#cliff would totally dig watching his son in action

[eyeofthewolfe]

Ninjago - Each Other’s Biggest Fans

Fanmail, fanmail, and even beneath the fanmail there was, surprise! More fanmail.

The aged actor plopped his daily pile of fanmail in the boxed labeled as such and then turned back to his laptop. The Ninjago News at Nine was filling the silence of the living space as Cliff scanned quickly through his emails. Not important, not important, might be important later but not now, and…nope. Nothing important. He closed out of his email and stared at his mainscreen for a few seconds. The powerful and famous blue ninja stared back.

With a sigh, Cliff sat back and ran his fingers through his slicked back black hair. He knew so little about his biological son, the current Master of Lightning. He only knew that his son, Jay, was the blue ninja because his ex-wife was the former Master of Lightning herself. After they both vanished when Jay was only an infant, all Cliff had to track his son was time and the rise of the next lightning-gifted elemental master.

But now he found him. The auburn haired freckled face boy was now one of Ninjago’s biggest celebrities along with his five ninja companions, and he was just as famous as Cliff is. But Jay doesn’t know Cliff Gordon, does he? Sure, he’s done a lot of movies Jay would recognize, most notably the space samurai Fritz Donagen from the comic book series. But he didn’t know enough about his son to know whether or not Jay even cared for movies, let alone Cliff. What Cliff wanted most of all was that when Jay finally discovers who his biological dad is (if he does) that Jay will be proud to be family with him. That is all.

“….some new footage of the Ninja was released to the media today,” a Newscastor’s introduction to the next story on the news caught Cliff’s attention. He turned up the volume and leaned forward to listen in. “The footage is from a year ago when the Ninja team went aboard a spacecraft to stop the evil robots from getting the remains of the once-powerful golden weapons. As we know, they failed that mission, but here’s some never-before-seen action moments of the ninja aboard the spacecraft. Take a look,” the castor nodded his head and the clip appeared.

Cliff instantly broke into a grin when he saw the security footage of the teenage heroes all in spacesuits, save the robot in his original skin-colored exo-suit. They looked a little ridiculous, and definitely not ninja-like, but they had their masks over their mouths. Cliff instantly recognized his son as he spoke to the other teammates. Subtitles appeared at the bottom of the screen to help decipher what they were all saying through the static of their suits.

“I can’t wait to see the expressions on the faces of those metal crom-domes when they find out we stowed away on board!” Jay cackled through the static, and Cliff couldn’t help but chuckle. “Crom-domes?” he laughed under his breath, his eyes glued to the action.

“They’re nindroids, nimrod. They don’t have expressions.” The black ninja shot back at Jay (what was his name again? Cam? Chris?). Cliff laughed even harder at “nimrod”. “What are these names?” he asked the screen.

The screen flipped to a camera inside of Jay’s helmet so that his entire face filled the screen. “Oh yeah?” Jay refuted as he raised his eyebrows. “Zane has expressions.”

The screen flipped to the interior of the red ninja’s suit, but Cliff was left breathless. That was the closest he’s ever gotten to his son.

“Zane isn’t like them,” the red ninja groaned. “Do we really have to go over this right now?”

The screen popped back to the exterior of the ship where Jay and the other ninja were sliding on the wing. “It’s just so quiet,” Jay explained to the others. “I’m only trying to fill the space.” Jay paused, waiting for the comedic beat before saying, “Get it? SPACE!!”

“He’s got his mom’s sense of humor, that’s for sure,” Cliff murmured with a smile as he sat back on the couch, unknowing of the tear that quickly ran down his cheek.

The footage jumped around a little, showing the robots as they climbed out of the ship. The black ninja said loudly in the static, “So much for our surprise attack! Look out!!”

The shots of laser guns lit up the footage as the battle erupted. Cliff shook his head a little, realizing how similar of a scene this is to one of his Fritz Donagen movies. Jay pulled himself up to what looked like to be an antenna as one of the robots used their rocket boots to jump and land right in front of him, the laser gun pointed right at his son’s face.

Cliff’s heart skipped a beat, but it looked like Jay wasn’t scared at all. The screen flipped to a camera to the side of Jay, a perfect shot to see him pull back the antenna and whack the robot.

The robot flung backwards, now airborne in the zero-gravity. In an epic move, Jay used the antennae to flip, grab the laser gun, and land perfectly on the spacecraft.

All the ninja cheered, and Cliff tightened his fist in pride. “That’s my boy,” he said proudly. “That’s my Jay.”

One of the other ninja must have cheered on Jay using his name too, because as the blue ninja was shooting and flipping and performing amazing stunts, Jay quickly said, “Not Jay! Fritz Donagen! Fear isn’t a word from where I come from!”

It was as if the house had suddenly dropped 20 degrees. Chills ran up and down Cliff’s body when he heard those words come from the voice of his son. The clip was continuing, and the other ninja were still talking before joining in the fight, but Cliff had a tunnel vision only for the blue ninja. Everything was blurry except for him, and the only sound he heard were the laser guns and his son saying he was Fritz Donagen over and over again.

Before the clip ended, Cliff was a mess of tears. He couldn’t hold them back this time, his mind was exploding and his heart was pounding too hard. Cliff and his son just made a connection, and as stupid as it is- a comic book hero- it was enough for Cliff to prove to himself that his son and him were similar in some way. And for never meeting his own son, a silly connection was the best thing that he could have ever hoped for.

After the clip ended, Cliff tried to wipe his face and calm his sobs to hear the rest of the story. “How about that, folks. A ninja-robot space battle that actually happened.” The newscastor grinned and turned to his partner. “Something you would see in the movies, right?”

She laughed, then said. “Absolutely right. And that Blue Ninja, right? He nailed it right on the head acting as his favorite character of all time, Fritz Donagen.” Cliff leaned forward suddenly, his eyes even wider than before.

“Ah yes, I remember him mentioning he was very fond of the Space Samurai, especially in the movie adaptations. He plays him very well.” “Very well indeed. Now next up we dig a little deeper into how the city of Stiix is holding up after….”

There was a long pause as Cliff stared in awe at the screen. He slowly digested everything he just heard, making sure that he heard everything correctly. His son wasn’t just a fan of Fritz Donagen. He was a fan of Cliff Gordon’s Fritz Donagen.

With a shout of pure joy, Cliff leapt off the couch and began to do a happy dance, his body shaking with joy and excitement, his mind screaming with pride, and his heart swollen with emotion. He was crying through his happy dance, because he never imagined discovering the most coincidental connection he had with his son he’s never met.

They were each other’s biggest fans.