Disclaimer: The views and opinions in this story are not intended to be viewed as those of the author. The following is a fan-written fiction. Gravity Falls, Star vs. The Forces of Evil, Kim Possible, and Big Bad Beetleborgs are property of their respective owners, creators, and publishers. Please support the official releases.

TW: This story will contain references to physical and psychological abuse, murder, and torture.

|Dancing All Night|

In the wide open, mahogany-floored living room of the Vanderhoff Residence, Trip lay on a massive black couch that surrounded the home theater system whose screen was projected as a hologram just above the wall in front of him. He was on his back, staring up at his phone. On the right side of the couch, Van was scrolling through his phone, with its screen projected onto the hologram screen to reveal his Instagram feed. Like his brother, he was awaiting a message.

Behind the couch, across the living room, Dudley stood by the door leading to the home's pool deck. The old butler, keen to keep an eye out for "Goblin" infiltrating the yard, looked out over Echo Creek from the hills the home was built on. From here, he could see the fire that burned in the valley where the old Hillhurst Manor was located and the brilliant flashes of explosions from Echo Creek Academy.

Such sights left him tight-lipped, grim almost.

Letting his hand holding his phone drop to his chest, he looked at Van's projected screen and saw no new messages there. "Come on, where is he?"

Van looked over at him. "Dude, chill. He's probably being thorough, or flexing on them, you know how those Minuano wannabes gotta be."

Trip pouted and grumbled. "We totally should've gone with him and watch him get it done."

"Right?" Van agreed.

Dudley wrung his hands behind his back. "And then what, Master Trip?"

Going still for a second, Trip shot upright and turned to Dudley. His right eyebrow was arched as high as Van's left as the brothers stared at their normally taciturn butler–who was more content to simply acknowledge their orders than give lip.

"What do you mean, then what?" Trip asked. "If Pine Tree, his friends, and his whole stupid family don't pack their bags and leave LA after Goblin's done with them, then they're going to leave LA packed in bags."

Dudley visibly cringed. "You are suggesting…"

"I'm through playing around with them," Trip said cutting him off, resolved. "This is the only warning they're getting: that next time we're gonna kill them all and there's nothing they can do about it but run."

Van nodded, feeling his brother's bloodlust.

Dudley turned his head to look back out at the town below and the city of LA beyond it. "And what if after this they are not intimidated, and decide that they must escalate?" He asked. "What if Princess Butterfly comes here in response to whatever 'Goblin' may have done to her friends?"

And just like that, Van lost the vibe as he was reminded of the magical thermonuclear device that helped stomp them.

Trip didn't care. "Whatever. If they don't figure out how screwed they are after 'Goblin' is done with them, then they're too stupid to live."

Van expressed his concern. "Um… we should think about what to do about Star Butterfly. I don't want her doing that creepy magic stuff."

Trip rolled his eyes. "I'm not scared of any of them, anymore, and neither should you."

He gestured out to his living room. "Look around at what we have! What we can throw at them! We're untouchable, and that there are consequences for even trying!"

He turned to their butler. "We snap our fingers and people like Goblin–or you for that matter, Diethard–shut your mouths and make our problems go away. I don't understand why that's such a difficult concept for you to grasp–what do we even pay you for if you can't?"

Shutting his eyes, Dudley took a long deep breath. "Of course, Master Trip."

That was the only response Trip wanted to hear from him. He turned to his brother. "From now on, we're going all in and throwing as much cash as we can to get rid of all of them. Like I said, if they don't get the hint and get out of our sight? Then it's on them what happens next."

Van, his fears pushed down, nodded as he trusted his brother. "All right…"

On the projected screen, a brand-new Direct Message conversation started. Looking up at it, Van and Trip watched the screen as the latter opened the message to see who was contacting them–someone with the name SSJ5Gogeta.

SSJ5Gogeta: Hello! Is the bounty on Pine Tree still up for grabs?

Trip and Van looked at one another.

"Well, is it?" Van asked.

Trip glanced back at Dudley and let out a laugh. "Yeah, tell him that the reward is half a mil now."

Letting out a small chuckle, Van typed up a response.

V Squared: Actually the bounty went way, WAY up! It's 500k Bro.

The response was immediate.

SSJ5Gogeta: WHAT! O_O

Trip laughed louder. "Tell him he can get a full million if he can put Pine Tree's sister in the hospital, too, however he wants to do it."

Of course, Van complied without hesitation.

V Squared: If you can put his sister in the hospital, you can have one million. Two for one, get it?

GogetaSSJ5: I GET IT LOL ^_^;;;;

Trip grinned from ear to ear as he looked back at Dudley. "Do you see? This is easy for us."

In his best impression of an old man's voice, he mocked his butler's concerns. "'WhAt iF tHey EsCaLaTe?' That's what you sound like, afraid of a bunch of bums."

Van called his brother's attention back to the screen. "Dude, look."

GogetaSSJ5: Okay! I can do it as soon as Monday! I gotta get some stuff together first and then Pine Tree is toast! Do you have his address or anyplace I can get at him?

Van replied all on his own.

V Squared: 4845 Avocado Terrace. He lives with his granddad, his sister, and this fat foreign chick named Misao Darlian. You'll get extra if you can mess her up, too. She's kind of a bitch.

GogetaSSJ5: Oh? Misao Darlian, right? TYVM, I'll keep that in mind ^_^

Trip nodded to Van. "Good idea, we'll throw in an extra 250k for her."

"Half for the half-pint, right?" Van asked.

Trip threw himself back on the couch, his smile murderous as he rocked back and forth with anticipation. "That's right! Those idiots have no idea the shitstorm that's headed their way."

"Hostile eliminated," the head of Brittney's security detail reported as the blast cleared. "All units stand down."

Brittney walked past them, headed for the school. "If there's nothing else to worry about, go back to your positions."

The head cyborg turned to her. "Miss Wong, there's a little matter about the street, and the damage…"

Brittney shook her head. "Don't worry about it."

Inside her armor, Jo wanted to go slack, but she stayed on her feet. "Phew… what a night…"

And it was far from over, she realized. "… Shit…"

Then she looked around at the absurd amount of damage that the fight had done to the street and a few vehicles. "… Shiiiiiiiit…"

Quickly she scanned around and noticed that Brittney and her security weren't the only ones watching. In the windows, on doorsteps, and even on front lawns of almost every house on the block in front of and adjacent to the school, people were watching–and either cheering or trying to figure out what had just happened. And of course, almost everyone had a phone or camera pointed at the street.

"… Shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit…"

Jo turned towards Star, who seemed to be completely ignorant of their audience as she held her wand in both hands. The wand was glowing brightly in a blue light that gave off flickers of green, then red, before it settled on becoming a soft violet.

"What…?" Jo asked.

The air began to swirl around Star's feet, before she held the wand aloft and pointed it at the sky. Lifting her up at the wand as the swirling grew, Star opened her now fully glowing eyes as the updraft lifted her hair up past her shoulders and fanned it out.

"… Super… Dipped Down…!" Star called out before she pointed the wand down at the broken street beneath her feet.

"CUTIE KITTEN CLUTTER CLEANERS!"

Another shockwave, this one made of purple magic and adorable kittens wearing little maid costumes shot out in all directions–washing over the street and destroyed vehicles. When the blast passed this time, the street and the cars were all repaired, as if they all hadn't been torn apart by the tremendous battle fought between Star, Strikerborg, and Hammer Kong. Even the damage done to the street by the earlier battle with Typhus and his Scabs was gone, leaving the black asphalt looking like new.

Stopping at the doors to the gymnasium, Brittney looked at the repaired street and vehicles. Even the hologram projector that Hammer Kong destroyed in his petulant fury was working again. She nodded her approval.

As the cheering from the spectating neighborhood grew, Jo, who'd been staring at Star the whole time she cast that spell, blinked several times. Did she just have actual butterfly wings there for a second?

When Star began to wobble where she stood, Jo reacted quickly. "Oh crap!"

Strikerborg bolted over to Star and immediately joined her side to support her. "Hey! You okay?"

With Strikerborg's help, Star steadied herself. "Yeah, I'm fine! Dipping down with the wand… isn't as bad as dipping down without it."

She let out a "hoo" and shook her head. "It would've been nice if Glossaryk told me that I could do that instead of ranting about hobo stew."

The two began heading towards the gymnasium, Strikerborg supporting her and gesturing for curious onlookers to stay back as they walked.

"So," she said.

Star looked at her. "Yeah?"

"Your magic is working," Jo pointed out.

Star nodded. "Two amazing things happened that helped me get it together. You and I squashed the beef… and I just got a dance with Brittney."

As they reached the sidewalk up to the gym, a message appeared–not in the group chat, but sent straight to Jo.

Marco said:
Its me Dipper

Jo tensed.

Marco said:
Grandpa just got here and we r on our way to the hospital

Jo sighed in relief, before more messages flooded in.

Marco said:
We r all in rough shape, but he says we're going to live

Marco said:
Marco and Jackie are both awake

Marco said:
Thank you for bailing us out against that guy

Marco said:
Is everyone ok? I saw the group chat is the monster gone?

Jo quickly sent a message back.

Jo said:
Star and me destroyed it. It didn't get anywhere near the dance.

Marco said:
Good

Marco said:
Im sorry

Marco said:
I was a dick

Marco said:
I wanted to talk to you about how we could sort out all the drama

Marco said:
And patch everything up

Marco said:
Because we r all stronger when the only thing we r fighting r the bad guys

Jo looked at Star again, then at Brittney as she brought the Princess to the door. She typed out a reply.

Jo said:
Ur right

Brittney nodded to Star as she and Strikerborg walked up.

"Hey Brittney, sorry for interrupting the dance," Star said.

Sniffing haughtily, she gave a quick glance at the street. "You cleaned it up, so I don't have anything to be mad about."

Taking a deep breath, Brittney let it out and her expression lost almost all its harshness as she looked directly at Star. "I don't hate you," she said quietly. "And… I'm sorry for all the mean names I called you, and for trying to drive you out of the school the first chance I got."

Before Star could forgive her, she quickly added. "I still think you're a crazy spazz and that wand is dangerous…!" She paused and resumed her more subdued tone. "But I get it."

Star was on the verge of gushing with happiness already from Brittney's apology. "You do?"

Jo said:
I dont want to be mad at the girls anymore.

"I mean, duh," Brittney said. "It's so stupid and obvious now: you're a warrior."

Star cocked an eyebrow. "Say what?"

"All that crazy energy you got! Any time you're using magic when you're not showing off, you're trying to blast something or fight or whatever."

Star hummed. "Well… yeah. I mean… I've been beating up monsters since I was like three. My dad's a barbarian, and my mom apparently waged an entire war, so fighting's just something that's in my blood!"

Brittney gave Star an affirming nod. "And I get that, now. That's just who you are, and as long as these stupid monsters keep showing up, at least you'll have something to go off on, right?"

Star, overcome with joy, abruptly hugged Brittney, surprising her like Misao did.

"That's right!" Her chin resting on her shoulder, Star replied. "And I get you, too."

Jo said:
I want to be friends with everyone esp the other girls

Rather than clumsily try to disentangle herself, Brittney just stood frozen in Star's embrace. "… Yeah?"

"I know we started way, way on the wrong foot, and you're totally okay with leaving the bridge burnt, but…" Star pulled back. "… I want to be your friend."

Brittney stared at Star for a moment, long enough in silence to blink once, before she replied. "You're lucky I'm rich–I can afford to rebuild a stupid bridge."

Star's smile was incandescent, even with her helmet Jo had to look away from the girl before she hugged Brittney even tighter with a squeal of excitement. "I'm a Princess, remember? I got money, too. Whole country and monthly tributes from noble houses money."

Jo said:
Becuz ur so right. When we fight 2gether we are freaking awesome.

Hesitantly at first, Brittney returned Star's hug, and got squeezed harder as a consequence. Rolling her eyes, she rested her chin on Star's shoulder, all of her tension absent. "Yeah, Princess money is no joke."

She pulled back and turned towards the door. "But enough about how rich we are; I said I owed you sa dance if you took care of that thing."

Star squeezed Brittney again. "No-takesies-backsies~!" She sang as she opened the door and hauled Brittney in after her, the head cheerleader letting out a squawk as she was pulled in. Watching her go and the doors close, Jo let out a small laugh and turned to walk away from the doors. As she walked past the cyborg security, they stood a little straighter, the head of the detail nodding his head in respect to her.

She liked that.

Jo said:
It's so much better than fighting alone and being angry for no freaking reason. I'm gonna apologize to your sister, Misao, and Janna the first chance I get.

Marco said:
Go do it at the dance.

Jo said:
OK I feel bad though… they're going to be so mad when they find out what happened.

This was serious and everyone needed to know, but at the same time… she and Star just saved the dance and Star was able to be there with their friends. She had already punched whoever the hell that attacked them into the next county, and even with the adrenaline rush gone, she wanted to do even worse to Trip and Van.

There was a good possibility that after telling Mabel, Misao, and Star… they all may end up going to the Vanderhoff residence and putting them in the hospital, too.

Provided Trip and Van were fortunate enough to make it there.

Marco said:
I dont want the Vanderhoffs to ruin their night too

Marco said:
Tell them after the dance and come meet us at the hospital. We can talk about how we are going to deal with this later

Letting out a relieved sigh, Jo acquiesced to his request.

Jo said:
All right, Ill let them know after the dance and we will be over to visit you.

The Vanderhoffs could wait. No, they would wait.

It will be the only mercy they get before what came next.

For now, Jo was going to get out of this armor… and try her hand at going to a school dance for once.

Patched up enough that he was no longer indistinguishable from the ruin that was The Scraplands, Noxic was already at work rebuilding the pummeled wreckage of his workshop, which was still indistinguishable from the ruin that was The Scraplands. After spending the day sitting around and listening to Noxic talk then getting splattered all over a good chunk of the workshop and listening to Hammer Kong, Typhus was more than in a mood to work.

"Hey buddy, what do you think," Noxic asked, "We gonna put that grinder so I can get started on those Scabs?"

Typhus looked at him. "Yannow what? I think we can take our time on all that. Where'd you wantthat smelter to go again?"

Noxic brightened at Typhus' offer. "Oh man, you know exactly what to say when I've had a rough day." He pointed to his left, Typhus following the direction of his hand. "I was thinking we can put it right over there to the left of where I want the grinder to sit. Get a feed of scrap right into the fire, yannow?"

"Yeah, baby, I dig that," Typhus said as he folded his arms and nodded.

Jara landed behind them; the sound of her footsteps eerily light on the scrap metal behind them drawing their attention. With her mask in the way, there was no telling what her mood was, but she was standing as stiffly as she had been for the past few days as she stared at them.

Typhus held up a hand in greeting. "Hey, Jara, thanks for getting that guy outta here."

"Yeah!" Noxic agreed. "He was giving me a pounding headache, and I can't even feel that noise! What's the word?"

"That robot is dead," Jara announced in a neutral tone.

Noxic answered with unenthused surprise, like he'd just heard about Hammer Kong for the first time in years. "Oh yeah? How'd you do him in?"

"I didn't," Jara replied. "The Butterfly and one of the Beetleborgs destroyed him."

Noxic's reaction to that news was even less underwhelmed. "Huh, neat."

It pissed Jara off. "That's it?"

Noxic shrugged his shoulders. "Yeah, that's it. I'm actually kinda impressed, yannow?"

"Yeah, Ham-Hands wasn't exactly a pushover, baby," Typhus added.

Behind her mask, Jara's teeth ground. "I believe his name was Hammer Kong."

Noxic did not particularly care. "It's not like that matters, Jara, it's destroyed."

"I'm certain that it does!" Jara snapped back, and both Noxic and Typhus stopped.

Her firsts clenching, Jara glowered at her two comrades, as her temper burned brightly.

"His anger, all because you made him for the wrong job and then forgot about him. Then you treat him like he was an inconvenience and a bother." She shook her head. "No wonder all of your creations despise you."

Noxic placed his hands on his hips. "Yeah, and?"

Jara snapped at him. "Doesn't it even bother you in the slightest?!"

Noxic lifted his hands up and shrugged his shoulders. "No? Ham-Hands was a robot, made to do one thing… and that wasn't to be my friend."

He shook his head, and looked from her to Typhus, and then back. "You can't just build friends. That's not how that works. I could build the greatest freakin' robot in the world and program it to be my best buddy for life… but it wouldn't come close to bein' as real as you or Typhus over here–and it definitely wouldn't be as real as what you have with your mercenary pals."

Jara was struck by his words. "… N-Noxic…"

The machine man walked over to Jara and put an arm over her shoulder pauldrons before gesturing to her and Typhus. "You're my best buds, and the coolest guys I know. Don't ever forget that, okay?"

Heaving a sigh, Jara nodded. "Sorry; I guess I'm still processing…"

"No, no… you do what you gotta do to get through it. We're here for ya!"

Jara was moved by Noxic's reassurance, and she looked to Typhus–who appeared to be in thought.

"Hey, that's all true, and I'm glad you said your shot, baby," he said to Noxic, "But uh… what about Macho Number 5?"

Steam exploded from Noxic's vents as he pulled away from Jara and screamed furiously at Typhus. "WE DO NOT TALK ABOUT MACHO NUMBER 5!"

Typhus recoiled. "I'm just sayin'–!"

"YOU AIN'T SAYIN' CRAP!" Noxic yelled.

Jara began to chuckle, and almost broke into a laugh before she felt a strong, fearsome chill. Noxic and Typhus both stopped their bickering as well as well, a downpitched groan leaving the mechanical man's mouth as he turned around to find Vexor standing at the edge of the workshop site.

"Interesting," Vexor said as he scanned the site and The Scraplands beyond it.

"And here I thought the worst of today had passed," Noxic grumbled.

Typhus stepped up. "Uhh… hey Vexor, you come to check up on us?"

"Yes, I wanted to amend my previous orders in light of the evening's interesting events," he announced.

Typhus grunted. "Huh? What do ya mean, Vex?"

Vexor gestured with an open palm to him. "You suggested summoning a monster to keep tabs on the children and perhaps poke at them. I'm giving you permission to act as such–there is something that I want to know, and I need something with the ability to infiltrate to find that out."

Jara and Noxic both looked at Typhus, who was intrigued. "All right, what do you want to know?"

Vexor closed his clawed open hand into a fist. "I want to know the identities of the Beetleborgs, and why their allies protect that secret."

In the back seat of his million-dollar car, Señor Senior Junior was lying on the bench seat, his knees drawn up and his lips pursed in a disgusted grimace.

In the front seat, Shego looked back at him. "You were real excited a few minutes ago when you said you found someone who knew where the girl was. What's up?"

Looking up from the phone, SSJ nodded. "Oh, I was… I very much was… they've even given me an address."

Shego, driving along, glanced back at him. "What are we waiting for, then?"

Turning off his phone screen, Junior rested his head against the car door, just below the window and sighed. "You know how it is hard to determine feelings through the internet?"

Shego rolled her eyes. "Unlike Dr. D, I only use the internet to keep up with the news and look at cute animal videos, why?"

Junior closed his eyes. "Nevermind. Would you like to make a little more money on that ransom payout?"

Shego's eyes lit up.

"I'm listening."

The night is now over. Next time, something that's been a long time coming.