Heeeelloo! I thought this would be a fun little side story to work on while I keep updating Space Crown! I've got a whole brainstorm already prepared for this fic, so I can't wait to continue it! In the meantime, hope you all will like this first chapter!

I like to picture them with their new looks. You know, the movie ones? I guess this is around meh, after MOTO or so :P

Enjoy!

The final piece snapped into place like the last piece of a puzzle. Dusting off his hands, the master of lightning stepped back with a confident smile to admire his handiwork. A lot of work went into building the little guy, but every second was worth it to finally have created the perfect little buddy.

After moments of admiration, Jay got down on his knees to switch the guy on. His eyes lit up almost instantly. Big, bright, and yellow as they stared back at Jay.

"Welcome to the world, little buddy!" Jay hummed as he adjusted the robot's eyes. "Gotta be honest, I'm not quite sure what to call you yet. But we'll think of something!"

He stood up, stepping aside to let the little robot wander around for a bit. The robot rolled around on the floor from wall to wall and back to Jay's feet. The ninja in blue giggled, bending down to redirect the robot's front away from the foot of the bed.

He gnawed at a fingernail, staring down the little robot. "Hmm… who should I take you to see first?"

"Hey, Jay,"

As if on cue, Nya poked her head in the room, eyes flickering all over the mess that was Jay's room. "Have you seen my phone? Either I misplaced it somewhere or Kai "borrowed" it to Chirp something."

At that, Jay turned around, hands on his hips with a cocky grin. "Nya! Perfect!"

The little robot rolled past Jay and up to the water ninja. She craned her neck, looking from the robot to Jay.

"What's this?" She asked, holding out the first 's'.

"This!" Jay flailed his arms, gesturing to the robot at Nya's feet, "is um… well, he doesn't have a name yet. But a little buddy, right? Kinda cool, don't you think?"

Her eyes lit up as the robot circled around her feet. "What can it do?"

Jay scratched the back of his neck nervously, trying to recall the list off the top of his head. "I guess, pretty normal, standard people things… just… shorter," he paused, then shrugged, "and smaller."

"Sweet!" Her eyes followed the robot as it broke the circle pattern he was previously making and scurried down the hall.

It took Jay a while to notice that the bot was no longer there. With a yelp, Jay ran after him, chasing the robot till it disappeared in the game room where Lloyd, Kai, Pixal and Zane were all lumbering around.

Kai and Lloyd were playing a PVP video game against one another on the couch. From the looks of it, Lloyd was totally dominating over Kai in the match. And Jay knew how much of a sore loser Kai was. As for Zane and Pixal, the two of them were enjoying watching funny videos online on the laptop Nya had lent them. What kind of videos? Cats, dogs, most likely any animal you could name off the top of your head.

"Oh! Sup, Jay?" Kai called out to him when he noticed the boy stumble in. Kai slammed his thumb down on the controller, landing a kick to Lloyd's avatar.

Jay waved, then resumed looking for his little robot friend.

"You wanna play a round?" Lloyd asked next as they neared the final round of their match.

"Tempting," Jay started. Really tempting, he added in his head. "But my hands are kind of full at the moment."

Kai glanced over in his direction, frowning. "No way your hands are full if there's nothing in them."

Jay rolled his eyes, walking around the couch to look behind it.

"Um, whatcha looking for?" Kai asked again.

"I built this thing, but he ran off…" Jay checked by the tables, "somewhere…"

Just before he felt like giving up, Zane tapped him from behind gently. "I believe you are looking for this?"

The ninja in white stepped to the side, revealing the little robot which had run off into a hide-and-seek game for Jay to play.

"Yes!" Jay beamed.

The sound of a narrator reading "Game Over" allowed Kai to lean over the back of the couch and at whatever it was at Jay's feet.

He grimaced. "What is that?"

"It's my little buddy!"

"Riiiiight. Okay." Kai hung his arms over the edge, surprised as the robot rolled up beneath him. "Hello?"

Pixal wandered up to them, focused on the robot looking up at Kai. "It does not have a name?"

Jay clasped his hands behind his back, swinging back and forth on his heels. "Well, no. Not yet. But, I'm getting there."

"I think it's kinda cute!" Lloyd piped, scooting up besides Kai.

The robot ran in a couple more circles around the couch, gaining everyone's attention before speeding out of the room once more without Jay. The boy groaned, rubbing his eyes tiredly. "He keeps doing that."

With a heavy sigh, he followed the robot out and into open air, into the Monastery courtyard. This was where the training course would normally be. Except, it wasn't up this time. In fact, Master Wu had forced them to train with one another for the past several weeks to maintain their good form and skills.

Instead, the robot hurried down a path that eventually led to the master of earth sitting on the steps by a pole with a book in his hands.

The corner of Jay's lips lifted and he wandered towards Cole, taking a seat next to him.

"Whatcha reading?"

Without taking his eyes off the pages, his friend answered him, "It's a… novel about a cyborg princess."

Jay raised his scarred brow, leaning over to get a better look at the pages. "Cool. Cool, that's cool." He tapped his chin, a soft gasp escaping him as the robot bumped into Cole's legs. "But have you met my latest creation?"

The robot rammed into Cole's leg once more and he put the book down in his lap with a frustrated sigh, facing the little bot.

"Hi, my name is Cole."

The little robot blinked it's big eyes. Cole turned to Jay. "Does it have a name?"

Having been the second time that day he was asked that question, Jay shook his head, puffing out his cheeks. However, throughout the day Jay had been compiling a list of names in his head. His favorite so far had been Mister Spaklez, but it wasn't the best thing he deduced.

"What about J-Bot?"

Jay squinted. "Jay-Bot?"

"Not like your name," Cole clarified, setting his book aside. "Just J-Bot."

Honestly, J-Bot didn't sound like a terrible name. He stashed it away in his memories for reference. "I'll think about it."

The next day, Jay woke up to find his little robot friend out of his charging station. In fact, he wasn't in the room at all. That was until he heard laughter coming from outside. Without even bothering to change out of his pajamas, Jay followed the sources of laughter to the center of the Monastery.

To his surprise, Kai, Lloyd, Nya and Zane were all sitting in a big circle. And in the center if it all was Jay's robot. That harmless mechanical creature was a living, portable source of entertainment.

Heck, the little guy was performing tricks with the stack of cards Kai had given it.

Jay rubbed his eyes, walking up to them.

"Heeey guys, what's so funny?" He asked them with a nervous smile.

Kai leaned back to reveal the robot to be assembling a tower out of the paper cards. It was already five rows high. Jay gaped.

"Wow, that's cool. I guess." Jay chewed on the inside of his cheek as he watched the bot extend his legs, laying out the pieces for the next row.

"You should've seen him earlier!"

Lloyd twisted his body at Jay. "Yeah! He had this whole row of dominos standing up in the game room and bam!"

"Very satisfying," Zane agreed.

Jay rolled his eyes. He thought about heading in to change, but then realized that two people were missing in action. He looked around a couple of times before asking, "Hey, uh, where are Cole and Pixal?"

"In the kitchen having breakfast," Nya answered without taking her eyes off of the tower of cards.

So Jay ditched them for the kitchen where he found Cole and Pixal just like Nya said he would. Except, Pixal didn't quite eat, meaning Cole was really the only person with a bowl of cereal in front of him.

Though the pair was an unlikely one, Cole and Pixal seemed to be happily getting along without any troubles. Jay saw this as an opportunity to slip by the two of them quietly, opening the cupboards for any leftover cereal and the fridge for milk. As he prepped, he heard Cole cough in hopes of gaining the blue ninja's attention.

"Morning, Jay."

Jay returned the smile, sitting down across from him and Pixal with his full bowl.

"I guess everyone's really into your robot buddy, huh?"

"I didn't even hear him leave the room!"

Cole glared at Jay with half lidded eyes. "You were out like a light, dude. Believe me. I came by to try and wake you up but," Cole lifted the bowl to his lips and drank the milk, "you wouldn't wake up no matter how hard I tried."

The blue ninja grinned sheepishly, his face flushing.

"Have you decided on a name yet?" Pixal asked.

Jay shrugged, poking at the cereal with his spoon.

"I'm leaning towards J-Bot, actually." He stuffed a spoonful in his mouth and glanced at Cole. Once he got it all down, he finished, "I like it."

Cole backed in his seat, disgusted when Jay had pointed at him with the spoon, flinging bits of milk across the table.

"J-Bot?" Pixal repeated.

Cole nodded before he stood up to take his dishes to the sink. "It was my idea, not to brag or anything," he said pretty confidently. He ripped off a napkin and proceeded to wipe down the small mess Jay had made on the other side of the table.

At the same time, Jay continued to vigorously gulp down his cereal, eager to change out of his bedtime clothes and work on J-Bot's charging pod.

"Don't eat so fast, Jay. You're gonna upset your stomach," Cole warned, leaning against the counter.

Jay put the bowl down, glaring daggers at his friend. "I really need to get back to work. I thought it'd be a good idea to add a magnetic hook that forces J-Bot back into his charging pod when he's low. Of course, for that to work I'm gonna need J-Bot around."

Cole and Pixal shared a look. "Jay, are you aware that the others are taking J-Bot to New Ninjago City later?"

"What?"

Cole scratched the back of his neck, a little hiccup escaping him. "I know right? I thought it was a little odd since he is a robot. Come to think of it, it's as if he's some little kid-"

"But he's my robot! Couldn't they have at least asked?" Jay dropped his head against the table, moaning in despair. "Fiiiiiine… I guess I'll just have to work on it later tonight."

He turned his head on it's side, blinking up at Cole and Pixal. "You wanna play some video games?"

Days flew by and Jay had finally gotten around to building that magnetic attachment in J-Bot's charging station.

It took a while to finish, but that was only because the others had been hoarding him for so long. Who knew Jay's invention would have been such a hit?

Kai taught J-Bot how to apply hair gel, even if the little robot didn't have any hair to apply it on.

Zane welcomed J-Bot into his daily meditation session with Lloyd. Honestly, it was uncanny how good J-Bot was at remaining perfectly still while Lloyd taught the little bot on how to meditate and what it was.

Nya thought it would have been fun to take J-Bot shopping in New Ninjago City for. Mostly because of the parchment Master Wu had requested of her.

And Cole… well, he didn't really do much with J-Bot. Almost always would Jay find the two of them simply sitting in Cole's quarters while the master of earth read aloud to him, just for the heck of it.

Everyone seemed to be enjoying J-Bot's company. Everything seemed to be going just fine…

That was until the one evening, when Jay had just stepped out of the bathroom, ready to hit the hay until he saw J-Bot on the floor. Dead.

His wires had been pulled out carelessly. One eye had popped out, hanging by a thin wire from his head. And his arms, disfigured. Weirdly enough, his charging pod had been left completely untouched.

Jay fell to his knees.

The Following Morning.

"Alright! Listen up, everybody!" Jay shouted with his hands cupped around his mouth to project his voice. Surrounding him were his ninja friends and Pixal in chairs. And behind him was J-Bot's demolished form. As for Jay, he stood on top of a table, staring down at each and every one of them.

Nya raised her head when she felt Kai nudge her slightly. "Jay, is something wrong?"

"Something is very wrong!" Jay reached down behind him and lifted J-Bot for everyone to see. "Someone has murdered J-Bot!"

Several audible gasps were heard throughout the room, but not nearly enough. At least, not to Jay. With a sigh, he placed the robot back on the table and pointed an accusing finger at each of them.

"One of you has committed a crime." Jay bit his tongue and shook his head, "Actually, this could have been a two man job. We don't know! But that's besides the point! Someone in this room has murdered this helpless, defenseless robot!"

Jay stepped back to reveal J-Bot once more. "And no one goes anywhere until we figure out who!"

Lloyd folded his arms across his chest, sharing small glances with the others before looking to Jay again. "Couldn't you just ask who did it?"

The ninja in blue closed his eyes, pinching the bridge between his eyes. "I could, Lloyd. But have you seen any murder mystery movie ever? No one ever admits!"

Kai waved his arms in the air, stepping between Jay and the others. "Alright! If you were the one who murdered J-Bot, raise your hand!"

The room fell silent instantly. Looks were shared here and there, but not one soul came forth.

The master of lightning cackled from behind. "I told you!" He shooed Kai away, taking the floor again. "This is a whodunit case! Someone-" He stopped when he noticed Zane raising his hand meekly. "Yes, Zane?"

"'Whodunit' is merely incorrect. Technically, the correct grammatical structure is 'who has done this'."

Jay facepalmed, letting out a long groan. "Right. Okay. Either way, someone is responsible. Henceforth, I will be the detective, and-"

"Cool. This sounds fun, but I'm heading out." Cole raised his hands defensively, standing up from his chair.

Before he could take even one step outside of the room, Jay pointed a finger at him, shouting loudly, "Nope!"

With a heavy sigh, Cole turned around, folding his arms across his chest at his friend. Jumping off the table, Jay ran up to him and snapped his smiley face pin off his gi, sticking it on Cole. "You can't leave! You're my number two!"

"Uh."

Jay wrapped an arm around Cole, going around the room and eyeing everyone suspiciously.

"I, Detective Jay, and my trusty assistant, Cole, will interrogate each one of you! So be ready!"

The green ninja rolled his eyes out of the sheer stupidity this was beginning to look like. "Where exactly are we going to be interrogated?"

Jay's lips thinned and he let go, shoving Cole to the side as he thought. "We will make an interrogation room!"