A/N: I OWN NOTHING BUT MY CHARACTERS!

~Riley's P.O.V~

"Riley! Could you go to the Gamehole and get a gift card please. I forgot to grab one when I went to get your cousin Mason's birthday gift." I heard my Dad say from down stairs.

"Just a minute Dad!" I say back before refocusing on my workout. "45..46..47..48..4-9...50!"

Standing up from my push ups, I started do my cool down stretches before I got dressed to leave.

Grabbing my bag, I went down stairs towards the front door.

"Bye Mom! Bye Dad! I'll be back later!"

"Bye Hon! Be safe!"

"And No boys!"

I groaned loudly. "Dad! I just going to the arcade! And I'm 14!"

"Exactly!"

Growling under my breath, I walked out of the house, embarrassed.

On the bus ride to the Gamehole, my mind went back to a few days ago at the sudden theory that presented itself to me.

Is Randy Cunningham my partner, the Ninja?

When I really thought about it, certain things started connecting.

He is never with Howard when he's with Ninja.

He constantly disappears.

And Ninja's presence keeps getting more and more familiar to me.

Is he really-

No, I'm jumping to conclusions to fast. Its just best to observe and see what happens, and do I even wanna know the truth?

Ninja just being there was always good enough for me.

'Ugh, all this is just giving me a headache...' I thought to myself rubbing my head.

Feeling the bus come to a stop, I looked up and see I was at my destination so I get up and leave the bus.

Walking to the arcade, I enter and go straight to the cashier where the owner, Greg, was at.

"Hey there little lady! Welcome to Greg's GameHole, what can I do you for?" He asked.

"Hey Mr. Greg, I just need a $50 dollar gift card for a birthday." I said handing him a $50 dollar bill.

"No problemo." Greg said taking the bill and reaching under the counter and giving me the gift card. "Have a nice day. Skipow!"

"Thanks."

"Nooooooooooooooooooooooo!"

I nearly jump a foot in the air at the sudden cry of defeat that sounded familiar.

Taking a minute to calm down, I turn around to fond the source of my scare and see Randy leading Howard through the arcade.

Seeing Randy, I freeze for a moment remembering my previous thoughts before I snap out of it.

'Pull yourself together! Remember, you don't have any solid proof yet.' I thought to myself while plastering a smile on my face before I walk up to the two boys.

"Stupid Hole of Fame..." Was what I hear Howard grumble before I greeted them.

"Hey guys."

The two spun around in surprise.

"Riley? What are you doing here?" Randy asked.

Showed them the gift card, I said. "Just picking this up. What about you guys?"

Randy's surprise face turned into a confident one. "Oh just cheering Howard up from his loss at his attempt to beat my high score." He then gestured to some posters over some of the games.

Looking up at the posters, the one thing that I see that they have all in common was that Randy's picture was always at the top.

"Huh, That's pretty impressive Randy. I don't think I can name anyone who can maintain something like that."

Randy's confident smile seem to grow into one full smugness as Howard's face became annoyed.

"I call rematch." Howard said glaring at a cocky Randy.

"What would be the point?" Randy asked. "There are no games left for me to beat you at."

"What about that one?" I pointed over to an unfamiliar game that some guy was working on.

"Good eye little lady." Greg said walking up to us. "We just plugged in a brand new title! Skipow!"

Worker guy plugged in the game and the screen lit up with a green glow.

The boys gaped in excitement and ran up to the game with me trailing behind.

Howard suddenly glared at Randy. "You, me, that game, now."

"Are you sure, Howard?" Randy asked looking amused. "I mean, that's a lot of losing in one day."

"We're doing this!" Howard snapped looking determined.

Randy rolled his eyes before going to the side of the machine to read the details of the game.

"It's got laser mapped, photorealistic, multi-plane rendering of Norrisville." Randy read aloud with his tone growing in excitement as he looked at Howard and I. "You win by destroying every building in town!"

"Oh! I call school!" Howard said trying to get through the bars to the game as I leaned on one of them watching all this.

"Hey, look! Free nachos!" Randy suddenly said pointing somewhere behind Howard.

Howard fell for it and turned to look allowing Randy the moment to jump onto the platform

I shook my head at the scene as Howard turned back around looking aghast at what just happened. "That's it! You mess with my head, you jump the queue, and now you bring nachos into your trickery? You sir, have gone too far!"

Randy ignored him and picked up the weirdest game controller I have ever seen.

"What the juice?" Randy said looking it over probably thinking the same thing as me.

He then turned to me with that confident look. "Hey Riley, what should I do for my next wall pic? What do you think? Bed head?" He messes up his hair. "Gonna sneeze?" Pretends he's about to sneeze. "No, no, no. Monkey face."

I failed to hold back a snort. "M-monkey face, definitely monkey face."

"Let's pound this town!" The game shouted.

Turning around, Randy pressed a button on the controller to start the game.

An image of a guy in overalls and a hard hat appeared on the screen before it showed a pixel image of the town.

Howard and I watched as Randy play the game while throwing some mocking comments towards Howard, ticking him off.

"Cunningham, when I get in there, oh ho, I'm going to beat you so bad, you'll make roadkill look cute." Howard threatened.

"If you get in here." Randy shot back not taking his eyes off the game. "You should snack up, I'm going to be awhile."

It was at that moment my stomach decided to take up on that suggestion with a growl. Laughing a bit in embarrassment when Howard raised an eyebrow at me. I walked towards the indoor restaurant, throwing a "Be right back" over my shoulder just as a winded Bucky scrambled in.

Stopping just at the bottom of the stairs, I watched as Bucky went towards the owner looking distressed.

Straining my ears to listen, I was able to catch "killer robot" before Mr. Greg grabbed a mic and started speaking through it. "Attention Holers, there is a rampaging robot loose in the city. For your safety, we ask-"

I didn't listen to the rest as I tried to push past the crowd forming at the windows just a giant robot foot stomped by the arcade.

Successfully squeezing my way through and ignoring people telling me to come back inside, I quickly ducked into an alleyway and pulled out my mask.

Time for work.


~Third person P.O.V~

"SMOKEBOMB!"

The two teen heroes appeared in their respective smoke clouds.

"Hey Kuno."

"Afternoon Red."

Greetings done, the partners followed the trail of wreckage until they skidded to a halt a little ways from the giant robot.

Seeming to sense the approaching enemies, the robot turned around to the teens to reveal...

"Wait a sec, wait a sec." Ninja rambled trying to process what he was seeing. "Jack Hammer's real?"

"Apparently..." Kunoichi said just as shocked. But a little voice in the back of her mind was asking on how Ninja knew about the character even though the game was just plugged in.

She pushed the thought down. Robot now, questions later.

Jack Hammer then started charging towards their direction making the two turn around and ran so they wouldn't get crushed.

"I have to stop Howard." Ninja said while taking out his phone. "Call Howard."

"Calling Mom."

"No! How does that-?!" Ninja groaned. "No, call Howard! Howard! "

"Ninja..." Kunoichi called out worried as they stopped and began dodging punches from the robot.

"Working on it!" Ninja said back before returning to his conversation with his friend. "No Howard, you're literally punching me and Kuno. Jack Hammer isn't a video game. He's a real robot and he's beating up the city."

The two then dodge an incoming car.

Kunoichi kept an ear open to the conversation as she kept her eyes on the robot who paused in its mayhem and had a car held up to its ear like phone.

It then took out its hammer and started smashing a building making Ninja and Kunoichi jump to the side and press against a wall to avoid falling debris.

"What?!" Ninja suddenly yelled just as Jack swung its hammer at the two head on but they ducked in time to avoid the crushing attack.

"What happened!?" Kunoichi asked in alarm.

Ninja ignored her. "Call Howard!"

"Calling Howard."

"PPPPFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFTTTT! Leave a message."

Ninja and Kunoichi stared deadpanned at the device.

"...He's not gonna help, is he?" Kunoichi asked bluntly.

"Nope." Ninja responded simply as he pocketed his phone and glared at the robot looming over them.

"All right, Howard. You wanna play?" He pulled out a chain sickle with Kunoichi doing the same. "Let's play. Ninja Chain-Sickle!"

The two threw the blades of their weapons at the robot and had them wrap around the handle in order to separate Jack from his hammer.

It obviously didn't work as the robot yanked the hammer to the side, causing the two heroes to be dragged along through the air while hanging on to their weapons.

By using the force of the yank to their advantage, Ninja and Kunoichi swung on their chains around Jack and then delivered a double placed kick to the back of the robot's head, causing it to fumble before falling onto it's back with a loud thud.

The partners landed on their feet back on the ground, side by side.

"Oh-ho! That was so Bruce!" Ninja said as they shared a small high-five. "I give us a 1000 Ninja points!"

Kunoichi just rolled her eyes at her friends antics.

Jack Hammer then flipped back onto its feet making the two tense.

Though they were immediately thrown off their game as they watched Jack pull up their shirt and wave it's bare belly at them.

"Wow, that was an offensive gesture." Ninja said looking weirded out.

"Is he mocking us?" Kunoichi asked Ninja, not taking her eyes off the robot.

The robot then did a backflip.

"He's mocking us." Kunoichi confirmed, looking annoyed.

"Backflip seemed a bit unnecessary." Ninja pointed out.

The robot then preformed a helicopter kick hitting Ninja, Kunoichi dodged to the side in time, and sending him crashing into someone's apartment.

Ninja groaned as he picked himself up with the window seal, covered in pieces of cloths.

"Howard's signature move! How'd I miss that?" Ninja said to himself before he was grabbed from the apartment and held in front of the robot's face.

"Ninja!" Kunoichi yelled in a panic as she got up from her last minute dodge.

Ninja looked down at his partner, he was about to tell her to run but didn't get the chance as he was shoved into the mouth of the robot and swallowed down.

Kunoichi froze as her eyes widen in complete despair as she watched Ninja get eaten.

Tears welled up in her eyes as she fell to her knees, not even acknowledging the robot as he rode past her on his new jackhammer. She just kept staring at the sky where them scene of her friend being eaten kept replaying over and over as tears streaked down her face.

Smash!

The sound of destruction jolted her slightly out of her frozen state as her body began to quake with rage.


~~With Howard~~

Howard hummed to himself as he watched gleefully as the score on the screen kept rising.

The screen tilted for a moment making Howard confused before a look of realization bloomed on his face. "Huh, Kunoichi must have hit me or something."

He began moving Jack around to face the female hero. "Well I'll just kick her butt and-"

Howard's sentence died in his throat when the screen showed a very pissed off looking Kunoichi standing on a building that was eye level to the robot so Howard could see very clearly that the she-ninja was out for blood.

Or oil in this case.

Everyone that was watching him play took a simultaneous step back from the game.

Virtual or not, the female on the screen had a look that promised nothing but pain.

'Yeah... I'm gonna leave her alone and go smash the school instead.' Howard thought to himself as he made the robot dash towards the direction of the school knowing fully well the female hero was right on his tail.

No one would ever say Howard was coward for doing this.


~~With Ninja~~

"Ninja Glow Balls!" Once there was light, Ninja looked around the small room on junk that he was in. "OK, this is bad."

The side walls then started closing in. "Really bad."

Dropping the glow balls, Ninja grabbed a stop sign and held it up horizontally in attempt to hold off the walls.

The sign bent slightly but stayed in place and Ninja took that moment to reach into his suit and pull out his Nomicon. "OK, NinjaNomicon, surely I'm not the first Ninja to ever get trapped in a giant robot stomach. Could use a little help here." He glanced at the walls in fear. "Actually, a lot of help!"

The book opened and pulled him in.

~Inside the Ninja Nomicon~

Randy yelled as he was flung through the air before stopping at a scene of a Ninja fighting a monster.

The monster breathed fire at the Ninja, knocking away his swords. The monster stood proud at his victory while the Ninja kneeled in defeat.

A light bulb then appeared above the Ninja as he then took the chance to slash at the monster as it was distracted.

Monster defeated, words appeared.

-A ninja must know when winning is losing and losing is winning.-

"Kind of hoping for something a little more immediate here." Randy said feeling frustrated. "Like, I don't know, the exit's through the backdoor." A lightbulb goes off. "Oh! A backdoor! I love you Nomicon."

~Back Outside~

Ninja sat up from his laying position just in time for the stop sign to give in and snap in half.

As the walls continued their path, Ninja stood up and took out a manrikigusari. "I'm going out the butt!"

He then cut a hole through the floor and fell through.


~With Kunoichi~

"Spithimout!spithimout! SPIT. HIM. OUT!" Kunoichi screamed as she slashed at the robot nonstop in a blind rage.

The giant robot stumbled in back, swinging it's hammer blindly trying to hit Kunoichi as she jumped around him to dodge and slash at him with her tessens.

Looking aggravated, Jack was able to swat her away with it's hand causing her to be in a daze as she skidded against the ground.

Laying down in the dirt as her brain rattled, Kunoichi groaned as lifted herself slightly with her arms.

"Kuno!"

Hearing her nickname, Kunoichi's head perked up just as Ninja kneeled down beside her and helped her up.

"Are you o-" He was cut off as his partner threw herself at him and wrapped her arms around him.

Ninja blinked as he glanced at the ponytail next to his face. "Kuno?"

"...okay..." He barley heard her say.

"What?"

"Your okay!" He felt the arms tighten around him as he felt her begin to shake. Eyes widening in realization, they soften and he returned the hug.

"Yeah, I'm okay."

Kunoichi pulled away and gave him a watery smile under her mask before she punched him in the shoulder.

"Ow! What the juice!"

"NEVER scare me like that again, ya shoob!"

Ninja was about to retort until he caught sight of Jack Hammer charging towards them. Jumping to his feet, he grabbed Kunoichi's hand and started pulling her along towards the school.

Seeing Jack as well, Kunoichi let go of his hand and started matching her partner's pace.

Dodging incoming attacks from the robot's hammer, Ninja heard his phone go off.

Still running, he answered.

"Oh, hey buddy. Just wanted to let you know I'm 2,000 points away from beating your score. What's up with you?"

Ninja didn't answer at first as the robot was able to get a hit at the two partners, sending them crashing into a dumpster.

"Howard, you have to listen to me! I'm not lying, this is all real! You have to make the robot stop!" Kunoichi glanced at her friend, barley hearing the conversation, as she tried to catch her breath before looking back at the now looming robot.

"There you go, doing it again. Trying to get in my head and make me choke. Oh Cunningham, desperation is not a good color on you."

Ninja looked up at the robot, remembering Nomicon's lesson.

-A ninja must know when winning is losing and losing is winning!-

"If we want the robot to lose, I have to let Howard win!" Ninja leapt up on top of the dumpster as Kunoichi started up at him confused.

"All right, Howard. You want the high score?" Ninja held out his arms. "Come and get-"

The robot slammed it's hammer at Ninja and when it pulled the hammer away, a Ninja shaped hole was left in the wall.

"Ninja!" Kunoichi called out in worry. She went through a nearby door and raced down the hallway to find him.

It didn't take long as she found him sitting on the ground looking a little out of it as she hear him say. "Is that all you got? Is that it?"

A piece of the ceiling fell on his knee.

"Ouchie!" Ninja cradled his knee in pain as his partner ran up to him.

"What on earth were you thinking!" Kunoichi scolded as she looked him over.

"What I had too." Was his reply. He tried to move but winced slightly at the building soreness in his body.

Kunoichi saw this and started making familiar hand gestures. "Here, let me heal you up."

She then started using the art of healing, that she learned fully after reading the instructions, on him as he started talking to his phone again. "Congrats, buddy. Now I just need you to do one more thing."


After adjusting themselves, the two heroes and robot made their way towards a large cliff.

Ninja and Kunoichi watched as the Jack Hammer robot do an impressive flip before nose diving straight down and blowing up on impact.

Kunoichi couldn't help but feel some satisfaction as she watch robot parts fly around. "This mission sucked."

"Yup." Ninja nodded in agreement. "Well I think its time for me to head out. I'll see you later."

"You too.

"SMOKEBOMB!"


~Riley's P.O.V~

Making it back to the arcade, a pleased smile grew on my face when I saw the Jack Hammer game out of order and smoking.

Spying Randy and Howard standing next to the game, I went over to them.

"Hey guys, whys the game smoking?" I asked acting dumb.

"Simple, the game couldn't handle the sheer awesomeness that is Howard Weinerman! As you can see..." Howard gestured to the poster above the game and I see his picture on the top.

I smirked as I pointed out. "You know your eyes are closed right?"

Howard looked at his picture as his face scrunched up in annoyance but calmed down. "You know what? Don't care. All that matters is I. beat. him.-" Points at Randy. "HARD!"

"Yes, you did." Randy said not looking all that bothered. "You sure did." He then whispered tauntingly. "Cause I let you."

I snorted as Howard's eye twitch at the sly comment. "Oh, it is so on. You. Me. Name the game and I will take. you. down!"

As if on que, a nearby game jingles to life catching the boys attention.

Sharing a competitive glance, the two boys dashed towards the game.

I shook my head fondly while smiling as I followed after the two.

If Randy is some how my partner it wouldn't matter.

Cause Ninja is Ninja.

My dear partner and dear friend.