Denying Fate (GF)

Chapter Four

"At first things were normal. Or as normal as Gravity Falls could be." Wendy said, putting a hand behind her neck. "Honestly, the whole 'Never Mind All That' Act worked surprisingly well. I guess that's just how people deal with things they don't want to think about."

The little group was sitting a fair distance away from the Gremloblin in it's cage. Behind them the old portal still stood, broken. Soos had gone back upstairs to take care of the tourists, so it was now just Wendy, the twins, Sage, and Quinn.

"The Mystery Shack was doing well under Soos, and I don't know, it was peaceful?" The twenty year old seemed to be struggling for the right words. "But it wasn't really the town we all knew. It was too normal, too quiet."

"So what changed?" Sage asked unexpectantly, leaning forward in her seat. Her cheeks flushed when she realized that she had spoken out loud. "I mean, how could you tell things were off in the first place?"

Wendy gave her a grin, "Well that's easy. Before Weirdmageddon everyone knew that our little town wasn't as boring as it seemed to be even if we didn't talk about it. After the twins left though, it was almost as if everyone stopped seeing what was right in front of them."

"Then suddenly more paranormal creatures started to appear. I mean, seriously dudes, it was one centimeter away from being a legitimate problem. I was almost ready to call up the Mystery Twins and get their butts back over here." Wendy chuckled, but looked dead serious. "People got scared and well I... took it into my own hands."

"Wendy, what does that mean?" Dipper asked concerned, fidgeting with his jacket's sleeve. An immense pool of guilt had seemed to swallow him up. They hadn't, no he hadn't been there when Gravity Falls needed him.

The young adult gave a cocky smile and wrapped one of her many injuries with bandages, "Well to put it lightly, I did not join my father's lumberjack business. I kind of decided to start a monster-hunting business. When people had a problem, they'd come to me and I'd take care of it for a fair price in return." Wendy seemed to explain it all as if it was the most normal confession in the world, "For a while I did two jobs, but once Gideon started working at the Mystery Shack I decided to focus on what I actually liked doing."

"Pacifica started to help out when she found the burnt remains of the journals-" Before Wendy could finish, the twins interrupted her with their own shocked reactions.

"The journals?" Dipper asked, and an immediate rush of both disbelief and excitement flooded throughout him. If the journals were still around, perhaps there was a solution he hadn't thought of that hid between the pages. A different way to keep Mabel safe.

"Pacifica?" The other twin asked, her eyes lighting up. Who would've guessed that her old 'rival' of sorts now helped Wendy fight off evil creatures? Mabel smiled, taking Quinn's hand in her own.

"Anyways, that's about it. The journals were mostly unreadable, but some of it could still be deciphered. Pacifica keeps notes on all the new monsters we come across and Old Man McGucket used to supply me with weapons. He also helped fill in any parts of our notes we missed." Wendy clapped her hands together, yawning. "The Gremloblin was one hell of a monster to catch. I can't believe Dipper caught this big guy when he was twelve."

"You never mentioned that!" Quinn said, looking at Dipper in slight awe. "I know you said that these could make you see your worst nightmare, but you never mentioned catching one. That's crazy cool, man!" They grinned, and held out their fist.

Dipper reluctantly accepted the fist bump, but then put his hand behind his neck. "Well, yeah, about that. I kinda also accidently sent two innocent people to the hospital after they stared into his eyes."