Star vs the Forces of Halloween
Summary: When Star inadvertently turns the Diaz home into a haunted-house themed deathtrap on Halloween night (and his parents into real-life monsters), it's up to the pair to turn everything back to normal.
One-shot. Written like an episode (either 11-minute or 20, I'm not sure how long it would take), to take place sometime in the latter half of season 1 and also written to keep me occupied while Every. Single. Show. I. Watch. Takes a hiatus. Let me know if you like it!
P.S. I know Halloween doesn't fall on a school day. Shush.
"Last stop! EVERYONE OFF!" The bus driver shouted as he punched the brake on the street corner nearest the Diaz home. The bus had been painted pumpkin orange, with a jack-o-lantern face on the side. The driver himself was dressed as mr. T, complete with fake gold jewelery adorned by oversized letters.
The bus's last few disgruntled teens disembarked, most in costume, all muttering to themselves and leaving behind trails of candy wrappers and costume ornaments. Last off the bus was Marco, in his usual clothes, and Star bouncing along behind him. Every other step, she was altering her outfit to some new Halloween style – a pirate outfit complete with eyepatch, the tattered clothes and green skin of a zombie, the cape and fangs of a vampire.
"Oh come on, Marco!" She whined, tapping her wand to her head and reappearing in a red riding hood outfit. "Just let me do it!"
"I've told you once, I've told you a hundred times Star, no more magic near my body!" Marco said, obviously annoyed. He swatted the wand away as it slowly made it's way towards his scalp. "Remember what happened the last time?"
Star flashed back to earlier in the week, when Marco had been standing up to the local bully, Lars, in a school hallway. Lars had been halfway through the process of stuffing an unfortunate student into one of the school's lockers when Marco had called him out. "Lars! Put him down!"
Sparing a glance, the bully looked over at his would-be opponent – a scraggly hundred pound latino in a red hoodie. He vaguely remembered getting beat up by someone similar with a tentacle arm a few weeks ago – but, thankfully, this kid seemed to be short that particular appendage. "Hah!" He chortled. "Are you gonna make me?"
Marco smiled. "Gladly." He looked to Star, who took her cue.
"Limbus gigantigus!"
A puff of pink fog, and Marco was revealed to have the arms and legs of an Austrian actor/bodybuilder. Unfortunately, the rest of his body had not been transformed to accommodate. Falling backwards under this new, extreme weight, he felt his normal-sized shoulders and chest straining to move his arms, and could hear the halls ringing with laughter as Star scrambled to undo the spell.
"Aww, are you ever going to let me live that down?" Star pouted at him.
"Nope." Marco responded as they turned onto the Diaz front lawn. His house's front porch had been transformed by big, fake webs and plastic spiders, with the odd jack-o-lantern scattered about.
The door burst open as the approached, Marco's parents appearing in the entryway. "Happy Halloween!" They shouted enthusiastically. Mrs. Diaz was dressed in a black and white skeleton costume. Mr. Diaz, as a werewolf, with a full-body costume covered in fake fur.
Star let out a squeal when she saw their outfits. "Marco, even your parents are in on it! Come oon, you've gotta have a costume!"
"I told you Star, I don't. Do. Halloween." Marco said grumpily, pushing past his parents. "I'll be in my room. Studying."
Star watched him go, unimpressed by his attitude. She blew a stray hair from in front of her face before looking at his parents. "He's been like that all day. Why does Marco hate Halloween so much! You get to dress up, and there's all this free candy!" At this she grabbed a handful from the bowl by the door and tossed it into the air, strewing it everywhere.
There was a pause as the three bent to pick up the sweets. "Well, Star, he was very young..." Mrs. Diaz began.
The parents remembered fondly as they walked a smaller, younger Marco around the neighborhood for candy collection. He was dressed in a miniature sombrero, skull mask and glitzy jacket, like he was a member of a mariachi band. He approached a porch, flickering pumpkins and a creaking sign with "BEWARE!" scratched into it spinning slowly near the door. He reached up and gave a knock. "Trick or treat!" He held out his bag.
The door slid open, the bowl of candy sitting on a table in the center of black backdrops. A small note read "take as much as you dare..."
Young-Marco reached his hand into the bowl, ready to scoop as much as he could carry into his pillowcase, when a hand shot out from the curtains and grabbed his wrist.
"Aaagh!" He shrieked, jerking his hand away from the bowl. Candy went flying and he turned around, ready to bolt, only to come face to face with the grim reaper.
"Hey! You gonna pick that -" Young-Marco caught one glimpse of his mask and screamed for his life before running down the driveway towards his parents.
"Marco! They're just costumes!" His parents shouted as he sprinted at them and buried himself in their arms.
Behind them on the sidewalk, a gaggle of kids passed by, including none other than a younger version of Marco's lifetime crush, Jackie Lynn Thomas. "Marco's scared of Halloween!" Someone in the mob yelled, and the entire group shrieked with laughter.
Marco pushed himself away from his parents hurriedly, his eyes tear-stained and cheeks bright red at being embarrassed in front of his crush. "Let's just go home..." he muttered. His parents frowned.
"...and Marco's never celebrated Halloween since." Mr. Diaz finished mournfully. The trio was sitting on the couch now, sipping out of mugs as the sky slowly darkened through the windows.
"Ooooh..." Star said. "So Marco had a bad experience, and now he's scared of Halloween." She bounced up. "I know just what to do! Thanks, Mr. and Mrs. Diaz!" She headed towards the stairs.
"Star, wait!" Mrs. Diaz called.
Before they could correct the princess on her mistake, Marco slouched downstairs, a gym bag over his shoulder. "I'm going to the dojo." He announced.
"OK bye have fun!" Mr. Diaz called as Marco slammed the door behind him.
"I know just what to do..." Star muttered, chewing on her wand and looking mischievously towards the door.
"Stupid dojo, being closed on stupid Halloween..." Marco muttered to himself as he walked back down the street towards his home. The sun had set, the jack-o-lanterns were lit, and kids in costumes were bounding from house to house. "Stupid costumes, stupid day, I just wanna go home and - whaaaaa..." he trailed off, mouth agape as he stared at what had formerly been the Diaz residence.
The house had been transformed into an old gothic castle, complete with gargoyles and towers topping the roof. Spiderwebs (some with spiders the size of Marco's hands) adorned the many windows. The front lawn had been turned into a graveyard, faded tombstones and a twisted tree providing ample objects for real, live (well, dead) zombies to trip over as they lumbered around. An arrow pointed to the front door, which was open to a shroud of inky blackness. Painted in red ink on the sign were the words, "enter if you dare..."
"Grrr..." Marco growled, his eyes staring at the spot that his room would've been as he dropped the gym bag onto the sidewalk. "STAR!" He shouted.
In front of the garage door, next to a sign reading exit, Star was giving handfuls of sweets to traumatized, pale-faced children as they exited the building. "Happy Halloween!" She shouted. "Hope you had fun!"
"Star!" Marco snapped, grabbing her arm. She'd gone with a black and white striped dress, with an orange headband and spiderweb stockings in place of her normal outfit, presumably in honor of the occasion.
"Oh heeey Marco!" Star said innocently, dropping some more candy into another emotionally scarred child's bucket. Her smile was wide and just a little deranged.
"What have you done to our house?" Marco asked patiently.
"Oh that?" Star asked. "Well, I heard about how you're scared of Halloween, so I turned it into a haunted mansion!"
Marco stomped his foot. "Okay, two points. First! I am NOT scared of Halloween. Second, we have to LIVE HERE!" He frowned, annoyed at the Mewni princess.
Star stuck her tongue out at him. "Oh lighten up, scaredy cat, I can change it back, we just have to make sure everyone's outside first."
"Fine." Marco said grumpily. "Then we close it and wait for everyone to leave."
As if on cue, from behind him, "woah."
Marco turned and froze, seeing none other than Jackie Lynn Thomas and her best friend Janna standing on the driveway behind him. Jackie was in a long robe like the grim reaper's, with dark makeup covering her face, and Janna was dressed up in a witch-themed skirt, shirt and pointy hat.
"This is sick!" Janna said.
"Sweet haunted house, Marco," Jackie complimented the boy. A small whimper could be heard from the back of his throat. "What was that about it being closed?"
Marco snapped out of his daze, his annoyance at no longer having a bedroom overcoming his overpowering fear of embarassment. "Yes, sorry ladies, but -"
"It's totally still open!" Star interjected. "Go right on in guys, see you when you come out the other end! IF YOU SURVIVE." Her face changed from a charming grin to an intimidating snarl.
Jackie and Janna blinked, seemingly unphased by this behavior. "Sweet! C'mon Jackie!" Janna took the other girl's wrist and they disappeared into the front door as zombies reached for them over the fence.
"Have fun!" Star shouted at their backs as they disappeared inside.
"Star, why'd you do that?" Marco confronted her as soon as the pair was out of sight.
"Oh come on, Marco." Star said, exasperated. "We're gonna have to find your parents before we can change the house back anyway. May as well let them see it before you make me poof it."
Marco sighed. "Fine." He said. Grabbing his friend's hand, he pulled her towards the front door. "Let's go."
They approached the front door and Marco whacked away a zombie hand that had reached too far over the fence. As the two approached the door, it seemed like a curtain of darkness was covering the entryway.
"Y'know Star, I gotta say, you actually did do a pretty good job on the décor." Marco told her, impressed despite himself.
"Oh-h, you haven't seen anything yet." Star smiled evilly. "Come on!"
She pulled her friend through the shroud and into a blackness so intense Marco felt like it was pressing in on his eyes. If he'd been scared of the dark, he was sure he would've been terrified by the experience. Luckily, he wasn't, so it didn't do much for him.
As suddenly as it started, the darkness released them into the grand entryway. And grand was the correct word. A checkered floor extended for yards before turning into a pair of grand staircases that pushed up to the second floor. Between the two staircases was another inky-black doorway. Torches flickered along the walls with pumpkins in the corners. A grand chandelier fitted with waxy, melting candles hung from the roof. The walls were adorned with paintings of skeletons and Frankenstein monsters, and all of their eyes watched the pair when they moved.
"Woah." Marco said, awestruck.
"Pretty cool, right?" Star responded, taking a glance around to admire her handiwork. "Now let's see... Marco, your mom is downstairs in the dungeon, cause she's a skeleton." she pointed to an iron-bolted door on the left. "Your dad is upstairs in the study, probably. We'll either need to get to the backyard or to the garage to get out."
Marco nodded. "Oh, and I turned your parents into real monsters for the event." Star added.
Marco nodded again before he realized what he'd just heard. "What WHAT?!" He exclaimed.
"Relaax!" Star said, twirling her wand. "They were totally okay with it. Said they wanted to help you get over your Halloween fear and stuff."
Marco's eye twitched. "Star, how could you turn my parents into real monsters! Also, I'm NOT scared of Halloween!"
Star looked at him, offended. "I asked them first! And I think I did a pretty good job! Can you at least wait to see them before you start getting mad?"
"Fine..." Marco said, resigned to his fate. "Let's just get this over with..."
Taking the princess's hand, he pushed open the door to the house's brand new dungeon and stepped downstairs.
The dungeon was dark and filled with dangerous instruments. Stretching racks, shackles on the walls, even one of those weird, spike-lined coffins was placed against a wall. Behind iron cell bars were old skeletons, and on rotting wooden desks were jars with pickled eyeballs and brains and ears floating in them.
Marco sighed as the two walked, and kicked aside a discarded bone. "Look, sorry I'm so negative about all this Star, I just... really don't like Halloween."
Star looked back at him. "Your parents told me why. But that's why I made this place, so you'll never be scared of it again!"
Marco stopped. "Wait, my parents told you the story? Then why -"
A shriek echoed from the far end of the dungeon, interrupting him. "Help!" Someone screamed.
"Oh, no." Marco strained his eyes to try and see ahead. "Come on, we have to help them!"
The two ran forward, the dungeon getting progressively darker until Star was forced to use her wand for a flashlight. There was another scream, much closer this time, which was abruptly cut off.
Trick or treat... a dry voice whispered, and there was a clattering all around them.
"...mom?" Marco managed, before he turned his head.
A skeletal monster had assembled itself behind him. He had been expecting his mother as some sort of set of dry bones – a spooky human skeleton with some cobwebs in her ribcage, maybe – but this was something that not even Ludo's minions could compete with. A giant skeletal monstrosity, at least 10 feet tall, that looked like an enormous crayfish standing up on it's tail.
"Aaagh!" Marco staggered back as the monster lunged at him. It's bony claws and face (not a skull, but some sort of ornate structure composed of other, smaller bones) impacted the floor where he'd been standing and scattered away into the corners of the dungeon, reassembling themselves a moment later as the monster stood back up.
"TRICK OR TREAT!" The same voice shouted, and Marco and Star screamed as they split into two directions.
"STAR!" Marco shouted, dodging a claw and shattering it with a karate chop. "How do we beat it!" The hand reassembled and came at him again.
"I don't know!" She screamed back, jumping over the monster's tail from the opposite side of the room. "I didn't make this! It must've been your mom's idea!"
Marco was about to aim another kick towards the monster's giant ribcage, when he stopped himself. His mom! Some part of this skeleton was his mom's bones! He didn't want to hurt her!"
He staggered back. "Star, don't hurt it! My mom's in there, somewhere!"
Star aimed her wand, then dropped it to her sides. "Well if we can't shatter it, how the heck are we supposed to stop it?!"
"YOU CAN'T STOP IT, IT'S GOING TO STOP YOU!" The voice shouted from the cell directly behind Marco, and he jumped nearly a foot in the air in surprise, the monster swiping at the air where his feet had been.
He glanced into the cell and saw a human skull in the corner, it's jaw clicking as it cackled an insane laugh. The laugh was decidedly not his mom's. But he knew the puffy hair that was still on it's head...
"Star, my mom's head is in here!" Marco said. "Force the monster into the cage, and you can turn her back to normal!"
Star did just that. As Marco opened the door, she fired off a spell from her wand ("mega rainbow punch cannon!") and in a flash of light, the monster staggered back, crashing against the cell doors. Marco finished the job, running up and putting a well placed kick into it's ribcage to send it plowing through the iron door and into the back of the cell.
The skull, for it's part, went flying into the pile of reassembling bone. "WAAAAH!"
"Now, Star!" Marco said, throwing himself to the side.
"Humanus returnius normalus!" Star cried, firing her wand directly into the monster's center mass, just as it was beginning to stand.
"NOOOoooo!" The skull roared as the bones shranked and realigned. Marco watched in fascinated horror as a human skeleton formed out of the pile, clothes and flesh reappearing over the white bone, until finally, his mother stood before him, back to normal in a black and white skeleton costume.
"Kids!" She cried, smiling. She ran to Marco, who was still stunned from what he'd just seen. "Did I make a good monster?"
The trio exited the dungeon, slamming the metal door behind them, to find the entryway had remained unchanged. There was no sign of Jackie or Janna, but it looked as though other kids had stopped coming through.
The teens had just finished filling in Mrs. Diaz on what they were doing. "So, Marco, where is your father?" She asked, smiling.
Up above, dust fell from the ceiling as a heavy body pounded across the roof. They heard a faint howl from a creature that sounded not quite like a wolf, but not quite human, either.
"On the roof." Marco said.
The upstairs landing had been turned into a large and beautiful study – or it would've been beautiful, with pelts on the floors and animal heads on the walls, had everything not been bleeding something that looked suspiciously like strawberry jelly. A balcony overlooking the back of the house (which, from the looks of things, had been turned into a larger version of the zombified front yard) stood proudly behind a set of full-wall windows, doused in the white light of the full moon. A hallway to the side led off to what looked suspiciously like an asylum.
"Oh my, this is lovely!" Mrs. Diaz said as they walked through the doors. "Star, dear, you must change the rooms of our house more often!"
"Yeeah." Marco responded unenthusiastically as he reached for one of the wall's "stuffed" monster heads, only to have the two-headed bear snap at his hand and growl at him. "Let's just find dad."
The roof over their heads pounded into a fast beat as Marco's Were-dad scrambled over the roof, still howling.
"Mom, you stay here." Marco said, as he and Star stepped onto the balcony. "We'll come get you once we've turned dad back to normal."
"Okay! Be careful!" His mom called back, just as they snapped the door shut behind him.
The full moon took up the sky above them, shining down on everything, and the pair shared a moment of peaceful silence. There were no sounds of traffic, and they could faintly see the bobbing flashlights of the night's last trick-or-treaters on the next street over. Below them, even the zombie-filled backyard looked beautiful.
Marco spared a glance at Star, who had also taken a moment to admire the view. The silvery light reflected off her hair, giving it an otherworldy sheen.
"Ready to go?" He asked. She looked at him and nodded. Above them, the Were-Diaz howled again. Moment over.
Star boosted Marco up onto the roof from the balcony, and he offered her a hand in-turn. They heard a clattering behind them, and Marco bent over just in time to dodge the giant dog-creature that was his dad as it lunged over his head.
"Mr. Diaz!" Star called calmly, standing back up. "It's time to come down now!"
The werewolf howled again, and this time, at the edge of hearing, a chorus of howls returned his own.
"Mr. Diaz!" Star said again, louder, and more clearly enunciating her words. "It's time to come down now!"
The werewolf snapped back down from them and growled. Marco could see each of it's teeth glinting in the moonlight – sharp, pointed, and definitely not human.
"Uh, Star... I don't think that's WORKIING!" Marco shouted, and the two dove to the sides as the monster took another pass at them.
"That's the code-phrase!" Star cried. "You can't turn werewolves back to normal with magic, everyone knows that! But you can make a code phrase that the human half recognizes! He should be normal now! He's being influenced by your Earth-moon!"
"Great." Marco said. "So now I get to fight my dad."
The werewolf lunged at him again, and Marco fell to his back, using his feet to push up on it's chest as it flew over him, vaulting it to the other side of the roof.
"How do we turn him back, then?!" Marco asked the princess.
"Um, um, um..." Star bit her wand and flinched as the werewolf once again sprang at Marco, relentless, and this time swiped him backwards with his paw. "Silver!" She finally cried. "You can kill a werewolf with silver!"
"I don't want to kill him!" Marco screamed back at her, now fending off a relentless flurry of paw-swipes as his dad cornered him against the edge of the roof.
"A silver mirror will fix him!" Star shouted, relieved that she'd finally remembered how this all worked. "If we make him look at his reflection in a silver mirror, he'll turn back to normal! The one in my room will work!" She pointed to the top of the castle's tower, on the other side of the roof.
"Great!" Marco said, landing a palm-strike onto the monster's shoulder and sending his dad sliding down the side of the roof. "Let's go!"
The two slipped and slid across the roof, the monster hot on their heels. "Star!" Marco said as they approached the wall. "How are we gonna -"
"SUPER UNICORN WALL EXPLODE!" Star shouted, and with a blast from her wand, the brick wall of her tower was blasted inwards.
The two piled into the room and the werewolf blasted after them, barreling into the tower and crashing into Star's bed on the far side, emerging with a shredded pillow caught in it's claws.
"Mirror!" Star cried, and the two ran to open it's concealing curtains.
The wolf lunged after them just as they forced the curtains open, and it only took a moment for it to see, wide eyed, it's own reflection -
In a flash, Marco's dad was sitting on the floor, rubbing his forehead, back in his cheesy werewolf costume. He'd just flown into Star's mirror at top-speed.
"My son!" He cried, throwing his arms around Marco. "Star!" He exclaimed, once that was done with. "How... did I do?"
The houses on the Diaz's street were dark and lifeless when the family finally emerged from the front door. The trick-or-treaters had all gone home, it seemed, and the moon was the only illumination on the quiet street.
"All right, Star." Marco smiled at her, tired, but still somehow happy with the evening's events. It had certainly been an interesting Halloween. "You can turn the house back to normal now."
Star nodded, and they all stepped back to the sidewalk as she aimed her wand at the castle. Marco's parents gave the two magic-experts some space. "Stru-ct" she yawned. "Structurius returnus normalus."
Nothing happened.
Star frowned. "Structurius returnus normalus." She said again. "Come on, work!" She knocked her wand with her knuckles.
Janna and Jackie Lynn Thomas emerged from the garage, both of them laughing their heads off. "Hey, Marco!" Jackie waved as they walked over.
"That was seriously the coolest haunted house ever." Janna said. Star beamed at her.
"Yeah, it was pretty sweet." Jackie agreed, grinning back at Star. She looked at Marco. "Hey, me and Janna are gonna hang out and go hit up stores for discount Halloween candy tomorrow. You guys wanna come?"
Marco's mouth was open slightly, and he seemed incapable of forming a coherent response.
"I'd love to!" Star chirped, quickly breaking the awkward silence. "Oh, and Marco would also love to." She said, poking him in the side of his face. "He's just... like this, sometimes."
The two other girls shrugged. "Cool." Jackie said, seemingly indifferent. "We'll meet you here tomorrow morning and walk downtown together. Later!"
The pair walked off, and Marco finally managed to close his mouth. He looked at Star, unable to come up with a proper way to thank her for the help.
"Don't mention it." She smirked. "Hope you're not going to be like that all day tomorrow." So did Marco.
"Structurius returnus normalus!" She did a brief spin and pointed the wand towards the house. In a big puff of smoke, it was back to normal, lights glowing warmly though the windows and the front yard completely zombie-free.
The two stepped inside, and the parents said their good nights as they retreated to their rooms, presumably exhausted from being monsters most of the night.
Star and Marco returned to their rooms as well.
"Hey, Marco." Star said, as the two opened their doors. "Happy Halloween."
"Happy Halloween, Star."
AN: And that's it! I hope you liked it. There was more I wanted to do – I kinda wanted to explore the backyard, make the kitchen a human slaughterhouse, make the garage a SAW-esque set of puzzles, but I wanted to stick to the show's theme more. None of that stuff is very PG. Was also going to include a side-plot of Ludo and his monsters cutting into the haunted house and being scared by the attractions, but decided to go without that, too. Just... meh, y'know? Didn't feel like writing a character I don't particularly enjoy by himself. If I wanted, I could be persuaded to write a second chapter with these elements – Jackie and Janna exploring the first floor of the house and bumping into Ludo's monsters. But I don't know if I will. Is that something you'd like to read? Let me know.
Not sure when (or if) I'll write something like this again, but follow me if you enjoyed it! I always try to stick to the flavor and theme of what series I'm writing for, and might continue this, or do another franchise you enjoy, the next time I decide to write.
Until next time!