It might've not been enough to cow the immortal but Star sure as hell flinched. She wasn't even the target but just being in the blast radius of that look on Angie Diaz's face made her want to shrink into herself and apologize. Marco was quick to forget how emotionally weak he was feeling. He tried to get up, shouted "wait," but he felt dizzy. His dad didn't need to use any force as he urged the teen to lean his head back down.
"Wait Mrs Diaz." Star slipped in between the two women. Her arms were stretched down, pushing back the air as if she was expecting the woman of the house to tackle forward. "I know that this all can be a bit too much but you have to trust me."
"Star go to your room." The matron stared her down. Star found her foot shift just an inch. She had to focus to stop her toes from betraying her. It wasn't as if Angie Diaz was actually her mother, but she was the next thing to it.
"You don't understand." Star instead allowed her battle instincts to take over. When Mrs Diaz moved to her left, the mewman leaned over to let her body act as a barrier between the two mothers. Angie then stepped to to her right and Star leaned to the other side. "Hekapoo is a commissioner. She's practically nobility."
Behind her the guest could only grow annoyed. Hekapoo tried to keep a neutral expression but she found Star's assistance to be unwanted and frankly unhelpful. She hissed, "Princess, stop trying to build me up here."
"And how old is she?" The girl hadn't expected a question, let alone that question. The mother looked intent on simply staring down the commissioner instead of a full on confrontation.
"That's-" Star hesitated, "I'm not one hundred percent a history expert." This was true of course. While she felt she a lot of respect for her family history, her troubles with her studies started way before she arrived on the earth plane.
'I don't know' wasn't a good answer, Star knew that much.
The madam asked Star. At least the girl thought she was asking her. Miss Diaz started to eye her granddaughter's mother. "How old is she exactly?"
"I'm not giving an exact number." Hekapoo piped up. She saw that Star could only helplessly look at her. The young mewni heir wanted her to cut in. She had other plans. "She already has reason enough to be ticked off."
Sometimes the lack of an answer told you all you need to know. It seemed to work for Angie, "Stay away from my son."
The woman nearly snapped around Star. While the princess did intercept her once more, she nearly had to make a grab for the mother. Something told her that if she actually did touch her that it would not end well. "Wait. You don't understand. Marco was older."
"I don't know who you are, but I never want to see you back here again." Star didn't know how Angie could sound so angry while keeping her voice so calm and steady.
"I'm only here because he wanted me to part of his life. I wish he'd forget the whole thing." Hekapoo didn't back down. In fact she looked like she fully expected the deadlock between them. "I'm going to drop off my daughter tomorrow if he still wants her."
"Hekapoo." Rafael did have to struggle to keep Marco down that time. When Hekapoo started to walk away his son started to rise nearly knocking the father back. Mister Diaz didn't think he could stop him if he really began to thrash.
"No. No. No. You can't leave." Star shouted behind her. She walked beside her, but Hekapoo just wasn't listening to her plea. "By order of the royal family I-"
Hekapoo flicked her wrist, a practice motion. It was hard to tell if it was magic or sleight of hand, but the commissioner snapped her fingers and a single scissor blade appeared in her hand. She stabbed the air, creating red sparks.
"Hekapoo stop." Marco finally moved his father, but by that point the porter than finally opened.
"Wait." Finally the demoness paused. A hand stretched out. It was surprising to everyone that the hand belonged to Marco's father. "Please just give us a bit."
"Angie, can we see each other in the kitchen?" He wasn't asking. Not really. Rafael hoped that if he grabbed his wife's hand that she would follow.
"No." She didn't. She had yanked her hand back violently. She actually manages to pull him forward. It almost caused him to lose balance. He had to try again and this time he wrapped around her wrist. "Rafael. No."
"Rafael." Slipped out again. It felt rough, like both their nails scratched the other's skin as she clawed out of his grip. Of course he tried again with similar results and he realized that what he was doing now, wasn't working. He had to move on to more despite measures. Rafael bent down, crossed his arms around his wife's waist and stood. Her eyes shot open wide as she kicked. Her feet felt strange as they both left the ground. "What are you doing?"
She tried to squeeze herself from her husband's grasp. Her fingernails dug into his arms and when her foot swung back and her heel hit his torso, she felt guilty but she didn't show it. She would have time to apologize later. She wanted the girl out of here. With her own dignity attached. That's why she didn't consider biting.
Her husband walked easily enough over to the far corner of the kitchen, a little bit out of everyone else's sight. He did a even better job landing her gently down on the tip of her toes. She stomped the rest of the way down, nearly tipping herself. Angie now stood only in front of her husband and she seemed ready to explode at anyone.
Rafael had his arms in front of him, not just because he had just let her down but also a sign of caution. Maybe to take it easy on himself or to hold her punches against their guest "Angie. We have a granddaughter."
"We don't know that." What she really wanted to do was completely reject the idea. To reject the idea that she had a granddaughter from that woman, but her husband seemed so utter convince that she felt horrible for even questioning the legitimacy of the claim. "And even if that's true. We're have her tomorrow. We could just keep her. We don't need to ever see her again."
Rafael didn't want to believe what she was implying. He shook his head. "You don't mean that. You're upset."
"And you aren't?" She was already keeping her voice down. She refused to have everyone in the living room hear her while her husband was speaking so quietly. That didn't she tamed her movement. She nearly lunged at the much larger man.
She didn't touch him of course, but he still seem to recoil. It was as if his legs were giving out. He had to hold onto the corner top for support. "No I feel weak inside, but you're so angry. I can't. I just can't"
"She came yesterday." Angie gasped as if she couldn't believe her own words. Or maybe she couldn't believe any of this. "I thought she was fourteen. I thought she just had a crush. She was here the day before, and she told me she was Star's friend and now I find out- She's older than me."
"She touched my son. She's older than I am and she took advantage of him. She-" She felt something in the back of her throat. It was sharp, if you could describe tastes that way. "Was over here. Hiding that that from us. All while she was."
It burned and brought tears to her eyes but she swallowed it anyway. "She had a baby with my baby."
"Angie." His words didn't sound convincing, not even to himself. He said them anyway. "She said that Marco had been old enough when it happened."
"Old enough? Have you seen him?" It should have been obvious. She believed so. "He's still wears his ninja shirt to bed. He avoids stepping on cracks on the sidewalk because he worries about me. He gets embarrassed just holding his girlfriend's hand. She wants us to believe that he's was old enough to have a baby?"
She focused her attention to the ground. It was like the tile floors made it easier for her think. How do we even know that's true. Also she found that it was a bit difficult for her to look at Rafael. Angie started to pace. "How do we know that she isn't lying to us? To him? She could've made him think he was old enough. We don't know what's out there."
The mother stopped. Her back not completely revealed to the father but she was turn enough away from him that he couldn't see her expression, but when he heard her voice crack he could guess which one she wore. "We don't know anything."
She peaked at her husband and must've regretted it because she snapped back. She let out a sigh. No it sounded heavier than a sigh. Like her breath was dragging something along with it. Suddenly she steeled herself before forcing her body to crank around. She wanted to look the other parent in the eye. "Rafael. Are we bad parents?"
"Angie no." Rafael didn't know if he was giving a definite answer to her question or if he was simply reacting to Angie as she seem to nearly lose balance. It looked like she wanted to fall on her knees. He caught her in an embrace, holding her to his chest. He cried into her ears. "No no no. There was nothing we could do."
Her voice was muffled by his chest. It was until he swept her hair back that she swung her head to the side and repeated herself. "We could've asked."
The teen said thank you as she exited the building. It wasn't to anyone in particular. Maybe it was to everybody. She had been there enough that she felt that you could point at any person who worked there and she could tell you their name and an interesting story about them. She was confidence of that. She threw her board down and rode the ramp that they had at the exit. There were only about three steps on the stairs but she still preferred the ramp. It was a bit more fun. Of course it was a slope made for wheelchairs so it wasn't steep at all. She came to a soft stop when she reached the bottom.
She was about to kick off when she heard something close by. A thump. "You know Jan. You could've came in. Would be a little less awkward than standing out here."
Her friend was throwing a ball against one wall while leaning against the other.
"Thomas. I thrive in awkward." Janna caught the blue rubber sphere in her mitts before tossing it away once more. "Besides I'm not the biggest fan of this joint. It's boring and depressing."
"Maybe they could leave a cadaver out. Nothing really brings people together like a nice carrion." It didn't matter that the togetherness was a product or fear and awkwardness. Of course Jackie was joking when she said this. Most certainly.
Janna liked what she was hearing. She caught her ball once more, before standing straight. The sphere disappeared as her hands went into her pockets. "Thomas are you reading my mind?"
"Almost all the time." Thomas stuck the tips of two fingers on her temples. A motion that she've seen in comics and shows that indicates the gift of telepathy.
"Rad."
The wheels on Jackie's skateboard made a rocking noise as rolled it back and forth.
"Hey Jan. You didn't get dropped off by your mom right?" Jackie stepped on her board. She was a tiny bit more forward than she usually was. Someone who didn't board normally wouldn't have notice but Janna knew what it meant. Her hand was even reaching behind her, clenching the air gently.
Instead of accepting the invitation, Janna admitted "No Jackie. Got a lift from the ex."
"You haven't dated anyone before." Jackie stated as a fact. She didn't look even surprised by her friend's statement, like she had expected it. That didn't mean she couldn't hope.
Janna shook her head. "Not my ex."
The skateboarder hesitated. She didn't know what to say other than "How is he?"
"He's good. Taking the whole thing well. Which is good or bad depending on how you look at it." Janna looked away from. Most would probably be happy that Diaz wasn't in the middle of a complete breakdown, maybe proud. Jan wasn't so sure. She looked back over to Jackie "That doesn't mean he's not upset over whatever it is that's going on between you and him."
"He's just focusing on what he needs to. I get it." She seemed please enough at the news, or at least Jackie didn't look miserable at how quickly Marco was preparing to be a dad.
"Jeez Thomas. Stop being so selfless." Janna scoffed. "It spreads. Next thing you know, you're gonna have me donating to like charity or something."
"Janna I think it's a bit too late for that. I already know you donate to charity." She resisted the urge to roll her eyes. It substituted it was a laugh.
"Lies."
"One day the world will know just how much of an optimist you are, even though you try to hide it." She smiled for a beat before dropping it completely. Finger nails of one hand traced against the palm another. Jackie Lynn looked almost nervous when she said "And Jan. I am being a tiny bit selfish. In a messed up sort of way."
"Hit me up. You know that the darkest corners of the human psyche is my playground." It was supposed to sound casual. Maybe Janna had played up any excitement that was there.
"Maybe I'm just living vicariously." Jackie admitted.
Her friend blinked. "What?"
"Man, I don't even know Jan." The blonde dismissed her own thought. "Whole thing is jank "
"Ya." It was hard not to agree. Ordonia looked around. "You know I was a little bit worry when you decided to bail. Now I see you here and it's like, multiply that feeling by a hundred."
"You don't have to worry about that." Jackie waved it off.
She looked genuinely relieved. "I don't? Cool."
Jackie stretched out her words. "Just don't be surprise if you don't see me again tomorrow."
"Oh. Ok." Janna looked a bit less relieved, but she held her tongue.
Jackie didn't notice. At least she didn't seem to notice. She just turned around on her skateboard and reached her hand out once more. "Come here."
Janna ignores something, something that was in her gut telling her to press further. Instead she hooked her fingers with Jackie's and didn't resist when she was pulled on top of the board. She held onto Thomas's waist for support and they two started their trip home.
A loud beep punctured the air. An alarm. A black specter was in one hand. An monitor on it's side. A red dot flashed, once then twice. A cloak figure brought their nose down the same time they brought the radar up. The target moved further and further away.
Cloth shook as the person breathed. They hung their head back and pinched the edge of their hood. A green iris took a peek at the building in front of them.
Echo Creek Specialty Hospital.
The mantle dropped back down. The specter lowered.
Well better check that out.
She was beautiful with hair like her's. She didn't' want to admit it but her fingers traced subconsciously through her our mane as soon as she laid eyes on it. Maybe it was just a maternal thing but there was something there. Not a trait like a hair and eyes but a feeling. It was like the baby had her spirit. Like the baby had the same thrill of adventure she did, as if it passed from her to her son to his daughter.
She didn't know if that sounded ridiculous or not. This was only a picture, maybe she was reading into the whole thing too much. She just wanted to think that maybe there could be a positive spin to all this. There would be another child in the house. Not all the time but they would be there.
They had always wanted a daughter or a second son. Whatever the healthy bundle of joy would have been. It didn't really matter. As long as they were.
It was always a bit strange that such a couple still very much in love wouldn't have another child. They had tried all the time. It could be said that they were still trying now. Not actively, just a small spark of hope in the back of their minds that they left unspoken. The idea that if they were surprised with a newborn that it would be so grand.
Another child never came. Marco was a miracle and even when he had come out it was such a panic. He had been premature. They had been trying for months prior to discovering that she was pregnant. After all that when he was born he couldn't breathe. There had been a fear, a heavy fog in the air that there that they would lose the baby. All because her body couldn't had waited for a few more months.
It made her wonder if It really was meant to be a mom.
After all it wasn't as if this was her son's fault.
Her son had always been so careful despite who his parents were. She had encouraged him to be free. Gave him plenty of time to do whatever it was he chose to do and somehow he ended up a boy who didn't take any chances.
He had good grades. Great even. It was as if he was planning on a scholarship from age ten. He was the son that any mother could hope they're son to be. So how?
It had to be her.
"Mrs Diaz."
The door to Marco's room creek open. She was awoken from her thoughts. She was at her son's desk, looking at a picture of her granddaughter.
Her granddaughter.
She had to get use to thinking that.
"Star." She tried to act normal or at least sound it. It was a bit hard when her surrogate daughter just saw a harsher side of her then she would've liked. "Is everything done downstairs?"
"Ya." Star stated, not wasting extra words.
Angie sat up a bit straighter, like her spine had grown.
Star thumbed the edge of the door. Her fingers tapped rhythmically. She bit her lower lip before asking, "Are you still mad?".
"Oh no Star." She started. However she found her eyes wandering. She couldn't finish what she knew she should say. Finally she admitted, "I am far beyond that."
Honestly she sounded more burned out than wrathful.
"You sound a bit like my mom." Star couldn't help but find something amusing in all this.
Angie could imagine what the rebel princess did that cause her poor mother the same type of stress that she felt right then. She snorted. Probably a ton of things. The girl was a handful. That's what Mrs Diaz loved about her, "Tiny secret. Most mother's freak out time to time. I think it might be what we're supposed to do."
"Wow, that doesn't sound fun." Star frown. Her sympathetics obvious.
"No. No it's not" Angie nodded. "Star. Can I talk to you for a little bit?"
The door clicked. There wasn't another chair but Star wouldn't complain about sitting on the bed. Angie had to stand and swing the chair around so that the two could look at each other eye to eye.
"Mrs Diaz. I didn't." Didn't what? Angie didn't really feel like letting Star finished that thought.
"Star, I'm not going to yell at you. In fact I think I might've got a bit hot headed." The fingers sans her thumb on her left hand massage her forehead. She didn't look at Star, preferring the sight of her palm.
"Oh great." Star smiled. Her hands switched between squeezing he covers and smoothing them back out. "Well you don't have to worry about that. I get over everything quickly."
Star began to stand but the mother's words interrupted any attempt she would make at escape. "That wasn't what I wanted to say."
"Drat." Did Star mention how much this reminded her of her mother. Cause this really reminded Star of conversing with her mother.
Angie looked directly at her guest. "Star. This place. The one you said he was for years. That's just one place right? Was it- how was it?"
"I didn't really spend too much time there. Probably was there longer picking up Hekapoo today than I was 'rescuing' Marco." She used quotation marks. "It was cozy."
"And safe?" Angie added.
"Ya I guess. Don't really think he spent too much time at her house though." Well he spent just enough time at Hekapoo's place for a baby to have been conceived, but Star wasn't going to mention that.
"He was probably all over the place. He was trying to get a pair of dimensional scissors because it turns mine were sort of stolen?" Star had decides to be completely honest. Something she didn't always do with her parents, but she hopes that the more receptive Angie Diaz would care for. It didn't stop her from sweating when she mentioned that last detail however.
"And your parents. They couldn't have gotten you another pair." Angie suggested
"Well they kind of didn't know that I had them for awhile." Star explained. "I mean they probably do now because of that whole Toffee thing."
"Where Marco almost died." The mother seem to lose a tiny bit of color from her cheeks.
"Ya that." Star visible cringed. "Well it didn't really matter either way because he didn't really wait and see if we could get another pair. He just went and got them before I even notice."
"Before you notice was about thirty years." Angie said slowly. Still not sure of the whole concept of time dilution. "Star, sweetie. Why didn't your parents want you to have scissors?"
"Oh, because I was supposed to stay on Earth. They thought that dimension hopping might be dangerous." The princess didn't like admitting to an authority figure how blatantly she had been breaking the rules given to her. "But it's no big deal. It's nothing I can't handle."
"Star, I was talking with Rafael." The women chose her words carefully. "And this might not be permanent but we decided on something and these details just made it a much easier choice to make.
Star nodded and Angie continued. "Your parents know a lot more about all this than I do and I should trust their judgment."
"Wait, Mrs Diaz." The mewman whined.
Angie finalized her thought. "New rule: No dimension traveling."
"Well that was a complete mess." Hekapoo muttered to herself. On the other hand it actually went a bit better than she thought. Not that whatever relationship she had with Mrs Diaz was trashed, but still she half expected things to get thrown.
The portal home died and the dimensional mistress moves only for the side of her foot to hit against a pot. It was just there on the ground for some reason. That wasn't where she normally keeps the utensils.
Speaking of mess, now that she was actually paying attention her how kitchen was a complete garage heap. Ah oh.
She walked down one room and yep, it was trashed too. Clean up had definitely been bumped up on the list of chores she had to do. Stone doors were missing from their passageways, probably explained by the rubble on the ground. On the other hand the rubble could also had been the work of the missing urns, and the big hole in the ceiling.
Rhombulolus better have a freaking good explanation for all this.
There was moaning and she froze. It was faint, footsteps would overpower it. Traveling down her home it got closer and she still hadn't seen hide nor hair of her baby or her guardian.
She hated to admit, Rhombulus was a commissioner and handle himself and a baby for an hour or two, but she was a tiny bit worried. That feeling only intensified when she got to the edge of the next room and started to push the door open. She had barely shifted it when the moans grew louder.
Her heart actually skipped a beat. She was more surprise at that than whatever was behind the door. She cursed under her breath and steeled herself.
The door flew open. Her feet were in the air, there was no time spared to assess the situation. She clapped and it was as if a miniature sun grew between her palms. It died as quickly as it came, forming two scissors blades which she gripped in each hand.
Her torso twisted as she posed. The blades spun so they could be held in reverse grips. She was ready for a fight.
"Hekapoo." She wasn't prepared for Rhombulus upside down tangled up in chains that hung from the ceiling.
"Rhombulus" Hekapoo eyes widen and her arms dropped. She looked around the destroyed home, "Where is Minerva?"
As if on cue there was a ferocious roar. The demoness looked to the direction of the howl only to get a face full of dust.
Her wall exploded.
"Over there." Hekapoo heard the commissioner whine.
When the ash dispersed she could see the family pet looking pretty excited that she was home. She was happy to see Nacho but she was much happier to see her daughter sitting on the dragon cycle's back.
Maybe sitting wasn't the correct word. The baby was more clinging onto the dragon's handles, using her supreme baby grip. Her baby butt didn't quite reach the seat, instead it dangled a inch over it. She had a pair of sunglasses. Hekapoo had no idea that she had even owned a pair, but there was her baby almost proud of to wear the specs.
There was a fit of baby giggles. Hekapoo didn't know if it was because she was home, if Minnie was having fun with Nacho or if it was because she was please at the utter destruction she had caused.
The mother looked up at the guardian "How?"
The kid couldn't even stand yet.
Rhombulolus could only whine. Well whine and shift in and out of consciousness.
The red headed commissioner slapped her face. She couldn't kid herself. This wasn't surprising at the least. All this did was remind her exactly why she hired a babysitter despite having the ability to be literally everywhere at once, also why she paid Kelly a fortune just for taking care of the brat. "Hopefully 'daddy' knows exactly what he signed up for."