Dennis made note of the progress of the people in the game but had most of his attention on figuring out how to deal with the virus. Marco, Star, and Chloe could hold it off for quite some time and even dematerialize if it didn't overcome the game's mechanics but it wouldn't be defeated for good unless if he found out how to destroy it in the system itself. Fortunately he was rather adept at computing systems despite the fact that Mewni didn't have any scientific technology even close to this level yet. He glanced up at Alfonzo and smiled as he kept the six large panels calibrated like clockwork to insure the best results were coming in. The two of them were really close and actually rather similar with both of them having trouble getting along with people for different reasons making them a type of social outcast. He didn't even really get along with most of his family, not that he didn't like them but he was just too different from most of them, being fascinated with otherworldly technology while most other Avarius's were still too focused on the scratch and sniff trade. He was actually considering trying to go as an exchange student to earth so he could study their rapidly growing Information Technology…
"What is going on here!?" Dennis snapped out of his musing and auto piloting to see the Gumball machine had returned and now looked red with rage. "First you hurt Skips and now you let these kids in to mess with this!? What is wrong with you two idiotic slackers!?" Rigby and Mordecai went to answer but the Gumball machine cut them off. "Well I don't care just get them out of here!" The two looked back and forth with each other unsure of what to do with Dennis speaking up.
"Um sir, we're here to help you guys actually." The Gumball machine turned towards him with a glare as the duo motioned for him to stay quite frantically. "We fixed the mechanics but it turns out you guys contracted a virus that we are in the process of now dealing with." Alfonzo spoke up at this.
"The hardware problems also seemed to have been made to contain said virus, but that is just a hypothesis." Silence hung over everyone for a minute as the Gumball machine looked like it was going to blow its top off at any minute before a deep voice rang out.
"He's right Benson." Everyone turned to see a bandaged up Skips walk into the main area. "I was getting the feeling the broken condition seemed somewhat 'intentional' when going over it and they did get it up and running. I say we go with them for now as they actually seem to know more than I do, and all things considered that's saying a lot." Benson's eye twitched for a moment before he cooled down going back to his ordinary colors and replying.
"Fine, I just need this done before the inspector arrives tomorrow." Rigby spoke up at that.
"Yeah about that… I think we may have a bigger problem than the inspector if we don't get this fixed." Skips and Benson looked at him with raised eyebrows. "You see… they think this virus may be trying to come into our world using the… is it 'virtualization'?" Alfonzo nodded at that as he worked.
"Yeah, and we have no idea what it could be capable of if it comes into our world; think old fashion sci-fi horror." Benson and Skips shivered at that in worry as Dennis spoke up.
"Say we have some friends in the virtual world to try and delay the virus for as long as possible, do you guys have any information that could help them out in there? And do you have the source codes for these systems we are working on?" Benson nodded and left to retrieve them with Rigby and Mordecai speaking up to Skips.
"Say where is everyone else?" Skips spoke pointing to the exit.
"Outside, someone needs to keep people from wandering in here after all since you two aren't." Mordecai groaned and facepalmed at the fact they abandoned their post with Rigby shrugging nonchalantly.
Chloe ran across the land leaping from mountaintop to mountaintop following the golden arrow feeling a strange glow pulse through her form as if she had been given supernatural strength. Of course she brushed it off at the fact that she was now virtualized and could likely do all sorts of things she couldn't do in real life. She glanced around taking in the landscape of mountain tops and actually felt strangely at ease up in the high mountains even if it was in a virtual world. As she leapt from one cliff across a chasm and began literally running up the side of a mountain, she had to admit that was cool feature, she glanced over at Star and Marco with the two of them conversing with each other as they ran across the land. They seemed to be talking about some kind of summer camp they were planning on going to in August to work with two groups called The Bluebell Scouts and The Akela Cubs. She smiled as they chuckled leaping down some mountain peaks like they were stairs and felt a sick feeling inside her again. She wanted to truly join Star's group of friends ever since Star invited her despite learning who she really was, but she found it hard to just fit in due to nerves. She had hurt Star maliciously and if anyone other than Alfonzo and Star found out… she shuddered a bit externally as she slid down a mountain peak's slop. This was compounded by the fact that even now Star had not truly forgiven her for what she did even though she forgave Tom for what he did. 'Well I guess I deserve this.' She thought to herself as she hadn't truly done more than feel sorry for herself and hide since her birthday party. She was shocked out of her musing when Dennis's voice rang out in their heads making her stumble and almost fall down into a trench.
"Alright people I have good news, bad news, and better news. The Good news is I finally have the source codes to work on to defeat this virus and help you guys out when it comes to game mechanics." The trio let out a soft cheer as Marco spoke up.
"What could be better news then that?" Dennis seemed to chuckle as he replied.
"That would be information involved the ability to create transportation for you guys, which I shall demonstrate now." Right next to the trio a pair of vehicles popped up being a motorized unicycle and some sort of levitating surf board. "Sorry there are only two of them, the cpus are being taken up by the virus. And that is the bad news, it's trying to pull itself into the virtual reality and knows how to create entities in this world as well. You guys are going to be in for an uphill fight." Marco shrugged at that replying.
"Well we weren't expecting this to be easy even though we were hoping for it to be so." He turned towards the others. "So you wanna ride with me on the cycle Star." Star chuckled at that as she moved towards the bike.
"A white knight and a bad biker boy, you pull of that Daoist symbol rather well." Star pointed at the symbol on one of the flags on Marco's back before addressing Chloe. "Say you ok with the… um…" Star struggled with the name for a second before Marco spoke up.
"It's called a hover board I think. And are you ok with…" Chloe did a standing leap onto the board making it swivel around a few times before getting into a surfing position on it. "… well that answers my question. Let's get going." Marco leapt onto the bike with Star leaping on behind him and wrapping her arms around him. "Hold on tight baby-girl." Star actually growled at that with her eyes going cat-pupil yellow before whispering to Marco in a 'semi-playful' manner.
"Don't call me that; you're already on thin ice for breaking down my door and splattering BBQ sauce all over my room." Chloe saw Marco quake a little as Star's grip tightened making her giggle reactively.
Marco started up the bike with it actually taking off into the air much to their surprise with it functioning like a hovercraft. 'Then why was it built like a bike… oh right videogame logic.' Chloe thought to herself as she surfed behind Marco and Star with them covering distance rather quickly. They zipped across the land following the golden arrow with it seemingly changing the direction it was pointing at times. Dennis actually commented on that saying that there was something messing with the pathfinding in the program. After what felt like a few minutes they arrived at the edge of some sort of mist shrouded mountain valley that was covered in Japanese maples and ferns with scattered ponds surrounded by cattails and filled with koi.
"Alright people, this seems to be where it is coming out." Dennis's voice rang out as the group landed their craft. "The location is called Shangri-La and I think the virus is coming here because there is a hub that acts as a stabilizing factor for this world. In fact I think it was meant to be the place where people would spawn but the work was not finished on it." The trio got off their craft as Chloe spoke up.
"Saw what should we be looking for as the hub itself or any creatures made by the virus?" Dennis replied after a longer delay than expected.
"Well you are looking for some sort of… I think you guys call it a 'Buddist' Temple in a clearing somewhere in the valley. As for the creatures…" Dennis hesitated again. "…good question. I actually have no idea what you might be encountering as there are so many damn designs that it could use against you. Good news is you all come with weapons that can help you fight off…" A blast of orange light like from a laser suddenly shot out of the surrounding mountain forest hitting Chloe square in the chest throwing her back 10 feet and landing on her back with electrical charge rippling out of the shot area.
"Chloe!" Star ran over looking over her. "Are you alright?"
Chloe looked up to see Star looking at her with concern once again feeling a little sick inside seeing at how concerned Star was for her. But she pushed those feelings aside as she pulled Star down with more lasers flying overhead some almost hitting Star. The two rolled for cover with Marco instinctively pulling out a sword from… somewhere and twirled it blocked the lasers that went in his direction. As they did so Dennis commented on this.
"Looks like the virus knows you're here and sent a raiding party to delay you. And it seems like you found your weapon already Marco." Marco chuckled at that as he used the katana too block more of the lasers with increasing ease. "And don't worry too much about Chloe, she just lost some life points from the hit and she will recover them in time. But do try to not get hit as it will result in you…" Finally Marco yelled out to Dennis in exasperation.
"We are familiar with how a video game works so could you give Star and Chloe weapons as well?" As Marco spoke figures began to emerge from the misty undergrowth taking shape.
There were four of them looking like apes from the waist up with long spider like arms from the elbow down and a long snake like tail from the waist down. Faceless heads bearing a mouth that opened up nearly splitting the head in half were the main feature about them that they learned could 'spit' the laser when one spat a laser out at Marco with him blocking it. As another one went to shoot a flash of pink light shot out striking the creature straight in the chest making it explode in a flash of orange light. All members of both sides looked over at Star who had shot something out of the palm of her hand which was still glowing a pink color. Star didn't even have time to mutter 'cool' before the other three spat lasers at her with all three getting direct hits throwing Star onto her back. Marco growled in anger and rushed the remaining three with two more lasers coming out of the woods striking Marco sending him to his knees. The other three seemed to chuckle and spat lasers at Star and Marco now ignoring Chloe to focus on greater threats.
As Chloe watched them fight from behind a rock she shivered with fear; not for herself but the fact that she couldn't help them. There they were out in the open facing down the baddies while she was stuck behind a rock… 'Wait what am I doing; I should have a weapon on me somewhere right?' Chloe searched herself down finding 2 sticks stuck in the wrap around her waist. She pulled them out revealing them to be hand held fans with intricate artwork designs of butterflies and humanoid lizard warriors all over them. Blinking in confusion at this Chloe held the two fans in one hand while the other searched over her for anything else that might be a weapon. He search was interrupted when she heard another grunt of pain from Marco prompting Chloe to look up and see the fight was not going in their favor. Marco was constantly blocking shots from the woods allowing the other three to focus down on Star timing their shots to not allow her time to fire back. 'Well, here goes nothing.' Chloe thought to herself as she tossed one of the fans at the group of creatures with it turning into a discus of yellow energy that for some reason curved into the woods. As it passed through two flashes of orange light occurred telling them the two in the woods were dead before it came back to Chloe. With the suppressing fire gone Marco charged out and swiped his sword cleaving one of the creatures making it go down in another explosion. The other two stopped firing on Star to try and shoot Marco at close range before he could strike them but forgot that Star was now no longer under suppressing fire allowing her to leap up and shoot one quickly with her pink light. Marco on the other hand reacted far more quickly than the creature would have suspected and quickly repositioned his sword to stab at its underbelly making it go down as well. Chloe and Star came out to a now panting Marco who spoke slightly winded.
"So *pant* are we done here?" Star and Chloe nodded. "Ok, then let's get moving; we have a lot of ground to search." Star spoke up in confusion at that.
"Why, don't we have an arrow we are…" Marco pointed out that the golden arrow that they were supposed to follow was now spinning in endless circles. "… oh guess we just need to search the valley then." The trio took off into the forest thinking that it couldn't be that difficult to find a temple that was meant to be a hub.
SN: Two hours later.
"Dennis, do you have any idea where this temple is!?" Marco shouted this up to the sky as he sliced the head off of one of the 'Creepers', apparently the name of those spider and snake limbed creatures they had fought initially, and blocking another shot from one.
"I'm trying but this virus seems to know how to cover its tracks with amazing skill. I swear this thing is some sort of AI." Dennis's response only made Chloe grumble as she held her fans out blocking the hits from half a dozen of the Creepers from striking Star.
This was the fourth encounter they had in these forests not counting the one at the entry and Chloe was getting a little bored with it all things considered. Yes it was worrisome when Marco was destroyed and had to wait 10 minutes before he could respawn but aside from that nothing too eventful. In fact as Chloe really thought about it they had only been encountering these Creepers; which was more than enough honestly given their ability to climb trees with lightning speed but still. As she blocked the hits Star sniped out three of them in rapid succession with the other three taking to the trees to find cover. Sensing an opportunity she flung one of her fans with it striking two of them before they disappeared into the undergrowth. Marco took off into the woods at a speed so fast he blurred with an orange explosion coming not 3 seconds after he disappeared from view. As he emerged Star sighed and spoke up.
"I wish these things left tracks because if they did I could definitely follow them back to where they were coming from." They nodded with Chloe pushing forward through the ferns with the others following as she spoke up.
"Well we will have to find it eventually; this valley can't be that biiii…" Chloe paused pushing through some ferns.
In front of her was a sharp drop off that fell nearly 100 feet revealing the whole length of the remaining valley ahead of them. The mist shrouded area was surrounded on three sides by steep mountains that led out of the valley showing them that they had in fact come to the very end of the valley. At the far end built into the cliff face was some sort of temple carved from the black stones out of the mountain itself and looked to have been there for millennia. Star and Marco pushed through the ferns and stood shell-shocked at the sight with Star commenting.
"That… is… an impressive sight." As they stared across the valley a buzzing sound came from above them with Marco looking up and screaming.
"Back into the woods!" Star immediately leapt backwards in reflex but Chloe looked up and was nearly blasted by a shower of orange lasers.
Bringing up her fans in reflex she was barely able to block them in time, in fact she didn't block one which hit her shoulder giving out an electrical string she had gotten all too used too. She ducked back into the woods with Marco and Star to see a group of what looked to be giant hornets with two additional stingers on their front two forelegs zip by at lightning speeds. 'Say they look eerily similar to Beedrill from Pokémon.' Chloe thought to herself as they flew past heading in a wide circle to turn around with one making a dash for the temple. Star saw this and leapt out of the woods shooting her own lasers at it with a direct hit confirmed with the small orange explosion. She didn't even have time to pump her fist in victory however when the remaining 4 swooped down shooting lasers from where their stingers would have been. Chloe leapt out blocking them with her fans as Marco joined her in blocking them yelling out to her.
"Chloe, you focus on taking them out, I'll block their shots." Chloe nodded and swung both of her fans out with them going in wide arcs.
The bugs attempted to scatter from their formation but the fans took down one and cut the wings off of another making it fall onto the cliff a few feet from them. The two in the air attempted to shoot down the trio but Star shot back at them forcing them to dodge a lightning speeds to avoid getting hit causing their accuracy to be way off. Chloe tried throwing her fans at them again but they dodged them more easily then Star's shots. Marco on the other hand had to fight the one on the ground with it using it's forelegs like a pair of rapiers. Its tactic was to stab at Marco with one blade and use the other to block and return strikes making it a stalemate with Marco's skill compensating for having only one weapon. Chloe noticed this and decided to even the odds by throwing one of her fans at the bug which promptly blocked it with one leg. This however left it open for Marco to bat aside it's thrust and riposte stabbing it in the head getting a familiar explosion. Chloe did pay for that however as she now only had one fan and one of the bugs swooped in in a kamikaze charge attempting to skewer her with its legs. She blocked one with her fan but the other hit straight in her chest sending out an ESPECIALLY painful shock throughout her body as she was pinned to a tree. Before a few seconds had passed however the bug exploded into a shower of sparks as Star had cut through it with what looked to be Wolverine claws. She didn't even stop to help Chloe up before turning and leaping off the cliff making the noise a raptor made in Jurassic Park at the final bug. It didn't even have time to dodge before Star grabbed onto it grabbling it in midair with the bug sinking down below and moving towards the temple.
"Star!" Marco outright leapt off the cliff into the forest below to follow her to the temple as Chloe stood up thinking aloud.
"Ummmm, guess I'll follow the leader." She quickly grabbed her second fan and followed Marco towards the temple at full speed but was stopped by Dennis's voice at the base of the cliff.
"Ok guys, I think I did it. I have a program installed that will destroy the virus buuuuuuuut…" Chloe rolled her eyes thinking 'of course there's a but'. "… it needs to be in the system to be dealt with and it apparently has merged itself into the virtual world. You guys need to destroy it in order for the program to destroy it, is that clear." Chloe nodded and replied as she took off after the others.
"Crystal." Zipping through the woods she headed towards the temple coming across Marco who was helping Star up after her wild ride and was speaking in exasperation.
"…even thinking in the first place! Do you know what it could have done to you in midair?!" Star tossed her braid back and glared at Marco before retorting.
"Well who was the one that took all of the hits destroying himself when I could have taken a few of them?!" Chloe looked back and forth between the two glaring at each other until Marco began chuckling and replied.
"Well, guess that's fair." Star then chuckled as well leaning in to kiss him on the cheek lightly as she spoke.
"I love you my white knight, just don't get yourself killed for my sake." Chloe again found herself shipping the two so hard at that moment speaking up inadvertently.
"You two are so cute." They looked at her chuckling with raised eyebrows making her stammer. "Uh uh, I mean, um, you know we have to destroy the…" Marco cut her off.
"Virus yes. I have a bad feeling this is going to be a boss fight we are not prepared for." Everyone sighed at that with Marco looking towards the temple. "Let's take it slow and heal up from the damages we still have. I have the feeling it's not going to fight us one on one." Star and Chloe nodded with the group walking through the forest lightly and cautiously.
After a little while their hit points had healed up and they were standing not far from the temple's entrance with it looking rather impressive, although it did look more Hindi then Buddhist. Not surprisingly there were 2 creatures flanking the entrance but they were not like the bugs or creepers, these creatures looked like they meant business. Eight spider like legs coming out of a tiger's body with a cobra's head extending from the body a full eight feet topped off with a scorpion's tail extending from the rear made them look like something out of a nightmare. The trio looked at each other for a second before Marco whispered a plan into their ears quickly. They nodded and split up with Star flanking left and Chloe flanking right. They got into position quickly with Marco walking out into the open catching the creatures' attentions speaking up.
"Afternoon gents, lovely day for a fight to the death eh?" 'Oh my god he is such a dork, no wonder Star loves him.' Chloe snickered to herself as the two creatures glanced at each other for a second before leaning back on four legs.
They began shooting lasers from the four upright legs at Marco who ducked and dodged before trying to block all the shots with mixed success. Not allowing them a moment more to damage him Chloe leapt up and flung both her fans at the right one with both cutting off its front legs. Star leapt up and shot the left one point blank hitting its head multiple times making the head explode. However when Chloe caught her fans she saw they did not seem perturbed in the slightest with the left one now shooting in Star's general direction and the right one moving for Chloe full speed hissing menacingly. Chloe did a twirl and flip like she used to in cheerleading to dodge its tail and head before throwing her fans on her final flip at the creatures head cutting it off in a clean slice. The head exploded but the scorpion's tail shot a mist of green gas at where Chloe was going to land making her sting all over. She rolled out of the mist using her fans now to block the tail's strikes which were coming in a rapid succession. She was at a stalemate unbelievably with the mostly dead creature that pushed her relentlessly. Chloe was wondering how much longer she could keep this up before Marco shot in slicing off its tail in a quick cut and turning around stabbing the body making it explode in the familiar fashion. They stood their panting with Star coming up and speaking.
"You have to destroy all the parts of it in order to kill it, clever virus." They all nodded with Chloe commenting.
"Although it would make a nice mini-boss if this was a game." They nodded in consent but stopped as a gong sounded out accompanying Dennis's voice.
"Um guys, you don't have much time; I think it's figured out how to virtualize itself and is attempting its first test run." The trio nodded and dove into the temple running at full speed hoping to stop it in time.
The inside of the temple itself wasn't actually that big and was a pretty simple lay out so they traversed the whole thing in less than 5 minutes. They emerged into what seemed to be the main ceremonial chamber of sorts with a forest of pillars and a high ceiling overhead disappearing into shadows. To add to the creepy factor statues along the walls staring out with cold stone eyes were all along the walls in small alcoves. But the creepiest thing of all was what Chloe assumed to be the virus itself hunched over in the center of the room seemingly in some sort of meditative state with its back to them. It was curled up on itself so she was fairly certain it was long and sinuous with scales that appeared to be the color of the surrounding rocks with a type of smoke coming off of it. As the group stopped in the entrance just getting a grasp of it the virus extended itself and turned towards them revealing that of all things for some reason it looked like an Eastern Imperial Dragon complete with the long whiskers that waved around its face. What was creepiest about it however is that it didn't really have eyes, instead having blank black sockets with flashes of light coming from it that Chloe was fairly sure was binary for some reason. As it extended upwards it began speaking in a monotone electrical voice like that which would come from a computer.
"Foreign bodies 3, Threat minimal, Mathematical capabilities negligible, Intelligence minimal…"
"HEY!" All three of them shouted out interrupting it briefly.
"… Deletion… IMMEDIATE!" It reared back and shot some sort of toxic mist out of its mouth with Marco yelling out.
"Scatter!" The three scattered with Chloe flipping out of the mist and throwing her fans at it.
The fans scored hits but they only left small glowing marks on it that the virus didn't seem to notice. The Virus swiped its tail in a wide arc sweeping most of the open floor beneath it with Chloe dodging due to her flipping. She also saw with relief that Star had leapt onto one of the pillars and was climbing up the side getting into a good firing position. 'Triangular' Chloe blinked in shock as Marco ran up to the virus and surrounded it with a triangular golden light with him at each corner of the triangular prison. The virus didn't even hesitate before slamming its tail to the ground sending out a powerful shockwave knocking all three Marco's down. Chloe shook off the fact that there were now three Marcos there and tried throwing her fans at its tail in an attempt to cut it off. She was fairly certain the virus would have smirked if it could express emotion as it playfully smacked them aside with the tail she had tried to cut off. Star shot at it from a distance but the virus tanked those hits and charged at the pillar she was on smashing into it head first causing the whole thing to come down. Star, with a feat of agility and strength that left Chloe gaping, leapt onto another one with ease. The Virus growled at Star as it went for that pillar with Chloe running over to get her fans. As she was about to throw them at the Virus, fairly certain she could cut off the tail while it was distracted, Marco stopped her.
"Wait, the Virus of all things gave me an idea." He whispered something in Chloe's ear that made her nod eagerly.
The Virus went to swipe at another pillar now showing annoyance at the prey that was keeping just out of reach of it. Swiping at another pillar making it crumble Star leapt for another but was caught off guard when it shot a mist into her path making her lose focus. She slammed into the pillar with her falling into its eager jaws the teeth sinking in. But Star was not about to just go down like that and extended the Wolverine claws out slicing at the lower jaw somehow cutting off the end of it. As she regained composure the virus regrew its jaw now doing the best it could to glare murder at her as it brought its claws down on her but missed. Well it didn't miss but Marco charged in shoving Star aside taking the brunt of the blow shattering into an orange explosion himself. Star blinked in shock at that with her mouth open until she saw two Marcos begin taunting the Virus and giving quick jabs at it. The Virus seemed to chuckle and sweep its tail at them with both of them dodging the hit which did shatter one of the columns in the room. Star cocked her head in confusion as Chloe threw her fans at it scoring cuts around its head making it growl and shoot a wave of fog at her with Chloe promptly dodging. Star got up ready to charge at it with Marco suddenly appearing at her side and speaking up.
"Star, I have an idea. Get it to strike at you but have it also strike at the columns. Maybe we can bring this whole thing down and crush it." Star blinked in confusion as she replied.
"But won't we get crushed… oh right this is a video game where we technically can't die. On it." Star charged now towards the annoyed virus.
It hissed and tried breathing mist at Chloe but it's now damaged throat prevented it from attacking in that manner forcing it to charge. Chloe flipped out of the way at the last second making it collide with the pillar shattering it. Chloe tried the tactic again and did get it to strike the column but this time its tail went in a wide arc and smacked her into a wall damaging her badly. Hissing in annoyance, or the closest thing to emotion it could muster, it struck forward hammering it's head against Chloe shattering her into an explosion of orange light. Chloe suddenly found herself floating in the air and watching the fight in greyscale like how some multiplayer games did when you died. She barely had time to accept this fact however when Star charged in hissing in anger and slid underneath it slicing it from tail to head with her Wolverine claws before yelling at it.
"Think you're so tough killing my friend huh? Well come and finish me off already!" The Virus hissed and tried to comply with not so good results.
Chloe watched as Star and Marco continued to dodge around it making it hit pillar after pillar weakening the ceiling even if one of the Marcos was destroyed in the process. But just as Chloe thought she could celebrate The Virus suddenly stopped in mid swing and looked at the ceiling and said something along the lines of 'Intelligence Moderate' and moved away from the remaining pillars curling up in a circle and going back into its meditative state. Marco and Star looked at each other in confusion before approaching it cautiously weapons ready… only for Chloe to see its eyes suddenly open. Chloe tried to shout a warning but no sound came out at the Virus turned and shot a cloud of the acid out of its newly fixed throat at the two teens hitting them partially. Star seemed in good condition but Marco was now stumbling and coughing for some reason as his body seemed to shimmer.
"Uh oh." Dennis's voice rang out worried. "Marco's code has been compromised. If he is destroyed in game before the virus is… well…" As the unsaid words hung in the air Star yelled out.
"Marco, run!" The Virus then struck out at Marco hissing eagerly with Star charging it head on.
Marco stumbled away as fast as he could towards the exit but the Virus was not having any of that now and avoided Star completely to block it. Star leapt in as fast as she could, even going down on all fours, and stood between it and Marco with the two sides staring each other down. Chloe suddenly felt a pulling sensation and noticed a timer saying she was about to respawn in 10 seconds. Thinking fast she saw the Virus almost playfully jab at Star looking for weaknesses while Marco stumbled as best he could towards the pillars looking to hide. She inhaled and exhaled as she was respawning knowing if she messed this up she would just die and be sent back to the respawn area. The Virus reared back going for a serious strike at Star… but was stopped when Chloe suddenly materialized out of thin air above it and struck down with her fans slashing its eyes. Shrieking in an inhuman sound the Virus charged forward blindly striking in every direction it could as fast as it could hoping to hit something. Star and Chloe dodged it's strikes and pulled Marco out of the way as well with the Virus, conveniently, charging into the remaining pillars devastating enough of them to compromise the ceiling making it groan. As it began collapsing the virus spoke a few final words as it was disintegrated into orange light. "Intelligence Above Average." As it was destroyed the shimmering over Marco stopped, and just in time as the ceiling fell on the trio crushing them as well.
Alfonzo watched as the trio fell out of the virtualizers gasping for breath breathing a sigh of relief that Marco came out as well. He then turned towards Dennis with the two giving out a whoop whoop and doing a secret handshake that involved a lot finger twisting. Mordecai came over with three drinks that the kids took without hesitation drinking rapidly as Dennis spoke up.
"The Virus has been quarantined from the servers and the program will have it deleted within the hour, crisis averted." Benson spoke up at this heaving a sigh of relief as well.
"Yeah. Announcement team," He turned towards Modecai, Rigby, and Skips. "You guys and the others can take the rest of the day off." The trio gave a small cheer as Benson trudged towards the exit. "Do I need a stiff drink to alleviate my nerves." Dennis and Alfonzo came in close to where their friends were sitting up with Alfonzo speaking up.
"Sorry about not getting to play the game today Chloe, I know you were looking forward to it." Chloe began giggling making Alfonzo double take as she stood up smiling at him. Without any twitching or nervous hesitation she kissed him full on the lips before speaking.
"Al, I did play the game today; I fought an evil virus set on world domination in a cool and surreal world alongside some of the greatest warriors I know of. If that's not a videogame then I don't know what is." Everyone else chuckled at that with Alfonzo blushing. "The only regret I have is I couldn't play it with you, care to do that when they finally open this place?" Alfonzo's blush deepened as he stuttered out an answer.
"Y-Ye-Yes." Marco got up stretching and speaking up.
"Well to be completely honest I'm out gammed for a little while so I'll be skipping that." Star nodded and spoke up.
"Me too. And don't you rest too quickly you still have a door to repair." Star poked him in the chest with everyone giggling at him.
"*sigh* Well I guess I would have had to address it eventually. See you guys later." He waved as Star cut open a portal with the two going to step through… but Star called out to Chloe quickly.
"Oh Chloe, nice move back there. I… think you saved Marco's life. You are a good person and friend." Chloe blushed slightly and looked down bashfully. "Say I'm a having a girl get together the day after tomorrow, care to join me and the girls?" Chloe brightened up at that nodding eagerly with sparkling eyes.
"I'd love to Star! Xièxiè (Thank you)!" She bowed to Star who only giggled at that and walked through the portal closing it behind her.
Alfonzo smiled at Chloe and put his arm around her shoulders with Chloe snuggling in close to him. 'I think she's finally leaving the past behind her as well as learning from it. Thank you for saying that one line Star.' Alfonzo thought to himself while Dennis watched the exchange in confusion speaking to himself.
"Um… did I miss something?"
WH: *Panting as Reality limps away in shock* Well, guess that's over with. Let's get you guys out and at em. *turns towards the audience* I also have a few recommendations for you folks, starting off with RJ Writing Ink the blogger. This guy has recommended several fanfics or otherwise from Star vs that I think a really good so perhaps you should stop by to check up on him. If you want to find him just type in his name into google, it really is that simple. Another recommendation is a new fanfic.
'Royal Secrets' by Blackwolfwrites: For those of you that were disappointed in season four, I liked it even though it did have far more flaws then I thought it would have, this guy is rewriting it the way he thought it should have gone. Honestly, though it's only four chapters long as of this chapter's publishing, I have to say it is really good. First off it gets the love triangle dealt with before you are even 1/4 through the first chapter... although there are some 'effects' that add drama to the story. Highly recommend at this point. 8.5/10 stars.
'Proven Wrong' on AO3(Diffrent website): A GLORIOUS DAY IS UPON US PEOPLE. ANOTHER AUTHOR HAS DARED TO WRITE A STORY OF HOW MOON AND TOFFEE FIRST MET! 'A Tale of Moon and Monsters' is no longer the only story that shows how Moon and Toffee got together, my ship no longer stands alone. *sniff* So beautiful. This story shows how Moon and Toffee met with Toffee of all people initiating the negotiations to try and bring peace between Monsters and Mewmans with Comet and Moon being a bit more eager to help then he thought they would be. Easy 9/10 stars.
theDorkMagnet (author): I have not done this before, but this author is just on average such a good author I find I have to recommend him to you lot. Want a grasp of how good he is, he is the one who wrote 'Light of the Sun and Stars', perhaps the BEST long story fanfic in all of this fandom; better... then 'Star The Monster Princess'.
Oh, it's also time once again for.
Audience: Guest Reviews.
Unnamed Guest one: I'm... unsure about your recommendation honestly at the moment. I did not get a chance to read more then a few chapters but I' hoping it pans out so I can recommend it.
Anna: Well I recommended it here, and it was gloriously good to read another MoonxToffee origin story. ;)
The Opinionator: You will find out all about those questions soon enough. Nice to see you're on board still after the long wait.
1tr0lu: um, I did not message you... I think. Well regardless I'm up and kicking. Who are you anyways?
Sugar: I liked both of those shows and they fit so why not. And I had to give Dennis a bit more character then the show gave him if I want to include him more.
The Book of Eli: Yup that's grandma's for you, stubborn egos for some. The game is changing and the characters must change with them. And yes, Code Lyoko with members from regular show, could you really ask for more in terms of references?
Anyways, I got friends to thaw... say how did the Spongebob Narrator narrate while he was frozen? Regardless next up we get to see a cool performance bro from our friends 'Lil Marco and the Naysaya'.