A/N:

So the plan's set in motion I guess XD Let's see how this goes!

*Flynn's POV*

"So run this by me again why we're not staying at Slappy's." I said as the seven of us made our way around the Town again.

"Because that's the first place R.J would look for you; so if you're all in the Town then he's going to have a hell of a time keeping track." Talia answered.

As far as I knew Slappy, Runt, Rita and the others were already ahead of us in waiting. I could kind of understand why being here was better to keep us safe. And anyway, R.J was going to be waiting at the warehouse so it's not like we needed to be that careful. But still I'd rather go with them. I was looking forward to giving that creep a good smack around the mouth so hard he wouldn't be able to complain about it! But as if Talia was letting me get that close to him. So why was I meant to let her and the others do the same? It was hardly fair but when does anyone ever listen to me?

No that was harsh, they listen a lot, maybe too much. I guess after what happened last time, I didn't see what else R.J could do to us. So why did we have to stay here? So we don't find out exactly what else he could do to us I guess… There was no arguing anyway. I was staying in the Town with Poppy, and hoping for the best. But I figured, Talia's been through a lot, right? Who says she can't handle this? She's my sister, and I know she can do it. Whatever it is they're planning.

"We'll be back by tonight." She said.

"Promise?" Poppy asked nervously.

"Relax, Red, we'll have her back by curfew." Yakko winked, ruffling her hair.

"Curfew?" Wakko scoffed, putting an arm over her shoulder, "More like dinner time!"

"After visiting our most special of friends of course." Dot smiled wickedly.

I'd feel sorry for R.J if I didn't know better, "Give him one for me." I muttered, pushing my right fist into my left palm. The three winked and gave me a triple thumbs up.

Jack was keeping a distance, wanting this to be a family thing or something like that. I wasn't complaining, but I still didn't really trust him. A little because of what happened before, but also because now he was trying too hard. God dude stop trying to please us all the time and just do your own thing! In other words, grow a pair! Jeez Talia would kill me if I said that out loud.

"I could still come." I muttered, shrugging a little, "Poppy can stay with -"

"No." Talia said sternly. When I huffed, she put her hands on my shoulders, "What would you do in my position?"

Damn it… "Same thing I guess…"

Next thing I knew she had me in a hug. Jeez this was embarrassing… But I still couldn't help but hug her back. I wasn't an active hypocrite, but that didn't mean I couldn't be a mental one. Poppy waited us out before Talia held out an arm to join her in too. It was nice I guess, and letting go meant they were leaving, but after the Warner's started playing sad tunes on the violin and Dot was bawling I pulled back.

"Dinner time." Poppy nodded with determination and holding out her pinkie-finger, "You'll be back by dinner. Promise?"

Talia locked her finger, "Promise."

I felt a nudge and looked to the side to see the Warners giving me another playful nudge. Yakko nodded, "You got nothing to worry about Slugger. One for all and all for one…"

He was waiting for me to finish, so I did, "Times six."

We watched them leave as we were left with Slappy not far outside of the café we had been in before. Poppy was occupying her time trying to avoid worrying by playing paper-football with Skippy and Pinky. Pinky resulting in face-planting onto the tabletop with every attempt. It got a chuckle out of me to start with, but before long I had to just get out of there for a second. So I got up and went out into the play area just to get some air.

It wasn't fair. There was hardly much I could do to help them, but I still wanted to know what was happening. I kicked a stone and stared off to the rest of the Town. That is, before a pair of neon green eyes jumped right in front of me.

"Hi there!"

"What the-!" I jumped back and got a better sight of the thing, in an outfit of black and white, snowy hair pulled back into a messy pony-tail. It cackled at me, "Dani?"

"Scared ya didn't I?" she asked, bringing up that circle of light thing that transformed her back to her previous black-haired, blue eyed self with her red hat, shorts and blue hoodie.

"Oh please, I deal with scarier things on a daily basis." I scoffed, thinking mostly of the Warner-jump scares and accidental toon reflex kicking in. That wasn't scary, they just came out of nowhere.

"I'd get a doctor to look at that." She smirked, giving my arm a nudge to show she was messing with me, "So what brings you back to this side of town?"

"You mean, This town?"

"Sarcasm, I haven't heard that one before…"

"Same goes for irony…"

"Whatever, it was intentional." She shrugged, "So how come you're here?"

"Uh…" Did I tell her or make something up? Half the trouble around here was the secrets, but wouldn't it just freak her out? Well, I'm no hypocrite so what else could I do? "You're not going to freak out or anything if I say right?"

"When do I ever freak out?" she snapped.

I arched an eyebrow, but continued anyway, "You know the R.J stories are kind of… well he's, uh, he's back and the others have…"

She put a hand on my shoulder to cut me off. I didn't really understand her expression. Was that sympathy or amusement? "I know, don't sweat it."

"Know? What d'you mean you know?"

A sheepish look this time, "I hear things here and there. Things don't exactly stay quiet for long around here."

"But how -"

Again, she cut me off. This time by proving her point of stealth by simply vanishing before reappearing again by my side, dropping an arm on my shoulders smugly. Okay fair point so she had that whole ghost-thing going on. Wait, how long had she been spying on us? Actually, I didn't want to know. I rolled my eyes before flashing her a half smile. Even if she was annoying like that, I guess I kind of liked it about her. Not that I liked her that much I'm just saying that I'd kinda like to be able to sneak around like that. As in… forget it…

"Cheater."

"Jealous?"

"No!"

"Sure…" she winked, "So I take it you're hanging out here for a while till your sister and the Warner's gets back?"

"Pretty much." I shrugged as she stepped back, "Wait, I thought you were all scared of the Warners? Remember? Oh they're dangerous, oh they can't be trusted!"

"I don't sound like that!" she retorted, folding her arms, "Anyways, after watching for a while… I guess I could have listened to the wrong rumours once or twice…"

"You're saying you were wrong?"

"I didn't say that! I'm saying that-"

Now it was my turn to interrupt, "I get it, and I'm sure they'd appreciate that."

"Yeah well… they look like they really care about you guys a lot."

Couldn't really argue with that, "Yeah, I guess they're not so bad when you get to know them." Thank god they weren't here to hear me admit this, "They're actually kind of cool."

"A bit like you then."

"What?"

"What?" she repeated, eyes averting.

I narrowed my eyes as her cheeks turned rosy. What was that supposed to mean? Okay you know what, I've got enough to think about without adding girl mind games to the list. I was still annoyed that I was stuck here playing babysitter for Poppy while they were off getting themselves killed. Sure I didn't want Poppy in danger or myself but that didn't mean that they others could go off instead. And with Jack? Were they nuts? I didn't trust him. He was hiding something, I could just sense it I guess. Toon intuition maybe? God knows.

Dani tilted her head and sniggered at me when I didn't say anything. First she's giving me possibly sarcastic complements and now she's laughing at me? Sure why not, it's not like I don't get that enough. I folded my arms, which just made her smirk more.

"What?" I asked again.

"Nothing." She shrugged, using the light ring to change back to her ghost form, "I've got to head off."

"Where're you going?" I said, a little more loudly then intended, "I mean, uh; oh you snuck out again, didn't you?"

"Hey sneaking around is harder than it looks." She returned, "But if you're going to be here a while, then I'll see you around later?"

Was that a question? Why did she need my permission to come back? "Sure I guess."

"You guess…"

Was this a trap or something? "I guess…"

She sniggered, hovering a few feet off the ground. Something made her neon eyes spark a bit and the next thing I knew she's vanished again, turning completely see-through. I rolled my eyes and allowed a little smirk to slip out. I didn't get her at all. Suddenly, I froze as something I couldn't see; a little warm and soft, but still a bit forceful and clumsy, push against my mouth for a second or two before pulling away. I blinked in shock and looked around for the source but found nothing.

"Dani?" I called out uncertainly, but all I got in answer was another snigger fading out somewhere. What the…

"Hey Flynn!" Poppy yelled, rushing up to me from apparently nowhere and tugged my arm.

"Yeah…?" I asked, for some reason not noticing the smug look on her face.

"You're bright red, you know." She giggled, "Was that your dead girlfriend?"

"She's not dead!" I huffed.

"I suppose she's not you're girlfriend either?" she asked sarcastically.

"She's my friend who's a girl and I guess that…" My mouth felt a bit numb from before, but also a bit tingly. Weird. "She's not… Oh grow up…"

That earned me a playful poke in the sides and a knowing grin, "I can't, remember?"

"Oh, right…" I replied, forcing a smile. But she wasn't stupid, she knew it was fake and her own smile faded a little. My hadn rubbed my mouth to rid the numbness and my mind unwillingly trailed back to the others.

Suddenly, Poppy pushed me playfully before throwing her arms around my waist, "You worry too much, they'll be okay."

I wasn't sure if I believed her or not, but she was just a kid but if she could be this positive, I guess I could give it a go. Vaguely aware that Dani could very likely still be watching, I hid a half smile and put an arm around Poppy.

"I know…"

*Talia's POV*

"Are the Warner's brining up the plot-hole soon?" Jack asked.

I indicated to the three who were up ahead and looking for a good surface to throw the thing onto. Personally I think that they were stalling, trying to come up with a 'special friend' treatment mapped out before getting closer to R.J. I didn't blame them. I let them to it. I'd rather three professionals take charge of the task then just me loosing control all over again. I couldn't speak for Jack, I didn't know his toon-tendencies and felt it too personal a question to ask, but by the looks of it he had it incredibly under control.

"So what do you suggest we do when we find him?"

Jack furrowed his brow in concentration, "Well we'll go in and find him, keep him isolated and get answers. Then all we have to do is give the signal and the back-up security gets him before any hell breaks loose."

It sounded so simple, but I knew it wouldn't be. "Where are they?

"They should be on their way there already." He answered, "We'll meet them further away from the warehouse and arrange a position for them before heading in."

"Great…"

"Hey." He muttered, putting a hand on my shoulder, "It'll be alright. You know it will."

We both knew I didn't, "Come on, better late than never right?"

A chuckle, and he took something out of his pocket to hand to me. It was a tissue, and I noticed that I had accidently let a tear fall. But from fear or loneliness from not having my siblings with me I wasn't sure. I shook my head but gave a grateful smile all the same. Jack shrugged and put the item back in his pocket, but something else tumbled out.

Out of instinct, I bent down to pick it up for him. Only when I straightened up to return the thing did I notice the look of unease on his face. Confused, my eyes lowered to see a medicine bottle in my hands. The smell was so familiar, and the little traces of liquid that escaped it left my skin tingling and uncomfortable. A lump formed in my throat. The bottle was almost empty, only a mouthful or so left. Suddenly, it clicked. The control Jack had over the toon part of him, it wasn't normal. Oh no, please tell me this isn't what it looks like…

"Rosehip oil?" I muttered in disbelief, anger suddenly raising my voice as I repeated it, "Rosehip oil!"

"Talia, listen to me."

"You've been taking rosehip oil even though you promised you'd wait with us until we found a different way?"

"And when was that going to happen?" he snapped, "There is no other way and even if there was you'd just make up more excuses to avoid it! Face it, Talia, you all want to stay like this!"

"I want to stay with my family. And like it or not, Jack, the Warner's are my family too." I returned, outraged that he had dared to accuse me otherwise.

"I'm not saying they aren't! But it's not fair for you to make me jump on the band wagon just so that you can have an excuse not to go back to the way you used to be."

"Don't you dare turn this on me! You offered! I didn't ask! And I never ever intended for any of this! And I would never force this on someone who didn't want it! So don't you dare!"

"I know I offered but -" he groaned and pointed warningly, "I can't! He made me like this and I can't keep doing it anymore! I can't live with what he's done to me!"

"We have to! Why give up now?"

"No you don't! And neither do I! I can't deal with it anymore and you can't make me!"

It was then that I noticed the pain around my forearm where his hand was clenched tightly around it in anger. I looked him right in the eye and glared, "Let. Go. Of. Me."

He noticed what he was doing and instantly released me, "I'm sorry… I just…"

Now it was my turn. I pushed him away from me, "I'm not forcing you to do anything, you know that. We're all living with that that creep has done to us, Jack."

"I'm not as strong as you."

"I'm not strong. I'm just staying with my family. No one ever asked you to tag along."

"I didn't mean for -"

"Just stop." I held out the bottle to him; anger bubbling from the flood of fresh secrets but too broken to deal with it, "It's your life and you can make your own choices. So grow a backbone and chose."

He opened his mouth to say something, but couldn't find the words. I waited, his face growing more conflicted as mine grew colder. I didn't care what he chose. Like I said, it was his choice and he'd had enough of those taken away from him in the past. We all had. And I'll admit that I did want to stay with the others and I didn't have many complaints about the way I was going about it. It was simple, and I was getting the hang of it. In some strange way, I'd become happy with it.

But there is something I'll never admit out loud. And that is how the sudden pang of disappointment and confusion hurt so much when he took the bottle from my hand and turned away.

A/N:

Sorry there's not much Warner's in this one, but there'll be more of them in the next chapter I promise. Oh Jack… you confused little twit… How does this effect the plan? Until next time! XD