First things first, I am so sorry this came out so late, I got sick for a week and I had to catch up on what I missed. Anyway I hope you enjoy this new chapter. Oh and I have some things to say at the afterword, stay tuned!
Chapter 7
Insight
Part 1
Marco woke up in a rather soft bed, his head resting on a pillow, his hair all messy. He was looking around the dull white room he was in, until he turned around and was face to face with Kelly, she was way too close for comfort, so much so that he could feel her breath on his face.
"Gahhh!" Marco screamed as he flailed his arms around and promptly fell off the bed.
"Opps, you alright Marco?" Kelly asked, concerned.
"Uhhh yeah I'm good, I'm good" He said, rubbing his head.
"Ugh, could you tell me why you were so close to my face there?
Kelly just pouted at this.
"Buuuu, you hate my face that much?" She asked, head tilted to the side, looking down at him her , having crawled across the bed.
"Nah, I've woken up to a loooot of things, I'd take your cute face over most of those things in a heartbeat." He casually said, stretching the kinks out of his, surprisingly sore body.
"Anyway where am I?" he asked, stratching his head and completely missing the blush in Kelly's face.
"Oh right! I need to tell everyone." Kelly said, snapping out of her thoughts and running off.
"Okay then..." Marco said as he got up the sat on the bed.
And a few seconds later he heard Kelly shout. "HEY! MARCO'S AWAKE NOW!"
"Jeez, for someone who's usually quiet Kelly sure can get pretty loud." he thought out loud.
And a few more seconds later he heard the door burst open and felt someone crush him with a spine breaking hug.
"Uurk... Kelly...can't breathe... here..."
He said, barely able to breathe, but managing to pat her head nonetheless.
"Hehe, just glad you're okay." she said as she let go.
And not five seconds after she let go the door swung open again, and once again Marco was crushed in a hug, this time by Star.
"Star... can't... breathe..." He wheezed, but still hugging her back.
"Heh, sorry Marco, just glad that yo..."
"Marco m'boy!" River interrupted as he ran into the room and gave Marco another bear hug.
"Gahh... River, nice to see you too." he said, patting the King's back.
"Now now River, let the poor boy breathe."
Moon said, walking into the room with Jackie and Janna walking behind her.
"Morning sleepy head." Jackie said.
"Heyya Marco, do you know you have cutest little snore when you sleep?" Janna said, making the boy blush.
"Yeah! you go all 'huuu nyahh huuuu nyaaahh like a little kitty!" Star said, imitating the noises he made, making Marco's blush deepen.
"Ghh...ch.. wha...Wha.. WHY WOULD YOU EVEN BE WATCHING ME SLEEP!?" Marco shouted.
"Cause you're adorable when you sleep" Kelly said.
"Yeah, that's true." Jackie agreed.
And Marco just covered himself with the blanket, a muffled "guhhhhhhh" eminating from the covers.
Moon simply chuckled at the kids' little games.
"Anyway, Marco how do you feel?" Moon said.
"I'm alright, a little sore but I'm good, but ummm how long was I out?" he said, taking the cover from his head.
"Oh just a few hours, it's still early afternoon now." Moon said, much to Marco's relief.
"And well if you're feeling better, your friends and the people want to see you, it's not everyday someone saves them from a giant squid and an army of reanimated corpses. And mayhaps if possible, I request to speak to all of you later." Moon said, looking at all of the kids in the room
"Yes m'boy! The people really want to see you! You've got the makings of a true knight, you were simply outstanding there! It's only fitting you have a prize, your friends already got theirs and their medals not too long ago" River said, clapping him on the shoulder, almost dislocating it.
"Well for now we shall go" Moon said dragging the King with her.
"Rest well now, Marco, we shall return in a while" she said as she closed the door.
And now that Marco looked at his friends he saw that they did in fact have medals hung around their necks that and...
"Hey, why're you guys wearing my hoodies?"
True enough, they were all wearing their usual get ups just with the addition of Marco's hoodies.
"Oh, well Janna and Jackie were wearing your hoodies when we saw them and we wanted to wear them too." Star said causally.
"Uh that doesn't really answer my question, but... ugh nevermind. Are all of you guys okay? no one was hurt right?" He asked.
"Nope... Aside from you passing out no one got hurt too bad." Star said.
"Oh, and those pirates peeps were fine too, but they left soon after, they said they forgot something important and needed to get it." She added with a shrug.
"Oh yeah, those guys..." Marco said, scratching his head.
"Yeah those guys were pretty cool, a little weird though, anyway I need to talk to you guys, especially the both of you." He said, gesturing to Jackie and Kelly.
"Huh, what why?" Jackie asked, with Kelly just tilting her head to the side, a confused look on her face.
"sigh... Well I already talked to Star and Janna about this but basically we were gonna train together in order to help them control their powers since you have powers too I was wondering if wanted tag along, as for Kelly well I'm gonna need some help and Kelly's pretty tough and this'll help her get experience fighting magic users." He simply said.
"Ugh... my head's killing me, wish we didn't have to go to school on Monday, kinda feel drained from the planning and the squid." he added, massaging his temples.
"Hehe, sorry for making you do all the work Marco." Star said sheepishly.
"Nah, it's alright Sta..." Marco began.
"Okay I got this!" Janna interrupted and cut open a portal with Marco's scissors and quickly jumping through.
"Wait, what?" Marco said dumbfounded.
"Did she just..." Marco asked.
"Yup..." Jackie said.
"Oh gods I hope she doesn't burn the school down." Marco said as he facepalmed.
~Ripppp~
The unmistakable sound of a portal opening was heard, and everyone looked up to a freshly opened portal thinking it was Janna...but this portal was red one.
"Hey muscles!" Hekapoo said as she walked through.
"Heard you were awake so I came to check up on you." She said smiling down at the boy, peering at him through her fringe covered eye.
Kelly and Star were surprised to see Lady Hekapoo herself come and check on their friend, Jackie was just confused as to why this red headed demoness from the beach earlier was eyeing up Marco.
"Hpoo?" Marco asked, confused, but evidently pleased to see someone he considers an old friend.
"Wow, didn't expect to see you here, it's been a while" he said with a smile.
"Don't call me that!" she said with a huff.
"But yeah, just wanted to check up on you, last time you fought like that you forgot how to speak english for a week. Wanted to see if it happened again" She said, a small smirk on her face
"Ha. Ha. Ha. Very funny, the only reason I forgot how to speak english then was cause you made me read a cursed scroll while I was fighting!" he said, his eyes narrowing
"I didn't even know I wasn't speaking english. I embarrassed myself infront of the king then! I was lucky he had someone to translate Allionian to English for me."
At this Hekapoo just burst out laughing.
"Hahahaha, yeah I still remember your face when you realized you were speaking Spanish then, nice accent by the way Muscles." she said, wiping a tear away.
Marco just rolled his eyes.
"Yeah, yeah but thanks for visiting me... Bunny." Marco said, emphasizing the last word, a cocky little smirk on his face.
Hekapoo's arms which were crossed fell to her sides as a blush made it's way to her now embarrassed face.
"D-don't call me that!" she said, her hands clenched and shaking.
"Then what will I call you? You already told me not to call you Hpoo, and now you don't want me to call you Bunny What do I call you then Hpoo?" Marco said, his head tilted in mock innocence, the smirk turning into a taunting smile.
"It's Hekapoo! Hek. Ah. Poo. That's it nothing else!" She said, the flame above her head wildly dancing around.
"Oh. Okay then... Hekapoo." Marco said in his 'grown up' voice.
"Gaaaaaah!" Hekapoo screamed and leapt into a portal and leaping out of another one that opened above Marco's bed.
Rolling out of the way Marco barely dodged the flaming punch that split the bed in half. And then following up with a backflip to avoid a small fire ball. A smile never leaving his face as they continued to chase each other around the broken bed. With Marco laughing all the way.
The three other girls were just stunned. They just saw Marco flirt with a hot (pun intended) demoness lady, who was also part of one the most powerful magical organizations in the universe.
And Star and Kelly were even more surprised as said demoness lady was Hekapoo the forger of dimensional scissors.
Eventually Hekapoo caught Marco sitting on top of him, pinning him to the floor, her hands clamping Marco's hands above his head.
"Hah! Got you." she said, a wide grin spread across her face.
"Yea, you did." Marco said quietly with a small smile on his face, before he blew out the flame floating above her head.
Hekapoo just looked into his chocolate eyes... but before she could do anything else everyone's attention was drawn to the sound of a portal opening.
"Hey I'm back, and no I did not burn down the school." Janna said as she steped out of the portal, twirling Marco's scissors on her finger.
Only to have the scissors swiped from her hand by a very angry looking Hekapoo.
"How the heck did you get these!?" She demanded.
"Whoa chill, Marc-" Janna began
"These aren't yours! Why the heck are using them, these are Marco's! Not yours, his! He earned them not you!" She said, her flames dancing angrily.
"Hey, hey it's okay Hekapoo, I lent them to her, I needed her to call for help earlier, she didn't steal them" Marco said, grabbing her shoulders so that she wouldn't burn his friend to a crisp.
She looked at his hands, then into his eyes before letting out a sigh.
"Fine, whatever muscles, here" She said as she pushed the scissors back to him and opening up a portal.
"I'll be back. Seeya." She said as she walked out.
"What the heck was that about?" Janna asked absolutely confused.
"sigh... That was Hekapoo, forger of the dimensional scissors" Marco said, looking at the place where Hekapoo's portal was
"And before anything else what did you do?" Marco asked looking at Janna who, to Marco's annoyance was also wearing one of his hoodie's
"Nothing much... just made it so that we don't have school on Monday" She said.
"Ugh... okay fine that's not so bad." Marco said.
"Also for Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday." She continued.
Marco facepalmed.
"Okay that's worse but atlea-" Marco began
"That's for the next two weeks..." She finished.
Once again Marco facepalmed.
"Here's the note" She said, showing it to Marco.
Marco read the note and just sighed.
'Yup looks like school really is cancelled for two weeks... is that blood on the corner? Marco thought to himself as he read the note
"What did you even do?" Marco asked
"Well first of all I..." Janna began
"Actually no, I don't want to hear it. This way the cops can't use me in court." Marco said, covering Janna's mouth
Janna just laughed
"Well, atleast now we some time to train you and the others." He said.
"Okay, umm just a question Marco why do we have to train anyway?" Jackie asked, having snapped out of her ealier shock.
"Oh, that's cause I don't want Star to burn down Echo creek, nor do I want Janna to accidentally summon a infinite amount of skeletons that take over the world nor, and no offense Jackie, do I want you to drown everyone. Just a precaution, you know better to have it and not need it then need it but don't have it errrr... experience-wise" Marco said.
"Wow, that's pretty mature Marco" Kelly said.
"By the way, I'm in, you know I'm always down to hang out with you" she added, with a shrug.
"Thanks, I mean I did spend sixteen years in another dimension, it's mostly blury but I did learn some things." He said.
"Huh... okay then, if you're there to supervise then I'm in too then." Jackie said, a determined look on her face
"Hey! Don't just say it's for us it'll be good for you too." Star said, a little annoyed.
"Ummm Star, I may be good at karate but I can't karate chop a building down" Marco said, his head tilted a bit.
At this the girls just looked at each other.
"Uhh... Marco what's the last thing that you remember?" Jackie asked.
"Umm... Well I remember holding the zombies back... and uh... that's about it. Why, is something wrong?" He asked.
"Dude. You really don't remember anything?" Janna asked.
Marco just shook his head.
"Well you fought all the zombies then but you died so me and Star brought you back to life, so you're a zombie now and you have to follow our every comma-" Janna's little rant was cut off as Jackie covered her mouth.
"Okay, well what really happened was weird, like really weird... You kinda uhh.. well how do I put this?" Jackie began...
"You went nuts on them dude! You were all boom and rahhhh and pssuhh! With lightning and thunder and stuff! You were definetely like a warrior then, but you know more lightning-y" Kelly said, making noises and wild gestures as she said it.
"Uhhh yeah, that's about it." Jackie said.
"But where did you even learn to do that?" Star asked, her eyes sparkling, clearly wanting to try what Marco did herself.
"Ummm I don't remember really." Marco said honestly
"It was the blessing of Thor." Hekapoo said, much to everyone's surprise.
"What? Told you I'd be back, just went to change clothes" She said, which was true as she was now also wearing Marco's beach hoodie on top of an orange shirt plus black shorts, her usual black boots and red and yellow stripped leggings.
"Really. You too? I swear I'm gonna run out of hoodies one day." Marco said, his head in his hands.
"Awwww poor you, well too bad, 'cause I'm keeping this. It's a nice little change from your other hoodies I took." Hekapoo said, twirling around in her outfit.
Marco just let out a disgruntled "Ugghh" his head still in his hands.
"Anyway, where and how did you get the blessing? Heard only very few people earn it, and honestly I don't really know much about it. I wanna hear everything." Hekapoo said.
"sigh... fine. But it's a long story." Marco said, finally looking up.
Hekapoo just opened up a portal and took out snacks and several chairs for the girls. She also opened up a portal under the bed and replaced it with a new one.
"Talk." Hekapoo said, as she tossed a few chips in her mouth.
The others seemed to wanna hear too as they leaned in close, even Kelly.
"Uhh... what are you getting excited for Kells? You were there, remember?" Marco said
"Well yeah, but I love it when you tell stories!" She said, leaning even closer.
"Okay then..." Marco said, reluctantly
"It was about a couple of weeks after Janna's Birthday" He began, not noticing Janna grip her pendant.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Sorry sorry sorry sooooooorrrryy!" Kelly was screaming as they ran through the jungle.
"For the last time Kells no need to apologize. Just run!" Marco said.
They were both wearing their adventure gear, Kelly was wearing light leather armor plus arm guards, her usual shorts and boots, with her hair in a ponytail, Marco was wearing his black pants and boots from Hekapoo's dimension and a grey shirt covered by a black leather vest armor plus light arm guards and fingerless gloves and like Kelly he had a red scarf on.
~~~~
It had been an hour since they found the ancient temple hidden in the deepest part of the jungle, the temple itself was beautiful carved stoneworks, despite being covered in vines and trees it was massive so it was pretty easy to find especially with the help of a map and dimensional scissors.
Fast forward 30 minutes and they finally made it inside, Marco just had to double check that they had all their supplies and that they weren't stepping on any traps.
Another fifteen in and they found a huge room filled with dust and weird looking see through leathery rags, which Marco later realized were shed snake skin.
Kelly wanted to see more of the room though, so she stabbed her sword in the ground in order to bring out a torch, except instead of the ground Kelly stabbed something much softer, something alive, and it wasn't too pleased at having the tip of it's tail cut off.
It was a snake, a big one, a really really big one, it had a huge black head, it's eyes were full of malice and like it's head the rest of its body was black with lighter stripes appearing in a pattern on its back.
Seeing the giant reptile rise up in front of them Marco immedietely grabbed Kelly's hand and ran as fast as he could, they've been running ever since.
"We need to get to town" Marco said.
"What? I left my sword back there!" Kelly said.
"You really wanna go back now?" Marco asked as he pointed his thumb behind him at the snake chasing them.
"Okay good point." Kelly said.
"We'll get it back later." Marco promised.
"Get ready okay, I'm gonna open a portal."
Kelly nodded, running closer to the boy, readying herself.
Marco took the scissors in his right hand, he didn't have enough time to cut one the usual way, he'd have to make a quick slash.
Placing his hand near his left hip, he mimicked the motion of drawing a sword, cutting a wide slash infront of him, quickly jumping in with Kelly following through, the portal closed just as the snake closed it's maw right where Kelly was a fraction of a second ago.
They were both breathing heavily, with Kelly on the ground lying on her back.
"Huff... huff... Sorry... huff 'bout that Marco." Kelly said.
"It's... haah... it's alright." Marco said waving off her concern, still catching his breath
"But Marco... you were really looking forward to this." Kelly looked at him and frowned.
Marco had a small smlie on his face.
"Actually Kelly, I only wanted to do this cause I wanted to cheer you up. You were just so sad after you and Tad, you know... I just wanted to cheer you up a bit." He said, shyly rubbing the back of his neck.
"I knew how much you loved to go exploring so I got us this adventure." he added.
Kelly smiled and hugged her friend.
"Awww Marco that's so sweet of you, thank you" she said
"But you know we don't have to go on a quest to have fun, I have fun just hanging out with you."
"Yeah, but I still wanna cheer you up, but for now how about we go get something to eat before we go get your sword, my legs are hurt and I'm hungry." Marco said.
"Sure thing, it's about lunch time anyways. And uh Marco, thanks" Kelly said.
"For what? I haven't really done anything to cheer you up yet." Marco said with an eyebrow raised.
"For being my friend silly. I uhhh... ever since I went out with Tad I've drifted away from everyone else, you're the first real friend I had in a long time..." Kelly said, her head hanging low.
Marco just grabbed her hand and led her towards the nearest tavern.
"After we get your sword we're getting ice cream, more specifically I'm getting you a salted caramel and roasted strawberry ice cream sundae" He said, it was more an order than anything else.
Kelly's eyes just went wide, with sparkles practically flying out of them.
"With sprinkles?" She asked, her mouth was already tasting the salty sweet goodness of that frozen earth food she fell in love with.
"All the sprinkles you want... And please don't drool on my hand again" Marco said.
Kelly just wiped her mouth and smiled.
When they got to the tavern Kelly scouted out a table for them and Marco went to order some food and to look at the available quests.
A lot of eyes were on him as he went up to the barkeep. Like wolves smelling fresh meat.
"Ain't ya a lit'le te fresh to be here lad?" A gruff looking man, who was sitting by the bar enjoying a drink asked him.
"Tougher than I look, 'sides I like the ale here, for once it ain't watered down piss like ev'rywhere else." Marco answered him without looking at the man.
A universal joke, see no matter where you went, no matter how shite everything is, be it from war, famine, or down right corruption, alcohol always holds it value, like gold only more valuable. And it worked, the man laughed at his joke.
'good, that's one brawl avoided.' Marco thought to himself.
"Ha, ye got spirit, I'll give ye dat lad." He said, raising his mug to the boy to which Marco responded with a nod.
After paying the Barkeep Marco went over to the quest board, no use waiting for the food, they'll bring it out later' he thought to himself.
"Hmmmmm" Marco said, as he studied the board.
'Nothing new, just the same old stuff everywhere else' He thought.
But the feeling of someone tapping his shoulder brought him out of his thoughts.
"Oy, whadya think your doing? Quests' are fer adventurers only, not little kids who still smell like their mama's milk." A tall, heavily armored, gruff looking man said, leering at the boy.
"Quests are fair game last I checked." Marco replied, his tone neutral
'Never show a predator weakness.' he thought, remembering his maxim from his time in Hekapoo's dimension
"Yea, to bloody friggin mercs and fighters who know what they're doin', not to some damn kid." He replied, his tone rising, his words slurred.
'Looks like someone had a bit too much to drink' Marco thought, smelling the scent of beer eminating from the man in front of him.
"Yeah, and what are you gonna do about it? You gonna let some kid show you up?" Marco taunted, ever so slightly shifting his stance, preparing himself for the hit to come.
The man just growled and tried to punch him, but Marco stepped back and grabbed the man's arm, using his momentum against him, he slammed him into the quest board, with a crack forming on the board.
Sitting up, the man rubs his head and gets ready for a fight, only to be stopped by a man who was only lightly armored, he had blue bandana and spiky blonde hair.
"Easy there buddy, let the kid go, he didn't do anything wrong here, besides he didn't mean it right?" He said, looking down at his drunk comrade and silently begging Marco to give in and let this go.
"Maybe I did, maybe I didn't. Just make sure your friend here doesn't go attacking any innocent civillians while he's drunk." Marco said turning around.
"Oh you little punk" The man said, as he charged at Marco, sword drawn.
Marco just hopped back into the man, getting inside his guard and surprising the man, Marco then locked his right arm to the man's swinging arm and using his left hand, he grabbed the man's arm and once again using his momentum against him Marco slammed the man into the ground.
The man tried to get up again, but he was stopped by Marco's weapon, it was a blade glowing with silver runes, it extended from Marco's gauntlets passing over his knuckles and extending a good foot and a half, it hovered an inch above the man's throat.
"Woah... uhh could you uh please not kill my friend there?" The man with spiky hair asked, he had his sword drawn though whether it was to stop his friend or to stop Marco he did not know.
Marco just looked at the blade then back to the man holding it.
"Oh, yeah sorry I was just gonna stop my friend there but then you... you know" He said, gesturing to Marco and his incapacitaded buddy.
Marco just nodded and unclenched his fist, the blade dematerializing to nothingness.
"Well I don't really wanna start a fight, I gotta go." Marco said, making his way to Kelly's table.
Eventually Marco found Kelly among the sea of adventurers, reading a book, and sat down across her.
"Hey Marco, got in another fight didn't you?" Kelly asked, not looking from her book.
Marco flinched at this, and blushed
"Heh, yeah sorry." Marco said, rubbing his neck.
"For someone who's nickname is "safekid" you sure got a knack for getting into trouble you know." Kelly said, stuffing the book back into her backpack.
"It's not like I go around asking for fights you know." Marco said crossing his arms.
"I'm just messing with you Marco, anyway our foods here." Kelly said as a waitress brought their food over.
Kelly immedietely dug in, happily stuffing her face and enjoying it, smiling all the way, Marco just chuckled at this.
"What? something on my face?" Kelly asked as she swallowed.
"Nah, it's nothing." Marco said.
Kelly just shurgged, and continued eating. Just as they finished eating three people walked up to their table.
"Hey man, sorry about what my buddy did back there, he had little bit too much to drink." said the blonde haired man from earlier.
"S'okay, man" Marco said waving him off.
"Look we wanna talk business with you." Another blonde man said, he was shorter than the other one.
"Ooookay, what do you want?" Kelly asked, looking at them suspiciouly.
"Not here, outside." A woman dressed in heavy plate armor, with long black hair and a katana stapped to her waist said.
Marco just raised his eyebrow at them.
"Okay... and what if we say no?" He asked
"Then nothing happens and you miss out on a decent payout." The girl said, shrugging.
"Meet us outside near the east gate" she said.
"I hope we see you guys there" The taller blonde man said, waving as he left.
"Hmmmm what do you think Marco?" Kelly asked him
"Well I don't really trust them, but it's up to you, you know." Marco said.
"What d'ya mean?" Kelly asked
"Well I did say I wanted to cheer you up, it's your day today, so choice is up to you" Marco said.
"Really!? Then I say we hear them out for now, and if it seems fun we go!" Kelly said
"Fair enough then." Marco said as he got up.
Walking through the towns, cities, and villages of other dimensions always intrigued Marco, but it was only recently that he started to write about them. Which he was doing so right now.
"Okay, so there's a shop here selling ward eyes, a blacksmith that specializes in special ores and alloys, plus there's supposed to a few groves of iron wood and cobalt bark trees near here." Marco said as he wrote those down on his little notebook.
"You really like writing these things, don't you?" Kelly asked, looking at his notes.
"Yeah, it helps me think ahead and plan, but this is a rather new habit I picked up in Hekapoo's dimension." Marco said as he placed his notes away.
"Look there they are." he said pointing to the group.
"Well then, seems like someone decided to join in the fun" The shorter blonde said.
"My name is Aaron, my brother over here is named Andrew and this scary, armor clad girl is named Nikki." He said.
"We're part of the 'Singing Sparrows' guild" he added, showing them his badge with the two others following suit.
"Nice to meet you" Nikki said, nodding at them.
"Yeah, same" Andrew said.
"Name's Kelly, and this here is Marco." Kelly said, grabbing Marco's arm.
"Now what did you want to talk about?" Kelly added.
"Well we have a proposition for you, it's a job in a village near here, we don't know the details other than, a lot of mercs tried and failed already." Aaron said.
"We may need help, and since you look tough we thought we'd ask you, of course we'd split the prize 50/50. What do you say?" He said.
"Seems interesting enough but ugh, why me?" Marco asked, completely confused.
"Well first of all, you're tough, second is that your gauntlets I've only ever seen the higher ranked guild members use them, so either you're strong or quick enough to steal a pair from someone" Aaron said.
"Okay first of all, I based these off an assassin's weapon I found years ago and secondly I made them myself, I used my own blood to write and power the runes." Marco said, gesturing to his gauntlets.
~~~~~~~~~~~
"Woah woah woah, hold on. You made runic blade gauntlets? With your own blood too?" Star asked.
"Uhh yeah." Marco said.
"You surprised? I thought him the basics of forge-crafting, no idea where he learned rune work though" Hekapoo said.
"I learned from an old rune knight I met while I was wandering around." Marco said.
"Woah... And when did make those gauntlets?" Jackie asked, confused as to how Marco could've had that much free time on his hands.
"Oh I made them years ago back in Hekapoo's dimension. I just brought them with me when I came back." Marco said.
"Woah, can we see them? Do they still have blood on them?" Janna asked
"Sorry, they're gone now. One of them melted and the other one snapped off." Marco said.
"What, how'd that happen?" Star asked.
"Well you're gonna have to listen on." Marco said.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Well that's interesting, that's the offer, what do say Marco?" Aaron asked.
"We're in!" Kelly said, grabbing onto Marco before he could even say anything.
"Hold it. We've seen him fight but not you, we don't trust you kid." Nikki said
"Woah, easy there she's with me." Marco said
"And she's a great fighter." he added
"Gonna need more than words kid." Nikki said.
Marco was about to say something else but Kelly shut him up by holding his hand and nodding at him.
'I got this' she seemed to say.
"Okay, then let me just get her sword, we kinda left it at an old temple." Marco said.
"What? She can borrow mine for the meanti..." Aaron began
~riippp~
"Or you could just use dimensional scissors. .." He said, as Marco stepped through the portal.
Five minutes have passed since Marco went through the portal, yet he still wasn't back.
"Uhhh you sure your buddy's gonna be okay?" Aaron asked
"Don't worry about him, he's tough." Kelly said, without her knowing her hand clenched the bottom of her shirt.
"Well anyway, why don't we get to know each other at least, we already told which guild we were in how about you?" Aaron asked
'Sigh... I might as well' Kelly thought
"It's 'Blood Rose', that's my guild." Kelly said showing them her guild badge, it had her picture and name on it, as well as the Bloody white rose insignia of her guild.
"Woah, how'd a kid like you get in?" Andrew asked.
"Fought my way in." Kelly answered
'That and aunt Elizabeth knew the head of the guild hehehe' she thought to herself.
"Does that mean your buddy is also from there?" Andrew asked.
"Nope, he's from a different guild." Kelly asked.
"Speaking of which your buddy is late, maybe he died, or maybe he just ditched you" Nikki said, interrupting them
"Marco is not dead. And he'd never ditch me!" Kelly said, glaring at the woman.
"Yeah? Then where is he, huh?" The woman said.
~Riippp~
"I'm... huff.. right...huff... here." Marco said as he stepped out of the portal, covered in cuts and a few bruises.
"Sorry m'late the snake kinda made it hard for me to get back; anyway here's your sword Kelly." Marco said, handing Kelly her sword, a huge dumb grin on his face.
"You look like a mess! You could've just came back here when you saw the snake you know. What am I gonna do with you Marco?" Kelly asked as she took the sword, a small smile on her face.
"Not unless you can stuff me in a bag a haul me around, nothing much you can do to me. Besides you really like that sword." Marco smilingly said, in a mocking tone.
"I can stuff you in my hair and you know it!" Kelly said, to which Marco just rolled his eyes
"Just go and fight already, good luck." Marco said, walking away.
"Heh, you still need luck? Guess your boyfriend doesn't trust you much girly." Nikki said, getting into a stance, and in addition to her armor she now had a visored great helm that covered her entire face and head with a horizontal slit in the front to provide vision.
"What? Marco trusts me plenty, he was just being nice when he said that... Wait... boyfriend?" Kelly asked confused.
"Nows not the time to be distracted" Nikki said, as she brought her sword down, aiming for Kelly's neck
"I... am... not...distracted." Kelly said, straining her body as her blade met Nikki's.
Kelly then suddenly pulled back, letting gravity do her work for her and making Nikki trip, spinning around, Kelly brought her foot up and kicked Nikki as she tumbled past her, a move Marco had taught her.
Having only added a leather vest, arm and shoulder guards, plus fingerless gloves to her usual outfit minus the sweater, which she switched off for with a plain white shirt, her lightly armored self had a major advantage in speed and mobility compared to the heavy plate armor Nikki was wearing.
But Nikki wasn't to be taken lightly as the hit didn't seem to affect her, as she was now charging in again.
Kelly was gonna block her against immediately thought against it and just dodged the blow.
She was right, the ground actually cracked from Nikki's strike, it seems that her sword has grown to twice its size, almost rivaling Kelly's great sword in size.
"Hah! That sword just for show girl? Why don't you try to fight back huh? Come on!" Nikki taunted Kelly, swinging her sword over and over and over again.
"Strength isn't everything you know." Kelly said.
"But if that's what you want then I be more than happy to give it to ya!" Kelly shouted as she charged in, trading blow after blow, steel rang against steel, sparks flew everywhere.
"Damn. She's good." Aaron said, in absolute awe of the sight in front of him.
"Hmpf, I told you guys she was a great fighter." Marco said smugly.
"Yeah yeah, you're proud of your girl we get it. Now how are we gonna stop them without them killing each other, or more importantly us." Andrew said
"Wha?? Kelly isn't... We're not... Okay listen here..." Marco stuttered.
BOOM!!
A resounding shockwave had snapped Marco out of his stuttering.
Kelly was on her knees blocking a strike from Nikki, her blade was parallel to her shoulders. Nikki's blade was inching it's way closer and closer to Kelly's face.
Marco wanted nothing more than to rush in then and there to help his friend but he knew Kelly wouldn't have wanted that. So he stood down and just watched with nervous anticipation as Kelly's hair began flowing around her and thick red lines began drawing themselves on Kelly's arms, it looked like red lightning was dancing across her skin.
With a swing from her sword Kelly managed to push Nikki back, but Nikki was able to keep her balance by stabbing the ground.
"Okay, I'll admit got some skill girly but let's see you handle this." Nikki said, as she pulled her sword out of the ground and began chanting in some language Kelly didn't know.
"For the last time my name is not girly, it's Kelly!" Kelly screamed as she charged Nikki.
Just as Nikki finished her chant her sword began glowing white, and she charged charged at Kelly, both had their swords high above their heads as they carelessly rushed each other, when they got near enough to strike however they were interrupted.
Andrew and Aaron were both blocking Nikki's strike, their swords were crossed and Nikki's sword was caught in between, both Aaron and Andrew's feet dug an inch deep into the ground from the power of Nikki's strike.
And Kelly's strike was deflected by Marco, since blocking it most definitely would've broken a few of his bones, using the blades of both his gauntlets and some basic sword fighting techniques Kelly thought him, he managed to redirect Kelly's sword strike to hit just beside where Marco was standing, embedding most of the blade into the soil.
"What? Marco? What's wrong?" Kelly asked, the red lines on her skin fading away.
Marco just looked at her with unamused eyes, before flicking her forehead and laughing lightly.
"You were supposed to spar lightly Kells" Marco said.
"But we were!" Kelly retorted, stomping her foot in anger.
Marco just gestured around him, more specifically at the mess around him. There were cracks and slash marks all over the grounds and a few trees and shrubs were demolished, a few passing people were watching in awe and fear.
"Oh... Hehe, guess we got a little carried away there." Kelly quietly said, rubbing her arm in shame.
"sigh.. . It's okay don't worry about it, the important thing is that you're not hurt" Marco said, rubbing the top of her head.
"Well, now that that's over what do you think?"
Marco said, looking at the trio behind him.
"Is she good enough or what?"
"Yeah yeah,don't be so smug about it." Nikki said
"Well anyway it's about a couple of hours away from here on foot, but we have a coach ready so we should be able to get there in half the time" Aaron said.
Half an hour had passed since they rode on the coach and Andrew couldn't take it anymore.
"Arrgh, I can't take it anymore! That is the tenth time you've checked your bag and stuff and if you're not doing that you're scribbling something and muttering to yourself like a madman, you're driving me nuts here" Andrew complained, pulling at his black mess of a hairstyle.
To which Nikki responded by knocking him out with a chop to the neck.
Andrew promptly collapsed on the floor of the wagon like a bag of unconscious potatoes.
"Sorry, don't mind him, he's an idiot." She said, kicking her comrade's unconscious face.
"Nah, it's okay, I wasn't being too annoying was I? I just really like being prepared and making sure nothing's out of place." Marco said.
"S'all good, it's a nice change of pace from these two bozos who don't plan for anything and spend their free time drinking or setting things on fire." Nikki said.
"And hey, how long till we get there? My butt's not liking the seats back here." Nikki shouted.
"Just past a few more trees and we're there I promise." Aaron said, from the front.
"I swear if you answer me like that one more time I'm gonna ram my sword so far down your throat that..." She began but Marco tuned her out and began writing again.
'This place is nice, so much raw materials here, too bad they aren't as cheap as I'd like them. At least I can bring a few ironwood branches and cobalt steel leaves when I get back, after that all I'll need left are some frie blossoms and moonshade flowers! And some black powder moonshine would be nice too. If I can find these I can...'
Marco was thinking to himself as he wrote, but he was interrupted when the wagon stopped.
"Hey good news we're here!" Aaron shouted from the front.
"Ugh finally, my butt's sore now." Nikki said jumping out.
"Why does my face hurt..." Andrew said, as he got up, rubbing his face.
"You fell asleep and floor caught your face, that's your own fault." Nikki said.
"Ngggmmm..." Andrew growled as he got out too.
"Well, good to be out of that and into fresh air. Finally." Marco said, as he hopped out as well.
"Could you skip to the best part? I'm getting bored" Janna interrupted.
"Hey, speak for yourself I wanna know everything here." Hekapoo said.
"Besides, the more time I spend here the less time I spend doing work." She said as she tossed more chips into her mouth.
"Just listen will you? Anyway I'm skipping a few things cause they're pretty boring for a while." Marco said.
"Now where was I?" he asked himself
"We just got to the village" Kelly answered.
"Oh right, thanks." Marco said
"Well anyway, we met with the elder, discussed the quest, found out a few adults and children had gone missing and one thing led to another and found out that the clues led back to the original temple we were in earlier that day." Marco said
"Wait, how long were you in that dimension? I don't remember you going out for more than a few hours at most that week." Star said.
"Oh, it was like Hpoo's dimension, except like a day there in that dimension was equal to an hour and a half here." Marco said, getting hit by a chip Hekapoo flicked at him at the mention of her pet name.
"Anyway we were about to sneak back into the temple..." Marco continued.
"Okay, so we're going to have to make sure the snake doesn't see or hear us." Aaron said, making his way into the temple.
"Really? Cause I was planning on smearing barbecue sauce all over myself and shouting here snakey snakey, come and get me." Nikki said.
"Just follow my lead will ya?" Aaron said, slightly annoyed by her sarcasm.
Andrew and Nikki went and followed their leader, however Marco held Kelly back.
"Could you guys go ahead, I need to talk to Kelly about something." Marco said.
"Sure thing man." Aaron said, moving forward.
"You think we could trust him?" Aaron asked his team the moment they were out of earshearshot.
"What makes you ask that?" Nikki asked.
"You're getting more and more suspicious with age there brother" Andrew said.
"Idiot, I'm only a year older than you. And besides we don't know which guild he's from yet. I trust the girl, she's from Blood Rose, and she showed me badge." Aaron said.
"Hmmm.. then why haven't you asked him yet?" Nikki said.
"Umm... I forgot." Aaron said.
"Then it's your own damn fault then!" Nikki shouted.
"Oh shut up, if you didn't go overboard with sparring her then I wouldn't have forgotten." Aaron retorted.
"You sure about that? I find it kinda hard to believe you." Nikki said.
"Oh shut up, Andrew tell her it was her fault." Aaron said, looking forward, having stopped in his tracks to argue with Nikki made Andrew walk ahead of them, and there wasn't exactly enough light in the dark temple to see clearly.
"Wait... Where's Andrew?" Aaron asked.
"Huh? He was right ahead of us wasn't... Aahhhhhhn" Nikki was saying before she gracelessly fell down a hole.
Aaron just facepalmed at the sight.
Meanwhile as this happened, Marco was talking to Kelly.
"Hey Kelly listen, I wanna talk for a bit." Marco said.
"Sure, what's up Marco?" Kelly said.
"I just... Uhhh well I just wanted to say that if you ever want to talk, I'm here for you. I know we barely know each other and I can't say I know how you feel, but I was in a similar situation a couple of years back, I couldn't talk to my friends that I used to talk to every day, I couldn't look at my parents, I lost my two best friends at the time, I was alone." Marco said.
"Look what I'm saying is, I'm here for you, if you ever need a friend, an adventure buddy or someone to buy you ice cream I'm here for you... Maybe I should've just said that from the start." Marco said, rubbing his neck in embarrassment.
"Thank you Marco" Kelly said, hugging her new best friend.
"Now let's go look for them, they might think we're smooching or something." Kelly said as she broke the hug and went on ahead, hiding her blush from Marco, not noticing his own blush.
"There you two are." Aaron said.
"Geez, how much time do you two need to talk? Anyway look, my buddies fell down this hole and I'm coming after them, you two go ahead and try to look for the missing villagers" He said as he jumped down the hole, not waiting for a response.
After about half an hour of quiet exploring, Kelly decided she was bored with the silence.
"Well, looks like we're back where we started huh?" Kelly said, hoping to start a conversation.
"Yeah seems so.." Marco said, happy for the chance at a conversation, not talking was getting boring. But just as they were about to chat, the giant snake from earlier tried to tackle him from out of nowhere, only to have Kelly push him out of the way, getting caught in the snake's attack she got thrown right through a wall and into a wide open chamber.
"Kelly!" Marco screamed as got up and rushed to where his friend was.
Just as Marco entered the room he instantly felt something off, like the air was different here, and that gravity didn't seem to affect him as much, but he didn't have time to ponder it as the snake was rearing up and getting ready to strike at Kelly.
Marco was not about to let that happen, so he jumped onto the snakes back and dug both of the blades from his gauntlets into the snake, and hung on for dear life.
The snake thrashed and squirmed, trying its best to shake Marco off. The distraction worked as Kelly had enough time to get up and out of the way.
"Kelly we're gonna have to kill this thing. There's no way we can get the villagers out if this thing is in the way." Marco said.
"Okay, I'll try to get it's attention then." Kelly said as she jumped into the fray.
"Wait Kelly no!" Marco screamed, remembering just fast the snake was, when he retrieved Kelly's sword earlier.
But it was too late, it managed to grab Kelly's sword and throw her across the room.
"Kelly! Damn it." Marco cursed.
He began winding up his body and then he flung himself up, straight to the snake's head, and stabbing the left gauntlet's blade above the thing's eye.
"Dammit, I missed." Marco said.
At this the snake whipped its head to the side in a quick, violent matter. Throwing Marco across the room, the blade from the gauntlet snapped off and was embedded in its head.
It growled at Marco and but then it began to make its way to Kelly, who was still on the the floor recovering from the hit.
Grabbing Kelly's sword that fell right beside him, he rushed at the snake his eyes and vision both having gone blood red.
"Don't you dare!" He roared as he stabbed the sword at the snake's side.
It only managed to piss it off though and it began attacking Marco, trying to bite him, grab him, and it even tried to tailwhip the boy, but he was slippery, dodging the attacks and parrying the ones he couldn't dodge with the sword.
But he couldn't keep it up forever, his strength was running out quick. He was still in his weak fourteen year old body, he wasn't gonna win a stamina battle against this, so he had to do something else, something really stupid.
He looked at the sword and at Kelly behind him.
"Run Marco, you can still get away" Kelly said clutching her side, red lines were beginning to form on her arms, but the spar earlier plus being thrown through a wall had taken its toll on her and she coughed up blood.
Marco just smiled at her and he dropped the sword, just as the snake rushed at him face to face, with a defiant shout Marco rushed forward and he stepped on the snake's lower jaw, his foot was on the inside of the snake's mouth so he didn't impale himself on the snakes teeth.
Marco's left hand was grabbing onto the snake's tongue.
And his right fist was connected to the top of the snake's mouth, where the blade was embedded, all the way up to Marco's fist.
And as Marco removed his fist, he realized that the blade was blacked and sizzling. He also had one of the snake's fangs stuck in his arm, which was definitely a bad thing.
"Crud." Was all Marco managed to say before blacking out.
"Boy. Wake up. WAKE UP DAMMIT!" A voice had screamed at him
And he jolted awake, at least he thought so.
"Where am I?" Marco asked out loud.
"The Halls Of the Dead." A big man said, well big was an understatement he was easily seven foot tall, he was barrelchested and his gut was a smaller barrel. His biceps and forearms were thick as tree trucks. He was dressed in what looked like a mixture of animal hide and metal armor, the weird thing was that he wore an armored kilt, exposing his (also very muscular) legs.
He had an aura about him, making Marco tremble at the sight of him, that and his face was wasn't exactly easy to look at, the parts that weren't covered in hair beardwise and otherwise was a scary sight to behold.
He also had an absolutely massive hammer strapped to his belt, which made Marco pray that his belt would hold, he didn't want to find out what was under this man's metal skirt.
"Wait... I'm dead?" Marco said his eyes growing wide.
But before he could say anything else the man grabbed his face. Like his whole face in one hand, and lifted him to his eye level.
"If you start being annoying then yes you're good as dead." He said in an oddly soft tone, which made it even scarier.
Marco just shut up and nodded.
"Good. And to be blunt no, you're not dead, I just wanted to talk to you." The man said.
Marco just looked confused.
"Just listen. I saw your fight earlier, and honestly it reminded me of my youth. I can foresee great and dangerous things in the future for you. So I decided to give you my blessing, not many has earned this and honestly I'm getting bored so you can have it. Use it wisely and for justice." The man said.
And suddenly everything turned white and Marco shot up.
He was hurting everywhere. His arm was bandaged, and the tooth had been pulled out. He was sore all over, and his right gauntlet was missing. And for some reason he had the taste of blueberries in his mouth. But before he could check where he was he felt someone crush him in a hug.
"Marco! You're alive!" Kelly said, sniffling.
"Yeah, ummm I'm guessing it's thanks to you." Mark asked
"Yeah. Who else?" Kelly said in a mocking tone.
Marco broke the hug and looked at her, she had tears running down her face and for some reason her lips were coated blue.
"Wait, why are your lips blue?" Marco asked.
At this Kelly blushed.
"No reason" She said as she wiped her mouth clean.
"Okay then... Are you alright? And ugh how'd you fix me up? I thought I was a goner for sure." Marco asked.
"I'm fine" Kelly said, waving the question away.
"And uhhh, I used that cure-all potion you brought with you" Kelly said.
"Huh, really? Well just goes to show you being prepared pays off." Marco said
"Yup, but uhhh, I kinda panicked and used it all up on you." Kelly said, holding up a clear glass bottle with trace amounts of blue liquid inside it.
"Oh.. Eh it's ok. Just means that I'm gonna have a headache later." Marco said with a shrug.
"Anyway, let's go find those villagers, Aaron and the others may need some help" Marco said as he got up.
"No need for that kid." Nikki said, surprising Marco, making him jump.
"Could you not sneak up on me?" Marco said, glaring at the now laughing Nikki.
"Ghahahaha. Sorry, kid didn't mean to scare ya." She said, wiping a tear away.
"Anyway, we already found them, they were captured by a bunch crazy fanatics that wanted to sacrifice them to their snake god or something." She added.
"Yeah, and what were you two doing while we were there risking our lives?" Andrew asked, pissed that they had to do all the work.
Marco was about to answer but Kelly beat him to the punch, literally, as she punched Andrew across his face knocking him down.
Andrew just looked at Kelly in surprise, Nikki, who was standing beside him, looked more impressed than anything.
"You really think we were messing around, you idiot? We were dealing with that!" Kelly said as she pick Andrew up by his collar and threw him towards the snake's body.
While this was happening Aaron walked into the room.
"Hey, you guys found them yet? We're gonna need their help. I heard that the fanatics worshipped a giant snake that they thought was a god, here. We're gonna need to kill that thing so it doesn't bother the villages near here." Aaron said.
To which Nikki responded by taking his head and turning to where Andrew was, on the floor, and gawking at the massive corpse in front of him.
Aaron blinked at the sight and looked back to Nikki.
Nikki just looked at him and shrugged.
Aaron then looked at Marco's and Kelly's battered appearance and slowly pieced together what happened.
"Oh... Well then, looks like we're done here." Aaron said.
The walk back to the village a little noisier than Aaron and his buddies would've wanted, but they couldn't blame them, they were going back to their families after all, of course they'd be happy, some of them were busy making sure nothing takes the group by surprise.
When they got back to the village the sun was already beginning to set.
The villagers immediately ran to their families, and as much as they wanted to thank their saviors, Aaron and the others needed to rest so they made a beeline to the village's elder.
"Pardon the intrusion." Aaron said as he went in first.
"You're back... Since you have already returned so early, am I to assume that you are going to quit, like the others before you?" The elder said.
"Actually..." Aaron began
"No need to apologize son, I understand if it's too great a task." The elder said interrupting him.
"What? No, we're here cause..." Aaron started again.
"No it's very much alright my boy, perhaps it is time to tell the people that it is already too late" The elder said, interrupting Aaron again.
"Yes it is such a sad fate, however I must stand strong and I mhhmm...!" The elder was saying before, Nikki covered his mouth.
"Would you shut up for a second!? We came here to tell you we got them back!" Nikki yelled.
At this the elder's eyes began to fill with tears.
"They're back? They're all back?" He said, half sobbing.
However, upon hearing this Nikki began to lose her composure.
"N...no, not all of them made it back. I'm sorry." Nikki said
"Oh..." The elder said, as a single tear fell down his face.
"Although that is sad to hear, I am still very much glad that some people made it back,thank you." He said.
"Now let us discuss your payment." The elder said.
"Wait, there's something else." Aaron said as he begun digging into his pack.
"While we were there we found something that you may be interested in." he said as he took out a bundled... thing from his pack.
The elder gingerly took it from Aaron and unwrapped it. It was an odd looking idol vaguely reminiscent of a hammer, it looked to be sculpted from pure black obsidian and it had what looked like runic silver symbols on it, which looked oddly familiar to Marco.
"What is that?" Marco asked into the silence.
Startled by Marco's voice, he looked to the boy and nearly dropped the idol.
"It can't be. That's impossible." He said.
"What did you do?" He asked.
"Umm what?" Marco asked.
"What did you do?!" He asked more forcefully.
"I'm sorry but I do not know what you're talking about." Marco said, raising his left arm in a placating manner, he would've raised his right arm too but that was still in a sling.
"Boy... You've been blessed." He said more calmly and ominously this time.
"Ummm and? What does that mean?" Marco asked, thoroughly confused.
"It means that either your destiny is so convoluted and complicated that some deity or god thought that you needed help, or ,and trust me this is the better option, they were impressed by something you did and decided that they liked you. So tell me again, and I hope for your sake it was something extraordinary, what did you do?" The elder said.
"Umm I don't really know, I... I killed that snake in the temple." Marco said
"Snake? What snake?" The elder asked.
"Uhh... I dunno, the big one." Marco said. "Maybe it'd be easier to just show you." he said, taking out his scissors.
And show him he did, and luckily for all of them it was still very much dead.
Satisfied with what the elder saw, he gave them their rewards and thanked them one more time.
Aaron gave Marco and Kelly his mirror number and told them to call if they needed help with anything.
They opened a portal back to Kelly's house to rest up.
And right now, Marco was crashing on Kelly's couch, it was only a little past noon here and it made Marco a little dizzy, traveling from dimensions with different times always made Marco dizzy.
"Marco!" Kelly shouted, which surprised Marco making him fall off the couch.
"Ugh... What is it Kelly?" Marco said, rubbing his head.
"Look I found... Wait where are you?" Kelly said as she walked into the living room, not noticing Marco on the floor.
"Down here." Marco said as he sat up.
"Oh there you are! Anyway I found the thing!" Kelly said, holding out what looked like an oversized wine bottle.
"Uhhh and that is?" Marco asked, confused.
"The recovery potion, we talked about it remember?" Kelly said, making her way to the kitchen.
"I got it as a gift from my aunt, though she said that I shouldn't use it in battle cause it makes you feel weak after drinking it." She said, pouring some into a cup and handing it to Marco.
"Huh, thanks. Well bottoms up." Marco said as he downs the drink in one go, and then collapsing immediately after.
"Ah, Marco!" Kelly said, picking up her friend.
"Ugh... Sorry, I'm uhh I'm good." Marco said, standing up again.
"Ugh, Kelly does the side effects include hallucinations?" Marco asked.
"Hmm nope, not that I know of, why?" Kelly asked.
"Cause uhh... There's a ghost right behind you." Marco said, pointing behind Kelly.
Kelly turned around and the blood drained from her face.
"W... Wh.. What do want?" She asked, she was actually shaking which unnerved Marco as he never saw Kelly get scared before.
"Hmmm" The spirit simply looked around till his eyes landed on Marco.
"My friend asked you a question. What do you want from us?" Marco asked
"Did you forget about me already boy?" it asked.
"Uh..." was all Marco said.
"Yup, it's seems so." He said, pinching the bridge of its nose.
"Look long story short, my name is Thor and I gave you my blessings, as to why well you're gonna have to find that out yourself. Anyway gods aren't allowed to interfere too much with mortal lives so I'll be leaving now, I was gonna teach you the basics of your new powers but it seems you already have a decent instructor in here" Thor said, tapping Marco's head, before disappearing in a flash of light, leaving behind a faint smell of ozone.
Marco and Kelly looked at each other, both looked throughly confused, Marco noticed how Kelly was still a little shaky.
"H..how about we go get ice cream now." He said, and Kelly simply nodded.
"And that's about it." Marco said, finishing the story.
They all look both impressed and confused, except for Kelly who just looked tired since she did add some things to the story that Marco missed, important stuff like sound effects.
"Wow, that's interesti..." Hekapoo began, only to stop mid sentence and place her index and middle finger up to her temple and closed her eyes, concentrating.
"Damn, I have to go, there's another rogue portal opening up, I'll see you all later, oh and Marco" Hekapoo said, looking at Marco.
And a small portal opened up behind Marco's head a pale white hand came out and smacked the back of Marco's head.
"Mark of Hekapoo son!" She yelled as she jumped into a portal, laughing out loud.
Marco just grumbled and rubbed the back of his head.
"Well... That was weird." Jackie commented.
"Nah, that's just something she likes to do." Marco said.
"On much more serious note, I have a feeling Queen Moon would want to know about your, well our powers when it comes to that, I want you guys to not mention Tom attacking us." Marco said.
"WHAT?" Star screamed. "That jerk deserves what's coming to him!"
"Yeah Star, but I don't think a war between your two kingdoms is worth that." Marco said. "Let's just get stronger and take care of him together yeah?"
"Hmm... Okay." Star said, pouting a little.
"Well anyway, what was it Queen Moon said about the people meeting me or something?" Marco said, stretching, and groaning a little. "Yup, I'm still sore."
It turns out that it was just a simple enough awarding ceremony-esq thing, after a few words from Queen about how lucky their kingdom is to have such strong allies and that their princess is in good hands and is learning well the crowd applauded and began to disperse.
"Haa... Now that that's over, what say we have that little chat now hmmm?" Moon said.
They made their way to the throne room, where River was at and Queen Moon looked at them, her eyes lingering a little longer on Janna.
"Okay, I have but one question. What do you intend to do with your powers?" Moon asked.
"I understand that what all of have is quite rare, and you're all very much entitled to do with it as you wish, but I would just like to know what specifically." she said.
This took Marco aback, he thought for sure she would have asked for the origins of such powers but clearly he was wrong.
What surprised him even more was that Janna was the first to answer.
"Your Majesty" Janna said, with a courtesy. "I speak for all of us here that we all plan on using them wisely, Marco himself has offered to help us practice together with Star so we may further control our power and to make sure that we grow stronger in case danger arises."
"Oh my, well that's wonderful!" Moon said, gleefully "It is nice to see that my daughter has such capable and wonderful friends. This would very much help her master the wand" She said as a huge pink snail with wings flew across the room and out the door.
"Which is why your majesty, if possible for my reward I'd like for us to have a place to practice, maybe somewhere here in the castle perhaps?" Marco asked.
Moon pondered for a moment, before a small blue portal popped out of nowhere and Glossaryck popped into the room.
"There may be a better way, my boy." Glossaryck said,
"Whatever do you mean?" Moon asked her old mentor.
"Well you see your majesty, Marco here has a special ability, he has what's known as a mind realm, it's basically a pocket dimension but for the mind. If he wants to practice magic he can take them into his mind and do it there, that way there won't be any property damage." Glossaryck said.
"Wait? I can do that? How?" Marco asked,
"Simple, like this." Glossaryck said, snapping his fingers, and just like that all the teens collapsed on the floor on top of each other.
"Ugh, my head hurts." Marco said, as he got up rubbing his head.
"Woah, where are we?" Jackie asked.
"Oh this is awesome!" Janna said.
"Woaaaaaaah" Kelly said.
"This place is amazing." Star said, her eyes sparkling, the same look she has whenever they were gonna have an adventure.
They were in an expansive field filled with grass and patches of flowers, trees dotted the field in a disorderly manner. To their immediate left was a waterfall falling from a mountain side, to their right, across the field was a river and a across that from a distance a volcano can be seen. Behind them was a forest, teeming with the sounds of wildlife and in front of them was what looked like a dojo built into the trunk of a massive tree.
The sky was dotted with and endless sea of stars, and two moons one blue and the other light red, almost pink, was peaking from the horizon. The sun's rays were still visible and they were warm yet not hot, the wind was cool but not too cold to make them shiver.
And on their feet,a trail of twin blue flames lit up, showing them the path to the dojo.
"Welcome to my mind." Marco said.
And finally I'm done! (well not really as this is just part one) and what I wanted to say was that this story is gonna be a long one, like a really long one, we're not even halfway past the first arc yet! Plus there's also all the peace talks chapters. Anyway, this'll be a long ride and I hope to be able to have you all come with me, with Star and the gang and all their screw ups to come!
Okay now for some other things. I'm gonna be using the term 'monster' in the future, and these monsters are more like wild beasts than the monsters in mewni who talk and stuff, they're just gonna be animal, wild, dangerous, bloodthirsty animals.
And two, I'm gonna be bouncing the main crew from dimension to dimension, so yeah. Also yes Hekapoo is part of the main group, in the future.
Three, the pirates will be back in the future.
Four, Toffee hasn't really made his presence known yet, a couple of guys will show up before him.
Five, here's a list of some of the enemies they'll be facing soon (just their titles not names so no spoilers here.)
1. The Harbinger
2. The Prince of Hell (we all know who this is)
3. The Fallen King.
And a while lot more! What fun.