Chapter Three

"Tonal Terror"

"Let's dance, babe." Scaramouche taunted. Star grit her teeth and raised her wand overhead, a baby-blue aura shining from the light as she charged it with her innate magics.

"NARWHAL BLAST!" Star proclaimed, aiming her wand at the pentatonic robot. A bright beam shot forth from her wand, jetting forth an angry-looking blue narwhal as its horn was trained directly on Scaramouche. The robot simply bent backwards and dodged with ease and surprising flexibility.

"Oooh, so close yet so far, babe!" Scaramouche teased, his flute still hovering centimeters away from his mechanical lips. Star growled and fired another blast of her marine-based magic at Scaramouche, only to be effortlessly avoided again. Again and again, she fired bursts of magic, demolishing portions of the ground and kicking up stones while Scaramouche just effortlessly danced between them. "You ain't got the skills to beat me, but I've got the groovy tunes that'll rock your world." Finally, the robotic assassin put the flute to his mechanical lips and started playing a jazzy and jaunty tune. If Star weren't in the middle of a fight with the musician, she probably would have admitted to it sounding catchy and tapped her foot to the tune. She suddenly took notice that the stones and debris from her earlier assault had started moving, shifting about on the ground and concrete. The debris began to slide together towards a singular mass, lumping together and taking shape into an enormous humanoid construct with an angry stone face appearing on the rubble-like head.

"That's… bad." Star noted, her pupils shrinking to tiny dots as the golem loomed over her with fists of stone. "Time to break out that new spell…" She twirled her wand in her fingers, shifting her stance once more to one similar of a knight ready to draw a blade from its hilt. "Radiant Rainbow RAPIER!" She swung her wand once more as it began to glow a myriad of colors. A beam of light shot forth, reaching nearly four-feet in length before honing to a fine point and becoming a semi-solid mass of rainbow. Star looked at her wand, now turned into a magical sword, and smirked at the still-playing Scaramouche and the stone golem. Magic blade in hand, Star leapt off the ground and swung her sword at the golem, slicing its rebar arm completely off its shoulder. Scaramouche looked faintly surprised, but still kept his musical groove going as the flute guided the golem to further attack the Mewman princess. It swung its stony fist at Star, missing the girl by a foot as she swiftly dodged and slashed at its other arm and cleaving off one of its legs. The golem wobbled a bit, trying to regain balance, while Scaramouche's flute-playing intensified as more rubble and rebar made its way to reinforce his living weapon.

Soon, the golem was once more fully ready for battle, taking another swing at Star with a hand made of sharp iron rods and mounds of dirt. Star barely managed to dodge, getting herself a nasty cut from a stray piece of metal along her shoulder. She winced and placed a hand on her partially bleeding arm, glaring at the golem as she dealt another attack, hacking off a chunk of its stony torso. It raised its foot to crush Star, but she easily dodged the attack and damaged its leg with a pair of quick slashes. Again and again, Star hacked away at the golem, only for it to be restored once more by whatever other debris and rock lay about. Star was starting to get exhausted, already covered in scrapes and bruises from other assaults, but the golem wouldn't let up. There was only one way to put a stop to the thing was to take out the object that controlled it: The flute.

Swiftling dodging another attack from the golem, Star diverted her attention away from the monstrosity and sprinted towards Scaramouche, her wand still glowing with the rainbow blade. The robotic assassin knew Star would probably resort to this once she developed the brain cells to think it, so he kept his playing up while still sporting that same smug grin on his face. She swung her blade at Scaramouche, who easily dodged it while still keeping the rhythm going.

"STAY! STILL! AND! LET! ME! CUT! YOU!" Star shouted between every swing of her blade. Scaramouche just idly bobbed and weaved between the attacks, his musical melody continuously taunting Star as her attacks fruitlessly failed to connect. All the while, the golem loomed over the two, ready to destroy Star Butterfly and appease its musically inclined maker. Which was exactly what Star was planning. Continuing to push Scaramouche on the defensive, she kept swinging her sword about in an attempt to hit either him or his accursed flute, all while the robotic assassin just kept dodging and playing his jazzy tunes. Eventually, she was in position, just as planned. The golem swung a fist at Star from behind her, but fortunately she dodged out of the way so the attack was heading towards Scaramouche instead! She quickly scrambled to her feet as the golem slammed its fist into the ground, knocking Scaramouche off balance.

"WOAH, HANG ON A TICK!" Scaramouche exclaimed, pulling his flute away from his lips and backing off from the golem's attack. The opening came.

"Cutsie Crescent CUTTER!" Star cast another spell, deactivating her rainbow sword and swinging her wand about in a downward arc, unleashing a sharp curve of magic that rocketed towards Scaramouche. He saw the attack coming and nimbly dodged. He turned to Star with a mocking grin.

"Wow, babe, you couldn't hit water if you fell out a dang boat." The robot chided. Star returned the look with a smug glance of her own.

"Wasn't aiming for you, bolt-brains." She said, pointing at Scaramouche's hand. The robot looked down and saw that his flute had been completely cut in half, completely destroyed and unusable. With no means of controlling the rocks and steel, the golem broke apart and fell pieces in an enormous heap of rubble and rebar. Scaramouche stared at the pile dejectedly, more annoyed than anything.

"Oh, drat." He huffed. Star twirled her wand and smirked proudly.

"Not so tough without that magic flute of yours, huh?" Star teased. Scaramouche's blue mechanical eyes flashed a bit, before his prior smug grin returned. The robot reached behind his back and unsheathed an enormous curved scimitar sword that looked difficult to wield even with two hands. "Radiant Rainbow Rapier!" Star activated her sword spell again and charged at Scaramouche. Surprisingly, the robot didn't charge at her, but rather spun about and threw his sword like a discus at her. Star gasped and quickly ducked to avoid the sword coming at her, power-sliding as it flew overhead and stuck itself in a steel pyon. As she got to her feet, she winced at the scrapes she now had from such a move… and was surprised to see Scaramouche was gone.

"Up here, baby-cakes!" Scaramouche called out. Star looked up and saw the robotic assassin lounging about on the unfinished rafters of the second floor, looking smug as usual. "You might've destroyed my magic flute, but you'll never break the magnificence that is ME, BABE!"

"Come back down here!" Star shouted, glaring daggers at Scaramouche from down below. "You just threw your sword at me, so that makes you disarmed!" Scaramouche just laughed and dusted off one of his sleeves.

"Au contraire, babe." Scaramouche snidely said. And what did next was… slightly baffling. "Bah-dee-dah-dee-dee-dah, doo-dee-doh-doo~" The robot started singing loudly in scat, and not half-badly either. Star stared at the singing robot with confusion, unaware that the previously discarded sword was starting to pry itself loose from the pylon. A low moaning was heard as Marco finally began to awaken from his forced slumber, blearily looking around and trying to get his bearings. His vision came into focus, and he saw Star battered from her previous battle and the blade pulling itself loose and floating of its own volition.

"STAR, LOOK OUT!" Marco shouted. Star turned her head in surprise to hear Marco's voice, which immediately saved her from a close-shave attack from the blade. Scaramouche kept on scat-singing, the Singing Sword circling around like a hovering top as it swerved back towards Star.

"Uh oh." She said, eyes going wide. She quickly used a spell to give herself another, much lighter sword to help defend herself alongside her magic blade. Scaramouche's sword flung itself at Star, swinging wildly at her as though an invisible reckless swordsman held the blade himself with tremendous strength. Star was quickly overwhelmed by the fury of Scaramouche's Singing Sword, fruitlessly attempting to block the attacks as they came at her. Steel clanged against steel, echoing loudly across the construction site as Star felt herself being constantly pushed back by the sword's flurry of heavy attacks. All the while, Scaramouche just kept singing, feeling confident enough to leave his loft and hop down to the first floor again, stalking towards Star with a malevolent grin. Star eventually shoved the relentless blade away, quickly rolling aside and readying herself once more to attack Scaramouche head on. The robot unclipped the dagger from his belt, twirling the still sheathed blade between his robotic fingers.

"Let's mambo, babe." Scaramouche said, breaking his scatting for a moment to further taunt Star. Star growled and leapt onto her feet, swinging both of her blades, real and magical, at Scaramouche, who easily blocked them with his simple dagger. The Singing Sword swung behind her, forcing her to defend herself with the Wand Sword from one side while attacking Scaramouche with the other. It was truly being caught between a rock and a hard place for Star, being quickly overwhelmed by this double duel in a field of combat she was clearly not used to. The Singing Sword was slow and powerful, while Scaramouche's dagger was quick and agile, and Star was more of a ranged combatant than a girl who fought this up close often. With a sudden and quick flourish, Scaramouche kicked dust up in Star's face, temporarily blinding her as he backflipped away and unsheathed the dagger from its hold. The blade seemed to part down the middle, taking on a strange prong-like form. Once Star got her bearings again, she charged at Scaramouche with a primal war-cry. All Scaramouche did in response was idly side-step and tapped the blade of his dagger with Star's sword, the simple tap ringing out across the unfinished room. Star halted in her tracks, feeling her sword starting to vibrate in her hands as an odd whining noise began to escalate in higher pitched volume. Scaramouche turned about and grinned, displaying his dagger once more. "Dig this groovy sound, babe." Star glanced to her sword in confusion, feeling the vibrations getting stronger and the whining pitch growing higher… before it completely exploded in her hand, the powerful force sending her flying backwards into a steel girder and embedding bits of shrapnel into her skin.

"STAR!" Marco cried out, watching Star slump onto the ground, bleeding tremendously with an extraordinarily pained look on her face. The blast from that strange dagger knocked the wind completely out of her, causing her to drop her wand and cancel the spell. Scaramouche laughed cruelly, sheathing his Tuning Fork Dagger once more and calling forth his Singing Sword to his hand.

"Well, this was fun, kiddo, really was," Scaramouche casually said, striding towards Star as he dragged his sword behind him on the ground. "But, Scaramouche has a job to do, and no way am I upsetting the boss-man for not getting that dinky wand to him." He raised his sword over his head, while Star could only look on in shock. She was actually beaten, she couldn't defeat this guy. He was going to kill her, and probably Marco, and steal the wand for whoever he served. Star sat there in a completely catatonic state, while Scaramouche readied his blade for the execution. "Au revoir, Star-o. That means 'you're dead, babe!'" Star and Marco shut their eyes, bracing for what was to come.

**BANG!**

At the sound of a powerful gunshot ringing out across the room, Scaramouche yelped in surprise as his Singing Sword was completely knocked out of his hand, sporting a sizeable dent and scorch-mark on it. Star slowly opened her eye, surprised to see that she still drew breath and that someone had come to hers and Marco's aid. The sound of someone clearing their voice, a man both old and wise, echoed a bit, seemingly coming from above. Star, Scaramouche and Marco all looked up… and Star immediately recognized the old man from the park, holding an ornate orange and brown revolver, smoke drifting off the barrel from its recently fired shot.

"Bucket-head, I'm gonna have to ask ya to back down and leave the kids be." The old man said, his voice calm, even, yet carrying a very stern tone. Scaramouche just laughed in response.

"You forget to take your meds today, old timer?" Scaramouche taunted. "Ain't nothin' standing in the way of Scaramouche getting his mark." He idly shooed the old man off with a dismissive wave of his hand. "So why don't you run back to the bingo hall in time for the early-bird special, while I take this brat's life story to the cutting room floor?" The old man just furrowed his bushy white brows and aimed his pistol again, taking shot at the ground near Scaramouche's feet. The sudden gunshot caused Star to reflexively cover her ears and made the robot jump a little. "HEY, watch where you're aiming that - where did he go?" The instant Scaramouche looked up, the old man was gone. Even Star and Marco were confused as to the sudden disappearance of the old man, gone completely like a ghost.

"Down here." Said the old man, his voice coming from behind Scaramouche. Just as the robot turned his head, there was a loud whoosh of air, the slicing of metal… and then the sound of sparking wires. The old man stepped away from Scaramouche, clutching a fancy-looking sword with an orange and yellow blade stained slightly with black oil. Star, Marco, and even Scaramouche himself stared in dumbfounded surprise at the sliced-open hole in his chest. Star quickly scrambled to cover as more wires began sparking from Scaramouche's gaping chest wound, knowing from one too many microwave incidents what that meant.

"Doo-deet-doot-doo…" Scaramouche dejectedly scat-sang. "What a showstopper…" In a sudden burst of noise, light and fire, Scaramouche exploded from his extreme damage, demolishing a small area of the construction site while Star took cover behind Marco's concrete prison. When the smoke finally cleared… The head of Scaramouche rolled up to the slab of concrete, a look of shock and regret frozen on his mechanical face as the blue lights in his eyes faded to white. The old man sighed and wiped his blade clean of the oil-stains and walked back over to Star and Marco.

"That takes care of that." The old man said, kneeling down at the two teen's sides. "You two alright?" Star and Marco just stared at the old man with the single-most shocked and broken expressions on their faces.

"That… was amazing." Marco breathlessly said. The old man chuckled slightly and tapped on the cement block Marco's but was trapped in.

"Ah, 'taint nothin', young man." The old man said. "Now, let's get you out of this block here." The old man began rummaging about his backpack, searching for something of use while Star just kept staring.

"You… you're the old man from the park." Star slowly said. "The one who was playing the guitar!" The old man just silently nodded, still searching his bag. "And you just did that thing with the gun and the sword… Who are you?" The old man stopped rummaging and looked back at Star with slightly tired eyes.

"... Who I really am is of no importance." The old man said. "All I can really say is that I'm here to stop a bad man from getting somethin' VERY important…" He finally reached into his bag and produced a small stone-carving hammer. "Ah, here we go. This should do the trick." Star stood back and watched as the old man positioned the hammer on the stone. "Ya might wanna keep still for this, young'un." Marco bit his lip nervously, worried that something might go wrong with the whole 'Getting him out of the block' situation. All three of them took a long and silent breath… and when the old man finally brought his hammer down, the cement block broke in two, freeing Marco and letting him out completely unscathed. He shakily got to his feet and sighed in relief.

"Oooh, that feels nice to stand again." Marco wistfully said. "I had this really bad itch on my knee, too." He bent down and began vigorously scratching his slightly dust-covered knee. Star giggled a bit at Marco's antics, while the old man himself shared a bit of a laugh, stowing his tools away. Star looked back at the mysterious old man, a genuine look of thankfulness entering her eyes when she glanced at him. That Scaramouche guy was pretty tough, and nearly killed her for crying out loud! Not even Toffee was that ruthless and aggressive, and he wanted to destroy her wand! She looked back at Maro, smiling again. At least it was done and over with.

Until the sound of mechanical whirring and beeping broke her from her thoughts.

Star and the old man quickly turned back towards the entrance of the construction site, where Scaramouche's own severed head was starting to hop off like a bunny rabbit, frantically trying to escape.

"HEY!" Star shouted, drawing her wand up again and charging up a spell. Scaramouche yelped in surprise and kept his vigorous hopping, but before Star could cast the spell to finish him off, the old man quickly ran up to the head and snatched it up in his grip, glaring at Scaramouche with a stern expression.

"Alright, Scaramouche," The old man firmly said. "Here's what you're going to do: You're going to tell me what the Legion wants with the Mewman Royalty's Magic Wand, and if I like the answer you give me, I won't take your brain apart and turn your head into my new trash-bucket. We clear on that?" Scaramouche just scoffed in the old man's grip.

"Oh what, is that supposed to be a threat?" Scaramouche retorted in a casual tone. "Rucks, baby, you can do so much better than that. Besides, I'm not revealin' JACK-O to you. So why don't you go down to the pharmacy, buy yourself a nice little bottle of a product called 'Viagra' and use it to go - OW, NOT MY FACE!" The old man, now dubbed Rucks, slammed the robotic head onto the ground, planting it firmly beneath his boot.

"I'm not playin' any games here, Legionnaire." Rucks firmly said. "Tell me now, or I'll make sure your boss won't even have scraps to make a whole new you." Star and Marco just stared at the exchange in confusion. It was like they were players in a completely different story to theirs.

"Umm, here's a better idea." Scaramouche casually replied. "I show you how we robots give you fleshbag humans the hot-foot." Suddenly, at the base of Scaramouche's neck, a rocket flare went off, and sent the severed head flying off into the mid-afternoon sky. Star and Marco rushed to Rucks' side, just catching a glimpse of the rocket trail and hearing one last proclamation from their attacker. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAALL HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAIL LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORD DIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIOOOOOOOOOOOOO, BABE!" And with a twinkle in the sky, he was gone. Rucks furrowed his brow and kicked at the ground.

"Huh?" Marco asked, glancing back to Star, who also bore a perplexed expression. "Who the heck was he talking about?" Star just shrugged. She never heard a name like that before in her life. Rucks grumbled and pulled out a strange communication device from his pocket and held it up to his ear.

"HQ, this is Rucks." He spoke on the call. "... Yeah, I intercepted Scaramouche… Yes, Princess Butterfly is perfectly safe, her friend too…" Rucks began pacing about, while Star and Marco just watched him converse with an unknown superior "Yep, the wand is safe too… No, he got away again… Yes, decapitated him again, the sonuva-gun had jets in his neck this time... No leads yet, chief…" He nodded for a bit, muttering a few 'yeahs' and 'uh-huhs'. "Alright, I'll report in posthaste. Rucks out." He put his communicator away and let off another annoyed sputter. "Walk two steps forward, ya get shoved to steps back." The old man returned to the block to pick up his bag and made his way out of the building, but Star and Marco both snapped out of their confused state and followed after Rucks.

"Wait, wait!" Star called to him. "What was that about? What's going on?!" Rucks didn't stop walking, and seemed to pick up his speed.

"None of your concern, princess." Rucks said. "Take care, and stay safe." And with a single turn down an adjacent street, the old man was gone, even when Star and Marco went to search for him. It was as though he vanished without a trace. Only thing that even marked his sign of ever being there was an odd purple star painted on the ground. Star and Marco slowly turned towards each other, minds abuzz with questions like a hive of extremely confused bees. Who was that old man? Who did he work for? Who did Scaramouche for? What was their connection? Who is 'The Legion'? And most important of all: Who is Lord DIO?

Author's Note: WHOO-BOY, this was certainly an ordeal to write! Sorry it took so long, had a bit of work-related stuff that kinda got in the way of progress, but now, here it is! The battle between Star Butterfly and Scaramouche the Merciless. Also, the identity of the old man has been revealed! Don't know him? Well, he is Rucks, the old man and narrator of the critically acclaimed indie game 'Bastion'. Surprise! Well, keep a future eye out for the next upcoming chapter, in which we further investigate the mysteries now brought forth by this altercation. Until next time, readers!

~Mal Masque