Another chapter finished! Sorry it took so long; still have a lot going on in my life right now. Wish me luck and good thoughts, as my life may be making a change (hopefully for the better) soon. I remember when I first started this story. It's now gone from Twin Peaks crossover to full on H. P. Lovecraft/Guillermo del Toro territory. Thanks for reading; I'm going to see this through to the end no matter what happens in my life.
As she climbed back onto the natural earth bridge, Pacifica looked over the side of the cliff from which she nearly fell and saw the gelatinous monster emerge from the darkness. It was a mass of eyes and mouths, all surrounded by a pink, transparent substance that floated through the air. The closer it came, the more Pacifica's mind began reeling at the sight of it.
She stumbled back, both in her lack of balance and from the shock of the creature and began scooting back, as the creature rose to eye level. She thought it was looking at her, but it was hard to tell. For a moment, it looked like the creature disappeared, only to reappear even higher above her.
It then shouted with an ear splitting screech and sent an insanely strong blast of wind at her, tossing her from the cliff like a leaf from a tree in autumn. As she fell from the cliff, her mind flew into a panic as her inner survival instincts kicked in, causing her to reach out her hand and catch the side of the cave wall. She then pulled herself into a small alcove in order to seek protection from this awful creature that her mind could not fully comprehend.
It seemed as though she had lost whatever that thing was for a moment.
She looked around her in order to regain her bearings, there was a small ledge she thought she might be able to scoot across in order to get back to the bridge and to Wendy. She turned around in the larger, darkened portion of the alcove to find an all to familiar sight: there was one of the creatures from her dream, in all its immensity, lying on the ground, clearly dead. In its claw was what looked kind of like of the guns she saw on her last laser tag outing. (She wouldn't admit it, but she kind of enjoyed a game of it every once in awhile; it was a good way to output her rage) She walked over and picked it up. It was gold in color and had two handles for added support, along with weird runes across it and what looked like a control panel on the left side in a language she clearly could not understand. As she picked it up and pressed one of the buttons on the control panel, six needle-like prongs came out of the barrel of the gun and formed a slowly spinning circle around the base of the barrel. The runes on the weapon glowed green, and a wave of panic washed over Pacifica as she wondered what she had unleashed.
She didn't have long to think on this as she looked up and saw at the entrance of the crevice that the creature had phased back into this reality. Her instincts kicked in again, and she aimed her weapon at the creature and pulled the trigger. The needles began whirling faster, generating electricity out of each tip as the weapon made what sounded like a low hum that gradually increased in pitch. The charge, unfortunately, was moving too slow as Pacifica held her finger on the trigger, and the creature let out another ear piercing screech followed by another blast of wind that knocked Pacifica back against the dead alien thing from her dreams.
Fortunately, as Pacifica fell back, she still kept her aim on the creature. The hum had reached its zenith, and a long continuous bold of bright blue electricity flew from the barrel and into one of the creatures open mouths. The creature screeched again, and this was the break Pacifica was looking for. She ran toward the crevice entrance and aimed her gun at the creature again. She then found that if she held the trigger for less time, it would fire a shorter bolt, which she proceeded to do multiple times to the creature. Finally, she let it charge once more, this time until the sensors in the control panel began flashing a reddish orange color, and as the creature began to open its mouth for another gust of wind, she let go of the trigger, letting a huge blast fly into its closest face.
The creature then exploded into what could have been gallons worth of ectoplasm.
"Ew," Pacifica nonchalantly said, wiping her face of the gross smelling crap and spitting out any that had gotten in her mouth, "I really hope these stains come out." She then heard Wendy's gruff but faint voice.
"Pacifica!" shouted Wendy, "Where are you? Are you still alive?" Pacifica could see Wendy on the bridge.
"Down here," Pacifica yelled, allowing Wendy to locate her, "Are you okay? Where are those weird skeleton mantis things?"
"They ran off when they heard that loud screeching," Wendy shouted back, "What happened?"
"I think I found something that will help us down here," Pacifica responded, "I just vaporized some other monster with it."
"Do you see any way of climbing back up?" Wendy asked.
"I think there's a path along here," Pacifica said, and proceeded to shuffle along the wall to her right. It curved upwards towards the bridge, thankfully, but Pacifica still had to remind herself not to look down. Her luck changed, however, when the ledge began to run too thin. Wendy ran to the other end where Pacifica was roughly ten feet away from the bridge.
"Okay Paz," Wendy said, granting her a new nickname on the spot that rolled off the tongue a little easier for her, "You're going to have to jump for it!"
"Are you serious?" Pacifica said, "I can't make that."
"Yes you can," Wendy shouted, "I believe in you. You're tougher than you think!"
Pacifica took a deep breath and leapt forward. Wendy caught her by a few inches, but the weight of Pacifica with her new weapon began dragging her down as well. She struggled to keep her footing as Pacifica held Wendy's wrist in one hand, the lightning gun in the other.
"I'll swing you over," Wendy said, and with that, she exerted enough energy in her arms to bring Pacifica onto the bridge. It was just enough inertia to bring her crashing onto her chest. Wendy held her upper arm. "Great; now I have a sore arm and a sore leg. What is that thing anyway?"
"It's some sort of ray gun," Pacifica said, "I found it in that alcove there, along with a dead version of one of the monsters from my dreams. I don't think I'm as good with an ax as you are, but as long as this thing works, I'll stick to this. Plus, I really like the gold trim; very stylish."
"Just as long as you can carry it," Wendy said, "It does look a little heavy on you."
"Hey," Pacifica said, "You're the one who said I'm stronger than I think."
"Be careful with that, girls," a voice said. They looked up to see Ford approaching them from the other end of the bridge. "If that's what I think it is, it can be very dangerous."
"Ford, you're okay," Wendy said, "Where are the others?"
"I don't know," he said, looking around, "I woke up alone after the fall." Pacifica then thought about Dipper and Mabel. If Ford survived the fall, maybe they were okay too, likewise finding their way through the maze of tunnels.
"If you know what this thing is," Pacifica said, "maybe you can fill me in on some of these monsters and maybe what's going on inside my head?"