"Dude, pass me a soda."
"I'm not getting up, man!"
"Thompson. Get us soda."
"Oh, what, guys-"
The two other young men on the stone back porch to the home began to chant the name 'Thompson' in low tones, growing louder and louder. The larger and rounder man groaned, stood up from his reclining lawn chair, and marched away. Towards the red cooler his shoes clopped, collaborating with the growing chanting of his two present male friends. Nate and Lee cheered loudly as Thompson finally removed the lid and grasped four cans of soda. The quietest member of the four, Tambry, sat in her chair, avidly pressing away on her phone as the dying light of the afternoon sucked away color from the sky.
"Nice dude," Nate congratulated Thompson as he opened his gifted tin can.
"Just don't spill on the seats, okay?" Thompson asked in a confined tone, checking with Lee as well, who entirely ignored his request.
"Man. To think we've got one last summer here," Lee told them with an ever so faint grin, "And then we're out to college and stuff."
"Dude, don't even start with that," Nate scolded him, adjusting his decorated cap with a twist, jostling his dark brown hair atop his tanned skin on his head. "Summer is half way though, so no sad stuff."
"Yeah, this is our chance to chill," Thompson pointed out to the other three. Tambry, with her almost equally tan skin in comparison to Nate, lowered her phone, a somber look to her male friends. Thompson continued, "We're all so busy, so..."
"Maybe we should burn something," Lee suggested.
"Dude, nice." Tambry turned a corner of her mouth up. "And kind of psychotic."
Lee snorted. "You try being cooped up in that store all summer. Makes you go crazy and want to break stuff," Lee told her. A blink later and his memory recalled something, "Hey, you remember that weird summer a few years back? When Wendy had us chill with those two kids?"
"Huh?" Nate and Thompson asked.
It was Tambry who sighed and rolled her eyes. "Yeah. They're back up here for a summer it looks like. They thought we were friends or whatever."
Lee nodded. "Looks that way. They stopped by the store today, with their mom or someone," Lee explained. He suddenly looked dour. "Made me think of better times."
"Man," Nate tried smiling. The others were silent, holding their cans of soda idly out. His smile died as he looked around again to his friends. He looked to the can of Pitt before him, and cleared his throat. "Well... to missing friends this night," he said with a raised can.
"To friends," the other three added and raised their cups. A mild breeze caressed their hands at once, drifting the scent of carbonated, sweet beverage into the forest around them. They all dropped their hands to their mouths, and indulged their taste buds.
Thompson made the first attempt at lightening to mood. "So, are you guys going to try and say hi to Robbie when he comes and visits?" Thompson asked. Lee scoffed with Nate, and Tambry groaned. Thompsons attempt clearly didn't succeed. He asked, "What? C'mon, he was our friend.
Tambry scowled. "Yeah, sure, was. A friend who ran off like that? I'll need to update the online definition of 'friend' now," Tambry pushed her voice through gritted teeth.
"But-"
Thompson's defense of their old friend was cut short. A devastating, bone-chilling, fear inspiring call of darkness rattled amidst the leaves and branches of the woods. Every human knew this sound; felt it to the core of their bones and the marrow of their spirit. This horrible beckoning was that of the wolf. A howl. Not only was it loud, the source of the sound close. Thompson shrieked and leapt out of his seat and hid behind it. The three others stood up, gasping and craning their necks around.
"Whoa! Was that a real wolf!?" Lee asked the others.
"I don't know anything else that sounds like that," Nate told him. "Do you see it?"
"Totally recording this," Tambry told them as she activated the camera to her phone.
"Guys, let's go inside," Thompson requested, his fingers almost bending the fabric of his chair to the point of bruising.
"No way! That sounded awesome-"
Lee and his friends gasped.
"Tambry, there," Nate pointed with his finger as he lowered his voice. Tambry stepped closer to him and Lee, and the four of them finally saw it. A large beast, furry, with glowing yellow eyes was in the brush, staring at them as it crept closer. "Look how big it is!"
"Guys, please, let's go inside!" Thompson begged, rushing closer to them knocking over a hastily placed can of soda on the ground.
Ahead, the beasts ears perked up, pointing skyward and twisting to face the four. The creature snarled and pushed its way through the leaf and branches. The young adults before it slowly lost the awe and majesty of what they watched. Long brown tangled hair fell past the pointed skull and clothing still gripped along the human sized canine creature. Yet what made them tremble and begin to heed Thompson's advice was, admittedly, an easy to detect fear that wolves could not perform – walking on two legs.
The wolf-creature howled before them, and the four screamed as it lunged.
"Oh, let's not tie Mabel up," Stan scolded Dipper as he hastily began to collect needed supplies, "There's only a chance to become a werewolf! Dipper, what kind of thinking was that!?"
Frustrated and rushed, Dipper retorted. "The last thing I wanted to do was induce a panic-transformation!" Dipper shouted over his shoulder to his grand uncle, who groaned and clawed at the sky above him. Dipper explained, just as heatedly, "When someone is bitten, they can transform if their stress levels get too high! You don't think having her tied up and gagged would have done that!?"
"It was her idea; she could have gotten over it," Grunkle Stan defended himself as Dipper pushed past him.
Rushing into the gift shop with his elder on his trail, Dipper found the eyes of the four others all on him. Arline had rushed to grab her hooded jacket, and wore what appeared to be worn leather arm-guards. Soos was equipped to his best- which meant his tool belt as a bandolier and rope tied around his other shoulder. Wendy and Yuki were talking to one another, but quieted down once Dipper and Stan returned. Waddles bounded in after him, and nudged his back leg, which Dipper appreciated silently.
"Okay, so, I've gotten down a plan B for Mabel," Dipper informed them with vigor, and laid down a hastily, but professionally made, chart of actions, illustrating his points. "When a werewolf first transforms, it embodies the most animalistic traits of that person, and then adds the vigor and energy of a hybrid wolf-human. So, here's what we can expect."
Dipper pointed first to a picture of Mabel when she was twelve, shoveling candy into her mouth. "She always has, and always will, love anything with enough sugar to give you a headache. If we can pinpoint places that have a ton of that, like the candy store, we can bring her back."
"Dietary habits. A wise choice," Yuki commented.
Dipper pointed to a second picture, this time of Mabel cuddling with waddles. "Mabel loves things that make her squeal. The problem with this one is that it can be hard to tell. She just sort of loves every animal that isn't evil looking."
"Doesn't that mean she could try eating them?" Wendy pointed out worriedly.
Arline scoffed. "She may be a werewolf, but this is still Mabel. I bet if someone told her she may have stepped on a mouse she'd cry for days," she told them with a grin and twinkling eyes. Dipper nodded: Mabel's master knew her all too well.
"Good to know," Grunkle Stan grumbled, "Now can we please stay on track?" Grunkle Stan grumbled. Arline's clever smile dropped and she glared at him in return.
Dipper obliged his elder. "So, if we spot a harassed looking animal, chances were Mabel swaddled it. Okay, third possibility, and... the really scary one," Dipper pointed to an outline of Mabel he drew, swooning over an outline of another figure. "She's guy crazy."
"Such truth has not been spoken in ages," Soos commented.
"There's a good chance she may spot someone she deems as a 'hottie'," Dipper quoted with bending fingers, "And assault them. They'll think they're being attacked by a wolf in ragged clothing, so we have to be careful. They could try hurting her."
"Okay, great," Soos agreed, grasping hold of his plunger, "I am prepared."
"What good is a plunger going to do?" Dipper asked.
"Dude, never question something that's so powerful that it can fix the worst possible situation imaginable," Soos, in his most serious and knowing way, confined in Dipper. "Besides, this end here," he pointed to the rubber end, "Is way gross. No one wants to be hit by that end."
"Why?" Yuki inquired.
"It's what touches the poop," Soos told him with a blank face.
Yuki's curious interest slowly decayed and was left with a horrible sinking pit, his eyes widening and his lips stretching downwards like they were weighted. "Vile," Yuki leaned away, pushing himself behind Wendy, who eyed him with a cocked eyebrow.
"Wonderful. So, can we just get going already?" Stan growled as he adjusted his tie, "Not to remind everyone of the impending doom, but werewolves are strong predators. They aren't known for asking for the things they want."
"Okay," Wendy nodded," Teams one," she pointed to Dipper and Stan, "and two," she turned her point to Arline and Soos, "Scramble. Team three will remain at base until further notice," she saluted. Yuki nodded and the pig snorted next to him.
"Be safe, my friends," Yuki waved to them.
"Remember, call me if she comes back!" Dipper called as the four rushed out, clamoring with gear and the bending of wooden planks beneath their feet. "Right, Wendy?!"
"Always got your back!" Wendy called back. Dipper grinned and rushed through the open door.
"Watch the costumers! And make sure they don't realize that the window on the second floor was broken by a werewolf!" Stan shouted as well, to which Wendy paused in her reply, looking around for a certain way to respond confidently. She managed to shrug.
Arline snidely remarked, "Smart guy builds a motel in the middle of a paranormally active town and forest that stretches for miles, then gets mad when paranormal shows up. Hm," Arline mumbled as she and Soos parted, "What could possibly go wrong with that?"
Stan must have heard some of it. "You saying something?" Stan barked at her. She shrugged innocently and stepped in the passenger seat with Soos. "Dipper!" he shouted to his young nephew. Dipper skidded to a halt, grinding up dirt and pebbles as he stopped before his car. "We're not taking your car," he told him.
A minute later, Dipper climbed into the passenger seat of the expensive, antique El Diablo speedster. He barley secured his seat and the seatbelt when the engine roared proudly with fury, and Stan yanked the gears. Dipper gasped as the red vehicle sped ahead, chasing after Soos' car, which had already gotten ahead of them.
"Okay, just get us into town as quickly as you can," Dipper told Stan as the fierce vehicle seared down the road, passing alongside Soos' quainter ride. "I'll keep in contact when we arrive with Soos. That way we can coordinate ourselves constantly and limit the number of places we need to look."
"It may not be that hard," Stan told him as they raced onto the road.
"Really? How's that?" Dipper asked as he checked with his mapped-out plan. Stan punched his shoulder. "Ow! What?" Dipper lifted his gaze, and found them passing the beginnings of the outskirt homes of downtown Gravity Falls. Many torn and split open soda cans were scattered around the lawn, which glistened with drying soda. From the windows, looking out with worry was a gang of teenagers, who checked with the passing car. "Those were Wendy's friends," Dipper stated, and then looked again to the cans of soda. They weren't just torn open, but slashed apart. "Mabel."
"She's definitely sugar crazy right now," Stan told him, "And if she stays that way, we might be able to catch up with her quick enough."
"Then we both know the next best place to find her," Dipper eyed his grand uncle. The clever con man growled and his foot nearly touched the floor of his car against the gas pedal.
As the car sped deeper into town, Dipper flipped open his phone, and called Soos. He only was forced to wait several rings before a voice answered him.
"Arline here, Soos's driving," the woman's voice answered.
"Hey, we just spotted a house that Mabel definitely passed," he craned his head around his seat and peered back through the minor windows of the back of the car, "There were soda cans torn up and scattered everywhere. Doesn't look like she hurt anyone or broke anything- well, except the soda cans."
Dipper's ears picked up the other side of the phone, as Arline communicated this to Soos, who gave a curt reply. Arline reply a moment later. "Then we know where she's going, don't we?"
"Yes, yes we do," Dipper nodded solemnly and looked ahead. "The candy shop."
Toby Determined strode at his brisk, lifted pace. Bounding a little in each step, he approached his destination- the Candy Shop. Grinning to himself with his crooked teeth while humming in his strange, overly-nasally voice, he murmured his excitement.
"Candy day! Oh Toby, you old dog," he said smiling, with an adjustment to his britches, "time for you to forget all the social anxiety you suppress in exchange for a sugar high! Ha-ha-haaa," he snorted, his bulging eyes looking to the sky. The glass windows looking into the shop presented itself to the man, and he grinned, and pressed his head against it.
"Awww, all you delicious sweets can be mine," he told himself in the window, as the shopkeeper by the cash register stared at him with worry. He mumbled to himself, "And then I can lie back and bed and pretend my life is much more tolerable than it is!" he ended excitedly and removed himself from the glass. Something in the reflection caught his attention, and he stared at it. Behind him, galloping down the street on hind legs, a creature was approaching.
Toby spun around. "What on earth-"
Toby yelped and dived out of the way as a large creature of brown fur and hair dived through the glass window of the shop, splintering shards of glass everywhere. Men and women outside screamed and darted away, leaving Toby on the ground to try protecting himself from the chaos. Finally, the glass fell around him and he noticed he was unharmed. A tiny grunt and wobbling arms later, Toby was on his feet, and staring into the now destroyed shop. The creature was still inside, diving in a slowly spilling ocean of candy. The shopkeeper leapt from the window, tripped into the sidewalk, but pushed himself away, passing the stunned reporter.
Realizing today wasn't the candy day he wanted, Toby made a quick decision. "Maybe life isn't so bad after all," Toby told himself, and he made a one-eighty turn and started calmly walking away, hands in his pockets.
Passing Toby Determined was a red El Diablo speedster, which slid to a stop, searing tire tracks into the street. Jumping out from their seats in record speed, Dipper and Stanley Pines were out and racing towards the broken shop.
"Great! We found her!" Dipper remarked as they ran.
"Now what? She's a werewolf Dipper! She could probably over power both of us!" Stan told Dipper who nodded.
"We'll need Soos and Arline to help us out when they get here," Dipper told him. The old man groaned as they made it to the shattered glass, and Dipper furthered him with a stare. "What?"
"We really just need Soos," the elder crossed his arms in a huff.
"What? Arline can fight and hold Mabel down probably. She fought off that other werewolf that got her like it was nothing," Dipper commented, defending the honor of his sister's martial arts master.
"Right, the same woman who let our Mabel get bitten in the first place?" Grunkle Stan rolled his eyes, "Sounds like someone we can trust."
Dipper frowned. Snide was one thing, but constant distrust was another. "Do... do you not like her?" Dipper asked.
"No!" Stan barked angrily, the two of them ignoring the continued destruction of the shop to their side, as a hairy, half-wolf girl swam through candy, devouring everything it could. "How could I like anything that ruined a chance for profit?!" Stan demanded.
"Stan, she's really nice," Dipper chuckled, "And she's helping us out, isn't she? And she's paying you for one of your rooms isn't she?"
Stanley Pines pouted. "Don't care. I could have had all those rooms locked up by visitors each night if I had the chance to speak to the crowds," Grunkle Stan told Dipper.
"Look, Grunkle Stan, maybe you should just-"
A throaty rumbling that could have belonged to anything the size of a bear put a pause to Dipper's argument. He and Grunkle Stan slowly turned towards the shop with their gaze, and found a figure they partially recognized; werewolf Mabel. She was taller than either of them remembered, being easily seven feet tall on her hind legs, and with glowing brown eyes that shone with yellow light. She licked her canine lips, and several wrappers fell away. Sugar floss was tangled all in her now very thick brown hair, and a score of candies were woven into her still intact sweater and skirt.
"Good Mabel," Grunkle Stan nodded as he and Dipper slowly took a step back from the large creature, "Good girl, nice girl-"
"She's not a dog, Grunkle Stan!" Dipper hissed at him under his breath, yet keeping his eyes locked onto the girl.
"Tell that to miss fangs and teeth!" Grunkle Stan replied as werewolf Mabel stepped out, that same rumbling sound emanating somewhere in her throat.
"Mabel?" Dipper gulped, and she turned her head to him. She began to lean in, closing the gap. She sniffed his face. "It's me. Dipper?" he smiled worriedly as she made no reaction to him. "Mabel, it's me, your brother." The werewolf leaned back, and began to snarl. Elder and teen gulped and stepped further away, worried for their safety. They could see the sharp claws and bared teeth.
Then Mabel burped. Not a soul in Gravity Falls would have missed this particular belch. It reverberated and rumbled through the street like a cannon shot. From somewhere else in town, a particularly manly man shouted, "Nice one! Nine outta ten!"
Dipper gagged- her breath was like a trashcan for old, rotten sweets from Halloween, or so it smelled. Grunkle Stan groaned, but didn't turn away, instead just fanning his face quickly.
"Never thought I'd ever be out-burped by my niece," he admitted as Mabel stretched her jaw and then scratched her ears excitedly.
"Mabel? You okay?" Dipper asked. Mabel eyed him with a goofy doggy-smile. Turning her head to one side, her ears perked up and her tongue lolled out. "Yeah, it was a gross burp," Dipper groaned, aware that somewhere inside that bundle of candy carnage was his sister, still willing to prank him.
The werewolf before them tilted her ears to the side and looked past Dipper's shoulder. Soos's brown-tan car parked next to Stan's, and Arline quickly jogged over with the handyman. "Keep her still!" Arline shouted when Dipper and Stan turned to spot them. Something rushed above Dipper's head, knocking over his hat. He stumbled back and realized Mabel was gone. She had leapt clean over him and his great uncle and onto the building roof behind them, some thirty feet back, and thirty feet up. "Dang it!" Arline growled, eyed around for a moment, and leapt onto a street light, and began to shimmy up it.
"Heh! Good luck keeping up like that!" Grunkle Stan laughed as Arline struggled but gained height steadily.
"You gotta admit, that's cool too," Soos pointed as the martial artist leapt to the side of the building, unseen to Mabel the Werewolf. The lycan was craning her head around, spying around the town. Grunkle Stan eyed his handyman and growled. He too ran ahead and started to shimmy up the street light, after her. Soos hooted, "Oh yeah! Go Mister Pines!"
"Soos, look!" Dipper pointed to Mabel, who's eyes had just locked onto something distant. Far ahead, as Dipper and Soos followed her stares, Dipper found a blond boy of her similar age, well dressed and groomed, flipping through his smart phone. When Dipper turned back to his hybrid sister, he could have sworn there were hearts in her eyes. "Uh oh!"
Mabel leapt across the street and onto the opposite rooftops, stunning the four in pursuit. Arline, who had just made it to the roofs herself, took a long breath, and made the jump herself, flying across the street and landing just short, catching the edge of the rooftops as Mabel disappeared on the other side.
"Ha! Barely made it!" Grunkle Stan mocked Arline, still clinging to the street lamp. It buckled as he did, and then fell to the side. He was lucky; instead of concrete, he crashed into a collection of trashcans. Less injured physically than he was injured of pride, Stan groaned a low, "Ow..."
"Mister Pines!" Soos ran over to him, but Dipper held his eyes up. Mabel was still on the move: she vanished behind the rooftops and down the street. Dipper checked again with the blonde boy, oblivious to any danger coming his way.
"Shoot!" Dipper growled and ran after him. The boy was crossing past the end of the line-up of buildings and onto the next street. Mabel would be waiting on the other side, Dipper knew it. If he couldn't make it to the boy in time, his sister could leap at him and do who knows what kind of damage.
"Sorry!" Dipper shouted. He dive-tackled the boy just as the two turned the corner in the shadows before another street lamp. As the boy landed with a loud thump, Dipper rolled to his back and looked up. He already saw his sister moving away, and as Dipper traced her movement, there was yet another boy down the street.
"What's the problem, dude?" the blond on the ground demanded to Dipper. Dipper had already stood up and charged after his sister.
He tackled the next boy, this time a brunette with curly hair. Mabel moved on again, dragging Dipper along her for the ride. Three, four, five, soon the entire population of teenagers Dipper's age would know the feeling of the ground underneath his tackle or shove as he repeatedly tried to save them from an ambush that did not come from above, or at all for that matter. Behind Mabel, Arline barely kept up, sweating profusely as she jumped across the entire street after Mabel.
As the group continued to chase her, Dipper started seeing less and less of his wolfish sister. She was getting faster, able to turn on a dime and leap across a street without warning. Dipper would check his journal after the fifth time this happened, and he gulped. The more active a werewolf was during their first three transformations, the more accustomed to their body and mind they would become. Chasing Mabel was just furthering the process of her adjusting to the curse, something he wanted nothing of. They needed a way to pacify her without question.
Then it clicked in his head. He knew what he needed to do. He skidded to a halt, placing away his journal and instead taking out his phone. He dialed Wendy's number, and waited for the answer as he heard Soos and Grunkle Stan slowly catch up.
"Hey!" Wendy answered, "She heading our way?"
"Not yet," Dipper responded firmly, "But we're going to change that. I need someone to bring Waddles down into town!" he told Wendy with authority.
"Waddles?"
"Mabel so far has dodged everything I thought she would dive for, as long as we were nearby it. I think the things here, in town, are things she wants if she's alone. So, unless she plays a game of hot-potato with the local boys, she's just going to destroy every shop with candy in it. But she'd never hurt waddles, and she'd just want to cuddle and play with him. We need him down here!" Dipper quickly explained as Stan and Soos arrived, breathing frantically.
"Uh, okay, uh... there's only your car up here, Dipper," Wendy acknowledged.
Dipper swore under his breath. "You're right. Wait – just get on your bike with Waddles! Grunkle Stan," Dipper turned to his elder, "Where is that baby carrier Mabel left here?"
"Uh... in that hallway closet?" Grunkle Stan guessed.
"Wendy, can you find the baby carrier that Waddles can fit into, and bike down here with him?" Dipper asked. Silence. Dipper listened harder. "Wendy?" he asked.
"Yeah, uh," he heard her say, and there was hushed voices on the other side of the phone. Dipper was certain he heard Yuki's voice. "I think my bike's tires are on low air, actually. But Yuki said he's willing to give it a shot on the golf cart!"
"What? Wendy?" Dipper demanded. Yuki's track record for using the golf cart wasn't even close to reliable. Before he could protest, he was cut off.
"Okay, Yuki and Waddles are heading down now – heads up buddy! Bye!" Wendy rushed her words quickly over one another, leaving Dipper stunned.
He held the phone to his side as the connection ended, and he turned to the two others, looking to him. "Okay, Waddles is being brought to town. We need a way to pull Mabel over to us so that when we have her here, she can see Waddles for herself, and then we lure her all the way back to the Manor."
"And how exactly do we do that?!" Stan demanded. "In case you didn't realize, the girl is running around, being chased by a master martial artist while she desperately looks for boys to lick."
"Ew, Grunkle Stan," Dipper shuddered, "Let's not talk about what my sister wants to do to others in her werewolf mind."
"Dipper, I don't know what you're so up about," Grunkle Stan rolled his eyes, "We already had this discussion once."
"Of – of what?!"
"The birds and the bees?" Stan asked.
Dipper wrinkled his nose and shook his head. He would not allow that conversation to continue, and spun to observe the rooftops. As he did, Mabel darted across, her tongue lolling around as she ran far ahead of Arline, who was slowing, her face red from having run at full speed on rooftops for the past half hour.
"How do we get her to come down?!" Dipper growled and scratched his hat. "If we don't, she may be on the other side of town when Waddles shows up."
"Hmm... I dunno dude," Soos puzzled along his friend, wringing his cap worriedly, "If only we had someone here, someone with sufficient knowledge of what it was like to be a pig. Then maybe they could try calling with pig noises to attract Mabel here."
Dipper furrowed his brow, thinking. Yet his mind worked its way towards a helpful conclusion, and he turned to Soos. "We do though!" Dipper gasped and clapped Soos's back, who blinked and looked to Dipper.
"Who?"
"You!" Dipper pointed to him, "You switched bodies with Waddles, remember?"
"Oh... oh yeah," Soos nodded grimly, "It was really fun up until the part where I was almost eaten."
"But then you could make the noises," Dipper implored him, "You've actually been inside the body of a pig once!"
"Aww, I don't know, this kind of feels a little awkward," Soos admitted, his cheeks flaring red. His eyes darted away as he scratched the back of his head. "I'd rather not-"
"Soos," Grunkle Stan stepped up, power in his voice, "That's my little niece up there, and your friend. She could hurt someone or become hurt if you don't at least try this."
"You... you're right," Soos nodded, firming the tension in his hands into fists and he turned away from them, clearing his throat. "Ahem. Testing, testing, oink, two, three," he called around. "Okay, warm up the voice, "he spoke to himself, and made what could only be described as a series of low-pitched bird calls which grew in pitch. Once he blew out his lips, and again cleared his throat, his body relaxed, and he made his first noise.
The squeal was a perfect replica of Waddles. Nothing happened at first, with exception to Dipper and Stan nodding in approval. Soos gave it another shot. This time Mabel hurtled over the buildings and landed in the streets. Her lips were curled up, baring her teeth. She was snarling. With barely moments pause, she took off right at them.
Dipper felt a cold chill run up his back. "Soos, you made her angry!?" Dipper shouted as the three of them turned and ran for it.
"Ahh, I may have used the 'help me, I'm a pig' squeal instead of the 'boy, I'm so happy I'm a pig' squeal!" Soos admitted fearfully as the pitter patter of Mabel's advancement grew closer.
"Just run!" Grunkle Stan ordered as they pelted down the street, a wolfish monster on their trails.
Down one street, around a corner, through an alleyway. Climbing over fences and jumping past mailboxes, around cars and past buses, the trio avoided and dodged around the feral, and clearly upset, Mabel the werewolf. Dipper requests for her to calm were entirely ignored or misunderstood by his sister. She constantly clawed at them, sometimes snagging piece of clothes or snapping at their heels.
Mabel leapt above and past them finally, having the three skid to a halt. Dipper stopped, but was hit by Stan, who was hit by Soos. The three of them collapsed onto one another before the werewolf. Her shadow cut out the nightlight above her and she lowered herself, growling as she approached.
"M-Mabel, please," Dipper begged her as she snapped her jaw and bared her teeth. He could smell that sickly sweet breath on his face as her fierce mouth inched closer to him.
"Oink."
The werewolf whipped its head around, the snarling fading instantly. The three on the ground also craned their heads to face what was behind her. The Mystery Manor golf cart was facing away from them, with the back seat occupied by a particular pink pig, who was eyeing Mabel with his usual beady black eyes.
"Oink."
Changing from fierce predator to excited puppy took less than a second. The werewolf yelped and bounded over, hopping in place as it licked the pigs face over, and over again. Waddles squealed in delight, allowing the monstrous and formerly human friend to continue doting on him.
"Is she secure onto the back?" Yuki asked, poking head out from the side of the cart, looking to Dipper and the group.
"Yeah, she's in already," Dipper signed, barely noticing Arline climbing down to land next to him. Yuki nodded, and the cart rattled away, moving up the street and out of sight. Dipper slowly stood as he watched his scary sister be carried away from the town. He was still very shaken. Even after all that time, the attempts to calm her; she still couldn't tell it was him.
"Well, at least we saved the town," Grunkle Stan patted Dipper's shoulder proudly. Behind him, another light post fell to the ground, where Mabel had used it to leap over them. Many of the cars had broken in rooftops and shattered windshields.
"Define 'saved'?" Arline asked. One of the cars behind her, which Mabel had leapt off in her attempt to catch the trio, lost one of its wheels: popping off and rolling away while the car alarm blared off noisily.
Escaping from the town before the police arrived to the multiple phone calls of a monster running rampant around town, the four chasing Mabel managed back into the cars and started back towards the Mystery Manor. The drive was a quiet one, examining the damage Mabel had caused in her rampage. Windows were shattered, cars torn to pieces, boys scared out of their mind the few times they spotted the coming werewolf, and of course, one utterly demolished candy shop. "Thousands of dollars in repairs, at minimum," Stan estimated to Dipper when he asked.
"And that's from Mabel as a werewolf," Dipper gulped. "You think all of them are that strong?" Dipper asked Grunkle Stan, who shook his head.
Stan frowned in thought. "I got a feeling it's all because it's Mabel we're dealing with here, and not some other joe-schmoe. The girl's got a heck of a punch."
As Dipper silently nodded, the two cars left the shaken and scared little town. Their return to the Mystery Manor was quick, and as they stepped towards the entrance, Wendy met with them, hands at her side and a calmed look about her.
"Yuki has her and waddles in his room," she told them as they approached. "So far, it seems okay."
"Right. She's tied up, right?" Stan asked quickly. Wendy blinked for a moment, giving Stan the answer he hated. "Great. Soos, bring the rope."
"Wait!" Dipper ran ahead of them, arms to his side, "If she's already resting, tying her up may just upset her again and make her aggressive!"
"You just want to let her get another chance to run around and break things?" Stan demanded of his nephew. Dipper gritted his teeth together, not backing down. "Kid, seriously? We saw firsthand what she can do! She could do that again to the town, or worse, do it here!"
"Even if we do tie her up, there's no way with that rope she'll actually be stopped," Dipper eyed Soos's length of rope tied around him, "She'd just tear through it."
"Then-" Stan started, but Dipper raised his volume.
"Just let me handle her!" he demanded, and before Stan could react, he spun on his heel and marched away.
His feet marching against the planks of wood, he stepped into the hallway and approached the door. He could hear the quieting calls of Grunkle Stan and Soos behind him, but her could have cared less. He knew what was going to do. Knocking softly on the door, he heard a quiet reply.
"Dipper?" Yuki called.
The male twin pushed the door open and pushed his head inside. Yuki was on a seat by his bed, where Waddles the pig and his sister were snuggled around one another. Mabel's ears were perked up and turned towards Dipper, giving him the idea, she would awaken if he made any more noise. He forced a smile onto his face, and closed the door softly behind him.
He couldn't go in there without disturbing his sister, and if he did, who knows how she would react? Dipper was too tired for another rampage like that. In fact, he was too tired to move. The closed door behind him suddenly felt very comfortable, and his eyes closed.
When Dipper snorted awake later, the sun was up. He was shocked to feel heavier than he did the night before. On top of that, he wasn't cold, something odd for sleeping in the middle of the hallway the entire night. A heavy blanket had been draped over his shoulders. He grinned; he would have to thank someone later for their consideration.
"Morning, dude."
Wendy's voice startled Dipper into slamming his head against the door. "Wendy!" Dipper shouted, as he rubbed his head, "You're here?"
"Yeah man. Wasn't going to leave when stuff could still go down," she told him, leaning on the railing of the stairs animatedly, and walking down them to sit beside Dipper. "How you feeling?"
"Ugh... stiff," he admitted, stretching his back. "What time is it?"
"Eight," she told him. Dipper gasped. "I know, right?"
"Hey, what about your familiy?" Dipper asked her, and she easily shrugged, falling against the wall as she slid next to him.
"I texted 'em. They can deal with me being here for a night," she told Dipper. "Besides, I think this was more important than heading home. Especially since, you know, Mabel."
"Right," Dipper nodded and yawned. He eyed Wendy again, amazed that she looked so... awake. "You got sleep, right?" he asked her worriedly.
"Pfft, sleep is for the weak, man," she said, but then yawned for a moment. Dipper chuckled, and she did as well. As he calmed himself from his delirious laughter, he noticed her stare. She was studying him with a strange intensity. As if he was doing something odd. Had he acted weird around he?
"Wendy, you okay?" he asked her.
She blinked and looked away. "Nah. I'm just glad everyone is okay. Well, no one was hurt. The town is kind of freaking out that a wolf ran around town trying to eat people," Wendy admitted, "But no one was actually hurt."
"What?" Dipper asked her, and she strode up and left him for a moment. Returning briefly, she tossed him the paper.
"Monstrous wolf terrorizes town; local populace calls for stricter animal control polices?" Dipper read aloud, "I guess Toby got the big story first."
"Apparently he was right there. I was reading it earlier," Wendy admitted, "Like, right at the candy shop when Mabel jumped through it."
Dipper let the paper fall next to him, allowing Wendy to claim her paper back from him. The previous night, and all the chaos that had come from it, it was still real. Nothing had reverted since then. Mabel was probably still in Yuki's bed with Waddles, resting however well a werewolf with a stomach full of candy could. He looked to his shirt, with a three-clawed incision at the side where Mabel had narrowly missed hitting him.
She was dangerous now.
The door behind Dipper buckled, and he stood. Yuki stepped out, looking as well rested and awake as Wendy.
"You are awake," Yuki noted to Dipper, and then looked to Wendy, "And... you are present?"
"Yup, and accounted," she gave him a smirk.
He nodded to her with a smile. Giving Dipper a look, Yuki informed them, "Mabel is stirring."
Dipper saw the red-head eye him from the corner of his vision, and he had but to glance once at her for her to sigh a nod. "Yuki, let's go find Soos. We need to fix the twin's window before Stan gets all prissy with us," Wendy clapped her arm around the alien's neck and pulled him away, giving Dipper a nod.
He was free to check on his sister. With a gulp, he stepped inside.
Yuki's room was the same space that Dipper had once tried to win over from Grunkle Stan three years ago: Ford's old room. The bed was a double, and lying in a curled pile around the awake and content pig, was Mabel. Her hair was knotted and tangled, with candy floss still woven inside. Not a single trace of her fur remained, and Dipper slowly sat down next to her. The gently squeezing screech of the old bed springs, and oink of Waddles, coerced Mabel to awaken.
"Dipper... ah, I feel horrible," she groaned, slowly opening her eyes as she pushed herself up, patting Waddles. "I... where am I?" she looked around frantically, her eyes widening as she realized she wasn't in her bed.
"Yuki's room. Waddles apparently wanted you in here, and Yuki wasn't sleeping tonight anyway," Dipper told her. She blinked and turned to face him, and then she spotted it- the cuts in his clothes. She gasped, a hand covering her mouth as tears started forming in her eyes. A barely audible curse floated from Dipper as he held a hand over the cut fabric. "It's fine, you just got a bit excited and, uh, rough-housed with me," Dipper tried lying.
"I... I tried hurting you," she hiccuped, her breaths growing faster and more frantic. "Dipper what else did I do?" she asked.
A tightness grew in his throat, and he shook his head. "Nothing."
"You're lying."
"No, I'm not."
"Yes, you are. Your eyebrow is doing that thing when you lie," she pointed out, and sniffled, "Who did I hurt?"
"No one!" Dipper called as he stood, and showed his back to her, and then spun quickly. Mabel had also spotted the back cuts on his shirt as well.
"You look exhausted!" she cried, wiping her eyes, "Oh my god. I tried killing you, didn't I?"
"No, Mabel-"
"Just tell me, okay?" she cut him short, fear so prominent in her eyes that Dipper could almost see it in her teardrops. "No one... died?"
"No one," he told her.
"Right," she nodded, not entirely convinced. "I'm... I'm now an actual monster. No more 'pretending to be a killer'," she cried, holding an arm to her face, "I'm now an actual... killing machine."
Dipper strode over, sat down, and grabbed her into a strong hug. He couldn't say a thing. He couldn't think of what to say to calm her. Her words of monsters; he had shamefully thought it too. He could never, never say it to her face; never dare to crush. Especially now, when she was to herself then. The most he could do is remind her that he was still there. Mabel finally hugged back, and sobbed.
An hour later, after letting Dipper catch her up on the events of the night before, he managed to pull her into the gift shop. Wendy and Yuki stood around chatting, and Soos slept on the floor behind the counter, snoring. Grunkle Stan finally showed up, in his usual morning robe and grungy sleep-wear. To the immense surprise of those awake, he wasn't a furious, sleepy fuss-ball.
"Mabel," Stan had said, and quickly embraced her, "You're okay?"
"Eh, for someone who just learned that you practically destroyed an entire town and also tried killing your friends and family," Mabel shrugged, "I could be worse."
"Tough, aren't you?" Grunkle Stan gave her a warm, worn smile, and she couldn't help but reply in kind. Grunkle Stan looked to her brother. "Tell me we have a plan. If that was supposed to be the kiddy-phase of a werewolf, we need a solution for her now."
Right away, Dipper opened up his journal, and began leafing through the pages towards werewolves. Between him getting to the correct page, Soos woke and Arline stumbled in, exhausted and sore. Apologies to both of them came from Mabel, and Dipper acknowledged he had found the proper section.
"So... I'm going to have to look into Ford's notes again. I can't see anything else other than those three options," Dipper explained, "Wolfsbane, silver bullet, or the heart of the werewolf who bit her- Folbrow."
"And we've established that we're not killing Mabel," Grunkle Stan commanded around to those present. Someone started to enter the shop, presumably one of those also staying in the rooms. "Business meeting – come back later!" Stan bellowed, scaring away whoever was beginning to enter. "Yeesh. To early for freaking customers."
"So, we kill the werewolf," Wendy sighed, hands in her pockets as she frowned. "I don't know if that sounds like the right thing to do."
"I agree," Mabel nodded. "The last thing I need to know is that I actually killed someone."
"Mabel, sweetheart," Stan looked to her with a pained expression, "We're not running with a lot of options here."
"So, I have to kill someone to cure myself?" Mabel demanded angrily, and her grand uncle shrugged. "No way, José."
"I don't like it, but Mister Pines may be right," Soos acknowledged, his hand scratching his opposite arm. Mabel scoffed at him, but Soos continued. "C'mon Hambone, if that crazy nut in the woods had his way, he would have killed one of you, wouldn't he?"
"He could try it again too," Arline darkly added. "I warned him, but a warning isn't, by any means, a true restriction."
To Arline, Stan huffed. "Huh, I'll give you that," Grunkle Stan crossed his arms and nodded.
"There has to be more than just those three," Dipper mumbled, daring to turn a page. What he found one page ahead confused him. A dear morphed into a businesswoman, in full work skirt and business jacket. He squinted at his own notes, made much earlier in the book. "The heck is this?" Dipper's question brought the attention of the group. He vaguely remembered writing this one cryptid down, late at night. Eying it with a certain distrust, he read aloud.
"Rare due to the slim chances of surviving a werewolf attack," he read aloud, "a were-man is the entire opposite of a were-animal. An animal is afflicted with lycanthropy, and during the full moon, or its close phases, turns into a human being, complete with all human capacity."
"Wait... so there could be people running around at night who aren't actually... people," Soos asked, and shuddered.
"What?" Wendy asked him, eying him.
"That's just weird," Soos told her, and she shrugged.
Eager to continue, Dipper spoke. "The strangest aspect of the were-man is not the transformation, but the polarity of their bite," Dipper gasped and turned to the group, his eyes wide with excitement, "For it is said that a bite from a were-man acts, should they bite a human were-animal, reverses both parties involved. Mabel," Dipper told her excitedly, "We may just have to find a were-man and convince him to bite you!"
"Ah, cool! And ew," she added, "Just some random person comes up and bites me?"
"Aaand reminding you of the alternative," Dipper commented.
Mabel's expression went entirely neutral and placid. "Fair point, broseph," she granted him.
Arline seemed happy with this result. "How do we tell the difference between a normal person and a were-man?" Arline asked to Dipper. As he smiled expectantly, she added with her own grin, "You already know, don't you?"
"Well, Ford already had an answer for us," Dipper smirked.
Arline looked around. "Who?"
Mabel, Wendy, and Soos said in unison, "Long story."
Dipper read aloud, "Since lycanthropy is a magical curse, the same mild effects occur in Were-men as they do in others- they retain certain aspects of their standard animal. This can be seen either visually or in behavior; sometimes both," Dipper looked away from the journal and grinned, "So what we need to do is keep an eye for this kind of person: a well-dressed person at night who has mild aspects of an animal! Like bunny tails, or fish gills."
Stan scratched the back of his neck. "We don't even have proof that there are-"
Dipper cut off Grunkle Stan's protest. "Unless anyone else has a good idea to what to do..."
No one spoke. Grunkle Stan grumbled, and looked to Mabel.
She seemed the most worried, as it was to be expected. "I'll be changing at the same time that he will be," she told them, "So... we should tie me up tonight."
The day passed slowly. Dipper and Mabel spent most of it together quietly in their room, making forced idle chatter to ease each other's mind. When the sun began to set, the twins moods began to unsettled further. Mabel was in upright panic, and Dipper was stressing along with her.
"What if I break free?"
"Or we can't find him?"
"Then I could kill someone!"
"And you'd only have one more night before you went full werewolf for good!"
"Ugh, Dipper-"
"I know," he nodded and fell back on his bed, pulling at his hair. She too sat on her bed, pulling at her bangs of hair one at a time. Their despairing gazes met, only imbedding into them the same fear and panic that they wanted to avoid; a reflection into the desperation inside their own bodies. A knock at their door broke their exchanging fears.
Soos poked his head in. "Hey dudes. We should probably get that plan rolling," he told them.
Like zombies out of the grave, the two of them marched out of their rooms, entirely silent with exception to their steps against the floor, the which seemed to rattled through their bodies. They were empty inside, only with their eyes on the future and the hopelessness of the situation.
Down the stairs and into the gift shop they went. Stan, Arline and Yuki approached Mabel, and took her away, moving towards the aliens' room. Dipper turned as Mabel did, exchanging one final glance before they headed off their separate ways.
"Okay, you two," Dipper gulped as he spoke to Wendy and Soos, "let's go."
"What?" Wendy asked.
"C'mon Wendy, those three are watching Mabel. I need your help in the town," Dipper asked her pleadingly.
"But I..." Wendy looked to Dipper, and that gaze wore away at her strange resistance, "You're right. I'll patrol the, uh, edge of town, okay?"
"Sure," Dipper nodded as they moved outside, passing into the dying sunlight. The idea was to be in the town by the time the werewolf curse set in. "Soos, you left your phone with Arline?"
"Sure did, bud," Soos nodded.
"Okay. Let's move out."
Dipper drove them into town, his fingers pacing along the edge of his wheel. He could imagine Mabel sitting in the bed, or lying down, tied up and being watched by the three. The three most physically capable were guarding over her. Dipper worried there could be a worse implication if the werewolf side of Mabel found itself trapped in a corner that it might lash out, but he couldn't afford to think like that anymore. He needed to cure her.
Wendy was let out, by request, on the edge of town. Dipper saw her fade into the darkness as they approached the quiet center of town. Less people were out than the previous night, probably due to the fear of another wolf-creature attack. Soos was dropped on one side of the town center, and Dipper parked closer to the lake-side of town. He could see the edge of the water far in the distance, behind the legion of trees as he parked and pulled himself from his seat into the cold air.
Then the sun set, and the moon shone above. It was now, or never. And he was on borrowed time.
Dipper stared around himself. He was alone.
More minutes passed. His darting eyes flickered around town in frantic, racing sweeps. Scanning again and again for movement of any kind. Even more time passed, reaching half an hour, and Dipper became furious.
How could life do this to him? Give him hope and then dash it so? He had been given a chance to cure his sister; the sister who jumped in the line of fire, for him, and now he couldn't even manage to cure her. He just needed to find one, stinking little...
Someone, just out of Dipper's vision, stepped out from a bush, and very deliberately walked down the street. He gasped and blinked. Walking hurriedly to catch up with the man, he stared and took in the form. Blue business suit, a strange tie of brown and tan crisscrossing pattern, and a fabric belt. As the man ahead, with thick course brown hair, glanced around, Dipper saw a very prominent feature.
Buck Teeth. Dipper grinned despite his worry and raced ahead.
"Hey! Beaver!" Dipper dared shout.
The man ahead of him jumped, actually leapt into the air. He spun in his tracks, holding his arms up to shield himself from Dipper.
"I swear I didn't mean to take it! I was just scared and wanted protection! I'll return the chainsaw one day!" the man called to Dipper as he ran up to the man.
"I- you took the chainsaw? The one on beaver island?" Dipper asked the man with buck teeth. "Oh. I always wondered what was up with that."
"I... wait, I've seen you before," the man said, leaning closer to Dipper, "You're that boy... with the sister who looks just like you."
"Yeah, and you're a were-man, aren't you?" Dipper inquired of the man before him, who nervously prodded his fingers together, and eyed his surroundings.
"I... yes. Yes, I am. I've been cursed with were-manism for years," the were-man declared sadly, "And I return each full moon to muse in my eternal torture."
"What? Being a human isn't that bad," Dipper told him.
The man scoffed. "You ever try being a beaver? Pretty easy life," the man told him.
Dipper prepared a retort, but shook his head. He was wasting time. "What if I told you I had a cure for you?" Dipper proposed, "A cure that will also help someone else, who needs your help."
"... what do you mean, kid?" the beaver-man asked, leaning in.
"My sister got bitten by a werewolf. If you bite her," Dipper told him quickly, "You... turn back into a normal beaver, and she turns into a normal human!"
"That sounds impossible!" The beaver man worried aloud, "And werewolves are dangerous!"
"Really? Because I keep hearing that the most dangerous animal is 'mankind'," Dipper said in dramatic, ominous tones.
The beaver gasped and nodded. "It's true! I've had many egotistical thoughts of animal slaughter as a human! Oh no," the being before Dipper had a quick existential dilemma. "What have I become?" it turned back to Dipper, a firm look to his gaze. "I... I'll trust you, kid," the beaver shrugged, "After all, the worst that comes of this is that some more of you discover my secret."
"Okay, follow me," Dipper turned on his heel, and raced towards his car, about to call Wendy.
Somewhere distant in the woods, a similar howl filled the night air. Dipper gasped and spun around, looking towards the hill that blocked off the mystery manor. His phone rang for him, and without looking at it, he answered.
"Dipper," Arline gasped as she called him, "She got out. She's not herself tonight."
"Where is she going?" Dipper demanded.
"I think... to find Folbrow."
Dipper closed the phone. Looking once to the were-man behind him, who eyed the hills as well with fear, Dipper grasped his sleeve and yanked him along as he ran towards the car. He handed the were-man the phone. "Text the number 'Wendy', tell her I have to save Mabel, and I can come back for her later," Dipper told him as they jumped into the car, and he started the engine.
"O-okay," the beaver nodded and started poking away at the cell phone.
Dipper would be taking a leaf out of Mabel's book. Speed limit would not be listened to this night. The car's engines screamed as he floored the gas pedal and flung himself and the beaver back into the seats.
He couldn't let Mabel get to him. She might cure herself, and that would certainly solve a lot of immediate problems. If Mabel allowed herself to kill anyone, anyone at all, she would hate herself. Pure, and utter hate only for herself, a deep loathing not even Dipper would be able to dispel. He couldn't let her do that to herself. She was worth more to both of them than one bad night of mistakes. Even if it was some terrible person, Mabel's mind just didn't deserve to take that kind of pain.
The tires could have been on fire as the car flew down the street out of Gravity Falls. Dipper had entirely passed Soos, who gasped as he zoomed by. Dipper was even sure that he spotted Wendy, saluting him to race for his sister, but it never really settled in his brain. He only had to get to her. That's all he allowed himself to think. Even if the police tried pulling him over, they would have to shoot out the tires to his ride, and then hand cuff him into their patrol car before he stopped himself.
He remembered where he had run into Folbrow last time. Just across the street from the old Gleeful house, Dipper came to a screeching stop, the long black skid marks trailing behind his car as he blasted the air with the smell of burning rubber.
"You certainly understand a speedy arrival," the were-man admitted as Dipper shoved himself out of the car. "Hey! Wait!" the man said, slightly tangled in the seat, "You need me to help-"
Dipper didn't wait for him. He was already in the trees, running as fast as his adrenaline pumped legs could push him. The world was slowing down as he felt sweat pouring down his face. Not from exhaustion – he couldn't feel that now. He was too fearful. Mabel could easily overwhelm the older, and most recently beaten-up werewolf. She held her own as a human, but she may near instantly kill him as a werewolf.
He couldn't let her.
The air grew colder. Mist was collecting along the sides of him as he ran, blazing a cutting trail through the grey clouds moisture. The stomping of his feet heralding his coming, Dipper eyed the darkness around him. The vision of the teen adjusted to the dark, but even so, he had to really inspect every single grey outline of a tree.
He needed to find her.
Mabel couldn't kill him.
Dipper would not let her hate herself.
A howl stalled Dipper, and he turned to his right. There was snarling and gnashing. Struggle, snapping of twigs and branches.
A fight.
Dipper gasped and lunged ahead. Passing tree on the right, on the left, weaving around one, two, three, four-
Dipper skid to a stop as he saw the carnage before him. Folbrow wasn't just being beaten. Pulverized was a closer descriptor. Mabel slammed her large fist into his face, and the male werewolf reeled and howled in pain. She clawed as his chest and bled him. Again, and again she struck and injured the already very slow looking creature. If Dipper had thought Arline was tough on the former hunter, he hadn't imagined the brutality an enraged Mabel could create.
Folbrow fell back. Landing by the side of a tree, the werewolf moaned and whimpered, looking up to the outline of Mabel in the dim starlight. Dipper moved, racing around her. His movement caught her attention, and she stepped back, growling.
"Mabel!" he shouted, and stepped between them, just out of reach for Fulbrow, should he have decided to take a swipe at him. "Mabel, that's enough! You've hurt him! You're done."
His werewolf sister growled and snarled at him, but did not approach.
"C'mon Mabel, this isn't you!" he shouted. "You'd never want to kill anyone. Even someone as bad as him!"
"I do!" she yelled back.
Dipper blinked and gasped. It was her voice, but it shook and trembled with hate and anger. "Mabel?" Dipper asked.
"He did this to me!" she growled, pointing a clawed finger to herself, "He made me this! Look what he made me do! What I could have done to you!" she pointed to him, and Dipper looked back at the barely conscious opponent werewolf.
"But you didn't," Dipper told her calmly.
She barked, shocking him for a moment. "Not yet! I'm angry, Dipper! I am really angry!" she shouted, red flaring in the center of her pupils. "I just feel so... furious!"
"I know, I believe you," Dipper held his hands further out, trying to remind her that his side hadn't changed. "Mabel, what will you think when you went back to your normal self?" Mabel snarled and turned away. A streak of light reflected the moon above her, and Dipper realized she was crying, reflective trails tracing down her furred face. Dipper, heart aching, gently told her, "Mabel, you have a right to hate him. I hate him. But you don't really want to sink to his low, do you?"
The red in her eyes hadn't faded. "Dipper, get out of my way," she demanded in a snarl, her glowing brown eyes starting to share a hint of deep red.
"Mabel, don't do it. You know you can't live with yourself if you do," Dipper told her, shaking at the knees as she stepped closer. She was even taller than he remembered. "Mabel?" he tried again, but only more growls, a trembling lip exposing her white teeth. "Mabel!" he shouted and she roared into his face, knocking him to the ground.
Dipper fell and stared up at her, her figure wrapped in the moonlight above. She eyed him and then Folbrow. A horrible smirk stretched on her lips as she stepped forward-
"AHA!" The wereman lunged out of the shadows behind her and bit down on her neck with his teeth. After biting her, he shouted, "I've done it! I did the thing!"
Mabel roared and spun around frantically, grasping at the sudden man. Several spins later, she grasped him by the arm and hurled him into the woods.
"Were-man!" Dipper shouted in panic. He had hoped the effects of the bite would be instant, but as the man flew into the woods, he heard the reverberating crash of a solid body against a tree. He wanted to stand, rush after the poor soul- but someone else was falling before him.
Mabel, still in werewolf form was losing focus in her eye. That red faded away quickly. Her ears slowly receded to rest aside her head, and Dipper last saw her face as she fell forward, limp and face-first into the ground. Without hesitation he stood and raced to her side, sliding against loose dirt as he lifted her onto his lap. The fur was falling away, her face sinking back into human proportions. Claws faded away, her legs re-assembled themselves into standard bi-pedal human legs.
"Mabel?" Dipper asked.
Her eyes fluttered open, and she smiled sweetly at him.
"Hey Dip. You look like a dork in the moonlight."
She was back. His normal, teasing sister; Mabel was back.
"How do you feel?" he dared ask her.
"Less furry," she answered quietly, and she groaned, "Did... I hurt anyone?"
"You got Fulbrow messed up, but he's still alive," he assured her, and she nodded, pursing her lips.
"Okay... good, I guess," she said earnestly.
"Can you stand?" he asked Mabel. She shrugged and pushed her way up. He followed alongside her progress vertically, ensuring she wouldn't collapse onto herself. When she stood, Mabel did buckle, and Dipper was there, keeping her upright with his helping hand.
"You saved me," she told him.
"No, I-" Dipper's modest assurance was muffled. She hugged him with her entire weight. He felt his words choke in his throat. "Well... you're welcome then."
"I love you, you dumb doofus," she chuckled with a croaky throat.
"I love you too, you crazy goofnut," he replied. As the two held their hug, a static shock passed their brains, and the simultaneously said-
"Pat, pat," as they patted each other's backs.
Pressing herself off of Dipper while wiping her eyes, Mabel looked around. Dipper followed suit, feeling a few rogue tears of his own. Fulbrow stared fearfully at them, holding his arms closer to his chest. They stood up together, ready to address the wounded werewolf.
"You," Mabel pointed to him, "Get this straight. We give people three strikes. This?" Mabel pointed to herself, "that was number two. Come back, and you're out. Got it?"
The werewolf nodded, and began to pull itself away, whimpering as it struggled to gain distance between them with only one arm.
Watching the wounded beast crawl away, Dipper's mind shot back to him of another person who had come. "Oh no!" Dipper remembered someone thrown into the trees a few minutes prior. Leaving Mabel's side, he rushed through the bushes, and found, resting at the bottom of a tree, a motionless beaver. "Oh... oh no," Dipper approached it, afraid to touch it- for fear he could cause it harm.
"Dip? What is it?" Mabel called, approaching the bushes.
"Mabel, stay there," he commanded her, not noticing any movement to the beaver.
"Dipper, what is it?!" she demanded, and pushed forward anyway.
"Mabel, I said stay back!" he turned and stood, trying to block the sight of the motionless animal, but it was too late. She had seen it.
"Oh... no..." she gasped, and rushed forward and kneeled next to it. "I..."
"No- Mabel- don't- it wasn't your-"
Dipper moved next to her, but she grasped him by the collar and buried her head into his vest, sobbing. They tried so hard. Dipper had raced as hard as he could to ensure Mabel wouldn't hurt a soul. Yet here, at the bottom of the tree, was the one true victim of the werewolf Mabel once was.
Then the beaver chirped and stood up. Mabel and Dipper gasped, and Dipper groaned loudly.
"C'mon dude!" he told the beaver, who waddled around to face him, "You- you had me worried there for a second!"
"Are you okay, little guy?" Mabel asked the animal, who stared at her.
"Hey?" Dipper tried catching the Beaver's attention, but it just stared at him blankly. "Hello? I... I don't think he can understand us anymore," Dipper told his sister sadly. "He got what he wanted in the end, didn't he-"
Two waddling steps later, and the beaver stepped up to Dipper and hugged him gently around the leg. Mabel watched and cooed loudly as the animal nuzzled against Dipper for a minute, and then started marching away, moving deeper into the forest.
"I can't believe that worked out this well," Dipper admitted, looking to Mabel with an effortless, wide smile. "So many times, this could have gone badly for us, you know?"
"Maybe Mabel the werewolf wasn't as bad as it could have been?" she suggested to Dipper, who groaned.
"No way. You already make fun of me for not having enough man-hair," Dipper poked her nose, which prompted a raspberry from her in response, "How could I possibly live up to you if you always had more hair than me?"
"It was fur, not hair, actually," Mabel corrected him, "And I bet it looked lovely."
"Right. I'll remind you that you tried to tackle pretty much every boy in Gravity Falls with that fur," Dipper told her as they started walking away from the site of the struggle, leaving Fulbrow to his pains.
"Oh shush! The Mabel will triumph in her pursuit in love, no matter what!" she decreed to the night around them, and the twins laughed, departing away.
Even as they marched through the dark woods, laughing and chatting to themselves in the light of the high moon, not even the distant howls of other werewolves could deter them from enjoying each other's company.
Imagine Dragons- I Bet my Life.
There you go- a little song for the ending.
Man, what a roller coaster ride, huh? I had some fun with this one, and I'll be honest- this was supposed to be one of the chapters had didn't have much to it. You know- the token werewolf episode to a paranormal/mystery series? Yet, man oh man, I bet some of you guys are noticing some things in this one.
Well, I hope so at least. I'll admit the editing in this one will probably be atrocious, but hopefully you can see past them? Hehehe?
Also- HAHAH! I loved that last Episode- Northwest Manor. (puts on an Alex Hirsch Mask) Ah, yes, I'm Alex Hirsch. And I'm totally reading this story to get ideas. (takes off the mask) but joking aside, I'm getting kind of weirded out. I mean- the poltergiest in episode 1 of season two turned people into small animals, animated all the stuff animals, and both of these episode mocked shows that air that kind of stuff- "Watch People go to Places" vs "The Used to Be About History" Channel. Seriously. Travel Channel vs History? ALEX! ARE YOU THERE!? :O
Okay, now that my bragging is done, I can bid thee all farewell. Next episode is called 'Mammoth Problems', and a particular blonde is coming back to the show again! Until then, see you next time- (A mob of fans burst through EZB's door, trample him, and then parade out with the mask of Alex Hirsch's face.)
Behind the glass screen, four young adults stared out at the dark patio. They had, just an hour before, watched as a wolf-looking thing leap out of the bushes, tear at their sodas, and then rush off. They huddled by the window-sliding door, staring outside.
"Y-You think it's gone?" Thompson asked.
Lee and Nate shrugged.
Tambry, thought clearly unnerved, checked her phone. "You should go out and check," she said.
"W-What?"
"Yeah," Nate nodded, looking at Thompson.
"You got this, bud!" Lee agreed.
"Guys, that was a dire-wolf, or something!" Thompson whined, "I'll die if it gets me!"
The two guys, quieter than they had been before, started chanting, 'Thompson', over and over. Peer pressure showing its ugly head, Thompson took a big gulp, and slid out the door and stepped outside. The boys went quiet. Thompson scanned the can-littered yard, stinking of soda.
Tambry, who had lifted her phone to film Thompson, let out a loud bark.
Thompson shrieked and leapt into the air; his eyes wide as color left his face. The three inside burst out laughing. Turning to them, Thompson again whined, "Guys! That's not funny!"
They disagreed. "It's sorta funny." "I laughed." "Posting it on 'Laugh or Don't dot com."
Upon the night air was another howl. The three inside dropped their humor, and waved for Thompson to run inside, and oh did he oblige them. The sliding door slid closed.
Nate looked around to the terrified three around him. "Man," he sadly said, "Wendy would have loved this sort of thing." The three nodded their heads in agreement.
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