Chapter 7: Randy - A Ghost, a Cat, and a Ninja Walk into a Convention Center….
"Wooaaah! Look at all this bruce supernatural stuff!" I say as I pick up a ghost-blaster from one of the tables and start pointing it around, pretending to fire it off.
"LAAAAME," Howard says from behind me. "Cunningham, we see cooler things come off of Viceroy's stupid robots." he says, looking at something which I think is a modified vacuum cleaner.
"But Howard, this is nothing like what Viceroy does! This is all stuff to hunt ghosts with, and not the Ninja for once!" I turn back to look at all the other cool things on the table. Picking up something that looked like a boomerang.
"Hey Howard look at-" I find myself short of words, as when I turn around, Howard isn't with me anymore. "Oh come on!" I say throwing my head backwards and slumping my shoulders. "So much for the buddy system…." I mutter under my breath as I put the boomerang down. Wandering aimlessly, I pass a couple more booths, some with information on unicorns, some with fairies, and one about the ninja, surprisingly. Still no Howard, though. I think I'm about to give up and just go get lunch at the food court, which is probably where Howard was anyways, when the Nomicon suddenly hums with life from my bag.
I decide a bathroom at a place like this is too crowded to shloomp into my ancient book of ninja wisdom for a lesson, so I just crawl underneath the nearest cloth-covered booth table.
"Alright ninja-nomicon, what have you got for me?" I ask it as I open the book up and my consciousness falls into the age-worn book of the first ninja.
Landing inside the nomicon, I find myself on a pillar of rock. Across from me is a ninja and on either side two mirrors. In one mirror it shows the ninja in his full suit and in the other I can see my own reflection as a scribbled drawing. Scribbled words suddenly appear in front of me, moving constantly.
"A hero's reflection can be seen two ways... What the juice is that supposed to mean, nomicon?" I ask it, confused by the statement in front of me. I picture a theoretical eye roll coming from the book - sometimes I forget this book is a book and not a very annoyed person with the way it treats me, as one of the doodles smacks me over the back of the head and I wake up under the table again.
"OW!" I say, as I smack my head on the table above me. No one notices me, however, because all I can hear is screaming. I poke my head out from under the tablecloth, and see everyone running in a panic from something.
I think for a moment. 'Wellll… I told Howard I wouldn't go ninja unless I needed to, and this does seem like an emergency… and he did ditch me…. Soooo…"
I lower the tablecloth again. "I think it's Ninja-O-Clock." I say, slipping my mask on. Ribbons of fabric wrap around my body, creating the full ninja suit. With a quick smoke bomb to cover my awkward roll out from under the table, I stand in the middle of the panic with my hands on my hips.
"Alright! Where's the problem?!" I ask to no one in particular. Someone hears me and points up. I follow his gesture to see a… what is that? Some kind of, flame robot? Welp, time to get to work, either way. I take a running jump onto one of the taller booths to try to meet this guy eye-to-eye somewhat.
"Wow, McFist can't take a break, can he? The school's already destroyed, what more does he want from me?" I grab a ninja sai out of my suit and use it to anchor me onto the nearest wall. "Hey, Buckethead! Why's McFist so desperate to destroy me?"
"Mc-who?" The robot's deep voice replies. "Whoever you are, you are not my target, so stay out of my way!"
"Wait, I'm not? Then who sent you?"
"I wasn't sent by anyone but myself! I am Skulker! The Ghost-Zone's Greatest hunter!" he says, throwing his arms in the air.
"Ghost-what now?" I ask, clueless as to what this guy's talking about.
Suddenly, something hits Skulker across the face. "Oh, PLEASE. If anything, you're the Ghost-Zone's ONLY hunter!" a voice says. I look over to where I heard the voice, and see none other than the ghost boy from the video Howard showed me.
"Oh. My. NINJA. YOU'RE INVISO-BILL!" I can't help myself from yelling out in excitement. Inviso-bill, however, just let out a displeased grunt.
"Oh, for the last time…. It's Phantom! Danny Phantom! How hard is that to get right?" He yells, turning to me for a brief moment. It seems that small moment is long enough for him to get hit with a missile that sends him flying into the wall.
'Oops,' I think. "Sorry…" I say to him. He gives me a thumbs up before launching himself off the wall and straight at Skulker, punching him in his metal face.
"Now, let's wrap things up, because I'm on vacation and the last thing I need is you constantly interrupting my relaxing days with your talk of 'adorning my pelt over your fireplace'."
"Umm… ew." I say and he turns to me for another second, arms out.
"I know right?!" he says, pulling out what looks like a thermos.
'What's that gonna do to him?' I think before he opens the lid and points it at Skulker.
Skulker notices, and shoots it out of his hand with a small wrist mounted missile. Danny's eyes started to glow a more intense green as he lunges toward skulker with glowing punch.
I feel useless just perched on a wall, so I think it's a good idea to search for Danny's thermos. He tried to use it for something, so it must be important. I drop down to the floor and start looking around on my hands and knees. Maybe it slid under one of the tables? Or maybe someone kicked it while they were running? Suddenly, I find myself staring at a pair of black boots made of a strange material. Looking up, I see some guy dressed in a cat suit and mask, looking back at me with a smirk. One hand on a long metal pole, the other holding the thermos.
"Looking for this, Pajamas?" he says, tossing the thermos in his hand. I scramble to my feet quickly.
"Um, no! Maybe!? Yes...?" I say, stumbling over an answer.
"Well you better make up your mind," He says to me before turning to look up at the two ghosts fighting. "Hey! Spooky! Lose something?!" he calls to what I can only assume is Phantom. Turning back to face us with a grin, Danny quickly flies over to us and grabs the thermos out of the cat boy's hand.
"Well, look what the cat dragged in." He says, facing the flaming robo-ghost. "Sorry Skulker, but I think it's finally time to end this." Yanking off the lid to the container, a beam of blue-white light shoots out, encasing Skulker. With a scream of anger, he's pulled into the container, and Danny recaps it.
All I can do is stare in awe as he floats down and lands in between me and the Black-Cat-dude who, now that things have calmed down, I feel like I've seen before...
"Glad to see you showed up, Whiskers," Danny says.
"You kidding? If I hadn't been here, you'd still be fighting that guy." he replies.
Danny lightly punches him on the shoulder. "It's not like he's that bad to deal with, he's more annoying than anything else. Plus, what would you have done without me, hmm? Try to claw him?"
They both laugh before turning to me. "You're a new face, er, mask. At least, we haven't seen you around. Who are you?" the cat asks.
"Me? I'm the Norrisville Ninja!" I say, planting my feet and ninja chopping at the air. I can see that probably wasn't the best thing to do, as they both give me a weird look.
"The who?" Danny speaks up.
"You know… the Ninja!? Hero of Norrisville? We have tours…"
The cat lets out a stifled chuckle. "Tours…? Seriously?" he says bursting into laughter.
"It wasn't my idea…." I say, remembering how McFist started them during one of the worst heat waves of the past year. "Well, if I'm so unknown, who are you supposed to be?" I point at the cat, hoping his answer will give me some clarity as to how I've seen him before.
"Well, you probably don't know me since I'm from out of town… But I'm Chat Noir, one of Paris' two local heroes." he says, holding up two fingers and looking at me with a grin plastered on his face. "The other being my wonderful partner, Ladybug."
"Huh, I think someone I know likes following a blog about you two…" I say, referring to Howard's older sister, Heidi. She likes to keep up with how other people do things and compare them to the school news.
"Yeah, it's probably the Lady-Blog. I've rescued the girl who runs it a few times and she's asked me for interviews every time I do."
Suddenly, a blast of green energy strikes the ground right next to Danny who gives out a yelp.
"You won't get away from us this time ghost boy!" A woman from one of the booths I was at earlier yells from the second floor.
"Well, the my cue to leave." Danny says as he disappears in front of us. "See you guys soon." his voice says, and I have to stop myself from waving at nothing.
"I guess I should be going as well," says Chat. "Hopefully we'll see you for more fights around the city."
"Oh, definitely," I reply, grinning, but realizing too late that he can't see my smile under my Ninja mask. "Anyways, I'll see you around, Cat-boy! SMOKE BOMB!"
I run around the convention hall, which has now crowded back up again, to try and find Howard. I see a glimpse of his teal overshirt (that I'm pretty sure he never washes) and head towards the food court.
"Howard! HOWARD!" I yell, catching him off guard as I smash into him, bring us both to the ground, as well as howard's armful of food.
I sit up, looking myself over. "Aww, SHNASTY! You were gonna eat this stuff?" I say as I wipe the strange green goop off my clothing.
"Hey! It may not look that appetizing to you, but I personally enjoy this food court's delicacies. Besides, it was on sale for half off."
I stand up with Howard and guide him over to the bathroom with me. "You can stock up on more food later. I have the BRUCEST story to fill you in on."
CHAPTER END