Author's Notes: High everyone, massive apologies for the long lengths this chapter took to come out, lot of things going on for me that slowed it down, but I'm confident you didn't come here to read me whine. I do want to make two things about this story known however: The direction the story is going to take from here onwards is always what I had planned, and the long wait between updates was not due to any kind of rewriting on my part. Secondly, a later section of this chapter is fairly gruesome, so you have been warned. The story will warn you in advance when the bloody stuff is approaching and it lasts for one complete scene before ending.
Right, on with the show.
As soon as Dipper and Mabel stumbled back to the parked van, leaning on each other's shoulders, Pacifica instantly began dialing back to the Mystery Shack to call for help. Soon after that, the three teenagers stumbled into the vehicle and sealed the doors, taking shelter in the spacious cargo hold. A quick explanation was offered up while Dipper went digging for the emergency kit stored in the vehicle to staunch his and Mabel's bleeding.
Then, after what was a much shorter period of time than the time period it had taken the three to drive the van from the Mystery Shack to this location, Stan's automobile came to a skidding stop on the dirt road, throwing up huge amounts of rubble. The older pair of twins jumped out of the vehicle before the engine had even died, both with furious expressions on their faces and weapons on hand. However, the expressions softened and the weapons stowed when the three teenagers stepped out the van, replaced by a big group hug.
"Thank goodness you kids are safe!" Stan exclaimed as the hug broke up, genuine relief pouring out of his voice. "Now, where's the bastard who tried hurting you, I'm gonna make him wish he was getting killed by someone much less emotionally unstable than me!"
"It's... it's dead." Dipper breathed out, getting a surprised look from Pacifica and Stan. He had stood up to enter the hug, but sat down on the tailgate of the van after, his leg was still injured. "It had nearly killed me with a sword, but Mabel tackled it off a cliff and punched it all the way down..."
"...But it had me on the run right after that, until Dipper burst in out of nowhere and, uh, bro what exactly did you do to that thing anyway? I was too busy trying a sample mix of forest dirt and my own blood at the time to see exactly." Mabel cut in, talking excitedly about her brother's exploit.
"I had... gotten the cyanide crystals out of the insect catching jar and used some of the canteen water to vaporize them." He explained in a voice that suggested the whole chain of events hadn't fully set in with him yet. "After that, I stuck it under the veil it was wearing and let the fumes overpower it." After a particularly deep breath, he added "We got really lucky cyanide poisoned that thing as well as it would have a human."
"That was still some quick thinking Dipper." Pacifica complemented, rubbing her hands on his back to try and calm the boy down.
"I take it the attacker was some kind of creature then?" Ford asked with a concern, having picked up on Dipper's word choices. "Right, luckily I brought some scanning equipment that should help us figure out if there are more out there." With that, he began walking towards the car. "Assume we are still at risk!" He called back to the group in a cautioning tone.
Stan meanwhile, had gotten down on one knee and clasped a hand on Dipper's shoulder. "Hey, kid, look at me." He said, usual brusque tone severely cracked at this point. "Don't beat yourself up over what happened back there. You did what you had to do, to protect yourself, and more importantly, your family."
Dipper looked up at his Great Uncle, a small frown on his face that quickly turned into a small, grateful smile. "It's alright Grunkle Stan, I know that. I'm just a little winded at this point, it's been a long day and I've lost some blood." He explained, while gesturing to the red stained wraps around his leg. "Whoops, time flies. Should probably change those..."
"I'll go get more!" Pacifica remarked eagerly, going over to the emergency kit while Grunkle Stan knitted his eyebrows in concern and a little confusion. Dipper's tone was unexpectedly casual and accepting of the situation, and he didn't know what to make of that. Mabel had a similar look on her face, where her smile had seemingly frozen in place and become much more artificial for a sharp moment, before she adopted a much more neutral expression.
"Hmm, residual arcane radiation suggests trans-dimensional travel consistent with one arrival, and background levels are normal, but I still need to examine the attack." Ford cut the air with his explanation, having examined a large scanning tool in the back of Stan's car. "Stanley, I need you to stay here, guard Dipper, Pacifica, and our vehicles. Mabel, I need you to lead me back to the attacker and help me examine them."
"You got it Grunkle Ford!" The girl responses before anyone else objected, springing to her feet. She turned around and gave Stan a quick look. "And before you say anything, Dipper needs to stay off that foot and Pacifica doesn't know the way. Don't worry, Grunkle Ford will keep me safe!"
His argument melted off the old man's face, prompting Stan to simply remark "I'm counting on YOU to keep him safe pumpkin, don't mess that up!" with a sarcastic grin on his face before the two departed back into the woods, leaving him alone with Dipper and Pacifica.
The two disappeared into the treeline, leaving the three to recover behind them. The trip into the woods was quiet to begin with, Mabel only speaking up to provide directions, but soon enough Ford was asking her more about the adventure she, Dipper and Pacifica had just had, resulting in him receiving a concise but accurate recounting of the day's events. The two were becoming more relaxed and comfortable as they went further and further without discovering any opposition.
"...and Dipper most likely still has the sphere at the van. I kinda lost track of things after we were attacked but it isn't like him to lose things." Mabel concluded, having related the story at length.
"I concur, Dipper is an astute and organized young man, I'm sure he wouldn't misplace such an incredible find, even under these stressful circumstances." Grunkle Ford agreed. "This really is quite the find you all made, by the way. Very good work."
Things were quiet between them for a moment, Mabel looking at the forest floor while Ford pressed forward, eyes bright while she was downcast. After a moment, she spoke up. "Grunkle Ford, did we do the right thing stealing this? I mean, those cave dwellers were weird, but they really needed it..."
"Yes, but the world needs it more Mabel." Ford replied matter of factly. "However many people you might have hurt by acquiring this object and bringing it into the wider world will be greatly outdone by the benefits it stands to offer the entire human species. Imagine the sheer amount of cheap, clean energy we can generate by fully understanding a magical object seemingly able to produce heat out of the arcane, or even better, if we develop the means to replicate it!"
Mabel turned her head sideways at Grunke Ford's explanation, a worried look still on her face. "Are you gonna make more neato light-bulbs out of that thing?" she asked after wrestling the question around in her throat. She regretted in instantly. "That was real brilliant sounding Mabel, good job." she thought to herself.
Ford took the question with a minimal reaction though, mentally chastising himself for getting ahead of the twin who hadn't been studying alongside him for a few years. "I won't go into all the fine technical details Mabel, but in short as long as you have a method of sustainability heating water you can create energy. Different types of fuel, from oil to nuclear material to natural gas, operate similar enough turbine mechanisms to generate electricity. All of them can be used to make water hot, hot water becomes steam, and then the steam turns a rotor to run a generator."
Mabel nodded her head in time with Grunkle Ford's explanation, getting the basic picture. "How does steam turn a whole generator though? All it does is cloud up the bathroom and mess with my hair." She thought to herself. "Still, basic picture, hot water equals electricity oooohhhh, this makes more sense now."
Ford smiled a little. "That's the look of the dawning of realization on your face, by the way." He said in a congratulatory tone. "So, different fuels have various downsides, with fossil fuels like coal and oil being the most deleterious to human health. Big picture environmental concerns aside, living within the waste output range of a fossil fuel power planet has severe, well documented negative health impacts on human beings, amounting to shorter, sicker lives and higher occurrence rates of cancers and other serious conditions. If the discovery you three made today is able to replace even one coal electrical plant, it will save upwards of thousands of people from early deaths and long term poor health, potentially reaching over generations." Ford came to stop at this point, leaning down to put a reassuring hand on Mabel's shoulder. "I hope that helped you feel better about your actions."
The female Pines twin didn't seem fully convinced however. "Well, that all makes sense Grunkle Ford, but it still seems like kind of a raw deal for the futurekind..."
Stanford got a bit of a steely expression, and while his tone hardened he did his best to remain warm sounding towards Mabel. "They should have come forward with their amazing technology." He said dispassionately. "If their description of the future they escaped from is accurate, they should know better than anyone the importance of building a better world, and they should have wanted to avert the fate that befalls mankind in their timeline!" He felt himself getting a little angry now, and stood up, turning his back to Mabel as he gazed into the deep forest. For her part, Mabel could tell immediately he wasn't angry at her, so she watched him with fearless interest.
"To have something of so much value to the world, to the human species, and to do nothing but selfishly cradle it to oneself in the dark, wasting its potential... it's deplorable." Ford spoke, an edge of disappointment getting into his voice. "Technology, resources, people, even raw knowledge... it has to be let free to achieve its full potential!"
Her great uncle's newest conversation train sent a rock sinking into Mabel's gut. "He... he's talking about Dipper, isn't he!?" she thought to herself, feeling guilt and anger boiling her in simultaneously. "I was never suffocating towards Dipper, I... I just..." Mabel's mind was scrambling to assemble a counterargument she could yell out loud, but the only thing she could hear in her head was her heart screaming out "I need my brother back for me! I don't care about the rest of the world!" which was something she knew she had to bury, keep away from her family.
However, Mabel's troubled silence prove fortuitous for her, as Grunkle Ford resumed speaking with something she hadn't anticipated. "And I lost sight of that." All of her inner turmoil went silent as she paid close attention to the old man, listening intently. "Bill filled me with such a terrible, all reaching paranoia that I fled into the depths, made my knowledge deliberately unhelpful and scattered it to the wind. I was ruled by fear, and in my fear I denied mankind what it rightfully deserved." He turned back to his great niece, a smile on his face. "That's why I'm so grateful to you and Dipper. You two dug up what I had thoughtlessly buried, and with Dipper's further help I'm able to pull my work out of the dust and the darkness, and have it carried into the light of the world."
"Maybe things should have stayed buried." The stray thought exploded into Mabel's mind without any of her own input, and she instantly put all her mental energy into strangling it, despite how well the ripples it left resonated over her mindscape. After what was an eternity in mental time, she put on a smile a moment later in the real world. "Is that going to include the mysterious attacker we came here to pick up?" she asked sweetly.
Ford's expression contorted into something resembling a surprised owl, as he suddenly expressed awareness of his surroundings. "Yes, of course. I'm sorry I went off on a bit of a tangent, we're still on course to its location, correct?"
Mabel just smiled wider and took the lead. "We're actually really close, it's just past this tangle of bushes!" she explained, finally letting the smile drop when she got ahead of her great uncle.
Back at the van, things had gone quiet after Mabel and Ford had left, Stan keeping his eyes peeled on the forest while Pacifica mildly fussed over Dipper's injury, even if nothing else could be done with it. Eventually, Stan's attention drifted to the two teenagers, focusing in on Dipper in particular. The kid, quite frankly, concerned him. As much as he intentionally left himself out of the loop in regards to his brother and great nephew's science adventures, he still noticed when Dipper came back from the woods with claw marks on his legs or emerged from the basement with mild electrical burns.
"Hey Dipper..." He spoke with a mildly uncertain tone, trying to pick his words carefully going forward. "When we get everything back to the Shack, how about you take a break from all this, at least until the leg heals? Me and Ford could go back into the portal instead, and I'll introduce these other worlds to the New Jersey school of boxing, eh!?" Stan had gained more confidence the longer he spoke, and ended his sentence by patting the pocket Dipper knew he kept his brass knuckles in.
Dipper looked up at his grunkle, a little surprised but appreciative. "That's great of you to offer Grunkle Stan, but I want to see this through to the end. Bill's done too much to me and the people I care about. I want to be the one to kill him." He spoke intensely, but lightened up a moment later and the rubbed the back of his head awkwardly. "Of course, it'll probably be Grunkle Ford who does him in eventually. I'll be happy just knowing he's gone."
Hearing something like that come from his great nephew actually made Stan balk a little, though he kept his expression well under control. "That's... that's a bit of a grim thing to say Dipper." he said in a soft tone, grappling with it himself.
"Well, it's just what you always tried to teach me: if the world hits me, hit back." Dipper replied starkly, causing Stan to wince a little.
"I'm not a good role model kid!" Stan blurted out, feeling a heavy mix of emotions as it struck him just how thoroughly Dipper had internalized his lessons from the very first summer. "And I was talking about, you know, real stuff! Like muggers or cheating bosses or cops or broads who just want your money! Not, you know, all of this!" He explained, while sweeping his hands about as if to hold all the mysteries of Gravity Falls in his hands as an example. "Dipper, why would you ever want to live the kind of lives me and Ford went through!?"
Dipper seemed surprised that this was the direction the conversation had taken, but quickly composed an answer none the less. "I'm not living the kind of life you lived at all Grunkle Stan, and with Grunkle Ford's guidance I'm traveling down a much safer, better known version of his path, the path of working to improve mankind through uncovering knowledge."
The old conman rolled his eyes at Dipper's reasons, but tried to do so below the young man's notice, an attempt he failed at. He then let out a defeated sigh and attempted to say in a nonchalant and dismissive tone. "Fine, fine! I'm only trying to keep the promise I made to your parents that first summer to keep you and your sister safe, but clearly you're a grown man at this point!"
It was at this point that Pacifica, who had until now stayed out of the conversation due to the general awkwardness of a non-family member entering into it, cut in with "That's a rich sentiment coming from someone who nearly killed Dipper and Mabel due to his own lack of reading comprehension!"
Dipper seemed surprised by Pacifica's sudden barb, but Grunkle Stan shot back before he could try to mediate. "This is a FAMILY discussion blondie, keep your stuck up nose out of it!"
"It's all about the family for you, isn't it? Except for the time you decided to risk killing every living member of your family with the original portal, on top of the rest of the world, just so you could clear your conscious of your own mistake!" Pacifica responded, quick as a whip. Dipper, who had turned his head towards the old man to say something to him, practically got whiplash turning back towards Pacifica to speak to her, but felt the words die in his throat as a chill went down his spine.
"How do you know about that?" Grunkle Stan asked in a low, cold voice that conveyed by tone alone he already knew the answer while narrowing his eyes. "Dipper, we all agreed that was to never leave the family."
The young Pines twin felt a flash of nervousness at his grunkle's uncharacteristic anger at this subject, but managed to swallow it within seconds in order to deliver a calm, straightforward defense of himself and his friend. "We did agree to that Grunkle Stan, but as the years went on, me and Ford resumed work on developing the portal technologies and Pacifica was becoming increasingly helpful to us. It was prudent for her to understand everything about the project." He explained curtly and calmly. Then, with a more sly tone of voice, added at the end "Come on Grunkle Stan, YOU of all people are going to get on someone's case for breaking a promise and dishonest behavior?"
That last one, admittedly, had been a minor fib. While many of the long and emotional conversations Dipper and Pacifica had had over the years he'd been in town as Ford's apprentice were about bringing her up to speed with the phenomenon of the two scientists' efforts to study them, the specific conversation about the opening of the portal and the return of the author had been a cathartic vent about Dipper's lingering fear of death and a deeply buried sense of betrayal towards his sister he always hated himself for carrying.
Stan had clearly been prepared to argue back, mouth open and index finger raised to pontificate, but Dipper's reference to his lack of any kind of moral high ground visibly deflated the old con artist. "Well, you got me there kid." he conceded graciously. Everyone sat in awkward silence for a few moments, not having any fresh arguments on hand, and further attempts to formulate more words were thankfully disrupted when Ford and Mabel emerged from the tree line hauling a corpse behind them, which fortunately defused the awkward conversation.
The laboratory beneath the shack was always kept cool to preserve the samples and experiments stored down there, but on this day the temperature was even lower than normal. Additional freezers had been carried into the general purpose room, a spacious square shaped chamber with a large, solid table built into the floor in the exact center upon which many things could be placed for whatever needed to be done that day. The extra freezer space was kept chill by the dizzying number of outlets along the walls, into which the devices were plugged. All of them sat on the floor however, as the objects which they'd been brought in to provide exclusive storage to were still deposited on the center slab, still assembled in the form of the now dead attacker from the woods.
While the three adventurers rested and recovered from the attack in the woods after a much safer drive back by the older twins, Ford had gone about prepping the body for dissection. Radiation scans had been run, the body had been bathed in anti-bacterial and anti-viral solutions, curse breakers were cast, and finally an X-Ray had been used on the corpse to ensure nothing explosive had been sewn into its guts. In the end, everything had come back clean, but even the slightest hint of Bill Cipher meant one must be prepared for all manner of nasty tricks.
Then, once the safety checks were done, the body had been laid out on the slab, and all needed supplies had been arranged around the general purpose room, Ford went upstairs and asked Dipper if he'd like to assist him with the dissection.
"Sure thing Grunkle Ford, I'll be ready to assist in about twenty minutes." He responded simply, a hint of enthusiasm to his voice even, causing all the surprised and somewhat disgusted expressions in the room to shift from the older scientist to the younger one.
"Uh, bro-bro, does dissection mean something else around here?" Mabel had asked, trying to keep a jokey tone about her despite how unexpectedly uncomfortable Ford's blunt announcement had made her. "You know, something other than taking the pointy bits to a dead body and taking it apart like a LEGO kit you're done with?"
"That's a very crude description Mabel, but no, dissection doesn't mean anything unusual here. It still means taking apart a once living organism to learn more about it." Dipper answered her with a somewhat flat tone to his voice, having already gotten out of his bed to slip on a thick laboratory coat.
"The only thing you should be learning about right now is the other side of the pillow Dipper!" Grunkle Stan spoke up, concern managing to cut through his usual gruff tone. "It's... it's too soon for you to be running around doing science when you should be getting rest."
"I've been in bed for seven hours Grunkle Stan, I'm ready to get back out there by now." He responded, tone a little dismissive before hardening with resolve. "Besides, this could be the advance scout for another attack on us by Bill. We need to learn everything we can about the situation as quickly as possible."
Stan let out a sigh, sinking back into the chair he'd been sitting it, before waving and speaking dismissively. "Fine, you two go do whatever you got to do. Just remember not to dump those bloody lab coats in the main washing machine again!" He yelled, before mumbling "All those fancy college degrees and he never learned how to get out a good blood stain..." to himself.
Now, the two scientists were downstairs, fully kitted out in protective gear and looking over the anatomically posed, monstrous corpse. In the time since it's death the body had dried out, skin stretching tight over the bones as the sizable muscles beneath began to bubble or deflate from rot. Close examination revealed patches of thin scaling on the humanoid monster's body, the patches harder of composition but the same shade of color as the skin around them. The three eyes on the monster's round, bald head were drying out as well, creating an odd, spooky crease to the section of head tattooed to create a likeness of Bill Cipher.
First things first, an arcane radiation scanner was brought down to provide readings on the body. It was a clunky box with a tube on one side and various setting dials on the other, mounted over the table upon a maneuverable arm, just like the teeth viewing lamp used in a dentist's office. Ford moved the scanner up and down the monster's body while Dipper sat at a laptop, interpreting the data the scanner collected. "Arcane radiation is level across the body, fading at rates consistent with death. If he has any more tricks, they're too good for our equipment."
"We must press forward in that case." Ford replied, sliding protective goggles over his eyes while bringing a tray full of sharp instruments to bear. He began with sharp incisions across the scalp, carefully dissecting the layers of skin the Bill Cipher effigy had been branded into with ink. After a short series of cuts, the entire skin layer peeled away easily, and Ford place it in a jar full of preservative chemicals and a radiation proof seal to the lid. "One of the chemical tests we perform will be on the ink used to tattoo that, it could reveal valuable information about where this assassin came from." he explained.
Dipper nodded in easy understanding. He was wearing identical eye protection as his Great Uncle, and had discarded his hat for the dissection, letting his birth mark shine free on his forehead. Starting at the feet, Dipper had been performing more preparatory work, making long incisions through the skin to divide it into sections that could easily be folded back to examine the anatomical structure beneath. He's prepped one entire muscular leg by the time Ford had removed the skin section.
Next, the senior scientist worked to delicately remove the specimen's eyes, scooping them out while preserving as much nervous tissue as possible and setting them inside smaller jars of preservative, helpfully labeled "left," "right" and "center" to keep clear which removed eye was which. Ford cut open the creature's large nose next, digging deep into its sinuses to both scoop out the slimy accumulation with, cut free tissue samples of the sinus lining, and used a pressure canister to suck air out of the creature's long silenced lungs, all useful tools to figure out what sort of atmosphere their native world had. Finally, he cracked open their mouth to examine their jaw composition and pluck a few teeth, key means to figure out what a creature had evolved to consume.
By the time Ford was done examining their specimen's head, Dipper had prepped the skin on the right leg, right arm and torso, and the two mutually decided to begin looking beneath. Despite being a heavy, thick sinew, the skin peeled back easily enough, and Dipper worked to clear accumulated yellow fat off the muscles of the arms, though he ultimately had little to do: the creature was extremely muscular.
"Musculature is well beyond the ability of a human being to develop." Dipper noted in a neutral, observational tone, jotting everything down in a notebook he kept in his inner coat pocket. After completing that observation, the young man seem posed to write further, but held the pencil in place with a small questioning look on his face, expression almost completely obscured by his safety googles.
"Something wrong Dipper?" Ford asked, looking up from his task of sawing through the creature's ribcage. The older uncle was well tuned to the tics and expressions of his great nephew after all the time they'd spent together.
"Well, this sort of muscle mass doesn't seem consistent with how it attacked us in the forest. Something like this should have easily slipped out of my rag hold and ripped me in half." Dipper explained, absentmindedly tapping his pencil eraser in contemplation against the flayed corpse. "But then again, it was a stress situation and I hardly have any hard data to back that, so I'm not sure it was worth recording..."
"Dipper, it's always better to have too many notes than too few. You should never feel like you need to hold back ideas or observations you come up with. Worse comes to worst, we can edit the reports down a bit." Ford responded encouragingly, then gestured for him to come to his side of the table. "Besides, I think I might have an explanation for you..." The experienced scientist trailed off, but directed Dipper to help cut through to the specimen's digestive system. The degree of anatomy it shared with humans was curious but not really something they could dwell on at the moment.
It was an significant effort to reach the digestive system, as large slabs of bulky muscle tissue had to be cut apart, hauled out of the body and deposited in bins. When Dipper did eventually reach the target, he nearly punctured the object of their exploration due to not seeing it. "THAT'S the stomach!?" The apprentice asked, and would have scratched his head if his gloved hands weren't dripping with surgical gore. "This... doesn't make sense. Can the creature photosynthesize somehow?"
"Arcanosynthesize is what I think actually." Ford responded as he began to clear away more muscle to get a better look at the stomach and intestines, smaller than they'd be on an adult human, despite the creature's significantly larger bulk. "While I don't have enough evidence to call it a theory, I have a hypothesis about magical creatures that several of my experiments have supported." He explained while carefully lifting the small intestine clear of the body with a hook for a better look. "On earth, all energy in the ecosystem comes from the sun, which is captured directly by plants, then the plants are eaten by herbivores and the herbivores are eaten by carnivores. The chemical reaction of the sun burning drives all life on earth, and we're all eating solar rays no matter our diet. The exception being the chemical vents of the extreme deep sea, but I digress."
"However, across the multiverse, magic, or arcane energy, flows in abundance, a curious free flowing energy without an identified source, like our sun. For whatever reason, Earth does not seem to possess any of this energy outside of the Gravity Falls geographic area, and even here levels are extremely low compared to the multiverse." Ford continued on, Dipper fiercely taking notes at this point. "Unlike solar energy, which requires specific organelles for a lifeform to interact with and harvest them, arcane rays interact with organic matter quite easily, entering the body non-harmfully and responding to mental wavelengths to some extent. Many of the magical creatures that I've dissected, which only live here in Gravity Falls, have similarly insufficient energy collection organ systems compared to the energy using structures of their bodies. I think magic is a sort of physiological shortcut, which allows organisms to develop physiques and body systems they could not normally sustain with their organ systems in an earth environment."
"So... if they guy was physically adapted to a very high magic environment, the reason he didn't rip me and Mabel in half is that he was cut off from his usual fuel source and his muscles were weaker?" Dipper deduced, asking his question with unburdened curiosity, a habit he developed due to Grunkle Ford always encouraging him to ask any questions he might have and always responding with sincerity.
"Spot on Dipper. Or at least, that is what my current hypothesis is." Ford responded proudly, but quickly amended his statement. "Keep in mind, a key trait for a scientific mind is an openness to being wrong. You cannot make true progress if you alter your results to match your hypothesis." However, after a moment of thought, he retrieved a larger box of sharp tools from a counter. "Of course, we're not working on my Arcane Radiation hypothesis and the potential application as a renewable energy source right now, we're trying to figure out where this thing came from and if Bill Cipher is waiting for us there, so we need to get cutting! I've prepared a chart of everything I need extracted for testing based on the x-rays I took earlier."
We that said, the two went to work fully dissecting the creature from another world, communicating minimally to transfer vital information, but both were invested fully in the work. When the job was done, at least four hours later, what was left on the table could only be called a corpse charitably: A gangly mix of narrow flesh strips and fatty muscle chunks hanging loose and patchwork over an incomplete skeleton. The numerous refrigerated storage units had been packed to the brims with sample jars containing every conceivable part of the assassin's body, from sections of skin to fully preserved bones that didn't quite line up to the human skeleton.
Ford and Dipper looked around in satisfaction, a job well done, but both knew the work was only beginning. Every collected sample would need to be analyzed to learn as much possible about whatever dimension this assassin had come from. Once as much data as possible was fully collected from their collection of samples, it could all be entered into the computers operating the portal's viewing functions, letting them filter through dimensions and locate the ones their assassin could potentially come from, and from there, they could perform a much more focused search for Bill.
"Well, looks like we've made a real pile of work for ourselves, huh Grunkle Ford?" Dipper asked in a jokey tone of voice to cover the fact he was rather tired.
"Yes Dipper, I think we have. I'm afraid game night is probably going to have to be cancelled for the immediate future..." Ford replied, mentally weary after the large amounts of exacting fine detail work they'd just done, but still determined to continue the project forward. "Still, I think with the mountain of work we have ahead of us, it's time to call in the rest of the family."
"You need me to go do your shopping for you?"
One stock inventory later, Dipper had gone upstairs to ask the rest of the family for help while Stanford prepared the tests they did have the supplies for. Mabel was looking at her brother with a difficult to read expression in response to his request and the list of things he held in his hand. Inside of his mind, Dipper was trying to figure out if she was genuinely upset about something or was just making fun on him.
"Think of it as a supply run." Dipper replied to her. "We don't have all the stuff we need to carry out the tests that will tell us where Bill is, so it'd be very helpful if you could go out and get this stuff for us while we use the tests we are equipped for." When he was done explaining, the boy fished a set of keys out of his pants pocket. "You'll need to take the van though, you'll need the extra space to fit everything. I already cleared all my science equipment out of the back and left the money you'll need in the glove compartment."
Mabel's previously hard to read expression sunk to one of unambiguous nervousness and tension. She nervously tugged at her hair and was trying not to look at Dipper when he mentioned the van. "Mabes, what's wrong?"
"Dammit, he knows me too well. Curse my extremely expressive face!" Mabel thought to herself, realizing she had no option but to come clean. "Dipper... I don't have a drivers license." she explained, looking at her feet briefly. "But not for lack of trying though!" she added on really quickly, perking up to express herself. "I took that test as many times as they'd let me bro, I just... never, uh... passed." Mabel's explanation trailed off as she realized her explanation might not be helping her case.
"Oh, that's so unfortunate. Don't worry Dipper, I can take care of this supply run for you." Cutting into the conversation, Pacifica entered the room and took the keys out of the boy's hand, before regarding Mabel with an expression that mixed pity with some gloating on top. Mabel, for her part, was instantly snapped out of her nervous funk by Pacifica's challenge and narrowed her eyes at the other girl in response.
"Actually, do you two think you could do this together?" Dipper asked, a request he wanted to make as soon as Mabel explained she couldn't drive, but was already starting to regret with the way the two were looking at each other. Both of them looked aghast at the idea of having to work together, but Dipper gave them both his most imploring look, adding "If you work together, we'll have everything we need back here sooner, and we'll be able to track Bill down even faster. Please, can you do this for me?"
The effect his request had on the two was instantaneous, both of them lightening up right away. "Sure thing bro-bro! You can count on your sister to bring back all your science stuff!" Mabel responded, brightening up while turning her eyesight completely on her brother and away from Pacifica.
The blond in question had a much less cheerful response, but besides a roll to her eyes relaxed her tense body language. "Alright, I'll take your sister out shopping with me. You're lucky you're cute when you beg like that Dipper..." While she had said those words while looking to the side and seeming dismissive, her eyes widened and she blushed a little when she realized she'd called Dipper cute.
Dipper, in turn, seemed taken aback by Pacifica's slip up, feeling his chest collapse like he'd had the wind knocked out him while his face lit up as well. "Wait, what!?"
Mabel on the other hand was as quick as ever, responding to the situation by wrapping both her arms around one of Pacifica's and dragging her towards the door. "Alright, girl's night out!... Girl's afternoon out, girl's... girl's shortly before midday, what time is it even, I kinda lost track of the day, need to draw my watch a new battery..." Her intentionally loud talking got fainter and fainter as the two moved through the Mystery Shack, and eventually became unintelligible when the front door shut behind them."