"Okay," Dipper said, pacing back in forth while the Jake and the others sat at the table eating, "so how are you guys gonna do this? I mean, do you just go in with your freaky weirdo powers and knock this guy out or-"
"Hey," Danny protested, snapping into a sandwich, "we are not 'freaky weirdos'!"
"Right," Mabel said, rolling her eyes at the trio, "He turns into a giant lizard, he runs around in a skin tight bodysuit doing flips and swinging sword…" she stopped and looked Danny up and down "and aren't you're technically dead half of the time?"
Danny turned to her and started to argue, but was stopped by the realization that she was right. "Okay, yeah we're weirdos… but we're weirdos with a plan."
"You have a plan?" Randy asked, genuinely surprised that for once they weren't just blindly charging into action.
Danny nodded. "And here it is…we get help."
"I…I honestly don't know what I expected."
Jake hit his forehead in exhaustion at Danny's obvious statement. "Okay, but even if we do get help, which by the way, is a really big if now that everyone thinks we're dead, Vlad's pumped up on some serious magic now. I mean, the guy literally threw us through time!"
"I know, I know, but hear me out here."
All eyes were on Danny as he began outlining what needed to be done. "Okay, so we know that Vlad's got our cities under thumb, but who all is fighting back? You guys seen anything?"
"The last thing we saw was some video from New York, but…" Mabel paused and began rubbing her arm, a sign Dipper knew meant she was uncomfortable with saying what happened.
"It uh…it didn't end well for the guy fighting back."
Jake got quiet as he thought about Vlad trying to take on all of New York. "Wait…who exactly was fighting in when Vlad attacked New York?"
The seriousness in his tone caused Dipper to pause before answering. "Umm…some old blue dragon guy" he said, trying to recall the bit of news he'd seen "y'know, like you but more noodle-y."
"What do you mean when you say 'it didn't end well'?"
Sensing her brother didn't want to say anymore, Mabel pulled Wendy's computer from the front of the shop and opened it to the video player. As she typed out "New York Ghost Fight" in the search bar Dipper stopped her from hitting the enter key, their hesitation synchronizing. "Jake…I don't know if…"
"Show me," Jake said, his eyes turning reptilian.
Tentatively pressing the button, Mabel pulled up the video of Vlad during his assault on New York. For the first half of the video, things were relatively normal, Vlad made some long winded speech while the military evacuated the city and tried to take him down (relatively normal). But then, just as Jake was about to relax, a blue blur shot through the sky at Plasmius, knocking him into the New York sewers.
"Gramps…"
"Ha" Danny yelled, obviously delighted in Vlad's misery, "suck it, Plasmius!"
Randy took the opportunity to high five Danny, something Jake and the twins paid no attention to as the screen erupted in a fight. Claws and flames danced on the screen, clashing with ghostly plasma in the New York sky, and for each hit Vlad would land, Jake's grandfather landed ten more.
"He's…he's winning?" Jake asked incredulously. "He's winning! Kick his butt, G!" Instantly calmer, he began celebrating with Randy and Danny while the Pines twins continued watching the action on the computer.
'Maybe Mabel and Dipper just meant Gramps had got banged up a bit,' Jake thought as he recalled how strong Vlad was from the times they'd fought him in Amity, 'I mean, he's handled worse than Vlad before, right?'
The sound of explosions brought the boys attention back to the screen. Vlad stood alone in a mass of crumpled buildings and cars, covered in cuts and burns. However, instead of the green ectoplasm of ghosts or the red blood of the living, he bled swirls of gold and white which gave him the fitting appearance of a beaten and desperate god.
"What happened?" Jake said, grabbing the computer screen, "where's my grandpa? WHERE IS HE?!"
The others all became quiet, the joy of Lao Shi's momentary advantage over Plasmius gone. Intently watching the screen, they saw a crumpled blue dragon hanging partially through an overturned car. As if that weren't enough, Plasmius then proceeded to swagger over and pull the beaten old man from the vehicle, laughing as the people on the street discussed what was happening in panicked whispers.
"Well old man I'll give you this," Plasmius taunted as he cupped his face, "you put up a much better fight than that idiot grandson of yours."
Jake's grandfather responded, but it was too low for the camera to hear. Whatever he said though, Vlad obviously didn't like it, seeing as he drew back his hand in order to strike. However, Lao Shi moved too quickly and before Vlad could swing, he had opened his mouth and released a stream of fire into his face, blinding the psychopath. Vlad roared with anger, gripping the side of his face while at the same time slamming the old man into the rough New York pavement.
The video ended as Vlad grabbed the back of Lao Shi's head, revealing his bruised and bloody face to the people of New York like some kind of gladiatorial spectacle before his head was consumed in a violent gold light that left his body motionless.
Without a second thought, Jake took off running through the doors of the mystery shack and then transformed and took flight, his wings beating powerfully through the Oregon air.
No no no no…
With a silent understanding, Danny morphed and flew through the ceiling to catch up with Jake while Randy stayed with the twins inside.
"Jake!" Danny yelled, ignoring the pain in his abdomen from such sudden action, "Jake, stop!" Slamming into the massive dragon, Danny held Jake in a hard embrace as he thrashed and flailed to get free.
"Let me go Danny!" Jake roared and began breathing fire in a careless arch. "Let. Me. Go!"
Slashing the air with his claws, Jake raked across Danny's chest and freed himself. Turning on his friend, Jake inhaled and prepared to unleash a massive volume of fire until he noticed the green, shallow cuts that had appeared on his jumpsuit.
Now infuriated even more, Jake turned skyward and began screaming as waves of fire erupted from his mouth, his wings beating furiously as he turning in the flames. After a while, and seemingly exhausted from that sheer volume of fire produced, Jake seemed to just give up and transformed back in mid-air, falling like a meteor with no intent to stop.
Luckily, Danny was still right there, and when his friend decided to fall, he caught him, landing amidst the trees once again, this time with Jake as the one hurting.
"He burns for this, Danny." Jake said through the tears as burning leaves from the treetops began falling around them. "He doesn't get to walk away from this with just a few bruises a bumps from you, Vlad Plasmius is going down for this, and we make sure he stays down."
Reaching out to hug his friend, Danny said nothing as the last of the charred leaves floated to the ground, he only nodded grimly against Jake's anger filled tears.