Well that took forever, I'm finally back with the next chapter.
So for the 'Soluna vs' arc I didn't want to do a really long one like I did with the Ragnarok arc, Think of the arc as a 13 episode season with the previous being episode 1 and this chapter being an abridged/select scenes from episodes 2 through 12. I limited myself to 1,000 words per short and only one went over, I hate that some shorts feel rushed but it was the best way to write it.
To Sugar: Mandy is somewhere in between her parents personalities, I'm glad you like the next gen cast!
To Ironchef13: Fanfiction won't let me put direct links to my other sites, I recommend typing the name of this story and sketches onto Deviantart, I think it's the easiest way to find it. My profile lists what my account names are on each so I hope it helps.
"Did you hear, Princess Soluna defeated that weird beast the other day!"
"I heard she used an incredibly powerful spell her mother taught her!"
"Who else could take down something like that single handedly!"
The pink-haired girl slumped down and planted her face down into the lunch table; the school was quickly repaired with the help of several magic-users including herself, sometime during which the story of that day's events got exaggerated as word of mouth spread. According to the most widespread rumors she had either unleashed the power of the big bang, or forced it to explode with a single touch.
"Hey we all beat that thing? Where's our credit?" Mandy gestured to herself and Dev, taking a bite of her sandwich when she finished speaking. The blonde boy didn't seem to care much about getting some of the glory; he might have even sparked a couple of the rumors for his own amusement.
Soluna groaned, her voice muffled against the table, whatever she said was inaudible until the boy on her left pulled her up by the back of her sailor collar "Once more, with clarity." He released his grip, letting her slouch and rest her hands on her cheeks "All of these rumors are driving me crazy! I can't even go to the bathroom without someone coming up and asking me to show them the 'Death of a thousand punches' I supposedly did!" she removed one hand from her face to make an air quote at the supposed feat "I keep telling them what really happened and no one seems to believe it!"
"Of course not, people like to hear the unbelievable one that leaves them in awe. They think you're just being modest." Mandy pointed out, leaning back in her chair with her arms crossed behind her neck "This'll all blow over in a week."
"Easy for you to say, I can't even read in the library without people talking about me! How does anyone put up with this kind of attention?!" Soluna raised her voice, she felt like she could pull out her hair over this.
Looking over their friends head and nodding to each other, Dev and Mandy seemed to have the same idea "Ok, you are way too stressed by this." Dev patted her shoulder, Mandy did the same on her side "You know what you need? A fun night out!"
"A fun night out?" Soluna repeated.
Mandy grinned "Yep and I know just the place!"
OXOXOXOX
To the princess, a fun night out meant going to the observatory and watching the stars, so why was she now standing in a dance club under the ocean?
"Uh are you guys sure about this? I've never been to a dance club before."
"All the more reason to be here." Dev explained "You gotta cut loose sometimes, put down the books and live a little Pink."
Wrapping an arm around her bestie's shoulder, Mandy added on "Come on, it'll be lots of fun! Your mom was the one that recommended this place, it's much safer than the clubs in the underworld that's for sure." The demon noticed a few people walk past with paper cups full of fruit punch "If you'll excuse me I gotta grab some age appropriate drinks." She slipped off to the side, leaving Soluna and Dev alone.
Seeing how the princess was stuck in place, Dev rolled his eyes at her and gestured to the dancefloor "Come on you know how to dance right?" "Of course I do!" Soluna scoffed, doing a huffy pout at the boy "Well then there's nothing to worry about!"
Giving her a nudge, Soluna took a few steps towards the crowd of people. She suddenly stopped and turned around to see Dev making no move to follow her "Aren't you coming?"
The blonde shrugged "Not my style."
Marching back over to her recent friend, Soluna looked him right in the eyes "Hypocritical aren't we? What's the matter, can't you dance?" she taunted. Dev's aloofness faltered and the princess was able to momentarily catch a glimpse of something in his eyes "Wait…have you ever danced?"
Flustered by her accusation, Dev shoved his hands into his jacket pockets and turned his face away "Like I said it's not my style." Truthfully this was his first time in a dance club too. With how screwed up his life has been there hadn't been any opportunities to learn to dance.
Soluna grabbed one of the hands out of his pocket and began pulling her companion to the dancefloor "Hey-""If I have to dance, then so do you." Soluna resolved. The two stood on the neon tiles and took notice of how other people were moving. The princess started shaking her body side to side uncertainly, tapping her foot along to the beat once she got her rhythm flowing.
Dev snickered as he watched her dance "Wow you are a terrible dancer." Frankly, she really was, Soluna danced like she was in an old rubberhose style cartoon, it was unintentional but she ran with it "Then you should have no problem dancing better than me." She challenged.
Accepting her challenge, Dev tried his hand at dancing. He recalled seeing a couple music videos when he was little and tried to imitate what he had seen…which ended up being the Macarena.
"What kind of dance is that?" Soluna laughed.
"Still better than yours!" Dev quipped.
Finishing a cup of fruit punch, Mandy entered the dance floor to find both of her friends in a dance off with each other. She shook her head with a smile "Man they suck at this."
For the past week, Queen Star and King Marco have used whatever free time they had investigating the strange creatures' case. Star had walked into the war room one evening and found her husband laying out a conspiracy board against the wall. She came up to Marco's side and inspected his work "Any leads?"
"Amazingly, yes." The king guided his hand over to a second-hand photo of the thing they battled at the factory, alongside a list of what said factory was producing at the moment "We still have nothing on the one that attacked the school, but I compiled some data from the factory and noticed something."
Star took a look at the list, she couldn't understand what any of the strange word/number combinations meant but she figured it was something for computers "That specific area it had been targeting was where they assembled the motherboards for the computers. Then I remembered an article I had read a while back-"Marco moved his finger over the rubber band line connecting the evidence to a newspaper article he had printed out 'Large Rodent Causes Chaos at Shipping Yard'
"Right here, an unusual rodent has been disrupting courier ships for a few months now. It'll sneak onboard some of the ships and raid the cargo, the last time it was spotted was when it boarded a ship containing engine parts."
"You think it's connected?" Star asked.
"One way to find out."
OXOXOXOX
The couple arrived at the bay where the affected boats had been docked, it was easy for them to get clearance to check the private records, now they stood in front of a locked door standing between themselves and possible clues.
The door burst open with a bang as Star kicked it open, Marco shook his head "Star, I had the key!" he held up the iron key given to him by the owner of the building.
Star and Marco stepped inside and made their way over to the rows of filing cabinets, the king quickly sifted through the dozens and dozens of files searching for what they needed. Star hopped into a rolling chair close to an older computer and logged onto the desktop, typing into the search bar the file she wanted popped up instantly "I'm in." the blonde spoke in a hacker voice.
Leaning over the side of his wife, Marco's eyes scanned the report on which ships the rodent had taken from. Star watched her lover's face instead of the screen, able to read him better than a report "Well?"
"Every ship that thing stole from was carrying computer parts or other pieces of tech." Marco confirmed as he kept scrolling down, it was no coincidence that another hybrid creature had gone after computer parts "So what does this thing want with all that stuff anyway?" Marco heard his wife ask, not directed entirely at him but simply speaking out loud.
"I don't know, but it does tell us one thing for certain." The king looked serious "There's someone behind these creatures that's pulling the strings."
OXOXOXOX
Star and Marco bid their time until the next boat carrying tech parts was scheduled to arrive at the docks. It had been hours since they had begun their stakeout, which Star had brought wooden stakes to as both a weapon and a bad pun. By one in the morning there were finally some signs of movement in the area, Star nudged Marco who had nodded off and rested his cheek on her shoulder. Once the king was awake and alert they each cast a cloaking spell on themselves, approaching the ship and waiting for any sign of the rodent.
Crashes began to sound from inside the ship which caused the two to rush into action. Star made a portal inside while Marco remained outside so they wouldn't be caught off guard if it was a diversion. Jumping into the cargo hold, Star released her concealment spell and assumed a fighting stance, coming face to face with the rodent creature she had heard so much about "Wait, how did you get in here?" surely she and Marco would have noticed a large fuzzy animal sneaking onboard the ship.
Then she heard it, the sound of water flowing in from somewhere. The queen turned around to find a hole in the middle of the wall, with sea water gushing out and slowly making its way across the floor. Star took another glance at the hybrid, indeed seeing bits of rat, hamster and chinchilla on it, but also seeing a pair of gills and a knife like claw.
The hybrid rodent stuffed whatever was inside one of the crates inside it's cheeks and made it getaway back to the hole in the wall "Oh no you don't!" the magical queen shot some magic at the leak, plugging it up with a custom fitting cork. The creature stopped before running into the wall, opening its claws and preparing to cut open a new hole.
Star intervened and blasted its claw, rushing over and stomping on its long jagged tail so it couldn't escape. Thinking quickly she yanked out a small chunk of its fur before it had a chance to self-destruct like the other two.
Hitting an earpiece hidden by her hair, she relayed her end to Marco "I got it, we're down on the lower level and-"a shrill humming began emitting from the rodent "Shoot, it's gonna blow!" Star released her hold on its tail and threw a force-field around it not a second too soon. The creature exploded into a puddle of goo moments later.
"Star!" Marco came portalling in, feeling disappointed when he saw the vanishing goo. Then Star held open her hand and revealed the intact hair she had recovered from it "You got some of its DNA!" Marco lifted his wife into his arms, planting an affectionate smooch on her lips. They weren't going home empty handed this time.
Three eyes poked out from behind the stage, scanning over the massive crowd eagerly awaiting the start of the show. Mandy Lucitor could barely contain her excitement; she and her band had finally booked a gig at the Crash Pad, the hottest rock club around! All of their hard work had finally paid off.
A head of pink hair caught her attention as she spied her best friend in the middle of the sea of people. Soluna always came to her concerts, it was the only time she didn't mind being in a large crowd of people. The blonde head next to her informed the demon that Dev has come as well. Pulling away from the side of the stage, Mandy went to regroup with the rest of her band.
Heading further backstage, Mandy ran up to the rest of her bandmates, all tuning their instruments as they prepared for the show "Full house guys! We gotta be on our A game, we cannot blow this!"
"Don't sweat it; this'll be our best show yet! When have we ever blown a gig?" The guitarist oozed confidence, playing a short chord when he finished speaking. He was a septarian boy with dark brown hair and green scales.
"I could be hit by lightning again…" the bassist recalled their infamous picnic concert. He looked like a regular red haired teenage boy, if you ignored the fact that he was a cyclops.
"Clyde we're inside, lightnings not gonna hit you." Mandy addressed the bassist, grabbing one of her drumsticks and twirling it in her hand before pointing it towards the guitarist "And Roddy don't be too overconfident! The last time you said something like what could go wrong Clyde got struck by lightning!" she took a seat at her drums, playing a few notes to warm up.
The keyboardist, Nate, looked up from his phone for the first time since their drummer had returned, he was a regular human boy with a sea foam colored streak in his black hair "Guys, have we decided which song we're gonna open with?" The rest of the set had already been filled with their best songs, leaving them with only the bottom of the barrel to use for the opening number.
"If you want my advice, we should choose between 'Puke on Clyde's Shoes' and 'Flaming Bunnies of Doom'." Nate suggested, without missing a beat Mandy and Roddy answered in unison "Puke on Clyde's Shoes." The bassist let out a defeated 'aww' in response.
OXOXOXOX
Dev inspected the flyer in his hands, an advertisement for the concert. He raised an eyebrow as he read the name of the band "The Vegan Zombies? What kind of a name is that?" He asked the pink haired girl to his right, whom he had been surprised to see acting completely natural around all the heavy rockers in attendance.
"That's just they're name at the moment. They change it every other week or so." Soluna explained "They started as the Urban Zombies, then they were the Burning Zombies. They've also been the Machete Zombies, the Living Zombies, the Screaming Zombies, the Lightning Zombies, the Hamster Zombies...probably the worst was the Steve Zombies."
"I'm sensing a pattern with the names." Dev snarked, despite the weird taste in band names he thought the band actually looked kind of legit. He hadn't known Mandy for long but the two of them actually got along pretty well, maybe it was because they both wore black jackets?
The bright lights suddenly darkened, and a single spotlight illuminate the stage as an older man approached the mic "Crash Pad, are you ready to rock!?" the crowd screamed and hollered in response, even Soluna was screaming wildly "Welp, better be prepared to go deaf." Dev had to plug his ears from the loud volume of noise. The man onstage stepped to the side and gestured behind him "PRESENTING THE VEGAN ZOMBIES!"
A ring of fire opened on the stage, Mandy and her band slowly rose up from the flaming portal and made their grand entrance. The crowd went wild; Mandy's demonic entrances usually got everyone hyped for what was to follow.
The band began playing their instruments, opening the concert with a hard rock ballad. Soluna seemed to be enjoying herself but Dev couldn't even make out the lyrics from underneath the layer of cheers, he could swear he heard them sing something about puking on shoes.
OXOXOXOX
"Mandy that was amazing!" the demon girl finished sending her drums back to her room when she heard her best friend call to her, Soluna was running towards her and glomped her in a quick hug "Since when am I not amazing?" she briefly hugged back, also noticing the blonde boy walking behind her "Gotta say, it was pretty good."
"Pretty good?!" the other three band members quickly surrounded Dev "Dude it was incredible! The crowd was going crazy for us!" Roddy exclaimed, Clyde happily backed him up "For once nothing horrible happened to me! This was the best day of my life!"
A low creaking sound came from above, and immediately a spotlight fell down and hit Clyde right on the head, knocking him down to the floor "…still the best…" he gave a weak thumbs up.
Nate took out his phone and took a quick snapshot of the bassist's misfortune, intending to add it to their website in the 'Look what happened to Clyde today' gallery. A text popped up on his screen before he could submit it 'You were awesome tonight! We are so proud of you!' followed by a photo of Jackie and Chloe Thomas watching him from the crowd. Nate smiled fondly "Looks like my Moms managed to make it after all."
While the Vegan Zombies discussed what kind of after party they were going to be having, Soluna noticed Dev looking uncomfortable "Hey, what's up?"
The blonde turned away "Nothing." He grasped the lock around his neck "Nothing at all."
"Hello? Aunt Mariposa?"
The trio of Soluna, Mandy and Dev carefully crept through the door and into a dark room. The pink haired girl used her magic to give them some light, revealing the room to be filled with various artifacts and fossilized creatures.
"Pink, are you sure your aunt will know what this thing is?" Dev questioned aloud, the gang had been up to 'Mannanigans' (as Mandy had dubbed it) out in the woods when they stumbled across a strange totem with glowing red jewels for eyes. Not knowing what else to do Soluna had suggested they take it to her aunt Mariposa, an archeologist.
Wandering around, the trio ducked under a low display only for Mandy's horns to bump into it. The display wobbled and pushed into a large pole, causing it to begin to fall. The princess prepared to catch it with her magic, but someone else beat her to it and held the pole in a plum colored magic glow "Do I need to put 'look but don't touch' sign on these?" a female voice playfully teased.
With the pole levitated out of the way, the source of the magic was revealed to be a 25-year old woman with short brown hair and tanned skin "How's my favorite niece doing?" "Aunt Mariposa!" Soluna greeted her aunt with a brief hug.
"So what brings you kids here?" Mariposa Diaz addressed the three of them, Mandy wordlessly held up the odd totem "Ah." The brunette lady carefully took the relic from the demon teen, closely investigating its features "We found it in the woods, any idea what it is?" Mandy asked.
"I think I've seen something similar before, I'll ask Meteora when she-" the sound of a portal opening interrupted her, the group turned to the portal just in time to see a purple haired woman the same age as Mariposa come somersaulting through and close the portal with a swift slash of her scissors "That one was almost too easy!"
"Way to make a dramatic entrance." Mariposa quipped, rolling her eyes at her best friend.
"What do you expect? There were tiny tiki men on my tail." Meteora shrugged, brushing off the tip of her tail to emphasize her point. She seemed to finally notice there was company watching, she made her way over to Soluna and rustled the top of her hair "Long time no see cuz, I heard about that gorilla thing you saved the school from."
Dev raised an eyebrow and whispered to Mandy "Another aunt?" "No, she's sort of a cousin…it's complicated." Mandy whispered back, loud enough for Meteora to hear and take notice of the new face "Who's this, your boyfriend?" she grinned at her younger relative. Soluna and Dev both turned a bright shade of red and objected simultaneously "No! Never!" "We're just friends!"
"Well then new guy let me introduce myself, the name's Meteora Butterfly the best treasure hunter in all the dimensions!" she reached into her pants pocket and brought out some old looking silver coins "As requested here's some silver doubloons from the Pachal dimension." The brunette brought one of the coins to her eye "Great job, this'll be great for the next exhibit I'm working on."
Dev noticed the pale green clovers on the half-monster woman's cheeks "You've got marks like Pink and her parents do, are you a princess too?"
Meteora let out a long dramatic sigh "Oh heck no! I've always hated princess stuff, just the thought of being one makes me sick. No offense Soluna." The princess nodded, not offended "Ever since I was little I've dreamed of being a daring adventurer, taking out bad guys and getting some loot out of it. Now I'm living the dream! While that Pines guy takes care of all of Earth's weirdness, I'm out traveling the multiverse solving mysteries and rewriting histories!" "You've never rewritten history." Mariposa reminded her "Eh still sounds good."
With all the commotion, Soluna had nearly forgotten what they had come here for "Meteora, we found this weird thing and we were hoping you could tell us what it is." She passed the totem to her cousin, noticing how her face paled when she saw it.
"Oh no."
OXOXOXOX
"How did we get into this mess?!" Dev screamed at the top of his lungs. Currently he was holding onto a vine for dear life as red hot lava bubbled below him, across the temple Soluna and Mariposa struggled to unlock the puzzle on the obelisk while Mandy and Meteora fought back against the stone golems that were trying to kill them.
So it turned out the totem was from a cursed temple in some desert dimension that Meteora had swiped and lost a couple years ago. They tried to return it but the temple's god was already pretty mad at them, it couldn't see they had come to return the totem and was now after their heads.
The vine Dev had been holding onto began to tear, threatening to drop him into the lava. Just when he thought it would break he heard a voice cry out "Pallas Bungee Spring!" and the vine morphed into a bungee cord, pulling him back up before he could be boiled alive.
Red and Plum magic turned a large circular part of the obelisk and opened a compartment, the markings matching the totem they had "Meteora!" Mariposa shouted, her friend size-shifted over the golems and tossed the totem to the other girls. Soluna caught the source of their problems and quickly stuffed it into the slot.
All of the chaos calmed in an instant, what looked like a frowning face on the ceiling started smiling and opened a quick exit door. The five wasted no time getting out of the temple; they looked behind them and watched as the structure sank into the ground. Four stern gazes settled on Meteora "Fine, I'll make sure nothing is cursed next time."
Complete darkness, that's all that can be seen of the room two people had walked into. Even before the door closed behind them they were unable to see a thing. A wall of flames erupted at the other end of the room and a deep voice bellowed "WHO DARES INTRUDE UPON CASTLE LUCITOR?!"
"Janna, it's us, Marco and Star." A male voice spoke up.
The flames disappeared and light instantly filled the chamber, revealing a casual living room area with a hellish décor "Oh hey guys, what's up?" the queen of the underworld stepped out of the shadows, greeting her old friends as she hopped onto a nearby couch.
The Butterfly-Diaz's sat down across from her, Star looked around curiously "Where's Tom?"
A new wall of flames appeared in the same spot as before, and once again a deep voice shouted "WHO DARES INTRUDE UPON-""Babe, it's just Star and Marco." Janna rolled her eyes. The flames died down and Tom waved happily to the other couple "Hey it's good to see you two!" Tom took a seat next to his wife.
"Same here, but this isn't a casual visit." Marco regrettably informed his other best friend and his long time tormentor "We need some help with a problem." Star grabbed a plastic bag from inside her purse and set it on the table between the two royal couples. Tom and Janna were confused to see only a small clump of fur inside "If you guys wanna do a hamster séance you have to wait until the 15th." Janna stated.
Ignoring what Janna had said, Marco continued "You've heard of the weird creature that our kids destroyed at the school right?"
"Of course, Mandy went on and on about it." Tom recalled, he had been proud to hear his little girl was one of the ones to stop a rampaging beast.
"Well it wasn't the only one-"Star continued "There have been multiple of these things all over Earthni, we've encountered about five so far. Each one is made from parts of several different animals, all mismatched and unpredictable."
"Oooh, sounds like a Chimera!" Janna became interested in the subject; her blonde friend tilted her head as she repeated "Chimera?" "Yeah, it's an organism with two or more different species in their DNA." Janna proudly stated, her knowledge on the weird once again proving useful.
"Well these 'chimera's'-"Marco accepted the term "Have been sneaking around and stealing computer parts and other pieces of machinery. We can't catch one alive since they explode when caught, how or why we don't know. They turn into goo and leave nothing behind, Star managed to rip some fur off of one before it exploded and it's the only DNA we've managed to gather."
"Ok, so then why did you bring it here?" Tom wondered.
Star smirked "We wanna find its soul and read its memories."
OXOXOXOX
Star's plan was crazy and genius in hindsight, but even the best ideas can be derailed by an unexpected hurdle "What do you mean it's not here?!" Star shouted in disbelief. Tom and Janna had gone down to wherever souls were sorted for the afterlife, they came back after an hour empty handed and broke the news to their friends.
"We looked everywhere, whatever that thing was it didn't have a soul to begin with." Tom informed her, artificial beings tended to be a hit or miss for actually containing a soul. This was one of the times it was a miss "If that one didn't have a soul then none of the others would either."
Marco pinched the creases on his forehead, every time they think they've got a lead something brings them to a halt "Great, what are we going to do now?"
Janna Lucitor wasn't deterred in the slightest; she looked between the four of them and confidently announced "If we can't read the memories of a dead chimera, we'll just have to read the memories of a living one."
OXOXOXOX
Hunting down another chimera wasn't quick or easy, days past and the quartet hadn't found any around the country. Running low on options, Marco used his magic to make a sort of chimera-tracker, a dog based summon spell with an unusually large nose. Contrary to his wife, whose summons tended to be more cute and whimsical, Marco's summons were more grounded in appearance, save for his kitten bombs and a few of his other early ones.
Following the 'Hybrid Hunting Hound' as he was dubbed, the two royal couples were led to an old abandoned building in the woods "Dang, we should have stayed here on our honeymoon!" Janna told her husband. The Hound led the way inside, his nose pressed against the floor, until he swiftly looked out and announced in a high cutesy voice "The prey is up there!"
Red eyes pierced the darkness; the chimera swooped down from the rafters and made a beeline for Hound. The bat-koala-salamander-hybrid relentlessly pursued the big nosed summon, trying it's best to either bite or stomp the magic dog that hurried to its creator "Hey! Pick on someone that can fight back!" the king pushed a wave of magic, red lightning towards the creature.
The chimera screeched as it took a direct hit, followed up with more attacks from Star and Tom. With the creatures attention focused on the other three, Janna made her move and tackled it from behind "Memory Playback!" black colored magic sank into the things fur.
It wasn't more than 30 seconds before the humming started; Tom yanked his wife away and pulled her out of the front door before the chimera exploded "How much were you able to get?" Tom held Janna by the shoulders "Ok, the only clear image I got was of some scientist guy in a lab. Most of its other memories were too blurry. Although there was one other thing I got from it, whatever those things are they have a deep hatred for magic."
"Steady…steady…"
The lab door flung open with a bam, the noise disrupted the concentration of the mad scientist at work. The strand of hair he had been weaving into the base of his next chimera slipped out of his pliers and fell carelessly onto the cell sample "Well, it looks like number 67 is getting a tail for a nose…" Dr. Amalgam sighed.
"Dad, I'm home!" Dev called out, coming into the lab. The doctor's mood cheered up as soon as he heard his son's voice "Welcome home Dev! How was school today?"
The teenage boy grabbed a soda can out of a nearby fridge, taking a quick sip before answering "Same as always. I still haven't got the info we need out of Pink, it's a bit awkward to ask where an old family heirloom that was almost stolen a few years ago is now."
"I have total faith in you son! Now that you're home, would you like me to start dinner?" Dr. Amalgam asked, before noticing a large bag Dev had placed on the floor "Oh, is that Chinese takeout?" "Yeah, I passed it just before I was about to come back. I'll go set it up on the table." Dev grabbed the dinner with his free hand and kicked the door open with his boot "Come eat when you're done with the chimera."
"You got it my boy!" the doctor smiled, noticing the annoyed eye roll his son did as he left. When his son was out of sight, Dr. Amalgam's expression became more somber. He turned back to the chimera base, preparing to work on it once more; this was the sixty seventh one. He didn't expect it to defeat the king and queen of Earthni, he never expected any of them to even fight such powerful people at all. For years they had been sneaking him parts to build his masterpiece, he had planned for the local law enforcement to be the one's on his trail, although he should have known they'd get involved, they had already been a part of this since the beginning.
OXOXOXOX
Nolan Amalgam wasn't always a mad scientist; he used to be a regular non-mad scientist working his way through college. For the past two years he had been putting together his most important research paper yet, his theory of the existence of alternate dimensions.
He had gone through test after test, hypothesis after hypothesis, until he had something resembling solid proof that his theory was correct.
A week before he was to submit his findings, the cleave happened.
One massive event resulted in not only creating a new county, but also revealing to the world the existence of magic and other dimensions. It had proved everything about his studies right…before he had been able to show his findings to anyone other than himself. His work was now redundant, his crowning achievement ruined with a bang. With no time to find an alternate topic to work on, he had failed and was kicked out of the course.
Nolan Amalgam was still able to get a doctorate; he switched from dimensional theory to bio-genetics as the topic of his work. He resolved to move past the incident, he ended up meeting a girl named Clara and the two got married.
Years went by and the two had a little boy, Devon Amalgam, and for a while the three of them had been happy…at least that's what Nolan had thought.
Shortly after Devon had turned five, Clara had dipped down and earned her magic. She was captivated by it immediately; her interest in Nolan's work became nonexistent as she tried to explain to him that they didn't need science if they could all use magic. Tensions only got higher as Clara felt that she was better than her husband and son now, and after a few months she met another magic user at a bar. She left Nolan and Dev shortly after, leaving two broken hearts behind as she cut ties with her past.
'If only she never got magic, then none of this would have happened.'
Both father and son believed, after all magic had ruined the former's life twice already. Deep down he knew magic wasn't entirely to blame, what it really did was give Clara an excuse to show her real colors, she would have left him for another man eventually, but in his grief Nolan wanted to believe otherwise. What truly broke him was the pain Dev felt, the one he had loved betrayed his trust and abandoned him at only five years old.
Nolan snapped, magic had wronged him too much. He could only imagine there were others suffering because of it as well, if Mewni and Earth never fused then none of this would have happened. Nolan swore revenge; he would hurt the world before it could hurt him and his son again.
Clara had been wrong, science would triumph over magic, and he would make a world where nobody would need magic.
He began his master plan, it would take years to complete but he swore to never give up, even at the cost of his own morality. He created illegal experiments, creatures he called chimera's to assist him in his quest for vengeance, he hired a criminal to steal from the Earthni castle, he had stolen parts to build his machine and had no qualms hurting whoever would get in his way.
Dev found out shortly after Hunter had failed his mission, he thought his son would be against it…instead he asked to join. Dev volunteered himself for his greatest experiment, he trained himself to be a fighter, when the time came to go after the old wand once again Dev insisted he be the one to infiltrate Earthni and bring it back.
Dr. Amalgam had to succeed, his son gave everything for him, and truthfully he wasn't sure what he would do if he failed…
"Tell me again why I'm here?"
Soluna raised an eyebrow to the floating horse head to her right. P.J. Pony Head has called and urged her to come up to the cloud kingdom to help with something. She didn't get much detail over the phone but the gist of it had to do with Gina Pony Head.
P.J. sighed, floating gloomily "We had a big fight yesterday and she hasn't left her room since. I've tried to make up with her but she won't listen to me. I was hoping you could talk her into hearing me out."
Soluna didn't seem convinced "I don't know, Gina rarely listens to me either." She'd known the pony princess since she was a baby, they were never as close as their mothers are but they were still friends. Truthfully Soluna had more in common with the second born of the Pony Head family; they both were actually interested in school and hated oranges.
Nevertheless Soluna agreed to help out the Pony Head siblings; P.J. led her to the door to Gina's room, an ornate pink door fit for a real princess "Um…Gina? It's Soluna…can I come in?" the human princess knocked on the door carefully. No response came from the other side; Soluna waited another minute before knocking again "Gina? Can I come in?" same response.
"Does her room have a window?"
OXOXOXOX
Flying up to the window on Cloudy 2, Soluna looked inside and found the elder royal pony sitting on her bed with headphones on "Figures." Soluna grabbed her phone and quickly wrote a text to Gina, watching as the horse received her message and looked to her window surprised.
Gina flew over and pressed a button beside the window, opening it up and letting her friend inside "Soluna, you know you could have just knocked." "I did. You didn't hear me." "Oh so sorry, these headphones are totally noise-proof. My mom gave em' to me when I had to go to that royal summit last year." Gina bragged.
Taking a seat back on her large canopy bed, Gina grabbed her phone again and continued playing with it while she spoke "Well what can the amazing Gina do for you today? Is it a makeover? You know I've been dying to try out this glitter mascara I've got."
"No, I'm not here for a makeover; I'm here to talk to you about P.J."
The purple pony instantly soured "Ugh, no! Tell that little dweeb I'm never speaking to him again!" she turned her back to Soluna, completely engrossed in her phone now.
"Look, I don't know what happened, but P.J. really wants to apologize to you." Soluna hoped her words didn't fall on deaf ears.
Gina scoffed "Apology never accepted! That boy betrayed my very soul! He is never welcome in my presence ever again!"
Soluna facepalmed with a groan, talking with Gina is like pushing an unmovable object. There was only so few things that could make her budge, cute boys, cat videos, her own reflection, her m-…."Does your mom know about this fight?"
Gina dropped her phone, paralyzed. Soluna smirked; Queen Pony Head had no patience for any of their sibling drama, having gone through enough of her own. Gina faced Soluna and begrudgingly admitted defeat "Don't tell my mom, and I'll agree to at least hear my brother out."
OXOXOXOX
Soluna stood between the feuding siblings, watching as the sister stared venomously at her little brother. P.J. slunk back and avoided eye contact "Sis, I'm sorry about what happened. I know I shouldn't have said it but it just slipped out. Can we just move on and go back to how things used to be?"
Gina wasn't moved "You think we can just go back? Uh I don't think you understand just how deep you betrayed me. I can't even look at your face without remembering those horrible words coming out of your mouth."
P.J. floated an inch forward "Gina, please-""No! You always think that just because you're the youngest that I'll forgive anything you do! Newsflash, I won't! I am petty enough to take this to my grave!"
Soluna looked completely done "I'm telling Queen Pony Head."
"No no no no wait!" Gina blocked Soluna's path, silently pleading for her friend to keep quiet about this "Gina, either you make up with P.J. or your mom gets involved. What will it be?" the pink haired girl gave her ultimatum.
Hesitating, Gina looked back and forth between her estranged brother and her annoyed friend. She looked back several times before asking "Can I take a third option?" "NO!" both of them shouted at her.
"Fine!" Gina whined "I'll pick the lesser of two evils." She floated to her brother's side "Promise me that you will never say that again and I will possibly consider un-shunning you."
"It's a deal!" P.J. agreed with excitement, pulling his older sister into a hug with his fins "Hey, there was no hugging in the agreement!" Gina protested, her brother let go and smiled sheepishly "Sorry, sis."
Watching the siblings make up, Soluna let out a sigh of relief "Glad that's over." Then a thought suddenly occurred "Now that I think about it, you guys never told me why you were fighting in the first place."
Gina made a dramatic groan and rolled her eyes "If you have to know, I asked him which member of the Hunky Heartthrobs had the best hair and he said Jason! Jason! Everybody knows Nick has the best hair and-Soluna why are you walking away while I'm talki-"
"Come here often?"
Soluna nearly jumped when a voice came out of seemingly nowhere, only to see Dev looking up at her from the window "Oh, it's just you Dev." She breathed with relief. The pink haired princess was dressed in an elegant gown with a crown sitting on her head; Dev similarly was wearing a nice jacket and dress shirt with matching pants.
Tonight was an annual ball thrown in the castle, yet the daughter of the hosts was sitting up on the castle rooftop, a notebook and mini telescope by her side. Her friend hoisted himself up to join her "How come your up here instead of at the party Pink? Gina's dancing scare you off?"
"No, I-I don't really enjoy those kind of parties." Soluna answered truthfully, sure with her parents in charge it was far from a stuffy formal affair, Star made indoor fireworks for the opening speech for starters, yet Soluna preferred to sit under the quiet night sky away from everyone else.
"Really!? There are Chinese acrobats and a nacho cheese fountain, even I'm having fun!" Dev was shocked, when he was invited to the party he imagined it be a serious ballroom dancing thing, he apparently had never heard of a Star Butterfly Party. He'd only agreed to come so he could scope out the castle and find where the remains of the wand was, Dev had been trying to complete his mission when he just happened to spot a familiar figure out one of the windows.
"Oh no, the party itself is really cool! It's the guests that I don't enjoy." Soluna shrugged, her companion feigned offence "Wow, as a guest I feel so hurt!" he clutched his chest dramatically, hitting the lock under his shirt. The princess chuckled "You know what I mean, all the ambassadors and dignitaries, other royals and government people, all the people that know me only as the princess."
"So? From what I've heard your mom was not a typical princess."
"I know…and that's part of the problem…"
Now Dev was confused, he watched Soluna pull her legs to her chest and shifted her eyes to the roof tiles. He'd seen her upset before but not like this, she'd normally go on a quick rant about her problem and then go read a book or something, he didn't quite know what to do in this instance "…If that's just part then what's the whole problem look like?"
Soluna didn't make eye contact, she kept looking down as she spoke "My parents are living legends, they've done so many incredible things in their lives. I've heard all of their stories and so has the rest of the world. When people see me, they define me as the child of Star and Marco, like I'm supposed to be exactly like them and change the world. That's all they ever see me as, just the 'Starco' daughter."
Honestly, Dev had thought the same when they first met. The devil horn headband and hairstyle instantly clued him into who she was, he stereotyped her too before he even spoke to her, and he actually felt bad about it "So what do you want people to see you as?" he was genuinely curious.
Soluna lifted her head and turned to the vast starry sky above "I don't know! I just want them to see me as Soluna! I'm not a super cool fighter of evil I'm a-""Nerd that loves space stuff?" Dev answered for her "Exactly!" she agreed.
For the first time since he had arrived up here, Dev noticed the discarded telescope and notebook. He could see some writing on the page but couldn't understand it for the life of him "Where you doing space stuff before I got here?"
Placing the notebook in her lap, Soluna nodded "Yeah, it's a perfectly clear night for stargazing. I was trying to map out the current constellations visible this time of the year." The princess always livened up when talking about space and the universe, Dev always listened to her even when he pretended not to, he didn't really get it but it was what she was passionate about "Hey, how come you're so interested in space anyway Pink? Even all your spells have spacey words like 'Altair' or 'Charon' in them."
The girl was surprised to hear him ask her that, it was the first time she knew of that he was actually interested in what she was saying "Back when I was ten there was a once an event called the Celestial Cosmic Convergence. It was the most incredible thing I have ever seen, the stars shot across the galaxy as energy from the surrounding planets rejuvenated them! I wanted to know how they did that, I bought a bunch of books about astronomy and I kept on learning about what else was out there. The Butterfly family itself has been using cosmic based names since the early days; even my name means sun and moon, so it felt like I was connected to all of that."
"While we're on the subject, how do you feel about Uranus jokes?" Dev asked.
He actually got a laugh out of his companion; he couldn't help but smile at the sound of her dorky laugh and ended up joining in too. The laughter subsided after a minute, and Soluna turned to the boy next to her "Hey, thanks." "…for what?" "Coming up here and talking to me, I know I'm not as fun as the party but it means a lot."
"You kidding? I like spending time with you." The words just slipped out of Dev's mouth, a red blush covered his face and he turned away to hide it, unaware of the similar blush on Soluna's face. He just said it without thinking, but truthfully, he meant it. Dev couldn't understand what he was feeling, but for the first time he was having second thoughts about his role in all this…
The trio of Soluna, Dev and Mandy were seated on a couch in the 'living room' room of the castle, all completely focused on the video game they were playing on the large TV before them "Soluna?" the girl sitting in the middle looked away and saw her mom standing behind her "Hi mom, heading out?"
"Yeah, your father and I will be back late tonight. The kitchen is making pizza for dinner and there is a spare battle-axe in the closet in case of an attack." The queen informed her daughter, giving her a quick kiss on the forehead before heading out to meet with Marco "Be safe mom!" Soluna called after her. Some noise on the screen reminded her of the game in session; while Soluna had been distracted Mandy and Dev had teamed up and eliminated her character from the match "Not cool guys, not cool."
Soluna resigned to sit back and watch the remainder of the fight "I thought your parents date night was on Thursdays?" Mandy didn't take her eyes off of the game while she spoke "It's not a date tonight, their setting a trap to catch one of those hybrid things." Soluna casually mentioned.
Dev flinched and his character was KO'ed shortly after "Which way is the bathroom?"
OXOXOXOX
"A trap?" Dr. Amalgam repeated.
The scientist listened intently to his son on the other end of the phone "Yeah, I don't have any details but the king and queen are setting a trap for the chimeras tonight." Dr. Amalgam paused thoughtfully, bringing his hand to his chin "I think you should keep the remaining chimeras at the lab tonight." "Actually, I think I'll let number 72 handle this. If they're going to all this trouble we might as well entertain them a bit."
The Doctor heard a faint female voice on the other end before Dev shut off the call; he'd forgive him hanging up this time because of circumstance. Dr. Amalgam grabbed a tablet on his desk, scrolling through until he found the chimera he was looking for and pressed the button.
OXOXOXOX
"You think it's the right one?" "Between all of the other stolen parts, this was the only software that is compatible with every piece."
Marco had compiled a list of every known item the chimera's had stolen, the king had passed it off to Seahorse to look over and the bespectacled equine had provided him with information on what each part could do. They'd figured out most of the pieces could be used as generator parts and the rest could stabilize matter, whatever the man behind this was building had to do with warping space. Seahorse's finding's showed that one key component for the generator was produced in the Cyber-Key's factory where they fought the earliest one. No record of the piece had been recorded stolen since so they figured it would be a likely target.
"Has Janna already sent out the 'tip'?" Marco asked his wife.
Star nodded "Yep, any slimy lowlife around knows of an unmarked shipment of those conduit thingamabobs that's coming through this suspicious canyon." Of course the truck carrying the supposed shipment was full of fakes, if anything went wrong they didn't want the mastermind getting the part he needed.
The couple hid behind a rock and waited, the truck began to slowly drive through the canyon, a little more than halfway through Marco noticed a cloud of dirt shift up close to the truck "Get ready." The chimera revealed itself as it intercepted the vehicle; this one was a strange mix of a fox, warnicorn, rattlesnake and platypus "Weirdest looking one yet." Star muttered.
The tinted windows of the truck hid that there was no driver, and like a charm the chimera went for the cargo. The beast sniffed at the goods, unaware that they were laced with tracking devices "RAAAAAAUUUGHH!" the chimera shrieked and emitted an acid substance from its mouth, destroying all of the fake parts on the truck.
"Was it able to tell they were fakes?!" Star looked to her husband, who couldn't really give her an answer "Maybe?! I know as much as you do about those things!"
The chimera let out another roar, spitting acid onto the duo's hiding rock. It knew they were here. Star and Marco jumped out from behind the now-sizzling rock, each armed with their magic and ready to strike. The chimera leered and shot out more acid towards them, Star ducked left and Marco ducked right and the two ran on the opposite sides of the creature.
"Fuzzy Wuzzy Muzzle!" Star ensnared the chimera's duck-billed mouth with a furry muzzle, which didn't last long against the acid "Do any of the animals in that even have acid breath?!" the queen questioned aloud.
Going for an attack from behind, Marco conjured a dozen dragon-shaped projectiles "Rising Dragon Strike!" most of the spell hit the chimera, it kicked out one of its legs towards Marco in retaliation, nearly smacking him with a venomous spur "Great, we gotta watch out for the legs too!" the chimera's tail swiped at Marco, whose eyes bulged when he got a better look "ARE YOU KID-THERE'S A SNAKE HEAD UNDER THE TAIL!"
The couple both pulled up magic shields as the chimera continued to attack, Star's shield was durable against the acid, but it wouldn't last forever "STAR! USE THE WARNICORN STAMPEDE!" Her husband urged, Star hesitated "You're too close! You'll get hit too!"
"Trust me!" Marco pleaded, that was all Star needed to go forward with the spell "WARNICORN STAMPEDE!" not only her voice but Marco's as well called out. The two stampedes's collided against each other with the chimera stuck in the middle, self-destructing mid-stampede.
The couple ran to each other, making sure neither was hurt, they were both alright but the chimera and the tracking devices were lost. Star pulled out her phone and dialed up a number "Plan A failed, did plan B work?"
"It did, come here and see." The woman on the other end informed them. Star and Marco opened a portal and emerged a few miles away on a mountainside, meeting them on the other end was the former queen Eclipsa "The All-Seeing Eye got all footage of the surrounding area, including where the creature came from." The elder Butterfly pressed her hand to the spell, sliding it back and rewinding the footage. Enlarging on a part of the image, the All-Seeing Eye revealed the chimera emerging from a portal.
"A-ha! Now we just need to trace the portal from the magic in the area!" "Hang on Star; did you notice anything about that portal?" Marco stared at the paused footage "Can you rewind again?" "Of course." Eclipsa backed the video again, and Star caught what Marco had noticed "There wasn't any cutting when the portal opened and closed, it just blipped open and shut!" "That portal wasn't made with magic, it was made with something else."
Interdimensional adventures were supposed to be fun, sure they could be dangerous but that was all a part of the journey. Soluna had heard every one of her parents stories of their dimension hopping days, while she herself had been to plenty of dimensions it was always someone else taking charge and her tagging along. All of Earthni expected her to be as heroic and spontaneous as the king and queen, so Soluna felt it was time to put down her books and go see the multiverse.
"Here's the old scissors-" Star passed the scissors her husband had earned into Soluna's hands "Have fun and take care, don't be afraid to portal out of things get too dangerous." Her mother spoke from experience.
"I know mom, thanks." Soluna gratefully accepted the scissors "And don't worry, I'm not going alone after all." She looked behind the queen to see her most recent friend speaking to her father. Mandy was supposed to come along but her band ended up getting a last minute gig. Dev could barely make eye contact with King Marco as the latter went over every warning and safety procedure he could think of.
"-if you don't recognize it then it'd be best to avoid it. Don't let Soluna out of your sight, make her wear a helmet if you ride something, never let anyone strange close to her-"
"Marco, I think he gets it." Star placed her hand over her lovers arm, Marco relented from his mini-seminar and kindly addressed the boy in front of him "Ok, just keep her safe. That's the important thing."
Dev only nodded, but was surprised to feel a gentle touch on his shoulder. He finally looked Marco in the eyes as he told him "I trust you to protect my daughter." Marco gently smiled at the boy, who in turn felt his heart drop to his stomach, hearing that the king trusted someone that he shouldn't.
Cutting a hole in the fabric of reality, Soluna and Dev stepped through the portal and into another world. Large plants were everywhere in this dimension, neither of them could see past the treetops "So what dimension is this?"
"One I heard about from my mom."
OXOXOXOX
"So we're fighting this thing for a sandwich?!" Dev stared in disbelief at his companion, who was busy fending off the sandwich beast in the middle of its lair. Over 20 years ago her parents failed to get a complete sandwich from this dimension, so Soluna took it upon herself to partake in the same quest and come out successful.
"Yes, supposedly it's the most delicious sandwich in the universe! Meteor Squall!" Soluna's magic created a burst of small magic shots, Dev took the opportunity to knock it back with an iron rod he had brought and backed it into a corner "Andromeda Chains!" Pink colored magic chains bound the sandwich guardian in place. It thrashed around trying to break the chains but they held strong.
Soluna jumped onto its back and quickly reached down into one of the holes, lifting a nice looking sandwich out of it "This better be a really good sandwich Pink." Dev whacked the creature again; the iron pipe left a mark and infuriated it. Soluna leapt off and pulled Dev alongside her as the two ran out of the cave "We did it! We got the sandwich!" Soluna gleefully exclaimed.
Her celebration was cut short when several stone swords were pointed at her face "Where do ye think ye be going with that sandwich missy?" surrounded on all sides, Soluna and Dev found themselves face to face with pirates.
"Did your parents mention anything about pirates?" Dev asked in a hushed tone.
"Nope, this is new." Soluna shrugged, in all of the research she did into this dimension she hadn't heard anything about pirates "Nothing I can't handle though! Ring of Saturn!" she released a disc shaped spell at the lead pirate. The spell sliced his arm clean off, revealing a mud-like substance that reattached itself instantly.
"Uhh Juno Leaves!" razor sharp leafs sank into several of the pirate's skins, completely unharmed. Soluna continued to cast spell after spell at her opponents, none of them having any effect. Dev swung his pipe at some but it too was ineffective "Just what are you guys?!"
The captain of the group shrugged off another spell as he answered "Ye be looking at the Clay Pirates, the most unstoppable band of thieves this side of the universe. Ye have something that we want."
OXOXOXOX
The duo was unable to defeat the clay pirates and had been captured in a hardened lump of clay. The captain merrily laughed as he ate the sandwich they had worked so hard to earn "Why did I ever think I could do this?" the princess bemoaned "I'm not a warrior or a hero, I shouldn't have tried to be."
"Stop beating yourself up, you didn't know this would happen." Dev reminded her "Look you can't just narwhal blast every enemy, you're not your mom."
"I know…" Soluna groaned.
"What I mean is, whenever we've been in trouble you always use your brain to get us out of it. You don't overpower your opponents, you think of ways to disarm them and stop them in their tracks." Dev's words caused Soluna to pause and think to herself "Stop them in their tracks…I think I have an idea…"
The Clay Pirates chatted amongst themselves, when the sound of something breaking turned their attention in the direction of their captives. Soluna and Dev stood over a pile of rubble, waiting as the band of pirates came in closer "Ye be wanting to go another round?"
"Sunfire Spark Blaze!" the princess doused the clay pirates in a cover of flames, making sure she got them all before stopping. The clay pirates had hardened and were frozen in place, unable to do anything but watch as the duo made a portal back home and disappeared.
"Dev…"
The boy flinched when he heard his name, nearly dropping the wand remains he was holding. Soluna wasn't supposed to be here, she was supposed to be out with her parents for a few more hours. Dev had finally located the wand fragment hidden in the castle, specifically in the old tapestry room. She'd already seen the wand piece, she was staring at him with dread and confusion "Wh-what are you doing Dev?" she nervously asked, taking a step closer.
"Oh, uh you see Pink it's sort of a funny story…" he tried to cover himself, though he knew his cover was blown.
A squeaky barking noise cut through the tension in the room, Marco's Hybrid Hunting Hound Spell came rushing through the door and pointed his nose at Dev "Chimera found! Chimera found!" it announced in an adorable voice. Star and Marco followed the summon and walked in on the situation "Wha-Dev?!" Star gasped aloud, the king and queen saw the old wand in his grasp and the spell gesturing to the blonde boy.
"I guess the secret's out…" Dev sighed; he clutched his lock in his free hand and yanked it off the chain. His body began to change, he grew a few feet taller and more muscular, his skin turned grey and his eyes became yellow with small black slits. The lock wrapped around his chest and made an 'x' shape with the chains, he shed his jacket, gloves and boots and the shirt and pants left became ripped.
With his transformation finished, there was no doubt to the three Butterfly's that Dev was indeed a chimera, with a very familiar combination of DNA mixed into him "I know those parts-" Star recognized his appearance "-that's the DNA of the Magic High Commission!"
Horns and arm spikes from Hekapoo, clouds on his shoulders and a tiny mountain from Omnitraxus, a snake hand and foot from Rhombulus, wings and a claw from Lekmet, and a tail and hoof from Reynaldo. Dev was indeed a chimera using the late commissions DNA.
Marco's moon's sparked furiously; he didn't need any more explanation to put all the pieces together. His form and the wand told him everything "Blazing Lances!" the king launched several blades at the chimera. Dev quickly turned most of his body intangible and let the blade go through him, wincing as one or two struck his wing.
Dev set his horns on fire and charged at the couple, Star quickly made a portal and shoved her daughter through before closing it and knocking Dev back with a rainbow fist punch. The chimera recovered from the blow and opened his wings up, taking flight and attempting the fly over the rulers.
Marco grabbed his tail as he flew by and shouted "PLASMA PALM!" sending magic electrical currents coursing through Dev's body. The boy shook him off and shot dozens of crystals out of his left hand, the king walked towards him through the attack, ignoring the cuts on his body with a righteous fury "This whole time-this whole time you were just using my daughter to get the wand?!"
Covering himself in flames, Dev went in for another charge attack, only to be knocked off course by a storm of narwhals "You messed with the wrong family." Star voice was low and threatening "Spider with a Top Hat Blast!" her summon appeared and continuously fired at the spy "What are you really, who is behind all of this?!" the queen demanded.
Dev turned partly intangible once more, briefly looking at two capsules hidden under his belt buckle "Answer!" Marco shouted, holding a glowing magic sword inches from Dev's nose. Making a large crystal and pushing Marco back a few inches, Dev begrudgingly answered "I am Devon Amalgam, my father enhanced me with his genetic experiments years ago to train me for this day. You can't even begin to imagine what my father is going to do!"
"Rising Dragon Strike" dragon shaped missiles broke the crystal apart and bombarded Dev, knocking him to the floor as he tried to fly away again. The boy always knew how powerful the king and queen were, even with the MHC DNA he didn't stand any chance against them. Dev discreetly grabbed the hidden capsules in his belt before covering himself in fire again, using his wings he fanned the flames outwards towards Star and Marco.
"Flame Retardant Foam Fizz!" the queen doused the flames in a bubbly substance, distracting her long enough for Dev to start flying down the hall towards the closest balcony. Marco took chase and shot more of his dragon missiles at the chimera boy, Dev kept flying and ignored whatever hits avoided his intangible sections.
Marco caught up quickly and knocked Dev out of the air with an uppercut, when the boy's flames reignited Marco didn't cease and continuously sent hard punches at his opponent. Dev slipped one of the capsules into his snake hand while withstanding the blows 'I only have one shot…'
The moment there was a break from the karate onslaught; Dev pushed his hand forward and shot the capsule with some crystals. The capsule hit Marco and went into his skin; the king grimaced as he fell to the floor, his body unable to move.
"MARCO!" the queen's anger burned as she saw her husband down, she charged at the chimera ready to strike "Wait Star he-" the warning didn't come quick enough as Star was hit by the other capsule, losing her mobility as well "How did you-" "Bullets with paralysis venom, it'll wear off in 24 hours. But by then my father will already be finished." Dev replied, he took out his cellphone and pressed a few buttons, seconds later a non-magic portal appeared and Dev began to go through.
"DEV WAIT!"
He stopped, looking at the out of breath girl that had just ran into the hallway. He couldn't meet her eyes, he pushed down any feelings and entered the portal.