Spongebob Narrator: One intense chase scene later.
*Pant pant* whew, finally got away from the yaoi fan-girls. Now then, let's finish this episode up already; before I lose steam.
Floyd screeched soaring through the air with Marco, Star, Alfonzo, Oskar, River, and Tempest on his back taking them to their destination. The sky looked lovely as they passed through it with picturesque clouds passing by in an otherwise Indigo sky that just left most people happy. Unfortunately the mood was being put on hold by the conversation the group was having on Floyd's back.
"So what you are saying is we will be at a stockpile of cookies galore at an area that these things have attacked the most?" Marco asked River who nodded. "When they do attack we set a field of tar we have surrounded the area with on fire catching the highly flammable creatures and killing as many as possible?" River nodded again seemingly pleased with how Marco was taking the news. "After the fire does its job we and a group of adventurers and mercenaries will attack from the inside and some elite forces will attack from the outside?" River and Tempest both nodded. "Well… this is well planned out; but this sounds like a very dangerous idea that could very easily backfire. I like it." Marco smiled getting a laugh out of River and Tempest.
River spoke, "Indeed it is, but it is the best idea we have in trapping those things. They seem to shrug off most trapping devices effortlessly and run once the cookies are gone, so we will need to strike as fast as possible once they are there." Tempest then replied to Marco's quip smiling.
"I like this guy; all we need is some good battle music." He pulled out a flute the River grabbed and gently lowered it with a nervous look on his face before speaking.
"Save it for when we are there my bo… oh wait we're there already. Well wait for when the action starts." Oskar then directed Floyd down to where River pointed out they should land gliding down gracefully. As they landed they set down among a fairly large group of tough looking individuals who acknowledged them with nods and grunts for the most part. As their group got off of Floyd however some people actually got up and came up to them with smiles on their faces. Star's face brightened up and she leapt forward at the group engaging them one by one with hugs catching the trio off guard as Tempest smiled and River laughed speaking up.
"I've got to go see that everyone is prepared; you kids get to know one another." He nodded to the group and took off at a jog while Star turned towards them with a massive grin on her face. She began speaking to the group of individuals in front of her gesturing to the trio.
"Guys, I would like to introduce you to some of my friends on earth. Alfonzo, Oskar, and my bestie Marco." As everyone began saying hi Star turned towards Marco, Alfonzo, and Oskar and began introductions for them. "I'd like to introduce to you guys to Kelly, Tad, Dennis, Alexis, and Rico."
Star pointed first to a brown skinned girl with strangely pink cheeks, frizzy Aquamarine hair going down to her ankles tied back in a ponytail, and wearing a pink and white striped shirt with short black shorts. On her head was a one foot high thing of mostly aquamarine hair with two short brown legs and arms jutting out of it that Star pointed to next. Then Star pointed to a green feathered humanoid bird man with yellow eyes wearing a white sleeveless shirt and slightly torn blue jeans. Next to him was a mostly human like girl with white skin and yellowish green eyes but with green feathers instead of hair and wings that extended from her arms; she was also wearing a slightly ripped up brown t-shirt having the picture of a faded wolf's head on it with roots coming out of it and a pair of black jeans. The last person Star pointed to was a silvery-green skinned humanoid with reddish-black hair, blackish-yellow horns forming a crescent moon shape, and yellow eyes behind sunglasses wearing a studded leather jacket with a grey shirt on underneath and a heavily faded, ripped up, and studded pair of jeans to accompany it. Marco quickly put names to faces knowing that he would mess some up as there were a lot of people he was being introduced to right now. Immediately after Star finished introductions Rico raised his hand and spoke in what sounded like a somewhat fake 1950's accent from the United States.
"Alright, how many of you blokes and geese are here to pay off a mirror bill?" Marco, Alfonzo, Oskar, Star, Kelly, Tad, and Dennis immediately raised their hands with Rico joining them. At this point Tad spoke up.
"That's how pixies get you, with the mirrors. No offense Tempest." Tempest nodded in acknowledgement as everyone nodded and Alexis spoke up putting her arm around Dennis.
"I'm here to insure my cousin doesn't get himself killed; without me he would have been dead a long time ago." Everyone smiled and laughed at this including Dennis who commented.
"She's not wrong you know. And I get the feeling we should put on armor soon if you have it; you're gonna need it for these guys." The group nodded and broke off into smaller groups with Marco starting some warm up stretches. As he did so some of the warriors nearby seemed to realize what he was doing and was going into battle without armor. They gave him nods of passing respect as Alexis came up to him no wearing light chain mail type armor.
"So, your Star's bestie on earth huh?" She smiled at him with Marco nodding before he replied.
"Yeah, she's actually living with me and my family while on earth." Alexis chuckled before continuing.
"So, what's it like having a pretty girl like Star under your roof." Much to her surprise Marco began laughing at the question before answering.
"My family has had plenty of foreign exchange students under out roof, some of whom were pretty girls as well." Marco smiled remembering the long line of kids whose pictures they still had on the family room wall. "I also have a girlfriend back on earth, so I need to finish this fight quickly so I don't miss a date with her." Alexis nodded clapping for Marco slightly.
"Well nice to meet another person Star trusts fellow bestie. I'm Star's bestie on Mewni." Marco looked up in confusion as he replied.
"Um I thought that was Ponyhead." Alexis gave a hearty laugh before she replied.
"Star just tells her that as she gets egotistical and possessive easily; Star's too kind a person in many aspects. Also she is kind of like my soul sister as we are both half breeds." Alexis stood there for a minute watching Marco stretch before speaking again. "So you're going into battle with only a type of robe on, are you a warrior monk of sorts?" Marco finished up the stretching and turned back to Alexis.
"Actually I do use a style made by monks on my world called karate, but I'm not a monk. I actually started this because it just looked and sounded cool." Alexis got a massive grin on her face as she punched him in the arm.
"You are my type of guy Marco, nice to see you've joined Star's circle of friends. She kind of needs as many as possible." Marco nodded a look of sadness passing over his face making Alexis realize he knew how serious things were for Star at times. She smiled and put her arm around his shoulder pulling him in close. "Besides, more friends are always a good thing right?" Marco smiled and nodded as they began hearing raspy flute playing coming from nearby.
Wincing slightly they turned to see Tempest playing his flute in front of Oskar who was pumping his head slightly to the rhythm. As people turned towards them Oskar began playing his keytar to try and accompany Tempest as a duo with the music being predictably not so good; not horrible but not good. As this occurred Floyd got the idea of joining his master in making noise and began making low screeches and beating one of its feet on the ground making a disjointed music display. Around them people were holding their ears, complaining slightly, jibbing that the music makers must be deaf, and a few were even getting up to try and stop the musical trio. But as the music continued it started to improve making everyone stop and listen for a few minutes. It got to slightly annoying, then to passable, then to somewhat nice, then it actually got good; really good. People actually began smiling with a few even dancing to the slightly disjointed but catchy music. Marco and Alexis began smiling and chuckled at the trio of wannabe musicians actually succeeding in making good music.
"So, I'm guessing Tempest is usually not good at music as well huh?" Marco turned to Alexis who chuckled before answering.
"Indeed. He tends to spread music without actually taking into consideration on how good it is. He means well but he doesn't get the message that he needs to improve." Marco smiled but then got somewhat serious as he looked at Alexis prompting her to raise an eyebrow in curiosity.
"Ummm, Tempest wouldn't happen to be interested in guys would he?" He then motioned to Oskar to which Alexis gave a sly grin before replying.
"Tempest tends to play both sides of the field. I get the feeling those two are gonna get along just..." She was interrupted however by a low horn being blown prompting her to stand at attention. "They're here." Marco saw the warriors around him start moving fast and Tempest shush Oskar and Floyd.
Marco went to join Star as she seemed outfitted for battle already with a poll-axe in hand that appeared to be her wand. Marco stood alongside her as he saw Tempest, Alexis, Dennis, and Floyd, with Oskar and Alfonzo on his back, take to the air slowly beginning to circle the battleground. As the remaining forces got ready he saw Kelly come up wearing full plate armor with an exceedingly large amount of swords on her persona. As the shuffling quieted down everyone began to hear a moaning on the wind that carried more like a voice then the actual wind making Marco shudder.
"Courage warriors, courage." Marco looked over to see River talking implying that he wasn't the only one who was afraid. "You are the best warriors in the land; no matter what comes out of those woods you will stand your ground." Marco looked at the woods surrounding the area where they were set up and heard the moaning again, this time with words.
"Cooooookies." Everyone got into fighting stances facing out in all directions from the stockpile. "Coooooookies." Marco was able to tell that now there were multiple of those moaning voices around them. "Coooooookies." As they stood together Marco finally saw his first glimpse of one of those creatures emerge from behind a massive boulder. "COOKIES!" Marco was shocked but for multiple reasons thinking out loud.
"That's cookie monster; a character from a children's story on earth!" Everyone looked at Marco in shock as he continued. "There is no way I could make this up even if I wanted to." Star looked at the figure closely and spoke up as well.
"He's… right!?"
It was indeed cookie monster from Sesame Street with the blue thick fur, the large googly eyes, the four fingered hands, and the black void that was its toothless mouth being unmistakable. Marco felt no happy-go-lucky kindness coming from this creature or the dozens of other 20 foot tall beasts emerging from the woods however. The fur was extra-long and seemed to wave with a life of its own, the mouth gaped even more as a void threatening to swallow everything like a black hole, and its googly eyes were blood shot glaring madness and hunger at the world. With a bellowing scream they all charged as a tide of hungry beasts that Marco was fairly sure would easily overwhelm everyone simply by sheer numbers and size of these creatures. At this point everyone around him began doing various war cries and chants not so much to scare these creatures, they seemed like they knew no fear, but more to give themselves confidence.
"HOLD!" River bellowed out trying to keep everyone in position; of course at this point they had no choice as they were surrounded. The creatures began surging across the field around them with the dozens being revealed to be hundreds as they kept on pouring out.
"Star, I'm concerned." Marco spoke worried looking at Star who responded eagerly.
"Oh this is where the fun begins hoodie boy!" Marco blinked in shock as she had conjured up armor for herself and was staring at the beasts with her yellow battle eyes. Marco thought to himself, 'How is it that she seems to be made of glass at times and out of Steel other times?' He shook his head as River bellowed out again.
"HOLD!" The beasts were running across the field in a mass with a few of them even being trampled underfoot in their eagerness to get the cookies. "HOLD!" The stream from the forest seemed to be going on without letting up making Marco pretty sure that there might be a thousand of these things surrounding them. "HOLD!" Marco got into his fighting stance ready to try and leap at the creatures' eyes as anywhere else he might just bounce off of them. "NOWWWWW!" A horn bellowed as fire arrows streaked out from their position and out of several of the trees surrounding the field setting it on fire instantly. The tar concealed by straw and refuse caught instantly spreading fast as lightning catching all of the creatures ablaze. A cheer erupted from the defenders as many of those creatures shrieked in pain and fell over as the life burned out of them with Marco commenting.
"I'm gonna have nightmares from this aren't I?" He turned to Star and Kelly who nodded smiling slightly at that. "Why is it that all the cool epic stuff gives you nightmares?" Before they could answer some of the cookie monsters emerged from the fire still burning in places shrieking with a mad hunger. "Yup, definitely going to have nightmares now."
As the still burning beasts emerged from the flames several flying warriors struck from the skies unloading death in various forms on them. Alexis and Dennis swooped out of the sky with swords in their talon like feet cutting the backs of necks with beasts being dead before hitting the ground. Tempest seemed to wave his hands and summoned lightning from the sky downing more beasts as they char-grilled to a "well-done" status. Floyd swooped over head with Alfonzo throwing stuff from his back either making the fire bigger in areas or wounding some of the cookie beasts. Marco finally saw where Rico got off to and he was flying in on what could only be described as a dragon-motorcycle hybrid wielding a flaming sword of sorts. He eagerly swooped through the air with his sword cutting down beasts and the dragon cycle type thing breathing fire onto those creatures while nimbly dodging their clumsy grabs.
Marco didn't have time to focus on his friends and the other creatures fighting as one was coming straight for him screeching with a voice eerily similar to cookie monster's. Marco ran at it diving between its legs, dodging its clumsy grab, and leapt onto its partially burned leg shuddering even more at how the flesh crunched in parts. He climbed up the leg and back of it feeling like he was in "Shadow of the Colossus" trying to get to its head with difficulty. The cookie beast he was on was flailing wildly trying to reach him and in the process was swatting at everything around it leaving a trail of destruction. Marco finally got to its head and grabbed onto some hair that was still up there to find that when he pulled it the cookie beast moved with it like how a horse might move with reins. Not even stopping to smile at this Marco moved it around and tried getting it to charge at more of those creatures coming out of the flames in various states of well-being.
Marco held on tight, not even brave enough to open his mouth lest he bite it, as he pushed his beast into combat with three others in very bad shape. As his beast fell on top of the trio collapsing into a pile of flailing figures Marco leapt off rolling as best he could down the pile of cookie beasts landing on his feet but hard enough to make him stagger. As Marco shakily stood up he came face to face with another cookie beast who promptly scooped him up and pulled him towards its mouth. But before Marco could even struggle Alexis came swooping by cutting the creatures neck and catching Marco in mid-flight as best she could.
"Say, could you do that thing with the directing the creature again; you took out more than your fair share already." Marco looked up at her and nodded.
"Just set me down on one that has some hair on the back of its head still." Alexis nodded taking Marco past where Kelly was throwing swords out to bring down a fourth cookie beast as fast as possible.
Alexis threw Marco down on another beast that had just finished swallowing one of the mercenaries with Marco grabbing onto its hair. Instead of directing it though, it seemed to make it mad as it lashed out at random knocking another cookie beast back into the flames and forced some mercenaries back unless if they wanted to be squished. Marco decided to just try irritating it instead of controlling it and pulled backwards as hard as he could making it grab onto the nearest object, another cookie beast, and throw it aside in a fit of rage. This naturally caused that cookie beast to turn on Marco's and a slugging match began with Marco getting off as best he could unless if he wanted to be caught in the crossfire. As he landed Marco hit the ground running trying to find out where he should go next and where was Star right now. As Marco ran through the battle confused and disoriented smoke began flowing in from the surrounding flames making it difficult to see in front of your face.
Tying his karate headband around his nose to keep from inhaling too much smoke Marco pushed forward unintentionally tripping one of the cookie beasts allowing a warrior looking like an eagle to finish it off. Marco began moving towards the central area where the cookies were kept, not knowing where he should be, when another big hand clasped around him lifting upwards. Marco struggled in the furry hand but it was like trying to get out of an Iron maiden as the cookie beast lifted him to its mouth trying to swallow him whole. In panic mode, Marco grabbed upwards as best he could and caught the upper portion of the creature's mouth as it tried stuffing him in. Without teeth to chew, it tried sucking him down but Marco kept a death grip on its upper lip while screaming at the top of his lungs.
"HEEELP! SOMEONE! ANYONE!" As the cookie beast got annoyed with its snack it lifted its hand up to force him down as best as possible, but a sickly green beam of magic struck the beast between the eyes before it could do so. The cookie beast shuffled around nearly making Marco lose his grip on the lip shaking in fear. As he held on he saw Star appear running up it arm to the mouth screaming with her eyes now a red veined yellow.
"LEAVE MARCO ALONE!" She grabbed Marco and threw him out in the process falling into the cookie beast's gullet. Marco hit the ground hard rolling for a little ways with his body shuddering from the impact, but not slowing down as he stood back up.
"Star!" Marco whispered in shock turning back to the creature to see that it was turning to him now still hungry.
Marco looked in horror as it approached him, but it suddenly stopped blinking in confusion. It looked down at its belly with Marco following with them both seeing it ripple like something was pushing on it from the inside. The cookie beast put its hands on its belly trying to push it down as best as possible but the blows only got stronger; until finally the gut was ripped opened by a blast of greenish magic with Star sticking out like the creature from the movie "Alien". Hissing up at the creature, Star crawled up quickly to where its head was and shot magic point blank into its eyes making its head explode in a bluish-green mist out the other side. The cookie beast landed face first with Star doing a backflip landing next to Marco circling him like a guard dog would speaking in a low threatening manner.
"No one hurts Marco, NO ONE!" Star pointed her wand out into the mist and shot another stream of greenish magic causing another cookie beast to fall. She did this again five times with no other cookie beasts seemingly making it through the flames to this part of the battle field. This created a "safe zone" of the battlefield allowing people to move to other parts of the battle to finish off the rest. Star breathed heavily with her horrifying red veined yellow eyes gazing out in a frightened yet predatory fashion that Marco recognized from the football game.
"Star." Marco spoke softly getting her to turn and face him breathing heavily with her teeth bared. "Please come back; your bestie needs you back." Marco slowly reached out and touched Star on the shoulder making her wince slightly but not shoot him. Slowly he pulled Star in for a hug, feeling her PTSD fueled battle rage slowly abate as she clasped him sobbing slightly as she spoke.
"It was going to eat you, I couldn't lose you Marco; I couldn't." They stood like that for a few seconds more until Star pulled back regaining control over herself as Alexis swooped down next to them. She looked at the beaten and battle weary duo a second before speaking.
"I'm pretty sure we've won at this point, you'll want to check in with King River if you want to be sure the phone bill is straightened out. And well done Marco, you had no weapons yet you took out six of those things single handed." She smiled at them before nodding to Star as if acknowledging something before turning and flying off. Marco and Star looked at each other for a second not sure what to do until Marco started chuckling. Star joined by reflexed and the volume increased until they were both laughing out loud with Marco speaking again.
"Did you see how cool you were, shooting out of that creatures gut and then blasting down six of those creatures like a sniper would. You were awesome." Star laughed and responded.
"You used your bare hands to take down six of them huh; you're more badass then I thought." The duo laughed as they trudged towards where a slightly beaten up King River was standing with Alfonzo, Floyd, Tempest, and Oskar around him. As they approached Alfonzo immediately ran towards them grabbing them both into a hug shouting.
"You're alive; I thought no one could survive that nightmare." As they broke up Oskar and Tempest began playing music again with Floyd accompanying them with the slightly disjointed but catchy beat. River stepped up to them smiling broadly before speaking.
"Well it seems like you two did very well as expected of you. I mean you nearly cleared the whole west-western position by yourselves." He grabbed them both in a tight hug making Marco wince at the wounds he did not realize he had. "I'll see to it Star's phone bill is dealt with and that you get compensation as well Marco. Now if you will excuse me I have to see to it that everyone else is paid if they are still alive." With that River turned around walking away leaving their group behind. Marco, Star, and Alfonzo turned to look at Tempest and Oskar playing music and chuckled slightly as Oskar stopped playing speaking to Tempest.
"Say man, you want to hang out some time and, you know make some more music man." Oskar was blushing slightly with Tempest smiling broadly at him pulling out a sheet of paper before speaking to Oskar.
"This is my mirror number man; just call me whenever you're free. For now though, I think I need to get back to mom before she freaks out too much. See you later." He took off flying waving back with Oskar watching him go having a strangely dopey grin on his face. Oskar sighed turning back to his friends who were all looking at him with massive toothy grins and narrowed eyes.
"What, we're just hanging out later." Oskar spoke with the trio raising their eyebrows slightly making Oskar blush. "It's not like that man… at least not yet…" Star squealed a little and leapt forward hugging Oskar as she spoke.
"Go for it Oskar, just go for it." Marco smiled at the exchange until he heard a beeping from his watch. Looking down he saw that it was 4:15 and began panicking.
"Oh my god, the battle took longer than I thought it would; I'M LATE! Where's the scissors, I need to get back NOW!" Marco tried moving towards Star but the bruising he sustained during the battle decided to fully act up now. Marco fell to his knees also feeling a lot more exhausted then he thought he would have, 'Climbing the backs of these creatures really takes it out of you.' He thought to himself as Star came up to him in concern. Marco looked at his dirty karate uniform and his cut up hands from grabbing onto the hair and hung his head in despair sighing sadly. "I'm never going to make it at this point and in this shape and at this time. What do I do?" Star thought for a second coming to a quick solution snapping her fingers.
Jackie stepped out of the theater looking around for Marco and couldn't see him anywhere. She looked down at her phone again and read his text. I can't make it to the movie, got caught up helping Star pay a phone bill. Wait for me outside of the theater though and I got something to make up for it. Jackie looked around sighing again as Chantal and her new barbarian boyfriend, by the name of RuffTuff, came out of the theater as well. Jackie stared out into the evening as the two looked at her for second until Chantal nudged RuffTuff. He nodded with his platinum blond hair and beard flowing and went up next to Jackie.
"Look, I know Marco fairly well after fighting him for so long, and he would not go back on his word unless if it was important. And if he promised anything to make up for it he would." Jackie nodded turning to the duo speaking softly.
"I know, but it's still hard waiting for him and not knowing what he promised me. You guys go on, I'll wait for him here." Chantal and RuffTuff nodded walking away with Jackie smiling at them. 'A one night stand from different dimensions turned into an actual relationship. How does he make a living and go to school these days though?' Jackie pondered this as she heard footsteps running towards her indicating Marco was here. She turned to look with Marco stopping right in front of her gasping for breath for a minute until he could speak.
"Sorry I'm late for the reasons I spoke of earlier. But I have something that I know you will love. Just follow me to the pond in the park." Marco held out his hand with Jackie taking it readily. She followed him for a ways through the park as the light fell until the got to the lake where Star was waiting looking out across the water. As they approached Star turned towards them smiling holding out her wand and speaking.
"Marco has a surprise for you; all you need to do is close your eyes and wait a second." Jackie looked back and forth between the two of them before nodding and closed her eyes. "Sparkle Glitter Shadow Transform!" Jackie felt a light engulf her and a tingling sensation encase her legs changing them into something else. As the magic faded Marco spoke to Jackie still holding her hand.
"Ok, you can look now." Jackie opened her eyes and looked down double taking in shock. From her hip downward she had turned into a turquoise scaled fish.
"Wait… did you just…" Jackie looked up seeing Marco and Star nod smiling. Jackie then began giggling which turned into a happy laughter as she grabbed Marco and Star into a hug. "Thankyouthankyouthankyou!" She then, with a surprising amount of power, did a leap and landed in the pond swimming around. "OMG YES!" Jackie then dived down a little ways into the pond and shoot for the surface breaching it while shouting. "I'M A MERMAID!" She landed in the water gracefully and swam on her back absobing the feeling of have a fish tail with a massive grin on her face. Star smiled at her and turned to see Marco had stripped and was now in a pair of swim trunks. He turned to Star smiling and grabbed her in a hug.
"Thank you Star; that has been a dream of hers for years." Star smiled back and pulled apart from him before speaking.
"Go on and join her then lover boy; she needs the company." Marco smiled and jumped into the pond swimming up to Jackie.
When he reached her Jackie turned around and grabbed him in a hug kissing him outright on the lips with Marco returning it eagerly. Star watched them while smiling and sat down ready to turn Jackie back when they were finished with each other. Star enjoyed the glee the two out in the pond were having swimming around. 'See Marco, everything turned out perfect.' Star thought happily.
I have no idea how well this chapter turned out, I kind of had to force myself to think and write for this in central part when I thought I wouldn't have to. No matter, what's the next episode up; better be lighthearted? *Sees Sleep Spells* Woohoo. *Sees what I have planned for it* Doh. Ok maybe I could rearrange the chapters a little bit for some lightheartedness. *Sees Blood Moon Ball is after* ... That'll have to do. Time for one of the most requested episodes people; time to dance beneath the blood moon light.