The Secret Trio

Chapter 8

"Danny, you're flying too close to Jake! Move over a foot! Randy, hasten that footwork! Mind your scarf! Jake, watch out for that-" BANG!"-hoop..."

Sam had been criticizing practice for the last half hour. All three had been flying (or jumping) through hoops, shooting projectiles like fire or ectoblasts, and avoiding attacks in the lab while trying to sync movement if possible or necessary to each other's safety. They had all stopped when Jake had crashed into a hoop. The other two boys went to his aid and changed back to normal. Jake transformed back into his human form, grunted, sat up, and grasped his head. Randy turned his head to Sam, who was standing a few feet away, arms crossed.

"Sam, can we please stop? I'm so tired..." he whined.

Sam shrugged, feeling a rare mercy. "Fine, take a break. Howard!"

As Trixie and Spud headed off to Jake, Danny and Randy came forward. Howard jumped and gave a frightened look at Sam. "Yes?"

"It's come to my attention that you don't know how to utilize whatever magic Trixie and Spud sometimes are given to use or wrist-rays or other means of attack. We're gonna change that today."

Howard backed up. "Hold on now, I don't have that freaky magic stuff they do and I don't have those things you and Tucker have. I tend to just improvise with what I have at the time, like cinderblocks. I don't need any further training." he protested, already not liking where this was going. Randy snickered, and Howard glared at him and punched him in the arm. "Shut up, Cunningham."

"Oh, this is gonna be comedy gold..." Randy stated, rubbing his arm. "You just do your best, Howard."

"Screw you." Howard grumbled. Sam pulled what looked like lipstick from her pocket and tossed it to Randy's friend, who eyed it in confusion. "Um, what is this? Lipstick? Do I look like a girl?"

"What? Green's a good color on you, Howard." Randy said as Howard opened the tube. Howard finally just ignored him and looked at Sam and Tucker. Tucker smiled.

"No, it's a pocket ray. You can shoot it at stuff. It's also easy and convenient to use and hide. The wrist rays we'll show you later; in my opinion it's actually easier to master using to tube than it is the wrist ray." he explained. He smiled as Danny took his spot beside him. "Good job today, dude."

"Thanks, Tuck. Anyways, Tucker and Sam are right. You should practice with it."

"I don't understand why, though," Howard muttered, "I don't fight ghosts or magical things or really fight much. Sometimes I help Randy out, but I make do."

"And what if you're unarmed? Maybe you're in a tight situation with no cinderblocks or other means of attack?" Sam inquired, crossing her arms. "You never know when your friend is going to be in trouble. When he is, as a friend, ally, and keeper of his secret, it's your job to save him and back him up. Tucker!"

Tucker clicked a button on his PDA and from the wall came out practice targets, burned and singed from previous use. Randy stared in awe. "That's so bruce! You can take out this stuff with your PDA?"

"Yeah. I hooked it up so I can access a lot of this stuff with a single push of a button. Maybe I ought to show you how to use the lipstick." He put the PDA away and pulled out his own tube of what looked like lipstick. He opened it and pointed it at one of the targets and pressed a tiny button on it. It blasted and hit the center perfectly, leaving Randy and Howard gaping in awe. Tucker blew on the smoke coming out, twirled it, and put his away. "Sam and I have had a lot of practice. With some you can do that, too. Give it a try."

"Okay..." Howard nervously stood about ten feet away from the first target. He looked to Randy for support. His best friend grinned.

"You got this, Howard. You can do this."