Only Human

It started as a typical day at the Bounty, which the ninja had rebuilt after the final battle. The ninja were training, Sensei was reading old scrolls, and Nya was cooking. It was her night to cook. It was a beautiful day out, but the ninja didn't think about that. They were too busy training, even though there was no enemy. Ninjago was at a rare period of peace. The serpentine had moved underground where they never made contact with the humans. Sure there was an occasional burglar, but usually the police could take care of it. If they couldn't, only one of the ninja would have to go, and they'd be back within fifteen minutes. Still, the ninja trained, so they'd be prepared for the next evil threat to their home.

Zane spun around, dodging throwing stars aimed at him. Zane's defensive strategy was much different than the other ninjas', who believed it was better safe than sorry, so they'd attempt to move as far away from the throwing star as they could. But Zane could instantly calculate the projectile was known to sometimes only dodge a star by millimeters, purposely. It was quite an effective strategy, and it showed his opponents not to underestimate him. If there was one thing Zane hated, it was not being deemed a worthy opponent by others.

Zane jumped into the air, and aimed two kicks at two of the throwing stars. They went back to the cannons shooting them out, and clogged them, temporarily shutting them down. Jay was starring, his jaw dropped down. He had designed them to go too fast to be intercepted mid-flight. Jay knew that Zane, being a nindroid, had much faster reflexes than humans, but still, Jay's inventions were difficult to beat. For possibly the first time in his life, Jay was speechless. Seeing his reaction, Zane gave him a rare smile.

About one hour later, Jay got everyone's attention. "I've been working on a new invention to help us with our training," he said proudly. His invention turned out to be a machine that would help someone improve their strength. The person would stand underneath it and hold up a small board. Slowly, weights would pile up on top of the board, adding more weight. Another weight was dropped every ten seconds, to let the person get used to the new weight.

"I think it's a great invention Jay," said Cole, "But are you certain it's safe?"

"Of course," said Jay, "I've been making small changes or about four months now! If that's not safe, I don't know what is!"

"That seemed seemed to satisfy Cole. "I think we should try that out. Jay, since you designed it, do you want to try it first?" Jay nodded and walked over to the machine. He nodded at Cole who pushed a small green button marked 'start'. More weight piled up and up. When the weight reached 160 pounds, it was obvious that Jay was having difficulties holding it up. At 180 pounds, the machine stopped and the weights all moved up back in to their original position. When Kai asked why it stopped, Jay answered, "I programmed it to recognize a person having difficulties. It will stop before a person is crushed."

The other ninja each took a turn trying it out. both Cole and Lloyd reached 500 pounds which was the machine's maximum weight. Jay promised to add more weight to it in the future. Kai was able to lift 450 pounds before the machine came to a stop.

"Jay!" said Kai angrily, "I still could have lifted more!" Jay just shrugged and told him better safe than sorry. Then Zane took a turn.

The first one hundred pounds were no problem for him. Nether were the next 40. However, although he appeared to be perfectly fine at 150 pounds, Zane became worried. "Guys!" he said, "I-I can't lift any more!

Cole either didn't hear Zane or didn't care. "Come on Zane, you just have to focus. You're doing fine!"

"No, I can't!"

"Yes you can!" yelled Cole. He wasn't about to let one of his teammates give up so easily. "You just have to push it!" The weight was about to be added.

Zane's speaking became scared and choppy, "N-no I ca-can't!" And as the next weight fell onto the board Zane was holding onto, the poor nindroid's arms failed and he fell to the ground. If Cole hadn't been right there to catch the weights, Zane would've been crushed. He slowly sat up. Cole pushed the weights back into their original position, and he and the other ninja looked at Zane concerned.

"You okay?" asked Lloyd. Zane nodded and stood up.

Cole walked over to Zane, "Zane, I think you should take a break and get some rest." Zane turned and walked to the door the the inside of the bounty. A few seconds after Zane left Jay ran over to the door. He caught up to Zane and put his hand on his shoulder. "Zane, I'm sorry, but what happened back there?"

Zane sighed. He looked up at Jay and said, "It's fine. I couldn't lift it because I'm a robot. I have limits. When I was made, I wasn't programmed to lift more than 150 pounds. When I say I can't, I can't. I can't, as Cole said, push it." Zane left out the fact that he always knew what percentage of his strength was being used. If it reached 100%, he was unable to even lift another ounce.

Jay looked embarrassed, "Oh man. Zane, I'm an idiot; sorry. I didn't know."

Zane was standing in the doorway of the ninjas' room. He looked at Jay and said, "Well now you do." He turned and walked into the room and shut the door.

(Author's note: okay, so that's the first chapter. This is my first fanfiction, and I'd appreciate criticism that helps me be a better writer. By the way, any of you that are Teen Titans fans, this is based off of the Teen Titans episode Only Human. I do not own either Ninjago or Teen Titans, even though I wish I do.)