Toby walked down the street by himself, on his way back from school. Jim and Claire were having a date night, and Darci had to stay after to mascot for another game. He always told himself that he didn't mind the alone time, but that wasn't entirely true. He still remembered how just earlier that school year, he and Jim did pretty much everything together. They were still best friends, for sure, but it still stung a bit when he thought about how everything had caused them to drift apart.
To be fair, he'd almost lost Jim as a friend altogether, multiple times. They'd been in so many life threatening situations that he'd lost count of them. Jim was even going to move away from Arcadia, before that weird thing happened yesterday. Once Jim realized he could turn back into a human in the sunlight, he'd decided to stay in Arcadia and think things over. Jim said he planned on finishing the school year, at the very least, because it was so close to ending anyway. They all agreed that the decision to move had been too rushed in the first place. Toby was glad that Jim was staying, but was worried that whatever had happened might lead to something more dangerous.
Jim had said that he'd keep an eye out, but that the danger probably passed. Toby couldn't blame how Jim brushed it off so quickly - after all, they'd just defeated Gunmar and Morgana. There wasn't a big baddie left to fight. Toby still worried that something bad was coming, though. I mean, who attacks an entire city for an hour and then just leaves? What was the motivation behind it all? There wasn't even that much damage, or much of anything that was stolen, except for a bunch of cardboard boxes from the mailing company. That was another odd thing: why boxes?
As he was mulling this over, he walked by an alleyway, and it seemed to be growling at him. Toby stopped walking. Growling alleys are typically a bad sign, he thought. He pulled out his magical collapsable hammer, just in case it was dangerous in there, and went in.
"AH!" shouted a voice, further down the alleyway. It sounded like a human voice, so that was a good sign. Unless this was an evil human, or a changeling. Toby shivered, readying his hammer.
"I can't believe I have to deal with all this today! Can't I be a normal teenager who takes a normal walk home to his normal house and his normal parents? First, the ghosts, and now this thing! What are you, Thing?"
Toby squinted, trying to see who was speaking, but the shadows made the alley dark and hard to see in. It sounded like someone who was close to his age. But what was he saying about ghosts?
Suddenly a kid, - the source of the voice - backed up against a wall, coming into view. Toby hid behind a dumpster, worried about revealing the secret of trolls to this strange kid. He looked familiar… was he the guy Toby talked to in the gym? Danny something? He was definitely one of the new kids, that was for sure. Before Toby could think about it much longer, something small leapt at Danny, screaming "Waka Chaka!" Oh, so it was a goblin. A goblin was attacking this random teenager in an alley. Okay.
Wait, that's not okay, thought Toby, standing up and getting ready to fight. But before he could take a step forward, Danny yelled, "Okay, that's it! I'm going ghost, you - mangy… dog-thing!" Danny straightened out, getting into a fighting stance. Suddenly he was surrounded by glowing light, and his hair changed from black to white. His outfit had changed, too: now he was wearing a black, skin-tight jumpsuit with some kind of D-shaped logo on the front. Toby crouched back down, curious to see where this was going, but stayed ready to jump in if help was needed.
The goblin lunged at Danny again, and Danny seemed to just melt into the wall. The goblin grabbed for Danny in midair, but its fist held nothing, despite being able to reach far enough. Then Danny vanished the rest of the way into the wall, and the goblin charged after him, hitting its head on the wall and falling over. "I really don't have time for this," said Danny, materializing behind the dazed goblin. He pointed at the stumbling creature, and a green, glowing beam shot out of his finger, melting the goblin into a green puddle of goo. "Uh," said Danny, "ew. I hope that stuff is ectoplasm." He picked up his backpack, putting it on, and checked his phone. "Oh, crap! I've gotta get home!" he exclaimed, and flew off into the distance, not having noticed Toby.
Well, uh, thought Toby, that sure was weird.
Toby sat on his bed in his room upstairs, nervously waiting for Jim to pick up his phone. He wasn't sure what Jim and Claire were doing tonight for their date, but he thought they might want to know about what he just saw. There were so many questions burning in his mind, he wasn't sure what to do.
"What is it, Toby? Is it an emergency?" Jim's voice sounded a little annoyed. Toby wondered if he had interrupted something, but decided not to ask.
"Yes!" said Toby, in response to Jim's question. Words started spilling out of him faster than he could think them. "I just saw something really weird. One of the new kids, from Casper High - I think his name was Daniel or something - did something really crazy and I'm not sure what to do about it!"
"Woah, woah," said Jim, "how crazy are we talking?"
"Well, uh," said Toby, "I was walking home, and went past this one alleyway, and I saw Danny in there, and I thought 'that's weird, why would he be in an alley?' and so I went in to check and he was getting attacked by a goblin, Jim!"
"Wait, is this the same Danny that's in my Spanish period? Short, black hair, grumpy-looking?"
"Yeah, I think so," said Toby. "But that's not even the weirdest part! I was going to go help him take care of the goblin but before I could do anything he yelled something about ghosts and he changed, Jim! His hair turned white and his outfit changed and he like, melted into the wall-"
"He did what?" Jim interrupted. "He changed? Like, he's a changeling?" Someone else spoke on the other line, farther away from the phone, and Toby knew it must've been Claire, because Jim's voice got farther away, too, and said "One of the new kids might be a changeling… hold on, I'll ask." His voice got close again and he asked, "Did he look like a troll when he changed? Did you throw a Gaggletack at him?"
"No, I didn't," Toby said. It would've been good to test that, but it was too late now. He thought for a second. "He looked mostly like himself, I think. He didn't get taller, or have horns, and his skin looked the same. I think it was just his hair and his outfit. But you should've seen what he did! He disappeared into the wall, like, entirely, and then reappeared back in the alley and then he shot a green laser beam from his finger and the goblin just melted and then he flew away!"
"He-" Jim stuttered. "What? Does he have, like, wings? I can't process what you're saying right now, Toby." Claire spoke again, something about movies. "Uh, yeah, okay," replied Jim. "Look," he said to Toby, "it doesn't sound like there's a lot we can do about it right now. Our movie's about to start, so I have to go. When Claire and I get back, we'll talk about this as a group and make a plan on how to move forward with this together. In the meantime, sit tight. Don't try to talk to Danny about it, I'm worried about making things worse before we know more. See you later, Tobes." Jim hung up the phone.
"Bye," said Toby, to the dial tone. He flopped back on his bed and sighed. What was he going to do? Who was this Danny kid?
