"Dipper, stop!"
The thick, wild grass made little cuts on Mabel's legs as her brother pulled her through the meadow just over the hill that their house in Piedmont rested upon. It had taken them a few hours to get this far, and by the looks of it, her brother didn't want to stop anytime soon.
The sun was still in the early morning position. By the looks of it, it couldn't have been past 9:00 AM. However, to Mabel it had seemed like an eternity since they'd left. She didn't understand why Dipper had freaked out and insisted that they packed their bags for an adventure away from home. She was honestly worried that he had thought there was a monster in the closet or maybe he had a wild conspiracy theory that made him think their parents were aliens.
Either way, she needed to get him to turn around or their parents might get worried.
"I said STOP!"
She dug her heels into the ground and brought her brother to a screeching halt at the edge of a forest. He kept trying to pull, but at this point Mabel was still the stronger and taller twin.
"Mabel, no, we need to keep going." He whispered quickly. "We can't stop here, they'll find us."
"Who, Dipper?" Mabel tilted her head in both frustration and confusion. "Mom and Dad? They're supposed to find us."
"You don't understand, and I don't have time to explain it right now. Just, please, we have to get going." Dipper panicked. The more time they spent in this meadow, the less time they had to disappear.
She huffed and turned her back. "You're right. We need to get going home. Mom and Dad will be worried, and I don't have time for your weird, stupid conspiracies. Grenda, Candy, and I were supposed to go to the craft store today. "
"Mabel…" Suddenly, out of the corner of his eye, he saw a small branch, lying on the ground.
"Oh no." Dipper concentrated for a moment, looking at the branch and the branch only. Suddenly, a blue outline came into his vision, showing him the branch, the tree it had been pushed off of, the amount of force that had been used to break it, and the footprints leading out to the meadow where they suddenly vanish due to what seems like a gust of wind. In his brain he heard a little voice.
"Conclusion: Someone of at least 5'10" height is canvassing the area on foot. Quick, not over 160 pounds. Flying humanoid. Was in this area less than 7 minutes and thirty seconds ago. Best course of action: follow already created trail."
"Dipper, are you even listening to yourself? Mom and Dad are gonna have the whole neighborhood looking for us if we don't…"
"No, Mabel, they won't!"
Mabel looked back at him, confused. "What are you talking about?"
Dipper heard a distant boom and grabbed her arm, pulling her into the tree cover. He panicked and began running faster while his sister was still dazed by what he just said.
"Mabel, I promise I'll explain everything later, but right now we need to run! Just trust me, please."
He turned back to her as they were weaving through the trees. She almost stopped him again, but Dipper never really asked for anything unless it was super important. She nodded and began running to keep up with him.
During this short exchange, Dipper unfortunately missed one crucial detail.
There wasn't a single set of footprints. There were two.
Randall Cunningham didn't show his surprise when he was handed his job description by Ms. Amanda.
He guessed he didn't show much of anything anymore.
On the inside, though, he was nonetheless intrigued. Amanda wanted twins, twin children of all things. From everything he knew, she hated kids and often times avoided them at any cost. He almost cringed at the thought of what she would do to them if his personal experiences were anything to go by.
But, he didn't. No motion, no sound, no problems.
He really did live by that mantra.
The moment he arrived in Piedmont, he could tell that they had known someone would be chasing them. The house was closed up and the car was gone. Upon closer inspection, he could see that the twins' belongings were burned in a hurry. He was wearing his street clothes, so there wasn't really an issue going inside. He jumped up on the small shed roof, and gracefully twisted himself through the closest window. After a moment to catch his breath, he continued his investigation.
He found their room (or at least what was left of it). He sat in it and sighed. These things would always be easier if these idiots left more for him to trace. Far from impossible, but definitely annoying.
Randall sat in cross-legged position right in the middle of the room. He closed his eyes and began to clear his mind.
Suddenly he saw them. They pushed themselves through the window and onto the roof. He almost giggled as he saw one of them bite the dust on the way down the drain pipe. They took off into the nearby greenery, jumping through their neighbor's yards and narrowly avoiding a run in with a particularly mean looking Rottweiler.
His brow began to sweat. It was so much easier to track in real time, but they might get too far for convenience if he continued this way. Randall sighed audibly, thankful that Norisu wasn't here to gripe on him about it, and began to force the time track faster. It was more effort than he wanted to expend, but it would get him results.
Suddenly, he was watching them at quadruple the speed. What had been a few hours suddenly became minutes, and he was brought to the clearing where they had, for some reason, stopped.
Finally he broke his concentration and took in a big breath. He hated speeding things up, but he had twins to catch.
Once he had sufficiently recovered (though still stuck with a throbbing headache) he pushed himself up and decided that the fastest way was unfortunately going to be the mask.
God, how he hated it. Unfortunately, Randall didn't really have a choice. He slipped it on and felt the light and airy fabric wrap around his form.
He grimaced as he felt it tune in to his chakra lines and strum them as if they were some sort of instrument. Through his brain echoed the advice of the many lines before him. Their skillsets and muscle memory dug into his neural pathways and modified his physical features. The lithe, stringy tendons burrowed through his arms and legs almost making him pass out.
"Hello, Randall. It's been a while."
He grimaced, but he wouldn't acknowledge it. After a few moments, he stood, the transformation complete. He looked out the window at the cloudy sky and dropped his shoulders in relief. Randall took a moment, then jumped out, his scarf reaching for the nearest pine. He estimated a twenty-minute travel time before he reached the twins and brought them back to Amanda and Viceroy.
Suddenly, however, a shiver ran down his spine. The boy had a sinking feeling in his gut and turned to see a translucent figure floating near the ground.
"Shit, shit, shit, I'm not prepared for this. It can't be! He couldn't have heard already."
He dropped to the ground to get a closer look. In the clearing was a silver haired boy who would fade in and out based on the sun's position. He wore an outfit Randall was all too familiar with.
"It's one of Vlad's goons." He almost groaned. The ghosts that Cheesehead madman found were always a chore. He hadn't seen this one before, but he imagined that he'd be a pain and a half to deal with if Skalter or Skeeter or whatever his name was had been anything to go by.
The ghost tilted his head back in frustration and flew off to the wrong part of the forest. This gave Randall a bit of an edge. Obviously, this ghost wasn't a tracker, which would give him an advantage. If he was quick he could bypass him and just grab them both.
"Don't be so hasty. Why just grab the children when we could teach that vile, half-undead a lesson?"
He could feel it writhing with anticipation at the thought of violence, but Randy was no amateur. "Calm yourself, demon. You know we have a job to do."
"Don't take that tone with me, mortal. You, just like all those before you, are a vessel for my knowledge. You SHOULD respect my wishes."
"Now is not the time. You can satiate your violent streak later."
Before it could speak again, Randy began to swing through the trees. He was constantly one step behind the ghost, allowing it to make the first move before he did. The less attention he brought to himself, the better. He supposed that Vlad's lackey could likely cause a fuss, and in the middle of the destruction he would inevitably cause (ghosts were always reliably messy) he would swoop through and steal them for Amanda.