Anne just couldn't believe what was happening, Marcy just couldn't tell where they were going, and Sasha just wanted to keep up.
Currently, The Calamity Trio was running through a field with red blades of grass and chasing after a little Titan named King...however, they had been running for quite a while. King was fast and so was Sasha, but Marcy and Anne? Not so much.
"K-King! You do know where we're going, right?!" Marcy cried.
"It kinda feels like we're just going in circles!" Anne called out, barely able to catch her breath.
"Just trust me!" King called back. "It's not that far!"
"I hope not..." Sasha muttered under her breath.
The four kept running and running for what felt like ages until they finally got out of the forest...and then? King finally stopped, with both Marcy and Anne falling down. Sasha just wiped the sweat from her forehead, cracking her neck as well.
"Gotta admit...glad I still work out..." Sasha said, taking off her leather jacket and tying it around her waist.
Anne raised a hand to speak before King suddenly began running again.
"C'mon, you three!!!" King called out as he began running on all fours like a wolf or dog.
Anne groaned and got up, running after him with Sasha and Marcy, practically heaving. "How does he have so much energy?!"
"He did say...that he was...a god!" Marcy pointed out, clearly out of breath. "O-oh, god! My heart feels like it's gonna come out of my chest like...Aliens...!" She cried before suddenly collapsing.
"Less talking, more running!" King shouted.
"Hey, King!" Anne called out. "I think we should take a break!"
"Huh?" King asked as he slid on the ground and stood up...before he saw he was already quite the distance from them. "Oh...oh, I thought you were right on my tail..."
Sasha was now carrying Marcy on her back, only a little tired. Marcy was just catching her breath while Anne just had her hands on her knees.
"We're...only...human, dude!" Anne exclaimed as she fell right on her back.
Sasha hummed. "Why are you in such a rush anyway?"
"Well, I just wanna try and get to Luz before the sun sets." King said. "I don't wanna wake her while she's asleep...oh, and the dorms lock up, but meh! We've broken into too many places for me to count."
Marcy lifted her head. "D...dorm...?"
"Yeah, Luz is still in college." King answered. "Why else would she be living in a dorm?"
"I didn't think this 'Luz' would still be in college." Sasha replied, humming.
King laughed. "Duh! She's only 18!"
"SHE'S ONLY 18?!?!" Anne shrieked. "I THOUGHT SHE'D BE LIKE 20 OR SOMETHING!"
King laughed. "Nope! Why? Did you think I was talking about boring adults like you?"
Marcy then finally got off Sasha's back, even though she really didn't want to, and stretched a bit. "I like to think I'm very fun..."
"...when did Luz save the world?" Anne asked, now a little concerned.
"When she was 14." King said with a shrug. "It all happened only four years ago."
Anne's eyes widened. "SERIOUSLY?!?"
Sasha looked at Anne. "Didn't we save two worlds at 13?"
King sighed. "Let's just keep going!"
"NO!" Marcy cried as she fell to her knees. "I'm not sure my heart can take any more running! Can't we just fly?!?"
Anne helped Marcy back up, sighing. "No powers means no flight."
Sasha then turned to Anne. "How did you get those things to work anyway? You're the most experienced...and considering our hair, they're probably still in there somewhere."
Anne thought for a moment. "Well...whenever I got angry, sad, or even a little too happy is whenever they'd activate."
Marcy hummed. "Intense emotions are the key...OH! I just gotta get really mad!" She said before gritting her teeth and scrunching up her face.
King blinked, patting his sides awkwardly as he watched the 23-year old try to do something that...his adopted mother had tried a few times ironically enough when she was still new to her 'Harpy Form'.
"Marcy...Marcy, please stop." Anne said.
"NO! I CAN...FEEL IT..." Marcy replied through her clenched teeth. "IT'S...GONNA BURST THROUGH..."
Sasha rolled her eyes. "Marcy, the only thing that's gonna burst is a blood vessel if you keep this up."
Marcy pouted and stopped, exhaling. "Dang it...Sashy, can you carry me?"
Sasha shrugged and then scooped Marcy up, holding her on her back again. "You're lucky you are a lightweight."
And sure enough, King had already sprinted forward. "C'mon!!!"
Anne turned to Sasha. "You think you can carry me too?"
"No piggyback rides for you, Boonchuy." Sasha said as she went after King.
Anne sighed and chased after them.
* * * * * * * *
Soon enough, the group arrived in a town that King called 'Bonesburrough'. All its citizens were witches and demons alike...and needless to say, Sasha and Anne were a little bit freaked out...but only a little since they had seen actual monsters try to kill them.
These townsfolk were anything but...even with one's face literally being a mouth filled with razor sharp teeth.
Marcy was just astounded, looking around at the combination of modern times and medieval times. It was like an animator's dream.
"So, uh, is this where Luz is at?" Sasha asked, still kinda dumbfounded by everything that was around her.
"No, we're just here to help us get to the university faster!" King said with pure enthusiasm bouncing off him.
"How so?" Anne asked, scratching her head.
King smirked. "Duh! A boat!"
Marcy hummed. "Is this university on water?"
"Uhhh, no. The waters here are boiling...this boat flies!" King smiled. "It's kind of more like a blimp. Belos used to have them for his scouts back when he was in charge."
Anne hummed. "Belos, huh? Is that the name of the guy who tried to destroy this world?"
"It's gotta be. Belos is a supervillain name." Sasha said as they all followed King. "Marcy, how are your legs?"
Marcy rested her head on Sasha's shoulder. "Barely hanging onto my bones."
"Of course."
* * * * * * * *
After a short, yet nauseating flight (for King anyway since he told the driver to go incredibly fast), they arrived at The University of Wild Magic. It was a gigantic tree, perhaps the entrance to the building behind it, and the mere sight of it made universities on Earth seem like prison.
"Man, I wish I went to a place like this for college...would've made the psychological degree a helluva lot more interesting." Sasha remarked.
"Same." Anne added.
King then began running again. "That's enough gawking! We gotta find Luz before the-"
Suddenly, a gigantic demon got right in front of him. He was big and bulky wearing a hood over his incredibly demonic face with sharp teeth, purple skin, and incredibly beady eyes. Only a mother could love such a face...mostly because said mother would probably have the same face.
"Sorry. Dorm rooms are closed." The demon AKA the former Warden Wrath said. "You'll have to return tomorrow."
King groaned. "Ah, c'mon! You do this every time I wanna see my big sister!"
"Sorry, King. I can't bend the rules for anyone." Warden Wrath said, shrugging. "You'll have to talk to the headmaster."
"Ugh, every single time." King muttered under his breath as he turned around to leave. "Come on..."
Sasha quickly ran after him. "Hey, c'mon! We can take him! He's a pushover."
"Yeah! We've taken on worse!" Anne grinned, flexing her muscles a bit.
King sighed. "Yeah, I know. But there's a barrier. Wrath's just there to make sure no one runs straight into it and gets shocked with pure magic." He said as they all began walking towards the office of the headmaster.
"Who's the headmaster?" Marcy hummed.
King chuckled. "She's my mom."
Anne looked down on the very ground they were walking on. "...I thought you said we were walking on your dad's corpse. How small is your mom?! And I still can't believe I said that out loud..."
King giggled. "No, my adoptive mom. She found me when I was a widdle baby."
Marcy's eyes went starry. "I need to see pictures!"
"NEVER!" King boomed.
Sasha was just currently trying to fight back her therapist instincts about asking more and more of King's past until she practically knew everything. Anne was just surprised...nothing more, nothing less.
"Finally!" King said before blinking. "Hey, can one of you lift me?"
Sasha blinked. "Why? You can reach that."
"Luz would always pick me up and I miss her right now." King said. "Besides, you girls need her for something important!"
Anne nearly forgot for a moment and she suddenly clenched her fist as she remembered the very reason they were in The Demon Realm in the first place...
The very Multiverse was in danger.
Feeling a sudden sense of panic, she went over and picked up King, having him open the door.
"Hey, Mama Eda! Your favorite kid is here!" King announced as Anne set him down again.
And sure enough, trying to pull out a book from a living shelf was a woman with gray and white hair, looking to be in her 40's and looked pretty good for that age. However, the shelf was anything but 'pretty good' since it seemed to want to keep the book.
"H-hey, kiddo! Mind helping?" Eda asked, showing that she was pulling with one hand...since her other hand was a pure gold hook.
King went over and then lightly scratched the living shelf, forcing it to let go of the book and with Eda finally pulling it away and setting it on her desk.
The Calamity Trio just stood in confusion and awe all at the same time, even taking a moment to see how mystical the entire office actually was. Various potions and mystical artifacts alike.
King and Eda high-fived for a moment before Eda laughed. "Alright, what brings you here, honey? Get lonely making all those new glyphs?"
"We need to see Luz!" King said.
Eda blinked. "Who's 'we'?"
Sasha cleared her throat and that's when Eda finally whipped around and saw the three. She blinked before going over. "Well then...more humans. Name's Eda Clawthorne AKA The Owl Lady."
Marcy giggled. "That explains why the entrance to your school is just a tree!"
Eda hummed. "You said you gotta see Luz, eh? I don't even know who you three are, but is she in trouble in the Human Realm or something?"
"Not exactly...we're not even from your Human Realm." Sasha said. "I'm Sasha Waybright."
"Marcy Wu!" Marcy said enthusiastically.
"And I'm Anne Boonchuy...now, could we please get back to the topic at hand?" Anne said as the panic began rising. She didn't know where this sudden spike was coming from or how she even forgot the importance of their mission in the first place.
They had to get moving. NOW.
Eda nodded. "Right, right...well, you aren't gonna find Luz. She's not here. She's out on a date with her girlfriend, Amity Blight."
"WHAT?!?!" The Calamity Trio cried.
Sasha stepped forward. "Whaddya mean she's not here?!"
"Who's Amity?" Marcy asked, scratching her head.
Anne's eyes suddenly began to flicker as she stepped towards Eda. "When will she be back?! We kind of need her!"
Eda hummed. "Probably not until later this evening..."
"LATER THIS EVENING?!" Anne suddenly cried as her breathing started to speed up. "We don't have that amount of time!!!"
Eda's eyes widened a bit. "Whoa there, calm dow-"
"N-no!!! We need Luz! The very fate of the MULTIVERSE is at stake!!!" Anne exclaimed, taking a step back...as her hair suddenly started to glow.
Eda and King's eyes widened at that and they were almost frozen with surprise and, well, confusion. To say they didn't know what was going on would be an understatement.
"U-umm...Anne?" Marcy whispered.
"Y...your hair..." Sasha breathed.
Anne looked at her. "I-I don't care about my hair!!! E-everyone's in danger again!!! Terri's in danger, our families are in danger, The Plantars and Amphibia are in danger...E-EVERYONE'S IN DANGER!!!"
"A-Anne...please calm down..." Marcy said as her hair slowly began to turn into a glowing green. 'We'll figure it out-"
"MARCY, Y-YOU DON'T GET IT!" Anne shouted suddenly as tears began to form in her eyes. "S-some monster is possessing our friend and billions of people are relying on us to stop him!!! I-I don't even know where he is!!! I-I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO!"
"Anne...take a deep breath. You're shouting." Sasha said, sounding calm as she took a gentle step forward, her own hair turning pink.
Anne whipped around towards her. "I can't stop, okay?!? E-everything is taking too long! I-I don't know how to stop this a-all and I just miss The Plantars! I-I miss my f-family and...a-and...and...!"
Sasha then gently put her hands on Anne's shoulders. "Anne...please...look at me."
Anne's breathing quickened, but she looked into Sasha's glowing pink eyes with her own glowing blue ones.
"Breathe in...and breathe out." Sasha instructed, taking deep breaths and watching Anne begin to copy her. They kept doing this for a while before Sasha spoke again. "I get it, Anne...you miss The Plantars. You miss Amphibia...it was more home than home sometimes...and I really do get it. I miss Grime and Marcy? She probably misses Olivia and Yunan, maybe even Andrias."
Anne nodded slowly.
"But we have to take a second to calm down. We can't save anyone if we're stressed out." Sasha said, using some of her therapist powers to get through to Anne. "Cause if you get stressed out? Chances are, we will too. It's okay to be scared. No one ever said that it wasn't."
Marcy then walked over as well, nodding. "It's gonna be okay, Anne..."
Anne's eyes began to water even further and she pulled both of them into a tight hug as she began to cry. Sasha and Marcy held her close, shutting their eyes...as a white light began to envelop them, blinding Eda and King.
But the moment it faded...they saw that The Calamity Trio had changed. Or at least...got a bit of an upgrade.
"...Oh my Dad..." King breathed.