Gravity Skulls
A/N: Slight adjustment to the setting of this fic, it's now taking place AFTER Gideon Rises but before the zombie incident.
Chapter 3: Back to Business
It has been a few days since the Mystery Skulls arrive in Gravity Falls and in that week they have integrated very well with the rest of the crew in the shack. With Arthur's help Soos was able to repair the damage from Gideon's rampage to better than new, the machines and such running like clockwork. Even the electric was running better and cut Stan's power bill in half and Stan creepy old prospector machine Goldie was working and no longer gave small children night terrors.
And with Vivi's help Stan was racking in more cash from more tourists than ever. With the artifacts she was willing to part with and her stories about them she and Stan were able to enrapture audiences and the dough just came pouring out like this were a bakery.
As for Mystery, at first Stan was adamant that the dog stay outside and watch for tax collectors. But as Mystery showed he was much smarter than the average dog (without revealing is ability to talk), a bit of puppy eyes charm, and a pinch of kitsune magic (not that anyone knew he was one) the Skulls were able to convince him to allow the Waddles privileges.
Today had been the gran re-opening of the Shack but they've hit an appreciated slow spell today so everyone was pretty much just hanging out more than working, waiting for someone to show up, and tonight there will be a party celebrating the re-opening.
Vivi and Dipper were sitting/standing at one side of the counter, Wendy, Arthur, and Mabel were at the other near the register, and Soos was sweeping around shop. Stan had disappeared again to who know where.
"So, does your robot arm have any cool mods in it?" Wendy asked the blond mechanic who was tinkering with a loose screw.
"Yeah does is like, a Gatling gun or lasers in it?" Mabel pitched in bouncing excitedly on a stool she was sitting on excitedly.
Arthur chuckled nervously. "No nothing like that, if I jam to much junk into it it'd be to heavy and probably pop out of the socket…that would hurt a LOT." He replied. "But there are a few small things in it." It took out the prosthetic's index finger and took the tip off revealing. "I have a flash drive in the finger to back up files on." He replaced the cap. "And I recently installed an electric stun pack into so I have a taser punch now."
"Cool!" Mabel gushed.
"Yeah, but it ain't much use against ghost…and I've yet to use it since I more flight than fight." He responded embarrassedly.
"Keep trying Squire, you'll get knighted sooner or later." Vivi called over with an encouraging smile. She noticed Dipper was leafing through a journal, she has noticed him doing so almost all week and she decided to finally ask about it. "Hey star child, what up with that book?" She asked.
Dipper looked at Vivi with a confused expression. "Star Child? What?"
"Your forehead has birthmark shaped like the Big Dipper constellation, your name, a nickname I'm guessing, is Dipper." She explained. "And since Constellations are typically made up of stars I'm calling you Star Child. Or should I go with Pine Tree because of the hat?" She ended with a teasing note, dipping the bill of the cap down playfully.
Vivi always did love kids.
Dipper fixed his hat with a nervous chuckle. "Star Child is fine, but how did you know about my birthmark, I keep it hidden under my hair."
"Psychic powers." Vivi replied mysteriously, wiggling her fingers and eyebrows.
"Your sister told us when we asked her if that was your real name." Arthur deadpanned, earning a halfhearted punch in the chest from Mabel.
"You're no fun." The bluenette grumbled, sticking her tongue out at the blond before deciding to get back to the previous subject. "But we're not talking about your name we're talking about that book."
"Actually I've wanted to show this to you guys since you told us you were paranormal investigators." Dipper explained as it handed her the journal. "I found this shortly after we moved in with our Grunkle Stan; it's a Journal/Bestiary that has info on all the weirdness that has been happening in Gravity Falls."
Vivi leafed through a few pages, everything that messenger said was here and more was recorded in this journal. Eye-Bats, Manotaurs, Gnomes, ect. "All of these things hang around Gravity Falls?"
"Yup, first day we were here I was almost forced to marry a thousand gnomes before Dippin' Dots saved me." Mabel exclaimed.
"And the Manotaurs put me through Manliness Training but I "failed" when I refused to murder the Multi-Bear for them." Dipper added.
Vivi saw the page for the Multi-Bear and a hastily written note that looked to have been recently added. Addendum: Nice guy, likes Disco Girl by Baba.
"And then there was Gideon that little troll doll had a magic bolo tie that gave him psychokinesis" Dipper added another bit of weirdness to their list.
"Oh yeah, him." Mabel nearly spat the word. "Crazy kid had a crush on me, pressured me into dating him and nearly killed my brother after I asked him to break up with him for me!"
"Sheesh, and I thought we got it weird and dangerous." Vivi commented.
"Have you come across any ghosts around here?" Arthur asked with a hidden underlying tone of desperation in his voice.
"Yeah actually, there's this elderly couple haunting the old abandoned 24/7 at the end of town." Mabel replied with no hesitation.
"We do not speak of that place Mabel…ever." Dipper said warningly.
Vivi leafed through the book some more and found a section devoted to specters. "Huh, the spirit that attacked us in that ghost manor was definitely a category 10, whoever wrote this really knew their stuff."
She found a picture of a human with little to no skin, revealing a skeleton with flowing eyes and a mane of hair made of fire, a beard as well. It was a dead ringer for the type of ghost that attacked them.
Category 10: Sub-Type-Revenant: A vengeful spirit that often appears skeletal or with hair made of flames, usually both. It manifests when the deceased has a deep desire to exact vengeance against those the wronged them in life. They are among the most powerful forms of ghosts having retained all of their memories and cognitive faculties through death and having a good handle on their emotions. Their eyes glow with an intense light when near the object of their ire.
She read this silently too herself and something accrued to her. 'But why would a revenant be after us? We've never killed anyone, and none of the fakes we revealed have died or sworn vengeance on us.'
A slight pink tint dusted her eyes and a minor headache began to form as she thought about it but she was able to mostly ignore it. She handed the book back to Dipper and said. "Keep that book close Dipper, I got a feeling that thing is more important than any of us realize."
"Don't have to tell me twice." Dipper agreed as he placed the book in a pocket inside his vest. "And I'm glad somebody besides Mabel, Myself, Wendy and Soos believes in this stuff. I showed the journal to Grunkle Stan and he still doesn't believe that anything supernatural exists!"
"I know the feelin' little man." Vivi said sympathetically as she playfully rustled the younger investigator's hat. "I've been interested in this stuff my whole life and no one, not even Arthur believed me until…" She trailed off as she took a glance at Mystery who discreetly shrugged.
Noticing the lull in the conversation Dipper ventured to ask. "Until what, Vivi?"
"Well…um…" She looked toward Mabel, Wendy and Soos, and then back at Dipper. "You guys can keep a secret, right"
"Of course!" Dipper replied excitedly.
"My mouth in a steel trap for secrets!" Mabel declared.
"No problem dude, I keep secretes for Mr. Pines all the time. Like how he keeps his unpaid traffic tickets in his mattress." Soos assured obviously.
Wendy just shrugged nonchalantly, making a zipping motion across her lips before throwing away an imaginary key.
"Well, it wasn't until Mystery showed up that everyone in my town belived in the supernatural and my parents finally let me start Mystery Skulls."
"Wait, your dog?" Dipper asked incredulously, sure the Mystery had funky hair and wore glasses but he seemed like an ordinary dog to-
"I prefer Canine-American thank you very much." Mystery piped up with a joking tone.
Everyone sans Arthur and Vivi stared at the dog with wide eyes, their mouths dropping agape.
Arthur looked at Vivi with a half-smile and a cocked eyebrow before he raised a mechanical hand and began to countdown.
3
2
1…
-Gravity Skulls-
A black semi with pink skull motifs and flaming pipes roared down the road, passing by a sign that read.
"Gravity Falls, hm?" Lewis read aloud to himself, the petals to the blue flower within his locket pulled him toward this town so she must be here somewhere, Vivi the love of his life and afterlife, with him, Arthur his "best friend", his murderer.
But as he was nearing a split in the road that lead into the woods surrounding the sleepy little town he saw something that made his locket anchor stop beating.
The van, the Mystery Skulls van was wrecked. Smashed and twisted into a rock and a tree.
Slamming on the breaks Lewis screeched to a halt, the truck nearly jackknifing on the slick road and luckily no one else was driving this way.
Before exiting though Lewis concentrated, his anchor glowing a soft gold briefly before vanishing into his chest as his glamour took effect. No longer did he resemble a skeleton but instead the young man he was before death. Though his hair was still the same bright magenta color it was as a skele-ghost and his eyes remained black with glowing magenta irises.
After that he burst out of the truck and flew toward the wrecked remains of the beloved van his friends traveled the country in, busting mysteries and monsters alike.
"Oh god, Oh no, nononononono!" He stammered worriedly, near hysterics. "I swear to god is that bastard god Vivi and Mystery killed I'll drag his soul screaming out of Hell to torture myself!" He was pissed enough at Arthur for killing him in the cave, but killing the love of his life, even by accident will insure NO salvation!
Searching the care the specter was relieved to find no bodies and very little blood, definitely not enough to worry about any of them bleeding to death.
"Good, Viv and Mystery are okay, and I can still make Arthur pay for what he did." He stated to himself and then he noticed something. Curious Lewis decided to rummage through what was left of their stuff.
A lot of it he recognized from when he was alive, some of the stuff was newer. Vivi exorcism equipment, some of her sweaters, her copy of Silent Hill and her guitar, now broken. Mystery's dog treats, Japanese memorabilia, and now busted copy of Okami.
But the most interesting thing Lewis found was on his and Arthur's side of the van. There was a torn up box that held some of his old stuff with "Property of Lewis" stenciled on the side, sweaters vests and neckerchiefs, a stuffed alpaca Vivi gave him on their second date, and pictures of all of them together, back in happier times. Why would Arthur keep his stuff and not get rid of it?
But Arthur's stuff was even more interesting. Tools and spare parts that resembled arms, Some tools that looked like it came straight outta Ghostbusters, ghost detectors?
Strange, Arthur never kept equipment like this before, preferring to avoid ghost and rather than confront them. Why would he keep ghost searching equipment now?
Finding to other objects of interest inside the nearly imploded van Lewis exited it and noticed a series of footprints leading to and from the van, four pairs of adults, two children and a dog. The specter also felt the pedals within his anchor tug toward the large hill. Vivi was up there, and if Vivi was up there that meant Arthur was up there.
Shifting his glamour again, this time he no longer resembled his past self or the revenant he became. Now his hair was combed back and black, his suit replaced with a jacket and purple shirt and blue jeans and he conjured a pair of sunglasses to hide is eyes.
He couldn't go nuts like he did last time. Last time he went berserk and nearly killed Vivi and Mystery, on top of that there were strangers involved now, like the people that saved her and the dog from the wreckage of their beloved van.
So this time he would play it cool, he would wait for an opportunity to reveal himself and exact his vengeance against Arthur. This time he won't stop him from unsealing Vi's memories, this time he won't escape justice!
He got back into the semi and rode into town, he would find and abandoned building to set up shop in and begin making his plans.
"Did Mystery just…" Dipper began, trailing off in his astonishment.
"Talk?" Mabel finished her brother's though for him, a similar but more delighted look on her face.
"Yup!" Vivi chirped happily rubbing the spot between the dog's ears affectionately. "This little guy is how I really got into the supernatural, the occult and the just plain weird." She pointed at Arthur. "And convinced my friends and folks about it."
"Whoa…" "That's so cool, dudes!" Wendy and Soos said respectfully.
A sudden knock on the door brought the group out of their amazement and Soos went to answer it.
Two men in suits stood on the porch showing their FBI badges.
"Mr. Pines, what's the codeword for when I see federal agents again?" Soos called out worriedly.
Sorry this took so long, I haven't been writing as much as I'd like and I was also updating my other fic Pines Under the Mountain. From now on, to hopefully speed up the production of both stories I'm going to take turns writing them. Since this chapter is done I'm going to focus on the next chapter of PUtM and then when that's posted I will focus on the next chapter of this fic and I will keep going that way hopefully until one or the other is finished.