The extended family ran over to the wreckage while Curzon Cankerblight was wildly, madly, maniacally just about flattening the rest of the marketplace around them - the entire plaza now emptying out as the creatures finally made the conscious decision to leave. Within time, it was just that immense, millipedic creature and his frenzied, blinded screaming - and, down below, the Pines family - grouped together and clearing the last of No.42 from the source of the echoed, hollow groans and sounds of struggle below.

There, below one of many large piles of bricks, sat two wood and metal framed barrels - still largely in one piece.

The family leaned in, not entirely sure what to expect.

Realistically, they should have at least expected the minor heart attack Mabel gave them.

"HELLO!" Mabel shouted with a grin on her face - cut, bruised and battered with a bit of a nosebleed. "We jumped in some barrels and got covered in slime!"

Dipper groaned and pulled himself out. "I think I… I think I broke my arm."

"He did. This one!" Mabel promptly began poking Dipper's fractured arm with merciless persistence, her brother whining and begging her to stop.

Crushed bones, bleeding - Curzon hadn't been lying, per se - but the battered Pines twins were very much alive, and, all told, not exactly suffering. Unless you count Dipper being prodded ruthlessly by his sister.

"You had us worried like hell!" Wendy grinned, hugging Dipper tightly, while Stan lifted Mabel clear of the putrid, sour contents of her wooden safety barrier.

Dipper was so dazed and clouded by worry over his broken bone, he barely even recognised the fact his girlfriend was standing behind them. He wrapped his good arm around Wendy and closed his eyes happily. Holding her as tight as he dared.

And trying his damndest not to smell her hair or snuggle into her or-

Wendy let go of him promptly. She was no slouch when it came to the kids' crush on her. Oh no, she knew all too well what was happening, and shoved Dipper towards Pacifica without a moment's hesitation. "You want cuddling, dude, you've a girlfriend who's been worried sick!"

Dipper stumbled and promptly came face to face with a teary-eyed Pacifica, staring at her beaten up boyfriend. She threw herself at him, fighting back tears for what seemed like the hundredth time today, squeezing the breath of the weedy thirteen year old.

"P-Paz-"

"Shut up, Dippingsauce."

Dipper stumbled and wheezed, wrapping his arm tightly around her and giving a broad smile, promptly kissing her on the cheek and burying his head against her. That - that was something he was pretty sure he could stay with forever.

He tried to lift his rather useless fractured arm around her and failed miserably, opting to just squeeze her a little closer.

Pacifica sniffled as she held him. " I was so worried I was so worried I was so worried- "

Tears trickled down her cheeks, ruining her already smeared makeup and dripping onto Dipper's shoulder as she held onto him, flooded with relief and emotion at the fact they had actually managed to bring him back to her - from a freaking collapsed building.

It felt like a miracle.

The family watched, smiling, rather taken in by the heartfelt reunion. Even Mabel knew better than piping up during the moment.

Saying that Pacifica did have something to whisper in Dipper's flushed, red ear as she held onto his waist. "If you ever hug Wendy before me again, I'll kill you."

"G-got it." Dipper whispered back, nervously.

He uh… he probably deserved that.

Soos leaned in and took a close look at Dipper's rather battered-looking arm, treating it as he would a furniture repair job.

"I don't want to break up this touching reunion, dudes, but I think we should get this thing fixed up."

"Do you even know how to treat a broken bone?"

"Sure thing, bro. Just need some duct tape."

Pacifica wiped her eyes again and afforded herself a little chuckle.

Okay. Okay, collect yourself, Paz - wait. No, no. Pacifica. Okay. Collect yourself, Pacifica - get a grip. Time to move.

She was beginning to process the fact she'd punched a monster and was not feeling any more comfortable with the fact. She'd scold Dipper properly later. For now, her thoughts were entirely fixed upon finishing this hellish day-and-night stint of complete madness she'd been thrown into by a tacky little snowglobe.

Her eyes wandered up to the gas main that Stan had tried to push her towards. It must be what? Eighty feet? A hundred feet? It was. .. no insubstantial thing to scale. Pacifica had gotten a little bit taller, sure - and she did pride herself on being a little taller than Dipper, not including that fluffy...quiff thing he called a hairstyle. But getting up there still felt more like a mountain.

She furrowed her brow, looking at the fracturing buildings and rattling pipes that layered up to the ceiling - the rocking, swaying frames that were once the Plaza's shops and stalls. Maybe even homes.

Curzon's shell . People were living, working and buying in Curzon's shell. They were going about their weird little lives in the exoskeleton of some kind of liquorice multi-legged demon snowglobe seller and they didn't even know .

Eugh.

She shuddered and glanced at Mabel, explaining her ordeal to Grunkle Stan with no shortage of enthusiasm - save the occasional cough of plaster and concrete fragments.

Pacifica sighed. She had thrown herself down a fleshy corridor twice, she had confronted people, she had smashed things up, she had punched a monster and she was about to do something ridiculously stupid and compulsive.

She was becoming more like a Pines every day.

She ran up to hyperactive Pines twin and grabbed the grappling hook. "Mabel, if you had to climb to the ceiling, where would you start?"

Mabel blinked.

" Now , Mabel!" the blonde snapped, cocking the thing in a thinly veiled attempt to look impressive.

"Uh.. you want to start going as high as you can vertically, then try and get to the other side, like a zig-zag-"

"Great. Thanks."

"Wait! I have diagrams if you need them, Paz! They're made of Macaroni-"

Pumpf!

Pacifica shot the Grappling hook clumsily and yelped as it pulled her in, onto one of the crumbling buildings beside her - a strangely Mediterranean looking Inn with terracotta walls. She hit the surface rather painfully with a hollow thud and winced, gripping hold of the closest ledge and taking a deep breath.

Whoa.

She did it! Pacifica Pines, Grappling hook expert! I mean, hell, if Mabel can do it, why shouldn't she, right? It's nothing. At this rate, she'll be going on adventures by herself without even needing the tw-

It was here that Pacifica made the fatal mistake of looking down - where the body of the Crawlspace's multi-legged overlord screamed, still thrashing wildly, still blinded and still on a path of destruction.

It didn't particularly help that Pacifica was now discovering a certain sense of vertigo.

Great.

"Ah'll be seein' ye in the fiery depths, lassie!" the face that had once been Angus shouted, spitting his blue phlegm with abandon as he crashed against the building Pacifica was using as a starting base.

The building shook and began to fall in on itself, rumbling to the floor. She screamed and gripped hold of the hook, trying desperately to plan her next move as quickly as she could.

Now or never, Paz, now or nev-

Pumpf!

Another clumsy shot led her to the leaning roof of a building halfway across the plaza.

Deep breaths. That drop was not something she liked to entertain. But uh… hey, she'd gotten this far, right? Right. Okay, okay, this was working, this wasn't too bad, she could do this-

"She can't do this!" Dipper stammered, breaking into a panic.

"Yeah! I'm the grappling hook expert and her technique is all wrong."

"We need to help her, she could get hurt! She practically breaks down when she gets a bruise!"

"Whoa there, dudes." Wendy grinned, pushing Dipper back down. "You've already gotten hurt. Maybe it's her turn."

"Besides." Grunkle Stan said. "She's just gotta get up there and knock the pipe off."

Tyler watched silently as Pacifica attempted to scale the underground enclave - then whipped his head around to Stan. "Wait, You're going to blow the place up?!"

"Na."

"Oh, thank goodness, I-"

"She's gonna blow it up."

Stan grinned, hands on his hips as he watched his new member of the family persevere against just about every fear and anxiety she knew.

There was potential in the kid yet.