Ford had avoided the fighting so far, instead risking his neck to grab the unconscious Lalonde and pull her away from danger. The reset pulled him back a bit, but the opening of the portal the second time around gave him the distraction he needed to pull the woman toward the relative safety of the shack.
"Bill...! I should have known better! Thought I had things under control, but he's a crafty one..." Ford looked down at Lalonde, the woman sleeping soundly in his arms. Her skin was still a sickly pale tone, evidently still infected with the virus she had refused to give many details on before. Well, details that
Bill had refused to give. There was a high probability that Lalonde had become possessed by Bill during her time in between dimensions, allowing the demon to come to the physical realm and concoct this plan.
To think that Ford had been assisting Bill all along with his work on the portal... that he had never truly known the real Lalonde to begin with. It made Ford's blood boil. Bill had used him for the
last time.
"Come on," he whispered to his valued assistant.
"I have a plan."
***
Walls of fire erupted around the portal, Solas making a great effort to hold back the shadow creatures. Junko could feel the intense heat on her skin and her body was breaking out in sweat. She choked back tears and hugged herself in an effort to quell her intense shivering. She was the cause of everyone's misfortunes wherever she went. It was always the case, every time. If Makoto had once been the Ultimate Lucky Student, Junko was no doubt the Ultimate Unlucky Student.
She let out a shaky breath, head turning to face Koyomi as he approached her with resolution. Her mouth went agape at the sight of him when she realized he was here to help
again, even after he'd forgotten their encounter moments ago.
"You don't know..." she began to say, but found herself drifting off as she listened to the boy speak. She could
feel his determination with every word he uttered, but in the end, he didn't know her situation. He didn't know all her friends were dead and missing; didn't know the horrors she'd faced what was was only a day ago for her. His words might as well have been hollow.
"I'm sorry, but I try! I am trying! But it's just too hard... this power has beaten me!"
She yelped when Koyomi took her arm, but didn't pull away. She looked into his eyes, feeling as if a lump was forming in her throat.
"Faith in me... Believing in me..." Junko closed her eyes. She still felt like crying, but now it was for different reasons. This boy sounded too much like Makoto Naegi, before he had turned out to be consumed by despair. If there truly existed a universe where Makoto was just the simple boy she once knew, Junko knew these were the things he'd be telling her.
When she heard She-Hulk's encouragement, Junko let out a shaky laugh.
"Right... I know... For once, people need me. I've..." Junko nodded her head, psyching herself up.
"I've taken down some nasty bears, so this is nothing!"
Junko cried out and reached out with her right hand. The green streak of light erupted from her palm once again and slammed into the portal. This time,
it hurt, and Junko's arm shook under the pressure. She grimaced at the feeling, thankful that she had Koyomi's physical support.
"Come on... Come on, come on!"
With one last great cry, Junko closed her hand into the fist and closed the portal. She quickly drew her hand back and held it close to her chest, wincing as it continued to flash green.
"I'm sorry for being weak. Thank you."
***
As everyone's powers began to reawaken, Dipper cried out when he found something in his possession starting to glow. He pulled out the gem he'd found in the forest, marveling at the fact it was now glowing. When it began to glow even brighter, Dipper found himself blinded and forced to drop the stone. It then began to float in the air, the glow growing bigger and forming what appeared to be a humanoid shape. The characteristics of the shape shifted rapidly, eventually sticking to...
Pearl.
The Crystal Gem dropped to the ground, smiling as she pulled her spear from the gem at her forehead.
"This is much better!" she happily exclaimed.
***
"Ehehe.... Hahahahaha..."
The face didn't need to be seen to take a guess just who it was that the laughter was originating from. But even so, it didn't take terribly long for the young woman to come into the group's field of vision. The odd thing was that she wasn't walking. Rather, she was levitating, seeming quite happy with her position in the sky. Oh, how absolutely
liberating it was to be able to refrain from holding back her abilities!
Letting her absolutely giddy laughter slowly die down into nothing more than a little giggle, the woman finally spoke up, spreading her arms wide with a large grin as she did so to feel the breeze around her. Oh, this was wonderful!
"Hehehe... Ahh, what a lovely little 'surprise' we've stumbled unto! Wouldn't you agree... Gideon?"
"...Help me," more or less whimpered this universe's Gideon, who looked absolutely terrified. Even from his position above all of the survivors alongside Mabel.
"Oh, don't be scared, darling~" Reverse Mabel cooed, even as stray weapons being fired off by Bill came their way. Gideon seemed worried that they'd hit them, but the weapons simply froze in the air mere feet away. At this, the female allowed herself another laugh.
"Mabel will protect you~! ...And maybe rough you up a bit once she's alllll done."
"Sister, dear, shall we?" It appeared that Dipper had joined the two, as well, looking extremely bored. Either that, or he had a wonderful poker face. One thing was for sure, though - his sister messing with Gideon wasn't really amusing to him. His sister stifled her laughter enough to let a more subtle and collected grin form on her face.
"Hehe... Of course, brother. I'd hate to keep our lovely little friends here waiting..." the brunette hummed, cheerfully.
Slowly, the weapons that had stopped mid-air began to circle around the Gleeful group in an almost hypnotically beautiful manner. But the beauty didn't exactly last - now the weapons were firing at the survivors in a very guided and controlled manner. Rather than being fired sporadically as Bill had used them, these were more comparable to heat-seeking missiles. Better take care of that new problem before it got out of hand.
***
It was then that Ford stepped out from the shack, flanked by the two Dipper clones. The trio held open the story book that Dipper and Spike had been trapped inside, its pages flapping wildly, picked up by the winds erupting from the fighting.
"Hold on and don't let go! To let go could lead to disastrous results!"
The pages of the book began to glow, and lights started shooting out from the tome. These lights began to form people, scattering them about the battlefield.
"All of you!" yelled Ford.
"You were once trapped, but now we need your help! The fate of the universe depends on it!"
@Everyone