The five had surrounded the girl, or least the person they thought had been a girl. Tambry, as Wendy explained, had been a long time friend of herself and her gang of buddies. Mabel exclaimed that she knew she had seen here somewhere before, to which Dipper agreed. Yet none of them wanted to move the still levitating young woman, rigidly floating above the seat.
"Uh, so, plans? This is a new one for me," Stan said as he looked to the others, "I mean, robots in general are rough and tough, but this isn't exactly a standard looking robot, is it?"
"Definitely not," Soos said, daring to lean in closer to her for a more observing look, "I'm going to get a look at her. Be right back," Soos declared, and turned for the kitchens.
"She wasn't even acting like a robot," Mabel declared, "she dropped her phone back by the street. Like she had been texting like any other anti-social teenager would."
"That's Tambry for ya," Wendy chuckled darkly as she looked at the still open, glowing eyes of her once friend.
"Do you think she's always been a robot?" Dipper asked as Soos returned from his journey, bringing with him a stool. "Maybe we just never noticed because she didn't talk that much."
"Trust me, she wasn't a robot," Wendy held a hand up in defense for the girl in topic, "she got her kicks just like anybody else in this town. I've also known her for long enough to know if she was a robot at this point."
"We'll see about that," Soos grunted as he stepped up the stool, and peered down into the opening into the girl. "Oh man... you guys, this is, like, some crazy amount of super-technology here."
"No kidding!" Stan said, trying his best to get his own eyes to see whatever he had.
"No, like, I'm not even sure what's supposed to be what!" Soos placed a hand against his forehead, peering into the light, past the floating 'ejected' battery that was exactly like the two Dipper and Mabel had. "I've done enough circuitry to tell you anything you need about electricity, but none of this is familiar! It's like someone made a human body out of... whatever that stuff is."
"What do you see man? Mabel demanded as she, Dipper, and Wendy watched the two men peer into the veil of light.
"Honestly?" Stan said as he finally pushed himself up on the side of the chair, "it looks like someone's insides. But made out of blue lights and a crazy looking space-age material."
"So, not going to tell you I told you so," Mabel turned to her brother, a critical look in her eye, "but I so told you so."
"Huh? What are you even talking about?" Dipper glanced to her.
"Aliens, bro!" Mabel declared, getting the other's attention, "I mean, look at it! She's perfectly life like, she's got tons of crazy gizmo-ey stuff inside her body, she leaks out light- it's like ET's robot butler!"
"Who said anything about aliens," Dipper turned to her fully, scratching his chin, "as much as you're not wrong about what we've seen, there aren't any real indications as to what this is. She could be the leading test subject in a super-advanced spy hardware program or... something!"
"Or she's made by aliens! And they're watching us! For reasons," Mabel looked around the room, as if scanning for more evidence of Alien activity. Dipper sighed as he watched her for a moment.
"It said it was a 'memory charge'," Dipper pondered while Soos and Stan peered inside the hole, and then at the still floating cylinder. "Is that what those have been? Memory charges?"
"What the holy heck is that supposed to even mean?" Stan said, poking the floating object with a quick prod of his finger. "Well, I'm not dead, so that's good."
"When I was moving around TV's," Mabel said to Dipper, catching her brother's attention, "it started glowing," she pulled out the two they already collected, "and then when they touched one another, they shared that energy. Maybe it really is a battery, but not the kind we've ever seen before."
"If it's a battery," Wendy began as they looked at Tambry, "why hasn't she powered down, or whatever?"
That was a new question Dipper couldn't answer. He opened his mouth open and closed it silently twice. Being unable to answer this brought up an even more dangerous question, one which Dipper couldn't keep to himself.
"If she's still powered, what happens if she wakes up?" he asked the others, his eyes wide in fear and uncertainty. One by one, the others turned to look at him, the same kinds of thoughts in their minds.
"What if someone comes looking for her?" Soos stated, jumping down from his post, afraid to get near the girl.
"What if she has to erase the evidence?" Stan replied, also taking a step back.
"What if she's still mean when she wakes up?" Mabel gulped as they all stared at the girl.
"Well..." Wendy wiped her hands on the sides of her pants, and stepped forward. With a loud breath, she reached up, grasped the small cylinder, and tugged. The other four gasped as Wendy stumbled back, having pulled the object away from its floating position easily. Wendy looked at her hand, holding the small cylinder tightly. "Okay, I'm good-" Tambry's lights shut down and she fell back onto the seat, having Wendy yelp and lunge backwards.
The light faded, and the metallic opening on her stomach closed shut. Had the others not seen her just a few moments ago floating in mid air as the robot creature she was, they all would have seen a perfectly normal passed out young woman. Mabel stepped forward quickly, and slid Tambry's shirt down, covering her stomach.
"In case she wakes up," Mabel reasoned when the others gave her a confused look.
"If she wakes up, we have worse problems than her dignity," Stan told them, "we still have to figure out what to do with this girl."
"I don't know what the hospital could do with her," Dipper thought aloud, "I mean, being made of whatever that all was kinda makes it hard for doctors to fix you."
"Wait..." Mabel said, a sudden horror dawning on her, "Dipper, what if... what if these things turned her into a robot!?" she asked, holding up the two other cylinders.
"W-w-what?" her brother spluttered.
"I charged them up by TV's and radios and stuff, and then I zapped her. What if these are actually like... living people into cyborg weapons of destruction?! This could be the ending of humanity! And I started it!" Mabel pulled at her hair, her mind racing to the worst possible outcome as she paced back and forth.
"Mabel, stop it," Dipper grabbed her should and spun her to face him, "we have to deal with this here and now, not what it can be."
"Why don't we get her out of the building first," Wendy suggested, still furthest away from Tambry, "for all we know, she could get up at any point!"
"What exactly makes you say that?" Stan asked and the he pointed to the charge in her hand, "her lights are gone. Guessing it was because of that," Grunkle Stan told Wendy as she gave it a look.
"Dipper," Wendy took a shaky step to Dipper, extending her arm to him, "take it."
Dipper gave the new cylinder a careful look. There was something ominous about this third battery- possibly because they had just seen it emerge from a torso of a girl not ten feet from him. Not only that, Wendy's face was screwed up in an uncomfortable grimace. She wanted nothing to do with what she was holding to Dipper.
"Sure," he nodded and took the blue object from her, examining it. Nothing happened when his skin made contact with the smooth surface, and he sighed in relief. "Mabel, bring the other two here."
"Begin the operation, doctor," Mabel told Dipper as she approached, holding the other two out. Dipper gave them a look, and was surprised to find that the one which had just been ejected from Tambry was fainter in color and glow than the other two.
"That... that's weird, "Dipper leaned closer to them, "if these are sort of batteries, wouldn't the one that just came out of a, uh, host be the brightest?"
"Well, check this out dude," Mabel told him, "shazam," she waved the two over the third in Dippers hand. The boy's eyes widened as he watched the brighter two fade slightly and the one in his hand grow in light.
"Wait... what?" he gasped, bringing it close to his face for inspection. The colors were stronger, more vibrant, and seemed to flow inside the tube like the colors themselves were alive. "Mabel, what did you just do?"
"No idea dude! Isn't that exciting though?" Mabel asked him, his eyes lightening at the prospect of them discovering even more to these strange objects.
"You found this out?" Dipper asked, a widening smile tracing his face.
"Yup! So, how's that for your helpless sister with mysteries?" She nudged his shoulder with her elbow with a devilish grin.
Dipper's face grew hot and his guts twisted in shame. His eyes quickly fell away from his sister, still aware of the mean things he had cut her feelings with. Mabel then swatted the rim of his cap gently, and poked his nose.
"All is forgiven, bro," Mabel smiled at him as he opened his mouth, beating him to the punch of an apology.
"I was a jerk," Dipper told her weakly.
"Well, maybe I was asking for it, just a teeny-weeny little," Mabel tossed the two cylinders into the air, catching them easily.
"I shouldn't have just-"
"Dipper, it's okay," Mabel assured her brother with a warm smile. It was more than enough for him and some of the stress in his body fizzled away. Not all of it; they still had an unconscious girl-cyborg to deal with.
"Either of you two got a place we can hide her?" Stan asked the twins as they turned back to face the unconscious girl in the seat. "Just a temporary place! Relax," Stan called loudly as the two both gave him warning glares. "We're not in the business of dumping bodies in the woods... yet."
"Maybe we're not thinking about this right," Dipper said aloud, walking around to get a look at Tambry for himself, "rather than where we take her, maybe we should think of who."
"Who?" Mabel echoed her brother, shrugging with her eyes wide, impersonating an owl.
"I told you two," Stan warned the twins, "we're not involving anyone else in this sort of deal."
"Grunkle Stan, I think it's a little late to try to avoid anyone knowing anything," Dipper retorted quickly, "either way, someone's going to know something's up when Tambry here doesn't go home or doesn't show up where ever she's expected. We need some help."
"Ugh... fine. Then we make sure it's a quiet as possible. My secrets survived for years because I played things secretly. No crazy adventuring and big explosions, got me?" Stan checked with the four of them, who all nodded.
"Wait, guys," Soos piped up, a dawn of light behind his eyes, "I know who we can take her to!"
"Lazy Suzan!" Mabel cheered. The four others looked to Mabel, who realized she hadn't guessed correctly. "Because, you know, she's really nice and understanding... maybe?"
"Who, Soos?" Wendy asked quickly following Mabel's explanation.
"Old man McGucket!" Soos declared proudly.
"What?" Stan barked, "we really want to get him in on this mess?"
"Hey, it's not that bad of an idea," Dipper replied, backing up Soos, "McGucket has a ton of experience with robotics, and people still think he's crazy, so if he goes talking about this sort of thing, we'll be off the hook."
"I still like Lazy Suzan as an idea," Mabel pouted.
"So, I guess you four are going into town then?" Stan gave them a hard look.
"I, uh," Wendy piped up, "I can stay behind."
"Wendy, she's your friend," Mabel told the redhead.
"Was my friend" Wendy corrected her, "tell you what. You guys get a start for McGucket, and I'll make sure her parents know she's okay. Sound good?"
"Sounds good to me," Soos said, "we ready to take her away?"
"I guess so," Dipper shrugged, and with the held of Stan and Soos, the three of them carried limp Tambry to Soos's truck. Mabel slipped one of her sunglasses on Tambry's face.
"That way it looks like she's had a rough day, and isn't an unconscious cyborg," Mabel told the others. She and Dipper climbed into the truck, Mabel taking care of Tambry while Dipper took the front passenger seat.
"You three be careful," Stan told them as Soos started the truck up, "no one else needs to know!"
"Lips are sealed! With concrete!" Mabel told him as she waved out the window.
"Be careful you guys," Wendy called to the guys, situating herself on her bike.
"You too!" Dipper clawed his way out the window, pulling himself to lean on the roof of the car to face Wendy, "don't, you know, get hurt or anything! Right? Yeah. Stay safe!" Dipper lowered himself back into the car with a sigh. There was a small hum behind him, and he glanced behind his seat. Mabel was staring at him with a cocked eyebrow. "W-what?"
"You were acting real funny there," Mabel pointed out as the truck began to move forward.
"I- I was? No I wasn't," Dipper argued, afraid that the heat in his cheeks would betray his feelings. As Mabel studied him, it was the fortunate luck of the dark inside of the truck that veiled the rose color flourishing in his cheeks.
"I guess not," Mabel chewed the inside of her cheeks, clearly not believing what she was saying. Dipper turned away, now worried he may have given away a new-found secret. Last time his feelings had been this way towards someone, Mabel had unintentionally tormented her brother about his crush. He didn't need the same experiences twice in the same summer.
With a heavy heart and a confused mind, Dipper then decided it was in his best interests to cut out his feelings for Wendy. He was older now, and clearly there were more pressing matters at hand than his feelings for a girl three years older than him. He sighed quietly, uncomfortable at just giving the feelings up so easily. Dipper jumped at the knocking sound from his window, and he whipped his head to see big green eyes peering inside.
"Good luck Wendy!" Soos called.
Dipper stared at her, the girl across the glass pane. Her freckled face shone in the afternoon light as she rode her bike down the hill at the same rate as the car, smiling as she waved to the others. Her red hair billowed in the breeze behind her like ribbons in the wind, Dipper found the world slowing to a crawl. Even as she turned her confident grin away and rode past the car, Dipper was certain his heart was punching against his ribcage just a little harder than it should have been. He spotted himself in the mirror- his mouth had fallen open in a wide gape.
"Ugh," Dipper shook himself briefly. Getting that feeling out of his head would be harder than he'd expected. The redhead made it to the main street before they did, rapidly rolling down the hill until she vanished out of sight. Dipper was given a moment of clarity, and felt a build of sweat on his hands. His condition for Wendy could be a little more serious than he considered. "Dang it," he mumbled just above his breath.
"Hey, don't worry dude," Soos barely caught Dipper's words, causing the teen to jump, "we'll figure this all out."
"W-what? Oh right, Tambry, yeah. Yeah, was thinking about this mess, not... yeah," Dipper turned away from Soos, aware his sister was still looking at him with a quizzical stare.
The truck started it's way towards the town, a particular junk heap the destination. The three wondered to each other the possibility that whatever they had discovered about Tambry could be something new, or that McGucket played a crucial role in the happening of her. Maybe was even the sole creator- his apparent robotic comprehension was astounding, and Mabel and Soos wouldn't rule the possibility out. Dipper constantly played devil's advocate- reminding them that without any evidence to back up their claims, they were just throwing around theories.
"But that's what we're dealing with, isn't it?" Mabel retorted to her brother, leaning past the still motionless Tambry, "a big 'ol hunk of theoretical crazy-town?"
"All we know is that one of these three things popped out of her," Dipper said, holding up one of the collected batteries, "that's it. Until we can get more solid clues, we can't just assume-"
"Hey, what if the other two came from other people like Tambry?" Soos suddenly blurted out, his face pale and his eyes wide. Dipper and Mabel gave him a look in thought, and then to one another. That hadn't even crossed their minds.
"Then... there could be more of her?" Mabel asked aloud, looking to Tambry.
"That's a theory right now," Dipper said strongly, more so to calm himself than the others. The possibility that there were people wandering around who were not themselves was creepy. "So, let's not jump to any more conclusions."
"But that's got some hefty evidence behind it!" Mabel declared, pointing to the cylinder Dipper held in his hands, "it's not even like my Aliens idea-"
"Still a crazy idea," Dipper rolled his eyes.
"-anyway," Mabel cut off her cutting off brother, "this one has the evidence you like getting! We saw it pop out of her! Like some sort of monster!"
"Sort of like a chest-erupting creature of some sort," Soos commented, his eyes squinting in dislike of whatever his mind was conjuring. His eyes then flashed red and blue, the mirror he peered in reflecting the light of a patrol car behind them. "Aw shoot!"
"What?" Dipper and Mabel spun around to peer out of the window. A Sheriff patrol car was riding Soos's tail, lights flashing and the siren occasionally wailing.
"Crud-stickers," Mabel growled, gripping her seat tightly. She then turned to Tambry, "just act natural."
"Keep those sunglasses on her," Dipper told his sister. "Soos, what's going on?"
"You got me dude," Soos admitted with worry, "I'm not a crazy driver or anything, and I'm pretty sure my speedometer was calibrated right! Aw man, I hope my license didn't fall off the truck again!"
The truck slid to the side of the road, coming to a halt just before the outskirts of Gravity Falls downtown. Sheriff Blubs stepped out of the patrol cruiser, adjusting his belt with a gruff look as he began to step up. Soos rolled down the windows as Blubs approached, and finally leaned into the window.
"What's the problem sir?" Soos asked with a nervous grin.
"License and registration," Blubs told him in business tones. Soos nodded and scrambled for his wallet.
"What's wrong, Sheriff?" Mabel asked from the backseat, leaning forward to pop her head above the front cushions. "We weren't bedazzling you with our gangsta vibes, were we?"
"Nope. Nothing bad today," Blubs told them as he took Soos's information, "just a routine traffic stop."
"Oh, that's a relief," Soos sighed as he was handed back his wallet and registration, "was afraid you'd notice Tambry's-"
"Soos!" Dipper shouted quickly. Soos stared ahead blankly, and slowly looked to Dipper, an apology seared into the man's eyes.
"-uh, that tambourines are in fashion," Soos corrected himself as he turned back to Blubs.
"They're all the rage," Mabel nodded, "I have, like, thirty of them."
"Hm. I guess I'm behind on what's hip these days," Blubs told them. "Everything seems in order here," he nodded, and then spotted past Mabel, a motionless girl. "Hey, Tambry. You doing good back there?"
Mabel and Dipper shared a terrified look. She wouldn't respond, how could she? It was one thing if they had been transporting Stan or Wendy somewhere and they were asleep, but Tambry wasn't someone who ever hung out alone with these three. It was already suspicious looking that she wore sunglasses as the sun slowly set behind them- the rays of light were beyond angles able to strike their eyes. Why would she be wearing sunglasses.
"Tambry? You okay there?" Blubs asked again, crooking an eyebrow behind his own thick sunglasses.
"Oh yeah, she's, uh, sick!" Mabel declared, "we saw her on the side of the road acting all BLAAAH and stuff, so we're going to take her home to rest up! Yeah!"
Blubs didn't reply to Mabel. His face was pointed directly at the unconscious girl. Without saying a word, Dipper knew the cop was suspicious. This could be really, really bad for them if he took her away before they could get answers.
"Take off your sunglasses," Blubs told Tambry, his tone more serious than it had been before.
"She's also asleep! Can't ride in cars without passing out- that's why we're taking her to the Junk yard!" Mabel yelped, a shaky smile hiding her panic.
"Mabel, what!?" Dipper rounded on his sister, who had also blurted out information they didn't need to pass on.
"Junkyard?" Blubs replied.
"Uh, yeah, because she's... Anemic?" Dipper tried explaining, "so we're taking her to a place with a lot of... Iron," Dipper resisted the urge to place a hand in front of his face at the sheer idiocy of his statement.
"Remove her glasses. I want to see her," Blubs told them. Mabel looked to Dipper, and then to Soos in the mirror. She wouldn't dare ignore a command from the Sheriff. With a sigh, she reached over, and yanked off the dark sunglasses. Dipper spluttered- Mabel had put a second pair of sunglasses on Tambry behind the larger ones at some point, this time with pink rims. Mabel turned to Sheriff Blubs with a wide grin.
"See? All good," Mabel told him. The sheriff stared, his face unreadable.
"I suppose so," he said with a small smile, "y'all stay safe, you hear?" he nodded to them, pinching the rim of his hat as he turned away.
The three watched Blubs go, barely turning their heads as he and his cruiser sped off, Deputy Durland hollering the entire way out as their tires screeched and left a trail of smoke. Silence fell upon the three as they realized they had gotten away with their deception.
"How does this town not descend into Anarchy?" Mabel asked finally.
The three continued their way through the town, more comfortable with the knowledge that the 'smartest and best' of the police department couldn't tell something was up with Tambry. Well, at least more assured that should another police officer come their way they would be easily passed by. Minutes passed by as did the buildings in the town as Soos's truck zoomed towards the junkyard.
"We're here," Soos told them as the truck slowed to a stop.
The three exited the truck, Dipper and Soos carrying Tambry as inconspicuously as they could. Drawing attention to themselves was something they needed to avoid. While a sleeping Tambry was an easy trick, dragging her limp body around wasn't as easy to explain, especially by the junkyard.
"Okay, so let's assume for a second that McGucket wants to see us at all, or he even remembers us," Dipper grunted while carrying Tambry's shoulders as Mabel pulled open a part of the chain fence blocking off the mountains of scrap, "what if he doesn't want to help us?"
"Of course he's going to remember us!" Mabel told her brother as he and Soos pushed under and into the junkyard. "We had a cool adventure together!"
"Sure, but his head isn't exactly, uh, stable," Dipper attempted explaining timidly.
"And his eyes don't point straight," Soos pointed out, "like a goat. I think he even eats like a goat."
"Goats are wonderful creatures of mother nature," Mabel defended, "adapt at any environment and able to eat anything. Even candy wrappers, and that stuff is crazy hard to eat."
"You would know, wouldn't you?" Dipper rounded on his sister with a smirk.
"The bravest souls try all paths of knowledge, including the test of edibility of all things," Mabel told Dipper in her wisest mentoring voice, "so shush. Don't be all hating on my need to eat weird stuff."
"Weird stuff?!"
The three of them spun in a gasp, Dipper and Soos dropping Tambry instantly. Jumping atop a pile of abandoned couches was an old, wiry man, wearing nothing but brown overalls and a large wide brimmed straw hat. This person's most distinguishing feature came in a trio- a long, bumpy nose, a pair of bulging, unfocused eyes, and a massively thick, long beard that fell past his knees. He was wild looking, untamed and clearly unclean.
"Well, spit shine my shoes and call me a cow-poke! Visitors! Aw, wait, no shoes today. Ah well!" Old Man McGucket cried from his post, slapping his knee quickly as he cheered at their arrival. He sounded perfectly suited for this environment- his voice twanged loudly, a hick drawl imbedded deep in his voice. "Wait a second," leaning closer, he spied them with a suspicious stare, "Do I know you hooligans? You all ain't the ones come slapping around my barrels of buckets of bolts, was ya? I got a broom smacking to return to ya!" he threatened, holding up a mangled and muddy wooden broom above his head dramatically.
"McGucket, it's us!" Mabel declared, her arms out on either side, "Mabel, Dipper, and Soos! We're one member short of our adventure, remember?"
"Eh- adventure?" McGucket dropped the broom, scratching the side of his head with the pole end.
"We stopped the society of the blind-eye together?" Dipper asked, "uh, your lost past?" The old man's eyes blinked separately, his stare bland and unclear as Dipper spoke. "Wait... here," Dipper cried, pulling out his hidden journal, "Remember this?" he held it above his head, closer to the old man. A holler followed, and McGucket slid on down the couches, chuckling all the way.
"Oh you're them youngin's who done and told me 'bout my past doings!" McGucket responded, patting Dipper and Soos on the shoulders, "That's right, ya'll gone and did me a big darn favor by getting me those memories back."
"A favor? Great!" Dipper replied, turning to Tambry, only just then realizing they had dropped her to the ground, "ah, Soos, help me here," Soos complied, and they lifted the teen so McGucket could see her fully, "we need your help."
"Dang it, Dibber, I'm a doctor," McGucket rubber his chin under his beard, "but not that kinda doctor. More of the buildin' up from them scraps here kinda doctor."
"Ugh, it's Dipper," Dipper re-iterated his name as Mabel snickered at his incorrectly spoken title, "and trust me. We need your kind of doctor."
"Yeah, she's some kind of freak super-robot thingy," Soos added with a fearful look to Tambry, "like, she can open her stomach and reveal to all the strange world inside of her."
"Uh... you sure that's the right thing?" McGucket pointed to Tambry, his head crooked to the side, "I'm pretty tootin' sure I seen her walkin' round town with them cell phones sticking by her face."
"We can show you! Look at these," Mabel reached inside Dipper's vest pocket, and retrieved one of the batteries, "strange technology," Mabel waved it about her head tantalizingly. This seemed to get McGucket's interest up, as his mouth fell open just a bit more than usual, exposing his few remaining teeth.
"Aw, I couldn't be helped to pass up sucha chance, could I?" McGucket hooted, spinning around twice to walk past them, "follow me to my entirely improvised laboratory. Maybe then we don't gots to worry about them coyotes spying on us."
"Yeah. Coyotes are going to spy on us, right," Dipper commented with a roll of his eyes.
The old man lead them through piles and heaps of broken cars, abandoned computers, rusted shopping crates, and the occasional rat the size of a small housecat. Mabel attempted to befriend many of the rodents, who found her sweater to be enjoyably tasty and edible. Dipper's scolding's just barely warned her away from the gathering trail of rats, who followed Mabel at a safe distance, eagerly eyeing her sweater.
"Here we are," McGucket said, approaching a large curtain propped up on a solitary single-set bathtub.
"This bathtub is your lab?" Dipper asked. There wasn't a single distinguishing feature about the tub as he eyed it. Rusty, cracked, filthy- the tub wasn't the exact thing Dipper had in mind when said lab.
"Nope, just needed the curtain," McGucket then pulled away the tattered worn fabric, and revealed a sprawling collection of functioning make-shift lab equipment. Cracked monitors flickered with numbers and statistical information, computers whirred and buzzed under the protection of a welded together roof-top. A large operating table was situated in the middle, were it was covered in piles of gears, fibers, and sheet metal.
"Oh... that's better," Dipper admitted, "why didn't you show us that to begin with?"
"I wanted to use the curtain for dramatic effect!" McGucket told him as he walked around the bathtub. The three followed, carrying the motionless young woman with them. "Lemme see that there blue thing," McGucket motioned for the blue cylinder. Mabel obliged and handed it to him. Sliding on a very thick pair of glasses onto his nose, McGucket studied the object up close. His eyes scanned the surface with his fingers, making note of its surface and appearance. "Not somethin' I've seen b'fore."
"One of the three we've found- yeah, we've got three," Dipper nodded as McGucket turned to stare at the teen, "came out of her. Floated out of her body like it was magnetically charged. What do you think it is?"
"Spectro-magne-chemimeter time!" McGucket cheered and rushed over to a pile of dirty briefcases, whipping one out and pulling out a gizmo that looked like a ray-gun from a bad fifties sci-fi movie. Placing the battery on the operating table, he aimed the gun at the object, and turned his eyes to a small LCD screen welded to the top of the scanner. "Wow! Call me a critter fritter and serve me with tea, this here thing is wild!"
"Hehehe, critter fritter," Soos chuckled, "I'm going to remember that one."
"What's wild about it?" Dipper asked, stepping to the old man.
"Aside from the fact it looks-" Mabel stuck her hands out and waved them around as she made spooky low-pitched wails. A rat had again lodged itself on her sweater, and she shook it off. "You already ate. No more nommin' on the Mabel sweater."
"It don't read up on any basic compound structure I seen before," McGucket told them, lowering his spectro-magne-chemimeter from the target. "You've found yerself some fancy smancy kind of thangy here!"
"How about her?" Dipper asked, motioning to Tambry. McGucket lifted back up his crazy piece of information gathering tech, and pointed it at Tambry. His eyes widened and he gasped.
"Put 'er on this here table!" McGucket cried out, shoving away the loose odds and ends that were scattered around.
"What is it, doctor?" Mabel asked, poking away another rat, eager for a nibble.
"I don't think I quite know," McGucket admitted worriedly as Dipper and Soos laid her on the table. The old man lifted her arm up and laid it across her stomach, and again directed the faux-ray gun at her. "What in tarnation is she made out of?"
"Made out of?" Dipper asked worriedly.
"Her skin isn't any kind of epidermal layer I've gone and studied," McGucket said in awe, looking at the arm with his own eyes.
"Huh. Sure felt like skin," Soos admitted, stepping next to the old man as he scampered around, lifting one of Tambry's eyelids to look in her eye. "Uh, don't hurt her?"
"Her eyes got them same readings!" McGucket announced, "a woven layer made of some sort of synthetic polymer," he poked Tambry's forehead, "certainly feels like skin."
"But it's not? What is she then?" Dipper demanded, stepping closer to the old crazed scientist.
"Eh, you got me. But, if she is a robot girl, like you ya tellin' me," McGucket lazily tossed aside the sensor-ray, which crashed into a pile of broken lamps, "then she'll most likely respond to a tickle!"
"Um... a tickle?" Dipper asked, watching McGucket spin away, pulling out another brief case.
"We're going to awake her with the power of laughter?" Mabel gasped, "It's like every cartoon I've ever seen is coming to life!"
"Well, not exactly," McGucket chuckled darkly, lifting above his head tow live wires, cackling and sparkling dangerously above him.
"You're going to electrocute her?" Soos gasped, "but that could hurt her!"
"She's a robot, didn't you say? She probably don't even feel no pain," the old man defended.
"But-"
"Soos, he's right," Dipper told his friend, "we need some answers. And we all saw her do that crazy not-human stuff earlier, so it's not like she's like us. I say let's find out what happens. Mabel?" Dipper turned to his sister, giving her the chance to choose a stance on the matter.
Mabel looked between the cackling scientist and the unmoving girl on the rust table. She hadn't wanted any harm to come of Tambry to begin with, and now, to get answers they were about to electrocute her. This didn't exactly sit right with her. Then again, Dipper was right- they had seen her stomach open up like a crazy easy-bake oven for the future. If her belly opening up didn't kill her, what harm could a little electricity do?
"Just not too much fry-power, right?" Mabel asked to McGucket. The old scientist shrugged, cackling, and stuck the wires to either hands, using pliers to keep them in place. Dipper and Mabel saw a quick spark burst off the metal table, electricity conducting through Tambry's body to the table. The girl didn't budge. Not even a quiver came in the form of reaction.
"Huh. That shoulda have been enough to jump-start a sleepin' heart," McGucket scratched his nose, squinting at the conducting woman, "well, I guess it's time to turn up the power."
"Not by much," Mabel protested. McGucket made his way to the briefcase, and removed the cables from the battery he was using.
"Eh, I think this is legal," the old man mentioned as he quickly bandaged the wires to a power box connected to the power lines outside his junkyard, "now, let's see what happens when I give her a little push."
McGucket leapt away from the power-box as sparks flew out of it. The lights outside the power line shimmered and flickered, being drained by McGucket's action. Tambry trembled and squirmed as bolts of electricity shot out from the table under her, a freakish display of Frankensteinian proportions. Mabel had jumped for Dipper, pulling him and Soos behind the pile of couches with McGucket as they watched the electricity zap around, out of control.
Slowly, the bolts of electricity start to arc upwards. Rather than connecting to the piles of cars or televisions, they whipped around and hit the girl, passing through her body, and then collecting back into her. Her eyelids began to bleed out a shining blue light, flickering with each bolt of electricity that struck her. Soon the lights in town, just down the street were flickering and dying as the girl on the table shimmered and glowed brightly.
The power box connected to the power-line exploded, sending it's side panels flying all around the junkyard. The power in the town began to stabilize as the lights reset and return to a soft glow. The girl on the table was glowing in the stomach, clearly the panel sliding open and revealing the inner workings of the young woman. Falling to the sides of the table were the copper wires once attached to her, sizzling into an ashy line on either sides of Tambry.
"Welp. That's a new one," McGucket stated as the four of them crept back to the table, anxiously inspecting the woman. "Least she looks like a robot now, all them lights coming out of her."
"Man, we could have fried the entire town's power grid," Dipper said as he turned back to the town, viewing the darkening skies and the still recovering power line lights.
"Dipper, we're in the middle of Oregon wilderness," Mabel reminded him, "I bet half the people here would only notice it getting colder and darker."
"Truth," Soos commented, pointing to Mabel.
"So, now what?" Dipper asked to McGucket, who had removed his hat to scratch his bald head. "She's not human, right?"
"I don't rightly know what she is," McGucket told him, "if she's human, she got a heckuva electrical tolerance."
Tambry gasped loudly, her eyes opening up. All four of them yelled and jumped away from her. McGucket took the retreat a step further, actually leaping behind the twins, and screaming, "It's alive! It's alive!" and scuttling away on his arms and legs over piles of trash and material.
"Uhh, my head," Tambry blinked, the light behind her eyes fading to the normal look her brown eyes should have. Rubbing her head, she looked around with a pained stare, "wait. Am I in the junkyard- wait, what!?" Tambry started up quickly, pushing herself from the table, and staring around her, and then to the three.
"Tambry, right?" Dipper asked to the young woman before him. Tambry blinked, and then smiled.
"Dreaming. It's just a dream- update for when I wake up," Tambry nodded and leant back down, closing her eyes. "Just close your eyes and don't look at the dweebs."
Dipper looked between the other two. Mabel had been right- the woman before them was certainly not acting out of the ordinary. She was disbelieving and snarky to the three of them, but considering the circumstances he would permit Tambry to act this way. There was not a hint of strangeness in her voice, or her actions. She seemed perfectly human, aside from the glowing square in the gut.
"This ain't no time to be dreaming, purple-haired one," Mabel said to Tambry, the first to approach her, but cautiously.
"Mmhmm," Tambry grunted back, not bothering to open her eyes.
"Yeah dude, this is totally real. Like, things hurt for real," Soos told her, and promply lifted a thin metal sheet and smacked the side of his head with it, "ow. See?" he hit himself again, "ow. Hurts plenty real."
"I don't feel anything," Tambry scolded Soos while daring to peel her eyelid back and look at them. Mabel shrugged and approached her, leaning forward to stare back at the purple hair-dyed girl. "What?" Tambry asked Mabel. The younger teen's reply was to jab her in the eye. "OW! The heck are you-" The young woman froze in mid-rub of her injured eye. Realization seemed to be creeping in. The faint traces of wind billowed in the wilderness, shaking the leaves in the woods as the sky continued to grow darker.
"Looks like things are what they seem between you and eye," Mabel grinned as she pointed to her own eye in the pun, "hehehe, soo what eye did there? Ha!"
Mabel's humor was lost upon the girl before her. Tambry's line of sight had started drifting lower and lower to her own body, a dawning fear growing on her face. Only then did the three realize- while her eyes had discontinued their glowing, the light from her opened panel in her stomach had not ceased. Her fingers trembled as they reached down, and slowly lifted the shirt up, just high enough to see the edges of the opening in her body.
"Maybe you could explain us that?" Dipper asked strongly.
Her response was a little too shrill to do anything else but cover his ears. Tambry let off an ear-splitting cry of terror, shoving herself off the table, scrambling away from the three of them as she stared at her stomach. Her head kept shaking back and forth, unable to comprehend what she was seeing.
"OH MY GOD! OH MY GOD!" she bellowed, her hands dancing at either side of the glowing section of her opening, as if she wanted to examine her newest feature, but was too afraid to touch anything. "WHAT- HOW- WHAT DID YOU DO TO ME!?" She screamed at the three of them.
"We did?!" Dipper called back, resisting the urge to cringe at her accusations. She was on the verge of tears; her lips trembled as her eyes shone in the dim light around her.
"What is this!? I'm freaking glowing! What the hell is this?!" she screamed, finally pulling up her shirt to see her inside compartment of wires and glowing tubes. "Oh... my... GAAWWD!"
"Cut the act!" Dipper stepped closer, pointing an accusatory finger to her, "tell us who you really are!"
"W-w-what!?" the glowing young woman stuttered at Dipper's accusations.
"You're not really Tambry, are you? Some sort of fake, or replacement. What are you doing here in Gravity Falls!" Dipper ordered.
"I live here?" Tambry desperately sought a proper reply. "Oh man, what the heck am I going to do? People will think I'm some sort of freaking Christmas tree!"
"What?" Dipper gasped at her strange reaction.
"I'm going to freakin' college!" Tambry shouted, "how can I go walking around like I've got light bulbs for organs!"
"You can always get a wrap," Soos suggested.
"Dipper," Mabel reached over and pulled her brother to speak to him face to face, not looking to Tambry, "I don't think she knows anything."
"But then if she doesn't know anything, why hasn't she gone off and run away yet?" Dipper asked. There was a patter of running feet and the shaking of a chain fence. "Did she just-" Dipper asked Soos, who was looking away.
"Ah, yeah, she just took off," Soos told the two of them. Mabel and Dipper spun, spotting Tambry jumping down from the fence, taking off towards town.
"Crud! We don't know what could happen if she gets into town!" Dipper shouted out loud, "we got to get her back!"
"AFTER THAT CYBORG!" Mabel screamed, pointing a finger dramatically at the running Tambry.
"Maybe she prefers to be called 'synthetic'," Soos pointed out, and Mabel nodded.
"Oh, okay," Mabel cleared her throat, "AFTER THAT SYNTHETIC!"
"You know, thinking about it, maybe Synthetic is a little cold. Maybe artificial organism is better," Dipper told the other two.
"Yeah, that sounds nicer," Soos nodded in agreement. Mabel sighed, and again pointed dramatically.
"AFTER THAT ARTIFICIAL ORGANISM!"
The three scrambled under the fence again, and were back in the truck as fast as they could. By the time the truck was rolling up the street, they could see Tambry running down the street, one arm trying to contain the spilling light from her midsection as she fled from the three of them.
The young woman cut across the street, dissapearing down an alleyway that opened to the main street. Soos shouted, "hold on!" and twisted his wheel dramatically. The truck turned quickly, and found its front entering the alley after Tambry. The woman spun around once, her eyes full of panic as they gave chase. She made her exit first, and charge down the street again.
"Is anyone else getting the feeling," Mabel asked in the truck as Soos ran over a series of trash cans, "that we're the bad guys here?"
"What? No!" Dipper shouted, "we're trying to stop her from doing... whatever she could do!"
"Yeah, rampaging synthetic- err, artificial organism on the loose doesn't sound too cool, dawg," Soos agreed.
"We're chasing her down in a truck while she runs for her life," Mabel pointed out, as Soos started to catch up with the girl.
"Well, when we get a chance to calm her down and get some answers-" Dipper nodded his head side to side, not liking the accusations his sister was making. As he did, Tambry gave a complete stop in the middle of the sidewalk, and turned around. "Crud! Soos!"
"I see her," Soos called to Dipper. The truck screeched to a halt, and he reversed it backwards as Tambry ran across the street, tossing herself over a hedge and past the buildings on the edge of the street. "Whoa! She's desperate."
"Makes you wonder what she's trying to hide!" Dipper growled, seeing her light giver her position away in the woods, "Soos, can we track her with your truck?"
"I don't think so dude," Soos shook his head sadly, coming to the side of the street where she had just barreled over the green vegetation.
"Then we got to get her by foot," Dipper commanded, opening the side door, ready to give chase.
"Hey, Dipper," Mabel followed suit as Dipper lead the run, "maybe you're trying a little hard for answers?"
Dipper didn't answer, he couldn't bare to think of anything else but grabbing the girl and demanding some serious explanations. How else could he get closer to solving this? She was their number one lead on whatever was going on, and she was doing her darn hardest to get away. Surely if innocent, she would just try to explain everything to the best of her understanding. No, she was running. She must know something.
"Tambry!" Dipper called out, the woman easily some fifty feet head of them, climbing past trees and fallen logs, flicking her gaze behind her occasionally to check on their progress.
"Hey! Wait!" Mabel ran faster than Dipper, able to utilize the trees around her to propel herself fast than anyone else in this chase, gaining on Tambry quickly. "We're not going to hurt you!"
"Dawg! Chill out for a second!" Soos huffed as he ran just behind Dipper, only having trouble leaping over the fallen trees on the earthy ground as they ran up hill in the dark woods.
"Leave me alone!" Tambry shouted in her gasps for air. Mabel was on her heels now, able to speak to her without shouting, which was a surprising talent considering both girls were running as fast as they could.
"C'mon, just for a bit! We promise to keep our distance if that makes you feel better? Pinky promise!" Mabel held up her hand and poked out her said finger, grinning.
"I don't want anything to do with you!" Tambry shouted, pushing her hand away as she turned again, sliding down a small incline. "Just go away!"
"Ah, c'mon," Mabel cried as she stopped, giving herself a moment to breathe a little. Soos and Dipper can jogging up after her, panting heavily, "see? She's just scared," Mabel told her red-faced brother.
"How... can... you... talk... while... running?" Dipper asked his sister in awe.
"Training, my young grasshopper!" Mabel grinned. Dipper scowled and stumbled on, pushing his feet onward for the sake of a resolution to this mystery. "Dipper, maybe we should leave her alone."
"Not a chance!" Dipper shouted as Soos followed in pursuit. Mabel groaned and also followed, upset with her obsessive brother.
The four ran uphill in the woods, crashing and tumbling over broken branches and shattered stems. Mabel would easily catch up with the running girl, who like Dipper, was not exactly trained for this kind of endurance, and ask politely if she would stop to talk. Each time Tambry would shout back to be alone. Finally came the end of the woods, and Mabel found herself following Tambry to the edge of the cliffs that overlooked Gravity Falls, where Mabel had gone hours earlier to let off steam.
"Wait!" Mabel shouted, halting her progress as Tambry ran closer and closer to the edge, "don't jump! You could hurt yourself!" Mabel warned the hair dyed young woman. She came to a stumbling stop at the edge, peering down the side as if to measure the benefits of possibly breaking a leg to get away from the three of them.
Dipper and Soos arrived just as Tambry faced them. The lights in her stomach shone out from under her shirts fabric, bleeding out a haunting fluorescent warmth. Her shoulders heaved endlessly as she gasped for air.
"Okay, you've got no where else to run," Dipper told her bluntly, "so, whatever you've been hiding from us, just tell us now and we'll leave you alone."
"How- how-" Tambry groaned and rolled her eyes as she struggled for air, "how many times do I have to tell you: I don't know anything!"
"That doesn't make sense!" Dipper called back, taking a few steps closer to her, "we asked you what you knew, and your first instinct was to run away? Not to figure this out?"
"I woke up to find out I've been turned into some sort of crazy robot-thingy! Like I'm all... artificial!" Tambry said, giving her own hands a fearful glance, "I don't care what you want from me, okay? I just want you not to touch me again!"
"We didn't touch you!" Mabel pleaded, trying to ease her brother back with a hand on his shoulder, "I promise you we're just trying to figure all of this out."
"Yeah, c'mon dawg," Soos added in, pushing himself upright as he had been heaving for air this entire time, "we're not trying to do anything to you."
"You tried running me over in your car!" Tambry pointed angrily at him.
"Okay, first of all, it's a truck. Second of all-" Soos started.
"We didn't need to chase you if you hadn't gone running off!" Dipper shouted back.
"You try waking up and seeing you've been turned into a robot thing!" Tambry screamed at Dipper, a tear making it's way past her face.
Dipper's argument fell apart. This woman, this hypothetical cyborg, was crying. A robot was crying in front of them, her makeup running along the trail of the tear. He turned to Mabel, shocked and uncertain what to do next. She returned his stare with one of anxiety and guilt. They had done this to her.
The idea was ludicrous to him, but Dipper finally considered the possibility: what if she hadn't known she was a robot? Maybe she was somehow programmed so well that she wasn't aware of her inhumanity. It would explain the fear, the stumbling, the human like reactions to everything she had done to reply to his demand for answers. What kind of situation had they forced this eighteen year old into?
"It's like," Tambry wiped away a year, smearing her cheek with dark eyeliner, "wow. I'm not even human anymore. This isn't a dream. I'm really no longer me, am I?"
"I..." Dipper could only manage. This was not the kind of ending to the chase he had expect or wanted. Her eyes shone in the dim light, full of fear.
"You can't even tell me. I bet I'm some sort of experiment, aren't I?" Tambry continued, taking a step backwards to the cliff.
"Hey, be careful," Soos warned her, his hands up, "you're gettin' real close to the edge there, dude."
"What does it matter, huh?" Tambry laughed desperately, choking on one of her intakes of breath," I'm not even me. Even if I fall, I bet some loser programmer can just plug me into a computer and download my life. Like, are even my memories real?"
"You are real," Dipper told her definitively, trying to keep a steady pace closer to her, "listen, just because this happened doesn't mean you're not real."
Tambry didn't reply, her feet met the edge, small pebbles and clumps of grass falling off the side of a fifty foot drop. She looked up to the skies, the stars in her eyes and she let a sigh escape past her lips. With that sigh, she made to take a step behind her.
"What's your name!?" Mabel suddenly shrieked. Tambry stumbled forward, eyes to Mabel.
"What?" she asked.
"What is your name?" Mabel repeated slowly.
"I'm Tamb- why?" Tambry spluttered, "what difference does it make?"
"Eactly!" Mabel pointed to her, calmly stepping closer, "okay, so maybe you're not exactly yourself. Like, a lot of you went and changed, right?" Mabel nodded for Tambry, who eventually mimed the teenager, "okay, so you know who you are. Why are you still freaking out then?"
"Because I'm not me!"
"Yes you are! What's the first thing that came to your mind when I asked you who you were?" Mabel tried, a warm smile growing on her face. The older teen blinked, a growing realization Mabel planted in her mind spreading. "See? You're just you. But now glowy! And, come one, that's kind of cool."
"But if I'm not real Tambry-"
"Who says that?" Mabel asked. She was now a few feet from her, and held out her hand. "Come away from there. We don't want you to hurt yourself, okay? No more dramatic cliff stuff."
Tambry looked back once, and in instinctual fear took a long step away from the edge. She was next to Mabel, finally calming down. Her glow was still present, and as she looked between the others, she could see the light reflecting in their eyes.
"This should be a dream. This is weird than... wait, you two," Tambry looked to Dipper and Mabel, "you two were with me when I was sucked into the TV, right? Why does weird stuff always happen when you two are around?!"
"Hey, we just chase the odd stuff. It doesn't find us... usually," Dipper added at the end, recalling the many times chance or fate lined them up for an encounter with the unknown.
"Whatever," Tambry rolled her eyes to them, "okay. So, I've been robot-fied. What, uh, do we do to... you know, fix me?"
"Well, we could try turning you off and then back on again," Soos laughed at his own joke, the three glaring at him. "Haha. Yeah. Zinger, Soos."
"Honestly Tambry," Dipper started, "I don't really know. We've never dealt with this kind of stuff before. It's sort of new territory for us to have someone who's been turned into a robot."
"Dipper, what if I-" Mabel started, but Dipper quickly punched her shoulder, "ow!"
"What if you what?" Tambry asked Mabel suspiciously.
"She thinks that, uh, she has an idea how to figure this out," Dipper lied, certain she was actually going to worry more about turning Tambry into the robot-thing she was currently.
"You really think you can?" Tambry turned to Mabel, her eyes wide with excitement.
"Well... you never know until you try, right?" Mabel shrugged after a look from Dipper to have her play along.
"Okay. I'll go with you two," Tambry said with a slow, uncertain nod, "just... lemme take a second, okay? I want to figure out how to close this stupid... thing," Tambry turned away, facing the town as she looked to her glowing stomach opening.
"Sure, we'll be waiting by the trees," Dipper told her. As they approached the forest edge, he leaned to the others, "So, what are we thinking?"
"I think she's being honest," Mabel said pleasantly.
"You think everyone is honest," Dipper reminded her.
"I think that Old Man McGucket wont want to help us after what happened before," Soos said sadly.
"Maybe we can bring her to him later. He's still our best bet with how to figure out what's going on," Dipper told the two of them. He glanced behind himself, the eighteen year old standing in the moonlight as she glared at where her bellybutton should be. She was far enough away form the cliffs for Dipper to not worry for her safety.
"Dipper, do you really still think she's lying about this to us?" Mabel asked her twin.
"I trust her now," Dipper turned away, "she was really freaked out earlier. Maybe I was a little too pushy."
"Gee, ya think?" Mabel scolded him with a tiny glare.
"Besides I think it'd be hard for her to lie that well. I can't see robots being that good at faking emotions," Dipper reasoned, "then again-" There was a flash of light behind them and they glanced behind them. "Tambry?"
She was gone.
"Tambry?" Dipper called loudly around them. Mabel gasped and ran ahead, peering off the side of the cliff. As she reached the edge, she found nothing below her. It had just happened, and the lack of trees and bushes meant if Tambry had fallen down below, she wouldn't have had time to find a hiding spot.
"Oh dude, what just happened?" Soos gaped as they looked around. I... I don't get it. She was right here."
"Hey! Tambry!" Mabel added to the chorus.
"TAMBRY!" Dipper yelled into the woods, "WE PROMISED WE WOULDN'T DO ANYTHING! TAMBRY!"
Nothing but the light trembling of leaves against the wind responded to Dipper.
The woods were combed viciously for a solid hour as the three scanned around. There was little to no indication that Tambry had even moved from her place by the cliffs. The dirt by her shoes had been left with her imprints, yet no more followed away from her last known spot. No sounds of running, no hasty breaths; a dead end. All of the possible answers went up in smoke.
Dipper was the last to give in. Three hours after their departure from the Mystery Manor, the three returned, only to answer the army of questions Grunkle Stan had for them. They explained everything they could, and when they could not get a proper answer, Mabel would just blow her lips and tongue with a loud raspberry.
"Just get to bed for now," Grunkle Stan eventually told them, rubbing his eyes in exhaustion and annoyance. He had also wanted answers, but more so had been worried for their safety the entire time.
Dipper would not sleep that night. Mabel also stayed up late, the two of them silently staring at the ceiling, wondering what had really happened that evening. Where had Tambry gone? Was she okay? Could they ever discover the answers?
The following morning provided Dipper a second chance for his imperious thirst for knowledge. Dragging his sister to the car past their Grunkle Stan, Dipper got them both into his car, and they drove back into town.
"Dipper, maybe we should put up a missing person flier," Mabel asked sadly as they drove into town.
"We won't need to. We're going to find her," Dipper told her, "besides, that's her families job. If we're going to do anything like that, we should point out to them that she's been gone for a while, or something."
"Dipper, what if it was my fault. What if these dang things," Mabel lifted up two of the three cylinders, "do turn people into robot thingies?"
"I don't know. That still wouldn't explain how she vanished suddenly," Dipper reminded her, "they havn't changed at all, have they?" he asked, peering to her quickly as he drove through town.
"Not a single blip, blop, or bloop difference to them," Mabel informed him with a sigh. "I can't look at these pretty things without thinking I've done something bad to Tambry."
Dipper said nothing. Driving by a street that would lead to the mall, his mind finally let itself rest on the possibility that those sticks did indeed turn people into cyborgs somehow. It didn't make sense- that kind of science fiction craziness shouldn't even be possible. Then again, he had seen even crazier things. Body switching carpets, crystals that emitted size changing beams of light, the concept of gnomes, this wasn't exactly a town known for it's perfect obedience to the laws of physics.
"DIPPER!"
Dipper slammed the brakes instantly. The black car came to a screeching halt, and he turned to his sister, panting.
"Holy mackerel! Mabel, what the heck!?" Dipper demanded of his sister. She wasn't staring at him. Instead, she slowly lifted a finger past him, and pointed to the other side of the street.
There laid a cellphone by the sidewalk, still flipped open on the ground. A girl with purple dyed hair walked over, picked it up, and lazily examined it before continuing to punch in a text message or digital social media update of some sort.
"Tambry," Dipper said quietly, staring at the girl with disbelief. The twins exchanged a glance, and then scrambled to leave the car. "Tambry!" Dipper called as he ran directly to the sidewalk, his sister sliding over the hood of his car to speed her approach.
"Huh?" Tambry turned and gave them both a bored, tired expression. "What do you want?"
"Tambry, it's us," Mabel told the older teen, "where have you been?"
"Uh... who're you?" Tambry asked, taking half a step away from them.
"Last night, Tambry, the stuff last..." Dipper stopped half way through his sentence. Unlike the night before, the person before them was perfectly collected and relaxed. She sullenly looked at the twins before glancing at her phone and completing whatever she had been texting. "Uh, do you remember what you did last night?"
"I was at home. You know, where I live?" Tambry snidely told the two of them, "Sorry, do we even know each other?"
"It's me, Mabel!" the girl twin declared, "and this is Dipper? Remember?" Tambry gave them a studying glance before gasping. "Right! You remember?"
"Yeah, how could I not," Tambry said with an exasperated sigh, "not exactly normal to be sucked into a television world."
"Righ- wait, what?" Mabel cut herself off.
"We went to the Dusk 2 Dawn store? Was haunted, right?" Tambry told them the smallest smile on her lips. "Right? You two were like, ten back then."
"We were twelve," Dipper told her.
"Whatever. Well, it was nice catching up with you," Tambry gave them a half hearted smile that was clearly forced, "but I'm going to continue living my life with as few reminders of that night as possible. See you around never."
"What?" Mabel gasped, watching as Tambry turned away slowly, and walked down the sidewalk. "Dipper, what the heck is-" Dipper stepped over to his sister and snatched from her hands the two blue cylinders, "Dip?"
"You said you started rubbing these two together, right?" Dipper asked as he pushed the two ends together and began to twist one end against the other in opposite directions.
"Dipper, you can't be serious!" Mabel tried snatching them back, but Dipper was determined. He lunged ahead, and furiously pushed the two ends together. Nothing followed. There was a small pop of energy, and Dipper looked down. He could see the hints of static breaking away from the two cylinders. Nothing dramatic soared out and hit her back though.
"Nothing," Dipper sighed and let his hands fall to the side.
"What if it had worked, you jerk!" Mabel snatched them away, pocketing them quickly, "and that was the real Tabmry! You could have hurt her!"
"We don't know if she's the real thing yet," Dipper slowly told his sister, "we have nothing to indicate that-"
Tambry, at the other end of the sidewalk slipped on a loose magazine on the ground, and fell ahead of her. The two twins watched her land roughly, and cringe. She had scraped the side of her right hand's palm badly. Red splotches of irritated skin darkened as she growled at the magazine before kicking it aside, and pouting her way down the sidewalk.
"Okay... she was almost bleeding," Dipper pointed out, "I think you're right on this one," Dipper told his sister with a sigh.
"Darn tootin' I'm right," Mabel agreed strongly. "I'm keeping these for now on, you got it mister?"
"Okay, okay," Dipper sighed, hands in his pockets, "I sort of let this one go to my head, didn't I?"
"Hey, it's okay egg-head," Mabel teased his brother with a poke between the eyes, "we've just got to keep an eye out for now on, you know?"
"Ha, how about four eyes?" Dipper gave his sister a small smile and nudged her shoulder. She giggled back and the two of them headed for the car. As Mabel slid back into her seat and closed the door, Dipper got the car moving again. The even passed the injured and less pleasant Tambry as they drove down the street. Mabel gave the girl a quick glance in the side mirror, and blinked.
It looked like Tambry's eyes glowed for just a moment. But when Mabel's eyes opened again, the light was gone. It must have been a tick of the light.
And so came and passed the episode with Tambry in it. Sure, she'll be back, along with a few of the others within the town, but that was among the most interaction we'll see in season one. With her. Possibly forever. Huh.
SO! Do you like Gravity Falls? I hope so! You're reading this, after all! Do you like Aliens? No, not the kind with big grey eyes and weird green skin with tall heads n stuff, I mean the ones with NO eyes, tall heads and lots of pointy teeth and fangs! Chestbursters, facehuggers, queens and... well, xenomorphs. No? Aww. Yes? WELL YOU SHOULD TRY OUT THE NEWEST STORY THATS ABOUT ALL THAT: Aliens.
With the wonderful talents of TheEquestrianidiot 2.0, we are creating a re-telling/re-hashing/crossover? of the 1986 epic horror action piece Aliens, using your favorite characters! Mabel! (she's Ripley) Wendy! (She's in it too!) uh... Robbie! (he's in it... yay) and a whole lot of other people that I can't talk about because SPOILERS.
In fact, my buddy TheEquestrianidiot 2.0 and I are offering a chance for you guys, the reader, to get something out of our story! A challenge was released to the wonderful public in chapter three, where we ask, essentially, 'what's in the box'? Guess correctly, and you get to tell us to write a one-shot involving Gravity Falls of ANYTHING YOU WANT. Cool huh?
So what are you waiting for? You gotta try everything once, right? (A facehugger lunges at EZB, who then struggles to pull it off his face, and eventually falls to his doom into a vat of molten lead. Odd place for a vat of molten lead to be in a college dorm, but Weytani-Yuland digresses.)
[Bonus points for those who can count the number of references made in this episode total. That includes the last week's update.]
16-12-5-1-19-5 18-5-1-20-20-1-3-8 25-15-21-18 20-1-13-2-18-25 20-15 1 16-15-23-5-18 19-15-21-18-3-5.