Alright, here we are with Part 2. Aaaaaand...ACTION!
Star and Bucky Come to Earth, Part 2
Marco's house was a modest two-story villa on the edge of town. The beige stucco with brown trim was accented by a small forest of cacti on either side of the walkway, and there were colorful flowers in planters on the windowsills.
"Okay, just to warn you guys, my parents can be a little...eccentric. Like Janna said, they've hosted exchange students from all over the world, and they love having company over. They'll make sure you guys have a good time while you're here," Marco told them while flipping through his keys to unlock the front door. Bucky seriously doubted that Marco's parents could be any more eccentric than his own sister. Marco found the right key, and the door swung open. "¡Mamá! ¡Papá! ¡Ya llegué a casa! And I brought the new exchange students!" he called. A woman slightly shorter than Marco with long, curly dark-brown hair, fair skin, and a colorful loose-fitting dress walked into the living room and broke into a wide smile.
"Hello, there! I'm Angela Diaz, Marco's mom," she introduced herself and shook Bucky and Star's hands. "Excuse me while I call my husband. Hey, Raphael! The new exchange students are here!" the woman called in the direction of the kitchen.
"Already? But the welcome cake is still in the oven!" a masculine voice with a moderate Mexican accent called back.
"We can finish the cake while they're getting settled, now come out here and say hi!" When he walked into the living room, Raphael Diaz revealed himself to be a tall, chiseled, muscular man with bronze skin and short but wavy black hair. His colorful button-up shirt was undone just enough to reveal a patch of curly black chest hair, and his facial features were accentuated by a thin black mustache and a small goatee.
"Hola, mis amigos. Please, make yourselves at home!" Raphael greeted and gestured toward the couch and armchairs.
"If it's alright with you, Mr. Diaz, I think I'll help Marco with our luggage," Bucky said, noticing the many boxes and cases that were piled at the foot of the stairs. The Diaz parents gave their consent as Marco flashed him a relieved smile.
...
"Ugh! How can your clothes weigh this much?" Marco grunted while struggling to drag a trunk up the stairs.
"Oh, Star and I don't have a whole lot in terms of clothes. That trunk is full of weapons," Bucky replied, carrying a similar trunk on his left shoulder with a suitcase in his right hand.
"Weapons?! What for?!" Marco asked, dropping the trunk in shock.
"We may be siblings, but Star's gonna be the one to inherit the throne, so I'm more of a bodyguard than a prince."
"Okay, I guess that makes sense. What's the age gap between you and her, anyway?"
"Three and a half years. I'm seventeen, she just turned fourteen," Bucky said.
"Wait, shouldn't you get the throne since you're older?" Marco asked.
"Ordinarily, yes, but the monarchy of Mewni is matriarchal. The throne passes from mother to daughter instead of father to son," Bucky explained. There were only four rooms upstairs: Marco's room, the guest room, the bathroom, and the attic. Marco apologized for the arrangement and offered to have Bucky share a room with him. "Oh, don't worry, Marco. Star and I share a room back home, so we're used to it. It's one of the sacrifices that comes with being her bodyguard. And yes, we have a system set up so that we respect each other's privacy." Once all the luggage had been relocated, the two young men walked back down the stairs, where Star was laughing animatedly with Marco's parents.
"Bucky, your sister is delightful! It's been such a long time since this house has had so much upbeat, lively energy! Don't you agree, Marco?" Angie asked.
"We could've gotten the same amount of energy from a litter of puppies, Mom," stated Marco, who by that point had nearly been driven insane by Star's antics (as Bucky had anticipated).
Star gasped and screamed, "I LOVE PUPPIES!" She waved the Wand and conjured eight of the most adorable short-haired puppies any of them had ever seen. Well, they were slightly less adorable when scarlet laser beams started flying from their eyeballs, knocking down objects around the room but thankfully not strong enough to burn things. Star chuckled nervously when Bucky and Marco both glared at her. "Sorry. Still getting used to this thing."
"Maybe you should come see our new room," Bucky growled.
"Okay. Come on, puppies!"
...
"Well, what do you think?" Marco asked as Star stared at her and Bucky's room with a thoughtful expression.
"It's great and all, but it's missing something. Something that says home away from home," the girl said in scrutiny. Her face brightened as she was struck by an idea. "Ooh, I know! SPARKLE GLITTER BOMB EXPAND!" The face of the Wand flashed brightly, and Bucky and Marco covered their faces as a loud thunderclap echoed through the house. When the glittery dust cleared, jutting from the side of the house where the guest bedroom used to be was one of the towers straight from Butterfly Castle. Specifically, the tower that was Star and Bucky's shared bedroom. "There! Why live away from home when you can bring home with you?"
Marco gave an impressed whistle as he gazed around at the bedroom. There were two levels separated by a spiral staircase right in the center. The top section, which was clearly visible because the floor was shaped like a semi-circle and only took up half of the tower, was obviously Star's, with a large four-poster canopy bed with bright pink sheets, a selection of giant stuffed animals (none of which even remotely resembled Earth's wildlife), a couple of bean-bag chairs, and lots of girly-girl decorations.
The bottom level was Bucky's. It was as drastically different from Star's level as night was from day. While Star appeared to have every comfort imaginable, Bucky kept his part of the room dangerously close to the bare minimum. His bed, if you could call it that, was a military-esque cot slightly bigger than Bucky's large frame, consisting of a piece of canvas stretched across a collapsible wooden frame as well as a single pillow and one thick wool blanket. In place of decorations, Bucky had weapons. LOTS of weapons. One wall was covered in swords and axes of every shape and size, there was a bundle of spears in a barrel in the corner (does a cylindrical tower have corners?), and there was a bare wooden mannequin that would otherwise be holding Bucky's armor. Each level had its own ensuite bathroom and a privacy screen.
"Boy, I wish I had a room like this," Marco stated.
"You do? Where?" Star asked enthusiastically. Marco showed her and Bucky his room, which was a typical upper-working-class teenage boy's bedroom. A little bland, all things considered, but cozy at the same time.
"Alright, Marco, get ready to have your mind blown! MYSTIC ROOM SUCK TRANSFORM!" Star yelled.
The funny thing about magic? Unless you choose your words very carefully and specify exactly what you want a spell to do, disastrous things are bound to happen.
Case in point, because Star included the word suck in her spell, a black hole formed smack-dab in the middle of the floor and swallowed all of Marco's belongings. It would have taken Marco and Bucky too, but Bucky grabbed the back of Marco's hoodie and stabbed his trident into the floor just outside the doorway. With a second zap of the Wand, the black hole closed. Marco took a moment or two to regain his bearings, then screamed his head off about the wording of the spell. Ignoring Bucky frantically mouthing no several times, Star attempted to apologize by creating a miniature sun over Marco's head. However, Marco's foul mood turned the sun into a rain cloud.
"That does it! If you two are moving in, then I'm moving out!" the soaking wet boy yelled. He attempted to climb out the window, but his wet hands slipped on the sill and he plummeted twenty feet to the ground with a startled yelp.
Star stuck her head out the window and called, "Are you alright?"
"Yeah, this cactus broke my fall!" Marco called back sarcastically.
"Need any help?"
"No! Leave me alone!" With that, Marco stood and ran off. Star was about to climb out the window herself, only for Bucky to yank her backwards.
"Oh, no you don't! You've done enough damage for one day. Come find us when you're done fixing his room," he told her. She knew better than to argue when he used that tone of voice with her, so she sighed dejectedly and let him jump out the window himself. He did multiple somersaults in midair before landing gracefully in a crouch on the far side of the cactus patch.
...
It didn't take long for Bucky to find Marco, as the rain cloud over his head left a distinct trail that was easy to follow. When he caught up to the Hispanic boy, Marco was sitting on the curb outside a gas station called Stop-N-Slurp with a dejected look on his face. Marco saw Bucky coming and stood up to leave, but Bucky held out his arm to stop him.
"Hold still," Bucky said, pulling the trident off of his back. Marco flinched, expecting to be impaled or beheaded, but all Bucky did was swing his weapon through the rain cloud, causing it to dissipate.
"Thanks," Marco mumbled and sat back down. Bucky sat down beside him, his armor making a dull clank on the concrete.
"Marco, I'm sorry that we got off on the wrong foot..." Bucky began, and Marco scoffed.
"Understatement of the year."
"...but there's a few things you need to understand about my sister. Star can be annoyingly goofy and makes lots and lots of mistakes, but she means well. All she wants to do is have fun and make people happy, and she has strange ways of trying to accomplish that. The thing is, neither of us wanted to come to Earth in the first place, but Star almost burned down a village after casting her very first spell. Our parents sent her here under the assumption that she wouldn't cause as much collateral damage as she learns to control her magic. Me, I'm only along for the ride because I'm one of the most skilled warriors in Mewni, so Mom and Dad need me to keep Star out of trouble. Both of us can survive just fine in the wild if we absolutely have to, but we'd rather have a consistent place to stay. Would you be willing to give us a second chance?"
Before Marco could answer, the two were joined by Star sitting on Marco's other side with an apologetic expression.
"Marco, I'm sorry for wrecking your room. I got it back to the way it was, so can you forgive me?" she asked with sad puppy-dog eyes. Marco rolled his eyes and smiled.
"Okay, I'm convinced. C'mon, let's go..." Marco paused and paled, his eyes widening in fear. "Uh, g-g-guys?" he said, pointing behind the siblings. Approaching them was an all-too-familiar vulture-like Monster, Ludo.
"Hello, Butterflies!" the miniscule Monster greeted with a wave. Bucky and Star both frowned and stood, Bucky keeping himself between the Monster and the two younger teens.
"How did you find us, Ludo?" Bucky growled.
"Never mind that! Surrender the Wand, or I will have to take it by force!" Ludo cried. It was then that Marco burst out laughing, the other three staring at him quizzically.
"Oh yeah? You and what army, little guy?" the Hispanic teen challenged, wiping a tear of mirth from his eye. Ludo started to growl in anger at the reference to his height (or lack thereof), but stopped and smirked.
"Why, this one, of course!" he said matter-of-factly and snapped his fingers. A dozen other Monsters charged from their hiding place on the far side of the gas station and rallied behind their boss.
"Marco, never ask that question anywhere in the Universe. Trust me, it never ends well," Bucky advised while getting into a battle stance. The first Monster to attack was bipedal and covered in short brown fur. His somewhat humanoid face was framed by a pair of antlers and a thick light-brown beard. This was Beard Deer, Ludo's second-in-command. Before Bucky could meet the attack, Marco surprised everyone when he toppled Beard Deer with a flying kick to the gut, followed by a crane kick to the jaw. Seeing their dazed compatriot lying prone on the ground made the other Monsters freeze in their tracks.
"You know how to fight?" Star asked.
"Heck yeah! I've been studying karate and ninjutsu for the last five years! Those are two types of martial arts that we have here on Earth," Marco replied. The rest of the Monsters attacked while Ludo chewed out Buff Frog about the flaws in his surveillance. Not wanting to injure the Monsters any more than he had to, Bucky mostly used his trident like a bludgeon in addition to his fists and feet, while Marco delivered a flurry of blows to sensitive pressure points.
"Hey! Leave some for me!" Star cried when she noticed that most of the Monsters were preoccupied with the boys. Her Wand lit up with magic, and she fired off numerous spells that produced either large aquatic mammals, surprisingly solid (and painful) constructs of multicolored light, or sugary confections. Soon all of the monsters had suffered the same fate as Beard Deer.
Ludo could hardly believe his eyes. He had expected this to be like taking candy from a baby, so he was nowhere near prepared for the fighting prowess displayed by Marco and the Butterfly siblings. One thing was certain: Star and Bucky were definitely not the soft, sheltered nobility he and his horde were used to encountering.
"Had enough, Ludo? Or are ya thirsty for more?" Star asked, pointing the Wand at Ludo with a smirk.
"I think we've had enough for tonight. RETREAT!" Ludo shouted, using his own Dimensional Scissors to open a portal back to his castle. The Monsters slowly limped and crawled through the portal while Ludo lectured them on what pathetic fighters they were.
"He'll be back, won't he?" Marco asked Bucky, and Bucky sighed.
"Unfortunately. Ludo's been after the Wand for years. The first time Star and I saw him two years ago, he and his henchmen broke into our castle to try and steal it," the elder Butterfly explained.
"Oh well. At least I get to have my daily allowance of danger now," Marco said with a shrug. "Now come on; Dad's making fajitas for dinner, and Mom will strangle me if we're late!"
...
Back in the Diaz household, they had just finished dinner with a delicious sheet cake decorated with aliens and flying saucers and the words WELCOME TO EARTH in big glittery letters. Marco had to explain to his parents that Star and Bucky were from another dimension and not outer space, to which they sheepishly apologized.
Now, Star and Bucky were getting ready to go to sleep, Star in a baby-blue nightgown with a pink crescent moon on the front, and Bucky in black drawstring pants and a black tank top that showed off his powerful chest muscles.
"Are you absolutely certain you don't want me to poof you a new bed?" Star asked for the third time. She loved her big brother and hated to see him sleeping on something that looked like it would hurt his back eventually. She'd wanted to give him a new bed for a while, and now that she had magic, she thought it was time that he got one.
"Star, just drop it! You have your sleeping preferences, I have mine!" Bucky stated in annoyance.
"Fine. Goodnight, Bucky," Star said and gave her brother a hug.
"Goodnight, Star," Bucky replied, returning the hug and giving Star a kiss on the forehead. Star climbed up the stairs to her part of the room and turned off the enchanted crystals that provided illumination, bathing the room in moonlight from the tower's single window. Bucky made sure she wasn't watching, then pulled out a paper photograph and kissed it. "Goodnight, Belle," he whispered, then set the photograph on his bedside table before laying down on his cot.
The photograph depicted a younger Star in a photo booth with a younger Bucky and a second teen. She was a girl with long steel-gray hair, bright blue eyes like Star, and teal-colored cheek marks shaped like scallop shells. In her hand was a trident very similar to the one present Bucky possessed, only with the prongs branching off from a circular teal gemstone.
Man, what a doozy! This second part of the first chapter leaves a few questions, but I assure you that those questions will get answered as time goes on.
English-to-Spanish translations provided by ChatGPT, in order of appearance: "Mom! Dad! I'm home!" and "Hello, my friends."