Mewni's morning began as countless others had before it. The sky was a vibrant shade of blue with hardly any clouds dotting its canvas, the birds were chattering back and forth to each other between the leaves of lush trees, and the people of the city were going about their daily rituals with the same monotonous rhythm that took them to and from work or school, same as any other weekday.

But the morning had only merely started the same as any other. All of its generic, charming tedium was broken by the shrill sounds of ambulances carrying with them their multi-color swirling lights. The birds bolted from the trees as the calm was shattered; people in the streets began to shout. Alarm sirens were ringing and teenagers were screaming. A pool of people flooded out of a school going every which way, not knowing where to flee, only that the light was blinding and fear compelled them to keep moving as quickly as possible in whatever direction they could.

The police first on the scene tried to corral the students as best they could away from the building, though they weren't yet organized. A special forces unit was immediately deployed inside the school, leaving the basic officers to handle the pandemonium outside. There had been an obvious explosion, tearing a chunk away from the front of the building. The smoke had billowed up to haze over the formerly pristine sky for a mile. Mewmans from the surrounding area drifted around the edges of the chaos, gasping and crying, unable to turn their eyes away yet unsure how to take in the scene unfolding before them.

More whistles filled the air as firemen arrived at the scene, along with a barrage of vehicles chauffeuring panicked parents who barely waited for the cars to stop before jumping out and rushing towards the disaster. First responders were immediately overwhelmed and called in for backup on their lapel communicators, trying to juggle between holding the parents back and getting the wounded to safety.

The entire scene was anarchy.

Out of the amassed crowd pushed a woman with straight black hair, so silky it fell down to her shoulders like ink. She wore a fancy suit and jacket and surveyed the area as she went, jostling between anxious parents and gawkers alike. The throng was trying to be held back by a single policeman, but he couldn't stop everyone from getting through and running towards the school, and couldn't stop her either. She dodged under his arm and a couple parents followed behind her, soon many more pushing back against the swamped officer.

"Hurry Buffy! We wanna get this shot before they get the restraint beams up!" She had called back to a large monster loosely resembling a top-heavy bullrog. He was carefully trying to get through the people with a large spherical device clamped atop his shoulder. It was roughly the size of an Earth basketball, covered in a puzzle-matrix of metallic components.

"Excuse me, pardon me," he kept saying as he unwittingly knocked into people to his left and right. Most of the mewmans only came up to his chest.

"Just get over here!"

He accidently stepped on the officer's foot with his own webbed one as he quickly jostled to get past.

"Aghh!" the officer shouted with a growl. "This area isn't secure! You're not permitted beyond this point!" The officer continued to rail but the monster was already making his way after the woman.

"Very sorry!" Buffrog shouted back.

There was little the officer could do to stop him, his arms too busy trying to hold back the crush of people bearing down on him, several more managing to get by.

Some students were still coming out of the building, tripping over the debris and pieces of wall, covered in cuts and abrasions. Several were covered so thickly by pallid dust there wasn't any color to their hair, skin, or clothes; and some remained completely untouched by it. They exited out side doors or even broken windows.

One student walked out the front of the school lobby, where the main blast had occurred, as if in a tranced daze. She didn't run like the others, nor did she seem remotely interested in doing so. She raised a hand to her eyes as the sunlight streaming through the smoke caused her to squint, all of the flashing lights and blaring cries of sirens and parents assaulting her senses all at once. There weren't any birds singing. Smoke and rolling colors blended together in a sickening fog all around. She didn't understand.

The woman had found what she had been looking for.

"Her! This way, Buffy! Let's get ready to go live!"

As quickly as possible the woman wearing the suit jacket got to the confused girl's side. Without touching her shoulder, she swept out an arm like a doting parent to direct her safely away from the rubble. Luckily, the wailing of an actual parent to get into the building served as an ideal distraction, allowing her to usher the girl away from the commotion. She looked back just once, seeing the officers stopping a distraught woman from continuing inside while they struggled to calm her down.

Then all at once along the perimeter of the school, restraint beams sparked to life between waist-high police poles they finally finished setting up, to secure the scene and keep everyone back. The beams were flat between the poles and glowed like red hot walls, only permitting badge-wearing officers and first responder personnel entry and exit.

The girl was in a blank stupor, heading wherever directed, her arms reaching up into her dusty teal hair aimlessly, touching and searching, her lower lip quivering. Her brown skin only showed through where her sweat and tears streaked away the light-colored grime.

The reporter did her best not to mess up her clean suit while she got the girl into position, careful not to touch her too much so no dirt would contact her finely pressed and expensive looking attire. She stood the girl just enough so that her back faced the commotion going on behind her.

"Gone…" the girl muttered as if to herself.

"What?" the reporter plucked half of a triangular-shaped object off her lapel that looked like a crystal pin, then pressed it onto the girl's shirt. "Hang on, not yet."

The large monster with the sphere atop his shoulder huffed as he finally got his footing across from them, wiping his brow as he stood before them both.

"I am ready," he said, tapping the sphere. The outer shell of the orb broke apart along the outer seams, revealing an inner camera device that glowed red. He took the orb off his shoulder and leveled it to his face in order to peer through it, making sure to center the image in front of him.

"Be sure to get the school," the reported barked, quickly checking and adjusting her hair in the sphere's reflection. She nodded to her green-skinned partner. "We have to hurry."

"B-but, he's gone…" the girl stuttered in reply.

"The school is still there, don't worry," the reporter rushed. "You'll find your friends in a minute. What's your name?"

For a moment the girl blinked, fresh fluid running down the already created rivers on the contours of her face. "M-My? Uhm… Kelly, but…"

The cameraman again tapped the side of the sphere he held and the light swirling within glowed green.

"In three – two – one…" and he pointed his finger towards the pair.

With all seriousness, the reporter's hustled face became an expression of seriousness and dread, washing over her as instantly as happiness fled the face of a child that dropped its Goblin Dog on the ground.

"Breaking news! Coming to you live from North Mewni, this is Excelcia with Good Morning Mewni News. Unfortunately it is not such a good morning here, as you can see behind me. There has been what appears to be an explosion at the Paragon Academy shortly after classes went into session today. First responders are ushering the injured to safety as I speak and we won't have an official numbers as of yet of the potential victims; we're getting first-hand reports coming in from eye witnesses like Kelly here."

The sphere turned to focus on Kelly, whose eyes were glazed over, her hands still reaching into her locks.

"Kelly, what happened must have been truly harrowing for you and your fellow classmates, but what can you tell us about what happened from the inside?"

Kelly's face was a mixture of shock and disbelief merged into one. Her fingertips reached for the clumps of hair that she thought should surely be there atop her head, but were not, feeling only her own scalp. She remained fixated with blankly staring eyes until once again Excelcia questioned her.

"I know this must be hard for you, but Kelly, can you tell us what happened?"

Her mouth quivered, the reporter hanging on her unspoken words and nodding as if that would somehow help them to spill out. But she could only feel a fresh wave of tears roll down as she felt the empty space above her.

"He's gone… g-one."

Kelly had woken up early so she could spend a little extra time studying for her history exam. She was sure she would be able to breeze through the multiple choice questions, but wanted to make sure she could write a good essay that covered all of the major points about Mewni and it's magical technology.

Her hair was messed from her rather tousled sleep. It was hard for her to get comfortable in the night, and she'd tossed and turned, thinking over the coming exam.

She grabbed her rather large hair brush and began to tidy up her aquamarine, moppish-like hair that went down to her ankles, brushing it into bushy softness. As she combed, and combed, and combed, she whisperingly repeated, "What is Mewni?"

She slipped on a pink and white striped sweater that was covered in tiny, glistening rhinestones, jumped into a pair of black shorts, and hurried downstairs for breakfast. As she poured milk into a bowl of sweetened Corn Puff cereal, she opened her notebook and ran her finger over the page.

What is Mewni?

There are many people who call Mewni home. Mewni includes not only the dimension of Mewni, which has easily become the most popular and trafficked dimension among its peers, but also the capital city of the same name, which is counted as the world's shining star.

She spooned in the first crunchy puffs into her mouth, hardly noticing their taste as she browsed through what she'd written during the past couple weeks.

Mewni has often been called a bustling metropolis. The city is massive, with its borders spread far apart. With so much space, one would expect the population to be likewise quite spread out, but that isn't the case as the confines of Mewni's borders are home to everyone.

She turned back a page, then forward, muttering through her food-filled mouth. "Yes, Mewni is huge. I bet it could take an entire day to walk through it all, or down through it all, if anyone wanted to ever do that."

History tells us that in the medieval period of Mewni's development, the world was ruled by many kingdoms…

"Oh boy, I hope I don't have to remember the names of those."

...each with their own sense of nationalism and sovereignty, and spread out across the land. It's hard to say how long ago that may have been, however, as there have been no successful expeditions far past the city walls in recorded history. The land had become shrouded in a hyper-dense cloud of magic radiation that stretched for at least a number of miles in every direction, possibly covering a majority of the planet. Those who have tried to discover land beyond the violet clouds never made it back and officials have declared the practice "too dangerous."

She finished up her bowl of cereal and shut the notebook, tossing it into her furry backpack as she dashed out of the door, which was comprised of her mother's ample reddish hair.

"Bye honey!" the large mass of Woolett hair responded, an arm reaching out to wave.

As Kelly started on the path towards school, her initially frantic pace slackened. The various homes began to intermingle with office buildings, private dwellings converging in with the cityscape, slowly taking them over.

The city had multiple layers. Most of the citizens Kelly knew resided in the topmost section on the city where everything was beautiful, elegant, and modern. Splashed across building facades were plentiful lights and ever-present holographic bulletins displaying the news, latest gossips, or products to buy. Any part of the city currently being renovated was masked by the use of such holograms, or simply covered by beautiful tapestries or potted planters until the work was completed. The city always looked immaculate, and full of vibrant life. There were buildings everywhere, but also a decent helping of greenery to make it all feel natural. There was no place for disrepair or dirt, save for within potted plants.

The city was built high upon itself, using the levels below it to serve as its stacked foundation. Older buildings got over-topped by new ones as steadily the kingdom had risen, the wealthiest staying above while the less-so remained below. One could walk down the multitude of levels; the further one went, however, the more the sky overhead instead became a network of streetways and pillars, and foundationary bases belonging to larger buildings top-side. Everything became darker as natural light was replaced by false lighting, the air more closed and musty. The buildings were left forgotten the further down one went, going ages without seeing mortar to fill gaps or fresh coats of paint, especially to cover up ugly graffiti. The highest echelons of the city blocked the lower portions from view and even mind, as most of the attention was paid completely to the upper portion of Mewni, not the underbelly of it.

But, Kelly had never gone to other levels. The class of citizen she belonged to would never need for such things. Although she wondered about it, it was still beneath her desires to check out.

She started to think more about the test awaiting her later in the day and it weighed down her shoulders until even her feet felt heavy. As she reviewed the notes in her head her mind slowly kept wanting to indulge in more fun, exciting thoughts: that of discovering what adventures might lay beyond the violet clouds at the outer rim of Mewni. The daydream took over her vision as she imagined endless waves of monstrous creatures to fight.

"I'd love to be the first one to discover what was really out past that violet cloud."

"My folks told me it was just against the rules."

Kelly was immediately thrust back into reality. Her boyfriend, Tad, a smaller Woolett a quarter of her height and completely covered in hair, leapt up onto the top of her head. He perched there, his own hair color merging in with Kelly's, looking like just an extension of her.

"Hey, babe."

"Tad, don't sneak up on me like that!"

"Mellow out, Kell. I wasn't even tryin' to get the jump on you. You were just, like, in your own world. What were you thinkin' about?"

"We do have a pretty major history test today, Tad. You do remember, right? You studied?"

"How hard can it be?"

Kelly sighed and rolled her eyes. She could almost hear the smile coming from his voice. "You can't expect to just ace the test without studying. I've been racking my brain trying to make sure I will remember everything, especially for the essay part."

"You get way too stressed out if you think about it too much," he said as he reclined, getting comfortable atop her head. "Hey, I heard what you said about the violet clouds. Wanna find out some day? Are there scary monsters out there?"

"No, Tad, of course not, we have plenty of scary-looking monsters inside the city, and they're totally allowed to be here."

"I meant outside the city limits. Look, I'm just saying I don't know what there is to be afraid of out there besides getting in trouble with-"

"Off limits, under authority of the crown, pppft. Please."

"I know, right?"

It wasn't long before the two teens had arrived at the front of Paragon Academy. The building had a vaulted front exterior, covered in glass and held up by multiple marble pillars. Every facet of it was clean-cut and angled, looking like an architectural marvel. The ground floor of the building was hewn from white stone while the two upper floors were made of sandstone-like clay, bathed with sunset colors.

Kelly headed into the building along with several other classmates. She tried to squeeze past a locker and some classmates and wound up bumping into someone. When she turned to excuse herself, she found herself having to look up, and pretty far up. She had run into a tall, large-armed adult who was part of a trio wearing full blue jumpsuits. They seemed somewhat oddly out of place among the halls and students, but she figured they were probably just janitors.

"Excuse me," she said.

The clean-shaven man stared down at her with eyes steadily widening, as if he'd been quite taken by surprise and seeing something amazing before him.

She bent slightly to pick up her notebook which she'd dropped. The man was quick to snap it up before she could. It was ridiculous how fast he moved to make sure his huge hand reached it before her more slender one.

"Uhm, you dropped?" he questioned, despite the obvious answer.

"Yes, thank you."

Kelly went to take the book from his hand but found his grip to be vice-like. She pulled gently but continued to meet with resistance. When the man seemed unable to let go she looked back up at him. His eyes had been on her the whole time and only her glance broke him out of his trance, when her eyes met his own.

"Sorry," he said, his cheeks flushing red. "Your book?"

"Yes, may I have it now, please?"

"The book… uhm, yes, it's yours!" He stumbled on his own tongue.

"Yo, Kell, this dude don't seem right," Tad whispered.

"Shhh," she hushed between her teeth, trying to maintain a polite smile that was lingering far too long on her face. She pulled the book harder and finally the man released it.

"I'm sorry," he said, wiping his brow and trying to find some kind of words to fill the moment that was making his heart race. "Kobi." He extended his hand her way.

Kelly chuckled loosely and took his hand to shake.

"Kelly. And hey, thanks for picking it up. Sorry I bumped into you."

"No trouble," he smiled. "I like Kelly. I-I mean!" he bungled over his words again while trying rapidly to recover, scratching his head. "I like to meet you. T-that is-I mean, good to see your p-pretty face. Uh-I-uh!"

One of the similarly dressed men broke into their conversation. He was far older, wearing small round spectacles on the bridge of his nose which sat atop a thin, rather well-shaped mustache that spiked out on the sides.

"We don't mean to be any trouble, he means to say, miss. Sorry we got in your way."

Kelly shrugged her shoulders and slipped the notebook over her shoulder and into her backpack. "Not a problem," she said as she finally saw her exit and headed away towards the cafeteria.

"Dude was creepin' my vibes, man, lookin' at you that way."

"Oh Tad, stop being so jelly."

The big fellow was tall enough that he stood over most adults, and well over the students. He couldn't help but let his eyes track the aqua mass of hair until he couldn't tell Kelly apart from anyone else anymore, losing her as she and Tad vanished in the ever growing crowd of students.

The man's partner tapped his elbow. "Let's go, Kobi. We don't have time to linger."

They went in another direction, the expression on Kobi's face like someone stole away his happiness. The third member of the blue-suited party smacked him on the back of his head.

"The hell you doing?!" he cussed in the loudest whisper he could muster.

The trio rounded a corner while Kelly and Tad continued on into the cafe, taking a seat at one of the tables.

Kelly knew she'd be able to get in a last few tidbits of studying before history class began. She was relieved that she didn't have to wait until later in the day for the test, as her nerves were already getting the better of her. Even so, she wanted to cram in all the information she could before any of it could seep out of her brain.

Tad knocked on her forehead. "Hey, wanna go hit up that new club 'The Bounce Lounge' tonight after school?"

The pair of teens looked around. The school cafeteria was packing with energetic Mewman teens. Some were eating, others were chatting, and many more had their heads buried in books. Something about the atmosphere seemed naturally distracting. Kelly pinched the bridge of her nose and took a sharp breath before continuing.

"How you can even think about that right now is beyond me. I'm worrying about getting a good grade describing the aethertech of Mewni, and you're worrying about the best place to party."

Tad smirked within his locks. "Don't hush my groove, Kell. I have an easy solution to the essay section."

"Oh yeah?" Kelly doubtingly questioned. "What's that?"

"Why not talk about the alternative technologies? You know, the kind that the poorer Mewmans use? Bet nobody's gonna cover that. Automatic 'A' just for the topic."

"The essay portion isn't supposed to be a heavy opinion piece. I'm planning to try and write a mostly historical account, and you're supposed to be giving me a springboard, not conspiracy theories."

"Come on, K, history is all about opinions! Your paper will be too boring without some seasoning, you feel me?"

"That's not even - ahhh," she replied. "Look, just help me get my thoughts together for right now. I need to ace this history paper, and I have a lot of other things to do this week."

"Alright, whatever, but you're getting us some pizza later. What's next?"

They looked back down at the notebook Kelly had flopped open on the table.

Despite Mewni's predicament as a dense, mononational cityscape, the city-state has found its way forward and thrived on the backs of its brilliant minds and hardworking populace. In a land where magic has always been pervasive, the greatest challenge of Mewni's ancestry was in discovering a means by which to take magic beyond its known limits.

The forefathers of a once medieval world would discover a means to convert magic from its aetherial essence into a more tangible fuel source. The discovery of this process, coined "aetherial manipulation" offered a seemingly limitless source of sustainable energy by which innovative creations could be powered. Lights that didn't need to burn a candle wick were invented, factories that could handle the production of crops, the sanitation of water, and the distribution of such resources were now possible. High speed travel and communication had become all the more accessible for the average citizen where such luxuries had often been afforded to only royalty and noblemen. This, of course, included an impressive array of weaponry which could manipulate heavily dense magic particles to produce heat, cold, and a slew of other well known combative elements. All of these incredible advances occurred in rapid succession and would come to characterize a period known as "The Aetherotechnical Revolution".

"Wow, you wrote everything the professor said down? Snooze-fest. Ya lost me at 'forefathers'."

Kelly's finger continued down the page as she mumbled the words, a bit miffed.

After experiencing a century-long 'golden age', Mewni had come to stand at the forefront of inter-dimensional society, having carved out a place for itself as a magical hub that was vastly ahead of its time. But if the discovery of aetherotechnology ushered in Mewni's golden age, the realization of its ultimate limitations would serve to conclude it.

Tad yawned, and Kelly persisted, louder and more angrily, trying to both get Tad to listen so something might sink in, but also to further emboss it into her own mind so she could translate it later during the exam.

Nobody had suspected that the magic energy surrounding the Mewni dimension would wane. It was always rather apparent that magic was truly a renewable resource, one that resurfaced as quickly as it was spent. Such beliefs were hard to combat, as a great deal of research had gone into determining whether their dependence on aetherotechnology would lead to a depletion of the resource. It was even more evident given that the clouds surrounding Mewni never weakened, never changed, never so much as moved. But after over a hundred years, studies were finally beginning to observe changes. It started with reports coming from other dimensions. A gradual decrease in magic had become apparent. In spite of this, Mewni's own resources initially continued to show no signs of decay, but eventually it too began to show that it was ever-so-slightly thinning out.

"Jeez, this is so boring. I thought you wanted to impress the teacher, not put them to sleep."

"History papers are never supposed to be entertaining, Tad. If you could get that through your fluffy skull then maybe I could actually get some more useful comments out of you."

"It's still too snoresville if you ask me."

"Well, oh great history expert, what would you write about after all of this in a history paper?"

"Obviously I'd talk about all of the cool technology we came up with, like ships and laser beams and stuff. Oh, and what about the hoverboard and hovercars?"

"That's getting too off-topic, dude. I need to talk history, not just cool stuff."

"You could totally still work in the limited resource tech. Just mention some of the crazy stuff we know people had tried, like, in the past."

"You know what, maybe that's not such a bad idea after all, as long as it's based on historical facts and not here-say. You actually are using your head for a change."

"That's all I've got, babe."

She rolled her eyes at him yet again before continuing past a couple more pages of notes. It took her a minute to find the paragraph she was looking for. The cafeteria had filled and it was steadily becoming louder; the din beginning to break her concentration.

"Here it is. I know the professor had mentioned something about "alternatives" to aether-tech., but we didn't spend much time on it."

With magic energy not as endlessly bountiful as it was once known to be, it was no surprise that restrictions would begin to fall upon the use of aethertech and the supply and demand of magic overall. Access to these resources has become more expensive, especially in recent decades, and though it wouldn't put too much of a dent in the average citizen's wallet, there are those in Mewni who have called the resource 'unaffordable' and many have claimed that less-wealthy individuals who don't use aetherotechnology as much as the average citizen have sought to create bootleg forms of technology that seek to rely on a resource mostly or wholly separate from magic.

These attempts have likely been all but successful, with the glaring problem that alternative sources of energy are unstable and inefficient at best while completely unusable at worst. Furthermore, attempts to integrated other types of energy with magic have proven not only unsuccessful, but dangerous. Magic is a pure substance, and using it in conjunction with more 'worldly' elements have the potential to be hazardous, and possibly catastrophic.

As such, officials have outlawed the practice of citizens creating their own aetherotechnology and especially obtaining magic energy for the purposes of integrating it with alternative forms of energy. These experiments are regarded as "simply too dangerous" and, as such, production is to be approved and mandated by the crown only. It is a wonder if people truly are still attempting to make alternative forms of technology with such harsh restrictions in place.

"Honestly, babe, that is super wordy. You better make, like, a short easy version for the essay."

"We're gonna be writing for a history paper, it is supposed to be super wordy."

"Do you really think the teacher wants to read something like this though, if you make the essay out to be this long, drawn out thing? I can't even get through the first few sentences without starting to doze off, and I'm totally down with hearing about dangerous things."

"They are specifically looking for this kind of stuff. I'm not writing a novel, it's history and social commentary. Seriously, and you wonder why your grades suffer…"

"C'mon, I'm pretty good at math you know."

"Look, my brain is almost done soaking in as much as it can handle, just bare with me for a little longer."

"What's next, the history of museums and fast food?"

"Sort of, yeah."

"Wait, what?"

"Shhh."

The pace of technological advancement in society has left culture shifting around it. At first, technology was designed to create more efficient processes so as to allow for more free time amongst the hardest working members of the population, but it soon shifted to convenience for everyone as society began to fathom just how much potential aetherotechnology had to offer. It can power factories and cars, but it can also project videos, cook food in new ways, and even be used to heat pools or create toys and thrill-rides.

People have a lot more free time now, and the question of the culture these days is not just what we can do with our time, but what we truly want to do with it. Big shopping centers with beautiful lights and live music festivals have become the norm, and the world has seemed increasingly more creative with professional and personal endeavors. Surely with a world that becomes increasingly more advanced, and a society that finds themselves free to be themselves and tackle unique life ventures, Mewni is bound to change even further for the better. Citizens will tackle the question of how to make the most of life instead of continuing to ask the question of how to make a living at all.

Kelly leaned back on the table bench. "I think if I write all of this, in this order, it should be cohesive enough, at least if I can make it as much as my notes as possible. It covers all of the bases. Mewni really is an amazing place when you take in how it all came to be."

Tad's eyes peeked through his hair to look over the notes for a second glance, this time more thoughtfully.

"Hmm, that is actually pretty cool. I wouldn't want to work in a factory myself, but it makes you appreciate those that bring it all to life, you know? And, just like, imagine a life without magic and having to find some other way to do everything. Like, how would we even light up all of Mewni with just candles? We'd hardly get around if we had to still use carriages pulled by unicorns or something. Technology kind of rules, doesn't it Kelly?"

The girl just smirked a little up at him as she saw his eyes light up for a brief moment of awakening.

"I think you're right. It has really helped make the world a better pla-"

BOOOoooooom

The whole room froze in shock as they heard the resounding of an explosion coming from somewhere not far off, surely inside the school building, the floor shaking slightly beneath their feet. Within an instant the lights cut out throughout the room. There weren't any windows in the cafeteria, so the power outage had all but left people groping about toward the hallway, seeking a light source. At first it was quiet; the explosion had stolen everyone's voices. When there was no noise to follow up the initial boom, however, people began to whisper to one another. The muttering gave way to light chatter which, in turn, gave way to a cacophony of panicked voices crowding around the exits toward the hallways.

"C'mon, Kelly, let's go this way." Tad pulled at the girl's arm and led her toward a hallway around the backside of the cafeteria, squeezing past tables and around other hesitant students who lined the walls of the room.

The two found their way through to the back hallway. There were significantly less people, allowing the two to proceed with relative ease. Nothing about the experience became any more 'pleasant' as the two continued, moving through a quiet, pitch black hallway. Each step began to feel like a pace taken away from the school they knew and into the corridors of a haunted, abandoned building.

Occasional echoing clangs and slams could be heard coming from behind, surely the sounds of those who refused to leave the cafeteria. They turned a corner, welcomed by a glint of daylight at the other end of the hallway. This path would shoot them out near the front entrance, back by where the front end of the lunchroom led.

"Should we really be going that way, Tad? We don't know what caused that explosion."

"There aren't any better ways around. It's way too dark back here. Let's just take a peek and see if it's safe."

They both nodded affirmatively to each other before starting to move again. They crept along at first, picking up the pace with each step and impatiently pushing themselves to go faster. At last, they could see each other again. Light from the outside had filtered in enough to fill their surroundings with a little bit of dim color though dust was in the air. Sure enough, more voices could be heard, some of the chatter becoming more distinct as people came into view; Tad and Kelly had reached the school lobby. For whatever reason, there were still people crowding around and obscuring the view, refusing to budge. It was as if the whole lot of them were watching a show.

Finally, they made it close enough to take in the whole of their surroundings. The entrance to the school had been severely damaged; it was likely the blast zone of whatever they had heard a few minutes ago. Black marks lined the walls, chunks of stone and plaster from the walls and shards of shattered glass from window panes were strewn about all over the floor, light fixtures were destroyed, littered about in no particular fashion. Above all else, there was one detail that drew everyone's attention.

In the center of the room was a large, black goo-like substance clumped up in the center of the room. The muck was fairly large, altogether possessing the mass of at least one full-grown Mewman adult. The pile of goo was pulsing and seemed to be moving. The pitch-black slime flowed over itself and back around, seemingly making an effort to hold some degree of consistency. But it inched along ever so slightly, behaving as though it were simply testing the waters of a foreign environment.

What had seemed like more than a minute-long stalemate was broken when someone began to walk toward the door and the goo in hopes of going around it. Nerves had possessed one student who couldn't bear the scene any longer and simply wished to reach the exit. It proved to be a fatal mistake.

Suddenly the black substance dramatically increased the pace of its flow, moving into itself as though it were a container full of boiling water, circulating across a convection current. The substance rose into a narrow pillar and curled forward, looking like an aggressive and agitated serpent. The very next instant, a chunk of the black goo shot out of the pillar directly toward the teen who had stepped out of line. The substance landed on his face with a splash. Everyone else jolted backwards a few steps, spooked but uncertain about what was happening. Tad and Kelly followed suit, but looked on with trepidation. A knot was beginning to form in their throats as they felt a sense of dread creeping into them.

The target of the black goo put his hands up in panic and began trying to wipe the goo off of his face, emitting muffled gasps as the goo covered his mouth and began to move. His hands tore and clawed at the slime desperately, but his efforts were futile. The goo simply flowed through the gaps between his fingers, pulsating and flowing around itself along his head. It began to flatten across his face as it spread out further, spinning and winding at high speeds until it found the right orifices. The goo covered his eyes, nose, ears, mouth, and began flowing into each.

His attempts to grab at the strange substance had stopped, and now, reflexively, the victim began to press his hands violently against the sides of his head. Though they remained muffled, the sounds of desperation and fear had gone and were replaced simply by screeching yelps of pain. He fell to his knees and clutched at his temple, wailing in stifled agony as the black substance flowed violently through his sinuses, optic nerves, and ear canals, cycling in and out as it seemed to be probing the boy's brain.

After a few more moments the movement stopped, and the student's body fell to the ground, limp. The goo moved out of and off of him, leaving behind a still body. He was certainly unconscious, and perhaps worse. There was no way to determine if the poor boy was even alive.

Screams of panic echoed from the crowd as people witnessed a scene out of some sort of horror movie, and people rightly assumed the worst. Now that the initial target of the goo had gone still, the substance began to pulse and course back into itself once again. Two separate blobs were now manifest with the one that had attacked their fellow student now practically doubled in size.

Desensitized to the helplessness of their captees, the goo began to race forward. Swirling around and sliding along, the substance set its sights on more of the students. They shrieked and began to push against one another in hopes of moving away from the substance. Their efforts only riled up their attackers even more.

The goo began to form up into pillars and shoot out, separating into smaller units and beginning to latch themselves onto the frantic Mewmans who clumped up the back of the lobby. Chaos ensued as people pushed, tripped, and fell about trying to escape, going any which way they could. Some tried to move around the goo while it was busy with their peers, others sought sanctuary in the lunchroom, where they could potentially hull themselves up, and others retreated down the halls from whence they came.

Kelly, too, violently grabbed Tad's hands, his own four grabbing hers, and they took off back down the dark hallway that had spit them out into the lobby.

"We need to go, Tad!"

"But where do we go?"

"WE JUST NEED TO GO!"

Kelly wanted to pick a direction as much away from the goo as fellow classmates.

"Can we make it to the gym?" Tad offered.

Kelly didn't have to be coached further. She looked around to try and get her bearings in the near darkness, heading away from the lobby, back through the panicking students in the hallways, and down another corridor that led to the gymnasium.

It was no easy task once in the hallway, outside of the range of any windows providing natural light through the dusty air. They had to slow down almost to a walking pace, Kelly releasing Tad's hands so that she could feel her way along the lockers that lined down the hall. Her fingers stroked over the smooth doors and locks, her touch becoming her new eyes. Without the majority of her vision it seemed like the hallway might go on for an eternity, her hands touching locker after locker without end. It was a wholly different experience, and one that only compounded the terror rushing the blood through her veins. Her feet wanted to run, but she could only manage so much with her lack of sight.

It had even grown more quiet the further away from the lobby they got. She hadn't noticed it immediately, but her remaining senses were being forced to take over. Few students were following behind her along the locker-wall. She could only really hear someone else tapping against the locks as she had done, at least several meters behind.

"I can't see anything in here, Kell."

"It's not that much farther. We should be able to use the exit from the gym once we get there."

"I sure hope so," he coughed. "Yo, someone is following us."

"I'm sure it's just others trying to get to the gym too."

"Yeah, but they aren't sayin' anything."

She paused for a moment to listen. She heard the clacking of the locks against the metallic lockers, the sound getting closer.

"Almost to the gym!" she called out over her shoulder to whoever was behind her. There was no response, just the knocking locks picking up the pace.

Kelly's heart skipped a beat as her breath caught in her throat.

"Go Kelly, GO!" Tad yelled.

After what felt like a warehouse full of lockers, Kelly's fingers finally felt the long flattened bar that signaled the large doorway into the gymnasium. Just a push away and their escape could be secured. The rush of endorphins made her dizzy, her hands pushing down hard against the handle. The door gave way to painfully bright light as it opened, the lights of the gymnasium still somehow remaining on against the odds.

Just at that moment one of the tendrils of blackened sludge shot their way behind their backs, right before Kelly could set foot towards freedom. It had been stalking them, oozing over the residual heat of her touch against the metal. It slammed hard into the back of Tad's head, instantly knocking him from Kelly's own. He went sailing straight forward and onto the floor.

"TAD!"

She reached for one of his hands but the goo was beginning to envelop him, sinking down through his unruly hair. She impulsively wanted to grab him, but her self preservation won out, seeing the goo covering him in seconds like a wave, drowning him beneath his mop-top of hair.

He convulsed as he fought against it, his multiple hands ripping at the blob hopelessly.

Kelly could only look on, frozen in terror, reliving the moments she had only just witnessed happening to some other kid, except this time it was her boyfriend contorting in agony, screaming out in gurgling pain until he became silenced.

More teens had staggered down the locker hallway after seeing the light source. They pressed in hard behind her, starting to push her closer to Tad's body and the goo in their frenzied escape. She wanted to stay, wanted to hold Tad, to wake him up, but she couldn't move forward for fear of the ooze, leaning back into the students that were bumping against her. The room was filling with smoke, slowly choking away her meager sight of Tad and the air around her lungs.

A moment of clarity overcame her senses as pure instinct took over; she tore her eyes away from Tad's lifeless shape and moved along with the crowd, disappearing down the hall, turning another corner and vanishing into the darkness as they all moved toward another wing of the school.

Much later that afternoon, the school building was practically visible all over the city. It was plastered on hover screens in the plazas, along animated billboards, and on every television channel with round-the-clock coverage. They played and replayed the same scenes of students fleeing for their lives, being embraced by crying parents, over and over, along with footage of parents that couldn't find their children in all of the chaos, completely lost within disoriented emotion. Reporters were buzzing about the facility that had long since been on lockdown by the Royal Task Force. Images of the school were on screens everywhere with crowds of civilians, reporters, and officials alike milling about the city and arguing with one another as they watched everything unfolding.

A black-haired reporter, now one of the main faces covering the crisis, went up on the main screen of the pavilion facing the eagerly watching audience. A new report was going live.

"We have now learned that a mysterious, bio-engineered creation had been deployed following an explosion at one of Mewni's private higher-learning preparatory institutions, which began to drastically multiply as it assaulted students, staff, and faculty early this morning. The only good fortunate in all of this terror was that the explosion itself had alerted the authorities quickly enough. Within less than an hour the Task Force had forced their way into the school and attempted to fight back against the creature-like blobs. Though their weapons and tools were essentially useless against the biological makeup of the goo, they had finally managed to contain it by erecting aetherotech barriers along the walls in order to steer it back and box it all in the lunchroom."

"Yes, well done! That substance hunted down the remaining people within and none could escape!" one man griped.

"At least whatever that thing was didn't get out into the public!" another barked in response.

"It should have been handled better," a stranger piped up.

Another voice shouted over the others. "Quiet! All of you, listen!"

The reporter was still continuing.

"There were a number of casualties. Eye witness reports from those who had survived, both civilian and members of the Task Force, detailed some of what had happened before everything could be contained."

An image of a student with bright orange, braided hair faced the camera as the reporter turned the focus onto her. The girl's voice was extremely high pitched.

"Those that got latched onto by the ooze thing were stuck inside the quarantine zone until… until there were none left standing. It kept attacking. Some people climbed tables, others tried to hide in the lockers. We just ran and ran, and we - every way we could we just ran."

Her voice quickened, her eyes quickly tearing as her voice cracked. The memory of the event started to flood out of her lips with her wild train of thought.

"An-and then there was this one person we could see moving around inside the room, and - and he had taken off into the kitchen. He was really short, kinda small, could only really see his hair, and he disappeared behind the double doors. Maybe he was looking for another way out but he was still carrying some of the black goo on him."

The television screen suddenly cut to an image of a police officer behind a podium. He talked over the eyewitness, his badge revealing his status as lieutenant.

"We are still trying to ascertain the victim's name and unfortunately, based on the evidence, it is clear that this student probably died from injuries sustained. I want to make it absolutely clear that they would still be within the quarantine zone. We have not been informed if the body has been recovered as of yet, however."

What the reporters and police all failed to address was that the slime ended the attack on its own, and not due to the Task Force which took all of the credit for saving the day. The goo had run out of conscious, moving Mewmans to pursue, and eventually all of it began coming back together within the confines of the barrier the task force had set up. The separate globs of it proceeded to move around and over the debris and people lying around them as if they were no longer even cognitive of their existence, forming back into one massive clump of merged goo. All of it had apparently collected itself together, although neither the last victim nor the goo on that particular victim's head had ever returned from behind the doors to the kitchen. Once the blobs were whole, the excited, rapid movements had declined until the goo had simply stopped moving completely and sort of just 'died'.

Official statements about the substance remained inconclusive, the topic avoided in interviews. All attempts were made to cover up the sheer scale of the situation. Hours after the event was over, the royal scientists had managed to determine that the substance had indeed succumbed to an inanimate state, safe to remove from the building. Efforts to study the residual matter had confounded everyone. There was no special hazardous substance left at all. It was simply a brittle clump of dust and ash. It was as if the substance was a burned log or some pulverized gravel that lay dormant. Not a trace of the dangerous material had remained.

"Further reports have sadly confirmed that all of the victims of the strange goo are, in fact, deceased," the reporter went on. "Biopsies revealed no trauma to cells or tissues within the body. The only notable change was to the victims' body chemistry: that of a complete absence of mitochondria within the body's neurons. According to the coroner, all brain activity had simply ceased, and the lack of energy flowing through the nervous system lead to a full body shut down. Effectually, their lives had been sucked out of their heads. What a horrific tragedy. This has been Excelsia reporting, GMM news."

What concerned the citizens the most was that the attack, and subsequent biological weapon, simply came out of nowhere. Information was in short, distilled supply, and people felt unsafe.

It wasn't long before more official statements had been made, claiming that security would be tightened around the city, and that there would be no cause for alarm despite the increase in police activity. As convincing as the official statements were, the events of the day would leave Mewni in a stir for some amount of time while repairs, reparations, and further research was being conducted.

Life went on in Mewni, as it must, but the paranoia and repetitive images of trauma would follow every person who bore witness to the events of that day, wondering what could have caused it all, and wondering what the future of their home may possibly look like.

Once the cameras had all cut and the mics all turned off, the lieutenant that had stood at the podium for the live press conference quickly dismissed himself. He brushed aside anyone trying to fish for more answers and refused to take further questions, especially from the excessively nosey, sidling reporter Excelcia, which he couldn't stand. He tagged two officers to follow along with him as he passed through the crowd control restraint beams, away from all prying eyes and ears.

He had brought the two men into the school with him. They had restored enough power that they could get a clear view of the school's interior, and after what he'd heard the orange-haired teenager say, he wanted to follow up on it quietly.

"Through the kitchen she said," the lieutenant states with determined force.

The three officers began to survey the scene. Stoves, refrigeration units, and cabinets all were opened. They moved appliances around. Pots and pans were scattered all around where students scrambled to escape through the darkness, but other than that everything was mostly in order, without a sign of any leftover blob material.

"Over here!" one of them called out. "Behind here."

At the very back of the kitchen and behind the massive dish-washing unit was a hole broken through the floor. It was rather small, but big enough for an average-built Mewman to possibly fit through, and then some.

The lieutenant leaned over the hole, pulled a thin pen-like object from his pocket, and clicked on button at its tip. Instantly a sharp day-glow light illuminated around it even brighter than the lights already shining in the room. He lowered it partially into the hole.

"Hmmm."

"What is it, lieutenant?"

"Here, hold onto this a second." He passed the light stick over and reached into a drop-leg holster attached to his leg, fishing out a matchbox-sized scanner.

"I only see a lot of… uuugh, rotten food down here?"

"Appears that way, doesn't it?" his superior said, switching on the device he held. It cast out a flat, wide beam of light as it scanned over the surrounding surfaces. He moved it slowly over and around the hole, slightly within it, then back up, until it revealed a strange marking. The symbol had a neon-like ethereal glow caused by the scanner's beam, making it give off its own light like purple fire.

A cold, grave demeanor took over the lieutenant's countenance. He promptly turned off the scanner and stood back up.

"What is it," his companion asked while handing him back his light stick.

The commanding officer didn't waste time explaining, shooting him a severe glance and pointing at the hole.

"The kitchen staff obviously found this little nook and were dumping leftovers down here out of laziness. Seal it up, and speak of this to noone."

"But sir, it's just food contaminants? Nothing to be worri-"

His curt retort ran over his sentence, snapping back with all seriousness. "That's an order! And see to it that it gets done immediately. The kitchen of off limits until this gets handled, understand?"

The two officers looked at each other curiously but nodded in agreement.

Chapter 1 was written by KuriyanBBQ and SledgePainter.