Piedmont, California
North America
Earth (46'\)
Piedmont High
"Hello and welcome," the newsreader said. "My name is Daniel Dooley and this is the news. Earlier today at approximately 1:00pm, many intelligence agency headquarters across the globe were bombed in what appears to be a coordinated attack. These include—" he took a deep breath before continuing—"the FBI, MI6, MI5, CIA, MSS, ASIS and the SNRP. Two notable exceptions to this were the German and Russian secret services, and officials suggest that said countries could be the culprits of these unspeakable attacks. The casualty numbers as of now are unknown."
Dipper leaned on the table with a sour expression on his face. They had gotten back home safely, but not at a cost. Lance was dead. He'd drowned, as had the bus driver and the teacher. He could've saved them.
He should've.
Gravity Falls, Oregon
North America
Earth (46'\)
Gravity Falls Town Hall
"Name," the supernatural ambassador asked. He was a thin man of average height. He wore a pair of glasses and a long black coat (the customary attire of supernatural ambassadors" and he was Nexus' replacement. He'd only been elected a few days ago and as far as Ford knew, he was a dragon (they could switch between lizard-thing and human forms). The man ran a hand through his auburn hair before looking back at Ford.
"Stanford Filbrick Pines," Ford said, wincing as he did. He hated his father at the best of times, he didn't need his own name as a reminder.
"Family?" The dragon's voice was as ordinary as could be, a tactic used to drive away any outside suspicion about the supernatural.
"Dipper Pines, you night have him as Mason there. Mabel Pines, Stanley Pines, Sherman Pines, Helen Pines, Robert Pines, Filbrick Pines and Caryn Pines."
"Item?"
"A diviner. I don't know what it does, but it's nothing good."
"And you want to put it in the vault"
"Yes," Ford answered.
"… item 618. The ambassador wrote a something down on his notepad. "Is it safe to touch?"
"Yes. I've done rigorous testing and discovered that it's perfectly safe unless activated."
"We'll take care of it."
2 Weeks Later
"Hey Bro-bro," Mabel said as she walked up holding a Pitt Cola. "You've been all sad and stuff ever since we got back." She placed the drink on the table and sat next to her brother. "It wasn't your fault."
Dipper bowed his head as Mabel placed her arm over his shoulders. "You'll be okay."
The TV then suddenly cut to an image of the British prime minister who was standing behind a podium. He was wearing a navy blue suit with a red tie. His hair was light blond and the exact opposite of neat. It genuinely looked like someone had industrially ran a balloon across the top of his head. "Hello, good morning, good morning. In light of the attacks on the world's intelligence agencies – specifically MI6 and MI5 – we have come to the conclusion that Germany is the obvious culprit. As of now, we are at war."
Helen walked into the room just in time to hear this announcement and a look of shock passed over her face. "Shit," she muttered.
Dipper walked into history and sat down in his seat, sighing. He'd talked to Radcliffe right after he got back from Washington about his feelings on the matter. How it was his fault. She'd promptly said that he had something called, 'Good Samaritan Syndrome,' which essentially meant that that he felt like that it was his job to keep people safe, except replace the word people with the world. So, a rather extreme case. He was still a bit shocked that he'd told her what had happened in the Falls at all.
"Right everyone, the teacher said. "Using what you learned last lesson, make a poster on the subject with partner and before you ask, no you can't choose who to work with." He looked around the room and pointed at a boy who was sitting on his phone at the back of the class. "Evan, get that phone away I'm keeping it until the end of the period. You're with Alana. Mabel, you're with Barry."
Mabel promptly rolled her eyes in exasperation.
"Bethan, you go with Jack. Chloe, you go with…" he searched the room for someone of comparable intelligence. "… Dipper."
Dipper hadn't really been paying attention to what his teacher was saying when someone sat down next to him.
"Hello?"
He quickly turned to look at the girl. She had long dirty blonde hair and piercing blue eyes hiding behind a pair of circular-framed glasses that magnified her eyes to about twice the size. She also wore a white and pink scarf over her black jumper. Everything about her screamed 'awkward nerd.' He recognised her, buther, but had never actually spoken to her.
She held out her hand and said, "I'm Chlay-ey. CHLOE! I mean Chloe."
Dipper looked at her hand and seemed to turn inside out with fear.
"Oh, sorry," Chloe smiled. "I forgot you don't do that."
"You…" Dipper pointed at her. "You know who I am?"
"Uh, yeah. Obviously. Everyone knows who you and your sister are, you two are like… like…" after a few seconds of stammering she came to a conclusion and said, "you two are cool." She held out her hand again, this time in a fist. "You do fist bumps?"
"Yeah," Dipper smiled as he hit his fist against hers. "So what were we learning about yesterday? I was kinda… lost in thought."
"This class is way too easy, so I can see where you're coming from."
"It was to do with World War One, right?"
"Yep. And I don't think anyone failed to see the irony in that."
"What do you mean?"
"Well," Chloe smiled. "With the way things are going – with the UK declaring war on Germany and all that stuff."
Dipper scoffed. "What, do you think World War Three's gonna happen or something?"
"Maybe, it's certainly possible." They sat in awkward silence for a few moments before Chloe said, "thank you."
"W-what?"
"I was on the bus. You saved everyone."
"Oh, uh, thanks… it's, it's nothing… really," Dipper stammered. "I was just… just trying to… to… to help! Yeah, that's the word I'm looking for." He smiled awkwardly.
"No, really. Thank you. I know everyone wants to know what happened on your summer holiday, but I just don't care. I really don't. I mean, I'd love to find out, but you obviously don't want to talk about it, so I won't pry. All I need to know is that you saved my life."
"Oh, uh… thanks," Dipper smiled. "So, completely random topic not related to the previous, do you believe in the supernatural?"
Chloe looked flabbergasted. "No, duh. It would've been proven by now and then it would just be normal. There'd be nothing super about it."
"But what if… what if it had been," Dipper questioned. "And people had been keeping it a secret?"
"Then why would it not be all over the world?"
"Maybe there's like a magical hotspot on each continent that the magic is trapped in?"
"I guess that's possible, but it'd have to be really isolated," Chloe conceded. "Reeeaalllyy isolated." The silence returned as they continued working on the poster. "Is it true that you have a tattoo?"
Dipper instinctively grabbed his left shoulder where the tattoo was located. It was a simple design, just his pine tree symbol. "… maybe"
"Your sister has one, I saw it in the changing rooms. Pretty sure having one at our age is illegal."
"When the cops aren't around, anything's legal."
"Words to live by." Chloe pushed her hair from her face and then asked, "what does it look like?"
"Ehhhhh… it's… just a… just a pine tree." He quickly drew the symbol on his hand and held it up.
"Because you're a Pines?"
"… yeah. Let's go with that," he whispered the last part then tapped Chloe on the shoulder. "How about a joke? My ex-wife still misses me, but her aim is getting better!"
Chloe chuckled. "That's funny," she said.
"Alright everyone, pack up," the teacher shouted.
"Well, we gotta work on this tomorrow. See you then?"
Dipper smiled. "Yeah," he said. Chloe turned around and walked off. Wow, he thought. She's… really nice. He was surprised that it had went so well, the only other time he'd succeeded in picking up girls was on the road trip.
"Oooooohhhh!" Mabel suddenly appeared behind Dipper, startling him. "Somebody's in—" she wrapped her arm around his shoulder—"love!"
"Ugh," Dipper said as he pushed her arm away. "I only just met her Mabel. I mean she's nice, but… look, relationships really aren't on my mind right now. I have bigger things to deal with."
"Maybe this is what you need then," Mabel smiled.
Bob walked into the living room and turned on the TV. He sighed as he turned it on, then his expression darkened.
"Kids, pack your bags," he said. "You're leaving."