Chapter 13

"Hello?" Lex yawned into her cell phone. She currently sat at the kitchen table on Saturday morning, or noon, actually. Lex was not a morning person, especially on weekends.

"Hey Lex! Are you awake?"

"Hardly. Next time you do something like this Randy, make sure it's during the day, okay? A girl needs her sleep…except me. I just want my sleep."

"Sorry if I awoke 'Sleeping Beauty' then."

"I was already awake, 'Prince Charming.' So, what do I owe the pleasure of relieving this unexpected call?"

"I just wanted to know if you wanted to hang out today."

"Are you sure we can hang out? Avian is apparently a problem for you."

"Hey, I want to hang out with my friends–"

"And amazing girlfriend!"

"Yes, her too. I want to hang out and no bird, Tengu or otherwise, is going to stop me."

"That's the spirit! Meet you goofballs at Greg's Game Hole in fifteen minutes?"

"It's a plan!"

"Bye!"

"Bye!" Lex turned off her phone and hurried upstairs to get changed. Finally, she'd see her friends again.

"You're nuts! Do you not remember what the book said about hanging around Lex nowadays?! It's a big no-no!" Howard told Randy as they rushed down the sidewalk towards the arcade.

"Since when did you start listening to the Nomicon?" Randy countered.

"Since he said that Lex's pet was the thing that possessed me last year! You would be a bit more scared if YOU had been possessed by a Tengu!"

"But I wasn't, besides, Tengu aren't technically evil."

"…oh my glob! It's controlling your mind!"

"Howard, chill out. I did some research–"

"You mean Nomi told you?"

"Yeah. Anyway, he said that Tengu aren't evil. They're just mischievous and especially don't like people who are arrogant, vainglorious, and misuse knowledge for selfish purposes. They're basically the good guys."

"A Tengu possessed me, remember?"

"Hey, they're loyal to the Ninja! They're supposed to have trained the most skilled martial artists and ninjas known to exist, since they apparently deemed them worthy." "So, you ninjas were worthy?"

"I guess so. The Nomicon helps with that too, mostly. I suppose when Tengu aren't too common we need another teacher."

"I'll say this one more time Cunningham. It…possessed…ME!"

"Get over it! I saved you, didn't I?"

"…touché!" They arrived at the arcade to be greeted by Lex, who was already waiting at the front doors.

"Sup homies! Ready to help me beat Randy's scores, Howard?" She asked, a smile glued to her face.

"Heck yeah!" The boys followed Lex inside, all three of them hurrying to a game and starting it up.

"Prepare for a new high score! This girl plans on being number one!" Lex shouted, starting a game and immediately getting absorbed in it. The trio played games for hours and hours, Howard and Lex still not getting the high score on any of the games.

"These games are rigged!" Lex muttered, kicking the side of a game and sitting down.

"They're not rigged, I'm just the cheese!" Randy boasted.

"I'm not gonna be satisfied until I beat you at ONE game here!"

"Don't be like that, Lex."

"Like what?"

"A baby."

"I'm not a baby!"

"You're crying over a game!"

"Only because I wanna be better at video games than you."

"There's plenty of things you're better at! Like…"

"I can play the electric violin, and you can't."

"See! There's something!"

"…"

"…you don't feel any better, huh?" Lex shook her head, pouting with her eyes locked on the carpeted floor.

"…don't be a sore loser."

"I'm not a sore loser!" Randy raised an eyebrow in question and Lex sighed.

"Fine, maybe I am. So what? I just wanna win first place at least ONCE at any of these games!"

"Well…they just recently set up Guitar Hero…"

"Really?"

"Wanna play?"

"Heck to the yeah! Let's go!" Lex leaped up, grabbing Randy's hand before dashing off in search of the game. Once she found it, Lex released Randy's hand and grabbed one of the guitars.

"C'mon! I need to win at this!"

"We'll see." Randy challenged, picking up the second guitar as the game started. They picked their song (Eye of the Tiger! :D) and began to play, each trying to beat one another. Lex didn't know it, but Randy was rather good at the game, but he couldn't tell her that. Not when she was so dead set on winning. However, she was actually doing rather well…better than Randy in fact! He looked at Lex and the determination filled look in her eyes that were locked on the screen.

"YES! I win!" Lex slammed the guitar to the ground (luckily in one piece) and danced around in triumph.

"I did it! I did it! Move aside, 'cause I have the high score!"

"Are you done?" Randy chuckled, Lex stopping her victory dance and blushing with embarrassment.

"Yeah…I'm still happy I won, though!"

"Good job. Now you and Howard have at least one game where you're the champions."

"Yay! Howard! Come see this score! It's mind blowing!" Lex gave randy a quick hug before dashing away to find Howard and show off her score.

"This wasn't as a bad of an idea as you thought, Howard."

Later that day, as the sun began to set, the trio was walking to their homes with ice cream sandwiches in their hands.

"We are the champions, my friends!" Howard and Lex sang as they walked, earning laughs from Randy. Being almost overly proud of beating Randy at a game at Greg's Game Hole, they demanded a reward, thus the ice cream. As if emptying Randy's pockets wasn't enough, they thought it was a great idea to start singing as well.

"And we'll keep on fighting, 'till the end!"

"Are the champions done yet?" Randy asked jokingly.

"WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS~"

"I guess not."

"We are the cheese!" "Just remember who has the high score for every other game in the arcade."

"Don't ruin it for us!" Randy shook his head, smiling at the two as they neared their houses.

"Guess I'll see you guys later?"

"You can count on it."

"You're Bruce! See ya!" Lex waved to her friends and ran off towards her house.

"See Howard? Nothing bad happened all day! Everything's perfectly fine!"

"Something always ends up happening! Luckily, I was…less right and nothing did."

"I knew it'd be alright!"

"See ya, Cunningham."

"Bye!" Howard and Randy parted ways to their homes. Randy stood on his porch, watching the wind blow leaves around when a sudden movement caught his eye. A dark figure zoomed by towards the side of his house, instantly sparking curiosity in him. Randy jumped over the porch railing and warily made his way to the side yard. Surprisingly, nothing was there.

"Well well well! If it isn't our darling little ninja~" Randy jumped at the sound of a voice, looking around in confusion.

"Calm down, sweetie, I'm not going to hurt you…yet anyways." The voice laughed.

"Who are you? Where are you?" Randy asked, still looking around with his fists clenched.

"Look behind you." Randy turned to face the side of the house, only to meet his own shadow. Only, it wasn't his…and shadows didn't have eyes and a Cheshire Cat grin.

"I must say, it is quite the honor to finally speak with you! It grows rather dull just speaking with the simpleton known as the Sorcerer."

"You know the Sorcerer?"

"Oh, yes! We're old friends! Well…we were, anyway. Time didn't do much to strengthen that, only weaken it. Still, I'd like to think of us as…business partners."

"What do you mean by that?"

"My dear little ninja, so naive. After all of the Nomicon's lessons, he never spoke of me? I must say, I'm rather offended."

"What are you?"

"A purely evil being even older than the Sorcerer. I don't show up too often in folk tales or legends, since many were too afraid to even speak of me! Goodness, you give the Sorcerer one shot at being the ruler of the world and no one even bats an eye." Randy eyed the shadow cautiously, thinking of the mask in his back pocket.

"Do lower your fists, please. I'm in no mood to fight at the moment. Just talk." Randy ignored it and didn't take his eyes off of the intimidating thing.

"How rude. Do you treat all people like this? It's no wonder there's only two ninjas left of the original nine. A shame, really. They were such worthy adversaries until my old friend crushed them. What a pity."

"You were there?! But…"

"'But…what? I was always there to help the Sorcerer in his time of diabolical need. Almost like his shadow, I'm always there, but no one bothers to deal with me."

"Why are you here?"

"Oh, forgive me for not getting to that point sooner! I should've been more blunt with my reasoning for trespassing in your home."

"I said, why are you here?"

"Patience, Ninja. I'm getting there. Why am I here? Because I have a plan. A perfectly ingenious plan that I don't want a certain someone to get involved with. It's such a hassle when I have to deal with pests who try to meddle!"

"If you don't want me ruining this plan of yours, than why are you telling me about it?"

"The game would be too easy if you were blind to everything. Besides, it's always fun playing against a fighter!"

"This is some sort of game to you?"

"Precisely! May as well make a move, because I've already moved a few spaces…goodbye!" The shadow vanished out of sight instantly, leaving a confused and worried ninja. What did that thing want…and more importantly…what was it's plan?