A/N: Friendly reminder that my works are not betaed. Errors and strange things will happen, so do forgive me. I try my best, but I'm no professional.

Also, surprise! I bet no one ever thought of me continuing this.

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After his encounter with the Ninja, Howard kept his phone always charged and within reach. Day after day he hoped that the masked hero would call, or send a short message. But as time went on and summer slowly drew to an end, the boy started to wonder if it hadn't all been a story he came up with while in the bathroom of their neighbor.

He had been utterly bored after all, and there was no better distraction in his mind than to fantasize about having an adventure with the legend of Norrisville.

And that was why the sudden phone call at 3am made him almost topple down the bed in a tangle of limbs and blankets out of fear. The motion was so jarring that his concentration broke and he lost a life to one of the many tombstones littering the screen of his personal TV.

"Who's the shoob that calls while I'm in the middle of punching graves?"

Throwing the controller on the bed, Howard reached for his phone and stared down at the display with a frown. The caller's number was unknown, and for a moment the boy was tempted to deny the call and go back to the bliss of mindless punching.

He wasn't sure what made him answer it, though. Maybe it was because he wanted to yell at the caller, or maybe it was because, deep down, he was curious. After all, the only people that ever called him were his parents and sister, and right now they were all soundly asleep in their rooms. Not even a bomb could wake them up.

Accepting the call before it could go silent, Howard brought the phone up to his ear and listened.

"Uh... Hello?"

The voice on the other end was tiny and unsure. Kind of like a small kid saying hi to a stranger upon being prompted by their mother. Still, despite the huge difference in tone, Howard recognized the owner.

"Ninja?" he asked, his own voice filled with uncertainty. "What..? Are you ok?"

There was a long pause before the Ninja took a shaky breath. "Y-yeah," he replied. "Look, I'm sorry if I call so late, probably woke you up too, but... I... Can I crash at your place tonight?"

Howard sat up straight and completely forgot about the Ninja's distress in favor of his excitement. "That's so bruce! I can show you the new Grave Puncher, and we can play it together! And then we can also play the older ones. They are still the cheese!" he paused for a moment, thinking. When his eyes landed on the empty packets of chips littering the floor, he grinned. "And we can eat snacks! What do you like?"

He could barely believe it. After almost losing hope, the Ninja had called and now wanted to spend the night playing games with him. Just like they had promised each other that day down in that stupidly insane maze.

The tired chuckle that filtered out of the speaker halted Howard's rambling thoughts, bringing the boy back to reality. "Yeah, it would be bruce," the warrior replied quietly. "I'll be there in a few minutes."

When the line went silent, Howard felt like the Ninja had omitted something important. Yet, at the idea of having a hero hanging out in his room made him too excited to dwell on it for too long. Maybe it was just secret Ninja stuff that he shouldn't know about. But if it wasn't, he would be figuring it out after having fun.

Dropping the phone onto the bed, he rushed around the room to hide the more incriminating evidences of his less than active life. Dirty clothes found their way either into his closet or inside his dresser. Crumpled empty food containers went under the bed with an inch tall layer of dust that had been there since forever. All the broken stuff went into a corner of the room and covered by the biggest blanket he could muster, hiding them from view. No one would know how messy his room had been unless they had been there to witness it.

Perhaps he should reorder his games in a neat pile too. It would be nice to have an easy access to them if he was looking for a particular one. However, as soon as he reached for the first case, he was interrupted by a light knock on his window.

Howard sucked in a breath and held it, listening in the silence for further confirmation that his guest had arrived. A moment later there was another knock, and the boy forgot all about putting his games into order and rushed to the small window of his basement room. He reached up, unlatching the lock with the tips if his fingers, and watched as a black shape slipped through the narrow opening.

Now that the Ninja was standing there in his room, Howard suddenly felt at a loss of words. Even in the faint light of the TV, he could see how tired the warrior was.

So this was what he hadn't said over the phone.

"Thanks, Howard," the Ninja said after the silence became too awkward. "For letting me in."

The boy snapped out of his trance and looked between the masked hero and the rest of his room. "Why don't you sit down and I go grab some snacks?"

The Ninja took careful steps towards the bed and sat down on the edge, eyes drawn to the TV. He seemed lost in his thoughts, as if he wasn't even there, and his shoulders and back were so tense that it was almost painful to watch them.

It was like whatever battle had gone on prior to the phone call was still going on inside his mind.

"I'll be quick," Howard said, gaining the attention of his guest. "You just relax. My parents and sister are heavy sleepers, so they won't come down."

The Ninja tilted his head forward in a brief nod. "Thank you."

As soon as those words were out of his mouth, the warrior returned his gaze to the TV and proceeded to go back to whatever he was thinking before being distracted.

It was a bit unnerving to see the usually active and talkative hero so subdued, so Howard quietly made his way out of the room and closed the door behind his back. Perhaps his family was currently dead to the world, but it was better safe than sorry. Heidi would grill him to bits with questions, probably doing the same with the Ninja if she got a hold of him, and she would continue till next week. Or worse, next month.

Luckily for him, along with the heavy sleeper fame of his family, Howard could also count on the fact that the kitchen was very close to the basement stairs.

It didn't take long for him to go up and grab at as much junk food as he could, and much less to carry it down back to his room. Opening the door with several things perched precariously on his short arms, however, was a completely different matter. It took him several moments of fumbling and balancing things around before he was able to twist the knot and push the stupid door open.

"Hey, I'm back," he announced, more for his benefit than anything else. The last thing he wanted was to startle his guest and get impaled with one of his swords. "Brought food and drinks."

For a moment Howard thought that the Ninja had left because the spot where he had been sitting on was empty, but when a movement caught his eyes, he realized that the masked hero had moved to the messy collection of games on the ground. He was crouching with his back to the door, and he would have blended perfectly into the darkness of the room if it wasn't for the light coming from the nearby TV. Heck, even the red parts were barely visible.

"That is... so bruce!" Howard barely had the mind to drop his scavenged stash on the bed rather than the floor. "I can barely see you!"

The Ninja chuckled, amusement finally breaking through the weariness that had permeated him since stepping foot into the room. "Traditional ninjas never wore black," he replied, forcing his body to stand up. "They blended in with the crowd, and struck when you least expected it only to walk away like any normal civilian before anyone even realized what was going on."

He walked back to the bed, feet slightly dragging, and eased himself onto the mattress. One of his hands browsed through the food offerings and came back with a bottle. "I, however, need to be recognized when I'm out fighting, but at the same time I need the ability to hide in darkness when I need it."

Suddenly, what little energy the Ninja had recovered was gone, leaving him weary once again. His shaking hands gripped the bottle and he actually had to put effort in opening it.

"Man, what happened to you?"

If he wasn't so curious, Howard would have wondered if his question wasn't too invasive of the Ninja's privacy.

"Bad fight," the warrior replied, nursing the open bottle in his hands. "Got electrocuted, so I'm having a lot of troubles moving. You'll probably see the fight tomorrow on the news. There was enough ruckus going on that people woke up and started filming."

Howard winced, but a moment later he was transfixed when the Ninja reached under his chin with a hand and lifted the hem of his mask above his nose. No one had ever seen more than his eyes, and the boy idly wondered how the hero really looked like without all that black cloth enveloping him.

"So..." the Ninja took a sip of the frizzy drink and sighed in contentment. "What was that about you showing me this Grave Puncher?"

Howard couldn't help the smirk that appeared on his face. "Oh, you're in for a treat, Ninja! You'll love the mindless bashing of graves!"