Here's the next chapter! I told ya it would be longer!...though whether It's better than the last one, that's up for you to decide.
I'll try to take my time for the next one, that way maybe the quality will suffer a little less, alongside you XD
So, you know the usual, read and review.
Episode 1: Let the Games Begin!
(Marco's bedroom)
The magical princess rushed across the room, grabbing clothing, food and other stuff she thought could be useful for their journey. Now where did she put it, that's a mystery.
As she did that, Marco watched through the window and saw a good deal of trees outside, alongside what looked like eyes shining in the shadows.
"Star, I know you're excited to get into this game already, but don't you think we should think of a plan instead of heading straight into the battlefield?" Marco said.
Star stopped what she was doing upon hearing his suggestion, slowly turned to him...and chuckled as she put some more stuff in...wherever she was putting it in, before she replied.
"Marco, we don't know if the others have arrived in the game world. And if they have, I don't think they'll be close to this place."
This failed to convince Marco, who scratched the back of his head and looked away worriedly. While Star initially huffed, she soon got an idea, smiling deviously as she sneaked close to Marco's ears and whispered:
"You know, maybe we'll find Jackie during the journey."
Marco immediately got second thoughts and started to look around for what they'd need for their quest, though Star shook her head before she helped the boy.
(Meanwhile, outside the house)
Two more players materialized in the air and hit the ground. These two were Janna and Hope, the latter feeling a bit more pain than the former, who simply scratched her head as she got up.
"Ouch!" Hope exclaimed in pain. "You know, regardless of who sent us here, they could have been a little nicer and teleport us closer to the ground."
However, Janna's attention was quickly catched when she spotted the Diaz household. Upon seeing that, the girl tried to get up, only to feel something heavy around her neck. She took it off and inspected it, discovering it was a wand mostly like Marco, only made out of metal and with a crescent moon-like object.
"Janna, are you listening to me?"
"Let's see, I got a wand with what I assume is a good deal of power, we are near the house of Marco Diaz," and then, as she said the next, Janna took out Marco's house keys and smiled. "And I have his house keys."
"Where did you got them?"
"Snatched them back when Star was going boy crazy."
"...Are you supposed to know that?"
"Who cares? Let's go inside and see what we can find."
Janna ran to the backdoor and searched the keys as Hope remarked, "You know, I feel sorry for Marco. He seems to have a particular bad luck streak some days, I worry that it might make him feel bad or something."
"Hey, it's his own fault for not fighting back!" Janna quickly rebutted. "He needs to man up!"
"Or maybe you need to bitch down." Hope thought with an angry look.
(Back inside the house)
Marco and Star slid down the stairs and went for the door, finding and crashing into Mrs. Diaz in the process. Once the three got up, Marco, surprised to his mother in the game world's version of his house, went to her and put both his hands on her shoulders. "Mom? Is this the real you?"
"Of course, Marco, I'm your mother." Mrs. Diaz replied.
"But-but how?" Marco uttered in disbelief. "I thought the players for this game were chosen already!"
"Oh, I'm not a player, I'm a supporter! Your father and I will give you support from the sidelines." Mrs. Diaz happily replied as she took Marco's hands off her shoulders. "And now that you speak of the game, shouldn't you two go find the other players?"
"But what if anybody comes here looking for me?"
"I'll be fine, I'll have your father by my side."
"But what if they try to kill you?!"
"We'll beat them up before they get the chance."
"But what if-"
That instant, Mrs. Diaz narrowed her eyes and gave Marco and Star a furious look as she stated, in an enraged tone, "Marco Diaz, stop being a worrywart and get going!"
Afraid of what would happen if he angered his mother any further, Marco and Star obeyed and fled the house as the woman watched, but not before greeting goodbye. Once the duo left, Mrs. Diaz closed her eyes and waited patiently as she heard someone break inside the house. Not only that, she heard they were coming closer and closer, though this failed to change her happy attitude.
"Gonna be juuuuuust fine."
And then, out of nowhere, a pistol was pointed at her cheek.
"Oh, look, a gun."
And then the gun was pushed forward as Janna went closer to the woman, who remained happy as the teenager spoke and Hope checked every part of the house. "Hello, Mrs. Diaz." Janna greeted. "Sorry for appearing out of nowhere, but I have to do whatever I can do to get the wands."
She got no response.
"Umm, I'm Janna."
Still no response.
"A classmate of Marco? Stole his house keys once?"
This time, she got a response. "Oh, so you're the reason why Marco was unable to go inside that other day and we had to open the door for him?" Mrs. Diaz recapped before mentally adding, "Little bitch."
"Yeah, but hey, It's not my fault he didn't notice." Janna nonchalantly replied. "If anything, he should make it harder for me to steal his keys next time."
"Big bitch!"
"Anyway, how about you tell me and my partner, Hope, where Marco and his wand is?" The teenager bargained. "If you tell me, we'll let you go without a bullet through your brain. Sounds like a fair deal, don't you think?"
"Janna, Marco's not in the house anymore."
Upon hearing Hope say that, Janna, utterly perplexed at the statement, turned to her and uttered a confused "huh?"
"Marco's not in the house anymore." Hope repeated. "I checked everywhere, even his room, and he's entirely gone. I can't even find a trace to where he could have gone to."
"Of course, he must have realized he was in the game world, so he left as quickly as he could before we materialized so he wouldn't get his ass kicked and his wand taken." Janna guessed. "I got to admit it, he can be a clever bastard sometimes."
"So, are you going to use this gun you're threatening me with, or are you nothing more than a bluffing little whore?" Mrs. Diaz suddenly asked.
Hope gasped in horror and Janna turned to the woman furiously once they heard that. Janna got ready to shoot the fun as she said, "What did you call me?"
"Bluffing-"
"Stop it."
"Little-"
"I'm warning you!"
"Whore!"
The instant the word was uttered, *BANG*, Mrs. Diaz dropped dead into the ground with a hole freshly shot into her cheek as Hope and Janna watched in horror. Specially Janna, who immediately dropped the pistol upon noticing it. The weapon disappeared as Janna looked at the dead body and Hope spoke.
"You killed her! You shot her dead! Why did you do that?!"
"Hey, she called me a bluffing little whore!" Janna retorted. "Besides, I'm just as shocked as you are! I just hope she's better wherever she is."
"Oh, don't worry dearies, I'm gonna be just fine."
Hearing the familiar voice, Janna and Hope turned around to see Mrs. Diaz standing a few feet away from them, her eyes half-opened and a smile plastered across her face. "Did you miss me?"
"But I shot you dead!" Janna exclaimed, pointing at the woman's corpse as she added, "I hate to admit it, but I shot you-"
But once they turned around, the corpse was nowhere to be seen. "-dead?"
And when they turned around again, Mrs. Diaz was in front of Janna, smiling wickedly as she grabbed her by her shirt's neck, followed by Mr. Diaz coming out of nowhere and grabbing Hope.
"Please don't kill us!" Hope pleaded.
"Oh, we're not going to kill you, we won't even hurt you." Mrs. Diaz reassured as she held Janna more tightly. "We're going to show you the exit!"
And then, with Marco and Star, the duo stopped to look around the scenery as Janna and Hope were thrown through the window and out of the house, their shrieks being loud enough that they were heard in the duo's location. "Did you hear that?" Star asked.
"Yeah, sounded like two girls being thrown out of a house." Marco remarked. "Let's keep going before we hear anything else."
It took them a while, but once they made their way deeper into the woods, they encountered a familiar figure sitting in a trunk near a running stream. The figure leisurely rested with her head tilted down, her arms crossed and a pleased smile across her face.
"Jackie?" Marco uttered.
The boy and girl ran to the teenager, who opened her eyes and turned to see the duo. "Oh hey guys." Jackie greeted. "What are you doing here?"
"We're hunting for other players, trying to collect their wands and surviving this game." Star answered, right before getting an idea and giving Jackie a suspicious. "Now that I think about it, do you have a wand?"
"This little macguffin?"
Star frowned and slowly nodded, right before Jackie threw her wand at Marco, who catched it with ease. "Here, you can have it."
"Really? Just like that?"
"Yeah, I don't have any incentive nor reason to play this little game yet, so I might as well be helpful for once and give you what you need." the girl replied in a serene tone. "By the way, I believe there's another player, maybe even two, down at the deeper part of the woods. You should go find them, and make sure you pick the left path."
"Thanks Jackie!" Star replied.
"Say, just out of curiosity, what's your ex whatever form?" Marco questioned.
Upon hearing the question, Jackie remained silent for a moment, right before giggling and giving her answer. "That, dear Marco, is something you must figure out yourself."
Upon hearing the girl's cryptic words, Marco and Star exchanged looks before walking to the side of the forest Jackie mentioned. As she watched them leave, Jackie's smile remained frozen in her face as she slowly closed her eyes and, a while after Star and Marco had disappeared from view, promptly fell into the stream.
Back with the duo, Star mused about what Jackie said and spoke, "Do you think we can trust Jackie's words?"
"I trust her."
"I do too, but, I don't know, I get the feeling something's wrong." upon saying that, both Star and Marco stopped as Star looked at the ground and scratched her chin. "Something tells me, she's hiding something from us. Something probably important."
As the girl got lost on her thoughts, Marco put his hand on her shoulder and said sympathetically, "Well, whatever that is, we can check it out later. For now, let's focus on finding the other players."
Hearing that, and noticing the boy's hand, Star gave him a smile and nod before resuming on their way to the deeper part of the woods.
Back with Janna and Hope, the girls walked around the woods, taking out pieces of the windows they went through as they walked. "Stupid Mrs. Diaz, faking her own death! Stupid Mr. Diaz, coming out of nowhere!" An enraged Janna thought.
"Stupid window, being so breakable!" Hope thought.
They continued to walk aimlessly up until they spotted Jackie leisurely relaxing on the running stream. Upon seeing her, the two quickly ran after her and got her attention.
"Jackie! You're on a running stream!" Hope obliviously stated.
"Oh right, that's a thing that's happening." Jackie nonchalantly responded. "So anyway, what are you doing here?"
"Well, Hope and I, mostly I, crashed into the Diaz household to see if we were able to find him and take his wand, but that ended up being harder than we thought." a while after she said that, Janna got an idea and smiled. "Come to think of it, do you have a wand we could "borrow" for a while?"
"Sorry, mine was taken by Marco and Star sometime ago." Jackie retorted. "If you want it, you'll have to go deeper into the forest through the right path, and confront Marco and Star."
"Damn it! They already got a wand!"
Janna quickly turned, jumped over the stream and ran straight into the woods as Hope followed. "Come on, Hope! We gotta find them!"
"Wait for me!"
As she watched the girls leave, Jackie heard some sort of cybernetic melody, which made the girl feel more relaxed and drowned the sounds of an incoming waterfall...wait, what?! And before she could notice, Jackie fell in the water fall, though she didn't scream or anything.
(Back with Marco and Star)
Marco checked the area he and Star were currently in, while the girl looked at the frogs that stood still near them. Upon closer inspection, the girl saw that the frogs were actually brainless, and also that the top of their heads looked like they were eaten by a wolf or something.
As Marco finally stopped checking the area and walked back to Star, she tried to touch one of the frogs, who immediately jumped away like they still had brains. This made Star shriek and jump into Marco's arms.
"They act as if they still had their brains!" a squicked out Star said.
"Calm down, Star, they're perfectly harmless." Marco chided. "Specially compared to what we may find here. Come on, let's keep looking."
With the girl still in his hands and unwilling to let go, Marco tried his best to carry Star deeper into the woods with him. However, once they went deeper, they found themselves one shore away from a seemingly bottomless pond, with hundreds of frogs standing on top of lily pads and staring blankly at the sky.
Unable to carry the girl anymore, Marco dropped Star and catched his breath as he looked around and Star hid behind him. "Well, the other extreme's too far away for us to jump, and there are no rocks in the surface we can use as platforms." Marco uttered.
"What do we do now?" Star asked.
Before she could be answered, Janna and Hope arrived at the other extreme end of the pond, and were immediately spotted by Team Starco. "Janna and Hope?!" Star exclaimed.
"What are you doing here?" Marco questioned.
"We're players just like you, silly!" Janna responded as she took out her wand. "We're here to get back Jackie's wand and take yours as well! Now how do I use this?"
Janna moved and waved her wand repeatedly, getting more and more aggravated as the wand did nothing and Star and Marco exchanged confused looks. After a while, the wand unleashed electricity and hit the pond, which summoned rock-like platforms as the brainless frogs jumped away.
Upon seeing that, Marco grabbed Star's hand and ran away as Janna and Hope quickly jumped on the platforms and got on their extreme of the pond. Once they hit the ground, the platforms vanished and Janna and Hope chased Team Starco. Janna quickly used her wand to shoot blasts of energy at Marco, who dodged them and used his wand to summon a rock wall and send it towards the girls.
Noticing this, Janna jumped on top of Hope and jumped again, avoiding the wall while Hope hit it and promptly collapsed as the wall disappeared. "Sorry, Hope!"
With that done, Janna aimed her wand at the ground and propulsed herself towards the team, though she only managed to Marco. The two engaged in a short brawl before they landed in the middle of a forest. After noticing this, they separated and began attacking each other, Marco pulling punches while Janna pulled kicks. After a while, Marco managed to catch the girl off-guard, grabbed her arm and threw her into a tree, leaving behind a shadow of the girl in the trunk.
She qiuckly recovered from this and dashed to Marco as Star and Hope arrived at the scene, though they didn't intervene. As the battle raged, Star soon noticed Hope and got ready to shoot her with her wand. "Stop! Stop! I-I just wanna talk with you!"
"You wanna what?"
"I'm not a fighter myself, I prefer to talk things over."
"Well, I'm a fighter, and I'd rather defeat you than talk this over." however, the girl got second thoughts when Hope covered her head and gave Star a pleading look. "That being said, I don't think hurting a human who can't defend herself is something I should do."
"Thank goodness, I thought I was gonna die for a moment there." Hope said. "So, can you hear me out just for a moment?"
"...Fine, I'll hear you out."
Back at the fight, Janna quickly evaded Marco's punches, though he still managed to get a surprise hit every once in a while. The two briefly stopped when they saw Star and Hope talking. "Why are our partners talking?" Marco pondered. "Shouldn't they be fighting each other as well?"
And then Janna grabbed Marco's leg and threw him to the trees. "Nah, we're doing a good job by ourselves!"
Shortly after the response, Marco regained balance, grabbed a tree and ripped it off the ground, using it as a club as he jumped back to Janna and smacked her with it, sending her flying and crashing through the trees. Marco threw the tree away as Janna returned, bleeding a little, and growling like a wild animal.
"So, I figured that if we work together, we'll be able to survive these games easier!" Hope finished before extending her hand. "So, what do you say?"
Star scratched her chin and thought about Hope's proposal as she frowned anxiously. Once she chose her decision, Star smiled and got ready to shake hands...only for Janna to be thrown at Hope, causing both girls to fly and crash.
"Darn it, Janna, I was about to get a truce!" Hope complained as Janna got up.
"Meh, it wouldn't have mattered anyway, specially since I'm about to win!"
Janna propulsed herself again with her wand and got ready to hit Marco, who took a defensive stance as Star got ready to hit the brunette...before part of the pond's water turned into a hand, got in between the fight and literally slapped Janna back to Hope, though the girl ducked before she was hit. Hope went to the girl as Marco and Star watched the water hand grow bigger.
"Janna, are you alright?!" Hope worriedly shouted. "Please, tell me something!"
"The water...the water just bitch-slapped me!" Janna exclaimed, right before spotting the bigger water hand. "And it's not done yet!"
Janna grabbed and threw Hope away, only for another hand to form and grab the girl. The remaining water hand grabbed Janna, held her tightly, and the hands sent the girls flying away, screaming as the hands returned to the water. Once that was over, Star turned to the pond and pulled Marco's sleeve, getting his attention and making him turn to see a familiar person in the pond.
It was Jackie, who was standing perfectly still in the water like it was solid ground. "Missed me?"
"Jackie! You saved us from Janna and Hope?!" Marco asked.
"No, one of my associates, the Mermaid Ex Aqua, created the hands from far away and took care of them for you." Jackie answered, before pointing at a waterfall far away in the horizon. "He's over there if you want to see him. I need to leave for the moment, good luck on your journey."
"Jackie, wait! Before you leave, I need to ask you something!" Star exclaimed. "How do we activate our ex whatever forms!...If you know how!"
The girl chuckled and replied, "Oh, I know how to activate them, you just need to remember these words."
Jackie paused, jumped lightly and fell into the water as she finished. "Ex Morphus."
With that said, Jackie waved goodbye as she submerged into the water, and Star and Marco exchanged looks, nodded and headed to the direction Jackie pointed earlier.
(Meanwhile, with Janna and Hope)
The girls finally hit the ground and, after groaning in pain for a while, got up and dusted themselves. "Great, first the Diazes kick our asses, now the water throws us away, what's next? A man asking us if we can fuck him?"
It didn't take long before Janna actually thought about the last one, giggling excitedly as Hope looked around and immediately spotted something. "Uh, Janna." Hope uttered, catching the girl's attention. "Do you see that too?"
Janna's lewd face turned into a horrified one when she saw a blood trail leading to a shaking bush. Some growls could also be heard from the bush, which abruptly stopped alongside the shaking as a pair of yellow eyes opened and stared straight at the girls. "What is that thing?" Hope whispered as she clung to Janna's arm.
"I don't know."
And then the eyes moved forward, revealing the body they belonged to. Brittney Wong, to be exact, who looked like a mix between a human and a wolf, with wolf ears and a tail. She also had sharper teeth, and her mouth was plastered with blood and viscera.
With a better look at the girls, Brittney growled and got ready to lunge forward as Janna and Hope realized who they were seeing.
"Brittney?!"