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There was a call sent out for the ninja to handle complaints of a minor disturbance in Nom. They had been there once before when they were fighting the nindroids that the Overlord had built in the town’s factory.
Zane never liked fighting the nindroids. That was the nickname that Jay came up for him when they discovered he wasn’t human. It was a balm on the open wound that spilled oil instead of blood.
Over time, Zane came to accept he was different because he was built that way. He may not be the same as his brothers, but he has found ways to cope. He found joy in cooking and film noirs. He loved Pixal and his friends. He loved watching birds. He found peace within himself.
“Tag Team! C’mon Zane, it’s our turn to handle this,” Kai slapped Zane’s back before heading out to suit up. Zane saw him shake his hand out from the unexpecting force that was Zane’s metal exoskeleton. He never could understand how his family often forgot that he wasn’t made of soft flesh that would give cushion to friendly bumps.
Zane followed and gathered his own gear. When he reached the basement garage, Kai was already there with Pixal.
Kai groaned, “Does it really have to be that far away?”
“Maybe you could establish a village closer to the monastery and then wait for a call for help. You could even live there and have somewhere else to leave your hair gel.” Pixal replied in her deadpan tone that, based on prior experience, meant she was being sarcastic.
“Ha-ha, very funny Pix,” Kai turned to Zane. “Do you mind if we take your ride? We’ll go much faster in your flyer than on my bike.”
“That seems reasonable,” Zane agreed and went to prep the vehicle. He quite liked his flyer. White with clear blue accents to represent his element. Although, it could stand to use a bit more color. Maybe he could add some pink.
Kai hopped into the back seat, adding bright red to the otherwise blank canvas which reminded him of the scene in Alison Wonderland when the cards tried to paint the white roses red. Zane never understood why they didn’t just plant red roses to begin with.
Soon enough, they were in the air on their way over the Echo Canyon, passed Primeval’s Eye, and approached the forest surrounding Nom.
“Maybe next time you can let me drive,” Kai spoke up. “I bet I can do some awesome flips.”
“I saw you trying to flip on your motorcycle last week. You crashed and had to bribe Nya to fix it.”
Kai started laughing which prompted Zane to open one of his mental notebooks to make a note of the interaction to analyze its humor later.
“Alright, you got me there.”
Zane found a suitable landing spot and he and Kai set off to find the source of the distress call. He scanned the buildings and determined the largest one to be the most likely source of information. Kai followed behind.
Zane liked that his friends tended to follow his lead without him having to explain everything. Although, sometimes he does have to explain when they distract each other from the task at hand.
As they made their way through the street, many villagers stopped to stare at them. Kai donned a grin and began to wave and wink at the crowd. Some waved back timidly, but most eyes were on Zane.
Kai walked closer to Zane and spoke quietly, “Is it me or do they seem to be staring at you?”
“It is not you. I too have noticed this development.”
“Cool, cool, okay,” Kai backed off some but stuck closer than his previous distance.
When they arrived at the largest house, Kai knocked on the door. A man with dark hair and a curly mustache opened the door. “Oh good! You came!” he exclaimed excitedly. It was the mayor they had helped save from nindroids earlier when they were trying to use the town’s factory as an additional production site.
“Please, please, come in, come in,” He gestured toward a doorway that led to a seating parlor. “Can I get you ninja anything? Coffee? Tea?”
“Uh-” Kai began, but Zane cut him off.
“No thank you. What seems to be the problem?” It was better to decline pleasantries if there was an urgent matter to attend to.
He acquiesced to moving to the parlor but remained standing. Kai took note of his example and wandered around the room, looking at the furniture and decorations.
“Well, you see, you all have proven helpful in the past, and well,” the man dithered, “some folks ‘round here have become, how you would say, um, uncomfortable.” He looked at Zane briefly before turning his gaze back to the room around them.
The books and paintings artfully placed around the room display an air of comfortable wealth, but the worn carpet reminded that it was a small village.
“Uncomfortable, around, uh, nindroids. Robots, really.”
Kai looked at Zane which he saw out of the corner of his eye, but refused to look back. He was well aware of the implications.
“So,” Kai broke in. “What do you want help with?”
“There’s a magic user, well magic and technology. He has been trying experiments that have made the citizens uneasy. I was hoping you, being the authority on, uh,” his gaze darted to and from Zane again. “Authority on things of this nature, you all could put a stop to it.”
“Despite what you might have heard about us, we don’t just go around busting down doors and telling people to stop doing weird sh-stuff,” Kai commented with a slight edge to his voice. His arms were crossed and he leaned against the door frame.
“Well, how about you both go see for yourselves?”
They were led down the street to a house on the edge of the forest, further from the others. It was obviously a single-roomed dwelling, but the smoke that rose out of the chimney was enough to indicate a sweltering fire inside.
“Okay, let me know when you’re done. Bye now!” The mayor turned and sped-walked back to his house.
“Well, that wasn’t bizarre,” Kai remarked.
Zane was confused, “It was outside of regular interactions, therefore, I believe it to have actually been bizarre.”
“Yeah, that’s what I said,” Kai replied with a grin and went to knock on the door.
Zane made another mental note.
Kai raised his fist but before he made contact with the door, it flew open to reveal a person with round bubble goggles and thick hair held back by a scarf. They had on rubber gloves and a smock that were both covered in, Zane analyzed, traces of oil, animal blood, frog slime, and . . . glitter?
“Woah!” Kai stepped back.
“Greetings! Oh my goodness, I never thought I would see a live subject after you ninja defeated all the nindroids!” they said.
“Live subject?” Kai questioned. Zane did not like the sound of that. Or the look of all the disjointed and dissected nindroid parts he could see within the dwelling.
“Give me one second! I’ve been wanting to try this out!” they exclaimed before grabbing a vial out of their pocket and started chanting in a language that was not in Zane’s database. Zane tried to move but felt rooted to the spot. The ground around his feet was glowing.
“Hey!” Kai summoned a fireball and went to throw it at the stranger. Zane simultaneously summoned ice to the surface of his palm, ice crystals sparked and condensation wafted off.
The stranger must have anticipated this since they were lightning quick to pull a second vial out of their pocket. With their free hand, they doused both Zane and Kai. Kai’s fire went out and Zane felt his hand return to normal temperature.
Kai was shocked for a second before punching the person in the face, knocking them to the ground.
Unfortunately, they finished the last of the chant right before and Zane went down at the same time.
“Zane!”
When Zane awoke, he was lying on the medical table they kept near the computer so Zane and Pixal could have somewhere to plug in easily for software maintenance. After Zane’s fight with a virus, they had added some cushions and more chairs.
Zane was not happy to be waking up here with no memory of how he got there. It was never a pleasant feeling to wake up from an unscheduled restart.
He turned his head to see Pixal reading documents on the computer. He went to send her a ping like they typically do. It was sort of like sending a little nudge to each other in a private language. But strangely, that system must still be offline since he was unable to fulfill the request.
He went to run a diagnostic, but couldn’t even summon his HUD screen. He couldn’t see any prompts at all.
“Woah, Zane! Please, calm down. Take deep breaths for me,” Pixal noticed his distress but her words made no sense. Was his respiratory system malfunctioning as well?
“C’mon Zane, in . . . and out . . .” Pixal counted out breaths and Zane did his best to follow them. Surprisingly, her hand was cold on his chest.
“There is an error,” Zane tried to explain.
Pixal got a pained look on her face. “I know, but we are going to fix it.”
“What is the error? I cannot seem to access my diagnostics.”
“Okay, we are going to take this slowly. We have gone through much worse together,” Pixal soothed. This irritated Zane. He did not want to be soothed. He wanted to be fixed.
“What is it?”
“Well,” She turned her head back to the computer monitor. Zane took longer to interpret the information than normal, but when he did, he was sure he must have misread it.
“These must be incorrect. It is showing that I have human vital signs.”
“There is no mistake. Your components have been modified to almost fully reflect a normal human.”
“Almost?”
“Well, it is still early, but I am still finding traces of metal in your biosamples. However, this could prove harmful to your organic body, so we’re going to need to bench you until we have this sorted,” Pixal responded.
Zane’s mind raced. He was human. He was on equal ground with his brothers and sister. He would grow old with them and be subject to the same needs, provided this was a permanent change. Secretly, he had wished to be human for a long time.
But, he looked at Pixal. She was alone now. At one point she had half his heart and now she is the only nindroid.
One thing that made the difficulties of being a non-human, was that he wasn’t alone. He could always count on Pixal being there. She was still here for him, but he wasn’t sure if he was even the same person anymore.
“Ow!” Zane exclaimed. “I am feeling a pain in my stomach.” He looked up to her to help.
“Your blood sugar is low. You most likely are feeling hunger,” Pixal responded, relieved it wasn’t a bigger issue. She was more familiar with human functions than he was since she used to be an assistant caretaker for her father. “Please, go upstairs with the others and I will continue to find a solution here.”
Typically they did not need to say goodbye to each other since they could normally ping back and forth. They would always have an open channel of awareness, but now they are both alone in their minds.
“See you,” Zane said instead of the ping that conveyed the same message.
She stopped, surprised, and then gave him a warm smile that Zane remembered meant he did something right.
“See you.”
Zane made it up the elevator into the living room.
“Zane! I'm so glad you’re ok!” Kai exclaimed and gave him a firm hug. He was unaware of how warm Kai typically was. He was well aware that Kai’s body temperature was higher than that of the other ninja, but this was typically a quantitative and not a qualitative value.
“You can do Ice still, right? My fire came back pretty quick, so I’m sure whatever that wizard tried to do won’t stick around for long.” Kai ended the hug and looked Zane up and down as though scanning him. However, Zane knew that people do not have that ability. He knew that first hand, now.
Kai’s warm hands on his shoulders slowly developed into an unpleasant buzz on his skin. The sleeves did well at blocking most of it, but Zane still did an unnecessary sigh of relief when Kai let go.
“I require sustenance,” Zane told him.
Jay popped his head around the corner. “Zane’s back and still has a full nindroid vocabulary! Glad you’re ok buddy. In fact, I was just coming to get Kai for dinner.”
It was Cole’s night for dinner which meant they were having takeout Cole put on plates for everyone.
They all moved to the kitchen table and began to grab plates.
Cole placed a plate of plain chicken and rice in front of him. When Zane saw that his dinner looked a lot less colorful than the others he looked up questioningly.
“I’m assuming you’ve never had to actually digest anything the human way. This stuff is kinder on a sensitive stomach,” Cole responded to his unspoken question with a soft smile. It always amazed Zane how the others could tell what he was thinking without having to verbalize.
“You are correct. Typically any food I had consumed prior was broken down into their base molecules and converted as a secondary fuel source. However, biological bodies should do the same.”
Cole still looked wary. “Let’s start with this and go from there.”
Zane took a bite and focused most of his energy on trying to analyze the flavor without seeing its chemical breakdown. He was unsure how his family was able to consume every meal without knowing 100% what the contents were.
But he trusted Cole and worked his way through the plate.
“Don’t worry, Zane, I flew back without any loop-de-loops,” Kai said.
Zane remembered the callback to this previous conversation. It took him longer to respond without his notebook mentally handy, but he was pleased that a human mind does indeed have sufficient storage capacity.
“And did you crash and bribe Nya to fix it before I awoke?” Zane replied.
When the table erupted in laughter, he gave himself a mental point. Then frowned when he realized he was going to have to manually keep track of his points until this issue was resolved.
“Do you want to help me out over here?” Nya asked. She was in the basement garage fixing up her own bike; she was complaining about the suspension not feeling right the last time she drove it.
Zane was working on a categorical list of film noir, specifically the detective ones since they are his favorite. The list included each of the main characters for his favorite ones, their attribute, and his thoughts on why they make a good detective. He was planning on making a ranking for each one so he could go back and watch his favorites in order from least to most favorite. He was also planning on making notes on how to better emulate them.
With his now human mind, it was harder to pick up details and he wanted to experiment on how it affected how he engaged with media. Even the research was taking much longer since he had to physically look up everything and write it down on paper.
Maybe he should look into getting a tablet, but he liked the feel of paper and the way the pencil’s graphite applied lines and texture to it. After Nya gave him a spare notebook, a spiral with pink glitter she had gotten as a gift and never thrown away or used, he had spent an hour yesterday with a magnifying glass and a pencil, scribbling lines until he covered a whole page.
He looked up at Nya’s question. She did not look to be struggling so he took her question as an invitation to join her, which he did not want to do. He was in the middle of his list. Zane liked to do his research in the same room as other people because he enjoyed their company.
Zane rubbed his sock-clad feet together. He borrowed some of Jay’s fuzzy socks and he loved the texture of them. They also prevented his feet from feeling cold, a problem he struggled with even as a human from being the master of ice.
He continued making notes in his spiral. He found that taking notes the slow way was actually quite relaxing. Maybe he will research falcon types next.
After a few more minutes Nya raised her voice, “Zane! Can you come over here and hold this part in place for me?” Oh, why didn’t she say that in the first place? He went over to help.
Zane was in the kitchen trying to cook dinner. It was more difficult without access to his digital library of recipes and notes. But, he tried to make do with his experience and the recipe cards he had added to the shared physical cookbook.
He was having a difficult time determining a good meal. His stomach was able to handle his regular diet again, but so many foods now tasted differently. Not only different, but some aromas and textures turned him off of the last few meals.
Flipping through, normally he loved seafood but the smell and feel of raw fish had him feeling nauseous. Another unpleasant emotion he was not pleased to have experienced for the first time. Even the Onigiri they had for lunch, he had to eat around the tuna filling.
The ramen that Kai cooked had its noodles too soggy for him. It was like eating wet bread.
Zane thought he was growing crazy. He loved to cook! But now all these meals seem unappetizing and he can not imagine trying to chew and swallow them. He misses his synthetic organs which allowed food to be eaten and processed as a secondary power source but not really necessary for his operation.
And the fact that he had to eat three times a day no matter what he was doing was a much more time-consuming affair than he remembered. He wished humans were able to turn off the need to eat food. It would make his current predicament so much easier.
“Zane?” Lloyd spoke up from the kitchen doorway. Another disadvantage of the human body was its decrease in awareness. But somehow, Master Wu never had a problem with it. Maybe it was just a 100% organic human failing. Or maybe Zane was just failing.
Zane looked up at Llyod’s call and noticed the time on the wall. He had already spent 43 minutes looking through his cookbook. He wished for his internal clock to return; it was very easy to get absorbed into his tasks.
“I was talking with Pixal and Master Wu about the data she got from your scans,” Lloyd told him. “You know those traces of metaloids she found in your body?”
Zane knew this was a rhetorical question used to facilitate conversation so he answered with an affirmative.
“Well, it looks like more and more of your cells are reverting to their original state.”
Zane looked thoughtful for a minute. “That seems logical based on how temporary Kai’s and my elemental power repression lasted.”
“Yeah, except,” Lloyd pinched his face in, eyes scrunching together slightly that Zane recognized as the face he makes when he has to give bad news. “We don’t know if it will hurt. Your cells are literally becoming inert and, well, a bunch of other biology terms I don’t know.”
Zane’s mouth twitched down in a slight frown. That was not ideal.
“Thank you for telling me Lloyd. I will go down and speak with her in more detail,” Zane said.
Lloyd did one of his contradictory sad smiles,” Let me know if there’s anything you need from us. We’ll help you the best we can.”
Zane felt warmth spread through his chest. He really did love his family.
His body and mind were no longer in sync to receive spit-second commands. Typically, he could analyze a situation, determine the best course of action, and then execute it without anyone noticing the amount of thought and care he put into it.
624 Newtons applied from his left leg, 733 Newtons on his right. This would allow the appropriate jump force required to get him airborne to begin a 360-degree repeating spin, launching him into his spinjitzu.
However, he knew these numbers change depending on the flooring, how tall the target is, the wind current, and similar inputs. And his human brain and body did not connect these variables anymore. He felt weak. He felt slow.
He hit the training mat hard. His shoulder and back feel hot and stiff at the same time. His muscles are pulling in a way his wires never would. He was unaware a human body could feel like this. He let out an involuntary groan. So this is the human equivalent of glitching from a hard hit, but it’s ongoing. He has not felt this sore since he first started his ninja training.
“Oh no, Zane!” Jay fretted. Jay’s hands were on his cheeks and rubbed up towards his hair, trying to push away the worry before moving closer to Zane’s prone form. “Are you ok? I didn’t mean to hit you that hard! You normally dodge that move! I’m so sorry! Do you need ice? Oh, that’s a stupid question. Probably.”
Jay rambled in concern while Zane made no move to get up. “I can no longer survey my surroundings and determine a probable outcome. When you are coming toward me and I need to determine how to react, normally I can analyze the position of your body, the length of your steps, your past decisions in similar scenarios, and a multitude of other variables. These would allow me to determine how I should move and counter-strike,” Zane spoke at the wooden ceiling.
Jay expressed sympathy using his favorite nonverbal action and placed his palm on Zane’s shoulder.
He was not sure if it was Jay’s electricity or the unfamiliar feeling in his body, but from where Jay laid his palm on his bare shoulder, exposed by his ridden-up shirt sleeve, he felt a hot static run down his arm. He wanted it to stop. He needed Jay to let go because he was just making it worse.
“I am ok. Please remove your hand,” Zane said slowly and deliberately. Jay made a face that Zane recognized as hurt.
“Ok, I’m sorry. I really didn’t mean to hurt you.”
But Zane was not upset that he did horrible in a routine spare, well he was, but he just really needed Jay to stop touching him. Everything was too much.
It felt like when he received too much data input at one time and he had to sit quietly until it was sorted out. He pulled his arms in further and curled more tightly on the mat. The rubber stuck to his skin, unwilling to let him move but yielded anyway.
He took deep breaths. After some time, Zane lost track, Jay spoke again. “I’m going to put this blanket on you, now. Make a noise or move if you don’t want it.”
The salty dry film of sweat has started to cool and pulled uncomfortably on his skin. He would like a blanket. And like Jay was reading his mind, a blanket was played over the top of him, only exposing his head. The thing that surprised Zane was the weight.
The blanket was heavy, pushing him into the mat in a way that should have been uncomfortable but just made him feel grounded. It felt like his systems were coming back online, but he didn’t have his normal systems anymore. Nevertheless, that’s what it felt like.
He could feel the tension release in his sore muscles and his breathing came easier without having to force each inhale and exhale. When he got the energy to open his eyes, he saw Jay sitting there, keeping an eye on him.
When Jay saw Zane was lucid, he smiled. “Let’s hold off on training for now, okay?” Zane didn’t have the energy to respond, but Jay seemed to understand anyway.
Zane had a hard time filtering out noise. Typically, his audio processors automatically adjusted the volume of his surroundings and picked out which sounds to focus on whether it be conversations or someone calling out for help.
Now, he had more of a difficult time filtering out all of the sounds. How did people do it normally? Why weren’t there any manuals provided? Or did most people get them and since he is not a real human, he didn’t get one. He wondered if he could ask for one.
On top of the noise, his joints, stomach, and skin itched with the feeling of his organic cells mutating back into synthetic material. It made sitting on the couch with his siblings playing video games an increasingly difficult task.
He has a backpack at his feet where he keeps his spiral notebooks, water bottle, tolerable snacks, extra socks, and a myriad of other essentials. He questioned why humans didn’t all carry one with them at all times. What if you needed something?
He reached into his backpack to grab a squishy ball with rubber spikes. He liked having something to do with his hands and it helped him stay present.
Eventually, Jay bumped their shoulders together. “Y’know, if it weren’t for the fact that you’re squishy now, I could one hundred percent believe you were still a nindroid.” Jay meant it as a light-hearted tease that the others chuckled at as idle chatter that wasn’t general video game smack talk.
“What is that supposed to mean?” Zane questioned. He doesn’t feel too differently than his nindroid state. Not really. His way of interpreting senses is skewed and he is slower at a variety of tasks, but he thought he was doing well as a human.
Zane waited for the prompt that his processors would provide when he was delayed in responding. Pixel helped him develop some software to help him determine if someone was telling a joke, being serious, being sarcastic, or other intents. He wasn’t sure if he liked it yet, but at moments like this, he wished he could install it in his now-human brain.
Jay sensed he made a mistake that upset Zane and responded, “Not in a bad way! It’s just that, y’know, all the things that make you kinda robotic are still there. Just in a different package.” Jay rushed out an explanation to try and fix his foot-in-the-mouth problem but made it worse.
The sounds of the television must have gotten louder because all Zane could hear were digital explosions and battle music. The sofa was now feeling itchy and the lights were hurting his eyes.
“Did something go wrong with the spell? Is it not possible for me to be human?” Zane’s breathing picked up and there were too many people in the room.
“Can I never be normal? Something must have gone wrong! I was never fully human and now I will be stuck forever in this in-between! And it is making me upset,” Zane spoke loudly in the room. Someone turned off the game which helped reduce the background noise.
“Why am I not good at this? There is something wrong with me!” Zane cried out and collapsed in on himself. It felt like all his nerves were on fire. His body was fighting against itself. He was fighting himself.
Tears leaked out of the corner of his eyes. He knew he was most likely being irrational but could not stop.
Everything was too much.
Everything was too bright.
Everything was too loud.
Everything hurt.
A weight on his head and ears settled gently. Soothing piano, violin, and a deep beat filled his ears. With his eyes closed, it was easier to let the tingling, static feeling of his body fade into the background.
Slowly, his breathing evened out and the pain in his body receded. He could feel his bones become firmer and his system do a soft reboot.
He was able to see his respiration rate and focus on the numbers. The melodies still flooded gently in his audio processors, washing over them like aloe vera on a sunburn. Or, he supposed, a cool cleaning spray through his joints.
Zane was able to open his eyes and process the room around him. The television was silent and the others were dispersed throughout the room. All there, all present, but in unobtrusive silent support.
Zane moved the headphones off his head to around his neck. He could still pick up the chords softly filling the space around him.
“You with us now?” Cole’s soft timber voice broke the silence of the room and joined the gentle tones of the music.
Zane nodded, too emotionally sore to speak.
“I need you to listen to me,” Cole said.
“There is nothing wrong with you.
“There is nothing wrong with you.
“You just see and experience the world differently, human or nindroid. That’s a gift. Sure, it may not feel like it when everything is dialed to a hundred, but that’s what we’re here for. To dial it back and let you be you. We love you no matter what you are made of because of who you are.
“You are all we want you to be.”