"And I am feeling so small.
It was over my head,
I know nothing at all.
And I will stumble and fall.
I'm still learning to love.
Just starting to crawl."
"Say Something," by A Great Big World.
Chapter 5 – The Way Our World Ends
"What am I even doing out here?"
The very last thing Dipper Pines wanted to do at the moment was wander around in the middle of nowhere. If anything, he wished that he was back at home in the Mystery Shack, curled into a tiny ball in his warm bed as he cried his eyes out at what had just occurred a few hours ago.
"I HATE YOU!"
The raised voice of Dipper's once-secret-crush, Wendy Corduroy echoed endlessly throughout the hollows of his mind. A living nightmare come true, the boy sighed to himself as he was forced to face the cold, hard facts: he had driven possibly the greatest person he had ever known out of his life forever.
Dipper could only replay the fateful scene and highlight his every mistake. Normally, he would have shrunk back at being attacked, especially by someone that he'd never expect, such as his gingered best friend. However, this time was different. Perhaps it was the stress of the almost-deadly trap he had fallen into the night before. Maybe he was finally fed up with having his nerves shot over what had happened at Lookpoint Point with Robbie V. Either way, Dipper had given in to his anxiety and anger, enabling him to go toe-to-toe with the furious redhead. By the time both teenagers had said their peace, feelings were hurt, bonds were broken, and each had fled from the Mystery Shack teary-eyed.
He was at a loss for words over the matter. What more did Wendy want from him? What was it that he simply couldn't see? Other than the impromptu bowling invitation, what was it that she (and Mabel) waited for him to apologize for?
"Sure," Dipper admitted to himself, "I'd be lying if I said I wasn't glad that Robbie was outta Wendy's life, but at the same time, was I supposed to leave things be? Just forget about what was hidden on that record, and leave her vulnerable and alone in his clutches?"
He raised his head to the sky and wondered exactly what the world expected from him.
Dipper shook his head in an attempt to shoo away all of the emotional turmoil. It was such that clouded his mind from seeing the current events in a scientific, practical matter. He could have sworn that he had seen his lumberjack sweetheart that night, seconds before being plunged into the Gravity Falls Lake. Oddly enough, Wendy had claimed been accosted by someone alleging to be him on the other side of town.
Perhaps if they weren't blinded by their resentment, they could have seen that something was wrong with this scenario instead of taking cheap shots at one another.
For this, Dipper found himself in the Gravity Falls Rail Yard, the site of Wendy's so-called attack, going up and down the tracks in search of any form of evidence that could shed some light on what truly happened. In spite of all of the hurtful things Wendy had said, or even how she felt about him now, Dipper could sense by the tone in her voice and the appearance of her glowing emerald eyes that there was a form of sincerity there.
"Either that," Dipper concluded. "Or she was going through some sort of mental breakdown…"
Nearly two hours had passed since Dipper had begun his search and he hadn't discovered a single clue. "Why am I doing this? Even if I find anything out here, what difference will it make? Either way, Wendy will still hate my guts." He asked if something was to come up, would he be content with being proven innocent, or simply toss the new-found truth in his cohort's freckled face.
He instantly regretted his snide comment; just another item to add to the on-going list. Dipper considered himself to be just as terrible in this circumstance. Granted, Wendy did tell him she hated him first, but he didn't have to return the favor. It had been a trivial, immature response to being told the worst possible thing that a loved one had ever said to him.
Despite her shouting, Dipper could easily tell that his comment wounded Wendy just as badly as she did to him. As he stormed out of the Gift Shop, the teen could see that the lanky girl was left on the verge of crying…
"…just like the other night, right?"
"Grr…" Dipper forced the negativity from his thoughts. This was why he was out there in the first place. Even though the chances were very slim, the mini-detective had to be sure that there wasn't anything that he had missed. For some reason, there was a lingering feeling in the back of Dipper's mind that he just couldn't shake.
"What the - ?"
Dipper sprinted down the path as his brown eyes made contact with an unusual obstruction amongst the worn-out metal bars. A mud-cover brown boot, nearly torn in two, was left embedded in the train tracks. He bent down for a close examination.
"Hmm…" Dipper tugged on the ruined shoe to see it was firmly pinned between the two iron rails. He traced the path of the tear with his fingertips, "It goes along with where the ankle – her ankle – would have been…"
The thirteen-year-old lifted his head to see another curious sight: tattered remains of a green flannel were wrapped around the rail switch across the way. He stood up and curiously walked over to the control, poking and prodding at the mechanism. After pulling the rod backwards, Dipper watched as the metal beams parted at long last, releasing the captive boot as it split into two.
He gulped at the possibilities as Wendy's story repeated in his brain. Things were starting to come together; something did happen there last night, to which his partner in crime barely escaped with her life.
"But the question that remains is why? Who would want to purposely hurt Wendy? And why would they want her to think that I did it?"
As if to answer him, an eerily-familiar voice called out to Dipper from behind, "Oh, come on, now! You pretend to be Mr. Know-It-All! Shouldn't you have already figured this out by now?"
Dipper slowly spun around, only to freeze up at the sight before his eyes.
"Whoa…"
"I shouldn't be out here in the first place…"
Wendy Corduroy pulled up to the dock at the edge of the Gravity Falls Lake. Securing her canoe firmly to the pier, she carefully climbed into dry land. Contemplating on the recent events, Wendy dangled her feet into the cooling waters beneath her; the icy feeling eased the painful, swollen mark on her right ankle.
As soon as she left the Mystery Shack, the fifteen-year-old hopped onto her fire-engine-red bicycle and with tear-soaked partial vision, blindly peddled deep into the Gravity Falls Forest. It didn't matter where the next destination was for as long as it was far, far away from this awful place.
After aimlessly riding around the wilderness for nearly an hour, Wendy figured that there really wasn't any other safer haven for her to go besides the sanctity of her own bed. The slender young adult slithered by her male-dominated household without being acknowledged in the slightest, in spite of the fact that she was silently sobbing to herself. Even though part of her didn't want to be bothered, the idea that her crushed feelings had been utterly ignored by all the men in her life yet again made Wendy lose more faith in humanity.
Crashing down onto her bed, Wendy buried her head deep into her pillow. She closed her moisten eyes, trying to ignore that she was hopelessly surrounded by the dreaded symbol of her once-secret admirer: an orange comforter covered in baby pine trees. Wendy wept into her cushion until her lifted her head in realization:
"This is exactly what I did last time…"
With a loud, somewhat messy *SNIFFLE*, the lumberjack princess flipped over onto her flannelled back, stared up at the splintered ceiling, and reflected on the past week in general…
After the incident at Lookout Point, Wendy walked away furious at both of "her boys." However, as the minutes passed, the once pleasant summer breeze had become a bitter frost. She clutched herself tightly as she involuntarily shivered heading through the woods. The teardrops traveling down her freckled face felt like ice. Wendy could barely see while enveloped in the darkness of the forest; thankfully, she had every path memorized like the back of her hand, so low visibility was barely a factor.
Before she knew it, Wendy found herself stumbling up the handcrafted porch leading into her house. The whole trip home had been a complete blur; her mind had been preoccupied by far more depressing matters.
Closing the heavy door behind her, Wendy leaned back against the entry and slumped downwards. She lowered her head onto her raised knees as she continued to quietly bawl into her plaid shirt. After a few moments, the muddled ginger looked up in embarrassment, figuring that her family must be viewing in awe as to why she had come bursting into the room, only to collapse into the floor in a watery mess.
To her surprise, Wendy discovered that she was all alone in her parlor. She could hear the raucous and hearty laughter of her three brothers in the next room over. At the same time, the redhead couldn't make out the booming shouting or snoring of her enormous father; a small sign that the giant lumberjack hasn't returned home from his nighttime ventures. It was there and then that she realized that during what was probably the worst night of her young life, no one in her family noticed or even cared that something was wrong.
Wendy shortly forced herself up the staircase leading to her bedroom. Making sure that the door leading outside was sealed tight, she simply fell straight into bed as the thought of being all alone in the world made her want to cry even more. Letting her mud-stained boots dangle from her socked feet and hit the floor with a hushed thud, Wendy raised her head towards the window, where despite the harsh cold outside, the stars hung throughout the sky still seemed to shine exclusively for her, just as they did at the beginning of the night.
As she continued to reflect upon the confrontation with Robbie and Dipper, Wendy shortly found her thoughts spreading out to every other failed relationship with a male in her life. She let out a heart found groan as she asked aloud:
"Why does this keep happening to me?"
Wendy understood the perceived role applied to her by society's less-than-fair standards: she was the town lumberjack's teenage daughter; the local, seemingly-invincible tomboy of local legend. Did that mean that it was wrong for her to have hurt feelings or to feel resentful when she felt wronged?
Her green eyes shifted back to the telephone stationed on the nightstand besides her bed. Any second, Wendy expected it to be ringing off the hook with endless calls from Robbie, begging and pleading for forgiveness. She anticipated hearing the sound of tiny pebbles tapping away at her windowsill, only to see Dipper outside, ashamed and willing to make amends in any way he could.
Despite waiting patiently for countless hours, Wendy didn't receive an answer on either front. The forlorn adolescent had never felt more alone in her short life than at that moment…
Wendy sat up from her bed. She had no intention of wallowing in half-slumber being held hostage by her emotions for days on end. The young adult could not get the image of her defiant devotee out of her head. Even though that she would admit that she had purposely said the worst possible thing she could to Dipper – the worst thing that she had possibly said to anyone ever – the last thing Wendy expected was for him to actually fight back
"I – I HATE YOU, TOO!"
She figured that she didn't have any right to feel bad, especially since her sentiment wasn't any better, but yet, it had strung her just as hard. However, something didn't seem right with his story. Amongst the short amount of time she had known the younger Pines twin, Wendy could easily take note of all of the nervous ticks and mannerisms of her friend, especially when placed into a nerve-wrecking situation. This Dipper was almost totally different. When being accused about what happened at the rail yard, he didn't budge a single inch when insisting towards his innocence.
Wendy also wondered about that business at the lake that Dipper had mentioned. She knew that the little sleuth had made a ton of enemies during his stay in Gravity Falls, but how many bad guys looked exactly like her?
Fed up with all of the questions loitering in her mind, Wendy lowered her legs to the ground and decided to head out towards the Gravity Falls Lake. While it would be a far way from repairing the damage caused between Dipper and herself, at least she would be able to clear her name and find out what the hubbub had been about.
The gingered lumberjack shuffled her legs through the cooling pond, noticing that her toes were becoming pruny. Her findings had left her even more confused than when she began her search. The only thing she found out of place was a solitary craft in the middle of the pond, with a smaller paddleboat at its side. Oddly enough, the inner liner of the ferry was filled with piles of shredded, multi-colored paper.
"But what does this all mean?" Wendy asked herself, recollecting her socks and boots, putting them back on one at a time; she had ditched the oversized footwear earlier, fearing that an accidental slip into the lake would weigh her down into the murky depths. "I can't make sense of any of this!"
A sinister cackle surrounded Wendy, making her twist around in trying to find out where it was coming from.
"Who would have "thunked" it? The kid was right! I guess you aren't as smart as you look!"
Wendy jumped to her feet and immediately heightened her guard, "Who's there?! Show yourself!"
As the laughter grew louder, the series of bushes out in the reserve each began to shake. The redhead put up her dukes, ready for anything that the world was about to throw at her. However, the distant, recognizable voice gave her goosebumps all down her long-limbed body.
Suddenly, a shadowy figure came out from the darkness. The gangly form staggered out from the shrubbery with its arms crossed, walking slowly yet confidently towards the stunned girl. Wendy's eyes widened at the incredible sight, making her lower her fists in disbelief.
"It can't be! You're…"
Dipper raised his hands and backpedaled away from the stranger that appeared out of nowhere.
"You're…You're me!"
The boy sneered at Dipper as he started to circle around his prey, "You could say that, but then again, I would consider myself a vast improvement over the original…"
The miniscule detective studied his stalker from head to toe. Spotting the same white and blue pine tree trucker cap as he wore, Dipper saw that his doppelganger had the exact outfit as him, from the dark navy blue vest to his black sneakers with short socks.
"His colors are off," Dipper noted. "It's almost like he's bleached or something like that. It makes me think of…"
"Don't you worry, Dipper," the replica jeered, "I'm not one of your cheap clones from the copy machine." He patted his chest proudly, "You're not going to be able to get rid of me with a splash of water."
"What – you're a mind reader?!"
"No," the copy admitted. "We just share the same mindset. Anything that you'd think of, I'd probably thought of hours beforehand. "It's like I said before: I'm a faster, stronger, and smarter version of you!"
"You're a smarter…" Dipper stuttered in disbelief. "NO!" He shook his head in disbelief. "It was you, wasn't it?" He pointed straight at the monster, "YOU attacked Wendy! If you were anything like me, you would never lay a hand towards her!"
"A few things to remember, Dip," the clone warned. "First off, she's your Wendy, not mine! And if anything, you should be thanking me! Especially after the way she treated you about this whole "Robbie" thing. Heck, if you think about it, that wasn't the first time that she threw you away like an old toy, wasn't it? Running her down with a freight train was probably the best thing I could have done for you!"
"Insane…That's insane! To think that I would –"
"And second," the double raised his hand, showing off another finger to illustrate his point, "Like I said before, that ignorant, self-centered gingered hick is NOT my Wendy!" His wicked smile only grew deeper, "I believe that you met her last night…"
The mere mention sent Dipper into a frenzy, "Wait a sec, you mean that…"
Wendy walked carefully towards the figure standing before her, "You're…"
"I'm you…" the girl replied as a smirk grew across her dimpled face, "At least, a better version of you!"
The teen overlooked the invader from top to bottom. The creature was an exact clone of herself! It had the same lengthy red hair; the same freckles in the exact spots they were supposed to be; even its green flannel shirt and mud-covered boots resembled the ones that were ruined the night before at the train yard. The only difference that Wendy could spot was that something was wrong with the overall color of the being, as if it was left out in the sun for a long time.
"What are you?" Wendy demanded, going back on the defensive, "Some sort of crazy stalker or something like that?" She held her hands up, "Look, sister. I'm really not in the mood for whatever weird thing you got going on…"
"I don't think you grasp the seriousness of the situation here," her twin explained. "I'm not some sort of tag-along trying to copy your style. I'm your replacement. Soon enough, the world will come to recognize me as Wendy Corduroy, and no one will be the wiser." She winked at Wendy, "After all, not even your precious, little Dipper was able to tell the difference, was he?"
"What does Dipper have to…?" Wendy paused as the puzzle pieces started to form in her head, "You're the one Dipper was talking about! YOU tried to drown him!"
The Wendy-clone let out a chuckle, "Guilty as charged, but question is, does it even matter? Think about it, did you actually care when that kid begged you to believe him? Of course you didn't! Deep down, that's who you really are!"
"That's not true, I just –"
"Pffp!" the evil-doer cut her off with a raspberry. "You can't lie to me! I AM YOU! I feel everything that you do! Your love! Your hurt! Your joy! Your sorrow! Every last thing! I know how much you care for him, and how he literally tore your heart into two! He wounded you worse than the stupid goth did, and you know it!"
The menacing mirror image crept ever closer. Greatly intimidated, Wendy found herself frozen in place.
"You wanted him to be taught a lesson for everything he's done. I simply obliged your darkest desire…"
Wendy finally found her voice, "If you were really me, you'd know that's the very last thing I've ever want. No matter what that little guy would ever do, I couldn't stomach the thought of a freak like you killing him!"
"Hmmph!" The reproduction sounded unimpressed by Wendy's dedication, "Fight it as you like. In a few minutes, it's not going to matter anyways…"
"What do you mean by that?!"
The imitation held her hands behind her back as she leaned forward threateningly, "You're not the only one with a little sidekick lapping at her heels. As we speak, he's making sure that Dipper isn't a problem to you, me, or anyone else for that matter ever again!"
"A sidekick?!" Wendy thought to herself. "What kind of –" She stopped dead in her tracks as the awful truth became apparent, "There's a second Dipper! He's the one that attacked me last night!"
"You – You witch!" The infuriated redhead pulled her fist back and delivered a punishing hook to her clone's extended head, "If you think I'm going to let you creeps hurt him, then – OWWW!"
A rush of tremendous pain flowed through Wendy's hand, forcing her to recoil in agony. She glanced down to see that her right limb had turned a bruised red.
"What was that?! It felt like I punched a concrete wall!"
Wendy looked ahead to see that her copy wasn't even the slightest bit fazed by her counter. The supernatural being simply cocked her neck back and chortled in amusement. However, the blow had left its mark. A thin cut ran down the spotted check; Wendy narrowed her green eyes at the usual sight in front of her:
Instead of oozing red blood, a series of flowing pixels came flowing forth from the injury. The bizarre spectacle opened a window within Wendy's consciousness. She had seen something like that happen before.
"But where?" she asked herself.
Countless images flashed before her; scenes that she had believed to be nothing more than fragmented dreams played out with precise detailing: being pulled through the arcade cabinet screen by the kung fu guy from Dipper's favorite game; racing from gaming world to gaming world in search of her missing friend as well as a way out; watching Dipper and Robbie duel in a simulated hand-to-hand battle while she was hung helplessly dozens of feet above the ground; fighting neck to neck with Dipper against the greatest evil the gaming universe could muster – the final obstacle between them and their last escape!
Wendy remembered leaving the arcade with Robbie, turning around to see Dipper staring at her, his brown eyes as big as saucers, pleading with her not to believe the dishonest goth, imploring her to please stay with him. She placed his tiny hand in hers, and smiled, asking him to trust her; that nothing would be forgotten nor would ever be the same between them.
The Wendy-clone nodded along with the newly-recovered recollections, as if she could read her thoughts as they came to pass.
"Oh, man…it was real! It was all real!"
Growing somewhat frantic, Wendy retreated away from her newly-revealed foe, "You're not human! You're some type of monster from one of those games, aren't you?!"
The immoral girl snapped her fingers. Abruptly, the air behind her started to terra-form, spreading out into small patches of formulating pixels. The blocks quickly spread out into various shapes. When the dust cleared, an army of henchmen formed behind the deriding fiend.
Wendy gulped at the motley crew that set her in their sights. White-robed lizardmen unsheathed their swords in preparation. Camouflaged masked warriors spun their chain and sickles with expert precision. From the soft earth, half-human, half-cockroach beings rose up, buzzing and clicking at their enclosed quarry.
"It's quite a shame, Gwendolyn," the replica commented, as her group closed in on Wendy. "If only you'd listen to him in the first place, maybe then you would have had a chance to save this world!"
"…there's a Wendy clone, too?!" Dipper squeaked in disbelief.
"Yep," his doppelganger prided. "That's my baby-boo! And when you two are wiped from this world, we will blissfully take your place and live our lives to the fullest!"
"Your lives?!" Dipper questioned. "You're stealing what's rightfully ours, and –" He shook as he tried to comprehend the horrid fate the mysterious life form had in store for him and his crush, "And I don't even know what you are! Are you magic? Some sort of shadow brought to life? What is your deal?!"
"My, my, so many questions, and so little time…" The Dipper-clone snapped his fingers, making a colorful cloud appear out of nowhere. The boy squint his eyes, only to repel backwards upon seeing the truth:
"It's not a cloud; it's millions and millions of pixels! Like what you'd see in a video game…"
Dipper flashbacked to when his redheaded sweetheart and him were at their closest, ensnared inside of the trap Rumble McSkirmish had set for them. He had seen the same imagery a dozen times before: when the gaming universe wished to alter something to its preferences, like a spontaneous costume change or as a defeated enemy vaporized into midair.
"You're…from the arcade!" He tripped over his tongue, "But that's impossible! Mabel destroyed the "Fight Fighters" machine! How did you break into the real world?!
"…and the last horse crosses the finish line…" the Dipper-clone mocked, breaking out into a laughing fit. A wave of horror overcame the small lad as he heard the hilarity grow in numbers!
From out of the vapor, a small battalion of demonic creatures came forth into the world. Pumpkin-headed imps with rows of jagged teeth playfully juggled their razor-shaped blades with one another. Small elfish beings rolled themselves up into tiny balls, bouncing about menacingly in place. Hunchbacked barbarians donning worn blue armor looked up at the surprised boy with sad, glowing eyes while tightly clutching their dulled swords underhand.
"You might as well as give up, Dipper," the depraved imitation warned, "You're outnumbered, overpowered, and seriously outclassed at every turn!"
Left with no other options, Dipper realized that his only chance at survival was to plan a hasty retreat. He immediately spun around and dashed towards the train car graveyard in hopes of eluding his persuaders. Growing breathless, Dipper ducked behind an immobilized freight as a voice called out in a sing-song fashion:
"Dip-per? Oh, Dip-per? Come out, come out wherever you are!" The tone came closer, "Don't you worry; this won't hurt one bit…"
The cornered teenager peeked around the edges of the freight to try to find which direction the band was coming from.
"If it makes you feel any better, you'll be able to see Wendy again before our master does away with you two. Come on, man! Don't you want to tell her "good-bye" before it's too late?"
In all of the commotion, Dipper had nearly forgotten all about his one-time secret love. She was as much a part of this as he was, even if Wendy refused to believe this was real. Was her life in danger as well? He kept in mind how Rumble and the other digital villains threatened to devour Wendy's life force, believing that they would gain the strength to break through the virtual barrier and become living, breathing beings by doing so.
"But, wait," Dipper concluded, "That doesn't make sense. These things are already here in the real world, so what could they possibly want with her – with us? And who is this master he's talking about?!"
Either way, he knew that if the villains were to overtake him now, there wouldn't another chance to figure out what was happening yet alone be able to stop it!
*HHHHHHHHIIIIIIIIIISSSSSSSSSSSSS!*
Dipper looked around, trying to locate the source of the ear-piercing sound, "What is that?!"
All of a sudden, a ghoulish head popped up from beneath the car Dipper was leaning against. The elfin rogue hissed, exposing its venomous fangs at the startled lad. Dipper flinched at the manic red eyes glaring at him, only to notice a moving blue blur at the last moment.
"BAH!"
He dropped down to his knees, painfully scrapping them on the loose gravel that made up the ground. Dipper looked up to see that he had just missed being struck by the dull dagger of one of the barbarian ogres.
"No, you fools!" The Dipper-clone shouted from the distance. "ALIVE! We need him alive!"
Finding himself pinned once again, the brown-haired boy scanned the area for any means of escape.
*WOOOH! WOOOH!"
The dirge of a thunderous horn boomed throughout the empty lot. Dipper looked over the horizon to see that a lone train was slowly making its way towards town. A gleam of hope entered the heart of the defenseless child as he noticed that the doors of the boxcar were left wide open.
"If only I could reach it, the train could take me back home. There would be no way those things could catch up…"
Relying on pure instinct, Dipper nodded to himself and dashed towards the slow-witted indigo giant. Before the colossus could react, the tiny teen slid beneath its legs, and sprang up, bolting towards his last chance at freedom as it continuously sped down the rails.
"You idiots are letting him get away! Stop him NOW!"
Dipper didn't dare look back at his chasers. His knees ached like crazy. His lungs felt as if they were on fire. Nonetheless, he persisted towards his goal, sprinting on the balls of his feet. Running aside the open caboose, Dipper hesitated for a split second, making sure to judge the correct distance, before exhausting the last of his energy with a leaping grasp at the opening.
His midsection collided with the edge of the freight; Dipper's sneakers dragged against the ground as he struggle to pull himself onto the freight. With a strained groan that rose up from his chest, Dipper pushed up and rolled into the empty car, colliding with the metal wall inside.
Feeling completely drained, Dipper remained upside down as he laid still caught his breath. He closed his eyes, the gentle vibrations of the train offering a form of comfort to his weary body as he tried to figure out what to do next…
Wendy took a pace back, only to catch herself at the last second. The mysterious copy and her lackeys had forced her to the last peg of the wooden dock; another inch would drop her into the bottom of the Gravity Falls Lake. Faced with no other choice, the ginger decided to toss all caution to the wind; if she was to go out like this, then she would like a true Corduroy…
"Y'know," Wendy informed her copy, "Even though you claim to be exactly like me, you just made a serious mistake; one that's definitely going to cost ya…"
"Oh, really?" the ringer answered, placing her hands on her hips, "And what's that?"
Wendy met her clone face-to-face, "No one, and I mean NO ONE; not Dipper or even my family…"
The lumberjack delivered a lightning-quick knee to the counterfeit's bread-basket, making it keel over in shock.
"…gets to call me Gwendolyn!"
Seeing that she had an opening, Wendy hopped up into her clone's shoulders, and into the crowd behind them. Despite her kneecap swelling up because of the hardened blow, she jumped from head to shoulder blade and onwards until she landed behind of the swarm.
Taking a look over her shoulder, Wendy watched as the minions wandered confusedly, unaware of what had just happened.
"Ugh!" the Wendy-clone moaned, trying to recover, "Seize her, you morons! Don't let her escape!"
Without taking a second glance back, Wendy raced towards the forest. The stomping behind her served as a reminder that her attackers were directly in hot pursuit. Narrowing between the mighty timbers, Wendy raised her sights to the green skylines above her.
"Just maybe….taking the high road would give me a better chance…"
The athletic redhead leapt to the highest plateau, using the faltering branches as narrow steps. Wendy leaned back against the mighty redwood, the color of her outfit providing the perfect natural camouflage. She glanced down to see the invaders running pass underfoot.
Hoping from tree to tree, Wendy searched around for her one hope at escaping her pursuers. Her red mountain bike was safely nettled against a tree trunk a few tree over. Figuring that she was already out of danger, she skipped to the next timber, only to have her boot slip off of the next branch. Wendy wrapped her upper body around the bough a split second before she started her descent
"OOF!"
She bit her cheeks in an attempt to silence herself. The last thing that she needed was to give her position away. The teenager tried to pull herself back upwards, only to find that she was unable to lift her foot a single inch. Wendy turned around to see that a thick chain was wrapped tightly around her right ankle. She followed the links back to the ground, leading to the hands of one of the masked henchmen.
"OVER THERE! SHE'S UP IN THE TREETOPS!"
The menace yanked harder on the line, hoping to drag the evading girl down to earth. Wendy clutched the stem tighter, sending it painfully into her chest. She fought to kick her leg free but the chain had snagged her firmly; its blade had missed her soft flesh by mere inches.
*THWANG!*
Wendy's green eyes focused on the new object in front of them. It was a mini-dagger belonging to the lizardmen; quite possibly a lost projectile that had missed its mark. Gripping the branch steadfastly with one arm, she removed the embedded rapier, and with careful accuracy, hurled it at her captor.
As the weapon hit the henchman, it began to flash an array of different colors before exploding into a pile of pixels.
"Whoa!" Wendy thought to herself, "It's just like what happened to the bad guys when we were inside of the game machine – but I'm still in the real world…"
"Aren't I?"
Now seated on the branch, Wendy pulled up the long strap and unwrapped it from her boot. Hurling towards the tree where her bicycle was parked beneath, she threw the cable around its trunk and used it to quickly slide downwards. About halfway down, the sickle blade became caught in the wooden depths, forcing the determined girl into the soft bushes below.
Somewhat dizzy by the fall, Wendy stumbled towards her vehicle. She buckled her helmet as she peddled away from the now-dangerous wilderness.
"AFTER HER! WE CAN'T LET HER GET AWAY!"
Wendy swerved between the trees until she found herself back on the set trail. Unsure of what to do at the moment, the cautious high-schooler decided it would probably be safest to head towards town rather than take her chances all alone in the woods…
Dipper sat curled in a small ball as he watched the world pass him by from the open door of the moving freight car. Gently rocking himself back and forth, the thirteen-year-old tried his best to come to terms with what had just happened.
"As if things couldn't get any worse," he lamented. "Evil clones, video game monsters invading the real world…" Dipper raised his head to the sky, wanting to beg and plead with the fates to why was he was continuously punished over and over again for a mistake that he wasn't exactly sure he made!
The vague comments made by his wicked double made Dipper focus on his redheaded co-worker. Why did he bring her up in the first place? What did the mastermind controlling the clones want with them? Was Wendy in as much danger as he was?
Despite his mixed feelings, Dipper thought about jumping off the moving platform, and hurrying towards Wendy's cabin out in the woods and warning her of the impending danger coming.
"I wouldn't ask for your help in the first place! But the same goes for you. When someone picks on you, or there's a really, really high shelf that you can't reach, remember that you're on your own!"
Wendy's words during their heated argument came back to haunt him. "Even if she didn't hate me, Wendy still believes that everything was a dream! I have no idea how I could get her to talk to me, yet alone try to convince her that all this stuff just happened!"
The gears started to turn in Dipper's head as he quickly formulated an idea, "Well, chances are, after cooling her jets for a while, Wendy probably headed back to the Shack for the rest of her shift. I can stay close and keep an eye out for any other weird stuff without her being none the wiser…"
He let out a depressed sigh as the degrading plan made him nostalgic for the old days, when the spitfire ginger would believe anything that came out of his mouth.
"It may not be much, but for the moment, it'll have to do…"
*BANG!*
Dipper rose to his feet, looking around for where the sound was coming from.
*BANG!*
He peeked outside of the train, only to find nothing threatening. The empty countryside was replaced with the small shops and buildings of civilization. He was back at his summertime home of Gravity Falls. Relieved, Dipper turned back around, only to be attacked by an entity shooting out of the darkness.
"AAAHHHH!"
The frightened sleuth fell from the train onto a small, green hill. He rolled head over heels, becoming heavily coated with grass and dirt until landing excruciatingly at the very bottom. Staring up at the sky in a daze, Dipper could make out a black, flying object darting towards him at an alarming speed. He moved away at the last second, and simply stared at the far-fetched display in front of him.
A grey-haired hawk flapped its wings in perfect harmony as it surveyed over the tiny adolescent with dark, pupil-less eyes. Its razor-sharp talons were pointed outwards, ready to pounce on top of the earthbound lad.
"I was pushed out of a train…by a bird?!" Dipper mused. "What kind of sick mind thinks of this sort of thing?"
All of a sudden, Dipper recoiled as a series of strings traveled alongside his back. He spun around to see another eagle, a blackened variant, with its claws covered in fluff and shreds of his navy blue vest.
"Wha…"
The two birds rose into the sky, circling their selected prey, and exchanging a series of squawks. Without any warning, they drove down in conjunction, each making Dipper skip away bit by bit.
"Now, wait – hang on a sec – this isn't fair!"
Left without another option, Dipper took off towards town in hopes of finding some type of safe haven from the flying menaces overhead. Hearing the afternoon sky grow all too quiet, he looked behind him for an answer…
*CRASH!*
Wendy sped up as she finally made her exit from the Gravity Falls Forest and entered the small township considered to be their "downtown." As she passed by the various buildings, the girl felt a sense of relief, thinking that the creatures wouldn't dare attack in such a populated area. Her thoughts shifted to that of her former companion.
"I gotta - *HUFF-PUFF* - I gotta talk to Dipper! He'll know what to do – how to deal with these -"
Wendy stopped in mid-notion, as she realized that wasn't an option anymore.
"Just remember the next time something super-crazy comes to get you, I'm not going to be there to get you out of another jam!"
The flannel-donning lumberjack figured it to be just her luck that something of this caliber were to happen during the one time she had a spat with Dipper. While Wendy could easily fend off anything the gaming world could toss at her, she had no idea on where to begin in finding out the source of the problem or how to rid the world of the menace permanently. Usually, her young admirer would have the know-how on doing such amazing tasks while she provided him with much needed muscle for backup.
Thinking more and more about their previous adventures made the freckled-face girl realize how big the pine-tree-shaped hole in her heart really was.
"Maybe," Wendy plotted, "I can always head for the Shack and act like I'm going back to work or something like that. I'm sure that for whatever's going on, Dipper's probably ten steps ahead of these guys…"
Her mind quickly turned negative, "What if he won't listen? Things definitely did get messed up between us; I wouldn't be surprised if he tells me to go get lost….NAH! This is Dipper we're talking about! He's way more mature than to –"
A green shadow jumped down from a nearby rooftop, landing a few feet in front of the speeding bicyclist. Wendy swerved to the side at the last possible second, letting out a distressed shriek.
*SCREECH!*
Spinning off course, the super tall teenager had crashed into a fire hydrant, sending her flying over the handlebars and onto the cold, hard concrete. Luckily for her, the thick helmet on top her red crown shielded her from any serious trauma.
"Aw, man…" Wendy bemoaned, "Everything hurts!"
She sat up, the various scuffs and bruises making their stinging presence known, and struggled to remove her headgear. Wendy let the helmet drop to the floor, grabbing the side of her head as it pounded loudly. She opened her eyes to see someone approach her.
"Thanks, but I'm okay!" Wendy held out an arm to maintain her personal space, "I just had a wicked wipeout. Give me a sec, and I'll be back on my –"
The figure continued in her direction, regardless of her request. Wendy looked upwards to see that it was a green-wrapped ninja wielding an extended katana sword. Its pure white eyes narrowed themselves on the fallen redhead attempting to make it to her feet. Three more warriors dropped down besides it, each giving off the same intimidating stare.
Without a second thought, Wendy regained her balance and took off in the opposite direction. She ran down Main Street, surprised that no one seemed to be around to see the madness chasing after her relentlessly.
"Where is everybody?!" she asked herself. "It's like they knew to head for the hills before trouble came!"
Wendy turned around to how far behind the ninjas were when suddenly…
*CRASH!*
Knocked the ground for the second time in a row, Wendy rose up to see what exactly she had bumped into this time. At the other side of the street, her former friend Dipper Pines laid groaning with the breath knocked out of him.
"DIPPER?!"
At the sound of the familiar voice, Dipper threw himself up to confirm his suspicions.
"WENDY?!"
The duo stood up at the same time as they tried to over-talk one another:
"Are you alright?! What is going on?!"
Seeing that they were getting nowhere, Wendy held up her hands to halt the over-excited boy, "One at a time!"
"Wendy, you gotta listen to me," Dipper warned. "Something's bad coming this way! We have to get out of here before it's too late!"
"No kidding!" she replied, "I have a whole band of ninja-freaks trailing me and –"
Wendy stopped in mid-sentence as something caught the corner of her eye. An expression of pure and utter horror quickly overcame her dimpled face.
"What?" Dipper asked, "What is it?!" He turned his head to see that the two factions of video game themed minions had merged to become one vicious mob!
"C'mon!" Dipper seized Wendy by her hand, and started to head in the opposite direction, only to be halted by another group of monsters. The two teenagers were completely surrounded!
Trapped, Dipper and Wendy found themselves back-to-back as the fiends moved in even closer. Still gripping the minuscule detective's hand tightly, she asked with a hint of sincerity in her voice, "You…You do have a plan to get out of this mess, right? I mean, you always do with these sorta things…"
"Um," Dipper confessed, somewhat embarrassed "…not really."
"Where did all of these things come from? And what do they want from us? What did you do?!"
"I'm not sure. They seem to be following – HEY! Wait a sec!" Dipper pulled his hand away from hers, "What makes you think this is my fault?!"
"Hold on; I didn't mean it like that! It was a slip of the tongue!"
"Yeah, right! I'm sure that's exactly what you meant! These guys are after you too, you know!"
"What?! Are you trying to say that I did this?!"
"ENOUGH!" A horrifying roar ricocheted throughout the empty street, bringing the bickering between the two former friends to a halt. The sky above them instantly grew a grayish black. The once-sunny and bright day was replaced with thunder and lightning within mere seconds. The ground shook violently beneath their feet; a small, but deep crack spread out in their direction, as if to purposely separate them from one another.
Their eyes focused on a circle of small flames that appeared out of nowhere. The tiny blazes slowly came together, revealing a threatening giant of a figure donning metallic armor from head to toe. Its pointed helmet concealed its face, showing only soulless colorless eyes that centered solely on the prey in front of it.
As the being touched down to the earth, it pulled what appeared to be a colossal sword from the flowing magenta cape on its back. Dipper quickly studied the blade, unsure what to think about its unique structure, "It…doesn't resemble anything remotely human. It's almost reminds me of an oversized tooth, like if it was crafted from a dragon's fang or something like that…"
"Even now, in your final hour," the Emperor bellowed, "I find you overly-concerned in your disgusting, ever-some petty human feelings!"
Without taking her emerald eyes off of this newest foe, Wendy whispered downwards to Dipper, "What is that thing?"
Doing the same, Dipper leaned closer to his crush, "I think…that's their leader! The one that made all of these guys in the other dimension!"
"I look at you," the demon ridiculed, rotating its blade with great skill, "And find myself asking, "This is the great team that overthrew some of the worst that my world had to offer?" You two, whom were so easily manipulated and deceived?"
From behind the hulking figure, the Wendy and Dipper clones appeared, each sporting a sinister smile, only to stand at a side of their creator.
The adolescents' eyes widened at the appalling sight, "There really was two of them!"
"Heh!" the evil dictator laughed at their surprise, "It was far too easy to have my creations come and break the bond that links you together. Take no solace in the fact that it was not I who has defeated you, but 'twas your own mistrust and reservation of one another that has not only doomed yourselves, but your entire race as well!"
Wendy and Dipper remained silent. Finding some truth in what the villain said, they glanced at each other, only to look down at their feet in humiliation and regret.
"If only you were wise enough to look beyond your matters of the flesh, you might have seen something wrong with the outside world, as my power grew, and my armies invaded into your world piece by piece. However, you do have my extended thanks for that, for without you, children, the gateways bridging our dimensions would have never been opened in the first place!
"Wait," Dipper asked, "What did we –"
"Now, hold on a second, pal!" Wendy argued, "I didn't open anything – "
Ignoring their inquires, the dictator narrated on, "Nevertheless, my time, as well as yours, is growing thin…" Thrusting the massive sword into the firm ground, he extended both of his arms and snapped his fingers.
Two portals materialized into the atmosphere; one behind each of the teenagers. Wendy and Dipper immediately recognized the odd sights, "It's like the ones we used to get around in the game!"
"The time for playthings has passed. Say farewell to each other, children, for this will be the last that you shall see of one another!"
Without warning, the surrounding horde swarmed over the defenseless teenagers, pulling them apart and dragging them away in different directions
"NO! Let go of her! WENDY!"
"What are you – get your mangy mitts off of him! DIPPER!"
Inches away from their individual portals, both friends looked over at the other. As their eyes met, they knew that there was little they could do to stop what was going to come next. Sharing the same mindset, they called out over the roar of the crowd, hoping that each would be able to hear their final words.
"DIPPER!"
"WENDY!"
As they were thrown into their respective portals, one last mutual sentiment was shouted out from each side:
"I'M SORRY!"
Upon claiming their victims, the portals evaporated back into thin air, the Emperor gripped the handle of his sword, "Now that that matter's taken care of…"
He raised the chaotic rapier into the air, "We begin our conquest of this sordid world. Our first achievement: the takeover of this mountainside village!"
A series of applause, cheers, and howls erupted from the mob, as the sleepy town of Gravity Falls remained unaware of the imposing danger that was positioned to strike.