The five had surrounded the girl, or least the figure they thought had been a girl. Tambry, as Wendy explained, had been a long time friend of herself and her gang of buds. Mabel exclaimed that she knew she had seen here somewhere before, to which Dipper agreed. Yet none of them wanted to move the levitating young woman, rigidly floating above the love seat.
Clearing his throat, Stan Pines broke the silence. "Uh, so, plans? This is a new one for me," Stan said as he looked to the others, "I mean, robots in general are rough and tough, but this isn't exactly a standard looking robot, is it?"
"Definitely not," Soos said, daring to lean in closer to her for a more observing look, "I'm going to get a look at her. Be right back, dudes," Soos declared, and turned for the kitchens.
Mabel had taken to holding her brother's arm. "She wasn't even acting like a robot," Mabel declared, "she dropped her phone back by the street, like she had been texting like any other anti-social teenager would. Normal normy teen."
Wendy chuckled with a heaviness. "That's Tambry for ya," she said, looking at the still open, glowing eyes of her once friend.
Dipper, patting his sisters arm, looked to Wendy. "Do you think she's always been a robot?" Dipper asked as Soos returned from his journey, bringing with him a stool. He inquired, "Maybe we just never noticed because she didn't talk that much."
Wendy shook her head. "Trust me, she wasn't a robot," Wendy held a hand up in defense for the girl in topic, "she got her kicks just like anybody else in this town. I've also known her for long enough to know if she was a robot at this point."
Soos placed the stool carefully. "We'll see about that," Soos grunted as he stepped up the stool, and peered down into the opening into the girl. "Oh man... you guys, this is, like, some crazy amount of super-technology here."
"No kidding!" Stan said, trying his best to crane his own eyes to see inside the girl's chassis.
Soos eyed the image of Tambry, his own gaze moving past the strange mechanical opening. "No, like, I'm not even sure what's supposed to be what!" Soos placed a hand against his forehead, peering into the light, past the floating 'ejected' battery that was exactly like the two Dipper and Mabel had. Soos added, "I've done enough circuitry to tell you anything you need about electricity, but none of this is familiar! It's like someone made a human body out of... whatever that stuff is."
Mabel dared a step closer. "What do you see, man?" Mabel demanded as she, Dipper, and Wendy watched the two men peer into the veil of light.
Stan had come to the floating young-adults side. "Honestly?" Stan said as he finally pushed himself up on the side of the chair, "Soos said it right – it looks like someone's insides, but made out of blue lights and a crazy looking space-age material."
The twins and Wendy rocked in their place. What was going on? Dipper scratched his hair through his hat, trying to rationalize what they had just discovered. Then, an elbow jabbed his arm. He looked over to Mabel, who was smirking. "So, not going to tell you I told you so," Mabel said with a critical look in her eye, "but I so told you so."
Dipper recoiled at her accusation. "Huh? What are you even talking about?" Dipper demanded.
Mabel spluttered, and pointed at Tamby. "Aliens, bro!" Mabel declared, "I mean, look at it! She's perfectly life-like, she's got tons of crazy gizmo-ey stuff inside her body, she leaks out light- it's like ET's robot butler!"
He clenched his jaw. "Who said anything about aliens," Dipper turned to her fully, scratching his chin, "as much as you're not wrong about what we've seen, there aren't any real indications as to what this is. She could be the leading test subject in a super-advanced spy hardware program or... something!"
"Or," Mabel suggested, waving her hands to stir the air, "she's made by aliens! And they're watching us! For reasons," Mabel looked around the room, as if scanning for more evidence of Alien activity.
Dipper sighed as he watched her for a moment. He turned back to Tambry. "It said it was a 'memory charge'," Dipper pondered while Soos and Stan peered inside the hole, and then at the still floating cylinder. "Is that what those have been?" he pointed to the cylinder, "Memory charges?"
Stan stepped back, and also eyed the cylinder. "What the holy heck is that supposed to even mean?" Stan said, adjusting his glasses to better eye the separately floating object. He waved his hands nearby the small object, and then quickly retracted his hand. "Well, I'm not dead, so that's good," he told them, decidedly distancing himself from the 'memory charge'.
"When I was moving around TV's," Mabel said to Dipper, catching her brother's attention, "it started glowing," she pulled out the two they already collected, "and then when they touched one another, they shared that energy. Maybe it really is a battery, but just not the kind we've ever seen before."
Wendy stepped over to the twins, keeping herself as far away from her once-close-friend as possible. "If it's a battery," Wendy began as they looked at Tambry, "why hasn't she powered down, or whatever?"
That was a new question Dipper could not answer. If Mabel was right, and they contained and manipulated energy like batteries, then the battery leaving the body should have powered it down. He opened his mouth open and closed it silently twice. Being unable to answer this brought up an even more dangerous question, one which Dipper couldn't keep to himself.
"If she's still powered," Dipper stated carefully and slowly, "What happens if she wakes up?" he asked the others, his eyes wide in fear and uncertainty. One by one, the others turned to look at him, the same kinds of thoughts in their minds.
Soos leapt away from his stool. "What if someone comes looking for her?" Soos stated, to get near the girl.
Stan took a dramatic step away. "What if she has to erase the evidence?" Stan asked.
"What if she's still mean when she wakes up?" Mabel gulped as they all stared at the girl.
Wendy Corduroy steeled herself, clenching her jaw. "Well..." Wendy wiped her hands on the sides of her pants, and stepped forward. With a loud breath, she reached up, grasped the small cylinder, and tugged. The other four gasped as Wendy stumbled back, having pulled the object away from its floating position easily. Wendy looked at her hand, holding the small cylinder tightly. Nothing had happened to her. She sighed. "Okay, I'm good-"
Tambry's lights immediately vanished. She collapsed back onto the seat loudly, having Wendy yelp and lunge backwards.
With the light gone, the metallic opening on her stomach closed shut. When they closed back up with a small 'hiss', the four stared at Tambry carefully. Had the others not seen her just a few moments ago floating in mid air as the robot creature she was, they all would have seen a perfectly normal, passed out, young woman. Mabel stepped forward quickly, and carefully pulled Tambry's shirt back down, covering her stomach.
As Dipper eyed his sister incredulously, Mabel defended herself, "so she's decent, In case she wakes up."
Stan grumbled. "If she wakes up, we have worse problems than her dignity," Stan told them, "We still have to figure out what to do with this girl."
"I don't know what the hospital could do with her," Dipper thought aloud, "I mean, being made of whatever that was kinda makes it hard for doctors to fix you."
Soos excitedly declared, "Unless we take them to a doctor of science!"
"All doctors are doctors of science, Soos," Dipper told him quietly.
Mabel suddenly looked like she had just stepped on her favorite plushie. "Wait," Mabel said, reaching into her pocket, "Dipper, what if... what if these things turned her into a robot!?" she asked, holding up the two other cylinders.
That was no a theory Dipper had considered. He reeled on the spot, and turned to his sister. "W-w-what?" her brother spluttered.
"I charged them up by TV's and radios and stuff, and then I zapped her," she worriedly explained, "What if these are actually like... thingies that turn living people into cyborg weapons of destruction?! This could be the ending of humanity! And I started it!" Mabel pulled at her hair, her mind racing to the worst possible outcome as she paced back and forth.
"Mabel, stop it," Dipper grabbed her should and spun her to face him, "We have to deal with this here and now, not what it can be. Evidence first, theory later."
Wendy, orchestrating in her own voice a new calm, said, "Why don't we get her out of the building first." When the others turned to her, curious to her plan, she shrugged, still furthest away from Tambry. "Look, for all we know, she could get up at any point!" she added, losing a fraction of her prior composure.
Stan raised an eyebrow at her. "What exactly makes you say that?" Stan asked and the he pointed to the charge in her hand, "her lights are gone. Guessing it was because of that," Grunkle Stan told Wendy as they both shared a look at the newest of the three cylinders.
"Dipper," Wendy took a shaky step to Dipper, extending her arm to him, "Take it, dude."
Dipper gave the new cylinder a careful look. There was something ominous about this third battery- possibly because they had just seen it emerge from a torso of a girl not ten feet from him. Maybe it was scarier because it was closer to home than he had been prepared for. Not only that, Wendy's face was screwed up in an uncomfortable grimace. She wanted nothing to do with what she was holding to Dipper.
Nailing his courage upon his heart, Dipper decided now was a time to be both reckless and brave. "Sure," he nodded and took the blue object from her, examining it. Nothing happened when his skin made contact with the smooth surface. He sighed in relief. "Mabel, bring the other two here."
Mabel nodded. "Begin the operation, doctor," Mabel told Dipper with a proper voice. She approached, holding the other two out. Dipper gave them a look, and was surprised to find that the one which had just been ejected from Tambry was fainter in color and glowed less compared to the older two.
"That... that's weird, "Dipper leaned closer to them, "if these are sort of batteries, wouldn't the one that just came out of a, uh, host be the brightest? It would probably have some residual traces of whatever energy it uses."
Mabel grinned. "Well, check this out bro," Mabel told him. Holding her own two batteries, she whispered, "Shazam," and waved the older cylinders over the newest on, resting in Dippers hand. The boy's eyes widened as he watched the color and brightness of the older charges fade slightly, and the one in his hand glow brighter.
"Wait... what? They re-distributed light and color," he gasped, bringing it close to his face for inspection. The colors were stronger, more vibrant, and seemed to flow inside the tube like the colors themselves were alive. "Mabel, what did you just do?" he asked, turning to his sister.
She beamed. "No idea dude! Isn't that exciting though?" Mabel asked him, his eyes lightening at the prospect of them discovering even more to these strange objects.
Beside himself in excitement, uncertainty, and pride for his sister, he asked, "You found this out?" a widening smile tracing his face.
"Yup!" She nudged his shoulder with her elbow with a devilish grin, "So, how's that for your helpless sister with mysteries?"
Dipper's face grew hot and his guts twisted in shame. His eyes quickly fell away from his sister. In the very literal light of the moment, he had all but forgotten the heated exchange they had earlier. Some of that pride he had in her suddenly was much heavier. As he made to speak, Mabel then swatted the rim of his cap gently, and poked his nose.
"All is forgiven, bro," Mabel smiled at him, beating him to the punch of an apology.
Re-adjusting his cap, he told her weakly, "I was a jerk."
"Well, maybe I was asking for it, just a teeny-weeny little," Mabel tossed the two cylinders into the air, catching them easily.
"I shouldn't have just-"
"Dipper, it's okay," Mabel assured her brother with a warm smile. She really meant it. It was more than enough for him and some of the stress in his body fizzled away. That internalized weight evaporated, and he nudged her playfully with his knuckles, eliciting a small giggle from her. He then turned back to the issue at hand; they still had an unconscious girl-cyborg to deal with.
Scratching his neck, Grunkle Stan started pushing for action. "Either of you two got a place we can hide her?" Stan asked the twins as they turned back to face the unconscious girl in the seat. "Just a temporary place! Relax," Stan called loudly as the two both gave him warning glares. "We're not in the business of dumping bodies in the woods... yet."
Dipper shook his head, and approached the unconscious form of Tambry. "Maybe we're not thinking about this right," Dipper said aloud, "Rather than where we take her, maybe we should think of who."
"Who?" Mabel echoed her brother, shrugging with her eyes wide, impersonating an owl.
Stan scowled. "I told you two," Stan warned the twins, "we're not involving anyone else in this sort of deal."
Dipper eyed his elder. "Grunkle Stan, I think it's a little late to try to avoid anyone knowing anything," Dipper retorted quickly, "either way, someone's going to know something's up when Tambry here doesn't go home or doesn't show up where ever she's expected. We need some help."
Feeling the truth stab through his prior concerns, Stan shook his head. He relented. "Ugh... fine. Then we make sure it's as quiet as possible. My secrets survived for years because I played things secretly. No crazy adventuring and big explosions, got me?" Stan checked with the four of them, who all nodded.
"Wait, guys," Soos piped up, a dawn of light behind his eyes, "I think I do have an idea of who we can take her to!"
"Lazy Suzan!" Mabel cheered. The four others looked to Mabel, who realized she hadn't guessed correctly. "Because, you know, she's really nice and understanding... maybe?"
Changing her stares from Mabel back to Soos, Wendy asked quickly, "Who, Soos?"
Soos proudly declared, "A science doctor!"
Dipper sighed, pinching his nose. "Soos, you literally just said that."
"No, dawg," Soos turned to him, "We know a science-y doctor! Who works with robots and stuff!"
Dipper felt lightning bolt through his nerves, and he shot upright. Soos was right. There was, in town, an old ally of theirs. The twins hadn't spoken to him yet since they arrived, but Dipper was certain that he had seen the old geezer still making his rounds throughout town. Dipper declared, giving Soos a wide smile, "Old Man McGucket!"
"What?" Stan barked, "We really want to get him in on this mess?"
"Hey, it's not that bad of an idea," Dipper replied, backing up Soos, "McGucket has a ton of experience with advanced robotics. Not to mention that people still think he's crazy, so if he goes talking about this sort of thing, we'll be off the hook."
Mabel pouted, "I still like Lazy Suzan as an idea."
Stan looked around. The twins and Soos seemed resolute, and Wendy distracted. He was alone on his side of the discussion. Once again, Stanley Pines reluctantly agreed. "So, I guess you four are going into town then?" he asked.
Wendy piped up, pulled from her thoughts. "I, uh," Wendy piped up, "I can stay behind, help watch the shack while you all deal with that stuff."
"Wendy, she's your friend," Mabel told the redhead.
"Was my friend" Wendy coldly corrected her. Mabel gave her a sad frown, and Wendy was not unaffected. She seemed to consider something quickly, her head bouncing left and right. "Tell you what," she decided, "You guys get a start for McGucket, and I'll make sure her parents know she's okay. Sound good?"
Soos nodded. "Sounds good to me," Soos said, "we ready to take her away?"
"I guess so," Dipper shrugged.
"Well," Stan sighed heavily, "c'mon you two – help this old man carry out the unconscious body of a young woman. Ugh. I need to bleach my mouth from saying that."
Dipper, with the held of Stan and Soos, lifted her off the seat, and carried her away. Passing outside, they moved towards Soos' truck. Mabel was quick to open a door to allow the girl to be placed on a seat. Mabel slipped one of her sunglasses on Tambry's face, and put seatbelts on for her.
"That way it looks like she's had a rough day, and isn't an unconscious cyborg," Mabel told the others. She and Dipper climbed into the truck, Mabel taking care of Tambry while Dipper took the front passenger seat.
As Soos climbed into the driver seat, Stan approached. He told them, "You three be careful. No one else needs to know!" he said as Soos started the engines.
Mabel nodded. "Lips are sealed! With concrete!" Mabel told him as she waved out the window.
"Be careful you guys," Wendy called to the guys, situating herself on her bike.
Dipper clawed his way out the window, pulling himself to lean on the roof of the car to face Wendy, "You too! Don't, you know, get hurt or anything! Right? Yeah. Stay safe!" Dipper lowered himself back into the car with a sigh. There was a small hum behind him, and he glanced behind his seat. Mabel was staring at him with a cocked eyebrow. "W-what?"
She studied him with surgical precision. "You were acting real funny there," Mabel pointed out as the truck began to move forward.
"I- I was? No I wasn't," Dipper argued, afraid that the heat in his cheeks would betray his feelings. As Mabel studied him, it was the fortunate luck of the dark inside of the truck that veiled the rose color flourishing in his cheeks.
Chewing the inside of her cheeks, Mabel eventually shrugged. "I guess not," Mabel quietly said, clearly not believing what she was saying. Dipper turned away, now worried he may have given away a new-found secret. Last time his feelings had been this way towards someone, Mabel had unintentionally tormented her brother about his crush. It was bad enough to go through unbound feelings like that, but the last thing he needed was a second dose of sisterly teasings.
With a heavy heart and a confused mind, Dipper then decided it was in his best interests to cut out his feelings for Wendy. He was older now, with more discipline and self-control than a twelve-year-old had. Not to mention, there were more pressing matters at hand than his feelings for a girl three years older than him. Muffled a defeated sigh, uncomfortable at just giving the feelings up so easily. On the side windows, there was a rap of three quick knocks. Dipper jumped and he whipped his head to see big green eyes peering inside. Wendy was waving at them as she biked past the truck.
Chuckling from the front Soos called to Wendy, "Good luck, dude!"
Dipper stared at her, the girl across the glass pane. Her freckled face shone in the afternoon light as she rode her bike down the hill at the same rate as the car, smiling as she waved to the others. Her red hair billowed in the breeze behind her like ribbons in the wind. Dipper found the world slowing to a crawl. Even as she turned her confident grin away and rode past the car, Dipper was certain his heart was punching against his ribcage just a little harder than it should have been. He spotted himself in the mirror- his mouth had fallen open in a wide gape.
"Ugh," Dipper shook himself briefly. Getting that feeling out of his head would be harder than he had expected. The redhead made it to the main street before they did, rapidly rolling down the hill until she vanished out of sight. Dipper was given a moment of clarity, and felt a build of sweat on his hands and neck. His condition for Wendy could be a little more serious than he considered. "Dang it," he mumbled just above his breath.
"Hey, don't worry dude," Soos barely caught Dipper's words, causing the teen to jump, "we'll figure this all out."
"W-what? Oh right, Tambry, yeah. Yeah, was thinking about this mess, not... yeah," Dipper turned away from Soos, aware his sister was still looking at him with a quizzical stare.
The truck started it's way towards the town, a particular junk heap the destination. They pondered what it was this Tambry look-alike, well, was. They hoped McGucket would know, or at least know where to look. For all they knew, maybe the old inventor was the sole creator. McGucket's comprehension for all types of engineering was astounding, and Mabel and Soos would not rule the possibility out that he was directly involved. Dipper constantly played devil's advocate – reminding them that without any evidence to back up their claims, they were just throwing around theories.
"But that's what we're dealing with, isn't it?" Mabel retorted to her brother, leaning past the still motionless Tambry, "a big 'ol hunk of theoretical crazy-town?"
Dipper held up one of the batteries, examining it. "All we know is that one of these three things popped out of her," Dipper reminded them, "and that's it. Until we can get more solid clues, we can't just assume-"
Soos tilted his head slightly, an unseen thought taking his focus. "Hey," he said to the twins, "what if the other two came from other people like Tambry?" He asked with his face pale and his eyes wide.
Dipper and Mabel gave him a look in thought, and then to one another. That hadn't even crossed their minds. Mabel asked aloud, "Then... there could be more of her?" and she carefully looked to Tambry.
"A possibility. But that's just a theory right now," Dipper said strongly, more so to calm himself than the others. The possibility that there were people wandering around who were not themselves was creepy. He added, "So, let's not jump to any more conclusions."
"But that's got some hefty evidence behind it!" Mabel declared, pointing to the cylinder Dipper held in his hands, "it's not even like my Aliens idea-"
"Still an unsubstantiated, crazy idea," Dipper interjected, rolling his eyes.
"-anyway," Mabel gruffly cut off her cutting-off brother, "this one has the evidence you like getting! We saw it pop out of her! Like some sort of monster!"
Soos added worriedly, "Sort of like a chest-erupting creature of some sort," his eyes squinting in dislike of whatever his mind was conjuring. His eyes then flashed red and blue, the mirror he peered in reflecting the light of a patrol car behind them. "Aw shoot!" Soos grunted, and spun the wheel to the side.
"What?" Dipper and Mabel spun around to peer out of the window. A Sheriff patrol car was riding Soos's tail, lights flashing. The whining siren occasionally wailed on and off. They were being pulled over.
"Crud-stickers," Mabel growled, gripping her seat tightly. She then turned to Tambry, "just act natural," she instructed the unconscious girl.
"Keep those sunglasses on her," Dipper told his sister. "Soos, what's going on?"
"You got me dude," Soos admitted with worry, "I'm not a crazy driver or anything, and I'm pretty sure my speedometer was calibrated right! Aw man, I hope my license didn't fall off the truck again!"
The truck slid to the side of the road, coming to a halt just before the outskirts of Gravity Falls downtown. Sheriff Blubs stepped out of the patrol cruiser, adjusting his belt with a gruff look as he began to step up. Soos rolled down the windows as Blubs approached, and finally leaned into the window.
"What's the problem sir?" Soos asked with a nervous grin.
"License and registration," Blubs told him in business tones. Soos nodded and scrambled for his wallet.
"What's wrong, Sheriff?" Mabel asked from the backseat, leaning forward to pop her head above the front cushions. "We weren't bedazzling you with our gangsta vibes, were we?"
Blubs shook his head. "Nope. Nothing bad today," Blubs told them as he took Soos's information, "just a routine traffic stop."
"Oh, that's a relief," Soos sighed as he was handed back his wallet and registration, "was afraid you'd notice Tambry's-"
"Soos!" Dipper shouted quickly.
Soos stared ahead blankly, and slowly looked to Dipper, an apology seared into the man's eyes. He turned slowly back to the Sherriff. " – Uh… that tam… tambourines are in fashion," Soos corrected himself as he turned back to Blubs.
"They're all the rage," Mabel nodded, "I have thirty of them just in case."
Blubs mused over the information. "Hm. I guess I'm behind on what's hip these days," Blubs told them, and scratched his cheek, "Gonna fix that later. Well, everything seems in order here," he nodded. As if he was about to leave, he seemed to spot, beyond Mabel, a motionless girl. "Hey, Tambry. You doing good back there?" he asked with a grin.
Mabel and Dipper shared a terrified look. She wouldn't respond, how could she? It was one thing if they had been transporting Stan or Wendy somewhere and they were asleep, but Tambry wasn't someone who ever hung out alone with these three. It was already suspicious looking that she wore sunglasses as the sun slowly set behind them- the rays of light were beyond angles able to strike their eyes. Why would she be wearing sunglasses? Dipper started to sweat.
The sheriff's smile faded slightly. "Tambry? You okay there?" Blubs asked again, crooking an eyebrow behind his own thick sunglasses.
Mabel scrambled to to situation. "Oh yeah, she's, uh, sick!" Mabel declared, "we saw her on the side of the road acting all Blaaaah and stuff, so we're going to take her home to rest up! Yeah!"
Blubs didn't reply to Mabel. His face was pointed directly at the unconscious girl. Without saying a word, Dipper knew the cop suspected something. This could be really, really bad for them if he took her away before they could get answers. What if they got arrested?
Blubs told Tambry, "Take off your sunglasses," his tone more serious than it had been before.
Mabel, her voice a little faster and shriller, yelped, "She's also asleep! Can't ride in cars without passing out- that's why we're taking her to the Junk yard!"
Dipper guffawed despite himself. "Mabel, what!?" Dipper rounded on his sister, who had also blurted out information they didn't need to pass on.
"Junkyard?" Blubs replied.
Heat spread through his neck like a rash as Dipper cooked up his best lie. "Uh, yeah," he started explaining, "because she's... Anemic?" he said, cursing himself for such a weak answer, "so we're taking her to a place with a lot of... Iron," Dipper resisted the urge to place a hand in front of his face at the sheer idiocy of his statement.
Blubs told them, "Remove her glasses. I want to see her."
Mabel looked to Dipper, and then to Soos in the mirror. She wouldn't dare ignore a command from the Sheriff. With a sigh, she reached over, and yanked off the dark sunglasses. Dipper spluttered. At some point before, Mabel had put a second pair of sunglasses on Tambry, behind the larger ones at some point. These had pink rims. Mabel turned to Sheriff Blubs with a wide grin.
"See? All good," Mabel told him.
The sheriff stared, his face unreadable. "I suppose so," he said with a small smile, "y'all stay safe, you hear?" he happily nodded to them, pinching the rim of his hat as he turned away.
The three watched Blubs go, barely turning their heads. The squat man entered his cruiser and sped off, Deputy Durland hollering the entire way out as their tires screeched and left a trail of smoke. Silence fell upon the three as they realized they had gotten away with their deception.
Quietly, and with utmost seriousness, Mabel asked, "How does this town not descend into anarchy?"
The three continued their way through the town, more comfortable with the knowledge that the 'smartest and best' of the police department had about as much detective skill as a goat. They were far more comfortable on their ride through town, knowing that any other officers would likely assume the same, if not entirely miss that Tambry was very much unconscious. Minutes passed by as did the buildings in the town as Soos's truck zoomed towards the junkyard.
"We're here," Soos told them as the truck slowed to a stop.
Before them was the sprawling Junkyard of Gravity Falls. Lumps of rusted, untended cars and vehicle chassis formed hills of scrap metal. Smaller piles of rubble and electronic devices scattered around. The sounds of chittering critters echoed from under the pules, hiding all manners of small animals in the shadows.
The three exited the truck, Dipper and Soos carrying Tambry as inconspicuously as they could. Drawing attention to themselves was something they needed to avoid. While a sleeping Tambry was an easy trick to pull off, dragging her limp body around was not as easy to explain, especially by the junkyard.
Dipper, huffing as he carried Tambry's shouldres, said, "Okay, so let's assume for a second that McGucket wants to see us at all, or he even remembers us," Dipper grunted as Mabel pulled open a part of the chain fence blocking off the mountains of scrap, "what if he doesn't want to help us?" he asked as he ducked down, passing through the fence.
"Of course he's going to remember us!" Mabel told her brother as he and Soos pushed under the fence and into the junkyard. "We had a cool adventure together!" she said as she dove down and followed her brother and Soos.
"Sure, but his head isn't exactly, uh, stable," Dipper attempted explaining timidly.
Soos nodded, "And his eyes don't point straight, like a goat. I think he even eats like a goat."
Mabel pouted. "Goats are wonderful creatures of mother nature," Mabel defended, "adapt at any environment and able to eat anything. Even candy wrappers, and that stuff is crazy hard to eat."
"You would know, wouldn't you?" Dipper rounded on his sister with a smirk.
Mabel squinted at her brother. She adopted a enlightened walk. "The bravest souls try all paths of knowledge," she told her brother in her wisest, mentoring voice, "Including the test of edibility of all things, so shush. Don't be all hating on my need to eat weird stuff."
From behind Dipper, someone loudly shouted, "Weird stuff?!"
The three of them spun in a gasp, Dipper and Soos dropping Tambry instantly. Jumping atop a pile of abandoned couches was an old, wiry man, wearing nothing but brown overalls and a large wide brimmed straw hat. The old man had a long, bumpy nose, a pair of bulging, unfocused eyes, and a massively thick, long beard that fell past his knees which sported a very weathered band-aid. He was wild looking, untamed and clearly unclean.
He cheerfully jigged as he spied the three. "Well, throw me some feathers and call me an owl, I've got visitors!" Old Man McGucket cried from his post, slapping his knee quickly as he cheered at their arrival. His voice twanged loudly, a hick drawl imbedded deep in his voice. "Wait a second," leaning closer, he spied them with a suspicious stare, "Do I know you hooligans? You all ain't the ones come slapping around my barrels of buckets of bolts, was ya? I got a broom smacking to return to ya!" he threatened, holding up a mangled and muddy wooden broom above his head dramatically.
Mabel stepped forward quickly. "McGucket, it's us!" Mabel declared, her arms out on either side, "Mabel, Dipper, and Soos! We're one member short of our adventure, remember?"
"Eh- adventure?" McGucket dropped the broom, scratching the side of his head with the pole end.
Dipper nodded, stepping up to his sister's side. "We stopped the society of the blind-eye together?" Dipper asked, "uh, your lost past?" The old man's eyes blinked separately, his stare bland and unclear as Dipper spoke. "Wait... here," Dipper cried, pulling out the hidden journal number three. "Remember this?" he held it above his head, closer to the old man.
A holler followed, and McGucket slid on down the couches, chuckling all the way. "Oh you're them youngin's who done and told me 'bout my past doings!" McGucket responded, patting Dipper and Soos on the shoulders. The twins were now taller than the old man. Unphased by their height, McGucket added, "That's right, ya'll gone and did me a big darn favor by getting me those memories back. They, uh, come and go, ya know."
Dipper latched onto the singular word he had hoped for. "A favor? Great!" Dipper replied, turning to Tambry, only just then realizing they had dropped her to the ground, "ah, Soos, help me here," Soos complied, and they lifted the teen so McGucket could see her fully, "About that favor – we need your help."
"Dang it, Dibber, I'm a doctor," McGucket rubbing his chin through beard, "but not that kinda doctor. More of the buildin' up from them scraps here kinda doctor. Or maybe I was that kinda doctor once, hard to tell sometimes."
"It's Dipper," Dipper heatedly re-iterated his name as Mabel snickered at his incorrectly spoken title, "and trust me. We need your kind of doctor."
Hoisting up Tambry, Soos added with a cautious glance to the unconscious girl, "Yeah, she's some kind of freak-super-robot thingy. Like, she can open her stomach and reveal to all the strange world inside of her."
Eyes a little out of focus, McGucket looked at each of the three. "Uh... you sure that's the right thing?" McGucket pointed to Tambry, his head crooked to the side, "I'm pretty tootin' sure I seen her walkin' round town with them cell phones sticking by her face."
"We can show you! Look at these," Mabel reached inside Dipper's vest pocket, and retrieved one of the batteries, "Strange technology," Mabel waved it about her head tantalizingly. This seemed to get McGucket's interest up, as his mouth fell open just a bit more than usual, exposing his few remaining teeth.
"Aw, I couldn't be helped to pass up sucha chance, could I?" McGucket hooted, spinning around twice to walk past them, "Follow me to my entirely improvised laboratory. Maybe then we don't gots to worry about them coyotes spying on us."
Dipper snorted, rolling his eyes, "Yeah. Coyotes are going to spy on us, right."
The old man led them through piles and heaps of broken cars, abandoned computers, rusted shopping crates, and the occasional rat the size of a small housecat. Mabel attempted to befriend many of the rodents, who found her sweater to be enjoyably tasty and edible. Dipper's scolding's just barely warned her away from the gathering trail of rats, who followed Mabel at a safe distance, eagerly eyeing her sweater.
"Here we are," McGucket said, approaching a large curtain propped up on a solitary claw-footed bathtub.
Dipper looked around. "Wait, what happened to your stations? This bathtub can't be your lab?" Dipper asked. There wasn't a single distinguishing feature about the tub as he eyed it. Rusty, cracked, filthy – the tub wasn't the exact thing Dipper had in mind when said lab.
McGucket cackled. "Nope, just needed the curtain," McGucket then pulled away the tattered worn fabric. By doing so, he revealed a sprawling collection of functioning make-shift lab equipment. Cracked monitors flickered with numbers and statistical information, computers whirred and buzzed under the protection of a welded together roof-top. A large operating table was situated in the middle, where it was covered in piles of gears, fibers, and sheet metal.
Dipper sighed. "Oh, that's better," Dipper admitted, "Why didn't you show us that to begin with?"
"I wanted to use the curtain for dramatic effect!" McGucket told him as he walked around the bathtub. The three followed, carrying the motionless young woman with them. "Lemme see that there blue thing," McGucket motioned for the blue cylinder. Mabel obliged and handed it to him. Sliding on a very thick pair of glasses onto his nose, McGucket studied the object up close. His massively magnified eyes scanned the surface with his fingers, making note of its surface and appearance. "Not somethin' I've seen b'fore," he mumbled aloud.
Dipper started to catch him up. "One of the three we've found-" McGucket gawked at Dipper, and he continued, "Yeah, we've got three, came out of her. Floated out of her body like it was magnetically placed. What do you think it is?"
McGucket snapped his fingers. "Spectro-magne-chemimeter time!" McGucket cheered and rushed over to a pile of dirty briefcases, whipping one out and pulling out a gizmo that looked like a ray-gun from a bad fifties sci-fi movie. Placing the battery on the operating table, he aimed the gun at the object, and turned his eyes to a small LCD screen welded to the top of the scanner. "Wow!" McGucket yelped, "Call me a critter fritter and serve me with tea, this here thingajiggy is wild!"
Soos chuckled. "Hehehe, critter fritter, I'm going to remember that one."
Dipper stepped up next to McGucket. "What's wild about it?" Dipper asked.
Mabel chimed in with, "Aside from the fact it looks-" Mabel then stuck her hands out and waved them around as she made spooky low-pitched wails. A rat had again lodged itself on her sweater's sleeve, and she shook it off. "You already ate," she sternly told the rodent, "No more nommin' on the Mabel sweater."
McGucket scratched the side of his head as he read the results on this device. "It don't read up on any basic compound structure I seen before," McGucket told them, lowering his spectro-magne-chemimeter from the target. "You've found yerself some fancy smancy kind of bobble here!"
Dipper frowned. "How about her?" Dipper asked, motioning to Tambry, held in Soos' arms.
McGucket lifted back up his crazy piece of information gathering tech, and pointed it at Tambry. His eyes widened and he gasped. "Put 'er on this here table!" McGucket cried out, shoving away the loose odds and ends that were scattered around.
Mabel quickly caught the table-placed blue cylinder. "What is it, doc?" Mabel asked, poking away another rat, eager for a nibble.
McGucket started to examine Tambry. "I don't think I quite know," McGucket admitted worriedly as Dipper and Soos laid her on the table. The old man lifted her arm up and laid it across her stomach, and again directed the faux-ray gun at her. "What in tarnation is she made out of?" he loudly wondered, some frustration growing in his twangy tone.
Dipper worriedly repeated, "Made out of?"
"Her skin ain't any kind of epidermal layer I've gone and studied," McGucket said in awe, looking at the arm with his own eyes.
"Huh. Sure felt like skin," Soos admitted, stepping next to the old man as he scampered around, lifting one of Tambry's eyelids to look in her eye. Soos nervously asked him, "Uh, don't hurt her?"
Ignoring Soos, McGucket pointed his gizmo at Tambry's eyes. "Her eyes got them same readings!" McGucket announced, "an atomically woven layer made of some sort of synthetic polymer," he poked Tambry's forehead, "sure do feel like skin though."
Dipper looked at Tambry as well, starting to catch that infections frustration. "But it's not? What is she then?" Dipper demanded.
McGucket shrugged. "Eh, you got me. But, if she is a robot girl, like you ya tellin' me," McGucket lazily tossed aside the sensor-ray, which crashed into a pile of broken lamps, "then she'll most likely respond to a tickle!"
As McGucket scrambled past him, Dipper quietly asked, "Um... a tickle?" McGucket had spun away, pulling out another brief case.
Mabel's eyes widened with glee. "We're going to awake her with the power of laughter?" Mabel gasped, "It's like every cartoon I've ever seen is coming to life!"
"Well, not exactly," McGucket chuckled darkly, lifting above his head two live wires, cackling and sparkling dangerously above him.
Soos gasped, "You're going to electrocute her? But that could hurt her!"
"She's a robot, didn't you say? She probably don't even feel no pain," the old man defended.
"But-"
"Soos, he's right," Dipper told his friend, "We need some answers. And we all saw her do that inhuman stuff earlier, so it's not like she's like us," he told Soos. Mabel frowned at his comment, and Soos seemed uncertain as he scratched the back of his head. Dipper, thirsting for answers, declared, "I say let's find out what happens. Mabel?" Dipper turned to his sister, giving her the chance to choose a stance on the matter.
Mabel looked between the cackling scientist and the unmoving girl on the rusty table. She hadn't wanted any harm to come of Tambry to begin with, and now, to get answers they were about to electrocute her. This did not exactly sit right with her. Then again, Dipper was right- they had seen her stomach open up like a crazy easy-bake oven for the future. If her belly opening did not kill her, what harm could a little electricity do?
Mabel made her decision. "Just not too much fry-power, right?" Mabel asked to McGucket.
The old scientist shrugged. Cackling, and stuck the wires to both her hands, using pliers to keep them in place. Dipper and Mabel saw a quick spark burst off the metal table, electricity conducting through Tambry's body to the table. The girl didn't budge. Not even a quiver came in the form of reaction.
"Huh," McGucket muttered, "That shoulda have been enough to jump-start a sleepin' heart," McGucket scratched his nose, squinting at the conducting woman, "Well, I guess it's time to turn up the power."
Mabel winced. "Not by much," Mabel protested.
McGucket made his way to the briefcase, and removed the cables from the battery he was using. "Eh, I think this is legal," the old man mentioned as he quickly bandaged the wires to a power box connected to the power lines outside his junkyard, "now, let's see what happens when I give her a little push."
McGucket leapt away from the power-box as sparks flew out of it. The lights outside the power line shimmered and flickered, being drained by McGucket's action. Tambry trembled and squirmed as bolts of electricity shot out from the table under her, a freakish display of Frankensteinian proportions. Mabel had jumped for Dipper, pulling him and Soos behind the pile of couches with McGucket as they watched the electricity zap around, out of control.
The bolts of electricity start to arc upwards. Rather than connecting to the piles of cars or televisions, they whipped around and hit the girl, passing through her body, and then collecting back into her. There was some sort of cycle of power in the air, drawing the electrical energy back into Tambry. Her eyelids began to bleed out a shining blue light, flickering with each bolt of electricity that struck her. Soon the lights in town, just down the street were flickering and dying as the girl on the table shimmered and glowed brightly.
The power box connected to the power-line exploded, sending its side panels flying all around the junkyard. The power in the town began to stabilize as the lights reset and return to a soft glow. The girl on the table was glowing in the stomach as the panel sliding open and revealing the inner workings of the young woman. Falling to the sides of the table were the copper wires once attached to her, sizzling into an ashy line on either sides of Tambry.
As the four stared at the girl, McGucket stood back up. "Welp. That's a new one," McGucket stated as the four of them crept back to the table, anxiously inspecting the woman. "Least she looks like a robot now, all them lights coming out of her."
Dipper sighed. "Man, we could have fried the entire town's power grid," Dipper said as he turned back to the town, viewing the darkening skies and the still recovering power line lights. "I hope no one noticed that. They could come looking for what caused it."
Mabel snorted. "Dipper, we're in the middle of Oregon wilderness," Mabel reminded him, "I bet half the people here would only notice it getting colder and darker."
"Truth," Soos commented, pointing to Mabel.
Dipper turned to the engineer. "So, now what?" Dipper asked to McGucket, who had removed his hat to scratch his bald head. "She's not human, right?"
McGucket was shaking his head as he examined Tambry. "I don't rightly know what she is," McGucket told him, "if she's human, she got a heckuva electrical tolerance."
Tambry gasped loudly, her eyes opening up. All four of them screamed and jumped away from her. McGucket took the retreat a step further, leaping behind the twins, and began to furiously hambone. To anyone who could interpret the difficult language, they would have known that McGucket was rapidly slapping out, 'It's alive! It's alive!' and he then scuttled away on all fours – over piles of trash and material.
The glowing woman groaned. "Uhh, my head," Tambry blinked, the light behind her eyes fading. The three could finally see the brown return to her eyes. Rubbing her head, she looked around with a pained stare, "Wait. Am I in the junkyard- wait, what!?" Tambry started up quickly, pushing herself from the table, and staring around her, and then to the three.
Dipper looked to his sister and Soos. He stood to his tallest, and in his best authoritative tone, demanded, "Tambry, right?"
Tambry blinked, and then smiled with an uncaring, sleepy smirk. "Dreaming. It's just a dream. Weird update for when I wake up," Tambry nodded and leant back down, closing her eyes.
Dipper looked between the other two. Mabel had been right: the woman before them was certainly not acting out of the ordinary. There was not a hint of strangeness in her voice, or her actions. She seemed perfectly human, aside from the glowing square in the gut. She was even quick to dismiss the relatively strange thing as a dream – fair considering the day had finally passed into evening.
Mabel approached her carefully, and adopted a tough, western accent. "This ain't no time to be dreaming, purple-haired one," Mabel said to Tambry.
"Mhmm," Tambry grunted back, not bothering to open her eyes.
Soos and Dipper started to approach. "Yeah dude, this is totally real. Like, things hurt for real," Soos told her, and promptly lifted a thin metal sheet and smacked the side of his head with it, "Ow. See?" he hit himself again, "Ow. Hurts plenty real."
"I don't feel anything," Tambry scolded Soos while daring to peel her eyelid back and look at them. Mabel shrugged and approached her, leaning forward to stare back at the purple hair-dyed girl. "What?" Tambry asked Mabel. The younger teen's reply was to jab her in the eye. Tambry yelped, "Ow! The heck are you-" The young woman froze in mid-rub of her injured eye. Realization seemed to be creeping in. The faint traces of wind billowed in the wilderness, shaking the leaves in the woods as the sky continued to grow darker.
Mabel snickered. "Looks like things are what they seem between you and eye," Mabel grinned as she pointed to her own eye in the pun.
Mabel's humor was lost upon the girl before her. Tambry's line of sight had started drifting lower and lower to her own body, a dawning horror evident on her face. Only then did the three realize- while her eyes had discontinued their glowing, the light from her opened panel in her stomach had not ceased. Her fingers trembled as they reached down, and slowly lifted the shirt up, just high enough to see the edges of the opening in her body. She sucked in air like a vacuum, seeing her artificial body.
Dipper strongly asked, "Maybe you could explain us that?"
Her response was, simply put, to scream her lungs out. It was far too shrill to do anything else but cover ears, and so they did. Tambry let off an ear-splitting cry of terror, shoving herself off the table, scrambling away from the three of them as she stared at her stomach. Her head kept shaking back and forth, unable to comprehend what she was seeing.
"Oh my god! Oh my god!" she bellowed, her hands dancing at either side of the glowing section of her opening, as if she wanted to examine her newest feature, but was too afraid to touch anything. "What – how – what did you do to me!?" She screamed at the three of them.
Dipper snapped back, "We did?!" resisting the urge to flinch at her accusations.
She was on the verge of tears; her lips trembled as her eyes shone in the dim light around her. "What is this!? I'm freaking glowing! What the hell is this?!" she screamed, finally pulling up her shirt to see her inside compartment of wires and glowing tubes. "Oh... my... gaawwd!"
Dipper scowled. "Cut the act!" Dipper stepped closer, pointing an accusatory finger to her, "tell us who you really are!"
From anger came fear. Tambry dropped the edge of her shirt and looked at Dipper. "W-w-what!?" the glowing young woman stuttered at Dipper's accusations.
"You're not really Tambry, are you? Some sort of fake, or replacement. What are you doing her in Gravity Falls!?" Dipper ordered.
She rolled her eyes about as sarcastically as any living soul could. "I live here?" Tambry desperately sought a proper reply. "Oh man, what the heck am I going to do? People will think I'm some sort of freaking human Christmas tree!"
"What?" Dipper gasped at her strange reaction.
The woman was starting to unravel. "I'm going to freakin' college!" Tambry shouted, "How can I go walking around like I've got light bulbs for organs!"
Soos suggested, "You can always get a wrap?"
Mabel, who had been carefully watching Tambry, stepped over to her brother. "Dipper," Mabel said, pulling her brother to speak to him face to face, not looking to Tambry, "I don't think she knows anything."
Dipper laughed, disbelief etched deeply into his eyes. "How? How is that possible?" he demanded of his sister.
"I dunno!" Mabel replied quickly, "but I think she's telling the truth! Besides, it's not like she's tried running away all sketchy like!"
There was a patter of running feet and the shaking of a chain fence. The twins stared at each other, and Dipper said aside, to Soos, "Did she just-"
"Ah, yeah, she just took off," Soos told the two of them.
Mabel and Dipper spun, spotting Tambry jumping down from the fence, taking off towards town. "Crud!" Dipper snapped, "We don't know what could happen if she gets into town!" Dipper shouted out loud, "we got to get her back!"
"After that cyborg!" Mabel screamed, pointing a finger dramatically at the running Tambry.
Soos quickly pointed out, "Maybe she prefers to be called 'synthetic'."
Mabel nodded. "Oh, okay," Mabel cleared her throat, then screamed, "After that synthetic!"
The three scrambled under the fence again, and were back in the truck as fast as they could. Soos revved his truck's engines, the tires screaming as they tore against the street. They passed by a scrawny man with a well-trimmed moustache. As they raced away, Tyler Cutebiker eagerly told them, "Get 'em! Get 'em!"
By the time the truck was rolling back towards the center of town, they could see Tambry running down the street. She held one arm to her center, to contain the spilling light from her midsection as she fled from the three of them. The young woman cut across the street, disappearing down an alleyway that opened to the main street.
Soos shouted, "hold on!" and twisted his wheel dramatically. The truck whirled about quickly and found its front entering the alley after Tambry. The woman spun around once; her eyes full of panic as they gave chase. Using her small frame compared to a truck, she dove down another smaller alley, and made for one of the other streets. Soos grunted, and shifted gears as he made to get keep the chase.
Mabel was watching this all happen from her back seat. "Is anyone else getting the feeling," Mabel asked in the truck as Soos ran over a series of trash cans, "that we're the bad guys here?"
Dipper whipped back to his sister. "What? No!" Dipper shouted, "we're trying to stop her from doing... whatever she could do!"
Soos nodded. "Yeah, rampaging synthetic on the loose doesn't sound too cool, dawg," Soos agreed.
Mabel held out a hand to the chase. "We're chasing her down in a truck while she runs for her life," Mabel pointed out, as Soos started to catch up with the girl.
Dipper frowned. "Well, when we get a chance to calm her down and get some answers-" Dipper nodded his head side to side, not liking the accusations his sister was making. As he did, Tambry gave a complete stop in the middle of the sidewalk, and started running in the opposite direction. "Crud! Soos!" Dipper yelled.
"I see her," Soos called to Dipper. The truck screeched to a halt, and he reversed it backwards as Tambry ran across the street, tossing herself over a hedge and past the buildings on the edge of the street. "Whoa! She's desperate."
Dipper eyed his sister. "Makes you wonder what she's trying to hide!" Dipper growled, seeing her light giver her position away in the woods, "Soos, can we track her with your truck?"
"I don't think so dude," Soos shook his head sadly, coming to the side of the street where she had just barreled over the green vegetation. "I'd need to install some pretty serious suspension and shock stuff."
"Then we got to get her by foot," Dipper commanded, opening the side door, ready to give chase. He dived through the vegetation, and was followed by Mabel, and then rather haphazardly by Soos.
Catching up to her brother, Mabel asked, "Hey, Dipper, maybe you're trying a little hard for answers?"
Dipper didn't answer, he couldn't bare to think of anything else but grabbing the girl and demanding some serious explanations. How else could he get closer to solving this? She was their number one lead on whatever was going on, and she was doing her darn hardest to get away. Surely if innocent, she would just try to explain everything to the best of her understanding. No, she was running. She must know something.
"Tambry!" Dipper called out. The woman was easily some fifty feet head of them, climbing past trees and fallen logs, flicking her gaze behind her occasionally to check on their progress.
Mabel yelled ahead, "Hey! Wait!" Mabel ran faster than Dipper, able to utilize the trees around her to propel herself fast than anyone else in this chase, gaining on Tambry quickly. "We're not going to hurt you!"
From behind her and Dipper, Soos shouted, "Dawg! Chill out for a second!" Soos huffed as he ran just behind Dipper. Though he could run, his trouble was leaping over the fallen trees on the earthy ground as they ran up hill in the dark woods. He carefully took his steps in moderation, and then would rush to catch back up.
From ahead of Mabel, Tambry shouted back between gasps of air, "Leave me alone!"
Mabel was on her heels now, able to speak to her without shouting, which was a surprising talent considering both girls were running as fast as they could. "C'mon, just for a bit?" she asked as she cruised alongside Tambry casually, "We promise to keep our distance if that makes you feel better? Pinky promise!" Mabel held up her hand and poked out her said finger, grinning.
Tambry, clearly weirded out by Mabel, shouted, "I don't want anything to do with you!" She pushed Mabel's hand away as she turned again, sliding down a small incline. "Just go away!"
"Ah, c'mon," Mabel cried as she stopped, giving herself a moment to breathe a little. Soos and Dipper came jogging up after her, panting heavily, Mabel looked to them "See? She's just scared," Mabel told her red-faced brother.
Through his wheezing breaths, Dipper asked in awe, "How... can... you... talk... while... running?"
"Training, my young grasshopper!" Mabel grinned. Dipper scowled and stumbled on, pushing his feet onward for the sake of a resolution to this mystery. Mabel grumbled as she made to hurry after him. "Dipper, maybe we should leave her alone!" she called out.
"Not a chance!" Dipper shouted as Soos followed in pursuit. Mabel groaned and followed, upset with her brother's current obsession.
The four ran uphill in the woods, crashing and tumbling over broken branches and shattered stems. Mabel would easily catch up with the running girl. Tambry, like Dipper, was not exactly trained for this kind of endurance, and so Mabel would ask politely if she would stop to talk. Each time Tambry would shout back to be left alone. Finally came the end of the woods, and Mabel found herself following Tambry towards the edge of the cliffs that overlooked Gravity Falls, where Mabel had gone hours earlier to let off steam.
Mabel skidded to a halt as soon as she spotted Tambry running for the ledge. "Wait!" Mabel shouted, "Don't jump! You could hurt yourself!" Mabel warned the hair-dyed young woman. Tambry came to a stumbling stop at the edge, peering down the side as if to measure the benefits of possibly breaking a leg to get away from the three of them.
Dipper and Soos arrived just as Tambry spun to face them. The lights in her stomach shone out from under her shirts fabric, bleeding out a haunting fluorescent warmth. Her shoulders heaved endlessly as she gasped for air.
Dipper steadied his breathing, and pointed at Tambry. "Okay, you've got nowhere else to run," Dipper told her bluntly, "so, whatever you've been hiding from us, just tell us now and we'll leave you alone."
Tambry, still collecting her breath, struggled for words. "How – how –" Tambry groaned and rolled her eyes as she struggled for air, "how many times do I have to tell you: I don't know anything!"
"But that doesn't make sense!" Dipper called back, taking a few steps closer to her, "How could you not? You are clearly not the real Tambry! Not to mention that when we asked you what you knew, and your first instinct was to run away? Not to figure this out?"
Tambry pulled at her own hair, and yelled back, "I woke up to find out I've been turned into some sort of crazy robot-thingy! Like I'm all... artificial!" Tambry said, giving her own hands a fearful glance, "I don't care what you want from me, okay? I just want you not to touch me again!"
"We didn't touch you!" Mabel pleaded, trying to ease her brother back with a hand on his shoulder, "I promise you we're just trying to figure all of this out."
Soos pleaded, "Yeah, c'mon dawg," pushing himself upright as he had been heaving for air this entire time, "we're not trying to do anything to you."
Tambry angrily stared at him. "You tried running me over in your car!" Tambry pointed angrily at him.
Soos stood up fully. "Okay, first of all," he said defensively, "it's a truck. Second of all-"
"We didn't need to chase you if you hadn't gone running off!" Dipper shouted back.
"You try waking up and seeing you've been turned into a robot thing! And some weirdos are asking you 'who you are,' okay?! You try that, and tell me you don't get scared for your life!" Tambry screamed at Dipper, a tear making its way past her face.
Dipper's readiness for argument fell apart. This woman, this hypothetical cyborg, the synthetic, was crying. A robot was crying in front of them, her makeup running along the trail of the tear. The young adult sobbed, wiping her face, exhausted in more than one sense. Dipper turned to Mabel, shocked and uncertain what to do next. She returned his stare with one of anxiety and guilt. They had done this to her.
The idea was ludicrous to him, but Dipper finally considered the possibility: what if she had not known she was a robot? Maybe she was somehow programmed so well that she was not aware of her inhumanity. It would explain the fear, the stumbling, the human like reactions to everything she had done to reply to his demand for answers. What kind of situation had they forced this eighteen-year-old into?
Before the three could speak, still stunned, Tambry spoke out in shaky words. "It's like," Tambry wiped away a year, smearing her cheek with dark eyeliner, "Wow. I'm not even human anymore. This isn't a dream. I'm really no longer me, am I?"
Dipper had not been ready for this kind of existentialism. "I..." Dipper could only manage. This was not the kind of ending to the chase he had expect or wanted. He had needed her to turn, be furious that he and his sister and Soos had caught on to some master plan. Instead, they just had cornered a frightened person.
Her eyes shone in the dim light, full of fear. "You can't even tell me. I bet I'm some sort of experiment, aren't I?" Tambry continued, taking a step backwards to the cliff.
Soos held out a hand. "Hey, be careful," Soos warned her, "you're getting real close to the edge there, dude."
"What does it matter, huh?" Tambry laughed desperately, choking on one of her intakes of breath, "I'm not even me. Even if I fall, I bet some looser programmer can just plug me into a computer and download my life. Like, are even my memories real?"
Dipper shook his head. "You are real," Dipper told her definitively, trying to keep a steady pace closer to her, "listen, just because this happened doesn't mean you're not real."
Tambry didn't reply. Her feet met the edge, small pebbles and clumps of grass falling off the side of a fifty foot drop. She looked up to the skies, the stars in her eyes and she let a sigh escape past her lips. With that sigh, she made to take a step behind her. Dipper and Soos yelled out, "No!"
"What's your name!?" Mabel suddenly shrieked.
Tambry stumbled forward, eyes to Mabel. "What?" she asked.
Mabel slowly repeated, "What is your name?"
Tambry stared. "I'm Tamb- why?" Tambry spluttered, "What difference does it make?"
"Exactly!" Mabel pointed to her, calmly stepping closer, "okay, so maybe you're not exactly yourself. Like, a lot of you went and changed, right?" Mabel nodded for Tambry, who eventually mimed the teenager, "okay, but you know those are changes. You know to know who you are. If you know to know who you are, you are you!" Mabel told her.
Dipper and Soos stared at Mabel. Dipper muttered, "Now that was impressive mental gymnastics."
Tambry wasn't as convinced. She shouted, "But I'm not me!"
"Yes you are! What's the first thing that came to your mind when I asked you who you were?" Mabel tried, a warm smile growing on her face. The young adult blinked, a growing realization growing like a seed that Mabel planted. "See?" Mabel told her kindly, much closer to the terrified woman, "You're just you. But now glowy! And, come on, that's kind of cool."
"But if I'm not real Tambry-"
"Who says that?" Mabel asked. She was now a few feet from her, and held out her hand. "Come away from there. We don't want you to hurt yourself, okay? No more dramatic cliff stuff, or chasing stuff. Just us talking and figuring this all out."
Tambry looked back once, and in instinctual fear, took a long step away from the edge. She was next to Mabel, finally calming down. Her glow was still present, and as she looked between the others, she could see the light reflecting in their eyes.
"This should be a dream. This is weird than... wait, you two," Tambry looked to Dipper and Mabel, "I remember you. You two were with me and the gang three years ago! When I was sucked into the TV, right?" she scoffed, and glared at them, "Why does weird stuff always happen when you two are around?!"
Dipper approached; his arms crossed. "Hey, we just chase the odd. It doesn't find us... usually," Dipper added at the end, recalling the many times chance or fate lined them up for an encounter with the unknown.
"Whatever," Tambry rolled her eyes to them, "okay. So, I've been robot-ified. What, uh, do we do to... you know, fix me?" she timidly asked them.
Soos snorted. "Well, we could try turning you off and then back on again," Soos laughed at his own joke. The three glaring at him. Unphased, he said, "Haha. Yeah. Zinger, Soos."
"Honestly Tambry," Dipper started as he turned away from Soos, "I don't really know. We've never dealt with this kind of stuff before. It's sort of new territory for us to have someone who's been turned into a robot. And we've had some weird stuff happen around us."
Soos nodded. "Yup! I was once, in fact, a pig."
Mabel leaned over to her brother. Quietly, she asked, "Dipper, what if I-" Mabel started, but Dipper quickly punched her shoulder, "Ow!" she winced, "Dude, what's that about?"
Tambry, who had listened to Mabel, peered at Dipper. "What if she what?"
Dipper scowled, and quickly said, "She thinks that, uh, she has an idea how to figure this out," Dipper lied. It was hard enough dealing with an identity crisis of the woman before him, but he didn't want to deal with Mabel adding to the fire. He eyed his sister, who was resentful for the punch. He mouthed to her, 'You didn't.' Mabel seemed crestfallen, uncertain.
Tambry missed the silent words mouthed. "You think you can figure this out?" Tambry turned to Mabel; her eyes wide with excitement.
Mabel's cheeks puffed out as she withheld certain truths. Instead, she wheezed out, "Well... you never know until you try, right?" Mabel shrugged after a look from Dipper to have her play along.
Tambry considered her options. After looking over towards the cliff, she sighed. "Okay. I'll go with you two," Tambry said with a slow, uncertain nod, "just... lemme take a second, okay? I want to figure out how to close this stupid... thing," Tambry turned away, facing the town as she looked to her glowing stomach opening.
Dipper nodded. "Sure, we'll be waiting by the trees," Dipper told her. As they approached the forest edge, he leaned to the others, "So, what are we thinking?"
Mabel said happily, "I said it before, and I'll say it again – I think she's being honest."
"You think everyone is honest," Dipper reminded her.
Soos said sadly, "I don't think Old Man McGucket will want to help us after what happened before."
Dipper laughed. "Maybe we can bring her to him later. He's still our best bet with how to figure out what's going on," Dipper told the two of them. He glanced over his shoulder. The eighteen-year-old was standing in the moonlight as she glared at where her bellybutton should be. She was far enough away from the cliffs for Dipper to not worry for her safety.
Mabel leaned closer to Dipper, gaining his attention. "Dipper, do you really still think she's lying about this to us?" Mabel asked her twin.
Dipper shook his head. "I trust her now. She was really freaked out earlier. Maybe I was a little too pushy."
"Gee, ya think?" Mabel scolded him with a tiny glare.
"Besides I think it'd be hard for her to lie that well. I can't see robots being that good at faking emotions," Dipper reasoned, "then again-"
There was a flash of light behind them. The three glanced behind them.
Mabel asked loudly, "Tambry?"
She was gone.
"Tambry?" Dipper called loudly around them. Mabel gasped and ran ahead, peering off the side of the cliff. As she reached the edge, she found nothing below her. It had just happened, and the lack of trees and bushes meant if Tambry had fallen down below, she wouldn't have had time to find a hiding spot.
"Oh dude, what just happened?" Soos gaped as they looked around. I... I don't get it. She was right here."
"Hey! Tambry!" Mabel added to the chorus.
"Tambry!" Dipper yelled into the woods, "We promised we wouldn't do anything to you! Tambry!"
As a cool summer breeze gusted by, the three heard nothing but the shifting of leaves and the bristling of branches. They were met, otherwise, with silence and darkness.
The woods were combed viciously for a solid hour as the three scanned around. There was little to no indication that Tambry had even moved from her spot by the cliffs. The dirt by her shoes had been left with her imprints, yet no more tracks could be found. There were no sounds of running, no hasty breaths; it all became a sudden dead end. All the possible answers went up in smoke.
Dipper relented the search last. Well into the night, long after their departure from the Mystery Manor, the three returned. There was an army of questions Grunkle Stan had for them. They explained everything they could, and when they could not get a proper answer, Mabel would just blow her lips and tongue with a loud raspberry.
Frustration in the air and fatigue settling in to all, Grunkle stan sighed. "Just get to bed for now," Grunkle Stan eventually told them, rubbing his eyes in exhaustion and annoyance. He had also wanted answers, but more so had been worried for their safety the entire time.
Dipper would not sleep that night. Mabel also stayed up late, the two of them silently staring at the ceiling, wondering what had really happened that evening. Where had Tambry gone? Was she okay? Could they ever discover the answers?
The following morning provided Dipper a second chance for his imperious thirst for knowledge. Dragging his sister to the car past their Grunkle Stan, Dipper got them both into his car, and they drove back into town.
They had been quite the entire drive down. Though Dipper was scanning around the town like a bloodhound, Mabel was watching the clouds. Her face shone with worry. "Dipper," she finally said, "maybe we should put up a missing flier?" Mabel asked sadly as they drove into town.
Dipper shook his head. "We won't need to. We're going to find her," Dipper told her, "Besides, that's her family's job. If we're going to do anything like that, we should point out to them that she's been gone for a while, or something."
Mabel finally faced him, her eyes cast low. "Dipper, what if it was my fault? What if these dang things," Mabel lifted up two of the three cylinders, "Do turn people into robot thingies?"
Dipper chewed on her sad ideas. After dwelling on the potential theory, he shrugged. "I don't know. That still wouldn't explain how she vanished suddenly," Dipper reminded her. He eyed the cylinders. "They haven't changed at all, have they?" he asked, peering to her quickly as he drove through town.
Defeatedly, Mabel snorted. "Not a single blip, blop, or bloop difference to them," Mabel informed him. "I can't look at these pretty things without thinking I've done something bad to Tambry."
Dipper said nothing. Driving by a street that would lead to the mall, his mind finally let itself rest on the possibility that those sticks did indeed turn people into cyborgs somehow. It didn't make sense- that kind of science fiction craziness surely couldn't even be possible. Then again, he had seen even crazier things. Body switching carpets, crystals that emitted size changing beams of light, the mere concept of gnomes, this wasn't exactly a town known for it's perfect obedience to the laws of physics.
"Dipper!"
Dipper slammed the brakes instantly. The black car came to a screeching halt, and he turned to his sister, panting.
He hastily breathed. "Holy mackerel! Mabel, what the heck!?" Dipper demanded of his sister. She wasn't staring at him. Instead, she slowly lifted a finger past him, and pointed to the other side of the street.
There laid a cellphone by the sidewalk, still flipped open on the ground. A girl with purple dyed hair walked over, picked it up, and lazily examined it before continuing to punch in a text message or digital social media update of some sort.
It was her. "Tambry," Dipper said quietly staring at the girl. The twins exchanged a glance, and then scrambled to leave the car. "Tambry!" Dipper called as he ran directly to the sidewalk, his sister sliding over the hood of his car to speed her approach.
"Huh?" Tambry turned and gave them both a bored, tired expression. "What do you want?"
"Tambry, it's us," Mabel told the older teen, "Where have you been?"
"Uh... who're you?" Tambry asked, taking half a step away from them.
"Last night, Tambry, the stuff last..." Dipper stopped half way through his sentence. Unlike the night before, the person before them was perfectly collected and relaxed. She sullenly looked at the twins before glancing at her phone and completing whatever she had been texting. "Uh, do you remember what you did last night?"
"I was at home. You know, where I live?" Tambry snidely told the two of them, "Sorry, do we even know each other?"
"It's me, Mabel!" the girl twin declared, "and this is Dipper, Remember?" Tambry gave them a studying glance before gasping. "Right! You remember?"
Tambry shuddered. "Yeah, how could I not," Tambry said with an exasperated sigh, "not exactly normal to be sucked into a television world."
"Right – wait, what?" Mabel cut herself off.
Tambry scowled at them. "We went to the Dusk-two-Dawn store? Was haunted, right?" Tambry told them the smallest smile on her lips. "Right? You two were like, ten back then."
Dipper retorted, "We were twelve."
Unconcerned with accuracies, Tambry said, "Whatever. Well, it was nice catching up with you," Tambry gave them a half hearted smile that was clearly forced, "but I'm going to continue living my life with as few reminders of that night as possible. See you around never."
"What?" Mabel gasped, watching as Tambry turned away slowly, and walked down the sidewalk. "Dipper, what the heck is-" Dipper stepped over to his sister and snatched from her hands the two blue cylinders, "Dip?"
Holding the two before him, Dipper said, "You said you started rubbing these two together, right?" He pushed the two ends together and began to twist one end against the other in opposite directions, acting like he could generate a static discharge.
Mabel gasped. "Dipper, you can't be serious!" Mabel tried snatching them back, but Dipper was determined. He lunged ahead, and furiously pushed the two ends together. Nothing followed. There was a small pop of energy. He could see the hints of static breaking away from the two cylinders. Nothing dramatic soared out and hit her back though.
"Nothing," Dipper sighed and let his hands fall to the side.
Mabel reached out and snatched away the strange glowing objects. "What if it had worked, you jerk, and that was the real Tambry! You could have hurt her!" she scolded him, pocketing the devices.
Taken aback at her forcefulness, Dipper softly argued, "We don't know if she's the real thing yet. We have nothing to indicate that she's a human or-"
Tambry, at the other end of the sidewalk slipped on a loose magazine on the ground, and fell ahead of her. The two twins watched her land roughly. She loudly hissed. She had scraped the side of her right hand's palm badly. Red splotches of irritated skin darkened as she growled at the magazine before kicking it aside, and pouting her way down the sidewalk.
Dipper surrendered most of his suspicion. "Okay, she was almost bleeding," Dipper pointed out, "I think you're right on this one," Dipper told his sister with a sign.
"Darn tootin' I'm right," Mabel agreed strongly. "I'm keeping these for now on, you got it mister?" she told him, patting her pockets.
"Okay, okay," Dipper sighed, hands up to defend himself, "Sorry! I… might have, sorta, let this one go to my head." She nodded and cocked an eyebrow. "Sorry, Mabes," he told her, "I've just had this feeling like these things are a lot bigger and more important than we realize. Ever since rescuing Grunkle Stan, I've been wanting to know what they are. I just didn't want this one to slip through us again."
Mabel placed a hand on his shoulder. "Hey, it's okay egg-head," Mabel teased his brother. "You're a smart cookie. We just need a little bit more time, and then we're going to crack this mystery wide open! Even if the weird robo-tambry did get away, we know what to look for! Just got to keep an eye out for now on, you know?"
"Hah, how about four eyes?" he asked her, "Since I've got some of the best help with mysteries I could ask for," Dipper gave his sister a small smile and nudged her shoulder. She giggled back and the two of them headed for the car. As Mabel slid back into her seat and closed the door, Dipper got the car moving again. They even passed the injured and less pleasant Tambry as they drove down the street. Mabel gave the girl a quick glance in the side mirror, and blinked.
It looked like Tambry's eyes glowed for just a moment. But when Mabel's eyes opened again, the light was gone. It must have been a tick of the light.
And so came and passed the episode with Tambry in it. Sure, she'll be back, along with a few of the others within the town, but that was among the most interaction we'll see in season one. With her. Possibly forever. Huh.
SO! Do you like Gravity Falls? I hope so! You're reading this, after all! Do you like Aliens? No, not the kind with big grey eyes and weird green skin with tall heads n stuff, I mean the ones with NO eyes, tall heads and lots of pointy teeth and fangs! Chestbursters, facehuggers, queens and... well, xenomorphs. No? Aww. Yes? WELL YOU SHOULD TRY OUT THE NEWEST STORY THATS ABOUT ALL THAT: Aliens.
With the wonderful talents of TheEquestrianidiot 2.0, we are creating a re-telling/re-hashing/crossover? of the 1986 epic horror action piece Aliens, using your favorite characters! Mabel! (she's Ripley) Wendy! (She's in it too!) uh... Robbie! (he's in it... yay) and a whole lot of other people that I can't talk about because SPOILERS.
In fact, my buddy TheEquestrianidiot 2.0 and I are offering a chance for you guys, the reader, to get something out of our story! A challenge was released to the wonderful public in chapter three, where we ask, essentially, 'what's in the box'? Guess correctly, and you get to tell us to write a one-shot involving Gravity Falls of ANYTHING YOU WANT. Cool huh?
So what are you waiting for? You gotta try everything once, right? (A facehugger lunges at EZB, who then struggles to pull it off his face, and eventually falls to his doom into a vat of molten lead. Odd place for a vat of molten lead to be in a college dorm, but Weytani-Yuland digresses.)
[Bonus points for those who can count the number of references made in this episode total. That includes the last week's update.]
Up late and working hard, Sherriff Blubs sat at his desk, hunched over his computer. He was furiously typing something, eager to come to a result before the night's end. It was important. It had to be done. He now had the information he needed, and nothing was going to stop him.
Behind him, a taller man, Durland, spun in circles while sitting in a swivel chair. "C'mooon," Durland whined, "I'm getting tired. I wanna go home."
Blurbs looked over his shoulder. "Soon, buddy. Soon." He turned back to the screen, the glow reflecting off his sunglasses, which he never took off while on duty for more than a minute. He clicked his mouse, and gasped. He had done it. "Yes!" he nodded to himself.
Durland walked over, and eyed the screen. "Uh, what's that for?" he asked.
Blurbs turned to him, and smirked. "Oh, buddy. This is going to change things forever." On the computer screen, an order had been confirmed:
Fifty-eight tambourines.
"I'm ordering their entire stock," Blubs proudly explained, "Now we're going to be the hippest folk in town!"
Durland cheered. "Yahoo! State spending at its best! High five me!" Durland cheered, and the two proudly high-fived. "Wanna get another bouncy castle?" he asked his partner.
Blurbs confidently nodded. "There's that one themed after 'Evotar, the Last Spacebender'?"
Durland nodded feverishly. "Buy it! Buy it!" And blubs turned back, and started a new order for the third Gravity Falls Police Department Bouncy Castle.
16-12-5-1-19-5 18-5-1-20-20-1-3-8 25-15-21-18 20-1-13-2-18-25 20-15 1 16-15-23-5-18 19-15-21-18-3-5.