Shadgirl2: Sorry for the long wait.
Midna Azusa: Expect more like it. She's starting college soon!
Disclaimer: We don't own Trolls. Any original characters belong to Shadgirl2.
Titan and Winter videos had become quite popular in Troll Village, but they seemed even more popular in Fearsville. Survival classes were mandatory there, and the locals certainly enjoyed watching Titan and Winter handle whatever threat they needed to deal with. With help from the videos, Biggie and Cooper spent an hour teaching the trolls of Fearsville how to stay safe from various problems before the two of them crept off to the party zone to get everything set up. That is, after Cooper was stopped by Angel and had a brief conversation about his lack of knowledge about his biological parents. She looked sympathetic and told him she hoped he'd find them or find out what happened to them someday, and then he was able to sneak away to the party zone. With any luck, Angel wouldn't notice them slipping into a space that was never used anymore.
"Oh, I hate this..." Biggie said, looking around. He wasn't all that fond of taking risks like this, given what had happened the last time he'd crossed a safety-conscious troll.
"Aw, relax!" Cooper waved off Biggie's worries, smiling. "Branch ain't here, Biggie! We just gotta get everything ready for a cu-razy safe party!"
While "crazy" and "safe" weren't usually words that should be in the same sentence, Biggie knew full well that this time had to be an exception. Satisfied that they weren't about to be caught, he turned his full attention to the task at hand. "Right! Then let's get this done quickly."
"On it!" Cooper agreed, and the two quickly started decorating for the party nobody in Fearsville knew was planned.
As those two prepared the most Branch-friendly yet fun party ever, Clover ran around her village and passed out invitations, taking care to avoid her mother. The invitations weren't anything fancy, just little cards that told the trolls exactly what they needed to know.
"Party tonight at the party zone. By order of the great Mr. Dinkles. P.S. - Don't tell Mother. She'd never understand," Clover said, handing an invitation to a green troll.
The troll nervously read over the invitations, unsure about this idea but also unwilling to disobey his heroes' god.
"W-well...if Mr. Dinkles says it's okay..." he said.
"We have to go if Mr. Dinkles commands it," said his friend, a red girl with yellow hair.
"But why do you suppose Mother isn't invited?" asked a blue troll, looking confused. "That doesn't make sense."
Razzle heard all of this as he installed a steel door nearby in the hopes of improving their security. He dropped the door on the ground, shocked, and ran over, his eyes wide. Fearfully, he put his hands on the blue troll's shoulders and demanded, "Are you questioning the wisdom of the mighty Mr. Dinkles!? What are you, crazy!?"
"Yeah! You don't know what he'll do to you!" said the girl, looking anxious herself. "Better just go along with it..."
The blue troll now looked much more anxious. "O-okay... I-if you say so..."
Razzle released the other troll's shoulders, sighing in relief. "Oh, thank trollness. You had me worried for a second." He then took an invitation from Clover without hesitation.
Clover was glad these guys were so worried about upsetting a nonexistent god. It made things so much easier. Sure, it wasn't right to lie to them, but this was for their own good. What was the harm in a little white lie?
The others took theirs as well so they would know what time the party would start, but none looked happy about it. In fact, as expected, they all looked rather nervous at the idea of having a party. As Clover watched their reactions, however, she knew their attitudes would change once they saw the party site. What paranoid but fun-loving troll could resist a safe but fun party? She would be lying if she said she wasn't looking forward to seeing their reactions.
Her invitations all delivered, she thought, Cool. Now all that's left to do is head over there and help those guys out. I wonder if I should tell these guys that Mr. Dinkles is just Biggie's pet worm later on? She shrugged and headed off. She'd worry about that miscommunication later. Right now, she needed to focus on getting her fearful people to start having some fun again.
In the Techno Reef, CJ swam and played with the Techno Trolls, including some trollings around her age. One was a girl, colored green, and the other two were little boys, one violet and the other blue. They, along with Cascade, Bay, and Bliss Marina, were engrossed in a game of tag. Of course, since Techno Trolls were much faster swimmers than any land-based trolls, they were all holding back a bit to make things more fair for their new friend.
The green trolling swam up to the purple boy and tapped him on the tail fin, saying, "Tag, Zak! You're it!"
"Hey! No fair!" Zak protested, and he set off in pursuit of the others involved in this game.
CJ laughed, swimming away from Zak as she teased, "Nah nah! You can't catch me, you can't catch me!"
The other kids laughed as well as they joined the fun. CJ laughed happily as she kept swimming away.
Suddenly a troll she didn't know caught her, laughing. "Got you, kiddo! That mean you're out!?" the troll asked, sounding excited.
CJ blinked at this troll in confusion. She was purple with orange hair in pigtails and wore green overalls with a flower on them. Even weirder, she wasn't a Techno Troll—she had legs instead of fins. CJ had never seen this troll in her life, let alone during this game.
"Uh...who are you? You weren't playing sea tag a moment ago, were you?" the Pop child asked, wondering if she'd somehow missed another land troll trying to play with them.
Her new Techno friends made their way over, curious, as the stranger let CJ go. For some reason, the stranger was looking at CJ with horrified disbelief.
"Hey, who's she, CJ?" the green Techno child asked.
"Is she a friend of yours?" asked the blue one, sizing up the new arrival. "She's definitely not a Techno Troll."
CJ shook her head, looking puzzled, and answered, "How should I know? I don't know her."
Apparently those words were very hurtful because the stranger looked like she'd been hit. "N-n-no way! CJ! Come on, girl, you've gotta know me! I'm your favorite aunt, Legsly! Remember? I got you a turntable for your birthday and let you drive my flyer bug that one time! You have to know me! No one else does..." She looked down, upset.
Legsly didn't understand. How was it that no one, not even her own niece, remembered her? Was she just that forgettable, or did this have something to do with this DJ Suki they all mentioned? Had she done something to make them think she was Legsly?
All of the Techno Trolls looked like they felt badly for her. After all, who wouldn't feel sorry for someone who was forgotten by everyone she knew?
"Wow," Cascade said, appalled that Pop Trolls could all just forget someone like that. Maybe they were worse than DJ and CJ seemed to be. "Uh, well, in that case, your sister's here. Should I go get her?" he asked.
CJ shook her head, waving her arms through the water, and said, "Whoa, whoa, whoa! Hold up, you guys! Sure, it's sad that no one knows Legsly, but that wasn't who did that stuff with me! It was my only aunt DJ, the coolest aunt in the world! I mean, I don't know why Legsly thought it was her, but—"
This was confusing. Legsly genuinely believed she was DJ. CJ could tell something was wrong, but she didn't know what. She wondered if she should just ask her aunt for help since Legsly obviously needed some.
Legsly looked away sadly and cut the child off, "Oh, forget it. Apparently no one cares about me anymore because they all say I've been replaced with some DJ Suki person! But t-that's f-fine... I-I don't need 'em, a-anyway..." Despite her words, the lone Pop Troll looked like she was about to cry. DJ had clearly taken her place, so what was the point of crying?
The Techno girl swam over and put a hand on Legsly's arm, saying, "Hey, don't cry!"
Cascade put a hand to his chin. "Something weird's going on here." He looked at Bay and asked, "Does CJ seem like the type to just forget a family member to you?"
"Not that I know," Bay answered, shaking her head. Given how weird this was, she could only think of one possible answer, but even that seemed unlikely. "Do you, like, think maybe wormholes could be involved? Maybe this is, like, y'know, DJ from a different dimension or something."
Cascade's eyes widened, and he smiled. "Yo, that makes sense!" He turned back to the strange, new troll and asked, "Hey, Legsly, was it? You haven't gone through any weird, swirly vortexes lately, have you?"
"What are you talking about?" Legsly asked, looking confused. "I use those all the time!"
That wasn't the answer Cascade had hoped for—he'd been hoping it was an accident. "Uh, that might be your problem... See, those are wormholes, and they often lead to other worlds. You...might be in the wrong world."
Legsly blinked, thinking about it. It would certainly explain everything. "I am?" she asked.
"Well, yeah," Bay said. "I mean, if nobody can, like, remember you and you're totally always using those, it could so happen, for sure."
Legsly didn't respond right away, but the look on her face made Bay and Cascade wonder if this had happened to her before. "So...then I'm—"
Thinking about it, that answer made more sense than hers. While warping from place to place, she had, admittedly, come across some odd worlds from time to time—one with no hugs, one with nothing but Poppy, one where trolls ate bergens, one where everything was blue, and even one where she and Biggie had traded personalities and body shapes while keeping their colors. She had even been holding Mr. Blinkles in that last one.
But all those other worlds were more obvious. Here, everyone was the same. The only difference was that she'd been replaced by someone named DJ Suki. How did that work?
CJ smiled amusedly and swam over, taking Legsly's hand. "Come on. I'll introduce you to my Aunt DJ and you can decide for yourself!"
Legsly held onto the child's hand, looking unsure. "Uh...okay."
If this really was a different dimension, it was the weirdest one she'd ever visited. How could a world exist where only one troll was different?
The trolls all swam off in search of DJ then, hoping that would clear up this little misunderstanding.
King Trollex and DJ were busy preparing some mixes for the party they had planned for that night. As DJ tried out Trollex's latest ideas, the music sounded so awesome that the Techno king couldn't be more proud.
"Yeah! Now you've got it! That's what the heart of techno really sounds like!" Trollex said, pleased with how DJ was handling his genre.
DJ kept jamming happily to the music, glad that she was starting to understand some of the more advanced aspects to being a deejay. And here she'd thought she knew it all, but Trollex clearly knew some things she didn't. There was no doubt about it—this rave was going to be tight.
CJ swam over, all of her new Techno friends and Legsly in tow. "Aunt DJ! Aunt DJ!" she cried, a look of worry about her. "We've got a big problem over here!"
Trollex and DJ both stopped playing their jams and looked, curious.
"What's up, lil lady?" DJ asked. Seeing the new (apparently) Pop Troll, she raised an eyebrow. "Who's that?"
Trollex looked nervous at this new foreign visitor. He hadn't expected more Pop Trolls, especially not ones that DJ didn't even know. Looking at the others' anxious and worried expressions filled him with unease. Was this Pop Troll more like they had feared all were?
More guarded, he crossed his arms and said, "Good question. This one cool, too?" as he looked at Legsly with suspicion.
"This is Legsly, your majesty!" Marina said, gesturing at the newcomer. "She's a Pop Troll with a really weirdo problem!"
Trollex raised an eyebrow, curious now. "For real?"
That didn't sound good. What could it be, and why did the Pop Trolls have so many problems these days? Were they all in some kind of trouble?
Cascade rubbed the back of his head, still disturbed by Legsly apparent preferred mode of travel, and said, "Yeah, she travels through wormholes on the regular. Apparently nobody she knows has known her all day!"
"Really?" DJ asked, stunned.
That really was a weird problem, and concerning, too. Where had Legsly come from, how did she get stuck here, and was there a way to get her home?
"So you're this 'DJ Suki' I keep hearing about?" Legsly asked, looking at the treasure troll with amazement. Her eyes widened in shock, and she threw her arms behind her as she exclaimed, "Oh, my trolls! You look just like my niece CJ! Or, uh, it's your niece around here, isn't it?" She grinned awkwardly, pointing at DJ with that last question.
How DJ could be an alternate Legsly was hard to say. Sure, they both had orange hair, but everything else was different. And CJ may have greatly resembled DJ, but why was she still the same color as Legsly? This was really weird for the wormhole-traveling troll.
DJ blinked, disturbed at this point as she wondered about how Legsly could be her in another dimension when she and CJ looked nothing alike. "Uh, yeah. She is. Why? Ya got a lil CJ of your own back where ya come from?"
Legsly sighed, looking down. "Yeah. Wherever that is. And I'm her favorite aunt back home, too. In fact, I'm friends with all your friends, and everything you did here, I did, too!"
DJ just stared. That was about as strange for her to hear as if this stranger had confessed she was a Techno Troll who'd traded her tail for legs. She didn't think she could be more uncomfortable if she tried. After all, Legsly looked nothing like her, either. "...Really?"
"Whoa. Talk about frea-kay..." Trollex said, stunned.
To think that this new Pop Troll was from a different world and was somehow DJ Suki. They had very different personalities, from what he'd seen so far. Still, at least it wasn't what he'd been thinking.
"What am I gonna do now? I can't seem to find my way back home, and no one here even knows me," Legsly said, looking upset. "It's like I don't even exist at all."
And she thought getting stranded in a world set in Ancient Greece was bad. At least there was a version of her there somewhere...and a version of DJ with a different name. That made her wonder if they were really the same troll or if their own worlds had just somehow combined the two of them into one. Great, now she didn't know who she really was.
Cascade's concerns about Legsly's traveling habits only increased. She looked unhappy, sure, but she didn't seem surprised or worried, as if this had happened to her before.
"That's 'cause she's the only troll like that I've ever seen," CJ whispered to her aunt.
DJ smiled and held out a hand to Legsly, saying, "I'm DJ Suki. It's nice to meet ya, Legsly!"
If Legsly was stranded somewhere new all alone, she'd need a friend to help her through it, and DJ planned to be that friend.
"And I'm King Trollex of the Techno Trolls! Welcome to my reef!" the Techno king added cheerfully, thinking along the same lines as DJ.
"I'm Cascade, and I didn't forget to introduce myself this time!" Cascade said, looking quite pleased with himself.
Bay blinked, reminded of that herself, and said, "Oh!" She slapped herself in the face, feeling like an idiot—she almost had forgotten. "Right! Mine's Bay! Same!"
Marina giggled in amusement at the two scatterbrains. "Oh, you two." To Legsly, she said, "I'm Bliss Marina. It's nice to meet you, friend!" Smiling, she threw her arms out in greeting.
"My name's Zak!" said the purple trolling. "And these are my friends, Coral and Scratch!"
"Hi!" the little girl, Coral, said as she waved. "Nice to meet you!"
"Yeah!" Scratch agreed with a smile.
Legsly looked around at them all curiously. They were just about as friendly as trolls from other worlds usually were.
"So anyway, Legs, since you're havin' a little trouble findin' your way back home, why not hang with us for a while? I hear them wormholes can be kinda tricky at times. So until ya can find one that'll get ya back home, ya might as well make some new friends to pass the time with, right!?" DJ said eagerly.
"Sounds good to me!" Trollex agreed. He held a hand out to Legsly and asked, "What do ya say, girlfriend? Care to join the fun? Huge rave tonight down at the reef." He nudged her playfully, smiling.
"Yeah! Hang around a bit!" Cascade said.
"Yeah! Let's play!" Zak said, pumping his arms over his head.
"And you, like, might want to stop usin' wormholes to get around," Bay suggested. "They clearly aren't workin' for ya."
If she was regularly visiting the wrong dimension, Cascade thought that was an understatement.
Legsly looked away uncertainly, rubbing an arm. "Well, gee, you guys, I don't know... I should really be trying to find my way back home, but..." She turned to them all, grinning excitedly, and said, "I suppose it couldn't hurt until the next wormhole comes along! So count me in! I'm looking forward to seeing how you guys do it around here!"
Now that she knew what was going on, Legsly was feeling a lot better. Sure, she was stranded on the wrong world again, but this one seemed fun and exciting, and it was so much like home that she didn't feel as out of place. Maybe staying for a bit would be okay. She might even make some new inter-dimensional friends, and there was nothing wrong with that.
Once again, Cascade thought from looking at her, she seemed to often find herself in situations where she was saying that.
"Well, then, what are we waiting for!?" DJ asked. She threw her arms up over her head. "Let's party!"
Excitedly, the others all agreed, "Yeah!"
And so they started up a pre-rave party to celebrate their new friend, jamming out to DJ's newest beats.
Back in Pop Troll territory, Storm knew he'd need help with this battle. He'd never done anything of the sort before. So he consulted his right-hand troll and best friend.
"Alright, soldier. Listen up! I've got me a date with that feisty young intruder in less than 15 minutes and could use some of your expert advice! So here goes nothing!" Looking serious, he approached the yellow troll and pointed at the blue flower on his jacket. "Does this corsage make me look childish?" he asked with a look of concern.
"No, sir, no!" Mash answered promptly.
Storm wiped some sweat from his brow. "Phew-ee! That's a relief! I tell ya, Mash, I haven't been this nervous since the day the Party Crashers first attacked. What if I say something stupid or childish that offends her? And what if I come on too strong? I could use a hand here, private. I've never done this sort of thing before!"
The normally calm and collected general had a look of sheer panic in his eyes as he tried to fix his tie. How could a date be so hard? He could stand up to growlbeasts and snakes without fear, so why were girls so scary to him?
"Sir, just be yourself," Mash said. Then, letting his strict military training slip a bit, he added, "But, uh...might want to leave the business side of yourself at home, if you catch my drift."
"What business side, private!? I'm a soldier, not an office worker!" Storm snapped, loud and commanding as always.
"Sir, that's the side I meant," Mash clarified patiently.
Storm blinked. It had just occurred to him that "business" didn't always mean office work. "Oh..." He saluted his subordinate and said, "Sir, yes, sir! I'll do that, sir!" Then he marched out, snatching a bouquet of roses on the way. To Mash's chagrin, he grabbed his army helmet on the way.
Mash just stared for a second, realizing that there was no way Storm would actually do what he had suggested. "He took his helmet. This should be good," he said, smiling in slight amusement.
Hopefully this intruder Storm was dating wouldn't mind having a date that felt more like a meeting with your army sergeant.
In the local jail, Smidge paced her cell as she waited, wondering how dating the town's only criminal would go for him.
"Oh my ga. This is so stupid. How'd I wind up in this mess, anyway? I didn't say anything too fierce to this guy. But now he thinks I'm spunky. Ugh." She put a hand to her head, exasperated. What did this guy see in her, anyway? All she'd done was defend herself in court! How had that been impressive? "I'm screwed. No doubting that one."
Storm came over then, blushing and acting rather awkward, a sharp difference from his usual persona. He cleared a lump from his throat as he approached. "Eh-hem! L-lovely night, right little lady?"
Smidge gave a start, eyes wide, as her attention snapped to him. She stared.
Before her stood a General Storm quite unlike the one she'd seen earlier. He wore a dark green suit, a blue rose corsage in his jacket pocket, and his army hat. He also looked surprisingly gentle and nervous as he held a bouquet of roses out to her.
"F-for you, my lady," Storm said, handing her the flower through the bars.
Smidge, eyes wide, took the flowers as she stared at him in stunned disbelief. "...Oh my ga..." she said quietly.
What had gotten into the general? He almost looked normal...other than the helmet, at least. But how could he pull that off when he even yelled commands in a court room? Smidge hadn't thought he had this in him.
Once more, Storm cleared a lump from his throat, still looking quite uncomfortable with this whole thing. "Eh-hem! Well! We should get going! Dinner reservations at the north mess hall have been made!" he said, opening the cell as he did so.
About then, Smidge realized that he wasn't shouting. Sure, he wasn't exactly talking normally, but he was quieter than she'd ever heard him.
Smidge stepped out of her cell, still looking stunned. "Uh...okay."
There was no doubt—Storm was acting weird, as if he was scared of her all of a sudden. Was he one of those guys who acted tough around everyone but turned to mush around a girl he liked? Was this the real General Storm? Smidge wasn't sure she really wanted to know.
After a short walk, Smidge found herself outside of one of these military buildings, where Storm approached a soldier who appeared to be guarding the door. He saluted and said, "Sir! General Storm here with reservations for a candle-lit dinner for two! Sir!"
Smidge covered her ears again—Storm had used his usual volume for that interaction.
The soldier guarding the door saluted and said, "Sir, yes, sir! Right this way, sir!"
That was when Smidge started to wonder if he was a guard or a maitre d. This soldier led her and Storm inside, through the large cafeteria. He took them to the back, where a small square table had been set up, covered in a red tablecloth with a red candle in the center. Two heart-shaped chairs were set up, one on either side. Compared to the rows of gray benches and long tables in the rest of the room, this stood out quite a bit. Even weirder, a soldier in full military uniform sat nearby, playing romantic music on a violin.
Smidge looked around at this awkward setup as trained soldiers seated them and took their drink orders. It was strange to her that they were acting like this was a fancy restaurant, especially since it was just this one table that was given that treatment. They were weirder than the trolls back home, for sure, and that was bad since they had Cooper.
"I'll have some coffee, and fruit punch for the lady, sir!" Storm ordered loudly, as always. He gave a slight start and looked at Smidge uncertainly as he asked (voice quieter again but still loud), "Uh, that is, if that's good with you?"
Smidge shrugged as she glanced over the menu, seeing what food choices she had for the evening. She honestly didn't care what she drank right then. "Works for me, I guess. But, uh, General Storm, you really didn't have to go through all the trouble just to please me. For one, I'm a—"
"No, ma'am, no!" he cut her off. "A fine young lady such as yourself deserves to be treated as one, ma'am! That's what my papa told me, and that's just what I'm gonna do, ma'am!"
Sweet as that was, it gave Smidge an opportunity she didn't want to pass up on. She feigned being touched as she reached out and grabbed this chance. She leaned toward the general, propping herself up on one elbow, and gave him a very flirtatious look. "Aw. That's so nice of you. But, General, what happens after tonight if everything goes well? I'm a class A fun-loving troll, and you're..." She trailed off, letting him finish that himself.
If she was going to be forced into a date with this guy, she was at least going to use it to her advantage. If he liked her, maybe he'd want to have more fun to make her like him. At the very least, he'd hopefully hear her out. With him being one of the guys in charge here, probably just below the president, she could make some serious changes here if she could just convince Storm to go along with it.
Storm cleared his throat again, looking uncomfortable. "U-uh, well, President Oak says fun's overrated due to all the danger, and—"
Smidge threw her arms up, looking concerned and a little upset. "But, General! Don't you get it? If all you ever do is prepare for the next battle, you'll burn yourselves out long before the enemy arrives!" She crossed her arms and leaned back, giving him a sideways glance as she added, "And don't get me started on the way that can mess up your sleep schedule. If your guard's always up, then you'll never get the right kind of sleep necessary to go another round with the enemy in the morning!"
Storm put a finger to his chin, thinking about that. "Hmm... I see yer point, little lady. But what can we do about it? If we let our guards down, them lousy Party Crashers might get in again."
"Then don't lower it!" Smidge answered as she slapped both hands on the table, leaning toward him. Then she sat back and crossed her arms casually. "Not all at once, anyway. You can take shifts guarding and preparing everyone for battle, making sure anyone who ain't currently on duty's having as much fun doing whatever they feel like as possible! That way, you're still well-defended, and everyone gets to have a good time, too!"
Storm grinned. Her ideas definitely had a certain charm to them. "I like your style, little lady! And will be sure to report it all to President Oak in the morning, ma'am!"
"Your drinks, sir!" a soldier said then, coming over and setting their drinks down before them as if he were a waiter in a restaurant.
"Thank you, private!" Storm said (loudly). "We're ordering now, sir!"
"Yeah!" Smidge said, laying her menu down on the table. "And I'll have some fish sticks with a side salad and a sparklemelon cupcake!" Silently, she added, I can't believe they had that on the menu! How is sparklemelon made, anyway?
"Sir, yes, sir!" Storm said for reasons Smidge still couldn't comprehend—Why did these trolls say that all the time? "And I'll take a thick steak, extra rare, with some mashed potatoes and a glazed donut, sir!"
The soldier/waiter jotted their orders down on a pad before saluting them, saying, "Sir, yes, sir! Coming right up, sir!" Then he left to take their orders to the kitchen.
Smidge turned her attention back to her date then, excitedly saying, "Anyway, while we're on the subject, it might also help a ton if someone went out and tracked down those trouble-makers and brought them to justice." She pounded her fist into her palm, fierce. "Then they couldn't hurt anyone at all!"
Storm's face lit up. "Ah! Now that's a plan! We could do that with our tanks and flyer bug brigade! But how'd we go about locating them, ma'am!?"
Smidge rubbed her hands together, looking quite wicked. "Just leave that to me."
A/N: The idea for Legsly coming out of a wormhole was inspired by one of Dreamsinger's theories in a review on an earlier chapter. At first, she was just going to randomly appear and help the others figure out how to solve their problems, but the Trolls world does have wormholes, so that answer actually makes this make more sense. I mean TBGO had a whole episode called "The Wormhole" where everyone was jumping through wormholes the whole time.
