Bagdwella dug through a garbage can and took out a piece of garbage. "Hey!" Someone said. "Who's out there?"
Bagdwella ran through an alleyway before they could see her. She opened a dumpster and saw a troll inside. "Let me in!" she said.
"Get your own dumpster!" The troll said.
She went to a sewer and the troll inside said there was no room. Jim saw her and grabbed her before anyone saw her. Jim's phone rang and he stepped away to answer it. Blinky looked at Bagdwella. "What are you doing out an about this close to sunrise?" he asked.
"You expect me to stay put in this dirty old shack?" She asked. "I'm a proper lady."
"Apologies if these temporary accommodations don't meet your standards, but there are only so many places one can hide. If you prefer, there's a vacant, old port-o-john on Third and Main."
"I'll take the rust wagon."
"I just got tonight's final tally," Jim said, hanging up the phone. "Every troll accounted for, except for one. Which one's Glug?"
"You know Glug," Bagdwella said. "She's hairy, green, always in a tub."
"Right. Well, she's missing and that's kind of a big problem."
"Not to worry, Master Jim," Blinky said. "As long as she doesn't stir up any trouble, we shall locate her before—"
A woman on a TV interrupted him. "Trouble is brewing in Arcadia. A recent crime wave is terrorizing our city. Vandalism, break-ins, trespassers in the night, missing pets...as your re-elected councilwoman, I say no more! I am hereby stepping up police presence across Arcadia. To those responsible for these crimes, the law is coming. We will hunt you down."
***
"What are you babbling on about?" Usurna asked as she and Dictatious walked through the Heartstone. "You look like you've seen a gruesome."
"It spoke," Dictatious said. "It was her. The Pale Lady!"
"Oh, please, that ridiculous relic? This ruse may sway the Underlord—"
"This time, it is real. You do not understand. She reached out. I felt her."
"She is nothing but a foolish legend."
"Quiet! She might hear you."
"She is not here. She has no power over me. I'm so tired of hearing about Mor—"
"Don't! Don't say it!"
"Say what? Morgana. Morgana, Morgana, Morgana!"
The record player started playing and Morgana's voice was heard. "Call to me. Call to me, and it is yours."
***
Usurna walked into the forge, holding the record player, with Dictatious following her. "What are you doing?" Dictatious asked. "You can't—"
"Gunmar must not know of this," she said. "Whatever this is, nothing good can come of it."
"But it's a relic. Ancient, revered."
"And now, lost to the ages."
She dropped the record player off the edge of the forge.
"Dictatious!" Gunmar yelled. "Where is my advisor?"
Usurna grabbed Dictatious by the shoulders. "You and I must keep Gunmar on the path to victory. Our path."
***
Aaarrrgghh walked down the streets, sniffing the ground with Toby on his back. "See you soon, Pookie," Toby texted. "Can't wait for lasers. Kissy face, thumbs up, explosion GIF." His phone beeped and he read the text. "Rocketship, smiley cake? Is that good?"
"What good?" Aaarrrgghh asked.
"Darci and I have a laser tag date tonight and I'm hoping it's the perfect place to share our first kiss. The lights are low, adrenaline is high, lasers are everywhere."
"Humans strange. Must find Glug." He sniffed the air and looked around. He stood in front of a fence and growled. They ran through it and saw an empty bathtub. "Glug's tub," Aaarrrgghh said.
"Jim and the others haven't seen her either. What did she do, disappear?"
"Trolls can't do that."
He walked around an alley and knocked on another fence. "What do you want?" Gut asked.
"We ain't quite open yet," Rot said.
"Glug missing," Aaarrrgghh said.
"I told you, she's been acting strange." Gut said.
"We don't know for sure," Rot said.
"Know what?" Toby asked, digging through the tub.
"Before she was a brewmaster," Gut said. "Glug was quite the troublemaker. Off eating cats and stealing shiny things."
"When we all got booted from Trollmarket," Rot said. "She was really unhappy."
"Said the party was over, and she wanted to start it up again."
Toby picked up a cat collar from the tub. "Look! The crime spree! The police are looking for Glug! Blinky needs to see this. We have to stop her before—"
They heard police sirens and a police car pulled up. "Freeze!" a police officer said. "Hands in the air!"
"The fuzz!" Rot said.
Aaarrrgghh climbed to the top of a building before the police saw him and Toby used the lid of a trash can to hide behind. "I can see you!" the police officer said. "Don't move!"
Toby ran down the sidewalk with the police car chasing him. "Hey, I remember you," the police officer said once he caught up with him. "You're that kid who said he had no bones! You seem to be running just fine now!"
"No," Toby said. "I was just..."
The officer got out of the car. "You were just coming with me."
Aaarrrgghh watched from the top of the building as toby got into the police officer. "Not good."
***
Toby sat in the interrogation room with his hands on his head. "This is bad," he said. "Ten years in juvie bad. Keep cool, man. Keep cool."
Arcadia's detective walked into the room. "So, if it isn't the little man I've been hearing so much about."
"Who? Me?"
"No, the other sweater-vest, mop-top, dopey-eyed dimwit behind you."
Toby turned around, only to see nothing and the detective face-palmed. "What's your deal, kid?"
"My deal? I-I don't know. I like magic and Go-Go Sushi and my—"
"Didn't ask for your life story, apple-cheeks. What were you doing out there?"
"Nothing, sir! Nothing!"
"Sure. It's over, kid. I know everything. And I mean, everything.
"No, you don't understand! This is all a big mistake!"
"You're right about that. A great big mistake, that's dating my daughter!"
"Okay, now I'm lost."
"I'm Detective Scott."
"Weird, that's my girlfriend's last name."
"I am her father!"
"Oh!"
"That's right, 'oh'. You stood her up tonight."
"That's because you arrested me!"
"Don't talk back to me, son! You know, Domzalski, my sweet girl really likes you. In fact, I've asked around. Everybody likes you. But I don't. And now that I've seen your rap sheet, I definitely don't like you. Reports of breaking into houses, joyriding in a stolen truck, and now, picked up for trespassing. What do you have to say for yourself, Domzalski?"
"I'm an orphan. I never had a chance?"
"Don't play games with me!" he slammed his hand on the table and saw the cat's collar Toby had. "This belongs to the McVey cat. Been missing ever since the break-in last week. Where did you get this, kid? What do you know?"
"Please, I can explain!"
A man over his walkie-talkie started talking. "We have a 2-11 in progress. Break-in a Sal's Motor Bikes. All units respond."
"Detective Scott," he said. "I'm on my way." He picked up Toby. "And you're coming with me."
***
"Please, Mr. Scott!" Toby said as he rode in the back of the police car. "I can't go to jail! I really don't do well in confined spaces!"
"I could let you off easy if you never see Darci again. Your call. Think about it."
He pulled up to the shop and saw the shop owner outside. The windows were all broken. "This is a disaster," the shop owner said. "Six new Vespas, all gone! The GTS, the Primaveras."
"Six, you said?" Detective Scott asked.
"Brand new. Chrome so shiny, you could see your reflection."
"Shiny?" Toby said to himself. "Stolen? Glug!"
He quickly dialed a number on his phone. "Come on, Jim, pick up!"
The shop owner looked at Toby. "I know him!" he said. "He trashed one of my scooters a while back!"
Toby looked at him and gave a nervous wave. "What a surprise," Detective Scott said. "That little perp's crimes just keep multiplying. I wonder what else we're going to find out tonight."
He walked ahead and saw track marks going into the sewers. "So, were these track marks here before?" he asked.
"No, not that I'm aware of," he said.
"I think I know where your Vespas are."
He picked up his walkie-talkie. "Dispatch, this is Detective Scott."
Toby called Jim again and this time, he answered. "Hey, what's up, Tobes?" he asked.
"Jim, help!" he said. "I found a cat collar and Darci's dad, he's trying to lock me away forever!"
"Toby, slow down, man!"
"No, listen! Glug's smashing windows, stealing Vespas...she's in the sewers, man! We have to get Glug before the police—"
"Before the police what?" Scott asked. "Who are you talking to? And what's a Glug? A gang? What's Glug got to do with this crime scene?"
Toby locked the door and Scott tugged on the handle. "Open the door!"
"I can't! I really can't! I'm sorry!"
"Toby, who's shouting?" Jim asked over the phone.
Toby looked at the keys that were in the ignition. "Open the door or I'll..." Scott saw him looking at the keys. "Oh, no you don't!"
Toby climbed to the front seat and Scott ran to the front of the car. He pressed the gas pedal and Scott moved out of the way. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" Toby said. "I'm an orphan!"
"You little..." he chased after the car.
"What about my Vespas?" the shop owner asked.
Scott grabbed his walkie-talkie. "Dispatch, I have a runner. Pursuing on foot. The suspect has a sweater vest and a very punchable face.
Toby drove the car a little slow with the lights blaring. "Tobes! Tobes!" Jim said. "What is going on over there?"
"I stole a cop car! I'm in a high-speed chase!"
"Toby, get out of the car!"
"You're right! They can track me! Stupid Toby!"
He grabbed his phone and jumped out of the car. He ran down the street as Scott saw his car against a streetlamp. "Only the guilty run, kid!" he said. "You hear me? Only the guilty run!"
***
"Hello?" Jim said. "Talk to me, Tobes!"
He hung up and Claire started coughing. They sat on her bed in her room. Her cold was getting worse. "Let's go," she said and sneezed.
"You sure?" Jim asked. "Maybe you should stay here. You sound pretty sick."
"I'm fine!" she said. "Glug can wait. Let's just find Toby. He couldn't have gotten far, right?"
They heard a bang at the window. They looked at it but didn't see anything. They got closer to it as Toby pushed himself against it. "Open the window!" he said. "Quick!"
Jim opened the window and pulled him inside. "I'm a wanted man, Jim!" Toby said. "You have to hide me! But you'd be harboring a fugitive."
"Toby," Jim said. "Calm down."
"Darci's dad's a cop and he was tracking down Glug, who's been stealing jewelry and pets. She's the one who's behind the crimes. But now, he thinks I did it."
"And, in response, you steal a cop car?" Jim asked.
"I panicked, Jim! It doesn't matter. We have to move. The cops are about to arrest our missing troll."
"Let me make a call."
***
"How else could the GumGums have gotten into the warehouse?" Bagdwella asked a troll with Blinky between them. "For all we know, you ate the signs keeping them away!"
"I didn't touch those things." The troll said.
"Well, somebody stole those signs. What, they vanished into thin air?"
"Compatriots," Blinky said. "Please. Calm yourselves."
His phone rang and he answered it. "Master Jim. What? I'm on my way." He hung up and looked at Bagdwella and the other troll. "You two, figure it out!"
***
Jim, Toby, and Claire ran out of the room. "Let me get my staff."
She reached under her bed, only to grab a Nunez sign. "How did...?"
She looked under her bed and saw a pile of signs. She started remembering taking them out of the ground that night. "Claire, come on!" Jim said. "We have to move!"
Claire grabbed her Shadow Staff and followed them.
***
The three of them walked through the sewers, shining their flashlights everywhere. They found Blinky and Aaarrrgghh and they all screamed. "Come on!" Jim said. "You can't creep up like that!"
"Apologies," Blinky said. "But with your human constabularies combing the sewers, discretion is absolutely paramount."
"I can't believe I'm going to jail because a stupid tub troll is a klepto!" Toby said. "Claire, any signs of Glug?"
"What signs?" she asked. "What would I know about signs?"
Aaarrrgghh sniffed the air. "Can't smell Glug."
"Alright," Jim said. "we're splitting up. We got a troll hunt, people."
Jim and Claire went one way, while Blinky and Aaarrrgghh went another and Toby went a different direction, alone. "As I was saying, Aaarrrgghh," Blinky said. "I've asked Master Jim to resume training with me, but he claims he's got it covered. What do you suppose he means by that?"
Aaarrrgghh ignored him and sniffed the ground.
***
"Walking around these ewers isn't exactly helping my nausea," Claire coughed. "I feel like I'm running on empty."
"It feels like we all are," Jim said. "But as long as Gunmar's got Trollmarket, all we can do is try to survive and wait for our chance to—"
"But I have to survive this cold first," She sneezed.
"Claire, you know, if you're feeling that bad, I can search for Glug myself."
"No, I'm fine," she coughed. "I totally got—"
A rat fell on her head and she screamed, throwing up a few feet away from Jim.
***
"Glug?" Toby called. "If you can hear me, I know what it's like to be a fugitive. We're both hardened criminals! But you have to turn yourself in!"
He heard footsteps. "Glug?"
He ran in the directions the footsteps led to and found boots, Vespas, boxes, and different objects. Toby looked around at everything. "Oh, Glug. What have you gotten yourself into?"
He heard something behind him and saw a figure hide behind a box. "Glug?"
A hand covered his mouth.
***
Not-Enrique sat in a bathtub, reading a magazine. "Everyone's out runnin' about, and I get a little me time."
He looked up. "Glug?"
"Why you in Glug tub?" the green Quagawump asked.
"I thought you was gone—I mean lost."
"Glug not lost."
"But you were on a wild rampage."
"Rampage? No, just gathering ingredients for more glug, see?" she dumped a few small objects in the tub. "Starting party again."
"Wait, so you didn't do one of them crimes around town? I gotta tell the Trollhunters. After a fresh batch of glug, of course."
***
Toby woke up tied to a chair. He saw two masked people in front of him. "You said there'd be no witnesses down here," one of them said.
"Since when did kids run around in the sewers?" the other one asked. "This whole podunk town is full of idiots."
"Wait," Toby said. "You—the—the—the burglaries were done by actual burglars?"
"Wow, this one's a real Einstein," the second masked person said.
"The Vespas, the jewelry...but why take people's cats?"
"What are you talking about?" the first one asked. "We didn't steal any cats."
"Oh, that part was Glug,"
They heard footsteps walking down the sewers. One of the masked people gagged Toby and hid behind the boxes. He tried getting out but fell over in the chair.
Scott heard the noise and held onto his walkie-talkie. "Detective Scott here," he said. "Somewhere under Franklin Street," he shined his flashlight on Toby. "You! I never should've...wait. Why are you gagged?" he shined his flashlight on the boxes. "Hey! Out where I can see you! Hands up!"
The masked people walked out from behind the boxes with their hands up.
A third one came up from behind him and put a bag over his head.
***
They were now both died up. Toby was wigging around the ropes. "What are you doing?" Scott asked.
"Trying to get us out of this," he said. "I specialized in escape artistry at magic camp."
"What does my daughter see in you?"
The three burglars walked through the sewers. Two of them were male and the third was a female. "Gone for five minutes, and you two somehow lead a kid and a cop to us?" the girl asked.
"This is not good," the first guy said. "We gotta bail."
"Aw, you want a diaper?" the other one asked. "Because you're being a real baby!"
"I'm not a baby!"
"Listen," Scott said to Toby. "However, this plays out, maybe I overreacted earlier. Just...Darci's everything to me."
"She means everything to me too," Toby said. "Does this mean I can date your daughter?"
"Don't push it."
One of the guys held the pocket hammer. "What's that you got there?" the girl asked.
"I found it on the kid," he said. "What is it? A toy? Like a laser sword or some—"
He pressed a button on it and it grew into its usual Warhammer size, hitting Scott in the process and knocking him out. "Look at this thing!" he looked at it in amazement.
"No, don't look at it!" Toby said. "It's just a toy. He's totally right."
The Warhammer lifted out of the guy's hands. All three burglars looked at it in amazement.
"It's gotta be a high-tech magnet, or a drone, or..."
"Whatever it is, it's gotta be worth a fortune!"
A cop could be heard over Scott's walkie-talkie. "Detective Scott, we're entering the sewers. Come in."
"The cops," one of the guys said. "We gotta book."
"Yeah, yeah," The girl said. "Leave the haul, grab the flyin' rock."
"Let's bring the kid," the other guy said. "Might need collateral."
They tied Toby's hands up, gagged him, and put a helmet on him as they put him on the back of a Vespa. Jim and Claire watched them drive off. "Toby!" Jim said. "They're taking him!"
They ran over to Scott. "Mr. Scott!" Claire said. "We have to get him out of here."
"Can you get him to safety?" Jim asked. "I'll go after Tobes."
"I think so. How are you going to catch them?"
Jim saw a Vespa and pushed a rat off it. "a GTS 300 SuperSport. Maxed to the nines." He climbed onto it. "I'll catch them."
He rode through the sewers, behind the burglars. Toby saw him and smiled. "Boss, we got company!" one of the guys said.
"Keep movin'!" The girl said. "The heat's comin'!"
Jim caught up to one of the guys and ran into him, knocking him over.
***
Claire brought Scott through the sewers. "Just wait here," she said. "I'll get some help, okay?"
She saw a cop car pass by. "Hey, down here!" she said. "Officer down!"
***
Jim continued persuing the burglars. His armor appeared on him and he held onto the back of the other guy's Vespa. "I got a freakin' Lancelot on me!" he said, swinging a crowbar at Jim. He grabbed the crowbar and pulled him off the Vespa. He rode the Vespa over to the girl that had Toby. Toby managed to get his hands free and grabbed his Warhammer. It floated in the air, causing the Vespa to float also. The Vespa dropped and Toby remained in the air. He saw Jim riding over to him. "Jim, over here!"
He shrunk his Warhammer and the girl but a crowbar to his neck. "Not one step further!" she told Jim. "You here me?"
Jim stopped as the two guys walked behind him. "Okay, fine!" Jim said. "Just don't hurt him!"
"I don't know what you Renaissance fair freaks are," the girl said. "but we're not goin' back to San Quentin, you hear me?"
A cloud of dust appeared behind them and Aaarrrgghh ran toward them, his eyes black with the green dots as pupils with Blinky next to him. Aaarrrgghh growled in their faces and the three of them ran away. Aaarrrgghh and Toby fist-bumped.
***
A police officer knelt down beside Scott. "The last thing I remember," Scott said. "The suspects had me detained, and then...black. Somehow, I wound up here."
They saw the burglars run from the sewers and ran into the police officer. "Hide us!" one of the guys said. "Get us away from them!"
"There are monsters in there!" the girl said. "Take us to San Quentin, now!"
"What's got them all spooked?" the officer asked. They heard a noise coming from the sewers and he shined his flashlight to show Toby with his head stuck in the bars. "Hi, Mr. Detective Scott."
***
"It gives me great pride," Mrs. Nunez said. "To say the criminals have been caught, all thanks to Detective Scott with the help of brave, young, Toby Domzalski. Both heroes."
Jim, Claire, and Mrs. Domzalski stood in the crowd of people. "My little Toby Pie did something," Mrs. Domzalski smiled.
"Hey, Mr. Detective Scott?" Toby said. "Thanks for not throwing me in jail forever."
"Least I can do," he said. "Just stay away from my squad car. Maybe you can date my daughter. With a chaperone."
Darci ran over to Toby. "Toby! You're amazing! You did it!"
She kissed him and Toby's face turned red.
"Is it just me," Jim said. "Or was taking down a few human baddies tonight was kind of refreshing?"
"Yeah," Claire said. "When we're done with Gunmar, we might have a future in crime-fighting."
***
Gunmar threw books all over the library, throwing everything everywhere. "Where is it? There must be something here!"
The light started flickering and the page of one of the books he threw on the ground started flipping to a page with a mountain. Morgana's voice could be heard.
"Call to me. And the key to Eternal Night is yours."
"Morgana."