Last time on TST:

"We have news oh great one!"

"Please, The Sorcerer is enough of a title for me." The Sorcerer huffed and turned to face McFist's green-tinted mug.

"We're getting closer to our end goal. We only have a few more ingredients left."

"Is that all you want to tell me?" The Sorcerer's eyes flared slightly. "I'm still not over you throwing that... girl into the plan."

...

Jazz's teal eyes widened in fear as Jake appeared on the grainy, black-and-white recording. He glanced around, then sullenly called forth his dragon form. The black-haired boy didn't even say his catchphrase... Not even a replacement was muttered under his breath.

And now, we continue...


~POV to Randy~

Randy took a deep breath. Ah, what a fine Sunday morning it was. The purple-haired teen was doing his morning rounds of the city. Honestly though? He was kind of doing a sloppy job. What he really wanted to do was meet up with Danny and Jake. He narrowed his eyes and cursed at the sun. "Why haven't we exchanged phone numbers yet?"

"Uh, maybe because my phone's broken."

Randy whipped his head to the side, flailed to a standing position, and drew some trusty shurikens. His heart beat for half a second, then his form relaxed. "Wow, Danny, don't do that, like, ever please."

The ghost boy laughed at the comment, lightly landing on the roof. "Hey, I am a ghost. Kind of my job." He quickly stuck his tongue out.

"Oh har har." Randy rolled his eyes. The ninja then walked back to the edge of the roof, content to sit and hang his legs over the edge.

"Woah, hey, aren't you afraid you'll fall?"

"Hmm?" Randy glanced down the skyscraper, a smirk forming on his face. "Nah, why, are you?"

"What? Psh, no." Danny made an over-the-top gesture and joined the superhero's dangerous seating choice.

"So what's up?" Randy glanced over to Danny, sharply remembering the last time the trio talked. It seemed like forever ago, but really, it was just the day before. Kind of put stuff into perspective.

"Eh, I just wanted to say I'm sorry to you guys. I'm not really the best of friends. I mean, most of my plans end up with you two getting hurt-"

"How many times do we have to go over this Danny-"

"-But I do appreciate your friendship. I really do."

"Aw man, I'll get all teary yo."

This time both Danny and Randy flinched, readying their respective weapons. For the second time in the past five minutes Randy rolled his eyes.

"Jake, really, I was just telling Danny not to do that."

"How do you even stay that silent?" Danny blinked, owl-eyed. He seemed more impressed than anything else.

Jake clicked his tongue, tossing Randy some finger guns. "Thanks for the scar by the way."

Baffled, silence fell between the trio.

It was the dragon's turn to roll his eyes. He quickly turned human and maneuvered his shirt. Not a moment later Jake revealed the massive scar along his shoulder.

Fear jumped through Randy's brain, a million thoughts running through his mind. He then gasped, his voice suddenly shaky. "Was that... With the unicorns... And Huntsman?"

Jake nodded, the smallest of grim tones. "Eh, it looks cool though, so it's no biggie. Besides, what's a hero without a scar huh?" He snickered, plopping to the roof on his stomach. "So Danny... What's made you go all mush on us, hmm?"

Randy jerked his sight away from his friend, not sure how to feel about the emotions that stirred in his gut.

"Oh, uh, nothing... Just... Thinking about... I donno, how things could be worse." Randy glanced over momentarily, quickly noting Danny's rubbing of his wrist.

"What, like how Vlad and them are schemin' somethin' we don't even know about yet and could be just 'bout done with it?" Jake swapped the hand that propped his head up.

A heavy sigh escaped the halfa.

~POV to Huntsman~

The heavily armored man half heartedly glanced over at Vladimir Plasmius as he sneezed, grumbling about catching a cold. Huntsman elected to ignore the mutters, instead turning his attention back to the gizmos in McFist's labratory. Oh, sorry, Viceroy's laboratory. A green-tinted static-filled video rolled its course on the unnecessarily large flatscreen proudly before the criminals.

"Hmm. It's not that bad of an angle on you there Huntsman." Viceroy quipped from the keyboard, scrubbing through the video to find clues.

The crew had met up minutes ago to discuss what was needed next. They were so close to victory. All that was left was to carefully plan out the final steps of their plan. The only problem? It seemed like no one wanted to take orders anymore.

"Why do I have to fetch the troll nails again?" Plasmius huffed from his position against the wall.

"Because Huntsman got the pixie wings and McFist is a nitwit." The Sorcerer brought a creepy, mummified hand to his forehead and sighed.

The huntsman briefly wondered if an undead could get a headache. Then shook his head. Why should he care? The sorcerer was just a tool to bring the demise of the magical realm.

"Yeah, okay, sure, but I just got the vanilla." Vlad was starting to sound less like a villain and more like one of their whiny adversaries.

"How many times do we have to go over this-" The sorcerer momentarily removed his hand from his forehead to motion slowly, matching the pace of his tone. "Huntsman does the labor intensive work, McFist distracts and does... whatever it is he does. And you do reconacense."

"Going to the grocery is hardly reconacense."

Huntsman couldn't help the smirk that took over his expression at the remark. Absently he tapped the bottom of his staff on the floor, anxious to finally be rid of these idiots. Well, save for Vladimir. The ghost was crafty. Huntsman could appreciate crafty. He shifted silently, glancing towards the sorcerer.

"Patience Plasmius. Soon I'll be free and you can get your piece of the world." A downright malicious grin crossed said sorcerer's features, the stringy muscles in his face doing little to ease the evil.

"Yes, a piece." Vlad muttered his words, still rather miffed about the whole situation. He then pushed off the wall. "I'll be back."

"Fine. Call me when you find something." The abrupt order and flash of green signaled the Sorcerer's exit from both the conversation and the room.

With that, the Huntsman and Viceroy were left in each other's silent company. The only indication of life buzzed from the TV, whose volume was set to its minimum. Huntsman's eyes narrowed as the scientist scrubbed through the feed, intently staring at each detail, trying to find something that they had missed. The Huntsman's grip tightened as time went on, his jaw setting ever so slightly as both parties remained absolutely silent. Blood red eyes narrowed as the graininess of the video seemed to only get worse. Soon enough even the stupid apes were shuffling their rubber-padded metal feet.

A deep, guttural growl sounded from the conqueror of the hunt, his staff hitting the floor one last time. "This video tells us nothing." Even the scrubbing of the video stopped at the statement, the entire room burnt with impatience and disappointment. Bitterness set his form, his shoulders carrying steel. One last grind of his teeth and the Huntsman sharply pivoted towards the door, his words leaving the room empty.

Footsteps echoed in the busy halls as Huntsman stomped out of the meeting, steaming at the ineptitude of his peers. He could only tolerate so much. The man took a deep breath, attempting to calm his stature as he walked, unwinding his hands from the metal on his staff, his knuckles intermittently shifting from stretched to relaxed. All amusement had dissipated from his eyes- instead replaced with a dangerous dance of cruel joy as an idea flashed through his mind. The huntsman stepped into the elevator of McFist's building, a grin splitting his face, showing straight through the bone mask he wore.

A carefully crafted plan huh?

Maybe he knew just the guy to help him win the world. Someone he respected, but knew wouldn't be an issue when it came down to a fight. Someone who was sick of doing chores and someone who wouldn't be afraid to stab an employer in the back.

A dark, playful chuckle escaped Huntsman's mouth as he exited the mechanical staircase. The man scarcely cared if his exuberance showed on his sleeve as he strutted towards the back exit of McFist's lair. His anger fueled a fire he rarely stroked anymore. That in itself lead the man towards a path he dared to walk.

A flick of his wrist was all it took to teleport the man to his headquarters. He daintaly placed the staff against the wall, absently calling up his trainee in hopes to hear of success. Despite his sudden happiness, Huntsman felt the ebbing wave of frustration lapping in his soul. A successful day for his huntsgirl would make him feel all the better about the time he wasted. After all, it was one of her first truly solo hunts. "Huntsgirl."

"Yes, Huntsmaster?" The feminine voice answered his call rather suddenly.

His smirk only grew. "Tell me about your mission."


Hey hey hey! Long time no chat aha... Sorry for the shorter chapter rip

I have a few things to tell ya but I'll save most of it for tomorrow! (ooo double update! Tbh least I could do for making y'all wait so long)

Can you guess where I took a break and came back to the chapter at a later time?

I do have something I want to say though before we continue on.

Boy does this fanfic make me happy.

It's been a roller coaster of a write... I'm a broken record at this point but... It really is true.

It's... Also true that... Well, I don't particularly like... A lot of this fanfic. It's pretty poorly written, there's a lot of telling, characters are rather flat, and... I know this is number one don't-ever-do-this but... I read a lot of fanfics and I can't help but feel like mine's falling short of its full potential.

Regardless. I'm also super proud of this fanfic. Seeing myself in the top ten for DP/ADJL is... Really, super amazingly fantastically... Ah, it's just really cool (and it totally doesn't help that it inflates my already rather large ego heehee).

I've been thinking about rewriting chapters. But here's the thing. This is not only a journey for our main characters, but it's also a journey for me as an author (hello ego!). I... Love the journey. Each and every chapter, no matter how gross and full of errors, is my chapter. It's my style, my writing, my fangirling, and most of all, my absolute joy in learning that people want to hear my voice. I don't want to write over those memories, so I'm going to keep those chapters the way they are. I know it's a bit selfish and may throw away part of my audience but hey, this is me and I took a vow to make this fanfic as honest as possible. Plus, I think it's unique haha... Not a lot of authors will intentionally leave things terrible. It's fine though. Idk I just got an ao3... If I ever decide to put this on there maybe I'll rewrite for that? Eh...

TL;DR

There's more to come from this story, I'm happy about all the attention, and I'm going to keep the really bad chapters the way they are: unedited and rather choppy.

The next chapter will be in my new(ish) writing style (you got a look at it for those last few paragraphs ooo). I swear, I'm trying to write longer chapters. The goal is 5-6k per, the next chp is 2k but it seemed to cut off well where I put it sooo

It'll also include a bunch of changes I'm implementing into the world as a whole. Some of that stuff includes ghostly cores, foreshadowing for sequels, minor personality alterations (mainly for Jazz and the side characters), and some possible hints at an ending? Oof it'll be a biggie... Be prepared everyone.

I also have a huge update next time so do look forward to it. Instead of me rambling, it'll be stuff related to the fanfic and it's future aha... (All good things, I promise!)