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“UGH!” Jay growled, tossing a yellow something, was that a wig— “And that’s the last time I tie myself to railway tracks—“
Kai immediately sat to attention, putting his book down. “Dude, what?”
“Oh. You heard that.”
“Should I be more concerned about the wig, or the railway tracks?” Kai snickered. “Where’d you even get one?”
“Well, Party Planet has pretty good deals — NO! IT’S NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS, AND IT DIDN’T EVEN MAKE HIM BREAK A SWEAT!”
“Samurai X?”
Jay threw his hands up, a sure-fire way to know he was about to start ranting. “SAMURAI X! He, he thinks he can just — just SWOOP IN, WITH HIS STUPID, PERFECT, BEAUTIFULLY DESIGNED MECH, AND JUST TAKE ALL OF OUR THUNDER, AND—!” He paused for a moment, then huffed and stomped his foot. “NOT EVEN WORDS CAN EXPRESS MY ANGER! Not. Even. Words.”
“Right. Well.” The Red Ninja stood, putting a hand on Jay’s shoulder and offering one of his Classic Kai Smirks (trademark pending). “Good luck trying to catch them, dude. Just leave the dress out of it, huh?”
“YOU—“ Jay shoved him, with intent but no real force. “Get out of here! Sick of you and the Samurai!”
The only thing the Blue Ninja heard as heat rushed to his face was Kai’s victorious laughter.
Jay had sight of the Constrictai for about five minutes before he lost them again. Because trying to fight them on their own turf was such a good idea, thank you Cole and Kai, this was an easy in and out! Definitely a mission best suited for Jay, who hadn’t even been here before—!
He scowled, kicking at the rockslide that had his other leg pinned. They all knew it was a trap. Why’d he have to pull the short straw? Heck, Jay didn’t even want to call back to base to let them know he was trapped, he knew he’d never hear the end of it. He KNEW he broke the record for quickest time before being defeated by snakes.
Jay didn’t know how long he sat there, finger hovering above the call button, before he heard the clank-clanks and fsh-fshts of a frustratingly familiar mech.
“Oh joy!” The Blue Ninja grumbled as Samurai X stepped into his cave. “You’re here too. I don’t suppose you’re bootlegging off of our snake security system?”
The mech paused, before turning to look at him. He could almost hear the snarky “ seriously ?”
“Snakes went that way, by the way. Just save some of the spotlight for me?” Jay continued, pointing to one of the tunnels past him.
Samurai X peered down the path, as if they were analyzing it, before turning back to the downed Blue Ninja.
“Really, I’ll be fine. My leg isn’t crushed or anything, it’s just the fabric.”
Robotic silence.
“Well, you can imagine this. Either I get up and rip my one of a kind, fancy-ass gi, or I wait for my team to come pick me up and for everybody to witness how badly I whiffed it this time.”
The Samurai then leaned in, a light beam shooting from their sensors.
“What the — HEY!“ Jay jolted, trying to wave them away. “DON’T SCAN ME! I’m perfectly safe and healthy, and I think you have more pressing matters at hand, I mean did you see those Constrictai? They’re pretty mean looking, I mean, imagine how much damage they can do now that you aren’t chasing them down! It’s such a shame…”
Ignoring the Blue Ninja’s rambling, Samurai X placed mechanical hands on the boulder pinning him down.
“—AH, DON’T MOVE THAT! Moving the rockslide could make the whole ceiling come down!”
They stopped, taking their hands off of the rock for a moment and deciding to poke around it instead.
While they were thorough, watching Samurai X sift through a bunch of rocks was super boring. Not just boring, awful. After a bit, he couldn’t help but sigh. “Y’know, you really don’t have to do this. I have this teammate, Cole, he’s the Black Ninja, who literally has super strength and earth powers. You’re already better than us, or at least me. Don’t need to prove it by saving a guy who hates you.”
Samurai X paused, looking at him head on, and Jay froze. From there, Jay could see the small window the cockpit had, and a sliver of their face — he could feel the way their eyebrows knitted together from there.
“It’s okay,” He tried one last time. “Go fight snakes.”
They stared for a bit longer, before turning back to their work. Choosing a rock at random, they rolled it very carefully, feather-light despite their bulky hands, and suddenly everything was shaking and moving again.
“AH—!” Jay ducked, only for his leg to finally be freed. “Ah…? AHH!” But every other rock was now suddenly coming after him, determined to reclaim their grip on the Blue Ninja.
And he was suddenly snatched away, scooped up by a mech with all intents to get the fuck out of dodge.
Jay definitely did not scream the entire way, and hopefully Samurai X would stay silent enough to not try and refute that claim anytime soon.
He barely had enough time to register the new room they were in as the first chamber of the Constrictai’s Tomb, before he was sent sprawling again. His ride had tripped, accidentally tossing Jay across the chamber.
The Blue Ninja was able to bounce back up this time, stretching to celebrate regaining his leg again and shaking cave dust out of his dark curls to celebrate being trapped for that long. He cupped his hands and shouted over to the downed mech. “YOU OKAY?”
There was the expected complete silence from the pilot, but now the usually busy mech was still — clawed fingers twitched and the pack on the back sparked a couple of times before giving up altogether.
Jay frowned and hesitated, before shaking his head. He was a ninja, remember, a hero! Jogging over, Jay peered down to try and meet Samurai X’s real eyes. “Do you need help, hold on, lemme just—“
They shoved at the seal of their cockpit, demonstrating how it would budge, but not stay open long enough for an escape. It was a simple problem with a complicated solution: hatches were like that.
“Oh,” Then he leaned in closer, extending a gloved hand. “Well, uh, what if you push and then I pull you out really quick.”
They tilted their head to the side, crossing their arms.
“C’mon! You don’t know if you don’t try, right?”
Samurai X sighed, then hesitantly reached out their gloved hand, like he was a wild animal instead of a fellow (rival?) crime-fighter.
“Righty. On one, two, thREE—!”
As Jay wailed, he was able to yank the fallen samurai out and across the cave floor with him. They landed with a pained oof . He whipped around, hovering over them.
“You’re not hurt this time either, right? Because I know a guy — wow okay, nice going Walker. You know a guy, but you can’t ever be the guy, can’t even stand the—mmmph!” The Blue Ninja blinked, before tugging the other’s hand off his mouth. “Hey!”
Samurai X huffed, their gaze not leaving Jay’s.
“Sorry, sorry, you’re right — I’m not helping us get out of here.”
They tilted their head, still not moving.
“And… I shouldn’t talk about myself like that?”
Only then did Samurai X break eye contact, rolling over and onto their feet again and immediately scurrying to their mech.
There was two more things he knew about Samurai X now, besides the fact that they were a popularity-stealing showboat: that they were taller than him and that they were surprisingly good at keeping people’s anxieties in check. Jay didn’t want to know how to feel about either of those.
And… they weren’t as bad as he thought they’d be. At least, now that there weren’t any spectators to swoon over Samurai X. Actually—
“Focus!” Jay muttered to himself, slapping his hands over his darkening cheeks. He stood up, before making a beeline for the Samurai and their mech. They were still hunched over it, tending to and checking parts with care, but their body language was a lot more tense than before, all jerky movements and pinched shoulders. “So, Sam, could I take, uh, a look at it?”
Without looking up, Samurai X made a vague gesture to the rest of the mech — Jay could inspect it as much as he wanted to.
“Okay, alright,” The Blue Ninja said to himself as he laid his hands on the red metal. “Now here’s…” He continued to softly mutter as he gave it a once over, noting specs, techniques, the works. To Samurai X: “Wow. This is.. one of the best mech builds I’ve seen!”
They stayed silent and focused, but he could feel their curious and surprised(?) eyes on him.
“No, because these pistons are put together in a way I’ve never heard of before, the wiring is so efficient, these converters might be a little — HOLY SHIT!” Jay jumped, throwing his hands up with his epiphany. “SAM, THE CONVERTERS!”
Samurai X paused in their search, before coming over to what he was investigating.
Hurriedly, Jay rushed to try and explain himself. “So! Yeah! Uh! These converters between the thruster battery and the thruster output — they’re shot.” He traced the path the electricity took with his hand absentmindedly, imagining the familiar crackle responding to his hands. “The battery was a bit too strong for the converter, so when you strained it—“
Jay looked to the samurai, and they nodded, miming an explosion with their hands. They mimicked Jay in tracing the electricity’s path, and some unhelpful part of his mind reminded him that they were almost touching. Samurai X tilted their head at him again.
“Well, uh — do you have an extra battery?”
They shook their head.
“Shit. This thing needs a new one, the converter blew it, and we don’t have one, huh…” The Blue Ninja frowns, drifting off. Maybe there was someplace else in the mech that they could steal a battery from? No, nowhere else needed that much power. Scavenging, they could see if there was anything around: maybe some ancient tech or naturally charged metals, those existed, right? Because Jay’s pretty sure he read about it in a book once, or maybe it was on TV—
Distracted, he doesn’t notice the gesturing samurai right next to him until they grabbed his shoulder.
“Hm? Oh hi, Sam, I was just trying to—“
Samurai X peered at Jay for a second, before reaching over again and tapping something strapped to his back.
“My nunchucks. My nunchucks, my nunchucks! YEAH! MY NUNCHUCKS!” He beamed, pulling them out and embracing the buzz of static as they hummed to life. “I could temporarily power our own power grid with em, I bet they could get your thrusters functional enough to get us outta here!”
They nodded excitedly.
In his elation, Jay laughed and pulled Samurai X into a brief hug, pulling away before he could really think about it. He wasn’t going to die here, neither would they, and he wouldn’t have to be made fun of for being a sucky ninja! Everyone won!
Samurai X blinked and paused for a moment, trying to process and come up with something, anything . Unfortunately for them, the Blue Ninja was already preparing the thrusters for an electricity transfer, his surprise show of affection clearly the furthest thing from his mind at the moment. Then, steeling themself, they began to climb back into the mech’s cockpit.
“OKAY!” Jay shouted from the Samurai Mech’s back. “WHEN I SAY WHEN, YOU PUNCH IT!”
Giving him a final thumbs up, they disappeared into the mech again, gloved hands dancing over levers, buttons, and sliders — familiarizing themself more out of routine than a genuine need.
Not too long after, his muffled voice sounded again. “RIGHT. THREE, TWO, ONE — NOW! DO IT NOW DO IT NOW DO—“
Once their controls lit up again they wasted no time. The thrusters roared to life and sputtered, one… two… three and they were airborne! The mech turned to catch Jay in its hands, suspecting he’d be thrown off (he was), but other than that it was a simple flight straight up and out of the tomb.
Safe in the Samurai Mech’s arms, Jay laughed wildly, wind whipping at his short curls and already strained cheeks.
Finally, Samurai X and guest pulled out of the hole, finishing with a neat arc. Coming to a hover at the dusty top of the Mountain of a Million Steps, the mech went to gently set Jay down, allowing him to hop out.
“I — thanks. For rescuing me, and letting me check out and mess with your mech and—“ He shuffled, suddenly and frustratingly shy. He was better at this, come on, Walker! “You’re, uh, you’re really cool. I’m just gonna have to deny it next time we meet, I have to keep up appearances, aha…! See you around, Sam?”
Score, their mech’s speakers were working again! They hoped they had enough juice to use their speakers and get back to base. “YOU’RE WELCOME. I HOPE TO SEE YOU SOON TOO.”
Jay must’ve been thinking the same, because his eyes brightened before smiling slightly. “You probably should get back before the clock strikes midnight and your mech turns back into a pumpkin. Well, it’ll actually turn into a beautifully designed hunk of useless metal but — augh, get out of here!” The Blue Ninja beamed despite himself, waving them off.
Samurai X returned the wave, before their thrusters roared to life again and they were off, soaring into the clouds of the now-late afternoon.
Jay watched until they were out of sight, before sighing. Picking up his communicator, he finally pressed the call button. “So. You guys will never believe which mission was OBVIOUSLY a bust…”
Their trips back to The Bounty after missions were usually filled with chatter, but this one even more so.
Zane and Cole walked ahead, occasionally exchanging words, content in each other’s company. Kai settled for a perfect middle in the group, able to keep an eye on the pairs ahead and behind him. Bringing up the rear was Nya and Jay, discussing the day’s events — not their date but rather the battle right after it.
“—and can we talk about the welding? I’m dying to talk about the welding, Nya, how’d you get so good at it?” Jay was saying, waving his arms about, little remains of electricity dancing across them.
Nya laughed, tugging at a lock of her hair with a smile. “Jay, I’m a blacksmith. Of course I’d know about sticking bits of metal together with heat. It wasn’t any harder than learning how to wire it.”
“AH! IT'S JUST SO COOL! You uh, think you could give me some pointers?”
“Only if you give me some first, Sparky.”
“Consider it done, Sam!” Then, the Blue Ninja leaned in. “So! Thoughts on getting some of that thruster tech on The Bounty?”
“I want to fix that converter-battery issue I’m still having first, but I think that’d be great to increase the…”
Ahead of them, the Red Ninja hummed and smiled to himself. Now those nerds could nerd without any secret identities and made-up grudges to get between them. About time.