It was inevitable that they were going to get caught by the tide. In fact, running away was pretty much pointless. The water swept the three of them from the ground, causing Acronix and Borg to let out high pitched screams. Pixal would've laughed at them if she hadn't been so worried for them.
Pixal had been bracing herself for the moment her feet left the floor, but as she plunged into the rush of water, she seemed to remember that she was a robot. She could breathe underwater. She even had a setting that allowed her to swim more easily. Lucky her.
But she hadn't been worried about herself. She'd been worried about her father and Acronix because, unfortunately, they were not robots like her and could not breathe underwater or swim well with a touch of a button.
She dove into the water and scanned around for the two of them. Her father was her priority, however, so she let her eyes scan around for him primarily.
She spotted him clinging to the branch of a tall tree, the rest of his body flying behind him, his face scrunched up from holding his breath. She kicked her legs and glided towards him. With the force of the tide pushing her along, she got to him much quicker than expected. When she did, she tied a rope around his waist, before tying the other end to her own wrist. After that, she shot upwards as quickly as possible, the tide still pulling her along, and the two of them surfaced.
Borg coughed and spluttered, water spurring out of his mouth. He took several deep breaths, and then let Pixal swim to the shore, a higher spot of land from where the flood had hit, with him and place him on the muddy earth.
She didn't have time to say anything to him. As sceptical as she was, she had to save Acronix. After all, that's what any good ninja would do.
He was much harder to find. The tide had pulled him along much further than it had for her and her father, so it would take her longer to reach him. However, she could tell, even from far away, that he had already passed out, meaning she had to be even quicker than planned if she was to save him in time.
She pulled herself forwards in a breaststroke style, whilst kicking her legs rapidly behind her.
Somehow, in some miraculous way, she reached him. But, despite being a robot, she was tired when she did. She barely had any energy to resurface, but he needed the air now or never.
So, she summoned all the energy she had left and kicked upwards towards the surface, despite the tide pushing and pulling her every which way. She reached the top of the water and breathed a sigh of relief, but Acronix was unable to do the same. She quickly swam to the stretch of land where her father sat, and placed Acronix on the ground.
She quickly started to perform CPR, pushing down on his chest trying to revive him. Her father watched over her, a look of panic in his eyes. She would've been surprised by her father's concern for Acronix, but was too focused on Acronix to pay Borg any attention. She even felt herself getting worried. They hadn't spent too long together, but she'd actually grown to like Acronix. Sure, she had her suspicions, but he'd made her laugh and would've attacked them by now if he was tricking them, right?
After a while, he started to cough and splutter, signalling that he was still alive, much to her relief. Water poured out of his mouth and ran down his chin and he kept coughing and gasping for air, so Pixal placed a hand behind his back and helped him lean up. He eventually stopped coughing and was able to steady his breathing.
He looked up at Pixal, a look of pure gratitude in his eyes. His glance then turned to Borg for a split second, before turning back towards his rescuer.
"Well..." He said, standing up and wringing out his shirt. "Looks like rain."
Pixal stared at him for a few seconds, trying to process what just happened. She turned to look at her father who seemed to have recovered. His chair had gotten lost in the flood, so he was on the ground and covered in the mud that surrounded him. She crawled towards him, asking him if he was okay, just to make sure, and when he said he was, she sat down beside him and watched the rough, rushing waters continue through the jungle.
Her gaze turned to Acronix, who had his head in his hands.
"Looks like rain?" She questioned. His head quickly jerked towards her. "What kind of a joke is that? We almost died!" She said it with a serious tone, but she had a smile on her face as she did.
"Just trying to lighten the mood." He replied, returning her smile. Then he laughed. And so did she. They laughed very loudly. Sure, they had nearly died. But weren't they always on the brink of death? Wasn't it a miracle that they were still alive?
Borg wasn't as amused as they were. He had a puzzled look on his face, probably because he wasn't always involved in danger as they had been. He probably didn't see much humour in his daughter always being on the verge of dying either. Nindroid or not, he cared about her and didn't want to lose her.
Acronix looked down at himself and how drenched he was. This made him laugh even harder. But nonetheless, he stroked a hand through his soaked hair and pulled out the tie that held it in place, letting it flow freely around his face. After that, he stripped off his shirt, threw it to the ground and stamped on it a few times in some weird method of drying it. It didn't work. If anything, it made it worse. In realisation of this, he shrugged and decided to move onto his trousers, but before he could take those off, Pixal shook her head at him, telling him that she'd rather he didn't do that here.
She turned to her father, who had been sitting silently at the side of her for a while now. She assumed he was in shock, which was perfectly understandable so wrapped an arm around his shoulder. He barely noticed. He was busy staring at Acronix, which she found strange. His face was a deep shade of red, as if he was flustered, which could've been from the rush of adrenaline he'd got from the flood or from the way he was looking at Acronix's bare chest.
Pixal tried not to give it much notice. After all, this was her father. If he had a crush on Acronix, good for him, but it would surprise her considering how he'd been treating him on this journey. Maybe he didn't have a crush on him. Maybe he just found him attractive, which was entirely plausible. Acronix was a very attractive man. It was hard to deny that.
She pulled herself back to reality. All three of them were sat silently in a circle. There was nothing else to do. They had been lost before, but after the flood, they'd become even more lost. There was nothing to do now but wait for a sign.
So when the fireworks started ten minutes later, she couldn't help but smile.
Lloyd placed a slice of toast on the tray in front of Akita. She examined it, as if it might be poisoned.
"Why is this bread so dark?" She questioned. Lloyd stared at her, not sure if she was being serious or not.
"Because it's been toasted... So it's warm and crispy..." He replied.
"And why is it so greasy?" She asked, once again wary, as if the food in front of her couldn't possibly be edible. Lloyd chuckled nervously, and replied, "Because it's covered in butter. A dairy product. It makes the toast, or bread, nice."
Her eyes darted from the strange bread in front of her to the even stranger boy stood next to her. Reluctantly, she picked up the toast and took a crunchy bite. Her eyes lit up. It was a lot better than she expected. Within five seconds, the toast had disappeared.
"You always did have an appetite, sister!" Laughed Kataru from the other side of the room. Akita rolled her eyes and scrunched her nose at her brother. He returned the favour by sticking his tongue out at her. The two of them loved to tease each other like this. It was either that or protecting each other's asses in the midst of battle because despite the banter, they loved each other very much and didn't want to lose the other as they had before.
Lloyd gasped. "Kataru! I'm so sorry! I didn't get you or..." He paused, turning his attention to the hospital bed beside Kataru's. A young girl lay there, her light brown hair falling around her shoulders, her fringe slightly covering her face. Despite this, you could easily make out her several freckles that bridged across her nose, and the piercing brown eyes that were her most attractive feature. Her head jerked towards Lloyd, very quickly and very attentively. "Sorry," Lloyd repeated, "I can't quite remember your name."
The girl smiled sweetly and said, "It's okay. My name is Alecia."
"Right. Well, sorry, Kataru, I forgot to pick some food up for you and Alecia. I'll go back to reception and get you some. Do you wanna try toast too?"
"Well, judging from how my sister guzzled her piece down, yes. We will both have toast." Kataru replied, with an emphasis on toast as if he were still unsure what, exactly, it was. Lloyd left immediately after that.
Akita looked between her brother and sister-in-law. "I don't know why he didn't get you two anything. I assume he's still in a state of shock."
Kataru grinned; "Sure. Or he just couldn't get you off of his mind." He wriggled his eyebrows, causing his sister to blush and his new wife to giggle.
"Because I just arrived from a far away realm with some pretty big news, Kataru! I am sure he does not think of me in that way!"
"Maybe not. But I'm sure he hasn't forgotten that parting gift you left him the last time you saw him. Y'know, the little peck on the cheek you just couldn't resist!"
Alecia gasped (in a very fangirly way). "You kissed him?! Akita, I didn't know you had a crush on this boy!" She clapped her hands, obviously excited to write a fanfic about this new ship.
"I don't! He saved my life! Obviously, I'm going to respect him for that!" Akita was not impressed with her sister-in-law's accusations. "Now can you both please shut up. We have bigger problems to worry about, like, what the heck happened and how did we end up here?"
"Do you think Lloyd has any idea? You said he's dealt with weird stuff before."
"He didn't seem to know anything..." Akita explained. "But I'm sure this Master Wu he mentioned can help us."
It was then that Lloyd returned. He held two trays in each hand and on both trays was a plate of toast and a cup of water.
He hadn't been able to open the doors with his hands, so had pushed the door open with his shoulder instead, and had then closed it with his leg. He didn't, during any of this, seem at all concerned that he would drop the trays. Akita wouldn't have dared try to balance the trays like that. But Lloyd was a ninja. He was used to doing stuff like that.
He placed a tray each on the laps of Kataru and Alecia. They both thanked him.
"Sorry, guys. I'd love to hear more about your recent... adventure, but I've got somewhere to be." He said, examining the flowers on Alecia's bedside table.
"Gotta get back to the monastery?" Kataru enquired. Lloyd nodded. "Well, be sure to thank your mom for the flowers!"
"Ooh, yes!" Alecia kindly added. "They're quite beautiful!" She leaned towards the flowers at her side, sniffed them, then pulled her head back to sneeze. When she did, Lloyd nearly jumped through the roof, for as she had sneezed, her ears had gone from normal human ears, to the ears of a doe.
He laughed. "How did I never ask your form? You're obviously a deer. Even without the ears you look deer-like! Y'know, with the freckles and big brown eyes?" He pointed to his own nose as he said it, getting a giggle out of her.
He turned to leave and, as he did, gave Akita a little smile, making her blush a bit more than she would've liked to think. And just like that, the Green Ninja was gone.
"Mr. Borg! You have a visitor!" said Cyrus's reception bot through the communication device on his desk.
Cyrus blinked curiously. He barely ever got visitors, and even when he did, it was usually the ninja or Pixal. But they never asked at reception to see him.
Acronix was also puzzled. He stood up, wiping oil off of his face. He had been working on a machine, to spare Cyrus time, all day. It was clear how tired he was.
"Ooh! Sorry, sir! He's actually wanting to talk to Acronix!" added the reception bot, with some uncertainty as Acronix didn't even work there, so why would he have a visitor?
Cyrus looked up at his boyfriend before replying. "Are you gonna see who it is?" He asked, wheeling around to face him.
Acronix nodded. "I might as well." He said. Then he smiled smugly. "It's better than hearing you shout at me for working on this machine till I... what was it you said? 'Drain my battery?'"
"I create technological and electrical devices, of course I was going to use a tech pun to scold you! And I'm right! I don't like seeing you work so hard, especially for me."
Acronix let the smile on his face widen. He walked over to Cyrus, bent down and kissed him. "For you, Cyborg, I'd do anything." He muttered into his boyfriend's lips. He felt Cyrus smile. Either because he thought what he said was sweet or because it was really cheesey.
"I'm coming down now." He said into the communicator, after pulling away. He walked towards the elevator and pushed the ground floor button. He gave his boyfriend one last little smile before the doors closed. Once they did, a frown replaced it, as he knew exactly who he was about to meet.
When the elevator reached the ground floor, he walked out with confidence he didn't seem to have. This was the only person in the world who made him feel scared. Probably because they were so close to him, yet the two of them didn't see eye-to-eye. At least not anymore.
He knew the man in the mysterious black cloak was who he was looking for. As he approached him, the man held his arms out, as if ready to hug Acronix, but Acronix did not oblige. Instead, he grabbed the man by the arm and pulled him out of the building and down an alleyway a few doors down.
"What the hell are you doing here, Krux?" He screamed at the man, as soon as they were out of sight.
Krux smiled; "Brother! It is so good to see you again!"
"I wish I could say the same..." muttered Acronix.
Krux frowned, then glanced back towards Borg Tower. "Why do you stay with him? That inventor? I'd hate it there if I were y–" He was cut off by a slap in the face from his brother.
"Don't. Don't talk about him that way. You know I love him."
Krux shook his head and sighed. "Love makes us do crazy things." He said. "You stay with that weirdo, and I fight for a better world. Same thing, really."
"Sure. Well, now that we've cleared that up, let me guess why you're really here." Acronix urged his brother to tell, but Krux knew he already had an idea of why he was there. "Lyra still wants me in her army, huh? Even though I've said 'no' countless times?"
"Acronix..." Krux whispered the name and placed a hand on his twin's shoulder. "You need to think about who you're fighting for... Would you really turn your back on me for some nerd?"
"Yes." Acronix replied, without hesitation. "I've heard this time and time again, Krux. I don't need to hear it ag–" He stopped abruptly to laugh, causing Krux to cock an eyebrow. "Time... Boy, the trouble that's caused us..."
"So what should I tell Lyra?"
"No. Like usual. Now go. I hate seeing you." He hesitated before he heaved a sigh and said, "It reminds me of the good times..."
"Is that why you cover for me?" Krux asked. He didn't get an answer.
Acronix walked away, trying to forget his encounter with Krux, and trying to come up with a plausible story to tell Cyrus.