Summary:
We get ready ... for war!
Star panted heavily, trying to get her breath back after that familiar drain hit. She glanced at the portal, blinking blue as it shrunk further and further. Maybe the former princess found her most hated color after all this time.
"Huh..wha.." Star heard her brother stir himself as she clutched onto him like a lifeline while he struggled to get out of the realm of unconsciousness. "What the … where are we?"
"We're back on the beach." Kelly answered with a tired huff. "The gems and the Butterfly's shoved us through the portal before the shield broke.
"No … no." He tried to get up. "We have to go back … everyone's being attacked and …"
"We can't." Pearl said bluntly. "As long as Blue Diamond is there personally, combined with the army she brought … we have no hope of saving Mewni."
"No, no..this can't be it." Star stomped her foot on the ground. "We finally achieved peace, there was genuine hope for everyone! We can't … we can't.." Star cried as she squeezed her brother harder. "We can't just let them take that away!"
"Yeah, there has to be something!" Marco shouted. "We have every-"
"And do what?" Pearl asked, tears in her eyes. "They have an army of gems meant for combat, magic is completely useless against them as long as Blue Diamond's there, gems live for possibly forever so we can't out experience or plan them … why do you think things got so desperate the first time around?" She asked with a choked voice.
"Dude's, I hate to say this…but Pearl's right." Amethyst said dejectedly. "We struggled against ONE soldier before this, and we barely beat them!"
"That was before you met us." They turned to the rest of their friend group, where KO was in the front talking. "We've faced dangerous odds before, and not all of us use magic to fight."
"I got something for those ships … I just need to talk with someone first." Ben spoke, looking down at his watch.
"And we know legitimate super heroes!" Luz shouted. "Super tiny but super strong toddlers and bug ladies that can create anything to win a fight!"
"Plus some of us have already led entire armies in legitimate wars before." Anne stated proudly. "Things aren't hopeless here. Bleak and depressing, yes, but not hopeless."
"Guys, I don't know." Steven tried to turn away the help, and she couldn't blame him in this instance.
"Guys!" The entire group turned to Dipper, who looked more panicky and sweaty than usual. "Grunkle Ford and Ben's grandpa just got a code red space alert … the Gem Homeworld is coming to earth!"
"They're what!?" Marco shouted. "Don't they have an entire army of space warriors to-"
"They just destroyed the line of defense within five minutes …" Gwen paled. "So many lives are … gone …"
"It's not even an entire fleet, it was all done by one Yellow handship!" Dipper continued.
"Yellow handship…Yellow Diamond." Steven growled. "She must finally be coming for the Cluster herself."
"Oh come on!" Amethyst shouted. "As if we didn't have enough to worry about!!"
"There's a lot of space jargon she needs to get past, but Grandpa Max says at the most she'll land here within a week." Gwen carried on despite the sick look on her face.
"One ship, or a million, it doesn't matter." Finn gripped his robotic arm's claws. "I'm not going to let this world get all jacked up like mine did."
"Yeah, we're going to stop them both down if we need to." Ben spoke. "Cause that's what heroes do." The child said with a grin.
Star stared at them all for a moment, glancing at Steven, before putting him into Kelly's arms, turning to the group. "Last chance. Everybody here is either in or out. We can't have anyone backing out on us in the middle of a battle."
"Star, come on." Luz chided with a grin. "You know we're all too stupid for backing out when it's dangerous."
"I know, I just needed to make sure." Star continued. "Blue is draining Mewni of its Magic and Yellow Diamond is on her way to blow up earth. Our deadline is one week, so we are going to use that week."
"One week to get prepared, to level up, to resources, to plan, e.t.c." Marco added.
"Too many lives are on the line, so we can't leave anything to chance." Steven got up from Kelly's grasp and continued. "Nobody gets left out, we let everyone who can contribute even in the smallest of ways help out."
"Everyone we know gets notified, everyone says what they need to say, everyone does what they need to do. We all have one week before we launch an attack against Homeworld's forces." Kelly said as she clutched her hands. "Before we go to war. "
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"So let me get this straight." Hunter asked. "We're going to be fighting an anti magic race of almighty powerhouses that have been destroying planets for years?"
"That is the jist of things, pretty much." The hu-Luz nodded. Things had slightly calmed down around the boiling isles since they beat the collector. Leave it to the girl to get mixed up in another world threatening crisis.
"And we're not going to be able to use glyphs because she's sucking the magic out of the entire planet, and slowly killing its inhabitants?" The captain asked with no fear.
"Yes, which is why most of our focus is going to be on taking care of the threat of Earth."
"Said threat being a terrifying space emperor that can destroy magic just as easily as the one that can drain it?" Gus asked skeptically.
"That is their power and purpose, yes."
"..." He turned to Amity. "You're her girlfriend, can't you talk any sense into her?"
"If I was capable of doing that, she wouldn't be asking us to do this in the first place." The youngest Blight child rolled her eyes. "Luz, you know that I would follow you to the ends of the universe … again, but you're not exactly painting the most stellar picture of success."
"Oh come on, we've dealt with tougher odds." She waved off. "Like Belos."
"Who the Collector destroyed." Gus reminded her. "And it cost Eda her arm. Then it was because the Titan gave you superpowers"
"And The Collector."
"Who you managed to emotionally connect with and talk down to." Willow reminded her. "And even then, that was only possible because King empathized with him first with that reality changing game of his."
"Okay, so what we're facing might be a slightly taller scale than we can manage, but it's not just going to be us out there fighting!" Luz said with an elation that didn't belong to this type of situation. "We got aliens, dragons, other magic users, talking rich ducks, the list goes on!"
"Speaking of … why is there a dragon here?" He pointed to the red and scaly creature next to her.
"Dragon scales are tough, I'm here for target practice." The thing smirked and patted his chest. "Unless you think you're not fast enough to land a blow."
"There's a reason why your kind doesn't exist on the boiling isles you know." Hunter had flapjack connect to his staff. "Let me show you what true speed really is."
"Bring it on, witch boy. You're not the only overconfident magic stick holder the Am-drag has ever been up against!" The flying lizard flapped his wings and began flying off.
"Oh, you're just asking to be turned into a handbag!" He hopped on and was able to catch up pretty easily, knocking the dragon off course and into a nearby wall.
"You got the moves, but can you catch up with this!" The guy shot some fireballs at him, which Hunter warped to evade. "Hu … never fought guys who could teleport all that much."
"I'm new to using wild magic. This is the spell that comes the most naturally to me." He responded as he grabbed the end of his staff and used it to whack one of the fireballs right back into the dragon's mouth.
"Not your best counter." They smirked, now shooting out a fireball at twice the power of before.
It would've hit him dead on directly if a giant pillar of Ice suddenly didn't prop itself in the middle, where it turned to steam instantly upon colliding with the fire. "And that right here is why we are practicing right now." Luz announced, having placed an ice glyph on the ground. "We're gonna need more than what we know. For the next week, we need to learn to fight faster, smarter; and learn every glyph combo we can to combat this space case."
"So what we do all the time when a new threat shows up?" The captain rolled her eyes as she created some very sharp looking brambles. "One of these days we're gonna overcompensate and scar someone worse physically than Gus has done mentally."
"If it gets the job done quicker, then I eagerly await the day." The boy himself smirked.
"Glad you think so, because worse comes to worse, we may also have to fight a giant mass of disembodied limbs buried at the center of the earth." Luz explained.
"... You know, somehow I trust us to fight the limbs more than the Diamonds." Amity noted as she formed some abominations. "Well, come on then Dragon, show us what you've got."
"Okay, first off my name is Jaaaaa-" He shouted, dodging a giant fist from the Blight child. "Okay, that was unexpected, but don't...Ah!" The dragon got caught in one of the captain's vines. "Are you using poison ivy!?"
"Luz said it was one of the most dangerous plants earth had to offer." The captain shrugged with a smile he couldn't help but find cute.
"Small note, we can't use it on Gems, they are immune to toxins." Luz winced.
"... You're very lucky we're friends Luz." The Captain deadpanned, before shifting the plants into dandelions … that shot out its petals so fast they left holes in the metal walls. "Now I gotta go for the weaker stuff."
"YOUR FRIENDS ARE INTENSE!" Jaaaa shouted as he flew around desperately.
"Weak." He scoffed. "I bet he's never even spent an entire day surviving in a jungle full of carnivorous plants. That's basic survival training for toddlers." This was gonna be more work than he thought. Half of him rolled his eyes, but the other half felt weirdly comfortable with it.
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Alya Cesaire, also known as Rena Rouge, sat down with the largest group of heroes gathered yet. Ladybug, known to only her as Marinette, her best friend, had called for a 'squad meeting', which considering their motto on 'as few as possible', ment it was serious. "Alright, all that's left is Queen Bee and Chat Noir."
"Sorry to hold you up, Melady." The cat themed hero in question jumped in. "The 'Queen' took a few minutes to work on their hair."
"Hey. I'm the only one with an open identity, everyone's eyes are going to be extra judgey when they look at me!" Queen Bee, unfortunately known as Chloe Bulgerious to all, complained. Some days it felt like a mistake to let the brat keep the bee miraculous, but Marrinette had reasoned that more problems arose with her NOT being a hero.
"Unless we don't care about your civilian self either." Carapace, aka her boyfriend Nino smirked. His only response was a middle finger, which Alya thought was pretty restrained all things considered.
"I don't get to talk to Daizzi much, so I view it as a win." A recent hero, Pigella, smiled with an absolute sunshine child expression.
"The reason we called you all here is because a friend of ours said they had an important, all hands on deck mission." Ladybug said. "They're supposed to meet us any minute now.
The door opened. "I'm just saying, why a rooftop?" Asked Odd, a fellow student, out loud as he came up the steps. "Usually it's at one of our houses, or the lab." The boy turned to them, finally recognizing the group with wide eyes. "Oh … hello there." He said meekly.
"Hey Odd, what's the hold … up." Asked Ulrich, yet another student that went to their school, staring at them with confusion. "Is this what I think it is or did comic-con come to Paris?"
"I'm just saying it's a bit out of nowhere, why call us all here to this.." Yet another familiar figure came through the door. Alieta, a girl that admittedly came out of nowhere in hindsight, but otherwise seemed perfectly fine.
"Is it bad?" A fourth face, Jeremy, asked as he walked through the door, looking at the heroes. "... Yep, pretty bad."
This was followed up by the silent Yumi, looking over the situation once, then closing the door. "Nobody else is coming." She assured the group.
"I wasn't aware that this meeting was being held by civilians." Rena commented with confusion.
"Neither was I." Ladybug said with a concerned stare. "Why are you here?"
"Well …" Odd rubbed the back of his head. "We're here for … a pizza party?"
"Really, that's the best lie you can come up with?" Chloe scoffed.
"Give me a break, it's every hero in paris!"
A portal through the air opened out of nowhere, everyone on edge as though it came … "Jackie?" Asked the majority of the groups.
"Thanks for the ride, Diaz."
"No prob." A Latino boy in a red hoodie nodded as the two of them headed out the portal. "Wow, Paris has a lot more heroes than I thought."
"We're a revolving cast." Carapace waved off. "In case Hawk Moth, or Shadowmoth at the moment, gets one of us."
"They're why we actually showed up." Chat Noir pointed out. "So what's the situation Marco?" For once, the jokester was trying to get things on track.
"Alright, let's get the big one out of the way." The Latino boy, Marco, stepped up and let out a cough. "Aliens are real."
"YES!" Pegasus shouted out, jumping out of their seats. "In your face science, I was right!"
"And they're coming to destroy Earth, and they already are destroying another planet in another dimension called Mewni." The guy named Marco continued. That considerably got the excited Pegasus to hold his head down in disappointment.
"So I take it we're not dealing with little green men from mars, are we?" King Monkey asked with a light snort.
"Rock ladies that can tank rockets, and according to Starfan's conversation with the government, their ships can tank hydrogen bombs. And that's ignoring the god level leaders known as the Diamonds that are basically immune to magic."
"... Well that's concerning." The hero known as Ryuko said bluntly. "Sounds like a challenge."
"You don't know the half of it." Marco groaned. "We have one Diamond on our side, but that far from covers the massive power gap that's left between us."
"That's why it's an all hands on deck situation." Jackie said, looking at the group of classmates. "Am I whistleblowing, or do you wanna take the lead?"
Jeremy sighed. "I can't believe this is how everybody learns."
"If it's any consolation, Viperion already knew." Jackie offhandedly pointed to said hero.
Everyone turned to the snake hero, who simply shrugged. "According to Jackie, 'return to the past' doesn't work on anyone who's used the Snake Miraculous."
"Wait, you used to..." Chat Noir looked baffled. "But why are you…"
"Let's just say I've learned a lot of things during my time...more than I probably should've…" She gave a knowing look to Ladybug, Chat, Carapace and Ayla that made them all widen their eyes. "And realized that the whole secret identity thing just wasn't my thing."
"Any other existential information we should know about?" Purple Tigress asked sarcastically.
"Probably not … yeah, probably not." She nodded, tossing a small canister to Jeremy. "Portable supercomputer … use it well."
"What?! But how did you.." The boy looked both schooled and elated.
"We got friends practically everywhere, some from worlds with more highly advanced tech." Marco explained. "Just try not to scratch it. Dendy wants it back in one piece."
"Hold on, old on, I'm still lost about why they're here." Ladybug pointed to the group of what should've been normal teenagers.
"... Well, I guess if it's either this or world destruction …" Aleita let out a shrug with a small smile. "It all started with a place called Lyoko." Rena's mind that day was nothing but mush … so they saved training for tomorrow.
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"And in." The group Enid was working with took a deep breath. "And out." And then exhaled. She was always ready to help out KO in whatever trouble found himself in, she just assumed it would've been something like a giant Darrel bot rather than a cross-universal war.
"In…" The group she was leading in mediation weren't all that strange, in fact, they kind of seemed like the kind of people that would've entered the Bodega. A yellow Dog, a pink frog boy, a girl with hearts on her face, and a giant duck girl in a black sweater. "Out…" The dog seemed to be the one getting the most into it.
"You are free as the air and sky … you are changing as the water and sea … you are as steady as the earth and land … and you are filled as the fire and …" She thought about it for a second, and came up blank. "Some fourth spot with plenty of fire."
"Like a firepit roasting a big piece of ham for camp." KO said as he sat right beside her. Endi truly adored that childlike wonder.
"Fire…brimstone..burning buildings.,,screaming children.." The heart-faced girl, named Star if she recalled correctly, grumbled darkly as she continued to breathe in and out, bits of dark energy emanating from her head. "Mewni on fire, friends and family suffering… "
"I'm pretty sure that's not how you meditate." The good hearted moron known as Rad said without any tact whatsoever.
"Well, that's all that's on my mind!" The girl bursted out in what could be described as black fire as Enid felt a shiver down her back that she hadn't felt sense TKO. "My home's under attack, my family is probably half dead trying to combat them, and all I'm doing now is sitting on my ass!"
"And we're gonna save it." KO tried to pacify her. "And we can only do it if you don't attack your fellow friends the moment you start blasting."
"Maybe they just need to get out of the way.." The girl grumbled.
"Can you truly trust yourself like that?" The frog boy, Sprig she thought, questioned the girl. "Can you calm yourself enough to think clearly? Are you going to disregard your health and safety and just attack like crazy until you get a lucky hit in?"
She was no longer on fire, but she still growled. "Against the diamonds … yes." The girl admitted. "They … they just keep fucking everything up, all of it, all the time." She complained. "And we never had a single victory against any of them that mattered other than running for our lives ."
"Any day that ends with you still being capable of running can't be all bad." Enid said calmly but sternly. "You came out those other times, still able to stand, to breathe, to enjoy time with your loved ones. Not everyone can be as fortunate as that."
"But we can't even run anymore!" She screamed. "Now they can chase us across dimensions! They're gonna keep ruining lives for eternity unless we beat people designed to be unbeatable!"
"So you're just going to complain about how impossible it is when you're the one that called this army together?" The duck, Lena she was sure her name was, raised an eyebrow. "If you want to call it quits, say it now, but we'll keep fighting."
"No, that's not what I was..aggg!" Star punched the ground, putting some cracks into the ground.
"That's going on your tab!" Mr Gar shouted from the back.
"I..I've just..I've been working..so..so hard for Mewni. I still chose to care about it even when the people were unbearable jerks that just refused to change." Star gripped her hands. "But even after all that, I'm still powerless to stop it…and the only thing I have that can possibly dent those bastards is my rage." The girl's dark aura came back. " All my hard work gets tossed to the side; why shouldn't I let loose.."
"Because you already set Jake on fire." Enid pointed out, the shapeshifting dog running as Rad tried to use the slushy machine to shut it down. "And if you think the universe owes you for working hard, then your being dumb. The universe doesn't care."
Star looked at the kid blankly for a minute. " Is that supposed to help…"
"The universe doesn't care, it doesn't feel, it can't act, the universe is just the place we live in." KO kept going. "I put in hundreds of hours trying to level up when I first got this job, but no matter how much work I put in or how many robots I fought, I still didn't become a level one hero.."
"The leveling system is still bullshit!" Penn called out as he tried to fix the smoothie machine Rad broke.
"… And I got so frustrated and angry that I took the advice of a villain, which led to TKO, who would've killed everyone I knew if I didn't have my friends show how much I mean to them."
"… How did you control him?" Star asked with curiosity.
"There's no shortcut, there's no control." KO said calmly, deep in meditation. "Some people want to have fun when burdened with responsibility … Some are jealous of others' success … some feel weak no matter what they do … everyone has their demons." He told Star. "There's no fighting and rejecting them. There is only acceptance."
"The part I'm rejecting is the part of me that wants to rip the universe like it's a piece of paper."
"And TKO wanted to drain everyone of their powers until they were not thing but dusty old husks." Enid added. "There's no denying that we have those dark aspects of our personalities. It doesn't matter how destructive they get, it is possible to live with it." Enid picked up KO and gave him a good squeeze. "Even after all that, KO's still the same pure and innocent cinnamon roll I will obliterate anyone who tries to hurt him."
"Oh yeah, definitely can agree there." Star laughed. "Alright … back to meditation … calm winds …" The girl breathed deeply.
"Your getting better at these speeches." Enid ruffled the little boy's head. "Very heroic of you."
"Just saying what needs to be said, nothing that major."
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Dipper looked over the massive arsenal in front of him. "… Don't you think this is a bit much?" He wouldn't be able to carry half of it.
"If it was up to me you wouldn't go at all." He said. "I've been through the multiverse, Gems are someone you don't want to mess with." Uncle Ford said. "So it's best if you're over prepared to deal with the situation at hand."
"Hmmmm." Dipper turned his head towards Dendy, one of KO's friend's last he checked, as she shifted through the gadgets. "Primitive, but slightly less so than this planet's average tech level."
"Thank you, I try to be a step ahead of everyone I meet." The man took it in stride. "… Also make sure to get something for Ben, I don't feel like that conversation is going to end well."
"Absolutely not!" They turned to see Max and Ben talk on a communicator. "I can't let you go risking the Omnitrix into the hands of Gem kind. Do you KNOW what would happen if they got their hands on technology like that?"
"Come on, Azmuth!" Ben tried to reason. "Earth's already in danger and they're attacking a whole other dimension as we speak!"
" The universe is always in danger, what your suggesting is pushing it further towards annihilation!"
"So what, we wait it out until everyone dies? That seems like an awesome plan." Ben rolled his eyes.
The galvan gave a sigh. "The Omnitrix contains the DNA of every life in the galaxy." Asmuth stated sternly. "It's the universal equivalent of Noah's Ark."
"What he's getting at is that one of the watches main functions is to restore life to dying or dead alien species if/when they go extinct." Ford clarified.
"Precisely." Azmuth agreed with his uncle. "It's the backup when every lifeform is killed by some great evil or race or whatever god decides we don't need to breathe anymore." Azmuth stated. "Or if it falls into the wrong hands, act as the blueprints for the ultimate bioweapon. Foes like Vilgax see it as a tool to build an army, an empire like the Gem Homeworld could use it to wipe away all organic life on any planet they seek to colonize."
"That may be the case." Max agreed. "But we can't just play the long game, if the planets that Homeworld colonize can't support life anymore, even if we revive them there's no place for them to live."
"If there's a shot at saving all those lives and stopping these guys for good, then we have to take it." Ben continued to argue.
The alien sighed. "Do you even know WHY there's a timeout function?" He asked. "Staying transformed too long can have disastrous effects on your baseline DNA. If you strain it too much you'll irreversibly damage your entire structure."
"Who cares about me when more people are gonna be hurt?" Ben asked, apparently getting a raised eyebrow from Azmuth.
"... I keep forgetting you're one of the few people that still holds onto altruism …it's admirable but I despise you for it." The gray alien sighed before typing something. " I've just sent the Omnitrix the code for a limited master control. You'll be able to switch between forms with a thought, but you'll still have to deal with the time out period. That's all I'm willing to offer."
"I just need to rush in and out then." Ben spoke, looking down at his wrist. "Thanks Azmuth."
"Don't thank me for dooming the universe." The frog grumbled as the line cut off.
"Nice, we have one of our biggest guns all set." Dipper fist pumped before looking over the weapon pile. "Now what will work best for us."
"I believe I can illuminate on a few details." A green lady with a triangle green gem entered into the room and checked over the pile. "Archaic but functional." The gem named Peridot inspected. "My species are made of solid light as you no doubt know by now, a specific frequency of light that allows our forms to be stable."
"So what your getting at is we should attune our weaponry to that frequency so that they are reduced to their natural gemstone nature." Dendy observed. "Like an electrical current that'll render your hologram-like nature dissipated."
"Or maybe we can create a device to capture lightwaves into a box." Ford suggested. "That way they'll deform on shot, requiring an extensive recharge period."
"Capture lightwaves into a box?" Peridot let out a snort. "The amount of gravity that would require would approach that of a subatomic black hole."
"I've created the equivalent of a miniature sun, complete with its own orbit and star system." Dendy adjusted her glasses
"Impressive, if we can adjust the output and focus the force within a small tube..." Peridot pondered.
"We may just invent a way to send gravity straight at the enemy!"
"... You getting any of this?" Ben asked.
"Only about half of it. I'm half expecting Mabel to call out 'nerd alert'." Dipper admitted. "Hey, where's Gwen and Mabel anyway?"
"I gave them my library of old spell books." Uncle Ford said. "Figured they'd work best with some magi-"
The door slammed open, groaning hard as the two girls in question rushed into the door and shut it behind them, panting as if they ran a marathon. "... So." Mabel said with a small chuckle. "We may or may not have raised the undead …"
"Suddenly it's not so easy to NOT raise the dead, isn't it Mabel?" Dipper couldn't help but snort at the irony. "... But in all seriousness, get the mic box."
"I have been chanting spells all day, I can not reach that high of a note." Gwen spoke quietly.
"Hold on, let me see if Steven's available." Peridot grabbed a communicator. "Singing is how he solves half his problems."
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"So when you pass the speed of sound, you start to feel a mild dizzy spell from the g force affecting your body, that's completely natural." Buttercup heard Blossom drone on as the Steven guy nodded attentively. "A major key point is to increase your heat resistance, as the air during this speed will start to create more friction on your body."
"The first time Bubbles went this fast she accidentally burnt up her shirt." Buttercup snorted.
"I left Octi on the park bench, I needed to get back before some creepy stranger could snatch him up!" Their blonde sister whined.
"So just keep up a small shield in front of me at all times?" The guy asked as he ran with them.
"Yeah, probably for the best. When you reach the speed of light you'll definitely need protection since your cells are human." Blossom nodded. "I heard you once went to space with a gravity engine, it's basically going to be like that when you blacked out the first time."
"Another thing to watch for is your heart rate." Bubbles put on a hat that signed she was way too into this teaching bit. "What you want to have are long and deep breaths as you're running, and your heart sounds like a huge drum going 'THUMP' every ten seconds. Fast and quick beats usually mean you're not going to last long."
"Panic also doesn't help, especially when something is on the line, so you gotta either be calm for continuous run, or adrenaline filled for a single burst." Buttercup added on.
"It's always been in quick bursts for me." The guy looked at himself as his skin glowed pink. "Half the time I go into this pink state without thinking, the panic fills my head and I end up stopping before I do too much damage." Steven turned to the ground, looking ashamed of himself.
"Look dude, I get it, having access to all this power can be scary when it comes so easily." Buttercup sighed. "When me and my sisters were created, we pretty much destroyed half the city just playing tag. We got scared to use our powers for anything, but that didn't help anyone either."
"We realized we have to use it to help people, even if something bad happens when we try." Bubbles said. "If we didn't, townsville would have been doomed by a monkey apocalypse."
"It's times like this that I get reminded I probably don't lead the weirdest life in the universe." The teen let out a light chuckle. "I mean, you guys are so young yet you've probably been at this longer than over half our friends."
"We've been at this for about two-three years by this point." Blossom shrugged. "Jake is the most experienced guy on the team … although he says the town has weirder enemies than the magic world."
"Given Mojo Dojo and the Rowdy Ruff Boys, I agree." Buttercup rolled her eyes. "Anyways, that's about it for the boring stuff, now we gotta get you experienced!" She lifted up a giant boulder over her head. "Your job is to run across the water without falling in as we hurl heavy objects to make you think on the fly."
"Alright, give me your best shot!" She threw the rock so fast it became a meteor. "Ah, give me a worse shot!" Steven yelled as he made a mad dash towards the water, their super sight and speed being the only reason they were able to tell where he went.
"It's always more fun when they think they can escape." Buttercup laughed as she carried a boat over her head next. "Bet I can get the fist hit in before he crosses the Atlantic!"
"I bet I can do it before he gets halfway there!" Blossom called the bet, already grabbing a spikey bit of coral and tossing it with a boom. Even in a crisis, it was nice to have these little fun moments with her family.
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Mina breathed deeply as she rested in the cavern, multiple footsteps heard from the outside. It's become so much harder to breathe lately, she's had to make hits and runs against the horrible bastards that were invading Mewni.
It was over in an instant, every living thing was rounded up. The Mewmans, the Monsters, the animals, all of it. She heard the likes of Queen Eclipsa and Globgor have been taken as well … which was a revelation considering the latter was supposed to be IMPRISONED!
Mina couldn't ponder the idiocy of her people for long, because there were so few of them she could even be around. Every two hours or so, the air would be filled with this blue presence that would nearly bring her to her knees if her resolve wasn't so strong. It was by the fact Jasper was able to move her body that she hadn't been captured as well.
Speaking off, whatever threat they were facing seems to have the poor gal quiver and shake every so often. Mina would often find her feral friend in tears as they cuddle next to her whenever they took the time to recuperate. She felt the need to crush these bastards for that alone.
As for the Magic High Commission … there was nothing. Just like when Rose killed her queen, they did nothing to help Mewni. They were weak, and worthless, and never helped when it mattered.
Them, the Lucitor's, Ponyhead's, merpeople, all of them were completely worthless! The proud Mewman people had lost their pride relying on others for this long. They were weak..Mewni was..is a weak kingdom full of weak people.
It was time to make a change, a time to help … as soon as she had the energy to move once more. The wave of Blue was hitting them again. If only they had someone powerful enough to bring their pride back.
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Marcy groaned as she hit her head against the table. "You're telling me they have an entire subspecies that mastered the art of trench warfare!?" When Anne had called and said they were fighting another war, she was ecstatic to be a part of the planning…she just didn't think it would give her this much of a headache.
"The Obsidians, yes." The pale rock lady known as Pearl nodded. "Given the advances of Homeworld technology, they probably have worked with more advanced long range weaponry, so we'll need to look out in case they tunnel from under us, or bombard us from a safe distance."
"Okay, okay, that's going to put a damper for all of our ground troops, but we can still work with it." Marcy added another fascinating, but at the current moment, frightening piece of cultural trivia to her list. "And for the sky fleets we're dealing with Emeralds, correct?"
"Emeralds to lead them, but Neppherites are the more common foe." Pearl went on. "It's like the difference between Marco and Sasha." They gazed at the clearly one sided fight in favor of her friend.
"You got guts and a good variety of styles, I'll admit that." Sasha smirked as she tripped the hooded boy on his butt, aiming a sword at his throat. "But in terms of controlled ferocity and tenacity, you're sorely lacking, bub."
"Never thought I'd see Marco loose in a sword fight." Amethyst spoke up. "And she was already being double teamed." The gem glanced at the fallen bushy haired warrior.
"Kelly's the opposite problem. Ferocity for days but little discipline to it." Sasha glanced down at the woolet. "I take it that most of your fighting skill is self taught?"
"A little from Pearl, but that kinda fell through after a while." The girl sheepishly admitted.
"Don't worry. If I can become this badass in the span of five months, then I can totally make you guys semi-capable within the next four days." Looks like the cheerleader was just as confident about herself as always.
"Anyways…This is gonna mean nothing though against terra formars." The blue rock lady known as Lapis told her. "They're really weak by homeworld standards, but that's due to the lack of materials to use. They can control their element without limits in an effort to make the world perfect to them. Lazulis can control water, Glasses can control sand, Marbles have limited earth control."
"And that's not mentioning minor foot soldiers like rubies, which can emanate fire and heat from their bodies." Pearl continued. "And the Sapphire aristocrats with limited vision into the future …" She looked at the sky. "Please be okay Garnet."
"Okay, okay, working with a lot of angles here, just give me a second to process." Marcy rubbed her head as she wrote down the new information. "Anything else?"
"Most soldiers will be differing types of Quartz's, which are typically Amethysts and Jaspers." Lapis answered. "And they'll all be led by Agates and Hessonites. They're not much strength wise, but their shouting is really annoying."
"Okay, let's see here, how can we work with this." Marcy went over the variables. "From what you've explained about the relationship between magic and gems, magic tends to make the future sight foggy, and Steven and Star defy predictions, so that won't be too much of a factor to worry about."
"But doesn't Blue Diamond drain magic?" Anne asked. "In fact, we have to keep most of our magic fighters on earth."
"Yes, but luckily for us, that's where team Miraculous comes in." Webby, a talking duck girl, brought in her own list. "We snuck one of them on Mewni a day ago. They may be mythical in nature, but Blue Diamond can't drain the miraculous jewels."
"The Diamonds are meant to fight magic, not concepts." Huey, another talking duck, said with a pen. "I'm pretty sure the Kwami are like this weird glitch that nothing else but them can affect." Another neat tidbit.
"And that means we just need to get Blue Diamond alone, force her into either a cataclysm or voyage her into an empty dimension with no way home, and bam, we win." They all stared at the green duck, Louie. "Oh come on, this is war, no mercy!"
"While we have had certain…complications with sending villains into the void, getting Blue Diamond off Mewni is of the highest priority for the Mewni side of the mission." Pearl nodded.
"Which is why we're putting them on earth." Amethyst smirked.
"The same planet where we're also fighting Yellow Diamond, the equally powerful crystal lady that has an equal amount of experience and probably combo moves with?" Louie asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Actually, this is something that is actually more obvious to me now in hindsight, but the Diamond's, while powerful, are not fighters." Lapis pointed out. "Anytime they're involved with a fight, they either have someone else fight for them or stand still as they blast people, so we might be able to overwhelm them. And if we get them next to a beach." The blue gem smirked maliciously. "I'll be able to hold down one of them with the ocean."
"Alright, well that's a plus." Marcy noted. "Any other warning flags we should be wary about?"
"Well … if you don't have one of us bubble a gem after you poof them, they'll get right back up within minutes." Amethyst said with a bit of sweat. "So … lots of running on our end."
"The tech team is working on a solution for that, so we might not need to run yourselves so thin." Webby noted.
"Alright, if that's everything, then I think I can start working on the second draft of the plan." Marcy nodded. "Hey Sash, wanna.."
"Wow, you're pretty good!" Everyone turned to see Sasha fight with her new sparring partner for the moment, Finn, who actually looked like he was making Sasha break a sweat. "Almost knocked me down for a second!"
"Thanks, I trained with a gumball machine, and part of me was a sword once, so I'm pretty good with this thing." The guy with a bear hat said with a smile. "Plus my dog dad actively hunted evil people, so this is basically my whole life."
"Sweet. I got taken prisoner by a toad guy. Became total besties in less than a month."
"We should be good to go." Anne noted. "Just a bit of rounding up and … telling our parents about this." She hissed.
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Number 3 walked over to the Flyn-Fletcher brothers, who were slowly hammering away at the latest project. "Hey you guys, whatcha doin?" She said, copying Isabella's usual line.
"Building an aerial fighter … for what's going down." Phinieas sighed.
"Big fight getting you down?" She asked, concerned. The brothers always helped them out in a pinch, even gone on a couple of missions with them, but they were mainly science help for Number two.
"It's …" The boy sighed. "This is war, people are going to get hurt." He said. "I'm all for helping people have fun and be happy but … nobody's going to win in the end." Phineas focused on his wrench. "And I know fighting's not a new concept for us, we've even become superheroes one time."
"Oh right, the big metal bird guy." She remembered.
"But that was just us against one guy who did petty pranks on the town." Phineas kept going. "This feels … so much bigger than me, than all of us."
She sat down, patting the two boys on the back. "Growing up sucks … it makes you realize there's so many bad things that happen … you always wish for happier times … and that's why I like you guys." Number Three smiled. "You try and make everyone happy, even when it's better to pick a side."
"Thanks Kuki, I'm glad we're your friends too." Phineas smiled, even if it was small. "I don't think I've ever asked, but why did you join the KND?"
"Well, for me, it's my way of making sure everyone's stays happy, to show that it's not dumb to be happy all the time." She answered. "And you've seen the team, Number One and Four need to be reminded to loosen up every once in a while."
"The stress on this tree would shatter if you weren't the glue." Ferb nodded. The guy always had a way with words.
"Thanks again." Phineas nodded to her as he continued on the device. "Although this entire situation is giving me the weirdest sense of dejavu." The boy scratched his head. "Other dimensions, a big battle..something about it seems familiar somehow."
" Brrrrrrrrgh." The chatter of the cutesy beaver duck rung in the air as Perry sat by the door.
"Oh there you are Perry." Phineas commented as he rubbed his pet. "Strange he hasn't gone off on his own like usual this whole week."
"Maybe he's just tired." Kuki smiled, picking the guy up. "I can go put him to bed if you want."
"That would be greatly appreciated." The red head nodded as he returned to his work.
Number three left them, looking down at Perry. "I'll let you sneak into my bag, you should be able to do what you can."
The platypus looked to the left and then the right before losing the cross-eyed look he usually carried and looked at her with a serious expression. " Brrrr."
"You know I wouldn't spill the beans that easily, silly ducky boy." She rubbed his head. "I know how much you care about them." Number three always knew there was something special about Perry, especially when whatever gizmo the boys made disappeared as Candance tried to bust them, and he'd just show up seconds later. It was kind of weird that no one else connected the dots sooner. "Now come on, we've gotta get the hamsters ready."
" Brrrrr." Perry saluted as he put on that cute agent hat, and his theme song began to play in the background. He was also half the reason why the hamsters were so combat ready.
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Blue Diamond gazed down upon the land soon to be terraformed, taking a glance once more at the two Mewmen she captured. "I'll ask you once more … give me a method to revive someone from the past."
"I..I don't know.." One of them managed to spit out as their bodies looked weak and lethargic. "We..we don't know any magic.."
"Liar!" She accused, increasing her aura exponentially. "Every one of you filthy savages have it inside of you. You must know something!"
"Magic … you're … erasing." Another one of them said, a solid glare aimed at her.
"Not erasing … gaining." She held up her hand, a blue spark forming. "Every second I remain on this rock I grow stronger and stronger … Soon I'll be able to undo the sin of that filthy Rose Quartz and bring Pink back to us."
"You wish to bring back who you love…haven't we all been there." Spoke a particular Mewman with green hair that she had chained to a wall. For some odd reason, the draining didn't affect this one as badly as the others. "And how many lives are you taking in pursuit of this goal of yours?"
"You have that quite backwards." She said, kneeling down. "The onlyreason I'm keeping your kind alive and soon to be enclosed in a zoo is the mere possibility Pink may be saved … if that can never happen." She reached over to a shifting beast the woman was found with, slowly squeezing. "Then I won't take prisoners alive anymore."
"You know, as someone who risked everything to get back her own family, I can't help but be sympathetic to your plight." The Mewman spoke in a tone that indicated some form of genuine feeling. "But I also can't help but pity you, being so lost in your own grief that you can't fathom how far you have fallen."
"I don't need your pity, or your opinion." Blue scowled back, tossing the Mewmans she was interrogating to some guards and ordering for new ones to be brought to her. "No matter how lowly I've become…every sacrifice I make will be done without regret." She growled, turning to her monitors to remind herself of what she was fighting for.
"Any moment now, Rose Quartz." The traitor would pay. "Believe me I know, I've sunk pretty low. But whatever I do next, you deserve." No matter how many gems would be lost in fighting.
"My Diamond-" Her Pearl tried to console her.
"Quiet!" She didn't need comfort, she needed retribution. "Some are doubtful, that's fine. It's no fault of mine and some justice at last will be served." No matter what Yellow or even White thought of her endeavor, she would follow through to the end.
"Now it's time to step up or it's time to back down. And there's only one answer for me." The only answer that the Diamonds have ever had … move forward.
"And I'll stand up and fight 'cause I know that I'm right. And I'm ready, I'm ready, I'm ready … Ready as I'll ever be."
Steven stood at the edge of the table as they went over the plan. "Team Mewni will be divided between fighters, support, rouges, and Ben." Pearl explained. "We keep the gems busy while Ben gets Blue Diamond out of her ship, and then the Miraculous team will attack her and move her to Earth."
"Meanwhile, team earth will be preoccupied with handling Yellow Diamond on Earth." Star continued as she laid out a map. "While she can destroy it, Magic CAN touch Yellow, even if her ship reflects it. Thus me and the Powepuffs will be attacking the ship as it's in the sky."
"So basically, don't get hit and we're fine?" Luz asked.
"Yes, but get hit and your insides will be more fried than chicken…" Dipper gave a 'soso' motion. "Take what you can get."
"We've managed to get a decent layout of Homeworld's based on Mewni thanks to the recon efforts of Chat Noir and the Ninja.." Anne proceeded next.
"Secret duo!" Said figures gave each other fist pumps.
"..and have learned they're keeping every citizen in special containment units so that Blue Diamond can both interrogate and absorb each one's magic to add to her power."
"Eclipsa and Globgor are being held within her personal ship at all times." Number One carried on. "Thus my team along with a few others will be on hit and runs freeing all the prisoners. Each group will be accompanied by at least one person with teleportation gadgets or capabilities to get them off that rock."
"Meanwhile, everyone will be armed with one notepad's worth of glyphs, just in case." Kelly announced as she passed out a pile of the magic symbols to everyone.
"And so everyone is able to keep up with one another, the gravity falls team will be handling coms from homebase and keeping track of everyone." Dipper added in.
"You know, has anyone today asked about the ethics of child soldiers?" Marco asked.
"We gave up ethics a while ago." Steven said. "We're the last line of defense against this threat, so either we stand tall now or let them blow us to bits."
"Glob no!" Finn shouted. "I ain't going down without a fight.
"Good, because tonight it's going to be all or nothing." Steven affirmed as he jumped onto the table. " Now it's time to rise up or it's time to stand down, And the answer is easy to see!"
"And I swear by the sword.." Kelly stood next to him with her sword pointing upward. "… if you're in, get on board!"
"Are you ready?" Marco announced.
"I'm ready!" Star shouted.
"We're ready! We're ready!" The rest of the gang called out one after another.
"Ready as I'll ever be." Steven and Kelly sang in unison, holding each other's hands as they prepared to face the unknown together.
With everyone finally getting ready, going over last minute plans and details, Steven found himself sitting outside his house's porch, the house he lived on with his entire family, both the gems and the butterflies.
"Penny for your thoughts?" Steven turned around and saw both Star and Luz standing behind him."
"...They never reported back on Garnet, Bismuth … Tom, Dad or Mom." Steven said … what if they didn't make it when Blue attacked the stadium?"
"I've been in this situation before, when I was forced back into the human world. I had to leave behind both King and Eda." Luz said dejectedly. "It felt so sickening to not know anything while I was safe."
"We might not have heard anything about where they are, but we haven't heard anything about them being dead either." Star said as the girls sat down next to them. "Plus you know how stubborn our whole family is, a couple of lasers aren't going to be putting them down after all they've been through."
"Didn't a laser remove my soul?" Steven asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Stop joking about your mortality, you know what I mean." His sister chided him. "... Wow, two to three years ago this was so backwards."
"Two years ago, I would have been dreaming for something like this to happen." Luz said with a low chuckle. "Karma sure knows how to bite you in the butt, doesn't it?"
"It does." Star laughed. "Well, if there's anything I'm grateful that this insane life gave me, it's one big and weird family."
"No matter how big it is …" Steven said, glancing at Amethyst giving a pep rally to the group. "... Do you think it's ever too big or … is that just the 'done with reveals' talking?"
"Definitely the latter in my experience." Luz nodded. "There's a saying that I've heard once...friends are the family you get to choose."
"Well, I'm never one to say no to more friends." He admitted with a light smile, turning to his sister and future sister. "Are you quite sure we can do this?"
Star smiled as she pulled the two of them into a group hug. "Together we will guarantee!" They would save them all.
"I'll make them hear me!" Blue Diamond chanted as more and more Mewmans were brought in for interrogation.
(now it's time to redeem or it's time to resolve) The resistance chanted as Marco readied the portals.
"Prove they can trust me!" Kelly sheathed her sword as she placed it in her hair.
(and the outcome will hardly come free)
"We'll save our home and family!" Star cheered as she and Steven waved to each other in good luck for their respective missions.
"Now the line's in the sand and our moment's at hand… !" Everyone chanted.
"And I'm ready.,!" Pearl raised her spear.
"We're ready…!" The Earth and Mewni teams called out.
" We're ready…!" Steven and Star shouted at the same time as they were separated by the portals.
"Ready as I'll ever … be." Yellow Diamond sang, watching as she finally entered the Solar System … finally ready to destroy that miserable rock.