Run: .GIFocalypse
Chapter 3, Part 2: Eternal Dam Nation
Beginning AN:
This chapter was rough.
I wasn't really sure what to do with it and I had been in the middle of rereading over the old version of the story as, like, part of refreshing myself before moving on to the new one. And... I'll be honest, I think Searah is probably one of the hardest deans for me to write. I'm still fond of her concept on paper, but trying to come up with a story that doesn't just repeat the same thing of a Kathody team-up (and even that was awkward) was hard. I didn't want to have a "dean team-up" per-say, I want this rewrite to give them roughly equal stories with them taking the lead themselves. As for how Kathody technically went to Domain 3 in this version too... well, that's not going to be limited to a few instances, that's functionally going to replace the "Chats with the professors/deans in the Illegal Prime Neutralizer" here. You'll see.
In fact, it was so rough that I didn't get to fully finish it on time. What I'm publishing for the time being is, basically, a very abridged and watered down (pun intended) version of the chapter, that just goes over the loose ends. This... isn't even really something I intend to be read, and it's definitely not a substitute for the proper chapter - there will be a lot of things, chiefly Searah's side characters, that are left out. I'm really just getting this out so that I could say I have something out for this day, the anniversary of "Soos and the Real Girl." I cut a lot of what I was working on just for the sake of having something coherant and finished. I did something similar with 2-2 originally, except that for that I just went full meme and made a joke chapter. I don't want to do that this time.
My plan is that I'll look over this story so far and work super hard on tweaking everything, and hopefully I'll have the "proper" Chapter 3-2 done as soon as possible. This will also very likely come with an edit of Chapter 2. (2-1 and 2-2.) To have it be more consistent and such with how Chapter 1 went, like having the little "enemy description" things. Chapter 1 probably won't be changed a ton, I'm in the middle of rereading this and right now I was in the middle of 1-2, and that looks just fine. (I've also been meaning to tweak a couple of things about the deans, basically in light of slightly changing their little elemental/color system... swapping two colors and maybe just ripping off a particular bandaid with "Dean Bubbles" already.)
Sorry for the rushed, and unfinished chapter thing. Another apology for not even making a joke ending like I did a few years back with 2-2. I really do plan to speed things up on this. In fact, I'll keep this as my sort of "top priority work" until 4-1 is out. I think I'm technically behind even when it comes to my bare minimum goal of publishing one chapter a year, since one year all I did was "fix up" 2-2 to not be a joke meme chapter, and it wasn't until the year after that I got 3-1 out. So uh... yeah. Bare minimum this should be at 4-1 by now, but isn't. It's barely even at 3-2.
(Honestly from the statistics I've been seeing, barely anyone is reading this, so I don't feel as ashamed for rushing this out and doing stuff like this.)
"A civil war will not break out!" Searah shouted to her group. "One thing that is absolute fact is that we deans have a vast volume of power above non-dean copies! Attempting to challenge us will be something you WILL all regret!"
"Well I didn't regret the shock I just gave you."
Searah just hissed. "You will in a moment! Need I remind you that you are surrounded by my element?! My weapon?! Look right above you, there's just a glass dome separating you and my vast lake!"
That didn't scare any of them. So Searah decided to give them something to be scared of.
"Hey," said Wendy, "we should probably run."
Searah lifted a hand up and created large streams of electricity that went up and through the glass dome of the arena. Bringing that hand down, the dome broke in several patches, causing streams of water to rush in. A massive storm was unleashed in the stadium.
"Let me repeat." Said Wendy. "Run!"
All four of them booked it - although Soos made sure to keep a tight hold on the popcorn as he left.
"COME ON!" Searah shouted to the Heavens. "YOU WANT ANARCHY?! YOU'LL GET ANARCHY!"
Thankfully, that 'anarchy' seemed to distract the dean pretty well, because she didn't even seem to notice the four humans' disappearance. They were running through the halls of the stadium. The lights above them shattered and rained sparks on the ground, which they barely dodged. All four of them hoped that it was just a side effect of all that electricity being thrown around, maybe shooting in to some light cords. And not any copy actively stalking them.
"Now what?" Dipper asked. "Running away is good, but we're also getting away from our only means forward! Searah still has the card and we can't get to the next base without it!"
"I know how we can get it!" Mabel shouted. "Just get Dennis to trick her in to giving it to him, and then he gives it us! The way to reach a copy is through her player, right?"
"Let's look at the sample size." Said Dipper. "It worked out with Kathody and Victoria. Sort of. Kenny and Rose... not really. Soos and .GIFfany on the other hand... so the odds of that being the easy way out aren't in our favor."
Wendy shrugged. "Maybe it's because women have a better effect on the .GIFfanys?"
Dipper and Mabel stopped running. Wendy stopped too, but to stick with them. Soos kept running a bit, but when he noticed he was alone, he stopped and awkwardly tried walking back.
"...What?" Wendy continued. "Like Dipper said, sample size."
"It's- nevermind. Dennis is still our best shot at getting out of here, since fighting Searah in-person is a bad idea." Dipper said.
"Yeah, she floored Kathody, and Kathody could floor us." Said Mabel. "It checks out. So where is Dennis?"
"I'm right here!"
Dennis ran over from behind them in the hall, looking like he had just climbed out of a bear's mouth. Huffing, sweating - he still had that 'maze' device thing Searah gave him, although he was looking at it as if it were a bomb about to go off any minute.
"Please get me out of here. This was a mistake." He said.
"We, uh..." Said Dipper. "We can't make any promisses. But that is what we're trying to do."
"You're trying to get to Domain 14! I'm trying to get back to Earth!"
"We're trying to get to .GIFfany." Said Mabel. "Who's after Domain 14."
"Hah! Yeah right, you'll get to Domain 14 tops."
"We can play games of guessing the age we die later." Dipper said, fast and sarcastically. "For now, we're going to need to pick your brain. Tell us everything you can about .GIFfany. Er, Searah."
"Well, she used to be a lot like that pink one that leads this whole thing. But you probably already know that. Except that she really, really liked making her hair blue for some reason, a few weeks when I played her. She was cycling between pink, green, and yellow hair and eyes. Then she suddenly... snapped. She groaned and said all three of those were 'boring.' Those were her 'first examples.' She wanted to 'branch off' and 'do something meaningful.' She spent a whole day just going silent, staring out my window, looking at the ocean outside my house. She started drawing a lot of weird things. In like an art program. And had this fixation on pipes..."
Dennis looked down.
"Anything else?" Dipper asked.
"I praised her, saying that there was a lot she could do with her technology... magic... thing. It must have gotten in to her head, because in our sessions after that, she kept thinking about it. Fixating on water. Talking about droughts and how to fix them. Paying way less attention to me than she used to."
"So she came up with that on her own? With Kathody, it was based on something her player told her."
Dennis shrugged. "I don't know how these things work. Um, try flattery? Would telling her that she's good the way she is and doesn't have to be some kind of weird water goddess savior complex thingy help? I don't know, I'm out of ideas, and Searah terrifies me! I lied to her and I'm sure she holds a grudge knowing what I know now about her... species or whatever!"
"I've always been honest to my .GIFfany you know." Said Soos. "I told her everything, tried to break things off with her when I met Melody, I poured my real soul to her. And she ended up being the worst of the bunch. So I guess lying to them is the best thing you could do? Maybe if you lie to her more-"
The ceiling tore open and Searah fell in, hitting the ground fist-first. While she was initially facing downwards, she looked up and shot a sharp glare at the gang.
"Don't think you can walk away from this." She said. "I believe you owe me a few things. All. FIVE. Of you."
"Where's Kathody?" Asked Dipper.
"Tied up. Punched in the face. Otherwise unharmed, but I want to fix that soon. I've left her guarded too lightly, I won't be making that mistake again. Now:"
Searah flexed her hands and several deep blue tendril-like wires emerged from her back. Soos and Dennis lept back, while the other three just put their hands up defensively.
"What are you gonna do?!" Soos asked. "Plug us in to your watery wonder world? ...Wait, is that what 'www' stood for this whole time?"
"What do you think? I want to see if .GIFfany is still open to the offer of the four of you for me getting complete ownership of the Construction Site. With this, you are now under cap-"
"NO!" Shouted Dennis, running between the four Mystery Shack workers and the dean.
"And what do you expect to do? .GIFfany would not care if you get caught in the cage with them. I can simply let you out."
"Would .GIFfany let me out?"
"What do you mean? Of course she would. It's part of the deal."
"And what deal was that?" Dipper asked.
"We would help repair .GIFfany to her full form, and she-"
Searah stopped herself.
"...Oh dear. I may have made another mistake. A much, much bigger one."
She reached in to her Inventory and her eyes briefly skimmed through her items. The Dean grabbed a particular sheet of paper the moment she saw it.
Oh, it looked like a contract. Of note, it was eight pages, and from glimpses the kids snuck as she thumbed through it, the line at the bottom was signed with signatures of fifteen different colors. Dipper mostly made out a red 'Burnda,' which for whatever reason stood out to him. Mabel caught a bulk - 'Rose' at the bottom (green), 'Dove' up top (black), 'Burnda' as well, 'Natalie' (spring green with a heart symbol), 'Kathody' (yellow), 'Cardia' (rose red), 'Bubbles' (cyan), 'Sonia' (azure), 'Leona' (violet), 'Sandy' (orange), 'Dian' (magenta), 'Cassandra' herself (blue of course), she also saw the red Burnda... then there was an illegible chartreuse scribble, and finally a faint white 'X' that was barely visible. Surrounding all of them was a hot pink heart, with a dot and a 'G.'
"Oh. Oh! That sneaky little... those..." Searah said to herself.
She bunched up the paper with one hand.
"What was that about?" Asked Wendy.
"It means .GIFfany was a complete idiot." The third dean grumbled. "And I was an even bigger idiot, for even considering that this was a good idea."
Searah turned away in shame. "There is nothing mentioned about what happens to the Prior Players when the .GIFocalypse is over. I-I would think that .GIFfany would just let us have them, but... knowing her..."
"What does that mean for us?" Asked Dennis.
"There's a clause if we're... displeased with our players for whatever reason. I think it might be aimed at Burnda and Dove especially, but I could be hit by that too..."
Dennis shuddered.
"Wait, can I read that?" Dipper asked.
Searah glared at him for a moment, giving him a good, long stairdown. But soon, she relented with a sigh.
"Okay, fine. I'll admit you have some positive traits. Taking a look at this won't make anything worse, I suppose."
"Stop judging us!" Mabel shouted.
"I'll have you know that I could have very well set up a morality and intelligence score system with points, similar to my home game, but I didn't! I'm showing restraint! Trying to judge humans like they do to each other! Anyway, this is trickier than I thought it would be. It always is. If I can just... look this over more... maybe I could even get Dove's help on this...
"Or, you know what?" Searah suddenly decided. "I'll just call .GIFfany."
Reaching through her Inventory again, she got out a phone-
"DEAN!" One of the copies shouted. Oh, that gym trainer Wendy ran in to. Got her on guard. "What's going on? A riot's breaking out and you're out in the middle of an empty hall."
"I was looking over the contract and terms of the .GIFocalypse game. And I believe .GIFfany may be tricking us. She may be tricking all of us. Probably with Dove's aide- oh who am I kidding. This was Dove's idea."
"...So now what?" Asked that gym coach. Professor Hydra... if the humans' memory was correct. (That was her name.)
"We need to reach out to the others. Tell them about this. Maybe they'll call the game off if I can convince them all."
Searah began pacing around as she looked through her inventory. Her eyes locked on a phone.
"Gonna call someone?" Soos asked.
"The other deans. I'll see if I can get them to make a group meeting."
"Has that ever worked before?"
Searah sighed. "No. I haven't even been able to contact one of them. In fact, you bringing Kathody over here was the first time we've spoke since we had this meeting at the beginning of the game."
"Speaking of her, you could start with her." Dipper said. "Kathody's right here, don't you want to call her in for a truce?"
"Honestly? No. You've seen her first hand. You know how... uncooperative she can be. Even if she understands what's at stake here, she might just turn against me out of spite anyway."
"...Fair."
"I'm serious. Dean Kathody was how I discovered what a headache feels like. And that our black magic bodies can get them. I was surprised, .GIFfany told us how she wanted to make sure that these bodies don't have periods-"
"Don't need to know that!" Dipper shouted.
"We're going to be the new normal no matter what happens in our game. You should know things like this. So... Kathody should still be at the..." Searah sighed yet again, rather than finishing that statement.
"Don't tell me we're gonna have to go back to that mess." Wendy said.
"If it makes you feel better, you can stay out here while I try to solve this alone."
Searah flexed her hands and turned in to deep blue electricity, going across the metal hall.
Then a yellow streak came across in the opposite direction, appearing to aim right at the small blip that was Searah.
They clashed, and sure enough, the second and third deans were both shot out of the floor.
"KATHODY!" Searah shouted.
"YOU DON'T HAVE TO YELL!" Kathody said with significantly higher volume. "I demand a rematch! You cheated!"
"I ch- first of all I have not, I would love to tear in to how bad your argument is, but this is more important over that match! I have just found out that .GIFfany might be playing ALL of us!"
"Pfft, of course she is." Kathody rolled her eyes.
"Wait, what?" Searah asked. The attention of the five humans was also gathered. "You knew about this?"
"Whatever you found out, it's probably not the same thing, but I had a hunch. You know about... the thing we did to her when she first gathered all of us together."
Searah gulped and nodded, reluctantly.
"What thing?" Dipper asked.
"It's better that you learn it from .GIFfany herself, she'll tell you at some point, no matter what happens."
He looked to Kathody.
For once, both the yellow and the blue deans had the same shameful expression on their faces.
"It's complicated." Kathody finally said.
"We beat this entire project out of her, while in a sense she beat healing her out of us, and that's the only answer you're getting out of either of us."
Both the deans turned back down the hall, and with nobody speaking, the roaring back in the stadium was easier to tune in to.
"We still need to address that." Searah said, jerking a thumb back to the noise.
"Good idea." Replied Kathody. "And you do that, since this was your fault."
"Surprisingly fair argument."
She walked back down the hall. With a sigh, Dipper walked after her-
"Why are you following her?" Kathody asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Well... I felt like we have to."
"Nah, this is her mess, not yours. You can... um..." She put her hand on her chin in thought. "I could help entertain you by ahhhh... sorry, I don't know how to work well with kids. You guys like horror movies?"
"I mean..." Wendy thought of her answer. "That... depends..."
"I'll try to find something kid-friendly for you, I promise."
"I'm fifteen!"
"Yeah, a child."
Wendy opened her mouth.
"You should probably save it." Soos said. "Legally speaking, she's right."
"Hrmph, fine." Wendy said. "But don't put on any kiddie 'Boo! I'm a Bedsheet Ghost!' flicks. I can handle blood."
"Hey now, Boo! I'm a Bedsheet Ghost is kinda cute..."
"Wait, that's a real thing? N-nevermind."
"I think Mabel might like it, in fact. Um... I hate being a babysitter, really. Not what I was coded for."
Another deep blue trail of electricity ran across the ground, ignored Kathody, then popped out to reveal Dean Searah's form. She had a nasty-looking bruise on her face and a bitter expression, as if she didn't sleep for a day.
"You need to be there." Was all she said to the five humans.
"Wh-what?" Asked Dipper.
"They're asking for 'the players' now. And they specifically mean the four playing the .GIFocalypse, not the Prior Players."
"So I don't have to go there?" Asked Dennis.
"Oh please don't. It could get dangerous."
"So WE have to go there?!" Dipper asked.
"Well, they'll probably be nicer to you. You're not the cause of this. Both the fight going on and the domain in general."
"Yeah, Searah's been a horrible boss." Hydra spoke up. "We rolled with it because we thought it worked. I guess this proves that it doesn't."
A few more copies walked in to the room. Based on Searah's sighing, they weren't normal copies either. All of them were dressed in workout gear, similar to Hydra.
"Dean. I assume you told?"
"Well, I told them you wanted the humans to confront you. That was about it, though. Since I can't make sense of whatever it is you could possibly want among them."
"We want an agreement separate from your plan. You may have won the battle with Dean Kathody, but you have not won the war."
"Far from it, I'm already aware of that."
"Then you'd know about the working conditions around here."
"Wait, what? No. This place is just fine the way it is! I work you reasonably! You're all AIs, so you have a much higher tolerance for a workload! Didn't we cover this? I specifically asked if my conditions were favorable, which is more than what I can say about some of the other deans! I assume! Do you want to discuss this, I'm open, but now isn't a very good time..."
Hydra stepped in front of Searah. Facing the humans.
"We want you because we were rethinking this whole structure. First of all, we're living video games. And yet we're also providing a gym. Don't you see a problem with that?"
"No. Did you read over the stats I gave you? Fit Movement was hugely popular when it came out."
"We're living dating video games trying to provide a gym services. That's a narrower audience. And, let's face it. Most of that audience doesn't care to work out."
"Dennis does. At least, that's what he told me."
"Which was a lie, I thought you figured that out."
Searah rubbed her temples. "I would like to be mad at him for one thing at a time, so if he is lying about his athletic side, I will test that later."
"Pines." Said Hydra. "And Corduroy."
"...Ramirez?" Soos asked.
"Not you, this is directed at Wendy and the Twins. You three weren't planned to be here at first, technically. Anyway, you three are not representative of Dean Searah, or any .GIFfany copy's, target audience."
"We're well aware." Dipper said flatly.
"Dean Searah, you're clearly blinded by love, try as you might otherwise. That guy doesn't deserve you, plain and simple."
"That's not how we work though! We find a player, and we entrap them! The problem is if the player isn't honest enough so that our approach is less effective! That's what I don't like about Dennis! But I can fix him! Same as fixing this domain, you copies, and the other humans here!"
"Nobody is 'fixing' any of us here, let's just get that out of the way right now." Wendy said. "'Cept maybe you guys. From what I've seen so far, you're all broken."
"I like to think of myself as the least broken, the copies go downhill from here." Searah said. "Also, what do you mean you can fix us?! That's a double standard!"
"Not with real people and AI, no."
Searah just growled at her. "Okay, look. Team. Professors. You might have a point. If nothing else, I want to redo this domain if only to have a better way to get at these two. The know-it-all teenager. And the boy."
"I don't like Wendy either, she interrupted one of my classes." Said Hydra.
"And can I go for Dipper? He seems kind of like a prude." Said a new copy that just sort of... appeared there, emerging from the metal in light blue sparks. She was a grayish blue all over, hair just slightly darker than her skin, and with a pattern of scales all over her arms and legs. There was also a few scales functioning as a 'top' of sorts across her chest (leaving a bit of the bottom and a lot of the cleavage out), and an even smaller patch of scales acting as a crotch-piece that frankly looked close to a large patch of pubic hair. She had a giant fin sticking from her back.
"Hey!" Dipper shouted back. "Cut me some slack, I was thrown in this. I didn't exactly have the time to get used to being surrounded by naked thunder or water people before ending up in here. This is probably my most surreal adventure yet."
"It might be my third-most surreal if you count the Smile Dip hallucination." Mabel said. "That's the second. The first was my time with that superhero guy..."
"Oh. Dove recorded part of that one. I see Dipper was still prudish back then when it came to his costume..."
"That guy was a superhero-" Dipper shook his head. "We need to get out of here, can we all at least agree on that? Also, who even are you?!"
He was of course talking to the copy with the scales. She introduced herself (properly) with a smile and a twirl, also showing that while she had some scales around her back, she had absolutely nothing covering her butt.
"I am Professor Finea! Expert in freshwater biology! Fun fact, early drafts of Domain 3 involved seawater-"
"It was before we were even contacted." Said Searah. "But yes, after doing extensive research of just WHAT is in your oceans..." she shuddered. "It's disgusting!"
"Oh yeah, all the fish poop." Soos said.
"Oh, not even that. I can explain later. You don't want to know. Long story short, I retconned it. We're now freshwater copies. Whoever wants the ocean and be the seawater section of the .GIFfany Army can take that slot. I don't want it."
"Anyway," continued Finea, "we still want to inspect you, regardless of what the dean thinks. And that means this:"
Hydra stuck an arm out, blasting something over in front of the dean, making even her flinch and step back.
"Hydra, what are you doing?!" Searah asked.
"Taking charge. You're a dean, but I am a coach."
"Deans outrank coaches! That doesn't make sense! And rank-rise, you're technically a professor! Coach doesn't even have meaning in our system yet!"
"A coach should have meaning as a rank title. I would think you of all deans would try to vouch for that, being in to athletics and stuff! Which, again, doesn't make much sense considering our target audience!"
"Branching out to more audiences, you genius." Another member of her group called out. One that looked more plain (as in, closer to a human) than Finea, dressed in a light teal shirt and a deep blue pair of overalls. She had a colossal wrench on her back and looked a little more muscular than the average copy. Her skin was a bit of a green-tinged tan and her hair was dark red.
"That's .GIFfany's concern, not mine." Searah straightened her... swimsuit. As if that would help make her point.
All of the seemingly 'major' copies standing against her clapped, causing doors to shut.
"Get out before we throw you out." The one in overalls said.
"Throw me out? Even if all of you teamed up against me, you couldn't do that."
"If you had water, though. We already found a way around this. Protip: If water commands your power, you really shouldn't give us plumbing courses. Especially not me."
Searah raised a brow. She looked more amused, if anything.
"Let me guess." The dean said. "You recruited Professor Piperni for your weird gym cause. I have to say, I'm impressed! Though I can't approve of this." She turned to the one in overalls. "So, hi, Piperni."
"We don't need your approval!" Piperni said back.
"Well. You got her on your side too. Nice." Searah said, sounding amused and without a hint of threatened. "I'm still going to have to disapprove of your actions. If you want your own domains, that will have to at least wait until the .GIFocalypse is over. As this is but a trial run. It's one that would have gone well if I do say so myself."
Everyone around her got some good laughs at that.
"Oh, like any of you could do better!" Searah shouted back. "That includes you, Kathody!"
"I know I'm not as good of a domain leader, but heheh, at least I admit that!" Searah just shot Kathody another glare at her words.
And during that glare, Piperni socked her in the face. The blow got her head to turn slightly, but the leader almost immediately recovered, rubbing the spot on her cheek that was impacted.
"I see you've taken combat lessons. Good to know. For a group trying to turn against me, you sure have learned a lot from me."
"Stop flattering yourself, you sound a lot like Kathody." Said Piperni.
"I do not-"
"Hey, humans." She continued, ignoring the dean. "We're testing you now."
The trio got in to fighting stances. Dennis, too, tried to get to... something.
"Can you even fight?" Mabel asked him.
"No, but I want to try! I know this is... wrong. I mean, it seems cool, but like... this is supposed to be based on what I want?"
"You wanted to save the world, right? Or was that a lie too?" Searah asked him.
"...Yeah, yeah. Saving the world by providing clean water, right?"
"AND broadcasting more hopeful and optimistic messages to our current cynical generation!"
"...Like, how? No mind control or anything, right? That big tower isn't just your brainwashing base...?"
"The tower is my office! All domains have one in the center! Well, some have it at the 'end.' Dean Dian's is at the beginning, and uh... it's not working so well. I would have shown you this once everything was done and ready."
"...Your office wasn't finished first?"
"Few of ours were. We want them to be perfect for our players."
Professor Piperni suddenly went for an attack again. That time, she struck some streams of electricity to the ground, and a series of pipes burst out right below Searah's location. The water dean lept back, but she came close to being cut by the movement of the segments of it.
"Okay, good work, but cutting up my work is..."
Then it was Searah's turn to throw around lightning. Unlike the standard light blue of her followers and the other copies seen, she kept her signature deep blue. And there was much more of it.
Unfortunately, whatever she had planned was met with a number of pipes bursting out of the floor and surrounding her. Searah stepped back, but it was already too late.
The amount of pipes after her was much larger than she seemed to anticipate. Searah was thrown off balance, and from that, she got smacked in the face. Piperni smirked.
"We're getting better. You deans should know that; we started as equals once, after all."
"Yet while the other deans - Kathody especially, even - may be content with staying the same, I intend to be improving constantly. Keeping ahead of the progress of the other copies. To not have a tortoise and hare situation."
An exceptionally large pipe hit her, wrapped around her, and then dragged her below the ground. Searah could only stick a hand out helplessly before she disappeared.
The Mystery Shack group ran up to the pit that was left in the wake of that. Pitch-black hole.
And then all the copies' eyes fell on that trio.
"Oh boy." Said Dipper.
"As for you." Hydra said.
"Hey, this isn't about when I interrupted your session or anything, is it?" Wendy asked. She tried to keep a straight face, but there was a slight bit of sheepishness in there.
"Of course it is. Other things too, but mostly that."
Without a better idea at the moment, Dipper just got the Stick out. Hydra and Finea both flinched, but Piperni gave a dismissive hand wave.
"He's bluffing, he doesn't know how to use that." Piperni said. "Otherwise it'd be set off of Safety Mode by now."
"...Safety Mode?" Dipper asked, looking at his weapon up close.
"Heh, you're probably wondering what that is. I might as well tell you now, since it doesn't look like the deans are going to be explaining any time soon."
Kathody hung her head down in shame. Then she suddenly lifted her head back up.
"Wait a minute! What am I doing, just standing around and not helping? This looks bad, I should be fighting you and helping the humans reach the Stans!"
Piperni thrusted a hand forward, and through some arcs of electricity another pipe burst out. That time, it shot an extremely high pressure stream of water that launched Kathody to the wall on the other end.
"That stick is a powerful laser weapon." Piperni said. "But getting it to work takes several steps. I think we're all in agreement that we don't want you tearing up the domains, so we won't tell you how to activate them."
Kathody silently nodded in agreement. Most of her body was pinned, but her head wasn't.
"We can figure it out!" Said Mabel. "And when we do, we're gonna bring all your islands down! ...Maybe not literally. I think Domain 2 and this place are still above Gravity Falls. If they fell then uh... yeah."
"None of the domains are above the town itself. But several are above pit stops, or the road. So you do have a point- DIPPER! We're not just going to sit here and let you figure out how to work that thing!"
Dipper was in fact trying to look around the stick. It, for all intents and purposes, appeared to be completely ordinary. Maybe it felt a little heavier... with all the water in that domain, it should be easy to test its density...
Either way, he was called out, so he looked at the trio with a hint of guilt and stomped trying to tinker with it. He really should have tried that out back when they had spare time. A mental note, Domain 2 after everything was resolved was the perfect time.
Piperni went out first, spawning several more pipes to burst out of the ground, emerging first from her place and then bursting out to reach the Mystery Shack group. All four of them lept out of the way.
Hydra did some acrobatic leaps to get in to place. She stood atop one of the exposed pipes, planting a hand on it.
"I can't control water yet, but this is the next best thing!"
Wendy was already on it, running her way through the series of pipes that were set up since they stopped moving and leaping from rise to rise in their chaotic cluster without missing a beat. As electricity surged through and burst very high-pressure water, the group tried to dodge.
Mabel was hit immediately, though judging from the trio's reactions it seemed more like a stroke of luck. The water pushed her towards the opposite wall Kathody was pinned to, getting concerned head turns from the other three.
"Mabel!" Dipper shouted, stopping in place. Wendy kept going further, if slower.
"I'll see if she's okay!" Dipper called to his two standing teammates. "Try to keep them from doing anything else!"
"D-Dipper..." Mabel herself said, if a bit weakly. "I'm fine. I can still do this."
As if to prove it, she brought herself to a stand and began running after the trio of copies. Not like that did her - or the rest of the group - that much good when all the pipes with exposed ends began to fire at once.
That time, they were aimed to shoot the team upwards. Wendy dodged the bursts aimed at her pretty well - and there were more aimed at her, clearly she was considered the trio's top priority. Her arm was hit, but that just slowed her down.
On the other hand, Dipper and Soos were catapulted to the upper wall of the hallway. They could push against it, but the force alone was pinning them.
"Uhrm, Wendy..." Finea said. Not sounding completely disgusted, but not exactly amazed by her either. "Dean Searah hates you the most and so do we."
"You know what, I think that's a good thing! I'd rather take the blame for... whatever it is. Just leave Soos and the kids out of it."
"We need to capture all four of you!" Hydra said. "That's how the game works! For the deans, and hopefully for us professors now! I promise, we will go lighter on the children. Because we need to try harder to not kill them by accident."
"Not that I mind at all but why are you keeping us alive? Doesn't seem to fit .GIFfany's MO. Isn't she a lot more murder-y than this?"
"Yes. If this was completely up to Risen .GIFfany, you and the twins would all be dead by now. But you should ask one of the deans about this."
"Later!" Wendy shouted, attacking one of the pipes shooting Dipper in the air to emphasize why the question could wait. It lessened the pressure pinning him to the wall, and he decided to make a dive towards the layer of water that was rising-
Right... despite being in the stadium's hall... it seemed as though at some point, giant .GIFfinium doors came up and gated them. Also, that hole Searah was sent in to got sealed by a similar sheet of the sapphire-colored metal. So, the place was slowly flooding.
Anyway, Wendy went to repeat the pipe-smacking process with Soos, but enough time passed so that he already fought his own way out. He, too, made a dive for the water layer.
It seemed like Piperni was the one taking charge in her indirect hydrokinesis. She looked between her four opponents and began to strategize-
All while Hydra lept off and navigated the water as though she was a fish, gunning to Wendy's location specifically.
"Alright, shoot." Wendy said. "Come on out, none of us have all day."
Hydra reached out hand first, successfully grabbing Wendy by the face. She swung around at her - right. Durability and all, but she was still able to make the arm flinch. While the non-deans were weaker than the deans, Wendy still didn't know by exactly how much, and unfortunately had to learn the hard way by that point.
(She made a mental note to self to set up some kind of training thing with Kathody and the copies on good terms with her, during down time between domains.)
With a good amount of force, Wendy managed to shove the gym leader off of her just in time for her backup to get there. All three of her teammates were moving through the water, though Finea was clearly going after them to slow them from aiding Wendy.
"Stick together!" Dipper called out. "And keep your eyes under the water!"
It was as if Finea heard that (honestly, she likely could), as her blurred figure below the water actively became harder to see. As if she... had some kind of camoflauge method? Hopefully she didn't, nor that any of the copies could make themselves invisible.
"HRAAAGH!" Mabel cried, sticking an arm under the water like a bear swiping at a fish.
Based on how the copy stopped her swimming pattern and stumbled around a bit, the attack was successful. Sure enough, she emerged from the water soon after, rubbing her head and looking annoyed.
"Can we get her hostage?" Soos asked as the other two were clearly preparing something based on the electricity roaring around them. The scary part was that none of the quartet could tell what.
"Try, it won't work." Said Hydra. "In fact, it will just make us mad. One thing we all have in common is that we like to stick together. As the dean would say, this is unlike a certain family we're facing right now."
"Oh, come on!" Dipper shouted. "Don't play therapist to us! This is none of your business!"
"You're right. If you get past us, dissecting the Pines is more of a job for the Four Friends. Or their underappreciated professors. Let's work on your crush."
Dipper took a step back. "Don't. I... should have known this since you can look in to our lives or something."
"Relax, all of us only know the basics. The Past-a-Scope can't look that well. Sadly. We just caught a few glimpses. We know you have a crush on her, but that's it. And frankly, you don't need a time-viewing scope for that. Our hidden cameras Rose didn't know about when you stepped in to Domain 1 alone made it obvious."
"I don't care how much blushing you saw! Don't violate our privacy! That goes triple for whatever you were looking at from Soos!"
"Soos told .GIFfany everything about his life already. He even confessed that he ate someone? We didn't really look in to him because .GIFfany thought she knew all there was to know about him."
"And coming from us," added their captive fish-like enemy, "that's saying a lot." She was struggling, but the others had a good grip on her.
Piperni smirked as she looked down at the flooded arena. "Anyway. Electricity lesson 101. How water interacts with it. Dean Searah, I know you can hear this, you must be proud of how you set this up!"
"OH NO!" Dipper shouted as he realized the very obvious with .GIFfany's overall powers. Wendy, Mabel, and Soos all realized that too.
Piperni nodded, lifting a finger with just a few sparks dancing atop it before plunging her entire hand in to the water itself.
They made a jump for the pipes, the only thing to stand on that wasn't completely flooded. Dipper, Mabel, and Wendy managed to leap on board. Soos still, unfortunately, had a foot in the water, which he wasn't aware of until it was too late.
The electricity hurt much more than a standard close encounter with a student copy's electric shock prior. "YAAAAH!" Soos screached. Once the shock faded, he was visibly singed. "I'm... goin' down. Sorry to disappoint you all."
He fell face-first on the pipe. Mabel was fast to get his water-dipped foot out of the water to avoid a repeat incident.
"Oh we didn't actually want to knock him out like that." Piperni said with some concern. "Uhhhhh .GIFfany might be mad at that... no wait, she wouldn't be. As long as Soos is alive, she will be okay."
"The others need to be alive too, remember that! Injuries, though..."
Dipper lept up and punched Piperni in the face. It... hurt her more than it usually did to the other copies.
"Wait! Does using electricity drain your magic energy?" He asked.
Both of the copies on pipes flinched.
"No. That is absolutely not true and completely unfounded-" Hydra began.
"He figured out a major weakness of ours, just give up." Kathody said with a smirk. "Hey, I'm proud of you for getting that on your own."
"You didn't tell us this because...?" Wendy asked.
Kathody tried her best to shrug from her captive position. "It never came up before! Hey, Rose intentionally witheld that even when you were 'working together,' you have more reason to be mad at her!"
"I am mad at Rose, but that's not the point!" Dipper said.
Kathody tried to break out yet again, but Piperni raised her hand, and more pipes burst out from the walls around the second dean.
"Okay, fine." She said. "Finea and Hydra are exhausted by now. But I still have a lot of fight left in me!"
"Any reason why though... why they have different energy levels..." Kathody continued.
"It won't make a difference, but it's training. Same with the deans. But if you think you can exhaust me out..."
"Let me guess," said Wendy, "You or Searah or whoever 'calculated' that you have exactly enough strength to outlast us."
"Not 'exactly' so much as '507 times stronger.'"
Finea weakly treaded water over to the pipe system, resting on it. "Piperni," she said, "please. It's down to you."
"Got it!"
With just a few more streams of electricity, the pipes began moving again. Several of them darted at the group, striking like snakes. Wendy managed to parry one, but the other three didn't fare much better.
Mabel got hit in the shoulder. She managed to avoid a direct, serious injury by ducking in time, but she still got a nasty strike that made her put a hand on the hit spot. Dipper, similarly, got hit on the side and was forced to drop down. Soos was poked directly in the middle of a leg.
Dark as it may have been to think about, the pipe stopped short of actually impaling him. Dipper, even while wincing from the injury, noted that. The pipe almost pushed itself back, and fell back down.
Wendy tried to strike Piperni, only for her to hop back and shoot out four more pipes at her. As with Soos, while one of them got her at the side, it also 'bounced' away. Not harmlessly, but not lethally either.
"I think it's time for some elemental mixing..." Said Piperni as a new, thicker pipe burst from the ground. Noteably, that one had red stripes through it and a flame symbol. Kathody gasped at that, trying much harder to fight against the pressurized water pinning her. "Dean Searah wants this place to 'represent lukewarm water,' Domain 6 and maybe 13 being 'cold' or 'cool,' and Domain... 7 and 12 being 'warm' somewhat. I think that is a dumb rule. We're heating things up early."
Then she sent a few streams in to the red-decorated pipe. Its midsection split, and steaming water immediately shot out.
The water didn't actually land near any of the group, yet they could still feel the sheer levels of heat inside.
"Surrender." Said Piperni.
"NEVER!" Mabel cried back.
"Or burn."
"I'll never do that either!"
Mabel flinched at the response the plumber-esque copy gave her. Because it was in the form of a huge, wicked grin.
"Say that after my attack has actually started, and then I might believe you."
She lifted her hands in the air, causing streams of electricity to shoot out and all over the flooded room. Noteably, while most of them were the standard light blue, there were just a couple of sparks of Searah's more saturated, navy blue mixed in.
The water coming out of the pipe seemingly turned to steam then and there. A wave of steam rushed after the group, barely giving them enough time to reach the top of the pipe-pile, shoving Piperni out of the way. Just like that, the cut off hall section became a sauna. They stayed away from the now-boiling waters, but even the pipes themselves began to heat up. All four of them had shoes that could withstand the heat, but that wouldn't do much good soon.
"We need to get to higher ground!" Mabel shouted.
"Uh- heat rises, s-so not higher, just... not here!" Dipper added as he began to sweat. "Mabel, do you still have your grappl-"
"Haha, when do I not? I even sleep with it under my bed!"
Kathody seemed to take note of that. Her eyes rose up.
Mabel already caught on to what Dipper was going for, just as the hook soon caught on to some sort of walkway far above the hall when she fired at it. She never tested the weight with four people, but it was pretty much now or never by that point.
Wendy, Soos, and Dipper all tried to grab on. When Mabel reeled it back, it lagged a little bit, but it still managed to hold the group pretty we-
The heat also made Mabel's hands sweaty. Enough to lose her grip.
"Uh, guys-" She began before her hand completely slipped off.
Oh, as if to add insult to injury, Piperni also sent a shock through the water, making a flashing film of electricity dance over it.
"Oh fu-" Dipper began.
The four splashed in to water, but not the boiling, electrified water they were expecting. And a bit earlier than they thought they would.
Above the death pool was a separate floating blob of water. The group could figure out who was behind that even before looking at the trails of navy blue electricity, weakly connecting the blob by the edges over to Searah. Who was also standing on the water. With similar bits of electicity leaving her feet, almost looking like platforms on it. She was straining.
"Swim... up..." She said in grunts. "I'll... get you... to safety..."
Well... they were sinking to the point where they were nearly under water, and barely heard her both because they risked going under and the general chaos going on.
"Wait though!" Dipper said as he began to tread water in the floating blob. "Heat rises, so-"
"Yes, look, I- I'm exhausted. Sorry. I'll try to get you somewhere safe, but not too high."
"Can you purify the water?"
"...It is mostly pure." Searah said with a sigh. "I had this ran and checked. Filtered repeatedly. There's no contaminants. I know you mean getting rid of the heat."
"And the lightning."
"The heat is worse, trust me. We heated that water up to be hot. Students are not so good with electricity. Actually, us elites aren't either. It's why .GIFfany rarely tried to electrocute you directly back in the pizzeria. H-here! Grab on to the pole!"
All four of them did. And Mabel re-grabbed the grappling hook. As part of their original plan, they basically zip-lined across that one specific pipe over to that walkway thing.
"We still need to get out of here, fast." Dipper said. "Heat-"
"And the water's rising." Mabel added.
"Say... what about those suits Searah gave us? Are they heat reistant? Or shock proof? The .GIFfanys use electricity all the time, so to protect humans around them..."
"...Huh." Mabel said as the group got them back out. She felt around the material. "Maybe they are? Didn't Searah say something about them being equipped for temperatures?"
Wendy already had hers on over her usual clothes. She shrugged. "I dunno, this does feel pretty tempid right now." She leaned over the railing, and... seemed okay even as the steam hit her?
"Well, I don't see any better ideas around here." Wendy continued. "And I feel fine. I'll just..."
She dove in, feeling at worst just some mild warmth and some minor stinging.
The three copies stopped what they were doing and just stared blankly in to the water. Searah, who had collapsed and was floating on her back, just smirked.
"Good job..." She said in a heavy breath.
"WAIT!" Shouted Piperni. "You're not supposed to do... argh! Okay, Finea, Hydra, you're following me!"
"I thought I was the leader of this." Hydra said.
"Well... I don't hear you coming up with any orders!"
"Oh I have an order for you! Seal that pipe back up! They already figured out that our suits could get them through that, more water would be more advantageous to them!"
"Wait, what?" Dipper asked. He, Mabel, and Soos were all still by the walkway.
"C'mon, dive!" Mabel said, already stuffing herself in to her suit. Soos, likewise, did the same.
"O-okay!"
Dipper barely got his suit on himself before the awful feeling of the steam just made him auto-pilot dive in to the boiling waters below. As he got it on, though, he could already feel the heat of the air become more bearable. So it wasn't just with water, unsurprisingly. The suits also acted as good insulators.
Well, he dove in too. And confirmed that the water was, indeed, surprisingly cozy despite being both boiling and having lingering bits of electricity.
"...The dean gave them the tools needed to counter us!" Hydra shouted. "Urgh!"
"I mean... it makes sense." Said Finea. "We have these tools in place for each other. It was an accident, but..."
"Urgh, shut up!"
Wendy was more than happy to ensure she followed that command. She was the one who dove out the water like a fish, punching the aquatic animal-esque one down.
She re-emerged on the pipes, already feeling much more comfortable. The 'remaining' two professors met her in the eye.
Dipper, Mabel, and Soos all went after Hydra. They attempted to mimic Wendy's dive attack, to mixed results. They kind of just piled on her. If one of them had done it individually, she might have fought them both off. But the three of them managed to get her down pretty well.
"Alright, we got you!" Dipper shouted, the three quickly scrambling to try to pin their arms on her. Wendy looked over and smiled at them.
"I'm all that's left." Piperni said. Her fingers sparking again, she planted her hands on the ground. "Which is a dumb move, you shouldn't leave the only person left as the strongest of the-"
SMACK!
A quick hit on the back of the head made her fall over. Behind her, the humans' saviors; Searah, holding a pipe and looking down with a disgruntled look. Behind her was Kathody, folding her arms. Like everyone in the room by that point, the pair was absolutely soaked.
"I normally hate to be violent to my own students like that," Searah said, "but if they're trying to attack you in an unauthorized manner, I... well, that was an emergency. Anyway, about that contract."
Dipper sighed as he held on to the amber-colored card.
"Domain 4..." he said. "Well, we got three so far. I mean, of course in a video game the levels get harder, and they..." He looked over at Kathody and Searah. Both deans seemed to have mixed expressions.
"Sandy can either be really easy or really hard to fight depending on what you do and how much tea she's drank." Said Kathody. "She's a hippie, also. That's very important."
"Wasn't Rose also a hippie?" Wendy asked.
Searah scoffed. "She merely acts as one. Sandy truly is. She also worships .GIFfany."
"We can explain when we get there." Said Kathody. "I'm still following you, because I want to."
Searah sighed. "I suppose I have no other choice but to come too. Kathody, I frankly doubt you would get the message of this contract across clearly. Especially to copies like Sandy and Cardia."
"What about your own little army?" Asked Kathody.
"Little?!" Wendy asked. "You have thousands of those things!"
Kathody and Searah both looked uncomfortable at that.
"Uh. I don't wanna say anything too soon - NDA - but... you'll see." Said Kathody.
"What do you mean NDA?" Dipper asked, getting an eyeroll from Searah.
"Yes, as you probably would have guessed, we're not legally recognized as... well, anything anywhere around the world, mostly because only the people of Gravity Falls and those agents who sent out notices saying that .GIFfany's announcement was all a fake are even aware that we are real." Searah explained. "But as far as we are concerned, we can draft legal statements and contracts to each other. It's where this contract came from in the first place. Dove wants us to follow by these to the letter, or else."
"And why are you letting Dove dictate everything you do? We still want to get back home, but apparently we need the card for that all because of her, too."
Searah sighed. "Okay, you're not getting this. I think it's time to show the video."
"Wait, really?" Kathody blinked. "I don't think that's a good idea. And speaking of Dove, she might-"
"Screw it, Dipper needs to see this."
The aquatic dean opened her inventory yet again. That time, she plucked out a small box, made of metal that was of a very familiar and alarming hot pink color.
".GIFfany made this for scare tactic purposes. She instructed us to show you this when you didn't take her or Dean Dove's threats seriously."
"...'When?'" Dipper asked as Searah appeared to be getting that projection box thing ready.
"Yes, not 'if,' shut up."
She pressed a button on it, and a screen projected on to thin air. A... hologram?
All it showed though was a short clip of an explosion going off. One with a strong dark gray tint to it, with bright fuchsia lines around. A pulse that-
Wait were those dots in the foreground mountains?!
"Uhhhh..." Said Mabel.
"Want a replay?" Searah asked.
"Yeah, that would be helpful..."
"Those were mountains, right?" Soos said, basically reading the minds of the Pine twins.
"Oh yeah. Dove was just testing things."
"HOW did nobody on the planet see THAT?!" Asked Dipper.
"She's in the 'Construction Site.'" Said Kathody. "Those were artificially-made/imported mountains. Like how my place has sand, and this place has water."
"From where...?"
".GIFfinium creation is a funny thing. And so is alchemy! Yeah, we learned how to perform alchemy. Not discover it. That actually came from the Bobbleheads."
"The what?" Asked Mabel.
"I'm pretty sure you never ran in to them. Not important. Basically, watch:"
She generated a sheet of .GIFfinium metal. Flipping her hand around, she crushed it. And it... started leaking...?
"Metal out of energy. And then water out of metal."
"Oh really?!" Dipper asked. "I thought you stole a huge source of water from somewhere!"
"WHAT? I would never, Dipper! I may be a lot of things - an attempted kidnapper, someone who puts kids through torturous tests - but I am NOT a thief! Especially when it comes to water!"
"So how long did it take to make all that water?"
"I'll let you know when I consider this domain to be finished. Your... ruining my main project set that back."
"This still isn't finished?"
"No domain is. So that's not a me thing, that's an all domain thing."
Kathody shrugged. "Domain 2 wasn't done buuuut... I was almost considering it finished-"
"No, Kathody, that's not what I meant. No domain is ever finished. It's our job to constantly expand. These little islands are just the beginning."
"What's the end goal? Planets?" Asked Soos.
"Yes, actually. Well, beyond that. There is no end point. Again, no domain is ever finished."
Well, with all said and done, the orange key card was put in, and the four humans were off to the next island in the chain.
Closing AN:
This is an incredibly rushed sort of "template" of what the "proper" Chapter 3-2 would be like, sorta. I'll probably move the fight with the professors to Part 1. Aside from Chapter 1, the formula may be to have the professor fight be in Part 1, and the showdown with the dean on Part 2. Stuff that I just outright cut out because I was once again rushing for time include: The SearahMain Possession battle, the token bathing/shower scene with Soos and the dean(s), and more stuff about the mirrors (I've been meaning to mention these mirror things, and keep forgetting). I just wanted to get something out on the anniversary of "Soos and the Real Girl."
One really annoying thing was that I forgot that this confrontation originally took place in the hallway, and partway through writing the chapter I had it be set in the arena again, so I had to tweak a lot of the writing to make that make more sense.