Hey everyone, it's acw28 here with the next chapter of The Runaway!

So, as I said I started working on this chapter on Friday 7/17. So far I've gotten three more reviews and as I can't directly respond to them as they are guest reviews, I figured I'd respond to them here.

So first up I got a Starco fan, I'm not a huge fan of the pairing for Marco and Star, but I don't hate it either. I just like the Marco Jackie pairing better, and I feel that fans that think likewise are underrepresented in the fandom, it's part of the reason why I wrote this story. I would hope that as the series continues, or if people are inspired by this story, that more Marco Jackie stories will appear on this site. However, in the end the pairings shouldn't matter that much if you enjoy the story, and if the pairings are a deal breaker then just don't read it.

Next I had a guest, Luigi S Mariano, ask when the next chapter is going to come out. Let me make one thing clear to all of my readers, of this work or any of my other stories they decided to look at, I will not give a specific day on my updates. My writing style tends to be spontaneous, I'll have periods where I'm extremely productive and can write and edit multiple 20+ page chapters within weeks of each other, but then I'll have slumps where I can't for the life of me write a good scene. I also feel that the irregularity in my update pace gives my readers a nice surprise when they get an alert. I've had day's before that were just absolutely terrible, but got a little better when I saw one of my favorite stories had a new chapter.

Lastly, I've got another guest, JW TS, asking me to keep up the good work. First, thanks for the complement, I'll try to maintain my quality of writing and I hope you will enjoy this chapter. So that's all of the guest reviews at the time I'm starting this, if I see anymore posted I'll respond to them in the end note.

Now I know that I said this was the last chapter, but I have my reasons for extending the story, which I'll discuss later.

Disclaimer: I do not own Star vs. the Forces of Evil, if I did this would be canon instead of fanfiction.

Although it couldn't have been more than thirty minutes, the walk home seemed to last forever for Marco. He was lucky his shoulder had only been dislocated, he painfully popped it back into place before he left Jackie's and Janna's house.

'No, just Janna's house now.' he mentally corrected himself.

The moment he stepped into his own house, Star immediately ran down the stairs. "So did you tell her? What did she tell you? Does she feel the same way? Are you two going out now?" As she bombarded her friend with questions, Star kept jumping up and down, too excited to stand still. All of that excitement vanished with Marco's response.

"Star would you just shut up!" the boy yelled. Seeing his friend start to tear up, Marco sighed before saying, "I'm sorry for yelling Star. Turns out Jackie ran away from her home dimension, somehow her dad found out she was here on Earth and sent a goon to grab her." Marco began heading toward the stairs as he said, "Me and Jackie fought him for awhile, then he pinned me down and was going to stab me, so Jackie agreed to go home if I was let go." As his tale finished Star could see the sadness in Marco's eyes. "Now, I've had a long day and I just want it to end. Night Star."

Star watched as Marco walked to his room and closed the door, the hearts on her cheeks now broken until suddenly they were replaced with a light bulb. Maybe Marco couldn't do anything more for Jackie, but Star's father probably could. After all, he wasn't king for nothing.

After running into her room, Star stood in front of her magic mirror and said, "Mirror, mirror, call Dad."

After a few short moments Star's reflection changed to an image of a short man with blue eyes, blond hair, and a forked beard that went half way down his body. "Star do you have any idea what time it is? Why would you call this late?" King Butterfly asked his daughter.

"Dad, this is going to sound a little weird, and maybe a little wild, but you have to help Marco!"

"Marco, isn't he the magic ear of corn that's been spreading mud on the royal carpets?"

"No, that's a different Marco." Star said, amazed at how many things in Mewni shared names with people from Earth. "The Marco that needs our help is Marco Diaz, the boy whose family I'm staying with while on Earth. Some things have happened and now a girl he likes is in trouble."

King Butterfly was now fully awake. Seeing the concern Star had for her friend, King Butterfly said, "Let's see if there is any way we can help, tell me everything." Star took a deep breath before quickly explaining of how Marco had a crush on Jackie, who was really a mermaid princess who ran away from her own dimension, and how Jackie agreed to go back to her home so that Marco wouldn't get hurt. As she told her tale, Star's father would occasionally nod his head to show he was still paying attention. After she concluded her tale, King Butterfly spoke up saying, "I'll look through the interdimensional laws, you might want to have Marco look through your copy as well. But Star," the King quickly added after seeing his daughter start to rush off, "you need to realize we might not be able to do much, Jackie went willingly, short of starting a war, we might not be able to do anything save file an official protest. Do you understand?"

Star was sad to hear this, but knew there were some things that her father wouldn't do, such as endangering his subjects. Reluctantly Star nodded her head as she said, "I understand Dad."

"Don't look so glum Star, I promise if we find anything you'll be the first to know." With that the King cut the call. Nodding to herself, Star quickly ran to her bookshelf to grab three thick books before going to Marco's room. Star found her friend laying on his bed facing the wall. Taking a moment to set the books on his desk, Star began by saying, "I told my Dad what happened, he suggested looking through these books to see if we could find something." When Marco still didn't respond, Star sighed and started walking out of the room, but stopped at the door to say, "If there's a way to get Jackie back, we'll find it Marco. Good night."

After Star left his room, Marco rolled onto his back. Digging into his jacket pocket, Marco pulled out Jackie's seashell necklace. He didn't know how long he held it up and just stared at it, only to be startled by a voice saying, "Mopping around isn't going to bring her back you know."

After failing around for a second, Marco turned his head to Janna. "How did you get in here?"

In response, the girl pulled something out of her pocket. Holding them up, Janna said, "I "found" these a few minutes ago." In her hands were Marco's house keys. Continuing, the girls said, "Why are you mopping around anyway, I thought you would be looking for a way to get Jackie back."

"I can't do anything," Marco said, "she went back willingly. According to Star's Dad the only thing that could help is if he had Mewni go to war." Sitting up to grab his keys out of the girl's hand, Marco asked, "Why do you keep doing that? Stealing my keys, teasing me, flirting with me, do you like me or something? You know there are more effective ways to convey your feelings."

Janna gave a short chuckle before saying, "You're a good guy Marco, but I don't like you like that. I was just trying to get Jackie to hurry up and stack her claim before any other girl did."

"Stake her claim?" Marco asked confused.

Janna rolled her eyes as she said, "She likes you genius, like wants to settle down and have kids "like". Did you honestly expect Jackie to go to the gym dressed like that every time? She was trying to grab your attention, well more then what she already had."

Even more confused, Marco countered by saying, "How could she like me? She hardly ever talked to me, we didn't have a real conversation until after Star came to stay with my family, even that was only a few words."

Janna rubbed her temples, getting tired of explaining all of this. "Look, you remembered you were saved but didn't remember Jackie's face right?" Marco nodded. "Jackie explained to me a few months after she started living with me and my mom, that love for a mermaid is complicated. If a connection is made and the two kiss, they forget each other's face. To prove that the love is real, they have to find each other again. If they can't make a connection again, then it ends."

Now Janna had Marco's full attention as he said, "But I never kissed Jackie."

A smirk appeared on Janna's face as she asked, "When you had your accident, there wasn't any water in your lungs right? Now why do you think that is? Was it luck, or did someone lip lock with you and draw it out?" Seeing the look of realization cross Marco's face, and sensing the next question, Janna continued, "She thought she recognized you the first day of seventh grade, but she felt something different about you. She didn't want to lose you, so she didn't talk to you but she was always there. She kept me up some nights going over her plans to skate by you at just the right moment."

Marco was stunned when he heard this. This period of inactivity didn't last long as faster than she could blink, Janna suddenly saw Marco sitting at his desk flipping through a thick book. After several minutes of watching this, Janna asked, "What are you doing?"

Without looking away from the book, Marco replied, "Star lent me these books, she said that they were interdimensional laws, there should be something in one of them that would help Jackie."

Janna noticed that Marco pointed to two other books, each equally as thick. "You know it's going to take forever to find something that way." Marco glared at her, as if challenging her to have a better idea. Rolling her eyes, Janna grabbed all three of the books as she said, "The order in the chaos," she then threw all three of the books straight into the air, almost touching the ceiling, each fell with a loud thud, two were closed while one was open to a page further back in the book. Careful to keep the book open, Janna picked up the book and handed it to Marco, "this should be your answer."

Marco seemed doubtful, but then read the entry. As his eyes went further down the page, his smile grew. Once he reached the end of the page, he hugged Janna, "Thanks, this just might work." He then released the girl and ran outside to the shed, knowing what supplies he'd need. Janna shrugged off the hug and started to walk out of the room until she notice the books page start to turn, showing more to that particular entry. Janna quickly read the remainder of the law, then started running out of the house as she thought, 'If they use that law they'd either make me the Maid of Honor or dance on my grave.'

In the shed, Marco quickly found some of the supplies that he needed, then moved his Dad's large tool case a few inches. Reaching behind the tool case, Marco felt his hand land on a large cardboard box. After a minute of struggling, Marco managed to slide the box out and, after taking a few minutes to compose his thoughts, took the lid off. Slowly he reached in and took out a black helmet, noting that he'd have to adjust the chin strap. After putting his helmet on the ground, Marco reached in to pull out the last item he needed for his plan.

Out of the box, Marco pulled out a skateboard with red wheels and a black deck with the outline of a red Ace of Spade in the center of the board. Just holding his old board brought back memories, his first ollie, his first wipe out, and much more rushed past his mind. Marco ideally noticed that his trunks were a bit loose and quickly found a socket wrench to fix it. Nodding at his work, and seeing he had all but one of his supplies, Marco gathered his gear and headed back inside, being sure to stop in the kitchen on the way in.

It was past ten when Marco was ready to put his plan into action. Sneaking into Star's room, Marco quickly spotted what he was looking for. Glad that his friend was such a heavy sleeper, the boy quickly grabbed a pair of red handled scissors and an extremely large book, and quietly walked back into the hallway. Once he reached the living room, Marco set the book down on the coffee table as he said, "Hey, Glossaryck, get out here."

As Marco said these words, the book opened seemingly by itself. Once the pages settled, a small, blue, twelve fingered, bald man with a large gem in his forehead, a white beard and a wearing a yellow shirt and pants began to float out of the book. Once he settled Glossaryck began saying, "Hello Star Butterfly. What can I do…" he then noticed Marco and began saying, "I believe we have had this conversation before Marco Diaz, magical princesses only. Goodbye." Before he could disappear back into the pages of the books, Marco shoved something into Glossaryck's arms. The small man looked down and asked, "Is this?"

Marco nodded his head as he said, "Pudding, double chocolate fudge." The boy then held up the rest of the pack. "You can have that one for free, you can get another two if you do what I ask, the last three are for you to not tell Star or anyone else about this."

Glossarcyk began to float up to Marco's eye level as he said, "Normally I would never accept such a bribe," he then looked to make sure no one was around before continuing, "but how can I refuse such a generous donation?" Marco nodded, handing over the rest of the pudding, with the transaction complete, Glossarcyk asked, "Okay, what can I do for you kid?"

"Star used a spell today, dimensional protection bubble or something like that, how long does it last and can you cast it on me and my gear?"

Glossarcyk was silent for a moment as he slurped a mouthful of pudding down his throat. Once he was able to speak he said, "I know the spell, lasts about 12 hours or 12 dimensions, whichever comes first. As for casting it," the little man snapped his extra fingers to make a white sphere appear in front of him before it rushed and absorbed itself into Marco. "There you go kid, remember I had nothing to do with this." Glossarcyk then grabbed the other five cups of pudding before disappearing back into Star's book.

Nodding to himself Marco grabbed his supplies before using the scissors to open a portal. Stepping through, Marco was glad he managed to get himself back to the dimension he and Star had visited earlier that day. Moving quickly and stealthily, Marco made his way to the princess tower, hoping no one in the castle was awake, it wouldn't bowed well if he got caught too early. Making sure the coast was still clear, Marco started swimming up to the window.

Jackie questioned how a night with so much promise had turned into such a nightmare. She had decided to sit on the beach and look out onto the ocean after dinner, hoping to figure out some way to tell Marco the truth. Instead Marco had surprised her with the news of his visit to her home dimension. He had found out her secret, and he was cool with it, a major weight off of her shoulders. He had also practically admitted that he liked her in the same way that she liked him! She was sure that she could have gotten a kiss a few minutes after that, but then her father had to ruin everything, like always.

Once she was returned to her home dimension, she was forced to attend a formal dinner to officially welcome her back to her "home." Her mother gave a great performance of how she was so glad her lovely daughter was home safe and how the Queen was so glad to have her daughter home. Jackie might have halfway believed the act, if Queen Circe didn't start showing of the new sapphire necklace she had commissioned for just the occasion. King Mano hardly said a word throughout the meal, just smirking at his future conquests. Jackie also had the pleasure of meeting her fiancé, a tan hammerhead around her age that did nothing but stare at her with lust during the entire dinner. All she wanted to do now was go to bed and pretend this was a terrible nightmare that she could wake up from. Instead she was surprised as she saw someone swim in through her window as she opened her door. Although it took a few moments for her eyes to adjust to the darkness, Jackie quickly recognized the figure's red hoodie. "Marco, what are you doing here?"

Marco was startled when someone called his name, but relaxed when he realized it was only Jackie. Before he responded, Marco took half a moment to look over his crush. She still had her unique hair and eyes, but now she had three gills on her cheeks in place of her freckles, he saw her sharp, pointed teeth while she was talking. He also noticed the small dark blue fins on her forearms, her webbed hands, and the dark blue tail where he was used to seeing her legs. Oddly her tail did not end in a flowing fin that was parallel to her hips, instead Jackie's tail ended in two sharp points, much like a shark's tail, that where perpendicular to her hips. The boy tried not to look at Jackie's breasts, which were now secured with a pure white seashell bra and showed a fair amount of cleavage. Taking the other half of the moment to compose himself, Marco said, "So this is what you look like without your necklace," noticing that she wasn't moving, he asked, "how are you floating right now?"

Not missing a beat, Jackie responded by saying, "Internal gas bladder that I learned to regulate when I was a toddler, it's a lot like learn to walk. Now answer my question, why are you here?"

"I think that's pretty obvious isn't it?" Marco replied, "I'm here to get you out of here."

"No Marco, you can't do that." Jackie began, "Look, it's sweet that you're going to such lengths for me, it really is, but this isn't a fairy tale Marco. I may be a princess, but you are not a knight in shining armor, you can't just come and rescue me. I chose this, now you need to get out of here before one of the guards, or worse my father, know that you're here. If they catch you they'll kill you." Jackie continued after that, citing all of the dangers of the castle and how his fate was imitate if he didn't leave immediately.

Instead of going out the window, Marco surprised Jackie by quickly moving toward her. He had come here for her and he was determined not to leave without her. Deciding to wing it, Marco reached out, pulled Jackie towards him, and shocking the girl, pressed his lips to hers. Immediately both teens felt a part of their memory become complete, Marco could finally see the face of the girl that saved him while Jackie could see the face of the boy that stood up to some skater punks. Marco continued the kiss even after that, Jackie responded in kind, closing her eyes and melting into the other teen. When they finally separated the girl was in a state of bliss, but that quickly changed when she noticed her hands were tied behind her back with a piece of rope also immobilizing her tail. Getting angry, Jackie threatened in a low voice, "Marco…"

Marco just smirked as his plan came together. "Sorry Jackie, but I'm not leaving here without you. I know you don't like it here, and it's mostly my fault that here in the first place." Grabbing a gag made from a clean rag out of his large bag of supplies, Marco said, "You are right about how I can't be your knight, so I guess I have to be something else. Oh, and sorry about this."

"Marco Diaz, if you gag me I swear I'll…"however the rest of the threat was cut off as Marco did just that. Seeing the rage in Jackie's eyes, Marco tried to get her into his now empty bag, a process that was made difficult as Jackie emptied her internal gas bladder, becoming dead weight. Once he had the girl in the bag and tied it shut, Marco left a small note, as per the requirements of the particular law he was about to enact.

After making sure he wasn't going to leave anything behind besides the note, Marco strapped on his helmet, hoisted Jackie over his shoulder, and grabbed his skateboard. Perched on the windowsill, the boy looked downward. It looked to be at least an eighty-foot vertical drop. Flashbacks of his day at the pier quickly came to his mind. Despite his fears, Marco knew he could be discovered at any moment. He couldn't outswim anyone in this dimension, his only hope was to become faster due to an alternative means. Swallowing the lump in his throat, Marco put his other foot on the board, and moved his weight forward.

For the first twenty feet heading down, Marco felt like he was going to throw up. He fought to keep his food in his stomach. After the first twenty feet, Marco realized that his motion sickness was psychosomatic, that he caused himself to be sick at high speeds because he was afraid of getting hurt again. He quickly decided that he could not afford to get sick at such a critical time, when it was not only his future that was on the line, but also that of one of his friends.

Once he had it firmly in his mind that he would no longer get sick, Marco actually began to enjoy himself. He heard the wind, or in this case water, rush past his ears. He felt the start of an adrenalin high. If he was completely honest, he would have to admit that he missed this feeling, and thought himself an idiot for not getting over his fear sooner. Whenever he did something there would always be the risk of getting hurt, he broke his arm twice doing karate for crying out loud. He wondered if Jackie would still be furious at him after this or if she would agree to go skating with him, either way, his days of being the safety kid were done.

As he neared the end of the tower, Marco did a small ollie onto the ground so he wouldn't wreck but could maintain his speed. Marco already knew where he needed to go, stealth now abandoned in favor of speed. He did see some mermaids out in the late night, many gave him strange looks, not sure what to make of the skateboarding teen with a large moving sack on his back. He didn't pay attention to them, it didn't matter if he was discovered now, he just couldn't get caught. Soon his destination came into view, the portal canyon.

'I've got to time this just right.' he thought.

As he would loss his speed if he stopped to observe the portal, he instead opted to skate on the side of the canyon, this possible due to the different physics in the dimension. After making half a pass around the cannon, Marco got the timing down. Right before the portal was about to close, Marco started heading down into the canyon. He just managed to skate halfway down the canyon before the portal reopened perhaps a foot above his head. Happy with his work, Marco pulled out Star's scissors and opened a portal of his own before skating into it.

After skating into the portal, much of Marco's speed was lost. Emerging on the other side, Marco was saw he was now in the super market like dimension known as Quest Buy. Before he could go any further, one of the sloth-like creatures that inhabited the dimension/ran the store, told him, "Sir, this is a no skateboarding zone."

Marco quickly stopped and picked up his board, "Sorry about that, I was in a bit of a hurry." However the sloth had already walked off. As his plan was working so far, and as he wasn't being followed, Marco decided not to open another portal immediate, but instead make a longer journey for anyone that would pursue him. As he walked out of the center of the store, Marco saw a small, green, goblin like creature imbedding itself in a wall. Remembering his previous visit to this dimension, Marco told the creature, "For house wares you want to go down to isle 25, make a left turn, walk a mile, then take the stairs to the fifth floor." The goblin gave a small groan, but nodded its thanks and started following Marco's directions.

Marco, however, walked over to two elevators and took one up to a certain floor. Walking off the elevator, Marco saw he was at the traps department, the resident sloth employee still stuck in a giant mousetrap. Moving quickly, Marco was able to avoid all of the obstacles, although it was more difficult than his last visit as Jackie had begun to thrash around in an attempt to get her hands untied. Once he was on the other side of the hallway, Marco opened up another portal to a random dimension.

As soon as Marco stepped out of the portal, a giant treadmill beneath him started moving, bring him towards a giant, dark and ominous looking castle. As soon as he was past the entrance, a metal gate slammed down behind him. Soon the treadmill stopped at an out cove, manned by one of the masked guards Marco recognized from when that one princess tried to steal Star's face. As Marco was about to leave, the guard spoke up saying, "Welcome to Saint Olga's Reform School for Wayward Princesses, and branch of interdimensional law regulation." Seeing the bag on Marco's shoulder, the guard asked, "Dropping off or picking up?"

"Just passing through." Marco was about to open another portal when he turned back and asked, "Excuse me, but did you say interdimensional law regulation?" When the guard nodded, Marco continued and asked, "Could you see if my request has gone through yet, should be under Diaz, Marco."

Marco waited a few moments as the guard typed on his keyboard. "Here it is, the request went through a while ago, the timer will start once you are back in your home dimension."

After hearing this, Marco, nodded his thanks before opening another portal and stepping through. However, unknown to Marco, another person had witnessed his talk with the guard and as they saw Marco leave, thought, 'I don't know what Earth turd was doing here, but I've got to tell B-fly about this.'

As Marco exited the portal, he found himself in a dimension filled with fire and brimstone. As he began skating, he thought to himself, 'Okay, I have no idea where I'm at. Oh well, a walk here should delay anyone coming after me for long enough.' Noticing Jackie's movement's inside the bag had become much more subdued, he thought, 'I hope Jackie's alright, the bubble spell should have created a pocket of water for her to be comfortable in.' What Marco didn't know was that Jackie had stopped focusing on the ropes of her arms and tail and instead was trying to bite through the gag. She hoped she could talk to Marco and try to figure out what this crazy plan was, or at the very least be able to bite a hole in the bag.

Marco was so lost in his thoughts that he didn't notice someone walking in front of him until they collided. "Watch where you're going you idiot. Oh, it's you. What are you doing here human?" Marco looked up to see a purplish-pink skinned teenage boy with red hair, horns, and three red eyes wearing a torn red t-shirt with a star and torn green shorts.

Getting up, Marco began to skate away as he called over his shoulder, "I don't have time to mess with you today Tom, see ya."

As Marco skated away, Tom called after him, "You're lucky my life coach advised me to let go of past grudges Diaz, I'm still mad about what you did at the ball! If you hadn't spilled punch on my tux I would have had a dance with Star!"

By now Marco had already opened up a portal, but called over his shoulder, "The spot light thing didn't choose anyone this year, you didn't have a chance with Star and you still don't!" as he exited the dimension.

As Tom was plotting his vengeance, he recalled that Marco had a large bag over his shoulder. 'That human wouldn't, would he?' The teen demon then smirked viciously as he thought, 'Doesn't matter, I just need a small portion of the truth to tell Star. Once she knows what her precious human is doing, she'll come back to me.' Tom then had to fight the urge to laugh manically, his life coach had advised him to tone down the evil just slightly so as not to attract unwanted attention.

Skating out of the portal, Marco was once more in a depressing dimension, only instead of fire and brimstone, Marco was surrounded by high cliffs and darkness. Once more Marco had no idea where the portal had taken him, but figured it out once he saw a red skinned, two headed, horned monster smashing rocks together.

'Ludo's dimension, I just can't get a break with this thing can I?' As soon as that thought passed, Marco got another idea popped into Marco's head, 'Wait, when I tried helping Lobster Claws he said he could never show his face on Mewni again, does Ludo live on Mewni?' Marco answered his own question when he saw a familiar castle in the distance. As he skated toward the "light side" of the dimension, Marco called over his shoulder, "You okay back their Jackie?" In response he heard some water swishing around and a muffled answer. Taking it to be something positive instead of another threat, Marco said, "Great, now let's get out of here."

King Butterfly was out in the woods monster hunting. Yes, he had promised his daughter that he would look into trying to help her friend rescue his mermaid princess, and he had been doing that for over an hour. He had found one answer besides war, but it was hardly a perfect solution. A king could only take so much stress before it started to affect how he ruled his kingdom. Leaving the task to his trusted aid Manfred, the king snuck out of the castle to do some light tracking.

Imagine his surprise when he saw a red streak past by in the corner of his eye. Standing stock still, King Butterfly slowly rotated his head to get a better look at this mysterious beast, only to see it was a boy wearing a strange red jacket. When the boy turned to face the concealed king, King Butterfly was shocked to see it was Marco, he had meet the boy briefly at one time or another. 'He couldn't be doing that could he?' the king questioned himself as he watched the boy disappear into another portal. Once he was alone, King Butterfly muttered to himself, "I better tell Star about this."

As Marco opened the latest portal, he thought, 'That should be good enough, time to get home.' When he used the scissors, he concentrated on returning to Earth. When he skated through the portal, he went a couple of feet before running into a wall. After the ringing in his ear stopped. Marco looked around to see that was in a small village, most likely somewhere in Europe.

"Just where am I?" the boy questioned aloud, surprised when he got an answer.

"You're in Arendelle." Marco didn't see anyone until a the same voice said, "Down here." When Marco looked down, he was shocked to see a small, talking snowman that wasn't melting in the heat due to a small snow storm above it's head. "Hi, I'm Olaf, I like warm hugs."

"Hi, I'm Marco," 'and somehow I feel like I should be more surprised by this.'

Olaf then noticed the bag, with movement inside due to Jackie renewing her struggle, over Marco's shoulder and asked, "What's in there?"

Marco took a second before he responded by saying, "Something very close to my heart that I hold dear." Taking out the borrowed scissors, Marco opened up another portal, this time concentrating on America, and said, "By Olaf, it was nice meeting you." before he skated through.

"Bye Marco, bye Marco's moving sack." After Marco had disappeared, Olaf said aloud, "I should tell Elsa and Anna about my new friend."

The good news was that the portal Marco opened took him to the United States. The bad news was that it opened on the roof of a tall building. Marco was too going too fast and was too close to the edge to stop, resulting in him, Jackie, and his board falling off the roof. Marco was in free fall for perhaps five seconds before something grabbed the back of his hoodie in one hand and his board in the other, somehow Marco had managed to keep a hold on his bag.

"Easy there kid, I've got you." Looking up, Marco saw what could only be described as a red and yellow metal man. Once they were safely on the ground, the man began to give a lecture to Marco, "Now I hope you realize how stupid it is to be skating on the roofs."

"Yes sir, it won't happen again sir." Marco had decided to just play along and get away quickly and open up another portal. Unfortunately, it was at this moment that Jackie was able to bite through her gag.

"Marco Diaz, you let me out of this bag this instant! If you think I'm going to develop Stockholm syndrome you have another thing coming!"

Neither Marco or the metal man moved, until the man said, "Marco was it? Why don't you do us both a favor and open the bag." In response, Marco chuckled nervously before he started skating down an alleyway. The metal man only shook his head as he muttered, "They always choose to run. Jarvis, do a search on "Marco Diaz" and see if he is related to any recently reported kidnappings." The metal man then flew to the other end of the ally and seeing that Marco had taken out a pair of scissors asked, "Didn't your mother ever tell you not to skate with," however he had to stop himself as Marco opened another portal, "scissors?" the metal man weakly finished as Marco disappeared.

"Sir," a voice inside the metal man's helmet said, "I have located several individuals named "Marco Diaz", but none match the physical description of our kidnapper and none have any prior criminal recorder."

The metal man just nodded his head slowly, staring at the air where the boy that didn't exist had disappeared. "Jarvis, do a new search on dimensional portal openings and call the rest of the team for me would ya?"

Marco knew it was stupid to open a portal right in front of the metal man, but he didn't have any other choice. This time he focused on land west of the Mississippi river. As seemed to be the common theme for the day, or was it night?, Marco soon encountered a problem with this new dimension, that being a tree right in front of his path. The crash was unavoidable, leaving Marco's hand slightly injured. Marco was beginning to question how he would get the hang of dimension jumping when a voice got his attention.

Standing in front of the teen were five kids, maybe around eight years old. He noted that he was in a fenced back yard of a yellow house. Not catching what he was asked the first time, Marco said, "I'm sorry I didn't get that, could you repeat it?"

The first boy to his left, a red head with an interestingly shaped head, replied, "I asked if you were okay, you hit our tree pretty hard."

"Yeah I'm fine, I wore my helmet," Marco gave a quick knock on his helmet, "I just tore up my hand a bit." Faster than he expected, the lone girl of the group was at his side and bandaging up his cut. "Wow, that was fast."

"Of course, a Fireside girl is always prepared."

Marco didn't know what a Fireside girl was, but figured it was something like a Girl Scout. While he was preoccupied with this thought, and with the girl finished bandaging his hand, he didn't notice her start walking toward his bag, which contained a slightly dazed Jackie.

"Hey, what's in here?"

"No don't open that!" But before Marco could act the girl had already untied the bag. Some water leaked out as Jackie's head appeared out of the bag, her mermaid features on full display.

"Thanks kid, it was getting stuffy in there."

While the kids were too shocked to reach, Marco quickly took action. After quickly saying, "Sorry about this Jackie," Marco gently pushed her head back into the bag and tied it shut. He then opened another portal and exited the dimension before anyone could say or do anything.

"We just saw a mermaid, scientifically that should be impossible." the Indian boy of the group said.

"We've been to outer space multiple times, had a 32 hour long day, and proved the existence of a living old timey swimsuit. I think a mermaid is par for the course." the group's bulky boy responded.

"Hmmm, that looked like an inter-dimensional portal. Is anyone else getting déjà vu?" the red head asked. After everyone nodded their head, the boy turned to the last member of the group, who somehow possessed green hair, and said, "Ferb I know what we're going to do today." After a short pause a teenage girl form inside the house called out, "Hey have any of you seen Perry, it's time for his vet appointment."

Marco was seriously started to question his luck, or maybe his karma got screwed up when he kidnapped Jackie. Either way, he focused on the west coast when he opened the newest portal. Instead of skating out onto a beach, Marco was surrounded by woods. 'This isn't California,' the boy thought, 'this looks more like Oregon.'

Before he could think about anything else, Marco ran over a decent sized rock, causing him to wreck. While Marco got his chin rubbed, his bag was sent flying forward. Due to his hasty tie job in the last dimension, Jackie soon came rolling out of the bag. Upon seeing this, Marco instantly got up and ran to her as he asked, "Jackie are you alright?"

"Oh, so know you care about my wellbeing?" the mermaid asked as she glared at Marco.

"What are you talking about, I've always cared."

"Really?" Jackie rolled her eyes before she continued, "Since when is kidnapping a gesture of endearment?"

"You didn't want to be there, we both know it."

Getting tired of arguing, Jackie yelled, "That doesn't matter! It was my choice to go back and you had now right to force this on me!"

Marco was shocked at how angry Jackie was. Yeah, he didn't expect her to be over the moon at the prospect of him kidnapping her, but he had thought she'd be more neutral about it and just go with the flow. "You're right," Marco finally admitted after a long silence, "it was your choice to go back, but it was my fault that you needed to make that choice." Hearing the remorse in Marco's voice, Jackie temporarily forgot about her rage. "It was probably the visit that me and Star took that tipped your father off about you being on Earth," Marco continued, his voice full of sorrow, "if I had fought a bit harder and didn't have a knife about to slit my throat open, you wouldn't have to go back to save my life."

After Marco's speech, the air between the two was silent before Marco let out a great sigh. "I actually do have a plan about how to fix this, but looking at it now I have to admit that it's half assed and has a very small chance of actually working. But what's worse," here Marco stared directly into Jackie's eyes, "is that I didn't even ask if this is what you wanted." Standing up, Marco made Jackie an offer, "If you want to go home, I'll stop all of this and take you back to your room."

Jackie was silent before she let out her own sigh of frustration. She had been ready to tear into Marco, but then he goes and says something like that. "Well, it does seem like you actually put some thought into this, so let's compromise. Untie me and then let's see how this whole kidnapping thing plays out." Marco quickly nodded his answer before he untied Jackie arm's and tail. After getting the mermaid back into the bag, with her head sticking out and her arms wrapped around Marco's neck, Marco opened up another portal, this time focusing on California.

While all of this was occurring, three twelve year olds saw everything from a nearby hill. The lone boy of the group, who had brown hair and wore and orange shirt with a blue hooded vest and a blue and white baseball hat, said, "Am I crazy or did that guy just appear out of a portal."

One of the girls, who could possible be his twin and wore a large sweater with a pine tree pattern knitted into it, replied, "You're not crazy bro-bro, and it sounds like he kidnapped that mermaid. We've got to help her, she might now were Mermando is."

Before the two twins could go charging down the hill, the other girl, a blond wearing a lavender dress, a purple jacket, black leggings, and brown boots, grabbed them by the back of their shirt and sweater. "Oh no you don't. I agreed to hang out with you two in the woods today as long as we didn't chase after anything supernatural. Besides," the blond pointed to Marco untying Jackie's arms, "it looks like they worked it out. Let's leave them alone."

The two twins reluctantly followed, although the boy pulled a worn journal from his vest pocket. 'Now let's see what the author wrote about portals.'

Marco seemed to be getting the hang of the scissors. Exiting out of the portal in an ally way, Marco looked around to see several tall buildings. At first he thought he was in San Francisco, but didn't remember the city having so many blimps. Jackie seemed to have similar thoughts as she said, "I think we're on the wrong Earth." and pointed to a parked bus that read, "CITY OF SAN FRANSOKYO." After a moment of silence, Jackie asked, "Back in the bag?"

"Back in the bag." Marco confirmed. Once Jackie was safely concealed, Marco started Skating out of the ally and began looking for an ideal place to open another portal. After several minutes of skating, and trying to figure out what he should think about for his next portal, what could only be described as a large, white, walking beach ball stepped out of an ally in front of Marco. Thankfully, the object seemed to be mostly air and Marco was uninjured.

"I apologize for that," the walking beach ball said, "I am Baymax, your personal healthcare companion."

Before Marco could reply, a dark haired boy around Marco's age ran out of the ally telling the beach ball, "Baymax, I told you that you can't just walk off alone like that." Turing to Marco, the boy said, "Sorry about him, I just updated his programing and he is a little curious. I'm Hiro by the way."

"Marco, and it's alright, no one got hurt."

While the two boys were having a short chat, Baymax scanned Marco to be sure he had not caused the boy any injuries. The scan showed only a minor skin abrasion that had already received treatment, but what caught the robot's attention was what he had accidently scanned.

"Hiro," the robot said to gain the boy's attention, "the lifeform inside Marco's bag does not match any entry in my biology database."

"Wait, what?" Hiro asked as he turned to face his robot. Sensing trouble, Marco took the opportunity to open another portal, this time focusing on high school. By the time Hiro turned back around, Marco was gone. "Baymax, what happened?"

"When you turned around the boy, Marco, pulled out a pair of scissors and opened what appeared to be a portal."

After a moment of silence to reflect what Baymax had said, Hiro sighed and began to rub his temples as he said, "Could you call the gang? Maybe Wasabi or Honey Lemon can figure this out."

The portal opened up in a regular high school hallway, however as it was inside Marco knew that they weren't in Echo Creek. Seeing no one was around, Marco called over his shoulder, "I think we're alone, you can come out of the bag." before he started skating around.

"Thanks," Jackie said as her head and arms popped out of the bag, "it's a little disorientating in there. Any idea where we're at?"

"No clue." Marco then remembered something Jackie had said earlier in their journey. Smiling, he said, "You know I think it's pretty easy to get Stockholm syndrome when you already like your kidnapper."

Jackie blushed as she asked, "Wh-what are you talking about Marco?"

Marco chuckled slightly before he said, "Janna told me everything before I went to grab you."

Jackie was silent for a moment before Marco felt her anger, he was just glad it wasn't directed at him. "Of course she did," Jackie ranted, "when we get home I am going to bite her head off!"

"Literally or metaphorically?" Marco asked.

Jackie shrugged her shoulders as she said, "I haven't decided yet." Marco would have responded, but before he could speak a mob of students started running around him, too scared to notice the mermaid on his back. Curious as to what was going on, Marco looked to Jackie and in silent agreement, the two decided to check it out.

When Marco rounded the corner, he saw a teen his age wearing a black and red ninja suit with a long red scarf fighting against a large, plant like monster. Gently setting Jackie down, Marco said, "I've got to help." Jackie nodded her head and said, "I figured you would." She then quickly grabbed Marco's head and pulled it down so she could give the boy a quick kiss. After releasing Marco and seeing his blush, she said, "For luck." Marco nodded his head as he skated into the fight.

He arrived just in time as the monster used one of it's tentacles to trip the ninja and was about to deliver an overhead strike only for Marco to do a handstand and block the tentacle with his board. The ninja nodded his thanks as he said, "That was pretty bruce, but you should probably get out of here now."

In response, Marco set his board down and said, "Where I come from, I tend to fight a few monsters from time to time," 'although their usually a lot smaller.' he finished in his mind as he settled into his karate stance.

After the ninja got to his feet, the duo continued the fight, dodging attacks and launching quick counters. This pattern continued for about five minutes until the monster wrapped Marco up in several tentacles. Then ninja saw this happen and quickly yelled out, "Ninja Rings!" as he threw three small bladed discs, which cut the tentacles off of the monster's body. As Marco regained his footing he commented, "That has got to hurt."

"Oh don't worry, she'll be fine when she de-stanks."

"Wait, you know who that is?" Marco asks.

"Well yeah, all the monsters here are just students who are possessed."

"So then how do we de-possess them?" Marco asked.

"You have to destroy what they hold most dear, usually for her it's a twirling baton." Marco quickly noted that there wasn't a baton present.

"Well that's stupid," Jackie called from the sidelines, "if you just destroy something they'll replace it. Does she have a boyfriend?" the ninja shook his head no, "Does she have a guy she likes?" the ninja nodded his head as he blocked a tentacle, "Does he like her back?"

The ninja scratched the back of his head as he said, "I think he does."

"Then go get him so he can calm her down!" Jackie commanded.

The ninja looked at Jackie for a second before turning to Marco and asking, "And just who is she?"

"Just do it!" Marco yelled as he ducked under a tentacle. "She tends to be right about things." The ninja nodded before pulling something out from behind his back and throwing it to the ground with a cry of, "SMOKE BOMB!"

Marco coughed as the smelly cloud dissipated, "That really does stink."

Unfortunately, while Marco was distracted, the monster took the opportunity to pounce. With Marco pinned to the ground, he could do nothing as the monster roared in his face. The boy thought he was a goner before he heard a voice say, "Theresa?"

Turning the corner was a teenage boy with purple hair wearing a red shirt with a single white stripe and a dark hoodie. Marco had no idea who this guy was, but apparently the monster did as it, or rather she, said, "Randy?"

Slowly moving forward, Randy said, "Theresa, you need to calm down."

That was the wrong thing to say as Theresa only got angrier, and griped Marco harder, as she said, "Randy doesn't like me!"

"No, no, no," Randy quickly said as he waved his arms, "look you heard me at a bad time. Howard found out that I like you and wouldn't stop being a shoob about it and I was getting tired of it. I ended up saying something that I didn't mean, and you heard it."

Theresa seemed to relax as her grip on Marco lessened to the extent that he could slip away. Theresa wasn't paying attention to him as all of her focus was on Randy as she asked in a voice full of hope, "Randy likes Theresa?"

Randy took another step forward as he said, "Yes, I do."

"Randy like Theresa!" the monster exclaimed as she rushed forward. As the plant-like creature jumped in the air, a fog of green smoke emitted from it's body. Once the smoke dissipated, the monster was replaced by a teenage girl with short purple hair wearing what was remarkably similar to an Echo Creek High cheerleader uniform. The girl sailed through the air before she collided with Randy, the impact sending them both into the nearest wall. Neither teen seemed to mind much as they were currently in the midst of making-out.

Marco quickly collected his skateboard and walked back to Jackie. After picking her up, the boy started to skate away as Jackie asked, "Should we really just leave them there?"

Marco waved off her question and said, "They'll be fine, that guy is the ninja I was fighting alongside earlier." Seeing the question on his crush's face, Marco said, "It's a martial arts thing." before he opened his next, and hopefully last, portal.

Even with most of his mind preoccupied, Randy was able to see the flash of color out of the corner of his eye. 'Guess I'll have to see what the Nomicon has on portals, I need to thank those two for earlier and for now.'

(A/N If anyone gets all those references and knows what they all have in common, they can help themselves to a virtually cookie, I hope I mad enough. (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::).)

As Marco exited the portal, he found that he was in front of the gym where he and Jackie had had their "date."

"Yes, finally, we're home." Marco almost yelled as he didn't want to wake anyone up. Despite it being day in almost every dimension he travelled to, it was still the middle of the night in Echo Creek.

"Good," Jackie yawned as she slid back into the bag, "wake me up when we stop."

Marco absentmindedly nodded to Jackie's request as he skated home. Once there, he quietly snuck up the stairs to Stars room. After putting the pair of scissors where they belong, he then walked to the second story, and with the assistance of a ladder, tried to put Jackie in Star's large salt-water aquarium. However, Jackie woke up in the process and used all her weight to force Marco off the ladder, then pinned him to the ground. "I can't believe you!" Jackie whispered-yelled, not wanting to wake up Star. "You go through all the trouble of kidnapping me, getting me to trust you, just to put me on display, you're no better than my parents!"

"I'm only following the rules," Marco hastily replied, "and it's not like I want to do this, but however slim the chance someone could track us through all the portals. I planned on having you wear this," Marco pulled Jackie's old necklace out of his jacket pocket, "since you said you used it to hide before. However, you said it doesn't give you legs in salt-water, this is the only tank that I know big enough. It's that or walk around in only your seashell bra."

Jackie could see the logic in Marco's statement, and the remorse in his eyes for putting her in the tank. Releasing a groan, Jackie said, "Fine, but you aren't allowed to enjoy this and we never speak of it."

After getting Jackie in the tank, Marco asked, "Is there anything special you want for breakfast tomorrow?"

Jackie didn't hesitate as she said, "Scrambled eggs, ham, bacon, some sausage, and a waffle." Seeing the wide eyes that Marco was giving her, Jackie asked, "What? Is the waffle too much?"

Marco shook his head before saying, "No, it's just that's a lot of meat."

"What do you expect?" Jackie countered as she flashed Marco a smile showing off her pointed teeth, "I do have a lot of shark in me after all."

Marco only nodded his head before he started walking to his own room for some well deserved rest.

And so ends chapter 4 of The Runaway with 18 pages.

This is usually the spot where I have some questions that highlight small bits of foreshadowing I have in my story, but as I'm planning to upload the conclusion the same day I post this chapter, I really don't think that's necessary. Instead I'm going to explain why everyone is going to be treated to an extra chapter.

Due to various things happening in my life, it's taken me almost a little over month to write what was originally going to be the last chapter. I already knew where I wanted to take this story, but as I wrote the page count just kept getting longer and longer. I'm fine with having an incredibly long chapter, but only if it is of a similar length to other chapters of the story. When I finished writing this chapter it was sitting at over forty pages, way too much. So I made the choice to split the chapter.

Am I forgetting something? Oh right, the announcement. I'm going to have a little contest that spans all of my stories published so far. I'm not going to say that much about it, but I will give my readers of this story a little hint. In each of my stories I've hidden a little something, an Easter Egg if you will. For more details about this contest, please wait patiently until my next update of Son of the Sun or A New Realm.

With all that said, here's acw28 saying, "until next update." (or until you hit that "next" button)