"H-How long was I out?" A shivering Dipper asked and grabbed the spare pink blanket off his twin's bed.
"Four days."
Dipper stared her down with wide eyes, "WHAT?!"
She laughed a little, "Just kidding, we just got you home not too long ago. One hour, tops. What happened?"
"I have no idea..."
"I mean one second I was walking into town and then everything was fuzzy. My hands were…glowing," Dipper tried to put the experience into words as he stared blankly at his fingers, "Someone said I was a monster and…"
"Okay Dip, you're starting to freak Mabel out here," his sister stated, nervously pulling at her turtleneck while the two walked back into town. The boy stole one more look at his clearly normal palms and stuffed them deep into his vest pockets. He focused his attention on catching up to Mabel, who suddenly turned their casual pace into something more akin to a power walk.
He almost broke into a jog trying to match her speed, "Geez, Mabel. Calm down!"
"I can't calm down!" Mabel smiled brightly and flailed her arms excitedly, "C'mon! Candy and Grenda will be here any second now! I can't wait to hang out with them… As a TEENAGER!"
Dipper winced at her squeal and mumbled under his breath with crossed arms that matched his cross expression, "Of all the times Stan has to be responsible and make me go with her, it has to be this time."
"C'mon Dip. Stop being such a Grumpy Grump McGrumpinson," She started skipping around him, which slowed the ridiculous pace a bit.
"That's not even a word," He retorted and pointed out her friends, "Okay, there they are. Can I leave now?"
Mabel shook her head briskly, "Grunkle Stan said we have to stay together," She imitated the miserly old man, "You kids stick together. Can't have you two wandering around alone. Plus, I don't want one of ya coming home during my me time. I mean it. Now scram!"
The twins both shuddered, thinking of what 'me time' could mean to their great uncle as the two girls joined them.
"That's unsettling how well you can impersonate him," He knitted his eyebrows together in concern before a small smirk took over, "So where are we going anyway? Greasy's? Nature walk? Arcade? Please be the arcade, please be the arcade."
"Better! We're going to the Gravity Falls Mall!" Grenda boomed.
A horrific mix of fear and dread plastered themselves onto his face, "NOOOOO!"
Candy chimed in with a giggle, adjusting her glasses nonchalantly, "Yes. Instead of the magazine boys, we can find the real boys!"
"NOOOOO!" Dipper's concern for his sanity multiplied as he tugged the pine tree hat down tightly onto his messy brown hair and the rim pushed over his eyes. The three girls paid him no attention and gathered in an excited, tense circle before falling into a random fit of laughter and boy talk. Dipper, however, stood to the side, eyes darting everywhere possible in a frantic search for escape. Eventually he took off in a full sprint back toward the Mystery Shack. Even disrupting Stan's 'me time' would be better than this. Anything would be better than this.
The girls continued their trek toward their favorite store until Mabel created a wall with her shopping-bag-lined arms, effectively blocking her two best friends from treading any closer to the threat. The generally optimistic girl practically hissed under her breath upon seeing a blonde in the distance, always a step ahead of her two off-brand clones. The opposing trio swooped in quickly, like hawks to prey.
"Why if it isn't Maaabel. Nice sweater. Oh. I see it's an owl today. It's...original," the blonde laughed in perfect sync with her entourage as if they rehearsed it for weeks, "Oh and I see you brought Taffy and Grendel."
"My name is not Taffy. That would be ridiculous! It is Candy! Taffy is my sister."
"My name's Grenda, but at least you came close this time," Grenda replied with a downcast look to her pink shoes.
"Hey!" Mabel piped up, "Don't make fun of my friends. Or I'll, or I'll…"
"You'll what? Knit me to death?" Pacifica laughed again, this time even more condescendingly and Mabel clenched her hands together and dropped her bags to the tile, "Don't hurt yourself, hon."
The lighting shifted from the usual dull bluish fluorescent to one with a twinge of magenta. Upon closer inspection, the source glowed from Mabel's palms and eclipsed her irises. Pacifica's confidence wavered and she stepped back in synch with her friends, all putting up perfectly manicured hands in defense of their overdone faces.
A wisp of the pink light trailing from Mabel's hands gathered and grew behind her, swirling into the thought that weighed on her mind: a large owl that mimicked her sweater's design. As she jabbed her finger toward the silent trio in front of her, defending her friends, the light creature mirrored her actions with outstretched wings formed by the strange amorphous mist. Despite being cartoonish and bright on her tan sweater, the light bird loomed high over its creator, its looks reflecting a more realistic, threatening depiction. The blonde only managed to squeak out a few unintelligible broken syllables as she pointed to the light. At this point, the new teen had risen a tiny bit off the ground, propelling herself slowly toward her adversaries.
"What are you—" Mabel's flats met the ground gracefully and she turned around, only to see a faint outline of the owl before she lost concentration, forcing it to dissipate and fade back into nonexistence, "Woah. Did you see that?"
Candy and Grenda, still standing behind her, nodded silently with jaws dropped in response to her question. When she returned to facing her arch-enemies, she found they had disappeared just as quickly as the owl, sprinting for their lives toward an expensive boutique.
Mabel looked at her hands and grinned a metallic smile, "This is so cool! I can't wait 'til Dipper sees this! Oh man, he's gonna be sooo jealous!" Smirk growing ever wider, she clenched her fists dramatically and looked toward the sky, "The alpha twin rises again! ALPHA TWIN! ALPHA TWIN!"
She scooped up her shopping bags and continued on her way. Of course, she failed to notice the tall figure lurking in a nearby store behind a rack of children's clothing. A few worried mothers rushed up to the customer service desk with their offspring carefully guarded.
"Excuse me sir, SIR!" The tall brunette cashier with her hair pulled back demanded, "You're scaring the customers! I'm going to have to ask you to-"
He simply stared at her and her arms dropped to her sides, a blank look swept across her features as her eyes glowed a brilliant gold for a moment. She shook her head and glanced around, confused.
"You were saying?" He inquired.
She shrugged at the man in the cliché black trench coat. Leaving the store on his own accord, he smiled devilishly at his act and followed the three girls at a distance. Mabel was one of them now. And he couldn't have that.
Sorry about the ridiculous wait time... I've been working on this thing for months just trying to get the visuals right with some severe writer's block plaguing me. Hopefully you still remembered this story existed!