"You're the ninja! I can't believe it!"
"Can I just say you are the cheese!"
"I was classmates with the ninja! Amazing!"
Randy was currently being overwhelmed by ninjafans crowding him. It was a new experience, while he had to deal with fans all the time, he had never done it as the ninja. Randy was honestly a little overwhelmed, something his biffer caught. Howard walked and stood in front of his bro, separating him from the crowd.
"Alright. Alright, the ninja is tired and needs some rest. But as the ninjas closest bro, I could give you the what's up, with the what's up. I'm talking classified ninja deets, Ninjas favourite color, even exclusive articles of clothing the ninja has worn in his everyday life" Howard said as he wiggled his eyebrows. The crowds flocked to howard, he enjoyed getting the attention. But he enjoyed giving his bro some breathing room even more. Randy smiled at Howard as Howard winked at him.
Randy stealthily sneaked away, as Howard distracted the crowds. He was starting to enjoy the silence, until someone tapped his shoulder. Probably another fan he reckoned.
"Mind if I have an autograph?" The voice said from behind Randy. He was about to turn and tell them that he wasn't doing any at the moment, until he recognized the face of the fan. He smiled a warm smile at them.
"Anything for the fans" Randy said, as Theresa Fowler decided to walk with him. "But I don't really have a pen of paper on me right now, so how about later?"
Theresa giggled. "Sure…Sooo the ninja wow"
"I know. Some days I can't believe it's real"
"Must be tough, having to do all that stuff and not have a normal life. Wait, is that why you disappeared when that crazy witch lady attacked us under that club?"
"Haha yup"
"Oh, that is such a relief. I though you just didn't like holding my hand"
"What? I love holding your hand-er I mean uhh" Randy's stuttered response and blushed face, ignited a blush on Theresa's own face.
"Heh, better make your move now" Randy and Theresa turned to face the new voice. "Because if you don't, you're gonna end up getting together at the end of sophomore year, which took way too long to be honest"
"Theresa, can I talk to you later?" Randy said as he just looked at his future self still bound by red scarves that had been ripped off the ninja suits. "I have something I gotta talk about with this guy"
Theresa nodded mildly confused at what the strange man with purple hair similar to Randy's meant, as she left Randy made his way and sat opposite to his evil future self in Indian sitting position.
"C'mon you gonna gloat" Evil Randy said. "Go on"
Randy said nothing and just looked at him with a blank expression.
"Well?" Evil Randy urged, losing his patience.
Again Randy said nothing.
"Say something!" Evil Randy yelled, finally snapping.
"It kind of sounds like you have something to say, not me" Randy said his eyes softening.
"I!..." Evil Randy said, shutting his eyes and slumping. "Why…are we so different? How did you turn out so much better than me?"
"I guess, I have you to thank for that" Randy said earnestly. "You showed me what I'd become if I gave into my fear, you wanted a world where you would never be scared or weak again, and honestly I wanted that too. But you showed me that by trying to force that on the world, we were becoming what we were scared of"
"You're just a kid, how do you know any of this" Evil Randy said gesturing to himself with his chin. "Won't happen?"
Randy shrugged and got up. "I don't, but I have what you lost. I have hope"
He walked away leaving Evil Randy there to contemplate his words. But not for a long as Evil Randy looked up with determination, Evil Randy stood up the red scarves that bonded him falling off due to him having been messing with them the whole time to try and get free.
~[line break]~ ~[line break]~ ~[line break]~
The whole town had gathered as Randy stood in front of him. Mcfist's hover craft had provided a jumbotron with speakers so Randy could address the entire town. He drew in a deep breath.
"People of norisville" Randy said. "I know you have a lot of questions, I know you want to know what happened here today. But I can't give them to you, even if I did you wouldn't remember them anyway…"
Murmurs of confusion were heard as Randy decided to continue.
"My, identity is a secret and it is meant to be a secret. There are still bad guys who would do you all harm just for knowing who I am, there are still bad guys who would hurt the people I care about if I were to let you all remember my face*side eyes Mcfist*. So my friends and I are going to erase your memories, everything that happened after you arrived here will be erased from your minds, all you'll remember is coming here on the Mcfists hovercraft to get away from the fight that wrecked the city, anything after that'll just be a blank"
Randy closed his eyes and held his breathe waiting for the people to protest about having their minds messed with. He cracked one eye open as he noticed none of them were upset with his decision.
"San-I mean Randy" Heidi said, finally getting Randy's name right which caused him to stagger a few feet backwards. "You do so much for us, and you're willing to let us forget your real face just to protect us. If this is what you think is best for us, we're down for it"
Randy smiled warmly at his town, no his family. He was proud of them, once again reminded of what he was fighting for. It was ruined of course, by Mcfist.
"Yes ninja!" Mcfist said patting Randy on the back so hard he nearly toppled, which Randy knew was probably Mcfists intent anyway. "We will go with your decision"
"Is that a video camera on your breast pocket?" Randy asked in a deadpan, extremely disappointed in Mcfist.
"NO! whaaaat? " Mcfist replied nervously.
"It is, the recording light is even on"
"You're seeing things ninja. You must be tired"
"Yeah, tired of you"
Henry got in between them. He pulled out his wrist watch and placed his thumb on a red button on the side.
"I got this" Henry said as he pressed the red button, an electrical shockwave spread from his watch that seemed to only affect all the machinery in the area.
"Gah! My arm!" Mcfist yelled in surprise as his robotic arm simply went limp and refused to function.
"The juice was that?" Randy asked curiously.
"An EMP wave Viceroy designed. Basically a sort of wave of electricity that shuts down all tech in the area that runs on electricity"
"Why do you even have that?" Randy asked.
"Well it was, a whole thing in the future. You see Otto, Viceroy's assistant robot kind of became sentient and tried to enslave humanity. It was a whole thing, I had an arc and…you know what, it isn't important. This basically means any device that recorded your face without the mask has now been taken care of"
"Hey the people of norrisville said they were cool with forgetting my secret identity!"
"Please. You might be gullible but I am not gonna take that chance"
"Let's just agree to disagree"
"Whatever"
*Cough* Both boys turned their heads to see First ninja there.
"Mac, Both Howards and I will begin using the four nomicons we have at hand to start mindwiping the citizens. You two join us as soon as you take care of Evil Randy" First ninja said, as the crowd did begin to move towards where Mac and both Howards were. Randy and Henry nodded.
"What did he mean when he said 'take care of'?" Randy asked Henry as they made their way towards where Evil Randy was.
"Probably just mean to send him back to the future" Henry said. "If the choices you made now really have changed the future, then by sending him back, he'll—"
"Disappear, right? Erased from existence, just like that, poof" Both boys face morphed into one's of horror as they saw the person who had said that was none other than Evil Randy. In his hands were the tengu stone and Henry's time traveling belt. Henry patted his waist, cursing himself for letting Evil Randy steal the stone and the belt from right under his nose.
Randy and Henry reached for their masks, but Evil Randy held up the belt.
"Don't or I mess with this thing. And I think we've all learned just how hectic time travel can be" Evil Randy threatened. Both Randy and Randy had no choice but to watch helplessly as Evil Randy fiddled with the belt. He set in a date, one that made Henry raise his eyebrows in confusion. The date was set back to Henry and Evil Randy's time. This didn't make sense to Henry, why would he go back to that time if he knew he could disappear?
A Portal opened, showing a window to the norrisville Henry knew. Evil Randy sighed and looked at both boys with a soft look in his eyes.
"Are you sure?" Evil Randy asked, looking directly at Randy. "Are you sure, you won't become me? Are you sure that having hope will make sure of that?"
Randy stood tall, dropping his fighting stance and looking directly at his older self. "I'm not sure of what I'll become. But I know I won't make the choices you made, I'm sure of that"
"Good" was all Evil Randy said as he stepped into the portal. The second he entered his body glowed blue, he looked at his hand then at Randy and Henry. His body began to come undone like blue glowing leaves that drifted away into the wind, he smiled as he disappeared. He opened his mouth one last time.
"Be a better man than I was" was the last thing he said as he finally disappeared, almost a whisper in the wind.
~[line break]~ ~[line break]~ ~[line break]~
"Finally. Took you guys honkin forever to get here" Howard complained as Randy and henry joined them. "What took you?"
Randy and Henry just shrugged, deciding to share what they had witnessed with the others later.
The boys helped keep the crowd in line and made sure no one got hurt, each nomicon could shloomp in 800 people give or take at a time. But it was still going to be a long night.
"You weren't planning on erasing my memory before giving me my autograph were you?" Randy heard. He smiled as he turned to see Theresa Fowler standing there.
"Wouldn't dream of it" Randy replied to the girl. The two smiled at each other, until Theresa's smile faded and her eyes softened.
"So, we're not going to remember you? That's wonk, how're we going to appreciate you?" Theresa said sadly. "And I don't mean the ninja, I mean you"
"Just be safe" Randy said. "That'll be enough for me….Also treating your local ninja to a lunch in Charlie cluckers wouldn't hurt either"
Theresa laughed at Randy's joke, she smiled softly at him. "So I won't remember any of this?"
"Nope" Randy answered.
"Then I don't think I want an autograph anymore. I want something else"
"And what's that?"
Before Randy's mind could even register it, Theresa lips were already on his own. It was soft and gentle, it was over as fast as it had started. But it was still able to send Randy's brain into a frenzy. He stuttered and stammered, causing Theresa to blush and giggle. Just when he was about to make an actual coherent sentence, Howard slammed a nomicon into Theresa's face causing her body to fall limply onto the ground.
"Howard!" Randy said angrily. "I was talking to her!"
"Oh" Howard said. "Sorry, thought you guys were done…making out!"
"S-shut up!" Randy yelled, as Howard made kissing noises and other immature gestures.
The boys worked through the night until they had finally shloomped and mindwiped everyone.
~[line break]~ ~[line break]~ ~[line break]~
The team of ninjas and Howard, watched as the townspeople walked back towards the city, groggy and confused.
"Gonna be a long walk" Mac Antfee said.
"Mcfist sent a bunch of robots with vehicles to meet them half way" Randy said.
"Yeah well they could have gotten home on the hovercraft if Hensletter didn't do the EMP thing" Howard remarked.
Henry only gave Howard the stink eye, while Howard returned it with a smug smile.
"It's time, I suppose" First ninja said. Reminding everyone that the time they had together was merely borrowed. Randy sighed sadly.
"I'm going to miss you guys" Randy said. "Except you Mac"
"Haha" Mac mocked in a fake laugh.
"I'm kidding dude" Randy said, laughing. Well he was going to miss this version of Mac at least. "So Henry…you ready?"
Henry nodded and took out the belt. He fiddled with it and pressed a yellow button. Suddenly a swirling vortex of energy appeared in front of them "Viceroy mainly used this thing to study the past, he used it to bring historical figures to our time and learn from them. But he knew sending them back with knowledge of the future would be dangerous. So he installed this function in the belt, the second you guys pass through those portals you'll be taken back to the exact moment you were taken. You won't remember a thing that happened here today. You'll go back to your regular lives"
"Heh" Mac laughed sarcastically. "So we get our butts mindwiped too huh? That stinks"
"It is too dangerous Mac, there's nothing we can do about it" First ninja said.
"Yeah" Ninja Howard said. "Haven't you seen the back to the future movies?"
"Movies? There's only one back to the future movie dude" Mac said in a matter-of-fact tone.
"Oh right…." Ninja Howard said, remembering who he was talking to.
"Well guess I'll go first" Mac said, he looked at Randy. "Don't let people walk all over you, dude"
Randy laughed softly. "I won't. And you remember, being a nice wad isn't such a bad thing"
Mac snorted and walked through. Ninja Howard stretched.
"Guess I'm next" He said. "See you later bro"
"Don't you mean see you earlier?" Randy said, smiling smugly at his own joke, while the rest of the boys just groaned.
"I'm gonna enjoy forgetting that" Ninja Howard said as he stepped through.
"I am next" First ninja said stepping forward. He looked towards Randy a small smile on his face.
"I am proud of you, ninja" First ninja said, placing a hand on Randy's shoulder. "You are brash, arrogant and irresponsible. So basically you remind me of myself when I was your age"
Randy smiled back at the ninja. First ninja bowed to Randy, which Randy returned. First ninja stepped through.
Henry fiddled with the belt again, closing the first portal and opening another to his timeline next.
"Well see ya" He said as he strolled to the portal.
"That's it" Randy asked, acting offended. "No good bye for your new biffers?"
"Yeah, mushy squishy stuff ain't my deal" Henry said, his features softened as he gave off a warm small smile. "But I will say this. You proved me wrong. I've always had trust issues, so I'm sorry that I only saw you for the person you could have become and not the person you were"
"Dude not even I could have trusted me then, you've been through a lot, you lost a friend in the future, I betrayed your trust like twice, and you lost one eye" Randy said. "I'd be lying if I said that I didn't see that evil in me"
"Yeah, Cunningham can shoobtastically evil when he wants to be" Howard said, getting a dry look from Randy. "Hey, just being honest"
"You did and said all that stuff, because you were thinking about the people of norrisville, it's what any good ninja would have done. Plus you did trust me in the end, you helped me get back here when I was trapped in that fake norrisville, you could have let me die and ended all this the easy way by sacrificing me, but you didn't. You don't know how much that means to me, Henry" Randy said putting his hands on Henry's shoulders. "So let me tell you what First ninja told me: I'm proud of you, ninja"
Henry's eyes softened, a few drops of water pricking them.
"Uh-Oh" Randy said a huge grin on his face, he opened up his arms and gestured Henry to bring it in. "Bring it in big guy, you too Howard"
"Do we have too?" Howard asked, rolling his eyes. Despite saying that he grabbed Henry and forced the three into a group hug without waiting for an answer.
It took Henry a couple of seconds, but he returned the hug to his new friends. "I-If I had biffers of my own in my time…I'd want them to be just like you guys"
The three broke up and Henry walked towards the portal.
"If Randy really did change the future, then Mr. Weinerman won't be dead and I'll be the only the only one who'll remember this timeline in the future. And after I go in I'll probably lose the belt, so there'll be no going back" Henry said as he starred into the portal.
"So how are you sure Cunningham change the future?" Howard asked the question on everybody's mind.
"I don't" Henry said, he looked back and smiled at the boys. "But I trust him"
He walked in, the second he stepped through the portal, it disappeared.
"Guess that's that" Howard remarked. "Now what Cunningham?"
"That's the best part Howard" Randy said as he noticed the sun finally rising, signalling the start of a new day. "Anything we want"
EPILOGUE
Henry skidded to a halt as he cracked an eye open to look around. He was in the school hallway, he looked around for any signs of accidentally changing the future into a dystopian landscape, he sighed when there were no signs of such things having happened. But something felt odd about his perception, he shakily covered his left eye, he laughed giddily when he found out his vision had returned to his right eye. He excitedly checked the mirror over the water fountain to see his face, to his delight the scars and burns were gone. A few students giggled when they noticed how excited Henry was acting, he blushed and calmed down. He had something of a reputation of being calm and serious most of the time.
He looked towards the end of the hallway leading outside, he could see light coming through, but also something else? He could not make it out from here so he walked towards it until he was outside. His eyes widened at what he saw.
There in the middle of the courtyard stood a statue 10 feet tall on a podium. Henry walked up to it. To the people of norrisville it looked like just one of the few suits changes the ninja went through every four years, but Henry knew every four years every ninja chosen has a specific suit designed for them and it only stays in that design for as long as said ninja is still in highschool. It was unmistakable to Henry, it was Randy's suit, the statue was of Randy holding his sword, tip to the ground and both hands clutched tightly on the handle. He slowly placed his hand on the gold plaque that was on the statue's podium. 'The battle for Norrisville 2016, The world will never forget the day the shadows crawled out from underneath us, but the ninja continued to be the light that vanquished them' it read.
"Quite a day, or so I was told" A man said as he walked up next to Henry, not taking his eyes off the statue. "Honestly can't really remember a single thing from the day that green monster nearly destroyed everyone, all just a blur to me to be honest. But what's important is the ninja took him down"
At first Henry instantly pieced together what the man was talking, he was clearly talking about the sorcerer, that means Randy did it! He won! But that was the last thing on Henry's mind when he realized who he was talking to. That face had lost its roundness over the years and began squarer, but the light in those eyes were oh too familiar, that and the purple hair was a dead giveaway.
"Cunningham?" Henry asked, already knowing the answer.
"Uh, yeah? Mr. Cunningham?" Randy replied a bit confused. "The schools guidance counselor"
Henry was taken back, he had to process all of this. Randy was now his guidance counsellor, and he seemed to be mindwiped. Henry thought it sucked that Randy didn't remember anything about being the ninja or Henry, but looking at Randy's face, seeing Randy talk about the ninja and look so happy and content, brought a smile to Henry's face.
"Hold on" Randy said as he brought his vibrating phone to his ear. "Uh huh. Yeah. Okay. Sorry Howard-I mean Mr Weinerman is gonna be late for lunch, I know, it's weird a big CEO like him eats lunch here at a high school, but he and I need to have our bro time every now and then, even if it's just lunch"
Henry smiled broadly, Howard was alive! That was great! Henry looked towards the statue again then past it towards the city. He liked this future, this future made him feel warm and feel like anything was possible from here.
Randy looked at Henry then smiled one of his genuine smiles. "You know what? Why don't you join Howard and I in the cafeteria? You're just in time for lunch"
It is finally done! Well what can I say guys, it was a rollercoster, there were ups and downs. Emotions and me just blankly starring at the screen when I had absolutely no idea what to write, but it is over and it is time to say goodbye!
Major kudos to my partner in crime you've-doomed-us-all-jerk(tumblr)/RisingDiablo(deviantart) he basically helped me co-write this thing and was the one who came up with the idea in the first place, he is sick go check him out.
And last but not least, thank you guys for taking the time to read my first, idk not a one-shot story haha. Dunno what story I'll work on next but this story definitely helped me grow as a writer, I guess, honestly u guys r the ones who decide that haha
Don't forget to rate and review :D