"Oh my gosh! I can't wait! I can't wait! My very first pep rally!" I exclaimed, seated beside Marco in the bleachers at school. "I am so exited!"

"And what is a 'pep rally' exactly?" interjected Ruberiot.

"It's like a big, school wide party! The whole point is to get everyone excited for some event." explained Star. "This time it was for a sport."

"When aren't you excited?" asked Marco.

"Shhh!" I told him, placing my finger on his lips. There was no room for that kind of negativity at the pep rally. Principal Skeeves had arrived and was getting ready to speak, it was starting.

"And now, Brittney Wong! Who became head cheerleader on her own and not because her dad made a generous donation to the school!"

After a ball bounced off the principal's head, the cheerleaders came rushing onto the field chanting "Go Echo Creek! Let's try not to get beat!" repeatedly. Carried aloft by some of the members was a girl who looked thoroughly bored with the whole affair. How anyone could be bored at this awesome pep rally, I'll never know.

Using the people who carried her like stairs, the girl, who I assumed was Britteny, walked over to Principal Skeeves and snatched the microphone from his hand before speaking into it. "Make some noise if you love the Awesome Opossums!"

I leapt up with a gasp and screamed "I love opossums! They carry their babies on their backs." Satisfied, I sat back down next to Marco.

"You know she's talking about our football team right?" asked Marco before shuddering and continuing his explanation "We're going up against the Warriors."

"Warriors?"

"Our rivals from Silver Hill Prep" explained Alphonso from the other side of Marco.

"Every year, their team slaughters our guys" continued Marco.

"It's gonna be a bloodbath" Ms. Skullnick added.

"Oh my, that sounds quite unfortunate for your schoolmates, to lose so many friends each year." Said Ruberiot.

"Yeah, that was my thought too. I wanted to help change that" Star said, hiding a smile at Ruberiot's nostalgic misunderstanding.

"That's terrible! We must do something." I said, determined to keep Marco from losing any more friends and to restore the honor of the school.

"Well, you could join the spirit committee" suggested Marco, helpful as always. "Those kids are relentless when it comes to supporting the team."

I looked away from Marco to observe the spirit committee out on the field as they cheered on the school's team. He wasn't wrong, they just didn't stop trying to get everyone excited. They seemed like my kind of people.

"What a great idea! We better pick up some supplies." I grabbed Marco and started to drag him with me. Oddly enough, Marco stayed seated.

"As fun as that sounds, you can go without me."

I contemplated his words for a brief moment, a little sad he wasn't coming with me. The feeling soon passed as it was overridden by my excitement for the upcoming engagement. With a short "Okay!" I took off to prepare.

"Hey Skullsy, what's your favorite weapon?" I asked our teacher as I left.

"Battleaxe."

As I ran through the building towards the spirit committee's room, I passed a case full of pictures dedicated to the school's losses in football. I stopped for a moment to pay my respects.

"So many brave young men. So many tragic losses" I said, tears in my eyes. With a gentle breath, I fogged up a small portion of the glass and drew a sad face on it, in remembrance of what had been lost. Seeing such a display had only strengthened my resolve, I couldn't not let what happened so many times in the past happen again.

Suddenly, I noticed Marco next to me, back pressed up against the case. He was smart, a good fighter and knew of the past encounters with the enemy, surely he could provide some insight on how we might be victorious.

"Oh Marco" I sighed, turning to him for guidance. Apparently he had not seen me as he walked up. With a yell, Marco leapt back before losing his balance and tumbling to the ground.

Reaching down to pick him up I asked "How can we prevent another tragic loss to our team?"

"Well, if I knew anything about football, I'd use the element of surprise."

"Of course, of course, of course."

"Spritz 'em! Bring out the kitty cat offence!" Marco had become animated in his explanation, not only giving out great ideas, but reinforcing them with his hand gestures.

"Yes!"

Maybe even throw a couple of big bombs!"

"Bombs!" How could I have missed those, Marco was so good at this. I figured I might have to keep him around if for nothing else than his military prowess. It really was a shame he didn't want to help me on this mission, together we would have been an unstoppable couple.

"Yeah, I've gotta go tell that to the spirit committee. Bye!" I took off running to the room the spirit committee was in again. After seeing the memorial and speaking with Marco, I knew we could with this year.

"And did you?" interrupted Ruberiot.

"Oh don't worry, this story has quite the ending, you'll see" Star explained, knowing Ruberiot would be pleased with the outcome of the story.

I quickly arrived at the gymnasium where the spirit committee was holding practice and kicked open the doors. Rushing in I saw some of them holding blobs that looked like potential throwing weapons. Remembering what Marco had said about bombs I stalked over and grabbed one.

"Do these explode?" I asked as I examined the item. I identified what looked like the pin and pulled it, throwing the blob as I did so. It hit one of the other members in the face, but didn't explode. Lucky me, in my haste I had forgotten to look where I was aiming. Grabbing a second blob, I charged magic into my wand and said "Maybe we can set them on fire."

"Uh, we're kind of in the middle of something!"

I knew the voice immediately, it was the leader of the spirit committee from the pep rally. She would know the group's military strength. Turning, I pointed my wand at her as I prepared to get caught up to speed.

"You're the leader! What's the plan?"

She laughed at me before she began her explanation. "This year, we have a secret weapon." Snapping her fingers, two other girls walked up behind her and they all started dancing as she continued. "We're gonna distract them with our booty shaking dance moves."

As I watched, I felt my face redden as I imagined doing a dance like theirs, especially with Marco watching. Snapping out of it, I yelled at the dancers, "Do you know nothing of combat? No warrior is gonna be distracted by Chantelle's booty!" I gestured to the least impressive dancer.

"Lucky for you, my mom assigned the royal guards as my babysitters" I explained confidently.

"Wait a second, she did what?" asked Ruberiot.

"Oh yeah, she was always super busy, so she routinely left me with the guards" explained Star. "One time, I was with one of them and he took my doll to show me how to kill something. I remember his words clearly. He told me You know you've done it right, when you hear the neck snap. He then twisted the head off of my doll."

"Really? And you kept going back?"

"Why wouldn't I? I loved it and wanted them to show me more!"

"That might explain a lot" murmured Ruberiot to himself.

"What?"

"Nothing, continue with the story, I'm curious about the upcoming battle" said Ruberiot.

"I know on Planet 'Mooni' or wherever it is you are from, it may be okay to be stupid, but no pesky, magical foreigner is gonna question my leadership! You are officially banned from the spirit committee!" yelled Brittney, suddenly angry.

"Fine!" I had no idea what had gotten her so upset, I was trying to offer the help of a warrior princess who had been raised by warriors. Nonetheless, I knew her and her group would be useless in the coming battle. I said to myself, "Looks like it's all up to me."

"Okay! Thanks for coming out!" suddenly blasted through my head. Brittney had gotten a megaphone and spoke directly into my ear. "Come back, never!" she continued as I stalked off.

I wandered the school, looking for allies and weapons, finding neither. I was still a little bummed about missing my greatest ally, Marco, when I came upon a dumpster. I walked up to it, hoping for inspiration. In the bottom of the dumpster were 4 mangy cats, bringing my general's words to mind.

"You guys ready to be part of my kitty cat offence?" I asked, leaning in closer. They seemed uninterested and continued eating whatever it was they had. I however, was not about to be dissuaded, Marco's advice was not to be taken lightly. "Fine. Then I guess we gotta do this the hard way."

Climbing up onto the edge, I threw myself into the dumpster with a battle cry of "Kitty!"

The battle was fierce. They did not want to cooperate, and I could not hurt them too badly if I planned to use them in the upcoming battle. With much yowling, we shook the dumpster as I wrangled the cats. One of them even tried to escape before I pulled it back in and busted out my magic, finally getting them under control.

By this time, school was over and I need to take the cats to Marco's home for the next step of my plan. After dropping the cats off, I went out to gather more animals. At one point I was crawling along a hanging cable when I noticed the light in Marco's room was on.

"Marco!" I shrieked to get his attention. When he arrived, I had a squirrel by the tail and a question on my lips. "Hey Marco! Do you have any highly flammable liquids?"

"I don't know. Check the garage."

"Cool, thanks!" I just knew he was going to love my plan. With a smile I dropped from the cable, bringing the squirrel with me as I went to the garage.

Once all of the preparations were made at Marco's home, I transported the animals to the battlefield and finished my preparations. After setting everything up, I went off to get changed into my armor. By the time I finished changing, everyone had arrived and it looked like things were about to get started. I went to find Marco to regroup beforehand.

I let out a war cry as I came up behind him and Ferguson. I didn't think they looked dressed for war, especially Marco, but I was not about to question Earth combat strategies. They had already proven strange enough as it was. With a scream, both boys leapt back from me and fell down.

"Who's ready for a bloody, bloody, bloodbath?" I asked, slamming my mace into the ground and laughing.

"What's with that crazed look in your eyes?" asked Marco as he stood back up.

"What do you mean?" I was seeing red and was ready to get started.

"Watch Ferguson, I need to talk to princess cuckoo-pants." Marco grabbed my wrist and started to drag me off somewhere quieter.

"Okay Star, what are you up to?"

"Exactly what you said." With a grunt I lifted my mace onto my shoulder and smiled. "I booby trapped the battlefield."

"What?" screamed Marco as he realized what I had done. Apparently there had been a mistake.

I saw him take another look at the battlefield that lay before us, now noticing all of my cleverly hidden traps. "Star! The warriors weren't actually going to kill our team! They were just gonna beat them in football! Which is a game!"

"Uh oh" said Ruberiot, "I think I know where this is going."

"Quite, I made the same mistake you did Ruberiot" Star explained, "Only I actually did something. Really 'Starred' that one up."

"If it makes you feel better, I would have done much the same."

"You only say that because you don't yet know what a magical princess on a warpath can do. But don't worry, you are about to find out."

My confident smile slowly turned into a frown, Marco was yelling, that was how I knew I had royally messed up. Before I could even start to fix my mistake, the starting whistle blew and the players started running to the ball. The ball that was placed on a magical land mine.

When the enemy team kicked the ball, it set off the mine. A rainbow explosion engulfed the Warriors as the ball sailed through the air. When the Opossums caught the ball, they started screaming and took off running. It was only a short time until the spectators panicked as well.

Looking around, I saw my traps doing exactly what I had set them up to do. One player was getting dragged into a swirling portal, his fingers leaving furrows in the ground as he tried to resist its pull. As he got sucked in, I saw one of the spirit committee run across another land mine and was sent soaring in another rainbow explosion.

"Oh no, everything is going according to plan" I said, starting to freak out.

The referee ran across the field, blowing his whistle before falling over a tripwire. With a puff of smoke, the ground raised to reveal a pit I had dug underneath. From the hole burst forth my masterpieces. I had magically enhanced the creatures I had spent the afternoon gathering. There were man eating moths and glowing squirrels, both many times larger than normal on Earth.

Then, in a burst of flame, 3 hellcats leapt forth. I had modified the mangy cats from the dumpster into enormous, flaming, three eyed beasts of war.

"Let me guess, the kitty cat offence?" asked Marco.

All I could do was smile and laugh nervously. Yeah, he was upset. In fact he seemed like he had gone past upset, like Mom sometimes does. Suffice to say, I was in big trouble.

"We have to do something!" yelled Marco as we watched the chaos that had engulfed the field.

Marco took off running to help some people who were being chased by a giant squirrel while I looked around to see who needed help the most. After a quick moment of indecision I took off running, barely remembering to grab my mace and take it with me.

Marco made it behind the squirrel, intent on capturing its prey before Marco stomped on its tail. When the squirrel fell over, Marco leapt over it and assumed a fighting pose. Before the squirrel could attack, Marco kicked it three times and sent it flying.

I had run over to help keep another player from getting sucked into the portal I had made. Out of the corner of my eye as I was pulling him out though, I saw Marco get jumped from behind by the squirrel. With a cry, I took off running to help.

"Uh, what about the person in the portal?" asked Ruberiot.

"In my haste to help Marco, I completely forgot about him and let go." Replied Star bashfully.

As I ran towards Marco, I slammed my mace into the ground, using that to launch myself into the air. Nearing the top of my jump I transformed my mace back into my wand and aiming at the squirrel cast a spell on it.

"Mending, Heart Hurricane!" I shouted, unleashing the magic upon the beast. When it was struck by the magic, the giant, magical squirrel broke apart into multiple Earth squirrels who sat stunned on the ground. After a short pause, they all scattered except one that continued to gnaw on Marco's head for a short time before running off as well.

Suddenly, the spirit committee rushed past us. Brittney came from behind them, shoving people out of her way. Soon she had tossed the rest of the spirit committee aside and was running free, until a giant ground dragon burst forth from beneath her. It snatched her up in its jaws before tossing her into the air and swallowing her whole. As unhelpful and rude as she had been earlier, I still knew I needed to go save her.

"Mending, Heart Hurricane!" I cast again, this time at the dragon. When it was struck by the spell, the dragon burst apart into the hundreds of bugs I had used to make it. Brittney dropped to the ground with them.

Turning, I saw Marco engage the hellcats. Leaping from behind two that were stalking some of the Warriors, he jumped and kicked both cats in the head. As the third ran up from behind him, I readied a spell in case he didn't see it. My concern, as it usually is, was unneeded. Marco turned to face the beast and kicked it away when it pounced at him.

However, things took a turn for the worse as the cats regrouped and charged. As Marco got ready to engage them, two more of the giant squirrels came up from behind him. I leapt into action, the spell already prepared from earlier.

"Nuclear, Heart Healing, Hurricane!" I shouted as I leapt to where Marco stood. The magic discharged around us in a flash. When the light faded, all that were left were the mangy cats and normal Earth squirrels I had started with, all of whom quickly scattered.

With those taken care of Marco and I started rounding up the rest of the creatures that were on the field. After one such fix, we hear a voice call out to us. Turning, we saw Ferguson running towards us from across the field.

"Hey! Marco! You were right! They were trying to kidnap me!"

"Ferguson! Get off the field!"

"What? I can't hear you through all the explosions" screamed Ferguson, blissfully unaware of the danger he was in. Then he stepped on a mine. It exploded with a blast of hearts, covering Ferguson in orange smoke. When the smoke cleared, Ferguson was laying on the ground, unmoving.

"Ferguson!" Marco yelled as he ran to Ferguson's body and pulling him into a hug. "No buddy! I'm sorry! I failed you. Forgive me."

"Dude, I was just playing opossum!" said Ferguson as he snapped his eyes open and smiled.

"Huh?"

"It's what we do!"

"You're alive!" Marco's face of relief quickly transformed into anger however and he started shaking Ferguson roughly. "This is why you only have two friends!"

Fortunately the last of my spells wore off at that point and all the portals on the field vanished. Doubly lucky, the Warriors who had been sucked into them came crawling out of pits in the field.

"I really messed up" I said to myself as I surveyed the battlefield.

"You mean WE really messed up." Marco's voice came from behind me and I turned to see him timidly approach. He placed a hand on my shoulder and explained "I should have been watching out for you."

I smiled at him, thankful for his kindness and reassurance. He had really helped alleviate my stress from the incident in a way only he knew how.

"Let's get out of here!" came a cry from behind us, ruining the moment. Turning, Marco and I saw all of the Warriors pile into their bus before taking off into the night.

"Hey, they just forfeited. We win!" exclaimed one of our players.

After a brief moment, all of the spectators who were still hiding in the now ruined stands jumped to their feet and cheered as the football team danced with joy. Running over, they lifted Marco and I onto their shoulders in thanks. I got caught up in the moment and forgetting my mistake for a brief time joined in the cheering.

Then, the weirdest feeling came over me. Chewing on my wand thoughtfully I spoke aloud to myself, "Huh, why do I have this weird feeling I'm forgetting something?"

At that moment, a giant bird I had made came swooping in and snatched up Marco. That was it.

I quickly leapt to the ground and took off in pursuit.

"Star!" Marco down called to me.

"Don't worry Marco, I got this!" Taking aim I leapt into the air and aimed at the monster before firing off some magic. ""Mending, Heart Hurricane!" I shouted as I loosed the blast. It hit the monster dead on and it untransformed back into multiple Earth birds.

These birds however were unable to carry Marco and he plummeted towards the ground. Fortunately I managed to catch him in midair where we tumbled to the ground uninjured. Extracting myself from his body, I stood up before helping him rise.

"Thanks Star."

"No problem, you know what we need?" I asked.

"Nachos!" we said in unison, laughing as we turned to head back to Marco's house.