Chapter Three: Star's Resolve

Optimus could only stare blankly in horror after the connection between his world and Mewni had been severed by the surprise attack from the drone. His mind was reeling from the chaos he witnessed shortly before he lost contact with the world he had only just started speaking of peace with. But now he knew that that peace he had attempted to attain would never come to pass due to the actions of the ones who had ordered that drone strike on the Mewman royal family. Rather than try to figure who could've been able to attack Mewni, Optimus had a pretty good idea as to who was behind this brutal and unsanctioned attack. wasting no time, Optimus turned his attention to The Ark's supercomputer, Teletraan-One.

"Global Justice Network headquarters" he ordered in a firm voice "now"

"Affirmative" Teletraan-One complied

Within seconds, the supercomputor's screen switched to the GJN's headquarters where Prime found himself seeing the face of the network's director, but its top agent, Will Du, instead.

"Optimus Prime, this is an unexpected—" he attempted to say

"Where is Dr. Director?" the Autobot leader demanded "I would have words with her"

"The director is indisposed at the moment" the agent replied, "I can deliver her your message if you'd like"

"I'd prefer to speak to her in person, Agent Du" Optimus insisted in a stern voice "tell her that Optimus Prime wishes to speak with her at once, and if she does not answer then I have words with her in person. And I can assure you, Agent Du, that is not a conversation she would not wish to have!"

The young agent gave pause for a moment as his eyes narrowed at Prime, who in turn narrowed his optics back at him. after several seconds of staring down one another, Du finally spoke up.

"I'll go get the Director" he said in a hostile tone, clearly not happy about Prime's demands

With that, the agent left to retrieve his commanding officer. The other Autobots who had not only witnessed the surprise attack on Mewni, but now had seen their leader acting in such an aggressive manner. True, he was justified in his actions after seeing the ambush on the Mewman people just as they had reached a peaceful agreement, but to see Optimus Prime, someone who kept a sense of calmness no matter how dire the situation, was acting almost like his rival, Megatron. None of the Autobots wanted to speak up, knowing that Optimus was focused on getting some answers from those he was certain were responsible for the drone strike. Soon enough, Will returned with a rather irate looking Dr. Director at his side.

"Prime" she acknowledged in a cold voice "This had better be good. I was just in the middle of some important matters"

"Would those 'important matters' include a drone strike on Mewni?" the Autobot leader questioned bluntly

The question visibly took the head of the GJN aback. It was if she was insulted by the very accusation Prime was making toward her. However, Optimus had been working with intelligence agencies such as this long enough to know that just because it looked as though she didn't know about the attack didn't mean that she didn't authorize it regardless.

"How did you do it, Director?" Optimus persisted harshly "and more importantly: why did you do it?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about, Prime" Dr. Director defended "as I told you before, we have no way of physically reaching Mewni"

"Then why did I see one of your organization's drones bombing the Mewman capital?" the Autobot leader demanded

The GJN's director remained silent, only glowering back at the sentient machine who was in turn glaring back at her. It may have been a brief second, Optimus saw more than enough of the drone to recognize it as one used by the GJN in their covert operations. He wasn't sure how they did it, but he was certain that the GJN had a hand in the strike on Mewman Royal family.

"One of our drones was stolen by an unknown group a week ago" Dr. Director admitted "At first we thought it was done by WEE, but we have reason now to suspect that someone else had a hand in this theft"

There only one group outside of WEE who could pull off a theft of such a high-tech piece of equipment like the drones used by the Global Justice Network. A group who Optimus and his fellow Autobots had their fair share of run-ins with in the past despite not being the main enemy of them.

"Cobra…" Optimus said, narrowing his optics as he did

Cobra. The very mention of the terrorist organization made even the bravest solider shiver with fear. Lead by their mysterious and tyrannical leader, Cobra Commander, Cobra was an international threat that wished for nothing less than the complete and total domination of earth with its commander leading the world as he saw fit. While the group was the main enemy of G.I Joe, Cobra had been a blight upon the Autobots in the past as well. The first time Optimus and his troops fought the terrorist organization, Cobra had tried to steal Teletraan-One for themselves. This of course, did not go in their favor and were chased out of the Ark. However, that wouldn't be the last time they would do battle with Cobra Commander's men. After their failed attempt to steal the supercomputer, Cobra formed an alliance with the Decepticons, an alliance that was still intact to this very day.

With the Decepticons as their new allies, Cobra unleashed a new wave of terror upon the world and those who protected it. Thanks to their two factions' union, Cobra now had access to far more devastating weapons than they could ever manufacture themselves. In return for this new technology, the Decepticons were given a mass supply of Energon that Cobra harvested for them. Through this unholy alliance, Cobra and the Decepticons unleashed a wave of terror upon the world, nearly achieving total domination over the world. Thankfully, the united forced of the Autobots and G.I Joe managed to defeat them and save the world from their clutches. However, the two factions remained allied even after their defeat.

Ever since then then, Cobra's venom had spread to other heroes. They had done battle with the half-ghost hero, Danny Phantom, during an attempt to capture the Ghost Portal in Amity Park. Another incident where Cobra attacked a superhero was when the Powerpuff Girls chased them out of Townsville before they could take root in the city. There had been others who had done battle with the terrorist organization, but their endgame was also the same: total world domination. While Optimus was still confused as to how Cobra Commander and his organization had managed to find a way to Mewni, he theorized that they could've easily gained access to Megatron's space bridge in order to pull off this surprise attack. However, the Prime as still uncertain as to how any of this could've tied in with the Mewman Liberation Army.

"Why would Cobra want to start a war with Mewni?" Bumblebee questioned

"The better question is why Cobra would want us to start a war with Mewni?" Wheeljack pointed out

"That troubles me as well" Optimus added on before returning a glare toward Dr. Director "It also troubles me that you decided not to share this information with General Abernathy and myself sooner"

The head of the GJN only gave the leader of the Autobots a pensive look, knowing that there was no way trying to save face at this point. While Dr. Director had said nothing, Optimus easily surmised as to why she didn't enlighten neither the Joes nor the Autobots on this matter.

"Because it wasn't stolen, was it?" the Prime said, with anger in his voice "you sold that drone to Cobra, didn't you?"

Dr. Director flinched slightly at the sound of that accusation, as if the very words themselves seemed to sting her. The Autobots that were present in the room let out a collective gasp at the words their leader had just spoken. It wasn't just them that that was stunned by Prime's words, but also the members of the GJN that were present in the room, though Optimus sensed that it was more from the shock from possibly found out. Rather than try to lie her way out of this, she instead decided to stop playing games.

"We sold Cobra weapons in exchange on information they had gathered on a superweapon WEE had been preparing to use on Chicago. We sold them an arsenal of weapons and vehicles, and several drones were among this" she began in a firm, unwavering, voice "we save millions, Prime"

"What about the billions you may have just condemned to death?" Optimus demanded "I can assure you that the U.N will hear about this—"

"The U.N sanctioned the exchange" Dr. Director cut him off adamantly "We thought it best if we kept this away from your people and the Joes considering your past history"

"You mean saving your tailpipes from those snakes?" Ironhide shot back "We and the Joes saved you from those bastards and you just go behind our backs and make a deal with them?"

"Ironhide, enough!" his leader commanded sharply

Optimus's second in command relented, but despite his outburst, Prime agreed with him. after everything the Autobots had done for mankind, their leaders still made dark dealings with one of the most dangerous groups on the planet. He could only imagine what the Joes would think of this news once he told them of this revelation. While Optimus understood that the U.N was trying to save lives, they could've easily contacted either them or G.I Joe to assist in this matter rather than going to Cobra for aid.

"I won't say that what I did was an easy thing, but I did it to ensure the safety of the world" the head of the GJN continued "I believe you would do the same"

"I would, Director" Optimus confirmed before adding "But I would find another way"

Again, Director gave the alien machine a glower from her only eye before speaking again.

"This arguing is pointless" she said "What's done is done. All we can do now is prepare for whatever response the Mewmans give us"

"I can already tell you that it will not a peaceful one" Optimus informed her "I will attempt to try to reach out to Mewni again and do my best to convince that it wasn't our fault. But rest assured, Director, I will tell them everything"

The two leaders stared each other down for what seemed like an eternity. Optimus wasn't going to allow the GJN get away this anytime soon. Because of them, they have doomed two worlds toward a path to war and Optimus had been one war long enough to know that the only winners were death and misery.

"Do what you have to do" was all Dr. Director replied firmly

With that, she cut the feed to the GJN's headquarters, leaving the Autobots left wondering what their next move.

"I can't believe this slag!" Ironhide proclaimed angrily "After everything we did for these fragging humans—this is how they repay us?!"

"Does this mean we'll have to fight Mewni?" Inferno asked the others

"I say we stay out of the whole thing" Gears mentioned "It's their mess, let them clean it up"

"We will do no such thing, Gears" Optimus denied "the earth is our home, and while those we once thought were our allies may have betrayed us, we must still try to let cooler heads prevail"

"So, what's the plan, Optimus?" Bumblebee inquired

"First, we must contact the Joes and tell them of this recent development" the Autobot's leader began "Then I shall try to contact Mewni once more. Hopefully, there may be still a chance to prevent a war from starting"

Star could taste blood in her mouth as her eyes slowly opened to the chaos that was around her. As her vision slowly returned to her, the princess looked upon the horror that had just befallen her people. All around here were her fellow Mewmans either crying out in pain or lying dead on the ground or trapped underneath rubble. Despite the ringing in her ears, the young girl could still hear the muffled screams of agony and panic all around her. As Star slowly forced herself to stand, the blood from her fresh headwound leaked into her eyes, forcing her to wipe it out as she began to walk through the madness around her in an almost dream-like state. That's what this all felt like to her: a terrible dream that at any minute now she was going to wake up from.

But sadly, that wasn't the case. This was all a part of the new reality she was now in, a reality in which her people suffered a direct attack from a world she loved. It made no sense to the young Mewman, why would Earth, a planet that hadn't even known of Mewni's existence as far as she knew, just launch a surprise attack on her family? What could they have done to anger the people of earth so much that they would launch an attack on them? and in the apparent guise of peace no less. And another question remained buzzing in her head: how could they make it here in the first place?

"Star?" a muffled voice said from behind her "Star!"

Star didn't mentally register the voice that was calling out to her until she felt a hand take hold of her shoulder. The touch of the hand snapped her out of her dream-like state and made her spin around to meet eyes with a wounded Marco. Despite the bruises on his face, his torn clothing that revealed several cuts and bruises on his person and the deep cut just above his eyebrow, Marco remained calm, but Star could see it in his eyes: there was a spark of panic and fear in them. But his concerns weren't for his own wellbeing, it didn't matter if he was hurt, so long as Star was safe, he would be fine.

"Are you ok?" he asked with deep concern in his voice

"I…I don't know" she admitted weakly

It was at that moment that a pile of rubble several feet away from the two teens began to shift which drew their attention toward it. Suddenly, a massive piece of debris upon the pile was lifted upwards to reveal an injured Tom holding the chuck of rubble over his head to allow an also wounded Janna and Pony Head to escape from the debris before the demon prince tossed the wreckage aside. Upon seeing her other friends, Star and Marco ran over to the group before the princess the trio in a group hug.

"Are you guys alright?" she asked the trio

"We're fine…for the most part" Janna answered before wincing at the pain in her side "It'd been a lot worse if Tom hadn't shielded us from the blast at the last minute"

Just as Star embraced her friends in a loving group hug, a bolt of realization struck her mind: her parents had been caught directly in the blast. The panic in Star's heart began to rise once more as she broke away from the rest of the group and ran toward the direction where she was originally standing alongside her parents and saw the Magical High Commission standing around in a circle, looking down at what the princess dreaded were the bodies of her parents. Marco and the others gave chase after Star, collectively knowing that whatever the young girl was going to see, they would need to be there to support her. Star pushed past Rhombulus and Heckapoo to see this Commission's third member, Omnitraxius, holding a beam of energy around her parents, both of whom appeared as though they were in catatonic-like states.

"What happened to them?" she demanded

"They were hit directly by that machine's rockets" Heckapoo replied "Omnitraxius managed to shield them at the last second, but they still took the brunt of the blast. They're alive, but they need time to heal"

"How much time?" Marco spoke up

"We…don't know" the demoness replied "But until your mother makes a full recovery, you are the acting queen of Mewni"

The words that were just spoken to Star struck almost as hard as the rockets had done. Star knew that one day she would ascend to the throne, but she always thought that it wouldn't be until she was older. Granted, her mother also took the throne due to similar circumstances, but never had Star had never even considered that her mother would be hurt in this way. True the war with Toffee came close to it, but they still pulled through regardless. But this was different, this time they ambushed by an enemy they had never assumed they would have. It still boggled the princess's mind to no end as to why earth wanted to declare war on Mewni? But she couldn't dwell on it at the moment, her people needed a leader and she needed to keep her kingdom, and the people she now ruled over, safe from another attack.

Just then, among the cacophony of pain and suffering, the group heard the familiar sound of the drone's engines echoing high above them in the sky. Sure enough, there it was, circling above them like a vulture ready to feast on a dying animal. Those among who would walk, fled to take shelter within the castle, leaving many of those wounded from the first attack two die by the war machine's second strike. However, while many have fled the area, Star and her allies stood their ground. But while they remained where they stood, there were several members of the group who still felt fear at the thought of a second attack.

"It's coming back around!" Tom declared as he pointed up at the drone

"No…" Star denied firmly, clenching her wand as she did "It's not"

As her wand charged up with magical energy, Star took aim at the drone before firing a blast of bright pink beam of magical energy at the machine. The magical beam sliced the drone clean in half, thus causing the two halves to explode in mid-air. Knowing that they needed further insight as to what exactly they were up against, Omnitraxius used his powers to catch the falling debris in mid-air and levitated it downward for everyone to see.

"What the heck is thing doohickey anyway?" Pony Head questioned

"It kinda looks like a big metal birdie" Rhombulus mentioned

"It's called a drone" Marco spoke up in a solemn tone "It's a weapon from earth. The army uses to take out high-risk targets without wasting soldiers' lives"

"Why would earth send this thing to attack us?" Star repeated, obviously puzzled

"And what was up with Optimus Prime saying that Mewni attacked them first?" Janna pondered as well

Marco grimaced as he began to think over what happened. It all seemed impossible to the teenager. As far as he knew, the leaders of earth had no knowledge of Mewni or had any means of traveling here for that matter. Then again, it could be that the government took notice of Star's antics during her time on earth and feared if the rest of her race like hear. True, his friend was never malicious toward earth and its people, but even Marco had to admit that Star could get a bit…carried away sometimes, which resulted in destroyed property more often than not. There was also the matter of several other moments in which people of Mewni came to his planet, though they didn't have the best of intentions. From Mina Loveberry's madness to Ludo and Toffee's schemes, earth had its fair share of encounters with Mewni and most of it was no doubt reported to the government.

There was also another theory Marco had to take into consideration: the work of a super villain. On earth, the world was filled with a vast assortment of evil doers who were either obsessed with the next get rich quick scheme or total world domination. But who among the vast numbers of villains could know of Mewni's existence? Marco never gave much thought of the metahuman community, mostly because he was to be wrapped up in his own life to even care about it to begin with. However, that of course changed when Star came into his life. Ever since the blonde-haired girl entered his life, Marco always had a nagging thought in the back of his mind that one day someone like the Global Justice Network was one day going to come and take his friend away for her destructive behavior, or worse, the government sending someone like Danny Phantom or Shezow to deal with her.

There was also the matter as to how exactly whoever could do this had the means to travel to Mewni in the first place. Marco had heard stories of some metahumans being able to teleport across vast distances, but across the multiverse? That seemed like a stretch even with all the fantastic things he had seen in his life. As Marco racked his brain over who could've done this, he found himself thinking of too many suspects. There was Dr. Drakken, the blue-skinned mad scientist who wanted total world domination. He was worthy candidate, considering that he was smart enough to figure out a way to travel to Mewni. There were also the Decepticons, a race of ruthless alien machines who sought to conquer the universe. Like Drakken, they also had the means to reach Mewni via their space bridge, which could send them anywhere throughout space, so it could stand to reason they could traverse another dimension if they so choose to.

There was also the matter of these band of terrorists calling themselves the Mewman Liberation Army. As far as the hoodie-wearing teen was aware of, the people of Mewni bared no grudge against earth—a world in which many Mewmans didn't have any knowledge of. However, if Toffee can hold a secret hatred for the people of Mewni, it could be possible that a group of Mewmans held that same hate for earth as well, though the teen had no idea as to why anyone from the magical world would want to start a war with his home planet.

Just then, the sky over the scorched capital flashed blue again as the image of Optimus Prime appeared once more. Despite not having much of a face, Marco could see a look of remorse in his eyes, as if he had more terrible news to bear for the already beaten down Butterfly family. The image of the Prime upon looked around at the carnage below him and let out a forlorn sigh at the misery that was now laid out in front of him. it was then that Optimus's optics looked upon fallen kind and queen of Mewni, his saddened looked only deepened

"Princess…" he began as he tried to find the right words to "There are no words I can say that will make up for the pain that has been dealt to you and your people"

"Spare me, robot!" Star shot back up at the Prime "You talked around peace and then you go and attack us?!"

"I assure you princess that my fellow autoboots and I had no par in this treachery" Optimus replied "The ones responsible for this are known as Cobra"

"Wait, snakes did this?" Rhombulus said "Man, earth has some smart snakes"

Heckapoo elbowed her fellow commissioner in the side to shut him up. But while everyone else was left confused by the mention of Cobra, Marco and Janna knew exactly who the Prime was referring to. Cobra was a global terrorist organization that had brought the world to its knees on more than one occasion. Had it not been for the heroic GI Joe and the autoboots, Cobra venom would have spread to all corners of the world.

"Ok, that makes sense" Marco spoke up

"It does?" Tom questioned

"Cobra's an evil organization on earth" the hoodie wearing teen "They must have wanted to try and start a war with Mewni"

Optimus didn't confirm Marco's observation right away. Instead, he only looked away in shame, making the teen's heart drop, knowing that that there was more to the story than the leader of the Autobots was saying.

"Cobra did not act alone in this act of aggression" the Prime continued solemn "Cobra did not steal the drone, but instead purchased it legally by the United Nations in exchange for information they had to stop a terrorist attack on a city on earth"

Star clenched her fist upon hearing that sentence, Star's anger boiled over. How could the leaders of the earth just allow this attack on her people without any given thought about it? Her family wasn't perfect, but at least they didn't sell weapons to their weapons. She looked back at her unconscious parents and in that moment, everything became clear to her.

"So, what your saying is…" she seethed with anger in her words "Is that your leaders are just as responsible for this as Cobra is?!"

"Princess, I assure you—" Optimus tried to reason

"It's Queen Star now!" she snapped "and as my first act as queen, I hereby declare war upon earth!"

A collective gasp of horror as shared by everyone. No one could comprehend that Star would even think of waging war on anyone—let alone earth and its inhabitants.

"Please, there is no need for this" the Prime attempted to sooth "I understand that you are angry—"

Star cut the leader of the Autobots words with a blast from her wand, destroying the image in the sky in the process. she then turned to face her friends, who were all still awestruck by the young girl's declaration of open war. Marco wanted to say some words of wisdom to try to talk her out of this madness, but her could see it in her eyes that there was nothing he could say to her that would dissuade her from her from her decision.

"Star, what have you done?" Tom demanded

"What I had to do" was all the now acting queen said as she began to walk past them "I'll be the war room. I expect you all to join me within the hour"

With that, star made her way back to the castle, leaving her friends and allies to mentally take in the very prospect of an all war between the two worlds. However, for the Magical High Commission, there was a different view to this now dire matter. For because of the young girl's actions, they had absolute certainty that this would bring about dark ramifications for both earth and Mewni, but for the Multiverse on a whole as well. Omnitraxius knew that he had to do, and it was something that he had no joy in doing, but if his world and the Multiverse was to be safeguarded he had no other choice.

It was time to summon the Celestial Court.