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Their friendship had come easy, easier than he had expected. He infiltrated the school easily taking on the name of a human called Howard Weinerham, a squat child who blended in perfectly with the rest of Norrisville High. The moment he saw him , he knew: this was the one. Lanky, purple haired and radiating energy unlike any of the other human offspring around him. Finally, after years of keeping tabs, sneaking around and reporting back and forth between Earth and XXX ,and he had finally found the one known as the Ninja .
Or rather, destined to be the Ninja. He hadn't appeared to have received the Nomicon yet…
So their friendship came easy. He told jokes he knew the Ninja-- Randy -- would like. He bought video games they could play together and food they could eat while playing said games. This had all taken weeks of even more research obviously, but it had paid off. He gained Randy's trust perfectly, so on the day the Nomicon appeared he was ready.
It should have been easy. Randy knew nothing of what it meant to be the Ninja ,let alone a real Hero. A real Hero did what he had to do even if it meant condemning an entire planet to certain doom at the hand of a mad sorcerer.
...even if it was beginning to feel horribly, horribly wrong.
So he-- Howard-- didn't take the book. Not yet. He waited.
“Biding his time. Looking for an opportunity.” He told his superiors.
They needed that book, apparently and it was quite powerful, supposedly, hence why he was alone on this assignment.At least, that what they told him when he mustered up the cojones to ask. And, they accepted his answer. At the time.
He helped Randy as much as he could with as much knowledge as he had. Enough to nudge him in the right direction but never to tell him outright. He had to learn the Nomicons secrets on his own, for both is benefit and his homes. And Howard played the part of the good sidekick-better friend, only occasionally getting sick of the shoobs idiocy.
What was happening to him?
He was a spy of the planet XXX, a title he had earned from putting in work for so long,so long that the life of this planet couldn't even comprehend it! And here he was essentially abandoning everything he had ever known, for a being whose lifespan was mere seconds compared to his…
. ..but you’re still here. A nagging voice pinched at the back of his mind. You should have been done with this ages ago, but here you are… and he tried to ignore it, but it was true. Through evey fight, through every loss and every win, he didn’t leave.
He didn't sleep. He couldn’t sleep. So instead, He watched. Waited. Kept the city safe from invaders from other planets who sought the power of the book for themselves. Randy was under the protection of the top Spy Organization on planet XXX , and he didn't even know! It was enough to make Howard laugh! How attached he had become to this human.
He thought it would be easy. He was wrong . The fights got harder, not just for Randy but for himself. Longer nights, more scars he hid under more facades, stronger aliens forming angry enemies, more explaining what he couldn't to his superiors.
He couldn't take the book, not yet. Randy wasn't ready and Norrisville and this world needed him. They gave him a choice: retrieve the Nomicon and bring it back. Transgressions forgiven, provided he accepted probation. No questions asked.
Or.
Stay on earth, all intergalactic rights removed. A fugitive with a bounty on his head, ship disabled and access cut off, unable to get home.
Waiting for death.
He remembered one night at a sleepover, commenting idly on how Randy slept weird. Randy had laughed and asked him how he slept and Howard has stumbled, remembering that no, he wasn't Agent Z, he was Howard Weinerham on Earth and humans didn’t sleep like him, they slept with their eyes closed, on their backs, in beds. He changed the conversation, quickly asking how Randy's training in the Nomicon was going, and the Ninja had rolled his eyes and launched into the new topic.
He-- Howard-- chose.
His signal to home was lost within seconds. Randy asked him what was wrong, eyes genuinely concerned and frowning. He responded fine. His cell had just lost connection.
Randy didn't buy the answer. Howard would tell him, eventually.And he would. He would tell Randy everything, the truth.
They had a war coming,a war featuring the sorcerer, an Interplanetary conspiracy and now a fugitive of space. It wouldn't be easy…
But nothing ever was with the Ninja .