Draal was training Jim in his backyard. Jim had his armor on. Draal has his own weapon against Jim's sword. Jim swung his sword around and fell, his sword disappearing. Draal pointed his weapon at Jim's neck. "I think I just broke my butt," Jim said.
"Where there is an actual battle, Trollhunter, you would have just been deprived of your right leg, three fingers, and your gronk-nuks."
"Sorry," he said. "I guess I'm just a little distracted tonight."
Draal attacked him again with his weapon. "Bular will use your distraction as an opportunity." He said. "To cleave your head from your shoulders." He knocked Jim down. "What has you distracted this night?" Draal asked, holding out his hand to help him up.
"You wouldn't understand," Jim told him, taking his hand. Draal pulled him by his hand and flipped him to the other side of him, putting his weapon against him. "I am the son of the former Trollhunter, Trollhunter." He said.
"I'm a little preoccupied about kissing Claire."
"I don't understand."
"The school play, Romeo and Juliet. We're rehearsing the kissing scene and I have to kiss her tomorrow."
"Kissing?" Draal picked him up and set him down on a rock. "What is this kissing?"
"When two people like each other, they put their mouths together. And depending on how much they like each other, the longer the kiss. Sometimes for hours."
"Disgusting. Killing sounds easier."
Jim's armor disappeared. "Draal, I really like her. If I blow our first kiss, I might not get a second or a third."
"You're afraid."
"I know, I know. The first rule: always be afraid. But that's with trolls, not girls. Girls are the opposite of trolls."
"I once had similar stirrings for an impure. I know of something that may help. If these 'girls' require you not to be afraid, then you need a Grit-Shaka."
"Is that a protein shake?"
"A grit-shaka is a totem used by the GumGums. If you wear it, it banishes all cowardice. Makes you fierce and ready for battle."
"You wouldn't happen to have one of these, would you?"
***
Strickler sat down on a bench, where Mrs. Nunez was playing peek-a-boo with Not-Enrique. She sat down next to them and opened a book. Mrs. Nunez's phone ran and she got up to answer it. "This is councilwoman Nunez."
Once she was gone, Strickler looked at Not-Enrique. "We are meeting today to activate the eyestone."
Not-Enrique changed into his troll form. "You mean, we're gonna finally be able to talk to the big honcho?" he asked. "I can't. Your prize pupil did a number on me new home and now I can't leave the house."
"You've been exposed?"
"What was I supposed to do? The fleshbag used a gaggletack on me!"
"Bular will be upset."
"This could be a good thing! They think I'm helping them. I've learned things."
"Like?"
"Mr. Six-eyes and Big Scary Name..."
"Blinky and Aaarrrgghh."
"Yeah, the big one don't talk much, but the smart one's certainly taken to the boy. You should have seen how he stood up for him against the old goat man. Mr. Trollmarket."
"Vendel? Wait, you've been to Trollmarket?"
He smiled. "They take me all the time now."
"From now on, you report only to me." He turned the stroller toward him. "Perhaps there are some things Bular doesn't need to know."
"Go ahead and do that," Mrs. Nunez walked back to them. "Have a nice day."
Not-Enrique hid under his blanket and Mrs. Nunez gave Strickler a suspicious look as she turned the stroller back to her. "Who is a lovely adorable baby?" Strickler said to Not-Enrique. "Wish they could stay that age forever, right?"
***
"Mr. Strickler's out today, so I'm subbing," Coach said during Strickler's history class. "he asked me to fill in to teach you some history. So, without further ado, I present Gun Robot 3!"
The movie started and Toby turned to Jim. "So, today's the big day," he said, "El smoocho, doth yonder. Any breath mints?"
Jim looked in his bag and saw the glowing, green necklace Draal gave him. He closed the bag. "I got sweaty palms," he said. "What if I do it weird? What if I can't breathe? Look at her. Look at her!" he gestured to Claire, who was chewing on a pencil. "How can she be so calm?"
Claire set the pencil down and Mary took it. "Don't act coy, C-Bomb," she said. "I know it's all you're thinking about."
"It's just acting, Mare," she said. "Nothing more."
"Nothing more than a little of this." She said, making kissing noises. She looked at Jim and saw him looking at her. They both looked away from each other. "What you two need is a little chemistry lesson," Mary said, standing up.
"Chemistry? Mary, don't!"
"Coach Lawrence?" she said. "Jim took my seat!"
"Lake, give her back her seat!" Coach said, not looking up from the magazine he was reading. Jim stood up and sat down next to Claire. Claire went to writing something in her notebook and Jim looked at Toby and shrugged.
"Talk to her," he mouthed.
He turned to Claire and opened his mouth to say something but stopped. He saw the Grit-Shaka glowing in his bag and picked it up. He put it around his neck and felt all his fear melt away from his body. He looked at Claire. "So," he said. "This is awkward, right? Stage kiss."
"And they say comedy is hard," Claire said.
"I know, right?"
"Can you believe it? It's like the whole school's interested in our play."
"Full disclosure," he moved his desk closer to hers. "Toby even gave me breath mints."
She giggled. Toby watched them laughing and giggling and looked at Mary. "Hey, Mary!" he moved his desk closer to hers. "You got a date for the play? You do now."
"I'm in the play, you dork. Don't gross me out."
"Noted," he moved his desk back to where it was.
***
Toby had a hard time opening his locker. "These things are like bear traps..."
Jim walked to his locker, hit it three times, and it opened. "You just opened your locker on the first try!" Toby said.
"Tobes, it's the grit-shaka!" he said, pointing to the necklace.
"That thing has a name?" Toby asked.
"It's like a courage totem. Draal gave it to me for the kissing scene today. And Tobes, you should have heard me with her in class! I was killing it!"
"Wait, I'm sorry, time out. Draal, our Draal, is helping you with chicks?"
"It's supposed to make you brave, but, I'm feeling really good. It makes me feel like I can do anything."
Toby went back to trying to open his locker. Jim hit it once and it popped open. "Wow," Toby said. "It made you cool!"
"I'm not just cool, Tobes. I'm crispy."
***
"So, what's the special, Judy?" Jim asked the lunch lady at lunch. "Besides that lovely smile on your face."
"Chicken surprise," she said with no smile.
"Chicken surprise?" Toby asked. "No one orders that. It's like a death sentence!"
"Bring on the surprise."
Judy dumped a brown, chunky liquid on his plate. "Make it two?" Toby reluctantly said.
~~~
I feel horrible," he said later.
"I feel cleansed!" Jim said. "What should I do now?"
~~
In math class, he wrote a big equation on the board. "and that is how you solve for X."
He sat down in Miss. Janeth's chair and put his feet up on the desk. "Well, I admire your gusto, Mr. Lake. But that is not remotely correct. And this isn't your class!"
~~~
Jim walked into the teacher's lounge to see Uhl and Coach talking. "Miss. Janeth, she is not married, no?" Senor Uhl asked. They saw Jim walk in and he poured himself a cup of coffee. "This is the teacher's lounge, Senor. Lake." Senor Uhl told him. "Students are forbidden."
"Which is exactly why I'm here. Testing limits, breaking rules. Plus," he drank the coffee he poured. "Best java in school. The thing is, I don't even like coffee." He walked out. "Hasta luego!"
***
"Hey, Claire," Toby said to Claire. "Have you seen Jim? I kind of lost track of him."
"Yeah, what's going on?" she asked. "Everyone's talking about him. He's been all over school, making a spectacle about himself."
Jim could be heard over the loudspeaker.
"Hey, everybody. Jimmy Lake here. Just a quick reminder for everybody to keep it crispy! Also, I taught myself bass guitar in the band room. This one goes out to my Juliet." He started playing the guitar and started singing badly. "When our lips meet, fireworks!"
Uhl could be heard over the loudspeaker. "How did you get in here? Give me that thing!"
"You can't stop the passion, man! You can only fuel the fire!"
"Yeah? Watch me!"
Claire walked away and Toby sighed. "This is bad."
***
Strickler walked into the museum, where Bular, a goblin, Nomura, and the German guy were standing in front of the bridge. "We've been waiting," Bular said.
"Are we quite ready?" The German guy asked. "Then let's party!"
He went over to the briefcase. "The eyestone. The last piece, it is complete."
He picked up a glowing, blue, triangle stone. It floated out of his hands and made its way toward the bridge. Nothing happened.
"It doesn't work," Bular said.
"Bular, patience," the German guy said. The eyestone started glowing and the portal started to open. A figure could be seen on the other side. "Son..."
Bular looked at the figure. "Father."
"His voice is so scary," the German guy smiled.
Bular got closer to the portal. "Father, your release from exile will soon be at hand."
"Your dark excellence," Strickler got closer to the portal. "I am humbly in your service. Killahead is nearly complete and you will soon be free."
"This pleases me, Stricklander," Gunmar said. "You have done well."
"You hum--"
"Father," Bular said, pushing past him. "The mantle of Trollhunter has fallen to a human. And this impure has ordered me not to harm the boy."
"Your excellence," Strickler said. "Killing a human child will bring too much scrutiny down upon us."
"And he has forbidden me to take the amulet from him."
"Lord Gunmar, until the Bridge is complete, it is ill-advised to—"
"Enough!" Gunmar said. "You make my exile even more intolerable for your bickering. Stricklander is correct. Nothing is more important than preventing our plan from being discovered by our enemies. But from now on, my son will be giving the orders. I will speak with my son alone. Now!"
"As you wish, your greatness."
The three changelings and the goblin walked out, leaving Bular alone with his father.
"What has become of Stricklander?" Gunmar asked. "He appears to have grown soft."
"In his human guise, he has become the boy's teacher," Bular said. "I believe he has affection for the child."
"You question his loyalties?"
"I do, father."
"If his heart has turned, we must know. Test him."
"With pleasure."
***
"Higher," Blinky told Aaarrrgghh, who was lifting the floor of the forge that lifts up. Aaarrrgghh didn't move it. "Just a little higher," Blinky said, sticking his head out from below the floor.
"Arms hurt," Aaarrrgghh told him.
"Focus on how Master Jim's arms will hurt, should this training equipment malfunction!"
Toby ran into the forge. "Blinky! Blinky! Wingman! We got trouble! It's Draal. I mean, it's Jim. But it's Draal's fault."
"Did Draal kill Jim?" Blinky asked. "I never should have consented to Draal supplementing Master Jim's training."
"He didn't kill him," Toby said. "He gave him something. It's like a totem. A 'great shake' or something. It's making Jim crazy."
"Crazy?" Aaarrrgghh asked.
"Yeah, it's like he's drunk or something. He's completely without fear or impulse control. And he's totally 'crispy'."
Blinky got out from beneath the floor. "Tobias, this totem, was it a Grit-shaka?"
"Yes! That's it!"
"No fear," Aaarrrgghh said, dropping the floor.
"That's how it works on troll physiology," Blinky said. "But how would it act on a human?"
***
"Oh, be some other name," Claire said from onstage. "What's in a name? That which we call a rose, by any other name would smell as sweet."
"Not as sweet as thee, milady," Jim stepped onstage, holding a script. "And Romeo is here and ready to bring the thunder!" he put his arm around Claire.
"That's not the line, Jim," Claire said.
"Yeah, I had a few thoughts about the script." He handed Claire his new copy of the script. "You rewrote Shakespeare?" she asked.
"I punched up the comedy, amped up the action, added a little more je ne sais quoi, romance."
"He rewrote Shakespeare!"
"A car chase!" Eli said from the audience.
"After a few hundred years," Jim said. "The play was just feeling a little dated, you know. And what's with all the deaths? Gosh! What is this, a tragedy?"
Miss. Janeth stood up. "Be that as it may, Mr. Lake, we've spent months rehearsing the 'dated' pages."
"So, how about we do it the way it was originally written?" Claire asked.
"Sure. Why say we bore the audience with your acting."
"What's going on? You used to be the nicest guy. Now, you're throwing parties, trashing my house, and now this? This isn't you, Jim."
"It's me. It's totally me! Just the better me."
"Well, it's not better. I know you think you're being cool-"
"You're right. I'm not cool. I'm crispy!"
He went in to kiss her, but she threw him to the ground. "Call it what you want," She said. "But you're being a jerk." She walked off and he stood up.
"So, no kiss then?"
She threw the script at him. "No, skin off my back!" He said. "Didn't want it anyway!"
"What about the car chase?" Eli asked.
***
"Give me a tattoo," Jim said to a tattoo-giving troll. "Of a broken heart. With a crack in the middle. And make it weep."
The troll was about to give him the tattoo, but Blinky, Aaarrrgghh, and Toby ran over to them. "Cease this madness!" Blinky said.
"Hey!" Jim said. "Perfect timing, buds! Let's all get tats!"
Blinky looked at the troll. "If you would give us a moment."
The troll nodded and walked off. "Great Gronka Morka," Blinky said. "It's even worse than you said. Master Jim, the Grit-Shaka."
"Cool, right?" Jim said. "I mean, crispy."
"I was thinking more along the lines of 'unholy' and 'disturbing'."
"Dangerous," Aaarrrgghh said.
"That too. Master Jim, that is a GumGum totem, reason enough to be wary of it. But the fact that you're a human makes its effects unpredictable!"
"That necklace is not a good look for you," Toby said.
"What is this?" Jim asked. "An intervention?"
"If need be."
"Well, need not be! I'm fine. I am better than fine. And if you want the grit-shaka, you're gonna have to take it from me."
"Come on, Jimbo," Toby said. "We don't have to go there."
Jim out the amulet. "For the glory of Merlin, Daylight is mine to command!" He raised it in the air. "Holla!"
The armor appeared on him. "Or maybe we do," Toby said.
"That's right!" Jim said. "I just went there!"
Aaarrrgghh stepped closer to Jim.
"Be gentle with him," Toby told him.
Aaarrrgghh lunged at him, but he dodged and ran off. "The grit-shaka has changed him, indeed," Blinky said. "Master Jim was never this nimble. I mean, this is terrible!"
They chased after Jim.
"Master Jim, I beg of you, do not lose yourself," Blinky said.
"Lose? I found myself! And I wasn't even looking for me."
"The grit-shaka's effect on you is false, which makes it dangerous. You should always be afraid! If Bular attacked you in this state, you would not be able to defend yourself."
"Oh yeah?" He asked. "I'll show you. I'm not afraid of Bular. I'm not afraid of anything! I'll show you! I'll fight Bular! I will end him today!" he ran off, leaving Toby and the two trolls in the middle of Trollmarket.
"that went poorly," Blinky said. "Fortunately, Jim has no means by which he can locate Bular."
"That's not exactly true," Toby said.
***
"Not-Enrique!" Toby called up to the changeling's bedroom. "Have you seen Jim?"
"Get away!" he said. "You're gonna blow me cover."
"Come on! Did you tell Jim where Bular's hiding?"
"If a bloke wants to commit suicide, who am I to stand in his way?" he went back in his crib. "Where did he go?" Toby asked.
"I can't hear you."
Toby pulled out a sock from his pocket. "I got sticky sweat socks. Haven't been washed all week."
He went back to the window. "Give me, give me, give me!"
"Now, tell me where Jim is!"
***
Jim walked through the sewers with his sword in his hand. "I'm not afraid of you, Bular."
"Not-Enrique said he's hiding in the sewers," Toby said to Blinky and Aaarrrgghh from the edge of the sewers. "I'll scout from above while you and Aaarrrgghh search below."
"Good idea," Blinky said, already in the sewers."
Jim continued walking through the sewers. "Hey, Bular! Yo, Bular!" He pointed his sword at a rat and it ran off. "Yeah, you better scurry."
He continued walking through the sewer. "Bular!"
Blinky and Aaarrrgghh could hear Jim. "Master Jim!" Blinky called.
"Bular! It is I, the Trollhunter! Your nemesis challenges you!"
He looked at a goblin, and Bular went over to them. "There you are, you ugly troll!" Jim said. "Let's see how tough you are without cars to throw at people, shall we?"
Bular got closer to him.
"I saw the Bridge," Jim continued. "I know what you and your pals are up to. But it ends tonight, baby!"
Bular looked at the grit-shaka around his neck. "A grit-shaka!" He laughed. "Now I understand why you are so quick to race to your death."
"Excuse you! I'm not racing anywhere. And the only 'death' tonight is gonna be your pride!"
He charged at him and swung his sword at him, barely hitting him. He managed to cut Bular's hand and he growled. "I bet that hurt--"
Bular turned around and hit him, sending him flying. His sword flew out of his hands and disappeared. Toby was calling his name from above him. "Jim? Jim!"
Jim sat up and noticed that the grit-shaka wasn't on him anymore. "No, no, no!"
Bular got closer to him, holding the necklace. "Lose something, Trollhunter?"
He dropped the grit-shaka and smashed it. Jim tried summoning his sword, but it didn't work. He back up from the evil GumGum. "Good," Bular said. "The fear will tenderize your flesh."
"Jim!" Toby called from the streets.
"Toby!" Jim said. "Where am I? What's going on?"
Toby tried opening the sewer. "I can't get it open!"
Bular lunged at him.
Toby pulled with all his strength. "For the glory of Merlin!"
He managed to open it, surrounding Jim with light. Bular went toward him but was burned by the light. He backed into the darkness. Blinky and Aaarrrgghh found him and went toward him. "Master Jim!"
The goblin opened the sewer above them and let the light shine through. They couldn't get past the light. Bular was circling Jim. Toby reached into the sewer. "Come on! Grab my hand!"
Jim jumped as high as he could and tried grabbing his hand "I can't reach!" he said. "The armor! It's too heavy, Tobes!"
"Pathetic that you meet your end in a sewer, Young Atlas," Bular said.
Jim froze in realization as memories of Strickler came through his mind.
"Atlas too carried the weight of the world on his shoulders."
"Watch yourself, Young Atlas."
"Take care of your back, Young Atlas."
"Master Jim!" Blinky said. "Get out of there!"
Bular swung at him with his sword, but Jim jumped further into the light. He swung his sword onto the ground. He tried pulling it out, but it was stuck. He looked at Bular, then the sword, then up at Toby, who was telling him to grab his hand. "I lost the grit-shaka," Jim said, stepping on the sword and taking off the amulet. "But I can still be brave."
Bular managed to lift his sword, sending Jim to the top of the sewer, where he grabbed Toby's hand. Toby pulled him up and closed the sewer lid. "Strickler's a changeling," Jim said.
"I never trusted him," Toby said. "Also, you've been a real turd today."
"And I smell like one too. Thanks for saving my neck. I owe you one."
"Yeah, great. Just don't ever say 'crispy' again."
"Deal."
A car stopped in front of them and the lady honked her horn. "Move it!"
***
"You did what?"
"I called him Young Atlas," Bular told Strickler.
"But I call him that! Me alone!"
"You should have seen his face."
"He'll know I'm working with you. He'll know I'm a changeling. Of all the idiotic things you've done, you imbecile!"
"I gave him the order," Gunmar said from the other side of the portal.
"Call it a test," Bular said.
"A test?"
"To lead him to you," Gunmar said. "So that when the time comes, you will kill the boy. And free me with his amulet."