Howard knew that they were in a bad situation as soon as his best friend ran off to be the hero the town knew him as. 'Don't mess this up, dude.'

The robot was big. Like, way bigger than the school, which it had just completely destroyed. The horn on top of it's head looked particularly sharp and it's fins looked like it could crush a small house. Maybe this thing was a rhino, or maybe it was a shark, Howard didn't know, but that didn't mean it was better one way or the other.

The Ninja sailed over the mountainous beast and slid down it's back, creating a large trail where his sword pierced the metal body. Howard could hear the Ninja laugh with misleading victory. Him, being at the backside of the robot, couldn't see it split apart into two sh-inos. When he did realize, he played it off as no big deal. He tried to make it seem as though it was half the trouble even though it was actually twice.

Howard cupped his hands and called up to the top of one of the robots. "Ninja this isn't a time for goofing off!"

He could barely see the Ninja peek over the edge like, 'What's up with him?'

The Ninja manages to cut both heads off of the robots and gracefully lands on the ground. The crowd begins to cheer for the Ninja and he takes the applause with fake bashfulness.

"Uhm, Ninja..." He looks over, and sees Howard pointing behind him. The headless bodies grew back their heads and the bodiless heads grew back their bodies.

The Ninja's eyes widened. "Whoa boy..." One of their claws came down to where the Ninja was standing and would've pierced through him had he not moved out of the way. He whipped out four of his boom balls and consolidated them all on one of the robots. It broke into a few pieces and then each piece just grew back the parts it was missing.

As they all jumped onto the Ninja, he did a backwards leap to avoid the attack. He landed near Howard. "Help I don't know what to do! Every time I destroy one of the robots it multiplies and you would think that because they are smaller that they are easier but they are so much harder to defeat and that one in the middle with the different color eyes is the absolute hardest to get to because of all the smaller ones attacking me and-"

"Ninja!" Howard yelled and slapped the half-covered face. "Focus."

He nodded. "Right, right. You're right. So, how do we defeat this... hydra, robot, thing?"

Howard shrugged. He actually felt fear. This was the first Ninja fight in which he had bad feelings. Something felt... wrong. He wasn't sure if it was this robot, because the Ninja had defeated things just as difficult. Maybe it was this day that was putting him off. Everything seemed so wrong.

"Howard!" He snapped his head up to see wide blue eyes staring at him desperately for his help. His voice just cracked. Maybe Randy felt it too...

A roar from one of the first two robots signaled that it was heading straight for them. The Ninja quickly grabbed Howard's arm and using his scarf, guided them to safety. Looking at the Ninja now, he knew that he didn't feel it.

"Howard... I have an idea..." the Ninja didn't look at him. He kept his eyes on all of the robots.

Howard scrunched his eyes together. "That doesn't sound very confident. It's a dumb idea isn't it?"

"Probably."

"But that's not going to stop you from doing it."

"Nope."

"What is it?"

The Ninja didn't answer. "Ninja?"

Still nothing. "Randy."

He turned towards Howard and sighed when he saw his friend's face. "Alright... you've seen Hercules?"

"Yeah..?"

"Well," The Ninja turned back to the squad of robots still wreaking havoc. "In the movie, Hercules went in the mouth of the Hydra and took it down from the inside. Maybe I could do the same."

"Okay," Howard seemed to consider it. "That was a dumb idea."

"No, no, it'll work," The Ninja gave him a quick look of confidence. "I'll go inside the big one in the back. It seems to be the leader because it's the only one with green eyes while the rest have red."

He looked ready to jump back into battle but Howard grabbed his arm. "That is a horrible, dumb, stupid idea. Things never work in real life like they do in the movies. We know. We've broken a bone or two trying to fly like Superman."

"It'll work." Randy gave him a smile, even though he knew his friend wouldn't see it under his mask. He was scared. More scared than he allowed himself to let on. He took it upon himself to give Howard confidence because he believed that it was his duty as a Ninja and as a best friend.

Making his way slowly through the robots, he eventually got close to the alpha hydra. Giving himself a boost off of a small bot that he had just broke down, he propelled himself upwards towards his target. Doing a flip or two in the air accidentally, he pulled his sword close to himself and dove straight into the gaping mouth as it prepared to roar at it's attacker.

Howard had to hold back a yell when he lost sight of his best friend inside the throat of a giant robot. He had to keep from running into battle. 'Randy will come back.'

After 5 seconds, Howard realized that he was breathing really heavily. After 10, he noticed all the other robots had stopped destroying and watched their leader. After 20, he saw a red spot forming in the front of the green-eyed robot. After 30, the robot realized that he was being burned and started to tear at its own guts, pulling apart the metal of his own body. After 45, the red spot had grown to cover most of the inner skeleton of the robot. After 50, Howard vaguely heard someone yell at all the bystanders to duck. After a minute, the robot exploded.

No. No... 'No.' "No... No! NO!" Howard ran into the smoke of the aftermath of the explosion. He refused to believe it. Where was Cunningham?!

Climbing his way over broken shells of the explosion domino effect, he searched for his lost friend. "Cunningham I swear you better be..." He couldn't finish his sentence. Better be what? Okay? Alive?

As most of the dust started to settle, people were starting to make their way through the metal scraps, also looking for the Ninja.

He just had to turn around. It felt as if he was in that part of the movie that is in slow motion with the sound fogged up and echo-y. Laying haphazardly on grass about ten feet away was a broken form. He held back a gasp and ran towards it.

Finally approaching it, he broke down and fell to his knees next to him. He didn't cry; couldn't make sense out of this. Didn't Randy say it would work?

The suit that once covered his body was torn to shreds and charred. Bruises covered most of the tan body and burns littered what wasn't bloody. The mask was still mostly in tact on his face. His eyes were closed. Howard very slowly slid his finger under the mask and slid it off the face of his best friend.

This was all wrong. Why was he face so peaceful? He looked like he got in a fight with a chainsaw and was then lit on fire, how on Earth could he look peaceful..? Minus his chin down, he looked as though he was sleeping; but Howard knew better.

Howard couldn't understand what happened. None of this made sense even though he saw it coming. This whole thing felt wrong and he was wrong to let the Ninja go. He was wrong to let Randy go.

He slowly slid down to lay next to Randy. He chest did not rise and fall like it usually did. His tyrian hair did not look normal covered in soot. This was all wrong...

"R-andy..." His voice cracked uncontrollably. He said his name over and over again but he did not get an answer. His sobs came out so choked he couldn't even tell if he was still pronouncing his words correctly.

He quickly sucked in a sob to say one more thing. "You said it would work."

...

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...

So, as you can tell, I've had a hard time trying to think of the 1 time that Howard couldn't watch Randy sleep. I've put a lot of thought into this... Should he be kidnapped? No, they're not together most of the time Randy sleeps, it has to be more meaningful. Maybe Randy's in a coma and the doctor's won't let Howard see him... Nah, lame. You can't watch someone sleep if they've burned to ashes... nah. Oooooooohhhhhh how about if I kill him. Howard can't watch Randy sleep if Randy's dead, hahahahahahaha! But then I thought, nah. This was very difficult for me to decide on... I had no one to consult, and only a fried brain to think for me. The more annoyed I got, the more I decided on killing Randy. So, I did. Thoughts?

Just a quick throw-in, does anyone else love reading fanfics about Ninja fights and see if the author calls Randy "Randy" or "the Ninja". I find it interesting. And especially if the author switches back and forth... Nuff said.

Oh, and this story is done. Completed. Finished. No longer going on. This was the last chapter. No more chapters. No sequels. No prequels. No in-the-mid-quels. Capisce?

Love ya'll! Sorry if this chapter made you hate me, I'll take it!