Skulking-Ninja-Armored-Clown-Spy Saga

The **Skulking-Ninja-Armored-Clown-Spy Saga** is the ninth *Brooding-Ninja-Highschool-Parkour-Scout* saga and features Skulking-Ninja-Armored-Clown-Spy as the main arc antagonist, as implied by the name. It ranks among the most acclaimed sagas by fans, who consider it to be, "better than the last season, the one with the Memeguy OC, what was that about" as well as "a good stool-softener."

Many are critical, however, of the way that Skulking-Ninja-Armored-Clown-Spy was reduced, over the course of the saga, from a complex, deep, conflicted villain to just another over-powered, megalomaniacal bad guy in a Halloween mask, and of how nearly every other Scoutling, even Zippy Danger and Rear Admiral Fights, became utterly useless in terms of matching power with the Hell Satans that Skulking-Ninja-Armored-Clown-Spy employed as nominally defeatable goons. That said, many fans also praise Brooding-Ninja-Highschool-Parkour-Scout's character development during this saga, as for once he actually *struggled* a little bit to achieve his goals. It is also the first saga where Chapstaniel is actually a recurring character due to Skulking-Ninja-Armored-Clown-Spy's history with him.

## Plot

While generally incredibly unclear it can safely be said that many episodes of the saga were focused on Brooding-Ninja-Highschool-Parkour-Scout and co. either chasing Skulking-Ninja-Armored-Clown-Spy or battling with his creations. A surprising amount of time is spent fleshing out Skulking-Ninja-Armored-Clown-Spy's backstory and character, and why he wants to destroy Matsubatsu Town. The following summary of the plot was grafted together from scripts stolen from Ultra Satan.

In the beginning of the saga Brooding-Ninja-Highschool-Parkour-Scout is messing around when he receives a call from Dengar Dangerous. After Brooding-Ninja-Highschool-Parkour-Scout translates the message Dengar sent in hyper profanity to English (obviously japanese in the sub) he learns that apparently a strange looking clown is coming out from some kind of summoning circle outside Dengar's apartment/shack. Dengar was asking for help due to his fear of clowns and Brooding-Ninja-Highschool-Parkour-Scout didn't really care much. However, an explosion launches Dengar from his shack towards Brooding-Ninja-Highschool-Parkour-Scout! As Dengar crashes face first through a wall and into a box of pretentious music DVDs, a powerful figure flies towards Brooding-Ninja-Highschool-Parkour-Scout. Here Skulking-Ninja-Armored-Clown-Spy reveals himself and states his plans and motivations for the remainder of the first episode where he is abruptly cut off. The next episode begins with several hours having passed as Skulking-Ninja-Armored-Clown-Spy tries to explain his powers, only to realize that Brooding-Ninja-Highschool-Parkour-Scout and Dengar had left a long time ago to go to school.

After this Skulking-Ninja-Armored-Clown-Spy proceeds to go on a rampage through Matsubatsu Town in retaliation. The Scoutlings respond but Brooding-Ninja-Highschool-Parkour-Scout and Zippy Danger weren't present so Skulking-Ninja-Armored-Clown-Spy easily defeats them. Retreating, the Scoutlings regroup and discuss about how they are going to defeat this new threat. Brooding-Ninja-Highschool-Parkour-Scout consults his father as well as Scout-Kenn on what the source of Skulking-Ninja-Armored-Clown-Spy's power is. They reveal that Skulking-Ninja-Armored-Clown-Spy's power comes from his time in MEGA-ULTRA-SATAN-HELL and that the only way to truly defeat him will be through harnessing powers equally deranged. Here the power technique of Hyper-Edge Mode is revealed as a potential way to defeat Skulking-Ninja-Armored-Clown-Spy.

After Skulking-Ninja-Armored-Clown-Spy finishes his rampage throughout the town he returns to MEGA-ULTRA-SATAN-HELL; Recognizing the power of the Scoutlings through his battle, Skulking-Ninja-Armored-Clown-Spy makes it his goal to destroy the Scoutlings first since their power would be the biggest threat to his plans. Due to the MacGuffin Muffins being missing Skulking-Ninja-Armored-Clown-Spy researched a new power source to use in order to destroy Matsubatsu Town. Skulking-Ninja-Armored-Clown-Spy then proceeded to seek out the The Smatfeb Objects in order to empower himself even farther. Also Skulking-Ninja-Armored-Clown-Spy starts to give monologues about his actions, whether or not they are right, and how the world could be a better place as justification for his actions.

As Brooding-Ninja-Highschool-Parkour-Scout begins training to master Hyper-Edge Mode, Skulking-Ninja-Armored-Clown-Spy goes out to El Olden Matsubatsu Town to find The Smatfeb Objects. Over the course of many episodes Skulking-Ninja-Armored-Clown-Spy finds all of the objects as the Scoutlings futilely attempt to stop him. And in the first example of a recurring gag, Brooding-Ninja-Highschool-Parkour-Scout leaves his training with his teachers to fight with his comrades and whine about how his teachers don't understand him, feeling self-pity about how he or his "friends" keep losing fights, and some other weird symbolic sequences about puberty and growing up that the writers threw in when they were feeling artsy. Despite the best efforts of the Scoutlings, Skulking-Ninja-Armored-Clown-Spy absorbs the power of half The Smatfeb Objects.

With newfound determination, Brooding-Ninja-Highschool-Parkour-Scout and co. set out to find and defeat Skulking-Ninja-Armored-Clown-Spy once and for all. After drawing out Skulking-Ninja-Armored-Clown-Spy by burning a portrait of spaghetti, the Scoutlings and Skulking-Ninja-Armored-Clown-Spy do battle. Eventually, Brooding-Ninja-Highschool-Parkour-Scout and Zippy Danger manage to drive Skulking-Ninja-Armored-Clown-Spy into the wilderness with the help of an unnamed ~~plot-device~~ item. However, while the gang chased through the woods after Skulking-Ninja-Armored-Clown-Spy, Skulking-Ninja-Armored-Clown-Spy found an antique store and haggled for the Red Demon Mask. Upon putting on the mask Skulking-Ninja-Armored-Clown-Spy became *Burning-Skulking-Ninja-Armored-Clown-Spy* and became even more powerful. Brooding-Ninja-Highschool-Parkour-Scout and co. are unable to defeat Skulking-Ninja-Armored-Clown-Spy in his new form and retreat. Here, Brooding-Ninja-Highschool-Parkour-Scout decided to leave to finally master Hyper-Edge Mode.

After returning to MEGA-ULTRA-SATAN-HELL Skulking-Ninja-Armored-Clown-Spy then created Metal-Brooding-Ninja-Highschool-Parkour-Scout using one of The Smatfeb Objects as he recognized that Brooding-Ninja-Highschool-Parkour-Scout was growing exponentially in power and could be a major threat in the future. Brooding-Ninja-Highschool-Parkour-Scout then attempted to do the same to Skulking-Ninja-Armored-Clown-Spy. Unfortunately Brooding-Ninja-Highschool-Parkour-Scout then realized that the didn't know how to build robots so he built a straw-man instead. Also Rear Admiral Fights betrays everyone again, what a shocker. Metal-Brooding-Ninja-Highschool-Parkour-Scout proves too much for the simple straw-man (never forget) and proceeds to blow-up several buildings with his metal powers. Brooding-Ninja-Highschool-Parkour-Scout then attempts to fight his metal counterpart but is unable to defeat him due Metal-Brooding-Ninja-Highschool-Parkour-Scout using his own less powerful version of Hyper-Edge Mode.

Frustrated at his repeated failures, Brooding-Ninja-Highschool-Parkour-Scout leaves his comrades to deal with Rear Admiral Fights as he attempts to master Hyper-Edge Mode full time (again). Here Brooding-Ninja-Highschool-Parkour-Scout undergoes the longest training montage in the series. After a couple ~~filler~~ episodes where Dengar comically defeats Rear Admiral Fights in a table flipping contest, Brooding-Ninja-Highschool-Parkour-Scout returns to finally defeat Metal-Brooding-Ninja-Highschool-Parkour-Scout as his metal counterpart had ruined Brooding-Ninja-Highschool-Parkour-Scout's "cool" reputation. During the long fight Brooding-Ninja-Highschool-Parkour-Scout and Metal-Brooding-Ninja-Highschool-Parkour-Scout discuss their likes and dislikes and realize that they actually could totally be friends. Due to this, they stop fighting and start talking about what they want to do with their new found friendship. They decide to prank Skulking-Ninja-Armored-Clown-Spy by going to MEGA-ULTRA-SATAN-HELL and messing up his spaghetti dinner. After they burned down all of the spaghetti production facilities Metal-Brooding-Ninja-Highschool-Parkour-Scout had a fatal heart attack and died. Brooding-Ninja-Highschool-Parkour-Scout was very upset at the loss of his friend and vowed to defeat Skulking-Ninja-Armored-Clown-Spy as well as to continue to never eat oranges. After Brooding-Ninja-Highschool-Parkour-Scout leaves Skulking-Ninja-Armored-Clown-Spy comes by and grumbles about his failed creation; Skulking-Ninja-Armored-Clown-Spy eats Metal-Brooding-Ninja-Highschool-Parkour-Scout remains to absorb the robot's powers, raising Skulking-Ninja-Armored-Clown-Spy by another couple power levels.

Brooding-Ninja-Highschool-Parkour-Scout takes his final exam to master Hyper-Edge Mode from Scout-Kenn but fails and dies. After this Brooding-Ninja-Highschool-Parkour-Scout is brought back to life (after an episode is spent reviving him) and repeats this process three more times. On the fourth attempt Brooding-Ninja-Highschool-Parkour-Scout managed to pass the exam. Having mastered Hyper-Edge mode Brooding-Ninja-Highschool-Parkour-Scout and co. face off against Skulking-Ninja-Armored-Clown-Spy once again. Skulking-Ninja-Armored-Clown-Spy's *Burning-Skulking-Ninja-Armored-Clown-Spy* form proves incredibly powerful and easily bests everybody except Brooding-Ninja-Highschool-Parkour-Scout and Chapstaniel (who was watching in the corner) . Eventually Brooding-Ninja-Highschool-Parkour-Scout and Skulking-Ninja-Armored-Clown-Spy fight their way to the Rooftops where Brooding-Ninja-Highschool-Parkour-Scout and Skulking-Ninja-Armored-Clown-Spy have a one on one duel. After activating Hyper-Edge Mode, Brooding-Ninja-Highschool-Parkour-Scout summons Football Master and Robot Jesus and bodies Skulking-Ninja-Armored-Clown-Spy who throws up the body of Metal-Brooding-Ninja-Highschool-Parkour-Scout as well as the Smatfeb objects after his defeat. Skulking-Ninja-Armored-Clown-Spy then respawns in the darkest depths of MEGA-ULTRA-SATAN-HELL and resolves that he needs even more power if is ever going to rise again. But just as the Scoutlings attempt to celebrate a new foe emerges...

## Trivia

* This saga contains the first appearance of Capn' Conga-Demopan, a beloved character by fans, who would go on to be featured on his own brand of sugary breakfast cereal, Capn' Conga's Delicious Nuggets™, despite being thoroughly dead by the end of the season.
* Many fans were surprised at Skulking-Ninja-Armored-Clown-Spy's character as he is one of the few villains in the series that actually justifies his actions with a better reason than "I'm going to take over the world because I can".
* During the exam Scout-Kenn often yelled taunts at Brooding-Ninja-Highschool-Parkour-Scout about how his father aced the test on his first try or how Chapstaniel learned everything in moments while Brooding-Ninja-Highschool-Parkour-Scout had taken days
* Chapstaniel spends most of this arc either explaining backstory, helping characters train, or explaining/reacting to powers during battle
* It is speculated by some that Skulking-Ninja-Armored-Clown-Spy didn't die in battle but rather died when his animator had a fatal heart attack and couldn't animate him anymore.
* Brooding-Ninja-Highschool-Parkour-Scout dies three times in the anime but only dies once in the manga. It is suspected that the extra deaths were a form of episode padding for Ultra Satan