Chapter 13: Remember?

POV: Agent Walker

Why is he looking at me like that?

When I first presented myself, this kid– Arin, I know his name; I did my research– looked at me, squinting as if trying to figure something out, and after less than a second, his eyes shot out like he was looking at a shark-man hybrid.

I couldn't help but look a little confused– as did his teammates– as his mouth slowly gaped open. I mentally shook my head, opening my mouth to get to business when–

"OH. MY. FIRST SPINJITZU MASTER–" I blinked rapidly, trying to make sense of his reaction– "YOU LOOK AWESOME! WHY THE HECK ARE YOU HERE– THE NINJAS LEFT TO LOOK FOR YOU! Why are you an agent– wait– YOU'RE WORKING FOR THE ADMINISTRATION?!"

Why… what? Wha– what?

He's trying to confuse you, get back on track!

"Yeah, uh, that's nice," I interrupted his nonsense babbling, "Now. Down to business. We request the Dragons Cores and should you give them obediently, we will cause no trouble. If you refuse to comply, however, I 'regret' to inform you that we will not hesitate to take drastic measures," I specifically said 'regret' in a way that no doubt showed them I was hoping they would refuse.

Arin looked confused for a moment, then worried– for themselves, obviously– and then came to a decision as he took his fighting stance, the others quickly following suit.

I let myself show the slightest bit of satisfaction as I got ready myself.

Oh, this was going to be fun.

POV: Cole

I've been walking for days, now, and I have gotten nowhere. No progress, whatsoever.

Awesome.

Although there wasn't really any progress, there certainly was change; the pull had just gotten stronger and stronger the more I neared my supposed 'destiny'. I guess that counts for something, right?

The real progress came when I reached a certain staircase up a certain mountain.

The monastery?

Didn't 'destiny' know I wanted to stay with my family back in The Land of Lost Things a little more before returning to my fellow ninja family? Wait, what if they needed help? Was something wrong? Am I just being called to the role of ninja again?

My thoughts were confirmed as I started hearing faint noises of battle and began running up the stairs.

Agh, I guess this is how the mailman felt.

When I finally reached the top, breathless, I saw– huh. Agents? Cool.

Sora was building a big mech with her powers with the help of Rayu and was flinging agents up and about, while someone was using– wait is that fire?– and an orange ninja-in-training was doing a weird spinjitzu trying to fight off some guy with a different suit– probably their leader.

Looks like they need my help.

Sora didn't look like she needed help at the moment, and the one using a weird type of fire was acting like this was the best videogame ever, while the orange one looked a little overwhelmed.

I kicked the lead agent from the side and hoisted the now-fallen orange ninja from the ground, "Need some help?"

The orange ninja gave me a grateful and excited smile and took his fighting position next to me. His grin quickly slipped off his face to show a nervous and worried expression, "We might have a problem, though."

I turned to look at the slightly amused lead agent in front of us and–

Wha– what?

"JAY?!"

The agent– JAY!– looked startled and confused but quickly recovered and kicked me square in the chest, causing me to fall back a little.

That– that was JAY!

As an agent, fighting me!

"What the heck are you doing?!"

We were getting far from overwhelmed and outnumbered but I couldn't care less– that was Jay! My best friend, fighting against me!

Why was he fighting me?!

"Why are you fighting me?"

No answer.

"JAY!"

No answer.

The last time any one of us fought each other like this was when–

when they didn't remember.

"D-Don't you remember me?"

A pause.

Just when I was hoping for some kind of answer– Jay hardened his glare, not finding it amusing anymore, and kept on fighting.

He doesn't remember.

Okay. Don't panic.

He doesn't remember!

He couldn't have drifted too far, right?

It's been five years!

We've overcome situations like this before.

But–

Okay. Okay.

I calmed myself down and kept fighting, making sure not to hurt him too much– although Jay surely didn't look to have any intent like that– and focused on the task at hand.

What do you do if your friend doesn't remember you?

You make them remember.

How do you do that?

You capture them and knock some sense into them.

Yeah. Yeah, that was it.

Step one: capture Jay.

It was easier said than done.

I thought it would be easy since I've trained with Jay during almost all of my ninja years; I knew the moves and techniques he used but he didn't remember mine, not to mention I usually won the duels.

It was supposed to be as easy as eating cake.

Nothing that's supposed to happen ever happens for us, does it?

He had all of these new moves and –unlike me– didn't pull back. Although he was… slower. Not slower than me, but slower than what I expected him to be.

I guess he didn't see the need to use his powers because– he was good.

He had improved a lot.

Did he do nothing but train all day?

I didn't want to use my powers in case I hurt him but with all these new moves he was starting to leave me no choice.

But I did have a 'trick' up my sleeve.

"NINJA… GOOOOOO!" I yelled, (hoping it would trigger something,) while I summoned my spinjitzu and spun toward him.

That seemed to do the trick as he paused and I quickly took the chance to cease my spinjitzu and hurl myself onto him, tackling him to the ground. Right when I was going to knock him out with a half-hearted apology, I felt a familiar pain everything went dark.

POV: Agent Walker

The white room.

Private training with The Administrator.

"Never listen to your enemy."

Punch.

"They know stuff about you."

Kick.

"Your weaknesses."

Another punch.

"Your desires."

Block.

"They will manipulate you."

Another kick.

"Catch you off your guard."

Duck.

"For you, it is your desire to know about your past."

Backflip.

"They can pretend to know you."

Punch.

"They can give you false information."

Evade.

"To confuse you."

Block.

"To gain the advantage."

I failed to duck in time and The Administrator kicked me on the side of my face.

I fell to the ground face-down.

"Never give them the chance."

It was so, so hard to focus on fighting with the earth ninja's constant nagging.

I've trained for this. The poking. The lies. The manipulation.

So why was it so, so hard?

Was it the worry, the concern, in his eyes?

Was it his pulled-back punches, as if afraid to hurt me?

Was it the lack of his powers in the fight?

Was it the hesitation, the desperation, in his voice?

STOP IT, I chastised myself.

He was starting to get pushed back and I was winning. STOP distracting yourself. I was just about to land another kick when the ninja yelled his ninja catchphrase and turned into a spinning, drill-like rock formation, which I could only assume was their precious spinjitzu.

Precious, it was, as I had no idea what to do in this situation. It looked like it could rip my skin off with how fast it was turning.

So much for 'not wanting to hurt me'.

Noticing my indecision, he ceased his spinjitzu to hurl me to the ground, and man, was he strong. The collision was less than pleasant as I hit my head on the ground and colliding with the earth ninja was more than comparable to hitting a rock.

Just when he was about to punch me in the face, he got electrocuted and slumped on top of me.

Eeegh. Awkward.

I rolled him off of me and turned to see Roy with a gun, although he didn't bother to stay as he refocused his attention on the giant mech, knowing full well I was not going to thank him.

It was measly teamwork, why thank him?

POV: Cole

When I started to wake up, the first thing I noticed was the metal-like rope binding my arms on the sides of my chest as I sat next to… a squirming wall? The next thing I noticed was the tingling of the power suppressed in my chest– hmph, vengestone– and the fact that the squirming wall was the fire-not-fire wielder still trying to break free next to me.

We were all tied by the same vengstone rope, sitting in a circular shape. Looking around, I noticed that I was the last to wake up and then spotted Jay talking to some other agents.

"Jay!"

He briefly glanced at me with a somewhat annoyed look, chose to ignore me, and kept talking to the agents.

"JAY!"

I could tell this was starting to get to him, so I kept on bugging him.

"Jay. Jay. Jay. Jay. Jay. Jay," I kept continuing because this was starting to get amusing, "Jay. Jay. Jay. Jay," a little twitch there, "Jay. Jay. Jay. Jay," a little glare there, "Jay. Jay. Jay. Jay–"

"WHAAAT!"

I smirked, noting how much annoyed and angry he looked.

He was still the same Jay.

He walked toward me with the most fiery glare I've seen in anyone in the past five years and stopped before me, expectantly waiting for the reason for my bugging.

"Remember when you acted as a damsel in distress wearing a pink dress on a railroad to lure the Samurai X because of a bet we made?"

Jay didn't look mad anymore, just outright confused. When he opened his mouth to say something, I cut him off, "Remember when I made a bet that if the coin landed on heads you had to do both our chores and if it was tails I didn't have to do anything and you accepted?"

Jay looked both confused and annoyed as he said, "I'll keep that in mind."

Okay, so maybe it won't be that easy. He needs more big, important things.

He was just turning to leave when I blurted out again, "Do you remember when you went into the game Prime Empire and became Superstar Rockin' Jay?"

"That sounds absurd," Jay deadpanned.

"What about–"

"I already asked your friends here and they refused to answer; do you know where the Dragon Cores are?"

Knowing I couldn't get any more out of him if he refused to listen, I thought about his question. I wasn't with them when they retrieved the Dragon Cores for the second time, so I answered honestly, "No."

"Fine," he said, turning around to another agent, "Make one last sweep, and I want the black one."

He's leaving, and he's taking me with him?

I felt hope flutter in my chest as I thought about this. He was leaving to who knows where and who knows how guarded and weaponized, and I was getting a green card straight into it? This was perfect! I could only hope he was going to be questioning me, or whatever they were going to do to me.

POV: Agent Walker

This was rather disappointing.

After we secured all of the ninjas, my whole team did a thorough scan throughout the whole monastery and we found nothing.

I suppose they weren't as possessive as I thought.

The fight was fun until the black ninja started talking but I still expected results. No Dragon Cores nor any information on where they might be. As much as the black ninja annoyed me, I was rather relieved of his presence because I knew what would happen if they refused to give us what we wanted or any information about it and… well, we would have captured one and forced, or rather… 'encouraged them' as The Administrator would say, to give us the information we wanted.

Although I would never admit it, I was relieved that I wouldn't have to 'encourage' a kid to tell us the location of the Dragon Cores. The earth ninja is strong, and it will be hard to make him tell us, but at least he's an adult.

He keeps getting under my skin with all of his weird 'Remember?'s and I just can't help but feel weird when he says it. Not to mention, when I was in the monastery, I felt a weird sense of… belonging–? NO– that's absurd. Stop letting him get into your head!

I just hope I don't have to question him.