#it typically is a little too fancy for my writing style | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

robobirdie · 1 year

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Anatomy of a Droid written in a script format.

Just testing out my writing skills and tried writing my short story Anatomy of a Droid out in a different format; the format used for scripts. Since I already had most of the dialogue which is the primary component to a script format and the story outlined already written I took a try at formatting the story into a script format. It really didn’t take long to rework it a bit. I took creative writing in high school and excelled quite well in it so know a few formats for writing. Script format can be useful in displaying physical happenings in a story but is more monotone and I find not so lively as it’s less in depth and descriptive method prevents proper and good relay of emotions and concepts as it relies heavily on dialogue with only simple descriptive wordings to actions, feelings and concepts. Because of these I’m not a big fan of this style however it can sometimes be useful to portray actions that aren’t easily written into a typical stories format such as how the author envisioned things happening in their story.

Act 1

Jay enters Zane room and looks for him asking if Zane wants challenge him to a few rounds of a game. Doesn't see him so leaves confused. Cuts to him entering the common room where the others are sitting on the couches playing a video game.

Jay comments as he comes into the room: Zane wasn't in his room, has anyone seen him this morning?

Nya comments: You know thinking of it I haven’t seen Pixal all day either. (They talk while continuing to game.)

Kai comments: the two love birds probably went out for some time together on their own, just let them have their time with each other.

Jay states as he joins the others to game: Yha they haven't had much time alone together recently they deserve some time by themselves. I'll challenge him to a few rounds later.

While they are playing Kai wonders: What do those two do together when they’re on their own?

Lloyd adds: I don’t know droid things I guess.

Kai asks confused: And what would droid things be?

Also confused Lloyd: I’m not really sure. Going over the latest software updates or potential new upgrades maybe?

Feeling confident Kai: Yha that kind of sounds right.

Cole pausing playing to address the others: that’s not it they just like to hang out together just chilling sometimes playing video games, watching TV, reading or going for walks in the wilderness or gardening; sometimes visiting a museum, botanical garden or Zoo. They especially like aviaries, apparently birds really like seeing them too. They also like to volunteer at animal shelters and wild life rehabs. Sometimes they also just like resting together. They just like to be with each other and don’t need to be doing anything fancy or special; sometimes being in the same room with each other as they do their own thing is all they need.

Kai confused: Why would you think that? That’s not really something I’d think of for droids; I’d think of them doing more tech things.

Cole a little annoyed at Kais lack of understanding: cause I asked them. If you just asked them it wouldn’t be such a mystery to you two.

Nya and Jay pausing in gaming.

Nya: Just because they’re droids doesn’t mean they do things much differently from us. Sure something’s are different and their thinking’s are quite different but they aren’t too different from us. They like to do the same things and enjoy some of the same things as us. Nindroids are special and are more like us than some mere robot

Jay: yha just because they’re droids doesn’t mean they have to do droid or tech things. The two are a lot more down to earth than their artificial makes suggest. Maybe if you two learned more about the nature of Nindroids a lot about Zane and Pixal wouldn’t seem so mysterious to you. You should take some time to read that book me and Nya made for the rest of you; it explains a lot. Or you could always help us out once in a while when we’re working on them. Cole has done both.

Jay picks up and shows the book they made which they have sitting on the table in the room for easy access for the others.

Confident and happy for his praise Cole: yha, I wanted to know why some of my cooking had real bad effects on them now I know… I also know more than I felt like knowing. I guess though it’s worth it to make sure they’re safe and properly cared for.

Pausing the game and grabbing the book to look at it a little uneasy with the book.

Lloyd: I guess you’re kind of right even if it sounds rather gross to learn about it… (Kai adds 'really gross' before Lloyd continues) hey does anyone else find it a little creepy how the two can talk with each other without well talking sometimes?

Nya: it’s part of being a droid. They can communicate directly into each other’s brains whenever they want to kind of like a form of direct messaging with your phone. I will agree it can be a little creepy yha. They try not to do it around us cause they know it can unsettle us but they sometimes can’t help it. It’s just part of their nature to communicate that way.

As they get back into the game.

Jay: Yha it’s creepy when they do that especially when you walk in on them and their just looking at each other or it looks like they are meditating with their eyes closed but they’re reacting like they’re talking yet it doesn’t look like they are… how do we know they’re not saying bad things about us to each other behind our backs?

Cole: like the rest of us don’t?

His statement annoys Jay but amuses Kai and Lloyd. Nya then gets a call on her phone and answers it.

Nya: Hey Pix we were just wondering about you and Zane… oh okay we’ll be rate there (She hangs up.)

Cole curious: So what are the two lovebirds up to?

While looking at her phone confused.

Nya: Pixal wants to see us in the hanger bay and to bring our weapons; said it was urgent. She sounded nervous.

The comment makes the others confused so they decide to go see what is going on. They get up and leave the room.

Cuts to in the hanger bay where Pixal and Wu are waiting for them looking over Zane who is lying on a table with a panel over his heart open, is hooked up to the main computer which is monitoring his vitals and wearing worn dirty pants.

Kai teases: Had a bit of an accident did we?

As they enter Kais comment catches Pixal and Wu's attention.

Pixal confused: no it is something worse.

Flashes back to that morning as Pixal talks. She entered the room wondering why Zane was still asleep when he was usually up already. Zane is lying curled up on his one side looking to be asleep yet in serious pain. She attempts to connect her communication circuits to his but can't and finds him in a strange state not fully awake but also not fully asleep. She's not sure what's going on but is worried. She tries to wake him but he doesn't respond. She picks him up commenting to him 'don't worry Zane I'm going to find out what is wrong and keep you safe. You're going to be okay.'

Pixal: I noticed Zane was sleeping in later than usual so I went to check on him. I was unable to wake him and I could sense something was wrong.

Flashes back to the hanger bay where.

Pixal continues: After I brought him down here I put him offline so he wouldn't feel anything and after quick analysis I found several major damages and multiple mild ones to various systems that appear to have been done solely to cause pain. It made no sense how he had received them till when I was repairing the damages I found one of these.

She picks off a smaller table next to the one Zane is on which has various tools, bottles and containers the worm and shows it to them. There is a tear in its side with some wires sticking out.

Lloyd confused: What is that?

Pixal: it is some form of robotic worm solely designed to destroy a droid from the inside by slowly and painfully tearing it apart.

Kai: I guess not even droids are immune to parasites.

Pixal: parasites generally do not want to kill their host after all if their host dies they die. These are worse than parasites. Their sole purpose is to destroy the host by any means at any cost. I found that one trying to cut into his spine and destroyed it.

Picking up the robotic worm to get a better look at it.

Nya: Where’d this thing come from?

Pixal: I do not know. I have to do more investigations into it but I can deduce this thing is responsible for some of the damages done.

Her comment makes Cole uneasy.

Cole: some? What do you mean by some?

Pixal shows them on the computer a scan she's done revealing four foreign signals in Zane's body.

Pixal: The damages were so numerous and severe it seemed odd such a little thing could cause such damage on its own so I did a scan and picked up four other signatures matching this worm meaning there are four more inside him. Since I started making repairs they are hiding in places that are not easy to reach to prevent from being harmed and they are giving off signals to try and prevent being found. I can find the general location they are hiding but not the precise location. If I was to try and get them they likely would move off to another location to avoid capture meaning I would have to remove everything in order to reach all of them.

Cole worried: I’m guessing that’s very bad.

Pixal: Indeed. Not only will it take a long time but could cause damages and has a high chance of potentially proving fatal.

Jay worried: So then what do we do?

Wu holding up a spell book: we have already thought it out and we are not hopeless here. There is one thing we can try that will hopefully work. I found a spell that can shrink you to a size decent enough to enter his body and deal with these worms on their own field.

Cole: On their own field, are you saying what I think your saying?

All of them nervous of this statement.

Wu: we can shrink you small enough to safely enter his body and fight the worms on their own field.

Nya and Cole agree that sounds like the best option for their circumstances.

Cole: Sounds like a plan.

Nya: Indeed and this is probably our best option.

Jay: it sounds kind of scary and uncomfortable but if it means saving Zane I'm willing to try it.

Kai and Lloyd are very uneasy with this idea. Lloyds quite but clearly nervous.

Kai worries: Being shrunk and going inside Zane's body... are you sure that's safe?

Pixal: It should be fairly safe. It is not as if he will be active and moving around so you will not get hurt plus I have temporary shut down all systems so if you end up in them you will not get harmed at least not much. I have also quickly whipped up some masks with air tanks so you will be able to breathe as there will not be sufficient oxygen in most parts inside his body for you to get enough to breathe effectively for an alert and active state. They will also protect your face from any of the potentially dangerous substances in his body and provide sufficient light to help you see while in there.

They are still uneasy but decide to do it.

Lloyd: if that's all we have then lets do this.

Pixal gets them the additions for their outfits which are rebreathers which are connected to oxygen tanks. They put them on Kai and Lloyd visibly a bit nervous.

Pixal once they are dressed: The workings of Zane's own body will interfere with the signals for communicators but I can work around this by routing their signal through Zane's systems so we can still keep in contact.

Wu uses the spell on them. They are encompassed by a bright light which when it dissipates they are shrunk to the size of ants. Nya isn't bothered, Cole comments "this feels weird", Jay and Kai are nervous though Kai is trying to pretend it isn’t bothering him and Lloyd is nervous but trying to hide it.

Lloyd: alright let's get this started.

Pixal picks them up and places them gently in Zanes chest on the holder for his power source. Lloyd Nya and Cole focused while Jay and Kai are looking around nervous and feeling a bit uncomfortable.

Lloyd: Okay where is the first place we should check?

Pixal directs: his left shoulder area; some damages are starting to appear in the area likely indicating one is active in the area.

They turn on the lights in their masks and start to make their way to the area. They are crawling between Zane's skin and his inner makes . The underside of Zane's skin bares structures that are hybrids of normal wires in a metallic synthetic material.

Lloyd: I thought his skin was just metal plates.

Jay explaining: on the outside it looks like that. The metal plates are like the armoured scales of a crocodile providing not only form but protection for the interior of his body. They are fused into a more flexible synthetic skin like material to allow him better movement and flexibility. Those wire structures built into them are like nerves. They not only allowing him to get a sense of feeling and touch but to feel if pressures applied to areas could harm or damage the interior parts of his body.

Kai uneasy and cautious of where he's putting himself: what are these we're on?

Nya explaining: they are synthetic muscles. They act and look like real muscles. They follow a similar pattern to ours however they are worked around some spots like the area over his heart that way if major components needed to be worked on it is easier to access them. All of the synthetic muscle like structures are connected to his internal skeleton through special rectangular connectors. Like with his skin the muscles bare the same wire like structures fused into them. These wires transfer the communications for movement from his brain into the fibres and provide feeling for them to help prevent stressing them out. These wire structures are connected to wires that run through small hollows in his titanium internal skeleton that way they are kept safe from getting pinched or damaged by other parts in his body. His internal skeleton largely replicates a human skeleton. The most notable differences are the frames around ports for things like storage or hiding of small foreign items and for connectors from devices and computers to be hooked up through in his chest and abdomen and of course the holder for his heart.

Lloyd getting a closer look at the structures: I didn't realize he had muscles.

Cole a little proud of himself for knowing this: if you read that book you would know that. You would also know they help take pressure off his joints so they can move better, receive less stress from movement and provided extra strength for his body both in support and physical strength though he still doesn't have as good a strength as me. They also help protect the more important internal structures and systems from damage particularly from impacts and help dampen sounds from deeper in his body.

A noise from his heart a slightly electric toned sound that mimics' a normal hearts beat can be heard in his body while they are in him. Depending on where they are in his body it's sound is louder or quieter.

Kai uneasy: speaking of sounds what is that sound?

Jay: It's just his heart. It's actually rather quite in here rate now probably because his all his other systems are offline. If they were on it would be a lot noisier in here. Normally you can't hear sounds from in his body unless you put your ear close to the sources sound. The dampening his skin and muscles give helps keep the sounds from his internal workings quite for us plus him preventing them from interfering with his hearing.

Kai unnerved: I don't want to know what sounds are normally in here.

Lloyd: it is kind of unnerving to hear his heartbeat but it's a good thing we can hear it; it means he's still alive.

Nya: indeed. We still don't know what the material that makes up his heart is but if it was to stop working it would likely not start again and we'd permanently loose Zane.

Jay: yha his heart is very special and very powerful but also very sensitive and fragile. Zane's father refused to tell us what it was. We guess he wanted to keep the source secret and considering how special it is I think it's probably a good thing it's kept secret. It functions like a battery storing and giving electrical energy and can last a long time only if though it is taken care of properly such as not letting energy outputs get too low. That's why Zane and other droids like him and Pixal have a specially designed digestive system which can convert organic matter into an energy format their hearts can use and store. Outside Zane and Pixal we've never found any other droids using the same material for their hearts. All others use special batteries which are nowhere near as efficient or powerful as the material Zane's heart uses.

Nya: It might not have highly dangerous corrosive acids in it like a typical battery but in ways Zane's heart is far more dangerous. If overworked or overloaded like from being electrocuted by Jays powers it can explode. Because of this and the fact Zane's body is largely made of highly conductive metal Jay you can't use your powers in here.

Jay: yha that's probably a good idea.

They come up to the area of his shoulder. A synthetic muscle has been de-attached from the upper arm which normally went through a frame that connects his arm to his body. They inspect the site. There are some cuts to the synthetic fibres with some wires sticking out. Jay and Nya take a close look while the others look for the worm.

Nya: This doesn’t look too badly damaged. Some minor cuts to the synthetic fibres but some synthetic re-grow should fix it.

Kai coming to see what they are looking at: is that what that weird sickly yellow green liquid stuff I’ve seen you and Jay use while working on him is?

Jay: Yha, you should always use gloves when working with it cause if you get it on your skin it really burns; it makes synthetics re-grow while it de-grows organics.

Cole: yha I can attest to that. I mistook it for peroxide once and boy was that a mistake. Made the cut worse and gave me blood poisoning. That was an unpleasant week. To be fare it was in the same bottle as the peroxide… I guess I should have read the label though before using it.

Nya: And that’s why we now keep the first aid equipment for Zane and Pixal in separate different looking containers and we don’t keep them in the bathroom with our first aid supplies.

Lloyd unsettled: what does that stuff do exactly?

Jay and Nya carefully put some of the wires back in place in the synthetic material as they talk.

Nya states: Basically it makes synthetics re-grow and repair themselves. Unlike our fleshy makes the materials that make up Zane and Pixals make generally cannot repair themselves without an external aid. Only components of their digestive tracts can do that but that’s because those parts are made from tougher more complex self repairing synthetics unlike everything else which lack that ability. That’s where that stuff comes in. It’s a bit dangerous to work with and takes a few hours to complete its work but is much cheaper, just as efficient and I’m pretty sure Pixal and Zane prefer that method over other methods especially just removing and replacing parts. Unless something gets too badly damaged we use that method to fix things for them.

Cole: yha I’m probably with them. I don’t know about you but it probably isn’t a nice feeling to just have a part of your body removed and thrown away if some things wrong with it. Like that was a part of you, part of your being and it just gets thrown away like some piece of trash. Sure it was damaged but it was still part of you part of what made you well you. Having that done probably would make you feel disposable; like your being means nothing like your life is almost meaningless and fake if someone does that. I know that’s how I would feel having something like that done.

Everyone slowly looks at him a bit surprised by his dark comment.

There is a pause then Kai states: Yha I could see how that would really bother them; that’s not something pleasant to think about.

Jay: by the looks the only damage done here is to the fibres. Everything else is fine.

Lloyd goes over with Nya to inspect the frame Zane's arm attaches into.

Lloyd: Any sign of one of these worms?

Nya: no. It’s not here now but it couldn’t have gone far. Since these muscle structures pass through the framework his arm attaches too in order to connect his arm to his body and they’ve clearly been pulled out to allow access to his arm I think it might have made its way into his arm.

Cole notes a sound nearby and looks to where it came from. They are sitting on what is the top of his shoulder as he lays on his back but the actual top relative to when he is standing is below them. This is where the sound came from.

Lloyd: so I’m guessing then we’re going to have to make our way into his arm; looks like we’re just the right size to get through.

Coming to look with them.

Kai: You know it always kind of confused and unsettled me that he could remove his limbs; why can he remove his limbs?

Jay notes Cole looking below and comes to see what is going on.

Nya: while it can prove useful if his limb gets caught or trapped it’s actually supposed to be in case the limb gets too badly damaged so it can be removed and replaced with little complication for the rest of his body.

Things are focused on Lloyd, Kai and Nya as behind them Cole is surprised before Jay reaches him from below by the worm which shoves him into the underside of Zane's skin with its body. The worm moves letting him fall while it goes after the others. Cole is winded.

Kai scared: Did this thing make a trap?

They get into a fight with the worm. It uses the plier like structures for its mouth to try and crush them.

Jay dodging one of the worms attacks: Well this thing is a machine not an actual worm so that is a possibility.

It is hard for them to fight as they have very little space to move under Zane's skin and the worm is bigger than them. Kai uses a blast of fire at it which comes out as a weak fireball just catching the machines attention and not doing damage.

Kai complains: That was not what I was trying to do, that was pathetic! Why are my powers so weak!

Nya: It is likely because of our small size.

Lloyd gets knocked on his back. Cole having regained his breath shoves the head of his warhammer between the pinchers preventing the worm from closing them on Lloyd. It tosses its head around as it tries to throw Cole who is hanging on trying to keep it hindered. Lloyd gets up and goes to stab his sword into the things head but it knocks him aside before breaking free of Cole breaking its pinchers in the process. With the pinchers damaged it shoots out a blade from its head which it proceeds to try and stab at Cole and Lloyd with. While they dodged its attacks the worm leaves some more damage to Zane's synthetic muscle fibres.

Nya yells at them: Careful we don’t want to cause more damage to Zane.

Lloyd trying to avoid getting stabbed: try to not cause Zane more damage, I’m trying to not get damaged!

Nya quickly rushes in to shove her trident into the machines blade getting it caught on her weapon and letting her hold its head back a bit pinning it against the underside of Zane's skin Cole comes over and helps pin it using his warhammer. Kai rushes in scared to stab it in the power source. with their small size he is struggling to get through the machines skin and Jay rushes over to help. They pierce the power source destroying the machine which goes dark and still.

Lloyd as they take a moment to settle: This is going to be tougher than we first thought!

Jay panicking: that thing was scarier than I thought it would be!

Nya: Well we at least got it destroyed. That leaves only three more to go.

Nya through their communicators: the one in his shoulder has been dealt with. There is some damages to the muscle and it will need to be reattached but it doesn’t look to bad. What’s the next one we should go after?

Flashes for a moment to outside Zane's body where Wu and Pixal are waiting for the others to contact them having been in the dark over what has been going on for the past couple minutes. Pixal checks the computer.

Pixal: I am picking up one in his chest on the right side close to his right lung.

Switches back to the others as they are moving through Zane's body and come up to a synthetic muscle that has been disconnected and moved back so something could move deeper into his body slipping between two ribs.

Kai nervous: Think it has gone deeper or could this be a trap?

Nya inspecting the space: looks like it has gone deeper. We’re going to have to follow to get it.

Nya, Cole and Jay are unfazed while Lloyd is nervous and Kai is scared but trying to hide it.

Kai: Are you sure?

Jay: We’re pretty sure, hopefully it hasn’t gone too deep, there are places in him I defiantly don’t want to end up in.

Nya leads down into the hole followed by Jay then Cole. Lloyd and Kai are hesitant glancing nervously at each other before following the others. The worm has pushed aside various structures including tubes, wires, synthetic muscles and structures making a path they follow. They are all being cautious as they move. Kai and Lloyd are nervous and uncomfortable scared to touch some things.

Kai grossed out and nervous: Uhm what is this stuff?

Kai is poking at a tube with an icy blue liquid in it nervous.

Cole inspecting another tube with the same liquid but isn't bothered or scared instead curious: it kind of looks like that stuff you see in ice packs.

Nya: It’s kind of like that stuff. It’s his cooling fluid, it’s what Zane uses to keep his body temperature stable and fairly uniform through his body.

Jay: that stuff is the closest thing Zane has to blood.

Kai still nervous: If it’s supposed to keep him cool then why is it warm?

Nya explains as they continue to move: well for one his systems have been shut down for several hours while Pixals been working on him so the fluid has just been sitting warming up absorbing the heat from his body also while we call it cooling fluid it’s actually a thermoregulation fluid. It’s just easier and simpler to call it cooling fluid. It can be both warm and cold. When the fluid comes out of the systems central hub a larger pump like structure which sits in an insulated casing to prevent its workings from affecting the rest of his body near his bodies’ core it usually is fairly cool. There is a small compressor in the structure that cools the temperature of the fluid. The structure then slowly pumps the fluid through the rest of his body where it transfers the cooler temperature out and absorbs the heat from his bodies core where it then transports the heat out to his extremities. This helps cool his body and warm up the less insulated parts of his body that lack major system functions like processors which produce heat. It both helps cool his body and keep his overall temperature stable around the same as our temperatures. Many of the materials in his body both synthetics and mechanical don’t handle extremes in temperature well especially if they rapidly arise. Too much heat and circuits will start to fry, wires will get damaged and synthetics will receive heat damage like burns and even melt damage. He can handle the cold better but still too much cold makes wires brittle, various components become stiff making movement difficult and extreme cold can mess with sensors giving them false readings and numb feelings which can cause him to hurt himself.

Jay adds: Yha after his stint as the Ice Emperor we had to fix quite a few things that got damaged from the cold that had gripped him in that time.

Things flash to a flashback of Zane as the ice emperor showing various things he did including leading his ice warriors into combat, ordering the warriors around and sitting on his throne. Things then flash to later after they have rescued Zane and Nya and Jay are working on him to fix things up and pulling strange items and ice out of his body while he is laid on a table offline.

Jay continues to speak over the flashback what he says lining up with what is shown: Also a lot of his systems running super low so were slow so produced little heat to compensate for the cooling. With how slow everything was working he wasn’t using as much energy as usual, he was spending a lot of his time in this strange light sleep state like a cat and with how slow his body was working it was like he had the metabolism of a reptile. At least the cooling part to his cooling system was shut off the whole time but without the heat normally produced by his body not much heat was being transferred around so it made things worse preventing many areas from receiving heat to combat the overpowered state of his powers. Using his synthetic muscles at those temperatures in that state especially for activities like fighting caused tears and damages in them and most of his systems needed some serious maintenance. Some parts kept seizing up because of low use and cold damage. Not all of it was from the cold though quite a bit also came from lack of maintenance. His stint as the Ice Emperor also really messed with a lot of systems. They didn’t fully shut down during that time but were working much slower than they should. The cold that gripped him was pretty intense; his heart was slower and functioning largely only at half its potential, the cold had also caused ice to build up in various fluids through his body even his cooling fluid and stomach acids. Luckily those melted when his body started to warm up so weren’t a problem unlike some of the ice that had built up in some joints and on other components. We had to pull the remaining ice out and dry off parts to avoid shorts and problems. Not to mention we ended up pulling out a lot of weird items out of his digestive tract. That guy Vex who was manipulating him seemed to think he could just be given anything to eat. Luckily because of how the cold was affecting him he was only eating about two to three times a week preventing some of the non editable items he was given from building up and causing problems in his system.

Cuts back to the five of them as they continue to move through Zane's body.

Cole inspecting one of the tubes: So this is how Zane keeps from overheating; I always wondered about that. I know from my laptop when just playing a video game it can get hot even with its fan going full blast and Zanes body obviously does more functioning and is more active than my computer all the time and he’s told me he doesn’t use fans to cool himself so I’ve always been confused by that. I thought it was his powers helping him but then that doesn’t explain how Pixal or other droids do it.

Nya explains: yha fans are not efficient enough to maintain a safe and stable temperature for a droid and are also too noisy for them; it would interfere with their sense of hearing. This method is the much better option. It isn’t perfect though since certain temperatures can still get too much for him and his cooling system can take a great deal of energy especially when it’s really hot to function which is made worse as the processors and other mechanics operating the cooling system also produces heat kind of taking down how effective the system works. If Zane or Pixal can’t efficiently cool themselves they have to shut down systems, I’ve even caught them eating ice and using cool to cold showers in order to help cool themselves. If these don’t help they’ll pass out offline for a while to prevent from serious overheating to prevent damages which can be real dangerous if they’re not in a safe place.

Kai trying to remain calm: Is that why during heat waves like that one a few weeks ago the two were often hanging out in the walk in cool storage room in the basement for a while for several hours every day largely around noon? It was creepy to find the two just hanging in there when you went to get a drink. I guess it’s not as creepy though as finding Zane resting in the fridge.

Cole: Yha, it helped them keep cool during the hottest part of the day and didn’t task them a lot of energy to help keep cool...

Flashes to a flashback. Coles coming to get a drink out of the cold storage and is confused about the extension cords leading into the room. Walks in to find Zane and Pixal have made themselves a little space to relax and play video games in the room. They have set up a game system hooked up to a TV and have various cushions lying around. Cole continues narrating over the flashback.

Cole: I asked them about it and yha I’d have to agree it was rather relaxing and it isn’t too cold in there. It’s not full fridge cold but defiantly cool enough to keep drinks and yourself cool despite the heat outside.

Jay: Yha that’s why and yha it was creepy to find them hanging in there but it was creepier to find you in there too.

Flashback shows Jay coming to get a drink and getting surprised then confused to find Pixal, Zane and Cole hanging out in the cold cellar.

Cole defending himself: hey it was hot I went to get a drink and found them in there and when they told me what they were doing I decided to give it a go too. They said it was safe and could help; they weren’t lying.

It flashes back to the five as they continue their journey.

Kai: Maybe for you it wasn’t bad but I find it a bit chilly in that room.

Nya: that’s because as the master of fire you handle the heat better than the rest of us. Heats more dangerous for Zane and Pixal than the cold; they can better handle and counter cold temperatures than hot ones though not too cold of temperatures. Zane better handles the cold than Pixal; I think his powers are the reason for that but even then it is not too much better. If they get too cold they can shut down the cooling function of their temperature control system in order to help warm up along with using attire and blankets like us to help trap in body heat and keep warm. While he has a higher tolerance to the cold than the rest of us and with being the master of ice Zane still has limits with it and he can be hurt by too cold of temperatures just like the rest of us.

Cole pausing to think about it: Imagine being able to shut down parts of your body when you don’t need to use them, I’m betting that would be a bit cool.

Jay: yha it sounds cool but it isn’t as cool as it sounds. Some like his cooling system he can shut down with little problem but others take some work to prevent complications like his digestive system. If he wants to shut that system down for more than a day or two he has to fully empty it to prevent anything from rotting inside him and the system has to neutralize and absorb and store the materials and chemicals it uses in the storage structures for them to prevent damages. That can take a day or two to do. Not to mention he can’t leave systems off for too long. They serve purposes often major and necessary ones so it can hurt him if their off for too long plus he might have trouble getting them started again if they have been off for too long, like a year too long.

Brief flashback to Nya and Jay working on Zane after rescuing him in the Never Realm trying to get his cooling system working again using a tablet connected to his system and having trouble getting it started.

Jay explains: It took quite a bit of work to get the cooling function to his cooling system started back up after it had been off for so long as the Ice Emperor. To prevent problems it’s best we don’t let him have his systems off for more than a few days.

It flashes back to the five.

Kai mumbling unnerved: That’s gross and more than I needed to know.

Kai is unsettled and trying to keep his eyes focused ahead of him not wanting to see more than he had to of where he is.

Cole regales: yha I’d agree for not letting him go more than a few days with things shut down especially when it revolves around eating.

Things switch to a flashback of Cole, Jay, Kai and Zane in the First Realm. Flashback follows Cole and Jays talking. Shows them checking over the rations and Zane declaring everything's for them as he can go longer without food and it is more important for them to have it. Cuts to another scene two days later and Zane's getting a little annoyed at small things like the others not picking up after themselves, things they are working with being misplaced, etc. Next is shown he's showing signs he's uncomfortable with the heat and tired but is trying to ignore it. Then shown is the others finding him randomly passing out or already passed out in the area while he was trying to work. They take him and lay him in the shade every time they find him passed out. The last flashback scene is Cole forcibly giving him a bowl of rations with the others telling him he needs to have them as he's scaring the others. Zane accepts without hassle noting the others are uneasy around him.

Cole narrating: When we were trapped in the first realm because we didn’t have many rations he decided to not have any so there would be more for the rest of us. It was okay for a day but by the second day he started getting short tempered and moody. It got worse on the third day and by the fourth he wasn’t just temperamental but started passing out at random during the day often in not ideal or safe locations. We forced him to eat and by the next day he started getting back to his normal self. We made sure he ate with the rest of us the rest of the time to keep him from getting like that again.

Jay adds: Yha that was because he was putting a lot of stress on his power source; he was not only functioning more than usual with the rest of us just to survive but because of how hot it was getting in the day there with hardly anywhere to shelter from the heat he had his cooling system on and functioning a lot higher than usual to try to keep from overheating. It was all taking quite a bit of power and since he wasn’t doing anything to restore the energy being taken from it he was stressing his heart. To prevent being overworked he was passing out when his heart got too stressed. It’s a safety feature I wisely turned on the first day when he decided to go without eating; I knew it was a good idea to do so.

Flashes back to the five as Jay finishes: Sleeping helps him conserve energy and stabilize the power outputs from his heart along with letting his brain rest so it doesn’t get bogged down or overworked plus he can run things like defrags, system updates, restores and reboots and stuff like that without interfering with normal daily functioning’s when he sleeps sometimes. Sleeping can also help him cool down since he’s not functioning as highly when awake. To stay in peak condition he has to sleep for a couple hours a day like we do. Having low energy and trying to function at such high levels during that time in the first realm was making it like he was hangry and tired angry, tire-gry, at the same time making him incredibly moody. I don’t think many of his systems including his emotional circuits handle low energy conditions well.

Kai: Yha I thought Cole was bad when hangry or tired, when Zane’s in those equivalent states he can be much worse. Then again when he gets in certain states he can be much worse than the rest of us… personally I think the worst is to make him mad. I’ve learned too many times not to do that.

Jay agrees: yha especially don’t make him do your chores when he’s tired or you’ve tricked him too many times in a short period of time into doing them… that doesn’t end well.

Nya: Despite what many think Zane's power source is limited. His heart has a decent lifespan of about 200 to 300 years or so but only if he takes proper care of it. It can be depleted including to the point that it would kill him which is real bad. If his heart gets to that state it will burn out and be unable to be recharged or reused. Luckily its energy can also be replenished to counter this keeping it powered, stable and healthy.

As Jay talks the scene cuts to a clip of Jay hooking some jumper cables to Zane heart. Zane is tired and sitting on the ground. Zane's commenting nervous how he doesn't think this is going to work and might be very dangerous. Jay ignores his comment telling Zane he won't know it is actually dangerous unless he gives it a try. Jay then sends electricity through the cords shocking Zane who is in a lot of pain from the action. The glow from his heart starts to glow brighter and recognizing that's a bad sign Jay stops and Zane falls back unconscious leaving Jay worried.

Jay adds: the best way for him to do that is through his digestive system. I tried with my powers once to help give him some energy and that nearly led to the opposite risk his heart has. It was nearly overloaded and exploded! Not to mention it didn’t really restore any energy for his heart and just stressed it out.

Cuts back to the five.

Kai confused: but doesn’t his heart use electricity as its energy?

Nya explains: Yha but electricity isn’t all the same. The difference is the volts in its current that’s why you have to use an adapter when charging your phone or laptop. If you just plugged them into an outlet without an adapter you would damage your battery and it wouldn’t really charge it properly. Pure raw electricity is dangerous for Zane's power source that’s why when we do hook him up to a computer or anything that could transfer electricity to him the connectors we use have adapters built into them that way they don’t cause any stress to his heart. That is also why Lloyds powers are safer to help Zane than Jays. As pure energy his can deliver a much lower and gentler form of electricity that doesn’t easily hurt or overwhelm Zane's heart. Since he only has half the material from his original heart it’s more sensitive to being overworked and overloaded. Luckily his new bodies’ digestive system is more efficient at producing energy than his old body so it really helps keep his heart stable and healthy.

Kai: given the effects it has on him do you think Zane ever regrets giving up half his heart?

Cole: Are you kidding, you just see him and Pixal hanging together and you know he doesn’t regret it. Not only that he would do it again no matter how much it affects him.

Kai: Yha there’s no denying that. Those two were meant for each other... hey if this cooling stuff is supposed to warm up his extremities like his hands then why are they often cold; like sometimes icy cold?

Cole: I’d say his powers but then why are his hands sometimes warm?

Nya: yha that is odd. I’m not sure why that is, it could be his powers. Maybe they sometimes override the heating? He is able to use his powers to cool his skin and when combined with his metal skin can block his internal temperature from being recognised by thermal sensors. It could be this ability malfunctioning causing that. I do tend to notice his hands are warmest when he’s been active or using them a lot they’re also warm when he’s calm and relaxed. At the same time along with when he’s using his powers his hands are coldest when he expresses certain emotions particularly if he is mad so maybe his activity levels and emotions play a role in that? He can also make the place a bit chilly when he’s mad and if he’s scared, sad or upset enough he can lose a bit of control to his powers so I think his emotions can sometimes influence his powers causing his hands to be cold.

Jay chuckling a bit to think of it: I’d agree with that and he’s not the only one. I think it’s the same for all of us.

As they talk scenes change to flashbacks showing some comedic examples of what they are saying.

Jay giving a chuckle as he speaks: Our powers sometimes are influenced by our emotions. Just look at Kai when he’s mad. Not only does he make the room hot he can sometimes have fire burst up on him.

Kai annoyed by Jay: how about when you get all super scared; you become a super static magnet. You shock everything you try to touch.

Cole: yha that’s very unpleasant. At least he doesn’t make light bulbs explode when he gets real mad like Lloyd sometimes can.

Lloyd: I don’t mean to do that besides it’s not too bad; Jay can blow circuits when he touches certain electronics like light switches when he’s mad or super scared. Let’s not forget Nya’s affects on the plumbing when she’s real mad not to mention Kais not the only one to make things hot when he’s mad Cole can too. He can also damage things with his super strength if he’s not careful. When Zane’s mad not only can he make the room cold but he can freeze most liquids nearby which isn’t pleasant when he freezes your drink, the toilets or even worse the shower especially when you’re in it.

The scene switches back to the five as they come up to a large synthetic structure forming a wall in their path. There is a large tear in it leading to darkness. Nya and Jay look it over.

Nya: You should recognise these structures brother, you had to help replace parts from them remember that?

Kai regales: yha don’t remind me; it was uncomfortable seeing and working on his insides. I never meant to hurt him, it was an accident. I didn’t realise he was there when I made that fire storm.

The scene switching to a flashback as Kai narrates: I was just cutting off the bad guys so they couldn’t escape I didn’t mean for him to end up breathing in incredibly hot burning embers. To be fair Zanes disguise was really good, a little too good I didn’t know he was there.

In the flashback Kai and Zane who are undercover as some thugs and have been found out are fighting to trap them in an alleyway. Some Zane has trapped in ice. A few are trying to escape so Kai blocks off their attempted escape with a strong blast of fire creating a wall of flames causing them to get singed. Zane had been trying to cut them off and got caught in the flames. He quickly escapes and puts himself out his cloak shutting off revealing to Kai whose worried and comes to help him that he had been there. Zane appears relatively unharmed but has soot all over himself, burnt attire and keeps coughing as if he has a cold. Cuts to later Kai who is nervous and embarrassed showing Zane who is hurt still coughing and soot covered to Jay and Nya who knowing somethings wrong quickly come to inspect him. Cuts to them making repairs to Zane and Kai who is uncomfortable with the work is trying to help them.

Jay: How hot did you make that fire? It melted many of the sensors in his lungs and damaged most of the rest plus some of its tissues. We had to replace the whole things! Zane just wanted to repair what was there but it was all too badly damaged.

Scene fades back to the five in Zane's body.

Kai uneasy: I helped out with the cost and work in the repairs to show I was sorry. I prefer not knowing what his insides are like but I felt so bad especially since he spent a week in pain, with off sounding and weird breathing and frequently coughing from what I did. It was so sad, like seeing a sick kitten or puppy. He can shut off systems so why did he keep his breathing going if it was causing him such problems? It was to make me feel bad wasn’t it?

Nya: No more like the opposite. He didn’t want to unnerve anyone. He knows when he doesn’t breathe it unsettles some of us especially you and Jay…

Nya getting cut off by an unsettled Kai: there is just something unsettling seeing someone who’s living and so human like not breathing…

Nya then continues: yha that plus when he had his breathing off so he could get some sleep Lloyd had a bit of a panic thinking he was dead when he went to check on him so Zane kept them active to not scare or worry anyone despite the problems they were giving him.

Scene clips to a flashback of Lloyd coming in to check on Zane and after shaking him a bit and he doesn't react Lloyd rushes off worried to get help.

Lloyd narrates over flashback: Hey he was unnervingly still, he’s normally a restless sleeper so that wasn’t normal plus he wasn’t responding to me when I tried to wake him, that’s usually not a good sign. I was worried.

Flashback shows as Nya talks Pixal (who is calm and not worried) comes in with Lloyd (who is scared), Jay and Nya (who are calm knowing there is nothing wrong) and using her ability to connect to him wakes Zane up. Zane's confused while Lloyd becomes relieved.

Nya: He wasn’t responding because he was in a deep sleep being very tired from the days events and from having trouble getting to sleep because of the damages to his lungs. He didn’t want to be disturbed so set his body to basically a sort of do not disturb mode so he could get some sleep.

The scene switches back to the five who are inspecting the tear in the material.

Cole: Yha cause Jay has a rude habit of disturbing others while they’re trying to sleep.

Flashback of clips showing what Jays talking about as he talks.

Jay: I’d say sorry but there is no need for anyone to be sleeping till noon; sure I sleep in late but I’ve rarely gone that late besides it’s not fun having to wake any of the rest of you up. You can all be rather rude. You’ve punched me, thrown me across the room, thrown stuff at me, hit me with blasts of fire ice dirt water or energy not to mention set my clothes on fire, freeze me from the waist down to the floor, sent the chicken after me do I need to go on?

As Cole speaks clips of Jay annoying each of the others while they are trying to sleep are featured. Each of those he's bothered push him off through various methods matching what Jay is complaining about.

Cole: I think I’m with everyone when I say when you’re sleeping it’s not pleasant to be awoken especially by your loud babbling and frantic shaking when you do it. Maybe we should wake you up in the same way

Jay then rants clips of what he talks about showing: hey what I do is not as annoying as some of you. Flipping my bed on its side, dragging me out of bed, making an earthquake, freezing my room, playing pranks on me like lighting off those little loud firecrackers in a metal bucket oh and how could I forget the time you dragged my bed outside and left me in the courtyard… during a rain storm! Again do I need to go on?

Scene cuts back to them. Cole, Jay and Nya are rather chill but Lloyd is nervous and Kai is very uncomfortable and on edge as they talk.

Cole: Hey sometimes you deserve it besides your reaction to some of those methods is hilarious anyway change of subject why is his lungs different colored from his synthetic muscles?

Jay amused: really you can tell it’s a different color.

Cole confused: What do you mean by that?

Lloyd: you have a tendency to mis-describe colors or not recognise them properly

Jay curious: yha did you ever take that test we suggested you to?

Cole is uneasy and guarded: I did

Jay eager to know the answer: and what answer did you get?

There is a pause before Cole responds with: I have something called due-ter something. I forget the name it just means I can’t really tell the difference between red and green very well.

While they talk Lloyd cautiously approached the tear to look into it feeling nervous.

Jay comments with a bit of a chuckle amused at what he hears: that explains some things like often mixing up Lloyd and Kais clothes or not following our instructions in video games like hit the red button and not the green.

Cole annoyed: Can we not make fun of my problems.

Jay: I’m not making fun just surprised you could tell his lung is a different color. As for why it is like that it’s to help differentiate the various components of his anatomy that way when you’re working on him you know which parts are for what system. You don’t want to accidently hook the wrong things up to each other. That really won’t help him and could cause problems.

While Jay talks Lloyd looks into the tear but can't see anything but darkness. This scares him so he tries to move back uttering to himself that he should let someone else take a look first but bumps into Kai who unnerved by where he is isn’t watching where he is going knocking Lloyd off balance and into the tear. He lands face down in the structure as the others come over to see what has happened.

Lloyd getting to his knees: I’m fine just watch your step.

The others come in to join him Kai getting more scared and on edge once in with the structure.

Kai unnerved and grossed out: great we’re in his lung aren’t we? I was really hoping we wouldn’t end up in any of his organs.

Jay: Trust me this is probably the nicest and safest place you could end up in his body. Not much can hurt us in here. Trust me there is way worse places in Zanes body to end up in.

Kai more unnerved by Jays comment: please don’t tell me I’m pretty sure I don’t want to know about them.

They have much more space in Zanes lung so stretch out from the cramped conditions they have been facing.

Cole: Finally my legs were starting to cramp up.

Kai looking around still nervous but calming a little: I guess it isn’t too bad in here… you know I always found it weird and a bit unsettling he could breath. Like he doesn’t need oxygen so why does he need lungs?

Lloyd is also nervous but everyone else is fine.

Nya: Well you probably won’t notice much because anything to do with biology grosses and unnerves you…

Gets cut off by Jay who teases: yha it does. You should have seen how red his face went when Wu sent us to have some health care classes when we were younger at a community college; you were in the girls class so you didn’t get to see but it went redder than his shirt or how about the that Day of the Departed and Zane read to us some of those horror stories by that guy who wrote that creepy poem on a raven and the really gross ones had you sick and nearly throwing up just to hear them. We also all remember that time we went fishing and Zane showed us how to properly gut and de-scale a fish for dinner. He just started cutting into it and you passed out.

Kai defending himself: As I told you then it wasn’t from the fish; I was feeling lightheaded from low blood sugar that day and who thought it was funny to put those fish in my arms and make me hug them? That was a very unpleasant smell to wake up to not to mention it took three washes to get the smell off my clothes.

Jay: that was Coles idea and it wasn’t blood sugars you fainted from it was seeing the fishes guts!

Kai uneasy: Well Zane didn’t help by explaining a bit about the fishes anatomy and showing us the guts while gutting it. Does he know he doesn’t need to turn things into a teaching lesson just because we don’t know about it? I’m fine not knowing about the guts of things; I don’t have to know about what all the slimy and grossness I’m pulling out of it is… didn’t help he fed the guts to some seagulls who made a mess with them. I don’t know what was grosser the fact he fed them the guts or that they fought over them like they were candies.

Jay: Zane's got a lot of knowledge and likes to share it even if it’s gross or others don’t care to learn anything also he likes birds and he didn’t want to let the fish guts go to waste so gave them the guts. As for the gulls yha they were gross but I’ve seen them eat grosser things out of the garbage including the maggots and bugs eating the garbage; fish guts are probably the least gross thing they eat. They’re just full out gross on their own…

Cole cuts in to joke: It was funny how the one pooped on you and you acted like you were being attacked.

Jay who is not amused: hey it came suddenly was hot and was super gross! Besides I think that bird was aiming for me, it laughed at me! Despite what Zane says that noise it was giving wasn’t just its call. I know a laugh when I hear it and it was laughing. It was amused with what it had done.

The scene then cuts to some flashbacks as Jay continues: That aside it was the biology that got you that day Kai we all know it. I also remember the time we helped out for the harvest dinner; Cole cut his hand opening a can and you threw up when you saw the blood. Or how about the time you got a splinter and Nya had to pull it out because you were too nervous to do it yourself? She hadn’t even started and not only could you not look at it but you passed out as she pulled it out.

In the flashback first they are all working in the monasteries kitchen. Cole is working with a can and expresses pain catching the others attention. Jay panics a bit while calm Zane and Nya help Cole holding a towel to his hand while Kai is swaying a bit uneasy before rushing over to the sink startling Lloyd who was washing some dishes to throw up in the sink. The others just look at him confused. The next Kai is sitting at a table with Nya and holding his hand out for her to take a splinter out. He is scared to look but is peaking at what's happening. Before she can take the splinter out Kai faints falling off his seat to the floor.

The scene switches back to the five. They are noticing Kai looking sick and swaying a bit.

Lloyd: We get it Jay Kai has a nervous disposition when it comes to biology especially injuries and guts now can you stop before he passes out. If he does you’ll have to carry him around.

Jay still amused a bit: fine, I just think it funny how Mr. Macho can be knocked out just by seeing some fishes guts.

Nya continues having been annoyed to have been cut off: As I was saying before I was interrupted Zane's0 lungs are pretty simple compared to those of flesh like us. They’re pretty much just a simple elastic sack and lack all the features for acquiring oxygen like us. That doesn’t mean he has no use for them though. Along with helping look like he is alive and like any other person they allow him to be able to administer resuscitation to others if they need it plus the walls in here are lined with various sensors that help identify various chemicals and other potential hazards in the air including things that are dangerous for the rest of us. That’s how he is able to warn us of potential dangers like toxic gasses so we can avoid them.

Jay adds: yha he’s like a canary in a coal mine. Except he doesn’t keel over from toxic gasses, he will pass out though from gases that will put you to sleep. Also things you drink or eat that will put you asleep too; that can be useful like when he decides to chastise you about trying to push your chores off onto him or when you don’t do your chores. Just slip him a sleeping potion mixed into something so he isn’t suspicious and you’re free; well until the potion wears off that is.

Cole: Yha how does that ability work exactly? It always confused me. He doesn’t have the anatomy to be affected by them so why does he react like he is affected?

Nya: that’s to do with part of his programming that helps him fit in with people. As long as no one is in danger and he’s safe when his sensors pick up the presence of the chemicals that would knock us out they activate a programming that makes him react in the same way as we would and force him to sleep. If he does at any point feel in danger however he can override this programming to prevent being affected. For the longest time though he didn’t realise he could do that so had no control over that ability and always fell to the effects of things. Pixal had to show him he could do it and how to do it. He’s gotten better at controlling it but still doesn’t have full control so sometimes still can’t fight the effects. He has similar sensors in his digestive system as are in his lungs that do the same thing.

Cole begins: That will explain that one night

Fades to a flashback.

Cole narrates over the flashback: Wu wanted me to lace a drink to give to Jay with a sleeping potion since he had been up all weekend playing video games in order to make him finally go to sleep. I accidently messed up and laced the drink I gave to Zane to not make things suspicious with the potion instead. I couldn’t wake him after he passed out… I thought my drink had done something bad to him.

In the flashback Cole, Zane, Kai and Jay are hanging out in the common room. Jay is focused on the game. Kai and Zane are in on the plan. Kai keeps Jay occupied while Cole gets some special drinks. He gives one to everyone to not look suspicious. They all drink them also to not look suspicious; Kai and Zane surprised that the drink doesn't taste to bad. Jay drinks it not taking much note too focused on the game but comments it doesn't taste too bad. Some minutes pass and Cole and Kai are confused why Jay is still awake and isn't tired until Cole notices Zane who is sitting next to him is sleeping. Cole tries to rouse him but Zane doesn't respond. Cole becomes worried realising he mixed up the cups causing Zane to drink the sedative and thinks he's hurt Zane. Shakes him a bit trying to wake him but Zane doesn't wake up. Kai is also worried but Jay is unbothered claiming Zane will be fine.

Jay amused: obviously he felt safe and didn’t see the need to fight the effects then that’s why he didn’t wake up. As I told you then he’d be fine and he was wasn’t he?

It fades back to the five.

Cole unamused: Yha but you could have explained what was going on instead of joking about my cooking skills. You left me worried that I’d seriously messed up and hurt him again.

Lloyd: Yha I remember another time you Jay and Kai stayed up all weekend playing video games and seeing who could last the longest without falling asleep.

Scene fades to another flashback.

Lloyd states over the flashback: We’re ninja we need to be ready to go at any time and being tired and cranky because you stayed up with no sleep for a few days isn’t going to be helpful. I set a trap in the walk in cool storage room so it would lock you in and flood with a sleeping gas. When it triggered I thought I had caught one of you. Instead I ended up catching Zane! He’d come to restock the fridge since I had taken all the drinks out to lure you three into the room. I put him in his bed to sleep it off and luckily he wasn’t mad later when he woke up from my trap and was very understanding; I’d hate to have made him mad. He’s quite scary when he’s mad. Unfortunately my trap only worked on Cole after I hid his cake he had hidden in the back of the fridge down there.

In the flashback Lloyds mad that he can't get the others to listen to him so sets a trap in the cold cellar. He hides behind some crates and waits for his trap to spring. Zane is doing some chores and finding nothings in the fridge goes down to the cellar to restock it. Lloyd doesn't know he came down thinking it is one of the others. While he is grabbing some things the door to the room closes surprising Zane as a gas fills the room. After a few seconds in the gas Zane passes out. Hearing his trap is a success Lloyd comes out to see who he caught and instantly panics when he realises it was Zane he caught. He quickly picks Zane up mumbling to him that he is sorry to carry him to his bed.

Fades back to the five in Zanes lung.

Cole: Yha that was a dirty trick you played; you made me drop my cake on the floor! Not to mention I lost the bet, I had to do some of Jays chores for a month! Kai only had to do some for two weeks.

Jay: even without Lloyds trap I knew you two couldn’t beat me. I’m like a supped up battery, I’ve got plenty of energy to burn. Just some caffeine and candy and I can go for hours. You know it was gross you still ate that cake after it had touched the floor.

Cole: Hey it’s cake I’m not letting that stuff go to waste!

Kais panicking: Can we please find this thing and get out of here? This whole situation is really bothering me!

Lloyd unerved: It’s a bit weird and uncomfortable yha besides it’s probably best we deal with these machines before they can cause too much damage.

They look around but can't see anything.

Cole gets the idea: some of those worms inner workings give off a glow right? Do you think if we turn off our lights we could better see it?

Nya: Maybe.

Lloyd: we could give it a go.

They turn off the lights on their attire Kai being the last and nervous about it. Its dark in there and soon they see the glow from the worm.

Lloyd: I think it’s over there.

Kai covering his eyes with his hands: where?

Lloyd tossing a ball of energy at the worm: There.

They turn their lights back on as they get into the fight. The worm tries to stab Lloyd with its head blade. Nya stabs it in underside of the head at the base of the mouthparts with her trident and disables the apparatus that controls the pinchers and blade preventing it from retracting the blade and from being able to crush them with its pinchers. It knocks Nya aside then goes after Jay. Jay swings his nunchucks which gets wrapped around the blade; the worm rears up and tosses its head around flinging Jay away. He lands a few feet away his nunchucks following shortly after to smack him in the chest and wind him.

Cole taking a couple hits at the worms body: Damn this thing is much stronger built than I thought it was.

Nya hypothesizing: the synthetic skin covering it might be absorbing the impacts and protecting its vital workings.

Having recovered Jay: We’ll either have to hit it harder or get through its skin in order to really damage it.

Kai makes repeated cuts at it but is only leaving knicks.

Jay: Do you think if I shocked it that would make it easier to defeat this thing?

All the others don't hesitate to yell at him: NO.

Nya reminds Jay: because his body is made with a great deal of metal Zane's body is highly conductive and has a high chance of attracting your powers which because we’re in him would shock us as well.

Cole knocking the worm over with a hit to its head: Yha and with how small we are I don’t think we’ll fare too well to that.

Lloyd manages to make a decent cut to it but it moves away from him.

Kai: We’re just going to do this the old fashioned way, the way of hacking and slashing.

They work together to subdue the worm with Lloyd aided by Cole getting onto its back and stabbing it in the head to stop it.

Jay settling down: Two down two to go.

Kai highly unsettled: okay now can we get out of here?

Nya contacts Pixal: we got another down. It’s in his right lung; there are some minor damages and a tear you’ll need to fix but not much else. Where are the remaining two hidden?

Pixal comes through their communicators: Ones still in his chest by his neck the other I am having trouble locating.

Cole: don’t worry we’ll find it.

Cuts to the five climbing out of the hole they went through to get to Zane's lung.

Cole: Great cramped conditions again.

Lloyd: what do you think that worm is doing by his neck?

Nya hypothesizes: Chances are probably trying to speed up their task by cutting the main cords that provide power and communication between his brain and body.

Lloyd: we defiantly don’t want it to do that.

Jay pointing at something: Hey is that it there?

Looking to where he is pointing they see the worm looking at them. It then turns and rushes away. They follow and it drops out of sight confusing them. They come up to where it disappeared where another muscle has been pulled back leaving a dark hole.

Kai nervous and confused: Uh where’d it just go?

Nya: It must have gone down there.

Kai highly nervous: and where does that go?

No one answers him and Nya, Jay and Cole hop down into the hole. Though nervous Lloyd soon follows and dreading it Kai follows last. They find themselves in a dark damp slightly ringed tunnel like structure.

Kai wonders afraid to move and looking around scared: Okay now where are we? Or do I maybe not want to know?

Lloyd is grossed out and unsettled by the slimy substance coating the tunnel which he finds coming off on his hand as he rubs it against the tubes walls trying to figure what the stuff is. Nya and Jay are looking around worried clearly knowing where they are and worried about it.

Jay begins: Uhm I think this is one of those you don’t want to know about…

They notice faint icy blue circuit looking markings looking like tattoos appearing in the synthetic material that made up the structure they are in. They are all pushed down the tube as it fades to black.

End of act 1.

Act 2

Cole, Nya, Jay, Kai and Lloyd find themselves in a dark structure the same color and just as slimy as his throat that is half filled with a dark liquid. They quickly move to the sides of the structure and hold onto it to help stay afloat; Cole and Lloyd are helping Kai to keep him from drowning. Kai’s panicking making their work harder. They're all scared but Kai is the most scared.

Kai panicking and yelling: Please tell me we’re not where I think we are.

Jay scared but keeping it fairly together: yha you know how I was saying there was worse places to end up in here… this is probably the worst and most dangerous place! We’d be safer if Cole had eaten us!

Coles not happy about Jays comment. The walls of the structure quickly develops the same style circuit markings that were in his throat and begin moving with a slow steady repeating constricting then relaxing motion causing the liquid to slosh around and knock about various things that were in there with them. They try to climb out of the fluids.

Kai still panicking: We’re in his stomach aren’t we! We’re actually in his stomach! He ate us! He actually ate us!

Kais panicking giving Lloyd and Cole trouble.

Nya: I don’t think he ate us on purpose in fact he shouldn’t have. His systems are offline they shouldn’t be active.

Cole struggling to hold Kai and the organ: his stomach looks pretty active to me.

Nya suggests: That worm must have activated his system.

Jay panics starting to freak out: the worm set a trap! It lured us in to get digested!

Nya annoyed by Jays panicking: Jay you’re panicking isn’t helping.

They are struggling to hold onto the walls which are slimy and moving and things are moving about. Each slips off a couple times into the fluids scaring them but Nya, Lloyd and Cole are trying to remain calm.

Cole: Kai’s not helping either.

Lloyd struggling to not panic: we need to shut down his system before something bad happens to us!

Cole: How is it active when his other systems aren’t?

Nya explains: to relieve processing power on his main neural system many of his systems are controlled through separate secondary processors. This also allows him to separately put systems offline without interfering with other systems. This means though he can only manually influence if the system is on or off and if they need to be sped up or slowed down along with on rare occasions if he needs to cough something up temporarily reversing their normal actions. He can’t control their functioning. The systems themselves operate pretty much on their own; he has almost no control over what they do.

Nya quickly contacts Pixal: Pixal we need you to shut off Zanes digestive system and do it now!

Cuts to Pixal and Wu who are confused by her demands as Pixal has opened Zanes chest to access his lung area to work on it. She inspects the computer.

Pixal confused: but it is off. I shut down all his systems.

While she inspects the computer Jay comes through to yell in a panic: No it’s not shut down! It’s active and trying to destroy us!

Inspecting the computer she's surprised and worried.

Pixal: it is active but everything else is still offline. How did it get turned on?! Hold on I am shutting it down now.

Pixal quickly works on the computer.

When done Pixal asks: There; is everyone okay? No one was hurt were they?

Lloyd comes through to state: I don’t think so, just shaken really.

Cole: not to mention grossed out really grossed out.

Pixal: What happened, why are you in his stomach? You shouldn’t be in there it’s too dangerous for those of flesh like you to be in his stomach. Your equipment was not designed to withstand his digestive fluids. They will not protect you much in there

Nya: trust us we didn’t intend to end up in here.

Jay a bit calmer now but still worked up: “that worm did it! It tricked us into getting eaten!

Pixal working on the computer: It does look like he was hacked to turn on just that system.

Cole: great these things are smartening up and trying to destroy us now.

Pixal: Given these are advanced machines and not simple animals that is a very strong possibility. Do you need me to get you out of there?

Scene cuts back to the five inside Zanes stomach which has stopped moving the markings in it gone and things have settled.

Lloyd: give us a minute to think some things out.

Looking around they note things to stand on to make things easier for them and hop onto them. There is a half digested peach pit and some chunks of bones. Nya and Jay get on the peach pit, Cole gets on a piece of bone and Kai and Lloyd get on another larger shared piece of bone. While shaken most are calming down except Kai who is rigid, largely unresponsive and panicking.

Kai muttering terrified: No no this is real bad! We’re in Zane's stomach! We’re going to get digested! There’s no way out we’re doomed! This can’t be happening it can’t be!

Lloyd gives him a smack silencing him.

Jay panicking: Of all the places we could end up in this is the worst! There are only two directions we can get out of here and I’m not wanting to get out through the other direction especially if it involves having to go through the rest of his system!

Nya responds to him looking around on edge: Jay chill Pixal will help us out of here. We’re not going to have to go through the rest of his system… I hope.

Lloyd scared: There are ways of getting out of here without having to go through his entire system right?”

Lloyd is looking scared into the fluids below them. All are nervous and on edge.

Nya nervous: yha. To make it easier to work on his digestive system is split into four main parts which can each be separated separately for work; his throat, stomach, small intestines and large intestines. Unfortunately though the worm could lock them preventing Pixal from operating them or if the worm went further in his system we might have to go down there to get it.

Cole as they start cleaning themselves off a bit: Let’s hope we don’t have to do that.

They clean themselves off a bit as they have slimy substances and various chunks of debris. They are all still a bit dirty after a brief cleaning.

Jay complains starting to calm down: This is the worst place we could have found ourselves in! So gross and dangerous! Very dangerous! At least it doesn’t smell too bad rate now.

Lloyd who is unsettled: What do you mean not too bad, it can smell worse in here?

Jay begins: Yha, Cole and Kais cooking can make it way worse like that time Cole made that stuff before Wu got lost after battling the time twins that made us all super sick…

Fades to a flashback. All of them plus Zane are at the dinner table nervous as Cole dishes out a meal he made to all of them. All are hesitant to start eating but eventually dig in not wanting to be rude. Cuts to them later at night in their PJ's. They are all having trouble sleeping feeling sick and all but Zane keep rushing to the bathroom to get sick. Eventually all but Zane end up camping out in the bathroom all sick. Jay keeps complaining while the rest are mad at Cole who's trying to apologize for what he made.

Kai narrates over the flashback: how could any of us forget that. It was nasty. All of us except for Zane and Wu spent the night in the bathroom so we didn’t have to rush to the toilets every time we had to throw up. You spent most of the night thinking we were dying. Wu was smart not to have some of that stuff.

Jay then narrates as flashback shows Zane who is sick and in pain coming to Jay and Nya for help. They take him to work on him and do an analysis to find what's wrong.

Jay: Hey it felt like we were dying didn’t it! Anyway Zane didn’t escape from that stuff either. Pixal warned him it was dangerous but he didn’t listen not wanting to be rude. What it did to him was nasty! Zanes system made the stuff into this very sticky dough looking stuff that got stuck and clogged up his stomach and like the first 20 centimetres of his intestines. It was not only disrupting and obstructing his system but causing him quite a bit of pain. It smelt horrid, one of the worst things I’ve ever smelt. To make it worse we had to use our hands to clean a good deal of it out of his guts…

Fades out of the flashback back to them.

Cole looking a bit sick thinking of the memory: please don’t remind me of that. If the smell hadn’t been bad enough you making me clean the stuff out with my bare hands just made it worse… just remembering it makes me want to throw up.

Nya grossed out: You know sure it normally is not nice smelling in here it’s not supposed to but I think the smell is stronger and fouler than it should be. I also don’t recall a haze in here. I think because his systems have been off for a few hours but there is still stuff being broken down in here the gasses made by the process have built up a bit instead of being emptied or moving on in his system to then be emptied like they normally would making the smell worse than it should be.

Cole looking at the partially digested bones in with them including the one he's on: Why are there bones in here? Feels like I’m in a gator with them here. I made enough ribs for everyone to have their fill last night he didn’t have to eat the bones as well.

Unsettled and grossed out Lloyd asks pushing a chunk of bone away from himself with his sword: why are there bones in here?

Nya looking around grossed out: I’m not sure; I can’t see how Zane would enjoy them so I think he does it by accident or maybe he doesn’t understand he’s not supposed to eat them or that he doesn’t need to eat them. He also tends to eat other things that you’re not supposed to like peach pits, the skin to melons and pumpkins and the whole of a corn cob though he can’t turn most of the matter from those to energy even though he can break them down. I know he can not only break down bones but is capable of converting some of the materials from them like the marrow into energy unlike the other things he eats that he’s not supposed to so it’s not bad for him to eat them. He’s just not supposed to purposely eat them. His ability to digest bones is meant to be a safety precaution to prevent damages if he was to accidently swallow some after all with his jaw strength and metal made teeth and bones it’s very easy for him to accidently eat bits of bone every now and then and when broken bones often develop sharp edges which could cut up and damage his system so his system dissolves them so they can’t hurt him. Eating them on purpose isn’t going to hurt him but it’s not the healthiest nor is necessary. Pixal doesn’t do it very often nor does she ever do it on purpose but then again she better understands what it means to be a nindroid and understands human ways much better than Zane does. If he is doing it on purpose then all I can think of as a reason behind it is maybe he doesn’t want to waste any of his food or maybe he doesn’t realise he isn’t supposed to eat them on purpose.

Lloyd: I could see him not wanting to let them go to waste. He doesn’t eat everything like Cole but unless he doesn’t like it or it makes him sick or from what he says it has no use for him or is dangerous or causes him problems he’ll eat most things including things people can’t eat or drink like motor oil and unlike some of us he always tries to eat all of his meal especially if it’s something someone else made and gave him; he thinks its rude to refuse it. He might not eat it all at once like Cole will but will save it and finish it later. He also has a habit that when someone gives him something to eat or drink as a gift he'll have it even if he doesn’t like it, it hurts him or makes him sick; he thinks it’s really rude to not have it even if he doesn’t like it or it hurts him. Remember that fermented fish stuff someone gave us once?

Cole: Dude how could we, that smell was horrid!

Fades to a flashback. They had gotten a weird tin in the mail as a gift and all of them gathered in the kitchen of the monastery to investigate it. Jay is the one to open it some water spraying out of it some getting on him causing him to freak out. The smell is awful offending and making them all sick; Zane and Pixal shut off their sense of smell while Kai gets sick throwing up in the sink. Zane and Cole eat it neither liking it grossed out and sick from it. None of the others are going to eat it. They eat it as Zane doesn't want it to go to waste while Coles been dared to eat it and doesn't want to back down from the dare even though its making them sick.

Kai: that was one of the worst things I’ve ever smelt! Just the smell made us all nearly barf! Pix and Zane were lucky they could turn off their sense of smell around that stuff.

Jay: How could we not forget that stuff!

Lloyd: yha, none of us were going to have the stuff but not wanting to let it go to waste Zane had it… well him and Cole after we dared him to have some.

Cole grossed and feeling sick to think of it: Yha the taste was slimy and gross even after rinsing them and it did not make me feel very good after that. I am never having that stuff again. We should have just taken the stuff to a zoo or park and fed some gators the stuff.

Nya: yha Zane didn’t feel too good from it either. The chemicals and bacteria from the fermenting of those things upset his system. A droids system doesn’t handle fermented matter very well; the chemicals and bacteria from it upsets and irritates their systems and they can’t process the stuff very well.

Fades out of the flashback to them.

Lloyd: Yha and unlike that stuff it’s obvious bones don’t upset or hurt him and since he can make energy from them maybe he has them so they don’t go to waste.

As Jay talks cuts to a scene of Zane collecting some random scraps from the kitchen and taking them outside to place in some feeders for birds set outside the monastery then to a scene of Jay taking out some rotting food to dump it in a compost bin after Zane's put some things in it and Jay nearly throws up from the smell and molds and fungi growing in it after opening it up. He wastes no time dumping what he has in the bin and running away from it gagging.

Jay: yha I could see that; he does after all collect food scraps and often puts them out for animals to have so they don’t go to waste. He also likes putting any rotting or out of date food he finds when cleaning the kitchen or elsewhere in the house in the green waste bins for disposal or the compost bins out back the monastery a lot instead of just throwing them out like I often do. He’s even dumped curdled milk in that thing sometimes. That bin smells nasty for a few days after he does that. Thank goodness those are held outside the monasteries yard so the smells kept some distance away; how can those bugs that live in that bin handle the smell from that stuff? They must either not care or have no sense of smell!

Cuts back to the five of them.

Jay: You know at least when Zane eats bones he doesn’t usually do it around us or make it evident when he is doing it, he knows it unsettles the rest of us especially since he has no problem with biting through bones which he knows that fact scares some of us especially Kai and me. I guess biting through bones isn’t hard when your teeth and jaws are made of metal and you have a much stronger bite force than us thanks to his make. I guess we should be thankful he has this strange habit or we’d have nowhere to stay out of his digestive juices and we’d be in real trouble in here.

Cole unsettled but relieved: I guess you’re right there even if this is really weird, gross and unsettling. You know with how strong his bite is it’s a good thing then he doesn’t usually get nippy when we have to restrain him like some people huh Lloyd?

Lloyd defending himself: I don’t bite that hard, defiantly nowhere near as bad as when Zane bites.

Cole: That is true. He broke skin and I’m pretty sure cracked a bit of bone that one time and I could feel he wasn’t biting with his full force. I’d hate to know what the full force would have been like… why did he go crazy that time anyway? It was like he just snapped and started going all evil and attacking us.

Cuts to a flashback. They are in the Monastery. The five of them are having to fight Zane and Pixal who are going crazy attacking the rest of them trying to destroy them or force them to bow to them as servants. Because they are all skittish and having problems with their powers from a magical tea they are all struggling against the two. Zane isn't having troubles with his powers and because of his state his powers are having effects on the environment causing ice to build up on things including the floor making things slippery and the environment has become rather cold. Not only are Pixal and Zane not hindered like the rest but crafty and frequently outsmart them. They have to trick the two and mess with their senses to get the upper hand. They have to split them up to take down the two. They take down Pixal first as without powers she's safer and easier then go for Zane. They eventually manage to knock Zane and Pixal out then hook both up to the computers in the hanger bay to work on them everyone else mad at Cole for his cooking having caused the whole mess.

Jay a bit annoyed at Cole: thank your bad cooking. It was that weird duck stew you made where you accidently put in that magical tea thinking it was seasoning. It made us all skittish and jumpy and had our powers all out of whack but it had a much more opposite effect for Zane. It really messed around with Zanes system and caused some programming to get a bit out of whack making him think he was the Ice Emperor again. That was a nasty fight, didn’t help that stuff affected Pixal in the same way and she was on his side. Luckily we were able to finally knock the both of them out and fix things before the whole incident got out of hand. After some restores and reboots and a couple hours rest for the stuff to pass through most of their systems they were back to normal. Whatever you do don’t make that mistake again; we really don’t need them to go all evil again especially Zane. He’s really scary and dangerous when he’s like that!

Scene cuts back to the five inside Zanes stomach.

Lloyd: Thank goodness we don’t have to give Zane medicine, I’d hate to have to give them to him especially if we’d have to force him to take them and he was bite-y.

Cole: like you… hey if he doesn’t need medicines then what’s that stuff you sometimes make him have? I’ve heard you refer to it as a medicine.

Nya explains: It’s a formula to help maintain the health of the symbiotic organisms and the systems that create enzymes in and apart of his digestive tract. He has a bad habit of drinking too much motor oils and on occasion eating or drinking things he’s not meant to so that stuff helps combat any negative effects from that. He knows it’s good for him but it’s sometimes hard to make him take it because he doesn’t like the taste that’s why we hide it in things like chocolate milk or milk shakes to hide its taste. The stuff also binds well to the fats and proteins in the stuff helping keep it in his system longer so it works better and longer.

Jay adds: most of the things he consumes that he’s not supposed to aren’t really his fault. It’s weird to say but Zane doesn’t fully understand what it means to be a nindroid. He lived for a long while thinking he was human which has just left him confused about a lot of things. Add on he doesn’t have a built in instinct so to say to tell him what is and isn’t safe for him plus he’s very curious to things so if he thinks it’s edible for him he’ll try it. If it doesn’t cause him much problems he might think it’s okay for him to have it even if it isn’t healthy or usable for him. Doesn’t help some people don’t seem to get not to joke with certain things as he’ll take their word for it or take their words too literal; right Kai?

Kai defends himself but still highly unsettled and freaking: Hey how was I to know he’d take what I said as literal? I was just having a little joke. I couldn’t believe he’d never seen a glow stick before. When I told him it was a fancy freezie I thought he’d look up the truth and not take my word on it! I didn’t mean to make him sick… or make his guts glow from it; that was disgusting and unsettling.

Nya disciplining Kai a bit: you know he’s very trusting to us and has a high likely hood to trust our word even if it’s wrong before actually looking into the truth if what you say proves wrong or someone tells him otherwise. Because of this you shouldn’t mess around with things he might take literal especially if it is dangerous and can hurt or prove problematic for him. For most of his life Zane lived pretty sheltered from much of our human world so many things of our world especially non daily use items things like glow sticks are new and foreign to him when he comes upon them so when he first encounters them because he trusts us he often seeks us out to figure out what the foreign thing is.

Jay: Yha I remember the time I first gave him popping candy. He didn’t understand what it was exactly so just swallowed the stuff and thought after I’d given him something dangerous like some sort of explosive material because of all of it popping in his stomach at the same time. I probably shouldn’t have laughed at him for it cause it just had him worried and scared till I explained everything but it was funny.

Fades to a flashback. When they are younger they are out at some festivities at night. There are fireworks and people playing with sparklers. Zane's confused over the sparklers as the others have fun with them. They give one to Zane and he just stares at it mesmerized even as it looks to burn him. Zane reacts like he is burnt but when the others check him they can't find anything just soot which washes off leaving no mark. Zane burns himself a few times more before they show him how he's supposed to hold the sparkler so he won't get hurt.

Jay: There was also that time around a year after we all first met we showed him sparklers for the first time. The first few times he held them too close to the part that burns and burnt himself as he just watched the sparkling on them a little mesmerized by it. We had to show him how to properly hold them so he wouldn’t get burnt. He kind of reminded me of a bird with a shiny object with how he was staring at it… you know thinking back we should have realised something was different about him then cause he didn’t really get a physical burn from that even though he acted and felt like he had been burned. With how pale his artificial skin was it should have been real easy to see a burn. Instead he just had some soot from the sprinklers on them. You know the fact his skin was so oddly pale as well should have told us something was different about him. He was almost albino like as if he’d rarely experienced the sun; I actually thought he was sick when we first met it was that oddly pale. I guess though when you don’t have blood in your skin to help give it color you are going to be paler than normal.

Nya: as I was saying when coming upon something he doesn’t know what it is at first or understand Zane trusts our word when we tell him what they are. Zane and his father lived largely alone in the middle of the wilderness and didn’t get many visitors and when they visited settlements Zane didn’t explore much or interact much with people; even though he was curious he was often nervous to and confused on how to do so plus we all know he’s not the social type. Because of this there wasn’t a lot of things he got to experience about the human world so there was a lot he never got to come across or experience. We were the first ones outside his father to really take him in as family and show him things he’d never seen or experienced before.

Flashback switches to when Zane was with his father as Nya talks. In one clip they are in a town one day. Zane is sticking close to his father who is doing some work for the townsfolk. Zane's looking around curious of those in the town but he's too nervous to do anything and just helps his father even though his dad tells him he's free to explore if he wants. Zane doesn't admit his nerves. Next clip is Zane and his father doing some shopping in the local town. Zane sees something he doesn't recognise, a music box, so his father shows him how it works captivating him. Last clip fades to in the old monastery one of the others hands Zane something he's never seen before (for humor could be a bra) and he looks at them confused.

Nya: Plus until after he met Pixal he didn’t fully know how to be a nindroid she had to teach a lot of things and even now he still gets confused by things. He’d lived for quite a while thinking he was just human so didn’t know or understand things about him were different nor that he was able to do certain things we can’t till he learned the truth. Even after that he didn’t know or understand how to be a nindroid and still struggles at times with this.

Flashback changes to Pixal working with him on how to combat sedative gasses. She hits him with some and hacks his brain to show him the codes he needs to use to counteract its effects. Zane is surprised not realising he could do that.

Cuts out of flashback back to the five.

Nya: For the longest time he didn’t know how much of his body properly worked, what he could do and what is and isn’t safe for him. It’s kind of sad but me and Jay know more about his anatomy and programming than he does even to this day. Because of his trust and lack of understanding when one of us tells Zane glow sticks are fancy freezies for droids he’s going to trust your word.

Jay: And that is why we created that care book for you three for him and Pix for when we’re not around. Your screw ups when trying to help them or when just goofing around plus some of your cooking’s are not healthy for them and cause problems we often have to solve not to mention they can be dangerous for not just them but everyone else like that time we were gone for a weekend and the two nearly started a robot takeover to the human race because you messed up on a reboot after the chili Cole made gave them problems causing them both to short circuit and get knocked offline from it.

Cole unhappy and defensive: hey that tech stuff for them is really complex and your explanation over the phone was a little hard to follow. Also why do you always have to complain about my chili?

Kai panicking: Can we please focus so we can get out of here before we’re digested!

Lloyd nervous looking at their surroundings: yha how long do you think we could last in here?

Nya nervously looking into the fluids: Not long. Our masks and the oxygen tanks are letting us still breathe in here and protecting us from any gasses that are present that probably would not be good for us but nothing will protect us from his digestive fluids. We’d only last about ten to 20 possibly 25 minutes in it but I don’t think you’d want to hang on that long. It would be very unpleasant. We’d be almost entirely dissolved within an hour if his system was active that is. In its current state it would likely take longer still though only a few hours. Truly I’m not sure how long we’ll last, as long as we don’t end up in the fluids we should be able to last longer than if we end up in them.

As she talks breaks a piece off the pit she is on and watches it sink getting unnerved by the sight.

Jay trying to calm down but still worked up: first you have the acid which is strong enough to dissolve bones which means all but our teeth and hair, weapons and scraps of our clothes will be left in just a few hours and if that wasn’t scary enough there is the enzymes and bacteria both in here and the rest of his guts which are powerful enough they can break up motor oil! We don’t stand a chance at surviving in here!

Cole: Yha I think whatever this belonged to found that out the hard way.

As he talks Cole picks up a beetles leg that is floating in the fluids near him. The insides to the creatures exoskeleton pour out as a liquid before the leg drips off in pieces out of his hand. All of them are unsettled by it Kai and Jay most of all. Cole drops the few scraps left in his hand back into the fluid grossed and unnerved by it.

Jay with a few nervous chuckles: You know seeing him choking on that beetle last night when it flew into his mouth when we took out some recycling was funny at the time but seeing what’s become of it now and that we could easily share its fate it isn’t so funny anymore. Kind of have to feel sorry for it though it was the one that decided to make itself lunch by forcing Zane to choke on itself so it kind of deserved what it got.

As Jay talks cuts to flashback of Zane and Jay taking out recycling. The beetle which was hanging around the bins flies to Zane's eyes and starts pestering him. He tries to shoo it away but in his attempts ends up eating it gagging on it a bit. Jay laughs at his misfortune to Zane's annoyance and dislike.

Lloyd grossed out: why are insects so attracted to pestering him especially in his face?

Flashback fades to a few clips of Zane trying to shoo away various insects attracted to his eyes at various times including while on a mission, while training outside, while relaxing reading a book, while out around campfire at night, when taking out some garbage at night, etc.

Nya: It’s his eyes. Their attracted to the light in them and in their attempts to get this light while avoiding his attempts to shoo them away they end up in his throat and getting swallowed a lot. When it comes to why insects are so attracted to lights they’ll kill themselves to get it I have no clue.

Cuts out of flashback back to the five. They start looked around for any sign of the worm a few of them poking at random unidentifiable objects in the fluid around them with their weapons.

Cole: you know motor oil is some tough stuff. If we drink it we get sick, I know I tried some. How can he drink it with no problems?

Jay grossed out by Cole's comment: I know you can be a bit like a dog and will eat anything at least once but why would you try motor oil?! It says rate on the container it’s not for drinking.

Cole: I was wondering why Zane likes the taste of it so decided to give it a try. It didn’t taste good.

Lloyd: Why is Zane attracted to motor oils?

Nya explains: I’m not entirely sure. I know Motor oils are made from well oil which is made from plankton that have been compressed for centuries under rocks or is made from a special types of kelp which we’ve noticed he is also rather fond of though it isn’t too healthy for him; his system isn’t able to properly process the stuff. He tends to get indigestion from it if he has too much. This kelp is found in shallow seas and bays around Ninjago and commonly harvested to make various forms of oil among some other uses. Both oils technically come from the sea and Zane has commented that they have a fishy taste to them so maybe that has something to do with it. I do know he is also similarly attracted to oils from fish yet he’s not as interested nor enjoys as much oils from plant sources like olive and canola. That just adds more questions than answers though. I do know it’s the enzymes and bacteria in his system that normally break down more consumable oils particularly cooking oils and the oils and fats from animal based sources that are the ones that break down the motor oils and help him make energy from them. They’re very powerful stuff even though they can't get him much energy from the stuff; they're not powerful enough for that. Maybe it has something to do with those organisms; maybe they enjoy the oils and are somehow influencing his tastes to get more. Or maybe he likes them because it’s a droid thing; I know Zane’s not the only one who likes oils most droids do so it’s not unique to him. Pixal also enjoys them but she has way more control than Zane does over the urge and attraction to drink the stuff. Zanes like Cole in that regard; if he likes something he has little control over himself and will have too much just like Cole with cake. Oils meant for cooking or from foods are fine and cause little problem for him but motor oils are not that healthy for him. They’re rough on his system and tough for him to properly break down. Unfortunately he’s more attracted to motor oils than cooking oils. He shouldn’t have more than a few cups a month of motor oils to prevent causing issues like imbalances to the symbiotes in his system, irritating tissues and causing digestive issues with his system especially if it is the typical oil from fossil fuels. He should only have that stuff on occasion about once a month or so. It’s a lot tougher than other oils so much rougher on his system and takes him longer to process than other oils. The one made from kelp is much better for him to have and luckily he likes that one better. It’s much easier for him to process so gentler on his system not to mention he gets more resources out of it than from typical motor oil but still it’s not too healthy or good for him to have too much. It can still cause problems like regular motor oils luckily though it takes more to have serious negative effects on him but at the same time unfortunately he often gets carried away with it. Like with us and things like candies or cookies he should have them in moderation. Pixal does, she’s pretty good at keeping in control around the stuff but Zane lacks that control; she’s sometimes not happy with that because it’s not healthy for him. She has tried to teach him some control before but hasn’t really had much luck so has largely given up on that effort. She’s told me it’s like trying to teach a dog not to eat bacon or Cole to not touch a cake.

Cole not liking her comment: why does everyone always have to pick on my eating habits? Why not Jay or Lloyds for once?

Lloyd nervous: Anyone see any evidence of the worm?

None of them can see anything but they are still looking around.

Jay scared: how do we even know it’s in here? It might have just lured us to our doom while it chills somewhere safe!

Nya: If it went into his throat to lure us here then chances are it had gotten swallowed too so it would have to be in here somewhere.

Cole grossed by the thought: or maybe it moved further through his system?

Nya: That is a possibility.

Kai scared: how would we know? I don’t want to end up deeper in his gut!

Jay a bit panicked: and you think I want to; I don’t want to either! I know what happens to stuff like us in here and it isn’t pretty!

They are all suddenly spooked causing Lloyd, Jay and Kai to jump as they get a communication through their communicators.

Pixal through communicators: Are you guys okay? You have been oddly quite. Given the highly dangerous location you are in we were hoping to have heard from you already.

Nya with an idea: yha we’re fine just trying to figure where this worm went. Hey Pix can you find its signal? If so where is it?

Pixal after a few seconds of silence: It is in his stomach with you.

Nya using the communicator: Thanks Pix.

Nya addressing the others: It must be in the fluids somewhere then.

Kai panicked and impatient: then it will get digested there problem solved now let’s get out of here!

Nya: Zane's system is tough but that will take a while for his system to do, it could take hours. Not to mention metal, plastics and most synthetics are pretty tough for him or anything really to break down much so the worm will get damaged but not really digested much. That damage might not be enough to stop the worm plus his system would need to be active in order to help deliver sufficient damage to the worm. Just sitting in a soup of acids and enzymes isn’t going to be enough to damage it alone and even when active it could take several hours for the worm to receive the needed damages to destroy it.

Lloyd: and in that time it could escape from here and cause damages. We need to personally see it’s destroyed so it can’t hurt him.

Lloyd: How deep are these fluids?

He and the others are looking into the fluids feeling unnerved as they look into them trying to see the worm but unable to see anything. The fluids were dark and relatively opaque making it near impossible to see anything that wasn’t floating on or just below the surface. There is mainly just bits of bone and beetle shell floating on the surface.

Jay nervous: well his stomach looks to be at about a third its max size basically at its resting size but I think the fluids are still deep enough to fully submerge us though as they’re clearly still working on stuff in here…we defiantly don’t want to get submerged in this stuff!

Cole nervous: If it’s in here then how do we find it without you know…

Looking into the dark opaque fluids around them Cole pokes a piece of what looks like bone feeling shivers when he feels it is squishy like wet bread and bits break off of it.

Jay panicked: Getting dissolved into his lunch no I don’t think there is any way!

Lloyd looking at his sword: our weapons are much more resistant to getting dissolved maybe we can poke around with them and see if we can find anything.

Nya: I guess that is a good and probably the only safe option.

They slowly and cautiously begin poking around with their weapons in the fluids. The act grosses all of them out. They are quiet for a while as they search focused on the task. Every now and then they have to push aside chunks of bone and other materials when they floated close getting unnerved by the action. Occasionally as they work they ended up stirring up pockets of gas, random non identifiable items or remaining bits of beetle shell that brake apart when interacted with grossing and unsettling them more. Occasionally fluids or matter in the fluids gets splashed up onto them and they try to clean themselves off when this happens highly grossed out and unsettled by this.

Lloyd uneasy: I guess we should be thankful Zane didn’t have breakfast or it would probably be much grosser in here huh?

Nya: Yha plus we might not have had as much space in here and would have more fluids and debris to search through at least though we’d still have some space as Zane rarely stuffs himself like Cole. His system has sensors that make him get a full like feeling to prevent unnecessary strain on his system and potential internal damages to nearby components from over expanding his stomach such an act would do. Clearly Zane's synthetic system and programming function better than Coles instincts and body do.

Cole a bit annoyed: hey that’s kind of mean you know… you know I never thought much about it but does Zane have to eat like us? He always does so I never really thought much into it; is that out of necessity or is he just copying us to fit in?

Nya: Well his body does require a lot of power more than ours to fully function at normal levels after all there is a lot more going on in his body especially his brain than ours and all that needs power and like all things his power source needs a method to restore energy to keep from being depleted and by far his digestive system is the most efficient method to keep it charged plus to keep the symbiotes in his system healthy by feeding them he does need to eat on a regular basis at least once or twice a day like us but he can go a few days without eating if he has to or wants. Also if he has to he can survive longer without food than us but if he is to go without food especially for more than a day he has to take precautions to prevent strain and overworking on his power source. Cautions like shutting down non critical functioning’s, lowering his activity output, and taking more time to rest to conserve energy. Luckily the symbiotes in his system go into a hibernation state when they can’t find food but it’s not healthy for them to remain like that for long.

Lloyd: if he can feel full can he also feel hungry?

Nya: Yha he has programming that can give him a sense of hunger making him feel like and think he's hungry just like us; it’s part of the many programming's and functions he has that help him fit in with people. He is capable of shutting this sense off when he wants. He normally has it on as it can help him remember to keep track of his energy levels and output but he often shuts it off during missions to keep it from interfering in his performance.

Kai looking uneasy and spooked: you know that feature of him always kind of unsettled me about him; a robot that can feel hunger and could eat you, really scary when you think of it.

Lloyd: Yha but I doubt Zane would ever want to eat us. We’re his family and I doubt he’d ever willingly do anything to hurt us.

Jay uneasy but trying to remain calm joking a bit: willingly is the key word. If push came to shove or he had no control I think yha he may just eat us after all he kind of already has and it wasn’t by his own choosing. You know I’m pretty sure it wouldn’t take much for Cole to eat us; just have no food in the house and he’d probably do it.

Cole is not amused by Jays joke.

Lloyd: Hey how do we tell when Zane's energy gets low?

Nya: well getting moody and easily irritated is a sign; low energy can cause more sensitive systems like his emotions to function oddly. Getting anxious for what appears like no or odd reasons is another, that’s because when his energy gets low his heart activates his anxiety as a warning signal. He will also clearly be tired. Unfortunately he doesn’t always recognise that these signs mean his energy is getting low. Probably from his time that he mistook that he was human he sometimes mis-interprets or doesn’t recognise these signs for what they are. He normally keeps tabs on his energy levels so we don’t have to worry about it but he does sometimes forget to take note of it and needs reminding to care for himself. If he’s showing signs of low energy just give him something to eat or just notify him of his odd behaviour and he’ll take care of it himself. Don’t do what Kai tried once by trying to charge his heart with the charger for an electric scooter. Zanes body doesn’t use the same format of electricity as those devices so it won’t work and just stresses his heart out. Only the special connectors and chargers we have on the Bounty and in the hanger bay can be used like that for him and we only use those if his or Pix’s energy levels get extremely low. Luckily we haven’t had to use those yet but we still make sure they are properly working by testing them at least once a month just to be safe. Another method that is a bad idea is Jay trying to shock him to give him energy, not only does it stress out his heart but it causes him pain and what Jay does is dangerous for him. It can overload and explode their hearts.

Jay: Yha that and a few accidents have made Zane nervous when I play with my powers around him. I wouldn’t really blame him though, getting shocked causes him a lot of pain especially to his heart. If I was in his situation I’d probably be feeling the same. Best thing to do when his energy is low is just give him food besides like us I’m pretty sure he likes to eat, I know he loves chicken nuggets especially the ones shaped like dinosaurs; he also loves when he can dip them in oil even though he knows he’s not supposed to do that very often. You know he does often copy things we do even if he doesn’t have to like trying moisturizers or sunscreen on his skin or using our soaps instead of the ones meant for droids to clean himself; I think he copies us with such things to try and better fit in and understand human ways so mimics us with things he normally doesn’t have to or can do to learn.

Kai commented: so he has been using my body wash, I knew I recognised the smell! That will also explain why I keep going through it so quick.

Nya: Yha he’s not the only one who has been using it.

Cole defending himself: hey I like the smell of it besides Jay has used it too and Lloyd. You and Pix have used it too so you’re not innocent there either. I’ll admit I even used it on the chicken once and I think she liked it even though Zane told me soaps are actually bad to wash birds with unless they get something like oil on their feathers…

Lloyd stirs up a strange item that is stuck on his sword catching their attentions. The item is a solid plastic bigger than they are. It is crushed up and mangled as if having been crushed and ground against other objects and has some minor pitting with what had once been bright colors having been bleached by acid.

Lloyd unsettled by the item: Uhm what is this?

Jay after a moments thought: it kind of looks like one of those little plastic dragons we put in ice cubes as a fun decoration for your birthday party three months ago.

Kai anxious and scared: That’s been in here for three months?!

Lloyd staring at the item spooked: and why is it in here?

Jay: I think he thought they were the same as those candy dragons that were on the cake. I told Cole what they were cause I knew he would eat them if I didn’t tell him but I didn’t think I would need to tell Zane. I thought he’d know better and knew what they were… this will explain why I couldn’t find three of them when we cleaned up; truly I thought Cole had eaten them. This will also mean there are likely two more in here somewhere. Pixal didn’t eat them so why did he?

Nya: Well they did look a lot like candies and Cole was licking them like they were…

Cuts to a flashback of them having a birthday party in the monastery. It is a small party with just the ninja, Pixal, Wu and Misako. They are all enjoying themselves. Zane is confused about what is in the ice cubes and is silently watching the others to figure out what they are. He notes similar looking items on the cake which they are eating and notes Cole who looks like he is eating the ones from his drink and decides they are safe to eat so just drinks them.

Cole defends himself: hey I was cleaning them. I had been playing around with them on my slice of cake and they got some icing on them so I decided to help clean them plus I didn’t want to waste any of the cake or its icing. It was real good.

Jay jokes: That’s because it was from a bakery and not made by you.

Nya: given his habit of easily getting confused over human things and the fact Zane often looks to the rest of us for many things like how to behave with certain things and what things are he likely mistook them as candies because of Coles actions and he just drank them with his drink.

Cuts back to the five in Zane's stomach. Lloyds trying to work the item off his sword uneasy and not wanting to directly touch it.

Cole confused: Didn’t he think to analyse them to find out what they were before eating them?

Jay guessed: well since we normally don’t put things in ice cubes, they looked like candies and you were sticking them in your food and licking them like they were candies he probably just assumed they were.

They are now all more grossed out but continue to search. Lloyd gets the item off his blade. It sits back in the fluids half floating around them unsettling them.

Jay: I guess next time we’ll have to tell Zane not to eat them even if Cole tries to.

Nya: we’re going to have to keep an eye on Zane for a while. If those things are still in here in a month we’re going to have to manually remove them. Given it’s already been in here for three months we’re probably going to have to manually remove them.

Jay unsettled: I’m not going to look forward to that.

Lloyd: That pit was from two days ago and the bones were from last night, is it normal for something’s that aren’t made of plastic to still be in here this long?

Nya: Yha tougher stuff like bones and this fruit pit can take a few days to fully break down. His system is set to operate at levels comparable to a high metabolism so most of the stuff should have been broken down and moved on within a few hours. This stuff will likely be gone in a day or two.

Cole: I’m pretty sure I don’t want to see what happens to what gets moved on.

Jay struggling trying to keep his nerves stable slowly getting more worked up as he talks: Yha I wouldn’t want to end up there even though it would be notably safer than being in here. The acid gets diluted after it leaves his stomach so things aren’t as corrosive but you still have all the enzymes and bacteria to deal with that will continue to eat away at you and turn things into a format his system can use. It all wouldn’t be pretty or fun as you get squished and pushed around as you’re moved along his intestines which are a couple inches longer than ours that way he can extract more resources but it means you’d have more of a ways to go to travel to get through and out of them. At least the energy converters wouldn’t hurt you. They line the outside and absorb the materials through the walls of the intestines and don’t intrude with anything dangerous into them; just these small soft rubbery like fibre like structures that make the walls look and feel a bit like those rubber scrubby things you can use in the kitchen for cleaning some things. Anyway they help filter out and absorb the materials the converters need. The converters then use the stuff they get to make energy that he can use which they send straight to his heart which can either store the energy for later or put it into use rate away. There’s lots of these converts lining his intestines, their built into the outer walls of the organ. Their sole job is to convert all sorts of matter into an energy form Zanes heart uses to power everything in his body in order to keep the power outputs from his heart stable and restore used energy to keep his power source from getting drained. As long as you haven’t been dissolved in his stomach they’re not going to do anything to you. You would probably get dehydrated in there though especially in his large intestines. Them and the lowest parts of his small intestines reabsorb and take in any new or pre used parts of the chemicals and enzymes his digestive system uses so they don’t go to waste and can be reused. These are then either stored in special organ like structures for later use or put straight back into use. Those parts of his system also absorbs chemicals that can be used to create his synthetic equivalent to saliva and even his synthetic tears which help prevent the clear stone that coats his eyes from getting scratched up by his eyelids by keeping a layer of liquid on them to prevent friction and scratches along with clearing away dirt and dust from them so they don’t interfere with his vision or hurt his eyes. The whole thing is a very complex and geniusly designed system… when you’re not the one in it and it’s not trying to turn you into lunch! You know he’s kind of lucky it’s so efficient. The design produces a bit less waste than us so he can go a few days usually about three to four without having to use the bathroom unlike us… I defiantly don’t want to end up that far in his system; I’d never be able to get that out of my head!

Along with being grossed out the others are a little startled by Jay quickly getting worked up.

Lloyd: How come he can eat bones and motor oil with no problem but if he has more than a single orange in less than 24 hours it makes him unwell?

Nya: it’s the citrus to them. The chemical irritates the materials and sensors in his digestive tract which causes pain and disruptions to his system. A small amount won’t bother him too much just some slight irritations but too much causes quite a bit of problems. It’s kind of unfortunate for him cause he likes Clementine’s but he can only have one every once in a while unless he wants to get sick. Citrus isn’t the only thing that does that. Other things like highly acidic things like pops which disrupt the natural biota of their systems not to mention the acid in pops is citric based, fermented things and certain spices especially hot or strong spices do it too. That’s why Kai’s more than Coles cooking tends to bother him. You use too many strong spices bro.

Jay: Yha see Kai if it makes Zane sick then you know it’s bad and unsafe.

Kai: you just say that because you don’t like a lot of spice in your food. You think regular barbeque sauce is spicy.

Nya: he does have a bit of a point but also just because it hurts Zane doesn’t mean it will hurt us and vice versa. He can sense if something will be dangerous for us but it might not have any effect on him while things that don’t hurt us will hurt him.

Lloyd: Is that why he avoids certain things that seem fine yet he’s fine with others that seem dangerous or questionable like wild mushrooms or bad and raw meats that would kill the rest of us?

Nya: Yha, his system handles certain things better than others. Generally when feeding a droid you feed them more like a dog than a deer; much more meat than plant, be cautious what plant matter you feed them and you don’t have to make things bland but be cautious with how much and what kind of spices you use. Their systems don’t handle a lot of plant based matter very well. A lot of plants use chemicals to defend themselves and these chemicals can irritate the sensors or disrupt the symbiotes in their systems which then irritate the system causing problems and making them sick so they have to be careful with a lot of plant matter. Also while the materials will get dissolved and broken down they don’t always get broken down enough for Zane or other droids to make anything from them. The cell walls of many plant based things are too tough for their systems to efficiently break them down enough to properly use them; it also takes more energy and time for them to process the stuff. To efficiently use plant matter they would need a much longer and more complex system which would be very inefficient and not fit their bodies design taking much more space and power and they would also need very unique bacteria and enzymes which aren’t cheap and are quite sensitive making them harder to work with and maintain. That’s why Zane generally sticks to mainly common fruits and certain vegetables along with rice or wheat based items if he is to have something from plants. They’re the easiest and safest ones for him to use. Most others he can’t do or use so to avoid problems he avoids them. He has no problems with animal based products though no matter what they are from. They don’t have the chemicals plants have and their cells are easier to break apart so they’re much easier to process so he has no problems fully breaking them down and he can get far more resources to make energy from them. Only things like horns, claws, teeth and hair are too tough for him to process. Plus he’s exposed to animal sources more frequently thanks to the strange obsession insects have with getting in his face which often causes them to get eaten. Zane doesn’t find that very pleasant. He told me once it’s not a pleasant feeling and can hurt a bit especially from bigger insects or those with decorative features or stingers.

Cole grossed by the thought: can you blame him I doubt that’s pleasant. Having a live insect buzzing and crawling down your throat or in your stomach can’t be a pleasant feeling especially when they have like horns and spines on them or are equipped with pinchers, stingers and claws.

Jay having calmed down a bit: Yha he’s gotten scratches in his throat from a few of them before so it defiantly can’t be very pleasant. You know it’s kind of funny you say feeding him is like feeding a dog cause he sometimes reminds me of a dog or cat… I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t like to hear me say that considering I once commented to him that he has the eyes of a hawk and he was stuck confused for hours trying to figure out what I meant and why I would compare his eyes to those of a bird.

Kai pretended to search just dragging and poking his sword randomly around in the fluids around them: You know I’m not finding anything are we sure it’s still in here?

Kai has spent the last couple minutes as they search with his eyes closed only opening them to see what Lloyd had pulled up with his sword before tightly closing his eyes again more unsettled.

Jay angry at Kai: How can you tell when you’re not even looking? You’re eyes are closed.

Kai opening his eyes: how come you’re not freaked out over where we are?! I’d expect you to be panicking even more than me! We’ve been in here for well over half an hour possibly a whole hour by now surrounded by the highly dangerous digestive fluids that could completely dissolve us of a droid which a dangerous robotic worm which can hack Zane and cause him to digest us is hiding in and could spring up at any time to drag us to our doom! Not to mention there’s a chance we could end up deeper in his gut and I don’t want to go in there! This would normally have you all crazy panicked how are you not panicking?!

Jay getting a bit worked up but trying not to loose it as he talks: You don’t think I’m panicking! I’m on the edge of losing it but I’m holding it together to help my friend, my brother. I don’t want him to be torn apart by evil cyber worms besides it wasn’t his fault we ended up in here. It was that worm using him as its puppet! Also Zane can’t help it if his guts are like something you’d expect to find in a monster it’s just his nature, how he is, and I just have to accept it even if it has me freaked out! Besides I wouldn’t change him no matter what, I like him the way he is so why should I mess with who and what he is just because it scares me. If he wants to eat bones like some sort of scavenger than that’s up to him it’s his body after all and as long as it isn’t hurting him I won’t complain. Besides it’s not as bad as some of Coles bad eating habits.

Cole not pleased that his habits are being questioned again: hey what’s so bad about my habits?

Jay: Well for one no cake or other baked good is safe around you even when it’s not yours, you don’t care if something fell on the floor or even the ground you’ll still eat it even if there’s dirt leaves pine needles or other things on it, you’ll eat things even if they are out of date and going bad. Zane does that too, his system can actually destroy most pathogens and harmful bacteria, plus he’ll eat raw dough like you, I think he likes the taste and texture of them when they’re raw more than cooked sometimes, but his system can safely handle those and it won’t make him sick unlike ours, not to mention how about the time you ate those pebbles cause you thought they were fruits… twice within a week of each other.

Cole: hey it wasn’t entirely my fault! It was a community garden and they said anyone could have what they wanted. Besides who in their right minds shapes and paints rocks to look like berries?!

Lloyd: According to Zane it’s a trick you can use to keep birds and other animals from eating all the berries from your garden. It makes them think the berries are rocks so they won’t take them from your plants.

Nya: it apparently works on Cole too though I doubt the animals actually eat the rocks like he did.

Cole in defense: well I learned my lesson and know that now. Make sure their actually berries before eating them, especially if you’re going to swallow them whole. That was a very unpleasant experience.

Kai terrified but trying to act calm: You know why don’t we just let Jay shock this place to fry that worm and make it quicker to get out of here?

Lloyd nervous: do you think that could work?

Nya: Again you’d probably just end up getting us all shocked.

Cole anxious from the idea: yha and I’ve been shocked by you before and it isn’t pleasant.

Jay defends himself: that was an accident and I’ve said sorry every time I’ve accidently shocked anyone. You know shocking the thing could work and we might be safe where we are. Most of what’s in here isn’t conductive… at least I don’t think they are?

Kai almost pleading: Come on let’s just give it a try?

Lloyd: it’s three against two.

Kai, Lloyd and Jay are up for the idea while Cole and Nya are nervous of it.

Nya after a brief pause to think: fine we could try but keep the volts low and be careful.

Jay wastes no time in directing a blast of lightening into the fluids. Just as others had cautioned however the rest of them including Zane get shocked. Jay isn’t immune to his own attack shocking himself causing him to stop his attack.

Jay seeing he has ended up hurting everyone: I'm sorry!

With electricity reaching into his body Zanes stomach to temporarily activates causing it to constrict and relax a couple times before stopping again. This causes things to get sloshed around and smack into each other including the items they are sheltering on. They managed to stay on the items they have chosen to float on though some of the fluids splash up on them with Kai getting the worst of it. A large splash ends up washing over Kai coating him entirely in the digestive fluids and dropping a few miniature pieces of nearly fully digested debris on him which slowly slid off him. Kai is left so stunned and shocked he just crouches looking blankly at himself and the debris dripping off him. The others are all nervous and grossed by the stuff that ended up on them but Cole feels some amusement from Kais predicament. Everyone else is just grossed out by it.

Wu coming through their communicators: What just happened? It looked like Zane got shocked.

Lloyd grossed out trying to clean himself off: that was just Jay screwing up.

They try to clean themselves off a bit.

Jay nervous: Okay that didn’t work… Nya what about your powers? Maybe you can work this liquid around to help us see what’s in it?

Nya a bit angry from being shocked: this stuff isn’t water Jay it’s acid and various other liquids.

Cole grossed out as he is still cleaning himself off: Is there any water in him?

Jay nervous: kind of. Technically water isn’t as essential for him to live as us so he can go without it far longer than we can but to help balance out and restore some chemicals in his body and to help the health of the symbiotes in him plus maintain moisture in certain synthetic organs like his guts and to help remove waste in this system plus he needs them to help create things like his synthetic tears he has to drink water based fluids a couple times a week. Any excess water and if he has too much in his body he can remove kind of like us. Again he can go several days without having to do that though, must be nice to not have to use the bathroom everyday nor to wet yourself when too scared… I mean yha he usually only has to remove excess water every few days. This way also allows him to reuse excess water if he hasn’t had water based liquids in a while and cannot get access to any. He had iced tea last night so I thought there might still be some form of water in here.

Nya annoyed: That wouldn’t be in here anymore and if was in here it would be broken down and not really water anymore besides even if I can affect this stuff I don’t want to risk playing with it. It’s too dangerous.

Lloyd worried: aside from diving in this stuff which I’m pretty sure we don’t want to do then what are we going to do?

Before they can do anything the worm they were looking for lunges out of the fluids behind Jay and tackles him off the pit and into the small space between where they are floating in the fluids the two disappearing in it. The action causes the fluids to slosh around a bit rocking the items they were sheltering on before settling back down.

Nya scared and worried: Jay!

Cole trying to stay positive but nervous jokes: look at that looks like it found us!

They looked around in the fluids trying to see any sign of where Jay is but see nothing.

Nya worried: we need to get him out of there fast!

Cole nervous: And how are we going to do that!”

Jay comes back up in a panic trying to make his way onto the pit clearly having been in a fight. Nya tries help him but the worm comes back up and constricts around him to pull him back down into the fluids. Nya quickly stabbs her trident where the worm went down hoping to hit the worm but hits nothing frustrating her.

Nya angry: get back here you filthy scrap parasite!

When Jay comes up again he s close to Cole. Cole tries to help him but there wasn’t enough space on the bit of bone he’s chosen for Jay to get up on. He tries to help Jay over to another bit of bone for him to get onto.

Cole: hold on pal we'll get you to safety.

The worm intervenes. The worm comes up trying to grab Jay but using his lava arms Cole punches the worm in the head breaking off the one side of the pinchers which fall into the digestive fluids. The worm shoots out the blade in its head and attempts to stab at Cole. Dodge the worms stab Cole looses balance on the bit of bone and falls into the fluids. With him knocked over the worm then wraps back around Jay and pulls him back under causing things to get sloshed around again.

Lloyd nervous watching everything: That thing really has something against Jay!

Cole climbing back up onto the bit of bone he had been using: well he did shock everything. I bet that felt worse for that thing than for us.

Jay comes back up again by Kai and Lloyd.

Jay terrified: why aren’t you all helping me! It’s getting very tiring fighting this thing, I’m pretty sure it’s trying to hold me in this stuff till I become lunch!

Kai equally terrified: And you think we want to end up becoming lunch too!

Lloyd tries to help Jay up onto the bone with them. The worm is quick to burst back up and goes to stab at Jay. Quickly Lloyd intervenes and swipes his sword to intervene with the blade. His swipe cuts the worms blade off near its base the blade falling into the fluids. In fear of the worm and falling or getting knocked into the digestive fluids Kai stabbs his sword as deep as he can into the worms body with as much force as he can. Lloyd continues to hit the worm working on cutting through the skin in order to more easily reach its interior while Jay relieved for the break climbs up onto the bone some pieces of bone breaking off as he climbs up. To escape the attacks the worm pulls back and dives into the fluids taking Kai who is too scared and stunned by everything to let go of his sword which is stuck in the machine with it.

Nya shocked and worried: Kai!

Lloyd equally shocked and worried: why didn’t he let go of the sword?

They all just stare at the fluids as they settled back down trying to see where the worm and Kai have gone all worried and scared.

Nya worried: What are we going to do? Kai’s not going to survive long in there.

Lloyd worried: not to mention he can’t swim so I don’t think he’ll be able to get out on his own!

Even though they want to help him none are brave enough to get into the fluids. Seeing no one is daring to jump into the fluids to go after Kai, since he has the fluids and digested matter already on him and is worked up with adrenaline from fighting the worm and being in and coated in the dangerous fluids Jay braves up and dives back into it.

Jay as he dives in: don’t worry Kai I’ll help you.

The others just float there for a short time looking for any sign of Kai, Jay or the worm all on edge.

Cole nervous: do you think we should do something?

Lloyd scared sounding a bit like Jay: and risk getting digested?

After a couple seconds they can see some light appear in the dark fluids emitting from somewhere deep in it and some minor electric sparks dance across the surface of the fluids with the light. The light and shocking then disappear.

Cole: what just happened?

Nya nervous: I don't know.

After a few second Kai and Jay then resurface by the peach pit. Jay is helping hold up and drag Kai who is rigid in a state of shock and barely doing anything just still tightly clinging to his sword which has been pulled out of the worm. Nya helps the two onto the pit.

Jay as he is being helped up: I managed to give that thing a direct shock.

Nya: Did you finish it off?

Once the two are on the pit the worm jumps up onto the pit with them trying to sink it into the fluids and is swinging its head trying to knock them off the pit.

Jay nervous: apparently not!

He and Nya waste no time in attacking the worm. Kai is too stunned to say or do anything just staring at the worm. Jay hits it several times with his nunchucks sending small bits of electricity with each attack briefly stunning the worm with each hit. Nya takes several stabs at its head steadily creating and deepening a gouge in its synthetic skin then metal interior. Sensing they are getting close to destroying it the worm starts backing up. Terrified of the thing getting away and dragging him back into the fluids Kai quickly rushes over and stabs strait into its brain shutting it down. Once dead they stop their attacks Nya and Jay having to hold Kai and pry his sword out of the things head to keep him from being pulled into the fluids as the worm slides off the pit and sinks into Zane's digestive fluids the pit returning to floating. They all just remain where they were all worked up but starting to settle down. Kai is still staring at where the worm went and shaking terribly.

Jay: Okay, three down and one to go.

Kai his voice cracking a bit and still in shock: can we now get out of here?! I’m going to have nightmares about this for weeks!

Nya still worked up and on edge but slowly calming down from the fight: Yha just give us a minute and we’ll get Pixal to help us out of here.

Kai still in shock and voice cracking in fear: why am I getting this tingling burning feeling to my skin?

Jay starting to panic: Yha I’m getting the same thing, it’s Zane's digestive fluids they’re starting to eat away at us! They’re turning us into his lunch!

They are all grossed out and unnerved looking at themselves as they are covered by the fluids and feeling the same thing.

Lloyd contacting Pixal scared: we got the worm you can get us out now and we’re going to need a bit of a cleaning.

Cuts to the five of them now outside Zane's body on the small worktable next to the table Zane is on. Pixal is closing up Zane after working on him leaving only the port over his heart open. They have cleaned themselves up in a shallow dish filled with water then dried themselves off with a towel. All are missing patches of their clothes particularly on their gloves, footwear and the lower arms and legs and have reddish patches to their skin in these areas. They have taken their masks off. All but one have calmed down now that they are safe. Kai is the only one still in the dish to get cleaned up. He's still in shock and not moving so Nya hits him a couple times with the water to knock him out of his state. Her actions work and he starts to come back to his senses.

Kai still in shock and nervous: I’ll never be able to un-see all that!

As Kai cleanse himself Nya hops down with the others who are watching Pixal.

Lloyd: Have you been able to find the last worm?

Pixal: no, it is somehow hiding itself very well. Every now and then I have picked up its signal and it seems to be hanging in his chest largely on the left side. That does not bode well. His heart is in that area. It luckily has not caused any damages yet but that makes me worry it is up to something.

Nya: And given where it is hanging I don’t think it intends anything good.

Nya, Lloyd, and Jay are inspecting the worm Pixal removed from Zane's shoulder and lung.

Nya: Have you figured out anymore about these worms?

Wu: not much. There is something about them that gives an aura of familiarity. Something with their workings and programming is familiar.

Pixal: Indeed plus these worms are operating on their own and not being controlled; they are however sending signals to somewhere else but the signal is encrypted and will take a few hours to decode where it is being sent. That could help us find who made and sent them.

Jay: Whoever made these things clearly is no friend to us and wants to see us suffer.

They get a notification on the bays computers that someone is at the monasteries doors.

Lloyd curious: Who’s at the door?

Cole eager: did you order in some dinner for us when we’re done? I could really go for some. Hopefully you got double desert too I could use it after all this.

Kai getting out of the dish nervous: Seriously! We nearly just ended up becoming food and all you can think about is food!

Jay: Yha foods the last thing I want to think about rate now.

Wu confused: No we have not ordered anything, I will go see who is there and what they want.

Pixal: we will continue to work here.

Wu heads off leaving the rest of them there. They continue to work trying to figure out where the last worm is and getting a look at the worms they have pulled out.

Lloyd: Well we could always go back in and do some exploring to find this thing.

Kai scared: and risk getting into a trap that ends with us in his stomach again! No thank you!

Nya: That could be a possibility but I think the chances we’ll end up there again slim. Given where this thing is hanging I think it is seeking to go after his heart.

Jay: why do you think it hasn’t gone after his heart yet?

Pixal: I am not sure. Considering they could have easily and simply have just destroyed him why did they instead cause random damages that largely caused pain and harm instead? It all seems odd and makes me worried over what this worm has planned.

Cole curious: you know how did Zane even get these worms?

Pixals looks at some data on the computers.

Pixal: We searched the memory data of the first one we found and it did not reveal much. These things became activated when in the yard already by the looks of which from after being thrown over the wall though we can find no evidence of by who or exactly when they ended up in the yard. We can only identify when they became active. They were activated around two in the morning while we were all asleep where they made their way to Zanes room and hacked him in order for him to let open the hatch over his heart so they could climb into his body and begin their work.

Jay: wouldn’t Zane have been aware of their actions when they hacked him?

Pixal: It is hard to tell. I have gotten better with showing him how to identify when being hacked and ways to try and counter it but there are still things he has trouble with. As far as I can tell he does not seem to have been aware that he was being hacked.

Kai surprised and confused: wait he doesn’t realise when he’s being hacked?

Nya: Again this is some of that not knowing how to be a droid thing and confusion from when he thought he was just human issue. It wasn’t till Pixal started helping him with it that he learned he could actually do something about it and not just fall victim to it.

Flashes back to when they were working at Darkleys. Kai and Cole note some kids playing outside when they are supposed to be in class. They check on Zane finding his class empty and him asleep at a desk. Cuts to the two bringing Jay and Nya in to work on a tablet to wake Zane up.

Jay: yha I remember the one time when we were working at Darkley’s which became Wu’s school teaching and some of the kids found a way to hack him and make him fall asleep so they could get out of class and play instead of learning. What they did wasn’t too complex and should have been so easy for him to counter but he didn’t know how to. That’s when me and Nya set it up so only those with the correct codes could connect anything to him and do anything with him that way no one could mess with him.

Transitions out of flashback.

Jay: It works quite well though if someone is really determined and has good enough skills they can bypass these codes and still hack him like Ronin did once.

Kai: You don’t think Ronin could have done this could he?

Nya: I don’t think so. These things don’t seem like something Ronin would make besides why would he want to hurt Zane? He has no interest or reason to do so.

Jay: yha if anything Ronin should have reason to fear Zane. Zane hasn’t forgotten Ronin hacking him and I don’t think he’s ever paid him back for that.

Cole: Yha but Zanes not super vengeful and Ronin really didn’t do much harm to him so I don’t think Zane feels the need to get back at him for that.

Kai: then who could have done this?

Jay: Well for starters obviously someone who knows about the anatomy of droids.

Lloyd: who would know about that?

Nya: Not many would, it’s not really a common knowledge. A robotics specialist would know but there isn’t many of those and outside Cyrus Borg who wouldn’t do this we know none who would have a reason to do this, of course we all know…

Kai who is still shaken cuts Nya off: yha a lot more than some of us are comfortable with now. I felt better not knowing what is inside him and how it all works.

Jay: Okay.

Nya: outside that I don’t know. Zanes very guarded over who knows about his anatomy and we don’t let others know that way the wrong kinds of people can’t find ways to hurt him or Pix like this or do worse things to them. It’s better the public is left in mystery about it.

Jay amused: You should hear some of the strange hypothesizes a lot of people especially kids come up with to explain how Zane works and what powers him; a lot of them think it’s some sort of magic or we feed him some sort of robot feed made from oil like he’s some sort of animal… some people though get a little creepy with it thinking we do some dark ritual sacrificing criminals to give him power, I think those individuals spend too much time playing certain video games. They also think he can do weird things like shoot lazers from his eyes or shoot rockets from his arms. He can’t do any of that. Droids are much more human like than other robots plus I don’t think Zane would want anything like that. He prefers being more like those of flesh and blood than some machine.

Lloyd: then who could have done this?

Pixal coming back to the others: Again it will likely take time to figure that out.

Cole worried: was their hacking just to get inside him or did they do anything else to him?

Pixal looking over Zane: Luckily none of his programming has been touched. They just hacked him to operate the hatch and to paralyse him so he couldn’t move or make a sound so he could not get help. They even hindered his ability to connect to me. They left all his sensors and senses active however so he could feel the pain they were giving him while he could do nothing to stop it.

Cole angered by this fact: that’s incredibly cruel.

They all are angry that someone would do something so cruel to their brother.

Kai having calmed down by now: Yha it is. Defiantly whoever did this likely isn’t and would never consider us friends.

Lloyd: indeed you know it’s probably best if we…

Lloyd is cut off by Wu contacting them through the computer.

Wu rushed: Pixal lock down the hanger bay.

Pixal confused: Why?

Wu: some thugs are here to…

Wu’s end cuts off.

Lloyd worried and confused: What’s going on?

Pixal checks the computers.

Pixal: It would seem whoever implanted these worms in Zane wants to interfere and stop our work.

The computers give her a warning about Zane worrying Pixal.

Cole: Now what’s going on?

Pixal quickly explains: it seems this worm was waiting for a distraction to make its move. It is attempting to cut through the back of the casing to get at his heart!

They are all worried.

Jay panicking: What do we do?!

Keeping relatively calm Pixal does some work on the computer before coming over to them.

Pixal: I and Wu will deal with the thugs you will deal with the worm.

Cole: sounds like a plan.

Pixal picks them up and places them down onto the casing for Zanes heart.

Pixal: While I’m gone to keep you all safe I will close you into Zanes chest. Given your size it will be safest if you remain in his body till we return no matter what. When it is safe I will contact you.

Kai nervous: yha cause being this size we could easily get stepped on and squished.

Once they are placed in his chest Pixal closes up the port accessing the area near his heart. They quietly and quickly make their way to get the worm. In order to reach behind the casing they had to detach and move one of Zanes synthetic muscles to access the interior cavity of his chest. Being careful not to disrupt any of the wires or his synthetic lung that are in the cavity in that area they quickly make their way to the back of his heart remaining as quiet as possible hoping to catch the worm by surprise. The worm is occupied using the blade in its head to scratch at the solid metal plating of the back of the casing trying to cut into it. It is leaving a scratch that is slowly getting deeper as it works. They wasted no time in ambushing the worm. Jay and Cole who activates his lava arms grab its body to try and restrain it while the others work on cutting into it to reach its inner workings to damage them. The moment they contacted the worm it switches attention from attacking the casing of Zanes heart to them. It sheaths its blade and attempts to pinch them to free itself. It doesn't take them long to take the worm down Nya and Kai both landing blows in its head while Lloyd stabs it in its power source.

Cole pleased: Last one down.

Nya and Jay inspect the casing for Zanes heart to access the damage.

Lloyd worried: It didn’t do much damage did it?

Nya relieved: just some scratches it luckily didn’t get far.

Lloyd: That’s good.

Kai: I can easily fix these.

Using his powers getting them as hot as he can Kai welds the cuts made by the worm shut.

Kai once done: okay now that is done and the last of these worms are taken out what do we do?

Nya: Well Pixal said to wait for her contact.

Cole looking over the worm: maybe we could make it easier for her and try to get this worm thing to somewhere easier to reach it? It’s kinda heavy but we might be able to do it if we work together.

Lloyd: I guess we could…

Before Lloyd can finish they find themselves being tumbled around as Zane is sat up and moved about. They try to grab things in order to stabilize themselves but everything happens so fast they were unable to grab anything in time and found themselves getting knocked out from their tumbles… scene fades to black.

End of act 2.

Act 3

Wu and Pixal find themselves coming too in different parts of the monastery. Wu is in the one hall while Pixal is in the recreation room. When he comes too Wu meets Pixal in the recreation room and helps her up.

Pixal: What happened?

Wu: one of those thugs was pretending to be someone from the power company wanting to check the meter. When I tried to shoo him away telling him the meters had just been checked last week he refused and when I tried to close the doors on him I was jumped by his pals. Some of them got past me saying their employer was not going to let us interfere anymore.

Pixal: They were trying to get into the hanger bay; I think they were after Zane. One of them surprised me with a taser.

They wasted no time in heading into the hanger bay. When they get there their suspicions are confirmed. Zane is no longer there which means the others aren’t either. Pixal immediately heads over to the computer to search for Zanes internal tracker in hopes to pick up where they could have been taken but was unable to find the signal.

Wu: This is not good.

Pixal: no it is not. We are not helpless though since all damages were repaired in case something was to happen I set up Zanes systems to re-calibrate and reboot so he should wake up when that is done. Hopefully once awake he will be able to find a way to escape or at least help us find him. I will keep searching in the meantime.

Wu worried: What about the others? Where are they? They will not fare too well against those thugs at the size of ants.

Pixal confident: I placed them back in Zanes chest to deal with the last worm and closed it up after they were in to keep them safe and hidden. As long as they do not do anything to reveal their presence whoever took them might not know they are there keeping them safe. They might even be able to help Zane escape.

Cuts to inside Zane's body. Cole, Nya, Jay, Lloyd and Kai are regaining consciousness. All are confused and a bit roughed up from their tumbles. They are scattered through Zane's chest and upper abdomen caught up in wires and the tubes of his cooling system. Kai is laying on part of Zane's stomach which is active. The markings like before displaying in the material as it slowly moves. Kai is very unsettled with where he has landed. Cole is caught up laying in some wiring by Zane's lung. Jay is hung over a tube of cooling fluid with a hand and foot caught in wires not far from Cole. Nya is also caught up in wires laying face down a bit below Jay and Cole. Lloyd is caught by his legs and waist stuck in wires facing down his half end drooped down near Kai. Zane's systems are all turned back on making things warmer and noisier. Sounds from his breathing, his digestive tract and cooling system now join the sound of his heart. By the orientation Zane has been sat up.

Kai nervous and grossed: Why did I have to end up on this part?! At least I'm not in it this time.

Jay coming to his senses: What happened?

Nya: I’m not sure, I think he was moved.

Lloyd: How long do you think we've been out.

Cole: Not sure but is it just me or does it feel warmer in here?

They all cautiously get themselves free from where they have found themselves trying to not damage anything and make their way out of the interior cavity of Zane's body before climbing over to congregate on the casing for Zane's heart being careful not to touch or disturb his heart or the various major wires that came out of it to curve back into his internal body cavity and his internal skeleton.

Lloyd: Sounds like everything is functioning again; does that mean he is awake?

Nya: I don’t know. If we had some way to contact him we could see if he responds.

They all look at Kai who is confused and unsettled that they are all looking at him.

Kai nervous: What? Why are you looking at me?

Jay holding a hand out: hand it over.

Kai nervous: Hand what over?

Cole: we all know you always have your phone on you mister addicted to social media. We could use it rate now so hand it over.

Kai is not happy with it but takes his phone out of a pouch on his attire and hands it over to Jay who gives it to Nya who has no problem getting into it.

Kai surprised: hey wait how do you know my password when I haven’t told you it yet?

Nya unamused: I’m your sister; you told me it already besides it’s really not hard to guess your password when you use the same one for everything. Anyone can log onto your stuff with ease when you just have the one.

She works on the phone.

Jay with a teasing tone: yha mister Fiyah451 and 3173 in place of fire plus 11 for numbered codes. You know how easy it is to hack your accounts and mess around with things; it’s too easy.

Kai surprised: Wait a minute it was you then who changed the language on my phone to serpentine; do you know how long it took me to get it set back to normal! I can’t read that language and Zane refused to help thinking it a good punishment for having such a simple predictable passwords… are you also the one who bought the 12 1 litre bottles of dog shampoo, 2 gallons of moustache wax, 10 various animal plushies, full head pigeon head mask and a maids outfit in my size that came with the note ‘for when doing your chores fire-boy’ on my ninjazon account!

Jay defending himself: Hey, it wasn’t just me. Cole was in on it too plus Zane. He thought it might teach you to pick a less obvious and get some diversity in your passwords.

Lloyd to Nya who has connected the phone to Zanes communication circuits: anything?

Nya: No, I think he’s asleep.

Cole: if he’s asleep then what moved him and why are his systems active?

Nya: I think as a safety precaution Pixal might have started his body back up so he could defend himself but I don’t think he’s fully booted up yet. I don’t know what moved him but I know how we could hear what’s going on out there.

She does some work on the phone then they can hear what Zane is hearing.

Nya: there I’ve connected our communicators to Zane's hearing so we can hear what his audio input sensors are picking up.

They listen in to someone ranting. Sounds like some metal tools are being thrown around during the ranting.

Voice (Mechanic): I don't get it how did they do this? These cuts are so small and fine how did that meddling she-droid leave them on my works while they were hidden inside him? There is no other machine or device in him that could have done this and there is no way she could have easily done this and where were those meddling ninja; did they have a hand in this and if so how did they do this? Do they know how long it took to make these things; months! It took months and within only a few hours they have somehow magically destroyed them! It's going to take me hours to get these things working again if I can! Hopefully those ninja don't clue in and figure out where we are before I can get this done. When I get those ninja they're going to regret messing with me.

Jay: Does that voice sound familiar or is it just me?

Cole: It defiantly sounds familiar.

They pause to think it over. When they realise who it is they all get mad.

Nya: of course it's familiar, it's the Mechanic.

Kai: The Mechanic, we should have known he would be behind this.

Jay: yha, he has an annoying fascination with trying to tear Zane apart. Figures he’d want to cause Zane pain while destroying him after all he likes to call Zane the pain all the time.

Mechanic ranting: This should have been easy. They get in tear him apart from the inside making sure it is as painful as possible then pierce that thing he has for a heart and destroy him for good! Somehow those pesky ninja have taken out every single one of my worms…

Cuts to outside Zane's body in the Mechanics little workshop. The Mechanic is trying to fix the one robotic worm mad. Along with the Mechanic he has five henchmen in the room with him. All are dressed similarly with eye masks and plain black hoodies. The henchmen are nervous as the Mechanic rants. Zane is stuck tied onto an office chair with rope asleep.

Henchman 1: but they had only taken three out of him and there is two still inside him.

Mechanic annoyed: They may still be inside him but they aren’t working anymore. They’ve been destroyed.

Henchman 1: oh I thought you meant taken out as removed from his body not destroyed… my bad.

As the Mechanic rants the one Henchman standing guard by Zane notes he looks to be waking up.

Henchman 2: You know I think this thing is starting to wake up, what do you want us to do with it?

Zane not fully awake or aware yet: where am I? What is going on? Why am I not wearing a shirt?

Cuts back to the five in Zane's body.

Jay: Zane your up, can you hear us buddy.

Nya unamused: Jay he can't hear us in here.

Cole: Is it just me or does his voice sound a bit weird to hear from inside him.

Kai nervous: Yha.

Cuts back to outside Zane's body. He's looking at himself confused and getting worried noticing he is captured and restrained.

Mechanic mad: So Zane the pain you wake up to have miraculously escaped the doom I had planned for you thanks to your rotten friends but I will make sure you do not escape this time.

Zane confused: what are you talking about?

Mechanic brings the worm he has been working on over to Zane and shows it to him.

Mechanic: You see this you talking scrap heap. I had five of these worms find their way into you last night while you slept where they were slowly working to painfully tear you apart for all the pain you’ve caused me before they would finish you off.

Zane surprised and scared: what?!

Mechanic: Yha and they would have succeeded if your meddling friends hadn’t somehow intervened. I don’t know how they did it but they destroyed every single one of my worm bots and saved you but I am going to make sure I have the last laugh. I’m going to fix these up and send them back in to complete the job then once you have been removed without you around to detect my little creations I will move on and get your friends. I’ll probably have to take out your female pal as well then I can move on to your fleshy pals. I have similar worms that will sneak into your monastery and inject them with the most painful venom I could find that will over a few hours slowly and painfully destroy them as well.

Zane worried and angry: why would you do this? We haven’t done anything to deserve this.

Mechanic: On the contrary Zane the Pain you and your friends have been nothing but pains in my side for a long time; all my troubles, all the times you’ve ruined plans on me, all the times I’ve been locked up it’s all your faults…

Zane cuts the Mechanic off and talks calmly: I think if you look it is not our doing that has led to your troubles. It is your own doing for going along and aiding the wrong kinds of people, your own choices and actions and your lack of foresight and acceptance to the consequences of your own actions that have led to your ill circumstances. All we have ever done is make sure you receive the proper repercussions for your actions which often brought harm to those innocent of any wrong doing.

Mechanic looks at Zane for a second before motioning for one of his henchman to bring him something. Knowing what he wants Henchman 1 picks off the work table a taser and brings it over. The Mechanic then shocks Zane with it. Cuts back into Zane's body where the others are recovering from the shock all a bit dazed.

Jay: I think we need to remind Zane even if he’s right to watch what he says around crazy people… especially when their evil and have captured you.

The others are in agreement. Cuts back to the outside of Zane's body. Zane is a bit dazed from the shock while the Mechanics happy with it.

Mechanic: Think what you want metal man but you won’t change my mind. I’ll take out you then your friends and then I’ll finally be free to do as I want without the likes of you interfering.

Mechanic addressing two of the henchman: take him to a random room and dump him there for the time being while I fix these worms. Make sure he has no access to the outside and I don’t care how big it is. It can be a broom closet for all I care and Zane the pain try all you want to try and contact for help. I’ve shut off any means for your friends to find you or for you to call for help; might as well accept your fate.

Zane struggles a bit to free himself scared as the two henchman wheel the chair he's on out of the room and down a hall. Seeing he can't break free Zane stops fighting feeling defeated.

Henchman 1: Sorry metal man we have nothing personal against you it's just business.

Henchman 2: Yha sorry about this. Just accept your fate and things will be over quickly.

They roll him into a small dark room and leave him there closing and locking the door behind them as they leave. Zane looks around the room nervous looking for something to help in his situation but he sees nothing.

Zane quietly to himself: this is not good.

Cuts back into Zane's body. They are all nervous and worried. They can hear Zane's heart and breathing are revealing his emotions that he is scared.

Jay panicking: What are we going to do? The Mechanic has a plan to destroy all of us, he’s kidnapped Zane who we are stuck in and currently stuck at the size of ants!

Lloyd nervous: can we contact Wu or Pixal through our communicators or Kais phone?

Nya: No because we are inside him and for our communicators to work while in him they are routed through Zanes workings so whatever they are doing to block Zanes ability for them to contact or locate us is affecting us as well. It’s also affecting Kais phone because it’s inside him plus due to its shrunken size it has a very poor signal. I doubt it can reach anything outside Zanes body no matter how hard we try.

Lloyd: is there any way we can at least talk to Zane? Maybe we can somehow work this out together.

Nya: Give me a minute and I’ll see what I can do.

She works on the phone a few seconds on Kais phone.

Nya: Okay that should work.

Lloyd through his communicator: Zane can you hear me?

Zane surprised and confused: Lloyd is that you?

Lloyd: yha buddy it’s me.

Zane: Wait the Mechanic said he was blocking any way of you contacting me… is this some cruel trick by him?

Jay: serious you think we’d trick you?

Cole: Uh you and Kai have a tendency to sometimes mess with him when things are serious.

Nya: boys you can talk about this later… trust us Zane it’s us.

Zane: How are you able to contact me then?

Nya: the Mechanic has only blocked your internal gps and your ability to contact others but he isn’t preventing others from contacting you by hacking directly into your brain. Sorry about doing that but it was the only way we could communicate to you.

Zane: That is okay you are just doing it to help me so I am not bothered by that. How did you find me?

Jay with a laugh amused: you wouldn’t believe us even if we told you.

Zane: Are you the ones who hacked my hearing? That is what woke me up, being hacked especially having my senses hacked without my permission I find uncomfortable and very threatening.

Nya comforting: don’t worry Zane that was just us. We meant no harm.

Kai: Yha buddy you weren’t responding so we just wanted to see what was going on around you; you know in case you were in danger plus to see who got you. We should have guessed the Mechanic was behind all this.

Zane: I am fine with that then.

They can hear from his heart and breathing that hearing them and knowing he isn’t alone is calming Zane.

Lloyd: Zane do you have any clue where we are? Where did they put us?

Cuts back out of Zanes body. He is looking around confused trying to determine what the room is.

Zane: I have no clue, it is a small room… most likely a broom closet like they said. It seems they took the Mechanics instructions as literal.

Lloyd: Are you able to do anything to get free or can you see anything to help us get out of here?

Zane fidgeting a bit to try and loosen the ropes but getting nowhere: I have been tied to an office chair using a rope. They have tied me so my arms are pinned against my body so I cannot move them and they have tied up my legs so I cannot move them either. As for the room the only thing I can see that could potentially hold something to help me get free is a locker against the one wall but there is nothing I can do to investigate it… wait you said us. What do you mean by us? Are you trapped somewhere in the building too?

Cuts back to the five in Zane's body.

Cole: You could say that.

Cole (silencing his communicator from Zane): should we tell him?

Lloyd (silencing his communicator from Zane): Might as well it is kind of important. We’re going to need him to get us all safely out of here.

Jay: you will probably have a hard time understanding this pal but we’re inside you. We’ve been chilling by your heart the past while.

Cuts back to Zane who is confused and looks at his body trying to understand what Jay means.

Zane confused: What do you mean? The interior of my body is no place for living organic beings such as yourselves to be in. There are many parts that are highly dangerous to your kind. Not to mention at your size there is no way you could fit inside me... is this some idiom or saying I do not understand?

Jay amused: no pal I’m not joking you we’re literally inside you watch I’ll give you a shock as proof. Sorry about this everyone I’ll try to keep this low.

To give Zane proof of what he is saying Jay gives Zane a small shock. Zane is startled by the shock and greatly confused as he looks at his chest at his heart.

Zane baffled: What! How and why are you in my body?!

Lloyd: We’re why the Mechanics worms failed…

Jay cutting Lloyd off: yha Pixal was having trouble catching them so we shrunk ourselves to the size of a carpenter ant to go after them in order to save you.

Kai uneasy: Trust us pal this has been just as uncomfortable to us as it likely is for you… not to mention very unpleasant. I have seen things!

Jay amused: yha I’m pretty sure if you had been awake you would not have been comfortable with it either. We had to chase them through your body in order to get them. One was in your shoulder, another went into your right lung and one was in your stomach, it’s still in there but don’t worry we destroyed it so it can’t hurt you plus you’re going to end up doing more damage to it now that your systems are active. There was another going after your heart but we destroyed that to; it fell somewhere in your body when the Mechanics thugs picked you up I’m not sure where it is now but don’t worry we’ll make sure to remove it. Those things were nasty to take on not to mention they tried to destroy us. They kept trying to stab us with this hidden blade in its head and crush us with their pincher mouth like thing and one tried to get you to digest us; that part was really unpleasant.

Zane surprised: What? You were where… what were you doing in my stomach? You know it is too dangerous for organic beings like you to be in there; it is not a place you should seek to put yourselves if you want to remain alive and unharmed.

Zane is very confused and getting uncomfortable.

Jay a bit uneasy: trust us we didn’t want to end up in there. One of the worms tricked us into there and activated your gut to try and get you to digest us to stop us from destroying it luckily Pixal was able to intervene and shut your system down before we got hurt; the whole thing was gross and scary. Don’t worry you didn’t really do any harm to us while we were in there besides it wasn’t your fault; unfortunately we spent more time in there than any of us wanted to…

Kai unsettled: Can we not talk about this?! No offense Zane I know you can’t help it but the sounds in here are unsettling and I would like to not be reminded of all we went through while in here.

Cole: yha Kais going to need some therapy after today. He experienced more than he wanted to.

Zane is still confused looking at his body core and feeling uncomfortable.

Zane mumbling to himself: this makes this whole situation even more uncomfortable.

Kai: Again no offence pal but it isn’t pretty in here especially in your stomach.

Zane confused: how long have you been inside my body?

Cole: A few hours I think; hey Zane were you aware of what those worms were doing to you?

Zane after a short pause: kind of. The pain and disruptions to my systems from their actions woke me up in the early morning. I didn’t know what was causing it all at the time I could just feel the harm they were doing to me. I couldn’t sense them I could just feel what they were doing. Along with the damages and pain they had done something so I couldn’t move or make a sound so I could not get help. I could not even open my eyes; it was like I was trapped. I could just hear everything going on around me and feel everything the worms were doing. I remember Pixal helping me and telling me everything would be okay. She put me offline so I wouldn’t feel anything but those worms did some sort of trick so it looked like I was offline but I was only half out. I could still feel everything she was doing… and I guess what you were doing. It all felt weird like this thing you call a dream.

Remembering what he went through makes Zane nervous and upset.

Cole: Don’t worry pal you’re safe now we made sure to teach those worms a lesson for messing with our brother and we’ll make sure to teach the Mechanic a lesson for what he did to you. No one’s going to hurt our droid brother while we’re around.

Cuts back to the five in Zanes body.

Kai (silencing his communicator from Zane) : You know that’s a weird way Zane phrased that; why didn’t he just say it felt like a dream? He dreams why does he not like to acknowledge it?

Nya (silencing her communicator from Zane): it’s part of that confusion he has over understanding how to be a nindroid. I don’t think he understands dreams very well not to mention I think they scare him; both what he sometimes sees in them and his inability to understand them are what scares him. He might even be confused and think they’re not natural for him even though from what we’ve all seen and me and Jay have analysed is that he does dream. It’s perfectly natural for him; Pixal dreams to and she accepts it and openly admits to being able to dream. She never denies it unlike Zane. Also along with being a restless sleeper Zane’s prone to having nightmares which further scare him about dreaming. We’ve managed to help him a bit by putting on relaxing music and ambient sounds when he sleeps to combat it but it doesn’t work as much as we’d like. I think Zane’s fears and confusions to dreams sometimes makes him afraid to admit he dreams.

Jay (silencing his communicator from Zane): I don’t think he’s the only one who has problems with nightmares.

They all agree with his statement but don't want to admit it.

Zane: When you were in my synth-gans did you at some point shock me? I think I recall being shocked, why did you do that?

Kai confused: synth-gans?

Jay (silencing his communicator from Zane): synthetic organs. He thinks because they’re not made from flesh like us his organs can’t be considered organs so he came up with that term to name them. It’s kind of sad really as while we consider his organs no different from ours despite what they are made of and how they work he doesn’t see it like that and thinks he has to view them differently. We’ve tried to get him to stop thinking of it like that as it just points out to him that he’s really a machine and not of flesh and blood which makes him feel isolated and a bit embarrassed about himself but we haven’t had any luck breaking his thoughts on that. Pix understands their organs are different from those of flesh but she’s willing to accept that despite their differences they are the same as ours. She hasn’t been able to change Zanes mind on this either no matter how hard she tries. I think it’s that confusion thing from thinking he was a flesh and blood person for so long then finding out he was a nindroid that’s caused him to think like this.

Cole: Yha we tried to fry the one worm by shocking it… that just backfired and made the thing mad at Jay. I’m sorry if we hurt you pal.

Zane: it is okay. It hurt but you didn’t mean to do it. Besides it was a short lived pain unlike what those worms left. I can still feel those.

Kai: Pixal fixed the damages they left though; how do they still hurt?

Zane: Synth re-grow takes a while, usually a day or two, to fully complete its work and in the meantime it is not a pleasant feeling as they repair. There are electric tingling’s as materials get repaired, there is also pain and the area feels very warm till the process is done.

Kai: That does not sound pleasant.

Zane letting some pain show in his voice: no it is not.

Lloyd: We can talk about all this later guys now we should focus on getting out of here.

Jay: hey Zane why don’t you chew through the rope to set yourself free.

Cuts back out of Zanes body. Zane inspects the rope.

Zane: that is a possibility but the time it would take to do so might not be ideal to escape before the Mechanic could complete his work.

Kai getting an idea: You know if I could access those ropes I could probably burn through them in no time.

Kai reaches out from where he stands on the casing for Zanes heart and tries to push open the hatch over the area having to stretch out to push on the inside of Zanes skin trying to push the hatch open.

Nya unamused: What are you doing?

Kai eager: I can go out there and burn the ropes off him so we can escape.

Nya: First off our small size has made our powers weaker than when we are our normal sizes so your powers won’t be as efficient.

Kai: I can still try. It might take me a little longer but I can still burn it.

Jay: Secondly you do realise Zane has full control over the hatches in his skin; if he doesn’t want them open you won’t be able to open them. Unless damaged they’re fully latched all the time and will only open if Zane allows them; or if we use the special permission he gave us so we can work on him to open them. That helps prevent foreign items from getting into his body and from anything or anyone posing any danger to his inner workings especially his heart.

Kai: Zane give me a hand buddy and I’ll get you free.

Zane: I do not think that very wise. If you are as small as you say you are it will be very dangerous for you to be wandering outside my body especially with me being tied up. If you fall it will be very dangerous and could deliver serious and potentially fatal harm to you plus I will be unable to help you and you could easily be hurt by items falling on you or by someone else finding you…

Jay cuts: yha they might think you’re a real ant and squish you.

Zane: Also the way they have tied me up pins the hatch over my heart in a way that prevents it from opening.

Kai unhappy: well there goes that idea.

Kai goes to relax and settle back on the frame for Zanes heart but he is in a position that has him stuck and unable to get back without falling. He works himself up to try and push himself back but as he preps himself he ends up slipping and falling. He manages to prevent falling too far by grabbing onto one of the protective plates that cover most of the area over Zanes heart; in doing so his hands accidently hit Zanes heart which in defence sends a shock into all of them and causes Zane serious pain.

Zane scared and in pain: Please be careful around my heart!

Kai: sorry that was an accident.

Nya unamused and angry by Kai: Kai be more careful. Any sudden touch to Zanes heart will cause it to release an electric pulse in defence. It’s painful for him and multiple pulses in a short period of time will stress his heart.

Kai: I’ll be careful.

The others begin talking over things they could do to help with the situation while Kai slowly and cautiously climbs up the frame for Zanes heart. He moves slowly cautious of where he puts his hands trying to avoid touching the icy blue material that makes up Zanes heart not wanting to cause it to spark.

Kai mumbling to himself mad: It would have been so easy to just burn the ropes. It would take seconds. I go out there burn it and we'd be free.

At one point while climbing up Kai’s hand slowly touches Zanes heart but he doesn’t realise at first he has touched it. Because he had moved slowly Zanes heart didn’t react to being touched. Kai is unaware he has touched it till he notices a strange tingling in his hand and arm.

Kai confused pausing as he climbs: what is that feeling? Feels like that strange tingling those balls with the lightening in them give... or Jay when you sometimes touch him and he's all worked up from anxiety.

Kai looks to where he has put his hand and is surprised to note it is touching the material of Zanes heart.

Kai: this is a bit weird. I've never really gotten a close look at Zanes heart before. The others are right this stuff is strange. I always thought it was some sort of metal glass stuff from how the others describe it. Instead it looks like that weird polished colorful stone stuff gift shops like to sell. It doesn't look like it's electrical even though it's glowing and you can feel a strange energy to it. Now that I'm also thinking of it this is also really weird. This is Zane's heart, I'm actually touching his heart!

Kai then notices something strange. Where his hand is touching there is a faint reddish dis-colour to the material.

Kai: huh, what's that redness from?

As he looks at it the color slowly vanishes. Kai pulls his hand back confused.

Kai: wait where'd it go? Was it from something on my hands?

Looks at his hands. His gloves and lower parts of sleeves are missing considerable patches due to Zane's digestive fluids having eaten them away.

Kai: Great Zane ate a good deal of my clothes... and a bit of my skin (Kai shivers at the thought). I hope this doesn't make him develop a taste for people. I guess it's not too bad, looks like a real bad sunburn with some scrapes in them. It hurts a bit but I'm pretty sure some skin cream will fix it just fine. These couldn't be the reason for that color could it?

He slowly and cautiously touches the material again but there is no color.

Kai: hmm no it isn't from the skin damage nor my touch... unless... I was thinking about those ropes and how easy it would be to burn them...

He sees the redness reappear. He stops thinking of fire and they disappear.

Kai: I wonder I bet fire isn't good for Zane's heart but maybe... I know he doesn't like heat but hopefully he isn't too bothered by this.

Kai heats up his hand and arm it gaining warm glowing markings at it heats up. The redness re-appears and gets bigger.

Zane nervous: What are you guys doing to my heart? There is a burning feeling starting to appear in it!

Jay (sounding more playful not judging): Kai what are you doing?

Kai stopping the heating of his limb: hey is electricity the only energy Zane's heart can absorb?

Nya confused: I don’t know. I know it can take in and use pure energy, only for a short time though. Why do you ask?

Kai heating his arm up: look at this!

The others watch the redness appear in Zane's heart confused.

Cole: Uh is that supposed to happen?

Nya confused: as far as I know no it’s not supposed to do that.

Cuts to Zane who is looking at his heart worried; he can only hear the others talking through their communicators and has no clue what's going on. His anxiety causes his heart rate to elevate a bit.

Zane: What is going on? Why am I feeling a strange mild burning to my heart?

Lloyd confused: yha what is going on?

Kai a bit excited: When I think about my powers or use them a bit and touch his heart it makes the red color appear.

Jay: maybe it’s some sort of energy transfer like how I can charge my phone or power the game station with my powers! You must be doing some sort of energy transfer. Other than discolouring his heart what else do you think your energy transfer can do?

Zane startled and scared: You’re doing what to my heart?!

Cuts back to the five in Zane's body.

Cole: how is Zane’s heart able to make an energy transfer? Fire isn’t electricity though electricity can spark fires… learned that from a toaster oven with damaged wires. Thank goodness Zane was there to help put the fire out.

Nya: It might not seem it but technically our bodies run off electricity too…

Jay cutting her off: yha like your brain can actually power a light bulb if you were to stick a light bulb in it.

Nya: yes but our bodies use far less electricity than Zanes does to work. It is largely our nervous systems that use electricity; apart from the symbiotes in his digestive system everything in Zanes body uses electricity to function and as its energy source. Technically with the right connectors you could theoretically transfer energy from our bodies into something else but I don’t see how just touching Zanes heart could transfer energy.

Lloyd: Maybe it’s absorbing it through his skin?

Nya: but we’re wearing our gear which covers our skin.

Jay nervous noting the damages to his attire: it was when we first started now uh not as much in some spots.

They all look at themselves unnerved by that fact.

Kai: Yha no offense Zane but your stomach ate holes into my clothes including on my hands.

Nya: okay, I guess it’s possible. We don’t know a lot about Zanes heart; what it can do or how it fully works so there is a possibility it could do that. It would only transfer electricity though not fire; it doesn’t absorb or use elemental energy.

Kai: I wonder… hey Zane I want you to do something with me. Do what you would do when coating your arms with ice but instead of ice think of fire; think of having your arms on fire and burning the ropes on you off.

Cuts to Zane who is confused and worried. He looks over the ropes.

Zane: I do not see how that will do anything. My powers are ice not fire; that would only make the rope cold and wet and would be of no help. Also can you please stop playing with my heart! It is very uncomfortable and unnerving to have you doing whatever you are doing.

Kai: Zane just humour me here.

Zane confused: you want me to joke with you? How is that going to help our situation?

Jay: He means for you to go along with his plans. Humour me means to temporarily comply with someone’s thoughts or actions even if you don’t follow generally to keep the peace or get out of a tough situation Zane.

Jay (temporarily flashes to the five in Zanes body as Jay silences his communicator from Zane): I think we should give Zane some lessons on the meanings of common sayings.

Zane: Fine but I do not see how this will help.

Zane closes his eyes doing as Kai suggests. Cuts to inside his body. Kai focusses his powers into Zane's heart causing the red coloring to get bigger and branch out across his heart. The others just wait to see if anything happens. Cuts back to Zane who after a few minutes opens his eyes to inspect the ropes.

Zane at first calm then scared: I do not think anything is happening though my arms feel oddly highly warm, too warm for my comfort… they’re on fire!

Cole stumped: What?

Zane worried: they’re on fire! How is that possible! I am not comfortable with this!

Kai eager: it worked now what about the rope? Zane what is the state of the rope?

Zane taking a moment to respond worked up by the fire scared and panicking: It is on fire from the fire on my arms.

Zane breaks his arms free from the ropes which are weakened by the damage from the fire. He tosses them away before quickly creating ice on his arms over the fire to put them out. He brakes the ice off before taking the ropes off his legs and tossing them away. The ropes remained on the ground the one slowly burning though there was not much of a fire on it. The others can hear from his heart and breathing rate that this is really scaring Zane.

Zane anxious: I’m free of the ropes now please stop whatever you are doing with my heart! I really don’t like it!

Cuts back into Zane's body. Kai stops the transfer of his powers and taking his hand away from Zane's heart.

Kai thrilled: yes it worked!

He starts to continue climbing up to the top of the casing to Zane's heart.

Cole: Uh how? How did it work?

Nya confused: I don’t know. I don’t see how his heart could transfer fire. His heart has nothing to do with fire or our powers?

Jay: It can transfer energy though, maybe Kai was sending like some fiery energy or fire is tied to his energy which he then sent through Zane's heart for it to manifest like his powers on Zane.

Lloyd after a pause: I guess that could be possible. Now that you are free Zane we can get out of here.

Zane: I guess I can.

Cuts to Zane who gets up and goes over to the rooms door to check it. He is shaking a bit and nervous having trouble shaking the feelings what had just happened left him with.

Lloyd: you can calm down now Zane. You’re free and we’re getting somewhere in our escape.

Zane not wanting to acknowledge his unnerve: I am calm.

Briefly cuts to the five in his body.

Jay: You can’t lie to us buddy we’re right by your heart so we can hear your heart and breathing rate. They’re not calm.

Zane: Well that was strange and unnerving with the fire… it is very unsettling.

Lloyd: don’t worry buddy we’re not going to do that again to you. Just the un-calm rate to your heart and breathing is unsettling some of us, especially Jay.

Jay is nervous and on edge but he is fairly calm. Lloyd and Kai are the most unsettled by the noises making them feel anxious but neither wishes to admit this and are trying to hide it.

Cuts back to Zane who is slowly calming down as he looks around. The door is locked so Zane looks around the room looking for something that could help him escape the room. The lights in the room aren’t working with only the light from under the door in the hall providing any light to see anything. He can see there is ventilation in the room but it is too small for him to fit through and he doesn't want to risk letting the others out of his body. With their small size there is too much danger for them.

Zane uttering quietly to himself as he looks around the room: ventilation is too small for me. With the others as small as they are they could fit into it with ease but it is too dangerous for them at their small size to be wandering around outside my body. No windows, not really much in here; there has to be something here that could help.

Zane notices the locker and heads over to investigate it.

Zane telling the others what he is doing: The door is locked so I will see what is in the locker.

The locker isn’t locked but doesn’t have much in it. There is a lunchbox on the top shelf with nothing in it, an old completed crossword book, an old pair of shoes and an item Zane is not entirely sure what it is. As he takes them out Zane sets the items aside trying to not make any noise not wanting to catch any unwanted attention.

Zane explaining as he pulls the items out of the locker: the locker holds an empty lunchbox, an old completed crossword book, a highly worn old pair of shoes and... (startled noise)

Zane notices some movement and reflecting light in the back of the locker startling him. He takes a moment to inspect the movement and light getting confused about the distance between him and the object before realising it is just a mirror showing a reflection letting him relax.

Nya as Zane inspects the mirror: Zane what is it? Is there something dangerous?

Zane: no there is just a mirror in the locker that I did not notice was there. Sorry I didn't mean to scare anyone.

Cuts into Zanes body.

Jay: that's okay buddy mirrors can be a bit scary. Especially at night when it's dark and you don't expect to see them... especially when you’re still sleepy and on your way to the bathroom and it's one of those magic trick mirrors that make your reflection all creepy looking that someone left there to play a prank on you and make you wet yourself!

Jay looks at Cole, Lloyd and Kai who are all holding in laughs.

Kai (silencing his communicator from Zane): Why did his reflection startle him? Is he scared of his own reflection or something?

Jay (silencing his communicator from Zane): no. He has extreme difficulty reading his reflection when it’s mirrored like when in a mirror. Unless he’s purposefully using one he often gets startled when seeing the reflection from a mirror especially when he’s not expecting to see his reflection. It’s not unique to him; all nindroids seem to have this problem. I think mirrors confuse their senses and their brains have trouble reading mirrored images especially when it’s themselves and their actions they are trying to read.

Lloyd (silencing his communicator from Zane): So that’s why he and Pix act weird to mirrors. I always thought surely they could tell it was them they were seeing and they’d have no problem with spacial awareness or telling directions when looking in a mirror. Guess I was wrong.

Cuts back out to Zane: the last is this thing… it kind of looks like a crowbar but lacks the characteristic ends of a crowbar being more of a small slightly cupped piece of it looks to be wood or maybe some plastic mimicking the appearance of wood.

Zane holds the item, a shoehorn, looking at it confused.

Jay confused: small cupped plastic or wood bar?

All of them are confused.

Lloyd: is there some way we can see what he sees?

Nya: Zane would you be willing to let us see what you are seeing? We have Kai’s phone that you could use to help us.

Zane: sure.

Zane closes his eyes while connecting the feed from his vision wirelessly to Kais phone. Cuts to inside Zane's body. The others are looking at Kais phone as it connects and shows what Zane sees when he opens his eyes.

Cole when seeing the item: Zane that’s a shoe horn.

Zane confused: Shoe horn? This does not look like an instrument nor do I think shoes can have horns.

Cole: it’s a tool to help get your shoe on and fix the shape of your shoes heel. My dad has one for his formal shoes.

Zane still confused: If that is its use then why is it termed a horn?

Cole: I have no clue.

A noise outside the door catches their attentions.

Henchman 3: do you smell something burning.

Looking around Zane notices the rope is still burning where he had left it. It makes them all nervous.

Lloyd worried: Zane quick put out the fire.

Zane hits the rope with ice putting out the fire but it is too late. They can hear someone at the door. They are unlocking it.

Henchman 4: did you hear that.

They begin to worry. Thinking quickly Zane picks up the shoe horn and hides behind where the door opens. He stands nervous as the door opens. He's hidden behind the door. Two of the Mechanics thugs dressed as common crooks came into the room. They quickly note Zane isn’t there.

Henchman 3: Uh oh this isn’t good. How did the metal man escape?

The one crook investigates the chair Zane had been tied to the other notices the open locker and investigates it. Zane goes over and hits the one looking at the chair with the shoe horn in the back of the head. He catches the person before they hit the floor and slowly lays them down so they don't make a sound before heading over towards the other. Just as they turn around to look at their co-worker Zane wastes no time to punch them in the face and knock them out.

Jay praising Zane: Good work Zane.

Zane closes the door to avoid catching any attention.

Zane: I did not really have much of a choice.

Lloyd: That’s okay we should see if they have anything of use before trying to make our way out of here.

Cole: obviously one of them has keys to this place as they must have used them to open the door.

Zane drags and sits both the henchman over to the locker then inspects their pockets. The one has two separate sets of keys. One is a decorative key chains on it leading Zane to deduce they were likely a personal set the other is just plain keys.

Zane looking at the plain keys: These must be the ones for the building.

He takes the plain set and puts it in a hatch to a small compartment in his abdomen to store them. Other than the keys he can't find much else of use, just mainly some coins and their wallets. The one has their phone which instantly catches their attentions.

Kai: A phone, we could use that to help contact Wu and Pixal!

Zane: Indeed.

Zane takes a moment to hack the phone allowing him access to it. They are all a mix of confusion and grossed out by the screen image on the phone. The image is of the thug happily giving affection to what they could only guess was his. The dog resembles the Chinese Crested breed but a bit on the ugly side (look up worlds ugliest dog Mr Happy Face); largely no hair except long tufts on the top of head, back of neck, ears, shoulders, paws and tail.

Jay: Is that a dog or some mutant rat?

Cole: I think it’s a dog.

Kai: whatever it is it is one of the ugliest things I have ever seen.

Nya: I guess beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

While the others wonder over the dogs photo Zane contacts the monastery. It doesn’t take long for someone to pick up. Wu picks up.

Wu (through phone): Hello who is this?

Zane: Wu it’s me Zane.

Wu (through phone): Zane is that really you? Where are you?

Zane: yes it’s really me and I have no clue where we are. They placed us in a broom closet.

Wu (through phone): We; the others are still with you? Are you all safe?

Zane: Yes they are here as for safe that depends on what you consider safe. We are not in immediate danger but there is a danger present.

Wu (through phone): What is the danger?

Zane: The Mechanic has plans to eliminate us. The worms were his doing and he is working on more for not just me but to harm the others as well. The Mechanic has hired thugs and the others are no bigger than ants so we will not fare well if we run into trouble and are forced to defend ourselves.

Wu (through phone): That is not good but do not worry we are on our way and can help. Pixal has locked onto the signal of the phone you are using. Just hold on in the meantime and avoid catching attention till we get there.”

Zane: Understood.

Zane hangs up the phone. The others had listened in to the whole conversation. Cuts to the others in Zane's body.

Lloyd: Okay we just need to wait for Wu and Pixal to show up then we can deal with the Mechanic. I think it’s time he gets locked in higher security than what he’s been locked in so far. Clearly if he keeps breaking out then he’s not locked down enough. Until Wu and Pixal arrive we need to lie low.

Kai: why just wait around how about doing some scouting instead you know find where the Mechanic is working to cut down on our work?

Cole: I don’t think that’s a wise idea. Technically even though we are here Zane is on his own and if he gets in trouble we won’t really be able to help him. At this size a mouse is very dangerous for us.

Jay: yha I don’t want to get stepped on and squished.

Cuts back to Zane who is putting the phone back in the thugs pocket. While putting the phone back Zane notes the one crooks plain dark zipper up hoodie is the right size to fit him. Zane looks over himself for a moment. He isn’t wearing a shirt and isn’t too comfortable with that.

Nya: Kai under our current circumstances it is best that we lie low to avoid any problems. I do agree though we should not stay here. Ideally we should find a more secluded location to lie low.

Cole: yha when those two come to they are going to talk and that will have everyone looking for us not to mention it will be best we put ourselves in a place that is easy for Pixal and Wu to find us when they arrive most likely outside this structure.

Cuts back into Zane's body. Jay notices on Kai’s phone the feed from Zane's vision. Zane is taking the one crooks hoodie off and putting it on himself.

Jay confused: Zane what are you doing?

Zane calmly: I am putting on a sweater.

Cole confused: you realise that is someone else’s right?

Zane: Yes but I felt it would be best if I cover up to avoid drawing attention or unsettling others.

Cuts for a moment out to Zane who after getting the hoodie on takes the items out of the pockets, largely a wallet, and puts them on the person. Cuts back to inside his body.

Kai: That’s Zane always the modest one. You’ll never see him leaving his underwear lying around the monastery or walking around in his underwear like some of us.

Kai looks at Jay who feels targeted by the comment.

Nya (silencing her communicator from Zane): yha he is modest but he also knows his appearance scares and unnerves others including you bro and he doesn’t want to scare anyone or make them uncomfortable. That’s one of the reasons why he often keeps decently covered.

Kai (silencing his communicator from Zane): I’m not scared by his appearance; sure sometimes his non human skin unnerves me a little; his skin is a bit odd. It kind of reminds me of a reptiles skin with all the metal patches which are like scales plus the glowing spot from his heart is… strange. The glow to his eyes can be a bit unnerving too especially in the dark plus you can clearly tell they’re not human when you really look into them. They have that really techi look and he can shrink and expand the equivalent to the pupil in his eye like a cat. That’s kind of strange too. Plus when he does that thing where he opens part of his skin and you can see his insides that kind of scares me yha; more of a grossed out scare than a scary scared way though.

Jay (silencing his communicator from Zane): yha his eyes can be kind of creepy; that shrinking thing in his eye is from when he adjusts his vision is kind of like with cats it helps regulate how much light his eyes take in so he isn’t blinded by too bright of light and can see better in the dark than us. Plus it is also because he can zoom in his vision to better focus or see something further away. Yha there is somethings scary about him but they’re not too bad. I think when he’s mad that’s possibly one of the worst. He’s defiantly scary when you make him mad!

Kai (silencing his communicator from Zane): yha sometimes very scary.

Cole: You should pull the hood up to cover your head so you can more easily sneak past everyone.

Zane: indeed that is a good idea.

Cuts out to Zane who zips up the hoodie before pulling the hood up. He then goes out to the hall. It goes in two directions.

Zane: The Mechanic is in a room at the end of the hall to the right so it likely will be best to head to the left to avoid him.

Zane picks up the shoe horn before heading down the left end of the hall keeping alert for any of the Mechanics thugs closing the door to the broom closet as he leaves to avoid suspicion. The first room they come across is a large room the hired thugs the Mechanic had are using as a hang out. Most of them are just chilling playing cards, pool or watching a television. None note Zane as he looks into the room before quietly moving on. Zane checks a few rooms. Outside the hall and the room all the thugs had been in all the rooms were dark and most light fixtures had no or broken lights. Cuts to the others in Zane's body.

Lloyd: I wonder where we are?

Cole: well there looks to be a few offices.

Nya: the place also looks to be in bad shape as if it hasn't been maintained very well.

Kai is noting the feed on his phone and is confused.

Kai: Zane what’s with all the stuff in your vision?

Zane confused: what?

Kai: there’s all these strange things that make it look like you have an overlay from a video game in your vision.

Zane: It is in ways like that. The overlays help aid in aiming, sensory processing and directional navigation. Are they unsettling you? I can turn them off if they are. I use them mainly for when on missions or training.

Kai: not really, I just find it a bit strange.

Jay cuts in: I find them kind of confusing and they make it a little hard to focus.

After a second Zane blinks shutting off the overlays in his vision so when his eyes open the overlays are gone making his vision human like.

Zane: Is that better?

Nya: you didn’t have to do that Zane.

Zane: It is okay, if you are sharing my vision it is best I use a setting we are all comfortable with to help us work together. Besides it does not hinder me much and there is something about this vision that I find relaxing and pleasing.

Cuts back to Zane as he checks out another room which looks to be a small office space however only some desks and chairs that are moved and knocked over are left. He goes over to check out the windows in the room to see if he can see any hints of where the building is. All he can see is woods. The next room he looks into looks to be an old cafeteria. There are some vending machines against the one wall which instantly catches Coles attention.

Cole eager: Hey Zane can you check those machines and see if there is anything good in them?

Jay: really?

Cole: Hey I’m hungry.

Kai: really? After what we’ve been through today and where we were earlier?

Kai quietly to himself looking over Cole: maybe not all those unsettling sounds are coming from Zanes stomach.

Kai moves a bit away from Cole uneasy. Cole doesn't notice. Kai is unsettled by the sounds from Zane's systems being active. The noises have Jay a bit anxious but he isn’t as anxious as Kai. Lloyd is also put a bit on edge from some sounds but he and the others aren’t letting it bother them much.

Cole: yha I’m largely over it now and hungry so Zane humour me and check out the vending machines.

Cuts to Zane who is just listening to the others.

Zane: You are using that saying right?

Cole: yes.

On Coles request Zane goes over and inspects the machines. One has soda, one has candies cookies and chips and another has various milks.

Cole: Do you think any of those are good? Hey Zane can you check the dates on them?

Jay grossed out: serious, who knows how long these things have been sitting here?

Cole: Yha I’m serious, again humour me Zane. Just break the glass to get them. If they’re still good I could go for some of those little single pack cakes and a Chocolate milk or two. You can put them in your pockets for later for me.

On Coles request Zane looks at the items. He can't see the state of the items through the glass and can’t see any visible dates on items. He brakes the glass on the machine with milk using the shoe horn and takes out one of the bottles to inspect it looking for the date on it.

Zane: These are not safe for human consumption. The machines have clearly been off for a while and the expiration dates on these are three years old.

Jay questioning: you better not still be thinking of having those, you’d get food poisoning!

Cole: Yha, those aren’t appetizing anymore. You can forget about it Zane. I’ll wait till we can get something safe and non moldy or curdled later.

Zane drops the bottle back in the machine while listening to the others talk.

Lloyd: we can have dinner later now we should focus on getting to safety then when back to normal taking down the Mechanic. You know given the state of this place, the fact what’s in these machines has been here for three years at least I think it is safe to say wherever we are is an abandoned structure. This would explain why no one has reported seeing the Mechanic since he escaped prison a month ago. He’s probably been hiding out here the whole time working on his plans while his hired thugs did all the work for him outside this place.

Zane is suddenly startled as one of the henchman touches his shoulder from behind. He quickly cloaks his appearance changing his eyes, skin and hair to look human before turning to look who it is. Cuts briefly to inside his body to view the other five. His reaction causes his breathing and heart rate to suddenly and temporarily elevate silencing the others who go quite and on edge worried they have been found. Cuts back to Zane who has turned and is looking at the henchman quiet and nervous.

Henchman 5: Why are you trying to get something out of there? Unless you’re a hyena that stuff will probably kill you if you had it.

Zane is quite unsure what to do so remains silent.

Cole: Tell him you were looking for a drink.

Zane: I was looking for a drink.

Henchman 5: Why would you look in here when you could get something from the hangout down the hall? Not too bright are we?

Jay with a chuckle: really he wants to call a nindroid dumb…

The others quickly shush Jay Nya covering his mouth with her hand.

Lloyd: tell him you felt uncomfortable and overwhelmed around everyone else.

Zane parroting: I am uncomfortable and overwhelmed around everyone else.

Henchman 5: If you are that shy you could just get something and chill somewhere else you don’t have to hang out with the rest of us if you don’t want to.

Zane: I guess I could do that.

They begin to leave when one of the thugs Zane had knocked out, the one he has taken the jacket from, comes into the doorway. Zane becomes nervous recognizing them.

Henchman 3: Hey the boss wants all hands on deck; that metal skins escaped. We need to get him before he can escape and get his pals.

Thug notices Zane making him more anxious.

Henchman 3: You know I had a jacket like that. I think that thing took it so he could be trying to blend in with us or hide in the shadows. He also took some keys for this place from me so could be anywhere in the building. Best we get going, why don’t you two go help check the warehouse.

Henchman 5: we’ll get it done.

Henchman 5 leaves the room, Zane follows. They go down the hall in the direction Zane had been going. They shortly come out of the hall onto a catwalk in a large room that has several large structures against the one wall. Cuts to the five inside Zane as they watch through the phone.

Kai when seeing the structures: What are those?

Nya: those are some pretty big smelters. I think we might be in either an abandoned steel mill or other metal refinery or a factory that made metal based items.

Cole: Good thing this place is abandoned and the Mechanic didn’t want to use those in his plan to destroy us huh, Zane like us wouldn’t survive being in a smelter would he?

Nya: no he wouldn’t.

Cuts back out to Zane. The catwalk goes through the room before entering another room, a large warehouse. There is still quite a few crates and shipping containers along with several of the henchman looking around the area. A staircase heads down to the warehouses floor. They head down to the floor. Once on the floor the thug instructs Zane to head out and search. Zane heads off on his own looking for a way out without being seen. To avoid possible detection he steers clear of everyone else. After a short search he manages to find a door they are pretty sure leads outside. There is one major problem however. To reach it he has to walk past a clear area to reach the door that the Mechanic is hanging in with two thugs. The Mechanic is real mad and ranting holding the burnt rope and threatening the two thugs who are cowering from his tone with it. The door is hidden from the Mechanics view by some crates but Zane has to sneak past them in order to reach it and Zane is scared to move.

Mechanic: How could he escape? He doesn’t control fire he controls ice so how did he burn through these ropes with fire?! He doesn’t even have anything in his anatomy to create fire.

Cuts to the five in Zane's body. Zane's heart and breathing are elevated indicating his fear.

Jay: this isn't good. How are we going to get past them?

Kai: Zane why are you just standing around, make for the door.

Nya (silencing her communicator from Zane): Zane's clearly very scared I think too scared to move near the Mechanic.

Cole (silencing his communicator from Zane): can you blame him? The Mechanic wants to destroy him and do it rather cruelly and painfully too plus Zane is pretty much alone and greatly outnumbered here.

Lloyd nervous from Zane's elevated heart and breathing rate (silencing his communicator from Zane): What do we do?

Nya (silencing her communicator from Zane): we're going to have to help him calm down and keep focused.

Jay (silencing his communicator from Zane): Yha despite how good and convincing it is Zanes cloaking ability has one major flaw we've been unable to solve. When certain emotions became too much like anxiety and fear the cloaking tends to glitch and fail. Also he has a problem that when emotions get too much for him he will have troubles functioning and if it gets real bad he will get knocked offline for a couple minutes as his emotional circuits calm down and reset to lower levels.

Cole (silencing his communicator from Zane): and that will be real bad.

Kai (silencing his communicator from Zane): yha we'll be in a lot of danger then.

Nya: Zane relax we're here to help you. You're not alone.

Cole: yha just take things slow and steady and keep the Mechanic behind you. Don't let him see your face.

Jay: yha just pretend your looking things over. Don't think about the Mechanic or what he could do to you. Trust me that just makes things worse. Think about something happy. Maybe all those birds that like to see you at the local aviary you know the ones that get all fascinated and cuddly with you. Maybe when this is all over you and Pixal can take a nice relaxing date there. Or how about funny cat videos those always make you happy; who isn't made happy from cat videos?

Zane's still nervous but starts to move activating the overlays in his vision. Cuts out to Zane as he starts heading towards the door stopping a few times to check a few crates. He keeps his back to the Mechanic who continues to rant his henchman terrified of him.

Mechanic: I'm sick of that walking scrap heap getting the better of me. When I get my hands on that thing he's going to wish he'd never been made. I told you he is smart so you have to keep a constant eye on him but did you listen no. Playing games is apparently more important than doing your jobs! Nindroids are smart and crafty you have to remain alert and aware to make sure you remain ahead of them. You should have had someone on guard watching him the whole time. Once he's caught and contained there is going to be some serious punishments handed out mark my words.

Jay: geeze does this guy have no chill.

Cole: don't listen to him Zane. You're no walking scrap heap; you're special very special. You're more of a person than he is. If he wants to call someone a scrap heap he should look at himself. All his implants look like they were crudely scrapped together from scrap.

Zane manages to get past the section and to the door without being seen. He begins to relax. When he gets to the door Zane tries to open it. The door is locked. He pulls out the keys he has stored in his body closing the port back up after he has the keys out. He slowly goes through the keys trying to find the one that unlocks the door without making much noise to avoid catching anyone’s attention. Tries two keys they don't work. As he puts the third key in he becomes startled and scared his cloak dropping as the Mechanics robotic hand grabs his wrist that is holding the key. Briefly shows the other five who are scared as well.

Mechanic: So thought we could escape did we? I don’t know how you got out but you’re not going to get a second chance to escape this time.

Zane gets shocked by a taser from behind causing him to collapse stunned on the floor letting go of the key and dropping the shoe horn.

Mechanic: Take him to the control room and use chains to tie him up this time. He can’t break or burn through those.

Two thugs lift Zane up by the arms and start dragging him back into the building. Zane is too stunned to defend himself or break free. Cuts to inside his body to the other five. They got stunned as well but managed to remain clung to the casing and wires coming out of Zanes heart.

Kai panicking: We need to stop them, I can’t burn through chains to break us free.

Jay worried: I think Zanes a little too stunned to fight back.

Lloyd worried: Zane you need to break free of their hold come on... why aren't you responding?

Jay: I think the shock dazed him.

Cole: Then what do we do?

Nya thinking quickly: hold on everyone. Sorry about this Zane.

She gives Zane's heart a punch causing it to send out a burst of electricity shocking Zane, them and the two carrying Zane. Cuts outside his body to Zane. Him and the Thugs collapse stunned though having his heart threatened causes Zane to quickly regain his senses in defence.

Mechanic angered by Zane escaping: Don’t let that thing escape!

Zane is lying on his front recovering from the shock but looking around for a place to escape. He sees a shipping container with its door open a bit. He quickly gets up and rushes over to it getting inside and closing the door behind himself. He looks around at the dark empty interior of the shipping container. Taking a moment to think it over Zane realise he's made a mistake and gets nervous.

Zane thinking aloud: Wait a minute… this was a mistake.

Mechanic heard through the container: lock the doors so he can't get out. You two retrieve from my workshop some chains to tie him up with and get shock proof gloves so he can't shock anyone again.

Zane can hear them locking the container doors. Zane's nervous, worried and embarrassed.

Jay in a slight playful tone: Zane did you just trap us?

Zane after a pause feeling embarrassed: it seemed like a good idea at the time…

Jay yelling and panicking: A good idea? We’re trapped! They’re going to get us, shove more of those worms in you which will probably try to destroy us likely by the easiest way it could by tricking us back into Zane's stomach to get digested!

Kai: What?! No, no being in there when it wasn't active was bad enough I don't want to end up in there now that its active!

Cole annoyed at the two: Jay, Kai take a chill pill.

Lloyd nervous but trying to play calm: instead of panicking we can use this time to come up with a way to escape.

Cole: Well we probably don’t have those keys anymore.

Nya: we’re probably not going to have easy access to any doors either. There were some windows back up in that hall sure they were on what looked like a second or third floor but Zane could easily use his powers to make a safe way to get down from there.

Zane listens in to their planning calming down.

Jay still worked up: Sounds good but how are we going to get out of this container?!

Zane looking over the doors: I have no way of cutting through the metal nor do I have the strength to break the doors open which they have locked the doors and the hinges are on the exterior of the structures so I cannot interact with those to open the doors.

Cuts to the five inside Zane's body.

Cole: You know if I was out there and not the size of an ant I could easily smash out those doors using my lava arms…

Cole gives the air some mock punches before coming to an idea.

Cole: hey if Kai could transfer his powers through Zanes heart do you think I could send mine through it too?

Nya: I guess, I still don’t entirely get how that was possible but if Kais could work then I guess the rest of ours could as well.

Cole excited: alright! Sorry if this freaks you out Zane but just roll with me and we’ll be out of here in no time.

Cuts out to Zane.

Zane confused: Roll with me? Is this a saying the same as humour me or something else?

Jay: kind of. It means to go along with his plan.

Zane: alright I'm willing to give this a try.

Cole: Alright when I say so give the door as hefty a punch as you want then once they’re open run as fast as you can to those windows.

Cuts briefly to Cole inside Zanes body as he slowly touching the material of Zane's heart so it wouldn’t react. Once touching it he activates his Lava arms causing an orange discolouring to Zanes heart.

Cole: Alright pal now think of using your powers filling your arms then give those doors as powerful a punch you can.

Cuts back to Zane who follows his instructions. Markings like Coles lava arms appears on Zanes arms intriguing him. Zane to do as he did when activating this power. He takes a second to prep himself then punches the doors with as much force as he can muster surprised as the doors smash open with the power he had been able to use.

Zane quietly to himself: I could never muster this kind of strength!

The markings disappear from his arms. The Mechanic and his henchmen are all startled and confused by the actions hesitating on making a move. In their hesitation Zane hits the ground separating him from them with ice building a wall of ice to block easy access to himself forcing them to have to find a less direct route to reach him giving them some extra time to put some distance between himself and the Mechanic and his crew. With the ice made Zane wastes no time in rushing back to the stairs to climb up them and get on the catwalk to head back to the office room in order to get to one of the rooms that has windows to the exterior. The tactics worked to some extent. It hinders the enemies a bit but using an attachment on his arm the Mechanic burns a path through the ice with fire.

Mechanic: After him and don't let him escape. I don't care what you do to stop him I just want him caught and alive.

By the time Zane gets on the catwalk the Mechanic and his henchmen are already on their way towards him. Zane doesn’t stop pausing only briefly to check where the enemies are as he exits the warehouse room before rushing through the smelter room. As he rushes through the smelter room Zane quickly finds his escape blocked causing him to stop in his tracks. The two who had gone to retrieve the chains and gloves for the Mechanic are coming back and blocking his path to the hall he needs to get into. The others are gaining quickly behind him. Looking around and thinking quickly Zane notices a stairway against the wall leading from the rooms floor to the catwalk coming up rate by the halls doorway behind the thugs. He quickly formulates a plan. Zane creates a slide of ice from the catwalk to the floor. He rides it down to the floor then rushes towards the stairs some of the thugs following him a bit nervous and clumsy with the slide. Most of the thugs follow him but some instead continued on the catwalk and cut off his access to the stairs. With not many options for an escape Zane puts himself backed up into a corner of the room for defence. The Mechanic and his henchmen quickly close in cornering him. Zane quickly gets caught up in a fight with them. He manages to hinder a few by freezing their feet to the ground and uses his Spinjitsu tornado. After he id done with his Spinjitsu tornado scene briefly cuts to the other five who are in Zanes body. They are all dizzy unprepared for the action all of them having to tightly grip the casing for his heart and the wires coming from his heart in order to remain balanced and keep from falling.

Jay: Zane while we’re in here please don’t do that again… we’re all dizzy now.

Cole: is this what my lunch feels like when I do that?

Cuts back to Zane. Zane manages to defend himself for a short time before some henchman shock him with a taser in the back causing him to collapse stunned. Zane is a bit stunned letting two of the thugs who put on the gloves pick Zane up holding him by the arms as he slowly regained his senses.

Jay in a panic: Zane get up! Get up!

Nya: Jay that’s of no use rate now.

Mechanic: Nice try Zane the pain. I don’t know how you did that but it was an impressive try. I thought only the shaggy haired dirt boy had that kind of strength.

Cole offended: dirt boy!

Mechanic: Clearly keeping you safely contained is harder than I suspected. Maybe I should use a quicker method to destroy you to avoid the trouble of dealing with you anymore. You’re living up to your name of Zane the pain.

The Mechanic notes the smelters in the room. While the Mechanic talks Jay begins to panic mutter annoying the others as he is making it hard for them to hear what is going on.

Jay in the background: Great now what are we going to do. We're stuck at the size of ants in Zanes body. Sure we can let Zane borrow our powers when we touch his heart but this nut still somehow knows how to get ahead of us. Can't this guy find a new nicer hobby that doesn't involve trying to destroy us? Clearly this guy has some missing screws and is dead set on seeing us destroyed. For once could he just remain locked up and accept his punishment.

Mechanic: You know they left behind here enough stuff to get those things working again for at least one more go. Why don’t we see how hot we can make them then we shove the pain in them and see how much heat the metal man can handle. If it doesn’t destroy him it could at least cause enough harm to keep him from escaping then we can slowly and painfully finish him off.

Mechanic goes on but Jay is talking loudly over him: We get it started and with the materials we have to work with we could have it hot enough in an hour or two. I think I might also have some oils and flammable gasses in my workshop we could spare to help speed things up. We're going to have to tie this scrap heap up in the meantime to keep him in control and from escaping again. We'll tie him up with chains to one of the support pillars for the catwalk. That should work and this time you will do as I say and one of you will keep an eye on him the whole time. He tries anything and you give him a shock and don't hold back.

Jay loudly babbling: he’s going to burn us alive! No that’s said to be one of the worst ways to go! Only Kai is immune to that much heat! I don’t want to go by being roasted like some harvest turkey! I’d rather get digested by Zane than go that way! At least in Zanes system the gasses in there might knock us out before we actually start to feel anything either that or we could knock ourselves out. Why can’t he just paralyze us and leave us locked in a room. We can handle those worms again while we wait for the others to rescue us why does he have to go so drastic?! We never did anything to him! Zane's right he caused all his own problems why take it all out on us?!

Zane annoyed: Jay can you tone it down I can’t hear anything through your babbling.

His words silence Jay but only after he speaks Zane realises his mistake of saying that out loud and gets nervous. The Mechanic and his henchman are confused while the rest of ninja are worried and scared.

Mechanic confused: Jay the babbly whiny sparky boy… how are you hearing and talking to him? One of you get my tablet.

Briefly leaving to his workshop one of the thugs comes back and brings him a tablet. The Mechanic begins working on it.

Mechanic confused then surprised: My hindrances are still in place so no one from outside is talking to you and you haven’t been able to call for help so … wait what is this? Another signal has been routed through and connected to your senses coming from… inside him… oh I see. This clears some things up. That’s how they destroyed my worms; why my plan has failed. They’ve somehow shrunk themselves and went inside your body to protect you. Well isn’t this intriguing. They’re still in there aren’t they? That’s how Zane the ice pain burnt through the rope and got loose. Your pals helped you didn’t they? They can hear and see what’s going on can’t they? Well then hello there pain-jas you’ve made this so much easier for me. Do any of you have anything to say for your foolishness before I finish you all off?

Cuts to in Zanes body with the five. Nya works on Kais phone hooking its signal up to the Mechanics tablet. Cuts back out of Zanes body.

Lloyd (through the tablet): we’re not going to go down easily. This isn’t the end for us. We’re going to stop you.

Mechanic: Oh really and how are you going to do that?

Kai boasting (through the tablet): if you haven’t noticed we found a way to let Zane use our powers. How well do you think all your simple henchman will fare against someone who can use all our powers against them?

Mechanic: Very cocky fire brat you think you have the upper hand. I think you over estimate your powers. You know I’m no expert but what do you think would happen if I set one of these to full power and struck your metal built host with it?

Zane is nervous shaking a bit. The Mechanic takes a taser from one of his henchman and switches it on to its highest setting before pressing it into Zanes chest rate over his heart. Zane is scared starting to shake.

Cole (through the tablet): Uh what would that do?

Jay quickly panicking (through the tablet): Zane might survive but with our tiny size we’ll be fried! Fried to dust!

Mechanic boasting: How would you rather go? Cooked or fried?

Cuts to in Zanes body. Nya covers the phone so the Mechanic can’t hear them talk while Lloyd quickly covers Jays mouth to keep him quite.

Lloyd quietly: Wu and Pixal are on their way all we have to do is hold on till then and they can get us out of this. We just need to buy ourselves some time and not let them know we have help coming.

Cole: Then we’ll want the fire way. It will take them some time to get the heat high enough to have an effect on Zane and us giving us time. The zappy way will just finish us off in almost an instance.

Nya: That would be the best option.

Kai: yha that sounds like the better option.

Jay who Lloyd isn't letting speak nods an agreement. They uncover the phone to address the Mechanic. Cuts out of Zanes body.

Lloyd (through the tablet): Zane is there anything you can do to get us out of this?

Zane nervous: I am afraid not. My make will make the shock worse for the rest of you and prove fatal. If not to me defiantly to the rest of you and I do not want to do anything that would put you all at risk.

Lloyd putting on a sad defeated act (through the tablet): fine; I guess we don’t really have a choice here do we. I’d rather be burned than shocked then. I hope you’re happy for what you’ve done.

Mechanic pleased: Indeed I am now if you all know what’s good for you; you pains, I would refrain from any shows of powers or attempts at escape. If you do try anything I’ll give you all a hefty shock.

The Mechanic pushes the taser deeper into Zanes chest as he talks to threaten Zane who is made even more nervous by the act.

Mechanic: Start one of those things up. There is some left over coal in some storage rooms in here and sheds outside we can use those to fuel it. We can also use the various debris in the warehouse, plenty of dry old wood in there should burn nicely. As for you... do as I say or you'll deeply regret it.

Mechanic points and threatens the taser at Zane. The thugs holding him let him go and the Mechanic herds him over to one of the supports to the catwalk. As he walks over Zane keeps his hands on his chest over his heart to protect the others from possible danger. Once at the support the Mechanic forces his hands down and pins Zane standing up against it. Two thugs chain him to the support making sure to tie the chains over the panels in his body so he can't open them to prevent the others from escaping.

Mechanic as Zane's being tied up: Make sure to cover all the ports in his body. We don't want any of his pals escaping to cause trouble.

One of the guards is kept standing by Zane holding the taser threateningly at him while the Mechanic goes over to oversee work with the smelters.

Fades to some time later. The Smelters are getting pretty hot. The ninja are stuck only able to watch as the Mechanic and his henchman prep their doom. Cuts to inside Zane's body where the five are just watching through the phone. Zane is just listened not speaking to prevent any clues to the others conversation. All are worried.

Kai: How long is it going to take for them to get here?

Jay: well since we don't know where we are who knows?

Cole: If they don’t get here in time what are we going to do?

Lloyd worried: I don’t know.

Nya: Zane could withstand the heat for a very short time and he could use his powers to counter the heat but he can’t do so for long. The heat will eventually be too much and prove fatal for him.

Cole: Maybe I could let Zane use my super strength again and we can try to smash out of the back of the smelter when they shove us in there.

Jay panicking: Yha but that nut job will probably shock us if we try anything.

Kai surprised to find himself muttering: I can’t believe I’m agreeing with Jay but yha he’d probably do that. Maybe even stun, knock out or paralyse Zane in some way to keep him and us from doing anything.

Cuts out to Zane as without warning a small canister suddenly drops on the floor by him bouncing away from him a bit while making a beeping sound. A few more follow scattered around the room and after a couple beeps each one explodes spreading a cloud of dust over an area quickly filling the room with smoke.

Jay panicking: What’s going on?

Lloyd pleased: I think our helps arrived.

They are all feeling happy. Zane can’t see very well through the smoke with his base vision but he doesn’t switchover to anything that could help him better see in the smoke as he is picking up a familiar presence helping free him. The chains holding him loosen and fall off. The presence he trusts then grabs his hand and leads him through the smoke into a storage room that comes off the smelter room and is free of smoke. When they are in the room they close the door behind them. Wu and Pixal who led him there are in the room.

Wu: Looks like we got here just in time.

Zane hugs Pixal joyed to see her.

Pixal: Let’s get this over with and get the Mechanic locked back up.

Zane opens the hatch over his heart holding up his hand for the others to climb onto. Once they are on his hand Zane places them on the ground where Wu uses the counter spell to restore the others back to their normal sizes.

Lloyd: Now let’s get this pain before he can escape and this time let’s make sure he’s put in high security.

They take off the masks and air tanks they had equipped then waste no time rushing out of the room to prevent the Mechanic from getting a chance to escape. The smoke is steadily dissipating and the Mechanic is mad ranting on how Zane had managed to escape again.

Mechanic: What happened? Who did this? How did that scrap heap escape again? Hurry he couldn't have gotten far.

It doesn’t take them long to take down all the Mechanics henchmen who weren’t prepared for a fight or their powers. The Mechanic attempts to quickly flee but they quickly cut off his attempts to escape. He tries to put up a fight but is quickly taken down Zane freezing all but his head to the ground in ice to which Cole adds a layer of protection by making rock spires shoot up from the ground to curl up over and around the ice to hinder any escape.

Cuts to outside the factory as the cops are taking the Mechanic and his henchman away. They are watching the cops lock up and take everyone away.

Lloyd: Well today was a weird day.

Once the cops are gone Cole: could we go for dinner now?

Kai: Serious is that all you can think of especially after some of today’s events?!

Kai is still quite shaken.

Cole: kind of. I’m also thinking it would probably also be a good idea to have a shower and get some clean non damaged clothes on.

Lloyd looking at himself: I think that’s a good idea.

Zane: that does sound like a good idea. This place is not very clean nor were many of the henchman; they left my skin a bit dirty plus I should give this sweater back to that folk and put on my own clothes. Not to mention all of you look rather dirty.

Kai his eyes wide and looking stunned: Yha I don’t want to be reminded of how I got dirty!

Jay: Yha a calm night at home to relax sounds like a good idea after today’s events.

Zane: why does he look so startled?

Jay: we can tell you all about what happened today pal. How about later after we all get cleaned up maybe over dinner.

Kai: please not when I'm around.

Cole eager: Sounds good now can we get going. Can we also get some extra desserts?

Wu: sure we can pick something up on our way home.

They then headed off to the Bounty which Wu and Pixal had used to get there in order to head off. Cuts to in the monastery. Wu and Pixal have dropped them off so they could get cleaned. They all get cleaned up having a shower and getting into their PJs to relax for the rest of the night.

A clip of Zane who has cleaned up and is in PJ's coming up to the others randomly while they are on their own to thank them for saving him while giving them a hug is shown. He gets to Nya first as she is in her room after getting dressed after getting cleaned up.

Nya: well Zane isn't this a surprise. You're normally not the one to initiate a hug.

Zane: I felt it necessary in my attempt to thank you for your work in saving me.

Nya: You don't need to thank us, your part of our family and we'd do anything to help you.

She gives him a hug in back. He gets Cole who is in his room next.

Cole: Oh hey pal you're looking better. What's with the hug?

Zane: I wanted to thank you for your aid in saving me and the hug felt necessary in this process.

Cole: You don't need to thank me, I'd do anything for you brother. Also you want a hug, here's a hug.

Cole gives Zane a bigger hug surprising Zane but he likes it. Jay is next. Jay is in the common room prepping the game station to play it. Jay jumps a bit too focused on what he was doing to note Zane till Zane touches him.

Jay: Oh hey buddy didn't know you were there. Well this is different... outside Pixal or animals you usually aren't the one to give the hugs.

Zane giving Jay a hug: I didn't mean to startle you I just wanted to thank you for helping save me. It clearly has you a bit scared.

Jay hugging Zane back: It's okay. Things were scary and gross... really gross but it's okay. I think knowing about your workings helped keep things from getting too scary. Anyway you had no control over what happened and you never would have meant to harm us besides it was worth it to keep you safe. Also don't feel bad or uncomfortable I wouldn't change anything about you pal, I like my nindroid brother just the way he is.

Kai who is still a bit shaken is in his room and is next. He is on his phone and gets startled by Zane when Zane taps his shoulder to get his attention. Zane is confused over his reaction.

Zane: Why did you jump?

Kai: Sorry you just startled me... was there something you wanted?

Zane gives him a hug prompting Kai to question: You're not usually not the hugging type is something up?

Zane: I just wanted to thank you for your actions in saving me today you clearly experienced something that scares you.

Kai: Yha there was a lot of scary stuff... but it's not your fault and you don't need to feel bad about it. It's nothing to do with you; you're quirks or what normally happens in you... it's just where we ended up and things that happened there... a lot of it was really gross and scary. Again though that's not your fault. You really had no control over any of it.

Lloyd is last and in the bedroom hall when Zane comes up to him. He is little shaken from the day’s events but is calming down.

Lloyd: Is something up buddy?

Zane giving Lloyd a hug: I just wanted to thank you for your work in saving me.

Lloyd: You know you don’t have to thank us.

Zane: You put yourselves in great danger to save me and I was one of those dangers probably the most dangerous considering the one place you ended up in. I could have easily harmed you or worse without meaning to; my interior is very dangerous for organic beings like you to be wandering in. I at the least owe you a thanks for any troubles or harm I may have caused you.

Lloyd: no you don’t have to thank us no matter what buddy. We wanted to help you no matter the risks and you shouldn’t worry about those. How dangerous you are is not your fault it’s just how you are and none of us would change that no matter what. We like you just the way you are. Besides you’re our brother and we’d do anything for you no matter the risks. We all know you’d do the same for us in fact you often have.

Lloyd gives Zane a hug as he speaks. Kai comes up to them as he heads to the the entertainment room. He still looks shaken.

Kai: Yha you are our brother even if your insides are like something from a monster… I thought Cole had some weird tastes and eating habits you’re pretty bad too; not as bad as Coles I don’t think but defiantly strange.

Zane is about to speak confused however before he can say anything they hear Cole loudly and excitedly calling as he rushes to the kitchen from his room.

Cole excited: dinners here!

Kai: You know your insides Zane might be like something from a monster but I think somehow Coles would possibly be just as scary.

Kai slowly starts heading off still looking rather stunned. Zane is looking at him confused as Lloyd and him follow for dinner.

Lloyd: it’s okay you know how Kai is about guts; he just got to experience more than he wanted to today considering we ended up in yours. Now come on buddy let’s get some dinner before Cole ends up going for seconds and don’t worry we’ll explain everything that went on today to you and don’t take everything Jay or Kai say too personal; thinking back on it the whole thing wasn’t really that bad especially since it meant saving you.

Kai: I guess your right there. You’re very special Zane in more ways than one and despite how uncomfortable or unpleasant all we went through today was I guess it was all worth it in order to make sure we still have you around… even if it’s going to give me nightmares for a while. No matter what you are or what you’re made of… or how gross or scary your insides are buddy you’re still our brother and we wouldn’t change that or anything about you.

Scene fades out.

End of act 3.

Story finished

To read the original story plus others here:

https://archiveofourown.org/users/Robo_birdie/works

You can also find images pertaining to the story here: https://www.deviantart.com/nerdy-hyena/gallery/72478681/story-project

#ninjago #ninjago zane #ninjago cole #ninjago nya #ninjago jay #ninjago kai #ninjago lloyd #ninjago headcanons #ninjago nindroids

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