Chapter 1: Shackled, And Yet You Remain Free
Chapter Text
Norrisville was far from a normal town. Whether it be the abnormal slang that the town developed over time, the robots that seemed to constantly attack the city, or the existence of the Ninja in general, there was always something going on. Especially when you were the Ninja. Randy could hardly catch a break anymore, he swore. And he hadn’t even been the ninja for a year yet! High School was hard enough, and slap some 800 year old legacy to uphold on top of that? Yeah, Randy was stressed. He didn’t let that show, though. He felt like he couldn’t let it show to be honest. He was the Ninja! THE Ninja! And the Ninja certainly wasn’t weak. So he just sucked it up.
Howard was always there. Howard was the only person who knew about Randy’s little secret, and Randy only told him because he had thought the guy found out himself– a slip up, he admits, but it was still nice to have someone he could talk to about it. He didn’t know what he’d do if he didn’t have Howard to lean on, to be honest. Vent to the Nomicon? That felt silly to even think. The Nomicon was a book. A sentient book, but still, a book. Plus, it was kind of the cause of the problem! He appreciated the help it gave of course, but it still felt like a burden at times.
He was sitting in History class at the moment, staring off into space. The last thing on his mind was WW2 at the moment. He could always just google this stuff later and look at a Wikipedia article– right now just wasn’t the time, he had other things on his mind. Like how long it would be before he had to deal with another fight. He knew dwelling over it probably wasn’t the best for him, if anything it would just make his anxiety worse, which would lead to more stress, but he couldn’t help it. It was hard not to be constantly worried in a place like this, he honestly didn’t know how everyone in the town wasn’t on some form of anxiety medication.
He sighed, glancing down at the textbook in front of him. The words seemed to blur together, almost as though he was being taunted by them. They danced and swirled around the page like some sort of ballet– it made Randy feel sick. Maybe that was being dramatic, it really wasn’t as serious as he was making it seem, but it certainly felt that way. Being at the brink of a mental breakdown in the middle of history wasn’t ideal, Randy thought. He wanted to try and focus because he knew his grade was slipping, but he couldn’t. After a moment more of staring at the book, he raised his hand. He needed to be out of the classroom.
“Yes, Randy?”
“..Can I go to the nurse? I’m feeling kind of nauseous.”
Randy wasn’t sure if that was completely a lie or not now that he was saying it out loud. The teacher stared at him for a moment, and he could feel Howard turning his head over as well, before she eventually let out a sigh.
“Let me write you a pass.”
Randy smiled at that, shutting the textbook in front of him. He stood up from his desk, grabbing his backpack from the floor and slipping his arms into the straps, walking towards the teachers desk. He stared as she wrote the pass, waiting rather impatiently. The air in the room felt suffocating– he wanted to leave as soon as he could. He could still feel Howard’s eyes on him from behind him, too. But he didn’t care. He needed to be out of that classroom.
The second the pass was handed to him, he was out the door. Now, of course, he wasn’t actually going to the nurse, his parents probably wouldn’t come even if they were called to be honest, he was just going to find a random storage closet– or at least he thought it was going to be a random one, but, like usual, destiny had other plans for him. He was starting to find it annoying how things never went his way anymore, but that’s besides the point.
He was just wandering around without purpose, really. He found a closet, swinging the door open. Nobody was in there, luckily enough. As he stepped foot in the closet, he felt his bag vibrate. He paused. The Nomicon could not be serious. Right now, of all times? Randy was already ticked off, this certainly was not helping! He huffed, swinging his bag off his shoulder and struggling to get his backpack open with one hand. He pulled the damned book out, and it, indeed, was glowing and vibrating.
“What do you want you shoob?” He huffed, though of course the book gave no reply. Why would it reply? Thing couldn’t even talk verbally– if it could it’d probably just speak in riddles, so maybe it was better if it didn’t have a voice. He opened the book to try and get himself sucked inside of it, see what it wanted, but weirdly enough? It didn’t work. That just annoyed him more. Because, seriously, what the juice was going on? “Are you gonna tell me anything, or are you just gonna be a– just a– I don’t even know what to call you, just tell me what you want, you're totally honking my cheese here!” He grunted, shaking the book.
Apparently the Nomicon didn’t like that, because before Randy knew it, he was getting dragged through the school hallways at mach fucking speed by the thing– he didn’t even know how it started! He thought he passed someone on the way, but he honest to the gods could not tell who it was– He was trying to stop himself, his feet scuttling against the floor, but it was really no use, he was gunning it down that damn hallway. He would’ve yelped, but he didn't want to make a sound so people wouldn't be inclined to go investigate. This would be the most embarrassing way for him to be revealed as the Ninja– because the Nomicon decided it'd be funny to drag him around the halls like some kind of animal on a leash. So NOT bruce.
Eventually, though, he ended up stopping inside of a storage closet, quite far off from the one he had originally tried to enter. That only ticked him off more, because what do you mean the Nomicon dragged him away from a closet, just to send him to another one? There seriously could not have been anything that bad inside of that other closet! And even if there was, Randy would've been able to handle it, no doubt! At this point he felt like there was nothing he couldn't handle. Other than his own emotions, but we don't talk about that part. Anyway, he had found a spot in the corner. It was a bit cold, but not freezing, which was nice. Especially because Randy was kind of sweaty from all of that Nomi-Nonsense, even if he hadn't exactly done much. He wiped his forehead, then glanced back down at the book. It seemed to have calmed down now, so he picked it back up. He was about to open it up, when the door to the closet came flying open.
“CUNNINGHAM!”
“Howard?-”
The ginger panted, placing his hands on his knees for a moment as he caught his breath. It was clear he had sprinted here to catch up with Randy, which caused the taller boys brow to furrow a bit. He wasn't that surprised that Howard had left the class as soon as he had, it would be far from the first time that it had happened, but he normally wouldn't sprint to do it. Because, really, there was never any need for it? If Randy was feeling a little sick, it wasn't that big of a deal. Howard never really cared enough to go sprinting across the school for it.
“WHAT THE JUICE WAS THAT ALL ABOUT?!”
“What do you mean?”
“THE WHOLE- BREAKING SEVERAL ROAD SAFETY LAWS GOING DOWN THE HALLWAY THING!”
“These are the school hallways, Howard, not the road. Road safety laws don't apply here. Err.. does no running count as a road safety law for the halls? I guess in that case I did break a road safety law. But you did too, so can't just blame me.”
“ JUST TELL ME WHAT IT WAS ABOUT. ”
“Alright, alright, relax! I.. honestly don't know what it was about? The Nomicon just started glowing and then I was just.. shooting down the hallway!”
“Ick.. that stupid book.”
“Yeah yeah, you hate the Nomicon, I know- how'd you even know I was here?”
“There was this blonde kid with sunglasses in the hallway who told me he saw you coming this way- I think he's new or something, I've never seen him before.”
“Well that's only mildly worrying considering new students we've gotten in the past- BUUUT I'm sure it's nothing I can't handle if things go wrong.”
Howard gave a groan and a roll of his eyes as he went to sit down next to Randy, who, mind you, was still trying to pry open the Nomicon. In all honesty, he was starting to get a little worried about it. The Nomicon never acted like this before, so seriously, what gives?
The tyrian haired teen sighed as he gave up once more, resting his head against the wall behind him and dragging a hand down his face, before looking back over at this best friend. Though, oddly enough, Howard was paying no attention to him in return. It only caused his brow to furrow.
“The Nomicon is being totally wonk today, Howard. Can't even get the thing open!”
…
Still no response.
It wasn't like Howard to zone out either- was everything going bonkers today? Was this some sort of trick? Or, like, a test by the Nomicon to see how long it took him to identify or a problem, something like that? He was pretty damn sure he had made it obvious he noticed something was off!
“What's that?”
Howard finally speaking up took Randy straight out of his thoughts. The taller boy gave a pause, before turning to see what was being referred to. It took a moment and Howard directly pointing at it for Randy to finally see, but when he did, he was equally as confused.
There was something bright orange (reddish orange?) sticking out of a box in the corner of the closet- not just bright orange, glowing . Which was likely what made it bright, actually. It didn’t seem like a normal object, really. It was starting to click for Randy that this is probably what the Nomicon had brought him here to see. The pair stared at the object in the box for a moment more, before Randy began to crawl over to it.
“What are you doing?!”
“..Seeing what’s in the box?”
“Okay, well, I’d normally be all for that Cunningham, but that thing looks dangerous! Like lava or something.”
“Pfft, what happened to the Howard I know? Normally you’d be all for something like this, man!”
“I just have a bad feeling about it.”
“Huh. Normally I’d be concerned about something like that coming out of THE Howard Weinerman’s mouth, but right now, honestly? Don’t really care.”
Howard scoffed, but Randy continued moving forward. Eventually, he shifted himself to his knees in front of the box, pulling it out. It was heavy- surprisingly so, to be honest. It didn’t seem like there was much in the box. There was no way… whatever this orange thing was could be that heavy, right?
He flipped the flaps on the box open, his brow only furrowing more as he looked at the contents inside of it. It really was only the orange thing- speaking of the orange thing, it’s appearance was… weird? It looked like the number 69, though flipped around to be horizontal. Randy wasn’t quite sure what it was. They looked like shackles of some kind? They had a chain attached to them, though it was broken.
…How odd.
Chapter 2: A Rest Atop Privileged Pages
Summary:
Randy and Howard accidentally manage to get the shackles they found inside of the Nomicon, and now Randy needs to go fix it. They're just hoping that nothing bad happens.
Chapter Text
“So, what is it? What was SOOO important that you decided to completely ignore my warning about it?”
Randy was the one who wasn’t replying now. And, unlike his friend before him, Howard wasn’t going to just sit around and let that happen. He got up, prancing over to the taller male. He was about to shake him, when he noticed what was in the box as well. He cocked a brow.
“What is that?”
“That’s what I’m trying to figure out.”
Randy huffed, setting the box down on the ground in front of him. He hesitated for a moment, before reaching his hands inside of it and resting them on the object inside the box. It didn’t hurt, no, but something about them made him immediately jerk his hands back, fall on his ass, and let out a small yelp. It was like SOMETHING shot through him. He didn’t know what that something was, but his chest just suddenly felt so heavy the second he made contact with the thing- it was kind of scary. Howard was caught off guard by the sudden brash reaction as well.
“What the cheese was that about, Cunningham?!”
“I don’t- I don’t know! I just- when I touched it I felt like I couldn’t breathe , Howard!”
“I TOLD YOU IT WAS A BAD IDEA!”
Randy sighed, sitting back up properly and glancing over at the box again. This had to be what the Nomicon wanted him to see, but for what reason? If it was just going to hurt him, he really wanted no part in it. Then again, in a way, that’s what being the ninja was, huh? Just getting hurt for the sake of other people-
Okay. Now he’s thinking too much about it.
But regardless, it was clear that there was something planned for these shackles… at least that’s what Randy was going to assume they were until he was proven wrong by something. He pulled the box back over to himself, staring down at the cuffs once more.
“You aren’t gonna touch it again right?”
…
“
Cunningham you’re not gonna touch it again, right?
”
“I’m pretty sure I have to touch it again.”
Randy ignored the protests that started to fall from his friend's mouth, reaching his hands inside the box. He was a lot more careful with time, going in gently to attempt to touch the strangely shaped irons. He closed his eyes and held his breath as his skin made contact, however, this time there was no reaction. He opened his eyes again after a moment, focusing on his hands and letting out a sigh of relief. Though when he tried to pull it out, he struggled a bit. HOLY SHIT THESE THINGS WERE LIKE A THOUSAND POUNDS!
After a lot of huffing and puffing, he finally managed to pull the things out of the box, narrowly avoiding dropping them directly on his foot. That would’ve sucked- having a broken foot and being the Ninja? Yeah, no way in hell that would’ve ended well at all! But it didn’t happen, so we can stop talking about that now.
..We?
Who the hell is we? It’s just Randy and Howard. Stop talking in the second person.
He stared down at the cuffs for a moment more, running his fingers along the surface. It was cold, a stark contrast to the appearance it gave. It felt nice, yet it still had a roughness to it that was hard to explain. Howard was just staring at him now, he could feel it, and yet he didn’t address. It felt.. Weirdly comfortable touching the things? Not that he would want to wear them, no, that seemed like a bad idea, and even he could see that, but they were just… nice. Or at least Randy thought that until he pulled his hand away and noticed it caked in blood. Bright red blood- it didn’t seem human. At least not like anything he’d seen before. When he tried to part his fingers, there were strings of the red liquid that fell between them. It took a moment for what he was looking at to properly register in his head, but…
In this situation, Randy is unashamed to say that he screamed.
He started wiping his hand on his pants frantically, trying to get the blood off of him, though as he looked at his hands again he realized that it was just… gone? There wasn’t a stain remaining, not on his hands or his pants. He was hyperventilating now because, seriously, WHAT THE FUCK WAS GOING ON?!
“CUNNINGHAM!”
The shout took him out of his thoughts, and he snapped his head over to the ginger. If teachers didn’t know there was anybody in this closet, they certainly did now - they just had to hope that nobody actually bothered to come check. Though Randy figured they wouldn’t, the people in this school didn’t care that much if he was being completely honest with himself. They’d probably assume the Ninja would come deal with it!
And in a way, he kind of was. But that’s besides the point.
“What is WRONG with you?!”
“Howard there was- there was BLOOD! I-I saw blood! I swear there- I..”
He looked down at his hands again. They were shaking, but they were clean. Too clean. There wasn’t a single hint of blood on them. Nothing that would imply that what he just saw was real , and that wasn’t helping his panic and the pit of anxiety that was slowly creeping up and forming inside of his stomach.
“Alright, that’s it!”
Howard walked forward, staring at the irons that had been discarded on the ground. He bent down to pick them up himself, before he himself ended up falling on his ass, his eyes wide in… seemingly some kind of terror. And Randy knew exactly why.
A silence was held between them for a while. Slowly, the ginger looked over at Cunningham, his eyes remaining wide and blinking a few times. After a while, he looked back over at the red cuffs that remained on the floor. Even looking at them now made the pair of them feel a bit.. Ill. Clearly they were some sort of magic, and not the good kind either.
“Oh. Oh you weren’t lying. ”
“I told you.”
“We need to destroy these things.”
“What?”
Howard huffed, kicking the shackles at his feet into the corner of the closet behind the both of them where the Nomicon was located. The second that the shackles made contact with the Nomicon, however, there was a large flash of red light, completely
blinding
both Howard and Randy momentarily. They covered their eyes and huffed, rubbing them once the light disappeared.
The Nomicon looked different. The book had already looked odd before, but now it was.. Even more odd, wow Cunningham is really shit at describing things… There were new things on it. Swirls in a bright red color that seemed to glow so brightly that it was almost painful to stare at for too long.
“That’s not good.”
Randy bit the inside of his mouth. After another long while of staring, he eventually started crawling closer.
Again
. Howard was baffled, really.
When was this shoob going to say that enough was enough?!
He thought Randy being The Ninja was cool of course, but it was getting to a point man!
“You can’t be serious,”
“Hush.”
Randy held up a singular finger to try and tell Howard to quiet down as he picked up the book. This time nothing happened, which Randy was glad for. He adjusted his posture to lean against the wall, then looked over at Howard again. The ginger seemed baffled - appalled, almost - that Cunningham dared to tell him to shush, even if it was only for a split second. He didn’t think, personally, that it was really that big of a deal. But what did he expect from Howard? If he was being honest, he was.. Kind of a narcissist. But he wouldn’t admit that to his best friend out loud! He cared about the guy.
“I’m gonna try and shloomp inside the book,” He began to explain, giving the Nomicon a small shake for emphasis. “See if anything has changed. If anyone comes inside because of the scream, which you and I both know they won’t but on the off chance- tell them that you found me passed out in here while on the way to the bathroom. They’ll think that I just like, got sick or something because of the nurses note. Alright?”
“You must be severely mentally ill or just stupid, Cunningham.”
“Just stupid, I think!”
He hummed as though that statement was but the most casual thing in the world to him, taking a deep breath. Howard crossed his arms. He hated that fucking book- whatever made Cunningham happy, he supposed. He glanced away. Randy opened the book.
And just like that, he passed out.
Shadow_Storm_Of_The_Endless_Night on Chapter 1 Thu 15 May 2025 10:57AM UTC
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kittisaurous on Chapter 1 Mon 04 Aug 2025 05:33AM UTC
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Shadow_Storm_Of_The_Endless_Night on Chapter 1 Wed 06 Aug 2025 07:57PM UTC
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Shadow_Storm_Of_The_Endless_Night on Chapter 2 Sat 30 Aug 2025 08:02AM UTC
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