Chapter Text
Jay had always been one to complain, in all honesty. Even before that dumb cat recruited him to be his little lightning-powered pet and gotten him to shatter his goodness, he’d complained. This was especially true when he was in the administration. Working himself up to being one of the top-class employees had been difficult, and the time he got to slack off and play video games was always so short.
When he complained, he complained. He complained about working hours, about hating his job, sometimes, about other people complaining about their jobs, even if it was hypocritical.
And now he was hunting down that dumb cat because some lady—he completely forgot her name—was pissed at him. Not that Jay didn’t understand. In fact, that was the whole reason he didn’t really want to take her up on her offer, especially when she was only paying him the minimum for such a high-level target, he really didn’t want to see Ras again.
Oh, well. Money is money, even if it isn’t really worth being stuck in this ridiculously dangerous realm.
Oh yeah. That’s what he’s complaining about now. This creepy-as-all-hell realm is the only guess his buyer had towards the cat’s whereabouts. So here he was, in the realm he’d only heard of in the few scrolls he actually read: The Land of Monsters. Why in the ever loving FUCK was there a land of monsters?! What possessed the First Spinjitzu Master to think “oh, yeah. Putting a bunch of man-eating ginormous creatures all together so that they can both eat each other and get freaky enough to create even worse abominations is a great idea!” If the dude wasn’t already dead, Jay would’ve loved to give him a punch in the face that the god definitely deserved for making this absolute bullshit realm.
Sure, he’d seen pictures of the place and drawings of its inhabitants, but he didn’t really want to ever be here, holy shit.
This was so not worth the money.
That was a lie, he’d do anything for money.
Jay sighed. He knew his hubris would win, anyways. It always had after he’d put on that wolf mask. He couldn’t accept failure, because that would mean he was a failure and he was not a failure, despite what Ras had insisted after his loss to the water girl in the tournament.
Whatever. He didn’t need the administration, he didn’t need Ras. He was making more with each bounty successfully pulled off than he’d ever earned from the administration anyway, which wasn’t even saying much since they didn’t pay him actual money. All they payed him in were fake vacation tokens he could redeem ever so often, and even paydays were far spread out and only given if he worked hard (which he basically never did). So, yeah, he was making bank now.
A noise set off to the right. Jay’s head quickly snapped to the sound. All the monochrome colors made him and his bright blue suit stick out like a sore thumb, and it was making him a little nervous. He’d be monster chow in no time if he didn’t get some camouflage, and fast.
He didn’t see anything, though that may just be the fact that he hadn’t adapted to seeing only black and white yet. Just to be safe, Jay pulled out his dagger hilts. He refrained from actually sparking them into blades with his lightning powers, but he held them outwards and facing the gray flora that had rustled not one minute ago defensively.
After another minute or two of nothing happening, Jay reluctantly sheathed his daggers and continued on his way. The sooner he found Ras and killed him, the sooner he could get out of here, the sooner he could bring his severed head to the supposed princess, the sooner he could finally collect his money and never come back.
Jay trudged on, continuing deeper into the realm that challenged him to enter. And oh, Jay had never been one to back down from a challenge. He would win against this stupid realm, and then he’d finally gain the peace of mind to never have to worry about his stupid old master again.
Every now and then Jay would have to pause. Rustling in the bushes, skittering nearby, hell, even an entire mountain stood up and walked around. Never before had Jay been so glad to be so comparatively small, because that…that thing would’ve definitely seen him and his stupid blue outfit had it not been so freakishly big.
It got worse as he traveled deeper. Scuttles in bushes became more faint, and Jay even missed a few, having to kill a couple small—and, frankly, quite ugly—featherless chickens. They would’ve been difficult had he not been the master of lightning. The fuckers’ electricity powers had no effect on him and he was able to roast them over an open fire for food shortly after his first encounter with one.
That was another thing that he hated about this place. He could never find food. Everything was probably poisonous or venomous, and he could only on the rare occasion find an electric chicken to sustain him for the next day or two. Water was even worse, with Jay having to settle for the mildly acidic rainwater he collected in a bowl he made out of the leftover chicken bones.
But, unfortunately, the chickens stopped coming. Monsters became scarce, and he was faced with huge, flesh-eating creatures that would be able to eat him whole without any problem. He especially hated the flying ones, because there was no real safe way to kill them, so he’d just have to find a hole or cave that the thing couldn’t reach him in and wait for it to get bored.
After what felt like weeks alone in the realm, Jay was starved. His thirst for real water and not more acid felt futile when he went an entire three day-night cycles with not a single drop of water on the ground, even after the heavy rainstorm only a day or two prior. His body was moving sluggishly, and he didn’t notice the small rustling from the large creature carefully watching him from the shadows.
He only noticed the damn thing when it had already snuck up behind him, ready to strike.
It stood probably, like, eight feet tall or something—Jay had always been horrible at guessing games—and it was shaped like a giant scorpion. That was one thing Jay had noted about the Land of Monsters. It really liked its unreasonable huge bugs. But this one? This one was just obnoxious. Instead of only have four pairs of legs, it had twelve legs the size of his lower and upper body combined.
The giant scorpion’s thick as fuck tail swooshed back and forth for a second longer as it came to the realization Jay had, in fact, noticed it and its absurd existence. Its pincers clicked twice and the thing turned its head (is it really a head?) region with a grating croaking noise.
Before he could even grab his lightning daggers, which he was too sluggish to have been able to do all that fast anyway, the scorpion’s tail straightened up behind itself, and it began to shoot down towards him.
Right as Jay began to close his eyes to shield himself from seeing his own demise, a flash of a vibrant red flashed across the grays Jay had become all-too familiar with.