A garden rake comes swinging through the air, knocking Julian to his feet. I don't think I've ever been happier to see gardening implements in my entire life.
"Give it up Julian! We have you surrounded," ordered Howard. He's alright! The 'we' he was referring to was himself and Dave, who is unstanked and holding a hoe.
"No, I have you surrounded!" Julian sneered. Chimeras Theresa and Juggo had answered his call. Howard swore. It is now or never. With one final effort, I leap onto Julian, wrapping my hands around his throat. He is their source of misery and if he's unconscious Juggo and Theresa might return to themselves.
"Randy… stop… please," Julian begs as his face turns blue. Dropping the orb in favor of defending himself, Julian grabs my wrists. My hold does not waver, not even when Julian attempts to pry my hands from around his neck.
Howard and Dave are amazingly holding off the chimeras with their improvised weapons. Later I learn that the chimeras became more cautious once Julian dropped the orb. The battle had turned in our favor and then Julian disappears, leaving only wisps of green smoke behind.
"Wonk it," I mutter. Julian is now most likely with the Sorcerer, reporting to him who the Ninja is, if he doesn't already know.
The chimeras shrink, leaving familiar faces in their place. I try to crawl into the shadows where they won't be able to see me, but it hurts too much. Besides Howard, they can't know that I'm tainted by the Sorcerer's magic, that I'm the Ninja… especially Theresa. As much as I'd love the popularity, it doesn't feel right right now. Dave probably didn't notice my wings earlier, being so focused on Julian.
"Randy…" I must look bad if Howard's using my first name. "You're going to be fine, totally fine. Yep," He runs he hand through my hair, possibly the one part of my body that doesn't hurt.
"Honestly, how bad is it?" I am almost scared to ask.
"Randy! Are you okay?" Theresa shouted, all pretenses of being quiet dropped. Juggo and Dave are following close behind.
"And what am I? Chopped liver?" Howard mutters and simultaneously forced his hoodie over my head. I hissed as it disturbed a few cuts, but it's a necessity. I hadn't realized it until now; my wings would not return to their tattoo form. Not sure whether it was from Julian's magical voodoo or just because it hurt too much to try. I accept the hoodie and stand up, leaning heavily on Howard. Should I respond truthfully or positively?
"Never," I cough. Owwwwwww. "better." Nailed it.
"Dave told me what happened… I can't remember any of it, but I'm so sorry if I hurt you," Theresa stammered, voice on the edge of tears. Her fingers listlessly played with strands of hair.
"You know how much I love this mushy gushy stuff, but I think we should get outta here," Howard deadpans. The lights were on in every house and a few brave souls were peeking out of their doors.
"Good idea Howard. Are you sure you can make it to the parking lot where Juggo's sister is?" Theresa asks.
"Totally." The last thing I need is a trip to the hospital; we just need to get back to Howard's. A little first aid and some sleep and I'll be as right as a robo-ape on a rollercoaster. With help from Howard, I'm able to make it to the car. Unfortunately that meant our bikes had to be left behind; we'll get them one day.
The drive was tense; although the driver didn't ask questions, she must have known something went wrong. Julian's missing, I look like wonked cheese and Howard has a shiner. I should feel more concerned for him; he's never been in a real fight in his life. However, it's hard to think about anything else besides that my entire torso is figuratively-it might as well be literally- on fire. I might have just gotten away with only a few bruises if not for Theresa's chimera. No point in telling her that though.
She parks a block away from the Weinerman home to let us out. There is no way I would have made it back to his window without Howard's help. My legs weren't injured; it was just hard to focus on walking when everything hurt. Every step was a battle against gravity, against my own fatigue. Sleep. Sleep would be nice.
The window makes no noise. I never thought I'd be so grateful that his basement room has an egress window; they are large and make going in and out easy. Howard goes through first and then helps me. The room is just as we left it… or so we thought. The light flicks on, revealing Heidi in her nightgown and bathrobe.
"You have ten seconds to convince me why I shouldn't tell Mom and Dad that you guys snuck out on a school night," she said smugly, crossing her arms.
"I… We had to get something from Cunningham's house?" Howard offered weakly.
"As if! Wait," she crossed the room, "Howard, what happened to your eye?" At this point I consider making a break for it; maybe I can make it to my own house? No chance. Heidi please don't notice me. Howard slapped her probing hand away from his face.
"I fell on a rock," he lied. Her demeanor had changed from a self-satisfied tattletale to a concerned big sister as soon as she noticed Howard's black eye and minor scrapes. I still can't believe he held his own against a chimera with only a garden rake and only got a black eye.
"C'mon. I can fix you up in the upstairs bathroom," she grabbed his hand, leaving no room for argument. "Coming Sandy?"
Not trusting myself to speak, I shake my head and don't correct her. The bed is so close; I bet I can reach it without help. Haha Nope. Note to self: faceplants are majorly not bruce.
"Howard, what's wrong with him?" Heidi asked, mildly concerned. She's used to me doing weird stuff by now; falling over is on the lower end of weirdness. Speaking of which, Howard says she still blackmails him with the bathtub video…
"I don't know. It was too dark earlier," Howard looks at her, making the most pathetic face he can to gain Heidi's sympathy. "Can you fix him too?"
"O-okay. Just like old times right?" Howard and I use to get scraped up often as kids. Heidi was always the one to get band aids and clean us up.
"But Howard! What about…?" I exclaim. As I've thought more about it, people knowing that I'm the Ninja would actually be really awesome. The only problem is that I'm still a freak. The chimeras have been on the minds of everyone at school. Parents are even threatening to pull their children out to keep them safe. Chimeras are scary and dangerous and technically I'm one of them too. Heidi cannot learn about my wings; she'll blab about it on her show.
"No choice Cunningham," states Howard as he picks me up. Few think it, but he's actually really strong. The problem is that he's also really lazy most of the time.
"Howard, No!" Too late. A minute later and we're all piled into the bathroom. Heidi closes the door, runs cold water and presses a cold washcloth onto Howard's eye. Another five minutes and his scrapes are cleaned and covered with band aids. Meanwhile, my pain has diminished to a dull throb.
"Your turn Rudy," she states. "You'll have to take off that hoodie."
"My name is Randy and it's not that bad, really," I plead.
"Can you keep a secret?" inquires Howard.
"Sure? What's going on here? Did you guys join a gang?" Heidi pauses to breath, "Please say you didn't join a gang."
"No we didn't join a gang, just tell me you can keep a secret," he says, his voice deadly serious.
"As long as you're not in a gang, doing drugs, or going to tell me who your crush is, then yes, I can keep a secret. For the love of cheese tell me already."
"CunninghamistheNinja!" Howards blurts, the four damning words blurring into one. I don't think I've ever seen someone's eyes grow so big.
"What the juice Howard?!" I cannot believe he just did that. Did he even think of the consequences?
"Sorry bro, but you need help," with nothing left to lose, I allow Howard to assist me in getting his hoodie off me. In the light my own hoodie looks worse than I remember. The thorns and teeth from Theresa's plant-chimera had ripped it in multiple spots and despite the black coloring, blood is visible.
"Tandy is the Ninja? And I can't tell anyone? That's wonk," Initial surprise over, her thoughts are on her webcast.
"So you aren't going to tell everyone about this?" I ask quietly.
"No, a promise is a promise," she pauses, "Can you take off this hoodie too? I need to be able to get at your wounds."
As usual, the wings had materialized through whatever I am wearing at the time. The only way to remove my hoodie is to make them disappear and that's not happening right now.
"I can't actually," I gesture with my hand, "the wings won't go away."
"You mean they can? Go away I mean," she asks excitedly.
I nod, uncomfortable with the attention.
"How'd you get them and what's it like being the Ninja? Do you know why the students are becoming monsters?" I'm sure her questions would have continued if Howard hadn't stopped her.
"Can you please stop being a reporter for once in your life? He's like bleeding to death and I don't know what to do!"
"I… okay. Sorry," Heidi smiles weakly. Pulling a pair of scissors out of a drawer she asks, "Do you mind if I cut it then? It's a lost cause anyway."
After a few minutes of careful cutting, I'm sitting on the vanity counter wearing nothing but a pair of McSkinnies. Normally this wouldn't be weird; Howard and I see each other all time with only underwear. This time his older sister is present. Though I'm the only one worried about it. The Weinerman siblings are too busy freaking out over the thirty or so teeth marks that circle around my side, shoulder and back. Not to mention the hundreds of little marks that feel like paper cuts on my stomach and hips.
"Holy cheese! Just what were you guys doing?" Heidi yells. "Were you attacked by a shark?"
"Shh! You'll wake Mom and Dad up!"
"Okay, think Heidi. You went through Health class and learned first aid freshman year. You can handle this," Pulling out more washcloths and bottles from cabinets, she continued to mumble to herself. "Howard, wet this with cool water and clean the blood off," Heidi hands him a washcloth.
Now, I don't really feel like describing the next ten minutes. Basically it consisted of cleaning the cuts, putting antibiotics on them and lastly bandaging them. It hurt nearly as bad as receiving them, but the past is the past and maybe now I can finally get some sleep.
Howard had gone downstairs to change out of his dirty 'stealth' clothes. Was it only an hour ago that we were toilet papering the principal's house? It feels like a week ago.
Heidi is cleaning up the bathroom and I'm helping; to be honest I feel indebted to her and cleaning up is the least I can do. I mean, what if the cuts had become infected? Thinking about everything that has happened in the last hour, I'm caught off guard by her question.
"Can I touch them?" Her face reddened. "Your wings. They look soft."
"I-um? If you want…" I awkwardly turn my back to her. Heidi's fingers ghost over the primaries, I shiver.
"Do you even take care of these? A lot of the feathers are crooked," she chided.
"Of course I do! I totally know how to do that, yup," what exactly am I supposed to do?
"You're hopeless. Haven't you ever seen a bird clean its wings? You have to keep the feathers going in the right direction or else they won't work very well." Her fingers moved to the denser areas.
"I'll keep that in mind." Why do my wings have to be so sensitive? It's like a mix between someone tickling your feet and a massage. And where is Howard, he should be back by now. "So, like, how'd you notice we were gone?"
"My room is the one above my brother's; you guys were totally obvious wearing all black like that," Heidi snorts, "Next time try navy or dark green. They blend in better."
"Seriously? Ninjas wear black and no one sees them when they don't want you to," I respond. This means all those movies are lies. Heidi giggles.
"Well, I saw you and you're a ninja so…" Howard chooses this moment to return. Heidi and I move away from each other in response.
"Did I miss something?"
"Nope," I yawn.
"What really happened tonight?" Heidi inquires of us.
"We were meetin' up with some friends and then they got stanked and we fought them off using some of the bruce moves we learned from Grave Punchers," punching the air, Howard demonstrates his point.
"Like this, this and this!" I chime in showing off punches and kicks of my own.
"Ugh, I'm going to bed and you should too," she brushes past us and retreats to her room.
"What took you so long buddy?" I ask.
"Eh, I'll tell you in the morning."
a/n I want to thank all of my enthusiastic reviewers who are making this possible. You have given me so much self-confidence, thank you. My tumblr url is nobodty and my DA is endeavor4ever if u want to know ;) Would anyone look at a blog with just my art for my fanfiction? Just a reminder that The Phoenix is looking for a rc9gn author, more details in the reviews.