Tales Of The Flame & The Ax: A Shooting Star Falls Story
Part Fourteen: The Unrelenting Storm Of Our Lives
Tambry Bennett's patience was beginning to wear thin as she took another sip of her now lukewarm coffee. It had been nearly two hours since she had arrived at Greasy's Diner and the violet haired reporter had begun to feel as if she had been stood up. "I knew she was full of shit…" the thirty six year old muttered to herself as she looked out the window to see a bolt of lightning streaking across the early evening sky. "You need another cup, hun?" a familiar voice asked as Tambry was shaken from her thoughts. "Nah… I think I'm just about ready to go home…" she replied to her now good friend Alexa. Following the death of her grandmother Lazy Susan, the former Sportlympic champion had returned to the small Pacific Northwest town to take over the family business. While overwhelmed at first, the young woman soon got the hang of it and now enjoyed her work immensely. She had seen Tambry conduct many an interview in the friendly confines of the diner and expected to see the same scene yet again. "I take it you were expecting somebody?" the usually bubbly blonde asked in a softer tone. "Yeah… I-I thought it was gonna be my big break. I was promised some bombshell information that would bring down a high profile public figure, but it turned out to be a total load…" the olive skinned woman said as she pulled out her wallet and removed her credit card from it. "I'm sorry to hear that, hun…" the pink uniform clad woman replied. "Eh… Part of the job… Anyway, what do I owe ya?" Tambry asked. "On the house…" Alexa said with a smile. "Thanks… That means a lot" the reporter gratefully said as she put her card away and got up from the booth. "No problem! I hope your night gets better!" the cheery restaurant owner said as she left to attend to another customer.
Ranger Wendy Pines' alarm cut through the relative silence of two story home nestled in the woods. "Ugh…" the auburn haired woman groaned as she threw the comforter off of her, rolled over and silenced the annoying tone. "Welp… Back to work…" the thirty-six year old mother of two remarked as she got out of bed and began her walk to the bathroom. Flipping on the light switch, Wendy let out a large yawn and raised her arms above her head; her white ribbed tank top riding up to reveal her pink and white striped panties. Turning on the faucet, a cascade of water began to fall into the porcelain basin below. The still groggy woman scooped up some of the chilly liquid and splashed her freckled face with it. "It's too damn early…" Wendy grumbled as she began to disrobe and turned on the shower. She was excited to get back to work, as she enjoyed it quite a bit, but had gotten used to sleeping in over the long weekend. After her shower, the slender woman donned her tan and olive green ranger uniform; taking a look back at her still slumbering husband before departing the room. Storms had rolled in the previous evening and while the worst of it had passed, a steady rain continued to fall from the pre-dawn sky. Closing the front door of the house, a sudden and bright flash illuminated the area around the home and a curious Wendy headed off to investigate. Again, the bright light appeared; now clearly emanating from behind the house. The ginger woman poked her head around the corner of her home to see Pacifica turning the page on a large book that was propped up on a tree stump. "What the heck is she doing up so early?" Wendy thought to herself as she approached the brunette teenager. "IGNITE IRA MANUS!" the thirteen year old shouted as her hands began to glow a fiery red; steam coming off of them as she drew deep breaths.
"PACIFICA!" the uniform clad woman shouted to her child; causing the teen to turn around. "M-Mom! I can explain!" she stuttered as her hands returned to their normal hue. "Are you hurt?!" the emerald eyed woman asked with great concern. "No! I'm fine! Great, in fact!" the young woman replied as she walked over to her mother. "B-But your hands! T-they were on fire!" the confused thirty-six year old exclaimed as she took the smaller hands of her daughter in hers and closely examined them. "I-It's hard to explain… B-But pretty much I learned a spell to conjure fire… It looks like it should burn the crap outta my hands, but it doesn't! See!" Pacifica reassured her frazzled mother. "I'm glad you're alright!" the alabaster skinned woman said with a sigh of relief as a new set of questions filled her head. "Of course she'd find some weird old book… She's definitely a Pines…" the redhead thought to herself. "Look, sweetheart… You should get back to bed… I have, like, a million questions about all of this… But I have to go to work. Promise me that you won't just go back to doing this right after I leave" Wendy explained to her daughter. As excited as Pacifica was to have finally mastered the tricky spell and wanted to keep practicing it, she realized that her mother had become worried for her safety. "Okay Mom. I promise. I'll explain everything tonight…" the brunette said as she wrapped her arms around the midsection of Wendy. "Thank you… I love you, honey…" the ginger woman replied as she returned the embrace. "Love you too Mommy…" Pacifica said as she closed the book and walked towards the back door of the house with it tucked under her arm.
The twenty minute drive to Lake Gravity Falls National Park allowed Wendy to think about what she had just seen. "I, like, totally saw that… Right?" she asked herself as she turned into the park. "M-My daughter's hands were on fire! I-I totally didn't just imagine that, did I?" she again questioned herself as she parked her sport utility. Walking through the front door of the station, she spied her co-workers huddled around a computer. "I would ask you how your vacation was, but I think we just found out…" a dirty blonde haired ranger commented as she motioned for her to join them. Looking over her shoulder, she saw that they were watching the interview she had with the member of the paparazzi in Vancouver. "So… It's true?" Jim, another co-worker of hers asked. "Y-Yeah… They're filming the movie right now…" Wendy replied; her voice a little softer than usual. "That's so cool!" Jackie Lynn, the woman with the dirty blonde hair said. "Well… It is and it isn't… I mean, on one hand, everyone can finally see what I went through that day… But on the other, I kinda want to just move on from it. It was probably the worst day of my life and I don't like to think about it that much…" she clarified. "I-I could see why…" Jim commented.
Wendy got into her patrol vehicle and began her rounds for the day as the rain continued to fall. About three hours into her shift, she rounded a curve and arrived at one of her favorite spots in the park and maybe on the whole planet for that matter. Parking on the bank of a stream, she got out of the sport utility vehicle and strolled towards the water's edge. The recent rainfall had caused the usually docile body of water to come alive and water now cascaded down the three hundred foot tall waterfall in the distance as opposed to its usual trickle. A bright red object in the distance caught her attention and she sprinted towards it as it soon became apparent what it was. "Holy Shit!" she exclaimed as she reached the crumpled remains of the small car; the front end embedded into the ground about three feet or so. "T-This is District Ranger Pines! I-I have a situation here at Hirsch Gorge! Contact GFPD and get them out here stat!" she practically shouted into her walkie-talkie. Glancing up at the bridge that spanned the gorge above, it soon became apparent as to what had happened. "Jesus Christ…" the auburn haired woman said as she removed her tan brimmed hat from her head and held it to her chest. She wanted to remain hopeful, but knew the odds of someone surviving that kind of plunge were astronomical at best. She swallowed hard and peered into the vehicle to find the corpse of a blonde woman; the interior coated in her now dried blood. She felt something beneath her boot and stepped back to find a rose gold cellphone on the ground beside the crumpled wreckage. Once again looking into the vehicle, she took note of the sharp looking attire the deceased woman wore. A black pencil skirt, a once white blouse and a black blazer adorned the driver of the doomed automobile. A plastic Identification badge hung from the rearview mirror and Wendy's curiosity got the better of her. Although her time in the Gravity Falls Police Department had taught her not to tamper with potential evidence, she yearned to know more about the mysterious woman.
Unclipping the badge from the mirror, she took a good look at it. A fairly pretty young woman's image graced the plastic card. "Brown, Amber C… Chief Of Staff…" the park ranger said aloud as she observed the seal of both Oregon and the Cascadian Republic Senate. "Wow… No wonder she's dressed the way she is…" Wendy thought to herself as she carefully clipped the identification card back to the rear view mirror. A few minutes later, the chief of police for Gravity Falls arrived on the scene with a few of his officers. Blubs and Durland had long since retired from the force and in their place a new generation of officers had taken over. "Ranger Pines…" the deep voice of the Chief said as he exited his cruiser and approached the scene. "Chief Purcell…" the auburn haired woman replied as she tipped her hat to him. "So… Bring me up to speed. What do we know?" the tall African-American man asked the former officer. "Well… I'm not an expert or anything, but I'd say she drove off the bridge and ended up here…" Wendy replied. "Yeah… I think we all can come to that conclusion. What I want to know is if you noticed anything peculiar about it…" Chief Purcell clarified. "Well… I'd say it happened sometime in the past twenty-four hours judging by the lack of decomposition on the body. I also noticed that a cell phone was ejected from the vehicle… I'd have investigated it further, but I didn't want to tamper with the scene…" the ginger woman replied. "Well, that didn't keep you from checking her ID… Did it?" he asked with a smirk on his face. "H-How'd you know?!" Wendy asked with bewilderment. She was certain that she had placed it back exactly the way she had found it. "Easy… Who clips their ID to the mirror with the front of it facing outward?" he smugly pointed out. "Shut up and get me a pair of gloves so I can check her phone Nate…" the embarrassed redhead shot back.
Putting on a pair of the black rubber gloves, she removed the digital device from the muddy ground and pressed the power button. The screen illuminated and for a brief moment displayed the time it had last been powered on before adjusting to the current time. "Nate! Did you see that?!" she asked; hoping the officer had noticed the same thing she had. "Yeah… I didn't catch the exact time, but it was last ni-" he began before being cut off. "Six thirty-nine…" Wendy pointed out as a smile broke out on her face. "Very good Ranger Pines…" he complemented the former officer. Wanting to unlock the device to access the call log, she noticed the device was an ePhone. "This is gonna sound nuts… B-But can I use her fingerprint to unlock this and see if she was on the phone at the time of the accident?" Wendy inquired. "I was about to suggest that myself…" Chief Purcell commented. Grabbing the cold arm of the blonde woman, Wendy held her finger to the sensor. "Don't worry Amber… We're gonna find out what happened to you…" she promised the deceased woman as the phone unlocked. Selecting the call icon, two numbers immediately stood out to her in the recent contacts list. One was a call to 911 the previous evening, which made sense, but the second one caught her attention. "No fucking way…" she whispered to herself as she saw the name of her best friend displayed on the screen. "Anything interesting, Ranger Pines?" Nate asked as he walked up to her. "Y-Yeah… Of course she called 911… But the call before that was to a woman I know…" Wendy replied. "Tambry Bennett… Why does that name sound so familiar?" the mocha skinned man asked himself as he ran his hand along his shaved head. "She's my best friend… And an reporter for Action News One…" the freckled woman said.
Wendy placed the phone back down where she found it and removed the rubber gloves she had donned. Taking her own phone out of her pocket, she soon placed a call to Tambry. "H-Hello?" the voice of the journalist asked. "Hey Tambry…" the auburn haired woman said in an unsure tone. "I-Is everything alright Wen?" the olive skinned woman asked with concern. She knew that Wendy should be at work and that she usually didn't call her this early in the morning. "Sort of…" the park ranger replied in the same tone of voice. "What's up?" Tambry inquired in a more firm voice than before. "I-I'm here at Hirsch Gorge… D-Do you happen to know an Amber Brown by any chance?" she asked her best friend. The purple haired journalist was still a bit cross about being stood up by the high ranking official in the Gleeful administration and just the mention of her name brought those feelings back. "Yeah! Dumb bitch was supposed to meet me for some coffee at Greasy's last night, but she never showed…" Tambry replied; the anger noticeable in her voice. "Well… I think I know why she didn't show up…" Wendy said in sullen tone. "W-What are you saying, Wendy?" Tambry asked with a sense that her best friend was about to deliver some upsetting news to her. "I-It looks like she had an accident along the way… She drove off the Hirsch Gorge Bridge… Tambry, I'm so sorry…" the redhead said as she fought off tears; certain that her bestie on the other end was doing the same. "No!" the violet haired reporter gasped with disbelief. "Hey Pines! Take a look at this!" Nate shouted in the distance. Still on the phone with Tambry, she put it on speakerphone and walked over to the rear of the vehicle. "Notice anything odd?" he asked the former officer. "That damage… I-It couldn't have been caused by the fall…" Wendy said with shock. "Bingo! It looks like Ms. Brown had a little help off the bridge last night…" Chief Purcell remarked. Walking away, the park ranger took the call off of speakerphone and resumed her call. "Did you catch that?!" Wendy said with pure shock. "Y-Yeah… And I think I know why it might have happened…" Tambry replied in a crestfallen tone. "Meet me at Greasy's in twenty… I'm gonna go tell my co-workers that Pacifica isn't feeling well… Which isn't a total lie… But I'll fill you in on that as well…" the ginger woman said. "Okay… This is just so fucked up…" Tambry remarked. "I know… But that's kinda how it goes around here, isn't it?" Wendy asked. "Yeah… Anyway, I'll see you soon…" the violet haired reported said. "See you soon…" Wendy ended the call as she hung up.
"Hey Nate… Do you need me for anything else? I just got a text that my daughter isn't feeling too hot and I wanted to go check on her…" she fibbed. "Yeah… That's fine. If I have any more questions, I have your number…" the chief of police replied. Wendy got into her sport utility and headed back to the station, where she was certain that she would be bombarded with questions from her coworkers regarding the grisly scene she stumbled upon. The drive gave her some time to reflect upon what she had seen in the course of only twelve hours. Her teenage daughter was practicing magic spells in the backyard before sunrise, which she found to be a bit unsettling to say the least and she had stumbled upon the wreckage of a car that had fallen more than three hundred feet; discovering that it may have been a murder. It was a lot to unpack for the ginger woman as she parked her car and waked to the front door of the ranger station. Much to her relief, only Jackie Lynn was at the station. "Hey… If it's alright, I'm gonna take off for the day… I-I just got a text that Pacifica wasn't feeling well and I wanna go check on her…" she fibbed to her fellow ranger. "Okay… I've got things under control here Wen… Tell Paz that I hope she feels better!" Jackie Lynn replied. "Thanks!" the auburn woman said as headed to Greasy's to meet up with her best friend.
The rain continued to fall as Wendy drove towards the meeting with her best friend. Having to cross the bridge that Amber had driven off of, the former officer took it as a chance to do a bit of recon. One lane of traffic was closed as crews worked to repair the guardrail; the bright flashes coming from a welder as it fused the separated pieces of metal back together. She noticed broken glass from the rear window littering the roadway long before the point where she left the bridge, as well as pieces of the rear taillight. Wendy thought of how to describe the scene she had seen at Hirsch Gorge; the crumpled remains of the car that held the body of Amber Brown. While she had just learned of the friendship between the two, she could tell that it ran deep between the reporter and the Chief of Staff. She wondered how long the two had known each other and if their relationship extended beyond that of reporter and source. She had her suspicions as the news came as quite a shock to the woman she had called her best friend for most of her life. Pulling her trusty sport utility into the muddy parking lot of Greasy's, she took a deep breath in anticipation of the conversation she was about to have. "C'mon… Pull it together Pines! Y-You've had to deliver bad news like this before… B-But it's never been to someone I cared about before… Ugh!" she chided herself as she opened the door and entered the now torrential rainstorm; her boots sinking deep into the mud below.
Walking into the diner, she spied her violet haired friend sitting in a booth at the far end. "Nice weather we're having, huh?" Tambry commented as she took in the sight of her best friend; her clothes soaked from the rain. "Couldn't imagine a more beautiful day if I tried…" Wendy sarcastically shot back as she took off her brimmed ranger hat and placed it on the linoleum table. Taking a seat across from her bestie, she looked into the hazel eyes of the reporter; their eyes meeting for a brief moment before Tambry's darted off to the window at the end of the booth. "Tambry… Look, I-I'm so sorry…" the redhead said a sullen tone as she extended her hands across the table and placed them on those of her best friends'. "Thanks…" the olive skinned woman said in a grateful tone. While she hadn't talked to Amber much outside of their working relationship, the death still hit her hard. She felt incredibly embarrassed that she was feeling angry about the missed meeting while Amber was either dead or dying at the bottom of a gorge. "So… It wasn't just an accident, was it?" Tambry asked in what was almost a whisper; still not believing that somebody would want to harm the twenty-six year old woman. "That's what the GFPD is leaning towards… And I feel the same way" Wendy confirmed as a familiar waitress approached them.
"Hey Wendy! Long time, no see!" Alexa said as she placed two ceramic coffee mugs down onto the table. "Dude, it's only been a week…" the ginger woman chuckled. Stopping by almost every morning for a quick cup of coffee and a breakfast sandwich on her way to work, she could see how her presence could be missed. "I heard that you went on a trip! How'd that go?" Alexa inquired as she sat down in the booth. "It was eventful to say the least…" Wendy replied with a sigh. "Okay… Now I gotta know! Dish, girl!" the petite woman enthusiastically instructed her. "Well, to make a long story short… The Northwest family is making a movie about Pacifica's life that centers around what happened that day at the bank…" the alabaster skinned woman explained. "Shut up! D-Did they ask you or Dipper if it was alright to?! I-I mean, they had to have, right!?" she exclaimed. "Nope. We only found out because I kept getting mistaken for the actress who's playing me… Luckily, she was super awesome and set up a meeting with the producer… Suffice to say that the script was all fucked up and we had to un-fuck it up…" Wendy added. "Wow! That's messed up! A-At least it's gonna be accurate now though. Sounds like an interesting time to say the least…" Alexa concluded as she got up from the booth. "Yup… Never a boring moment for Wendy Pines…" the mother of two said in a sullen tone. "Well, you guys think of what you want and I'll go fetch some coffee…" the waitress replied before walking off.
"You said something about Pacifica not feeling well?" Tambry said as she tried steering the conversation in a different direction. "Yeah… I-I caught her doing something odd" Wendy hesitantly replied. While she knew that she could trust Tambry, she still didn't quite believe what she had witnessed herself. "Oh! It's one of those things… Wen, honey, they're gonna do that at their age… I mean, just a few weeks ago, I walked in on Lucas jac-" she began before being cut off by her best friend. "No! Not that! I-I caught her doing magic!" Wendy interjected. "Magic? Like hocus pocus junk? What's so bad about that?" the violet haired woman inquired. "More like, Bill Cipher, bringing about the end of the universe as we know it magic…" the redhead explained. "I thought that spellbook she had on the trip was just a load. Guess we should know better than that when it comes to mysterious books in this town though…" Tambry commented. "Yeah… I-I saw her hands on fire! S-She created fire out of nowhere!" Wendy exclaimed. "Have you talked to her about it?" the reporter asked as Alexa returned with a pot of coffee. "Only briefly before work. I asked her to not do it until I got home from work, but who knows if she'll listen to me" Wendy said in a defeated tone. "She's thirteen… And definitely takes after you, so I'd take that as a no…" Tambry remarked; letting out a small chuckle while doing so. She thought it kind of ironic that the twin that more resembled Dipper acted more like Wendy; a free spirit who played by her own rules. "I-I'm just worried is all…" Wendy remarked as she took a sip of the piping hot coffee. The pair continued to converse as the storm raged outside the diner.
Pacifica Pines heeded her mother's advice and had returned to the house, where she crawled back into her bed and fell fast asleep. "Paz! Paz! Wake up!" Mabel shouted as her sister stirred in her bed. "Ugh… What? What's going on? I-Is the house on fire?!" she asked with alarm as she rubbed her eyes. "No… I was gonna ask you if you wanted to play some mini-golf with me… B-But I gotta show you something instead!" the ginger teen said to her twin. "Alright… But it better be good. I was having that dream about Justin Towers Jr. again…" Pacifica commented. "The one on the beach?" Mabel inquired. "Oh yeah…" the brunette replied while biting her lower lip as she recalled the explicit dream. Grasping her twin sister's hand, she led her to the bathroom down the hall and flipped on the light switch. Pacifica let out an audible gasp as she observed her reflection in the mirror. Instead of her usual brunette locks, now the left half of her hair was light silver; her pupil an icy blue in color. "What the fuck?" the teenager softly said with bewilderment. Her hands trembled as she pulled her eyelid open to get a better look at her eye. While her vision hadn't been affected as best as she could tell, it was still unsettling that such a drastic change in appearance could happen literally overnight. "D-Does it hurt?" a very concerned Mabel asked as she placed a caring hand on her sister's shoulder. "No. It just looks different, but I feel fine" she replied in a soft tone; still off put by her new look.
"How do you think it happened?" Mabel asked as she took a seat on the closed lid of the toilet; her feet swinging back and forth above the tiled floor. "When I got the streak, I thought you had done it… B-But now I know what it is… It's the magic… It's doing this to me…" Pacifica remarked as she began to pace around the bathroom. "I-I was practicing that spell to make fire… And I did it! It was awesome! That must have been what caused this!" she continued. Unknown to the twin girls, their father had come upstairs to tell them that breakfast was just about ready. Hearing their voices coming from the bathroom, Dipper headed that way. Knocking on the door frame, he peered in to see something he was not expecting. Pacifica's hair was now half brunette and half silver. The change in appearance was something he was about to write off as something she had done to simply change up her look when he caught sight of her pupil. Instead of the hazel colored eyes that both girls had inherited from him, one of them was now an icy blue in color. "What happened?! A-Are you alright?! Your Mom is gonna kill me!" he exclaimed while rushing towards his daughter. "Dad… I'm fine. I'll explain everything over breakfast… Which smells like it's burning by the way…" Pacifica pointed out as her father ran out of the bathroom and back downstairs. "Well… This should be fun…" the silver and brown haired girl said as she made her way downstairs, unsure of how her Dad would take the news that she was practicing magic from a book she found in the woods. She thought that if anyone could understand though, it would be the man who once used a mysterious journal to confront and defeat the various mythological creatures the town counted among its inhabitants.
Author's Note: This chapter took a little while to write and once again I had it nearly done, only to delete it all and start over. I'm happy with the way it turned out this time and hopefully you will too. I appreciate the views, reviews and fanart. If you happen to make or come across any of the wonderful art, please don't hesitate to PM me so I can see it too! I've had a rough go of it lately, so all your positive feedback has helped me out a ton! Thank you! So, a lot to unpack here. Tambry was expecting to get a big scoop and came up empty handed. She was rightfully angry about it, but ended up feeling terrible once the whole truth was uncovered. Wendy discovering that Pacifica is dipping her feet into the dark arts was a huge shock to her. Will Wendy, Tambry and the GFPD uncover the shocking truth of Amber's tragic demise? How will Gideon spin the event in a positive way for himself? Is Pacifica's newly acquired skill a blessing or a curse? How will everyone else react to her new appearance? What's the next step in the complicated relationship between Grendy and her two suitors? How will the Gleeful children play into all of this? Answers to all this and more in the next installment of Tales Of The Flame & The Ax: A Shooting Star Falls Story… -iKLOT
My Playlist For This Chapter:
The Flaming Lips – "The W.A.N.D. (The Will Always Negates Defeat)"
Saint Asonia – "Let Me Live My Life"
Asking Alexandria – "Alone In A Room"
Deftones – "Change (In The House Of Flies)"
The Fever 333 – "Walking In My Shoes"
Jinjer – "Outlander"
Madball – "Set It Off.."
grandson – "Blood / Water"
Something Corporate – "Punk Rock Princess"
Pearl Jam – "Got Some"
Rainbow Kitten Surprise – "Fever Pitch"
Florence And The Machine – "Ship To Wreck"
King Princess – "1950"
Meg Meyers – "Numb" (The song that I imagine playing when after Wendy ends her call with Tambry regarding the fate of Amber. Just the sullen and plodding tone fit the scene just right)
Arctic Monkeys – "Four Out Of Five"
Cigarettes After Sex – "Apocalypse" (The song I picture playing in the background as Wendy talks with Tambry in the diner. Especially the line 'Sharing all the secrets that we've had since we were kids')
Amy Shark – "I Said Hi"
Mike Shinoda – "Crossing A Line"
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