Star and Marco vs Evil Book 1

IX

Possible spoilers between the ⭐🦋 and 🦋⭐.

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Star and Marco, both in armor, stepped out of a dimensional portal into the royal Rose Garden. Star was wearing her usual armor:  zidanium shoulder plates, chest plate, battle skirt, spiked helmet with wings, and gauntlets; heavy leather boots and cuisses; and steel poleyns. She was armed with her wond.

Marco wore all-leather, laminar, armor. Star had conjured the armor specifically to accommodate his particular combat skills, especially his karate. It consisted of overlapping leather plates that were relatively light and allowed for freedom of movement. The helmet was also leather, with extensions to protect his neck and cheeks without obscuring his vision. All the leather above his waist was dark red, while below the waist it was charcoal, to evoke the image of his red hoodie and dark-gray jeans. Scabbarded at his side was El Choppo.

The pair walked up to a table with a magical 3-D map of Mewni on it and removed their helmets. Around the table stood Eclipsa, Moon, River, and the commander of the King's Guard and Butterfly armies, Sir Reginald "Reggie" Stabby. His squire, Kayleigh Higgs, stood a few yards away, her expression unreadable. Sir Reggie's chief-of-staff and second-in-command, Sir Daring "Darryl" Dashing of Muscleton, was also present. Sir Darryl was currently without a squire, his last squire, "Old Guy," having succumbed to The Curse of Fatal Death due to being an old guy.

Before anybody could speak, Jorby, with Kelly riding on his back, leapt over the garden wall. Kelly was yelling a war cry at the top of her lungs, while Jorby declared, "I'm ready for a fight!" Kelly was wearing her steel armor and helmet, with leather cuisses and greaves. Her prodigious hair was sticking out of the top of her helmet, forming a giant, green, plume. Jorby was wearing similar armor, although his was laminar to allow for movement. Kelly carried her family broadsword.

As Moon took a breath to speak, she was interrupted by Tom rising out of the ground in a column of fire. He wore leather armor similar in composition and color to Marco's, although in design it looked like something worn in the Earth Dimension during the Medieval times of East Asia. He wore no helmet and was armed with a two headed battle axe.

"What's he doing here," Star whispered to Marco.

"I called him," Marco whispered back. "I know things are ... tense ... between you two, but you didn't say you've actually broken up, and we need him here even if you have."

Star simply nodded.

"Now," Moon began, only to be interrupted by the loud rumbling of a dragoncycle. Nachos landed in the garden, ridden by Hekapoo.

"Nachos!" Marco cried, running over to greet his precious steed.

Hekapoo was armored in her usual sleeveless yellow dress, what would be large bewbs, or mewbs, if she were human or Mewmin, and her sassy attitude. No weapon was visible, but everybody knew she carried her dimensional scissors, which she could break apart to use as twin daggers.

Moon stood silently as everybody took their places around the table. The silence stretched. Finally, Moon asked, "Is that it? Anybody else? May we start now?"

"Unless you're expecting somebody, that's it," Star replied.

"Sir Reggie, if you would?"

"Our first report came in yesterday afternoon," Sir Reggie began, "of strange creatures attacking Mewmin villages. I sent out a scouting party under the command of Dame Grace to investigate, and they rode into disaster. According to Dame Grace's scouting raven, the force was quickly overwhelmed. They were not killed but taken to Meteora, here," he indicated a position on the map, "where she turned all of them, except one, into more of those creatures. The one exception was a non-Mewmin, from another dimension, who she could not turn. Unfortunately, that did not save him ... Meteora used her magic to feed on his life-force, then he floated away when she was finished."