Chapter 9
"Honey!" The distraught patriarch of the Weinerman household, Mort Weinerman yelled, "Where is my super suit?" Mort continued to look through several series of cabinets and drawers leaving behind a messy trail of clothes and pants strewn across the floor. His wife responded with a series of complaints that sounded quite similar to an odd series of honks. "What do you mean Howie took it? I had it locked with a McFist security…Oh, yeah, I keep forgetting that he can break through those. Dang it! I was going to go in the school and save my boss and get a promotion!" Mort huffed and stomped the floor in disappointment.
His wife offered what seemed to be a blunt series of beeps and honks, "Well, sure honey, I still haven't told my boss about the stolen tech, but hey, maybe they'll forgive Howie for it if I save them from the obviously evil Sorceress." His spouse berated him with a single beep causing him to wince from the sound. "Alright, you're right! Fine! I really just wanted to go on the glider again. Still, I can't believe that Howie would just up and leave at a time like this! Yes, I know he was worried about his best friend, but why couldn't he just sit still and wait like his older sister?" Mort complaints were countered by another beep from his wife, "What do you mean Heidi left the house too?!"
"Hey all!" The perky voice of Norrisville's newscaster rang through the student's phones greeting them, "Back early from her shoobin' vacation, it's your girl, Heidi Weinerman!" Heidi pushed a button on her sound mixer releasing a sound of canned applause. Before she could revel in her own celebration, a droplet of water fell atop of her head, bringing her back to reality.
Heidi screamed annoyed, "Dang it! How is this the only safest place in the school?!" She rolled her hair up in an attempt to dry it, but because of her cries, the drain pipes strained and released more water, "I cannot believe that I had to ride on my brother's stupid glider just to end up like this!" Several male students moved towards Heidi pulling her out of the water's path.
"Hey! Hey! Waterfalls are fallin' over here again!" Bash Johnson complained. However, everyone was merely confused by what he had said. Bash not wanting to explain himself further, kicked a nearby student into the leaky pipes, "Nerd! Stop the waterfalls!" The nerd, otherwise known as Bucky started to complain, "Bash! All I have is my triangle and my dinger!"
Bash closely inspected the nervous boy, and hummed deep in thought, until a ding resounded from his mind having the answer to the problem. He snatched Bucky's dinger, eliciting a, "Hey!" from the boy. Bash shoved the dinger into one of the leaks and placed his hands on his waist proudly, "There! Problem solved! Who's the man?" The question went ignored by most of his peers, which led Bash to grab Bucky's triangle and crush it with one hand. The students all visibly recoiled at the frightening sight, and Bash repeated himself a bit louder this time, "Who's the man?!"
"Bash is the man!" The students responded with a hint of dejection in their voice that went unnoticed by Bash as he continued to cheer himself on. Heidi sighed, "Nice to see that some things haven't changed while I was gone," placing her hand on her chin Heidi started to think, "I'm still a bit behind on the deets though, stupid vacation! I need to get caught up." Heidi then saw the sight of a familiar hue of dark blue hair. She smirked, "And I know just where to get started."
Debbie's best friend was panicking. Honestly, with how much the twirler was pacing, she could've sworn that the decrepit classroom's floors would've given way in a few more steps had she not placed her hands on Theresa's shoulders stopping her. "Alright bestie, what's going on with you?" Theresa shook her head, "I'm fine, it's nothing." Debbie sighed and gave her an infuriated look, "Look, here's the facts, we're trapped in a place that's somehow worse than every single crime scene I have ever seen," a statement that made Theresa want to ask a follow-up question, but Debbie raised her hand as she continued her argument, "I know that you're worried about your boyfriend- "
"He's not my boyfriend!" Theresa interjected, as Debbie moaned annoyed by her best friend's constant denial, "Well whatever he is to you, he's going to be fine, cause if Heidi's here then Howard's here too. They probably went into some sort of secret school hideout. That shouldn't be much of a stretch considering that 'this' place exists!" Debbie extended her hands out to show the populated Gifted classroom, as another light bulb fell putting the room in complete darkness.
"Oh, I'll get it!" yelled the janitor Sundown, as he screwed in a replacement bulb bringing light to the room once more. Debbie pinched the bridge of her nose, "I swear if those two idiots managed to find a better place than this, I'll write an article about them they'll never forget!" She then pulled out her notepad as she began to write down obscenities in regards to the two, the sight of which caused Theresa to chuckle nervously.
The door of the classroom creaked ever so slightly but the noise permeated through the hectic chaos within and freezing all of the people in fear that the Robo-Apes had found them, until they heard a high-pitched voice say, "In here! It's safe here! I should know, I almost trapped two students- "Before he could incriminate himself, the school principal, Irving Slimovitz saw that there were already people in the classroom, "Oh thank cheese! More students that I didn't lose!" The principal beckoned his followers into the room, filling the place with more escapees.
Theresa expectantly looked over the crowd, hoping to catch a glimpse of her crush's purple hair. She instead bumped into someone else, "Julian!?" The hatted goth bowed politely, "Yes, it is I, returning from a place of darkness and I have now stepped into a new light." Debbie gave a look of confusion leading Theresa to translate, "It means that detention was the worst, and that he's fine." Theresa straightforward explanation, offended the goth teen, "Hmph, your rephrasing is a bit modest, it removes the artistry from- "His words were brushed aside by the journalist, "This is the guy that almost destroyed our school?" Debbie asked sarcastically. Julian responded with an offended tone, "In my defense that wasn't technically me. I was trapped in the realm of shadows," a term that Debbie picked up on as she perked up, "'The Realm of Shadows', huh? What was that like?" Julian looked to the side and hummed, then narrowed his eyes tightly as though he was having trouble recalling his experience, "It appears that I cannot remember- "However, before he could voice his confusion, the journalist grabbed his shoulders and shook him, "What do you mean you can't remember?! What kind of shoob forgets about the Realm of Shadows!? It's literally an out of this world experience!"
Julian pushed Debbie off, and panickily dusted himself off, "I-I don't know! Honest! All I can recall was a tickling sensation, and…uh…" Debbie and Theresa went closer intent on listing down as much as Julian could remember, "And…a fondness for skulls named 'Tyler.'" The two girls groaned, as Debbie remarked, "Well, if an idiot like this can survive the Robo-Apes, then we definitely don't have to worry about Randy and Howard." Theresa jokingly nodded along, hoping that her friend was right.
A hand stretched out towards Debbie's shoulders, "Hey! Watch it shoob!" Debbie turned around and was met with the irritated gaze of Heidi, "Hey yourself, D-dizzle, I have some questions and I want the answers, you still owe me for that shoobtastic ninja identity coverage." Debbie groaned at the mention of her last failure, "Don't remind me, what was going through my head that time, Stevens obviously had more potential." Heidi rolled her eyes after hearing the name of the trombone player, "Stevens? Seriously?" The newscaster shook her head, "Anyways, Teasey-Feasey, mind letting me steal your friend for a bit?" Theresa offered her a thumbs-up, "Thanks!" The two teens walked away continuing their discussion.
"So, you had questions for me?" Debbie asked quizzingly. "Yeah, just need you to catch me up with the deets," Heidi requested; however, Debbie didn't like giving out information for free, "Fine, but on one condition, I get co-host your coverage of what happened here." Heidi sighed but nonetheless complied, "Okay sure D-dizzle, but you have to know that the only systems I have access to is this weird local network in the Gifted Classroom."
"Huh," Debbie was surprised that the decrepit area had some sort of network, "Any idea who might've made it? This place might make for a good article so I've been trying to piece some of its secrets together." A drop of water splashed once more on Heidi's head, "The only secret that this place has is the mystery of why it's still standing, and the only clue about the network is the password that the nerd team gave to me."
"What was the password?"
"Stevie Miller is a massive shoob," Heidi took a brief pause and recalled the last bit of the password, "With a number three at the end." Debbie looked on with exasperation, "What kind of lunatic would make a local network here and give it such a stupid password?"
Viceroy wiped his nose with a mauve handkerchief, as McFist bid him a silent, "Gesundheit, Viceroy." Viceroy rolled his eyes, "Thanks." The mad scientist worked on repairing the connection between the Sorceress' rapidly weakening power ball and the Eye of Eternities. Suddenly, he could hear a whistling tune on his right, Viceroy sighed, "Yes, Hannibal? Do you want something?" The whistling stopped, but was instead replaced with McFist asking a rapid barrage of questions, "So what exactly is the Sorceress' plan? Why didn't she make the Robo-Apes go after the ninja? And what is she doing over there?" McFist's metallic arm pointed towards the Sorceress, who was mumbling to herself as her power balls orbited near her.
Viceroy shrugged his shoulders, "As if I know, what I do know is that she's badgering me about making another power ball for her." McFist's eyes widened in shock and he began to shake the scientist, "What?! D-Did you manage to make it?" The thought of an even stronger Sorceress, made McFist tremble in fear as he continued to shake the mad scientist. Viceroy managed to break free from his hold, and dusted himself off, "No way! I majored in the evil sciences not evil magics, all I've managed to do is make this Energy Containment Unit, or the ECU as I like to call it, patent pending though," Viceroy snickered at his accomplishment as he raised the metallic ball towards McFist who was unimpressed, "Looks way too busy, the Sorceress' balls look much more bruce." McFist's critique annoyed Viceroy, "Look! This was all I could do with such a tight schedule, and besides, she told me it wasn't high priority." McFist angrily yelled back, "If it wasn't high priority, then why did you make it?!"
"Enough," the deceptively calm voice of the Sorceress carried a heavy rage to it enough to make the two men recoil, "All of my requests, regardless of how miniscule they play a role, should always be considered high priority, is that enough of an explanation?" McFist fearfully nodded. The Sorceress began to explain, "As of now, I am building up energy from the chaos that you have caused by allying yourselves to me, but it is not enough." Viceroy raised an eyebrow and asked, "Why don't you just send out some stank and turn people into monsters?" The Sorceress gave Viceroy a deadly glare, "If I could do that wouldn't you think that I would? My otherworldly travels have rendered my power balls nearly depleted of chaos! I simply cannot afford to throw away magics as I am now." The Sorceress tightly closed her eyes, scrunching up her horrid face, "I will need you to send as many Robo-Apes to the town and have them cause more panic!" The Sorceress said pointing to Viceroy, "But without these Robo-Apes, we'll be left almost defenseless!"
The mad scientist's concerns went ignored, "With the ninja in the weakened state that he is in, there isn't a thing in this world that can stand a chance against us," the Sorceress stated with a haughty tone. Viceroy nervously twiddled with his fingers, "Well, you know, he's powerless until your power ball runs out of energy, and we won't have a second chance since that move he did really took a toll out of my machine." The Sorceress was not pleased by this, and with a disgruntled look stared at the two men, "Then cause more chaos! If I have enough, I will be able to bring forth an ally of mine, one whose hatred of the ninja may even challenge mine." The Sorceress' words sent a chill down both the men's backs, as they did their jobs. Still though, who could hate the ninja more than what seemed to be the personification of evil itself.
"Soon, ninja, I will find you. And we will have our vengeance."
The coast was finally clear, as Robo-Apes moved out of the school corridors giving a chance for a beaked figure to sneak pass even with his audacious glider. "Sweet cheese that was close! For a moment I was considering dropping you, you know?" The masked man whispered flippantly to the ninja who was still unconscious from his previous fight. Seeing this, Howard sighed, "Don't worry buddy, I'll get you some place safe." Howard opened his phone and saw that his sister was broadcasting from a familiar room. Howard quickly realized that he was connected to the last active network in the school, he and Randy often visited the Gifted classroom for some high-speed internet, no one was hogging the bandwidth back then. Still even with the presence of new competition, Howard couldn't help but chuckle, "Of course, that's where you'd put them. Cunningham, you are a total shoob." Howard dug his feet into the glider as he increased the speed towards the Gifted Classroom.
"…That was the deets from our very own, Debbie Kang! Remember folks with the ninja MIA, it's best to keep your heads low, and hope for the best! This is Heidi Weinerman signing out!" The newscaster pushed a button on her McFistCaster ending the broadcast, letting out a tired breath she turned towards her co-host, "That was probably the most depressing episode of my gossip report." Debbie responded with a saddened look, "That's because it's less gossip and more like actual news." Heidi looked on with an apprehensive glint in her eyes, "I just wished that something good would happen."
And as if on que, a loud crash was heard from the classroom's entrance. "I really have to watch what I say," bemoaned Heidi. The two moved with the rest of the students to inspect the area, but before they could get closer, a hand reached out accompanied by a student speaking with a French accent, "Excusez-moi mademoiselle, it is too dangerous for you to get too close, it might be a one of those robots." The teens pushed him aside, "Sorry Jacques, we need this for the Deep Dish!" Heidi said as people trampled over the exchange student.
The students closed in as the dust began to settle, and they saw a weird bird man having a coughing fit, "If I knew," his distorted voice rang out as he coughed, "That I was going to have to fly this thing again, I would've stolen it way more often." The dust cleared making the masked figures visage more apparent.
"Le Beret?" Debbie asked aloud, as more students made the same conclusion. However, their thoughts were disrupted as Heidi angrily stomped towards the masked man, "Howard!" Le Beret turned towards the voice and started to back away only to get caught on by his collar, "What in the juice, are you wearing? I have told you to stop wearing these ridiculous outfits, you're ruining your cred and therefore you're also ruining mine!"
Howard slapped his sister's hands away, "First of all, this outfit came with the glider, and second, I pull it off amazingly," Howard propped his collar up smugly, "And third, I need your help." Heidi tilted her head curiously, "Need our help with what?" Howard grunted, "I need your help with the ninja!" Heidi squinted her eyes annoyed, "Where exactly is the ninja?" Howard extended his arms, "He's obviously right here!" He looked towards his arms only to be met with a distinct air of nothing. "Oh, sweet cheese, I dropped him."
"Howard!" The entire population of the classroom yelled out in unison. Howard scratched his ears irritated by the sudden screeches, "Alright sheesh, it's like none of you people have ever dropped a ninja before," his joke was received poorly as indicated by the room now filled with deadpan stares. "Tough crowd," but before Howard could voice more of his own complaints, the hand of Theresa Fowler broke through the crowd and reached his shoulders, "Howard, where is the ninja?" She asked with a concerned tone of voice.
Howard meeting the intense gaze of the twirler made him nervous, luckily the answer to her question was given when a moan was heard from the debris of the recently destroyed entryway of the classroom. Howard immediately pointed towards the area where the sound came from, "He's right over there!" Theresa abruptly let go of the fancily dressed boy, as she and other students removed the debris from the ninja.
Theresa gasped, as she managed to get a good look at the ninja's state, his suit was torn in various places, and it was clear that he was bruised and wounded. She knew that the ninja needed help immediately since he wouldn't be able to patch himself up. She took the ninja's left arm and swung it over her shoulder giving him support, while Howard moved took the ninja's right arm and they managed to rest him against a make-shift bed made up of wet calculus books.
"What happened to him?" Theresa asked worriedly, Howard responded, "Honestly he was like that when I got him." His joke was once again met with an unamused stare, "Fine, you all saw what happened, the Sorceress and McFist teamed up on him. And I may or may not have bumped him into a few lockers on the way here."
"Howard!" His sister yelled reprimanding him, "Hey, you try to ride the glider with two people on it!" Howard excused. Theresa ignored the sibling quarrel as she and the rest of the students looked upon the ninja's resting state with baited breath.
"Okay, I'm bored now!" the school bully cried out as he yawned after a few minutes of watching the ninja. "Then why don't you actually do something useful," retorted the school dancer Morgan receiving a supportive, "Oooooh!" from the other students. Bash offended by the display of students high five-ing the Junior student, decided to do something rash, "You know what dancing girl, I'll do something fun! Yeah, like uh…" Bash looked around hoping to find something to entertain him and the crowd.
Bash rested his eyes on the one thing, or person that the entirety of the student body was all focused on. "I'm gonna take off ninja's mask!" He proclaimed proudly, and was met with a split response of gasps, cheers, and boos. Before he could get his hands on the ninja, Howard blocked his way, "Hey! Hey! Bozo, that's a massive no-no, besides I'm pretty sure that if you look at the ninja's face you get cursed for…uh…for two…no three…uh…forever!" He said attempting to dissuade the bully, but Bash was pushed him aside, "Eh, no such thing as forever," he said bluntly, "Bash heard my Ma' say that it isn't real after my Da' went for milk." A statement that caused every student to pause and think about how messed up that is.
"That actually explains a lot," Howard said with a look of realization, however before he could formulate a response he was pushed aside by Bash, "Get out of the way loser!" Before Howard could go back and stop Bash, he was held back by Bash's possie, "Aw this is so wonk! I knew I should've taken my glider again!" Completely forgetting that the glider was still damaged by the crash that it took from entering the room.
Howard struggle was in vain as Bash got ever so closer to the ninja's body, taking in the applause as he did so. "Yeah Bash!" Bash cheered himself on, as his supporters continued to cheer alongside him while other students remained conflicted. Debbie turned towards Heidi and asked, "Shouldn't we try to stop him?" Heidi looked at her incredulously, "Are you kidding? Do you want to end up like my brother?"
They winced at the sight of Howard being dogpiled by more of Bash's supporters. Heidi shook it off and giddily said, "And besides this is the scoop of the century! It's not like we were going to patch up the ninja without taking off his clothes." Debbie looked at the sight of students cheering, she should be happy, right? She spent months researching the ninja, and now the answer that she's been trying to piece together was about to be solved. Yet why was she saddened by this?
Nonetheless, the teen refused to act upon these feelings simply content with letting things play out before her eyes. Bash reached his hand out and pulled on the black puff of cloth on the ninja's mask. Taking in the cheers of his peers, Bash was ready to leave his mark on the school's history.
Suddenly, a blur of yellow broke through the crowd of students and closed in towards the bully's direction. The figure, with every ounce of her might, swung her metal baton right towards a spot between Bash's legs causing the bully to buckle and let out a loud yell that everybody swore caused the school to shake and all of the males in the area to cringe at the sight.
Theresa Fowler had left her mark on school history, taking down Bash Johnson. Though, she knew that it was far from over and directed her threatening gaze towards the rest of the students that were interested in following Bash's lead. She took a deep breath and spoke out with a cold tone that sent shivers up their spines.
"None of you are going anywhere near him."
A/N: Hey everyone, Somi here! This was probably the hardest chapter to write for me, and I might go back to it for some editing, just got really swamped this week. Nonetheless, it was fun writing some of the side characters this time.
Some bad news though, there will be no chapter next week for personal reasons just a bunch of things came up and the next chapter might take some time possibly a two week wait again.
