Starfall

Chapter 28 - Amity

Mabel watched from nearby as Dipper leaned back heavily into the couch cushions that morning. The car ride back to the Mystery Shack yesterday had been a taciturn affair she reflected. That is, other than the dozens of vehicles from local and state authorities that rushed by them, sirens and lights blazing. They had made a hasty exit just in time!

Mabel reflected on some of the conversation from last night on the way back to the mystery shack. "Should we be worried about them hunting us down later?" she had said to Grunkle Ford, eyes wide with apprehension.

Ford had laughed nervously, "No. I covered our tracks, so to speak, before we left." Mabel looked over at Dipper. This was usually the part where Dipper said something relevant and educated seeing as Mabel was not a tech wiz. She mostly likely had her concerns about how effective of a job Ford had done covering their tracks. So far Dipper had not contributed to the conversation, and Mabel was not accustomed to filling in for him when it came to asking questions about technology. But Dipper was for once not interested. As the road flew by softly Dipper had been more concerned with the upset Kendra in between Mabel and him. He was worried about her.

Mabel had been left with little choice. "What if Agent Trigger and Powers look at the satellites and see us or our car? How can we explain that?" Ford smiled, "I had accounted for that." Ford pulled a small device out of his pocket that looked like a small TV remote with a retractable antenna. "Mcgucket and I have been working on a device that amplifies the visibility of weirdness. We had originally created it trying to detect weirdness, but instead, it ended up amplifying the energy. At first, we were worried it would be a disaster causing more extra-dimensional portals letting who knows what horrors into our dimmension. It turns out it just amplifies the range we can detect them from, but it has a weird side effect in that it gives off a massive amount of EMF radiation and distorts normal EMF transmissions such as radio, satellites, and radar."

Mabel frowned, "What's EMF?" Ford paused his tirade. "Yes pardon me, Mabel, EMF is short for Electromagnetic Frequency, the spectrum in which signals are transmitted and received. Now if you push enough of it this can have strange effects on electronic devices. Fortunately in this case not enough like an EMP weapon to fry our devices, but just enough to create a massive zone where all electronic transmission is halted. Sort of an EMF blackout zone. Does that make sense?"

Mabel nodded, "I think I understand." Ford nodded and continued, "Mcgucket and I figured out how to focus that weirdness interference and redirect it. In this case on satellites so that when we are tracking anomalies the proverbial governmental 'eye in the sky' can't track us."

Dipper at that point perked up as he sat up straighter, "But can't they just track your point of origin and determine you were the last person in a location?" Ford laughed, "Yes, but that's why I enabled the device before I left the house. The satellites we targeted stay disabled, and since it's a weirdness-related transmission the government, or anyone else for that matter is clueless as to how to track it."

Mabel watched as Dipper frowned, "But how do you know the weirdness event will be constant? What if it drops off suddenly leaving you visible to the eye in the sky?" Ford smiled, "You caught on quick. Mcgucket and I solved that little problem as well. We used the constant background weirdness emitted by Gravity Falls itself. While it is focused in sporadic locations the broad spectrum emission is constant. That constant weirdness can be tuned and redirected as we discovered." Dipper smiled and so did Mabel. Even she was impressed. Ford and McGucket were brilliant!

The rest of the car ride had been mostly silent as Dipper and Kendra shuffled awkwardly avoiding each other's gaze. And of course, the rest of the conversation when they had reached the driveway was history. Kendra had dumped Dipper and Mabel had watched as her brother's heart had been broken. Poor Dipper she thought sadly.