Hi everyone! Star here, ready to make a quick recap of what happened recently!

If you remember the previous chapter, Marco fought Janna while Hope tried to bargain with me on a truce. However, giant freaky water-y hands came out of the water and threw them away before that could happen! Then, Jackie told us to go to the waterfall in order to meet with her associate, the Mermaid Ex Aqua, so we could thank her for saving our asses back there!

Right now, Marco and I are running straight for the waterfall, hoping to get there before anybody else does. After

all, who wouldn't want to reach someone with the ability to create body parts out of water?

Now that I think about it, what happened to Hope and Janna after they were thrown away?...

Episode 2: Ex Morphus

Star and Marco ran towards the waterfall as fast as they could, dodging any obstacle they came across like deer,

moose, etcetera. Eventually, the duo found themselves too exhausted to continue, so they stopped to catch their breath and watched the horizon to see...they weren't any closer to the waterfall than before.

"It's gonna take forever to get there on foot!" Marco complained.

As the boy scratched his head trying to think of something to do, Star looked at her wand, got an idea and reached for Marco, grabbing and pulling him towards her as she said. "Well, maybe we won't need to go on foot."

With that said, Star aimed her wand at the ground and shot an energy ball, which exploded when it hit the ground with enough strength to send Star and Marco flying towards their destination.

(Janna, Hope and Brittney)

The former two hugged in fear as Brittney continued to growl, slowly moving closer and closer to Janna and Hope. The two slowly backed away as Brittney bared her fangs and got ready to attack. "Now, easy there, little Brittney." Janna uttered, angering the wolf-girl. "We don't wanna hurt you, we just arrived from a brutal battle and-"

Brittney barked and lunged, hitting and attacking Janna as Hope tried to find a way to help her partner. As she did that, Janna held Brittney's jaw open, trying as hard as she could to stop the girl from eating her face. "You know, I used to call you a bitch behind your back sometimes at school, but this is ridiculous!"

After a while, Janna kicked Brittney away, and then the wolf-girl was caught by Hope, who shrieked as she threw her back to the bush. Just as it seemed she was defeated and Janna and Hope relaxed, a tree trunk struck them and the two became trapped under it just as Brittney jumped back into the field.

She slowly crawled towards the duo as they tried to free themselves, without much success. Seeing the girl getting closer and that they would be eaten to death, Janna and Hope closed their eyes, waiting for their unpleasant and gory fate...

"I'm sorry."

Hearing those words, the two opened their eyes and looked to see Brittney standing on two feet and cleaning her mouth. "I didn't mean to startle you." Brittney added as she removed the trunk from the girls. "I wanted a snack, killed a boar to get it, and you two just so happened to be here while I was eating."

"Well, that happens." Janna remarked as she got up and dusted herself. "Hey, now that you're more or less rational, how about we talk about an alliance?"

Hearing her say that, Hope quickly covered Janna's mouth and smiled nervously as Brittney gave them an angry look. "Janna, what are you doing?!" Hope scolded.

"Hope, we were just thrown by giant water hands and crashed close to Brittney's dinner room, my brain's probably a bit hurt thanks to that." Janna replied. "Besides, if we get Brittney on our side, this whole thing will become a piece of cake."

"So I try to do it, and it fails, but only because you do it, you expect it to succeed?" Hope recapped.

"Of course! After all, I'm a very persuasive girl." Janna arrogantly responded before extending her hand at the cheerleader. "So, Brittney, how about we join forces?"

"No."

The girl turned around, hitting Janna with her hair in the process, and walked away as Janna and Hope followed her. "Hey, wait a minute! Don't you wanna talk this over at the very least?"

"Beanie bitch, I'm a wolf with no pack, the Wolf Ex Team if you will." Brittney rebutted. "I work alone, on my own terms, and I won't let a foul mouthed whore like you convince me to do otherwise."

Steam blew out of Janna's ears as she tried to attack Brittney, the only thing retraining her from doing so being Hope. "Janna, we can't defeat Brittney in our current condition." Hope informed as she released Janna, who calmed down and scratched her chin. "How about we just-"

"Follow her around and bug her until she accepts to become our partner?"

"That's...not what I was going to suggest at all."

"Meh, my suggestion's good anyway." Janna grabbed Hope's arm and dragged her as she chased Brittney, who ran away.

"Come on, let's go!"

"Janna, you don't need to drag me!"

(Star and Marco)

The teenagers finally hit the shore near the waterfall, and they got up and dusted themselves before looking around. Outside of the mentioned waterfall, there were also some palm trees, beach balls, and a rock in the middle of the lake connected to the waterfall.

"Well, we're at the waterfall, but there's no sign of the Mermaid Ex Aqua." Marco remarked.

And then, they heard a keytar being played, so they watched as a mermaid-like figure went into the rock and rested on it as it continued playing. After a while, the figure looked up and revealed himself to be Oskar Greason, the Mermaid Ex Aqua.

"Oskar's the mermaid?!" Marco exclaimed in shock.

"Of course, I can't believe I never thought of it in the first place! Who else could play the keytar as well as he does?" Star added.

"You're kidding, right?"

Without warning, Oskar started playing a melody on his instrument, with some musical symbols spontaneously forming around him and orbiting as the melody reached Star and Marco's ears. However, while Marco was mildly amused and surprised, Star's eyes turned into purple hearts as she started to drooling.

"You know, Star, I gotta admit it, he has improved in his keytar skills." Marco remarked. "That being said, I don't really know what he's playing. Do you know what he's playing?"

He got no response, and turned to see the girl slowly smiling.

"Star?"

And then she started to undress.

"Star?!"

It took glancing between her and Oskar's music to finally find a connection.

"Wait, the melody Oskar's playing might be a subliminal melody that causes girls to undress!" Marco thought as Star, now with only her panties left, walked to the shore. "But how am I supposed to stop him? And more importantly, who would make such a melody?"

"I'm coming, my half-fishy harbinger of love." Star uttered as she got on the lake and swam towards the Mermaid Ex Aqua. "Impregnate me with your half-fish babies so I can be the mother of your freaks of nature."

"Whatever that is, I have to do something before he-" Marco turned and immediately spotted Star and Oskar hugging together, and he quickly held his breath and jumped into the lake as Oskar and Star did the same. "Don't worry, Star, I'm coming!"

Inside there, Oskar and Star exchanged looks as the boy slowly reached for the girl's rear-end, causing her eyes to glow pink and laugh as he got closer and closer. But before he could resume, he was kicked away by Marco, who grabbed Star and swum back to the surface as fast as he could, only managing to get the girl on the shore and catch a bit of his breath before Oskar recovered and dragged him back inside.

The boys fought as Marco tried to get out and Oskar prevented him, though because they were in a whole body of water, Marco was at a serious disadvantage against Oskar, who finally got tired of keeping him away and used his tail to take a hold of him.

Back on the surface, the still-in-trance Star was approached by a familiar figure, who kicked her stomach, making all the water she accumulated from the lake, including a fish for some reason. After that, the figure calmly walked to the shore and jumped into the water as Star laughed.

Back with Marco and Oskar, the former finally gave up and opened his mouth, starting to lose his breath as Oskar grasped him tighter...until the figure, who revealed herself as Jackie, appeared and released Marco from Oskar's clutches, throwing him back to the surface before giving Oskar a furious look.

On the shore, Marco coughed and caught his breath as Star's eyes turned back to normal before closing. Upon seeing this, he crawled and shook the girl as Jackie resurfaced with Oskar's neck in his grasp. Once she saw the duo, Jackie walked to Marco and put her hand on his shoulder.

"Don't worry, Marco, she'll return to normal in a moment. Just give her time." Jackie sympathetically said before

turning to Oskar. "As for you, what was the one thing I told you not to do?"

"Seduce Star Butterfly."

"And what was the one thing you ended up doing?"

"Seduce Star Butterfly."

"And what is the reason you're about to die?"

"...I seduced Star Butterfly?"

"Bingo."

With that said, Jackie threw Oskar far away, his screams echoing in the place before he hit the ocean and was promptly eaten by sharks. After that, Jackie gave Marco a smile before leaving.

And just as she left, Star woke up, now perfectly normal. "What happened? Where's Oskar? Why are you wet?" she asked as Marco went to the girl's clothing and checked it as Star looked at herself and noticed she was...a bit less clothed than before. "Why am I wet and half-naked?!"

"Okay, let's see, I dust this off a bit and there we go!" Marco said before grabbing and dusting the rest of Star's clothes. "Okay, Star, let's put your clothes back-"

Then, when he turned, he saw Star giving him a half lewd, half amused look. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

"Marco Diaz, you tried to score with me!"

"Wait, what?!"

"Yeah, something happened that rendered me unconscious, you stripped me in order to have your way with me, and when I woke up, you tried to hide it by making it look like something else." Star deduced. "It makes complete sense!"

"Star, that's not what happened at all!" Marco rebutted as Star took off her panties and threw them away. "Oskar seduced you with subliminal music, you stripped and went to him to the lake and I got you out before you got pregnant thanks to him!"

"Oh right, that does make sense too." Star spoke as she grabbed her clothes and put them back on. "That being said, I'm keeping my eyes on you Diaz, if you want some of this body you gotta invite it to dinner first."

"Whatever." Marco replied. "Oskar's already taken care of, but I failed to get his wand. We need to find another player."

"Well, where do we start looking?" Star questioned as she stretched a bit.

And before anything else could be said, a pixie holding a clock flew by and into the forest. "I'm late! I'm late! I'm oh so running late! I'm running late to the ceremony with the empress's recent mate!"

"I think we should follow that Pixie." Marco suggested.

Star and Marco exchanged looks, smiled and followed the tiny humanoid. As they did, they crossed logs, trees, and other obstacles that the pixie easily evaded, and once they managed to reach the pixie's location, the first thing they saw was what looked like some sort of ritual, where the pixie empress and female pixies danced around an UHM: Unindentified Human Male, the empress dancing the closest to him.

When they walked closer, they immediately identified the man. "Alfonzo?!"

This got both the teenager's and the pixies attention. "Hi guys! I'm engaging in the post-wedding ceremony!" Alfonzo gleefully admitted.

"Now leave, or else we'll chop your heads and swap them with chickens!" the empress warned.

Worried that she wasn't kidding, and the fact that they were too tired to fight back, Star and Marco backed away and decided to walk back home. "Okay, so we didn't manage to get any wands today outside of Jackie's." Marco remarked in a pessimistic tone.

"Well, maybe we'll have better luck next time." Star said.

Hearing her say that, the boy turned to Star, who gave him a warm smile and put his hand on his shoulder. Marco returned the smile and the two continued to walk

For the remainder of the day, the duo went back home while Janna and a reluctant Hope tried, mostly in vain, to get Brittney to join forces with them. By the time they were starting to get sick of it, it was already night-time, and they were suddenly stopped by the cheerleader.

"Look, what do I have to do so you may leave me alone?" Brittney asked.

"Join forces with us, then help us find a place to stay for the night!" Hope eagerly replied.

And then they saw some shadowy figures approaching them, scaring Hope so much she jumped to Janna's arms, who shivered in fear as Brittney looked at the figures. "And if you can, save us from whoever's approaching us right now." Janna added.

Brittney's fingernails turned into claws and the girl slowly approached the figures, who smiled, ran to the girls and revealed themselves to be Justin and some muscular students...in speedos. Brittney's fingernails turned back to normal as she eyed the men, and Janna drooled and dropped Hope at the sight.

"Hi Brittney, look what we found and mostly ate in the ocean." Justin uttered.

What he took out was Oskar's remains, or whatever remains he had that the team hadn't devoured. The girls reacted with disgust upon seeing it. "Justin, that's horrible!" Brittney scolded, right before smelling Oskar's corpse and remarking, "You saved some for me?"

"Nope."

"That is also horrible!"

Justin shrugged sheepishly. "What are you doing in the middle of the woods at this hour, anyway? Actually, a better question; there's a cabin somewhere here that we fell close to when we materialized, wanna stay with us there for the night?"

"Sure." Brittney bluntly answered.

With that said, the girls followed the muscular boys to the cabin. "Thanks so much, Brittney!" Janna uttered, getting the girl's attention. "Say, will you join forces with us now or what?"

Brittney simply shrugged and Hope watched in delight as Janna and Brittney exchanged smiles...and looks of pure rage. "Beanie-wearing fuckwad."

"Literal bitch."

"Say, Janna?" Hope uttered, returning Janna back to reality.

"Yes, Hope?"

"I expected you to be a bit more angry at the fact you couldn't get anything from the Diazes, or could even take something from Marco."

"Ha! Don't worry, I can always just try-" Janna said as she reached for her pockets, only to pause when she failed to find Marco's house keys. She kept searching for a while and, once she noticed they were gone, she raised her fists and shouted "MRS. DIAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!"

(Meanwhile, at the Diaz Household)

Janna's scream echoed in the house, much to the pleasure of Mrs. Diaz, who was swinging Marco's house keys as she and her husband sat on the couch. "Music to my ears."

"Yours and mine, sweetie."

And then they heard someone knocking the door. The couple walked to it and opened the door to see an exhausted Marco and Star waiting outside. "Oh my, I presume you had a busy evening?" Mrs. Diaz uttered.

"Yeah, and we would be hungry too, if the long walk hadn't killed our appetite." Marco answered, right before his and Star's stomach growled. "It would be good if you could prepare us a something, though."

"Oh of course, honey, I'll make you and Star some dinner."

The duo went inside and, just as Mrs. Diaz and Mr. Diaz went to the kitchen, the woman remember the keys and threw them at Marco, who caught them effortlessly. "Oh, by the way, here you go."

"My house keys?" Marco questioned. "But I thought Janna had snatched them."

"Well, your mom snatched them back from that Janna's dirty girl hands." Mr. Diaz quickly answered. "You and Star rest in the couch, your mom will have dinner ready soon."

"Specially since I'll have a man helping me."

The adults giggled and quickly went to the kitchen as Marco and Star tried not to gag as they sat down. "Hey, Marco?"

"Yes, Star?"

"We never really got to use that phrase Jackie told us to use."

"What phrase?"

"You know, ex morphus."

"Oh, right, that phrase...well, maybe we'll have a chance to use it tomorrow."

What followed were several awkward seconds of nothing but silence. "Marco, we both saw some odd stuff today, and it got me thinking." Star suddenly uttered. "If any of these things manage to traumatize either of us, we'll both try to comfort the other, right?"

"Of course that'll be the case, Star."

And then, the girl extended her hand and showed Marco her pinky finger, giving him an unsure look as she said, "Pinky promise?"

Marco watched for a few seconds, smiled and intertwined his pinky with Star's. "Pinky promised."

The two exchanged smiles and promptly fell asleep just as Mrs. and Mr. Diaz returned from the kitchen. After eating dinner and falling asleep again, all the lights of the house were turned off and Star and Marco cuddled together.