Angel subroutine in action…
"Hopefully she'll be well enough to continue soon," Kai mused, as Pixal lay half-conscious in Zane's arms. "we're supposed to be on a training exercise."
"And you should be with your own team." Lloyd mentioned.
"My sudden disappearance makes it look like I purposely ditched them; what will they think of me?" Zane openly wondered.
Before Kai had a chance to respond, a loud high pitched whine echoed out from somewhere nearby. Zane's posture instantly went rigid. Pixal suddenly regained complete lucidity. She leapt out of his arms and stood beside him, mirroring the combative pose he went into.
In bizarre synchronisation, Pixal's weapons manifested at exactly the same moment as Zane's ice powers; a layer of jagged, threatening shards protruded from his back and head like armour, while several long, curved blades and a plasma cannon activated on both of her arms.
"External threat detected," They spoke in unison, briefly looking at each other. "retaliation procedure enabled."
With that, the pair of them dashed away in the direction that Zane had come from, leaving Lloyd and Kai to wonder what the hell was going on. Zane and Pixal were on a mission of their own; seek out the source of the external signal and destroy it. They briefly exchanged a glance as they tore through the forest, with Zane using his ice powers to cut through the dense plant life, and Pixal blowing ten kinds out of anything else that got in their way.
Lloyd and Kai were following behind the destruction, watching them run side by side – with the occasional zig-zag as they crossed each other's paths, practically dancing flirtatiously around each other. Suddenly, they passed Nya, Jay and Cole, who were following the ice path laid out by Zane. Kai waved to them, and what started as a two team training exercise, had now turned into follow the leader, as all five of the ninja were now tracking the droids on their destructive wave.
"What's going on?" Jay asked Lloyd.
"Something triggered them." Lloyd responded as they ran.
"One minute she was unconscious, and he was fine, then there was another strange sound, and now it's like they're both on the warpath." Kai elaborated.
Pixal leapt forward and spun wildly, taking out a number of thick trees. As if playing along, Zane jumped up and hit the ground running, causing an outward spiral of sharpened ice to form.
The others managed to avoid being injured or stopped by the frosty spikes and felled trees, dodging them as only ninjas could. The droids were moving with intention and decent speed, but it didn't prevent them from playing up to each other; cutting bigger waves of carnage, larger blasts of ice, in their journey to an unknown destination, with their teammates tracking their every step.
"What if this is that thing that activated yesterday?" Cole mused.
"The Angel subroutine?" Nya corrected.
Upon mention of the subroutine, Pixal and Zane split up and went off in opposite directions. This was so unexpected that the ninja paused for a moment, glancing at each other in confusion.
"We'll follow Pixal, you guys follow Zane!" Nya instructed Kai and Lloyd before bolting off in Pixal's wake.
"We're on it!" Kai agreed as he and Lloyd went after Zane.
"Come on, let's go." Jay swatted at Cole's shoulder.
Although she had diverted from her husband's side, Pixal continued to hack and blast her way through the rampant plant life, levelling everything before her with tremendous accuracy. Nya, while staying a safe distance away from Pixal's weapons, was determined to find out what was going on.
"Pixal, what's happening?" She asked. "What is the Angel subroutine?"
Pixal skidded to halt and spun on her heel.
"Unauthorised persons may not access subroutine information," Pixal growled as her eyes flashed red, stomping toward Nya aggressively and forcing her to step backwards. "attempts to deactivate or interfere with the subroutine will be construed as sabotage and punished severely."
"Hey, hey, calm down," Jay stood partway between them, aiming to shield Nya from Pixal's plasma cannon, which she wielded in a threatening manner. "we just wanna know what's going on."
"Confirm your identity." Pixal glared at him.
"It's me, Jay." He said, reaching to put his hand on her shoulder.
"Confirm your identity." Pixal repeated, grabbing Jay's wrist before he could touch her.
"Maybe she wants your official title," Cole suggested. "like they did at the gala."
"Confirm your identity, or you will be considered an enemy and dealt with accordingly." Pixal warned as she began to twist his arm.
"Jay, son of the Elemental Master of Lightning!" He frantically repeated the words used when he was first introduced at the New Year's Eve party.
Pixal ceased her physical assault on his arm and released him from her grip.
"Analysing biometrics… Vocal pattern recognised… Identity confirmed…" Pixal stated, as her eyes returned to their usual green and her furious expression became neutral – though her weapons remained active. "Detailed subroutine information available."
"What is it? What does it do?" Jay asked.
"The Angel subroutine is a signal emitted by one of two parties, designed to ensure the protection of said parties," She explained. "once enacted, it cannot be revoked."
"But why are you and Zane doing this?" Jay probed further.
"A false signal was detected," Pixal replied. "and a failsafe protocol came into effect; we must find the origin of the signal and destroy it."
"We? You mean you and Zane, right? But why?"
"The Angel subroutine exists for protection purposes, a false signal indicates an attempt to hack into the dual-connected subconscious of both parties," Pixal elaborated further. "such a thing is tantamount to a declaration of war, and cannot go unchallenged."
"What if I decided to keep asking you questions until the signal stops?"
"Impossible; the signal does not stop until the two parties are reunited, and false signals need to be deactivated manually," Pixal clarified. "if one of the two parties is delayed or prevented from pursuing the signal, secondary protocol will activate-"
She stopped mid-sentence and immediately went back to what she was previously doing, running through the brush and cutting a jagged niche of destruction.
Sensing that she was falling behind Zane's current pace, Pixal began running even faster. Even when she saw an aged and slowly collapsing building in her path, she paused only as long as it took her to obliterate it with her plasma cannons. She leapt over what remained of the brick structure and carried on running. The false signal was still reverberating through her circuits; it surged through her head like fire and she would do what she had to in order to shut it down…