Disclaimer: The views and opinions in this story are not intended to be viewed as those of the author. The following is a fan-written fiction. Gravity Falls, Star vs. The Forces of Evil, Kim Possible, and Big Bad Beetleborgs are property of their respective owners, creators, and publishers. Please support the official releases.
TW: This story will contain references to physical and psychological abuse, murder, and torture.
|Feud|
With Spirit Week By Wong over, Echo Creek Academy was back to normal. The gaudy decorations were taken down, the blues, purple, and pink preferred by Brittney replaced by the school's proud orange, yellow, and red livery. Also returned was the laid back and cheerful atmosphere of the school, as students laughed and talked about what had ended up being one of the best dances in the school's long history.
Heather was glad to be back in Echo Creek, and back where everything looked and felt familiar. After stuffing her face with more barbecue than she ever wanted to see again at Lake Tahoe, she was even looking forward to the school's vegetarian meatloaf.
Even better, everyone was in such a good mood that the dance must've gone pretty well, too.
Reaching her locker, she noticed one of her classmates, the wide-eyed and vibrant Hope Hadley, at the locker adjacent to hers. She was standing intimately close to the large and in charge Moobs Squitson, who was red-faced and laughing nervously as she spoke in an inaudible whisper. "Uhh… hey Hope."
Hope perked up and looked back at Heather. "Oh, hey, how was Tahoe?"
Moobs looked at her, looking a little embarrassed. "H-hey Heather."
"Uh, hi Moobs," Heather replied. "And it was fine… just family stuff."
"Great!" Hope cheered before she more gently corrected her. "Oh, and um… his name's actually Mark."
Moobs, or rather Mark, nodded. "Yeah."
Heather could not stop herself. "Oh, hi Mark."
Hope hugged his arm. "And he's my boyfriend~!"
Mark's face turned a brighter red as he smiled sheepishly. "Y-yeah…"
Staring at them both, blinking owlishly, Heather nodded. "Awesome. Good for you two."
Though… if her wide eyes didn't make it clear, she was very confused. "When did this happen?"
"Over the weekend," Hope replied, "I went to the roof party at the Stop and Slurp instead of the dance. I ended up hanging out with Mark, and it turns out he is just… the sweetest~!"
She hugged his arm tighter, and Mark looked like he'd died and found out heaven was real. Heather suddenly felt great about her life just standing beside the two.
"You two are just so precious," she said sincerely, her hand on her chest, before bringing up the aforementioned dance. "What happened with the dance and all that?"
Hope gasped. "Oh my gosh, you missed like so much!"
Mark agreed. "Yeah… so much stuff went down…"
Heather made a slight nod. "I'm getting that vibe. Can I have the teal deer?"
Letting go of her boyfriend's arm, and making a little squee when he placed his hands on her shoulders to rub them Hope lifted her hands. "Okay, okayokayokay… Abridged Version: Brittney got over herself, and invited everyone to the dance and it was freaking lit."
Heather's eyes widened again. "Really?"
"Star Butterfly and Brittney squashed the beef, and they're cool now. They even danced together for like three songs."
Now the blonde's mouth dropped open. "No way…"
Gesticulating madly, but not so much that she shrugged off Mark's hands, Hope kept going. "And then Andrew McCormick just walked up and smashed her in the face with a plate full of whipped cream in front of everyone."
Heather was stunned. "Wait… Drew pied Brittney in the face?"
"It was so good!" Hope said. "Everybody was laughing so hard, even Brittney! I almost passed out from not getting enough air–andthemolly."
Heather caught that. "And the what now?"
"Nothing. Yeah. But Drew is like… the most hype dude in school right now," Hope quickly continued.
Smiling at that, Heather looked around. "Is he here yet? Have you seen him?"
"Do you hear cheering classmates? He's not here yet," Hope replied before she broke into a cheeky grin. "Oh yeah, um… he didn't go solo to the dance."
That gave her pause. "He went with someone. A girl someone?"
Mark answered. "Yeah, he went to the dance with Sabrina Backintosh. Heck, he showed up as part of Brittney's entourage."
"He had moves like Dio," Hope added.
And Heather went right back to being stunned. "… Whoa."
She had seen the selfies Roland had sent her, and really liked how Drew seemed to be enjoying his evening, but this was huge–she needed to hear it from the man himself.
It was at that moment her morning took a turn, and not a good one, as Trip and Van walked into the outdoor locker area with their usual unwarranted swagger. Spotting her, Trip adjusted his glasses and brushed his fingers through his curled bangs as he walked over to her, Hope, and Mark.
"Oh, hey Heather. Hope your weekend was nice," he greeted.
Rolling her eyes as Hope and Mark both grimaced at the Vanderhoffs, Heather turned to them. "Trip, I just got here."
Van stared at Mark and Hope, the former's hands still on the latter's shoulders. "What's all this?"
"We're dating now," Hope said.
Mark, quailing in the presence of the bigger Vanderhoff, just nodded.
Van laughed. "But he's a fat fuck."
Hope leaned back against Mark as he winced, reassuring him of her affection while the look she gave Van was murderous. "Do you two have any other energy besides 'walking pieces of shit?'"
Heather agreed. "Yeah, come on."
Trip shrugged his shoulders. "Do I look like I give a care about what any of you think about 'my energy?'"
"Yeah!" Van sharply snapped back while feinting towards Mark and Hope.
Heather shook her head. "Go be gross and up your own butts somewhere else. I'm trying to have a nice day."
Trip chuckled and shrugged his shoulders. "You could be having a great day, but uh… if I remember correctly, you decided to pick that fat loser Andrew over me."
Mark looked down at Hope. "Andrew's not fat."
She looked back up at him. "I know, right?"
"We're not dating," Heather firmly reminded Trip. "If I remember correctly, I told you that just before Dipper Pines knocked you into Glendale."
Hope chimed in. "Ooh, I still have a video of that saved to my phone."
Rather than break down into seething, Trip just let out a sharp chuckle. "Oh yeah, Pine Tree, have you seen him around this morning? I heard he had a rough weekend."
Hope, Mark, and Heather all looked at one another, with some confusion.
"I only got home late last night," Heather said.
Trip, still smirking, conceded to her ignorance. "Yeah, I guess you wouldn't know. But from what I heard, he fucked around with the wrong person, and found out what happens when you do."
Heather narrowed her eyes. "… Did you do something?"
Trip raised his hands defensively. "Whoa, hey, who said anything about that?"
"Because it sounds like you did," Heather spat back, "And you are stupid enough to brag about something like that."
Now Trip was offended. "Excuse you? You're hot, but I know you're not that dumb, Heather."
Misao's snarling German cut through the air behind them, as the small foreigner marched towards them. "Wenn du nur klug genug wärst, um zu erkennen, wie dumm du bist!"
Trip turned to her. "Uh, excuse you? I don't speak Nazi–"
As he spoke, Misao brought her hand back and slapped Trip with enough force to knock him backward towards his brother. When he caught himself, his hand on the red mark on his cheek, Misao shrieked at both brothers.
"Das ist noch nicht einmal das Schlimmste, was du verdienst!" She pointed at them both. "Es gibt kein Zurück mehr, ich werde alles zerstören, was du hast! Du wirst nichts haben!"
Heather, stunned at Misao's rage, watched as tears rolled down her face in her tirade. "M-Misao…!"
In English, as other students stopped and stared, Misao finished her ranting. "I WILL EVEN TAKE YOUR NAMES FROM YOU!"
Between them both, Van reacted first. "Yeah, what are you gonna do, half pint?!"
He quickly stopped when Mabel came around the corner and pulled Misao back from the brothers. With a hand over her mouth, Mabel gave both a hard look.
"We know what you did," she said as Misao huffed loudly over her hand and struggled to get at them. "My brother, Marco, and Jackie all ended up in the hospital."
Van recoiled a bit, hearing that Jackie Lynn Thomas somehow got involved. "… What?"
Trip huffed. "What did we do?"
"Yeah, what did you do?" Heather pressed.
Mark whispered. "Oh shit… did he really put a hit out on him?"
Hope shook her head. "No way he's that twisted…"
"He is," Mabel revealed. "He's been paying people to go after my brother since we got here, and finally someone got him good."
As the other students gasped in surprise, Mabel focused her attention back on the Vanderhoffs. "You don't get to walk around and pretend what you did is okay, okay?" She spoke. "You want the smoke? Well you're in luck, you're going to get the smoke."
"And you will choke on it and die!" Misao yelled at them.
Trip laughed in their faces. "Oh yeah? What are you going to do, tell a teacher? Call the cops? Try to beat us up? I don't care what you think you can do. I will literally pay back the worst you try a million dollars more!"
He looked around at his impromptu audience. "I can buy and sell all of you! Your lives are a week's allowance for me! A month's if you think you have money!"
He turned back to Mabel. "So square up, THOTs. If you think you have anything that can change how the world works? Show me, right now."
Heather looked back and forth between the two groups, caught between shock and terror at the fury that Misao openly roared, and Mabel didn't. And the sheer disgust and horror at what Trip had devolved into after only a few weeks from getting punched in the face. Beside her, Hope was now cowering behind Mark, who despite his own consternation was determined to be a wall between the conflict and his new girlfriend.
Mabel stared back at Trip but paid no small mind to Van. She could see it in the bigger Vanderhoff's eyes–that despite his smaller brother's braggadocio, there was a fear of consequences that Trip was outright disregarding.
"No need," she said, "As the legendary hottie Jack Burton says, 'The check is in the mail.'"
Misao snarled. "And nothing you can do will stop it from being cashed."
Mabel covered her mouth. "Girl, I know you're heated, but you're too cute to have your blood pressure this high."
Trip scoffed. "Whatever. When this is over, you're going to do the right thing and get out of my town."
He turned away from them and kept walking, aggressively gesturing for Van to follow him, which the bigger Vanderhoff complied with. As they walked away, Heather shook her head, her expression darkened to match how black her feelings were.
"What the fuck," she whispered.
Slipping her arms under Misao's and closing her hands together under her chest, Mabel hoisted the smaller girl up so her feet were dangling above the ground. She turned to Heather and managed to smile. "Yeah, don't forget, we've handled this kind of gross crazy before."
Hope looked around. "Has anyone noticed that there aren't any teachers around when intense stuff like this happens?"
"It always does!" Mabel said with an exasperated eyeroll.
"Sie werden leiden," Misao growled even as she surrendered to Mabel's strength.
"Wir werden dafür sorgen," Mabel replied to her, before switching to English. "Also, we gotta get you to class! Let's go!"
She began jogging in place as she said to Heather. "It's so nice to see you again, Heather! I hope we can get caught up and talk about all the good stuff that happened during our weekend!"
Heather, however, was still very concerned. "What about your brother, or Marco? Or Jackie Lynn Thomas?"
Mabel beamed. "Oh, they're fine, don't worry. They got patched up nicely."
She headed off, still carrying Misao. "I promise we'll talk more about it, bye now~!"
Heather watched them go and shook her head. "Wow… suddenly it feels like I've been gone for months."
Having missed the fiasco by dint of being in the cafeteria for breakfast, Drew walked up with Jo and Roland in tow. Overhearing Heather's lament, he smiled as he walked up to speak to her. "Yeah, same here."
Right away Heather brightened and turned to him. "Oh, hey Drewwwwwwww…"
She trailed off into a steady tone as she stared at the elder McCormick sibling, looking tall, confident, and absolutely fresh to death thanks to the tips he picked up and took to heart from his makeover for the dance. He wasn't as tightly dressed as he was as the dance, being back in his more comfortable daily attire, but he was wearing the Chuck Taylors Brittney bought him.
"… wwwwww…?" Heather finished, her entire face now a bright shade of pink.
Not missing a beat, Drew greeted her in turn. "It's nice to see you again, Heather."
Behind him, Roland and Jo both had their phones out and took pictures.
"Mine is going to the group chat," Jo said as she swiped her screen with her thumb.
Roland similarly fiddled with his phone. "And mine is going to Nano."
Heather snapped out of it. "Oh, come on!"
Defensively she turned away from them as Hope and Mark both laughed. "I was just surprised. You look great, Drew…"
Drew rubbed the back of his head. "Well, this is just stuff I learned after the makeover Brittney gave me."
Heather turned back to face him. "Yeah, I just heard about that. I want to hear everything."
Roland grinned. "Well, we still have a few minutes before the bell rings."
Drew agreed. "Yeah, from the moment you left, things have been… crazy."
As the Beetleborgs trio and Heather headed towards their lockers to get their belongings, and Hope and Mark joined the other students to head inside the building, none noticed the quarter-sized insect atop Hope's locker watching them go. If they had, they might have called for an exterminator. And if they had gotten a closer look, they'd have called for the school to be nuked from orbit.
The creature was reminiscent of a jumping spider, colored blue and white with large red liquid eyes in its abdomen and six red, spike-covered arms that ended in hooked, bony claws. Above the shoulders of its largest pair of arms, however, was its grotesque head consisting of a massive mouth full of interlocked, yellowed teeth, a pair of large oval nostrils, and two long feathered antennae.
The Synthetic Beast Kombat Knat ignored the three children talking with their black-wearing friend and instead scrambled along over the tops of the lockers at high speed in the direction Mabel and Misao went. Though outwardly expressionless due to his bizarre form, intensity burned in the creature's eyes as he raced for the optimal position to continue its mission.
With a burst of swirling flame, Kombat Knat leaped to life from the pages of the comic produced by Typhus. He landed in a crouch within the closed off mausoleum, before rising to full height and turned to face Vexor, Typhus and Jara. The Mercenary Army General shrank back in horror as her Synthetic Beast Army General counterpart pumped his fists in triumph.
"Welcome to the world, KK!" Typhus greeted.
Tilting up to look at his creator, Kombat Knat sprang up in an excited leap. In a raspy, gurgling, high-pitched voice it greeted him. "Creator! Kombat Knat, reporting!"
"This has to be one of your worst creations," Jara said, her disgust dripping from her tone.
Typhus let out a laugh. "You don't want to meet my worst creations, baby."
Being an inhuman monstrosity himself, Vexor missed the negative aspects of Kombat Knat's aesthetic. "So then, what can this particular creature do?"
Typhus turned to Vexor. "Oh yeah, Kombat Knat's great. I made him for gettin' into things and spying on 'em. Plus, he can fight at any size, baby."
"It's not the size of the monster, but what you do with it!" Kombat Knat said while performing a pelvic thrust. "Heyoooo!"
Jara almost threw up a little. "I hate him, and I want him to die."
Kombat Knat turned to her. "Oh. Hello. I'm Kombat Knat, and I'm the insectoid horror who's not judging you on your appearance."
Jara folded her arms in disdain. "I see he and Noxic would get along."
"Yeah, he's got a great sense of humor, baby." Typhus said aside to her before addressing Vexor as Kombat Knat preened from the praise. "So, you gonna give him his marchin' orders or what?"
Vexor nodded before addressing Kombat Knat. With a wave of his hand, he created a scrying window that showed the faces of Dipper, Mabel, Misao, Star, and Marco. "Pay attention, I need you to stick close to any of these five humanoids and collect information regarding these three."
With another wave of his hand, he conjured images of the three Big Bad Beetleborgs. "Find me the names of the humanoids hidden beneath this armor. It is of the utmost urgency."
Kombat Knat buzzed affirmative. "I can do that for you, what you want me to do when I get the intel ya need?"
Jara was a little surprised that Kombat Knat was so quick to cut to the chase.
"Return at once, of course. All of them are a risk to face in battle–with the most dangerous being these four." Vexor dimmed all the images he conjured except for Star and the Beetleborgs. Avoid a battle at all costs."
"Bzzt! Got it, tail these fleshy weirdos and find out who are secretly robots," Kombat Knat clicked his claws together. "Do you want me to pass along any other useful intel that I might pick up?"
"Of course," Vexor replied, "Anything that may give insight to their capabilities and weaknesses. The more that you can find, the better."
Kombat Knat was happy to oblige. "Leave it to me."
Now Jara felt a bit bad for being so quick to judge. "Typhus, your creations are… disciplined."
"Of course, they are, baby! I raised them up good!" Typhus boasted back. "Don't tell me you forgot how Snake Head played his role with no problem."
Jara grimaced. "Forgive me, I actually had."
With a shrug of his shoulders, Typhus forgave her. "Don't worry 'bout it. You had a lot on your plate."
The Mercenary Army General turned her attention to Vexor. "So… what exactly is your plan and how do finding out who Beetleborgs are factor into it?"
Vexor tilted his head in a nod to Jara. "Valid questions; I shall be brief in detailing my intended goal: Knowing the identities of the Beetleborgs will make my plan for isolating and defeating them possible."
Jara let out a hum. "So that is the strategy, and why so many Scabs are required."
"Correct. The Butterfly and the Beetleborgs are the single largest threat of this group of children, but even then, I expect there to be more resistance once they are out of the way." Vexor sniffed. "I have my sincerest doubts that the defense of this entire world is hinged on just them."
Typhus was a bit taken aback. "You're saying that there might be other guys here who can throw hands with us, Vex?"
"I'm saying that it's a certainty. That little so panic has spread from our most recent shows of force suggests that this is a world used to the unusual and the outlandish. That the Butterfly and her magic goes free without drawing the attention of this place's authorities does the same."
Vexor looked at Typhus. "It also suggests that they are for now observing–watching our clashes and measuring the severity of the situation before intervening in force."
It did concern Jara somewhat that this world's armies and warriors weren't lining up around the proverbial block to face them. Even in the few days since their outright air assaults against the city, the locals didn't seem concerned, let alone in hysteria. "So, what then? We defeat the children and deal with this world's real protectors?"
"Precisely," Vexor said, "And if all goes according to plan… we will have the power of that magic wand, and the tremendous powers that gave these Beetleborg's life to sweep them aside in turn."
He performed a sweeping gesture. "That is our ultimate goal in this battle. For if these forces are enough to give hapless children the strength to fight us off, consider what it would be in our own hands–what we could do to this world… to this entire reality… to all realities…"
Typhus chuckled. "You're starting to sound like the Vexor in the comics."
With flair Vexor tilted his head and shrugged his shoulders. "It is an inspiring rendition. Quite flattering, too."
He swept away and glided across the floor to the sarcophagus, picking up a comic from it. "Actually… that is another objective I have in mind for the culmination of our plot."
"That being?" Jara asked.
"I would like to meet the author of this storied work face to face, so that he may reveal how he's come to know our faces." He turned back to them, holding the comic book open in his fingers. "But that's neither here nor there. Let us focus on the present, and the objective that will make that bridge passable when we reach it."
Jara huffed. "Well, when we do get ahold of that power, I am certainly not wearing any of that ridiculous insectoid armor."
Kombat Knat chimed in. "The arthropodal race thanks you for not attempting."
Typhus turned to Kombat Knat. "You got your marchin' orders, baby! Go out there and scope them kids out!"
Kombat Knat ground his teeth together and clicked. "You can count on me! I'll discover all their secrets!"
Vexor made another gesture, showing a scrying of the town of Echo Creek as seen from above for Kombat Knat. "Commit this map to your memory."
In particular, he focused on Echo Creek Academy, and showed its location relative to the cemetery. "Begin your surveillance here."
"Understood!" Kombat Knat said before bathing himself in a violet light and shrinking himself down to the smallest possible size–that of a US Quarter coin. At that size, it was no problem for the Synthetic Beast to zip off, shooting through a crack in the wall of the sealed off crypt.
Reaching the end of the lockers and the gap between them and the door to inside the school, Kombat Knat stood on the precipice and watched the doors swing open and shut as students made their way alone or in groups. With his size and speed, getting in undetected was all but guaranteed. Either of the two humans that Vexor identified for him would likewise be perfect concealment.
"Both of them have those absurd lengths of that hair mammals need so much…" He mused aloud. "Disappearing into them and riding along to learn all their secrets would be perfect…"
He clicked his claws and ground his teeth. "Yes… perfect… this will be done inside of a… of a… a…"
Kombat Knat trailed off and looked away from the door. He turned his whole body to gaze across the street. Through his huge liquid eyes, his vision was filled with a wondrous luminescence… a light that captured and overrode all other thought.
"Bzzt."
His teeth ground and his claws clicked. Across the street from the school, and the homes that sat along it. Between two of them there was dense foliage that concealed it, but he could see nothing but its brilliance shining through. It captivated him, like a beacon showing the way.
"Bzzzzzz…"
Kombat Knat turned away from the light and stared at the door. "No! Do not look at the light! The bright… calling… guiding…"
Slowly, the Synthetic Beast turned away and began creeping to the edge of the lockers facing the glow.
Then he punched himself with a claw, spinning himself to face the opposite direction.
"The mission, you need to do your mission! The Creator has entrusted you! The Creator's master has entrusted you! Follow your orders!" Kombat Knat snarled at himself.
Sharp wheezing sounds followed as the insectoid breathed through its many spiracles. "I am a creation of Typhus, his faith in me is unshakeable. My dedication to the task he has served me is unshakeable. I Kombat Knat, will not fail! I will not be blinded by the light!"
For a few moments, Kombat Knat stood there, resolute, unmoving, focused.
And then, mission completely forgotten, Kombat Knat zoomed towards the glow that called to it from the bushes, buzzing loudly as it leaped towards his new glowing God.
"BUT I WAS BLINDED BY THE LIGHT! REVVED UP LIKE A DEUCE, ANOTHER RUNNER IN THE NIGHT!"
In seconds Kombat Knat skipped like a stone from the school grounds and across the street. Passing under the departing buses and narrowly avoiding being flattened by passing cars, the beast vaulted over the vast (to him) sidewalk and grass–the blades three times his height–before entering the dense forest that was a single bush and the source of the glow.
Stopping at the foot of the glow, the light radiating in mesmerizing waves, Kombat Knat just stared in silence. No thoughts, head empty, only the glorious light that shone brighter than any star, supernova, quasar or magnetar.
He could not look away.
He would not look away.
There was only the light… and how he would die for it.
Kombat Knat went unnoticed to the incandescence that bewitched him, for she wasn't so easily swayed by the first shiny thing to come across his path.
"Demeter to Scion, the target has just walked into the building," Shego reported from her hiding spot.
Señor Senior Junior responded through the earpiece she'd spoken into. "Very good. As we have planned and rehearsed, I will move at your call and accordingly to how you wish to approach–quiet, or loud."
Smirking Shego watched Star Butterfly walk towards the lockers, accompanied by Janna. "I'll give you an answer in a bit; for right now, though? I'm leaning towards loud."
The endgame with the Vanderhoffs is on. The chickens are on their way home to roost.
