A/N: This chapter takes place between the events of Fortune Cookies and Mewnipendence Day.

Chapter 14: The Berzerker

Echo Creek, CA
Earth Dimension
Eight years ago

"C'mon Marco, Jackie will love those pretty red roses!"

Marco looked right at the energetic blonde princess, Star Butterfly, who was giving him a wide smile. Marco was wearing a red tie with a white dress shirt, holding a bouquet with thorn-laced red roses in his hands. Both the Hispanic boy and the magical blonde princess stood on the small road right beyond the driveway, looking right at the brick founded house in front of them. Marco stared right at the red door as though it were another one of the portals formed from the dimensional scissors, sucking him in.

Marco looked right at Star, who was poking Marco on the shoulder. "Something wrong, Marco?"

Marco shook his head, suddenly taking in the question given to him. "Nothing's wrong, just kinda got nervous for a second."

Star slapped him in the back, hard, to the point where Marco almost dropped the bouquet. "C'mon Marco. You shouldn't have to worry about anything! I mean, you asked Jackie out at school and she said yes! Yes! You're doing all the right things, Marco, and she likes you for you. Just be yourself, and everything should be alright."

Just then, Star grabbed a piece of paper from Marco's hoodie pocket and proceeded to shred it into little white pieces. Marco's eyes widened as such.

"Star," Marco yelped, "I needed those plans! What am I going to do now?"

Star, yet again, gave him a few pats on the back. "Marco, seriously. You worry too much. You know the plan off the top of your head anyways. Dates are supposed to be fun and spontaneous. If I were you, I'd give Jackie something to remember."

Marco squinted his eyes in confidence. He looked over at Star, who began to walk down the street. She looked at him with a wink.

"Remember Marco, fun and spontaneous. Spontaaaneouussss..." she called out, howling the last word out with a spooky tone. Within a few seconds she had vanished below the view of the adjacent hill.

Marco smiled back at whatever he could see of the energetic blonde. He then turned his focus right at the red door of the Thomas Household. The door had a Victorian styled doorbell, which was attached in the top-centre of the door. The golden lion had a ring in its mouth. Marco, his arms shaking and sweating, slowly knocked the golden ring against the door. Once he heard footsteps approaching, he felt as though his small heart would beat right out of his chest.

When the door opened, he was immediately mesmerized by the sight of the woman in front of him, Jackie Lynn Thomas stood in front of him. It wasn't exactly a fancy date, it was just, her, with the average teal surfer's t-shirt and shell necklace she wore often.

However, it seemed as though it was Jackie's familiarity that bounced of the Diaz boy. He stared right at her, googly-eyed.

"Hey, Marco," she said, "What's up?"

"Erm," Marco said. He felt himself stuttering as his brain turning to mush. "Um..."

"You okay, Marco?" Jackie asked the stuttering boy. Marco was unable to comprehend the sight of the woman for a second, but managed to click together right away.

"Um, yeah, hey Jackie," Marco said, words rapidly firing from his mouth. In his thoughts, the Hispanic was scolding himself. Stupid Marco. Stupid, stupid Marco. You probably lost some points right there.

"What's chilling, Marco," Jackie shrugged, looking at her shirt again, "Is this okay for you, I mean, it's cool if it is, but it feels a little tighter than I imagined,"

She's just as nervous as you, Marco. Star was right! Just act natural. he thought to himself while chuckling out loud.

Marco's first move was to hand Jackie the bouquet of roses. "These are for you."

"Ah, thanks Marco," she exclaimed, placing the bouquet on a wooden table nearby. "They look awesome!"

There was an awkward silence that followed between the two, both of them examining the other's face, and waiting for the other one to speak.

"So what's this movie we're watching," Jackie said, finally breaking the silence.

Marco smiled a bit, finally settling into the role as the male in the date. "Well, first off, we're gonna see that new movie with the Cthulhu..."

"Rad, Marco," Jackie said rather calmly. "Always wanted to see that one."

Jackie locked the house door, and the two started their date walking down the hill, with the red sunset as the backdrop, sprayed over the sky like a bright-coloured canvas.

Once Marco had come home, the evening had long died out. It was rather late for Marco's taste, seeing as though it was nearly twelve on a Sunday night. He reminisced with the events that had taken place during the date, from the movie to the stroll in the park. He had cherished every moment of the date.

He opened the door and saw that none of the lights were turned off, the house in complete darkness. He found the TV in the middle of the living room, shining its fluorescent light and speakers blaring on in the darkness. There was Star, who lay on the couch, watching a movie on the television, bowl of nachos in her hand.

"Hey," Marco said, nodding to his best friend.

"Hey," Star replied back, her eyes still glued onto the TV. "So how'd the date go?"

"Pretty good," Marco replied, throwing his coat to the side and plopping down next to Star. He saw that she was watching yet another monster movie on the television.

"What do you mean, 'pretty good'?" Star asked, her tone sounding slightly like an accusation.

Marco shrugged his shoulders. "I mean, what else is there to say? Me and Jackie went out, went to see that Cthulhu movie, then strolled in the park a bit, and I finally took her home. She said she loved it, and we plan to go out again sometime soon."

"Oh, so that was 'pretty good', in your eyes," Star replied, smirking slightly, "Marco, y'know you were pretty petrified and babbling like a baby on the way to her house today, right?"

"Yes, I was," Marco noted, "But honestly, as soon as you start talking to Jackie and start getting to know her, she is definitely a rather cool gal."

"Goodness Marco, you even talk like Jackie now," Star said, smiling. "You do know that dates do that to everyone, right?"

"Do what to everyone?"

"Well," Star said, still watching the monster movie on the television, "When you feel shaky and nervous when you're in love. It goes away after a couple of dates as you get to know the other guy."

"Yeah, I know right," Marco said, reminiscing on the date yet again, "I guess it was just, I-I was blinded by Jackie's looks. Never really got to know what she was like 'til now."

"Honestly," Star said, chuckling, "I'm surprised it took you one date to figure this out."

Marco looked right at Star's face. Of course, Star had taken a while to pick out her last boyfriend, especially when said ex-boyfriend was an anger-prone demon.

"Well, what can I really say," Marco replied, "I think it's true when they say you only learn from your own mistakes."

"True, Marco," Star said, then hopping off the sofa. "I'm off to bed. G'night!"

"Night," Marco replied nonchalantly, fatigued from the date. The boy bit into a nacho from the bowl and winced when he first tasted it. He quickly spit it out on the floor. "Star, did you try to cook your own nachos again?"

Star stopped and looked at Marco with a very suspicious smile. "I don't know. Didddd I?"

Marco's expressionless face remained unchanged. "You did."

"Yeah..."

"Throw them out," Marco scolded in a monotonous voice, handing the nacho bowl over to Star, who indeed complied to her friend's request.

"Before I go," Star said while smirking back at Marco, "Can I easily say that this is another job well-done by Matchmaker Star Butterfly?"

"Whatever," Marco mumbled, half-asleep. Next thing he knew, he blacked out.

Marco woke up, his face planted into the couch mattress. He sheltered his eyes from the bright morning light, eyes adjusting. It took a while for him to get used to his surroundings. However, today was different. Ignorant of his normal wake-up routine, Marco met his occasional minute of impairment from fatigue with a toothy grin.

"Marco, Marco," a voice called up from the blur. Marco began to make out colours from outside the blur, a yellow blob with a bit of red on the top. He subsequently rubbed his eyes to find the eager Star Butterfly standing right in front of him.

"Marco, it's seven-thirty."

"WHAT!?" the boy screamed, looking at a clock nearby. She was right. His previous delirium swept right past him then and there. He was twenty-five minutes away from missing quality nod time with his date. "Why didn't you wake me up sooner?"

"I did," Star shrugged, looking up to him. "I shook you twice, but you were so tired. I figured that I probably shouldn't try to wake you."

"But you're not ready either," Marco noted, pointing to her baby blue night gown.

Star smiled. "I'm not you, Marco. I don't go to school early to spend a meaningless second nodding at my crush."

"Well, those seconds matter to me," Marco retorted out loud, who by then was scrambling upstairs to get dressed and brush his teeth.

Star quickly got a box of cereal and dog food from the kitchen cupboard, sprinkled the dog food into each of the laser puppies' bowl and poured some milk with the cereal. She gulped down the cereal for herself. By the time she had finished her cereal, Marco was stumbling down the house steps toothbrush in one hand, and half-opened backpack lugged in the other. Star stopped him right in his tracks.

"Marco," Star said, standing in the boy's way. "Calm down. Did you forget that you're officially dating Jackie now? I bet she's gonna be looking for you even if you make it late."

"Yes, but this time is different," Marco said, spitting out his toothpaste in the nearby kitchen sink. "This time I'm gona have a conversation with her. A few months ago it was nodding, the next it's saying 'hi', and now it's gonna be a conversation."

"Safe Kid Marco," Star chuckled. "Word of advice, don't try to force a conversation. If Jackie wants to talk, just go with the flow. Be spontaneous, Marco. Spontaneous."

Marco nodded, and then smiled right at Star. He wrapped both his arms around her into a hug. "Thanks for everything, Star. I don't think I would've gone this far if it wasn't for you."

"Matchmaker Star Butterfly, at your service!" Star said triumphantly, giving Marco a salute. Marco smiled. He took off running, slinging his backpack on his shoulder. Star waved at Marco, who waved back in return and hustled up the hill to school.

Star plopped back down into the red lounge chair in the living room, sighing.

As she took another bite out of her cereal bowl, she heard a voice, one sounding like an old man, call out, "The bond of lovers will take its toll."

Star stood up, looking around to see what had said those words, "Wha?"

Star got to school a few fifteen minutes after Marco did.

After contemplating for a few minutes as to follow Marco to see, she had made her decision rather clear. She made her first few steps into the schoolyard and looked around for Marco. Star went to Marco's normal nodding position in the morning. It was eight o'clock, an entire five minutes right after the boy's optimal 7:55 nodding time. On the way to the nodding position, Star thought about Marco and laughed to herself. How organized had a boy have to be to organize a specific area and time to do something as simple as greeting a crush in the morning. Something like that involved some true dedication indeed.

As Star turned the brick corner of a school building, she found her red-hoodied friend leaning his head against his locker. Star, who was right behind Marco at the time, initially assumed that his plan didn't work out and that Marco was upset, but upon approaching Marco, she could see that his body was in the way of the shorter Jackie Lynn Thomas. The pair were talking to each other, with Jackie waving her arms around during the only conversation, seemingly into whatever Marco was talking about. Star smiled and stayed behind the corner.

Star hid there for a few minutes, but when she finally turned her head around the corner, she could see Marco hesitantly wrap both arms around the blonde tan girl into an embrace, one that ended up much longer than the hugs that Star gave Marco herself. The blonde princess felt a mix of emotions. On one hand, she felt a prancing twinge of joy that made her want to jump out of her corner with glee from helping Marco achieve his goal. On the other hand, she felt a negative surge of energy from within her, as though her spirit monster would pop right out of her own body and ravage the school.

Once the second feeling had died down significantly, Star took a deep breath.

What the heck, Star, she thought to herself. The princess looked right back at Marco and took a deep breath. Marco had now parted from his crush as she gave a light smile. Marco raised his arm and waved, while heading towards the direction of Star. Jackie headed the opposite direction off to her first class of the day. Star saw Marco head towards the corner. She leaned back, concealed behind her corner and opted to look as casual as normal for Marco.

Marco turned the corner and saw Star leaning against the lockers, grappling her backpack in her hand, whistling. Marco tapped her on the shoulder.

"Star," Marco called out, leaning on his locker.

"Marco," Star cried back in excited, "How'd it go?"

"I... talked," he replied, still in awe of the progress he had made, "That at least counts for something."

"Ooh," Star said, trying to sound as excited and joyous as she could, "I smell a relationship upgradeee!"

"Thanks to you," he said, smiling. His smile changed when he thought about the girl's tone as well as the setting around her. Normally Star would head straight to her locker at this time of the day. Why would she even be hanging in this part of the hall?

"Speaking of which, I honestly don't remember that you changed lockers to this corridor."

"Um, um," Star stammered, looking around her in a distracted manner.

"I diddd?" she lied, putting her best grin forward.

The boy definitely did not look convinced. "You saw most of that exchange, didn't you?"

"What, you mean, you talking to Jackie?" she asked, trying to sound innocent.

"Star, don't give me that," Marco said sternly. "Were you trying to eavesdrop into our conversation?"

Star sighed, stroking her blonde hair. She knew he would find out later if not sooner. "I did. I wanted to see if everything was going alright. I swear I didn't hear anything else you said." she replied. "Why's it such a big deal to you anyways?"

"The question is," Marco countered, "Why is it such a big deal to you? You didn't want me to butt into your business with Tom at the Ball, but you get to interfere with my business with Jackie."

"Marco," Star said, her face fuming red, "That was because this was Tom, Marco! And I have a magical wand, AND I have dealt with him before! Meanwhile, you're here, acting like a total klutz in front of Jackie."

"Oh, I act like the klutz," Marco said sarcastically, "It's not like I have a cuckoo interdimensional magical princess as a best friend!"

Star gasped, fuming with rage. She pulled out her wand from her pocket. "Don't make me freeze you in a block of ice!"

"Fine," Marco said, "All I wanted was to be left alone, be able to do something myself for once without you watching me! I wanted to carry the rest of this relationship by myself. But honestly, the only thing holding me back from doing so was your own jealousy!"

"Jealous," Star replied, shocked at what she was hearing. "Excuse me? You couldn't even bag your own girlfriend without me telling you what to do. I've gone out with countless other people before you got your own girlfriend!"

The bell rung, and Marco slung his bag over his shoulder and walked towards his first class of the day.

"Yeah, and remind me how long those relationships lasted." he called out before he turned the corner.

Star hollered out in frustration as she slammed the locker door right next to her, which shuddered with a metallic bang. The blonde girl stormed away quickly.

Marco and Star avoided each other like cats and dogs.

In Miss Skullnick's first period math, a class they both shared, Marco was working hard on another mathematics worksheet while Star was working on hers. Marco, angered by Star's humming from right beside him, yelped right at her.

"Star, cut it out!"

The girl did the exact opposite and hummed with a much higher pitch.

Marco grumbled under his breath as he continued writing.

He kept scribbling each answer more recklessly and furiously then ever before. During approximately question number twelve of the worksheet, he lost grip of the pencil in his hand and it trickled off the desk, hit the schoolroom floor with a 'clink' sound, and rolled tercloser to Star's desk.

Marco, assuming that Star wasn't probably grumpy enough not to gonna talk to him until at least the end of the day, tried to reach the pencil himself. Stretching his arm to the limit, he tried to grab the pencil from under Star's desk, but found himself an entire fingerlength short. He gave up and decided to take the latter option.

"Psst, Star," Marco whispered, "Hand me that pencil from under your seat."

"Why don't you do it, you wanna do everything yourself now, anyways," she retorted.

Marco was about to snap right then and there, fed up with Star ignoring him all class. Before there was a sound that would come out of his mouth, he heard someone or something else scream before him.

Pretty soon the whole class gathered to the classroom window to find out where the scream had come from. At the classroom window, everyone could see something that a large red portal had arisen from the from the center of the schoolfield. Arriving from the portal was one of the minions that Ludo had sent with the army countless times before. This time however, Ludo or any of his other monsters were no longer in sight. It was only the one beast, his grey humanoid skin and big black horns. This time, however, he looked buffer than the fights Star and Marco were previously in. His eyes, instead of his average pink shade, were now black, as though looking into his eyes opened an entire abyss of space. It was roaring into the air multiple times.

When Marco and Star rushed towards the window, Marco recognized the monster right away and muttered, "Emmitt..."

As murmurs erupted throughout the classroom, their green ogre teacher Miss Skullnick stood up from her desk and said, "Wait, is that Emmitt?"

She then turned to the crowd, panicking over the sight of this monster romping around, screaming right in the air. Miss Skullnick called out to her students, "Alright, everyone stay in my classroom! I'm gonna talk to him."

Thus she walked out of the classroom door and right into the schoolyard, in front of the screaming monster. Marco couldn't see from afar, but it seemed as though Miss Skullnick were talking to the bullish monster in some foreign language, emotionally stroking his monster arms in the process. After a few words, the bull monster stopped its roaring and looked right at the ogre, inspecting the female carefully.

After a second or two, Emmitt reacted erratically, his fist meeting Ms. Skullnick's jaw with a lethal uppercut to the jaw. She took the hit and was sent flying backwards into the dusty schoolyard ground. She did not seem to be moving. Emmitt let out another horrible roar and started smashing apart a set of lockers nearby with his fists.

After seeing most of this, many of Marco and Star's classmates ducked below the window to make sure the monster couldn't see them. It didn't seem to matter if they hid or not anyways, as the monster was punching its way through everything that it could find, including brick solid classrooms.

Marco and Star nodded to each other, acknowledging they had signed a temporary truce to their argument. Both of them rushed out of the classroom and assumed fighting positions right in front of the grey monster, Star with her wand withdrawn.

Star made the first move. She quickly spouted the first spell right on the top of her head.

"RAINBOW BLAST," she screamed, as the wand oozed out a colourful barrage of rainbow lasers. The rainbows hit Emmitt right in the chest, but it had deflected right at him and into the sky. The bull monster let out another roar, unpleased by the attack, as Emmitt charged right at the two challengers.

"What," Star gasped, "Why didn't that work?"

"TRY ANOTHER SPELL," Marco panicked, his eyes getting wider as Emmitt approached.

"STRAWBERRY ANNIHILATION," she cried, pointing the wand right at the charging Emmitt. From the wand came a storm of small strawberries splattered against his exposed grey body, slowing his pace down slightly, but the magic did not seem to affect him nonetheless.

"Alright," Star said, "You got a Plan B in mind?"

"Yeah," Marco said, cracking his knuckles, preparing to charge, "We do this the ol' Earth way."

Marco, Star, and Emmitt charged at each other at the same speed. Emmitt made the first move, punching right at the two. Marco ducked under the giant moose while Star jumped right over his fist. Star retaliated immediately with a kick to the monster's head with a roundhouse kick. Marco kicked Emmitt straight to the groin. The grey monster fumbled backwards, slamming right into another set of green lockers. His body went right through the bricks holding the schoolhouse together and he collapsed onto the linoleum floor. Emmitt's massive, muscular body burst a hole through the classroom. Students came pouring out of the classroom screaming.

Star walked right up to the bulky monster and stood right on top of his chest, pointing her wand right to his unconcious, close-eyed face.

"Care to talk?" she asked the monster rhetorically.

Just as she finished her sentence, Emmitt got straight back up, sending Star catapulting from the monster's chest right out of the classroom's cracked hole. Star saw a few bruises on her arm, but she quickly dismissed them and stood, angrily facing the monster right in front of her. Marco, who was sitting on the ground in the yard next to her, surveyed the showdown between Star and the bigger monster. Star looked right at Marco.

"Marco," Star said to her best friend, "I'll handle this, make sure everyone gets out of here safely."

Marco was stunned at what he was hearing.

"Star," he said, grabbing her shoulders, "How's this any different from any of the monsters in Ludo's Army? He's tougher, but it's one monster. Together we can take him down!"

"Marco, we can fight this. But what about them?" she asked, gesturing to the other classrooms nearby.

Star wasn't exactly the brightest lightbulb in the school, but if there was one thing that she had compared to the others, it was her compassion for others and loyalty for the fight.

Marco nodded, eventually giving in and letting the girl deal with this dilemma herself. He finally said, "Sorry."

Star smiled as Marco ran towards the other classrooms. Star stared right back at the monster, holding out her wand. She waited until Emmitt made the first move. Emmitt did, of course. He charged right at her and lunged, trying to grab the girl in a chokehold, but Star swiftly dodged the monster. She leapt in the air and used the head of her wand to bop the monster right in the head. The monster reacted, fazed by the sudden attack, but retaliated with an uppercut punch to Star's jaw. Star flew into the air and plopped right into the dirt ground of the school. She used what was left in her power to lift herself up from the ground, but found herself too weak to do so.

Emmitt walked up to her and grabbed her by the throat. He then grabbed her arm and propelled Star into the air, flinging her body like a ragdoll. Her body hit the ground everytime she was flung. After smashing the girl into the ground a few times, Emmitt eventually let go and left her body on the floor.

Star's face was covered in shades of black and red, from cuts and bruises sustained in the ordeal. The wand was slumped in her loose hand. Surely this was more than just a more thought-out plan by the monsters to get the wand.

The monster yet again roared out loud, exerting its dominance over the scene, and the monster picked up the wand held loosely in her hands.

Marco, who was escorting another group of students out of the schoolyard, saw what just happened. Looking at the bruised body of the young princess, he quickly ran out to the field where the monster had stood.

"STAR," he cried, rushing over to her lifeless body. Emmitt had turned his attention away from Star and plowed through the other school buildings. It was lucky that Marco had gotten most of the students out of the school at this rate.

Marco quickly ran to his friend's aid, touching her neck softly, feeling a bump from inside. A good indication indeed. The girl definitely needed medical attention, especially when time was the deciding factor between her life and death.

Marco scooped up Star's body and ran towards the school parking lot, where the group of students stood, huddled in a group. She was heavy to carry indeed, but Marco quickly set her down in front of the group of classmates looked on. Jackie stood in the front of the pack.

"Call an ambulance," Marco told her. The crowd looked down to the fallen princess, who was lying on the ground with bruises and closed eyes. He ignored the crowd and headed back towards the schoolyard to face the monster again, but before he could, he felt a colder arm grab his.

He could see his new girlfriend, Jackie, looking at him solemnly. "Let me come with you."

"You wouldn't be able to fight back," Marco said, trying to brush Jackie aside. Jackie still kept her firm grip on Marco's arm.

"It's not like you could either," Jackie said, tears forming in her eyes. "You're fighting a monster that can kill you, and Star is no longer by your side."

"I can get through this."

"How? Star's not with you. Two people are better than one, and even now that still holds true, Marco."

"Yeah, two capable people are. One capable and another incapable wouldn't."

Jackie smiled through the tears. "Marco, what you're doing is rad and all, but it's not a bad thing to ask for help or be helped."

Marco remembered the whole argument between him and Star and looked solemn. He knew what he had to do after this ordeal. "I know Jackie. But the last thing I would want besides Star right now is hurting any of my friends here."

"You're crazy, you know that," Jackie said, giving him a kiss on the cheek. She held her lips on Marco's cheek for a few seconds, and pulled away. Marco nodded of approval and walked back into the schoolyard.

When Marco had approached, Emmitt was wrecking things as per usual, seemingly rummaging through the debris of the school.

Marco took a few steps, all of his frustration bubbling up from inside of him. It was the monster that hospitalized Star. It was the monster that destroyed the school and frightened his friends. He stopped a few feet away from the destructive monster.

"HEY," Marco called out, making Emmitt to stop whatever he was doing and pay attention to the small boy.

"You destroyed this entire building," Marco shouted, "and you scared my friends! You may have killed my best friend, but you definitely won't get to me! Come at me, you big dirty bull!"

The monster, seemingly offended by the insult hurled by the young Mexican, approached him with his fists drawn. Marco held both of his arms outstanding and gestured at him.

"COME AT ME," he hollered right at the bull, to which he did. Marco, using the monster's slow pace to his advantage, zipped past the bull in the other direction so the bull would keep missing him, just like a real matador without the red cape.

However, as he kept dodging the bull's attacks in an attempt to tire it out, Marco's stamina tired out quicker than the Bull's. Eventually he grew more frustrated and tired of the whole ordeal and kept thinking about all the events that conspired in the past few minutes as he ran. It infuriated him. Marco's growing ferocity saw him sweat like crazy, grit his teeth, and also his skin becoming purple and clammy.

His skin? Marco looked up and saw that his skin was indeed purple and clammy. The saw his arm sprouting from a tan to a purple shade. Small purple suctions had popped up on his arm. His jaw dropped.

"Oh no," Marco panted as not just one arm, but both of his arms this time turned into grotesque purple tentacles.

"Yes, I have arisen! I am free," voices from both of his arms called out. The last thing Marco recalled was charging right towards Emmitt.

When Marco came together, he found himself on the broken tiled floor in the middle of a destroyed schoolhouse. his red hoodie torn in a few places. He saw Emmitt's body, placed chest-first. Though his vision was blurry for a while, Marco recollected his vision, looking down at his dirt-stained arms. He sighed when he saw that his skin was no longer purple, his arms changed back into normal human arms.

"Wha, did I do that?" Marco muttered to himself, pointing right at Emmitt's bruised body.

Right then and there, a black portal spawned right in front of him. The green bird monster, Ludo, had emerged from the portal. Immediately Ludo spat right on Emmitt's body and attempted to haul it back into the black portal.

"REALLY," Ludo scolded, although by then Emmitt definitely couldn't hear, "I had you drink those infuriating potions from Toffee! All you had to do was get the wand! That was it! You had everything going for you, and you let this one pipsqueak with tentacle arms destroy you! You had one job!"

Fueled by emotions and instincts, Marco walked right up and propelled Ludo in the air, clutching onto Ludo's green robe firmly. Marco and Ludo were now face to face.

"You wouldn't go this far, would you," Marco said, gritting his teeth in denial of every single thing. His face came close to Ludo's. "You wouldn't have killed Star to get the wand."

"One casualty in a day is NOTHING compared to what the monsters have suffered in years," Ludo yelled. "You'd care for your precious girlfriend over the welfare of monsters. You think you know everything, when you really know nothing about her."

Marco dropped Ludo right on the floor in a fit of rage. He kicked Ludo right in the body.

"Oof," Ludo said, before chuckling slightly, "I didn't even plan this, ha, this is killing the messenger much."

"Who did then," Marco said, kicking him to the floor again.

"Man, this anger," Ludo chuckled, "No wonder you like karate, y'know. Great way to let out all that loose air."

Just as Marco land another blow to the bird monster, he heard a sickening voice inside his head.

"Do it, Marco. Sink down to the monsters now! Violence is the solution to everything! Love is never the answer, right?"

Marco, who held up his fist at that moment, pulled it back and fell onto his knees moping. Ludo quickly lugged Emmitt's body by his arm before quickly shutting the portal.

The only noise Marco took in were the wailing sirens in the distance. He kept his kneeling position, head down with the damaged schoolyard in the backdrop.

The Next Day

"Five days?" Marco's father, Rafael said, jaw dropping as he read the weekly newspaper.

His wife Angie was washing dishes at the household's kitchen sink right after a Parent-Teacher interview. "'Fraid so. Principal said that the damage to the school could've been valid for a rest-of-the-year suspension. Says he's lucky to only get five days, considering the circumstances."

"Wow. How on earth does a fourteen year old boy end up costing a school nearly two million dollars in damages all by himself?" he asked.

"Cause it wasn't just on Earth, Ralph," Angie said, "It was a monster on Star's home dimension. It came and the school blew up."

"Then how is Marco getting in trouble for this?"

"He apparently jumped in and fought the monster before the police came. They said that he was screaming, turned into some purple octopus-like creature and fought him, causing even more damage. Said that Marco probably should've let the authorities deal with it."

"Yeah, right, what would the cops have done?" Rafael said, eyes still on his newspaper. Angie went right up to her husband and plucked the newspaper from his hands. "What about Star?"

"Still in the hospital, doctor said her injuries are definitely non-life threatening," Angie said. "The school board also want us to consider the probability of sending her home for safety reasons."

"But it was the school that was willing to take her in," Rafael scoffed, "If they want her out of school, they'd have to make the move to do so, not us."

"You gotta look at us as part of the problem too," Angie countered, "We've been able to control tons of exchange students before with Marco, but Star is different from each of these. She has magic, for goodness sake, and we've given Marco and her too much freedom. We've even let her get exposed by these monsters trying to hurt her to get this magic. Heck, I think Marco does a better job than us at parenting sometimes."

"Honestly," he said, "after Star stayed with us for a day, I was thinking about how stupid we were, and that we shouldn't have jumped into such a decision that quickly to begin with. We were so focused on what she could bring to this family that we didn't think about the consequences of having a magical princess under our roof. But what can you really do? The past is in the past."

"I guess," Angie sighed. "Besides, it wouldn't be the same without her. Unlike the other few exchange students, Marco's gotten so attached to Star so much so that it's even changed him. It would be a shame to strip his self-esteem and happiness.

"But she will leave eventually," Raphael pointed out, "Star has her own duties on her home dimension. She will just become another person framed on that wall over there."

Raphael groaned looked over to the wall of pictures, each one displaying an exchange student with Marco.

No one downstairs paid attention to the red-hoodied boy eavesdropping from the top of the staircase.

Marco went up to his room, slumped down on a rolling chair and toyed on his laptop for a little while. He was browsing on the web when an orange Skype notification popped up on the lower right hand corner of his screen.

FerggyFresh05 is online.

Noticing that his friend Ferguson was online, Marco looked up the directory and also saw that his other friend Alfonso was online as well. He clicked a few buttons on his computer and invited both of them to a call. Ferguson's voice popped up on his computer first.

"Hey man," Ferguson said on the other hand.

"Hiyo," Alfonso said next.

"Sup guys. I got suspended from school for five days."

"What?" Alfonso replied, "Five days? I thought that it was gonna be longer, to be honest."

"Thanks a lot old buddy, ol' chum," Marco said sarcastically.

"Dude, did you not see what you just did to the school?" Ferguson said on the third end of the call.

"What did I do," Marco said. "I lost track of it all when I started growing tentacles."

Marco could hear Alfonso and Ferguson chuckle on the other end of the call.

"It was AWESOME. Okay, so first off, we saw you carrying Star's body back to the parking lot like a boss, and then you went back to fight the monster. You started screaming at that bull monster thingy. After a while you started growing purple tentacles and you became a totally different person..."

"...Like the Hulk," Alfonso interrupted, chuckling. Ferguson was also chuckling. Marco groaned.

"...yeah, totally what Alfonso said! Anyways, you wrapped your tentacles around the monster and flung it around the schoolyard. You were like *BOOM!* and *THWACK!* and..."

Marco let Ferguson babble on random noises with Alfonso chuckling at the absurdity of the event in the background. While this was happening, Marco conspired as to why he couldn't remember the events being described in the call. Last time he had one of the monster arms, he seemed to still be able to recall events that happened with the Monster Arm on. This time, he felt as though the monster arm had taken over his entire body.

"Are you done," Marco said, looking disinterested listening to this chat.

"So, Marco," Alfonso said, staring somewhere too, "How's your girlfriend doing?"

"Jackie didn't get hurt," Marco said confused. "But if you're talking about the date, it went well."

"Who said I was talking about Jackie," Alfonso replied, sneering. Ferguson lost it and went into hysterics.

"For the last freaking time," Marco said, "Star isn't my girlfriend."

"Yeah, yeah," Ferguson said, chuckling, "She's totally not your girlfriend. Dude, everyone at school thinks the two of you are dating."

"Wha," Marco said in surprise, "How? Can no one see that I went out with Jackie recently?"

"Um," Ferguson said hesitantly. "Yeah, we see what you do at school, bruh, but what if you're just dating Jackie to cover up whatever you're doing at home? Hm?"

"Yeah Marco," Alfonso responded, adding on to Ferguson's claim. "I mean, you live with her, and you two aren't even related! Don't you ever get the urge, to, y'know?"

"AUGH," Marco shouted, reacting to Alfonso's crude joke, "Alfonso, you sick pervert! She's like a sister to me!"

"Yeah, if she was your sister," Ferguson said. Both him and Alfonso laughed hard. "Dude, face it, people ship you two like FedEx."

"We're just close friends! That's it!"

"Marco," Ferguson replied, "y'know right after Star got knocked out of the ring, you were screaming like a madman. When you were in Monster form, you were all like, 'YOU THREATEN STAR, YOU GO FOR ME!' and stuff like that. You threw your life at that monster for her. If that's not something special going on, then explain what that is."

"Not to mention all the times you've hugged and kept secrets between you two," Alfonso added.

"Star's a friend," Marco grumbled, "and I didn't want her to get hurt!"

"Dude," Alfonso said, "I don't even think you would dive into that if me or Alfonso were knocked out. I spell love with a capital L."

"Shut up," Marco laughed quietly before his mouse hovered over the red button, "I gotta go now, I'll see you boys later."

"Oooooooh, you aren't denying it bruh! You aren't denying it! Star and Marco sitting in a tree! Kay-eye-ess-ess-eye-en..."

"Oh yeah," Marco said, "If Star ever asks about what happens, can you please not mention Monster Arm?"

"She's gonna find out anyways, dude."

"Yeah, you're probably right," Marco groaned. "Well, I'll see you guys later then."

Marco clicked on the red Skype button and hung up. He sighed as he rolled his chair away from his computer.

On the day that Star came back from the hospital, Marco waited patiently on the couch, recollecting his thoughts.

Was Ferguson and Alfonso really right? No, of course not. They didn't understand what it meant to be Star's friends, of course, as Marco's reasoning stretched.

But the bigger question of the many conspiring in his head was if he should tell Star that the Monster Arm would return. He had to eventually tell her sometime in the future. The problem was that although it was better to get rid of it, he started seeing some benefits to keeping it. It did save the day today, after all, but what if Ludo was preparing an even bigger plan? Could he prepare the arms when he wanted to? The only problem was that if he were to keep his monster form, he would need to control it rather than let the arms go rogue. He had made his final decision, and couldn't wait for his friend to get home.

Just then, Marco heard a vehicle pull into the driveway. There was no mistaking it now; he ran towards the front door and opened it.

Outside, his mother exit the family minivan. From the back door Star exited.

Star who had definitely gotten stitched up since the encounter, and also wore a grey-cast on her right leg. Supported by crutches under both her arms, she almost stumbled onto the ground upon seeing Marco.

Marco took a few steps right in front of her. They stood right in front of each other for a few seconds, examining each other, ending everything with a big hug.

"Marco! Anything weird happened during school," Star asked, smiling.

"Well, let's just say an old tentacle friend came back, but, I found out how to get rid of it..."