"You know, this sucks." Randy complains as he lays in bed, waking up a bit before slowly moving to grab his pillows, and placing them under his comfortable sheets.
"Training doesn't 'suck' it is essential to becoming a great hero." Nommi states as he is lies on his partner's hair. He was poking at his cheeks with his ears and tugging on his hair.
"No I understand that, but I have to get up at five. Five in the morning. This is wonk," he grumpily says as he gets up to climb down his ladder.
He blindly shuffles out of his room and into the bathroom. When he flips the switch he immediately squints at the sudden light. As he puts toothpaste on his toothbrush Nommi grabs his long hair that covers his face up.
"Well someone loves to play around until 10. There needs to be time to train. Your partner is receiving his own training." Nommi says as his miraculous holder brushes his teeth.
'It is called having a social life,' Randy thinks as he spits out the toothpaste. He gargles some water and spits it out. Washing his face and drying it he says, "Can't I just train during the weekend like before? It worked for summer." He takes his hairbrush from the drawer and brushes his hair to his usual style. After a few strokes his long hair is back in the air and out of his eyes. It is always messed up whenever a certain kwami is in there or he turned too much in his sleep.
"Unfortunately I don't know when you have homework, and you'd use it to hang with the buffoon." The kwami drawls out as he flies down to rest on his shoulder.
The human sighs as he gave up trying to change Nommi's opinion on his friend. He can be quite stubborn with his opinions; along with being a slave driver at times, but he is doing it for his own safety. Well, that's what he says whenever he is tormenting him. Only thing he wants to do is sleep, play video games, watch movies, and patrol occasionally. Also fighting monsters, but they haven't showed up yet. The only time when Nommi isn't tormenting him is when he is tired, for something strange reason he is happy, or eating cherries.
Randy goes back to his room to grab his duffle bag from the closet and stuff it full of essential items. He has been using it to store his workout clothes, street clothes, night vision goggles, flashlight, water bottle, and a few snacks. The snacks will be gone when Howard spots the bag and he decides to look through it.
He can't be gone for too long, his pillow double will be obvious if his mom comes into his room to wake him up for school. He puts on a black shirt and sweat pants—different from his red shirt, jeans, and jacket—as he gets his house key. Creeping downstairs he locks the front door, stuffing it in his pocket, and grabs his flashlight from the bag.
Randy doesn't turn it on just yet—the streetlamps are still on—as he jogs down the dimly lit streets. Nommi flies besides him with his ears erect, trying to listen for any sound out of place. If the kwami hears something, he will fly into the duffle bag to remain hidden. The two of them get off the main road, after Randy jogs for a few minutes. He grabs his flashlight, turning it on, in preparation of taking the side roads to get to a wooden area where he trains every morning. It used to be in the evenings, but since school started yesterday Nommi had to change his training schedule.
They enter the woods and Randy places the duffle bag beside a shrub a little ways in there. He turns grabs his night vision goggles and turns off his flashlight. Placing them on he waits for Nommi's orders ash does some stretches. The kwami is perched on the lowest branch of a tree off to his right.
After completing his eighty set of curl ups, push-ups, sit-ups, and stretching all of his limbs as far as he can for thirty seconds his partner speaks. "Just like before I need you to climb through trees and vault off of them. The best way to avoid an attack is to avoid an attack, so cardiovascular training—along with stamina training—is the way to go." Nommi wisely says from his branch.
"So when am I going to start training with my sword?" Randy asks as he gets into his starting stance.
"Right after I see we train your reflexes with your stamina. You are already better than my previous partners without the suit." He praises as Randy runs toward a tree.
Randy grins as he climbs up a tree quickly and back flips off of it, "You really mean it Nommi?"
"Of course I do, I am not one to give out praise without proof. Now hop to it. Heh."
With that, Randy rolls his eyes and start sliding under low branches, jumping over bushes, and flipping over large rocks. He startles the wildlife who were previously sleeping. He jumps over from one branch to another, climbs up to the tallest tree, and then jumps halfway to the next tree.
He does this until Nommi calls time. The kwami never lets him catch his breath ever since the beginning of training a few weeks ago. Nommi says it's for endurance, that the enemy will not allow him to rest in mid battle. He has improved since then; before, he can only run long distances in bursts. Now, he can climb trees quickly, jump off of them, while preforming a flip, and vaulting off of things. All this training in hopes of the suit to enhance what he can normally do. It is a pain in his ass, but Randy will not admit that he is grateful for this because he doesn't like pain. Even if it means he cannot practice using his sword, if he does his tiny partner will have his head.
"Alright that's enough," Nommi says as he touches Randy's hair, "pack up and go home. We can't stay as long as we want now."
'You mean, you can't afford to train me as long as you want. I like the shorter time, but it is a pain to wake up early,' Randy thought as he breathes deeply.
Randy finds his duffle bag easily, and places the night vision goggles in it. He rushes out of the woods back to his home. There is some daylight coming from the rising sun. He arrives home after fifteen minutes and see the bus of elementary school students pass by him.
'At least I have time to shower instead of just washing my body like yesterday. All because mom wanted to drop me off at school instead of letting me go on the bus.' Randy unlocks his house door and gently closes the door then locking it. Creeping upstairs, he goes to his room, and places the clothes from his bag on his bed. He move his pillows from under his blanket, so it doesn't look like a person is sleeping. His dad has this weird habit of coming in during the early morning just to check that he is still here. He doesn't go into his room, otherwise he would see that Nommi sleeping next to him on a separate pillow. Although it does get annoying when he is half asleep and feels Nommi burrow into his shirt as his flies in there. He would hear his door open soon after that then it would close. Sometimes Nommi would just lay on him, too tired to move. He has to be careful to not squish the small kwami on those nights.
Randy leaves his room and Nommi trails after him. 'Probably to see if anyone is in the kitchen so he can grab something,' he thinks as he grabs his towel from the closet. Going into the bathroom Randy strips and takes about a ten minute shower. He shuts off the water, wrings the longest strands of his hair before toweling off, and wrapping the damp towel around his waist. He goes to his room to put on his clothes and shoes. He heads downstairs for breakfast, a bowl of Crunch O's and some toast.
His parents are in the room and Randy looks behind some other cereal boxes to see if Nommi is there. He hides behind them, or he in one of the pots. The only reason why he is in the closet is so that he can get the jar of strawberry jam before anyone sees him. Even opening the lid and scooping a bit from his hands from the last time he caught him in the act. After living with him for a few weeks, he learns that he only has a sweet tooth toward fruits and chocolate. Earlier in summer he offered him to have some ice cream, but the bunny kwami declined. Who doesn't like ice cream?
He pops in another slice of bread, and tears a bit of his toast. Randy dabs it in jam and looks around. His mom and dad are watching the news as they drink their coffee. With no one looking, he sneaks the piece of toast to the black and red bunny. Nommi munches on it as he eats his cereal, alternating giving him food every other spoonful, and looking around if his parents are watching him. That wasn't often because they only do that when they are about to get up for more coffee. Still, Nommi has to be hidden from their eyes just in case.
The toast pops out of the toaster and he gets a knife. Picking up the toast, he puts a lot of jam on the bread. He leaves it on the table as he finishes up the cereal. He takes the two toasts upstairs, and eats the one he tore for Nommi. He gives the whole toast that is jam covered to him when they get upstairs.
He plays a game of Ninjas vs Cowboys, only completing two levels before ending the game because his partner flies into his jacket. Turning off the television he grabs his backpack and heads downstairs. He fills up a snack bag full of cherries, place them inside his jacket, and was about to leave until his mom called out to him.
She said, "Randy why don't I drive you to school today?"
"Mom, you did that yesterday." He whines as he sees the older woman with purple hair grab her keys.
"Well it is on the way to work and you've been getting up earlier than you used to."
'Because a certain someone spends at least ten minutes trying to wake me up by pulling my hair or poking my face,' he bitterly thinks. At least he can lay in bed for a while before getting ready to please that slave driver. "I'm just excited to see if today I will see the first monster battle."
"Randy," his mom scolds him, "you shouldn't wish ill will onto others. It could be you one day. Oh how I hope it won't happen, you'll break my fragile heart."
"I doubt it mom." He confidently replies. How could it be possible for him to get stank'd? He is practically invulnerable to it. "Can we at least get Howard? I can't wait by myself again for him to get to school. That took forever like why did we even leave close to the time whenever I overslept?"
Nommi pinches him and he hisses lowly, "Don't mention not getting stank'd."
"Sweetheart eventually you will, what do you use? Stank'd? Turning into a monster. It may not be this year, but it could be the next. In fact that is how your father and I first met." His mom says and he tries to not groan out loud. He does not want to hear that story again.
"Alright, but can we please get Howard?" Randy asked as he gets into the car.
"You and your little friend. I swear you two are attached to the hip sometimes," she said as she starts her car and pulls out of the driveway.
He waits impatiently for the car to pull up to the driveway of his best bro's house. Finally after arriving in his neighborhood, Randy takes off his seat belt. He gets nagged by his mom, but he doesn't bother putting it back on. Once she pulls up to the Weinerman household he gets out of the car before she even parked.
"Randy, can't you wait a second for me to park," his mom shouts at him. He ignores her to knock on the front door.
He taps his foot and hears a click of the door. The door opens and he is greeted with the oldest orangette sibling who barely opened the door.
Heidi rolls her eyes, turns her head, and calls out, "Howard your friend Andy is here." She shakes her head and opens the door wider. "Come on in."
"You know my name is Randy," he mumbles under his breath as he steps inside.
He heads to the kitchen to see Howard shoveling cereal into his mouth mechanically. The teen sitting down grumbles out, "Cunningham what are you doing here?"
"Well I thought we can go to school together," Randy said with a wide smile.
Howard gave him a deadpan look then mutters out while chewing, "I swear if I didn't know better I'd say you've been awake for a long time."
He laughs nervously, "Y-yeah sugar and a shower helps. I am sooooo going to crash later."
"Uhuh. Let me eat and wash my face. Go grab my chips will you." Howard gives him a deadpan look as he says that and Randy nods.
He grabs the chips from the closet and when he turns his back, he sees Howard loudly slurping his milk. He goes by the front door as he waits for him. Howard comes by and grabs the chips, opening it, he walks into the passenger seat.
"Morning Mrs. C. How's life treating ya?" He greets her as Randy slides into the back behind his mom.
"Just great, are you getting enough sleep? You seem tired, late night gaming?" Randy's mom attempts to start a conversation with her son's friend.
"Yep, trying to get a few achievements so I can rub it in Cunningham's face. Which by the way, I just got six more, so better step up your game. Oh, don't worry Mrs. C I won't get any crumbs on your floor." Howard said the last part as an afterthought.
Randy sees his mom roll her eyes and smile from the rear view mirror, "Oh I know. I know. So how are you boys liking high school?"
"Pretty good so far," Howard said, "we are still planning to get at least freshmen respect."
"Oh yeah, mom that reminds me of something. Me and Howard are going to stay after school on Friday. Big basketball game happening and we have got to see it. Biggest event in the year," Randy says as they get nearer to Norrisville High.
"Anything correlating to the freshmen respect?" She asks.
Randy passionately declares, "Nooo, it's for popularity. Once people see how bruce we look, we are going to be the earliest freshmen to make out mark in the inner circle! We will be set for life."
"Yeah and I'm going to plan out our outfits." Howard says as he gets out of the car.
"Well that sounds fun boys. I'll see you two in the evening," Randy's mom said as her son gets out of the car.
She drives off and then Howard confesses as they walk, "I have no clue what to do on Friday! Ugh and we need to think of an idea fast otherwise we won't be able to get in the fish box." He throws his hands in the
"Chillax Howard, we got all day to figure it out." Randy puts his hand on Howard's upper arm to stop the flailing. "Plus you got to stop doing that, people are going to think you're a shoob."
"For once you're right. No more negative attention for us, just two bruce dudes heading to school…oh don't look behind you." Howard whispers the last part.
"What. Why?" Randy said as he turns his head to the left slightly.
"Cunningham!" Howard snaps, "What did I just tell you?"
"It is nothing bad is it? Is it chickens? How did chickens get into school? Please tell me it isn't chickens. Or is my pants torn, I thought I got rid of that pair." He rambles as he changes his pace slightly to match Howard's sudden brisk walking.
"Dude your pants aren't torn."
"Yes I agree with Howard, nothing is torn on both of your backsides," an accented voice suddenly said.
"Oh hey Jacques." Randy said as he looks up to the slightly taller teen.
"Hey." Howard greets with a wide smile, "just wondering where you were at. We didn't see you at the tree."
"Ahah I was talking to some of my friends waiting for you two." Jacques replies.
"So you ditched them," Howard bluntly says.
Jacques shrugs, "I will see them during class. Apologizes for not conversing much yesterday, we are still on for lunch today correct?"
"Yeah of course," Randy says before his friend can open his big mouth.
"So I heard around school of some talks after going to the councilor's office; something about one of the companies and the school nullifying a deal?" The brunet asks his two friends.
Randy keeps an eye on the people around them. Some quiet down as they pass, mostly it is groups of girls. Some of them he recognizes for being in the crowd from yesterday.
"-u talking about?" Howard gives Jacques a look and Randy shakes his head.
"A few weeks back McFist industry will not be containing students anymore due to the arrival of the heroes. Although, McFist will not hesitate to help if students are no longer protected like last time." Randy states as they head over to Howard's locker.
"Cunningham you watch the news? I thought we agreed it was boring."
"My parents watch the news, I just read that online when a forum I go to won't stop blowing up threads." He said as Howard tosses most of his stuff in his locker.
"I do not understand, a company contains students, and everyone is okay with it?" Jacques made a face of disgust and the other two shrug.
"What else are you supposed to do? They had to contain the monster students until their transformation blows over," Howard said as Randy puts his bag in his locker, and the French teen gives him a look of interest.
"So people can turn into monsters here?"
"Yeah. Didn't whoever told you about Norrisville said anything about that? We have monster attacks at least once a week. Usually from here. Although this place is a snooze fest since nothing has happened." Howard complains as he and Randy follow their ticket to popularity, even with those scary girls.
'Note to self, lunch time equals celebrity status. Howard is going to lose his cheese when he meets my alter ego. He thinks I'm bruce even if I'm wearing a lame costume in his eyes. Only thing lame is the tail, yet he also disses my ears,' Randy thought as he slows his pace to see his old and new friend. 'At least he doesn't completely hate him, just want to get some of that popular status with the ladies.'
'They failed to tell me that detail. Heroes you said. What exactly were their names? The news is too fast to catch sometimes." Jacques admits while fiddling with his backpack strap.
"Well," Howard smirks and glances at his friend, "one of them is a black rabbit themed hero and the other a fire themed bird called Rabbit Boy and Flaming Chicken."
"Howard you know their real names. I swear you do this just to annoy me." Randy sighs in frustration, "Jacq, can I call you Jacq? Anyway their real names are Hidden Bun and Phoenix."
"You can if you wish. At least I know my savior's name instead of calling him Bunny Boy or Black Blur."
"Pht Bubby Boy!" Howard laughs and Randy covers his face with his hands so no one can see it redden and his scowl. "That's a classic!"
Jacques chuckles as he watches the duo's distinct reactions to the name.
'It is one thing knowing others call me that and another straight to my face. This is why all of Nommi's miraculous holders go by Hidden.' Randy keeps his hands to his face since he is still scowling.
"So what exactly did," Howard snickers, "Bunny Boy save you from?"
"There was going to be a car crash and he ended up stopping it by getting in the way of an out of control car. It was, how you say, skidding." The French teen states. "He stabbed his sword into the road and the car hit it. There was a sharp turn so it was double dangerous."
"Well that turned out okay." Howard said.
"Indeed it did."
The first bell rings and the trio walk the tallest to his class. Once they waved their goodbyes Howard sighed in relief.
"Thank cheese that was over with. What's up with you, I had to talk to the weird and awkward talking Jacq here when you know I don't even like him much." Howard comments once they get into Mr. Bannister's class.
"I think I'm crashing," Randy says and it isn't exactly a lie. He hasn't been taking any middle of the day naps to make up for his hours of lost sleep and is tired as a result. Before school even started, he and Howard hang out a lot during the final week of summer break. He didn't even catch a lot of sleep as a result with the two of them messing with his circadian rhythm. Not to mention the exhaustion of today's training finally being felt.
"Just try to sleep in class, you kind of look like a zombie just like everyone else."
Randy glares weakly at him, and drags his feet into class. He sits in his seat as Howard is behind him. He puts his arms on his desk and lays his head on top of his arm. "Maybe if you punch me I would wake up," Randy groans and then stops. "No, ignore what I said. I don't want to get hurt."
Howard chuckles, "Well not like I was going to. Woke up too early, and I need to catch the one way ticket to snooze town."
Randy tries to sleep and even Nommi isn't trying to shake him awake by moving his red shirt. The bell rings and Randy sighs, bracing himself for the loud voice of his English teacher.
He spends most of his time trying to pay attention in class, and the other half being productive. By the time he felt like he was going to have his head explode. 'I really need more sugar or to actually sleep,' he thought as he gets out of class. He leaves with his best friend and they both walk together.
It's like that for the next few periods, the three of them walking in the crowded halls. At least by the time he hit biology, he was wide awake, Mrs. Driscoll is too weird to handle with her obsession with her dead husband. She even kissed him in class, Randy shudders at the memory.
One of the grossest things he ever witnessed, just under accidentally catching a glimpse of doctors messing around with someone's innards in the hospital. That was shnasty. By the time gym rolled around, he was pumped for action, mainly because they had to run up some stairs on the second day of school. Ready for action, food, and socializing with a whole new crowd of people. Not to mention making a brief appearance, he can always say that he was patrolling around the area for monsters. Nommi will definitely buy that, he says always to be vigilant, whatever that means.
He would not even mind fighting any monsters, at least then he has an excuse to use the bruce sword. Cutting down attacks and being plain invincible. He already feels invincible in his Hidden suit, like nothing can touch him. Who can touch him? With a sword in hand, he can cut off attacks and the like with ease. Not just weaving around problems and finding alternate ways to save people. Turns out no one would like him to slice down a street lamp if they can't get down from a tree or a burning building when the fire fighters are taking too long to respond.
Well at least in those incidents it got the word out he is around. Even if it is a shame that those kinds of things happen, the people trapped in a burning building part, not the tree part. Nommi didn't even help him when he was stuck in a tree in the beginning of summer, he was too scared to jump down from a branch to another one that is five feet down. He had to suck it up. At least when he saved a kid from a burning building he found out that the suit is fire proof. His miraculous wasn't damaged and Nommi wasn't hurt when he detransformed.
"This period is wonk, who in their right mind make everyone run up stairs during the first week of school?" Howard complains as the two of them get dressed.
"I know right? I heard from so many people that Coach Green is insane. That he chased his students with a flamethrower when they weren't motivated and on every other Wednesday." Randy parrots what he heard and Howard raised his eyebrows.
"The teachers here are crazy." His orange hair friend states it as a fact.
"One of the many truth here. The teachers are crazy. We have a guy who rides a limo to school. I am hungry."
"Amen to that." The two of them walk out of the locker room as the bell rings. "Speaking of food, tadder tots are on the menu."
"The best kind of potatoes beside mash potatoes," Randy said cheering.
"No, the best kind of potatoes is potato chips, fries, and barbeque, inside a burger." Howard fantasizes, practically salivating.
Randy made a motion of wiping his mouth and Howard got the message. They walk to the classroom. "You think he isn't going to ditch again right?"
"Jacques better not. I will have it up to here with the guy." Howard said as he raises his hand above his head. "Right now it is here," the hand is at his waist, "but in a moment notice it is at the top."
"Hello Randy, Howard. What are you doing?" Jacques directs the question to Howard.
"My patience level of a new game coming out next week." Howard smoothly lies as he walks to the left side of him. Randy gets on Jacquez's right side.
"Oh that sound nice. I have five friends who wish to sit with us. Is that good with you two?" Jacques asks.
"Yea that is fine," Randy said.
"Good! Let us go get them. You will love them." He said and the trio move away from the way to the cafeteria to the hallway where Principal Slimovitz office is.
The trio passes it and Randy peers through the glass for a second. There is a large man and a blonde woman next to a large teen with brown hair. 'Wonder what happened that parents were called in,' Randy thought as he passed the room. His foreign friend takes them to some lockers where four girls and a boy are talking to one another.
"Hey Jacques, who are those two?" the long hair brunette girl ask as she walked up to him. The other three followed close behind her.
"The one on my left is Howard and the one on my right is Randy," Jacques introduced them as he moves his hand to each of them during it.
"Well I'm Jenifer, but you guys can call me Jen," said the long hair brunette.
"Cory," said the previously lone male in the group of girls, "Jenny's twin brother." His twin scolds him and Randy cracks a smile.
The red hair girl with the pixie cut and a black bow said brightly, "I'm Isabella, I hope we can all get along."
"Cynthia," the other brunette—who is dressed nicely Randy notices—said with a coy smile as she locks her eyes with Jacques. He did not notice her as he was talking to Jen and Cory about what they are interested in. She pouts then talks to the last girl who Randy can tell she is shy by the way she shrinks in herself.
"Hi, I'm Darcy." She said with a low voice that Randy barely manage to catch. It was partially due to all the chatter going on.
"Well nice to meet you Darcy," Randy politely replies, "I once knew a girl named Darcy she lives in the south now." Howard punches his arm and when Randy gives him an annoyed look, he sees that he is talking with everyone.
Darcy gives him a look of surprise, but smiles and says with some sass, "Well it is a common name."
With that said the two are silent for a moment and then Jacques saves it by saying, "It is still of the passing period, we should get lunch."
Everyone starts walking in the direction to the cafeteria with Howard leading the way. It is easier with less teenagers in the hall, and they arrived there without having to shove anyone out of the way. Randy notices that the table they were sitting at still has no one there, and immediately he puts his binder down. 'I should start carrying around my bag if we are going to sit with so many people. At least Nommi can eat in peace and he won't complain when we get home. Probably going to say something about lying, even though I technically didn't lie. Thought everyone put their things in the lockers like in middle school.' Everyone beside Howard follow suit to what he did and they all went to the lunch line.
Randy tried to talk to Cynthia about what she liked and she just said, "Clothes, the boy band 71 Reasons, and playing basketball in that order."
"Me and Howard are in a band, 30 Seconds To Math, greatest thing ever. I play on the keytar and Howard is on the drums." He mentions with pride. The two of them made the band when they were in seventh grade, when they still sucked, but now they rock better than most rockstars in his opinion.
"Oh really? Do you have a singer?" She asks as she grabs her entrée.
"The correct term is vocalist and not exactly." Randy replies as he grabs his tadder tots and apple sauce.
"Then you guys aren't really a band now are you," she sticks up her nose.
"Wow, that hurts me," Randy sarcastically said. Who cares about the opinion of some girl who never heard their band? The moment she does, she is going to regret saying that.
"What man, I see an adolescent school boy bragging about nothing he knows about."
A stranger next to Darcy who is next to Cynthia hollers, "Dude, you got burned by a chick!"
Randy holds his tongue, partially because his mom told him to not insult girls, and also not to scare off his new friends. Plus, what Cynthia just said was pretty week. Howard can deliver worse, he has seen it, and he can just tell she cannot even deliver. If someone replies to that, well she would choke. He knows the types of girls like Cynthia.
That is why he waited for her to leave after paying for her food to mumble under his breath, "Bet with that attitude, and that knock off purse you are bound to be swimming with a gross pool of boy."
Someone snorts and Randy turns his head to see who it is. It was Darcy and she said, "Sorry about her. Cynthia gets like that sometimes when she gets…obsessed."
"Don't apologize for her, I met her type before. She gets obsessed by boys a lot then?" Randy states as they get closer to the table.
"Unfortunately." With that, she sits next to Cynthia who is on the other end of the table and Randy sits across from Howard who has his legs on his seat as he is sitting by Cory and Isabella.
"So what do you two like to do?" He asks the ones next to Howard because he seems to actually like them. Seems is the key word. 'He must be dying inside for not making a jerk comment from the way someone hasn't broke into tears or yelled at him.'
Isabella quickly said, "Roller skating and photographing," before talking to Jacques and the other girls.
"Paintball and hockey, I need to find out if there is a hockey team here," Cory said as he eats his food.
"He is like a master at the game. Like seriously Cunningham when we go back to the Arena I want him on our team." Howard said as he eats his pudding cup.
"You are that good?"
"Yep. Rarely get hit because I shoot my opponent then hide, and continue to hit them." Cory brags.
"So bruce." Randy said with an awed expression. "You should also come with us when we play laser tag." They need all the help they can get because he momentarily is blinded if someone shoots off a bright light in a dark room.
"Eh. It's not as fun as paint ball. You know the saying, no pain no gain." Cory admits while shrugging.
"Unfortunately." Randy looks down at his applesauce with his spoon in his mouth. He remembers the first few days of training where Nommi would hit him with a stick if he couldn't do a front flip or a perfect cartwheel. Then it moved to back flips and tumbles where there is a less likely chance of getting hurt. Who knew that a small little thing could have the strength to carry a short but thick branch?
Those dark days are over. Now he can actually train even if on the occasion Nommi threatens to go back to the basics.
"Uh Cunningham," Howard snaps his fingers in front of his face.
Jacques, who is sitting on his left, shakes his arm and gives him a look of concern, "Randy are you alright?"
"Oh I'm good I'm good," Randy said, waving off the two's concerns. "Just remembering the time when I-we got pelted by sticks." He curses himself for the slip up, but Howard isn't giving him the look he gives when he catches him lying. Maybe because he is distracted by Cory for a moment.
Howard shudders, "Benjamin, I am so glad he is homeschooled now."
Huh. Looks like he was sort of paying attention. Not much to catch the lie, but still it was an effort.
Jacques slowly nods, and he goes back to his conversation with the girls.
Randy mentally patted himself on the back for not getting caught. He eats the remaining applesauce and some of the tadder tots before leaving the restroom. No one would mind him leaving early. At least then Nommi can eat, and he can also transform. Giving his debut to the students of Norrisville who are more impressionable than the adults.
Leaving the table he heads to the bathroom, and no one asks where he is going. The table that everyone is sitting on is close to the bathroom, and the snack bar. An ideal place that he and Howard had talked about when it was still the summer. Quick to get into the line and quick to get to the bathroom in case of emergencies. They can still overhear some gossip in hopes of being popular, but the last is shattered due to no one who is remotely cool sits over here. There might still be hope if Jacques continues to sit with them.
When he is in the restroom he checks all the stalls. No one is in there. Good. He goes to the farthest stall from the door, locks it, and he lifts the left side of his jacket.
"Coast is clear," he said as Nommi flies out with his bag of cherries.
He opens it and puts the whole cherry in his mouth. He swallows the pit and places the stem in the bag. "You okay?" He asks as he grabs another cherry.
"Yeah. Why?"
"You're never in the bathroom at this time, and you were talking to some of your new friends."
"That's because you need to at least eat and you can't with that many people around." Randy said before mumbling out, "I kind of want to talk to you about bringing my backpack with me. At least then you can eat without it being strange, sleep if you want, and whatever else I can sneak in there to entertain yourself."
Nommi smiles and flies on top of his head, "You care for me, thank you Randy."
He looks down and scratches his cheek, "It's nothing Nommi, nothing at all. Realized you can get bored and all that junk. Plus you were right about the bag."
"Of course I am." Randy hears him taking another cherry and taking a bite out of it.
With an annoyed tone Randy says, "Here I thought we were having a moment, and don't eat when you're on my hair!"
The kwami laughs and continues to eat. Randy lifts his hands and tries to swipe at Nommi. The bunny flies out of reach and grins at him with a stem hanging out of his mouth. The purple hair human bends down and ruffles his hair, trying to get any crumbs out of his hair.
"You know if anything spills it would be just juice," Nommi states as he watches in amusement of his human.
"I know that. I was just testing if you knew that." Randy retorts with his face slightly red. He stands up straight and dusts off his jacket. Looking anywhere but at the kwami.
"Uhuh." Nommi says as he eats the last cherry. "So you're going back out there right? I'll just go hide now."
"Wait! I mean, wait. I was wondering if we could patrol the school for a bit. You know, run around outside, pop in a few places, check if there is any monsters showing up because of hurt feelings." Randy suggests as he holds Nommi's gaze. He cannot back down with this, it has to happen. All for the sake of making sure that his best friend actually sees a hero up close, well beside the time when they were young, that doesn't count.
"This has nothing to do with popularity right?" If Nommi had eyebrows he would be raising them.
"Sort of." He admits, practically anyone can tell if he is lying so why bother. He either stutters or makes a horrible bold face lie while doing it. "It ties into that, bringing out the word that Hidden is back, and to strike fear into the hearts of monsters. Well really just to patrol for monsters."
"With a small part of recognition." Nommi said with his arms cross.
"Yes. Please, just this once." Randy begs.
Nommi narrows his eyes and stares at him. Randy widens his and tries to look innocent. Just the kwami begins to frown Randy quickly says, "I am just going to run outside the perimeter and check around for monsters. Maybe check inside as well. Just the cafeteria and auditorium. Heard there isn't any windows there, and a student can be stank'd without us knowing. Please Nommi."
Nommi flies eye level to the teen. His grey blue eyes clashing with wide light blue eyes. Neither breaks from the staring, but Nommi nods. "I suppose you can go, but leave your phone here. If anyone checks on you they should know you are still here should anything happen. I suppose you can leave through the window here."
"Yes!" Randy pumps his fist in the air. "Ears out."
Immediately his transformation ends, and he unlocks the window on the wall. Hidden jumps out of the window, onto the pavement, and runs around campus. Well more like jogging around campus and peering into them. He wants to at least make sure everything is alright before going through one of the open windows on the second floor.
All the classrooms are safe. Crazy teachers filling out their job description and then some. Nothing to worry about. He manage to pass by Principal Slimovitz's office and found out Hannibal McFist, CEO of McFist industries, is actually in there.
Hidden may have waved at them, McFist practically made all of his favorite things, and he did go back to patrolling. Even managed to wall climb by running up walls and then jumping through the nearest window. A male student was walking in that hall when he jumped through.
The student yelled and Hidden apologizes quickly.
"Bunny Boy?! What-what are you doing here?" The male student asks as he gets a good look at who came through the window.
"The name is Hidden Bun. Hidden for short, and I was patrolling around your school in case of-well look at the time. Got to go." Hidden flees from the scene as he sees that people are opening the classroom doors because the student screamed.
'Doubt anyone is going to be attacked up there. Too quiet.' Hidden thinks as he slides down the stair rails and runs in the direction of the auditorium that is close to the gym.
Hidden decides to be quick about it, he cannot be gone for too long. Someone might go to the bathroom to see he isn't there. He opens the door to the auditorium and finds nothing to be wrong. Just a couple of students watching a mandatory video and taking notes. With that, he runs to the cafeteria on the other side of school, appearing as his signature black and red blur.
He bursts into the room and zips through, leaving a burst of wind, and teenagers staring at the front door dumbly. Just when he entered through the door Hidden realized something. 'I don't know what to say for my public appearance. I haven't even talked to the press, yet I was going to wait until after Phoenix and I meet up for once. Always been passing each other up. Wait a minute, are my honking tots gone?! Howard why? I was gone for like 5 minutes. Should probably leave now even if my bro hasn't seen me. Well I have been running around the cafeteria.' Hidden thought as he slowed down to the windows.
"OMG Hidden, it's really him! I write about you all the time!" A girl shouts and others follow.
"I thought he is Rabbit Man?"
"No his name is Dark Cotton!"
"It is Bloody Bunny!"
"Can we like have a pic with you?!"
"Where's Phoenix?!"
"Did the duo break up?"
"It's Phoenix's side kick Burrow Lad!"
"Can you get this signed by Phoenix?"
"Why didn't you guys come back sooner?"
"Bunny Girl look over here!" There is a bright flash along with multiple clicks as people take pictures and record it.
"Hey look, its Cotton Dweeb!"
Okay who shouted that last one and the one before that? There is just too much noise for Hidden to think straight. Why is everyone acting like they haven't heard of him? He has been mentioned on the news occasionally.
Hidden was about to speak when some kind of humanish looking robot—or was it human with robotic features aka a weird looking cyborg—burst through one of the walls. It had mechanical thick spider legs and a torso of a buff human. The thing had a few stitches all over its body, six limbs of various beasts—octopus, alligator, bear, gorilla, tiger, and horse—acting as arms with the skin fused with a chainsaw, and screws coming from the thing's head. Everyone starts screaming, some running away in fear, and others are cowering in the corner.
With that, Hidden grabs a nearby tray and throws it at the robot, surely it is a robot because no human would want those cybernetics. The tray manage to hit the bear arm of the robot, and it turns its head toward him.
"Hey ugly! Looks like you have plenty of hands and legs, but which one should I cut off first," Hidden yells and the robot moves toward him.
Hidden smirks and grabs his sword from his back. He was about to jump through the window when the robot comes close enough when a figure bursts into the room. Hidden spares a glance at the figure and sees it is the current Phoenix. Clad in dark red that subtly turns to dark orange to orange and then to yellow as it gets to his elbows He has a white mask with a form of a beak covering his mouth and it ends at his collar bone. He has a dark red mask over his eyes and in his hand is his winged weapon that he is holding on its underside. The weapon has five sharp dark red metal feathers and each feather has a wire connected to the white main part of the weapon. Either used to impale or hinder targets if it wraps around them.
Phoenix uses his weapon, and flings all of his feathers to the robot's arms as all of his arms were going to strike down Hidden. He manage to hold the robot's arms momentarily, and Hidden uses his sword to cut down the only limb holding a chainsaw that isn't bound. After slicing through the limb, he makes quick work of two others, but notices that the robot was inching forward. Phoenix was struggling to hold the robot back.
Hidden flips over the robot and runs to his partner. "Hey nice to finally meet you, but you can let go now." Hidden said to Phoenix as he grab hold of his waist, so he won't be sent flying off by the robot once it has the wires loosen from its elbows. "Don't want my partner flying off when I just met him."
"Well I don't want my partner to become sliced rabbit meat." Phoenix retorts with his deep voice that is a bit muffled by his lower mask.
"Heh good one," Hidden chuckles at the morbid joke, "at least it is clever."
Phoenix gave him a look, one that practically reads, 'why are you laughing at your own death joke,' but he has his weapon in hand ready to strike at the robot that is making its way to them. Phoenix back flips to get some distance in between his target and Hidden runs around to the side.
The robot is momentarily confused, assessing which hero it should attack, before it decides to attack the original target. The bunny themed hero smirks and runs at the robot, sword extended as it hits one of the chainsaws, breaking it. Two other chainsaws fall into the direction of the superhero. Hidden slides under the legs as Phoenix throws two of his knife like feathers at the back torso of the robot. He pulls the main portion of the wing back once he sees Hidden clear under the robot.
The robot tips over to the back, crushing three of the eight spider legs, and Hidden makes quick work of cutting off the remaining arms as the robot flails around, trying to get up. Phoenix releases the metal feathers from the torso. He walks toward his partner.
"Ha looks like you won't be tormenting these students anymore." Hidden gloats as he towers over the fallen robot.
Phoenix runs to his partner, seeing the stitches pull back from the robot's chest, and tackles his partner to the ground.
"Next time you are going to gloat, make sure the robot is destroyed," Phoenix said as he lies on top of Hidden.
"Move to the left." Hidden said as he sees the robot's chest arm try to slice his bird partner's leg off.
"Thanks." Phoenix said as he moves to his left, get up, and slice the arm off with his sharp wing weapon.
Hidden gets up and chops off the head of the robot as his partner destroyed the limb. He makes sure to watch his feet for the falling chainsaw. The crowd of scared students clap and cheer for their heroes saving them.
"Huh, that was easy," Hidden states before turning to his partner and giving him a wide smile. "Great work. I know you know me, but I'm going to introduce myself. I am Hidden Bun."
"You can't tell, but I'm smiling to. Phoenix, please to meet your acquaintanceship. I hope we get to be the best partners."
"No." Hidden pauses, frowning before giving Phoenix a wide smile, "You and I are going to be friends."
"That would be nice." Phoenix said as the two shake hands.
The crowd cheers chanting, "Phoenix and Bun Bun! Phoenix and Bun Bun!"
"The name is Hidden Bun," Hidden shouts before slipping out through the window. He mumbles, "It isn't that hard to remember."
Hidden doesn't falter as he runs up the wall and jumps on the roof. He hears a voice call out, "Wait!" He doesn't listen as he jumps down the other side of the building with his hand to the wall. He won't feel the pain if he did that as Randy, and slides into the window.
"Ears in," Hidden says as he detransforms into Randy Cunningham.
Nommi gets out of the previously black bracelet and floats to his eye level. "That was a decent fight, but let me point out a few things later. Reminder, even if Phoenix is your partner, you cannot say a thing." Nommi whispers.
"I wouldn't say anything." Randy whispers as he closes the window.
"You would eventually. Just a friendly reminder."
"Why can't I tell him my name?" Randy asks, curious to know why he cannot even entrust his identity to a teen who has his back. Who also knows the difficulties of being a secret superhero.
"In some cases, partners do not agree with one another later on, and if one is feeling quite vengeful, well you get the picture." Nommi leaves it at that and Randy is speechless.
Why would anyone even do that? Hurting someone they work with to protect the civilians of Norrisville from the dangers of the stank. Apparently robots as well, from the recent encounter in the next room. Then again, the things Nommi say is for his wellbeing, but that doesn't mean he has to follow them or agree with it. After a year of working with Phoenix, he will tell him his identity. It won't be like the last pair who were the Phoenix and Hidden.
Randy flushes the toilet and Nommi moves into his jacket, and into the pocket. Randy open his stall and wash his hands. He glances at the stalls and none of them are occupied. He practices in the mirror that he is surprised. He looks convincing, so he leaves the bathroom.
Randy takes a good look of the cafeteria and truly sees the damage from the fight. The tiles of the floor are wrecked from when the chainsaw robot tried to get up. The wall destroyed from where the foe entered from. The tables destroyed in the fight and chairs are thrown all over the cafeteria.
Randy walks to the table he was sitting at and whistles. "I'm thankful I did not get caught up in this wreckage." He says to himself as he tries to find everyone else. They weren't hiding under the table and he doesn't spot anyone familiar in the lunch room. He spots a girl in a yellow uniform and she has blue hair with purple streaks. 'She looks nice enough, might as well talk to her about where everyone is,' Randy thinks as he approaches her.
"Hey, just wondering, you know where everyone ran to?" He politely asks before remembering to introduce himself and smacks himself on his forehead, "Oh I'm Randy."
"Theresa Fowler. Some people went through the back doors and others stayed here. Guess you hid somewhere else." Theresa informs him.
"Yeah, the bathroom. Not the smartest choice and I guess I'll find them in the halls somewhere." Randy said.
"We all were trying to get away," she shrugs, "just try not to hide in the bathroom again. Anyway hope you find them because you don't want your friends to panic."
"Will do. Thanks for the info Theresa." Randy said before heading to the back doors.
Randy leaves and sees that there are a lot of wandering students in the back, some of them are panicking, and others are trying to find their lost friends. Randy wonders if he should tell them that the robot is destroyed. He doesn't say anything because that wouldn't help him find his friends. That would just cause problems with trying to spot everyone.
Walking through the crowds for minutes Randy sees someone who he might know in the distance. It could be Jen, but as he gets closer he sees the person is a guy. The bell rings and he groans. Well at least now he can see Howard and later on see Jacques who will tell everyone else he is okay. There doesn't need to be rumors going on that he is the only student hurt, even if it is not true.
Randy speed walks to math class and manage to make it on time, unfortunately with more than thirty seconds to spare. Randy spots Howard in his seat leaning on the back of his seat legs with no care in the world. Like there wasn't a robot attack not even fifteen minutes earlier.
Randy said as he slides into his seat, "So you got to see the fight. Was it bruce?"
"You missed the best fight ever, even though the bunny was wonking it up," Howard said flippantly.
"Whaaaat? Hidden wonked it up?" How was he honking it up? He was getting close to the robot to make sure it doesn't use its many chainsaws to other people. He is confident with his own dodging skills which is why he even bothered with a frontal attack at close quarters instead of waiting for its back to be turned to catch it off guard. He expected people to be thankful for him, being the one who took down as many of the robot's arms and even defeating it.
"He got saved by Phoenix before the flaming bird destroyed the robot." Howard states as he puts his hands behind his head.
No honking way, does everyone think that as well? So what if he got saved by Phoenix, they got each other's back. Nothing to be ashamed of, but it would be nice if someone would be accurate in the rumor mill. He destroyed the robot by cutting of its head unless Phoenix made sure to destroy it, then it was a double kill for them both. Only thing he wants is for people to remember his hero name, and maybe not make fun of his gender or tail. Some respect from the student body, no the whole city, would be really nice.
Randy stews on that reason until the end of school. When they saw Jacques he was happy his new friend did not become "Randy patty" as he called it. He didn't speak much to him, but he did express he was happy no one got hurt. Jacques said he would tell the others that he is alright then left to his classroom. Randy's mood was slightly lifted from the concern, even though Howard didn't say anything he knows he was worried about him. Just their dynamics of sometimes not needing to say what needs to be spoken.
He goes on the bus home, sitting next to Howard, and talking some human hurting videos they recently seen to death. Howard doesn't come home with him today, saying that his mom wants him home to help her with something, and that if he doesn't show up on the bus she would take all of his bruce games away. Only leaving the lame ones. A horrible fate for any hardcore gamer, so Randy solemnly said his goodbyes to him as he got off at his stop.
Randy unlocks the door and Nommi immediately gets out from under his jacket. They have until it was seven before his parents get home, so they make dinner for themselves. Randy made a Kraft dinner and helped Nommi make his fruit salad bowl. He takes it upstairs and sets them on his table that he uses to do homework and use his laptop.
He brings his laptop out of its designated drawer on the top right as Nommi digs into his food. He starts the laptop up and eats as he waits.
"Were you worried," Randy suddenly said as he gets on the Internet.
Nommi lifts his head from the assortment of fruit, "Not too much. You would have dodged or put your sword in the way of the chainsaw. A little too close to the danger than I feel comfortable with."
Randy goes on ShoobTube and goes to his subscription box, clicking on the newest video of one of his favorite channels, ChainFelz. ChainFelz specializes in making short videos filled with him or her either questioning what is going on in the world or putting something that inspires certain emotions to people.
He clicks the latest video and there is a short caption of making your point to the world. In the video there are short clips of a crowd of people in black and white. There is a lone color of a man in a suit off to the side trying to say something, but no one is listening. The video zooms in to the man's face and suddenly there is black horizontal bars and a pair of children in color. A flash back sequence where a little girl is trying to cheer up a little boy. Off to the side there are other children who are playing around, and the boy gets up to talk to them. The boy stands tall, with renewed confidence. The flashback ends back to the man in the suit. He pounds his podium and some people in the crowd gain some color. Those colorful people turn to look at him. The video ends at that.
"Huh, well he at least manage to get some people to listen to him. I wonder if they agree to what he is saying or are trying to discourage him," Randy mumbles to himself as he types out his comment under his account, PunchingGears.
The comment is, "Wonder how those people reacted, but what matters is what you as a person say. Not what others think."
Nommi reads over his shoulder, "You're hoping this Chain person comments again."
"Of course I do, Felz just posted this a few minutes ago. Felz rarely says anything to his commenters. It was a miracle last time." Randy states as he looks at any other videos that he is interested in his subscription box. Nothing that he wants to watch immediately.
"No what is a miracle is that you still care about your tail after being Hidden Bun for a long time," Nommi said.
"Hey, whenever I'm saving someone they always mention the tail." Randy sulks as he brings up a chocolate video of the greatest chocolatiers making large sculptures of chocolate under a time limit. Something the two of them love to watch.
"Stop listening to what others say about you. It could affect how you are as Bun Bun." Nommi gives him advice, before he teases him at the end.
"Doesn't it bother you how no one can seem to say your miraculous holder's superhero name? It always did even before I met you." He said as he watches the show. He glances at Nommi's
"I got past it years ago. Opinions of others don't matter besides your own. Isn't that what you wrote earlier or that message of the video." Nommi states as he watches the chocolate being tempered.
"Sort of…I'll try to not take it too personally." Randy says.
Nommi snorts, "You aren't going to change at a drop of a magician's hat."
The miraculous holder laughs at the corny joke, "Oh I know. I've been saying that for a while."
"You're making some progress. Although, for some reason, the tail is your weak point, and not your ears. Some unknown enemy might exploit it later."
Randy defensively says, "The ears are cool; they are fun to mess around with when waiting for crime, but my tail. It is just there tormenting me because whenever someone spots it they focus on that instead of the cool ears."
"You ever think it is because people stare at your ass?"
With a bright red face Randy yells, "Nommi!"
A/N: In which Randy chases after Nommi in his room with a pillow while shouting at him. I usually put a little joke with Nommi to help with the humor.
Not the best with fight scenes and in my opinion I feel like it would take a few seconds for the duo to defeat them right now. I will try to write them a tad better. Next actual chapter deals with a monster/akuma (basically a humanoid being with a power granted by, well, not going to say). Any stank'd victims I'm going to try to get something from their stank'd form and make some of them talk. Heads up on that.
Anyway I have reasons for McFist who did that for roughly 4 years. There was this one episode where Marci and Sorcerer were on the line and McFist asks Viceroy to let him talk to the one who is less mad (believe it was the one where Bash was the 11th grade ninja). It was the Sorcerer. In my head McFist helped the students of Norrisville not because he wanted to, but because he had to. Bash was already in 9th grade and I think he had to repeat it. Marci will do anything for her son, asks her husband to protect him. McFist does it grudgingly so that he is still on good terms with his wife. It is better to have your wife who supports your hatred to the local heroes then super powers. Plus the Sorcerer doesn't need to know that his pawn was doing that.
Lala Norisu I got you girl. I have a couple of one-shots to post and chapter three that are pre-written while working on chapter four.