Gravitational Phantoms

Chapter Two

When the twins brought the teen back after literally stumbling over him in the woods, the strange glow and green-swirled blood had identified him as a ghost. But after a pure white ring formed around his waist and changed his appearance, they quickly changed that assessment to Halfa.
It hadn't taken them very long to recognize the gruesome scars that decorated the stranger's chest and stomach. Most of them seemed random, but the enormous 'Y' shaped mark was definitely deliberate.

Once he had been bandaged and stitched, the boy had been carried by Wendy up to the attic room, an impromptu meeting was held in the living/TV/everything room. None of them wanted to abandon the boy, but it was obvious that just by being a member of the Halfa species he was dangerous. But whatever had given him the wounds was arguably more so.

Stanley sighed. He had always had a soft spot for kids, especially abused ones. And this particular kid looked as if he had been through Hell and back. Stanley knew that creatures like Halfas were dangerous, but he doubted that the poor teenager could defeat a newborn kitten in the shape that he was in.

Soos was confused. He knew what had happened to the kid, or at the very least had a general idea, but he couldn't understand why anybody would do it. Hurting a living being like that? That was messed up, dude.

Wendy was scared. The little guy (okay, he wasn't much younger than she was) was so skinny, she didn't know if he would be strong enough to heal. It was really hard to think of the frail body in her arms as an actual human. Or maybe Wendy was just blocking out the fact that if this had happened to a teen her age than it might happen to her. Sure, this boy was some kind of supernatural ghostie-thing, but that was no excuse.

Dipper felt sick. That kid (they didn't even know his name for crying out loud!) had been dissected, like he was some kind of sick science project. He was Wendy's age! How could somebody let this happen, much less do that to anybody?! Dipper had never felt sorry for the dead animals that they used in science class, but now he swore that he would never touch a scalpel again.

Stanford was angry. He didn't care that Halfas weren't supposed to exist, he didn't care that they were supposed to be pure evil by definition. All that Stanford Pines cared about was that somebody had tortured an innocent child. He knew that those bloody lash marks on his back were from a whip, probably laced with ectoradium. He'd had some experiences with the ore in the past, not all of it good.

Mabel was sad. It wasn't and emotion that was often adopted by the brunette girl, but it certainly fit now. Her mind was just having trouble registering what had happened to the poor teen. It was terrifying. Mabel hoped that he would be okay, because she didn't think that her sweaters could handle this much emergency snuggling. Oh! She should make the boy a sweater! Maybe Dipper and Ford could do a magic thing and make it extra special.

To keep themselves distracted from the beaten teen upstairs, Stanford gave all of the people who were in the everything room a crash course on Halfas. Dipper wrote everything down for his own journals, which he had been encouraged to write because the old ones were slightly outdated.

Mabel started to stress knit, which she did sometimes when she was nervous. She was using black yarn for the base, which she rarely did out of her love for colors. She added neon green and white, making strange designs as her fingers flew. Sometimes her family wondered if she had selective super-speed that only worked on knitting projects. Dipper started to click the end of his pen, making the sound that Mabel despised. Her brother started to chew on the writing utensil, until it exploded in his mouth and he tossed it into corner.

Stan and Ford began to pace back and forth, weaving around each other. Soos nibbled on a piece of pizza. Dipper glanced at the ceiling, eyebrows creasing.

"It shouldn't take this long to get him set up in a bed," he mumbled.

"Maybe she got distracted," his sister suggested. "Or she saw a faerie!"

"Mabel, be serious for a second."

"I was! Remember, we were looking at faeries and then they all flew away and we couldn't figure out why?"

"Mabel, if they all flew away than they wouldn't be back so quickly especially if we had a Halfa-oh!"

"What?"

"Thats probably why they flew off in the first place! They could sense him!"

Mabel wrinkled her nose. "Is that a bad thing?"

"I don't think so. That guy couldn't fight of a tissue..." his voice trailed off at the reminder that there was a broken boy upstairs.

At that exact moment, Wendy walked through the doorway. There was a small smile on her face.

"He's awake," she announced. "He managed to tell me that his name was Danny."

"That's a nice name," Mabel said. "I gave him some water and said that I was going to get you guys. I told him that you two"-she nodded to Dipper and Mabel-"were the ones to find him." Wendy paused for a moment. "There's something off about him. He's so scared to say anything, and he looked like he was terrified that I was going to start hitting him at any time."

"Tortured." Stanford spoke up. "The marks on his back came from a whip. And there were older scars beneath it. My guess is that they attached ectoradium to it, because that would burn his skin as well as negate his naturally enhanced healing."

Everybody stared at him. Mabel and Dipper's eyes were as wide as dinner plates.

"That's messed up, dude." Soos stated, echoing how they all felt. 

Wendy coughed. "Well, I did say that you guys were going to come up there to meet him, so..."

Forming a single-file line up the stairs, they made their way to the bedroom where the twins slept. Pushing open the door, Wendy revealed the frail body in Mabel's bed.

He was sort of halfway sitting up, watching them with nervous bright blue eyes. Everybody stood awkwardly just inside the bedroom for a second, before Wendy cleared her throat.

"So, care for some introductions?"