Howard was bored.

Stupid parents... dragging him out and into the house of a woman that had just arrived in the neighborhood. If it wasn't for their unnecessary need to help her settle in, at this time of the day he would have been at home, in front of his TV eating nachos and playing Grave Puncher.

Instead, he was sitting on a couch next to his sister and listening to the awkward conversation going on between this woman and the rest of his family.

"I really appreciate your help," the woman said. Howard wasn't bothered enough to take in her details and all he could remember from the first few glances at her was that she had long brown hair and wore glasses. "Settling in has been easier and I have more time to dedicate to my son."

Howard raised an eyebrow. The woman had said 'son' in a weird sort of way, as if she was unsure herself of that fact. In the end, though, it was not something that held his attention and he found himself snacking on the small bowl of pretzels sitting on the coffee table in front of him. They weren't his favorite food, but they were better than nothing and they kept his mind off of his current predicament.

However, even he could not sustain a large amount of food and drink in his stomach without going to the toilet, so he excused himself. Already knowing the way to the bathroom, he parted from the rest of his family and their host with a forced smile and disappeared from their sight so quickly that even the Ninja of Norrisville would be proud of.

"Stupid parents, stupid sister..." he muttered to himself as he reached the door to the bathroom. He had nothing against the woman they were helping, but he'd rather spend summer vacation doing what he wanted, not waste time on trying to remember her name. Already he had lost his first day and his copy of Grave Puncher was still sitting on his desk. Unopened.

And if they tried to send him off to another of those naturalistic camps... well, he wouldn't like to be in their shoes.

The door closed behind his back and Howard swiftly took care of his business, emerging back into the corridor a few minutes later accompanied by the sound of running water. He would have continued further and rejoined his family in the awkward conversation about the mundane if the door next to him didn't creak open. It was really strange, he decided, because the door led to the basement and there were no open windows that would have let the wind come in.

Curiosity took over his better judgment and the stout boy found himself walking down the stairs. The deeper he went, the creepier it became. Still, the soft red light coming from the bottom was attracting him like nachos would do and he kept going, ignoring the fact that he was almost in total darkness.

The stairs went down deeper than it should have been for a normal basement and when he was at the bottom, the metal and concrete was replaced with dark wood consumed by many years of usage. The red glow he had seen before came from several torches hanging on the walls of a corridor that branched out in several directions.

Finding that going back upstairs now was an option that he didn't want to take yet, he walked to the intersection and looked in every new direction. While the left path went onwards a bit before doing a sharp turn to the right, the one in front of him and the two to his right branched more.

"This place is such a wonk..." Howard muttered as took a few steps back. As much as he wanted to get away from his family and do something fun, there was no way he was going to willingly get lost in there. "I bet there are a lot of weird things stored down here..."

Not to mention that their possible discovery might trigger the anger of the house's owner. Who knows what that woman was hiding down there.

Decision made, Howard turned around to go back upstairs and came face to face with... something that the boy could only describe as a giant mutant rat. With teeth and claws that were as long as his hand, the beast was staring at him with hungry white eyes and a salivating mouth.

The boy stared at it for a second before running as fast as possible in the opposite direction, ignoring the fact that he was going deeper into that maze. He turned corners, ran past stack of boxes and jumped over debris without stopping, knowing that if he did, the beast would catch up and eat him.

At the idea of being eaten bit by bit, Howard gave a scream of terror and ran as fast as he could. Already he could hear the claws skittering too close to his heels for his comfort, multiplying at each turn and intersection he went through.

As he ran, he mentally recalled every single movie with zombies or at least a swarm of demonic creatures after the protagonist he had seen and listed every rule the survivor would have to follow in order to get to the end in one piece.

First, it was imperative to have some sort of weapon to defend himself with. The best choice would be a flamethrower that could carbonize anything in its path, but considering the place was made of wood it was not a good idea. Besides, Howard doubted he could find one of those lying on the ground.

Scratch that. There was no way that he could find any kind of weapon lying around.

Shaking his head to clear his mind from the consequences of the rats catching up to him when he was weaponless, the stout boy recalled the second rule.

Second, whatever you do, never turn around to look at the enemy when you were running away from them. Every time someone did that in the movies, they ended up dead or became infected and part of the swarm.

But as Howard kept running through the maze trying to stay ahead of his pursuers, he also collected a constantly growing crowd of mutant rats trailing him. By the time he started to feel fatigued despite the boost granted to him by adrenaline and fear, the mob had grown so much that the floor behind him had become an uneven mass of dark fur and shining white eyes.

Despite knowing the second rule of successfully surviving a zombie-situation, Howard could not help but look back at the hungry demons. They were really close now. So close that the ones at his heels were snapping at the air, hoping to get a hold onto his feet with those sharp teeth. When one of the mutant rats decided it was time to take a lunge, Howard screamed as loudly as he could and brought his arms up to his face, closing his eyes. He had no idea if he did that to defend his face or if it was just so he wouldn't be seeing when the beast hit him.

Either way, the stinging pain of sinking claws and teeth never came.

Instead, Howard felt two hands grab him from under his arms and haul him upwards. He was carefully deposited on something narrow and the same hands that had saved him from a gruesome death were now steadying him against the wall.

"You know, you can stop screaming now."

The voice, so quiet and so calm, made Howard realize that he was indeed still screaming. Wrestling some form of control back into himself, the boy took a few panting breaths and then lowered his arms to look at his savior.

At first he couldn't see him, but as soon as his eyes adjusted to the dim light, the outline of a small figure clad in black with red details slowly came visible. The Ninja of Norrisville, the same person he had been self-proclaimed number one fan of, was holding him by the shoulders and staring at him in the eyes.

"Whu... wha... you..." Howard could not help his stammering. He watched as the ninja tilted his head a little to the side and blinked in confusion. "You're... you're... you're the Ninja!"

If he wasn't so bewildered, Howard would have smacked himself on the face. He had dreamed to meet the city's own hero since he had been a little kid, and now that he had finally realized his dream, all he could do was stammer like a baby.

The hands holding him steady slowly left, forcing the stout boy to grab the rafter he was sitting on with his hands. "I mean," Howard really hoped he could salvage some sort of dignity by correcting himself. "Thanks for the save. I just... I suppose it came as a surprise."

"It's alright," the ninja replied as he moved back and rested against the opposite wall. He was perched on the rafter more like a cat than a human. "Sorry if I scared you. You ok?"

Howard took a deep breath and let it out slowly. His heart was still beating really fast and his mind was still trying to process the fact that he had just missed being eaten alive by hundreds of overgrown mutated rats.

"I'm... alright..." he said after he had enough presence of mind to reply. "It was just... really sudden. I mean, one moment I'm seeing this thing jumping at my face, the next I'm... on top of a rafter."

The ninja tilted his head again, then moved his attention to the mass of fur, fangs and claws writing right under them. "Right now, this is the safest place to be," he said with a shrug. "They are pretty fast, but can't climb the walls. That's why I stick to the rafters."

Howard looked at the ninja and noticed how relaxed he was. "You don't seem worried..." he commented. Part of him really wanted to be just like Norrisville's hero and be able to face every challenge with courage and determination.

"They aren't much of a trouble," the Ninja replied with a nonchalant shrug of his shoulders. "A few bombs here, a few slices there and they go down easily."

Silence permeated the air between them and the large boy looked down at the demons in worry. The things were starting to pile up on themselves so that the others could easily reach the rafters and those taking shelter on them.

"So..." Howard let the single word hang in the air for a few seconds, then turned his eyes back to the masked figure. "Why aren't you blasting them?"

The ninja didn't reply at first. Instead he kicked the pile of rats in a fluid movement and returned to perch on the rafter as if he had never moved. "Ah... about that..." he paused and scratched his head. "I'm out of bombs..."