Author's Note: Here we are at the next chapter of this Young Avengers fic, one that introduces one of the greatest villains in the entire show, probably THE greatest. Enjoy the chapter. Any and all comments are welcome.


Once again, Ludo made a brainless attempt to attack Star and America and take the wand from them, and once again, they were in for a fight. Star shot her magical blasts at some of the monsters to keep them at a distance while America picked one of them up to toss him to the others.

"How are you losing?!" Ludo yelled from afar. "You guys have, like, 200 pounds on her!"

"Is that all?" America scoffed. "I can bench 250 on a bad day."

Ludo groaned slapping himself in the face. "At least hit them with a rock or something!"

Per Ludo's instruction, the bear monster picked up a rock and threw it at Star's head. It connected, but it turned out to be a small pebble that didn't really make any difference. Both Star and Ludo were disappointed at that sad attempt.

Star then flipped backwards and landed on top of a park bench. "Off the lamp post, over the tree. Nothing but net." She fired a blast, and just as she predicted, it bounced off a lamp post, flew over a tree, and hit the giraffe monster in the back of his neck. "Told you I could do it."

"Not bad, amiga," America congratulated, "But double or nothing says I can't knock them all down with only one attack."

"You're on." Star accepted.

America turned to all the monsters, who stood up in a straight line. She flew right at them at rocket speed and extended her arm. Without anything stopping her, she clotheslined all the monsters making them fly into the air and landing on the ground groaning in defeat. The last monster fell on top of Ludo, which meant the fight was over, and once again, the girls won.

"I'd say that makes this the twentieth victory we have over Ludo." America said. "I say we celebrate with Chinese food. How does that sound, Star?"

"Ooh! What's Chinese food?"

"I'll show you when we get there." America said guiding Star away from the monster pile.

The two of them exited the scene leaving Ludo more than furious. Later on, he would decide that he needs more competent followers.


America and Star sat at the local Chinese restaurant and started having their lunch. Both of them were enjoying themselves.

"This is delicious. And it's so fun eating with these tiny wands." Star said just before the waitress brought them a plate with fortune cookies on it. "Oh, and there's cookies too." She threw one into her mouth, chewed on it, but stuck out her tongue which had a slip of paper on it. "I don't like this filling."

"That's just a fortune cookie, Star." America informed with a small laugh. "They're fun little bits that come with every Chinese meal. These slips of paper inside them have special sayings in them. Some say they can even predict the future."

"What? No way!" Star gasped.

"Here. It's like this." America said. She cracked open a fortune cookie, pulled out the paper inside, and read from it. "'A friend will greet you with a smile.'"

"Aww. How sweet." Star said with a warm smile.

America chuckled. "Well, what do you know? My fortune came true."

"Let me see!" Star said excitedly taking one of the other fortunes. She then rolled it up. "'Think positive and good luck will come your way.'"

At that moment, one of the restaurant servers walked on by with a box full of cookies. Star smiled when she saw it and jumped out of her table.

"More cookies!" Star shouted getting the server's attention. "Let me have 'em!"

"They're stale."

"Gimme!"

The server smiled at Star before passing the box to her. "You're a weird girl." she said before walking off to continue her job.

"The fortune was right, America!" Star said happily. "These are incredible."

America stared at Star with concern. "This is going to be our thing for today, isn't it?"


The whole afternoon, Ludo spent time interviewing new monsters to join his gang. Unfortunately for him, none of them were smart, strong, or reliable enough for Ludo to even consider. They had no chance to be taken seriously. And every time, within a single minute of talking to them over his office desk, Ludo would yell out the same word.

"NEXT!"

After over a dozen applicants failed to meet Ludo's requirements, he sat back rubbing the sides of his head with his fingers. "These idiots are even dumber than you idiots!"

It looked like there wasn't a single monster who could join. That is, except for…

Ludo heard the sound of a small glass of dirty water passed over to him. He raised his head to see the person who offered it was a tall lizard man with a black suit, a red tie, black hair, and a blank expression on his face. On his right hand, he appeared to be missing his middle finger. Although, his presence did seem serious.

"West Latverian swamp water. Or do you drink from the bottle?"

"On days like this." Ludo groaned taking a drink from the water he was given.

"Tell me about it." the lizard replied.

"Oh, I'll tell you. I've been trying to steal a wand from a teenager. It's harder than it ought to be… Wait a second!" Ludo raised himself up to get a better look at the reptilian stranger standing before him. "Where did you come from?"

"I let myself in."

"When?"

"After you hired me."

"I hired you?"

"I accept."

"Excellent!" Ludo cheered much to Buff Frog's confusion. He then shook the lizard man's hand.

"We'll start tomorrow. Get some rest."

Before Ludo knew it, the strange lizard man he hired was no longer in his office. "Uh… Did anybody catch his name?" That's when he noticed the black card in his hand, which he read from. "'Toffee'. I guess his name is Toffee."

Buff Frog looked at the card as well and noticed something. "Uh, Master Ludo, do you see that?" He pointed at the stylized letter M on the bottom-right corner of the card. "What does 'M' mean?"

"Maybe he's sponsored?" Ludo guessed before smiling admirably. "Ooh, he's already got a good reference then. I like him already."


Back at the apartment, Star sat at the table worshipping the box of fortune cookies she got from the restaurant. America watched awkwardly from behind her.

"Oh, wise and powerful cookies, bestow your sugary prophecies upon me."

"Uh, Star, this was cute for a while, but now, I'm getting worried." America said. "The fortunes in the cookies aren't really magic. They're put there by people in a factory."

"Next, you'll tell me that's how they get the snow in snow globes." Star scoffed. "It's clearly the work of dark wizards."

"I'm serious. The fortunes aren't really predictions of the future. They're just made to be vague enough to mean just about anything."

"Don't be a nonbeliever, Chavez. I'll show you." Star broke open a fortune cookie and read from it. "'An unexpected visitor will soon arrive.'" She then turned to face the door.

Rolling her eyes, America walked up to the door and opened it up revealing no one outside. She continued to open and close it repeatedly.

"See what I mean, Star? No one's here. Now, how about we make some nachos."

"Did someone say nachos?!"

"AAHH!" America cried out in surprise seeing her schoolmate, Ferguson, standing just outside the door.

"Well, hello, my unexpected visitor." Star said with a smug smile in America's direction.

"Ferguson, what are you doing here?" America asked.

"I heard 'nachos', so here I am."

"Well, you came at a pretty bad time." America said. "Star seems to believe that fortune cookies are magic. Could you back me up here and say they're not?"

"Whoa, hold on! Cookies ARE magical." Ferguson agreed. "Once, I ate one from the floor of a cab, and I met my spirit animal that night. It was a wolf."

America sighed. "Maybe asking Ferguson to back up logic was a bad call on my part. Mi culpo a mi mismo."

"Why do you keep doubting fortune cookies?" Star asked.

"Because I don't need a cookie to tell me what I need to do." America said. "I'm more than capable of choosing that for myself, and so are you. You just need to think things through."

"Why would I need to do that when I've got such great advice such as…" Star proceeded with reading another fortune. "'Reach for the stars and achieve your dream.'" She aimed her wand into the air, but America stopped her.

"NO! We've got neighbors living above us, remember?" America asked aggressively.

"But I've always dreamed of having a skylight in here." Star said.

"Star, clearly, we need to take you back to the restaurant so that they can tell you themselves that the cookies aren't magic." America said. "Let's go before you bother the neighbors even more."

Star paused for a minute before opening up another cookie. She smiled once she read its fortune. "All right. I'll go." She left with America, who groaned in frustration.

Meanwhile, just outside, Buff Frog was shown to have listened in on the whole conversation. When the girls left, he opened his portal to return to the lair.


Ludo waited for Toffee to return the castle, and when he did, he showed him around and lead him to the break room where the other monsters were.

"Okay, Toffee, I'm going to show you what we're working with here." Ludo said.

Ludo and Toffee looked at the monsters, who were all having a dance-off against each other. The fly monster slipped a "KICK ME" sign on one of the monsters backs urging the other monsters to hit him from behind. A fight soon broke out.

"Guess I'm doomed, huh?" Ludo asked. "Be honest. I can handle it."

Suddenly, a portal opened up, and Buff Frog made it back to Ludo's side with his report. "Ludo, master. The girl thinks the messages in her cookies are fortunes. She does whatever they say."

"Interrupting!" Ludo shouted before turning back to his new recruit. "Well, Toffee, give it to me straight. Are my monsters the worst ever or what?"

"Uh…" Toffee began to say continuing to watch the monsters roughhousing. He then turned back to Ludo and Buff Frog. "Maybe we can do something with those… fortune cookies."

Buff Frog seemed suspicious of Toffee, so he gently pushed Ludo away from him. He then leaned down and whispered to him. "You sure you trust him, boss?"

"Of course." Ludo replied.

"What about the M on his card?" Buff Frog asked. "Did you ask what that meant?"

"I don't need to. Stop worrying so much." Ludo said returning to Toffee. "So let's talk more about this fortune cookie plan you have."


"Aw, last cookie." Star said walking into town with America. "I can't wait to get more."

"Star, the only reason we're going back to the restaurant is so we can settle this once and for all." America said. "Food can't predict the future."

"Sure, it can." Star said. "On Mewni, there's a place where you can get calzones that will tell you how you're gonna die."

America raised an eyebrow. "Well, that's… deeply disturbing, but this isn't Mewni. Here on Earth, there is no magic food. And I'll prove it when… Wait. Do you hear that?"

The girls heard the faint sound of breakdancing music. They followed it into an alleyway where they found two figures in heavy clothes having a dance off. They were so drawn into the competition, they didn't notice that Ludo's fly minion buzzed behind them and swapped out the fortune cookie in Star's bag with one of his own.

Star then reached in her bag and pulled out the cookie from it unaware that it wasn't her own. As soon as the broke it to read its fortune, that's when the dancers removed their disguises. It turned out to be two of Ludo's monster minions. After that, even more monsters popped out of their hiding places surrounding Star and America.

"So you bozos want to make it twenty-one, huh?" America asked pounding her fist into her open hand. "Well, I'll be more than ready to…"

"America, wait!" Star interrupted before reading her last fortune out loud. "'Love is always the answer.'"

"QUE?!" America asked loudly. "Star, that's the WORST advice to listen to in this case! They're attacking us! We need to fight back!"

"Sorry, Ames, but it's not the will of the cookie." Star said.

"But… OOF!" America was suddenly tackled by the chicken monster, who then clamped his beak on her shirt and tossed her around before throwing her to the wall. "Fine! I'll do it myself if I have to!"

America got up and punched the chicken monster's face knocking it aside. She did the same with the three-eyed monster, but when Buff Frog and the red pig head monster doubleteamed her, she soon fell victim to the numbers advantage. Soon, the monsters managed to pick America up and toss her into a dumpster.

"Well, this is humiliating." America groaned.

Star, meanwhile, followed the advice of the fortune cookie and gave a hug to each other monsters that came to her one by one. She was grouped up by the monsters that came to her, but she gave each of them a loving embrace. That's when Ludo made his move. He pushed past the monsters one by one finding himself closer to the wand right as Star hugged the two-headed monster. He had never felt more excited than any other time in his life. He was just about to grab it when…

"Back off, dude." the right head said pushing Ludo away. "I've been waiting for this since middle school."

"What?" Ludo asked. "You idiots are screwing up the plan!"

"Plan?" Star asked.

The monster's right head soon found himself in a compromising position, so he took a deep breath and confessed. "Okay, look, Star. This is really hard to say, but if this is going to go any further, I want our relationship to have a foundation of honestly."

"Me too." the left head agreed.

"So confused." Star said.

"Fortune cookies aren't real. It was all a trap so that Ludo could steal your wand." the right head admitted. "Anyway, I hope…"

"WE hope!" the left head shouted.

The right head sighed. "We hope this isn't a deal-breaker."

Suddenly, the dumpster that America was in was launched right into the two-headed monster and Ludo. America lifted the lid and faced Star.

"You know what this means, right?" America asked.

"Oh, yeah." Star said before getting serious. "Love is never the answer."

"Aw, man. I wanted to say it." America said sadly.

"MEGA MUSHROOM DESTRUCTION BLAST!" Star shouted as she fired a blue wave full of red mushrooms. It blasted all the monsters in the alleyway.

After America smiled proudly at her friend's attack, she looked up and noticed Toffee standing on top of a nearby building watching the fight from above.

"Hmm. Looks like we got a spectator." America said with an eager smile. "Well, let's not leave him out of action."

America punched the air behind her and opened up a star portal for her to jump through. A second portal opened up behind Toffee causing him to turn to it. When America jumped through to confront him, he widened his eyes.

"America…"

"Oh, so you've heard of me." America said. "Well, buddy, it's time to start taking names! What's your name?"

"Wait." Toffee said looking confused. "You don't know who I am?"

"Should I?" America asked before noticing something. She looked at her right arm and caught it trembling out of her control. She grabbed it with her other hand, but it only lessened the shaking. "Que pasa?"

Toffee continued to stare at America. "You don't remember me, do you? Interesting." He then looked down to see Ludo opening his portal for the monsters to get through. "I'd love to talk more, but I've got business with Ludo. Don't worry. I'm sure we'll meet again."

Before America could say anything, Toffee jumped from the rooftop and regrouped with Ludo and the monsters. He then exited Earth through the portal just like them before it closed behind them. Confused, America flew back to the ground to meet back with Star.

"Sorry. I should have listened to you." Star apologized. "Obviously, you know better than a dessert." She then noticed the confusion on her friend's face. "Hey, America, are you all right?"

"I think so." America replied. "It's just… It's that one monster."

"Which one?" Star asked.

"The tall lizard man. I think he's new to Ludo's gang." America said. "But he made it seem like I'm supposed to know him somehow. And then… Well, I don't know how else to say it. I trembled."

"Trembled?" Star asked. "America, you're the bravest, most hardcore girl I know. You don't tremble."

"Tell that to my arm." America said raising her right arm, which then stopped shaking. "I don't know. Maybe it's nothing."

Just then, a nearby door opened up, and the Chinese restaurant server walked out with another box full of fortune cookies. She noticed Star standing in the alley and smiled at her.

"Oh, weird perky girl. You want some more stale cookies?"

"Who could say no to that?" Star asked accepting the box. She then noticed America staring at her. "What? They're not real fortunes, but they're still real cookies."

"Stale cookies." America said before shrugging. "Eh, well, it's free. Might as well.
Star passed a cookie over to America, who broke it off and removed the fortune inside. She then ate the cookie while Star read the fortune.

"'A great evil has been unleashed.'"

Star and America exchanged looks before laughing at the fortune. They had no idea that of all the fortunes they read that day, THAT one was the most true of all.


"Cheers." Ludo said raising a glass of swamp water with Toffee and the rest of the monsters. "That was the closest we've ever come. But that girl always gets the best of me."

Toffee stepped over to the window where he could catch a view of Butterfly Castle from afar. "Yes, well, you're not the first monster to fall victim to their magic."

"Things will be different when I get the wand." Ludo laughed before imitating laser noises.

Toffee stared at Ludo before turning away. He then walked out the door and stood just outside at the front gate. Once he made sure he was alone, he reached into his jacket and pulled out a laptop with the letter M imprinted on it. He then opened it up and revealed a line across the screen which bent to the sound of a woman's voice speaking from it.

"Toffee. How was your first day?"

"Progressive." Toffee said. "That fool, Ludo, has no idea who he just let into his life. I only said a handful of small sentences, and already, he trusts me. Do we really need him?"

"That little birdie is already a regular enemy of Star Butterfly. You could use that. Don't worry. If all goes according to plan, you'll be in charge soon enough."

"That's good to hear." Toffee said. "There is, however, something else I need to report. I was encountered by America Chavez."

"…Did she try to kill you?"

"Actually, no." Toffee said. "In fact, it looks like we're in luck. She didn't even recognize me."

"Really? How is that possible?"

"Something must have happened since the last time I saw her. If so, then we don't have to worry about her for now."

"I see. Just keep your distance though, just in case. For now, we need Ludo to be at the center of all future attempts to go after the wand. At least, until we're ready to move onto the next step. Until then, continue with the plan."

"I will." Toffee said. "Soon, all of Mewni will fall to the Midas Foundation."