Ninjago - Samurai X

Chapter 11

Phoea peered through the windshield of the VXL only to see more darkness. The headlights had been turned on, but she couldn't see far enough over Samurai X to get a good look at what was in front of them. Only a few seconds later, the VXL stopped again, and Samurai X hopped out once more, not hesitating to start walking away.

"Wait!" Phoea exclaimed, "Do I just, you know, wait here again?"

The samurai didn't respond. Their silence was staring to get frustrating. Despite this, Phoea kept silent and waited.

A few moment passed. Nothing happened. Phoea stayed silent. A few more moments passed. Nothing. Now Phoea was starting to get worried. Sure, it wouldn't sound very realistic for someone who's basically a super hero to get lost in the dark, but Phoea's day had been far from realistic.

"Hey" she called out, "you still there? Like, you didn't leave me all alone in a dark cave or whatever?" Phoea let out a dry chuckle. She was still fairly terrified, but with a bit of annoyance this time around.

No response, as expected. A few more moments passed, and Phoea flopped down in her seat and sighed. She thought about her life, and if she would ever be able to return to it. Just a few minutes ago, Phoea had been in a car with a stranger in a robot-samurai outfit, who had just saved her from evil ninja-robots. After she exploded first, of course. But this wasn't her life, not even close. Her life was desperately searching for jobs while on a constant orange juice shortage, with the occasional life-threatening dream every now and then. This wasn't her life—this was an action movie. An action-horror movie.

Phoea's thoughts where shattered by a sharp noise that echoed throughout whatever dark location she was in. It sounded like a large switch being flipped in a vast warehouse space. Then, only a few seconds later, bright, blue lights flickered on—not from the ceiling, as Phoea had expected, but on the ground. Phoea looked over the side of the VXL to get a better view. The VXL appeared to be near the center of a large platform lined with a strip of bright lights, illuminating the far cave walls surrounding the platform. In the fairly large distance between the platform and the wall was a dark pit—Phoea wasn't very keen on finding out where it led. The platform itself was lined with strips of red, with a large symbol resembling a samurai helmet and crossed swords, both of the same color, right in the center of the platform. On the far end of the platform and to Phoea's left was a large screen—one far larger than she had ever seen—next to a fairly smaller screen, both built into a large spire connecting to the ceiling far above(whether it was natural or artificial, Phoea couldn't tell). Both were on, but only showed a blank screen. And at the base of the screens were two large, red, sophisticated-looking workbenches. To the right of the workbenches was a door in the spire, and in that doorway stood Samurai X.

Careful, Phoea climbed over the side of the VXL and hopped down onto the platform. Samurai X walked from the doorway over to the screens, where they began fiddling with the controls.

"Wow. This place...wow," Phoea said in awe. "So is this your, err, cave?"

Once again, Samurai X didn't respond, seemingly taken up by the screens.

"Hey," Phoea said, "It'd be nice if you, you know, would talk back to me and whatnot. I mean, you're acting like I'm not even here! Like—"

Phoea stopped. Samurai X seemed to have paused their current task, their head turned slightly towards Phoea.

"I—sorry," Phoea said, "I'm still a bit shaken up from...you know, everything."

Samurai X continued to fiddle with the controls. "Yes," They responded. "This is the Samurai X cave."

"Oh, wow. Pretty straightforward. So...this is like, your base?"

"It used to be. Many years ago."

"Oh."

Both were silent for a few moments, then Samurai X seemed to get a response from the screens. They fiddled with the controls for another moment, and more lights turned on, this time to the left of the screens. Phoea turned to her left, and her jaw dropped.

The lights illuminated a bridge that went out all the way to the end of the cave, right into an opening in the cave wall. On either side of the bridge where various platforms upon rock spires jutting into the abyss, each on connected to multiple large wires hanging from above. But atop each platform was a vehicle of some sort—Phoea could see a boat, another car, some kind of giant robot-looking thing, and what seemed to be a plane or a jet.

"Woah. Those...these are amazing!" Phoea exclaimed, making her way across the bridge to get a better look. Samurai X cautiously followed her.

"You—you have a boat! And another car? And what's that thing?" Phoea pointed at the robot-thing.

"That is the Samurai Mech," Samurai X responded.

"Wait, mech? Like, that's a robot suit?" Phoea suddenly remembered something from over 5 years ago—something about Samurai X having a flying mech suit. "This thing can fly, right?"

Samurai X nodded.

"So," Phoea continued, "If you have a flying mech suit, with—are those cannons? Then why are you driving around in a car when you could be using this?"

Samurai X hesitated for a moment before saying, "The mech was damaged. It does not function as it used to."

Phoea took a closer look at the mech, and sure enough, in various places among the blue and white paint were several burn marks, resembling lashes.

"Oh. And you never tried to repair it?" She asked.

"It is beyond repair." Samurai X responded.

Phoea looked over at the jet. "What about that?"

"The jet became obsolete after the mech was constructed. It was never finished."

"Because of the flying? So...since the mech doesn't work, are you, you know...gonna finish it?"

Samurai X didn't answer, instead turning back and walking towards the main platform.

"Come with me," they said, "Now that all of the cave's systems are operational, I would like for you to participate in some tests."

"Tests?" Phoea began following the samurai.

"In order to study your power. To understand it."

"Oh. Alright then, I guess that's alright." Phoea kept walking. "Say...does all of your stuff have the word 'samurai' in front of it? You know, 'samurai x cave,' 'samurai mech,' the—"

Phoea walked right into Samurai X's back. They had stopped walking.

"Hey, wha—?"

Phoea froze as she saw what Samurai X was looking at. On the back of the VXL, where Phoea had not looked before, was a fairly terrifying sight. One of the nindroids, Phoea presumed, had survived the explosion, albeit burned and melted. It had latched onto the back of the VXL with its twisted, melted arms, somehow staying on the entire way through the desert and into to cave. A chill went down Phoea's spine just looking at the nindroid. Samurai X carefully walked towards the nindroid, only to reach down and violently pull it off of the back.

"Wha—is...is this a bad thing?," Phoea asked.

Samurai X examined the broken droid for a moment before responding, "Possibly. But this may also provide insight on whoever is after you."

Phoea watched as the samurai dragged the nindroid to one of the workbenches. She started to feel sick for some reason.

"I will make sure the nindroid is properly deactivated," Samurai X said, "Then we shall commence testing."

As Phoea quietly waited for Samurai X to finish their task, she peered off into the blue haze of the vast cavern, silently praying that she could go back to her normal life soon, praying that this entire week was just a terrible, terrible dream. But somewhere, deep inside of her, Phoea felt like that would never be the case, that no mater how much she wanted it, she would never go back to how her life used to be.
Ever.