Hunter stormed into Ninja Ops. As Cam looked up from where he was manning a computer and stuffing some kind of breakfast pastry into his mouth, he was taken aback by the look on Hunter’s face. He swallowed, glad to have food to blame it on, and started trying to come up with what he could have done to piss Hunter off that much.
“This is what caused Blake’s accident,” Hunter announced as he almost slammed the robot onto the closest counter. “It tried again just now.”
Cam came over immediately and began looking at it. “What is it?”
“Something bad,” Hunter growled. “Can you do some looking into it? Figure out who made it? Where it came from?”
Dustin bounded down the stairs. “Cam,” he called. He stopped when he saw Hunter. “Dude! How are you?”
Hunter looked at Dustin and nodded. “Hey, Dustin.”
Dustin walked over and knocked fists with Hunter. Then he chuckled. “See? I told you, Hunter. You’ll never get me again.” A huge smile spread across Dustin’s face.
“Never is a long time, dude,” Hunter smiled.
Cam refused to look up from his newest mystery. “All right, you two, what am I missing?”
Dustin was, as usual, happy to explain. “Cam, it’s cool. A few months ago, Hunter and I shake hands and he totally shocks me!”
“Static electricity,” Hunter clarified as he saw Cam’s hands stop working. Once they continued exploring the robot, Hunter kept going. “I had just learned how to do it. It’s tricky.”
“How so?” Cam asked. He grabbed his portable scanner from where it rested in easy reach.
“It’s subtle,” Hunter explained.
“Ah. I can see how that would be tricky for you.”
“Oh-oh-oh!” Dustin crowed as Hunter fixed Cam with a reproachable look. “So, Hunter shocked me, right? And I was all like, dude! And that’s when he challenged me to ground myself every time we do some kind of greeting.”
Cam raised an eyebrow. “So, it’s a game.”
“It’s a fun game,” Hunter shrugged. “And Dustin got a new elemental trick out of it.”
“And it’s sweet. At first, it was kinda tricky for me.” Dustin said.
Cam opened his mouth and then closed it. He settled for shaking his head twice.
“But now he owns it,” Hunter said.
Dustin smiled even bigger at that. As his eyes shifted from Hunter to Cam, he appeared to notice what Cam was working on for the first time. “Dude, is that one of those little robot vacuum cleaners? I’ve never seen a square one before. Wouldn’t it get stuck in corners?”
“It would, if that’s what it was,” Cam said. He began moving the scanner slowly around it. “For some reason, it seems familiar.”
“You, too?” Hunter asked. “I’ve been trying to place it since I first saw it.”
“Well, if it doesn’t sweep floors, what does it do?” Dustin asked.
“Tries to hurt my brother,” Hunter answered.
Dustin’s eyes widened. “This is it? The thing that made Blake crash?” The Earth ninja came closer and started looking at it with a touch of anger in his eyes. “Who made it? Can we go get ‘em?”
“I’m waiting for Cam on those last two questions myself,” Hunter grunted. “But, yeah, I found it messing around in the Factory Blue section just a little bit ago.”
“What were you doing there?” Dustin asked.
“Waiting for this,” Hunter gestured hotly at the automaton.
“Good catch, man,” Dustin nodded at Hunter. “It’s pretty small.”
Hunter looked at Dustin with a steady gaze. “I didn’t exactly see it at first.”
Cam turned around and looked at Hunter. “Excuse me?”
“Dude?” Dustin asked.
Hunter was struck by the fact that Cam and Dustin almost had the same look on their faces. Both so curious and attentive. If it were any situation besides the welfare of a loved one, he might have said something about it or at least tried to snap a picture. He settled for an answer that was truthful but, nonetheless, sounded like something out of a bad b-movie. “I felt it.”
“Huh?” Dustin asked as Cam raised an eyebrow.
Hunter took a deep breath and went at the explanation like a fullback that had been given the football. “I was actually trying to get some sleep so I’d be fresh for the race day. I woke up when I felt that thing. I didn’t get it at first. But the feeling just got stronger. To the point where I could actually tell where it was coming from. And that’s when I saw this rolling nerd contraption.”
Cam just looked at him, but Dustin jumped up with an excited look on his face. “Hunter! You totally sensed the new power!”
Cam transferred his gaze to Dustin and Hunter joined him. The silence lasted about a full minute.
“Don’t you get it?” Dustin asked as he looked back and forth between the two. “Lightning is electricity, right? You felt this thing power on. You felt it ‘cause that’s your thing, dude!”
Cam blinked. “It is, in fact, powered by a very sophisticated and small generator.”
Dustin practically beamed as he focused on Hunter. “Look at you with your new elemental ability.”
“That could come in very handy,” Cam said as he looked at the readings from his initial scan.
“If it helps us catch Blake’s attacker, it already has,” Hunter said fiercely.
Dustin looked back to Hunter. “Man, I’ve been meaning to ask. What’re you holding? Some kind of net?”
Hunter looked down at his hand, nodded once and then set it on the counter next to the golden robot. “Yeah. It came out of that thing. When I saw it was made out of metal, I thought it might help us figure things out.”
“Metal…” Dustin said slowly.
“Yeah, weird, huh?” Hunter said
“A Metal net?” Cam asked as he started toward the latest find.
“Metal!” Dustin said, turning toward Cam on one heel. “Cam, I totally forgot the reason I came down here. I was in early today to see Hiro. He had more info on some large rocks he’d asked me to move in, right? When we were done, your grandfather said he needed to see you before his first class.”
Cam checked his watch. “I’ve got less than five minutes!”
“He said it was really important samurai stuff,” Dustin offered. “Something about using naked metal swords for training today.”
Cam looked at Hunter. “I don’t have anywhere near enough information as is. I’ll have CyberCam continue to collect it on both the robot and the net while I deal with Grandfather and class.”
The look on Hunter’s face said very plainly that was not the answer he hoped for, but the Thunder nodded anyway. “Okay. I need to get back out and keep watch, anyway. Since the first attempt failed there’s a good chance they’ll be another.”
Dustin looked at Hunter as CyberCam materialized. “Dude, I don’t have a class until this afternoon. You want me to tag along?”
As Cam whispered quick instructions to CyberCam, Hunter nodded once. “If you’re sure you don’t have anything better to do.”
The grin sprang back to Dustin’s face. “Something better than hang out at a track I’ve only been to once before? Watching a local race with lots of national talent? Getting to help out two of my best buds? On a beautiful morning? Yeah, sounds brutal.”
Cam looked up. “Do you two both have the communicators I gave you?”
Hunter patted one jacket pocket while Dustin pulled the small disk featuring the Wind Academy symbol from underneath his sensei uniform.
“I’ll call as soon as I know anything else,” Cam said as he headed toward the waterfall.
“Yeah, what he said,” CyberCam called after the three men climbing the stairs.
“It’ll just take a sec to grab some street clothes,” Dustin said.
“You’ll call if you need help?” Cam asked.
“Dude!” Dustin laughed. “If we need help with one of those little things, we need to stop teaching ‘cause we suck.”
Cam looked to Hunter, but he just shrugged. “I’m with Dustin on this one.”
Cam sighed and shook his head. “If something else comes along?”
Hunter put a hand on Cam’s shoulder. “Sure.”
“I wish I could go with you right now,” Cam said solemnly. He placed a firm hand on Hunter’s opposite shoulder.
“You’ll catch up,” Hunter said, his intense blue eyes never leaving Cam’s worried dark ones.
As soon as Hunter and Dustin got to the track, they started casing the perimeter. It was still early enough that only a few people were moving about. Most were mechanics completely absorbed in whatever bike they were checking or doing last minute adjustments on.
“I love it when there’s a national close by and we get so many riders at tracks close to us,” Dustin said as he put his hands into his gray jackets pockets with the yellow stripe.
“Doesn’t get much cooler,” Hunter agreed as they continued to look around.
“So, you said you were watching,” Dustin said, glancing at the taller man. “Here at the track, I mean.”
Hunter nodded and headed for a thick stand of trees several feet away from the closest hay bale wall. “Let’s look there. The only thing I ever did get out of the people handling this messed up investigation was that a mechanic saw somebody sneaking around. Since all I caught was a something, we need to check the places where a person could hide.”
“Got’cha,” Dustin said as he followed Hunter’s lead. “So, have you done the vigilante thing at all the races Blake’s been in since he went back? That the reason you’ve looked kinda toasted recently?”
“Man, not you, too,” Hunter groaned.
They walked around the trees. “I think that’s really great of you,” Dustin said. He was going to say something else but never got the chance.
A powerful bolt of energy erupted from one of the treetops and slammed into Dustin. He flew back into Hunter who had just enough time to brace and catch his friend. “Dustin!”
Hunter was relieved to feel him moving in his arms. But then a heavy, metal net fell over the both of them.
“What?” Dustin asked slowly as he put a hand to his chest. He could feel Hunter holding him up and hear one of his patented growls.
“A net made of metal,” a heavy, digitized voice said proudly. “A wonderful way to capture a Thunder ninja unharmed.”
“Oh no,” Hunter breathed.
“Who?” Dustin asked, though the back of his mind was already putting it together for him. “Is that…” He was struggling to stand on his own.
“Of course, the Earth Ninja is just a bonus,” the voice continued on as the owner dropped down from the trees. “I would have preferred if it was just you, Hunter. But one must strike while the iron’s hot.”
“Oh no,” Dustin coughed.
“Motodrone,” Hunter grimly confirmed.
“Oh yes!” Motodrone raised both fists and laughed into the sky. “Did you miss me?”