A/N: Welcome back to Enter the Ninjas! Please fasten your seat belts for the slowest build up to two of the strangest villains of the series.
You've all met Shadow Julian already, but since this story contains OCs, we still have the blue ninja that we have to worry about, and that all starts now. This chapter takes place right before the master-mind episode, by the way.
Chapter Summary: You can hear change in someones voice, but can you read change in someones texts!? Lets see how well Antoinette knows our favorite goth after spending her Saturday with him.
The weekend had come and gone so fast, that Antoinette felt like she had just slept through the whole thing. Groggily pulling herself out of her warm blankets, she crawled to the ladder that lead down to her floor, only to collapse back into her warm sheets and curl back up. She was not a morning person, let alone a Monday person. With a soft groan, she tried to fall back to sleep, hoping to get just a few more minutes of sleep before she officially had to get up. Drifting slowly back into dream land, she soon found herself being rudely awoken by the sound of a beeping phone, which sounded twice as annoying as her alarm clock this early in the morning.
"I swear to God..." She muttered out loud, talking to herself and pouting in annoyance.
Reaching over to her beloved device, which was currently hidden somewhere under the massive amount of sheets that she kept on her bed, she searched for it tiredly. After a few failed swipes of the bed, her fingers soon touched the plastic cover of her phone, and she instantly pulled the smooth and plastic covered phone closer to her sleepy person and squinted her tired and sleep filled eyes open as she clicked the phone on and studied the irritatingly colourful and bright screen for a full minute. Half of those sixty seconds was checking the time, which reviled that it was only 2 in the morning and that she still had a long time to sleep, and the rest of the time was staring with full awakened eyes at the message blinking back at her.
Julian: Good morning, Antoinette.
Now, this was strange for a number of reasons. First of all, the message was sent at a very early time, which Antoinette knew was early even for Julian. Next was who the message was addressed to. In all her time of knowing the goth boy, she was known as 'twit' but only recently has she heard him use her full name, and even then it had only been a one time thing that did not last long. Frowning, she swiped the message with her thumb and hit 'reply'.
Antoinette: Its 2 in the morning. Why are you texting me?
The reply had come so fast that Antoinette barely had time to hit the send button.
Julian: To see if you are having a good morning. Is that wrong of me to ask?
Antoinette: This early? And what happened to calling me twit?
Julian: Its only early to you, and nothings happened to it, Antoinette.
Antoinette would never admit it, but it bothered her a little to think that she had lost her pet name. It was stupid and originally she thought of it as a bad thing, but over the last few months, she came to accept it as her name from him. She really couldn't hate what was hers, or what she could say was hers. Pouting at the thought, she huffed and typed out a quick response, one that would hopefully tell her friend that she was annoyed now.
Antoinette: Whatever, I'm going back to bed...
Julian: Well, then good morning, again.
Antoinette: Good morning? Don't you mean good night?
Julian: Like you said, it is the morning. Even if you were going back to sleep then it would still be morning.
Antoinette: Stop being a smarty. I'll see you at school later on, okay?
Julian: I thought you were going back to sleep. We might as well continue talking if you're going to stay awake.
Antoinette: Stop texting me then and I will!
Julian: Antoinette, you could just, oh I don't know... Stop texting ME first?
Feeling blood creeping into her cheeks at the obvious comment, Antoinette rolled her eyes and then wiped them clear of sleep so that she could type a proper response. Craning her neck awkwardly, she began to tap away at her keypad quickly and then hit send.
Antoinette: You know how I am, I always want the last laugh in a situation. Especially when it comes to you.
Julian: Well, don't I feel special.
Antoinette: You're being a smarty again! Just go back to being the adorable but also annoying goth kid who shows me card tricks!
Julian: You really think I'm adorable? Thats cute.
Antoinette: Its 2 in the morning and I'm tired...
Julian: Excuses, you seem to have a lot of them lately.
Antoinette: Name one.
Julian: Just last weekend, with the cards.
Antoinette: Shut up...
Her messages went quiet after that, and she frowned softly at the screen, feeling somewhat unsettled by the conversation. Sure, they had had their bouts of silly and random conversations, but there was something about this one that was just uncomfortable to her. Pouting, she took a deep breath and decided to send one last message, just to test the waters a little bit more.
Antoinette: Good morning, Julian.
Julian: Good morning, twit. Is that better?
Antoinette: Much, now let me sleep.
With a soft and satisfied smile, the youngest McFist clicked off her cellphone and placed it next to her head as she rolled over and found herself drifting back to sleep at a much faster pace than she had before for some reason or another.
Muggy classrooms and uncomfortable desks were not anyone's forte, but they were put up with for the seven hours of class that also had to be endured. All of it took both a physical and emotional tolling on most of the students of Norrisville High. Well, all except for those who found a way to enjoy themselves just a little bit more during these harsh hours, and luckily, Antoinette Mcfist just so happened to be friends with them.
"TONI! How's it hanging, girl?" Randy greeted, applying several quick and gentle jabs to his female friend's arm as he met up with her at her locker.
"Hey, Rands. Good morning." Antoinette replied, ignoring the jabs as she slammed her locker door shut and turned fully to face Randy. "Where's Howard at?"
Before Randy had a chance to answer, their shorter, ginger haired friend came grumbling down the hallway, stopping and only looking up once to send a wayward nod to either one of his dark haired friends before stopping completely at his own locker just a short distance away.
"Um, hey buddy. What's up?" Randy's attention was instantly turned to his male friend.
"Stupid principle gave me a 'warning' for 'walking to fast' on the sidewalk." Howard answered as he cocked his head just a touch so that both Randy and Antoinette were in his view. "Oh, and I got a message for you, Toni."
"Howard, can it wait until after class?" Randy groaned, looking at the two before clapping a hand on both of their shoulders. "Come on, I haven't seen my two bestest buddies together all weekend. Let's just chat an-"
"Because you two were MIA all weekend! Where were you guys anyhow?" Antoinette cut on, shaking Randy's hand off of her shoulder and stepping away from her locker.
"Um, fishing." Both said quickly in unison.
"Yes, we went fishing with our family." Randy repeated, rubbing the back of his neck a little as he spoke. "Its not like we were out fighting monsters or anything in a winter themed amusement park. Nope... Just fishing."
"Um, okay then... So whose my message from, Howard?" Antoinette muttered, her eyebrows knitting together a smidge as she looked to the shorter of the two males.
"Oh, Julian was just looking for you is all. Said something stupid about a playing card or whatever." Howard mumbled in a nonchalant way, idly grabbing his school books before closing his locker quickly. "Sounded like something you would know about for some reason. You two been hanging out lately or something?"
"As a matter of fact, we have been. You and Randy should have know about it." Antoinette scoffed as she folded her arms over her chest.
"Oh yeah! Now that you mention it..." Randy reminded her.
"Mentioned it!? Randy, this isn't the first time I've hung out with him." She exclaimed, actually surprised by this revelation, but not really considering who she was talking to.
"Really? When else have you two hung out?" There was no sign of teasing in Randy's tone.
"The dance, his birthday party, and then we hung out just recently." Antoinette replied with a huff.
"Oh? So how did all that recent stuff go?" Randy smirked as he and Howard leaned in closer to the poor girl.
"It went fine. We just did magic tricks and then he came over to my place at some point to watch the season final of Mandy Runningtam."
"Oooh. 'Magic-tricks'!" Randy teased, earning a quick jab to the arm from the girl and a laugh from Howard. "Oh come on. I was just teasing."
"We didn't do anything, Cunningham." Antoinette said firmly, starting off down the hallway in search if her goth friend.
"Better go apologize, Cunningham." Howard warned, idly pushing his friend in the direction Antoinette had gone in. "Because if I were you, I wouldn't want to get on the bad side of the girl whose dad could have us kicked out of town."
"Fine, fine." Randy laughed, rushing over to Antoinette and walking along side her.
"Howard is a good friend, Randy." Antoinette muttered, rolling her eyes once again at him.
"That he is, and so are you." The dark haired male laughed, slapping a hand onto the other's shoulder gently. "But I swear to you, I am so very sorry- not sorry- for teasing you."
"Non-apology is not accepted."
"So does that mean you forgive me?" Randy sounded far to hopeful for something that was just a joke from the very start.
"I'll think about it." Antoinette replied, halting suddenly when a figure caught her eye.
Just up ahead, there was a person who looked like her goth. Same fangs, top hat, and every trait that she could pinpoint to her friend, except for one major difference. That being that this person was pure white, with strangely coloured eyes.
"Antoinette." He spoke, walking the rest of the way to the girl and stopping just an arms length away from her.
"Hey, Julian. Just dropping off Toni, here." Randy said in a cool tone, idly pushing the girl towards the second male, seeming to not have noticed any of the changes that Antoinette did.
"She's a big girl. She could have done it herself." Julian replied, sounding almost annoyed with the other.
"Still, it had to be done. See you two later." Randy laughed lightly, turning away from them quickly and taking off down the hall with a simple wave.
Meanwhile, Antoinette stood frozen with a look of surprise and confusion written all over her face as she continued to look the other over. How Randy hadn't noticed anything different was beyond her, and she wasn't really sure how she felt about that. So instead of thinking about it, she just continued to stare at her friend. This didn't last long, as he suddenly cleared his throat and brought her back to reality.
"You seem surprised." This new Julian spoke, his earlier annoyance with Randy instead being replaced by amusement for her.
"Who the heck are you and what have you done with my goth?" Antoinette spat out faster than she could think.
"Oh, so you've noticed? Thank God, at least someone did..." He sighed, turning sharply on his heels suddenly and starting off down the hall. "But I don't really need to tell you anything more than that much."
"W-what? B-but Howard said that you were looking for me." Antoinette called to him, her confusion growing by the minute as she took a step forward.
"No. While it was me in a sen-"
"Just cut the crap and tell me what this-" She stopped and gestured to all of his person. "Is about!"
The snow white male turned and went silent suddenly, his lips twisting into a very strange sneer in reaction to the girl's persistent behavior. It honestly made her uncomfortable, but not as uncomfortable as his sudden laugh did.
"Now I can see why he likes you. You're adorable." He laughed, suddenly reaching out and grabbing the girl's wrists before dragging her away from where they once stood.
"A-adorable!? Okay, now you're really starting to freak me out." Antoinette yelped, trying weakly to get her arm away.
"Starting to? You seemed beyond uncomfortable during our little chat this morning." Julian scoffed, leading the girl to an unknown destination away from anyone else.
"I knew something was off! You never call me anything but Twit." Antoinette growled, stopping suddenly and causing the other to hault with her. "Now are you going to tell me what this is about?"
"Why tell you when I can show you?" He mused, gesturing to where they had arrived.
The boy's bathroom; a location that caused the female to wrinkle her nose in disgust and causing her to be torn between two thoughts. She could either slap him now and make a break for it, or follow him in and see how far she could get before things got messed up as all heck. As she thought this, the male had pushed the door open and was now holding it for her like how a gentleman would for a lady. Frowning, she looked around the hallway to see if anyone was watching.
"No one's in there right now, and the hallways will be empty in a minute when the bell rings." Julian assured her in a kind and gentle tone, though it sounded like it was masking something else.
"Try anything and I will punch you." Antoinette growled, allowing her curious side to take over as she began to step closer to the door.
"Trust me, I'm not crazy enough to try anything on you. There's still a dull pain where you hit us the first time." He replied, rolling his eyes as he watched Antoinette slowly make her way inside. "That's a good girl."
Antoinette bit her lip a little at his rather odd choice of words, and she soon found herself holding her breath as the door to the bathroom slammed shut behind her and footsteps soon followed. In her mind, she began plotting out several escape routes, but her mind soon went blank when she felt a cold hand take her own and lead her further into the bathroom.
"Normally, I wouldn't bother telling anyone about this, but you're a special case apparently." She heard his voice from beside her, but didn't dare to look at him. "He's been asking about you a lot lately."
"What are you-" Antoinette began but was suddenly cut off.
"Twit!" This version of Julian's voice sounded different than the voice she heard beside her, and she quickly whipped her head around to look for the source.
Beside her, her escort was now leaning against the bathroom wall, one arm outstretched to gesture towards the bathroom mirror directly across from her. Dark teal eyes slowly shifted from him to the mirror, and she felt her blood run cold when she saw the reflection in the mirror.
"How the heck...?" She muttered, taking a step forward towards the reflection of her goth as he would normally appear.
"Twit? Are you alright?" The reflection asked, reaching up a pastel purple hand towards her but stopping just before the mirror. "You look like you're going to cry."
She hadn't noticed the tears welling up in her eyes, but she did notice the surplus of emotions currently being felt. Anger for the white clad imposter, relief that her real friend was alright and now had a reason behind his earlier change, and confusion over what the heck was going on at that moment. Sure, strange things happened in this school with a ninja and creatures included, but this was just crazy.
"W-what the heck is going on!?" She all but screamed suddenly, feeling a few tears slide down her face. "Why is my friend in a mirror and who the heck are you!?"
"Oh my! I've never seen Twit do that before..." Regular Julian gasped, sounding a bit amazed and overwhelmed by it. "And Twit, this is evil me. And evil me, this is Twi-"
"Of course I'm doing it now! This is just weird and I don't understand!" She yelped, wincing when the 'evil' copy of her friend suddenly went to her and brushed her tears away with his thumb.
"Its very simple, Antoinette. You see, there is a certain prize in this world that I want, but couldn't get to until no-" A sudden punch to the jaw certainly shut him up, as tears were replaced with pure rage in Antoinette's eyes.
"Don't talk like that! My friend is in a mirror!" She exclaimed before stepping back. "How the heck is that simple!?"
"You little-" A hiss of pain ended the doppleganger's sentence, as he glared up at Antoinette with burning blue eyes, a bit of blood staining his pale lips as he did so. "You're lucky you mean so much to him or else I would have killed you already."
"I know of a few people who could do away with you on that same note." Antoinette sighed, looking down at the hand she had used to punch him with.
"That's unlikely." He replied, wiping the crimson blood off of his mouth and looking at the girl with a much more calm expression. "I'm not going to hurt you though."
"And why not?" Antoinette muttered, glaring at him as he slowly began to walk back towards the bathroom's exit, her gaze darting to the mirror and watching in slight horror as her friend's image began to fade the further his double got to the door.
"I have my reasons." He replied with a roll of the eyes.
"Look. I don't care what you do on your own time, but I swear, if you hurt my friend I will not hesitate to fight you." She growled, her hands balling up into tight fists.
"Friend? You two?" The double asked in a mock-surprised tone.
"As of now, he is." Antoinette shot back suddenly. "Since the enemy part of him has been removed... Apparently."
"Hm... Fair enough." With that, the other pushed open the bathroom door and stepped out. "Then I supposed we'll just have to keep our distances then."
Antoinette was about to reply, when a suddenly rumble ran through the school hall, followed by a rather large explosion taking out a nearby wall. In an instance, students were running and screaming in terror, and before Antoinette had a chance to think about what had happened, the imposter disappeared out the door and into the panicked crowd of students. Gasping, Antoinette rushed from the doorway and out into the hall, her head spinning and her eyes becoming fuzzy with so much going on at once, but the second it began, it was over and he was gone.
"Hey, are you alright?" A familiar tone soon rang in her ears, and she turned suddenly to see the ninja standing beside her, looking as concerned as ever. "Hey, you're going to be okay.
Feeling to stress to reply, the girl did what she always seemed to do at a time like this; she collapsed.
The cream colored ceiling tiles of the school's front office and a lone ceiling fan were all to familiar as they greeted the girl's vision when she finally came back around from her sudden sleep.
"I swear, your friend will never make it to graduation if she keeps this up. Its just a passing period, what does she have to be so anxious about." A woman's voice could be heard, followed by the scratching sound of a pen and the squeaking of a chair.
"Really Miss.T.?" Randy's voice muttered, sounding quite close to Antoinette's side. "Just passing period? Not a monster attack or anything?"
Antoinette groaned lowly in her throat to announce her return to the land of the living as she tried to force herself to sit upright, her swimming with the sounds of panicked students and the snow white doppelganger. A quick survey of her person reviled that, like her first monster attack, she had large purple and blue bruises on her arms from when she fell. Another examination of the room revealed Randy to be beside her, looking quite concerned for her. Beside him, the last person Antoinette wanted to see at the moment.
"I gotta admit, in all my year at this High School I have never seen anyone take as many dives as you Toni." Randy laughed, his words echoing those he said to her after her first monster attack.
"Honestly, falling seems to be a talent of hers." Shadow Julian muttered, earning a quick laugh from Randy, who was none the wiser to the change in his acquaintance still.
"Good one!"
Antoinette glared at him and despite the pain in her arms, she still shoved both boys with such a force suddenly that Randy toppled off of his chair and the albino glared back in annoyance.
"What are you two even doing here?" She demanded to know, balling her hands up into fists.
"Um, making sure that you're alright." Randy muttered, slowly getting back up and sitting down again.
"Yeah, but what is HE doing here?" Antoinette asked, her glare still pointed at the doppelganger.
"Whats wrong with your boyfriend checking on you?" Randy asked in a dead serious tone.
"Boyfriend!?" Antoinette gasped, getting up and standing on the bed suddenly.
"Randy, could you leave us alone for a moment?" Shadow Julian asked, clapping a pale hand over the girl's lips quickly.
"Sure thing." Randy laughed, getting up from his chair and walked passed the now distracted nurse, giving no question to the odd request.
Once the two were alone, Antoinette sat back down and folded her arms over her chest. Knowing the one before her as okay as she did, she knew that this conversation wasn't going to end in too bad of a fist fight.
"Really? Boyfriend? You told him that!?" Antoinette gasped, rolling her eyes.
"Its a more curious topic of conversation, don't you think?" The male mused, going over and sitting on the foot of the bed. "It stands out more to him than my physical colours."
"Why are you even getting me involved?" Antoinette asked. "I thought you said you weren't going to."
"Originally, I wasn't going to, but then I got to thinking and decided to get you involved with this." He replied, shrugging his shoulders.
"Thinking about what?"
"What you said, about how if I killed you then there would be other's who would want to kill me." He answered, smirking a little as he reached into his jacket pocket and withdrawing a small candy.
"Yes, and?" She went on, leaning forward and snatching the candy away.
She popped the candy into her mouth, against her better judgement, all while keeping eye contact with the male as she did so. There was really no reason for her to take the candy though. She just wanted too to have a reason not to talk to him. It was a sweet, cherry flavored candy with a biting mint center to it. An interesting and yet fitting choice from the shadow being, who was now watching Antoinette with a stoic look on his face.
"And nothing. Its just common sense."
"What is?" Antoinette asked, biting her candy in half nervously.
"That keeping you quiet and in line will help things run smoothly." He replied, walking over to the girl and placing an ice cold hand onto her forehead. "Think you could do that? All you have to do is go along like everything is normal-"
"No. Eventually I will have a guard dog, or at least the ninja after you." She shot back, trying to shake his hand off of her forehead.
"I thought you might say that, so I decided to just not give you that option." With a shrug of the shoulders, he clamped his hand down further onto the girl's forehead.
"H-how do you plan on doing that?" She gasped, feeling a bit of pain from both his tight grip and the bite from the candy that was currently melting between her clenched teeth.
"Simple." Between their skin, a spark ignited, and red smoke began to pour out from the spaces between his fingers.
Antoinette recognized the smoke well, her eyes widening as tears sprang forth from her eyes, from a mix of fear and pain as a familiar tingle rose into her ribs. She could feel them bending out of place, as needle like jabs poked at her skin, blood pricking onto the surface of her skin and slowly running down her sides. Her own fingers tensed and began to cramp up into claw shapes, before sinking together and merging into two claws. The transformation was slower than before, and much more painful, but the worst part for the poor girl was that she was still aware of what was going on. She didn't blank out or switch to her monster mind.
"The original creature was destroyed by the ninja, but theres still enough of an impression left on you that I can at least transform you from one creature to the other." Gently, he removed his hand, and the girl looked in horror as her reflection in his eyes.
She was a monster with the mind of a human girl. Such a horrifying being that anyone would try to kill her at first glance. Looking over to the nurse quickly, she was almost relieved to see that the woman was busily filing her nails, not noticing her sudden change in appearance. However, even she knew that the woman would eventually look back up, and when she woul-
"If you want to keep that human appearance of yours, I suggest you do as I say." Shadow Julian smirked, waving his hand in front of her forehead idly, watching as the young monster looked down and away from him quickly, blinking her 8 eyes slowly.
"O-okay..." She muttered, gasping suddenly as she was pulled from her cot and was all but dragged off behind a nearby curtain. "W-wait, you said you'd change th-"
"I said I'd let you keep your human appearance. I never said I would change you back." A cackle followed this statement. "Looks like you'll be sticking with me for a little longer than you wanted."
"I fucking hate you..."