In your dreams, Sixer!

3

"Ah! Shit!" Ford waved his hand in the air as a spark zipped from the mechanics of the neutralizer where he was making additions, "Well, that's no good." He grabbed the now blackened cloth he was using and wiped his hands.

Ford had taken the strange thing apart as soon as he arrived to his small shack located in the forest of Gravity Falls. Two years of his consistent research left his home covered in artifacts, glass jars, and tons of books. He received no visitors and that was probably for the better.

His place was a mess. Sort of like him, he guessed.

'Hey there, Sixer. Not catching you at a bad time?'

Two months of Bill making mental checks on him never ceased to make him jump. "Bill..." he chuckled as he looked at the broken apart neutralizer, "Pretty good actually. I did some tweaking on the neutralizer. Hooked it up with a cartridge and some copper wire. Now it functions as a taser as well."

'Very nice.'

"So how's the party going?"

There was a small pause before Bill spoke again, 'Stanford, do you realize what time it is?'

"I thought a good party never ends? Those are your words, you know."

'Look outside.'

Ford shrugged and walked over to the window, unfolding the curtains only to squint as bright sunlight bathed the room in light. That was strange...when he came home it was early dusk.

'See what I mean?'

"Wow..." Ford gazed out the window in awe. Judging by how bright it was outside, Ford ventured to guess that it was probably around ten in the morning. Had he really been awake that long? He laughed, "So I take it you're still partying?"

'Hardly. I just finished cleaning.'

"Oh. I'm sorry. If you needed help you should have asked."

'Are you kidding? I had someone else do it. I just supervised.'

"Of course you did," Ford yawned as the fatigue suddenly hit him.

'Get some sleep, Sixer. I'll check in later if you want.'

Ford took a seat on his small couch and stretched out, "Okay..." As soon as he rested his head and closed his eyes, he fell asleep.

Ford knew he was dreaming. When he opened his eyes there were books, papers, and science equipment floating in mid-air all around him. The room was completely blue, the wallpaper looked like graphing paper.

Ford grabbed one of the pages that floated near his head. Drawn on it was some kind of inverted triangle with a circle on the side. Like the counter of Bill's true form. Drawn on the circle were the symbols Bill had shown him the day before when he went into the spacecraft.

"Hey there, my friend," a familiar, robotic-like voice pierced through the air.

Ford expected to see Bill when he turned around. Instead, he saw a small pedestal with a golden statue that emulated Bill's true form. Curious, he let go of the parchment in his hands walked closer, "Bill? Is that you?"

"In a way." The statue glowed as the voice spoke from it. "We'll get to a point eventually where I can project the form you're familiar with into the Mindscape. For now, this will have to do. I have to show you something."

Ford shook his head. He wasn't sure if he was processing this, "Wait...the Mindscape? What are you talking about?"

"I told you before that I would enlighten your mind in other ways until you can get back into the craft. So what better way than to show you what I can do?"