Summary: Rachelle Cunningham was your average girl but on entering High School she was chosen to be the next Norrisville Ninja, with Monsters and Robots out there she will be pressed to be the hero Norrisville needs while keeping it a secret from those around her.
Disclaimer: I don't own Randy Cunningham 9th Grade Ninja or any of the characters in the show so no suing.
Chapter 04: Malevolence
"Yahoo!" Rachelle cheered as she was out at night time as the Ninja, jumping from rooftop to rooftop.
… Okay sure she wasn't really hunting a Stanked Monster or a Robot she was definitely misusing her enhanced parkour and reflexes to goof off. Anyone would do this in her position.
"Ninja Swing!" Rachelle swung past a building using her scarf, loving the maneuverability she has with it even though it shouldn't be possible.
There wasn't really all that much street crime in Norrisville and when there is it usually is taken down pretty quickly by the local police who had a bit of an understanding with the Ninja after so many years.
Street Crime like drugs, murders or gangs that occur in Norrisville they would take care of but the monsters and killer robots fell underneath the Ninja category, it was something explained in the Nomicon to keep future Ninjas out of trouble with the local police.
But there was nothing against Rachelle going out there just for fun.
Unknown to her however a small circular robot was following her, recording her movements.
The recording went to a remote location outside of Norrisville where a villa stood and in the basement a figure was watching the Ninja, taking care to keep his distance after he lost his last robot against this person a few days ago.
"Ah nothing new, this guy keeps swinging around, what is he doing? How can I find a weakness if I don't see anything else?!" The guy groaned out before pressing a button. "Retreat and come back to base, I'm not risking you any further."
With that said he turned the recording off and walked towards a table the light flickering to show machine parts everywhere as on the table itself was a map of the world.
"Now should I start here or perhaps Amity Park considering the fact that a hero lives here until I find a weakness?" The figure muttered reaching up to mess with his spiky red hair. "It can't be just one place though, I want to rule the whole world."
The trouble was deciding his starting point.
Maybe he could start in another country-?
"Pardon me, sir?" A robot spoke up behind the guy making him spin around to show a teenager that was extremely pale with red eyes that had black eyeshadow around them, the left eyeshadow curving down like a scar, wearing a black coat with a high collar, fingerless gloves, black pants and boots, yellow spiral goggles kept his bangs out of his eyes and a helipack on his back.
"What?!" The teen asked in annoyance. "Can't you see I'm on an evil rant here?!"
"Yes sir, but your father sends you a gift from across the states." The Robot held up a box with the teen taking it curiously.
"Let me guess another gift to say sorry he isn't home." The teen said sarcastically as he opened it and pulled out a snowglobe with green swirls the bottom part looking like it had dead trees with thorns on it. "A snowglobe? Lame."
He tossed it over his shoulder not paying attention as it cracked on hitting the floor, the green swirls inside of it getting a bit violent.
"Okay back to world conquest, my favorite pastime."
Unknown to him the snowglobe behind him broke apart as a dark shape began to appear behind him, the smoke filling out the room as the figure was shown to be a tall, slender green skinned woman with yellow eyes and black horns clad in a purple and black robe with bat wing-like edges carrying a staff with a glowing green orb not unlike the snowglobe she was trapped in.
"Now let's see, Europe might not be a bad start," The woman turned to see the teen with his back to her. "Or is that too obvious? I guess I could do something unexpected and go for Paraguay," The woman began to walk towards him. "Or perhaps South Africa to South America and then-."
"My, my such ambition." The woman spoke making the guy spin around in shock.
He then screamed like a girl. "AAHH! Spooky lady," He shouted with the woman just quirking a brow at him. "Attack!"
That was when she noticed the robots coming at her as they began firing at her with laser guns, so the woman calmly tapped her staff to the floor to erect a dark shield finding herself admittedly intrigued by these creations.
It seems that she's been gone for quite a long time for there to be armored puppets like this.
But she frowned when the shield died down-thankfully the robots stopped shooting seeing that it was useless and the woman realized that it has been far too long considering she needed time to recover her true strength.
And time to learn how much has changed of the world.
The teenager looked at her in fear and awe taking a few steps back as the woman approached the table overlooking it to see the maps of the world has also changed quite a bit.
"Plans for world conquest I see, we have something in common," She said walking forward seeing the boy still looking terrified. "What's your name?"
"J-J-Jack Spicer," The teen got out in fear. "W-W-Who are you? What are you?!"
"You may call me Maleficent," The woman introduced herself with a smirk. "You have freed me from that wretched prison of a snowglobe where I was trapped for quite a long time."
"Oh uh… Your welcome?" Jack said not sure what else there is to say.
"Why so scared Spicer? I'm your new friend," Maleficent said with a smirk. "Now do be a dear and tell me how much the world has changed."
"So you ready?" Howard asked Rachelle as they were entering the front entrance of school.
"Tryouts aren't until this afternoon," Rachelle reminded him. "So please stop bringing it up every five seconds."
"I don't bring it up every five seconds," Howard denied with Rachelle giving him a dull look. "Okay not all the time."
"Relax Howard I've got this." Rachelle said confidently, shouldering her backpack.
"Hey you're not going to disappear again are you?" Howard asked curiously with Rachelle chuckling nervously.
It was being more apparent with her disappearing whenever a situation was going on, she was trying to do better but it was beginning to affect her grades and interactions.
"Of course not, promise." Rachelle said with a grin. "I'll be a shoo-in."
…
"What do I do?!" Rachelle was currently in the restroom a good bit before the first class of the day, holding the NinjaNomicon. "Come on Nomicon help, how can I do this when I don't even know if I can flip and be acrobatic without the mask?!"
She never tried it without the mask or thought about it until that morning.
She had all week to practice… But Grave Puncher happened and she invited Howard before they lost track of time.
Swallowing nervously, Rachelle opened the book and was immediately pulled in.
Landing on her face in the meadow she saw a few words appear. "To ensure one's success, one must be ready to fail?" She asked getting to her feet. "What the juice?! How does that make sense?!"
The whole point was to try and make it on the team so they could be popular, how would failing help?!
The words disappear and she saw the letters form like how one would type a mad emoji.
"Oh wow you're getting very expressive Nomicon," Rachelle said in surprise as the book never did that before before clasping her hands together. "Look I promised I would make it, how could I keep my promise if I can't? Don't you have some sort of ultra secret ninja technique to make it so I can do some stuff without the mask? I'm not asking for fighting styles, just for gymnastics and stuff. Like a cheat sheet."
More words appeared.
"One who cheats never truly masters," Rachelle groaned at reading that. "Please I'm begging here Nomicon, I only have until after school to get something down."
No more words came.
"... Nomi?" Rachelle tried only for a poorly drawn giant hand to flick her out of the book and she was back in the bathroom stall, nearly hitting her head on the wall behind her.
Turns out the book didn't like that nickname.
Looking at the NinjaNomicon as it was closed, Rachelle sighed and put it away. "Thanks I guess." She muttered knowing that she wouldn't get anything else out of the Nomicon and what she did get wasn't too encouraging.
Checking the time, Rachelle left the bathroom to get to class.
Back at the Villa in the morning, Jack looked at Maleficent with a critical look. "So let me get this straight," He said having the whole story told to him. "You're some sort of 'fairy' that's so evil you had to be locked away and now you want me to help you navigate around the world?"
"I'm a newcomer to the present and in dire need of information which you have along with an army at your disposal." Maleficent said gesturing to the armored puppets that Spicer called the Jackbots.
Seeing that he had all the cards at the moment Jack grinned. "And what do I, Jack Spicer Evil Genius, get if I do this?"
"Why your dream of world conquest, we rule side by side." Maleficent said with a smirk using his dream to push him in the choice she wanted.
"So far I'm not seeing a downside to this." Jack said chuckling to himself.
'So naive.' Maleficent thought refraining from chuckling herself.
The boy despite calling himself evil was very trusting of her showing that he has little to no experience in truly being evil. She'll just string him along until she no longer needs him and then show him what true evil is.
"So where do you wish to begin?" Maleficent asked looking at the map. "You do need to start somewhere."
Jack slowly tapped his chin. "Well that was what I was trying to decide earlier, I could try and start close to home but there's a bit of a roadblock that would definitely try to get in the way." He said with a frown. "And I'm still sore over losing Jackbot #40 because of him."
"Oh?" Maleficent asked looking at Jack. "A misguided fool that thinks of themselves as a hero?"
Jack gave a nod before looking at Maleficent. "You wouldn't happen to know anything about the Norrisville Ninja would you?" He asked curiously. "He's been around for 800 years after all."
"I've been imprisoned for much longer," Maleficent answered not letting show that her interest was peaked at hearing how long this 'Ninja' has been around. "Tell me more about this Ninja."
Lunchtime and nothing has happened as of yet.
No Students getting Stanked and no Robots attacking, it was a rare day of peace, one that the students were happy to have because as much as they love seeing the Ninja in action they liked some normalcy as well.
Rachelle was looking at some techniques in a gymnastics book in the Library to try and replicate at the tryouts.
"Oh I'm definitely going to look like a total schnoob out there." Rachelle muttered in despair as she was actually getting pretty known thanks to the talent show, enough where some of the students remember her name but that will probably go down the drain the moment she embarrasses herself.
The NinjaNomicon won't open up again to give her more wisdom, its way of stating that she was on her own with this.
"Hey Rachelle." Rachelle blinked at someone calling her name and looked to see Theo walking towards her.
"Theo?" Rachelle asked in surprise. "What are you doing here?"
"I was having a study session with Debbie but she just left saying something came up, you?" Theo asked looking a tad bit nervous, tugging at his collar a bit.
"Nothing really." Rachelle said not wanting to tell him about her problem but she guessed it showed on her face because he looked a little concerned before seeing the book she had.
"Gymnastics? You interested in it?" Theo asked, that question making Rachelle a little embarrassed as she looked for what to say before sighing and deciding for the truth.
"Uh well I promised a friend that I would try out for Cheerleading which is today but I don't know anything about it," Rachelle explained with Theo blinking before imagining Rachelle in the Cheerleading Uniform, his face heating up. "I'm starting to think I won't be able to pull it off but I can't not show up because I promised, what do you think?"
She looked up to see Theo looking unfocused with a red face making her blink.
"Theo?" She snapped her fingers in his face breaking him out of what looked to be a daydream.
"Yes-uh I mean," Theo looked embarrassed at being caught daydreaming as he quickly stood up, startling Rachelle. "Well you said you promised so why not give it a try?"
"And if I wonk it up?" Rachelle asked hesitaintly.
"No one would think less of you, besides how would you know if you don't at least try?" Theo asked with Rachelle blinking before remembering what the Nomicon told her.
"To ensure one's success, one must be prepared to fail." Rachelle said aloud thinking it over.
"Not the way I would put it but that's what it's about," Theo said a bit surprised at how she went zen there for a moment. "Make it or fail, you need to try."
'So that's what Nomi was talking about.' Rachelle thought now realizing what the book meant.
By doing nothing but worry about failing she would do that, but if she tried despite that there was a better chance she would make it.
So with a smile, Rachelle got up. "Thanks Theo." She said happy to have talked to the Soccer Player. "I needed that."
Theo gave a bit of a shy smile in return as she went to leave but he spoke up. "Hey good luck." He said feeling his insides flutter a bit when she gave him another smile showing she appreciated that.
Jack Spicer frowned when he was using his helipack to fly towards Norrisville High-the best place to find the Ninja, thinking over the plan he and Maleficent came up with.
It had merits, if he caused enough chaos the Ninja was sure to show up before he would overwhelm the guy with his robot army and with his defeat no doubt Norrisville would surrender because he defeated the local hero-well not all of Norrisville but he has a robotic army so he'll be fine.
It was the true first step to taking over the world.
Although he was a bit irked that Maleficent stayed behind but he knew she would just hold him back as she needed to learn more about the present, besides that meant she was an ace up his sleeve in the future.
Making it above the school, Jack pressed a button on his watch as multiple Jackbots flew around him. "Jackbots bring out the Ninja!" He ordered giving an evil laugh but they looked at him in confusion making him groan. "He's in black with a long red scarf, seriously you guys saw the recordings!"
On hearing that the Jackbots took off towards the school with Jack making a mental note to work on their hard drives so that wouldn't happen so often.
Humming to herself, Rachelle finished changing into the school Cheerleading Uniform, wearing a yellow sleeveless midriff with a white V followed by a blue one on the front and a skirt of the same color.
Currently she was retying her hair in a ponytail, the hairband in her mouth as she did so.
It was almost time for her to try out and she could feel her heart hammering but thanks to the advice from both the Nomicon and Theodore she felt much better.
'Just believe in myself.' Rachelle told herself stepping out of the locker room and into the gym seeing a line of other girls that were trying out.
She saw Cynthia, some members of Dancing Fish-Rachelle having mild flashbacks to dealing with their stanked form and saw that Morgan was the one judging the tryouts.
'What the Juice? I thought she handled the Dance Club.' Rachelle thought in surprise, unsure of what to think about that.
"Next." Morgan said in her bored tone.
While waiting, Rachelle heard slurping and saw Howard in the bleachers with a large soda, giving a thumbs up while drinking it making Rachelle shake her head in amusement.
At least Howard in his own way was showing support.
Then she saw Theo who was leaning against the wall watching as well, the soccer player giving a wave when he saw that Rachelle noticed him.
She began to feel a little self conscious now.
"Next." Morgan said showing that the person before her failed and Cynthia was about to try out before the glass windows above the gym exploded as robots flew in making everyone scream.
"Oh you have to be wonking kidding me," Rachelle muttered in annoyance. "I knew it was too peaceful."
Wait these were the same type of robots as the one from before the Talent Show.
As people began to panic, Rachelle used that to her advantage to quickly make it out the door and open a random locker to jump in there. "Looks like it's Ninja-O-Clock."
A moment later the Ninja jumped out of the locker, ready to fight as she ran back towards the Gym.
One of the Dancing Fish gave a scream as one of the Jackbots held her up before a red scarf wrapped around its head. "Ninja Spin." Rachelle shouted pulling on the scarf the act making the Jackbot spin around as it dropped the Dancing Fish member before she shot forward with her sword out. "Ninja Slice!"
The Jackbot fell over without its head as the students began to cheer before another voice spoke up. "Hey do you realize how much the parts to make them cost?!"
Rachelle looked up and blinked.
She didn't know what to expect but a pale teenager the same age as her was the last thing she would think of.
"Who are you?" Rachelle asked wondering if he was stanked but decided he wasn't given how he looked more human than if he was stanked.
"So glad you asked Ninja, the names Jack Spicer, Evil Boy Genius," Jack introduced with a grin. "And I'm the one that will end you."
"So you're the one who sent the robots to the school?" Rachelle was referring to the Krakenstein but was surprised when he scoffed.
"Don't compare me to the amateur who built them, my robots are work of art." Jack said before snapping his fingers. "Jackbots Attack!"
Immediately every Jackbot that was in the room converged towards Rachelle who quickly jumped back and was on the defensive, dodging laser fire and saw blades that were coming out of the arms.
Usually it was only one on one with the exception of the Stanked Dancing Fish where it was five on one, but this time it was a freaking army.
"Ninja Kamas!" Rachelle quickly swapped the sword out for two miniature scythes that he spun around before he began to slice into the Jackbots.
Unknown to the two however, Cynthia was shaking as she saw this, especially when the oil from one of the Jackbots covered her making her cry out.
…
The Sorcerer sniffed the air at this new development. "Humiliation and anger with the subtle hints of motor oil? Ooh this one is a real treat." Gathering the Stank he shot them out laughing all the while as the Stank reached Cynthia, covering the oil covered Pom-Poms as her eyes began to glow yellow.
…
"Ninja Sprint," Rachelle ran at Jack before jumping over him. "Ninja Flip… Ninja Kick!"
Jack barely dodged out of the way using his helipack. "Okay are you seriously calling out your moves?" He asked in disbelief while annoyed at how many of his Jackbots were destroyed before he pressed a finger to his watch to summon more. "What is this an anime?"
"If you're not the one who sent the other robots after me why are you attacking?" Rachelle asked still holding the Kamas ignoring that slight against her move calling.
"Hello, Evil Boy Genius, I'm trying to take over the world? Why wouldn't I try to get rid of a local hero?" Jack asked as if it was obvious before glaring. "Besides you started it by destroying Jackbot #40."
"... Who?"
"The Jackbot that was picking up my groceries last week." Jack shouted with Rachelle blinking before remembering that.
"Oh." Rachelle had the decency to look sheepish under her mask as she jumped the gun and assumed it was going to attack her given how the Ninja was known for fighting robots.
Their conversation was interrupted when they heard a roar, Jack slowly turning to see a Stanked Cynthia who was well above the bleachers, dressed in the Cheerleading Uniform as she had purple skin and spiked Pom-Poms for hands.
On seeing that, Jack let out a very girly scream.
"Did you just-?" Rachelle looked amused, especially when Jack went red.
"No."
"But I could've sworn tha-."
"No!" Jack's eyes bugged out as Cynthia went to punch him with the Pom-Poms before Rachelle shot her scarf around his leg and pulled him out of the danger zone, resulting him in hitting the ground. "Hey watch it!"
"You ruined Tryouts!" Cynthia roared at Jack making him gag at the stank breath.
"What?"
"She was Stanked, because of you attacking the school." Rachelle answered now wondering who to worry about more.
She was trapped between the guy who wants to kill her with a robot army despite saving his life a second ago and a stanked high schooler.
"Wait I caused this? Awesome, points to the Evil Genius." Jack cheered throwing a fist in the air but quickly activating his helipack to fly out of reach as Cynthia tried to squash him again.
"Except for the fact she wants to kill you." Rachelle answered looking for a stanked item before focusing on the Pom-Poms. "Think you can keep her distracted?"
"Hey I'm the bad guy, there's no way I'm helping you Ninja-Dweeb." Jack said glaring at her.
'Worth a try.' Rachelle thought dryly wondering how the day got this crazy as Cynthia kept up the pace with trying to crush both of them, Jack barely getting out of the way as he was using his helipack to keep his distance while Rachelle jumped from spot to spot.
Soon enough Rachelle was running up the arm of the Stanked Cynthia, taking the sword out as she went to slice through the Pom-Poms but Jack's extra robots showed up, one of them shooting Rachelle in the back, stunning her long enough for Cynthia to smack her away, sending her flying right through the bleachers.
"Nice shot Jackbot #87." Jack said giving it a thumbs up before it was destroyed making him scream.
"Ugh." Rachelle muttered in pain pushing herself up. "Okay don't have my back to Jack, got it."
Stupid mistake but she was more focused on the Stanked Student rather than the Boy Genius.
Seeing Jack flying around Cynthia who easily destroyed his robot backup, Rachelle gained an idea and jumped out of the hole in the bleachers tossing her scarf. "Ninja Scarf!" She said as it wrapped around Jack's leg with her pulling her way towards him. "Ninja Hitch-A-Ride!"
"Seriously stop calling your attacks out!" Jack said as Rachelle climbed up on his helipack. "And get off me Ninja-Dweeb."
"Hey Cynthia, Spicer here said you would wonk up tryouts!" Rachelle taunted making Jack pale further as Cynthia roared.
"I did not!" Jack screamed taking off with Rachelle on his back as Cynthia chased after them out of the gym outside, the Stanked Student destroying a car in the process.
"... Wow the Principal just doesn't have much luck." Rachelle muttered as Jack spun trying to throw her off.
"You're going to pay for this." Jack warned with Cynthia catching up.
"Yeah, yeah… Have to say this backpack is the cheese." Rachelle said readying a Knife Sickle.
"You like it? I've put in a lot of work in it." Jack said sounding happy that someone complimented his work before Rachelle jumped off, the force of the jump made him fly into a tree while she spun around with the Knife Sickle slicing through the Pom-Pom's destanking Cynthia.
"Phew," Rachelle sighed in relief turning to see Jack holding his face in pain as some splinters were showing. "Now where were we?"
Jack glared but shook his head. "Oh forget it, we'll finish this later Ninja-Dweeb." He said as he needed to work on his Jackbots a bit more.
… Well that and get the splinters out of his face in the process.
So Spicer took off and Rachelle was about to chase him down but decided not to when she heard Cynthia groaning.
"What happened?"
"Let's just say you showed a lot of spirit." Rachelle quipped helping her up. "You going to be okay?"
"I think so, thanks Ninja." Cynthia said with Rachelle giving a nod before using a Smoke Bomb.
Needless to say tryouts were held outside at the football field after that mishap with Cynthia all cleaned up and making it on the team.
"Next." Morgan said with Rachelle walking forward.
'Okay just move, don't think,' Rachelle told herself. 'Do what's natural.'
Taking a deep breath, Rachelle imagined that she was wearing the Ninja Mask and did a flip, actually landing it but quickly spun in a circle, as she shook the pom-poms.
Doing another spin, Rachelle jumped from spot to spot a bit surprised at how easy this was going, was she worried for nothing?
But just how was she doing this when before this school year she was pretty clumsy?
Eventually she kicked off the nearby football goal, doing one more flip and ended it with a split, breathing heavily.
"Next." Morgan said with Rachelle blinking a bit unsure despite the few claps she got.
Did she make it or no?
Still she listened and left, getting to the bleachers where Howard was waiting. "Nicely done Cunningham." Howard said a bit surprised.
"Wait did you think I would wonk that up?" Rachelle asked with a frown as Howard found his drink a lot more interesting when hearing that question. "Oh thanks."
"Hey I still cheered you on." Howard said giving a bit of a laugh as he said that.
Rachelle just rolled her eyes an amused smile on her face.
"Still I didn't know you were that good." Howard commented making Rachelle think to herself.
Just how did she do that, was it luck or perhaps it had something to do with the Mask? Perhaps a Muscle Memory thing?
Still she leaned back to watch the other participants who tried out and found her mind wandering to that Jack guy.
Given how today went she knew that he would be back, the question is whether or not she will be ready.
"Ow." Jack muttered while a Jackbot was using a pair of tweezers to get the splinters out of his face. "Ow-watch it Jackbot #105!"
"Apologies sir." The Jackbot said in a monotone voice as Maleficent studied the map that Jack let her borrow.
Hearing another 'ow' caused for Maleficent to look up at him. "Let this be a lesson to you for your future fights Spicer."
"Yeah, yeah the Ninja just got lucky." Jack said waving that off.
"If you say so." Maleficent said not saying that she was there to watch the ensuing fight and she detected a strong force of magic when that child transformed.
That showed she wasn't the only magic user still around, but she wanted to ensure her strength comes back fully before looking into it in case this other magic user deemed her a threat, for now she knew that it and this Ninja were related and at conflict with each other given how the Ninja was familiar with how to deal with it.
If need to be she would use this conflict to her advantage.
To Be Continued…
So who was expecting for Jack Spicer and Maleficent to be in this fic? I figured Rachelle needed more enemies than the Sorcerer, Sorceress, McFist and Viceroy as the Stanked Students didn't really become too much of a threat in the series. They were good but I always thought Randy needed more serious enemies.
Plus Jack was an awesome character but I didn't want to add any Shen Gong Wu from the show so I had to think of someone else to replace Wuya and my eyes fell on my Kingdom Hearts game and it came to me.
Who better to be a main villain in this story than the Mistress of Evil herself Maleficent?
Plus we had an Amity Park reference showing a possible future crossover but no mention of Phantom so it might just be an easter egg instead if people don't like the idea.
So let's get the Reviews out of the way here.
Lala Norisu: Yup, hopefully you enjoyed this chapter both the Nomicon Lesson and the mess with Spicer happening.
Lemon Juice: Haha thanks it's fun typing this story but you wouldn't believe how many times I typed Randy instead of Rachelle when I first started and I figured the 'Stomach Pains' excuse would be a driving point to the fact that Rachelle was her instead of Randy in the first chapter, along with other stuff. Thank you for the tip, pacing is the main trouble I have in my stories and I'm trying to work on that. I figured that Howard not knowing would be a main turning point in this story as in every other fic he knows because he knows in Canon at the end of the first episode, so why not make one where he doesn't know? Rachelle having more compassion was also her having more common sense-I mean who decides for Howard to be the Mean Judge-or do that at all in a school where it's well known for students in despair to turn into monsters?! Besides that I never got how Randy was so callous to other people in the beginning then again I suppose that was what made him human. Hoped you liked the try-outs because I'll admit I had no clue what I was doing there.
Musiclover435: Haha sorry about that, that was the first time I typed/written Clarinets so I wasn't paying too much attention in how to spell it.
Foxchick1: Thank you for the review and hopefully you enjoyed this.