I hope you're all enjoying your day and that you will enjoy this chapter of The Second Coming!

I do not own Star vs the Forces of Evil

-G

Chapter 4

Sharp Dressed Man

Marco's eyes cracked his open to the buzzing coming from aside his bed. He rolled onto his side and reached over, silencing the nagging alarm and catching a whiff of himself in the process. He gagged at the horrid odor, but falling back asleep for hours drenched in your own sweat wouldn't provide a pleasing aroma for anyone. Not wanting to dwell on the nightmares of the past which started to surface, Marco pushed himself upright and swung his legs off the side of the bed. He stretched out his arms and took a nice over dramatic yawn before rubbing the crust from his eyes. Six in the morning always came so fast, no matter how many times he'd gotten up then.

He pushed himself up and off the bed, trudging over to the bathroom connected to his room. He had to admit, not having a bathroom connected to his bedroom didn't seem like much of a problem growing up, but now that he had a taste of it, there's nothing better. He opened the door and snapped his fingers, turning the lights on. He grabbed his towel for a shower and got right down to business. Body washed? Check. Toilet used? Check. Teeth brushed? Check. All that remained was to clean his clothes and he would be ready to snag a quick bite to eat before meeting the squires for training on what little field they had remaining. He had hoped that the groundskeepers would be able to fix the field, but his mini catastrophe was probably too much to handle in that short amount of time. Either way, the squires weren't getting out of training today. It was endurance day. The highlight of his, and obviously their, week.

Marco snatched a bagel and some cream cheese from the kitchen before heading to the training grounds. He got there and, unsurprisingly, all the squires were there waiting for him. "Good morning everyone." He greeted, walking up to the squad who snapped to attention.

"Good morning Sir Marco!" They all replied in unison, with their fists lain over their hearts.

"Glad to see you're all up and ready for the best day of the week." He smiled, taking a bite out of his bagel. He made his way over to the crater and looked into it. A devilishly brilliant idea formed as he addressed his underlings. "Today's endurance day will consist of something a little different. I'll let you know the details after you finish your five laps around the castle grounds. Go!" He yelled, pointing off into the distance.

"Yes Sir!" The group forcefully replied as they took off running in the direction Marco pointed.

"Sometimes I feel like I have too much power." He smiled, taking another bite out of his bagel.

"I agree." Came a voice from behind him.

Marco whipped around, almost losing the larger chunks of cream cheese spread. "Tom? You're up so soon?"

"Give me a little credit, man. Prince of the underworld and all. I have to be tough. You might be able to knock me down, but I'll be down for a lot shorter time than you." He smirked and flicked his jacket. Tom stuffed his hands into his pockets and looked down at the hole. His face scrunched slightly in contemplation as his brows peaked over the massive eyesore. "I still can't believe you put me in there. You're human after all, even with that little touch of demon. And let's be honest, compared to the creatures that inhabit Mewni, you're pretty weak. Especially when it comes to raw strength. Not saying you're a bad fighter-" he held up his arms in protest, "but if we had a contest of who was able to lift, push, or pull more, you'd probably come in last."

Marco rolled his eyes at the jab to help Tom's own ego. "Well I still don't see you in the victor's circle, so don't act all high and-" Marco paused, finally processing what Tom had said. "Wait. What do you mean 'touch of demon'?"

Tom raised an eyebrow. "What do you think? That little bit of demon that you have stowed inside of you. It's a little bigger now, but I figured you knew about it. It's your body after all." He shrugged as though Marco was talking about something as common as having a head on his shoulders.

"You're saying that I have some kind of demon crawling around inside of me?" He began to worry. "And not only that it's inside of me, but it has been inside of me and it's getting bigger too?!" Marco began panicking, pulling at his hair and mumbling something about 'evil' and 'jewelry.'

"Dude, settle down. It's just a little thing. A lot of people have demons inside of them. Some metaphorical, and some literal. You just so happen to have a literal one, maybe a metaphorical one too, but I'm not going there. And you've had it for years too. It's not like it's harmful or anything. If it was, you'd be dead by now. Those demons only come in two categories. One, you have a deadly demon which ultimately destroys its host in a futile attempt to take over its body. Never works. Trust me, I've seen too many to count. Or two, you have a dormant demon. One that just chills in its host for a while until a better suitor comes along. They never do anything bad while in the dormant state. Just manifest every now and then, mainly during sleep where they feed on the brainwaves of their host. I love demon viruses. Specifically, the deadly ones. They're badass when they blow people up." He looked up, heaving a heavenly sigh.

"You're really going to make a joke like that after telling me that I've had a demon dormant inside of me for years? Seriously?"

"Chill out. Like I said, there's only two types. And since you're still alive, you have the dormant one. There's nothing to worry about. But since you've had it for such a long time, you must be a pretty good host. We mostly studied the killer ones, cause they're badass, but I'm sure you're fine." Tom said, shrugging his shoulders.

"Oh no. I can't believe I've been infected with this, this thing for years! Who knows what'll happen to me..." Marco began a worried mumble to himself, fidgeting with his hands as he spoke.

"Hey. I may have hated your guts, but I never infected you with anything. That's the coward's fighting style." Tom pointed an accusatory finger, angered that Marco would even think of such a thing. Although, there was that one time with Naysaya, but if Marco didn't bring it up, he sure wasn't going to say anything now.

"What? What're you talking about? I never said that you infected me."

Okay. He was safe from that accusation, but there was still the matter of his denial right now.

"Really? You said it clear as day, and I quote, 'Tom probably did this when we were younger.' You're really trying to pitch that you didn't just say that?"

"I didn't..." Marco looked down, hastily running through what could have happened in his mind. After a few moments, his eyes widened. "I did think it though. And you say I said it clear as day, right?"

"Yeah. You sounded like you walked right up to me and said it to my face. How could I make that up?"

"Tom. I think I may have some long-term side effects from that virus. I didn't say a word about blaming you- but I thought it. And you saying that I said it like I was talking straight to you could only mean one of two things. One, I've gone completely off the deep end and need to take a long visit to the funny farm. Or two, you can hear my thoughts and I may be psychic."

"Well I definitely heard you, so you're not crazy. But what makes you so certain that you're the psychic one here?"

"It's just a gut feeling. If you want actual proof, I've got nothing. But it definitely feels right."

"I swear you get weirder every time I see you." Tom shook his head and looked over to where the squires were approaching, finishing their first lap. They were dripping in sweat from pushing themselves hard. It was promising to see that sort of dedication, especially this early in the morning. One of them even bent over off to the side and gripped his stomach as its contents came out all over the grassland near the trail they were on. He spit, wiped his mouth, and continued running to catch up to the rest of the squad that pulled away.

"Yeah." Marco agreed, looking to where Tom's gaze landed. "They're really dedicated to their training. I almost didn't believe how intense they were about it. All the manual labor, poor treatment, and generally unacceptable living style would put a harsh toll on anybody. But they persist. There's something special about this group. Even the ones that are the least skilled and weaker than the rest can put up one hell of a fight against a normal, fully trained knight. To be honest, they almost didn't get training because of it. No knight wanted to be upstaged by a squire, let alone a full squad of them. So nobody bothered to start their training. I felt bad for them, so I pushed my superiors, and after what felt like forever, I finally got them approved to me. Just in time too, otherwise they may have been sent through the initial cycle again and broken up. It would have been a shame to break up a squad that competes so well against each other and pushes the others to do better. They're great and I couldn't be prouder of them."

"I'm glad you're proud of them, but you gotta lay off the overly sentimental speeches man. You sound like a C list romance flick." Tom crossed his arms and gave his friend a smirk.

Marco rolled his eyes. "Whatever."

"Hey I'm just kidding. But I should probably head out now. Don't want to be gone for too long, ya know? The folks might get worried and send the Hellhounds to sniff me out. And that wouldn't be good for anyone. Those things can sniff a drop of blood ten dimensions away. And don't even get me started on the mess they leave in their wake." Tom sighed happily, daydreaming about the trail of bodies that led him to his former teacher. "So anyway, I'll catch you later, Marco. Drop by if you're in the area. You're always welcome." Tom spun around on his heel and headed for the exit.

"I'll do that. See ya later, Tom." Marco waved goodbye as the demon walked out of eyesight. He turned around to the squires who were completing their second lap, huffing and puffing, yet still keeping pace with their previous time. Even though Marco could admit that he did kind of sound like a romance movie at times, he was proud to see the effects of his dedication to them in their effort. He was training the next batch of warriors for the Mewman army, and possibly some of the next special ops warriors. He could definitely see a few of them making it that far. And if he had to pick favorites, it would probably be Kassandra. He had a gut feeling that she was going to turn out to be a one person army. He was even going to choose her for squad leader by the end of the week, and hopefully she would accept and rise to the occasion. Either way, they still had a lot on their plates for the day. The last thing anyone needed at the moment was a diversion of leadership. That'd be for week's end. He finished the rest of his bagel and grabbed a drink of water from the camel that was in the field. Today was going to be a long day.

/ -... .- -. . .-.. ... / .- -. -.. / - .- -.-. - ... /

"We need to go back there again. I think I just developed an unhealthy addiction to those tacos." Moon said, wiping her mouth and brushing off excess sugar from her tank top. She burned up the napkin in her hand and threw the ashes to the wind. "I'm glad we got to spend some time together sweetheart. I don't think we'll get to have fun like that for quite a while, considering what's going to happen in the next few weeks."

Star stared her mother down, determination overwhelming the pleasantries which had just composed her demeanor. "Okay. We need to talk about that. I think I deserve to finally get an answer, instead of just being pushed aside. I'm not a child anymore, mom." Star gripped her wand as it began to glow white and morph around her forearm. After the glowing subsided, a dark purple brace with thin yellow lines extending from the edges and converging on a red and yellow nautical star appeared. "See. I can even convert the wand into a warrior's brace. You told me you weren't able to learn that until you were like thirty. If I'm strong enough to master the wand, then I think I'm strong enough to bear the weight of at least helping the queen, if not fully taking on those responsibilities myself. Please mom, tell me what's going on."

Moon let out a solemn sigh and placed a hand on Star's shoulder. "I know that you've become strong. Much stronger than I was at that age, and perhaps even more than any of your ancestors would have been at that age as well. I know that, Star. What I don't want is for you to be overwhelmed with this plethora of new information all at once. It's a lot to put on someone your age, and even though you may be able to handle it right now, you will be able to handle it much better if it is slowly laid out for you." Moon stopped and turned Star towards her. "But, if you think you can handle it, I will carefully lay everything out for you. Every. Last. Detail. But heed my warning Star, you won't like where this is headed."

Star nodded, knowing full well that this could possibly turn her world upside-down. But then again, is anyone ever ready to handle something that serious? She pushes on regardless. "I can handle this, mom."

"Very well, dear. But we should go to my chambers. As trustworthy as the people are in this castle, there aren't any I would like hearing this before the time is right." Moon turned and began walking for her bedroom with Star trailing at her heel.

They both walked into the royal chamber and Moon shut the door behind them. Moon's cheek marks flashed, and glowing diamonds appeared over each door and window in the room as they slammed shut. "Don't want anyone peeking or hearing, now would we?" She made her way over to the bed and sat down, patting the spot beside her. Star walked over, taking the invitation to sit beside her mother.

"Now there are a few parts to this." Moon began. "There's confirmation of a large scale monster uprising in progress. A few of our elite spies were able to make their way into monster territory and have caught wind of a revolutionary revolt. We sent a few more of them out but they were unable to gain any further Intel- at least until last week. About this time last week, we sent Magnus O'Pain and his hand picked squadron back into the monster's main headquarters. They saw the high ranking officials, generals, and nobles, along with King Globgor with an assault map, planning an invasion of not just our kingdom, but all of Mewni's allies."

Moon took a deep breath before she continued. "Star. War is among us, and right now we don't have the numbers to stop it. While they may not be the most civilized species in the realm, the monsters are incredibly advanced fighters. At least once you get past the vast waves of infantry. We need to stop this before it begins. All of our allies have been informed and we are having a summit in two days to discuss further options. Even all of this planning is second to our primary goal: stopping the attacks before they begin. That's actually what your father is doing right now. He's not actually going on a hunting trip. He's going to attempt a diplomatic approach. Trying to show that we care about the monster body, and that our peace treaty from years ago wasn't just an act to show that we are not a racist people." Moon blew a stray hair out of her eye and stood up. She walked through the doorway to her office and started shuffling through papers. Tossing a few onto the floor, she held a large one up and made her way back to the bedroom.

"This." Moon handed Star a worn and torn sheet of paper. "Is our best bet as a backup plan. In case diplomacy fails us."

Star took the paper and turned it right side up. She looked over the paper, her eyes widening the further she went along. As she finished, she looked up to her mother, mouth agape. "Mom... This-" she pointed at the center of the sheet, "how do you know about this?"

"It was thought to be an old husband's tale told through the generations before us. Nobody thought it to be true since having that much power stored in one item would most likely break the fabric of space-time. But I have reason to believe that it does, in fact, exist. An old friend of mine, Jonathan, recently got into contact with me. He told me about how he was hunting the pieces of it down, but wasn't able to produce any tracing incantations powerful enough to locate it. He said how, despite its immense power, the energy given off by it was concealed to perfection. He believed that if I wasn't able to find it, then the only way it will be found is if it wants to be found." Moon walked over to the mirror and let her hair down. She started fluffing and brushing it, intermittently glancing back at Star who was nose deep in the paper.

"Mom, I was going to tell you this a little later, but after the bombs you just dropped on me, I think it's only fair that I do the same."

Moon raised an eyebrow. "Hmm?" She turned around and walked over towards Star, placing her hands on her hips as she stopped. "What do you have to 'drop' on me?" She asked, putting artificial air quotes around the word drop.

Star took a deep breath and looked Moon straight in the eye. "We found Orion's Buckle. The main power source for the sword. Marco and I found it in the jungles of Edema. I was going to tell you earlier, but I wasn't sure how to bring it up since I thought you didn't know about it and telling you that I found some kind of limitless power source to an ancient weapon seemed weird to just bring up out of nowhere and I'm sorry." Star hung her head following her exasperated rambling and bit her lip anticipating the wrath of the Queen. A wrath which she realized never actually came.

"Star." Moon spoke sternly. "Where is it? If it's in our possession, we must act immediately. Stalling of any kind could mean the difference between the survival or extinction of our people." She pulled Star to her feet, electing a quick yelp from Star as she was hoisted up. "Let me see it. I need to find the other two parts before anything unspeakable happens." Moon held out her hand to Star.

"Yeah, that's the thing mom." Star tapped her two index fingers together. "I don't have it right now. I actually gave it to Shayman's assistant, Janna." Star grabbed Moon as she began turning around. "And before you go and rip it out of her hands, hear me out. She's a better tracer than Shayman, and if anyone can find it, she can. She even said that she should be able to have the locations pinpointed to an area the size of a city within two days. Please mom, give her a chance. I don't think even you could find it as quickly. Can you trust me on this?"

Moon stood there for a moment, contemplating on whether she should put her trust in a 20 year old's tracing ability over her own. All logic dictates that a woman of her power, skill, and experience should not. She is the queen and the most powerful magical warrior in all of Mewni. However, she could see in her daughter's eyes that there was something worth trusting in her. Something that had been brewing for years and had just recently began to reveal itself. She wasn't just a rowdy, gung ho teenager anymore. She was a warrior and a future ruler. A ruler it seemed would even stand up to the highest form of authority in the land to do what she thought was right. This may come to bite her, but Moon gave her daughter the benefit of the doubt. Moon nodded. "Very well. However, if she does not have a location within the next two days, I will be taking over her progress and heading the search myself. Do I make myself clear?"

"Crystal." Star smiled, the twang in her chest gone from her mother's decision.

"Good. Although, I would like to see the progress that she is making on it. I may drop by on my way back to the throne room before I must deal with these insufferable nobles."

"Just, please don't push her too hard about finishing faster. That's definitely not how she works."

"Alright, alright. I'll just check progress. No more, no less. Maybe I'll stop by that taco stand on the way there too..."

"Mom! We were literally just there. And you had, like, six of them." Str exclaimed, the corners of her mouth beginning to pull upwards.

"I suppose you're right. Wouldn't want to mess with this perfect figure." She said, sliding her hand down her waist and hip.

"Mom. Please don't ever do that again. I have enough mental issues thanks to dad barging around the castle like a wildman." Star shivered from the thought of her old and new psychologically damaging experiences.

"And the way he looks at me. Mmm. I wouldn't want anything changing there either." She grinned.

"Mom! That's sooo gross. If I never hear anything like that again, it'll be too soon." Star complained with her hands over her ears.

Moon could only laugh at her daughter's exaggerated behaviors. "Alright dear. I'm going to check on your friend's progress. Would you like to join me?"

"I think I'll just stay here and wipe my memory. Start fresh, you know?"

Moon's face dropped to a scolding look that Star was far too familiar with.

"Fine. I'll stop." Star said, letting a small yawn slip. "It's getting late anyways, I think I'll just get ready to turn in for the night. You can tell me all about your fun talk with Janna tomorrow."

"Alright sweetie. I'll see you tomorrow then." Moon gave her a kiss on the forehead. "Goodnight."

"Goodnight, mom." She hugged her mom and headed out the door towards her room. On her way back she wondered, just why had her mom accepted her plan so easily? She barely had to plead her case and her mom was ready to follow her footsteps. That never happened. Never. While her mother did occasionally follow her plans, it usually took much more convincing than that. Could she really have thought that her plan was superior to whatever came into her mother's mind? Definitely not. That'd be the day The Underworld would freeze over. So why would she just accept something like that? Unless... Unless she just wanted to know where the stone was. Where she could find it and grab it in order for her to use it to find the pieces her own way. Well it wouldn't work. At least not as fast or as well as it would with Janna.

Star stopped. Janna. That's where her mom was going. Her mom isn't going back to the throne room; she is going to grab it from Janna and ruin all of the progress that she made on finding the stone. She had to get over there now.

Star took off like a bat out of hell down the hall towards the mage wing. She bumped into nearly every one and every thing on her mad dash. She eventually skidded to a halt in front of the large double doorway that led to the Mage's workplaces. Star placed her hand on the door and concentrated on Janna. The yellow symbols appeared out of her hand, just as they had when Janna opened everything up. The doors unlocked and Star pushed them open to reveal Janna's workroom. Although, this time the walls were lit up a bright orange hue with yellow borders, almost as though they were glowing.

She checked around the immediate area for any sign of Janna. Nothing. Star could tell she had been hard at work; Janna had pinned up and had hanging parchment depicting various locations across the universe. Some were circled, others crossed out, all with various lines connecting one another. There was one piece laying in front of her work station that was circled multiple times. Star looked closer and come to a realization.

The Androma Isles.

Really? One of the biggest and busiest vacation spots in the known universe is where a piece of arguably the most powerful weapon is being hidden? She supposed that hiding it in plain sight could work, or it could've been there before they founded the spot. Either way, it beats a dense, bug infested jungle any day.

Star smiled to herself and turned around. She noticed that there were two different body suits hanging up in the middle of the room where the armor stand used to be. They looked like the suits she and Marco wore when they went skydiving on Earth. Without the wings of course. She took a closer look at them, admiring their sleek and skin tight design. The one was approximately her body type, size and shape eerily close to her own. Outfitted in a stylish lavender base color with pink stripes running up and down the length of it like a circuit board, Star thought it could have been a custom order straight from her. And aside from the color of the stripes, it had varying symbols just like Marco's suit of armor. The other suit looked a bit too big for her though. A black base with red lines running up and down, which was pretty cool, but definitely wouldn't fit her or her style.

"Like what you see?" A smug voice said from behind her.

Star turned around to see Janna standing in the doorway to her bedroom with her arms crossed, giving her that trademark smirk.

"Yeah, I do." Star responded, running her fingers down the arm of the purple suit. "And it feels so soft and comfortable too. Are both of these for Marco? Cause I don't think that purple and pink are really in his wardrobe." She began dazing out, looking at the suit.

"Yeah I wouldn't really think so either." Janna said a little loudly to snap Star out of her trance. She walked over next to Star and admired the two suits. "That suit isn't for him, just so you know. I kind of get the feeling you just want it to be yours." She raised an eyebrow and eyed Star, who could only shake her head in agreement. Janna chuckled. "Well, I did make it specifically for you, you know."

Star snapped her head towards Janna, astonished. "What? Are you serious?"

Janna nodded and began to pull the purple suit off its stand. "I was only going to do one for Marco, but I changed my mind. And before I tell you why, I suggest you try this out." She pulled the last part off the stand and handed the draping suit over to Star. "You can change in my bedroom if you want. Or here, your choice." She winked at Star.

Star snorted and began laughing. "Oh you'd like a little show, huh?" Star put her hands above her head and began to dance down and back up, swing her hips and knees back and forth. Janna busted out laughing with Star following suit. Trying to catch her breath, Star began walking towards Janna's bedroom. "I'll just be a minute. Unless you made this thing obnoxiously hard to put on."

"Nah. Just slip it on and come back out. I'll set the whole thing up out here."

Star nodded and walked in to change. She walked back out about two minutes later, covered neck to toe in purple and pink. "Okay, I'm not sure how you did it, but this thing is sooo comfortable. Like, I'd wear it all day every day. The spandex fits perfectly and these boots are even better than mine." She bounced on the balls of her feet a few times and snapped the material on her outer thigh.

"Good." Janna smiled. "Cause those suits were a bitch to make. It took me a few months to formulate the right material that would stretch and transform to my specific input. To be honest, it was an accident that I found it in the first place. But forget about that. Come here and I'll get it set up for you." She waved Star towards her. Janna grabbed Star's right wrist and looked at the top of her forearm. She moved her own hand and tapped the top of Star's wrist. A portion of the suit slid from the top of her wrist revealing her skin. "I'm pretty proud of this one." Janna said, pointing to Star's revealed skin.

Star gave her a quizzical look. "Making it slide back? Not to be an ass or anything, but that's pretty basic magic, Janna. Even Ludo was able to make things move, and he's about as bright as a Manotaur."

Janna held up her index finger. "One, don't be rude, Princess. I just made you this badass suit." She held up her middle finger as well. "And two, you haven't even seen the tip of the iceberg yet." Janna cleared her throat. "SX1." The area on Star's left wrist was quickly covered by a screen containing a multitude of controls with an 'O' in the upper right corner, covered in black flames. "Setup new user. Name, Star Butterfly." Janna ordered. The screen shifted and prompted Star.

ENTER IDENTIFIABLE INFORMATION.

"What does it mean by that?" Star questioned.

"That's just a precautionary measure. See, unlike your wand which can identify you automatically on the first meeting, my talismans need some sort of initial data. So, it's going to scan you, your voice, eyes, and fingerprints."

Star looked down to her forearm and back to Janna. "Is it going to hurt?"

"Psh. Nah." Janna paused and puckered her lips. "Well, it shouldn't be too bad."

"What?" Star asked quickly.

"SX1. Scan." Janna stated.

SCANNING...

A plume of lavender and white smoke exited the suit from the top of Star's wrist and began swirling at her feet, gradually making its way up her legs and torso until it swallowed her head, leaving nothing but a vibrant cloud to see. She held her breath and tensed her body waiting for the pain to consume her. All of a sudden it felt like claws dug deep into her skin, slowly covering every inch of her body as though she were being ripped apart by a sadistic bear. She let out a scream of pain as the clawing started to burn. The piercing pain continued as her eyes, throat, and fingertips felt as though they were being singed off, molecule by molecule. She could feel her vision tunneling, her head became light and her eyelids heavy. As her knees began to buckle, the pain instantly stopped and she dropped to her hands and knees. Gasping for air, she coughed out blood onto the floor and tried to catch her breath. After about a minute of struggling to regain her breath, Star spat out the remaining mixture of blood and saliva from her mouth. She reached for the nearby table and was helped up by Janna. She gave her a large cup of what tasted like tea with honey. She gulped down the soothing beverage as though it were her sole purpose in life.

"Yeah. The fingers and eyes instantly stop burning after it's done, but I can't seem to tell why the throat pain keeps persisting. It's not like I'm a doctor or anything, so hopefully you're able to recover from that. I did at least. I probably should've warned you about it, but then you might not have agreed and the suit wouldn't work. I sure don't need it for myself, so that'd be a waste. Besides, I knew the tea would help to soothe your throat. It's green tea with honey and a little something I like to call 'The High Commission.' It really helps with any problem you have. Makes you feel all good inside, man." She smirked and put a hand on Star's shoulder.

"For real though, I'm sorry about sort of lying to you. Lying by omission and all, I suppose. But it's definitely worth every bit of pain you just went through. Now your suit recognizes you as its main user, and as such, you have full control over it. Oh yeah, and there's a section on your right arm that can retract," she pressed on Star's wrist which retracted the forearm of her suit. "That's for the wand in its warrior brace form. I figured you'd like to have it set so that it wouldn't have to go over anything. So whenever the wand goes on, the suit automatically retracts, and when it comes off the suit extends. Pretty simple, and a nice little touch if I do say so myself. You just need to activate that feature by attaching your wand as a brace. But you can do that whenever."

Janna clasped her hands together. "Other features. The whole thing is a suit of armor. And a pretty tough one at that. It can withstand about 10,000 pounds per square inch of force. So don't get stabbed by anything that can exceed that. Fireproof, automatic heating and cooling, weapon summoning though I doubt you'll need that, built in portal generator in case your butterfly form fails you for some reason, automatic wardrobe change based on location, impact energy absorption..." She stopped and scratched her head. "I'm definitely missing stuff but I don't have my list. Oh well, I'm sure you'll be able to figure it out. And not to mention it's voice activated so just use it like your wand and if it can't do something, it'll just tell you to bite it."

Star quickly shook her head back and forth. "That's a lot of stuff, Janna. How did you have time to even make this? I thought you were going to implement Marco's changes from yesterday too." She continued looking over her suit. She poked at one of the dagger shaped outlines, and a dagger materialized and fell to the ground. She picked it up and looked at her reflection in it. It was perfectly constructed. She could barely make something this perfect with all her years training with and without the wand.

"Right. Yesterday. Well, I guess that's a little farther back for me than you. See, I may not have been able to pinpoint the signal from Orion's Buckle right away, so I transported my place to Heckapoo's dimension." She gestured around to the flickering orange walls. "There I was able to pinpoint the gemstone, upgrade the suits to perfection, and get enough beauty sleep to make myself look like a pinup girl."

Star cracked a smile and went over to Janna, pulling her into a bone crushing hug. "You're the best, Janna-banana."

"You don't have to tell me what I already know." Janna smiled, hugging her back. "So, you ready to test this thing out before I tell you about the other parts to the sword?"

Star pushed her back quickly, her grip still holding strong. "Oh no. The sword. Janna! You have to give me the stone right now, and if you know where the spots are for the pieces of the sword, you need to tell me right now too." Star backed away from Janna, opening a portal above them. Right as it opened Marco fell through on his backside, dressed only in his underwear.

Marco scrambled backwards trying to figure out where he was. His eyes darted between Star and Janna, and his shoulders slumped a bit as he began to relax a little. He looked down and noticed he was only in his underwear and frantically tried to cover himself up.

"Marco. Get up and make yourself decent. Janna found the other parts of the sword." Star ran over to him, reaching out her hand which Marco took to hoist himself onto his feet, making sure to still keep one arm over his half naked body.

Marco raised a questioning eyebrow. "I thought you said it would take a few days. How'd you get it so early?" He looked down at himself. "Also, do you have some clothing I can put on? Or do I have to walk back to my room half naked because Star decided to just teleport me out of the blue, even though I specifically told her not to." He threw his arms up, and immediately placed them back down in front of him after forgetting about his exposed torso.

"Okay, don't be such a baby about being in your boxers. They're less revealing than my grandpa's bathing suit. And trust me, anything you have cannot be worse than that. On a somewhat related note, I need to remember to make a mind wiping function for my robes. Also, it took me way longer than that to locate the pieces. Well, piece. I only have one pinpointed right now, and even that one is pretty poorly identified. I still need time to try and get a read on where the other one is. But to answer your first question, I relocated my room to your old fling's dimension to comparatively speed up time." She gestured to the walls surrounding them.

Marco's face scrunched before he realized who Janna was talking about. "Woah, woah. She was not my 'old fling'."

"You mean to tell me that you spent your prime chasing a girl's tail, just to not get any tail? Either you're the worst flirt in the universe, or you grow up to be uglier than your Quest Buy portrait. Can't blame her if that's the case."

"Nah. He was a hunk." Star chimed in calmly.

"Oh? Is that so?" Janna began model striding over towards Marco.

"Janna!" Marco pointed at her.

"It's rude to point." She purred. "But if you want to be a bad boy... Well... I just can't say no to that." She winked and gave him a sly smile.

"Knock it off!" He yelled over dramatically.

"You're too easy, Diaz." Janna smiled and turned away from him. "Now let's go. I have your upgraded suit ready."

Marco perked up at the naming of his suit. "Really? I thought you said it would take you a while to make those improvements we talked about."

"What part of 'old fling's dimension' did you not get? I swear, it's like talking to a brick wall." She paused. "Actually, the brick wall would be better."

"What?" Marco asked.

"I said you suck at conversations. Now put the suit on before I change my mind and destroy it." She pointed at the suit being modeled in the center of the room.

Star walked over to the table she found the parchment on while Janna and Marco were having their weekly quarrel. Looking over the map she found the Androma Isles were located just outside of the Andromeda dimension. She puckered her lips trying to figure out where she heard that before. Androma Isles. She knew there was something she was forgetting about that place, but nothing beside 'tourist heaven' was coming up. Disregarding it for the time being, Star rolled up the paper and made her way back to Janna. "Where's Marco?" She asked.

"Well he didn't feel comfortable taking off his underwear in front of me, so he went to go change in the bathroom. Is that the map of Androma?" She asked, pointing to the rolled up paper in Star's hand.

"Yeah. I figured we should at least have a map of where we're going. The last thing I need to do is get lost. Not like it'll be a problem to get back here, but you can never be too prepared." She shrugged.

"Are you taking princess classes again?" Janna asked.

"Hey, just because I'm preparing for anything doesn't mean that-" She stopped at the sound of a door closing.

Janna shot Star a questioning look and turned around to see Marco brushing his suit off. He looked pretty good if she were to actually admit it. Tight suit, definition in all the right places, slightly messed up hair. Not bad at all, she thought to herself.

Janna averted her gaze to Star who apparently lost conscious control of her jaw. She had it bad, but she still wasn't going to admit it. Maybe some day she would go for it again, but that day wasn't today. They had work to do. "Star, stop drooling. Marco, quit touching yourself and come over here." Janna waved them over to the table. "Let me see the map, Star." She happily obliged and handed it over. Marco was grumbling; something along the lines of 'no respect'. "Now, I know you two might not like all of this, but I have the first location of the missing sword pieces pinpointed to a city. Well, more like a collection of protected islands, jungles, and tourist spots. The Androma Isles. It's in the Andromeda dimension on the outskirts of the galaxy, naturally where all the best secluded, high end vacation spots are."

Star's eyes lit up at the destination confirmation, briefly forgetting about the weight of their current situation. "We used to take family vacations there every year! They have all the best stuff! The stores are huuuge, and there's so many things to do. They have beautiful white sandy beaches overlooking the crystal clear ocean, and rivers for boating, swimming, and diving, there's warnicorn racing, all sorts of sparring, and the food. Mmmm the food there, I swear is touched by one of the seven. It's to die for." Star fixated on the food she was thinking about, letting a bit of drool run down her lip.

"Star." Janna snapped in front of her. "Food later. Mission briefing now."

Star shook her head and put her game face on. "Right." She nodded.

"Okay, so you two are going to have to get in there and track it down the old fashion way. Ask around, bribe people, threaten them if you have to. You know, the good stuff. But find it. Something stupidly powerful like this can't be in the hands of some half-wit marauder. It should be in the hands of a genius mage who can hold her own and is the best damn enchanter this side of the god forsaken universe!" Her teeth ground together following her small rant.

"You okay?" Marco asked. "Cause you don't seem okay..."

"Well if I don't seem okay, it's probably because I'm not, genius." Janna glared back at him.

"Okay." Marco squeaked.

"We have to have some girl talk later, Janna. For now, what else can you tell us?" Star asked.

Janna sighed, visibly relaxing at the change in topic. "Well, outside of the fact that the piece is somewhere in this circle, nothing actually. Since its within such a developed area, I'm not sure where it could actually be hiding, so anything could be a trap, diversion, or interference. You just have to be careful and smart about what you're doing. I'd say try finding some hunters first. Some of them may have caught wind of it and could spill info with a nudge in the right direction." Janna formed her fingers into the shape of a gun.

"We're not killing anyone. Especially not for what could be false information." Marco said flatly.

"Yeah, yeah. You're a pansy, I get it." Janna waved him off. "But hunters will probably know best. Just try and find some that don't look too intimidating. The bigger ones are usually the dumber ones anyway. Skinny weirdos like Marco should be good sources."

Marco rolled his eyes at the jab. He looked down and started adjusting himself in the suit. "Could you make these things any tighter? I don't think I'll be able to have kids if it stays like this much longer."

Janna let a maniacal grin slip. "Speaking of that, come here. We need to activate it." She started walking towards the bathroom Marco changed in.

"Okay." Marco replied, still fidgeting with himself and completely ignorant of what was to come. "Hey, this won't be like the armor's activation, will it? That was so painful..." He winced at the thought of how much pain he was in when getting the prototype suit. He felt like a peasant getting reprimanded in ancient times for taking a loaf of bread. The searing pain may have left his body, but the emotional scars it left are everlasting.

"Nah. This isn't like the prototype's setup." Janna said calmly. She opened the door for Marco to walk in, and gave Star that same devilish smile before following him in and closing the door.

Star looked down at her forearm. This was like one of those fancy Earth communication devices they had in movies. 'Holograms' is what she thought she remembered Marco calling them. She began swiping through the options, looking for anything interesting. Telephone? No. Body temperature thermostat. Cooler. Stadium buddy? Confused, she pressed it, and shreaked at something poking her where things should not poke. She frantically tried to undo it. Pass on that one.

Now what's next… Camouflage? Now we're getting somewhere. She scrolled through the menu which was organized by dimension and subsequently locations within that dimension. It had all different types of styles for each location. Formal wear, sports wear, day-to-day clothes, scenic wear, automatic. Automatic seemed good. She pressed the button and the pink lines over her suit began to glow, as the rest of the suit followed. Quickly, the purple and pink she so adored transformed into her normal outfit; her teal dress with a pink ghost, pink and purple striped leggings, demonic boots, and red devil horns. It even fit better than her own clothes. She did a once over to check just how close it was to her normal outfit, and she had to admit, it was spot on. Before she could admire it anymore, she heard a scream come from behind her and she jumped. She pulled out her wand and got ready to blow away anything that came from that direction. Star dropped her wand after she realized the screams of pain to be Marco's, coming from the bathroom.

Janna opened the door revealing herself and Marco, who was barely holding himself up on the sink. His short raspy breathing echoed throughout Janna's workplace. Janna looked back at him. "Oh come on, Marco. Star wasn't that big of a pansy. You shouldn't be either. I get you're no warrior princess, but come on man. Pull it together." She walked out, leaving Marco behind. "Men. Am I right?" She shook her head disapprovingly.

Marco slowly limped out of the bathroom clutching his face. "Everything hurts." He moaned.

"Yeah I figured that would happen." Janna said, walking back towards the table that held the map. "But let's get down to business now that both of your suits are active. First thing's first; you can't just go in guns blazing. For one, the whole area has advanced Tramorfidian Crystal towers. Blocks inward scissoring, but not outward scissoring in case of emergencies. So you'll have to go in through the main gate. Next, find where the hilt is hidden. Talk to locals, frequent flyers, and especially hunters. They know where the good shit is. Find it, and get out. Who knows what kinds of traps or attention could get to you if you're there for too long."

"Sounds easy enough." Star chimed. "And if anyone gets in our way, we'll just have to beat 'em down." She punched her open palm.

"I'm all for warranted beatdowns, but I don't think we should draw attention to ourselves like that. It could really hinder our ability to find it by drawing way too much attention to us." Marco added. "In fact, if we can get in there, grab the piece, and get out, all without being slapped around, it would be perfect."

"I'm actually with the safe kid on this one. If nobody sees you, you're much better off. While the main section is a tourist haven, close areas around it are where the scum lie. You're better off quiet because if they catch wind of who you are and what you're looking for, you're dead." Janna crossed her arms.

"Fiine." Star protested. "We'll do it the safe and boring way. But just so you know Janna, I'm disappointed in you.

"I can live with that. Now let's get a move on. I want to see what all I can conjure up once I have the info on how this thing works." Janna smiled maliciously.

"Oh there is no way that you're-"

"YEAH! Let's go!" Star screamed. She grabbed Marco by the arm with one hand, opened a portal with the other, and pulled them both through before Marco could even protest.

Janna let out a snort. "They are so boned."

Starco4everr: We will definitely get there!

lordcornwalis: Thank you! And they don't have any romantic involvement with each other at the moment, but that's going to be gradually addressed.