Chapter 1
For eight hundred years, Norrisville High has been protected by a ninja.
No one knows that every four years, a new warrior is chosen.
A freshman to fight the forces of evil.
I am the ninja!
I am…
"Randy Cunningham!" the loud voice of Mr. Bannister boomed throughout the classroom, waking the now 10th-grade student of Norrisville from his seemingly deep sleep. "If you think that you can sleep through English class, you've got another thing coming! Prepare an impromptu spoken poetry work and present it to the entire class now!"
"Ah!" Breaking out of his recent training session within the ancient book of ninja knowledge, otherwise known as the NinjaNomicon, the student in question began to think of an excuse to get out of this situation. "I was…uh…," he took a brief pause to understand the topic of poetry? "A focus on words, cut out visual cords. To see what cannot be seen, listen without ever being." Randy then bowed in front of his teacher and his classmates, and took a deep breath hoping that the impromptu poem he made was enough of a distraction for him to avoid detention again.
Mr. Bannister stared Randy in the eye, "That was…"
"The brucest poem you've ever heard?" Randy nervously continued, hoping the impromptu poem he made was enough of a distraction for him to avoid detention again."
The teacher frustratingly finished his critique, "…n't the worst poem I've heard anyone in this classroom say, you get a B-minus."
Randy pumped his fist in the air, "B-aced it again!" The teacher begrudgingly rolled his eyes at Randy's antics. The student went back to his seat and began to think on the time he's had in Norrisville high.
Nothing really changed, well...a few things did technically. After all, his first year as the ninja ended with him vanquishing an 800-year-old threat, ending the stalemate once and for all. Still though, old threats continue on annoyingly with the presence of McFist still looming over him, trying to steal the Ninja's mask and tools to attain superpowers. Which still baffled Randy given the fact that McFist literally has an evil genius employee who could've totally given him powers, granted it never would've reached the level of bruceness his ninja powers had, it was still so wonk that he was being chased after Viceroy's weird robots.
Speaking of things that were wonk, the NinjaNomicon had not been letting Randy off even after one of the brucest victories that a ninja has ever obtained in the history of all ninjas. It was cool that it was teaching him more moves, but most of the time all they do is unending training scenarios which was completely lame. It was obvious to Randy that the Nomicon was still holding back information, given his past entanglements with more experienced ninjas, AKA one wonkin' McAntfee. Randy did wonder why was the Nomicon was pushing him so much now that the greatest evil that ever roamed the lands of Norrisville was plain out gone.
"You've gotten me into a ton of trouble this week Nomicon!" Randy whispered angrily towards his 'Math' book, "Can't you just let me off for today? I mean, Howard's not even here to watch my back!" Howard Weinerman, his best friend had taken a leave of absence due to a family reunion, no Randy was not completely jealous that his closest friend would just leave him out to dry in plain old Norrisville. He was absolutely furious, and shoved the NinjaNomicon into his locker as it continued to flash angrily. "If you're going to be that way, then you can cool off in my locker, besides it's your fault that I basically have no other friends with the whole, 'Friendship is a weight the ninja cannot carry,' he said the phrase with a mocking tone. The Nomicon flashed once again, a bit quizzically this time, "Yes, I did pay attention to that tip, just a little bit, besides it gets hard to talk to other people when I basically have a 9-to-5 job, with no day offs except for when I'm sick or dying!" He screamed as he slammed his locker on the book.
Randy took a deep breath and realized that the other students on the hallway had been staring at him, "Uh…I'm rehearsing for the role of an exhausted salesman?" The other students looked towards each other, shrugged and let out a collective, "Eh," and went on their day. "Whew, got lucky there, I guess the blade of deception has been getting sharper, eh?" Randy then nudged the air, "And I'm talking to myself again." As Randy bemoaned his own situation, he felt a tap on his shoulder and met the eyes of the Norrisville High's Twirl team member, Theresa Fowler.
Randy leaned on the lockers as coolly as he could, and greeted her, "Oh hey, Theresa what's up?" Unfortunately, he lost his balance and tripped on himself, eliciting a giggle from the girl. Theresa extended her hand towards him, "Oh not much, just checking on the best performer that this high school has ever had." Randy nervously responded, "Y-you think I'm the b-best- "Only to get cut off by more laughter from the girl, "I was just teasing you!"
Randy let out a loud, "Hmph," and went onto the cafeteria only for him to be stopped by Theresa gripping his hand. Theresa then asked him, "You don't have anyone to sit with for lunch, right?" Randy scratched his head embarrassedly and answered, "I do, I have hundreds of people that want to sit with me. Besides, who wouldn't want to sit next to the co-owner of Shangri-Lunch." Only to get hit on the head with a basketball thrown by the somehow 12-th grade student Bash Johnson, "Heh heh, watch it shoob! You're going to hurt my ball with your shoobness. Yeah Bash!" The bully laughed his way towards the fabled lunch seat Shangri-Lunch.
"Not Shangri-Lunch! Dang it, if Howard was here, we totally could've flanked the spot." Randy then let himself get dragged by Theresa towards their table, and was greeted by the school journalist Debbie Kang with a simple, "Cunningham."
"Kang," he responded with squinted eyes, ever since the chick had almost outed him as a ninja, in an incident that totally wasn't his fault no matter how much Howard, and the Nomicon kept roasting him for it, he had begun to keep his wits about her. Their staring contest had been interrupted by the baton twirler, "Come on, get along you two. Sure, Debbie may have given false information," eliciting a "Hey!" from the girl in question, "and almost got you killed by a giant robot, that doesn't mean that you can't be friends?" Theresa said with an unsure tone.
Randy sighed, "I'll try, but if you call me the ninja again, I'll jump faster than you can say- "Sensing a familiar scent in the air, Randy paused and knew that someone was hiding, "Gravy fries!" The person holding said gravy fries was none other than Debbie Kang. "I got you a peace offering, Howard told me that you didn't get one of these so I pulled some strings and managed to get you some early. But if you don't want it- "Randy had already snatched the fries when she uttered the words "Peace offering."
As Randy was snacking on the fries like a wild animal, Theresa jokingly added, "I guess peace has been restored," prompting a thumbs-up from Randy. Debbie decided to sigh, "I still don't know what came over me to call someone like you the ninja."
"You've got that right," Randy chimed in between bites of his fries. Theresa hummed and softly whispered, "I don't know, I think Randy can be quite the hero when he needs to be."
"W-What was that?" Randy asked even after hearing every word, "N-Nothing, just said that you weren't quite the ninja?" Theresa quickly denied. "Smooth Fowler, very smooth." Debbie commented as she added her own two cents, "And this is why you can't get into journalism, you're way too biased towards your not-so secret crush." Debbie whispered to Theresa.
Theresa groaned, "What do I do Debbie? I've been leaving signals ever since last year and he hasn't been picking up on them." Debbie looked at her friend and gave her the best piece of advice she could, "Just give up."
"W-What?"
"I mean, come on it's Randy Cunningham, there's nothing special about him aside from the fact that he can tolerate Howard Weinerman."
"Well aside from the fact that he's always doing something cool like judging the talent show…"
"That caused several students to turn into monsters."
"…Or that time when he was the very best player in the Game Hole."
"Until Howard beat him in that broken game."
"The talent shows where they performed as 30 Seconds to Algebra?"
"I think it was "30 Seconds to Math," and didn't they hurt Levander's feelings that one time?"
"How do you know so much about them?" A question that caused Debbie to freeze up, "W-Well, I know a lot about people from school." Theresa rolled her eyes at her friend's excuse, "Sure that it doesn't have anything to do with your own not so secret crush on "Le Beret"?"
Debbie began to sweat at her friend's interrogation, only to be saved by the bell, literally. The school's alarms began to flare as a mechanical bear broke through the walls of the cafeteria. Theresa proceeded to ignore the journalist's quiet but excited "Yes!" as they exited the cafeteria and towards the new McFist sponsored evacuation areas in the school. Though before she could get a good sprint, she noticed that Randy had run in the other direction, thinking that he definitely shouldn't be alone during a robot attack, she gripped his hand and dragged him along with them. "Uh, Theresa, you should probably let go of my hand!" Randy screamed out as they headed towards the area.
Did she want to let go of his hand? Not really, it still felt as warm, as safe... the same as it always had back when the Sorceress had taken the entire class hostage. Her thoughts were cut short, as Randy began to yell and managed to pull back against her. "Come on Randy, I know you and Howard might've had some sort of secret hiding spot when he was here, but he isn't right now. So come along with us, the McFist shelter isn't that wonk." Which caused Debbie to add salt to the wound, "Yeah, Cunningham, is the brave guy too scared of other people to get into a room with them?" As Randy was about to prepare a comeback to Debbie's statement, Theresa managed to finally get a good grip on his hand again which caused Randy to quietly comment, "How does she still have a strong grip on me?!" His complaints fell on deaf ears, even as he tried to slow them down, they kept up a solid pace. However, Randy felt the ground shake, acting on instinct, he pushed the two girls away as their path was intercepted by the robot crashing into the building causing Randy to hit the wall, bruising his arm and separating him from the girls.
"Ow!" Randy winced as he managed to pull himself away from the wall, "No time to worry about this, it's Ninja 'O clock!" With his catchphrase said, he placed a black cloth with red lines onto his face and black fabric began to encase him.
Theresa and Debbie managed to pick themselves up from the rubble, "If that robot hasn't killed Cunningham, I'll do it myself!" Debbie ranted as she began to dust herself off, while Theresa nervously laughed at her friend's threats towards her crush, Theresa hoped that he was still alright though. However, as they looked around for their friend, they failed to notice that the Robo-Bear had come around for another strike, "Theresa, look out!" Debbie yelled towards her friend as the robot's claws was about to make its impact, only for a sudden clang to resound as an oddly shaped but familiar sword deflected the bear's claws.
The Ninja of Norrisville moved quickly, as he carried the two girls away from the scene. The ninja then taunted the Robo-Bear, "Sorry to leave so quickly, you were being a bit too over 'bearing.'" The ninja chuckled at his own joke, while the girls, and even the bear began to groan, "That was a good one!" As the ninja began to complain about their reaction, the bear decided to take advantage of the moment and swiped his claws towards him, its attack was met with a sudden cloud of red smoke and a loud yell of "Smoke bomb!"
The ninja then used the remaining smoke as camouflage with a quiet whisper of, "Conceal," the Robo-bear managed to swipe away the smoke only to be hit from above, "Reveal!" With the mechanical menace stunned with the attack, the ninja threw down a black and yellow ball and proclaiming, "Ninja Bee ball!" As the ball released countless bees from within and attacking the bear.
"And that's why bears shouldn't go for honey!" The ninja joked once again, only to be met with several people facepalmed and booed the lame joke, while a blonde band member insulted the ninja's joke, "Un-bear-able zing, zing!" The ninja groaned at Bucky's catchphrase, "Where did you people even come from? Shouldn't you be heading towards the shelters?" The audience just shrugged, and ran along as the bear managed to swat away the bees.
The ninja swung his sword towards the bear's head, "Ninja sli-!" His attack was thrown off, as the bear revealed hidden tentacles situated between each of its joints. "Oh, an Octo-Bear, way to keep it original, Viceroy!" The ninja commented as he blocked the bear's additional appendages yelling, "Ninja block!" repeatedly. However, the continued barrage caused his already injured arm to give letting the robotic menace land a solid hit throwing the ninja against the wall.
The ninja grunting and holding his injured arm from the impact, grumbled, "I sure could use an army for this one," coughing up a bit of dirt from the ground. "Wait, dirt…army? That's it!" The ninja stabbed his sword into the ground and prepared to chant.
"To stop your foes and hold them back, harness the soil for an earth attack," The ninja paused briefly concentrating on the words of his rhyme, "I'm wearing out, but I'm not going down. It's time for the ground to stand tall and proud, with the power from the earth lend me hands with their strength unbound!" The ground shook from beneath the ninja and the mechanical creature, the sand swirled around the two combatants and rubble took the form of three giant sand hands. The Octo-Bear swiped at the hands only for them to get out of the way and restrain some of the robot's tentacles, the bear roared in pain as it grew more tentacles.
"Dang it! This thing's unstoppable unless I hit where the tentacles are coming from…" Doodles began to flood the ninja's vision, highlighting the fact the gaps between the bear's armor were forming whenever it released more tentacles. The ninja began to command the ground, "You guys keep making him angry, I have something big up my sleeve!" The ground shook and formed more hands that went on to strike the bear causing it to produce more tentacles.
The bear's armor was beginning to strain, "Alright, guys time for the big one!" the ninja yelled as a larger hand began to grow from the ground holding the bear up high, the other hands began to pull at each joint of the machine exposing gaps in its armor. "Let's finish this with a splash!" The ninja moved his arms in a wave-like pattern and charged his attack, "Ninja hydro hand!" The robot's limbs were submerged in water and it started to enter through the gaps in the bear's armor, causing it to short circuit and promptly explode.
"Viceroy!" A shrill voice rang out through the McFist industries building, revealing it to be none other than McFist himself complaining to the head of the science division, Viceroy about another failure against the ninja. "Your machine has failed me again! You'd think a mad genius would be able to make his robots waterproof from the inside-out!"
"To be fair, I wanted it to be simple, a machine with a 100% guarantee of protection but you wanted to give it more arms and gimmicks!" Viceroy cheekily pointed out, to which his boss responded with, "Why the heck would you listen to my ideas!?"
Viceroy conceded, "Yeah, I suppose you're right. I guess it is your fault the machine failed."
"No, it isn't!"
Viceroy sighed. It was going to be another long day.
The ninja picked up his sword, as the sand began to dissipate in the wind. He also started to dance along to the chant of "Ninja! Ninja! Ninja!" that the students and faculty of Norrisville High yelled out.
"Thank you! People of Norrisville, I'll be here all week! I'll see you all with a smoke- "As the ninja started to throw one of his patented smoke bombs to the ground, a familiar hand managed to interrupt him.
"N-Ninja!" The worried voice of Theresa called out, "There's this guy, you're familiar with him, right? Randy Cunningham?" The ninja nervously nodded while avoiding eye contact with the girl. "He was hit by the bear earlier when he pushed me out of the way, can you help me look for him?" The ninja removed her hand from his own gently and stated, "Worry not young…uh…girl, I have saved your friend earlier."
"Oh, that's a relief." Theresa let out a breath, when she heard her crush was safe.
"Yes, it is!" The ninja added, "And now time for a smoke- "Only to be cut off by a sudden, "Wait a minute!" From the voice of the Norrisville's student journalist, "Where did you put Randy Cunningham, Ninja?"
The ninja in question sighed in frustration, "In a safe place," he answered quickly, hoping to get out of the area. Not satisfied, the reporter followed up with, "Where exactly ninja?" Theresa then held her friend back and apologized to the ninja, "Sorry Ninja, my friend here isn't exactly the most trusting person, anyways he's safe right? Then there's no need to worry about it."
The ninja nodding in approval rose his hand and finally yelled out, "Smoke bomb!" Releasing the red and oddly smelling smoke concealing his retreat. Theresa however could've sworn she heard a slight cry of "My arm!" as the ninja's figure faded away from their view.
"Hey guys!" Randy waved towards the two girls that came running towards him. Instead of being met with concern however, he was met with a sudden punch in the arm courtesy of Debbie Kang. "That's what you get for- "she stopped her rant as soon as she noticed that Randy reacted in a bit more pain than she expected turning her anger into worry, "Hey, are you alright?
"Yeah, just my arm, you know?" Theresa then looked quizzingly at the arm in question.
"Hey earth, to Fowler!" Her best friend began waving her hand in front of her face, "U-Uh yeah?"
"Do you want to take him to the nurse's office?"
"Y-Yeah sure!" Theresa affirmed by nodding her head a bit too strongly, "Get yourself checked out too, BFF, I'm going to take some pictures of the scene for the paper."
The pair began to enter the school again as Debbie commented, "And you owe me for this chance, so just don't blow it."
"So, uh…"
"Uh…"
The two teens struggled to make conversation as they roamed what remained of the school halls. Randy broke the awkward silence with a, "Tuesdays, am I right?" As a beam fell from the ceiling, causing Theresa to laugh, "Yeah, they're the worst." Leading the two teens to laugh in unison.
As they began to calm down, Theresa spoke," Hey, uh, thanks for pushing me out of the way earlier." Randy smiled, "No problem, it's just my job."
Theresa tilted her head questioningly, "Your job?"
Randy stiffened and nervously responded, "Uh, yeah, it's my job to uh…help pretty ladies out?" An indirect complement that caused Theresa to blush and to react with a simple, "Oh."
The two teens returned to their previous silence, and as they continued to walk towards the nurse's office, a sudden glow of red light accompanied by a soft buzzing began to emanate from Randy's locker. "What was that?" Theresa asked.
Randy racked his brain for an excuse, "O-Oh just a science project that me and Howard were going to present this week," his blade of deception was really working well for him today.
Theresa suddenly had a confused expression on her face, "We don't have a science project this week and Howard isn't going to be at school until next week," Randy facepalmed as he forgot that he and Theresa shared the same Science class.
"It's for another Science class?" Randy sweat through his lies. Theresa decided to press on, "Randy, are you lying to me?"
"Lying-psh, no why would I?" Randy suddenly moved towards his locker, and took out his "Math" book and ran away from Theresa, "See you later! I'm heading to the nurse's office, so don't follow me!"
Theresa stood there flabbergasted for a moment, but shook it off and followed Randy. It was a moment where they could've talked for just a bit more, and she shoobed it up. Theresa ran towards the nurse's office, but looking around she noticed that Randy was nowhere to be found.
The purple haired teen in question had instead gone to the school shed, putting his ninja mask on again, as he felt the fabric arms of the suit wrap around him, he began to concentrate energy on his hands. "Okay, time for some Art of Heal!" He opened the palm of his hands focusing his ninja energy only to be met with air, "What the juice? Why isn't this working?" Randy began to shake his hands and try again only to be met with the same result. He kept at this for several minutes until the Nomicon began to glow once more, picking up the book, Randy asked, "Alright NinjaNomicon, what in the sweet cheese is going on with my Art of Heal?!" The book opened up schloomping Randy into its pages.
Randy screamed as he fell in the Nomicon's contents, luckily, he managed to bounce from the tiled rooftops of the monasteries that formed as he landed gracefully in front of the Forbidden Knowledge of the Shadow Warrior section of the Nomicon.
"Here again Nomicon? Really?" Randy asked sarcastically, the Nomicon not pleased by his tone shoved him in the temple structure, surprising Randy. "Okay, okay, a bit testy today. I'm sorry my arm just hurts can't you help a ninja out?" As Randy worded several more apologies, the Nomicon presented him with a lantern marked as "The Art of Healing."
Randy let out a breath of relief, "Whew, thanks Nomicon!" He opened the scroll and as he read its contents once more, he noted that he performed the steps to it correctly, "Huh, what the wonk?" Randy began scrolling through the scroll's contents much faster to see if he misread the steps, and he grunted in frustration, "I did everything right! So why can't I put myself back together?" The Nomicon then levitated the scroll, and brought it down to a specific section which it highlighted for Randy. The teen began to read the section aloud, "The Art of Healing can be used in several applications, but the cost of the art is that the caster cannot use it on themselves…"
Randy sighed exasperatedly, "That is so wonk! Isn't there another way for me to patch myself up?" The surrounding area began to glow as the Nomicon responded, Randy could tell however that it was a negative. Randy began to grumble, "You know this wouldn't have happened if you taught me some cooler moves right?" The Nomicon glowed in frustration towards his complaints.
"Well, you know that it's true! You keep telling me to train again and again, but you never teach me anything new anymore!" As Randy voiced his concerns, the Nomicon forced him out of the temple and back into reality.
The ninja jumped from the sudden ejection from the Nomicon and threw the book down in frustration. The Nomicon glowed as though arguing with the teen, the ninja rolled his eyes, took a deep breath to calm himself and said, "Alright, Nomicon, you were right, I have been getting a bit too sloppy…well not by much, I mean, I did totally beat the Octo-Bear," the Nomicon flashed in an annoyed manner, "You're right, you're right, I'm just a bit exhausted is all. You keep telling me there's something out there, even though I've already beaten the Sorcerer," the ninja scratched the back of his head as he continued, "I mean, you said that if the ninja wasn't needed then he shouldn't stay. The only threat that we're facing is McFist's robots, and honestly, if the ninja retires wouldn't that be better? Like what else would McFist be fighting for?"
The book glowed in a much softer manner as though comforting the ninja, "Yeah, yeah, I know you can't tell me everything just yet, but maybe just throw me a bone once in a while?" The book glowed in rapid succession, "Alright, maybe a bigger bone? We've been working together for a year now and you'd think that we'd be able to communicate just a tiny bit better," the book stopped glowing, and the ninja crossed his arms, and mumbled in resignation, "Fine, be that way." The ninja removed his mask uncovering a messy mop of spiky hair, and Randy headed out from the shed hitting his arm on the door causing him to yelp in pain, "Stupid Art of Heal, can't even work on me."
As the shed door closed, the sound of metal dropping resounded from within, as Theresa Fowler had dropped her baton in shock, "…Randy Cunningham is the ninja?"
Deep inside the caves of Mt. Chuck.
An orange portal began to open, and a cloaked figure stepped out from it.
"Finally, the ninja was stupid enough to leave a crack for me to follow through." The figure began to cackle as energy began to emanate from their hands, "And soon, Norrisville will belong beneath our heels, for that is the will of the Sorceress!"
A/N: Hey everyone, Somi here! This is my second fanfic on this website, though my first one is lost since I forgot my original account here, but it's fine, my first fanfic wasn't even that good, I made it nearly a decade ago after all.
Speaking of things that are a decade old, RC9GN is one of my favorite shows during the Disney XD era, really needs a third season. This fanfic was originally meant to be a simple Randy x Theresa story however, as I rewatched the show I began to analyze some of its lore and I really wanted to attempt to bring it to the forefront while ensuring that things remain relatively similar to it. Given the fact that I'm a hack writer getting a feel for things, I may fall short in this regard so give me some flak about it.
It's a pretty cheap move to take Howard out of the story though, I admit, though to be fair I am a massive cheapskate. This was done to develop both Randy and Theresa as Howard can generally be a bit of a stop gap in their romance, whether Howard intends to be or not (I think it's intended, I guess he just doesn't want to lose his bro). Howard's dynamic with Randy is quite challenging to write since it's the most well-defined relationship in the show, I find that it's harder to fill the blanks when there are no blanks.
Anyways, feel free to critique my work as always.
Also, to the people that list down the references I made in this chapter to some of the show's episodes, have a digital cookie!
