It was time.
The car door slammed shut behind Dipper and Mabel as they hurried from the black vehicle. It was Friday, and all the construction workers were finally gone. It meant Dipper and Mabel could analyze the piles of papers in manila folders to their hearts content. Well, Dipper could; Mabel was there in spirit. As Dipper felt his thumb ride across the wad of paper, his sister put a hand before him.
"Hey, bro, can I talk serious for a sec?" Mabel asked, eyeing her brother.
"What?" he eyed her worriedly, "You aren't going to start with asking why, I don't know, I'm not wearing a hat yet, or how I look silly, or why we don't have more farm animals living with us?" Dipper suggested. He really wanted to get inside and look already.
"I was going to get to that later," Mabel shrugged. She seemed kind of nervous. Dipper honed in on her trepidation and quickly adopted a willingness to listen. She continued, "I was thinking about what Bill Cipher told us."
"Uh... which part?" Dipper scratched his head with his empty hand, "That we should cook our own food?"
"Dipper, you remember what he said," she took the papers from him, placed them on the car hood and made a triangle with her fingers. She placed said triangle over her eyes, adopting an overly-excited higher-tone voice and said, "No one in town is who they seeeeem!" she dropped her fingers and looked to him intently. "Remember?"
Dipper nodded solemnly. "Not something I was particularly happy to hear. He's a jerkwad, but he doesn't seem to technically lie. He just leaves parts of the picture out."
"Like the one time about Grunkle Stan and Grunkle-" Mabel started.
Dipper eyed Mabel dangerously. It still wasn't clear how Stan approached his brother's fate. The topic of the first summer was a dark one, and the twins had no intention to bring down Stanley by poking at tender wounds. Granted, it had all ended up on good terms by the end: the world hadn't been subjected to Bill Cipher's domination. The sacrifice their grand uncle had made, however, still felt like an itch they dared not scratch. At the end of it all, Bill Cipher had called out the coming storm three years ago. He had been honest about the coming dangers; he simply had underestimated them all.
Dipper glowered. "You're right," Dipper continued, "If Bill brought up something like that, there's something going on. I just wonder what. Have we gotten a clue that people in town are in together with something?"
"I haven't even seen posters for special clubs or nothin'," Mabel shrugged, "and Grenda and Candy told me it's been boring here recently. There's only old posters for Montana Jeffreys still hanging about."
"So… then what the heck did he mean," Dipper stroked the combined file of papers with his thumb.
Mabel stepped over and leaned on the car with her brother. "But, you know," she nervously started, "Maybe this is one of thos mysteries that the twins have to solve on their own?" Mabel suggested.
Her brother stared at her, and the papers on the hood of his car. She wasn't talking about sharing information with just anyone. Her eyes were looking towards the Mystery Manor. "You don't really think-" Dipper started.
"I don't know what to think Dipper," Mabel admitted, "But if you knew that anyone in town could be part of a huge conspiracy, anyone, would we let them in on this?" she asked, picking up the pages behind her, "Would you?"
Dipper frowned. Until he knew what exactly Bill was indicating, there was a chance they could be broadcasting their progress to their target. Dipper, with a resigned sigh, said to Mabel, "No, you're right. Smart," he added with a sad smile to her.
She chuckled. "What can I say? Brains like an elephant!" Mabel used her hands and the folder to make big floppy motions next to her head. "Brruuugh!"
Dipper turned with his sister towards the entrance to the building. As they walked, he pondered the possible insinuations that could be found inside. He would be looking for a particular move in or move out. A significant death he could label as suspicious; something that would explain why there was a highly-advanced robotic Tambry replacement walking around town. They stepped inside the building, passing through the gift shop.
"Hey guys," Wendy waved to them as they passed through, "Any luck?"
Dipper felt all sorts of weird as he spotted the redhead. She knew. He knew that she knew. He needed to play it cool. He said, "We, uh, haven't looked at anything yet," Dipper shrugged, fighting the urge to smile as he looked to her face.
Only an hour had passed since the debacle with Strongholds and Serpents, and he didn't want to remind her of his feelings. Not that it probably mattered, as he reasoned with himself, but what the heck. Play it safe.
Mabel made things easier. "We're going to do super-analysis of crazy nerd stuff and numbers! Lots of numbers!" Mabel announced, "So secretive and dangerous that the Town Hall itself had to keep it safe... until now," the girl twin grinned, looking at folder, "Your time is up, secrets."
Wendy laughed and Dipper allowed him self to smile, but wouldn't laugh with her. Keep it together. Wendy added, "Let me know if anyone get's a big case of sudden traumatic flashbacks. Those can be a pain without a buddy," she told the twins.
Dipper nodded, worried about the possibility. Mabel, unphased, quickly asked, "What happens if you get one?"
Wendy snorted, and waved a dismissive hand. "Dude, you've seen my family. I'll just have to think on what dad's up to and all that dark gloom and doom will be like a cakewalk." The twins chuckled and Wendy grinned.
From the hall, heavy footsteps announced the coming of the grump. "I heard the sounds of amusement," Grunkle Stan pointedly asked as he poked his head through the door, "Is anyone being made fun of I can get on board with?"
"Not this time, you slow poke," Mabel grinned as she shook her head.
Grunkle Stan snapped his fingers. "Agh. Darn. Well, while I'm here, I need someone to get onto the roof and fix the wind thingy up there," Stan announced to the room, "Soos!"
"In a minute!" the muffled voice of the handyman called from elsewhere, more than likely the bathroom.
"Ugh. Okay, last one goes," Stan quickly pushed a finger onto his nose. Wendy and Dipper were quick, as Mabel was busy looking at a sparkly post cards. "Mabel, you're up."
"Huh? Aww rattle-snatchers!" Mabel barked angrily as she turned around and headed back out the front door.
Dipper consoled her, telling her, "I'll try to get the boring math part done first." He turned towards the hallway.
Stan spotted the folder in Dipper's arm. "Oh, got the town data or whatever, huh?" Stan asked Dipper, "Anything new developing in the world of dangerous people-replacing robots?"
"Nothing yet. I got a tip thought, something I'm not sure sounds too good," Dipper admitted, "And I'm not sure I trust him either. I'll let you know if something happens."
Grunkle Stan nodded, and started to scratch his neck. "Right. Well, uh, you guys remember tomorrow you're heading out, right?" Grunkle Stan asked as he shoved a thumb over his shoulder at the calendar. Indeed, they were on the last full day they would be residing here. "So, you know, in case that you figure this thing is unsolvable or stuff, maybe we could go, I don't know, go fishing again, or whatever. Nothing crazy or expensive. I'm not rich... that rich."
Dipper stared at his uncle, a shocked smile on his face. Dipper must have gotten his horrible lying habits from Grunkle Stan, because he saw right through the old geezer. That old fart desperately wanted one more day of quality time with the twins before they left. Dipper was sure that if Mabel was here, she would squeal and hug the old man, right then and there. Instead. Dipper smiled and nodded.
"Sure. That'll be fun," Dipper said as he turned up the stairs, leaving a more pleased grand uncle behind him.
Once up the stairs, Dipper made to his room. The cursed S&S pieces were all scattered on the floor. He lifted them and shoved them all into his trash can in the corner of the room. "To be burned at a later date," Dipper told himself.
With the folder tucked under his arm, he tossed the papers on his desk and gently moved the cylinders aside. Fingers creeping over the front folder page, Dipper nervously opened the first page. Figures, data numbers, a whole mess of collected and improperly organized materials presented itself for him. Graphs, charts, and lots of monthly reports awaited him.
As he began to read over the two-thousand and twelve end-of-the-year report, he noticed something interesting. Power usage of the town, crime rate, accidents, and insurance claims; he found the same data error that seemed unreported in all the information he had. The same missing week, the exact same week of missing data, was presently missing. December tenth to the seventeenth were all missing from three years ago. Weird.
Dipper flipped some more pages and found what he was hoping to discover: human based information. Demographics, the numbers he didn't know. The first thing he looked to was job openings and calls for work. The numbers went all the way back to five years ago, and then, like the other data, stopped suddenly at the tenth and continued seven days after that. Yet something seemed off for Dipper. After the data hiccup, there was no more job openings. No one was fired, no any new listings offered.
"Weird," he flipped the page. A flutter of his heart told Dipper he was looking at the chart for people moving in and out of Gravity Falls. Five years ago, for the first two pages it seemed okay. Then, once again on the tenth all data was cut out. No one was recorded moving in or out of Gravity Falls once the seventeenth was passed. All the way until last month.
"The heck," Dipper asked aloud. He looked at the page closer, maybe missing a data crucial to the chart. People were always moving. Kids growing up, elders traveling; something was missing from this.
A knock on the window had Dipper whip his head to the right. Mabel was swinging from the shingles of the roof above, waving at him with her upside-down hair.
"Lemme in!" she asked as she grinned at him.
"You could have walked inside," Dipper told her as he walked over and pushed the window open.
"That's for lamers! I am a setter of trends. And the new trend is window arrivals!" Mabel told him as she flipped inside with a dramatic spin in mid air. "Ha-ha!"
Dipper laughed, shoving her aside with a gentle shove. "Okay, calm down Robin Hood," Dipper snickered as he walked from her to the desk, "And come over here and look at these." Mabel followed his suggestion, approaching his desk with a little skip in her step. "So," Dipper started to tell her, "All of them so far have that same missing week in the data. Not even a 'data unavailability'. Just like they cut it out, or it never existed. And check this – after that date, December the seventeenth, I've noticed nothing seems to... change," Dipper pointed to the chart for moving people, "See? After that, no one moves."
"That is kind of googly-weird," Mabel nodded, resting her chin on Dipper's shoulder, "What's next?"
"Uh, births and – wait," Dipper scoffed as his eyes glanced once over the paper and knew something was wrong. "That can't be right!"
"What?!" Mabel demanded, as Dipper was blocking off the sight of the paper with his head.
"Mabel, look here," he pointed to the births and deaths within Gravity Falls. "Five years ago, a few deaths but with more births. That is fairly normal, just like every small town in the USA. Then we hit the week here," he pointed to the strange gap on the next page, "And look..." his finger slid to the bottom of the chart, where both deaths and births had the same number.
"Zero?" Mabel asked blinking, "You mean no one has died and no one has been born in the entire three years we've been gone?"
"Since that December, yes," Dipper nodded, "But that can't be right!" he turned to her, "Three years of no deaths or births!? Wait... Have we seen any babies this entire week?" Mabel looked around the room, thinking. Her mind scanned memories for cute things she had seen. As he eyes widened, Dipper read the answer. "We haven't."
"What does that mean!?" Mabel needed to know, "Like, how do people just stop, you know, loving fat little babies?"
"I... I don't know," Dipper then looked to the cylinders. His eyes lingered on them, and a possibility flashed into his mind. Something he hadn't considered. "Wait... Mabel, we found one in the funeral home, right?"
"Yeah, that's right," Mabel nodded, "And what's his face gave us the second one – with the dogs?"
"Montana Jeffreys, yeah," Dipper nodded, "And the third one came from Tambry. Mabel, let's pretend that Robots don't break or fall apart after years of neglect. What would a robot be capable of doing?"
"What... like, anything?" Mabel scoffed, uncertain how to answer that.
"Anything a person could?"
"I... yeah," Mabel's brain triggered a thought, and she saw that same idea in her brother's eyes, "Oh no. People could have been dying, and someone's been making robot replacements of them?"
"It could be?" Dipper scratched his hair, "I think I have an idea, something to finally rule out. We'll need to grab those and power them up again," Dipper pointed to the three batteries next to him
Mabel grabbed them hastily. "Last time we took those anywhere-"
Dipper cut off his sister quickly, collecting his papers back into the folder, "We'll be careful with them this time. We'll test the idea in a safe space. Safe-ish space."
"Well... okay. But I get to hold them!" Mabel told him firmly, pocketing the rods in a pocket in her sweater.
"Let's go sneak these by something and power them up," Dipper announced.
The two, with their supplies in hand, left their rooms and headed downstairs. Dipper and Mabel both spotted the television on in the living room, unattended and unwatched. Mabel side-stepped closer, and lowered the batteries to be right next to the television. They began their drawing of power and distributed it equally amongst the three rods.
With that out of the way, they walked out of the gift shop hurriedly, uncertain of what to say to the cashier. Soos was walking in as they exited, saying something about how Stan wanted to know where Mabel had vanished to. The twins were on a mission, and made it to the backyard in once piece.
Mabel faced her brother, holding the cylinders in her hands. "So, first plan of action?" Mabel asked her brother, who nodded for her to walk closer to the edge of the woods. He seemed worried about this idea of his, and sighed before turning to her.
"Okay," he told his sister, "Do… What you did to Tambry a few days ago," Dipper stepped away from his sister, "Try it on me."
"Whaaaat?!" Mabel cried out. "Are you kidding me, bro!?"
He shook his head. "No, I'm not."
"Dude, I could zap you into a robot forever! You'd be stuck in the awkward stages of life for all eternity!" Mabel told him worriedly.
He frowned. "Okay, one: I'm not that awkward." Mabel snorted, and Dipper rolled his eyes. "And two," he continued, "We need to find out if these things actually do zap people into robots. We can finally say if you just happened upon a robot by luck." Dipper eyed the Mystery Manor quietly, wondering if this was, in fact, slightly more dangerous than he was considering. Still, for the sake of the mystery, he gulped. "I'll be the test subject. Try firing at me," he told Mabel.
"No way dude!" Mabel crossed her arms, "I am done doing the 'am I a monster' move."
Dipper palmed his face. "Mabel-"
"No, bro!" she snapped at him, and listed off her incidents, "I have almost killed a pixie this week, possibly turned a random snarky ex-friend of a friend into a roboy, I've died,-"
"To be fair, you didn't really die," Dipper pointed out, "or, at least I'm pretending you didn't for my sanity."
"-And now you want me to possibly turn you into a robot as well?!" Mabel concluded, a tad fuming about her brother. He shrugged. "Are you acting stupid just to make me angry, or have you become stupid, which will make me angry!?"
"Mabel," Dipper said, in a voice Mabel knew all too well as the 'this will make sense' voice, "If we don't figure out what those things do, we could do a lot worse in our investigation. I think those batteries won't do this, but we need to make sure that isn't the case. We're now alone, in a controlled setting... sort of," Dipper admitted fault as he looked around the woods, "Look, it's the best we can do. We'll be alone here, and I'm certain... that if I do become a robot," Dipper swallowed, "That we can find a way to reverse it."
Mabel studied her brother, and heard his conviction. Her own wavered. "Dipper, are you sure?" Mabel asked quietly.
"Yeah. Sure. Positive. I mean," Dipper shrugged, "there's always magic we can fall back to. Maybe a spell or something."
"I don't like how not-sure you sound about this," Mabel glared at him.
"Mabel-"
"Oh, okay, fine!" Mabel removed the three brightly glowing cylinders, "But if you drive back to mom with a USB port on your neck, she's not getting an answer from me!"
"Just do it," Dipper closed his eyes and awaited.
Mabel stared at her helpless brother before her. As always, he wasn't entirely wrong. They could learn a lot by finally just trying it out on Dipper. If the theory of robot-ification was correct, then Mabel was about to get a brother who she could download the top fifty charts into. Then again, if Tambry already had been a robot, what would it do to humans? She still had no idea. What if it killed him? Burnt out his eyes? Made him go insane? Erased his memory?
Mabel swallowed and looked to her hands, ready to use them before she lost her will to participate in this mad science experiment. With a gasp, she realized she wasn't the only thing willing to participate.
The three cylinders were actually floating in her hands, orbiting around one another in a synchronous patter.
Mabel, a little terrified of what was happening now, stammered, "D-D-Dipper."
"Mabes, just do it," her brother replied, still not opening his eyes.
"I'm not doing anything, but-" Mabel tried explaining, but she was cut off.
"We need to figure out what they do. Just zap me and be ready to drag me back to Grunkle Stan-"
"Dipper!" she roared, "Look!"
His eyes shot open, and he gasped. No longer were they orbiting around one another, but instead they were circling an invisible spot two feet in front of Mabel's chest. Slowly, their points all focused in on the central point, and they circled it faster and faster. A tiny, blurry ball of light was created. A growing hum of energy was escalating. Crackles of static and lightning were zapping the trees and ground, nearly missing Mabel and Dipper, both stunned as they watched the three perform this brilliant dance. The three cylinders, spinning as fast as an industrial fan, closed in on each other, focusing on the ball of light.
The tips finally touched, and the three stopped instantly; one facing directly skyward and the other two pointing down at and angle- pointing to tips of a triangle.
A blast of blue light and electricity shot out and pierced Mabel. The sound it created was deep and resonant, vibrating the air like a horrible blast roar of a dinosaur yet discovered. It soared all the way pasted her and zoomed through the trees, as fast as light itself.
Dipper went pale as his sister collapsed. For what felt like the hundredth time today, Dipper yelled out, "Mabel!"
He rushed over to her, but his eyes looked ahead. The beam of light zig-zagged away, racing through trees. It was already gone by the time he stopped by Mabel. The three floating cylinders dropped from their position in the air. She had fallen into the grass, her hair falling out around her. Uncertain to what to do, Dipper felt the panic rise in his chest. This had been his idea, but he had expected to take the consequences! He started feel his throat tighten and-
Mabel sucked in air loudly as she shot up. "What year is it!?" Mabel demanded, grabbing Dipper's shirt. "Oh. Sorry bro."
"Gah! Mabel!" Dipper sighed as he slid down next to her. Her grip was consistent, like a vice. "Mabel?" he asked her.
She looked half-present. "That... Dipper, that beam," Mabel breathed quickly, scanning her chest. Her clothing, her skin, her body; it was all fine. Yet she seemed entirely shaken, "I saw into that beam."
"What?!" Dipper asked her, sliding closer, "What do you mean into the beam? What did you see?"
"Words... numbers... some sort of panicked shout..." Mabel slowly shook her head, unable to entirely grasp what she had seen, "Names of places I've never heard of." Slow at first, but consistent and horrible, a headache consumed her mind. "Oh, dude," Mabel's face screwed up and she held her head, "Ow."
"Mabes?" Dipper checked her as best her could, worried something was hurt.
"My head dude. Owww!" she yelled as she punched the ground with her fists, smashing tiny twigs into the air, "I just feel like someone shoved an entire textbook into my brain."
"W-what?!"
Mabel, wincing as the pain slowly subsided, tried to explain the sensation of her brain feeling a little more bloated than usual. "Like... those words, those places... I kind of understand them," Mabel poorly explained. Then she remembered more, and blinked. "Wait, I also saw something else. I... was flying through the woods. It was like I was that beam itself," She lifted a shaking hand and moved it side to side, as if miming she was a flying hand, "And light and I were the same thing. Then I went through this wall, and I found someone."
"You found someone?" Dipper asked.
"It was the deputy," Mabel told him, "That's when I stopped. That's when I woke up."
Dipper looked at her. If even one of the swarm of ideas that fluttered through his mind were correct, he had an idea as to what it could mean. Mabel had, somehow, connected to that energy, and seen it's path towards someone: Deputy Durland. He then, with a small intake of breath, that he had learned something small. It passed through Mabel. It didn't stop and connect with her, like it had with Tambry. Mabel was (mostly) unaffected by the energy, but Tambry had been knocked on her back.
Dipper wondered if there was something in common with Tambry and Deputy Durland, other than the address of their zip code.
Dipper decided sternly, "We need to go." He reached down, "Up you go Sis."
"Right," Mabel nodded as she was lifted up by Dipper. "Wait," she reached down and picked up the three cylinders. "Don't want to leave these behind."
"I almost wish we could," Dipper told her.
The two ran out of the edge of the woods. Mabel finally was able to get Dipper to agree to riding the motorcycle without qualm, mostly due to the urgency. The two hopped on, Mabel declaring herself fine to drive it herself, and the sped off from the lot, whipping down the drive together.
A drive spent very much over the speed limit later, Mabel screeched to a halt with Dipper in front of the house she spotted in the distance.
"You're sure it's this one?" Dipper asked her, looking at it carefully. There was no patrol car visible, but there was a garage.
"Oh yeah," she nodded as she kicked out the bike stand and turned off the engine. "This is it dude."
The twins nodded to one another and approached the quaint looking home. It was small, bland, and had a half-second story to its side, making the home nonsymmetrical There were a few garden-seagull ornaments outlining the walkway to the front door, as well as a rainbow flag posted nearby the garage. Mabel let herself kick one gently over, even after Dipper gave her a shake of his head in disapproval.
"Okay," Mabel adjusted her sweater, and knocked on the door, no door-bell visible.
"Hopefully this isn't going to be as bad as I think it could be," Dipper quietly added to his sister, who nodded in reply. There was a scrambling of movement on the other side of the door. Then the door swung open, and Sheriff Blubs was revealed, in his pants and undershirt
"What the- what are you kids doing here?!" he demanded.
"Uh... we're here to see Deputy Durland?" Mabel asked, looking over the disheveled police officer. "What are you doing here in his house?"
"We had a sleep over," the Sheriff bluntly said, "Watching some good 'ol cop movies together. Nothing weird or strange that people don't see every day, you know?" The sheriff was on edge, and looked behind himself. He slowly removed his sunglasses as he leaned closer to the twins. "Say, you guys believe in crazy things? Things you swear aren't possible?"
The Pines twins exchanged a look. "Show us," they asked of him.
He glanced once more between the two of them, and the nodded. Stepping inside, the twins followed him to what seemed to be the living room. There, floating in mid-air, was Deputy Durland. He had his stomach open, and the same blue-white light poured out.
"Oh my god," Dipper gasped as Mabel stepped past him, rushing to the side of the stiffened man.
"He's just like Tambry," Mabel told him, "His insides are all glowy!"
"Tell us what happened," Dipper said, beginning his interview of the Sheriff.
The sheriff snuffled, looking to his partner in not-crime. "We were just sitting down together, going to watch some more of 'Dog Meets Force', you know," Sheriff rolled his hands in mid air, "That one about the golden retriever who becomes an ace detective."
"Sure," Dipper nodded, never having seen or heard of it before.
Blurbs continued, his voice cracking. "We were having a great time, and then this light just hit him through the wall," Sheriff removed his glasses fully, wiping away a tear from his eye, "And he just sort of stopped. Wouldn't speak, or laugh, or nothing. Just sat there for a few minutes. Then said some weird-o words and now this!" he pointed to the floating man.
"Words?" Mabel demanded, "like what?"
"I don't remember," Blubs admitted, "something about memory charges and strange things. What's happened to him?"
Dipper stepped closer, following Mabel's progress to the floating man. His eyes were shut closed, just like Tambry. Durland was floating perfectly parallel to the ground, his body rigid, like Tambry. Even the blue glowing cylinder that had emerged from Tambry was now floating above an opened chest cavity that seemed in place with a robot creation.
All just like Tambry.
"We don't know. Sheriff," Dipper turned to him, "Something is happening in town. This isn't the first time that this has happened," Dipper admitted, against the warning hisses of Mabel. Whether Grunkle Stan wanted to or not, this mystery was getting a little too big to keep to themselves.
Blurbs jostled at their words, clearly frightened. "What- more people have been robotified?" the Sheriff asked.
Dipper nodded ."Yes. One of them, uh, you met her that night you pulled over Soos. Tambry. She had been turned into a robot, or... we think replaced by a robot," Dipper admitted to the Sheriff, "Like someone is taking away the real people and switching them with perfect replicas."
"But that's impossible," Sheriff Blubs spluttered, "I've been around my pal for ages! I'd notice if something weird was going on!"
"We heard that one too," Mabel told him kindly, stepping away from the floating man, "But they aren't just acting. This isn't the worlds greatest flash-mob prank going on. He'll wake up soon after that," Mabel pointed to the battery, "is removed. He'll be confused, and he won't even know what is going on. Totes lost."
Blurbs struggled to comprehend Mabel's information. "They, wait, you mean to say they aren't even aware they' robots?" Blubs blustered.
"It's complicated," Dipper tried to elaborate. "I think they're so well programmed that they can't even tell that they're robots. Some crazy work went into these guys."
Blurbs stared at the twins, certainly confused. He glanced back to his long-time partner, and sighed. Perhaps he decided to just accept their information. He then cocked an eyebrow up and studied the twins again. He asked, "How... how do you know about this all?"
The Twins again exchanged looks. Dipper would never rat her out. Mabel stepped forward, and held out the cylinders she had collected. The three small objects glinted and clicked against one another as the sheriff inspected them against her hands. His eyes widened as he glanced friend across the room.
"These are more we've found," Mabel told him, "We don't know how many there may be."
Durland demanded, "But how did you know that Durland was one a, uh, robot-man?"
There it was: the million-dollar question. The one question the twins hadn't had to explain. In truth, there was a good chance it was their fault that the beam struck Durland at all, but there wasn't any concrete proof to suggest it, aside from their theories. Then again, this was the man with all the legal power in town. He was more than capable of putting them behind bars if he thought there was more going on here then just a coincidental stopping by. Dipper wans't sure what kind of lie to tell him to ease his suspicions.
Mabel, it seemed, had other ideas. She went with truth. "I think we may have accidentally found him by using these to create a beam," Mabel slowly said. Dipper winced as they potentially dug their own grave. Mabel let out a heavy, guilt-coated sigh, and added, "I think I might have caused this all to happen."
Blurbs stared at her. He looked to the cylinders, which seemed to have gained some of the energy from Durland behind them, as they had started to faintly glow. The Sheriff asked of them, "Hand me one of them doo-hickies."
Mabel held out her hand, offering the sheriff a chance to take one. The moment his fingers touched the surface, she regretted her choice. He was shocked with the same powerful blue lightning that coursed out of the three cylinders. The body of Sheriff Blurbs was thrown far back, slamming into a wooden cabinet with a heavy slam. Glass and splintered wood rained past him as he collapsed into the ground.
Dipper and Mabel stood rooted to the spot; their mouths wide open.
Mabel was too shocked to even tremble. "Oh no, oh no," Mabel gasped.
Dipper cried out, his eyes wide in terror, "What did you do!?"
"Me!?" Mabel turned on him, fear, panic, and anger coursing through her as she rounded on her brother, "This was your idea!"
"You zapped him!"
"I didn't have any control over these!"
"Mabel, he just touched it and was thrown back like it was a live wire!" Dipper scolded her. "What happened!?"
"I don't know, now stop acting like I'm the criminal here!" Mabel roared at him, and Dipper relented.
"Right, sorry!" he apologized and ran past her to the sheriff.
"Is he okay?" Mabel asked, teetering on her toes to see the both of them.
Dipper observed the unconscious man. Blurbs' eyes shut tight. To Dipper's relief, the Sheriff seemed unharmed from the glass or wooden shrapnel. "He's, uh, not really doing anything... I have some sort of heartbeat, I think," Dipper frowned, and turned to his sister, "Mabel, I didn't plan on having-"
Blurbs opened his mouth, and spoke in a very coordinated way. "Computing Memory Module out of synch. Ejecting system memory charge, please prepare a newer charge," Blubs stated from below Dipper, "Initializing ejection."
Dipper stepped back. He couldn't believe it, he refused to. How could it be possible?
"No," Mabel shook her head as the three cylinders fell from her grasp.
Sheriff Blubs had started to float. His arms and legs slowly stiffened as some unknown energy lifted him, like his deputy across the room, into the air. Effortlessly suspended, he was watched by the twins, horror dawning on their faces as he too opened up. His stomach slid open like a sliding panel and revealed his large, glowing internals. They were exactly identical to how they remembered it days ago, a blue cylinder floated above him, and remained stationed there.
"No... no way," Dipper shook his head, stumbling backwards.
"Uh, Dipper?" she asked.
"Three?" Dipper gasped, "three this entire time?!"
"Dipper?"
Dipper rambled. "I don't – What has – how long has this-"
"Dipper!" Mabel called, and her brother whipped around to her. She was picking up the dropped cylinders. "We should go before someone finds us," she hissed at him.
He stared at her, lost in his head. Then her words pierced past his clouded thoughts. He urgently nodded. He ran to both the Sheriff and Deputy, and grabbed their cylinders quickly. Their lights began to shut down and they slowly descended to the ground, their stomachs closing as the twins ran out the front door.
As soon as Dipper shoved the two into his pocket and jumped onto the bike behind Mabel, he shouted to her as she floored the gas, "Get us somewhere safe and quiet!" The bike roared to life and she sped off.
There were a few places of solitude Mabel could have taken him to; forested sides of the lake, the cliffs overlooking Gravity Falls, caves in the hills. But of them, they needed someplace trustworthy, where no one could just walk in on them by accident. With a quiet irony the two agreed on a spot: the museum in Gravity Falls. Once they parked and walked inside, they found the ocular room. Dipper hurriedly pushed in the center of a stone eye, which opened a secret stairway behind bookshelves. The twins rushed within the all-but-abandoned rooms of the former Society of the Blind Eye.
"Get the lights," Dipper pointed to a switch nearby Mabel.
She jerked her shoulder up and smacked the switch upwards. Light after light cascaded the maroon and burgundy walls with faint yellow light. They were alone, and behind thick walls of concrete and marble. "Lights are a go," Mabel told him.
Dipper had dragged over to her a small tall-table, and once it was between the two of them, they placed all five cylinders onto the table. He carefully orchestrated them to not fall or roll away. Once the potential for accidental danger had passed, Dipper stood up, and then clawed his face. He roared with frustration.
Flinching a little from her brother's outburst, Mabel told him, "Dude, chill. We need our heads in this one, bro-bro."
"I know! But this!" he pointed to two of them, "The cops!? Mabel, that is not good! Really, really, really not good!"
"Yeah! They're going to miss their shift!" Mabel agreed. Dipper groaned and slapped his face. "What? That's not the bad part? That people will notice they're missing?"
Dipper started to pace. "It's bad because it's a clue as to what is going on!" Dipper told her, letting Mabel lean against it as she leaned on the surface. She stared at the Cylinders as Dipper asked of her, "Think about it!"
"I'm doing a lotta thinking," Mabel assured him.
Dipper listed. "We have a girl, who is easily one of the strongest forces of social media in the town. She's a robot. She can spread rumors and news, and people will listen to her because that's her thing. Then we have two cops! Two top-of-the-field cops, Mabel!"
Mabel frowned, connecting some dots herself. "Wait, I see what you're saying," she turned to him as he paced around her, "It means if someone was controlling them all, like, telling them what they were supposed to do – or telling them what they wanted to do... then people and the police would both be in on it together."
Dipper snapped his fingers. "It's all control! The sheriff and deputy both robots?" Dipper asked aloud, "That sounds like a power play!"
"A power play?"
"Someone trying to quietly take control of the town," Dipper announced, "Using forms of power."
"Social website media stuffs," Mabel counted off with her fingers, "And then police force?" she shook her head, "But that's just a few parts of the town!"
"Right!" Dipper stepped to her, pointing to the five pieces, "It's a start. But Mabel, if these guys are popping these blue cylinders out like dried batteries, how many more do you think there could be?"
Mabel studied their evidence. She sighed, "A whole heckin' lot," Mabel nodded her head solemnly. Her eyes felt suddenly very heavy.
"I know," Dipper rested his head on the edge of the table, staring into their blue light, "And we're still not a second closer to figuring out where they've come from. Or who is controlling them!"
"You got me dude," Mabel said sleepily. She yawned without control, and then fell backwards. If she hit the floor, she wasn't aware.
The world had gone dark and filled with crackling energy of blue and white. She looked around, wondering when she had suddenly entered a darker version of the dreamscape. She looked down to her hands, prompting a cute cat to appear in her arms. No such cat appeared. A little more confused, she looked up. With a jolt and wide step back, she saw movement.
There were hundreds of them: blue humanoid shapes. They looked almost like mannequins as they lacked living details of any kind. They had only a featureless, sexless humanoid body. They walked about, moving throughout paths of life that seemed accurate to what people downtown would live. As they walked, or motioned like they were conversing, or whatever they were doing, they emitting this dimming white-blue light.
The blue lights these things gave off, Mabel noticed, sort of sizzled. They let off sparks and energy, which trailed up. That loose energy coiled into a thin, small string of light that snaked its way around town. Each of these things Mabel could see had this sort of tether- this binding string. She turned around, wondering if the cylinders had something to do with it all. Then, she saw the five little objects she and Dipper had collected.
They too had that small string, but it looked damaged. The ones connected to the blue mannequin things were almost flowing upwards. The five cylinders looked tangled and garbled. They seemed to be unfocused, lashing out with traces of red and orange sparks. Even with their chaotic spastic power, they too reached upwards with their string of light. It all raced towards the center of town, and when Mabel finally faced the largest gathering of these strings, she had to squint.
They had merged all into a huge pillar of light. It reached so far up Mabel almost considered where in heaven it ended. It was beautiful. It was terrible. As Mabel stared at it, she saw how it fluctuated and shimmered with lights other than just blue and white. Random, rainbow waves crashed and bounced throughout the dense column of energy. As her eyes bore into the column, she felt like it was staring at the sun.
Her head started to throb. She could see words in a language she had never learned. Those symbols, words presumably, flew past her as she focused in on that light column. The words, and the letters of the language she never learned began to flicker and twist, becoming English. As they formed, she heard whispers of voices saying them aloud.
"Time is running out."
"Action is needed."
"We cannot remain."
"They are being discovered."
"We must save them."
"Hold off until the last moment."
"We will damn them if we cannot save them."
"Mabel!"
Mabel gasped and shot up. Her forehead struck something equally hard, as she head-butting her brother in the face. They both shouted and fell away from one another, the echoing sound of two skulls colliding bounding through the halls.
"Ow! Dipper!" she gasped as she clutched her head with both hands. He had fallen backwards as she fell back to the ground herself. She felt soreness on the back of her shoulders. Wincing from, now, various sources of pain, Mabel struggled to lean up. She finally took an upright seat as she cradled her head.
Dipper seemed more in agony that she was. Lying on the ground, he cradled his own face. "Mabel, ow, I think you broke skin!" Dipper gasped as he clutched his eyebrow, checking his palm occasionally. "Oh, good, no you didn't. I'm good. Ow," he added for good measure.
Repressing the urge to tease him for being a wimp, Mabel asked him, "Did I pass out?"
He nodded. "Yeah. Then you started muttering. Were you taking a language class when we were apart in freshmen year?" Dipper asked her as he leant up to face her.
"Huh?" Mabel blinked, rubbing her head. "Why?"
"You... you weren't speaking English," Dipper shrugged, "Something like, jittery or, I don't know. It was weird. I couldn't recognize it."
Mabel stared at him. "I don't know any other languages," Mabel told her brother, fear coursing through her.
He stared back. "That wasn't English I heard," Dipper firmly stated.
"But I barely passed standard English to begin with!" Mabel shouted as she clutched her hair.
Dipper deflated a little, eying her. "You... barely passed English?" Dipper asked her incredulously. "Like basic English in class?"
Mabel, her head still throbbing, glared at her brother. As always, he was a tactful soul. Mabel quietly, but quickly lashed back, "Dipper, I think my life is currently stressful enough for me, so criticizing me for not studying enough really isn't contusive to my mental health, okay bud? Okay."
Mentally leaning back from the outburst, Dipper held back. He was, in many ways, not the most socially graceful human, but he could at least tell when he went too far and needed to pull back. He saw Mabel tuck her legs close to herself, wrapping her knees under her sweater. About two steps from sweater-town. She was scared, just as scared as he was, if not, more so. He walked over and sat down next to her, sighing as he glanced to her.
Mabel, eying her dumb bro, sniffed. "Here I thought we were done with mysteries that involved us like this," Mabel snorted as she ruffled her brother's hair. "Ones that didn't try to throw us unto the abyss of dimensional gates and things."
Dipper added, "Ones that didn't involve robots trying to kill us, or golems trying to kill us."
"Or ones that changed us somehow," Mabel poked his chest, and he pushed her finger away as the shared a quiet laugh.
"I guess up here, there's always a mystery, and there's always danger," Dipper shrugged.
The two sat next to one another, staring at the table with five glowing batteries. Those batteries, the two quietly realized, were also the glue that kept them hear. Once it was solved, if it was solved, they were free to go home. They would have no real reason to be here, staying together and bonding like they used to.
Mabel looked away, eying her brother. Her eyes shimmered as she smiled at him. "One last one between us, huh?" Mabel told her brother sadly, "Before we go back to life as we knew it."
Dipper sunk in his seat. He nodded, and said, "Yeah, I suppose so." He had to look away from her, unable to meet those eyes that mirrored his own.
"You know though," she turned to him, a positive glint in her eyes, "Maybe we can visit each other, like, every other day! We both have cars, and-"
"I have a job, Mabel," Dipper told her shamefully, "I work basically all week, except Wednesdays."
"Oh, c'mon, I have training with my master on Wednesdays!" she groaned angrily. "Seriously? All flipping week?!"
Dipper, staring to the ceiling in disbelief, added, "And then we have school summer work to do this entire, well, summer."
The two gave each other a long look. Twins kept apart this long, and thrown into the few for two weeks solid like this, only to end it all between the two of them. They would be going home alone, and not seeing each other nearly as regularly as they wanted to. Best friends, siblings, that life still seemed desperate to keep apart.
Silent for a moment, the twins then both said, "If we make it out of this alive."
A pause fell over them after they said it. It was like a spell of anxiety and regret had been shattered. The two of them grinned and started laughing. Of course, they weren't going to die. Not around one another. Look what they had accomplished side by side; and not even this summer. They had stopped a demonic dream entity a whole bunch of times. They had battled massive robots with nothing but their own two hands. They were using the skeleton chambers of a former organization of mind-erasers comprised out of grown men and women; an organization that they, along with Wendy and Soos, had been able to vanquish while twelve.
Now they were older, stronger, and smarter.
Whatever was going on, they had this in the bag. They just needed the face of who was masterminding all these actions, and they could easily put behind them the biggest mystery of the summer yet.
Mabel pushed herself into the air with a little jump. She then grinned, reaching down to Dipper. "Ready, brotha-'o-mine?" Mabel asked.
"Right along side you, sista-'o-mine," Dipper nodded, taking a hand from her, and allowing himself to be thrown up and land on his feet. "Let's bust this joint."
"Got the lights," Mabel said as she let Dipper collected the cylinders. The two climbed up the now near pitch black stairs, using only the dim light of the mysterious batteries as their guidance.
Their escape from the museum was an easy one, and soon they were back on the bike. It was time to head back to the shack. They had arrangements to make.
"So, what exactly did I say?" Mabel shouted as she drove down main street.
"I don't know, but it sounded desperate," Dipper called ahead, shouting almost into her ear. "You freaked me our pretty bad, Mabes."
"Sorry pal!" She smiled and winked, "Job of the sister."
Dipper grumbled. "Keep that to a minimum in your job requirements, please," Dipper asked of her as she turned a street corner. "Anyway, we should consider all the possible examples of people who can be considered heads of fields, and in power."
"Heads of power?" Mabel asked loudly, not catching everything. She saw her brother nod in the mirror, and continued, "Well, do we know the mayor?"
"There isn't one anymore," Dipper said, reminder her, "Not after what Ford, err, Bill did."
Mabel scowled, and muttered. "Bord, darn you." She spend along, bumping a little along the road. "What about a less official head? Like someone that people look up to?" Mabel suggested.
"If Gideon was still here, that would have been a good guess, but who's left that really carries that title? Stan isn't really that type that people look up to, and he doesn't really care what the town does unless they pay him."
"What about Manly Dan?" Mabel tried again.
Dipper nodded. "Better guess. Strong, big, gruff – wait, no. He's too unpredictable. If I was staging a coup in a town, that's a risk I'm not sure about. I'd rather just try getting the whole police department," Dipper admitted as they exited the edge of downtown.
"But what if you couldn't?" Mabel retorted, "And you needed key figures in certain places?"
"Strategic value," Dipper nodded slowly, aware of the point Mabel made, "That's so true. Then again, why would anyone want to control Gravity Falls?"
"Maybe the portal-machine?" Mabel suggested.
Dipper shook his head. "No one else knows about it anymore," Dipper told her, "Well, Grunkle Stan, Soos, Wendy, ugh, Bill, and us. Anyone else who did had their memory erased."
"Right," Mabel said, steering her bike onto the path leading up to the mystery Manor, passing various promising signs of adventure, fun, mystery, and more. Mabel snorted as she spied a few of the signs. "Sometimes I wonder if Grunkle Stan put those signs up just to tease us," she admitted to her brother.
"Ha. Wouldn't put it past him," Dipper agreed as the building came into sight.
The day was growing later. The sun had shifted its gaze to the lower half of the day, telling the two that it was probably about four or so in the afternoon, maybe later. Outside on the steps of the Mystery Manor was a certain cashier, holding her side-slung backpack over her shoulder as she adjusted her boots.
Wendy waved at them as they came to a park. "Hey guys," she called.
"Wendy!" Dipper waved back. He smiled so effortlessly, always happy to see her. Then Mabel looked to him with a warning glance. There wasn't a twinge of judgment, or scolding, or even teasing about the way she looked to Dipper. All she had to do was look at her brother and remind him of something: they weren't involving Wendy on this one.
Dipper cleared his throat, and said "Hey…" Dipper's tone shifted horribly as he and Mabel climbed off the bike.
"Hi Wendy," Mabel happily said to Wendy as she walked up and past her, "Heading out?"
"Was about to," the redhead admitted, "But it sort of looks like something's cooking on your end with a mystery or adventure. What's up?" she asked excitedly to the two of them.
"Oh... well... uh," Dipper looked to Mabel, unsure of what to say.
"Ah, yeah, sorry Wendy," Mabel sighed sadly, and patted her friends arm meaningfully, "This one is twins only."
"Huh?" Wendy looked between the two of them, "For reals?"
"For reals," Mabel told the redhead, and stepped inside. "Sorry Wendy," Mabel quietly said as she disappeared inside.
Wendy looked like she had missed a turn somewhere in life. "Aw, c'mon," Wendy chuckled as Mabel walked inside. She had watched Mabel walk past her, and spun back to Dipper. A growing incredulity blossomed in her eyes, and with a weird smile, she looked to Dipper. "Did I say something wrong?" she asked him.
Dipper felt twisted in his guts. "No... uh," Dipper peered inside to the distant blurry outline of Mabel. She was walking inside and walking away still. Mabel was serious about keeping this to just them. Dipper growled to himself, and pulled Wendy aside. He lowered his voice, wanting to keep his conversation short and quiet. "We found some bad stuff."
She "Bad stuff?" Wendy lowered her voice to match Dippers.
"Yeah. Like, the kind that makes... makes you think everyone, anyone, could be trying to kill you," Dipper said exactly the words uttered to him by a particular two-dimensional demon. "And the kind of evidence that makes you question what's really going on around here." At Dipper's words, Wendy gulped. She actually seemed unnerved with the kind of news that Dipper was presenting. He nodded. "I know right?"
"Uh, what kind of evidence?" she asked, looking behind her, and wringing the edge of her shirt.
"Like... we found out the deputy and sheriff are also... robots," Dipper told her.
Wendy blinked, and Dipper was shocked to think she almost looked relieved. When his eyes stared at her long enough for her to realize he was scrutinizing her, she shrugged. "What, man?" she asked him, half-chuckling, "You made it sound like you were being chased here or something. I was worried about you two." She then looked off in the distance, squinting as she added, "But the cops are robots too… I can't believe that."
"Yeah. Well, we're okay," Dipper said, and then felt the heavy pit in his stomach tighten. He had to say it. "But... Wendy, I'm sorry," Dipper told her as he walked around her, desperate to end this next part, "That's all I can tell you."
She followed him, her eyes wide. "What?"
"Yeah. I'm sorry," Dipper told her again, opening the door behind him, "I want to tell you more-"
"Then let me in on this," she asked, moving closer with a half step, "c'mon man, you trust me. Right?"
"I... of course I do," Dipper shook his head erratically, trying to balance the truth of trusting her and his suspicions of the entire town as a whole. "But Wendy, right now, I.. you know, I can't afford to trust anyone... who's lived here."
Wendy's eyes glazed over. She stared at him for what could have been a moment, or maybe a whole minute. Dipper couldn't tell. It felt like winter had come to his limbs and fingertips; icy cold sweat began to form. Without a word, she nodded. She looked, suddenly, very tired. Instantly it made Dipper want to apologize, run forward and beg for forgiveness. It almost instantaneously destroyed his decision to be firm and stand by his sister words. He hated that choice, he wanted so badly to just shove anything he could into that option he had taken until it exploded and he was left only with trusting Wendy. Instead, he watched as she turned away from him. She marched away.
The redhead wouldn't face him and instead just over her shoulder, "Sure, okay dude. Let me know if you decide I'm trust worthy," Wendy told him plainly as she got on her seat on the bike.
Those words hurt and scared Dipper more than Bill Ciphers warning. His heart was tearing itself into pieces in fury and sorrow. What could he even say now? Truly words failed him. Dipper numbly watched her ride her bike away. She never, not once, glanced back behind her.
That was it. His chance was blown. She would never come to like him, not after that.
Dipper fell back against the couch that had been outside for ages, bouncing up mildly as his read slammed against it. How could any self-loathing come close to that of a boy who just won a chance with the girl of his dreams, just to spit in her face? He could remember his classes in classic literature, specifically, Shakespeare. Dipper hated himself as, for the first time in his life, he related to Romeo Montague. He really got how the dude had asked for death when he felt his heart break.
Dippers hands found themselves in his pockets. He could feel those blue batteries stuck inside his pocket, and he pulled one out. His fingers ran over its surface.
If he was going to lose the girl, it wasn't going to be for nothing. He stood up angrily, and marched inside, where his sister awaited.
"We have a mystery to solve," he told her as he pocketed the device.
Sorry for the super-late update you guys. It was a very busy weekend. I didn't have time to post my Hellsing story. Yikes.
Bet you guys didn't see that one bit coming, huh? With the cops? Hehehe. Enjoy that worrying thought that ALL THIS TIME THEY WERE ROBOTS TOO. MIND-FREAK!
And at least it's here- the beginning of the end of Season one. Hope you guys are ready. And calls are open! Begin your guesswork as to how this is all going to end! I suggest an epic classical piece of music to tie it all together! Maybe Mozart's requiem or something. Music always makes things more epic.
Final note.
Guess what guys? I'm going to do the nicest thing I can do without shooting myself from writers finger cramps. Thursday, Friday, and Saturday all will have uploads. That's right. Season one ends this weekend.
Be prepared. Which means you better be nice to me and leave a review each chapter! XD
Scar (from the Lion King): Be prepaaaaared! (huge columns of rock burst out of the ground, shoving EZB and his desk and computer far into the air and then shoves them off a cliff, where EZB gives a classic Wilhelm scream as he plummets to his doom.)