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Like any other day, Jackie Lynn Thomas was boarding to school, the drone of hard polyurethane wheels against the pavement interrupted "ka-kunks" that followed her traversing the cracks in the street and in the sidewalk. As she approached the school looking for Janna, she did a double-take and coasted to a halt.
She stared, with mouth agape. The entire front of the school was decorated not in Echo Creek's oranges, but the purples, pinks, and blues that Brittney was commonly associated with. Everything from balloons to banners, to streamers, to lights and even what looked like holograms of cheerleaders and football players decorated the street-facing buildings of the campus. On the School's Sign, the words "Spirit Week By Wong" was written in place of the usual "Go Opossums!"
It was hard to look at, even for someone laid-back like her. "Dude…"
"I know, right? This is aggressively dumb."
Janna coiled her arm Jackie's, inviting her to lean into her shoulder. "Maliciously."
"Cool, I got something for you."
As she leaned against Janna, Jackie produced a pair of purple bracelets that were wider around one half than the other. On the wide half "Spirit Week by Wong" was etched into it. Staring at it uncomprehending for all of an instant, Janna recognized what they were and she rolled her eyes.
"Really?"
"Yeah, this is how Brittney's making sure the people she wants go to the dance." Jackie offered one of them to Janna. "Chantal and I are cool, though, so I grabbed extra from her."
Taking the wristband and pocketing it, Janna nodded in praise to Jackie. "Good looking out, I could've grabbed one though."
Jackie chuckled. "At least I saved you a lockpick."
Taking that into consideration, Janna agreed. She really didn't want to exert any more effort than she wanted in jamming someone's face in their own crap. Brittney wasn't even at the top of her list of people harshing on her vibe, anyway.
"Has anyone checked on Brittney lately? Is she doing okay?"
Both girls looked to see Dipper, Mabel, and Misao, who had just been dropped off by Shermie. They were looking at the redecorated School–Mabel was cringing at the poor decor choices, Misao was outright disgusted by the flagrant ego on display, and Dipper had asked aloud what everyone was thinking.
Janna responded. "On a scale of one to ten: Fifty-one-fifty."
She looked back to the Twins, inwardly appreciating their height, and her attention drifted to Dipper. "And you're Dipper…"
Her smile grew a little. "… Hey"
Janna glanced out the corner of her eye at Jackie, looked at Dipper, danced her attention back and forth between the two, and all the malice she had had simmering since yesterday became a superheated geyser erupting taller than the Empire State Building.
Dipper, to his credit, didn't ogle the most popular girl at school even as he appreciated why she'd be revered as such. "Hey, yeah, that's me. Dipper, Mabel's brother…"
Mabel gently elbowed his side. "Yep, my handsome brainiac of a brother who can't stay out of trouble. He's single, too."
Dipper shot her a look. "Mabel, knock it off…"
Jackie let out a chuckle and brought her skateboard in front of her to rest it on her knees as she leaned over some. "But you are single?"
Dipper sensed that playfulness in her voice like a shark smelled blood. With a devil may care smile, he stepped up with a lot more confidence radiating from him. "You looking? Because if you're down…"
Jackie blurted out another laugh, but wasn't at all quick to walk back her shot. She held her board behind her back and looked aside as her face warmed up. "Yo stop… I might just say yeah…"
Misao nodded to Jackie. "I too have learned not to flirt carelessly with Dipper."
His smirk sharpened into something that even Janna now looked at with a bit of weakness. "You're all more than welcome to take a swing. But you ladies will knock it out of the park."
It had Jackie covering her mouth to stop her chuckling. "Dude, I said stop~!"
Mabel palmed Dipper's face. "Please, Casabrova, you promised to use your powers for good."
"Says the girl trying to hook me up." He gestured to Mabel. "Best wingman in the world, but does not know when to stop."
Jackie could tell she was going to have a great time. "I mean, if she works is that a bad thing?"
"I'm of the opinion," she said, "That if you're into someone and they're into you, just go for it."
Dipper's eyebrows rose, wondering what she was getting at. "If only it could be that simple."
"It totally could, people just complicate things on purpose like they're obligated to."
Misao caught that, and hummed as she too wondered what Janna was implying.
Jackie smiled, agreeing with Janna with little more than a nod. "Anyway, we gotta talk about the dance and how things are gonna go, girls."
"If it doesn't work," Jackie dug into her pants pocket and pulled out a few more Admission Bracelets. "We're still on to crash the party."
Mabel was optimistic. "There won't be any need."
Dipper not so much, as he looked again at the school's decor. "Yeah, I'm sure she's being completely rational and not letting the power go to her head."
"The heck is wrong with your Dad?" He asked, all but seething.
"It's just how he is," Jo said with her hands in the pockets of her overalls and her head turned away.
"Don't make excuses for him, he's treating your brother like Trip messing with him is his fault."
He looked from her to Drew. "It's only a matter of time before he tries to keep you from hanging out with us."
"And he's not going to," Drew replied, "I'm sneaking out for the dance and any time the Magnavores show up. I don't care what he does."
He thumped his balled fist against the locker. "This is too important for me to be worrying about being grounded, or stupid stuff like that. It's my responsibility."
Drew lit up. "Heather, h-hey!"
The abrupt shift in Drew's mood made Roland recoil from him. Jo let out an exasperated breath so hard her lungs could've popped out of her mouth and dangled on the end of her tongue.
"What's up?" Drew asked, stepping up to Heather to deliberately avoid his sister and basically a brother. "How are you this morning?"
"Well, my family decided they're gonna drive to Tahoe, which means I'm leaving tomorrow," she explained. "So, my weekend just got worse."
Jo whispered to Roland out the corner of her mouth. "How's going to Tahoe sooner a bad thing?"
"Going cool places is all about who you go with," he replied. "I mean, would you like to drive up to Tahoe with the 'Teen Girl Squad?'"
That got Drew's attention, and he smiled a bit. "How dare you tempt me with your collection of rares, contributing to the delinquency of a minor?"
Heather smirked and gestured to herself. "What can I say? I'm a bad guy."
Jo yanked Drew back by his shirt and stepped up. "I'll go!"
Heather wagged a finger at her. "Ah-ah-ah! Sorry, I want it to be me and Drew."
Jo stepped back and shoved Drew forward, he stopped himself barely from Heather. "If you don't take this offer right now, I'll lose all respect for you and punch you."
Drew and Heather were close enough to touch noses when she pulled away, her face coloring like his. They both shuffled back from one another and she reached up to toy with her bangs.
"So…" she said with a jumpy giggle. "You wanna go…?"
Drew sputtered. "Y-yes! Absolutely! We can swing by Zoom and pick up my number one so you can read it again."
"Right?" the former asked. "He completely forgot about Dad being a jerk and his superpowers not kicking in yet."
Roland looked down at her. "Huh, I figured that's what it was."
Jo turned to him. "I can't blame him for being frustrated. He should've exploded yesterday because of Dad's BS."
She looked back the way Drew went with Heather. "But at the same time… I'm glad he didn't."
"Why?"
She paused. "Real talk?"
Roland had an inkling of what she was going to say, but before she could say a word, a voice rang out.
Brittney got right up in his face. "Don't even think about it."
"About what?" He asked with a sweet, innocent smile.
She poked his chest. "Pulling some stupid prank at my dance! The only reason I'm not flat out banning you is because of who your Grandma is, but if I see so much as a super soaker, a pillow, or a single mariachi, not only are you out of the dance, I will make sure you don't set foot in school for a week! Do I make myself clear?"
Roland took a step back from Brittney's prodding finger. "I promise I won't do any of that old stuff."
Let it be said, Brittney Wong was not a dullard. "There won't be any new stuff either! In fact, I know that you don't even have a date, so if you show up for the dance without one I'll know you're up to no good."
Chantal and Megan both nodded in agreement, and Roland bravely resisted rolling his eyes. "Okay you're right. I don't have a date yet."
He turned aside, letting out a sigh. "I was going to ask the person I wanted to go with today, but not like this."
Brittney recoiled from Roland, like he'd just gone radioactive. Chantal and Megan on the other hand, reacted with much more visible interest as Roland held out his open palms, and then rolled up the sleeves to the white long-sleeve shirt he wore under a green tee today. With a quick flip of his wrist and a prodigious amount of superspeed, he produced a bouquet of flowers–red and yellow roses with a white ribbon tying them together.
In a school well-desensitized to Star Butterfly's magic, the ol' razzle dazzle and sleight-of-hand still did the trick. Especially when all it resulted in a lovely bunch of flowers and not screaming monsters or burning rainbows.
Roland was on the other side of Brittney before she even realized it, stepping up to Megan, flashing her a debonair smile that gleamed in the fluorescent lights of the hallway. "If you would do the honor of joining me for the homecoming dance, I promise to make it a magical evening."
Megan looked between him and his flowers, to say she was impressed would be an insult. "Daaaaang."
She smiled and took the roses. "I'll see you at the dance, player."
Janna Banana said:
Don't worry I got this.
Marco said:
It better not b stolen.
Janna Banana said:
Now Mr. Diaz who do you take me for, a thief? :smiling_imp:
Walking down an alley between two businesses located nearby Echo Creek Cemetery, Jara stopped well short of emerging onto the sidewalk, then turned to face Saberizer, who stood in silence with his hand on the hilt of his sheathed falchion. In her hand she held yet another Beetleborgs comic, this one featuring the Red Striker A.V. cutting through the blue sky above a sea of clouds, with a swarm of Jet Fighters in pursuit, firing at it and the reader.
"It is a simple plan, but it will change things," she said.
Saberizer did not hesitate to respond. "I am ready to take responsibility for what comes next."
Jara gave Saberizer a short nod, and turned back towards the alleyway as she held up the comic.
"Then go, bring me back as many of those insect children as you can."
His grip on the hilt of his sword tightening, Saberizer began walking forward. As he reached Jara to pass her, he spoke.
"They will be laid out before your feet, on this I swear."
There was an undercurrent of anxiety that was worse than usual in the Cafeteria. It, like the rest of the school, was draped from almost floor to ceiling in Brittney's color palette and imagery of herself ranging from banners with her face on them to flattering posters of herself at nearly every corner and on every table. Even looking outside, one could see a blimp advertising "Spirit Week by Wong" as it circled overhead, reminding students that this was an event to be remembered, and to be part of.
Dipper wasn't having any of this. "This is stupid. I'm going to skip for the rest of the week if it's going to be like this every day."
He and Marco were sitting together at their table, watching as students lined up not for lunch, but to a table where Brittney and several of her cheerleaders sat, handing out bracelets. It was a mixmash of students from all walks of social life, and as they came up to the table one by one, it was pretty obvious where the anxiety in the air was coming from.
Brittney, sitting with a bowl full of bracelets, looked up to an overweight male student nervously gesturing towards one of the bracelets. "What?"
The student cleared his throat, dusted off his blue sweater, and smoothed out his short brown hair. "I was… I was hoping that I'd get a bracelet to, you know… go to the rally, and the game, and the dance…?"
Brittney looked him over and grimaced in disgust. "Uh, no. You can go to the gym to get in shape, and maybe to the courthouse to do something about your name, Moobs."
The boy sagged. "But Moobs is my nickname…"
"And you wonder why you're not invited." Brittney pointed to her right. "Move, loser."
Head hung low, the young man walked away and went to his seat. Dipper and Marco watched him walk past, then turned to each other.
As if on cue, Jackie Lynn Thomas reached the table, all bright eyes and cool smiles. "Hey Dipper, hey Marco."
Marco nearly jumped from his seat. "J-J-J-Jackie, hey!"
His reaction prompted a concerned look from Dipper that faded quickly with understanding.
"Mind if I join you?" Before either could answer, Jackie made herself right at home, squeezing her way onto the bench right between Dipper and Marco.
Both boys looked at her tray, and noticed that on her tray was definitely not school fare–lobster tail, ribeye steak, and elote–street corn on the cob slathered in mayo sauce, chili powder, and cheese.
Marco did a double-take. "Uhh.. where'd you get that?"
"You haven't gone up yet? Guys who get bracelets get to have this for lunch."
Dipper rolled his eyes. "Yeah, well, I'm not a 'bracelet wearer' so."
Marco looked with some envy at Jackie's plate. "I don't think I'd get a bracelet if I tried."
Jackie then pushed her tray out to offer them. "Then help yourself, guys. I can just go grab more."
In line for lunch, Jo slammed her hands on the countertop. "What do you mean I can't have the good stuff?!"
The chef behind the counter shook his head. "Restaurant food is only for students that have a Spirit Week by Wong Bracelet, continue down to the normal line."
Jo looked down the line and made a face. "We're having vegetarian meatloaf, come on!"
The chef was unmoved by her plea. "You can pay twenty-five dollars for a plate if you don't have a bracelet."
"Screw that and you!" She looked at Roland, who was standing just behind her in line. "And don't you dare get food from these bougie douches!"
Roland shrugged his shoulders. "I like vegetarian meatloaf."
Roland quirked an eyebrow. "Then why get mad?"
"Because it's still crap, and I reserve the right to be pissed off at all of it."
Roland pondered it. "There are worse things to be hostile about–at least you have a good reason this time."
Jo looked back as she was served her tray of vegetarian meatloaf, quinoa, and carrots. "Excuse you?"
"You know what I'm talking about."
"No, I don't-"
Jo stopped in her tracks, her tray slipping from her hands and to the floor with a splat. Roland almost walked into her back. "Whoa, Jo are you okay-"
Jo turned and stormed off out of the cafeteria, leaving him baffled until he saw Jackie sitting hip to hip with Dipper and Marco, the only three at a table that seated nine. Making matters better, she was rather obviously leaning into the former as they watched Brittney deal with a frizzy-haired girl with glasses approaching her for a bracelet.
Brittney looked at the bracelet, then at the young man in front of her. Peter, from Marco's Karate class. Looking back and forth between the blonde boy and her bracelet, she handed it to him. "Here you go, bring your A-Game."
This prompted a protest from the dejected Ashlyn. "B-but Peter's got glasses, too!"
Brittney whirled on the girl. "HE LOOKS GOOD IN THEM!"
Peter, ever stoic, turned and walked away.
Marco frowned around his elote. "Now you got me wanting to throw her in the garbage."
Mabel stopped her. "But I want to chat for a bit, too! We share so much in common! You're a girl, I'm a girl, you're cheerleaders, I was cheerleader for the Piedmont High Highlanders…"
Sabrina gasped like she'd seen a ghost. Chantal went wide-eyed like she was in the presence of a God, and even Brittney's ever-present glower vanished in lieu of gobsmacked disbelief.
"… No way, you're that Mabel Pines? National Champion Mabel Pines?!" Chantal demanded.
Mabel smirked and produced out of thin air a large sticker-covered scrapbook.
Over at her table, Jackie looked at Dipper. "I can totally get Mabel being a cheerleader."
Dipper relaxed a bit. "Not just a cheerleader, one of the best."
As Sabrina, Chantal, and some of the other students in lie began crowding around, Mabel flipped through the scrapbook, passing pages filled with of pictures and drawings of herself, Dipper, and things that amused her (such as embarrassing pictures of Dipper) until she came to a page "Cheer Squad!" written in glitter glue.
"I'm that good," Mabel boasted as she began flipping through the scrapbook. "Here we are at halftime at a Football Game–we won 30 to nothing. Here we are Cheering for Basketball–won 80 to nothing. This is us cheering during exams–we got kicked out of the building for that. Then there's us cheering for the rowing team-"
Chantal's mouth fell agape. "An Awesome on a speedboat? You're crazy!"
Mabel placed a hand on her chest. "My proudest moment."
She scowled and looked to the side. "The Coast Guard didn't think so–the philistines."
Marco was back to nibbling on his corn. "Mabel is serious about being friends with Brittney, isn't she?"
"If she says she's going to befriend someone, she's either going to make a friend or a mortal enemy."
Jackie looked at Dipper. "So what's the record on that?"
Chantal nudged Brittney. "Hey, imagine what we could do with her in the squad?"
As Brittney turned her head to breath fire on Chantal's face, Mabel held up a hand. "Whoa, hold up buttercup, I have way too much going on so I can't really be cheerleading this year. All my after school hours are like super booked."
Brittney stopped. She had been about to make a sharp warning about the team being full–complete with the stark implication that she would not be eclipsed by a national champion while the squad under her had only one technical win under their belt. Mabel hurriedly killing the idea in the crib threw her off.
"… You don't want to be a cheerleader?" She asked her, suspicious.
"Nope!" Mabel happily chimed. "But~ if you like, I can give you tapes of my routines, help you make up new routines, and maybe swing by and drop some pointers if I'm free. After all, I'm a student here now, and i want my school and my cheerleaders to be the best. Go Opossums!"
Chantal cocked her head to one side, surprised all over again. "Dude… Brittney?"
"That's… that's so generous!" Sabrina said. "If we had that kind of help, we'd be…!"
Chantal flat out admitted it. "We wouldn't suck like we do now, that's for sure."
Brittney narrowed her eyes. It was really generous, too generous for her blood. "Okay then, what do you want?"
Mabel, sunshine and rainbows, replied. "I want to be friends."
"No," Brittney said, "You want something… and since I know what class you're in, I think I know what that is."
She leaned to her left and looked down the line. Sure enough, there was a blue-eyed blonde boy wearing blue jeans, a t-shirt, a red baseball cap and a green sweater tied around his hips. A foolproof disguise, if it weren't for the dinosaur shoes with tiny horns, the devil's horns poking out of the cap, and lightning-shaped marks on his cheeks.
"He" was pretending to mind his own business, until "he" noticed Brittney looking straight at "him." Noticing she's looking "his" way, "he" looked back, then at her again, before pointing at "himself" in confusion. With a bright wave "he" pretended that nothing was wrong and went back to patiently waiting in line while not looking anywhere near Brittney's direction.
Brittney looked from "him" to Mabel. "I'm not stupid, and Champion Cheerleader or not, Star Butterbrains is not going anywhere near MY Spirit Week!"
Over at the table, Dipper, Marco, and Jackie followed where Brittney was looking, and saw "him." As Marco and Dipper both raised eyebrows, Jackie looked at Marco and pointed at him. "I was wondering who he was."
Marco slowly turned his head to stare at Jackie.
"Dude, I'm joking," she promised him.
"That's a good look for Star," Dipper said absently, before he stopped and reflected on that. "… Huh."
With a nod to Mabel, Star took off her horned baseball cap and brought it to her chest. "Brittney, I am really sorry for messing up spirit week and causing trouble for your birthday."
Expecting to hear anything else, like a heartfelt plea to let her go to the dance, a musical number, or even a spell to set her hair purple and on fire, Brittney was genuinely taken off guard to hear an actual apology. "… What?"
"You know, turning the football field into a battlefield? Crashing your party? I am really sorry for that…"
Brittney's resting scowl remained fixed on Star as she watched her lips move and heard the stuff she said, but it wasn't exactly registering. Next to her, Chantal raised an eyebrow.
Star turned to her. "Oh, and I'm sorry for saying your booty wasn't distracting. You actually got that dump truck that stops traffic."
Chantal smirked and nodded. "Girl, you know it."
"And Sabrina." Star turned to the mousy girl. "I am so, so sorry that me barging in interrupted your training and you hit the floor."
Sabrina meekly replied. "O-oh it's okay, Star… you didn't know and… well it's fine."
Brittney finally remembered she was part of the conversation. "So what, you think that because you're sorry, I'm going to let you go to the dance?!"
Star recoiled. "Well I-"
Brittney shot up to her feet. "Well guess what Moo-ron? I don't care if you magic me up a super hot boyfriend with your wand. You're still banned from Spirit Week and if you bother me one more time, I'll make sure you can't even come to school for the rest of the week!"
Mabel's expression slipped to a frown as Brittney folded her arms and gave a quick turn of her head to whip her hair.
"So either go away or give me an excuse, I'm fine with either!"
Star was almost knocked off her feet by the force of Brittney's rebuke. "I'm trying to say that I'm sorry-"
"And you're getting nothing for it." She gasped in mock surprise. "Oh! it's almost like I hate you, you dumb blonde bitch."
Now Star did recoil, her cheek marks turning from lightning bolts to black skulls. Before she could turn her hat back into her wand and go off, Mabel stood abruptly and imposed herself between the two. She loomed over Brittney, Sabrina, and Chantal as she held one arm to keep Star back and reached down to pick up her scrapbook.
Dipper got up. "Okay, I'm not going to the dance anyway. Let's do this."
Brittney watched Star and Mabel leave with no small satisfaction, but that smugness disappeared when Dipper advanced towards her. Going pale, she nearly tripped over her seat stepping over it to back away from the table and him when he reached her and pulled his lumberjack hat off his head.
"You know, I understand what makes you gotta be a bitch and three quarters. That, the whole reason you've turned a dumb school dance into a monument to yourself, and why you throw all this money on people like it matters to them."
Brittney turned her nose up to him, even as it looked like she was shaking. "Mind your own business, nerd!"
She looked right back at him when he stepped in way closer than she thought he would, getting right up in her face and looking down on her with a glower to match her own and then some. She could've been made of titanium and evaporated under the intensity of his gaze.
"Because you're terrified of people finding out about the person you know you are."
Brittney felt like she was standing at the base of a skyscraper, that was going to fall on her. She grit her teeth as Dipper waited for a reply, and lashed out at him with it before the truth he spoke exposed her weakness to everyone.
"Oh yeah? You had your math off. I'm two bitches and three quarters. You're out of here, fucking suspended until next Monday, loser!"
Dipper smiled. "Thanks, enjoy your weekend."
Seeing it do nothing, Brittney lashed out harder. "And your stupid sister's banned from Spirit Week, too!"
Chantal got up. "Brittney, NO!"
Brittney turned on her. "I'm sorry, what?"
"Ban him all you want, but not her! She didn't even do anything!"
Even Sabrina protested. "Y-yeah, she was r-really nice."
Dipper didn't even look back to address Brittney's threat. "You won't. If you did ban my sister. She'd just throw her own dance. She'd be there, Star'd be there-"
"I'd be there," Jackie interjected, prompting murmurs among all the other students in the cafeteria.
Seeing people already speculating about a cool dance party hosted by Star, Dipper turned to face Brittney and drive it home. "And all you'd get is a bill for a school dance no one attended."
Then he gestured to her with an open palm upraised. "You and I both know that's what will happen."
Brittney bristled, and with only an instant's worth of seething she snapped back. "Well you're still banned and you can go home right now! As long as it's Spirit Week, this is MY school and MY authority won't be challenged!"
Dipper clapped his hands and flipped her off with both hands. "Fuck your authority, fuck your Spirit Week, and fuck you."
With that he waved and walked out as Brittney stood there with her mouth agape and face pale as the entire cafeteria erupted into howls as Dipper left through the door.
Marco abandoned his corn and got up. As he followed Dipper out, Jackie was right behind him, looking back at the deeply frazzled Brittney for a quick second.
"Dude… Dipper is amazing," she said.
Marco held the door out for her and nodded. "Yeah, he really is."
= - = 46 = - =Janna: "Ah, if only I was there to be right."
Outside of the cafeteria, staying out of sight from the street, Misao sat with her back to the wall, enjoying the very warm afternoon. She was on her phone, reading the news for any sign of Shego and Señor Senior Junior, and give her eyes a much-needed break from Brittney's choice in decor. Though she wasn't so engrossed that she didn't notice Trip and Van approach her–the latter of the two looking like he wanted to punch someone more than she normally saw of him.
"Misao Darlian, FaithfulPony371, right?" Trip asked as they reached her.
Misao looked up at the two and stood up, lowering her phone to her side. "Ja? What do you want?"
And Van turned to his brother with an aggression she didn't think he'd hold towards his sibling. "I saw him flirting with her this morning!"
Trip palmed his face. "Can you honestly imagine that loser flirting with any girl in this school, let alone one of the best?"
Misao rolled her eyes, choosing to hold her tongue when the perfect and most unpleasant retort (for them) threatened to spring off it. Giving them more of a reason to hate Dipper–or more specifically act on the hate they already had–wasn't something she was in the mood to do.
Wir brauchen unsere Schlachten nicht komplizierter, richtig? She thought unpleasantly.
"You weren't there," Van insisted, "He was making her laugh and everything."
Trip's exasperation grew. "She was probably humoring him. You know, pretending to be nice? She's so out of everybody's league that all she can do is pity them."
She pointed her phone at Trip's face, stopping it centimeters from his nose. "Watch who you are talking to, you walking pile of vomit. Jackie is a kind girl, as much as Dipper is a kind man. You will not insult them to me."
Trip's gaze darted from her phone to her face. With a disgusted grunt, he turned and stepped away from her. "You have really crappy taste in men."
"Were that the case, I would be dating you," she snapped back.
Trip sneered. "Please, I'd never go for a fat chick."
Misao's expression darkened. Trip's sneer turned into a very haughty smirk at her reaction, while Van shot him a very nasty look.
Trip was more hesitant to shuffle off with his tail between his legs. "Paying people? Why would I spend money on anyone I don't like?"
Misao did not hesitate. "For the same reason I would."
Her reply had him pulling back from her slightly, as she raised her free hand, rubbing her thumb across her index and middle fingers to drive the implication home. "English is my fourth language, but I am more fluent in what talks in this country than you are."
The message was received. Glaring at her intensely, Trip turned and followed his brother–flipping her off as he left.
She watched them leave, and looked down at her phone, as she reflected on this enraging encounter. Komplikationen müssen dauerhaft beseitigt werden.
"Jackie Lynn Thomas though," Roland said, and Misao perked up.
Sie hat es auch herausgefunden.
Jo shot him a look that would kill if he hadn't been on the receiving end of worse.
He dismissed her glare with a wave of his hand. "Ay, this is exactly what I was talking about."
As she looked away, he elaborated. "Do you honestly think that acting like a jackass to all the other girls Dipper knows is going to magically make him like you?"
Jo let out a short sound of disgust, then spoke. "Of course not, I'm not stupid."
Misao looked off to her left away from them, letting a snort of doubt out.
"Then what's your endgame, man? Because I do not see you starting beef with Jackie Lynn Thomas over Dipper going down any better than Star's with Brittney."
Jo hitched her shoulders. "Shut up."
"All this is doing is pissing everyone off, and it's going to make fighting the Magnavores harder."
"Like any of them except for Star are actually that important," Jo snapped back. "Heck, if it weren't for her magic, she'd be as useless as the rest of them.""
Misao slowly looked back at Jo, her gaze once again hard.
Roland groaned. "Dude, Misao is probably the only person who knows how to operate the Beetle Battle Base, and Mabel is his sister. Why do you have to start with all of them?!"
"Because they act like a bunch of dumb immature girls!" Jo hissed back.
Roland stared at her. "Like you are? Starting shit with three girls over a boy?"
Jo opened her mouth to shout him down but stopped.
"She…" Star said without looking back at her. "Brittney really hates me."
Mabel's first instinct was to reassure her, but the venom that Brittney hocked at Star had been so strong that there really wasn't any other way to slice it. "… Yeah, she does."
As Dipper walked outside–followed by Marco and Jackie–Star looked at her wand, then up at the sky.
"… I really hurt her."
Jo and Roland both were given pause when they heard Star's admission. It stayed the others from calling out to her as well, particularly Dipper.
"Star…" Mabel began.
"I've been straight up horrible to her. I ruined her game… I ruined her birthday party…" Star looked down at the ground. "I never apologized for it, once. I just did whatever and ignored her when everyone else was laughing and cheering."
Jackie spoke up. "Yeah, well Brittney's a bitch."
Star finally turned to her and the others, revealing the tears running down her face. "That's no excuse for me!"
She stopped after her shout, then looked down. "I messed up. That's all there is to it…"
Jackie's hands flew to her mouth as she watched the Blimp turn for an emergency landing, then the jet fighters coming back around. "What are those things?!"
Knowing what they were, Marco had a more urgent question. "Why are they coming here?"
He received his answer courtesy of Typhus' jazzy baritone. "Because where else are annoying kids gonna be, baby?"
Marco shot into a fighting stance, and Star turned around to join him as Typhus appeared in the street, and over a dozen Scabs joined him in bursts of flame. Brandishing his Bone Sword, he pointed it at Marco, Mabel, and Star as he broke into a smile that was hard to differentiate from his normal toothy grimace.
Star bristled and brought up her wand, a green glow coming from its half-star. "I really, really don't need this right now!"
Typhus saw Star's tears and chuckled. "Gonna cry about it?"
Watching the fight quickly unfold, Jo went to go for her Beetle Bonder. "Go time-"
Roland stopped her. "Hold it. We can't."
Jo looked at him. "What? Why-"
She stopped and realized it. "Ohhh… we're in public, and they'd know we're here. That's probably why they even attacked the school, to flush us out!"
By the time she finished, she was standing in front of Hillhurst. "… Huh."
Roland appeared beside her, holding Misao in his arms. "I'm really glad you're the genius of the group, Jo."
Jo scowled at him. "Then here's my next insight–Drew left the school with Heather, and he doesn't have a phone. How are we going to get a hold of him?"
"He'll figure it out," Roland argued back.
As he set her down, Misao huffed. "Prepare yourselves to deploy in your AVs. I will be down in the Beetle Battle Base being useless."
As the monster struggled to get the mess off his face and the Scabs closed in on Star and Marco again, Jackie looked over to Dipper as she realized he was walking them back from the fight.
"Dude, I've seen Star and Marco fight monsters before, this is different," she said, her voice betraying anxiety.
Dipper didn't sugarcoat it. "Yeah, these guys are trying to kill us."
Jackie watched as the flame-shaped blade of one Scab came close to cutting Marco's throat as he used that overreach to slam the back of his fist into the side of its head twice, then weave his arm around the Scab to flicker jab his face until it came apart into a swarm of wasps.
"… Dude…" She just never imagined she'd see this kind of violence.
Mabel spoke up. "And we need all the muscle we can get to win."
Dipper turned to her and nodded. Tossing him her phone, Mabel turned towards the fight–and began stretching like she was in an 80s exercise video. "But first, it's time to limber up!"
"Hey, face-face!"
Mabel's outstretched arm caught Typhus at his neck, and the monster was dragged away by her running lariat and thrown to the curb opposite of the school.
Lowering her arm, she glared at him as he got up. "You wanna see what five years of Family Kickboxing Classes does to an already violent maniac?!"
With a growling laugh, Typhus started to get up, but Mabel and Star both were not having it.
"Stomp both of his ugly faces in!" Mabel yelled out before she jumped and heel-dropped Typhus's head, forcing it back down. Running up on him next, Star punted him in the stomach, lifting him up off his knees and leaving him open to Mabel's roundhouse kick straight across his nose, throwing him onto his back.
The remaining Scabs bore down on them, one trying to shank Mabel in the side. She leaned back, the blade passing just below her chest, and she shoved her elbow into the Scab's face.
"You got a bad aim to miss a target this big!" She side-kicked it, putting it on its back, then switched legs to hook the neck of another going for Star.
"Hey Scab, look at this cool bug I found!" With a twist of her hips and swing of her leg she drove the Scab's head into the pavement, shattering the monster mook's dome.
Jackie watched with growing awe as Star, Mabel, but more importantly (to her at least) Marco laid a beating on Typhus. Even with his henchmen around, while two were dropping hit after hit, the third would lash out at attackers and keep them at bay until Typhus was thrown back to them.
They were all amazing, but Marco… she just couldn't tear her eyes away from him, sending a Scab flying with a vicious combo of palm thrusts before properly punching Typhus back into Star and a blast of gunk from her wand that coated his face and kept him struggling.
"… Dude… that is so cool…" Jackie breathed.
Dipper nodded. "Right?"
Then at the same time they said it.
"Marco is amazing."
Jackie's mouth fell open, and she looked up at Dipper, her mint green eyes widening in both surprise and understanding.
Mabel's phone buzzed, and Dipper looked at it.
Janna Banana said:
I'm with Dr00 and Heather, we're going after the blimp.
Misao said:
Roland brought Jo and I to Hillhurst, we are deploying the AVs!
As Jackie noticed the messages, he sent his reply.
And from the heart of this crowd, Brittney emerged in a rage that no one was listening to her demands. "Move aside you clods! You're blocking…! Get out of my…!"
She forced her way to the front, Sabrina and Chantal behind her–and her already red-faced rage turned a crimson when she saw Star beating on Typhus repeatedly with her wand, before Marco followed it up with a flying kick into his chest that pushed him into a haymaker punch from Mabel that sent him crashing into the arms of his remaining Scabs.
The three teens lined up, with Star at the point, Marco on her right, and Mabel on her left. The exertion of the extremely physical fight was apparent, makeup was running in the sweat, knuckles and knees were bruised and bloodied, and all three were panting for breath.
Slumped into the arms of his soldiers, Typhus hung his head low and chuckled. "Man… I haven't been jumped like this since before I met my friends."
The chuckle turned into a laugh. "I love fighting you brats… I could do it all day, baby!"
He pushed himself up to his feet, and whatever injuries the three were able to inflict on him were gone. "Even if you can't!"
"WHATEVER YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING, YOU'RE GOING TO STOP!"
The glow disappeared, and Star looked back with everyone else, Typhus included, as Brittney stormed across the front lawn of the school. With fire in her eyes and her fists clenched, she marched past Dipper and Jackie, past Mabel, Star, and Marco, and walked right up to Magnavore Commander.
Reaching Typhus, she raised a hand and jabbed him in the chest with her index finger.
"You need to take your ugly Beetleborgs cosplay, and your weirdo friends and march back to your mom's basement or whatever manchild cave you crawled out of, got it?!"
Behind her, his opponents shared his surprise at the sheer nerve of the girl.
"Uh… Brittney, that's not cosplay! That's an actual monster!" Marco called.
Brittney rolled her eyes. "Oh come on, even I've read those stupid comics!"
She turned around and slapped Typhus upside the head. "Are you paying attention, moron?! You need to go; you're disrupting my school!"
Typhus reached up and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Man, the attitude you kids got, you'd all make great Magnavores."
He then raised his hand to swat Brittney aside. "But we ain't takin' applications, baby."
Star, Marco, and Mabel all lunged to save Brittney, when a shadow passed over them and the street directly next to Typhus shattered from the force of a massive object smashing into it. Brittney and everyone behind her threw their hands up as the wave of dust and debris washed over them, and when she lowered her hands, she was the first to make out the massive shape in the dust cloud.
Just beside ground zero, Typhus tried to move his hand, but found it in a fearsome grip, one stronger than anything that had him since he got here. "Wh-what the heck…? You're strong as a troll, baby!"
The dust cleared, and the first thing he saw was long, vibrant red hair, and then the gnarled, green-skinned face of a she-troll, her yellowed eyes glaring death at him, and her turquoise lips pulled back to bare her fanged underbite. It cleared further, revealing her entire body rippling with tensed muscle under a deceptive layer of fat, wearing a purple shirt, gray pants, and a pair of pumps.
Marco's guard dropped in relief when he saw her. "A capable and responsible adult!"
Star couldn't help herself. "After a fashion."
"If you really wanna flatter me, beefcake…?" Miss Skullnick, Star, Marco, Jackie, and Mabel's homeroom teacher, spoke with a surprisingly level tone that conveyed to Typhus the sheer depth of her anger.
"You're gonna leave my students alone and not come back here… or I'm gonna hurt you."
Typhus stared at Miss Skullnick's face, looked at Brittney, then Star, Marco, and Mabel, then back at her. His gaze fixed there for a few moments, before he relaxed his arm, freeing it from her grip, and slowly stepped back from her.
"For you, baby? Anything." He folded his arms, nodded, and vanished in a flash of flame–taking his remaining Scabs with him.
It was a question that reminded everyone of the gravity of the current situation. The blimp that the Jet Fighters had hit, it was no longer in the sky. The only sign of it was a billowing pall of smoke rising from the LA River, and the ominous shapes of the Magnavore Jet Fighters circling it.
Brittney was staring at the smoke. Everyone could see her hands clenching and unclenching, and the slight tremors that ran through her body, but aside from that the girl was stock still.
And then she wasn't. She turned around in place so fast she could've just flipped around. She was staring directly at Star, her eyes growing bloodshot and her face twitching from the corner of her lip up to her eyebrow.
A chorus of blaring tones from Mabel's, Marco's, Miss Skullnick's, and Brittney's phones interrupted the tense moment. The same tone swept among the other students, and Jackie grabbed her phone to look at the message that came with the tone.
Dipper saw it on Mabel's phone and frowned.
"It was only a matter of time."
"… You like The Tick?"
"The Tick is awesome."
A few weeks ago, Drew would've been unable to function being so close with someone he crushed on so hard. But as he rationalized before and repeatedly since–hanging out with Heather was the easiest thing in his life now.
"Dude, The Tick? Seriously?" A baffled Heather asked with her head tilted slightly.
"Yes, The Tick. I think he had the best crossover out of all of them," Drew defended.
Heather gestured with the comic in her right hand. "And not Spider-Man? Really?"
Drew stood his ground. "I'll die on this hill, The Tick is hilarious, and Blue Beet trying to make sense of how his world even worked had me rolling on the floor."
Heather laughed again, then looked out her driver-side window out in the direction of Echo Creek Academy a few blocks away. "Do you even wanna go back? I don't, with the place looking like that–Brittney's lost her mind."
He agreed with her, as he set aside the book he was reading. "Right? She's all 'Rargh, it's my school for the week so I'm gonna act like I'm an anime student council president!'"
That brought a giggle from Heather. "Yeah, it's so stupid."
"Between her and the Vanderhoffs, how did our school end up with the worst rich kids?" He asked.
Heather agreed with an eager nod. "I know! I saw Van freaking out in the parking lot this morning. He was kicking Skeeves' car door so hard he was leaving dents, and Skeeves was sitting in it!"
Drew gaped at her in stunned confusion. "Really?"
"No lie, he just sat there watching him while he ate a breakfast burrito. It actually took Miss Skullnick roaring at Van to go to class to make him stop."
Heather nodded. "Mmhm! Trip doesn't bother me, either. Hasn't tried to talk when we pass in the halls, he just turns his nose up at me like I'm missing out."
Drew let out a short laugh. "It's better than him trying to ask you out."
"Yep! I will take being his sour grapes any day."
The two share a gentle laugh, then Heather leaned forward on her steering wheel, still smiling at him.
Drew let out a somewhat more bitter laugh. "I want to, but my dad's grounded me for the last two times I dipped out."
And as much as he wanted to go read comics all day with Heather… he really had to make the next time he cut class count. Nothing less than a Magnavore attack so he could make it to the weekend without trouble.
Heather did a double-take. "The last two times…? When you were out helping Nano and Mr. Pines?"
She sat up, with open concern all over her face. "Why would your dad ground you for being excused from school to do community service? That doesn't make any sense."
Drew hesitated for a moment, wondering if Heather found it too unbelievable or too strange, but more importantly he wondered if he'd said too much. In the same moment he chose to forge ahead, knowing that it'd do no good to try to walk it back.
Talking to her was so easy.
"Yeah, my dad's kind of an asshole," he began, before he amended it. "No, an asshole wouldn't want to be compared to my dad."
He'd never seen Heather go so pale before, or her voice tremble with worry as she spoke. "Please tell me you're joking."
Drew sat back in his seat and sighed. "I wish I could explain it easily, I don't know how to put this… but my Dad hates me."
At her uncomprehending expression, he elaborates. "When he talks to me, it's always down to me. He doesn't have any particular nice things to say about my reading comics or spending time at Zoom. He criticizes everything I do, even when I do something right. And when bad things happen to me, like when Trip and Van bully me… he blames me for it."
He felt really self-conscious all of sudden. "Look, I'm sorry I dropped that–that was way too heavy..."
"Does he hit you? My God, does he hit Jo?" Heather asked, not even flinching.
Drew shook his head. "I don't think Nano would let him live if he so much as thought about hitting any of us."
The bitterness came back. "And actually, he treats Jo very differently from me. She likes everything I do, you know that, but he doesn't treat her like she's an embarrassment. It's always standards and double standards… I'm never good enough at something, and if I am, then Jo's better."
Heather thought about that. "Whoa… is that why she's in the same grade as us?"
He sighed through his nose and nodded. "Yeah… he doesn't hesitate to remind me that, either. Heck, part of why I'm grounded is because Jo went with me to do Community Service."
Looking down at their pile of comics, the Beetleborgs #1 safely wrapped up on the top, he continued. "I'm actually not supposed to go to the dance Saturday after being grounded, but I'm going anyway. Because I want to go, to help Roland with his prank, but mainly because he doesn't want me to go–and doesn't think I would go."
Heather twisted her tightened grip on her steering wheel, after hearing that. She looked away from Drew, out the front of her car and just sat there in quiet deliberation. He watched her seethe quietly for a moment, maybe a little more, before she closed her eyes and let out a breath that she started holding in that time.
"You should tell Nano or Mr. Pines about this, you know they'd never let him get away with this crap," she finally said.
Drew had thought about that plenty of times. "Man… I really should, but if there's one thing that still bothers me after everything else, it's Dad convincing them that I'm just lying and being a punk because he's just being strict."
He shook his head. "I mean, shoot. Even telling you this, I feel like I'm coming off as some entitled loser who's mad because his dad thinks he wastes his time on comic books and his little sister's in the same grade as him."
Heather whirled on him. "Don't ever think that! I believe what you're saying!"
Drew fell quiet, as Heather continued. "I think this is the first time we've talked about something other than comic books. But don't think I've never paid attention. You're always at Zoom, you don't talk about yourself at all unless it's to Roland or Jo, and when we talk there's always something going on in your head–like you're overthinking or doubting every word before you say it."
"… Am I that easy to read?" He asked, feeling almost sick that he was this visible.
He wondered further, if this was why Trip and Van went after him so hard. After a moment, he decided they were both too up their own butts to notice anything but their small intestines.
"It's more like," Heather began hesitantly, before just saying it, "I like you enough to notice these things… so I worry."
She smiled again and placed her hand over his. "And I'm actually really happy that you trust me enough with something this heavy."
The smile was gone just as quick, but only long enough for her to add: "Well, I'm also really angry at your dad and I wish I could make him disappear."
She patted his hand. "But that'd be too good for him. If you ever need backup standing up to him? Let me know, I'll be there with a baseball bat."
Drew was touched by her reassurance, and he smiled back. "Well, except for this weekend, at least."
Heather was right, Drew had Roland, Jo, Nano, and his new friends, too. He nodded in agreement to her, and both shared warm smiles once more–her hand not leaving his–before she blinked once, looked past him, and jumped in surprise.
"Jeez!" She yelped.
Drew looked back and jumped himself. "What the-?!"
Janna was leaning against his window, her face almost right up against the glass, staring wide-eyed at both of them with one hand on the glass and the other holding a taco she was taking a bite out of with the corner of her mouth.
"You can't ditch school on an empty stomach, Sad Kid," she replied. "Bold choice of a makeout spot, by the way. Didn't think you'd be into that kind of thing."
Heather leaned over to address her. "We weren't making out…"
She stopped and realized that all their conversation in a buttoned-up car with the AC going had fogged up her windows. "… Oh my God…"
Drew stared at Janna blankly. "Janna."
"Sad Kid," Janna responded, and Heather perked up at the nickname, arching an eyebrow.
"… Why are you giving this to me…?"
Janna looked him straight in the eye. "Would you believe that it's because I have a crush on you?"
"No," both he and Heather replied.
Janna Ordonia's reputation preceded her… and she liked that.
"Okay, full disclosure. Roland told me about your dad taking your phone for BS reasons and asked me to hook you up, so I used my myriad of ways to get you one. Don't worry about paying for it, he owes me a favor now and that's good enough for me."
"What are you implying, that I used some magical means to sneak into the back of an Electronics store and make off with some unsold product?" She asked.
Drew did a double-take between Janna and his phone.
Janna leaned down onto the car door to stick her head into the car, her laid back smile holding a sinister undertone. "No, this phone's legit."
With her taco-less hand, she patted Drew atop his head while looking at Heather, gauging her reaction. "I'm not going to get your man here in trouble."
She looked at him, her hand still atop his head, then back at her. "He's too cute for juvie, right?"
Drew finally flinched away from her head-patting and gave her a wary look. Heather, on the other hand, burst into a gentle laugh. "He totally is!"
His face colored as he looked back and forth to their smiling faces, and he sank into his seat. Heaven forbid he complained, though, being teased by pretty girls was better than dealing with the usual bullies in his life.
"Thank you," he said to Janna, for the phone and for brightening the mood.
Her smile became more of a smirk at his reaction. "Think everything of it."
She polished off her taco then brushed her hand off on her jacket. "Anyway, that's my deed of the day."
"So where are you headed from here?" Heather asked.
Janna responded with a slight shrug. "Dunno, but I know I'd rather be anywhere but at school right now."
A boom echoed through the air, and Janna looked up over the roof of the car. Her eyes widened in surprise. "… Man, don't make me take that back…"
Jo does her best.As expected of a season finale, there's a heck of a lot to chew on.
Have I said publicly that Jo is my second favorite character on the protagonist side after Drew?
At his home, Shermie stood in the backyard and watched the Magnavore Jet Fighters in silence. Even as his phone in his pocket buzzed, then rang angrily with calls that he hoped were from Nano and not his son and daughter-in-law, he waited and watched. It was a reassuring sight at least, when the Red Striker AV rushed out and easily destroyed the raiding fighters. Even more reassuring, he thought, was when the destroyed fighters just disintegrated and burned into nothing–instead of crashing into the town below as balls of flame.
But in the end, those were small comforts.
When the last fighter was gone and the Red Striker AV disappeared, he turned and went to the icebox on his patio. He pulled out several six-packs, some of soda, some of beer, and set them down on his picnic table. Then he turned and got the grill started and threw burgers and franks on the heat. They were almost done when he heard the familiar chime of Star's Scissors opening a portal in the backyard. He adjusted his bowtie and turned to watch them file in one by one.
Star and Marco sat on the bench, and she reached for the nearest cold bottle she could find and effortlessly popped the cap off with her thumb. She took a gulp from it and made a face.
"Urk, beer."
After letting the taste settle on her tongue, she resumed chugging the bottle down.
Shermie smiled at her reaction, moreso at Marco's switch from surprise to concern at her intake. "I remember my first beer with my old man in Jersey. Compared to the swill we had back then, this stuff is milk and honey."
Star lowered the empty bottle from her lips, and reached for a soda next. "It tastes better than mashed corn juice."
Dipper meanwhile had opened another portal, and Misao emerged from it. She had greeted him with a smile that lasted all of a half-second before she noticed the Red Strikerborg standing off to the side with her fellow Beetleborgs.
Jo noticed Misao and rolled her eyes. "We should change."
Roland agreed. "Yeah, I'm starving, man. Didn't get to eat my meat loaf."
All three Beetleborgs held their hands out and said together. "Back Blast."
In a flash they transformed out of their armors, and Dipper, Misao, Marco, Star, and Shermie recoiled in surprise just as Mabel came out the door.
"Okay, so I used up all my bunny band-aids, but I have plenty of other shapes, like cats, pigs, birds, and…"
She saw Drew and yelled. "HOLY COW!"
It was… bad. Bruises covered his right arm and went down his neck and collarbone. Blood soaked the lower half of his face, neck, stained his blue t-shirt. His right eye was entirely bloodshot, his iris standing out stark against the crimson.
"You look like you did the Running of the Bulls–all over your face," Shermie added.
Drew shook his head. "He hit really hard… but the worst of this was from me using my power to keep up with him."
Dipper walked over to him, already understanding. "… You used your telekinesis to move yourself."
Shermie did a double-take, his bowtie nearly popping off from his sudden movement. "Telekinesis?!"
Drew looked over at the picnic table and nodded. One of the sodas lifted from its cardboard six-pack box and floated over to him. Catching it in his left hand, he stared at the bottlecap, and it popped off and flipped before it froze in the air. Everyone watched the bottle cap fold itself in half, then in half again as Drew chugged down the soda. As soon as the bottle was empty, he let the bottle go and it floated into the box. The bottle cap followed, unfolding back to its original shape and sealing the mouth of the bottle.
Star stood up. "Whoa…"
Dipper was mesmerized. "Do you realize how precise you are?"
Drew nodded. "Yeah, it's… really hard to describe. When the power's on, I can feel everything around me out to a certain point. Whatever I can feel, I can manipulate it."
Dipper was trying hard not to get too excited at the chance to study someone with telekinesis who didn't want to kill him. He caught himself almost drooling as he watched him return the empty bottle back to the six pack.
Mabel brought Drew over to the picnic table and sat him down. "All right, sit tight so I can play doctor."
Misao blurted out. "In front of everyone?"
Dipper turned his head to stare at her. "Don't make it weird."
"Now take off your shirt," Mabel ordered Drew as she opened her first aid kit.
"Dipper," Mabel said as she began bandaging up Drew.
He turned to her. "Yeah?"
"Talk to that girl and sort this out before she turns from you at twelve to Gideon at ten."
Removing his lumberjack hat, Dipper rubbed his scalp, ruffling up his hair in the process. "I'll have the perfect chance to do it Saturday. It'll be just her, Marco, and me up there at Hillhurst."
Star had finished her third bottle of soda by this point and set it down. "I'll be there, too."
Mabel brightened up, and accidentally tightened the bandage she was wrapping around Drew's arm, making him yelp. "CAN WE USE THE SCHWANZSTUCKER?!"
Drew recovered from the squeeze and stared at her. "The… what?"
Star looked at Marco for clarification, and he just shrugged his shoulders.
Drew looked at Marco. "What's up with that, anyway?"
Marco cocked an eyebrow. "What's with what? The karate?"
"Yeah," Drew said. "I can get us having superpowers, and Star having magic… but where do you dig down for what you do?"
Marco stared at Drew for so long he blinked twice before he looked down at his hands. "I don't know, I just use my karate and it works."
Shermie took off his glasses, took a cloth from his shirt pocket and began rubbing the lenses. "I've got some bad news for you kids. I was hoping we wouldn't have to talk about this, but after today… John Q. Public ain't gonna be able to keep their noses out of this stuff, and even worse? Uncle Sam's going to be looking this way and wondering what the heck is going on. Help or hassle is coming your way whether you want it or not."
Remembering all those phones pointed at the fights, Dipper grimly nodded. "Darn it, you're right."
Shermie put his glasses back on. "You're gonna need somebody to vamoose on over to the police station or city hall and let them know they're outta their league with these yahoos. Because if we don't, there's gonna be a lotta people getting in the way, getting hurt, getting taken hostage, or worse."
For dramatic effect, he made a cutting gesture across his neck, before he continued.
"As for ol' Uncle Sam? I can't tell you how to deal with that. I wouldn't even let the guys I might know inside The Company know what's going on here."
Janna Banana said:
Sure you don't wanna just tell her?
Drew said:
I think she should stay out of this, so she doesn't get pulled into any fights. It's for the best.
Janna Banana said:
Cool, Ill get you all to myself.
His face flushed, and he rolled his eyes.
Drew said:
You're terrible.
Janna Banana said:
Im your God, Sad Kid :smug:
He wouldn't forget this fight for a while, or how much he gave to win it and overcome someone who was stronger than him in every possible way by himself.
Saberizer was wrong about him.
But Drew was right about Saberizer.
For the first time, I've beaten something I shouldn't have.
"If you don't have anything to say, you can go," she snapped at him.
Roland rolled his eyes. "What would me saying anything more accomplish? You're the one who has things to say."
"What, like 'I'm sorry?' Did you not hear Misao mess around with my weapons in the middle of a battle and act all high and mighty about it?"
Roland argued back. "She told you not to shoot at the ground."
She stepped back up to him, hissing. "She went and messed with my weapons, and you're on me for endangering the team with over drama."
Roland threw up his hands. "Motherfuckin'..."
He stepped away from the stop sign, then pointed up at it. "You need to do this and work your shit out, Josephine, I'm more than done."
Jo turned for the stairs and had just crossed the dining room to get to them, when her father spoke again.
"Your brother's on very thin ice."
She stopped barely halfway up the stairs and looked back at him. He was now looking at the television.
"If he keeps cutting class, and acting like he doesn't live under my rules, I'll feel inclined to make sure his stuff is moved out onto the street with him." he added. "The stuff he needs; all that comic book nonsense can go where it belongs."
Jo gave her father a look more withering than she would've felt comfortable if he was looking at her. "If he still had his phone, I'd let him know. That's the only reason you don't know where he is, isn't it?"
That won an immediate reaction, both her parents swiveling their heads sharply to look at her. Jo averted her eyes at the same time, her expression schooled.
"I'm just saying," she said. "It's not his fault he can't tell you where he is. He could be hurt, or dead for all you know."
"Good job, Jo," she said to herself, "You've played yourself so well, you're a solved game."
She lifted a hand to rest her chin on it and sighed. "It took only a couple weeks, but I did it. I can't be normal and just like a boy, huh? It's gotta be some weird mind-game and me trying to dominate everything."
She glanced towards her bedroom door, in the direction of her living room downstairs.
"I wonder where I get it from?"
Sarcasm dripped from her question, as she looked back down at her desk. The memory of Star's skull-marked cheeks when she threatened her in the alley, Misao's cold glare on the screen of her AV, Roland's disappointed glare, Marco striking her chest when she and Star came to blows, and once more Dipper's piercing glower.
Inhaling sharply, she let the breath out slowly.
They all hated her.
"Just do it like every group project and class assignment," she muttered, "Keep your mouth shut and focus on getting results. Carry the team and when it's over you can pretend you never spoke to them."
Jo dropped her hand back down onto the desk, then buried her face into her folded arms.
After a few moments she sniffled, and her shoulders shook.
Roland nodded. "Everyone's okay, don't worry. It was just really chaotic and weird, but no one got hurt as far as I can tell, we all went to Mr. Pines' house after school let out."
Aaron tilted his head. "Nobody got hurt–Mabel, Marco, and Star were okay after that?"
Roland nodded. "Yeah, you know those guys are just built different."
She gave them both an additional squeeze then let go. "My goodness, though, it's everywhere! Them kids fighting those creeps–you know it's going to be on the evening news and everyone's gonna be talkin' about it. I'd stay clear of them for a while, if you don't wanna go get swept up in the circus."
She had a point, and it brought it right back to Dipper's own way back. No one knew who the Beetleborgs were–for now–and constantly associating with the twins, Misao, Star, and Marco was only going to make associating them with the Beetleborgs easier.
It was such a prescient reminder that Roland regarded his grandmother with a raised eyebrow.
Scowling at the juvenile snickering around him, even from his own mother, Aaron sought a name off the top of his head that wasn't a fictional comic book hero. "Minuano, the samurai from Brazil."
"I don't think he's even allowed in the country after the last time he was here," Nano said.
She placed her hands on her hips and let out a melodramatic hum. "I remember when there were as many heroes out there as there were in the comic books."
Aaron nodded in agreement. "The 80s were something else–the 90s, too."
Nano's tone lowered a bit, a hint of disappointment–maybe even sadness to it. "Kids didn't need to be out there fighting bad guys or their monsters in the street."
Her tone got a little more bitter. "Halcyon Days my big black behind."
Roland shrugged his shoulders once more. "Well, I think Star and Marco got this; them, the twins, and those guys going around kitted out like the freakin' Beetleborgs."
Nano's eyes narrowed just a little behind her spectacles. "You ain't wrong."
Roland let out a hum as Star's tearful self-recrimination flashed through his thoughts. Light glimmered in his eyes, a gleam as an idea formed and became a cruel spark. "Actually, I had a better idea for the dance."
Both Nano and Aaron looked at each other, then at Roland, as he smiled.
"It's super short notice, but it's the best prank I can think of," he said as he broke into a smile, "Especially with how important this is to Brittney."
There was a malice in Roland's smile that his father and grandmother had never seen before and worried it them. When he explained his plan, however, they were completely onboard with it.
Angie agreed as they pulled away from the group embrace. "Yes, like what is going on and why were you fighting those monsters?"
Rafael sniffed the air just above Star's head. "And… have one of you been drinking beer?"
Angie narrowed her eyes at both of them. "… Beer?"
Before the subject could fully switch rails to that topic, Marco held up his hands. "Mom, Dad, hold on. Let's talk about what's going on with the monsters–it's really important."
Star quickly nodded. "Oh yeah, fate of the world stuff–maybe even the universe."
Rafael all but leaped up from where he sat to his feet. "This calls for tequila."
"Four glasses," Angie quickly said after him.
Rafael was back from the kitchen, handing Star, his son, and his wife each a shot glass filled with the clear golden-brown liquid. The moment she had her glass, Angie raised her glass in a toast and all of them knocked back the strong liquor at once. Marco, being the entirely inexperienced drinker, nearly gagged from the intensity of the flavor, but stopped himself and swallowed it down like everyone else.
"Oh wow, that burns the whole way down," he gasped.
Star looked at her glass in surprise. "That hit a little harder than mashed corn juice."
Angie lowered her glass, setting it on the coffee table, then looked at Marco. "Your father and I are not angry at you, and we are not going to stop you from going out there and fighting."
Marco and Star brightened, before he asked. "You're not?"
"Of course not!" Angie said. "Young man, we've been reading Big Bad Beetleborgs since before you were born! If they're anything like in the books at all, then they need to be stopped!"
Rafael nodded in agreement. "I am so glad that we paid for those karate classes!"
He then patted both teens on their shoulders. "But please, do not be reckless and don't go seeking fights if you can avoid them. We want you to be as safe as you can."
"Do your parents know about this?" She asked.
Star grimaced. "I don't think they should. They might just make me come back home."
She took Marco's other hand and held it. "And I'm not going to just leave you guys fighting the Forces of Evil without me. I love you guys, you're the best!"
Marco's cheeks turned red as Star gripped his hand tightly. "We love you too, Star."
Rafael and Angie both repressed the urge to go "Aww" like a studio audience as Star and Marco shared affectionate looks with one another.
Angie clearing her throat doused plenty of cold water on their hormone-driven ardor, and both looked back to see her leaning around the corner from just below the top of the stairs giving them a friendly, awkward wave.
"We're trusting you to be careful, to be responsible, and to come back safe and sound when you go out into battle." That said, she gave them both a harder look. "We're still your parents, though, and this does not change the other boundaries we've set for you. Do I make myself clear?"
Marco nodded once, but fast. "Absolutely."
She met Star's gaze. "Is that clear to you too, Star?"
Star jumped and nodded quickly when she fell under scrutiny. "Yes mom–ma'am."
Marco then asked. "For clarification's sake, we can still make out, right?"
Angie's gaze shifted to stare at him again. "… Yes."
Rafael peeked in over Angie and wagged a finger to them. "But do not take a step past second base."
Star looked at Marco. "Ooh, what's second base?"
"It's a baseball thing," Marco replied.
"… Do they make out in baseball? Because if they do, I want to watch more baseball."
Angie burst into snickering, while Rafael pondered Star's question. Marco rolled his eyes in exasperation.
"We'll behave," he promised his parents. "Nothing under the clothes or below the belt."
Angie stopped laughing, the full force of a Mom Stare locked onto the two. "Good. And leave the door open if you're going to be in there alone with her, Marco."
Both he and Star looked at her door, and the former quickly opened and took the latter's hand to slip inside. Satisfied to see the door remain open, Angie huffed in victory and headed downstairs.
She placed a hand on her cheek as she let out a little squeal of joy. "She's already calling me 'Mom.'"
Rafael lingered just a few seconds more to make sure the door didn't just happen to swing shut, then followed her. "You know, she is right, baseball with makeouts would be fun."
Angie's giggle at that was on the dirtier side. "I would definitely watch it~"
As she began to peck him on the cheek, Marco smiled and tilted his head to the side to allow Star's kisses to trail down his jawline. Just as she reached Marco's neck, both heard another throat clear, but it wasn't Angie's.
Star jumped away from Marco's back and both looked at her Magic Instruction Book. which sat open on the end of her bed. Floating just above it in the lotus position was the tiny, blue, bearded guide of the book–Sir Glossaryck of Terms.
"Just wanted to let you know that I'm here," Glossaryck said before turning his back to them. "You can go back to whatever that is."
Star made a face. "Nah, you killed the mood."
Marco agreed as Star walked over to the bed and flopped onto it next to the book.
"Actually, since you're out and about. I wanted to ask you about protection spells."
Glossaryck stared at Star for several seconds, before blowing a kiss to the audience in his head. "Goodnight, everybody!"
Glossaryck maintained that flat stare. "… You're just like your mother."
Star drew back ever slightly, glowering. "In what way?"
"Less than you think, more than you know."
"Gosh Glossaryck, back at it again with that aggravating obtuseness," Marco said in exasperation.
"Don't hate me because I'm beautiful," Glossaryck chimed back as he turned to face Star. "One thing that your mother did want very early on when I was teaching her, was ample protection for when she was in battle–and similar activities."
Star looked down at the Magic Instruction Book, and grimaced. Half as tall as she was and twice as heavy, since she'd gotten the book she'd skimmed through it once, barely reading more than a page or two of each section and hardly writing anything in it herself.
"But there's so much to go through…"
"Well you want to become more powerful, right?" When Star nodded, Glossaryck gestured down at the book. "This is a comprehensive manual on power itself. Eight generations of the most powerful Wielders of the Royal Magic Wand ever are written in these pages. The things you can learn from them could destroy this world and any other… and just as well protect it."
Marco looked over. "Whoa, is it that big of a deal?"
Glossaryck turned to face him. "Is it that big of a deal? Are you that big of a deal? Is the Evangelion doing shadow puppets with the Getter RoboboboboboboBOBO?!"
Marco rolled his eyes as Glossaryck's head began turning like he was possessed, and he made crude approximations of shadow puppets.
"Ask a stupid question…" He muttered.
Glossaryck stopped acting out and folded his arms and legs once more. He regarded Marco with a placid smile. "You're learning."
Star frowned. "Understand how?"
"You're fighting the forces of evil, and what evil forces they are. Why just this afternoon I felt tremendous power the likes of which I haven't sensed in… oh… 1000 years and some change."
Star awkwardly turned around without breaking eye contact with Glossaryck. "Please don't tell Mom."
"Why would I? She'd drag you back to Mewni and probably have this dimension sealed off if she knew what was going on." Glossaryck laid on his side, head propped up on one hand. "And that would be terrible for teaching you."
She flipped the pages, which treated her and Marco to rather dramatic images of vine-snared towers, bodies sailing into space, terrible creatures rising from their graves, and a black box with an evil eye spewing out nightmares. Each page was covered in dense text that Marco didn't recognize at all and, judging by Star's furrowing brows, she couldn't make sense of either.
Glossaryck threw all five of his hands up. "Details! I can guide you through the process, but it will still take time. That isn't to say that it can't be made easier beyond my storied guidance. I'm sure if you knew some well-studied intellectual with a penchant for exploring the unknown and deciphering dead tongues written by dead hands, you'd be able to learn not only Skywynne's secrets, but the secrets of every author of this book."
Star and Marco looked at each other, both thinking of the same name.
"Dipper."
"Who?" Glossaryck asked.
"He's been helping us fight bad guys," Marco said, "He's a paranormal investigator and a monster hunter."
Glossaryck rolled his eyes and turned away. He was about to suggest it was very nice that they knew a crackpot, when Star added.
"Him and his sister even helped stop this crazy dream demon from invading reality and causing the end of the world once."
Marco agreed. "Yeah, Bill Cipher."
Glossaryck's eyes shot wide, then his head did a full 180 to look at the two like a cartoonish owl. "… Bill… Cipher…?"
Star nodded. "Yeah, little yellow triangle guy with a top hat and one eye, you've heard of him, right?"
Glossaryck's body twisted around to align with his head as he returned to his nonchalant self. Uncrossing his arms, the guide steepled his fingers pointed upward, then down. He closed his eyes, as if to meditate.
"Star, when you've seen as much as I have, you'll find that your capacity for surprise is far behind you. Still, today you managed to remind me what that used to feel like."
Marco didn't like that. "Is that a good thing or a bad thing?"
"It is a thing," Glossaryck replied. "But it's fortuitous you've met someone so clever. I strongly advise that you enlist him in your studies."
He rubbed his chin as he spoke, whatever thoughts hidden behind his inscrutable nonchalance.
Star brightened and turned to Marco. "I think Dipper will love to go through the Magic Instruction Book!"
Marco replied with a dry look back at her. "Yeah, I think he'll get tired of Glossaryck real quick."
"Poppycock," Glossaryck admonished. "I'm sure that Dipper will be thrilled to meet me. After all… there's much we can learn from each other…"
For once, Sir Glossaryck of Terms had questions he wanted to ask.
Letting go of her short sword with one hand, Jara swung down on his shoulder with all his might, but once again he was faster and with a quick twirl of the falchion, he thrust the weapon upward to meet hers and knock it flying straight up from her hand.
And lost miserably.
The falchion came back down, stopping right at the base of her neck as she stopped in unison with it. Her tumbling blade impaled a rock not too far behind her, the heat that rose from the blade splitting it clean in two.
Yet…
She looked up at Saberizer, her ever expressionless mask staring at his battle-gnarled face. With no expression of his own to convey his feelings on their duel thanks to his ancient wounds, he nodded.
There was no one else who could make me feel so humbled, and at the same time he made me feel like I could actually surpass him.
Her body relaxing, Jara nodded back, then bowed her head to Saberizer.
So then… how?
Then Jara was suddenly in another impossible place, but much, much more recent. She was unable to move, she wasn't even breathing as she watched the Stinger Blade pass through Saberizer's body like he should've done to the Blue Stingerborg by every right.
How does an abysmal whelp who can barely hold his own head up, let alone any kind of weapon, strike him down?
His humiliation at the hands of a worthless, pathetic boy.
How? How? How? How? How? How? How? How? How? How? How? How? How? How? How? How? How? How? How? How? How? How? How? How? How? How? How? How? How? How? How? How? How? How? How? How? How? How? How? How? How? How? How? How? How? How? How? How? How? How? How? How? How? How? How? How? How? How? How? How? How? How? How? How? How? How? How? How? How? How? How? How? How? How? How? How? How? How? How? How? How? How? How? How?
Vexor stood in silence as he looked down at Jara inside the Magnavores' crypt hideout. She was sitting on her knees, her head bowed down to stare down at half of Saberizer's falchion. It was the only thing left of him that came with her when recalled her from the battle she lost.
She hadn't moved from that spot for several hours now, just sitting there in silence.
Their leader would blast him as he had before, but he needed him intact. "I will need several items, but foremostly I need an army. I leave it to you to construct it out of materials here, rather than summon them from the Nightmare Realm."
That had Noxic lighting up like a billboard at sundown. "No kiddin'?!"
"You've known me long enough to know what japery I tolerate."
Just enough, neither Typhus nor Noxic replied.
Noxic clapped his hands. "Well, you've sold me on it! I'm gonna get started right away!"
Vexor tilted towards him, gesturing with an open upraised palm. "I leave it to you then, construct me at the very least a hundred Scabs in a fortnight."
"A hundred? No problem! I can get two hundred done by then!" Noxic cheered, happy to be doing something that he enjoyed.
Typhus spoke up. "What about me, baby? Want me to poke at 'em? Keep 'em on their toes? Summon a monster to spy on 'em?"
Vexor surprised him with his reply. "Tend to Jara, and do not allow her to go near the children or wherever they may haunt."
The big green beast tilted his head some. "Did I hear that right?"
His tone turned grave. "Saberizer was not a piece easily used or expected to be lost. We can't recover from that lightly or quickly. So let us avoid further losses. Until I have the Scabs Noxic will build me, we are to stay well out of trouble with the Beetleborgs, the Butterfly, or their allies."
Alone in his candlelit crypt, Vexor flowed over to his partially opened sarcophagus and picked up the copy of The Big Bad Beetleborgs used to summon the latest round of Scabs and fighters. He then looked in the sarcophagus, where the other books they'd used to summon Monsters and Scabs now lay and tossed the latest book onto it. They were useless now, but at the very least they were fantastic reads.
He personally thought the author caught him perfectly as a menacing threat to reality.
At some point, very soon, he would like to meet Arthur Fortunes, and thank him personally for such a flattering portrayal.
A sick, screeching laugh left Vexor's throat.
"XASYR TMLUC FBQJQ KFWWJ MGLAP YJGYO WTIPV IFMHS SGEWZ PBONG DPBCR KZBFH."
And that laughter echoed through the crypt.
This is set before. I aged up the girls because, well, everyone's older here lol.
This is set before. I aged up the girls because, well, everyone's older here lol.