Prince Marco Vs The Forces of Darkness
Disclaimer: I do not own Star vs the forces of evil.
Chapter 05: Match Maker
Star stared at the paper before her and groaned. "Ah! I can't believe I got another F!"
She held out the test, showing to Marco and Janna beside her. "She even put a frowny face, the frowny face of disappointment, mocking me and my F."
"So, what about you, Marco? What did you get?" Janna asked the prince.
Marco pulled out his test. "It's an A. Is that good or bad?"
Star blinked. "That's the best grade possible."
"Oh, that would explain the little happy face, huh, happy face of congratulations."
"How did you get an A?" Star questioned.
"I did like Miss Skullnick told to. I followed her instructions, paid attention to her lecture, took notes, studied my notes and did all my homework. It's not all that different from studying my spells in my spell book. Just try the process over and over again until you start getting it."
Star stared at him unconvinced, "Sooooo, just like magic, uh?" She muttered, moments before an idea struck her. "Marco! Use your magic! Turn my F into an A!"
Marco half glared at her. "Star, no, that won't accomplish anything. You still won't be able to solve the problems the next test and even if I change the letter on your paper, it will still be an F in Miss Skullnick's grade book. It won't make any difference in the long run."
Star glared at her friend, but couldn't come up with a response. She didn't know how to argue with that.
"How about I help you study?" Marco offered her, "After school we can study together."
"Ugh, fine! Want to join us, Janna?"
"Sure." Janna let out.
When classes finished, Star and Janna went outside, sitting at an empty lunch table right near a shady tree. It was a nice day with only a slight breeze. They took out their math books and waited for Marco.
"Hey!" Marco called out, Sabrina walking right behind him. "I hope you two don't mind, but I ran into Sabrina and she said she needed some help in math too." He said, gesturing to the clumsy cheerleader.
"I brought brownies." Sabrina offered up, slightly embarrassed from being the center of the group's attention.
"Ah! Yes!" Star quickly cheered up, taking one.
Sabrina explained herself, "Yes, well, I made some and thought that Marco might like them. It's just that baking and cooking is something I do to relax and-"
"Me too!" Marco admitted, picking up a brownie. "I like cooking too!"
"Really?" Sabrina smiled in surprise at the prince.
Marco tasted the brownie in his hand, pleased with its taste. "This is really great! You'll have to show me the recipe someday."
"I'll be happy to show you how to make them." Sabrina smiled, her face turning red. Marco failed to notice as he gobbled down another brownie and opened up his book.
They started off doing their math homework, not that they got much done with Star not wanting study at all. After half an hour, a shrill voice rang out, "Sabrina!"
Brittney walked in her cheerleader uniform, focusing on Sabrina. "What do you think you're doing? We have cheerleading practice!"
"Oh, sorry!" She shrunk in her spot a bit. "It's just I ran into Marco and he mentioned he was going study math and invited me join and…"
"Marco?" Brittney turned her head to see the prince nibbling a brownie. "Marco!" She quickly wrapped an arm around Sabrina. "Sabrina, if you needed some help with math, you could have told me. As your captain, I would be more than happy to help you." She then turned around to focus on Marco. "I'll just cancel today's practice and come help you all study."
"You don't have to do that." Marco objected, feeling slightly put off, not wanting to intrude in someone else's agenda.
"Don't worry! Of course I am going to help one of my teammates if they need me! Just let me get my books."
Before anyone could object Brittney had run off.
"Oh, I didn't know Brittney could be so helpful." Star cocked her head in wonder.
"Wait, you actually bought that?" Janna raised an eye brow, looking at her naïve friend.
Marco, oblivious to Janna's implications continued to eat his brownie. "Oh, you have ground nuts mixed in?"
"Yeah!" Sabrina smiled, "I think they mix the flavor better "
Janna was annoyed at how quickly her point was shrugged off, baking quickly becoming the main topic. She flipped through a notebook before pushing it towards Marco. "Hey, Marco, what does this sentence mean?"
Marco glanced over the page. "Focus on the image and say the spell, remember-" Marco paused, Noting that it was written in Mewman and his own hand writing. "That's my spell note book. Did you take that from my backpack?" Marco checked his bag.
Sabrina and Star looked over the notebook. Various pages held drawing of Marco's spells with notes written in mostly Mewman script.
"I thought that big book was your spell book, the one with the little blue man." Janna questioned it.
"Little blue man? Wait, there IS a little blue man?" Star exclaimed surprised, frowning immediately. "My dad keeps telling me sometimes he sees a little blue man stealing my pudding cups! I thought he was stealing them and was just a terrible liar!"
"Yeah, sorry." Marco apologized, "I haven't introduced you two yet. That's Glossaryck and he has a thing for pudding." Marco pulled the notebook away, giving a heavy sigh. "My family spell book has every spell any wielder of the wand has ever mastered." Marco held out his wand. "Every wielder puts in notes, facts, and our family history. Anything that's somewhat important goes there. One of the duties for any of us is that when we create a new spell, we write it into the book for future generations to learn." Marco then pointed towards the annotations. "This notebook is my practice run, my notes as I develop my spells. I don't want to even try adding them into the book until I have perfected them."
They flipped through pages, many summons for strange creatures and different spells, Marco's constant attempt at creating a better crystal shield and even a few notes on spells Marco had learned from the spell books and his attempts to master them, later landing on a page with the image of a wolf with a black and white pattern.
Star's face lit up briefly. "Okay, so let me toss this one out for you," She smiled at him, her fingers in the air. "I think this spell suits you, since you like summoning those animals and everything. 'Narwhal Blast'!"
"'Narwhal Blast'?"
"Yeah, like you shot whales but with horns. Imagine that! A huge whale with a sharp horn hitting your enemy!"
"… I'll think about it." Marco looked at her, a bit weirded out by the idea.
Star hummed to herself happily hoping to see a Narwhal Blast one day.
Sabrina looked over the note book and wondered. "How does that work anyway?" She had seen Marco use some magic before but still didn't know how it worked.
Marco tapped his chin, "It's hard to explain, even with the various explanations I've gotten from my mother, Glossaryck, Rhombulus and others, it's hard to put it into words. It's a very abstract idea."
Star and Janna both leaned in.
Marco scrunched his face as he tried to force the words in his mind, "The universe is large, larger than I think most could properly imagine. Magic is just one aspect." He held out the wand. "The wand is a tool that is deeply connected to this aspect and draws its energy into the world. Typically, you'd need to dive deep into the aspect, into magic, use your heart, your mind, your souls, your emotions all together and train to use magic, but given the nature of the wand acting as a magic catalyst, it eases the user in the process of drawing magical energy and shaping it into what you want." Marco explained methodically.
Both Star and Sabrina seemed curious, although Star clearly more so, despite both being seemingly confused. Janna on the other hand looked like she had a firmer grasp on what was being told.
"You need and idea and focus on giving it shape. Some spells have specific movements, specific words, and names to help shape the idea in your mind. If you mess up on the idea, it could come out terrible. Actually, a lot of things can mess up a spell."
"Wait. Does that mean anyone can use it? I mean, Brittney used it during the party and everything and she never had access to magic before that moment." Janna asked, curious of the workings of the occult unveiling in front of her.
"I don't know. Maybe…?" Marco replied unsure. "The wand draws out a lot of magic. I don't know much about how humans deal with magic, but perhaps the wand on its own can draw magic to use. It's one of the reasons people try and steal it, it's probably the most powerful magic item in the universe. As long as Brittney had a strong emotion and a strong idea, the spell could work. If she hadn't had a strong emotion… it might have gone badly." Marco cringed at the warning Glossaryck had given him.
Janna stared at the wand, Marco's grip grew tight on it.
"Why does it change when someone new holds it?" Star questioned Marco.
Marco thought about it for a second. "Magic is… weird. I think some of the magic seeps out and touches a person's inner self, the wand reacting to it when it comes in contact with a person's self."
Marco looked down at the wand in his hand's, he made sure to always keep in his mind the great power and responsibility that came with being its care taker. The wand was a double edge sword, it could defend as well as destroy and it was up to him to wield it correctly even at the potential threat. It also worried him that just like a regular sword, it was powerful, but really dangerous in careless hands.
He had to be on a constant guard. Like one of those trolls that guarded those ancient treasures in temples.
"Marco!" Star shouted at him after he'd been focused on the wand for a solid minute without talking.
"Ah!" Marco shouted, jolting behind and falling off his seat, hitting the ground and his wand went off, shooting a magic blast. It hit a nearby locker but quickly bounced off a few times down the hall.
After a moment, they heard a scream coming down the hall.
Marco rushed down the hall after the yelp. The girls followed him and reached their classroom as he stopped right before a green skinned troll.
"Miss Skullnick!" Marco shouted.
She rubbed her head, "What happened?"
The girls were a loss for words.
"Uh…" Marco began, "I might have turned you into a troll."
Skullnick looked at him with some disbelief. She got up and looked at her reflection in a window.
"I'm Hideous!" The teacher bellowed.
"Ah, okay, yeah, right." Marco sputtered. "I can fix this. Just try and stay calm. Take a few deep breaths and sit down for a moment. I'll be right back."
Marco lead her back to the table they were sitting back and let sit.
"Star, I need to borrow your scissors."
Star took out the scissors out, "Oh, you need to get you mom's help?" She gave him the scissors.
Marco paused, he would rather avoid showing his mess up to his mother, "No, I think I know someone closer that can help."
Marco tore a rift in and walked through it with Star following him.
The portal closed behind them.
Brittney arrived with her backpack. "Oh, Marco~! I'm ba-" She froze for a second spotted the troll. "Monster!" She started to smack the teacher with her bag.
0000
Star followed Marco into his room. "Wait, you can use it to other places in the same dimension? I thought it only worked for other dimensions." Star narrowed her eyes looking at the pair of scissors in his hands, a smirk forming in her face. "We could do all sort of things with these!"
Marco reached for his book and pulled it off the shelf, "Yes, it works on the same dimension, but I've always been told not overuse it." Marco fumbled with the scissors.
"Okay, I got it." Star took the scissors, a bit dejected but she quickly shrugged it off and opened another portal.
"Hurry we have to rush back to school!"
The pair walked through the portal as it closed behind them.
"Hm…" Buff Frog stared at them through the open window.
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The pair arrived and slammed the book on the table.
"Miss Wong! Stop it!" Skullnick slapped the bag away.
Janna was laughing uncontrollably and Sabrina was just barely holding her laughter.
"Marco! Monster!" Brittney pointed at her teacher.
"Brittney! Stop! That's Miss Skullnick! I turned her into a troll by accident." Marco quickly explained, opening the book.
"Oh…. Sorry." Brittney told her teacher, who seemed more annoyed than injured.
Marco flipped through the pages, finding the small denizen of the magic book snoring. "Glossaryck! I need your help."
"What?" Glossaryck quickly woke up. "Marco, I was taking a nap." Glossaryck looked around, he studied everyone around them taking them in slowly, Sabrina felt almost like the little man was looking right into her soul.
Star mumbled, "Blue pudding thief."
"Okay, why did you turn a human into a troll?"
"It was an accident. My wand… kinda went off…?" Marco replied, feeling guilty by the outcome.
He shrugged, "I guess it could be worse, at least trolls are a nice enough race, most of them are brave warriors and guards. Will be easy to get work."
"I need help changing Miss Skullnick back."
"Oh, that? I doubt you can do that."
"What?!" Marco and Skullnick both said at once.
"It might have been an accident but a thorough one. A stray random thought and a bit of magic can have such random effects. You turned her into a troll, down to the very being, everything except her mind has been changed. Normally such drastic changes would change her personality and mind too. Now any attempt to change her back would likely have negative effects on her psyche."
"What do you mean? Don't I just have to think of turning her back to normal?" Marco asked.
"That's the problem, Marco. What is this 'normal' you talk about?" Glossaryck said, floating closer to Ms. Skullnick. "A stray thought of a troll turned into this. The thought of a random troll transformed her body, her vessel into one LIKE a troll, but not A SPECIFIC troll. What you're suggesting would mean to use a stray thought of a person and transform her, which could radically alter her form. There is not much you can do about it."
"What if I think really hard of Ms. Skullnick before the transformation? Won't this bring her back?"
Glossaryck sighed and approached Marco. "Look, I can see you're trying, but no. This won't bring her back."
"How come?"
"Marco, listen. How well do you know her? Can you say you know every bit of her psyche and her body with impeccable precision?" Glossaryck asked, making Marco stutter a bit. "You don't know her fully. NO ONE knows themselves fully. Trying to reverse the spell as it is would not bring your teacher back. Instead, it would transform her into THE IMAGE YOU HAVE of her. If such a thing would happen then she wouldn't be herself anymore. The minuscule image you crafted based on your limited experiences with her would become her full self, losing any depth or other personality traits she may previously had. You should just get used to it."
Marco was speechless for a moment.
"He's not very helpful." Star pointed at him.
"Yeah, people do say that a lot." Glossaryck pulled out a burrito from somewhere and started to chomp on it. "Can I have my lunch now?"
"Glossaryck, isn't there anything to do? We can't just leave my teacher like this."
"Oh, there are a lot of things to do but I have a feeling you will have your attention elsewhere."
A portal formed behind them and Ludo and his goons arrived.
"Him again?!" Brittney yelled annoyed.
"Oh, the loud one." Ludo growled.
"Ludo, what are you doing here?" Marco questioned him.
"We have come to steal the wand while you are most distracted."
"I've been distracted a lot more than this."
"Yeah, like that cheese pants incident." Ludo remarked, his monsters snickering behind him.
"We agreed never to talk about that." Marco cringed, while Janna laughed in the background at the recollection of that day.
"Let's just get over this!" Ludo yelled. "Get the wand!"
The monsters rushed them.
"Ah!" Star jumped ahead, slamming her fist right into a monster.
Marco was about to rush in but was stopped by Glossaryck, "This seems like a good time to practice your spells."
"Right now? Really?" Marco complained.
"Yes, practicing your battle spells in an actual battle will let you see how they work in the field. Let's start with trying to block the next blow."
A bear monster rushed at Marco, "Crystal Shield Mark 4!"
In a flash of light, a shield made of crystal formed on Marco's arm blocking the attack.
The monster wailed, feeling his arm break.
"Ah!" Marco fell forwards as the shield was too heavy to carry, a moment later it broke apart.
"Okay, this one still needs work." Glossaryck criticized. "The overall structure is off, it's strong but it can't hold its shape. It also needs a new name."
"Told you!" Star jumped on the monster's shoulder smacking its face.
"Try something destructive." Glossaryck told Marco.
"Shimmering Destructo canon!" Marco yelled out and a ruby themed bazooka popped up. With a pull of the trigger, missiles flew out raining down on the monsters.
"Neat!" Star smiled with glee seeing the explosions around her.
"Okay." The little blue man continued, "let's try something in between for you. Try that leech spell I taught you."
"Forget the girl! Rush the prince!" Ludo ordered.
The monsters turned towards him all together to take him down.
Marco held out the wand. "Super Sonic Leech Bomb!"
Glowing leeches shot out attaching themselves to the monsters. All the monsters paused as the leeches began draining their energy and then they exploded.
One of the monsters tried grabbing Star to take her hostage.
"Protective Bubble!" Marco yelled out as he fired a spell at Star.
Before the monster could get to her, a pink bubble formed around her keeping her safe.
"Cool!" Star smiled, she ran the bubble over the monsters that were too slow to get out of the way.
"Okay, good, good. How about this time, something of your choice?" Glossaryck told. "Impress me."
"Ok. let me try something." Marco grabbed his notebook.
Glossaryck used this distraction to turn to the cheerleaders, "So, what are your intentions with Marco?"
"Intentions! I-wha-" Brittney stuttered as her face turned red.
"Uh, would you like a brownie?" Sabrina offered him on of the treats.
"Oh, I like you." With a wave of his hand one of the brownies floated over to him. He then turned his attention to Skullnick.
"So, you're one of his Earth teachers?" He chomped on the brownie.
"Uh, yes." Skullnick wasn't sure how to take any of this, especially after hearing all that was said about her.
"How's he doing?"
"Marco, is doing fine. He works hard, and studies. He just tends to freeze up if you put attention on him. I had him try to solve one of the problems in front of the class and he messed it up, and it was one he's been shown to be able to do. He just needs to work on his confidence."
"Yeah, I think so too. He's got the skills but if you put him under the spotlight he flounders. That's probably why his kingdom wide shield failed. That it might have been a bit much for beginner. And it was a spell inspired by a man-child with the intellect of an above average rock." Glossaryck almost spat the last sentence.
"What?"
"You should probably duck."
Before Skullnick could even ask about that a blue minotaur-esque monster was bounced off the bubble by Star and flew into the air striking the newly made troll.
Janna who'd been glancing at the open spell book asked, "Are you taking any other students?"
Mixing the Brownie into the burrito Glossaryck only said. "Not at the moment, I usually only deal with one student at the time."
"I got it!" Marco came rushing back with his note book. "Hey! Star buy me a moment."
"No problem!" Star shouted back as several monsters attacked the bubble not even making a dent.
"Okay, let's see what you got." Glossaryck waved Marco over to do his spell.
His wand began to glow as he held it aloft, there was a prickling on everyone's skin and they could smell the lightning and the rain as if a storm was approaching.
"Lupin storm!"
With a loud crack and blinding flash, lightning ruptured out. A defining roar made everyone except Glossaryck shudder.
Thunder manifested and shaped itself taking the form of a wolf. Slowly energy turned into fur and standing before them was a large majestic wolf with piercing blue eyes and snow white fur with black stripes.
The wolf turned and stared at Marco as if judging him, slowly the wolf moved and sniffed Marco, then it gave him a friendly lick.
"There, that's a good boy," Marco petted the wolf. "Okay, let's go fight those monsters."
The wolf just looked at Marco.
"It's not bad." Glossaryck confirmed. "Like the inspiration you took from the dire wolves. You didn't name it yet though, so it's not going to do what you say until you do so."
"Name it?" Janna asked,
"Yeah," Marco confirmed. "When you make creature spells you have to give them a name. Giving them a name binds them to me letting me control them and give them an identity. It's not finished until I give them a name."
"Most people just name them after the name of the spell, but Marco refuses to do that." Glossaryck nibbled on his snack.
"It just seems too impersonal." Marco commented. "Just gonna need another minute Star!" Marco yelled out to Star.
"No problem! I'm wearing them down." At this point the monsters were just tossing the bubble around playing volleyball with it.
Marco wondered what to name his new spell.
"Wolfy!" Janna offered.
"Salem!" Sabrina added.
"Taiga!" Brittney told them.
"Oh, I like that." Marco smiled, Brittney smugly smiling at the others that her choice was picked. "Okay, I name thee Taiga. Now, Taiga, go fight those monsters."
Taiga snarled as he turned to the monsters and let out a terrifying roar. The air shook around them as thunder shot down from the sky striking down the monsters.
Star looked around as the bubble popped, watching the now singed monsters twitching around her. "We won!"
"Good work Taiga!" Marco nuzzled the wolf like it was a trained dog.
Ludo pulled himself up. "Okay, I've had enough." Taking out his scissors he created another portal. "Everyone, let's get out of here." He kicked one of the downed monsters. "Get up."
Marco stared at the monster, suddenly very worried and panicking. "Is he dead?"
"No, he's just probably bleeding internally and BEING A TOTAL BABY ABOUT IT!" Ludo yelled at the near unconscious monster.
Soon enough the monsters started to flee into the portal. That's when Marco spotted Miss Skullnick flirting with one of the monsters, the very monster that had crashed into her.
"Oh, is this a love connection I see?" Star moved over to them. "Since we got you two together, any chance I can get my grade bumped into an A?"
"Honey, please! I'd give you an A-Plus if I was still a teacher. I'm setting sail with Captain Triceps here." Skullnick chuckled.
The monster just started babbling.
"What about my A?"
"Try studying." Skullnick suggested before stepping into the portal.
Star slummed over towards Glossaryck. "So, do you happen to have a spell that can make me good at math?"
"I'm afraid not," Glossaryck told him. "Hey, is it a human thing to fall for magical beings?"
"Ah, no, I don't think so. Why?"
Glossaryck just looked at the cheerleaders smiling at Marco as he played with Taiga like he was a giant puppy and how Janna joined in rubbing his belly. "Just something I've been wondering."
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The following day at school Marco got in front of the class, he felt it was at least his duty to tell them that their teacher wouldn't be coming back.
"So, after I turned her into a troll she ran away with a monster to another dimension."
The class was quiet for a moment before erupting into cheers.
"Okay, wasn't expecting that."
As Marco pondered the implications as a portal opened up and Miss Skullnick plopped out.
"Miss Skullnick?"
"He dumped me." Skullnick said bitterly. "I think. I don't know. I couldn't understand a word he was saying!"
"Uh, welcome back." Marco greeted her meekly.
Skullnick turned, eyes filled with rage. "Everyone get ready for the worst pop quiz if your lives!"
The entire class broke into groans.
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In Marco's room Glossaryck spoke into the mirror to Queen Angie, calling her up to give her a weekly progress report on Marco's training.
"Well, pretty quiet week. I've trained Marco with some battle spells, needs to practice a bit more to get the hang of them. He does seem to show a good control over his magic. Even a misfire blast was contained enough not to destroy the core of what was hit. And he managed to conjure a storm and turn it into one of his creature spells."
"That does sounds wonderful. I'm glad to hear my little boy is making progress."
"Yes, I must admit that sending him to Earth was a stroke of genius. He's really opening up and it's certainly helping him."
"So, he is making friends?" Angie asked hopeful.
"Yeah, he's gotten close to some people."
"That's wonderful, be sure to tell him he can bring his friends along to the ceremony next week."
"I'll be sure to do. I'm sure you'll love them." Glossaryck said with a knowing smirk.
Beta Notes: Hello again! I'm proud to say that this was proofread in record time. I received, read it and proofread it in less than 16 hours. (Take in consideration there is still housework, college assignments and whatnot on the way). The chapter being slightly shorter also helped, but that's not the main issue. This chapter may have been a slower one, but things are bound to pick up pace soon. I'm particularly excited with some upcoming chapter, although the one I'm looking forward the most may take a while, so I guess we all will have to wait. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this chapter!
Author's Notes: Everyone please applaud my beta for a quick turn around with this chapter. Okay, so next chapter will be something special, something different and I hope you like it. The next chapter will be one of the biggest differences in this Universe. The only clue I'll hand out is that we are gonna see someone you guys couldn't wouldn't expect to see so soon. So leave a review and tell me what you think and maybe guess whose gonna show up.