In another realm…full of darkness, illuminated only by the light from a fire. A giant rock is floating in the darkness, slow and menacing, with a cloaked figure sitting atop it. The figure stares intently at the burning wood in front of him, enchanted by the delicate movements of the fire. Not a sound escapes from him, only the sound of crackling wood.
A voice calls out from a hole behind him, "Master!".
The man turns around, and as he does, a small troll climbs out of the hole. The troll coughs out before falling to the ground next to its master.
"I-I have great news…" the troll begins, weakly.
The man stares at his servant plainly and signals for it to continue.
"The Sorcerer has been defeated!" The servant yells before succumbing to another fit of coughs.
The man's eyes widen in surprise. He immediately gets up and climbs down into the hole. Upon reaching the lower level, he is greeted to a crowd of troll servants who all cheer with glee upon seeing him. Out of the crowd emerges a far larger troll with armor. It walks to the man and bows down.
"Master Kordo" the troll begins. "It brings me great pleasure to inform you that the Ninja of Norrisville has defeated the Sorcerer, sir.
Kordo speaks, "How long has it been, Mal?"
"My informants have told me it's been around a week since the Ninja defeated him".
Kordo looks over at the now silent crowd. "All of You! Go back into your chambers and await further instructions!" he yells and crowd quickly disperces. He looks over to Mal "Follow me, we have much to discuss."
The pair proceed down a long hallway and enter a circular room. In it lies walls of ancient books and scrolls, with a small table in the middle. They sit down and begin their chat.
Mal starts first "Pariah Dark, The Dark Dragon, and The Sorcerer have all been defeated. The dark energies that has bounded us to this realm are now gone".
"At last" Kordo begins. "700 years we've been trapped here. Clockwork and The Dragon Council were foolish in thinking they could get rid of me forever. To think that their so-called Ninja's could defeat me". Kordo smirked as he remembered that eventful day. The look of joy those fools had as he apparently burned to ashes.
"What's our next move sir?."
"Going to Mortal Realm will certainly alert the Council to our presence. As such our next stop will be the Ghost Zone". Kordo stood up and clenched his fist, creating a portal above the table. "Have our spies set up the meeting with the Halfa?"
"Yes. Vlad Plasmius has agreed to meet us at coordinates 7-B6 in the Ghost Zone".
"Excellent. Round up our forces, we'll be leaving in an hour".
"Yes Sir, but one more thing. I must remind you that, upon leaving this realm, the power that we stole from the Ninja's long ago to help us survive this place will return them".
"That is fine Mal" Kordo said with a laugh. "The power the Ninja's will get back is nothing compared to the energy I've acquired".
"Understood".
And with that, Mal left the room, leaving Kordo to ponder in his thoughts.
Kordo sat back down, staring into the portal of the Ghost Zone with a smile on his face.
"Finally, at long last the Mortal Realm will be mine…"
o - o - o - o - o
It was a peaceful saturday afternoon in Norrisville. Kids playing, people walking their dogs, said dogs trying to sniff people's butts. Normal stuff.
It had been a week since Evil Julian and the Sorcerer had been defeated, as such, young hero Randy Cunningham had taken the extra free time to, well….nap. Yes, currently Randy had spent the past week sleeping whenever, wherever he could. In class, at lunch, the bleachers, bathroom, even his principals backyard (don't ask).
Right now, however, Randy decided to be a normal person and is currently sleeping in the comfort of his own bed. The door to his room started to creep open and a shadowy figure stepped in. It crept slowly over to Randy's bed with intent. Suddenly a huge splash of cold water hit Randy, causing him to fall out his bed.
"AHHH COLD COLD COLD COLD COLD!" screeched Randy. Randy looked up to see his best friend Howard, with a bucket in hand, laughing his butt off. "Howard?! What the juice, man?!
"AHAHA! Oh cheese man, your reaction was 10 outta 10 GOLD! HA HA!" Howard gloated to Randy in Glee.
Randy got up from the floor. "Seriously Man! You got my Skull Puncher pajamas all wet! I just got'em yesterday!".
"So what? They'll dry, besides you know that was funny".
Randy thought about it for a second then grinned. "Yeah, okay that WAS pretty funny funny, haha".
"Anyways, what's been up with you man? All week you've been laying around like a lazy poodle".
"I dunno. Every since Julian and the Sorcerer were defeated I've been just really tired for some reason. Especially since McFist hasn't sent any of his creation after me." Randy scratched his head. "Maybe my body just isn't used to not having to beat up wacky monsters and stuff".
"Dang Cunningham, that's rough. Maybe a good old fashioned round at the arcade will energize ya. Stuffing your face with pizza and energy drinks work wonders!".
"Now that sounds bruce! Just let me-" Suddenly a huge burst of energy surged through Randy's body, causing him to fall to the floor.
"Cunningham!" Howard exclaimed as he kneeled to help his friend. "Yo bro! Are you okay?!".
Randy stood back with a puzzled expression. "Yeah I'm fine. In fact I feel...AMAZING. Completely energized now!" Randy said with awe.
"Phew. You worried me for sec. But we're still going to the Arcade right? RIGHT?!" Howard asked as he shook Randy for confirmation.
"Of course bro!" Randy grinned.
Randy changed into his regular clothes and darted out the house with Howard, thinking little of what just happened.
o - o - o - o - o
"TO MY LEFT HOWARD! TO MY LEFT!".
"WAIT A SEC! BAM! BAM! BAM! I GOT EM GUNNINGHAM! I GOT EM!".
"PIG BABY DEMON! INCOMING!".
The two friends were currently playing the co-op shoot-em up BLOOD SLAYER 94 TWO. They just finished defeating the level 4 boss "Finger-Gone Guru" and were having a blast.
*Insert quarter to continue*
Howard groand at the sight of this "That's a total load of cheese! We didn't even die and they expect us to pay more? For the Privileged? Honk that! Let's go, our almost pizza's ready".
The duo walked around the arcade for a bit before sitting down at their table. As if on cue, the server appeared out of nowhere with their food. Howard immediately started to stuff his face with pizza and boneless wings. Randy laughed at this.
"Do you ever eat your stuff separately?" Randy asked as he started munching on pizza.
"Naw you know me. Why enjoy the flavors individually when I can experience them all at the same time!" Howard explained. "Anyways I wanted to talk to you about the giant field trip happening next week".
"Field trip?".
"Oh yeah, forgot you've been sleeping all week. I'm talking about that huge festival being held by our school, Casper High, and some other school in New York".
"Whoa, BRUCE!"
"I know right and the best part is that we're staying for 2 weeks".
"DOUBLE BRUCE! Wait a sec. Did you just say Casper High was attending?".
"Yep".
"The same Casper High known to have ghost terrorize it regularly?".
"Yep yep yep".
"The one that constantly gets saved by DANNY PHANTOM?".
"Oh yes".
"HOLY COW! That means there's a chance we could see the ghost kid during this festival thingy. Oh man this is gonna be the best 2 weeks ever!".
Right after he said that, a huge explosion came from outside the arcade. Everybody inside, including Randy and Howard, looked out the window to see a 5 green, ugly looking, mutant monkeys throwing car around.
"That doesn't look good…" Randy says.
"Do your thing man" Howard says as he continues his meal.
Randy darts from his table and into the bathroom. Seconds later the Ninja burst out the door and smashes through the window to get outside.
"HEY!" Screams the Manager. "I just had that fixed after the LAST time you did that!".
"Hehe, Sorry about that!" Replies the Ninja, sheepishly. Randy confronts the five monkeys with his sword drawn, ready for action.
"Come on you monkey freaks! Lets party!".
The largest monkey dashes forward and tries to punch Randy. Randy easily dodges and jumps onto the monkey's head punching it repeatedly in the head. The 4 other monkeys all try to ponce on Randy at once, but he jumps just in time for them to pile drive the big monkey.
The big monkey, enraged, gets the other ones off him then picks up a food truck and throws it at Randy with astonishing speed.
Without thinking Randy takes his sword and slices the entire truck, trailer and everything, in half.
"Woah, that's new" Randy says, surprised at what he did. A monkey rushes behind him and Randy, without even looking, punches it from behind, making it explode into green chunks and goo.
Howard's pizza falls out of his mouth "What the…".
Randy pulls out 2 ninja stars and throws them with pinpoint accuracy at the the two smallest monkeys, hitting them instantly and pinning them to a wall. The giant monkey charges at full speed and right before it can land a hit, Randy teleports behind it.
"HE CAN TELEPORT NOW! THAT IS SO BRUCE! I WANNA TELEPORT!" Howard screamed in excitement, annoying the other spectators around him.
Randy kicks the monkey into air, jumps up high, and kicks it down to the ground, creating a crater in the process. Randy, still in the air, dashes to ground at incredible speed and punches the monkey in the stomach, creating an even larger crater and making the monkey explode into bits. The last two monkey break free and charges Randy once more, while bleeding green blood. Randy takes his sword and slices the air twice creating 2 red crescents that move through the air and slices the monkeys in half. Randy then does some strange hand signs making the monkey bodies, chunks, and goo burn up into ash, cleaning the mess.
Randy snaps out of his trance and realizes what he's done. He stares into the arcade window, looking at all the shocked spectators.
"Uh...don't worry citizens I, the Ninja, have successfully beaten these vile mutants. You may all….cheer?" Randy says awkwardly.
The crowd doesn't do anything for a sec before exploding into cheers.
"WOO HOO! THAT'S MY NINJA" Howard yells, still at the table.
The crowd gathers around Randy, bombarding him with questions.
"How'd you get so strong!".
"Where'd you learn to teleport?! Teach me!"
"Can I have your autograph?!".
"So are you gonna fix my window or….?"
"Um...well...uh...SMOKEBOMB!" Randy disappears in a cloud of smoke, leaving the crowd coughing and in awe.
Howard gets at text on phone not long afterwards.
Howard, meet back at my place, pronto. Bring the food. - Randy
"Now this has been an interesting day" Howard grins.
o - o - o - o - o
Howard makes it back to Randy's house an hour later and marches up stairs to his room. Randy's sitting on his bed as Howard barges in with a huge grin on his face.
"Bro, what was all that! I didn't know you were capable of doing all that stuff. You've been holding back on me bro!" Howard slaps Randy on the back.
"I didn't know I was capable of that too! I mean I was all like PUNCH, KICK, BACKFLIP, SPLATTER, all over place bro! It was so BRUCE!" Randy exclaims while trying to mimic his own movements.
"You think it has something to do with that thing that happened to you earlier?" Howard asked while checking his phone.
"Probably. Maybe I should ask Nomi-"
"Hold that thought Cunningham! You gotta check this out. What you did today is all over the internet!".
Howard gives Randy his phone and shows him every that social media platform has footage of his fight with the monkeys on the front page. It was getting likes every few seconds, so fast that the page was actually starting to freeze.
"SO. HONKING. BRUCE!" they both yell.
Randy starts to dance at his success until the Nomicon sitting on his bed opens up and sucks him inside.
"Here we go..." Howard rolls his eyes.
Randy falls face first on a ground made of scrolls and looks up to see he's surrounded by 4 images. Randy stands up and looks at each image.
The first shows a cloaked figure battling what appeared to Dragons.
The second showed the same figure battling a strange blue figure.
The third showed the cloaked figure battling a group of ninjas.
The fourth and final one showed a large bearded man, a black dragon, and...The Sorcerer?
Right after he was done examining the images the words: THE INCREDIBLE POWER MEANS DARK FORCES.
"Dark forces? What do you-" Before Randy had a chance to finish his question, he was thrown out the book onto his bed.
"So what did the book say?" Asked Howard, who laying on the floor playing video games.
"It said The incredible power means dark forces…" Randy said uneasy.
"Cryptic man. Guess we'll find out soon enough".
"I guess."
Randy laid down on his bed pondering to himself.
"Why the juice does all the cool things have not cool things attached to them!"