In an unbelievable series of events, Jade and Paco end up using all twelve of the talismans in Beacon Hills. Yes, even Sheep.
“We never use Sheep,” Paco stared, befuddled, as Jade carefully packed the talismans into their secure container, “Why are we bringing Sheep with us?”
“We’re bringing all of them with us, Paco. It doesn’t matter if we don’t use Sheep. It’s there so we’re bringing it,” Jade bit out before locking the container with a sharp twist of her wrist and then slapped on seal which glowed briefly before subsiding. The only ones who would be able to open the case now were Jade, Paco, Uncle, and Tohru.
“You’re bringing Sheep with us because you’re mad at the Captain?” He asked, beginning the shut down process for the vault.
“He’s sending us to the middle of nowhere!”
“Beacon Hills is, like, four hours away by car. That’s not nowhere.” He reasoned, dodging a swipe from the case as Jade turned around at him angrily.
“It has a population size of less than five thousand! It’s smaller than our high school! I bet you they don’t even have a Starbucks!” She spat out, a barrage of words.
“But you hate Starbucks.” Paco argued because he was right and they both did actually hate Starbucks. With a passion.
“That’s not my point!” She flung her arms in the air, only her steel grip on the container preventing it from flying down the hall.
“Your point is that you’re angry and you’re taking all of the talismans with us, even Sheep which we never use.” Paco didn’t even understand why the Sheep talisman existed.
“We used it in Amity once.”
“Once, and mostly out of curiosity, not because we actually needed it.” They had thought that astral projection would be similar enough to being a ghost that it would be relevant. But apparently it was more of a psychic thing than an undead thing.
“And yet that still counts,” Jade crowed her victory before remembering she was mad and stomping away, “Anyway, it’s already packed.”
Paco followed, because that’s what partners did. And anyway, there was only one route to follow from the vault, “I thought you’d like this. It was my idea.”
“What?” She sounded betrayed.
“Well, I know you were getting restless what with us staying back to do school properly. And that was really my only requirement. I thought you’d like having a mission where you could investigate weird shit and still let your partner enjoy normal high school life,” he clarified, most grateful that she was willing to suffer through school with him yet somewhat annoyed that she didn’t appreciate his efforts at compromise.
“Oh,” Jade stared at him, abashed, “I thought this was–I guess it was kind of dumb of me, but it reminded me of…” she couldn’t say it.
“Of when your parents sent you away to live with your Uncle Jackie?”
“Yeah.”
The silence bloomed.
“Well–” he tried to reassure her.
“–Okay, let’s get going, the SUV isn’t going to drive itself–” she restarted their exit away from the vault, in the innermost part of Section 13 headquarters, towards the garages.
“–I’ll be…” he let the topic change slide, “Technically the SUV can drive itself.” Kepler made the auto-pilot when he had the flu–it was functional, because Kepler was an actual genius even when sick, but it had the strangest tendency to refer to it’s passengers as fruits and vegetables.
“It would pointless if it did so when we weren’t in it,” Jade said, just to be contrary; but that was just how they were with each other.
“Are you even done packing? Clothes, not ancient magical artifacts.” Neither of them wanted a repeat of that week in Gravity Falls when they had four shirts and three pants between the two of them. Fortunately (or perhaps not) hygiene was not very high up on Gravity Falls’ priorities.
Wordlessly, Jade shoved the talisman container into his arms and did an about face towards her room. Ostensibly to pack.
Thirty minutes later, after they’ve loaded the SUV with their luggage, their gear, the talismans, and more than enough snacks for the road, Paco slid into the passenger seat and looked over at Jade. She grumbled, cursing whoever drove it last for being ridiculously tall and messing with the setting, readjusting the seat and the mirrors.
“Thanks for sticking with me,” he said, because Jade wouldn’t.
“Thanks for choosing the high school in the one town that has a higher death count than number of citizens,” she snarked back in heartfelt agreement.
“That doesn’t even make sense!”
They spend the next hour of the drive arguing about nonsense, the two after that rehashing what they know about the situation in Beacon Hills, and the last hour guessing increasingly ludicrous theories for the cause and wild predictions for what they will encounter.
Neither of them guessed werewolves. Neither of them thought they’d end up using all twelve talismans, including Sheep.
~
A/N: Hahahaha, I said maybe and then my brain was like… you fool. And then this happened. I dunno how long this train ride will last for, but let’s see where it goes.
JackSGreyson Says 