moral of the story | a ninjago highschool fanfiction

[28] road trip, but everyone dies

pixal

It was surprising that they all managed to fit into the minivan seeing as there were nine of them in total, counting Wu. Eight elemental masters and...Pixal. To say she'd been disappointed when Wu hadn't passed her an Archive would be an understatement. The newly found acceptance of being an android had certainly lifted her mood, but being left out so awkwardly felt like something was drowning her underwater.

Then Wu had called her back and she assured her friends that everything was fine, trying to swallow the disappointment choking her throat as she re-entered his office. She'd always found Principal Wu to be a strange man ever since she'd come to Ninjago High. He radiated something that she'd always sensed as a caution to think carefully before talking to him. Of course he was the infamous gang lord's brother, but it seemed as if everyone had forgotten his last name and simply referred to him as 'Wu' or 'Principal Wu'.

Pixal didn't fully understand how she, as an android was feeling everything, seeing everything, sensing everything, but as simply as her father had put it, she was exactly like a human, just metal. And infinitely smarter, he'd added. Cyrus had been able to teach her a few things about her systems, how they operated, how to use the features he'd given her and so on. Each day she was discovering more interesting things about herself and despite however cautious she had been, her curiosity grew stronger. Another major factor he'd taught her was that she was specially designed AI. As Pixal learnt, so did her AI. Both relied on each other, so the more Pixal knew, the better, the smatter, and the stronger she would become.

So when Wu offered to train her alongside her friends, no matter the lack of elemental power, she accepted. It would be an enriching experience and her systems told her she would greatly benefit from it. Although she wouldn't have an element, Wu insisted she'd be an integral part of the team. All in all, things were looking up. Pixal was in the very back of the minivan, where there were three seats, next to Zane and Skylor after that. The middle row held Jay, Lloyd, Nya, with Cole sitting next to Wu in the front. For some unknown reason Kai had volunteered to sit in the boot with a makeshift seatbelt besides all the luggage. Wu really should have insisted otherwise but judging by the bags under his eyes and the tall tumblr of what she assessed to be caffeinated tea he didn't have the energy to deal with it.

The first hour passed quite well. Pixal had one of her functions - a predictability sensor - gauge if anything was to happen, and as to it's prediction, nothing happened apart from a few lousy squabbles.

She and Zane ended up listening to a podcast as they watched the scenery whizz past, his head resting on her shoulder even though he was significantly taller. After the first season of the podcast was finished, Zane was well and truly asleep, his chest rising in slow, paced breaths. Another thing she was trying out - her systems ran a scan over him and found Zane in perfect shape, a few notes coming in but everything was fine. Shutting off her AI, she smiled softly and settled into a more comfortable position, resting her head on top of Zane's before dozing off into a light sleep.

"SON OF A BITCH STOLE MY TWIZZLERS!"

With a gasp, Pixal jerked up right at the loud yelling. Cole was now at the wheel (he and Master Wu were the only ones legally old enough to drive) and was fending Lloyd off with one hand while Kai and Jay were yelling over each other, only separated by the seat. Nya and Skylor, both amused, seemed to be processing a type of trade involving mini pretzels and M&M's.

Pixal leant across Zane who was still sleeping peacefully, most likely in the REM stage, too deep to stir, and avoided Kai from his position in the boot he was giving Jay and a noogie from across the rows (one that hurt, judging by the loud squawking).

"What exactly is going on?" Pixal whispered to Nya and Skylor. Both sniggered, casting cautious looks back to the raucous boys.

"Cole stole one of Lloyd's Twizzlers but can't do anything about it because Cole is driving, Kai then accused Jay of stealing his hair gel and then Jay realised Lloyd was using his Switch and now it's at thirty percent. Kai also refuses to leave a three centimetre boundary from the boot." Nya snorted. "I honestly don't know how Wu and Zane are still asleep."