In the middle of a trippy dimension made of flashing colors, Luz brought the edge of her sword down on a skull-shaped boulder that was flying at her, splitting it in half and causing it to crumble to dust.. From her shoulder, King let out a mighty "Weh!" that vaporized a wall of bat-shaped icicles that were hurtling toward them.
It'd been like this ever since Mephisto had activated his 'Pandemonium Cube.' Vaguely hellish debris swarmed them from all sides, and it was everything they could do to keep from being overwhelmed. It'd taken her sword, spells, glyphs, her own wehs, bladed tendrils, and Stringbean just to avoid being overwhelmed. All the while, Mephisto was...
"Are you humming Megalovania!?"
"Yes," the devil replied bluntly. 'Is it ticking you off?"
Luz elected not to respond.
"Of course, now I'm getting bored, so let's stop with the warmup." With that, there was another flash, and suddenly they were in a white sky above a patchwork battlefield with more people than Luz could count fighting in all sorts of ways against the minions of Mephisto, who were spilling endlessly out of assorted portals. "Below us are so-called heroes from across the multiverse, all fighting for their lives. Including your friends and family. You have until the first casualty before I use the Pandeonium Cube to wipe them all from existence."
Luz was about to ask why he hadn't already erased anyone, but then thought better of it: He was probably bluffing, but she wasn't going to call it just in case.
"Luz?" King began, sounding very worried.
"Don't worry, King: The heroes always win against this loser, and our friends are very capable."
TLOA
They'd gotten separated in the chaos shortly after joining the fight in earnest. They were all capable in their own ways: Gus and Willow were absurdly talented and powerful, Amity was less naturally powerful but just as talented and a hard worker, Vee was an apex predator surrounded by guilt-free meals, and Hunter...
A large, ogre-like creature burst into flames as it hit the ground, its skull cracked open.
He might not be able to cast that many spells without his old mechanical staff, but he was a trained soldier. In other circumstances, he'd have been happy to turn skills he was taught to help his uncle oppress people towards a positive end, just like when he agreed to teach Luz staff fighting to help with her new exercise requirements, but there were just slightly too many people in danger for him to be enjoying himself.
"Hey Hunter," came a voice from his left as Luz's friend April, in her full symbiote form, kicked another monster through the face. Literally through the face. The gore was quickly absorbed into her costume as she landed next to him and the beast vanished in flames, but... Still. "You get caught up in all of this, too?"
"Knowing our luck lately, we're the targets," Hunter deadpanned. "Your friends and family here?"
"They're around," April shrugged. "You wanna stick together for a bit? I'm ashamed to admit it, but it's been a while since I've had someone at my back, and it's a little uncomfortable to be fighting alone again."
"Sure," Hunter agreed. Frankly, he owed the girl for sponsoring him at Clone Anon. He couldn't attend a lot of meetings, but what he had attended had really helped him.
They tore through more monsters—Hunter refused to call them demons on principle—until they found a teenage girl with black hair, in a black dress, fighting a massive swarm of them. She was doing very well as she tore through them with her strange weapon. Particularly considering that it was a strange weapon. No sharp edges, it was like an old-fashioned key. Silver with a golden frame, making up the bulk of the handle, with teeth that invoked the shape of a crown.
The girl slid back from one that resembled a flaming wolf and pointed the tip of her strange weapon and shouted, "Blizzaga!" causing a rather massive spikey ball of ice to manifest from the aether and fly at the creature at rapid speeds. Poor thing never stood a chance.
Unfortunately, while she was doing that, one that looked like a shambling pink corpse managed to sneak up behind her.
So naturally, Hunter dashed forward in time to intercept its strike, catching its claws on his staff. He then swept its ankles, and while it was off balance, April snagged it with weblines and threw it into the distance.
With three people fighting, even this large crowd of monsters was easily dispatched, and once they had room to breathe, the dark-haired girl turned to them. "Thanks."
"I'm Hunter," he introduced. "This is—"
"Mayhem," April interrupted.
"Xion," the dark-haired girl introduced. "I got separated from my friends when this all happened. Have either of you seen them? A boy about your age," Xion gestured to Hunter, "with spiky blonde hair and a man in his early 20s with ridiculously big red hair. They'll have weapons like mine, but fancier."
"I haven't seen anyone like that," April said, "but all the good role models in my life would be disappointed if I didn't offer to help you look."
"Same," Hunter agreed.
TLOA
These monsters' magic tasted like garbage, and Vee wasn't afraid to say it. Like, not literal garbage but... She was reminded of a low-sugar cereal she'd tried that was supposed to taste like strawberries and cream but tasted like vaguely berry-flavored cardboard instead.
You'd think she'd be more scared of everything going on, but honestly, after going back to the demon realm earlier this felt like a cake walk. Also, she had her Mashy by her side.
The enby in question was currently torching monsters—Vee refused to associate them with herself by calling them demons—as Vee drained them.
"So on the one hand, kind of disappointed that my skald magic is useless in this situation," Masha said evenly, "on the other hand, this is still pretty cool."
"If only this had happened a week later," a smarmy voice deadpanned. "We were just about to start your lessons on wild magic."
President Laufeyson strolled up while casually transforming a monster into a teacup. Trailing behind them, stopping occasionally to jump around and hit assorted monsters, were the SHIELD agents planted in their secret service detail.
"Regardless," Loki continued, "using story magic in situations this chaotic tends to get a little... meta. There's nothing wrong with that in moderation, but too much and you'll end up like Wilson."
Loki pointed a thumb at a man in a red and black ninja outfit who walked up, shot a monster with a handgun, and then looked with intent at empty air. "The author was going to have Rick and Morty cameo in this chapter, but couldn't make it work in a way that was tonally appropriate for this crossover. And honestly, it was mostly just because they'd already alluded to Rick's existence in earlier chapters, building on the stealth crossover with Gravity Falls. Since they exist in this multiverse, they're probably in this mess somewhere, but don't expect to see them." He then walked off as if nothing had happened, only to stop and turn back to the same empty air. "Oh, and Dylan Brock was supposed to be in the last scene. April was gonna have a rant about her 'estranged third brother' and how if Venom wants her to call him dad, he needs to pay child support and show up to her dance recitals, but it didn't fit the tone or pacing. Now I need to go figure out how Ducktales and Kingdom Hearts can be part of this multiverse when it's already been implied that Luz has watched A Goofy Movie."
He walked away, then came back. "Also also, just to be clear, The Eventuality using Luz's blood to fix the realm of magic was specifically to set up Star's Crash Out last chapter." Then he left for real.
"I see what you mean," Masha said in regard to the poor, crazy man.
"...How does he know Luz's name?" Vee asked.
"It's best not to question these things," Loki confirmed, "and now onto—"
There was a large explosion in the distance, and Vee was knocked off her feet (being in her true form was asking for trouble right now) as something impacted her at high speed.
As Vee got her bearings and sat back up, she found that what had hit her was a blue koala-like creature.
"You are the cutest and fluffiest thing I have ever seen," Vee said as soon as she laid eyes on the creature.
"Thank you," the creature said with a squeaky voice. "Cama'ahar teh tebracres?"
"My name?" Vee asked... She assumed that understanding whatever it had just asked had something to do with the apples. "It's Vee."
"Good name," the creature replied. "My name Stitch. Creeta manjai la la patookie?" he asked while gesturing to a rather heavy-looking goblin-like monster that was farting fireballs.
"I don't think I'm strong enough to throw you that far," honestly, the little guy was heavier than he looked.
"Okay," he said cheerfully and then scrambled off of her.
"...Didn't we meet once in Hawaii?" The red-haired agent asked.
Stitch sniffed the air and then looked at her. "Ih." And then scrambled off.
Masha offered Vee a hand to help her up. "So it looks like you made a new friend."
"Yeah," Vee said.
TLOA
Willow had just gotten separated from Gus... Well, separated was a strong word; they'd run into his friend Sprite, and he'd broken away to combine his powers of illusion with her own to bedevil the army of monsters more effectively—she refused to call them demons because, as far as she was concerned, they weren't—and in fact she could see a number of monsters being chased by giant illusionary cupcakes as she made her way through her own swarm of them.
Mostly using vines. Nothing had gotten past her plants so far, so she couldn't test out what the golden apple had done to her muscle power just yet.
Just when it looked like one might, it got crushed by vines that weren't her vines.
"Hello, Klara," Willow greeted.
"Hello Willow," the other plant user replied. "It's nice to see you. Or it would be in any other circumstances." Klara gestured to the chaos around them. "My birth mother kept telling me I was going to Hell, but this probably wasn't what she meant."
"You're a bit glib about this," Willow observed.
"My therapist says that some people use humor to help cope with fear," Klara noted. "And my chances of dying in a fire just went from the normal odds to something significantly higher. And I can't find Molly, any of our friends, anyone from back home, or any members of the school staff I trust."
"...Would you like to stick with me for a while?" Willow asked.
"Yes, I would appreciate that."
The two plant users then continued on, stopping only to destroy monsters with assorted plants... Willow was a little disturbed by how creative Klara could be with them; she wasn't even sure spells existed for that one trick with the rose pollen that had done horrifically unspeakable things to the blood of one monster that Klara sheepishly said reminded her of her 'husband.'
"So do you want to talk about that, or..."
"I do not."
Suddenly, a bunch more monsters spilled out from yet another portal. It wasn't anything they couldn't handle, and yet they didn't have to, as in a flash of green, they were suddenly all dispatched.
"Boom baby!" declared Luz's friend Marcy as she lowered into view. "Oh, hey, Willow. How's it hanging?"
"About as well as it could be, given the circumstances. What was that?"
"That," Marcy began, "was a successful experiment. You see a while back it ocure to me that for the Calamity Gems to be able to power the music box, they'd need power over space and time—yeah the dimensional stuff uses sound frequencies but you can play a frequency all you want and it won't do anything without something that can actualy manipulate wht your'e trying to manipulate—and if it can do that then Sashy, Anne, and I should be able to do stuff and then after last time I was kind fo inspired so a bit of ractice and expeirmnation got me most of th way then and then here was a good chance as any to try it in practice. Took me three tries to get it right, but boom! Chaos Control!"
"...I have no frame of reference for anything you just said," Willow admitted.
"Do they not have video games in the demon realm?" Klara asked.
"I mean not really," Willow admitted. "We don't have computers, and what we have instead of mostly focused on search engines and social media."
"A world that created Facebook before Donkey Kong," Marcy said, stunned. "For as beautiful as the multiverse is, it is also a place of horrors."
Willow blinked. "So I don't have the whole story of what you and your friends were up to, but, um... Is that really that bad compared to—"
"Would you believe me if I unironically said that a world without video games is worse than having half the organs in my chest destroyed and spending three months possessed by an evil machine intelligence?" Marcy asked.
"I'll admit, video games are the thing I'd miss second most if I had to go back to 1907," Klara added.
"Are all humans crazy?" Willow finished. "Because I thought it was just a Luz thing."
"...So either my therapy's working very well or not enough," Marcy quipped. "You mind if I hang out with you guys for a bit? The girls and I split up to cover more ground, but I'm getting lonely."
"Yeah, sure. I get it."
And once more, they continued on, monsters being destroyed by assorted green things, until Marcy gasped and zoomed off.
It wasn't long before Willow and Klara caught up and saw what had gotten the other girl's attention. Fighting a swarm of monsters bare-handed was a giant being that resembled a large blue bipedal newt. Emphasis on large, as a person could probably fit in his pockets. He was unarmed, appeared significantly aged, and was missing an arm and a leg, but was still smashing monsters quite easily.
Green flashed once more, and all the monsters were destroyed as Marcy, in a blink, appeared before the giant. "Andrias?"
"...Marcy?" the biped asked in a deep, booming voice. "Is that you? I can't see so well anymore."
"Yeah, it's me," Marcy said. "Andrias... Your cybers are still broken... It's been nearly two years."
"I've already lived many times longer than most newts," the giant replied. "I've fixed as much of the damage I've done as I can. There's nothing left to do but—"
"But run away?" Marcy asked.
"Marcy I—"
"I'm not saying you need to live forever or something, Frog knows how that turned out for The Core, but letting yourself slowly die is just... It's like..." Marcy started articulating her hand. "It's like you're, well, it's running away. That's the only way I can put it."
"Marcy, I've hurt more people than you can possibly comprehend," Andrias said, "I've done things that no one will forgive—"
"Who says you can't be forgiven? I have," Marcy said, "and the people of Wartwood forgave Grime and Sasha... Anne forgave me and Sasha. We're dating now, all three of us."
"...You mean you weren't already?" Andrias asked.
"Why does everyone keep asking that?" Marcy asked. "Anyway, the point is... I get it, you feel like, after everything that's happened, that your life is over, right?"
"That's the gist of it, yes," Andrias admitted.
"And I get that it's not the same," Marcy began, "but that's how I felt when I got the news about the move. And I ran away. And you know how that went."
"Yes, but you're right. It's not the same. I've made peace with my lot in life, and now that I've done the work to fix as much as I can, there's nothing left to do but—"
"And that's what I thought. That there was nothing I could do and I'd be alone and... But I was able to keep in touch with Anne and Sasha. And make new friends in Massachusetts. And then I got an opportunity that let me see Anne and Sasha in person more often, and because we took it, I made another new friend, and because we made friends with her, Sashy and Anna-Banana and I got a chance to express our feelings, and we got our powers back, and we found another music box. It's gonna be a while, but someday we're gonna be able to go back to Amphibia and see everyone again, and make even more friends and—" Marcy turned back to Willow and Klara, "we're friends, right?"
"Sure!"
"I guess."
"And what I'm saying is... What you think is inevitable isn't, and just giving up is another kind of running away," Marcy finished.
"For what it's worth?" Willow interjected. "I don't think it's comparable to your situation, but I was hurt pretty badly by someone who then kept hurting me. I never really thought I'd ever be able to forgive her, but well, I have. We're friends again." Not as close as they used to be, but they were getting there.
"...Can I ask who?" Marcy asked. "Details might help."
"Amity."
"But she's so nice and friendly?!"
"Yes, she is," Willow added. "But her mother didn't want her to be. Amity wasn't blameless in what she did, but she was a victim of someone who only wanted to control her and use her, and it was only with love, support, and good examples to work up the courage to stand up to her and be the good person she was meant to be."
"Sound familiar?" Marcy suddenly asked Andrias.
"...So I'm literally part of a team called The Runaways," Klara started, "and I'm not going to say that running away from the violent drunk that used to rape and beat me was a bad thing, so I'm a little biased on that front... But I know what it's like to deal with the idea of inevitability. I was told from a young age that my lot in life was to suffer and die because I was born wrong. That I was inherently wicked and deserved nothing more than a life of pain followed by damnation. And while part of me fought against that idea, it took some absolutely extraordinary circumstances to break me of it entirely, but... I'm here. I'm happy. I'm loved, and everyone who hurt me in the past is long dead."
"Like I said," Marcy continued, "We're trying to find a way back to Amphibia. I want to see you a least one more time."
The giant chuckled. "Once again, I find myself wishing we'd met a thousand years ago. Okay, you've convinced me. I guess I can try to hold on for a few more years."
"Good. Now, I think I can still fit in your pocket."
AN: So I have scenes of most of the squad interacting with others, but this chapter is running long, and I keep running out of spoons, so I'm gonna have to split it, so we'll see the rest next time.