"Well whaddya know," a grating, nasal voice issued from somewhere above the brain creature. "You really can find all the best stuff in Japan..."
"Whoa," a soft voice said from not too far away—and, unfortunately, still within earshot. The brain creature's eyes snapped to the side, and the ninja followed suit.
"What the—?! You?!"
* * * * *
"Uhh...guys? Where's Jade?" Ron asked suddenly.
The others blinked, looking around. Kim bit her lip. "Yeah, where is Jade?" she said slowly. "She was so quiet all through dinner I almost forgot she was here."
"I totally forgot she was here," Sonata said.
"Your young friend snuck away several times before and during dinner," Saki said, rubbing his chin. "We kept a close eye on her, of course, but..." He shook his head. "She won't have gone far. We must find Naito and your stolen property. You should remain here to wait for the girl."
"I'll wait here with Sonata," Twilight said. "Neither of us are much use for the action stuff."
"I'll search for Jade around your ninja base," Ron said.
"I'll go with your ninjas to look for this Naito guy out in the city," Kim added.
"Very well," Saki agreed. "Let us make haste."
* * * * *
"Dude, what are you?!" Jade wondered, staring wide-eyed at the false Hamato ninja, who had hastily covered up the brain in his stomach and taken a fighting stance.
"You've seen too much," Naito said in a completely different voice—one with no inflection or noticeable accent. "Prepare for your annihilation."
"Better idea, gimme back the stuff you stole from my friends and I won't tell everyone you're some kind of weird alien brain thing," Jade countered.
"I have a better idea than that," Naito retorted. "You die right here and right now, I incinerate your body, and none of these pathetic humans know any of this ever happened until it's too late."
"Pssh," Jade snorted, blowing on her bangs. "Alien brain creep or not, you're still just a ninja. Chans eat ninjas for breakfast." She took her own stance and narrowed her eyes.
Naito laughed in that dull, inflectionless tone. "Please. You are a bratty child. I am an awesome ninja who is also a robot! Even a puny, weak human like you should—"
Jade kicked him in the throat, sending him staggering. She spun in the air and delivered two more kicks to his face, then grabbed his tunic as she fell, rolled, and dragged him to the ground, sliding between his legs before coming to a stop behind him. Naito flailed around, completely off balance. An electronic stuttering issued from a mechanism in his throat. As he recovered his balance, he turned to face Jade. His face was still completely impassive, but he snarled furiously—not in the flat, toneless voice, but in the grating, nasal voice she'd heard earlier, and without his mouth moving at all.
"You annoying little inferior lifeform!" He reached into a pouch on his belt and pulled out a short, glowing gun made of some shiny metal unlike anything Jade had ever seen.
Two bright purple plasma bolts leapt from the muzzle of the gun. Jade's eyes widened.
She took off running.
"I'm gonna fry you up and make brat tempura outta you!" Naito yelled after her as he gave chase. Jade glanced back, juked left, and searched the rooftops around her for anything useful. Her eyes lit up as she espied a broken two-by-four sitting next to a pile of assorted junk. She grabbed it in passing, swung around, and hurled it like a missile into her foe's path just as he fired his gun. The blast hit the board, which burst into flames—but kept heading right at him, forcing him to dodge and mistime a jump. Jade heard a satisfyingly loud crash in an alley below, and grinned to herself.
"Alright, that takes care of ninja brain boy," she said. "Now to get that stuff back—"
Naito climbed back onto the roof of the building, eyes flat and lifeless as he glared at her. He aimed his plasma pistol again. "Tch," Jade spat, turning and running in another direction.
* * * * *
"Any idea why this Naito guy would wanna steal our stuff?" Kim asked.
"No idea, sorry," Yoshi said. He had joined the pursuit once Saki had filled him in on the situation; he was as angry as his brother. "Naito only joined the Clan recently. He is...rather strange."
"He's creepy," Saki said sourly. "There is no emotion in his voice or in his eyes. His face is a blank. I suppose in some ways that makes him the perfect ninja—a bit too perfect."
"I know what you mean, brother," Yoshi said grimly. "Everything he is taught, he performs flawlessly, but that's all he does. He repeats what he's taught. He doesn't improve on it. He shows no drive or passion. He simply follows instructions and obeys orders."
"Until now," Saki said. "What I find odd is that he only stole your technology. He took no other valuables from you or your friends, nor did he steal anything of value from the Clan."
"Yes," Yoshi agreed. "He has never shown interest in anything until today. To suddenly—"
A shrill scream interrupted him, dopplering in their direction. The three turned to see Jade rapidly approaching across the rooftops of Tokyo, being pursued by Naito. He was firing some sort of weapon at her; it spat purple bolts which exploded when they bit into the buildings.
"Nani kore?!" Yoshi exclaimed, eyes wide.
"That...is not a standard ninja ray gun, is it?" Kim asked.
"Fascinating," Saki said. Then, his eyebrows drew together and down in a fierce scowl. "I will study it once I have taken it from his broken body!" He launched himself toward and over Jade, spinning in the air as he descended on Naito with both heels pressed together. His kick caught Naito in the head and dropped him; a wild shot exploded in the air past Saki's ear.
"JADE!" Kim cried, holding out her arms. "What were you thinking?!"
"I was coming back from the bathroom when I saw that guy run out of our room!" Jade said. "He had the thing that makes the portal! I couldn't let him get away, so I followed him!"
Kim smiled. "That was really brave, but also totally dangerous. You could've been hurt or killed!"
"Tchyeah, I know," Jade said, turning to watch Saki battle Naito. The fight was a near stalemate; Saki was too fast for Naito to aim and shoot properly, but Saki couldn't risk staying within his range for too long without taking a point blank plasma blast that would likely be fatal. "Kim, that guy—he isn't human!"
"What do you mean?" Kim asked.
"He's some kind of weird alien!" Jade said. "I saw it, he's got like, this brain thing in his stomach! And there's that alien ray gun!"
"Aliens?" Yoshi asked incredulously. "First you expect us to believe in visitors from other dimensions, and now you expect us to believe our Clan has been sheltering a space invader?!"
Then they all heard a loud metallic clang, and turned to watch in horror as Naito's head bounced across one of the rooftops, sparks shooting out of the severed neck. His body shuddered and his gun almost fell out of his hand.
"Saki!" Yoshi yelled. "What have you done?!"
Saki's eyes were wide. "What in blazes—?!"
"Oh, for the love of—" a nasal voice growled from the headless body. Firing two shots in Saki's direction, Naito tucked and rolled across the roof, picking up his severed head and hoisting it back onto his neck. A series of wires, cables, and flexible metal servos reconnected it, weaving together like fibrous tissue, leaving Naito's expressionless head sitting on his shoulders at an odd angle. He grabbed it, gave it a sharp twist to the side, and it snapped back into place with a loud ratcheting sound.
Saki, Yoshi, and Jade could only stare, slack-jawed. Kim, on the other hand, narrowed her eyes. "A robot," she said.
"Dude," Jade breathed.
Naito leveled an index finger at Saki. "Saki, you IMBECILE! You can't beat me! I'm better than you! I'm stronger, I'm faster, and I have a plasma gun! Do you have a plasma gun? I don't think so!"
"His voice," Yoshi breathed. "It...changed."
"I think...the creepy robot voice was coming from the robot, and the way he's talking now is coming from the alien inside the robot," Jade said, eyes wide in realization. "That talking right now is the real alien ninja!"
"Who and what ARE you?!" Saki demanded. "How dare you make a mockery of the Hamato Clan! Return what you have stolen and begone from this city forever, or you will answer to my fists!"
"Sorry, I don't speak stupid monkey fist," Naito sneered, pulling out the stolen devices. "Oh, were you looking for this? Well guess what! Your puny little human dimensional portal that can only go one way because it is not awesome is ready to use! I think I'll take it for a test drive! Oh, and leave you and your friends stranded in this miserable, stupid city just because I can!"
"WAIT! DON'T!" Kim yelled, rushing forward, only to be brought short by a plasma bolt. Naito aimed the vortex control and pressed the trigger, and a roaring portal opened up next to him.
"Sayonara, suckers!" Naito called mockingly.
"NAITO, YAMERO!" Yoshi yelled. "WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS?!"
"Because, Yoshi," Naito said in a condescending tone, "I'm evil! And by the way..."
Saki made a grab for the vortex control, only to take a spin-kick to the ribs that sent him flying.
"My name isn't 'Knight'. MY NAME! IS KRAANG! SUB! PRIME!"
And with that, Kraang Subprime jumped into the vortex, which snapped shut behind him.
Kim sank to her knees, staring in despair at empty air. "No..."
...well, crap. That's not good.
Huh I had a feeling it was THAT Kraang out of all of them by how he was speaking. Now we just need them to find a way to follow him and maybe if they surprise them we can get a scene like from the show when he was berating the others for not learning proper English in all the time they spent on our planet only to be caught surprised by an ambush.
Mythril, is this hinting at a collab with Wildcard25? (He has a whole series of TMNT and MLP:FiM/EqG crossovers)
Well, this makes for an interesting twist...
9146698
No, it is not. I don't even know who that is, and I don't do collabs.
He's gonna end up in Star Wars, isn't he? Probably in the Jedi temple next to Yoda...
So let me see if I've got this right so far...
The Great Rabbit was Sailor Moon and had one of the Monkey Crystals.
The Great Horse is Pony world, and also had one of the Monkey Crystals.
The Great Monkey is Kim's world... and I've completely forgotten if they actually had their crystal still or if it was off somewhere else.
The Great Dragon is Jackie's world and it had a Monkey Crystal.
The Great Rat is a dud, based on the TMNT universe.
This leaves seven dimensions with three monkey crystals still to go.
The Great Dog, The Great Ox, The Great Snake, The Great Tiger, The Great Rooster, The Great Goat and The Great Pig. I'm curious if we'll even hit all twelve of the Chinese Zodiac worlds, considering Kraang Sub Prime has thrown a wrench into the plans at this point it does bring into question what the future might hold. I honestly have no idea what universes would even be linked to Ox, Goat or Tiger, at least stuff that wouldn't be obvious. Sam & Max might be one potential candidate for a Great Dog world, but again anthropomorphic dogs might be too obvious in thinking of where we could go with that.
Ah well, enough speculation, I look forward to what comes next as always. I suspect Twilight might have to build a new dimensional gateway device, if some Kraang tech was found she might even be able to make a better portal device. Who knows. (Aside from the Author of course.)
9146747
No, the Great Monkey was the Dragonball world.
im rather hoping they visit the world of Ranma 1/2, I think it would be amusing as hell
Howzabout the world of Clifford, the Big Red Dog?
9147036
How about neither?
9146992
Except Great Horse World is Equestria, where all this started.
9147145
Ranna's world could be the tiger just to further mess with our favourite pigtailed avatar of mayhem
9147303
Exactly how does that work? "For lulz" is a lazy excuse. Give me a REASON it would be Tiger.
Also, just so you know, I already have all the Zodiac worlds planned out well in advance, barring a couple of recent tweaks.
9146821
Oh yeah... forgot that arc.
Speculation is all well and good folks, but maybe we should stop saying what Mythril should use and wait and see, it's obvious he's got a plan already in place for each animal world.
Huh, if Great Monkey was Dragonball that means Kim's world must be Great something, I mean otherwise why would it even be involved in this... Or has it been so long I've just forgotten the conversation completely between Sensei and Ron concerning whether or not they are part of the Great Zodiac worlds? Maybe I need to do some re-reading.
wait wait wait.......... witch TMNT are we in now???? because I knew we we're in one as soon as yoshi was introduced.
9147321
humor at the cosmic level. That seeing as Ranma's world loves to mess with him anyway it being repesnted by the closest zodiac to a feline (i.e. the thing he has a phobia of) would not even surprise him.
plus Ron learning some anything-goes would make for an epic boost to his own skill set
9148765
Sorry, it just isn't happening.
9155680
Oh good, it's such a complex syntax.
9155691
Well, it's Kraang Subprime who stole the thing, so it's a moot point in any case since he doesn't talk like the other Kraang.
9155731
I know, but I couldn't resist.
9148765
Revisiting these comments, it occurs to me that setting aside your questionable reasoning for the Ranma thing, the Ranma universe DOES actually fit Tiger if you go with the "Tiger is balance" logic from Jackie Chan Adventures. That having been said, there's two GZWs I'm iffy on that I could swap Ranma for at the last minute.
Took me a while to get around to thinking about it along the right lines.