Portals

Confused

Randy grumbled to Howard. "I don't know where he went. One second he was there; the next, poof." He waved his hands for emphasis.

"Kids don't 'poof'. New kids especially. And I'm glad you lost that dumb book. Now we can actually have some fun. Here's to Howard money!" He raised a fist, but Randy crossed his arms and gave him a look that could melt a ninja sword. "Fine, let's go find this Fenton kid. Are you sure he could open it?"

"I saw him do it, except it was green, not red."

Howard frowned and stuffed a replacement nacho in his mouth. "That's weird even for the Nomicon."

"Hmm?" Randy spread his arms, but nearly collided into... their old pre-K teacher? Bash's mother. Holy cheese. Bash's mother! "Mrs. McFist, I'm so—"

She was gone before he could get the apology out. If he had been pale before, it was nothing compared to what he turned when he saw McFist charging down the street behind her. He only just got out of the way as the huge man whipped past. "Honey, wait!"

Howard glanced at him. "Was that-?"

He nodded.

"And he-?"

Another nod.

Howard grabbed his head. "I'm so confused. What just happened?"

"Lost the Nomicon, met a crazy not-robot new kid, and ran into McFist. All we're missing is a stank attack."

A roar pierced the streets as a morphed pink monster reared.

Howard glared at him. "You just had to go and open your big mouth, didja?"

He shrugged and yanked his ninja suit from his pocket.

"It's ninja-o-clock."

Howard shook his head. "That still sounds stupid."

"I can't hear you!" The Ninja flipped away from him, scarf trailing behind him.

***

Danny had found an alley to slip into. He held the book tentatively, almost hypnotized by by the gleaming red spiral. Every time he brushed his thumb over the insignia, it turned from red to bright green, the color of his plasma rays. Saying it was odd was an understatement.

One of Ghost Writer's books. He was holding one of Ghost Writer's books. He half expected his thoughts to start rhyming any moment now.

He flipped the book open, watching tiny figures dash and fight their way across the yellowed pages. The book was ancient. Clockwork, despite himself, had no valid sense of time. Ghosts didn't, in general. The journal could have been in this world for centuries and there haven't been any cataclysmic events, as far as Danny could tell.

For the first time he felt a pang of guilt about stealing the journal from Randy. The kid had looked rather attached to it. If he hadn't taken it from him, the journal probably would have gone on its merry way, never making a wrong move.

He glanced at the drawings again. It looked like a comic book, animated on paper. This thing couldn't do harm even if it tried.

Danny didn't know what Randy did with it, but the kid had acted like it was important. He had to get it back to him, as soon as possible.

He sprang up, but was interrupted when a scream rang out a few streets over. His hero instinct went off and he turned toward the sound, holding out the Ninjanomicon and weighing his options. Then the sound of a car getting crushed made up his mind for him. He left the book in a gutter (from the looks of the thing, it hadn't rained in days) and flew off in the direction of the commotion.

It was a giant pink monster. Danny hesitated, hovering above it. Okay, that was new. Most ghosts were green. But he couldn't for the life of him figure out why it was clutching a roll of toilet paper in one hand. The thing was diminutive compared to its fingers, but the creature held it so gingerly that there was no way it would crush it. But as Danny watched, it roared, turned around, and crushed what looked like an old car. The thing looked like it belonged back in the seventies, and Danny couldn't help but think good riddance. Things from the seventies should stay in the seventies, especially his parents' dance moves. Or was that eighties? Eh, both were equally embarrassing.

However, a man rushed up to the car, clutched his balding and graying hair and screamed to the high heavens, "MY CAR!"

That tore it. Danny was half a second short of calling out some witty banter when he heard something else.

"Ninja jump, ninja jump, ninja jump, smoke bomb!"

Red smoke fluttered in the air. A gust of wind caught it and sent it up to where Danny floated, and the ghost boy gagged. That reeked of rotten eggs and something else that was unearthly and putrid.

But in the clearing smoke stood another figure, one dressed in all black. An absurdly long red scarf swam through the air around him, but his suit only left his eyes exposed. Danny touched his face self consciously. A mask. Did heroes need masks? Did he need a mask? Well, the hair and his eyes were a major throw-off, plus the fact that he was pretty much one of the only half-ghost half-humans in existence, save Vlad and Dani. But Vlad didn't really matter anymore and Dani was off doing her own thing. He wondered what she was doing. Did she know that he got sucked into the weird portal?

"Ninja kick!"

Danny's eyes darted back down to the action below. The black-suited "ninja" had somehow wrapped his scarf around a nearby lamp post and swung his weight into the monster. It stumbled and roared again, but it still clutched that roll of toilet paper high and out of reach of the hero. Danny wondered something, then raised his hand and shot a ghost ray at the roll of cushioned paper. It flew, smoking, out of the monster's hand and caught fire as it hit the ground. The creature gave one last roar before almost... deflating, revealing a small woman with blonde hair, now in ragged clothes.

Crud. It was the same woman he had walked in on. Had he caused this?

The ninja glanced up and blinked at him, then unraveled his scarf and whipped it at Danny. The ghost boy dodged it for the most part, but the red fabric snagged his leg and started yanking him down. He could fly at one hundred and twelve miles an hour, but couldn't pull himself free as the ninja started pulling him down. The guy was strong, ridiculously so. But Danny had one power he didn't.

He turned his foot intangible, freed himself, and blasted away to retrieve Ghost Writer's book from its gutter. He had to have been flying a hundred feet up. How did that scarf reach him?

Down below, the Norrisville Ninja stumbled forward as the scarf dislodged. He crashed to the floor and sprang back up again, yelling "Smoke bomb!" as he threw down the little black orb and vanished. Randy jogged up to Howard, who stood on the corner with his arms crossed, foot tapping furiously.

"What was that?"

Randy shrugged.

"That thing took your destank right from under you."

"That's not important right now, Howard. We need to find that new kid and the Nomicon. Now."

He dragged him off, back towards Fred's Game Hole.

******
I swear I'm not dead.
Sorry for the long wait, honestly. But this year I took part in National Novel Writing Month (which I won, by the way, at 50,164 words. The first chapter of The Mortal Game is up on my profile, but I'll take it down if it doesn't get attention. If you like teenage superheroes, then it is definitely for you.)

Cheers and read on,

Axle