Starfall

Chapter 12 - Vengeance

Mabel watched as Dipper reassembled the engine for the big antenna thing. He was in his prime as he explained how he and Ford had upgraded the antenna with some kind of rock that had come in the mail as a favor from one of Ford's friends from college. He had created a new element. Apparently, that was a big deal according to Dipper.

Mabel smirked. What was a big deal was the way Pacifica couldn't keep her eyes off Dipper today. Mabel's grin stretched even further as she recalled having chosen an outfit for him to wear this morning. She had presented it under the guise and pretense of looking sharp and together for working with Ford on the antenna today. Dipper had been so excited about the project he took the bait hook line and sinker. Her real reason had been slightly more self-serving.

Mabel had been paying keen attention to Dipper and Pacifica since they had been in each other's orbit once again. Sometimes her brother just needed a little nudge in the right direction when it came to girls...Ok, maybe more than just a nudge. He practically lived in the lab or out on the field in exploration with Ford. Some days he even expressed eating and sleeping to be, "A minor inconvenience."

Bottom line, Dipper needed a shove in the right direction. And what kind of a sister would she be if she didn't want Dipper to be happy? And on a complimentary note, Pacifica was miserable thanks to her manipulative and miserly father Preston. She had tried so hard to break free of her family's oppressive and smothering agenda. She had paid a heavy price to forge her own identity. But even so, she was so often alone and isolated.

Ever since Dipper had saved Pacifica from the Corduroy ghost Mabel had observed Pacifica's life had begun to change. And that change was drastic. After all, Pacifica had helped save Gravity Falls! Slowly but surely she had opened up to Dipper and Mabel. At first, Pacifica had just been annoyed with her half of the time, but as time rolled on she had grown close to Mabel and began to stay for sleepovers with her and Candy and Grenda. She had been very reserved and demure at first. She had confided in Mabel that she had felt ashamed for all the things she had said and done to her and Grenda and Candy.

But the girls had followed Mabel's lead and eventually forgave Pacifica and let her into their activities, and more so into their hearts. Mabel smiled. All that noted she had begun to worry less about her own romantic notions and took far more interest in Dipper and Pacifica's. She was only too sure her brother, dim as he was when it came to romance, had caught on to some of her less-than-subtle nudges over the years. She knew he had his reasons, but she was tired of seeing him unhappy whether he would admit it or not.

Ford moved over to the computer bank and started typing in commands. "All right the manual hardware calibration and reassembly are complete. Now we will run the software calibration." Ford clicked a few keys and waited as the tests completed. He then smiled. "Everything is complete and running optimally. All system specs are still within operational parameters. Who says we fire this thing up and try it out?"

Mabel shouted, "Push the button! Push the button!" Pacifica laughed and joined in, "Push the button! Push the button!" Even grunkle Stan was sporting a grin. Ford pushed a few buttons and executed some rapid clicks. Dipper moved closer to watch the screen.

Ford's glasses glared as they reflected the light in two small mirror reflections of the monochrome green screen while he observed the raw output data. "I'm picking up all the weirdness and referencing it against the database of events we have already logged and accounted for. This is a time-lapse overlay of the last year. All events logged during that time will show up on the overlay."