Like Father, Like Daughter
Disclaimer: I don't own Star Vs the Forces of Evil or any of its elements.
Chapter 06: Marco vs Hekapoo
Marco got home and showered off, ready just in time to have dinner with the family.
As Marco and Seraph sat down for dinner with the rest of the family. They talked about their training session. Ultimately they also talked about Hekapoo's challenge.
Star's reaction was, "Whaaa?! You're gonna fight Hekapoo?"
"Not fight. Spar," Marco corrected. "It's not like we're going to try and hurt each other."
"She's Hekapoo! She'll clobber you, she's super strong and fast!"
"I know." Marco pointed out, "It was one of the main reasons it took me 16 years to catch up to her."
"Are you sure about this?" Star asked him again. "I mean, you could get hurt really easily."
Marco continued to reassure her, "Don't worry, Star. Me and Hekapoo have done this sort of thing before. I trust her to not intentionally hurt me."
Star mumbled into her food, "I'm worried about her unintentionally hurting you."
Star didn't think Hekapoo would try to hurt Marco but people get hurt without trying. Marco broke his arm practicing karate, she turned his arm into a monster, and one time turned his head into a pair flaming butterfly wings… the point was Marco had gotten hurt unintentionally a lot.
Hekapoo was a tough customer and if that happened there he could be seriously hurt.
But it was clear that Marco had his mindset, and he wouldn't get talked out of it. Marco's parents were okay with it, they believed Marco knew what he was talking about and since Sensei would be watching over the fight they thought it should be okay.
0000
After dinner, Marco was fiddling around in his room. He dug through his closet pulling out a small wooden chest. It was a sort of memory chest, something to keep precious things.
He opened it up, it contained random items he'd picked up over his life, little things he never found a proper place for and he just couldn't see himself getting rid off. Among the items there, were a skull mask, a few old letters from some exchanges students, old cards, photos but what stood out for Marco was what was right on top.
He pulled out a black jacket and torn red hoodie. Both had been ripped up a bit, the red hoodie was more than a little bit torn.
"Dad?" Seraph poked her head into Marco's room noticed Marco on the floor with the box.
"Hey Seraph," He smiled wistfully at the clothes.
"Are those the clothes you wore in mom's dimension?"
"Yeah," Marco told her as she sat down beside him. "I don't have much in the way of keepsakes from that time there except this, the scissors, and..." He paused and looked at his daughter, "You of course."
"Obviously I'm the best one."
"Yes, you are."
Marco rifled through the items he had there. Honestly, he had a whole lot of keepsakes but he had kept them in a bag on Nachos. That bag was gone when Nachos arrived on Earth he had to figure that at some point Hekapoo removed the bag. The items in the bag were probably gone or lost.
That's when he noticed a small photo slipped out of his jacket pocket which Seraph quickly picked up.
She was a bit surprised by the photo, it was an exact copy of the picture she had by her bed. This picture was a bit more crumbled but it was the same.
Hekapoo was wearing a stylish yellow dress, one that showed off her figure and really popped against her red hair. She wore a black choker with a small diamond and matching black earrings. She was wearing a bit of makeup most noticeably flaming red lipstick.
She was sitting on a couch in some sort of club and sitting next to her was Marco, an older Marco in his twenties. His hair was messy and with his leather jacket showing off his abs Marco was surely turning some eyes too.
They were cuddled up on the couch together, Marco had an arm around Hekapoo's waist and with his free hand pointed at her. Hekapoo had a hand on his leg and holding a drink with her free hand. It looked like they were celebrating something. Marco seemed a little awkward in the setting but enjoying himself.
At the corner of their picture, there was a kiss in the same red lipstick and it was signed,
'You sure know how to show a girl a good time.'
XOXO
Hekapoo
"Mom looks pretty in this picture" Seraph commented right before Marco took the picture back.
Marco started to blush brightly.
"What picture?!" Marco shoved the picture back in his pocket.
Seraph blinked, "The one you put in your pocket just now. By the way, what was wrong with mom's clothes, they all looked really tight and small on her."
Marco blushed, unsure of how to answer that.
"So you and mom look pretty close in the picture." Seraph smiled innocently at her father, "and what did she mean by 'show a girl a good time'?"
Marco gulped, "Ah, well, yeah, you see that was my twenty-first birthday." Sheepishly he scratched the back of his head. "Your mom decided to take me out to celebrate it."
"So… a date?"
"Ah, kinda, I mean, she said… yeah. I guess it was kind of our first date-date."
Seraph smiled at her father. Marco could tell she wanted to dig into her parent's date more, Marco remembered that day particularly well but he was not sure about telling his daughter about his dates. Certainly not that date.
"Ah! Let me show you something else I got in your mom's dimension." He frantically started to dig through his pockets.
"Seamless change of topic dad." Seraph snarked at her father's attempts but relented.
Marco searched his pockets mutter, "Oh, did I lose it again." Marco huffed and just held out his hand. "Fine, I'll just do this." With a flick of the wrist and a flash of light, something began to materialize in his hand. Suddenly in his hand, there was a very large skeleton key all in black and red, it had a large strange hilt decorated to look like a sun, a star and a crescent moon aligned together.
"Woaaah!" Seraph stared dumbfounded, she didn't have a lot of magic experience but she could sense it wafting off the large key. "I didn't know you could do magic dad!"
"I can't, not much anyway, this is about it and it's all because of this," Marco said pushing the ends in and slowly the key began to shrink until it was the size of a normal key.
Seraph continued to stare now not sensing any magic, "What is that?"
Marco scratched his chin, "The oracle called it something… the Cosmicam …huh key… something key."
"Oracle?"
"Oh, yeah," Marco started to tell one of his stories, "I was traveling in your mom's dimension searching for her. I had stumbled onto this Valley at the foot of a mountain that stretched above the clouds."
Seraph leaned in listening to her father's story. She was always eager to hear stories about his adventures.
"In the Valley, there were several towns and villages and all the people lived in peace. But when I showed up they were under attack from shadow like monsters. Many of the monsters managed to take over people, making friends and family fight each other just to survive. The fight was pretty one side with their army growing larger with each person they captured. So seeing that I rushed in to try and help them."
Seraph chuckled to herself, "Yeah, that sounds like something you'd do."
"Well, yeah," Marco chuckled, he adored the look that she gave him it made him feel strong like he could do no wrong. "I had this artifact that I was saving to use against your mom but they needed it more. It exploded with a flash of light and the monsters cowered back into the forest and woods around the village."
"So you won!" Seraph cheered at the victory.
"No, I scared them back but they were still there. They would recover if you gave them time. The people of the village said that atop of the mountain was an oracle with a way to stop these monsters. I volunteered to climb up the mountain. The others prepared to fight off the monsters when they decided to attack again. I rushed through the forest fighting monsters and climbed the mountain as fast as I could."
Seraph's eyes dazzled as she imaged her father fighting in the dark all to save people he didn't even know.
"I spent hours, without stop climbing the mountain as fast as I could. Exhausted I reach the top and there she was waiting for me. She was a tall purple woman with seven eyes, she was known as Jheselbraum the Unswerving. She smiled warmly at me as she poured me out a drink of sands of time. She promised to revitalize me and cure my exhaustion. It was hard to swallow at first but it helped. She knew all sorts of things, she knew why I was there. She knew about my trial, about looking for your mother. She called me your mother's inamorato."
"What does that mean?"
"Not sure, rival I think. She told me how Hekapoo saved that world once and sacrificed something of herself to do so. The oracle said that she owed her greatly because of that, and she helped me gladly because I would one day give Hekapoo a great gift…" Marco's voice trailed off as he looked at Seraph, "Oh…" Marco chuckled a little looking at their beautiful daughter.
"What?"
"Never mind," Marco smiled knowingly, a few of the puzzle pieces fitting in place for him, "she said helping me would help repay Hekapoo. She took me to one of the rooms in her shrine where the Key was stuck into a stone. She told me that the monster came through from another dimension in war. That a hero fought tooth and nail and used their last bit of strength to seal it away in a cave until a recent Earthquake freed it. That key was the hero's weapon. I could use it if the key thought my heart was strong enough. I grabbed it and it felt like it was alive, that it had a heart that beat in time with mine." Marco looked at the key in his hand, "It choose me"
Marco stared at the key grateful for the power it lent him. "She showed me how to use its basic powers. She made a portal for me and I arrived at the village as the attack was under way, the key released a powerful light a freed those capture and destroyed the monsters."
"Cool!" Seraph looked on at her father as he held out the key victorious.
"The next day I had something to do before I could go back to the trial, I climbed the mountain again to talk to Jheselbraum. I wanted to return the key, she told me to keep it that it had chosen me and I couldn't get rid of it." Marco rubbed the outside of the key, "She offered to teach me how to use the key properly but it would take a long time. I was eager to get back to the trial. In the end, she only managed to teach me a few simple powers the key had. Mostly just to shrink it and summon it and to use it to unlock anything with it."
"And you don't use it? Like a weapon I mean?" Seraph wondered.
"Yeah, I really didn't see the point. It doesn't have a sharp edge and I can't sharpen it, its pretty useless as a blade. I could hit people with it maybe block attacks, I guess but I prefer my sword. I can use it to unlock any lock so it's pretty good for when I've lost my keys. The only thing I can get to work is the light and doesn't seem to work on anything that's not a shadow."
Marco held out the key and studied it, "Sometimes I wish I stayed and learned what it could do. Sometimes it feels like it has all this power waiting to be used but I don't know how to use it. Like I'm not using it to its full potential but it stays with me… like it knows something." No matter how many times he misplaced it, all he needed to do would be to silently call for it and it would come. "Like it knows that we have something else do to together. It's waiting for that day to help me and for that I am grateful."
Marco rubbed the key softly wondering what that would be.
0000
The next day after school Marco got ready at the dojo, he fixed up his Gi and started to stretch out.
Seraph practiced on some candles trying to get them to light up.
Star and Janna sat close by, Star fiddling with her wand as Janna got some snacks ready.
Sensei walked over, "So when do you think she's going to show up?"
Marco cracked his neck, " She will be here. She's just not great at remembering times, especially outside her dimension."
A swirling portal formed near then and the fiery girl stepped out. "Sorry, I'm late." She let out a small yawn. "Ready?"
"For you? No, but that hasn't stopped me before." Marco smiled at her making his way over to the mat.
Hekapoo smirked following him along until Sensei stopped her, "Boots off the mat."
Hekapoo paused for a moment, she wasn't used to having humans tell her what to do, for the most part, her interaction with humans were just with Marco. She had come to respect Marco but it felt off to listen to other humans.
She relented and took off her boots and placed them on the side.
"Hm? Soft." Hekapoo said bouncing a little on the cushy mats.
"Yeah, it's to prevent people from getting hurt."
"Ah, now I'm seeing why most of your species is so soft."
"Hey, be nice." Marco scolded. "Our daughter is part human."
"I did say most, not all."
"I guess that is progress for you."
"You see, I'm learning." Hekapoo flashed him a smiled taking out a pair of scissors. With a click, she split the scissors into a pair of daggers.
Marco smirked swinging his pair of scissors and with a flash of flames turned into a sword.
Sensei took a few steps back.
"Here we go!" Janna said picking up a bucket of popcorn and a large soda.
"Kick her butt dad! Show him who's boss mom!" Seraph cheered her parents.
Star chuckled a little, "Come on Marco! You can beat her!"
"Same old rules, then?" Marco fixed his grip on the sword. He tried to remember how he used to hold his sword. He tried to focus on those memories.
"Yeah, we stop when you call it quits." Hekapoo twirled the daggers in her hands. "Or I knock you out."
"Very funny,"
"I know, it's a gift."
Marco gave her a respectful bow and Hekapoo replied with a half a curtsy.
"Begin!" Sensei called out.
Neither Marco or Hekapoo reacted, they were perfectly motionless, Sensei wondered if they had heard him.
Hekapoo smirked, "Do I go first or you go first? I go first?"
"Ladies first,"
"Well, that's mostly just a title in my case."
Janna watched and snacked on popcorn, "Ah, Star, does it seem like they're flirting?"
"Yeah," Star admitted. "This seems very flirty. Flirters!"
A clang broke through the air startling everyone. They looked back to the mat to see one of the dagger's blocked by the sword. Hekapoo bridged the gap between them and struck before anyone noticed.
"A little slower than I expected you to react," Hekapoo mumbled.
"Yeah, me too, I expect you to be faster."
"Oh!" Hekapoo chuckled. "Are we feeling bold? I can be faster."
"Funny, usually you like taking your time."
"You cheeky bastard,"
Star yelled to them, "You have your child here! Go back to trying to stab each other! Wait!"
Either the pair didn't hear the princess or just decided to ignore her, either way, they went back to sparring.
Hekapoo took a leap back, she leveled the dagger at Marco. "Okay, let's take things up a notch."
Without a second's hesitation, Hekapoo sped towards Marco only for Marco to leap pass at the last second. Her own momentum carrying her to the end of the mat, she stopped and turned and tried again. Hekapoo tried it again Marco barely dodged the attack again.
Seraph watched the fight eagerly, she started to see the gap in power between her and her mother. Her mother was far faster and had better control when she tried something like that she barely managed to stop without hurling herself off the mat but Hekapoo stopped without issue. Seraph could see that Hekapoo was slowly increasing her speed.
At the point Marco was just dodging, Hekapoo was now a streak of color shooting towards him.
He wasn't so much even reacting, to dodge it in time he needed to move before she even started to get close to him. He could barely glimpse from which direction Hekapoo was coming from, he was forced to rely on mostly instinct to know when to move. The exercise with the balls was coming in handy.
"Come on Marco!" Hekapoo's voice rang out before Marco dodged. "You know this won't work on me." Marco rolled to the side. "Getting me to fall into a pattern." Marco stepped to the side.
"And exploit that." A streak of yellow became visible before Marco. "I'll change up."
Instead of stabbing like she had been she swung her dagger at him.
Hekapoo expected him to jump back or duck or maybe try to move to the side. Marco went a different course, he ducked and moved forwards.
Hekapoo was sort of right about Marco's plan but he didn't intend to wait for her to start on a pattern and exploit it, he expected her to change it up and take advantage of that.
Marco moved up grabbing Hekapoo's arm and lifting her up. With a spin, he flipped Hekapoo over and onto the mat.
Hekapoo hit the mat back first, all the air pushed out her lungs.
She looked up at Marco as he readied his sword. Hekapoo merely smiled, "Taking it up another notch!"
Almost elegantly she spun up to her feet dagger ready. She launched herself at Marco. Now using both daggers she stabbed at him.
Marco blocked with the sword, every instance he had to adjust its position to block the next blow. The sword was long but it still could only cover so much space. Some of the attacks did make their way through and Marco needed to avoid them while trying to block the next one.
Marco felt one of the strike and slip pass and some of the ends hair cut off.
Normally the fight would be over, if Marco hadn't worked on his reflexes, and it would have been over if the sword had been made by anyone else it.
Still, he knew he couldn't rest, the longer this lasted the more chances until he made a mistake and lost.
Hekapoo was warm, the air around her warmer than the rest of the room. He'd been using that tidbit to help him predict her moves. He took a breath as he felt a prickle of warmth as her hand moved past him. Old memories started to come back to him imploring his body to move.
He took this chance and pressed forwards using the sword to block her other dagger. He pushed her back jumping backwards before she could use her other dagger.
Steadying himself Marco rushed in to start his attack.
Blades met blades as the pair fought. Hekapoo was put on the defensive and forced to parry his strikes. Marco's strikes were fast, hard, and focused forcing her to lose ground.
Mentally Hekapoo applauded Marco it would be his win if he got her off the mat, simple tactic but applied right it could work before the opponent knew what they did to lose.
She wasn't going to let that happen and began to push back.
They circled one another, parrying, blocking dodging, pushing back and forth neither one willing to give the other an inch.
Each move was measured, every blow blocked, each strike deflected and countered.
The longer the fight continued the more the spectators noticed something was off. That Marco and Hekapoo were almost expecting each other's moves, they reacted to each other's moves.
In a way it seemed less of a fight and more of a dance.
Star started to see it, they had done something like this before. As Star watched Hekapoo's yellow dress swirl around her, both of them smiling through the fight Star knew they had done this many times and used to each other's movements as if they were their own.
Marco took a breath as he tried to figure out his next move. He knew if Hekapoo kept speeding up she would soon be at a point he wouldn't be able to counter.
That's when he felt a smack on his back. As he turned around to try and counter he felt another smack on his back.
As the spite fire raced to give him another smack on the back this time intending to start back that bald spot.
Marco rushed at Hekapoo, she turned around blocking it with her dagger. Hekapoo noticed a bit more heft behind this last blow, was he trying harder or had he been holding back this whole time?
It didn't matter anyway, she was holding back with one hand and with the other one she'd finish it. She moved to strike him but so did Marco, he pushed forwards and jumped into a kick.
"Ow!" Hekapoo jumped back with a yelp.
One of her daggers was kicked out of her hand and it slid off the mat.
Hekapoo and Marco stared at each other, they held their weapons tightly and without another breath, they raced to one another. Hekapoo lunged at Marco and Marco swung his sword.
It ended there.
The spectators gasped.
Slowly they saw what happened.
Hekapoo held the dagger's tip at to Marco's jugular and Marco held his sword mid-swing the edge at her neck.
"Ha! Ha!" Both of them fell backward laughing.
"We haven't done that in a while!" Marco laughed.
"Oh, longer for me!" Hekapoo chuckled. "You did pretty well this time. You were a lot more hesitant last time. Not this time, you've gotten better control and you know it."
"I think some muscle memory is still lingering." Marco looked up at the ceiling. "During the fight, I started to feel it. Started to feel all those years swinging the sword, to feel how far I could push it, how much I could control it."
"No better teacher than hands-on experience," Hekapoo smirked to the ceiling.
Marco started to understand, he figured Hekapoo just wanted to put him through the wringer force him to remember all the time he had with the sword.
Marco looked to the side, his fingers tapping on the handle of his sword.
Hekapoo jolted up and snapped her fingers, "Okay, take that shirt off!"
"Nope!"
Marco turned to find Sensei covering Seraph's ears while Star covered her eyes. Janna actually leaned in intently.
Star frantically yelling. "Your daughter is here! We're here!" Her face turning bright red.
"Star you're hurting my eyes!" Seraph said prying Star's hands off her.
A few moment's later they explained what Hekapoo meant. Marco was shirtless sitting on the mat and Hekapoo was sitting behind him.
She rubbed her hands together and slowly fire wrapped around them and with a deep breath, the fire turned blue.
Seraph sat close by her mother.
"Okay, this a bit advance," Hekapoo explained to her daughter. "I don't want you trying until you've got a lot more control over your flames. Ready?" She asked Marco.
"Yeah, just try not to scorch me."
"Well, try not to move." Hekapoo shot back.
Slowly her hands swept over his back, getting close to his skin but making sure that the flames didn't touch his skin.
Marco didn't flinch despite feeling the heat at his back.
Hekapoo's hands moved around some freshly bruised marks on his back.
"What's that? Cupping therapy? Reiki?" Sensei looked on curious.
"I'm not much for a healer. It was always Lekmet's thing, the thing is fire is not the safest thing to use. Yeah, it can warm you, it can light up the dark but it can burn you too. It can burn, roast, and destroy if you give it a chance. You have to be careful. The thing is if you know what you're doing you can do some interesting things and I've had some time to mess around with this."
"So, you know healing fire magic?" Star watched on.
"I wouldn't go that far." Hekapoo corrected. "With practice and control, you can use flames to help. It helps move around the blood in areas, prevent bruises from forming, and with a bit of magic help, the body heals itself. Get the bodies natural energies to work on healing a little faster."
Seraph watched in silence as the bruises started to fade on her father's back. Hekapoo's hands danced over Marco's skin, careful not to leave them over any one spot too long in fear of burning him.
"This takes focus, control and power all used at once. It also has limits, it works great on flesh but not so much on bone and it won't re-grow an arm."
Seraph nodded, she was a long way off from doing anything like that but she was willing to wait and work towards it.
Hekapoo pulled away letting her flames die down.
Marco shook putting his hand out to steady himself.
"And," Hekapoo noted. "It can tire out the person you do this on, and especially so if that person already tired themselves out."
Flames flicked on her hand, she smacked Marco in the back of the head. "That's for kicking my hand!"
"Ow!" Marco rubbed the back his head. "You're just being petty!"
"How does that surprise you?"
Marco nodded, "Yeah, it shouldn't I'd probably still have bite marks if I didn't de-age."
Hekapoo fiddled with her dagger putting them back together into a pair of scissors, opening a small portal. She reached into it pulling out a small scabbard.
"Think of it as a gift for passing. Something to hold onto your scissors."
Marco smiled looking down onto it and its emblem that matched the one on his scissors. He grabbed the sword and reverted it to scissors and slide it in, "Perfect fit."
"Well, look who made them." Hekapoo smiled. "One more thing," She reached back into the still open portal and pulled out a familiar katana. "I thought you'd like this back too."
Marco took it holding it close, he smiled like he'd been reunited with an old friend.
Marco turned to Hekapoo and then turned to Seraph. Hekapoo and Marco shared a look for a brief moment.
Hekapoo seemed to understand, "Sure, why not?"
Marco turned to Seraph and held out the sword to her. "Seraph, this is yours now."
"What?" Seraph was surprised.
"It seems right for you to have it. It was my sword first and then your mom had it for a while and it was one that I used to beat your mom once."
Seraph slowly pulled the blade out of its sheath and looked at her reflection in it. "Thank you." Seraph smiled, feeling the weight the sword in her hand knowing what it meant for her parents.
It meant a great deal to have something to call her own, something that once belonged to both her parents.
"Once this whole tournament is done we'll teach you how to use it," Marco informed her.
"Both of you?" Seraph picked up on that word.
"Yeah," Marco began, "your mom's teaching style is a bit too rough."
"It works." Hekapoo poked him the shoulder. "it works!"
"One of your clones wouldn't let me try to blow out her flames until I beat her in the sword fight."
"Which you eventually did. And you learned because of it."
"Because you kept smacking me with the sword until I learned how to use it."
"Like I said: It wanna know how to fight with a sword? Fight with it."
"We're going to teach her the slow and steady way. Practice and muscle memory."
"Fine, " Hekapoo relented. "But any other weapons we take my lead."
"Wait, how many weapons do you know how to use?" Star questioned the redhead.
Hekapoo paused for a moment after all her years she had picked up a lot of weapons, "Let's see, daggers are my go-to weapon, I'm good with halberds, lances, axes, maces, flails, Cat O'nine tails." Marco seemed to flinch at the at the weapon's mention.
Janna and Sensei to the side talked to themselves.
Janna started off, "So her parents are going to teach her to sword fight and fire magic?"
"That's awesome!" Sensei delighted in the idea.
"Yeah, it is." Janna relented.
"Ah, Marco…." Star started off. "You can put on your shirt on now."
And so he did.
Star and Janna both were unsure how to feel about that action.
He and Hekapoo spoke for a few minutes talking about the details. She told him to take the next day to rest and the following day she'd pick him up to take them to the Tournament. Marco had proven his worth with her so she'd keep her deal.
The tournament would be held over the weekend and the tournament committee would provide rooms for all those participating and their guests.
Marco's parents couldn't go along with him because of their work. Sensei was going as Marco's coach so they were fine with him going for the weekend.
Star and Seraph would go along with the obvious support.
So they all waited at the Diaz Household as a rift of swirling magical energy opened up. The fiery redhead stepped out, "So are you guys ready to go?"
A WORD FROM IDEAGENERATOR: Sorry to all you dedicated readers out there, but due to some major complications and issues that arose during the production of this story, I regretfully have to say that I will be stepping down from the role of beta reader/co-writer of Like Father, Like Daughter. I unfortunately got burned out on working on this story, but I have hope that whoever will take my place will be up for the task, as the stories me and ADdude planned deserve to be seen in the quality of writing as they deserve. It was a pleasure to be a part of this project, and until then, this is IdeaGenerator, signing off.
Author's Notes: Okay, back. As you might have read above Ideagenerator is off this story. I'm thankful and grateful for all the work they put in. I did have another beta set up but there were complications. For the moment now I'm gonna be on this story solo. I'll probably look for another beta but later. Right now life has been weird with me and I just feel I need to work on this story. To have something that makes me happy. Long story short, I'll update sooner, like once a week for a while. Maybe more since the holiday is coming around and my video editing has stalled until I can a new edition of the software. Anyway, please leave a review and tell me what you think. Next chapter is gonna be kinda big so yeah. Bye. Also check out my new story Like Father, Like Daughter Omakes, they take place in this same world with short stories that just don't fit in the larger narrative.