"Older men declare war. But it is the youth that must fight and die."

~Herbert Hoover

"Bill, remind me why we're doing this again?"

"Because, you insufferable idiot. Soon we'll have our physical forms again, and while that does mean we'll be stronger, as much as I hate to admit it, we won't be unstoppable, not yet."

*click* Bill slapped the sticky bomb in place and shoved it inside a fully dressed mannequin. "Do you have the paint?"

"Yeah boss, but why didn't we just get blood?"

"You fucking idiot, why would we waste precious time slashing open a random bystander when we can just buy red paint and lure someone faster? Besides, it's only supposed to look realistic from a distance. And it's raining. By the time they're close enough to be able to notice it's fake they'll be fucked anyway. Hand me that knife…" Bill cursed under his breath, clearly irritated with his host's hair as he was shaking his hair out of his face. "This bitch's hair keeps messing up my concentration. I can barely see with this rat's nest in the rain right now."

***slice***

And Wendy's hair fell to the ground.

"Boss, where should I put this body?" Paci-Fire asked, huffing as he lifted it over his shoulder. "Christ you weren't kidding man...I feel so drained that I feel like I'm disintegrating."

"Yeah, that's a normal part of this process. Over there, on the edge of the road. Make sure it's noticeable from a hundred feet down."

"LET IT GOOOOOOOO, LET IT GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" she screamed from the backseat of her mom's Ford Taurus.

"Ugh…." Nancy groaned from the driver's seat. She slowed down and came to a stop before opening up her glove compartment and popping an aspirin.

"MOMMY I'M HUNGRY!"

She took a deep breath. "I already GAVE you a big lunch HALF AN HOUR AGO!" Her daughter shrank back and squinted her eyes at her. "Well it was gross mommy." Nancy just turned back to her daughter before starting the car and said through clenched teeth, "Well sweetheart. If you're that hungry, you'll eat the rest."

Five minutes later they came upon a body in the middle of the road. Or at least, she assumed it was a body. Her daughter screamed, and Nancy told her to cover her eyes, and that she was going to go help them. "While I'm out of the car, DON'T open the door for anyone. OKay?"

"I won't talk to strangers mommy…"

"Good." Nancy kissed her daughter's forehead and walked the the body that was only a few feet away. It was beginning to rain harder now, so she took off her coat and lifted it above her head.

"Oh my god….." she knelt down and placed her two fingers on his neck.

"Nothing… wait...what the fuck….this is a mannequ-

And before she could finish her sentence, a powerful explosion rocked the highway down the street. As soon as the dust settled, Bill and Paci-Fire made their way towards the Taurus. They didn't even bother to glance at the mangled remains of the woman splattered across the roadway, already knowing full well that she was as good as dead. They couldn't waste any more time.

The closer they got to the car, the more they heard the screams of her little one coming from the backseat.

"MOMMYY!" the girl was screaming, desperately trying to unlock her seat-belt, but her shock and grief drawing a blank on how to do it. She screamed harder when Wendy's face appeared in the front seat of the car, her arms reaching out to unbuckle her. "LET ME GO! MOMMY!" she continued to scream.

"Hey. HEY. HEY! Don't kick me you little twerp!" Bill shouted, deciding to hold her in a fireman's carry to free up his right hand. "Paci-Fire. We need to find a space to draw out the ritual. Let's go." And as they walked back into the forest, the girl surprised even herself by crying and screaming herself out in a matter of minutes. Eventually, her poor little brain just gave out from shock and she passed out.

When the child woke, she was laying in the middle of a glowing blue circle of fire.
Fire was bad. She remembered her mom explaining to her after she accidentally burned her foot one time in the campfire. Ashley looked down at her feet. She could still see the scar.

" Lord Xolotl, by your grace, grant me, I pray thee the power to conceive in my mind and to execute that which I desire to do, the end which I would attain by thy help, O Mighty Xolotl, the one True God who livest and reignest forever and ever. "

Ashley remembered what she saw. A loud sound. A crash. Her mommy. Blood. Lots of blood. So much red. She began to cry.

" I entreat thee to inspire Pyronica to manifest before me that she may give me true and faithful service, so that I may accomplish my desired end, provided that it is proper to her office. This I respectfully and humbly ask in Your Name, my Xolotl, may you deem me worthy. "

Ashley's body began to surround itself with pink flames. They rolled up her legs effortlessly, not even burning her skin, but where the flames licked her body, human skin fell away to reveal bright pink skin.

"Well…." Bill said, smirking. "This is unexpected. Good, but unexpected."

Ashley opened her mouth to scream, but no sound would come out as soon even her head was enveloped in a cocoon of slow pink flames.

Paci-Fire turned to Bill with a look of confusion. "What's unexpected Boss?"

"Her body is bonding with Pyronica's mind….more than our hosts did. It appears we unintentionally chose a human soul strong enough to not be weared down by Pyronica's mind. Oh yes….this will be a great asset to us later." Bill said, staring together at the writhing ball of pink flames with his assistant.

"YOU'RE SICK. YOU MONSTERS! WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO THAT FUCKING KID?!" Jotaro screamed, but it was no use. Nobody even acknowledged him still. He looked down at his disembodied form and wondered hopelessly if anyone would be able to see him.

He was so absorbed in self-loathing over how stupid he was, believe Kakyoin was real in that one moment in the forest, that he didn't even notice Paci-Fire turn and walk up to him.

"Hey. You. Yes, you floating there."

Jotaro looked up in anger. "You SON OF A BITCH, you could see me this WHOLE TIME?!"

"Yep. And I'm gonna cut right to the chase. Give up. It's Hopeless; you're never going to stop us, blah blah blah. Guess what? You're going to be trapped in the mindscape until the demise of your body, at which point we'll be able to call back your soul for service or decide how to dispose of it." "Or hey," Bill chimed in with a laugh, "Maybe we'll just let you stick around for the hell of it so you won't be able to look away as we kill your entire family!"

Something strange was happening in the burning room. Something strange, indeed. The bubble holding Chalcedony's gem was pulsating. Slowly, almost like a heartbeat. And as a gently ray of light from another temple room cascaded across it, the bubble pulsated faster. Faster and faster. It kept pulsing. Now it was sizzling and suddenly in the blink of an eye...

*pop*

Chalcedony's chest gem clattered to the floor and began to vibrate with life. First her torso formed, then long, graceful legs, then two halves of a star cutout on each side of her gem, long, graceful arms that ended in...claws? She had claws. As her face started to form again, and her mind was unclouded for the first time in millennia, she let out a hearty laugh. "Haha! Finally...it finally worked...I'm back." She was about to put her hand to her cheek when she felt the brush of something sharp, so she looked at her hands. "Why do I have claws...wait...shit." Chalcedony ran to a shale wall where she could see her reflection, and to her utter disgust, her gem was a dimmer shade of blue, the whites of her eyes were the deepest black, and that...that mask was still stuck to the top of her head, almost like a helmet.

"FUCK!" She started yanking on it. "WHY. DIDN'T. IT. WORK. OW OW OW." she yelped in pain and stopped yanking.

She looked again at her reflection in the mirror, her eyes drawn to her failed plan atop her head. "Ugh. so much for the evolution of man. And to think I was like a god them...those...gods. I was a god to gods. Well if they were so fucking smarter than humans why couldn't they get this shit right." Chalcedony closed her eyes and touched her hand to the forehead of the mask, concentrating, trying to sense the life forces of any of the men of the pillars.

Nothing.

"Ugh. I swear to fucking god, they're all dead already? SO much for superior beings. Pathetic. I can't believe I ever thought their magic could be the salvation of me. Ugh, if I knew how to bring them back I swear I'd kill them all all over again just for the hell of it. I wonder what year it is?" Chalcedony looked around the room, her arm sizzling when it hit that ray of light, making her recoil in pain. Her expression grew more and more agitate and when her eyes came across the tons of bubbled gems above her head, she hissed in disgust, revealing entirely pointed teeth. "I'm with...them...those disgraces. Those abominations. No. I must think of a plan." she glanced around the room looking for something useful, until her eyes fell upon a bubbled orange gem, multi-faceted, in the shape of a small diamond.

"Ahah!" she chuckled evilly. "I'm surprised the 'kindergarten quartz that could' was finally done in by the things she was most disgusted by. Oh well. You will be of use to me. Now...all I have to do is bide my time...until nightfall."

Everyone was pretty chatty on the way to the hospital except for Dipper. He knew everyone was trying so hard to be optimistic right now but he just couldn't join them. Hell, he wished he could. At this point with them being taken off guard by everything at turn after turn, optimism was one of the only weapons they had at the moment.

The hospital was quiet. Nobody even stopped to question their large group as they made their way through the hospital, which was probably in part because Some of the higher staff at the hospital knew full well who Joseph Joestar was, having collaborated with the Speedwagon Foundation for cleanup and medical and psychological treatments there, after Weirdmageddon.

Sheriff Blubs and Deputy Durland were standing outside the room waiting patiently, talking with some of the doctors. He recognized the Pines Family in the group and made his way over to them with a hard look on his face. "I'm sorry but you all made your way over here a bit too soon. They're due to wake any minute now just waiting. The cafe is normally closed on Sundays here, but since under the circumstances, from what I've heard at least, how important it is you need to speak with those kids, the cafe employees have opened it up for just our small group so we have somewhere better to wait than just this hallway. I'll show y'all down there so we can wait." So Sheriff Blubs and Deputy Durland led them downstairs to the hospital's partner cafe.

And now they waited for the teens to wake up.

McGucket hummed and sang quietly to himself as he finished the dishes from his earlier breakfast with the one manotaur that always stops by. "Hmm hmmphmm hmm and my banjo was from lady sarah…" he sang quietly to himself.

Suddenly he heard a great deal of commotion outside, so he peeked out the small kitchen window. Another Speedwagon plane was landing?

"What in the world…"

McGucket ran outside to see who could possibly have business so urgent they had to time to inform him of their arrival. He walked up to the plane, holdingdown his has so it didn't fly off, and called out in the direction of the door. "Y'know, y'all could at least start giving me warnings before ya keep landing in my backyard and scare the bejeesus outta me?!"

McGucket looked up when he heard a woman's voice answer back. "I'm sorry...I thought they told you of my arrival…"

"Oh! I don't believe we've ever met miss…?

'Holly. Joseph is my papa."

"Well Miss Holly, what could bring you all the way to our rinky-dink little town?" he asked, raising his eyebrow. Clearly her father doesn't know she's here, or was coming, otherwise he would've said something right?

"I'm worried about my son. The last I heard he was in the company of my Papa but I haven't heard anything from Jotaro in about a week...nobody's saying anything. I need to make sure my son is okay."