Stanley Pines, Our Hero (TEOC series #1)

The Resilient

*WARNING: seriously offensive transphobic talk in the beginning of the chapter. (The point of it is to unite all the readers against a common enemy; I am not personally transphobic)*

"So you puny little humans think you can destroy the axolotl, eh?"
My eyes flew open. Once again I was standing in the black-and-white mindscape, facing the Mystery Shack. 

There was a pop and a brilliant flash of light, before Bill Cipher appeared, hovering right next to me, spinning his cane in his hand.

I groaned. "Jeez, Cipher. You must be pretty lonely to wanna talk to me so much."

"Oh, don't kid yourself, Fez," Bill chanted, spinning around my head and leaving a nauseatingly bright streak on the colorless air behind him. "You know I wouldn't bother with you if I were free to travel the rest of the mindscape. You're not the person I really want to see at the moment. Of course, I almost had that person, thanks to a new ally I brought over from my other dimension; but then you and Kitty Cat had taken care of Chrysalis, last time I checked." He narrowed his eye at me. "I honestly hadn't thought you and the other human were any match for her; but I suppose you aren't totally worthless after all, Stanley."

"Her name is Bella," I growled. "Show some respect. After you look up the definition of respect, that is."

Bill waved a dismissive hand at me. "I don't need to show anyone respect; I'm the interdimensional mind demon here, aren't I? The problem concerning that one though is the persistent claim of being, what was it- both genders? HA! Someone clearly hasn't studied human biology enough, or they'd know that each specimen of your pathetic race is only one gender. Ordinarily I'd call Kitty Cat a girl, but apparently it's something else."

"It's called being bigender," I explained, fighting to keep my temper in check. "She is a girl, but she's also a boy. She is not an it, and if you like that eyeball the way it is, you better remember that."

Bill shrugged, his eye wearing a bored expression. "It's all psychological, Fezy," he replied. "For your kind, gender's determined by the DNA junk. Nothing can change that, no matter how much you want it to. Unless you're cursed or something. That's why you humans are so weak; your entire existence and all your body's limits are written in those things you call cells that float around inside your being or whatever. But the ones that have mental disorders like Kitty Cat and become confused about their identities are even weaker and more worthless than the others."

I swung my fist towards that triangle so fast I was hardly even aware of it. But where flesh and bone should have connected with a demon eye, there was empty air. Bill rematerialized behind me, cackling loudly. I spun on my heel to face him, panting and shaking with unbelievable rage at the insults towards Bella. 

"But anyway, I'm not here to chat about the psychological flaws of the human race, or we'd be here for an entire week. I came to laugh at your foolish attempts of getting to the inner island to try and stop my return to power." He seemed to be grinning at me, or at least grinning the best he could with no damn mouth. "So you three discovered the truth about my past and why I bothered with this useless dimension after all, eh? And now you think you can find and destroy the axolotl, despite what you're going to meet on that island?"

Those last words send an ominous shiver down my spine, but I retorted, "Yeah, we do think that. We've dealt with more serious stuff than some magical water lizard that's resurrecting an evil wizard nacho. How hard can it be?"

Bill's being flashed red for a few minutes, clearly bursting with fury, before returning to its normal yellow. "Your confidence will be your downfall, Fez. You think the axolotl's alone on that island? You think Chrysalis was the only person whom I recruited for my cause? You have no idea what awaits you and your friends, Stanley. In fact, I'll be very much mistaken if any of you three made it off of that island- especially you."