Aflame
Chapter 4
Two birds, one stone
Marco opened his eyes slowly as he brought himself back to the waking world. He could feel in his mind that it was already morning. The flashback of yesterday's events suddenly came back to him at full force. He groaned and looked down at Star, who was still asleep and hugging him as tight as she could. He decided that he should probably wake her up now. If they were going to do some kind of investigation like she said they should do, then they should probably start early in the day.
"Starrr…." He said slowly. "Wake up."
Star murmured something, opened her eyes and looked up at him.
"Marco?" She said. "What time is it?
"I..think it's about seven o'clock."
Star closed her eyes and buried her face in Marcos chest again. "You know the rules Marco." She said, her voice muffled. "Don't wake me up before eight o' clock unless I wake up first or if it's an emergency. Besides, I had one of the worst dreams. Meteora and Mariposa got kidnapped, Janna got sent to the hospital, and there was some unknown threat that was scaring everybody."
Marco sighed. "Star, that actually happened, remember? I woke you up because if we're going to try and find Meteora and Mariposa, then we should start early."
Star paused for a second. "I know." She said. "But I was still hoping it was just a dream."
"We all do Star. I can't even imagine what Eclipsa, Globgor, and my parents are doing right now."
"Probably helping the police out with stuff. Either that or the police sent them back home to the monster temple. I imagine that they're not getting any sleep either."
"You think so?" Marco said.
"I know so." Star said. "I hardly got any sleep when my mom went missing back in Mewni. I can't even imagine what it would be like to lose your own child. I have a feeling that they won't sleep a wink until she's found."
"And that is why we're getting up early to find them. The earlier we find them, the earlier we can stop Mina."
"Don't forget about that "new guy."" Star said. "The one Janna warned us about. The one that was scaring a bunch of people and making them leave the town."
"We'll have that as our second priority." Marco said. Unless they're the ones responsible for the kidnapping, we'll have to deal with that later. But for now, we should get up."
Marco climbed out of the bed and walked into the nearby bathroom. "Don't worry about this "new guy" right now. Just get up for now and get ready to leave. Remember, we're going to visit Needles for information. Hopefully he's still in town." He said before closing the door.
Star sighed and climbed out of the bed as well, waiting for Marco. She hoped that the whole situation could be finished before the end of the day, lest Eclipsa and Globgor lose another night of sleep. Not to mention Marco's parents. She just realized that she hadn't had the opportunity to speak to them about any of this. Yesterday night at the hospital, they had to leave with the police before she could speak to them. They probably weren't taking this well either.
But could anyone? Meteora and Mariposa were now in the hands of the most racist and xenophobic monster-hater in all of Mewman history, and Meteora was half-monster. Considering what they had done to Janna, they had clearly shown that they didn't shy from hurting people that even associated with monsters. Everybody that wasn't with them was an enemy. Especially the ones close to Eclipsa and Star. It made sense to freak out.
But speaking of which, Star herself was shocked with how freaked-out Marco was last night, in that he wasn't freaked out at all. Maybe Janna had done something to him while he was alone with her in the hospital room. Hypnotized him or something. She wondered if Janna could do that to her as well. She could use it in a time like this.
The door to the bathroom then swung open, and Marco came out still drying his hands. "So," He said. "You're ready to go, right?"
"I didn't have to get ready at all considering I'm already in my normal clothes, but yeah." Star said. "Let's go and find those two babies. We'll be hailed as heroes!"
Marco made a "pfft" sound. "I guess, but almost certainly after a three-hour long scolding by the police and our parents about why trying to solve crimes by ourselves is a bad idea. We have to try and stay safe during all of this."
Star laughed. "Alright "safe kid." Don't worry about any of that."
Marco chuckled at his nickname, and grabbed his shoes and put them on. "Come on." He said, walking out of the room. "I think it's time we take care of Mina once and for all."
"I don't think we've ever agreed more on something else Diaz."
Star followed Marco out of the room and the two of them went through the monster temple, only to be interrupted by Archibald again, just like when they arrived last night.
"Eclipsa's back." He said. "She told me to tell you so that you didn't go out and try and search for her."
"Thanks Archibald." Star said. "But we weren't going to go out and search for her anyways."
"Then where are you going?" He asked.
"We're going to search for-"
"A good breakfast spot!" Marco interjected. "We're...going to search for that to try and get our minds off everything that's happened."
"Then have fun." Archibald said. "If you'll excuse me, I have to go bring the queen some stress pills."
'Geez, does everybody just use those or what?' Marco thought. 'But I guess I shouldn't be surprised. You'd think the company that produces those pills would be the richest in the world considering the current state of it. And that's just Earthni.'
Archibald flew off, leaving a confused Star.
"Why did you interrupt me?" She asked. "What's the worst that could happen if they know we're searching for Meteora and Mariposa?"
"They'll try to stop us Star." Marco said. "I have a feeling that this whole thing is just another way for Mina to hurt Eclipsa, and if Mina gets to us, then we're also just gonna be another way Mina can hurt her. They probably don't want us doing this because we might be next on Mina's list of people to kidnap or kill or whatever."
"That's a good point." Star said. "But we still have to do something."
"Yeah." Marco said. "We are."
With that finished, Star and Marco left the monster temple and slowly descended the seemingly endless stairs to get to the town. It was a work day, so there were already several people and cars on the streets. Star looked at each person carefully, wondering if any of them had been part of the kidnapping. Mina had to have several people working with her, and it could be anyone. They had to remain vigilant for signs.
"So this Needles guy is part of the knitting underworld?" Star asked.
"Yeah." Marco said. "Or something like that. I remember that there was this code that Janna did to talk to him. We also had to get a bunch of tennis balls. I just hope that he hasn't left town already."
Star shook her head. "Marco, he's part of the knitting underworld. Not the real underworld, criminal or demon. I don't think he actually commits any crimes. The people Janna were talking about were ones she said could have other people "taken care of." There's no way Needles is part of that group. The best hope is that he redirects us to another person."
"I suppose." Marco said. "But speaking of the Underworld, have you heard back from Tom? I feel like he would be back by now."
"No." Star said. "I haven't heard anything from him since he went in that little vacation with his parents. They're probably still swimming in lakes made of fire."
"Well, he deserves a vacation. After being hounded by the government for months due to the fact that he can still open portals with his demon powers, he needs a break."
"Yeah…" Star said. "I don't know why he can still do that. I wonder if he can open a portal to any dimension, or just to Underworld and this one."
"We can ask him when he gets back. But for now...we've arrived."
Star looked to her left and saw that Marco was correct. This was it. The same graffiti-covered alleyway that they had gone to when they needed to get to Mewni right before the Solarians attacked.
But something was wrong.
Last time they were here, the alley had been full of knitting's, actual needles, and endless amount of string and twine. But there was none of that here. Just an empty alleyway.
"Are...you sure this is the right place?" Star asked.
"Yeah." Marco said. "This is the same place. I guess they must have left already."
"I was," A voice from behind them suddenly said. "But I forgot something."
Star and Marco whipped around at the sound of the voice. It was Needles, carrying several large bags and looking extremely disheveled. Behind him was a large van that had pulled up at the alleyway, and inside were several of Needles friends that Star remembered from the last time she saw him.
"What are you two kids doing here?" He asked. "Were you looking for me?"
"Yeah, actually." Marco said. "We want to ask you some questions."
"Feel free to ask." He said. "But make it quick. I just came here because I forgot something for Omega-one."
"Omega-one?" Star asked.
"I...think that's his dog." Marco said.
"That's right." Needles said. "And now me, and Omega-one, and everybody else have nowhere to go. But we have to go anyways." Needles walked past and started overturning the numerous trash bags in the alleyway, evidently looking for something.
Not wanting to wait for him to finish, Star spoke up. "Okay. Uh...Needles. Listen, two babies were just kidnapped recently and we were wondering if you-"
Needles interrupted her mid-syllable. "Knew anything about how to get them back?" He said. "No. No, I don't. And I don't want to. I know who did it. The whole town will know soon."
"Wait, how?" Marco asked.
"Today's newspaper." Needles responded, taking a piece of paper out of one of his bags and handing it to Star. "Fresh off the press."
Star took the newspaper and read the headline. "Mina Loveberry attacks teenage girl and kidnaps two babies. Jeez. That was fast."
"Yeah, well, the police want people to be on the lookout. I think normally they would try to keep this incident as quiet as possible in order to not cause too much panic, but they're definitely tired of Mina now, and they want the whole town to be on the lookout for her."
"Well, that's actually the main reason we're here." Marco saisd. "Do you know anything? Do you have any idea where Mina is?"
Needles shook his head. "Sorry kid. I got nothing. I have no idea where she is. The best hope you have for finding her would be to ask one of the Mewmans. We just knit. We don't deal with stuff like baby kidnappings. Never have, never will. That's why we're leaving."
"But...but what about Janna?" Star said. "She's your friend, right? You had to have heard about what happened to her."
"And that is another reason we're leaving kid." Needles said. "We don't want to take any chances with people like. What happened to Janna basically showed the whole town that if you're not with Mina, you're her enemy. And she shows no mercy to enemies."
"That's not the whole reason." Marco said.
"Hmm?"
"You're not just scared of Mina, aren't you? There's somebody else."
Needles took a deep breath. "I don't know where you heard that rumor…"
"Janna told us." Star said. "She told us that some people were scared because somebody new is in town. Somebody that nobody wants to stand up to."
"Listen to me kid." Needles said. "If you do see this person, do not get in their way. They're dangerous. Even more so than Mina. The rumors I'm hearing about them...I can't even imagine what kind of person that is."
"Who are they?" Marco asked. "We need to know."
"Don't know. Don't want to know. Everybody just sees it as easier to leave than get in their way."
"You're not just scared of getting in their way. Whoever this is doesn't care about you." Star said. "You're scared of what they're going to do. Janna said something about everybody leaving before the "fireworks" start. You guys are leaving before that happens, so you don't get caught up in it."
Needles nodded. "You're a smart one. So you should be smart enough to know that trying to stop them is a bad idea. Seriously. That's my last bit of advice to you."
Needles turned over another garbage bag and found what he was looking for. He grabbed the tennis ball and turned it over in his hand. He suddenly stopped, then took something out of his pocket that Star couldn't see. He fiddled with the ball and the object, then looked over at Star and Marco.
"Tell you what. Take this." He said, tossing the ball to Star, who caught it. "Something to remember me by. Give it to Janna. Tell her...thanks. For all the times she helped us out with the goods. Also tell her sorry I don't have a new hat for her."
Needle then walked past Star and Marco and climbed into the back seat of the van. "See you two later. Or not…" He closed the door and the van sped off, never to return.
Both teens watched the van leave, and after it was out of sight, Marco scoffed and kicked at the empty air.
"Well, that was useless." Marco said. "Of course it was. Get help from the person part of the knitting underworld. Brilliant idea Marco. Just brilliant."
"Hey." Star said. "Don't beat yourself up. I suppose we better go to Janna and give her this tennis ball-"
Star suddenly stopped speaking and stared at the ball wide-eyed.
"What's wrong?" Marco asked. Then he noticed what she was staring at.
There was writing on the tennis ball. Very small writing, but still legible.
"Is that writin-" Marco started to ask, but Star quickly put her finger to his lips, shushing him. She then pointed at the tennis ball, and Marco slowly read out the message on it in his mind.
"Old abandoned DMV outside of town. Mina's hideout. Couldn't say anything. Ears everywhere. Don't speak about it."
Marco looked at Star, his eyes now the same size as hers.
"You know," He said. "I have an idea. Why don't we...go check out the shopping district? You know, try to get our minds off this whole thing. We need a break."
Star understood what he was telling her. The shopping district was right next to the abandoned buildings. But they had to watch their words. If there really was somebody listening in to them, then every word could be dangerous.
"Yeah." She said. "We should go. Who knows, maybe we'll run into Ponyhead or a couple of our other friends. We haven't seen them in a while."
"Great idea Star!" He said cheerfully. Both of them smiled at each other, although both of them were currently fearing for their lives, as if somebody had a gun trained on their heads ready to fire if they said the wrong thing.
Star put the tennis ball in her pocket and they both walked out of the alleyway back to the sidewalk, then headed toward the shopping district.
There were many more people on the street now, but Star couldn't look at them. She was too paranoid. The message that was on that tennis ball had taken its toll on her, and now she was hoping that a random person didn't stab them with a knife right there and then.
After several anxiety-induced minutes of walking, they had finally made it to the shopping district, and were almost at the abandoned part of town.
"Almost there." Star whispered to Marco. He nodded in response. Star continued looking from side-to side-, until she got sick of it. Frustrated. She was tired of this already.
'Geez, why am I so worried?' Star thought to herself. We're in the middle of the sidewalk. It's not like somebody is just gonna appear and kill us right here. There's too many people, too many witnesses, not to mention Marco's here as well.'
'Come on!' She thought. 'You're not some cowardly little princess. You're Star butterfly! You've faced down giant monsters before. Even without the wand! I'm not scared because I don't have magic to defend myself! I was never scared to not have magic. I know how to fight! Not to mention I have Marco's help. I have...wait... Marco.'
It was then that she realized. She looked towards Marco, and then at the people on the street.
'Oh…' She thought. 'I'm not scared for myself, am I? I'm scared for the others. For Marco. For the people of Mewni and Earth. I'm worried about them. About them getting caught up in a situation that might be targeted towards me or Eclipsa and them getting hurt in the process.
But that's what always happens, isn't it? Every time somebody tries to do something to get at me or Eclipsa , everybody else gets caught up in it. Marco, the people of Mewni, my mom and Dad, all those people. Every time somebody tried to steal the wand or get rid of monsters or anything like that, people got stuck in the middle. They always got hurt. What if more people get hurt this time? And what if it's permanent?'
Star shook off those thoughts. 'Don't think like that.' She thought. 'All those times, we figure it out. All those times, we stopped the people trying to get at us. Even if we had to lose things in order to do it, like I was thinking about last night, it all worked it in the end. This time, it'll work out as well. I'm- I'm sure of it.'
Star contained walking forward through the town with Marco, now with the confidence that everything would hopefully turn out okay. She had herself and Marco, and everybody else. She had solved problems like this before. She could do it again.
Finally, they reached the end of the shopping district, and made it to the abandoned part of town. There were no people there. Not a soul in sight. Cautiously, they moved towards the old DMV. A minute later, there it stood. Broken, worn-out, empty.
"Star, wait." Marco said. "We don't know what's in there. If we do know that Mina is in there, shouldn't we call the police? It would be best for them to handle this. Besides, if we just barged in there, we would probably be outnumbered. We don't know how many people Mina had on her side, and we could end up in the hospital like Janna, or worse."
Star thought about this. Marco made a good point. They didn't really know what was in there, or if anybody was there and Needles was lying for some reason.
But they couldn't just call the police. They had to make sure that this was Mina's hideout. If they called the police and they searched this empty building for no reason, then it would be a waste of time. Or even worse, maybe Needles was with Mina and was trying to get home to tell the police to go there, so that Mina and her followers could do something else while they were all distracted.
So they had to do something.
"Okay." She said. "I have an idea." Star pointed up at the roof. "I know there's a ladder that behind the building that leads up to the roof. There's a door on the roof that leads into the building. Why they have that there, I don't know."
"How...do you know all that?" Marco asked her, curious.
"Oh, Janna showed me. She knows how to sneak into every building in Echo creek."
Marco sighed. "Of course she does. But what do we do then?"
"We see if anybody's inside. If there aren't, great. We look around. If there are, then we try and see how many and then we leave and calm the police. That way, everybody wins. We get to help, and don't get just barge inside."
"Alright. And hopefully Meteora and Mariposa are in there as well. We can kill two birds with one stone. Stopping Mina and finding the babies." Marco said. "But let's still try to be careful."
After a few seconds of searching, they both found the ladder that led up to the roof and climbed up it. There was indeed a door on the roof. Star cautiously opened it and looked down the stairs.
"Good thing it wasn't locked." She whispered. "Guess nobody bothered to, considering they we're going to destroy these buildings anyways. And I bet Mina forgot as well."
Slowly, and quietly, they made their way down the stairs into the main building. They were presented with another door. Star opened it slightly and peaked out through the crack.
She didn't see anybody. There were signs that there had been people there, such as a few overturned chairs and empty cups, but other than that, the place was empty. She opened the door slightly more, and, continuing to see nobody, opened it completely.
"There's nobody here." Star said. "Everybody's left."
"Still," Marco said. "We shouldn't stay too long. We don't know when they'll come back."
"I don't think so." Star said, picking up one of the cups sitting nearby. "Look at these cups. They still have some kind of liquid at the bottom. Somebody drank from them recently. Which means somebody was here recently. Which means that if nobody's here, then they probably just left."
"But...why?" Marco said. "Do you think Meteora and Mariposa are here somewhere?"
"I hope said." Star said. "Let's just keep looking."
And keep looking they did. But as they continued searching the building, one thought kept lingering at the back of Star's mind: 'Where did everybody go? If this was their base, why would they just leave suddenly? Wouldn't it make sense to have at least one person guarding it at all times?"
"Hey!" Marco called out suddenly. "I think I found something."
"What did you find?" Star asked. She walked over to Marco and noticed what he was looking at. A door, with several noises faintly audible from behind it. Star pressed her ear up against it.
"It sounds like...crying?" Star and Marco looked at each, a moment of realization coming to them.
"You think it's them?"
"It could be a trap Star…"
"Only one way to find out."
"Wait Star! Don't just-"
Too late. Unable to contain her excitement at the possibility of finding Meteora and Mariposa, Star kicked in the door. It swung open, one of its hinges broken.
Luckily, there was nobody else inside but Meteora and Mariposa, laying alone together in a cardboard box on the floor, crying.
"Oh thank Mewni." Star said, rushing forward and picking both the babies up.
"What if somebody was in here Star?" Marco said.
"Sorry. Couldn't contain myself." Star said, handing off Mariposa to Marco.
"Hey, it's okay." Star said, comforting the crying Meteora. "We're here now. We'll get you back to your mother, and then we'll tell the police about this place and hopefully they can arrest Mina."
"Star." Marco said, his voice suddenly deadpan.
"What is…it." She said, seeing what Marco was staring at.
It was a large board filled with papers, plans, and addresses. This was no doubt the linchpin of Mina's plan for taking back Echo creek from it's "monster threat."
"This...this is great!" Star said. "This is everything Mina plans to do! It's all here. Every plan, every idea, every single-"
Then Star saw what Marco had seen. A piece of paper on the edge of the board. It was titled "Operation: Distraction" Below that were the worst possible words that Star could have ever thought of. Now she knew why everybody was gone. Now she knew why Meteora and Mariposa were still here. It was just a ruse. She didn't know if they had thought of this before or after the kidnapping, but it made no difference now. She slowly read out the words, hoping that she wasn't seeing straight, but in the back of her kind, she knew it had to be true.
"Main objective: Assassinate Eclipsa."
End chapter 4
A/N: Well, this should go great. The next chapter will probably introduce the main antagonist, as in the person that's got everybody scared. And it's somebody new…and one that doesn't take kindly to people disobeying them. Mina's "informant."
But starting with the next chapter, it will probably be close to about a week between each chapter, due to some complications. I hope that everybody understands.
See you next chapter.
