Howard's POV

"Where is she, Cunningham?" I thought out loud to my best friend as we lounge in his room, "Do you think he's holding her hostage? Or something?"

(Y/n) (L/n) has been missing for two whole days, and today's the third but it's no mystery who the kidnapper is. It's Mcfist. After the Nukid Incident, Randy (being the ninja) ran after the aircraft. I know I don't usually show it but, that day, I felt dread crept up in the pit of stomach. He didn't come back until later that night causing him to miss the rest of school. I was in his house, waiting for him at that time. He looked so defeated and tired. When I asked where (Y/n) was, he completely pushed me out of his room, and demanded not to ask him about this. I did what he asked, and tried to understand the situation. The next two days, a rumor spread around that (Y/n) went back to where she was, which is her home planet, somewhere in space.

I felt somewhat disturbed that not many didn't really care or search for her. This just shows and Randy and I are the only ones who care. I mean, it's not like they know what really happened. I couldn't help but think If they knew what had happened, would they act differently?
I know she's an alien but she doesn't deserve this. All of this.

Now, we were supposed to do our math homework but we ended up playing grave punchers. No surprise there. When he didn't answer, and when I noticed his player not punching graves causing us to lose the game, I paused it and decided to face him.

"Dude?" My eyebrows furrowed together as I notice the expression on his face. It's a first for me to see him have such a blank stare towards... the floor? His eyes were wide with fear and guilt along with dark lines beneath, obviously not sleeping at night. Oh juice, I shouldn't have said that. I felt guilty about thinking all of that stuff out loud.

I drop my controller, and put my hand on his shoulders then squeezed it for comfort, "Hey, I'm sorry about that. I'm sure you did everything you could. I mean, you aren't the one to just give up a fight, right?"

He laughs monotonely then shrugs, still looking on the floor, "Yeah, I guess."

I know I shouldn't have asked, but curiosity got the better of me and I think I deserved an explanation since I am... somewhat a best friend of (Y/n). That's an enough and acceptable reason right?

I gulped, "Did you really not see her anywhere? that night?"

His jaw ticks and his head turns away from me, "Howard, I told you not to bring this up."

"Dude," I calmly started, "It's been two days. Don't you think I deserve to know what really happened? I'm.. her friend too, you know." I waited for answer, and hope that everything I said made sense. There's suddenly this change of atmosphere wherein I felt like what he's going to say next is going to be intense. Silnce came over as well until...

"I don't know."

This sentence left a sour taste in my mouth. The way he said it makes me want to ask more, like how could he have such a monotone voice?

I squint my eyes at him, "What do you mean you don't know?" I thought that my tone had been calm, but hearing it now, it just came out as a desperate need for an answer as fear slowly crept up on me. Two days I've waited, and now he's saying doesn't know..?

"It's... I'm not.. just-" Randy pauses, still looking away. He lets out a sigh, a sign he gave up trying to explain, "I don't know."

"I'm not in the mood for jokes, Cunningham," I warned him as silence fills the atmosphere. Realization hits me when he didn't confess that it's all a joke and has been avoiding my gaze.

This time my jaw ticks. I'm done being patient at this point because then, I grab him vigorously by the shoulders with both of my hands forcing him to face me, "What do you mean you don't know?!" I repeated, sending a message that I wanted answers, now.

Randy's face was in complete shock as it was clearly an unexpected action that he'd expect from me. His head turns once again to the side, avoiding my firey gaze. Now, I was pissed.

"Cunningham, look at me," I tried my best to sound calm. I've been best friends with Randy for as long as I can remember, and when he ususally acts like this, he did something wrong and doesn't want to admit it. When he didn't look and just closed his eyes forcefully in response, I repeated the same sentence.

"Look at me, and tell me what happened, Randy!" I roared in anger, barely containing my rage from inside. Before I could shout at him again, he faces me, eyes full of guilt, then shouts back something that made me loosen my grip on him.

"I let them take (Y/n) away!"

Boy, good thing Mrs. Cunningham went out for the rest of the afternoon cause if she heard her son right now, she'll erupt in a panic mess.

"What?" I breathe out, staring at him with complete confusion and disbelief, "You, let them..? Are you stupid?! You're the honkin' Ninja! How could you?!"

The past two days, he's always left  school early and come back late at night or even early in the morning cause from what he said before, he's trying to get (Y/n) back. If he let them take her away, then it's all a lie isn't?! If it is a lie, then what was he doing all this time when he's away?! I silently hope that he'd be able to answer my question as I look at him demanding for an explanation.

Randy lools away and refuses to make eye contact, "When Viceroy took (Y/n) out of the container unconcscious, she started... glitching all of a sudden. As if she's got a virus- not a virus from a computer, but like she's out of her form. It scared me, seeing her like that, again. I only see her.. glitch out like that when she's either terribly tired or scared, or sometimes both. Anyway, as I was about to take (Y/n) away from him, he managed to convince me that he's going to make her better. That it's wise to let him take her and study her. That she'll be safe in his hands. I think he saw right through me as he promised that he'll prevent the glitching from ever happening again... and I trusted him."

The truth finally came out and instead of the heavy feeling in my chest to disappear, it weighted even heavier as if cement blocks have been placed on top of my chest. I blinked, completely speechless from his explanation as I sat back down, and stared at him signaling him to continue, if there even was more to explain. Yelling at him for doing such a thing won't do anything good. It'll only make the situation worse than it already should be.

"Every fiber of my being wanted to say no, believe me," He shot me a very convincing look that he didn't mean for anything terrible, "but you didn't see her glitching, then started groaning in pain while she was unconsious. I don't even know if she knows that this is happening to her, and that part just froze me on spot, as if I'm not terrified already. Considering that he's some kind of scientist, I agreed to his offer. The next thing I knew, she was put into an observation room. Viceroy even said I was welcomed to watch and keep an eye if things got out of hand."

He sighs deeply before continuing and looks as if he his own words are leaving deep cuts on his skin, "I didn't know what I agreed to until yesterday that I saw what he really meant by 'study and take care' of (Y/n)."

"Let me guess, he hooked her into some kind of metal examintion table?" I glared at him, and it was only meant to scare him for what he has done, but as he slowly nodded, my glare turned to a worried one.

"I didn't expect anything at the first day, because all he did was question her. But yesterday he..." Randy breathes out, trying to get the words out of his mouth, "He strapped her limbs on the table and then electricuted her, and let those robo-apes beat her up just to test what she might do, expose her to either really warm or freezing temperatures, and... other scientific expiraments he could think off, but of course, he didn't let her die. He was constantly healing her as well with some kind of drink he made, then expirament on her later on, and it just repeats from there."

I couldn't imagine what she's even feeling right now or... what Viceory might be doing to her. No wonder he didn't want to talk about it. Suddenly, I noticed something wonked up about my best friend's explanation. Something was off. How did Randy know all these things? He must've put up a fight before all the expiraments happened right?

And so, I asked him.

"I know all of these because..." Randy closes his eyes as if he could still see the memory flash before him, "I was forced to watch every second of it."

I made no comment, but I did wonder why he picked the word 'forced'.

He pauses once more and opens his eyes, "I came by that afternoon and when he finally explained what he wants to do with (Y/n), I was ambushed and caught off gaurd. I was forced to a chair with metal clamps on my wrists and legs then was put infront of her room, forced to watch the torture she had experienced. Her painful screams and pleads were all I could hear and there wasn't anything I could do back then. I also realized that they knew I'd be back and it was all a trap to lure me in. And just before they could get their filthy hands on the ninja mask, somewhow, I escaped. But I know they'll be expecting me again, because I didn't have the chance to rescue her that night."

I was speechless once again. I didn't know what to feel. Anger? Hatred? Pity? Heartbroken? I wasn't so sure until uncomfortable silence fills up the room, which is erased within seconds, because then Randy starts to rant of how he could've done literally anything or at least tried, and how he wasn't worthy of being the ninja for doing such a thing, then he ends with a shout and a broken voice saying, "It's all my fault, Howard!"

I just looked at him with a blank stare. Randy clearly regretted and wanted everything to desperately change.

"Oh yeah, it's all your fault," I agreed with a nod, my tone clealry irritated. He just looks to me, not expecting what I've just said, "What? Do you really think I was going to say that 'oh no, don't blame yourself' ? or 'It's not your fault!' ? " I stated with my voice high pitched as I was saying exmaples.

Before he could say a word, I quickly cut him off, "If you think I was going to say that, then clearly you've forgotten I'm Howard. No one can really pin this on anyone, not Mcfist, not Viceroy, but you. You're at fault for this. No excuses. Honestly speaking, I'm so mad at you right now," I pause looking at him to see his expression. His eyes were off me and his face is written with guilt and shame.

"I'm mad at you, not because for what you've done, but for what you should be doing, right now." His head jerks up and looks confused, "Look, I know I'm not the type who'd give you advice for everything cause that's just plain wrong," A grin appears on his lips upon hearing those words, "Geez, I know it's cheesy, but literally anyone can make mistakes. Even heroes, in this case, the ninja isn't exempted. For what it's worth, the only thing that matters is what you're doing now to make it right."

Randy blinks with complete shock, not expecting me to be wise and all but little did he know I just read that from a magazine somewhere and good thing I did, "So, in other words, just put your mask on, get out of here and honkin' rescue her already! Make it up for her!"

He cracked a smile and put on his mask and then, he thanked me for being his best friend and for being Howard. I'm not quite sure if the last one is meant to be a compliment or an insult, but I let it go, for now. I squint my eyes at him in response, "Don't you dare come back later at night and call me your best bud if you don't have her when you do come back, alright?!"

"That won't happen, I promise," The Ninja said under the mask, and I could just imagine a smile as he said those words. He waved and then proceeded to jump off his own window while I went back to playing grave punchers and silently hope that they'll arrive soon, safe and sound.