WOOOH haha sorry about the uber late update, I was in some sort of block haha. Anyway as I promised something lighter.

(p.s I'm calling the mysterious cowboy guy "the messenger")

Randy jolted up from his bed covered in sweat. He woke because his cheek had felt an intense burning sensation and he needed it to stop, he made his way towards the bathroom, dodging and stepping over his friends who were currently sleeping in Doug's garage, using the spare sleeping bags Doug had on hand. As he reached the bathroom he saw in the mirror what was causing his discomfort.

"What the juice…" He said out loud examining a large gash on his cheek. "When did I get this?"

Without warning the gash began glowing blood red, as if something underneath was pulsating with light. Randy both filled with fear and curiosity began to pick at the wound, he began to peel it painlessly, he kept peeling till he suddenly felt as if he wasn't in control of his own hand, he wanted to stop but it wasn't his arm to command anymore. His hand grabbed and clawed at his face tearing off more and more skin, until half of his face was completely peeled off revealing another older face with glowing red eyes underneath.

Evil Randy stared back from the mirror a malicious grin spread across his face, behind Randy's reflection was the ruins of norrisville, completely destroyed, and all Randy could do was stare helplessly at his reflection. Evil Randy opened his mouth to speak, that disgusting grin still on his face.

"There's no stopping me kid" He said. "And all because you weren't strong enough"

Randy shot out of his sleeping bag beads of sweat falling from his face. He looked around and noticed that he had not awoken any of his comrades. He gripped at his sleeping bag tightly, recalling in detail everything his dream had shown him. He got up, unable to sleep.

'So-some midnight training will get my mind of all this' he thought as he made his way out the garage.

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Henry woke from his slumber, he peered out the window noting that the sun was already high in the sky. He looked for the clock to tell him what time it was, he saw that the hands indicated that it was already lunch. He groggily got up and made his way to the kitchen where he could hear everyone awake and arguing.

As he stepped in to join everyone, he heard a multitude of voices, all heated in an argument.

"I say, we throw him in the sorcerer's hole again, it worked in the future"

"But opening the hole would let the sorcerer escape"

"Oh yeaahhh…."

"I say we kidnap someone he cares about and then make him give himself up, then WE KICK HIS BUTT"

"Mac….no, that's just, that's something a villain would do….."

Henry entered, everyone just shooting him a greeting glance then continued their discussion. Henry made his way to the couch where Howard (not ninja) and Randy were sitting, not a part of the conversation.

"Yo" Howard said snickering. "…Hensletter"

"Oh wonk, you told him?!" Henry accused Randy.

"I'm sorry" Randy said giggling. "I couldn't keep it to myself"

"Yeah Cunningham was the first one up" Howard noted. "He was awake since five in the morning, probably couldn't wait to tell me"

Henry shot a suspicious glance at Randy. He noticed Randy's eyes looked tired, like he was awake way earlier than five. "Is that really why you were up so early?"

Randy's eyes suspiciously shifted to the side for a second. "Yeah…sure"

"OK" Henry replied, letting it slide for now. He gestured to mac, first ninja and ninja Howard arguing. "So bring me up to date, what going on?"

"We're trying to come up with a plan to trap Evil me" Randy said. "So far no luck"

"Yeah, we even wondered if it was okay to use your belt to trap him somewhere in time" Howard added.

"That won't work" Henry said. "We need to be absolutely sure that everything is okay before we send anyone to the future, we might have made things worse, and sending him to the past….."

"We know" Howard said. "He kills a butterfly in the dinosaur times, turns out the butter is important to the human race in the future, long story short we'd probably become fishmen"

"Time travel is so confusing" Mac remarked.

"Tell me about it" Randy said. "I spent most of the morning trying to explain all this future stuff to mac and first ninja, well mostly mac, because when first ninja didn't understand something he'd just say 'probably witch craft', but Howard wasn't helping either, he kept telling them wonky lies"

"Okay, but it would have been HILARIOUS if we convinced them that people greeted each other by farting here in the future" Howard said, smiling to himself.

Henry just shook his head.

Henry sat down to watch the ninjas argue about strategies. After ten minutes they were getting nowhere and everyone was just getting irritated but their stagnation on the subject.

Randy stood up and coughed into his fist, getting everyone's attention. He looked at them all with a serious look in his eyes.

"We keep talking about capturing or trapping or subduing" Randy said, chewing the inside of his cheek. "Maybe we can't trap him, maybe we should ya know….just end him"

Just like that the tension in the room increased tenfold. Randy had brought up the elephant in the room, everyone was thinking it, but no one wanted to mention it, until Randy that is.

"Completely out of the question" First ninja said sternly. "I already told you—"

"I know, I know…But first ninja, what if this guy can't be captured?" Randy said. "The nomicon said it itself, 'The ninja has to make the difficult choices, even if he doesn't agree with them', this might be our only choice first ninja"

Randy and First ninja eyed each other up. Neither backing down.

"Ninja, if you cross that line…there is no coming back" First ninja said.

To that, Randy's conviction faltered.

"Oooookay" Howard said, trying to lighten the mood. "Maybe all this planning is shoobing up our brains, I say we do something fun now"

"Hmmm, I believe Weinerman is right" First ninja said to everybody's confusion, including Howard's. "We are too high strung, we need to see this situation in some new angles. Perhaps some 'fun' may make those angles visible to us. Go change, I must prepare some talismans that will hide us from our enemies senses"

"Alright!" Mac said. "Does the game hole still exist?"

"Heck yeah" Ninja Howard said. "It's even got the BEST NEW GAMES"

"Hmmm, I'm surprised that place is still open….." First ninja mused to himself.

"C'mon ya'll" Ninja Howard said looking excited. "Let's go steal some of Doug's clothes, you know, for disguises, and also to mess with him"

As Henry was about to leave, he noticed First ninja take Randy to talk to him privately. Henry shrugged and walked out of the kitchen.

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"Ninja…" First ninja said, placing both hands on Randy's shoulders and looking at him straight in the eye.

"I shouldn't have brought up killing, I know" Randy said shaking his head.

"No, you don't know ninja" First ninja said. "When I said it was off the table and it was crossing the line, I did not mean it in a black and white way"

"Huh?" Randy said scratching his head in confusion.

"Ninja, I understand why you may think execution is the only way we have to defeat this threat" First ninja said. "And it might be. But when I told you not to kill, I did not mean it from a moral stand point"

Randy was even more confused now.

"Many heroes in the past have been forced to take a life in order to preserve innocents. When innocent people are in danger and it is your only option, it is not only your choice to end the threat, but also your responsibility. I know we have been taught that killing is wrong, but right and wrong, good and evil? When it comes to situations like this, they are too complex to simply see as black and white. These decisions that hold the life of another are common for agents of justice like us, but you are more than just an agent ninja, you are also just fourteen" First ninja explained.

Randy looked down at the ground taking in everything first ninja was telling him.

"When I told you I did not want you to kill, I meant that I did not want to see what it would do to you" First ninja continued. "I have never killed, so is the oath I took. But I have seen what taking a life can do to people, it eats at them, they are never quite the same. As I said before, when you cross that line, there will be no coming back from it"

"What should I do then…?" Randy said in a small voice.

"That is something I cannot answer ninja. I cannot force my ideals onto you, you must make this choice. Maybe you are right, maybe the nomicon was right, maybe this might be the only path we have" First ninja said with a somber tone. "But all I am asking is that you think on it. Exhaust every possible option before resorting to killing. I have seen so many people in an effort to purge the demons that threaten them become the demons they once feared"

With that First ninja got up and walked out of the room leaving Randy alone to contemplate all of this.

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"WOAH WHAT IS THAT?" Mac kept questioning every second, pointing at various videogames he has never seen during his time.

However before Randy or wither of the two Howards could answer, first ninja would answer with things like 'its witchcraft', 'probably also witchcraft' or 'honestly also witchcraft'. He seem to have little interest in how future tech works and just went with the simple explanation of magic.

Everybody went their separate ways and began to play whichever videogame looked interesting to them.

After half an hour of gaming, Henry walked up to where Randy and Howard were playing.

"Mind if I take a turn?" He asked.

"Sure man, no problem" Randy replied scotching over so Henry could join them.

"Sure you can actually keep up with us Hensletter?" Howard asked in a challenging and arrogant tone.

"Puh-lease" Henry said cracking his knuckles. "I play games from the future, I'm pretty sure I can handle a bunch of retro gamers"

Henry stared in disbelief at the screen as Randy and Howard had beaten him, their scores leagues higher than his own.

"How the juice did you guys beat me?!" Henry demanded. "I play way more advanced games than this! My hand eye coordination should be miles better than yours!"

"Kids today, with their fancy high tech video games, back in my day we melted our brains and blistered our thumbs by playing video games for hours" Randy mocked in an old man impression.

"And we were grateful!" Howard added, gloating in Henry's face.

"Oh so that's how it's gonna be?" Henry said, putting his game face on. "Bring it!"

Time flew by as the boys continued their game. They laughed and trash talked, but overall they had a great time. Henry wasn't really expecting that he'd have this much fun with these guys. Future Howard was Henry's friend but it was a more business-like relationship, future Howard had sworn that he would use all his resources to help the ninja and every ninja to come, he was driven by guilt from what had happened to Cunningham. Randy was who Henry least expected to get along with, but for whatever odd reason, he just did. He was fun to be around, he radiated this kind of positive energy, and it was hard to imagine what he would one day become. All three boys stopped playing and decided to take a fiver, grinning from ear to ear and covered in sweat.

"So what's your deal?" Randy asked shaking Henry out of his thoughts.

"Excuse me?" Henry asked curiously.

"Like what's your story?" Randy clarified, placing an arm around Henry's shoulder and pulling him close and waving his hand in front of him as if to present to him some imaginary title that hovered in the air. "Who is 'Henry Hensletter: 9th grade ninja?'"

"Not much to tell honestly" Henry replied chuckling. "My dad became a traveling geologist after college, and met my mum, then travelled the world together, I was born on the road and travelled with em, home schooled in an RV see"

"Wait so you weren't even born in norrisville?" Howard said, his interest piqued.

"That's kind of ironic dude" Randy said.

"Haha guess it is" Henry continued, he started to move his jaw in a circular motion. "We travelled for my whole life, then when I was 12 my mum got sick and passed away. After two years my dad decided that it was time to move back to his home town and enrol me in his old highschool. I wasn't crazy about the idea, because I've never made friends before, well friends who I wouldn't have leave in a week and even then I was always a bad talker and kind of a loner, and yet there I was enrolled into a school where I had no choice but to interact with other kids. But it made my dad happy, ya know"

"Wow" Randy said placing a hand on Henry's shoulder. "Sorry about your mom"

"You're not gonna start brooding right now are you?" Howard said wearing a dry face.

"Howard!" Randy scolded. "Why would you say that?"

Henry just laughed it off. "Don't worry about it, I've already went through the stages of grief and all that. I grew up on the road, so I thought this quaint little town was gonna be boring as heck, then I got the mask and that's all it took for me to rethink my first impression of this town"

"Well, backstories always make me hungry" Howard said getting up. "I'm gonna go look for ninja me and see if we can grab a snack, and also play a bunch of twin pranks on people, you know the works"

Randy and Henry just rolled their eyes.

As Howard left, someone passed by Randy and Henry and stopped to talk to Randy.

"Hi Randy" Theresa Fowler greeted cheerfully. "What's up?"

"Nothing much Theresa" Randy replied equally delighted to see the baton twirler. "Just hanging with my posse"

"I don't think Howard counts as an entire posse" Theresa mocked playfully. "You really need to learn how to make more friends"

"You wound me madam, you have wounded me" Randy said, mock hurt in his voice. "Are you implying that I do not in fact have a bruce posse?"

"Well you are a known liar" Theresa said, smiling and looking at her nails.

"That was one time!" Randy exclaimed a grin on his face. "I even nugied myself for it"

Henry had a slight smile and a raised eyebrow at the display of banter between these two. He coughed into his fist getting their attention.

"Oh my bad" Randy said. "Theresa this is Henry, he's in my posse"

"Oh so you aren't imaginary" Theresa said shaking the boys hand. "Well it's nice to meet you"

"Likewise" Henry replied.

"You two mind if I…?" Theresa said gesturing to the bench they were sitting on.

"Oh no no" Henry said, getting up. "In fact take my seat, I was just about to leave to er-look for Howard"

As Theresa took Henry's place, Henry shot Randy a wink and some shooting finger guns.

Randy just shook his head in confusion.

"So…what you been up to lately?" Theresa asked, both glad for the alone time and a little nervous.

"Um…not much I guess?" Randy said, the air was filled with awkwardness. "Well I mean I have some friends from uh-out of town, they're helping me with a personal problem"

"I get it" Theresa said, respecting Randy's privacy. "None of my business"

"So what have you been up too?" Randy asked, placing his chin in his palm.

"Nothing interesting, my parents keep hawking me about which colleges I should go to, hanging with Debbie, twirl team stuff" Theresa replied. "Just boring normal stuff"

"Tell me about them anyway. I would kill for some normal and boring right now"

Theresa smiled and began telling Randy about what she'd been doing lately. But Randy's mind was on other things. He was thinking about Theresa, her face, her eyes, the way she talked so giddily about her normal life. This is why he fought wasn't it? So people like her, could keep living their normal lives. He clenched his fist, he had to be willing to do anything to protect everyone like Theresa, and he knows that, that was the right thing to do, right?

"Are you even listening, geez" Theresa said, blushing at the fact that Randy had been staring at her face while she talked. "You've just been staring at me the whole time"

"Sorry" Randy apologized. "Guess I just like looking at you"

Theresa blushed and tucked some hair behind her ear. Randy being as dense as he is did not even notice the effect of saying something like that to her. Theresa and Randy smiled at each other, the mood was great. That was until a token hit Randy on the forehead.

"OW!" Randy exclaimed. "Who the juice?"

"HAHA I'm ruining the mood!" Bash said in the boneheaded way he normally does.

"Bash!" Theresa said, anger in her voice. "C'mon Randy, let's get out of here"

But Randy did not budge. He had defiance in his eyes, and he used them to try and burn a hole through Bash's face.

"Hey! I don't like the ways you's is lookin at me ya shoobie!" Bash said, reeling his fist back to hit Randy.

As Bash's fist went soaring through the air, Randy contemplated actually taking Bash on this time. But he decided to let Bash barely hit him and pretend to be hurt enough to satisfy Bash. Randy closed his eyes bracing for impact, but it never came. Instead Bash's fist was caught by Mac Antfee.

"What're ya doing johnny nicewad?" Mac berated Randy. He twisted Bash's arm, making Bash howl in pain. "If ya let guys like this walk all over you, that's all you'll ever do. You gotta show em whose boss!"

Mac let go of Bash, and Bash swung his fists wildly but Mac dodged them easily. Mac dodged another vicious blow and kicked Bash in the crotch causing Bash to roar in extreme pain. Randy winced.

"You gotta show this punk you mean business" Mac said stepping back and away from Mac making Randy the only target in Bash's sights. "Win at any cost dude"

Bash blinded by his rage charged at Randy. Randy sidestepped and dodged effortlessly, but in his haste he didn't notice that by dodging he left Theresa alone to receiver Bash's uncontrollable rampage.

"No!" Randy exclaimed, grabbing bash by his hand and twisting him away from Theresa. Randy then kicked Bash's knee forcing him to crumple, then amazingly slipped Bash over his shoulder, taking down the hulking figure. Lying on his back, Bash groaned.

"If you just leave him now, he'll just keep coming back after you, unless you show him how serious you really are" Mac said grabbing something from his pocket and tossing it to Randy. "This'll scare him from ever touching you again. Do what you have to do"

Randy caught the object and looked at it, it was a brass knuckle. He raised an eyebrow at Mac.

"Ehh, Never leave home without it" Mac explained shrugging. "Now do it, knock a couple of teeth loose, he deserves it"

Randy slipped the knuckles on. Bash did deserve it, and doing this would guarantee he would never bother Randy again….But if Randy did this, there was no going back. He gripped the knuckles tightly. He reared his arm back, and Theresa just cupped her hands over her mouth, speechless at the events that were unfolding.

"THAT IS ENOUGH, NINJA!" First ninja commanded. He, the two Howards and Henry were there and had witnessed everything.

"Busted" Both Howards sang in unison.

"Ugh…Mac made me do it!" Randy yelled pointing at Mac.

"You little snitch!" Mac said. Randy and Mac then engaged in a loud argument like 2 year olds.

"We will discuss this on the way home" First ninja said grabbing both boys ears and dragging them outside.

"See you later Theresa!" Randy yelled.

"Yeah…see you later…" Theresa said somewhat confused at the whole situation.

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"What do you have to say for yourselves?"

"*sigh*…We're sorry and we won't do it again"

"Good"

The team of ninjas and Howard were walking back to Doug's. Everyone was talking about the games they played, Randy decided to fall back and walk beside Mac.

"Hey man" Randy said. "Even though you're totally the reason we got in trouble…"

"I'm not" Mac said in a deadpan.

"….I just wanted to say, uh thanks, for sticking up to Bash for me that is" Randy said, a small smile on his face.

"Don't mention it nicewad" Mac replied. "I grew up surrounded by bozzo's like him, you can't let any of them see you as some wimpy-wad, and it's all about power man, that what I love about being the ninja"

"And helping people?

"Nah…haha I'm just pulling your leg. Helping people too"

Randy smiled sadly at Mac. Remembering what Mac becomes in the future made Randy feel bad.

"While the ninja and Antfee were picking fights, our Howards did come up with a good solution to our dilemma" First ninja said nodding approvingly at both of the Howards.

"Oh shweet!" Randy exclaimed, high-fiving both Howards. "Good job guys"

"We know" Howard said.

"We're geniuses" Ninja Howard added.

"Alright gather around for our brilliant plan" Howard declared, causing everybody but Randy to roll their eyes. "So we were playing Ultra space accountant zombie dragons in space 2! When we fought the first boss, he was the last games final boss reborn or revived with a new body, I don't know I don't care. So we kept losing and we couldn't beat him, then we realized that just because he was in a new body didn't mean he was immune to the thing that we used to beat him in the last game, so we tricked him into using his rockets on himself like we did in the last game and that all she took"

Crickets could be heard as none of the other ninjas understood sans first ninja.

"*siiiigh* Evil Randy keeps telling us that him and the tengu are basically one and the same now" Ninja Howard said exasperatedly. "And what did First ninja do to the first tengu…"

"He sealed it…." Henry said. "Of course, we seal Evil Randy in another sacred stone!"

"Do we even have another sacred stone?" Mac questioned.

"The materials necessary will be difficult to acquire and forge, but not impossible" First ninja answered. "It will be far easier if we can find the messenger and um…who is the current sword smith of this time?"

"Our metal shop instructor, Mr Smith" Randy answered.

"Yes, once the messenger gathers the materials we need, the sword smith forges them together, we will have another sacred stone" First ninja explained, his voice holding a type of confidence that rubbed off on everybody. "With this, we can win"

Everyone began celebrating, pumped up and finally seeing a sliver of hope at the end of the tunnel. Randy was celebrating when he noticed first ninja's eyes look sad for a split second. Most people wouldn't have noticed that look because it only lasted a moment, but Randy did, because he had seen that look in himself multiples times, the look of doubt.

"Come ninjas" First ninja said. "We must prepare, it will take mere hours for the messenger and Smith to craft us a new sacred stone. And then….."

First ninja slammed his fist into his palm.

"…We take the fight to him"

Annnd done with another chapter. I know it might not have been worth the wait haha, I apologize.

But don't worry they put their plan into motion next chapter and finally take on Evil Randy, there'll be a buncha action, but what other surprises are in store?

And if you were wondering what exactly first ninja was doing the whole time in the arcade, dont worry he was probably lecturing some poor kid on the complexity ethics, and the dual nature of good and evil XD

Don't forget to review :D thanks again for reading