I am back! sorry for the wait, I was really busy. Time to answer some reviews. :-)

Nomi Norisu: Thanks so much!

Endeavor4ever: Thanks! Yeah, I try to keep everyone in character, but it was, admittedly, kinda fun to write up that scene between Jenna and Randy. It was fun to write up his reactions and thoughts and then Howards assumptions and stuff. He apologized mostly because he saw that he'd crossed the line and what not.

Elcall: Thanks! As for Julian being the Magician of Darkness, well, spoiler alert! You're correct! Be free to keep guessing!

Well, that's that. :-) Enjoy!

Chapter 9: Trapped

Randy breathed hard, struggling to get the air back that'd been knocked out of him as he blinked in total darkness. Realizing, however, that what he was lying on wasn't a metal pole, pipe or the like, he scrambled off. Jenna sat up slowly, rubbing her stomach. He'd landed, stomach-first, right on her back, making her loose her own breath smashing her stomach against the metal floor. Ouch, not fun.

"Sorry. . . didn't mean to land on you. . ." he apologized, pulling out a Ninja Glow Ball to illuminate the space they were in. It literally looked like a maze in there, both of them being at the square of four different pathways. The Warrior blinked, squinting in the unexpected sudden light, breathing hard, and looked around with a bit of panic. She stood quickly, fingers twitching a little as she twisted one way, then another, trying to see where they were or a way out.

The Ninja was doing the same, but in a less panicked and more level-headed way. "Well, that was unexpected. No worries though, we just have to climb up to the panel and slice our way out." he said calmly, then seemed to notice the Warriors more frantic behavior.

He gently laid a hand on her shoulder. "Hey, what's up? This your first fight or something?" he asked. "It's cool to be nervous. . . I, admittedly, got p'wned during my first fight." he told her.

She sighed, looking back up. "I hate being trapped in the dark. . . I can't see if anything is sneaking up on me, ready to kill . . . ." she half-whispered; surprisingly, it came out as words and not as a grunt or something.

Randy blinked in surprise. He hadn't been expecting that answer. He made her look up at him. "Don't worry, I've been in similar positions like this. We'll get out, and we have eachothers back, anyhow; nothing can sneak up on us!" he exclaimed confidently.

She nodded in return, brief panic fading away as she more closely looked around. "What should we do first?" she asked; or tried to. It came out as questioning, trilling growl.

Randy half-groaned. "Why don't you speak in words?" he demanded, frustrated. This was going to be difficult, he could tell, learning to work with that.

She shrugged, tapping her throat and the top of her head with a shake "no" of her head, then her heart and mouth with a nod "yes". It was the best she could do to explain.

Randy blinked. ". . . right. Let's figure that out later and work on getting out so there can be a later." seeing her look of confused panic, he quickly added, "I have an arch-nemesis who likes to use robots and stuff. Don't worry, I beat him all the time; and with you're help, it'll just get easier." he assured her.

She nodded in response, taking out a Glow Ball of her own; the one she held changed from a pale blue-whitish glow to a dark blue, and Randy's changed to a soft red. In a (long) moment of curiosity, they spent the better part of five minutes toying around with the color-changing thing, to see how it worked or how far it would go.

What they determined in the end was that if they drew it from their belt when the other person had one out, both changed to their own colors. If they set it down, it would remain the color of the last holder. If the other picked it up, it changed to the original pale blue-white before turning to the current holders color. If they set one down and held it for three seconds before letting go, it'd change to the original, or "Neutral" coloration. It did the same thing if one person tucked theirs away into their belt; the other persons would go back to Neutral.

They had just finished toying around with this new, interesting feature when the opening lyrics for "Silhouette" by Owl City began to play all of a sudden, then cut off. The Warrior patted at her midsection, as if trying to figure out how to access something on or in the suit.

". . .was that your cellphone?" the Ninja asked presently, continuing after she nodded. "Oh, well, it's kinda easy to pull that sorta thing out . . . look." he pulled his suit open by an invisible seam down the middle of his chest, from collarbone to belt, just pulled up a little on one side before pulling out the Nomicon. "See? It was in my satchel, and I can pull it out like this." he finished, putting it back.

The Warrior nodded, repeating the action and pulling out an "unassuming" camo-colored phone that had two stickers and some writing on the back. One was a sparkly silver wolf, which sat at the bottom, snout pointed upwards in a howl. The next was a shiny, reflective golden crescent moon, at the very tippy-top, surrounded underneath by dozens of tiny, dark blue-grey stars. In between these was a phrase.

"Aim for the moon; if you miss, at least you'll land among the stars." done in bronze sharpie. Quickly, Jenna checked her texts and responded.

-=asdfghjkl=-

Uncle W: Hey honey-baby, where you at?

HoneyFern: Hanging out with my new friends, I'll try to be home before dark, but, ya'know me. :-) ;-P

Uncle W: Alright then, I'm back at work now. Boss called(LAAAME, Lolz. [-_-'] whew, work really sucks sometimes)said it was an emergency. Sorry :'-(

HoneyFern: Naw, it's cool. See ya' laterz. ;-D

-=asdfghjkl=-

The Warrior put the phone on vibrate and stashed it away quickly, giving the Ninja a quick thumbs up afterwards. They had little time to start looking for an exit, however, as the top of the panel suddenly began to crack open. Randy stashed the Glow Balls away, grabbing Jenna's arm and dragging her just out of sight as Robo-apes began to shimmy down inside and fix the wiring.

The Warrior wanted nothing more than to race past them and escape; this was going from bad to worse in terms of comfort and tolerance levels. Tapping the Ninja's shoulders, she gestured towards the entrance, then made chopping motions in the direction of the Robo-apes before making her hand zoom upwards, towards the exit.

" . . .so, you're saying we should make a run for the top, take out the Robo-apes, then go for the ceiling vents to escape?" he clarified swiftly, grinning beneath the mask as she nodded. "Let's do it." he agreed, drawing some Ninja Rings as she pulled out some Warrior Stars (as Randy called them in his head) before they scaled one "wall", silently heading for the exit, quietly taking the Robo-apes out as they went.

Hurrying up the metal ladder the Robo-apes used, the two partners peeked out, checking to see if the coast was clear. McFist and Viceroy were arguing not to far off, going on about who's fault it was.

"The robot wasn't nearly ready yet! I've been working on it for about two months. In a few more weeks, it would've been ready. I even put up a sign!" Viceroy exclaimed, pointing to the ignored, "NOT READY: DO NOT ACTIVATE" sign nailed next to the platform the robot sat on.

McFist crossed his arms, not wanting to admit he was wrong nor say that it was Viceroy's fault for taking a vacation before the robot was finished. He was the one that gave him that, after all, and for good reason. Finally, he threw his arms into the air with an irritated huff before pinching the bridge of his nose.

"Just tell me what it was supposed to do." he said resignedly.

Viceroy rolled his eyes and readjusted his glasses. "Well, it was supposed to act as a distraction. While the Ninja attempted to stop it, several smaller robots would zero in on his location to ensnare him, dragging him back to the Robo-dancer here," he pointed towards the partially-destroyed robot. "It doesn't have it yet, but the Ninja would be 'eaten', and held captive in it's head, which would then rocket out of there to deliver him straight to us!" he finished with a flourish.

McFist wasn't so sure. "How do you know that'll work?" he asked.

"I still need to review all of the latest tapes, but I think it worked; at least partially." Viceroy replied, beginning to lead them out of the room. "HE was distracted, after all . . ." that's all the two teens could hear as the men walked out of the room.

The Ninja and Warrior glanced at eachother. "Well, you definitely saved my cheese back there; let's get out of here while we can." he whispered, and she only nodded, eyes wide with shock.

She never would've guessed her Uncle was trying to destroy the Ninja. From everything she'd heard about the town hero from the other students, no one had a reason to dislike him at all. It made no sense, and she had no viable way of asking that wouldn't end badly for everyone.

So, she instead skittered out and began to creep along to the door. The Ninja had already leapt up to the cieling and began to pry off a vent when he saw her. "Psst! Up here!" he whisper-shouted to her.

She jerked in his direction, looking up. She gestured for him to climb in first, and after he did, she threw up her belt-scarf and started to haul herself up. Viceroy and McFist returned not to long after, arguing again. Jenna climbed faster, and soon, the two were sneaking through the vents, basically lost as they tried to find a way out.

It was especially difficult with the various booby traps that were set, and the cramped spaces, barely big to belly-crawl through, that had such traps. It was becoming tortuously slow going when they paused for a breather, both hungry and at their nerves ends from being on constant guard. Luckily, this particular vent was taller and wider; they could sit up, at least, without bumping their heads.

At that time, a little, electronic ditty rang out (sounding suspiciously like the Theme song tune of the Ninja), this time from the Ninja's uniform. He pulled out his cell and answered it. "Hello."

"Cunningham, where are you?!" Howard demanded angrily on the other end.

"Sorry, buddy, it was Ninja Business. I met the Warrior though," he set it to speaker. "Say hi!"

She growled lowly, rolling her eyes as she lightly shoved him on the shoulder as Howard began to kinda freak out. "Where are you?!" he repeated.

"Weeelllll, we're sorta navigating the vents in McFist industries. We've been trying to get out forever." Randy replied, having gotten it off of speaker phone.

Howard snorted. "I'll say. It's four o'clock now; you've been gone for three hours." he replied.

Randy held his stomach as he heard a growl. "That would explain why I'm so hungry." he groaned.

Jenna had to agree with him, rubbing her stomach to try and make the burning hungry feeling in it go away.

Howard didn't speak for a few moments. "Just, come to my place afterwards. I'll cover for you if you're still there for a couple more hours . . . what should I tell Jenna?" he asked.

Randy blinked. "Wait, what?"

"Jenna, you know? Short girl, brown hair, camo coat and boots, a seriously overdone bravery condition? She disappeared after we, correction, I, dragged her into the arcade, and I'm still here. If she asks, what should I tell her?" Howard elaborated, sarcastic at first, before letting it dissolve into seriousness.

Randy's mind flailed about for an answer for a moment. " . . .just, well . . . tell her I . . .um . . ." Randy stalled.

You could literally hear Howard as he face palmed through the phone. "I'll just tell her that your parents called or some juice and told you to pick up some things, happy?" Howard demanded.

Randy nodded, then spoke aloud. "Yes, thanks buddy." he said gratefully.

"Don't mention it Cunningham, just a-don't. Later." Howard replied, sounding annoyed yet half amused at the same time.

"Later." Randy replied, hanging up and tucking his phone away.

Jenna, meanwhile, was trying to figure out how the heck they were going to get out. She was hungry, becoming rather agitated with the cramped spaces and booby traps, and couldn't even make small talk with her new partner to try and pass the time.

"Well, I guess we should . . . keep going?" Randy suggested.

Jenna nodded and warbled tiredly in response, taking point and beginning to crawl forward again, on her hands and knees. Randy followed, and they crawled around, sometimes on their stomach and only once actually walking for the next couple of hours.

Both were starving, exhausted, and ready to just fall asleep right then and there when Randy heard something. "Do you hear that?" Jenna was currently in the lead, both crawling on all fours at the time in the narrow vent.

Jenna paused, the pointed ahead, pressing against one side of the vent so he could see. It looked like there was a grate or something up ahead; a way out. Moving faster, they crouched side by side in front of it, trying to see where it lead to. It was hard, because the slats on the grate were really close together, plus it was dark in there.

The sound they had heard was the wind, so they knew for sure that it lead out, but not much after that. Finally, just done with the days events, Jenna leaned back and, put simply, punched the grate. While not opening it, she did leave a pretty decent dent in the metal. Whimpering and growl, she nursed her right hand, the knuckles in pain, but at least uninjured.

"That's gonna bruise . . ." she said, or tried to say, growls and whimpering replacing words.

Randy had stared, surprised and rather impressed with the strength she revealed, then shook himself. "Right, let's get out of here . . ." he muttered, pulling out a ninja ring and beginning to cut through the edges of the vent, loosening it. After a few minutes, they both crawled out, exhausted, hungry, beginning to get cold in the chill breeze as they flopped onto the roof outside of the vents, glad to be able to stretch.

They were on they very top of the building, the stars overhead. "I . . . never . . . want. . . to do that again . . . so hungry . . . " Randy groaned, holding his stomach as it began to complain again.

Jenna grunted in agreement, closing her eyes. She never liked cramped spaces to begin with, but with all the booby traps set up in there, she never wanted to be in a confined space like that ever again.

The Ninja finally stood, and helped the Warrior to their feet. "Thanks for all your help . . . will I be seeing you again around the school?" he asked.

The Warrior nodded, smiling beneath her mask, giving his hand a quick shake. Together, they jumped and slid down the building's slanted side, going their separate ways at the bottom.

Jenna came into her home at around six o'clock at night, and Randy got to Howard's place a few minutes before. Both enjoyed a large meal before doing what they liked.

For Randy, playing Grave-Punchers with his bro. For Jenna, she scribbled up something in a little poem-book of hers before climbing into bed.

Okay, so, that finishes that up. Also, if anyone has any ideas on what the next fight scene should be, or who they think the other Elementals will, or where the other four books might be hidden, don't be afraid to send it over! Everyone gets a small shoutout over those things. Bye!