CHAPTER 9-MONSTER CARNIVAL:
Team Sparkle was really in a jam now as they had been cornered by the last person they thought that they'd run into. Ludo was standing on his bat monster and had two claw arms in his possession. He had overheard them talking about finding a Miracle Gemstone as well as wanting to use it to put him in his place. This turned out to have been a big mistake since he has plans in store for them now.
"Oh, it's you three again," Ludo scowled while looking at them right in their faces.
"Well girls, we ran into Ludo," Daron chuckled nervously before gulping.
"That you have," Ludo mocked. "And it's clear that this sleepover is just about up, now to tuck you girls in!"
"Not if we have anything to say about it," Pony Head glowered.
"That's right, and if we beat you once before, we can do it again," Jackie pocketed her gemstone before getting into a karate pose, similar to Marco's.
"Uh, but now where is Star Butterfly," Daron wondered as she surveyed for her idol, wondering if she'd make the right time to show up.
"Aw, looking for your precious Star Butterfly," Ludo mocked before sneering. "Well if you think that your hero is going to save you, you're wrong!"
With a snap of his fingers, several monsters showed up; these ones consisted of Craw monsters.
"Now that we've gotten acquainted, ahem…GET THEM!"
The Craw monsters roared before charging right for the girly team. Of course, the three of them weren't going to go down without a fight.
"Ludo, I think you've underestimated our powers," Daron got out her fake wand and charged into the fight.
"Yeah, you jerk," Pony Head was ready to fight too. "You mess with us, and now you'll regret this!"
"Time to bring it on Ludo," Jackie had told the Avarian.
Then the fight got underway. Daron made the first move by bashing her fake wand into the head of a craw monster right across the cheek before smacking him into another craw monster. Pony Head then stepped up by jabbing her horn countless times into a third craw monster. She then zapped that one and the other two Daron took care of with her magical horn. Meanwhile, Jackie had been holding her own ground as well. She had karate chopped one monster before kicking another one in the chest. When another craw monster approached her, she slammed her fist into it while not facing towards it, before turning around and kicking the fiend with her shin. She then tossed one of the craw monsters she knocked out and flung it into another monster, knocking them out.
Ludo was in disbelief upon seeing Team Sparkle easily overtake his clan of monsters. He could understand Pony Head since she does have magic and an attitude to boot, but Daron was a human despite her fake wand and the time she was held hostage by Ludo. And then there was Jackie, who looked like she never did any fighting in her life, and yet here she was, using karate against his summoned army with no sweat. Perhaps he had underestimated this girly team and that they could put up just as much of a fight as the three other teams?
The craw monsters that were thrashed disappeared, only for Ludo to snap his fingers again and summoned more monsters after them. There were four craw monsters as well as four bat monsters. Being the only one who could fly, Pony Head decided to hold off the bat monsters while Daron went for the craw monsters. While they were doing that, Jackie curled her hands into a fist and scowled at the Avarian in front of her.
"Alright, just what is it that you want from us dude," the cool skateboarder girl sneered.
This simply led to Ludo cackling as if that was a joke, as he lowered his bat to meet Jackie right in the face.
"I originally had nothing that I wanted from you," he scoffed. "But all of that changed when you revealed you found a Miracle Gemstone, and now I'll be taking what's mine right after I finish with you brats!"
"Never," Jackie stood her ground. "You will never get possession of the Miracle Gemstone."
"Oh, and just what are you going to do," Ludo snorted. "Try to fight me and take a page from that karate boy that I dread so much?!"
Letting out a growl, she had wanted to punch the Avarian's lights out, but seeing it wouldn't do any good, she resisted doing it. Instead, she did a backflip over him and then landed her foot onto a Craw monster, which knocked it out cold. Jackie aided Daron and Pony Head with clearing out the monsters.
"Alright, you girls asked for it!" Ludo summoned even more monsters. There weren't just craw monsters and bat monsters, but now there were turtle monsters and even 2 octopus monsters for desperate measures.
"Oh my goodness, just how many of these monsters are there," Daron went and bashed another monster with her fake wand.
"Gurls, I think we may have a problem," Pony Head was starting to admit as she zapped a bat monster out of the sky. "We're becoming outnumbered."
"I know, and this could take a turn for the worse," despite saying that, Jackie managed to hurl one of the turtle monsters on its back being flinging it into an octopus monster. "We might not be able to take out these monsters."
Despite their futile effort, Ludo decided to get the remaining monsters to stand down and stand to the side.
"Well, that isn't too bad for a couple of girls who could fight," Ludo shook his head. "But as you can see, you're clearly outnumbered now. However, all of this could be prevented if you'd just hand over the yellow Miracle Gemstone right this instant."
"Over my dead body Ludo," Daron snarled. "You aren't taking the Miracle Gemstone from us!"
"Oh I'm not, am I," with a snap of his fingers, the monsters vanished, but instead, he held both claw arms out and was about to use them. "Since you impose a challenge on me, I'll have to do this the hard way."
With a simple click, he used one claw arm to grab a hold of Daron.
"AAAAHHHH!" Daron screamed as she was caught by the claw arm.
"DARON!" Jackie yelled before Ludo used the other claw arm on the skateboarder girl, succeeding in capturing her too. "OH NO!"
"DON'T WORRY GURLS," Pony Head charged up her horn. "I'LL SAVE YOU!"
"Not if I can help it." With another snap, an octopus monster came out of nowhere and unexpectedly grabbed Pony Head by force. The floating unicorn head tried to break free and even blast the monster down, but it was no use. It had a massive grip on her and had her horn gripped tight in a lock.
Now turning to the two girls he captured, Ludo leered at both of them.
"Now I'll give you a choice, either give me the Miracle Gemstone, or I will take it by force, the hard way," he hissed.
"Grrr, you won't get away with this Ludo," Daron barked.
Ludo laughed that off as he continued.
"This is only the beginning of my master plan," he stated. "Soon I'll have everything in place, and with your help, skateboarder girl and your gemstone, I'll be closer to completing it."
"My name is Jackie dude," Jackie was not in a good mood since this Avarian had her held hostage. "And I won't give you what you want."
"Well then Jackie, how would you and Daron feel if I kept you imprisoned for the rest of time," Ludo was growing smug, yet impatient too.
Without warning, Daron let out a loud shriek which gave Ludo an earache. Ludo was now at his breaking point.
"That does it, you two are going to fork over your Miracle Gemstone one way or another," he bellowed.
"Not if I have something to say about it Ludo: Mega Narwhal Blast!" A voice from nearby cried out as a giant narwhal was launched right towards Ludo. Before it hit, both Ludo and Daron saw who that was and it was revealed to be Star Butterfly. Ludo looked shocked while Daron looked relieved.
"STAR BUTTERFLY!" Both of them yelled simultaneously.
"That would be me." Star stood smiling confidently.
Because the narwhal blast did a significant impact, it caused Ludo to lose his focus and the claw arms ended up dropping both Daron and Jackie who were now falling down below.
"Don't worry Daron," Star yelled as she flew into action where she caught Daron just in the nick of time.
"Star, you came to save me!" Daron hugged her.
"Of course I have Daron," Star smiled and gave her a wink.
Then there was Jackie, who was still falling, but a certain Latino karate boy wasn't about to let that happen.
"No worries Jackie," Marco declared while puffing his chest out like an important hero. "I'll save you!"
Despite the fact that he couldn't fly, he dove down and was determined to grab a hold of Jackie before she fell. Right on time, he grabbed a hold of her just as he started to roll onto the floor. Luckily he only substance a couple of injuries, but he didn't care. All that matter was that Jackie was safe: THAT was his top priority.
Jackie was mind blown by what Marco just did. He went through all that trouble just to save her from falling to her death. Normally she doesn't get kidnapped, but there was this one time where she and some other student went on a field trip into a crazy looking dimension that Star brought them too where she was surfing on flying Manta Rays. That yarn monster held her and the other students and if it weren't for Marco getting that text message, he wouldn't have known.
Wow, Marco just saved me… Did he go through all that just to save me? I am so lucky that I have him.
As Jackie was lost in her thoughts, Ludo noticed what happened and growled. Positioning his claw arms, he was going to grab them again.
"Ugh, you girls won't get away from me," he snarled. "I'll be taking what's mine!"
Before he could grab them again, Andrew soared down and delivered a kick to the back of his head. Although he hung onto the bat monster, he lost both of his claw arms. Andrew drilled down and tore right through the claw arms, turning them into rubble.
"That just about thwarts your attempts at more kidnappings Ludo," Andrew smirked as he approached the octopus monster that was holding Pony Head hostage. "And now it's time I beat the stuffing out of this octopus menace and send him back to the deep."
With one swing, Andrew punched the octopus monster and delivered an uppercut so strong, it caused it to release Pony Head. The monster went sky high before Andrew caught up to it and delivered the final blow with his fists, getting it to careen back to the ground, where it screeched one last time before vanishing. Andrew landed on the ground right next to Pony Head, who had watched him take care of that monster.
"Okay, I guess I should thank you for the save Andrew the Treasure Hunter," she unexpectedly thanked him.
"I think we're even now Pony Head," Andrew stated before turning to glare in Ludo's direction.
Star landed with Daron in her hands as she also leered at Ludo.
"Well jeez Ludo, you decided to resort to kidnapping innocent girls too," Star was appalled. "That's a whole new level of low you reached!"
"They simply had what I wanted: the Miracle Gemstone," Ludo then pointed to Jackie who was still on top of Marco. "And that girl over there has possession of it!"
Star decided to disregard that as she then focused on Daron with a serious look on her face.
"Daron, why were you hunting down Ludo?" She asked.
"I just wanted to find you and show you what I'm capable of." Daron whimpered.
"But, you-"
"Especially with how you showed how much you hate me by running off like that," Daron wailed.
Now Star felt some more guilt build up. Yes, she didn't have the time to talk to Daron, but that didn't mean she hated her. It was far from it in fact.
"Look, Daron, it might be true that I said that I had more important things to do than to chat, but that doesn't mean I could hate you," Star said sincerely. "I could never hate you. You are one of the coolest Earth girls that I've met in my lifetime. Why else would I invite you to celebrate Mewnipendence Day, or allow you to come to my sleepover or invite you to my usual friends' meetings? You are important to me, and I don't think anyone could have been a more dedicated fan of me than you."
Now Daron was tearing up. Everything that Star said was true. The fangirl definitely earned a special place in Star's heart. And there was no taking that away from her.
"Oh Star," Daron sobbed before hugging the Mewni princess again, who returned the hug and patted her on the back.
"It'll be okay Daron," she comforted her. "I promise."
As she kept comforting her, Jackie finally found her voice and decided to get off of Marco.
"Hey uh Marco," she wondered. "Are you alright?"
"I'm fine," he muffled. "Just as long as you're safe, that's all that matters."
"Oh Marco," she helped him up. "You are such a noble and dedicated young man."
"Well uh, I do what I can, heh heh," Marco chuckled nervously.
"You know, this reminded me of the time I caught kidnapped by that yarn monster," Jackie recalled. "You remember, the time you sent me anonymous text messages with cats."
"Uh yeah, and I thought 'HELP' was an acronym that stood for something," Marco felt a little embarrassed.
"Nothing to be embarrassed about dude," she nudged him playfully. "It just surprises me that you went through that trouble to rescue me when I haven't done anything for you."
"That's because there was nothing I got stuck in that I needed help getting out of."
"Oh, what about that one time Star went and released that hamster Marisol out of his tank and you got your hand stuck in that gutter?" Jackie reminded. "You looked like you needed some help then."
"Oh yeah, that was a little embarrassing," Marco chuckled lightly.
"I saw that you were stuck and I actually wanted to help you get out," Jackie was being sincere. "But you just told me you were just hanging out like it was nothing."
"Yeah it never came to me," he admitted. "In fact, I thought you would have laughed at my predicament."
"Now why would I do that to you?"
"Because your one of the coolest girls in school, and I'm…"
"No need to say anymore Marco, I'm not like any of those other popular girls," Jackie exclaimed. "I actually care about you and I was a little upset about how you didn't want my help."
"Oh, sorry about that Jackie…"
"Don't sweat it, dude," Jackie winked at him. "And besides, you're without a doubt, the coolest guy that I have gotten to know."
"Well, thanks for that." Marco started blushing from that compliment.
"It's my pleasure," she gave him a hug, which he returned.
"Okay, if we are done comforting and going down memory lane, could we focus on Ludo," Andrew was getting a little impatient.
"Yeah, in case you forgotten, Ludo's still here!" Pony Head reminded.
"You know Star," Ludo glanced down at the Mewni princess. "Does this remind you of anything?"
"If by anything you mean kicking your monsters down and beating them to a pulp just like old times, then yes, this does remind me of something." Star delivered a confident smirk while holding onto Daron.
Ludo emitted a growl and then snapped his fingers.
"SMASH THEM ALL!"
Several more Craw monsters and bat monsters were summoned along with turtle monsters. This pack was larger than what Team Sparkle had to deal with.
"Wow gurls, it looks like we hit the mother-load," Pony Head uttered.
"Daron, I need you to go and leave these monsters to us," Star told her. "I don't want Ludo to do anything else to you."
"But Star…"
"Don't worry, I'll see you again soon, maybe during this adventure," Star promised. "I promise you, now just do this for me."
Daron didn't want to leave Star's side, but she had no choice. It was likely that she would encounter Star again on this adventure, but for now, she needed to allow her to handle these creeps.
"Alright Star, I hope to see you soon," Daron remarked before Star gave her a wink. "Come on Pony Head, we need to go."
"Way ahead of you gurl," Pony Head got out her scissors. "Then tomorrow, we can start traveling again."
"You know it Pony Head," Daron smirked as Pony Head cut open a dimension portal. "Alright Jackie, we need to go now!"
"Oh, I guess you have to go now Jackie," Marco told her. "It was nice to talk to you again."
"It was nice to talk to you again as well Marco,' Jackie had a slight blush on her face. "And thanks for what you did back there."
"Hey, it was my pleasure," he smiled. "I'm just glad you're alright."
"Me too."
"Well, see you later Jackie."
"Wait," before she left, Jackie then walked up to Marco and planted a kiss right on his lips. When she finished, Marco grew big-eyed as she stated. "That was for rescuing me by the way."
"Googaleegoogaleegoogalee," Marco spoke gibberish at the fact that Jackie just kissed him on the mouth. This got Jackie to giggle at how cute he was being.
"Oh, your so cute sometimes Marco," she admitted. "I hope I get to see you soon dude."
"Oh, me too Jackie," he uttered in a dreamy tone as Jackie approached the portal. He had a goofy grin and red cheek marks.
"See ya later Marco," she winked at him.
"I'll see ya later too, Jackie!" He waved back.
With one last wave, Jackie entered the portal which vanished the moment she entered.
After Andrew got his attention, Marco joined Andrew and Star in giving Ludo the firm look as he cackled at how it was Team Star's turn to take him on.
"Well now Star and friends, why not have some fun while you can," Ludo cackled. "After all, you only have two days remaining, and you know who's going to win."
"Yes, we are," Star grinned. "We're going to take you down!"
"Not to mention if Daron, Pony Head, and Jackie were able to take out some of your monsters, they'll be nothing on us," Andrew chuckled.
"Don't get so excited fools, theirs were the easy ones," Ludo chortled before flying on his bat monster out of reach. It was then a swarm of craw monsters charged for them along with some turtle monsters and some bat monsters with armor on for size. Instead of recoiling, however, Star just grinned.
"Aw would you look at that," said Star. "It looks like Ludo saved the big guns for us!"
"It would appear so," Andrew muttered as the monsters were vastly approaching.
"I'll start this off: Honeybee Tornado Swarm!" Star got the fight started by summoning a swarm of bees from her wand. From there, the honeybees proceeded to swarm around the Craw monsters and sting them consecutively, leaving them caught off guard when Star went and kicked then in combat.
Meanwhile, Marco was in a brawl with one of the turtle monsters and it looked like a duel was about to happen.
"Alright, I must warn you that I am an excellent karate fighter," he told the monster. "In fact, I am a black belt."
The turtle monster didn't take that as a threat as it roared and went charging after Marco. It was then he jumped out of the way, only to land a kick on the turtle monster's back moments later. In a swift motion, he grabbed it by its tail and proceeded to fling in before it landed on its back.
Then there was Andrew, who was dealing with the armor cladding bat monsters while gliding through the air. With a quick movement, Andrew went up before drilling into the bat monsters' armor and pierced right through it. When it broke right off, the bat monster shrieked before charging for Andrew. With a swift punch, he sent the bat monster back before he grabbed a hold of it and hurled it downwards, where it went spiraling down to the turtle monster Marco took care of. With enough force, the collision led to both of them being defeated.
"Well that's how you do a combo attack," Andrew admitted.
As with Star, she dealt with her opponents with a syrup tsunami shockwave, getting the monsters stuck in the stuff as Star followed up with Rainbow Blasts, Rainbow Fist Punches, Mega Narwhal Blasts, Cupcake Blasts, and whatever other types of spells she felt like using on these fiends.
Eventually, those rounds of monsters were taken care of, only for Ludo to whistle and summon even more monsters; a total of 20 monsters to be exact: 5 craw monsters, 5 bat monsters, 5 turtle monsters, and 5 octopus monsters. Aside from feeling outnumbered, Star was wondering one thing.
"Alright Ludo, what's up," she started. "What's with all the new monsters? And don't say these were the background monsters either because I've never seen them before in my life!"
"I have never seen these monsters before either," Marco added.
"Same with me," Andrew grunted. "Just where did you get all of these monsters from anyway, Ludo?!"
"Hah, well that's a secret; one that you'll never find out." The Avarian snorted.
"Well, we still won't give up so easily Ludo," Marco kept his ground.
"Still, they're everywhere," Andrew was feeling slightly overwhelmed by this.
"Not with some teamwork power," Star snapped her fingers. "You two ready to put Star Butterfly Overdrive into overdrive?"
"We're on it Star," both of them then went to join Star in their special attack.
Andrew grabbed Marco by the legs who grabbed Star by the legs while she had gotten out her wand to use. After spinning around several times or so, Andrew let go of Marco and Marco jumped up and delivered a swift kick towards Star, giving her the skyrocketing boost she needed to zip all across the area.
"BLAST AWAY!"
Once again, Star zipped throughout the whole area while her wand was releasing cutesy bugs, diamonds, narwhals, rainbows, cupcakes, and mini unicorns onto the monsters, which did a heavy amount of damage. After she was done, she came in for a course landing with her wand facing downward where she unleashed her powerful attack.
"Now here it comes, Ludo: THERMONUCLEAR BUTTERFLY BLAST!"
The moment she landed did that attack strike home and cleared out all of the monsters around them. Ludo should have expected this from Star since she is his archenemy, but this was still surprising to him.
Star was dusting herself off as all the monsters vanished into thin air.
"That was a piece of cake, right guys?" Star smiled.
"It helps that we have battled Ludo's monsters for a long time Star," Marco exclaimed.
"Well, that was a pretty accurate battle," Andrew pumped.
"So Ludo, do you have anything left," Star asked the gawking Avarian.
"It doesn't matter how many you send out," Marco got into karate pose. "Keep them coming if you dare."
"That's right Ludo," Andrew cracked his knuckles. "I'm just warming up!"
"Then varm up is all you'll get," a voice was heard from behind them as Team Star and Ludo turned to see who that was. That voice belonged to Buff Frog, as he was with Tom and Archibald too. Andrew recognized them and smirked.
"Hey, it's the Demonstrix," Andrew greeted in a friendly manner. "Great to see you guys again."
"Wait a minute Andrew, how do you know the Demonstrix?" Star was curious as was Marco.
"Oh, we've hung out a couple of times while you were away for 5 months." Andrew's answer was quick and simple.
"Yeah, that makes sense," Marco commented.
"It has been a while hasn't it," Tom walked up to them first with Archibald and Buff Frog approaching afterwards. "But that's probably because we've been struggling to find some way to benefit the community."
"It has something to do with 'jobs' that vee haven't been able to get," Buff Frog worded while looking directly at Star, who was in part responsible for them not getting any jobs to accept.
Now Star was confused. She had heard about the Demonstrix forming quite some time ago, well over 12 months. She had heard what their purpose was and that it was to show that monsters can do good deeds just like anyone else. Scratching her head, she searched for the appropriate question.
"But wait, you guys are detective agents, right," Star queried. "Don't you show the community that monsters can be good by solving crimes and such?"
"Not vhen you've been solving them all this time!" Buff Frog snapped.
Now Star was feeling guilty again. She had no idea that she was depriving the Demonstrix of helping the community and showing the good that can exist in monsters. She thought she was helping people since it would help her get back into things, along with how Ludo had retired from evil. She knew Buff Frog was once Ludo's minion but turned over a new leaf when he got the tadpoles. She knew Tom as her ex-boyfriend but started seeing that he had seriously wanted to change his ways and settle his anger issues and atoning for his actions by helping the community. And while she isn't too familiar with Archibald, she does recall that he once worked as a servant for Eclispa before landing a job as part of the Demonstrix.
Feeling quite ashamed, she rubbed the back of her head and looked at them with a look of regret.
"Gee, I'm sorry you guys…I didn't mean to deprive you of helping the community, honest..." She sincerely apologized.
"Its fine Star," Archibald chirped as he approached her. "It's just so nice to meet you. You're the coolest rebel princess I've ever met."
"Come on Archibald," Buff Frog had to grab Archibald so he couldn't do anything crazy. Meanwhile, Tom sighed and knew that they meant no harm, but he had to say what he had to.
"Okay look, it's great to see you again Starship, and you too Marco & Andrew, but we are here on an important mission for our client," Tom told them. "So if you wouldn't mind leaving Ludo to us, we would gladly appreciate it."
"WHAT," Ludo suddenly bellowed, getting the attention of both teams. "WHO IS THIS CLIENT THAT YOU ARE REFERRING TO?!"
"Beats us," Archibald shrugged casually. "But we're getting paid handsomely so-"
He never got to finish as Buff Frog clamped his mouth shut. Ludo didn't seem to care about what Archibald almost blurted out. He was too lost in his thoughts to have noticed.
Star had made up her decision; she was going to leave Ludo to the Demonstrix. Taking out her dimension scissors, she motioned Marco and Andrew to follow her.
"Come on guys, we're going to leave Ludo to the Demonstrix," she said.
"You're really going to trust the Demonstrix with this?" Andrew was surprised.
"Of course," Star nodded. "After all, I have deprived them of helping the community for the past five months, and I feel like I'm sorry for them. And to make up for it, I'm going to have them take over where we left off."
"I dunno Star," Marco was feeling doubtful. "You sure they're trustworthy."
"Of course I'm sure Marco, don't be silly," Star explained. "Buff Frog may have been Ludo's minion at one point, but he reformed after getting 12 tadpoles and after we babysat his tadpoles, Buff Frog and I are on the same page and we are on good terms. Then there's Tom who you know is my ex, but to be honest, I really feel like he does want to change his ways in resolving his anger issues. Plus after the whole Demoncism scenario, I'm willing to believe Tom means well too. And as for Archibald, I don't know him much, but I believe he was once a servant to Eclipsa. That being said, he's also trustworthy too, so we can count on them to deal with Ludo from here."
"That sounds fair enough, and considerate," Andrew admitted. "Maybe this will allow us to get some rest for the night before we think of our next course tomorrow."
"Exactly Andrew, now let's go."
"Right behind you Star," Marco was still feeling a little giddy after that kiss Jackie gave him.
Star opened up a dimension portal before she entered it with Marco and Andrew. Tom was the last one to notice them depart and smiled before the portal disappeared, grateful that they were letting the Demonstrix do their job.
"Ludo," Buff Frog growled in the Avarian's direction. "Vee meet again."
"We certainly have Buff Frog," Ludo zipped around to face the frog monster. "After all, the three of you boys have made quite a mess of this place. I'll accept your apologies and your payment with your lives."
"Afraid that von't stop us," Buff Frog huffed. "Bring it on."
"Ready when you are," Tom got into position.
"Let's fight!" Archibald let out a battle cry.
"Oh I look forward to enjoying this," Ludo smirked as Tom gave him a glare.
"We aren't showing you any mercy since you are our clients' worst enemy," Tom was about to charge and land a fire punch on Ludo, but once Ludo snapped his fingers, a wall of stacked up craw monsters came in between them, causing Tom to attack the wall of craw monsters instead. After realizing this, Tom came to a halt before glaring at Ludo once again.
"I suppose you could say that I'm this client's worse enemy," Ludo chortled which got Tom confused.
"You know who our client is?"
Ludo cackled once again before answering. "I think I've got quite an idea on who it is."
Meanwhile, Archibald was fighting alongside Buff Frog against their set of monsters. While Buff Frog was seen bashing monsters with punches and body-slams, Archibald was tackling monsters and biting them. The impact of these attacks left the craw monsters surrounding them knocked out. More Craw monsters came to the scene immediately afterwards.
"Alright, we need to take these bad monsters down," Archibald cried.
"No problem," Buff Frog whistled for Archibald to come to his side, where he picked him up and held him like a gun with his mouth facing the monsters. "Vee got this."
"Yahoo, open fire!"
It was then Buff Frog had Archibald shoot spits of acid at the enemies like he was a gun. The impact left a devastating blow to each of them as they screeched. Tom decided to finish them by throwing flames at them.
"It also helps that Ludo has never bothered to give his monsters fireproof armor," Tom smirked as the monsters he scorched were defeated and they disappeared.
Unfortunately, Tom didn't count on another craw monster to sock him in the back of the head. This was a big mistake since Tom handled the monster with a flame burst. Sadly, once he turned around, there were now 30 monsters surrounding the Demonstrix. Archibald and Buff Frog noticed this too as there were plenty of craw monsters, bat monsters, turtle monsters, and octopus monsters surrounding them.
"I think we might be outnumbered," Tom admitted.
"I can't believe it, it's an endless sea of monsters," Archibald cried.
"Not a problem," Buff Frog protested as he got out that microphone. "Vee can show these monsters how to face the music."
"Just as long as you don't say another cheesy quote like that," Tom sighed as he got out that electric guitar. "Let's just get this over with…"
"Yahoo, time for Monster Recital," Archibald got out his marching drum and got ready with his comrades.
Once again, Tom was playing poorly on the electric guitar that he dreads playing to no end while Archibald was banging on the marching drum in a goofy fashion. Suddenly, Buff Frog jumps down with the microphone and blares right into it in such an anonymous manner. It was so obnoxious, that the monsters they were facing couldn't stand that wrenched sound. It got to the point where the monsters exploded from earache as they couldn't take another second of it. Even Ludo found their reception to be horrible, so he decided to take his leave.
Once they were done, they noticed that they defeated the monsters, but they also noticed that they drove Ludo away with their god-awful performance.
"Aw dang it, he got away," Archibald slammed his marching drum onto the ground. "He must not have wanted to stick around for the reception."
"Vell, think about it like this," Buff Frog dusted himself proudly. "Ludo won't harass anyone in Casino Dimension anymore."
"That's quite true," Tom exclaimed. "So anyway, I think it's time we head on out of here and get a good night's rest before we shove off again tomorrow to accomplish the next task our client has for us."
"Good idea," Buff Frog took out his dimension scissors. "Let's go."
"Roger that," Archibald saluted while Buff Frog cut open a dimension portal.
Once it was open, the Demonstrix members entered it and it vanished afterwards as they were planning on continuing their client's assignments tomorrow…
Ludo was shown trying to fly through the Casino Dimension. First, he was upset that Team Sparkle got away with the yellow Miracle Gemstone. Then Star and her friends showed up to show him a thing or two. And to add insult to injury, Star left Ludo to the Demonstrix and their god-awful recital, where he almost suffered hearing loss.
However, once he saw Nebula appear out of nowhere with a grave serious look in her face, a pleasant smirk crossed the Avarian's face.
"Ludo!" Janna had cried as she arrived with Upsilon beside her.
"Now that I have you, tell me right now Ludo," Nebula got straight to the point. "What was I doing…sleeping in that capsule on that castle, and what about my memory?"
"Your memory, hah, what memory," Ludo snorted coldly. "You have no past to remember!"
This resulted in a deadly silence crossing over the dreadful team, and it almost seemed that Janna was more bewildered than Nebula was.
However, Nebula actually mirrored her wide-eyed expression while giving out a hoarse response.
"W-What…"
"No…" Janna had trailed off while examining the gold bracelets in her pocket. "That can't be true. It just can't be…"
If Nebula didn't have a past, then who's to say that the Nebula that was with them wasn't the Nebula that Janna remembers from 5 months ago; the one who sacrificed herself to save the universe?
Ludo continued chortling before he summoned an army of monsters to take out the dreadful team. Things weren't looking good for Nebula as she was gobsmacked and Janna noticed she was becoming less of herself.
"L-Ludo, wait…"
"It's no use Nebula," Janna sighed, putting away the gold bracelets. "We have to fight him…"
"But…my…memories…I have no past…then what am I…?" Nebula had a blank stare in her eyes. Yet at the same time, she also felt one of everything based on what Ludo just revealed.
"Numerous monster targets detected in the perimeter: preparing to intercept and destroy!" Upsilon jumped in front of them and began to open fire on the monsters.
"Nebula…?" Janna was trying to get her to respond since they had to deal with monsters, but it wasn't working.
Nebula was beginning to have doubts that she even had a former past at all. But if that was the case, then what was the vision that the green Miracle Gemstone about? And what about that blonde girl that she also saw in the Coastal Ruins dimension and the vision? Then there was the name Star Butterfly that sounded important too; was that as fake as the vision she witnessed?
Janna truly didn't know how to help her at this moment as she noticed the monsters gaining on Upsilon.
"There's no time to be unresponsive," Upsilon stated.
Janna gave up as she joined the fray by swinging her hairdryer into several of the monsters while also kicking them down. Because Nebula was unresponsive, Janna and Upsilon had to handle the fighting.
Ludo knew that this team could trounce his monster army just like the three other teams he faced previously. So he decided to up the amply a bit. He summoned even more monsters to take down Team Dread, all consisting of craws, bats, turtles, and octopus monsters. In a matter of minutes, he had summoned 40, no, 50 monsters in all to slow down their progress.
By this point, this was becoming too much for the Filipino and the killer robot. Upsilon was finding himself outnumbered pretty quickly, and Janna didn't stand a chance against all the monsters surrounding them. She found herself punched and whacked by the craw monsters as she hid behind Upsilon. Of course, that wouldn't be able to hold off much longer since Upsilon could only handle so many monsters at once. With one last hope of desperation, Janna then turned to where Nebula was standing one last time to help them…only to see that she was gone.
"Nebula…?"
With a sudden boom, everyone turned their attention to Nebula, who had prepped up a spell with her wand that encased her into a purple ball of energy, essentially turning her into a purple comet. Suddenly, Nebula charged and rammed through every single monster that was in her path, showing no signs of mercy in the slightest. One by one, the monsters fell and if Janna didn't jump out of the way, she would have been hit too.
Janna, Upsilon and even Ludo had to gawk at the sight of Nebula take out all of Ludo's monsters. After a while, Nebula got sick of ramming into the monsters so she came to a halt, only to get onto a stand. Wanting to put an end to these monsters once and for all, she took out her Miracle Gemstone and started drawing off the negative energy from it.
Something bad was about to go down. Even Upsilon could detect it with his sensors.
"Scanners have detected a rather unsettling mass of energy, indicating something disastrous is about to happen."
"I think your right Upsilon," Janna yelped as she had to duck and cover.
Ludo and his remaining monsters would have chosen this moment to retreat, but Ludo wanted to know what kind of power Nebula had tapped into. As if he didn't already know.
Then just like before, Nebula's eyes, cheek marks and gem on her skirt flashed a bright red as that red energy ended up engulfing the entire area, and before she knew it, Nebula had unleashed an aggressive explosion upon everyone but Janna, Upsilon and Ludo who had gotten out of the way. Every single one of the monsters on the field was wiped out and vanished without a trace. Of course, this also caused a loud screech to occur after the fact, getting Janna to shield her ears.
"I have no ears, and even I admit that that still upsets me."
"What a bunch of worthless bags of flesh…" Nebula sneered as she slowly went back to normal. But normal wasn't exactly the right word for the situation, for this was only the beginning of the abnormal for her.
"An army of monstrous subjects: destroyed!" Upsilon had to blurt out.
Of course, Nebula glared at Ludo which caused him to cringe and slowly had his bat monster back away a few feet. Nebula then turned to look at Janna and Upsilon, and Janna had wide eyes by what she had just witnessed.
Nebula then did a double check of what she did before blinking, taking in the destruction she caused from such a feat.
"Perhaps…it's true…perhaps I have nothing to remember…my quest with finding out the truth is futile…and I really am destructive…"
Without another word, Nebula stormed off towards a part of the Casino Dimension. Janna was about to go after her but was halted when she saw Ludo take his leave with the dimension scissors in his hands.
"Well now, now that that display is over, I believe our time is up," Ludo cut open a dimension portal with his scissors. "I'll see you again soon."
"Ludo, you're going to pay for this, one way or another," Janna sneered, curling her hand into a fist and shaking it. "I know you lied, I know your lying, and you have to be lying when you said that Nebula has no past!"
But it was all for naught, since Ludo entered the portal and it vanished shortly afterwards. Janna had to know that the Nebula she found in his castle had a past. Ludo was known for being devious and only said that to mess with Nebula's mind and throw her off.
Regardless, it was clear that Nebula was struggling with conflict at this moment. It was going to take a lot to convince her to get her back on track. While looking at the stars in the night sky, she had only one course of action that she was going to take, and it was a risky one at that.
"I need to find Star Butterfly."
As soon as Janna and Upsilon found Nebula and got her back with them, Janna goes and cuts open a dimension portal for the three of them to enter. Nebula wastes no time in storming by as she went without a word. Upsilon entered the portal afterwards and Janna entered it last. It was decided that they rest up for the night (at least for Janna since Upsilon is a robot and Nebula is in conflict and doubt about her past) before they shove off through the next dimension tomorrow, as the portal they entered disappeared afterward…
END OF CHAPTER 9!
YUP, I THINK I HANDLED THIS CHAPTER QUITE WELL! THINGS ARE STARTING TO HEAT UP NOW!
AS I SAID BEFORE, I LIKE WRITING THE PARTS WHERE THE DIFFERENT TEAMS INTERACT WITH EACH OTHER! IT BRINGS OUTS A LOT OF EXCITEMENT TOO! SOME OF THE LATER CHAPTERS WILL HAVE ALL 12 HEROES INTERACT TOGETHER! I HOPE YOU LOOK FORWARD TO THAT!
ANYWAY, WITH THAT SAID, YOU CAN LEAVE A REVIEW IF YOU LIKE, AND YOU CAN WAIT FOR THE NEXT CHAPTER!