"So why'd your mom give you that tape again?" Marco asked Star as the two friends walked down the street.
"I don't know, well... I mean, I do, she said to destroy it, but I don't know WHY we need to destroy it," Star replied, skipping in pace.
"That's...awfully suspicious,"
"Then maybe we should watch it," Star said, shrugging it off, starting to outpace Marco.
"What!? How would we even!? I don't even have a VCR!" Star stopped and thought about this predicament for a moment.
"Well, I just suppose we'll have to find someone who does," and with that, she grabbed Marco's hand and ran ahead, determined to find someone with a VCR they could borrow to watch the top secret tape on.
Unbenounced to Star and Marco, the duo were being watched closely by Star's nemesi, Ludo and Toffee.
"Good morning Toffee, anything new on the ol' monitor?" Ludo walked into the mainroom, still clad in his bathrobe and fuzzy slippers
"Anything new? Just a mission of absolute importance!" The harshness in his voice was uncharacteristic for Toffee, but he was desperate. He knew what was on that VHS tape, and it needed to be destroyed, more so than the wand. This was surprising to Ludo, not Toffee having another plot, no, that was expected and encouraged, but Toffee being so um….enthusiastic? Especially so early.
"What is it?" Now Ludo was curious "Lemme see!" Ludo scurried up onto Toffee, hanging down over his shoulder. Toffee turned his head and glared at Ludo, wondering when he implied this much touch between them was okay. Noticing the look Toffee was giving him, Ludo quickly scampered down into Toffee's lap instead, Not like that was much better.
"It's the tape," Toffee replied plainly, trying to focus and not be as annoyed with Ludo as he would have been otherwise.
Ludo blinked in surprise, and turned his attention back to the monitor. Upon a second inspection, Star Butterfly WAS holding a VCR tape, but why did they need it? Weren't movies just kept on those mostly? Besides, it was an out of date format, so there couldn't be anything like new information on it. "What about the tape?"
"There's top secret information about the Butterfly monarchy and their plans for monster genocide on there!" He was only partially lying, but that tape needed to be destroyed, and he could easily make an excuse later.
"WHAT!?" Ludo gawked. It sounded too brash to be true, the butterfly monarchy was known far and wide for their monster massacre and politically enforced prejudice, but plans for a genocide!? Really!? Toffee had never steered him wrong before…
"That's right!" God, it seemed as though Ludo got dumber with every passing day, although even Toffee had to admit, the idea of a Butterfly imposed Monster genocide didn't seem completely out of the picture
"THEN WE MUST HAVE THAT TAPE!" Ludo proclaimed, just as Toffee had planned.
"And have it we shall, my little friend, but please, first," Toffee said "get off
of me"
"I can't believe the TV store didn't have a single VCR!" Star pulled her hair in frustration, as she and Marco walked from the only slightly burned TV and electronics store.
"I can," said Marco defeated.
"I mean, where ELSE would somebody go to purchase, or borrow, a VCR!?" Star screamed in frustration. Just then, an older man with a cane turned the corner and approached both Star and Marco.
"Excuse me children, but I couldn't help but overhear that you were in the market for a VCR?" he asked, Star noticeably gaining excitement. Marco hesitated.
"Uh Star?" he whispered, pulling her to the side. "This guy kind of gives me the heebie jeebies," Star laughed it off.
"Oh Marco, you worry too much, no mere human mortal would dare to hurt a Butterfly, they wouldn't risk the consequences!" she said, fires of destruction in her eyes. Star turned back to face the gentleman, "You said you possibly had a VCR?" Star asked, optimistically.
The plump man nodded "Yes little lady i believe I can fill your needs, but it's going to cost you," he smiled, eyeing the magic wand in Star's hand. Star noticed and held her and closely to her chest
"Why in the great multiverse would I ever give you my magic wand to some sleazy middle aged man in return for an outdated piece of technology?"
The older man laughed and shook his head "No no, you misunderstand me girly, I don't want your cheap toy, I just need to borrow it for an afternoon,"
Star's grip around the wand tightened "show us the VCR first old man, so i know you aren't trying to swindle us,"
The man laughed once more "Two vs one eh? That's not much of a fair fight, I can barely even walk without my cane, how do I know you aren't going to beat me over the head with that cheap piece of plastic and run off with my VCR? Give me the toy girly, than you'll get your VCR,"
Star side eyed Marco, "...maybe…"
"Star!"
Star sighed, "I know, I know," and with a flick of her magic wand, the man was gone.
Ludo angrily kicked his feet as he watched the ordeal play out on the monitor, Toffee anxiously tapped his fingers on the chair's arm. There wasn't much time, he leaned in and watched was a low move on the part of Queen Butterfly, he hadn't thought she'd play dirty like this.
"Well what are we supposed to do now!?" Star cried once more in frustration, she hadn't expected it to be so hard to watch a simple VHS tape.
"Uh, destroy the tape like your mom said to?" Marco suggested, shrugging his shoulders.
"Oh come on, you don't mean to tell me you aren't the least bit curious?"
"Well uh no it's just-"
"So you ARE curious!"
"Maybe just a little, b-but Star, really I think we should just get rid of this stupid thing. What if your mom had a good reason for us to destroy it!It could be a secret weapon! O-or a bomb!"
"A bomb!?" Ludo cried in delight. "Yes a bomb! I kneeeew Queen Butterfly couldn't possibly entrust plans for genocide with Star and Marco,especially not on something like a VHS tape.
"Sure," said Toffee, whatever Ludo wanted to think, as long as it kept the tape a priority in his mind.
Ludo laughed manically, "Yes! a bomb! All we have to do is sit back and wait for the bomb to explode and then- KABOW! No more Star Butterfly!"
Toffee chuckled, wasn't that a nice thought?
"Oh Marco don't be ridiculous, my mom said it was a tape, why would she lie and give us a bomb?!" Star was right, if her mother wanted her to dispose of a bomb or some sort of secret weapon,she wouldn't have told her it was just a simple VHS tape.
Marco nodded, "Well when you're right you're right Star, hey! I know! There's an electronics repair shop in the mall, maybe they'll have a VCR we could use!"
Star gasped with excitement "Yeah! A place like that is bound to have something we can watch this old tape on!"
Ludo continued to laugh with glee. "YES! they'll slide the tape into the VCR and then KABOOM! The entire human establishment goes up in flames!"
Toffee frowned, if the children weren't stopped they'd surely watch the tape and know Toffee's deep dark secret. "Surely you realize if we just leave them be, the wand will also be destroyed in the explosion Ludo."
Ludo paused, Toffee made an excellent point. They'd have to go and take the wand from Star before the tape exploded.
Luckily, Marco and Star hadn't been too far from the mall, they viewed it from across the street.
"You've never been to an Earth mall before, have you Star?" Marco asked, waiting for the street light to change.
"Nope! It's so big," Star commented in whimsy. She had been bouncing excitedly, frustrated that Marco wouldn't let them cross, despite there being no cars on the road.
"Look!" Star pointed at the now green street light, grabbing Marco's hand and preparing to race off to the mall. Right as Star's foot stepped onto the black pavement, a group of Ludo's goons jumped out of an adjacent bush and leaped at Star. Star was able to kick one of the smaller ones off of her, while Marco helped fight off one who pinned Star to the ground.
The large dog-like monster growled at Marco before he swung up and kicked him in the muzzle, dropping the boy and running off whining like a coward. Star yelped when the small goblin esq one bit her leg. She held her wand up high, and without being able to think of a spell to cast,started beating the goblin with it until he finally let go. Star jumped back onto her feet and with a swoop of her wand blasted the Goblin back into the next city block.
"Ludo must know about the tape!" Maro shouted, as they ran down the street before reinforcements arrived.
"I know! Whatever it is on this tape must be really important!" Star shouted back, jumping over a small bug-ish monster.
Bythe time the two reached the mall, they were completely out of breath, Star too focused on getting the tape to the electronics store to be at all impressed by the interior of the Earth mall.
"COME ON MARCO QUICKLY!" Star screamed, grabbing Marco by the face, adrenalin rushing through her system. Marco regained his energy and the two ran through the crowds of the mall, Marco repeatedly stopping to apologize to anyone Star so rudely shoved.
"Star," Marco said, "It's okay, I don't think they followed us in here." Star came to a screeching halt, bending up to catch her breath from running for so long, she looked up to respond to Marco and gasped loudly
"MARCO QUICK LOOK OUT BEHIND YOU!"
"Huh!?" Marco turned around and watched as a flying eyeball monster flew directly into the outside of the mall's window, knocking itself turned back to Star, who was still struggling to breath, practically hyperventilating. Having numerous experience wih panic attacks and hyperventilation, Marco sat Star down on one of the Mall's benches and patted her back until she calmed down
"Star, it's alright, look," Marco pointed at the electronics repair shop, "We're so close!" Seeing that they were so close calmed Star and filled her with determination and excitement. She leaped back onto her feet and raced out towards the shop, leaving Marco running after her.
"STAR! WAIT! Slow down!" The ever safety conscious Marco yelled out, only to be stopped from reaching his friend by a large shark monster that swooped in between them.
Star turned around and gasped when she saw the large monster moving in on her friend, she clutched both the tape and her wand, ready to fight to defend Marco.
"STAR! TAKE THE TAPE AND RUN!" Marco yelled "I'LL HOLD HIM OFF!" Marco looked up at the terrifying beast. Rows of sharp teeth made Marco uneasy. Star nodded towards her friend, confident in his karate abilities. Star ran into the electronics shop, heart racing.
"Hello how can I help yo-" Star grabbed the shirt collar of the man working behind the counter and pulled him down to eye-level.
"HI HELLO YES I NEED TO BORROW A VHS TAPE PLAYER HI YES!?"
"Uh...we don't have a VCR….sorry kid," the man said, awkwardly close to Star. Star let go of the man's shirt collar and screamed in frustration, ready to blow this Earth mall straight into space.
"Woah! Settle down! Have you checked the thrift shop yet?" the man asked, covering his ears to block out the girl's screaming.
"Thrift shop?" Star repeated,yes of course! How had she and Marco not thought of it sooner!?
"STAR!" Marco cried, struggling to fight off the shark beast
"Marco!?" Star gasped, her friend in peril she grabbed her wand and jumped into action. Together, they pummeled the Shark so hard he became embedded into the mall's floor.
"Uhm, excuse me," A security guard tapped Star, "Do you have a license to wield that thing? Seems pretty dangerous for a kid to be playing with,"
"Um…" Star replied awkwardly, before grabbing Marco and running out the mall.
Toffee bit his tongue in frustration as he watched Ludo's minions fail to stop Star and Marco.
"CURSES! Curse it all!" Ludo cried, stomping around on the floor like a child. "We have to get that wand from them some way or another!" A grin crept across Toffee's face as he devised just then,a devilishly handsome plan
"Well they say the only way to have something done right is to do it yourself Ludo,"
"Then WE shall venture to Earth ourselves then!" declared Ludo, throwing his arm around Toffee in a gesture of platonic affection.
"Ludo...please...get off of me"
"The thrift shop of course!" Marco exclaimed after Star explained what the man behind the counter had told her.
"It's not far is it?" Star asked
"Just a short bus ride," Marco replied, the two walking approaching the bus stop. Star was restless as the two of them waited for the bus on the bench, zapping random flowers and weeds with her wand out of boredom. When the bus finally arrived, Star had managed to destroy the entire garden that some poor sap had probably spent all spring planting. Star was just as restless on the bus as she had been at the bus stop,her mind wandering with possibilities of what could be on the tape.
Marco turned to Star "Only about another block and we'll be the-" Marco was thrown to the bus floor as the entire bus was picked up into the air by a large squid monster in the middle of the road, with Ludo riding it's head.
"PREPARE TO GIVE UP YOUR WAND PRINCESS BUTTERFLY!" Ludo yelled, followed by a manic laugh as he watched his pet throw the bus around with glee. Star struggled to stay on her feet, trying her best to hold up both herself and Marco.
"I'LL NEVER GIVE YOU THE WAND!" She screamed, Ludo continued to laugh
"Then taste my fury Star Butterfly!" and with that the squid monster spun around and launched the bus into the ground. Ludo jumped off the squid and with Toffee accompanying him, ran in the direction of the bus carnage to retrieve the wand.
"STAR!" Marco screamed, searching for Star in the wreckage desperately. She had survived worst, they both had, but he couldn't find her and was becoming worried.
"Marco? Marco are you okay?" Star asked as she approached the bus. Marco snapped his head back and looked at her in disbelief and confusion.
"Star? How did you?"
"Oh I jumped out the bus while we were falling," she stated very matter of factly.
Marco continued to gawk at her,only for Star to grab him by the hands and pulled him out of the bus.
"Look!" she gestured. Sure enough, just by dumb luck somehow the squid had managed to launch the bus right to the front of the thrift shop. "You were right, that was a short bus ride!"
Marco found it best not to question Star and to instead follow his enthusiastic friend into the shop.
"I can't believe we're finally going to watch the tape! I'm so excited! What do you think is on it!? Secret forbidden wand spells!? Oooh! Or what about old Mewmian war tactics!? OR-" Star droned on and on, but Marco was happy to see his best friend so happy.
"You idiot!" Toffee growled under his breath as he and Ludo reached the Thrift shop, they had managed to launch the two right to the one place on Earth Toffee had been trying to prevent them from reaching.
"Why are they still alive!?" Ludo demanded to know, searching the now empty bus for any remains, "why why why!?" He stomped up and down like a toddler. Toffee ignored him and raced inside the store, hoping her could still manage to stop the kids from watching the tape. Not wanting to lose his best henchman, Ludo followed behind.
"Ms. Butterfly, I-" Toffee managed to, despite his panic, hold his intimidating facade, but only long enough to realize that Star was already sliding the tape into a VCR. "nO WAIT YOU CAN'T" Toffee sprinted towards the TV, only to trip and fall over Ludo, it was too late, the tape was already playing. In all of Star's many wild assumptions, she had been wrong about the true contents of the tape, as it opened to a News segment from before she had been born, but still decades after the Monster Massacre. A monster reporter with blue feathers was in center frame
"-And so, today marks the 20 year anniversary that the Butterfly monarchy passed the Tolerance act, but with more and more Monsters moving from the outer regions of the swampland and into the ghettos surrounding the kingdom, violent hate crimes against monsterkind have been on the rise. But there is still hope present in the Monster community for equality between Monsters and Mewmans alike. Here with me now is one of the first monster students to attend Mewni's first co-species school," The camera panned from the journalist down to a reptilian child, who looked about the same age as Marco and Star, at the bottom of the screen read:
"Toffee Monitor: student at Mewni's co-ed school"
Star burst into tears of laughter. Toffee looked like such a DORK, with thick glasses and an embarrassingly out of style mullet. Is this why he had run in in attempts to stop them from watching this tape!? If Star had such embarrassing footage of her she knew she wouldn't want anyone to see it either.
"Toffee," said the reporter, "how do you feel about being one of the first monsters to attend Mewni's co-ed school?"
"I uh, I think it's a really big honor to be one of the first monsters to go to school with Mewmans and I uh I uh think that his is a really great opportunity."
"Toffee, do you have any thoughts about the future of Monster and Mewman relations?"
"I think that this school is a really big deal and is uh a big step in the direction for monster equality!" The smaller Toffee sounded very enthusiastic about his Mewman education, and very happy to attend a co-ed school. The older Toffee cringed.
"Really?"
"Yeah! I mean uh, sometimes the Mewman students and teachers are kind of mean sometimes,"
"They don't like having Monsters in their classes?"
"Not really…" The small Toffee said, a little more depressed "But the Royal family has the princess attending! So I think things are getting better!"
"Really?" the reporter asked curiously.
"Yeah!" Toffee re-stated, more enthusiastic than before. "The princess is really nice and we're like best friends! She's never mean to monsters! And she's all for monster equality!"
"Well isn't that something!" said the reporting monster, from the sounds of it, Toffee's optimism and enthusiasm was rubbing off on her
"Yeah!" Toffee said once more
"Do you have any words of encouragement for the monsters watching back home Toffee?"
"Yeah! Like...always work hard! We're gonna have equality really soon, and things keep getting better all the time! Like...todays the 20th anniversary of the tolerance act, I'm part of the first generation of monsters to not be whipped by Mewmans! So uh never give up hope!"
"Thank you Toffee," the camera cut from toffee back to the reporting room where two other Monster reporters sat behind a desk.
"Haha, well it goes to show you Jan, even we can learn something from the younger generation,"
"Haha you're right Glorq, just adorable! And now to Kez with the weather" and the tape cut to static.
Marco turned around and looked at Toffee, clutching his stomach, he felt sick. Star stood up too, still giggling, and place her hand on Marco's shoulder.
"Aw man Marco! That had to be like the funniest thing i've seen all month!" She was laughing so hard she almost fell over.
Toffee finally broke his glare at Marco and quietly left the shop, with Ludo close behind. Star had said that her mother had told her to destroy the tape, all day Marco had been trying to think of a reason she could possibly have to need a tape destroyed. But he understood perfectly now. And it made him sick. He pulled away from Star and went to take the tape out of the VCR, something needed to be done, and he was going to do it.
"Toffee! WAIT! Please wait!" Marco called as he ran after the evil duo outside the shop. Toffee obliged and stopped for the boy, unsure as to what he possibly could have wanted. When Marco caught up to the lizard man, he simply reached out and offered the VHS tape.
"Here, this uh...this belongs to you," There wasn't much Marco could do right now for the monsters of Mewdi, or anything he could do to change the past. But he could do this, this was a wrong he could right.
Toffee was surprised by the boy's offering of the tape, he smiled warmly at Marco, but pushed the tape away, closer to Marco.
"No," he said "Now it is yours,"
"What?" both Marco and Ludo looked up at Toffee confused.
"Do you understand why Queen Butterfly wanted the tape destroyed?" Toffee asked Marco
"Yes,"Marco replied
"And do you know why it shouldn't be destroyed?" Toffee asked.
"Yes," Marco said with a nod
"Then there is no one better for me to trust this with Marco, take care of it, do not forget what you have learned from it here today, and keep it from falling into the wrong hands," Toffee turned his head to look at Star, who was still inside the thrift shop. Marco turned around and looked at her too for a second, remembering how she had laughed, remembering how everything else about the tape completely went over her head. Marco turned back around to look Toffee in the eye
"I will sir," he said.
Toffee smiled "Thank you Marco," and then, he and Ludo were gone. Marco intended to keep his word and stuck the tape under his sweatshirt and turned back around, ready to lie to star about Toffee having the tape. It was for the best, afterall.