Chapter 2: Childhoods End
Like years before when the Gideon robot blew up the ship was surrounded by police cars, news vans, and the people of Gravity Falls. Out of one car a red-haired woman in a sheriffs' department uniform styled in chignon bun. "Okay I want a perimeter set up! No one is to go near that thing until I give the okay!"
"But Sheriff Frost, shouldn't we wait for the army or the C.I.A. or something to get here?" one officer asked.
"I'm sure the government is sending someone but until they get here, I am responsible for the townspeople's safety so get to it!" The Sheriff said. "Wait a minute." She looked at the people that came out of the ship. "Dipper?"
As she made her way to ship the four space travelers stepped off ramp. Dipper spoke. "Ixcia, close all entrances and put up the shield. We don't want anyone getting inside and messing with things they don't understand."
"Confirmed, how long until I engage emergency protocols?" A voice from the ship came out of speakers.
"If our talks with the authorities go well twenty-four, thirty hours tops." Mabel said with her usual happy attitude. A blue sphere formed around the ship and disappeared. A lot of townsfolk gasped.
Pacifica had a concerned look on her face. "I know I was out voted but are you guys sure it was a good idea to enter the atmosphere uncloaked? For all we knew someone would have just shoot at us with nukes. Ixcia can take a lot of punishment but she's not indestructible."
Gideon gave a chuckle. "Paz, even if they tired to take a shot at us you know we'd have no problem dodging those missiles with all the modifications I made to the engines over the years."
Dipper then spoke. "We need the whole world to know what's coming. Every country in the world saw us, and with all these news cameras here there is no way the government can cover this up." Dipper then noticed the sheriff. "Someone's coming."
"Dipper is that you? All of you?" Sheriff Frost took off her hat.
"Wendy? It's been years. So, you're a cop now?" Dipper said.
Wendy had tears in her eyes. "You were all declared dead eight years ago! We never found anything that could tell us what happened to you! And now…" Wendy embraced Dipper not seeing the jealous look on the face of Pacifica. "You're all back." Wendy then turned to the crowd. "It's all okay people! It's the Pines twins, Gideon, and Pacifica! Fifteen years ago, these four were kids who disappeared during a camping trip. Now we can all guess what happed to them but now they are back home. I'm sure they will have a lot to say to the press about this, but you know the government is calling first dibs, so I am going to take them the station to answer a few questions and we'll see where we'll all go from there." She then turned back to others. "Is it okay to leave this thing here? Wendy said pointing to the ship.
Mabel gave an easy-going wave. "Ixcia won't hurt anyone. Oh, and her shields can withstand tank fire so tell any government agents or whatever to not even try to break in. We'll tell all about whatever gizmos they want in good time."
Wendy gave a nod. "Right, well let's get you guys to the station. Fredricks! Get a couple of squad cars ready to take them! I need to make a phone call first." As her four long lost friends made their way to the cars Wendy pulled out her phone and hit a number on speed dial. "You saw the news, right? It's the Pines twins and the others and they are going to need your help! Get to Gravity Falls as fast as you can! How can you help? They need you to do your job for them. Just hurry to the police station. I know you can do it because you owe one of them big time." Wendy hung up her phone and walked to her car.
When the group got to the station several government agents surrounded them. "Stay where you are and put your weapons on the ground!"
Dipper held up his hands. "It's okay, we are going to turn on some anti-tempering tech with our gear and we'll put them down." After pressing a few controls everyone placed their weapons on the ground. When Dipper took his glove off Wendy noticed what looked an old chemical burn.
One agent walked up behind Pacifica placed his hand on her shoulder. "Now come with …" In an instant Pacifica flipped the agent over her shoulder and placed him in a choke hold. She seemed to have a glazed look in her eyes.
"Pacifica!" Mabel yelled. Every agent pulled out their guns while Wendy had one hand out to stop everyone but had another hand on her gun.
Pacifica blinked, her eyes back to normal, and let go of the agent. "Sorry! Force of habit."
"Yeah, guys unless you're around her a lot like the three of us it's best not to sneak up on her okay?" Dipper said.
As they walked Gideon was rubbing his hands nervously. "I feel naked without my gun."
Mabel got close to Gideon. "Don't worry Giddy, you have all the guns you need right here." She squeezed his biceps.
Wendy couldn't believe what she saw and heard. "Pacifica was a part time waitress who liked to spend her parent's money, now she nearly killed a highly trained agent without even thinking! Gideon was a chubby little guy and now he's totally jacked! Before Mabel could barely stand Gideon and now she has pet names for him and feels his muscles? And Dipper how did you hurt your hand like that? What have you guys been through in space?"
They were led to the interrogation room where Dipper and Mabel saw a familiar face. "I'm Agent Trigger, the lead in this investigation. I am going ask you questions, you're going to answer them and then you going to show me everything about that ship. Are we clear?" Agent Trigger was different from the last time the twins saw him. His hair was greyer, and balding; he was showing signs of his age. "Now let's start with who you are and how you came by an alien ship?"
Dipper gave a sigh; glad that Trigger didn't remember him or his sister with what happened with him last time. "I'm Mason Andrew Pines but most people call me Dipper. Fifteen years ago, myself, my sister, and our two friends were abducted by aliens while on a camping trip."
"We have the missing persons case file here in the station." Wendy said.
"Noted." Agent Trigger said. "I still want the rest of you to state your names for the record."
Pacifica took Dippers' hand. "My name is Pacifica Elise Pines, before I married Mason my last name was Northwest."
"They're married?" Wendy thought. "Then again they have been with each other for most of their lives now. So, unless there were some aliens that they would be willing to date their options were very limited."
"My name is Mabel Sarah Gleeful. I am Dippers' twin sister."
"Them too? Mabel couldn't stand him before! Yes, he was trying to be better when they left but still…"
"I'm Gideon Charles Gleeful. Mabel is my wife as you could guess."
Agent Trigger wrote something down. "Alright, the hazmat tent should be set up. You people know you may have exposed all of us to who knows how many diseases."
"Are you serious?" Pacifica had her same annoyed look she always had.
"We spent two weeks orbiting Alpha Centauri having our ship's computer run every scan and medical test she had twice to make there was nothing on board that could be dangerous to the planet! You have no idea how many samples I had to give!" Mabel yelled.
Dipper spoke next. "Agent Trigger we didn't come back home without thinking. We could have cloaked our ship, we have that capability, but we wanted the whole world to see us. To believe us when we say that a threat is coming to our planet. We are more than willing to share what we know about the technology we found so we can defend our people, but it will take an unprecedented amount of cooperation from the nations and corporations of the world before we can even begin to implement a defense."
"How immediate is this threat?" Trigger asked.
"Best case scenario three hundred years. That's how long we have to advance our technology by five thousand years and expand our resources as much as we can because one solar system is not going to be enough let alone one planet."
"And what reason should we have to believe any of you have to say? For all we know who or whatever took you have turned you against your own people, they had fifteen years to do it."
"And what evidence do you have that they have been turned?" It was a man with a black suit and a red tie. He had a long nose and slick black hair. "Robert S. Valentino attorney at law, and from here on out you are not to ask my clients questions without me present."
"How did you get in here?" Trigger asked.
"I was wondering when you would get here." Wendy said.
"After you called, I had to explain to my bosses that representing the four people who are about to be the world's biggest celebrities would be a good idea."
"Robbie is a lawyer now…" Mabel said looking nervous.
Dipper rubbed his temples. "Okay, we have our legal representation, I think maybe right now the best place for us to start is at the beginning."
Fifteen Years Ago, …
Dipper didn't know how long he was out. Looking around the unfamiliar grey room he saw all his friends still in their sleep wear, suspended in mid-air by that light he saw earlier only now realizing that was too was in the air. He then saw that the others were waking up.
"Dipper? Where are we?" Mabel asked. Then a wall slid open and two of the toad-like aliens that abducted them came in.
Pacifica was struggling against nothing screaming at the top of her lungs. "You slimy freaks! Let us go or my parents are going to sue you back to the stone age!"
"Pacifica, maybe let's not antagonize our abductors?" Dipper said. The creatures made some grunting like sounds and then a wall panel opened and one of them grabbed a rod like device with a glowing tip.
"Uh, friends what is he doing?" Gideon asked as the toad walked behind him and then grabbed his pajama bottom. "No! I don't want to be probed!" That was when they began to panic. But then the whole room began to shake, and three different looking aliens came in wearing matching green outfits holding guns and shot the toads with beams of light.
"Please help us!" Mabel cried but one of the aliens punched her in the face knocking her out.
"Mabel!" Dipper yelled before an alien hit him in the face with the butt of his gun, blacking him out.
"Dipper! Dipper wake up!" The next thing he knew he was in a cage with Mabel shaking him awake.
"Mabel what's going on?"
"Bad stuff Dipper." They looked around outside the cage. They were in a large red lit room with a raised platform in front of a large screen, all around them were other cages filled with aliens. Several other aliens were all around the room. They looked at the cage next to them.
"Gideon! Pacifica!" Dipper yelled as a muscular yellow alien in the same outfit from earlier opened their friends cage and pulled Pacifica out speaking in his native language. As she screamed the alien placed a small cylinder behind her left ear. It made a clicking sound.
"Ow! That hurt you troll!" Pacifica yelled. The alien said something they didn't understand. "Wait, I understood that." A collar was then snapped around her neck and she was thrown back in the cage. She tried to run back out, but the brute pushed a button on his belt shocking her.
"Are you alright?" Gideon asked before he was pulled out. This repeated until they were all injected and collared.
"Where are we? Why are you doing this?" Dipper asked.
The alien spoke. "You are in the Goldon Nebula slave market. I gave you those translator implants so you can understand the orders of your new owners."
"Slave market?!" The kids all said.
"You didn't think space pirates like us boarded that Zoxnar ship to save you?" A horn of some kind blared and, on the platform, a tall skinny looking green man with large ears stepped up. "There's the captain, sale will be starting soon."
The captain cleared his throat. "Welcome all creatures! The sale will begin shortly. For those who are here for the first time here is how it works. You are free to browse, if you see a being you wish purchase place your bid on the provided tablet. The highest bid on each slave wins. The shock collars are ours so they must be removed before you leave with your new property, you'll have to discipline them yourself. Now that you know let's get to the bidding."
Many looked at the group of friends, most did not seem to be interested in them but unfortunately there were a few of them, like a grey skinned woman with two horns. "You lot look scrawny, certainly there are more capable warriors here, but I need all the solders I can get."
Next was a man whose face was covered in a filter mask; he also had a blue snake like tail instead of legs. "I never seen beings quite like you." The eyes of his mask glowed. "Yes, one of you seems to be a more perfect specimen. I should bid most on that one."
The last one was a bird like man in a grey coat with red feathers and a beak with sharp teeth. "You can't do this! It's wrong to buy and sell people!" Dipper yelled.
Mabel yelled as well. "Yeah! What is wrong with you people! You're all being such creeps!"
The pirate from earlier was about to shock them when the birdman grabbed his wrist. "Don't, I like them they got spirit."
"I never pegged you as the type to buy slaves Darnak." The pirate said.
"I need new crew, and everyone knows my reputation. Can I bid on them as a pair?"
"Sure, no problem."
About half an hour later the captain was back on the platform. "All right all bids are now final. Now we will go in you assigned numbers to see what you got. First is the gentleman from the Azura Crown Star Cluster." On the screen was Pacifica's picture with some numbers the humans couldn't read.
Her cage was opened, and she was dragged out. "No!" She screamed before the man in the mask used his tail and another injection tube to sedate her.
"Best quan I ever spent." He said taking the collar off.
"Please don't take her!" Mabel cried.
"She has a life back home please!" Dipper begged before they were both shocked as they saw Pacifica carried away.
The captain announced the next winner. "Now for the lovely Neryo, General of the Obsidian Brotherhood."
Gideon's face appeared. "Damn it! All I got was one runt! At least the money I saved can be used to buy more weapons." Neryo opened the cage and took the collar off. "I am going make the most of this little man. I am going to turn you into a soldier no matter how hard my men have to push you." She said to Gideon as she held him above her head.
Gideon pleaded as he was taken away. "Mabel! Dipper! Do something! Please don't let her take meeeeeee!"
Mabel was in tears. "This has to be nightmare! Please Dipper tell me we're going to wake up back in Gravity Falls!"
"I want that too Mabel. I want that too." Dipper said sacred of what was next.
A few more slaves were sold before what the twins dreaded came to pass. "And for a first-time bidder the smuggler Captain Darnak." Both Dipper's and Mabel's Faces appeared. They were taken out of the cage with Darnak pointing a gun at them.
"Don't do anything stupid, your better off with me than any of these yahoos." Darnak said as the collars were taken off.
"What about our friends?" Dipper asked.
"Long gone by now. Forget them. Here on out I am going to show you how to be the best smugglers in twenty-three systems. A life of adventure and riches await." Darnak said.
"You sure you can handle the two of them Darnak?" The pirate captain asked.
"They're still young. A few beatings like my Mama gave me will keep them in line until they grow to like the life." They walked out of the bidding room and into a corridor. Darnak pulled out a T-shaped metal device from his coat. "Ixcia, update crew manifest." A green beam of light came out of the machine and passed over Dipper. "Now say your name into the Scantrix. Go on say it!"
"Dipper." Dipper said trying so hard to think of something they could do but nothing that would work came to mind.
Darnak did the same thing with the machine to Mabel. "Okay now your turn."
"Mabel." It looked like Mabel was about to break down.
"Good you are now registered crew of my ship."
The terminal flashed and Ixcia spoke through it. "Captain, scans just picked two Imperium cruisers coming out of Hyper Jump."
"Shit. All right kids time to go!" But before they could move the whole station was shaken and the ceiling came down on Darnak's head. All they could see of the captain was his arm still holding the scantrix and a growing pool of purple blood.
"Dipper, Mabel please respond." Ixcia's voice spoke.
Dipper picked up the device. "Yes?"
"Please your lives are in danger. You must follow the provided map to the ship." Ixcia said.
"Why should we trust you?!" Dipper yelled. "Ever since we were taken everyone hasn't cared at all for any us!"
"Yeah!" Mabel yelled. "You stupid aliens want to use me, my friends, and my brother for bad things! How can we know you that you won't try to hurt us too?"
Ixcia spoke. "Captain Darnak registered you both as crew members of his ship the Ixcia. I am the Artificial Intelligence of that ship and one of my primary directives is to see to the safety and wellbeing of the crew so long as it does not conflict with the orders of the captain. The captain is dead so there is nothing to countermand this directive."
"Mabel do think we can trust her?" Dipper asked.
"I…I don't know but we can't stay here." Mabel said.
"Alright then. According to this map we go down this hall and then turn left. After that it should be the fourth airlock on the right." They ran as fast as they could while the market fell apart around them. "There it is!"
Mabel hit the control next to the door and they ran inside and found themselves in a yellow colored living space. Ixcia's voice seemed to come from everywhere. "Closing airlock. Releasing docking clamps and engaging engines." The Twins saw a window and walked up to it. Outside they saw that the market was an umbrella shaped space station in orbit of a white gas giant. It was being shot at by gold cone shaped ships with what looked like ornate spears jutting out of them in neat little rows. "Shields to maximum. Plotting course." The ship rocked with the hits of weapons fire. Hyper Jump in 5…4…3… 2…1." Suddenly everything outside seemed to stretch and the vanish into a white and blue flash of light as stars of all colors zoomed by them.
"So, will they follow us?" Mabel asked.
"No, it is impossible to trace a ship in Hyper Jump. This is common knowledge."
Dipper look around the room. "Is there something we can look at while we talk to you?"
"Please direct your attention to the wall opposite of the window." They saw a small white orb on the wall that lit up and then projected a hologram of a green cube with a yellow diamond on one side. "Does this help?"
"Yes, thank you. Well to explain we were abducted from our home planet. Our own people have only gone as far as our moon."
"You could tell that your captain was dead, does that mean you could tell where our two friends like us are?" Mabel asked.
Ixcia's cube tilted slightly. "The captain ordered me to run an active scan on the whole station in the event a quick extraction was required. I did detect life signs like your own, however the ships they were on gone into Hyper Jump before the attack."
Mabel lowered her head. "They're gone…"
Dipper hugged Mabel and the looked her right in the eye. "No, Mabel! We have clues to where they were taken, and we have this ship. Together you and I faced some of the weirdest and scariest things I could imagine including Bill! We are going to find Gideon and Pacifica, free them, and then we are going to find a way home to Earth! We're the Mystery Twins and there is nothing in the universe we can't face together!"
Mabel got her smile back. "Well listen to you sounding all brave and stuff. Guess we're both growing up more than I thought." Mabel the turn to the cube. "What do we call you? You are helping us with our biggest adventure yet!"
The cube went back to its earlier position. "The ship and I are one so you may call me Ixcia and as members of my crew I will support you in your efforts.
It would be years before the Twins would find their friends again but now they had this ship to aid them and carry them across the stars and through the trails ahead.