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Chapter Text

Kai was probably one of the most massive idiots of all time when it came to seeing things about to hit you in the back of the head.

The birds, probably the first thing that caught his attention, then the green.
The splotches of dark and lighter colors, barely letting the sun and sky break through. Then the pain was the second thing he noticed.

His head hurt, a pang in his skull no doubt planning on giving him a monster headache that would take awhile to stop, he reached a hand up into his hair, touching the spot where the pain was coming from. Opening his eyes when he felt something wet. He pulled his hand away to find blood, sticky red, almost dry blood.
The fire ninja growled and tried to sit up, stumbling a little bit and managing to sit up on his ass, what had happened? And why out of all the places in the world was he in the middle of a fucking forest?

Kai growled sharply before sighing and sitting up, head still banging in protest, he clutched the bleeding part of his head with his hand, looking around to try and figure out where he was.
Green, more green, extra green.

Kai sighed, moving forward and moving some bushes in his way, he looked at what he was wearing, casual, a red hoodie, white shirt and jeans, who would pick up a random person and dump them out in the middle of a forest? A stupid person considering they only stole a couple bucks and his keys.
Wait a minute,
“Fuck!” He ignored how dry his throat sounded as he quickly summoned his dragon, the flames of the dragon tickling his hands as he hopped on, the wind rushing into his face as he bared his teeth, what kind of idiot was planning on robbing the ninja? Or worse, he thought, he shook his head. No time, just got to get to the ship before whoever stole his keys did.

The flight was quick, he could already see ninjago after a few minutes, now to just find the ship, he looked around, silver and gray buildings, technology everywhere, then it hit him.
Literally, of course he would be the kind of idiot to not see the billboard in his line of flight, so he plummeted, panicking a little before quickly summoning his dragon again. They lifted up again, this time Kai making sure to go higher than the city, into the clouds.
That billboard hurt like hell, but at least he remembered who knocked him out.
Cryptor, he had to warn the ninja, but, what was one Nindroid going to do against a whole group of powerful ass-kicking ninja? He touched his head again, maybe he wasn’t focused the first time but he’d make sure to be the next time, hopefully.
His dragon twirled back downwards, destination in his mind as he flew back down to ninjago, if he was a banged up Nindroid, where would he go? Someplace quiet, safe, and with tech, and only one place had lots of space to hide, and almost constant shipments of tech to Borg Industry’s. The docks, and if that didn’t work out, Borg was his next stop.

He really should’ve called for backup.

Chapter Text

Being punched was probably one of the lesser things kai has experienced, but that’s for later.

The dragon flew down, landing on the docks and disappearing as Kai landed on the ground, rolling his shoulders a bit as he looked around, boxes neatly stacked, water slushing underneath the planks of wood, he shivered before walking towards one of the large buildings used for storage.

He lit his finger, the flame dancing there before he played with it as he walked through the aisles of stacked crates and boxes, he huffed, the small flame dancing on his middle than pointer finger before he moved it to his pinkie then back to his pointer and thumb.
He shifted his hand a bit, putting the flame back onto his middle finger before he walked deeper and deeper, how big were these things? Larger than they seemed.

He chuckled to himself as he turned around, seeing a small gray blur, he tensed, moving closer, hands going into a fighting position as he shifted and moved some boxes.
A rat scurried out, gross. He lit his whole hand ablaze to make it easier for him to see, a glint in the corner of his eye.
He quickly snapped his head back to the boxes to see a small silver and red form, shaking, scared, his eyes widened, it was the small Nindroid, mindroid.

Mindroid bared his teeth, growling before, grinning ear to ear, he backed up both hands aflame,
“Come out you have nowhere to-“ he didn’t get time to finish his sentence before the small Nindroid darted between his legs and escaped, he quickly turned “Hey-!” A black clawed fist punched him in the center of his face, Kai stumbled back, gritting his teeth as he looked up, eyes narrowing as he spotted him, General Cryptor, and the Nindroid looked pissed.

Chapter Text

Kai quickly dodged another punch, Cryptor growling as he defended his chest by blocking a fire ball with his arm. A few sparks from out in the open wires causing the Nindroid to stumble a little, in pain perhaps, though the only Nindroid Kai knew that felt pain in some way was Zane, and even then only a little bit.

Kai ran forward and quickly hit Cryptor in the face before trying to do that again, hand getting grabbed as his arm was twisted, he yelled out in pain before grinning at Cryptor. Cryptors face darkening a little bit as Kai whipped around and spun, knocking Cryptor back a little bit before Kai used his body weight to knock Cryptor off balance by slamming into him then grabbing his arm and flipping him onto his back.

Cryptor let out a strangled glitching noise, Kais hands lit again, the dark wear house giving the nindroids a advantage.
“Cryptor don’t move, your not going to win” he huffed, annoyed as he took out his phone, about to call the ninja as Cryptor rolled onto his stomach.
Something small hit him in the legs with a large wooden plank, he quickly turned after stumbling a bit to find Mindroid, the smaller Nindroid glared at him with a red eye, the Nindroid wasn’t tall enough to even getting up to his hip.

The smaller Nindroid was broken in a few places, parts of his arm missing and his face scratched a little, neck missing a plate and his clothing being too big for him, the smaller Nindroid glared before beeping furiously at him.
“I don’t- what are you saying?” The ninja looked at Mindroid with confusion all over his face, the small nindroid tried to hit him in the legs with the wooden plank again, the ninja grabbing it and started to burn the part he was holding “that’s rude little fella”

“Brrp beeep beep beep, Beep beep, brrp, brrp beep brrp beep, beep beep beep beep!” The Nindroid shouted at him, Kai looking confused before a clawed hand grabbed his leg and pulled hard, the smaller Nindroid quickly jumping backwards out of the way of the falling ninja.

Kai growled as he hit the ground, looking up to see Cryptor standing up, fists clenching as the Nindroid narrowed his eye at him,
“You are going to die today, fire ninja.”
“Don’t think so!” Kai spinned, legs wrapping around Cryptors neck and suddenly bringing him down onto the floor with the fire ninja, Mindroid letting out sharp beeps of protest as the smaller ninja watched his general go down.

Kais legs tightened around Cryptors neck as the Nindroid growled and hissed like a feral animal, claws ripping into Kais pants and into his light brown skin, he gritted his teeth as he started to feel bits of blood where the nindroids claws were digging into him.
The Nindroid grinned toothily at Kai, some of his faceplate rusting and half broken along his mouth, a ear missing along with a couple of his fingers and plates of his arms, a lot more damaged than the smaller droid.

Kai looked around for his phone quickly, spotting it before trying to reach for it, Cryptors eyes widened,
“Min! The phone get the phone!” Mindroid looked around, quickly spotting it before running towards it, quickly kicking it away from Kai who banged the floor.

The smaller droid quickly went over to the phone and grabbed it, crushing it quickly with surprising strength for his size, Cryptor laughed mockingly “now it’s just you and me Fire ninja” Mindroid let out a annoyed wir at Cryptor saying just him. Kai growled at Cryptor, both seemingly locked in place for now.

Cryptor moves, causing Kai to try and put more pressure into the nindroids neck, Cryptor growled before moving his feet under him, Kais eyes widening as he tried everything to put all his strength into his legs to get the Nindroid back down, the Nindroid growled, claws clutching onto Kais legs as he shakily stood, sharp claws digging into Kais legs, Kai let go letting out a pained gasp. “Game over ninja.” The Nindroid grinned wide, sharp teeth showing.

“Not exactly!” Cryptor quickly turned around to see Jays nunchucks coming at him, he threw up his arms as the nunchuck chain wrapped around his wrist as the electric ninja shocked him with enough volts that would probably kill a man, the Nindroid let out a scream, stumbling back as his body started to smoke, then his body tipped, and he fell, right onto Kai.

Chapter Text

Kai grunted as he slid the large Nindroid off of him, sitting up and looking at Jays hand, the other ninja was laughing his ass off, Kai rolled his eyes and grabbed the other ninjas hand, “Yeah yeah hold your comments.”
“You were gonna be squashed!” The other ninja pulled him onto his feet, still trying to contain his laughter,
“I doubt General Cryptor and Min would’ve squashed Kai.” Zane spoke up as he grabbed the small squirming and no doubt pissed Nindroid. “They could’ve beaten him up very badly though,”
“Beep brrp, beep beep beep, beep beep beep!” Zane frowned at Mindroids furious beeping,
“You should watch your language” the smaller Nindroid hissed at him. Zane sighed and tucked the small Nindroid underneath his arm, the small thing kicking and squirming as he squeaked loudly, the smaller droid glared at them all before trying to bite Zane, the ice ninja frowned at Mins attempts.

“Really guys?” Kai chuckled as Jay patted his back “I could’ve gotten really hurt and your laughing at me?”
“It was a foolish mistake to not call for backup” Zane chuckled as he walked over, slightly frowning at the powered down body of Cryptor, Min screeching when he saw Cryptor not moving, trying to kick or scratch Zane so he would let him go.
“What should we do with the pipsqueak?” Kai looked at his teammates, awaiting their answers, Jay shrugged and Zane looked down at the small Nindroid under his arm,
“We could let him walk with us instead of being carried if he behaves.” Zane offered a small smile to the fellow Nindroid, Mindroid glaring at him and gritting his teeth, Zane frowned again before looking back up at Jay and Kai “Where are the others?”
“Looking around to see if there’s any more nindroids” Jay put his hands on his hips, looking at Kai with a small smirk, Kai chuckled.
“Let’s just get him out of the warehouse” he waved over to Cryptors body,
“Or give him to Cole if he reboots” Zane nodded, trying to focus on holding the noisy angry Nindroid that would no doubt run like a bat out of hell If let go.

Jay and Kai each grabbed one of side Cryptors body, starting to haul the Nindroid out of the wear house and out onto the docks, two dragons were circling overhead, Lloyds and Coles, the two waved and the other ninja came down, dragons disappearing as Lloyd and Cole hopped off.
“You all okay?” Lloyd quickly came over, Cole raising a eyebrow at the droid under Zane’s arm,
“Fine bro” Kai grinned as he shifted the limp nindroids arm slightly to get a better grip, “Cole can you help please? Jay looks like he’s gonna topple” Kai laughed at the look on jays face as Cole chuckled and took the Nindroid from the two easily.

Cole slung the Nindroid over his shoulder and smiled at Zane “Guess we both got nindroids to carry” he chuckled at the small smile the ice ninja gave to him, Mindroid letting out a disgusted “ugh” noise.
“Should we bring them to the bounty with us? They stayed hidden for a long time so they could know things,” Zane suggested as Min looked around for a escape.
“Hm... that’s a good idea Zane” Lloyd grinned,
“I gotta go get something for Nya, so I’ll be back later.” Jay smiled ear to ear, Kai narrowing his eyes at the lightning ninja.
“It’s Zane’s night to cook so you better hurry up before one of us decides to eat your food” Cole said with a small chuckle, and Zane smiled warmly at the small joke. Min was clutching his throat as if he might barf, scowling at them as Jay summoned his dragon.

“I’ll try not to be late, see y’all later!” Jay waved at the ninja as his dragon jumped up, doing a small spin as they flew higher and higher.
“So who’s gonna beat his high score while he’s gone?” Kai looked quickly at the group of ninja with a smirk, Lloyd laughing as the group of ninja summoned their dragons, Cole placing Cryptor onto his dragons back before jumping up, his dragon letting out a annoyed huff.

“If you try to escape your going to get very hurt cause you’d fall” he placed Min in front of him while he sat down on the dragon, Min crossing his arms and glaring holes into the Nindroid, beeping and squeaking something angrily. “Not my fault Mindroid,” the ice ninja spoke calmly “it’s probably best for you to not try and escape, you could try living with pixal and see how that turns out” Mindroid tried to slide off the dragon and Zane quickly grabbed his shirt, making sure he was situated before icing his hands together.

The smaller Nindroid let out sharp angry protests as the ice ninjas dragon lifted up, flapping in the air and watching as the other three dragons lifted up with their riders.

Chapter Text

-Rebooting.-
-Assessing damage.-
-40% damage.-
-60% functional.-
-turning on sensors.-
-turning on cooling fans.-

...

...what’s going on, everything hurts.
-collecting audio and visual footage.-

It was the ninja. Again?
Goddamn ninja.
...What happened after I shut down.

-searching data base.-
-no audio or visual footage down, after electric shock, all systems went offline.-

I’m going to kill someone.
Turn me back on.

-Rebooting audio.-
-Rebooting visuals.-

...where is Min.

Chapter Text

He shifted, first his hand, then his arm, adjusting himself so he was sitting instead of laying down. Cryptor growled, vision flicking back on as he blinked slowly, he looked around as he heard his audio receptors screech to life, he winced slightly as he heard static for a bit before he tuned them to the right frequency.

He was in a cell, if anyone could even call this shit of a excuse a cell, the floor was wood, breakable and easy to escape that way, iron bars and a window, he hissed. “These ninja are bigger idiots than I thought.” He slammed a hand into the floor, hand breaking through the wood as he tore off a plank, revealing metal underneath.

He gritted his teeth and looked around again, scanning everything he could as he realized there was a small nightstand, a bed, charging port and some spare parts. They really were idiots weren’t they? He flipped the bed over to see if there was anything of use.

Nothing. He hissed as he went over to the bars, feeling the lock with a clawed finger before going to the spare parts lying on the ground, he shifted through them, finding certain parts that were useful in rebuilding himself, not useful in escaping. He gritted his teeth, sighing sharply as he tried to calm himself.
Being angry and annoyed at every little thing wouldn’t help him get Min and then get the hell out of there, being angry didn’t help in surviving all these years, through ice, snakes, ghosts, ghosts again, more fucking snakes, the sons of garmadon, garmadon, Oni, fire snakes, no, being angry didn’t help at all. He sighed again to calm himself before breathing in deeply.
“Your awake Cryptor, are you alright? I hope Jay didn’t break you too much, we have only a few spare parts” forget being calm he was pissed.
“I’ll dismantle you bit by bit ice ninja, traitor.” He turned and hissed as Zane came in,
“Mindroid is alright, if you were worried, we tried not to hurt him anymore than he is, Jay is making repairs.” Cryptor narrowed his eyes, he wasn’t falling for such a easy trick. After a minute or so Zane realized the other droid was done speaking to him. “I tried to find some parts you needed, those were the best ones I could find.”
He motioned to the ones Cryptor was just looking through. “We’ll be taking you both to Dr. Borg, to get rebuilt, I can bring Min down here if you’d like” Cryptor growled and turned away, going back to the spare parts, Zane frowned. “The small droid is worried about you.”

Cryptor looked away, didn’t say anything, Zane was using him, he was lying He knew he was. He wouldn’t expect the traitorous droid to be anything except his protective AI, his group was so weak, just like the ice Nindroid was. Cryptor wasn’t, he was a general, he couldn’t be weak. “Leave before I rip out your jaw.” He growled again, he almost smiled at the way Zane looked, he was disappointed, but not surprised.

“Me and Pixal hope Dr. Borg doesn’t reprogram you, we know you can do something other than your programming,” he finally started to walk out “we did.” He looked back at Cryptor, the previous general of a army, strong, yet here he was growling like a rabid animal, broken and almost mangled. Zane left, he would come back tomorrow with Mindroid.

Cryptor started to shake, teeth barred and locked tightly, claws digging into the wood floors, he was going to escape, one way or another, under any means necessary. He looked up, and grinned.

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Zane came upstairs to crashing, he quickly rushed into the living quarters to find the ninjas bed locked, all the ninja out in the hallway, and Mindroid throwing things out through the doors window.

“Zane! Calm him down or something! We don’t have our techno blades anymore!” Jay practically screeched, like he always did when nervous, Zane chuckled a bit.

“Mindroid, can you please come out and talk? We promise we won’t hurt y-“ the small droid managed to throw a vase, hitting him directly in the face, he stumbled back a bit but was otherwise unharmed,
“That’s it I’m breaking the door down” Cole growled and ducked under the doors window before his arms started to glow a orange and yellow, then he tore the door off its hinges.
“Cole I’m fine” Zane smiled softly at Cole, Cole gently giving Zane a small kiss on the cheek, Min screaming interrupting them.

“Just hold still- you little sh-“ Min shoved his hand into Kais face as he tried to get away from the fire ninja holding him. Zane frowned and took min away from Kai, “ow.. that really hurt.” Kai rubbed his cheek before backing up from the hissing small droid.

“It’s okay, fun sized” was probably the worst thing Jay could’ve said, Min whipped around, instantly trying to jump out of Zane’s arms and try to scratch or pull out Jays hair. Zane let out a huff of surprise before holding min closer and tighter.

“I think maybe it’s best if you all leave” Cole let out a sigh “I don’t think we’re gonna get through to min if we’re all here” Min scoffed, get through to him? He was the greatest Nindroid when it came to stealth! And surprise attacks, especially when it came to hitting stupid red ninjas in the knees with wooden boards.

“Good idea Kai” Lloyd nodded, quickly moving away from the violent small droid, Jay nodded quickly following Lloyd and walking out, Kai hesitated. “Kai, cmon, you can stay on guard duty for Cryptor” Kai frowned a bit but walked out. “Don’t get hurt you tw-three” Lloyd smiled at Pixal as she walked in.

“Forgive me for being late.” Pixal smiled apologetically, Cole smiling back as he put his hammer next to his bed, he sat down and a large creak came from it, he sighed happily,
“No need to apologize Pix.” Cole was about to say another thing before Min growled, trying to bite Zane’s hands or at least hurt him enough to get the Nindroid to let go of him, Zane frowned and so did Pixal.
“If you calm down I’ll loosen my grip.” Zane looked down at Mindroid, Mindroid glaring up at him before screeching and trying to squirm his way out of the nindroids arms.
“Beep brrp beep beep, beep, brrp, brrp brrp beep, brrp brrp brrp!” He cried out, starting to hit Zane’s arms, hands, legs, anything he could reach, he whined and his hits got sloppy.
“I’ll let you go when you calm down Min, it’s okay, no ones going to hurt you” Zane’s words set him into another furious hitting mess, Pixal looked worried, and maybe a bit upset.
“Mindroid..”
“Hand him to me” Cole reached out his arms, Zane hesitated before giving the small Nindroid to Cole. Cole gently hugged the Nindroid, the small Nindroid hitting him and making Cole wince a bit.
“I don’t think..”
“I’m okay Zane, rock ninja remember” he winked, “I think the problem might be you two, since the whole, ice, Nindroid thing from before?” Zane’s eyes widened and he nodded.
“That would make sense..” he looked at Pixal, the other Nindroid gently grabbing Zane’s hand,
“We’ll be in the kitchen.” She smiled at Cole before gently pulling Zane out of the room.

Min screeched and tried to punch or hit Cole, Cole unaffected so far just gently rubbed Mins back as the droid hit and punched Coles chest and arms, “shh.. shh, it’s okay Min, it’s okay” Mins punches got weaker til he was just limp in Coles arms, Cole continued to gently rub Mins back. “Yeah.. that’s better isn’t it? Much more comfortable”
Min shook a bit before letting out a few broken sobs “brrp beep, brrp brrp brrp..” he shook a bit before cold coolant and oil started to leak from his eyes, he let out a few quiet sobs before breaking into a sobbing wailing mess.
“...Yeah, I know Min, it’s okay, your okay” he kept rubbing the nindroids back, letting the smaller being cry into his chest, “your gonna be okay, me, Zane and Pix promise, okay?”

Min stopped sniffling for a bit, some coolant running down his nose, he rubbed his nose into Coles gi, Cole letting out a little chuckle, “brrp brrp brrp, brreep beep brrrep, beep brrp, brrrp beep brrp brrrrep...”
“I’ll take that as a okay...”

Chapter Text

Kai sighed, walking downstairs with his sword in his hand, narrowing his eyes at the Nindroid in the cell, hand gripping on his sword as the Nindroid turned around.
They glared at each other for a moment, Kai was the one who turned his head away, he sat down a little ways away, Cryptor turned back around to the spare parts, continuing to fix himself, the noises of metal being moved and being put and snapped into places, or just put in piles, was a familiar noise to the ninja.

He listened, relaxing a bit as he heard the metal being placed and put down, maybe organized, it reminded him of home in a way... that was stupid, he quickly thought to himself, he almost shook his head, getting sentimental over a Nindroid who’d throw him off the ship, into a mountain and then make sure he was dead by blowing up the mountain, was going to be a bad idea.
He tensed up again and sat straight, he was supposed to be guarding the Nindroid, not relaxing with him. Cryptor didn’t seem to give him any attention when he moved to stop slouching.

After what seemed like a impossibly long hour, Kai uncomfortably shifted in his seat, fiddling with his swords handle, he looked back at Cryptor, then looked down at the floor, he growled, bored as he moved to slouch in his chair.

Kai tapped his leg on the ground a bit before switching to scrolling through his phone, the nindroids head lifting up a bit when Kai was scrolling, Cryptors head went back to the part, finding a few plates and slamming them into his arm loudly. Kai looked up,
“Are you fixing yourself or just hurting yourself more?” Cryptor didn’t respond, Kai frowned and stood up, walking towards the cell, sword left on his chair. “Hey Tory, you should probably not hurt yourse-“ Cryptor snapped up, suddenly grabbing Kais Gi through the bars and slamming the fire ninjas face against them.

“I’ll do what I damn well please.” Cryptor hissed in Kais face, the fire ninja being let go as he turned back around and sat down. Kai stared at Cryptor, hands clenched into fists, a few strands of smoke and small flicks of fire coming from his hair.
He sat back down, holding his sword and trying to calm himself, the fire elemental had a few drawbacks, just like any elemental power, his just happened to be his temper. However having a loving team that was as close as a family, helped him not have too many fires. He looked back up at the Nindroid, he paused,
“There’s other nindroids besides Zane and Pixal, at Borg industry’s” Kai shrugged “I honestly don’t care where you go, but Zane feels sorry for you” Cryptor growled, teeth gritting.

“I won’t. Not when I tear out your throat to get you to shut up.”
“You coulda just asked for me to be quiet” Kai grinned, quietly chuckling as he took out his phone again, this time popping in some headphones. Maybe this whole guarding thing wouldn’t be that boring, if he kept annoying the Nindroid into talking with him.

General Cryptor turned his head slightly, watching the fire ninja out of the corner of his eye, he huffed and looked back to the spare parts, pausing before sorting them for the third time since he woke up, ninja were, as he’s learned numerous times, messy and super fucking annoying.

Chapter Text

Cole shifted, large arms still wrapped around the small Nindroid, Min beeped to himself quietly, picking at Coles Gi with a clawed finger, almost making a hole in the fabric.
Cole raised a eyebrow at the small droid, large almost derpy smile on his face “so, tired yet?” The droid let out a displeased noise as Cole chuckled. “You don’t have to sleep if you don’t wanna, Zane and Pix only sleep after they’ve shut everything down and landed the Bounty.”

Min didn’t look up at Cole and didn’t even seem to care about what he said about Zane and Pixal, instead rubbing his face into Coles chest before blowing his nose into the black gi. Coles nose scrunched up in disgust, he sighed and patted Mindroids head, “you really don’t like Zane and Pixal.”

Mindroid nodded with a angry sounding beep, Cole put his head into a hand. Balancing Min on his leg and making sure he wouldn’t fall, he held the small droid with a arm for extra stability. Cole chuckled again, almost laughing as Min narrowed his eyes, Cole smiled at Min.
Min just started to beep, only a few at first before just going off, going on a wild rant, Cole listened, despite the fact he had no idea what the droid was saying.
Min didn’t care enough as he kept beeping. It was a while or two before Cole shifted again to switch Min onto his other leg, the small droid shifting uncomfortably when Cole picked him up.
Tiny clawed fingers digging into Coles hand as the earth ninja moved him. Cole winced a small bit at that “Hey, I promised I wouldn’t hurt ya’” he smiled softly at the droid shifting to get more comfortable, “so does that mean less nails?” Mindroid looked at him, the nails digging into his hand was probably a no.

Cole winced again and took his hand away from mins sharp grasp, almost getting reminded of a kitten. He noticed after a few of mins annoyed small beeps, that the small droid had a rather messy Gi, Cryptors was probably covered in muck too.
They were in that dirty warehouse for, who knows how long, and that could’ve not been their first stop. Cole frowned “Let’s see if anything fits you, don’t want ya feeling uncomfortable here, right?” He gently placed a hand onto Mindroids head, rubbing it gently as Min let out a squeaky beep.

Cole got up, gently placing Mindroid on his feet and holding his hand, “alright,” he walked towards jays dresser, he probably wouldn’t mind a few clothes going missing, right? He was the smallest and Min was, well the droids name spoke for his size enough. Cole let go of Mindroids hand to search through Jays dressers, he grinned wide when he found a older, and somewhat smaller shirt, it would still be baggy on Mindroid but it was better than nothing.
He kept looking, finding some more articles of clothing like some pants that looked a bit big but was all they had at the moment, Cole also got new clothing for himself. Min tilted his head and pointed at the shirt Cole picked for himself with a beep, “this? Oh this is for me, you’d look bad in it, too big trust me” he smiled softly, the two standing next to each other almost looked like some kids cartoon, a super small Nindroid, and a large ninja.

Min didn’t care, letting out a huff, before looking around and just soaking in every detail of the room. Cole gently held Mins hand and walked down the hallway to the bathroom, he gave Min the light blue and dark blue clothing, smiling as the droid walked into the bathroom to change.
Cole waited outside, watching the time tic away, was Mindroid okay? Did he get stuck or need help? Was Cole worrying over nothing?
Before he could knock on the door, Mindroid opened it, trudging out in the baggy clothing. Cole tried not to laugh as he kneeled down, rolling up the sleeves of Mins new pair of pants and the sleeves on the small droids temporary shirt.
The small droid had messy black hair that almost made it past his ears, it slightly covered more of the left side of his face that it would usually for other nindroids. He wasn’t holding his gi so it was probably still in the bathroom.
“You look cute,” he stood back up “I’m gonna go in and change too, you stay here” he smiled and went into the bathroom.

It was a quick change, Cole thought he heard something outside but that was probably just Min trying to vandalize something, he chuckled to himself as he switched his clothing.
When he walked out he chuckled “alright, all done, what now- Min?” He looked up and down the hall, not seeing the small droid anywhere, he sighed sharply, “Fuck.”

Min was running down the hall, Jays clothes slowing him down slightly but he made it far away from the Earth ninja, true Cole was more bearable than the other annoying ninja, but he was still a ninja. And ninja were threats to him, he hissed as he looked at two different hallways, one led to Cryptor, and one led to the other ninja, he ran down one, grumbling angrily to himself. ‘Get lost why don’t ya, get on the ninjas bad side again’ he rolled his eyes before bumping into someone, he let out a shocked screechy sounding beep as he looked up.

“Hi?” Nya looked down at the small Nindroid, recognizing him as Mindroid very quickly, “aren’t you supposed to be with Cole?” She raised a eyebrow looking confused, Min looked at her, glaring before noticing the plate of food she had, for whoever was guarding Cryptor, Min calculated.
He ran down the hall Nya was going towards “Hey! Mindroid come back!” Nya dropped her plate and tried to rush after the Nindroid, after awhile stopping to take a quick breath, why was something so small so fast?!

Mindroid beeped happily to himself, the stinky ninja were no match for him! He looked around before going towards a random door and opening it, broom closet. He left it open as he searched for where the ninja kept their prisoners, beeping quietly to himself as he got more and more annoyed with his failure.
“You are not supposed to be wandering around Mindroid” Mindroid froze, looking up the hallway and seeing the current Samurai X, the person quickly took off their helmet revealing it was Pixal “Let’s take you back to the others.”
Nya came rushing down a few moments later, catching her breath, plate of food for the guard lost.

Fuck that shit, Min quickly bolted down a random hallway, Pixal chasing after him “Min! Min come back please!” Min didn’t listen to the traitors cries, of course she would try to get him to join her cause, that’s why he didn’t trust the dirt ninja, no matter how nice he seemed, no matter how nice any of them seemed, they were all idiots.
He opened a door and went inside the room, slamming the door after him and locking it before putting a shelf or chair or something in front of it, he slid down and let out a relieved noise.

“Um, hi?” His eyes snapped open as he stared at Kai, Cryptor looking up from his cell, quickly standing,
“Don’t you dare fucking touch him ninja!” Cryptor snapped, Kai rolled his eyes,
“I won’t hurt him Tory I’m not a bad guy.” Min hissed as the fire ninja came closer, picking him up easily.
He was so close, he shrieked and beeped loudly, squirming and kicking and trying to bite or scratch the stupid fire ninja.

Chapter Text

Cryptor banged on the bars of the cell, almost making one of his newly fixed hands broken again as Kai picked up the screaming squirming mindroid.

“Hey! Ow! Stop I’m not gonna-“ Kai almost got kicked in the face as Pixal came down, Nya behind her.
“Are you alright?” Nya crossed her arms as she looked at the squirming min in kais arms,
“Yeah, just- ow! Fine!” Kai tried to hold min in a couple different positions to try and stop Mins attacks. Pixal frowned, gently taking mindroid from Kai,
“If you do not behave yourself we are going to...” Min glared at her before trying to kick her stomach or chest, Pixal quickly holding Min away from herself with a sigh. “Min.. just calm down and we can talk this out, no need to get violent.”
“Brrp beep, brrrp brrrrep brrp!” He kept squirming, Cole rushed down breathing heavily,
“Do you have him?”
“Yeah, I think he was trying to get to Cryptor” nya motioned towards the fuming Nindroid in the cell,
“What gave you that idea girly.” Cryptor hissed, purposely trying to get Nya angry, Nya was about to snap something back before the look on Kais face stopped her.
“Let us put him somewhere upstairs, if he wants to go to Cryptor this isn’t the way to ask” Pixal spoke, Min tiring a bit and not squirming as much, but still trying to bite or scratch Pixal with any given chance. Cole sighed,
“Good idea” he frowned at Min, before shaking his head “I should’ve been more careful, sorry Kai, and Nya, and pix”
“It’s fine Cole” Nya chuckled and patted Coles arm gently, Cryptor almost gagged as they walked out, Pixal speaking to them as Min started beeping and shouting what were no doubt a long string of curses.

Cryptor stood there, hands tight on the metal bars as he watched the door, tense, he gritted his teeth.
Cryptor moved, turning around and going to the flipped over bed, he hissed and flipped it back over, fixing it so that the blanket and pillow looked at least a little nice, he laid on it.
He couldn’t defeat the Ninja and get Min if he was exhausted, he closed his eyes and breathed heavily, thinking of different scenarios in where he could finally kill the ninja.

Upstairs, Min was throwing everything he could while trying to escape Pixal, he managed to get free but Pixal was quick enough to lock him into a room, Pixal sighed, rubbing her temple as she heard yet another thing in the guest bedroom break.
Zane and the other ninja quickly came over, “are you all alright?”
“We’re good Frosty” Cole motioned towards the room “Min, not so much” Zane paused and thought for a moment,

“So we know that Mins programming and AI is like a child, Cole did well in calming him down”
“Not so much with the watching him” Lloyd caught on, “So we calm him and we make sure we’re watching him, like you would when babysitting a kid” Kai chuckled and rubbed Lloyd’s hair,
“Or like what we did with you” Lloyd chuckled and pushed Kai away, shaking his head.
“So we’re gonna go in and just, burrito wrap him?” Jay grabbed a thrown blanket from off the floor, he grinned “That’ll get him relaxed if he’s like a bat” Lloyd raised a eyebrow, Nya did as well with a soft smile.

“Right now he’s just a scared kid, so, that’s actually a good idea” Cole nodded “I’ll do it, I don’t feel like you’ll be able to do it,”
“Hey! Well... actually your not wrong there,” Jay gave Cole the green blanket and stood next to Nya, quickly holding her hand with a derpy smile, Nya chuckled and shook her head.

“Alright, on the count of three?” Lloyd put his hood up, the other ninja following his lead, “One,” Jay took his hand from Nyas to get ready, “Two,” Zane put his hand on the door knob, “Three.”

Chapter Text

The ninja ran into the room, Cole raising the blanket up to grab a screaming angry Nindroid.
Cole lowered the blanket as he noticed how, quiet everyone was, Lloyd put a finger over his lips in a shush motion and pointed over to Zane’s bed. Min had finally tired out, probably low on energy after the tantrum of throwing everything in sight. The ninja slowly backed up except for Zane, who quietly took the blanket from Cole and slowly walked forward, raising the blanket and then slowly wrapping the small droid in it.
Zane winced a bit as Min shifted, carefully making sure to not wake him as he tucked the small droid in, making sure his pillow was under mins head comfortably.

Zane slowly backed up, Cole quickly motioning for him to hurry up, Zane turned and ran towards the door, getting to the door and looking at his bed. He smiled when Min was asleep, Pixal quietly closing the door with a slight creak. The ninja all went into the dining room, all sitting down and sighing loudly, grins covering their faces.
“Is this how you felt when getting me to sleep?” Lloyd looked up, a soft smile on his face as Cole nodded.
“Keep in mind you were worse than Mindroid, he’s feral sometimes, but you were feral all the damn time” Jay whined a bit as he laid his head down on the table with a soft noise. Nya nodded and gently patted Jays head, Cole and Pixal sitting next to Zane, the three of them holding hands, Zane chuckled and got up.
“Let me make us all dinner” Everyone grinned at Zane’s words,
“I’ll get the plates and silverware” Kai stood up and headed to the kitchen with Zane, opening some cabinets and drawers to grab some plates and such. Zane moving around to start making something, “I’ll tell the others it might take awhile” Kai smiled ear to ear and walked out, laughter and talking being heard by the happy ice ninja.

Cryptor had his hand on his chest, chest not breathing considering he didn’t need to, eyes closed as he slept, he turned a bit, shifting, before smiling and turning onto his side.

-Audio and Visual processing, saving all new data-
-scrolling through visuals-
-playing tape 162-

“Min what are you doing?” Cryptor smiled softly as he patted the small droids head, “here let me help you..”

Chapter Text

-Audio and Visual processing, saving all new data.-
-scrolling through visuals.-
-playing tape 162.-

“Min what are you doing?” Cryptor smiled softly as he patted the small droids head, “here let me help you..”
He gently took the reddish green fruit from mindroids hands, raising a eyebrow at the small droid, “are you sure this is the first thing you want to taste?” He kneeled down to Mins level, earning a long sigh from the droid, he nodded trying to snatch the fruit again. Cryptor held it above Mindroids head. “I’ll open it for you, don’t need you getting sticky,” he stood up, easily ripping the mango in half, he sniffed it a bit.

The nindroids were programmed and built with everything Zane had, everything, which included senses like taste and touch, for cooking. Which was a generally worthless addition to the Nindroids considering they were mostly made for battle, Cryptor got out of his thought due to a urgent beep from Min.
“Yes yes, here you go.” He gently handed half of the mango to the small droid. Min sniffing the fruit, Cryptor watched him, Mindroid always had some sort of texture that he hated to the point where he wouldn’t even go near what the texture had come from, but there was also the part of Min that adored other textures, mostly scratchy, similar to cat tongues.

Cryptor quietly chuckled to himself as he watched min investigate the split fruit in every way except tasting it, Cryptor looked at his own half of fruit, smelling it before taking a small bite and sitting down on a crate. He sucked the juice out of the fruit, the liquid would come out as steam from his shoulder and mouth later, however he spat out the now dry chunk of fruit flesh.
Min watched him, sitting down next to him before taking a small bite, Min seemed to dislike it at first, before he sucked a bit on it and seemed to realize the sweetness.

Cryptor put his head in his hands with a smile as he watched the small droid spit out dry clumps of mango then take another bite to enjoy the texture.
Cryptor shifted his half of mango in his hands before taking another bite, getting annoyed at the stickiness the fruit brought with its sweetness.
Min looked up at him with a smile, Cryptor smiling softly back as he took his clean hand to wipe the stickiness from Mins face, the droid shying a way a bit from Cryptors hand and sleeve, Cryptor chuckled, leaning away again after mins face was relatively clean. Min spat out another piece of mango before just trying to suck out all the juices.

Cryptor leaned back on the crates, enjoying the sunlight that was coming through the dirty windows, the safety of being here with Mindroid, it would’ve been a good day to go outside, he thought to himself.
But a foolish idea to do so, if the ninja even knew the two of them were alive they’d get reprogrammed or worse, scraped. He looked back at min who was almost done with the mango half, he sighed before looking towards the ceiling. He hummed a tune quietly to himself, Mindroid joining in and sounding like a chirping bird, Cryptor smiling and recording the tiny tune the two of them made.

-audio and visual recording stopped.-
-scrolling through visuals.-
-combining visuals.-
-playing new visual.-

He was warm, comfortable, he had the feeling mindroid was asleep as he watched the sun go down, he wasn’t in the wear house anymore, which was good.
Instead he was on the deck of the bounty, legs swung over the side as he sat on the edge, he hummed quietly to himself. He looked up to see Kai come over, he was holding a orange as he sat down next to Cryptor. The figment of Kai grinned toothily as he peeled the orange, taking a few slips of the fruit and popping it into his mouth, he swung his legs over the side. The fire ninja was so close to him, he could just throw the bastard over the side, but he didn’t, cause this was a dream.

He wasn’t stupid, and he didn’t want a random clump of visual data to do anything weird in his head, he rolled his eyes and looked back down towards the ground, watching the clouds move below them. Kai chuckled “You know Tory it was great to have you here.” Cryptor looked back up at Kai, confusion on his face, he was about to ask what the hell the dream Kai meant before the stupid ass ninja kissed him.

Cryptor woke up, gasping and panting as he sat up, he grabbed his head before rushing over to the sink in the cell and washing his mouth like he’d get a virus. He turned off his recharging visual rerun, that was, disgusting.
He growled as he looked in the mirror, and what the hell was up with the oranges?!

Chapter Text

Kai huffed, grabbing a apple and some freshly made tea from the kitchen before leaving, he paused in the hallway, a good idea was to probably lock the cells, in case Min tries to get back down there.
Kai put his apple and burning hot teacup down on the ground before opening the cell door to grab the keys off the wall, he paused seeing Cryptor washing his face furiously.

Kai said nothing, just watching with confusion, the Nindroid stopped, snapping around to look at Kai, and he blushed, Kai had seen Zane blush a light blue around Pixal and Cole but, never another Nindroid. It was a light purple color, darker than lavender but close.
Cryptors cheeks and ears were covered in the purple blush, even his nose and knuckles, Kai stood shocked for a moment, before Cryptor snapped to his senses Kai grabbed the keys off the wall and threw himself back into the hallway, quickly locking the door.

He stood there, shocked for a moment before shaking his head, he just needed some some air, he grabbed his cup and apple before heading to the ships deck.

Kai yawned, waving to the other ninja as he passed by the bedrooms, Lloyd sleepily waving back, Kai chuckled, walking up the stairs to the deck.
He placed the cup and the apple down on a clean chair as he stretched, cracking his back and arms before he did a backflip. He grinned, standing back up, he looked around the empty deck, briefly hearing the sounds of Jay and his sister playing what no doubt was a gruesome video game.
The sound of Cole digging into the rest of the desert as Pixal and Zane laughed.
Kai paused, frowning, before sitting down. He sighed sharply as he grabbed the cup of tea from the chair along with the apple, about to take a bite before some quiet rustling caught his attention.

He looked up, eyes narrowed before he lit up some of his already spiked hair, Mindroid freezing in his tracks, the small droid and Kai froze there for a moment. Mindroid after a minute or two let out a sad beep, knowing he was caught.
He probably had checked the cells doors, but after realizing they were locked, tried to look for another way in.

Kai paused, thinking about grabbing Min and taking him back to bed, he frowned a bit, something Wu said when they had the younger Lloyd ringing in his head. He looked down before looking up at Min, who was shockingly still standing there, probably accepting whatever punishment the fire ninja gave him. Kai lowered the fire on his hair before holding out his cup of tea for the Nindroid. “C’mon don’t have all night,”

Mindroid looked at him, confused and looking around before moving closer, he quickly took the cup from Kai before sipping quietly,
“You can sit down” Min jumped a little at Kais voice, looking ready to kick and scream, or run at any minute. Kai took a bite out of his apple, enjoying the crisp sweetness for a moment as Mindroid quietly sipped the warm drink next to him.

Kai probably got a concussion from one of Mins kicks, Min thought as he looked at the red ninja, why else would he give him his tea? Min scanned Kai, seeing no sign of injury except for the fire ninjas numerous scars on his visible light brown skin. Min let out a beep before turning back to his drink, sipping it a bit more before simply chugging the drink.

“Careful! Careful you’ll burn yourself-“ Kai realized he was talking to a nindroid who probably couldn’t burn himself as easily as a human could.
Kai chuckled nervously as Min looked up at him, tea bag hanging from his mouth as the droid spat it out onto the ground. Kai raised a eyebrow, ignoring the dried tea bag for now, he’d pick it up before he went inside. He looked up, viewing the dark sky, stars basically everywhere, Min watched him, maybe doing a double scan to make sure he didn’t miss anything, he looked up, letting out a quiet wirr as he viewed the night sky with Kai.

Min smiled, sparring a glance at Mindroid, he chuckled softly before looking back up again, tonight was a good night so far, and it’d probably get better when Kai goes to bed. Kai yawned again, Min looking over at him, the mindroid let out a small beep, Kai shrugging.
Mindroid rolled his eyes and Kai laughed, definitely a good night so far.

Chapter Text

A hour passed, maybe more maybe less, Kai didn’t really care, he looked over at Mindroid, the tiny droid still holding the teacup, but passed out. Kai chuckled, grabbing the teabag and teacup, putting the teabag back into the cup and placing it down on the clean chair.
Kai smiled as he picked up the Nindroid, making sure to not drop him as he started walking down the stairs and through the hallway, planning to put mindroid back into Zane’s bed.

He walked in, making sure to be quiet while he gently placed Min down, he tucked the small droid in as well as he could before walking out.
He grabbed the keys from his pocket, moving into the now empty kitchen to grab a glass of water, he placed it to his lips taking a small sip.
He spun the keys in his hands, humming quietly to himself before refilling the cup and walking to the cells, he opened the door, locking it behind himself as he sat in front of Cryptors cell.

“Hey Tory, got ya some water” he slid the cup pass the bars, the Nindroid looking over at him, Cryptor was still blushing, which was kinda cute, though the Nindroid was also shaking a bit.
“No thanks.” He hissed, looking away from Kai, the fire ninja tilted his head as he noticed the shaking.

“You cold?” Kai snapped his fingers and a spark of fire snapped from his hands, fire starting to curl around his hand and down the sleeve of his gi. Cryptor looked over at him and growled, blush barley noticeable by now.
“Why haven’t you left yet?” Kai shrugged,

“Your interesting I guess, or I’m just really fucking bored.” Cryptor chuckled at what the ninja said, frowning as he looked away, Kai shifted “Y’know if you could be good we’d probably let you outta here.”

“And be “friends” with you idiots. Like hell.” Cryptor hissed “just get out. Your not worth my time.” Kai laughed, fire still crawling up his shoulder and snapping towards the air.
“Sadly I’ve got most of the guard duty for you, so the sooner you decide to not be a asshole, the better for the both of us.” Cryptor looked up at Kai as he continued to talk, “So Tory, what’s your favorite color?”

Cryptor tried to punch him through the metal bars.

Chapter Text

Zane sighed, gently kissing Pixal and Coles forehead as he walked out of their shared room, he walked into the control room.
He pulled up some folders in his view and scrolled through them, he made sure everything in the control room was working properly, enjoying the quiet, he sighed, bits of frost coming from his breath.

Zane paused, that wasn’t supposed to happen, he tried to move his hand but it was frozen onto the main computer, he tried to pull his hand away, tried to free himself.
He was so cold, he wasn’t supposed to be cold was he? He was the ice elemental, he tried to pull his hand away but his hand was frozen to the mainframe, there was a noise ringing in his head, in his body. He screamed, but he couldn’t, ice running up his throat and arm, freezing him, warning signs covering his vision.

Pixal shook Zane’s body, Cole waking up and trying to help her get Zane awake, Zane’s body freezing the bed on instinct, covering the blankets in frost, Zane’s eyes snapped open and he gasped, like he’d been underwater or suffocating.
Pixal quickly hugged Zane, before scanning him to make sure he was okay, worry all over her face, Cole said nothing, shaking a bit as he watched Zane’s pained face, fear in his blue eyes.

“You okay...?” Cole spoke, his throat feeling dry, worry in his voice.
“...Yes I believe so.” Pixal scanned him for what seemed like the third time,
“Did you.. have a nightmare?” Pixal looked at Zane, holding his hand tightly.
“I shouldn’t be, but yes, I think so.” Zane nodded, properly sitting up, he sat there, thinking for a moment as Cole and Pixal tried to talk to him, he remembered what it felt like, the ice going up his arm, the scrolls power.

“Zane!” Zane snapped back to reality,
“Yes Cole?”
“We’re worried about you, you sure your good pinkie?” Zane chuckled at the old nickname,
“Yes.. I’ll be fine, there’s no external damage.” He paused looking at the now melting sheets of ice on the bed, “I should go get us new bedding, I’ll return” Zane got up much to the disapproval of pixal,
“Be safe...”
“I will be Pixal, it’s just around the corner” Zane smiled at Pixal to reassure her as he walked out the door, Cole frowning but starting to take the wet sheets off the bed.

Zane walked, and kept walking, he paused hearing voices, he turned to the direction of the voices, shifting before walking towards them.
He looked into the room, spotting Kai and of course, Cryptor. Cryptor looked like he was going to strangle Kai at any second, and Kai just kept talking, lit ablaze and just chatting with the Nindroid. Zane said nothing, quietly leaving, he grabbed some sheets on his way back to bedrooms.

Zane made a shopping list in his head, he also calculated the price of new clothes for Mindroid, Cryptor probably wore Zane’s size of clothing, but mindroid needed new of everything. He paused, maybe he could take mindroid with him, Zane shook his head, making sure to have a better hold of the sheets as he made the shopping list, apples, noodles, oranges, extra, he also made a mental note to see what cakes and other deserts there were.
“Sorry that took so long my loves, but I did find some clean sheets,” Zane closed the door, happily chatting with Pixal and Cole, they were compatible after all.

Chapter Text

The morning was almost painfully bright, Cryptor tuned his vision so that the light wouldn’t be so bothersome, his back was pressed up against something, he grumbled.
Cryptor moved so his back wasn’t pressed up against the warm metal bars of his cell, he turned, spotting the fire ninja, his eyes widened before they narrowed. He scanned the ninja, realizing he was still asleep. The second thing he spotted was the cell keys, Cryptor grinned toothily, reaching for the keys, his hand so close yet so far away. Cryptor almost slammed his head against the cell bars trying to grab the keys, Kai shifted, his hand moving onto Cryptors.

Cryptor stopped, kais hand was warm, a bit rough, Cryptor didn’t move, he had two choices, grab the keys and wake up the ninja, or just give up and let the ninja hold his hand til he woke up. Fuck that shit. Cryptor snapped his hand away before trying to grab the keys, only to have them taken from his grasp, Cryptor screamed as Kai jumped away.

“Really Tory?!” Kai rubbed his scratched hand, bloody claw marks on his hand from when Kai pulled away.
“As if you didn’t expect it.” Cryptor growled standing up, Kai and him at eye level, “I’m going to get out one way or another.”
“The other way is probably better” Kai looked at his bloody hand “Now I’m gonna go patch this up, don’t do anything shitty.”

“I’ll try my best to.” Kai frowned and stood up, opening the door and walking out, locking it after him. Cryptor stood there, the warmth of Kais hand still on his sensors.
He turned around and closed his window, slamming the curtains shut as he sat on his bed, the dream came back to him, he shook his head, growling.

Kai walked onto the deck, patting jay on the back as he walked over “Hello everyone wonderful morning?”
“What happened to your hand?” Zane raised a eyebrow at him,
“You look like shit bro” Nya laughed.

“Yeah thanks, hey Zane can you get some oranges the next time you go out?” Zane looked at Kai with narrowed eyes but dropped the subject about kais hand.
“Sure Kai, would you like anything else?”
“Nah just the oranges, been wanting them for awhile”

“Hi Zane! Any new visions?” Lloyd walked up, smiling wide, “any about our, guests?” Zane shook his head,
“Since Cryptor arrived I haven’t been getting any Visions”
“Huh... that’s a little bit weird” Jay looked up eyes wide “do you think he’s blocking them or something?”
“No idea.”
“He could he intercepting them?” Pixal looked up from where she was at the controls. “Or min could be the one intercepting them,” kai nodded,

“Min was awake again last night.”
“He probably has a hard time sleeping,” Cole shrugged, “I’ll go see if he’s awake.”
“Bring him some orange juice,” pixal smiled.
“Oh yes he’ll probably like that, I’ll make some coffee for us all, and for Cryptor too if he’d like it.” Zane grinned, heading down under the deck with Cole.

Chapter Text

Cole waited by the coffee maker, leaning on the counter as he watched a sleepy Mindroid come in with Zane, holding onto the ice elementals pants leg as they walked.
“Good morning Minny,” Cole chuckled, watching mindroid get lifted up by Zane and put down at the table, the small droid let out some beeps, holding the glass of orange juice in front of him. Zane pressed a finger to the glass, cooling it and the liquid inside as he walked over to Cole.

“He’s kind of cute” Zane spoke, holding Coles hand as they stood next to each other watching the small droid take small sips.
“Yeah, a bit wild, but sweet” Cole smiled, enjoying how relaxing Zane’s hand felt to him, the coolness that didn’t freeze his hand but was relaxing enough against a warm palm. Cole smiled, the two of them staying quiet for now as the coffee slowly stopped, Cole looked over, turning to kiss Zane’s cheek with a grin before grabbing the mug, “I’ll take this to Cryptor, Frosty.”
“Stay safe,”
“Will do” Cole winked at Zane and walked out of the kitchen, rubbing mins messy lock of hair as he did so, the droid letting out a loud annoyed beep.

Cole headed down, flipping the keys he grabbed from Kai in his hand, he turned to the cell door and opened it, walking inside, he spotted Cryptor easily, considering he was the only prisoner at the moment.
“Hi Cryptor” Cole walked over, hand on his hip as he held out the mug, “fresh, didn’t know how you like it, so it’s black.” Cole smiled at the Nindroid as he looked up, Cryptor growled standing, moving closer to the cells and reaching out to take the cup, Cole handed it to him. Cryptor moved and sat back down, taking a long sip of the coffee, obviously enjoying the warmth and maybe even the flavor, Cole stayed quiet, pausing before walking out, he closed the door leaving Cryptor to his own devices.

Cryptors audio receptors heard the sound of the door locking, he growled and held the warm cup up to his lips, smiling a bit as soon as he was left alone.
He pressed the cup against his lips to take any heat it had left as he took small drinks of the bitter liquid. The smell was something he liked more than the flavor, the strong scent it had made him love coffee when he got to have it.
He was honestly a bit addicted when the Overlord was in control of Ninjago, coffee being one of the few pleasures of being a general.
Though it wasn’t his most favorite thing, and he didn’t keep him awake, he enjoyed it all the same.

Chapter Text

Zane turned on his disguise as he walked through the busy market place of Ninjago City, the smells excited him as he thought of new things, new ideas to try and cook.
He shook his head, pulling up his grocery list in his visuals, he held his grocery bag tightly and moved into the crowd.

First thing on the list, snacks, he walked into a small store, looking around and taking a couple of things, holding them in his arms as he continued, he grabbed some pocky knowing Kai liked the chocolate flavor, and some strawberry mochi for Jay.
He grabbed some chips and a couple of things like noodles and small carrots before going to the register and buying everything he needed, he put them all in his grocery bag and waved as he walked out.

Second thing on the list, things for breakfast and lunch, he looked around before spotting a small cozy in the wall looking bakery, he skipped to part four instead.
He walked in, being greeted by a strong smell of lavander, he walked up to the register and gently tapped the bell, a hypnobrai came over with a large smile,

“And how may I help you today?” The hypnobrai smiled at him and he smiled back at her,
“I would like to purchase a couple of pies and cakes, two apple, one cherry, and then two chocolate cakes please.” Enough for everyone if Cole didn’t know about the cakes. The hypnobrai nodded, going to the back of the store and coming back out with the securely wrapped boxes,
“You sure you can carry all this?” Zane held up his bag and she let out a small “Oh,” he put the cakes in the bag, making sure they wouldn’t break.

He waved at her and walked out, seeing her wave back out of the corner of his eye, he went back to the list, mentally crossing out number one and four. He looked around for someplace that would sell something nutritious or at least healthy for the Ninjas morning and afternoon routine.
He grinned spotting just the place, a large store that no doubt had more than a few things on his list, he walked in, looking around before walking down one section of the store. He grabbed a few different types of meat like beef and chicken, before also grabbing some ingredients for pancakes, he grabbed a couple loafs of bread before walking down the other half of the store.

He smiled as he looked at the spices, grabbing a few different ones to try before grabbing some hot sauce. He looked around a bit more, grabbing some vegetables and fruits along with a couple different types of coffee.
He paused, considering grabbing some tea from here before shaking his head and deciding he’d just get some from his usual place, he walked up to the cashier smiling, buying everything he picked up and putting it into his bag.

Zane put the bag on his shoulder, it wasn’t that heavy to him but it would be better to seem like it was, considering he looked human.
He finished off the third part of his list quickly, that being dinner foods, before heading towards his usual tea shop, “Mystaké? Are you here,”
“What do you want-“ she stopped herself from sounding rude when she saw Zane, smiling at the Nindroid “Zane! Hello, here for Wu’s tea like usual?”
“Yes, thank you Mystaké” he walked up to the old onis register, taking out the usual price of the tea that Wu favored and then some, “could I also get some black tea please?” Mystaké nodded, turning around and grabbing two boxes of tea on the shelf behind her.
“How are you all doing?” She grinned toothily, Zane hesitated, frowning,
“We have two, well I wouldn’t prefer to call them prisoners.. two nindroids on the ship, besides me and Pixal that aren’t, friendly, if that makes sense?” she nodded,
“I know what you mean, are the rest of the ninja taking it hard?”
“No, they’re all fine with it, we’re dropping them off to Cyrus Borgs as soon as we can.” She let out a small hum and put the tea on the counter, Zane handed her the money and she put it away,
“Take care Zane, I hope you good health.” She chuckled and Zane did as well,
“I wish you good health as well Mystaké.”

He left, she waved at him and he waved back happily, he kept walking, and walking, he stopped and summoned his dragon, he smiled, petting the dragon before hopping on and making sure his groceries were safe.
The two lifted up into the side, not doing any stunts to make sure that the groceries were safe, the bounty in sight, the dragon letting out a small thud as they landed, Zane let the dragon disappear as he hopped off.
“Need help with that freeze?” Cole came over, big smile plastered on his face,
“No, but if you would like to-“ he didn’t get time to finish his sentence as his large boyfriend picked him up bridal style, the Nindroid letting out a “Oof!” He made sure to hold the groceries tightly as Cole carried him inside, “that was unnecessary.”
“Yeah but it’s fun,” Zane smiled happily.

Chapter Text

Cryptor hated this, he growled, being trapped in a cell with basically nothing comfortable, no heat and nothing to fucking do, they could’ve at least given him a book.
He normally would’ve done something about that, try and break out, but, he didn’t, he stayed sitting on his bed. He looked around again, making sure no one was going to come running in through the door, then laid down, looking at the ceiling, he closed his eyes.
It took awhile but he managed to power down to sleep, which seemed like the only thing he could do of his own will since he got here, well, besides be a asshole.

-going through visuals and audio.-
-combining visuals.-
-playing new visual.-

Warmth was the first thing that filled his sensors, a blanket, someone else was there but he didn’t care, too focused on how warm he felt.
It was comforting, all the way down to his core he felt so relaxed right there, he let out a happy sigh, steam rolling out of his shoulders and cracks, he looked down at his hands, a warm cup of tea in them. Someone took the cup,
“I think that’s enough for now Tory, you good or do you want me to get Jay to check up on you? Zane and Pixal are trying to figure out what happened.” The person rubbed the back of their head, shifting and crossing their arms as they looked away, he couldn’t make out who it was.
He shrugged, he tried to search his data banks as to what happened, he couldn’t find the files, he sighed sharply, “hows Mindroid?”
“Oh he’s doing great, he’s playing with Lloyd right now, who knew a nindroid liked legos” he laughed, Cryptor watched them, enjoying the small way their shoulders raised and lowered as their mouth gasped open in a smile.

He looked away, feeling their hand close to his as they leaned closer, they were now both shoulder to shoulder, the feel of the other ones gi tickled him a little bit, he looked around the room to distract himself from it.
A wide room with a couple of shelves and the table they were sitting at, pillows and blankets around Cryptor, a few windows and doors but not much more, a simple room. “I would like some more tea,”
“Gotta say please first,” the other person smirked,
“Please.” He snapped it out venomously, the other person raised their hands,
“alrighty there Tory no need to get violent.” They handed him the bamboo themed cup,
“Who’s even is this?”
“We got it for Lloyd” they laughed, “he liked it when he was younger.”
“Before he got turned older,” he sipped the tea, calmly as the other person looked at him, he knew the ninja, he knew every file Borg had on them and everything the overlord knew.
The person looked away, they didn’t say anything for awhile, both of them just sitting in this room together, “Zane just bought some oranges if you wanna try one,” they looked over at him,
“Sure, I’ll try one” Cryptor looked back at him, they were being so nice.
They got up and walked out of the room, a few minutes later coming back with some oranges, that meant the kitchen was close, they handed him one and he started to peel it.

The other person leaned forward and Cryptor could feel what happened next, or at least he was going to before he snapped awake, he shook his head before clutching it.
What the fuck was wrong with him? He opened up numerous folders, flipping through them and trying to find the right data to explain why his dreams were all about, kissing him. He didn’t dare think his name, he was a annoying ninja! A annoying ninja that had nothing better to do in his free time than talk to him and make him feel like a actual goddamn person!
He paused his train of thought, thinking, he’d only known that stupid ass ninja for a couple of days, or a month at the most considering the Overlord. He sat in his bed, holding his legs to his chest as he thought, he couldn’t be... he shook his head and growled, no! He was the general of a army! A nindroid! If anything these emotions were some kind of glitch in his system! Happiness was one thing but this? Whatever this feeling was, it sucked. It plagued his mind with images, videos and sounds of this person, making him wake up blushing and forcing him to turn on his cooling fans.
They weren’t compatible whatsoever! He was warm flesh and blood and he was cold metal, the stupid ninja could make anyone feel the way he was feeling right now and make anyone not feel like a glitch! He made Cryptor feel like he was more than something his “father” made to kill the same ninja, all the ninja, made him feel annoyed but almost laugh before he controlled himself.

Cryptor shook his head again, clutching his mess of hair,
“You okay?” He snapped his head up, spotting Kai walk in, “just coming down to ask you if you wanted to take like, a bath or something, Jay got you new clothes while he was out and you look...” he chuckled “not the best.” He laughed, Cryptor narrowed his eyes,
“What’s the catch?”
“No catch you just stink,” Kai smirked and Cryptor rolled his eyes, “come on Tory.” He opened the cell, Cryptor wanted to strangle him so badly, but the fire ninja was right, for once. He did feel gross, and he didn’t want the risk of rust,
“Don’t call me that.” He hissed and walked out, Kais hand on his katana just in case,
“Let’s start walking.” Kai smiled at him, Cryptor stared for a moment before Kai put a hand on his back and started pushing him forward, Cryptor letting him.

-Saving data.-
-Storing in new file.-
-Stupid ass ninja.-

Chapter Text

Cryptor walked into the bathroom with the new clothing, luckily at least the blue ninja had taste, dark black jeans and and a dark gray shirt.
He closed the door and locked it, looking around, no windows and shelves along with cups that held toothbrushes and toothpaste and such. Cryptor rolled his eyes as he placed his clothing neatly stacked on a shelf while he also grabbed a towel and put that next to his clothes. He stretched and turned on the shower faucet, hearing Kai pull up a chair outside, he growled.

Kai sat down, crossing his legs as he hears the water in the shower turn on, he heard a few more noises as he relaxed.
“Wheres your shampoo?”
“It’s next to the conditioner, cabinet next to the towels.” He heard a few more clatters, “don’t break anything Tory!” He chuckled imagining Cryptor rolling his eyes, growling maybe, his chest heated up, the fire quickly spreading up through his bones and into his hands and face. He breathed out a puff of smoke, face blushing as he paused and relaxed his body, starting to daydream a bit.
His fire moved into his hair and face even more, smoke curling out of his nose and a bit out of his mouth, he paused and shook his head, stopping as he chuckled to himself, shaking his head.
He was being weird, maybe a little sad that most of his team had relationships to cool down with, enjoy the warm days with, Skylor and him had broken it off, however they remained best friends. He took out his phone, pulling up her contact and calling her, it took awhile for her to answer.
“Hey Skylor what you doing?”
“I’m on break,” she laughed, “what about you?”
“Eh, not much, been a bit lonely lately, we should hang out, go to a comic book store or something.”
“Can’t Kai, I’d like to but I had to put more work into the Noodle house, one of my employees broke their arm, can’t come in.”
“That sucks ass,”
“Yeah but they’re a good person, owed them.”
“Hey Sky?”
“Yeah?”
“What do I do if I want to start a relationship with someone?” She laughed, Kais ears burning up again, “it’s a serious question!”
“Yeah! Yeah just give me a minute!” Kai huffed and rolled his eyes with a smile,
“Okay back, sorry, you have someone in mind?” Kai thought back to his hand on Cryptors, the way the different parts all fit together perfectly.
“No not really,”
“So then go on a date! Try online or something, everyone’s doing that with all the new apps and stuff, some are less than friendly so be safe.”
“Yeah, a app,” he thought back to Cryptors hand grabbing his shirt and pulling his face closer, towards the bars, the feel of Cryptors breath on his face.
“So, go slow and start small, make sure you like them, and then try to figure out what they like, start giving them gifts, slowly flirting, they’ll hopefully get it sooner or later.”
“I’ll try Sky, we both know I’m a little.. flamboyant,” they both laughed.
“Just be yourself Kai, maybe just a little less hotheaded,” he chuckled,
“Alright, thanks Skylor, hanging up now.”
“Alright talk to you later Kai!”
“Adios mi amiga!” The call ended and he put his phone away, hearing the water stop, “¿Estás bien ahí Cryptor?”
“Yes I’m fine, why haven’t you left yet?”
“Nothing better to do than watch you,” wait that sounded weird, “by that I mean, making sure you don’t get into anymore trouble.” He smiled softly, Cryptor opening the door, his hair was jet black and almost shiny, the metal piece covering half of his face was also freshly clean, the three red dots looking brighter and almost happier.
“Well than good job for now,” Cryptor growled, sharp teeth baring, his red eye narrowing at him.

“Yeah well, the others are busy and you seem to be enjoying our time together Tory.” The Nindroid scoffed,
“Are you taking me back to my cell or not?”
“You don’t want anything to drink?” He laughed, motioning for Cryptor to move down the hallway.
“No, I’m fine.” Kai couldn’t help but notice the slight relaxation Cryptor had after the shower, less tense and secretive.
“Alright, but if you need anything Tory ask, never knew how boring it gets watching someone.” Cryptor looked down at Kai, eyes narrowed,
“Whatever you say,” he looked forwards again, “dumbass.” Kai laughed, Cryptor kept walking.
They both walked for awhile before they made it to the kitchen, Kai left him in the main room as he opened the fridge, looking inside and tapping his foot as he grabbed a soda, throwing it at Cryptor. Cryptor of course caught it, opening it and growling at how quickly some of it turned into foam, he sipped it quickly before it could spill. Kai took a soda and shook it a bit before cracking it open, enjoying the foam that spilled out and almost got onto the floor, taking longer bigger drinks than the Nindroid.
Cryptor paused, taking slow sips of his drinks as he scanned the room, he was starting to get the fire ninja to trust him, that could work in his advantage. “I don’t want to go to Cyrus Borg,” Kai spit up a little of his drink, wiping his mouth with his sleeve as he looked over, confusion on his face.
“Why?”
“Because I don’t want to.” Cryptor hissed, Kai frowned, confusion still plastered on his face, but he dropped the subject of Cyrus, leaning on the kitchen counter as he looked at the tall Nindroid.
“You wanna do something fun?” Kai grinned toothily, now it was Cryptors turn to be confused, “never hurt anyone to burn a few things.”

Chapter Text

Cryptor let Kai grab his arm and drag him onto the bounty’s deck, the fire ninja summoning the dragon that didn’t look happy to see him whatsoever. Cryptor felt the dragons burning scales cool down as Kai helped Cryptor onto the dragon, Kai hopping down in front of him on the red dragon.
“Ready Tory?”
“Ready for whA-“ Cryptor let out a surprised shout and quickly held onto Kais waist as the dragon suddenly shot off into the sky, doing a twirl which made Cryptor tighten and almost suffocate Kai.
Kai patted Cryptors hands quickly to try and get him to loosen the grip, Cryptor did so or risk the chance of falling to his death. His eyes were closed tightly as wind whipped by his face and made his hair stick to his head, Kai was letting out joyful loud noises as Cryptor felt like his stomach, or whatever parts he had for a stomach, were unplugging and rattling around.

“Hey Tory! Watch this!” Cryptor opened a eye and could feel himself ready to dry heave as Kais dragon suddenly shot downwards in the sky then back up to curl around in a circle, doing a double loop. This was a terrible flight, probably the worse one he’s been on, the mech dragon never did these kinds of sudden turns and sharp movements, just stayed on its original path and never faltered unless needed, the mech dragon was always, less alive.
Cryptor shook his head as he looked around, trying to get used to the height, the clouds were below them, probably not going to stop his fall and just let him fall, this wasn’t the cloud kingdom after all. He nervously looked onto the other side of the dragon, seeing more clouds but a bit more land, he quickly looked away before he got nauseated. He shoved his face into Kais back, arms wrapped around the fire ninjas waist as he tried to stay balanced, Kai looked back at him.
“You good back there Tory?”
“Peachy.” He huffed, deciding to not look down, and instead look up, that was the better decision. The sky was a light blue, a few higher clouds here and there, the sun somewhere behind him, he could feel the warmth, of the dragon, Kai and the sun, it was relaxing to say the least. Kais red and black clothing was soft, a bit rough and obviously worn more than this one occasion.

The dragon turned downwards and Cryptor prepared himself for the loop that never came, instead he found Kai and himself flying in between buildings, dropping underneath signs only to rise over the next one, then they flew further out, past Borg Tower and farther out into the country and fields. Cryptor kept his hold on Kais waist, Kai not visibly minding that as the dragon swooped down and landed onto the ground, he grinned at Cryptor as he hopped off.
“Ready to burn some shit?” Cryptor raised a eyebrow as he slid off, the fire dragon laying down with a annoyed huff.
“If you insist, go ahead,” he sat down next to the dragons wing, the dragon glancing at him before closing its eyes once again.
“Your not gonna do it with me?”
“You basically kidnapped me, no, I’m not going to burn things with you.” Kai laughed a bit, shrugging,
“If you say so Tory,” his hands lit ablaze and he turned to the wide stretch of field in front of him, “time for a little gardening!” He grinned and threw one of the small fires in his hand like it was a tennis ball. The dry grass instantly caught fire, Kai made sure to keep it contained as the fire started to roar and grow bigger and bigger, spreading along the edges of where it was allowed to, Kais grin growing with the fire as the two of them soaked in the warmth quietly. The sun started to set when Kai extinguished the fire, that taking longer than actually setting it, Kai chuckled and looked back at Cryptor, a wide smile on his face along with a shit ton of soot and ash.

“We should do this again!” He shouted as he came over, Cryptor getting the memo and climbing back onto the red dragon.
“No, we shouldn’t,” Kai frowned a bit but nodded, hopping onto the dragon in front of him, it probably would’ve been easy to kill the fire ninja right here, right now, but he didn’t, instead thinking of how he could escape with Mindroid as well. So, he wrapped his arms around Kais warm body, and the dragon lifted upwards, the beat of the dragons wings filling his ears.

Chapter Text

Mindroid ran as fast as his small legs could carry him, what was he running from you may ask? Jay and Nya, who wanted him to take a bath, so he was running away from the two without a shirt or his mask on.
He turned his head to bare his teeth at them and hiss, Jay hitting the wall as Min snapped around a corner and kept running, “Min!” He growled as he rubbed his arm, Min turning down another hallway quickly.
“Min your gonna get a bath!” Nya shouted as she started to catch up to the small droid, Min did another quick turn and almost, almost lost Nya. Instead he got grabbed by the muscular woman, he beeped and shrieked, kicking his feet widely as Nya grabbed him. “Calm down! We’re not gonna hurt you it’s just a bath! It’ll be nice, calm down!” Min beeped loudly and kept struggling, Nya keeping a hold on him, “Mindroid it’s just a bath! Why are you freaking out?!”

Mindroid started crying, beeping loudly as Jay finally caught up, breathing heavily as he tried to catch his breath, Jay raised a eyebrow and looked at the two nervously, “whats wrong?”
“He really, really doesn’t want to take a bath,” she sighed and gently crouched down, putting the crying Nindroid on his feet, coolant and what looked like oil slipped from his eyes, Jay crouched down as well.
“Mindroid can you tell us why?” Min narrowed his eyes and beeped, “that’s probably a no.” Nya paused,
“How about drawing, we can post pone the bath for now alright?” Min shrugged, calming down as Nya picked him up again, they walked to the living room, a tv placed on the wall and a couch in front of a table and carpet. Nya gently put Min down on the carpet, he scooted up to the table as Jay quickly walked off to grab some paper and colored pencils. “So..” she tapped the table while they waited for Jay to come back, “do you like to draw Min?” Min shrugged again, Nya chuckled, looking up at Jay as he came in.
“Found them! Someone moved the colored pencils, so sorry for the wait,” he gently placed them down in front of mindroid, “so... why don’t you want to take a bath?” Jay tilted his head, smiling softly at Mindroid to comfort him.

Min paused, before snapping his hand out and grabbing a black pencil, he started drawing quickly, at first making it detailed before shifting to a simpler style to draw it faster, Nya grabbing the blanket off of the couch to wrap around Mins shoulders as he drew. Min kept scribbling, putting down the black pencil to grab a light blue and a red one. Mindroid drew a red frown on the small black figure in his drawing along with one red eye on one side and a three small dots on the other side, Jay tilted his head before grinning,
“Hey that’s you! Your so cute!” Mindroid frowned at what Jay said before suddenly scribbling the frowning drawing of himself with the light blue, scribbling it quickly and even ripping the paper as he furiously scribbled the blue over the paper.
“Hey, hey Mindroid calm down-“ Mindroid started to cry again as he broke the light blue pencil in his hand, making it shatter and splitter as he bared his teeth with a quiet growl. “Hey, Min, it’s okay,” Nya quickly hugged the small drone, holding him gently as he sobbed into her shirt, probably ruining it with the coolant and oil.

Jay took the ripped paper from the table, frowning as he tried to think of what it could mean, his eyes widened into dinner plates as he figured it out, “the ice! You don’t like water because of what happened-“ he stopped himself from talking, seeing Min bury his head further into the water ninjas shirt. He looked up at Nya and saw her frown, he scooted closer to the two and wrapped a arm around Nya’s shoulders, hesitating before gently petting Mindroids mess of hair.
“How about we make the bath super hot, would you like that Min? You get to choose the temperature, and we can use all of the lavender bubbles that we have.”
“Yeah! I can steal the extra bottle we have from the closet!” Jay grinned ear to ear as Min looked up, the small droid sniffing lightly.

Min paused, thinking over his options before nodding a bit, keeping himself buried in Nya’s arms as she stood, taking the blanket off him as she did so. “Alright then boys, let’s go” jay nodded as he quickly stood, a lot more skinner and twig like than Nya, Min noted as he sat in Nyas arms, making sure to keep a arm on her shoulder as she walked, she wasn’t as big or strong as Cole so she had to keep two arms on the Nindroid to make sure she didn’t drop him.
Jay walked in front of them to the closet next to one of the bathrooms they had, opening it and grabbing the lavender bubbles as Nya opened the door and gently set Min on the counter, letting out a sigh of relief as she did so. “Alright big man, lets figure out how hot you want this thing.” She turned on the faucet, watching min tense up a little, she smiled at him softly, raising her fingers up a bit and a few drops of the warming water splitting away from the faucet. The small droplets floated over to Min and splattered onto his nose, earning a loud laugh from Mindroid, Nya smiled.
“That warm enough?” Min shook his head and Nya raised a eyebrow, steam starting to come from the extreme heat, “alright Mindroid.” She chuckled as she turned the water hotter, starting to sweat a little, however she was faring better than Jay who was outside the bathroom sweating, she stood up and took the bottle from Jay with a chuckle, watching him grin nervously.
She laughed a little, kissing his nose before closing the door, “alright hot enough Min?” She took a few drops from the water and did the same thing as before, Min nodded and smiled, Nya got up and got out, “I put the shampoo and conditioner next to the bath Min!” She heard a beep from him in response.

Jay and Nya fist bumped happily, jay took out the ripped drawing from his pocket, frowning a bit, “do you think we should tell Zane about this?”
“Yeah, just... not right now, let him enjoy having new brothers for now.” Jay nodded and the two sat outside together, holding hands as they both relaxed, enjoying the comfort the other gave them.

Chapter Text

“Happy birthday dear me” he was scrubbing his hands as hard and fast as he could, the water going down the drain turning pink and red as he almost dropped the bar of soap in his hands. It wasn’t actually his birthday, but didn’t humans always say sing happy birthday twice to get rid of everything? He was going to see if their theory was correct, “Happy birthday dear me..” he could feel his claws scrape against one another uncomfortably as he washed his hands furiously, trying anything to get the sticky red substance off. “Happy birthday dear Cryptor, happy birthday to me...” the blood just wouldn’t come off, it started to turn the soap bubbles red as he scrubbed, the visuals kept repeating in his mind, Kai talking about him.. the Overlord, then suddenly with a quick burst of rage grabbing his shoulder and squeezing, remembering the popping cracking sound as blood gushed out of the wound, the look on kais face as surprise turned into panic, he started washing his hands again.
“Happy birthday dear me, happy birthday dear me,” he repeated as he washed his hands, they were almost clean, he just had to make sure no blood was left on his hands, “Happy birthday dear Cryptor... happy birthday to me.” kai knocked on the door of the bathroom stall,
“You good in there? Not going insane from suddenly plummeting and almost getting smashed to bits?” Cryptor growled, not noticing the small bits of worry in Kais voice,
“Would be better if you didn’t let me almost hit the ground!” He snapped, Kai chuckled,
“You were the one who cut my shoulder into pieces Tory! I’ll forgive you though, after all we were talking about-“ he paused, “a sensitive topic to you, so it’s my fault.”

Cryptor hissed, washing his hands more furiously, most of it from trying not only to kill the stupid fire ninja but also holding onto him for dear life on the way to the town.
Kai after almost getting his shoulder torn to shit decided to have a little bit of revenge and do as much nauseating tricks as he could, flips, sharp turns, going higher then suddenly spinning downwards, spinning. Cryptor managed to throw up a couple of bolts when they landed, Kai quickly tending to his arm by simply searing the wound shut with his power. However having the wound reopen on someone’s hands numerous times was probably painful, Cryptor kept washing his hands, it wasn’t the first time he had blood on them. It was just annoying how hard it was to clean it off. But he also couldn’t stop thinking of him, the Overlord, his father in some terms, the thought of him scrambled his sensors and made his mind glitch and spark, maybe of rage, he never knew.
Though his daddy issues were the least of his issues right now, he looked around in the small shops bathroom, it was surprisingly clean and well kept, for a old creepy woman who lived there. He shivered a bit, who had bright purple eyes and just stared at people when they came in? It was creepy and a bit rude, then again he was a nindroid, and it seemed like she knew Kai, he could hear Kai go back down the hall to talk to the terrifying tea woman. He knew Wu had a issue, just never knew other people shared his issue.

He growled, drying off his hands with a black towel that the lady had given to him, he huffed as he walked out, slamming the door as he did, the lady, whatever she was, narrowed her eyes at him with a frown, “next time be more careful,” she chuckled dryly, “this shop is as old as I am.” She smiled, not at him but at Kai who laughed at her small joke, Cryptor scowled, like he said, creepy, after all he didn’t know what the fuck she was but he knew she wasn’t human after his first scan, his second one just proved him right, she was something, something not human.

“Ready to go Tory?” Kai teased, the woman grinning,
“Tory is a lovely name,” Cryptor could reel coolant going up to his cheeks to cool the sudden heat he had there, embarrassment, he reminded himself. She walked up to him and handed him a small to go bag, he looked in, briefly seeing the color orange and a few green leaves.

“Did you know oranges are associated with richness, fertility, abundance, immortality, longevity and beauty. But in dreams, oranges symbolize renewal, refreshment, clearing, and other similar pointless things. If you have a dream of them, that dream could indicate the fulfillment of your desires.” She grinned widely at him, and he felt his eyes go wide, how did she... “the bag is for later,” she patted his head gently and he wanted to snap away from her, but he didn’t, he just frowned and let her do as she pleased before she walked away.

“Zane already got us some oranges... eh what’s a couple more, come on Tory I wanna get home before dark!” Kai was already walking out the door, Cryptor looked back at the lady then the bag, frown still plastered on his face as he walked out after Kai, keeping a tight hold on the bag as he did so.

Chapter Text

“Hey Tory! I should show you around! Mystaké’s place is fun but I know someplace even funner!” He grabbed Cryptors sleeve, normally the Nindroid would’ve pushed him away, shoved him into the dirt and curse out his bloodline. But, he didn’t, instead he let the spiky haired ninja pull him down the street, avoiding carts and stalls, people showing fear on their faces when they saw him. He looked around, nervousness starting to bug its way through his wires. He stopped, making Kai almost fall.

“Hey Tory you okaaay-“ Kai got his arm grabbed by the taller Nindroid, Cryptor not wanting to drag around the ninja too much he found the closest place that sold clothing, scanning almost everything before spotting it. He grumbled to himself as he dragged the fire ninja in, “Clothing? But I though Jay got you..”
“Just get me this.” He hissed and shoved a black hoodie into Kais arms, he raised a eyebrow, though he did buy it for the Nindroid. Cryptor quickly ripped off the tags and shoved it on, Kai chuckling a little bit by Cryptors eagerness.
“Alright then Tory, ready to go see the world in all its shining glory?” Cryptor huffed and put his hood up, letting Kai grab him again and drag him through the market place. Cryptor looked around as much as he could with people pushing into him left and right, “Moverlo personas!” Kai shoved past people, a wide toothy grin on his face, Cryptor rolled his eyes at the fire ninja.
Kai kept dragging Cryptor through the people til he reached a bus stop, taking out his wallet and counting how much he had.
“Can’t you just summon your dragon?”
“Yeah but then you don’t get to experience the wonders of a bus, in all its shinning glory.” He turned to face Cryptor, smiling up at him, Cryptor looked down at him, Kai was probably just a bit smaller than Cole, he couldn’t tell if Nya was taller or not, Cryptor was more of Zane’s height, meaning he was just barley above Coles height. He grinned toothily, showing a bit of his silver gums as he did so, sharp teeth glinting and making Kais grin a bit more nervous.
“Fun.” Cryptor spat, quickly returning his face to its resting bitch face as he looked away, Kai kept staring at him for a moment before looking away.
“Want to take the dragon?”
“That’ll be faster than waiting for a bus full of meat bags.”
“Offended, but Kay’” he summoned his dragon, hopping onto it and holding a hand out for Cryptor, Cryptor looked at him, reaching his hand out, then slapping Kais. He tried to get settled on the dragon, but ended up having half of his body slipping, Kai turned around and quickly helped him, even with all of Cryptors, probably embarrassed, growling.

Kais dragon raised its wings, warm comforting heat radiating off of them, Cryptor crossed his arms, not at all amused by Kais stupid ass smirk, he was about to say something rude before the dragon suddenly shot into the sky, Kai laughed loudly. Cryptor felt himself starting to slip as the dragon soared upwards, the dragons scales smooth as his body started to move downwards due to gravity as they kept a single straight line into the sky, heading towards the air above the clouds, his eyes shot open wide, hands quickly snapping out to wrap themselves around Kais waist. He quickly pulled himself forward as they slammed into the soft cold clouds, the dragon soared downwards a bit before it steadied itself, starting to fly over the clouds calmly.
Cryptor was shaking, he could feel his inner oils ready to come out of his mouth for shaking and getting them fizzed, like when you shake a soda can in a way, just takes a lot of shaking or anxiety. Kai turned to look back at him, Cryptors eyes shut tight as he kept his face buried into Kais shoulder blade, claws digging into Kais hoodie.
“You okay Tory?” Kai frowned at the Nindroid, the Nindroid growling before letting out the distinct sound of someone ready to throw up. Kais eyes widened and he quickly looked away as Cryptor suddenly heaved purplish black oil with small foamy bubbles all over the back of Kais hoodie. He winced as he felt the wetness and no doubt something that was gonna leave a stain.
“I’m, peachy.” He coughed, quickly pulling his face away from Kais stained hoodie as he leaned his head away from the dragons neck, he coughed again and let out another noise as he saw the view of clouds and no doubt was death if he plummeted.
“Let’s land, I don’t wanna get barfed on again.”
“Fine.” Cryptor quickly looked away as the dragon did a slow soar downwards, doing its best to keep steady for Cryptors sake. The dragon flapped noisily before landing on the ground, Cryptor instantly sliding off to welcome the grassy dirt covered ground. Kai wordlessly slid off, patting Cryptors back to only get his hand slapped by the angry Nindroid. Kai sighed,

“Let’s at least find a bus if your not going to accept my help,” he stood up and started walking, dragon dispersing. Cryptor felt his jaw tighten, he growled and grabbed the package Mysaké gave him, he grabbed one of the oranges, squeezing it slightly. He looked back up at Kai before throwing it at his head full force,
“Ow!” He shouted and spun around, the Orange seemed to be as hard as a rock to the ninja, yet to the Nindroid it was as soft and plump as any sticky fruit could be.
“I don’t take orders,” he grabbed another fruit and threw it, Kai blocking with his arm, “from a stupid ass ninja! Who can’t even get his directions straight!” Kai picked up one of the oranges thrown and chucked it at Cryptor, the fruit breaking and splattering all over Cryptors chest upon impact.
“Well at least I’m not a complete asshole who can’t tell when people are trying to help him! You idiot!”
“Your the idiot! Who thought,hey it’s probably a good idea to go off with a complete stranger, who’s old as fuck! And probably doesn’t know the difference between a teapot and a... something!” The two growled at each other before Kai leapt at him, capturing Cryptors head in a headlock, Cryptor kept himself standing, pushing against the weight of Kai.
“Don’t talk about Sensei Wu like that! He helped me save my sister you ungrateful piece of scrap!” Cryptor strained against Kais arm, he dropped the bag full of oranges before grabbing Kais shoulders and flipping the ninja onto the ground.
“I don’t need help! Unlike you and your worthless friends!” Kai scowled, teeth showing as his hair started to spark before it lit ablaze, Cryptor backed up, arms raised up in a fighting stance.

“At first I felt bad about taking you to Borgs! Now I can’t wait for you to get reprogrammed you piece of shit!” Cryptor screamed and tried to launch himself at Kai, punch his face in, claw him, anything, but then he felt the weight of a large scaled tail suddenly hit his back and force him intro the ground, Kai rubbed his probably bruised arm. His dragon baring it’s teeth into Cryptors face, Kai shuffled onto the dragons back, Cryptor squirming and struggling under the weight of the tail. Kai said nothing as his dragon picked up Cryptor in his mouth, the only noise coming from Cryptor were growls and hisses, he was angry, like always.

Kai rolled his eyes and the dragon took off, this time slower and more steady unlike the times before, Cryptor gripped onto the dragons mouth, feeling it’s teeth right under the cloth of his clothing, he spotted Kai out of the corner of his eye take off his hoodie.
Cryptor looked away, quickly shutting his eyes shut as he felt the dragon turn around, back towards the Bounty he realized. Wind was slapping him in the face, making him dizzy and nauseated, he felt ready to throw up again, he hated that he was coded to be so, lifelike, living, having to drink when there was no recharging stations or battery, breathing if he could call it that, getting dizzy and sick, he hated it so much, he hated that this is what he was, what he was made into.
He saw the bounty come into view, Kais dragon starting to dip towards the deck, he felt something squirm in the pit of his wires, the very bottom of it he felt a creeping feeling, a bottomless pit, anxiety? Fear? Both? He couldn’t tell as the dragon landed on the deck with a loud thud, he started to feel oil slickly come up his throat, he gagged, coughed, gagged again before he heaved, Kai looking suprised, Cryptor wished he had broken wires instead of airsickness.

Chapter Text

Zane just kept talking and talking, Min placed his head in his hands as Zane kept talking about food of all things. They were nindroids! They didn’t need to eat like the ninja, yet Zane wouldn’t stop talking about, healthy foods, and desert foods. Min let out a sigh as he tapped the table, Zane in his pink flower apron cooking as he walked around the kitchen talking, grabbing spices and probably meaningless things.
Zane turned around, focusing on the dish he was making and somehow not noticing Min run out the door hands over his ears to stop Zane’s constant noise. Min let out a angry beep as he stopped running, purring his hands back down. Mindroid rolled his eyes as he did a impression of Zane, clutching his hands together and beeping. He let out a whirr of noise, making a stirring motion with his right hand and waving his left, not seeing Pixal behind him.

Pixal put a hand over her mouth, smiling as she chuckled quietly, watching the small droid make fun of Zane and his cooking.
Mindroid still hadn’t noticed her as he started making small “pew” noises and pretending to shoot out ice, he let out dramatic beeps as he shook a small shelf in the hallway. Mindroid rolled his eyes as he continued down the hallway, Pixal quietly following as she raised a eyebrow at the other Nindroid.
Mindroid grabbed a random picture from the wall, Pixal ducking into another hallway as the small droid looked around for anyone, Mindroid quickly went down the hall with the picture. Pixal following, curious about what Min was going to do. Mindroid set the picture down, walking into the ninjas room to grab a marker before coming back out. He let out a happy beep as he started to color on the picture, drawing over the ninjas Gi’s with different color sharpies. He grinned behind his mask and stood up, grabbing the picture and putting it up in a random place in the hallway. Min patted himself on the back before grabbing the sharpies, tucking them into different places on his Gi, then walking down the hallway to cause more mischief.
There was a few thuds from the deck, Kai and Cryptor getting back Pixal concluded, Mindroid finally spotted her and quickly spun around beeping loudly at her,
“What? Oh, for awhile, I wanted to make sure you didn’t get hurt.” She walked towards him and gently patted his head, he frowned so she stopped, “We’ll be at my fathers soon, Dr. Borg, do you remember him?” Mindroid shrugged, looking every direction in case he needed to run. “There’s no need to run, Mindroid” she smiled softly at him, kneeling down to his level, Mindroid looked at her and narrowed his eyes, “we’re technically brother and sister, yes? Cyrus Borg created both of us, he’ll be really happy to meet you, promise.”

Mindroid had doubt, looking at Pixal he nodded, moving closer. Instead of hugging her or talking to her, he bolted right instead, quickly running away from her,
“Min! Wait!” Pixal looked defeated, sad as Mindroid tried to run as fast as he could, he got a head start before she decided to chase after him.
He found the stairs to the top deck of the bounty, looking behind him to see Pixal coming closer, he let out a shocked beep and quickly started to hurriedly get up the stairs. Rushing out the doors he spotted Cryptor, his eyes widened when he saw Kais dragon holding him by the jaws.

Mindroid let out a angry beep, quickly rushing over only to be suddenly picked off the ground by Cole,
“Let him go!” Cryptor growled and hissed, teeth bared as he hit he dragons bottom jaw, trying to escape it to get to Mindroid.
Pixal came up and then Zane followed soon after,
“How bout we all calm down?” The ice ninja spoke, moving between Mindroids view of Cryptor,
“Fuck you!” Cryptor snapped, glaring daggers into Zane, Mindroid was sure if Cryptor could actually kill someone with his eyes Zane would be the first one to drop.
“There’s a kid here Tory!” Kai spoke up,
“Yeah, cool your self Cryptor,” Cryptor glared at Cole, “pun not intended,” Cole chuckled a bit, nervously Min noted.
“Beep beep brrrp beep, beep beep brrrrrep, brrrp beep brrrrp beep-“ Pixal covered mins mouth before he could finish his curse,
“That is very impolite.” She said, frowning at him, Mindroid and Cryptor both rolled their eyes, Mindroid squirmed a bit more in Coles arms, the earth ninja keeping a good hold on the small droid.
“Come on Min lets just relax! Let’s go get you some more orange juice,”
“Brrrp beep, brrrrp brrrrrep brrrp!”
“Huh?” Cole looked at Pixal for translation, Cryptor interrupting her,
“He said no you over-stylized piece of shit!” Cryptor hissed, “now put him down before I gouge your eyes out!” Cole looked at what he was wearing,
“I’m not over stylized, if anything Jay is,” Jay let out a offended gasp.
“I’m not over stylized! I’m just the right amount!” Cole chuckled and Pixal smiled, Cryptor and Min shared a look of disgust as the two laughed, it was supposed to be a insult, not a joke.
“Come on Min lets go get you some orange juice,” Cole held Mindroid close, the small droid beeping and shrieking our curses that got disapproval from Pixal.

Cole broke away from the group with the angry mindroid, bringing him down the stairs and back into the hallways of the ship, Mindroid kicked Cole as much as he could, trying to dig his claws into Coles skin, Cole let out a sigh, shifting Mindroid in his arms so his skin wouldn’t get torn to shreds.
“Mindroid can you calm down please? We’re not gonna do anything to you or Cryptor-“
“Brrrrrep beep beep beep, brrrrp brrrrrep brrrrrp, beep brrrrep beep, brrrrp brrrrrrp beeep!” He shrieked out, hissing and growling like Cryptor. Cole frowned, making his way to the kitchen and putting Mindroid in a chair, the droid kicked and squirmed as Cole kept him still.
“I’m not letting you go until you calm down, okay?” Mindroid kicked Coles chubby stomach a bit, Cole not seeming fazed considering he felt as strong as a rock. After what seemed like forever, Mins kicks turned weaker and he slowly stopped, slumping into the chair, Cole let him go. “Okay your calmer... do you want some orange juice?” Cole suggested with a small smile, Mindroid crossed his arms, looking down at the ground, he thought about it for a moment before nodding slowly. The dark skinned man grinned wide, “alright thats progress! Ice?” Min shook his head and Cole nodded, moving into the kitchen and grabbing a clear glass from a cabinet.
Mindroid looked around, shaking angrily, he didn’t want to go to Dr. Borgs, he didn’t want to get frozen again, or reprogrammed, he was good at being mean, and ruthless, not caring about anything but themselves and their brothers, it’s what his programming told him and Cryptor to do, and they were good at it! Cryptor was good at being a general, a leader! And min was good at following orders! To the best of his ability anyway... he didn’t want anything to change! Even if they were on the run from these stupid ass ninja and the public! They were good at hiding, Cryptor made it almost like a game, stay hidden and safe, make sure your face isn’t seen and make sure no matter what you don’t get caught.

Thoughts of metal parts and cars being crushed in the junk yard filled his thoughts, he dug his claws into the low table in front of him, the wood splintering underneath his claws as he dug into it, memories of ice filling his chest and body, making him choke on his own breath.
He shook harder, the chunk of table he was digging his claws into snapping loudly and breaking off the table and into his hands and lap.
Cole quickly looked up, placing the jug of orange juice and the half filled cup down and walking over, “mindroid? You okay- what’s wrong?” He got down on a knee, getting to the small droids level, “do you need a blanket? A hug?” Mindroid clutched the wood shakily before he dropped it then looked at Cole, he whined before thinking over his options. Mindroid paused before wrapping his arms tightly around Coles neck, Cole was surprised for a moment before hugging the Nindroid gently, practically wrapping him up in his arms, covering him, Cole was warm, and soft, squishy in a way, like a giant pillow. Mindroid didn’t know if he was being offensive, rude, but he squeezed Coles arm a bit, Cole chuckled, “enjoying yourself?” Mindroid kept his hold on Coles arms and nodded, he squeezed him again, then giggled loudly, laughing almost, it sounded lightly glitched and high pitched like his beeps, a whirring noise that was contagious, Cole laughed and stood up, not picking Min up with him, instead putting his arms on his hips away from the droid, smiling.
“Hugs help don’t they?” Mindroid held his own hands, watching the way his black gloves wrinkled on his tiny fingers and claws, he nodded, not looking up. Cole smiled softly, walking back to the kitchen and finished pouring Cole his orange juice, purring the jug back then walking over to Min.
He gently placed the cup down in front of Mindroid, avoiding the newly made hole in the table, “Want to tell me what’s wrong?” He sat down next to Mindroid, the small droid grabbing the cup and tracing the glass cup with his clawed fingers. He shrugged, Cole watched him for a minute, “okay, we can just sit next to each other, not talk, be bored.” Min giggled a bit, enjoying the goofy way Cole said it, Min looked up at him, Cole reminded him of Cryptor, both were not Zane’s height but close, both were really strong and wore black Gi’s.
Cryptor was like Mindroids superhero, Cryptor was tall, strong and smart, he was the best Nindroid, better than the traitor Zane! Mindroid didn’t like the ninjas, he didn’t like how they joked or how they dressed, he didn’t like anything about them, like all original nindroids, but, Coles jokes were funny, and he was nice, and like a giant pillow!
Mindroid could make a exception for Cole, the only good ninja, true, Kai gave him some tea once but even then the fire ninja wasn’t cool. His sister let him draw and she gave him blankets but that was probably just a order, same with Jay, also the they were gross together.
Mindroid realized his thinking was getting off track, he could tell Cole that he didn’t want to go to Dr. Borgs, get reprogrammed and rebuilt... could he trust him? Cole was a ninja, the thing he was programmed to hurt, kill.

“You wanna do anything Minny? We got some board games if your interested,” Mindroid shook his head, Cole nodding, “wanna watch tv? I know some good movies, made me weep the first time I saw them.” A ninja crying? He was all in, he looked up and nodded, Cole smiled and stood up, “want me to carry you?” He offered, Mindroid shook his head and got up, holding the clear cup, he sipped the orange juice before quickly chugging the rest.
He beeped and put the glass back down, grabbing Coles hand which surprised him and the black ninja, Cole stood there, surprised for a moment before smiling. “Movie time!” He gently held Mindroids hand and walked through the door, Min keeping his head down as he shuffled next to Cole. It was a quick and small walk into the comfortable looking room, a large couch, pillows, blankets, and a big tv. He scanned it with the piece of equipment on his right eye, he could still see out of it, so he considered it a eye, just one with more uses.
It was a Borg Tv, the small Nindroid wasn’t surprised. Pixal was Borgs, Zane’s upgrades were Borgs, this whole ship was probably Borgs! He kicked the floor, letting go of Coles big hand and crawling onto the couch, Cole raised a eyebrow and wrapped a blanket around his shoulders, it still draped over his body, he sat next to Mindroid and wrapped the blanket over Mins shoulders as well.

Cole grabbed the remote, turning on the tv before flipping through the channels, he went onto their downloaded movies and pressed play on one after checking the rating.
Mindroid shifted next to Cole to get more comfortable, laying his head on Coles arm, the earth ninja chuckled and grabbed the pillow next to him and tucked it under Mindroids head gently. The small droid let out a angry beep at being moved, Cole chuckled, “sorry Min.” He turned back towards the movie, watching the beginning, Mindroid watched next to him, frowning as they watched it, the movie was sappy, and made him want to laugh when the characters would go,
“Oooooh! My love! Please don’t leave me!”
“I’m sorry my dear! My family doesn’t approve of you!” Cole was crying a bit, the movies “sad” plot getting to him. Mindroid couldn’t help but laugh loudly, the movie sucked! No one would ever say that unless they wanted to get embarrassed out of their minds! Cole raised a eyebrow at him, wiping the tears from his eyes as Mindroid laughed and giggled, squirming and covering his mouth as he laughed at the stupid scene on screen. Cole chuckled then started to laugh with him, shaking his head as the two laughed in this room together. Cole stopped after awhile, smiling at Mindroid, the movie still playing in the background.

Maybe Mindroid wasn’t as bad as he thought, Cole smiled warmly, Min smiling at the movie, giggling and laughing mostly, he frowned a bit, the thought of Mindroid suddenly breaking the table entering his mind.
The kid had been through a lot, Cole looked back at the movie, the two main characters still confessing their love yet unable to be together, it always made him choke up. He chuckled, today wasn’t great, considering the small scratches and bruises he got from a very pissed off Mindroid, but he also managed to calm the kid down, and Mindroid seemed like he was starting to get used to him, Mindroid was weird, then again, who wasn’t weird in their own way?

Chapter Text

“I hate you.”
“I know you do Tory, just hold still for a couple more minutes then you can go back to your cell.” Kai patted Cryptors shoulder, getting a growl from him,
“I’m going to-“
“Not my fault you tried to attack Zane and almost got frozen.” Cryptor paused at Kais words, eyes narrowing at the ground, that’s was a mistake he wouldn’t make again, attack from the back, not the front.
He was in the dinning room, covered with warm blankets and Kai’s own heat next to him,
“Look... dude, you have to calm down a bit, we can’t help you if you don’t let us.”
“Maybe I don’t want to be helped.”
“Then you’ll go to Kryptarium, and you probably won’t be able to see Mindroid again.” Cryptor paused again, he blamed it on the melting frost in his systems, he was shaking a bit, though didn’t ask Kai for another blanket. “...he’s a sweet kid...”

“He’s a nindroid, like me, he isn’t good like you and your sappy ass team.” Cryptor snapped at him, earning a frown,
“Tory I’m trying to help,” he placed a warm hand onto his shoulder again, “I’m trying to give you some advice, you’ve spent most of your creation being..” he motioned towards Cryptor, the Nindroid narrowing his eyes with a growl. “You get the idea... but have you ever tried to do something different? Like maybe not being a asshole?” Cryptor pushed him away, Kai raising a eyebrow.
“Just consider it, I still have some of those oranges from Mystaké’s, I can get them.” He stood up, leaving Cryptor alone for a couple of minutes, Cryptor simply wrapping the blankets tighter around himself, for once, he felt too tired and cold to give a fuck about escaping. Kai came back, holding four oranges in his hands happily,
“Here! Two for you two for me,” he sat back down on a cushion next to Cryptor, the Nindroid staring at the oranges put on the table in front of him, why did this seem... awfully familiar? He probably did something similar when it was just him and Mindroid, he grabbed a orange, carefully and easily peeling it, Kai doing the same next to him. Cryptor took a single slice, eating it and chewing slightly, he made him feel a bit warmer, a bit happier, all he really could have was the juice, so he took the skin out of his mouth and put it onto the peel, taking another slice. Kai smiled wide at him, eating two slices at a time, Cryptor raising his eyebrow a bit at the fire ninjas antics, after Kai had helped him, and taken him around, Kai was.. tolerable.
They both enjoyed the fruit,
“I think grapes are better,” kai said, trying to make conversation, Cryptor shrugged, “...do you have a favorite-?”
“Mango, shut up.” Cryptor growled, eating a couple more slices, Kai nodded watching Cryptor shiver. Kai sighed, scooting closed to Cryptor and warming up his own chest a bit, fire sparking out from his core into his arms, then cheeks, and face, making the back of his throat glow.
“What are you doing?” Cryptor narrowed his eyes, barring his teeth,
“Your cold aren’t you?” Kai smiled a bit, making Cryptor roll his eyes and look away,
“I still hate you.” Kai laughed, “what are.. have you gone insane?”
“What? No, I just think it’s amusing,”
“What?”
“Your super fucking stubborn.”
“...how is that bad?”
“You won’t give up on something, even if it’s bad.” Cryptor narrowed his eyes at Kai,
“I didn’t ask for life advice.”
“Neither did I, yet here I am, shouldn’t you know that?”
“I lost a lot of data when I died.”
“...oh...”
“Does that make you uncomfortable,” Cryptor scoffed, “thought you would be more...”
“Tough?”
“...stubborn.”
Kai chuckled, smiling softly at Cryptor, Cryptor paused, what did the ninja see in him...? He looked back towards the table putting the dry orange slices with the peel, he hesitated while chewing the new slice he gave to himself, why was Kai so nice sometimes, yet could be so angry and loud at others? Kai confused him, made his head spin and try to calculate every outcome even if it was worthless in the end. Kai wasn’t Zane, Cryptor didn’t know what he was going to do, how he fought, kicked, Kai was something he only had to deal with a couple times, nothing unique, or special, just a dumbass ninja. He clenched the orange in his hands tightly, maybe too tightly, the pulp squeezing out and squirting juice everywhere, Kai quickly looking over,
“Hey watch it!” He grabbed the orange from Cryptor, “I don’t know if it’s bad to get your parts sticky,” Kai mumbled, standing and picking up the peels and dry pieces that belonged to Cryptor, “I’ll throw these away and get you a towel, don’t move.”
Cryptor said nothing, watching him go, he wanted to run, from all of this, the things he didn’t know, from Kai, the Ninja, Zane, Pixal, Cyrus. He wasn’t supposed to run, he was supposed to fight, stay put, so that’s what he did, he swallowed down the feeling of his wires tangling and stayed put, maybe they were, that had never happened before so maybe it explained this feeling he felt.
Kai came back, cleaning up the table and handing Cryptor a towel, the Nindroid carefully cleaned his hands, sitting up and shrugging off the blankets to help Kai. The fire elemental paused, looking up at him, he smiled, he didn’t say anything, just let Cryptor do what he wanted.
“It’s not sticky anymore,” Cryptor said, cursing himself for saying the obvious, Kai chuckled and sat back down,
“That was easy.” Cryptor looked over at him, sitting down next to him,
“I’m still cold.” Kai laughed, moving closed and wrapping his arm around Cryptors shoulders, it was difficult considering Cryptor was taller than him, Cryptor relaxed his shoulders, making it easier for him.
“Can you say, ‘thank you Kai?’”
“No.”
“I’ll take it.” Cryptor looked over at the ninja, pausing before grabbing another orange, peeling it easily with his claws, Kai watched with a smile,
“Want me to make some tea? Sensei Wu has a bunch so I’m sure he wouldn’t mind missing a few bags.”
“...fine.”
“I’ll get the water and tea bags.”
“Don’t you need..” he paused realizing who he was talking to, Kai grinned, getting up and going into the kitchen, Cryptor grabbing a couple blankets and putting them back on his shoulders, Kai coming out with everything they needed.
“Hope you like Camomile.”
“Sure.” Kai set the cups down, still holding them, he focused, the cups slowly starting to heat up before they started steaming, Kai stopped, brushing his hands off and putting the teabags in. Cryptor took his cup, tracing the patterns with his claws,
“Pandas.. and bamboo?” He raised a eyebrow, the childish design of the cup making him confused.
“Oh yeah, it used to belong to Lloyd when he was-“
“Younger.” He took a sip of the tea... why the hell was he getting Déjà vu? Kai nodded,
“Wu got it for him, he felt really bad about not getting him anything when we got new outfits” he chuckled, “that was a long time ago.” He turned back to Cryptor, “so hows the tea?”
“Haven’t tried it yet.”
“Too hot? Sorry, I can’t really help you cool it down...” he laughed, Cryptor couldn’t help the tiny smile that graced his lips, this was... nice, surprisingly nice.
“Hey...” Kai chuckled, “do you want to try-“ Cryptor was a idiot, a dumbass who did the most stupid, idiotic thing next.
Cryptor put the cup down, quickly, Kai seeming confused before Cryptor snapped his attention back to Kai, he cupped Kai’s cheeks in his hands gently, the Nindroid enjoying the feeling of comfortable, familiar warmth, Kai blushed, cheeks turning even warmer. Cryptor was probably too straightforward, who knew if this was real and not just some tangled wires? Only one way to find out, he leaned forward, lips pressing against Kais, the fire Ninjas eyes widening in shock, he paused, enjoying it for a moment before pulling away from the Nindroid, grabbing his hands,
“Are... are you okay Tory?” Cryptor was a idiot, stupid, so fucking stupid, he should’ve been scraped, “I mean I did enjoy it but that was sudden, and-“

“What the fuck.” Cryptor snapped his head towards the door, Pixal narrowing her eyes and clenching her fists, Kai didn’t have time to say anything before Pixal tackled Cryptor, slamming into the table, it snapped in two, Cryptor slamming his head into Pixals with a growl.
“Pixal! Calm down!” Kai said loudly, hair smoking just a small bit,
“He just kissed you Kai!”
“Yeah! I can handle him if I didn’t want it Pix! And it could’ve been a accident!”
Cryptor slammed his knee into her stomach, the other Nindroid hissing in pain, seeing how that didn’t work Cryptor did the next best thing, twisting her and throwing her into the wall.
“CRYPTOR!” Kai shouted, Cryptor growled ignoring him for now, standing up and narrowing his eyes at Pixal as she got into a fighting stance.
“I’m going to tear you to pieces.” Cryptor hissed our venomously, Kai frowning, Cryptor ignoring him.

Chapter Text

It was bright, but cold, metal.. no, rock of some sort stabbing into his hand, why..? He stood up, warnings and errors flashing up in his vision almost enough to blind him.
“Your awake.” He looked up at the large figure, purple and gold, along with other similar colors, he remembered slowly, the overlord... what had happened? He remembered, the ninja, they were important somehow...

“Cryptor!! Cryptor- Cryptor!! Cryptor- no please!!” The red one, he was banging on... what looked like some sort of clear barrier, why did he look so worried? So sad? Did he do something wrong? He looked around, Zane shaking in front of him, on the ground, bleeding some sort of oil. Did he do that?
What was happening, why was he scared... no, no, no... this wasn’t, the mission. This wasn’t how the mission was supposed to go.
It was supposed to be simple, stoping someone who wanted to bring the overlord back, they were crazy, but apparently they had done it... it was wrong, no, he was supposed to be in Chen’s noodle shop, having dinner with kai... he was going to... what had happened? He snapped out of his thoughts as his body started to move and twist on its own, grabbing Zane’s face and lifting him up, claws digging into his skin.

This felt wrong, why, why did it feel so wrong?
“Good boy..” he grinned, hissing, the overlord, was he controlling him? Wasn’t he his son? Where was Min? Where was he... where was... everything.

Now he was spiraling, darkness engulfing him with that laugh, the overlords cackling, coughing laugh.

-[Error]-
-[Scanning for damage]-
-[operational systems: . . . Functional.]-
-[loading.]-
-[Rebooting: Eye functions. Arm functions. Body Functions. . .]-
-[All else operational.]-
-[Retrieving audio.]-
-[processing. Status: damaged. Processing . . .]-
-[Left ear: functional. Right ear: damaged. No longer functional. Seek repair.]-
-[Waking]-

“O-Oh no- Ninja! Please come quick!”
-[Identity: Cyrus Borg.]-

Chapter Text

One moment, he was fighting Pixal, trying to tear the mistake’s throat out. The next? He was here. The light source above the silver metal bed forcing him to adjust his eye and processor. He sat up. His head quite literally ringing, needing to dial up the outside noise that quickly slammed into him as he realized where he was.

He was staring, Cyrus Borg, staring at him, shaking. Backing up to the wall as much as he could while in the wheelchair. Cryptor stood. Feet letting out a heavy thud that betrayed how lightly he carried himself. Cryptor stared back.
The two caught in eye contact for a moment before Cryptor looked around. Seeing a small… video game of some sorts shoved into the far left corner of the spacious work room that he remembered so.. vividly, from his time working under the Overlord. His processing unit finally came up to speed. He was going to be scraped. They were going to find out he was damaged goods, Kai was going to find out he was worthless. He couldn’t be worthless, not again, he couldn’t be broken again. He snapped his attention away from the shelves, tools, messy half finished blueprints and electronics to focus on the human in front of him.

He tried to walk forward, suddenly staggering and almost tripping under his own leg. He had to check his body again, needed to scan himself.
{Accessing.}
{Scanning. . .}
{Error: Function impaired.}

He tried again.
{Scanning. . .}
{Error: Function impaired.}

What the fuck happened. He looked at Borg, trying to walk forward and stumbling again. He felt dizzy, sick even, like flying on Kai’s dragon except on the ground. Pixal, the bitch had broken him, oh how he was going to love tearing her creator limb from- …he fell. Cryptor’s body sparking from a moment, realizing that in his haste for violence fueled vengeance, he had yet to realize important wires were poking out between his limbs. That he was in the process of being taken apart and it probably made him look like the equivalent of a metal zombie.
It felt worse than having his soul suddenly be shoved into a plastic model before it ended up getting kicked out again… well, at the junkyard, there had been carefully crafted milliseconds to, dispose, of a random human for him and Mindroid so they could posses their old destroyed bodies, or he possessed a human to fix their bodies he… he couldn’t quite remember. It was blurry, fuzzy even, he was broken. He was being taking apart, he was going to be thrown away again.

He would’ve jumped if he could at the feeling of gloved fingers touching his face next to where his eye was, a low hiss coming from him. Well, at least that function was still working. The man, Cyrus, frowning, quick to pull his hand back and rub at it. He sighed, rubbing at his face for a moment, Cryptor going back to looking at his hand, letting the claws scratch and dig into the floor. He growled when he heard Cyrus moving again. The man moving around him in a wide circle to go to his computer. Calling something or someone that Cryptor didn’t quite care for. Too busy rummaging around in his own functions and code to care.

Bingo.
Cyrus, or Pixal (he appalled the idea that Zane of all Nindroids could’ve touched him) had put a small virus of sorts into his body via a small plug in. His hand trailing and scraping on the floor. He noticed the calendar on the far right wall as he managed to feel along his back awkwardly and find the usb drive. That was.. new. And the time itself had gone by as well. At least a few weeks by his count, the hours unknown but a few weeks at most. It was Friday. And he was deciding it’d be best to leave before Cyrus called the ninjas.

He took out the usb, quick to cleanse his data with a small scrub as his gears started turning and working, more smoothly than before he noticed. It hurt. Pieces of himself missing as he stood, his ears worked, but now his leg was sluggish and one of his hands looked barren of its heavy metal plating and strong protective cloth covering.
He didn’t care for Cyrus anymore, the man saying something but he didn’t listen, lowering the volume on his ears slightly as he stood before suddenly slamming his weight full force into the doors in front of him into the busy hallway. The people jumping back as he took off, walking past smaller offices and meeting rooms as he made a beeline for the stairs, stopped by someone tackling him. A idiotic mistake he would happily correct.

Cryptor slamming his knee into their gut before twisting so he was on top, raising his clawed hand that was nothing more than a skeleton but stopping himself before he could bring it down.
He blinked, and if he had breath it’d catch in his throat. A nindroid. Not Pixal. Or Zane. Or him or Mindroid. He got up, took a step back. Staring at the Nindroid as he stood, his metal covering was still black, but his outfit was pure white, or maybe a cream color. Either way it was like vanilla, he wouldn’t be surprised if Cyrus Borg went out of his way to scent the suits he created. The Nindroid stared at him before walking forward, Cryptor watching him, noting how it looked like one of his brothers, from during the days of the Overlords rule. The eyes. Even the purple.

Did the robot know? Did he know his original programming? His first design? His purpose? He let the guard lead him, let him press a hand against his back and lead him forward. Cryptor stared at him until he was sitting back on the metal table. His voice couldn’t work so he grabbed the nindroids sleeve to keep him there. He needed to see his brother. How many did Cyrus have? How many did he change? Take apart? Keep like toys? Was the weak man crueler and more vengeful than he thought? No. He couldn’t be.
So how was this Nindroid still here.
If Cyrus was saying something he didn’t hear him, not until the Nindroid tapped the side of his head so he could turn up his audio. Cryptor, despite being the general, did as told. Cyrus’s words coming in again slowly, less of a sudden pounding in his head and more so an annoying, nervous chattering from the inventor.

“I was told to fix you- so I’ve j-just been doing that and trying to add any upgrades I’ve, well, installed to my nindroids over the-“

“Your nindroids? They’re mine.”

“..what?”

“They’re mine! They’re my brothers! You don’t even deserve to touch them considering your such a sniveling coward.”

Cyrus paused, staring at Cryptor. Looking away before frowning, “I’m not coward,” he spoke, “I do have my anxieties and yes, I can become skittish, but I am not a coward.”

“Then why are you shaking while I speak to you?”

“You know why.”

Cryptor was the one to pause, he did know why. He, well he was more than a little ableist in the past. Laughing at Cyrus when he was on the floor. At the time he didn’t regret it.

“Despite what happened I don’t regret your creation.”

“Excuse me?” Cryptor hissed, thinking the inventor was stupid enough to lie to him.

“When I was controlled, I had the feeling you and the other Nindroids were controlled as well. I hoped some of you didn’t… want to be doing what you were doing due to your original design and I…” Cryptor heard him sigh, “despite what you did, despite what you are, and despite what you did to me and the city I, well I am the one who manufactured you, even if I didn’t create you.”

Cryptor looked at the floor, the white covered Nindroid tilting his head a little. Cyrus looking over, seeing the gears in Cryptors hand twist and turn weakly to keep ahold of the other Nindroid. And for a moment, he felt bad for him. And Cryptor knew he did.
Cyrus Borg wheeled himself over silently, pausing before asking, with a small smile and maybe a customer service voice, if he could fix him. Cryptor looking up slowly to stare into the eyes of the inventor, the genius everyone spoke so highly of. The one who had been pushed around by him, the overlord, Pythor and probably more after his “death.” Cryptor slowly nodded. Putting his head down, giving in to the human man. Cyrus Borg shaking his head at the nindroids dramatics as the white Nindroid helped Cryptor lay down on the metal bed. Cyrus Borg grabbing a new usb drive from his work table, Cryptor quick to say he didn’t want to be powered off.

“..are you sure? I’m going to be taking pieces off and moving things around…”

“I’m sure. I still don’t know if I can trust you.”

He laughed, “and I don’t know if I can trust you, general Cryptor.”

Cryptor blinked, looking back up at the ceiling, he didn’t expect someone to laugh when saying his name during his creation. He expected fear- or worse. This was… this was new. Not bad, but new.
Cyrus Borg moved closer, and Cryptor let him start handling his arm first, putting the wires where they needed to be with tweezers and waiting to hear small clicks of the parts connecting. He needed to test by pulling the springs and pistons that made up his hand, he let him. Let him finish on his arm, let him do as he wished.
Cyrus Borg was still human. The inventor still needed rest, food, water. Cyrus had given him a small pamphlet before he left, about Borg Tower, seemingly made for hiring new workers. That day they had focused on Cryptors arm, his legs, but no more than that. Cryptors chest cavity was still exposed and his processing still glitchy at best. His right arm still needing to be worked on and a mess of wires and the iron skeletal like structure underneath his wires and parts.
But, besides the other nindroids, they were alone. He had learned that there were many other nindroids. Some from the original Overlord event at the tower, some were newer. New brothers. He shook his thought at the fact Mindroid would enjoy not being the youngest, knowing that he was still going to be treated as such. Cryptor stood, shaking, needing to adjust his eyes and leg coordination. He managed to walk well enough to get to the door. Opening it, not even noting if it was locked or not as he broke the handle. He pushed it opened and flexed his newly fixed hand, the fingers able to move smoother, more uniform and with less spaces between the movement of his fingers, joints and pieces. He continued walking. Walking down the hall, looking at the photographs on the walls, awards in offices, looking and snooping through the desks he passed, and through the uniform, but surprisingly not cookie cutter meeting rooms.

He paused in one, walking in and closing the door behind him. It had a window, a large, wide window overlooking the changed city. He would never admit it was beautiful. Processing the scenery, how much brighter and friendlier it looked. He looked over to the small table with a tiny coffee machine, cups, packets of sugar, salt, and pepper for whatever reason, styrofoam cups. And a basket of fruit, oranges. Maybe he wasn’t functioning correctly but he walked forward and grabbed one as if it were a life saver.
He sat down, more so on the table then in a chair. He stared at the orange, dragging a claw against it almost surgically. He was malfunctioning. The last time he saw Kai he… he was malfunctioning. He’d say that. He’d say it was a mistake and he wasn’t in his right mind when he did it. He squeezed the orange, not caring about the stickiness as he mentally cursed himself for being such a gross, idiot. Shaking his head before putting the orange down. He… he was going to be fixed so that issue would be dealt with. The issue Kai Smith gave him. He laid down on the table. Staring at the crushed bleeding fruit next to his head.

He was a complete idiot.

And he was a complete fool as he powered down.

Because dreams of Kai, plagued his mind even in sleep. Dreams of holding the man close. Letting him heat up his tea, peeling something as stupid as oranges for him. But holding him was what he focused on.
How Kai’s hair wouldn’t be soft, probably due to a ludicrous amount of hair gel. How the man would laugh, or maybe twitch on instinct if he gently dragged a finger on the scar over his eye. It was hard to imagine Kai doing anything romantic that didn’t fail right away. Cryptor ignored how Kai would probably joke that his gears would be grinding loud enough to sound like a huffing purr. Cryptor wished he could stay like that, tucked in next to the fire ninja, safe, at peace. He ignored how that was a future, an idea, that would never actually happen. It was a make believe world he’d never be apart of. And even in dreams, it was idiotic of him to think these things. So he tried to give himself a dreamless sleep, instead feeling something practically crawl up his spine, a tickling feeling that made him want to be sick. A ragged, coughing voice.

He woke to a group of people screaming. Cryptor sitting up slowly and staring down at the humans who were quick to drop their files and other meaningless things at the sight of him. Cryptor, after adjusting his internal wires himself, managed to turn his invisibility on. It was temporary, and glitched occasionally, showing himself underneath but he was quick enough to leave and go back to Cyrus’s work room, or office, or whatever it was.
He walked in, looking around before quickly walking to the metal table in the middle of the room and laying down. Pretending to be shut off as Cyrus Borg wheeled in, a white Nindroid opening the door for him and closing it behind him quietly.
Cryptor grumbling as if waking up with annoyance, and sitting up slowly, Cyrus raising a eyebrow at him.

“Have you been wondering around, Cryptor?”

“Nope, not recently.” It wasn’t exactly a lie, he walked around last night, it wasn’t exactly last night now was it.

“Mhm.” Cyrus Borg nodded, an eyebrow still raised as he wheeled over to check on his censors. Cryptor letting the human do what he wanted. Cyrus mumbling that he was sure that some of the ninja had gotten his gears oddly sticky from fruit on purpose. Cryptor knowing why his hands and claws were sticky, how it was due to the orange food that had started to cloud his mind ever since his visit with the old lady in the tea shop.

Cyrus kept up with what he was doing, even grabbing a small rag to gently wipe down pieces and parts he took off and put back on to clean them. The white Nindroid standing next to him as he worked. Cryptor flexing his fingers, the ones not being worked on by a human. Asking where Mindroid was, it was a grumble, covered by the sounds of his gears being placed onto the metal table or parts being clicked back into place.

“He’s alright, Cole and Zane are taking good care of him.” Cryptor clenched his fingers, wanting to scrape them across the table at the mention of the ice ninja. His original design. The old design. Cyrus continued, “we found out that he really likes spitting water at people he doesn’t like.” The man chuckled, “Zane has got plenty soaked from the boy spitting onto him.. I got my shirt wet due to him too when you were being dropped off.”

“Sounds like Mindroid.”

“So your friends now?”

“I suppose.”

“I’m going to need you to shut down, I’m going to need to replace a few of your internal face mechanisms.”

“Hm.” Cryptor laid down, looking at the ceiling for a moment, hesitant, before thinking about Kai, about his claws easily dancing across a orange peel as Kai’s lips pressed against his.

And he fell asleep.