SVTFOE: Forged Together

	Marco eagerly walked towards Jackie's house. While they weren't officialy a couple, that wasn't going to stop him from showing her the best Valentine's Day ever; now hopefully he doesn't ruin his fancy suit in this heat. In hindsight he probably should have used his fancy new dimensional scissors to just portal his way to her house, but after the field trip debacle and black hole incident he didn't want to freak her out with more magic, least not so quickly.

Marco arrived at her house, and adjusted his suit and tie at the front door. He rattled the chocolate box he bought to make sure the chocolates hadn't melted, and shook the boquet of roses to scare off any bee's. One of the first tips Marco's father ever gave him about dating, was that girls don't like being stung by bee's, as it can affect their menstrual cycle and in turn cause major damage to the local ecosystem.  Marco rung the doorbell, and after a few seconds Jackie opened the door, she had her phone in her hand. It looked like she was calling someone.

"Happy Val-"

"MARCO WHY HAVEN'T YOU ANSWERED YOUR PHONE?!" Jackie said, clearly in distress.

Marco, knew exactly why. Star took it so she could keep playing some stupid mobile castle building game, he said no at first but when Star gets persistent she starts to wear him down. Star has a magical pocket mirror that can dial other worlds, and yet it's not Android compatible.

"Star took it. The last time I saw her she was heading out the door, she and Janna are spending the day together. She had a shovel in one hand, and a crowbar in the other, and that must have been almost two hours ago." Marco explained, giving her the short version.

Jackie shook her head. "Ok, ok...I was really banking on not making this awkward..."

"W-What's wrong?" Marco asked.

Jackie explained to him, that earlier her mother got a call. Her grandpa had a minor stroke, and now her mother is taking the whole family down to San Diego to be with him. This meant that obviously whatever plans they had were now off, but Marco was just happy it wasn't anything too serious.

"So yeah, he'll be ok but mom says will probably have to spend a day or two over there, and she doesn't want to leave me home alone." She went on.  "I know you probably went through a lot of trouble just for me, and I think it's super sweet."

Marco gave her a supportive hug, and handed over the flowers and chocolate. Jackie, in return gave him a peck on the cheek as well as his present; the Mackie Hand Collection on blu-ray complete with commentary by Mackie Hand's hair stylist. Marco thanked her, and decided to leave so she could pack her bags in peace.

"As soon as I get back, I'll make this up to you I swear."

"It's ok Jackie, I get it. And besides I'll be fine, honest." Marco replied.

At home, Marco was not fine. He had always dreamed about his ideal Valentines Day with Jackie and now that dream was dead. Worse, not only is Jackie gone, his friends and seemed to have abandoned him as well. Star didn't even bother to ask if they would hang out later, she just assumed Marco was going to be busy; his parents had planned a romantic getaway and wouldn't be back home till later that night, and hell even the laser puppies got a playdate with the cat's down the street..and finally that left Ferg and Alphonso. Around this time of year, they go to the gym; not to exercise mind you but to oggle all the women that do yoga in tight sweatpants. Marco sunk into his sofa and watched TV, watching his Mackie hand blu-ray alone would probably make him even more depressed.

"Happy Valentine's to me" He mumbled to himself as he channel surfed. He reached for the plate of nacho's that he placed on his gut. Stuffing his face full of genetically grown cheese based food helped ease the pain.

"Are you alone on Valentine's?" the voice of an announcer from a tv commercial asked.

"Yep" Marco replied.

"Feel empty and forgotten?"

"If my wi-fi goes down, then yeah" Marco mumbled.

"Do you have dreams, and now realize you'll never achieve them?"

"Dude at this point I'll settle for finding a used Dreamcast." Marco answered before chugging some Kool-Aide.

"Do you like the color red, because you think it makes you look cool?"

"TV...you know me well."

"Is your name Marco Diaz?"

Marco spat out his kool aide. "Ok...maybe TV knows me a bit too well. What is this?"

"Well then the answer for a better life is simple.. just kill yourself. No one was every going to buy your story that you have a hot girlfriend for Valentines you loser!"

Marco stared at the TV with his jaw on the floor.

"This message has been brought to you by Jeremy Birnbaum, for the Marco Diaz is a loser and probably watching TV all day, while touching himself foundation."

Marco swore so loud he shattered every window withing a three block radius. After a few minutes, he regained his composure and promised himself that he will not kill Jeremy, no...that be too easy. What Marco will think off will make the torturer's back at Star's castle blush, but until then the little maggot better enjoy his freedom. After closing the blinds on all the windows so his parent's don't see the cracks he settled back to his spot on the couch.

"I'm not a loser...I'm not alone, this was just bad timing," Marco told himself.

A commercial for a local Indian casino come on tv, and the place looked incredibly fun.

"Oh cool, they even got an American Ninja Warrior obstacle course. That be sweet to run." Marco thought.

"Must be 21 years of age or older for admission." The announcer said.

"Oh well, only seven more lonely valentine's and I can do that." Marco mumbled to himself.

"And to think, that deep down I feel like I'm still th-Marco stopped mid sentence. Marco reached into his pocket and pulled out his dimensional scissors. "..irty year's old."

He looked at his face in the blade's reflection, on one blade it was himself, and on the other...the fearsome lone mercenary he had become.

"...Should I?" Marco asked himself. Memories started to flood back into his mind, sixteen years worth of memories to be exact.

"Nacho's.." Marco whispered. "I bet your lonely today too.."

Marco touched the back of his head. The hair on the spot where he had received the Mark of Hekapoo had since grown back. Marco looked at the scissors then back at the TV where Jeremy's commercial started playing again.

"Screw it. Not gonna sit here all day and do nothing...not like anyone will know I'm gone anyways."

Marco ran upstairs, dove into his closet and pulled out a shoebox from underneath a floorboard. Inside was his mercenary outfit, and a photo of him, Nacho's and Hekapoo's left horn.

"She never did figure out how to set the camera's timer" Marco said smiling.

Marco looked around his room one more time, as he put on his outfit.

Marco then cut a red portal to Hekapoo's forge world.

 "Alright, time for Marco Diaz to have some fun."