The Foundation transported their precious cargo, both teens and adults alike back to their secret base:a motel. With enemy GOIs becoming more and more rampant by the day, the Foundation felt that it was necessary to bring them to their base for "interrogations". For the teens and the adults however, they could not return since they now got involved in Foundation's war with their enemies and knew of their activities. Hence, the mood was anything but great when it was morning the next day
Gideon who is sitting on a chair never had been so happy that his past plots against the Pines ended in failure because he was certain if it didn't he would have his butt plastered on a dish by the vengeful parents of Mabel and Dipper and the entire force of an amoral shadowy organization that makes the Society of the Blind Eye look downright pathetic in comparison.
Grenda and Candy were thinking about their amphibian friend Aé, wondering if they will ever see her again, not to mention finding out that Aé become the way she is because of being experimented upon gave them a disheartening context on when Aé went berserk on the robots and why she for some time feel down. They at least get the solace that the person responsible for the way Aé is from a rather eccentric redhead doctor called Jack Bright that as he said is "10 feets dead under the earth".
Miller and Leora stayed with them as all the adults were on the other side of the motel in a separate room planning things out except for Melody and Soos who were with the kids.
Pacifica was on the couch, teacup in her hand. She mused about yesterday and everything that went between herself and her father. She could not believe that it happened; that she stood against her father. One side of her felt vindicated, yet the other side still felt for him. It amazed her that she both loved and hated her own father at the same time. Family drama can be so messy. She clutched her lady bag, her anomalous pet squirming a little inside.
"Stay still," She whispered "Don't let them find you."
Her pet calmed down, understanding.
'Is this what Dipper felt when we were enemies?' Robbie thought about his experience with the cat-grinned man as he brooded like all edgy teenagers near a wall, though to be fair that started over jealousy on how close Dipper got to Wendy and the gang in such a short time when he knew them since childhood and the gun maniac does it for giggles and being a "massive jerk" but in less kindly words, not that Robbie wasn't a jerk during the first summer and all and he is still an ass, just not as big of one as he used to be; besides, it is pointless to start old grudges and unless he wants to risk the wrath of the vindictive mother who's very memory of meeting her makes him squirm or get his butt kicked considering Dipper by now face monsters like it is a regular exercise and once heard from the group chat that he beat a bully bigger than himself to a bloody pulp after the first summer he rather not and the same is true about this Clef guy, no way he gonna get on that psychopath who enjoyed a bit too much fighting and tearing down those terrorists and cultists last night.
Tambry Robbie's ex was whining about not having her phone and not to mention to her frustration the guards couldn't give her a phone and took everyone else's phones. Sure, at first Robbie and Tambry were all "lovey-dovey" but their relationship inevitably faced difficulties considering the unique circumstances of how it happened as the portion affected for an hour and their personalities bringing the worst of each other as it was inevitable between an Emo and Karen so their relationship is that of on and off nature, never certain if they would end up at the end together or not.
Lee and Nate were the only ones who seemed not to be in a sour mood as they watched TV.
Wendy in the bathroom was cleaning her face, she had to wash from all the blood and change his flannel to a blue jacket, fresh jeans and a grayish shirt given to her to change into, the only thing that was left of her old clothing was the hat with a blue pine tree symbol on it which miraculously didn't get dirty. She looked at the reflection blankly, even though she got to sleep she looked black and blue, a far cry from the normally chill Wendy that was, but again that Wendy didn't experience facing a malevolent ghoul, remembering her mother died at her hands, met the murderer of her mother, going on a blood rage which she barely remembers anything and oh, right visions of doom and seeing the mind-chilling scarlet figure she saw thanks to Tony and last night she had a nightmare involving Scarlet and Black so excuse her for not being the cool-headed strong and fearless girl she used to be and keep hold up her stresses.
'Am I going insane?' She thought Stan 2 almost did because of Bill as she remembered and she did see enough scary movies that all these are classic signs of the protagonist going full loony and those horrible B movies she liked to watch with Dipper.
The memory of all those fun times she had with Dipper laughing and making fun of movie tropes gave her solace in these dark times. All boys she met were either prideful and suffocatingly arrogant or edgy and stupid but not Dipper, he was kind, honest and brave not giving himself enough credit. She did mean when she told him that she would jump into the bottomless pit if he stopped visiting her, life was dull until he and his sister showed up. He was her confidant, his partner in crime and best friend, someone she could count on. Had he been older she would have reciprocated his feelings back then 2 years ago.
"We both know that's a lie."
She looked at her reflection again upon hearing the distorted mockery of her voice and in startelement jumped back feeling her heart skip a beat, she could swear that for a moment she saw herself in the mirror still bloodied with her clothes before she changed with a chilling unnatural grin to grin smile before she blinked back and saw the nightmarish mirror of herself no more.
'What is wrong with me!?' She swore under her breath, she was sure by now there was something deeply wrong in her, since that night when she let loose she has become jumpy, erratic and easily distracted, like a dam has broken inside her letting go a turbulent flood, all blocks were no more.
Knock
"Wendy? Did you finish? I need to use the toilet!" Thompson beggingly asked from the other side of the door.
"I'm done, dude." She said as she slowly moved away from the mirror.
Mabel and Dipper were together in the living room, thinking about all the things that happened last night: the attackers, the revelation about their parents and the anomalies.
Mabel was worried about the future, with the parents knowing the truth, what does this mean? Will she and her twin be banned from ever sitting a foot on Gravity Falls? Will they be forbidden from ever contacting the Grunkles and their friends from this small town in Oregon once all this was over? How will all this affect their relationship with their parents? One thing is for sure;
'Everything is different now' she thought, her head full of melancholy
Dipper was particularly worried about Wendy, and he also noticed the dark mood of her and others.
The confident, awesome teenager, who once fought a shapeshifting alien and survived like a chad during Weirdmageddon, looked jaded and melancholic.
When he tried to comfort her, she shrugged her and others' concern with a simple: "I'm fine."
Not even Tambry, who she knew since they were kids could reach her, Wendy's response was a flat out lie as everyone knew. Wendy was someone dear to him even after she rejected his romantic affection, she was his best friend, someone who made him confident and an idol, someone that inspired him almost as much as Great Uncle Ford inspired him, yet by now he knows that both are still people and people are flawed with their own baggage. In a disturbing parallel Wendy's condition reminded him of how Ford used to be before reconciliation with Stan, haunted by the past, too stubborn to admit weakness, insular and an extra-dimensional horror chasing their dreams and turning them into a nightmare. He wanted to tell her about what he learnt from his father's grimoire involving the King of Dust and Blood; nevertheless, his sister told him that after everything that happened, she needed some time for herself so he did so. The cryptic warning the twin's father told them during the interview served to worry him even more so.
"We think she may be influenced." Mr. Pines informed.
"Influenced?" His son repeated.
"Yes, I sense something…dark in her. Until we determine what and why I don't suggest it."
"If there is a chance that she is being influenced, she needs to know!" Mason disagreed.
"Look Mason, I like Wendy and I can't force you, but some entities gain power over you by just knowing about them. Knowledge is neither evil nor good inherently but it can and will change people for good and ill. I don't ask you to treat your best friend as a ticking bomb, all I ask is to be cautious, hope for the best and expect the worst and that way nothing will disappoint you."
"That sounds lonely," Mabel responded, disagreeing.
"It is the only way, darling." The father told his kids.
As much he hated to admit it, his father did have a point, this may only serve to distraught her even more deepening the pit while on the other hand, she deserved to know what was happening to her.
Screw it, she is his girlfriend- best friend, and he is going to tell her. If there is one thing he has learnt from the first summer, is that all secrets are good for creating divides.
"Mabel." He elbowed his twin with a half-whisper.
"Whaddup Broseph?"
"While the guards are out, can you sneak see what others are about? While I'm gone, what is the matter with Wendy?"
"Am I hearing things right or is my brother channeling his Inner-Mabel?" Questioned with one hand on her right ear as if to hear clearly with an amused smile.
"This is serious Mabel, Wendy is not herself and my gut says there is a lot that we don't know."
"You got bro, but how should I do that?"
"Eir."
"Eir is here?"
"Not here, outside. I managed to talk with her through morse codes, lesson." He ticks a bunch of low hits from a finger as Dipper followed by Mabel both lend their ears to the wall.
Peck Peck Peck
They heard a couple of pecking sounds which unmistakably sound like a bird pecking on a wall.
"Morse code? You can talk with her through Morse codes!? Maybe I should learn Morse codes if it means understanding what Waddles says…." She looks at her pet pig while it feeds from a dog table.
"With all due respect, I don't think Waddles is that smart." Mason mused.
Outside, the codes he gave to Eir gave her instructions on what to do which was making a sonic wave on a random tree not enough to hurt anyone, just enough to gain everyone's attention including the guards.
Sonic Blast
"Alpha 1 did you hear it?" One of the guards who was stationed in the hallway of the motel inquired to another guard from the comm links.
"Yes Alpha 2, seems to be some sort of sonic weaponry."
Then, the guard in the hallway felt something sitting on his right shoulder and pecking.
"What the- "
Before he could process it, the yellow bird on his shoulder flew away and as it did it then produced another sonic blast blasting a wall to the outside of the motel.
Boom!
"Alpha 1! There's some sort of avian anomaly! I'm pursuing it now!" he raced following the anomalous bird.
"Roger that." The other guard from the comm link answered. The guards dispersed to search around as SCP-7044 got seen by other guards flying around the motel and playing hide and seek.
It wasn't just the guards that took notice.
"Whad's goin' on!?" Gideon jumped up.
"Are we being attacked again?" Nate looked around.
"I embrace death." Robbie went edgy.
"Good, maybe they have phones!" Tambry grumbled.
"Everyone stay, I go check around." Miller calmed everyone and went outside to see what was going on.
"I will stay," Leora stated and went on alert.
While all this was happening, Mabel secretly used a small window inside the bathroom with Dipper with a few grunts helping her to go up until she reached it "While you channel your inner-Mabel therapy, I go see what adults are about by channeling my inner-Dipper detective."
"I'm not- " he signed as Mabel left from the window, seeing no point in that. Next, he nodded to Wendy to meet her inside the bathroom, she looked puzzled but complied.
"What is it?" the redhead questioned.
"While guards are as distracted as everyone, there is something we should talk about."
"Yeah, sure dude. Shot."
"Are you well?"
That question caught her off guard a bit before she answered pretending to be well "Of course I am." that didn't convince him.
"Wendy, you are not okay, you look black and blue like you haven't slept for the past 11 years," he noted her appearance, he would have said she looked dead; however decided to not use that word.
This time she got a bit more irritated "I appreciate your concern dude but- "
"Stop bottling your emotions like an idiot and listen!" Dipper having enough sharply commented which caught her off guard in surprise, this was the first time Dipper ever snapped at her.
"It's okay to be afraid! It's okay not being chill 24/7! Heck, I'm terrified! Everyone is scared! What's not okay is suppressing yourself with self-deprecating nonsense! Believe me, I Did that, my sister did that and my Great Uncles and it brought nothing but needless drama and pain that could have been prevented, you told me I shouldn't be uncomfortable myself and so here are your own words coming for you. Don't be itchy!" The brunette finished with an air of finality, there was a brief tense moment between them till the ice broke.
"Dude, I don't think I ever saw you snapping at me." She wasn't sad or mad, just baffled and impressed.
The Pines sighed in relief, thinking that he may have stepped too far "I know, I can't believe it myself, sorry…"
"Nah it's fine, someone had to put some senses into me acting like a cheesy moron," she with a hand in the air shrugged -" Thanks man." she gave a playful smack at his back.
"What are friends for?" He asked rhetorically, smiled a bit.
She then lost her playfulness and with a sigh lamented with a half-smile "Have you ever felt like something broken inside you? Like feeling the ice melted away and there is no way to freeze things back?"
"I'm not sure that's the allegory I would use, but I did feel like that when me and Mabel had a falling out before Weirdmageddon happened," he recalled sadly.
"Last night, I met the killer of my mother. I felt like something snapped inside me, everything went red back then and now? Now I feel like a damn mess like all blockers are gone, letting go a flood." she replied as she looked down. It was heartbreaking for Dipper to see his best friend, this embodiment of cool-headedness against danger looking miserable.
He gently touched her shoulder "That's called being human Wendy, it's better to feel even if it sucks than feeling nothing."
"I know…it just ...I used to be good at handling this emotional crap, now? I'm some goddamn cheesy damsel in distress." She gave a self-deprecating chuckle.
"You are anything but a damsel in distress Wendy, last time I checked damsels don't fight back or are foolish enough to say right to the face of a guy like Mr. Poolchek to 'Suck a lemon'."
Wendy laughed this time genuinely remembering her brief time when she worked as a lifeguard in a pool owned by an ill-tempered man which made Mason smile.
"Heh, I wished I could see his face when he realized I stole some snacks." Now both laughed. For a few moments, they forget the reality they were remembering the good times, yet no one can stay in the past forever as the present came in. Mabel's brother coughed and chose to change the subject.
"With that out of the way, here is something I have learned and thought you should know…" and so he told her what he learnt about the Scarlet King and she listened closely.
Mabel as she sneaked around the hotel, on her way, she hid behind a service wheelchair when one of the guards passed, afterwards she continued to move while sharpening her ears for any sound from any of the rooms until he heard angry mumbling sounds so went to check it, although she knew she couldn't just eavesdrop without expecting a guard to shows up and catch her in the act so she to her displeasure hid inside a tin can and used an empty canister to hear what was going on as she secretary got her head up slightly up from the trash can and used it to hear better, inside the room Clef who didn't look pleased with all was in a heated argument with 12 dark figures from a computer's monitor shouting his lungs out with other adults including her Grunkles except for Dr. Glass and that blue haired guy who is ironically called "Iceberg".
"-HOW ONE OF THE INHABITANTS OF THIS BACKWARD TOWN BEINGRELATED TO THE SCARLET KING WASN'T WORTH MENTIONING!?"
From what her brother told him the Scarlet King was a malevolent extra-dimensional entity, she thought this being was just some Bill wannabe, soon she is going to learn how wrong she was when one of the dark figures with no characteristics or appearance responded, the voice was electric so she couldn't even tell if it was a he or she same as the lack of details on the figures "Your outburst is unseemingly Doctor Clef. If you are done raging, we will delve in." The first one said,
"OH you have ONE HELL OF AN EXPLANATION about it!" he then signed with a pinch on his eyes.
The second one coughed and continued "As you know, the Scarlet King has patrons who he either empowers or created either directly or indirectly from the 7 brides- "
"Yeah, yeah we heard the mythology, GET TO THE POINT!" The Ukulele man cut them off in impatience.
The 7th continued "...Very well, as some of you know years ago Children of The Scarlet enact a ritual to bring the Scarlet King to our dimension by using 7 young women as carriers for each of the 7 bride's offsprings, the result of each birth was the carriers' death and each one was more catastrophic than the other. Any attempt to prevent the births ended in failure until lead researcher Doctor Montauk found descriptions in which it disallowed SCP-231-7 the final victim of that ritual from giving birth by putting her in a torturous process hence giving the name Procedure 110-Montauk."
The adults in the room grimaced, Procedure 110-Montauk was the biggest source of shame and horror in the Foundation, nothing but horror stories were heard about it. No one knows what the Procedure really was; nevertheless, it was said that it was so ghastly that anyone that got involved in it begged to have their memories erased.
Alexei gave a mark with one hand on his chest which was a sign of the Cogwork Orthodox Church of the Broken God, being the amalgamation of human and machine he found an interest in the Mekhane religion.
Cain had a detested look, being millennia old he witnessed humanity's lowest and best and that included black magic and delving with eldritch forces not meant to meddle with.
The Specter was seething in rage, being the representation of the concept of heroism this offended his moral sensibility to its core.
The Black Knight wasn't pleased either like the black-wearing gunslinger being all about honor and dignity though in his case it is Chivalry, not to mention he had the anomalous ability to see through people if they are honorable by his standards or not which in this case seeing the O5 Council even behind the obscured monitor was already enough to tighten his grip on his black sword in disgust, has it not been for the pacts he made, his bonds of friendship and brotherhood with his comrades and many who worked or in case of some anomalies lived in the SCP Foundation and seeing the Chaos Insurgency and the Children of the Scarlet King as far bigger monsters than them he would have gone on a warpath to cut the enigmatic council's heads. No wonder why Ethics Committees always butt heads with the O5 Council.
The girl Pines put both of her hands in her mouth, this wasn't like Bill at all, no it is much worse and vile than she ever imagined.
"Except that never happened, in reality, we let SCP-231-7 give birth." The 12th said.
The sudden drop of this revelation that the most shameful secret in the Foundation was a scam caused all adults to change expressions to shock. Their eyes have gone wide, and jaws were hanging, though in the case of Clef, he was the most composed, probably because he is used to the O5 Council's secrecy inside secrecy and Ley wore a face that said 'And they call me a Con-Artist!'.
"- WHAT WHAT!?" Seras is in shock and outrage.
"Ooooh boy…" Jack bellowed while tilting his head left and right.
"We found the fact that the cult had a procedure to prevent the birth of the 7th child to be too convenient. Why would a doomsday cult not want the birth of their messiah to bring forth Armageddon? So we dig more into the mythology and so, we took a gambit and let SCP-231-7 give birth." The 10th elaborated.
"But why the secrecy?" Alexei asked in confusion.
"We hope by putting the pretense it would fool the Scarlet King and his followers as despite all its power the entity is not omnipotent and through fear it would be blinded to the truth, but alas the cult and his minions have found out with the secret so now the cat is out of the bag." 6th said.
"Who is the 7th child? Is it one of the SCPs?" Cain was getting an idea.
The 3rd dropped the bomb, of all the world-ending and extremely dangerous SCPs, it was the least suspect of all. "SCP-999 the Tickle Monster was the result."
Mabel silently gasped and recalled SCP-999 as the absurdity of all these was sitting in her mind. This bundle of joy, this candy-loving being who just tickled her and her brother in a tickle fight was the child of an incomprehensible eldritch evil destined to one day overthrow its father.
She wasn't the only one, once again eyes went wide and jaws hanging out, Clef had the face of the very definition of 'Of course.' with a glare putting holes in the monitor and Jack dropped the snack he held in his mouth and overflowed the cup he was filling with coffee, so shocked that he was numbed to the heat of the extra poured drink all over his cup-held hand which was the still fleshy one not the prosthetic one.
"Yes you heard that right, take time to comprehend the preposterous ridiculousness of all these; The Tickle Monster is the child of the Scarlet King." The 2nd added.
"Woah woah woah, hold the horses! That candy blob which tickled blondy over here to death"- Thompson's cheeks blushed recalling that -"So as the kids, is the antichrist!?" Iceberg, Cain, Jacob and Laskaris facepalmed.
Ford rectified his brother "No Stanley, Antichrist is Satan's offspring and the bad guy who is trying to lead humanity to the stray from the light of God, but I can see the ironical reversal of this."
"In a sense, you could say Doctor Ford." The 5th resumed.
By this point even finding out that her Grunkles agreed to work for the Foundation didn't surprise her given all things she just heard. Her mind became numb.
"That would mean…POI-GF-27 IS SCP-231-7!" Walter concluded in shock.
"POI-GF-27 as in Ms. Corduroy? I thought she died by the wolves!" Stanley blurted out.
The 4th responded "The anomalous properties of SCP-999 upon birth cured SCP-231-7 of her traumatic experience, so she was amnesticized and given back to her family. Years later members of the Cult attacked her and her husband and children sought answers, we don't know how since she was given a new identity but they found her anyway and killed her after finding out that she had no memory of who, where or what the 7th child is."
'This is…too much information in 5 minutes…' By this point, Mabel felt her legs growing weak with this amount of shocking revelations she heard in such a short time as if learning the truth about Wendy's mother wasn't enough. Couldn't bear to hold it any longer with her brain unable to to process all of these thus she decided to return to the room with others, then on her way out of the trash can she strumbled at someone, she nearly yelped if it weren't for Rainer putting a hand on her mouth.
"Shhh! You would alert everyone!" SCP-4051 shushed her, she in response licked his hand which made him move his hand away in repulsion.
"Ew! You licked me!" He yelped.
"I only liked being startled when it's a surprise party!"- the Pines defended -"Did you hear the…" she tried to find the words.
"Heard what? Were you eavesdropping?"
She blew a raspberry "I don't need to explain myself to the spying spy ... .spying…brown nose I-don't-know-the-synonym!" She sent her hands up.
"Technically, I didn't lie…I just…didn't tell everything." He remarked on the technicality.
"Lying, hiding. Potatoes, tomatoes!"
"Look, I get that me 'infiltrating' doesn't make me look honest, but believe me on this, I didn't pretend like I liked being in the company because I did except for the street orphan part, for the first in a long time I got to feel like a kid again with hanging with my age group doing stupid teenage kinds of stuff. You don't know what is like to be seen as an anomaly by everyone even when it is in a flattering way, most of my friends are never had a childhood or at least in a conventional way or are adults, they got to live and treated like a kid but I did not, everyone had high expectations on me simply because I got to have powers, don't get me wrong, it certainly beat being looked as a time bomb waiting to be exploded initially when the Foundation…found me."
"...found you, not a street orphan...as in kidnapped!? You had a family?!" Mabel nearly shouted, making him flinch a bit.
"Not the word I would use- "
"Then how do you describe that!?" she bursted.
"I can summon objects from other dimensions and open portals so think about what would happen if they didn't, I would have been entirely inexperienced in my powers with no one to teach me or to restrain me. What if I accidentally opened a gateway to some Lovecraftian dimension? What if when I hit puberty I went on an edgy phase or have a tantrum and summon a nuclear bomb? also, I wasn't forced to work with them, I wanted to work for them otherwise I was content just being the comic nerd guy with portal powers talking about comics with my fantastical friends and choosing a field of study(which is like the most normal thing possible there), all which I didn't abandon by the way, I don't believe that obligations and your wants in life should be sacrificed one for another."
The last part hit her deeper, a lot of things that happened between her and his twin at the twilight of the first summer and what had happened between their Grunkles in the past could have been averted if they weren't so set in to differentiate between their relationship and their wants. Dr. Glass in his sessions with her and her twin did say that the key is communication and balancing things out.
"It's still not fair…I just, you got stolen from your family…how are you okay with this!?" The very concept of being ripped away from your family and being okay with it was anathema to her, she definitely wouldn't react well if some shady people came in and took her away from her brother and family, she knows that for a fact because of that insecurity, Bill used that to exploit her in starting Weirdmageddon when she was at her weakest. She would have burned the world before those white-coated know-it-all shady jerks told her that she was disallowed from ever seeing her twin again.
"I'm not, I admit the geek part of me was thrilled in working with a secret organization tasked with saving the world, fighting threats and becoming like a superhero and it was hard at first, but I made many friends more than I ever had in my previous life, amazing ones if I may add and saw amazing things no average person can claim to seen.
I know I should be ashamed for saying this, but I don't think I would even want to return back to the life I had even if I had a choice despite sometimes missing my family."
As he said that, she recalled a memory he had with Iris Thompson, during a talk in the cafeteria, one thing led to another and ended with power and responsibility which to his astonishment she found it dumb.
"-but with great power comes great responsibi- "
"Don't, don't give me that load of crap." SCP-105 snapped, placing both of her hands on his shoulder. She growled with a glare.
"Listen to me, you are not responsible for everyone! Not me, certainly not the SCP Foundation, no one. never be a slave to others' entitlement, you are your own person, you have wants, dreams and flaws like everyone else, you being you are enough, you are enough. never let anyone tell you that. Say that you are enough."
"I…I'm enough."
He didn't know what she meant back then; however, he knew now, it was a lesson about being your person instead of trying to be what others define you. As someone who used to be self-conscious like how Dipper used to be it was helpful.
Mabel looked conflicted, her expression showed a turmoil of emotions till she in frustration uttered with one hand on her head "Ahgh! I hate this! I hate how gray everything has got!" First, she learns her parents used to work with SCP Foundation, then his psychiatrist and her new friend are revealed to be one as well and now today's long list of bombarding world-shaking revelations. It seems no matter what, anything related to that blasted organization is just plainly painted in gray, how should she feel that her parents and grunkles work for an institute that puts the likes of Aé, Spanko and Miller in just for the crime of not being normal yet at the same time stopped likes of Creepy Man, Chaos Insurgency and the Hateful Reptile from hurting anyone else? Is not like they were over their heads upstart government thugs like those two agents that came during the first summer before they got mind wiped by Grunkle Ford who only knows how to destroy and imprison with no idea of what they are dealing with.
From What she heard of Dr. Glass, Miller and other anomalies the Foundation made efforts in reforming and building a community, the fact that she was now speaking with just one of the anomalies who willingly worked for the Foundation proves that so as Glass's genuine want in helping those traumatized by the Weirdmageddon. Who is she to judge Miller? She once had a meltdown at the prospect of the summer ending and returning to the same 'normal' life she and her brother found hard adjusting and that's not counting the fact that her brother was willing to leave his life to become Great Uncle Ford's apprentice, what is a life of wonder compared to a life complacent? At least in previous summers right and wrong were clear, now…everything is murky.
A migraine was forming in his head as her mind was trying hard to comprehend all this with no answers.
Rainer gave a sympathetic gaze "I know, life rarely is clear."
Mabel sighed in defeat and decided to move back to the room "I can't believe I find you attractive." She muttered as she moved back.
Miller at first didn't process what he just heard, until he did so when comprehension hit him like cold water from confusion to- "...wait what!?" He squawked as he started following her.
Back at the monitor, while the heated arguments happened Ley in annoyance grunted.
"Well that's the fragging deep end, what's next? Gonna tell us you are secretly involved in assassinating JFK or that the body swamper here once was the president?"
"Actually…I was." The redhead doctor stated.
Stanley stared at Bright.
"Yeah there were these alien parasites and…it's a long story."
After a moment of staring in disbelief at him he looked at others "...tell me he is kidding." Ley pleaded to Walter with a hand dragged on his face who in turn nodded in exasperation. Thompson, Cain and Iceberg nodded in unfortunate confirmation with fluttered eyes in case of Iceberg, Seras looked blankly and Clef seemed amused.
The 1st continued "Now that you see the direness of this situation, you are authorized to use whatever means necessary to neutralize the threat before contamination of the veil, starting the 8th Occult War and possibly the end of the world as we know it, O5-Council out."
"- Now wait a minute- !" Sixer wasn't done, yet the monitor was gone and only the sign of O5 Council was on it.
"Welp, that was enlightening…" Dr. Pines with annoyance noted.
"I feel…conflicted." The Specter expressed, he disliked it when things were gray instead of black and white.
"Not the word I would use, but apt." The swordsman agreed.
"Well, no point in brooding, we can process it later, the bastards are not going to wait for us to die." Agent Seras grunted and so they went to plan things out.
"Now just a moment, aren't we gonna break the news that her mother was at the center of some eldritch cultist plot?" Ley wondered.
"No." Dr. Pines answered.
"What!? Why?" The previous Mr. Mystery demanded an explanation in outrage.
"Because she is being compromised by the Scarlet King or at least one of his subjects and learning about this may drive her further." The irony hasn't been lost on either Ford or Stan, their nephew talked about keeping this a secret like how Ford used to talk about Bill from Dipper and Mabel, even his posture was a mirror of how Sixer used to be during the First Summer.
"How do you know that's the case?" Stanford asked for evidence.
"Think Uncle THINK! Even someone as capable as Wendy can't take out an overbearing number of cybernetically enhanced monstrosities and trained killers; besides, I'm a thaumaturgist I sensed something…dark inside her and I don't mean metaphorically or rhetorically or any of the fancy inner demon philosophical conundrums, the more she knows the more she will be in danger."
"YOU don't know THAT!" Stanley cried out.
"I know that because Dr. Montauk, the guy who was involved in researching SCP-231 which is this whole fiasco by the way, went INSANE AND DIED!" Dipper and Mabel's father shut him up by the emphasis and next he gave a sardonic laughter "Says the man who pretended to be his twin for the past 30 years and who made a career of lying and frauding while the other who literally had 'Trust No One' as a chant? What's one more secret? Neither of you seemed to have a problem in any of those, much less against your family." he added bitterly, Ley and Ford could feel the sting of those words aching in their hearts. They tried to disagree with their nephew but he seemed to know what they were gonna say.
"You disagree? Then go ahead! No one is forcing you, go tell her! For her sake, I hope you're right." Walter challenged them with his hand pointed to the door with a condemning look.
Flashes of mixed emotions expressed on the Elder Twins' faces, they looked to others begging them to say otherwise or disagree but others from their displeased and grime look clear they to their shame agreed with this. The Knight and the Vigilante especially absolutely hated it, conflicted with their morals and their core existence and yet they knew until whatever darkness get exorcized from the redhead girl revealing this may only send her deeper to the void.
Miller with Mabel came back to their room without the guards noticing.
Melody was the first to say "Oh thank God, where were you?" She uttered in concern.
"I was…looking for the Tickle Monster, thought to see her for the last time." Technically it wasn't a full lie she did want to.
"I like the little guy, it's like a therapy dog but jelly." Soos fondly commented.
"It is cute for a blob monster." Melody agreed with her husband.
"I suppose…" Robbie held his right hand on his left shoulder, remembering how it gave him 'Unnatural Happiness' to his embarrassment. The worst of all was that he couldn't make himself hate the orange blob.
"What? Don't like jelly therapy?" Pacifica sneered, leaving others laughing and Valentino even more embarrassed and grumbling.
This left Mabel the only one not laughing or remembering fondly, being burdened by knowledge.
Her memories of innocent fun with 999 were replaced, For now, all she saw wasn't some wacky bubbly sentient jelly with a sweet tooth, but a prophesied chosen one with the fate of the multiverse at balance and that pressure intimidated her.
"Yay." She said hallowly.
In the planning room where the adults planned things out and there Leora and Rainer joined in after being summoned.
"What's Fiddleford doing here!?" Stanford exclaimed, they went to the other side of the room which caused him to exclaim from seeing Fidds who was sleeping with loud snores sounding like a sleeping raccoon on the couch.
"He is put unconscious after a few doses for attempting to bite me; besides, your friend was harboring anomalies." Iceberg nonchalantly informed him of being so dense in social cues which served to infuriate him.
"That's because he was harboring them as a request from me!" Poindexter growled.
Bright chorted in ridicule "Waaaay to go Gears Junior." He sang mockingly which prompted the blue-haired scientist to give him an icy glare.
"He was attacking me!"
"You just mentioned amnestics to a guy who went mad by his own brand of mind wiping and that you want to replace amnesics with his." Cain tried reasoning with him by explaining this.
"You want what?" Ley blinked.
"ABSOLUTELY NOT!" Both Mr. Pines and Stanford shouted simultaneously, then they looked at each other in surprise at the simultaneous outrage.
"Oh look, the famous genetic twintelekic of the Pines." Jack joked.
"Must you make a joke out of everything?" The Biomechanical soldier said annoyed.
"Hey, your coping mechanism is to curse in your native language and mine is comedy." The Russian soldier wanted to refuted with his mouth open, but shut it down knowing he had nothing.
"Again, only if its mind deterioration properties have been solved or else the Ethics Committees would have condemned me." With a hand up he explained.
"You have Human Resources?" The conman inquired with an eyebrow
"Every officially recognized organization has their own HR." Mrs. Pines replied dryly with a hand on her hip.
"Some ethics it is." Thompson snorted.
"Oh shut it Miss Ticklish." Laskaris retorted, causing her to hide her flushed face as Clef, Jacob, Stan and Bright snickered at that while Ford, Miller and Cain tried to compose themselves from chuckling and Leora felt the collar around her neck a bit tight.
"Can everyone please stop reminding me of that!?" She groaned, the memory of when the Tickle Monster lived up to its reputation by tickling her to death was still fresh, the most humiliating thing that ever happened to her and worst of all, it felt good.
"Whatever you say, Miss Ticklish." Clef teased smugly.
"Humph- !" Thompson huffed in irritation with locked arms which caused him to smile even more smugly.
"Anyway, it doesn't matter, the guards sent there couldn't be sent a foot on Mcgucket Mansion with its surprisingly advanced security and we have more important things to attend to than just a few harboring anomalies; moreover, he is safe here for now and is on his sleepy beauty as we speaking. so, can we move to plan out the attack and see what they planned?" the apprentice of Dr. Charles Gears tried to change the subject to what is currently more urgent. Ford sighed and relented, back to looking at the map of Gravity Falls on the table.
Iceberg brought a few pictures including one of a gruffed Asian man with one white eye.
"The guy with one blind eye is Commander Colligen working for the rival GOI the Chaos Insurgency."
"GOI?" Stanley questioned.
"Groups Of Interest. The Chaos Insurgency is a terrorist organization dealing in terror tactics and selling and using anomalies for their agenda." 105 spelt it out.
The head of the Decommissioning department tossed a picture of a hooded old man on the table "And the crooked piece of work you see is High Priest Dehak who ruthlessly conned his way(no offense)-"
"Some taken." The Pines hustler Shrugged.
"-(I don't care) To the upper ladder like all mad ravening religious figures by amassing brain-dead idiots following him like sheep till he became the new leader of his sect cult, he made human sacrifice and witch hunting popular in fashion again." He elaborated with emphasis with disdain.
"They with the aid of the Factory another rival GOI specialized in making skin-crawling anomalous tech invaded two of our Sites resulting in mass containment failure, that dead motherless scum-eater"- Diana points with a snarl at a dead D-class with his chest ripped open-"Used to be Dr. Graham before he was reduced into a D-class for his gross incompetence and abuse of his position who secretly gave intel to our enemies, now he is burning in Hell."
Seras sneered with depth less hate, people like Graham gave the SCP Foundation a bad reputation, callous supercilious hypocritical scientists who hide behind the 'Cold not Cruel' or 'Greater Good' to excuse their twisted experimentations, Clef himself had to do some 'Clean up' to wipe such filths from the organization.
She wasn't exactly courteous toward anomalies and even those who proved amicable as she saw all of them with suspicion because of her past experiences; nonetheless, she would never like a bully or a thug to feed her insecurity by harming those innocent.
She wasn't alone in it, other SCPs and Doctors looked at the picture with loathing, even Cain who is the most reserved and kind of them all had a scowl, the Elder Twins had no need to ask more about Graham feeling the heat of the room.
Jack brought a couple of SCP files "SCP-179 Sauelsuesor, a Thaumiel class entity that lives in our solar system warned us of threats just a day before the attack pointed her finger at Earth which is a big deal because back then she only pointed at extraterrestrial threats like meteors." The file showed the picture of a black mattered female humanoid with glowing eyes and medieval alchemy signs on her body with a jet-black hair taller than her own body reflecting the sunlight floating in space pointing a finger at where the picture got taken. Stanford looked in utter fascination learning about the existence of this anomaly.
Next, Dr. Pines showed a picture of a woman in her 20s "SCP-187, a Caucasian female, early to mid 20s with precognition ability when we showed her pictures of the attackers in order to know more of them, she nearly killed herself by bleeding herself to death to paint something as she babbling about a 'Scarlet Dawn', we had to momentarily incapacitate her and gave her a pen to make what she was gonna paint on a blank paper and then amnesticized to regain her sanity." He then brought the painting. It was the head of something akin to a samurai helmet but demonic with jagged sharp teeths, two tusks, two goat horns and two black eyes with crimson pupils and around it there were seven symboles; an orange jelly, a baseball bat, the Big Dipper constellation, a red ax, a meteorite on fire, a thorny plant with two leaves and a green glowing flying firefly.
"A zodiac?" Ford wondered.
"No, a prophecy and I bet it involves the ritual they are trying to make, sensed a foulness here."
"Maybe it is the way to defeat this Scarlet Bastard like that one eye triangle?" Stanley offered his hypothesis.
"No, the Scarlet King is in a whole another level, Bill is a joke compared to him. If a zodiac was all it takes to kill it or defeat it, don't you think the Foundation would have tried it by now?"
"Do you have a hypothesis on the intent of the ritual mage?" SCP-73 asked for Dr. Pines' opinion.
"I don't know what the purpose of the ritual is, but from the foul magic I sensed it's nothing good."
"Whatever it is, it is important enough that they are investing a lot in it." The Spectre theorized with a hand on his chin.
"Probably using some of the captured SCPs as power stations. Probably some reality benders or some extra-dimensional anomalies." Clef speculated.
Stanford joined in the speculation "I believe they are using Gravity Falls's Weirdness Magnetism-"
"Anomalous Nexus." Jack corrected.
"-Anomalous Nexus as a nexus point for the ritual, what better to do that than a place with a weak point in reality?"
"Even with that, they would need an exponential power source and one that is malleable," Iceberg added.
"If I was rotten to the core wizard, I would do such devily work outside of the plain site, maybe in the underground." Iris Laskaris conjecture.
"Ooh, like a Supervillain hideout!" Rainer brought in, Leora Lightfoot and the Spectre nodded in approval while others seemed exasperated.
"Yes Rainer, like a 'Supervillain' hideout…" SCP-1465 behind her glasses was rolling her eyes at the comic geeks.
"And it should be a place where it is strategically valuable and defensible." SCP-2273 gave his military knowledge.
"And ugh, 'hideable'." Agent Seras included feeling dirty for agreeing with the comic fans here as she fixed her glasses.
Ford thought deeply with a hymen sound before he reached a conclusion he did not like.
"By Axolotl….it is Crash Site Omega!" He slammed one hand on his forehead.
"Care to elaborate læce?" 5151 asked.
"There is a crashed alien spaceship in the Gravity Falls, the ship used a Quantum Engine to rewrite the rules of physics in order to travel between galaxies and dimensions." The scientist Pines pointed at the location of Crash Site Omega on the map.
"There is a crashed UFO here!?" Leora seemed to be the only excited and geeking out.
"You mean to say they have access to an advanced alien reality-warping engine!?" Mrs Pines did not like the implications of such a device with untapped potential for destruction being in the hands of the likes of Chaos Insurgency and Children of the Scarlet King.
The dimensional hopping Pines with right hand discredited the notion "No no, it crashed eons ago, the only thing operational are just a handful of security drones and few terminals, but the materials there can be used to create a dimensional portal as I have managed to do so with Mcgucket years ago because the alien metal is a good conductor for extra-dimensional energies and even now the ship contains high amounts of Quantum radiation, not enough or in a form that is harmful but still potent enough to be used as an added energy source."
"Make sense, our intel from SCP-347 while secretly tacking down the trail said there seems to be an activity in this place." The blonde SCP with a polaroid pointed at a point in the map of Gravity Falls which was also the place of Crash Site Omega.
"Hehe, sneaking around naked…" Ley pushed an elbow with Ford, the latter who looked at him disapproving.
"Quantum energy by its nature is neither 1 nor 0 but both at the same time, it is the place where laws of physics are written and you did say the UFO could travel galaxies and dimensions." Jack brainstormed.
"I'm not a scientist, but this all means…" Alexei concluded with a pause.
"That they are trying to create a rift to another dimension!" Ford stated in horrified disbelief.
Buzzing
That was the sound of Bright's phone from his pocket which he grabbed and asked.
"Yellow?" After hearing what was going on, he with a worried look put his phone on the speaker for everyone to hear.
From it, Agent Lament spoke, "We were under attack during transport, they took Dr. Glass, as did the other SCPs." He gave the bad news, and from the sounds of grunting he made, he probably got injured.
"Stacey was there…!" Leora gasped in realized horror.
"So as SCP-999!" the Seras added in.
"Aye, Then it's settled, we attack now." SCP-5151 stumped his sword to the ground and grabbed it mid-air.
Everyone started getting ready, while that happened Clef touched the mirror of the kitchen which then had a digitized word on it that said 'Identity Confirmed.' And with the sound of tickings, parts of the furniture in this room opened revealing a collection of weaponry.
"Ladies and freakazoids, welcome to my little slice of heaven!" He dramatically greeted his arsenal of weapons from shotguns to machine guns, grenades and even missile launchers all attached to every part of the wall, clipboard and even some on the furniture.
"Swell! It's like Hanukkah, Christmas and Nowruz with every other culture's equivalent of Christmas deciding to grace us!" Stan rubbed his hands together with a mischievous smile.
"Guns are my religion." The ex-GOC added as others came to collect.
Diana armed herself with two Semi-automatic pistols and a Light machine gun attached to her back.
Thompson got herself a Semi-automatic pistol and a military sniper.
Clef decided to bring a kinetic revolver, an energy weapon that shoots kinetic energies with a TS12 semi-auto shotgun.
Belitrov was grabbing a lot of grenades, ammo and weapons, the question of how he is gonna carry so much came into Laskaris's mind who soon regretted her curiosity when she took a peak, the Russian's biomechanical suit literally absorbed all of it, even an into its own as a morbid SCP-1465 saw that.
'Not gonna question that…' SCP-1465 decided that for the sake of her sanity and not to barf feeling her morning meal in his stomach, ignore what she just saw and fill her magazine.
Ford was content with his blaster, though he grabbed his blaster rifle as well before departing the Shack which looked like his triangle-headed pistol but longer.
"How much did it take to build secret weapon stashes here?" Cain tilted his head a bit.
"Ever wondered where the taxes go?" Alto retorted with little care in the world as SCP-105 gave a look that said 'Of Course' with a sigh and moved on.
Stan grabbed a 44 Magnum revolver and secretly hid a Glock and a flash grenade.
"You got a permit grandpa?" Clef asked with narrowed eyes, catching Stan grabbing guns and coming toward him.
Both Clef and Stan glared at each in suspicion as both stood still, till both chortled starting with Alto first like it was something funny.
"You almost got me!" Stan admitted as he and the head of the Decommissioning department laughed.
Seras rolled her eyes at seeing this while Jacob seemed a bit amused before reversing back.
"Aha!"- the Ex-GOC upon seeing Rainer getting his hands on a one-hand gun surprised him by the sudden exclamation and came to him.
"No minors are allowed!" Clef declared as he pushed Miller so as Lightfoot who nearly touched a machine gun away and took the weapon the Friendly Keter was trying to take away, even though he had standards and would never condone giving minors firearms.
"Instead, use this." He gave a hunting crossbow to 4051 to his puzzlement on his way out, guns are for adults, and crossbows are for children to play.
After they were ready, some decided to come to the other room and say farewell.
"But why can't we come this time? We have been in danger before." SCP-4818 protested to SCP-105.
"Listen to me, we may not come back. If we do not have someone to stay here to protect them and I doubt what we are going to face guards would be enough, I need you and Rainer here, if this place becomes a ground zero for an XK-Class end-of-the-world scenario, you need to help evacuate this town. Also, I'm ordering you so technically." she reasoned.
" 'May not?' Lame, you will return. Don't pull some self-sacrificing heroic claptrap and that's coming from a comic book nerd." SCP-4051 remarked.
105 gave a smile and said, "Trust me, I and neither anyone have any plans to die."
The Elder Twins were going to come to the Younger Twins; however, seeing the Younger Pines Twins' parents coming first they decided to not intervene.
"-But we have already been through life-endangering situations before! What's different about this?" Dipper objected.
"This is different, neither I nor your mother can not forgive ourselves if we put ourselves in danger, there is a possibility that we may not even be able to come back," Jacob explained.
Seras interjected, "That doesn't mean we think you are incapable, we want you safe, you have a whole life ahead of you and we know you will do your best."
"But what if our best isn't good enough?" Mabel asked sadly.
"It's good enough for us." Diana with firm reassurance states with no hesitation.
"And I…we're proud of you both." The father shook both his twin children's shoulders, he then with the mother left not before the mother on her way came to 3 guards.
"You protect them with your lifeguard, anything else and resignation will be the least of your worries." Seras threaten the guards with an ultimatum.
"Yes ma'am." One of the three guards obeyed.
The parents left with the others.
"Dude, never tell us your parents are this cool," Lee muttered to Mason in amazement after he walked toward him.
"We didn't know." He replied solemnly.
Unknown to them Pacifica was looking at this touching moment longing with envy and sadness, knowing that her parents can never say to her that, for what's the most any children want their parents but to love them unconditionally?
"You look out for the kids?" Ley came to Mr. Ramirez.
"On my life Mr. Pines." Soos assuredly stated.
"Also, will you stop my idiot pet dino from following me?"
Hiss
Chompy who was inside a pet cage was hissing at Waddles who simply was looking at it.
"Done too."
"Thanks, Soos, I can always count on you." The conman Pines grabbed Soos on his shoulder and then left, leaving him beaming like a kid who just got told by his father that he does good and considering Stanley was the closest thing he had to a father figure, that was kinda true.
"Stay safe, partner." The Spectre patted the Friendly Neighborhood Keter on his head and left with the others not before the Great Uncles gave farewell gestures to their Great Niece and Nephew. It was just them now, the Mystery Twins looked at the door for a few seconds before Miller and Wendy showed up seeing their distress.
"You okay dude?" Miller asked
"No…it's like seeing your world end." The Pines boy uttered.
"Your parents are badasses, I'm sure they would come back even with the world at stake." The redhead teen comforted.
"Funny that you mentioned world-ending…" the Pines girl uttered with two fingers or her respective hands at each other, Dipper and Wendy looked at her before realizing something.
"There is something you found out." Dipper inquisitively gazes at his twin sister.
"Uhmmm…."
"Knowing what?" Leora intervened.
"Uhmmm…."
"She was eavesdropping." 4051 informed the photonic manipulator.
"Uhmmm…."
"Mabel, do you know something?" The Corduroy inquired with narrowed eyes.
"Uhmmm…" Mabel uttered awkwardly and uncomfortably, this is going to be very draining.
Outside the motel, The Elder Pies tried to comfort Walter who didn't appreciate their gesture.
"Don't, don'tthink this is over my dear uncles, things are far from over, what was there between us? It's different now." Stan and Ford's nephew remarked coldly and brushed off.
"Does this mean are you going to forbid Dipper and Mabel from seeing us?" The con artist Pines asked in regret.
"After all you stooges pulled, you two would be lucky to even have the right to give a text to them!" Diana hissed behind with a huff and joined her husband seemingly trying to comfort him, next Alto joined in with the elder twins.
"Don't feel bad, you did a fine job," Alto said as he puffed from a cigarette he lit from a lighter.
"We did?" Doctor Ford wondered.
"No." He answered flatly, which made the elder Pines frown. "By the way, you agreed to work for the Foundation and I have greater authority over you, so from now on…I'm your Grunkle now." Doctor Clef with a malicious toothy smile with both hands' fingers together which promised Stan and Ford endless trouble and getting bossed around as they cringed, Ley couldn't feel but that it is some karma justice for his time running the Mystery Shack.
"Poindexter?" The conman Pines called his brother as they looked at the Ukulele man moving away chirpy.
"Yeah?"
"I was wrong, Karma does exist and it's a b-"
—-END—-
Notes:Yes I intentionally reduced Doctor Graham into a D-class and then got killed because screw that guy.
The game is set, the pieces are together. Expect the next chapter to be hectic.