Chapter 2: He Invoked the Ancient Power
"And he has returned."
"Hey, dudes, how's this look?" Soos asked, standing atop a ladder while presenting the "Welcome back!" banner he and Melody just finished wrapping around the front of the Mystery Shack.
"Looking good!" Stanford answered with a thumbs up, then rested both hands on his hips. "The kids are gonna love it."
Soos pumped his fist into the air. "Yes!" His small celebration got a chuckle out of Melody, who was standing on a different ladder at the other end of the banner.
Stanford turned to the Mystery Shack's front yard, watching everyone else help set up the welcoming party for the twins.
Over at a long table, Wendy and Pacifica were placing drinks and other refreshments; At the other end of the table, Candy and Grenda were setting up various snacks and gifts. Even Li'l Gideon was helping out occasionally, though everyone knew he was mostly there for Mabel.
Other townsfolk were invited to attend the party, so they should be arriving soon.
After surveying the front yard, Stanford rolled down his sleeve to check the time on his watch. "Stanley should be here with the kids any minute now." He said with excitement resonating in his voice.
"I'm like, so ready to get this show on the road, you have no idea," said a pumped-up Soos as he climbed down the ladder.
"I'm sure you are, Soos. And we will! Everyone will arrive in just..." Stanford trailed off as he stared at Soos, noticing the light on him suddenly get darker in an instant, which was odd. The weather report said it was going to be sunny and clear skies today!
"Whoa, who turned off the lights?" Soos asked, as if forgetting they were outside.
Immediately, both men looked up. They expected to see a massive cloud, but instead, the sun was covered by a large black vessel.
It didn't take long for the others to notice. Wendy was the first to run up beside Stanford and point it out. "What the heck is that thing?!"
"I... I don't know." Stanford recognized it as a ship of some sort, though it was unlike any he had ever seen. "What is it doing?" He muttered to himself, watching the ship pass overhead with a low rumble.
As the ship passed, the long table vibrated heavily, causing the drinks to spill and the snacks to fall onto the grass. Even the glass punch bowl shattered, making Candy and Grenda yelp.
Stanford watched the ship closely as it hovered a good distance away, quickly noticing two things about it. For one, there was an eerie blue glow pulsing from its bottom. And two, there was no propulsion mechanism anywhere on its black surface—at least none that were external. How was it even moving?
Before Stanford could get an answer, the ship came to a stop. He squinted his eyes, finding the ship's placement particularly odd. It threw him off; He didn't know why, but felt the reason was obvious. It was on the tip of his tongue...
Stanford wasn't afforded much time to ponder, as the blue glow under the ship brightened for an instant, then exploded outward into a powerful shockwave. The shockwave blew over everyone harshly, yet harmlessly.
Everyone was fine. The same could not be said for the decorations. Everything was thrown everywhere, ruining the hours of work everyone had put in. "Gosh dangit! Can't we have one week in this town without somethin' going wrong?!" Gideon complained with a small, angry hop.
As much as Stanford wanted to get mad about that, he had bigger things to worry about, such as figuring out what that shockwave did. He whipped out a futuristic device from his jacket pocket, waving it around in the air. It resembled a radio, almost. What separated it from a normal radio was that its screen displayed various statistics and symbols, all of which only Stanford could read, most likely.
"What are you doing?" Wendy asked.
"Checking for any abrupt atmospheric changes." He quickly answered.
"Here's a change in the atmosphere for ya. There's a freakin' pyramid in the sky!" Gideon cried, clearly panicked.
"I'm talking about from the shockwave!" Stanford clarified.
"There doesn't seem to be any physical alterations at the moment, but that ship could've blasted anything at us, like radiation."
Soos gasped. "So you're saying we could all like, grow an extra pair of arms or something? Oh, dude! That'd be... That'd be pretty cool, actually."
Pacifica winced. "Ew...I don't wanna grow an extra pair of arms!"
"Well, you won't have to worry about that. It doesn't seem like that shockwave contained any trace of radiation. Strange though..." Stanford brought the handheld device closer to his face.
Wendy popped up beside him. "What is it?"
"I'm detecting drastic disturbances in the atoms. They're vibrating wildly, almost as if they're thrown off balance. If they don't stabilize soon, these vibrations will rupture the equilibrium of our dimensional axis and—"
"English, man!"
"They'll create—!" Before Stanford could simplify his explanation, a blue portal with jagged edges appeared at the center of the yard, startling everyone. "Those." Stanford pointed.
"Whoa, what is that?" Soos questioned.
"It's a rift."
"Oh, kinda like the one you came out of, right?"
"Yes! Well, somewhat. This rift is completely unstable. The amount of energy emitting from it is a hundred times more potent than the one I came out of. No, maybe a thousand times more!"
Wendy's brows furrowed. "Is that a good or bad thing?"
"I don't know." Stanford's answer didn't ease her worries. He inched closer to the portal in complete awe. "Incredible."
Wendy sighed. "What's got your attention now?"
"The time dilation on this rift is incredible! The residual energy—"
"English."
Stanford groaned. "If my readings are accurate, then somehow, this rift is existing in the past and future simultaneously!"
The device in Stanford's hand beeped, making his eyes widen. "The rift's power just surged!"
Wendy whipped her head to look at him. "What's that mean?"
"Something is coming from the other side! Everybody move!" Stanford warned, and everyone backed away from the rift.
Although Stanford heeded his own advice, it didn't matter, as two small but heavy objects shot right out of the rift and collided into him. He fell with a hard tumble, landing on his back—he was gonna feel that in the morning.
He sat there for a second, groaning in pain. It took him a moment to notice he wasn't the only one groaning. When he realized this, Stanford looked up to see it wasn't two objects that landed on him, but rather two people—at least, he thought they were people.
One had hot-pink skin and orange-colored hair. The other also had orange hair, but their skin was yellow with dark spots on their cheeks. He squinted, hoping his eyes weren't failing him at this moment; If they weren't, and if the mucus was anything to go by, then the people on top of him were... anthropomorphic frogs.
Well, not the craziest thing I've seen. Stanford thought as the two frog people slowly came to.
"Ow! Sprig! I told you we shouldn't have gone down that narrow tunnel." The yellow-skinned frog exclaimed with a pained wince while rubbing their head.
"Well how was I supposed to know a sinkhole was gonna be there?" The pink frog—Sprig, replied. Unlike the yellow frog, their voice was a lot more masculine. "Where are we anyway?"
Both frogs suddenly paid attention to their surroundings, finally realizing they were on top of a confused yet intrigued Stanford.
"Oh my frog!" Sprig and the yellow frog instantly jumped off Stanford, allowing him to sit up.
"Holy smokes dudes, those two frogs totally just talked!" Soos said, rushing beside Stanford to help him up.
"Fascinating..." Stanford murmured. He didn't expect these foreign lifeforms to speak the same language as them. That would make communication a whole lot easier! ...Assuming the others didn't lose it.
Stanford looked back at them, seeing they weren't freaking out. There were mixed responses, with some being confused, others being stoked, and the rest not knowing what to make of the situation.
"You... You guys are humans!" Sprig pointed at Stanford, then looked around. "No way. We're back on Earth?!" He said in complete shock.
"So...does anyone else find this at all strange?" Pacifica blurted.
"We live in Gravity Falls. Everything here is strange. You should know that by now." Wendy responded.
Stanford stepped closer to Sprig and the yellow frog, gaining their attention. "Remarkable! These rifts must lead to other worlds completely different from our own."
"Rift?" Sprig said, confused.
"Yeah dude, it's where you fell out from!" Soos answered, though the rift from which they fell had long since disappeared.
"I don't remember falling into a rift." Sprig rubbed his head.
"Well, you fell from one. Trust me, we all saw," Wendy said, backing up Soos's answer.
There was a short pause in the conversation before Sprig gave Soos and Wendy a weird look. "You guys are taking this surprisingly well."
Stanford chuckled. "Well, believe it or not, you aren't the weirdest thing in this town." He paused, replaying the word 'weirdest' in his mind. "Wait..."
Stanford eyed the two frog people, then the pyramid in the sky. Suddenly, something clicked in his head. Without warning, he bolted for the woods, confusing and startling everyone.
"H-Hey! Where are you going, man?" Wendy called out, chasing after him.
"Oh no you don't. You are not leaving me to clean up this mess!" Pacifica yelled to Wendy, pursuing her.
"Hey now, I wanna come too!" Gideon said, following behind Pacifica.
Stanford stopped for no one as he ducked and weaved past branches, trees, and thorn bushes. Despite his age, he was incredibly agile, though that was probably due to the adrenaline pumping through his veins. He was afraid. The last time anything this weird happened, he was involved—that terrible one-eyed demon.
Even after he was erased, he sometimes haunted Stanford's dreams. An event depicting Bill's return sometimes played over and over in his head. The possibility of that happening was practically zero. Nonetheless, Stanford had to check something.
When the demon shook hands with his brother, his physical form turned to stone. Even after he was erased and Weirdmageddon ended, the statue remained. Stanford stumbled upon it once in the woods, but ultimately left it alone. He didn't think anything related to that demon was important anymore since he died in a way he couldn't come back.
Stanford desperately hoped that assumption was correct. However, upon coming into a clearing, his worst fears were realized.
Ahead of him stood two frighteningly eight-foot-tall creatures. Both took on a humanoid shape with clawed ape-like feet, a long lizard-like tail, and claws for hands. Their skin was a whole other ordeal, as it reflected the universe, or so it appeared.
They also had faces, as impossible as that seemed. The celestial entities that appeared on their skin made discernible features. For example, their eyes resembled stars, and what appeared to be a nebula made up sharp teeth.
Both of these cosmic entities were hoisting the stone statue of Bill out of the ground, confirming what Stanford had dreaded. "NO!" he shouted, gaining the attention of the cosmic creatures. One let go of the statue, letting the other hold onto it. It then charged at Stanford with malicious intent.
Stanford tossed the radio-shaped device back in his jacket pocket and whipped out a raygun-looking weapon. He fired twice, shooting out a red beam of intensely concentrated energy. It instantly vaporized the cosmic entity charging at him.
He aimed at the second who stayed by the statue, but before he could fire, a beam of bright blue light shined down on it and the statue. Stanford squinted, disoriented by the sudden light. Then, like a tractor beam, the light sucked up the cosmic entity and the statue before disappearing. By the time Stanford's vision cleared, they were gone.
He looked up to see the light had come from the black pyramid. His face showed an angered yet fearful expression.
Suddenly, a light rustling came from the trees behind him, and he snapped in its direction with his weapon raised. After seeing it was just Wendy, he quickly lowered the raygun before she saw he was aiming at her.
She huffed. "Jeez, man, for an old dude, you sure move fast." She took a minute to catch her breath before noticing the expression on his face. "What's wrong?"
Stanford let out a long sigh before looking back up. The pyramid, the rifts, the statue... It could all only mean one thing. "He has returned."
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