Tales Of The Flame & The Ax: A Shooting Star Falls Story
Part Twelve: The Catalyst
Opening a door that led to the basement, a shadowy figure flipped on a light switch and made his way down a long set of creaking wooden steps. The gentle whooshing of computer fans and soft clacks from a keyboard echoed off the concrete walls of the subterranean room. Seated at a console, Dr. Jennifer McGucket was hard at work on what had become the crowning achievement of her still young career as a scientist. After the unexpected passing of her father Tate, the young woman had been taken in by her grandfather Fiddleford and soon followed in the slightly eccentric man's footsteps. After graduating early from the world-famous Washington Institute for Technology, she returned to Gravity Falls as an apprentice for her Grandfather and his friend Stanford Pines. Although she was gifted, the young woman was drowning in debt and feared that she may have to delay her research to remedy her financial situation. Just as she had resigned herself to her fate, a representative for an unnamed Senator contacted her about an important project.
"I should have known that those gatdanged gnomes would let me down..." The Senator grumbled to himself as he descended the final few steps; a glass of whiskey in his hand. "Like Daddy said... Always have a plan B" he continued before taking a sip of the bitter liquor. He placed his glass down on the console of Dr. McGucket as he walked past it; soon finding himself standing between a pair of glowing green tubes. The glass enclosed structure to his right held a boy who looked to be ten years of age and sported a head topped with white hair. To his left in the other chamber was a teenage girl; a long ivory mane cascading down her bare back. "I'm so terribly sorry that I have to wake you before I can make this world perfect enough for you, but desperate times call for desperate measures" the suit clad man said as he placed his palms onto the glass that held the children. "Dr. McGucket, how long do we have until full animation is achieved?" the Senator inquired as he made his way over to the console. "About another hour or so, sir" she replied as her fingers continued to furiously peck away at the keyboard in front of her. "Wonderful!" the somewhat portly man exclaimed.
"Let me know when the moment is near, I want to be here when they wake up..." the elected official requested; picking up his glass of whiskey and taking another sip of it. "Of course, sir" she dutifully replied as the man made his way back up the stairs to attend a teleconference with his fellow lawmakers. "I really wish he would have given me more time to re-calibrate the simulation..."the young woman grumbled as she lifted her fingers from the keyboard and stretched her arms over her head. She had written a program that would allow the children to live a seemingly average life and be none the wiser that they had been clones of their father. Now, she had to figure out a way to have them exit the simulation and transition to reality as seamlessly as possible. Having only been cloned three years ago, the program ran at accelerated pace to keep up with their growth. The children lived in a virtual version of Eagle Creek, a town about thirty miles to the west of Gravity Falls, so the move would be believable to the kids. Taking a sip from a Big-Chugg cup containing a mixture of vodka and Pitt Cola, she once again placed her fingers to the keys to make her boss' dream a reality.
Meanwhile, Candy and Grenda had arrived at Gravity Falls Regional Medical Center to check on their daughter's condition. While Tambry had explained the situation to the best of her abilities, there were still a few questions that they wanted answers to. Walking through the automated front doors, the couple noticed the group of teenagers that occupied the waiting room of the emergency department. "Hey guys!" Grenda greeted the group in her trademark deep tone of voice. "Hey Mrs. Grenderson-Chiu!" Mabel cheerily replied as she stood up from the floor where she had been playing a board game with Alessandra and Pacifica. "So, any idea what happened to Grendy?" the somewhat concerned mother inquired. "Well, to be honest, I kinda woke up halfway through it... All I know is that Courtney tried to wake up Grendy and ended up getting headbutted in the chin..." the ginger girl replied. "There was a ton of blood! On their clothes... All over the tent... It looked like a scene out of some horror flick..." Pacifica chimed in with a bit too much glee in her voice. "Candy will fall down now..." the Korean-American woman said as she began to sway back and forth; her already pale skin losing whatever tone it had. "Can-Can!" Grenda exclaimed before helping to guide her to a chair. "W-What happened?!" a concerned Pacifica asked as she looked over at the woozy woman. "It's totally not your fault, because you didn't know, but Candy doesn't like blood at all... The very mention of it is enough for her to get like this..." the tall and muscular woman informed the brunette teenager. "Dude, I am so sorry..." Pacifica apologized. "It is okay... You did not know..." Candy reassured her as she began to recover.
A few moments later, Tambry exited from the Emergency Department, hand in hand with the injured teen girls. "Grendy!" Grenda and Candy said in unison as they rushed towards the lanky brunette. "What happened?!"the booming voice of Grenda inquired. "Let's take a walk and I'll tell you guys all about it..." the young woman said as she hugged both of her parents. "I'm glad you're okay..." Pacifica said to her former bully as she pulled her in for a hug. "Well, I wouldn't call these seven stitches 'okay', but we'll just agree to disagree on that..." Courtney said as she reciprocated the kind gesture of her cousin. "By the way, I like that streak you put in your hair... It's kinda different..." the ginger girl commented; a look of pure confusion forming on Pacifica's face as she wondered what her relative had meant. "What streak?! I don't have any streaks in my hair!" the brunette teen said with panic. "Yeah, you totally do... Either that or you really need to manage your stress better, cuz..." the ginger girl retorted. "I-I'll be right back..." Pacifica said as hastily she made her way to the bathroom. "Pfft... She's just screwing with me... I'd know if I had a streak in my hair... Unless... Nah! Mabel would never do something to my hair without asking me first... Or would she?!" the fifteen-year-old thought aloud as she opened the door to the restroom and walked towards the large mirror that hung above three porcelain sinks. "What the fuck?" the brunette whispered in disbelief as she spied the silver tuft of hair her cousin had noticed. "I swear to God, if Mabes did this to me..." she began to say before catching a better look at it. "You know... It actually doesn't look half bad. Maybe I can rock this..." she said as an air of confidence came over her.
"So... I have a question for the both of you..." Grendy began with trepidation seeping from her voice; a nervous sweat forming on her brow. "Sure!" Grenda cheerily replied as she turned to face her daughter. "So... I-I'm, like, seeing someone now..." the tall teenager stumbled over her words; afraid of how her parents would react. "Really?! Who?!" Candy excitedly inquired. "Well... I-It's Courtney... Courtney Corduroy!" Grendy blurted out as she felt the immense pressure leave her soul. "For real?! You used to not care for her... Didn't you?" a confused Candy asked. "Y-Yeah... But ever since the whole ballfield incident she's been a completely different person. S-She's not so bad when she's not being mean... I-I had this huge crush on her and almost asked her out to Spring Formal... B-But there was something else going on too..." the young woman explained before taking a deep breath. "Mateo?" Grenda asked. "Y-Yeah! How'd you know?!" the fifteen-year-old asked in a perplexed tone. "Let's just say that it's a mother's intuition" the thirty-two year old woman replied. "That and the wayward look you get in your eyes whenever he's near..." Candy added as a somewhat annoyed look came over her partner's face. "Well, I-I ended up kissing Courtney the first day we were there and while I had a bit of crush on her before... I still had one on Mateo as well... Luckily, Courtney was cool enough to cook up a plan with me so that we could get Mateo away from Lucas for a minute. It worked and I kissed him too! I-I really liked it, but not any more than when I kissed Courtney. Now I'm going out with both of them and I'm so confused!" Grendy said as she clutched her head in frustration. "I could see why..." Grenda replied to her daughter. "Perhaps you could go on separate dates with them and see who you like best" Candy suggested. "Y-Yeah... I was just so afraid of losing them both that I kinda rushed into the agreement we have. Maybe I just need to take a step back and go about this in a more logical way..." the slender fifteen-year-old agreed.
Pacifica had rejoined her friends as Tambry checked Courtney out of the hospital. "Lovin' the hair, sis!" Mabel said as she shot her twin a thumbs up. "Yeah! It's really pretty!" Alessandra agreed. "Thank you!" the brunette thanked them. The remaining teens loaded up into Tambry's minivan and headed back towards the Mystery Shack, where they would be reunited with their parents. "Everybody have a good trip?" The violet haired woman behind the wheel asked as she looked into the rear-view mirror. "Yeah! I got to see lots of cool animals!" Alessandra shouted from the second row. "I got some good fishing in with my best bud!" Mateo replied. "Yeah... It was nice to just take a break from everything..." Pacifica noted; keeping the fact that she had practiced casting spells to herself. "I got to use some of the first aid skills Grandpa Dan taught me, so that was pretty neat!" Mabel chimed in. Wendy and Dipper waited patiently in the parking lot of the Mystery Shack as they awaited the return of their girls. "So... Just how are we going to tell them that we're the focus of a major motion picture?" the brown-haired man asked his wife. "Just the way you told me right now..." Wendy suggested. He didn't have much time to mull it over as the familiar vehicle pulled into the dusty dirt parking lot of the tourist attraction. The sliding door opened and soon the teens jumped out akin to skydivers leaping from a plane. "Mom! Dad!" Mabel and Pacifica shouted in unison as they rushed up to their parents. "Hey dudes! I take it you guys had a fun time!" the ginger woman inquired. The girls both nodded that indeed they had. "Look... Your mother and I have something important to tell you guys when we get home..." Dipper said as he looked his children in the eye. "You guys aren't having another kid, are you?" Pacifica asked with trepidation. "Wh-What?! No! No, we're not sweetheart..." Wendy replied with a bit of shock. "We'll tell you when we get back to the house... But it's good news..." Dipper stated; his wife shooting him a bit of an angered look. He immediately knew that she took his statement of it being good news to mean that the news of another addition to the family was implied to be bad news. "N-Not that having another child would be a bad thing... T-That's just not what we have to tell you about..." he quickly clarified, which seemed to be much more acceptable to his alabaster skinned partner. "Well whatever it is, I'm excited!" Mabel added. Courtney's parents would be out of town until the end of the week, so she would be spending some more time with her cousins. She couldn't wait to discuss her new relationship with the twins.
A long buzz came from the metal console that Dr. Jennifer McGucket was seated at and she knew the moment of truth was at hand. Picking up her phone, she quickly found the Senator's contact and pressed it. After ringing a few times, it was finally answered. "Yes" he curtly replied into the phone. "It's time..." the blonde scientist informed the government official. "Excellent. I am on the way" the man said before ending the call abruptly. "Currently we're on pace to extend the surplus this fiscal quarter. We've drafted a new resolution with Canada that will see our trade tariffs decrease at an annual perce-" an older man in a dark suit spoke from a monitor at the far end of the oak table. "Gentlemen, I'm terribly sorry, but I've just been informed of a serious matter involving my family... If you'll excuse me, please..." the portly man informed his constituents. "Of course, Senator..." the speaker replied with a bit of concern in his voice. The Senator ended the teleconference and exited the room. Standing just outside the doorframe was his trusty aide Amber, who was once again dressed in a black pencil skirt, a white button up blouse with a skinny black tie and a black blazer. "Amber, plan two is now in effect. Make sure the accommodations are ready for our new guest's arrival" he instructed the tall blonde woman. "Yes sir!" She dutifully replied as she rushed off to complete her newly assigned task. "Why can't I find more good help like her?" he pondered to himself as he opened the door to the basement and descended the wooden stairs once again.
The green water-like substance had drained from the tubes and the glass enclosures had retracted into the ceiling. Still not conscious, the pair of children were supported by a metal brace that had come out of the floor. After wiping the residual fluid off their bodies, Jennifer walked to a closet and removed two carefully selected outfits for the children. The boy was to be dressed in a pair of sky blue dress slacks, a white button up shirt with a black tie and a matching blazer. The teenage girl's ensemble included knee-high white socks, a sky blue pleated skirt, a white button up blouse with a black tie and a sky-blue vest. The footsteps of the legislator approached and Jennifer rushed to put the finishing touches on the children. Unplugging the chord from the base of their skulls, the two began to stir as their father took in the sight before him. Letting out a long yawn and raising her arms above her head, the teenage girl was first to speak. "Hey Daddy! I must have passed out on the ride over..." she said as her hand rubbed her eyes. "Yeah! You and your brother both fell asleep" he reassured the somewhat confused girl. The boy soon exited his world of slumber and opened his eyes abruptly. "Whoah! Where are we?!" he asked with concern as he took note of the machines and computers that filled the basement. "You're downstairs in the new house..." the Senator informed him; hoping the smaller version of him wouldn't think too much about it. "Uh... Okay... So, why are we down here?" the girl wondered aloud. "Well... Uh... You see..." he stuttered as he searched for an answer to the inquiry. "We were moving boxes upstairs and wanted to keep an eye on you two..." Jennifer quickly replied. "Oh! Do you need any more help mother?" the boy asked. "MOTHER?!" the Senator internally shouted with disbelief. This had not been a part of the agreement he had made with the younger scientist and wanted to know the meaning of it immediately. "Jennifer... A word please!" the man said as he adjusted his tie and motioned for her to join him out of earshot of the children. She got up from the console and hesitantly walked over to the man, who she could tell was irate. "Mother?! Just what the hell is going on here?!" he growled at her. "L-Look, I can explain!" she stuttered. Although the man stood just over five feet tall, he had the mindset of a giant and the anger to match. "Then you best start 'splainin..." the suit clad man barked at her; his folksy southern accent slipping out as he did so.
Dr. Jennifer McGucket knew that this day would come and had rehearsed it in her head countless times, but now she simply drew a blank. Perhaps it was because she was intimidated by the demanding man. Perhaps it was because despite all his verbal abusiveness to her over the past few years, that she had just wanted to have her work verified. Perhaps it was because as time dragged on for the blonde woman, she had begun to have feelings for the slightly older man who had salvaged her dreams. Whatever it was, her confidence drained away and she was left a stuttering mess of a person. "Well, Gide-" she began before being cut off by the now enraged man. "I TOLD YOU NEVER TO CALL ME THAT! MY GOD WOMAN! CAN'T YOU EVEN GET THAT RIGHT?!" the shorter man exploded; tears forming in the eyes of the scientist. "S-Sorry Senator! Y-You're right! I-I wasn't thinking... As for why your son called me 'Mother', well... That was j-just because I put myself into the simulation as a placeholder until I could get more input from you. After a while, I honestly forgot about it..." the blonde twentysomething fibbed. "Be that as it may, I now have to figure out a way to explain the sudden appearance of my two children..." the suit clad Senator commented as he began to pace back and forth on the concrete floor. "I'll work on the explanation. All you have to do is sell whatever lie I come up with... Which shouldn't be too hard, seeing as you're a politician and all..." Dr. McGucket replied; a sly smile forming on her face. "Well... Alright. But you better not let me down. I don't tolerate failure" the white-haired man stated. "Don't worry. I don't tolerate failure either..." Jennifer proclaimed; this time a smirk forming on the face of the legislator. "Come now, children. I want to show you your new rooms!" the suit clad man said as the trio began to ascend the stairs. Jennifer picked up her phone once again and placed a call. "Stanford, it's Jenny. I-I need a favor..." she began the call in the basement of the Senator's home.
The short drive back to the Pines house was a bit of a quiet one, as the teenage girls in the back of the sport utility vehicle had fallen asleep. "Must have been a tough weekend for them, huh?" the ginger woman commented as her husband turned into their driveway. "Well, it wasn't exactly the easiest for us when you think about it..." the brown-haired man replied. "Yeah, but it was fun at times. I still can't believe how much we drank that first night!" Wendy said with a chuckle. "Well, it was nice of Jamie to fund our wild night out on the town..." Dipper said. "I still feel bad about that..." the auburn maned woman said with a bit of a sullen tone. "Hey, she forgave you for that... I wouldn't feel too rough about it. I mean, it's like she said... She spends more than that on makeup every week..." the thirty-three year old reminded her. "Yeah..." Wendy replied. After waking the girls from their slumber, they each grabbed a piece of luggage and carried it to the modest two-story home nestled in the forest. As Mabel, Pacifica and Courtney brought their bags upstairs, a thought came over Mabel. "So... W-What if we're moving? What if Mom and Dad liked Vancouver so much that they decided to leave Gravity Falls? I-I like it here..."the ginger teen said as she opened the door to her bedroom. Pacifica placed a caring hand on her twin's shoulder, causing her to turn around. "Mabes... Mom and Dad are tied to this town. The literally almost died to save it. I don't think they'd just up and leave it like that" the brunette tried to reassure the emotional girl. "Y-Yeah. I guess you're right, sis. Maybe they just brought something cool back!" she replied; her perky demeanor returning.
Downstairs, Dipper and Wendy debated how to break the news that the worst day of their lives was being turned into a movie to their daughters. Daughters that were named in honor of the loved ones they had lost that early June day nearly two decades ago. "Relax... They'll probably think it's neat..." the chestnut-haired man commented to his wife as he removed a brown glass bottle from the fridge. "That's the thing. I don't want them to think that it's 'neat'. I don't want them to know what we went through in the days and weeks after it. H-How I tried to drown myself in booze and how you became a recluse" she replied before taking a bite of her granola bar; crumbs landing on the dark hardwood floor below. "Look... They're at that age where they're going to be asking a bunch of questions about that. We can't just gloss over it like we've done. Yeah, they know their aunts died in a botched bank heist and that their mother was an officer that responded, but they don't know all the details... Best that we tell them before they see it in the movie" Dipper pointed out as he twisted off the cap on his beer and took a long swig of it. "Y-You're right, Dip. I-I guess that they should hear it all from us. Even the ugly parts. The parts we've tried to hide from them. H-How you have to take an anti-anxiety medication because of how badly Weirdmageddon fucked you up in the head. H-How, even before Mabel and Pacifica died I was hurting myself to deal with my mental issues" the freckled woman said as she walked over to her lover and wrapped him up in a loose hug. "Hey... I love you" Dipper said as he pecked the rosy cheek of his wife. "I love you too..." she replied; her eyes full of tears and her mind full of trepidation as she tried to prepare herself for what was about to happen.
Author's Note:
Sorry the update took so long, but my computer died on me, so I had to rewrite this chapter. The good news is that I have a new laptop, but it didn't come with a word processor installed on it, so I'm trying the whole Word Online thing. I apologize if the format is a little different than you are used to. So, a lot to unpack here in this chapter. The Senator is who most of you probably thought he was and now you know his motivation for possessing the spellbook that Pacifica has. Just what did he have in mind when it came to his cloned children being raised? Why was he so upset that they think of Jennifer as their mother? What will be the next step in Grendy's relationship with Mateo and Courtney? How will the Pines Girls react to hearing the grizzly details of what happened on June 3rd? And speaking of the Pines Twins, how exactly did Pacifica get that silver streak in her hair? Answers to all these questions and more in the next installment of Tales Of The Flame & The Ax: A Shooting Star Falls Story. Until then - iKLOT
My Playlist For This Chapter:
Linkin Park - "The Catalyst" (The song that inspired the name of this chapter)
The Wombats - "Turn"
Sir Sly - "&Run"
Jukebox The Ghost - "Everybody's Lonely"
Linkin Park - "Shadow Of The Day"
Jimmy Eat World - "Praise Chorus"
Panic! At The Disco - "Say Amen (Saturday Night)"
Bullet For My Valentine - "Over It"
Sixx:A.M. - "Life Is Beautiful"
Korn - "Let The Guilt Go"
The Official Shooting Star Falls AU Reading Order:
P1). Underage Discoveries On A Reckless Night: A Shooting Star Falls Prequel
1). A Shooting Star Falls
2). Echoes Of A Nearby Future: A Shooting Star Falls Story
3). Scarred Summer: A Shooting Star Falls Story
4). The Dark Days Of Candy Chiu: A Shooting Star Falls Story
5). Forever Memories: A Shooting Star Falls Story
6). Stable Times Or A Wild Ride?: A Shooting Star Falls Story
7). Grenda's Confession: A Shooting Star Falls Story
8). Birthday Weirdness In The Rose City: A Shooting Star Falls Story
9). The Gift Of Forever: A Shooting Star Falls Story
10). Life In Transit: A Shooting Star Falls Story
11). The Moment: A Shooting Star Falls Story
12). Tales Of The Flame & The Ax: A Shooting Star Falls Story