So, to cArT-OoO-nLoVeR, I'll let you know that I don't really have a schedule. Since I've already written the first 20 chapters and I'm just posting it, it does mean I can keep to schedule, but I don't really like schedules all that much.

I will update every few days or so; expect at least a chapter a week. I am still in the process of writing the story where it is right now for my AO3 viewers, but I can find the time to update on here.

Episode:
3: Status Quo

Adam quickly realises that water gets EVERYWHERE.

The walk towards Adam's new place of living was awkward to say the least.

While Star bounded with almost irritating enthusiasm, Marco continually eyed him begrudgingly. The squire looked at him as though he hoped the ground beneath Adam would open and swallow him whole. In fairness, the Mewman had not only tried to kill his friend, but now had stolen part of his room. In the matter of a couple hours, too! This whole situation had been dropped on him, and for some reason, he seemed to be the only one even remotely affected by the whole thing.

Adam didn't really blame him. He was almost entirely uninvolved with the whole thing, especially considering he wasn't the person the Mewman had been focussed on.

Now, inexplicably, the Latino had been made part of the situation. Clearly, he didn't appreciate that.

Meanwhile, Star seemed completely unaffected by the whole situation. She seemed to have bounced back immediately, and Adam honestly couldn't believe that. Either she had recovered quickly, or she was very good at pretending. She had an unusual spring in her step, the likes of which he absolutely hadn't seen from his version of Star.

It was…strange.

Adam was so used to seeing that face and feeling nothing but hatred, that he almost had to remind himself that the two were not one and the same. Glossaryck seemed to think so, but he knew better than that. It was just challenging to follow his own reasoning.

'And through here, is my room!' Star announced, proudly throwing open the wooden door. Stepping in, Adam inspected the bedroom with a mostly neutral expression.

It was certainly a flamboyant, fairy-tale-like room. A large four-poster bed stood to his right, towering over everything else in the room. Far more unassuming drawers sat on either side. There were curtains on the windows, though they had been swung open wide. Curiously, on the far right, there were curtains that were closed, sparking some interest. Upon closer inspection, he saw there was a communication mirror behind it that allowed its user to contact people across dimensions.

The bricked walls were painted a pale green colour, a shade Adam had seen perhaps too often. A writing desk sat near the bed, though it seemed to have been left vacant more often than not. It had a lamp on it that, if it collected more dust, would look more like a very large paperweight.

A few shiny weapons sat against the back wall, largely unused and dreadfully pointless. Some were even hung on the walls, in an ornate display, as if Star wanted to declare to people how much her family liked going to war.

His eyes drifted to a staircase leading to a second floor. It wasn't really a second floor so much as a round balcony overlooking the room. He hadn't noticed just how tall the room actually was before, until he found the stairs. Several rings of balconies rose up to the high ceiling, filled with numerous magical collectibles.

One thing Adam noticed was the white closet door near the steps. Obviously meant to be private, it was locked. The handle and panes were scratched, as though someone had attempted forced entry through it. There may as well have been a giant neon sign pointing to it saying, "Don't look in here!".

There were a few paintings and posters on the walls, though Adam didn't care much for them. One of them seemed to depict a monkey riding a unicorn, which the Mewman hadn't the faintest idea what that was meant to imply. Perhaps it was just the frivolity of this universe's version of Star Butterfly. Truth be told, the other Star shared similar superficial interests, but Adam didn't think she really entertained those ideas as much as she enjoyed destroying them. Honestly, the two couldn't seem to be any more different to him right now.

'So…what do you think of my room?' Star asked him, excitedly leaping onto a carpet and throwing her arms out in a presenting manner.

'Uh it's…' he replied disconcertedly, scratching the bottom of his scalp. 'It's…bright. Very colourful.'

'Well spotted,' she deadpanned.

'I've been living in a bunker for most of my life,' he explained. 'My standards are different. It's…nice, though. Suits you.'

Star's countenance brightened up once again, responding with, 'Aw, thanks!'

'Uh, you're welcome,' he replied awkwardly. '…so, this is nice and all, but…uh…where am I staying?'

'Oh, right!' She exclaimed, widening her eyes like she'd just forgotten the whole point of them being there. 'Marco's room is next to mine , so…' she stepped out of the room and took a right, Adam following behind. '…through here.' She opened a pale white wooden door a few meters away from Star's room. [6]

The three of them stepped into the room, one after the other. Star maintained an exuberant front, though this still did not translate to the other two teenagers following her. Adam looked around the room inquisitively, instantly noticing the completely different design of the room.

It was far more Earth-like in design. Fitting for Marco, who, by now, Adam had figured out was human.

The walls were a bleached brick design, with the support of wooden frames on the ceiling. It was remarkably incongruous next to the fairy-tale design of the room adjacent to it; it looked as though it had been ripped straight out of a home on Earth. A far humbler bed sat next to a window overlooking Mewni, though the bed was currently messy. Three carpets sat haphazardly on the floor, two of them even overlapping. Several posters adorned the walls, depicting several things from Earth pop culture that Adam didn't recognise. There were even a few collectible items in his room, which no doubt had some kind of sentimental value to Marco. Another closet door stood to his right, but he suspected it was hardly used.

Marco shot past him without saying a word. Mystified, the Mewman watched as the teenager sped over to a desk at the back of the room. Nervously staring at Adam, he covered whatever happened to be on it from the teenager's view. The warlock could've sworn he saw some brightly coloured figures on his desk.

He was about to ask Marco what he was up to, but Star spoke first.

'Crystal Bed Creation Bomb!' She yelled, pointing her wand at the corner of the room. A bright pink light exploded harmlessly in his face, before ultimately dying down. A new bed now sat at the far corner of the room, perfectly made and neatly arranged.

'Thanks,' Adam acknowledged, walking over to the bed.

Marco shuffled, pivoting around him to conceal the items on the desk. The Mewman pretended not to have noticed, before secretly using his Instinctive magic to quickly summon an item from behind the Latino. [7]

It was a small figurine of a feminine Marco, complete with a long ponytail and bright frilly dress. It had a pull cord on a string coming out the back.

'Hey!' The red-hoodied teen yelped, trying and failing to tear the figure out his hands. Out of intrigue, Adam pulled the cord.

'Let's destroy the patriarchy!' It yelled at him.

'Why do you have a…female toy of yourself?' The Mewman asked, utterly bewildered.

'It's a long story,' Star answered, appearing beside Marco.

'I get a six-hundred-fifty-dollar royalty check each month from the merchandise,' he added. 'So it's nothing to make fun of!'

'I…wasn't going to,' Adam replied pragmatically, almost disconcerted by the suggestion. Putting the figure back where it was, he sat down on the bed. Taking off his bag, he dumped the Book of Spells on a nearby desk. Settled in, he breathed out a deep, overwhelmed sigh.

'This is all…so much,' he admitted. 'Other multiverses, other versions of people…and now I'm living in a proper place, and not some…dingy bunker. It's gonna take some getting used to.'

'Well, we'll be here to help,' Star reassured him with a bright smile. 'Won't we, Marco?'

'I don't know, we just met –' he began, but the princess elbowed him. She gave Adam a painfully awkward smile. 'Uh, I mean, yeah! Anything you need!'

'Thanks…' he replied disingenuously.

'HEY!' Someone yelled, interrupting the conversation. Adam looked up to see a Mewman knight standing imposingly in the doorway. 'They told me someone looking like you came in here! Remember me?'

The teenager eyed him up and down, trying to recall where he'd seen his face before. After a few seconds of searching, he blankly shook his head.

'No…'

'Well, I remember you, "Mrs Norris"!'

Instantly, the memory hit him.

'Ohhh…you were the guard I whammied,' he recalled, nodding. 'I guess my Dreamless Sleep Spell didn't last very long.'

'You put a knight in Dreamless Sleep?!' Star realised, her eyes nearly bulging out her sockets. 'How many Dark spells do you know?'

'Believe it or not, that is actually one of the tamer spells in that book,' Adam revealed. 'I had to infiltrate the castle somehow. I thought it would be fine.'

'You weren't expecting me to wake up, huh?' The knight challenged.

'Ahem, uh, sorry about putting you in an infinite slumber,' he replied awkwardly.

'You will be sorry, when I tell the Queen!'

'Uhhhh, you don't have to do that!' The Mewman replied almost desperately. Unfortunately, the guard did not waver, and instead turned to leave. 'Wait!' The knight stopped and turned again. 'Ugh, what's it gonna take for you to keep this quiet?'

The knight earned himself a devious smile. Star stared and, for a moment, questioned the actual integrity of the knights that happened to be under their employ. Surely, they wouldn't take advantage of this situation, would they? Then again, when were things ever that easy?

'Hmm…if you can go into the Wash and take out the Washer Beast, then I'll keep this secret for you.'

'The Washer Beast?' The Mewman repeated, unconvinced.

'Wait, you mean that giant Monster in the lint catcher?' Marco recalled. 'Star and I destroyed that thing!' The man shook his head at the suggestion.

'You don't know about the Washer Beast?' The knight claimed, surprised. 'It's been causing a lot of havoc, recently. Keeps eating people's clothes.'

'Well that explains where half my pairs of boots went,' Star commented idly.

'Sir Lavabo isn't equipped to handle it,' the guard added. 'Magic seems the only option at this point.'

'Well, at least it's not a fetch quest,' Adam muttered under his breath, before raising his voice to talk to him. 'I'll take care of this…Washer Beast, for you. Can't be that hard, anyway.'

'I'll show you to the Wash,' the knight said begrudgingly. Adam nodded, though did not respond verbally. As the Mewman guard turned to leave, the warlock followed after.

As Adam left the room, Marco turned around to rearrange the Princess Turdina figurines on the desk. He really expected Adam to make fun of his cross-dressing likeness, but he didn't. Either he really wasn't concerned, or his mind was simply too fatigued to care at the current time. It wasn't a huge concern to him which one was the case, but, indeed, he had been surprised when Adam didn't ridicule him.

That being said, he absolutely didn't trust him. After all, he'd tried to kill Star!

Sure, it was clear now it was a misunderstanding, but what was stopping him from one day snapping? In honesty, he didn't know why he hated the other Star so much, but it clearly wasn't healthy. One day, he could decide he didn't like looking at this Star anymore, and decide she wasn't worth it. Going by the fight they had had, there was very little they could do to stop him.

Something about Adam's magic unnerved him. During that fight, it seemed to ooze evil.

It looked identical to Star's at times, and yet something about it just made him sick. He considered calling it a gut feeling and leaving it alone. However, given Star's recent penchant for using her gut and calling it "her magic" lately, it only seemed fair at this point. Besides, the feeling in this pit was too deep to ignore.

Adam had just materialised out of nowhere.

One second he was prisoner; the next he was sharing Marco's room. The teenager knew Star liked to move at a breakneck pace, but this was too fast for him. The princess was too obsessed with helping someone in need, too in touch with her fascination over another magical amateur to work with, and far too merry over the whole thing.

Star hadn't even asked his opinion about Adam sharing his room! She had just inexplicably offered it as though Marco's room was hers to give. Moon only agreed because she wanted to study Adam. She did want to keep an eye on him, and help him, apparently, but Marco could tell those reasons had just been addendums to make her decision sound more reasonable.

This whole thing had been thrown in Marco's face, even though he was initially not important in the equation. It was going to make more than some getting used to, and sharing a room with Adam didn't sound like it was going to be easy.

'Hey, Star, um I get that you want to help Adam,' he began, still staring down at his Turdina toys. 'But this is all so fast for me, y'know? I would've appreciated it if you asked before giving half my room away.' After a few seconds, he noticed Star hadn't responded. 'Star?' Turning around, he realised the princess had left the room without him noticing.

Frowning, he stepped out into the corridor. The girl was nowhere in sight. Walking into the girl's room, he looked around for her.

'Star?' Marco called again. Yet again, he received no response. Still looking, he kept calling. 'Star? Where'd you go?'

When he stepped around the four-poster bed, the answer of where she had gone was soon revealed to him. Marco looked down to see the magical princess sitting upright against the side of the bed, in a foetal position.

One thing he definitely noticed was how she was feeling. She was crying.

'Star!' He cried out in shock, instantly moving over to her. 'Are you okay? You can talk to me.'

'I…I…' she began, not sure how to gain the emotional strength to speak coherent sentences. 'I saw something…horrible…today.' Her voice was marred with tears and sniffles. 'I…I've been trying…not to think about it. I just…I can't keep it bottled up anymore!'

'Whatever it is, Star, I'm here for you.'

'H-Have you…ever watched people…die, Marco?' She asked, not out of spite, but out of miserable interest. The Latino almost shrank back in shock of the question, but tried to remain vigilant for his Star. That's what she needed right now.

'I haven't…but I have lost people,' he responded gently, placing a comforting arm around her. 'It hurts. It's like…a part of you dies with them. You're never really the same.' Star gulped in her grief, but she nodded slightly in agreement.

'And…and what if…it was someone close to you?' The poor girl added between tears. As Marco was about to respond, she spoke again. 'But…what if you know it's not real? You know it never happened?'

'Have you…been having nightmares again?'

'…something like that…' she answered after a sniff. '…I saw what I'm like – in the other world, I mean. I…I…I watched as I murdered Janna in cold blood.'

Marco didn't quite know how to process that, so he tried to simplify it in his head to something he understood.

'That's…terrible, Star. I-I can't imagine how traumatic that must have been, but…Janna is still alive in our world, focus on that.'

'I know! It was just…so real. It was me who did that. I ended Janna's life…and now that world is without Janna. Adam, her friend, is without Janna.'

'Star, look at me,' he said firmly. Tentatively, she removed her hands from her face and allowed her eyes, flooding with tears, to look up at him. 'You did not kill Janna. That was a different Star. A Star who is someone else and not you. You are amazing and kind and the best person I know. Janna knows that. You are not this…Dark Star. You hear me?'

Star wiped some of the tears away.

'I…I hear you, Marco…' she stammered. 'Every time I close my eyes…I watch it happen…over and over again. Reduced to nothing but SKELETON! I want to DESTROY her…I WANT TO SEE HER SUFFER! BUT I CAN'T! IT'S NOT FAIR!'

'Star, if you…obsess yourself with revenge…God knows what you would become.' Steadily stroking her hair, he continued. 'You're better than that. And I know it's hard…watching someone die like that…and to see yourself doing it. You can't let it consume you. You're not alone in this. You have me, you have Tom, and you have Janna. Everything is going to be okay, and I know that because…we're together, fighting the forces of evil.'

After a short pause between them, the grief-stricken princess sniffed and spoke up.

'Thank you, Marco,' she thanked almost humbly. 'You're the bestest friend I could ever ask for.'

'I'm here for you, Star. Never forget that,' he replied, trying to hide his small blush. 'Is there…anything else you need?'

'Just hold me.'

Providing a wordless agreement, Marco wrapped his arms around Star some more, allowing her to bury herself into his chest. She reached up and enclosed her arms around him, quietly crying in his arms.

Adam sighed as the knight led him down the unbelievably long steps down to the Wash. When he had been told about the Wash, he assumed it was some spring where everyone threw their clothes. He didn't think it was supposed to be a room inside the castle, nor was he expecting it to be at the bottom of such a long flight of stairs. The Mewman was getting tired of the mission before he'd even got to his objective yet.

In the boringly long time it had taken to even arrive at these stairs, Adam had wondered whether the knight was just leading him to nowhere. Or that the knight was trying to find somewhere obscure to kill him. Probably the latter.

'Why does this place have to have so many stairs?' He complained, letting out a groan of frustration.

'You're gonna have to get used to it,' the knight responded flatly, not even looking at him.

'You're enjoying this, aren't you?' Adam realised cynically. He didn't respond, but he didn't really need to. 'Look: I'm sorry about putting you in an endless sleep without any warning!'

'Using Dark magic is frowned upon around here,' the man stated austerely. 'The one queen to use such magic, the Queen of Darkness, turned out to be evil.'

Adam rolled his eyes at the dogmatic comment, but opted not to say anything. In fairness, the knight could easily throw him off the stairs at any moment. The teenager couldn't exactly afford to do the same, if he wanted to stay on the Queen's good side.

'We've arrived,' the knight told him.

Looking up, Adam spotted an old wooden door at the bottom of the steps. A small medieval lamp shone brightly next to it. The doorframe above the door had a shield-shaped sign inscribed "Knight of the Wash" with two diamonds on either side.

The knight stepped forward and opened the door. Adam followed afterwards. The room was huge, extremely long but far less wide. Full of huge piles of clothes strewn about without much concern, the room looked as though the entire kingdom of Mewni had deposited their apparel down into it. This was likely exactly what had happened.

'Sir Lavabo!' The Mewman soldier next to him called. 'Sir Lavabo!'

After the second call, the door to a big round silver capsule opened to their far right. Out popped a tall, muscled knight in full armour, covered in white bubbly foam. He had a tired look on his face, but as soon as he saw them, he put on a bright front.

'Greetings, Sir Jaxon,' he welcomed formally, in a thick Spanish accent, earning a small salute from Jaxon. 'How may I be of assistance to you?'

'Actually, I'm here to help you,' he answered, surprising him. 'This is Mrs Norris –'

'–Adam,' the teen quickly interrupted. Jaxon gave him a dirty look before resuming.

'This is Adam. I've brought him here to help you defeat the Washer Beast.'

'I've already tried everything,' Lavabo admitted, his face falling to that of fatigue. 'I've exhausted all options. What exactly can you do that I can't?'

In response, Adam threw an arm out to his side. Wordlessly, he summoned a torrent of spectral arrows, which drove into the bricked wall beside him.

'Magic,' he answered curtly. Sir Lavabo smiled brightly.

'This is perfect,' he agreed. 'I could not enlist any spell-casters before; I would sully the reputation of the Knight of the Wash – but now that it is not a problem.'

'Yeahhh, alright,' Adam said disconcertedly. He glanced back at Sir Jaxon, who merely glared at him.

'I will be taking my leave,' Jaxon announced. 'Rest assured, when this Washer Beast is defeated, I shall know about it.' With that, the knight he'd previously whammied left the room.

'So where –' Adam began.

'Through here,' Lavabo cut in. Pushing him towards the silver capsule he had been in, the knight ignored his questions. Awkwardly, the Mewman ended up skidding on his feet until he was met with the big, round, silver door.

'What–?'

Lavabo interrupted him again by swiftly turning the wheel on the door, opening it, and throwing the Mewman inside. Adam landed with a small tinny sound on the wet metal floor. Instantly, he jumped to his feet and turned to leave, but the door had been shut on him.

'Hey!' Adam yelled, banging against the metal door.

'I'm sorry but this task falls to you,' Lavabo's voice echoed from the other side. 'I have been…ineffective.'

'I thought knights weren't meant to be cowards!' The Mewman hollered back. After a few moments of silence, he banged against the metal again. 'Sir Lavabo!'

'If I were you, I wouldn't be so loud!' He warned. 'Good luck!'

With that, he heard the sound of metal footsteps getting quieter and quieter. Adam knew now that he wasn't going to get any help from Lavabo. He considered using a spell to blast open the door, or portalling away, but that wouldn't help the situation. Sir Lavabo would still refuse to help, and his magic couldn't alter that.

All he could do was complete the task that had been requested of him. Not like he really had a choice anyway, if he didn't want Moon to find out he had used Dark magic.

Sighing at the situation, Adam turned and scanned his surroundings. It was a wide, metal chamber, complete with a pristine silver metal sheen on the walls. Huge clumps of foamy bubbles stuck to the walls, complete with drenched clothes strewn about on all surfaces. Most of the room was a horizontal metal column, riddled with even holes across it.

Pursing his lips, Adam couldn't honestly say he'd seen a room like this before. The knight who'd brought him here – what was his name again? – had called the creature inside here the Washer Beast.

Where even was it?

As Adam took a step onto the cylindrical metal column, the ground was almost immediately ripped out from under him. Painfully slamming to the floor, he had little time to rebalance before the cylinder began to move. Attempting to get up, he fell back onto his rear.

Hot, soapy water began to flow in through pores in the ceiling, resulting in an influx of bubbly foam. The metal cylinder under him rotated, causing the clothes to toss and turn. Slowly, the foam and clothes began to move, as if by themselves, to the centre of the washer room.

Inevitably, the water, foam and clothes grew into a huge mass that towered above almost everything else. A face began to form out of the water and foam, and limbs stretched out from heaps of clothes until it reached full form.

A giant magical Monster had formed at the far end of the colossal capsule. It let out a vociferous roar that blew foam into Adam's face and hair.

'Brilliant,' he deadpanned, removing a sock that had slapped him in the face.

The Washer Beast spotted him almost instantly, opening a huge mouth filled with rows of teeth. Adam wasn't even about to question what magic had created this Monster. Going by the expressions of the knights from earlier, this seemed like an almost daily occurrence.

Narwhal Blast! He cried in his head, propelling a blast of bright purple narwhals at his opponent.

Unfortunately, they simply slid right through the creature and drowned into the pool of water at its feet. Adam would have slapped himself, but he had to dodge the Beast's fist as it attempted to slam down upon him. Small waves of water crashed against his soaked clothes as he jumped out the way.

Okay, so that doesn't work… he thought, as Adam dodged a hail of wet clothes overhead. Wait…it's made out of water…so just use heat!

Pointing his hands at the Washer Beast, he yelled, 'Crimson Comet Inferno!'

An armada of burning balls of fire materialised from his palms, sent propelling towards the great watery fiend. It lurched backwards, raising an arm of water. The fireballs mostly hit the water, absorbing them with very little effect. A few of the flames hit the clothes, setting them alight, but the creature simply put them out with an overload of water.

That hadn't been Adam's intention. He had hoped the magical fire would be hot enough to vaporise the water. Alas, it had not.

Retreating to a corner of the room obscured by a wall, he hid from the creature and tried to think of something else he could do. There had to be some spell he knew that could take care of this.

So…heat won't work. Hmm…What if I freeze it?

Adam didn't know a spell that could completely freeze something, but he knew a few that had frost-based effects. He remembered one from Eclipsa's chapter, Cold Shoulder Ice Storm. That could do the trick. It could at least incapacitate the creature.

Breathing in to steady himself, he jumped out from the wall and tried again.

Cold Shoulder Ice Storm!

A blast of icy blue light shot out his hands, striking the Washer Beast squarely in the chest.

A cage of ice began to form around its watery shoulder, solidifying into place. The creature's arm was instantly locked in place, weighing it down to the floor. Adam watched as the ice began to crack, and shatter, until the whole arm of the Beast was gone. He smiled to himself at his accomplishment.

Unfortunately, he wasn't able to celebrate for long. The arm soon began to reform, like millions of wasps clumping together. The Monster was extremely apoplectic at him for that. It charged at him directly, much faster than he had expected. A hard mass of clothes and water crashed into his torso, knocking all the air out of his lungs.

Adam slammed into the metal column. Honestly, he was surprised none of his bones broke. He didn't have much time to process that, though, because the Washer Beast grasped him with his fist and proceeded to hurtle him across the room.

Obscurus! He spoke in his head, causing a smoke bomb to explode in the centre of the room. Coughing on his own smoke, he fled to a corner of the room and out of sight.

Adam collapsed to the ground, leaning on the wall and holding his stomach in pain. He tried to keep the vomit in, just barely succeeding. Part of him wanted to stay here and ignore the Washing Beast, but there were so many reasons he couldn't.

The Cold Shoulder Ice Storm spell had worked, but only briefly. He needed a spell that could totally dissipate it, or remove the magic holding it together. Something more absolute.

I don't know any spell like that! He argued in his head. Unless…I guess…I could CREATE a spell for this. The idea of that was promising to him, but he stamped his foot down. IF I can create a spell. It's never been that easy for me.

He paused for a moment to listen to the low growls of the Washer Beast. He didn't have long before it would find him.

Okay, okay…what could I have the spell do? I think a spell to remove the magic is a little complex, so something that can be a complete weakness to a creature made mostly of water.

A spell to remove magic wasn't really that possible. Magic was complex, diverse, and versatile, with many different types. It was never simple as waving a wand and saying one counter-spell that could undo any spell. Most spells in the Book of Spells had a counter, but most magic wasn't even in there. Besides, even if there was a counter-spell for this, Adam couldn't possibly know how to cast it or even if it was within his magical capability.

What if…I tried to evaporate all of it at once? Heat has to work then, right? If I could try freezing the floor, keeping it in place. Would pointing the Cold Shoulder at the ground do that?

The second part was definitely achievable. Or at least worth testing. The first part…well, it had to be considered. Especially since there was no point immobilising the Washer Beast if he had no plan to deal with it.

An evaporation spell…it can't be that hard, right? Just…create the spell. Just change your magic into a different form. Simple, right?

He breathed.

Simple. Simple…NOT simple. NOT simple. Adam breathed out gently again. Simple. Simple.

Finally ready, he leapt out the side and into the smoke. An ear-splitting yell boomed through the capsule room. Keeling over in pain, the Mewman covered his ears as the Beast seized him through the smoke. As the smoke itself cleared, he found himself tumbling into the creature's mouth.

Inside the body of the creature were mostly air bubbles, water, and the odd clothes. He struggled to breathe through the dense mass of the creature, but Adam knew he couldn't let this…recent dilemma affect the plan.

Come on, you can do this, he told himself. As he attempted to raise his hands, he felt a clump of clothes wrap around him and begin to suffocate him. He couldn't even remove the clothes, as his arms were restrained by the dense water that seemed to press in on him.

Adam panicked as he felt the energy being sapped from his muscles. This could be it. He could die here. In a damn washer room, with a creature made of bubbles! How embarrassing.

Evaporation…Matrix…! The Mewman managed to think, narrowly raising his palm. The image of water evaporating filled his brain, and he tried to keep it focussed.

His darkening vision was able to distinguish the bright yellow light from his palm. A surge of hot bubbles rose past his face, prompting him to move out of the way. A second later, and another rush of bubbles gushed past, until ultimately, the entire water around him began to boil.

Adam hadn't thought about how painful hot water would be against his skin. Fortunately, the bubbles rose past him before they got too hot.

He felt the foamy water below him lessen, and his legs starting to feel the colder surrounding air. A huge coat of foam covered his vision completely, the bubbles reflecting a shiny glint into his eyes. Everything went white as the creature groaned in pain.

The Washer Beast gave out one final growl, before it exploded into steam. The bubbles burst, and clothes were sent flying everywhere. Adam fell to the ground, landing on the horizontal column that had now stopped moving.

Adam bent over, his knees on the floor. Sputtering out a series of coughs, he choked out soapy form into the pool of water below. He desperately raked in the air, beads of tears squeezing out of his eyes.

Once he was able to regain composure, the teenager heard the sound of air turning into wind. Looking up, he saw the fans had been activated, and they soon whisked up the steam that had once been the Washer Beast. Rising to stand, Adam patted himself down and removed a stray shirt that clung to his shoulder.

As he began to walk over to the door, it made a rattling sound that echoed throughout the room. The chamber door to the capsule slid open, and in jumped Sir Lavabo.

'Ah-ha!' He exclaimed, full of energy. 'I knew you could do it. When you leapt in there with the strength of a wild beast, I knew you were the right person for the job.'

'I didn't leap in here; you threw me in here!' Adam corrected, folding his arms.

'Details are not important,' Lavabo carried off exuberantly. 'Of course, you have me to thank for turning on the fans.'

Adam sighed and merely stepped out of the capsule.

'Whatever. The Washer Beast is dead,' he informed him disinterestedly. 'Just let that knight from earlier know it's been taken care of.'

'Sir Jaxon?'

'That's the one,' he confirmed, as he finished wiping foam off his soaked clothes. Walking over to the door at the end of the room, Adam looked down at his clothes in dissatisfaction. The Mewman looked up at the Knight of the Wash. 'I don't suppose you have a towel?'

'Nope!' Lavabo answered all too ebulliently.

Wordless, Adam shot him a glare on his way out.

[6] I changed around the geography a bit to make their rooms next to each other.

[7] Instinctive magic is a branch of magic that does not require an incantation to cast. All magical users, in some capacity, possess the ability to cast Instinctive magic, regardless of experience. This is the magic that Adam uses when he creates forcefields, and also the magic he used to levitate the arrows that the Mewman Knights fired at him back in Chapter 1. It can be used consciously, but generally it can be cast without the need of thought.

Thanks for reading the seventh chapter of this story, guys! I hope you are all enjoying it!

A few pretty important events happened in this story. For one, Star's grief over watching Nega-Janna die comes to a head, for anyone who was questioning how she apparently recovered from that in three seconds. She didn't; she just bottled it all up until she popped. With Marco with her, she will definitely get better over time. Adam sharing a room with Marco, I think, will help to drive their dynamic enough so that when he gets his own room in a few chapters' time, their relationship will be more solid.

I decided to give Sir Jaxon, the knight whom Adam put in Dreamless Sleep in Chapter 4, a name, because it was getting repetitive simply calling him "the knight". Plus, it sorta reinforces the idea that Adam's actions had real consequences.

Adam managed to create a Battle spell by himself, on the spot. Previously, he had huge difficulty creating any kind of spell. He's now mostly overcome this hurdle; except the more advanced spells he will make later on, those will still require time - especially the spells whose effects have never been conceived before. In future, you'll see him use more spells that I won't mention he actually made, because inevitably it will become less important to know all the Battle magic he's created. Nevertheless, I keep a document detailing every single spell that is used in this story and its incantation and effects, so as to keep things consistent.

The spell in particular - Evaporation Matrix - is not solely devised for combat. Adam is a versatile person; he's likely to use spells in more unique or practical ways, and not simply one intention. Despite this, Evaporation Matrix is still classed as Battle magic, as it was initially designed to win a fight and was created with just a thought.

Glossaryck mentioned different types of magic way back in Chapter 3. He didn't mention all of them, nor did he explain how it's actually classified. The ones that he didn't mention include Mind magic (Psionic Wandering spell), Necromancy (e.g. Necromancy Summoning spell), Dimensional magic (creating portals) and Multiversal magic (which doesn't exist yet).

There are three levels of classification - primary, secondary and tertiary. Primary is Dark or Light magic. Secondary classification is the several branches - Alteration, Battle, Creation, Chaos, Illusion, Instinctive, Portal/Dimensional, Restoration, Transmutation, Mind, Necromancy, etc. The third classification of magic will become important later. This is the subdivision of magic into Dependent magic, Independent magic, Runes and Seals. These things will be explained later on. Stay tuned for that!

The whole incident with the Washer Beast mainly served as character development for Adam. The main plotline we are following is Adam's journey to return home, and since Adam hasn't had a chance to try this yet, this chapter doesn't directly contribute to that. All the "episodes" will, in some way shape or form, contribute to Adam's (and/or anyone else's) character development. Plot development will still take place, but some of it will be passive or indirect, like in this chapter. Essentially, all I'm saying is that the episodes are not serialised.

The next chapter, which the second part of this episode, will focus a bit more on character relationships and development. This is to establish the end goal of this story and give you an idea of where it's heading.

Anyways, I've rambled on long enough.

If you read all of that, thank you. Lmao. I'll see you all in the next chapter!