An uncomfortable silence hung over Randy and Zatarra as they strolled through the endless halls, to some unknown destination. Although he wanted t0 break it with a question, he knew there would be no point. Zatarra was shooting him concerned looks every so often. Did he know that he was just one of the many kids saddled with the mask and the duties of the Ninja? Or was he misreading it, and the concern was something else.

As he was lost in his thoughts, it took him awhile to notice that he recognised the room beyond the hallway. He shook his head a little to clear it, perking up. Up ahead was the huge room he'd been in when he collapsed, cavernous rugged brown rock stretched from floor to ceiling, with only the floor smoothed over.

As they stepped into the room, a red glow started to flash persistently just in the corner of his version. Hopeful, Randy turned in the direction of the light and his face split into a grin beneath his mask at what he saw. The Nomicon was there, in all its black and red glory, placed on the corner of the table roughly.

Worries forgotten, he ran over to the table and picked up the book, happy to be reunited with his strange mentor. Instantly, the flashing glow stopped, and Randy blinked. Hesitantly, he put it down fearing that he had offended the book, and immediately the flashing started again, along with an angry roar this time. He snatched it straight back up. "Nomicon! I'm not gonna lose you again, calm down, alright?"

With one last, pointed, flash that left Randy feeling suitably mollified the book stopped. With a sigh of relief, he placed it into his sash, knowing that it would disapear into the space that lay there after a moment or two.

"Is the book sentient?" The curious, italian accented voice he'd come to recognise as belonging to Zatarra came from over his shoulder and, had Randy still been holding the Nomicon, he would have dropped it.

"W-what?" Randy turned, looking at Zatarra.

"Is the book sentient? I've seen several artifacts in my time, but rarely have I seen something that gives such emotional responses as that."

"Well- uh..." His voice squeaked a little. "I don't know?"

"You.. Don't know?"

"Well, I mean... It gives great advice, and it doesn't like it if it's treated badly, but... I don't know about sentience, really." Randy rubbed the back of his neck nervously.

"I see." Zatarra looked like he wanted to say more, but managed to hold himself back. "You mentioned that you needed a stone to seal the demon?"

"Tengu. And yeah." Randy dug around in his sash space for a moment, and pulled out the half of the Eye of the Carp he'd managed to keep with him when the bird made that wonk portal thing. When he pulled it out he could immediately feel the ethereal tug pulling at the stone as it looked for its other half. "You've got some weird magic, can you do something to... I don't know, summon the stone?" Randy shrugged, curious.

"I can..." Zatarra smiled. "What do you mean by weird magic, by the way?"

"Ah... It uses weird words and you can feel it in the air when you're getting ready to do it. It's not like mine at all, you know? I can just-" He pushed out with his hands, gesturing to help explain his point "Focus a bit once I know the steps and woosh- magic. No buildup."

Zatarra smiled. "Interesting, when we have a moment I'd enjoy discussing the differences in our magics."

Randy blinked, "Uh... I guess." He shrugged, "But first, stone! We got a bird to seal away."

"Yes- sorry. gnirB eht enotS ot eM!"

Randy repressed the shudder as the staticy energy rolled around Zatarra, and watched as the faint, near invisible, glow travelled deep into the ceiling. With a cracking sound that rung through the room, a small split formed in the ceiling. Gently, the half stone floated down and landed in Zatarra's cupped hands.

The magician passed it gently to Randy, and the boy placed the halves carefully together, checking that they fit together correctly. Thankfully, they did, and he cheered internally at the luck in having that be so simple.

Breathless with wonder, Randy looked up at Zatarra. "ThankyouI'mgonnagosealtheTenguwon'ttakelong!" And then promptly bolted in the direction of the exit to the beach, and more importantly to the outside of the mountain where the Tengu slept.

Zatarra stared for a moment, before his brain finished parsing apart the rapidfire- on par with the Flash's rambles- message. He grimaced, and turned to get assistance.

Grinning, Randy pulled himself over the final ledge to where he knew the Tengu- in Howard's body- had placed itself to rest after their long flight across half the continent.

His face fell. The Tengu wasn't there, the stone he had to seal it with was giving him no clues, and he wouldn't be able to slip away to ask the Nomicon a question for a relatively long time.

No comforting doodles, no words of Wisdom, not even the tug of a stone from centuries ago were left to guide him.

He sat down against a ledge, trying to take a moment to collect himself. Soon, Zatarra would come charging over that ledge with a legion of super people or robots or magic summons and they'd take him in and question him about where the Tengu had gone and he wouldn't even be able to answer until it wrought havoc somewhere far far away from here and he couldn't stop it.

"Hey." A voice came from over his shoulder and he twitched, not recognising it immediately. Young, rough, uncomfortable, and strangely familiar. Randy turned his head and was surprised to see the kid with the S shirt standing behind him, looking every bit the uncomfortable teenager. "Zatarra said you bolted once you had the stone, and figured you went up here. He went to go find out what happened to the bird you came here with, since someone probably got called in to remove it."

"Remove it?" Randy stood up, concern for his friend overriding fear for that brief moment.

"You know, put him somewhere else." Randy's fists clenched in worry, "Probably just in a training room, but there're a ton of those so. That's why he had to go find someone."

"Oh- uh- thanks. For coming up here. I always run in headfirst, so it's nice to have someone level headed- that's not a book- talk to me."

Superboy raised an eyebrow. "I'm level headed?"

"Compared to... Pretty much everyone I know." Randy smiled beneath his mask.

"I'm normally the one who's rushing into things on The Team... Actually, do you do training?"

Randy grimaced, reaching for the back of his neck in a nervous tic. "I learn stuff when I have to, really."

Superboy shifted on his feet, "Do you want to spar, or something? It'll be awhile until they get back, probably."

"You sure? I'm pretty strong, actually..."

In lieu of a response, Superboy punched a boulder and smirked as it shattered.

"Wow. Okay- that- that's strong too. Sure, lets go!"

Randy grinned, and leapt back to create more space between him and Superboy, drawing twin sais from the Space and holding them ready to fight. Superboy gave a roar, and charged at Randy, fist cocked back for a knockout punch. When Randy dodged, rather than losing his balance he dropped backwards and swung one leg sharply into Randy's waist, sending him flat to the ground.

After a sharp intake of air, the Ninja recovered his standing position, and was charging at Superboy for a strike with the sais to the stomach, flipping over to strike at the back at the last minute when Superboy dodged the initial strike.

The battle continued on, neck for neck, for nearly an hour before anyone came looking to see either of the boys.

A.N.

Started using the app Cold Turkey to help me write- and it was a great help! Got this done two days earlier than planned, and it even has TWO scenes in it! Which, to anyone noting down the length of chapters... Will know that its been awhile since I hit two scenes. I'll be aiming for the next chapter to be three scenes long, so feel free to rag on me if I mess up.

The dedication for this chapter goes out to LuffyLover27, who guessed absolutely correctly the answer to the question of last chapter! Also, a concerned shout out to all the guest reviewers who left no review last chapter. ^^;

In the meantime, think on this: If Randy seals the Tengu away succesfully, how will people react?

Thanks a bunch for reading! See you next chapter.