Jay Walker fidgeted with the steering controls on his latest contraption. For the last few weeks he’d been working on a jet pack/hang glider hybrid, with very little success. He hoped that once he perfected his invention, travel would be much easier for everyone—and more fun—but so far his tests hadn’t gone quite as well as he’d hoped. He had only barely been able to get off the ground last time, and he kept having problems with a fuel source, but this time would be different. This time he was going to fly.
He pulled on a more aerodynamic jacket and strapped his goggles firmly over his face. Next he strapped his glider on and with a shaky breath he looked out over Ninjago City. He had reasoned that if he could only start his flight from up high enough that he would achieve more lift, so when his mom had asked him to run into town to grab a few things, he took the opportunity to test his theory, but now he was having second thoughts. He was up so high.... so very high... what if the glider failed? Jay shook his head firmly. This wasn’t going to fail. This time would be different.
He gripped the handles on the glider wings tighter as he braced himself to jump off the edge of a twenty-story building. He breathed deeply, then.... jumped! He pushed a button on a small hand-held device in his left hand and the engines ignited on his pack. With all his strength he pulled his wings up to steer him away from the ground which was hurtling toward him at an alarming rate. Just a few feet away from certain doom, he pulled up and began flying through the air, up, up, up.
“I DID IT!!!” He shouted over the rush of the wind. “I DID—“ suddenly the engines sputtered out and he was falling again. He tried desperately to re-ignite them, but they were out of fuel. He came crashing down onto one of the roofs of the other skyscrapers and very nearly broke a bone, but aside from a few bruises he was fine. He sighed with frustration as he threw off his goggles and collapsed on the ground in a disgruntled heap. Well, at least this time he’d gotten lift.
Jay looked up at the sun, then checked his watch. It was already three-thirty. If he wanted to get the groceries and be home in time for dinner he’d better hurry. So he scooped up his glider, folded it, and wore it as a back pack while he went to the grocery store.
He opened the shop door and was greeted by a soft, tingling bell. He waved kindly to the lady behind the cash register, Mrs. Flynn, a very kind woman with dark brown hair and slanted eyes.
“Testing another invention, I see,” she said with a smile.
“Yeah, just tinkering,” Jay flushed. He didn’t exactly like to talk about his inventions unless they actually worked.
“I saw the flight from here. Very impressive, young Walker.” Mrs. Flynn was trying to be encouraging, but Jay’s checks turned tomato red with embarrassment instead. He laughed an uncomfortable ‘thank you’ and went into the produce section of the store. He wished there was somewhere he could store his very obvious backpack contraption. Or maybe he could create a way for it to fold into a much more convenient, super compact—
“Hey!” he cried as two kids which he went to school with bumped passed him, banging their fists against his jet pack. They jeered at him as they passed and mumbled ‘nerd’ and ‘geek freak’ under their breaths. Jay sighed again. It was bad enough he had to deal with this sort of thing at school, but sometimes it was just unbearable to run into kids like them in everyday places.
He looked up and saw the other kids—two brothers—rejoin their mother who was standing by her shopping cart and seemed to hardly notice them approach as she scanned the shelves. Jay silently envied them. It was rare that he would go somewhere with his mom because both of them were always working. Either she was at the store and he was busy with chores or homework, or he was at the store and she was at home working. Well, her and his dad.
Jay was born in a scrapyard called ‘Ed & Edna; Scrap N’ Junk’. His father primarily ran it, selling scrap metal to the army since he was too old to enlist and they barely made ends meet as it was. His mom helped where she could; she organised donation events where people would come together to supply more scrap metal for the army, and would keep their household running seamlessly. Meanwhile neither of them had any time to homeschool Jay, which had been his original curriculum up until middle school when the war started, so he was sent to a public school in Ninjago City; their junkyard was only a few minutes outside of city limits. He had a very hard time making friends there, mostly because he was seen as a very strange kid who came from a strange place and liked to tinker a lot by himself. He, like many other boys his age, had thought about joining the army, but he was only sixteen, so he’d be in for a long wait before he could do anything like that.
Jay quickly roused himself from his thoughts and hurried to finish his errands. He paid for the groceries and then scampered out into the busy streets where he struggled not to hit anyone passing by with his giant back pack-glider. He headed to the bus station and got there just in time to catch the last bus heading toward his home, then sat among the crowd of people and was silent as the vehicle steadily bounced him around in his seat.
When the bus stopped, there were very few people left riding it. Jay got out and looked around at the barren, dry landscape and the lush forests that laid beyond. Of all places to build a business, why such an ugly place? Jay thought. This was a large clearing outside the city where not very much grew aside from small tufts of yellow-green grass and a few scraggly bushes. The bus had dropped him off a few yards away from the junkyard proper. He still had to walk down a long strip of road before he reached his home; groceries and battered glider in hand.
The junkyard was fairly old and, in some regards, tacky. It was a massive assortment of all kinds of odds and ends, mostly cars and motorbikes, surrounded by a wall of sandy stone with only one entrance: a big metal gate. Around the gate were twinkle lights in all the colours of the rainbow and an illuminated sign which read:
Ed & Edna
Scrap N’ Junk!
Jay looked down at his watch again then quickened his pace. He wound his way passed some old carburettors and car batteries before arriving at a silver, broken-down RV which had a large, rectangular storage container welded to the back of it for added living space.
He dropped his glider outside the front door and went inside calling out, “Mom! I’m home! The carrots were on sale, so I’ve got some change for you!” He went into the kitchen to drop off the bags of groceries but didn't find his mother in there, so he went to the nearby living room and stopped when he saw his father—an older man with a wrinkled, stubbly face and white hair, slicked back—sitting on the couch with an old man in white robes who he had never seen before. “Sorry,” he stammered. “I didn’t mean to interrupt.” His father looked up at him with sad, green eyes.
“Jay, honey,” said his mother, who was standing beside him now. Her brown eyes also had an uncomfortable amount of sadness in them. “There’s someone we’d like you to meet. This is Master Wu,” she gestured to the old man and he rose from his seat followed by Jay’s father.
“Nice to meet you,” said Master Wu; his smile was hidden under a bushy white beard, and when his eyes became squinted with wrinkles it was almost impossible to see his striking blue eyes. Jay suddenly felt an odd mixture tension and comfort; a knotting in his stomach and a tingling in the back of his head.
“Am I in some sort of trouble?” Jay asked his parents.
“Not at all,” said the master. “However there is something rather pressing which I need to speak with you about.” Wu lead Jay over to the couch where they both sat down while his parents stood a few feet away, visibly nervous. “Jay, what is your greatest aspiration?”
“My, what?” Jay asked in confusion. “Aspiration? Well, um... I dunno, I guess.... I guess it would be to help society with my inventions. You know, make the world a better place, and all that jazz.” Wu looked him in the eye and nodded slowly.
“That is a very noble aspiration, Jay,” he replied. “Very noble, indeed. However, there may be a better way to achieve such a goal than constructing jet packs.”
“How did you—“
“Jay, you may not know it yet, but there is something very special inside of you,” Wu continued. “And I need that special something.” At this point Jay’s heart was beating very fast. “I am, in fact, the military advisor to the Imperial Army.”
Jay gasped. “Are you saying you need me to help fight in the war?!” he blurted.
Wu chuckled. “In a way, yes. But please, keep this information quiet. I cannot stress enough the importance of this... particular situation.” Jay’s face was beaming with excitement.
“Whatever you say, Master Wu!” he cried as he leapt off the couch. Then a shadow crossed his face and his excitement left him. “Mom, Dad?” He turned to look at them with an expression that said, ‘you knew about all of this, didn’t you?’ Edna gave a weak smile and Ed shoved his hands into the pockets of his dirty overalls. Suddenly Edna was smothering him in a hug. “Mom, what..?”
“Oh, honey! We couldn’t be more proud of you!” she said shakily, but happily.
“You mean, you’re actually gonna let me go?” Jay asked.
“It’s not ideal,” said his father as he walked over and he stole a glance at Wu. “But yes. We’re letting you go.” Edna let go of Jay and he looked up into Ed’s eyes. “You need to—well, you see, I-I—you—this... how, gosh, how to explain?”
“There will be no need, Edward,” said Wu as he rose. “As I said before, this must be kept quiet. He will learn of everything he needs to know in due time.”
“Need to know? What do I need to know?” Jay asked. “Why all the secrecy? I’m trust worthy! What’s going on exactly? Am I joining the army or a secret club?”
Wu walked over to him and laid a leathery hand on his shoulder. Suddenly that knot in his stomach vanished and Jay felt unbelievably calm. “Young Jay, it is not your trust worthiness which I am concerned for. In any case, there is nothing more I can tell you, except for this.” He reached into his robe and pulled out a small scroll which he then gave to Jay. “You are completely free to drop out of school as I have already made the arrangements. Now, unfortunately, time is short, and I must leave.”
“Wait, Master Wu!” Jay said. “When will I see you again?”
He smiled. “Very soon.” He turned to Ed and Edna. “Thank you for your hospitality.” Then they both nodded to each other, pain in their eyes. Wu left through the front door and Jay watched him disappear beyond the junkyard gate.
“Okay, spill it!” Jay cried after a moment. “What was that all about, really? And why are you so calm about this?” Edna looked half to tears as she gave her son another hug.
“We’re sorry,” she said. “We can’t tell you here.”
“But, uh, why don’t you open up that scroll?” Ed suggested.
Jay had completely forgotten about the scroll. He ripped it open and began reading the artful writing.
Jay Walker,
I realise that you must be very confused and have many
questions, but answers will be supplied in due time. For now,
report to the Yamadera Monastery in the Wayward Mountains
outside of Ninjago City. There you will meet the woman Ann Jing
Haruto. She is an ally of mine. Await further instructions.
“Await fourth instructions....” Jay repeated under his breath. This was all so mysterious. But why? Were there spies nearby? Were they safe? “Mom, Dad, I don’t know if leaving you right now is the right thing. I mean, who’s gonna help you with the scrap, Dad?”
“Jay, don’t be ridiculous,” said Ed. “This is a once in a lifetime opportunity! This is your chance to make a difference in the war!”
“But what if—“
“Jay, there’ll be no arguing about this!” Ed said firmly, but with a noticeable sadness in his voice. “You’re going.... a-and that’s final.”
“Dad, I don’t wanna argue,” said Jay and he leaned in for a hug. “I get that this is super important, but I just... I don’t wanna let you down.”
“You won’t, son,” he replied. Then he cleared his throat. “Now, what did that scroll say? Where does ol’ Master Wu need you?”
The rest of the evening was devoted to getting Jay ready for his trip to the monastery. Apparently he needed to be ready to leave by morning. He was slightly shocked at how quickly this was all going, but he assumed the situation was dire, and so he packed a large suitcase—well, mostly Edna packed—for the journey he was apparently taking alone. Ed and Edna would be too busy at home to come with him, plus they were worried it might attract attention. Whose attention, Jay didn’t know, but he was a bit too unsettled to ask. He knew about the skeleton army and how merciless they’d been to Ninjago, everyone did. But they were not the sort of evil one whispers about in the dark of night as if one might pop out of the very ground and slice your throat.
Jay wanted to keep asking questions desperately, but he had been promised answers by Master Wu, and so he bit his tongue and waited for when he arrived at the monastery the next day.
That night, Jay couldn’t sleep. He kept tossing and turning, trying to wrap his head around everything. Every thought eventually lead to a question, and each question only made him more frustrated. Mostly, though, he was nervous. He felt like a tremendous pressure had been put on him, and he was afraid of what that meant. There was also the fact that he would be leaving the only home he had ever known; leaving the only people whom he loved, in order to fight in a war.
Morning seemed to take an eternity to arrive, but once the sun was up, so was Jay. His stomach churned with that uneasy yet excited energy one sometimes gets before doing something drastic, and he didn’t feel like eating very much breakfast. His mother and father watched him leave the junkyard in the cold, light morning air, and before he realised it, he was off on his own for the very first time.
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