run:gifocalypse
Chapter 4: Getting Grand
Beginning AN:
Well, this is the first chapter update since the finale of Gravity Falls. And hopefully it won't be the last. During the marathon leading up to this I of course watched the last showing of "Soos and the Real Girl" and .GIFfany was even creepier than I remembered. Good. I also saw most of "Sock Opera" but that's completely irrelevant to this storyline.
About the force field. Turns out (I don't really think this is any kind of spoiler since the exact reason for the barrier isn't that plot-critical) that the town had some kind of natural confining of weirdness. Assuming that all supernatural objects like the game copies would be bounded by this (since we've seen gnomes and other creatures get through the similar unicorn barrier) and not just Bill's interdimensional stuff... either way, I guess if I wanted to, I could change my mind and say that the barrier does still exist in RG's world, just that either the AIs aren't affected by it (on one hand, at least one copy presumably made it from Japan to the town, on the other hand, these have been juiced up with some kind of black magic) or that while making the Wires they accidentally used the equation that ended up dispelling the barrier. But it's not that plot-important so it really doesn't matter.
That aside, I hope you like what's more-or-less the actual start of these "baddie of the given chapter"-type encounters, without any gimmicks like a nonviolent professor or dealing with two professors at once.
By the way, if you're dieing to find out what the hairstyles of Rose, Kathody, and Burnda look like, I went over and changed the second and third chapters to describe them. It's a very minor edit - I only plan on doing very minor edits to chapters that are already out when it comes to this and any other future non-SBIG works - but it's there.
I'm once again working on the next chapter as I was finishing this one up, so by the time you're reading this, chapter 5 should be a decent way into its progress.
Considering the underwhelming middle of the Sahara Desert, followed by out in the ocean of the Bermuda Triangle, the gang's next stop being something that was worth sight seeing and not just an endless sea of sand or water was surprising.
The orange Wire dumped the group off in a large rise out in the rocky cliffs of none other than the Grand Canyon. Mabel already scowled at this.
"I... I don't know why... but I feel like we're just gonna keep coming back here over and over again?"
Finding the next band of AIs wasn't that hard. There was no massive manor or fort under the sea... just a group. Standing around right there. Nothing even remotely resembling a building to call home, unless you counted what looked like a number of sleeping bags lying out.
Well, standing wasn't an accurate way to describe it. A number of them seemed to be spinning in place, tossing flower petals around the air. Others lied down, either asleep or to apparently make some sort of prayer. At least one group of five threw a bunch of colored paint to try to form a lightning bolt-shape. Some of them wearing attire similar to Rose's group of plants and vines. Others wore what looked like hardened mud, forming all-too tight 'suits' of sorts. Everyone here wore some kind of artifact of nature instead of regular clothes. Well, not everyone. Al least one was skipping around completely nude in the distance. The apparent professor in all of this was one of the group that chose mud for her attire, something Dipper noted based on A: Her hair color (her hair itself, by the way, was jagged and messy even by Kathody's standards, looking like a very loose rock formation. She held some kind of crystal-looking object in her hair, just like the other previous professors. Her skin looked considerably pale by AI standards) matching the Wire and card, and B: the fact that she was coming right towards them.
"Hey dudes, what's up? Was our fuller Wire system made? Are you, like, testing things out? I'm Professor Sandy, nice to meet you!"
"Okay, it's official." Dipper stated flatly. ".GIFfany's just embarassing herself at this point."
".GIFfany? Oh, like, you mean the Lightning Goddess? Yeah, she's been around... talking to people! Coming into dreams... well, not really. But, wow man, I can see her a lot. These are our worshipping grounds! We grow stuff in tribute... oh, that's our Bottle Group right there, trying to capture a message from her. They'll have to wait until the clouds come in."
Sandy pointed to yet another isolated group. Wearing what could be described as dresses made of glass (complete with the same transparency) was a band of around a dozen following AIs, all staring at sets of glass bottles.
"They haven't had much luck at it..."
"Are you gonna be nice to us and can we just take the next card?" Soos asked.
"Oh, right! I almost forgot about two things. There's the cards now, and... hold on. The Lightning Godness told us to, like, take these certain people and keep them captive, for like a 'contest?' And if our group won, we'd get some sweet buffs on her side and join her in the Heavens? She ordered... let's see... a girl in a green shirt, another girl in a sweater showing a handshake, a man with a question mark, and a boy in a hat. Hm." She put a hand to her chin. "Gotta say, rad coincidence. Must be the stars trying to tell me something. But... you! Kiddo, you don't have a hat! So I guess she wasn't talking about the four of you. Funny. I think you might get along with the other group of four."
Everyone except Wendy let out a collective relieved sigh.
"Now... like, the card for the Wire? I don't have it in my Indexitizer. Just like Rose, I don't believe in those things. I don't really believe in clothes that were, like, woven and stuff either, but Rose was just barely fond of that. Yeah I'm just... we have a low-tech rule over here? Technology's not our thing."
Those sentences broke Dipper's mind for a second. And Mabel knew all-too well the dumbfounded expression he had when this happened, so she figured it was her turn to ask:
"But... you're technology! Didn't you all start off as video game characters?"
"Woman, you're telling me. I'm the leading professor in figuring out how to remove all traces of us being, like, electric and stuff. We'll be a lot like you! Part of the ground and everything!"
"So... can you unblock your signal on our AI-pack?" Asked Soos, pointing to the - of course - orange field of static on said device.
"I also don't like, like other people using technology. Maybe you can convince me to just... not cover them up or something. I don't know. I'm mello. I'm open."
"So... if the card isn't with you, where is it?" Dipper chose to jump to the point.
"Oh yeah, thanks for reminding me! I sent a team of followers to destroy it."
"WHAT?" Dipper, Mabel, and Wendy asked at the same time, a triad of paniced shouts that disturbed the otherwise quiet atmosphere of the canyon.
"Wow. Chill. Didn't think you'd all be so plugged in. Like, the Lightning Goddess and the one with black hair... Dove I think her name was... said that you also didn't really like us? Why are you so angry about such an idea man, chill."
"Because... well... long story short, that's our only free way back home." Dipper explained.
"Well um... oh, this should be some entertainment. Um... trying to catch it, or whatever. Like, I want to destroy it in a special way? So I had my team just walk over to this cave entrance that's supposed to lead to a molten magma chamber deep down. If you go down that trail, maybe you can try talking them out of destroying the next card or something."
They already took off running. Hey, they were probably going to do this eventually in this particular setting, why not right now?
Sandy continued staring in the direction of the gang, silently wondering why they seemed to be in such a rush. Her attention was taken away when she heard someone clearing their throat: Looking behind her was .GIFfany, appearing as a reflection in a single puddle.
"Woah man!" Sandy exclaimed. "I knew you kept appearing to me in a vision! So, my loyal goddess, what do you have to say?"
Sandy started bowing down to this reflection. All .GIFfany did was sigh at first, then reluctantly started up a speech:
"Ooohhhh..." She wailed, "I am the Lightning Goddess... you will obey my every worrrrrd! Those really were the four humans I forewarned you about! The boy just lost his haaaaat! It's back in Gravity Faaaaalls!"
Sandy stopped bowing and nodded.
"You have done baaaaad... you must take them! Capture them! Then I will give you much thanks for my worship!"
"Got it! I must perform a sacrifice!"
"No no no no no! Not a full sacrifice! ...Or. At the very least, keep Soos alive oooh Lightning Goddess out OOOOOHHHHH..."
Sandy turned away, following after the running humans. Though since she was walking, she obviously wouldn't be able to catch up with four runners right away. .GIFfany sighed, stepping out of the screen she hid under that puddle and staring at it with a hand on her chin.
"Should I get rid of this so they don't find out? But there's no other way for me to teleport- right."
She zipped it into her Indexitizer, then flew into the one remaining piece of technology around: The Wire. Instead of popping out of another computer, she emerged from the side of a skyscraper in the contruction site, sighing greatly. A few seconds later, she started banging her head against the wall she just emerged from.
"Stupid, stupid, stupid!" She said with each bang. "Why! ARE! MY! CLONES! SO! STUPID!"
Well... once again comparing domains... Gravity Fall's forest was a nice, humid summer-coated forest. The Sahara Desert's house was enclosed and in a cool, dark location. The fort under the Bermuda Triangle had the ocean's depths blocking out most sunlight.
So hiking out in the open like this, with the afternoon summer sun beating down on the gang in another dry environment, was obviously not very pleasant. The heat had been one that beamed down in the canyon, Dipper, Mabel, Soos, and Wendy all feeling it. It came off as no surprise that Mabel was experimenting with using her sweater as a fan.
After what felt like walking a mile (but probably wasn't - even with all of their packed supplies, a walk that long could easily be fatal) lied the band ahead of them. Well, it only appeared to be one AI. Which made sense, since the cards only need one person to carry them. She turned to face the team with reddish hair and eyes, and waved a mud-coated hand at them. The other hand natually held the card, and for those curious, it was a blue-magenta in color.
"Hey, you must be the humans Sandy wanted to capture! Awesome! I was about to destroy this-"
"No you weren't." Said Wendy, once again prepping the AI-pack slash Illegal Prime Neutralizer slash Computer Buster slash whatever any given person felt like calling it at the time.
"Yeah, we're here to stop you from breaking that card." Added Dipper.
"Breaking it?" She asked with genuine curiosity. "Um, I want to burn it. Not break it."
"That's also bad. Look, if you can just hand it over-"
"We'll totally burn it for you." Wendy finished.
"Huh?" Dipper took a moment before he figured out what Wendy's game was. "Oh, yeah. We'll burn it."
"Did you just, like, forget how I just said you're the dudes and dudettes I'm after?" The AI stood there with her arms crossed. "I don't really trust anything you said."
"Well, no. Um... what did Sandy say?" Dipper was going to instinctively adjust his hat. The lack of such an article made him remember. "Oh yeah! I don't have a hat. One of the humans had a hat on. So, we're not the same group of people. That's... her logic, you should follow it too. Right?"
"...Shh. Sh'all think I'm, like, some kind of idiot, dude? Totally not buying it. You could have just swept that hat away and let it flow with the wind. Kind of like my body's doing right now... just... totally its own thing... feelin' that breeze... man..." By the way, yes, she still sounded a lot like .GIFfany in general. The professors were just about the only ones who seemed to be gaining their own voices as of now.
Dipper sighed. "Wow. A minon smarter than the villain they're working for. That's a first."
"I'm not a minion. I'm just, like, a student man."
"Okay, I wasn't lying when I said we would burn that card for you." Wendy finally resorted to explaining the joke. "But in a literal way. We were going to use it, get the rest of the cards, and when we finally got back home, I'd put them in a fire pit and burn them all."
"Oh you wouldn't want to that. They sorta, you know, self-destruct? It's like, a pretty wicked explosion too. You'd be in mad risk of meeting up close with the old Lightning Goddess above in the stars if you were like a kilometer by them when they blew up."
Right after this mook explained that trait, the gang found Sandy right behind them. She still had a pretty dazed expression on her face, staring ahead with drooping eyes. The eyes only become more bloodshot as she appeared to drink some kind of green liquid out of what looked like a tiny bowl of mud.
"Woah. Is there, like, a conflict goin' on? You should chill. Just, everybody chill. And do some jumping jacks."
It wasn't until she actually saw the group that her look turned from a distant gaze to a burning stare.
"Hey. HEY! You really were the ones the Lightning Goddess foretold!"
"I told you!" The only present follower said, "In fact, we all told you!"
"You may have made a fool of me, but you will not make a fool of the Lightning Goddess! Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice... I guess we go to the punishing?"
"We only fooled you once!" Dipper began defensively. "We had nothing to do with fooling you a second time! So, why don't you just shame on us, we'll take the card and-"
"Your second fooling was when you said you only had the Wires to get you back home for free. LIES! You coulda just asked a friend for a ride! I know for a fact that Professor Burnda took a flight over to the Construction Site, and that's over at- actually I shouldn't say where that's over at, that's like our little secret right now. Um... yeah, but still, you're just trying to take advantage of us and steal our cards! And that deserves punishment."
Suddenly, seemingly out of nowhere, a large number of followers flooded in by sliding down the wall becides her. Raising their fists in the air, they chanted. "PUNISH THEM! PUNISH THEM!"
"NOOOOOO!" Soos protested, "Let's not get any punishing involved!"
The second that sentence was finished, he found himself feeling something longer than his height stuck to his shirt, which then lifted him in the air. The card-holding follower had stuck some kind of glue-like mud, tieing the back of his shirt to a pole. With the entire man in one hand and that violet-colored key card remaining in the other.
"Let the punishment begin! With the man who broke the Lightning Goddess's heart!" Said follower yelled. "Then take the others!"
"PUNISH THEM! PUNISH THEM!"
"NOOOOOO, don't punish me!" Soos repeated. "Please, can't we just talk this out? What kind of 'punishment' are you gonna do, anyway? Kill me?"
"That would displease our Lightning Goddess." Sandy explained. "Instead, we're gonna like... just leave you out and let the Lightning Goddess herself cast the rightful judgement. If she approves, she'll take us all to a land of rich, pure metals and games."
Her entire following group chanted a low "Yayyyy..." while waving their hands in the air.
"Wait!" Mabel cried, "Your Lightning Goddess is .GIFfany, right?"
"Yeah. Because she kept the name of a starting AI. One that has yet to cleanse her life and be consumed by nature, yes." Sandy nodded. "She does look a lot like us... and how we all started... but it doesn't look like someone of such awesomeness could be a mere AI at first. Her powers are unbelievable. Miraculous. Maybe we just percieve her that way because the Lightning Goddess takes on whatever form is more familiar and identifiable to the soul who's eyes rest upon her glorious face?"
"...Or maybe she isn't a real god at all and she's just lying to you." Dipper stated.
"Wow! A non-believer. I shoulda guessed, but. Still. A real non-believer. You know what we do to non-believers, right students?"
"We... PUNISH THEM! PUNISH THEM!"
"NOOOOOO, don't punish him! You can totally punish me instead, leave Dipper out of this!" Soos protested.
"Sorry brah, once a punishment is made, it's final. We're keeping you up and at the mercy of the Lightning Goddess. We might also, like, dip you in hot water or something too. In fact, girls, get another pole for the little dude. The one that shoulda had a hat on but doesn't."
Seemingly more followers stormed the setting, forming a wall that blocked the group from getting back to the orange Wire even if they managed to swipe away that next card. All of them had to take a step back, with the exception of the man that was tied up at the moment.
But on the bright side, at least they won't have to hike all the way over to some volcanic fissure. Right?
Instantly, the army swarmed themselves around all four of the human brigade. And this was before Sandy snapped her fingers. After, and in the blink of an eye everybody found themselves stuck to the same kind of pole Soos was.
The short walk down to that follower felt much longer when experienced the other way while stuck up to some long stick. The sun's heat probably contributed to that. None of them could see it from the angle they were on, but they could hear something rising. A large statue of sorts was sliding up from below, resembing a giant stone .GIFfany head. But, again, none of our heroes could see this at the moment. Sandy stood right in front of this.
"Hail the Lightning Goddess!" she chanted.
"Haaaaail..." her whole army responded simultaneously.
"We shall wait until we get another direct message from her! Now, this could take like an hour..."
The stone head's eyes began glowing. A glittering, bright pink. The image of several sparkling stars were visible among this new light. Slowly, .GIFfany's voice was heard.
"This is your Lightning Goddess oooooh..." She started this up again. "Please wait for me to verify that all four of the resistors are captured. ...Yes, yes! I see them now! I see them nooooow!"
"My lady, like, it's good to see you happy." Sandy smiled.
"I also find it good to get such praise..." .GIFfany replied. "My past creations failed to follow me... they all disrespected me and trashed my forms of communication..."
"Oh, man, I'd never destroy the statue built in your memory, goddess!" Praised the orange professor. "Not just because it's my Main Possession, either. No, that's the lowest reason why it's not up for destruction!"
"I will prepare capturing vessels to take them to my praised land! Oooooh..."
"Man, you guys are like, so lucky?" Said Sandy. "She's taking you to her world right away."
"Let us down!" Dipper cried, just barely noticing Wendy rocking back and forth from her capturing stick. "You can't actually believe that that... THING is your goddess! She's lying! I know this, we fought her before! She's just another copy, just like you! You didn't even hear her announcement!"
"Wait. Like, that was the same person as the Lightning Goddess? The same same person? Yeah, I knew some of that already. But..."
Now he was getting to her. Should have started with that.
"Yes."
"I kind of knew that copy! We - as in, my group. The other professors don't really dig that slang, you know? - Called her the Risen One. Because her body was destroyed, but she rose back from it. She's also got these new powers and promised to help us out... never thought those would be the same people though. Kind of cool, kind of... I need to speak to her about this."
"You do NOT need to speak to ANYBODY about this! I need Soos!" .GIFfany 'The Lightning Goddess' herself commented over the statue.
"Who?"
"The question mark man! Mark your capture as final and admit that you have won!"
"Hang on, hang on, hang on. I just need to ask you a few things first."
.GIFfany sighed, but let Sandy continue.
"Like, what are you really just that same 'headmaster' copy of us? I shoulda known, both of you going by the original name of '.GIFfany' shoulda been a huge clue."
"...Um... actually, I prefer Ultimate Chief General Six-Star Supreme President Mayor .GIFfany."
"Ah! Ah! You are her! Nobody else cared about adding titles in front of her name as much as you did! Not cool, girl, not cool!"
This was when Wendy broke free. As nobody removed the Illegal Prime Neutralizer from her, she instantly used it to try to start vacuuming up Sandy's 'students' that gathered around the other three.
"Woah, woah, woah. Hey man- um, woman. Girl since you're like 15?" Sandy thought over her terminology while she held her hands out defensively. "You're like... they better be safe, or else you're gonna have a problem."
"They're safe. But my friends aren't!" She told to the leader. "That's why I'm thinning some of your herd!"
"We're not gonna really do much to you." Sandy shrugged. "Since that goddess wasn't really the Lightning Goddess per-say, and we were wrong to assume she was even technically a goddess in the first place... we're kinda gonna let you go. Also, since you're not being like kill-y to them, I guess you're not gonna have a problem. No problem at all."
Dipper had long stopped struggling, and not just because all the AIs around him (oddly reluctantly) backed away and Wendy was coming near him. But also because he needed to ask something: "Wait. What happened to 'punishing' us because we lied to you?"
"Oh yeah, that! Totally forgot about that! Thanks for reminding me bro. But yeah, we gotta come up with a punishment now. Maybe... maybe something that doesn't involve the Lightning Goddess so much? No, what about just regular old .GIFfany?"
"PUNISH THEM!" The chant began again. "PUN-" And ended just as quickly.
"Wait... wait! She lied to you too! About being a god! Isn't that a lot worse? Why would you still work for her?"
"Actually, we just assumed that. She didn't really call herself the Lightning Goddess until we said it to her when she first appeared in the heavens. I mostly just thought that the Risen One would have also came up with a new name or something to tell her apart from a generic copy, but I guess that floats her boat. So in a way it's not like she lied to us exactly, just that we assumed the wrong thing, and then she built on that lie."
"That's exactly what happened with me and the hat!"
"Well it's still different now since I just feel like my whole life is surrounded by lies. I dunno."
He sighed. "If we could just have that card. Um, who has it now?"
"Dude man, no way bra. The only liers I trust right after they lied to us are family, and that's because of credibility. You know Professor Rose? It's kinda like that and her non-violence."
She took a leap back. Specifically, right into her Lightness Goddess statue. And, as she melted right into its stone, it predictably began to move. Unlike the water, staircase, or the tree, it didn't really change its visual features other than gaining a redder glow for the eyes. The ground around the gang shook as all AI students backed off, setting the other members of the group free. (Despite this, Wendy still snipped up extra members to the Illegal Prime Neutralizer.) Slowly, it rose, revealing...
That it was pretty much just a head. Well, that's not completely accurate. To make movement better, it apparently had these large circular shoe-like objects that supposedly represented feet. The statue head did have a full head of .GIFfany-styled hair, which Sandy withdrew from the ground, using her possession powers to get it to curl around to the point where it wouldn't be pushing the main part of the statue off the floor.
Wendy put a hand over her mouth at the bodyless body Sandy placed herself in, desperately trying not to laugh at it.
"Alright, alright, we'll take on your 'fight.'" She did let a laugh escape as she lied about predicting this being an actual battle. "Promise us you'll give us that card if we win."
"Um..." Strangely, her voice inside this statue had a bit of an echo. "Okay? I'm only saying this because I don't really think you'll win. It's part of my code that if someone asks something from an impossible task, I should reassure them by saying I'll give it to them. I mean personal code of honor, not like, video game code. Man, wouldn't that be extremely convenient if you did win? I wish my sisters had equally convenient codes of honor, but we're kind of, um, a weird and scattered family right now."
"So what are you gonna... um... do now? If we lose? Since you're not capturing us for the 'Lightning Goddess?'" Dipper asked.
"I'll make you all prisoners of my new mines! You'll have the best time mining out the best rocks and sand, all for exporting to the other domains!"
"That's the second time one of you said something about exporting. How is that a system?"
"You didn't know? We like, uh, all have to kind of make stuff. And then export it to the other domains. We haven't gotten our shipment of water, vegetables, or fresh spiritual energy in a while, so I've been sending groups of my students to make up for those. Did you by any chance KO Searah, Rose, and Kathody?"
"...Yes. Exactly. And you're supposed to be next. Rose even told me you might be one of the easier ones to get through?"
"...Oh. Bummer. I wish they'd have more faith in me. I mean, did any of them come that close to capturing you?"
"Nope!" Mabel cheered, in an odd form of brightness that shouldn't have came from a 12 year-old that a few minutes ago was about to be zapped away to parts unknown by a crazy stalker. "We stored all three of them up right here! Rose didn't even attack us!"
"Oh. So um... I guess you've beaten one of these Main Possessions before?"
Suddenly, it dawned on all four of them. Rose's was taken on by the Shape Shifter. Wendy tricked Kathody and Searah to destroy each other's. .GIFfany just had an army of animatronics and Soos was carrying her weak point with him the whole time. This was... there wasn't anything big around to destroy this.
"Man, that's like so rad! I wanna see how you did it. I mean, Professor Kathody's is like made of iron! Heck, that's gotta be stronger than this old thing. I'm even thinking of losing this fight just to see how you beat the others!"
"Um..." Mabel was the only one who didn't want to try to pull a bluff. "We... didn't."
"Ho boy. Well, I guess there's a first time for everything. If you win, it's the first time you beat one of us when we're in something specifically meant to make us invincible. If you lose, it'll be the first time you lost to any AI period."
Dipper thought about correcting her, given his experience with Rumble, but picked not digging himself deeper.
"Well... like, here I go?" Sandy didn't even sound like she wanted to fight.
Her actions following the instant later contradicted that earlier tone. It also turned out that those feet were much faster than they looked, with Sandy bolting after the group and only stopping inches away from Dipper.
"So... should I let you get the first hit? That's kind of, like, the system we're setting up and stuff."
Shaking, Dipper decided to punch the statue. And it worked exactly as well as punching a giant object made of solid rock would go - Manotaur training or no, he still had to reel his hand back in pain.
"Bummer dude. Thought this might be more interesting. Oh well..."
This was the exact moment Mabel began searching the surrounding cliffs.
"Hey!" She shouted, despite Sandy being able to easily hear her normal voice from the distance she was at. "Are these cliffs stable?"
"Oh yeah, we also carved out a few things in this place too! And that... well, for when we returned something back to a deeper part of the earth. I mean, something really heavy, wow. We'd just break off whatever it was that it was on. Um, because of that, you should totally stay away from any and all edges. I guess you could say to stay away from Professor Dove, haha- oh. Um. Forget I said anything about a certain professor whose name starts with a 'D.' I mean Dove, not Dian. I mean- gah! Forget I said anything about edgy professors!"
"You thought you might take that statue back?"
"Well... back then, only if the Lightning Goddess disapproved of any inevidable imperfections. We'd throw it off, celebrate, then get to building a new one. Now... eh..."
"So, it's loose. If I just climbed down and slipped a few rocks..."
"Meh. I'll let you try. Hey, students. Like, lay off the girl for a second, I think Dove said her name was Mabel. She has a cool idea. Wanna see how it goes."
Mabel herself peered off over the edge, attracting the attention of the following AIs. (It helped that they were still following Sandy's "first strike" rule.) And, for a statue that has such fast feet, it turned out that it took a while for Sandy to turn that thing around. She did it in the form of slowly stomping herself a circle in place. "Okay, I'll be there in a sec. Just like, space out or something to pass time. 'S what I do."
"Found one!" Exclaimed Mabel, pointing down. Sandy was still trying to turn her massive mechanism to face the girl. "There! It looks like this whole cliff will just crash down if you pull that one rock! So, if we do that while you're on it... do you see where I'm going with this?"
"Ah, got it. Well, what if I told you I could just back up? Like this."
She finished turning around just when Mabel started playfully nudging at an exceptionally loose rock. From there, Professor Sandy did what could best be described as a moonwalk away from the edge. Right when Soos, Dipper, and Wendy just finished pushing a decent-sized boulder behind her feet.
"Hey! Professor, they're-"
"I said let them get the first h-hit." Her 'eyes' did not leave Mabel. And yes, the eyes of the statue-head were moving on their own. The mouth wasn't though, keeping the constant smile the entire time. "That punch didn't count. Whatever they have stored up, just like wait and- woah!"
Once the back of her statue's foot hit itself against that moved boulder, she knew what to expect. This was why, after Dipper wiped sweat from his brow and the fourth professor began falling back, she didn't say much other than "Shoot. Good job, man." before the idol collided with the ground and shattered into pieces. Much like the tree, staircase, and pink-water before it, the possessing professor spawned in the middle shortly after its destruction. Sandy still didn't lose her tranquil smile.
"Nice first hit! Okay students, like, now we can fight back."
Orange streaks of electricity went from her hands to the ground, and suddenly the mud-clad professor was surrounded by several stalagmights shooting from the ground. Any followers that then attempted to hop on the backs of the human team were quickly shoed off, the group running towards Sandy's circle of spikes before the students became too unbearable.
"You kinda made a mistake though. Like, I feel a lot better while natural, so like this major battle is just gonna get tougher as I have more skills and-"
Soos had just barely stepped on the top of one of her stalagmights, having the Illegal Prime Neutralizer in hand, he flipped its switch with a few words:
"Hey, sorry, but we kinda need to save some Grunkles."
Repeating a pattern with the prior three professors, the first part of Sandy's to be taken into the machine was most of her mud. Once again, this only left a small-enough 'bikini' that perserved about as much modesty as a semi-hardened rock-water mix could. Shrugging, she turned over to the group of followers gaining up towards Soos.
"Hey, like, we lost already. Yui, just give him the card."
The burning vermilion-haired AI from earlier sighed, opening up her Indexitizer and emptying its sole blue box. Not going unnoticed by any of the four humans was the fact that her pinker box had what appeared to be a large gatling gun in it. Sandy smiled as she was shrunk and pulled into the vaccuum.
Once again, within a few pink flashes, all the AIs disappeared. Soos flipped the pack over just in time to see Sandy falling into the black void that was whatever the exact terminology was for what stored these video games. From the screen was the upper half of Rose's head, peeking up from below. She darted back away once Sandy stood up, moving to the front screen.
"Dude... I think I just need to rethink..." she looked to where, from Soos's perspective, was somewhere off screen. Dipper, Mabel, and Wendy began gathering around the pack as well once they heard the voice of this latest capture. "Hey, cool. You kept some of my sisses around too! And some of Kathody's! And Searah's! ...Rose is all by herself."
"Oh, hi Professor Sandy! No, I am never really by myself!" The green-eyed, (barely) more clothed one walked on screen with her hands behind her back. She grinned at Sandy, then towards the screen. "I have my newest friends out there!"
"And that's questionable until you stop associating with these killers." Said Dipper.
"Kill?" Said Sandy in honest confusion. "Naw, I never wanted to kill you. Like, look through your memory banks-" Rose looked over at Sandy and made an 'X' with her hands. "Ah. Right. You guys don't really have memory banks. Still though, you gotta remember. I only wanted to capture you."
This was when Kathody walked on screen, waving her hands like they were shields. "To try to come off as the good girl, I NEVER tried to kill you either. It was only capturing. Blame .GIFfany - the only one that's still named that - she's the killer. Or Dove, she's kind of..."
"...Difficult." Rose finished.
"Yeah, difficult. I bet if she went to a doctor - you know, our more humanlike bodies can now get sick and stuff too, that has to suck - that doctor will write 'difficult' on her chart. That Ford guy is a doctor, right? I'm sure he'll describe her as 'difficult' and nothing else. Oh, one last member of the killer soup - as every viewer knows, things have to come in threes. That's Searah, she tried to drown you." Kathody began snickering. "You can't say that about me."
"It was only to the point of knocking out!" And finally, Searah completed the quad of major captured copies, stepping on screen with crossed arms. "You know killing is only a last-resort!"
"Both of you tried to capture us and brainwash us into your slaves, which I think is worse." Wendy objected.
"Oh. Really." Sandy stared at the 'ground' of her space before lightening up. "So this, like, means that I'm on good terms now compared to those two? Because I'd love to tell you that they're... uh... not all bad... to be fair, I was kinda goin' for the same vibe? Minus the brainwashing."
The sun had now started entering a similar twilight as it was back in the surface of the Bermuda Triangle, nearly beginning its slip behind the cliffs that surrounded the gang. Dipper sighed.
"Look, we can talk about morality when we're not somewhere at night surrounded by coyotes or something. Rose, what's the next domain, and is there somewhere near it we can rest without having to take a four-hour hike out of a giant hole?"
The leaf-clad professor giggled. "Oh, I'm glad you asked me like that! The next domain already has a built-in inn!"
"I can't speak for the twins," Said Wendy, "But I'd rather take my chances sleeping in the wilderness. Where is it?"
"It's a restaurant close to Niagara Falls! She and her students built it, like Searah's city-"
"Or my mansion." Kathody added.
"...You found that."
"Sort of! My team added all the spooky basement floors!"
"Okay, okay." Wendy had somehow obtained the violet card without anyone else noticing, starting to wave it in front of the group's faces. "So we might not have to sleep outside. That's all I need to know. Let's move on."
"Wait!" Dipper cried. "Just two more questions! Um... everyone, what's the next professor like?"
"Cardia?" Replied Rose, getting exchanged looks from the other three professors. All of their present followers leaned in the screen to get in on the looking-action, to the point where the black void background wasn't even visible.
"She's nuts." Searah stated bluntly.
"Can I give my advice in hints?" Asked Kathody. She said the following with no input from anyone else: "Great! Well, she's certainly got a beefy atittude. Heh heh. Well... more like a porky atittude. Mabel, you have a pig, right? Your pig shouldn't hear that."
Sandy, however, looked to the side when giving her two cents about the next threat. Arms crossed and almost glaring. "I don't really like the idea of being right next to her in this 'chain,' and probably later when we start going somewhere with our domains. Man, she stands against everything I stand for. Or... used to stand for." She got a pat on the back from one of her student AIs after stating that. "Everything about her is industrialized, she fully believes in eating a lot of meat, and her domain allows those stupid mirrors. Her followers never really use them, since it's a very 'high-demand' place. That's another thing. High demand. No room to relax... the only reason why she's next to mine is because the four after her wanted to be in sequence, so .GIFfany comprimised by sticking all four of them between... um, yeah. Still though, she's like, the Woman, you know? The one I'm all for taking down?"
"Cardia's okay as long as you are not working for her!" Rose giggled, "But really, she's... strained with her students slash followers slash employees. She's the only one that calls them that last one. Just avoid getting tricked into getting a job at her place, and you should all be fine! She's harmless."
"Okay, we got it." Wendy had then lept off of one of the rocks from Sandy's short-lived fight and was now off to the orange Wire, flipping the card around in her hand. "We have to deal with a meat-lover next. We're done here."
"Wait!" Dipper did join her in walking off to the station that would lead to the next domain, but he also kept the pack firmly in his hands. "The other question. You said you can get sick. So, do you... get hungry? And stuff?"
"We can keep ourselves good for two weeks and all of us made sure to have a big meal before starting our domains!" Cheered Rose. "Don't worry about us, I know you'll have all of us beaten and can think of something by then!"
"Oh, man!" Teased Kathody, complete with sticking her tongue out. "You never gave me a chance to tell them that we were all starving! You know, try to guilt them into letting us all free and join the other AIs .GIFfany zapped to the Construction Site! Heh heh..."
And with that, the group had joined Wendy as she inserted the fourth, indigo card into the computer, the latter taking a sigh as another clear bubble formed around them.
Responses to Reviews:
ASinkingFeeling: Yes, I do have the remaining chapters roughly planned out. Especially everything in the double-digets. I have been reading your own story on occasion, and yeah, it is nice to see minor characters getting their own fan-made stories more often. It's nice knowing that I inspired or pushed to another writer making something, I hope you continue on with your fic.
Closing AN:
It wasn't until just getting this ready to publish that I realized that this chapter doesn't really have that many line breaks. Huh. Usually when a chapter of mine doesn't, it's intentional as part of that chapter's gimmick.
Another chapter, another fight scene I'm not exactly that proud of. Oh well, I have never considered myself good with fight scenes.
I already got a good way into chapter 5 by the time you are reading this, and I have to say, that is probably my favorite chapter to write so far. It will be... um, interesting, to say the least. Maybe the first sign of what kind of curveballs this story will throw?
So it took about a month between this update and the last. Believe it or not, this is an improvement compared to the two months between chapters 2 and 3. Yes, I do plan on improving this rate even more, which is why I've decided to more-or-less work on two chapters at once.
