Hours later, the five teens were making their way to Randy's house to play Grave Puncher. The game was obviously very popular in Norrisville. Danny sped up to walk beside Randy and Howard who were in the lead.
"You know, if you want to quit hacking lessons, Tucker won't get angry. Hacking isn't for everyone," Danny muttered. The two teens had looked completely confused and overwhelmed throughout their lesson with Tucker. Howard smiled.
"Really? Because learning to hack is hard work," Howard admitted with clear relief.
"Thanks Danny but I feel that as the ninja I should learn this. Howard mentioned that if I learnt how to hack then I could beat robots before they're even sent. He's right," Randy mumbled thoughtfully, but disappointed all the same. Danny raised an eyebrow.
"You know who's sending those robots? Why don't you stop them?" Danny wondered surprised.
"Because the guy has a golden reputation and I'd do more harm than good by revealing him. As for stopping him by myself, I don't know how I can," Randy explained. Danny blinked before nodding. Sounded like Vlad.
"I know the type. Say no more. But if you'd like we could try to help?" Danny offered. Randy shook his head.
"The robots are the ninja's problem. Not yours but thanks for the offer," Randy replied with a grateful smirk. They arrived at Randy's house soon after and spent the rest of the day playing video games, working out a tournament where everyone played against everyone at least once.
The next day, Tucker had to forego his hacking lesson as the Casper High students were invited on a tour of McFist Industries. Although, Tucker was happy to get a better look inside the futuristic and high-tech pyramid. The same could not be said for the rest. Tucker was the only one interested in the tour and the others found it quite dull. There were a few interesting demonstrations and a gift bag of free samples of various items, McFizzles sweets, McFist hoodie, McFist high-tech watches and the like. Due to the length of the tour, the students returned to their temporary lodgings afterwards and spent the evening there, preparing to leave the next day.
The next morning, the students all crowded to Norrisville High and were bundled into the assembly hall to wait for the bus to arrive. Danny, Sam and Tucker had met up with Randy and Howard that morning and said their goodbyes. Danny was on Tucker's PDA checking for news from Amity Park.
"Danny, we're heading back today, if the bus ever gets here. Calm down and relax," Sam implored with an impatient huff. Danny nodded distractedly but made no move to obey her. Tucker sighed with boredom.
"Danny, are you gonna be much longer? I need entertainment," Tucker complained. Sam scowled at the techno-geek.
"Alright, here Tuck. No news anyway," Danny relented and handed the PDA to Tucker.
Tucker happily took his PDA, instantly opening up a simple game to chase away his boredom. Sam checked the time and huffed impatiently.
"The bus was meant to be here an hour ago! What's taking it so long?" Sam grumbled.
"There was a big traffic accident this morning just outside Norrisville," Danny told her. Sam blinked.
"What? I was checking the news anyway and I was wondering myself," Danny retorted with a shrug. Sam smirked.
"Alright. I hope the bus gets here soon though. I don't mind staying here longer but this pointless waiting is terrible," Sam commented hopefully. Tucker exited out of his game and checked for news on the traffic accident.
"Woah. That was a massive accident. Ten car pile-up. How is it no one died?!" Tucker gasped. Danny nodded.
"I'm glad that no one died but there were a few serious injuries. There's a couple of people in critical conditions in the hospital though. They reckon that the first driver in the crash was drunk or something because it just suddenly swerved across the road and everyone couldn't stop in time. It could have been worse. A truck stopped before it collided with those cars," Danny told them having read the article himself.
"The bus could take a while to get here. The road's closed and the only other way into Norrisville is a long way out of the way. The bus will have to go around the lake to get here," Tucker mused.
The three friends returned to trying to fill the boring wait with small talk, a few car-trip games like "I spy" and watching videos on Tucker's PDA. An hour later and Lancer relented in the wait to take his students to the cafeteria to get some lunch. Danny, Sam and Tucker took their trays of food to a table.
"This is getting ridiculous. They can't expect us to just wait in the auditorium all day for the bus," Sam grumbled.
"They might figure something out for us to do after lunch. Besides the bus can't be too far away now," Tucker reasoned.
"Danny? Sam, Tucker? I thought you guys left already," Randy called to them in surprise, dropping into a seat at the table with his lunch.
"We were meant to. But there was a big traffic accident and our bus is delayed," Danny confirmed with a bored sigh. Howard joined them moments later, shovelling food into his mouth hungrily.
"That's wonk," Randy sympathised. The trio nodded in agreement, slowly getting used to the slang used in Norrisville.
A few minutes later, the earth shook. Danny and Randy froze.
"Randy, we'll cover for you," Sam whispered realising that there was trouble coming. Randy nodded and shoved his bag into Howard's lap.
"Do not lose Howard," Randy hissed quietly before rushing to the bathroom. Howard watched his friend leave before he swiped a handful of fries off Randy's tray and stood up.
"Coming?" he asked the trio as he pulled out his phone to record the coming fight. The trio shrugged and followed Howard outside, a few of the Norrisville students were making their way outside also.
"Ninja cold balls!" the ninja exclaimed loudly and a loud crash was heard. Danny's eyes widened as they exited the school and saw the robot from Friday beating up the ninja. A car had been wrecked in the car park nearby, the one in Principal Slimovitz' parking spot. The ninja flipped away from the robot and used his red scarf to swing to a safer distance. He pulled out his phone and started to desperately tap on it, trying to hack into the robot. Danny gasped as the ninja was thrown into the school, hitting a wall with devastating force.
"Tuck, I think we need a more experienced hacker to take over," Danny whispered worriedly. Tucker grabbed his PDA and hacked into the robot within minutes. The ninja scrambled to his feet, scooping up his phone and resumed his failed attempt to hack into the robot. A bus pulled around the corner the exact moment the robot grabbed the destroyed car and threw it at the ninja. The ninja dodged but the car sailed by and crashed into the bus, pushing it on to its side and the engine started to smoke. The ninja sprinted to the bus and got the driver to safety as the severed fuel line caught fire and exploded. Suddenly the robot slumped as Tucker shut it down.
The road was silent and Danny held his breath waiting for the crowd to shout angrily at the ninja and attack him. But instead, the crowd erupted in cheers and applause, many shouting praise for the ninja saving them and stopping the robot. Danny's jaw dropped. The ninja had caused not one but two vehicles to be destroyed, damaged the school building, endangered their lives and they… they were cheering. If he had been in Randy's place, the least that would happen would have been insults and rocks thrown at him by the adults and maybe a few cheers from the students. That was best case scenario. What normally happened was getting shot at by at least one ghost hunter if not the cops shouting abuse at him. Sam and Tucker glanced worriedly at the halfa. They were equally surprised by the acceptance of the ninja but they were also concerned about how Danny would take this.
The first coherent thought that flashed through Danny's mind was that it wasn't fair. He made a conscious effort to prevent damages, taking fights into the sky away from spectators and buildings. He gave up everything. Sleep, meals, his grades. He had half died! And yet… he protects them and gets insulted, chased, hunted. Randy didn't seem to even try to stop the damages happening. His sole focus was protecting everyone and stopping the robot. It wasn't fair! What more did he have to do to be accepted? To be hailed as the hero he truly was? He didn't even want the praise and glory. He just wanted this. Cheers and not to be chased away after saving the day. Danny forced his eyes shut and shoved down those thoughts. He was a ghost. Ghosts were feared and hated. He had to just get over it and accept that sad truth. Randy was human. It was different. Life wasn't fair, especially when you were seen as being dead.
So Danny's understandably upset to learn that Randy does get attacked for his heroic efforts and clearly has some green eyes and not the ghostly kind.
Any ideas how that car crash happened? Hint, it wasn't a coincidence.
Let me know what you guys think of the story so far.
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Until the next chapter.