Okay so this might get a bit confusing, but I'm going to be switching perspectives every third of this chapter- each perspective starts and ends at relatively the same time. Also, it's gonna be a longer chapter!
Let's do this!
(better than 5 months amiright?)
~Randy's POV~
Randy kicked the bright blue waves of the ocean, sitting on an ever-moving dock and watching a pair of samurai battle it out across the mass of water. Okay, well, the ocean might not have been an ocean, but rather a salt-water lake, but scenery technicalities didn't matter much in the nomicon.
"Nomicon, why are we losing so much all of the sudden?"
Randy blinked as the samurai suddenly stopped their fight, bowed, turned to a dragon, bowed once more, then all three turned to face some kind of boar monster. The teen sighed and kicked another wave, shouting in protest as a fish suddenly flew into his face.
"Hey!" Randy scrambled a bit, frantically pushing the fish away. As soon as his vision cleared, he fumed. "It's not that funny!" The samurai, dragon, and boar (who were all laughing at him) sharply turned and started their battle again.
Randy shot to his feet, pointing a finger into the sky accusingly. "I know you're trying to cheer me up, but if you can't follow up a fish with a pun, I'll just continue into my depths of sadness!"
"Unicorns, Pixies, and a cake walk into a town-"
Randy immediately shouted, frantically dissipating the assumingly terrible joke. "Nomicon, really." He huffed, slamming back into his sitting position, crossing his arms to the best of his abilities. He wasn't wearing his cast anymore, but he still had a wrist brace so it was awkward to perform some sarcastic moves.
The samurai across the lake/ocean/water caught Randy's attention. It frowned in a 'okay, fine. If that's how it is...' kind of way.
"What's-" The world collapsed in on itself, shifting from its mass of colors to white, then to black, and Randy's eyes shot open. "Thanks Nomicon! I feel so much better!" Randy shook his fist at the now-closed book.
"It's just a book Cunningham."
A look of surprise crossed Randy's face and he turned to Howard. "Wha-"
"Your parents let me in." Howard casually shrugged and reached to turn on the game console, snickering slightly.
"What's that snicker about?"
"Oh, nothing."
Another snicker.
"Okay, what did you do Howard?" Randy threatened, his blue eyes narrowing in suspicion as he stood up slowly.
"Nothing."
Okay, now Randy knew something was up. The teen cautiously walked to the bathroom after a moment's pause. A moment later, "HOWARD!" Randy bolted out of the room, shouting every possible enemy mob he knew from Grave Puncher 4! Now with more highly-requested graves!
Howard had drawn all over Randy's face while he was shloomped. How rude!
The biffer no longer denied his sin, his giggling turning into full-blown snort laughter.
"Howard! I'm gonna kill you!" Randy shouted, but after some chasing his angry expression formed into a grin. His tone changed to one of glee. "You'll pay for what you did! You jerk!" He cackled, tackling the other boy to the ground with little to no effort.
"Hey! Not fair! You can't use your strength on me!"
"Why not?" The mischievous question slipped into his joke.
"You're The Ninja! I'm just a mortal!" Howard slammed his hand on the ground, obviously overplaying it a bit; his smile being the real evidence against his words.
"Oh? Maybe a mortal shouldn't draw on The Ninja's face? Huh?" Randy ruffled Howard's ginger hair.
"Eh-"
"No roughhousing!" The two boys immediately stopped their actions, even if their giggling hadn't ceased. "Howard! Randy's hurt!"
"Yeah, yeah, okay, we'll stop Mrs. Cunningham!" Howard shouted back, looking up to Randy expectantly.
Randy sighed and stepped off of Howard.
"Feeling better Cunningham?"
The ninja blinked, thinking for a moment. "You know what? Yeah, I am feeling better."
"Good, because without you what would happen to Norrisville?"
"It'd probably be taken over by stank'd kids." Randy lightly punched Howard in the arm, who immediately went to rub it as if Randy had broken his shoulder.
"Exactly. So, this job is your job... Well, yours, Danny's, and Jake's." There Howard went again, speaking wisdom Randy didn't know existed.
"... What if we fail again?"
"You won't."
"But-"
Howard gave Randy a knowing look. "You won't because you've already failed enough."
~POV to Jake~
Jake soared through the skies, basically just flying in loops. He had seen Danny doing the same, but the dragon had carefully avoided the ghost boy. He knew that everyone wanted their own space for now. Jake frowned, stopping his flight for a moment. He floated down to the rooftops, shifting into his human form before sitting down and unzipping his coat, lifting his shirt off on his shoulders. He was pretty confident that no one would come the the roof of this building, so he felt no shame in it.
Jake took a sharp breath and removed the bandages on his shoulder. It was still there. Jake let out a huge sigh and let his hands fall to the floor. He didn't even care that his knuckles complained about the sudden impact. The dragon looked to the sky, "why?"
"Well, it was pretty nasty."
Jake leapt several feet in the air, frantically falling into a karate stance he wasn't sure worked or not.
Spud raised his hands in a clear defeat.
Jake's eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "How...?"
"Jakey, we're your best friends, how could we not know where you are?" For a moment Jake thought the sass was coming from Spud, but a quick second glance showed that Trixie had stepped out from behind the beanie kid. "Besides, you're not the stealthiest lasagna out there."
Jake shook his head at the joke, collapsing back onto the roof in disappointment, taking up the classic criss-cross-applesauce pose. "But... Danny and Randy didn't get a scar."
Trixie clicked her tongue and walked over, tossing Jake's previously abandoned skateboard nearby. "Now you're just complainin' man." She sat next to Jake, Spud close behind.
"Complaining?" Jake gestured to the good 2 inches by 7 inches of scar on his shoulder. Half of its length was on the front, the other half on his back.
Trixie laughed a slight bit. "Well, at least your buddy didn't give it to you."
Jake rolled his eyes. Randy's shuriken had caused the scar in the battle with the Huntsman. He knew that Trixie was using sarcasm, but surprise surprise, sarcasm sometimes didn't help with emotional problems. Jake's expression changed as the memories of the fight with the Huntsman flooded back. Jake flopped onto his back, not minding the cold cement of the roof on his skin. He sighed. "Trix, Spud, I wasn't able to stop the Huntsman from taking the Unicorn's horns. Gramps and Fu weren't able to stop him from taking the pixies."
"So?"
"So?!" Jake whipped up and faced Spud.
"It's not like it's the end of the world right?" The male teen shrugged. "The pixies coulda gotten away."
"Spud's right Jake! What if they got away?"
"I doubt it." Jake sighed again and flopped back to the sky. A small smile took over his features. "At least the scar is pretty rad." Always the jokester.
"Heh, yeah." Trixie nodded, laying down next to Jake's right; Spud on his left.
Silence passed between the friends before Spud spoke up again.
"But you know, I haven't heard about tiny people on the news yet."
It was an off-comment. Probably something that didn't mean much to either Trixie and Spud. But to Jake, something clicked.
"No, there hasn't been." Jake slowly sat up, as if he had discovered something huge. "That means... Maybe there is still hope!" The dragon's face lit up.
Trixie clapped Jake's back, much to his chagrin. "There ya go! That's the Jakey we know."
Jake nodded absent-mindedly, his mind already beginning to work. If he didn't know better, he felt like Danny did every other day. Maybe that's how the ghost was good at keeping himself in line and not bursting out. Well, at least, not as much as he should with all the stress he deals with.
"Maybe... Maybe they need the pixies for something..." Jake muttered, only to have his thoughts knocked out of him at a slap on the back from Spud. The kid didn't know how to control his own strength sometimes.
"Yeah maybe!" Spud's goofy grin distracted Jake from continuing his line of thought.
Jake broke out laughing, surprising both Trixie and Spud in the process.
Spud was looking at him like he was an alien. Which, you know, dragons... Aliens... Same difference right? "What's so funny? Do I have something on my face?" Spud then went to rub his face to see if anything was wrong.
Jake could only cackle more, flopping onto his side.
"Yo, you okay bud?" Trixie leaned down, searching his eyes for some tell-tale sign of crazy.
"Yeah, Yeah-" Jake took a breath, wiping the tears from his eyes as he sat back up. "You know, having friends like you two is awesome."
"We couldn't ask for a better friend either Jakester." Trixie's eyebrows moved in the their usual position: one above the other with a mischievous smirk. "Having a dragon for a friend is super awesome too."
"Really though... Do I have something on my face?" Spud panicked.
Jake shook his head slowly and stood up, picking up his shirt. "Nah Spud, you look great."
Trixie's face formed disgust. "Great? Maybe after a change of clothes."
Jake slowly shook his head, pulling his shirt on and taking a deep breath of the air. Maybe having a scar wouldn't be too bad. Especially since it looked kind of cool. "You know what?" Jake turned to Spud and Trixie, his hands on his hips as he regained his confidence. "I should thank Randy. Then, after that, we'll go kick some Huntsclan tail!" He grinned.
~Danny's POV~
The halfa huffed some breaths, a flash of red catching his eye for a moment. Danny paused his flight and made awkward eye contact with Jake before the dragon flew off in a different direction. For a moment the ghost boy paused, something looked off about his shoulder... Was he still hurt? Danny sighed, shaking his head. "It's my fault." He muttered to himself, the old habit kicking in as he processed the words that Lao had spoken.
A pixie village... 10? Wasn't 10 a bit too specific of a number? Something like 18, 21, 12, or even 3 would be more likely for a quick grab.
Danny's thoughts broke off as he realized what he was doing. He was trying to think things through again. The halfa took another large breath and floated down, landing and changing into Fenton. There was nothing wrong with thinking, but he knew that he often over thought things that upset him.
"Vi scias, ke ne estis tre sekreta. [You know, that wasn't very stealthy.]"
Danny rolled his eyes and faced Sam and Tuck, two friends he hadn't spoken to in what feels like forever. "Sam you know I can't speak Esperanto right?"
"But you can understand it!" The 'understand' was emphasized as Tucker pointed in a meaningful manner. "That's what matters!"
"Well yeah, I had to learn some stuff because of Wulf." Danny smiled lightly, rubbing the back of his neck. Again, a habit he had lost until recently.
Sam walked closer and grabbed his arm, pulling it away from his neck. "Danny, you've got to stop worrying so much."
A classic line from the goth. The teen's arm went back to his side as she let go. "Yeah, but I just can't help it! We still don't know what Vlad and the others are up to... All we really know is that they're teamed up and plotting stuff."
"That's what they're always doing Danny." Tuck smirked, repeating what Jake and Randy said often to him. "Besides, you always stop Vlad before the world explodes, so we're all good."
"Yeah, but still." Danny rubbed his wrist, every time he had fun something bad happened. So, he had just learned to have fun planning and figuring out things so that nothing bad would happen to those who he cared about.
"Come on, we're gonna watch a movie." Sam smirked and grabbed both boy's wrists, turning them to the conveniently placed theater.
"Convenient." Tucker commented, "But it would be more fun at Sam's place."
"Would it?" Danny asked.
"Totally! It's huge! The acoustics in her decked-out basement are awesome. All the latest sound tech and everything."
"But Tuck, the theater is right there!" Sam was obviously flustered at the compliments, the tell tale sign being her abandonment of their wrists and an over-the-top motion towards said theater.
"Really? Maybe we should go to Sam's then." Despite knowing that Sam was rich, Danny hadn't actually been in her house yet. Yes, even to this day he hadn't stepped foot in it. Maybe he should though, since it was one of the few houses he hadn't been sent flying through. Maybe it was protected or something. Danny then imagined Sam sitting on her porch with a 'ghosts beware' sign and chuckled.
"He laughed!" Tucker practically shouted, pointing accusingly towards Danny.
"What? When?" Sam paused her outburst, turning owl-eyed.
Danny just blinked, the linger of a smile on his face.
"Oh! He did!" Sam grinned, throwing her hands up into the air. "It's a miracle!"
The halfa rolled his eyes, his friends were such dorks. "I wouldn't call it a miracle."
"But Danny, you haven't laughed for a long time! Even at the lake your laughs weren't real."
"What? Those were totally real!" Danny stiffened, retaliating.
Tucker walked over and placed a hand on Danny's shoulder. "You have a lot to learn buddy."
"About what?" Danny's voice flattened.
"Why, the difference between a real and fake laugh of course!" Tucker then laughed, "That one was fake- Sam, do something funny."
The goth didn't miss a beat and reached over to pinch Tucker.
"OW! That's wasn't funny!" Tuck rubbed his arm, eyeing the laughing Sam.
"I think it was hilarious."
"Let me guess, that one was real?" Danny pointed to Sam, his dry half-smile returning. "Sounded the same to me."
"Danny, Danny, Danny." Sam chided, placing her elbow awkwardly on his shoulder. "Look at you having fun. You sure you should be having fun right now?" She raised an eyebrow.
Danny's chipper mood rocketed into the core of the earth. What Sam said was right. He needed to get himself together and think about the situation.
"Aw, come on Danny, you know Sam was kidding right?" Tucker caught Danny's icy eyes. "You should have fun! People can't be serious all the time you know."
"Oh yeah, how do you know that?" Sam refused to remove her elbow despite the height difference making it look really awkward.
"Sam, I have the internet."
"And everything on the internet is true, huh?"
"Of course!"
"Danny, what I'm trying to say is that having fun is fantastic, and you should have fun, but you're also a member of The Secret Trio. And let's be honest; Randy's going to get beat up and Jake is going to deal damage." Sam poked Danny in the chest. "But you? You're the one that will make sure the job is done and make those two shine. Sure you may not have as much raw power as Jake, or have bones of steel like Randy. But, you have a magnificent brain. Besides," Sam removed her arm, making Danny shift slightly. "We know that you love to make plans and figure stuff out. Don't force yourself to do something you don't want to do. Whether that be losing a battle or going to a party. Just be yourself, okay?"
The halfa just stood there for a moment, his mood rising a bit somehow. How did Sam manage to do that?
"I was totally going to say that too." Tucker commented in the silence, earning a scoff from Sam.
"Thanks guys." Danny smiled, for real this time. "I don't know what I'd do without you two and Jazz."
"Eh, probably flop over and wallow in your own pity."
"Naw, I think he'd follow his hero complex and save people."
"Why not both?" Sam shrugged, waving an arm. "Let's go find Jake and Randy."
This time, I had the chapter finished soon after the last post, but for some reason I didn't like it that much... I still don't honestly, but whatever!
I found what I don't like, but... I'm gonna keep it because, well, it needs to happen and yeah... Sorry if the Jake gang sounds outta place ehheh... But yeah, thanks for the R&Rs! I'll try to have the next chapter out in a timely manner so hopefully 2 months isn't too bad of a wait...? [coughs]
Congrats to WhiteScarletRose! You guessed it! Loguetown is from One Piece! 8D [holds out cookie] here ya are!
Also I apologize for not... responding to reviews like other authors do. I feel really bad about it, and I totally would reply to every one of your amazing comments, but... I don't think I want to put the responses in the stories and PMs are... Weird? I donno, it seems odd to me. However! I 100000000000000x10^infinity percent adore every single one of your reviews! You the audience fuel my fire and make me want to write more. So... Thank you so much. Til next time!
