Chapter 20
Norrisville Part 2
As they walked to Randy's house, Molly and Libby learned about all of the adventures that Randy had as the Ninja. They both listened in awe as Randy told them about all of the battles he had. He told them about how he fought against countless robots and had to save his friends, who were turned to monsters by an evil sorcerer.
Hearing this left Molly and Libby surprised by all of the intense battles Randy had. And they thought their adventures were pretty crazy!
"It sounds like you went on a lot of amazing adventures, Randy!" Molly commented, invested in his stories.
"Fighting those monster versions of your classmates sounds pretty terrifying though." Libby said, too terrified to even imagine what it would be like if her classmates suddenly turned to monsters.
"They wouldn't be so terrifying if you fought them as the Ninja. I once became the Ninja for a day when Cunningham lost his memory and I easily defeated that one robot that attacked the school." Howard replied.
Randy let out an annoyed sigh. "No, Howard. You humiliated the robot, and when it came back for revenge, you practically had to beg me to go back to being the ninja."
"Speaking of robots, what's with those robots flying in the sky?" Molly asked, noticing robots flying around town.
As he took a closer look at the robots, Randy recognized them as the robots of his arch nemesis. Knowing that he would have to stop them before they can cause any trouble, Randy put on his ninja mask before transforming into the Ninja.
"Something tells me that those robots are up to no good! How would you two like to come with me and see what's going on?" Randy asked Molly and Libby.
Both, Molly and Libby nodded in response before summoning their keyblades. They didn't know what those robots were supposed to be, but they had no doubts that the robots were about to cause trouble.
Once everyone was ready, they ran through the neighborhood to stop whatever the robots were planning. All of the robots flew in the middle of an abandoned construction site, where they gathered around a giant floating monitor that showed the image of a business man with blond colored hair and a matching mustache. The man wore a dark brown suit with a red tie and had a mechanical arm with a brain floating in it.
"Come on out, Ninja! I know that you are around here somewhere!" the man yelled, wanting nothing more than to fight the Ninja.
"Sir, you need to stay patient." said the man's scientist assistant, Viceroy. "If my new robots are able to get the Ninja's attention, he should be here soon."
"How soon? I want to destroy the Ninja now! Make it happen now, Viceroy!"
"Patience. If my calculations are correct, the Ninja should be here right about-"
"McFist!" Randy suddenly appeared in a cloud of smoke with Molly and Libby following shortly afterwards.
"Now." Viceroy finished his sentence with a smug grin.
The moment Molly, Libby, and Randy arrived at the construction site, all of the robots aimed their blasters at the group of friends. They all raised their weapons in defense as the robots closed in on them, surrounding them from all directions.
Despite being surrounded, Randy remained calm and stared at McFist through the monitor. "What are you up to this time, McFist?"
"I'm so glad you asked, Ninja! Today would be the day we have our last battle! This time, you will be destroyed thanks to the power of-" McFist paused as he tried to remember the name of the robots. "The power of-"
"Of my destructobots." Viceroy explained with a facepalm.
"Of MY destructobots!" McFist yelled, taking the credit for Viceroy's hard work. "Prepare to be destroyed, Ninja!"
Weirded out by this new villain, Molly turned to Randy and whispered, "Hey, who is that guy?"
"Oh, he's just Hannibal McFist. Famous gazillionaire and my arch nemesis." Randy answered in a casual tone.
"Wait, does he have a mechanical arm?" Libby raised a confused eyebrow upon noticing his arm.
"Enough! I hope you're ready, Ninja! I am able to remotely control every robot here, so I would have the pleasure in destroying you myself!" McFist said, grabbing a controller.
"Now, be careful. Remember, my destructobots are still prototypes." Viceroy reminded his boss.
"Yeah, yeah! Prototypes!" McFist waved a dismissive hand, not paying attention to Viceroy in the least. "Now, destroy the Ninja!"
At McFist's command, the robots fired lasers from every direction. To counter the attack, Molly and Libby casted reflect spells, reflecting every single laser back at the robots. With a growl of anger, McFist pressed various buttons on the controller as the robots changed their laser hands to buzzsaws.
The robots charged forward before Molly and her friends blocked the buzzsaws with their weapons. After pushing back the robots, Randy took notice of a nearby wrecking ball. This gave him an idea, so he climbed up the construction site, using his ninja jumps before grabbing on to the rope of the wrecking ball.
It was at that moment when Randy swung the wrecking ball straight towards the robots, yelling, "Ninja wrecking ball!"
Before McFist could realize what was going on, Randy swung the wrecking ball at the robots full force, severely damaging all of them. This caused the robots to spark and malfunction. Upon noticing the sparks, Molly and Libby got an idea, so they combined their magic to fire large water spells at the robots, electrocuting all of them to the point where they were unable to move.
Once the robots were defeated, McFist let out a yell of anger. After all the time he waited for the robots to be completed, he still ended up losing to the Ninja once again.
"This is all your fault, Viceroy!" McFist blamed his assistant. "Those robots of yours weren't good enough!"
"I already told you. They were just prototypes." Viceroy replied in an annoyed tone.
"Well, make better prototypes next time!" McFist yelled before bringing his attention back to Randy. "Don't think that this is over, Ninja! I'll return with even stronger robots to finally destroy you!"
With that, the monitor that showed McFist floated away, leaving Molly and her friends by themselves.
"Whew! Glad that's over." Libby said, breathing a sigh of relief. "I wasn't expecting to fight so many robots."
"Well, you kind of get used to fighting McFist's robots." Randy replied. "Alright, now that we dealt with McFist, let's go back and get the Nomicon!"
Once their battle was finished, Molly and the others finally arrived at Randy's house. The inside of the house looked comforting and peaceful. After all the adventures they went through, Molly and Libby wouldn't mind sitting down on the couch and relaxing for awhile. However, they couldn't take a break now, especially if the Nomicon can provide them answers for how to defeat the Heartless.
It wasn't long before Randy led everyone to his room. He was about to open his door before he remembered something.
"Oh, right! I forgot to tell you! I kind of have a roommate at the moment. I met this guy who saved me from the Heartless awhile ago, so I invited him to my house. He actually had a keyblade just like you two!" Randy explained.
"A keyblade? Did this keyblade have a golden type of color?" Molly asked, assuming that Randy was referring to Mickey.
Randy shook his head. "No. I'd say it was more of a darker sort of color. The guy I met had this silver colored hair, almost like some kind of anime character."
As Randy turned to open his bedroom door, Molly and Libby shared a couple of worried looks with one another as they knew exactly who Randy was referring to. The door opened to reveal Xehanort sitting on Randy's bed.
"Oh, it's you." Molly scowled, Xehanort being the last person she wanted to see.
Upon noticing Molly and Libby, Xehanort glared back at them. "So, you're here too."
"Wait, hold on! You two already know Xehanort?" Randy asked, surprised.
Libby nodded. "Yes, let's just say we kind of have a complicated history with him."
"Well then, Howard and I will let you guys catch up while we search for the Nomicon!" Randy announced before he and Howard left the room.
An awkward silence filled the room as Molly and Libby glared at Xehanort. Their last encounter with him led to an argument about their perspectives on light and darkness. Things haven't gotten any better between them since then. After a few moments of silence, Xehanort finally decided to speak up.
"I'm not going to apologize for what I said if that's what you're hoping for."
Molly took a deep sigh as she tried to calm herself down. "Listen, I think we all said things we now regret! Why don't we just start over?"
"Start over? You're the ones who are too scared of the darkness! Maybe if you kept a proper balance of light and darkness in your hometown, Brighton wouldn't have disappeared in the first place." Xehanort argued, much to Molly's anger.
Before Molly and Xehanort could argue anymore, Libby stood between them.
"Okay, I know there's still some tension between us, but considering how many Heartless are taking over this world, we're obviously going to need each others help once more. Why don't we just work together for now and we can later go our separate ways with Xehanort." Libby suggested.
"Fine!" Molly and Xehanort said in unison, looking away from each other with their arms crossed.
It wasn't long before Randy and Howard returned with the Nomicon. The book had a dark cover with red circles in the center. Molly and Libby had never seen a book like that before and couldn't help but wonder what kind of knowledge it contained.
"Wow! So, this is the Nomicon?" Molly asked.
"That's right, Molly! All I have to do is go into the book and ask it how to deal with those Heartless!" Randy replied.
There was something that Randy said that didn't sound quite right to Libby. "I'm sorry. Did you say go into the book?"
Instead of answering Libby's question, Randy opened the book before a bright flash illuminated from the Nomicon. It was at that moment when Randy fell unconscious on the floor, much to the surprise of Molly, Libby, and Xehanort. They all approached Randy to see that he wasn't moving a muscle.
"Uh, is he okay?" Libby asked.
"Oh, sure. This happens to him all the time." Howard assured.
Just as suddenly as he passed out, Randy stood up from the floor as he recovered from his trip inside the Nomicon. He appeared to be confused, as if he was trying to comprehend what he just saw.
"So, what did the Nomicon tell you this time?" Howard asked.
After getting over his surprise, Randy replied, "I-I don't know. It didn't give me any advice. All I saw was a vision of all of Norrisville being taken over by those Heartless monsters."
Confused, Molly took a look at the Nomicon herself. That was when she noticed waves of dark energy flowing from the book.
"Everyone, I think there's something wrong with the Nomicon." Molly directed everyone's attention to the darkness. "I think it might be corrupted by darkness."
"You might be right about that. The Nomicon is cryptic when it comes to teaching me stuff, but never this cryptic. Something is definitely wrong!" Randy gazed at the Nomicon in confusion.
"Maybe Molly and I can help." Libby suggested. "We are used to battling the darkness, so we can help restore the Nomicon back to normal!"
Randy thought about Libby's idea before he replied, "That's actually not a bad idea! With your, Molly, and Xehanort's help, we can destroy whatever is messing up the Nomicon!"
At the mention of Xehanort's name, Molly and Libby remembered that he is Randy's friend, for some reason. After what happened between her and Xehanort the last time they met, Molly didn't want to work with him this time. Considering how the Nomicon was corrupted by darkness, who's to say that Xehanort wasn't the one who corrupted it while Randy was away? Either way, as much as she hated to do so, it seemed that Molly had no choice but to team up with Xehanort once again.
With no other choice, Molly and Libby raised their keyblades, creating a portal that led into the Nomicon. Normally, Randy would ask how Molly and Libby did that, but after all of the crazy events that happened when he first met them, he decided not to question it. He then put on his ninja mask, transforming into the Ninja once again.
"Alright, everyone! Let's free the Nomicon of the darkness. Molly! Libby! Xehanort! You three are coming with me! And Howard-"
"Yeah, way ahead of you, Cunningham! I'll wait here until you get back!" Howard said, laying down on the bed, casually eating a bag of chips.
"Gee! Thanks! Glad to have you around!" Randy rolled his eyes.
Once everyone was ready, they all jumped through the portal into the Nomicon. As they entered the Nomicon, Molly and Libby started to wonder if they could actually trust Xehanort enough to work with him. Whether they could trust him or not, they had no choice but to work together with him if they were going to get through the challenges they would face in the Nomicon.