#this came to me as I was cheering on Nate ford

[anarchypumpkincowboy]

Jason should get to shoot the joker in the dick like as a freebie

[fablesrose]

Ch 5 - The Tap-Out Job

Series Rewrite Masterlist 

Pairing: Eliot Spencer x Ford!Reader

Description: The team goes to Nebraska giving the client a fighting chance, quite literally, with Eliot in the fighting ring.

Words: 3586

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I only started taking projects I knew I could finish quickly. It was a nice side income, but I wanted to be available when Nate decided on a client. In fact, in my free time or in between my own jobs, I was helping him research. Trying to find douchebags and people who were screwed over. 

“Alright, six tickets to Nebraska, coming right up!” Hardison called when the time finally came.

Nate looked at him confused, “Six? But-”

“Thank you Hardison” I cut in.

Nate turned to me, “I don’t know about that…”

“Come on Nate, it’ll be fun! She’ll be helpful,” Sophie argued.

I grimaced a bit, because I wasn’t sure how true that would be. I wanted to be, absolutely, but I wasn’t sure of the reality of it.

“At the very least she can learn something,” Parker pointed out helpfully.

I smiled and pointed at her to help emphasize her statement. 

“It can even out the girl to boy ratio,” Sophie added on.

Nate sighed, but didn’t answer.

“Uncle Nate,” I said in a sing-song voice that I only used when I wanted something from him. “Come on, I’m already too deep into this, you can’t keep me out now.”

He looked at me and sighed again, “Fine.”

We all cheered and started packing.

The day after Nate met with the client, we started the briefing of our resident bad-guy: Jed Rucker.

“He runs a homegrown mixed martial arts league here in Nebraska,” I explain, “they have a very strong wrestling tradition here, so, supposedly, there's a lot of talent.” I took it upon myself to help Hardison out with the research and background info on this guy, since if I know one thing, it’s research. 

“Wrestlers have a good base for a blended training approach,” Eliot expanded, “they can go from that to jujitsu, kick-boxing, judo.”

“Rucker promotes fights,” Parker concludes. 

“And manages fighters, taking a cut every step of the way,” Hardison adds. 

“Yeah, you know, plus he’s not above fixing bouts and the Howorths found out,” Nate said, “We’ve dealt with some lowlifes, but when I heard about this guy…”

Hardison started playing some videos of fights on the tv of the motel room.

“That was a nice takedown. Good ground-and-pound,” Eliot comments, “He’s a little sloppy in a closed guard, but it’s a solid arm bar. I mean, you can tell this guy’s a wrestler. This ain’t the UFC, but these guys got skills.”

I admired him from my seat, impressed at his knowledge about all of this stuff. He was focused on the screen, studying the fighting and techniques. It was almost like I could see the gears turning in his head about it all, just behind his clear eyes. 

“Where’d you get these?” Nate asked.

“Online,” I answered, “These are viral videos.”

“See, Rucker doesn’t have a TV deal,” Hardison explains, “It’s pretty much a bare bones operation.”

“You call this a sport?” Sophie asked with a pillow covering her face. 

“Yeah, this is a sport,” Eliot rebuffed, “These are some of the best conditioned athletes in the world. Are you kidding me? It’s about precision, technique, skill.”

“Like cockfighting?”

“It’s not a cockfight, alright? Let me show you something, Hardison. Come on,” Eliot tapped him on the shoulder causing him to stand, he then asked Parker, “Can I borrow you?” 

He then instructed Parker, reminding her what he showed her before. He positioned Parker as if it were a fight, and Hardison laughed before playing along.

“There’s three phases to an MMA,” he paused while Hardison did some footwork to warm up, “to an MMA fight, okay? One, striking.”

Parker immediately punched Hardison solidly in the face, making me flinch.

“Nice,” Eliot praised. “Next is grappling, the takedown.”

Hardison seemed to get that this was more serious than he thought as Parker flung him to the ground.

“Exactly, alright. The third one is jiu-jitsu, try to isolate a joint.”

Parker switched to twisting around Hardison.

“Good, that’s a textbook arm bar. Put some pressure on it,” Eliot instructs, “there ya go, or a choke hold.”

Parker moved to what I assumed was a chokehold on Hardison who was clearly struggling. 

“Then the guy will submit by tap out,” Eliot finished after instructing Parker a bit more. 

Hardison started trying to tap out with little success, in various different ways that made me laugh. 

“These fights are won by inches. It’s all about leverage.”

“Sophie, he has a point,” I commented, “while you may not find it entertaining, there's a lot of work, training, that goes into this. They do deserve some respect.”

Eliot nodded at me in approval.

“No TV deal, you said, huh?” Nate brought the attention back to the task at hand, “Yeah, Hardison, what are this guy’s other interests, this Rucker guy?”

I took a look behind the couch to see he was still struggling with Parker, “I’ve got it, Rotary club, he’s got a golf membership.”

“Golf, huh?” Nate asked.

“Yeah,” Sophie jumped in, “I mean, this guy’s like a 1950s sitcom character. He plays a weekly game with the local businessmen. In fact, last year, he won the club championship.”

I looked at Eliot and nodded back towards Hardison and Parker, wordlessly asking if we should help him.

He shrugged.

“Did he?” Nate asked thoughtfully, “It’s time to hit the links.”

Nate stood up and left in his dramatic way while I attempted to convince Parker to let Hardison go.

I was a little surprised when Nate said he was going to play Rucker at golf, but once Hardison explained the rigged golf balls, I couldn’t wait to watch. I tagged along with Hardison watching the game through the camera attached to Parker. Hardison even let me direct a few of Rucker’s shots into sand traps. Nate won by a landslide soon enough, and with Rucker in debt to him, the plan was set. 

Nate and Eliot left for Rucker's gym to both collect the money Nate won off of him, as well as plant Eliot in Rucker’s sights as a fighter. They told me what was likely going to happen. That they were going to sort of jump Eliot to test him out a bit. It made me nervous despite the whole crew assuring me that Eliot would be fine. 

As promised, it all went well with the fight and then Eliot setting the hook for Rucker and the idea of a TV deal with Sophie. It was only then that I allowed myself to watch the footage. While I knew that Eliot was good, I had never seen him in action before. I watched the video Parker took to upload a couple of times in amazement. His actions were smooth and calculated. I had watched fights before, but I didn’t think I had ever seen such efficiency. Rucker was right about one thing, he fought like something wanted to get out, but the amount of control he practiced… I think that could be more impressive than the skill.

“Like what you see, y/n?”

I closed my laptop with a start. Eliot had come back from the gym quicker than I had anticipated and was standing right behind me. I turned to him with a sheepish smile, “I hadn’t seen you fight before…” I looked back to my closed laptop for a moment, “suffice to say, I’m impressed.”

“What, you doubted me?” Eliot had a spark of amusement in his eye, but I moved to correct myself anyway.

“No, I mean, I knew you were good, heard you were the best even, but I guess, I never really knew what that meant.”

He cracked a cocky smile, “Oh, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet, sweetheart.” He left the room to clean up with a wink that left me blushing, more than I’d like to admit. 

The next phase of the con went off with only a slight hiccup. Rucker wanted to meet with Sophie at the concert she claimed to be producing. The crew had it figured out quicker than I thought possible. I hovered around the production booth and backstage with a clipboard and badge that Hardison got me. It gave me a bit of a thrill being somewhere I probably wasn’t supposed to be, but as I’ve learned a couple times over, confidence is key. I wandered around and spoke to some of the workers, learning some of the ins and outs of concerts and filming while listening to Sophie set up the deal with Rucker. If anyone asked who I was, I said I was an intern.

Eventually, it seemed like everything fell into place. 

“Did you get all that?” Sophie asked. 

“Got it. Great job,” Nate replied, “We should be, uh, on our way home by this time tomorrow.”

“Awesome, while it’s not bad, I want something other than this mystery meat they call chicken fried steak,” I tossed my badge and clip board on a table before I met up with everyone else. 

“Have a good time wandering?” Parker asked.

“Yeah, I’m seeing why you guys like this.”

The next morning Sophie went to the gym to get the money. It all went downhill very quickly. 

“So, where are your partners?” I heard Rucker say through the comms, “waitin’ for you to blow me off?”

“Uh, I’m sorry, I don’t know what you’re…”

“Let me tell you why,” he continued, “Alex’s cousin Jimmy’s in the fight scene in South Dakota, and guess what? He’s never heard of Bill Wells.”

“Nate…” I said through comms.

“I know.”

Sophie laughed, trying to play it off, “Sweetie… I think you’re getting a little paranoid.”

“So, you think you can come to my town, huh? Us country bumpkins, right? Cause all we can do is kick ass.” He paused, “I’ll show you what us ass-kickers will do.”

“Whoa,” Sophie said as Tank started to advance on her. 

“Alright, leave her alone.” Nate and Eliot stormed into the gym.

“Look who’s here. Wells.” Rucker made Tank back off. “So where’s the rest of your crew? In the getaway car?”

I shivered in my seat in the van next to Parker and Hardison. 

“Yeah, alright. Parker, Hardison, y/n, break it down, we’re outta here. Come on.”

The three of us started to scramble putting everything away to ensure once they got out we could leave quickly. 

“Oh, you talk on a wire, huh? Pretty fancy.”

“Yeah, nothing but the best for you, Rucker.”

“Yeah, well we’re not all frauds… People do wanna see you fight. So, why don’t you take on Tank here?”

“I’ve got five seconds to kill our Monday,” Eliot responded.

The way this conversation was goin made me pause in our packing.

“No, no, no, not here, Tank,” Rucker said, “But, you know, you’re probably right. I’ve seen what you can do. But that’s the thing, you know. See, you’re favored, so I’m gonna need you to take a dive.”

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.

“Come on,” I heard Nate mutter, and it sounded like they were walking away.”

“Fine,” Rucker called, “Go back to LA or wherever. It’s a shame you won’t be here next month when Jack Howorth’s house goes on fire… Or in six weeks when Mark has a car accident. But you won’t be around for any of that.”

“I’ll do it,” Eliot responded after a moment.

“You don’t have to do anything,” Nate responded.

“He’s right Eliot,” I agreed.

“Yeah, I do,” he rebuffed, “and then you lay off the Howorths.”

“You do what you have to do and they’ll be fine” Rucker explained, making my stomach churn, “But I’m betting it all on Tank here, so it can’t look like a fix. And, uh, feel free to use the gym. We don’t want anybody to think you’re not ready.”

They came around the corner where we were waiting for him. Nate had a look on his face as if looking for answers, his hands raised.

“What?” Hardison responded, “ What was I supposed to do? It was cousin Jimmy!” 

“He’s right, we couldn’t have planned for that,” Sophie conceded.

“Look, you know what I can do? I can retask a satellite, I can get level three NSA clearance, but I can’t hack a hick!”

“Alright, it doesn’t matter,” Eliot cut in, “What do we do now?”

“We could move the Howorths?” I asked.

“No, we’re not movin’ the Howorths,” Eliot said, “This is their home, that means something to people here.”

“Yeah, we can’t babysit them forever,” Sophie added. 

“Alright, we’ve taken out bigger players than this,” Nate said, thinking out loud, “There’s gotta be someway, uh, something that we can…”

“No!” Eliot interrupted, “No. I take the dive.” He said it like it was obvious.

“Are you sure?” I asked him, concerned how this could play out. 

“Give me some time, okay?” Hardison offered, “You know what? I found some funny business in Ruckers accounts, I can move some things…”

“Forget the fact that we got beat by Barney Fife, alright? This is the right move,” Eliot insisted, “Tactically, this is the right move. You all know that.” Eliot walked off, showing there was no room for discussion.

Reluctantly, we all followed. 

It was that night when Sophie and I went to check on Eliot. He had been in the gym for hours, training, working, preparing, I wasn’t sure what he wanted to call it. It was late, the patrons long gone, the streetlamps seemed to want to go to sleep, still he was in the ring boxing an invisible figure. 

“Hey,” Sophie called, getting his attention, “Listen, you, you don’t have to do this.”

“Nate’s gonna come up with something,” I assured. 

He shook his head nonchalantly, “I’m losing a fight, not diving on a grenade. I’ll be alright.”

“Yeah, I know. I’m not talking physically,” Sophie insisted.

“I think my ego can handle it.”

“Look, you told me it’s all about control,” she continued. “About knowing that you’re never going to be the victim…”

I turned to her, listening as I hadn’t heard this conversation. 

“And that’s what keeps you going right?”

Eliot stopped and approached us, “you think I’m upset because I gotta let this guy kick my ass?”

Neither one of us answered, as we just tilted our heads, allowing him to continue. 

“I learned a long time ago, you can’t control the violence. I can take the punishment. It’s what I do,” somehow he said it with a smile. “What I need to control is not out there… It’s here,” he patted his chest, “Always.”

Sophie just smiled softly and walked away. I stood there for a moment, tracing his sweaty features with my eyes. I then reached up and grabbed a hold of his gloved hand, giving it a tight squeeze. I nodded at him with a tight smile, trying not to get emotional for him, but I wanted to convey that I understood, maybe not all of it, but as much as I could right now. I followed Sophie soon after, but I could feel his eyes on me as I left.

Too soon, the night of the fight came. The crowd was cheering, but I only felt sick. Who knows what Rucker would pull tonight. I vaguely had in the back of my head the plan, but it wasn’t helping. The crew kept me in the back, away from Rucker since he wasn’t as familiar with me, and they wanted to keep it that way. I wasn’t complaining, I didn’t want to be in the fray anyway. 

I watched as the fighting commenced, Eliot and Tank exchanging blows. Eliot sure wasn’t gonna let Tank take the win easy. It wasn’t too long however, when I noticed Eliot getting dazed. I knew it was going to happen, but it didn’t make me feel better. I watched across the ring as Nate sniffed Eliot’s water bottle, and Sophie started arguing with Rucker. Reading Sophie’s lips, I caught the gist of it, she was telling Rucker that Eliot was a different kind of fighter. He doesn’t just do it for sport, that’s how he keeps alive. 

I could even hear her in the crowd when she said, “You’ve just made him more dangerous, you’ve taken the safety off the gun!”

Then Eliot seemed to lose control, he wasn’t gonna be losing this fight. Tank tried to tap out, but Eliot wouldn’t let him. The ref had to pry him off to let him loose. 

The doctor came into the ring, checking on Tank. Eliot sat in his corner, bloody, but otherwise calmed down. I stayed back in the corner, letting them do their work as the crowd was cleared out of the gym.

Rucker stormed the ring, “What the hell just happened?”

Nate shot right back, “What the hell? You could’ve killed him.”

“You know how much you just cost me? I’m gonna make you pay!” 

Hardison had to step between the two.

“Make me pay, huh?”

“We had a deal!”

“Hey, listen to me!” the ring doctor interrupted, “Tank is dead.”

Rucker quickly changed his tune, “No, no wait, wait.”

“You killed him,” the doctor pointed at Eliot, who when I looked at him now, almost looked distraught.

“Wait a second, are you sure?” Rucker asked him. 

“There’s nothing I can do.”

“Listen, he could just be out,” he insisted. 

“I gotta call the police,” the doctor said as he pulled out his phone. 

“No police!” Rucker shouted before turning to a whisper, “Listen to me. Listen, we can work this out. Keep it in the family. I’ll make it worth your while.”

“There were hundreds of witnesses!”

“They’re gone now.”

“Plus we’ve got a dead body, what am I supposed to do about that?! And also?” he continued, “we ain’t family.”

Rucker finally seemed to back off, “alright, alright, you’re right. You call the police, and I… I’m gonna call the athletic commission.” He hurried up to his office, where I knew he wasn’t going to make that phone call. 

I sat next to Hardison once everything was settled down, waiting for confirmation from Parker about the GPS and Rucker leaving. 

Hardison opened his phone to see the GPS tracker on his screen, “Looks like he’s headed to Iowa.”

“Make the call,” Nate said. 

I immediately took out my phone to comply. 

“What’s going on?” Howorth asked as he walked in. 

“Just give me a sec,” Nate replied, “Doc, you’ve got Tank right?”

“Yeah. Oh, he’ll be fine,” the ring doctor stood, calm as could be, “should come around in a few minutes.”

“Wait, wait,” Howorth stepped up to the ring, “he’s not dead?”

“Succinylcholine,” the doc raised a syringe, “it’s a mild paralytic. It only works for a few minutes.”

“Yeah, it was just enough to scare off Rucker,” Nate explained. 

“So, so Eliot wasn’t…”

“No, no. We found the drugged water bottle before the fight, switched it out with a clean one.” Nate explained. “Rucker’s not too original when it comes to this kind of thing apparently.”

“So, Jonny, you were in on this?”

The doc nodded, “Mr. Ford and his friends came and asked me for help. I told him around here, we always stand up for our own.” He looked around, “where’s Rucker?”

“The Iowa State Police just got a tip that a fugitive is headed into their jurisdiction,” I replied.

“And I’m pretty sure crossing state lines with a bag full of cash won’t look too good,” Hardison added. 

“Especially when they find the little surprise in his trunk,” Parker laughed. I recalled how Parker went and picked up a bunch of firearms with the money Nate won off of Rucker in golf. That’s a lot of guns to find in a trunk. 

“That should hold him off until the IRS gets down here,” Nate commented. 

“The IRS?” Howorth asked.

“The money that Rucker makes from these fights,” Sophie began, “well, it’s all in cash.”

“Yeah, and he wasn’t too good about reporting that income,” Hardison finished. “You see, all we had to do was flag the government about the tax evasion.”

“Rucker won’t be coming back to town anytime soon,” I smiled at Howorth, proud of the crew and what they could accomplish. 

“He doesn’t have anything to come back for,” Sophie added, “He literally bet the whole house on Tank.”

“So all that money’s gone?” Howorth asked.

“Well, you see, not exactly,” Nate said. 

Hardison made a bunch of online bookies that Rucker placed his bets with, he explained. Meaning that they had access to the money. 

The doc examined Eliot, “you took a hell of a pounding. We should get you a CT scan. You could have internal bleeding.” 

I sat down next to Eliot, looking him over, hoping he was okay.

“You let yourself get hammered like that on purpose,” Howorth commented, handing him an ice pack, “that’s a hell of a lot of punishment to take.”

“That’s what he does,” Sophie answered. 

Eliot nodded, only making brief eye contact as he held the ice pack to his shoulder.

Once everything was settled, we were able to hand the gym over to the Howorths, encouraging them to be better for those that wanted to be in the sport, to help them. They were excited, and ready to take up the challenge. But for us, it was time to go back home, we all needed some rest I thought, one more than the others. 

Tags: @isoldeahlstrom @kniselle

[nautiscarader]

Wendip Week 2022 #1: on four wheels

(Ao3)

As every year, a small crowd of people gathered near the bus stop at the outskirts of a sleepy town in Oregon. Except, unlike for the past five years, they were not waiting for a bus - mostly because the local company seemed to have abandoned the line a few months ago, and the sign has been half-eaten by some animal.

That might have been the reason behind the company's decision.

Fortunately, lack of buses did not put an end to one tradition that caused the townsfolk to gather in the same place at the start of every Summer.

"Where the heck are they?", Ford asked, peeling his eyes, looking at the empty road, "They should have been here by now."

"Calm down", his brother reassured him, "I wouldn't worry about these two."

"Wait, can you hear that?"

Melody turned her head at the slight noise her ears picked up, and the rest followed her, only to experience sharp pain when a mighty roar of a car engine, combined with screeching tires reached them a second later.

At the very end of the forest road a colourful dot emerged from a cloud of smoke, appearing larger and larger the closer it got, causing the crowd to realise they are standing right in its way.

They jumped to the sides, but the rainbow-coloured Jeep did a sharp ninety-degree spin turning sideways as it came to a screeching halt, exposing the driver behind the wheel with a wild smile on her braces-free face.

"Mabel!", the folks cheered in unison as Mabel Pines jumped out of her car, straight into her great-uncles' arms, then into a much tighter one of her group of friends, and finally into a heated kiss with her blonde girlfriend.

"And, uh, where's the-"

"I'm here, grunkle", a meek voice replied from inside the car, "Though honestly, it feels like I'm in five places at once…"

Dipper Pines carefully stepped out of the car, his face sharing some of the colours of his sister's car, as he waddled towards the group, mostly to reassure him that they were not moving from side to side as the rest of the forest.

"Geez, dude, you doing alright there?", Soos asked his friend, only to get reply from his sister.

"Oh, he's FINE!", Mabel slapped his back, making Dipper's eyes pop up as something simultaneously went back down his throat, "It's not the first time he rides with me!"

"It's the second time…", he corrected her. "I'm still not sure how come you got your license."

"It's all about attitude, bro!", she rolled her eyes, "My instructor was telling me that as I learn to drive, I will find which rules can be bent, and which can be broken…"

"Mabel, I am sure that's not how driving works…"

"Then why didn't you drive?"

A new voice joined the conversation, instantly gaining Dipper's attention, much to Mabel's amusement. Dipper turned his head as Wendy emerged from the crowd, welcoming him with a slightly cocky smile, to which Dipper could only reply with meek stuttering. Despite being seventeen, the sight of his old red-head crush still made him freeze and lose composure, until Mabel's not-so-subtle nudge awoke him from his trance.

"H-Hi, Wendy…"

"That's because he didn't pass.", Mabel explained for him.

"Mabel!"

"Oh come on, dude, tons of people don't pass on the first try", Wendy nudged him from the other side. "Tambs had to try three times, Nate twice, Robbie and Thompson four…"

"And you?", he asked automatically, looking nervously back and forth.

"Uh, I did it it on my first pass, actually.", she chuckled. Wendy had to turn to her other side as Mabel jumped into the air, high-fiving her.

Dipper was about to reply, but left the two to their own and retracted back into the car for the mountain of bags.

==========

"Dude, you cannot stay grumpy the whole Summer", Mabel shouted at her brother, as the twins got back in their attic double room.

"I'm not grumpy, I'm-", Dipper took a moment to think of a plausible answer "I'm just thinking what to check first tomorrow. I mean, Ford has been keeping an eye on all the anomalies, but I want to update my maps…"

"Uh-uh". Mabel replied, rolling her eyes. "Well, have a nice evening moping around, then."

"And where are you going?"

"Ka-ra-okie-dokie!", Mabel sang, dancing in place. "Want to join us?"

"Uh, no, I don't feel like…"

"Well, all the seats in my car were taken anyway."

She blew a raspberry and playfully jumped down the stairs and went outside, where Paz, Grenda and Candy have already been waiting, as Dipper watched them from the window.

"Well, who cares about social interactions?", Dipper muttered to himself, as he opened his laptop. "It's just me and you!"

He spoke to his collectible Duck-Tective Junko-bob figurine he was using as a debugging duck.

"How about we crack down that algorithm we've been working on?"

The duck remained silent.

"Yeah, sure, you are doing all the work…", he grumbled back.

But Dipper didn't have time to even look at a single line of the code when he heard a car horn outside. He walked towards the window, recognising a familiar golf cart, and a familiar person behind its wheel.

"Sup, dude! Don't tell me you thought you would be spending a Friday night alone!", Wendy shouted, honking the horn again.

"Wendy!", Dipper automatically checked if his shirt was buttoned, "What-what are you doing-"

"Get down here, nerd, I'm taking you somewhere fun."

"Oh-oh, right!"

Dipper opened the window and was half-way through climbing out of it when Wendy's concerned voice made him stop.

"Uh, are you grounded? Cos the stairs were working a few minutes ago for Mabel…"

"Oh.", Dipper pondered his action for a while. "Yeah, I just thought-cos in the movies, they, they always sneak out, and-"

Wendy chuckled.

"Come down the stairs, I don't want to have you on my conscience."

A moment later Dipper Pines found himself sitting next to Wendy, who casually dangled the keys, offering to switch.

"Er, maybe I should pass the test first…"

"You weren't so sure back when you were twelve."

"Yeah, but then I had to rescue Mabel. Where are we going?"

"Over the lake", Wendy explained, as she drove, "That's the best place to watch."

The sun settled quickly, and soon only the fireflies illuminated the empty forest road. But by the time it happened, the two arrived at their destination, with Wendy relaxing in her seat, handing Dipper his own can of soda.

"Wendy. what are we waiting f-"

His question was answered at once when the night sky was illuminated with red-and-purple fireworks, reflecting in the water, filling Dipper's entire field of view with magnificent colours.

"Pretty neat, huh?"

"Y-yeah…"

Dipper looked at Wendy's face, basked in the palette of colours, and he found himself loss for words, like so many times when he wanted to talk to her. But this time, he simply sipped his drink and let the show continue.

"I know how you feel, dude.", she suddenly spoke, "About the test."

"But you've said-"

"Yeah, I aced that one…", her face suddenly frowned, "But I flunked my college ones, I have to retake like three of them, or I'm out."

"O-oh.", Dipper swallowed loudly, "Is-is there any way I can help?"

"Know anything about statistics?", she turned her head at once.

"Sure!"

"Well then…", she leaned closer, "You help me with the numbers, I help you with parallel parking."

She smiled, and with another explosion of colours her red hair became a mane of fire with two glowing emeralds in place of her eyes.

"D-deal…", he muttered, regaining composure almost immediately, "Although, actually, I did the parallel thing perfectly, it's the-"

"Dude, not now" , she hushed him, "We'll start tomorrow".

And with that, the two relaxed in their seats and watched the show engulfing above and below them. This Summer might have fewer monsters and adventures, but somehow, Dipper knew he wouldn't complain.

[fly-pow-bye]

ThunderCats - “Working Grrrl”

Co-Executive Producer: Victor Courtright

Supervising Producer: Nate Cash

Producer: Marly Halpern-Graser

Written by: Joan Ford

Directed by: George Kaprielian

Grrrl power!

Our episode begins at the Bolkin Stadium, where a crowd of Bolkins are cheering on a huge race between Cheetara...and just Cheetara. Despite being a one-super-fast-woman race, the fans are still chanting Cheetara's name as she becomes a yellow blur.

The rest of the ThunderCats are in the audience too, and Tygra, the straight man of the group, just can't help but question everything around him.

Tygra: What are we watching?!

Lion-O: A race!

Tygra: What race?! It's one person running in circles!

Thanks for explaining the joke. One of the Bolkins does explain that the winner of the race becomes the mayor of the Bolkin village, and suggests that the other Bolkins didn't want to enter because they're slow even by non-super-speedster standards.

Being the only contestant, Cheetara becomes the new mayor of the Bolkins by default. During her victory, a little Bolkin girl named JanJan shows up and asks Cheetara how she can be just as fast as she is. She could tell her that one kind of has to be born with this sort of thing, but Cheetara decides to be...well, Cheetara.

Cheetara: I'll tell you a secret, JanJan. If you work really really hard and train every single day for a really long time...it won't matter, because you'll never be as fast as me.

(JanJan shows disappointment)

Cheetara: ...but that's okay! You don't have to be the fastest to be like me. You just have to be the best...at something!

Nice...save? Cheetara, fitting for her stuck-up character, suggests she can be the best Cheetara fan ever.

To make a short story even shorter, it ends up working.

JanJan: This is my entire identity now!

It's definitely a commentary on something, but I can't really say what.

However, the celebration ends, as, bum bum bum bum, Monkian has invaded the arena, and is challenging Cheetara to a race! Lion-O does what he would normally do when faced off against one of the ThunderCats' sworn enemies, only to be rightfully pushed back because he's not doing anything wrong yet.

Also, Monkian is clearly being silly. Sure, he was a master of swinging across trees in the original, but super-speed isn't really Monkian's superpower. Cheetara knows this, and is just as stuck-up as ever, and decides to risk her newly appointed status on what should be a landslide victory.

The race begins, and it's a race that, while well animated despite the screenshot suggesting otherwise, mostly takes place with a plain blue background. I know, it's TV, they have to cut some corners somewhere. There are some pretty neat ideas, though, like when Monkian runs so fast, he causes a sonic boom dissipating the clouds and breaking part of the stadium. Wait, what?!

Tygra: How did Monkian become so fast?!

I was going to say "thanks for explaining the weirdness of this scene, Tygra!", but I guess they needed some hint that this is not normal for Monkian for anyone who started the series with this episode. There's something clearly going on here.

However, there's no way anyone can prove any funny business is going on with this monkey business, as Monkian becomes the new Bolkin Mayor. Lion-O, once again seemingly ignoring that they have to know he's doing something wrong before beating him up, attempts to get the ThunderCats to beat him up, only for the audience to start throwing garbage at him.

His first order as the new Mayor is to instate a travel ban on anyone who came out of a Cat's Lair. Okay, they weren't that blatant; he just bans the ThunderCats from the arena while he does a few more things to it.

As they're stuck at the Cat's Lair, Tygra, the stater of the obvious, looks at his laptop and notices that Monkian isn't exactly the greatest Mayor ever. He essentially turned the Bolkins into his slaves, and he delights in this so much that, in one of the examples of his tyranny, he's just making them move rocks from one pile to the other for no real benefit to anyone. Even the Brutemen from the original were used to build a lair.

Panthro does point out that the Bolkins kind of did this to themselves by even allowing such a contest to happen, because...he doesn't want justice? Lion-O has a different idea...

...a training montage, complete with an 80's song instrumental! Unfortunately, they don't really get as far as the training montage, as Cheetara really didn't take losing a race too well. It may have been the first time she ever lost to anyone. Panthro tries to cheer her up by using her own words against this failure-caused depression: she doesn't need to be the fastest to be like Cheetara. Unfortunately, Cheetara continues those words and says that she needed to be the best at something.

She does have one idea, as she leaves the Cat's Lair to find something she can be the best at. She even takes the laptop, despite it not being hers.

This something turns out to be the wonderful world of Business at the Wolo Village. No, really, the business is just named "Business Corp." Her first job is to sort all of the mail in the mail room, and he knows she can do it because all of the other workers are there, too. Unfortunately, they're all sleeping on the job. What is Cheetara to do to prove that she can be the best?

By educating herself with a tape, and since she has to learn all of this quickly, she has to fast forward the tape and try to soak in all of that information. Gotta say, that is an idea I haven't seen, and it is fitting for the speedster. I wonder if The Flash ever did this.

She manages to use all of the managerial skills she learned to get the slackers to form the mail in neat piles. The manager is so proud of this, he decides to just give her his job immediately. Finally, while she can no longer be the best at running, she can be the best at working 9 to 5...though the manager has to correct her that it's actually 10 to 6.

We may not get a training montage, but we do get a business montage instead, complete with a song so great, it's even replayed in the credits for this episode. If there's any nitpick I could make here, that walk-cycle in the lower left is sort of odd. As she walks, her head seems to change shape to this maniacal grin and back to normal every time she takes a step. Maybe I'm missing a joke here, but it's pretty out of place. In the end, she's at the top of the corporate ladder.

We neatly transition from the newly rechristened "Cheetara Corp." to the woods, where the ThunderCats are wondering how Cheetara is doing with her new plan to be the best at business. Even with this minor scene, it enhances the montage's joke even further, as it's revealed that Cheetara's montage of pushing it to the top didn't leave out that much. Not only was this her first day...

Tygra: She left the Cat's Lair, like, three hours ago! She probably hasn't even filled out an application yet!

...thanks for underestimating your teammate's abilities, Tygra. It's understandable, but still. Also, "like"? Is he a valley girl now? Anyway, they make it back to the Bolkin Stadium to find out what exactly gave Monkian his ability to run faster than the former fastest person on Third Earth...

...which also had a name change since we last saw it. The ThunderCats ban is still in place, and Lion-O is just too proud to not exclaim exactly who he and his teammates are despite his plans to just try to sneak past the guards. He should know because he was there when the ban was put into place, but he shouldn't know because Lion-O is the dumb-dumb.

Thankfully, JanJan, remember her, managed to sneak past the tire fires and offers a way for them to sneak in undetected. Why would she do this? Because she already focused all of her energy on being the best Cheetara fan ever, and she didn't want to waste the effort. She can sneak them in, but first, they need disguises.

We Gilligan cut to the ThunderCats in their disguises, which consist mainly of "Monkian is heart" shirts and full manes. Lion-O is ticked off about this for some reason. Either he really didn't like having to pretend to like Monkian, or he really felt that "say we're the ThunderCats" strategy could have worked. Not sure.

Whatever the case, the disguises work, and they're able to go to the Monkian Speed Stunt Spectacular. The ThunderCats didn't get them because...well, maybe they snuck into this audience without having them put on? Again, I'm not sure. They sneak out to Monkian's secret room, which happened to be left open with no lock or key.

They look in Monkian's room, and are shocked to find out. Clearly, it must be the giant unicorn poop on the table. Okay, maybe it could be a giant glob of Neapolitan ice cream that he just put on the table, but that's the first thing to come to my mind. Not enough to show this disgusting room, Wilykit says this:

Wilykit: Why did he do that to the ceiling?

...yeah, the less I question this, the better. Of course, it's not the ice cream/poop, but the obvious safe that Monkian just put in the middle of the room. Panthro says that this is basically breaking and entering, but Tygra, of all people, goads him into destroying the safe with the classic "you're just worried you CAN'T break the safe!" trick.

Sure enough, it's revealed that Monkian was hiding a magic potion in there that gave him this super speed. In other words, he used steroids, but they don't use the "S" word. There was sort of a hint towards this in the race scene, where we get a shot of Monkian's legs being super big as he runs. However, this would be easy to confuse this with ThunderCats Roar's usual problem of having the characters change shape and size between scenes. This episode sometimes does it even in the same scene!

Monkian barges in, and we finally get our fight scene of the week...well, sort of. The good news is that he was barging in because the juice wore out. They don't decide to beat him up, they just toss the magic potion to each other like this is a game of monkey in the middle. Oh, now I get it: Monkian in the middle.

In one particular scene, Lion-O gets passed the bottle, and...he just stands there. Is this the return of the infamous Reboot Puff Strategy?

Lion-O: Hmmm, I should probably move.

...even Lion-O's aware of how silly this is. They do get a little bit of a proud crowd reaction.

Eventually, it ends up in the hands of JanJan, and Monkian is rather eager to take that potion away from her. The audience...actually, they don't seem to do that much to their Mayor even with his misdeeds being fully visible. It's possible they have no real time, because the plots are about to converge like a bulldozer plowing into a building. They don't really cut back and forth between them; it just feels like they completely forgot about it until now.

By the way, bulldozer plowing into a building is exactly what happens, as Cheetara and her shoulderpad suit leads a bunch of bulldozers to bulldoze the arena. Why is she able to do this?

Because Monkian signed a contract, allowing Cheetara Corp to own his name and arena. Unlike the steroids, there was no hint of this happening at all. The reasoning makes sense, as Cheetara, disguised with merely a mustache, had him sign a contract that would declare him "super cool". As told by pretty much all the signs around Monkian Stadium, that's far more important to him than reading any kind of fine print.

Without any additional races or use of that fast magic, she manages to save the day and, after Monkian's disqualification, she becomes the Mayor again. But, uh oh, she can't just leave her business! She finds a solution rather quickly, which I guess fits Cheetara's character, and it is a continuation of a gag from earlier. It passes.

...she really didn't grow as a character throughout any of this, did she? Honestly, I didn't really expect that to happen.

How does it stack up?

It's a simple idea, and the execution isn't bad. Outside of a rushed ending, it works. I'll give this a 4.

Next, a crime fighter not from Third Earth! ...well okay, neither are the ThunderCats, but another one nonetheless!

← ThunderSlobs 🐈 Mandora - The Evil Chaser →

[silversoul596]

Wendip Week prompt 4: The gang finds out

Hey guys sorry for posting this a bit late but It’s finally finished! I present to you the fourth prompt: The gang finds out. I’ll hopefully have the third prompt out before the week ends but until then I hope you enjoy Wendip Week! 

This year was my fourth visit to Gravity Falls, I’d be turning Seventeen this year with Mabel and I was excited. 

We’d been here for a couple months but we were gonna end up staying for a while, Mom and Dad allowed it. 

There was something I hadn’t told anyone yet, not even Mabel knew about it. 

“Hey dude!” That familiar voice called out behind me, the gentle summer breeze blowing in the air. 

“Hey Wendy” I turned round to face her, before she leaned in and gave me a quick kiss on the lips. 

The thing I hadn’t told anyone yet was that me and Wendy, well we had been dating for a while. 

It was kinda funny really, when we arrived here she was different than the other years before. 

After a week of staying she asked if we could talk alone and of course I agreed. 

She told me she had feelings for me since my second visit to Gravity Falls, Well she liked me since my first but she accepted that she had feelings for me my second visit. 

At first I was blown away, a complete stuttering mess. I didn’t know how to react but the thing was, I still liked her too. 

So I said yes! What else was I gonna say? 

So that brings us up to the present and the situation we landed our selves in. 

We were dating in secret because we were worried about what people would say about the age gap. 

“Wendy not in public” I blushed crazily after we separated from the kiss. 

“Dude don’t be such a wuss, no one is gonna see us out here anyway!” She gave me a toothy grin but boy was she wrong, so so wrong...

It was a normal day for me, I was going to go see Tambry as she had something to discuss about. 

I met up with her at the Diner Lazy Susan worked at, When I walked in she waved at me to come over. 

“Hey Wendy!” She grinned a toothy grin at me as I sat down across from her. 

“Hey what’s up?” I questioned her, she gave a slight blush before showing me her left hand. 

“No freaking way!” I exclaimed in shock, She had a ring on her wedding finger. 

“Robbie proposed to me the other day! He got down on one knee and everything!” We both squealed in excitement for the bride to be. 

“Oh my gosh I can’t believe it!” I said excitedly, She gave a warm smile. 

“Would you like to be one of my bridesmaids?” She questioned and I slammed my hands on the table. 

“What kind of question is that?! Of course I will!” We hugged over the table in rejoice, I was ecstatic.

“But this isn’t the reason why I wanted to talk, well not the main reason anyway” She giggled and I looked at her with a confused look. 

“Well what exactly was it you wanted to talk about, exactly?” I beckoned her to share her information. 

She gave a sly grin “When were you going to tell me that you and Dipper were dating??” She raised a brow and my face turned a quick crimson color. 

“W-W-What are you t-talking about?” I stuttered like mad, trying to hide the truth but failing miserably. 

 “Oh come on don’t lie to me, I caught you and Dipper kiss yesterday” I immediately cursed under my breath, Of course Dipper had to be right. 

“Alright fine you caught us” I gave a heavy sigh, sinking in my booth a little bit. 

“Soooooo how long?” She questioned while she stirred her coffee with a tea spoon. 

“J-Just a couple of months, I was the one who asked him...” Her eyes lit up with delight. 

“I knew you were crushing on him! Totally obvious since you rejected every boy that asked you out” She laughed but I sat there red faced. 

“You aren’t gonna tell anyone are you” I sighed and she looked away “N-No...” I sat up and leaned onto the table. 

“You haven’t told anyone right, Tambry?” I questioned and she sighed. 

“I might’ve told Robbie...” She gave an uneasy laugh and I sighed. 

“As long as anyone else doesn’t know that’s fine” She nodded and I asked lady Susan for a coffee. 

But little did I know that the news about me and Dipper was going to spread like wild fire...

After a couple of days Nate, lee and Thompson all came up to me and Dipper asking us about our relationship. 

At first we were embarrassed but they were all super happy, giving Dipper high fives and everything. 

“Dude nice going, you caught yourself a good girl” Nate laughed as he gave Dipper a good hug. 

“Yeah man, about time too. Thought you two were never gonna hook up” Lee sighed as Thompson laughed. 

“Lee looks like you owe me 20 bucks!” Thompson rubbed his hands together and Lee sighed. 

“Wait you two bet if me and Dipper were gonna hook up?!” I asked with curiosity and they both nodded. 

“Yeah Lee said you guys wouldn’t haha, looks like her was wrong and I’ve scored myself a nice 20 bucks!” He gave a fist pump in the air, but me and Dipper sighed. 

Next up was Stan and Ford, they came up to the Hideout at the mystery shack where me and Dipper were taking a break from work. 

Ford gave Dipper a well done before going back to his lab to finish his work. Stan stayed for a while longer. 

“So have you two been at it yet then?” He asked with a straight face and Dipper fell off his deck chair. 

“What!” He questioned and Stan laughed “Well both of you are old enough to do it so I thought I would ask. If you need advice I know every trick in the book kid” He winked at Dipper before disappearing down the hatch. 

We both sat there red faced, we hadn’t done it yet but we were thinking about doing it soon.

Finally the last one too find out was Mabel, as shocking as it may be the way she found out was quite embarassing...

“Dipper!? Wendy!??” She gasped loudly as she walked into Dippers room unannounced. 

 In front of her lay me and Dipper above the covers, completely naked. 

“Mabel!” Dipper gasped as he threw the covers over us, covering our bodies from view. 

“Oh my gosh! I-I didn’t mean to walk in you two doing it!” She covered her eyes, red covering her face. 

“I-It’s alright” I stuttered, I could feel my face burning hot. 

“How long have you two been dating!” She questioned, still covering her face. 

“A-A couple of months...” I said, Dippers face more red than mine. 

“Mabel get out!” He complained to her and she nodded, backing out the room while bumping into things as she still had her eyes covered. 

Finally she shut the door and we looked at each other, before bursting out laughing. 

“I love you” I spoke softly before we kissed, getting back into the mood. 

Suddenly a loud knock could be heard from outside the door “Have fun you too!” We heard Mabel cheer from outside the door. 

“Shut up!” Me and Dipper both yelled before she ran down the hallway laughing...