Another sound came from atop one of the nearby piles.
Laughter.
Wu rose slowly.
His eyes narrowed when he found a small figure standing beside several Fangpyres high above the junkyard. "Lloyd!" he called, disappointment and surprise mixing in his voice as his nephew stepped forward.
Lloyd folded his arms and looked down at them with all the confidence of someone who had spent the night acquiring an entire snake army. "Hello, uncle," he greeted him, wearing a smug grin as more Fangpyres emerged around the transformed vehicles. He looked toward Jay protecting his parents, then toward the rest of the ninja, and his smile widened. "Looks like we're not the only family reunion. I'm glad you brought the ninja. I could use some help taking out the trash. Muahaha!" His evil laugh echoed through the junkyard while several Fangpyres hissed their approval behind him.
Nya ignored Lloyd completely and focused on Ed and Edna. She had already seen Wu's attention shift toward the Fangpyre general, and the memory of the Serpentine staffs they had encountered before gave her an immediate idea. "If we want to turn your parents back, we need the antivenom in the staff," she said urgently, looking toward the Fangpyres gathering around them. Somewhere among them was the tribe's staff, and if the other Serpentine antivenoms worked the same way, it might be the only thing capable of reversing the transformation before it became permanent.
The wrecking crane began swinging again.
Cole saw the massive jack-o'-lantern face coming toward them and immediately threw himself downward. "Second dose, to the dirt!" he shouted as everyone plunged toward the ground a second time. The wrecking ball screamed overhead, close enough that its passage ripped loose pieces of metal from nearby piles and sent them spinning through the air, while the Fangpyres closed in around the junkyard and the ninja reached for their weapons.
The Fangpyres answered Nya's plan with a chorus of hisses from every direction, their scaled bodies slipping between towers of scrap and around the transformed vehicles that now prowled the junkyard like mechanical animals. Red eyes gleamed from beneath hoods and helmets, and the metal groan of the corrupted wrecking crane rolled through the yard as it dragged itself into position for another swing. Kai took one look at the number of serpents gathering around them and tightened his grip on the Sword of Fire, his earlier confidence giving way to a more practical assessment as he told Nya, "Easier said than done, sis. We're a bit outnumbered."
Jay barely seemed to hear him. His eyes were fixed on Ed and Edna, on the changes already creeping farther across their skin, and whatever embarrassment or frustration he had felt toward them over the past two days disappeared beneath something much hotter. He stepped in front of his parents, brought the Nunchucks of Lightning up, and stared at the nearest Fangpyres with an anger that made electricity begin snapping between the golden handles. "Nobody messes with my family. Ninja, go!" he shouted before launching himself into Spinjitzu, blue lightning wrapping around him as his body became a fast-moving vortex. Kai, Cole, and Zane needed no further encouragement; the three answered with their own cries of "Ninja, go!" and joined him, Fire, Earth, and Ice spiraling through the junkyard as the four tornadoes crashed into the advancing Serpentine.
Jinx moved with them, but he never reached for Silence. The sheathed katana remained against his side while Wind gathered around his body in smooth currents and Darkness rolled from his fingertips in thin black-violet ribbons. He could not fully explain why he kept the blade put away, especially after everything he had learned about what the Fangpyres were capable of, but the idea of cutting them down with Silence sat wrong in his stomach. They were enemies, yes, and they had attacked Jay's parents, but they were also a people who had only recently been released after generations underground, following the orders of their general and an idiot child with a talent for finding the worst possible allies. Killing them felt wasteful when knocking them unconscious would accomplish the same thing, so Jinx decided that unless one of them gave him no alternative, the sword stayed sheathed.
A Fangpyre lunged at him from behind a dismantled car, fangs exposed as it tried to close the distance before he could react. Jinx turned his wrist and a narrow current of Wind struck the serpent beneath the ribs, lifting it off the ground and throwing it across the hood of another vehicle without breaking anything important. A second came from his left, only for liquid Darkness to uncoil from Jinx's hand like a whip and wrap around its ankle; he pulled once, swept the serpent's feet out from under it, and released the tendril before it hit the dirt. Another warrior tried to take advantage of the opening, but Jinx simply stepped with the attack, caught the displaced air from its movement, and amplified it with a lazy backhand that sent the Fangpyre tumbling several yards away.
Nearby, Wu raised the Sacred Flute and began playing. The notes cut cleanly through the hissing, crashing metal, and shouts of battle, and several Fangpyres visibly recoiled as the ancient melody reached them. Nya stayed close to him, intercepting two soldiers who tried to approach from opposite sides; she ducked beneath the first one's strike, drove her elbow into its middle, then pivoted into a kick that caught the second across the jaw. As both staggered away, she glanced toward Wu with an exhilarated smile and said between breaths, "I don't know, Sensei. I think we make a pretty good duet."
Lloyd, watching from atop one of the junk piles, immediately decided he had heard enough flute. He kicked the side of a large boombox that had already been bitten by one of the Fangpyres, and the machine's warped speakers flared red before blasting heavy music across the junkyard at a volume that made loose pieces of scrap vibrate. The Sacred Flute vanished beneath the noise almost instantly. Wu lowered the instrument and looked up at his nephew with weary disappointment before calling, "Young nephew, must I teach you whose side you should be on?" Lloyd grinned, reached down to the corrupted boombox, and deliberately turned the volume higher as he shouted back, "Sorry, uncle. Can't hear you!"
Jinx's eyebrow twitched.
The music itself was not the problem. The problem was that it was loud enough to make his teeth hurt, and Lloyd's expression made it obvious the kid was enjoying every second of it. Jinx raised his right hand, pressed his index and middle fingers together, and pointed them toward the boombox. Dark lightning snapped from his fingertips before he had time to think about the technique, crossing the junkyard in a crooked flash and striking the machine hard enough to make the speakers burst in a shower of sparks.
The color stopped him for half a heartbeat.
That was not the black-violet lightning he had produced before.
A dark rosé glow crawled across his fingers, deep enough to almost look burgundy until it caught the light. Jinx frowned and summoned a small amount of Darkness into his opposite palm, studying it even while the battle continued around him. The usual magenta tone of his element was still there, but the fine specks of lavender and pink that had always existed within it seemed to be blending more strongly now, shifting the lightning into that strange dark rosé color whenever the energy changed state. He had absolutely no idea why it had started happening, but the power felt the same beneath his skin, so he decided it could become tomorrow's problem.
A Fangpyre charged him while he was distracted. Jinx didn't even bother turning fully toward it; he swept the back of his hand through the air and sent a broad gust crashing into the serpent's chest, flinging it backward into a pile of tires. Only then did he look toward Lloyd, who was staring at the destroyed boombox with wide-eyed outrage. Jinx pointed his two fingers toward him like a mock pistol and, with a faint smirk, called, "Sorry, baby boy, I ain't a heavy metal type of guy."
Lloyd's face twisted. "I am not a baby!"
Jinx was already fighting somebody else.
Elsewhere, one of the Fangpyres managed to slip around Nya and moved toward Wu while the old master was trying to resume the Sacred Flute's melody. Its head darted forward, fangs opening dangerously close to Wu's arm, but a metal pan suddenly slammed across the side of its skull with a ringing clang. Edna stood behind it, still partly transformed and gripping the pan in both hands with considerably more determination than anyone expected from someone who had spent the previous night locked inside a refrigerator. Ed's face lit up immediately, and despite the hiss beginning to creep farther into his speech, he cheered, "Yeah, way to go, Edna!"
The four ninja surged together again as more Fangpyres poured into the yard. Their Spinjitzu tore through the advancing soldiers, and their combined cry of "Ninja, go!" rose above the renewed crash of weapons and machinery. Jay's tornado ricocheted between two transformed vehicles while Cole smashed through a line of serpents trying to flank them, and Zane coated the ground in ice beneath another group before Kai's Fire forced them back from the opposite side. Jinx remained outside the spinning formations, using Wind to redirect enemies into the ninja's paths and liquid Darkness to snatch weapons away from Fangpyres before they could strike.
None of them noticed the group of serpents moving toward the enormous statue hidden farther back in the junkyard until the sound of metal warping cut through the fight.
Jay turned first.
Several Fangpyres had climbed over the statue Ed had been building in his son's honor, sinking their teeth into its legs, torso, and arms. Red venom-like energy spread from every bite, crawling across the metal faster than rust and twisting the structure as it went. The statue's shape changed violently; harmless decorative pieces folded inward, joints rotated into unnatural positions, and the head jerked to one side before two glowing eyes ignited across its face. Metal groaned as the machine tore itself free from its supports and stood.
Jay stared up at it.
The enormous mechanical likeness of himself stared back.
"Ah! What is that thing?" Jay shouted, immediately taking several steps backward as the Fangpyre Robot's arms moved with a heavy mechanical grind.
Ed, apparently unable to ignore the craftsmanship even while his creation was becoming a murderous snake machine, looked up at it with a mixture of pride and disappointment. "It was supposed to be in your honor, son, but do you like it?" he asked hopefully. Jay's expression became almost painfully conflicted before he shook his head and answered, "Thanks, but no thanks."
Jinx, who had just used a strand of Darkness to sling one Fangpyre into another, glanced up at the towering robot and then toward Jay. He genuinely seemed offended on Ed's behalf. "Hey, I find the gift very endearing. Be grateful, Jay," he told him while sidestepping a falling chunk of metal, as if this were a perfectly reasonable moment to lecture somebody about appreciating handmade presents. Jay whipped his head toward him with an expression that practically screamed not now, but before he could answer, the robot took a massive step forward and drove one fist into the ground where they had been standing.
Everyone scattered.
The impact shook the entire junkyard and sent loose scrap bouncing from shelves and vehicle roofs. Kai grabbed Nya's arm and pulled her clear of falling debris, Zane slid beneath a swinging mechanical limb, while Cole barely avoided being crushed by a tire larger than his torso. Jinx launched himself upward on a burst of Wind, twisting around the robot's arm before landing on a wrecked car several yards away, and Jay sprinted beside his parents as the entire group fled deeper into the junkyard looking for enough space to deal with the newly awakened machine.
Cole ducked beneath another sweep of the robot's arm and shot Jay an exhausted glare while they ran. "Why'd you have to be born in a junkyard?" he demanded, as if Jay's birthplace had personally caused every problem currently trying to kill them. Jay leapt over a broken axle and threw both hands up in exasperated agreement before answering, "I know. Tell me about it." Behind them, the Fangpyre Robot released a mechanical roar and came lumbering after the fleeing ninja while Lloyd's laughter echoed somewhere over the chaos.
The junkyard had already become a mess of hissing serpents, bent metal, and half-transformed machinery by the time the Fangpyre crane came lumbering back into the fight. Its enormous wrecking ball swung at the end of a thick chain, the warped jack-o'-lantern face carved into the metal twisting toward the ninja as though it were actually searching for someone to crush.
Kai barely managed to dive behind a stack of scrap before the wrecking ball tore through the space where he had been standing. Metal exploded outward, old hubcaps and pieces of rusted machinery clattering across the ground as he rolled back to his feet. His eyes swept quickly across the battlefield, counting heads through the dust, and he frowned when something didn't add up. "Uh, weren't there five of us?" he called, looking around for Jay just as the wrecking ball began another arc.
Jay was nowhere near the others because he had decided the fastest way to stop the crane was apparently to ride the thing trying to kill him.
As the wrecking ball swung past, Jay sprinted forward and jumped onto the chain. The sudden pull nearly tore his arms from their sockets, but he held on and was carried high over the junkyard, his legs flailing for a moment before he managed to get himself under control. The world blurred beneath him in a mess of serpent scales, broken machinery, and flashing Golden Weapons. When the swing carried him close enough to the crane's cabin, Jay released the chain, threw himself through the open side, and collided with the Fangpyre driving it.
The serpent barely had time to hiss before Jay slammed an elbow into its chest and knocked it straight out of the seat. Jay dropped into the controls, looked at the collection of levers and switches, and let a grin creep across his face. "Let's see if I can work this," he muttered before grabbing one of the handles and pulling it down.
Across the junkyard, Cole had problems of his own. The Fangpyre Robot had cornered him between two piles of scrap, its heavy mechanical arms swinging with enough force to crush whatever they touched. Cole blocked one strike with the Scythe of Quakes and was driven backward several feet, boots carving trenches through the dirt as he grunted under the pressure. The robot pulled its fist back again, and Cole tightened his grip while insisting, "Don't worry, I got it."
The wrecking ball smashed into the robot's side before Cole could prove that statement.
The impact rang through the junkyard like a giant bell. The Fangpyre Robot staggered sideways, one foot tearing through a pile of old tires while Cole jumped clear of the falling debris. He glanced toward the crane, saw Jay leaning out of the cockpit with a very pleased expression, and immediately frowned. "I told you, I had it," Cole complained, even though the twisted remains of the robot's armor suggested otherwise.
The battle was turning against the Fangpyres, and Lloyd noticed.
He backed toward the Rattlercopter where Fangtom was already waiting, clutching the Fangpyre staff tightly against his chest. Several of the serpents were down, the ninja had broken through their lines, and the junkyard was rapidly becoming too chaotic to control. Lloyd climbed aboard and shouted, "Retreat!" as the Rattlercopter lifted into the air, kicking sand and loose papers across the battlefield.
Nya spotted the staff almost immediately. She shoved one Fangpyre away and pointed toward the rising craft. "He's getting away with the staff!" she warned, and Jay leaned out of the crane cockpit long enough to follow her finger.
His shoulders dropped.
With Wisp gone east with the other dragons, the problem suddenly became very obvious. "Right now would be a good time to have those Dragons," Jay muttered, glancing at his parents as Fangtom's craft climbed farther away.
Ed, still showing more of the Fangpyre transformation with every passing minute, forced a smile anyway. "It'ssss okay, sssson," he reassured him, the hiss in his voice making Jay's expression tighten.
Wu stepped forward, watching the fleeing Rattlercopter with far less concern than everyone else. "There is still a way," he said calmly.
Jay looked at him like he had just announced that the solution was hidden in another riddle. "How?"
Wu's attention moved toward the Golden Weapons in the ninja's hands. "Part of reaching your own full potential is understanding your weapon's potential. Once it is in tune with a focused heart, its secrets and powers can be unlocked."
Jay stared at him for a second, then threw up one hand. "Oh, this is not the time to be cryptic."
Zane, however, had already understood what Wu meant. He looked down at the Shurikens of Ice and then toward the fleeing Rattlercopter before calmly explaining, "He's saying our weapons are vehicles themselves."
Jinx, who had just sent another Fangpyre tumbling across the junkyard with a broad sweep of Wind, froze.
He slowly turned toward Wu.
There was a short silence while the meaning of that statement settled in.
Then Jinx's face twisted with genuine irritation. "Okay, hold up. Why didn't you say this before we had to walk through the goddamn desert?" he demanded, gesturing wildly toward the miles of empty sand behind them.
Wu did not look the least bit guilty. He rested both hands over his staff and replied, "It was not the time, but now you must take another step forward to your true potential."
Kai looked down at the Sword of Fire in his hands, then looked back toward Wu with visible suspicion. "Don't tell me I have to ride this thing like a broomstick."
Wu ignored him entirely.
Instead, he turned his attention toward Jay. "Jay, concentrate on unlocking your Golden Weapon. Let your heart guide you. Imagine you're taking flight."
Jay took a breath and stepped away from the crane. For once he didn't argue. His parents were running out of time, Lloyd was escaping with the only thing that could save them, and there was no room left for hesitation.
He raised the Nunchucks of Lightning.
At first nothing happened.
Then electricity began crawling across the golden surface.
Jay moved instinctively, spinning the nunchucks through a series of fast, almost flashy movements as lightning gathered around him. The weapon hummed harder with every rotation until the energy suddenly surged outward. Golden metal unfolded between his hands, parts extending and locking together while blue lightning traced along the changing frame.
A second later, the Nunchucks of Lightning were gone.
In their place hovered the Storm Glider.
Jay stood completely still.
Then his face lit up. "Whoa! Haha, did I just do that?" he shouted, half laughing as he climbed onto the transformed weapon and felt it respond beneath him.
The others wasted no time following his example. Kai closed his eyes, focused on the Sword of Fire, and watched as the golden blade reshaped itself into the Blade Cycle, flames flickering along the wheels as it settled onto the dirt. Zane's Shurikens of Ice unfolded into the Snowmobile in a burst of frost, while Cole's Scythe of Quakes transformed into the heavy Tread Assault, its broad tracks grinding into the ground.
For a brief moment, all four stared at their vehicles.
Then, almost at the same time, they looked toward Jinx.
Jinx looked back at them.
Silence remained sheathed at his side.
Nothing happened.
He glanced down at the sword, waited another second, and frowned. "Well," he muttered, "that's inconvenient."
Unlike the Golden Weapons, Silence clearly had no hidden vehicle form waiting to be unlocked. It had been forged for an entirely different purpose, and asking it to become transportation seemed like expecting a coffin to sprout wings.
Then something moved near the edge of the junkyard.
One of the Fangpyres had left behind a motorcycle.
The corrupted machine had a long serpentine frame, dark red armor, and fang-like pieces built around the front wheel. More importantly, it was still alive enough to realize everyone else was leaving. Its engine suddenly growled and the bike began turning away as though it intended to follow the retreating army on its own.
Jinx's eyes narrowed.
"Oh no you don't."
The motorcycle accelerated.
Jinx immediately blasted himself forward with Wind.
He crossed the distance in seconds and landed on the back of the moving bike, which reacted almost like a frightened animal. The handlebars jerked sharply from side to side and the wheels skidded through the dirt as it tried to throw him off. Jinx planted both feet, leaned forward, and grabbed the frame with both hands.
Liquid Darkness spread from his fingers.
At first it only covered his palms, black-purple and glossy like ink. Then it crawled down the metal in thick streams, wrapping around the handlebars, engine, wheels, and every serpentine plate until the entire vehicle disappeared beneath a moving shell of shadow.
The motorcycle bucked harder.
Jinx held on.
For nearly a minute, the others could do little except watch.
The Darkness did not simply coat the bike. It began changing it. The bulky Fangpyre frame slowly compressed as the shadow pulled the shape inward. Armor plates shifted and narrowed. The serpentine curves became cleaner, more deliberate. Purple-black liquid rolled over the machine in slow waves while the engine's frightened growl deepened into something lower and stronger.
Then the Darkness began peeling away.
What emerged underneath was no longer the same motorcycle.
The new bike sat lower to the ground, leaner and more aggressive, its entire frame covered in glossy black metal with deep violet reflections beneath the surface. Thin magenta lines ran through the body like glowing veins, mixed with the same faint lavender and dark rosé tones that had begun appearing in Jinx's altered lightning. The front retained the suggestion of a serpent, but now it looked almost draconic, shaped into a narrow predatory head with curved fangs framing the wheel.
The back of the motorcycle was even stranger. Coiled shapes like black serpents wrapped around the exhaust and rear frame, their scales appearing almost alive whenever the light caught them. Purple flame flickered from several openings along the body, burning without consuming the metal, while the engine pulsed beneath Jinx like something breathing.
Even Jinx stared for a second.
He hadn't expected that much of a change.
The motorcycle gave a low mechanical hiss beneath him.
Jinx slowly placed both hands on the handlebars.
This time it did not try to throw him off.
Kai looked between his Blade Cycle and Jinx's newly altered motorcycle, and the expression on his face suggested he was trying very hard not to admit that the thing looked impressive. Cole had stopped halfway through climbing onto the Tread Assault, while Jay openly stared from the Storm Glider. Even Zane's attention lingered on the transformed machine longer than usual.
Jinx twisted the throttle experimentally.
The bike answered with a deep, predatory roar while purple fire briefly flared from the exhaust.
A crooked grin appeared across his face.
"Well," he said, settling into the seat as Wind curled lightly around the wheels, "I'd say mine has more personality."
Jinx barely had time to admire the transformed motorcycle before curiosity got the better of him. He twisted the throttle once, listened to the deep mechanical hiss that answered him, then deliberately revved the engine harder.
Both tires erupted into dark rosé fire.
The flames did not behave like ordinary fire. They clung to the wheels in smooth, flowing bands of black and deep rose, threaded through with faint magenta and lavender at the edges. The tires themselves remained perfectly intact beneath them, but wherever the wheels touched the ground they left smoldering streaks of colored flame across the dirt. For a moment, even the noise of the junkyard seemed to fade beneath the stunned silence of everyone staring.
Jinx's eyes widened.
Then his entire face lit up.
"Oh, fuck yes. I'm definitely naming you later," he said with genuine delight, leaning forward over the handlebars as the motorcycle answered with another serpentine hiss. Whatever uncertainty he'd had about keeping the strange machine disappeared instantly. He twisted the throttle again, and the bike launched forward with far more speed than anything that size had a right to possess.
Kai barely had time to shout after him before Jinx was already tearing through the junkyard entrance. The motorcycle shot across the desert in a streak of black metal and dark rosé fire, its wheels leaving twin burning trails behind it that lingered for several seconds before dissolving into glowing smoke. Wind instinctively gathered around Jinx and the bike, reducing drag and pushing them even faster until the machine seemed to skim over the sand rather than ride across it.
Jay stared after him from the Storm Glider.
"That is so unfair."
Then his expression split into a grin and he slammed the controls forward.
The others followed.
The pursuit exploded across the desert almost immediately. Jay's Storm Glider screamed into the sky with him cheering loudly enough to be heard over the engine, while Kai's Blade Cycle threw fire from its rear wheel as he accelerated after him. Cole's Tread Assault tore across the sand like a miniature tank, and Zane's Snowmobile left a pale trail of frost behind its runners despite the desert heat. Jinx was already far ahead, the dark rosé flames from his motorcycle curling into the air behind him.
Nya and Wu had considerably less dramatic transportation.
As the Golden Weapons disappeared into the distance, Nya glanced toward the Sacred Flute still resting in Wu's hand. After everything they had just learned about the weapons, the question seemed obvious. "Does your flute turn into anything?" she asked while Wu looked down at the ancient instrument as if reconsidering several decades of ownership.
"I wish," he admitted.
Ahead of them, Jay was discovering that unlocking the Storm Glider and actually knowing how to fly it were two entirely different accomplishments.
He shot past Lloyd so quickly that the Rattlercopter rocked from the turbulence.
Lloyd jerked backward, nearly losing his grip on the side of the aircraft. "Whoa, what the heck was that?" he shouted as Jay vanished ahead of them.
Several hundred feet farther away, Jay's excitement turned into alarm when he realized just how badly he had misjudged his speed. "Oops, haha. Overshot that a little," he admitted, fighting the controls before finally managing to turn the Storm Glider around. The craft swung in a dangerously wide arc, but when the Rattlercopter came back into view his confidence immediately returned. He narrowed his eyes at the Fangpyre staff and declared, "Let's see what this baby can do."
Jay pressed a button.
The Storm Glider shuddered violently.
His smile disappeared.
"Whoa!"
Instead of the attack he expected, the glider bucked beneath him and shot unevenly toward the Rattlercopter. Jay barely stayed on as the craft twisted sideways, bringing him close enough to Fangtom that the second head immediately recoiled and shouted, "Duck!"
The first head did.
The second didn't.
For one chaotic moment Jay passed directly between them, his hands flailing for anything solid. His fingers closed around the Fangpyre staff purely by accident, and the momentum ripped it straight from Fangtom's grasp.
"The Staff!" both heads shouted in horror.
Jay didn't even realize what he had done until he looked down and found the serpentine weapon clutched in his hand.
His eyes widened.
"I got it?" he asked in disbelief before his face exploded into triumph. "I got it!"
His laughter lasted about three seconds.
The Storm Glider flickered.
Jay slowly looked down.
The elemental vehicle vanished beneath him.
"Uh-oh."
Gravity took over.
Jay screamed.
He plummeted toward the desert with the Fangpyre staff still clenched in one hand, arms and legs flailing uselessly while the others raced beneath him. Kai immediately looked up from the Blade Cycle and shouted, "Jay, you have to concentrate!"
Jay twisted helplessly through the air. "I CAN'T!!!!"
Cole accelerated the Tread Assault beneath him, tracking Jay's fall as best he could. "I think we're gonna have to catch him. I got him. I got him," he insisted, though Kai was already steering closer and arguing, "No, I got him!"
Zane cut between both of them on the Snowmobile and looked upward with absolute confidence. "He's mine!"
That was precisely when all three of their vehicles vanished.
Kai, Cole, and Zane dropped directly into the sand.
For one stunned heartbeat none of them moved.
Jay continued falling.
His screaming became noticeably more desperate.
Then something black erupted from the ground.
A spike of Darkness shot upward from the desert like a jagged spear, growing higher and higher before curving just enough to form a ramp. Jinx's motorcycle hit it at full speed. Dark rosé fire flared violently from the tires as the bike raced up the solidified Darkness, and at the very end Jinx pulled sharply on the handlebars.
The motorcycle launched into the air.
Jinx came alongside Jay in midfall, leaned dangerously far from the seat, and caught him around the waist with one arm.
Jay stopped screaming mostly because all the air was knocked out of him.
Jinx hauled him onto the motorcycle behind him, then angled the bike toward the desert floor. Wind gathered underneath them, slowing the fall just enough for the landing not to become suicidal. Both tires struck the sand hard, the suspension compressed, and Jinx immediately turned the bike sideways into a long drifting slide.
Dark rosé fire carved a glowing crescent across the desert.
Sand and black-red flame sprayed outward until the motorcycle finally straightened.
Jinx glanced over one shoulder toward Jay, who had both arms wrapped around his torso with the desperate strength of someone who had just discovered how unpleasant gravity was. "You okay, Sparky?" he asked, sounding far more amused than concerned now that they had survived.
Jay practically squeezed the life out of him. "Oh, thank you, thank you—" he blurted before leaning forward in an explosion of relief and kissing Jinx.
There was a short silence.
Jinx's fist immediately connected with Jay's face.
Jay recoiled with a pained, "Oh!" and nearly fell off the motorcycle before catching himself. He pressed one hand against the side of his face, blinked several times, and seemed to replay the last two seconds in his head. His expression became mortified. "...I apologize."
Jinx stared ahead again.
"Good."
Before either could say anything more, an engine rattled beside them.
The old jalopy pulled up alongside the motorcycle with Nya leaning partially out one side and Wu seated inside with his robes blowing around him. Ed and Edna were crammed into the vehicle as well, their Fangpyre transformation having progressed enough that both looked even more serpentine than before.
Jinx looked toward the jalopy, then toward the staff still in Jay's hand.
At least that part had worked.
Behind them, Fangtom realized the same thing.
The two-headed general pointed toward the fleeing group as the Rattlercopter descended after them. One head barked, "Everyone!" before the other completed the order with a furious, "Attack!"
The remaining Fangpyre vehicles surged forward.
Kai twisted the throttle of the Blade Cycle.
Nothing happened.
He looked down, tried again, then slapped one hand against the controls in frustration. "Huh? Why isn't this thing working?" he demanded, forgetting for a moment that his elemental vehicle had already disappeared entirely beneath him.
Wu didn't turn around. "Your weapon is merely an extension of your mind. If your mind is immobile, so is your weapon."
Kai stared at the Sword of Fire in his hands as though deeply offended by the concept.
Ed leaned farther out from the jalopy, eyes wide as the Fangpyres gained on them. "Oh, boy. Oh, gosh. Oh, golly, oh, duh. Get in, boys!" he shouted, waving frantically toward the vehicle.
Jay tightened his grip on the Fangpyre staff and looked toward the distant shape of the Destiny's Bounty. There was no reason to keep fighting in the open when his parents were still transforming and the one thing capable of saving them was finally in his hands. "We have to get back to headquarters!" he called.
Lloyd stood inside the pursuing Rattlercopter and jabbed one hand toward them. "Go! They're getting away!" he shouted, furious that the staff had been stolen right out of Fangtom's hands.
The retreat turned into another race.
Kai, Cole, and Zane piled into the jalopy wherever there was room, leaving Ed to push the old vehicle far beyond whatever speed it had reasonably been designed to handle. Nya held onto the side while Wu remained infuriatingly calm despite the entire vehicle shaking beneath him.
Jinx stayed outside.
The motorcycle hissed beneath him as he leaned forward, and the dark rosé flames around its wheels suddenly grew brighter. Jay barely managed to grab Jinx around the waist again before the bike surged ahead.
"Warn me next time!"
Jinx grinned into the wind.
"No."
They reached the Destiny's Bounty first.
The motorcycle streaked up alongside the ship in a trail of black-rosé fire, Jinx drifting it around hard enough that Jay almost flew from the seat for the second time that day. The jalopy came rattling in moments afterward with the rest of the group, and before long everyone scrambled aboard the Bounty while the distant engines of the Fangpyre army continued getting louder.
For the moment, they had beaten Lloyd back to their headquarters.
But the Fangpyres were still coming.
Nya was the first to move once the group made it safely aboard the Destiny's Bounty. There was no time to celebrate having outrun the Fangpyres, not while Ed and Edna were still showing more scales with every passing minute. She took the Fangpyre staff from Jay and motioned urgently toward the interior of the ship, keeping one hand near Edna's arm in case the transformation worsened. "Come with me. Once we reverse the venom, we can fix you," she assured them, guiding the couple below deck while Wu followed close enough to intervene if something went wrong.
Jay watched his parents disappear through the doorway for only a moment before the distant roar of Fangpyre engines dragged his attention back outside. The transformed vehicles were already cresting the dunes behind them, throwing dust high into the air as Lloyd and Fangtom pushed their army after the ship. Jay hurried toward the bridge, slapped both hands onto the main controls, and shouted, "Man the stations, everyone!" The Bounty immediately came alive around him as Kai, Cole, Zane, and Jinx scattered to whatever positions they could reach fastest.
Kai reached one of the windows and looked back just in time to see the Fangpyres closing the distance. The junkyard vehicles might have been grotesque, but Fangpyre venom had made them horribly effective. Their wheels tore over the sand while the Rattlercopter remained above them, and Kai turned sharply toward Jay as he warned, "Jay, we better hurry."
Jay was already grinning.
For all the problems they'd had that morning, this was the moment he had secretly been waiting for ever since installing the Bounty's new defensive system. He raised one hand dramatically over the large button he had refused to let his father touch earlier and declared, "I've been waiting for this moment."
He pressed it.
Nothing happened.
Jay's grin remained frozen on his face.
He pressed it again.
Still nothing.
Behind him, the Bounty continued sitting exactly where it had been before, its sails hanging uselessly while the Fangpyres grew larger in the distance. Kai looked through the window again and immediately lost what little patience he had left. "They're gaining on us!" he shouted.
Below deck, Ed and Edna had more immediate concerns. Nya poured the antivenom from the Fangpyre staff into two cups, and the couple exchanged one nervous look before Ed raised his drink with the solemnity of someone about to sample a very questionable homemade medicine. "Bottomssss up!" he hissed, and both swallowed.
The effect was almost immediate.
The scales receded. Their skin returned to normal, the serpentine changes around their faces disappeared, and Ed's tongue finally stopped trying to put an extra hiss into every word. He looked down at his hands, wiggled his fingers experimentally, then broke into delighted laughter alongside Edna. "Oh, that's good," he sighed, sounding so relieved that Nya couldn't help smiling.
On the bridge, Jay was considerably less happy.
He had half the control panel open now, wires hanging from one hand while he frantically checked every connection he could remember making. The Fangpyres were almost upon them, and the system that had worked perfectly inside his imagination was refusing to do anything useful. "Ugh, I don't get what's wrong. I spent forever on this. It's supposed to work!" he complained, striking the side of the panel with his palm as though embarrassment alone might convince the machine to cooperate.
A familiar voice came from behind him. "Uh, son? Maybe I can help?"
Jay froze.
He turned so quickly that he almost ripped one of the wires out of the console. Ed stood in the doorway completely human again, with Edna and Nya just behind him. Relief washed across Jay's face, and he abandoned the control panel entirely for a second as he exclaimed, "Dad! You're okay!"
Ed puffed his chest out proudly and answered, "You're darn tooting." Then his attention naturally wandered toward the broken system. He stepped closer with the enthusiasm of someone being offered exactly the problem he wanted and added, "Oh, let's have a look."
Jay moved aside this time.
That difference was small enough that nobody commented on it, but Ed noticed.
He leaned into the open console, followed the wiring with his finger, adjusted one connection, pulled another loose and reattached it somewhere entirely different. "Oh, yeah. Uh-huh," he muttered as he worked, occasionally nodding to himself in a way that made Jay wonder if his father understood the system better after thirty seconds than he had after hours. Finally, Ed gave one last wire a twist, pushed the panel partially closed, and announced, "Oh, that should do it. Now try it."
Jay looked at the button.
Then at his father.
This time there was no argument.
He pressed it.
The Destiny's Bounty transformed around them.
Mechanical locks released throughout the hull with a sequence of heavy metallic clunks. Panels along both sides of the ship opened, and enormous wings unfolded from the Bounty's frame, stretching outward until their shadows swept across the desert below. At the rear, hidden compartments separated and exposed rocket boosters that had apparently been buried inside the old ship all along.
For one heartbeat, everything was still.
Then the engines ignited.
The entire Bounty lurched forward.
Everyone grabbed the nearest solid object as the ship accelerated across the sand before gradually lifting away from it. Dust exploded beneath the hull, the wings caught the air, and the old vessel climbed higher until its keel cleared the desert completely.
Jay stared through the bridge windows.
They were flying.
Behind them, Lloyd watched from the Rattlercopter as the Destiny's Bounty rose beyond the reach of the Fangpyre vehicles. His eyes widened, then his face twisted in outrage as he repeatedly shouted, "No, no, no, no!" Unfortunately, the cloud of dust produced by the Bounty's boosters drifted directly into his face. His protests dissolved into coughing while Fangtom struggled to keep the Rattlercopter stable.
Back aboard the Bounty, Nya stepped onto the rear deck with the Fangpyre staff still in her hand. She had intended only to check how far behind the serpents had fallen, but a sudden jolt of the ship threw her against the railing. The staff slipped from her fingers.
She reached for it too late.
It fell.
The serpentine weapon tumbled through open air before landing almost perfectly inside the Rattlercopter below. Fangtom caught it with both hands and stared at the recovered staff with surprise before the two heads slowly turned toward the escaping ship.
The second head narrowed its eyes and began, "These ninja..." while the first completed the thought with considerably more hostility, "...they must be stopped."
Lloyd finally finished coughing and wiped dust from his face. He looked toward the distant Bounty, resentment burning hotter with every second, and muttered, "Oh, tell me about it."
By the time the immediate danger passed, the atmosphere aboard the Destiny's Bounty had changed entirely. The desert stretched far beneath them now, the Fangpyres reduced to distant shapes that eventually disappeared behind the dunes, and for the first time since arriving at the junkyard, everyone could breathe without expecting another machine to grow fangs.
Jay found his parents near the main deck.
The guilt he'd spent the morning resisting had become impossible to ignore. He had spent most of the previous day trying to rush them away, then spent the next morning avoiding a promise he'd made just to get them to leave. Yet when he'd finally reached the junkyard, his parents had been locked inside a refrigerator because enemies had targeted them through him.
He stepped closer and rubbed one hand awkwardly across the back of his neck before telling them, "We'll get you back to the Junkyard just as soon as we see the coast is clear. But stay as long as you'd like. It's nice having you here."
Ed and Edna both went quiet.
For Ed especially, the words hit deeper than Jay realized. Only hours earlier he had told Edna that their son probably didn't need them anymore, and now Jay was standing in front of him openly asking them to stay.
Ed's smile softened.
He reached toward his wife and said, "Oh, take a note, Edna: of all our inventions, this one is our greatest."
Edna looked at the notepad she had carried almost constantly beside him for years.
Then she smiled and tossed it away.
"I already know, dear," she told him.
Jay barely had time to react before both parents pulled him into an embrace. For once he didn't squirm, complain, or worry about what the others might think. He simply hugged them back.
It would have been a surprisingly touching family moment if Jinx had not been standing nearby.
He watched the three of them for several seconds, remembered every excuse Jay had made that morning, and decided that emotional growth deserved reinforcement.
Jay had only just stepped away from his parents when a violent gust of Wind hit him square in the side.
He flew across the deck.
His shoulder slammed into the wall with a loud wooden thud, and he slid down several inches before catching himself. Everyone turned toward Jinx, who stood several yards away with one hand extended and absolutely no remorse on his face.
"Now I bet you'll listen to your parents, huh," Jinx remarked.
Jay stared at him.
Jinx stared back.
Something passed silently between them.
Then Jay launched himself across the deck.
The two collided hard enough to send both rolling over the boards.
What followed barely qualified as a fight. It was closer to two brothers deciding violence was an acceptable form of conversation. Jay grabbed Jinx around the shoulders; Jinx hooked one leg around Jay's ankle and rolled them both sideways. Jay managed to get on top for approximately two seconds before Jinx twisted with unnatural flexibility, slipped free, and shoved him away with a small pulse of Wind.
Kai leaned against the railing and made absolutely no attempt to intervene.
Cole looked similarly entertained.
Nya crossed her arms.
Ed and Edna watched with the uncertain expressions of parents wondering whether they were supposed to stop this.
Wu remained suspiciously calm.
Jay charged again.
Jinx tried to sidestep him, but Jay adapted at the last second and drove a kick into Jinx's middle. It landed far better than either expected.
Jinx went flying.
Normally that would not have mattered.
His body twisted instinctively in the air while Wind gathered around him, slowing his rotation. Darkness followed almost unconsciously, spreading from his arms in thin liquid streams as he prepared to correct his landing.
Then something changed.
Jinx felt it before anyone else saw it.
That barrier he had encountered every time he attempted Spinjitzu—the strange resistance Master Wu kept telling him was blocking the technique—was suddenly gone.
His Wind and Darkness moved at the same time.
Not beside each other.
Together.
Black-magenta energy erupted around him.
Grey smoke curled through it while streaks of dark rosé light flashed along the edges, matching the strange new coloration that had begun appearing in his lightning and motorcycle. Wind wrapped around all of it and pulled harder, faster, tighter.
Jinx landed on one foot.
The rotation continued.
A tornado exploded around him.
Everyone's amusement disappeared.
The vortex rose almost instantly from the deck, dark at its center but outlined by brilliant magenta and dark rosé currents. Smoke twisted through the spinning Wind in layered spirals, while Darkness flowed through the cyclone almost like ink being mixed through a storm.
Jinx's eyes widened from inside it.
He had done it.
Spinjitzu.
Except something was wrong.
Loose objects across the deck began sliding toward him.
A wrench scraped across the boards.
Then a bucket.
Then several pieces of rope.
Kai's expression changed when his feet shifted several inches without his permission.
The tornado wasn't merely spinning.
It was pulling.
Jinx's Wind had created a pressure difference around the vortex while his Darkness seemed to amplify the inward force, turning his Spinjitzu into something disturbingly close to a miniature black-hole current.
Cole grabbed the railing.
Zane immediately lowered his stance.
Nya caught Edna's arm when the woman stumbled forward.
Kai was less graceful. His boots slid several feet across the deck before he grabbed one of the support beams with both hands and shouted over the roaring Wind, "AHHHHHH, THE FUCK, JINX! STOP IT!"
Inside the vortex, Jinx was having problems of his own.
"I'M TRYING!"
Unfortunately, he had no idea how.
He had spent days unable to properly start Spinjitzu, and nobody had considered teaching him how to stop a version that apparently wanted to devour the furniture.
Jay narrowed his eyes against the wind.
Then he got an idea.
A very Jay idea.
He planted one foot, gathered himself, and started spinning.
Wu's eyes sharpened immediately.
Blue lightning spiraled around Jay as his own Spinjitzu formed, smaller than Jinx's unstable vortex but far more controlled. He pushed forward against the suction one rotation at a time, using his own tornado to resist the opposing current.
Jinx saw him approaching and understood what Jay intended approximately one second before it happened.
The two Spinjitzu tornadoes collided.
Wind screamed across the deck.
Magenta-black Darkness met blue lightning, and for the briefest instant the boundary between the two vortexes blurred.
Nobody else noticed.
Wu did.
His eyes narrowed as a thin strand of blue electrical energy passed into Jinx's strange black-magenta current while a thread of dark rosé Wind crossed into Jay's Spinjitzu. The energies touched.
For less than a heartbeat, they mixed.
Then the two techniques violently rejected each other.
The resulting blast ripped outward across the deck.
Jay flew one way.
Jinx flew the other.
Both slammed into opposite sides of the ship hard enough to knock the breath from them, and their Spinjitzu vanished immediately.
Silence fell over the deck.
A few loose pieces of rope drifted back to the floor.
Jinx lay against one wall staring at the sky, his hair pointing in several directions and faint dark rosé sparks crawling over one sleeve.
Jay was sprawled opposite him with one leg resting awkwardly against a barrel.
Neither moved.
Kai slowly released the railing.
Cole looked from one unconscious idiot to the other.
Nya rubbed both hands over her face.
Ed leaned toward Edna and quietly observed, "Jay certainly has interesting friends."
Wu barely heard him.
His attention remained fixed on Jinx.
For the first time since the young Elemental Master joined them, the old master had seen what happened when whatever had been blocking his Spinjitzu finally gave way.
And far more importantly, Wu had seen those two different elemental energies touch.
For only a fraction of a second.
But they had touched.