to rule the world | a ninjago au

[9] ssssnake, and it aint toxic friends

charlie

Look out duty sucked.

Astra and Kade being pissed at each other also sucked since the crew was feeding off the negative energy. He continued pacing the small area where the scanners were located, occasionally glancing back to check the screens. The green wavelengths ran out and washed back, picking up nothing in the sky. Flicking a few switches on the screens on each side of it, he conducted an above and below ground scan. The computers brought up nothing.

Deciding to sit back down again and use his impatience for something useful, Charlie grabbed his metal scrap bag and summoned the parts he needed to his hand. It zipped to his outstretched palm like a magnet, nuts, bolts, fillies, super-mini-conducters and a grevien reacting to his call. Charlie relaxed a little as soon as he began using his powers, hands moving the pieces into the right places without screwdrivers since he could just twist the metal to his liking.

Charles, he could practically hear his grandfather's voice, Karlof always says what? Pay attention, or death! Succeed with fists of metal and brains of steel! The Duckworth family prevails!

Biting down on a swear, he jiggled around the compactor and grevien to switch places, carefully weaving together the wiring with a flick of his fingers. The metal fillagrents fit perfectly like he'd imagined in his mind. On autopilot, he conducted another three-level scan and waited for any beeps while he poked around the conductor.

"Holy First Master—" He shot the computer another glance and rubbed at his eyes like he could believe what he was seeing. He couldn't, actually.

Not even a freaking day in.

Charlie burst out of his tiny space and through the top deck of the SOG patrol plane. Astra was in the cockpit, lounging in the pilot's seat with a reuben sandwich in hand as she checked the autopilot steering. Misako was sitting next to her, a package of a ninja-looking outfit fitted for Astra in her hands. Astra's mother smiled kindly at Charlie, dropping the package to whisper something to Astra. Her daughter nodded briskly as Misako left, closing the door behind her.

"Reaper, we have a problem."

"You've got to be shitting me," Astra crammed the rest of her sandwich into mouth. Charlie gagged at the sourdough bread but led Astra to the scan room all the same. The autopilot system should keep them on track and the AI should warn them of anything.

He motioned towards the scan screens and refreshed for a more recent update. Astra swore a lot more than he did, her fingers darting over the screen as she zoomed in on the report.

"Serpentine?"

Charles nodded, already commanding one of his falcons to fly over to his shoulder. The metal bird perched there calmly as he gave instructions to the bird, fusing his power of metal and programming together to instruct the bird on a recon mission. They were too high up for their cameras to get any accurate information, and the bird would be a lot less inconspicuous than a military grade scout plane lowering altitude. The falcon switched to camo mode, gaining life-like feathers and attributes.

"I'll send a scout down," Charlie informed Astra. She nodded as his falcon melted through the metal of the plane and reformed on the other side, swooping down through the cotton candy clouds. Titanium winced at the slight headache from a complicated move - pushing metal through metal was harder than metal through a substance like wood. He could differentiate the two, but it was harder with many different types of metals.

Reaper spun around in Charlie's chair with a tablet in her hands, swiping furiously on the screen. He received a ping on his watch containing a series of files and a demand to meet on the lower deck for a meeting. Skylor, still recovering, but alert, would take over scan duty. The rest of Oni Squad was already assembled on the second deck, Aslec at the opposite end of the table from Astra with Arete, Junior, Forge, Misako and himself filling out the sides. Compared to when they trained as a big group, this smaller squad was strange to work with.