Legends: A Story of Monsters [Star vs. The Forces of Evil, Gravity Falls, Big Bad Beetleborgs]

[The Ero-Sennin]

Time for a fight, and the end of sever other conflicts besides. The penultimate chapter of Volume 6 is here.

Spoiler: Original Version

|Hammer Down the Nails|​

Across the street from the school, Shermie and Ferguson were enjoying their third sodas of the evening, while Star and Alfonzo were fiercely debating his economic development plans for Pixtopia.

"Wh-whu-?! Tax the…?! Why would you tax the peasantry?!" Star demanded of Alfonzo, after hearing of his economic plans for the Pixie Kingdom.

Alfonzo shrugged his shoulders. "Why not?"

Star slapped the back of her right palm into her left hand. "The peasants already do all the labor, and they barely have any money as it is! Do you want a peasant uprising? Because that's how you get a peasant uprising!"

The vehemence of Star's answer surprised Alfonzo. "Well, I can't tax the nobility, they always threaten to revolt when I raise the taxes on them."

Star groaned. "Alfonzo, you're the absolute and tyrannical ruler of Pixtopia. If the noblility revolts, you can just crush them, take their crap, and give it to someone who plays ball. There's only a few of them, you can replace them anytime with anyone! If you get a peasant revolt, you have to crush a lot of guys!"

That was Alfonzo hadn't considered. "… Huh! Smashing a few nobles does sound easier than razing entire cities…"

Star snapped her fingers and pointed at him. "Exactly! Plus, smashing a single house of nobility means that the rest of the kingdom's infrastructure keeps running smoothly. Use that monopoly of force, Alfonzo, crush the rich and redistribute their wealth to someone who can do the job!"

Ferguson raised his hand to his mouth to whisper aside to Shermie. "Uhh… Mr. Pines? I don't think I like where this conversation is headed?"

"Not exactly fond of it myself, kiddo. But I'm thinking they know something we don't. After all, we ain't from around there." Shermie replied.

"Okay, then," Alfonzo said as he gestured to Star with his soda, "What about representative democracy?"

Star held a hand up to about her height. "Pixtopia needs to be this literate for democracy to work."

Alfonzo nodded. "Oh, I can't do that, then," he said before holding his hand at about the height of Star's knees, "Because Pixtopia is about this literate."

"Yeah, that's about right." Star agreed.

Loud clanging footsteps began to fill the air, drawing the attention of Star, Shermie, Ferguson, and Alfonzo along with the dance's security down the street. Marching straight down the middle of the street, his head tilted up towards the flashing holographic marquee, was a seething and grumbling Hammer Kong.

"Oh cool, what's that?!" Ferguson said.

Alfonzo recognized it. "Hey, that's Hammer Hands, from Big Bad Beetleborgs!"

Star and Shermie both looked at Alfonzo with alarm, with the former asking, "Wait, are you sure…?!"

The Combat Mecha followed the streaming beams of light down to their source and saw the gymnasium with lights flashing faintly in the windows. Looking at the hologram emitter, he let out an angry growl before unleashing a burst of lasers from his sole eye, destroying it.

And like that Star got up and began running straight towards Hammer Kong.

"HEY!" Hammer Kong shouted at the dance security as they quickly drew firearms and pointed them at the Combat Mecha. "WHAT IS A SPIRIT WEEK BY WONG AND WHY IS IT SO IMPORTANT, HUH?!"

"Unknown combat cyborg," one of the security personnel said as he stepped closer with a bead drawn on Hammer Kong, "You're trespassing with hostile intent. Leave the area immediately."

Hammer Kong slammed his hammer hands together. "CYBORG?! CYBORG?! DID YOU JUST MISCATEGORIZE ME AS A CAN OF MEAT?!"

"HEY!"

Hammer Kong turned from the guards to Star, who stood in the middle of the street, holding her wand at her left side.

"I don't know what your deal is, but you're not going anywhere near that dance," she said resolutely.

Hammer Kong was mildly perturbed by that. "A dance? THERE'S A FREAKING DANCE OVER THERE?!"

He raised his hands above his head. "I HATE DANCING! I WASN'T PROGRAMMED WITH RHYTHM!"

Star got ready and then said as she replied, "Then let me teach you!"

And she was gone, running straight at Hammer Kong as a green glow built around the head of her wand.

Hammer Kong let out a metallic screech. "OH GOOD, YOU WANNA BE A NAIL!"

Rearing back, Hammer Kong let his right arm extend backward before swinging it up and over his head down where Star would be. "KONG CRUSH!"

Instead of flattening Star, the hammer smashed into the street, as Star sidestepped the weapon. Jumping onto Hammer Kong's arm, she ran up the overextended limb before pointing her wand at his face.

"Laser Beam Blast!" Star shouted, and the wand responded with nothing but more of the green goop from before, splattering it all over Hammer Kong's minimalist face. "Shoot…!"

Jumping from his arm, she landed on the back of Hammer Kong's clawed head, then leaped like a swan off him. Inverted in midair, she aimed the wand at Hammer Kong's legs. "Super Narwhal Blast!"

Instead of Narwhals, more sludge struck and accumulated at Hammer Kong's legs.

Star flipped herself and landed in a crouch, cursing under her breath as the Combat Mecha was only stuck in glittery sludge.

Hammer Kong shook his head and tried to move his legs. "WHAT IS THIS GLITTERY, GIRLY GOOP?! I HATE BEING SLAPPED WITH CAULK!"

Alfonzo and Ferguson both began laughing hysterically from their cover behind Shermie's SUV. Hammer Kong did not appreciate that.

"YOU THINK GETTING CAULK SLAPPED IS FUNNY, HUH?! LAUGH IT UP BEFORE I HAMMER YOU INTO MUSH!" Hammer Kong yelled.

"Bro, I don't swing that way!" Ferguson called back.

"WHAT'S WITH YOU MEATBAGS TURNING EVERYTHING INTO INNUENDO?!" Hammer Kong roared as steam began to hiss from his joints.

"In your end-o!" Ferguson chimed back.

"I'M GONNA SMASH THIS PLANET IN TWO!" Hammer Kong yelled, steam ejecting from all his joints and blasting the glitter sludge from his body.

One last dig, Ferguson could not help himself. "Not cool, bro, you gotta get consent, first!"

Star finished her next message on her compact at that moment. "FERGUSON! STOP MAKING IT MAD!"

Hammer Kong wound up to swing at the SUV with his left arm, when Star sprang into action, jumping onto his arm as it swung back and running along it to jump and kick Hammer Kong in the side of his hammer head. To her displeasure, her blow barely off balanced him, but did enough to cause his overextended arm to fall limp to the ground.

Star landed in front of him, wincing from how numb her leg felt after kicking so much metal, but not so numb that she couldn't dive clear of Hammer Kong's right arm coming down from above. As she landed, Hammer Kong winched in his left arm and thrust it towards her, but she nimbly jumped and twirled out of the way.

"Forget it…!" Star aimed and fired the wand again. "Green Glittery Goop Blast!"

This time the spell poured on like a out of a firehose, spraying all over Hammer Kong's chest and face. From behind the mask of goop, Star saw light shine from Hammer Kong's sole eye, and she twisted away from a laser blast that burned through it. Flipping, somersaulting, and twirling left and right, she retreated from Hammer Kong and the blasts he fired at her.

As the lasers stopped, Hammer Kong let out another frustrated yell. "STOP JUMPING AROUND AND GET HIT ALREADY!"

From his mouth slit, a barrage of glowing nails fired out, quickly growing into foot-long spears that embedded in a line up to Star, but she jumped clear of the barrage to her right.

Back behind the car, Alfonzo and Ferguson watched as Star fired another Green Glittery Goop Blast at Hammer Kong, concerned by her limited spell set.

"Hey, why isn't Star using her cool super destructive magic?" Ferguson asked.

"Yeah, that goop spell would be really useful in Pixtopia, but this isn't working." Alfonzo said.

Shermie, around at the front passenger door of the SUV, opened a case of green-colored shotgun shells, and began loading them into a Mossberg 500 shotgun he pulled from a rack in the back seat. When Ferguson and Alfonzo saw the old man calmly loading such a wicked-looking shotgun, they both grew wide-eyed in amazement and excitement.

"If she ain't using her big guns, she's probably worried about hittin' the school," the elder Pines replied as he loaded round after round into the weapon, "Last thing she wants is for that to happen."

He peeked over the hood of his SUV as Star evaded another hammer swing and got around Hammer Kong. Another Green Glittery Goop Blast to his back, finally turned the Combat Mecha around and away from the school.

"IS THAT THE ONLY SPELL YOU GOT?! NOVICE WITCHES PISS ME OFF!" The Combat Mecha yelled.

As he fired more lasers at Star, Shermie got the gist of what she was doing. "You kids stay down and outta sight, this ain't the movies," he said as he pumped the shotgun to chamber the first round.

Star was already working up a sweat as she used her acrobatics skill to make herself as difficult a target as possible for Hammer Kong. The robot's poor range of motion was working in her favor but hitting him back with anything significant was impossible with his durability.

Shoot, shoot! I have to dip down; I can't fight this guy with my wand like this! She thought before she dodged another barrage of nails that punched into a parked compact car–turning it into a fuel-efficient and environmentally friendly pincushion.

Dipping down would work, but that required time to cast and stamina. She'd need someone or something to distract Hammer Kong for her.

"Hey, ya ugly putz!" Shermie shouted to Hammer Kong's left. When the Combat Mecha turned to face him, he aimed the shotgun from behind another car. "Welcome to LA!"

He opened fire, the rounds hitting and exploding against the side of Hammer Kong's head, his left shoulder, the left side of his chest, and down at his left hammer hand. Even as the rounds exploded against him, Hammer Kong just turned his head to look at Shermie.

"IS THIS HOW YOU WELCOME PEOPLE, WITH EXPLOSIVES!" He yelled before Star caught the right side of his head with more of the Green Glittery Goop.

Shermie ducked down behind the car to reload. "Since the LA Riots!"

"GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! I KEEP FINDING NEW LEVELS OF ANGER!" Hammer Kong yelled as he broke into a mad charge towards Star, jumped and swung both hammer hands and his face down to try to flatten her beneath them.

The magical princess, however, escaped the attack–but was left to look at the deep crater it left behind. "Oh my gosh!"

Hammer Kong stood upright. "IF YOU DON'T STOP RUNNING AROUND AND LET ME SMACK YOU INTO THE GROUND LIKE A GOOD NAIL! I'M GONNA GET REALLY ANGRY!"

Star raised her wand. "Have you tried counting to ten and calming down?!"

Extending is right arm high above his head, Hammer Kong swung down at Star. "I CAN ONLY COUNT DOWN FROM TEN!"

@@@@@​

At the front doors to the gymnasium a furious Brittney pushed them open and heard the clang of Hammer Kong's hammer smash into the ground. She looked up the street to see Star narrowly avoid the blow and hit Hammer Kong with more sludge. Almost right after that, Shermie opened fire from a new position, further up the street from Hammer Kong.

Mabel gasped. "Sherpa!"

Misao looked at the rest of the street, the nails in the road in front of the school, the crater further down it, and Hammer Kong even further beyond that. "… Ah!"

Looking at the destroyed projector and the damage to the street, Brittney turned to her security. "What's going on?! Why haven't you gone after that thing?!"

One of the security personnel nearest to her turned to address her. "Before we could engage, the HVT engaged it on her own and began drawing its attention. A civilian began engaging as well, and they appear to be moving the hostile away from the school, Miss Wong. The hostile appears to be driven purely by rage and completely irrational, attacking him would've only brought its attention back this way."

Brittney looked down the street, and at Star as her agility placed her out of reach of her attacker again.

"Green Glittery Goop Blast!" Star yelled, as she avoided once more hammer swing.

Hammer Kong used that same swing to bring his arm up and block the sludge, before he turned and tried to shoulder barge her. At the last second, Star jumped and kicked off his back, landing behind him.

When his charge stopped, Hammer Kong began to turn again, when he was fired upon by Shermie again. "YOU NEED TO KNOCK IT OFF, MEAT BAG!"

"Take it back to the second rate-hardware store you crawled outta, schmuck!" Shermie defiantly taunted back.

"SECOND RATE?!" Hammer Kong fired a barrage of nails, but Shermie taking cover behind the engine block of a parked pickup truck protected him from the barrage.

"THIRD RATE!" Star yelled as she came down on him with the wand again, blasting him at point blank with another goop blast. "You can't even hammer nails right!"

"THAT'S BECAUSE THEY KEEP MOVING!" Hammer Kong yelled, trying to smash Star flat with both hands and his own face. Star jumped back from the blow at the right moment, but the force of the triple impact sent her flying back.

Misao did not like what she was seeing. "Her magic is still not working."

Mabel agreed. "No, she's still bugged like crazy by something."

Brittney crushed the fan in her hand as she realized what Star was doing.

"Mabel," she barked, and Mabel looked at her.

"What?"

Brittney held out her hand. "Give me back the scissors, go back inside, and tell the DJ to turn up the music. Don't let anybody leave unless it looks like that thing is coming back this way."

She looked back at her. "Smother them with that charisma of yours."

Misao tilted her head to one side as she stared at Brittney. "And what are you going to do?"

"I'm going to get Star the scissors… and some security I hired are going to earn their bonuses."

Mabel lit up into a big smile. Without another question, she handed the scissors to her. "You can count on us!"

Misao agreed. "Ja, you will be careful as well!"

As they headed inside, Mabel pulled out her phone and began texting out an SOS. She knew Drew and Roland wouldn't be able to slip out of the dance… but there was still her brother, Marco, and Jo she could reach.

Brittney let the door close behind her and walked towards the street, the Dimension Scissors in hand. Looking at Star's position, she saw her slowly get up as she watched Hammer Kong rise from his own crouch to face her.

"I can do this all night!" Star taunted, even though she was pretty sure she couldn't.

Hammer Kong slammed his hands together. "I'VE BEEN DOING THIS FOREVER!"

More explosive rounds struck Hammer Kong, and the angry machine quickly turned his attention back on the old man. "I'LL HAMMER YOU ALL UNTIL THE SUN BURNS OUT!"

Before Star could take advantage of the diversion, she heard Brittney call out. "Hey! Star Butterfly!"

Star, surprised to hear Brittney's voice, looked past Hammer Kong in time to see her cut open a portal, creating a second one beside her.

"Get rid of that stupid thing!" Brittney yelled as she threw the scissors into her portal. "And for the next song I'll dance with you!"

Her eyes widening, and a smile spreading across her face, Star caught the scissors turned as Hammer Kong as the Combat Mecha peppered the truck Shermie hid behind. Springing into a run Star jumped in front of Hammer Kong and slashed open the air with the Dimensional Scissors.

Hammer Kong's laser bolts lanced into the portal, and blasted into him from above, damaging him for the first time since his attack began.

"Wha… whu?" Hammer Kong asked as the Combat Mecha felt that. "What… did… you… do…?"

As the portal closed, Star opened up a smaller portal, and the end of a handle slipped out of it. "Something that I wish I'd done earlier, but I'm gonna get to really doing now…"

Slowly Star pulled a long-shafted war hammer out of the portal, one of the many weapons stored in her room. Giving it a quick test swing, she nodded. "This should do the trick, and hey! We match, now!"

Red light poured from Hammer Kong's face holes, as he slammed his hammers together. "YOU'RE GONNA FIGHT ME WITH THAT PUNY INSULT TO HAMMERS?!"

Star charged Hammer Kong, calling to Shermie as she closed in. "Mr. Pines! Back me up, please!"

"You got it, girlchik!" Shermie yelled as he fired again at Hammer Kong's head, the frag rounds exploding just behind the right side of his face and against his neck.

When the blasts distracted the berserk bot, Star jumped and swung the hammer, smashing it into the same spot Shermie hit. This time, there was a massive clang, and Hammer Kong was sent stumbling to his left.

Landing, Star charged forward. "I'm not done yet!"

She smashed Hammer Kong in the chest, a ringing sound reverberating as the Combat Mecha staggered backward from her. She ran up to him, jumped and swung the war hammer down, striking Hammer Kong atop his head and forcing him to bow down.

"You're not…"

Landing, she turned in place and smashed the hammer into the left side of his head, sending him hobbling back the way he came.

"… Getting anywhere near…"

She pursued him, raising the war hammer above her head and smashing it into Hammer Kong's back, driving him off his footing and sending him crashing down onto the ground face first.

"THAT DANCE!"

Stepping back, panting, Star spun the hammer in her right hand behind her, twirled it around above her head in her left hand, and then caught it in both to point the head at Hammer Kong. "How's that for puny, you cheap robot?!"

Shermie called over. "Nice shot, kiddo! I'm outta ammo, can you handle it solo while I go reload?!"

Star watched as Hammer Kong began to get back up. "I've got no choice either way, go–!"

Hammer Kong then raised his hammers and smashed them into the ground so hard that the street beneath him exploded. Shermie ducked down, narrowly avoiding flying glass and shrapnel as the car's windows broke, and Star quickly leaped back as she was pelted by pieces of street flying at high speed.

Launched into the air by his own attack on the ground, Hammer Kong reached the top of his flight and fell towards Star. "YOU DAMAGED ME! NOT EVEN MY OWN CREATOR DAMAGED ME!"

Star scrambled, getting far enough away from Hammer Kong again for his impact with the ground to just send her flying rather than turn her into paste. Lifted off her feet and tumbling through the air, Star lost her war hammer and landed hard, rolling along the street before she sprang up to her feet and stopped.

"I'M GONNA HAMMER YOU… ALL YOU MEATBAGS… THEN I'M GONNA GO BACK AND HAMMER NOXIC… THEN I'M GONNA HAMMER THIS ENTIRE PLANET… AND THEN I'M GONNA HAMMER NOXIC SOME MORE!"

Star shook the cobwebs out of her head. "Why don't you just go hammer Noxic?!"

"DON'T YOU TELL ME WHAT TO DO, YOU NAIL!" Hammer Kong roared back, smashing his hammer hands together. "I'LL SMASH ALL OF YOU! UNTIL THIS WHOLE UNIVERSE IS ONE BIG NAIL DRIVEN INTO NOTHING!"

Star tightened her grip on her hammer. "Uuugh… you are so obnoxious! I wish you would be quiet!"

A faint thud echoed in the distance, before Star saw something descend from on high, falling straight for Hammer Kong. An instant later, the Red Strikerborg crashed down onto Hammer Kong, her punch flattening him into the ground and making an even deeper pit in the street.

Behind her mask, Jo glared coldly down at Hammer Kong as she drew the Input Magnum and pointed it at his head. "How does it feel to be the nail?"

She fired repeated shots into the robot, multiple explosions going off, before with a roar Hammer Kong swung its arm back at her, forcing her to leap off him.

Jo landed on the street, right beside Star, and looked back at the crater Hammer Kong was getting up out of. "Crap… of all the Combat Mecha, why this one?"

Star looked at her. "Strikerborg, what are we up against?"

"Hammer Kong is one of Noxic's most heavily armored monsters in the comic. It took bringing out all three AVs and even Gargantis to finally take him down." Strikerborg revealed. "Just our luck, it's exactly as tough IRL as it is in the comics… my Input Magnum only scorched it!"

Star looked at Jo. "We'll never break him trying to pen."

Jo looked at Star. "Huh?"

"It's gotta be brute force," Star said, "Armor's no good if you can hit what's underneath it until it cracks from inside out."

She looked ahead at Hammer Kong as he slowly stomped out of the crater. "If my magic worked, we'd wear him down faster… but it doesn't."

Jo frowned behind her mask. "It's not working?"

"That green goop! It's been like this for days now, I can't cast any other spell from the wand because the wand's messed up!"

"HEY! RED ROBOT!" Hammer Kong bellowed. "IT'S YOUR TURN TO BE THE NAIL!"

Brittney Wong retorted. "Ugh, shut up."

Heavy caliber gunfire crashed into Hammer Kong, as the security detail Brittney Wong hired to protect the dance unloaded on Hammer Kong with Light Machine Guns, Anti-Material Rifles, and hand cannons.

Star gave a start. "Whoa!"

The Red Strikerborg looked at the security personnel. "What the hell…?!"

Pulling her phone out, Brittney hit a speed dial contact and brought it to her ear. After a single ring, a cheerful woman answered the call.

"Hench Co, because why get upset when you can have people get upset for you?"

"This is Brittney Wong," Brittney replied as she pointed her phone at Hammer Kong and took a picture of him, "Condition Black: Slip the leads."

"At once, Miss Wong, we're releasing the hounds now!" The woman on the other end of the line happily replied.

As Hammer Kong raised his right arm to protect himself from the gunfire, the barrage ended and was replaced by a new sound filling the air that the Combat Mecha had never heard before. Behind Shermie's car, as the elder Pines reached it, he, Alfonzo, and Ferguson heard it as well… the rustling buzz of thousands of cicadas.

The sound was replaced by a thunderous galloping, and then the bellowing moo of an enraged bull seconds before a pair of massive machines passed on either side of Jo and Star.

Hammer Kong lowered the hammer in time to see two strange machines rear up over him. Both resembled a tank turret perched atop a pair of long digitigrade legs that gave them simultaneously a birdlike and reptilian appearance. Each one had lifted a leg off the ground, before unceremoniously driving them into Hammer Kong's chest as powerful kicks that sent the Combat Mecha bouncing back up the street.

Star looked up at the machines, and just blurted out in amazement and excitement. "… WHAT ARE THOSE?!"

Ferguson knew what they were and yelled at Brittney. "Dude, you seriously brought Gekko UGs as security for your freaking dance?!"

"Of course, I did!" Brittney shouted back.

After a short instant, Ferguson answered. "THIS IS THE COOLEST DANCE I NEVER GOT INVITED TO!"

Shermie whistled. "Wow… didn't think you could get Shol Par commercially."

Noticing the elder Pines and seeing the gun in his hands, Strikerborg called out to him. "Mr. Pines! We've got this under control! I need you to go to Hillhurst, right now!"

Shermie lowered his weapon. "You sure you got this, Red?"

"Between all of us, we got this," Strikerborg said. "Now, go, the clock is ticking!"

His eyes narrowing, Shermie recognized the urgency in her voice. "Roger." He turned and headed back to his vehicle, calling to Alfonzo and Ferguson. "Hey, Laurel and Hardy! We gotta skedaddle!"

"Why us?" Ferguson asked.

"Because this ain't no place for civvies, and I gotta go pick up my grandson and your friend. Let's get moving!" Shermie said as he climbed into his SUV. Looking to each other, Alfonzo and Ferguson shrugged their shoulders and climbed into the vehicle as well.

Brittney looked away from Hammer Kong as one of the Gekkos turned and back-kicked the Combat Mecha, allowing the other to jump and stomp on him with both feet, and called over to Star and Jo. "Hey! Are you going to finish that thing off or not?!"

Star called back. "Uh… just a second! We're working on a strategy~!""

Satisfied that Shermie was on his way out, Strikerborg reached out and placed a hand on Star's shoulder. "Star."

Star paused looked at her. "What?"

Behind her mask, Jo took a deep breath. "I'm sorry, for everything. I shouldn't have treated you or anyone else like I have, and I don't want there to be anymore drama between us."

Star brightened. "… Really?"

"Yeah," Jo replied. "I've got your back from now on… I'm not gonna act like a punk brat anymore."

Star literally brightened this time, the light filling her cheek marks as the green, sickly glow slowly faded from her wand. She could feel it, not just in the wand but in her whole body as the dark clouds that hung over were finally cleared. "All right, then I've got your back, too! And I'm gonna try to be less of a total spazzo."

Jo turned towards Hammer Kong. "Actually? I think right now, you need to be a total spazzo more than ever."

With an apoplectic yell, Hammer Kong swung his right-hand hammer into the legs of the Gekko stomping on him. The UG was sent flying and crashed to the ground as the second unit jumped back and imposed itself between Hammer Kong and the downed unit. Still yelling, Hammer Kong lunged forward onto his hammer hands and hammer feet before pushing himself up to standing.

"I hate this world…! I hate everything in it!" He boomed. "So many nails… so many freaking nails… that don't! KNOW! THEIR! PLACE!"

Taking the Royal Magic Wand in her right hand, and the Dimensional Scissors in the other, Star twirled them as the glow in her cheek marks appeared in her pupils and spread across the whites of her eyes.

"Strikerborg?" When Strikerborg looked over at her she asked aloud, so Hammer Kong heard it. "What do you say to the villains when the heroes show up to save the day?"

Jo grinned and turned back to Hammer Kong. "You say… run."

Hammer Kong let out a roar as he charged a laser. "I'LL RUN YOU DOWN!"

The Combat Mecha opened fire, targeting Star, but only hitting the chest and helmet of The Red Strikerborg, explosions of sparks and smoke erupting off her armor as she ran into the barrage of beams and pulled her right arm for a punch.

When she reached him, Hammer Kong's own flexible right arm was already up and coming down to smash Strikerborg flat. With a yell, Strikerborg aimed her superpowered punch into Hammer Kong's falling blow. When their fists crashed into one another with a near deafening clang, a shockwave rippled outward visible from the air it condensed.

The blast struck Star with enough force to send her flipping backward through the air in surprise. "Whoa-whoa!"

Recovering in mid-air, she slashed the air behind her with the Dimensional Scissors and disappeared into the portal she created. Behind her, the blast struck Brittney and her security detail, nearly knocking the cyborgs off their feet; Brittney herself, however, stood firm as her hair whipped behind her and watched resolutely.

His hammer grinding against her fist, Hammer Kong snarled. "DON'T THINK YOU'RE SO TOUGH BECAUSE YOU DIDN'T BUDGE, YOU'RE JUST A STUBBORN NAIL!"

Appearing out of the exit portal above the two and slightly to Jo's left, Star spun like an axle as she fell. When she reached him, she swung out her wand. "WILL YOU SHUT UP?! RAINBOW FIST PUNCH!"

Instead of green glitter, the colors of the rainbow swirled from Star's wand, coating it and becoming a fist of light that hit Hammer Kong. To the Combat Mecha's shock, blow connected with enough force to lift him off his feet. Lunging forward, Strikerborg plowed a left hook into the lifted Hammer Kong's waist, knocking him backward and up the street.

The Red Strikerborg wasn't going to let him get away, using her super strength to leap after and overtake Hammer Kong in mid-air, swinging her right hand down in a powerful punch.

The super strength and Beetleborg powered blow connected with Hammer Kong's chest, and the robot's horizontal flight was diverted into the vertical into the street. Coming out on the other side, Strikerborg tumbled and jumped back onto her feet to face the plume.

"You're just one angry son of a bitch, huh?!" She asked. "But don't worry, I get it!"

As Hammer Kong lay in the shallow crater his body made, he lifted his dented and scorched head up. "THE ONLY THING YOU'RE GONNA GET, IS SMASHED INTO SCRAP!"

A small portal opened just beneath him. On the other side of that portal, Star aimed her wand at it as the glow in her cheeks and eyes brightened.

"Mega Geyser Windstorm!"

In a flash of blue light, the Wand conjured a torrent of steaming water that shot into the portal, and the plume of smoke and dust that marked where Hammer Kong lay was replaced by a geyser that launched the Combat Mecha into the sky over ten meters.

Above the geyser, Hammer Kong tumbled end over end, screaming, before gravity brought him falling back down. Spotting the glowing yellow eyes of Strikerborg below him, Hammer Kong yelled and swung his left hammer down at her.

His punch met another uppercut from Strikerborg, the two blows meeting canceled all of Hammer Kong's downward momentum, and cracks appeared in the head of his left hammer and beneath her feet.

As the Combat Mecha hung in the air, as if balanced on her fist, she called out. "It feels so good to be angry, doesn't it?!"

A portal opened behind Strikerborg and Star leaped out of it to the Beetleborg's right, aiming the wand at him.

"Super Shooting Star Explosion!"

With her yell, three large spinning yellow stars flew from their wand. The first one smashed into him, knocking him backward from Strikerborg. The second star hit even harder, causing the Combat Mecha to bounce off the ground and into the third spinning star. When that star exploded, Hammer Kong was propelled in a straight trajectory up the street like a missile.

One of the cyborgs, the head of the protection detail, watched this in quiet disbelief. "What… what are we looking at?"

Up the street, towards the intersection the school ended at, another portal opened, and a stream of Crashing Mode fire emerged from it, followed by Strikerborg herself holding down the trigger of the Input Magnum. The bolts exploded all over Hammer Kong's body with growing frequency and intensity as the distance between them closed.

The head of the detail reached up to his sunglasses. "… This is real, isn't it?"

He looked at Brittney, who was still standing in front of them, watching the fight with her arms folded.

Star swiped the air with the scissors and her war hammer slipped through it to it to land on her shoulder. Putting away the scissors, she caught the hammer's shaft in one hand and her wand over it before tossing the wand straight up. The medieval weapon transformed, the head becoming larger and the flat head becoming a rocket exhaust pipe that erupted with a magical exhaust, before the wand came down for Star to catch in her teeth.

Screaming in rage, Hammer Kong landed on his feet and stumbled as he lunged with a right arm swing at Strikerborg. "GO DOWN, YOU NAIL!"

Strikerborg did down ducking under the swing and punching him in the chest with a right of her own to make him step back. "You don't have to feel anything else!"

When he retaliated with a diagonal swing using his left, she weaved the other way and hit that same spot with a left. "You can't be sad, afraid, or inadequate if you're raging at everything!"

"RAGING IS ALL I KNOW!" Hammer Kong spat nails down at Strikerborg, the projectiles cutting small divots into her armor as she turned herself around and performed one of Marco's crescent kicks. Her form was sloppy, ungraceful, but her strength more than made up for it.

The blow connected with the side of Hammer Kong's head turning his whole body in place so he could face Star. Her war hammer's engine spewing flame, bunnies, rainbows, stars, and unicorn ponies, the Princess hurtled at the combat mecha at high speed before she planted her feet and swung into a full circle, gathering momentum so that on her second rotation she caught Hammer Kong right in the cracked and split armor of his chest.

Gripping the rocket hammer with all her might and biting down hard enough she thought her teeth could crack, Star let out a yell and continued her swing–the rocket engine's output growing into a solid, sparkling flame as she lifted Hammer Kong off his feet and began to swing him around and around.

Hammer Kong howled as he began to spin around faster and faster. "NO! I'M BREAKING! STOP!"

"GOOD!" Star yelled as she jumped and twisted her body, the rocket motor carrying her and Hammer Kong straight up. "BECAUSE YOU'RE SUCH AN ANNOYING JERK!"

With one more scream, she swung Hammer Kong straight down at the ground, yelling to Strikerborg as she did.

"END HIM!"

When Hammer Kong struck the street it shattered, the explosion of dust and dirt rocketing upward and spreading out to obscure all the combatants. Seeing such a display of force and ferocity, Brittney let out a quiet gasp as her eyes grew wider.

Hammer Kong had struck the ground so hard that this time he had bounced–his massive, armored body floating upright as the cloud of dust his impact made was suddenly cleared over the whine of a turbine. In front of the Combat Mecha the Red Strikerborg stood with her right arm raised and the whirling Striker Plasmar crackling with power as it reached maximum RPM–a spinning cone of plasma coated her arm like the flame from an afterburning jet engine.

Behind her mask, Jo let out a joyful little laugh. "Annoying is right, that's all angry people who can do nothing but lash out at everything will ever be."

She pulled one of Star's twirls–building all the momentum she'd need for her punch.

"I won't let my anger turn me into something as pathetic as you."

Like a comet, Strikerborg's punch crashed into Hammer Kong's torso, and the Beetleborg yelled out.

"TORNADO SPARK!"

A thunderous crackling, as loud as Jo's yell, followed as her fist connected and Hammer Kong was blasted into the air like a Railgun bolt.

The ground shuddered under Jo's feet, and every window for blocks warped and rattled as the tumbling Combat Mecha, torn in half by the blow hurtled skyward towards the moon overhead.

Star had just hit the ground when the force of Strikerborg's finisher almost knocked her over, the same blast catching Brittney's hair and dress like a strong breeze while once more her security was caught off guard and buffeted by its force.

Inside the gymnasium, the entire building shook slightly, drawing the attention of the dance's attendees, Mabel and Misao looking upward with surprise as the lights briefly flickered and the windows wobbled.

Reaching the apex of his flight, plasma sparking and jets of flame shooting from his broken body, Hammer Kong looked at the empty, moonlit-sky above and let out a final, furious lament.

"I'm still mad."

Hammer Kong exploded, a smaller blast that tore him apart followed by a much larger one that vaporized his remains and lit up the night.

Star, catching her footing, grinned at the explosion a big smile on her face. "That's what I'm talking about!"

Behind her, as she began to do a victory dance, the stunned cyborg security personnel could only continue to stare at the light. The head of the detail lowering his glasses so his prosthetic eyes could take in all of it clearly.

A distance away, Ferguson and Alfonzo looked back when they saw the sky light up.

"What was that…?" Alfonzo asked.

Ferguson, watching the explosion, just shrugged his shoulders. "It's Star, she probably finally stopped holding back." He let out an indignant snort. "After we all leave!"

Shermie checked his driver side mirror to glance at the blast after pulling into Hillhurst's long driveway and let out a laugh. "That's certainly enough boom to be the case!"

On the roof of the school, her arms folded, and her cloak closed around her, Jara watched Hammer Kong's body disappear with the last of his fury and flame.

Uncaring of an angry idiot's end, Brittney's eyes were locked on Star and Strikerborg. Focusing on the former, she nodded slowly as a new appreciation and understanding reached her.

Star Butterfly, the magical princess, the psychopath with no impulse control, the idiot from another world…

"Ah… I get it."

Her right arm still extended skyward, Strikerborg held the position as the Striker Plasmar snapped into their locked position, arcs of red energy crackling from her arm to her body and the ground beneath her. Slowly, she lowered it and looked at Star, who turned her grin onto her.

Behind the mask, Jo let out a small laugh as she had a single thought after seeing Star go all out and tag team a monster with her.

My friends are the coolest.

= - = 6-8 = -=

|Hammer Down the Nails|​

Across the street from the school, Shermie and Ferguson were enjoying their third sodas of the evening, while Star and Alfonzo were fiercely debating his economic development plans for Pixtopia.

"Wh-whu-?! Tax the…?! Why would you tax the peasantry?!" Star, her arms flailing, yelled at Alfonzo after hearing of his economic plans for the Pixie Kingdom.

Alfonzo recoiled from her, confused at her vehemence. "Why not? That is what Kings do to the peasants, right?"

Star slapped the back of her right palm into her left hand. "The peasants already do all the labor! Do you want a peasant uprising? Because taxing the peasantry is how you get peasants crashing out like a Warnicorn Stampede!"

The vehemence of Star's answer surprised Alfonzo. "Well, I can't tax the nobility, they always threaten to revolt when I raise the taxes on them."

Star slapped her palm to her face and groaned. "Alfonzo, you're the absolute tyrant ruler of Pixtopia. If the nobility revolts, you can just crush them, take their stuff, and give it to someone who plays ball."

She gesticulated wildly. "There's only a few of them, you can replace them anytime with anyone! If you get a peasant revolt, you have to crush a lot of guys!"

That was something Alfonzo hadn't considered. "… Huh! Smashing a few nobles does sound easier than razing entire cities…"

Star snapped her fingers and pointed at him. "Exactly! Plus, smashing a single house of nobility means that the rest of the kingdom's infrastructure keeps running smoothly. Use that monopoly of force, Alfonzo! Crush the rich and redistribute their wealth to someone who can do the job!"

Ferguson raised his hand to his mouth to whisper aside to Shermie. "Uhh… Mr. Pines? Where's this conversation headed?"

"Not exactly sure of it myself, kiddo, but I like it." Shermie replied.

"Okay, then," Alfonzo said as he gestured to Star with his soda, "What about representative democracy?"

Star winced and held a hand up to about her height. "Ooh, Pixtopia needs to be this literate for democracy to work."

Alfonzo nodded. "Oh, I can't do that, then."

He held his hand at about the height of Star's knees, "Because Pixtopia is about this literate."

Star nodded. "Yeah, that's about right."

A loud clanging filled the air, grabbing the attention of Star, Shermie, Ferguson, and Alfonzo.

"What's that?" Ferguson asked. "It sounds like a washing machine slowly spinning a brick."

Star shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know, but I don't like it.

Across the street, the security detail guarding the gym heard it, too. They were also the first to see the source of it.

Marching straight down the middle of the street, his head tilted up towards the flashing holographic marquee, was a seething and grumbling Hammer Kong.

Alfonzo spotted him next. "Hey, look!"

Ferguson looked over and spotted it. "Wait, is that Hammer Hands?!"

Alfonzo confirmed it. "It is, from Big Bad Beetleborgs issue 76!"

Star and Shermie both looked at Alfonzo with alarm.

The former asked. "Wait, are you sure…?!"

Without waiting for confirmation she got up and began running towards Hammer Kong.

Following the streaming beams of the spot lights from all the way out by the Scrap Yard like a moth to flame, Hammer Kong finally had reached their source. Staring at the emitters of all the irritating light, he then turned to the gymnasium with lights flashing faintly in the windows.

"HEY! WHO'S THIS WONG AND WHAT MAKES THEM THINK THEY'RE SO IMPORTANT, HUH?!" Hammer Kong shouted at the cyborgs providing security.

In response, the cyborg guards moved up and drew suppressed pistols and submachine guns as senior-most of the detail stepped closer with a bead drawn on Hammer Kong.

"Unknown combat cyborg, you're trespassing a private function. Leave the area immediately!"

The air seemed to sizzle around Hammer Kong immediately. "CYBORG…? CYBORG?!"

The Combat Mecha slammed his hammer hands together with a booming clang. "DID YOU JUST MISCATEGORIZE ME AS A CAN OF MEAT?!"

Looking at the hologram emitter projecting into the sky, he unleashed a burst of lasers from his eye, destroying it.

"I'M A ROBOT, YOU IDIOTS!"

The head of security wasted not a moment. "Target is hostile, open fire!"

The security cyborgs opened fire with their personal sidearms, the fusillade of fire was hauntingly accurate, but the bullets merely broke and ricocheted off the heavy armor of the robot, barely leaving scratches as they pinged off his armor.

Naturally, Hammer Kong was unhappy with this. As the guards realized their rounds weren't having effect, the Combat Mecha raised his hammer arms.

"FIRST YOU CALL ME A CYBORG, AND NOW YOU NAILS ATTACK ME?!"

"HEY!"

Hammer Kong stopped and faced Star charging towards him as a green glow built around the head of her wand.

"You're not taking one step closer!" She shouted as she aimed her wand. "Shooting Star Explosion!"

Instead of the explosive projectile attack, three quick globs of glittery mess launched from the wand, hitting Hammer Kong in his flat face, right shoulder, and the middle of his chest.

As Hammer Kong, confused, tried to scrape off the mess from his face, Star skidded to a halt and looked at her wand. "Shoot… my wand's still gunked!"

The Cyborg Security detail looked at one another, their leader raising his hand to signal them.

"Fall back and equip for Anti-Armor combat. I'm going to inform the VIP," he ordered.

As they withdrew, Hammer Kong continued struggling with the mess he was coated with.

"WHAT IS THIS GLITTERY, GIRLY GOOP?!" Hammer Kong bellowed. "IS THIS CAULK?! DID YOU JUST SLAP ME WITH CAULK?!"

Alfonzo and Ferguson burst into laughter from their cover behind Shermie's SUV.

Hammer Kong did not appreciate that.

"YOU THINK GETTING CAULK SLAPPED IS FUNNY, HUH?! LAUGH IT UP BEFORE I HAMMER YOU INTO MUSH!"

"Bro, I don't swing that way!" Ferguson called back.

Steam began to hiss from his joints as he roared. "WHAT'S WITH YOU MEATBAGS TURNING EVERYTHING INTO INNUENDO?!"

"In your end-o!" Ferguson chimed back.

"I'M GONNA SMASH THIS PLANET IN TWO!"

Steam ejected from all of Hammer Kong's joints, the jets blasting the glitter sludge from his body and creating a small fog around him.

With his vision clear, the Combat Mecha acquired Star, his sole eye glowing an ominous red from within the steam cloud.

"STARTING WITH YOU!"

"Ferguson!" Star yelled at Marco's rotund bestie. "Stop making it mad!"

Hammer Kong erupted from the cloud, rushing towards her. Raising his right arm, he swung down at her.

As she shuffled back and out of the path of the first swing, Hammer Kong turned and swung his other hammer arm down but she darted the other way.

She aimed her wand. "Super Narwhal Blast!"

Another volley of glitter globs sprayed out and Hammer Kong raised both arms to block them from hitting his head and neck with no effect again.

"Oh come on!" She snapped in frustration.

Hammer Kong lowered his hands and spat a barrage of nails, quickly growing into two foot-long spears as they left his mouth.

Star vaulted into a graceful triple axle backward from the Combat Mecha, the massive nails passing over and under rip into the asphalt both in front and behind her.

She landed hard, boots skidding. Then sprinted backward in a slalom as Hammer Kong thundered after her, smashing nails into the asphalt with every missed hammer blow.

"STOP RUNNING AND GET HAMMERED LIKE A PROPER NAIL!"

Hammer Kong shouted as he gained on her, each blow shaking the street harder than his stomping footsteps already were.

Escaping the nail slalom, Star spun her wand and pointed it at his center mass. "Ugh, if it's not going to work, I'll own it!"

She fired off the only spell she had now, apparently. "Green Glittery Goop Blast!"

This time the spell rushed like out of a firehose, spraying all over Hammer Kong's chest and face with enough force to first slow him down, and then push him back.

As Hammer Kong was pushed back, the glow from his eye intensified.

"I WILL PULVERIZE YOU!"

The beam he fired was a solid, continuous stream of red energy that was powerful enough to burn away the sludge around his head. It cut a long, deep gouge in the street as he lifted it towards Star.

Backpedaling away from the beam, Star ran backwards to avoid being overtaken by it.

If I can't use my magic, I need to at least lead him away from the dance! She realized.

Before the beam could reach her feet, the laser overheated and stopped, Hammer Kong letting out another frustrated yell.

"STOP RUNNING AND GET HIT ALREADY!"

From his mouth slit, another barrage of glowing nails fired out embedded in a line up to Star, but she jumped clear of the barrage to her right.

Back in front of the school, Brittney's cyborg detail had pulled from their vehicles much heavier weapons, Marksman Rifles, Light Machine Guns, Shotguns, and Handcannon-sized pistols.

As they loaded up, one of the cyborgs was keeping an eye on Star's efforts. "The HVT is leading the hostile away from the function. I repeat, the HVT is leading the hostile away, engaging may provoke aggression back in this direction."

The head of the security detail, inside the Gymnasium as it began to fill with the students from the Stop and Slurp as he walked to the door. "Understood."

Behind the cover of Shermie's SUV, Alfonzo and Ferguson watched as Star fired another Green Glittery Goop Blast at Hammer Kong, concerned by her limited spell set.

"Hey, why isn't Star using her cool super destructive magic?" Ferguson asked.

"Yeah, that goop spell would be really useful in Pixtopia, but this isn't working." Alfonzo said.

Shermie, around at the front passenger door of the SUV, opened a case of green-colored shotgun shells, and began loading them into a Mossberg 500 shotgun he pulled from a rack in the back seat.

When both boys saw the old man calmly loading such a wicked-looking shotgun, they both grew wide-eyed in amazement and excitement.

"If she ain't using her big guns, she's probably worried about hittin' the school," the elder Pines surmised as he loaded round after round into the weapon, "Last thing she wants is for that to happen."

"IS THAT THE ONLY SPELL YOU GOT?! NOVICE WITCHES PISS ME OFF!"

Shermie peeked over his SUV again, as Hammer Kong fired more nails at Star. Once more, she narrowly evaded, but one of the nails grazed her upper right arm.

He finished loading his shotgun. "You boys stay down and outta sight, this ain't the movies."

Star was working up a sweat as she used her acrobatics skill to make herself as difficult a target as possible for Hammer Kong.

The robot's poor range of motion was working in her favor, but hitting him back with what she had was doing nothing.

He was too tough!

Shoot, shoot! I have to dip down! She thought before she dodged another barrage of nails that punched into a parked compact car, turning it into a fuel-efficient and environmentally friendly pincushion.

Dipping down would work, but that required stamina she couldn't afford to burn, and what would it take to hit this guy without causing a big enough explosion that it'd probably wreck the neighborhood?!

If I had the dimensional scissors, I'd be able to get him out of here. I just need an opening to get back to the school!

Almost immediately she quashed that idea. Going back to the school would bring Hammer Kong after her, the green glittery goop wouldn't be enough to restrain him.

Okay, I can't blow him up, I can't lead him back to the school, and I can't cast magic. So what do I do?!

Hammer Kong lashed out at Star again, and she dove and rolled under the swing.

"Can I at least have a second to think, please?!" She screamed at the robot.

"CAN I HAVE A SECOND WHERE YOU DON'T BREATHE, NAIL?!" Hammer Kong screamed back before he jumped and swung both hammer hands and his face down to try to flatten her beneath them.

She managed to dart back, and covered her face with her arms as the massive impact shattered the street and kicked up asphalt and the stone underneath. The projectile debris pelted her, leaving cuts in her forearms and striped sock-covered legs that began to leak blood.

For the first time all night, Hammer Kong was pleased by something, as Star stumbled and fought to stay standing after that.

"THAT'S WHAT YOU GET FOR NOT BEING A GOOD NAIL!"

He raised his left arm to smash her one final time.

"I'M GOING TO FLATTEN YOU! THOSE ANNOYING MEATBAGS WHO MAKE JOKES! THOSE MISCATEGORIZING GNATS! THAT SPIRIT WEEK BY WONG! WONG! NOXIC, AND THEN NOXIC AGAIN!"

Star barely heard his ranting. She locked in at the moment he threatened the dance again.

Dipping down it is. Mom, I need your spell to work!

Hammer Kong swung down his hammer, but instead of the boom of his hammer smashing Star to paste, there was a quick blast, followed by another louder explosion against Hammer Kong's left side, staggering the robot forward and away from Star.

"Hey, ya ugly putz!" Shermie shouted from Hammer Kong's left, emerging from behind another parked car with his shotgun aimed at him.

Hammer Kong turned to face him, and Shermie pumped another round into the chamber.

"Welcome to LA!"

He opened fire repeatedly, the rounds hitting and exploding against Hammer Kong's face, left shoulder, the left side of his chest, and the center of his stomach..

As the shells exploded against his armored body, Hammer Kong screamed with rage.

"IS THIS HOW YOU WELCOME PEOPLE, WITH EXPLOSIVES!"

Shermie ducked down behind the car to reload. "Since the LA Riots!"

"GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! I KEEP FINDING NEW LEVELS OF ANGER!"

A glow from the direction of Star stopped Hammer Kong from attacking Shermie.

When he turned to face her, he found the Magical Princess waving her wand back and forth in front of her slowly, as her heart-shaped cheek marks began to glow.

"Light of power, draw to me…"

As she spoke aloud as the same glow filled her eyes.

"… Fill my wand with majesty…"

The green glow that was faintly radiating from the bell of her wand was wrapped with a lighter pink power that radiated from her hands and wrapped the entire wand.

"… Flames that burn with molten cold…"

Alfonzo, Ferguson, and Shermie watched with surprise as Star held the wand above her head.

"A light sword form of blue-white gold!"

The pink glow turned into an icy blue and shot upward, extending well past the wand into a long, solid blade that was easily as long as Star was tall. Tightening her hold on the shaft, Star swung the blade twice, before she took the wand in both hands and struck a defiant pose with feet spaced wide apart, and the Light Sword held low and aimed at Hammer Kong.

"You will not. Go near. THAT DANCE!" She yelled at him as her eyes and cheek marks blazed brightly.

Both Alfonzo and Ferguson lit up in excitement. "SHE'S HITTING THAT BRAVE STANCE CLEAN!"

Hammer Kong let off another steam eruption. "WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE GONNA DO?! THAT SWORD'S JUST ANOTHER NAIL!"

Hammer Kong broke into a mad charge towards Star, who drew back the sword and rushed towards him.

"You need to…!" She got to Hammer Kong first, sweeping the sword across Hammer Kong's chest and red hot gash into its chest and side as she whipped past him. "CHILL OUT!"

Screaming, Hammer Kong turned and raised his right hand hammer to crush her, but Star was faster, turning around and cutting him again with another red hot gash, leaving an X-shaped mark in his chest plate.

Star separated from Hammer Kong, panting as the strain of dipping down for the spell was already beginning to draw from her stamina. Spinning the sword, she turned to face Hammer Kong again.

"Have you tried counting to ten and calming down?!"

Hammer Kong turned towards Star, a solid red glow shining from both Hammer Kong's eye hole and down-turned mouth.

Pulling his right arm back, Hammer Kong swung and threw the right hand at Star like a boomerang.

"I CAN ONLY COUNT DOWN FROM TEN!"

@@@@@​

At the front doors to the gymnasium a furious Brittney pushed them open and heard the sound of energy crackling. She looked down the street in time to see Hammer Kong's hammer boomerang grind against the flat of Star's light sword before she parried it back towards him with all her strength and a yell.

As Hammer Kong caught his hammer back on his arm and raised it to attack again, Shermie opened fire from a new position, further up the street from Hammer Kong.

Mabel, with Misao right behind her, followed Brittney outside and gasped. "Sherpa!"

Misao looked at the rest of the street, the nails in the road in front of the school, the crater further down it, and Hammer Kong even further beyond that. "… Ah!"

Looking from the destroyed projector to the damage to the street, Brittney turned to the head of her security detail. "What's going on?! Why haven't you gone after that thing?!"

One of the security personnel nearest to her turned to address her. "We engaged at first, but the HVT began drawing its attention away from the school, Miss Wong."

He looked back at Hammer Kong. "The hostile appears to be driven purely by anger and completely irrational, attacking him would only risk bringing its attention back this way."

"Away from the…" Brittney looked down the street at Star as her agility placed her out of reach of her attacker again.

Star parried another of Hammer Kong's blows, then slashed the robot again, creating another glowing gash in his armor. One she noticed wasn't as deep as the first two.

Crap, running out of power! She realized even as she swung again.

Hammer Kong used that same arm to block the light sword, before he turned and tried to shoulder-barge her. At the last second, Star jumped and kicked off his back into a spin, slashing across his back before she landed behind him.

When his charge stopped, Hammer Kong began to turn, but was fired upon by Shermie again.

To no one's surprise, this upset him.

"THOSE FIRECRACKERS DON'T HURT, MEATBAGS!"

"Take it back to the second rate-hardware store you crawled outta, schmuck!" Shermie defiantly taunted back.

"SECOND RATE?!" Hammer Kong fired a barrage of nails that violently punched into the black pickup truck without going through.

"THIRD RATE!" Star yelled as she came down on him with the light sword again, slashing him from nape to navel and adding another glowing mark. "You can't even hammer nails right!"

"THAT'S BECAUSE YOU KEEP MOVING AROUND" Hammer Kong yelled, trying to smash Star flat with both hands and his own face.

Star leaped clear from the attack at the right moment, but the force of the triple impact sent her flying anyway into the side of a parked car. The car door crumpled inward with a metallic shriek as Star ricocheted off it, landing in a sprawl that rattled her teeth.

"Girlchik, you all right?!" Shermie yelled.

Star staggered upright, breath fogging in the chill night air, her wand trembling in her grip as blue-white light bled off the blade like burning snow.

"I'm okay!" She called out to Sherpie. "It's not the first or worst I've bled in a fight!"

As an afterthought she added. I'm gonna have to invent a chiropractor spell after this…

Misao did not like what she was seeing. "Why is she not using her usual magic?"

Ferguson called over. "It's the only thing that has worked! Before that, her spells were all this weird gunk!"

Misao gasped as she realized. "Her magic is still not working!"

"Neither is Sherpa's Mossy." Mabel agreed. "They need more firepower!"

Brittney looked at the two girls. "If her magic's not working, what's that sword?"

"She's dipping down," Misao explained. "But she said this takes a lot of stamina to do, she could fall over any second, now!"

Brittney watched as Star rose to her feet. Despite the distance, she could clearly see that she was in rough shape—especially with unmistakable splotches of red on her arms and legs.

"Mabel," she barked, and Mabel looked at her.

"What?"

Brittney handed the Dimensional Scissors to her. "Go back inside, and tell the DJ to turn up the music. Don't let anybody leave unless it looks like that thing is coming back this way."

She looked back at her. "Smother them with that charisma of yours."

Misao tilted her head to one side as she stared at Brittney. "And what are you going to do?"

Brittney began walking down the street towards the fight. "I'm going to help Star, and the security I hired are going to earn their bonuses."

Mabel lit up into a big smile. "You can count on us!"

Misao agreed. "Ja, you will be careful as well!"

As she headed inside, Misao's thumbs flew over the screen of her phone, but her jaw tightened like a vice. Drew and Roland wouldn't be able to slip out of the dance, but there was still Dipper, Marco, and Jo she could reach.

Hopefully they could get here in time.

Right behind her, Mabel looked back at the fight, down the road, and then at her scissors before heading inside.

With them safely inside, Brittney turned and strode into the warzone, the clicks of her heels against the pavement like gunfire.

"Well," she said to her guards, "Do you want to get paid or not?!"

Without hesitation, her security detail fell in step with her, their cybernetic lenses whirring behind their sunglasses as they tracked the fight they approached with their weapons ready and safeties off.

Down the road, Star ducked under another hammer swing, and danced around another while swinging the sword to slash across Hammer Kong's tight arm and up over his head.

"I can do this all night!" Star taunted, even as she was pretty sure she couldn't.

Hammer Kong, less affected by the slashes, slammed his hands together.

"I'VE BEEN DOING THIS FOREVER! I'LL HAMMER YOU NAILS UNTIL THE STARS BURN OUT!"

He probably could. Star tightened her grip on the sword.

Don't give out now, she urged herself.

Before she could throw herself at the raving robot, Brittney's sharp, clipped voice drowned him out.

"Ugh, will you shut up?!"

Heavy caliber, armor-piercing gunfire crashed into Hammer Kong, as the security detail unloaded on Hammer Kong with their much heavier firepower than before. Unlike the last time they attacked, this had a visible effect, deep dents and even some holes appearing in the tough armored robot as he stumbled back under the hail of bullets.

Star gave a start at the barrage of gunfire, the first time she'd seen such unleashed on Earth in real life. "Whoa!"

She turned to Brittney. "Brittney?!"

As her security detail ceased fire, Brittney pulled her phone out, dialed a number, and brought it to her ear.

After a single ring, a cheerful woman answered the call.

"Hench Co, because you can afford to pay people to get upset for you. How can I help you, this evening?"

"This is Brittney Wong, my Dad's a platinum member, and I demand the platinum treatment on an idiot." Brittney replied as she pointed her phone at Hammer Kong, made sure the lighting was right and took a picture of him like she was posting a selfie for the 'gram.

She brought her phone back to her ear. "Slip the leads, and release the hounds."

"At once, Miss Wong, we're releasing the hounds now!" The woman on the other end of the line happily replied.

As Hammer Kong raised his right arm to protect himself from the gunfire, the barrage ended and the brief silence that followed was replaced by a new sound filling the air that the Combat Mecha had never heard before.

As Shermie reached his car, he, Alfonzo, and Ferguson heard it as well… the rustling buzz of thousands of cicadas.

The sound was replaced by a thunderous galloping, and then the bellowing moo of an enraged bull seconds before a pair of massive machines passed on either side of Star like blurs.

Two war machines thundered towards the irate robot; looking half tank, half raptor, with sleek turret bodies perched atop predatory legs. Each swift step they took was a rumble of artificial muscle and steel claws over their aggressive bellowing.

Upon reaching Hammer Kong, both lifted one of their clawed three-toe feet off the ground, before viciously driving them into his chest. The twin impacts detonated like thunder, flinging the screeching Combat Mecha into the back of a parked package van on the edge of the street.

Star looked up at the machines, and just blurted out in amazement and excitement. "… WHAT ARE THOSE?!"

"They're your backup!" Brittney shouted.

When Star turned to her, she added. "Get rid of that stupid machine, and the next song I'll dance with you!"

Stunned that Brittney would not only make such a declaration, but also come to help her out at all, moved Star deeply. "Brittney…"

The flagging stamina that she feared suddenly vanished, as an elated smile spread big across her face and the glow in her eyes and cheekmarks shone brighter.

She turned to face Hammer Kong, as the green tint that lingered around the bell of her wand began to fade.

"Then I hope it's got a lot of bass, because I'm about to get down!"

Ferguson, just as stunned at the appearance of the robots, yelled at Brittney. "Dude, you seriously brought Gekkos as security for your freaking dance?!"

"Of course, I did!" Brittney shouted back.

After a short instant, Ferguson answered. "THIS IS THE COOLEST DANCE I NEVER GOT INVITED TO!"

Shermie whistled, impressed and a little concerned by the firepower being slung around. "Wow… I didn't think civvie outfits could get Shol Par commercially."

Just then, a Dimensional Scissors portal opened beside him, and Mabel stuck her head out. "Sherpa, hey! Come here!"

Shermie turned to her. "Whatcha got for me?"

Hammer Kong slowly got up after receiving that first devastating kick, then turned to find the first of the two Gekkos rushing him down with another mad bull's bellow.

"WHAT IS THIS SUPPOSED TO BE, A ROBOT?!"

Hammer Kong spat nails at the Gekko Unmanned Gear, which lowered its tank turret head to deflect the projectiles before ramming Hammer Kong further into the wrecked van.

With a furious yell, Hammer Kong smacked the Gekko right in the nose of its turret, and the machine retreated, just enough for the second Gekko to come crashing down atop the van and Hammer Kong following a nimble leap. Its clawed feet punched through the roof of the van, and smashed the Combat Mecha down through the bottom of it with a tremendous tearing and grinding of metal.

With the same, almost alien agility, the Gekko sprang off the wrecked van as Star came running at it.

"It's my turn!" She yelled as she jumped and spun three graceful revolutions before swinging the Light Sword down on the remains of the van. Ripping the sword out, she performed a follow up horizontal slash that cut the van up even further, before jumping a safe distance back.

She hit the pavement as the van erupted behind in a fireball, its heat washing over her as shards of steel whistled past in molten arcs.

From the explosion, however, Hammer Kong emerged, screaming in even greater rage as he closed in on Star.

"I SAID ENOUGH OF THOSE WORTHLESS MEATBAG WEAPONS!"

He swung his left arm towards Star, but once more she was a step ahead. When she swung in the blade this time, the blade bit and carved deep into Hammer Kong's side. Deep enough for sparks to fly as she ripped the blade out.

Hammer Kong stumbled forward to a halt, stunned.

The Combat Mecha felt that.

He slowly, agonizingly, turned towards Star. "What… did… you… do…?!"

Star pointed the sword at his Hammer Face. "I damaged you."

"You damaged me…" He repeated with a tense calm.

The Combat Mecha raised his hammers above his head, roaring.

"NOT EVEN MY OWN CREATOR DAMAGED ME!"

One of the Gekkos kicked him before he could strike. But this time instead of flying, he staggered away from the machine.

The second Gekko then kicked him in the back, mooing with its attack. Hammer Kong stumbled, trying to catch his footing, when Star slashed him again with the Light Sword Spell, cutting another gash into him.

Mindful of the Gekkos, she darted around in front of Hammer Kong then off to his right and out of the way of a ramming tackle from one of the Gekkos.

Hammer Kong dug his feet in and was pushed back, creating a pair of gouges in the street as he went, before the second Gekko kicked him in the back and flattened him against the first's turret. The first Gekko then reared back and tossed Hammer Kong over himself.

As the Combat Mecha flailed through the air, screaming, Star rushed in and jumped at him.

"YOU'VE HIT YOUR LAST NAIL, YOU CLAW HAMMER CLOD!" She yelled as she swung the blade to bisect Hammer Kong.

The blade, however, abruptly extinguished as Star's stamina finally vanished. Star blinked twice in surprise, staring at her all but inert wand.

She realized her time was up. "Ah."

She faceplanted into the middle of the street like a felled tree as Hammer Kong crashed into the street further behind her.

Ferguson and Alfonzo gasped. "STAR!"

Brittney, alarmed, cried out to her. "STAR BUTTERFLY!"

Star laid on the street, gasping as she tried to catch her breath.

Crap… too much dipping… She thought as she tried to focus her vision on Hammer Kong, in the process of standing back up.

"I AM GOING TO HAMMER YOU."

He began to walk towards Star, and the Gekkos immediately attacked.

This time, however, Hammer Kong was ready, and blocked the kick of one Gekko before he swung his hammer and smashed it in the side of its turret, knocking it off its feet and onto its side.

"I AM GOING TO HAMMER ALL OF YOU MEATBAGS."

When the second Gekko came in low and fast, Hammer Kong turned and connected an uppercut with the chin of its turret, making it rear up and topple backward. As it crashed to the ground, Hammer Kong continued towards Star.

"THEN I AM GOING TO GO BACK AND HAMMER NOXIC."

Catching enough breath to push herself up to her knees, Star looked up at Hammer Kong and picked up her Wand.

As he drew closer. Hammer Kong raised his right hand hammer.

"THEN I AM GOING TO HAMMER THIS ENTIRE PLANET."

He reached Star as Brittney's security detail aimed their weapons, but did not shoot for fear of striking Star.

"AND THEN I AM GOING TO HAMMER NOXIC SOME MORE."

Brittney's jaw clenched as her guards held fire. For once, money couldn't buy her the instant solution and she hated it.

Star let out a tired sigh before she answered him. "If you're so mad at Noxic, why don't you go hammer him for a few billion years and leave us out of it?"

That was sound logic.

Which made Hammer Kong angrier.

"DON'T YOU TELL ME WHAT TO DO, NAIL."

Someone did take a shot, sending a bullet like a comet of steel ripping into Hammer Kong's neck. The explosion ripped armor plating into molten shards as the Combat Mecha reeled, the glow in its sole eye flickering rapidly.

The blast caused Star to raise her hands to protect herself, as Hammer Kong was pushed back.

Another thunderous shot followed, and Hammer Kong was pushed further with a shower of sparks.

Star blinking away her fatigue, looked back in the direction the fire came from, but found Brittney and her security also looking up range.

Following where they were looking as another shot screamed overhead to hit Hammer Kong, Star spotted the shooter and her eyes widened with relief and delight.

Shermie's SUV was pulled out into the middle of the street, and the old man himself had laid out the Schwanzstucker, the massive anti-tank rifle he kept in the living room of his home, laid out across the hood, pointed at Hammer Kong.

Shermie pulled the heavy slide lever to the weapon, ejecting the spent shell casing of the Boys .55 Anti-Tank Rifle to tumble end over end across the hood as he chambered another. Beside him, Mabel stood with her fingers over her ears, while a positively mesmerized Alfonzo and Ferguson looked on in awe of the weapon.

"Don't worry, girlchik!" Shermie called out. "I got you covered from this putz!"

"Nail this sucker, Sherpa!" Mabel called out, while taking care to watch how her grandfather operated the weapon. "Haha, get it?!"

"It's the first good hammer line I've heard all night!" Shermie shouted as he fired again.

Brittney, realizing there was an opening, looked at her security. "I'm covering your ammo expenses, so use every bullet!"

"Understood!" The entire detail shouted as they opened up on Hammer Kong again.

The storm of gunfire battered Hammer Kong, pushing him further and further back as Star kept low to avoid the crossfire.

More dents and holes appeared in the Combat Mecha's armor, sparks flew everywhere, the residents of the houses up and down the streets watching the chaos took cover for fear of being noticed by the robot or catching any strays.

Yet through it all, Hammer Kong endured, the resistance only making his anger harder. As magazines ran dry and the deluge of fire stopped, Hammer Kong threw his head back and yelled.

"YOU NAILS… ARE STARTING TO GET EVEN MORE ANNOYING THAN NOXIC!"

Mabel was stunned. "Wow, he is like… all angry all the time!"

"He's been like this all night!" Shermie said.

"Tell us about it!" Alfonzo and Ferguson shouted together.

As her security detail reloaded, Brittney shook her head. "Ugh! Did I not tell you to shut up!?"

Star was in full agreement. "That anger is going to be the death of you, you know!"

Hammer Kong roared back.

"ANGER IS THE ONLY THING THAT HAS KEPT ME ALIVE! FROM THE MOMENT I WAS BUILT, THE MOMENT I, A HAMMER ROBOT, WAS SENT TO A PLANET WITH NOTHING BUT SCREWS! THIS FURY IS THE ONLY THING THAT MATTERS!"

Star recoiled and made a T with her hand and wand. "Wait, wait, wait… time out, time out! You're a hammer robot… that was forced to work on a planet with nothing but screws? That's why you're so mad?!"

"YES!"

A small silence passed before Star replied.

"You know what? Justified crashout."

Brittney, her expression blank, intervened promptly.

"No, it's not."

Star looked over at her. "What, why?"

Brittney pointed at all the giant nails punched into the streets, cars, and her Gekko Unmanned Gears.

"That dumb hunk of scrap could make his own nails anytime," she calmly pointed out…

… The mask of civility hiding the fact that her entire night was in danger because of this had made her so angry she was seconds from throwing hands with Hammer Kong herself.

Star's face froze. "… Ohhh…"

Shermie and Mabel similarly realized it. "… Ohhh…"

As did Ferguson and Alfonzo. "Ohhh!"

It seemed that the last one to get this was Hammer Kong, who stood like a statue as this realization sank into the complex technology that gave it consciousness and personality.

"All this time," he said. "All this time I'd been angry about the screws… about bein' a hammer on a world without nails…"

He looked at his Hammer hands.

"… And it was all for nothin'."

Star looked back up at him and nodded.

"Yeah, you're dumb."

She'd have more sympathy for him, but he was really annoying.

Plus, she was injured and bleeding because of him.

For Hammer Kong, this was the final indignity.

Steam burst from every seam and joint, once again wreathing him in it. As Star finally got back up onto her feet, the steam itself flash-evaporated as the ground began to crack and split under Hammer Kong's feet.

As she watched the robot, she realized that she could see a red glow from within those same joints and seams as Hammer Kong transcended all previous tiers of incoherent anger.

He wasn't angry at every little thing, now, no.

All of it.

Everything and all things. The universe, every universe.

Existence created him to be the butt of a joke.

Noxic's joke.

And now it was all just one nail to him.

"Everything is a nail. And I am a hammer."

Those words carried a special, and terrible dread to Star, as Hammer Kong raised its hands.

"And I am going to hammer it all. Forever. Until the entire universe is flat."

Star quickly prepared herself, the green of her wand growing brighter as she felt her stamina return.

A thud from nearby caught everyone's attention, and when Star looked up and saw what caused it, she smiled.

"Uhh, sorry buddy," she said. "The only one who's about to get hammered is you."

In the next instant Strikerborg slammed down like a red comet, her fist crashing into Hammer Kong and sending him into the ground with such force his body cratered the street with a shockwave that made Star stumble back.

@@@@@​

"YES!" Mabel, Alfonzo, and Ferguson cheered together as Shermie, who just finished loading another magazine into his gun, sighed in relief.

"The real hammer's about to fall," the old man said.

Brittney also relaxed when she saw one of the Big Bad Beetleborgs looming over the downed Hammer Kong with Input Magnum drawn.

"Finally," she muttered, "Another superhero…"

Behind her mask, Jo glared coldly down at Hammer Kong as she pointed her Input Magnum at his stupid flat face.

"How does it feel to be the nail?"

She fired repeated shots into the robot, the bolts exploding against him before with a roar, Hammer Kong swung an arm and she leaped off him to land beside Star.

"Thanks for dropping in, kid!" Shermie called out."

Strikeborg turned to Shermie. "Mr. Pines! Star and I have got this under control! I need you to go to Hillhurst, right now!"

Shermie noted the insistence in her tone. "You sure you got this, Red?"

"Between all of us, we got this," Strikerborg said. "Now, go, Dipper needs you right now and the clock is ticking!"

His eyes narrowing, Shermie nodded. "Roger."

As he removed the Schwanzstucker to take to the back, Mabel watched him with a look of concern. "Something's wrong…"

Shermie shoved the Schwanzstucker in the back before he turned to Mabel. "Probably, but don't you worry about it, girlchik. You get back inside."

He called out to Alfonzo and Ferguson. "Hey, Laurel and Hardy! We gotta skedaddle!"

"Why us?" Ferguson asked.

"Because this ain't no place for civvies, and I gotta go pick up my grandson and your friend. Let's get moving!" Shermie said as he climbed into his SUV.

Alfonzo raised his hand to protest. "But what about…?!"

Mabel grabbed their shoulders. "Boys, boys! There's no time; you get going with Sherpa. Leave this to the heroes!"

Turning to each other, Alfonzo and Ferguson shrugged their shoulders and climbed into the vehicle as well, as Mabel hurried back to the gymnasium. Before she went inside, she nodded at Strikerborg and Star.

"Kick his butt, you two!" She called out, before darting inside.

Brittney sensed something was off, and glanced at two of her cyborgs. "Hey. You want to make a little bit extra? Follow that old man where he's going, and help him out. If it costs anything, I'll cover it."

The two well-dressed cyborgs nodded, and took off running as Shermie pulled away and headed for Hillhurst.

As Shermie left, Strikerborg turned back to Star. "So, why is Hammer-Hands over there so angry?"

Star looked at her. "He's angry at Noxic, but decided that it's everybody's problem. How do we beat this guy? Because I wanna dance with Brittney."

"And I'm not waiting all night for it!" She called out.

Strikerborg explained. "Hammer Kong is one of Noxic's most heavily armored monsters in the comic. None of the Beetle Battlers could even scratch him. It took bringing out all three AVs and even Gargantis to break his armor, and it looks like he's that tough for real, too."

Star shook her head. "We won't win trying to get through his armor."

The Beetleborg looked back. "Yeah, you're right. We'll need something high energy to melt through it…"

"Or smash it with brute force."

Jo agreed. "All the armor in the world won't save anything if it's smashed from the inside out."

"If my magic worked, we'd wear him down faster… but it doesn't."

This surprised Strikerborg. "It's still not working?"

"It hasn't been working since Wednesday!" Star shot back as Hammer Kong began to slowly claw his way upright from the fractured asphalt, vents belching fire-bright steam as his lone optic burned like a furnace.

"I will not stop, until I have used you to hammer that magical meatbag into the center of the Earth."

The Combat Mecha's voice was unnervingly calm, but the explosive rage was definitely still there, ready to cook off again.

"Oh crap, he's mad mad." Strikerborg realized, before she realized that this guy's misplaced anger was suddenly very familiar.

"Huh…"

Turning back to Star, Strikerborg reached out and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Star, before we get going…"

Star paused and looked at her. "What?"

Behind her mask, Jo took a deep breath. "I'm sorry, for everything. I shouldn't have treated you or anyone else like I have been, and I don't want there to be any more drama between us."

Star brightened. "… Really?"

"Yeah, I'm not gonna act like an asshole anymore… and I've got your back from now on, one hundred and thirty percent!"

Star literally brightened. The last of the green wreathing her wand disappearing as the light light in her eyes and cheek marks was matched and then surpassed by the brilliant smile on her face.

She could feel it, not just in the wand but in her whole body, as the dark clouds that hung over her mood finally cleared.

"All right, then I've got your back, too! And I'm gonna try to be less of a total spazzo."

Seeing Star's smile in its full vibrance, Strikerborg quietly wondered how she could hate such a thing as she turned towards Hammer Kong.

The Combat Mecha was finally standing and venting steam continuously. "Actually? I think right now, you need to be a total spazzo more than ever."

Star smiled. "Then I am about to go maximum spaz!"

Jo slammed her armored fists together with a metallic crack. "That's my girl!"

Hammer Kong began stomping towards the two, his eye flaring brightly.

"I'm not going to be made a fool of by you meatbags anymore. Or by Noxic. Or by screws! You're all getting hammered…! Smashed to bits! Turned to paste!"

Taking the Royal Magic Wand in her right hand, Star twirled it once as the glow.

"Strikerborg?" When Strikerborg looked over at her she asked aloud, so Hammer Kong heard it. "What do you say to the villains when the heroes show up to save the day?"

Jo grinned and turned back to Hammer Kong. "You say… run."

Hammer Kong shuddered. "Run? Okay, I'll run…"

He let out a roar as he charged a laser. "I'LL RUN YOU INTO THE GROUND!"

The Combat Mecha opened fire, targeting Star, only to hit Strikerborg as she darted in front of her and blocked the beam with raised, crossed arms.

A cloud of reddish smoke billowed from the point of impact, hanging just above the street before Strikerborg burst from it and ran at him. Running up on him, she pulled her right hand back in a tight fist as Hammer Kong met her charge and swung his left hammer to smash her.

The collision detonated in a shockwave that buckled pavement and howled down the street like a hurricane blast.

The power of the shockwave lifted cars and cracked windows, but when it reached Star she braced herself, her hair and the hem of her skirt whipping behind her.

Further down the street, the blast struck Brittney and her remaining present security detail. The cyborgs visibly braced themselves against the force, while Brittney stood just as firm and resolute.

Star broke into a sprint, reaching the two combatants her wand began to glow.

His hammer grinding against her fist, Hammer Kong snarled. "DON'T THINK YOU'RE SO TOUGH, YOU'RE JUST A STUBBORN NAIL!"

"For the last time, will you shut up?!" Running up Strikerborg's back, and onto Hammer Kong's head, Star jumped backward into the air in a graceful flip before aiming his wand at him.

"RAINBOW FIST PUNCH!"

Instead of green glitter, the colors of the rainbow swirled from Star's wand, forming into a fist of light that hit Hammer Kong's flat face.

To the Combat Mecha's shock, the spell connected with enough force to lift him off his feet. "WHAT?!"

Lunging forward, Strikerborg plowed a left hook into the lifted combat mecha's torso, knocking him flying.

The Red Strikerborg wasn't going to let him get away, using her super strength to leap after and overtake Hammer Kong in mid-air, before swinging her right hand down in a powerful punch.

The super strength-powered blow connected with Hammer Kong's chest, and the robot's horizontal flight was diverted into a sudden descent into the street that created a massive plume of pulverized asphalt, stone, and dirt.

Passing through the cloud, Strikerborg tumbled and jumped back onto her feet to face Hammer Kong.

"You're just one angry son of a bitch, huh?! But don't worry, I get it!"

Hammer Kong stood and lifted his dented and scorched head up. "THE ONLY THING YOU'RE GONNA GET, IS SMASHED! BY ME! INTO SCRAP!"

He did not expect Star to jump and slide into the crater his body had made, stopping right beneath him with his wand aimed up at his chest.

"Mega Geyser Windstorm!"

In a flash of blue light, the Wand conjured a torrent of steaming water that shot into the portal, and the plume of smoke and dust that turned the crater where Hammer Kong into a geyser that launched the Combat Mecha into the sky over ten meters.

Above the geyser, Hammer Kong tumbled end over end, screaming, before gravity brought him falling back down. Spotting the glowing yellow eyes of Strikerborg below him, Hammer Kong yelled and swung his left hammer down at her.

His punch met another uppercut from Strikerborg, the two blows meeting canceled all of Hammer Kong's downward momentum, and cracks appeared in the head of his left hammer and beneath her feet.

As the Combat Mecha hung in the air, as if balanced on her fist, she called out. "It feels so good to be angry, doesn't it?!"

Rushing in to reposition herself beside the two, Star aimed her wand at Hammer Kong.

"Super Shooting Star Explosion!"

With her yell, three large spinning yellow stars flew from their wand. The first one smashed into him, knocking him backward from Strikerborg. The second star hit even harder, causing the Combat Mecha to bounce off the ground and into the third spinning star that sent him back towards Strikerborg.

Hammer Kong's flailing body was stopped short by a stream of Crashing Mode fire, Strikerborg holding down the trigger of the Input Magnum as she walked the Combat Mecha down.

The bolts exploded all over Hammer Kong's body with growing frequency and intensity as the distance between them closed. "You don't have to feel anything else!"

Brittney, watching the fight with her arms folded, narrowed her eyes and nodded in agreement.

Screaming in rage, Hammer Kong landed on his feet and stumbled as he lunged with a right arm swing at Strikerborg. "GO DOWN, YOU NAIL!"

Strikerborg did down ducking under the swing and punching him in the chest with a right of her own to make him step back.

When he retaliated with a diagonal swing using his left, she weaved the other way and hit that same spot with a left. "You can't be sad, afraid, or stupid if you're raging at everything!"

"RAGING IS ALL I KNOW!" Hammer Kong spat nails down at Strikerborg, the projectiles cutting small divots into her armor as she turned herself around and performed one of Marco's crescent kicks. Her form was sloppy, ungraceful, but her strength more than made up for it.

The blow connected with the side of Hammer Kong's head turning his whole body in place so he could face Star as she ignited the Light Sword Spell again and swung it down and across his chest.

The blow cut deep, much deeper into him than before, and spun him to face Strikerborg, who punched him to face Star again. "It's all you let yourself have!"

Star slashed him again, carving another gash into him and spinning him around to eat another haymaker from Strikerborg.

"Because you're too stubborn to admit maybe YOU'RE the problem!" She shouted as Star ducked under a desperate swing Hammer Kong tried to flatten her with, then performed an uppercut with the Light Sword.

Grabbing Hammer Kong, Strikerborg began to spin him around, as Star extinguished the blade and charged her next spell.

"Super Mega…!" She called out, as Strikerborg threw him at her. "WINTERSTORM HYPERBLOW!"

The swirling storm of wind caught and spun Hammer Kong upward, sending him spiraling higher and higher into the night sky. As the raging robot screamed in anger, the cold bit at his superheated body, the radical temperature contrast causing his already heavily damaged armor to crack and split in places.

Star wasted no time, though, and ran at Jo. "Strikerborg! Up!"

Strikerborg nodded and caught Star as she leaped towards her. "One fastball special… GOING UP!"

Hosting her up with ease in one hand, Strikerborg threw Star up into the air straight towards Hammer Kong.

Her aim was true, as Star reached the Combat Mecha, she summoned the laser sword spell again, but this time its shape changed, going from a proper sword's blade to something resembling a spiked hammer. Turning herself over with a burst of magic from her wand, Star slammed it dead center into the flailing Hammer Kong's chest.

A loud, abrupt crack echoed in the night sky, as Hammer Kong's chest plate fractured and split, exposing the vital machinery within.

Hammer Kong howled. "NO! I'M BREAKING! STOP!"

"GOOD!" Star yelled as she twisted her body and pulled her wand, spinning herself and Hammer Kong around three whole revolutions. "BECAUSE YOU'RE SUCH AN ANNOYING JERK!"

With one more scream, she swung Hammer Kong straight down at the ground, yelling to Strikerborg as she did.

"END HIM!"

When Hammer Kong struck the street it shattered, the explosion of dust and dirt rocketing upward and spreading out to obscure all the combatants. Seeing such a display of force and ferocity, Brittney let out a quiet gasp as her eyes grew wider.

Hammer Kong had struck the ground so hard that this time he had bounced, his massive armored body floating upright as the cloud of dust his impact made was suddenly cleared over the whine of a turbine.

Behind her mask, Jo let out a joyful little laugh. "With gusto."

In front of the Combat Mecha the Red Strikerborg stood with her right arm raised and the whirling Striker Plasmar crackling with power as it reached maximum RPM—a spinning cone of plasma coated her arm like the flame from an afterburning jet engine.

"Annoying is right, that's all angry people who do nothing but lash out at everything will ever be!"

She pulled one of Star's twirls, building all the momentum she'd need for her punch.

"I won't let my anger turn me into something as pathetic as you!"

The plasma energy spiraling like a white hot cyclone around her arm, Strikerborg's punch crashed into Hammer Kong's torso. As asphalt blistered beneath her feet and arcs of power left scorches on her armor, Jo yelled out.

"TORNADO SPARK!"

A thunderous crackling was followed by a roaring blast, and Hammer Kong was blasted into the air like a Railgun bolt.

The ground shuddered under Jo's feet, and every window for blocks warped and rattled as the tumbling Combat Mecha, torn in half by the blow hurtled skyward towards the moon overhead.

Star had just landed with a quick burst of magic to slow her fall, when the force of Strikerborg's finisher almost knocked her over, the same blast catching the unmoved Brittney's hair and dress again like a strong breeze while once more her security was caught off guard and buffeted by its force.

Inside the gymnasium, the entire building shook slightly, drawing the attention of the dance's attendees, Mabel and Misao looking upward with surprise as the lights briefly flickered and the windows wobbled.

Reaching the apex of his flight, plasma sparking and jets of flame shooting from his broken body, Hammer Kong looked at the empty, moonlit-sky above and let out a final, furious lament.

"I'm still mad."

Hammer Kong exploded, a smaller blast that tore him apart followed by a much larger one that vaporized his remains and lit up the night.

Star raised her fist skyward, framed by the fading inferno, her silhouette glowing in the blast-light like a hero out of legend.

"AND THAT'S HOW YOU DROP THE HAMMER!"

Behind her, as she began to do a victory dance, the stunned cyborg security personnel could only continue to stare at the light. The head of the detail lowered his glasses so his prosthetic eyes could take in all of it clearly.

A distance away, Ferguson and Alfonzo looked back when they saw the sky light up in the rear window of Shermie's SUV.

"What was that…?" Alfonzo asked.

Ferguson, watching the explosion, just shrugged his shoulders. "It's Star, she probably finally stopped holding back."

He let out an indignant snort. "Right after we all leave!"

Shermie checked his driver side mirror to glance at the blast after pulling into Hillhurst's long driveway and let out a laugh. "That's certainly enough boom to be the case!"

On the roof of the school, her arms folded, and her cloak closed around her, Jara watched Hammer Kong's body disappear with the last of his fury and flame.

Uncaring of an angry idiot's end, Brittney's eyes were locked on Star and Strikerborg. Focusing on the former, she nodded slowly as a new appreciation and understanding reached her.

Star Butterfly, the magical princess, the psychopath with no impulse control, the idiot from another world…

"Ah… I get it."

Her right arm still extended skyward, Strikerborg held the position as the Striker Plasmar snapped into their locked position.

The crackling arcs on her arm dimmed, and the night finally went quiet, save for distant sirens and the thrum of her pulse. Jo lowered her arm, glanced at Star's ridiculous grin, and smiled under her mask.

My friends are the coolest.

And tonight, she finally felt like one of them.

= - = 6-8 = - =​

Anger purged.

 

[The Ero-Sennin]

And now, we wrap it up. Keeping it a bit shorter than other codas.

Spoiler: Original Version

|Dancing All Night|​

In the wide open, mahogany-floored living room of the Vanderhoff Residence, Trip lay on a massive black couch that surrounded the home theater system whose screen was projected as a hologram just above the wall in front of him. He was on his back, staring up at his phone. On the right side of the couch, Van was scrolling through his phone, with its screen projected onto the hologram screen to reveal his Instagram feed. Like his brother, he was awaiting a message.

Behind the couch, across the living room, Dudley stood by the door leading to the home's pool deck. The old butler, keen to keep an eye out for "Goblin" infiltrating the yard, looked out over Echo Creek from the hills the home was built on. From here, he could see the fire that burned in the valley where the old Hillhurst Manor was located and the brilliant flashes of explosions from Echo Creek Academy.

Such sights left him tight-lipped, grim almost.

Letting his hand holding his phone drop to his chest, he looked at Van's projected screen and saw no new messages there. "Come on, where is he?"

Van looked over at him. "Dude, chill. He's probably being thorough, or flexing on them, you know how those Minuano wannabes gotta be."

Trip pouted and grumbled. "We totally should've gone with him and watch him get it done."

"Right?" Van agreed.

Dudley wrung his hands behind his back. "And then what, Master Trip?"

Going still for a second, Trip shot upright and turned to Dudley. His right eyebrow was arched as high as Van's left as the brothers stared at their normally taciturn butler–who was more content to simply acknowledge their orders than give lip.

"What do you mean, then what?" Trip asked. "If Pine Tree, his friends, and his whole stupid family don't pack their bags and leave LA after Goblin's done with them, then they're going to leave LA packed in bags."

Dudley visibly cringed. "You are suggesting…"

"I'm through playing around with them," Trip said cutting him off, resolved. "This is the only warning they're getting: that next time we're gonna kill them all and there's nothing they can do about it but run."

Van nodded, feeling his brother's bloodlust.

Dudley turned his head to look back out at the town below and the city of LA beyond it. "And what if after this they are not intimidated, and decide that they must escalate?" He asked. "What if Princess Butterfly comes here in response to whatever 'Goblin' may have done to her friends?"

And just like that, Van' lost the vibe as he was reminded of the magical thermonuclear device that helped stomp them.

Trip didn't care. "Whatever. If they don't figure out how screwed they are after 'Goblin' is done with them, then they're too stupid to live."

Van expressed his concern. "Um… we should think about what to do about Star Butterfly. I don't want her doing that creepy magic stuff."

Trip rolled his eyes. "I'm not scared of any of them, anymore, and neither should you."

He gestured out to his living room. "Look around at what we have! What we can throw at them! We're untouchable, and that there are consequences for even trying!"

He turned to their butler. "We snap our fingers and people like Goblin–or you for that matter, Diethard–shut your mouths and make our problems go away. I don't understand why that's such a difficult concept for you to grasp–what do we even pay you for if you can't?"

Shutting his eyes, Dudley took a long deep breath. "Of course, Master Trip."

That was the only response Trip wanted to hear from him. He turned to his brother. "From now on, we're going all in and throwing as much cash as we can to get rid of all of them. Like I said, if they don't get the hint and get out of our sight? Then it's on them what happens next."

Van, his fears pushed down, nodded as he trusted his brother. "All right…"

On the projected screen, a brand-new Direct Message conversation started. Looking up at it, Van and Trip watched the screen as the latter opened the message to see who was contacting them–someone with the name SSJ5Gogeta.

SSJ5Gogeta: Hello! Is the bounty on Pine Tree still up for grabs?

Trip and Van looked at one another.

"Well, is it?" Van asked.

Trip glanced back at Dudley and let out a laugh. "Yeah, tell him that the reward is half a mil now."

Letting out a small chuckle, Van typed up a response.

V Squared: Actually the bounty went way, WAY up! It's 500k Bro.

The response was immediate.

SSJ5Gogeta: WHAT! O_O

Trip laughed louder. "Tell him he can get a full million if he can put Pine Tree's sister in the hospital, too, however he wants to do it."

Of course, Van complied without hesitation.

V Squared: If you can put his sister in the hospital, you can have one million. Two for one, get it?

GogetaSSJ5: I GET IT LOL ^_^;;;;

Trip grinned from ear to ear as he looked back at Dudley. "Do you see? This is easy for us."

In his best impression of an old man's voice, he mocked his butler's concerns. "'WhAt iF tHey EsCaLaTe?' That's what you sound like, afraid of a bunch of bums."

Van called his brother's attention back to the screen. "Dude, look."

GogetaSSJ5: Okay! I can do it as soon as Monday! I gotta get some stuff together first and then Pine Tree is toast! Do you have his address or anyplace I can get at him?

Van replied all on his own.

V Squared: 4845 Avocado Terrace. He lives with his granddad, his sister, and this fat foreign chick named Misao Darlian. You'll get extra if you can mess her up, too. She's kind of a bitch.

GogetaSSJ5: Oh? Misao Darlian, right? TYVM, I'll keep that in mind ^_____^

Trip nodded to Van. "Good idea, we'll throw in an extra 250k for her."

"Half for the half-pint, right?" Van asked.

Trip threw himself back on the couch, his smile murderous as he rocked back and forth with anticipation. "That's right! Those idiots have no idea the shitstorm that's headed their way."

@@@@@​

"Hostile eliminated," the head of Brittney's security detail reported as the blast cleared. "All units stand down."

Brittney walked past them, headed for the school. "If there's nothing else to worry about, go back to your positions."

The head cyborg turned to her. "Miss Wong, there's a little matter about the street, and the damage…"

Brittney shook her head. "Don't worry about it."

Inside her armor, Jo wanted to go slack, but she stayed on her feet. "Phew… what a night…"

And it was far from over, she realized. "… Shit…"

Then she looked around at the absurd amount of damage that the fight had done to the street and a few vehicles. "… Shiiiiiiiit…"

Quickly she scanned around and noticed that Brittney and her security weren't the only ones watching. In the windows, on doorsteps, and even on front lawns of almost every house on the block in front of and adjacent to the school, people were watching–and either cheering or trying to figure out what had just happened. And of course, almost everyone had a phone or camera pointed at the street.

"… Shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit…"

Jo turned towards Star, who seemed to be completely ignorant of their audience as she held her wand in both hands. The wand was glowing brightly in a blue light that gave off flickers of green, then red, before it settled on becoming a soft violet.

"What…?" Jo asked.

The air began to swirl around Star's feet, before she held the wand aloft and pointed it at the sky. Lifting her up at the wand as the swirling grew, Star opened her now fully glowing eyes as the updraft lifted her hair up past her shoulders and fanned it out.

"… Super… Dipped Down…!" Star called out before she pointed the wand down at the broken street beneath her feet.

"CUTIE KITTEN CLUTTER CLEANERS!"

Another shockwave, this one made of purple magic and adorable kittens wearing little maid costumes shot out in all directions–washing over the street and destroyed vehicles. When the blast passed this time, the street and the cars were all repaired, as if they all hadn't been torn apart by the tremendous battle fought between Star, Strikerborg, and Hammer Kong. Even the damage done to the street by the earlier battle with Typhus and his Scabs was gone, leaving the black asphalt looking like new.

Stopping at the doors to the gymnasium, Brittney looked at the repaired street and vehicles. Even the hologram projector that Hammer Kong destroyed in his petulant fury was working again. She nodded her approval.

As the cheering from the spectating neighborhood grew, Jo, who'd been staring at Star the whole time she cast that spell, blinked several times. Did she just have actual butterfly wings there for a second?

When Star began to wobble where she stood, Jo reacted quickly. "Oh crap!"

Strikerborg bolted over to Star and immediately joined her side to support her. "Hey! You okay?"

With Strikerborg's help, Star steadied herself. "Yeah, I'm fine! Dipping down with the wand… isn't as bad as dipping down without it."

She let out a "hoo" and shook her head. "It would've been nice if Glossaryk told me that I could do that instead of ranting about hobo stew."

The two began heading towards the gymnasium, Strikerborg supporting her and gesturing for curious onlookers to stay back as they walked.

"So," she said.

Star looked at her. "Yeah?"

"Your magic is working," Jo pointed out.

Star nodded. "Two amazing things happened that helped me get it together. You and I squashed the beef… and I just got a dance with Brittney."

As they reached the sidewalk up to the gym, a message appeared–not in the group chat, but sent straight to Jo.

Marco said:
Its me Dipper

Jo tensed.

Marco said:
Grandpa just got here and we r on our way to the hospital

Jo sighed in relief, before more messages flooded in.

Marco said:
We r all in rough shape, but he says we're going to live

Marco said:
Marco and Jackie are both awake

Marco said:
Thank you for bailing us out against that guy

Marco said:
Is everyone ok? I saw the group chat is the monster gone?

Jo quickly sent a message back.

Jo said:
Star and me destroyed it. It didn't get anywhere near the dance.

Marco said:
Good

Marco said:
Im sorry

Marco said:
I was a dick

Marco said:
I wanted to talk to you about how we could sort out all the drama

Marco said:
And patch everything up

Marco said:
Because we r all stronger when the only thing we r fighting r the bad guys

Jo looked at Star again, then at Brittney as she brought the Princess to the door. She typed out a reply.

Jo said:
Ur right

Brittney nodded to Star as she and Strikerborg walked up.

"Hey Brittney, sorry for interrupting the dance," Star said.

Sniffing haughtily, she gave a quick glance at the street. "You cleaned it up, so I don't have anything to be mad about."

Taking a deep breath, Brittney let it out and her expression lost almost all its harshness as she looked directly at Star. "I don't hate you," she said quietly. "And… I'm sorry for all the mean names I called you, and for trying to drive you out of the school the first chance I got."

Before Star could forgive her, she quickly added. "I still think you're a crazy spazz and that wand is dangerous…!" She paused and resumed her more subdued tone. "But I get it."

Star was on the verge of gushing with happiness already from Brittney's apology. "You do?"

Jo said:
I dont want to be mad at the girls anymore.

"I mean, duh," Brittney said. "It's so stupid and obvious now: you're a warrior."

Star cocked an eyebrow. "Say what?"

"All that crazy energy you got! Any time you're using magic when you're not showing off, you're trying to blast something or fight or whatever."

Star hummed. "Well… yeah. I mean… I've been beating up monsters since I was like three. My dad's a barbarian, and my mom apparently waged an entire war, so fighting's just something that's in my blood!"

Brittney gave Star an affirming nod. "And I get that, now. That's just who you are, and as long as these stupid monsters keep showing up, at least you'll have something to go off on, right?"

Star, overcome with joy, abruptly hugged Brittney, surprising her like Misao did.

"That's right!" Her chin resting on her shoulder, Star replied. "And I get you, too."

Jo said:
I want to be friends with everyone esp the other girls

Rather than clumsily try to disentangle herself, Brittney just stood frozen in Star's embrace. "… Yeah?"

"I know we started way, way on the wrong foot, and you're totally okay with leaving the bridge burnt, but…" Star pulled back. "… I want to be your friend."

Brittney stared at Star for a moment, long enough in silence to blink once, before she replied. "You're lucky I'm rich–I can afford to rebuild a stupid bridge."

Star's smile was incandescent, even with her helmet Jo had to look away from the girl before she hugged Brittney even tighter with a squeal of excitement. "I'm a Princess, remember? I got money, too. Whole country and monthly tributes from noble houses money."

Jo said:
Becuz ur so right. When we fight 2gether we are freaking awesome.

Hesitantly at first, Brittney returned Star's hug, and got squeezed harder as a consequence. Rolling her eyes, she rested her chin on Star's shoulder, all of her tension absent. "Yeah, Princess money is no joke."

She pulled back and turned towards the door. "But enough about how rich we are; I said I owed you sa dance if you took care of that thing."

Star squeezed Brittney again. "No-takesies-backsies~!" She sang as she opened the door and hauled Brittney in after her, the head cheerleader letting out a squawk as she was pulled in. Watching her go and the doors close, Jo let out a small laugh and turned to walk away from the doors. As she walked past the cyborg security, they stood a little straighter, the head of the detail nodding his head in respect to her.

She liked that.

Jo said:
It's so much better than fighting alone and being angry for no freaking reason. I'm gonna apologize to your sister, Misao, and Janna the first chance I get.

Marco said:
Go do it at the dance.

Jo said:
OK I feel bad though… they're going to be so mad when they find out what happened.

This was serious and everyone needed to know, but at the same time… she and Star just saved the dance and Star was able to be there with their friends. She had already punched whoever the hell that attacked them into the next county, and even with the adrenaline rush gone, she wanted to do even worse to Trip and Van.

There was a good possibility that after telling Mabel, Misao, and Star… they all may end up going to the Vanderhoff residence and putting them in the hospital, too.

Provided Trip and Van were fortunate enough to make it there.

Marco said:
I dont want the Vanderhoffs to ruin their night too

Marco said:
Tell them after the dance and come meet us at the hospital. We can talk about how we are going to deal with this later

Letting out a relieved sigh, Jo acquiesced to his request.

Jo said:
All right, Ill let them know after the dance and we will be over to visit you.

The Vanderhoffs could wait. No, they would wait.

It will be the only mercy they get before what came next.

For now, Jo was going to get out of this armor… and try her hand at going to a school dance for once.

@@@@@​

Patched up enough that he was no longer indistinguishable from the ruin that was The Scraplands, Noxic was already at work rebuilding the pummeled wreckage of his workshop, which was still indistinguishable from the ruin that was The Scraplands. After spending the day sitting around and listening to Noxic talk then getting splattered all over a good chunk of the workshop and listening to Hammer Kong, Typhus was more than in a mood to work.

"Hey buddy, what do you think," Noxic asked, "We gonna put that grinder so I can get started on those Scabs?"

Typhus looked at him. "Yannow what? I think we can take our time on all that. Where'd you wantthat smelter to go again?"

Noxic brightened at Typhus' offer. "Oh man, you know exactly what to say when I've had a rough day." He pointed to his left, Typhus following the direction of his hand. "I was thinking we can put it right over there to the left of where I want the grinder to sit. Get a feed of scrap right into the fire, yannow?"

"Yeah, baby, I dig that," Typhus said as he folded his arms and nodded.

Jara landed behind them; the sound of her footsteps eerily light on the scrap metal behind them drawing their attention. With her mask in the way, there was no telling what her mood was, but she was standing as stiffly as she had been for the past few days as she stared at them.

Typhus held up a hand in greeting. "Hey, Jara, thanks for getting that guy outta here."

"Yeah!" Noxic agreed. "He was giving me a pounding headache, and I can't even feel that noise! What's the word?"

"That robot is dead," Jara announced in a neutral tone.

Noxic answered with unenthused surprise, like he'd just heard about Hammer Kong for the first time in years. "Oh yeah? How'd you do him in?"

"I didn't," Jara replied. "The Butterfly and one of the Beetleborgs destroyed him."

Noxic's reaction to that news was even less underwhelmed. "Huh, neat."

It pissed Jara off. "That's it?"

Noxic shrugged his shoulders. "Yeah, that's it. I'm actually kinda impressed, yannow?"

"Yeah, Ham-Hands wasn't exactly a pushover, baby," Typhus added.

Behind her mask, Jara's teeth ground. "I believe his name was Hammer Kong."

Noxic did not particularly care. "It's not like that matters, Jara, it's destroyed."

"I'm certain that it does!" Jara snapped back, and both Noxic and Typhus stopped.

Her firsts clenching, Jara glowered at her two comrades, as her temper burned brightly.

"His anger, all because you made him for the wrong job and then forgot about him. Then you treat him like he was an inconvenience and a bother." She shook her head. "No wonder all of your creations despise you."

Noxic placed his hands on his hips. "Yeah, and?"

Jara snapped at him. "Doesn't it even bother you in the slightest?!"

Noxic lifted his hands up and shrugged his shoulders. "No? Ham-Hands was a robot, made to do one thing… and that wasn't to be my friend."

He shook his head, and looked from her to Typhus, and then back. "You can't just build friends. That's not how that works. I could build the greatest freakin' robot in the world and program it to be my best buddy for life… but it wouldn't come close to bein' as real as you or Typhus over here–and it definitely wouldn't be as real as what you have with your mercenary pals."

Jara was struck by his words. "… N-Noxic…"

The machine man walked over to Jara and put an arm over her shoulder pauldrons before gesturing to her and Typhus. "You're my best buds, and the coolest guys I know. Don't ever forget that, okay?"

Heaving a sigh, Jara nodded. "Sorry; I guess I'm still processing…"

"No, no… you do what you gotta do to get through it. We're here for ya!"

Jara was moved by Noxic's reassurance, and she looked to Typhus–who appeared to be in thought.

"Hey, that's all true, and I'm glad you said your shot, baby," he said to Noxic, "But uh… what about Macho Number 5?"

Steam exploded from Noxic's vents as he pulled away from Jara and screamed furiously at Typhus. "WE DO NOT TALK ABOUT MACHO NUMBER 5!"

Typhus recoiled. "I'm just sayin'–!"

"YOU AIN'T SAYIN' CRAP!" Noxic yelled.

Jara began to chuckle, and almost broke into a laugh before she felt a strong, fearsome chill. Noxic and Typhus both stopped their bickering as well as well, a downpitched groan leaving the mechanical man's mouth as he turned around to find Vexor standing at the edge of the workshop site.

"Interesting," Vexor said as he scanned the site and The Scraplands beyond it.

"And here I thought the worst of today had passed," Noxic grumbled.

Typhus stepped up. "Uhh… hey Vexor, you come to check up on us?"

"Yes, I wanted to amend my previous orders in light of the evening's interesting events," he announced.

Typhus grunted. "Huh? What do ya mean, Vex?"

Vexor gestured with an open palm to him. "You suggested summoning a monster to keep tabs on the children and perhaps poke at them. I'm giving you permission to act as such–there is something that I want to know, and I need something with the ability to infiltrate to find that out."

Jara and Noxic both looked at Typhus, who was intrigued. "All right, what do you want to know?"

Vexor closed his clawed open hand into a fist. "I want to know the identities of the Beetleborgs, and why their allies protect that secret."

@@@@@​

In the back seat of his million-dollar car, Señor Senior Junior was lying on the bench seat, his knees drawn up and his lips pursed in a disgusted grimace.

In the front seat, Shego looked back at him. "You were real excited a few minutes ago when you said you found someone who knew where the girl was. What's up?"

Looking up from the phone, SSJ nodded. "Oh, I was… I very much was… they've even given me an address."

Shego, driving along, glanced back at him. "What are we waiting for, then?"

Turning off his phone screen, Junior rested his head against the car door, just below the window and sighed. "You know how it is hard to determine feelings through the internet?"

Shego rolled her eyes. "Unlike Dr. D, I only use the internet to keep up with the news and look at cute animal videos, why?"

Junior closed his. "Nevermind. Would you like to make a little more money on that ransom payout?"

Shego smirked.

"I'm listening."

= - = 6-9 = -=

|Dancing All Night|​

The Vanderhoff Residence's living room sprawled wide with a polished mahogany floor. Trip lay on a massive black couch in the center, staring up at his phone while a home entertainment holographic screen floated above the wall.

On the right side of the couch, Van was scrolling through his phone, with its screen projected onto the hologram screen to reveal his Instagram feed. Like his brother, he was awaiting a message.

Behind the couch, across the living room, Dudley stood by the door leading to the home's pool deck. The old butler, keen to keep an eye out for "Goblin" infiltrating the yard, looked out over Echo Creek from the hills the home was built on.

Beyond the glass doors, smoke curled over Hillhurst Manor and explosions lit the night near Echo Creek Academy.

Such sights left him tight-lipped, grim almost.

Letting his hand holding his phone drop to his chest, he looked at Van's projected screen and saw no new messages there. "Come on, where is he?"

Van looked over at him. "Dude, chill. He's probably being thorough, or flexing on them, you know how those Minuano wannabes gotta be."

Trip pouted and grumbled. "We totally should've gone with him and made sure he got it done."

"Right?" Van agreed.

Dudley wrung his hands behind his back. "And then what, Master Trip?"

Going still for a second, Trip shot upright and turned to Dudley. His right eyebrow was arched as high as Van's left as the brothers stared at their normally taciturn butler, who was more content to simply acknowledge their orders than give lip.

"What do you mean, 'and then what?'"

Trip shook his head. "If Pine Tree, his friends, and his whole stupid family don't pack their bags and leave LA after Goblin's done with them, then they're going to leave LA packed in bags."

Dudley visibly cringed. "You are suggesting…"

"I'm through playing around with them," Trip said, cutting him off.

"This is the only warning they're getting: that next time it's going to be way worse and there's nothing they can do about it but run."

Van nodded, feeling his brother's bloodlust.

Dudley turned his head to look back out at the town below and the city of LA beyond it.

"And what if after this they are not intimidated, and decide that they must escalate? What if Princess Star comes here in response to whatever 'Goblin' may have done to her friends?"

And just like that, Van lost the vibe as he was reminded of the magical thermonuclear device that helped stomp them.

Trip didn't care. "Whatever. If they don't figure out how screwed they are after 'Goblin' is done with them, then they're too stupid to live."

Van expressed his concern. "Um… we should think about what to do about Star. I don't want her doing that creepy magic stuff."

Trip rolled his eyes. "I'm not scared of any of them, anymore, and neither should you."

He gestured out to their living room.

"Look around at what we have, what we can throw at them! We're untouchable, and there are consequences for even trying!"

He turned to their butler. "We snap our fingers and people like Goblin or you for that matter, Diethard, shut your mouths and make our problems go away. I don't understand why that's such a difficult concept for you to grasp. What do we even pay you for if you can't?"

Shutting his eyes, Dudley took a long deep breath. "Of course, Master Trip."

That was the only response Trip wanted to hear from him.

He turned to his brother. "From now on, we're going all in and throwing as much cash as we can to get rid of all of them. Like I said, if they don't get the hint and get out of our sight? Then it's on them what happens next."

Van, in the face of his brother's bravado, took a deep breath. Maybe they'd figure out a solution to Star. Maybe get her out of the school or something, or back to wherever she came from. They had the money and power to do a lot of things, Trip was right about that.

"All right, yeah… we're the ones in control here," he reasoned aloud.

"Exactly!" Trip said, almost sounding proud of his brother.

On the projected screen, a brand-new Direct Message conversation started. Looking up at it, Van and Trip watched the screen as the latter opened the message to see who was contacting them.

Someone with the name SSJ5Gogeta.

SSJ5Gogeta
Hello! Is the bounty on Pine Tree still up for grabs?

Trip and Van looked at one another.

"Well, is it?" Van asked, his fingers hovering over the keyboard hesitantly.

Trip glanced back at Dudley and let out a laugh. "Yeah, tell him that the reward is half a mil now."

Van stared at the screen, nodding once as his doubts burned away under Trip's certainty.

They were in control, they had to be. With each word he quietly self-rationalized his way into setting aside his doubts.

Van's throat tightened as the message was sent, but he forced a grin anyway.

V Squared
Actually the bounty went way, WAY up! It's 500k Bro.

The response was immediate.

SSJ5Gogeta
WHAT! O_O

Trip laughed louder. "Tell him he can get a full million if he can put Pine Tree's sister in the hospital, too, however he wants to do it."

Van complied, quickly typing out the reply.

V Squared
If you can put his sister in the hospital, you can have one million. Two for one, get it?

GogetaSSJ5
I GET IT LOL ^_^;;;;

Trip grinned from ear to ear as he looked back at Dudley. "Do you see? This is easy for us!"

In his best impression of an old man's voice, he mocked his butler's concerns. "'WhAt iF tHey EsCaLaTe?' That's what you sound like, afraid of a bunch of bums."

Dudley's jaw tightened, but he bowed his head and held his tongue. He was not paid enough to reason with them, and he was paid for a great many services.

Including some he was glad these two were completely unaware of.

Van called his brother's attention back to the screen. "Dude, look."

GogetaSSJ5
Okay! I can do it as soon as Monday! I gotta get some stuff together first and then Pine Tree is toast! Do you have his address or anyplace I can get to him, or where he goes to school?

Van looked from the screen to Trip, who nodded, then back at his keyboard.

V Squared
4845 Avocado Terrace. He lives with his granddad, his sister, and this fat foreign chick named Misao Darlian. You'll get extra if you can mess her up, too. She's kind of a bitch.

GogetaSSJ5
Oh? Misao Darlian, right? TYVM, I'll keep that in mind ^_____^

Trip nodded to Van. "Good idea, we'll throw in an extra 250k for her."

"Half for the half-pint, right…?" Van asked.

Trip's grin stretched, looking nearly feral. He rocked on the couch like a kid waiting for fireworks.

"That's right! Those idiots have no idea the shitstorm that's headed their way…"

@@@@@​

"Hostile eliminated," the head of Brittney's security detail reported as the blast cleared. "All units stand down."

Brittney walked past them, headed for the school. "If there's nothing else to worry about, go back to your positions."

The head cyborg turned to her. "Miss Wong, there's a little matter about the damage, and the authorities."

Brittney shook her head. "As long as nobody is hurt, don't worry about it."

Inside her armor, Jo wanted to go slack, but she stayed on her feet. "Phew… what a night…"

And it was far from over, she realized. "… Shit…"

Then she looked around at the absurd amount of damage that the fight had done to the street and a few vehicles. "… Shiiiiiiiit…"

Quickly she scanned around and noticed that Brittney and her security weren't the only ones watching. In the windows, on doorsteps, and even on front lawns of almost every house on the block in front of and adjacent to the school, people were watching and either cheering or trying to figure out what had just happened.

And of course, almost everyone had a phone or camera pointed at the street.

"… Shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit…"

Strikerborg turned towards Star, who seemed to be completely ignorant of their audience as she held her wand in both hands. The wand was glowing brightly in a blue light that gave off flickers of green, then red, before it settled on becoming a soft violet.

"What…?" Jo asked.

The air whipped into a miniature cyclone around Star's boots, leaves and confetti spiraling as her eyes ignited with starlight, before she held the wand aloft and pointed it at the sky. Her wand lifting her off the ground as the whirling power grew, Star opened her now fully glowing eyes as the updraft lifted her hair up past her shoulders and fanned it out.

"… Super… Mega… Ultra…!"

Star called out before she pointed the wand down at the broken street beneath her feet.

"CUTIE KITTEN CLUTTER CLEANERS!"

Another shockwave, this one made of purple magic and adorable kittens wearing little maid costumes shot out in all directions, washing over the street and destroyed vehicles.

When the blast passed this time, the street and the cars were all repaired, as if they all hadn't been torn apart by the tremendous battle fought between Star, Strikerborg, and Hammer Kong.

Even the damage done to the street by the earlier battle with Typhus and his Scabs was gone, leaving the black asphalt looking like new.

Most shocking of all, the two Gekko UGs were getting back up and walking over like they just left the assembly line.

Stopping at the doors to the gymnasium, Brittney looked at the repaired street and vehicles. The hologram projector that Hammer Kong destroyed in his petulant fury was working again.

She nodded her approval.

As the cheering from the spectating neighborhood grew, Jo, who'd been staring at Star the whole time she cast that spell, blinked several times.

Did she just have actual butterfly wings there for a second?

When Star began to wobble where she stood, she reacted quickly. "Oh crap!"

Strikerborg bolted over to Star and immediately joined her side to support her. "Hey! You okay?"

With Strikerborg's help, Star steadied herself despite the sweat on her forehead and wobbling knees. "Yeah, I'm fine! Dipping down with the wand… isn't as bad as dipping down without it."

She let out a "hoo" and shook her head. "It would've been nice if Glossaryk told me that I could do that instead of ranting about hobo stew."

The two began heading towards the gymnasium, Strikerborg supporting her and gesturing for curious onlookers to stay back as they walked.

"So," she said.

Star looked at her. "Yeah?"

"Your magic is working."

Star nodded. "Two amazing things happened that helped me get it together. You and I squashed the beef… and I just got a dance with Brittney."

As they reached the sidewalk up to the gym, a message appeared sent straight to Jo.

DragonSol
It's me Dipper

She tensed.

DragonSol
Grandpa and some guys just got here and we are on our way to this place called Hyuuga Medical Works. I left Mabel's phone in the house, so I'm using Marco's.

She sighed in relief, before more messages flooded in.

DragonSol
We are all in rough shape, but he says we're going to live.
Marco and Jackie are both awake.
Thank you for bailing us out against that guy.
Is everyone ok? I saw the group chat. Is the monster gone?

Jo quickly replied.

JoJoLION
Star and I destroyed it. It didn't get anywhere near the dance.

DragonSol
Good. I'm sorry I was a dick
I wanted to talk about how we could sort out all the drama and patch everything up.
Because we're stronger when the only thing we're fighting are the bad guys.

Jo looked at Star again, then at Brittney as she brought the Princess to the door.

She looked around, at how three girls who had serious beef came together in their own ways to defeat the Magnavore, and clean up the damage as if it had never happened

It was impossible to deny.

JoJoLION
You're right.

Brittney nodded to Star as she and Strikerborg walked up.

"Hey Brittney, sorry for interrupting the dance," Star said.

Sniffing haughtily, she gave a quick glance at the street. "You cleaned it up, so I don't have anything to be mad about."

Looking at Star, and how she seemed so worn out by the fighting and using her magic, Brittney sighed and her perpetual scowl lost all its harshness.

"I don't hate you," she said quietly. "And… I'm sorry for all the mean names I called you, and for trying to drive you out of the school the first chance I got."

Before Star could forgive her, she quickly added. "I still think you're a crazy spazz and that wand is dangerous…!" She paused and resumed her more subdued tone. "But I get it."

Star was on the verge of gushing with happiness already from Brittney's apology. "You do?"

Jo smiled, as she sent another message to Dipper.

JoJoLION
I don't want to be mad at the girls anymore.

"I mean, duh," Brittney said. "It's so stupid and obvious now: you're a warrior."

Star cocked an eyebrow. "Say what?"

"All that crazy energy you got! Any time you're using magic when you're not showing off, you're trying to blast something or fight or whatever."

Star hummed. "Well… yeah. I mean… I've been beating up monsters since I was like three. My dad's a barbarian, and my mom apparently waged an entire war, so fighting's just something that's in my blood!"

Brittney gave Star an affirming nod. "And I get that, now. That's just who you are, and as long as these stupid monsters keep showing up, at least you'll have something to go off on, right?"

Star bounced on her heels, then lunged forward and wrapped Brittney up in a bigger hug than Misao.

"That's right! And I get you, too!"

JoJoLION
I want to be friends with everyone, especially the other girls.

Startled, Brittney stood frozen in Star's embrace, as if unsure of how to react at first, before she visibly relaxed into the hug. "… Yeah?"

"I know we started way, way on the wrong foot, and you're totally okay with leaving the bridge burnt, but…"

Star pulled back. "… I want to be your friend."

Brittney stared at Star for a moment, long enough in silence to blink once, before she replied. "You're lucky I'm rich; I can afford to rebuild a stupid bridge."

Star's smile was incandescent, even with her helmet Jo had to look away from the girl before she hugged Brittney even tighter with a squeal of excitement.

"I'm a Princess, remember? I got money, too. 'Whole country and monthly tributes from noble houses' money."

JoJoLION
Because you're so right. When we fight together we are freaking awesome.

She returned Star's hug, and got squeezed harder back as she rested her chin on Star's shoulder, all of her tension absent.

"Yeah, Princess money is no joke."

She pulled back and turned towards the door. "But enough about how rich we are, I said I owed you a dance if you took care of that thing."

Star released Brittney from the hug and took her hand

"No-takesies-backsies~!" She sang as she opened the door and hauled Brittney in after her, the head cheerleader letting out a squawk as she was pulled in.

Watching her go and the doors close, Jo let out a small laugh and turned to walk away from the doors. As she walked past the cyborg security, they stood a little straighter, the head of the detail nodding his head in respect to her.

She liked that.

JoJoLION
It's so much better than fighting alone and being angry for no freaking reason. I'm gonna apologize to your sister, Misao, and Janna the first chance I get.

DragonSol
Go do it at the dance.

JoJoLION
OK I feel bad though… they're going to be so mad when they find out what happened.

This was serious and everyone needed to know, but at the same time… she and Star just saved the dance and Star was able to be there with their friends.

She had already punched whoever the hell that attacked them into the next county, and even with the adrenaline rush gone, she wanted to do even worse to Trip and Van.

There was a good possibility that after telling Mabel, Misao, and Star… they all may end up going to the Vanderhoff residence and putting them in the hospital, too.

Provided Trip and Van were fortunate enough to make it there.

Dipper, response surprised her.

DragonSol
I don't want the Vanderhoffs to ruin their night, too.
I'll text them after the dance and come meet us at Hyuuga Medical Works. We can talk about how we are going to deal with this later.

Letting out a sigh, Jo acquiesced to his request.

JoJoLION
All right… as long as you're all okay, I guess the night can go on.

The Vanderhoffs could wait.

No, they would wait.

It will be the only mercy they get before what comes next.

For now, Jo was going to get out of this armor… and try her hand at going to a school dance for once.

@@@@@​

Patched up enough that he was no longer indistinguishable from the ruin that was The Scraplands, Noxic was already at work rebuilding the pummeled wreckage of his workshop, which was still indistinguishable from the ruin that was The Scraplands.

After spending the day sitting around and listening to Noxic talk then getting splattered all over a good chunk of the workshop and listening to Hammer Kong, Typhus was more than in a mood to work.

"Hey buddy, what do you think," Noxic asked, "We gonna put that grinder so I can get started on those Scabs?"

Typhus looked at him. "Yannow what? I think we can take our time on all that. Where'd you want that smelter to go again?"

Noxic brightened at Typhus' offer. "Oh man, you know exactly what to say when I've had a rough day." He pointed to his left, Typhus following the direction of his hand. "I was thinking we can put it right over there to the left of where I want the grinder to sit. Get a feed of scrap right into the fire, yannow?"

"Yeah, baby, I dig that," Typhus said as he folded his arms and nodded.

Jara landed behind them; the sound of her footsteps eerily light on the scrap metal behind them drawing their attention. With her mask in the way, there was no telling what her mood was, but she was standing as stiffly as she had been for the past few days as she stared at them.

Typhus held up a hand in greeting. "Hey, Jara, thanks for getting that guy outta here."

"Yeah!" Noxic agreed. "He was giving me a pounding headache, and I can't even feel that noise! What's the word?"

"That robot is dead," Jara announced in a neutral tone.

Noxic answered with unenthused surprise, like he'd just heard about Hammer Kong for the first time in years. "Oh yeah? How'd you do him in?"

"I didn't," Jara replied. "The Butterfly and one of the Beetleborgs destroyed him."

Noxic's reaction to that news was even less underwhelmed. "Huh, neat."

It pissed Jara off. "That's it?"

Noxic shrugged his shoulders. "Yeah, that's it. I'm actually kinda impressed, yannow?"

"Yeah, Ham-Hands wasn't exactly a pushover, baby," Typhus added.

Behind her mask, Jara's teeth ground. "I believe his name was Hammer Kong."

Noxic did not particularly care. "It's not like that matters, Jara, it's destroyed."

"I'm certain that it does!" Jara snapped back, and both Noxic and Typhus stopped.

Her fists clenching, Jara glowered at her two comrades, as her temper burned brightly.

"His anger, all because you made him for the wrong job and then forgot about him. Then you treat him like he was an inconvenience and a bother."

She shook her head. "No wonder all of your creations despise you."

Noxic folded his arms. "Yeah, and…?"

Jara snapped at him. "Doesn't it even bother you in the slightest?!"

Noxic shrugged his shoulders. "No? Ham-Hands was a robot, made to do one thing… and that wasn't to be my friend."

He shook his head, and looked from her to Typhus, and then back. "You can't just build friends. That's not how that works! I could build the greatest freakin' robot in the world and program it to be my best buddy for life… but it wouldn't come close to bein' as real or as best of a buddy as you or Typhus over here, and it definitely wouldn't be as real as what you have with your mercenary pals."

His words struck a powerful chord with Jara, as much as his reasoning surprised her. "… N-Noxic…"

The machine man walked over to Jara and put an arm over her shoulder pauldrons before gesturing to her and Typhus. "You're my best buds, and the coolest guys I know. Don't ever forget that, okay?"

Jara stared at Noxic, her mask concealing everything as she dipped her head down, before she let her shoulders drop.

"I'm sorry," she said softly. "I'm still processing…"

"No, no… you do what you gotta do to get through it. We're here for ya!"

Noxic's reassurance genuinely moved her.

Typhus, however, leaned over towards Noxic. "So, uh… that's all good, baby, real touching. But uh… what about, y'know… Macho Number 5?"

Steam exploded from Noxic's vents as he pulled away from Jara and screamed furiously at Typhus. "WE DO NOT TALK ABOUT MACHO NUMBER 5!"

Typhus laughed. "I'm just sayin'–!"

"YOU AIN'T SAYIN' CRAP!"

Jara began to chuckle, and almost broke into a laugh before she felt a strong, fearsome chill.

"Fascinating."

Noxic and Typhus both stopped their bickering as well as well, a downpitched groan leaving the mechanical man's mouth as he turned around to find Vexor standing at the edge of the workshop site.

"What an impressive find you have made," their leader announced. "This could suit us nicely."

"And here I thought the worst of today had passed," Noxic grumbled.

Typhus stepped up. "Uhh… hey Vexor, you come to check up on us?"

"Yes, I wanted to amend my previous orders in light of the evening's interesting events," he announced.

Typhus grunted. "Huh? What do ya mean, Vex?"

Vexor gestured with an open palm to him. "You suggested summoning a monster to keep tabs on the children and perhaps poke at them. I'm giving you permission to act as such, there is something that I want to know, and I need something with the ability to infiltrate to find that out."

Jara and Noxic both looked at Typhus, who was intrigued. "All right, what do you want to know?"

Vexor closed his clawed open hand into a fist. "I want to know the identities of the Beetleborgs, and why their allies protect that secret."

@@@@@​

In the back seat of his million-dollar car, Señor Senior Junior was lying on the bench seat, his knees drawn up and his lips pursed in a disgusted grimace as he read the line of DMs he'd just exchanged on Instagram.

In the front seat, Shego looked back at him. "You were real excited a few minutes ago when you said you found someone who knew where the girl was. What's up?"

Looking up from the phone, SSJ nodded. "Oh, I was… I very much was… they've even given me an address."

Shego, driving along, glanced back at him. "What are we waiting for, then?"

Turning off his phone screen, Junior rested his head against the car door, just below the window and sighed. "It is… difficult to tell someone's sincerity over the internet, yes?"

Shego rolled her eyes. "Unlike Dr. D, I only use the internet to keep up with the news and look at cute animal videos, why?"

Junior closed his eyes. "Nevermind. Would you like to make a little more money on that ransom payout?"

Shego's eyes lit up.

"Depends… what am I setting on fire?"

= - = 6-9 = - =​

The night and Volume 6 of Legends: A Story of Lies, is now over. Next time, something that's been a long time coming along with a recap to help people who have just gotten here to know what's going on.[/B][/CENTER]

 

[The Ero-Sennin]

Good day. Got a little bonus scene to fully wrap up Volume 6. Volume 7 progress is moving along smoothly, but with what's to come a quick bit of revelatory dialogue is needed. Enjoy!

Spoiler: Original Version

|Last Dance|​

With few knowing how close the dance came to total disaster, the Echo Creek Academy homecoming dance went on with more energy, joy, and celebration than ever before. Amidst the laughing and dancing students and Brittney's expensive and visually stunning decorations, rainbows, stars, and cute animals arced and swirled through the air as they were conjured by Star. She lit up the dance floor with her wand, like a living pyrotechnics display, as she partied with her friends.

All the divisions and tensions created by Brittney's obsession with perfection had been forgotten, and Brittney herself had been forgiven. The "Spirit Week By Wong" bracelets that had been her brand separating classmates from their happy memories were strewn everywhere–on the floors, on tables, and even some in now empty punchbowls.

Choosing to keep his as a memento of what they'd overcome tonight, Roland spun it around his fingers while he watched the dancing in a corner next to the gymnasium's folded up bleachers–a spot he'd chosen for a little space from the crowds.

His spot away from the dance wasn't a solitary one. Being in corner and out of mind of everyone else, several other students had gathered beside him, including Drew and Sabrina, who were sitting beside one another on the floor, eating some cake they grabbed from a refreshment table and were piling on with a can of whipped cream.

His date for the dance was still on the floor, dancing in a circle around a shower of yellow, gold, and orange glitter and sparkling lights shooting from Star's wand. Mabel, Misao, Janna, and Chantal were among the girls accompanied Megan–but what was so much more surprising was that Jo was there with them, sparkling in the same lights as the other girls as she laughed and urged their Ring Around the Rosie to go faster with the music.

"Nice," he said quietly, approving of the much welcomed vibe that had taken over.

Brittney, covered in glitter and a few glowing motes of light, walked past and leaned against the wall beside him, to his left. There was a weariness about her that spoke of her long day, and the emotional roller coaster she'd no doubt been on this evening alone. It all looked like everything was catching up with her.

"Almost done for the night?" Roland asked.

Brittney closed her eyes. "Mmh. I'm ready for the dance to be over, and to go home and sleep until Monday."

Roland agreed. "Nobody's gonna be mad at you for ending the party after a few more songs."

There was no better note to end the night on than now.

Brittney looked back out at the dance, then glanced at Drew and Sabrina. Sabrina was spraying some whipped cream in her mouth, while Drew was cheering her on chanting "Chug!"

She looked back towards Roland. "Yeah, I think a few more songs is fine."

He'd noticed where her gaze went. "I'm gonna be real; I respect what you got with your squad."

Brittney raised her right eyebrow. "Hm?"

"They got you, flaws and all, 'cause you got them."

"Of course, I do. Unlike those dumbasses, I know how to make friends."

Roland agreed with a nod. "You're gonna make a few more after tonight."

Both looked towards the dance floor, and at the party around Star. She had changed the glitter color to all those of the rainbow, and the spread of the shower now occupied the whole dance floor. Almost all the other people on it were circling her in different directions like it was pop music mosh pit.

Though she had bowed her head in apology, and the good-natured students of Echo Creek Academy had let bygones be bygones, Brittney felt a remorse Roland could see in her expression when he looked from the dance back towards her.

"I really fucked up," she said.

Roland nodded. "Yeah, you almost did."

"This isn't some big fancy gala like Northwest Fest… it's just a school dance where everybody goes to hang out," she looked down at her feet. "The only reason it's even in the news is because those stupid monsters tried to wreck it."

In consolation, Roland raised a good point. "At least word isn't going around about it because of how you tried to keep people out."

Brittney's eyes widened in horror. "Oh, shit… I don't think I'd survive that."

Letting out a laugh, Roland quipped. "A great perk of going to a third-rate public school: nobody cares except the people who go there."

That managed to turn the corners of Brittney's lips up a little. "Yeah… no one cares but us."

"Yep; some of us care too much, some care way too much, but hardly any of us don't care at all… and those that do only care about themselves," Roland finished. "As bad as this could've gone, at least it happened because you care about the school, and when it came down to it… you care about everyone."

Brittney sighed. "I should be better at showing that."

Roland agreed. "This is a good start."

She narrowed her eyes as she mulled on something, before asking him, "Can I come clean about something? I don't think I've even told 'the squad' this."

"I do have that 'you can tell me anything' quality about me–for whatever reason," Roland replied.

Shooting him a brief look, then rolling her eyes, Brittney turned her attention back towards the dance and looked specifically at Mabel. "Northwest Fest, the last one."

"What about it?" Roland asked.

"I was there."

At first confused by that admission, Roland stopped when he remembered what Dipper and Mabel had told him about what had really happened. "… Oh."

"I know you hang out with both of the twins. Did they tell you what happened there?"

Roland answered cautiously. "… Yeah, they did. I'mma be real, and say first off that I kinda thought it was BS."

Or he would've called it BS… if he didn't meet a wish-granting phasm that turned him into a superhero with speedster powers.

"It wasn't," she revealed. "There was a ghost, he turned us all into wood statues, and… afterward basically all of the out-of-town guests had their memories wiped by Dipper and that weird old hillbilly friend of his."

"… Except you," Roland replied.

"Yeah, as soon as I wasn't wood… I left. I got into my family's car and told my driver to floor it until we hit Portland."

She looked aside. "We got ticketed three times."

Her attention drifted to Star. "… That made sure I'd hate Star Butterfly the second she pulled some magic shit I didn't like."

So, it came from something traumatic, Roland understood that. "Look, even then… you're not wrong for being upset at Star for what she did Heck, even she thinks so."

"Yeah, and Star is from another dimension where fighting monsters and medieval battles is a normal thing for her. Just like how being a tyrant who must control everything was…" Brittney stopped and reflected on what she said, then corrected herself. "… Is normal for me."

As Drew and Sabrina, no longer preoccupied with their desserts listened-in candidly, Brittney shook her head. "If I wasn't so preoccupied with Spirit Week and keeping her out of my social distance then, I might've realized that she just didn't understand our world and could've explained things to her. But, you know… I didn't exactly put much thought into it."

She let out a small huff. "Exactly as much thought as she put into the possibility that our world is different from hers."

Looking in Star's direction again, she couldn't help but let that huff out again as more of a resigned laugh. "We're the same… not thinking at all about what our actions do."

Roland added, "And being able to accept responsibility for it."

Brittney stared at Roland, and her smile turned up a little more. "… Well, it's better than being a dense idiot like Trip and Van."

"Always," Roland quickly agreed.

Turning to Sabrina, Drew gave her a big smile as she giggled, before he leaned closer and whispered something. Her eyes widening, Sabrina's smile matched his and they both begin chortling among themselves. Roland couldn't not notice it and wondered what they were thinking… until Drew began pouring all the whipped cream that he could onto Sabrina's empty dessert paper plate.

"Trust me," he went on, seizing all of Brittney's attention, "You will never, ever be as bad a person as Trip Vanderhoff or his brother. Girl, you are too smart to be that dense."

"Did you know those two just come here so they can be richer than everyone?" Brittney asked.

Roland nodded. "Oh yeah, you don't have to tell me. They always gotta remind my Nano that she rents the space for Zoom."

"I swear, Preston Northwest cucked their so-called father twice because they're just like him."

Roland laughed a bit hard. "Nah, I met their Dad before. Trip fell straight down from that tree and hit every branch on the way."

Letting out a laugh of her own, Brittney relished having something to hock some venom at. "Head-first."

Roland doubled over a bit, playing it up a bit–even though it was genuinely funny. "Aha! Hahahaha~!"

In fact, he was just loud enough to garner the attention of their classmates, and some began to look their way.

Brittney brought her head back to laugh herself–when she immediately noticed the mass of white moving out the corner of her eye.

She turned her head, just slightly, in time to see Andrew McCormick swinging a plate-full of whipped cream for her face.

SPLAT.

Once more, a deafening silence returned to the gymnasium, as all eyes fell upon Drew rubbing the plate into Brittney's face, making sure as much whipped cream as possible went everywhere. When he was satisfied with the coverage, he slowly pulled his hand back and left the paper plate to stick to Brittney's face.

Out on the dance floor, Star slowly lowered her wand as she, Mabel, Misao, Janna, Megan, Chantal, all the students formerly dancing, and all the cute magical animals she summoned stared.

After a moment or two, the plate unsealed itself from the mess and slipped to the floor.

Brittney blinked her brown eyes wide open, staring through the mess on her face at Drew, who was licking his fingers clean of some of the whipped cream that got on them in the process of pieing her. She looked just past him at Sabrina, clutching the can of whipped cream and biting hard on her lower lip to keep from bursting into laughter.

She then looked at Roland, who was wearing the positively most smug face she'd ever seen on the man as he leaned on his cane and tilted towards her to utter a single word.

"… Gotcha."

Brittney continued staring at Roland, silent.

Ten seconds passed with her unblinking, wide-eyed gaze locked onto him.

The DJ standing at his booth also stared in silence at the scene–before Jo made her way over to his table, scanned his mixer, and pressed a button seemingly at random.


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9LAxmDGQGw

It was perfect. Without warning, a torrent of whipped cream erupted from over her mouth as she sputtered into loud, raucous, and relieved laughter. Sabrina lost it shortly after, nearly falling forward as she laughed like a hyena rather than a nervous fox.

And that was that, as the entire gymnasium began laughing and cheering.

"My boy!" Roland yelled as he stepped forward towards Drew, both swinging their right hands in to catch one another in a firm, celebratory handshake.

Drew grinned mischievously. "Well, since this is a school dance now, it needed a school dance prank."

"Yeah, but a pie to the face? Classic, but she could've killed you." Roland said after letting his hand go.

Drew brought his hand to his chest in a mock solemn gesture. "Then I died for the craft."

He glanced out to the dance floor and immediately caught Janna's gaze, her expression a mix of mischief, schadenfreude, and pride.

"You're not going to die," Brittney said, pulling his attention to her as she wiped off some of the whipped cream, still laughing. "But you're not escaping unscathed!"

And with speed that caught him by surprise, she smashed a palm-full of whipped cream into Drew's face, while Sabrina–her eyes gleaming–turned the whipped cream can on Roland, laughing as she did.

"Oh no!" He yelped as he was showered with the confection.

As the music came back on again, Mabel beamed down at Misao. "Isn't this nice?"

All sunshine and rainbows, Misao answered. "Ja, this is the best party I've ever been to!"

Janna turned to them both. "And to think the night is still so young. Hey, Star?"

Star sidled up alongside her. "Yes~?"

"I'm thinking after-party," the Queen in Yellow suggested.

Star gasped. "Oh my gosh. We could go to St. O's for the after-party! It'll be insane~!"

Mabel reached into her cleavage and pulled out her phone. "I'm gonna tell Marco that we're coming to grab him, Jackie, and Dipper to take them there."

"Yes!" Star quickly said. "The girls at St. O's have been fiending for Marco to come visit again!"

Janna really liked where this was going, as Mabel quickly swiped out a chat with her thumbs. "We should grab the other boys, too. I'm sure they'd find St. O's an experience."

Star giggled. "Janna, you're so…"

She trailed off when Mabel went still, and her smile vanished. The tall brunette blinked several times as she read the screen, before her expression darkened into something simultaneously horrified, cold, and enraged that worried Misao, startled Star, and even had Janna taking a step back.

"… M-Mabel?" Misao, cautiously, asked.

She did not realize Mabel was capable of such a frightening expression.

Janna had a very bad feeling at that moment. "Are you okay?"

Star stepped closer. "What is it?"

Lowering her phone, Mabel said to all of them in a tone level with fury.

"We need to go, right now."

= - = 6-EX = -=

|Last Dance|​

With few knowing how close the dance came to total disaster, the Echo Creek Academy homecoming dance went on with more energy, joy, and celebration than ever before.

Amidst the laughing and dancing students and Brittney's expensive and visually stunning decorations, rainbows, stars, and cute animals conjured by Star arced and swirled through the air. She lit up the dance floor with her wand, like a living pyrotechnics display, as she partied with her friends.

All the divisions and tensions created by Brittney's obsession with perfection had been forgotten, and Brittney herself had been forgiven. The "Spirit Week By Wong" bracelets that had been her wall separating classmates from their happy memories were strewn across the floors, on tables, and even some in now empty punch bowls.

Choosing to keep his bracelet as a memento of what they'd overcome tonight, Roland spun it around his fingers while he watched the dancing from a corner next to the gymnasium's folded up bleachers, a spot he'd chosen for a little space from the crowds.

He wasn't alone, though. Being in the corner and out of mind of everyone else, several other students had gathered beside him, including Drew and Sabrina, who were sitting beside one another on the floor, eating some cake they grabbed from a refreshment table and were piling on with a can of whipped cream.

His date for the dance was still out on the floor, dancing in a circle around a shower of yellow, gold, and orange glitter and sparkling lights shooting from Star's wand.

Mabel, Misao, Janna, and Chantal were among the girls accompanying Megan; what was so much more surprising was that Jo was there with them, sparkling in the same lights as the other girls as she laughed and urged their Ring Around the Rosie to go faster with the music.

"Nice," he said quietly, approving of the much welcomed vibe that had taken over.

Brittney, covered in glitter and a few glowing motes of light, walked past and leaned against the wall beside him, to his left. There was a weariness about her that spoke of her long day, and the emotional roller coaster she'd no doubt been on this evening alone.

It all looked like everything was catching up with her.

"Almost done for the night?" Roland asked.

Brittney closed her eyes. "Mmh. I'm ready for the dance to be over, and to go home and sleep until Monday."

Roland agreed. "Nobody's gonna be mad at you for ending the party after a few more songs."

There was no better note to end the night on than this one.

Brittney looked back out at the dance, then glanced at Drew and Sabrina. Sabrina was spraying some whipped cream in her mouth, while Drew was cheering her on chanting "Chug!"

She looked back towards Roland. "Yeah, I think a few more songs is fine."

He'd noticed where her gaze went. "I'm gonna be real, cuh; I respect what you got with the homies."

Brittney raised her right eyebrow. "Hm?"

"They got you, flaws and all, 'cause you got them."

"Of course, I do. Unlike those dumbasses, I know how to make friends."

Roland agreed with a nod. The Vanderhoffs couldn't make friends if their lives depended on it.

"You're gonna make a few more after tonight."

Both looked towards the dance floor, and at the party around Star. She had changed the glitter color to all those of the rainbow, and the spread of the shower now occupied the whole dance floor.

Almost all the other people on the floor were circling her in different directions like it was a pop music mosh pit.

Though she had bowed her head in apology, and the good-natured students of Echo Creek Academy had let bygones be bygones, Brittney felt a remorse Roland could see in her expression when he looked from the dance back towards her.

"I really fucked up," she said.

Roland nodded. "Yeah, you almost did."

"This isn't some big fancy gala like Northwest Fest… it's just a school dance where everybody goes to hang out," she looked down at her feet. "The only reason it's even in the news is because those stupid monsters tried to wreck it."

In consolation, Roland raised a good point. "At least word isn't going around about it because of how you tried to keep people out."

Brittney's eyes widened in horror.

"I don't think I'd survive that."

Roland let out a laugh. "A great perk of going to a third-rate public school: nobody cares except the people who go there."

That managed to turn the corners of Brittney's lips up a little. "Yeah… no one cares but us."

"Yep; some of us care too much, some care way too much, but hardly any of us don't. And those that do only care about themselves."

Roland smirked. "As bad as this could've gone, at least it happened because you care about the school, and when it comes down to it… you care about everyone."

Brittney sighed. "I should be better at showing that."

Roland agreed. "Hey, tonight's a step in the right direction, cuh."

She narrowed her eyes as she mulled on something, before asking him, "Can I come clean about something? I haven't even told 'the squad' this."

"I do have that 'you can tell me anything' quality about me, for whatever reason," Roland replied.

Shooting him a brief look, then rolling her eyes, Brittney turned her attention back towards the dance and looked specifically at Mabel. "Northwest Fest, the last one."

"What about it?" Roland asked.

"I was there."

At first confused by that admission, Roland stopped when he remembered what Dipper and Mabel had told him about what had really happened. "… Oh."

"I know you hang out with both of the twins. Did they tell you what happened there?"

Roland answered cautiously. "… Yeah, they did. I'mma be real, and say first off that I kinda thought it was BS."

Or he would've called it BS… if he didn't meet a wish-granting phasm that turned him into a superhero with speedster powers.

"It wasn't. There was a ghost, he turned us all into wood statues, and… afterward basically all of the out-of-town guests had their memories wiped by Dipper and that weird old hillbilly friend of his."

"… Except you," Roland replied.

"Yeah, as soon as I wasn't wood… I left. I got into my family's car and told my driver to floor it until we hit Portland."

She looked aside. "We got ticketed three times."

Her attention drifted to Star. "… That made sure I'd hate Star Butterfly the second she pulled some magic shit I didn't like."

So, it came from something traumatic, Roland understood that.

"Look, even then… you're not wrong for being upset at Star for what she did. Heck, even she thinks so."

"Yeah, and Star is from another dimension where fighting monsters and medieval battles is a normal thing for her. Just like how being a tyrant who must control everything was…"

Brittney stopped and reflected on what she said, then corrected herself. "… Is normal for me."

As Drew and Sabrina, no longer preoccupied with their desserts, listened in candidly, Brittney shook her head.

"If I wasn't so preoccupied with Spirit Week and keeping her out of my social distance then, I might've realized that she just didn't understand our world and could've explained things to her. But, you know… I didn't exactly put much thought into it."

She let out a small huff. "Exactly as much thought as she put into the possibility that our world is different from hers."

Looking in Star's direction again, she couldn't help but let that huff out again as more of a resigned laugh. "We're the same… not thinking at all about what our actions do."

Roland added, "And being able to accept responsibility for it."

Brittney stared at Roland, and her smile turned up a little more. "… Well, it's better than being a dense idiot like Trip and Van."

"Always," Roland quickly agreed.

Turning to Sabrina, Drew gave her a big smile as she giggled, before he leaned closer and whispered something in her ear. Her eyes widening, Sabrina's smile matched his before they both began chortling sinisterly.

Roland couldn't not notice it and wondered what they were thinking… until Drew began pouring all the whipped cream that he could onto Sabrina's empty dessert paper plate.

"Trust me, cuh," he went on, seizing all of Brittney's attention, "You will never, ever be as bad a person as Trip Vanderhoff or his brother. You are too smart to be that dense."

"Did you know those two just come here so they can be richer than everyone?" Brittney asked.

Roland nodded. "Nah, you don't have to tell me. They always gotta remind my Nano that she rents the space for Zoom."

"I swear, Preston Northwest cucked their so-called father twice because they're just like him."

Roland laughed a bit hard. "Nah, I met their Dad before. Trip fell straight down from that tree and hit every branch on the way."

Letting out a laugh of her own, Brittney relished having something to hock some venom at. "Head-first."

Roland doubled over a bit, playing it up a bit–even though it was genuinely funny. "Aha! Hahahaha~!"

In fact, he was just loud enough to garner the attention of their classmates, and some began to look their way.

Brittney brought her head back to laugh, when she immediately noticed the mass of white moving out the corner of her eye.

She turned her head, just slightly, in time to meet the plate-full of whipped cream Drew was smushing into her face.

SPLAT.

Once more, a deafening silence returned to the gymnasium, as all eyes fell upon Drew rubbing the plate into Brittney's face, making sure as much whipped cream as possible went everywhere. When he was satisfied with the coverage, he slowly pulled his hand back and left the paper plate to stick to Brittney's face.

Out on the dance floor, Star slowly lowered her wand as she, Mabel, Misao, Janna, Megan, Chantal, all the students formerly dancing, and all the cute magical animals she summoned stared.

After a moment or two, the plate unsealed itself from the mess and slipped to the floor.

Brittney blinked her brown eyes wide open, staring through the mess on her face at Drew, who was licking his fingers clean of some of the whipped cream that got on them in the process of pieing her. She looked just past him at Sabrina, clutching the can of whipped cream and biting hard on her lower lip to keep from bursting into laughter.

She then looked at Roland, who was wearing the positively most smug face she'd ever seen on the man as he leaned on his cane and tilted towards her to utter a single word.

"… Gotcha."

Brittney continued staring at Roland, silent.

Seconds passed with her unblinking, wide-eyed gaze locked onto him.

The DJ standing at his booth also stared in silence at the scene, before Jo made her way over to his table. Scanning his mixer, she pressed a button seemingly at random with a grin on her face.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9LAxmDGQGw​

It was perfect. Without warning, a torrent of whipped cream erupted from over her mouth as she sputtered into loud, raucous, and relieved laughter. Sabrina lost it shortly after, nearly falling forward as she laughed like a hyena rather than a nervous fox.

And that was that, as the entire gymnasium began laughing and cheering.

"That's my twin for real!" Roland yelled as he stepped forward towards Drew, both swinging their right hands in to catch one another in a firm, celebratory handshake.

Drew grinned mischievously. "Well, since this is a school dance now, it needed a school dance prank!"

"Yeah, but a pie to the face? Classic, but she could've killed you." Roland said after letting his hand go.

Drew brought his hand to his chest in a mock solemn gesture. "Then I died for the craft."

He glanced out to the dance floor and immediately caught Janna's gaze, her expression a mix of mischief, schadenfreude, and pride.

"You're not going to die," Brittney said, pulling his attention to her as she wiped off some of the whipped cream, still laughing. "But you're not escaping unscathed!"

And with speed that caught him by surprise, she smashed a palm-full of whipped cream into Drew's face, while a mischievous Sabrina turned the whipped cream can on Roland, laughing as she did.

"Oh, it's on now!" He laughed as he was showered with the confection.

As the music came back on again, Mabel beamed down at Misao. "Isn't this nice?"

All sunshine and rainbows, Misao answered. "Ja, this is the best party I've ever been to!"

Janna turned to them both. "And to think the night is still so young. Hey, Star?"

Star sidled up alongside her. "Yes~?"

"I'm thinking… after-party," suggested the Queen in Yellow.

Star gasped. "Oh my gosh. We could go to St. O's for the after-party! It'll be insane~!"

Mabel reached into Misao's cleavage, eliciting a playful squeak from her, to pull out her phone. "I'm gonna tell Marco that we're coming to grab him, Jackie, and Dipper to take them there."

"Yes!"

Janna really liked where this was going, as Mabel quickly swiped out a chat with her thumbs. "We should grab the other boys, too. I'm sure they'll find St. O's an experience."

Star giggled. "Janna, you're so…"

She trailed off when she noticed Mabel went still, and her smile disappeared.

The tall brunette blinked several times as she read the screen, before her expression darkened into something simultaneously horrified, cold, and enraged that worried Misao, startled Star, and even had Janna taking a step back.

"… M-Mabel?" Misao, cautiously, asked.

She did not realize Mabel was capable of such a frightening expression.

Janna had a very bad feeling at that moment. "Are you okay?"

Star stepped closer. "What is it?"

Lowering her phone, Mabel said to all of them in a tone level with fury.

"We need to go, right now."

@@@@@​

Inside one of Hyuuga Medical Works' Nano Recovery Chambers, a blindfolded Marco lay back as the chamber's miraculous fluid swirled around him and treated the injuries he had sustained fighting Goblin. And there were a few.

Bruises, broken ribs, internal bleeding, numerous other fractures, a concussion.

The nanomachines flooding his body hummed faintly in his ears as they knitted bone, flushed out blood, and sealed torn muscle. He could feel the warmth of the fluid press into him from all sides, pulsing like a heartbeat that wasn't his. Every now and then a dull throb radiated from his ribs and hand as the nanomachines worked them back into place, pain suppressed by the sedatives they'd treated him with before his immersion.

His physical wounds would heal, but it did nothing for the damage in his mind.

Not twelve hours after he'd been warned, and he met someone that he couldn't beat with just his fists.

Everything he'd learned and honed under Sensei Brantley, the skills he put to work so well against the Magnavores, amounted to less than nothing.

Goblin didn't see him as some human to dismiss or play around with like Jara, Typhus, and Noxic.

To him, he was just a kid who got too comfortable punching above his weight class until someone punched down.

Marco was to Goblin what Jeremy Birnbaum had always been to him.

He always had to be the bigger person, to hold back against that spoiled terror.

But when he threw all of his might at Goblin, he was the flailing eight year old.

And that pissed him off.

Sensei Brantley's warning had been timely. Without his warning, Marco would probably be spiraling into self-doubt or inadequacy, right now… but instead he was angry, indignant even!

Who was this guy walking around dressed like a Beverly Hills prep and swinging around a sword like some edgy anime character, to call him trash?! He's been fighting monsters for weeks now, monsters twice his size at the smallest and many times stronger! He could keep up with the Beetleborgs, he could keep up with Star and her magic!

Marco Diaz wasn't some awkward kid pretend-fighting in the street trying to look cool, he was a martial artist, a warrior!

The sound of beeping finally grasped his attention, before the Chamber began to drain its fluid. In moments, it fully drained away, leaving Marco feeling warm and tingly, lying semi-prone in the angled tank.

Reaching up, he removed the oxygen mask, slipping it off one ear and pushing it aside as he began to breathe the dense, moist air pumped into the tube to force the healing juices out.

As the lingering warmth began to slip away from him, he lifted the blindfold next, and looked down at himself. He was wearing only a pair of swim trunks beside his blindfold.

"… Huh…"

Marco touched one of his ribs that he was sure had been broken, and didn't even feel any tenderness.

"It really is like a Bacta tank," he murmured aloud before the hatch to the tank lifted with a hydraulic hiss.

"MARCO!"

Star slammed into him, hugging him tightly. "OhmygoshMarcoareyouokay? Pleasetellmeyou'reokay!"

Marco's mind raced back and forth between Star's sudden intrusion, her tightly hugging him, and the fact that he was half-naked.

"Uhh… S-Star!" He yelped.

Star kept hugging him. "I'msosorry! Ishould'vebeenthere–!"

"Star!" He repeated. "Star, decency!"

Stopping, Star pulled back and looked at him, then down, and back up at his face. "I've literally seen you in just a bath towel, Marco, let me have this moment of worry and relief."

She had a point. Casting aside that concern, Marco hugged Star back and she held him so tightly back that he might need to go back in if she did it any harder.

"It's okay," he reassured her, rubbing her back. "I'm okay. We're all okay…"

He pulled back. "Anyway, I'm the one who should be sorry. We got messed up by that Goblin guy."

Star's expression turned from exasperated relief to setting fury. "Who is this Goblin jerk? I'm going to turn him into an actual goblin, then slay him!"

"He was some guy the Vanderhoffs paid to go after Dipper, but he was way different from the others they sent."

Star bristled, her heart-shaped cheek marks splitting in half down the middle and morphing into gray human skulls. "I'm going to turn both of those jerks into goblins, too!"

She let him go as her cheek marks pulsed again, gray skulls glowing faintly as she stomped the floor so hard the tank rattled. "No, turning them into goblins is too good for them! I'm turning them into kappa, and they're going to be uglier and stupider than Ludo could ever be on his WORST day!"

Star was so angry that Marco could see her long, voluminous blonde hair starting to lift like it was caught in a weak updraft.

Marco recoiled a bit, surprised at her fury. "… Star…"

She turned and grabbed Marco, before pressing her lips in a long, fervent kiss. His eyes shooting wide for a moment, they fell closed before he returned the kiss.

This was a very different kiss from their earlier ones. He could feel power radiating from her.

No, not just power, the anger that wrapped the energy flowing through her.

As she pulled away, taking deep breaths, the skulls on her cheeks had turned back into hearts that began to warm from gray to pink.

"Sorry," she said as she tried to calm down, "But I am so… steamed! I want to go find them right now!"

Marco, stunned by the kiss, rebooted and quickly shook his head. "… It's okay… so do I…"

As he began to remove the sensors attached to his body, he looked down and noticed Star's bandages around her arms, legs and plastered all over her hands.

She had a rough night, too.

"But I'm more upset about losing against that guy; he completely mopped the floor with me even with Jackie and Dipper backing me up. I couldn't really do much to him with what I can do."

He looked at his own hands, now completely unmarred in comparison to hers. A contrast between what he needed compared to how she came out of the fight she got into.

"I need to get better."

Marco looked up at Star, who was looking at him intensely, hyperfixated on him.

"Star… I need your help to get stronger," he said.

It wasn't just pride talking, it was necessity. He never wanted to feel this helpless again, to let anyone down again. Not his friends, and especially not her.

Without hesitation, she nodded. "Anything you need, don't even ask. Say it and I'll do whatever I can to help!"

He took his hands into hers. "Star, from now on, will you train with me?"

Star interlaced her fingers with his, and gripped his hands. "Of course! Let's get stronger together, beat up the Vanderhoffs together, and kick the crap out of that goblin together! Then we can forget about those losers and fight the forces of evil together!"

Marco's small smile grew as Star's unconditional support made his heart swell. This was just another reason why she was the most amazing girl he'd ever met.

"Thank you, this means a lot to me."

Star released his hands and hugged him again. This time he returned it without hesitation.

"Hugs…" Star said contentedly.

As he squeezed her, he added.

"You are really heated, though, it's like hugging a hot water bottle."

"Sorry," she said sheepishly.

"… It's all right, I kind of like it."

Janna's voice sliced right through the moment, making Marco jump so fast he ripped off a sensor he missed.

"Believe it or not, she's not even the angriest one."

The two broke their embrace, and Marco suddenly felt extremely exposed as the Queen in Yellow strolled in, carrying a bag in one hand.

He stopped and did a double-take, almost forgetting his near nudity, when he saw her Spirit Dance dress. "Uhh…"

"Yes, I do look good," Janna said as she held out the bag to him. "Don't be greedy—or do, I don't mind."

Rolling his eyes, he took and opened the bag, inside was a fresh hoodie and jeans. "I just didn't expect you to put in the effort. The outfit's nice, but it could use a dash of pink."

Janna's eyebrows rose, before she smirked. "Touché, Diaz."

She hooked a thumb over her shoulder. "Everyone's waiting at Old Man Pines' place for you to come out of the tub. The portal's right outside."

Marco frowned, and then looked around. "Wait, what about this? How'd we get here, and who's paying for this?"

Janna smirked. "Can you believe that Brittney is footing the bill on this?"

That was a shock to him. "Wait, really?"

Star nodded quickly. "We're cool now! She even let me come to the dance and we danced together for a whole set! Did you know she has moves?"

"Yeah, she fixed up Sad Kid earlier today, too. Which is a shame, now I have to do something nice for her."

Star lit up into an impish grin. "Aw, one less opp on the list?"

Janna's brows rose a little. "I look at it as having a new playmate to amuse myself with."

Marco's eyes rolled again. "Don't you have enough people to play mindgames with?"

"What can I say," her eyes darkened as her playful smirk grew. "I'm greedy."

After getting cleaned up and dressed, Marco exited the portal with Star and Janna into the back yard of Shermie's home. Dipper, Mabel, and Misao were sitting on the picnic bench, with Drew, Jo, and Roland across from them.

Jackie was sitting on one of the wooden chairs on the patio, looking pretty grim until she saw Marco and Star. Warming, she got up and walked over to Marco, hugging him almost as tightly as Star first had.

"Are you okay?" They asked each other at the same time.

Jackie smiled. "Yeah, I'm pretty tough, dude, remember when you clocked me?"

Marco flushed, he sure did. "I'm still sorry for that, too…"

He barely had time to smile back at Jackie before his eyes landed on the picnic table, and he paused.

Dipper had been looking at Misao's phone, and set it on the table face down. The bright back patio light was caught by his lumberjack hat, concealing his eyes in pitch dark shadow.

To his left, Mabel looked nearly as severe as she had at the end of the dance. To his right, Misao's head was bowed and her face was completely hidden by her bangs and tresses, and despite her small size she was radiating an almost oppressive presence.

The silence hung heavily, before Drew spoke.

"We're not doing this anymore."

Jo nodded in agreement. "Nope, we've got shit to do."

Roland, his grip tightening on his cane, spoke carefully. "This is war now. We crash out and we hit them harder than anything they can hope to do."

He lifted his cane and tapped it on the concrete that the picnic table sat on. "The way they treat people, how they treat Heather, Nano, and act like they can buy and sell anyone…"

Star nodded in agreement, remembering something in particular Trip yelled at her when she and Marco first met him.

Mabel spoke. "Let's get rid of him like we got rid of Gideon."

Dipper slowly shook his head, and tapped his fingers twice on Misao's phone.

"No, this isn't small town corruption where the sheriff can stuff them in a county jail for a few months. Arresting them won't make them go away, we have to make them go away."

He lifted his head, looked at the Beetleborgs, then at Misao, his sister, and finally Marco, Star, Janna, and Jackie.

"When they go away…"

His voice was dark and furious, as he tapped his fingers a final time on the phone.

"… It's for good."

Dipper's words rooted Marco in place, there was a terrible weight to them. It'd be chilling, if he wasn't in full agreement.

Misao reached over, and placed her hand on the phone. As she picked it up and brought it to her face, she lit up the screen and swiped her thumb across it to go to her contacts.

Her thumb hovered over a single contact long enough for the glow to silver her face and harden her jaw.

Mom.

Her face was a mask of wrath, her gray eyes nearly black in the light of the screen.

As everyone looked at her, she spoke.

"Then they will disappear."

@@@@@​

With the departure of the last of those curious kids from Echo Creek, Dr. Nikita Korolev ended the lockdown of Hyuuga Medical Works and allowed its routine 24/7 operation to continue. It was an unusual occurrence; while the facility did embrace confidentiality above all else, it didn't normally lock down part of it for anyone to ensure absolute privacy.

Not even Brittney Wong could do that.

It wasn't Brittney who made it possible, though.

"… To think she of all people is here," the doctor mused of the person who made sure her clinic was secure so Dipper, Marco, and Jackie could be treated in absolute confidentiality. "And tied up with those monster hunters… like-mother-like-daughter I suppose."

Personally, the young doctor had more concerning curiosities to worry herself with, especially the one that had come to her attention.

The treatment data of Andrew McCormick was on the hologram screen at her private office terminal, and it was showing some very curious wound patterns.

Confidentiality was embraced… but doctors had a duty to do no harm, and teenagers with full body contusions had to be reviewed.

She had expected injury patterns typical of domestic violence, teenage tomfoolery, or even self-harm.

Not… this.

"Injury patterns are indicative of repeated high speed accelerations and abrupt decelerations, hyper-extension of limbs, severe impacts with emphasis to the right arm, torso, and legs…"

She narrated quietly into a recorder, as she moved her cursor specifically from the aforementioned limbs to his face.

"Signs of high volume epistaxis, but overall blood pressure and arterial health are well within healthy baselines. The brain shows signs of extensive realignment of neural pathways and anomalous activity…"

Her cat-eared helmet tilted, as she scanned that curious line of data again.

While the condition of his brain was interesting, she went back to his bodily injuries.

"… Acceleration and deceleration injuries? But no blunt force trauma?"

Her eyes flicked back to the neural scan, pulse quickening behind her calm tone. They look almost as if he was moving around in Powered Ar…"

She stopped when his explanation rang in her mind.

"I was eating lunch off-campus when a blimp crashed into the town creek. I went to check it out, and… a monster attacked and tossed me around until I blacked out. When I came to, it was gone."

A low, understanding chuckle rumbled in her helmet.

"There're people I don't want to know what happened. It's so crazy I don't think anyone would believe me."

Dr. Korolev nodded. "I see."

With a few clicks of her mouse, she closed Drew's file… then copied it to deposit in a folder on her computer marked "CONFIDENTIAL. FULL DELETE IF REQUESTED", before proceeding to scrub her device of any other trace of Drew's data.

When that was done, she turned off the computer and leaned back in her chair.

"Well, that will be something kept between me and patient," she said with an amused huff.

She was a little giddy.

"It is not often I get someone my age in here," she mused, voice warm, even as her gloved fingers danced coldly over the holographic keyboard. "Especially someone so cute."

Now that she realized what she knew? She looked forward to seeing him again.

Though, as a doctor…

… She also hoped she wouldn't.

= - = 6-EX = -=​

See you in a few weeks with the start of Volume 7.

 

[Delta/Soul]

Same as I said on SB forum, Trip and Van are going to lose their breathing privileges.

 

[The Ero-Sennin]

Good morning, my lovely friends. It's time for more Legends. Let's get to it with the true beginning of Volume 7. If you're new here, get started at Volume 1.

Forgive, again, the MTL German lol.

Spoiler: Original Version

|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."

= - = 7-1 = -=

|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.

And seeing everyone in such a good mood meant 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 twin beacons of contentment.

"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. "Deadass?"

"Star and Brittney squashed the beef, so they're cool now. They even danced together for like a whole set!"

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! Everybody was laughing so hard, even Brittney! I almost passed out from not getting enough air—andthemolly."

Heather caught that. "And the what now?"

"Itwasjustonetabdon'tworry, but yeah 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 to the dance dolo."

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."

Hope nodded rapidly. "He was moving different the whole night, it was kind of hot."

She paused before adding. "… With all respect due."

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."

Heather immediately checked out of whatever he was saying, because she noticed a growing commotion headed her way. Students were looking towards the direction of the car park, and pulling out their phones.

When she turned, she saw why, and went pale.

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.

All other commotion fell dead quiet as the slap echoed.

Heather, wide-eyed, recoiled fully.

Hope and Mark both just watched, mouths agape.

As 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 tears roll down her face during her tirade. "M-Misao…!"

In English, as other students stopped and stared, Misao finished her ranting. "I WILL TAKE EVEN 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?"

"Yes, what did you do?" Heather pressed.

Because these idiots just made enemies of everyone.

Mark whispered. "Oh shoot… did he really put a hit out on Dipper?"

Hope shook her head. "No way he's that twisted…"

Mabel confirmed it. "He's been paying people to go after Dipper since we got here, and finally someone got him good, Marco and Jackie got caught up in it, too!"

As the other students gasped in surprise or sneered in disgust, Mabel focused her attention back on the Vanderhoffs.

"You don't get to walk around and pretend what you did is okay, okay? You want the smoke so bad? 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? Anything you can do, I will literally pay it back a million dollars more!"

He looked around at his impromptu audience. "All your lives are a week's allowance for me! A month if you believe you have money!"

He turned back to Mabel and Misao. "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 to her as Kombat Knat preened from the praise.

He turned to Vexor. "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 have 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 you need so many Scabs…"

"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 arrogantly. "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 our most recent shows of force have caused so little panic 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, Kombat Knat following his hand's movements with all the anticipation of a jumping spider on the hunt.

"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."

Jara sneered at his tone as Vexor 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?" She 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 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 thoughts.

"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 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 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."

= - = 7-1 = -=​

The endgame with the Vanderhoffs is on. The chickens are on their way home to roost.

 

[King of Kaiju]

Misao's gonna speak their language and crush them with her money, huh?

 

[The Ero-Sennin]

It's kinda nice that I'm on Volume 7 for both Senpai AND Legends. How about that. Let's see how close I can keep them together. Anyway, like I said with Senpai, whole chapters of Legends will be posted when I have the whole volume done. I still haven't decided on a posting schedule when that happens, but I'm thinking weekly, usually on a... Tuesday or Thursday. Anywahoo. Here comes a preview of the Volume 7 Chapter 2 of Legends: The Geek.

(Woo, more MTL German...)

---

"Thank you for dragging me away from those two," a less recalcitrant Misao murmured as Mabel jogged along, still carrying her like she was a stuffed animal. "I think I would have fought them if you hadn't held me back."

"You definitely got a good slap in!" Mabel praised her. "But I put all that work in on the gel so they can tear a face open if you need to, next time use them claws!"

Misao agreed. "Next time someone makes me that angry, I will."

"Speaking of work," Mabel went on. "Do you want something new for your hair this week?"

Humming, Misao shook her head. "No, I'll wear this color for a little longer. It's very nice."

"I agree! Then I want to dye the underside of my hair red to match," Mabel said.

Misao leaned back into Mabel to look up at her. "Ja! You would look so amazing with red, or even pink!"

Mabel had an idea. "What about Barbie Pink?"

"That would be lovely!"

Content as she was to be cuddled by a jogging Mabel, it had to come to an end as the taller girl reached Misao's new homeroom. "Then we're gonna get started the first thing when we get home!"

Then Mabel had an even better idea. "And Star's wand works, now! We can get her help!"

Set down, Misao bounced in excitement. "That would be perfect! I want to do amazing things with her magic!"

"I'll tell her about it in class." She hugged Misao, who eagerly returned the embrace. "See you at lunch~!"

"Ja, bye-bye!" Misao sang back as they pulled from each other.

As Mabel headed off back to her homeroom, waving excitedly back at her the whole way, Misao sighed and waved back at her.

Ich liebe sie. She thought as she turned and headed to her classroom. Ich vermisse dich bereits.

Now that she had her schedule in order, it was time for her to buckle down and get to work on the whole reason she'd come to America to begin with–finishing her final year of High School. Right outside the partially opened classroom door to her AP Calculus class, she sighed and reached to put her hand on the door.

Du schaffst das. Das ist nur ein weiterer Kurs wie jeder andere. She reassured herself internally as she pushed the door open and stepped into class.

"Guten Tag, Bonjour, Hello, Buenos Dias, Konnichiwa~!" Misao greeted, putting her best foot forward and her sunniest smile on her face.

The response she received was more than encouraging, as numerous students waved and greeted her in turn. Among them, seated beside two empty desks at the front of the class, was Brittney Wong–who had taken a moment from looking at her financial portfolio to wave in greeting. Spying the desk next to her, Misao brightened and walked over to the empty desk.

"Is this spot taken?" She asked.

Brittney closed the screen of her phone and set it down. "No, go ahead and sit down."

Misao accepted the offer and took the seat. "I didn't know you had AP Calculus."

Brittney rolled her eyes, but not in a dismissive manner. "I take every AP Course this school can offer."

The exchange student was relieved. Oh, dieser kurs wird überhaupt nicht schlimm sein.

With a sage nod, Misao understood. "Even in a fun school like this, our parents have high expectations of us."

"You have no idea," Brittney replied, "You think I can take over this entire school for nothing? I need to always be top three in the whole school if I want the money to do anything here."

This piqued Misao's interest. "Top three, not number one? Wow… your parents are pretty laid back."

"It's hard to hold onto number one at this school, so they cut me some slack rather than do something Vanderhoff-worthy," Brittney muttered.

At the thought of academic competition, Misao had to know. "So… who's number one?"

"Marco," Brittney said like Misao should know this.

"Quoi?" Misao would've never suspected him. "He seems more of… hmm… a jock."

And Brittney had to stuff a very sharp laugh. "Hm?! He declined every sports club because he didn't want to get bruised."

"… You've seen him fight, maybe he didn't want to bruise others?" The exchange student noted.

Brittney considered the possibility. "No… he was a wuss before Star gave him something to throw hands with."

That brought a giggle spilling from Misao. "So, he's much cooler, now?"

"From a purely objective standpoint, and that's it," Brittney quickly said.

Just as Misao was about to needle Brittney now, a hurried Heather entered the class and bolted to her seat.

"Sorry I'm late!" She said before she realized Misao was sitting between her and Brittney. "Oh!"

"Hallo," Misao greeted with a wave. "You take AP Calculus, too?"

"Yeah," Heather said as she put her books in her desk. "If I keep my grades up, I have a scholarship to UCLA with my name on it."

Brittney gestured to Heather. "Meet number three in the whole school."

Misao cupped her cheeks and looked back and forth beaming at her neighbors. "We can be study buddies!"

Heather brought a hand to her lips and giggled. "Wow, this is the most fun the class has been since Jackie was here."

Brittney gave the newly arrived girl a bit of a sharper look. "Let's see how long that lasts."

That was a grim reminder for Misao. This was, after all, the Den of the Geek…

As if on cue, the door opened again, and the classroom's teacher walked in. He was a fair-skinned man of average height with a weedy build, wearing a white button-down shirt with a black tie, and gray pants. He had short cut black hair that matched his dark eyes and the glasses he wore.

When Misao looked, she had a pang of dread as she watched him scan the classroom with an air not unlike Trip and Van… like he was a man assured of his superiority over the people before him and he knew it in his heart.

That dread was confirmed when he spoke, his voice projecting across the room like a young man with grievances against his students. "Well, I see everyone had a nice time at the dance this past weekend. Let's wring all that joy and euphoria out, before you start thinking there's hope for any of you."

Verflixt. Misao thought.

---

You're on your own, kid, but at least you're not alone.

 

[EvaUnit01]

Bow howdy, could this be... the rumored Professor Entitled Middle Manager?

 

[TricksterPriest]

"Thank you for dragging me away from those two," a less recalcitrant Misao murmured as Mabel jogged along, still carrying her like she was a stuffed animal. "I think I would have fought them if you hadn't held me back."

"You definitely got a good slap in!" Mabel praised her. "But I put all that work in on the gel so they can tear a face open if you need to, next time use them claws!"

Misao agreed. "Next time someone makes me that angry, I will."

Click to shrink...

CC: I've never understood why some women consider clawing at faces as a reasonable tactic. *rolls her eyes*

Milly: It's not my thing either. Then again, I used to hang around Lulu's mom when I was younger, and she'd just clock people or stab them.

CC: Mari would have eviscerated these idiots for what they're doing.

Content as she was to be cuddled by a jogging Mabel, it had to come to an end as the taller girl reached Misao's new homeroom. "Then we're gonna get started the first thing when we get home!"

Then Mabel had an even better idea. "And Star's wand works, now! We can get her help!"

Set down, Misao bounced in excitement. "That would be perfect! I want to do amazing things with her magic!"

Click to shrink...

Milly: Ouuuu, magic makeover? Sign me up!

Milly: Kallen, you're coming too!

Kallen: Like hell I am! ¬_¬

Milly: Nope! No getting out of it!

Ich liebe sie. She thought as she turned and headed to her classroom. Ich vermisse dich bereits.

Click to shrink...

CC: "I love her." and "I miss you already."

CC: Someone has good taste.

Du schaffst das. Das ist nur ein weiterer Kurs wie jeder andere. She reassured herself internally as she pushed the door open and stepped into class.

Click to shrink...

CC: "You can do this. This is just another course like any other."

Trollouche: Lady, taunt murphy at thine own peril.

Brittney closed the screen of her phone and set it down. "No, go ahead and sit down."

Misao accepted the offer and took the seat. "I didn't know you had AP Calculus."

Brittney rolled her eyes, but not in a dismissive manner. "I take every AP Course this school can offer."

The exchange student was relieved. Oh, dieser kurs wird überhaupt nicht schlimm sein.

With a sage nod, Misao understood. "Even in a fun school like this, our parents have high expectations of us."

"You have no idea," Brittney replied, "You think I can take over this entire school for nothing? I need to always be top three in the whole school if I want the money to do anything here."

This piqued Misao's interest. "Top three, not number one? Wow… your parents are pretty laid back."

Click to shrink...

CC: "This course will not be bad at all."

Trollouche: Keep taunting Murphy, see what happens.

Milly: I can see where Brittney is coming from. Grandpa says if I want to do festivals? I need to be in the top 10 academically.

Rivalz: It's kind of an informal requirement for the council that you've got to be pretty good academically. Except Lelouch, he gets a pass because he's trying to stay under the radar and everyone knows he's sandbagging. I think he's still top 30, top 20 or so?

Milly: That's laid back??

Kaguya: For a rich Asian family? Yes.

Kaguya: You have nooo idea how much pressure there is.

"It's hard to hold onto number one at this school, so they cut me some slack rather than do something Vanderhoff-worthy," Brittney muttered.

At the thought of academic competition, Misao had to know. "So… who's number one?"

"Marco," Brittney said like Misao should know this.

"Quoi?" Misao would've never suspected him. "He seems more of… hmm… a jock."

And Brittney had to stuff a very sharp laugh. "Hm?! He declined every sports club because he didn't want to get bruised."

Click to shrink...

Milly: Whaaaaaat?

Rivalz: For real?

Kallen: I'm surprised too.

Trollouche: I think his nickname was "Safe kid" before Star showed up.

"Hallo," Misao greeted with a wave. "You take AP Calculus, too?"

"Yeah," Heather said as she put her books in her desk. "If I keep my grades up, I have a scholarship to UCLA with my name on it."

Brittney gestured to Heather. "Meet number three in the whole school."

Misao cupped her cheeks and looked back and forth beaming at her neighbors. "We can be study buddies!"

Click to shrink...

Kallen: Looks like an impressive collection of brains here.

Rivalz: Aren't you in the top ten of the school yourself? How the hell do you do that with all the side job stuff as well?

Kallen: *blinks* Why? Is it supposed to be hard?

Rivalz: Nevermind.

Brittney gave the newly arrived girl a bit of a sharper look. "Let's see how long that lasts."

That was a grim reminder for Misao. This was, after all, the Den of the Geek…

As if on cue, the door opened again, and the classroom's teacher walked in. He was a fair-skinned man of average height with a weedy build, wearing a white button-down shirt with a black tie, and gray pants. He had short cut black hair that matched his dark eyes and the glasses he wore.

When Misao looked, she had a pang of dread as she watched him scan the classroom with an air not unlike Trip and Van… like he was a man assured of his superiority over the people before him and he knew it in his heart.

That dread was confirmed when he spoke, his voice projecting across the room like a young man with grievances against his students. "Well, I see everyone had a nice time at the dance this past weekend. Let's wring all that joy and euphoria out, before you start thinking there's hope for any of you."

Verflixt. Misao thought.

Click to shrink...

CC: "Darn."

Trollouche: Who called it? Who? Me, that's who!

Milly: Aaaaand I hate this guy already. -_-

Nunnally: I don't like him. He sounds like a mean and bitter person. ¬_¬

Kallen: Bets on him turning into a monster and the good guys getting to beat the shit out of him?

Rivalz: Place your bets folks.

The usual gang of lunatics and I await the full volume.

 

[The Ero-Sennin]

Here we are with more preview material, this time from chapter 3 of Volume 7: Supervillain.

---

High School schedules were annoying. While most days Drew would have a chance to sit in class with Heather, today was the day she just happened to have AP Calculus, so she wasn't in first period where he, Jo, and Dipper normally hung together. Dipper wasn't there, either; Jo was kind of moody about that but not to the antagonistic degree she'd been before the dance. At the very least, she'd be in higher spirits when she could hang out with the other girls at lunch.

Heather will be there, too. Drew thought with no small anticipation at the prospect, as he made his way to his locker between the class changes. I really missed her.

Even with how eventful the weekend was, and all the distractions and interactions he enjoyed, she had never left the back of his mind. It really had felt like months since he'd spoken to her, and he was more than eager to pick up where they had left off that afternoon before his fight with Saberizer.

Maybe she'll be up for sneaking off to Britta's again. He thought with a small smile.

He had just reached his locker, when the school's janitor, a blonde-haired, mustachioed man in a blue boiler suit called over to him. "Uh, hey? Watch your step right there, okay? I just mopped."

Drew stopped and looked at the floor. Indeed, it was freshly mopped. Taking another look, he was even surprised to see wet floor signs set up on both sides of the wet area. He looked at the janitor, confused.

"… Uh… thanks?" He offered.

The janitor stared at him. "Thanks for what?"

"Normally you don't…" He stopped.

The janitor, looking panicked, quickly asked. "Normally I don't what?"

Drew looked at the care and vigilance towards the wet floor, then back towards the janitor. "Nevermind, thanks for the heads up."

"No problem, it's my job, you know?" The janitor said quickly. "Because I'm the school janitor! I've been here for 20 years, and I'll be here for 20 more, yep."

Drew nodded. "Okay, man. Just… uh… keep up the good work?"

"We have already established that this is my job, now uh… don't pay me any mind and go back to whatever you were doing, the next bell is going to ring soon," the janitor said before going back to mopping the floor and calling out kids walking towards the wet floor signs.

Turning back to his locker, Drew shook his head. How does a school getting by at least three one-percenters and the literal ruler of a magical kingdom only hire weirdos?

As he opened his locker, he paused. Why is THAT even a question?!

Rather than torment himself with further questions, he just reached for his textbook just as someone called to him.

"Hey, um, Drew–eep!" He almost jumped when he heard a squeak and the sound of feet slipping on the wet floor. Closing his locker, he found Sabrina Backintosh struggling to keep from falling as her cheerleader uniform's sneakers lost their grip on the freshly mopped floor.

Drew was quick on the draw, using his telekinesis without thinking to arrest Sabrina's falling long enough to catch her by the hand and pull her away from the wet floor and close to him.

Letting out a squeak, Sabrina slipped forward–but Drew caught her with his other hand on her shoulder. For a moment, the green-eyed brunette looked up at him in surprise at his agility, before she took a half-step back from him.

The overly concerned janitor bad at trying to be inconspicuous looked over. "Hey, there are signs!"

"Th-thank you!" She quickly said, hoping to quickly talk past her near spill… and the fact that he was still holding her hand.

Drew nodded and released her from both his hands. "No problem. You made it through Spirit Week without taking a fall, so… it'd be bad to break the streak before second period, huh?"

In her heart of hearts, Sabrina told herself not to tell Drew about the spill she took getting out of bed this morning as she agreed. "Yeah. So, how was your weekend?" She asked, struggling to fight down her normal nervous stutter.

Drew smiled at the mousy cheerleader. "It was all right, I spent all of Sunday at home relaxing."

Because he was still grounded, of course, but having a lock on his door helped make it more bearable. "What about you?"

"Um… about the same. I stayed at home in bed all day because the dance took a lot out of me."

Drew sympathized. "Yeah… I'm usually completely drained after a big event, too."

He's been having more of those; though, hanging out with his group of friends would be nicer without the fate of the universe being in the balance.

Sabrina relaxed, her smile reflecting it. "I-introvert problems, am I right?"

"You're right," he answered with a similar friendliness. "So, what's up?"

With the ice broken, Sabrina felt free to fidget a little. "You know, we have lunch at the same time, right?"

Drew nodded. "Uh huh?"

"I was wondering… if you wanted… to…" Sabrina reached up and messed with her hair before spitting it out. "Sit with me for lunch? You know… maybe hang out for a little bit?"

Drew stared at her in muted surprise much like when she asked him to the dance.

He had a really good time with Sabrina, nothing was ever going to change that, yet Andrew McCormick didn't think there was much more to it than that. He was just someone's companion at a school dance. Sure, he knew there'd be friendly smiles and waves for the rest of the year, but he was also under the assumption that everyone was supposed to go back to their respective social circles afterward.

He had even made peace with it. Though the shyest cheerleader to ever lead cheers, Sabrina was still a cheerleader, and he was a comic book nerd.

"Um… really?" He asked.

Sabrina nodded. "I had a good time at the dance, and I wanted to do that more…?"

"Oh, right."

So he had made that good of an impression. He inwardly cursed himself for having self-doubts about being a pleasant person to hang out with.

Sabrina rocked from side to side, while rubbing her right forearm with her left hand. "… So…?"

Before Drew could answer her, the very source of his self-doubts walked right up to him and Sabrina. Trip, strutting like he owned the school, lifted a curious eyebrow at the sight of Drew and Sabrina within such proximity. He tilted his head to the side more and squinted a little at Drew, as if he was trying to recognize him. Van was of course beside him, looking more confused at Drew's appearance than the fact that he was chatting with a girl out of his league.

"Huh, excuse me," Trip addressed him, "You wouldn't happen to know an Andrew McCormick, would you?"

Drew looked at Sabrina, then back at Trip. "It's me, Trip. I got fixed up after my accident last week so I could go to the dance."

Trip nodded. "Well, I see you got some other work in besides. Did you sell that ratty old comic to afford it, because if so? You didn't get your money's worth."

And there it was.

"And what's up with this?" Van asked as he gestured between Drew and Sabrina. "First Hope Hadley and that fat fuck, and now a cheerleader's talking to you?"

A grin splitting his lips, Trip opened his mouth to say something particularly cutting off the top of his head, when Drew cut him off.

"I'm going to stop you right there, Trip," he said, his eyes empty save for contempt. "You? Your brother? In case I didn't make it clear enough at the game on Friday? Pay attention."

He gestured between thee two of them. "Go fuck yourselves–or each other. Whichever helps you feel better about being miserable dumb fucks with no friends and a Dad who doesn't love you."

Trip's mouth dropped open, while Van visibly recoiled from the sheer venom in Drew's casually delivered but caustic rebuke. Beside Drew, Sabrina was similarly shocked by the vitriol he spat at his perennial bullies.

"You've got no friends, no personality, and no fucking common sense. If you didn't have all that money, you would be getting your asses kicked every day like you did during the game, by everyone," Drew snarled.

Van was startled further. "How do you know about–?"

"You shut up; I'm not done talking." Drew snapped at Van, and he fell quiet.

"I don't care how much money you've got, if you talk to me again?" He continued, "If you even come near me again? I will beat the shit out of both of you."

He promptly dropped his books on the floor, squared his shoulders, and stepped up to both brothers, making Trip take a step back on reflex.

"Or we can go right now," he offered. "Hell, see if you can pay someone to fight me in your place–since I hear you're too chickenshit to throw hands yourself."

The janitor, tightly gripping his mop, looked back and forth between the quarreling students, his own mouth agape.

Trip's face had gone from pale to the most incredible shade of red as the shock that Andrew McCormick, his favorite punching bag since middle school, was talking all the shit to him like he could back it up.

"I'm going to fucking kill you," Trip said, the ugliness and wickedness that seized him when he paid Goblin to go after Dipper rearing its ugly head.

"You're going to pay someone to kill me," Drew corrected him, completely absent of any care about what he just said. "Right?"

He looked at Van. "Are you gonna take a swing at me? Or are you going to stand there and look fucking stupid like you always do when this dipshit doesn't yap orders?"

Van sputtered; he honestly didn't have words for this. The Andrew McCormick he knew did not talk like this, nor did he do it with such confidence or intensity. He couldn't understand what was happening.

Seeing that no one was going to attack him, Drew stepped back, and placed his foot atop his dropped books. "If neither of you have shit to say, or don't want to fight me? Fuck off."

He finally spared Sabrina a look at that, and he found that the shock that had taken her was also replace,d but in her case by open awe and admiration. He averted his eyes back to his opponents, but the fact that Sabrina was extremely cute with that look of wonder made him feel even better than just saying what he wanted to say to the Vanderhoffs already did.

Trip took another few steps back and pointed at Drew. "Y-you're fucking dead, Andrew. Just you wait. Not now, not tomorrow, but just like Pine Tree, you're fucking getting yours!"

"But it's not now, so you can go," Drew snapped back before he heard the a quickly growing commotion down the hallway.

---

Quite a lot going on...

 

[EvaUnit01]

BAH GAWD! BAH GAWD!

With God as my witness, Tip's ego is cut in half!

 

[Delta/Soul]

Spoiler: The most appropriate response

 

[The Ero-Sennin]

Volume 7 nears completion. Literally two chapters an a ton of editing to do before it's ready to go. Until then, here is another preview update. Now with a different machine translated language.

---

Over 1500 planes land per day at Los Angeles International Airport. Coming from all over the world, they range from single-engine civil prop planes to massive two and four engine jet airliners carrying hundreds of people. On this bright and sunny Monday morning, one plane went barely noticed as it lined up with the runway and began its final approach.

It was a small, white and gray-painted flying wing with a blended-wing-body and a pair of surprisingly quiet engines in pods also streamlined in the underside of the aircraft. Landing gear–a bicycle undercarriage with outrigger wheels under the middle of the wings–extended and the plane touched down.

Instead of approaching the terminal after it reached the end of the runway, the plane turned and taxied off towards a dark blue hangar where a sedan and two SUVs awaited.

Aboard the plane, a small Japanese woman with shiny black hair cut into a shoulder length bob, dressed in a dark-blue business suit with matching shoes and dark stockings.

Her gray eyes darted her right. Not to a window but to the wall-hugging screen of the private jet's cabin showing the world outside the aircraft as it rolled to a stop. She stared at the entourage waiting for her, as she spoke aloud.

「私たちのフライト で、 どれ 位 かかりました か ？」

Beside her, a woman similarly dressed, but taller, and with long fiery red hair that ended in yellow streaks at the end, replied.

「一時間と二十三分です。」

The smaller woman narrowed her eyes, before she got up. From her seat.

「またくだな 十年前には、これをしませんでした。」

The taller, more colorful woman giggled.

「しがたじゃないです。」

Then she spoke again, in English. "And also, ten years ago we didn't have anything this nice."

Giving her a withering look, the woman stepped towards the downward opening door, its wall folding out into a staircase. "True."

The taller woman then asked. "Though, would that stop you, Hyuuga-sama?"

Reaching the bottom of the steps, the woman stopped after touching the pavement and looked back at her taller companion.

"If I had to, I would swim the entire ocean to be here."

With that she headed towards the sedan awaiting them. "Now let's go, and resolve this unpleasant business."

---

An new arrival.

 

[The Ero-Sennin]

The time for previews is over. It took less time than I thought, but also being more than I've written in such a short time. Nevertheless, for the next couple of weeks, Legends: A Story of Lies updates with Volume 7 weekly! Let's get right to it, with our very next chapter!

Spoiler: Original Version

|The Geek|​

"Thank you for dragging me away from those two," a less recalcitrant Misao murmured as Mabel jogged along, still carrying her like she was a stuffed animal. "I think I would have fought them if you hadn't held me back."

Mabel looked down at her. "You definitely got a good slap in! But I put all that work in on the gel so they can tear a face open if you need to, next time use them claws!"

Misao agreed. "Next time someone makes me that angry, I will."

"Speaking of work, do you want something new for your hair this week?"

Humming, Misao shook her head. "No, I'll wear this color for a little longer. It's very nice."

"I agree! Then I want to dye the underside of my hair red to match," Mabel said.

Misao leaned back into Mabel to look up at her. "Ja! You would look so amazing with red, or even pink!"

Mabel had an idea. "What about Barbie Pink?"

"That would be lovely!"

Content as she was to be cuddled by a jogging Mabel, it had to come to an end as the taller girl reached Misao's new homeroom. "Then we're gonna get started the first thing when we get home!"

Then she had an even better idea. "And Star's wand works, now! We can get her help!"

Set down, Misao bounced in excitement. "That would be perfect! I want to do amazing things with her magic!"

"I'll tell her about it in class." She hugged Misao, who eagerly returned the embrace. "See you at lunch~!"

"Ja, bye-bye!" Misao sang back as they pulled from each other.

As Mabel headed off back to her homeroom, waving excitedly back at her the whole way, Misao sighed and waved back at her.

Ich liebe sie. She thought as she turned and headed to her classroom. Ich vermisse dich bereits.

Now that she had her schedule in order, it was time for her to buckle down and get to work on the whole reason she'd come to America to begin with–finishing her final year of High School. Right outside the partially opened classroom door to her AP Calculus class, she sighed and reached to put her hand on the door.

Du schaffst das. Das ist nur ein weiterer Kurs wie jeder andere. She reassured herself internally as she pushed the door open and stepped into class.

"Guten Tag, Bonjour, Hello, Buenos Dias, Konnichiwa~!" Misao greeted, putting her best foot forward and her sunniest smile on her face.

The response she received was more than encouraging, as numerous students waved and greeted her in turn. Among them, seated beside two empty desks at the front of the class, was Brittney Wong–who had taken a moment from looking at her financial portfolio to wave in greeting. Spying the desk next to her, Misao brightened and walked over.

"Is this spot taken?"

Brittney closed the screen of her phone and set it down. "No, go ahead and sit down."

Misao accepted the offer and took the seat. "I didn't know you had AP Calculus."

Brittney rolled her eyes, but not in a dismissive manner. "I take every AP Course this school can offer."

The exchange student was relieved. Oh, dieser kurs wird überhaupt nicht schlimm sein.

With a sage nod, she understood. "Even in a fun school like this, our parents have high expectations of us."

"You have no idea," Brittney replied, "You think I can take over this entire school for nothing? I need to always be top three in the whole school if I want the money to do anything here."

This piqued Misao's interest. "Top three, not number one? Wow… your parents are pretty laid back."

"It's hard to hold onto number one at this school, so they cut me some slack rather than do something Vanderhoff-worthy," Brittney muttered.

At the thought of academic competition, Misao had to know. "So… who's number one?"

"Marco," Brittney said like Misao should know this.

"Quoi?" Misao would've never suspected him. "He seems more of… hmm… a jock."

And Brittney had to stuff a very sharp laugh. "Him?! He declined every sports club because he didn't want to get bruised."

"… You've seen him fight, maybe he didn't want to bruise others?"

Brittney considered the possibility. "No… he was a wuss before Star gave him something to throw hands with."

That brought a giggle spilling from Misao. "So, he's much cooler, now?"

"From a purely objective standpoint, and that's it," Brittney quickly said.

Just as Misao was about to needle Brittney, a hurried Heather entered the class and bolted to her seat.

"Sorry I'm late!" She said before she realized Misao was sitting between her and Brittney. "Oh!"

"Hallo," Misao greeted with a wave. "You take AP Calculus, too?"

"Yeah," Heather said as she put her books in her desk. "If I keep my grades up, I have a scholarship to UCLA with my name on it."

Brittney gestured to Heather. "Meet number three in the whole school."

Misao cupped her cheeks and looked back and forth beaming at her neighbors. "We can be study buddies!"

Heather brought a hand to her lips and giggled. "Wow, this is the most fun the class has been since Jackie was here."

Brittney gave the newly arrived girl a bit of a sharper look. "Let's see how long that lasts."

That was a grim reminder for Misao. This was, after all, the Den of the Geek…

As if on cue, the door opened again, and the classroom's teacher walked in. He was a fair-skinned man of average height with a weedy build, wearing a white button-down shirt with a black tie, and gray pants. He had short cut black hair that matched his dark eyes and the glasses he wore.

When Misao looked, she had a pang of dread as she watched him scan the classroom with an air not unlike Trip and Van… like he was a man assured of his superiority over the people before him and he knew it in his heart.

That dread was confirmed when he spoke, his voice projecting across the room like a young man with grievances against his students. "Well, I see everyone had a nice time at the dance this past weekend. Let's wring all that joy and euphoria out, before you start thinking there's hope for any of you."

Verflixt. Misao thought.

The teacher's gaze fell upon Misao, and he raised an eyebrow at her. "And a new student for my AP Calc. I've been waiting a bit to finally say hello to you, Miss Darlian."

Misao sat straighter, putting her best foot forward despite sitting down with a friendly response. "You have?"

Mr. Geike, the teacher, nodded before looking to the rest of his students. "So, we have ourselves a little celebrity here: You see, Miss Darlian is one of those E-Girls that you hear about."

Misao recoiled a bit. "Er… I am not an 'E-Girl', I play video games and stream it for entertainment. Being an E-Girl implies something I'm not even allowed to do."

Mr. Geike brushed it off as if he hadn't heard her. "You play video games for a living; and I'm sure you make a lot of money showing off your 1337 ski11z."

And now Misao bristled a little. "Ja, I have sponsors, Herr Geike."

Heather spoke up. "She's won tournaments."

Mr. Geike looked impressed. "Tournaments! You really are accomplished for someone your age. Lots of people play video games–little kids, teenagers, burnt out thirty-year-old losers with no girlfriends just finding something to kill the time between shifts at their Paycheck Mill. And some, like you, are fortunate enough to have the backing to be famous for it."

Misao eyed the teacher, feeling a burn in her chest as her ears had to endure his tone.

"I'm sure if every single one of them had a father who was head of a pharmaceutical corporation, and a mother who sold weapons around the world to throw money at whatever they desired–they'd all be winning tournaments, too."

Misao now frowned at the teacher as she asked, "Do you have a problem with who I am?"

"Problem? No, no… I have no problem," he replied with a heavy inference of the contrary.

"I just want you to know right now, who you are does not matter in my classroom. Especially if you think you're famous, or if your parents get up to unethical things in the name of science or business."

Misao's grip on the desk tightened, then relaxed. Another quick glance at her peers showed her Brittney scowling harder than ever at Mr. Geike while Heather just held her head low and she clenched her jaw.

She looked back at him. "Then what does matter in your classroom, Herr Geike?"

He slapped the back of his hand against the chalkboard. "The ability to think logically, think critically, and do the work. We live in a golden age of technology and discovery. Everything from hologram projectors in phones, to hypersonic business jets, to liquid batteries have all come from the scientific brilliance of the world's greatest thinkers. Their work, and humanity's benefit of it, comes from classes like these–not likes and follows on Twitch."

Mr. Geike looked down his nose at Misao, the ghost of a condescending smirk on his lips. "So, do you understand, now?"

Heather studied Misao's face; after seeing her slapping Trip at the lockers, she didn't know what to expect here.

Brittney did the same; after hearing about her slapping Trip at the lockers, she hoped she performed an encore here.

Her lips pursed, Misao nodded. "Ja, thank you, Herr Geike."

As though he'd been expecting a different reaction, the teacher was taken aback for a moment, but undeterred. "Good. Take out your textbook and open to section three, I don't want to spend too long getting you caught up."

"Jawohl," Misao curtly acknowledged.

Mr. Geike stopped glowering at Misao and turned back to the chalkboard as he started lecturing the class.

The forty-five minutes of AP Calculus flew just like that, and by the bell Misao marched out of the class, followed by a besieged-looking Heather and the perennially scowling Brittney.

"He is an interesting man, that teacher," Misao said firmly. "Is he always like this?"

"Always," Brittney replied. "He harassed Jackie Lynn Thomas out of the class the exact same way he talked shit to you."

Heather sighed. "I think that's the closest I've seen anyone get Jackie to explode. Why are people like this?"

Misao nodded. "He is the smallest possible man."

"You have no idea," Brittney assured her.

Heather looked at Misao. "Seriously though, it almost sounded like it was personal with him, mentioning your parents like that. What was with that?"

Closing her eyes, Misao hummed. "My mother runs a business that my father works for. My mother's work has her overseeing some morally questionable things according to the morally self-righteous. While my father's work involves much Ukrainian medical technology, and certain people find that unsettling as well."

Brittney huffed. "Of course they do. Anyone whose stated goal is to put an end to the medical and pharmaceutical industry becomes an enemy to the medical and pharmaceutical industry."

Heather gawked at Misao. "Wait, Darlian… is your father Doctor Edward Darlian?"

"Ja, he is," Misao chirped back.

Heather went pale. "Oh my God, do Trip and Van know?!"

"Probably not," Brittney suggested.

Heather looked ahead, shaking her head slowly. "They really have no idea."

A smile played on Misao's lips. "Ja."

The blonde snapped her gaze back to Misao. "So when you said what you did at the lockers…"

"I meant every word of it," Misao assured Heather, just before Star bounded up to the girls.

"Hi Misao! And Brittney! And Heather, too!" Star greeted, surprising the latter girl. "How was your trip?"

Heather gave a start in surprise. "Um… it was okay, just family stuff. I'm surprised that you even knew…"

"Why wouldn't I know?" Star asked. "You weren't at the dance, and I asked around, wanting to make sure."

She nudged her. "If I knew where you were, I would've come to get you."

Heather blanched at the very idea. "… Oh, you would've hated it if you had."

When the other three girls scrutinized her, Heather explained. "Tahoe at the end of the season is so lame."

Brittney hummed speculatively, before she nodded in agreement. "Yeah, now that you mention it. It's always best to visit it during the peak. Sure, it's crowded but at least you don't have to worry about feral hippies or cannibal meth heads picking off stragglers."

Star gasped. "What's a hippie, and why are they feral?"

Misao, who couldn't correlate the words hippie and feral together due to a mental image of tie-dye, flowers in hair, and lots of marijuana smoke, shrugged her shoulders. "I do not know, but it sounds terrifying."

Brittney remembered she was dealing with out-of-towners. "Look, just take it from someone who knows. There are parts of this city–no, this whole state–that if you knew even half of it, you'd probably want to nu…"

She quickly noticed Star hanging onto her every word. "… uuuot want to stay here."

Heather grimaced, while Misao nodded in praise to Brittney for choosing her words wisely.

Star, however, was quick on the uptake. "Hey! I would not nuke Echo Creek off the face of the Earth, even if I knew how bad it could be here."

She grabbed both Brittney and Heather, pulling them into hugs. "This is my favorite place! And I've been to a dimension that is now a 24/7 party with booze, drugs, and the hottest music in the multiverse."

Brittney's eyebrows jumped up, before she gave Star an intrigued look. "Tell me more."

"And tell me less," Heather said, even as the prospect of a forever party appealed to her. "If my family knew I was even thinking about going to a party dimension, they'd flip out."

Misao giggled brightly; after last week's tension between Star and Brittney, it was just so wonderful to see them getting along so well. And Heather, too! She was such a kind girl.

Bald wird es hier noch schöner sein, Zeit zu verbringen. She thought pleasantly.

"So, Misao," Star said. "What's your next class?"

Misao beamed. "Gym."

Star pouted. "Aw, Mabel and I have gym next period."

And there was the bittersweet reminder that she was a grade above her friends. "I will at least see you during class change, then, and probably be very sweaty."

Star hugged her. "Be sure to make lots of friends there! It'll be super easy for you."

"Ja, ja~" Misao agreed as she hugged her back.

As the two hugged, and Heather and Brittney were about to excuse themselves and walk away to their next classes, the wall to the quartet's right turned an alarming bright red and then red hot–the bright light and heat causing them and other students walking down the hall to back away quickly.

Instead of pooling down and melting however, the white-hot wall burned away in a spreading burst of green and black flames to create a hole in the wall wide enough for Shego to step through–spreading her arms to scatter the flames that clung to her hands and forearms.

Heather drew her breath back in a sharp, frightened gasp as panic swept through the hallway. "What is she doing here…?"

"Oh shit," Brittney sputtered out.

Misao, pale as a sheet, stepped back behind Star, as Shego scanned the hallway before her glowing green eyes fell upon her. Identifying Misao, the supervillainess smirked.

"So, you can't hide anymore," she said, "How fast can you run?"

Star stepped up to Shego, putting herself between Misao and the evil doer. Seeing the blonde with the magic wand, Shego lifted an eyebrow.

As her cheek marks began to glow, to match the bell of her wand, Star replied. "How fast can YOU run?"

= - = 7-2 = - =

|The Geek|​

"Thank you for dragging me away from those two," a less recalcitrant Misao murmured as Mabel jogged along, still carrying her like she was a stuffed animal. "I think I would have fought them if you hadn't held me back."

Mabel looked down at her. "You definitely got a good slap in! But I put all that work in on the gel so they can tear a face open if you need to, next time use them claws!"

Misao agreed. "Next time someone makes me that angry, I will."

"Speaking of work, do you want something new for your hair this week?"

Humming, Misao shook her head. "No, I'll wear this color for a little longer. It's very nice."

"I agree! Then I want to dye the underside of my hair red to match," Mabel said.

Misao leaned back into Mabel to look up at her. "Ja! You would look so amazing with red, or even pink!"

Mabel had an idea. "What about Barbie Pink?"

"That would be lovely!"

Content as she was to be cuddled by a jogging Mabel, it had to come to an end as the taller girl reached Misao's new homeroom. "Then we're gonna get started first thing when we get home!"

Then she had an even better idea. "And Star's wand works now! We can get her help!"

Set down, Misao bounced in excitement. "That would be perfect! I want to do amazing things with her magic!"

"I'll tell her about it in class." She hugged Misao, who eagerly returned the embrace. "See you at lunch~!"

"Ja, bye-bye!" Misao sang back as they pulled from each other.

As Mabel headed off back to her homeroom, waving excitedly back at her the whole way, Misao sighed and waved back at her.

Ich liebe sie. She thought as she turned and headed to her classroom. Ich vermisse dich bereits.

Now that she had her schedule in order, it was time for her to buckle down and get to work on the whole reason she'd come to America to begin with: finishing her final year of High School. Right outside the partially opened classroom door to her AP Calculus class, she sighed and reached to put her hand on the door.

Du schaffst das. Das ist nur ein weiterer Kurs wie jeder andere. She reassured herself internally as she pushed the door open and stepped into class.

"Guten Tag, Bonjour, Hello, Buenos Dias, Konnichiwa~!" Misao greeted, putting her best foot forward and her sunniest smile on her face.

The response she received was more than encouraging, as numerous students waved and greeted her in turn. Among them, seated beside two empty desks at the front of the class, was Brittney Wong, who took a moment from looking at her financial portfolio to wave in greeting. Spying the desk next to her, Misao brightened and walked over.

"Is this spot taken?"

Brittney closed the screen of her phone and set it down. "No, go ahead and sit down."

Misao accepted the offer and took the seat. "I didn't know you had AP Calculus."

Brittney rolled her eyes, but not in a dismissive manner. "I take every AP Course this school can offer."

The exchange student was relieved. Oh, dieser kurs wird überhaupt nicht schlimm sein.

With a sage nod, she understood. "Even in a fun school like this, our parents have high expectations of us."

"You have no idea," Brittney replied, "You think I can take over this entire school for nothing? I need to always be in the top three in the whole school if I want the money to do anything here."

This piqued Misao's interest. "Top three, not number one? Wow… your parents are pretty laid back."

"It's hard to hold onto number one at this school, so they cut me some slack rather than do something Vanderhoff-worthy," Brittney muttered.

At the thought of academic competition, Misao had to know. "So… who's number one?"

"Marco," Brittney said, like Misao should know this.

"Quoi?" Misao would've never suspected him. "He seems more of… hmm… a jock."

And Brittney had to stuff a very sharp laugh. "Him?! He declined every sports club because he didn't want to get bruised."

"… You've seen him fight, maybe he didn't want to bruise others?"

Brittney considered the possibility. "No… he was a wuss before Star gave him something to throw hands with."

That brought a giggle spilling from Misao. "So, he's much cooler, now?"

"From a purely objective standpoint, and that's it," Brittney quickly said.

Just as Misao was about to needle Brittney, a hurried Heather entered the class and bolted to her seat.

"Sorry I'm late!" She said before she realized Misao was sitting between her and Brittney. "Oh!"

"Hallo," Misao greeted with a wave. "You take AP Calculus, too?"

"Yeah," Heather said as she put her books in her desk. "If I keep my grades up, I have a scholarship to UCLA with my name on it."

Brittney gestured to Heather. "Meet number three in the whole school."

Misao cupped her cheeks and looked back and forth beaming at her neighbors. "We can be study buddies!"

Heather brought a hand to her lips and giggled. "Wow, this is the most fun the class has been since Jackie was here."

Brittney gave the newly arrived girl a bit of a sharper look. "Let's see how long that lasts."

That was a grim reminder for Misao. This was, after all, the Den of the Geek…

As if on cue, the door opened again, and the classroom's teacher walked in. He was a fair-skinned man of average height with a weedy build, wearing a white button-down shirt with a black tie, and gray pants. He had short but dense black hair that matched his dark eyes and the glasses he wore.

When Misao looked, she had a pang of dread as she watched him scan the classroom with an air not unlike Trip and Van… like he was a man assured of his superiority over the people before him and he knew it in his heart.

That dread was confirmed when he spoke, his voice projecting across the room like a young man with grievances against his students. "Well, I see everyone had a nice time at the dance this past weekend. Let's wring all that joy and euphoria out, before you start thinking there's hope for any of you."

Verflixt. Misao thought.

The teacher's gaze fell upon Misao, and he raised an eyebrow at her. "And a new student for my AP Calc. I've been waiting a bit to finally say hello to you, Miss Darlian."

Misao sat straighter, putting her best foot forward despite sitting down with a friendly response. "You have?"

Mr. Geike, the teacher, nodded before looking at the rest of his students. "So, we have ourselves a little celebrity here: You see, Miss Darlian is one of those E-Girls that you hear about."

Misao recoiled a bit. "Er… I am not an 'E-Girl', I play video games and stream it for entertainment. Being an E-Girl implies something I'm not even allowed to do."

Mr. Geike brushed it off as if he hadn't heard her. "You play video games for a living; and I'm sure you make a lot of money showing off your 1337 ski11z."

And now Misao bristled a little. "Ja, I have sponsors, Herr Geike."

Heather spoke up. "She's won tournaments."

Mr. Geike looked impressed. "Tournaments! You really are accomplished for someone your age. Lots of people play video games: little kids, teenagers, burnt out thirty-year-old losers with no girlfriends just finding something to kill the time between shifts at their Paycheck Mill. And some, like you, are fortunate enough to have the backing to be famous for it."

Misao eyed the teacher, feeling a burn in her chest as her ears had to endure his tone.

"I'm sure if every single one of them had a father who was head of a pharmaceutical corporation, and a mother who sold weapons around the world to throw money at whatever they desired, they'd all be winning tournaments, too."

Misao now frowned at the teacher as she asked, "Do you have a problem with who I am?"

"Problem? No, no… I have no problem," he replied with a heavy inference of the contrary.

"I just want you to know right now, who you are does not matter in my classroom. Especially if you think you're famous, or if your parents get up to unethical things in the name of science or business."

Misao's grip on the desk tightened, then relaxed. Another quick glance at her peers showed Brittney scowling harder than ever at Mr. Geike while Heather just held her head low and clenched her jaw.

She looked back at him. "Then what does matter in your classroom, Herr Geike?"

He slapped the back of his hand against the chalkboard.

"The ability to think logically, think critically, and do the work. We live in a golden age of technology and discovery. Everything from hologram projectors in phones, to hypersonic business jets, to liquid batteries have all come from the scientific brilliance of the world's greatest thinkers. Their work, and humanity's benefit of it, comes from classes like these and not likes and follows on Twitch."

Mr. Geike looked down his nose at Misao, the ghost of a condescending smirk on his lips. "So, do you understand, now?"

Heather studied Misao's face; after seeing her slapping Trip at the lockers, she didn't know what to expect here.

Brittney did the same; after hearing about her slapping Trip at the lockers, she hoped she performed an encore here.

Her lips pursed, Misao nodded. "Ja, thank you, Herr Geike."

As though he'd been expecting a different reaction, the teacher was taken aback for a moment, but undeterred. "Good. Take out your textbook and open to section three, I don't want to spend too long getting you caught up."

"Jawohl," Misao curtly acknowledged.

Mr. Geike stopped glowering at Misao and turned back to the chalkboard as he started lecturing the class.

The forty-five minutes of AP Calculus flew just like that, and by the bell Misao marched out of the class, followed by a besieged-looking Heather and the perennially scowling Brittney.

"He is an interesting man, that teacher," Misao said firmly. "Is he always like this?"

"Always," Brittney replied. "He harassed Jackie Lynn Thomas out of the class the exact same way he talked shit to you."

Heather sighed. "I think that's the closest I've seen anyone get Jackie to explode. Why are people like this?"

Misao nodded. "He is the smallest possible man."

"You have no idea," Brittney assured her.

Heather looked at Misao. "Seriously though, it almost sounded like it was personal with him, mentioning your parents like that. What was with that?"

Closing her eyes, Misao hummed. "My mother runs a business that my father works for. My mother's work has her overseeing some morally questionable things according to the morally self-righteous. While my father's work involves much Ukrainian medical technology; certain people find that unsettling as well."

Brittney huffed. "Of course they do. Anyone whose stated goal is to put an end to the medical and pharmaceutical industry becomes an enemy to the medical and pharmaceutical industry."

Heather gawked at Misao. "Wait, Darlian… is your father Doctor Edward Darlian?"

"Ja, he is," Misao chirped back.

Heather went pale. "Oh my God, do Trip and Van know?!"

"Probably not," Brittney suggested.

Heather looked ahead, shaking her head slowly. "They really have no idea."

A smile played on Misao's lips. "Ja."

The blonde snapped her gaze back to Misao. "So when you said what you did at the lockers…"

"I meant every word of it," Misao assured Heather, just before Star bounded up to the girls.

"Hi Misao! And Brittney! And Heather, too!" Star greeted, surprising the latter girl. "How was your trip?"

Heather gave a start in surprise. "Um… it was okay, just family stuff. I'm surprised that you even knew…"

"Why wouldn't I know?" Star asked. "You weren't at the dance, and I asked around, wanting to make sure."

She nudged her. "If I knew where you were, I would've come to get you."

Heather blanched at the very idea. "… Oh, you would've hated it if you had."

When the other three girls scrutinized her, Heather explained. "Tahoe at the end of the season is so lame."

Brittney hummed speculatively, before she nodded in agreement. "Yeah, now that you mention it. It's always best to visit it during the peak. Sure, it's crowded but at least you don't have to worry about feral hippies or cannibal meth heads picking off stragglers."

Star gasped. "What's a hippie, and why are they feral?"

Misao, who couldn't correlate the words hippie and feral together due to a mental image of tie-dye, flowers in hair, and lots of marijuana smoke, shrugged her shoulders. "I do not know, but it sounds terrifying."

Brittney remembered she was dealing with out-of-towners. "Look, just take it from someone who knows. There are parts of this world that if you knew even half of it, you'd probably want to nu…"

She quickly noticed Star hanging onto her every word. "… uuuot want to stay here."

Heather grimaced, while Misao nodded in praise to Brittney for choosing her words wisely.

Star, however, was quick on the uptake. "Hey! I would not nuke Echo Creek off the face of the Earth, even if I knew how bad it could be here."

She grabbed both Brittney and Heather, pulling them into hugs. "This is my favorite place! And I've been to a dimension that is now a 24/7 party with booze, drugs, and the hottest music in the multiverse."

Brittney's eyebrows jumped up, before she gave Star an intrigued look. "Tell me more."

"And tell me less," Heather said, even as the prospect of a forever party appealed to her. "If my family knew I was even thinking about going to a party dimension, they'd flip out."

Misao giggled brightly; after last week's tension between Star and Brittney, it was just so wonderful to see them getting along so well. And Heather, too! She was such a kind girl.

Bald wird es hier noch schöner sein, Zeit zu verbringen. She thought pleasantly.

"So, Misao," Star said. "What's your next class?"

Misao beamed. "Gym."

Star pouted. "Aw, Mabel and I have gym next period."

And there was the bittersweet reminder that she was now separated from her friends. "I will at least see you during class change, then, and probably be very sweaty."

Star hugged her. "Be sure to make lots of friends there! It'll be super easy for you."

"Ja, ja~" Misao agreed as she hugged her back.

As the two hugged, and Heather and Brittney were about to excuse themselves and walk away to their next classes, the wall to the quartet's right turned an alarming bright red and then red hot. The bright light and heat caused them and other students walking down the hall to back away quickly.

Instead of pooling down and melting however, the white-hot wall burned away in a spreading burst of green and black flames to create a hole in the wall wide enough for Shego to step through, spreading her arms to scatter the flames that clung to her hands and forearms.

Heather drew her breath back in a sharp, frightened gasp as panic swept through the hallway. "What is she doing here…?"

"Oh shit," Brittney sputtered out.

Misao, pale as a sheet, stepped back behind Star, as Shego scanned the hallway before her glowing green eyes fell upon her. Identifying Misao, the supervillainess smirked.

"So, you can't hide anymore," she said, "How fast can you run?"

Star stepped up to Shego, putting herself between Misao and the evil doer. Seeing the blonde with the magic wand, Shego lifted an eyebrow.

As her cheek marks began to glow, to match the bell of her wand, Star replied. "How fast can YOU run?"

= - = 7-2 = - =​

New antagonists for everyone. Place your bets, because Star Butterfly vs. Shego is set to begin!

 

[TricksterPriest]

Huh?

CC: Oh look who's back. :3

Milly: Just go for it!

"Thank you for dragging me away from those two," a less recalcitrant Misao murmured as Mabel jogged along, still carrying her like she was a stuffed animal. "I think I would have fought them if you hadn't held me back."

Mabel looked down at her. "You definitely got a good slap in! But I put all that work in on the gel so they can tear a face open if you need to, next time use them claws!"

Misao agreed. "Next time someone makes me that angry, I will."

"Speaking of work, do you want something new for your hair this week?"

Humming, Misao shook her head. "No, I'll wear this color for a little longer. It's very nice."

"I agree! Then I want to dye the underside of my hair red to match," Mabel said.

Misao leaned back into Mabel to look up at her. "Ja! You would look so amazing with red, or even pink!"

Mabel had an idea. "What about Barbie Pink?"

Click to shrink...

Milly: I love her fashion sense!

Nunnally: Her hair would look so cute like that!

CC: I've never liked using my nails on people like that. A good quick slash with a blade is much more satisfying.

Kallen: Fucking Kami CC, you can't just go around using a sword on people. This isn't our world.

As Mabel headed off back to her homeroom, waving excitedly back at her the whole way, Misao sighed and waved back at her.

Ich liebe sie. She thought as she turned and headed to her classroom. Ich vermisse dich bereits.

Now that she had her schedule in order, it was time for her to buckle down and get to work on the whole reason she'd come to America to begin with–finishing her final year of High School. Right outside the partially opened classroom door to her AP Calculus class, she sighed and reached to put her hand on the door.

Du schaffst das. Das ist nur ein weiterer Kurs wie jeder andere. She reassured herself internally as she pushed the door open and stepped into class.

"Guten Tag, Bonjour, Hello, Buenos Dias, Konnichiwa~!" Misao greeted, putting her best foot forward and her sunniest smile on her face.

The response she received was more than encouraging, as numerous students waved and greeted her in turn. Among them, seated beside two empty desks at the front of the class, was Brittney Wong–who had taken a moment from looking at her financial portfolio to wave in greeting. Spying the desk next to her, Misao brightened and walked over.

Click to shrink...

CC: "I love her." and "I miss you already."

Milly: She's a very affectionate girl if you don't get on her bad side. :3

CC: "You can do it. This is just another course like any other."

Trollouche: Seriously people, stop taunting Murphy.

Brittney rolled her eyes, but not in a dismissive manner. "I take every AP Course this school can offer."

The exchange student was relieved. Oh, dieser kurs wird überhaupt nicht schlimm sein.

With a sage nod, she understood. "Even in a fun school like this, our parents have high expectations of us."

"You have no idea," Brittney replied, "You think I can take over this entire school for nothing? I need to always be top three in the whole school if I want the money to do anything here."

This piqued Misao's interest. "Top three, not number one? Wow… your parents are pretty laid back."

"It's hard to hold onto number one at this school, so they cut me some slack rather than do something Vanderhoff-worthy," Brittney muttered.

At the thought of academic competition, Misao had to know. "So… who's number one?"

"Marco," Brittney said like Misao should know this.

"Quoi?" Misao would've never suspected him. "He seems more of… hmm… a jock."

And Brittney had to stuff a very sharp laugh. "Him?! He declined every sports club because he didn't want to get bruised."

"… You've seen him fight, maybe he didn't want to bruise others?"

Brittney considered the possibility. "No… he was a wuss before Star gave him something to throw hands with."

That brought a giggle spilling from Misao. "So, he's much cooler, now?"

"From a purely objective standpoint, and that's it," Brittney quickly said.

Click to shrink...

CC: "Oh, this course won't be so bad after all."

Trollouche: Countdown starting now! :3

Milly: Marco??

Rivalz: Not the guy I expected to be #1.

Kallen: I'm surprised too.

Kaguya: Speaking as someone who...used to have parents like that? Brittney's are incredibly relaxed. >_<

Just as Misao was about to needle Brittney, a hurried Heather entered the class and bolted to her seat.

"Sorry I'm late!" She said before she realized Misao was sitting between her and Brittney. "Oh!"

"Hallo," Misao greeted with a wave. "You take AP Calculus, too?"

"Yeah," Heather said as she put her books in her desk. "If I keep my grades up, I have a scholarship to UCLA with my name on it."

Brittney gestured to Heather. "Meet number three in the whole school."

Misao cupped her cheeks and looked back and forth beaming at her neighbors. "We can be study buddies!"

Heather brought a hand to her lips and giggled. "Wow, this is the most fun the class has been since Jackie was here."

Brittney gave the newly arrived girl a bit of a sharper look. "Let's see how long that lasts."

That was a grim reminder for Misao. This was, after all, the Den of the Geek…

Click to shrink...

Milly: Also not someone I'd have predicted as top 3, but I'm down for it. *thumbs up*

Kallen: Guess she's got some friends now.

Milly: Wait, what was that last line?

As if on cue, the door opened again, and the classroom's teacher walked in. He was a fair-skinned man of average height with a weedy build, wearing a white button-down shirt with a black tie, and gray pants. He had short cut black hair that matched his dark eyes and the glasses he wore.

When Misao looked, she had a pang of dread as she watched him scan the classroom with an air not unlike Trip and Van… like he was a man assured of his superiority over the people before him and he knew it in his heart.

That dread was confirmed when he spoke, his voice projecting across the room like a young man with grievances against his students. "Well, I see everyone had a nice time at the dance this past weekend. Let's wring all that joy and euphoria out, before you start thinking there's hope for any of you."

Verflixt. Misao thought.

The teacher's gaze fell upon Misao, and he raised an eyebrow at her. "And a new student for my AP Calc. I've been waiting a bit to finally say hello to you, Miss Darlian."

Misao sat straighter, putting her best foot forward despite sitting down with a friendly response. "You have?"

Mr. Geike, the teacher, nodded before looking to the rest of his students. "So, we have ourselves a little celebrity here: You see, Miss Darlian is one of those E-Girls that you hear about."

Misao recoiled a bit. "Er… I am not an 'E-Girl', I play video games and stream it for entertainment. Being an E-Girl implies something I'm not even allowed to do."

Click to shrink...

Milly: And I already don't like this guy. ¬_¬

CC: "Darn."

Milly: E what now?

Trollouche: Basically softcore porn/titilation of girls and boys playing video games, Vtubing etc. It's not always that but it does tend to be associated with it.

Trollouche: Misao isn't quite old enough to do that legally yet.

Milly: How old is she?

Trollouche: About 17.

Milly: *raised eyebrow*

Trollouche: *shrugs* Their world, their rules.

Mr. Geike brushed it off as if he hadn't heard her. "You play video games for a living; and I'm sure you make a lot of money showing off your 1337 ski11z."

And now Misao bristled a little. "Ja, I have sponsors, Herr Geike."

Heather spoke up. "She's won tournaments."

Mr. Geike looked impressed. "Tournaments! You really are accomplished for someone your age. Lots of people play video games–little kids, teenagers, burnt out thirty-year-old losers with no girlfriends just finding something to kill the time between shifts at their Paycheck Mill. And some, like you, are fortunate enough to have the backing to be famous for it."

Misao eyed the teacher, feeling a burn in her chest as her ears had to endure his tone.

"I'm sure if every single one of them had a father who was head of a pharmaceutical corporation, and a mother who sold weapons around the world to throw money at whatever they desired–they'd all be winning tournaments, too."

Misao now frowned at the teacher as she asked, "Do you have a problem with who I am?"

"Problem? No, no… I have no problem," he replied with a heavy inference of the contrary.

"I just want you to know right now, who you are does not matter in my classroom. Especially if you think you're famous, or if your parents get up to unethical things in the name of science or business."

Click to shrink...

Milly: Oh ok. He's a bullying asshole.

Nunnally: I have a very low tolerance for abusive authority figures like that. -_-

Kallen: So she's rich, big whup. Still requires actual skill to win most of the tournaments she's playing I assume.

Kallen: Kinda biased towards gamers in general too. Hang on, what was that about her parents?

Trollouche: Apparently her family has some famous and infamous stories to them. Biopharmaceuticals and Arms Manufacturing, interesting.

She looked back at him. "Then what does matter in your classroom, Herr Geike?"

He slapped the back of his hand against the chalkboard. "The ability to think logically, think critically, and do the work. We live in a golden age of technology and discovery. Everything from hologram projectors in phones, to hypersonic business jets, to liquid batteries have all come from the scientific brilliance of the world's greatest thinkers. Their work, and humanity's benefit of it, comes from classes like these–not likes and follows on Twitch."

Mr. Geike looked down his nose at Misao, the ghost of a condescending smirk on his lips. "So, do you understand, now?"

Heather studied Misao's face; after seeing her slapping Trip at the lockers, she didn't know what to expect here.

Brittney did the same; after hearing about her slapping Trip at the lockers, she hoped she performed an encore here.

Her lips pursed, Misao nodded. "Ja, thank you, Herr Geike."

As though he'd been expecting a different reaction, the teacher was taken aback for a moment, but undeterred. "Good. Take out your textbook and open to section three, I don't want to spend too long getting you caught up."

Click to shrink...

Trollouche: Look, I'll be the first person to decry influencers and their followers as junk, but that doesn't mean he gets to use the bully pulpit of being a teacher to denigrate a student. ¬_¬

Kallen: Gotta admit, the tech in this planet is kinda nuts. There's things straight out of Star Wars here.

Trollouche: They're definitely ahead of us in quite a few places, which is no mean feat considering we have things like the Hadron blaster, the FLOAT system, Gefjun Disturber, FLEIJA, etc.

Alice: I'm certain Misao is going to make that pompous jerk pay.

Nunnally: I don't think he can afford it on a teacher's salary, tee hee.

"He is an interesting man, that teacher," Misao said firmly. "Is he always like this?"

"Always," Brittney replied. "He harassed Jackie Lynn Thomas out of the class the exact same way he talked shit to you."

Heather sighed. "I think that's the closest I've seen anyone get Jackie to explode. Why are people like this?"

Misao nodded. "He is the smallest possible man."

"You have no idea," Brittney assured her.

Heather looked at Misao. "Seriously though, it almost sounded like it was personal with him, mentioning your parents like that. What was with that?"

Closing her eyes, Misao hummed. "My mother runs a business that my father works for. My mother's work has her overseeing some morally questionable things according to the morally self-righteous. While my father's work involves much Ukrainian medical technology, and certain people find that unsettling as well."

Brittney huffed. "Of course they do. Anyone whose stated goal is to put an end to the medical and pharmaceutical industry becomes an enemy to the medical and pharmaceutical industry."

Heather gawked at Misao. "Wait, Darlian… is your father Doctor Edward Darlian?"

Click to shrink...

Milly: So he's one of those terrible teachers who likes to lord it over people and compensate for their own petty feelings. Greeeaaat.

Rakshata: Morally self-righteous. Hmph. The same sort of luddites who decry things like the medical cybernetics I used to work on. Clearly idiots. ¬_¬

Kallen: Big Pharma is that bad over there? I know ours sucks at times, but...

Trollouche: Kallen, our healthcare is absurdly good save for access to those who aren't Britannians. Europia isn't that far behind us and even ahead in some areas. In contrast, American Healthcare in particular is hideously bad.

Trollouche: They don't have government sponsored healthcare, obscene prices for medication-

Rivalz: Hate to break it to you, but I don't think people wanna hear a long rant from you about how bad US healthcare is.

Trollouche: *rolls eyes* Fine.

"Ja, he is," Misao chirped back.

Heather went pale. "Oh my God, do Trip and Van know?!"

"Probably not," Brittney suggested.

Heather looked ahead, shaking her head slowly. "They really have no idea."

A smile played on Misao's lips. "Ja."

The blonde snapped her gaze back to Misao. "So when you said what you did at the lockers…"

"I meant every word of it," Misao assured Heather, just before Star bounded up to the girls.

Click to shrink...

Milly: Ouuuu. Someone's in trouble~

Kaguya: Fu fu fu fu fu.

Leloucia: That, was a declaration of blood feud.

Heather gave a start in surprise. "Um… it was okay, just family stuff. I'm surprised that you even knew…"

"Why wouldn't I know?" Star asked. "You weren't at the dance, and I asked around, wanting to make sure."

She nudged her. "If I knew where you were, I would've come to get you."

Heather blanched at the very idea. "… Oh, you would've hated it if you had."

When the other three girls scrutinized her, Heather explained. "Tahoe at the end of the season is so lame."

Brittney hummed speculatively, before she nodded in agreement. "Yeah, now that you mention it. It's always best to visit it during the peak. Sure, it's crowded but at least you don't have to worry about feral hippies or cannibal meth heads picking off stragglers."

Star gasped. "What's a hippie, and why are they feral?"

Misao, who couldn't correlate the words hippie and feral together due to a mental image of tie-dye, flowers in hair, and lots of marijuana smoke, shrugged her shoulders. "I do not know, but it sounds terrifying."

Click to shrink...

Milly: I can't help thinking there's something odd about that girl .

Kallen: Eh, she just seems like she's got a weird family.

Rivalz: Speaking as someone from California? Tahoe gets kinda weird at times in the off season.

Brittney remembered she was dealing with out-of-towners. "Look, just take it from someone who knows. There are parts of this city–no, this whole state–that if you knew even half of it, you'd probably want to nu…"

She quickly noticed Star hanging onto her every word. "… uuuot want to stay here."

Heather grimaced, while Misao nodded in praise to Brittney for choosing her words wisely.

Star, however, was quick on the uptake. "Hey! I would not nuke Echo Creek off the face of the Earth, even if I knew how bad it could be here."

She grabbed both Brittney and Heather, pulling them into hugs. "This is my favorite place! And I've been to a dimension that is now a 24/7 party with booze, drugs, and the hottest music in the multiverse."

Brittney's eyebrows jumped up, before she gave Star an intrigued look. "Tell me more."

"And tell me less," Heather said, even as the prospect of a forever party appealed to her. "If my family knew I was even thinking about going to a party dimension, they'd flip out."

Click to shrink...

Trollouche: I have doubts about the music. But the rest of it sounds fun. :3

Milly: That's because you can't stand electronic music, mr headbanger.

Nunnally: Star seems like a bright and cheery to be around, like you, Milly!

Milly: D'aww, thanks Nunnally.

Bald wird es hier noch schöner sein, Zeit zu verbringen. She thought pleasantly.

Click to shrink...

CC: "Soon it will be even nicer to spend time here."

Kaguya: Ominous.

As the two hugged, and Heather and Brittney were about to excuse themselves and walk away to their next classes, the wall to the quartet's right turned an alarming bright red and then red hot–the bright light and heat causing them and other students walking down the hall to back away quickly.

Instead of pooling down and melting however, the white-hot wall burned away in a spreading burst of green and black flames to create a hole in the wall wide enough for Shego to step through–spreading her arms to scatter the flames that clung to her hands and forearms.

Heather drew her breath back in a sharp, frightened gasp as panic swept through the hallway. "What is she doing here…?"

"Oh shit," Brittney sputtered out.

Misao, pale as a sheet, stepped back behind Star, as Shego scanned the hallway before her glowing green eyes fell upon her. Identifying Misao, the supervillainess smirked.

"So, you can't hide anymore," she said, "How fast can you run?"

Star stepped up to Shego, putting herself between Misao and the evil doer. Seeing the blonde with the magic wand, Shego lifted an eyebrow.

As her cheek marks began to glow, to match the bell of her wand, Star replied. "How fast can YOU run?"

Click to shrink...

Kallen: Shit.

Leloucia: Ouuu, fun time!

Rivalz: What the hell is a supervillainess doing here??

Kaguya: And why is she after Misao-chan?

Leloucia: Stay tuned for next time on Senpai-verse Z!

 

[The Ero-Sennin]

Good day to you readers, it's time for your weekly Legends update. Misao had a bad run in with a bad teacher, but that is the least of her problems as Shego shows up and squares off against Star Butterfly. Let's not keep anyone waiting, and cut right to the next action-packed chapter!

Spoiler: Original Version

|Supervillain|​

High School schedules were annoying. While most days Drew would have a chance to sit in class with Heather, today was the day she just happened to have AP Calculus, so she wasn't in first period where he, Jo, and Dipper normally hung together. Dipper wasn't there, either; Jo was kind of moody about that but not to the antagonistic degree she'd been before the dance. At the very least, she'd be in higher spirits when she could hang out with the other girls at lunch.

Heather will be there, too. Drew thought with no small anticipation at the prospect, as he made his way to his locker between the class changes. I really missed her.

Even with how eventful the weekend was, and all the distractions and interactions he enjoyed, she had never left the back of his mind. It really had felt like months since he'd spoken to her, and he was more than eager to pick up where they had left off that afternoon before his fight with Saberizer.

Maybe she'll be up for sneaking off to Britta's again. He thought with a small smile.

He had just reached his locker, when the school's janitor, a blonde-haired, mustachioed man in a blue boiler suit called over to him. "Uh, hey? Watch your step right there, okay? I just mopped."

Drew stopped and looked at the floor. Indeed, it was freshly mopped. Taking another look, he was even surprised to see wet floor signs set up on both sides of the wet area. He looked at the janitor, confused.

"… Uh… thanks?" He offered.

The janitor stared at him. "Thanks for what?"

"Normally you don't…" He stopped.

The janitor, looking panicked, quickly asked. "Normally I don't what?"

Drew looked at the care and vigilance towards the wet floor, then back towards the janitor. "Nevermind, thanks for the heads up."

"No problem, it's my job, you know?" The janitor said quickly. "Because I'm the school janitor! I've been here for 20 years, and I'll be here for 20 more, yep."

Drew nodded. "Okay, man. Just… uh… keep up the good work?"

"We have already established that this is my job, now uh… don't pay me any mind and go back to whatever you were doing, the next bell is going to ring soon," the janitor said before going back to mopping the floor and calling out kids walking towards the wet floor signs.

Turning back to his locker, Drew shook his head. How does a school getting paid by at least three one-percenters and the literal ruler of a magical kingdom only hire weirdos?

As he opened his locker, he paused. Why is THAT even a question?!

Rather than torment himself with further questions, he just reached for his textbook just as someone called out to him.

"Hey, um, Drew–eep!" He almost jumped when he heard a squeak and the sound of feet slipping on the wet floor. Closing his locker, he found Sabrina Backintosh struggling to keep from falling as her cheerleader uniform's sneakers lost their grip on the freshly mopped floor.

Drew was quick on the draw, using his telekinesis without thinking to arrest Sabrina's falling long enough to catch her by the hand and pull her away from the wet floor and close to him.

Letting out a squeak, Sabrina slipped forward–but Drew caught her with his other hand on her shoulder. For a moment, the green-eyed brunette looked up at him in surprise at his agility, before she took a half-step back from him.

The overly concerned janitor bad at trying to be inconspicuous looked over. "Hey, there are signs!"

"Th-thank you!" She quickly said, hoping to quickly talk past her near spill… and the fact that he was still holding her hand.

Drew nodded and released her from both his hands. "No problem. You made it through Spirit Week without taking a fall, so… it'd be bad to break the streak before second period, huh?"

In her heart of hearts, Sabrina told herself not to tell Drew about the spill she took getting out of bed this morning as she agreed. "Yeah. So, how was your weekend?" She asked, struggling to fight down her normal nervous stutter.

Drew smiled at the mousy cheerleader. "It was all right, I spent all of Sunday at home relaxing."

Because he was still grounded, of course, but having a lock on his door helped make it more bearable. "What about you?"

"Um… about the same. I stayed at home in bed all day because the dance took a lot out of me."

Drew sympathized. "Yeah… I'm usually completely drained after a big event, too."

He's been having more of those; though, hanging out with his group of friends would be nicer without the fate of the universe being in the balance.

Sabrina relaxed, her smile reflecting it. "I-introvert problems, am I right?"

"You're right," he answered with a similar friendliness. "So, what's up?"

With the ice broken, Sabrina felt free to fidget a little. "You know, we have lunch at the same time, right?"

Drew nodded. "Uh huh?"

"I was wondering… if you wanted… to…" Sabrina reached up and messed with her hair before spitting it out. "Sit with me for lunch? You know… maybe hang out for a little bit?"

Drew stared at her in muted surprise much like when she asked him to the dance.

He had a really good time with Sabrina, nothing was ever going to change that, yet Andrew McCormick didn't think there was much more to it than that. He was just someone's companion at a school dance. Sure, he knew there'd be friendly smiles and waves for the rest of the year, but he was also under the assumption that everyone was supposed to go back to their respective social circles afterward.

He had even made peace with it. Though the shyest cheerleader to ever lead cheers, Sabrina was still a cheerleader, and he was a comic book nerd.

"Um… really?" He asked.

Sabrina nodded. "I had a good time at the dance, and I wanted to do that more…?"

"Oh, right."

So he had made that good of an impression. He inwardly cursed himself for having self-doubts about being a pleasant person to hang out with.

Sabrina rocked from side to side, while rubbing her right forearm with her left hand. "… So…?"

Before Drew could answer her, the very source of his self-doubts walked right up to him and Sabrina. Trip, strutting like he owned the school, lifted a curious eyebrow at the sight of Drew and Sabrina within such proximity. He tilted his head to the side more and squinted a little at Drew, as if he was trying to recognize him. Van was of course beside him, looking more confused at Drew's appearance than the fact that he was chatting with a girl out of his league.

"Huh, excuse me," Trip addressed him, "You wouldn't happen to know an Andrew McCormick, would you?"

Drew looked at Sabrina, then back at Trip. "It's me, Trip. I got fixed up after my accident last week so I could go to the dance."

Trip nodded. "Well, I see you got some other work in besides. Did you sell that ratty old comic to afford it, because if so? You didn't get your money's worth."

And there it was.

"And what's up with this?" Van asked as he gestured between Drew and Sabrina. "First Hope Hadley and that fat fuck, and now a cheerleader's talking to you?"

A grin splitting his lips, Trip opened his mouth to say something particularly cutting off the top of his head, when Drew cut him off.

"I'm going to stop you right there, Trip," he said, his eyes empty save for contempt. "You? Your brother? In case I didn't make it clear enough at the game on Friday? Pay attention."

He gestured between the two of them. "Go fuck yourselves–or each other. Whichever helps you feel better about being miserable dumb fucks with no friends and a Dad who doesn't love you."

Trip's mouth dropped open, while Van visibly recoiled from the sheer venom in Drew's casually delivered but caustic rebuke. Beside Drew, Sabrina was similarly shocked by the vitriol he spat at his perennial bullies.

"No one likes you, you've got no personality, and no common sense. If you didn't have all that money, you would be getting your asses kicked every day like you did during the game, by everyone," Drew snarled.

Van was startled further. "How do you know about–?"

"You shut up; I'm not done talking." Drew snapped at Van, and he fell quiet.

"I don't care how much money you've got, if you talk to me again?" He continued, "If you even come near me again? I will beat the crap out of both of you."

He promptly dropped his books on the floor, squared his shoulders, and stepped up to both brothers, making Trip take a step back on reflex.

"Or we can go right now," he offered. "I'll even let you find someone to fight me in your place–since I hear you're too chickenshit to throw hands yourself."

The janitor, tightly gripping his mop, looked back and forth between the quarreling students, his own mouth agape.

Trip's face had gone from pale to the most incredible shade of red as the shock that Andrew McCormick, his favorite punching bag since middle school, was talking all the shit to him like he could back it up.

"I'm going to fucking kill you," Trip said, the ugliness and wickedness that seized him when he paid Goblin to go after Dipper rearing its ugly head.

"You're going to pay someone to kill me," Drew corrected him, completely absent of any care about what he just said. "Right?"

He looked at Van. "Are you gonna take a swing at me? Or are you going to stand there and look fucking stupid like you always do when this dipshit doesn't yap orders?"

Van sputtered; he honestly didn't have words for this. The Andrew McCormick he knew did not talk like this, nor did he do it with such confidence or intensity. He couldn't understand what was happening.

Seeing that no one was going to attack him, Drew stepped back, and placed his foot atop his dropped books. "If neither of you have anything to say, or don't want to fight me? Fuck off."

He finally spared Sabrina a look at that, and he found that the shock that had taken her was also replaced, but in her case by open awe and admiration. He averted his eyes back to his opponents, but the fact that Sabrina was extremely cute with that look of wonder made him feel even better than just saying what he wanted to say to the Vanderhoffs already did.

Trip took another few steps back and pointed at Drew. "Y-you're fucking dead, Andrew. Just you wait. Not now, not tomorrow, but just like Pine Tree, you're fucking getting yours!"

"But it's not now, so you can go," Drew snapped back before he heard a quickly growing commotion down the hallway.

"What now…?" He asked before he saw a flash of green fire just above and behind the stampede of his schoolmates headed for them.

"AYO, RUN!" A student yelled over the panic. "STAR BUTTERFLY'S FIGHTING FREAKING SHEGO!"

"Oh, come on, I just mopped all of that!" The Janitor loudly lamented as the stampede roared by.

Sabrina yelped in terror. "Sh-Shego?!"

Drew blanched. "Oh, that's not good." He turned to guide Sabrina down the hall in the direction of the traffic. "We need to go, right now–!"

Focused as he was on Sabrina's well-being in the sudden stampede, Drew was taken by surprise as Trip hooked the back of his left ankle into Drew's right, and–with the still damp floor beneath him–sent Drew stumbling to the ground. Before Drew could get up, Trip stomped on his back stepping over him.

"Get fucked, Andrew!" He yelled, cackling at him as he and Van fled with the crowd.

Sabrina, pressed off to the side by the crowd, but moving with it, called back. "Drew! Are you okay?!"

Stunned for only an instant, Drew had to give him credit. He didn't even pay anyone to do that.

Before he could get stepped on by any fleeing classmates, he felt a hand grab his arm and pull him to his feet. "There you go!"

Getting up, Drew turned to see the janitor pushing him and himself clear of the fleeing students before they both got knocked over. "Are you okay?"

Drew stared at the janitor. "Yeah, but… when do you care?"

The janitor stared at him. "Huh?"

"Usually you keep count of how many kids slip on your floor, this is… out of character."

The janitor paled a bit and looked towards the sound of combat. "This is why I wanted to be a cafeteria worker; you know?"

Drew was more confused. "Huh?"

The janitor just raised his hand. "Don't worry about it, just evacuate the school with the rest of the…"

He stopped when he looked back and saw Drew had vanished from where he stood. "… Huh."

Drew was no longer in the hallway or even headed outside. He was suddenly in an empty classroom with Roland and Jo, the latter of whom was closing the blinds.

He turned to Roland. "Super speed is freaking rad."

"I'm like Quicksilver up in this. I feel like I gotta listen to like, Time in a Bottle when I pull off some of the silly stuff I do."

Jo finished closing the blinds. "How fast would you have to play it, so it doesn't sound weird when you do?"

Roland stopped, then groaned. "You ruined it. You ruined Days of Future Past for me."

"You're welcome," Jo said before she pulled out her Beetle Bonder.

Drew patted Roland on the shoulder as he got out his own Beetle Bonder. "Don't worry, I have a PowerPoint explaining the science. Now let's go help Star."

Nodding in agreement, Roland joined the McCormick siblings in raising their Beetle Bonders before calling out in unison.

"BEETLE BLAST!"

@@@@@​

As her classmates backed away from the confrontation between Star and Shego, the latter reacted to Star's clap back with genuine surprise. "How fast can I–?" She stopped and grinned at the blonde. "Oh… you must be that so-called 'magical princess from another dimension' on YouTube. What was it, Quasar Caterpillar?"

Behind Star, Misao turned and looked down the hall back the way she came. "Quickly, this way!"

Without hesitation, she, Brittney, and Heather fled to get away from the looming brawl. Star rolled her shoulders and began hopping from one foot to another, not unlike Marco when he felt especially Bruce Lee-like. "Not quite, but that's okay. I'll make sure you never get it wrong."

With a laugh, Shego leaped forward, aiming to soar past Star and pursue Misao. Rather than allow her to pass, Star swung up her wand and left a trail of spinning golden five-pointed stars that shot straight at her.

"My name is Star!" She called out.

Her eyes widening at the projectiles, Shego used her fiery energy to shoot clear of the attack. Before she could land, a butterfly made of rainbows slammed into her, and she was knocked onto her back and sent tumbling down the hall for a few feet.

"Butterfly!" Star called out as Shego stopped and got back up.

Grinning as the glow in her cheek marks filled her eyes, Star finished her introduction by creating a rainbow over her head. "I'm a magical princess, from another dimension!"

The rainbow promptly caught fire, casting Star in an intimidating silhouette that blocked the way to Misao. "You got it?"

Shego looked quickly between Star and the burning rainbow. "Wait, that magic crap is real?"

"Yeah, you must not really watch my vlog–that's what you get for swiping through Shorts and not actually subscribing."

The flames Shego was notorious for blazed from her hands and surrounded her entire body with that, as she grinned maliciously at Star. "Why the heck would I subscribe to a dead channel?"

Star's shoulders dropped. "Okay, I admit, I've been behind on my updates, but that's not my fau–!"

Shego closed the distance between them and slashed at her with a clawed right hand wreathed in power. Falling upon her lengthy experience of fighting monsters and Royal Guards, Star weaved out of the way to Shego's right. "WhoanevermindIgetcha."

The energy receding from fully around her, Shego focused them to her hands as she reversed into a spinning backhand right that Star went left of–then followed it with a downward curving left that Star ducked under before raising her wand.

"Strawberry Annihilation!" The spell surged out as Star called it, but Shego was quick enough to duck and pull back under the stream of energy before pointing both her hands at Star and firing back with a green energy projectile the Princess twirled into a leap to avoid.

"Laser Beam Blast!" She called out, swinging her wand–and the laser that it emitted–like a sword.

The beam scorched the ceiling and the external-facing wall as Shego sidestepped away from its path. Looking at Star, the green supervillain ducked under a spinning kick Star aimed at her head, then swiped with a left at her face in turn.

Star skillfully used her right arm to block and parry Shego's swing, before using her wand to catch the right hand Shego thrust for her chest before riposting with a spinning kick to Shego's throat that was blocked in turn.

Retreating, Star weaved from one foot to another as Shego followed with fast, energy-laden slashes. Pushed back ten paces, Star hopped away to open the distance between them and fired off a spell from her wand. "Narwhal Blast!"

Shego leaped over the stream of narwhals and spun in an axel with her burning hands extended, coming down on Star like a blazing wheel. Star jumped to her left, then ran up and kicked off the wall to get around Shego and her attack. Landing in a spin, Shego stopped to face her.

"You know, calling out your attacks tends to be unhelpful in a fight, Sailor Stupider!" She said before unleashing another long-ranged stream of green fire.

Spinning her wand, Star swung it in front of her and created a rainbow streak that blocked the attack. "That's only if you know what the attack's going to do!"

Holding her left arm out close to the wall, Shego burned a long line in it as she ran straight towards Star, who aimed her wand at her. "For example! Sunshine Shego Slap!"

Shego expected a beam or a projectile. She did not expect a loincloth-wearing minotaur colored in shades of blue to ram into her from out of nowhere, putting her into and through a wall into a classroom. Pulling back, the Minotaur snapped his fingers into a thumbs up that Star returned before he poofed out of existence.

The door to the classroom Shego got smashed into opened and she stepped out, brushing herself off. "Okay," she said, "I'm gonna give you that one."

Immediately she lashed out with a sweep of her right arm, Star ducking under the flames. When she came down with her left hand in a downward slash, Star performed one of Marco's roundhouse kicks to block the swing with her right leg before spinning and tagging her across her face with her left heel in a spinning back kick.

Shego moved with the blow, performing a full rotation of her own before thrusting her right hand into Star's throat. Star used her left forearm to parry and then grab Shego's own. As Star brought her wand up to point in Shego's face, she parried the wand away by striking it with the back of her right hand.

As Star let go of Shego, the supervillain attempted to kick out the princess's feet, but Star blocked the kick with a quick swing of her own foot. Spinning, Shego swung on Star, but her target danced and weaved back from the blows.

"You know what, you're starting to remind me of someone!" After missing another swing, Shego's stance changed to more straight-line jabs, thrusts, and short chops that Star's quick hands were able to defend, at the cost of being able to mount a counter-offense. "And it's ticking me off!"

Star beamed as she deflected several more punches and ducked under a kick. "Oh, I bet I know who you're talking about!"

Shego weaved her way under Star's own kick. But when she lashed out with a swipe of her energy infused hands, Star was springing backward in retreat, turning in the air like a ballet dancer with each hop.

"Just like her, except for ballet instead of cheerleading," Shego growled as Star took a final and bigger leap, landing and sliding backward to a halt beside Echo Creek Academy's janitor.

Glancing back in the direction Misao fled, Shego returned her attention to Star. "All right, Minky Moron, I've got to wrap this up, so I'll be quick!"

She charged Star, who glanced at the janitor and flashed him a smile. "Hi Mr. Janitor!"

She performed a very fast pirouette; Star swung her wand as she spun. "Tiara Tornado!"

Like buckshot from a shotgun, numerous golden tiaras and crowns scattered towards Shego, but she made short work of them, slashing them out of the air with the energy burning off her fingers. "Now this is the predictable stuff I was talking about–!"

Focused on knocking down the projectiles, she did not see the janitor use his mop to tip over his bucket until she stepped into and slipped in the puddle spreading across the floor. "Whoa! Whoa! Whoa–!"

Rather than fling another spell, Star used the momentum of her pirouette to jump and crescent kick Shego in the face as she reached her. End over end, Shego flipped before she landed on her back and slid several more feet to a stop.

Star landed and nearly slipped on the wet floor herself, before she recovered and turned to face Shego while the janitor wisely bolted into the nearest classroom.

Still lying on her back, Shego stared at the ceiling in contemplation. "Okay, less ticked, more annoyed!"

Raising her wand as Shego kicked up onto her feet, Star aimed and fired a spell. "Cupcake Blast!"

The barrage of sticky, sweet, but dangerously inedible desserts streaked towards Shego as she turned to face it. Before she could surge her energy to try to block the blast, Kombat Knat suddenly enlarged in front of her, growing to his full size and using his body to block the attack.

Star lowered her wand, got one proper look at Kombat Knat and recoiled in disgust. "Ew! What the heck are you supposed to be?!"

"I am Kombat Knat, child of Typhus, herald of the verdant glow!" Kombat Knat declared.

Shego gawked at Kombat Knat and recoiled. "Oh gross, was that thing on me?!"

Star looked back and forth between the hideous monster and Shego, thinking quickly. Why is a Magnavore protecting her?

She got her answer when Kombat Knat turned to Shego. "Oh radiance! I pledge myself to you forever! Guide me with your incandescence!"

Shego stared at the strange creature, and after a moment of deciding not to question it, pointed at Star. "Your radiance commands you to get rid of the princess over there for me."

Kombat Knat turned back at Star and opened his massive maw to roar in challenge at her.

Star looked simply offended. "Oh, that is some warnicorn crap!"

Two of the smaller arms on Kombat Knat's torso suddenly extended like barbed tentacles, racing towards Star, who was appropriately grossed out by them.

"Oh, absolutely not!" She swung her wand, yellow light streaming from it. "Stardust Daisy Devastation!"

The beam of yellow daisies deflected the tentacle arms, before Shego's energy slashed through the daisies left behind and down on Star. Ducking and sliding to the side, Star evaded that strike and the sweeping followup Shego swung as she turned to her. Shego hopped back, giving Kombat Knat move to charge in and swing at Star with his claws.

Jumping and flipping back, Star aimed her wand, but Shego charged her next, swinging her energy-infused hands in raking motions. Star's talented weaving was still on point, as she used graceful dancing motions and skillful footwork on the slick floor to evade first Shego's slashes and then Kombat Knat's when he would jump in to allow his new mistress to attack from another angle.

"He's ugly, but a 2v1 is a 2v1!" Shego teased as Star leaned back from one of Kombat Knat's claws, allowing her to slash at her side. Star turned around quickly, putting her back to Kombat Knat as Shego's clawed gloves made three thin lines in the side of her teal dress.

Shego then kicked Star in the face, snapping her head up and back to look at Kombat Knat's open maw looming over her.

A barrage of Input Magnum fire in beam mode filled Kombat Knat's mouth before Star could. Then the Green Hunterborg, exiting out of Super Speed, appeared next to Kombat Knat to swing a jumping spin-kick into the side of his head.

As the synthetic beast tried to recover, the Red Strikerborg came right at Kombat Knat, fist swinging to connect with and turn him into a projectile. That didn't happen–Kombat Knat abruptly shrank, and her punch missed.

"Crap, it is Kombat Knat!" Jo shouted before Kombat Knat grew to full size behind her, swinging a claw down that she managed to block.

Shego faced the Green Hunterborg, as he turned and pointed the Input Magnum at her. "First a magical girl, then a creepy monster, and now superheroes? Is this a bit? Where's the camera crew?"

Behind his mask, Roland rolled his eyes. "Tourists man, never watching the news."

He opens fire, but Shego demonstrates her super human agility to leap over his shots and him. "I don't watch news, I make it!"

She slashed his back, expecting to cut through shiny plastic and cloth, only to be surprised when she heats metal and produces sparks, sending Hunterborg staggering forward from the blow. Instead of being taken aback, she goes in for the double-tap, but she feels something grab and slow her down.

"Here's your next headline, then!" Stingerborg said before using his telekinesis to throw Shego through the exterior-facing wall and out into the school's front lawn. "Shego gets her face rocked by the Big Bad Beetleborgs!"

That made Kombat Knat unhappy. "HOW DARE YOU, YOU ARTHROPODAL APPROPRIATOR!"

Strikerborg's right fist, and Hunterborg's left foot connected with Kombat Knat, knocking him through the wall next.

"Thanks guys!" Star said as she bounded up to the holes made in the side of the school. "So… what is that thing?"

"Kombat Knat, he first appeared in #144, and while he can't fight much he can shrink down to the size of a quarter if he needs to," Roland said, before he shook his head. "Where the heck are they getting such old books?"

"Re-releases, man," Jo said. "Marvel's churning them out by the boatload because of the movie."

Shego got up and stared at the Beetleborgs and Star. "Okay, from a 2v1 to a 4v2…"

She looked at Kombat Knat. "Hey, creepy bug monster. You shoot lasers or something?"

Kombat Knat turned to her. "Erm… no, my Radiance."

She dropped her shoulders. "All right, meatshield duty, then!"

Kombat Knat quickly saluted her. "AS YOU COMMAND!"

Shego's eyebrows rose. "Wow, I'm over the aesthetics already."

The wickedness she was infamous for quickly returned, as Star aimed her wand with the Beetleborgs aiming their Input Magnums at the two. "Well then, time to run out the clock."

@@@@@​

The sound of savage combat filled the neighborhood as Echo Creek Academy's students gathered at evacuation points up and down the street from the school. Over at the school's expensive new sports complex, however, Misao, Brittney, and Heather made their way through the stadium's concession area, now closed and gated off without a game going on.

"Why are we all the way over here behind the school and not with the others?" Heather asked.

Misao looked back at her. "Because they are after me, and I do not want to put anyone else in harm's way."

Heather nodded. "Okay, makes sense. But why are Brittney and I here with you?"

Brittney looked at her next. "Because you're a nice person who cares about others?"

She had a point, Heather admitted. "Well, I think we can stop running at least. I don't think we were followed."

Looking back, the three girls couldn't see it, but they could hear the digital chimes of Star's spells and the bursts of blaster fire.

Heather swallowed, as she recognized those sounds. "Oh shoot, those guys dressed up as the Beetleborgs are here now, aren't they?"

Brittney pulled out her phone, and quickly began swiping. She stopped and her eyes widened a bit. "Yes, all three of them are fighting Shego and some kind of gross monster. Megan is streaming it from the street corner."

Misao and Heather gathered around her to look at her phone, and Heather recoiled in disgust. "Ew, that's Kombat Knat! What's that thing doing here?"

Mabel, standing behind them, shared their collective distaste for the creature. "Yeah, the monsters so far have been ugly, but that guy is CEO of ugly."

Brittney and Heather both jumped back from Mabel, the former pointing at her. "How the fuck did you sneak up on us, you sequoia?!"

Bringing a hand to her chest, Mabel said softly, "I have aspired to be a cat since I was seven, so I learned their myriad ways."

Misao quickly caught Mabel in a tight hug. "I am so glad you are here."

Mabel returned the embrace, consoling the smaller girl by stroking her hair. "There, there, I won't let the bad guys get you."

Now that Mabel was here, and the Beetleborgs were out front, Heather had questions. "Mabel, what's going on? Why is Shego after Misao, and why are you and your brother, Star, and Marco fighting the Magnavores?"

Mabel's expression changed to one of uncertainty, as she weighed upon how to answer that question. When she looked down at Misao, who kept her face buried in Mabel's chest, the smaller girl explained.

"Señor Senior Junior wants to ransom me to my mother."

Brittney tilted her head. "Señor Senior Junior? That Instagram selfie-obsessed, wannabe SoundCloud rapper gym rat, who's probably more spoiled than both Vanderhoffs combined? He is the one who sent Shego after you?"

Misao nodded. Mabel looked up from the top of her head. "Dipper and I met Misao at the airport the day we got here, we rescued her from both of them. That's the real reason she's staying with us."

That shook Heather. "That must be horrible, to have to hide out from them like this."

"We were doing a good job of laying low, too," Mabel lamented. "At least until the last weekend."

Misao went still and she began to bristle.

Heather put what she heard earlier together, and her eyes widened in horror. "… Oh my God."

Brittney looked back and forth between the girls, as Mabel confirmed Heather's worst fears with a nod. "What?"

Heather turned to her. "It was the Vanderhoffs. They somehow got in contact with Shego and Señor Senior Junior, and pointed them right here."

Clapping alerted the four of them, and they turned around to see Señor Senior Junior himself emerge from around a corner at the end of the concession hallway. Still clapping, he walked over to the girls and came to a stop, and his applause ended a moment later.

"Very good," he said, "But do not assign blame to them alone. While they helped me along the way, it wasn't like I didn't have little careless crumbs you left behind that kept me in Los Angeles."

He nodded to Mabel. "Getting into very impressive street fights with monsters and robots goes viral very quickly in the age of Señorita Kim Possible."

Brittney stepped up to Junior, as Mabel placed herself between him and both Misao and Heather. "This is a joke, right?"

Junior looked down at Brittney, surprised. "Erm… oh, you're Señorita Brittney Wong, yes? I've heard a lot about you."

She wasn't in the mood for flattery. "And I've heard a bunch about you. Knock it off, and walk away, Junior. Your dad is still a respected man, and you're making the worst kinds of enemies with this stunt."

Junior recoiled a little, taken aback by the invocation of his father. "I'm sorry, but I cannot. This is a matter of personal honor, not just some fancy."

Brittney lifted an eyebrow, before narrowing her eyes. "Is that so? Then if you want what you came for, you go through me."

Misao and Mabel were both struck. "… Brittney…"

Junior seemed to draw back from the prospect, visibly cringing at first before he sighed. "My father told me to never raise my hand against a woman, that is not how gentlemen conduct themselves. There are some lines that I cannot cross."

Brittney huffed, but before she could spit back a barbed comment about how gentlemanly he was, Junior demonstrated how much he wasn't, by jabbing the business end of a powerful extending stun baton into her stomach and surged over 50,000 volts into her. Going rigid, she trembled violently in place for several seconds before she crumpled where she stood–unconscious.

"However, I am still a villain," he lamented.

"Run!" He heard Mabel shout and looked up to see her draw from under her sweater, the Beretta M1951 Shermie had bequeathed her just a few days ago. Behind her, Misao and Heather were already booking it back towards the school.

Junior was surprised, as he put up his hands. "That is a gun gun."

"And it shoots bullet bullets," Mabel snapped back as she kept it trained on him. "Back up, away from the girl!"

Doing as told, Junior began to step away. "I did not expect that you would be armed… or that you would come to school with it."

"I'm from a little city called Piedmont," Mabel replied, "Which is right next to a city called Oakland. More importantly, we're in flipping Los Angeles. How did you not expect to have a gun pulled on you?"

When she put it like that, she had a point. "Your country's obsession with firearms is a human tragedy."

Mabel shrugged. "Yeah, but what are you gonna do?"

"Well," Junior answered, "Since I am from Europe and have a lot of money, I do the sensible thing and have other kinds of protection."

Heather and Misao just made it to the other end of the tunnel, when there was a loud, metallic crunch in front of them that cracked the ground in four spots. At that same moment, as Mabel looked back, something she couldn't see but hear struck and knocked the gun out of her hands hard.

"Ah, beans!" Mabel yelled before Junior struck fast and jabbed the stun baton hard in her chest. Just like Brittney, she was down and out in a few seconds, collapsing to the concrete floor.

Behind her, Heather and Misao stepped back as the thing that landed in front of them stalked forward. They could not see it clearly, but at this close, with the light bending around it, they could make out sleek, metal, canid shape stalking towards them as they backed up.

Misao looked back and froze when she saw Mabel unconscious and Junior kicking her gun out of reach. Looking at Brittney, then at Heather, she quickly turned to him and shouted.

"STOP!"

Junior turned to her, as the light-bending machine ceased its menacing. "You will come quietly, then?"

Misao looked at the frightened Heather, then nodded. "I will."

Junior clapped his hands together and hurried over. "Oh, very good! I feel terrible about having to do this, but please understand–"

Misao was about to step towards him, when he suddenly struck her with the stun baton as well. Caught by complete surprise, she blurted out the shortest cry before she locked up and then collapsed to the ground.

"I do not need you conscious for this part."

He looked at Heather. "Or you."

When he swung the baton for her, however, Heather leaned back quickly from its path. "Hm?"

Junior swung at Heather again, but this time she caught his hand, stopping him from connecting with the weapon. Surprised, he met Heather's wide-eyed stare, filled with fear, as she clutched his hand in a death grip.

In a burst of movement, he rotated his hand towards her thumb, breaking her grip, before he quickly jabbed Heather in the shoulder with the stun baton. He was surprised when Heather grabbed his arm with both hands, gripping it tightly, her eyes wide and her teeth clenched as she was shocked for several seconds more, before she finally fell unconscious and limp.

Junior stepped back, shaken, from the unconscious girl, before he looked over at Misao. Putting away the stun baton, he went over to her and checked the pockets of her dress and the contents of her bag. Removing her phone and its companion accessories, he left them on the ground before he gingerly picked her up.

"HEY!"

"Hijo de puta…!" He muttered when he looked up and saw running into the concession area… the school janitor?

The janitor stared at Junior, surprised. "SSJ?"

Hearing his voice, Junior recognized the man immediately, and grew concerned. "… You look terrible with a mustache."

The janitor reached up to it. "See, this is why I wanted to be a cafeteria worker–" The janitor stopped, then assumed a fighting stance. "Wait, hold on! You're not going one step further."

"No, if you are here, the only thing I can do is take as many steps as I can. Please, observe?"

The janitor looked at the unconscious girls still laid out… before right over them the shapes of three large quadrupedal robots built in the shape of wolves, and painted in shades of gray faded into view, their claws poised over the necks of Brittney, Mabel, and Heather.

"Take another step, and…" Junior shook his head. "… I dread to say it. I did not program this contingency in them, Shego did."

With Misao held close, Junior nodded to the closest of the canine robots, which then opened several vents that spewed out a dense white smoke he fled into. As the janitor stepped back the cloud quickly dissipated, and Señor Senior Junior and Misao were both gone.

"Wow," the Janitor said. "He's really stepped up his game."

= - = 7-3 = - =

|Supervillain|​

High School schedules were annoying. While most days Drew would have a chance to sit in class with Heather, today was the day she just happened to have AP Calculus, so she wasn't in the first period where he, Jo, and Dipper normally hung together.

Dipper wasn't there, either; Jo was kind of moody about that but not to the antagonistic degree she'd been before the dance. At the very least, she'd be in higher spirits when she could hang out with the other girls at lunch.

Heather will be there, too. Drew thought with no small anticipation at the prospect, as he made his way to his locker between the class changes. I really missed her.

Even with how eventful the weekend was, and all the distractions and interactions he enjoyed, she had never left the back of his mind. It really had felt like months since he'd spoken to her, and he was more than eager to pick up where they had left off that afternoon before his fight with Saberizer.

Maybe she'll be up for sneaking off to Britta's again. He thought with a small smile.

He had just reached his locker, when the school's janitor, a blonde-haired, mustachioed man in a blue boiler suit called over to him. "Uh, hey? Watch your step right there, okay? I just mopped."

Drew stopped and looked at the floor. Indeed, it was freshly mopped. Taking another look, he was even surprised to see wet floor signs set up on both sides of the wet area. He looked at the janitor, confused.

"… Uh… thanks?" He offered.

The janitor stared at him. "Thanks for what?"

"Normally you don't…" He stopped.

The janitor, looking panicked, quickly asked. "Normally I don't what?"

Drew looked at the care and vigilance towards the wet floor, then back towards the janitor. "Nevermind, thanks for the heads up."

"No problem, it's my job, you know?" The janitor said quickly. "Because I'm the school janitor! I've been here for 20 years, and I'll be here for 20 more, yep."

Drew nodded. "Okay, man. Just… uh… keep up the good work?"

"We have already established that this is my job, now uh… don't pay me any mind and go back to whatever you were doing, the next bell is going to ring soon," the janitor said before going back to mopping the floor and calling out kids walking towards the wet floor signs.

Turning back to his locker, Drew shook his head. How does a school getting paid by at least three one-percenters and the literal ruler of a magical kingdom only hire weirdos?

As he opened his locker, he paused. Why is THAT even a question?!

Rather than torment himself with further questions, he just reached for his textbook just as someone called out to him.

"Hey, um, Drew—eep!" He almost jumped when he heard a squeak and the sound of feet slipping on the wet floor.

Closing his locker, he found Sabrina Backintosh struggling to keep from falling as her cheerleader uniform's sneakers lost their grip on the freshly mopped floor.

He was quick on the draw, using his telekinesis without thinking to arrest Sabrina's falling long enough to catch her by the hand and pull her away from the wet floor and close to him.

Letting out another squeak, Sabrina slipped forward, but Drew caught her with his other hand on her shoulder. For a moment, the green-eyed brunette looked up at him in surprise at his agility, before she took a half-step back from him.

The overly concerned janitor, bad at being inconspicuous, looked over. "Hey, there are signs!"

"Th-thank you!" She quickly said, hoping to quickly talk past her near spill… and the fact that he was still holding her hand.

Drew nodded and released her from both his hands. "No problem. You made it through Spirit Week without taking a fall, so… it'd be bad to break the streak before second period, huh?"

In her heart of hearts, Sabrina told herself not to tell Drew about the spill she took getting out of bed this morning as she agreed. "Yeah. So, how was your weekend?" She asked, struggling to fight down her normal nervous stutter.

Drew smiled at the mousy cheerleader. "It was all right, I spent all of Sunday at home relaxing."

Because he was still grounded, of course, but having a lock on his door helped make it more bearable. "What about you?"

"Um… about the same. I stayed at home in bed all day because the dance took a lot out of me."

Drew sympathized. "Yeah… I'm usually completely drained after a big event, too."

He's been having more of those; though, hanging out with his group of friends would be nicer without the fate of the universe being in the balance.

Sabrina relaxed, her smile reflecting it. "I-introvert problems, am I right?"

"You're right," he answered with a similar friendliness. "So, what's up?"

With the ice broken, Sabrina felt free to fidget a little. "You know, we have lunch at the same time, right?"

Drew nodded. "Uh huh?"

"I was wondering… if you wanted… to…" Sabrina reached up and messed with her hair before spitting it out. "Sit with me for lunch? You know… maybe hang out for a little bit?"

Drew stared at her in muted surprise much like when she asked him to the dance.

He had a really good time with Sabrina, nothing was ever going to change that, yet Andrew McCormick didn't think there was much more to it than that. He was just someone's companion at a school dance.

Sure, he knew there'd be friendly smiles and waves for the rest of the year, but he was also under the assumption that everyone was supposed to go back to their respective social circles afterward.

He had even made peace with it. Though the shyest cheerleader to ever lead cheers, Sabrina was still a cheerleader, and he was a comic book nerd.

"Um… really?" He asked.

Sabrina nodded. "I had a good time at the dance, and I wanted to do that more…?"

"Oh, right."

So he had made that good of an impression. He inwardly cursed himself for having self-doubts about being a pleasant person to hang out with.

Sabrina rocked from side to side, while rubbing her right forearm with her left hand. "… So…?"

Before Drew could answer her, the very source of his self-doubts walked right up to him and Sabrina.

Trip, strutting like he owned the school, lifted a curious eyebrow at the sight of Drew and Sabrina within such proximity. He tilted his head to the side more and squinted a little at Drew, as if he was trying to recognize him. Van was of course beside him, looking more confused at Drew's appearance than the fact that he was chatting with a girl out of his league.

"Huh, excuse me," Trip addressed him, "You wouldn't happen to know Andrew McCormick, would you?"

Drew looked at Sabrina, then back at Trip. "It's me, Trip. I got fixed up after my accident last week so I could go to the dance."

Trip nodded. "Did you sell that ratty old comic to afford it, because if so? You didn't get your money's worth."

And there it was.

"And what's up with this?" Van asked as he gestured between Drew and Sabrina. "First Hope Hadley and that fat fuck, and now a cheerleader's talking to you?"

A grin splitting his lips, Trip continued. "You've been thriving without us here to keep you humble, Andrew."

Drew's eyes narrowed as Trip walked up to him. "Hanging out with Heather, going to school dances, and chatting with cheerleaders?" He stepped up to his face, his smile dripping with malice. "Who do you think you are?"

He expected Andrew to avert his eyes, to shrink back, for Jo and Roland to materialize from nowhere for him to hide behind. However, Drew didn't flinch, and just locked his gaze with Trip's.

"I know who I am, Trip," he replied. "I also know who you are, too. You and your brother."

Trip prepared to shove him, but Drew beat him to it, raising a hand to his chest and pushed him two steps back.

"You little freak!" Van snarled, lashing out to grab him.

He instead ate a right hook to the jaw, Drew hitting him with enough force that the larger boy went falling back against Trip, and he slumped backward in a stunned daze, nearly taking Trip down with him.

Sabrina's hands shot to her mouth in surprise, while the janitor tightened his grip on his broom in alarm. Other students in the hallway, who'd been watching the confrontation, broke into exclamations of excitement and disbelief as Andrew McCormick decked Van Vanderhoff.

"You two are just a couple of losers who gotta pay people to start shit, because you cant fight and when you get hit you run home crying." He shook his head. "You're not even worth my time."

He ran his fingers through his hair, as Van shakily got back up. The bigger Vanderhoff brought a hand to his jaw and winced from the throbbing pain. That hurt, it really fucking hurt, like there was something else behind that punch and had it been any harder he'd be really knocked out.

Or worse.

"You've got some nerve," Trip said, the ugliness and wickedness that seized him when he paid Goblin to go after Dipper rearing its ugly head. "I'm gong to fucking kill you!"

Drew shook his head. "No, this is the last time I'm going to talk to you. Both you and your brother, I never want to see you again, and if I do? I will beat the shit out of both of you."

Van sputtered; he honestly didn't have words for this. The Andrew McCormick he knew did not fight back, nor did he do it with such confidence or intensity. He couldn't understand what was happening.

Seeing that no one was going to attack him, Drew stepped back, tucked his foot under his discarded books, and with a quick kick up and deft manipulation with telekinesis caught them. "If neither of you have anything else to say, or don't want to fight me? Fuck off."

He finally spared Sabrina a look at that, and he found that the shock that had taken her was also replaced, but in her case by open awe and admiration.

He averted his eyes back to his opponents, but the fact that Sabrina was extremely cute with that look of wonder made him feel even better than just saying what he wanted to say to the Vanderhoffs already did.

Trip took another few steps back and pointed at Drew. "Y-you're fucking dead, Andrew. Just you wait. Not now, not tomorrow, but just like Pine Tree, you're fucking getting yours!"

"But it's not now, so you can go," Drew snapped back before as Trip and Van fled.

He turned to Sabrina as the other students around them cheered him or jeered at the fleeing Vanderhoffs. "Sorry about that…"

Sabrina shook her head quickly. "D-don't be! That was amazing!"

Drew managed a nervous smile at that. "Well… this was probably the last time I'd get to do that, so…"

He trailed off when he heard a quickly growing commotion down the hallway.

"What now…?" He asked before he saw a flash of green fire just above and behind the stampede of his schoolmates headed for them.

"AYO, RUN!" A student yelled over the panic. "STAR BUTTERFLY'S FIGHTING FREAKING SHEGO!"

"Oh, come on, I just mopped all of that!" The Janitor loudly lamented as the stampede roared by.

Sabrina yelped in terror. "Sh-Shego?!"

Drew blanched when Sabrina turned to flee, and immediately began to slip. Rushing forward, he grabbed her and pushed her out of the way of the sudden stampede of students, right up against the wall.

"Are you okay?" He asked her as he used himself as a shield from the riot.

Sabrina, sandwiched between him and the wall, her face bright red, stammered. "I… I'm fine… I just…"

She swooned, and fainted dead away, overwhelmed by the unexpected body contact. Drew caught her before she sank to the floor.

"Uh… that's convenient."

He turned to the janitor. "Can you get her to safety?"

The janitor didn't hesitate, taking Sabrina and picking her up bridal style. "Are you going to be okay?"

Drew nodded. "I'll be fine. Just go."

The janitor needed not be told more and turned to head for the nearest exit, while Drew dipped off into a nearby emptied classroom, summoning his Beetle Bonder as he went.

@@@@@​

As her classmates backed away from the confrontation between Star and Shego, the latter reacted to Star's clap back with genuine surprise. "How fast can I–?"

She stopped and grinned at the blonde. "Oh… you must be that so-called 'magical princess from another dimension' on YouTube. What was it, Quasar Caterpillar?"

Behind Star, Misao turned and looked down the hall back the way she came. "Quickly, this way!"

Without hesitation, she, Brittney, and Heather fled to get away from the looming brawl.

As they departed, Star rolled her shoulders and began hopping from one foot to another, not unlike Marco when he felt especially Bruce Lee-like. "Not quite, but that's okay. I'll make sure you never get it wrong."

With a laugh, Shego leaped forward, aiming to soar past Star and pursue Misao. Rather than allow her to pass, Star swung up her wand and left a trail of spinning golden five-pointed stars that shot straight at her.

"My name is Star!" She called out.

Her eyes widening at the projectiles, Shego used the fiery energy she was famed for to shoot clear of the attack. Before she could land, a butterfly made of rainbows slammed into her, and she was knocked onto her back and sent tumbling down the hall for a few feet.

"Butterfly!" Star called out as Shego stopped and got back up.

Grinning as the glow in her cheek marks filled her eyes, Star finished her introduction by creating a rainbow over her head. "I'm a magical princess, from another dimension!"

The rainbow promptly caught fire, casting Star in an intimidating silhouette that blocked the way to Misao.

"You got it?" She asked with a cheeky smile.

Shego looked quickly between Star and the burning rainbow. "Wait, that magic crap is real?"

"Yeah, you must not really watch my vlog. That's what you get for swiping through Shorts and not actually subscribing."

Shego's flames blazed from her hands and surrounded her entire body with that, as she grinned maliciously at Star.

"Why the heck would I subscribe to a dead channel?"

Star's shoulders dropped. "Okay, I admit, I've been behind on my updates, but that's not my fau–!"

Shego closed the distance between them and slashed at her with a clawed right hand wreathed in power.

Falling upon her lengthy experience of fighting monsters and Royal Guards, Star narrowly weaved out of the way to Shego's right. "WhoanevermindIgetcha."

The energy receding from fully around her, Shego focused it to her hands as she reversed into a spinning backhand right that Star went left of, then followed it with a downward curving left that Star ducked under before raising her wand.

"Strawberry Annihilation!" The spell surged out as Star called it, but Shego was quick enough to duck and pull back under the stream of energy before pointing both her hands at Star and firing back with a green energy projectile the Princess twirled into a leap to avoid.

"Laser Beam Blast!" She called out, swinging her wand and the laser that it emitted like a sword.

The beam scorched the ceiling and the external-facing wall as Shego sidestepped away from its path. Looking at Star, the green supervillain ducked under a spinning kick Star aimed at her head, then swiped with her left hand at her face in turn.

Star skillfully used her right arm to block and parry Shego's own just below the flames coating her hand, before using her wand to catch the right hand Shego thrust for her chest and riposting with a spinning kick to Shego's throat that was blocked in turn.

Retreating before she could get burned, Star weaved from one foot to another as Shego followed with fast, energy-laden slashes. Pushed back ten paces, Star hopped away to open the distance between them and fired off a spell from her wand. "Narwhal Blast!"

Shego leaped over the stream of narwhals and spun in an axle with her burning hands extended, coming down on Star like a blazing wheel. Star jumped to her left, then ran up and kicked off the wall to get around Shego's attack.

Landing, Shego stopped to face her.

"You know, calling out your attacks tends to be unhelpful in a fight, Sailor Stupider!" She said before unleashing another long-ranged stream of green fire.

Spinning her wand, Star swung it in front of her and created a rainbow streak that blocked the attack. "That's only if you know what the attack's going to do!"

Holding her left arm out close to the wall, Shego burned a long line in it as she ran straight towards Star, who aimed her wand at her. "For example! Sunshine Shego Slap!"

Shego expected a beam or a projectile. She did not expect a loincloth-wearing minotaur colored in shades of blue to ram head-first into her from out of nowhere, putting her into and through a wall into an evacuated classroom.

Pulling back, the Minotaur snapped his fingers into a thumbs up that Star returned before he poofed out of existence.

The door to the classroom Shego got smashed into opened and she stepped out, brushing herself off.

"Okay," she said, "I'm gonna give you that one."

Immediately she lashed out with a sweep of her right arm, Star ducking under the flames. When she came down with her left hand in a downward slash, Star performed one of Marco's roundhouse kicks to block the swing with her right leg before spinning and tagging her across her face with her left heel in a spinning back kick.

Shego moved with the blow, performing a full rotation of her own before thrusting her right hand into Star's throat. Star used her left forearm to parry and then grab Shego's own. As Star brought her wand up to point in Shego's face, she parried the wand away by striking it with the back of her right hand.

Star let go of Shego and blocked the supervillain's attempt to kick out the princess's feet with a quick swing of her own foot. Shego swung on her with quick lefts and rights, but she danced and weaved back from the blows.

"You know what, you're starting to remind me of someone!" After missing another swing, Shego's attacks shifted to straight-line jabs, thrusts, and short chops that Star's quick hands defeated, at the cost of being able to mount a counter-offense. "And it's ticking me off!"

Star beamed as she deflected several more punches and ducked under a kick. "Oh, I bet I know who you're talking about!"

Shego weaved her way under Star's own kick. But when she lashed out with a swipe of her energy infused hands, Star was springing backward in retreat, turning in the air like a ballet dancer with each hop.

"Just like her, except for ballet instead of cheerleading," Shego growled as Star took a final and bigger leap, landing and sliding backward to a halt beside Echo Creek Academy's janitor as he emerged from a classroom he hid Sabrina in.

Glancing back in the direction Misao fled and seeing the burning rainbow still blocking it, Shego returned her attention to Star. "All right, Minky Moron, I've got to wrap this up, so I'll be quick!"

She charged Star, who glanced at the janitor and flashed him a smile. "Hi Mr. Janitor!"

She performed a very fast pirouette; Star swung her wand as she spun. "Tiara Tornado!"

Like buckshot from a shotgun, numerous golden tiaras and crowns scattered towards Shego, but she made short work of them, slashing them out of the air with the energy burning off her fingers. "Now this is the predictable stuff I was talking about–!"

Focused on knocking down the projectiles, she did not see the janitor use his mop to tip over his bucket until she stepped into and slipped in the puddle spreading across the floor. "Whoa! Whoa! Whoa–!"

Rather than fling another spell, Star used the momentum of her spin to slam a flying roundhouse kick into Shego's in the face as she reached her, imitating Marco's movement of the move perfectly "HEE-YAH!"

End over end, Shego flipped before she landed on her back and slid several more feet to a stop.

Star landed and nearly slipped on the wet floor herself, before she faced Shego while the janitor wisely bolted into the nearest classroom.

Still lying on her back, Shego stared at the ceiling in contemplation. "Okay, less ticked, more annoyed!"

Raising her wand as Shego kicked up onto her feet, Star aimed and fired a spell. "Cupcake Blast!"

The barrage of sticky, sweet, but dangerously inedible desserts streaked towards Shego as she turned to face it. Before she could surge her energy to try to block the blast, Kombat Knat suddenly enlarged in front of her, growing to his full size and using his body to block the attack.

Star lowered her wand, got one proper look at Kombat Knat and recoiled in disgust. "Ew! Who the heck are you?!"

"I am Kombat Knat, child of Typhus, herald of the verdant glow!" Kombat Knat declared.

Shego gawked at Kombat Knat and recoiled. "Oh gross, was that thing on me?!"

Star looked back and forth between the hideous monster and Shego, thinking quickly. Why is a Magnavore protecting her?

She got her answer when Kombat Knat turned to Shego. "Oh radiance! I pledge myself to you forever! Guide me with your incandescence!"

Shego stared at the strange creature, and after a moment of deciding not to question it, pointed at Star. "Your radiance commands you to get rid of the princess over there for me."

Kombat Knat turned back at Star and opened his massive maw to roar in challenge at her.

Star looked simply offended. "Oh, that is some warnicorn crap!"

Two of the smaller arms on Kombat Knat's torso shot forth like barbed tentacles, racing towards Star.

"Oh, absolutely not!" Appropriately grossed, she swung her wand, yellow light streaming from it.

"Stardust Daisy Devastation!"

The beam of yellow daisies deflected the tentacle arms, before Shego's energy slashed through the daisies left behind and down on Star.

Ducking and sliding to the side, Star evaded the strike and the sweeping follow-up Shego swung as she turned to her. Shego hopped back, giving Kombat Knat room to charge in and swing at Star with his claws.

Jumping and flipping back, Star aimed her wand, but Shego charged her next, swinging her energy-infused hands in raking motions.

Star's talented weaving was still on point, as she used her skillful footwork on the slick floor to evade first Shego's slashes and then Kombat Knat's when he jumped in to allow his new mistress to attack from another angle.

"He's ugly, but a 2v1 is a 2v1!" Shego teased as Star leaned back from one of Kombat Knat's claws, allowing her to slash at her side.

Star turned around quickly, putting her back to Kombat Knat as Shego's clawed gloves made three thin lines in the side of her teal dress.

Then she kicked Star in the face, snapping her head up and back to look at Kombat Knat's open maw looming over her.

"… Crap!" She yelped.

A barrage of Input Magnum fire in beam mode filled Kombat Knat's mouth before Star could.

Then the Green Hunterborg, at Super Speed, swung a jumping spin-kick into the side of his head that slammed the monster into the exterior facing wall of the hallway. "Turn me up!"

As the synthetic beast bounced off the wall, the Red Strikerborg came right at Kombat Knat, fist swinging to connect with and put him through it and outside.

That didn't happen. Kombat Knat abruptly shrank, and evaded her punch.

"Crap, it is Kombat Knat!" Jo shouted before Kombat Knat grew to full size behind her, swinging a claw down that she managed to turn into and block.

Shego faced the Green Hunterborg, as he turned and pointed the Input Magnum at her. "First a magical girl, then a creepy monster, and now… the Beetleborgs? All right, is this a bit? Where's the camera crew?"

Roland was having none of that as he opened fire. "Don't you watch the news?!"

Shego demonstrated her superhuman agility to leap over his shots and him. "I don't watch the news, I make it!"

She slashed his back, expecting to cut through shiny plastic and cloth, only to be surprised when she heats metal and produces sparks, sending Hunterborg staggering forward from the blow.

Instead of being taken aback, she lunged for the double-tap, only to be grabbed by the Hunter Claw as Hunterborg faced her.

"Well here's a headline for your triflin' ass!" He said before slamming Shego through the exterior-facing wall and throwing her out into the school's front lawn.

"Shego gets her fade run by the Big Bad Beetleborgs!"

That made Kombat Knat unhappy. "HOW DARE YOU, YOU ARTHROPODAL APPROPRIATOR!"

It was a moment of distraction the Synthetic Beast paid for. Strikerborg's left hand fist connected with his side, knocking him through the wall.

"Thanks guys!" Star said as she bounded up to the holes made in the side of the school. "So… what is that thing?"

"Kombat Knat, he first appeared in #144, and while he can't fight much, he can shrink down to the size of a quarter if he needs to," Roland said, before he shook his head. "Where the heck are they getting these old books?"

"Re-releases, man," Jo said. "Marvel's churning them out by the boatload because of the movie."

"Yeah, everything BUT the movie tie-ins…"

"Well, yeah, they suck."

Shego got up and stared at the Beetleborgs and Star. "Okay, from a 2v1 to a 3v2…"

She looked at Kombat Knat. "Hey, creepy bug monster. You shoot lasers or something?"

Kombat Knat turned to her. "Erm… no, my Radiance."

She dropped her shoulders. "All right, you're on meatshield duty, then!"

Kombat Knat quickly saluted her. "AS YOU COMMAND!"

Shego's eyebrows rose. "Wow, I'm over the aesthetic already!"

The wickedness she was infamous for quickly returned, as Star aimed her wand with the Beetleborgs aiming their Input Magnums at the two. "Well then, time to run out the clock."

@@@@@​

The sound of savage combat filled the neighborhood as Echo Creek Academy's students gathered at evacuation points up and down the street from the school. In the school's expensive new sports complex, however, Misao, Brittney, and Heather made their way through the stadium's concession area, now closed and gated off without a game going on.

"Why are we all the way over here behind the school and not with the others?" Heather asked.

Misao looked back at her. "Because they are after me, and I do not want to put anyone else in harm's way."

Heather nodded. "Okay, makes sense. But why are Brittney and I here with you?"

Brittney looked at her next. "Because you're a nice person who cares about others?"

She had a point, Heather admitted. "Well, why are you with us?"

Misao managed a smile. "Because she's a nice person who cares about others, too."

Brittney flushed and rolled her eyes

Heather laughed nervously, before she looked back. "I think we can stop running at least. I don't think we were followed."

Looking back, the three girls couldn't see it, but they could hear the digital chimes of Star's spells and the bursts of blaster fire.

Heather swallowed, as she recognized those sounds. "Oh shoot, those guys dressed up as the Beetleborgs are here now, aren't they?"

Brittney pulled out her phone, and quickly began swiping. She stopped and her eyes widened a bit. "Yes, all two of them are fighting Shego and some kind of gross monster. Megan is streaming it from the street corner."

Misao and Heather gathered around her to look at her phone, and Heather recoiled in disgust. "Ew, that's Kombat Knat! What's that thing doing here?"

Mabel, standing behind them, shared their collective distaste for the creature. "Yeah, the monsters so far haven't been the cutest, but that guy is the CEO of ugly."

Brittney and Heather both jumped back from Mabel, the former pointing at her. "How the fuck did you sneak up on us, you sequoia?!"

Bringing a hand to her chest, Mabel said softly, "I have aspired to be a cat since I was seven, so I learned their myriad ways."

Misao quickly caught Mabel in a tight hug. "I am so glad you are here."

Mabel returned the embrace, consoling the smaller girl by stroking her hair. "There, there, I won't let the bad guys get you."

Now that Mabel was here, and the Beetleborgs were out front, Heather had questions. "Mabel, what's going on? Why is Shego after Misao, and why are you and your brother, Star, and Marco fighting the Magnavores?"

Mabel's expression changed to one of uncertainty, as she weighed upon how to answer that question. She looked down at Misao, who kept her face buried in Mabel's chest as she explained.

"Señor Senior Junior wants to ransom me to my mother."

Brittney tilted her head. "Señor Senior Junior? That Instagram selfie-obsessed, wannabe SoundCloud rapper gym rat, who's probably more spoiled than both Vanderhoffs combined? He's the one who sent Shego after you?"

As Misao nodded, Mabel looked up from her.

"Dipper and I met Misao at the airport the day we got here, we rescued her from both of them. That's the real reason she's staying with us."

That shook Heather. "That must be horrible, to have to hide out from them like this."

"We were doing a good job of laying low, too," Mabel lamented. "At least until last weekend."

Misao went still and she began to bristle.

Heather put what she heard earlier together, and her eyes widened in horror. "… Oh my God."

Brittney looked back and forth between the girls, as Mabel confirmed Heather's worst fears with a nod. "What?"

Heather turned to her. "It was Trip, wasn't it? He somehow got in contact with Shego and Señor Senior Junior, and pointed them right here."

Clapping alerted the four of them, and they turned around to see Señor Senior Junior himself emerge from around a corner at the end of the concession hallway. Still clapping, he walked over to the girls and came to a stop, and his applause ended a moment later.

"Very good," he said, "But do not assign blame to them alone. While they helped me along the way, it wasn't like I didn't have little careless crumbs you left behind that kept me in Los Angeles."

He nodded to Mabel. "Getting into very impressive street fights with monsters and robots goes viral very quickly in the age of Señorita Kim Possible."

Brittney stepped up to Junior, as Mabel placed herself between him and both Misao and Heather.

"This is a joke, right?" She demanded.

Junior looked down at Brittney, surprised. "Erm… oh, you're Señorita Brittney Wong, yes? I've heard a lot about you."

She wasn't in the mood for flattery. "And I've heard a bunch about you. Knock it off, and walk away, Junior. Your dad is still a respected man, somehow, and you're making the worst kinds of enemies with this stunt."

Junior recoiled a little, taken aback by the invocation of his father. "I'm sorry, but I cannot. This is a matter of personal honor, not just some fancy."

Brittney lifted an eyebrow, before narrowing her eyes. "Is that so? Then if you want what you came for, you go through me."

Misao and Mabel were both struck. "… Brittney…"

Junior seemed to draw back from the prospect, visibly cringing at first before he sighed. "My father told me to never raise my hand against a woman, that is not how gentlemen conduct themselves. I agree, there are some lines that must not be crossed."

Brittney huffed, but before she could spit back a barbed comment about how gentlemanly he was, Junior demonstrated how much he wasn't by jabbing the business end of a powerful extending stun baton into her stomach and surging over 50,000 volts into her.

Going rigid, Brittney trembled violently in place for several seconds before she crumpled where she stood, unconscious.

"But I am still a villain," he lamented.

"Run!" He heard Mabel shout.

When Junior looked up, she drew from under her sweater the Beretta M1951 Shermie had given her just a few days ago and pointed it at him. Behind her, Misao and Heather were already booking it back towards the school.

Junior was surprised, as he put up his hands. "That's a gun gun."

"And it shoots bullet bullets," Mabel snapped back as she kept it trained on him. "Keep your hands up, drop the prod, and back away from the girl!"

Doing as told, Junior dropped the stun baton and began to step away. "I did not expect that you would be armed… or that you would come to school with it."

"I'm from a little city called Piedmont," Mabel replied, "Which is right next to a city called Oakland. More importantly, we're in flipping Los Angeles. How did you not expect to have a gun pulled on you?"

When she put it like that, she had a point. "Your country's obsession with firearms is a human tragedy."

Mabel shrugged. "Yeah, but what are you gonna do?"

"Well," Junior answered, "Since I am from Europe and have a lot of money, I do the sensible thing and have other kinds of protection."

Heather and Misao just made it to the other end of the tunnel, when there was a loud, metallic crunch in front of them that cracked the ground in four spots. At that same moment, as Mabel looked back, something she couldn't see but hear struck and knocked the gun out of her hands hard.

"Ah, beans!" Mabel yelled before Junior struck fast.

Scooping his baton back up, he dashed in and jabbed her hard in her chest.

As she was shocked, she garbled out. "Y-y-y-ou-ou-ou-S-SU-UUU-CK!"

Just like Brittney, she was down and out in a few seconds, collapsing to the concrete floor.

Behind her, Heather and Misao stepped back as the thing that landed in front of them stalked forward. They could not see it clearly, but at this close, with the light bending around it, they could make out a sleek, metal, canid shape stalking towards them as they backed up.

"OctoCamo…" Misao recognized.

She looked back and froze when she saw Mabel unconscious and Junior kicking her gun out of reach. Looking at Brittney, then at Heather, she quickly turned to him and shouted.

"STOP!"

Junior turned to her, as the cloaked machine ceased menacing. "You will come quietly…?"

Misao glanced back at the frightened Heather, then nodded. "I will."

Junior clapped his hands together and hurried over. "Oh, very good! I feel terrible about having to do this, but please understand–"

Misao was about to step towards him, when he suddenly struck her with the stun baton as well.

Caught by complete surprise, she blurted out the shortest cry before she locked up and then collapsed to the ground.

"… I do not need you to be conscious for this part."

He looked at Heather. "Or you."

When he swung the baton for her.

Before it could connect, Heather leaned back quickly from its path.

Junior didn't expect that. "Hm?"

He swung at her again, but this time she caught his hand, stopping him from connecting with the weapon. Surprised, he met Heather's wide-eyed stare, filled with fear, as she clutched his hand in a death grip.

In a burst of movement, he rotated his hand towards her thumb, breaking her grip, before he quickly jabbed Heather in the shoulder with the stun baton. He was surprised when Heather grabbed his arm with both hands. "Ah?!"

Heather gripped his arm even tighter, her eyes wide and her teeth clenched as she was shocked for several seconds longer than any of the other girls, before she finally fell unconscious and limp.

Junior stepped back, shaken, from the unconscious girl, before he looked over at Misao. Putting away the stun baton, he went over to her and checked the pockets of her dress and the contents of her bag. Removing her phone and its companion accessories, he left them on the ground before he gingerly picked her up.

"HEY!"

"Hijo de puta…!" He muttered when he looked up and saw running into the concession area… the school janitor?

The janitor stared at Junior, surprised. "SSJ?"

Hearing his voice, Junior recognized the man immediately, and grew concerned. "… You look terrible with a mustache."

The janitor reached up to it. "See, this is why I wanted to be a cafeteria worker–" The janitor stopped, then assumed a fighting stance. "Wait, hold on! You're not going one step further."

"No, if you are here, the only thing I can do is take as many steps as I can. Please, observe?"

The janitor looked at the unconscious girls still laid out… before right over them the shapes of three large quadrupedal robots built in the shape of wolves, and painted in shades of gray faded into view, their claws poised over the necks of Brittney, Mabel, and Heather.

"Take another step, and…" Junior shook his head. "… I dread to say it. I did not program this contingency in them, Shego did."

With Misao held close, Junior nodded to the closest of the canine robots, which then opened several vents that spewed out a dense white smoke he fled into. As the janitor stepped back the cloud quickly dissipated, and Señor Senior Junior and Misao were both gone.

"Wow," the Janitor said. "He's really stepped up his game."

= - = 7-3 = - =​

This is an unfortunate turn of events.

 

[EvaUnit01]

Hoo boy, seems like Shego's pretty comfortable stepping out of what Disney Channel would let her get away with.

Excited to see where things go from here.

 

[King of Kaiju]

Hoo boy, seems like Shego's pretty comfortable stepping out of what Disney Channel would let her get away with.

Excited to see where things go from here.

Click to shrink...

I mean... everyone swears, the party dimension features drugs, and Dipper tried to straight up shoot a guy.

I think it's been made pretty clear that the mouse's censors have no sway here.

 

[The Ero-Sennin]

I mean... everyone swears, the party dimension features drugs, and Dipper tried to straight up shoot a guy.

I think it's been made pretty clear that the mouse's censors have no sway here.

Click to shrink...

If you look closely, you'll note that Shego has yet to swear.

 

[The Ero-Sennin]

As the fierce battle rages, Señor Senior Junior has run off with Misao! Will the team be able to overcome Shego and her monstrous ally Kombat Knat? Or will the villain get away?!

Spoiler: Original Version

|Just As Planned|​

Over 1500 planes land per day at Los Angeles International Airport. Coming from all over the world, they range from single-engine civil prop planes to massive two and four engine jet airliners carrying hundreds of people. On this bright and sunny Monday morning, one plane went barely noticed as it lined up with the runway and began its final approach.

It was a small, white and gray-painted flying wing with a blended-wing-body and a pair of surprisingly quiet engines in pods also streamlined in the underside of the aircraft. Landing gear–a bicycle undercarriage with outrigger wheels under the middle of the wings–extended and the plane touched down.

Instead of approaching the terminal after it reached the end of the runway, the plane turned and taxied off towards a dark blue hangar where a sedan and two SUVs awaited.

Aboard the plane was a small Japanese woman with shiny black hair cut into a shoulder length bob, dressed in a dark-blue business suit with matching shoes and dark stockings.

Her gray eyes darted to her right. Not to a window but to the wall-hugging screen of the private jet's cabin showing the world outside the aircraft as it rolled to a stop. She stared at the entourage waiting for her, as she spoke aloud.

「私たちのフライト で、 どれ 位 かかりました か ？」

Beside her, a woman similarly dressed, but taller, and with long fiery red hair that ended in yellow streaks, replied.

「一時間と二十三分です。」

The smaller woman narrowed her eyes, before she got up from her seat.

「またくだな 十年前には、これをしませんでした。」

The taller, more colorful woman giggled.

「しがたじゃないです。」

Then she spoke again, in English. "And also, ten years ago we didn't have anything this nice."

Giving her a withering look, the woman stepped towards the downward opening door, its wall folding out into a staircase. "True."

The taller woman then asked. "Though, would that stop you, Hyuuga-sama?"

Reaching the bottom of the steps, the woman stopped after touching the pavement and looked back at her taller companion.

"If I had to, I would swim the entire ocean to be here."

With that she headed towards the sedan awaiting them. "Now let's go, and resolve this unpleasant business."

@@@@@​

Mabel's eyes shot open as she regained consciousness, and with consciousness came wrath. "WHO JUST TASES PEOPLE LIKE THAT?!"

Brittney, who was likewise conscious, answered succinctly. "Assholes do."

More pressing concerns caught up with Mabel, as she quickly got up and looked around. "Misao! Where…?!"

Heather, being pulled up to her feet by the help of the janitor, answered. "Señor Senior Junior knocked her unconscious, then he tased me… I don't know what happened after that."

The janitor filled in the last part. "He took off with her. I tried to stop him, but he had help…"

Mabel clenched her fists. "Okay then… we gotta go after her!"

The janitor agreed. "They couldn't have gone far."

Turning to him, Mabel nodded in agreement. "Right!"

Brittney, looking back between Mabel and the unusually helpful janitor, finally noticed it and pointed at him.

"Who are you?"

The janitor turned to her. "Um… just your…"

"I think we're way past the need for disguises." Mabel reached up and ripped the mustache off his face. "Yoink!"

The janitor yelped. "Ow! Hey, I have sensitive lips!"

Brittney and Heather both gasped when they got a closer look at the janitor and recognized him.

"Wait!" Heather shouted.

Brittney pointed at him. "… You're…!"

On the roof of Echo Creek Academy at that moment, Typhus and Jara appeared in a burst of flame. Jara, her arms folded, turned and cast a suspicious look towards her friend and comrade. With Noxic hard at work building Scabs, it was just the two of them on their journey out to the school.

"I don't see why we needed to come out here, can we not wait for Kombat Knat to report?" Jara asked.

Typhus turned to face her. "That's the thing, he was supposed to report every hour. And when he did a few minutes ago, all I heard was Blinded by the Light by Manfred Mann's Earth Band."

Whatever counted as a face behind Jara's mask scowled. "Because everyone forgets that Bruce Springsteen wrote that song."

"Manfred Mann's Earth Band did it better, baby. Like Kurt Cobain and The Man Who Sold the World–"

"I prefer Midge Ure."

"Or Johnny Cash's cover of Hurt."

"The original was better there, too."

Typhus figured as much; he'd been on enough benders with her. "Anyway, I just wanna make sure that he's okay. This is enemy territory with the Butterfly, Beetles, and that troll around here."

Jara had doubts. "With the discipline he demonstrated when he met, I would be surprised if he gave himself away so carelessly–"

She stopped when they reached the edge of the roof, in time to see Kombat Knat get pummeled by a barrage of Narwhals from Star. From behind Kombat Knat Shego emerged and slashed down on her with her right hand.

The villainess's fatal fingers barely grazed Star as she weaved to Shego's right. Kombat Knat's extending sub-arms nearly speared through her if not for Strikerborg imposing herself between Star and the attack.

Typhus recoiled from the scene in surprise. "What the… Kombat Knat?!"

Shego jumped back from the tentacle deflected towards her, her eyes darting around quick enough to track Hunterborg's as he slowed down to strike her with the Hunting Claw.

Her energy flared, becoming almost solid as she blocked Hunterborg's strike. Turning quickly, she used her other hand to parry the weapon upward and open Hunterborg to a kick to his chest.

The green Beetleborg disappeared, and Shego flaring her energy around her to block his attempt at getting his claw around her neck. Above them, Jara stared in silence at the battle, as they struggled to overpower one another.

"You're not the first speedster I've fought, pal!" The green supervillain surged her power outward, pushing Hunterborg back, before a shower of Input Magnum bolts rained on her impromptu barrier, pushing her backward.

Seeing Stingerborg firing on Shego, Jara's body tensed

Beneath his armor, Drew was confused. Using his telekinesis, he was trying to restrain Shego, but where her power flared, his power couldn't touch. "I can't grab her…"

Pointing her hand at Stingerborg, Shego sent a stream of energy at him, striking his chest and knocking him down. Turning her attention back to Hunterborg, she ducked another swing of his claw, then gracefully parried one more away before hitting him in the chest with a shotgun like energy blast.

Over with Star and Jo, Strikerborg lunged ahead of Star and swung at Kombat Knat–who vanished from sight as he shrank to his smallest possible size. Snarling, Jo looked back.

"Damn it!" She managed to yell before Kombat Knat grew to full size beneath her, jaws closing around her armored body. "ACK!"

Star was livid at the treatment. "HEY!"

Raising her wand like a mace, she swung it down hard in Kombat Knat's direction. "Bacon Kitty Hawaiian Nightmare!"

A swirling magenta torrent of fruit punch and eldritch kittens, pineapples, leis, and bacon slammed into Kombat Knat, forcing him to spit out Strikerborg before he shrank to disappear again.

Landing, Strikerborg rolled along then got up in time to see Hunterborg hit the ground. She looked towards Shego as the villainess came straight at her with energy surging around both hands.

Star targeted Shego. "Laser Beam Blast!"

Kombat Knat–at his smallest size–zipped past Shego and enlarged himself, taking the full brunt of Star's attack. Her determined smirk turning into a grin, Shego ducked under Jo's attempt at punching her as she got close, and slashed away at Strikerborg to her heart's content, hitting the red Beetleborg with a three hit right-left-right chain before blasting her in the face with energy streamed from both hands.

On the roof, Typhus was stumped. "Why the heck is he fighting for her?!"

Jara walked towards the edge of the roof. "Does it matter?"

Typhus turned to her. "It does matter, Kombat Knat is supposed to be discreet and performin' his mission, baby!"

Reaching the edge of the roof, Jara leaned over to pitch herself off it. "Then we have an excuse to get involved."

She went over the edge of the roof and kicked off the very top of the wall to launch herself not at Shego, Kombat Knat, or Star… but at Stingerborg.

The blue Beetleborg had just gotten onto his feet when he saw a blur of red pass his field of vision. Thinking it was Jo for a moment, but realizing that wasn't right, he turned to follow it–only for Jara to throw her shoulder pauldrons and cape into his chest.

The impact knocked the wind out of him through his armor. As its weight threw him back, he saw a flash of pink before Jara struck him dozens of times in an instant, sending him crashing down prone with a yell.

The energy humming so intensely from her blade that its center was a deep red, Jara pursued Stingerborg. When she swung again, Hunterborg blocked her swing with a wild one of his own. Undeterred, she swung at Hunterborg with every intention to cut him down, but he answered her swing with another of his, the Hunter Claw's prongs glowing red where it met her weapon.

Screaming in anger, Jara swung faster, slashing Hunterborg twice before lashing the blade around him in whip mode and yanking him off his feet and out of her path. "Get out of my way!"

Star, seeing Jara's furious entrance, grew exasperated. "Oh, come on! We've got enough happening right now!"

Shego coming straight at Star drew the princess's attention back to her opponent. Shego was on the offensive, approaching her quickly. "Hey, you think that magic wand of yours would work for me?!"

Frowning, Star weaved under a kick, then jumped back from her. "If you hold still, we can really try!"

Shego called to Kombat Knat. "Creepy bug dude, grab that girl so I can grab that wand!"

Kombat Knat charged in. "Yes, my radiance!"

It was then that Typhus leaped down from the roof and landed. "Hey! Kombat Knat!"

Kombat Knat stopped mid-charge and stumbled back, alarmed. "C-creator!"

Typhus pointed at him. "You had one job to do, what the heck are you doing listening to this lady, baby!"

Shego looked from Kombat Knat to Typhus, then over at Jara lashing Drew with her energy whip, and finally dropped her fighting stance. "Okay… time out."

Typhus, Kombat Knat, and Star looked at her with the former monster asking. "What?"

"Is this whole thing a cosplay villainy bit? I mean, the fit is amazing, but please… it's embarrassing when you dress up like a villain from a comic book and try to break into the game."

Typhus turned to Star. "Wait, she don't know?"

Star shrugged her shoulders. "Why would she?"

He turned back to Kombat Knat. "Then why the heck are you working for her, KK?!"

Kombat Knat was staring at Shego, as he carelessly waved a claw at Typhus. "You wouldn't get it."

Typhus pinched the bridge of his nose. "You're gonna give me a headache, baby."

Beside him, to his left, Jo piped up. "Not before I do."

Typhus turned to her, and the Red Strikerborg's fist connected to his jaw, and off he went like a projectile towards Jara.

Seeing Typhus hurtling towards her, Jara crossed her arms and let him collide with her full force. The impact pushed her back far from Stingerborg, her feet carving trenches in the school's lawn and the sidewalk leading to the school's front door.

Shego turned to Jo. "Hey, I called time out."

"Fuck you," Strikerborg replied immediately, and Shego recoiled a bit.

Aiming the Input Magnum at her, she thumbed Crashing Mode into the pad. "This is a fight. Hits or GTFO."

Shego smirked. "Okay, you're cool."

Strikerborg accepted the compliment by laying on the trigger. And Kombat Knat imposed himself in the path of the avalanche of fire. As explosions rocked the Synthetic Beast's body, Shego's attention returned to Star–

"RAINBOW FIST PUNCH!"

But the princess was quicker on the draw and a Rainbow Fist knocked the wind out of her before Star ran up and connected one of Marco's flying kicks into her face, sending her sprawling out onto her back.

Enduring the hits, Kombat Knat saw Shego go down out of one of his liquid eyes. "RADIANCE!"

The rest of his eyes saw Strikerborg coming in to punch him again, and he shrank down again to avoid her. At the last second, however, she stopped and aimed the Input Magnum over her held up left forearm to steady her aim. Behind her mask, Jo targeted the shrunken Kombat Knat.

"Not this time," she said before firing a single beam mode shot that impacted Kombat Knat and carried him off across the street.

She then turned and aimed the Input Magnum at Shego's head. "And one for you."

Firing a bolt, however, she only hit the ground next to Shego's head, snapping her from her momentary daze. The woman kicked up and stared at Strikerborg in surprise.

"You are a ruthless little–!"

Star's spinning kick connected with the back of her head, forcing her to look down at the ground.

"TWO FOR…!" Landing in front of Shego, she somersault kicked her in the face, lifting her off her feet. "… FLINCHING!"

Floating through the air, Shego blinked in surprise as a single thought passed through her head.

Am I getting jumped?

She curled up into a backward tumble and landed on her feet and found Star keeping her wand on her while Strikerborg's attention was pulled to the other two Beetleborgs.

"Hunterborg, Stingerborg! Are you okay?"

Stingerborg slowly got up, helped by Hunterborg. "Not particularly. I can keep Jara on me, though! Beat the crap out of Shego!"

Typhus was helped back onto his feet by Jara "Hey, you need to keep your eye on the prize!"

"I am…" Jara replied, her gaze fixed on Stingerborg.

Typhus gave her a tense look, then nodded. "Do what you gotta do, baby. I'll try to find KK and get out of here."

Shego looked between the different groups fighting and hummed. Okay it can't have taken this long.

As if on cue, she received a call on an earpiece her long cascading hair had been concealing. Directing her attention to it, she raised her hand to brush it through her hair and answered the call.

"Scion here, Demeter. You can disengage at any time, I have the target and have withdrawn."

Shego smirked and murmured under her breath. "I love it when a plan goes perfectly."

Jara ignited the energy blade of her shortsword, as Stingerborg held out his right arm and equipped the Stinger Blade. Seeing him answer her challenge in kind, she seethed.

"Nothing has changed. You are still a child."

Stingerborg tightened his grip on the handle of his blade. "Well, how many more people you love do I have to kill before I'm a man?"

Hunterborg was wise to get out of the way as quick as his stamina would allow, before Jara shot straight for Stingerborg and swing down on him.

Even using his telekinesis to block her swing, the impact of her overhead swing coming down on his raised Stinger Blade was enough to cause a pair of long fissures to open under the Blue Beetleborg's feet.

As the ground broke beneath his own feet, Roland moved through the slowed down world around him, dashing towards Shego as she began to look toward him and gradually sped up.

Are her reflexes just that quick…?! Roland thought as her energy erupted and she accelerated enough to block his claw before he could close it on her arm.

She blasted him in the face and chest, then sprang into a graceful spinning leap away from both Star's laser beam blast and a cascade of crashing mode shots from Strikerborg. She landed in the narrow space between the deluge of energy blasts and jumped and twirled in a zigzag pattern from them while using her energy to block more projectiles.

Typhus coming up on Shego's right flank surprised her though. "Excuse you?"

Fully facing her, Typhus opened the second mouth atop his head, and it unleashed a scattering barrage of energy bolts that struck Shego as she raised her arms to protect her face, enveloping her in smoke and explosions.

"Whatever you're doing to my pal Kombat Knat stops now!" He declared as he pulled his bony white sword from his second mouth.

Shego lowered her arms, her energy field had absorbed the brunt of that attack. "Sorry, I can't help being easy to die for any more than being easy to die against."

Typhus fell on her, swinging one-handed with barbaric force. She ducked under the first diagonal slash, went even lower to avoid a horizontal return stroke. Lunging forward, she slashed across his belly and circled around him to slash down his caped back. Roaring, he turned to lash out in an upward diagonal strike, but Shego twirled in the direction of his swing to weave away from him.

The Hunter Claw finally caught Shego around her slender waist. Accelerating, he turned around and slammed her into Typhus' chest.

Strikerborg entered 0-1-0 into her Input Magnum as Star's cheekmarks flashed.

"Freezing Mode!" The former called.

"Winterstorm Hyperblow!" The latter shouted with her.

The combined blast of freezing winds slammed into Shego and Typhus as Hunterborg dashed back from the two. Quickly the ice built around the two, until they were encased in a large, heavy block of ice.

Behind Star and Jo, on the other side of the school's front lawn, Drew could feel the strain on his body as he traded blows with Jara. Using his telekinesis to read her overwhelming strikes and brace his right arm against the force was quickly wearing him down.

"You have no place; you have no right to stand before me!" Jara yelled as she turned her energy blade into a whip and lashed him several times after he'd blocked and parried her once more. "You should be a boiled, bloated corpse in that armor!"

Stumbling back, Stingerborg was slashed again, and again with scorch marks appearing in his armor and the shockwaves rumbling through him. Jara chased him down and jammed the energy blade into his armored chest, the beams scattering as she tried to run him through until the physical blade itself slammed into his armor.

Despite the force of the blow, Drew's telekinesis kept him standing. He could feel blood trickling from his nose. Watching and feeling Jara raise her sword above her head and reignited the energy blade, he turned himself to the right while sweeping the blade up to parry and lock her blade.

"Don't tell me. Where I belong. Or what I should be," he growled back. "I already know what I am, and it pisses us both off!"

He riposted, knocking her blade back upward with the force of his telekinesis. Shocked that he could even knock her off her footing, Jara was open long enough for Drew to shoot her twice in the chest with the Input Magnum in its stock beam mode, as she was carried back further, the Stinger Blade's turbine wound up, and he lunged forward to put the blade through her heart.

Jara was just a little quicker, and she deflected the weapon up and the Stinger Blade ground against her armored neck and the side of her mask, chipping some of it away before she threw herself away from Stingerborg in a desperate lunge.

The ice containing Typhus suddenly exploded, forcing Strikerborg to shield Star from the ice shards sailing through the air, as the Synthetic Beast Commander let out an enraged yell, most of his body turning red. Freed from the ice, Shego went tumbling away past the Hunterborg.

"GET AWAY FROM HER!" With his roar, Typhus ignored everything else and shot straight for Stingerborg, pulling his sword back to hit him with all his might.

Drew was surprised by the violence and speed Typhus had come at him with, but after doing so much, he held confidence the fight was over.

When Typhus's blade was stopped by the spiked and curved head of a large, heavy battle ax, he felt the tension leave him completely.

The fight was over.

"We've been over this before, big guy."

Towering above Drew and Typhus was Miss Skullnick, her monstrous body now clad in an old but very strong armor made perfectly for Trolls. "I'll just call this strike two if you leave right now."

Shego got up, and shook her head as she felt the warmth return to her extremities. She looked at Miss Skullnick in no small amount of disbelief.

"There are just ugly monsters all over the place," she muttered, before she found Roland, Jo, and Star standing over her with weapons aimed at her.

"Funny that the ugliest monster here is you," Star said.

Shego gave her a level look, before she let out a laugh. "You know what? I really like you kids; you fight dirty, you never go on the 1v1, and you throw some cold, cold one-liners. Problem is, though?"

Her energy immediately flared up, becoming an expanding sphere that Strikerborg, Hunterborg, and Star scattered from. Back up onto her feet, Shego grinned as her eruption left the ground beneath her feet molten.

"You lack vision," she finished.

"RADIANCE!" Kombat Knat yelled as he grew to full size and landed beside her.

Shego hooked a thumb to him. "Like this guy. He gets it."

Hearing Kombat Knat's voice, Typhus pulled his weapon free from Miss Skullnick's and called back to him. "Hey! KK! You get out of here right now! You gotta job to do!"

Kombat Knat called back. "Yes, I do have a job. It is more important than any other…"

He then put an arm around Shego. "And I will carry it out to the fullest."

With that, he shrank down, taking Shego with him.

Strikerborg turned to Hunterborg. "Hunterborg!"

Looking around, Roland tried to scan for the shrunken Kombat Knat with Jo, but both were gone. "No good. He's a lot faster when he's small."

Star, getting up, looked at her right arm, covered with a sizzling burn from wrist to elbow, then down at the numerous cuts and burns across her body caused by Shego's previous attacks.

"… Okay… I can't put off that armor thing anymore."

Hearing that, Jo looked at Star. "What do… oh my God, Star!"

Star looked up at Jo. "I've had worse, don't worry."

Watching his creation abandon the mission, Typhus turned to Stingerborg and Miss Skullnick.

"Yeah, we're outta here," he said, despondent as he walked over to Jara. "This all went bad, baby. Let's go."

Jara, staring at Stingerborg, allows Typhus to take her by the arm. She cannot leave without one last thing.

"I cannot believe Saberizer showed you any respect in defeat. Everything you have, is nothing you've earned or sacrificed for," she hissed. "Everyone else must foot the bill for your fantasy."

As Jara and Typhus vanished, Drew took a deep breath and released his telekinetic hold on himself. He sagged in his armor, its weight and rigidity holding him up despite his exhaustion.

The only reason I'm fighting is so no one else has to pay, he thought, glad that for all of the chaos that no one else appeared to have been harmed.

Miss Skullnick walked over to Star and the other two Beetleborgs. "Star, you gotta stop getting into these fights here at school!"

"I'm trying!" Star said as she cast a spell on her arm to clean and dress her burns. "It's not my fault Shego attacked, and the Magnavores decided to jump in, too!"

She turned to Hunterborg and Strikerborg. "Thanks for helping out, by the way, you too, Stingerborg!"

Stingerborg walked over, Drew shaking the bitter feeling Jara left with him off. "Don't worry about it."

Miss Skullnick had questions. "Oh yeah, why was Shego even here?!"

Hunterborg shook his head. "Don't worry, ma'am. Whatever she came for, I don't think she got it."

"Uhh… guys?" Mabel called over.

Star and the Beetleborgs looked over at Mabel, Brittney, and Heather. Seeing the three girls, when there should be four, Star's face immediately fell, capturing how all of them felt at that moment.

"… Oh no."

@@@@@​

With Dudley at the wheel, Trip and Van's personal SUV pulled up to the end of their driveway and in front of the Vanderhoff brothers' luxurious home. Climbing out of the car, Trip took two steps and then just leaned back against the side of the vehicle as Van staggered out after him. Turning to him, Van had a concerned expression, and Trip met his taller brother's look with one of contempt.

"What?" Trip asked.

Van looked left and right, before he finally asked. "… Are we really gonna kill Andrew?"

Trip answered far too quickly. "Yes, we're going to fucking kill him! I don't care anymore!"

He pushed off from the side of the car and headed towards the steps going up to his door. "He doesn't get to talk to me like that. No one does."

Trip nearly shoved Dudley off the steps as he went to the door. "Him, his sister, Roland. Pine Tree, his sister, that fat fuck Nazi chick. Hell, throw in Brittney fucking Wong while we're at it. Everyone who thought they could act wise and fucking talk to me like I'm no one. They can all go to fucking hell!"

Dudley just took a deep breath and let it out.

Trip stopped short of opening the door and shook with rage. "Stop being so wishy-washy. Like there's anything they can do to us, like there's any consequences. They can talk all of the shit they want, but we are the people on top–we're the ones who are in control, not them!"

Van trembled himself, frightened, before he slowly nodded. "Yeah… we're in control…"

Drew's scathing defiance, Misao's vehement warning, and the horrified looks on their schoolmates' faces when Trip so boldly boasted about his power over them weighed on him. However.

Van Vanderhoff could not shake the feeling crawling through him, that something very bad was about to happen.

Opening the door–that it was already unlocked not occurring to him–Trip walked inside.

"As a matter of fact, get ahold of Goblin so we can…" He stopped in his tracks.

Misao Darlian was sitting on his living room couch, her hands and legs bound and a gag over her mouth.

When her gray eyes met his, rage filled them as she began to tremble where she sat, huffing loudly.

Trip looked from Misao to the other person in his living room, sitting in the recliner that would be his father's chair. Señor Senior Junior, holding in his right hand a snifter of million-dollar alcohol from his family's clearly broken into liquor cabinet, looked at both Vanderhoff brothers and their butler.

"Oh, hello!" He cheerfully greeted them. "Pardon me, I just let myself in. That is okay, isn't it?"

Trip was at a loss for words at the sight of Misao and the internationally known supervillain sitting in his living room.

Van, however, was not. "W-what are you doing in our house?"

Junior brought the snifter to his nose and inhaled the aroma of the alcohol before stirring it around with a circular motion of his hand. "We needed a place where we could be undisturbed. It's quite dangerous out there."

The three heard the door close behind them. Trip, Van, and Dudley looked back to see Shego slowly walk the door shut, before locking it. Looking from the door to their new hosts, she smiled as she melted the handle in her grip.

"Yeah," she said while an absolutely enthralled Kombat Knat bounced in place on her left shoulder, "There's all sorts of hooligans and crazies running around."

Trip looked pale with terror, and Van about to cry, as Junior gestured to them with the snifter. Only Dudley held his composure, looking more tired than afraid.

The young supervillain addressed them. "So, you needn't worry. By the end of the evening this will all be over; I will have what I want, in addition to whatever you have, and if you cooperate you will keep your lives when this is over. Does that sound good?"

It was Dudley who spoke up in reply. "Master Senior."

Junior looked at him. "Please, call me Junior…?"

He gestured to the old man emphatically, reaching for a name.

"Dudley, sir."

"Yes, Dudley."

Dudley didn't expect to crack the faintest smile, but he stayed to his point. "Master Darlian… she is affiliated with individuals who are extremely dangerous. I would, for the sake of Master Trip and Master Van's safety, prefer it if she were not here–lest those individuals track her to this location."

Senior Señor Junior nodded in understanding. "Worry not, señor. I have taken some very necessary precautions to ensure we have a lengthy lead. By the time her friends catch up to us, we should be all be on our way."

Shego chuckled. "We'll be long gone."

@@@@@​

At Shermie Pines' home, Mabel stared at the screen of Drew's phone as a pin appeared on a map of the hills overlooking Echo Creek. Swiping through the screens, she brought up a physical address and looked up from the phone to the others gathered in the back yard with her.

"We've got her."

Jo punched her fist into her palm. "All right!"

Roland pumped his arm. "They didn't find it!"

Drew, bandaged up a bit but not to the extent he had been before, was a bit skeptical. "How do we know Junior didn't find and dump it somewhere to throw us off?"

Mabel chuckled. "I made sure to put it somewhere he wouldn't look."

Like it was a joke that only she'd been let in on, Jo joined Mabel in chuckling. "Heh, I can't wait to see the look on their faces when they realize it."

Shermie, sitting at the picnic table with them, put an arm around Mabel's shoulders. "Heh, smart as a whip, that's my granddaughter."

He looked at Drew. "You okay there?"

"I'll be fine," Drew assured him as Mabel made a call. "I've already got an appointment at Hyuuga Medical Works lined up for when we're done."

Shermie sighed. "I wish you kiddos weren't getting the tar beat out of you every day, but at least this time I won't just be sitting on the sidelines."

"Don't worry, it's a price I'm willing to pay," Drew reassured Shermie before he looked at his Beetle Bonder. "And as long as there's still work to do, we'll keep fighting, right?"

"Damn right," Roland answered.

"Exactly," Jo added.

Mabel gave him a thumbs up. "Yepperoonie!"

Her call was picked up by Janna. "Hey, Mabel, everything good on your end?"

Mabel gaily answered. "Sure is! I'm sending you the info, now!"

In the heart of the Beetle Battle Base, Janna's fingers glided across the cassette punk keyboard spread out in front of her, entering the location data sent from Mabel's phone to hers. Looking at the map, her eyes widened.

"… No way," she half spoke, half laughed.

Behind her, Dipper walked up with his arms folded. "It's their house, isn't it?"

Janna kept chuckling. "Yep."

"Tonight's just getting better and better," Dipper said with a small smirk of his own. He then called over to Janna's phone. "Are you guys good to move out?"

Mabel was happy to answer. "We're good on our end. Drew and Star are patched up and ready to go!"

Star walked over, accompanied by the formerly disguised janitor–a blonde cow-licked, freckle-faced young man Mabel's age wearing a black shirt and gray cargo pants and green utility belt.

"Uh, hey, Mr. Pines? We've got everything loaded up like you wanted," he said.

Star was pumped up. "Come on, let's go! Misao's not going to rescue herself!"

Shermie reached over and ruffled Star's hair. "Thanks kiddos."

He turned to the others. "You kids ready for this? I'm not gonna sugarcoat it, there might be some blowback from smashing up the Vanderhoff place."

He then adjusted his glasses. "But frankly? These schmendricks have it coming."

"All that and more," Mabel said with an malicious anticipation as the Beetleborgs and Star agreed with nods.

Dipper, overhearing them, likewise agreed. "Yeah, let's get started."

He turned to Janna. "Raise the Beetle Battle Base and get ready to send out the AVs." To the phone he issued the order. "Everybody, we're moving out and going to Trip and Van's house! Let's go get Misao back."

Mabel pumped her fist. "Woo! Let's go, guys! SSJ and Shego have no idea what's headed their way!"

Drew, Jo, and Roland all nodded to one another, and held their Beetle Battlers up to the darkening sky.

"Beetle Blast!"

Outside of Hillhurst Mansion, a white and gray-painted tilt-rotor VTOL sat with its engines off. Hearing Dipper's call, Marco tightened his grip on his phone and looked over to Jackie. "You hear that?"

Jackie nodded. "Yep, we're getting our get-back."

Marco looked over at the young woman waiting standing by the tilt-rotor aircraft's open rear hatch. She wore the same black shirt and gray cargo pants as the fake janitor over at Shermie's house, but she had long straight red hair and green eyes that lit up with anticipation when Marco called to her.

"It's go time, you ready?"

The young woman flicked her hair and nodded. "For a shot at Shego? I am so ready."

*********************************************************************
-
-WELCOME TO A PLACE THAT DOES NOT EXIST
-A PLACE WHERE THOSE WHO DO GO UNSEEN TREAD
-A PLACE THAT WILL NOT EXIST WHEN YOU LEAVE
-YOU ARE HERE BECAUSE WE NOTICED YOU
-YOU ARE HERE BECAUSE WE ACKNOWLEDGED YOU
-YOU ARE HERE BECAUSE WE ACCEPTED YOU
-YOU ARE HERE
-BECAUSE YOU ARE MEDJED
-
-
-Rules! Only Medjed @Medjed#GarageWizard and @Medjed#BrainNoise may
ping. You ping? You b&! Don't dox yourself, or others, we will find
you. No links to pr0n or warez, and for the last fucking time
Bakuryuu Sentai Abaranger IS THE BEST FUCKING SENTAI AND IF YOU SAY
ANYTHING ELSE I WILL SUPLEX YOU ON CEMENT. Links outside OGREclient
are clicked at your own risk, don't post them unless you're confident
of your security. They're always watching and waiting, Medjed, and
the only X-Factor is if YOU screw up. If you see something, say
something! Your hack is our exploit! #FreeEmilio
#JusticeForTheWhiteHats
-Topic of the D-A-Y: TEAM POSSIBLE IN LA
-
*********************************************************************
<Medjed#12is00> OMG. OMG. OMG. OMG. OMG.
<Medjed#MonitorLizard> What?
<Medjed#12is00> SHEGO WAS FIGHTING THE BEETLEBORGS AND STAR BUTTERFLY
IN LA. SHE WAS EVEN FIGHTING THOSE MAGNAVORE GUYS! O M G THERE'S SO
MUCH GOING ON.
<Medjed#MonitorLizard> Oh no.
<Medjed#12is00> IT'S H A P P E N I N G!
<Medjed#MonitorLizard> This is very bad. Kou, Otsu, are you two okay?
<Medjed#ITG-Otsu> We're OK, don't worry about us.
<Medjed#ITG-Kou> That stuff is happening in Echo Creek, and that's up
near Glendale. Literally 20 minutes away from where we hang out.
<Medjed#ITG-Otsu> So like two hours with traffic.
<Medjed#MonitorLizard> @GarageWizard, are you following this? This
could get very bad, very quick.
<@Medjed#GarageWizard> Don't worry guys. It's all under control.
<Medjed#MonitorLizard> Shego being anywhere near that much power is a
bad idea.
<Medjed#GarageWizard> Don't worry, the situation is as far as I can
tell, okay. While I'm here, Medjed. Is the you know what done?
<@Medjed> Oh yeah, it's done.

= - = 7-4 = - =

|Just As Planned|​

It was a bright, warm Saturday morning at Los Angeles International Airport. Air traffic moved in and out at a steady clip. From buzzing single-prop planes to hulking four-engine jetliners carrying hundreds, the morning sun glinted off polished fuselages and colorful liveries, representing a dozen airlines at any given time in the invisible air corridors above the city.

One plane stood out as it made its descent: a small, white and gray-painted flying wing with a blended-wing-body and a pair of surprisingly quiet engines in pods also streamlined in the underside of the aircraft. On landing, the plane turned and taxied off away from the main terminal towards a dark blue hangar where a sedan and two SUVs awaited.

Inside the cabin, a small woman with shiny black hair cut into a shoulder length bob, dressed in a dark-blue business suit with matching shoes and dark stockings, sat in a tense but calm silence.

Her gray eyes darted to her right. Not to a window but to the wall-hugging screen of the private jet's cabin showing the world outside the aircraft as it rolled to a stop. She stared at the entourage waiting for her, as she spoke aloud.

「私たちのフライト で、 どれ 位 かかりました か ？」

Beside her, a woman similarly dressed, but taller, and with long fiery red hair that ended in yellow streaks and seemingly perpetually closed eyes, replied.

「一時間と二十三分です。」

The smaller woman narrowed her eyes, before she got up from her seat.「またくだな 十年前には、これをしませんでした。」

The taller, more colorful woman giggled.「しがたじゃないです。」

Then she spoke again, in English. "And also, ten years ago we didn't have a hypersonic private jet."

Giving her a withering look, the woman stepped towards the downward opening door, its wall folding out into a staircase. "True."

The taller woman's eyes cracked open, revealing eyes that were almost electric green in color as she smirked with an idle mischievousness. "Though, would that stop you, Hyuuga-sama?"

Reaching the bottom of the steps, the woman stopped after touching the pavement and looked back at her taller companion.

"If I had to, I would swim the entire ocean to be here."

With that she headed towards the sedan awaiting them. "Now let's go, and resolve this unpleasant business."

@@@@@​

Mabel's eyes shot open as she regained consciousness, and with consciousness came wrath. "WHO JUST TASES PEOPLE LIKE THAT?!"

Brittney, who was likewise conscious, answered succinctly. "Assholes do."

More pressing concerns caught up with Mabel, as she quickly got up and looked around. "Misao! Where…?!"

Heather, being pulled up to her feet by the help of the janitor, answered. "Señor Senior Junior knocked her unconscious, then he tased me… I don't know what happened after that."

She seemed wracked with guilt. "… I couldn't stop him…"

The janitor filled in the last part. "He took off with her. I tried to stop him, but he had help…"

Mabel clenched her fists. "Okay then… we gotta go after her!"

The janitor agreed. "They couldn't have gone far."

Turning to him, Mabel nodded in agreement. "Right!"

Brittney, looking back between Mabel and the unusually helpful janitor, finally noticed it and pointed at him.

"Who are you?"

The janitor turned to her. "Um… just your…"

"I think we're way past the need for disguises." Mabel reached up and ripped the mustache off his face. "Yoink!"

The janitor yelped. "Ow! Hey, I have sensitive lips!"

Brittney and Heather both gasped when they got a closer look at the janitor and recognized him.

"Wait!" Heather shouted.

Brittney pointed at him. "… You're…!"

On the roof of Echo Creek Academy overlooking the front, at that moment, Typhus and Jara appeared in a burst of flame. With Noxic hard at work building Scabs, it was just the two of them out here.

Jara folded her arms, her masked gaze shifting toward him. "I don't see why we needed to come out here, can we not wait for Kombat Knat to report?"

"That's the thing," Typhus said, squaring to her. "He was supposed to check in every hour. Just now, all I got was Manfred Mann's Blinded by the Light."

Jara looked away towards the edge of the roof and the racket coming from down below. "Everyone remembers that version, but forgets that it was a Bruce Springsteen song."

"Manfred Mann's Earth Band did it better, baby. Like Johnny Cash's cover of Hurt."

"That original was better, too."

Typhus figured as much. He'd been on enough benders with her to know her taste in self-destruction.

"Anyway, I just wanna make sure that he's okay. This is enemy territory with the Butterfly, Beetles, and that troll around here."

Jara had doubts. "With the discipline he demonstrated when he met, I would be surprised if he gave himself away so carelessly–"

Jara started to retort but froze as they reached the roof's edge. On the school's front lawn, to the right of the school's front steps near the statue of Otis the Opossum, Kombat Knat was being pummeled by a storm of narwhals conjured by Star Butterfly.

Typhus reeled. "The heck?!"

Shego vaulted out from behind Kombat Knat, claws blazing green. She slashed down at Star, only for her to weave aside.

Kombat Knat extended his sub-arms to strike from Star's flank, but Strikerborg lunged between them, intercepting the strike.

Hunterborg streaked in, claw aimed for her throat. Shego's aura flared neon, slowing him down enough to counterattack.

She spun, crescent-kick knocking his claw wide.

Her follow-up kick slammed into his chest.

Hunterborg skidded back, caught himself, and then blurred into a cyclone around her, darting to attack from every angle.

"You're not the first speedster I've fought, pal!" Shego taunted, juking through his passes.

She flared her energy brighter, and caught the Claw dead-on in her right hand.

She smirked.

"You're not even that fast!"

She parried Hunterborg and then slashed him across the chest, staggering him.

"Shit!" Roland grunted. "She really do be like that, huh?"

In that instant Stingerborg burst onto the scene from the other side of the steps, Input Magnum blazing at Shego.

Shego flipped away in a somersault through the incoming fire, and raised her energy like a shield that absorbed the bolts.

Seeing him, Jara tensed but remained silent.

"Hunterborg, you all right?!" Stingerborg called out to Hunterborg as he reached the scene.

"I was just waiting on you to get active!" Hunterborg said as Stingerborg joined his side.

Stingerborg whipped his right arm out and summoned the Stinger Blade over it. "Then let's get active!"

Shego sneered at their hyping each other up, and whipped a surge of energy into Stingerborg's chest that he blocked with his Beetle Battler. "Ugh, zoomers."

This let Hunterborg close in again and slash at her with the Hunter Claw, forcing her to leap clear.

At the same moment, Strikerborg lunged ahead of Star and swung at Kombat Knat, but the insectoid shrank and vanished again.

"Damn it!" Strikerborg snapped then yelped as he reappeared beneath her, jaws closing on her armor.

"ACK! Star!"

"HEY!" Star roared, eyes blazing. She swung her wand like a club.

"Bacon Kitty Hawaiian Nightmare!"

A swirling magenta torrent of fruit punch and eldritch kittens, pineapples, leis, and bacon slammed into Kombat Knat. Gagging and releasing Strikerborg, he shrank and vanished again.

Strikerborg tumbled, rolled, and came up just in time to see Hunterborg crash to the ground. Shego was already surging toward her, both hands blazing green.

Star lined her wand up on the villainess. "Laser Beam Blast!"

At the last instant Kombat Knat enlarged himself, taking the full brunt of Star's attack.

Shego grinned, teeth bared. She slipped under Strikerborg's punch and let loose, using right-left-right slashes across the Beetleborg's chest before blasting her full in the face with twin jets of searing energy.

On the roof, Typhus gawked as Strikerborg went flying. "Why the heck is he fighting for her?!"

Jara's voice was flat. "Does it matter?"

"It does, baby! KK was supposed to be discreet!"

"Then," Jara said, stepping off the roof's edge, "we have an excuse to get involved."

She launched herself down, cape flaring.

Stingerborg had just gotten to his feet when a red blur passed in front of him. He thought it was Jo for an instant, then Jara's pauldrons and cape hit like a truck, driving the air out of his lungs. Pink streaks flashed across his vision as she hammered him with a dozen strikes in an instant, sending him sprawling.

Her blade thrummed, glowing so hot the core burned crimson. She swung down at him, only for Hunterborg's claw to intercept, locking gold around red.

"Back off my Stinger homie, cuh!" He shouted as he raised his Input Magnum in his free hand to attack.

Jara screamed, fury breaking through her calm. Ripping her blade free, she punched Hunterborg to create an opening and lashed her blade into whip form, coiling it around Hunterborg and yanking him off his feet.

"Out of my way!"

Stingerborg was already up, thrusting at her chest with the Stinger Blade and forcing her to defend herself.

Hunterborg sprang up not even a split second after he hit the ground. "Oh nah, you ain't getting a fair one!"

He dove back in as Jara clashed violently with Stingerborg.

Across the lawn, Star saw the Magnavores jump in, and yelled in exasperation. "Oh, come on! We've got enough going on right now!"

Shego shot straight towards her, smirking. "Hey, think that wand would work for me?"

She lashed out with a sharp kick, but Star jumped back, tightly avoiding it and the trio of very strong slashes the villain pursued her with.

Frowning, Star jumped back from her. "If you hold still, we can find out!"

Shego barked at Kombat Knat. "Creepy bug guy, grab that girl!"

Kombat Knat charged in. "Yes, my radiance–!"

Typhus then landed with a thunderous crash in front of him, interrupting his attack.

Kombat Knat stumbled back, alarmed. "C-creator!"

"You had one job to do, baby!" Typhus shouted before pointing at Shego. "What the heck are you doing listening to her?!"

Shego rolled her eyes. "Is this some kind of weird bit I've wandered into?"

She blasted at Typhus just to clear her line of sight. He sidestepped, unimpressed.

Star, downrange of the Magnavore General, nearly got her dress singed evading the beam. "What are you talking about? Laser Beam Blast!"

Kombat Knat moved and took the attack, once more protecting Shego, as Typhus moved the other way.

Shego rushed her down. "Look, the fit is amazing, but dressing like comic book villains? Embarrassing~!"

She lunged at Star, only to eat a spinning kick that flung her across the lawn.

Typhus, drawing his shotgun sword as Shego crashed to the ground next to him, fired at her. "Wait, she don't know?"

Star cartwheeled to avoid the blast he fired at her. "Why would she?!"

Shego quickly got up, and performed a very fast backflip away as Typhus swung at her next.

"Then why the heck are you working for her, KK?!" Typhus bellowed as he followed up the first slash with a much more brutal cut.

Grabbing Shego at the last second, Kombat Knat pulled her clear. "You wouldn't get it!"

As she was safely set down, she taunted the monster. "Hey, I can't help it if dying for me's as easy as dying against me!"

Typhus pinched the bridge of his nose with his free hand. "You're gonna give me a headache, baby."

"Not before I do," Strikerborg quipped before she smashed him across the jaw, sending him tumbling toward Jara's duel as she went back and forth between keeping the other two Beetleborgs at bay.

Seeing Typhus hurtling towards her, she let Hunterborg catch her blade in his claw before throwing him into Typhus' path.

"Ayo, what–?!" Hunterborg asked before he was bowled over.

With him out of the way again, Jara ignited her sword whip's blade to full and launched herself at Stingerborg.

Strikerborg winced. "Sorry, Hunterborg!"

Shego rounded on Strikerborg. "Hey, do you mind?! We were having a conversation!"

"Fuck you," Strikerborg shot back, raising her Input Magnum. "This is a fight. Hits or GTFO."

Shego blinked in surprise, then smirked. "Okay, I like you."

Strikerborg showed her appreciation by opening fire.

Once more Kombat Knat imposed himself in the path of the avalanche of fire. As explosions rocked the Synthetic Beast's body, Star found her opening.

"RAINBOW FIST PUNCH!"

The spell knocked the wind out of her before she could react. Then a powerful flying kick to her face sent her sprawling out onto her back.

Kombat Knat saw Shego go down out of one of his liquid eyes. "RADIANCE!"

The rest of his eyes caught Strikerborg swinging on him, and he shrank again to escape.

It was a feint as she swiftly but steadily aimed the Input Magnum. Behind her mask, Jo targeted the shrunken Kombat Knat.

"Not this time," she said before firing a single beam mode shot that impacted Kombat Knat and carried him off across the street.

She turned and aimed the Input Magnum at Shego's head. "And one for you!"

Firing a bolt, she hit the ground next to Shego's head, snapping her from her momentary daze. The woman kicked up and stared at Strikerborg in surprise.

"You are a ruthless little–!"

Star's wand clocked her across the face as she came in from her other side.

"TWO FOR…!"

Landing in front of Shego, she leaped in place and drilled one of Marco's powerful spinning back kicks into her chest.

"… FLINCHING!"

Floating through the air, Shego blinked in surprise as a single thought passed through her head.

Am I getting cooked?

She curled up into a backward tumble and landed on her feet. Star was already on her, aiming her wand.

"Laser Beam Blast!"

The laser spell splashed spectacularly against Shego's energy, as she flared it to block the attack.

Strikerborg's attention was pulled to the other two Beetleborgs.

"Hunterborg, Stingerborg! Are you okay?"

Across the lawn, Stingerborg locked blades with Jara's as he called back. "Not particularly, but I can keep Jara on me! Beat the crap out of Shego!"

Typhus, having thrown Hunterborg off him, growled at Jara "Hey, you need to keep your eye on the prize!"

"I am!" Jara replied, her gaze fixed on Stingerborg.

Typhus gave her a tense look, then nodded. "Do what you gotta do, baby. I'll try to find KK and get out of here!"

He raised his shotgun sword and swung it to block Roland's Hunter Claw again. "So you need to get outta my way, baby!"

"And you need to run your ass up out of here, cuh!" Hunterborg shouted back as they broke apart.

Meanwhile, Shego glanced between the duels, lips curled into a smile. As much as she reveled in chaos, she was on a timetable.

Okay it can't have taken this long.

As if on cue, her concealed earpiece buzzed. She brushed her hair aside and tapped it.

"Scion to Demeter," Junior called. "You can disengage at any time, I have withdrawn with the target."

Shego smirked and murmured under her breath. "As much as I love a good fade, I love it more when a plan goes perfectly."

She flared out her energy, sending a wave of fire directly at Star.

"Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!" Star swung her wand down. "Bunny Rabbit Blast!"

Star launched herself above the attack on an explosion of adorable cartoon bunny rabbits.

Strikerborg was just a little bit slower, the wave of fire engulfing and throwing her out into the street.

"Fuck!" Jo yelled as she tumbled.

Without a moment's hesitation, Shego took off running.

Star landed on the sidewalk in front of the school, near Strikerborg. "Hunterborg! She's getting away!"

Hunterborg narrowly avoided another swing from Typhus' shotgun sword and quickly acquired Shego running. In an instant he disappeared from in front of him and appeared before Shego, claw opened to catch her neck.

"Nobody said you could leave!" He shouted.

Shego laughed. "I warned you!"

With reflexes honed against super speed robots and annoying cheerleaders, she leaned back and passed under the claw.

In the same movement, she slammed her hand into his chest and blasted him into the air with a great stream of fire.

"You're not the first speedster I've fought!"

But Roland had delayed her just long enough for Star to come hurtling into her like a drop-kicking missile and send her tumbling end over end to crash into the school's sign next to its front steps.

The sign was obliterated in a shower of sparks, turned into torn scrap and scattered letters as Shego kept going.

Strikerborg, at the origin of Star's flight. Pumped her fist. "Fastball special, bitch!"

Over and over Shego tumbled, before she came to a stop face down on the ground, coughing from taking such a massive hit.

Getting her up and seeing her laid out, Star called to Strikerborg. "We're doing that more!"

Strikerborg nodded, before she pulled out her Input Magnum and opened fire on Typhus. "LOOK OUT!"

He was running straight at Star, but headed for Shego.

"YOU AIN'T GOING NOWHERE UNTIL YOU GIVE MY KNAT BACK, BABY!" He roared.

Hunterborg slammed into Typhus, hitting him with enough speed to actually bring the Magnavore General to a complete stop with a thunderous clap.

"Hold up, homie!" Hunterborg yelled. "That's as far as you go!"

Strikerborg drew her Input Magnum and entered 0-1-0 in the keypad. "Star! Freeze him!"

Star didn't need to be told twice, raising her wand.

"WINTERSTORM HYPERBLOW!"

The combined blast of freezing winds slammed Typhus as Hunterborg dashed back from him. Putting a foot on the downed Shego's back, he fired his own Freezing Magnum at Typhus.

Quickly the ice built around the monster, as he thrashed and struggled against the encroaching ice, until he was fully encased in a large, heavy block of ice.

Even as it held he struggled, small cracks forming across the edges of the block as he tensed and flexed against his prison.

As the ice sealed Typhus, Jara and Stingerborg parted after another heavy clash. Seeing him answer her challenge in kind, she seethed.

"Nothing has changed. You are still a child," she spoke with a cold fury clenching every word.

Stingerborg tightened his grip on the handle of his blade. "How many more of your friends do I have to bury before I'm a man?"

Jara shot straight for Stingerborg, the air shuddering around her as she moved, and swung down on him.

Even blocking the blow, the impact still rippled the ground beneath him.

He could feel the strain on his body as he pushed her back, before she fell on him again with more vicious blows.

"You have no right to stand before me!" Jara yelled as she struck again and again.

Using his telekinesis to read her overwhelming blows and brace himself against the force was wearing him down, fast.

She's really angry…! He realized. She's going full force!

She extended her energy blade into a whip and lashed him several times

"You should be a boiled, bloated corpse in that armor!"

Stumbling back, Stingerborg was slashed again, and again. Scorch marks appeared on his armor and the shockwaves rumbling through him with each blow.

She's too strong! His mind raced as her strikes hammered down.

Jara chased him down and jammed the energy blade into his armored chest, the beams scattering as she tried to run him through until the physical blade itself slammed into his armor.

Despite the force of the blow, Drew's telekinesis kept him standing even as blood tricked from his nose. But I can't lose to her!

Jara raised her sword above her head and reignited the energy blade, he turned himself to the right while sweeping the blade up to parry and lock her blade.

"Don't tell me… where I belong… or what I should be!" He growled back.

He riposted, knocking her blade back upward with the force of his telekinesis.

Shocked that he could even knock her off her footing, Jara was open long enough for Stingerborg to shoot her twice in the chest with the Input Magnum in its stock beam mode, as she was carried back further.

The Stinger Blade's turbine wound up, and he lunged forward to put the blade through her heart.

"Because it doesn't change that I can beat you!"

Jara was just a little quicker, and she deflected the weapon up and the Stinger Blade ground against her armored neck and the bottom right edge of her mask, chipping some of it away before she threw herself away from Stingerborg in a desperate leap.

In that instant, both sets of Typhus' eyes flared red inside the ice.

Cracks spiderwebbed across the block with a sound like gunfire. Steam hissed from the fractures, vents of molten heat bursting through.

Then the ice detonated outward in a storm of jagged shards. Strikerborg had to shield Star as the shards blasted the lawn like shrapnel.

Typhus stepped out, his roar shaking the ground, his body crimson with fury. Each breath came out as a blast furnace howl.

Kombat Knat was the furthest thing from his mind as he turned towards Stingerborg and Jara.

"GET AWAY FROM HER!"

With his roar, Typhus ignored everything else and shot straight for Stingerborg, pulling his sword back to hit him with all his might.

"Stingerborg!" Jo yelled.

"Move, twin!" Roland shouted.

Star, without thinking, raised her wand… but stopped.

Drew was surprised by the violence and speed Typhus had come at him with, but after doing so much, he was confident the fight was over.

When Typhus's blade was stopped by the spiked and curved head of a large, heavy battle ax, he visibly relaxed.

The fight was over.

"We've been over this before, big guy."

Towering above Stingerborg and Typhus was Miss Skullnick, clad in an old but very strong plate armor made perfectly for her monstrous, powerful Troll body.

"I'll just call this strike two if you leave right now."

Shego lifted her head and did a double-take at the sight of the troll teacher.

"There are just gross ugly monsters all over the place," she muttered, before Hunterborg pressed his foot down harder on her back. She looked up to see him, Star, and Strikerborg standing over her.

"Funny that the ugliest monster here is you," Star said.

Shego gave her a level look, before she let out a laugh. "You know what? I kinda like you kids, you fight dirty, you never go on the 1v1, and you throw some cold, cold one-liners. The problem is, though…?"

Her energy immediately flared up, becoming an expanding sphere that Strikerborg, Hunterborg, and Star scattered from.

Rolling over and kicking up onto her feet, Shego grinned as her eruption left the ground beneath her feet molten.

"You lack vision!" She finished.

"RADIANCE!" Kombat Knat yelled as he grew to full size and landed beside her.

Shego hooked a thumb to him. "Like this guy. He gets it."

Hearing Kombat Knat's voice, Typhus pulled his weapon free from Miss Skullnick's and yelled back at him. "Kombat Knat! You got a job to do!"

"Yes, I do have a job! It is more important than any other… and I will carry it out to the fullest!"

With that, he shrank down then sprang back up to full size, grabbing Shego and accelerating into the sky towards the town's eponymous creek.

Star, getting up, looked at her right arm, covered with a sizzling burn from wrist to elbow, then down at the numerous cuts and burns across her body caused by Shego's previous attacks.

"… Okay… I can't put off that armor thing anymore."

Strikerborg looked at Star. "What do you… oh my God, Star!"

Star looked up at Jo. "I've had worse, don't worry."

Watching his creation abandon the mission, Typhus turned to Stingerborg and Miss Skullnick.

"Yeah, we're outta here," he said, despondent, as he walked over to Jara. "This all went bad, baby. Let's go."

Jara, staring at Stingerborg, allowed Typhus to take her by the arm.

"I cannot believe Saberizer showed you any respect in defeat! Everything you have, is nothing you've earned or sacrificed for! Someone else must foot the bill for your fantasy!"

With that, the two vanished.

Drew took a deep breath and released his telekinetic hold on himself. He sagged in his armor, its weight and rigidity holding him up despite his exhaustion.

The only reason I'm fighting is so no one else has to pay. He thought.

Miss Skullnick walked over to Star and the other two Beetleborgs. "Star, you gotta stop getting into these fights here at school!"

"I'm trying!" Star said as she cast a spell on her arm to clean and dress her burns. "It's not my fault Shego attacked and the Magnavores decided to jump in, too!"

She turned to the Beetleborgs. "Thanks for helping out, by the way."

Stingerborg walked over, Drew shaking the bitter feeling Jara left with him off. "Don't worry about it."

Miss Skullnick had questions. "Oh yeah, why was Shego even here?!"

Hunterborg shook his head. "Don't worry, ma'am. Whatever she came for, I don't think she got it."

"Uhh… guys?" Mabel called over.

Star and the Beetleborgs looked over at Mabel, Brittney, and Heather. Seeing the three girls, when there should be four, Star's face fell, capturing how all of them felt at that moment.

"… Oh no."

@@@@@​

With Dudley at the wheel, Trip and Van's personal SUV pulled up to the end of their driveway and in front of the Vanderhoff brothers' luxurious home.

Climbing out of the car, Trip took two steps and then just leaned back against the side of the vehicle as Van staggered out after him, still a bit dazed from being punched by Drew. Turning to him, Van had a concerned expression, and Trip met his taller brother's look with one of contempt.

"What?" Trip asked.

Van looked left and right, before he finally asked. "… Are we really gonna kill Andrew?"

Trip answered far too quickly. "Yes, we're going to fucking kill him! I don't care anymore!"

He pushed off from the side of the car and headed towards the steps going up to his door, nearly shoving Dudley off his feet as he went.

"He doesn't get to talk to me like that. Nobody does. Him, his sister, Roland, hell, even Brittney fucking Wong. They all think they're better? They can all go to hell!"

Dudley just took a deep breath and let it out.

Trip stopped short of opening the door and shook with rage. "Stop being so wishy-washy. Like there's anything they can do to us, like there's any consequences. They can talk all of the shit they want, but we are the people on top. We're the ones who are in control, not them!"

Van trembled himself, frightened, before he slowly nodded. "Yeah… we're in control…"

Drew's scathing defiance, Misao's vehement warning, and the horrified looks on their schoolmates' faces when Trip so boldly boasted about his power over them weighed on him.

However…

Van Vanderhoff could not shake the feeling crawling through him, that something very bad was about to happen.

Opening the door, that it was unlocked already not occurring to him, Trip walked inside.

"As a matter of fact, get a hold of Goblin so we can–!" His voice died in a choked rattle, as he stopped cold several paces past the doorway.

Misao Darlian was sitting on his living room couch, her hands and legs bound and a gag over her mouth.

When her gray eyes met his, rage filled them as she began to tremble where she sat, huffing loudly.

The Vanderhoff mansion's luxury suddenly felt smaller, suffocating, as Trip's eyes locked on the bound girl on the couch.

Slowly, he looked from Misao to the other person in his living room, sitting in the recliner that would be his father's chair.

Señor Senior Junior, holding in his right hand a snifter of million-dollar alcohol from his family's clearly broken-into liquor cabinet, held the snifter up to both Vanderhoff brothers and their butler, and nodded in greeting.

"Oh, hello!" He said cheerfully. "Pardon me, I just let myself in. That is okay, isn't it?"

Trip was at a loss for words.

Van, however, was not. "W-what are you doing in our house?"

Junior brought the snifter to his nose and inhaled the aroma of the alcohol before stirring it around with a circular motion of his hand. "We needed a place where we could be undisturbed. It's quite dangerous out there."

The three heard the door closing behind them.

Trip, Van, and Dudley looked back to see Shego slowly walk the door shut, before locking it.

Looking from the door to their new hosts, she smiled as she melted the handle in her grip.

"Yeah," she said while an absolutely enthralled Kombat Knat bounced in place on her left shoulder, "There's all sorts of hooligans and crazies running around."

Trip looked pale with terror, and Van about to cry, as Junior gestured to them with the snifter. Only Dudley held his composure, looking more tired than afraid.

The young supervillain addressed them. "So, you needn't worry. By the end of the evening this will all be over; I will have what I want, in addition to whatever you have, and if you cooperate you will keep your lives when this is over. Does that sound good?"

It was Dudley who spoke up in reply. "Master Senior."

Junior looked at him. "Please, call me Junior…?"

He gestured to the old man emphatically, reaching for a name.

"Dudley, sir."

"Yes, Dudley."

Dudley didn't expect to crack the faintest smile, but he stayed to his point. "Master Misao… she is affiliated with individuals who are extremely dangerous. I would, for the sake of Master Trip and Master Van's safety, prefer it if she were not here, lest those individuals track her to this location."

Senior Señor Junior nodded in understanding. "Worry not, señor. I have taken some very necessary precautions to ensure we have a lengthy lead. By the time her friends catch up to us, we will all be on our way."

Shego chuckled. "We'll be long gone."

@@@@@​

At Shermie Pines' home, Mabel stared at the screen of Drew's phone as a pin appeared on a map of the hills overlooking Echo Creek. Swiping through the screens, she brought up a physical address and looked up from the phone to the others gathered in the back yard with her.

"We've got her."

Jo punched her fist into her palm. "All right!"

Roland pumped his arm. "They didn't find it!"

Drew, bandaged up a bit but not to the extent he had been before, was a bit skeptical. "How do we know Junior didn't find and dump it somewhere to throw us off?"

Mabel chuckled. "I made sure to put it somewhere he wouldn't look."

Like it was a joke that only she'd been let in on, Jo joined Mabel in chuckling. "Heh, I can't wait to see the look on their faces when they realize it."

Roland and Drew glanced at one another with raised eyebrows.

Shermie, sitting at the picnic table with them, put an arm around Mabel's shoulders. "Heh, smart as a whip, that's my granddaughter."

He looked at Drew. "Are you and Star going to be okay out there?"

"We'll be fine," Drew assured him as Mabel made a call. "We've already got an appointment at Hyuuga Medical Works lined up for when we're done."

Shermie sighed. "I wish you kiddos weren't getting the tar beat out of you every day, but at least this time I won't just be sitting on the sidelines."

"Don't worry, it's a price I'm willing to pay," Drew reassured Shermie before he looked at his Beetle Bonder. "And as long as there's still work to do, we'll keep fighting, right?"

"Damn right," Roland answered.

"Exactly," Jo added.

Mabel gave him a thumbs up. "Yepperoonie!"

Her call was picked up by Janna. "Hey, Mabel, is everything good on your end?"

Mabel gaily answered. "Sure is! I'm sending you the info now!"

In the heart of the Beetle Battle Base, Janna's fingers glided across the cassette punk keyboard spread out in front of her, entering the location data sent from Mabel's phone to hers. Looking at the map, her eyes widened.

"… No way," she half spoke, half laughed.

Behind her, Dipper walked up with his arms folded. "It's their house, isn't it?"

Janna kept chuckling. "Yep."

"Tonight's just getting better and better," Dipper said with a small smirk of his own.

He then called over to Janna's phone. "Are you guys good to move out?"

Mabel was happy to answer. "We're good on our end. Drew and Star are patched up and ready to go!"

Star trotted over, accompanied by the formerly disguised janitor, a blonde cow-licked, freckle-faced young man their age wearing a black shirt and gray cargo pants and green utility belt.

"More than ready," Ron stoppable said as his palm-sized naked mole rat Rufus scrambled from his pants pocket and up to his shoulder. "Between all the firepower we're going in with, and Rufus here? We're invincible!"

Rufus punctuated his boast with a mock flex of his muscles and aggressive chattering.

Star was pumped up as she pointed at Rufus. "See? He gets it! Now let's go! Misao's not going to rescue herself!"

Jo snorted. "If she's stuck with the Vanderhoffs, odds are she's already running circles around them."

Drew and Roland both chuckled as they got up.

Shermie reached over and ruffled Star's hair. "Thanks kiddos."

He turned to the others. "Are you kids ready for this? I'm not gonna sugarcoat it, there might be some blowback from smashing up the Vanderhoff place."

He then adjusted his glasses. "But frankly? These schmendricks have it coming."

"All that and more," Mabel said with a malicious anticipation.

Drew agreed, more than ready to end an annoying chapter in his life. "This really couldn't be more perfect."

"Talk to 'em, twin," Roland said with a nod.

Dipper, overhearing them, likewise agreed. "Yeah, let's get started."

He turned to Janna. "Raise the Beetle Battle Base and get ready to send out the AVs."

To the phone he issued the order. "Everybody, we're moving out and going to Trip and Van's house! Let's go get Misao back."

Mabel pumped her fist. "Woo! Let's go, guys! SSJ and Shego have no idea what's headed their way!"

Drew, Jo, and Roland all nodded to one another, and held their Beetle Battlers up to the darkening sky.

"Beetle Blast!"

Outside of Hillhurst Mansion, a white and gray-painted tilt-rotor VTOL sat with its engines off. Hearing Dipper's call, Marco tightened his grip on his phone and looked over to Jackie. "You hear that?"

Jackie nodded. "Yep, we're getting our get-back."

Marco looked over at the young woman waiting standing by the tilt-rotor aircraft's open rear hatch.

She wore the same black shirt and gray cargo pants as the fake janitor over at Shermie's house, but she had long straight red hair and green eyes that lit up with anticipation when Marco called to her.

"It's go time, you ready?"

As the Beetle Battle Base began to rise above Hillhurst with a rumble, Kim Possible flicked her hair and nodded.

"For a shot at Shego? I am so ready."

*********************************************************************
-
-WELCOME TO A PLACE THAT DOES NOT EXIST
-A PLACE WHERE THOSE WHO DO GO UNSEEN TREAD
-A PLACE THAT WILL NOT EXIST WHEN YOU LEAVE
-YOU ARE HERE BECAUSE WE NOTICED YOU
-YOU ARE HERE BECAUSE WE ACKNOWLEDGED YOU
-YOU ARE HERE BECAUSE WE ACCEPTED YOU
-YOU ARE HERE
-BECAUSE YOU ARE MEDJED
-
-
-Rules! Only <@Medjed> @Medjed#GarageWizard and @Medjed#BrainNoise may ping. You ping? You b&! Don't dox yourself, or others, we will find you. No links to pr0n or warez, and for the last fucking time Bakuryuu Sentai Abaranger IS THE BEST FUCKING SENTAI AND IF YOU SAY ANYTHING ELSE I WILL SUPLEX YOU ON CEMENT. Links outside OGREclient are clicked at your own risk, don't post them unless you're confident of your security. They're always watching and waiting, Medjed, and the only X-Factor is if YOU screw up. If you see something, say something! Your hack is our exploit! #FreeEmilio #JusticeForTheWhiteHats
-Topic of the D-A-Y: TEAM POSSIBLE IN LA
-
*********************************************************************
<Medjed#12is00> OMG. OMG. OMG. OMG. OMG.
<Medjed#MonitorLizard> What?
<Medjed#12is00> SHEGO WAS FIGHTING THE BEETLEBORGS AND STAR BUTTERFLY IN LA. SHE WAS EVEN FIGHTING THOSE MAGNAVORE GUYS! O M G THERE'S SO MUCH GOING ON.
<Medjed#MonitorLizard> Oh no.
<Medjed#12is00> IT'S H A P P E N I N G!
<Medjed#MonitorLizard> This is very bad. Kou, Otsu, are you two okay?
<Medjed#ITG-Otsu> We're OK, don't worry about us.
<Medjed#ITG-Kou> That stuff is happening in Echo Creek, and that's up near Glendale. Literally 20 minutes away from where we hang out.
<Medjed#ITG-Otsu> So like two hours with traffic.
<Medjed#MonitorLizard> @GarageWizard, are you following this? This could get very bad, very quick.
<@Medjed#GarageWizard> Don't worry guys. It's all under control.
<Medjed#MonitorLizard> Shego being anywhere near that much power is a bad idea.
<Medjed#GarageWizard> Don't worry, the situation is as far as I can tell, okay. While I'm here, <@Medjed>. Is the you know what done?
<@Medjed> Oh yeah, it's done.

= - = 7-4 = - =​

A turntable turnabout! The gang is on the case and with powerful allies on their side, they're ready to begin the counterattack! What will become of Misao, and of the Vanderhoffs no less. The stakes continue rising in Volume 7!

 

[The Ero-Sennin]

Brace yourselves for an extra large chapter!

Spoiler: Original Version

|A Small Fish in a Big Pond|​

His hands and feet bound together, Trip was sat down on the couch next to his brother, directly across from Misao. Satisfied with her work, Shego turned to Dudley and opened and closed her hand like a cat extending and retracting her claws.

"You gonna give me trouble, or are you as checked out as you look?" She asked him.

"I have no intention of resisting you if it means harm comes to Master Trip and Master Van," Dudley replied as he served Junior a cup of coffee.

Junior nodded to Dudley. "Thank you, Dudley."

The hum in response was curt and professional, but even Shego could tell man was having the time of his life.

Powerless in his bonds, Trip tried looked from Dudley, filled with hate at the butler's complete lack of initiative, to Shego. "Look, you want money, right? I can get you that, as much as you want. Five million? Ten million? My Dad's good for it!"

Shego hummed at the offer. "The way I see it, I'm already getting everything you're offering me when we clean you out."

She gestured to Junior. "And that guy? I'm pretty sure his Dad spends more in a month maintaining his fish tank than you paid for this house."

Junior chuckled. "Father does love his clownfish."

Trip squirmed. "Screw you! What did I ever do to you, huh?!"

Junior took a sip of his coffee. "Oh my, this is exquisite… and powerful."

"It's how I cope," Dudley replied.

"I AM TALKING TO YOU!" The smaller Vanderhoff wailed.

Van was not participating in Trip's one-sided screaming match with Junior. He was staring at Misao, who was giving him and his brother the same wide-eyed, hate-filled glare she had when they first walked in. Aside from her breathing and the occasional blink, she was entirely still.

Junior noticed the murderous look in his field of vision and directed his full attention to it. "I mean. I have kidnapped her, and I am holding her hostage with the intent of extorting her family–but she is looking at you with the kind of hate I think would start genocides."

Shego looked at him. "Was that a joke about her being German or Japanese?"

Junior turned to her, aghast. "Neither!"

"That was in poor taste, Master Shego," Dudley delivered in his unflappable monotone.

Shego looked at Dudley. "You know what? I've only known those two for ten minutes and I can dig why you just seem to feel nothing."

Dudley glanced at her. "Why do you?"

The butler's question in kind cut deeper than Shego liked.

As Junior winced and reverse-hissed through his teeth, Trip yelled.

"What the hell is even so special about this dumb fat pig, huh?!" He demanded as he nodded towards Misao.

Shego stopped slipping into unwanted self-introspection and leveled a flat glare at him. Junior wasn't anymore appreciative, and he'd tased the girl.

"You do not know who this girl is?" Junior asked.

Trip shook his head. "Clearly, she's not important enough for me to care! She hangs out with losers, so she's a loser, too."

Junior gestured with an upraised palm towards Misao. "That is Momiji Hyuuga's daughter."

The color drained from Van's face, and Dudley went very still.

Trip stared in silence at Junior, then looked at Misao, and then back at him. He let out a laugh. "Momiji Hyuuga doesn't have a daughter."

Junior nodded. "She does, and this is her."

Van began mumbling. "Trip… Hyuuga Heavy Industries has almost as much money as the Mendō family, or Makel Pratham… they donate weapons to Ukraine and Shanghai…"

Trip said it louder, like increasing his volume would make it the truth. "You're lying! She doesn't have a daughter, and if she did it would not be this fat fuck!"

Misao was still staring at the brothers, and the hatred in her eyes was as intense as ever, but now her eyebrows were raised. There was a glee there in her expression–like she was still angry but now she was enjoying it.

"Obviously the leading manufacturer of Superweapons would not be very forthcoming about her family, because well…" Junior gestured to himself, inferring the situation at hand.

Shego had been rather annoyed by the body shaming going on and decided to twist the knife. "Oh yeah, wait until she finds out that you guys constantly harassing her friends helped us track her down."

Trip laughed again. "This is all a joke! A big ol' prank to get back at me."

He turned to Misao, still laughing. "Stop playing around, this is your payback, isn't it?!"

He stopped laughing as anger filled his voice. "It isn't funny! Tell them that you're nobody! Just some fat chested bimbo from Europe!"

Misao let out a menacing, muffled laugh from deep in her chest, as she shook her head.

Shego leaned on the back of Misao's couch. "I guess the only saving grace is that her friends have no clue where she is or even where to start looking."

A rock bounced off the patio door. As the Vanderhoffs spent a lot of money on the house, their windows wouldn't be so easily broken.

Junior looked towards the window, just as his phone beeped and he looked at it. "What? The Fenrirs have detected intruders?"

Misao brightened and began laughing harder as Shego looked past Trip and Van and out the window. It was almost completely black, with all the lights in their backyard out and the interior lighting on full.

Staring into the pitch darkness, Shego saw a pair of glowing eyes and two heart-shapes beneath them staring back.

Realization dawned on her. "SSJ… they found us."

Junior nearly dropped his coffee. "What? How?!"

Shego went for the door. "We'll review that later. Release the Fenrirs!"

Opening the door and pulling it closed behind her, Shego found Star waiting on the other side of the Vanderhoff home''s pool. Already, power began to swirl around her hands.

"Well, hello there, Princess," Shego said, "Looking for round two?"

Star, smiling, replied. "Come on, you want it more than me."

Shego walked up to the edge of the pool as her power coursed up her arms and down her body. "You know what? I do have a sort of professional pride when it comes to this sort of thing."

She glanced around. "So how about it: Let's cut loose and see what all of us can really do."

With that, she dipped her left foot into the water, as her power finally reached it. A great cloud of steam erupted, spreading across the pool buffeting Star as it enveloped her.

Instead of Shego lunging at Star through the cloud, the sound of metallic footsteps galloping towards her, and a revving chainsaw brought the Princess's attention to her right. A single shining red light illuminated the steam before an orange-hot glowing chainsaw blade cut through it and towards her.

"Whoa…!" Star yelped as she backflipped away from the sweeping blade, then cartwheeled from the same blade coming down vertically. As she exited the cloud of mist, a large mechanical quadruped with a box-shaped head sporting a single mono-eye camera at its front lunged out after her and tackled her to the ground.

Staring up at the machine as it raised its left claw, Star brought up her wand and used it to block its attempt at caving in her skull. "Robot wolves?! That is so cool!"

"Like 'em?" Shego asked. "Fenrirs aren't exactly cheap, you know."

The machine's long and flexible tail lifted the rapidly spinning chainsaw–held with three smaller wires at the tail's end–up above Star to plunge it into her chest.

Star made sure the bell of her wand was pointed at the machine. "Mega Geyser Windstorm!"

A high-pressure jet of water from her wand struck the Fenrir in the neck and chest, throwing it off her. As the Fenrir went up, Shego came down, cutting through the geyser with her glowing hands, and causing another steam explosion.

Star curled up and rolled back onto her feet and began dodging madly to avoid Shego's violent slashes and the trails of glowing energy they left in their wake. The moment she opened distance between them, Star aimed the wand at her.

"Laser Be–!"

A glowing trio of knives shot through the mist towards her, and Star ducked under the attack from another of the robot beasts. The Fenrir she blasted into the air came down and bounced off the pool deck, before scrambling up and throwing its own knives.

As Star dodged the superheated blades, Shego gracefully flipped over her head, twirled and kicked her in the face, sending her stumbling backward.

"Ugh…!" She turned her clumsy footwork into a backpedal from more slashes Shego swung for her face and center mass.

"Can't do too much without that vocal component, huh?!" The villainess asked as Star weaved under her and tried to get behind her, only to be left wide open to another of the Fenrir pouncing towards her to slash with its claws.

Rather than cast a spell, Star spun-kicked the whole machine in the head, knocking it away from her. As she finished the kick, she targeted the robot. "Laser Beam Blast!"

The beam connected with the Fenrir, damaging it. She spun and ducked when Shego took advantage and came for her neck, her burning hands slicing off one of the horns of her headband. When Star tried to sweep Shego, the taller woman skipped over the attempt and punished her with another kick to her face.

Star staggered back, bringing her free hand to her nose, and then up to her headband at the missing horn. Her eyes widening when she felt the damage, she glared at Shego.

"Hey! My ex-boyfriend got me this!"

Shego stopped and gawked at her. "Wow, and you kept it?"

She went in fast and began jabbing at Star. The Princess bobbed her head left and right to narrowly evade the deadly blows. "It's complicated!"

One slash cut Star's cheek, before she parried two more punches with her wand, she pointed her wand at Shego's chest. "Butterfly Blast!"

A multicolored beam struck Shego, and she backed up with smoke and butterflies wafting from her damaged top.

The two Fenrir jumped in next, one throwing knives that Star knocked away with her wand. As the other pounced on her, she leap-frogged over it and let it screech to a stop behind her.

Before it could turn and attack her, there was a clang like something heavy striking metal, and the Fenrir lumbered to its left, before it was hit again, and again. Thunder echoed in the distance as three more times the monster was struck.

Shego's eyes widened as she watched the machine hobble, a set of massive holes blown into its side and neck, before it collapsed, silent. "… What the heck?"

Looking in the direction that the fire came from, she looked further up the hills that overlooked Echo Creek, and spotted a white SUV parked on the winding road. Standing with his back braced against the side of his car and holding the Boys Anti-Tank Rifle taken from his living room, was Shermie.

"Hahaha, looks like we old timers still got it!" The elder Pines shouted to his gun and his spotter–Waddles, who was sitting on the hood of the SUV wearing a vest and an army helmet.

"Long range backup?" Shego asked.

"Narwhal Blast!" Star yelled.

Shego leaped gracefully to avoid a barrage of commotion causing cetaceans. When she came down, she looked up to not see Star, but Marco Diaz with fire in his eyes and wrath in his fists coming towards her.

"Oh, so now you're jumping in–?!" She swung at Marco, who went up and over the slash to bring his heel down in a flying wheel kick that had Shego staring at the ground as pain throbbed through her.

"Ohhhohoho no you did NOT!" Shego growled before she came up fighting, performing an uppercut Marco weaved under and opened up on her with quick jabs that connected to Shego's chest and face.

"And what if I did?!" Marco asked as he kept up the barrage of blows that Shego expertly began to parry now that surprise was not on his side.

"Then I feel…" Shego swung her right foot in a low kick to block Marco's own attempt while she blocked his quick punches with her right hand high and her left low. "… Sorry for you!"

Switching the position of her hands, blocking Marco's attempt to break her block. She knocked his guard wide open and kicked him in the side below his left arm and then snap kicked him in quick succession in the side of the head, connecting with his raised left forearm.

"You stupid dogs get to work!" Shego yelled, and Marco recovered from the force of Shego's kicks to jump aside from another of the mechanical beasts lunging at him.

She was about to turn her attention back to Star–now avoiding the chainsaw swings of yet another of the Fenrir machines, when a spear entered her field of view, and she leaned back to avoid a thrust aimed for the side of her head.

Shego swung to cut the silver spearhead from its shaft, but Jackie Lynn Thomas moved it clear before thrusting it for the villainess' center mass. Shego swayed left and right, avoiding the spear tip, but her attempts to grab it were foiled by Jackie's skillful maneuvering of the weapon, keeping it out of her reach and always on the attack.

"What the heck are they feeding you kids?!" Shego asked while on the defensive. "I remembered when there was only one of you uppity teenagers thinking they could throw hands!"

Jackie kept up the offensive, aiming for Shego's vitals and narrowly missing her. "Nobody told you what happens in Echo Creek, huh?"

She quickly wreathed her body in energy, repelling the spear when Jackie lunged for her heart. When Jackie was parried, she riposted, aiming to slash through the weapon, but Shego was blasted in the back with a magic ray made of cupcakes and went flying past her.

Star, on the other side of the beam, quickly jumped away from the Fenrir she'd gotten clear enough from to attack.

"Thanks Star!" Jackie called to the Princess.

"You're welcome, Jackie~!" Star said before she aimed her wand at her opponent. "Tiara Tornado!"

Seeing yet another Fenrir fade into view, its tail whipping about, Jackie quickly spun her spear and deflected two of the knives thrown at her while a third slashed across her shoulder, thinly cutting and cauterizing the wound in the same instant. "Ah!"

The Fenrir itself lunged, but Jackie slammed the spear down and swung herself up into a handstand atop of it to avoid the pounce. Pulling the weapon up, she swung herself around and bashed the Fenrir over its head with the shaft of the spear.

Between ducks and jumps to avoid his Fenrir's chainsaw, Marco was impressed by Jackie's moves. "She's so cool…!"

The blades of the chainsaw came in fast–and Marco leaned back as the grinding, red hot teeth of the blade passed so close they almost grazed his chin. He was worried in that instant that the heat from the weapon would burn his face.

Shego's heel came down on his face the instant the blade past, and Marco was bounced off the wooden deck and into a fast three-hit combo that lifted him higher off his feet before Shego used a weaker concussive energy blast to launch him into the Vanderhoff's patio window.

"You're not that good," Shego informed him, before Star cast another Laser Beam Blast. She leaped into a handspring over it, then threw herself into a spinning triple axel that became a rolling kick she dropped on Star's head in the same way Marco did her.

The kick jarred Star hard enough to make her drop the wand, which went skipping across the pool deck. Seeing the wand flung away, Shego open palm struck Star with no powers flowing through her right hand, then backhanded her the other direction. Grabbing her left hand, she pulled her around and then punched her hard in the stomach before letting her go, turning in place, and kicking her in the face to send her crashing into the furniture by the pool's fire pit.

Jackie saw Star go into the furniture, but before she could intervene, she found herself face to face with the now unoccupied Fenrirs, three of them surrounding her.

Then there were two as more Anti-Tank Rifle fire crashed into the Fenrir directly in front of her, and she jumped back from the flanking lunges of the other two. When she looked again, Shego was walking over towards the wand.

"Well, that was easy," she said as she bent down to pick up the wand, "Now, let's see if I can be a magical girl."

A hiking boot-clad foot slipped under the wand and scooped it up to hit Shego in the face with it, before that same boot came back around hit the surprised supervillain in the same spot. Staggering backward, surprised, Shego stopped when she realized she didn't even notice this one coming.

"How many more of you…" She stopped and opened her eyes wide when she saw who had struck her.

"A magical girl, Shego, really?"

Standing in front of her was Kimberly Ann Possible, flicking her long red hair as she flashed her an amused smile.

"No judgment of what you're into, but I don't think you can rock the look."

Jackie, keeping away from the Fenrirs, sighed in relief when she saw Kim. "Here we go…"

Shego glanced around for the wand, and found it by the edge of the pool, well out of reach. She turned back to Kim. "I've already kicked one Princess off her throne today, Kimmie, and I'm happy to make it two."

Kim just kept smiling. "We'll see."

With that, Shego attacked, and Kim moved. Energy blazing from her hands, Shego swung at Kim with haymakers, jabs, and crosses–and Kim just seemed to flow around them. Her hands came up, parrying the faster blows she couldn't evade like Shego was in slow motion.

Even her attempts at catching Kim's feet with low kicks were stopped with dance like in-steps by the redhead as she circled Shego then walked back from her, staying on the defensive.

"You've had a long day, haven't you?" Kim asked as she deflected Shego's right hooking slash with her own right forearm, then kicked her across the face.

Shego turned with the kick and staggered away from Kim. It was then that she noticed that she was breathing heavily and even her energy was losing its potency. "What the…?"

She shook her head and narrowly avoided a diving kick from Kim. When the agile redhead turned on her to attack, Shego was on the defensive, ducking under several kicks before she parried the last and then exchanged several deflected and blocked jabs with Kim.

As she began to retreat under the assault, the realization dawned on her. "… Crap…!"

Fighting the Beetleborgs and Typhus as part of Junior's plan took a toll on her. They expected to have a much longer head-start without any way to track them down, so she could rest up for the next round… but here they were. Sure ,the other kids were easy pickings, but this was Kim. Who was a tough fight even when Shego was fresh.

Not that she'd ever admit that.

Star coming to their literal doorstep, the hoodie kid and the spear girl throwing down on her without any hesitation despite not being on her level, the long-range fire support, and now Kim just waltzing up like a special guest star. These concerns finally caused the most worrisome thought to occur to Shego.

Wait a second… did they plan this?!

Blocking Kim, Shego gasped when her arm was caught, and she was flung in a perfectly executed hip throw off the edge of the pool deck and into the rest of the Vanderhoffs' backyard. Getting up, huffing, Shego assumed her fighting stance again.

"Hang on a second, clue me in," she said, "When did you get here?"

Kim was feeling coy. "Not as long as you, but plenty of time to get rested up for tonight."

"Why are you always a step ahead of SSJ?" Shego asked as the indignation of that confirmation let her powers flare brighter.

Kim perked up, and she looked back to see the two remaining Fenrirs suddenly back off from the very pressed Jackie and come charging towards her. To her left and right, Kim spotted two more materialize out of thin air, and close in on her.

"You know what? Nevermind," Shego instructed her. "You're right about one thing: I'm tired… of all of you!"

@@@@@​

Trip and Van watched as the battle between Star and Shego kicked off. How despite being face to face with the deadly weapons of multiple Unmanned Gears, Star, Marco Diaz, and Jackie Lynn Thomas of all people were fighting them and Shego. It looked more like a schoolyard brawl than a battle to the possible death–except when it looked like one of those machines, and then another, were smashed by someone shooting from far away.

Dudley, watching as Marco got up and shook his head after being down for a few moments, turned his attention towards Junior, who was likewise watching the brawl. "It would appear that Master Kim Possible has arrived to aid Master Misao's friends."

"I was concerned for this," Junior said. "I should've known seeing him meant that the game was already up."

"Hey," Van said not to Junior, but to Misao.

Misao acknowledged Van by focusing her contemptuous gaze on him.

He shrank when he felt its full force but continued. "You… weren't serious about what you said this morning, were you? When this is done, you're not gonna like… kill us, or something?"

She stared at him, and then slowly shook her head.

That brought some relief to him. "I… I've been thinking about all this, and this is too much–trying to k-kill you and your friends. After you jumped us, we were mad and wanted to hurt you, so we called that Goblin guy, and when we heard that he beat Pine… Dipper up we thought you guys would get the message and leave, but you didn't. This has escalated so much that I'm afraid somebody might really die soon…"

Trip looked at Van, trying to figure out where he was going with this, Junior and Dudley both were similarly quiet as they observed.

"So… I'm sorry. Trip, and I, we'll leave you alone. You can do whatever you want to get back at us, and we'll be done. Just don't kill him or me."

Misao stared, wide-eyed at him, otherwise unresponsive. Trip glared at his brother, looking betrayed.

After several moments, she looked at Junior and tilted her chin up, indicating the duct tape over her mouth. Understanding her intent, Junior walked over and with great care not to hurt her or get bitten, gently peeled away the gag. With her mouth free, Misao looked at Van.

"Killing either of you is not enough," she said calmly. "I want you to live and suffer for as long as you possibly can."

Van flinched, as Misao continued. "I want every waking moment you have, to be one of regret and despair."

She slowly shook her head as she had done before. "You hurt my friends. People that I've only known for a very short time but have come to cherish for being so kind and warm to me. They did not care that I am rich, or that I am the daughter of Momiji Hyuuga. They saw me and my value as a person and stood up for the people you tormented for fun, I love and admire them for that."

Misao leaned forward, as she spoke for emphasis. "They may, in time, forgive you… they are good people, but I will never. I swear to you–on my own life–that your lives will be a neverending hell and I will dedicate my wealth and power to ensure it. If you live to be a hundred, two hundred, a thousand years… every second needs to be a reminder that you live because death is too good for you and your suffering is perfect for me."

The pit of ice in Van's stomach almost made him want to throw up, as he averted his eyes from Misao's to look at his brother. Trip looked almost delirious, like he was trying to wake up from this nightmare he was having but could not find his way out.

Dudley closed his eyes and lowered his head somberly, while Junior stepped forward. "Misao, if I may?"

She didn't spare him a glance. "No you may not."

Junior defied her. "I have nothing to say of those two. Rather, I would like to discuss the something with you?"

This pulled her gaze from the Vanderhoffs to him, and the same ice Van felt in his gut formed in Junior's veins.

"What is so important?"

Junior looked at the brothers, and then reached into his pocket before pulling out a small black box, like one could carry jewelry inside.

"Well, there is something I need to give to you," he confessed.

Misao's expression went from contemptuous to confused and curious. "Was?"

Dudley lifted his head, confused as well. Both Vanderhoffs stared, gobsmacked at Junior.

"This was all… very complicated. It should have been resolved weeks ago, but your dear friends interfered, and it turned into a disaster."

Misao stared at the box and then looked up at him. "I do not understand."

"There are things that cannot be attained with money, not even vast amounts." Junior explained. "That is why I dedicated myself to being a supervillain, to take what criminals and even billionaires cannot grasp."

He brought a hand to his chest. "And that is why I am here."

Taking the box in both hands, he opened it to reveal a simple silvery necklace, with three beautifully cut diamond-shaped crystals attached to its middle. The center crystal was three times the size of its companions, and the light striking them sent small streams of multi-colored beams scattering in every direction.

Misao's eyes widened as she stared at the necklace. "… What is this?"

"This is something that belongs to you," Junior answered, "And I would like to return it."

She looked from the necklace back to him. "I have never seen it before."

Junior grew somewhat concerned. "Are you sure?"

He held the case closer to her. "Because I was told that you would want it."

Misao looked from Junior to the jewelry, wondering what he could possibly mean, before she felt a chill run through her.

Then, suddenly, she could hear her pulse rushing through her ears as the world began to fall away; first the Vanderhoffs and Dudley, then the room she was sitting in, and finally Señor Senior Junior.

Her eyes locked onto the crystals, and slowly dilated as the sound of her own pulse slowed down, until it hung at a beat per second.

Watching Misao seemingly slip into a trance as she stared at the necklace, Dudley grew very worried. Van looked at Trip, then back at Misao as Junior removed the necklace from the case and moved behind her to carefully connect the ends of the chain around her neck.

"H-hey!" Van said. "Why is she zoning out like that? Is… is it a good idea to give that to her?"

Junior looked at him and shook. "Oh, no, not at all. But like I said…"

He clicked the necklace closed.

"There are some things that you cannot get with money."

Misao didn't react. She didn't even blink. Still entranced, she stared through the Vanderhoffs and out into infinity.

"Is she okay?" Van asked.

Junior tilted his head in confusion. "I… do not know? I was only told to give it to her…"

He noticed something moving through her hair. "What's this?"

Reaching down, Junior began to part her dark-dyed locks, trying to find out what could be moving around in there–when whatever it was abruptly moved up and bit his hand.

"HIJO DE PUTA!" He screamed out as he yanked his hand free and found a familiar pink rodent–a naked mole rat to be precise–clamped onto his hand with its jaws.

The rodent looked up at Junior with brown beady eyes as he recognized it. "You!"

Thunderous footsteps from the hallway leading to the Vanderhoff home's kitchen were followed by Mabel and the the blonde fake janitor entering the living room, running up and simultaneously flying kicking Junior in the chest, sending him across the living room and into the wall used to project their television on.

"Booyah!" Ron Stoppable cheered as he and Mabel landed from their kick.

Mabel turned to him, raising her hands. "Who's bad?!"

Ron gave her a double high-five. "We're bad!"

Mabel turned to the others. "Misao! We're here to save you!"

Van sagged in relief. "Oh, thank God, we're saved!"

"Please, get us out of here!" Trip yelled at Ron. "We were taken hostage, too, they broke into our house and tied us up–"

Mabel looked at them both. "Go fuck yourselves."

Both brothers fell silent.

Mabel directed her attention to Dudley. "You're good, though."

Dudley snapped his fingers into a thumb's up to Mabel in reply.

Trip looked pleadingly at Ron, who quickly held up his hands. "Look guys, whatever beef you've got? We're just here for Shego and SSJ. As Kim would say, we are so not involved in the drama."

Rufus scampered over to Ron and crawled his way up to his shoulder. "You get her binds Rufus?"

"Mmhm!" The naked mole rat replied while saluting.

Despite Mabel's harsh words, Van called out. "Hey, Junior did something to her!"

Mabel looked from Van to Junior and back to Misao, her tone icy with fury. "What did he do?"

"I don't know, he put some necklace on her, and she just zoned out!" Van quickly said.

Rushing over to Misao, with Ron and Rufus right behind her, Mabel looked at the necklace and then at the other girl's blank expression. "Hey, Misao! Snap out of it!"

Ron looked at the necklace. "Careful, it might be some kind of mind-control device."

Mabel turned to face Junior, incensed. "What did you do to her?!"

A far more pressing problem sprang up behind them, prompting both Trip and Van to scream in terror and Dudley to recoil with fright. Mabel, Ron, and Rufus turned to find Kombat Knat looming over them. After looking up at his gnarled teeth, their gazes fell to his shining red liquid eyes.

"In the name of my Radiance, you will not escape."

"Oh wow, that's really Kombat Knat!" Ron screamed.

With a sweep of his arm, Mabel and Ron were flung rag-dolling over the couch Misao sat on and across the room.

Van and Trip were too busy screaming loudly in terror at the ugliest thing they've ever seen. The object of their terror turned to face them and raised his claws menacingly.

"SILENCE. My Radiance needs the girl alive, but you are suitable snacks. The more you scream the hungrier I'll get!"

Mabel, snapping out of her daze, looked up to see Kombat Knat shove aside the couch Misao was on to stand over her and Ron. "You interlopers will pay–AAAAAHHHHH!"

Rufus, the little MVP, had scrambled onto his foot, and bit down with incisors rated to cut through steel like it was nothing.

Together, Mabel and Ron sprang into action, each pulling out their respective grappling hook guns and firing them, hitting Kombat Knat in his largest eyes at point blank range. Kombat Knat screamed louder as he stumbled back from them.

Mabel turned her head to look at Ron, then at his and her respective grapple guns. "Your first thought was grappling hook, too?!"

Ron shrugged. "I guess we're on the same vibe?"

Mabel quickly looked for Misao, but instead found Señor Senior Junior swinging another stun baton towards her face.

Shooting her right arm up, she let the whole baton crash into and snap in two on her forearm. Seeing this, and Mabel's glowering face beyond it, Junior grew alarmed. "Um…!"

Mabel's fist plowed into Junior's mouth and the young man was thrown into Trip and Van hard enough to make the whole couch they were seated on fall backward.

Ron stared at Mabel, stunned. "Um…!"

Mabel shook her left hand. "That stings so much…"

Flinging Rufus off his foot, Kombat Knat launched two of his extending arms at Mabel. Ron tackled her back down and under them as they impaled the wall. Getting up, she realized that he was between them and Misao.

"We're not leaving without her!"

"Then you're not leaving alive." Kombat Knat quickly vanished from sight, shrinking down and speeding up to them. Growing to full size and shoving them back from the space he occupied, he swung down to slash through Mabel with his claws, but she jumped clear of his clumsy strike.

Ron turned around and bolted for Misao. "I'll get her!"

Before he could reach her, Junior tackled Ron, and the two of them went to the floor brawling.

As Mabel hopped back and around Kombat Knat, never turning from him, she pulled the M1951 from her skirt pocket. Aimed at Kombat Knat's eyes, she fired wildly, the bullets impacting and punching into the Synthetic Beast's hide. Shrieking, he retaliated by launching his extending arms at her, missing but shattering the patio windows.

Mabel saw an opportunity, changing direction and going out the window while still shooting and taunting the monster to lure him outside. "Come and get me then, bug boy!"

Kicking off as he shrank down, Kombat Knat became a missile in pursuit of his prey. Reaching the falling shards of glass, many of them larger than him, he began to leap from one to the other, rapidly changing direction and picking up speed before he sprang off a final large piece and shot past the fleeing girl.

Growing to full size with the pool to his left Kombat Knat screeched as Mabel turned to face him and skidded to a halt.

Unfortunately for the monster, all he fell into was Shermie's sights. An instant after he grew to full size, the old man had drawn a bead.

"Have a taste of how we do it in Jersey, eight eyes!"

He squeezed the trigger, using the weapons massive kick to speed up the pull on the weapons bolt to chamber another round and fire again. Then again. Then two more times after that within a space of time that even the best target shooters would scream obscenities about the possibility of achieving.

The five armor-piercing rounds smashed into Kombat Knat, the sheer force of the combined impacts knocking him away from Mabel. Wounded, he staggered towards the pool and fell into the water with a splash.

Mabel waved in Shermie's direction. "Thanks Sherpa!"

Hearing the cacophony of Ron and Junior fighting inside the house, she looked around for some backup to take her back into it. "Marco?! Jackie?!"

She found them both helping Star up. "Are you guys okay?!"

Jackie turned to the two. "Yeah… Shego's really strong, and those crazy wolf robots are bad, too. Your Grandpa's helping but… yeah…"

Marco turned to Star. "What about you?"

Star shook her head, trying to clear the cobwebs out. "I… really need to work on that armor thing…"

"Where's Kim?" Mabel asked.

Marco turned and pointed off the patio. "… Fighting Shego and the…"

Off the pool deck, between the patio and the wall surrounding the Vanderhoffs' property, a dance was taking place. Four LQ-84 Fenrir Unmanned Gears were swinging their chainsaw blades, lashing out with their claws, and even throwing themselves bodily at Kim Possible, whose mixture of gymnastics, acrobatics, and plain old cheerleading kept the margins between their attacks and her body wide.

One of the chainsaw blades came in low, and Kim leaped off the ground over it and the Fenrir swinging. Snatching one of the few remaining knives located in the three-blade knife holster on the Fenrir's rear legs as she passed over it, she weaved under its chainsaw's attempt at carving into her and slashed the cable holding it with the knife.

The second Fenrir fighting her threw itself at her, spiraling towards her with claws outstretched, but Kim dove and tumbled under the charging machine. As she came up, she threw the knife back and sliced through its tail, also disarming it of the ability to use its main weapons.

As the still running chainsaw of the unit fell to the grassy ground, Kim jumped hard onto it. When it bounced, she maneuvered her feet, and spun it like a helicopter rotor under her. Catching it by its side mounted motor with one foot, she kicked it into a third Fenrir, the hot blade grinding through and destroying it as Kim landed.

The last intact Fenrir galloped at Kim, while the other two were getting up, she was more concerned with Shego–who coordinated her attack with the fourth Fenrir. Shego looked a little miffed, while Kim was still wearing a competitive and defiant smile.

"Yeah," Shego said as she boxed with Kim like the title belt was on the line, energy covering her fists like gloves. "You think you're really slick, huh?!"

Kim kept her guard up, staying light on her feet, so light that when Shego tried to kick them from under her, she sidestepped and switched positions with her. The next two punches Shego threw at her, Kim slapped aside, before she drove the heel of her right palm into Shego's left cheek.

"I'm more…" Kim did not let up, palming Shego left and right with both hands before she drove one last strike into her chin, throwing her back. "Smooth than slick!"

She back flipped when the fourth Fenrir leaped into a forward midair tumble, becoming a giant wheel of death with its saw blade. Back flipping several times, Kim then jumped up back onto the pool deck, avoiding the other two remaining Fenrirs.

Turning to Mabel, she smiled. "Hey, where's Ron?"

She pointed back in the house. "Fighting Señor Senior Junior."

Indeed, the two young men were still rolling around on the hardwood floor, trying to get on top so they could pin the other, but both were being really squirrelly about staying on the bottom.

"And the creepy bug monster?"

Mabel pointed into the pool. "Sherpa shot him."

Indeed, Kombat Knat was sinking to the bottom of it.

Kim thumbed back towards the edge of the pool deck. "And Shego and her robot dog show are down there. Awesome. We should wrap this up."

Mabel pulled the front of her sweater and reached down into it, before pulling out Marco's phone and unmuting a conference call. "Hey guys, it's time to finish the job!"

Getting while rubbing her jaw, Shego shouted. "Oh, we're far from finished!"

The sound of rotors at high speed caught Shego's attention, and she looked up and back to see the Red Striker AV rise above the wall, its fuselage pointing towards her while its ducted fans oriented straight up to keep it hovering.

Inside the cockpit, beneath the Strikerborg's helmet, Jo smiled as the AV's computer targeted Shego and the remaining Fenrirs.

"I think you're done!" She said as she pressed down the trigger.

Shego was moving as soon as she saw the first flash, and a cascade of energy bolts fell upon her and the Fenrirs. The Unmanned Gears stood no chance under the sustained assault, the energy bolts tearing them apart as Strikerborg focused her fire on them. As they went down one my one, Strikerborg pulled back on the sticks and the laser barrage crawled upward towards Shego, who was headed for the far wall and cover.

She didn't make it, for through that far wall the Stinger AV smashed through and its prow slammed into Shego's stomach as Stingerborg brought the vehicle to a stop before he could run her over. Shego was thrown backward onto the ground, coughing loudly as she tried to recover her breath.

Inside the house, Junior pinned Ron onto his back, and raised his fist. "How did you get here so quickly?! How did you find us?!"

Ron, gripping Junior by the collar and holding his raised fist back by the wrist, struggled to get free. "If I told you, you'd be really embarrassed!"

"I do not care, I must know!" he shot back. "This is my reputation as a professional on the line!"

The Green Hunterborg's hand grabbing Junior by the back of his shirt and pulling him back stopped him. Held off the ground, and realizing it was one of the armored warriors holding him, Junior looked at him in distress and immediately drew his hands close to his body nervously.

"You should be more concerned about your career as a professional, my guy," Hunterborg said.

Ron sighed in relief to see the Hunterborg there. "Oh man, thanks. I don't like getting punched."

An instant later Junior was thrown to the pool deck at Mabel's feet as the Red Striker AV landed, and both Strikerborg and Stingerborg dismounted from their respective vehicles. Sitting up, Junior looked up at Mabel, then stared at Hunterborg, Ron (with Rufus on his shoulder) Marco, Star, Jackie, and Kim.

He closed his eyes and bowed his head? "I am not so foolish that I do not know when I'm beaten."

Kim hummed in surprise. "Oh?"

"Wow, throwing the towel just like that?" Ron asked.

Junior looked up at him. "Yes, I do not have powers and there are more of you than me. I know my odds, and they are nil."

At that moment, Shego grasped her second wind, and leaped into an uppercut that lifted Stingerborg off his feet and onto his back in surprise. Kicking off the horns of his AV, she leaped back at Strikerborg, surging all of her power to her feet so she could flying roundhouse kick Strikerborg away from her as well.

"But I do have powers, and I don't care how many you are!" She declared. "My odds are looking amazing!"

And like her words had revived him from a watery grave, Kombat Knat exploded from the water directly behind Mabel, coming up and dropping towards her with his maw wide open–and every intention to clamp his teeth down upon her head as she turned and look back up at the monster in surprise.

Her head and shoulders were almost completely in Kombat Knat's jaws, when they slammed shut.

= - = 7-5 = - =

|A Small Fish in a Big Pond|​

His hands and feet bound together, Trip sat down on the couch next to his brother, directly across from Misao. Satisfied with her work, Shego turned to Dudley and opened and closed her hand like a cat extending and retracting her claws.

"You gonna give me trouble, or are you as checked out as you look?" She asked him.

"I have no intention of resisting you if it means harm comes to Master Trip and Master Van," Dudley replied as he served Junior a cup of coffee.

Junior nodded to Dudley. "Thank you, Dudley."

The hum in response was curt and professional, but even Shego could tell that man was having the time of his life.

Powerless in his bonds, Trip tried to look from Dudley, filled with hate at the butler's complete lack of initiative, to Shego.

"Look, you want money, right? I can get you that, as much as you want. Five million? Ten million? My Dad's good for it!"

Shego hummed at the offer. "The way I see it, I'm already getting everything you're offering me when we clean you out."

She gestured to Junior. "And that guy? I'm pretty sure his Dad spends more in a month maintaining his fish tank than you paid for this house."

Junior chuckled. "Father does love his clownfish."

Trip squirmed. "Screw you! What did I ever do to you, huh?!"

Junior took a sip of his coffee. "Oh my, this is exquisite… and powerful."

"It's how I cope," Dudley replied.

"I AM TALKING TO YOU!" The smaller Vanderhoff wailed.

Van was not participating in Trip's one-sided screaming match with Junior. He was staring at Misao, who was giving him and his brother the same wide-eyed, hate-filled glare she had when they first walked in.

Aside from her breathing and the occasional blink, she was entirely still.

Junior noticed the murderous look in his field of vision and directed his full attention to it. "I am a bit concerned. I kidnapped her, yet she's looking at you with the kind of hate that starts genocides."

Shego looked at him. "Was that a joke about her being German or Japanese?"

Junior turned to her, aghast. "Neither!"

"That was in poor taste, Master Shego," Dudley delivered in his unflappable monotone.

Shego looked at Dudley. "You know what? I've only known those two for ten minutes and I can dig why you feel nothing."

Dudley glanced at her. "Why do you?"

The butler's question cut deeper than Shego liked.

As Junior winced and reverse-hissed through his teeth, Trip yelled.

"What's so special about this fat pig?!" He demanded as he nodded towards Misao.

Shego stopped slipping into unwanted self-introspection and leveled a flat glare at him.

Junior wasn't anymore appreciative, and he'd tased the girl.

"You do not know who this girl is?" He asked.

Trip shook his head. "Clearly, she's not important enough for me to care! She hangs out with losers, so she's a loser, too."

Junior gestured with an upraised palm towards Misao. "That is Momiji Hyuuga's daughter."

The color drained from Van's face, and Dudley went very still.

Trip stared in silence at Junior, then looked at Misao, and then back at him.

He let out a small, nervous laugh.

"M-Momiji Hyuuga doesn't have a daughter."

Junior nodded. "She does, and this is her."

Van began mumbling. "Trip… Hyuuga Heavy Industries has almost as much money as the Mendō family, or Makel Pratham… they donate weapons to Ukraine and Shanghai…"

Trip said it louder, like increasing his volume would make it the truth. "You're lying! She doesn't have a daughter, and if she did it would not be this fat fuck!"

Misao was still staring at the brothers, and the hatred in her eyes was as intense as ever, but now her eyebrows were raised.

There was almost a glee in her expression; like she was still angry but now she was enjoying it.

"Obviously a super technology manufacturer would keep her family hidden. For reasons… like this." Junior gestured to himself, inferring the situation at hand.

Shego, personally annoyed by the persistent misogynistic body shaming going on, decided to twist the knife. "Oh yeah, wait until she finds out that you guys constantly harassing her friends helped us track her down."

Trip laughed again, with growing hysteria. "This is all a joke! A big ol' prank to get back at me."

He turned to Misao, still laughing. "Stop playing around, this is your payback, isn't it?!"

He stopped laughing as anger filled his voice. "It isn't funny! Tell them that you're nobody! Just some fat Euro bimbo!"

Misao let out a menacing, muffled laugh from deep in her chest, as she shook her head.

Shego leaned on the back of Misao's couch. "I guess the only saving grace is that her friends have no clue where we are."

A rock bounced off the patio door. As the Vanderhoffs spent a lot of money on the house, their windows wouldn't be so easily broken.

Junior looked towards the window, just as his phone beeped and he looked at it. "What? The Fenrir have detected intruders?"

Misao brightened and began laughing harder as Shego looked past Trip and Van and out the window.

With all the lights in their backyard out and the interior lighting on full, it was hard to make out what lay in the dark.

Peering into the pitch darkness, Shego's stomach dropped when she saw them: two glowing eyes with familiar heart-shapes beneath them staring back like the abyss.

"SSJ… they found us."

Junior nearly dropped his coffee. "What? How?!"

Shego went for the door and opened it to step outside. "We'll review that later. Release the hounds!"

Closing it behind her, Shego found Star waiting on the other side of the Vanderhoff home's pool, right on the edge of the pool deck overlooking a large back yard that consisted of a lengthy downward slope terminating in the property's wall.

On Star's right, were the Vanderhoff's fire pit and adjoined seats, while on her left was a covered in-ground hot tub. Behind her was the wooden railing that separated her from a ten foot drop into the backyard below.

Smirking, Shego began walking towards the pool, her green glowing eyes locked onto Star's.

"Well, hello there, Princess. Looking for round two?"

Star, smiling, replied. "We both know you want it more than me."

Shego walked up to the edge of the pool as her power coursed up her arms and down her body. "I have my professional pride…"

Stopping, she laughed and snorted. "Oh, who am I kidding? Right now this is purely for the love of the game."

Stopping at the pool's edge, she lifted her left foot. "So how about it? Before your little friends catch up: Let's cut loose and see what we can get up to."

With that, she dipped the toe of her boot into the water, as her power finally reached it.

A great cloud of steam erupted, spreading across the pool buffeting Star as it enveloped her.

Instead of Shego lunging at Star through the cloud, the sound of metallic footsteps galloping towards her and a revving chainsaw brought the Princess's attention to her right.

A single shining red light illuminated the steam before an orange-hot glowing chainsaw blade cut through it and towards her.

"Whoa…!" Star yelped as she backflipped away from the sweeping blade, then cartwheeled from the same blade coming down vertically.

As she exited the cloud of mist, a large mechanical quadruped with a box-shaped head sporting a single mono-eye camera at its front lunged out after her and tackled her to the ground.

Staring up at the machine as it raised its left claw, Star brought up her wand and used it to block its attempt at caving in her skull.

"Robot wolves?! That is so cool!" She shouted as she struggled against the claw.

From deep in the mists, Shego's voice mocked. "Like 'em? LQ-84 Fenrirs aren't exactly cheap, you know."

The machine's long and flexible tail lifted the rapidly spinning chainsaw held with three smaller wires at the tail's end up above Star, to plunge it into her chest.

"It's cool, but what happened to cutting loose?!"

Star made sure the bell of her wand was pointed at the machine. "Mega Geyser Windstorm!"

A high-pressure jet of water from her wand struck the Fenrir in the neck and chest, throwing it off her.

As the Fenrir went up, Shego came down, cutting through the geyser with her glowing hands, and causing another steam explosion.

"I am cutting loose!" She taunted back.

Star rolled up and juked hard, weaving past Shego's violent slashes and the glowing trails they carved through the air. The moment she opened the distance between them, Star aimed the wand at her.

"Laser Be–!"

A glowing trio of knives shot through the mist towards her, and Star ducked under the attack from a second Fenrir.

The first Fenrir she blasted into the air came down and bounced off the pool deck, before scrambling up and throwing its own knives.

Star used swift side-hops, narrowly evading both sets of projectiles, before Shego gracefully flipped over her.

When Star turned to face her, Shego twirled and kicked her in the face, sending her stumbling backward.

"Ugh…!" She turned her stumbling footwork into a backpedal from more slashes Shego swung for her face and center mass.

"Can't do too much without that vocal component, huh?!" The villainess teased as Star weaved under her and tried to get behind her, only to be left wide open to a third Fenrir pouncing towards her to slash with its claws while the other two circled for position to attack.

"Vocal component this!"

Instead of casting a spell, Star swung her wand as the Light Sword ignited, and slashed along Fenrir-3's side as it recognized the high energy threat and tried to side-hop away.

She spun and lunged at Shego as she took advantage and came for her neck.

"Oh so you do have useful spells!"

Shego and Star whipped past one another, Star narrowly missing her stab while Shego had to settle for taking off one of the horns of her headband.

When Star turned to slice Shego, the faster villain hopped over the swing and punished her with another kick to her face.

Star staggered back, bringing her free hand to her nose, and then up to her headband at the missing horn.

Her eyes widening when she felt the damage, she glared at Shego. "Hey! My ex got me this!"

Shego laughed before she threw herself at her. "Wow, and you kept it?"

Star used the Light Sword close, using it to block Shego's rapid-fire attacks. "It's complicated!"

One slash cut Star's cheek, before she parried two more with the light sword and pointed the wand's face at Shego's chest. "Butterfly Blast!"

The Light Sword evaporated as a multicolored beam struck Shego, and she backed up with smoke and butterflies wafting from her damaged top.

The undamaged Fenrir-1 and 2 jumped in next, the first throwing knives that Star knocked away with her wand like a club. As Fenrir-2 pounced on her, she leap-frogged over it and let it screech to a stop behind her.

Before it could turn and attack her, there was a clang like something heavy striking metal, and Fenrir-2 lumbered to its left, before it was hit again, and again.

Thunder echoed in the distance as three more times the monster was struck.

Shego froze. The Fenrir's chest split open in smoking holes, sparks coughing as it staggered and collapsed.

Her smirk faltered. "What the heck?"

Looking in the direction that the fire came from, she looked further up the hills that overlooked Echo Creek, and spotted a white SUV parked on the winding road under a lone street lamp.

Shermie, his back braced against the side of his car to absorb the Schwanzstucker's recoil.

"Hahaha, looks like we old timers still got it against these newfangled tin cans!" The elder Pines shouted to his gun and his spotter: Waddles, who was sitting on the hood of the SUV wearing a camouflage vest and an army helmet.

Shego gawked at the car, stunned. "Long range backup?!"

"Narwhal Blast!" Star yelled.

Shego leaped and turned through the air gracefully to avoid the barrage of commotion causing cetaceans.

When she came down, and saw a second shadow moving through the lingering mists towards her.

"Who the heck are–?!" She swung at the shadow, banishing the mists and revealed Marco Diaz.

With a fantastic vertical leap over the slash, Marco turned to bring his heel down in a flying wheel kick that had Shego staring at the ground as pain throbbed through her.

"Ohhhohoho no you did NOT!" Shego growled before she came up fighting, performing an uppercut Marco weaved under and opened up on her with quick jabs that connected to Shego's chest and face.

"And what if I did?!" Marco asked as he kept up the barrage of blows that Shego expertly began to parry now that surprise was not on his side.

"Then I feel…" Shego swung her right foot in a low kick to defeat Marco's own while blocking his quick punches with her right hand high and her left low. "… Sorry for you!"

Blocking Marco's attempt to break her guard, she knocked his guard wide open with a high kick.

She switched legs and kicked him in the side below his left arm and then snap kicked him in quick succession in the side of the head, connecting with his raised left forearm.

Imagine Shego's surprise when Marco planted his feet to absorb the kick, then smashed her with a right bolo punch she barely saw before it ploughed into her jaw.

The hit stunned her long enough for him to slam a liver shot and gut punch combo before jumping to drill her in the face with his spinning back kick.

Crashing into the railing that ringed the pool deck, Shego coughed several times as pain radiated through her. She looked at Marco, shocked that this rando in a hoodie had actually hurt her.

She then noticed the Fenrir that Star damaged, finally getting back up on its feet.

"Stupid dogs, you're making me look bad!" Shego yelled before she pointed at Marco. "Get him!"

On her command, the damaged Fenrir-3 leaped after him, its chainsaw blazing.

She was about to turn her attention back to Star, who was avoiding the chainsaw swings of Fenrir-1, when a speartip entered her field of view, and she leaned back to avoid a thrust aimed for the side of her head.

Shego swung to cut the silver spearhead from its shaft, but Jackie Lynn Thomas moved it clear before thrusting it for the villainess' center mass.

"I thought looking bad was your whole thing!" The blonde teased as she advanced.

Swaying left and right, avoiding Jackie's pokes, Shego's attempts to destroy the weapon were foiled by the girl's skillful maneuvering, keeping it out of her reach and always on the attack.

She was starting to get annoyed. "Who the heck ARE you people?!"

"You should've watched her vlog, dude!" Jackie teased back as she sped up her pace, pushing Shego back towards the edge of the pool deck while keeping out of reach of counterattacks.

"What the heck are they feeding you kids?! I remembered when there was only one of you uppity teenagers thinking they could throw hands!"

Jackie's thrusts were getting closer to Shego's vitals. "Nobody told you what happens in Echo Creek, huh?"

She quickly wreathed her body in energy, repelling the spear when Jackie lunged for her heart. When Jackie was parried, she riposted, aiming to slash through the weapon.

"CUPCAKE BLAST!"

The spell struck Shego and flung her past Jackie.

Star, on the other side of the beam, quickly jumped away from the Fenrir she'd gotten clear enough from to attack.

"Thanks Star!" Jackie called to the Princess.

"You're welcome, Jackie~!" Star said before she aimed her wand at her mechanical opponent. "Tiara Tornado!"

As Jackie turned back towards Shego, the fourth of Junior's Fenrir collection materialized into view between them and threw its knives at her.

Jackie quickly spun her spear and deflected two of the knives thrown at her while a third slashed across her shoulder, thinly cutting and cauterizing the wound in the same instant. "Sss…!"

Despite the intense burn of the pain, Jackie locked in and slammed the spear down to swing herself up into a handstand atop of it, avoiding Fenrir-4's pounce.

Pulling the weapon up, she swung herself around and bashed Fenrir-4 over its head with the shaft of the spear.

Between ducks and jumps to avoid Fenrir-3's chainsaw, Marco was impressed by Jackie's moves. "She's so cool…!"

The blades of the chainsaw came in fast, and Marco leaned back as the grinding, red hot teeth of the blade passed so close they almost grazed his chin.

The narrow margin he dodged the attack startled him. "… That was clo–!"

Shego's heel came down on his face the instant the blade passed, and Marco was bounced off the wooden deck and into a fast three-hit combo that lifted him even higher off his feet before Shego used a weaker concussive energy blast to launch him into the Vanderhoff's patio window.

"You're not that good," Shego informed him, before Star ignited the Light Sword and swung at her.

She leaped into a somersault over the blade, then spun into a rolling kick she dropped on Star's head in the same way Marco did her.

The kick jarred Star hard enough to disarm her, the wand clattering across the wooden deck and spinning to a stop at the pool's edge.

Seeing the wand flung away, Shego's open palm struck Star with no powers flowing through her right hand, then backhanded her the other direction.

Grabbing her left hand, she pulled her around and then punched her hard in the stomach before kicking her in the face to send her crashing into the furniture by the pool's fire pit.

Laid out, Star tried to get up before flopping over. "Oh crap… she's strong…"

Marco, sliding down the window, wheezed. "… H-how does she make it look so easy…?"

Jackie saw Star go into the furniture, but before she could intervene, she found herself face to face with Fenrir-1, 3, and 4.

With Star and Marco down, and Jackie looking cornered, Shego laughed and began walking towards Star's wand.

"I guess I know what happens in Echo Creek now," she taunted Jackie, "And it's not much."

She bent down to pick up the wand. "Now, let's see if I can be a magical girl."

A hiking boot-clad foot slipped under the wand and scooped it up to hit Shego in the face with it.

Cracked in the face with the magical wand, the surprised supervillain stumbled back before that same boot came back around and hit in the exact same spot.

Stumbling backward, a hand shooting to her face, Shego as she flared with rage.

"Oh, come on! How many of you brats are there?!"

She stopped and opened her eyes wide when she saw who had struck her.

"A magical girl, Shego, really?"

Standing in front of her was Kimberly Ann Possible, her long red hair caught in a breeze and furled out to her side as she flashed her an amused smile.

"No judgment for what you're into, but you so can't rock that."

Seeing her mortal nemesis here should've had her alarmed, frustrated, maybe even enraged Shego.

But after laying out those two annoying brats? She was in a great mood.

"I've already kicked one Princess off her throne today, Kimmie. I'll be happy to make it two!"

Kim's smile became almost sinister as she got ready. "All right, bet."

Jackie, keeping away from the Fenrir, smiled when she saw Kim.

Her smile got bigger when Shermie's sniper support roared in like a freight train, striking the three Fenrirs, battering them long enough to create an opening for her to dash over towards Marco to help him up.

Shego attacked, and Kim moved. Energy blazing from her hands, Shego swung at Kim with haymakers, jabs, and crosses.

Kim seemed to just flow around the attacks, any that she could not evade she swiftly deflected with swift, knife-like movements of her hands that doubled as counterattacks and threw Shego off her rhythm.

Marco, shaking his head, looked up at the tightly controlled movements Kim used to evade her mortal foe.

"See?! Look at that!" Marco blurted, half-exasperated, half-awed.

Jackie giggled. "Dude, she's built different."

Star managed to sit up, and stared. "… Whoa…"

Even Shego's attempts at catching Kim's feet with sweeps or low kicks were stopped with dance-like in-steps by the redhead as she circled Shego then walked back from her, staying on the defensive.

"You've had a long day, haven't you?" Kim asked as she deflected Shego's right hooking slash with her own right forearm, then chopped her across the face with the same hand.

Shego turned with the blow and staggered away from Kim.

It was then that she noticed that she was breathing heavily and even her energy was losing its potency.

Her eyes widened. "What the…?"

She shook her head and narrowly avoided a diving kick from Kim.

When the agile redhead turned on her to attack, Shego was on the defensive, ducking under several kicks before she parried the last and then exchanged several deflected and blocked jabs with Kim.

As she began to retreat under the assault, it dawned on her.

"Crap…!"

Fighting the Beetleborgs and Typhus as part of Junior's plan took a toll on her. They expected to have a much longer head-start without any way to track them down, so she could rest up for the next round… but here they were.

Sure, the other kids were easy pickings, but this was Kim! Who was a tough fight even when Shego was fresh!

Not that she'd ever admit that.

Star coming to their literal doorstep, the hoodie kid and the spear girl throwing down on her without any hesitation despite not being on her level, the long-range fire support, and now Kim just waltzing up like a special guest star.

These concerns finally caused the most worrisome thought to occur to Shego.

Wait a second… did they plan this?!

Blocking a palm strike from Kim, Shego gasped when the redhead wound her arm around hers, flung her in a perfectly executed hip throw off the edge of the pool deck and into the Vanderhoffs' backyard.

Getting up on the precipice of the long slope down Shego assumed her fighting stance again. "Hold up, when the heck did you get here?"

Kim was feeling coy. "Not as long as you, but plenty of time to get ready for tonight."

"Why are you always a step ahead of SSJ?!" Shego asked, the indignation flaring her powers brighter.

Then, she stopped and sighed. "You know what? Nevermind."

Kim perked up, and she looked back to see the three remaining Fenrir suddenly back off from the very pressed Jackie and come charging towards her. One jumped across the pool to land behind her, while the other two galloped to her flanks.

"You're right about one thing," Shego admitted.

"I'm tired… of all of you! Tear her apart!"

@@@@@​

Inside the house, Trip and Van watched the battle. Despite being face to face with the deadly weapons of multiple Unmanned Gears and freaking SHEGO… Star, Marco Diaz, and Jackie Lynn Thomas of all people were fighting them and making it like a schoolyard brawl.

Except when it looked like there was someone shooting from far away to cover them.

Dudley, watching as Jackie helped Marco up, turned his attention towards Junior, who was likewise watching the brawl.

"It would appear that Kim Possible has arrived to aid Master Misao's friends."

"I was concerned about this," Junior said. "I should've known seeing him meant that the game was already up."

"Hey," Van said not to Junior, but to Misao.

Misao acknowledged Van by focusing her contemptuous gaze on him.

He shrank when he felt its full force but continued. "You… weren't serious about what you said this morning, were you? When this is done, you're not gonna like… kill us, or something?"

She stared at him, and then slowly shook her head.

That brought some relief to him. "I… I've been thinking about all this, and it's gone too far."

Misao tilted her head, slightly.

Taking that as a cue to continue, Van did. "This is too much… we got mad, we sent Goblin, I told SSJ where you were, but we thought you'd just leave town. I didn't think it'd turn into this…"

Trip looked at Van, trying to figure out where he was going with this, Junior and Dudley both were similarly quiet as they observed.

"So… I'm sorry. Trip, and I, we'll leave you alone. Just… don't kill us, okay? Do whatever else you want."

Misao stared wide-eyed at him, otherwise unresponsive. Trip glared at his brother, looking betrayed.

After several moments, she looked at Junior and tilted her chin up, indicating the duct tape over her mouth. Understanding her intent, Junior walked over and with great care not to hurt her or get bitten, gently peeled away the gag.

With her mouth free, Misao looked at Van and slowly shook her head as she had before.

"Killing either of you is not enough," she said calmly. "I want you to live and suffer for the rest of your natural lives."

Van flinched, as Misao continued.

"Killing you isn't enough. I want you to live and regret. Every waking moment should be despair. My friends may forgive you, they are good people. But I never will."

Van visibly flinched at her icy words.

She did not stop.

"I put this on my life. I will dedicate my wealth and power to ensure that your lives will be a neverending hell. If you live a hundred, two hundred, a thousand years… every second needs to be a reminder that you live because death is too good for you. Your suffering will be my legacy."

The pit of ice in Van's stomach almost made him want to throw up, as he averted his eyes from Misao's to look at his brother. Trip looked almost delirious, like he was trying to wake up from this nightmare he was having but could not find his way out.

Dudley closed his eyes and lowered his head somberly, while Junior stepped forward. "Misao, if I may?"

She didn't spare him a glance. "No you may not."

Junior defied her. "I have nothing to say to those two. Rather, I would like to discuss something with you?"

This pulled her gaze from the Vanderhoffs to him, and the same ice Van felt in his gut formed in Junior's veins.

"What is so important?"

Junior looked at the brothers, and then reached into his pocket before pulling out a small black box, like one could carry jewelry inside.

"Well, there is something I need to give to you," he confessed.

Misao's expression went from contemptuous to confused and curious. "Was?"

Dudley lifted his head, confused as well. Both Vanderhoffs stared gobsmacked at Junior.

"This was all… very complicated. It should have been resolved weeks ago, but your dear friends interfered, and it turned into a disaster."

Misao stared at the box and then looked up at him. "I do not understand."

"There are things money can't buy. That's why I became a supervillain; not for wealth, but for what only power can claim."

He brought a hand to his chest. "And that is why I am here."

Taking the box in both hands, he opened it to reveal a simple silvery necklace, with three beautifully cut diamond-shaped crystals attached to its middle. The center crystal was three times the size of its companions, and the light striking them sent small streams of multi-colored beams scattering in every direction.

Misao's eyes widened as she stared at the necklace. "… What is this?"

"This is something that belongs to you," Junior answered, "And I would like to return it."

She looked from the necklace back to him. "I have never seen it before."

Junior grew somewhat concerned. "Are you sure?"

He held the case closer to her. "Because I was told that you would want it."

Misao looked from Junior to the jewelry, wondering what he could possibly mean, before she felt a chill run through her.

Then, suddenly, she could hear her pulse rushing through her ears as the world began to fall away; first the Vanderhoffs and Dudley, then the room she was sitting in, and finally Señor Senior Junior.

Her eyes locked onto the crystals and slowly dilated as the sound of her own pulse slowed down, until it hung at a beat per second.

Watching Misao slip into a trance as she stared at the necklace, Dudley grew very worried. Van looked at Trip, then back at Misao as Junior removed the necklace from the case and moved behind her to carefully connect the ends of the chain around her neck.

"H-hey!" Van said. "Why is she zoning out like that? Is… is it a good idea to give that to her?"

Junior looked at him and shook. "Oh, no, not at all. But like I said…"

He clicked the necklace closed.

"There are some things that you cannot get with money."

Misao didn't react. She didn't even blink. Still entranced, she stared through the Vanderhoffs and out into infinity.

"Is she okay?" Van asked.

Junior tilted his head in confusion. "I… do not know? I was only told to give it to her…"

He noticed something moving through her hair. "What's this?"

Reaching down, Junior began to part her dark-dyed locks, trying to find out what could be moving around in there—when it abruptly moved up and bit his hand.

"HIJO DE PUTA!" He screamed out as he yanked his hand free and found a naked mole rat clamped onto his hand with his jaws.

The rodent looked up at Junior with brown beady eyes as he recognized him. "RUFUS?!"

Junior realized it meant only one thing.

Thunderous footsteps from the hallway leading to the Vanderhoff home's kitchen confirmed his fears as Mabel and Ron Stoppable entered the living room, barreling towards him.

"BOO…!" Mabel shouted as they leaped and launched into flying drop kicks.

"… YAH!" Ron shouted when they slammed into Junior's broad chest, sending him across the living room and into the wall used to project the Vanderhoffs' holographic screens on.

"Yeah, that's what I'm talking about!" Ron cheered as he and Mabel landed from their kick.

Mabel turned to him, raising her hands. "Who's bad?!"

Ron gave her a double high-five. "We're bad!"

Mabel turned to the others. "Misao! We're here to save you!"

Van sagged in relief. "Oh, thank God, we're saved!"

"Please, get us out of here!" Trip yelled at Ron. "They tied us up! We're hostages too!"

Mabel looked at them both, uncharacteristically absent of any mirth in her expression or voice.

"Go fuck yourselves. And choke while you're at it."

Both fell silent.

Mabel turned all that mirth right back on as she turned to Dudley. "You're good, though!"

Dudley snapped his fingers into a thumb's up to Mabel in reply.

Trip looked pleadingly at Ron, who quickly held up his hands.

"Look guys, whatever beef you've got? We're just here for Shego and SSJ. As Kim would say, we are so not involved in the drama."

Rufus scampered over to Ron and crawled his way up to his shoulder. "You get her binds Rufus?"

"Mmhm!" The naked mole rat replied while saluting.

Despite Mabel's harsh words, Van called out. "Hey, Junior did something to her!"

Mabel looked from Van to Junior and back to Misao, her tone icy with fury. "What did he do?"

"I don't know, he put a necklace on her, and she just zoned out!" Van quickly explained.

Rushing over to Misao, with Ron and Rufus right behind her, Mabel looked at the necklace and then at the other girl's blank expression. "Hey, Misao! Snap out of it!"

Ron looked at the necklace. "Careful, it might be some kind of mind-control device."

Mabel turned to face Junior, incensed. "What did you do to her?!"

A far more pressing problem sprang up behind them, prompting both Trip and Van to scream in terror and Dudley to recoil with fright.

Mabel, Ron, and Rufus turned to find Kombat Knat looming over them. After looking up at his gnarled teeth, their gazes fell to his shining red liquid eyes.

"In the name of my Radiance, you will not escape."

"Oh wow, that's really Kombat Knat!" Ron screamed.

With a sweep of his arm, Mabel and Ron were flung like ragdolls over the couch Misao sat on and across the room.

Van and Trip were too busy screaming loudly in terror at the ugliest thing they've ever seen. The object of their terror turned to face them and raised his claws menacingly.

"SILENCE. My Radiance needs the girl alive, but you are suitable snacks. The more you scream the hungrier I'll get!"

Mabel, snapping out of her daze, looked up to see Kombat Knat shove aside the couch Misao was on to stand over her and Ron.

"You interlopers will pay—AAAAAHHHHH!"

Rufus, the little MVP, had scrambled onto his foot, and bit down with incisors rated to cut through steel.

Together, Mabel and Ron sprang into action, each pulling out their respective grappling hook guns and firing them, hitting Kombat Knat in his largest eyes at point blank range. Kombat Knat screamed louder as he stumbled back from them.

Mabel turned her head to look at Ron, then at his and her respective grappling hook guns. "Your first thought was a grappling hook, too?!"

Ron shrugged. "I guess we're on the same vibe?"

Mabel quickly looked for Misao, but instead found Señor Senior Junior swinging another stun baton towards her face.

Shooting her right arm up, she let the whole baton crash into and snap in two on her forearm. Seeing this, and Mabel's glowering face beyond it, Junior grew alarmed.

"Oh no."

Mabel's left hook plowed into Junior's mouth and the young man was thrown into Trip and Van hard enough to make the whole couch they were seated on fall backward.

Ron stared at Mabel, stunned. "Um…!"

Mabel shook her left hand, immensely satisfied. "Ohh I'm gonna savor this sting…!"

Flinging Rufus off his foot, Kombat Knat launched two of his extending arms at Mabel. Ron tackled her back down and under them as they impaled the wall. Getting up, she realized that he was between them and Misao.

"We're not leaving without her!"

"Then you're not leaving alive." Kombat Knat quickly vanished from sight, shrinking down and speeding up to them.

Growing to full size and shoving them back from the space he occupied, he swung down to slash through Mabel with his claws, but she jumped clear of his clumsy strike.

Ron turned around and bolted for Misao. "I'll get her!"

Before he could reach her, Junior tackled Ron, and the two of them went to the floor brawling.

As Mabel hopped back and around Kombat Knat, never turning from him, she pulled the M1951 from her skirt pocket. Aiming at Kombat Knat, she fired wildly, one of the bullets impacting and punching into one of the Synthetic Beast's red gel-like eyes.

Shrieking, he retaliated by launching his extending arms at her, missing but shattering the patio windows.

Mabel saw an opportunity, changing direction and going out the window while still shooting and taunting the monster to lure him outside. "Come and get me then, bug boy!"

Kicking off as he shrank down, Kombat Knat became a missile in pursuit of his prey. Reaching the falling shards of glass, many of them larger than him, he began to leap from one to the other, rapidly changing direction and picking up speed before he sprang off a final large piece and shot past the fleeing girl.

Growing to full size with the pool to his left, Kombat Knat screeched as Mabel faced him and skidded to a halt.

Unfortunately for the monster, all he fell into was Shermie's sights. An instant after he grew to full size, the old man had drawn a bead.

"Have a taste of how we do it in Jersey, eight eyes!"

He squeezed the trigger and fired, using the weapon's massive kick to speed up the pull on the weapon's bolt to chamber another round and fire again. Then again, and again, and again within a space of time that even the best target shooters would scream obscenities about the possibility of achieving two shots.

The five armor-piercing rounds smashed into Kombat Knat, the sheer force of the combined impacts knocking him away from Mabel.

Wounded, he staggered towards the pool and fell into the water with a splash.

"Pool's closed, ya schlump," Shermie sneered, as Waddles snorted and oinked in confirmation of the hits.

Mabel waved in Shermie's direction. "Thanks Sherpa!"

Hearing the cacophony of Ron and Junior fighting inside the house, she looked around for some backup to take her back into it. "Marco?! Jackie?!"

She found them both helping Star up to her feet. "Are you guys okay?!"

Jackie turned to her and Ron. "It's kind of crazy. Shego's really strong, and those crazy wolf robots are bad, too. Your Grandpa's helping but… yeah…"

Marco turned to Star. "What about you?"

Star shook her head, trying to clear the cobwebs out. "I'll feel better in like a week… after a lot of nachos…"

"Where's Kim?" Mabel asked.

Marco turned and walked towards the patio. "… She went over the railing fighting Shego and the…"

He trailed off when he saw what was going on down there.

Down in the back yard, a dance was taking place. The three LQ-84 Fenrir Unmanned Gears were swinging their chainsaw blades, lashing out with their claws, and even throwing themselves bodily at Kim Possible, whose mixture of gymnastics, acrobatics, and plain old cheerleading kept the margins between their attacks and her body wide.

One of the chainsaw blades came in low, and Kim leaped off the ground over it and the Fenrir-4's swing.

Snatching one of the few remaining knives located in the three-blade knife holster on the Fenrir-4's rear legs as she passed over it, she weaved under its attempt at carving into her with the chainsaw, and parried the entire weapon up and away with the knife in a gratuitous shower of sparks.

The Fenrir-1 threw itself at her, spiraling towards her with claws outstretched, but Kim dove and tumbled under the charging machine. As she came up, she threw the knife back and sliced through its tail, also disarming it of the ability to use its main weapons.

As the still running chainsaw of the unit fell to the grassy ground, Kim jumped hard onto it. When it bounced, she maneuvered her feet, and spun it like a helicopter rotor under her.

Catching it by its side mounted motor with one foot, she kicked it into Fenrir-3, the hot blade grinding through and destroying it as Kim landed.

Marco, Jackie, and Star all stared with slack jaws at how Kim did it like it was nothing.

"Dude," Jackie murmured, "I know I said she's built different, but…"

"They don't build them like that," Marco murmured.

Star was practically drooling. "… She's so cool."

Shego came screaming in, determined not to let her breathe.

"Yeah," Shego said as she boxed with Kim like the title belt was on the line, energy covering her fists like gloves. "You think you're really slick, huh?!"

Kim kept her guard up, staying light on her feet, so light that when Shego tried to kick them from under her, she sidestepped and switched positions with her.

The next two punches Shego threw at her, Kim slapped aside, before she drove the heel of her right palm into Shego's left cheek.

"I'm more…" Kim did not let up, palming Shego left and right with both hands before she drove one last strike into her chin, throwing her back. "Smooth than slick!"

She backflipped when Fenrir-4 leaped into a forward midair tumble, becoming a giant wheel of death with its saw blade. Back flipping several times, Kim then jumped back onto the pool deck, avoiding the other two remaining Fenrir.

Turning to Mabel, she smiled. "Hey, where's Ron?"

She pointed back to the house. "Fighting Señor Senior Junior."

Indeed, the two young men were still rolling around on the hardwood floor, trying to get on top so they could pin the other, but both were being really squirrelly about staying on the bottom.

"And the creepy bug monster?"

Mabel pointed at the pool. "Sherpa shot him."

Indeed, Kombat Knat was sinking to the bottom of it.

Kim thumbed back towards the edge of the pool deck. "And Shego and her robot dog show are down there. Awesome. We should wrap this up."

Mabel pulled the front of her sweater and reached down into it, before pulling out Marco's phone and unmuting an ongoing conference call. "Hey guys, it's time to finish the job!"

Getting up while rubbing her jaw, Shego shouted. "Oh, we're far from finished!"

The sound of rotors at high speed caught Shego's attention, and she looked up and back to see the Red Striker AV rise above the wall, its fuselage pointing towards her while its ducted fans oriented straight up to keep it hovering.

Inside the cockpit, beneath the Strikerborg's helmet, Jo smiled as the AV's computer targeted Shego and the remaining Fenrir.

"I think you're done!" She said as she pressed down the trigger.

Shego was moving as soon as she saw the first flash, and a cascade of energy bolts fell upon her and the Fenrir. The Unmanned Gears stood no chance under the sustained assault, the energy bolts tearing them apart as Strikerborg focused her fire on them.

As they went down one by one, Strikerborg targeted Shego, who slid down the steep back yard for the far wall and cover.

She didn't make it, for the Stinger AV smashed through the wall and its prow slammed into Shego's stomach, sending her slamming back into the hill.

"You're not going a step further!" Stingerborg said.

Coughing and gagging, Shego curled into a ball, clutching her stomach.

Inside the house, Junior pinned Ron onto his back, and raised his fist. "How did you get here so quickly?! How did you find us?!"

Ron, gripping Junior by the collar and holding his raised fist back by the wrist, struggled to get free. "If I told you, you'd be really embarrassed!"

"I do not care, I must know! This is my reputation as a professional on the line!" He whined back.

The Green Hunterborg's hand grabbing Junior by the back of his shirt and pulling him back stopped him.

Held off the ground, and realizing it was one of the armored warriors holding him, Junior looked at him in distress and immediately drew his hands close to his body nervously.

"You should be more concerned about your career as a professional, cuh," Hunterborg said.

Ron sighed in relief to see the Hunterborg there. "Oh man, thanks. I don't like getting punched."

A moment later Junior was thrown to the pool deck at Mabel's feet as the Red Striker AV landed, as Stingerborg hauled over and dropped Shego.

Sitting up, Junior looked up at Mabel, then stared at Hunterborg, Ron (with Rufus on his shoulder) Marco, Star, Jackie, and Kim.

He closed his eyes and bowed his head? "I am not so foolish that I do not know when I'm beaten."

Kim hummed in surprise. "Oh?"

"Wow, throwing the towel just like that?" Ron asked.

Junior looked up at him. "Yes, I do not have powers and there are more of you than me. I know my odds, and they are nil."

At that moment, Shego grasped her second wind, and leaped into an uppercut that lifted Stingerborg off his feet and onto his back in surprise.

Surging all of her power to her feet, she flying roundhouse kicked Strikerborg away from her as well.

"But I do have powers, and I don't care how many you are!" She declared. "My odds are looking amazing!"

And like her words had revived him from a watery grave, the water rippled before Kombat Knat erupted upward, rising directly above Mabel.

She turned back, and looked back in wide-eyed surprise.

He hurtled towards her with his maw wide open to clamp his teeth down upon her before she could do anything else.

Her head and shoulders were almost completely past Kombat Knat's teeth, when his jaws slammed shut like a steel bear trap.

= - = 7-5 = - =​

Next time, the penultimate chapter of Volume 7!

 

[EvaUnit01]

Hoo boy, that's a development.

 

[Delta/Soul]

head and shoulders were almost completely in Kombat Knat's jaws, when they slammed shut.

Click to shrink...

Oh Shit!!

Wait… doesn't she have a armor or something because she took a hit from a shock baton earlier?

 

[The Ero-Sennin]

Oh Shit!!

Wait… doesn't she have a armor or something because she took a hit from a shot baton earlier?

Click to shrink...

Oh no, Mabel breaking that stun baton was all her.

 

[King of Kaiju]

Is Kombat Knat calling Shego 'Radiance' a reference to Hollow Knight?

 

[EvaUnit01]

Pretty sure anything to that effect is probably a coincidence.

 

[The Ero-Sennin]

In the gallows or the ghetto, in the town or the meadow. In the billows, even over the sun, every end of a time is another begun.

Spoiler: Original Version

"Aw man, aw man…!"

Noxic was in distress, seeing not only Jara but Typhus too looking absolutely devastated as they dragged themselves into his nearly complete workshop. The facility, built around a large beehive like structure at its center, was surrounded by several large clouds of metallic wasps, and the actual structures of the facility were being constructed by teams of several Scabs.

"What the heck happened to you guys?! Did the job Vexor gave you go bad?!"

Jara, holding her hand over the broken section of her mask, shook her head. "I do not want to talk about it. Fix my mask."

Noxic recoiled from them. "YOUR MASK BROKE?!"

Typhus nodded. "Yeah, that blue Beetle brat…"

Jara turned to let her mask glower at him.

He quickly changed the subject. "But even worse, Kombat Knat betrayed me."

And now Noxic was just confused. "Typhus, your creations are like your kids, ain't they? Don't they love you?"

Typhus growled. "I thought he did… but then he met a girl who got him all messed up."

Noxic threw his hands up. "Of course. It would be a woman that'll get a guy thinking crazy!"

He stopped. "No offense, Jara."

"Some taken."

He continued. "But still! Can't you just turn him off, or yank his chain, or anything?!"

Typhus looked down. "After Kamaza, I made sure to never make another monster that just blindly follows orders. Something that obedient and unthinking only causes trouble, baby."

His powerful hands tightened into fists. "I just didn't expect Kombat Knat to just drop everything and run off after that human. He went after her like a moth to a lamp."

Jara spoke up. "That energy that woman radiated."

Typhus mulled over it. "You think that's it? She really was a bug zapper, huh?"

Noxic scratched his metal head, pondering. "Geez, that's unlucky. The one time you need a creepy bug monster, and he gets led off by a bright light."

He pounded his fist into his palm. "Hey, why don't we try to get him back?"

After a few moments of pondering going out there again and thinking about how defiant Kombat Knat was to him… Typhus raised his head. "Yannow what? At the end of the day, there are lots of things worth dying for, and a whole lot of them are better than being under Vexor's thumb."

A long silence fell as the three Magnavore commanders let Typhus' realization sink in.

With that to consider, Noxic withdrew his suggestion. "Yeah, you're right."

Even Jara, as she removed her mask with her back to them and held it out for Noxic to take, agreed. "May Kombat Knat find his destiny, free of Vexor…"

Typhus nodded in agreement. "Yeah, bathed in radiance, baby."

@@@@@​

Misao heard the click of the necklace and blinked in surprise. She was no longer in the Vanderhoffs' living room. She was suddenly adrift in an endless, star-filled void, far away from any celestial body but surrounded by them in every direction and a haunting ethereal light not-unlike the Aurora Borealis of the northern reaches of the world.

"Wo bin ich?" She asked aloud, her voice echoing only in her head. "Was ist das?"

Despite the infinite expanse, she cannot help but feel she is not alone in this emptiness. Realizing her hands and feet were free, she flailed around, and turned in place.

"Ist hier jemand?!"

She stopped, and gasped.

Looking over her was an impossibly sized figure, a giant that took up most of the void in front of her. It was solid black, blocking out the stars behind it, and outlined in the aurora. As she adjusted to comprehend its scale, Misao's eyes widened when she realized that it was humanoid and shaped like a woman. The long-haired feminine figure's only other feature besides its size, were two piercing eyes that glowed a vibrant green as they stared down at her.

Looking to her right, Misao gasped and found a second figure, this time that of a man. He too looked down at her, his eyes a piercing blue. However, the light that outlined him was whiter and only the edges swirled with color. As she began to turn, she realized she was surrounded by more of the figures.

A wolf outlined in red, as its white eyes seemed to cast contempt upon her.

A man with a blue outline, sharing the green eyes of the first figure, his wild hair barely tamed in a ponytail.

A younger-shaped figure, with a light-yellow outline, and softer green eyes.

Another younger figure with straight cut long hair, their outline a gentle pink but eyes glowing yellow.

A final violet outlined female figure, with eyes that were a lighter shade of blue than the others, almost icy.

Misao turned in place, looking at them all, as tears began to fill her eyes and flow down her cheeks. "I'm sorry… I'm… I'm so sorry…"

She stopped and looked up at the first figure. "I… I don't… I… no… I can't do it again."

Curling forward, Misao began to sob. "I can't do it anymore. Please… let me give up."

"No."

Misao stopped her whimpering when she heard her own voice. She looked back, and she was staring at herself, bathed head to toe in a silvery light, and her hair a radiant alabaster. Her glowing copy outstretched her hand to her, palm outstretched for her to take it.

Immediately, Misao rebuked her. "No?! NO?! After everything you want to keep going and subject us–subject them to… we're just going to do this again?!"

Her twin nodded. "Yes. Because we love them."

Misao began to cry again.

"Who does this to the people they love…?"

And just as quickly as she spoke, she was rebuked.

"We have no choice!"

Those words gave Misao pause.

Her twin in silver and white continued. "We can't stop. We can't give up. We can't go back…"

Misao knew what she was going to say, even as she didn't know why she knew.

"… We can only go forward."

She looked at her own outstretched hand, beckoning her. Raising her head, looking up and around at the silent monolithic figures in the darkness, and then over her shoulder at the first one. She felt her burst of uncertainty and fear melt away and a resolve surge to take its place.

Why she felt these emotions, why she was so afraid before and so determined now… she didn't know… but she understood that taking the hand outstretched to her would give her the clarity she desired, and the direction to place this burning in her chest.

As the last of her tears dried, Misao reached out and took her twin's hand. The other Misao smiled,and nodded to her.

"Say it."

Words that Misao'd never heard before burst to the front of her thoughts, words that if she spoke, she knew she could never take back.

She didn't care.

"Tetractys Grammaton."

The last thing anyone had seen was Kombat Knat's jaws close like a bear trap on Mabel's head.

Then in the next instant, the monster was stumbling forward like a drunk stuck deep in a bottle.

Mabel was gone.

Not lifeless in his jaws, not headless on the ground. She had simply vanished.

After regaining his footing, a very confused Kombat Knat opened his jaws, but nothing came spilling out. "Ah?"

Marco turned to Hunterborg, relieved. "Super Speed is awesome."

Hunterborg was looking around, and then turned to Marco, Jackie, and Star. "… That wasn't me…"

Ron pointed past him. "Uhh… guys?"

Everyone looked in the direction direction he pointed and found Mabel alive and on the other end of the pool. She was alive and intact, and looking up at Misao.

"… Wow…"

The smaller girl stood, wearing from neck to toe a body fitting suit glowing as if it were made of white light with fitted crome plates on her arms, legs, and hips that sparkled and gleamed from the light the suit generated. From her back a pair of large, segmented, and telescoping protrusions extended upward, a full head taller than her, before curving downward to stop at just above her feet. A hazy light radiated from these wing-like protrusions–and on closer inspection, the source appeared to be transparent feathers made of glass.

Misao stared back down at Mabel, relieved that she was okay, then turned towards Kombat Knat.

"Oh my gosh," Star whispered. "That's so cool."

Marco was understandably concerned. "Yeah, but what is it, and why is she wearing it?"

Star stepped forward, to reach out and touch it. "I wanna touch–"

Jackie and Marco grabbed her, with the former calling out. "Careful!"

Ron turned to look at Junior. "Hey! What did you put on her?!"

Junior, still staring at Misao, just shook his head. "… I do not know, but I am glad I did."

Kim, much more cautiously, moved towards Misao. "Hey, um… whatever that is, I think you need to take it off."

Hunterborg, concerned, was already in communication with Dipper. "Hey, we got a problem."

Over at the Beetle Battle Base, Dipper and Janna looked up at the whited-out screens that had been showing them the battle and recording various sensor data.

"… Yeah," Dipper said, "I think you do."

Evading both the Strikerborg and Stingerborg, Shego landed back on the pool deck and stopped when she saw Misao and her light show of an armor. "What the heck is this?"

She looked towards Kombat Knat. "Hey! Don't just stand there looking gruesome, we need to go!"

The light that had been in front of her, was now behind her, and Shego turned to see Misao standing on the railing that separated the pool deck and the backyard. She was staring directly at her, the black and blue dye that colored her hair draining away slowly, leaving it white at the roots.

Down in the backyard, Stingerborg and Strikerborg both gave a start at how abruptly Misao appeared.

"Misao…?" Jo asked behind her armor.

Drew felt weird as he looked at her, like all his senses were jumbled up and being twisted in strange ways when his telekinesis came in contact with her. "… What's going on?"

Shego, after a moment of surprise, smirked and lunged forward to swing an energy laden blow at Misao. In an instant she was within arm's reach, but right as her hand reached Misao, the girl was suddenly just beyond it, even the trail of her energy not coming close.

The villainess gawped in surprise, but undeterred moved forward and swung at Misao again, this time with a left. Misao was again out of her reach.

Now she was confused. She hadn't seen the girl move to defend herself or evade. "How are you…?"

She quickly lashed out again, this time with a kick, but again it fell short of Misao.

It was when she drew her leg back, that Shego noticed two things that made her blood run cold.

First. Misao had not moved from the spot she had first appeared in.

Second. Shego had not moved from the spot she'd attacked Misao from.

Quickly, Shego looked Misao over, trying to figure out what was going on–and right away her eyes locked onto the dye evaporating from her hair, leaving white in its wake. It was several inches longer, but still moving at the same slow rate she had first noticed.

Shego blanched. "… Wait…"

With ferocity she attacked, and once more her attacks failed to reach Misao. Again, Misao did not move, and neither did Shego.

Kim tilted her head to the side as she watched Shego fight in place, swinging at Misao like she'd developed a very acute case of near-sightedness. "… Shego…?"

Marco and Jackie were similarly stumped by the villain's sudden passion for shadow boxing.

"Now I am even more confused," Marco admitted.

Panting heavily as she stopped, Shego focused her attention on Misao's hair. More of it was white than it should've been in the few moments she attacked her, but it was still changing at the same rate.

What was happening became starkly clear to Shego.

With a knowing look, Misao nodded. "Give up."

Shego put her hands up. "I surrender."

Kombat Knat, seeing his radiance in danger, ground his teeth together. The hateful light coming from the girl, trying to pull him from his radiance, it would not stand. He would not allow it.

Her glow would not be outshone by another, he would die bathed in her light.

"YOU WILL NOT OUTSHINE MY RADIANCE!"

Misao turned her attention to Kombat Knat as he yelled his war cry and lunged towards her. Her scowl deepened into a glower, as she looked at his widely-opened maw and what those teeth had threatened just a moment ago.

The wings of the armor began to glow brighter, as Kombat Knat neared.

And in the next instant, a halo of light appeared above the town of Echo Creek, briefly lighting the night sky.

@@@@@​

At the Beetle Battle Base, a power surge raced through the underground facility, but its sturdy magical construction weathered the surge, and everything returned to normal–even Dipper and Janna's view of the battlefield.

Dipper quickly contacted whoever he could. "Hey! You guys all right over there?"

Stingerborg answered first. "Yeah, we're okay, but… Kombat Knat is gone."

"Wait, gone? Did he shrink?"

"No," Stingerborg answered, "He's just not here."

Strikerborg scanned the area. "He didn't shrink down, he just vanished."

Lowering her guard after Kombat Knat blinked out of existence, Kim looked around. "What happened to the creepy bug monster?"

"You got me, but if he's gone, he's gone," Marco said before calling to Misao. "Uhh… Misao? Are you okay?"

"And what happened to your hair?!" Star asked.

Misao brought up a few strands and examined them. Her hair, from root to tip, was completely white.

"Yeah, dude, what… was that? What is that?" Jackie asked as the two of them carefully approached her.

Star stayed behind, silent, and wide-eyed.

Mabel walked past Shego, who still had her hands up, and walked over to Misao. "Are you okay…?"

Turning to her, Misao beamed, and the armor just dissolved away, leaving her in her clothes she'd been wearing prior. Then she leaped into Mabel's arms joyfully.

"Mein liebe!"

Mabel sagged in relief and cuddled Misao close. "Oh good, I was worried for a second. Suddenly you had armor, and Shego was shadowboxing you, then that monster just disappeared and I'm like whaaaaaaaa?"

Burying her face in her chest, Misao just shook her head. "It's… okay. It's so very okay… I am exhausted… and I will explain after I've slept for the next two hundred years."

She hugged Mabel tighter, and the taller girl began to stroke her now white hair.

"Okay… just stay here where it's safe."

"I don't think I've ever felt safer."

Mabel giggled and nuzzled the top of her head.

Star, like a blur, ran up to and hugged them both. "Challenge accepted!"

Without hesitation, Mabel and Misao welcomed her into their embrace, with Misao agreeing. "Ja, thank you so much, Star. You fought so bravely."

Jackie joined the hug, followed by Marco, and Misao sniffled. "You did all this for me… it's almost too much."

Strikerborg, made it onto the deck with Stingerborg and walked over to the group with Hunterborg–but didn't make the hug awkward with their heavy armor.

"Of course, we did it for you," Strikerborg said. "You're our friend."

Stingerborg agreed. "The first time we fought the Magnavores, we did it to protect you. I'll never forget that, and neither should you."

Hunterborg lightly punched Stingerborg's shoulder as he chimed in. "Exactly, not only are we protecting Echo Creek and the world, but we're also looking out for each other, too."

Shego, still not resisting, just patiently allowed Kim to cuff her hands together with a pair of heavy, hand-encasing shackles that sent a disruptive surge of energy through her and nullified her powers. She wasn't even paying attention to Kim, just staring at the two hugging friends.

"So…?" Kim asked.

"So what?" Shego asked.

"Why suddenly so agreeable?"

Shego finally paid her a glance, and smirked. "If you have to ask, I'll never tell."

Kim rolled her eyes. "Figures."

Junior called to his victorious adversaries. "I must know. How did you track me so fast? I was certain I would have a long lead on you."

Mabel giggled, Misao joining her. Looking over at the two, then to Star, Jackie began chuckling. Star, bringing a hand to her mouth likewise started snickering. Kim's smirk broadened like she knew what was going on, too.

Marco looked back and forth between the giggling girls. "What… what did you do?"

Strikerborg broke into a caustic laugh.

Stingerborg was as lost as Marco. "Uhh…?"

"What's so funny?" Ron asked.

Behind the Hunterborg mask, Roland's eyes rolled. "… You didn't…"

"We had a tracking device on her!" Mabel revealed.

Junior stared at Mabel, blinking. "I checked her for devices, I removed all of them!"

"And you were thorough," Misao commended. "You missed a secret compartment, however."

With that, Mabel reached into the cleavage created by Misao's shirt, and pulled out her cell phone. "Victoria's Secret compartment."

Junior's mouth fell agape, as he stared at Mabel's phone, then at Misao's chest, then abruptly at Mabel's face.

"I never would've looked there."

The girls all burst into loud peals of laughter. Marco, his face red, averted his eyes from Misao and Mabel while Star gently petted him atop his head in consolation. Ron rolled his eyes, as the girls all enjoyed their inside joke.

Jackie smirked at Misao. "I'm surprised one of us didn't hide in there to jump out and surprise them."

Misao laughed even harder. "I bet I could hide a whole AV, ja?"

"Oh my gosh!" Mabel cried out, all but in tears.

Junior, grimacing, just shook his head. "Mierda…"

Shego, however, was surprisingly forgiving of Junior's screw up. "Hey, it's okay. You're not that guy, SSJ."

Junior looked over at her. "Oh?"

"You never would've looked there, and I'd have taken your hand off if you reached in. Learn from your mistakes and do better. Maybe have an EMP device set up to fry any electronics…"

"Or a faraday cage?" Junior suggested.

Shego brightened. "Yeah, perfect. A little pricey, but they pay for themselves quick."

"HEY!"

Everyone stopped and looked back to see Trip–finally untied by Dudley–stumble out onto his patio. He looked around at the damage done to his property, and at those responsible.

"WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK?!" He held his hands towards his damaged fire pit, then towards the pool deck, then to his chewed-up lawn riddled with wrecked Unmanned Gears and Beetleborg AVs.

"YOU TRASHED MY HOUSE!"

Marco answered quickly. "And?"

Trip focused all of his hatred on Marco. "Oh no… don't you fucking start."

In Dipper's stead, Marco would clap back with all his might. "No need to worry, we're done."

He began to hyperventilate. "You… you…"

Staring at the group who invaded his home, shaking, tears began to well in his eyes before he erupted.

"… WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE?!"

He pointed back and forth between them. "You… whatever you want… you just do whatever the FUCK you want, and you act like there are no consequences for you! You're fucking POOR! You're fucking LOSERS!"

Ron recognized him. "Hey, that's the kid Dipper punched in that video."

Marco gave Ron a sidelong look. "Would you believe that he is still angry over that?"

"It's why we're even here," Stingerborg lamented.

Trip screeched. "DON'T TALK LIKE I'M NOT HERE! DOES IT EVEN FUCKING MATTER THAT I CAN HAVE YOU ALL KILLED IN AN INSTANT?! YOUR FAMILIES?! EVERYONE YOU KNOW?!"

Kim turned to the others. "What is wrong with him?"

Strikerborg answered. "He's well along in a mental breakdown."

Star piped in. "It really is like Jeremy Birnbaum…"

He slammed his hands onto his chest. "I'M TRIP VANDERHOFF, MOTHERFUCKERS! I'M A FUCKING MILLIONAIRE! OUR FAMILY OWNS HALF THIS TOWN! I OWN HOUSES IN LAS VEGAS! IN BRAZIL! IN FUCKING WASHINGTON DC! MY DAD COULD GO TO THE WHITE HOUSE AND HAVE YOU ALL LABELED AS TERRORISTS!"

Mabel walked over to him.

"THE ONLY REASON YOU EVEN GET TO KNOW ME IS BECAUSE I CAME TO YOUR POOR ASS PUBLIC SCHOOL SO YOU COULD SEE WHAT A REAL HUMAN BEING LOOKS LIKE!"

He stopped for a moment, breathing heavily, sweat and tears pouring down his face, before he shrieked at Mabel.

"YOU'RE NOTHING! YOU'RE NO ONE! YOU WILL NEVER HAVE ANYTHING I HAVE BUT YOU KEEP ACTING LIKE YOU'RE FUCKING PEO–"

Taking him by the shoulder, she punched Trip in the stomach, and the boy collapsed to the ground, squealing and bawling like a horse with a broken leg.

She stared down at him as he curled up into a sobbing ball and shook her head. "It's about time you stopped trippin'."

With that she turned to walk back over but stopped when she saw Van standing in the doorway, hesitantly.

Extending her hand, Mabel gestured to him. "Do you want any?"

Van just shook his head no.

Mabel smiled, and walked back over to the group. "I thought so."

"This is the guy who bullied me since I met him," Stingerborg said quietly as Trip sobbed and whimpered.

Ron looked at the Blue armored hero. "What does someone have to do to have a kid turn out like this?"

Jackie answered him. "Everything wrong."

Marco nodded in agreement.

Star sighed. "I don't think he's ever been hugged."

Stingerborg cut deeper than his blade ever could. "Look at that guy, and tell me with a straight face there was ever anyone who wanted to?"

As Misao embraced Mabel again, the taller girl did give Trip a quick look back, then just shook her head no.

The sound of cars pulling into the Vanderhoffs' driveway caught everyone's attention. A dark SUV followed by a sedan, and another dark SUV pulled in and parked in plain view of the pool. From the two SUVs emerged a half-dozen men in black not unlike Brittney's guard detail for the dance–armed with submachine guns and wearing dark sunglasses at night. Two more such men exited the front of the sedan, but from the back emerged two women.

As the men with guns spread out and began to secure the premises, the two women walked through the hole in the wall the Blue Stinger AV made and past the wrecked Fenrir to make their way up onto the deck. Coming to a stop in front of the group of teenagers and the captured villains, the smaller woman–barely taller than Misao–stepped forward.

On closer inspection, everyone realized she was identical to Misao in almost every way, apart from being slenderly built as Star or Kim and having short black hair and dark eyes. Looking back and forth between the group, she nodded in greeting.

"So… you are the people who have been protecting Misao," she said.

Trip looked up at the woman, while Van blanched and took several steps back. The kids all looked at one another and back to her as she continued.

"Before anything else, please…"

The woman bowed deeply to them.

"From the bottom of my heart, thank you for everything that you've done. Without asking and without reward, you placed yourself at great risk to take care of her, and I do not think enough gratitude exists for that."

She stood upright and introduced herself. "My name is Momiji Hyuuga, and I am her mother."

"Hello, Mama," Misao greeted.

Momiji cast a small smile at her. To the woman who accompanied Momiji, Misao smiled a little bigger.

"And hello, Miss Reiko."

The tall redheaded woman smiled back. "It's been a while."

Mabel replied. "Being here for Misao was a reward by itself!"

Star agreed. "Yeah, she's one of my besties~!"

A portal opened up on the edge of the pool, and through it Janna and Dipper appeared, the latter holding the Dimensional Scissors. Momiji and Reiko turned to the two, surprised at the arrival of the pair and the means they traveled.

Shego eyed the scissors with interest. "Now that's fancy."

Dipper shot a look in Shego's direction. "Isn't it, though?"

Momiji greeted them. "Hello, Dipper, Janna. That's almost everyone… where's your Grandfather?"

Hauling the Schwanzstucker over his shoulder with one hand, with Waddles trotting alongside him, Shermie arrived onto the pool deck and walked over to the group gathered by the fire pit. "Right here. Good to see you again, Maple! It's been what, 15 years? You look great."

Momiji's eyebrows rose. "And you look… alive, no offense. A man your age being in such… shape."

Marco gawked for a moment at Shermie just lugging around an anti-tank rifle like it was nothing, then spoke up. "Uhh… kind of an understatement."

Jackie whispered to Mabel. "… Is it okay if I think your grandfather looks kinda cool?"

Mabel remained cheerful. "I don't wanna answer that."

Star kept her questions to herself, while Misao and Kim both coughed in unison.

Luckily Waddles trotted up to Mabel's feet to change the subject. "Oh, look, it's my little man!"

Snorting in greeting, Waddles gracelessly stood up on his hindlegs to be picked up. Before Mabel could, Misao immediately scooped him up and hugged him close.

Momiji stared at Waddles, surprised. "… Ah… a pig?"

"His name is Waddles," Mabel said as she patted his side. "And he's an angel."

Staring at her daughter cuddling him, a look of envy appeared on the woman's face, before she quickly regained her composure and cleared her throat.

"Right, let's get to the matter at hand…" She looked back and forth among the group. "Given everything I've learned to this point, I would like to extend mine and Hyuuga Heavy Industries' assistance in dealing with the Magnavores."

Dipper nodded. "That would be helpful."

Hunterborg then spoke up. "Okay, but how much help are we talking here?"

Shermie looked at the old rifle over his shoulder. "Given that one of these guys was shrugging off AP rounds from ol' Schwanztucker here? I think whatever I have in storage might not cut it."

"You're in luck, we have a considerable arsenal at our disposal. Even with our previous commitments, we can set something aside as needed," Momiji assured them.

Stingerborg asked. "How overt are you going to be? We'd like to keep the Magnavores focused on us and not attacking anyone else."

"We can do discreet," Momiji answered, "I'll even introduce you to a special liaison for our company who's based in Reseda."

As the Beetleborgs agreed, Dipper asked. "We're starting to get more visible. There isn't something you can do about that, too, is there?"

Janna agreed. "Yeah, you're a near-trillion dollar corporation with hands in a lot of places. How about flexing some of that muscle for the good of mankind?"

Momiji nodded. "We'll do what we can, but you guys will need to show your faces less in front of a lot of cameras so we can hash out a narrative that keeps you at the back of people's minds."

Kim spoke. "If you like, I can say something to the press about all of this."

Turning to Kim, Momiji lit up. "Yes, Miss Possible?"

Ron leaned over. "And Ron, Ron Stoppable, Miss Hyuuga."

"A pleasure."

As everyone's attention turned to Kim, she explained. "The Magnavores are just cosplay villains… and you guys are cosplay heroes taking care of them."

"Oh yeah!" Star said, before she turned to Shego. "You said that cosplay villains are pretty cringe, right?"

"Extremely," Shego replied.

Junior had to agree. "It is awkward whenever a supervillain or superhero appears dressed up as someone fictional."

Shego continued. "It's especially weird when they expect you to play along–like this is a LARP or something."

Strikerborg shivered. "Eugh, just hearing you describe it like that makes me cringe."

Turning to Mabel, Shermie asked. "I'm not too caught up on this new lingo, how bad is this 'cringe', girlchik?"

Mabel sighed explosively. "It is the worst, Sherpa. When you're cringe, you're causing people to have secondhand embarrassment for you. You never want to be cringe, you want to be based."

"And that's no problem for you," Misao added. "You are very based, Sherpa."

"Not too sure what that one is either, but if you gals think it's swell, then I am happy to be the basest guy around. It's like hip, right?"

"No," Misao said, cringing a little.

Mabel gave her Sherpa a hard look. "We'll sort it out after we finish establishing the new status quo."

"Avoiding the subject of based vs. cringe," Kim said.

"Which in of itself is kind of cringe," Strikerborg chirped.

Kim gave Strikerborg a sharp look not-unlike Mabel's to Shermie. "Most people will just write off the cosplay fights as a bunch of nerds slap-fighting, and not actually a struggle for the fate of existence."

Shego did a double take. "Hold-up–"

Curtly Momiji nodded to a guard. "Gag her."

One of the bodyguards immediately slapped a wad of very sticky tape over Shego's lips. Indignantly and impotently, she bristled.

Junior wisely stayed quiet.

Stingerborg really liked the sound of this arrangement. "That's actually perfect. We don't want anyone to come anywhere near this. So, thank you, Kim, Miss Hyuuga."

"It's no big," Kim replied. "Actually, when I first heard about you guys and the Magnavores, I really thought it was just a nerd fight."

"You're were barely even trending anywhere until that throwdown with Typhus," Ron said.

Dipper's gaze lingered on Shego and Junior, before he moved on. "That takes care of that. Now, about our other problem."

As he said this, he looked over at Trip and Van. They, with Dudley, were surrounded by several of Momiji's men. Looking back at the young man, she nodded. "Quite."

Trip stared at Momiji as she walked towards them, slowly shaking his head. Consecutive waves of the complete and total fear that he'd suppressed with bravado and the assurance of his wealth and supremacy in Echo Creek crashed over him with every step the woman took.

His eyes quickly darted to Dudley and his brother. The old butler stood straight, without a care in the world, while his brother wasn't even looking at Momiji or anyone, just down at his feet with an expression that resembled almost a kind of relief–or acceptance of what was about to happen.

Turning his attention back to Momiji, he quickly spoke. "Please, it was… it was all a joke… a prank, right? We–"

"No," Momiji said sharply, cutting him off. "My daughter cloned your brother's phone. I've read every message you and your brother sent back and forth to the people you were hiring to torment 'Pine Tree', his sister, and 'the fat foreign chick.'"

Trip blanched and shrank away from her.

"Though we have a distant and complicated relationship, Misao is still my daughter, and I love and cherish her deeply," Momiji informed the brothers. "In fact, the main reason we have such an arrangement, is because my greatest fear is that my business and reputation will cause people who wish me harm to harm her."

Despite being a full head shorter than Van, she seemed to loom over both brothers in presence. "It has happened before, and the people who attempted did not live to regret it."

Van visibly flinched, while Trip whimpered and shut his eyes tightly in terror.

"Sadly, for you, you will."

Trip's eyes opened. "… What?"

Momiji nodded slowly.

"Here's what's going to happen: Your father, Thaddeus Vanderhoff II is going to wake up in his hotel and find that his credit cards have been canceled, his bank accounts emptied and closed, his business shut down and sold, and all of his personal property sold off."

Trip collapsed onto his backside. "… What?"

Mabel whispered to Dipper. "… Thaddeus?"

Dipper whispered back. "I think that's worse than mine…"

"Everything he owns–and by extension everything you own–is now property of several shell companies owned by Hyuuga Heavy Industries that will soon vanish into the aether themselves when their purpose is complete. The property that Zoom Comics currently occupies, for example, has already been paid off and signed over to Nano Williams. The trust funds with your respective names for them, have been similarly signed off on and the money dumped into numerous charities all in yours and your father's names."

She opened her hand to them. "That is not all. As I speak, efforts are being completed to remove you from pertinent legal documents relative to the state of California and the United States of America. You are penniless, landless, and by the sunrise you will be nameless."

Van, still looking down, murmured. "… Even our names…"

Trip's glasses slipped from his nose, as the totality of what he'd been told sank in. "… Why?"

Momiji looked down her nose at him.

"Because no one is above facing the consequences for their actions."

She nodded to the men standing guard. "Bag them and take them up north. I can't bear the sight of them."

Trip shrieked in panic. "NO, WAIT–!"

Whatever plea he tried to offer ended with a black bag brought down over his head. Viciously he began to struggle, kicking and lunging to get out of the hands of the guards that hauled him up to his feet.

As if oblivious to his brother's struggles, Van just gave Dipper, Mabel, and Misao a long and resigned look.

All three met it, but not even Mabel returned any sympathy in her gaze.

Accepting that, Van Vanderhoff closed his eyes and quietly let the bag fall over his head. He did not fight back, as he turned and walked with the guards leading him away.

Marco had words for what he'd just seen. "That's more intense than I'd expected that to go."

Janna nudged him. "Welcome to the billionaires club, Marco."

Star agreed. "Yeah, that's about right for what to expect at this level of power and influence."

In a stage whisper she added. "You rarely see it used for good."

With that in mind, Marco replied. "That's horrifying."

Dipper turned to him. "Right?!"

No one could see it Drew grinning ear to ear as he watched Trip and Van get stuffed into the back of one of the SUVs.

He had half a mind to ask Momiji if they could swing by and pick up his father, too.

As if Jo could hear his thoughts, she turned to look at his brother and directly contacted him so no one else could hear. "He deserves so much worse than to simply disappear."

Pausing, Drew quietly agreed.

Behind his helmet, all thoughts towards the Vanderhoffs had vanished from Roland's head altogether. More than having to pay a cent of rent to them, they now owned the entire building. He quickly contacted Jo and Drew.

"This is amazing! Nano's been saving up money to buy the building for years! Now she can put it towards expanding the store!"

Jo gasped at the implication. "Oh my gosh, Zoom's gonna be bigger and better than ever!"

With a curt nod towards the fate of the brothers, Shermie walked over and ruffled up Mabel and Dipper's respective hair. "Honestly, it's better than what I woulda done to them. Nobody messes with my grandkids."

A scary gleam filled Shermie's glasses, obscuring his eyes. "Nobody."

Jackie, still looking at the massive gun, nodded. "Yeah, I'm actually surprised you didn't make their heads explode with that thing when you had the shot."

The gleam was still there as Shermie whispered back. "What makes you think I wasn't tempted?"

Ron turned to Kim. "Uh KP, is letting them do this okay? I think this is way outside of our general moral compass."

Rocking her head from side to side, Kim shrugged her shoulders. "The way I see it; they so weren't going to stop until somebody died. If this is how they wanna deal with it, then… okay?"

"Kim, that's not very lawful good."

Kim wagged her hand. "Neutral good… lawful neutral…?"

Misao turned her attention to Ron. "If someone messed with your friend like that, what would you do?"

Ron opened his mouth to answer, and the words almost spilled out. "I would have a lengthy discussion about trying to hurt someone I cared about. I'm more of a lover, than a fighter–or whatever THAT was."

The ominous presence permeating Shermie vanished as he chuckled. "I just hope you never have to worry about something happening to you and your paramour here."

Immediately both held up their hands. "Whoa, we are not together!"

Kim gestured to Ron. "We're best friends…"

Ron finished. "… But we've never been like that, no. As a matter of fact, she's not here, but I have a girlfriend. And KP's got her own boyfriend."

The other kids stared in surprise at Kim and Ron.

They both stared back.

"What?" Kim asked.

Jackie looked stricken. "… My ship…"

Mabel pouted at Ron, sniffling. "You're not single…?"

Hunterborg hung his head. "Damn, that's what they meant by never meet your heroes."

Dipper gingerly put it forward to the human members of Team Possible. "Honestly? We all kinda thought that you were… um…"

Kim recoiled. "Are any of you?"

Marco and Star raised their hands. "Yeah, us."

The only person in the group to look surprised was Dipper.

Ron gestured to them. "See? That makes sense."

Kim could not accept that. "What? When?!"

She looked between Marco and Jackie. "What about Jarco?!"

Star gasped in excitement. "Ohmygoshshewatchesmyvlog."

Junior piped up. "It's very good. Please update it more?"

Jackie was similarly starstruck. "Oh my gosh, Kim Possible ships me with Marco."

She turned and looked at Marco and Star. "… OT3?"

Marco paled. "Stop playing!"

"Who said anything about playing?" Janna suggested.

Pointing at her, Marco quickly answered. "By way of you implying anything as real, I know it to be a lie!"

Janna chuckled mischievously; Jackie shot a muted glare at her.

Star, however, looked rather thoughtful.

Dipper looked at the house. "So what happens now?"

Momiji looked back at the Vanderhoffs' home. "I've already got people on standby to remove the personal effects and repossess all vehicles. Otherwise, the house is free to whomever wants it, HHI will foot the expenses of maintaining it."

Thinking of Hillhurst, Dipper agreed. "We've already got one fixer-upper to deal with, but… we'll definitely take it. We can use it as a safehouse–someplace to disappear off to if any of our homes or Hillhurst becomes too hot."

Momiji brightened. "Speaking of, would you like something done about that place, too?"

"No thanks," Stingerborg said. "The current residents are already tired of us."

Jackie chimed in. "Oh no, they're cool, now."

"They are?" Drew asked, as Marco rolled his eyes.

"Believe it or not, Jackie cut a deal with them," he said. "They promised they won't try to kill us as long as she remains their 'connection.'"

A chorus of "Ohhs" resounded, and Marco blanched.

"Wait, does everybody know about the weed?" He asked the others.

Hunterborg nodded. "Yeah, bruh, her family owns the only dispensary in Echo Creek. My parents buy from them all the time."

"Yeah," Strikerborg said.

"You didn't know?" Stingerborg asked him in turn.

"… Not until Saturday," Marco admitted.

Misao chimed in. "I have yet to partake, but Sherman Farm is her distributor, so I know it's good."

Momiji let out a gentle laugh. "Well, hopefully now you'll be able to do so without worrying too much about anyone running off with you."

That Misao agreed. "Oh, Mama, I have wanted to stream so much. My set up is already reassembled, but it is collecting dust at the house."

Walking up to her, Momiji embraced her daughter. "Well, I won't keep you from your new home any longer. There is still much to be done here, and I need to get this back to HHI."

As she pulled back, she held the necklace Señor Senior Junior placed on her.

Looking at the necklace, Mabel spoke up. "That thing that Señor Senior Junior put on her, what is it?"

Ron was curious as well. "… And why did it have a super cool armor in it?"

Kim grew curious. "Is it something like Project Centurion? Why did he put it on her?"

Momiji looked at the necklace, and then at the group. "To answer what it is, this is a weapon called Type-0. My company is developing it for dealing with things like the Magnavores… and worse. As for why he put it on her…?"

Momiji turned to Junior, who looked away. Shego went stiff and stared at Junior wide-eyed.

"I did not know what it would do," he admitted, "I put it on her to find out what exactly what the weapon was… I did not realize it could do that."

Shego began yelling a few choice things that everyone present was happy to not understand.

For Kim, it was music to her ears and a perfect note to end the night on. "Ms. Hyuuga is onto something, we should get out of here before the police show up."

Dipper tossed the Dimensional Scissors to Marco. "Misao, Mabel, and I will head home with Grandpa, then."

Stingerborg turned and headed over to his AV. "We'll take the AVs back to the Beetle Battle Base and meet up with you guys tomorrow."

"Sounds good, see you then," Dipper replied.

Shermie tugged on his bowtie and let it snap back into place. "I'd be honored to give Team Possible a ride in the Sherman-mobile if you kids need a lift."

Ron happily accepted. "I'm fine with that. No offense but traveling through magical dimensional portals doesn't sit well with me."

"Oh no, it's okay," Marco said, "It takes a little getting used to… but it's way better than Star's spell to return home."

Star flinched, remembering that spell. "Yeah… I'm still sorry about that."

Kim could not resist the allure of the magic portal. "I dunno, I kinda want to try the magical portal."

Ron ushered her on. "C'mon, KP, get in the car."

Soon the AVs were on their way out, heading down the hill. Star, Marco, Janna, and Jackie bade their farewells before heading through the portal. As Shego and Junior were carted off into the second black SUV, the Pines and Misao climbed into Shermie's car and on their way back home.

Watching Shermie's white SUV pull out of sight, Reiko looked down at Momiji. "So… now that she's used it, do you suppose she's awakened?"

"I could tell the moment we spoke to one another."

Momiji shut her eyes and let a smile grace her lips. "I don't think this has happened before, where she's been with people like this… I hope this is a good sign."

= - = 7-6 = - =

|The Ruler of Everything|​

"Aw man, aw man…!"

Noxic was in distress, seeing not only Jara but Typhus too dragging themselves into his nearly finished workshop looking absolutely wrecked.

The hive-like structure at the center hummed with activity, with Scabs crawling over scaffolds and metallic wasps buzzing in clouds that went on despite the arrival of the battered Magnavores.

"What the heck happened to you guys?! Did the job Vexor gave you go bad?!"

Jara, holding her hand over the broken section of her mask, shook her head. "I do not want to talk about it. Fix my mask."

Noxic reeled from the news. "YOUR MASK BROKE?!"

Typhus nodded. "Yeah, that blue Beetle brat…"

Jara turned to let her mask glower at him.

He quickly changed the subject. "But even worse, Kombat Knat betrayed me."

And now Noxic was just confused. "Typhus, your creations are like your kids, ain't they? Don't they love you?"

Typhus growled. "I thought he did… but then he met a girl who got him all messed up."

Noxic threw his hands up. "Of course. It would be a woman that'll get a guy thinking crazy!"

He stopped and turned to his other best friend. "No offense, Jara."

"Some taken," she said flatly.

"But still!" Noxic pressed. "Can't you just switch him off? Yank his chain?"

Typhus looked down, his voice low. "After Kamaza, I swore never to build another creature that only obeyed. Blind loyalty causes more trouble than it's worth."

His jaw tightened. "Didn't expect him to just walk out on me, though. Chasing her like a moth to a flame."

Jara spoke up. "That energy that woman radiated."

Typhus mulled over it. "She really was a bug zapper, huh?"

Noxic scratched his head. "Geez. The one time we need a creepy bug monster, and he goes chasing headlights."

He perked up. "So, why don't we try to get him back?"

After a few moments of pondering going out there again and thinking about how defiant Kombat Knat was to him… Typhus raised his head.

"Yannow what? At the end of the day, there are lots of things worth dying for, and a whole lot of them are better than being under Vexor's thumb."

A long silence fell as the three Magnavore commanders let Typhus' realization sink in. Even some of the wasps circling the workshop's central hive structure held in the air.

With that to consider, Noxic withdrew his suggestion. "Yeah, you're right."

Jara finally removed her mask, back turned to both as she held it out for Noxic. "May Kombat Knat find his destiny, free of Vexor."

Typhus nodded in agreement. "Yeah, bathed in radiance, baby."

@@@@@​

Misao heard the click of the necklace and blinked in surprise.

She was no longer in the Vanderhoffs' living room. She was suddenly adrift in an endless, star-filled void, far away from any celestial body but surrounded by them in every direction and a haunting ethereal light not-unlike the Aurora Borealis of the northern reaches of the world.

"Wo… wo bin ich?" !She asked aloud, her voice echoing only in her head. "Was passiert?!"

Despite the infinite expanse, she cannot help but feel she is not alone in this emptiness. Realizing her hands and feet were free, she flailed around, and turned in place.

"Ist hier jemand?!"

She stopped, and gasped.

Looking over her was an impossibly sized figure, a giant that took up most of the void in front of her. It was solid black, blocking out the stars behind it, and outlined in the aurora.

As she adjusted to comprehend its scale, Misao's eyes widened when she realized that it was humanoid and shaped like a woman. The long-haired feminine figure's only other feature besides its size, were two piercing eyes that glowed a vibrant green as they stared down at her.

Looking to her right, Misao gasped and found a second figure, this time that of a man. He too looked down at her, his eyes a piercing blue. However, the light that outlined him was whiter and only the edges swirled with color.

As she began to turn, she realized she was surrounded by more of the figures.

A wolf outlined in red. A man whose green eyes matched the first. Two youthful figures, outlined in yellow and pink. A final woman, violet, her icy gaze colder than the stars themselves.

Misao turned in place, looking at them all, as tears began to fill her eyes and flow down her cheeks. An immense, unfathomable sorrow overcame her. Grief like nothing she ever felt before washing relentlessly through.

"I'm sorry… I'm… I'm so sorry…"

She stopped and looked up at the first figure.

"I… I don't… I… no… I can't do it again."

Curling forward, Misao began to sob. "I can't do it anymore. Please… let me give up."

"No."

Misao stopped her whimpering when she heard her own voice.

She looked back, and she was staring at herself, bathed head to toe in a silvery light, and her hair a radiant alabaster. Her glowing copy outstretched her hand to her, palm outstretched for her to take it.

Immediately, Misao rebuked her.

"No?! NO?! After everything you want to keep going and subject us, subject them to… we're just going to do this again?!"

Her twin nodded. "Yes. Because we love them."

Misao began to cry again.

"Who does this to the people they love…?"

And just as quickly as she spoke, she was rebuked.

"We have no choice!"

Those words gave Misao pause.

Her twin in silver and white continued.

"We can't stop. We can't give up. We can't go back…"

Misao knew what she was going to say, even as she didn't know why she knew.

"… We can only go forward."

She looked at her own outstretched hand, beckoning her.

Raising her head, looking up and around at the silent monolithic figures in the darkness, and then over her shoulder at the first one.

She felt her burst of grief, uncertainty, and fear melt away and a resolve surge to take its place.

Why she felt these emotions, why she was so afraid before and so determined now… she didn't know… but she understood that taking the hand outstretched to her would give her the clarity she desired, and the direction to take this burning in her chest.

As the last of her tears dried, Misao reached out and took her twin's hand.

The other Misao smiled, and nodded to her.

"Say it."

Words that Misao had never heard before burst to the front of her thoughts, words that if she spoke, she knew she could never take back.

She didn't care.

"Tetractys Grammaton."

The last thing anyone had seen was Kombat Knat's jaws close like a bear trap on Mabel's head.

Then in the next instant, the monster was stumbling forward like a drunk stuck deep in a bottle.

Mabel was gone.

Not lifeless in his jaws, not headless on the ground. She had simply vanished.

After regaining his footing, a very confused Kombat Knat opened his jaws, but nothing came spilling out. "Ah?"

Marco turned to Hunterborg, relieved. "Super Speed is awesome."

Hunterborg was looking around, and then turned to Marco, Jackie, and Star. "… That wasn't me…"

Ron pointed past him. "Uhh… guys?"

Everyone looked in the direction he pointed and found Mabel alive and on the other end of the pool. She was alive and intact, and looking up at Misao.

"… Wow…"

The smaller girl stood, wearing from neck to toe a body fitting suit glowing as if it were made of white light with fitted chrome plates on her arms, legs, and hips that sparkled and gleamed from the light the suit generated. From her back a pair of large, segmented, and telescoping protrusions extended upward, a full head taller than her, before curving downward to stop at just above her feet.

A hazy light radiated from these wing-like protrusions; on closer inspection, the source appeared to be transparent feathers made of glass.

Misao stared back down at Mabel, relieved that she was okay, then turned towards Kombat Knat.

"Oh my gosh," Star whispered. "That's so cool."

Marco was understandably concerned. "Yeah, but what is it, and why is she wearing it?"

Star stepped forward, to reach out and touch it. "I wanna touch–"

Jackie and Marco grabbed her, with the former calling out. "Careful!"

Ron turned to look at Junior. "Hey! What did you put on her?!"

Junior, still staring at Misao, just shook his head. "… I do not know, but I am glad I did."

Kim, much more cautiously, moved towards Misao. "Hey, um… whatever that is, I think you need to take it off."

Hunterborg, concerned, was already in communication with Dipper. "Hey, we have a problem."

Over at the Beetle Battle Base, Dipper and Janna looked up at the white screens that had been previously showing them the battle and recording various sensor data.

"… Yeah," Dipper said, "I think you do."

Evading both the Strikerborg and Stingerborg, Shego landed back on the pool deck and stopped when she saw Misao and her light show of an armor.

"What the heck is this Clash of the Titans sparkly armor crap?"

She looked towards Kombat Knat. "Hey! Don't just stand there looking gruesome, we need to go!"

The light that had been in front of her, was now behind her, and Shego turned to see Misao standing on the railing that separated the pool deck and the backyard.

She was staring directly at her, the black and blue dye that colored her hair draining away slowly, leaving it white at the roots.

Stingerborg and Strikerborg both gave a start at how abruptly Misao appeared.

"Misao…?" Jo asked behind her mask.

Drew felt weird as he looked at her, like all his senses were jumbled up and being twisted in strange ways when his telekinesis came in contact with her. "… What's going on?"

Shego, after a moment of surprise, smirked and lunged forward to swing an energy laden blow at Misao. In an instant she was within arm's reach, but right as her hand reached Misao, the girl was suddenly just beyond it, even the trail of her energy not coming close.

The villainess gaped in surprise, but undeterred moved forward and swung at Misao again, this time with a left. Misao was again out of her reach.

Now she was confused. She hadn't seen the girl move to defend herself or evade. "How are you…?"

She quickly lashed out again, this time with a kick, but again it fell short of Misao.

It was when she drew her leg back, that Shego noticed two things that made her blood run cold.

First. Misao had not moved from the spot she had first appeared in.

Second. Shego had not moved from the spot she'd attacked Misao from.

Quickly, Shego looked Misao over, trying to figure out what was going on.

Right away her eyes locked onto the dye evaporating from her hair, leaving white in its wake. It was several inches longer, but still moving at the same slow rate she had first noticed.

Shego blanched. "… Wait…"

With ferocity she attacked, and once more her attacks failed to reach Misao.

Kim tilted her head to the side as she watched Shego fight in place, swinging at Misao like she'd developed a very acute case of near-sightedness. "… Shego…?"

Marco and Jackie were similarly stumped by the villain's sudden passion for shadow boxing.

"Now I am even more confused," Marco admitted.

Panting heavily as she stopped, Shego focused her attention on Misao's hair.

More of it was white than it should've been, but it was still changing at the same rate.

What was happening became starkly clear to Shego.

With a knowing look, Misao nodded. "Give up."

Shego held her hands high. "I give up."

Kombat Knat, seeing his radiance in danger, ground his teeth together. The hateful light coming from the girl, trying to pull him from his radiance would not stand. He would not allow it.

Her glow would not be outshone by another, he would die bathed in her light.

"YOU WILL NOT OUTSHINE MY RADIANCE!"

Misao turned her attention to Kombat Knat as he yelled his war cry and lunged towards her. Her scowl deepened into a glare, as she looked at his widely-opened maw and what those teeth had threatened just a moment ago.

The wings of the armor began to glow brighter, as Kombat Knat neared.

And in the next instant, a halo of light appeared above the town of Echo Creek, briefly lighting the night sky.

@@@@@​

At the Beetle Battle Base, a power surge raced through the underground facility, but its sturdy magical construction weathered the surge, and everything returned to normal, even Dipper and Janna's view of the battlefield.

Dipper quickly contacted whoever he could. "Hey! You guys all right over there?"

Stingerborg answered first. "Yeah, we're okay, but… Kombat Knat is gone."

"Wait, gone? Did he shrink?"

"No," Stingerborg answered, "He's just not here."

Strikerborg scanned the area. "He didn't shrink down, he just vanished."

Lowering her guard after Kombat Knat blinked out of existence, Kim looked around. "What happened to the creepy bug monster?"

"You got me, but if he's gone, he's gone," Marco said before calling to Misao. "Uhh… Misao? Are you okay?"

"And what happened to your hair?!" Star asked.

Misao brought up a few strands and examined them. Her hair, from root to tip, was completely white.

"Yeah, dude, what… was that? What is that?" Jackie asked as the two of them carefully approached her.

Star stayed behind, silent, and wide-eyed.

Mabel walked past Shego, who still had her hands up, and walked over to Misao. "Are you okay…?"

Turning to her, Misao beamed, and the armor just dissolved away, leaving her in her clothes she'd been wearing prior. Then she leaped into Mabel's arms joyfully.

"Mein liebe!"

Mabel sagged in relief and cuddled Misao close. "Oh good, I was worried for a second. Suddenly you had armor, and Shego was shadowboxing you, then that monster just disappeared and I'm like whaaaaaaaa?"

Burying her face in her chest, Misao just shook her head. "It's… okay. It's so very okay… I am exhausted… and I will explain after I've slept for the next two hundred years."

She hugged Mabel tighter, and the taller girl began to stroke her now white hair.

"Okay… just stay here where it's safe."

"I don't think I've ever felt safer."

Mabel giggled and nuzzled the top of her head.

Star, like a blur, ran up to and hugged them both. "Challenge accepted!"

Without hesitation, Mabel and Misao welcomed her into their embrace, with Misao agreeing. "Ja, thank you so much, Star. You fought so bravely."

Jackie joined the hug, followed by Marco, and Misao sniffled. "You did all this for me… it's almost too much."

Strikerborg and Stingerborg walked over to the group with Hunterborg, but didn't make the hug awkward with their heavy armor.

"Of course, we did it for you," Strikerborg said. "You're our friend."

Stingerborg agreed. "The first time we fought the Magnavores, we did it to protect you. I'll never forget that, and neither should you."

Hunterborg lightly punched Stingerborg's shoulder as he chimed in. "Exactly, not only are we protecting Echo Creek and the world, but we're also looking out for each other, too."

Shego, still not resisting, patiently allowed Kim to cuff her hands together with a pair of heavy, hand-encasing shackles that sent a disruptive surge of energy through her and nullified her powers.

She wasn't even paying attention to Kim, just staring at the two hugging friends.

"So…?" Kim asked.

"So what?" Shego asked.

"Why suddenly so agreeable?"

Shego finally paid her a glance, and smirked. "If you have to ask, I'll never tell."

Kim rolled her eyes. "Figures."

Junior called to his victorious adversaries. "I must know. How did you track me so fast? I was certain I would have a long lead on you."

Mabel giggled, Misao joining her. Looking over at the two, then to Star, Jackie began chuckling. Star, bringing a hand to her mouth likewise started snickering. Kim's smirk broadened like she knew what was going on, too.

Marco looked back and forth between the giggling girls. "What… what did you do?"

Strikerborg broke into a caustic laugh.

Stingerborg was as lost as Marco. "Uhh…?"

"What's so funny?" Ron asked.

Behind the Hunterborg mask, Roland's eyes rolled. "… You didn't…"

"We had a tracking device on her!" Mabel revealed.

Junior stared at Mabel, blinking. "I checked her for devices, I removed all of them!"

"And you were thorough," Misao commended. "You missed a secret compartment, however."

With that, Mabel reached into the cleavage created by Misao's shirt, and pulled out her cell phone. "Victoria's Secret compartment."

Junior's mouth fell agape, as he stared at Mabel's phone, then at Misao's chest, then abruptly at Mabel's face.

"I never would've looked there."

The girls all burst into loud peals of laughter.

Marco, his face red, averted his eyes from Misao and Mabel while Star gently petted him atop his head in consolation.

Ron rolled his eyes, as the girls all enjoyed their inside joke.

Jackie smirked at Misao. "I'm surprised one of us didn't hide in there to jump out and surprise them."

Misao laughed even harder. "I bet I could hide a whole AV, ja?"

"Oh my gosh!" Mabel cried out, all but in tears.

Junior, grimacing, just shook his head. "Mierda…"

Shego, however, was surprisingly forgiving of Junior's screw up. "Hey, it's okay. You're not that guy, SSJ."

Junior looked over at her. "Oh?"

"You never would've looked there, and I'd have taken your hand off if you tried. Learn from your mistakes and do better. Maybe have an EMP device set up to fry any electronics…"

"Or a faraday cage?" Junior suggested.

Shego brightened. "Yeah, perfect. A little pricey, but they pay for themselves quick."

"HEY!"

Everyone stopped and looked back to see Trip, who'd been finally untied by Dudley, stumble out onto his patio. He looked around at the damage done to his property, and at those responsible.

"WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK?!" He held his hands towards his damaged fire pit, then towards the pool deck, then to his chewed-up lawn riddled with wrecked Unmanned Gears and Beetleborg AVs.

"YOU TRASHED MY HOUSE!"

Marco answered quickly. "And?"

Trip focused all of his hatred on Marco. "Oh no… don't you fucking start."

In Dipper's stead, Marco would clap back with all his might. "No need to worry, we're done."

He began to hyperventilate. "You… you…"

Staring at the group who invaded his home, shaking, tears began to well in his eyes before he erupted.

"… WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE?!"

He pointed back and forth between them. "You… whatever you want… you just do whatever the FUCK you want, and you act like there are no consequences for you! You're fucking POOR! You're fucking LOSERS!"

Ron recognized him. "Hey, that's the kid Dipper punched in that video."

Marco gave Ron a sidelong look. "Would you believe that he is still angry over that?"

"It's why we're even here," Stingerborg lamented.

Trip screeched. "DON'T TALK LIKE I'M NOT HERE! DOES IT EVEN FUCKING MATTER THAT I CAN HAVE YOU ALL KILLED IN AN INSTANT?! YOUR FAMILIES?! EVERYONE YOU KNOW?!"

Kim turned to the others. "What is wrong with him?"

Strikerborg answered. "He's well along in a mental breakdown."

Star piped in. "It really is like Jeremy Birnbaum…"

He slammed his hands onto his chest. "I'M TRIP VANDERHOFF, MOTHERFUCKERS! I'M A FUCKING MILLIONAIRE! OUR FAMILY OWNS HALF THIS TOWN! I OWN HOUSES IN BRAZIL! IN FUCKING WASHINGTON DC! MY DAD COULD GO TO THE WHITE HOUSE AND HAVE YOU ALL LABELED AS TERRORISTS!"

Mabel walked over to him.

"THE ONLY REASON YOU EVEN GET TO KNOW ME IS BECAUSE I CAME TO YOUR POOR ASS PUBLIC SCHOOL SO YOU COULD SEE WHAT A REAL HUMAN BEING LOOKS LIKE!"

He stopped for a moment, breathing heavily, sweat and tears pouring down his face, before he shrieked at Mabel.

"YOU'RE NOTHING! YOU'RE NO ONE–"

Mabel buried his fist in his gut, and the boy collapsed to the ground, squealing and bawling like a horse with a broken leg.

She stared down at him as he curled up into a sobbing ball and shook her head. "Yeah, you're done trippin'."

With that she turned to walk back over but stopped when she saw Van standing in the doorway, looking hesitant.

Extending her hand, Mabel gestured to him. "Do you want any?"

Van just shook his head no.

Mabel smiled, and walked back over to the group. "I thought so."

"This is the guy who bullied me since I met him," Stingerborg said quietly as Trip sobbed and whimpered.

Ron looked at the Blue armored hero. "What does someone have to do to have a kid turn out like this?"

Jackie answered him. "Everything wrong."

Marco nodded in agreement.

Star sighed. "I don't think he's ever been hugged."

Stingerborg cut deeper than his blade ever could. "Look at that guy, and tell me with a straight face there was ever anyone who wanted to?"

As Misao embraced Mabel again, the taller girl did give Trip a quick look back, then just shook her head no.

The sound of cars pulling into the Vanderhoffs' driveway caught everyone's attention. A dark SUV followed by a sedan, and another dark SUV pulled in and parked in plain view of the pool.

From the two SUVs emerged a half-dozen men in black not unlike Brittney's guard detail for the dance, armed with submachine guns and wearing dark sunglasses at night. Two more such men exited the front of the sedan, but from the back emerged two women.

As the men with guns spread out and began to secure the perimeter, the two women walked through the trashed house to make their way up onto the deck. Coming to a stop in front of the group of teenagers and the captured villains, the smaller woman barely taller than Misao stepped forward.

On closer inspection, everyone realized she was identical to Misao in almost every way, apart from being slenderly built as Star or Kim and having short black hair and dark eyes. Looking back and forth between the group, she nodded in greeting.

"So… you are the people who have been protecting Misao," she said.

Trip looked up at the woman, while Van blanched and took several steps back. The kids all looked at one another and back to her as she continued.

"Before anything else, please…"

The woman bowed deeply to them.

"From the bottom of my heart, thank you for everything that you've done. Without asking and without reward, you placed yourself at great risk to take care of her, and I do not think enough gratitude exists for that."

She stood upright and introduced herself. "My name is Momiji Hyuuga, and I am her mother."

"Hello, Mama," Misao greeted.

Momiji cast a small smile at her. To the woman who accompanied Momiji, Misao smiled a little bigger.

"And hello, Miss Reiko."

The tall redheaded woman smiled back. "It's been a while."

Mabel replied. "Being here for Misao was a reward by itself!"

Star agreed. "Yeah, she's one of my besties~!"

A portal opened up on the edge of the pool, and through it Janna and Dipper appeared, the latter holding the Dimensional Scissors. Momiji and Reiko turned to the two, surprised at the arrival of the pair and the means they traveled.

Shego eyed the scissors with interest. "Now that's fancy."

Dipper shot a look in Shego's direction. "Isn't it, though?"

Momiji greeted them. "Hello, Dipper, Janna. That's almost everyone… where's your Grandfather?"

Hauling the Schwanzstucker over his shoulder with one hand, with Waddles trotting alongside him, Shermie arrived onto the pool deck and walked over to the group gathered by the fire pit. "Right here. Good to see you again, Maple! It's been what, 15 years? You look great."

Momiji's eyebrows rose. "And you look… alive… a man your age being in such…"

She looked him up and down, impressed. "… shape."

Marco gawked for a moment at Shermie just lugging around an anti-tank rifle like it was nothing, then spoke up. "Uhh… kind of an understatement."

Jackie whispered to Mabel. "… Is it okay if I think your grandfather looks kinda cool?"

Mabel remained cheerful. "I don't wanna answer that."

Star kept her questions to herself, while Misao and Kim both coughed in unison.

Luckily Waddles trotted up to Mabel's feet to change the subject. "Oh, look, it's my little man!"

Snorting in greeting, Waddles gracelessly stood up on his hindlegs to be picked up. Before Mabel could, Misao immediately scooped him up and hugged him close.

Momiji stared at Waddles, surprised. "… Ah… a pig?"

"His name is Waddles," Mabel said as she patted his side. "And he's an angel."

Watching her daughter cuddle the pig, a faint look of envy flickered across Momiji's face before she regained her composure. She cleared her throat, and when she spoke again, her tone carried both warmth and authority.

"Right. Let's get to the matter at hand. Given everything you've done for Misao, you will have my help. You will have our help. Hyuuga Heavy Industries will provide whatever resources are needed to deal with the Magnavores."

Dipper nodded. "That would be helpful."

Hunterborg then spoke up. "Okay, but how much help are we talking here?"

Shermie looked at the old rifle over his shoulder. "Given that these guys are shrugging off AP rounds from ol' Schwanztucker here? I think the kids will need all the firepower they can get."

Momiji inclined her head. "Then they'll have it. Quietly, if need be. We won't let them face this alone."

Stingerborg asked. "How overt are you going to be? We'd like to keep the Magnavores focused on us and not attacking anyone else."

"We can be discreet," Momiji answered, "I'll even introduce you to a special liaison for our company who's based in Van Nuys."

As the Beetleborgs agreed, Dipper asked. "We're starting to get more visible. There isn't something you can do about that, too, is there?"

Janna agreed. "Yeah, you're a trillion dollar corporation with hands in a lot of places. How about flexing some of that muscle for the good of mankind?"

Momiji nodded. "We'll do what we can, but you guys will need to show your faces less in front of a lot of cameras so we can hash out a narrative that keeps you at the back of people's minds."

Kim spoke up. "If you want, I can say something to the press. Spin this whole thing so it doesn't look like what it really is."

Momiji turned to her, curious. "Yes, Miss Possible?"

Ron leaned over quickly. "And Ron. Ron Stoppable. Pleasure to meet you, Miss Hyuuga."

Momiji gave him a polite nod. "Of course."

Kim continued. "I can just say the Magnavores are cosplay villains… and you guys are cosplay heroes taking care of them."

Star's eyes lit up. "Ohhh! That's perfect!" She looked at Shego. "Didn't you say cosplay villains are cringe?"

"Extremely," Shego deadpanned.

Junior had to agree. "It is awkward whenever a supervillain or superhero appears dressed up as someone fictional."

Shego continued. "It's especially weird when they expect you to play along, like this is a LARP or something."

Strikerborg shivered. "Eugh, just hearing you describe it like that makes me cringe."

Turning to Mabel, Shermie asked. "I'm not too caught up on this new lingo, how bad is this 'cringe', girlchik?"

Mabel sighed. "Worst of the worst, Sherpa. You never wanna be cringe. You wanna be based."

Misao hugged Mabel tighter. "And you are very based, Sherpa."

Momiji coughed light into her hand, cheeks faintly pink and gaze averted from Shermie, as Reiko chuckled beside her.

Shermie scratched his head. "So… like hip, right?"

"No," Misao winced.

Mabel groaned. "We'll sort it out later."

"Avoiding the subject of based vs. cringe," Kim said, circling back to the point.

"Which in of itself is kind of cringe," Strikerborg chirped.

Kim gave Strikerborg a sharp look not-unlike Mabel's to Shermie. "Point is, the public will just write it off as a nerd fight. You'll stay out of the spotlight, and the real stakes stay hidden."

Shego did a double take. "Hold-up–"

Curtly Momiji nodded to a guard. "Gag her."

One of the bodyguards immediately slapped a wad of very sticky tape over Shego's lips. Indignantly and impotently, she bristled.

Junior wisely stayed quiet.

Momiji inclined her head before speaking to the others. "That's a wise precaution. And don't worry, my offer stands no matter what. You've already done more for Misao than I could have asked. We'll do what we can to help protect you from the Magnavores… and the world's attention."

Stingerborg really liked the sound of this arrangement. "That's actually perfect. We don't want anyone to come anywhere near this. So, thank you, Kim, Miss Hyuuga."

"It's no big," Kim replied. "Actually, when I first heard about you guys and the Magnavores, I really thought it was just a nerd fight."

"You were barely even trending anywhere until that throwdown with Typhus," Ron said.

Dipper's gaze lingered on Shego and Junior, before he moved on. "That takes care of that. Now, about our other problem."

As he said this, he looked over at Trip and Van. They, with Dudley, were surrounded by several of Momiji's men.

Looking back at the brothers icily, Misao's mother nodded. "Quite."

Trip stared at Momiji as she walked towards them, slowly shaking his head. Consecutive waves of the complete and total fear that he'd suppressed with bravado and the assurance of his wealth and supremacy in Echo Creek crashed over him with every step the woman took.

His eyes quickly darted to Dudley and his brother. The old butler stood straight, without a care in the world, while his brother wasn't even looking at Momiji or anyone, just down at his feet with an expression that resembled almost a kind of relief or acceptance of what was about to happen.

Turning his attention back to Momiji, he quickly spoke. "Please, it was… it was all a joke… a prank, right? We–"

"No," Momiji said sharply, cutting him off. "My daughter cloned your brother's phone. I've read every message you and your brother sent back and forth to the people you were hiring to torment 'Pine Tree', his sister, and 'the fat foreign chick.'"

Trip blanched and shrank away from her.

"Though we have a distant and complicated relationship, Misao is still my daughter, and I love and cherish her deeply," Momiji informed the brothers. "In fact, the main reason we have such an arrangement is because my greatest fear is that my business and reputation will cause people who wish me harm to harm her."

Despite being a full head shorter than Van, she seemed to loom over both brothers in presence. "It has happened before, and the people who attempted did not live to regret it."

Van visibly flinched, while Trip whimpered and shut his eyes tightly in terror.

"Sadly, for you, you will."

Trip's eyes opened. "… What?"

Momiji nodded slowly.

"Here's what's going to happen: Your father, Thaddeus Vanderhoff II will wake up in his hotel and find his credit cards canceled, his accounts emptied, and his assets liquidated and sold."

Trip collapsed onto his backside. "… What?"

Mabel whispered to Dipper. "… Thaddeus?"

Dipper whispered back. "I think that's worse than mine…"

"Everything he owns, everything your family considered assets, is already property of Hyuuga Heavy Industries, to be redistributed as I see fit."

Trip's breath hitched. "No, no, no…"

"Zoom Comics now belongs to Nano Williams. Your trust funds? Donated to charity" Momiji added coolly.

"You can't!" Trip screamed at her.

Everything he was, everything he ever knew…!

She opened her hand to them. "Furthermore. As I speak, efforts are being completed to remove you from pertinent legal documents relative to the state of California and the United States of America. By the dawn, you will be penniless, landless, and nameless."

Van, still looking down, murmured. "… Even our names…"

Trip's glasses slipped from his nose, as the totality of what he'd been told sank in. "… Why?"

Momiji looked down at him as though he were beneath her shoes.

"Because no one is above consequences."

She nodded to the men standing guard. "Bag them and take them up north. I can't bear the sight of them."

Trip shrieked in panic. "NO, WAIT–!"

Whatever plea he squawked ended with a black bag brought down over his head. Viciously he began to struggle, kicking and lunging to get out of the hands of the guards that hauled him up to his feet.

Oblivious to his brother's struggles, Van just gave Dipper, Mabel, and Misao a long and resigned look.

All three met it, but not even Mabel returned any sympathy in her gaze.

Accepting that, Van Vanderhoff closed his eyes and quietly let the bag fall over his head. He did not fight back, as he turned and walked with the guards leading him away.

Marco had words for what he'd just seen. "That was more intense than I expected."

Janna nudged him. "Welcome to the billionaires club, Marco."

Star agreed. "Yeah, that's about right for what to expect at this level of power and influence."

In a stage whisper she added. "You rarely see it used for good."

With that in mind, Marco replied. "That's horrifying."

Dipper turned to him. "Right?!"

No one could see Drew grinning ear to ear as he watched Trip and Van get stuffed into the back of one of the SUVs.

He had half a mind to ask Momiji if they could swing by and pick up his father, too.

As if Jo could hear his thoughts, she turned to look at his brother and directly contacted him so no one else could hear. "He deserves so much worse than to simply disappear."

Pausing, Drew quietly agreed.

Behind his helmet, all thoughts towards the Vanderhoffs had vanished from Roland's head altogether. More than having to pay a cent of rent to them, they now owned the entire building. He contacted Jo and Drew.

"Nano's been saving up money to buy the building for years, now she can put it towards expanding the store."

Jo gasped at the implication. "Oh my gosh, Zoom's gonna be bigger and better than ever!"

With a curt nod towards the fate of the brothers, Shermie walked over and ruffled up Mabel and Dipper's respective hair. "Honestly, it's better than what I woulda done to them. Nobody messes with my grandkids."

A scary gleam filled Shermie's glasses, obscuring his eyes. "Nobody."

Jackie, still looking at the massive gun, nodded. "Yeah, I'm actually surprised you didn't make their heads explode with that thing when you had the shot."

The gleam was still there as Shermie whispered back. "What makes you think I wasn't tempted?"

Ron turned to Kim. "Uh KP, is letting them do this okay? I think this is way outside of our general moral compass."

Rocking her head from side to side, Kim shrugged her shoulders. "The way I see it; they so weren't going to stop until somebody died. If this is how they wanna deal with it, then… okay?"

"Kim, that's not very lawful good."

Kim wagged her hand. "Neutral good… lawful neutral…?"

Misao turned her attention to Ron. "If someone messed with your friend like that, what would you do?"

Ron opened his mouth to answer, and the words almost spilled out. "I would have a lengthy discussion about trying to hurt someone I cared about. I'm more of a lover than a fighter—or whatever THAT was."

The ominous presence permeating Shermie vanished as he chuckled. "I just hope you never have to worry about something happening to you and your paramour here."

Immediately both held up their hands. "Whoa, we are not together!"

Kim gestured to Ron. "We're best friends…"

Ron finished. "… But we've never been like that, no. As a matter of fact, she's not here, but I have a girlfriend. And KP's got her own boyfriend."

The other kids stared in surprise at Kim and Ron.

They both stared back.

"What?" Kim asked.

Jackie looked stricken. "… My ship…"

Mabel pouted at Ron, sniffling. "You're not single…?"

Hunterborg hung his head. "Deadass? So that's what they meant by 'never meet your heroes.'"

Dipper gingerly put it forward to the human members of Team Possible. "Honestly? We all kinda thought that you were… um…"

Kim recoiled. "Are any of you?"

Marco and Star raised their hands. "Yeah, us."

The only person in the group to look surprised was Dipper.

Ron gestured to them. "See? That makes sense."

Kim could not accept that. "What? When?!"

She looked between Marco and Jackie. "What about Jarco?!"

Star gasped in excitement. "Ohmygoshshewatchesmyvlog."

Junior piped up. "It's very good. Please update it more?"

Jackie was similarly starstruck. "Oh my gosh, Kim Possible ships me with Marco."

She turned and looked at Marco and Star. "… OT3?"

Marco paled. "Stop playing!"

"Who said anything about playing?" Janna suggested.

Pointing at her, Marco quickly answered. "By way of you implying anything as real, I know it to be a lie!"

Janna chuckled mischievously; Jackie shot a muted glare at her.

Star, however, looked rather thoughtful.

Dipper looked at the house. "So what happens now?"

Momiji looked back at the Vanderhoffs' home. "I've already got people on standby to remove the personal effects and repossess all vehicles. Otherwise, the house is free to whomever wants it, HHI will foot the expenses of maintaining it."

Thinking of Hillhurst, Dipper agreed. "We've already got one fixer-upper to deal with, but… we'll definitely take it. We can use it as a safehouse; someplace to disappear to if any of our homes or Hillhurst becomes too hot."

Momiji brightened. "Speaking of, would you like something done about that place, too?"

"No thanks," Stingerborg said. "The current residents are already tired of us."

Jackie chimed in. "Oh no, they're cool, now."

"They are?" Drew asked, as Marco rolled his eyes.

"Believe it or not, Jackie cut a deal with them," he said. "They promised they won't try to kill us as long as she remains their 'connection.'"

A chorus of "Ohhs" resounded, and Marco blanched.

"Wait, does everybody know about the weed?" He asked the others.

Hunterborg nodded. "Yeah, cuh, her family owns the only dispensary in Echo Creek. My parents buy from them all the time."

"Yeah," Strikerborg said.

"You didn't know?" Stingerborg asked him in turn.

"… Not until Saturday," Marco admitted.

Misao chimed in. "I have yet to partake, but Sherman Farm is her distributor, so I know it's good."

Momiji let out a gentle laugh. "Well, hopefully now you'll be able to do so without worrying too much about anyone running off with you."

That Misao agreed. "Oh, Mama, I have wanted to stream so much. My set up is already reassembled, but it is collecting dust at the house."

Walking up to her, Momiji embraced her daughter. "Well, I won't keep you from your new home any longer. There is still much to be done here, and I need to get this back to HHI."

As she pulled back, she held the necklace Señor Senior Junior placed on her.

Looking at the necklace, Mabel spoke up. "That thing that Señor Senior Junior put on her, what is it?"

Ron was curious as well. "… And why did it have a super cool armor in it?"

Kim grew curious. "Is it something like Project Centurion? Why did he put it on her?"

Momiji looked at the necklace, and then at the group. "To answer what it is, this is a weapon called Type-0. My company is developing it for dealing with things like the Magnavores… and worse. As for why he put it on her…?"

Momiji turned to Junior, who looked away. Shego went stiff and stared at Junior wide-eyed.

"I did not know what it would do," he admitted, "I put it on her to find out what exactly what the weapon was… I did not realize it could do that."

Shego began yelling a few choice things that everyone present was happy to not understand.

For Kim, it was music to her ears and a perfect note to end the night on. "Ms. Hyuuga is onto something, we should get out of here before the police show up."

Dipper tossed the Dimensional Scissors to Marco. "Misao, Mabel, and I will head home with Grandpa, then."

Stingerborg turned and headed over to his AV. "We'll take the AVs back to the Beetle Battle Base and meet up with you guys tomorrow."

"Sounds good, see you then," Dipper replied.

Shermie tugged on his bowtie and let it snap back into place. "I'd be honored to give Team Possible a ride in the Sherman-mobile if you kids need a lift."

Ron happily accepted. "I'm fine with that. No offense but traveling through magical dimensional portals doesn't sit well with me."

"Oh no, it's okay," Marco said, "It takes a little getting used to… but it's way better than Star's spell to return home."

Star flinched, remembering that spell. "Yeah… I'm still sorry about that."

Kim could not resist the allure of the magic portal. "I dunno, I kinda want to try the magical portal."

Ron ushered her on. "C'mon, KP, get in the car."

Soon the AVs were on their way out, heading down the hill. Star, Marco, Janna, and Jackie bid their farewells before heading through the portal. As Shego and Junior were carted off into the second black SUV, the Pines and Misao climbed into Shermie's car and on their way back home.

Watching Shermie's white SUV pull out of sight, Reiko looked down at Momiji. "So… now that she's used it, do you suppose she's awakened?"

"I could tell the moment we spoke to one another."

Momiji shut her eyes and let a smile grace her lips. "I don't think this has happened before, where she's been with people like this… I hope this is a good sign."

= - = 7-6 = - =​

You understand mechanical hands are the ruler of everything. The ruler of everything.

I'm the ruler of everything in the end...

 

[EvaUnit01]

And the times, they are a-changin'...

 

[The Ero-Sennin]

Is Kombat Knat calling Shego 'Radiance' a reference to Hollow Knight?

Click to shrink...

It ended up being a happy coincidence. But I did think of it somewhat after the comparison was bought to my attention.

If Shego were to stick around as a more regular villain in Legends, I'd have even leaned into it. As such, it's a funny reference.

 

[TricksterPriest]

"You gonna give me trouble, or are you as checked out as you look?" She asked him.

"I have no intention of resisting you if it means harm comes to Master Trip and Master Van," Dudley replied as he served Junior a cup of coffee.

Junior nodded to Dudley. "Thank you, Dudley."

The hum in response was curt and professional, but even Shego could tell man was having the time of his life.

Powerless in his bonds, Trip tried looked from Dudley, filled with hate at the butler's complete lack of initiative, to Shego. "Look, you want money, right? I can get you that, as much as you want. Five million? Ten million? My Dad's good for it!"

Shego hummed at the offer. "The way I see it, I'm already getting everything you're offering me when we clean you out."

She gestured to Junior. "And that guy? I'm pretty sure his Dad spends more in a month maintaining his fish tank than you paid for this house."

Junior chuckled. "Father does love his clownfish."

Trip squirmed. "Screw you! What did I ever do to you, huh?!"

Junior took a sip of his coffee. "Oh my, this is exquisite… and powerful."

"It's how I cope," Dudley replied.

Click to shrink...

Trollouche: This is why you should always be nice to the help. Especially people like butlers, maids, etc.

Sayoko: Fear us, for we are petty in our vengeance. *smirks with a feather duster*

Trollouche: Sayoko is practically family, I'd never treat her badly.

CC: Partially because she might do something like put itching powder in your sheets, or make few discrete rips in your clothes.

Sayoko: We have our ways.

Van was not participating in Trip's one-sided screaming match with Junior. He was staring at Misao, who was giving him and his brother the same wide-eyed, hate-filled glare she had when they first walked in. Aside from her breathing and the occasional blink, she was entirely still.

Junior noticed the murderous look in his field of vision and directed his full attention to it. "I mean. I have kidnapped her, and I am holding her hostage with the intent of extorting her family–but she is looking at you with the kind of hate I think would start genocides."

Shego looked at him. "Was that a joke about her being German or Japanese?"

Junior turned to her, aghast. "Neither!"

"That was in poor taste, Master Shego," Dudley delivered in his unflappable monotone.

Shego looked at Dudley. "You know what? I've only known those two for ten minutes and I can dig why you just seem to feel nothing."

Dudley glanced at her. "Why do you?"

The butler's question in kind cut deeper than Shego liked.

Click to shrink...

Trollouche: To be fair? I'd have made that joke.

CC: You'd have done it in a way that was funny. SSJ is too polite to engage in that kind of black humor. :3

Milly: Woah, Dudley with the shiv to the guts.

CC: Oh yesss, that was a most unkind cut.

"What the hell is even so special about this dumb fat pig, huh?!" He demanded as he nodded towards Misao.

Shego stopped slipping into unwanted self-introspection and leveled a flat glare at him. Junior wasn't anymore appreciative, and he'd tased the girl.

"You do not know who this girl is?" Junior asked.

Trip shook his head. "Clearly, she's not important enough for me to care! She hangs out with losers, so she's a loser, too."

Junior gestured with an upraised palm towards Misao. "That is Momiji Hyuuga's daughter."

The color drained from Van's face, and Dudley went very still.

Trip stared in silence at Junior, then looked at Misao, and then back at him. He let out a laugh. "Momiji Hyuuga doesn't have a daughter."

Junior nodded. "She does, and this is her."

Van began mumbling. "Trip… Hyuuga Heavy Industries has almost as much money as the Mendō family, or Makel Pratham… they donate weapons to Ukraine and Shanghai…"

Trip said it louder, like increasing his volume would make it the truth. "You're lying! She doesn't have a daughter, and if she did it would not be this fat fuck!"

Misao was still staring at the brothers, and the hatred in her eyes was as intense as ever, but now her eyebrows were raised. There was a glee there in her expression–like she was still angry but now she was enjoying it.

"Obviously the leading manufacturer of Superweapons would not be very forthcoming about her family, because well…" Junior gestured to himself, inferring the situation at hand.

Shego had been rather annoyed by the body shaming going on and decided to twist the knife. "Oh yeah, wait until she finds out that you guys constantly harassing her friends helped us track her down."

Trip laughed again. "This is all a joke! A big ol' prank to get back at me."

He turned to Misao, still laughing. "Stop playing around, this is your payback, isn't it?!"

He stopped laughing as anger filled his voice. "It isn't funny! Tell them that you're nobody! Just some fat chested bimbo from Europe!"

Misao let out a menacing, muffled laugh from deep in her chest, as she shook her head.

Shego leaned on the back of Misao's couch. "I guess the only saving grace is that her friends have no clue where she is or even where to start looking."

Click to shrink...

Trollouche: AHAHAHAHA! BEHOLD THE POWER OF TAUNTING MURPHY!

Kaguya: Thou art fucked, Misters Vanderhoff. :3

Kallen: Ukraine and Shanghai?

Trollouche: IIRC, Ukraine is currently fighting an invasion from Russia, and China...I have no idea what's going on in China. *shrugs*

Kaguya: Weapons going presumes a conflict of some kind, but I don't think it's been mentioned what's going on.

Milly: Eh, how bad can it be?

Trollouche: Stop tempting Murphy, Millicent.

Milly: You mean like Shego did just now?

Trollouche: Exactly.

A rock bounced off the patio door. As the Vanderhoffs spent a lot of money on the house, their windows wouldn't be so easily broken.

Junior looked towards the window, just as his phone beeped and he looked at it. "What? The Fenrir have detected intruders?"

Misao brightened and began laughing harder as Shego looked past Trip and Van and out the window. It was almost completely black, with all the lights in their backyard out and the interior lighting on full.

Staring into the pitch darkness, Shego saw a pair of glowing eyes and two heart-shapes beneath them staring back.

Realization dawned on her. "SSJ… they found us."

Junior nearly dropped his coffee. "What? How?!"

Shego went for the door. "We'll review that later. Release the hounds!"

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Trollouche: Jeremiah, release the hounds.

Jeremiah: Milord, I am obliged to inform you that this Simpsons joke is older than Lady CC.

Milly: Ok...so that glowing image of Star? Hot and also juuuust a bit scary.

Trollouche: Consider what I look like in the mask, same thing.

"Whoa…!" Star yelped as she backflipped away from the sweeping blade, then cartwheeled from the same blade coming down vertically. As she exited the cloud of mist, a large mechanical quadruped with a box-shaped head sporting a single mono-eye camera at its front lunged out after her and tackled her to the ground.

Staring up at the machine as it raised its left claw, Star brought up her wand and used it to block its attempt at caving in her skull. "Robot wolves?! That is so cool!"

"Like 'em?" Shego asked. "LQ-84s aren't exactly cheap, you know."

The machine's long and flexible tail lifted the rapidly spinning chainsaw–held with three smaller wires at the tail's end–up above Star to plunge it into her chest.

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Kallen: Woah, that's some pretty impressive robotics.

Nunnally: They don't seem very friendly.

Rakshata: Absolutely fascinating!

The beam connected with the Fenrir, damaging it. She spun and ducked when Shego took advantage and came for her neck, her burning hands slicing off one of the horns of her headband. When Star tried to sweep Shego, the taller woman skipped over the attempt and punished her with another kick to her face.

Star staggered back, bringing her free hand to her nose, and then up to her headband at the missing horn. Her eyes widening when she felt the damage, she glared at Shego.

"Hey! My ex-boyfriend got me this!"

Shego stopped and gawked at her. "Wow, and you kept it?"

She went in fast and began jabbing at Star. The Princess bobbed her head left and right to narrowly evade the deadly blows. "It's complicated!"

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CC: Relationships are complex, it happens.

Milly: Yeah, people keep stuff from exes all the time.

Leloucia: I wonder what it would cost to repair that horned headband. Also surprisingly spot on considering their shared ancestry.

Milly: Wait what?

Leloucia: Star is part demon by way of a marriage to House Lucitor in the past.

Before it could turn and attack her, there was a clang like something heavy striking metal, and the Fenrir lumbered to its left, before it was hit again, and again. Thunder echoed in the distance as three more times the monster was struck.

Shego's eyes widened as she watched the machine hobble, a set of massive holes blown into its side and neck, before it collapsed, silent. "… What the heck?"

Looking in the direction that the fire came from, she looked further up the hills that overlooked Echo Creek, and spotted a white SUV parked on the winding road. Standing with his back braced against the side of his car and holding the Boys Anti-Tank Rifle taken from his living room, was Shermie.

"Hahaha, looks like we old timers still got it!" The elder Pines shouted to his gun and his spotter–Waddles, who was sitting on the hood of the SUV wearing a vest and an army helmet.

"Long range backup?" Shego asked.

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CC: Oh ho! Looks like they came prepared for war today!

Kallen: Fuuuuck, I wanna try that gun. Also, is that a fucking pig acting as a spotter?!

Nunnally: He's so cute in his little hat!

She was about to turn her attention back to Star–now avoiding the chainsaw swings of yet another of the Fenrir machines, when a spear entered her field of view, and she leaned back to avoid a thrust aimed for the side of her head.

Shego swung to cut the silver spearhead from its shaft, but Jackie Lynn Thomas moved it clear before thrusting it for the villainess' center mass. Shego swayed left and right, avoiding the spear tip, but her attempts to grab it were foiled by Jackie's skillful maneuvering of the weapon, keeping it out of her reach and always on the attack.

"What the heck are they feeding you kids?!" Shego asked while on the defensive. "I remembered when there was only one of you uppity teenagers thinking they could throw hands!"

Jackie kept up the offensive, aiming for Shego's vitals and narrowly missing her. "Nobody told you what happens in Echo Creek, huh?"

She quickly wreathed her body in energy, repelling the spear when Jackie lunged for her heart. When Jackie was parried, she riposted, aiming to slash through the weapon, but Shego was blasted in the back with a magic ray made of cupcakes and went flying past her.

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Kallen: Ok, this is some impressive fighting, not gonna lie.

Milly: As silly as most of Star's attacks look, they seem pretty strong.

CC: Would it surprise you to learn she's doing this on the fly?

Milly: What do you mean?

CC: None of these are spells from the book of magic or taught to her. Star made up all her own spells herself.

Milly: Hang on, you're telling me she's around my age or so and she's spellcrafting combat spells of this level?

CC: Ding.

Milly: Woaaaaaaaah.

Shego's heel came down on his face the instant the blade past, and Marco was bounced off the wooden deck and into a fast three-hit combo that lifted him higher off his feet before Shego used a weaker concussive energy blast to launch him into the Vanderhoff's patio window.

"You're not that good," Shego informed him, before Star cast another Laser Beam Blast. She leaped into a handspring over it, then threw herself into a spinning triple axel that became a rolling kick she dropped on Star's head in the same way Marco did her.

The kick jarred Star hard enough to make her drop the wand, which went skipping across the pool deck. Seeing the wand flung away, Shego open palm struck Star with no powers flowing through her right hand, then backhanded her the other direction. Grabbing her left hand, she pulled her around and then punched her hard in the stomach before letting her go, turning in place, and kicking her in the face to send her crashing into the furniture by the pool's fire pit.

Jackie saw Star go into the furniture, but before she could intervene, she found herself face to face with the now unoccupied Fenrir, three of them surrounding her.

Then there were two as more Anti-Tank Rifle fire crashed into the Fenrir directly in front of her, and she jumped back from the flanking lunges of the other two. When she looked again, Shego was walking over towards the wand.

"Well, that was easy," she said as she bent down to pick up the wand, "Now, let's see if I can be a magical girl."

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Milly: So what would happen if she did pick it up?

Trollouche: I'm not sure the wand has any restrictions on who can use it.

Milly: Does this mean she's a Sailor Moon fan?

A hiking boot-clad foot slipped under the wand and scooped it up to hit Shego in the face with it, before that same boot came back around hit the surprised supervillain in the same spot. Staggering backward, surprised, Shego stopped when she realized she didn't even notice this one coming.

"How many more of you…" She stopped and opened her eyes wide when she saw who had struck her.

"A magical girl, Shego, really?"

Standing in front of her was Kimberly Ann Possible, flicking her long red hair as she flashed her an amused smile.

"No judgment of what you're into, but I don't think you can rock the look."

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Milly: Says you, I'd pay to see her in a fuku.

As she began to retreat under the assault, the realization dawned on her. "… Crap…!"

Fighting the Beetleborgs and Typhus as part of Junior's plan took a toll on her. They expected to have a much longer head-start without any way to track them down, so she could rest up for the next round… but here they were. Sure ,the other kids were easy pickings, but this was Kim. Who was a tough fight even when Shego was fresh.

Not that she'd ever admit that.

Star coming to their literal doorstep, the hoodie kid and the spear girl throwing down on her without any hesitation despite not being on her level, the long-range fire support, and now Kim just waltzing up like a special guest star. These concerns finally caused the most worrisome thought to occur to Shego.

Wait a second… did they plan this?!

Blocking Kim, Shego gasped when her arm was caught, and she was flung in a perfectly executed hip throw off the edge of the pool deck and into the rest of the Vanderhoffs' backyard. Getting up, huffing, Shego assumed her fighting stance again.

"Hang on a second, clue me in," she said, "When did you get here?"

Kim was feeling coy. "Not as long as you, but plenty of time to get rested up for tonight."

"Why are you always a step ahead of SSJ?" Shego asked as the indignation of that confirmation let her powers flare brighter.

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Kallen: Ah. She's getting gassed out from lack of recovery time.

Kallen: Shego is lowballing the Echo Creek kids, but in her defense, they haven't really shown they can beat her yet.

Tohdoh: However, facing a peer opponent who has beaten her previously in combination is a different prospect.

Trollouche: I'm going to chalk up their being tracked down so fast to an Op-sec failure.

"Hey," Van said not to Junior, but to Misao.

Misao acknowledged Van by focusing her contemptuous gaze on him.

He shrank when he felt its full force but continued. "You… weren't serious about what you said this morning, were you? When this is done, you're not gonna like… kill us, or something?"

She stared at him, and then slowly shook her head.

That brought some relief to him. "I… I've been thinking about all this, and this is too much–trying to k-kill you and your friends. After you jumped us, we were mad and wanted to hurt you, so we called that Goblin guy, and when we heard that he beat Pine… Dipper up we thought you guys would get the message and leave, but you didn't. This has escalated so much that I'm afraid somebody might really die soon…"

Trip looked at Van, trying to figure out where he was going with this, Junior and Dudley both were similarly quiet as they observed.

"So… I'm sorry. Trip, and I, we'll leave you alone. You can do whatever you want to get back at us, and we'll be done. Just don't kill him or me."

Misao stared, wide-eyed at him, otherwise unresponsive. Trip glared at his brother, looking betrayed.

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Kaguya: Oh ho ho ho, so the truth of their situation has sunk into Van, has it?

Nunnally: I'm sorry Mr. Van Vanderhoff. But I don't think that's going to work at this point.

Trollouche: There is a word for this sort of battle. One that I don't think most Americans understand. It is a word steeped in old world values and ideas.

"Killing either of you is not enough," she said calmly. "I want you to live and suffer for as long as you possibly can."

Van flinched, as Misao continued. "I want every waking moment you have, to be one of regret and despair."

She slowly shook her head as she had done before. "You hurt my friends. People that I've only known for a very short time but have come to cherish for being so kind and warm to me. They did not care that I am rich, or that I am the daughter of Momiji Hyuuga. They saw me and my value as a person and stood up for the people you tormented for fun, I love and admire them for that."

Misao leaned forward, as she spoke for emphasis. "They may, in time, forgive you… they are good people, but I will never. I swear to you–on my own life–that your lives will be a neverending hell and I will dedicate my wealth and power to ensure it. If you live to be a hundred, two hundred, a thousand years… every second needs to be a reminder that you live because death is too good for you and your suffering is perfect for me."

The pit of ice in Van's stomach almost made him want to throw up, as he averted his eyes from Misao's to look at his brother. Trip looked almost delirious, like he was trying to wake up from this nightmare he was having but could not find his way out.

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Trollouche: That word, is blood feud.

Trollouche: This is the equivalent in noble circles of a formal declaration of blood feud between families. And that is a rubicon not easily crossed. Once a blood feud is declared, a house will dedicate it's full resources to utterly destroying their opponent.

Trollouche: Americans do not understand this concept generally because this sort of thing doesn't really happen in the modern era in America for the most part. It's an old world idea, one somewhat medieval in it's conception.

Trollouche: Ironically, I am perhaps more merciful than Misao. While I may kill my own enemies in terrible forms of execution, their suffering ends in death. Misao Darlian does not show such mercy.

CC: They were warned, many times over of the path this was headed towards. They laughed at her, they mocked her, they believed themselves invincible.

CC: And yet now, when the consequences of their hubris come home to roost, they act shocked, horrified, appalled that they might have to answer for what they did?

CC: *cruel mocking laugh* Ha ha ha ha ha, what disappointments they must be to their father and peers.

Junior defied her. "I have nothing to say of those two. Rather, I would like to discuss the something with you?"

This pulled her gaze from the Vanderhoffs to him, and the same ice Van felt in his gut formed in Junior's veins.

"What is so important?"

Junior looked at the brothers, and then reached into his pocket before pulling out a small black box, like one could carry jewelry inside.

"Well, there is something I need to give to you," he confessed.

Misao's expression went from contemptuous to confused and curious. "Was?"

Dudley lifted his head, confused as well. Both Vanderhoffs stared, gobsmacked at Junior.

"This was all… very complicated. It should have been resolved weeks ago, but your dear friends interfered, and it turned into a disaster."

Misao stared at the box and then looked up at him. "I do not understand."

"There are things that cannot be attained with money, not even vast amounts." Junior explained. "That is why I dedicated myself to being a supervillain, to take what criminals and even billionaires cannot grasp."

He brought a hand to his chest. "And that is why I am here."

Taking the box in both hands, he opened it to reveal a simple silvery necklace, with three beautifully cut diamond-shaped crystals attached to its middle. The center crystal was three times the size of its companions, and the light striking them sent small streams of multi-colored beams scattering in every direction.

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CC: A gentleman thief indeed.

Nunnally: So this entire thing was just so he could give her a necklace?

Alice: I don't think he's asking her out, so...what is that thing?

"This is something that belongs to you," Junior answered, "And I would like to return it."

She looked from the necklace back to him. "I have never seen it before."

Junior grew somewhat concerned. "Are you sure?"

He held the case closer to her. "Because I was told that you would want it."

Misao looked from Junior to the jewelry, wondering what he could possibly mean, before she felt a chill run through her.

Then, suddenly, she could hear her pulse rushing through her ears as the world began to fall away; first the Vanderhoffs and Dudley, then the room she was sitting in, and finally Señor Senior Junior.

Her eyes locked onto the crystals, and slowly dilated as the sound of her own pulse slowed down, until it hung at a beat per second.

Watching Misao seemingly slip into a trance as she stared at the necklace, Dudley grew very worried. Van looked at Trip, then back at Misao as Junior removed the necklace from the case and moved behind her to carefully connect the ends of the chain around her neck.

"H-hey!" Van said. "Why is she zoning out like that? Is… is it a good idea to give that to her?"

Junior looked at him and shook. "Oh, no, not at all. But like I said…"

He clicked the necklace closed.

"There are some things that you cannot get with money."

Misao didn't react. She didn't even blink. Still entranced, she stared through the Vanderhoffs and out into infinity.

"Is she okay?" Van asked.

Junior tilted his head in confusion. "I… do not know? I was only told to give it to her…"

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Alice: Seriously, what the hell is that? *raised eyebrow*

Nunnally: He said it belongs to her. And someone told him to give it to her. But the way she's acting..is she afraid of it?

CC: Mysteries within mysteries.

Milly: Things you can't get with money huh. What's so important that he and Shego had to spend millions of dollars, time, effort and planning, just to get this necklace to Misao???

Mabel turned to the others. "Misao! We're here to save you!"

Van sagged in relief. "Oh, thank God, we're saved!"

"Please, get us out of here!" Trip yelled at Ron. "We were taken hostage, too, they broke into our house and tied us up–"

Mabel looked at them both. "Go fuck yourselves."

Both brothers fell silent.

Mabel directed her attention to Dudley. "You're good, though."

Dudley snapped his fingers into a thumb's up to Mabel in reply.

Trip looked pleadingly at Ron, who quickly held up his hands. "Look guys, whatever beef you've got? We're just here for Shego and SSJ. As Kim would say, we are so not involved in the drama."

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CC: Absolute lack of situational awareness.

Kallen: Get fucked, shitheads. ^_^

A far more pressing problem sprang up behind them, prompting both Trip and Van to scream in terror and Dudley to recoil with fright. Mabel, Ron, and Rufus turned to find Kombat Knat looming over them. After looking up at his gnarled teeth, their gazes fell to his shining red liquid eyes.

"In the name of my Radiance, you will not escape."

"Oh wow, that's really Kombat Knat!" Ron screamed.

With a sweep of his arm, Mabel and Ron were flung rag-dolling over the couch Misao sat on and across the room.

Van and Trip were too busy screaming loudly in terror at the ugliest thing they've ever seen. The object of their terror turned to face them and raised his claws menacingly.

"SILENCE. My Radiance needs the girl alive, but you are suitable snacks. The more you scream the hungrier I'll get!"

Mabel, snapping out of her daze, looked up to see Kombat Knat shove aside the couch Misao was on to stand over her and Ron. "You interlopers will pay–AAAAAHHHHH!"

Rufus, the little MVP, had scrambled onto his foot, and bit down with incisors rated to cut through steel like it was nothing.

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Kallen: Yikes! 0_o

Nunnally: Eeek!

Trollouche: Radiance, that sounds familiar. *thinking expression*

Kallen: What the hell are they feeding that rat?!

"Then you're not leaving alive." Kombat Knat quickly vanished from sight, shrinking down and speeding up to them. Growing to full size and shoving them back from the space he occupied, he swung down to slash through Mabel with his claws, but she jumped clear of his clumsy strike.

Ron turned around and bolted for Misao. "I'll get her!"

Before he could reach her, Junior tackled Ron, and the two of them went to the floor brawling.

As Mabel hopped back and around Kombat Knat, never turning from him, she pulled the M1951 from her skirt pocket. Aimed at Kombat Knat's eyes, she fired wildly, the bullets impacting and punching into the Synthetic Beast's hide. Shrieking, he retaliated by launching his extending arms at her, missing but shattering the patio windows.

Mabel saw an opportunity, changing direction and going out the window while still shooting and taunting the monster to lure him outside. "Come and get me then, bug boy!"

Kicking off as he shrank down, Kombat Knat became a missile in pursuit of his prey. Reaching the falling shards of glass, many of them larger than him, he began to leap from one to the other, rapidly changing direction and picking up speed before he sprang off a final large piece and shot past the fleeing girl.

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CC: I must admit, for a monster with only one real gimmick? He makes very good use of it.

Tohdoh: The more surprising thing is that he's an infiltration unit not designed for frontline combat.

Unfortunately for the monster, all he fell into was Shermie's sights. An instant after he grew to full size, the old man had drawn a bead.

"Have a taste of how we do it in Jersey, eight eyes!"

He squeezed the trigger, using the weapons massive kick to speed up the pull on the weapons bolt to chamber another round and fire again. Then again. Then two more times after that within a space of time that even the best target shooters would scream obscenities about the possibility of achieving.

The five armor-piercing rounds smashed into Kombat Knat, the sheer force of the combined impacts knocking him away from Mabel. Wounded, he staggered towards the pool and fell into the water with a splash.

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CC: Ouch. Even for something as tough as him, five AP rounds to the face would hurt anyone. That they didn't overpenetrate is a testament to his natural armor.

Kallen: Holy fuck, did you see how fast that old guy fired that rifle off?

Off the pool deck, between the patio and the wall surrounding the Vanderhoffs' property, a dance was taking place. Four LQ-84 Fenrir Unmanned Gears were swinging their chainsaw blades, lashing out with their claws, and even throwing themselves bodily at Kim Possible, whose mixture of gymnastics, acrobatics, and plain old cheerleading kept the margins between their attacks and her body wide.

One of the chainsaw blades came in low, and Kim leaped off the ground over it and the Fenrir swinging. Snatching one of the few remaining knives located in the three-blade knife holster on the Fenrir's rear legs as she passed over it, she weaved under its chainsaw's attempt at carving into her and slashed the cable holding it with the knife.

The second Fenrir fighting her threw itself at her, spiraling towards her with claws outstretched, but Kim dove and tumbled under the charging machine. As she came up, she threw the knife back and sliced through its tail, also disarming it of the ability to use its main weapons.

As the still running chainsaw of the unit fell to the grassy ground, Kim jumped hard onto it. When it bounced, she maneuvered her feet, and spun it like a helicopter rotor under her. Catching it by its side mounted motor with one foot, she kicked it into a third Fenrir, the hot blade grinding through and destroying it as Kim landed.

The last intact Fenrir galloped at Kim, while the other two were getting up, she was more concerned with Shego–who coordinated her attack with the fourth Fenrir. Shego looked a little miffed, while Kim was still wearing a competitive and defiant smile.

"Yeah," Shego said as she boxed with Kim like the title belt was on the line, energy covering her fists like gloves. "You think you're really slick, huh?!"

Kim kept her guard up, staying light on her feet, so light that when Shego tried to kick them from under her, she sidestepped and switched positions with her. The next two punches Shego threw at her, Kim slapped aside, before she drove the heel of her right palm into Shego's left cheek.

"I'm more…" Kim did not let up, palming Shego left and right with both hands before she drove one last strike into her chin, throwing her back. "Smooth than slick!"

She back flipped when the fourth Fenrir leaped into a forward midair tumble, becoming a giant wheel of death with its saw blade. Back flipping several times, Kim then jumped up back onto the pool deck, avoiding the other two remaining Fenrir.

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CC: My my, that is impressive.

Tohdoh: She is the finest combatant I have seen since Suzaku. And I am uncertain even he could defeat her.

Kallen: Daaaamn. 0_o

Turning to Mabel, she smiled. "Hey, where's Ron?"

She pointed back in the house. "Fighting Señor Senior Junior."

Indeed, the two young men were still rolling around on the hardwood floor, trying to get on top so they could pin the other, but both were being really squirrelly about staying on the bottom.

"And the creepy bug monster?"

Mabel pointed into the pool. "Sherpa shot him."

Indeed, Kombat Knat was sinking to the bottom of it.

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CC: Less impressive but still amusing. :3

Trollouche: So I'm gonna be that guy. Someone should really make sure bug head is actually dead. -_-

The sound of rotors at high speed caught Shego's attention, and she looked up and back to see the Red Striker AV rise above the wall, its fuselage pointing towards her while its ducted fans oriented straight up to keep it hovering.

Inside the cockpit, beneath the Strikerborg's helmet, Jo smiled as the AV's computer targeted Shego and the remaining Fenrir.

"I think you're done!" She said as she pressed down the trigger.

Shego was moving as soon as she saw the first flash, and a cascade of energy bolts fell upon her and the Fenrir. The Unmanned Gears stood no chance under the sustained assault, the energy bolts tearing them apart as Strikerborg focused her fire on them. As they went down one my one, Strikerborg pulled back on the sticks and the laser barrage crawled upward towards Shego, who was headed for the far wall and cover.

She didn't make it, for through that far wall the Stinger AV smashed through and its prow slammed into Shego's stomach as Stingerborg brought the vehicle to a stop before he could run her over. Shego was thrown backward onto the ground, coughing loudly as she tried to recover her breath.

Inside the house, Junior pinned Ron onto his back, and raised his fist. "How did you get here so quickly?! How did you find us?!"

Ron, gripping Junior by the collar and holding his raised fist back by the wrist, struggled to get free. "If I told you, you'd be really embarrassed!"

"I do not care, I must know!" he shot back. "This is my reputation as a professional on the line!"

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Trollouche: And here's the air support!

CC: I'd say this is almost over. And I have a funny feeling about how they found her. ^_^

Trollouche: Oh?

CC: Woman's intuition.

He closed his eyes and bowed his head? "I am not so foolish that I do not know when I'm beaten."

Kim hummed in surprise. "Oh?"

"Wow, throwing the towel just like that?" Ron asked.

Junior looked up at him. "Yes, I do not have powers and there are more of you than me. I know my odds, and they are nil."

At that moment, Shego grasped her second wind, and leaped into an uppercut that lifted Stingerborg off his feet and onto his back in surprise. Kicking off the horns of his AV, she leaped back at Strikerborg, surging all of her power to her feet so she could flying roundhouse kick Strikerborg away from her as well.

"But I do have powers, and I don't care how many you are!" She declared. "My odds are looking amazing!"

And like her words had revived him from a watery grave, Kombat Knat exploded from the water directly behind Mabel, coming up and dropping towards her with his maw wide open–and every intention to clamp his teeth down upon her head as she turned and look back up at the monster in surprise.

Her head and shoulders were almost completely in Kombat Knat's jaws, when they slammed shut.

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Trollouche: What did I say? What did I FUCKING SAY?!

CC: *facepalms* Always always take the damn head.

Milly: Holy shit!