The twins rapidly climbed the stairs. Grunkle Stan did call out to them once, but in their righteous haste they ignored the old man. They couldn't afford to pause for anyone now. Especially Dipper: he needed to justify pushing away Wendy like he had, if to no one, himself. Their door opened and closed quickly. There, still on the desk, was the pile of files.
"Let's look over these papers," Dipper yanked the folder to his bed. He leapt on, followed by Mabel.
"Lay 'em down," she told him. The first paper revealed was the power usage of the town. "Power plants," she said, leering at the paper like it were a criminal.
"I'm not sure controlling power to the town is super-important, but we shouldn't list it off yet. Maybe. So, the technicians or managers of the town power plant are a possibility," Dipper stated, and pulled out another page, "Schools?"
"That hasn't changed except for that one week," Mabel pointed to the chart's missing date, "and let's be honest here: is school really what's going to control the town?"
"No. It would take ages for a robot in a teachers place to really take its effects on this town," Dipper nodded, "So teachers are out of real consideration. How about news?"
"Shandra Jimenez?" Mabel asked, "Well... that's actually smart, isn't it? They could report what they wanted and tell the town whatever they felt like talking about."
"Information control, dude," Dipper nodded, "And we can discount Toby."
"Oh yeah," Mabel firmly agreed, "Definitely discount him. But, I'd put her high on the list of possibilities," Mabel nodded, and Dipper pulled out yet another page. "Tourism? Wait–"
"Grunkle Stan," Dipper quietly mentioned.
The two stared at the paper for a bit. It meant a lot more than recorded numbers of out-of-town attendance. Tourism was definitely one of the Gravity Falls more noticed money-making schemes. A lot of people came and stopped by the Mystery Shack, now Manor, for a look into the 'paranormal and bizarre'. Though the largest businesses in the area were the logging companies; carefully hewing the massive trees and shipping them abroad. Just past them, fiscally, was the tourism.
As the twins wondered the same fear, their eyes met.
Dipper quietly reminded his sister, "We did find the first underneath his casket."
Mabel shook her head vigilantly. "But he was there! And Montana Jeffreys told us he tried using strong tranquilizers on Grunkle Stan. And if he had died, or whatever, wouldn't his little stomach gate thing have opened and shown us the cylinder?" Mabel protested.
Dipper nodded in thought. "I mean... its true. But we've definitely seen the cops doing human things, so being affected by tranquilizers isn't out of the option for these android people," Dipper shrugged as he furrowed his brow in thought, "Not only that, he wasn't hit with one of those electrical blasts. That's how all three of the robots we've found have been."
"Ugh! But if Grunkle Stan's been a robot for... for all this time," Mabel grabbed her brother's shoulder.
"I know," Dipper nodded.
It was frightening to say the least. The man whom they trusted with their lives and to an extent, their well-being, could be one of these robotic creatures. The same grand uncle who had warned them to keep it to themselves, to keep it under wraps. To stay safe and stay secretive about this. It actually seemed pretty odd, as the two of them pondered silently, that he wanted this kept silent. Surely a programmed, even one so masterfully so, would have wanted to expose this to the masterminds, to then catch and stop the twins?
Suspicion grew inside their minds, infesting their thoughts like a fast-growing root. Even if it wasn't a perfect fit, Stan Pines was not out of suspicion. If there was a conspiracy, he could easily be inside it.
"It's not impossible," Mabel nodded her head sadly, "I just hope we're wrong."
"Yeah," Dipper agreed, "Last thing we need is knowing that all this time a robot has been sleeping in the same house as us."
Mabel shuddered. "So... where do we start?" Mabel asked, "I think we should get these puppies charged up and ready to roll, and go to town hall again."
"Town Hall?" Dipper repeated, but as he scratched his chin hairs, he nodded slowly, "Yeah. Yeah that could work. Have a private word with whoever is left in charge, and then see if they're one of… them – how is the escape going to work exactly?" Dipper asked his sister, "There will be guards and stuff nearby. They could try grabbing us."
"Ohh... yeah, not to mention the police could easily be all robots, so that's not good," Mabel agreed. "Maybe we should wait until we see someone leaving town hall who looks like they're in charge these days, and then zap 'em!"
"Great. Trespassing, stalking, and also assault with a... weapon? Deadly weapon?" Dipper pulled out one of the batteries, faintly glowing, "Just what we need. Arrested the night before going home."
"Only if we're caught," Mabel pointed out with a wink.
"... that sounded like Grunkle Stan," Dipper snorted and shoved her shoulder gently.
Mabel proudly nodded, saying, "Pfft, it's totally true though."
"Whatever," Dipper looked back to those papers and the single Cylinder he held. "So... we power them up, and then we charge out and get ready to see who's cyber and who isn't?"
"Sounds good to me, bro-migo," Mabel told him.
The two stood off the bed. Mabel collected the cylinders from Dipper as he scrambled to file all the papers back into the borrowed folder. They were tense now. The plan was dangerous, and not just in the life-threatening way. If they hadn't poked the bee-hive before with discovering Tambry and the police sheriff and deputy, they were about to. If there was going to be a hostile response, it would be very soon.
Whoever was behind this was going to know from this point on they were on their trail. Something that both was terrifying and entirely exciting.
Death and bodily harm was not the only thing on the table now. If the police got their hands on the twins, they could list them as delinquents. This didn't disturb Mabel as much, but to Dipper it caused more than a few beads of sweat to fall down his neck. His future depended on his clean record and remarkable school accomplishments. He had ambitions for education and beyond. Last thing he needed was some juiced-up charges ruining his chances for the future.
The door was pulled open, and the two sighed once more. Trying to alleviate their fears didn't help as much as they'd like. They were nervous. Mabel stepped out with Dipper. The floor beneath them echoed as they marched. They were heading down the stairs.
"Sup dudes," Soos called to them as they met the ground floor. He waved to them from the gift shop, sweeping the floors with his usual happy, complacent attitude.
"Soos!" Dipper called out in shock.
"Quite so, dawg," Soos nodded. He then seemed to have an idea. "Hey, you two want to hang out tonight? I'm already sticking it in for mister Pines, so I totally wouldn't mind trying to chill again with you guys," Soos told them as Mabel crab walked over to the television in the living room, away from the gift shop.
"Ah, right. Well," Dipper looked around, trying to mind what he said. Grunkle Stan could be listening in. If he was really a robot, then what Dipper said could be recorded. Dipper decided to stall. "Let me ask Mabel. Yo, Mabes!" Dipper called slowly, buying her time as she waved two rods at the same time past the TV, causing the same kind of disturbances: static buildup as energy was drawn into the objects.
"Uh..." Mabel shoved the first three cylinders back into her pockets, and pulled out the last two. She quickly performed the same ritual she had with the first two, waving them in front of the TV. She, uncertain ringing through her voice, said, "I guess? I was kind of expecting it to be a twin... thing?" Mabel stumbled for words as the television disturbance grew. Mabel darted her eyes into the static. She could hear something coming from the television.
"Time... running... short..."
"What?" Mabel whispered as she leaned in closer.
Loudly and clearly still trying to act as casual as possible, Dipper called out again, "Mabel, what was that?" as he still kept his eyes on Soos.
"Uh, just a second!" Mabel called to him, putting her ears against the speaker, trying to make out something behind all the static. It sounded like gibberish to her, yet she could make out a phrase.
"Save... abandon... time..."
A large bolt of static struck Mabel's face.
"OW!" she cried, dropping the cylinders from her hands, where they bounced gently against the carpet. "Butterscotch!"
Dipper forwent the plan to stall. He rushed to his sister. "Mabel!" Dipper entered the room quickly at her cry, followed in haste by Soos.
"You okay dude?" Soos asked, and then spotted the cylinders. "Oh wow. Man, I'm glad nothing happened to you with those. Have you figured out what they do yet? It didn't zap you, right? You're good?"
Dipper checked on Mabel, who massaged her face tenderly. She was okay. The twins then turned to their longtime friend. There was Soos, trying to check on their well being, less fascinated with the objects of freakish properties compared to the twins. With all the more evidence to his innocence, Dipper and Mabel exchanged a calmed stare. It was enough for them to relax, at least around him.
Mabel took a step towards her brother, leaning just by his shoulder. Mabel quietly asked to his ear, "You're sure they'd only be people who are, like, big shots around town?"
Dipper faintly nodded. "As far as theory goes, yeah."
"So, Soos is…?"
Dipper shook his head. "Probably not? Unless they needed a handyman DJ."
Mabel sighed and stepped back. Still quiet, she admitted to Dipper, "Now I feel kinda bad. Maybe we could get Soos and Wendy in on this."
Dipper frowned. There was still a very fresh stabbing pain in his center. It warned him from reaching out to Wendy already, worriedly seeking to avoid more harm. Still, Dipper felt that, should things escalate, having backup was needed. He decided turned to Soos, who had been eying their private conversation worriedly.
Soos asked, fidgeting his hands, "So, like, is there someone listening in?" he looked around the room, "Point me away from the secret microphones so I don't ruin anything dudes."
"No, Soos," Dipper calmly told him. "That's not it. We think," Dipper began, ready to be honest, "We're about to figure it out now."
"Oh, dawg, no way," Soos adjusted his hat, leaning in closer, "Like, how close are ya?"
Mabel scooted closer. "We don't know who," Mabel whispered, "But we think someone is trying to take over Gravity Falls with strategically positioned robots."
"Dude. Whoa. Dude," Soos jolted back, his eyes wide and horrified, "I don't like the sound of that at all."
"Right," Dipper nodded, "So we're going to figure this out right now, and put and end to all this craziness. Hopefully."
"You need a third member of the party?" Soos suggested, pointing two thumbs at his face, "Because this guy is ready to rock."
Dipper eyed his sister once more. She had been the more vigilant twin when it came to who to allow in. Mabel smiled and nodded, and Dipper told him, "It can't hurt."
Soos hooted, "Aww yeah!" and reached into his pocket, pulling out his own phone, "I should text Wendy to come over-"
"Wait!" Dipper shouted, a hand out to stop Soos. The handyman froze. Dipper sighed, rubbing his neck. "I'll... I'll do it," Dipper told them, turning from the two as he pulled out his phone.
Mabel smirked. "That's right, Dipper's got to check on the girlfr-" Mabel started, but his wrath was instant. Dipper kicked at her shin without warning, and she groaned, holding her leg. "Ow. Fair," she granted him as she massaged her small wound.
Dipper truthfully did want to text Wendy. He would rather call and apologize for not trusting her. Then again... he didn't feel like calling was the best idea. Maybe he should just text. Yeah, a text seemed like the best idea for Dipper. He pulled out her number, and opened the screen to a blank message. How did he start one of these?
Dipper gently cleared his throat, the weight of his guilt poking at his neck like some dull branch. Slowly, he found the right words to punch into the phone. 'It's Dipper. I'm sorry for treating you like that, back here'. It wasn't enough though- Dipper needed more. With a tiny conflicted bubble of anger towards himself, regret towards his actions, and the feeling of the truth behind the words, he added 'I do trust you. We'd like you to help, if you're still in'.
That felt like enough. Dipper sent the message and closed the phone. It was on vibrate, so he'd know when she got back to him.
"Hope she can jump in on this," Soos told the twins as Dipper returned, "She's darn handy with these sorts of things."
Dipper nodded, a flush in his cheeks receding. "I hope so. Until then, should we saddle up?" Dipper asked.
"Heck yeah!" Mabel cheered, and high-fived the man before her. Dipper bent down and started picking up the cylinders when a new pair of footsteps echoed from the opposite side of the room. Coming from the kitchen. Dipper stood up quickly, and pushed the cylinders to his back, hiding them from sight as Grunkle Stan stepped into the room.
"Hey!" Grunkle Stan announced as he excitedly walked in, "You guys ready to have an afternoon with your Grunkle?" He was wearing some fishing gear, and even held a disassembled fishing pole and gear box in one hand.
Worry and paranoia flooded through the twins head. How coincidental was it that they were about to head out, go figure this all out; for him only then to arrive. His eyes shone with an eagerness, and he was entirely decked out for his venture to the lake. What if this was a rouse; a trap to get the twins to get into his car, just so he could take them away and to a place where the robots would be waiting for them in large numbers?
Worry for the secrecy were listened to first in Dipper's mind. "Ah, yeah, Grunkle Stan," Dipper admitted, trying to fight back another wave of regret as he prepared to say things that would, likely, wound his Grunkle, "We were just about to head out?"
Grunkle Stan stared at the twins. "Head out?" the older man repeated with a fading grin, "We were going to have a last afternoon together before you two went off and headed down to boringland, USA. Just the three- no, four of us. You can come too, Soos," Grunkle Stan rolled his eyes as Soos seemed deflated to hear of other plans not including him.
"That sounds like a great idea, mister Pines!" Soos agreed.
Stan snorted. "See? He's in on it. Come on!" he practically begged the twins, "I promise it will be low stress and not at all involving running away from golems or the like. That way, tonight you can go do all that mystery crud on your own. Teenagers don't need to sleep anyway. Whadda ya say?" He sold his plan to the twins, bouncing his eyebrows eagerly.
"Soos," Dipper told in a whisper to Soos, holding out his hands behind him,
"Hold these for a second."
"Sure dawg."
"Grunkle Stan, look," Dipper started as he felt Soos's fingers wrap around the three cylinders.
He never finished that thought.
A blast of blue light and electricity exploded behind Dipper. He and Mabel screamed and leapt back as Grunkle Stan roared in shock as he dropped his supplies. Soos had been thrown from Dipper. He flew through the air and slammed into the wall nearby the television. Soos slid onto his back as he lay limp on the ground.
Abandoning his fishing supplies, Grunkle Stan roared, "SOOS!" and rushed past the shocked twins. The older man bent his knees as he landed next to his unconscious employee. He checked his chest, listening for breath, and then a heart rate. "He's not breathing!"
The twins stood there, transfixed on what had just happened.
Soos had touched the cylinders.
He had gotten zapped by them.
So far, only robots were zapped.
"No," Mabel put a hand to her mouth as she stared at the unmoving body of Soos.
Stan turned to her, a hand extended to her. "Mabel, sweetheart, it's alright, he's alive," Stan assured her. He looked to her brother. "Dipper, I have some medical stuff in the kitchen cabinet above the refrigerator. Go grab it, would you?"
Dipper didn't move. He was also fixed on Soos. His mouth and throat were dry.
"Dipper!" Stan shouted to his grand nephew. "Hey! Earth to Dipper!"
"Grunkle Stan," Dipper said in a hollow, hoars voice, asked his Grand-Uncle, "Move away from him," Dipper told him, taking a careful step closer to Soos. He needed to get Stanley away.
"Dipper? What-"
"He touched these," Dipper held out the cylinders for inspection, and Grunkle Stan's eyes widened.
Quicker than an old man was expected to move, Stanford Pines shot up and stepped away, staring down at the employee with the same fearful look the other two were giving him. "He's... no," Grunkle Stan shook his head, "he's only missed work once, and that was three years ago. You two remember?" Grunkle Stan demanded of them, "He can't have been... I would have known."
"Grunkle Stan, it's not just him," Dipper told his grand uncle, who turned towards him. "The sheriff and deputy were also robots."
"What!?"
Mabel was about as shaken as her brother, and nodded. "That... makes four we've discovered," Mabel told him, adding onto the compiling fears that Grunkle Stan was building in his mind. He kept looking between them and the motionless Soos, possibly expecting some sort of resolution as he glanced between them.
"But... how?" he asked, "this was under my nose the entire time! He's bled! I've seen him bleed before!" Stan told them heatedly, "How can a robot, that has all that glowing stuff inside, have blood!?"
"I don't know!" Dipper shouted back, desperate for any calm to let him think "Look, we're trying to make sense of this too. We think... we think there's a hostile take over going on."
"A hostile take-over? Do you two realize how crazy that sounds?" Grunkle Stan rounded on the two of them, "Sure, robots of a stupidly super-advanced nature is one thing, but trying to take over Gravity Falls? That's ridiculous! And Why? What's in Gravity Falls worth having control of?"
It was Mabel's turn to yell out. "We don't know! But both cops were robots, and so was Tambry! She's a wizard of social media websites! That's three people who can control a part of town. Sounds kind hostile take-overy to us."
"But... Soos?" Grunkle Stan turned on the unconscious, and yet floating figure, "Why him? He's the friendliest, dumbest son of a gun I've ever met! He doesn't control anything! He just smiles and helps people! He'd as much boss someone around as he would pop a kid's balloon!"
"That's..." Dipper turned to Mabel, and she mimed his worries. That was an entirely good point against their thesis. Why would someone go through the trouble to replace Soos if he didn't hold any strategic value towards capturing a town? He was big, and fairly strong, but there were stronger, scarier men who would be easier to take control of. Why Soos?
"Well?" Grunkle Stan asked again.
As Dipper scowled, Mabel answered, "I don't think we got an answer for you, Grunkle Stan."
He sighed, taking off his glasses to wipe his face of sweat. "Well... if we're going to do something about this, might as well call fishing off," Grunkle Stan slipped on his glasses, a new, strong, almost angry look in his eyes, "Because no one takes my favorite handyman and gives me a replacement without telling me first. You two have a plan or what?"
Soos immediately spoke up. "Computing Memory Module out of synch. Ejecting system memory charge, please prepare a newer charge," Soos said right after Grunkle Stan finished talking.
"No, Soos," Mabel begged as the assumed friend opened his mouth to speak, "Please, don't say it."
"Initializing ejection."
Soos began to float upwards. His entire body went rigid as he was lifted from the ground. The three watched him rise up; Mabel was near tears and Grunkle Stan was visibly upset along with Dipper. They had wanted him to stay down, remain unconscious. If he was really a human, he couldn't float like this. As long as he had remained down, motionless, he could have been assumed human.
No more assuming.
His stomach-panel slid open. The blue cylinder, identical to those the twins had collected before, emerged from Soos. It was all as they had seen the three times before. Soos was one of them. That blue cylinder floated above him, suspended, on nothing. It was, very slightly, starting to glow again.
Dipper looked to his own Cylinders, which had fallen to the ground during Soos's collapse. They were drawing energy from the TV. As he stared and frowned, something clicked in his mind. "Something we say activates the process, "Dipper spurted out. "A word, maybe. I think each time we've talked about plans it happens."
"Plans huh?" Grunkle Stan barked aloud, anger boiling under his tone, "How about this one? We're going to go get – uh... who was your first target?"
"The folks at town hall," Mabel informed him politely.
"Those goons!" Grunkle Stan declared, "We'll give 'em a piece of our mind! How's that for ya?" The twins nodded strongly. "And let's grab this thing too," Stan added in his rush of determination.
As his strong fingers wrapped around the cylinder, a shot of blue light struck out from Soos' exposed opening. Stan gasped. He was thrown back against the wall, and crumbled to the floor.
"NO!" Dipper shouted, rushing over to his grand uncle. He dropped the cylinders to the floor as he and Mabel rushed over to their unconscious Grunkle, who's eyes had closed. He too wasn't breathing, but Mabel could detect a pulse. He was alive. Dipper called to him. "Grunkle Stan! C'mon, wake up!"
"Dipper," Mabel worriedly said to him.
He turned away, tears in his eyes. So taken aback that Soos had been one of those things, Dipper had forgotten about their original suspicion: Stanley Pines. Fear coursed through him like poison as he stared at the face belonging to Stan Pines, or something that looked just like him.
They had planned it to be like this. But they would have had a friend or someone they could turn to when it happened, like Soos or Wendy. But Soos floated above them, casting a bright, blue, shimmering light on the ceiling as his cylinder began to slowly rotate in mid air. The twins barely registered it.
Dipper swallowed loudly, and prepared to say the one thing that he was afraid to. The words he was certain would doom their trust in anything going on. "We have a plan."
Grunkle Stan's mouth came to life, and spoke.
"Computing Memory Module out of synch. Ejecting system memory charge, please prepare a newer charge."
Dipper and Mabel stood up quickly. In her haste, the other three, still charged cylinders fell out of her pocket and also onto the carpet, where they sparkled slightly of blue and white. Stan began to float up.
"Initializing ejection."
Stan's body tensed up and straightened like a wooden board. Slowly, his jacket and vest were peeled aside and exposed his hairy chest. Then, a peel of blue broke from his skin. He was one of them. Stan had been a robot all this time as well.
Dipper fell to his knees. It was too much. Not just one, but two of the people he had seen every single day the entire time he and Mabel were up here had been robots all this time, tied to the happenings going around town. All this time.
Chaos had new plans to dump upon the twins. The two brightly glowing sticks were casting their energy through bolts of electricity to the others. The energy, as it had in the past, seemed to move in magnetic fields towards other cylinders, growing in some sort of cycling, growing energy. The five on the ground were rolling over the carpet towards one another, which seemed to be between the two floating bodies in the living room.
The five cylinders began to float. They formed a spiral of five, floating in some strange orbit, perfectly in between Soos and Stanley's ejected cylinders.
"That's can't good for us," Mabel guessed.
Electricity began to shoot from one blue, glowing object, to another. They created a circle, a circle using the two stationary cylinders as point A and B for the total diameter. From one cylinder to another, the lightning began to shoot faster and faster. Louder and brighter. As if the energy within the cylinders were growing. Then the cylinders started spinning faster. In synchronous orbit around the spot between Soos and Grunkle Stan they span so fast that the lightning shooting through the circle seemed to stay in place, so that Mabel and Dipper could stare at it in awe.
A sphere of light was growing in the circle. A small mote of energy was being fed by the circle of spinning batteries. It grew stronger and brighter. Mabel blinked. She could hear something coming from the energy. A voice.
"We've detected the uniform band. Initialize the evacuation."
"What did it say?" Mabel asked loudly to Dipper, as the whirring sounds were growing stronger and stronger yet. Wind was starting to billow in the room.
Dipper, holding an arm before his face, shouted at her over the noise, "It didn't say anything!" as the two of them started stepping away from the light, "And I think we need to go!"
"But what about-" Mabel protested.
The light in the center pulsed. It grew tiny, and then expanded to the width of the cylinders. The air roared deeply, as a blast of wind and energy threw the twins out of the room. Glass was shattered and chairs throw into the air. The sofa fell back, the TV exploded. The room was made a mess with one simple motion by the sphere in the center, now the size of a beach ball.
"Run!" Mabel told her brother, jumping back to her feet. She grasped Dipper and pulled him up and out of the room.
"Go! Let's go!" he shouted as the two of them darted through the gift shop. The door was swung open as the two raced outside. Another loud roar told them to turn around. The blast did not reach them but the light was strong enough to begin pouring out of the walls of the wooden building, blasting the woods with strong, blue light.
"Oh fudge-suckles, this looks bad," Mabel gasped as the light continued to grow.
The light vanished. All at once, without a sound.
"Uh..." Dipper looked back to Mabel, who worriedly looked around. "That's... it? Okay, that's not bad-"
All the glass of the Manor shattered and the twins were thrown off their feet. Far back against the ground the landed, and saw what was happening. Streams of energy, like twisting and billowing strands of wire, poured through the windows and doors of the Mystery Manor. It raced into the sky, so bright the dying orange sky started to darken. It then turned, heading straight for town, this growing, ever extending beam of energy. As it passed over the woods, smaller branches of the light shot down, striking homes, shops, offices, streets and cars. The entire town was being struck by this beam of energy. As the smaller tendrils of light faded, the main beam of energy turned upwards. As it peaked higher and higher, it just cut off. After a certain point, high into the sky, the energy began to vanish.
The blinding light flickered. The twins saw as the beam, twitching and spastic, started to subside and fade. It was almost like the extended tendrils of energy recoiled back into the Mystery Manor. Then, out of the windows, came the cylinders. They floated high into the air and started flying, zooming away towards town. They were slowly joined by other cylinders, hundreds of batteries, all providing a faint blue glow to the orange sky as they rose up and settled to float above town.
But there was more movement. Stepping out from the building, Dipper and Mabel watched two figures stepping out. It was the same two men who had been, minutes ago, unconscious and floating above the ground. Grunkle Stan and Soos walked out of the building. Their eyes were glowing.
Dipper shouted, "They're moving... they're moving on their own!"
"To the bike!" Mabel shouted as she and Dipper scrambled up.
The glowing eyed figures didn't even follow pursuit. All they did was turn towards the forest and walk into the trees like zombies.
"Punch it!" Dipper demanded of Mabel, who obliged hurriedly.
The bike zoomed away from the window-shattered building. The two zombie-like men walked away quietly into the woods as the twins rushed away, looking around them as they soared through the gravel lined drive way. Barely making the turn, Mabel swung the bike around and made way towards down town.
"Where are we going?!" Dipper shouted.
"Town!" Mabel shouted back to him, "I heard from that zany ball of light something about evacuation! If the robots all were activated, like we think they are," Mabel added, to which Dipper nodded, "Then if anyone is still there who isn't a robot, we can work with them to fight this one out!"
"I hope it doesn't come to that," Dipper said dangerously, "I don't know the weak spots to robots."
Mabel nodded, and revved the gas more. It was decided as they approached down town that they would park along the outskirts and walk into town, using the shadows as cover. The two spotted a great spot between two pine trees and behind a sign, and parked Mabel's bike there. Pushing their way past the thick needles, they advanced onto the town.
It was eerily quiet. No one was crying, or screaming for help as the two crept along the side of the shadowy sidewalk. There weren't any broken cars slammed into street-signs or traffic lights. There were just empty, turned-off cars left in the middle of the road. It really did look like the entire town was evacuated.
"What is going on here?" Dipper asked as she and her brother rounded a corner. He immediately reversed and slapped himself against the corner again. "Don't head that way," he warned her.
"I need to see!" Mabel pushed past him. As she turned her head around the corner, she gasped.
Every single person who lived in Gravity Falls seemed present. It was a crowd of hundreds easily, maybe even more. Everyone had glowing blue eyes, and were gathered in a huge cluster at the town square. The twins could see the proud, somewhat neglected, statue of Nathaniel Northwest standing just past the throng of cyborgs. They all stared skyward, unblinking in their gaze. Above them, the cylinders still levitated. Slow and graceful like an ideal snowflake, the swarm of cylinders formed and re-formed intricate geometric patterns.
Mabel could recognize many faces in the crowd. She spotted Grenda standing proudly among the robots, her eyes wide and glowing. Several of Wendy's friends, including the tall blond named Lee were easily spotted. Manly Dan was one of the easiest to spot, his huge shoulder width and height pulling attention without even trying.
"Yeah, nope," Mabel nodded and pulled back, "That's everyone."
Dipper and Mabel looked to one another. They again peered over to the clustered crowd around the corner.
"You think someone will come and order them, or something?" Mabel asked.
"That's my guess," Dipper admitted, "But they did know to come here without any kind of order I heard," Dipper told her, looking around. There was still no movement or sound aside from themselves. He worriedly added, "We're kind of in the open."
"We can get in that office," Mabel pointed across the street, where a three-story building overlooked the town square.
"I like it. Go!" Dipper quietly ordered, and ran as fast as he could, keeping himself as low to the ground as possible.
Mabel enthusiastically dived forward, humming her best spy-thriller theme. "Buh-buh, ba-ba, buh-buh, ba-ba," Mabel sung as she flipped, cartwheeled, and rolled over to the opened door which Dipper had just ran onto, "Duh-duh-duuhh! Duh-duh-duuhh! Da-da!"
"Seriously. You have to sing that now?" Dipper demanded of her as he closed to door behind as she leapt inside. "This is kind of serious."
"I am being serious," Mabel told him as she crept towards the stairs nearby the elevator.
"Seriously lame, more like. Was that supposed to be 'Mission Really-Hard-To-Complete'?" Dipper demanded as they climbed the concrete stairs to the second floor, "Because that was lame."
"You're lame, lamer!"
The door on the third floor was also opened, and the two stepped inside. There were a few windows by some offices, and they headed for them quickly. Reaching that far wall, the twins realized with a sigh nothing had changed outside. The cluster of people stood, staring at the sky, their eyes glowing.
They stood there, looking out the window, spying on the men and women outside. Minutes passed. The skies started to darken as those minutes turned into mostly silent hours. The two constantly shifted their positions, sitting by the windows, leaning against the glass, pushing over chairs to sit and stare. Nothing had happened. The sun was soon gone from sight, leaving a brightly colored horizon behind it.
"Dipper," Mabel asked after long silence between the two of them. She was lying into two chairs she had pushed to face one another.
Dipper was leaning against the widow as he stared out. "Yeah?"
"What if... what if everyone is already gone?" Mabel asked fearfully.
"They're not," Dipper told her with determination, "they've been replaced. That means that everyone who is represented there, who we can see with those crazy glowing eyes, they're just being kept somewhere else. And we have to rescue them."
"But... we don't even know if that's the case," Mabel pointed out, and Dipper groaned.
"I know, I'm just trying to work this out in my head," he admitted.
"What if... what if this entire town has been empty for so long that someone made these robots as a replacement – like Old Man McGucket?"
"No, he's out there too," Dipper pointed, "I see his hat poking out from behind Grunkle Stan. "So, unless he made himself a robot, or he's been one this entire time since we've known him, he can't be the culprit behind this all."
"And we're sure nothing in the journal talked of a... I don't know, a disease that turns people into robots? Like some kooky old timey horror flick?" Mabel asked of Dipper.
He looked to his vest, where the journal rested tucked away. "Not in number three. In number one the closest thing I found was lycanthropy. This definitely isn't that," Dipper told her. He continued to stare out the window, waiting. Someone was going to show up, and order these things to do something. He knew it.
"They were all robots," Mabel shook her head gently, shuddering as she realized how many times she had interacted with people from this town, "All this time."
"Yeah."
"What... what does that mean for us?" Mabel asked, "Dipper, what if someone really doesn't come back? And they just stand there until they rust or whatever."
"Someone will."
"Who?"
"I don't know."
"But then..." Mabel stalled herself. She wondered what was with the words she had heard behind the static? They hadn't been the same words she saw while she and Dipper hid in the blind eye society. This wasn't everything, and she knew it. What if it wasn't going to let itself be solved?
Another hour passed. Now the town was just a few lights on the street and a glowing town square. The twins sleepily watched them, their hopes fading minute by minute. They both needed to solve this, but as they watched, it seemed like nothing was coming from their sentinel stance. If this was it, how many questions were going to be left unanswered? Dipper tried counting with his fingers, but quickly ran out of room. How many secrets did this town have; that every time they came back here there was something else going on?
"Dipper, I'm getting hungry," Mabel admitted.
"I'm not," he told her defiantly.
"Bro, I've heard your stomach rumble at least, like, five times," Mabel retorted.
"Three."
"That still means you're hungry," Mabel declared. "We don't have to leave them for long. There's that candy store over there; we can just pop in and leave some change. That way it won't be stealing," Mabel confirmed the plan with her brother, who shrugged. "Dude."
"I can't just leave them," he told her, "What if they're our only chance to see Grunkle Stan, Soos, Wendy – what if these people, these robots are our ticket to getting everyone back, and we blow it like we blew our chances with Tambry? Oh, and look, there she is," Dipper pointed to Tambry, her eyes just the same as the others. "And I bet Wendy is..." Dipper scanned the large cluster of people, tightly packed. "I... and I can't see her. Ugh, Great."
"To think you fell in love with robot Wendy," Mabel tried laughing gently with Dipper. He stared daggers at her and she closed her mouth. "Sorry."
"The last thing I told her was that I didn't trust her," Dipper said to himself, "and I was right. I didn't trust her. And look what happened?" he pointed to them all, "They're cyborgs or whatever. I... damn it," Dipper sat down on the chair next to Mabel, rubbing his eyes.
"Hey," she leant up, putting an arm around his shoulders, "I'm sorry. You okay, broseph?"
"I've been better," he admitted, "Not every day when you realize that all the memories you've had over the past two weeks are sort of... corrupted. Like they've been made evil or something," Dipper tried to explain. Mabel nodded.
"Yeah... but it's not like they knew any better," Mabel told him.
She was right. Every single person who they had seen revealed to be a robot hadn't anticipated the change. All of them had been scared and human-like up until the reveal. Even Tambry, who had regained her own sentience, needed the help of McGucket before hand. Dipper saw McGucket out there too, one of the many cyborg things. They must have been perfectly programmed, totally unaware of what they really were. Perfectly, amazingly programmed to think they were entirely normal humans. In a weird way, it did make him feel better. That sense of unseemliness fell over him still.
"Dipper," Mabel tugged on his shoulder tighter, "C'mon. Let's run and grab a bag of chips or jerky or something."
Did the brother of the Pines Twins, the mystery twins, want to? No. He just wanted to make sure, absolutely sure that he didn't lose sight of these robot people. Yet he knew he wouldn't be any good to the cause if he was growing restless and hungry. With a grumble, he stood up alongside Mabel.
They turned away from the window, walking through the fluorescent lit building quietly. Their steps echoed on the stairs as they exited the third floor and made their way down, spiraling towards the bottom. Hands in his pockets, Dipper felt the edges of the journal pressed against his ribs. The book felt a lot smaller than it used to be on him.
They both peered out of the door, spotting the cyborgs standing in a circle, far away, still staring into the sky. With a hurried jog, the two exited the building and headed towards the convenience store down the street.
It still scared Dipper how quiet the town was. He had nightmares like this when he was twelve: the world being empty except for himself and a few others. The scary thing was, he knew exactly where everyone from town was: some five hundred feet away or so, standing in a cluster. He tried not to imagine them quietly walking towards him or Mabel, or crowding around the windows and watching them from outside.
"Here we go," Mabel said as she pushed open the door. She found the rows of snack food and beverage to her choosing and Dippers. Eagerly, she said, "Ah, some good 'ol gummy koalas! Nothing like a bag of candy to make a horrible situation brighter! Or at least more colorful," she tagged on the end as she peeled open the bag and swallowed the entire contents into her mouth, and then grabbed another.
Dipper looked at the bag of jerky he lifted up for inspection. 'Real Man Jerky' beamed light off its surface, a glossy coating of plastic separating Dipper from the smoked beef inside. The newest logo on the cover read 'Manliness isn't enough! You need REAL MANLINESS!'.
Despite the sad attempt at testosterone inducing catch-phrases, Dipper let the bag and his hand fall aside. What was the point to any of this food or drink if, at the end of this night and the next day, the town was empty? How could he go back to his mother? He had let her know things had been okay, but suddenly he wouldn't be able to see Grunkle Stan ever again? He would have to make up a story. Something about how Stan, in the end, did die. If they did end up leaving before all of this was solved, it might as well be that case.
Was there even a chance to see them again?
All the evidence pointed to no. Two and a half years ago, a week-long absence in any recorded activity occurred. That was a very strong indication towards the frightening possibility that everyone in this town had been gone for that long. Almost three years being taken away was not a good sign.
Dipper threw the bag down. He could only believe that when they finally uncovered what was going on, it would lead to pain.
"Mabel, let's go," Dipper stomped past the rows of food and pushed open the door as she emptied a third bag. She gagged and spun around, spitting out slimy, spit covered gummies as she followed him.
"Dipper, what gives?" she asked, as he stepped out into the street. "You're not going to eat anything?" he then turned to the left, heading away from the building. "Uh, dude, that's where the post is."
"I... Mabel, we should leave," Dipper told her firmly.
His sister blinked. Looking around her, and peering inside the shop, she searched for something. "Uh... what?" she demanded, "We're sort of right on top of the biggest mystery of all time?" she reminded him. "What, did you get a bad jerky bit?"
"No-"
"Cus I know how sucky bad jerky can be," she informed him. "Ruins your entire day."
"Mabel!" he shouted.
"Dude, what?" she laughed incredulously, "you really want to leave?"
"No," Dipper admitted with a huff.
"So, then you don't want to figure this out?"
"No!"
"And I suppose you don't want to know why someone has gone to this amount of trouble to do all of this!?" she demanded of him.
He growled loudly, clawing at his hair as he paced before her. "No, I do want to know these things!" he yelled.
"Then why are we chickening out now?" she barked out at him, "Dipper, what is it?!"
"I..." he summarized his thoughts and fears as best he could, "Really, what if you were right? What if they're gone for good? What if they're all dead?"
She recoiled slightly, her words coming to haunt her. "Dipper, I was just-"
"Then at the end of this, all we've done is wiped an entire town off the map," Dipper told her, "Just imagine what would have happened if we didn't come up here," he stepped closed, "We never would have found Tambry, never would have gotten the batteries, and never cause this to happen!"
"But then Grunkle Stan would have been killed by Montana Jeoffreys," Mabel reminded him fiercely, "He was kind of determined before we showed up, remember?"
"Mabel, that was just a robot back then! For all we know," Dipper clenched his fists together, "He's been dead all along!"
"I know that!"
"I... you know that?" Dipper repeated, some of his steam lost.
"Yeah, dummy!" She shouted at him, and he closed his eyes, rubbing the bridge of her nose, "I know there's a chance to find out all of this is... is pointless. But Dipper, what do we get if we just turn away now?"
"I know," he quietly said, rubbing the back of his head.
"Nothing," she answered, "What if we can save them? And we didn't try!?"
"I know!" Dipper shouted loudly, taking a step closer to his sister, who mildly flinched. "I... I'm just scared."
Dipper wiped his eyes, stretching the skin of his eyelids and cheeks as he walked away from Mabel. There was a single bench along the building they had just entered. He walked over to it, and sat back down.
"Mabel, this is big. Last time, it was just Cipher trying to use Grunkle Stan and Ford," Dipper continued as Mabel sat next to him, "We knew it was just people being controlled. Cipher is scary, but we know what to expect from him, you know? But we're alone now. It really is just us, no reinforcements coming, no cavalry. Now... this is something new for me, for us. I mean... what if this is bigger than Gravity Falls? What if there are more towns like this?"
"That would be freaky," Mabel shuddered. "But dude, we can't just-"
"I-" Dipper held up a hand, leaning back against the poor wooden construction. He took a deep breath. "I know. I do. I just needed a chance to blow off some steam, you know?" he explained, scratching his jaw absentmindedly as he looked to her.
She leaned against him. "I guess this can't be categorized as your every-day experience, huh?" Mabel laughed at Dipper, who smiled and laughed back.
BOOM.
Mabel and Dipper shot up from their seats.
It was pointless to search for the source of noise. The thrumming, sonic-blast of air that echoed around town shook windows and scared birds all at once. The twins craned their head high above, mimicking the masses of robotic creatures. Above them, far above their heads, was a massive... thing. Smooth and streamline, a shape started growing larger and larger from the sky. The stars above them then began to warble and ripple, like the twins were seeing the sky through disturbed water. The thing they saw moved like it copied the heavens behind it and wore the sky like a texture.
"Mabel," Dipper carefully asked his sister as they stared into the sky, "If I believed there was such a thing as a cloaking device, would that be what you'd call one?"
"Ten-outta-ten for cloaking device," Mabel nodded.
The stars and the night scar faded slowly away as a massive dark shape appeared high above the town. Easily the size of the entire town, the shape was finally fully revealed. A huge, rectangular mid-section was the primary weight of the object. Two mid-sections near one end were attached by a pair of corridors, keeping the two smaller rectangles close to the main shape. They were almost like fins. The entire object was distantly textured with metallic, smooth casing.
"Ohhhh man, it's a space ship," Mabel gasped, as a large blue light appeared at the bottom. It was a door: a huge door. It opened, and a smaller black object began to fly out, heading for the town. "I so, so, so, so, soooooo told you so."
"Shh!" Dipper started crouching, and running towards the corner he and Mabel had taken earlier. "Look!"
Dipper and Mabel stared as a large ship, easily the size of full cargo jet plane, fell towards the ground. It had a pointed front, but glided along its sides to form two distinctive wings, which curved upwards as it came closer to the ground. The craft was capable of molding its shape as it slowly came to a hover just above town. What started as a sort of bulbous and rounded object smoothed out and became far more streamlined as it approached the ground. Just before it arrived at town square, it halted, about fifteen feet or so off the surface.
"Bro," Mabel shook her head as a section of the large craft opened, and a long stairway descended downwards. The steps were detached, floating platforms large enough for one to step on. The last of these hovering platforms came to a stop just before the crowd of cyborgs. The cyborgs now all stared at the new craft.
Dipper finally looked at his sister. "What?" Dipper asked.
A bright light cast itself down on the ramps as a figure, clad in thick gear that covered it head to toe, started walking out. He looked like an astronaut; he even had a spherical headpiece with a tinted glass visor in the front.
"It's freaking aliens," Mabel poked the back of his head. He nudged her to quit it.
The person, after a few seconds of walking down the stairs stood before the crowd. A small beep emanated from the visor, and the tint dissolved into the glass. The alien, if it was an alien, appeared very human. Two dark eyes without a trace of white were imbedded just between a small, well chiseled nose. There was a tiny trace of an eyebrow above the eyes. The skin seemed somewhat course and roughly textured, but it was hard to distinguish the true appearance from the distance. The visor was reflected a lot of the light from the eyes of the crowd.
He started speaking and Mabel gasped. She understood him.
"Thank you for being so patient!" The figure called aloud, stunning Mabel, "My word, we've lost the ability to use mass-recall on targets this large. We're sorry you've had to wait this long." The robots stared blankly at him, but he didn't seem discouraged by their lack of response.
"What language is that?" Dipper asked, squinting to listen in.
"I don't know, but I understand it!" Mabel told him.
"What?" he demanded, and she 'shh'd him.
The astronaut looking man continued. "We're rather low on time with our current schedule, so we need to begin preparations for transport. Normally we would scan all of you now, but we can get to that once you're aboard the ship. Then we can wash you and place you back into relaxed state. I bet you all have been waiting for that for weeks."
"He told them they're not going to scan them before moving them into the ship," Mabel told Dipper.
"How... how do you know this?" Dipper demanded, "It just sounds like whistles and hisses to me."
"I don't know!" Mabel laughed quietly as they watched.
They heard him speak. Dipper had no idea what he said, but Mabel understood perfectly. "Now please remain where you are," The astronaut called, "When I return, I can begin count for the town, and we can head back into the ship. Thank you. I will return shortly!" the figure called out to them, and turned, heading up the stairs.
"He doesn't sound evil or anything, Dipper," Mabel said truthfully to her brother, "just like they're trying to collect them all."
"Then... Mabel," Dipper looked to her, a mad thought crossing his head, "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"
She looked from the hoard of robots, back to the twins. A smirk grew on her. "... Let's do it," she quietly declared.
The man in astronaut gear was still climbing away, back into the ship, when the twins rushed out of the cover by the corner and ran towards the crowd. They slid to a stop as they figure reached the top, flicking some switches and turning the stairs into an upwards escalator. Dipper and Mabel stabilized their breaths as the crowd slowly began to shift and budge themselves over, forming slowly a single file line.
"Get to the back," Dipper told Mabel as they walked slowly over to the end of the line. "We have to act like these guys now."
Mabel said, in her best robotic voice, "Copy that, roger-roger," she replied. Dipper scowled at her and she couldn't help but snicker. Dipper kicked her ankle, and she reset her expressionless face. "Reset complete," Mabel added quietly.
One by one the cyborg inhabitants of the small town took an individual step on the escalator and would rise upwards. It was an interesting process, as Dipper and Mabel watched. They were calmly and carefully entering a spaceship on some sort of highly-advanced escalator.
"Wait... oh no," Dipper realized a flaw in their plan," Mabel, we can't be seen!"
"Why? They aren't scanning us-"
"We don't have glowing eyes!" Dipper told her worriedly.
She gasped, the fear infecting her too. What would an alien do to trespassers? Vaporize them? Experiment on them? That was not something either of them intended to find out.
"Okay... okay, Dipper, this is a stretch, but I have an idea," Mabel told him. She reached inside her pocket, and pulled something out, holding it for Dipper to see.
His mouth fell open. "You have got to be kidding me," he told her.
The astronaut was counting off each of the arriving cyborgs lazily, barely checking them as they walked by. He really was just making sure it all was going smoothly, moving them inside the large craft before them. He didn't even notice as two extra passengers, with bright blue gummy koalas stuck to their eyes, walked past him and quickly scurried out of sight.
From behind them, they heard the stranger in astronaut gear speak to himself. Only Mabel understood the distance words of, "Looks like we're clear." He pulled out a small electronic pad and pushed a glowing hologram, the stepped back up the floating stairs. With each step he took, those floating steps floated back up with him until he walked inside the ship and the steps melded into the interior like it was living liquid. The astronaut turned back to the closing door once, scanning the town. The platform closed, cutting off the sight of Gravity Falls. He strolled inside the smooth, organic designed interior of the glowing hallway. As he walked past a small alcove, he failed to notice two figures huddled in shadow.
Dipper had removed the light-blue gummies, but Mabel was careful to keep her on. He was ready to say something to her, but at the sight of her candied eyes, he frowned. Dipper gave her a look, and bonked her head gently, shaking away the two stuck candies. Mabel glumly whined, "Aww, my koala-vision."
They watched the man walk down the main hallway. He approached some sort of doorway, which separated into four panels. On the other side seemed to be some sort of cockpit or control room. He stepped inside and the door closed rapidly behind him. As he vanished, Dipper and Mabel sighed. They were alone now.
They looked around. There were hundred and hundreds of seats, almost like shopping isles where the robots had taken a spot and sat down. Dipper and Mabel quickly spotted an empty row to themselves, further away inside the ship, and ran over.
Dipper studied the seat. After a moment, he hoisted himself on. "So," he muttered, "How does this thing work-" Dipper started as he sat down, but the moment his clothing touched the surface, four separate limbs reached out and connected themselves above his chest, locking him into place. "Gah! Okay, okay... I can move with these at least," he admitted, shifting in his seat a little.
Mabel took her seat more gracefully, letting the four limbs wrap around her quickly. She eased into the seat eagerly. To their left was a single window, which showed the beautiful night sky and horizon of Gravity Falls. Without so much of a single g-force, they suddenly watched the horizon leave and the night sky grow. It became very quickly evident that they were soaring into the sky, up through the atmosphere. Clouds passed by them in the blink of an eye. There were no longer in United States airspace. As they traced their progress, they realized that, just slightly in tow was the huge conglomeration of cylinders, floating along side the ship. Then they stuck out like celestial figures against the blackness surrounding them.
"Okay..." Mabel turned to Dipper, the color of her face going as they watched the stars grow brighter around them, "So, we're in space."
"Right. Space," Dipper replied, forcing sarcasm in spite of fear, "Exactly where I thought we'd be today."
From the edges of the window, they saw the growing shape of the space ship. It was enormous. A giant, space born creation that was smooth and elegant in shape. No numbers of identification of any kind dotted the surface, just a dim green and orange outline of stripes and circles.
"Those markings," Mabel said, "I've seen those before. When I passed out, I saw them."
"I hope you also saw a way to get home in that vision, Mabel," Dipper told her as they saw the edges of a wall of light circle around the ship, possibly a force-field. "Because I have no idea how we get back home from here."
"Don't worry," Mabel told him as the vehicle shifted, and they could see the bright inside of the ship, "We're going to get back. We're finally solving this mystery. And we're going to save everyone."
Merry Christmas, you freakin' animals! And a happy new year!
I'm going to re-iterate what's going on here, since this story has NEVER been updated in the middle of a week. Christmas and the next two days will have updates, concluding the first season of Return to Gravity Falls. After that, I'll be on a break for this story and be working on the next season in the background. Other stories of mine (and other's I'm working on) will still be updated, but this was taking up a lot of time, so this is a break I needed.
No author deaths for me this time of the year! *winks*
Seeya!
-EZB
Gravity Falls without people was a shell of small-town charm. Buildings without the unwittingly simple folk became graves of the past. It was so quiet. The air-conditioning units hummed away, drawing out the heat of their interiors and casting it out into the night. The buzz of fluorescent lights were without annoyed stares of people passing by. The cars were all off.
The woods were alive. The night still went on. Crickets and nightlife sang their sad song, alone without the buzz of human life. In the distance, the early rumblings of summer night thunderstorms churned at the air. Perhaps the next day it would rain?
There was no one left to see it. No one was in town.
The Mystery Shack, now Mystery Manor, was unattended. Mister Mystery, along with his employees, were gone. The hundreds of shards of glass cast outward from broken windows twinkled in the light of the sky, catching the glow of a small flying craft as it soared into the heavens above.
Would there have been anyone left to listen, they would have heard a small click click click of a rotating bike tire. Just down the road, a lone bike had spilled to the side by a very tall tree. Its tire steadily rotated with the gentle breeze. The storm in the distance roiled.
Rndb, hljkwlhv, brx fdq fdop grzq. Urerwv glg lqydgh dqg wdnh ryhu wkh zruog, brx zhuh uljkw. Fkloo.