The light receded as three travelers found themselves standing under a beautiful expanse of a thick orange alien sky, with patches of green dotted among it. Under the guidance of Stanford Pines, Dipper Pines and Pacifica Northwest has taken their first steps onto a life bearing alien world.
After escaping the space station they'd previously adventured on, the trio had returned to their home for only a short while. Stanford's work quickly determined Bill Cipher was still in the same universe, having merely used psychic projection to travel across space. As such, they could not use time distortion between dimensions to buy themselves downtime and had to set off after him as soon as they were resupplied.
"That was probably for the best." Dipper thought to himself. He hadn't even seen Mabel during his return to earth, having not even left the underground laboratory during the stopover. "I can't run away from this forever, but... I just need time to work this out. How could she have hid that from me for so many years!" Then, he shook his head and gazed onto the horizon, deciding to stow such thoughts for and take in the breathtaking alien vista.
Pacifica was in much the same place of mind, the grand view and wonder of an alien world spoiled by dark thoughts. Shooting the insect soldier to save Dipper's life had brought back to surface the deaths of her own parents at the hands of Bill Cipher. Even if they'd become increasingly harsh and neglectful to her as they lived as members of the middle class, Pacifica was uncomfortable with her stunted emotional reaction to the event. Should she be feeling bad, feeling bad about not feeling bad, or is this void of emotion acceptable? In the end, she also opted to simply watch the skyline for a moment.
Ford meanwhile, had completed his analysis of the surrounding area. "Atmosphere is breathable but projected, so keep your eyes out for some kind of dividing line we shouldn't cross. Other than that conditions are surprisingly Earth-like, though gravity tension shows we're pretty high above the planet's sea level..."
The reason for that became clear a moment later, as the three began to look around their environment properly and realized they were on a huge platform attached to some kind of industrial installation, as when they turned around from their original positions the colorful skyline disappeared behind tall exhaust towers and light studded buildings.
More pressingly, Bill Cipher was right behind them.
Well, a body possessed by Bill at least. The original being was human shaped (two arms, two legs and a head) but clearly alien, having long, bony fingernails, exceedingly damp, slimy skin that danced with shifting patches of bright color, and a head that was covered in firm bristles but not a spot of hair. Despite his ability to hide his possession, Bill was proudly broadcasting a twisted grin, an improvised walked stick and a bright yellow light flowing out of the alien's naturally small, beady eyes.
"Heya Sixer, Pine Tree, Laama, enjoying the sights!?" The possessed vessel spoke to the three. Ford didn't even respond, instead opting to dig inside his coat for a non-lethal weapon, but was quickly chided by the possessed alien. "I wouldn't do that Sixer, since Overseer Fex (that's me now, by the way!) has posted security snipers to observe your arrival and called for backup. Oh, here they are now!"
With heavy footsteps, a band of aliens of the same species as Bill's possession but in heavier armor came storming out onto the platform and surrounded the intruders, menacing them with drawn sticks crackling with electricity and hip stowed sidearms. "Take them away boys! And do be careful with them, we CERTAINLY wouldn't want any accidents befalling our mysterious guests, now would we?" The dream demon stated sarcastically.
The security staff moved in around the three humans, and while the younger two were tense with potential motion, Ford was indicating they should give up for now. "Now gentlemen, if you're going to be rough on anyone take it out on me, these two are no threat to you. Now, I'm guessing your immediate assumption is that we're spies, so I'll get things out of the way and protest that we're simply visitors so you can not believe me now rather than later." He remarked as his hands were folded behind his back to march him.
"Wait, guys, you're all being tricked, your boss here is an evil demon!" Dipper tried to argue as he was similarly manhandled. "...Wait, I bet most of you already think that..."
"Is nobody in the multiverse ever happy to see you guys?" Pacifica asked sarcastically while being captured herself.
As they were marched through the industrial facility, the travelers from Earth noticed that, for the massive size of the construction on the outside, the interior was a notably small series of corridors, offices and control rooms with very few elevators and stairs. "Given the apparent tech level, much of this facility is probably heavily automated..." Ford observed out loud.
Everyone they passed fit into two categories: Either they were more members of the alien species Bill had possessed, wearing everything from military uniforms/body armor, baggy full body outfits similar to industrial laborers on earth, and jumpsuits held on by tool bearing belts and sturdy helmets, while the other group were more uniform: Extremely tall individuals clad entirely in what were presumably protective suits with large breathing mechanisms on the face and chest, connected to back mounted tanks. It was unclear how whatever was inside the suit saw the outside, as the outfit lacked a viewing plate.
To their surprise though, instead of prison cells, the trio were delivered to what was clearly a medical laboratory, with several cots, human sized liquid tanks and secured needle boxes scattered between the tables piled with sample bottles, chemical mixers and data reading personal computers. One of the aliens was waiting for them, clad in a bright orange and extremely tight long sleeve jacket and pants but no shoes, gloves or head garment. Instead those areas were encased with a thin plastic-looking sheer that extended out of the arm holes, pant legs and neckline of his outfit.
This alien scientist approached them with careful intrigue, already taking note of their unique demeanor: Stanford was straightening his back and attempting to look non-threatening but dignified, mentally putting his words together for the inevitable moment when he'd be asked who they are. Dipper was simply gazing around the alien laboratory in delight, while Pacifica was tapping her foot with a mix of anger, impatience and wariness.
"Hmm, emotional responses seem possible, engaging preliminary central scan." He breathed to no one in particular, first running a display bearing stick with two curly coil wires coming out of the end up and down Ford's body, before holding up a large, flat pad with a screen on one side and a wide lens and numerous sensory devices on the other. After holding it up to Ford's head for a minute, he used the pad but not the stick on Dipper and Pacifica, and soon after set it down and cracked a smile at the three. "Well congratulations, none of you are Cybercontrolled Auxiliary Organics to the enemy."
While the group simply looked confused despite the psychic translation, the alien continued on. "Of course, this means you think you're not converted. Could have all kinds of little tricks and flash programmers wired into your nervous system just waiting to strike, which is why I regret to say that you'll all have to remain in this room, under guard until the Deep Nerve Analyzer confirms you have no bugs inside you." He explained while pointing to a raised platform across the room, which when active used magnets to float a sensor ring up and town the user's body. "But, this preliminary tests show your original intelligence is currently intact, so I have some conversation buddies for the long analysis. But where are my manners? I am Mutrak Galaray Havrum of the Swift Coral School, and I apologize for the whole prisoners thing."
"Doctor Stanford Pines, a pleasure to meet you, think nothing of it." The old human replied with startling practiced efficiency while stepping forward to be the first one into the scanner, taking any possible hits for the younger two and getting close enough to examine it.
"Ah, a sapient of science, that's delightful!" The lab worker said with sincerity. "Tell me, what brings you to this backwards stretch of the galaxy? Do you... do you remember why you're here?"
"Well to be honest I don't entirely know where here is. The three of us were experimenting with a new transporter device and aren't really sure if it fired correctly." Ford replied as the the sensor ring moved up and down his body, searching his biological form for synthetic intrusion.
"Oh dear. Well, I can confirm you've gone far off course." Doctor Havrum replied. "Welcome to Rigel 7, a water logged, swamp choked moon of an unstable gas giant." he explained with resignation. "You're aboard Aqua-Pump 333, an industrial facility that collects gas products of the swamp below us and processes them for transport off world, operated by the Dralldak Mining and Munitions Company. The gasses produced by this environment, you see, are used as high quality ionizer for direct energy weapons by the military of over 100 member states of the Living Pact. As messy business as this place and its sister locations are, they do provide an invaluable tool for use against the Enemy."
Everyone's attention perked at the mention of this mysterious enemy once again. Ford however, quickly deduced that showing no knowledge of an enemy that over 100 galactic governments were working together against was the most suspicious thing possible, so instead he opted to move the conversation down the other avenue. "By, messy business do you mean Overseer Fex? He was quite heavy handed with us when we arrived."
The alien seemed caught in his own thoughts for a moment, muttering "Yes, Fex has been acting a little unusual lately, I should try to arrange a checkup for him..." Then he snapped to, and responded more directly with "No, I mean the trouble with the natives."
"What kind of natives and what kind of trouble, exactly?" Pacifica asked, derision creeping into her voice and memory of one of her ancestor's paintings into her head.
"The native Rigelians are one of the most interesting sapient species I have studied." Doctor Havrum explained. "They live as sapient, telepathic free floating masses of sea weed like organisms, surviving as ambush predators directly draining electrical energy from their prey in the murky, plant covered swamp bottoms. Fascinating biology, but they are, unfortunately, very primitive otherwise." Then, he seemed to catch is own words, then stumbled out a follow up: "No, primitive isn't the right word. Their grasp of tactics and the limited telepathic connections they've made with some of us show they're undeniably intelligent and it's absurd to think their technology would develop along the same lines as ours, but, but they just don't understand!" he cried out in frustration.
"What don't they understand exactly?" she asked again.
"They don't understand the threat the enemy poses to the galaxy, to life as a concept!" He exclaimed, then rubbed the plastic film over his head in a frustrated manner and spoke in a slower, more regretful manner. "They don't want us on their planet, drawing resources out of their swamps, and under normal circumstances galactic law would respect that but the resources here are too vital to the war effort. Sure, blaster weapons with more 21.9% higher stopping power, 70% faster cooling efficiency and a 4-fold ammunition capacity isn't as dramatic or flashy as the Jaxal Cluster's Battlesphere but performance reviews prove they are game changers! When the mutual understanding programs reach fruition though, when they understand the danger they're in, I'm certain they'll cooperate with us."
"What kind of a program is that?" Dipper asked with genuine curiosity.
"It'd be much easier to show you actually." Doctor Havrum stated, then made a beckoning gesture across the lab, and to the surprise of all three earthlings, one of the tall, full body suited individuals they'd seen in the corridors surged into motion, having blended in perfectly with the rest of the lab equipment due to a total lack of prior movement.
"This is a Rigelian Cultural Exchange Suit." The local doctor explained. "Developed by people much better paid then I am to provide a comfortable means for the psychic, non-localized nervous system Rigelians to move among the instillation and hopefully learn to communicate." He then looked slightly distressed. "They understand us perfectly well, as they've responded to media recordings and psychoprojections about the Enemy by willingly assisting in the operation of the systems here, but none of them have managed to use the vocabulator to generate consistent speech."
"So how to you pick out people to be brought aboard and put in the suits?" Pacifica asked, her voice growing accusing at the idea. "You said yourself you can't really communicate with them very well even when they're in the suits, so how do you pick them out?"
"Well, we, just kind of collect the healthiest seeming ones of the bunch whenever we're looking to expand the number of operational suits." Havrum explained, sounding more uncomfortable with the idea the longer he discussed it. "Believe me, the idea we may accidentally be separating family members as they understand it from each other has occurred to us, but command assures when communication is achieved they'll all be put back together, it's for their own good in the long run."
Pacifica scowled, having heard her father use similar language regarding his business holdings in third world countries, but chose not to push the point while they were already under suspicion. Soon enough, all three had been scanned and were being shuffled off to a brig cell ("purely temporary, until the paperwork clears") while Doctor Havrum prepared to file his results: the three visitors were completely clean of infectious cybernetics.
Unfortunately, he was due for a visitor.
"Heya Coral, how's it hanging!?" Overseer Fex practically yelled from a few inches away from the aquatic alien's head, sending him falling from his chair both from the noise and surprise. When did Fex get so soft footed. "I'm just dropping by to confirm the discovery of infiltration cybernetics in person, you know, cut out some paperwork!"
The medical expert collected himself on the floor, gathering up the papers he'd dropped and getting to his feet. "Well, sir, in that front I actually have some good news! They're completely clean of cybernetic implants! While I still don't know where they came from to start with, we can rule out..." He trailed off a Fex gently placed a finger over his lips, running it back and forth to smoosh the plastic film a little. The usually serious Overseer had been acting more whimsical than usual for a bit, but this was downright strange!
"That's really not what I wanted to hear doc." He spoke in a faux regretful tone. "What I needed you to tell me was that you'd successfully located the cybernetic implants that make them pre-programmed agents of The Enemy, and are definitely willing to sign the execution order to have this threat neutralized as soon as possible!"
"Sir! I... I can't sign that, they're not enemy agents, that'd be murder!" He protested, growing afraid of his usually stern but reasonable boss.
"And this is war." Fex stated pointedly. "The most important war in the history of forever, and sometimes in war, people get murdered." He said in a mocking, baby talk tone. "It can either be the prisoners, or it can be some unfortunate civilians who simply had the bad luck of dwelling in well furnished coral house on depth level 39 on the north tide neighborhood of the city of Shragath."
Havrum's swim bladder felt like it was turning to stone, sending waves of dread as it knocked into the walls of his insides. That address was where he and his wife were tending to their collection of eggs, still in the very basic stage of life before they'd be collected and sent to School to grow in a great community of thousands. But though he talked about his wife and offspring as often as anyone else, he'd never said that address out loud, how did the increasingly manic looking Overseer know?
"I know lots of things!" Fex responded, practically reading his mind. "Now, do your job, report those implants, and sign their death warrants!" And with that, he clicked on his heels and walked out, leaving a shaking scientist behind. "I expect that termination notice on my personal computer in five minutes!"
Left shaking in panic and disbelief, Doctor Havrum disregarded lab protocol and ripped the protective film from his head before spraying himself with a bottle of mineral water mixed into a crude approximation of his homeworld's seas. All the stress had nearly dried out his skin.
"This is madness, this is murder!" He panicked to himself. "But, there's no way he could possibly threaten my family, they're three sectors away!" But as he thought more on his dilemma, the more fear grew inside the amphibious scientist. "Something about his eyes though... Those eyes, staring and burning into me. He meant every word of it. I have no idea how he'd do it, but the beast that used to be this base's Overseer would see my family dead, somehow."
"I need to alert, orbital, need to alert command the base commander has gone insane!" He spoke out loud, now talking to himself and pacing from terror. "But that will take time, I can't just let them..." His words trailed off as he looked over to the now completely still Rigelian lab assistant. "You, you can help them! Please, my faithful assistant, go to the brig and set those people free! Hopefully they can stay alive long enough for me to get Fex relieved of command and the order rescinded."
The strange, suited up being was silent for a moment, looking down on the alien with an inscrutable method. Then, without any noise, it lumbered out the door, hopefully down to the brig. When that was done, Doctor Havrum went to the nearest computer terminal and began typing the order.
Down the hallway, Bill Cipher was cheerily driving the body of Overseer Fex down an uninhabited hallway, the body's nerve receptors doing a poor job of translating Bill's sadistic happiness, and the consciousness of the Fex screaming at his own body every step of the way.
"WITH SIXER SENTENCED TO DEATH I THINK MY TIME ON THIS SCRAP HEAP IS COMING TO AN END!" Bill thought to himself, then said the following out loud so the real Fex could hear him. "So Fexy-boy, you made a deal with me because you wanted a way to make this swamp gas even more potent, and I've finally got an answer for you: Blow up an industrial refinery in the middle of a huge pocket of it!" He laughed a little, then added softly "I know it's not battlefield applicable right now, but the DARPA boys will sort that out."
Coming upon an abandoned break room, Bill drove the body to punch in the code for an empty snack shelf on a snack machine. A moment later, the makeshift door slide back and Bill entered a secret space intended as a hidey hole in case of alien invasion. Inside the small chamber was one of the Rigelian Cultural Exchange Suit, cracked open, and it's occupant strewn out across the air of the place, the shifting cords of seaweed like substance pulled to their absolute tensest by a carefully arranged series of wall hooks.
"Ready to scream for mommy?" Bill asked mockingly before turning on the electricity.
Down in the brig, the three had been quickly searched so all weapons and tools could be confiscated and then shoved in a single room together. Dipper chose to break the silence by asking the question on everyone's mind. "Grunkle Ford, do you think "The Enemy" they were talking about are the same... whatever that wiped out that space station?"
"I'm certain of it." Ford replied. "We're in the same dimension and they've been described as a galactic level threat. It's the perfect background for Bill to worm his way in and acquire power, make deals with people who are scared of this enemy enough, desperate to survive." He was walking around the cell while he talked, looking for anything of interest in the simple, rectangular room.
"We need to get ready, I don't doubt Bill is gonna cut the red tape to take care of us." Pacifica stated while trying to fit herself sideways against the door. Dipper nodded, and also did his best to try and position himself. In the end, it was less than impressive: The utter simplicity of the perfectly flat walls, floor, ceiling and wall mounted cots proved difficult to set up an ambush in, and the most they'd accomplished was Ford discarding his coat for Dipper and Pacific to hide under while he stood right in the front of the door to catch attention. Still, if security guards had orders to just enter the room and spray them down, there was little they could do.
Fortunately, when the door slid open, it wasn't a heavily armed kill team behind it, simply a single suited up Rigelian, who then stood back from the entrance, seemingly to let them out. The three looked in confusion, until Pacifica noticed something distinguishing about it. "You're that one the doctor showed us, aren't you?" She asked. "You've got a little purple dye stain on your arm I noticed back when you were introduced to us."
The suited being didn't respond, but did begin to lumber after them when they took off down a corridor, retracing their steps to the confiscated gear.
Shortly after, the three were approaching a hallway checkpoint, where the hallways was cut across the center by iron bars, and the only way into and out of the brig was to pass through a transparent aluminum and force field protected security station, which had a door on one side of the bars, a door on the other, and all their confiscated gear inside. As they approach, a small compliment of the aquatic aliens in security uniforms were lounging about, looking bored.
"Okay, corporate security has two kinds of people in it." Pacifica whispered as they approached the post as quietly as possible down the narrow hallway. "The kind of people who want every day to have a fight in it, or the kind who'd like their work hours to have no fighting at all. Let's hope these guys are the second type."
Abruptly though, everyone at the station perked to attention as their personal comms lit up. A few of them turned to march down the hall, then stood slackjawed upon spotting the humans walking up to them. Shortly after, they eagerly drew weapons and began throwing sizzling energy bursts down the way. The humans' escape had been discovered.
"Always gotta be type ones." Pacifica groaned as she dove for cover. The three of them found temporary safety behind door frames and a full face water fountains. A small number of security troopers were advancing slowly, practicing undue caution with the idea the escapees might be waiting to ambush them with concealed weapons.
"Grunkle Ford, catch!" Dipper shouted, tossing the older man a pocket weapon hidden in the sole of his foot, an absolutely pitiful hold out blaster that was nonetheless the only option available. Ford attempted returning fire with it, but couldn't even penetrate the rent-a-cop armor the attackers were wearing with it.
Suddenly though, the Rigelian, who'd locked up and stood stock still when the shooting began, animated once more and began advancing on the soldiers. "What the abyss is one of those stupid seaweeds going here?" One of the troops shouted in confusion and anger.
"Who cares, probably some delivery job it doesn't understand, keep firing!" Another responded, and in their attempts to shoot the earthlings, security landed several grazing blows on the suited alien, though they otherwise completely ignored his presence.
This changed when, in a moment where it seemed like the hulking suit would pass through the shooting squad without incident, it snapped with speed no one on base thought the suits were capable of and grabbed one of the soldiers by the legs and swung him once into the bulkhead, hard enough to dent his helmet and crumple his muscles. It dropped him to the floor before reaching for another.
"Damn thing's gone psycho, waste it!" A security officer called out, but the powerful suit was already inside their formation, letting it break apart the individual officers with simply, powerful movements while their shots burned into the material but could not stop it. The few remaining guards inside the post rushed out with electrical batons and did even worse against it. Within seconds it was over, the security complement beat either unconscious or into immobilizing pain as the earthlings walked through a pile of heavily breathing, unnaturally shaped humanoids.
"Hey thanks, uh, plant guy." Dipper said to it after retrieving his own gear, unsure how to thank the still totally silent alien towering before him, showing no other signs of aggression now that all company employees were thoroughly beaten. Then a crease formed on the boy's forehead. "Uh, looks like you sprung a leak. Grunkle Ford, you think we should fix this?"
The older scientist was actually troubled at this. "Based on what we were told of how these aliens function, it's very possible loss of properly chemically balanced water could be a sizable problem for them. We do have some quick seal material that could at least patch the suit up, but Bill will now we escaped by now and we need to catch up to him." He posited, while feeling the weight of a new model Memory Gun in his hands, tuning it to Bill Cipher ahead of time.
"I'll do it." Pacifica spoke up. "Give me the spray stuff and I'll patch this guy up. It's the least we owe him."
"I'm not leaving you behind Pacifica." Dipper said with determination, which made the blond smile, but she was quick to play it off.
"Don't worry dork, I got these remember?" She said while holding up one of her Fast Return Switches. "Once he's all patched up or if more security arrives, I'll portal out into the Shack's basement. I have complete confidence you two can stop Bill."
Though it weighed heavily on Dipper, he nodded and took off with Ford to hunt down Bill, while Pacifica set to work looking for softly leaking patches and sealing them with quick drying liquid plastic from a silver container.
The alien stood completely still as Pacifica patched him up, but abruptly stomped a foot against the metal floor when she was done. The girl was slightly confused, but abruptly felt a feeling of energy flow from her feet to her head, and focusing in on the mindswimmer inside her sinus.
"HOME." She felt inside her head.
"You want to go back to the swamp, right?" Pacifica asked him. Though the psychic entity remained silent and physically immobile, she could feel affirmation rolling over her. Pacifica looked down at her disk mounted switch, then with a look of determination pocketed a security blaster. "Okay, I'll try to get you home."
Meanwhile, Ford and Dipper were racing down the metal corridors. They encountered little in resistance as almost everyone seemed to on duty. With no other idea how the facility was formed, the two opted to retrace their steps back to the medical laboratory and go from there.
Unfortunately, the laboratory was holding a grizzly sight: Doctor Havrum was laying over his computer desk, a smoking hole drilled into his head by an energy blaster. A second after spotting this, Dipper and Ford ducked low as Bill Cipher fired a blast at them from behind a table. "Don't you ever DIE Sixer!" Fex's voice screamed out Bill's frustration. He then fired a second blast to destroy the computer system, unsure if Havrum had sent out the report or not.
Ford returned fire against Bill, trying to aim for the knees so the possession victim could be exorcised via memory gun. Bill quickly ducked out the door, and the two humans ran off after him.
Pacifica meanwhile was following the massive animated suit deeper in the facility, with it having used several elevators flawlessly. She eventually found herself atop a series of maintenance walkways atop the water level, weaving between the great pipes sinking into the swamp. The surface of the water was choked by huge masses of what she knew at a glance was the native, psychic creatures, the great plant clumps possessing stem lumps that flashed various colors in strange patterns and filled the air with a heavy charge.
As she turned to ask a probably futile question to her companion, the charge that filled the air seemed to overwhelm her, as Pacifica's body grew heavy while her eyes dilated and began to glow. Every nerve ending in her body was telling her she was suddenly underwater, save the ones in the girl's chest that burned when oxygen levels were dangerously low. According to her eyes, she was floating in a murky void of some kind, and according to some other, inexplicable sense, the void was alive.
The Pines meanwhile had cornered Bill's host body on the edge of the landing platform they'd arrived on, still empty of a ship. The operated organic puppet came to a sliding stop just at the edge of the massive drop, and spun around to reveal Fex's own blaster was pointed at his chin as Ford approached, Dipper at his side and his own blaster aimed right at Bill's host.
"Aw come on Sixer, put the gun down will you?" Bill requested mockingly. "We both know you won't shoot a civilian just to get to me, and with this precarious drop behind me your kneecapping strategy is right out!" Ford didn't at all relax his grip, but did opt not to shoot, while Dipper had some uncomfortable memories brought back at the concept of Bill throwing a possessed body to its death. "Splendid! Now we can all have a little talk about how everyone on this scrap heap is going to die!"
"You are outsider pathogen. You function against the workings of the Metal Predator and were marked for phagocytosis. You are a separate individual. You have have shown help to an singed digit of our being." The Entity did not speak to her purely through words. The thought, the meaning the vast psychic intelligence opted to convey to Pacifica was carried through her watery realm in waves, and stimulated every nerve ending with its message. "You are to be spared."
"I've had less flattering descriptions of myself, but how about we talk about you?" Pacifica responded. When she spoke, all her sense told her water was filling her mouth and throat, save the ones that would warning her this is a bad thing, and she could still tell her words were understood. "What am I being spared from? What are you exactly?"
"We are the neuron cells of the world's dominant organism, prior to the arrival of the Metal Predators from the Driving Heat. The Metal Predators feed on our nutrient streams and consume our energy reserves, spreading sickness and death across the greater organism. The arrival of you and your fellow pathogens has coincided with our plan to end this suffering via mass destruction of Metal Predator body cells and nerve vessels."
"See, the psychic seaweed that evolved on this planet thinks each of the refineries are all just big single organisms eating them, so they plan to destroy them from the inside." Bill explained, taking great joy in his recollection of the conflict. "They don't really understand that the individual workers here all have personal intelligence, but hey when their only exposure to the idea is office workers, contractors and corporate rent a cops it isn't surprising they don't understand individuality!"
"We have grown inside the body of the Metal Predator, our interconnected network growing into the ducts and feeding tubes while disconnected parts have invaded heavy body cells and walked among the other body cells, engaging in retrovirus implantation inside the greater organism."
Understanding was beginning to dawn on Pacifica as well. "But how is that going to let you destroy the refinery?"
"The Metal Predator controls itself through an electrical nervous system, spreading out from a fuel inefficient central brain all over the body, delivering instructions to body cells via the glowing hormone dispensers." The Entity explained. "We have evolved the ability to release small chemical electrical discharges from out body sections for purpose of acquiring nutrients, but observation has shown that when the nerve system of the Metal Predator is giving too much electricity, body dysfunction and cell death occurs."
"They plan to use their electric eel trick to fry the electronics system coordinating the base after they wired their stems all over the place," Bill explained. "But, what they haven't counted on is a buildup of highly volatile waste gas a careless Overseer has allowed to reach critical mass," he continued with a malicious chuckle, "So when their electrical pulse goes off, the first blast will turn into a chain reaction, blasting this base to pieces! That'll leave you, your two brats, and everyone who worked here dead right away, while the burning, spewing remains of this base will be pumping hazardous chemicals into this lovely natural vista and poisoning the locals for far into the foreseeable future!"
"This action was not to be taken for some cycles, but aggression by the Metal Predator has accelerated out need." The Entity spoke to Pacifica. "It has begun deliberately damaging our nerve endings to send waves of suffering through the greater organism. We fear this means it has uncovered our scheme. Full saturation is not yet accomplished, but body cells that survive the electrical wave will be destroyed kinetically by the heavy cell infecting segments."
"You're planning to kill all them? All the workers!?" Pacifica asked with growing horror.
"Any surviving body cells would be conductive to regeneration of Metal Predator tissue. They are remarkably efficient in repair of self harm." The Void stated.
"You can't kill those people, the refinery doesn't work how you think it does!" Pacifica exclaimed. "Look, I understand you want to stop the attacks on your body, but you've misunderstood how these creatures work! The refinery itself isn't alive, it's just an object, like a rock or a pile of sand. Each and every one of those body cells has an individual mind, just like me and you, and you can't kill all of them just for revenge against the ones that wronged you!" She explained, memories of a Lumberjack Ghost willing to murder an entire party of unrelated people coming to mind.
The Entity did not respond right away. "We... do not understand. The Metal Predator functions as a collective whole, all pieces of it working in perfect unison to accomplish the process of feeding upon us then expelling waste. The body cells do not display individual desires or functions, nor do they feed on one another."
"I mean, that's corporate culture for you." Pacifica snorted, then took on a tone of sincerity. "I know it's difficult to understand for something who is so different from them biologically, and I know I can't explain it as well as Dipper of Doctor Pines could, so I'm not going to bother trying. Instead, I'm going to ask you to trust me that every body cells inside the Metal Predator has a mind of its own, and not all of them deserve to be punished like this. Please, they don't all deserve to die."
"We... do not understand your proclamations. But, we understand you have helped us, we understand your physiology gives you greater insight into this matter than us, and we understand that those thoughts bear great sincerity. We shall abort the electrical wave." Then however, the flat and neutral tone all the thoughts had come in took a darker, heavier tone. "However, we demand that the minds responsible for our suffering be eliminated. They must be punished for their crimes. This we will not falter on."
"Bill Cipher." Pacifica thought, focusing every fiber of her mind on the dream demon she so loathed, letting the psychic get a good, long look at her memory of him. "He's the one you want to destroy."
"Well, cheers then!" The previously mentioned dream demon said before throwing his possessed shell off the side of the platform, cackling madly as the soul of Fex screamed at him in terror and hate and he himself gathered his essence for another psychic projection.
Bill gathered his energy, his memories, his power, all his essence together in the front lobe and cast himself into the astral sea to hunt a new mind weak to his manipulations, and after building energy to the mass and launching himself outward into the open, infinite void, he instead slammed into a brick wall.
The comically exaggerated pose of relaxation he'd bent his host body into became panicked flailing as the great mass of psychic seaweed below used Pacifica's memories to latch in on Bill Cipher inside Fex's mind, trapping him inside and slowly growing tendrils from through the shutting down brain to reach him.
Bill was throwing all his power into a single spot of the mental wall, attempting to break through, when the first root reached him. The mud breaking plant root drilled into his open eye, the perpetual symbol of his true being, ripping apart the outer shell and plunging deep. Cipher screamed in mental agony while Fex's soul laughed madly at this. Fighting through the pain, the dream demon continued to bombard a single point in the wall with all his psychic power, which was slowly being drunk away by the invading roots, digging through the lone eyeball, spreading tendrils and breaking the surface from below to sprout water lilies.
Finally, his strength draining every second, Bill punched a hole in the wall the size of a needle and though his essence drained through it, the roots got in one last win as segments of Bill ripped free by the drinking suction of the roots and were stuck behind. Cast into the astral sea, blinded by pain and severely weakened Bill's mind downloaded into the single most receptive thing in range, as he was desperately in need of any kind of harbor in this storm, not matter how ill-suited his new body would be...
Pacifica returned to reality, no longer surrounded by water and still standing on the maintenance platform while her suited companion waded into the muk without acknowledgement. It took her a moment to regain her senses, and when she did the blond realized her walkie-talkie was crackling. "...cifica, Pacifica, can you hear me!? Grunkle Ford's computer says your Faster Return Switch hasn't flipped yet! We need to get out of here, this place is going to explode!"
Not realizing she herself has averted the threat Dipper was speaking of, her eyes widened. "I hear you Dipper, I can escape back at anytime, I'll explain everything back on earth. Are you guys clear to leave?"
"We are, though we lost Bill. He's probably halfway across the galaxy by now..." Dipper explained bitterly.
In spite of the imminent danger, Pacifica couldn't help but grow a satisfied smile. "Actually, I think I might have gotten him." She was still taken by surprise when his meat puppet hit the water, but brightened up when she felt a faint message on the edge of her brain from the native intelligence. "Again, I'll explain everything back on Earth. Let's get out of here."