————<•>————

'Whoop there it is'
————<•>————

The group met up at night as we crept behind the alleyway of the Lucia movie theatre. Jim looks behind the wall to make sure no one's there before he turns back around to the group.

"All right, coast is clear" Jim whispers as me and Draal start to walk out from behind the wall. "Nothing like a simple mission to get our mojo back, huh?"

"Did you just say 'mojo'?" Claire asks with a raised eyebrow.

"Did you just say 'our'?" I ask as I copy Claire's face.

"Um...no?" Jim questions as Claire and I just roll our eyes before turning back around.

Aaarrrgghh seems to be putting his new sniffer to the test as he crawls around with his nose touching the floor, attempting to smell out anything suspicious.

"Huh, smell poop" Aaarrrgghh says as he pops his head up from behind the dumpster.

"Ew" Claire says with a grimace.

"Do you smell anything other then poop?" I ask with a sigh.

Aaarrrgghh just lifts up the lid of the dumpster and smells inside it as he picks up what looks like poo and eats it.

"Aaarrrgghh! Gross!" I gag as I dramatically pretend to throw up as Jim pats my back.

"Double Ew" Claire agrees.

Aaarrrgghh wasn't done with the dumpster as he continues to sniff inside it before lifting something out of it.

"Aaarrrgghh what is it?" Blinky asks as the troll licks the item with a pleased hum.

"Mm, cat!" Aaarrrgghh says as he continues to smell the item in his hand. "No. Blood goblin"

"Please tell me that the goblins didn't eat the cat" I ask nervously as Aaarrrgghh and Blinky just awkwardly stare at me before continuing their conversation as I sigh in defeat for the poor cat.

"It cannot be" Blinky gasps.

"Blood goblins? Are those the green ones or the blue ones?" Toby asks confused as I try to remember ever seeing blue goblins. I should really pay attention more.

"Contrary to their name, blood goblins are white" Blinky says.

"So their like vampires but in goblin form" I say as I laugh at the irony.

"Vamplins" Toby joins in as we giggle quietly to each other.

"But they can't be here! The only place you can find white goblins is..." Claire starts as Toby and I immediately stop giggling as we realise what this means.

"The Darklands" Jim sighs as he takes a seat on a box with a defeated expression on his face.

"No way! We destroyed the bridge" Toby disagrees as I quietly walk over to Jim and lay a comforting hand on his shoulder.

"It's possible though. Draal left his post to save us. That could've been enough time for something to get out" I mumble as I start to get a bad feeling about the whole situation.

"What if that something could also be Gunmar" Jim asks but Blinky immediately starts shaking his head.

"No, no, no. We would know if he got out" Blinky shakes his head.

"How?" I hesitantly ask.

"Death would be on every doorstep, Arcadia turned to ash. We would know. These are just a few goblins. A few ferocious, insatiable, bloodthirsty-" Blinky starts as I quickly cut him off.

"Yep! We get it Blink. Goblins equal bad" I say as I look to Jim's upset face.

The boy would definitely be blaming himself as usual.

"Jim, there's something we've been meaning to ask you" Toby starts to say as i signal for him to shut up.

Definitely not the time.

"Toby!" Claire quickly cuts him off with a shake of her head.

"Okay! If these little vamplins are in Arcadia, how do we find them?" I quickly ask as I change the topic back to the goblins.

"We don't find them, they find us" Jim sighs miserably as he stands up from the box. "Once they're on your scent you can't shake 'em. They're gonna be after me"

"But you weren't the only one in there. Nomura was with you" Toby adds on.

"Nomura skipped town as soon as we got out. She's long gone" Claire disagrees.

"Well, then why aren't they here?" Toby asks as I start to look around.

"Maybe they are" I mumble but Jim shakes his head.

"No. It's because someone else was in there too" Jim says with wide eyes.

————<•>————

To say I was worried about Chompsky was an understatement. I loved the little gnome who would always sit on my shoulder and snuggle into my neck. So of course when we realised he was in danger, we all quickly made our way to Toby's house.

Claire, Jim, Toby and I went through Toby's house as Blinky and Aaarrrgghh snuck in from outside. Toby quickly distracted his granny while Blinky and Aaarrrgghh snuck past the window and then we quickly went up to Toby's room.

But when Toby opened the door, it was not a good sight. The room was completely trashed with the dollhouse door open, fallen books all over the floor and the lamp on the ground.

"Chompsky?" Toby hesitantly calls into the room only to get no answer. "No, not Chompsky"

Toby and I quickly looked in the dollhouse only to find it completely empty with all the mini furniture inside all knocked over.

"Oh no" I sigh as I run a frustrated hand over my face.

I sit up and my mood only gets worse as I see Jim holding onto little chompskys hat.

"Chompsky" Toby whimpers as he grabs the hat from Jim and cuddles it to his chest.

"Poor gnome" Aaarrrgghh mumbles.

"It was supposed to be a simple mission" Jim sighs sadly.

"There's no such thing as a simple mission Jim, you know that" I mumble as Jim sighs and sits down on the chair sadly.

I sigh as I walk over to him and comfortably lay my hand on his shoulder as Jim lays one of his hands over mine.

"The little guy survives the Darklands, then goes out like this?" Toby whimpers as tears run down his face. "Nothings been right since...since..."

"Toby" I warn but Toby just shakes his head as he narrows his eyes at Jim.

"Why did you go into the Darklands without us?" Toby exclaims as he glares at Jim angrily.

"Whoop there it is" I sigh as I take my hand off Jim's shoulder and let it fall to my side.

"Wait what?" Jim ask confused as he looks from them to me with a confused face.

"We found the amulet together, we trained together, we killed Angor Rot together! And then you just left us!" Toby exclaims angrily and I cant help but agree with him.

Everything we've done, we did it as a team. That's why we succeeded all the time, because we worked together. We didn't leave each-other, we didn't doubt eachother, we worked together. But that all changed when Jim left by himself to the Darklands.

"Wait, is this how you all feel?" Jim asks as he looks at us sadly.

"You promised we'd get my brother, together" Claire agrees.

"Jim, everything we've done, we did it together!" I say with a sigh.

"After everything we've been through, you said it was the 'trollhunters' not the 'trollhunter'." Blinky points out as we all nod in agreement.

"Gunnar wanted revenge for killing his son. The amulet chose me to protect you" Jim exclaims as I shake my head.

"If your busy protecting us then who's going to protect you!" I exclaim with narrowed eyes.

"We protect each other Jim" Claire agrees.

Jim just sighs in frustration as he slumps back down into the chair and looks down at his hands.

"When I saw Aaarrrgghh die...I couldn't bear losing any more of you" Jim whispers sadly as we all look down gloomily. "I just wish everything could go back to the way things were, when everything was...normal."

I cant help but agree with that. Everything was so much easier when things were normal. That was also the reason why I was tempted to get rid of my powers altogether, but I guess along the way, you start to understand that the best things are the hardest, and taking the easy way out won't get you anywhere.

"Yeah, the Darklands was a failure. I went in alone so you wouldn't have to. But classic Jim, you guys have to rescue me anyway. Some hero I am" Jim mumbles sadly, once again doubting his capabilities.

We all walk over to Jim as Toby softly hands Blinky Chompskys hat as the troll holds the hat infront of the boy.

"The amulet made you a trollhunter. You made yourself a hero" Blinky say softly as he hands the hat to Jim.

"Even hero's make mistakes. Your still human Jim, it happens, it's how the world works" I whisper softly as I lean my hands on the back of his chair.

"But Chompsky didn't deserve this. He may have been small, but he had a big..." Jim starts to say as he raises the hat in the air, only for Aaarrrgghh to start sniffing the hat. "You mind? I was trying to give a eulogy"

"Wait...can you smell them?" I ask as Aaarrrgghh seems to nod his head and continue following the smell as he sniffs the air.

"By gorgus, he's picked up their scent!" Blinky replies happily.

"The goblins?" Claire asks confused but Aaarrrgghh just shakes his head.

"Gnome" Aaarrrgghh states as we all gasp excitedly.

"Chompskys alive?" Toby asks happily before looking around at all of us. "What are we waiting for? Let's go find him!"

————<•>————

We end up following Aaarrrgghh into a creepy alleyway. I always wonder why we always happen to be in alleyways, their very dodgy places.

"They're inside" Jim points out as we stop outside what looks like an abandoned building.

We all tip toe towards the door quietly as Toby tries the door handle only for nothing to happen.

I surround the door in F/c energy as I go to rip it off, only for Blinky to quickly grab onto my hands and move them away from the door.

"Hush! Your powers would only cause a ruckus and alert them of our presence! We must be silent" Blinky points out as I sigh and let my hands fall to my side.

Jim seems to attempt to climb up the wall to the window as Claire lets out an obnoxious cough to get his attention. He looks towards us with a sigh as he sees the smirks on our faces.

"Let me guess? Shortcut?" Jim asks with a blank face as Claire just summons a portal.

We all go through it to find our surroundings being some warehouse with boxes everywhere. Jim peeks over a box before turning back around, Toby signalling for everyone to go the other way as we sneakily run.

Toby seems to jump and roll around sneakily as I sigh and stay close to him incase of trouble. Toby then opens a box and quickly signals for me to look inside as I peek over his shoulder and gasp.

"We're in a fireworks warehouse?" I ask as Toby excitedly nods.

"So cool right?" Toby whispers as I just shake my head.

"More like a disaster waiting to happen" I mumble as I grab his arm and pull him towards the rest of the group.

"Toby focus! We're here to save Chompsky" Claire whispers over to him as Toby nods.

"Your right. But we're coming back here later" Toby points out as I sigh and run a hand over my face.

"Sure Toby" I mumble as I start to feel a lot like the boys babysitter.

We all suddenly stop behind a box and peek our heads over to see the blood gremlins. They had a fire going with a parilla over it, Chompsky tied to the metal pole as they twirled the stick around to cook the poor gnome.

"Looks like there's two of 'em. I'll flank right, you take left" Jim whispers to us as I hesitantly nod my head.

"There should be more, shouldn't there?" Toby whimpers.

"Don't jinx it Toby" I sigh, but it was too late.

A screech came from above us as we look up to see a blood goblin launch himself off the crate and right onto Blinkys face as Blinky starts yelling and running around.

"Off me, you foul beast!" Blinky exclaims as he attempts to pull the goblin off his face.

Apparently we were making too much noise as the goblins near the fire both snarl at us before attacking.

I yell out as one jumps on my back as the other seems to jump on Claire's staff. I attempt to reach behind me to grab it but it clings to my body like a koala.

"For the glory of Merlin, daylight is mine to command!" I hear Jim quickly yell.

I summoned my staff as I attempted to whack the goblin off my back but I only end up missing as I stumble around.

"Stay still!" Jim yells to me as he attempts to whack the goblin on my back.

"Easier said then done!" I yell back as I try to stop moving.

Jim takes that moment to quickly slice his sword down on the goblin, only the goblin moved too fast and had already jumped off my back and onto a crate near me.

I take my moment of freedom to quickly turn to Claire to find her on the ground with a goblin trying to hit at her, the only thing between them is her staff. I quickly run over and whack my staff upside the goblins head as it goes flying into the crates as I quickly help Claire up.

"Thanks" Claire mumbles as she dusts her clothes off.

"Saving you is what I do" I say playfully before turning around to find the same goblin still on Blinkys head. "You need some help Blinky?"

"I've. Got. It." Blinky yelled back, his head being hit against the ground after every word.

I sigh to myself before turning to Toby's direction to make sure he hasn't done anything stupid, only to find the firework crates set on fire behind him.

"Toby!" I yell as Toby starts freaking out.

"It wasn't me this time I swear!" Toby yells back as he jumps off the ground and starts freaking out.

Aaarrrgghh and I walk over to Toby as we watch the fire spread to all the other crates. Why would they put fireworks in wooden crates? That's a disaster waiting to happen.

"Do we put it out? Do we put it out? Or should we see what happens?" Toby continues to yell to us as Aaarrgghh and I stand there not knowing what to do.

Suddenly Aaarrrgghh (being the loveable idiot he is) decides to blow on the fire, this only causing the fire to spread more as Toby and I yell.

"Oh...see what happen" Aaarrrgghh says in realisation as I slap a hand on my forehead.

Toby suddenly grabbed a firework to throw at it as I quickly grab his arm to stop him. I really am the babysitter today.

"Okay! What we're not going to do is throw a firework on fire! We need water or a fire extinguisher! Does anyone have any of those?" I yell loudly in a state of panic while also trying to keep my cool for Toby's sake.

"I found one! Stand back!" Claire yells as she came running over with a fire extinguisher. The fire extinguisher only lets out a small hiss as nothing comes out of it.

"Ugh! Useless!" Claire hisses as she try's to fix it, not seeing the goblin come up behind her as I quickly throw an F/c energy blast at it as it goes flying into the crates. "Woah...thanks Y/n!"

The fireworks then start to go off as they go flying around and exploding at random. I yell as I quickly duck as one goes flying towards my face as I quickly make sure none of my hair isn't fried.

"This is not safe at all!" I yell as I duck under cover.

"Behold! Our dreams and nightmares are uniting!" I hear Toby yell as I look over to find him standing on a crate with fireworks going on around him.

"Tobias! You get down here right now!" I yell but Toby just sticks his tongue out at me childish as he laughs.

His laughing quickly stops when a goblin jumps on his face, the boy running around as he tries to get it off as I sigh in annoyance.

"Y/n help me! Get it off! Get it off!" Toby yells as he jumps off the crate and starts running around like crazy as I try to get close to the frightened boy.

"Will you stay still!" I yell as I throw my hand out and hold him still with my powers. I sigh in relief and peel the goblin off his face as I throw it roughly on the ground, Toby grabbing his Warhammer and squishing it as the goo flys onto his shirt.

"Ew! It died on me!" Toby whimpers as I just shake my head.

"Circle of life" Aaarrrgghh comforts as he pats the boys back.

We quickly gather around in a circle as we look around for Jim, the boy seemed to be fighting with a goblin...only he was talking to it?

"Master Jim quickly! We saved the gnome! We must get out of here!" Blinky yells as I go to run over to Jim, only for a bunch of crates to fall right in front of me as I yell and fall backwards. Claire quickly grabs my arm as she pulls me up and away from the fire as we all watch Jim.

The fire seems to be too much as we completely loose sight of Jim, fireworks exploding around us as we look around for the boy.

"Jim! Jim!" I yell out in a hoarse voice from all the smoke.

"Where are you Jim!" Claire yells but we get no answer.

The smoke starts to intoxicate our lungs as we all start coughing. I cover my mouth with my arm as I look around for the boy. Suddenly Jim comes running out from behind a box as he quickly runs through the fire and towards us.

"Come on!" Jim yells as Claire doesn't waste a second to open the portal, everyone jumping in quickly as fireworks continue to explode everywhere.

When we make it back to the alleyway I feel like I can finally breath again as I take a large breath of fresh air. We all look towards the warehouse and watch as fireworks continue to explode in the sky.

"Fireworks. So much nicer from a distance" Claire jokes as I let out a small laugh.

"Definitely beats almost getting blown up by them" I mumble as I give an annoyed glance towards Toby.

"I swear it wasn't me!" Toby exclaims as I just hum and look away from him.

"Hey" Jim suddenly calls for our attention as he motions to Chompsky and his girlfriend on the ground.

We all gather around him as we watch Chompsky get out a ring and kneel on one knee. The doll seems to say yes as Chompsky happily puts the ring on, only it didn't fit as he tries to slide it on her arms, instead sliding it on her leg as it fits perfectly. Chompsky then happily chitters before grabbing his girlfriend and pulling her in for a very romantic kiss as we all clap for him.

"I'm not sure it's offical, but it's sweet" Blinky comments.

"Congrats Chompsky" I say as the gnome happily chitters at me.

"Looks like some good came out of the Darklands, after all" Jim says as I roll my eyes playfully at him.

"This isn't the only good thing that came out of the dark lands you dingus" I say as I nudge my shoulder with his.

"Yeah! My brother is back because of you" Claire comments happily.

"See. Just because some bad things happened doesn't mean that a lot of good things didn't happen as well. We don't wanna go and change that just because of those few bad things" I say as Jim smiles at me.

"Since when did you get so good at motivational speeches?" Jim asks as he throws his arm around my shoulder as I roll my eyes at him with a playful smile.

"It's a gift" I reply as Jim quietly laughs.

"I guess it is. You alright T.P?" Jim asks as we watch Toby excitedly watch the fireworks.

"Awesome-sauce" Toby replies as Jim and I smile at eachother. "Although I hate that T.Ps catching on"

"Don't deny it. You love it" I say with a smirk as Toby shakes his head.

"I definitely do not" Toby continues to say.

"Admit it Toby. If we stopped calling you T.P, you'd be very upset"