Invisible Strings (Discontinued)

Chapter 1: When The Moon Is Looking Down

After the stories of their separate lives had been shared and his "mother's" finger-lickin' good creampuffs had been devoured, Jay had brought forth the matter of his inherited element of lightning. Earlier on, he had obtained from Master Wu the name of the Master of Lightning that had fought in the Serpentine Wars. With some suspicion-raising hesitation, Wu had told him that the previous Lightning Master was a woman named Libby.

That was all he needed. Jay asked Ed and Edna whether they had any, any relative named Libby who had lightning powers. The answer was a truthful no. He questioned them more and when it felt like he was getting close to finding out the truth, his "father" had told him to sit down and relax because he might need some help coping with what was coming next.

Jay already knew what was coming next. But still he wanted to listen it from the mouths of those two people who, up till now, he had thought were his parents. Nadakhan hadn't played a trick; he had showed him the reality. He hadn't always been Jay Walker.

There was a time when he was called Jayden Gordon and he had belonged to someone else. He had belonged to a mother and a father who were connected to him by blood; the ones who had brought him into this world but had left him in the hands of a poor, childless couple.

The ringing in his ears had grown gradually louder, his throat had become dry and tears had lined the edges of his eyes as he was told the truth - the one he thought the pirate genie had made up to scare him. He had dug his nails into his palms and had bit his lip so hard, blood oozed out of the cuts. His "parents'" voices had faded away as a million questions bounced around in his mind. It had hurt. He felt worse than the first time he heard about his adoption because he could push it away as a dirty trick. But this was real.

Pain and anger provoked the adrenaline to rush through his veins and he had to bite his tongue to stop him from screaming. He said nothing though but ran out of the trailer as Edna sobbed and Ed called out after him. Jay had ignored him. He didn't stop till he had reached the monastery and had locked himself in his room.

However, discussing this with Nya in private had soothed him. She made him understand and he realized that he had let anger and fear control him. He had returned to his parents the next day where he apologized, told them he loved them no matter what had happened and forgave them for everything. All was right in the world - kind of.

When he and Nya told the other Ninja about his adoption, Zane had been supportive, Cole had hugged him and Kai had yelled at him for keeping it a secret and then hugged him. Lloyd had reassured him at first but upon knowing who Jay was actually related to, he was the one who needed calming breaths to prevent excitement overdose.

Lloyd had hyperventilated at the fact that his metaphorical brother was the biological son of his superstar Cliff Gordon or rather the awesome space hero, Fritz Donnegan.

After finding out that Libby (Jay's biological mother) was no longer in this world, they had all forced him to go meet his father and ask him what the hell happened which caused him to put Jay up for adoption. Which led to him standing outside his birth father's villa, debating with himself whether he should go in or run away screaming while his phone buzzed with texts from his friends.

He jumped as his phone started ringing and upon examination, the caller turned out to be Cole. This concluded that his friends were getting impatient and would choke him when they found out that he hadn't even entered the driveway let alone asked Cliff for the reason of his abandonment.

He answered the call, saying, "What is your problem, Cole?"

"My problem?!" His friend said incredulously from the other end. "You're the one who's not answering our texts."

"I'm in a meeting with my biological father. What do you expect?" Jay snapped, nervousness making him feel nauseous. "Plus, I feel like I'm suffering from a bad case of diarrhea cause I wanna go to the toilet really bad."

There was a loud gasp from Cole's end. It was Lloyd. It was obvious Cole had turned on the loud speaker. "You're having a real conversation with Fritz- I mean . . . Cliff Gordon!" The Green Ninja yelled excitedly. "Can I talk to him? Please, please, please!"

Jay panicked and for a moment thought about impersonating Cliff so that his lie couldn't be detected but decided to throw the possibility away altogether. "Um . . . sorry, short stuff, but Gordon's in the . . . uh, bathroom."

As Lloyd gave a disappointed groan, Kai's doubtful voice sounded in the background. "Wait. Cliff's meeting his son after so many years and he chooses now to disappear into the bathroom?"

Jay cursed silently before saying, "Uh, yeah. The anxiety of seeing me again made him . . . uh . . . suffer from diarrhea . . . too."

"So, you're both having diarrhea at the same time?" Lloyd asked, oblivious to the ridiculousness of the lie.

"Well, can there be any doubt? He's my - cough - father after all," the blue ninja said, letting out a nervous chuckle afterwards. "You know what they say: like father, like son. Am I right?"

He wished his friends would hurry up and finish the call already. He was sure that if Cliff looked out his window and saw a boy who's been hanging around his house for the past half hour making mysterious phone calls, he was going to inform the police. That is not how he wanted this meeting to go.

"Why do I get the feeling you're not telling us something?" Cole asked, probably noticing something was off.

Jay racked his brain for a good excuse but found none. He decided to wing it. "Uh . . . oh gosh, he's coming back! Gotta go! See ya later!"

"But I-" Lloyd's voice cut off as Jay ended the call and said a quick prayer. Leaving everything in fate's hands, he reached up and rang the fancily framed bell. He glanced up at the modern building with floor to ceiling windows and the front wooden deck.

Jay stuffed his hands into his jacket pockets and stared at his shoes, hoping against hope that no one would answer the door and usher him in. This way he could leave and make up a story to tell the Ninja that his father abandoned him because he never wanted kids in the first place.

Jay gulped, his throat dry. Made-up story or not, he refused to believe that his father was like that. Honestly, he really wanted to know why Cliff and Libby had separated themselves from their only son - who was part of the prophecy of the Green Ninja; that was no joke.

He was snapped out of his thoughts as he heard the front door close. Looking up, he saw someone in a tux approaching the gates. His breath caught in his throat. Was he Cliff? Jay breathed a sigh of relief when he found out it was someone else. Probably a butler, he concluded. Being rich had its perks.

The man reached the gates and fixed him with an inquiring look. "Yes, can I help you?" He asked in a British accent.

Jay opened his mouth in an attempt to answer but no sound came out. He couldn't believe he was only a few minutes away from seeing his father - his birth father. He cleared his throat and tried again.

"I'm Jay Walker. I would like to meet . . . Cliff Gordon," his mouth uttered.

Dad, his heart whispered.

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