: Day 15, Tuesday, Jazz :
Jazz took a few deep breaths to calm herself. How long had she been confined to these metal walls? A glance to her phone indicated that she was being dramatic. Her next question was less easy to answer. Why did they kidnap her in the first place? She'd asked the robotic apes roaming around, but each and every time they just apologized and continued on their way. Her hand shook as she held the pen-shaped recording device she'd been clinging to. She had no doubt that she could get out of here, but one thought stopped her: Did they know? Did they know that she knew their plans? It was a simple idea, really.
"The simplest ideas are the most terrifying." Jazz whispered under her breath, glancing to the window. Escape ideas ran through her brain, her ankle subconsciously tapping the collection of scraps she'd been picking up on her wanders around the lair. She did not doubt McFist's status as a supervillain. If anything, McFist was a comical, cartoonish representation compared to Vlad. Down to the dumb figurehead and smart scientist trope. Despite his position in the analogy, Viceroy was surprisingly affable. As strange as it sounded, Jazz was tempted to keep in contact with him when she got out.
"Your lunch, honorable guest." A monotone, robotic voice chimed from the door, a polite knock signified its intentions.
The teen moved to the door, opening it softly. "Thank you." She smiled at the gesture of politeness, gingerly taking the tray from the ape's hands. "I think I'm going to visit the roof garden today."
"Affirmative, I'll let your guard know."
"I would appreciate that."
With that, the door slid closed, and Jazz returned to the small table and chair she'd asked for on the first day she was here. She picked a thin folder off the ground, placing it neatly on the empty surface. The tray went next to it. With a sigh, she clicked the back of her pen, tapping said end on her chin. With a gentle open, she brought out a lined piece of paper. Her work. The redhead hadn't been idling the hours away, hoping for someone to rescue her. No. Instead, she'd been gathering valuable intel. Well, that and desperately trying to catch up in her schoolwork. She knew that someone had to be covering for her, so she wasn't too worried about the absence marks on her perfect record, but the work? Junior year was the most difficult year for a high schooler. She was terrified of falling behind.
Beyond that, she'd been putting her ears to good use. Rumors here and there, idle conversations, eavesdropping when others least expected it, surveying the enemy's base. This folder is where she put all of that information. Granted, it wasn't as much as she'd like, but she hadn't been here for too long. If anything, she was proud of what she'd gotten. Well, proud and worried. Not only did she learn that the baddies knew about Jake, but that they knew about Danny too. She'd caught a certain multibillionaire's scathing eye more than once. She seethed at that- it wasn't fair! If Vlad revealed Danny, then there was nothing to stop the reverse from happening. Maybe she'd let it slip that Masters and Plasmius acted similar... She sighed once more, tapping the page at a sentence: Masters and Plasmius are known. It seemed like that secret was revealed already. She was disappointed and suspicious. She wanted to rip that snake's red carpet from right under him while simultaneously trying to understand why Vlad revealed such a secret.
The only thing she could think of? Vlad respected this Sorcerer person. Why he respected him? She had no clue. Jazz shook her head and turned to her meal- a ham sandwich with cheese. Simple but nice. She smiled, appreciating the chef. She'd met the ape only once, by chance, in the halls of this maze-like building. They were being reprimanded for something, but Jazz made a point to call their attention and thank them for their meals. If a robot could beam, the chef did. Since then, she'd been getting more elaborate and homely foods. A breath of reprieve in this sea of boredom. It didn't take her long to eat, occupied by her thoughts and accompanied by the quiet, constant hum of a fortress. Briefly, she wondered if the chef was going to help make the cake the villains wanted to bake. With resolve, she nodded. She'd ask next time she saw them.
Jazz then stood, clicked her pen, patted down her pants, and placed her folder back in its spot. With another deep breath, she picked up her tray and made her way to the door, giving a light knock before sliding it open once more. She gave a smile to one of the guards, who spoke when he saw her.
"To the garden?"
"To the garden." She echo'd the comment, handing the empty tray to the secondary guard on her post. "Please tell Skyler that it was fantastic."
"Affirmative."
Jazz watched the guard start towards the kitchen for a moment before turning back to the first guard, her easy expression brought back to her face. "Alright, let's go."
A silent nod was all she got in response, the bot starting the trudge to the top floor. Jazz'd been through the entire facility by now, but she still got lost in the garbled mess of hallways. The first few times she'd walked around by herself, she'd cursed the architect. The next few times she praised the architect. It seemed like the apes knew their way around pretty well, and that was all that it needed. If anything, it was a great way to keep enemies confused. Loyal to a fault, Jazz noticed that the apes of McFist Industries had complex, learning AI that clearly displayed an advanced intelligence that even MIT couldn't fully grasp. They were incredibly impressive, and it hurt her every time McFist shouted at them. She knew that Sam would throw a fit if she saw this, and to be honest? Jazz herself was about to throw in her two cents too. If these apes don't get proper rights and benefits when they finally ask for it, she'd be right next to them in their protest. Either way, they were also a brilliant blanket security that noticed miniscule things others wouldn't. For example, a maintenance ape yesterday noted a tiny breach in the outer walls from a single glance.
"Enjoy your stay."
Jazz smiled once more, nodding again to the robot as she stepped through the sliding door, taking a deep breath of fresh air. Despite being in a metal building at the center of a metropolis, Hannibal's wife, Marci if Jazz remembered correctly, insisted on making at least one green spot somewhere on the property. One of three gardens, this was the smallest. But it was also the most charming. She'd actually met the caretaker of the gardens in the halls the other day. Like the chef, underappreciated and tossed to the side, Sally was an absolute dear who worked part time at the front desk. Jazz'd had a lovely conversation with her many times in this garden, so she was a bit distraught when she didn't see her today. That, and Sally seemed like the perfect source of rumor-based information in the McFist tower. Her mouth twitched as she caught sight of something in the distance. Curious, the redhead meandered towards the remarkably low railings, leaning over the edge slightly. She didn't even know how many floors up she was, but at the moment, she couldn't exactly bring herself to care.
A distinctly green glob of something rapidly grew in size, Jazz's eyes widening as she realized what might be happening. With a yelp, she scrambled a safe distance from the rail just in time to be slammed to the floor. Jazz's vision filled with slobber, her lungs rioting at the sudden lack of air, momentarily making the teen forget about her current position. "Ah! Cujo! Enough! That's gross! I thought you only did this to Danny!"
A sharp chirp-like bark disturbed the slightly windy air.
"Cujo!" Jazz laughed before finally getting a good grip on the ghost dog, pulling him from her face. A slanted smirk crossed her face, "Geez dog, it's almost like you've never seen a human before."
A head tilt was the only response she got.
"What're you doing here anyways?" She brought the dog to her chest, running a hand over his ghostly fur. An idea popped into her head. "Maybe you can help." She muttered, a knowing smile grew in place of her smirk.
: Day 15, Howard :
"Wait, so you're telling me that this is all a hunch?" Howard Weinerman absently caught wind of Randy's comment, narrowing his eyes as he tried to refocus on the DOOMED level.
"Hunches are powerful forces yo," Jake muttered in response, a louder follow up soon after. "Not going to lie though Danny, I can't help much if you don't even know when this is supposed to happen."
The halfa gave a frustrated sigh, Howard able to hear the annoyed ruffling of his hair. "I know! How do you think I feel? I'm the one with the creepy doom sense!"
Howard rolled his eyes at the trio's conversation, cursing as his thumb slipped, "Aw man! That was my second life!"
"You're not doing too bad though, all things considered." Tucker spoke absently, "It took me several restarts to get past the first part..."
Sam, Tucker, and Howard all huddled around the small TV in the corner of Randy's room, loosely focused on a glitchy, hidden level of DOOMED. The halfa's friends showed up at the same time Danny did, Jake appearing about five minutes after he did. Howard'd already been at Randy's when the secret trio meeting occurred, and no way in hell was he going to give up on his crusade through the virtual world. He'd gotten a list of the hidden levels from Sam a few days ago and planned to do at least one more by the end of the day. Whether veiled conversations about the destruction of the world hung in the background or not. If anything, he guessed that Sam and Tucker appreciated the distraction his muted gaming provided. If he was honest, Howard wasn't too interested in Danny's plight. Not that he didn't care, but he'd heard similar speeches practically every day over the past year.
Danny gave a deep sigh, "sorry about being so jumpy guys it's just... I've never felt something like this before. It's hard to explain but... This doomsday sense is on a completely different level compared to anything else I've ever experienced. It's almost like..." The halfa trailed off, clearly not sure how to proceed.
"Hey man, I wouldn't stress out too much about it." Howard finally spoke up, sticking his tongue out as he nailed a particularly tough jump pattern. "Hell yeah." He then proceeded to curse as he fell off the small ledge. "Randy gets into these kinda things all the time." He tossed out, sparing a glance to the clearly distressed teen. " 'sides, you've got a whole team behind you when it happens."
He caught Danny's uncertain head nod before whipping back to his game at Tuck's cry of warning. The gamer sat up as he shoved the joystick to the side, barely moving the player out of the way before the boss let off a lethal blow.
"Yeah Danny, you know we've got your back, right? You can call us anytime." Jake built off of the one liner.
"... I know, it's just-"
The halfa cut himself off with a light gasp. Howard didn't even bother to check for the ghost sense he knew was there.
"Oh no." A groan was all he heard before a ghost flew straight through the wall, Howard, and literally everything in its path to completely flatten the halfa. Instantly every non-tackled teen leapt to their feet, Randy transforming on the spot, Jake half-transforming his claws, Sam readying her wrist-ray, and Tucker grabbing his thermos. Okay, fine, everyone but Howard, who simply cursed at his lost life with an indignant scream of protest.
"Cujo!" Danny gasped in surprise, tumbling to the floor with an audible thump.
Howard scrunched his face in retaliation for his lost final attempt, chucking the controller to the ground in frustration. "Would ya mind telling Cujo that they messed up my grove and got me killed! That's gotta be some points towards the brutality meter for the fight or you guys'll have some schnasty shit to-" He turned his attention from the console, expecting to find a recently cleared out room, only to see everyone present drop their stances. "Okay, am I missing something?"
"That's Cujo, a friend." Sam filled in the redhead, a smile crossing her face. "Well. More accurately his scary, dead, extremely loyal guard dog that changes sizes, occasionally visits to play, and likes to mother hen him."
"It's a long story." Tucker's amusement was clear as he adjusted his glasses, the expression quickly falling as gears started to turn in his head. "What's he doing here though?"
: Day 15, Randy :
The Ninja raised an eyebrow at the introduction, still ever so subtly ready to counter strike at any moment. He glanced from his biffer to the techno geek to the dragon to the halfa, blinking as Danny finally managed to shove the bright green puppy off of his face.
"Tuck has a good point Cujo, what are you doing here?"
The doggo yipped in response, his bright orange eyes shifting to a darker tone. He floated in the air for a moment before violently shaking out his pelt.
"He has a paper in his collar." Randy noted.
"Huh. A newspaper or something?" Danny reached out and snatched the object, running his hand along Cujo's head as he unfolded the paper with the other. Danny blinked a few times, his expression growing more stern as he read the apparent letter. "It's from Jazz." He glanced up, eyes instantly locking with Sam, then Tucker. Determination sliced through his previous insecurities, turning his gaze to Jake, then Randy. "She's been kidnapped. Apparently I was right to worry when we got that call from Lancer way back when. McFist, not Vlad." He handed the note to Sam off-handedly, turning to grab his thermos and gather what little he brought.
"She's given us information." Sam scanned said info, her mouth set in a serious manner. "They know about Danny's and Jake's human forms."
Jake tensed at the news, his eyes narrowing as panic danced in them. "Really?" He walked up and snatched the page out of Sam's hands. She didn't put up a fight, instead handing a pen to Tucker.
"Oh, a Fenton Pen." He immediately pulled out his PDA, tapping away at the screen. Howard glanced over Tucker's shoulder, his expression neutrally curious.
Randy shifted his gaze back to Danny as a bright light changed him into his alter ego, "Looks like it's time to bring the fight to them, ey guys?" A confident smile crossed his face at the words. "A few days early, but shouldn't be too bad." His smile dissolved as he pulled a notebook out of... Wherever he stored stuff on his suit. "I've been thinking about this for a while actually. I've wanted to talk for a bit but-" He coughed awkwardly, "you know. Anyways. It seems like McFist is the location of their main operation. It makes sense, really. Vlad's mansion is too easy to see in the media, what with all the official parties and bureaucrats walking around all the time. Huntsman, from what Jake's said, is a pretty secretive guy and probably wouldn't disclose his location to some rando villains on the off chance of reaching his goal. No, both of them would calculate their risks and prey on the least cautious one: McFist. Sure, he has Viceroy, but I get the feeling that he doesn't listen to his right hand man all that much."
"Jazz says that they have a plan to release someone called the Sorcerer using some kind of ancient recipe made from some... sort of... Hmm." Tucker trailed off, but silence wasn't an option, since Randy picked up right after.
"The Sorcerer? That's..." He paused, his mind running around. "That's bad. If the Sorcerer gets out... I mean, I stopped him once before, but that was with the First's help and, uh, well, we're not in the past right now." Randy walked up to the notes Danny made. It was time to get serious. No one threatens a release of the Sorcerer and gets away with it. "Guess I owe you five bucks Danny. They are up to something huge. Do you have a pencil?"
Without looking he accepted the writing utensil, flipping to a new page. Once more putting his secret art abilities to use, he quickly sketched the layout of McFist Industries from memory. He'd been in the facility enough times to understand the basic structure of it. Granted, there were probably over a million tunnels in the thing that he missed, but hey. "Did Jazz say where she was?" He glanced up to Tucker, who was still scanning the transcript of her words.
"Uhhh... She said something about a garden?" Jake piped up from his silence, making his way over to the makeshift planning table as well. "Yo, Randy, why didn't you tell me you could draw?"
Randy offered a smug smirk in response, an overdramatic pencil twirl his only answer to the question. "Okay, so, let's see." He turned back to the paper. "A garden? There're three on the property." He circled the third, seventh, and eleventh floors. "The ones on floor three and eleven are open air, the seventh floor is indoors. Did she say anything about that?"
"She mentioned someone named Sally... And a surprising amount of anger towards McFist's treatment of his AI employees. Here." Tucker spoke again, handing the PDA off to the already fuming goth girl.
Randy smiled at her reaction, glad that someone else saw the injustice in the McFist workplace. "Okay, Sally. I think I've actually met her a few times. She works the front desk. She's actually pretty chill. Loves to chat about her coworkers. Charming, really."
"Cunningham, garden?" Howard commented, returning to his seat near the console but keeping his attention on the impromptu battle mission.
"Ah, right." Randy sheepishly tapped the pencil, then shook his head. "She works part time as the gardener, though only for the open air ones. The indoors one is under Mrs. McFist's care. Since Jazz is a prisoner..." He trailed off, instinctively turning towards Danny, who'd been silent this whole time.
A stormy look crossed the halfa's face as he formulated something in his mind. "If it were me, I'd have her up as high as possible. I mean, they have no idea how good she is as a fighter or escapee. Saying they'd think she's human by default and no normal person would jump eleven floors-" He brought his hand from his chin onto one of the three circles. "She's probably in a central location on this floor." He glanced to the teens in the room, landing on a technogeek. "Tuck, do we have an ETA for the potion's completion?"
"No, but she said that she overheard that it's almost complete."
"Hmm." Danny turned to Randy, his icy eyes demanding a type of delegation he'd yet to see from the halfa. Said gaze barely caused a reaction, since it honestly didn't surprise the ninja. He always had a suspicion that Danny knew how to command. "Randy, you know this place the best. Think you can get her out?"
"Who do you think I am?" Randy puffed out his chest.
Danny chuckled. "Right. Jake." He turned to the Dragon, who's eyes widened at the look he was given. "We need to make a distraction." He paused, puffing out a breath of apprehension. His visage broke for a half a second before he caught sight of the Fenton Pen, which renewed his authoritative tone. "I'm not sure if this is going to be our final fight or not, but I think it's a safe move to assume it is. Who knows where they are in the process. Better safe than sorry, right?" A rhetorical question, he glanced at Cujo, who was curled on his feet. "I might have something, but, guys... This isn't going to be an easy fight." He locked eyes with Jake and Randy, then to Sam and Tuck, a momentary break in his concentration. "Sam, Tuck." Said teens whipped their heads to attention. "Howard. I need you three to wait as back up with Trixie and Spud."
"Danny-" Sam instantly stood up, her voice holding her abrupt anger.
The halfa held a hand up, cutting the goth short. "Sam. I know. But you saw what happened when we fought Huntsman without a plan." The words sat heavy for a second. "We're okay because Randy's a literal tank, Jake's a dragon, and I'm dead. But you guys? You..." His gaze flickered to the notebook. "We need someone to watch our backs."
"But Danny." Sam growled, placing her hands on her hips. "That's precisely why we need to be there fighting with you!"
"No-"
"Look. I may not be a dragon or a ninja or a ghost. But I'm still a butt-kicking, combat trained, weapons expert with good aim and fast reflexes. Even if they aren't ghosts, the blasters still pack enough of a punch to wind humans. It's not much, but it's enough to make a change on the field." Sam's amethyst eyes burned into the top of Danny's head.
Silence fell over the room for a brief minute. Randy glanced between the two fighting friends, unsure how to help. He and Howard usually assumed that Howard would retreat as soon as it got dangerous. It was something they agreed upon early into his superhero career. He couldn't justify his non-athletically inclined friend on the front lines. He wasn't sure about Jake's stance, but judging from the awkward shift of his weight, he was in a similar situation that the halfa and Sam were in.
"I won't sit on the sidelines like some tossed away damsel! I refuse to only act when I'm needed for plot Danny. I'm a damn good fighter. You should know that! We've been fighting with you for a year." Her voice turned to a growl. "I can't believe we're still talking about this."
"Sam..."
Her eyes narrowed.
Danny sighed, refusing to look up. "That's not what I'm talking about. Like you said, I know very well how badass you and Tuck are. Hell, you've saved my butt more times than I can count." He paused, but continued before Sam could start again, voice barely a whisper. "What if we fail Sam?"
The silence suffocated the heroes in the room, taking away Randy's confidence. The halfa was right. They could lose. But-
"We won't." It was Jake's turn to draw all the attention, one of his hands placed firmly on the the table. "Danny, I hear your concerns, but we're the secret trio yo." A lopsided smirk crossed his face as his brows furrowed in confidence. "Sure, we may have messed up, but we learned from it. I sure as hell know that we ain't gonna allow me to rush in this time. 'Sides, we ain't on as strict of a timeframe as we were with the unicorns."
"But we are!" Danny burst out, lifting his form as he crossed his arms, suddenly anxious about his words but determined to say what he needed to. "We might not be dealing with the rescue of a magical creature but my SISTER was kidnapped by some sociopath while I wasn't looking!" His arms flailed out from his chest, though they returned soon after. "You guys aren't listening to me." He turned to stare at the paper again. "This is going to be a hard fight! If not our toughest one yet. Sure, you have experience Sam. We all do. Yes, we've fought Huntsman before. But you guys are forgetting-" He jutted a finger out to Jake, shifting it's path to Randy as he spoke the next line. "Neither of you have fought Vlad! Not really." He changed his point to himself. "I've never fought McFist. Not really. We aren't dealing with just one villain. We're talking about all three of them. At once.
"I just want..." Danny took a deep breath, "I just want there to be a failsafe. If the secret trio fails, who takes up our gauntlet?" His glass-filled blue eyes flicked to Sam. "Yes, it's morbid. But what if! ... What if? ... Backup doesn't mean I think any less of you Sam. If anything, it should show how much you guys mean to me. I can fight. I can fight well. But I also don't know when to stop and run. Of all people, you two should understand that." He paused, an anguished pain crossing his face. "Even if I wanted to, you know that."
For the third time in the past few minutes, silence fell once more. A bright green started to form on Danny's cheeks.
"Either way..." Randy quietly spoke up for the first time since his sketch, putting on a brave face for his teammates. He circled the eleventh floor again. "We have a Fenton to save. Standing around won't change that."
Sam puffed a breath, her previously heated gaze finding a super interesting speck on the floor. "Yeah... You're right." She took another breath, determination squaring her shoulders once more. "I'll get the goon squad prepared for an extraction. I believe in the trio. Our extraction is not for you three," She pointedly locked eyes with each superpowered teen in the room. "It's for Jazz. We'll have a getaway path secured so she'll get out safely and quickly." She paused for a half a second, shifting her weight. "I'm still bringing my guns. Just in case."
Putting the day in the POV line makes it feel like an action movie countdown haha
Oh no guys I started thinking about a 15-part series. Seriously. Stop me. I'm going crazy thinking about the possibilities.
Gotta do this first. I promised the 5-part first. [continues muttering in the background]
Did you guys know that the word "chair" only appears 10 times in this entire novel? I was looking up the drawing scene from chapter 17 and remembered that there was a chair in it. I searched for the word and realized there were only 10 lmao. Made it pretty easy to find xD
Lemmie know what you think about this chapter length! It's what I'm thinking for as a default from now on. It's alittle tougher, since I'm going from 1k chapters to 4.5-5k but it's also more fun! I get to force myself to think more into the thoughts and actions of the characters rather than just get to the one sentence the chapter was written for.
Also... Stay safe everyone. I know that these are trying times. I know that it's been months since 2020's biggest event. But, please. Please be smart. Wash your hands, limit your crowd time. Stay healthy alright?
