"Would you like more Mabel juice, Dipper?"
Mabel smiled at her twin, braces gleaming. Dipper blinked, the morning light stinging his tired eyes.
"No thanks." He grumbled.
"I'll have some!" Steven said brightly. Dipper turned to him and grimaced, but Steven replied with a confused shrug.
They were having an early breakfast. Dipper lapped up some cereal, mind still working through the mysteries of the previous night.
"I wish Ford would wake up." He muttered. "Still gotta talk to him about that spider thing."
"Did you sleep at all last night?" Steven asked, clearly concerned.
Dipper shook his head. "I was trying to see what I could figure out…"
They looked up as a loud conversation started heading towards the kitchen.
"… no, no, that's not right! You CAN'T let it end like THAT!" It was Peridot's voice. "I'm not doing it. Change it!"
"Ugh… let's get a second opinion then." Stan's rumbling voice followed hers.
Dipper raised his eyebrows. "What now?"
The pair burst into the kitchen. Stan was dressed for his job, complete with his cane.
"Umhm, Grunckle Stan…" Dipper said. "Isn't there a tour like… soonish?"
He threw his hands up. "Yes! But Peridot and I are having… creative differences."
Peridot huffed. "There's no DEPTH to his story! No drama or anything! It's shallow and unrealistic!"
Stan rolled his eyes and slumped. "It's a 25 minute tour! And that's the DELUXE package! You're just there to drive up ticket prices! It hardly needs to be a compelling drama."
Peridot crossed her arms. "Try quality. Some self respect. It sounds like you made it up in five minutes."
"I DID make it up in five minutes!"
Mabel nodded to Stan. "Tch tch. Business integrity!"
Dipper laid his head down on the table. "Are you serious? Peridot, just… what?"
"She's in the show!" Stan glanced to his wrist, sliding a big fancy watch out of his sleeve. Probably stolen. "It's almost time! Just… let's wing it! Improv!"
Peridot was still standing stiffly.
Steven spoke up. "Awww, Peridot, just try it. It sounds fun! Actually, can I uh… go on the tour!?" He held his breath, even as Dipper sunk his face deeper into the table.
"Ya got 45 bucs? HEY!" Stan grunted as Mable punched him in the knee. Dipper cheered his sister on internally.
"Fine! Go to the front of the shack and stand with the rest of those stiffs!"
Steven gasped with delight. "Peridot, I'll see you in the show right?" He leapt off his seat, ready to go.
"Seriously…" Dipper groaned.
Stan wasn't paying them any attention, still trying to wrangle Peridot into his scam. To Dipper's annoyance, Mabel and Steven were already heading towards the door.
Mabel was gabbing. "I remember my fist Mystery Shack Tour like it was yesterday.."
"Dipper… we'll wait for you…" Steven called.
Peridot was giving Ford a noncommittal "hmmmm…."
"Here." Stan slid a watch off his wrist, dangling in front of Peridot's face. "I'm letting Steven in the tour, AND you can HAVE this… for a limited time only!"
Peridot snatched the watch, rubbing her fingers along its face and tugging at the straps. It was a handsome thing, a rich russet color with leather straps.
"Wow, thanks." She said. "But what's it do?" She asked.
Stan rolled his eyes again and frowned. "It shoots lasers… pffff, of course n-"
"Are you serious?" Peridot sounded impressed.
Stan's face reversed into a grin. "Yes! I'll… explain it to you after the show!"
"Stan. Wow. Just… wow." Dipper glared at his gruncle.
Peridot was messing with the buttons on the watch in frustration. "I don't think this is a weapon of any kind…"
Dipper sighed. Stan was out of control.
He jumped off his seat, reaching for the watch. He tugged as Peridot refused to let go.
"Let… me… I'm gonna show you how it really works!" He griped.
"Hold out your hand." He ordered, finally getting a hold of the watch.
Rather awkwardly, Perdiot held up a limp wrist. She glared at Dipper so intensely he almost dropped the watch.
"Here… you just… get this latch here, and…" He stopped talking, unable to verbalize his actions. Even at the highest notch, the watch was nearly falling off Peridot's slender arm. He didn't dare look at her face.
He tapped the screen. "This tells the current time. You're… familiar with… time?" Dipper was shocked at how stupid he sounded.
Peridot seemed to agree. "Obviously! These numbers inform me of the current stage of the earth's rotation. Around the sun. As in… days?"
"Hours and minutes." Dipper corrected her. But he wasn't about to give a lesson on telling time, and backed up. "Anyway, so that's what it does. You wear it on your body, and look at it for the time. Amazing. You're welcome."
Peridot held up her wrist, seeming intrigued. "It's certainty… primitive. That's ALL it can do?"
Stan coughed. "That's not ALL! It has a timer, AND an alarm!"
"Hmmm. Ok." Peridot said, still considering her prize. Then she turned to Stan, crossing her arms.
"I'll do your show. MY way. And when Ford wakes up, I'm not working for you anymore."
Stan paced in a circle. "WHATEVER! Just come on! I'll show you where to hide! Wait for my cue, like we practiced!"
Peridot waited in the cramped darkness of the air vent, peering through the shafts as she waited for Ford to bluster into the room with the army of human "tourists."
She sighed. What was she doing?
"…HERE, you can see the remains of a real life… fairy!"
Peridot heard a few muttered "ohh," peering through the blinds and glimpsing a crowd of human huddled around some display.
Easily amused. Wait 'till they see ME!
"Haha, wow! That's really weird!"
She heard Steven's voice over the din, answered by an annoyed snort from Dipper. They HAD to be here too, of course.
She patted her knees, feeling nervousness well up inside of her chest. She'd never seen that many humans in one place before.
Just wait for his cue.
She heard Stan's voice boom rather loudly next to her. He was close to the vent…
"… and THAT'S when it got LOOSE! It could be in here with us..."
Peridot leaned harder into the grate. Was that her cue?! It was, right?!
"Pssst. Can you see what's goin on out there?"
A whisper sounded behind her.
"WAGGGGHH!"
She failed her arms, forcing the loosened grate open. She glimpsed eyes behind her as she tumbled out unto the floor, landing with a painful thud.
"Ohhhh… ouch."
A hushed shout and the sound of many phones being lifted into the air greeted her.
"OH MY GOODNESS!"
She lifted her head, watching as Stan leapt back and pointed at her with his cane.
"There it is!"
Stars sparkled in her vision. She could feel the heat of many, many eyes on her.
What was I supposed to say?
"AGGH!"
She finally leapt up, pointing at Stan with a wavering finger.
"This isn't what we agreed upon!" She screamed.
The crowd gave a hushed gasp. She heard somebody give a tiny "woo;" probably Steven.
"Uhhh…" Stan was stalling. "I NEVER agreed to that! I can't work with alien scum like you!"
Peridot gasped, feeling legitimate anger ignite in her chest. Wasn't this pretend?
"S-shut up, you clod! You're wrong!"
Peridot bit her lip.
What do I say?! What do I say?!
She groped around her memory, trying to find the words.
"I don't care if you're on the human team!" She cried. "We can make this work!"
Stan's face almost broke twisted a laugh. Peridot didn't dare turn to the crowd.
Will he say it?!
"Umm… what was it… Oh!" Stan answered, still posed.
"This is a war!" He cried.
"Doesn't that mean anything to you?!"
Peridot was buzzing with amazement.
This is amazing. I love this.
She could feel that heat from the crowd again, all those eyes. Fear transformed into exhilaration, then back to fear again. She felt like she was on fire.
She leaned back, placing her hand over her forehead.
"Don't you understand?! If you do what I say, they'll never catch us!"
She jolted as a loud crash shook the room.
Was this part of the show?
Stan had turned to face the other side of the room, and the crowd was humming with surprise.
"Whoa…. Uhhh…"
A high hiss was filling the room. A terrible sense of anticipation filled the air.
Something was in the room with them. Some kind of alien presence.
"Peridot!" Somebody blurted her name.
An unknown life-form faced her. It's form shifted like sand, the hissing loudly as it bounded towards her in slow motion.
It's face spilt open, revealing a cavernous maw. Pure darkness swirled beyond it.
Could this be…
The thing snarled, lunging towards her. It swept across the floor so fast that she had no time to react.
She gasped lightly as the monster took her body in its jaws. The air was shuddering. She could see the wood grain in the floor, hear someone cry out distantly.
She was being torn apart. Back and forth, back and forth, she felt her consciousness jerk from something to nothing. Again and again. It was so incomprehensibly violent, it didn't even really hurt.
Then she was falling.
She heard fighting, yelling. Something screamed. She opened her eyes and watched Stan beat some kind of stuffed critter into the head of the real monster. The crowd was "ohhhing" and "awwwing."
The world swayed. Was she going to poof? Somehow, it didn't feel like it.
She heard a throbbing scream as the static hiss rose. She watched as Stan brought his cane across the beasts body, splintering it into a billion tiny shards of sparkling dust.
The crowd burst into applause.
Stan had been right. The show had gone over just fine when it was completely improvised. She lay on the floor, still smarting with pain.
"Peridot!" Steven was rushing over.
"W-what?" she croaked.
"Are you hurt?!" Steven said.
"Nono no!" Peridot growled, watching as the static dust flickered into nothing at her touch, followed by intense relief. Her body felt bruised but not broken, although she was stuck with a chilling sense of dread.
"Wow!" Stan was breathless, brandishing a handful of green stacks of papers-money. "That's the most exciting tour I've ever given! That "alien" showed up at just the right time and everything!"
Peridot flushed with anger. "I was ATTACKED!"
Ford would never behave this way!
Steven and his friends gathered alongside her, glaring at Stan.
He shrugged. "Whatever it was, it's gone. No thanks for saving you, I guess. What was that, anyway?"
Peridot struggled to slow her breathing as the kids crowded around her, trying to make sure she was ok.
"It…"
The void could manifest in all different kinds of ways.
Ford's voice echoed in her memories.
"It was the void."
"…I have plenty of theories… none of them end well for us."
She might have been a member of the most powerful race in the universe, but what they were dealing with existed beyond her capabilities alone.
"… and THIS…"
Dipper watched in rapture as Ford pointed to the marks he drawn her over his venn diagram.
"… is the rouge bits of the void that have spilled into our universe. Even our anti-weirdness barrier couldn't keep them out. These are the "creatures" that attacked you kids at the arcade, and Peridot today in the Shack."
"Wow…" Steven muttered, sitting next to him as they took in Ford's complex lecture.
"I have a name for this phenomenon. The void wanders aimlessly, seeking to return to whence it came. I think it is drawn to aberrations in the dimensional space… namely, Steven and Peridot, who hail from a different universe. I have a name for this phenomenon."
He took in a deep breath.
"I call it the "Void Dragon."
Dipper's brain was overwhelmed with all of this new information.
"Is it going to keep attacking? How often? How can we BEAT it?" The questions rushed out all at once.
Ford tapped the whiteboard.
"That's what Peridot and I are working on…" He sighed. "We just have to hold it together until we can finalize a plan."
"You'll come up with something!" Steven said. "Between the two of you, it should be easy."
Peridot coughed. "Thank you, Steven." She was still working on the portal remote devices, hiding in the shadows behind Ford.
"Ugh, no way!"
Dipper watched as the green gem hustled out of the shadows and held up the remote. "Were are the back up batteries?" She demanded.
Ford slumped. "I just GAVE you the back up batteries."
Peridot froze. "We're OUT of batteries?! AGGH!"
She failed wordlessly for a second.
"We're almost DONE!" She wheezed. "Steven and I NEED to go back! That… that THING will come back BEFORE we can! And we're out of BATTERIES!?"
Ford sighed. "Next time, let's do solar power."
"Or GEM power!" Peridot whined. "ANYTHING but these archaic… out of batteries…"
Steven spoke up. "Uh, hey, we can get some for you. Let's go, Dipper! We can take the kart into town!" Steven gave an open mouthed smile.
His enthusiasm was catching, but Dipper glanced to the lab, alive with notes, parts, experiments and ideas.
"Uhhhh…." He began, but Steven was glowing. Maybe he would just get in Ford and Peridot's way...
"Ok." He gave in. "Let's run chores. For science."
