Chapter 49
Gravity Falls Tuesday November 27th, 2012 9:30 AM
Woods
Having packed a some extra water, some protein bars Wildbill had left, a sandwich for each of them, and a few items from the Shack Dipper and Mable had headed out into the woods a half hour ago. He was dressed for the colder weather in a brown jack, black shirt, blue jeans, and Wendy's hat for luck. Mabel was in a camouflage sweater she had knitted before they headed back to Gravity Falls for their next Mystery Hunt and a pair of black jeans.
They had just passed the bunker tree and were heading deeper into woods. Testosteraur didn't have a definite location, but he had a general direction. There had been a section of the forest that had been closed off by the wardens of the forest. Dipper theorized that this maybe the area that was being protected when Hauteur died. So they headed towards that direction planning on getting more directions from the forest denizens as they go.
"So how long do you think we'll be out here bro-bro?", Mabel asked as they trudged along.
"It all depends on how far we have to go and what we have to do once we're there," Dipper said looking over the map he had in his hand.
"Well, well, well. What do we have here boys?", said a brown furred cat like creature that stood on two legs. He was in a camouflage vest and a loincloth that looked like it was made from a discarded t-shirt. He was with two others of his kind as he continued, "Looks like we got us a couple of stragglers."
"I dunno Lem, they look like a coupla lost hikers ta me.", the one to Lem's right said with a smirk. He too was in a loincloth that was made from an old t-shirt. His has a faded Bubba Joe's Barbeque City logo on the front of it.
"I dunno, Pyle. Remember what the Gnome PD said after that lumberjack went missing last spring," the third said. He was skinnier than the other two and had what would have been a mulllet on a human. His loincloth looked like it was one of the panther shirts sold at the Shack.
"Quiet Cid, what those lil bumpkins don't know won't hurt us.", Lem said as he walked towards the twins, "But it just might hurt these two."
Piedmont, CA 10 AM
Piedmont PD Arson Division
Detective Niobe was sitting at her desk talking to one William Hauser aka Wildbill William Anderson from the OSW gym case. He had already filled her in on the fact that he had been out of town since the previous Monday and had almost a whole town worth of witnesses that could verify his alibi if needed.
"Alright Mr. Hauser, I now need to know if you have any enemies that may have wanted to cause you, your employees, or any of your of your students any harm?" Detective Niobe asked as she sat and looked down at the notes she had already taken and mentally added them to what she already knew about the case. It really was an interesting one there were four different flashpoints in the building and all tests for accelerants came back negative. And the burn patterns were definitely weird, they really didn't seem to follow any natural set burn patterns.
"Not off of the top of my head, at least none that would be up to this. I mean, like every business owner I have competitors but the most any of them would do is to try and book wrestlers I need for my shows.", Wildbill said as as he looked over at the Detective who was interviewing him. She seemed personable enough, if he had met her under different circumstances he may have even asked if he could buy her a drink sometime.
"We've already checked with most of your competitors," Detective Niobe said as she finished looking at the notes. She looked up at the guy dressed as a modern day cowboy, including the boots and hat, and wonders how a guy from Indiana would cone to live in Piedmont while looking like that. She continued by asking, "How about any family, anyone there have enemies?"
"No family out here. My mom's in a convalescence home back in Indiana and my dad died before I was born. A b and e that went wrong that, nearly killed me and my mom also. If a neighbor hadn't heard her scream and called nine-one-one, neither of us would be alive today. The guy slit my dad's throat and tried to do the same to mom but heard the sirens and apparently ran.", Wildbill said not really knowing why he was spilling all of this info.
"Sorry to hear that," Detective Niobe genuinely said, "What about your godchildren? I've heard they were local celebrities for a bit after your godson stood up to some bullies and it got caught on camera, not once but twice."
"Well, they were also up in Oregon. But you are probably asking if they had any enemies, especially due to the bully videos.", Wildbill replied, "Their bullies are actually somewhere in your departments files already. Their houses were all burnt down almost a month ago, and before you ask they were investigated and cleared by you own department. I also was investigated and as I said then I was in San Diego on business that week end and didn't get back into town till the following Tuesday."
"Alight, that's all we need for today. We'll let you know if we need anymore information," Detective Niobe said as she stood up and shook his hand.
"Thank you ma'am," Wildbill said as he tipped his hat then turned and walked out of the station house.
After he walked out an officer walked over to Detective Niobe and handed her a note that read, 'Detective Niobe. Sol Rouse, a reporter with the Piedmont News, called asking for an interview about the rash of recent arsons.'
Gravity Falls
Gravity Falls High School
US History
Wendy was busy taking notes over the Articles of the Constitution when suddenly she started getting a sensation that something was wrong. Try as she might she couldn't shake the feeling. Something was going on and she was stuck here in a class she couldn't walk out on.
Realizing it was the same feeling she get's whenever Dipper was in trouble she finally walked up to the teacher and said, "Mr. Stokes, I need to go to the restroom."
After she received the pass, she quickly headed down the hall and after making sure there wasn't anyone else in the room slipped her earbud in and tapped it, "Dipper, Mabel. Come in."
Out in the woods
Dipper and Mabel were running from the redneck cat people they had encountered about a half hour ago, so far they had tried to not use their powers as this was a new species that Dipper hadn't seen in the journal pages. They had been lucky enough to encounter several fallen logs and low hanging branches that impeded the pursuit somewhat.
"So why again are we trying to not use our abilities," Mabel asked as they passed a set of three orange tinted trees.
Seeing the strange hue of the trees, Dipper nearly sopped to investigate them but decided against it as he heard a hiss coming from behind them. As they ducked into a small cave they found after going over a short ledge Dipper finally whispered, "Do you really want to advertise to all the denizens of the forest what we are able to do."
Mabel started to respond, but stopped when she saw him tap onto his left ear. "We're here, what's up?"
Sliding her own earbud in, she heard Wendy ask, "ger sense going off, you two safe?"
Taping her own ear Mabel replied, "Just some good ol catboys. I'm talking 'You could be a hick if' targets here. One had a mullet."
Wendy came back, "Are they werecats? Shouldn't they only be able to change at night?"
"Not sure if they're weres or not, they were intentionally wearing loincloths," Dipper came back as he tapped his earbud, "I haven't had a chance to look at the Journals since we started running."
Wendy came back, "You need me out there?"
"No, we'll use our powers if it comes to it. You need to stay in school," Dipper relied, "I don't want to be the reason you get a detention for skipping a class."
"Well be careful then man, you being in trouble is distracting.", Wendy said, "I better get back to class. I'll keep the earbud in if you want."
"Just put it back in at lunch, we'll update you then." Dipper whispered as he heard the cat-people above them.
Mabel quietly intoned, "Kilqvxg Gsv Rnztv!" and the entrance to the cave they were in to the outside world seemed to collapse in upon itself.
Wendy came back with, "Please be careful. Remember you mean a lot to me."
"You too," Dipper again whispered.
Bunker
Ford was in the nearly stocked crime laboratory, setting up supplies that had arrived at Fiddleford's yester day evening. A lot of it was basics; tables, chairs, beakers, bunsen burners, electron microscopes, and chemicals. And then there was some of the more specialized equipment; a mass spectrometer, a small centrifuge, a scent transfer unit, a comparison microscope, and a fingerprint identification system.
As he was finishing putting the chemicals in their various cabinets he heard a loud foot fall coming up short of entering the laboratory. Turning he asked, "Is there something I can do for you Testosteraur?"
"I just needed to talk to some one," Testosteraur said, "And given that Destructor is unavailable I thought I would talk to you. You both know what it is like to be considered on the outside of your civilization. It is a new feeling for me. With the loss of my horn, and my near loss being considered a man in the eyes of my fellow manotaurs. As I was leaving the man cave yesterday I was called a freak by more than a couple of my former friends. They felt as if I was only left in the tribe due to the loss of my brother. And their words hurt. These were my fellows who I would have followed into any situation. And now I am shunned as a freak."
Holding up his six fingered hand ford said, "I know something about being a freak. I've lived my whole life as one. And to be perfectly honest I would rather live as a freak than be considered normal. Heck look at our collection we have growing around us, I don't see a one of us who was not considered a freak at least at one point of time or another. Dipper has his birthmark and intelligence, Mabel her naturally cheerful and silly personality, Mcguket's personality and lost memory, Wendy's stature and lumberjack genes, Francis and Tony two former paper clones, Pacifica's fall from her former social status, Candy's intelligence and social awkwardness, Grenda's size and strength, Nate's lackadaisical personality, Stan's history and reputation as a con man, Soos' childlike nature, etc. Being a freak isn't something to be ashamed of, it actually is something to be proud of for it marks you as an individual. Remember among us there are no freaks, only family."
"Thank you, I really think I needed to hear that.", Testosteraur said feeling a small amount of weight rise off of his chest.
"You're welcome," Ford said as walked up to him and placed a hand on his arm.
Out in the woods
After waiting around ten minutes and two snack bars, Mabel and dipper slid out of their covering with Dipper now holding an expanding baton he had bought online after he started training with Wildbill and Mabel had the stun glove on that Candy had made. Looking around they realized that while being chased they had entered into a part of the woods that dipper had not explored yet. Dipper knew that they were still traveling in the right direction so they continued on for a little while longer.
"I wonder where those three hick cats went?", Mabel asked as they went forward.
"Right now I'm not even worried about them, we should almost be running into the cliff face soon.", Dipper said looking up from his map and as he turned to look at Mabel he saw a clearing that appeared to have had a large bonfire made in the center of it. He completely turn and said, "It looks like we are here."
As Mabel turned Dipper started to walk past her fulling extending his baton, he put one finger to his lips as he entered the clearing.
"Halt, who goes there?", a voice came from on of the bushes on the edge of the clearing asked.
"We're just two hikers who got lost," Mabel called out as she followed Dipper into the clearing.
"No, you're not." the voice said from another bush.
"Then pray tell, who are we?", Dipper asked as he tried to focus on the voice.
"You're the Pines twins," the voice said from behind them now, "Heroes of Weirdmageddon."
"Ok, so you know who we are. Who are you?", Mabel asked trying to allow Dipper a chance to find the owner of the voice.
"You wouldn't really know me by name if I told you," The voice said.
This time Dipper was ready and spun around, his baton knock the red coned hat off of a gnome.
"Whoa man. Chill." the gnome said as he leaned over and put his hat back on, "I'm glad I'm not any taller, you would've taken my head off and not my hat. Name's Carson by the way.
"Nice to meet you Carson," Mabel said shaking his hand with her off hand due to the stun glove, "What happened here?"
"A battle was fought and some lost they're lives," Carson said looking back on the remains of the funeral pyre, "I'm just glad I wasn't on duty when it happened."
"Why would you be guarding a clearing anyways?", Dipper asked not really seeing anything out of the ordinary here.
"Well since it's gone, I guess it's safe to tell you now.", Carson said as he sat down on a rock on the edge of the clearing, "Shortly after you two left the physical remains of the dream demon were found in this glade. Not wanting to risk anyone stumbling on to them most of the denizens of the forest joined together to safeguard them and keep any interlopers away."
"Wait, hold up. The physical remains of Bill Cipher were in this glade?", Dipper practically screamed.
"Yes. Many of the mystics in the area, including the Hand Witch came to the glade and tested him to make sure there was no danger in his awakening. It was explained that it would take him nearly a thousand years to gather all of his energy again.", Carson said continuing his exposition, "We'd all vowed that we would each send a representative to guard the glade for twelve hours a day. We smaller stature clans usually send between three to four people to guard our assigned area. The day of the theft we had a strong group, that shouldn't have had any trouble dealing with any trespassers. The next shift came into the glade and found them all dead and the statue was gone."
"So someone has a statue that's gonna take forever to recharge, that sounds stupid to me." Mabel said still looking around.
"I told ya'll I heard them," Pyle said as he headed into the clearing followed shortly by the other two.
"Oh, no. The Gnome PD are already here," Cid said seeing Carson
"Remember bro-bro, they have claws. So we fight my way not yours," Mabel said as she turned the stun glove on.
Forsythe Middle School
Francis is sitting at a table pretty much alone trying to eat the almost rubber green beans when Tony walked up along with a girl with a blond streak in her black hair.
"Mary, this is my brother Francis. Francis, this is Mary. She's in my computer aided drafting class," Tony said introducing his brother to his classmate, "We found out we had the same lunch when we met in line a moment ago."
"Pleased to meet you," Francis said as he held out his hand, which she shook.
"Back at ya," Mary said as she started to eat.
"I'm warning you two the green beans are made of rubber," Francis said as he watched his brother.
Gravity Falls High School
While the rest of the crew were seated at their usual table they all noticed Wendy was absent. She was sitting out on the front steps of the school trying repeatedly to get an answer on her earbud. The feeling of dread she had earlier had subsided shortly after their talk only to return a few moments ago.
"Come on man, answer.", Wendy said as she tried again to raise her boyfriend or his sister.
She got up and started pacing as neither of them returned her signal.
Out in the woods
Dipper had just brought his baton across the snout of the lead 'hick cat' as Mabel called them when the one in the barbeque shop loincloth tried to swipe his nose off of his face causing him to fall flat on his back pack, man his sandwich is going to be so squashed. No sooner had he hit than the lead cat tried to jump on his prone form. Dipper brought his legs up and kicked out wards sending hm flying. Mabel had already dodged several swipes aimed at her body and connected with a backhanded slap on reflex. Sliding a few steps backwards she prepared the stun gloved hand to be ready to deliver an open palm strike the next time. He charged at her swinging wildly, she ducked and then delivered the strike right to his breast bone. She smelled burning fur and saw him fly backwards from a combination of the force of her blow and the stored electric charge.
Dipper had started to get back up as barbeque boy tried to rush him. Dipper rolled to his side and swung out with the baton connecting with the catman's kneecap. He heard a sicking crack as the cat fell face forward. Getting completely back to his feet he saw the leader of the cats trying to rush his out of the corner of his eye. As he got with in arms reach, dipper spun to his left side and swung the baton hard into the small of his back causing him to scream in pain. As he finished the turn he heard a loud sizzling sound and saw Mabel had used the glove on the one whose kneecap he thinks he broke.
Now that everything was over he finally tapped his ear and said, "Sorry to worry you, Wendy. We were in the middle of something. Yeah, we're ok. The biggest damage I received was squishing my lunch."
Wendy came back, "You had me worried sick dork. I nearly ghosted to you with out worrying who would've seen me."
Mabel was turning over the last one she knocked out and took a couple of photos of him with her phone so they could make a decent drawing of them in Dipper's journal when they got home.
"No need to go exposing you self Wendy," Dipper said, "We're getting ready to head home now. We've found the clearing and we know what was taken. Tell you later."
Wendy responded, "I better get in there and eat something. I'll see you at the shack later. Please be careful. Remember you mean a lot to me."
Dipper said clearly, "You too, love you."
Once they made sure Carson was going to call in the GPD for these three the twins started to head back. As they walked Dipper decided he wanted to get a good look at the Orange hue trees he saw on the way. After they passed the cave they had hid in he finally found the group of trees where he saw the orange hued ones, but they were gone.
Chapter 49 in in the books. This was a fun chapter to write. We start out with the twins heading out on their last mystery hunt before they start at their new school and what do they find? Redneck cat people. Then there is Wildbill's interview with the Detective in charge of his gym's arson case. We see that Wendy and Dipper's connection is as strong as ever while he and Mabel were running from the 'Hick Cats' (allusion to the old phrase hep cats). Testosteraur get's a pep talk from Ford of all people. Carson the gnome tells the twins what was taken form the glade. And then the 'Hick Cats' find them in the glade. A visit with Tony and Francis at lunch. On her lunch Wendy starts to worry, while Dipper and Mabel fight the 'Hick Cats'. Next chapter is Chapter 50, pretty good for a fic I had only planned out to be 16-18 chapters. Darn characters, taking over conversations and drawing them out. ;-)
The names so far:
Shifter/Dipper – Shapeshifter, highly intelligent
Will O'/Wendy – Spectral powers, naturally athletic
Glamur/Mabel – latest in a line of mystics, intelligent but artistically inclined
Freerunner/Tony – Peak physical condition, muscles & skin density increased, intelligent
Flux/Francis – Transmutation, highly intelligent (biological studies)
Charger/Pacifica – Battle armor, rich, secret sci fi fan
Vaccine/Nate – toxin/antitoxin production, immunity to poisons, viruses, and toxins
Delphi/Tambry – Team hacker and communications expert, Techno-Shaman
Schematic/Candy – Gadget creator, highly intelligent, trivia queen (I know I need to include this third one some :-) )
Also remember to check out my other Gravity Falls works:
Gravity Heroes: Sidetracks, a series on one shots & drabbels that are stories that are in the Gravity Heroes-verse but aren't necessarily required to read the main story-line. It's essentially my take on the classic Marvel Comics Presents. Chapter Seven follows Wild bill after he returns to Piedmont and delves into a few of his past lives that were re-awoken by Polden' Solntse.
I also would feel honored if any of my works inspire any art. If the do I would love to see them. Thanks again to all who have read this far. I have received art now from Deviou5, Siryleleen, & Polydactyly Zodiac. These will be posted soon in my Deviant Art account as fan art and credited to them. Thanks again you three. I'm happy to see different interpretations of the characters from the GH AU. Let me know by PM if you do and I'll send out a list of the full descriptions to you. The art is now up at fereality. deviantart just remove the spaces. A new pic of Yami is now up.
Again I'd like to give a shout out to EZB, SuperGroverAway, ddp456, & A Pleasant Dream (formerly Popcat131). It was their stories that made me want to get back into writing and to want to start with Gravity Falls. Please check out their stories if you haven't already.
Please review. I'm always open to constructive and helpful criticism, though if you're gonna troll please move on.
On to the reviews. Without further adieu:
Reader Sirkylelenn: Thanks. I hope your ceremony went well.
Reader Addicted to total drama: Thanks. Oh, Ford knows they are dating, it was just the first he had heard her called that. He was thinking of the definition of mate as in a spouse or wife. It was a sudden shock, so he was confused along the lines of 'when did you get married and why wasn't I told' or 'aren't you a little young to be married'. While he's not the most observant person when it comes to human interactions, but even he knows what's going on between Dipper and Wendy.
Reader NecroticHate: Thanks. Yeah, I'm working on keeping the characterizations going good. I really wanted to give a the a look at their school life, there may be another couple peeks into it over the next two chapters but mostly it will be after school and weekend stuff for awhile. Yeah Thompson's bit was an extension of Alexa and his date from GH: Sidetracks Chapter 3.
Yeah, not meaning to do that, but really wanted to tie Hauteur in to someone and give a reason for someone to care that a random manotaur was killed. Plus it adds more depth to Testosteraur's story. I figured if there was really any beings that Bill would be afraid of it would be the elder beings.
Thanks again.
Reader The Keeper of Worlds: Yeah, I'm trying to work on the social aspect to have some good backbone to work with when I'm not hitting the action aspect of the story. Yeah, like I said that Easter Egg has been around since chapter three. There are a few more spread throughout the story.
Part of that has been dealt with here in this chapter. Have you seen the Yami drawing yet?
Reader Polydactyly Zodiac: Thanks. Mostly it's her responding to the previous responses that she should "talk to the cousin" and "age ain't but a number, grab him up". As for foreshadowing, who knows.
2-1-4 3-1-20-19, 2-1-4 3-1-20-19, 23-8-1-20-3-8-1 7-15-14-14-1 4-15. 23-8-5-14 20-8-5 7-14-15-13-5 16-4 3-15-13-5-19 6-15-18 25-15-21!
