Hi everybody, Exotos135 here, with another bizarre story that features a weird pairing that NOBODY probably ever thought had something in common, because clearly, if it isn't Starco, Janco, Jarco, or something else with Marco or Star in it, then it doesn't really exist now, does it?

But, angry little statement aside, this story, I decided to pair up everybody's favorite hot-headed demon prince and hot-headed guardian of inter-dimensional travel. You know, Tom and Hekapoo.

I would list the things they share, but it should be fairly obvious at first glance, so let's just head on to the story already.

P.S.: Yes, the game played here might be known as table tennis in the show, I may got that wrong, but let's just assume it's ping pong and be done with it.

It was the middle of the day in Echo Creek, and a certain fiery carriage driven by skeletal horses, on fire to boot, was parked at the parking lot of one of Echo Creek's finest restaurants. From said restaurant came out a particular customer: Tom Lucitor, prince of the underworld, who was eating a burrito while carrying a bag on his free hand.

"Marco was right, these burritos are delicious!" Tom said before taking another bite out of his burrito. "I sure hope Mom and Dad enjoy the ones I bought for them: Cheese for Dad, and super hot chilli for Mom."

Tom entered his carriage and closed the door with magic. "Granted, Mom likes her food to be much more hot than "super hot," but I bought what I-"

However, as soon as Tom turned around, he saw a shadowy figure sitting on his carriage's couch, a figure that had a slender physique, and a sly look with a smug smile that slowly opened up as Tom casually finished:

"Could?"

Then, the demon prince put the bag at the side, and took another bite out of his burrito before he glared at the intruder and hissed, "You got some nerve to invade a demon prince's carriage. I suggest you tuck your tail between your legs and leave."

"Aw, come on, Tom," the figure smugly spoke.

Suddenly, Tom's burrito was out of his hand, now in possession of the shadowy figure. "Is that the appropriate way to talk to..."

The figure leaped forward and landed in front of them, revealing herself to be Hekapoo, who took a bite out of the burrito as she finished:

"Your ancestor?!"

"Hekapoo?!" Tom exclaimed as Hekapoo devoured his burrito soon afterwards. "W-What are you doing here?!"

"Well, seeing how a certain someone doesn't bother to pay me a visit, despite how easy it would be, I decided to do something different and come visit them!" Hekapoo answered before giving Tom the poiner finger. "The certain someone I'm talking about is you, by the way."

"Yeah, I know that, but do you even have time for this?" Tom folded his arms as Hekapoo sat on his carriage's couch. "I mean, you have work to do with the rest of the Magic High Commission, right?"

"Ugh, this again: I already told you, Tom, I can send a clone to take over my job for the place! After all, it doesn't matter if the original or a copy does it, as long as someone does it," Hekapoo put her arms behind her back. "And now that you mentioned the commission, I just have to ask, how's your training doing?"

Tom looked elsewhere. "What training?"

Hekapoo gently jabbed Tom in the head. "The training you need to do in order to be eligible to take my place, duh!"

"Hekapoo, we've been through this before: Even if I could do the same things you do, you're immortal, and I'm mortal!" Tom put his arms behind his head. "Besides, as the prince of the underworld, I'll eventually have to rule that place. I can't rule a kingdom and watch over all magic at the same time! My Mom's third eye doesn't have that kind of power!"

The interdimensional redhead smiled. "Hey, look at the bright side."

Hekapoo parted the bang covering her right eye, revealing that it was actually covering two eyes: One acting as a normal eye, and the other acting as a sort of pseudo-eye bag.

"You could've inheritted my third eye!" Hekapoo finished, giggling as she pointed at the eye under her right eye.

"I don't think you understand what I'm trying to say here," Tom sighed as Hekapoo covered her hair. "I'm sorry, Hekapoo, but as much as you'd like for me to take over your position someday, I can't do that and run the kingdom."

Hekapoo hummed to herself. "Well, maybe you could, if you could multiply, that is."

"Hekapoo, I've told you this before, and I'll tell you again," Tom took a deep breath. "Just because I'm your descendant, doesn't mean I inheritted your powers."

Hekapoo just smiled and snapped her fingers, creating a fireball out of thin air. "Can you control and manipulate fire?"

Tom snapped his fingers and created a fireball, which dissipated to nothingness soon afterwards. "Yeah, but that's not a big deal. Anybody who practices fire magic long enough can do that."

Hekapoo snapped her fingers once more, vanishing the fireball from existence.

"Do you get literally fired up when you get angry?" Hekapoo narrowed her eye and smiled in a sly manner. "Bartomlomew?"

Tom's eyes glew and turned red as he was surrounded by a volatile, fiery aura, yelling at the top of his lungs, "I told you not to call me by that name!"

Hekapoo did the same thing, glowing eyes and everything, as she snapped, "Don't yell at me!"

Tom and Hekapoo's auras dissipated into nothing as soon as Tom realized what he just did. That, and Hekapoo's little peppy smile might have given it away.

"And also, can you," Hekapoo crouched, then leaped up before basically flying in the air, chirping, "Levitate?!"

Tom did the same and stopped right in front of Hekapoo. "Yeah, and this is called flying, Hekapoo."

Hekapoo narrowed her eyes. "Levitation."

"Flying," Tom growled in response.

"Levitation!"

"Flying!"

"Levitation!"

Just then, Tom got an idea, and smiled as he shouted, "Levitation!"

"Aha, gotcha!" Hekapoo gave her descendant the pointing finger. "You admit it's levitation!"

"Dang it!" Tom and Hekapoo flew back down to the couch, and Tom pouted as he folded his arms. "I thought I could trick you!"

"Silly Tom, you can't trick a member of the Magic High Commission!" Hekapoo boasted. "Unless you're one of the Butterflies, but they trick everyone anyway."

Tom threw a confused look at Hekapoo, who waved her hand and stated, "Long story."

The demon prince rolled his eyes and looked away, which prompted Hekapoo to frown and add:

"Listen, Tom, I didn't just come here to check how you were doing with your powers. I came here in order to spend some time with you, and hopefully get a proper bond with you as well. Believe it or not, I never got the chance to spend some time with my other descendants. Whether it's because of not having enough time, or my descendants being busy with their business, I never get the chance to be with them for more than a second. It feels like we're less like a family, and more like a bunch of people that life itself seems to want to stay separated."

"Why not invite them to your dimension, then?" Tom suggested. "Time flows differently over there."

"I know, but most of my descendants don't even like that place," Hekapoo put a hand on her cheek. "They say it's dreary, and it creeps them out how it seems like a giant desert. And even the ones that do like to go there, like your mother, I can't bring them anymore because they're much bigger than the portals I can cut open!"

Tom stood up. "Actually, now that you mentioned mom's size, how did you even manage to give birth to her?"

"A simple, classic case of a baby being very small, but then growing into a massive giant," Hekapoo got off the couch and waved her hand in a dismissive manner. "But please don't ask me about the father, I always get lightheaded when I think about that..."

"... Okay, so you only want to bond with me?" Tom asked, earning a nod from the interdimensional redhead. "In that case, I think I know what we can do."

Sometime later, at the Tom's dungeon...

The demon prince and his chalk-skinned ancestor went downstairs into the prince's own personal dungeon, with Hekapoo taking a look at her surroundings with a look that Tom couldn't help but associate with amusement.

"Huh, so this is your dungeon, Tom?" Hekapoo remarked as she walked closer to one of the skeletons on display. "I'm getting the feeling you were inspired by your own mother's dungeon, am I correct? Because all of these skeletons hanging around, the red tint, it reminds me way too much of her dungeon."

"Well, I may have been a bit inspired by her," Tom remarked, only to correct himself when Hekapoo. "Okay, I got a lot of inspiration from her. Is that a bad thing?"

"Tom, take this from someone who knows what it's like to be confused for one of your identical clones: Being similar to someone is one thing, but being way too similar to someone is another," Hekapoo folded her arms and threw a stern look at Tom. "Tell me something, and be completely honest: Let's say you take someone prisoner, but this prisoner has been in your mother's dungeon before. Won't they notice how this place shares so many things with hers? How it could be possible you took it to a remodeled version of her dungeon, rather than your own?"

Hekapoo put her hands on her hips. "Or even worse, that you're trying to use your mother's reputation to intimidate them!? Because let's be honest, as scary as you are, a skyscraper-tall, red-skinned, three-eyed, horned demon giant is going to make people soil their pants much more quickly!"

"I wouldn't say Mom's the size of a skyscraper, mostly because I don't know what that is, but I understand what you're trying to say," Tom took a deep breath. "You think I should remodel this place a bit?"

"Switch "a bit" with "a lot" and we'll be on the same page there," Hekapoo took a look around, scratching her chin in curiosity. "But enough about this dungeon, what was the thing you wanted to show me that could help us grow closer with each other?"

Tom snapped his fingers, and some furniture and other stuff in the room moved away to create a ping pong table, net included, out of thin air.

"After a little event that I'd rather not discuss, I came to realize one of the best ways to grow closer and form a bond with someone," Tom folded his arms and nodded proudly. "And that's by playing ping pong!"

Hekapoo tilted her head. "What's ping pong?"

"It's a 2-player game, where one player throws the ball up, then swings his bat, the other player swings his bat to throw it back, rinse and repeat until someone loses the ball several times," Tom snapped his fingers and created two fireballs, which promptly transformed into bats. "I once played it with Marco, and we grew closer since then. Maybe we can pull off something similar?"

"Well, if you think it's worth a shot," Hekapoo clenched her fists and chirped, "Let's do it!"

And so, Tom and Hekapoo got on opposite sides of the table, and Tom threw the ball up and smacked it, sending it bouncing to Hekapoo side, with the interdimensional redhead smacking it, beginning a fairly normal game of ping pong.

That is, however, until Tom decided to show off by smacking the ball harder than usual, sending it flying over Hekapoo's head... just as she created a clone on top of her, who smacked the ball just as hard in return, sending it flying past Tom, and earning the redhead a point.

"Hey, that's cheating!" Tom snapped, once he processed what happened.

"To be fair, you didn't say anything about multiplication being forbidden," Hekapoo smugly replied, her clone sporting a smug smile as she got ready to throw the ball. "Anyway, here I go!"

Hekapoo smacked the ping pong ball with her bat, and she and her clone faced off against Tom, who, with some difficulty, managed to keep the clone and original redhead at bay.

"Hekapoo, please, get rid of the clone!" Tom exclaimed in the middle of the game. "The longer she stays around, the longer you have an unfair advantage against me!"

"But this is the first time I've ever played this game, Tom!" Hekapoo chirped. "And you should know by now that most of our family are filled with a bunch of sore losers, do you really think I'm going to let you beat me that easily?"

Tom growled, realizing that the clone, and whatever other clone Hekapoo decided to make, was going to stay. Nonetheless, the demon prince continued to focus on smacking the ball back and forth between the Hekapoos, until he smacked it far away from the original, which brought a smile to his face as he was about to gain a point...

And then Hekapoo smirked and materialized another clone right where the ball was heading, smacking it right back to Tom, who barely managed to hit the ball back as he processed his situation: Now he had to deal with three Hekapoos at the same time. And judging by their smug smirks, they weren't going to hold back against him.

For the next couple of minutes, Tom put all of his strength in order to keep up with the triple Hekapoo enemy he was facing at the moment. And, for some reason, he felt that his body was reaching his limit. At least, that's how he interpreted it, since it mostly felt like... his body was breaking apart...

Almost as if it would split in two, if he pushed himself just a little bit more.

Which is exactly what he did, as the triple Hekapoo threat smacked the ball right above his head, right when he felt too tired to lift his bat. However, Tom gritted his teeth and still continued to try and hit it...

Causing a clone of him to pop up above him, and smack the ball hard enough to send it right back at the Hekapoos, who rather than smack it back, stood in place, their jaws dropping in sheer shock, with the one in the middle looking absolutely amazed.

This was followed by the Hekapoo and Tom clones dissipating into nothing, as the chalk-skinned ancestor flew to Tom's side and grabbed him before he hit the ground.

"I... I need to rest," Tom said, catching his breath. "And something to drink, too."

Sometime later...

Tom, now with a towel wrapped around his neck and with a drink on his hand, drank said drink as Hekapoo sat right next to him, sporting a wide, joyful smile. And as soon as Tom finished his drink, and recomposed himself, that smile was one of the first things he noticed.

"So, how do you feel?" Hekapoo asked.

"Much better now," Tom took a deep breath. "Before you say "You just learned how to multiply" or something like that, can you tell me what happened exactly?"

Hekapoo giggled before explaining properly:

"Well, while we were playing our game, you pushed yourself to the very limits of your mortal body fighting against me and my clones, whose combined efforts managed to tire you out. However, being a Lucitor, you would never concede defeat against the odds, so you tried to pull one more trick, and you unconsciously multiplied yourself in order to gain a greater chance to win. However, since you did it while you were very tired, you couldn't maintain it for long enough to make a difference, so I had to give up the game for you."

"So, what you're trying to say is, I actually managed to unconsciously use the "Multiplication" ability as a desperate tactic?" Tom inquired, earning a nod from Hekapoo as he got off his chair. "I see, but why did I only use the spell then?"

"Because multiplication isn't something somebody can just do on a whim," Hekapoo got off her chair as well. "You need a goal in mind, and your body needs to be pushed to the limit, because only when your body itself feels like it'll break apart, can you truly create a clone of yourself. And this isn't something easy to learn, either."

"How would you know?" Tom asked. "I mean, don't you use a spell to create your clones?"

"That's just one way to achieve the same goal, Tom: After all, just because some people use levitation to fly around, doesn't mean people with wings can't do it," Hekapoo shook her head. "My way of multiplication is using a spell, and yours is by literally pushing your body past it's limits. If you keep working on the ability, you'll be able to find a way to do it without the clone dissipating moments later, or even better, without you collapsing soon afterwards."

The demon prince hummed to himself and scratched his chin as he thought about it, nodding with a smile once he saw a way how that could work.

"And also, I'm so proud of you, Tom!" Hekapoo chirped as she hugged her descendant as hard as she could, without physically hurting him, of course. "Who would've thought that all the motivation you needed to be able to multiply was to play a simple game of ping pong?"

"And best of all, we can add that to the list of abilities I have now," Tom brushed Hekapoo's hair. "Who knows? Maybe I'll eventually learn how to make interdimensional scissors out of fire too."

Hekapoo looked up, sporting the most awestruck look possible, prompting Tom to chuckle and say, "Don't get your hopes up, though."

"Ugh, you tease!" Hekapoo giggled. "Well, what matters is that the game's done, you got a new power, we got closer together, and now we can start redecorating your dungeon!"

"Oh right, you suggested to redecorate this place," Tom took a quick look around, the nodded. "Okay, let's change this place up "a lot" before you leave."

Hekapoo flailed her arms up and down and jumped in joy as she shouted, "Yay! We're on the same page!"

Tom couldn't help but laugh at his ancestor's attitude. She may be several million years older than him, but her childish moments made that hard to remember. Heck, if anybody saw the two together, and they didn't know how important Hekapoo was, they could probably mistake them for brother and sister.

However, one thing suddenly popped up in Tom's mind, making him say, "Hekapoo, before we start redecorating, be honest with me."

Hekapoo stopped and listened to Tom's question:

"Did you multiply yourself just to motivate me into learning how to multiply myself?"

The interdimensional redhead put both her hands on her cheeks and blushed as she teasingly answered, "Maybe?"

Tom returned the smile, and the pair laughed a bit before they started redecorating the dungeon, feeling a little bit closer after their ping pong encounter.