Like Father, Like Daughter
Disclaimer: I don't own Star Vs the Forces of Evil or any of its elements.
Special Thanks to my beta IdeaGenerator, ZuskatoR3D X, Dobokdude,betabryant, Void115
Chapter 05: Let's Get Ready to Rumble!
As the sun started to descend over the horizon, the sound of laughter erupted from the Diaz living room, where a pile of candy and snacks was currently taking over the coffee table. Spread across the couch like a cat in mid-stretch, Hekapoo lazily reached out to the pile as she recounted the events of her work.
"So what happened next, mom?" Seraph asked, eyes shining eagerly.
"Well, Prince 'Veggiehead' thought he was 'too good for paying' and that he had what it takes, so I let the bozo pick his own challenge. Fat lot of good that did for him," Hekapoo said dismissively, popping a caramel into her mouth with a short chuckle. "Didn't even last a few hours before I had to fish him out of a bog and send him back home. He went crying to his mommy about how his cape was 'completely ruined, an utter travesty,' she said dramatically, mockingly raising her hand to her brow.
"Really? That quickly? I thought he would've lasted half a day at the very least," Marco said, nibbling on a caramel as he shook his head in amusement.
On this late Friday night, Hekapoo had dropped by for a visit after a long day of work. Almost a week had passed since Seraph's arrival, Hekapoo was pleased to no end to hear how well she had been doing. She had been worried that, with how little social interaction Seraph had gotten back home, her little girl would have had trouble fitting in or get bullied, but it eased her heart that this wasn't the case. And now, after several full days, both relative and not, of work, it was nice to finally relax with her daughter and Marco.
Plus, the snacks were a nice bonus.
With Quest Buy's rather complex and often annoying return policies, it had been a hassle for the household to grind away at the massive mound of munchies, and after a few short reminders of why letting Star near too much sugar was a bad idea, everyone agreed it would be best to try and give the bulk of the snacks away. However, Marco still made sure to keep at least a few candies for Hekapoo. After all, Seraph's sweet tooth had to come from somewhere.
"Besides that, nothing really new has happened." Hekapoo shrugged nonchalantly and let out a tired yawn. "Just been monitoring interdimensional rifts activities and helping with the Battle Nexus Tournament again. You know, the usual."
Marco blinked at her. "Wait. The Battle NexusTournament? What's that?"
"Yeah mom, what is that?" Seraph sat up curiously, candy wrappers crinkling in her lap.
"Huh? I thought I...Oh, right, never really got around to telling you. Well, anyways, the BNT is this competition where fighters from all over the multiverse come together every ten years to duke it out to see who's the best. I personally don't really get why watching people punching each other in the face is so popular, but hey, someone's gotta keep a nexus point from collapsing in on itself."
"Hm…" Rubbing his chin silently, Marco furrowed his brow, not looking anywhere in particular. "So, how does the tournament work? Is there a bracket system or something?"
"Eh, it's more of a free for all thing at the start, then there's a whole lotta matchups after-wait a minute." Hekapoo paused, her eyes focused on the contemplative look on Marco's face as she sat up slowly. A few seconds of silence passed by as her eyes narrowed, Marco still stuck in his trance.
"Huh? Is something wrong mom?" Seraph asked curiously, breaking Marco out of his thoughts.
Hekapoo was silent as she continued to squint at Marco, who only shifted his eyes between her and Seraph in confusion. "...Sweetie, please excuse me and your father for a bit. I think we might need to talk about something."
"Uh, Hekapoo, what are you talking abouAAGH-"
A sudden rush of air swept through the living room, taking Marco by the hand up the stairs as Seraph found herself alone. She looked towards the stairs as a red blur sped up them. After no sign of the two coming back down anytime soon, she slowly turned back at the pile of candy keeping her company with a small smile.
Meanwhile, Marco stumbled unceremoniously for a second after being dropped off in the middle of a hallway, but he quickly regained his footing to face a frowning Hekapoo, tapping her foot in front of him. "You better not be thinking what I think you're thinking, 'cause if you are, you better stop thinking that right now."
Tentatively holding his hands in front of him, Marco wondered how much she knew. "Hekapoo, I…I don't know what you mean."
Hekapoo's fingers pinched the bridge of her nose, a deep sigh escaping her lips. "I'd recognize that look on your face anywhere," she said, looking him straight in the eye. "You always used to get it whenever you got one of your 'ideas'."
Scrunching up his eyebrows, Marco tried to put on an air of confusion. "...Wait, you think I want to enter that tournament you were talking about?"
All he got was a flat stare in return. "I know you want to enter-and I would have been totally fine with that, I really would-but Marco," she said, concern leaking into her voice, "I can't let you go out there. Not now."
"Hekapoo," Marco tried to interject, "I-"
"Marco, I won't be able to come and help you if you get into trouble. I can't without the chance of an intra-nexus civil war breaking out!" Hekapoo's hair billowed out behind her as she paced back and forth, frustration etched into her face. "There's no telling how those stupid nobles would react if I interfered with the tournament in such a way, and that poor kid already has enough with maintaining the nexus on his plate," she muttered.
"Who are you talking about Hekapoo? Is someone in trouble?" His plans momentarily forgotten, Marco reached out his hand to her in an attempt to comfort her, but she just spun towards him instead.
"You will be if you enter the BNT Marco! You don't have your 30 year old body or me to help you anymore! I might have no choice but to stand by and watch you die, and there's nothing I would be able to do without causing a war!" Hekapoo paused and closed her eyes tight. She took a slow breath and gave him a quiet look. "Seraph, our daughter, needs you there for her."
"That's who I'm doing it for." Marco replied.
Hekapoo got surprised by his answer, her frown replaced by a confused by a expression.
Marco looked at his hands, still unused to how smooth they felt, "Sometimes, I move in weird ways... ways my body isn't used to. I'm getting used to it, but it's not enough. I think trying to enter this tournament might help me get back into fighting shape."
"You won't be getting into anything other than a coffin if you die in that tournament, Marco. There are infinite ways to train if you want to, so why a battle royale?" Hekapoo asked impatiently, the tapping of her foot increasing tempo.
Marco frowned a bit and let out a tired sigh. "There is only so much I can achieve on Earth. There may be gyms to work out and I may have my Sensei to improve with basic karate, but they can only do so much. The multiverse is full of amazing experiences and other things that could help me improve, but being so vast as it is, it'd take forever to find something of help. This tournament is going to attract people from all over the multiverse for a good fight. This is the perfect opportunity and I don't want it to pass by."
He walked towards the edge of the stairs and looked down to the living room, to where Seraph was sneaking in a few extra sweets, Hekapoo still glaring at him. "Sometimes, there are monsters that show up looking for trouble and I fight them off. I'm not failing at that by any means, but the constant reminder that I can do so much more keeps makes me want to go further. This could give me a chance to figure out the extent of my skills right now. An opportunity to fix anything I'm doing wrong."
Marco took a deep breath and turned to Hekapoo, "I see what you're saying, but I'm not bent on winning or anything. I just want to see how well I can do. If things go south, I'll just drop the tournament, no big deal." He smiled softly at the redhead, who was no longer glaring him.
"Plus it would be nice to be able to do something cool for Seraph. She knows all these stories about me doing awesome things during your trial, but aside from the occasional monster fight, she has barely seen anything. I want to show her what I'm capable of even I'm not like how I was in the stories anymore." Marco sheepishly scratched the back of his head, "I really want to do this for her. I'm not saying this is gonna be easy, but this is a much better opportunity than many others which are actual combat to train and show her something cool. "
"...There's no changing your mind, is there? Still as determined as ever." Hekapoo let out a sigh, "I know better than to try and talk you out of something once you've got your mind on it." She turned her gaze towards Marco, a small smile forming in her face. "...I guess it'd be safe enough. There are rules to keep the contestants from maiming each other, and nobody is really allowed to kill anyone. Plus, you seem to have your head in the right place after all. I'll go sign you up and get you the rulebook, it starts in…" Hekapoo quickly did the calculations for the time dilation across the dimensions involved. "...About week, so get yourself ready." She then looked up, giving him a determined stare. "But you better promise me you'll keep yourself safe and stop when it gets too dangerous, okay?"
"I promise." Marco swore to her, her smile now much softer.
They both made their way back down stairs as Seraph tried to hide the wrappers of her purloined goodies.
Hekapoo smiled at her daughter, "We've settled everything, sweetie." Hekapoo focused on their daughter. "So, it looks like your dad is gonna enter the tournament."
Excited, Marco smiled. "Thanks, Hekapoo." Marco grabbed a chocolate pocky, starting to nibble on it to celebrate this small step towards bettering himself.
They both pulled back, Hekapoo finishing up the snack, "So, I'll go get started on everything. You should start training."
"Right." Marco fidgeted.
Hekapoo kissed Seraph on the cheek, "Goodbye, I'll see you soon sweetie."
"Goodbye, mom."
Hekapoo grabbed a few random snacks on the table before opening a portal and stepping into it.
"Hekapoo," Marco stopped her, "Thank you, thank you for trusting me and helping me do this."
Hekapoo just shook her head, "Well, if you're gonna do something like this I better keep my eyes on you to make sure you do it right, 'dum-dum'." She quickly booped his nose, "So, don't let me down, get in fighting shape."
"Weren't we over this?" Marco yelled flustered.
"Oh, you know you love it."
The moment between them ended with the joyful giggling of their daughter, she was delighted by seeing her parents together like that.
"Well, I better go. Love you, sweetie. I'll see you soon." Hekapoo walked into the portal which closed behind her.
Then Seraph gave Marco a sly smile that reminded him so much one of Hekapoo's.
"Okay." He clapped his hands together. "You want to go for a ride on Nachos? I've got the perfect place in mind..."
0000
Early in the morning of the next day, they were settled into a parking spot right in front of the dojo.
Marco removed his helmet as he unmounted Nachos. Seraph following suit, luckily one of the various random items she picked up at Quest Buy included a helmet with holes for her horns.
Honestly, some of those safety kid aspects were amplified when he found out he was a dad, he wouldn't allow Seraph to ride Nachos now without a helmet.
Marco took a bit of jerky from his pockets and feed it to Nachos. "Okay boo-boo, stay here and wait for us. Don't go running off chasing pigeons again."
Nachos gave him an affirmative nod as she nibbled the jerky. Seraph gave her a friendly pat on the head.
They headed into the dojo Sensei quickly waved them over. "Hey, Marco! Hey… I'm sorry, I didn't catch your name last weekend."
"Seraph."
"Hey Seraph,"
"Hey," She replied delightedly.
"Sensei I need to talk to you about something," Marco told him.
Sensei had actually been surprised by Marco's arrival, Marco hadn't exactly been focused on his training as of late and with having a daughter suddenly Sensei thought that would be the last nail in the coffin for his karate training. Sensei hated the idea of losing his best student and his friend but he understood. And with everything that happened maybe it was time for Marco to find a new master to learn from.
Sensei told the students he had in the dojo to practice their forms while he talked to Marco. Seraph watched the students practice while Marco explained the situation to Sensei.
"So, you want me to retrain you in a week so that you can fight in some sort of extra-dimensional fighting tournament against the multiverse greatest warriors?"
"Yes."
"Okay, that sounds awesome!" Sensei shouted eager to a part of this in any way. "But are you sure you want to train with me? I mean, you were on a crazy adventure for like 16 years, I thought you'd pick up stuff from other teachers. Like, you'd move on from me."
Marco looked away for a moment before sighing, "Yeah, I did have a lot of teachers during those 16 years, I learned a lot of stuff, I even learned from Hekapoo… but," Marco looked at his teacher, "Everything has been off since I got back, everything has been weird. I think I need to retrain and kinda start over from scratch. I can't think of a better person to restart with than my first teacher."
Sensei found a smile spreading across his face, "Okay, if we got any chance to get you into fighting shape we are going to have to train every chance we get. Before school, after school, late into the night. If we are going to do this you are going to have to commit."
"Count me ready!" Marco shouted eagerly, a new flame lit within him.
"Ugh, what are you doing here, Marco?" Now that was a voice he hadn't heard since...
"Jeremy."
"Marco's training for a tournament," Sensei told him.
"A tournament? I want in too. If someone with a red belt can enter it then I'm sure to win it."
"You gotta sign up in another dimension, so good luck with that." Marco told him flatly, looking the opposite direction. He was barely acknowledging the 8 year old millionaire.
"Ugh, come on! Really?" Jeremy let out. "Mom won't let me go that far. Why do you get to do all the cool stuff now?" He narrowed his eyes. "Did your girlfriend?"
"Me and Hekapoo aren't really dating… it's a pretty complicated."
"Hekapoo?! I was talking about that blonde girl who's always around you."
"Do you mean...Star?"
"And who's Hekapoo? Sound like someone who's perfect for a loser like you."
Marco put up with a lot from Jeremy but he wasn't gonna stand him talking badly about Hekapoo.
But he didn't get a chance Seraph quickly picked Jeremy up by the collar baring her fangs and her fist started to ignite. "Don't ever speak about my parents like that again."
The anger was dripping off her words and flickers of flames could be seen in her eyes.
Struggling against her grip, Jeremy's legs flailed in the air. "Hey! Let go of me you...you…" His eyes widened, his heart starting to race. Going limp in Seraph's hands, he looked deep into her eyes. Nothing filled his mind but the visage of beauty before him. "Who are you?" he asked dreamily.
Unnerved by the strange look on his face, Seraph let go of Jeremy, who only continued to stare at her dumbstruck. "Uh, Dad?" she asked, feeling rather uncomfortable at the moment.
Stepping in front of Jeremy and interrupting his trance, Marco dryly said, "If you want to know, her name is Seraph, and she's related to me." The corner of his mouth twitched and a calculating glint shone in his eyes, but Jeremy barely noticed, blinking and shaking his head clear.
As his jaw dropped, Jeremy looked at Marco and then at Seraph in disbelief. "You're related to that dweeb?" he sputtered. "Bu-b-but how?"
"Well, he is my dad," Seraph said confidently, though she was still unsure what to think of the kid.
In a single moment, Jeremy's face cycled from confusion to realization, then to horror, and finally denial. "...I...uh…I think I need to sit down and think about a few...things," he murmured dazedly. As he walked off the training mats to his butler, he kept glancing back to Seraph every few seconds.
"I don't like him Dad, he's a little creepy," Seraph said.
Marco put a comforting hand on her shoulder. "You don't need to worry about him. He's harmless. Besides, I don't think he'll be bothering us for a while."
And he'll think twice before trying anything with my little girl, he thought.
0000
Marco had been practicing his forms for about an hour with Sensei's instructions trying to fix any errors in his movements.
Seraph had been sitting on the sidelines watching. Marco had brought her to properly introduce her to Sensei. That and he was afraid of leaving her with all those snacks alone, she's had several sugar crashes since she moved in. His parents were out and Star was doing something with Pony Head so no one was there to keep her from gobbling up the sugary sweets.
Marco was starting to finish up.
Sensei noted, "Hm, it would be really good to find someone for you to spar with."
Seraph jumped up hearing that. "Can I join? This stuff looks cool and I want to try it out!"
Marco turned around and looked at her beaming, her excitement evident. He felt pride welling up inside him, tears of joy filling his eyes. "I love you." Marco couldn't help but hug her.
"Aw, I love you too dad."
Sensei teared up too, "I'm gonna be a grand-sensei." He hugged them too.
They got Seraph a training outfit, Seraph put on the new Gi tying a white belt around herself.
Marco was just barely holding his glee, looking at his daughter with pride at seeing her wearing a Gi. He took some pictures of her with his phone and and sent them to his own parents, feeling a better understanding of his parents whenever they took a bunch of pictures of him.
"Okay, I guess we should start." Sensei told them.
Seraph watched closely at first, then practiced some basic movements with Sensei and Marco's guidance. Marco was actually enjoying teaching her, as it helped him with his practice and there was something surprisingly satisfying about teaching his own kid something he was good at.
"Okay, that was good. Now try it a little faster. Also, bend down a little and move your feet apart, it will help lower your center of gravity and make it harder to knock down." Marco advised, showing her the correct posture.
Seraph corrected her stance and tried again.
She chopped at the air, slowly increasing her speed. With her natural athleticism she quickly started to cut through the air faster than Sensei thought was possible. Seraph imagined herself in battle, attacking her enemies and striking them down, almost not realizing her fist caught on fire during the training.
Caught by surprise Marco let himself fall backwards, barely avoiding being burnt by a punch.
"The flames might have been a bit much." Marco gulped.
Seraph focused on her surroundings, surprised to not have noticed her fiery fist. She shook it off and smiled sheepishly. "Oh sorry. That just happens sometimes when I get worked up."
Marco shouldn't have been so surprised. She was Hekapoo's daughter and he had seen her use pyromancy before.
"That is awesome!" Sensei approved. "What do you call that move?"
"I'm not sure." Seraph told him honestly, "I never thought up a name."
"Oh," Sensei pondered it for a moment. "How about fire punch? No! Fire Fist!"
"I like that!" Seraph smiled gleefully.
"What else can you do with your fire powers?" Sensei asked.
Seraph held out her hand and a with a snap of her fingers a ball of flames formed in her palm. " This is about it and it takes work. If I try to make it much bigger it can get out of control and scorch things like my mom's rug. My mom showed me how to use heat to shape metals too, though I really have to concentrate to do that." Concentrating, she held out her other hand and the flame snaked its way to in between them. "And if I try I can shoot the fireball at things, got to be careful when I do. I set fire to a tree before like that while shooting at rocks."
Marco from his position on the floor rubbed his chin. He supposed that Hekapoo didn't have a chance to go over the finer details of her powers with their daughter. In just a month she had to go over social normal and how to speak so something had to be left behind.
Marco did want to continue to train but he knew this meant that Seraph herself needed help too. Marco wondered what he could do, Hekapoo would likely be busy so his mind went to the other flame user he knew.
0000
Tom was a little surprised that a portal formed in his room but it didn't stop him from playing his video game.
Marco quickly stepped out and greeted Tom. "Hey."
"Hey." The demon greeted back keeping his eyes on the screen.
"Tom, I need some help."
"I'm sure you do, but I can't make miracles happen and your love life scares me."
"What? No! Seraph is having some problems learning to use her fire powers. Since you have fire powers too I was hoping you'd have some advice."
Tom looked askew at Marco for a moment, pursing his lips in thought, then he paused his game and got up. Stretching the kinks out of his back, he walked over to a nearby bookshelf. "...Hm, I know I have it here somewhere," he said in concentration, thumbing through the titles. "Ah, there it is!" He picked up a book and tossed it to Marco, who deftly caught it and was immediately thrown off guard by the garishly pastel cover.
The otherworldly bright colors caused a few tears to well up in his eyes. He had to squint just to make out the title. "A Little Fire Starter's Guide to Your Fire and You?" He raised an eyebrow. "What's this?"
"It's a book. What else do you think it is?" At Marco's unamused stare, Tom chuckled. "I'm just kidding. It's a guidebook to help kids learn how to control their fire powers. My parents got it for me just in case I had any troubles with my pyromancy growing up, but since I inherited more from mom than dad expected, I never really needed it," Tom explained. "You can have it, though just promise me you might help me with a small favor in the future and we'll call it even. Oh, and for the record, those marks on the back aren't scorch marks, okay? I accidentally dropped it in some of mom's tears a while ago."
"...Okaaay?" Marco drawled. He looked suspiciously at the demon for a moment, then he rolled his eyes, diverting his attention to a more important task. Flipping open the book, he was thankful for the much more normal and toned down colors within. Though many of the pages were just full of meditational techniques and exercises-'never really needed it my butt' he inwardly noted-others sounded rather promising for Seraph's development from what he could tell. His head filling with teaching plans and page numbers, Marco stayed glued to the book, faintly muttering to himself
"...I'm guessing you like the book, right?" Tom said hesitatingly. He awkwardly scratched his head in silence, inaudible murmurs being his only response. "So, uh, you're welcome?"
Marco waved dismissively back at him, still absorbed in his reading. "Yeah, yeah." Fluidly, he drew his scissors and snipped at the air. Offhandedly throwing out a mumbled 'thanks' and stepping through the portal, he missed hearing Tom's sigh of relief.
"Whew, thank goodness." Wiping his brow, he smiled and sat back in his chair and started his game back up.
Normally, Tom would have given away the book for free anyways-he'd forgotten how much it hurt his third eye to look at it, and he didn't mind who he gave it to, especially if it was for a friend-but this was one opportunity he simply could not pass up. Though he still wasn't quite sure what exactly Marco's relationship with Lady Hekapoo was or what to make of the fact that they had a daughter-the idea of one of the Magical High Commission actually having one kept throwing him for a loop at times-it would be a very good idea to have some protection if she ever found out about those curses he once had on Marco.
So far, he had been able to erase any trace of most of them the night of Seraph's arrival, but now, he could only hope that she would not notice the more irremovable curses or that they had already been set off during Marco's trial. He had no aspirations of ever facing her legendary wrath, and he hoped that enough of his friend still remained in the new, current, and still sometimes unfamiliar Marco to bail him out of such a situation. In addition, it was a start in getting in Seraph's and both of her parents' good graces.
That, and-if he was going to be honest with himself-it would be nice to have an extra player help him finally beat the infamous Level 13 of Request 99 if he was really just worrying about nothing in the end.
Demons are tricky little devils, after all. And they definitely never, ever would admit that they could relate to having trouble controlling their fire powers, or that they once intentionally set a book on fire, especially to a close friend.
0000
The next day they took a moment from their usual training to read the book.
Sensei place some candles before Seraph as she sat on the floor.
Sensei and Marco sat next to her. Marco looked through the book, "Okay, so we will try this."
"You want me to try lighting the candles without touching them?" Seraph stared at the candles.
"Yeah, according to this books it's a matter of focusing. " Looked over the pages, "The book says that your power basically works by letting you create heat and ignite the air. The reason you make flames around you is that it just less effort to ignite the air around you. By working on projecting the heat it lets you work on control and focus it. That's probably going to be handy to keep your clothes from catching on fire."
"That would be nice, I do like my new jacket."
"So for today, we're just going to try a little meditation and focusing exercises."
"And this is a part of learning to fight?" Seraph questioned.
"Yeah!" Sensei told her. "You need a clear mind, not only to know when to fight but also to know how to fight, to see where your opponent's attacks coming from and when and how to take a hit."
They sat there meditating for a good while, Seraph focusing on the candle before her attempting to force heat into the wick. Her frustration growing with the lack of visible results, she pointed a finger at the wick as a vein started to bulge on her forehead.
With the candle unlit, almost as if mocking her, she let out a heavy sigh as her shoulder slumped down.
Marco placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder sensing her distress, "Don't worry," Marco said his voice soft, "It's okay if you don't get results right away. These things take time and practice, I didn't get good at karate right away, it took me years to work my way to a red belt. So don't stress yourself and relax, we have all the time to work on this."
Seraph smiled as it felt a pressure lifted from her. She turned to the candle and focused in on it taking a breath.
A small puff rang out as the pair looked at the suddenly lit candle. There was a small flame but it was there.
"Ha!" They cheered before embracing each other in a hug.
"Huh?" Sensei looked around confused, having fallen asleep twenty minutes ago.
0000
They moved onto something else Marco stood on a bucket and put on a blindfold.
Sensei brought over a large basket filled with rubber balls.
Seraph grabbed the ball and gave it a good squeeze. "So, you want me to throw this at my dad?"
"Yeah," Sensei picked up a ball. "The idea is to get his reflexes to react faster even when he's can't see everything. To start picking up on the space around him, on things like sounds and smell. Just to react even when he can't see something coming. He'll get whacked a few times but eventually just start blocking the balls before they get to him."
Seraph nodded understanding.
"Okay, dad taking my first shot."
"Good ahead," Marco got ready to try and block a hit.
Seraph threw the ball and it sped past Marco's head and with a loud bang the ball embedded itself into the wall behind him.
Marco's voice cracked, "Ah, maybe don't throw so hard."
Marco was pretty lucky that her throwing aim wasn't that great.
0000
The following morning they had woken up early to continue their training in Marco's room.
"Thirty nine! Forty! Forty one!..." Marco was doing push ups while Seraph sat on his back.
Marco missed some of the physical attributes he used to have in the other dimension, his older self would have not problem doing this, he'd actually been in the hundreds already.
"…that to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed," Seraph read out loud from her textbook.
Seraph was smart and could pick up things but she still needed to work. With things like history she had to catch up on world history that everyone else already knew, she was good at memorizing stuff but she still had to read a lot of books.
Whenever she had a chance she would be trying to read one of many books she had to catch up on.
Marco knew she was putting in a lot of work and she wasn't exactly enjoying it but she was trying. If she was putting this much effort than he didn't want to slack off either. He wanted to put a good example for Seraph and to make her proud.
"Fifty one! Fifty two! Fifty three..."
0000
Marco felt satisfied, despite being somewhat sore from training. He was able to go through the motions better than before, his muscle memory becoming more in tune with his body once again. The morning had been passing by well enough, though with the ever approaching deadline for entering, Marco was feeling pumped, ready to go any minute.
"Let me get you a towel." Sensei offered, noting how much his student was sweating. "You looked drenche-"
The distinctive sound of reality ripping open interrupted him as an orange portal formed next to them. Seraph leapt in joy at the sight. "Mom!" Seraph quickly moved to give her a hug.
"Hi sweetie," Hekapoo gave her a quick kiss on the cheek.
Marco was happy to see her but wondered, "Why are you here?"
Hekapoo smirked, "Star told me you were here training, I brought the rule book like I said I would." Hekapoo tossed it to Marco. "Yeah, sorry. Meant to bring it in earlier but Rhombulus kept pestering me about another one of those 'gut feelings' again."
"Thanks." Marco began to look the guide over.
"So, how's training going? It looks like someone else has been doing some training too." Hekapoo smiled noting her daughter in a gi like her father's.
"Yeah, I saw dad training and I decided to try it out too," Seraph said a bit sheepish.
"Really?" Hekapoo gave her daughter a playful boop and an encouraging smile.
"Oh! Dad's been helping me out with karate and everything and we figured out something."
There were still a bunch of candles around the dojo.
"Look!" Look!" Seraph looked at the candle and focused. She raised her hand and pointed a finger. "Pew!" The candle quickly lit up. Seraph quickly picked a new target again. "Pew!" Another candle lit up. "Pew! Pew! Pew!" Three more candles lit up. "Look!"
Sensei slid a fire extinguisher away with his foot. Over the last few days, they had been working with her, focusing her power...and her aim. The scorch marks he spent hours scrubbing without any success could attest to that. He knew often kids needed support and let to shine, they needed to feel proud of the victories they had to overcome any failures and to encourage them to continue and so when they came to another failure they could feel confident enough to try.
Plus, the kid wanted to make her mother proud, everyone should get to do that every once in a while.
"That's great!" Hekapoo beamed. "Oh look at you! You're already doing long distance ignition!"
Seraph just scratched the back of her head with a huge grin on her face.
Composing herself, Hekapoo turned to Marco, "So how's your training going?"
Marco looked at Hekapoo, "I think I'm doing pretty good. Considering the short time I've had to train I'll think I'll be ready to fight."
"That's good to hear. Now, have you decided if and what weapons you're going to bring?"
"Wait, we could bring weapons?"
"Oh, did I forget to mention it? In the tournament, people are allowed to use weapons. You just have to get it examined before the tournament." Hekapoo stared at Marco in confusion as he groaned in response. "What's the issue? Aren't you good with a sword?"
"Yeah, back when I had both a sword and the body to use it. And I don't exactly have one to practice one lying around nearby. I left mine at your forge, remember?"
"But what about your scissors?"
"My scissors?" Marco asked, pulling them out of his pocket.
"Yeah, I mean, they don't look like a sword for no reason. Why else would I design them that way?"
Marco looked up at her slack-jawed, the edges of his lips slowing curving up disbelievingly. "My scissors can turn into a sword?"
"It's a special feature I added to yours. Just give it a swing."
As he did so, the pair of scissors suddenly caught on fire and extended. The metal of the scissors contorted and changed around his hand. As the flames died down around him he marveled at the broad sword with a scissors-like hilt. Marco's eyes looked down at the grip and met the guard where Hekapoo's emblem lay. His thumb slowly caressed the symbol gingerly, as if he wasn't sure if it was real.
"I know, I know, it's not exactly a katana and it has a straight blade," Hekapoo said, putting her hands out, "but I couldn't get it to curve without some risking some structural weaknesses."
Marco's fingers glided over the flat of the blade, feeling the smooth perfection of its shape. "I love it!" Marco exclaimed as he took a few practice swings, testing how the weight felt in his hands.
Marco knew that a katana and broadsword were used in different ways, there were different styles of fighting and even if he was used to fighting with his katana he'd need to adjust properly. Still, he was elated, not only did he get a sword but one specially forged for him.
He assumed there was a touch of magic in it, something that made it feel like his own. The handle should have been cold like steel but it felt nice and warm. The grip seemed to conform his hands. It didn't feel heavy since he got back from the trial he'd felt everything was off too heavy or just off but this sword just felt right.
Meanwhile, as Marco tried his new sword, Hekapoo intently studied his form and his movements.
"With all that said however, I'm not sure you're ready for the tournament yet," Hekapoo stated, looking him over. The gears in her head started to calculate the most likely outcomes for thing to go.
"Hekapoo, trust me I know what I'm doing. I'm not going to do anything that is too risky." Marco reassured her. Marco was a bit surprised by her change in attitude but could only assume that it came from worry so he didn't hold it against her.
"Right." Hekapoo pointed a finger at him. "Like you've never done anything without thinking in our time together."
Marco really couldn't argue that, he started to mindlessly to run his hand over the scar that once had over his eye.
"I don't think you have it in you to make it through the tournament." Hekapoo said her tone turning haughty. "Well, not and make it out in one piece. I'm not going to take you just to get beat to a pulp."
"What?" Marco cried out. "But I thought you said you'd take me!"
Hekapoo just spun on her heel casually, though strangely without the presumptuousness one would expect from her words. "Well, I changed my mind. I thought you'd be able to do more and get ready but it looks like I was wrong. You're just in no shape to compete."
"Hekapoo, you know that I can just go myself."
Hekapoo scoffed softly at him. "Oh, really? Okay, tell me where is the Battle Nexus is." She turned her back to him, a small devilish smirk forming on her face, "You've never been there and you don't have any map, so how are you going to get there?"
Marco realized that she was right, without some point of reference even something as simple as a visual of the place or a memory he couldn't use the scissors to take him there.
"I will figure out a way," Marco said determinedly. Though he couldn't figure out why Hekapoo would be acting this way, it was starting to get on his nerves.
Hekapoo sighed. "Yeah, you probably would. Doesn't mean you should though." She moved closer to him, so close that Marco felt the heat of her flame prickle his skin. "Meatwad, you've always had a hard time knowing when to call it quit. Let me give you a hint: this is the time."
"Hekapoo," Marco let a small primal growl escape his lips. His heart beat increased as his hand gripped the sword tighter.
"That's my name, don't wear it out." Hekapoo smiled widely as she started to walk around him. Her tone had become playful and carefree, her finger resting lazily on her chin in thought. "Now, maybe you should start training for the next tournament. I mean, ten years is a lot of time to train for a human, but by then who's to say that you won't have a chance at the next one?"
"Hekapoo!" Marco shouted.
Marco let out a hiss as he felt her white hot hand smack his head. Before he could even complain a felt another smack hit him followed by another and then another. He could feel the tinge of his skin starting to burn and the smell of the hair on the back of his head starting to burn off.
Without a thought Marco swatted at her hand, Hekapoo in turn moved to the side and finished the attack. With her next swat on it's way Marco tried again reacting a bit faster and managing to catch her hand. Hekapoo was not to be stopped as she used her free hand to land another blow. Much like his first attempt Marco tried to swat her away but this time with the sword.
Hekapoo pulled her arm away and swirled away from the blade, doing so she delivered a kick right to Marco's chest, not one hard enough to truly hurt him but to force him back. Marco blinked as he tumbled backwards as he realized what just happened.
He stared forwards as he just caught sight of a blur rushing towards him at high speeds, his body began to move on its own and slashed downwards at the blur.
"Hm," Hekapoo mused out loud. She had stopped the blade mid-slash, catching it with her index finger and thumb. "Okay, let's see what we got to work with. Decent force, aim a tad off, reaction time pretty good. Huh, I guess you still got some of your old sword skill ready to bubble out." Hekapoo grinned knowingly, "You even did a half decent attempt at re-adjusting your form for a new sword. Okay," Hekapoo took a step back letting the sword go, "You might have a chance of not getting your tight little rump handed to you. I think I can work with this."
Caught off guard
"So prove it to me. Prove to me you're up to snuff and I'll gladly show you the way to the tournament." Hekapoo took a few steps back releasing the sword. "Unless, of course, you're not, hmm?"
Marco smirked, raising an eyebrow, "Is that another challenge?"
"What if it was?" Hekapoo coyly smiled, taking a step forwards. "Spar with me using that sword and if you can defeat me, I'll take you to the Battle Nexus Tournament." She then glanced up and down at him carefully, taking in the sweat-soaked clothes clinging to his body and the spent energy in the air. "Though it looks like you've been practicing for a while. Why don't you take a short break for a while?"
"So you can have more time to get ready to lose?" Marco said teasingly.
"Nah, it'll just be more satisfying to beat you at a hundred percent than in the state you're in now."
"Is that so?" With a confident grin, Marco stepped closer to her. "Oh you are on!"
The fire in Marco's eyes matched the intensity of Hekapoo's flame as he gripped his sword eagerly. Hekapoo, in turn, simply smirked and smoothed out her dress, crossing her arms assuredly.
"You guys, uh, you do get along, right?" Sensei spoke up nervously. "I mean, you two look really eager to fight each other."
On the other hand, Seraph watched on with excitement. She had heard about her parent's trial and about the many adventures they faced together and now it seemed like she would get a glimpse of it.
Things were about to get exciting.
V0ID notes: Well, I expected a lot of things. Working as a guest proofreader and aiding the development of one of my favorite fanfictions of all time was NOT one of them. I feel very glad to have been part of this and aiding to put this chapter as soon as possible with the best quality it could have. I'm very thankful for the opportunity given to me by ADdude and IdeaGenerator. I hope to have been of help. I'm not entirely sure if I'll be a more "permanent" addition to the team or if it was a one time thing, but regardless, I'm glad I could be part of it. I hope you guys enjoyed it!
IdeaGenerator: Yeah, sorry about the late chapter. School really picked up for me and I found myself not only not having a lot of time to work on this, but also had a bad case of editor's block for a while. If the level of quality of this chapter feels lower than the ones beforehand, please excuse us as my editor's block hasn't let up very much, but I hope that when Chapter 6 gets released, we'll also be releasing an updated and more polished version of this chapter at the same time, so be on the lookout for that.
Also, I hope that you guys will enjoy what's coming, as though we're going into a slightly more action-oriented section of the story, there's a lot more to the whole tournament than you'd think. So until then, this has been IdeaGenerator, signing off.
Author's Notes: 'Sup. So long time. Yeah, I've been keeping myself busy will the chapter has been editing. I've got a bunch of future chapter done we just got to edit them now and hopefully that will go faster. Also I have helped video editing a new series called Ship Happens, where we look at ships and dissect them. If you're interested check it out this months is about marco and Janna. Just search manna and ships happens on youtube. Other wise check out tumblr, I posted something there about this chapter, let me know if you saw wise thank you for waiting and please leave a review telling me what you think. Once more thanks to all our guest editors who helped get this out a bit faster.