Randy Cunningham, Danny Fenton, and Jake Long all stood with the thermos, staring at the Nomicon. Its red stripes and lines glowed, as if pleased beyond words. "What are we doing?" Randy asked suddenly, after they had stared a moment longer. "The Nomicon is going to tell us what to do, but. . . ." Danny started, but trailed off. He didn't really know what to expect when opening the thing. It had a feeling like the ghost portal. It felt like something could come out that was old, ancient, and maybe dangerous. But it mostly felt like you could fall in, just like you could fall into the ghost portal.
Jake shrugged. This felt no stranger than any other magical thing. In fact, it felt a little . . . familiar. Like his great uncle or something. "I think we'd better just go in. We can't keep staring forever, and that sorceress will be coming out any time now. Let's get this over with." The boy knelt on one knee (like a knight, Randy thought), and opened the book. As the three stared at the pages the book seemed to drop its bottom, and they all fell in.
"WOAH!" Danny cried as they fell past words in ancient writing, and words highlighted and scribbled flew by, pictures of dragons roared to life and flew around them. Danny caught his breath for a minute. The dragons were none like he'd seen. Eastern looking. Golden and red. And absolutely breathtaking. "I know, right?" Jake said, laughing. He was starting to like the way the Nomicon did things. Heck, it hurt a lot less than training with Grandpa. Randy screamed, but when Jake looked over the boy was smiling. Maybe he did remember some of this.
The pages pf words parted like a curtain and Jake finally understood what Randy had said before he'd sacrificed his memory. There was a whole world in here! They glimpsed scenery that looked like paintings, but moved just as anything in the real world would. Waterfalls, fish, trees in the wind, birds flying, even several Eastern-looking dragons!
The trio landed in a grassy meadow surrounded by peaceful woods. A man in black with red stripes and a red scarf who looked similar to the Ninja, but not quite as sleek, appeared through the trees and came forth. He placed his hands in front of him, one in a fist, the other flat and vertical on top of the fist. The man bowed ceremoniously, but he was grinning. "Welcome, friends, to the Nomicon. You have defeated the Sorceress, mother of the Sorcerer that is entrapped here in Norrisville," he said. "Uh, our pleasure, ninja dude." Jake said uncertainly. Danny offered the Fenton thermos, but the Ninja held his hands up, refusing it. "The Sorceress must be locked in another dimension, one from which no ghost can escape. Should she be allowed to roam free, she would cause destruction in all parts of the world, not simply in Norrisville." Danny stepped back. He sure hoped some place other than the ghost zone would be suggested. It wasn't exactly inescapable, after all.
"But, uh, how do we do that?" Randy asked. The ninja turned to him. "First, we must return what memory we can to you. For you are the only one who can open the portal to the shadow realm, where the sorceress must be imprisoned." The ninja reached out a hand and placed it flat against Randy's forehead. His eyes turned white as a rush of memories returned to him. The ninja. Freshman year. The Nomicon. The Sorceress. Jake and Danny. With a moan, Randy fell backwards. Jake and Danny rushed forward to catch him.
"Hey, dude, you a'ight?" Jake asked. Randy moaned. "Woah. I feel like my brain just got blown up like a balloon." Randy weakly stood and smiled in gratitude up at Ninja Prime. "Thanks, bro," he murmured weakly. The first ninja smiled down warmly at Randy. "Any time, old friend. And now, we must dispose of the scorceress."
"How?" all three asked.
"Within the Ghost zone there lies another dimension. It is called The black hole. You three must travel to Amity Park and dispose of the ghost scorceress yourselves."
"But, aren't you coming with us?" Randy asked. "The Nomicon will accompany you, yes. But after all," Ninja prime half-smiled. "I'm only a page in the Nomicon. I will be with you nonetheless." Randy smiled, and with that, the three were hurled back into their bodies and the real world.
"So, where's Amity Park?" Jake asked as he rubbed his head. He felt like he'd just gotten hit by his grandpa. "It's actually where I live. But getting this scorceress thing into the black hole place isn't going to be easy. The Ghost zone isn't exactly a friendly place, and on top of that, I've never even heard of that dimension, and I've been exploring the ghost zone for two years!"
"Chillax, bro, we're with you!" Jake slapped Danny on the back encouragingly. "We'll figure this out together, as a team."
"Yeah, speaking of teams, don't we need, like, some sort of bruce name?" Randy asked. "I was thinking, 'The secret trio!' " Danny rolled his eyes. "Dream on. We're not giving ourselves some team name."
"Why not? I always wanted to be in a superhero league or somethin'." Jake said.
"We'll talk about it on the way, guys. We've got a lot of flying to do." Danny grabbed the two and phased through the walls with the Nomicon and Fenton Thermos in tow. This was going to be a long flight.
