Narrator: Can I do it now?
NO! You already did it in the last chapter, just let the chapter start normally.
A 4 ½ foot tall, red haired, green eyes, freckled woman wearing patchwork camo over chainmail armor watched Marco and Star with carnivorous humor in her eyes as they walked home. Smiling she pulled out a pair of scissors and cut open another portal like the one cut for Stars parents except it was black with green swirls and went through it into some sort of misty swamp. She picked her way along paths that had been carefully made and cleverly disguised with shrubs so a single person could pick their way through if they knew where they were going. Moving into a stand of ancient and thickly clumped Willow trees she found a single tree with 9 trunks coming out in different directions and gave a signal to let people know she was not a threat. She leapt up the trunks until she got where they converged and opened a small hatch which she leapt down sliding down for a ways. She emerged into a small underground candle lined hallway with some sort of throne at the far end with a single guard by it and 4 doors on either side of the grand hallway.
"Hail and well met war chief." She spoke gleefully with her green eyes gleaming in delight from her freckled face. "Star Butterfly is on Earth with the family's wand, unguarded and with no knowledge on how to use it."
The throne had its back to the door and appeared to be built on a swivel so the figure sitting in it could rotate it, which they did now. It revealed a woman who was in her early forties with ragged blond hair and pale eyes that seemed to more reflect color then have any of its own wearing armor and camo similar to the other girl. The major distinguishing features were marks on her cheeks that were grey and in the shape of roses and a helmet that seemed to be made of a single skull from a dragon like creature.
"Dumnorix, gather a war party immediately; we must not squander this opportunity." The guard, a beefy seven foot tall figure with long white hair and a beard to match wearing an eyepatch and similar armor, nodded and ran off immediately down one of the corridors. "You will come with us Selene." The red haired girl smiled carnivorously and ran off to join Dumnorix. "You have made a fatal mistake dear cousin Moon, we will never give up Mewni to those degenerates you call your friends and family. We will make a Mewni for Mewmans by Mewmans once I have taken the birthright you stole from me; even if it is from your daughter's cold dead hands." The woman smiled carnivorously as she got up.
"Um, any reason you are talking?" one of the doors opened and a short but stocky barbarian poked his head out.
"I'm monolouging, DO NOT INTERUPT MY MONOLOUGE!" She screamed this out as if she was monolouging so the barbarian just shrugged his shoulders and went back to work.
"Star Butterfly, come in we were expecting you and I must say you look exactly like the pictures your mother has shown us."
Marco stood in shock as his mother Angie Diaz, an early forty something woman with green eyes and brown hair, hugged Star and welcomed her into their house.
"Wait, you know Star's parents?"
"Of course I do Marco I have been friends of her parents since we were teens, we met when we were just a little bit older than you are currently. I actually told you about it but you just brushed it off as a story for some reason." Angie smiled as Marco stared on in disbelief.
"I have heard so much about you. Is it true that my parents danced on the so called "Halloween" night in this world?" Star looked up at Angie with a big smile on her face as another figure entered the room.
"Is it true? They came over multiple times with me being included in the equation several times." Raphael Diaz, Marco's father, was a big and tough but almost cute looking guy with his big brown eyes who seemed to immediately be smitten with Star. "Won't it be great having another foreign exchange student staying here Marco?" Marco's parents looked at him with big eyes as Star began walking around the house looking at everything new to her.
"Um yeah, it should be great." Marco smiled a little nervously as his parents turned back to Star.
"Your stuff is in your room upstairs Star. You can unload everything before dinner when we can finally get to know each other better." Angie spoke as Star stared at small clock in wonder.
"Where are all the gears in this thing? They must be microscopic to fit inside of here."
"Won't it be great having the energy of Star around the house?" Raphael spoke eagerly.
"*Sigh* We could have gotten that from a litter of puppies." Marco spoke under his breath but Star seemed to hear.
"Oh, I love puppies, let me show you some of mine." Star waved her wand creating a literal pile of puppies.
Marco looked in shock as his parents cooed over the puppies; that is until they started shooting lasers from their eyes. The lasers didn't do much damage but they did knock over a few things and burnt some of the furniture in parts as the parents continued to coo over the dogs now with a little caution. Raphael even picked one up to hold it but was zapped in the eye which didn't seem to do a thing to it but he did close his eye chuckling nervously. Marco turned to Star who seemed to be trying to gather up the puppies now nervously trying to keep them from zapping anymore.
"Sorry sorry, trying to figure out how this works." Star motioned to her wand as she led the puppies upstairs.
"Marco, you go up and give her a hand." Marco sighed at Angie's request.
"Ok fine." Marco followed Star with his parents looking on in concern.
"Are you sure they will get along?" Angie smiled at Raphael.
"Oh course they will, they just need time to open up to each other."
Marco made it up to Stars room as she was looking around in interest tapping her foot on the floor as if inspecting it.
"Well, this is your room."
"Ok, I can work with this. Sparkle Glitter Bomb Expand!" Star waved her wand around with it glowing a purplish-pink as Marco grew concerned at the waving.
Outside several people were walking by when what appeared to be an eastern tower jutted out of the side of one of the houses in a bright flash of light.
"Whoa… you think I could get the contractors to finish that fast?"
"With their work ethic, it'll be a miracle if it is finished by next year."
Back inside what appeared to be a three story tower house was now in the place of Star's room with a proud looking Star and awe struck Marco looking around the room.
"Wow, I wish I had a room like this." Marco said his thoughts out loud getting Stars attention.
"Oh, I can do yours too." Star smiled and ran out as Marco realized what he had done.
Marco followed Star to his room, with him wondering how she knew where it was, and pointed her wand at it before he could say anything.
"Mystic Room Suck Transform." As Star said that a black hole emerged in the middle of the room sucking everything up.
"AHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Marco and Star screamed as they pushed each other out of the room closing the door behind, but not before losing a few unfortunate puppies who had decided to follow them.
"suck, Suck, SUCK!? Why was the word suck in that spell?" Marco spoke scared at what had just happened.
"Idon'tknowitjustcameoutthatway!" Star was in panic mode now. "I'm sorry, how about a little sunshine to brighten your day?" Star cautiously created a little sun above Marco that immediately turned into a storm cloud that started raining on him.
"I can't take this anymore; if you are moving in I'm moving out." Marco wasn't angry; he was panicking though now at what might happen next.
Marco immediately ran for the stairs but tripped over the remaining puppies and hit his head on the wall. Star reached out to him but the storm cloud shot lightning at Marco making him involuntarily leap causing him to trip over his wet socks on landing. This caused him to slide and fall out the open window at the end of the hall making him fall for nearly 15 feet with a soft thud. Star looked out to see him lying on a cactus covered in cactus spike in parts of his body twitching every few seconds.
"Are you ok? Do you need any help?" Star asked cautiously as Marco got up.
"NO! Just stay away from me please." Marco limped-ran off with Star looking on.
Star raised her hand about to call out to him but then felt her anxiety kick in once more and looked around in nervousness. She saw the puppies who were actually looking up in concern but Star only saw looks of accusation at the moment. Star began breathing fast and immediately ran for her room leaping under the covers and 5 layers of quilts on her bed and hugged a stuffed animal the size of herself while taking deep calming breaths. Images ran through her head at what had happened to Marco and began blending with images of what had happened to other people in the past thanks to her, including those at the wand presentation yesterday. Star didn't know how long she laid there trying to overcome her crippling anxiety but when she finally emerged it was near evening or nearly 1 hour later on the clock.
"O gods, I need to find Marco now." Star leapt up shivering at the impact of cold air on her reptilian self.
She quickly conjured up something warm to put on, a turquoise oversized hoodie with a purple octopus on the front, and leapt out the window running out to find Marco tracking him the best she could with scent.
Two hours later it was dark and Marco was standing in front of a Stop n Slurp gas station soaked to the bone and twitching in one eye. A car pulled up in front of the station and Marco seemed to smile creepily and held out a cup from the gas station. And old man stepped out of the car walking up to the gas station and double took when he saw Marco.
"Hey brother do me a solid, refill this for me!" Marco waved the cup at the man who side stepped.
"Bloody Border Rats, is everything a drug to you!?" He walked inside with the door closing behind him.
"They won't let me back inside because I'm SOOOOGGGGY." Marco danced back and forth creepily as a young mother and child left the store. "Did you bring my refill?"
"Don't make eye contact." The mother and child run off with Marco munching on a candy bar and drinking from his beverage.
"You come to my house you bring toilet paper!" Marco smiled and turned to see Star just a few feet away from him. "Aaaah, what are you doing here?!" Marco got into some sort of fighting stance.
"Apologizing." Star raised her wand and with a flash of pink light the storm cloud disappeared. "I didn't have a choice about coming to earth and you didn't have a choice about having to deal with me. I'll tell your parents about this and see if I can find another family to live with."
Marco's scared expression softened when he saw Star's eyes held tears and she was looking down in sadness. Star turned to walk away and then sneezed and shivered slightly as if she was not dressed warm enough for the weather.
"Are you ok Star?" Marco stepped forward as Star shook herself.
"Yes, I just wished I put on something warmer for tonight and actually controlled myself like I should have." The soft sad voice almost made Marco whimper at how sorry Star was for what she had done.
"Oh you are going to regret much more than that." Marco and Star looked up in shock as they saw a group of 20 camo and chain mail covered warriors emerge from nearby. "Well well well, and here we were trying to figure out how to get you in Mewni and here you are on earth with the wand and no protection what so ever." This was said by a 40 some woman with ragged blond hair and eyes that seemed to reflect the light more than produced color.
"Aunt Mavis, how did you find me here?" Star's sadness disappeared to be replaced by anger and her eyes turned yellow with slit pupils.
"Wouldn't you like to know?"
"Yes, that's why I asked."
"Have you ever heard of sarcasm my girl? Any ways, TAKE YOUR REVENGE JOHANSENS!"
"JOHANSEN HO!" warriors leapt forward in a wave to Star who hissed and whipped her tail from side to side like a wild animal.
"HIIII YA!" Marco leapt forward landing a blow in the nose of one of the warriors stopping the whole charge with everyone looking at him in shock as he finished taking down the warrior.
"You can fight?" Star looked in awe as Marco turned smiling.
"It's called Karate." Marco then uppercut another barbarian making him fall hard to the ground.
"She has a guardian?!" Mavis turned to Selene in anger. "You said she was unguarded."
"I thought he was just a guide not a warrior." They turned back to see the two actually holding off the barbarians fairly well.
"Rainbow fizzy punch." Star shot a rainbow colored fist at three warriors making them fall like bowling pins.
Another one ran at Marco who redirected the man's attack making him hurt his comrade and then tripped them both onto the ground. Star was grabbed by another barbarian to which she picked him up single handedly and threw him into a car much to his shock. Marco leapt up into a jump kick that landed squarely on another's face and used him as a shield from another one until he kicked the second one in the groin making him fall over in pain. Star leapt up on the car she threw the barbarian into and leapt down ward hitting another Barbarian with her wand making it whiney for some reason.
"You are embarrassing the name of Johansen; I will claim the wand myself." Dumnorix strode forward with his massive 7 foot bulk.
Marco smiled at him and landed a punch at the man's torso only to have it be deflected by his iron abs. As Marco held his hand in pain the man smiled and slapped him effortlessly to the side and went in to finish the boy off.
"My ancestors will be avenged for the suffering your mother caused us." Selene leapt out of the background at Star.
Star tried firing magic at her but she was able to dodge the blows near effortlessly for some reason like she could predict her pattern. Star let her guard down for a second to deal with another barbarian who had snuck up behind her and while she dealt with him handily Selene leapt up from behind and knocked Star down. Marco was busy trying to fight off Dumnorix who seemed to just shrug off every blow Marco could land on him and was seemingly quick enough to occasionally return the blows back to Marco, who didn't shrug them off. Star tried fighting Selene in close combat but she was too quick for Star knowing she couldn't match the lizard's strength in a grapple and used her twin daggers to slice at Star. Star was able to heal from them quickly, a gift from her father's heritage, but she couldn't do it quickly and stay in a prolonged melee as it exhausted her to heal at the fast rate her father could even for one of his kind.
"Yes yes, only a matter of time now." Mavis stood there smiling as Marco and Star found themselves back to back between Selene and Dumnorix.
Marco and Star looked at their opponents and realized they wouldn't win at this rate and at the same time seemed to come up with the same idea.
"Switch!" they yelled at the same time leaping at their companion's opponent.
Dumnorix tried landing a blow on Star and hit but Star just healed from it and hit him in the Solar plexus so hard he fell to his knees gasping for air. Star they used her wand to blast magic into his face screaming "Jelly bean hallucination mist" making him look around as the world seemed to twist and contort.
"Whoa, what is happening?" He looked at his hands as in his eyes they seemed to produce faces for some reason.
Marco leapt at Selene who tried slashing at him to get to Star but Marco seemed to twirl in an almost ballet fashion and disarmed her of one of her blades in the blink of an eye.
"Only a dirty fighter uses weapons my girl." Marco smiled at her landing a blow so fast at her face she only had time to turn so the cheek was struck instead of the eyes.
She growled in anger and leapt at Marco like a rabid animal would bringing her other dagger in for the kill but he just twirled again and disarmed her again. This time he landed a solid blow on her back throwing her into a dumpster face first. She crawled around growling until the lid of the dumpster slammed down shut on her making her curse in a muted fashion behind the lid as she struggled to get out.
"What is wrong with you all!" Mavis yelled at the group and drew a sword turning to the two to see them both looking at her smiling.
"Mega-Narwhal blast." Star shot what seemed to be a cascade of Narwhals out her wand taking down Mavis and the remaining barbarians.
"So, want to have another go?" Marco asked smiling as everyone tried getting back up from the solid thrashing they just received.
"No, you win this round." Mavis got up and opened a portal. "This is why you are supposed to train constantly and expect the unexpected people. Alright, back in the portal." Mavis glared as the group limped through the portal as best they could. "You are even retreating in a pathetic manner." Selene came by cursing under her breath picking garbage out of her hair while Dumnorix was feeling along as best he could muttering "I'm freaking out man". "We will be back, I SWEAR IT!" Mavis closed the portal behind her.
"That was amazing! I was amazing! You were amazing!" Marco was smiling as Star began to smile as well.
"Well yeah we were." Star smiled at Marco with her eyes returning to normal.
"Say, I know you have trouble with the wand and all so you can still stay with us as long as you want." Marco smiled at Star who got a look of adoration on her face.
"Hugs!" Star leapt at Marco hugging him close with Marco smiling.
"Say shall we get home, it's rather late."
"Sure." Star pulled up under Marco's hoodie pulling it close over herself.
"Ummmm…"
"Sorry but you are just so warm Marco and I underestimated how cold it would be." Star shivered next to him enjoying the warmth.
"… ok. So are there going to be more barbarians?"
"Absolutely."
"Alright, sounds so dangerous in the right ways. Say why are they coming after you?"
"Well Marco, once we get back I will tell you the story about my parents and my positon in Mewni." Star scrunched in closer to him as they walked home with Marco reflexively hugging her as they walked.
"Shall we gather a larger war party War chief?" Selene asked Mavis with anger in her voice.
"No, we do not wish to attract the attention of Moon or the authorities on earth. We must keep striking quickly and quietly and learn from our mistakes in order to take the wand no matter how many times we fail." Mavis looked over her force as it recovered from the brutal defeat at the hands of the children.
"I will learn and show that boy who is the master."
"I have no doubt you will." Mavis smiled at her while holding her nose. "And please wash up you know ventilation is horrible down in the bunker." Selene nodded ashamed and walked away. "And you drink some bog water to alleviate the effects of that magic before you hurt yourself." Dumnorix nodded walking off in a blind daze to get his hallucinations seen to.