looking through Blinky's collection of random artifacts and magical items was a lot harder than Toby originally thought. the four armed troll had a whole other room in his library, sacked full of any and, almost every, magical item one could think a troll could get his hands on. it was impressive at first, but now having to go through it all and find something in the mess, it was a little overwhelming. 

"how are we supposed to find anything in here?" Toby moaned, giving up on the pile he was digging through. "what do they look like again?" a genuine question because Toby had already forgotten . . . again.

"trust me, Master Tobias, you will know." Blinky said with a smile. "among all my treasurers, Dwärkstones are the most. . . dull looking." Blinky stuttered, trying to find the right word. 

"look like normal round rock." ARRRGGH! provided with a shrug of his shoulders. Tobys mouth dropped.

"it's just a normal rock?!?" the stout teen screeched. the gentle giant gave a sorry smile as the teens face fell again. Toby went back to looking, flinging a book away from a new pile. with wide eyes, Toby picked up a rock. 

surprised he found it right as he was complaining, but his emotions changed to overjoyed as they could stop looking now. Toby held up the stone with a victorious laugh, gaining the attention of both trolls. their smiles turned to surprised expressions, but not at Toby, at something behind Toby.

"hey, you found it." Jim said coming out of their portal, scaring Toby half to death. the short teen jumped and accidentally threw the rock in the air, causing it to activate. Claire and Jim acted on it first, knowing it would explode within the next five to ten seconds. 

Jim's armor was on in a second, even without saying the incantation. using Excalibur as a baseball bat, Jim hit the explosive with the flat side of his blade and sent it straight into the portal as it closed. Jim cringed, thinking that was going to blow up the book store.

"think the shop will be ok?" the once trollhunter asked his brother with a shy smile. Douxie looked at him and gave him the same smile.

"don't worry, I've warded the whole place." the wizard tried to reassure. "but that will still be a mess to clean up." he added while cringing.

"well it's a good thing i didn't send it to the shop." Claire said with a smirk and a spin of her new staff. Jim laughed a sigh of relief with Douxie and he deactivated his armor.

"where'd you guys come from?!?!?!" Toby shouted, making them all jump. they all laughed while Toby was still trying to catch his breath.

"i can make portals with my powers, Toby." Claire explained, trying not to breakdown crying again. Toby was alive and perfectly fine, it made he want to run up and hug him. but she held back, knowing he may have seen his death, but he didn't remember it personally, like she did.

"no way! you got your powers back? That's awesome-sauce!!" Toby said, his whole demeanor  changed in a second. 

"yes, it is wonderful you have acquired your powers again, fair Claire." Blinky said, walking up to the group of teens with ARRRGGH! "it seems they will be needed as Master Tobias wasted our only Dwärkstone, even if by accident." the troll said as he put a hand on Toby's shoulder. three of the four who came out of the portal gave Blinky a deadpan look that said 'seriously'. 

"find them." Jim said as he turned to Claire with a smirk, which she copied. Claire concentrated on finding the items and conjured a portal. a bag fell out of the black and purple darkness, landing right in between all of them. Jim opened the bag and pulled out one of the rocks and held it up to Blinky with a smirk.

"ratz" the six eyed troll said in defeat as he crossed both pairs of arms and looked away. everyone started laughing at him, Jim put the stone back carefully and tied the bag shut while still laughing at his father. "Forgive a troll trying to protect his image." Blinky said with a huff.

"Blink, I've seen you chuck a Dwärkstone at Morgana with extreme accuracy." Jim said, as he crossed his arms with a smirk. "Your 'image' is safe. We're all a little crazy." he added with a laugh.

"A little?" Douxie said, raising an eyebrow with a smirk of his own. Jim elbowed him in the arm playfully. "Hey, we could easily talk about all your crazy sacrifices." the wizard hit back with his words, gaining a snicker from Claire and the look of betrayal from Jim.

"I'm not the only one who's made stupid sacrifices." Jim shot back, leaving the statement open but everyone knew it was aimed at Douxie.

"I didn't say that you were the only one." Douxie rolled his eyes. "We've all had our fair share, but you've done it the most and your's are the worst." he poked a finger into Jim's chest.

"Brothers." ARRRGGH! laughed as he shook his head, making the two stop their banter for a moment to look at the krubera. Blinky laughed with his friend as he knew not all family was flesh and blood.

"Wait, can we go back? How are you so good at your powers? I thought you just got them back." Toby questioned Claire. It was painfully obvious that she wasn't a newbie, but highly skilled in the way she found the stones so fast.

"Just comes naturally, I guess." Claire replied, retracting the staff back to its dagger stage. She hadn't really taken the time to consider that the short teen thought she didn't know about the future, like him. But she had just got her powers back regardless and she did need to work back up, but it didn't faze her that she could do the small things.

"So, are we ready to go find this thing?" Archie asked with his normal calm undertone. He had hopped off of Douxie's shoulders and was sitting on the table in the middle of the massive room. Jim's face fell serious.

"Not yet. We should go out at sunset. People will less likely see the fight then." Jim said. Douxie smiled, knowing Jim just went from normal teenager to the king he knew Jim as, even if the slim teen refuses to acknowledge his new title. "That will also give us time to gather everything else we might need for the fight." Jim added with a small grin.

"And some well needed training." Claire said, holding up her dagger. "I'll need some more practice before I'm battle ready." she commented with a shy smile.

"Agreed." Douxie and Archie started at the same time. "Some practice before dinner doesn't sound bad." Douxie continued with a glance at Jim, who laughed.

"We're dealing with a flying killer troll and you're thinking about food?" Toby questioned, then gave it a second thought. "You know what, never mind. I'd do the same." he gave himself an answer. "We leaving the bombs?" already heading to the door to go to the forge.

"Yeah, we don't need them yet." Jim answered as he followed his best friend to the door. Claire and Douxie were after them as ARRRGGH! went as supervision.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

About two hours of training and practice was all they really needed. Claire had gotten in the flow of her magic and was ready to go. Blinky had a small 'kitchen' fit to make things over a fire as if like a stove. he hardly used it as most trolls ate human throw outs anyway, but every so often, he would make meals for him and ARRRGGH!.

Claire had helped Jim back to his house for the human ingredients for dinner as Blinky already had the troll ones. and by 'helped', she portaled them there and back without problem as Barbra was still at the hospital. Jim was currently working on the two different dishes for dinner.

" i had almost forgotten about that book." Blinky commented, Jim had found the old troll cook book that his father had given him on the trip to New Jersey. Jim was still dealing with his new body and instincts at the time and was still under a lot of stress. Blinky had given him the book because he knew Jim cooked to calm himself and the new half troll didn't even want to try making human food after the steak incident with his mom. Regardless, the boy was overjoyed at the gift. Jim even ended up cooking for the whole pack some nights.

"yeah but its Jimbo. you can't really be surprised that the king of the kitchen knew about your old troll cookbook." Toby said, gaining a laugh from the others. Douxie had explained why eating was so important for magic users before battle, as magic used energy and food provided that energy.

"You know, I'm not too opposed to that title." Jim chuckled, not taking his eyes off the food. The others were sat at a table behind Jim. Douxie gave his brother a challenging glare, and even though Jim couldn't see him, he knew who was staring at the back of his head. Douxie let off with a laugh after Jim turned and rolled his eyes at his brother.

Jim chose to make a simple stew for both parties, or three. Archie wasn't a troll or a human but he would most likely be eating the human food. Jim used a spoon to taste the human stew, making sure it tasted right. Then out of muscle memory, he did the same with the troll soup. Toby was about to call him out on it, but right before Jim tried it, he switched to his half troll form, almost seamlessly. Jim had to push down the urge to eat the wooden ladle he was using and put the utensil back on the counter. Toby did call him out on that, however.

" You were going to eat that, weren't you?" Toby accused with a smile. This got everyone's attention as they looked to see Jim putting down the spoon. Douxie and Claire laughed as they realized what Toby was talking about. Jim turned around to the question and gave Toby a playful glare.

"Jim, don't eat the utensils." Claire laughed. her boyfriend threw his hands up in disbelief, gaining more laughs

"I didn't, I mean it was a thought but I didn't." Jim defended himself, albeit very poorly. Everyone continued laughing as Jim rolled his eyes with a smile on his face. The half troll went back to the food and started serving it into bowls.

He started with Blinky and ARRRGGH! who showed their appreciation with words of thanks and kind gestures. Jim gave Toby, Douxie and Archie theirs next as he slipped a small thing of hot sauce to the dragon secretly. To which the dragon smiled and took it with a head bow. Jim handed Claire her as he took the seat in between her and Toby with his own.

"I hope you won't miss these, Blinky. I don't think they'll make it past dinner." Claire teased as she picked up Jim's silverware and waved it in front of his face. Jim rolled his eyes once more and took the spoon from his girlfriend's hand. More laughs erupted from the group and Jim joined in.

"Oh, I do not mind at all. I barely have any company other than ARRRGGH! So the use of all these utensils is rather pointless." Blinky said through chuckles.

"But you have us now, dad." Jim said not really realizing what he said. Blinky eyes grew wide as Claire and Douxie snickered a little. ARRRGGH! Rumbled a happy sound as he looked from Jim back to Blinky. Still not seeing what he said, Jim looked around in confusion. "What?" he asked after swallowing the stew he had just put in his mouth.

"Dude, you called Blinky 'dad'." Toby said with a snicker of his own. Jim was glad he swallowed his food as he probably would have choked on it had he not.

"Gah, sorry. I-i um. ." Jim stumbled over his words as his face turned purple from embarrassment.

"Nonsense, my boy." Blinky laughed, as he regathered himself. "I'm actually very happy you see me as such an important person in your life." he said with a smile.

"Better than your other one." Toby murmured a stab at Jim's biological father. They had never talked about Jim's dad to the trolls before so it was understandable that the trolls were confused about the comment.

"While I'm overjoyed at the title, I must say, I'm curious as to what Master Tobias means by 'better than your other one'. What about your true father?" Blinky asked. All the teens grew a little tense.

"Um, . . my biological father left me and my mom when I was five. Haven't heard anything from him since, but honestly, we don't want to." Jim said, looking down. He perked up a bit as he scratched at his scruff. "And about me calling you 'dad'. It's an old habit, you kind of unofficially adopted me, in the future." he said with a shy smile, showing off his tusks.

"Well, I could not have wished for a better son." Blinky said as he took a sip of his meal. Jim started to churr("purr") but he pushed it down as Toby started giggling at him. "And truly, you are welcome to eat the silverware once you are done. We can always get more." Blinky teased as Jim laughed.

The rest of dinner was filled with stories of their adventures told by Jim, Douxie and Claire. The sorceress had revealed that she remembered the future, upsetting Toby a bit but he understood that his best friend didn't know how it worked yet. The short teen was willing to be patient but that didn't stop him from asking about a thousand questions.

The conversation went from adventures to what happened with the Arcane Order to how Jim became a troll and so on. Toby, Blinky and ARRRGGH! were surprised to hear that the mighty Merlin showed up for the war against Gunmar, and that he was the one who turned Jim troll.

"I'm going to be completely honest, I like being a troll more than I like being human." Jim confessed, wrapping an arm around Claire. The couple had announced the relationship, to everyone's 'shock'.

"Honestly, I missed the horns." Claire said as she grabbed on and pulled his head down and kissed his cheek. "good handle bars." she teased as she let go. Jim huffed out a laugh, knowing she meant more than just pulling him down to kiss.

"well now that everyone is done," Archie interrupted. "shall we suit up?" he asked with a smile towards his familiar. 

"oh yeah, i don't have my armor." Claire realized, gaining, yet again, more questions from Toby.

"you have armor?" He asked, standing up in shock as he rested his hands on the tables surface. 

"you think we went into battle against Gunmar without armor?" Claire shot back, making Toby think a little bit before he spoke again.

"ok, yeah that makes sense. wait, we?" he questioned again. Claire and Archie rolled their eyes as the cat was getting impatient. 

"yeah, you and Claire needed armor because i had the daylight amulet back then and you didn't." Jim explained through a laugh as he stood up to clear the table. answering his friends questions and pleasing the feline that was slowly becoming agitated. said cat helped out by grabbing some of the bowls in his dragon form and flying them over to the counter with Jim so they could wash them later.

"oh, right." Toby realized as he pulled out his amulet. "yeah i guess it wasn't as impressive as For the Glory of Merlin, Daylight is Mine to Command." holding up the amulet and letting the armor form around him. 

"i have some leather protection, i figure you're going to be a long distance fighter anyway." Douxie said, shuffling through his vambrace. finding his magic pocket, he pulled out some forearm braces, shin guards, and an abdomen brace. nothing fancy, but protection none the less, plus it was extremely flexible. he handed the items to Claire and she started to put them on.

"hey i just realized, we've never heard you say your incantation." Toby said looking at Jim. Jim Claire and Douxie were all confused at the comment.

"you haven't?" Jim questioned. Toby shook his head then Jim thought about it a little more and realized he was right. with a smile he pulled out the amulet and looked down at the words carved into the metal. he stared wide eyed at the words as one of them changed.

"what's wrong?" Claire asked after getting all the pieces of leather on and secured. Jim sighed and shook his head with a smile.

"nothing. For the Good of All, Excalibur is Mine to Command." Jim said as his half magic, half alien tech armor formed. The amulet's incantation had changed from 'Daylight' to 'Excalibur'. with the incantation, Jim's crown also showed itself through Douxie's spell. a couple of spots on the armor had changed as well with the new words. 

"i think yours sounds cooler." Toby said with a wide smile, showing off his braces. with that, Jim deactivated his armor and Douxie put on his illusion as they walked into the market. going back to the library to grab a few bombs for Blinky. They headed up to the surface, the sun was just setting, enough for the two and a half trolls to be safe.

They started their trek to the outer parts of town so that no one would see the fight. The group ended up finding an open field in the woods, they were all on high alert at this point.

"Was fighting in the woods the best idea?" Toby asked, Daylight in hand and looking around frantically. The forest was the best option to not be seen or to break city property, whether that be from the stalkling or the explosives. Claire had her new staff out and ready and Douxie had borrowed one of the metal staffs from the forge as he didn't have his own yet.

Archie was in his dragon form, watching the sky. Blinky and ARRRGGH! didn't take their eyes off the treeline of their clearing. The four armed troll was not as terrified about facing off against one of the most brutal troll species as Jim thought he would be, for where the timeline was at anyway.

Jim was probably the most gathered, nose scenting, ears listening, and he even had his foot armor off the souls of his feet. As a troll, geomancy was his strongest magic, using his feet to feel the earth shift and move. He could sense deers and rabbits walking and bouncing a good two miles away. It was likely the stalkling would attack from the sky, but one could never be too careful.

A bone chilling screech made all of them jump. Jim grabbed Excalibur off his back and faced the noise with a growl. Claire, Douxie and Archie followed with less confidence but then again they never faced the beast before. ARRRGGH! Matched Jim as he bent lower and bared his teeth with a growl of his own. Blinky and Toby on the other hand, backed away from it. Blinky had back behind the former Gumm-Gumm and Toby was seriously considering doing the same, but he held Daylight strong.

Everyone but Jim took a step back as the winged beast flew down and landed in front of them. It was just as horrifying as Jim remembered, although a bit bigger than last time. the pictures in Blinkys books did not do it justice. The stalkling roared at them, to which Jim, ARRRGGH! and Archie responded.

The combination of all their roars was loud enough to put the stalkling in a state of shock and confusion. The other, knowing what was going to happen, had covered their ears, thus protecting them from the same fate as the winged troll. Jim was the first to move in, moving at inhuman speed. It was even fast for a troll, making a small crack in the earth that he was standing on as he moved.

The stalkling was quick to recover from the disorientation as she reacted to Jim's frontal attack. Dodging to the side as Excalibur sliced through the air. Jim had too much momentum to stop on a dime and was flung past the creature. She was about to go in for an attack of her own before the others rushed.

Archie lit her up from behind, breathing fire up her spine, gaining her full attention to the sky where he flew. She jumped up to bite him, but right before she got there, he disappeared into a shadow portal. The attack left the beast wide open as Douxie blasted her in the open chest with a spell, knocking her back and away into the woods.

Jim tried for another attack as she was down but was smacked away by her tail as she tried to get back up, flinging him into the woods a ways. The others continued and Jim heard the sound of explosions that seemed to have hit their mark.

The half troll smiled as he got back on his feet, ready to head back to the fight. He might not be hitting his targets but her being so focused on him was giving the others a chance to attack. Toby's war cries were some of the best sounds he missed from the old timeline and hearing them now made him so happy.

Right before Jim was about to run back in, a whimper from the bushes made him stop and turn to them. He could see movement in them and could tell it was human which scared him. Someone was out here and has now seen him and most likely the whole fight. Who knew if this person had a camera on them too, which was likely because everyone had phones nowadays.

Jim didn't want to scare them but he had to either break their evidence or convince them not to tell anyone. He crept closer to the bushes and noticed the person wasn't even looking at him. In fact, it looked like they were hiding from something and didn't even know Jim was there. Tring to get out of there before he was noticed, Jim didn't see the fallen leaves that he stepped on. Early October and the autumn leaves were dry and stiff, with a crunch at his feet, Jim cringed as he inwardly cursed himself out for making such a rookie mistake.

He looked back to the bush to see two brown eyes staring up at him. Wait, he knew those eyes, they've tormented him and other odd kids at school for years. 'Great'. Jim thought as he bit back a growl, he should have recognized those whines.

"Please don't eat me, monster! I promise I taste disgusting!" Steve begged as he backed out of the bush and away from Jim. Jim rolled his eyes and looked back to the direction the fight was in.

"I'm not going to eat you, Steve." Jim said with a huff, still biting down his growl. He needed to get back to the fight but Steve was almost as bad as Eli when it came to being a loudmouth.

"H-how do you know my n-name?" the blond asked, still panicking. "Wait, you won't eat me." He questioned after a second thought of Jim's words.

"Not if you don't tell anyone what you saw tonight." Jim said finally letting the growl out as he turned back to the bully. He wasn't going to hurt the jock either way, but it was a good way to keep him from spilling. "Got it?" he asked, summoning Excalibur to his hand. Steve nodded furiously and pretended to zip his mouth shut. "Good. take the long way home, it'll be safer." Jim said, pointing behind Steve with his blade as he started to run back to the fight.

"There you are. We were getting worried about you." Douxie teased Jim as he sent another blast at the stalkling.

"Yeah sorry." Jim apologized as he chucked Excalibur through the air. The blade stuck right into the underside of her wing making her screech out in pain. Her skin slowly started to turn to stone but she clawed the blade out of her flesh before it could finish her off.

She roared again, this time mixed with a screech making it a hundred times louder. Everyone covered their ears and closed their eyes to try and block out the sound. The stalkling took the chance to grab the closest person to her and took off into the sky and the storm.

It took all of them a second to recover and realize who was missing. Jim, terrified, looked up to the troll that was flying away into the storm clouds. He was the first to know who the stalkling took.

"TOBES!!" Jim Shouted as he ran up through the trees, getting higher and higher, trying to catch up to the beast that had his best friend in her talons. Claire tried to make a portal up to the stalkling but nothing happened.

"I'm out." Claire said in fear and panic. Douxie did his best to conjure up a spell but failed.

"Same here." Douxie replied with just as much fear. "JIM!" the wizard called out as he noticed their king running after the creature. Jim ran out of branches as he jumped up and was just barely able to grasp the tip of her tail.

The stalkling growled as Jim started to climb up her tail. She thrashed around, swinging her tail back and forth trying to get him off but this troll wasn't budging. Jim flinched and closed his eyes as a bolt of lightning struck near them. Toby's distressed grunts were what brought him back to the situation.

The short teen was ok for the current moment as he still had his armor on so the stalklings talons didn't do much damage other than hold him still. Jim wanted to summon Excalibur but the thought of electrification, and electrocuting Toby in the process was too much and the half troll couldn't bring himself to use the blade.

Jim opted to use his teeth. As he bit down on the stone flesh of her tail, he surprisingly broke skin, probably because of his tusks. The taste of rusted copper filled his mouth, which surprised him a bit. Another scream of pain erupted from the stalkling, Jim bit down harder and pulled his head back to tear at her flesh, earning more pained screeches.

Toby had yet to find out Jim was there with him as he still struggled against the beast's claws. He had no idea what the bird troll was freaking out about as Toby was making no headway on getting out of her grip and he definitely wasn't hurting her. She was slow as she trekked higher and higher as the wound under her wing was still fresh.

The stalkling ended up dropping Toby out of pain. Jim saw this, unclenched his jaw and let go of her tail to jump after his best friend. Jim dove after Toby and grabbed his hand, just in time for the stalkling to grab Jim's leg and yank both of them back up.

"Jimbo, you ok?" Toby asked as he saw the black liquid that covered his friend's face and as he watched the stalkling crush his leg. They held onto each other for dear life as they kept getting higher.

" 'm fine." Jim grunted as he reached out with his other hand to grab Tobys other one. Toby, however, didn't reach back. Instead, he looked around at the storm and the lightning as breathing became harder for the both of them.

"Sorry Jimbo," Toby breathed out as he turned to look back at Jim with a grim expression. "You're not going to like this." he said as he opened his hand like he saw Jim do to summon his sword. Daylight answered his call and appeared in his hand as Toby watched Jim's eyes go wide.

Jim closed his eyes tight and he gripped both hands onto Tobys one as he braced himself for what was to come. But Jim wasn't about to let Toby do this to himself.

Right before Toby raised Daylight to the storm, Jim let him go. The stalkling had flown straight up so the others would be right below them and there to catch Toby. the stout teen fell with a scream, gaining the stalklings attention.

"Nuh uh, your fights with me!" Jim growled as he swung himself to catch her face when she tried to dive down for Toby. he clawed at her eye, making her drop her hold on his leg. Jim moved to the back of her neck, holding onto one of her horns and reaching up with the other one to summon Excalibur.

As if by miracle, Jim's face was covered by metal as his helmet appeared, covering his entire body in armor, right before the lightning struck. the electricity ran through his arm, into his body and down to the stalkling before she fell dead, slowly being encased in stone. Being fully encased in armor protected him, but it still hurt like hell. The two trolls fell back to the earth and Jim fell unconscious once more.

(A/N hey guys only a couple days since i last saw you. here's a long chapter for you guys (along with a cliff hanger>:3). idk why i wanted to add Jim and Steve's little interaction but it sounded funny and i will be working it into future chapters. I've decided that this is a 3 part chapter and the next one will be the last of the "Sweet Sixteen, Again"'s. i whole heartedly believe that the blood color depends on the troll species. like how Nomura's blood is purple and Jim's is red(even though it's because of his human side). stalklings have black blood, ARRRGGH! has dark green-blue blood, and Blinky and Dictatious have light grayish-blue blood. I'm also pretty sure Drall has purple or magenta blood if you consider the color of his scars and cuts. and all troll blood tastes like copper instead of human iron blood. stick a penny in your mouth then a real quarter, you'll see the difference. btw, Jim was more confident in the fact that the team would catch Toby than he was willing to let both him and Toby go through the lightning strike. as always hope you enjoyed and thanks for reading, ill see you all in the next chapter.) word count - 4919 not including (A/N)'s