Marco, Jam, and Elizabeth went into combat mode. Marco jumped back and prepared to counter the upcoming attacks. Jam and Elizabeth rolled out to opposite sides of the monster grouping, each shooting out beams of energy and magic towards the eagle and spider combo. The eagle grabbed the spider and dodged the beams. The eagle screeched as it divebombed and let go of the spider overtop of Marco. The spider spinned around and shot out a web to trap Marco. He sidestepped the web and tried to grab on. He succeeded with the grab, but as he tried to pull the spider down, the web broke and he fell on his back. Jam and Elizabeth were preoccupied with the eagle, who'd been weaving in and out of their beams of death. The spider landed on top of Marco, venom dripping from its mouth. As it's fangs came down, Marco screamed and threw his arms up in front of him. Some of the web was still stuck to his hands, so as the spider's fangs came down, they were filled with its own web. The spider recoiled, spitting bits of web out of its fangs. Marco took the opportunity and kicked out at one of the spider's legs. The spider drew its leg back and howled in rage. It scurried over towards Marco and swung one leg forward. Marco dodged, but the spider swung its rear at him while he was still dodging, and he was sent back several feet. Meanwhile, Jam and Elizabeth had been trying and failing to bring down the giant eagle. Every time they thought they had cornered it, it would dive out from the beams and counterattack. They had dodged every counterattack so far, but all the rolling on the rock floor was starting to wear them out.

"Sister!" Jam yelled, commanding and stern. "Use one of your bigger blasts! The ones where it takes up the room!"

The eagle divebombed her. She barely dodged in time to avoid its razor-sharp talons, instead trading for a slightly bruised back by rolling away. "I can't, dumby! It's got me pinned!"

Jam furrowed his brow. "I'll distract it, you get the spell ready!"

The eagle tried to hit Elizabeth with its wing while still airborne. Jam aimed his shot carefully and clipped the bird before it could attack. The eagle screeched, the odor of burning chicken quickly filling up the room. It rose up in towards the ceiling and swung around to aim at the teenager that had just shot it. Jam stood his ground and stared the bird in the eye. Halfway down, the yell of a young girl rang out in the chamber:

"Syrup Tsunami Shockwave!"

Pure Maple Syrup shot out of Elizabeth's wand with so much force that she got pushed against the wall. It took only seconds for the syrup to hit the eagle and spider, quickly overtaking them and forcing them into the walls. Both Marco and Jam were able to avoid the syrup by jumping onto the monsters as they got caught in the wave. They jumped off as their respective monsters hit the walls and had their lights knocked out. After the spell finished, the syrup quickly dissipated until there was only a few globs hanging onto the walls, the floor, the eagle and spider, and the three teenagers. Marco let out a sigh of relief and gave a thumbs up to his fellows.

"Thanks, guys," he coughed out. Pain shot through his back and chest, and he hoped that all his ribs were intact. There had been more than a couple of fights in the past where he'd gotten enormous bruises on his body.

Jam smiled pleasantly at the scene, putting his gun away. "It's always nice to win a fight, especially without casualties."

Elizabeth, who'd been shaking syrup off of her, looked at him as if he'd just told her that they were in a holocaust museum. "Casualties? Jeez, Jam, how do most of your fights end?"

Jam grimaced. He turned away from her. "Not well. I'd… rather not talk about it."

Marco looked around the room. Something was bothering him, something that was missing from the room. He couldn't put his finger on it, until…

"Don't move."

Ludo's voice was as cold as the cave walls around them. Marco couldn't see him, but he could sense a faint green light from behind him. He froze, as did Jam and Elizabeth. Both Jam and Elizabeth could see Ludo out of the side of their heads. When Ludo spoke, it didn't have his usual self-glorification or condescending tone. Instead, he sounded like a businessman, explaining the details of a contract to them.

"How did you-"

"It's been two weeks, Marco," Ludo interrupted, bored. "I've had a long time to talk with our mutual friend. I'd go on and on about how informational it has been and how I've gotten stronger, but you don't need to hear that. You already know what's in that book. So I'm going to cut to the chase. You call off your allies, and I don't create a mess."

Elizabeth took a step forward and started to protest, but Ludo's wand began to shine even brighter. "Ah, ah, ah, dearie. Let's not do anything rash. Put your wands down and no one has to die."

Both Elizabeth and Jam's eyes went as wide as dinner plates. Marco took in a shaky breath. "It's okay, guys. Put them down."

"But-"

"No butts, miss. Just do what he says."

Grudgingly, Jam and Elizabeth put their weapons on the ground. Slowly. Ludo smiled.

"Wonderful. Now we can all just stay here and wait for Star to arrive. I think a chat is in order."

Ludo's eyes started to dart around the room. He looked down towards his wand, staring at it intensely. Both Jam and Elizabeth shot worried looks to each other. Marco frowned. "What is it?"

"No, no, no, no," Ludo muttered to himself, his eye twitching as he scowled down at the wand. "The boy is useless, he is only bait." Ludo went silent, staring down at his wand again. While Ludo continued the conversation with what appeared to be no one, Marco looked over towards Jam. He mouthed the words 'how far back'. Jam blinked and gave him an odd look. He mouthed back 'green'. Marco sighed. He'd never been great at mouthing messages across long distances. "How far back?" Marco whispered, hoping that Ludo was too crazy to notice anything. Jam's face lit up and he nodded. He put up one finger and pointed towards his feet. One foot. Ludo was one foot behind Marco. That was plenty range for a back-kick.

So, while Ludo was talking to himself, he received a surprise foot into his face, courtesy of Marco Diaz.

"Now!" Marco yelled at the top of his lungs. His voice cracked a bit while he was screaming. "Get him, now!"

Jam and Elizabeth reacted with lightning speed. Jam grabbed his gun and aimed for Ludo's head, while Elizabeth took up her wand and prepared a spell. Marco jumped out of the way and stood between the two teenagers, ready to attack. Ludo recovered, and then looked around the room. He frowned, annoyed.

"Oh. Right. You have legs. Forgot about that." He took out a pair of dimensional scissors and ripped open a hole. "I guess I'll be seeing you all lat-"

"Narwhal Blast!" a voice echoed from across the room. Everyone looked to see where the voice had come from, and as they did, a giant, green narwhal went sailing past them. It tackled Ludo into the wall with such a force that the walls shook. Marco looked in awe at the scene, then back at where the narwhal had come from. Star Butterfly, arms stretched out with wand in hand, stood firmly at the entrance of the cave. Small bits of pink electricity, as well as some green, zapped around the wand. Behind her (well behind her) were Tom and Jackie were running to catch up to Star. She'd apparently sped past them towards the fight. Marco's body finally unclenched and a smile broke out in his face. "Star! Jackie!... Tom?"

Tom nodded, panting. "Sup'?" he said in-between breaths

Marco frowned. He thought about asking why Tom had tagged along, but he shrugged it off. He was sure that Tom wanted something, and he didn't want to break his suddenly high mood. Star's stare broke and she got out a big, bright smile. "Marco, you're okay!" She rushed over to meet him and gave him a hug. Marco returned the hug, not as enthusiastically. He ended it earlier and gave a smile to Jackie. She came over and they hugged, a much more intimate hug. Star's smile wavered, and she eventually settled for being content. Tom, Jam, and Elizabeth saw the whole interaction. One of Tom's eyebrows went up and he started to look at the three of them differently. Jam smiled broadly, while Elizabeth grew very still.

"Shit," Elizabeth muttered, looking away.

"Hey!" Marco scolded her. "Language!"

Star, Jackie and Tom looked at the two strangers. Jackie asked, "Marco, who're your new friends?"

Marco 'eeehhhh'd, saying "I'll explain it later, right now we have to-"

"Oh?" a silky, dark voice came from across the room. The group searched for the sound, but they couldn't find its source.

"What was that?" Jam asked softly, his body relaxing for combat.

"Look down, boy," The voiced echoed through the room. Then Ludo's green wand started to shake and glow green.

"Children!" Glossaryck firmly stated, appearing out of nowhere. "We need to go! Grab the book and let's vamos!"

Everyone looked towards Glossaryck with surprise. "Glossaryck?" Marco asked, bewildered. "Where did you come from?"

"No time," he responded firmly. The wand started to shake harder and the cave began to shake with it. "We need to go."

After a short search, Jackie found the book and they ran out, running from the green wands ever-growing voice. "It's time." It repeated over and over again, overlapping itself. "It's TIME."

Sorry for being late, I got distracted yesterday. This scene has changed a lot as I've thought it through. Originally, Star was going to fight alongside Marco, but I hadn't figured out how the action was going to turn out. Besides, I felt as though it was time for Marco to win one of the fights himself. Next chapter should be next week, so long as no problems occur. After the chase, there will be a lot of explanation stuff and exposition, so get ready. Thank you all for reading, and enjoy the rest of your day!