July 25th, 1974
10:30 am
Becky and Pemberton stepped back as several Gleefuls dutifully wheeled in the nuclear warhead, mounted on a small crate. It was much smaller than Becky had remembered from the previous night (perhaps the shadows had played tricks with her eyes?), only about a foot-and-a-half long, but still imposing in its awe-inspiring power. She kept the Congressman at arm's length.
"Mr. Monahan, tell your friend what you told us," Pemberton insisted, as calmly as the circumstances allowed. "That there's no way to detonate this bomb. Isn't that right?"
Chandler ignored him and turned to his comrade. "What do you have there?"
"Just a standard detonator," Becky said, handing it to him as he inched closer. "Will it work?"
Chandler scratched his head. "Um, maybe," he said. "I might have to do some work on it..."
"More work?" Pemberton laughed, inspiring Becky to pull his collar until he gagged.
"...and I'm still guaranteeing anything. But if I could try and drill through the shell, maybe I'd be able to
"Thought you told us that wasn't possible," Pemberton mocked.
"Not with the shit you gave me," Chandler responded.
"How long?" Becky asked. "We've put this thing off long enough. The hearing's started upstairs and we need maximum damage."
Becky looked up and waved her gun at Dipper and Wendy. "You, down here!"
Dipper and Wendy looked at each other, then resumed their stance.
"Why would we do that?" Wendy said, leaning against the railing with a mocking smile. "I like it fine right here. And that Pemberton means nothing to us."
"I'd have thought you of all people, Charlotte, would be for this." Becky seemed genuinely confused, even hurt by her friend's suddenly hostility. "You know what we're doing."
"Well sister, you thought wrong," Wendy snapped. "This whole thing is a load of crazy bullshit."
"When did you reach that decision?" Becky demanded, releasing her grip on Pemberton. "You aren't backing out because you're chicken, are you? Or because you're ballin' that square from the White House? Bill was right, you've gone soft."
Wendy hesitated for a moment, then started climbing down the ladder, leaving her ax on the catwalk. Dipper moved to stop her, but she gestured for Dipper to stay in place. She would make one last, desperate wager that she could reason with Becky; at this point, it seemed a risk worth taking.
"Listen Becky," Wendy said, talking as evenly as the circumstances allowed, "let's say I don't try and stop you. Let's say you and Chandler here figure out how to fit that detonator into the bomb and you blow the Capitol to kingdom come. What do you think's gonna happen next? You think it's gonna send a message, start a Revolution? Like hell it will.
"Think about it. Think who you're working with. These dudes don't have anything in common with you. Yet they're working with you to blow up the Capitol. Why do you think that is? What do think they'll get out of it?"
"It doesn't matter," Becky insisted, flashing her gun back and forth between Wendy and Dipper, whose trembling chattered the gun in his hands, and Pemberton, slowly backing away from her towards the bomb. "It doesn't matter what they want. We both want to blow up Washington and that's what matters."
"We'll all be dead," Wendy said. "What happens after that won't make any difference anyway. But let's say you think you're going out in a blaze of glory or something like that. Well, these guys are working with the US government. Hell, that guy there is a Congressman. He is government. They're using you to wipe out the President's opposition and let Nixon become president for life. Then all this bullshit about heightening the contradictions or whatever won't matter because he'll have the excuse to kill or jail everyone he wants."
"Bullshit!" Becky hissed, though her eyes started to betray doubt. Above, Dipper saw Chandler quietly examining the detonator.
"Why would I make this up?" Wendy said softly. "We've known each other for how long? I'm just tellin' you - nothing good is gonna come from this. All that'll happen is a lot of people will die and the people you hate most will be in charge forever. There won't be a revolution. There won't even be an America anymore. If there's anything left at all, it will be Nixonland."
"She's telling you the truth," Dipper chimed in from over head. "I saw the plans myself. That's why I'm here right now instead of, you know, at the White House or calling the cops on you. They're gonna use this explosion as an excuse to declare martial law. To re-deploy military forces overseas. To restart Vietnam all over again and pick a fight with the Soviets. And you know what that means..."
"Think about it," Wendy said, now within arms reach from Wendy. "All this started because of the war. And doing this, you're gonna give 'em an excuse to start it again. Only it's gonna be a bigger, even worse war than it was before. That will betray everything we worked for. Not my seeing sense at long last."
Becky looked at Chandler, still engrossed in his bomb making, then back at Wendy. She didn't notice Pemberton, who had backed out of her line of sight, gesturing to his colleagues to take their places.
Wendy reached out and rested a hand on Becky's shoulder, smiling.
"Come on, girl, be smarter than this," Wendy said with the soft assurance of a lifelong friend. "You're playing into their hands."
"So you're saying...to destroy the System it's necessary to save it?" Becky asked.
Wendy laughed. "Something like that."
After a long moment, Becky smiled back and lowered her gun. "Chan-" she said, turning to her comrade...
"Very touching," Pemberton interrupted. Wendy turned and saw him aiming a Luger at the both of them. Before Wendy could react, he fired twice, hitting Becky in the chest and stomach. She fell backwards, gasping for air, dropping her gun to the floor. She looked apologetically, pleading at Wendy before she fell over.
"Thus ends the People's Liberation Vanguard," Pemberton announced. He then aimed at Wendy's head; Wendy panicked and froze, staring at her imminent death...
Suddenly the room exploded into gunfire, the sounds echoing and forcing Wendy to cover her ears. Dipper had opened fire with his machine gun; being untrained with his weapon, however, his shots were high and failed to hit anything or anyone. They did, however, achieve their immediate purpose; Wendy used the confusion to roll out of harm's way, and kicked Pemberton in the stomach, making him fall and drop his weapon.
"All right, you bastards," Wendy said. "Now you've done it." She gestured to Dipper, who smiled and tossed aside his gun, then grabbed Wendy's ax and tossed it to her. She caught it in one hand, then waited until Dipper came down and joined her, still wielding his broken mop handle, splintered and comically small. Wendy shook her head and smacked it away from him without looking away.
"New plan: The world isn't ending today," she announced. She scanned the room; including Pemberton and Chandler, not including Becky or the two goons she and Dipper had already incapacitated, she counted nine left to fight. Those odds were a little long, even for her and Dipper, but she enjoyed the challenge.
"Any of you creeps have a problem with that?"
The remaining Gleefuls looked at each other in confusion. Then two of them drew handguns and aimed them at the twosome. And Wendy spotted a third moving towards the extra machine gun, still laying on the ground. Now Pemberton started raising himself off the ground, too, and was looking around for his weapon.
"Umm, that was a rhetorical question," Dipper clarified, not eager to face gunmen without any kind of weapon. Even Wendy struggled to keep her cool; an ax wouldn't do anything against a gun except at very close range, her arms trembling ever-so-slightly.
"Now what?" Dipper asked. Wendy stared straight ahead, her face screwed into a look of defiance. But she couldn't answer him.
Another gunshot rang out, hitting one of the Gleefuls in the leg. Wendy turned and saw Becky, trying to raise herself off the ground and aiming her weapon. She fired several more rounds which caused the Gleefuls to scatter. Wendy and Dipper nodded at each other; without saying a word, they leaped into action.
Wendy moved forward first, smacking Pemberton again with her ax head, then kicking another Gleeful to the ground. One of the armed men fired a shot at her, the bullet grazing her left ear; she cried out, her hearing temporarily lost to an inescapable ringing. Still she plowed ahead and punched the cultist in the chest and jaw, knocking him down.
By now, one of the other cultists scooped up the machine gun by the catwalk and started firing at Wendy and Dipper. Dipper, moving along the right side of the room, cried out and ducked, watching the bullets smash into the wall over his head. He took a moment to regain his breath, then saw another cultist approaching him, tall and tough-looking, though not evidently carrying a gun. He headbutted the man in his gut, taking him out of action, then ducked down again as another burst of fire sprayed towards him.
Becky aimed her weapon at the man with the machine gun; he noticed at the last minute and cut her down with another burst of fire. Wendy stopped and cried out watching her friend die just as she seemed about to do the right thing. But there was no time to mourn; two more men, these carrying truncheons, came forward, one striking her on the side of the head.
Wendy was momentarily dazed, but barely felt anything; she was still tormented by the ringing in her left ear, and had enough strength and adrenaline to recover and deliver a blow to the man's solar plexus, knocking him down. She blocked a hit from the second man with her ax handle, but when she tried to kick him he knocked her leg away and she fell to the ground with a thud.
She looked over and saw Dipper squaring off against another man who fired a pistol at him. Dipper, amazingly, managed to dodge the bullets and slid into him like a baseball player, knocking the much larger cultist down. Unfortunately, he fell on top of Dipper and her friend was, at least for the time being, out of commission.
Still, pretty good for a dude who just got his head walloped a little bit ago, Wendy mused. And this thought gave her enough strength to block another blow from her tormentor, to launch herself back on to her feet and smash her attacker's nose with her elbow. He fell, crying and bleeding, onto the floor.
Then Wendy looked over and saw the machine gunner aiming directly at her. And three of the less badly-injured Gleefuls were already staggering back to their feet for another round. Dipper managed to crawl out from under the man he'd knocked down, only for another of his tormentors to recover and aim a pistol at his head.
"Most impressive," Pemberton sputtered, dragging himself to his feet, approaching Wendy. "But you're forgetting one thing, dear," he said, pressing his gun against Wendy's temple.
Wendy heard a noise behind Pemberton and smiled in recognition. "Yeah, what's that?"
"You can't fight Fate," the Congressman sneered.
Then cried out as something hard struck him on the back of the head. He collapsed instantly to his knees, and Wendy saw Mabel reeling in her grappling hook, Charlie standing beside her.
"Mabes!" she cried out, pointing out the machine gunner who took aim at her.
"Just a second," Mabel said as her grapple returned. She and Charlie ducked into the elevator as a burst of gunfire smashed into the wall beside her.
"You ready for this, Charlie?" she asked, examining the ceiling for a target.
"Ready as I'll ever be," he admitted.
"Okay, grab on!" Mabel instructed. Not understanding, he slowly wrapped an arm around her shoulder, then she said "Tight as you can!" He obeyed, lowering his arms around her waste.
Mabel then stepped forward and fired her hook at the ceiling. She and Charlie soared through the air, Charlie terrified as he heard the cultist firing shots at them, bullets whistling through the air beside them. Mabel spun them around towards her brother and kicked the man aiming at Dipper to the ground, landing with a thud. Charlie fell over on his side, coughing for breath as Mabel sprung to her feet. Dipper hurriedly grabbed the cultist's gun and threw it aside.
"Mabes, that was incredible!" Wendy enthused, then saw movement from the corner of her eye. "Hang on." She turned and punched another cultist into submission.
"Anything is possible with a grappling hook!" Mabel beamed, feeling immensely proud of herself.
"We've got a couple problems," Dipper told his sister. "That guy, for one," he said, noting the machine gunner was approaching, loading another clip. "Plus, we need to stop that guy (he gestured at Chandler) from detonating that (pointing to the bomb)."
"Piece of cake," Mabel assured her brother. "The Mystery Team is assembled, and there's nothing in the Multiverse that can stop us!"
Even Charlie was on his feet now, still shaken but looking ready for a fight.
"Mabel, if we don't make it through this, I want you to know that you're the most amazing person ever," he told her melodramatically.
"Duh," she coolly. "Tell me something I don't know." But she snuck in a quick kiss on his cheek anyway.
The foursome turned to Chandler Monahan, who still seemed in shock by the events unfolding around him. He dropped the detonator and threw his hands in the air, backing away from the bomb.
"Guys, this is not worth it," he sputtered, more to himself than the Mystery Team. "Not worth it at all." He looked balefully at Becky for a moment, then turned and walked backwards, hands still in the air, down a corridor and into his workroom.
"Huh, well that was easy," Dipper said.
Another burst of machine gun fire.
"That's not gonna be so easy," Dipper muttered.
"What's the plan?" Charlie said, cowering.
Dipper and Wendy looked at each other.
"Somebody's gotta be the bait," Wendy concluded. "Draw this dude's fire while the rest of us take him out."
They heard the shooter's footsteps; he was probably close enough that he could hear any plans they made. They looked at each other, imploring, begging someone to bite the bullet and make the first move.
"Yeah, but who?" Dipper asked.
Charlie suddenly leaped to his feet and shouted, waving his arms. "Hey dickhead, over here!" He ducked out of the way as the shots rang out, then instantly sprung back up. "Is that the best you've got?" Bang, duck.
Dipper and Wendy fanned out before Charlie could pop back to his feet. The gunman, confused, aimed his gun back and forth between them. He didn't notice Mabel rushing at him until it was too late; she jumped up and kicked him in the chest. The cultist grunted and fired a wild burst, then fell on his back.
Before Mabel could take advantage, the shooter pushed back and knocked her to the ground. Charlie dove in and pulled Mabel out of the way; Dipper rushed in and tackled his legs, then Wendy smashed his hand with her ax head and force him to drop the gun. Then Mabel leaped back to her feet and jumped in, the three fighting to subdue him as Charlie quietly crept over and emptied the clip from the machine gun.
Finally, after a protracted, exhausting fight, this last Gleeful was subdued, laying spent next to the bomb with which his church planned to end the world. The foursome stood triumphantly, battered, exhausted but victorious; the few Gleefuls still conscious made it clear, through the gestures and groans, that they weren't in any mood to fight any longer.
"Great going, everyone!" Mabel announced, crossing her arms in satisfaction. "The Mystery Team saves the world again!"
Mabel and Dipper did their twin handshake and laughed. Wendy and Charlie watched in amusement, then gave each other a hug, which seemed to surprise them both. They also burst out laughing at themselves, until Mabel and Dipper joined in and it seemed remarkably less awkward.
"I guess that takes care of that chapter," Dipper said, dusting off his hands.
"Not quite," Charlie said. He walked over and saw that Chandler had left the detonator on the ground. He stomped on it repeatedly until it broke.
"Now we're done," he said. "We just need someone to clean up this mess."
Then they heard a rumbling noise and a cough. And turned, and saw Pemberton raising himself to his feet, still clutching his pistol.
"Very well done," he sputtered, wiping blood off his mouth. "I'll admit that I underestimated all of you, very badly. I fear that you've merely postponed Armageddon, not ended it."
And he started backing away towards the elevator. Wendy took a step towards him, brandishing her ax.
"You're not going anywhere, pal," Wendy snarled. Mabel and Dipper flanked her, Mabel again cradling her grappling hook, while Charlie moved into place besides her.
"That's where you're wrong," Pemberton hissed, aiming his pistol at Wendy, then at each of her friends.
"I could kill all four of you right now, and no one would know," he said mockingly. "You'll all just sit here to bleed and rot until some policeman or custodian finds you and wonders what the hell happened here. Meanwhile, all I need to do is pop back upstairs, hide in my office and no one will ever know what took place. One of the privileges of being in government is that it's rare to be held accountable for anything."
"I think some of your friends upstairs might disagree," Dipper said.
Pemberton sputtered. "That? That is nonsense. I don't give a fig whether Richard Nixon stays in office or not, whether he lives or dies for that matter. That is humans engaging in human stupidity. Some of us have a higher calling."
"So you think you're a God now?" Wendy asked him, taking another step forward until he leveled his gun at her again.
"No, but I am a member of the Faithful and a leader in His Elect," he said. "My mission does not end with one defeat, not with one failed mission or one aborted plan. It will only end when the Reverend Gleeful succeeds."
"Save it for your sermon, pal," Wendy snapped. She took another step forward, he took a step back. Despite everything that had just happened, his gun remained an equalizer. But they also recognized that he only had so many bullets...
Finally, Pemberton broke the impasse by turning around and rushing to the elevator. The Mystery Team broke out running after him; he fired four wild shots over his shoulder before finally reaching the elevator.
Wendy and Dipper inched forward, still ready to do battle, hoping to stop him at all costs. But Mabel had ducked to the ground. And Charlie was standing stock still where he was.
"Uh, guys," Mabel muttered, raising herself to her feet. And Dipper and Wendy turned around, saw Mabel's pale, terrified face, and lost all thoughts of stopping Pemberton.
Since Charlie was wearing a dark blue suit, it took them a moment to register what had happened. Then they saw the dark spot spreading on his breast. Then the red blood trickling down his dress shirt and pants. Then they watched in horror as he tipped over to one side, mouthing inaudible words, falling to the ground.
The last thing Pemberton heard as the elevator doors closed was Mabel's heartbroken scream.