Chapter Three: Morning Mishaps
BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP
Star's eyes flashed open as a wretched sound echoed through the second floor of the Diaz household, launching her out of bed in a panic.
In a frenzy, she dashed into the hallway with her wand in hand, sliding across the wooden floor in her socks and flinging Marco's door open, her eyes widening as he stood shirtless at the back wall of his room.
Her cheeks flashed red as Marco pressed a button on a small device on his dresser, silencing its horrific screams.
As Marco's gaze drifted in her direction, her self-preserving instincts kicked in, allowing her to gracefully slam his door shut and sprint back to her room.
She gasped for air as she leaned against her door, drooping to the floor as she held her face in her hands.
She let her gaze linger on the floor for several embarrassed moments before finally glancing up to her new dresser, where a pile of clothes that she had set out the night before sat waiting for her.
After waiting several seconds to gather the courage, she got back to her feet, locking her door behind her as she finally began her new morning ritual.
One long hour later, she slogged down the stairs to an anxious, impatient Marco Diaz.
"Star," Marco called with an uneasy tone. "We've gotta go! We're gonna be late!"
She sighed as she reached the bottom of the stairs, awkwardly gesturing toward the door as she walked past him.
"Waiting on you, Diaz," she remarked, trying to wash away the image of what she'd seen before.
She chuckled, but Marco merely shook his head, sighing as he walked to the door, holding it open for Star to walk through.
The walk to school was short and largely silent, and it was only by its end that Star managed to completely forget what she saw when she woke up and begin to prepare herself for what was sure to be a long day.
Of course, it was far too late for that, as the school was in sight, and as Marco constantly reminded her, there was no time for messing around before class.
Marco rushed to class, which forced Star to keep the same pace, but as she scanned the halls, she couldn't help but notice that something was different compared to the day before.
The halls were thoroughly empty, and as the teens strode into class, it was quickly apparent that the lack of life was present there as well.
It was eerie, especially when two frenzied men stormed through the classroom door, one more familiar than the other.
Star remembered his stare as she walked through the door. She remembered his chubby cheeks and his strange, beige-on-beige style, and still being on edge from the day before, she couldn't help but reach her hand into her bag, gripping the handle of her wand when Marco grabbed her arm and stepped in front of her.
"Officers?" Marco questioned. "What- What's wrong?"
More officers filled into the doorway and Star could feel Marco's grip on her arm tense. The same officer that Star worried about was the one who stepped forward, gesturing for the others to stand back.
"Well, son, the school is closed today," he explained. "This here's an investigation that you've stumbled into."
Marco's eyes widened, but his grip loosened, his skin going pale.
Star stood from her seat, peeling Marco's hand from her forearm as she stepped past him.
"What do you mean?" she asked, genuinely confused.
The officer turned to his companions, then back to her. He sighed.
"Missy, weren't you here yesterday? There was an explosion in the North Hall. Witnesses are reporting that there may have been an intruder. If this was an actual act of terrorism as we suspect it may be, this school could be shut down for a good while."
She turned to Marco with a confused expression, but his panic didn't seem to fade. Sensing that something was wrong, she grabbed Marco by the hand, pulling him toward the door, but before they could leave, one of the officers spoke up.
"Well hold on now, you two," he asserted. "We need to get your names. Ya' can't just be poking around crime scenes. It's suspicious…"
Marco opened his mouth nervously, but couldn't force himself to speak. Star was going to answer, but before she could, the larger officer interrupted.
"Oh, Clint, don't worry about these two. Mr. Diaz here is a good young man. If she's with him, then neither of 'em are worth looking into."
Officer Clint scoffed but reluctantly gestured for the children to leave, and giving no argument, they did just that, speedwalking out of the school the same way they came without so much as a word.
Marco's face was petrified. Sweat dripped from his brow as he finally came to a stop, putting his hands on his knees.
Star paused, staring at him with both confusion and sympathy.
"Marco?" She questioned quietly, placing her hand on his back as she came to his side. "What's wrong?"
He struggled to breathe, his knees visibly weak.
"I- They- They were after us!" he shouted. "Star! They thought our school got bombed! Do you know how messed up that is?!"
"Marco, I-"
"No!" he shouted back. "I- I thought having you around could be fun, but-"
He paused, clearly holding himself back.
"I won't let them find out," Star stated flatly, slowly trodding down the sidewalk and sighing.
"But what about the police?!" Marco interrogated. "They know the school got attacked. Is it really better that they think that terrorists were the ones to do it?! What about the school? What if it gets shut down? What if the whole town goes on lockdown? I don't wanna live like that."
Star's face fell as the two continued to make their way home. She knew he wasn't wrong, but she knew she wasn't going anywhere either. Her only choice was to fix things, but she didn't know where to start.
"Marco, I-"
Star's eyes widened, a chill running up her spine as she heard a portal rip open several feet behind her, her hand thrusting into her bag and wrapping around her wand. She dashed to the side as her wand brimmed with brilliant energy.
"NARWHAL BLAST!" she shouted, her pointed beast twisting through the air and catching a monster as he lept from the portal, several more flooding through just behind him.
Marco's face flashed with shock as his gaze snapped toward the monsters. He lowered himself into a defensive stance, but almost immediately, a spiked arm flew toward his head.
He dropped to the floor as quickly as he could, feeling the spikes brush through the tips of his hair.
Star groaned with frustration as she dove away from another attack, pointing her wand toward the spike-handed monster.
"STARDUST DAISY DEVASTATION!" she screamed, a bright yellow beam flattening the monster. She let out a breath, but just before she could turn to face the litany of other monsters, the bright-red lobster monster flung his massive claw toward her.
Marco kicked off of the ground with astounding grace, his foot smashing against the blunt side of the claw.
The monster reeled in pain as Star and Marco stood back to back. Ludo watched from a distance with a disgruntled frown, and wanting to end the fight quickly, she knew exactly what she had to do.
"Distract them," Star whispered with a serious expression, and without a moment of argument, Marco nodded.
Within a second, Marco sprinted toward the crowd, gathering their attention while nimbly dodging between every attack they threw.
Star smiled, gripping her wand and pointing it toward the ground.
"RADIANT ROCKET BLAST!" Star screamed, shooting a rosy red rocket from the end of her wand and into the ground and catapulting herself in Ludo's direction.
He watched with panic in his eyes as Star flew down like a missile. He tried to run, but as soon as Star's feet touched the ground, the battle was as good as over.
"RASPBERRY RIBBON LASSO!"
The bright red lasso wrapped around his legs and brought him to the ground with a smack, but Star had more in mind. She kept her grip on the magical rope tight, pulling it and spinning Ludo in circles before launching him away.
Being as light as he was, Star was able to create an incredible amount of speed, and as soon as she released him, he flew toward a familiar home, Star's face growing white in an instant.
Ludo smashed face-first through the front door of the Diaz house and the entire world seemed to fall silent.
Star watched as Angie appeared in the doorway with a terrified expression, her blood thinning as all she heard was a faint ringing in her ears.
"No," she muttered to herself, her knees growing weak.
A monster tried to attack her while she was incapacitated, but Marco was quick to deflect the attack and counter it with one of his own.
Confused, he came to Star's side, questioning whether she was okay, but she didn't hear a thing, her eyes remaining locked with Angies as Ludo sat at her feet.
Marco followed her eyes and his breath vanished from his lungs, his body trembling.
Again, another monster swung in Star's direction, but just before his attack could land, Ludo's shrill voice cut through the air.
He screamed as he made eye contact with Angie, running toward the street in an act of complete cowardice.
"Retreat! Retreat!" he screamed.
His monsters argued, but he wasn't taking any other answer. He pulled his scissors from his side and ripped open a portal, diving through without hesitation.
His monsters followed slowly, but even after the portal closed, neither teen could move an inch.
Angie fell to her knees in the doorway and after a few seconds, Rafael came to her side, confused.
"Mi amor!" he shouted with concern. "What is going on? I heard the door smash open!"
Angie couldn't manage a word, and as Rafael gazed toward the street, spotting the dirtied teens, his confusion only worsened.
He stepped past his wife and onto the sidewalk, questioning the children.
"What is the matter?" he asked, scanning from side to side with confusion when suddenly, a muscular, froggish monster slid from his roof and jogged past him, swiping away Star's scissors from her bag and opening a portal, dropping the scissors behind him.
"Wh-" Rafael started, his legs wobbling as his eyes rolled back. "Froggy?"
He fell to his back, the silence of the neighborhood returning. Star gulped, her face falling with frustration.
…
Ludo limped through his portal and stumbled into his castle with a childish grunt, crossing his arms, shaking his head, and tapping his foot as his beaten-down monsters trudged through behind him.
"Pathetic!" he shouted. "You guys are so pathetic! You let her get right to me!"
His monsters for the most part didn't seem to react, but those that did seemed ashamed.
"We'll never get the royal wand at this rate! I planned this ambush perfectly, but it still wasn't enough!"
He turned away, stroking his chin as he contemplated.
"I'm clearly not the problem. I just-"
Buff Frog stumbled through a second portal behind him, earning his attention. He shook his head.
"I need more monsters," he determined with a sigh, glancing at his monsters with disgust. "Badly…"
Despite having no injury to his legs, he limped out of the room and down the hall, opening a door and sitting at a dimly lit desk with a quill pen and paper laying in front of him.
He reached for the quill and put it to the paper without hesitation. His handwriting was crude, but just barely legible.
On his paper, he inscribed his simple message.
"Monsters Needed - Reward Will Be Great."
He nodded with satisfaction, smiling as he scribbled directions to his castle at the bottom of the paper before sliding down from the desk with his paper in hand.
"Boo Fly!" he shouted, his minion zipping into the doorway in an instant.
"Here, slowpoke," he jabbed. "Make copies and make sure they make it to the village."
He buzzed, saluting. "Yezzz Sir!"
…
Hours later, Boo Fly hovered at the center of the Monster Village, holding a thick pile of papers in his hand.
"Join the monzzzter army!" he shouted. "We will take over Mewni one day with your help!"
Monsters of all shapes and sizes walked through the square, but none seemed to listen to what he was saying.
He started to give the flyers to monsters without their permission, but very few even held onto it for more than a second, and those that didn't simply waited until they thought he wouldn't see them throw it away, but of course, he did.
He let out a deep, frustrated sigh before finally dropping the pile of flyers on the ground and slowly buzzing away.
"He'll chew me out for thizzz, but who carezzz," he muttered to himself as he flew away, but just before he could leave the square, a deep, imposing voice stopped him in his tracks.
"Wait," the voice called. "You dropped these… Are you still looking for monsters?"
Boo fly turned around with confusion, his eyes widening with surprise as a distinguished, scaled lizard monster bent over, lifting one of the flyers and reading it aloud.
"Reward Will be Great? Is that true?" he questioned.
Boo Fly quickly nodded.
"Yezzz!" he shouted. "King Ludo promizzzezzz richezzz and power that no monzzzter alive today hazzz ever known!"
"Hmm," the lizard considered. "Okay, where do I sign up?"
It took everything the fly had to not gasp aloud. He flew to the monster's side and nudged him forward.
"You don't have to zzzign anywhere! Juzzzt follow me!"
The monster chuckled.
"Excellent."
…
Author's Notes:
Alright, so there it is, chapter three. I know that this was a pretty short one, but in all honesty, I think that it's for the best. The plans I had for this chapter were much more boring than what I was planning and the future of this story is even brighter now.
I don't have a lot to say other than that I have a major complaint about right now. It's glitched and claims that the last chapter didn't get a single view, which I know isn't the case because someone favorited the story on chapter two. I don't know if there's anything I can do to fix it, so I just ask that you support me and let me know what you've thought of the last two chapters by leaving a comment/review. Your feedback would be greatly appreciated.
Lastly, I have an Instagram page starcovstheworld that you can follow for story updates and announcements.
Thank you for reading and have a nice day! Until next time!
~ lucash21