Gravitational Phantoms: After the Storm

Chapter Sixteen: Ectofire (Part Four)

Danny came to when a small hand, one that was far too tiny and gentle to belong to any of the agents, shook his shoulder.

He cracked his eyes open into a squint and groaned in pain.

Long hair tickled his face.

"Danny? Are you okay? I mean, no, you aren't, but it's a standard question." The speaker was young and female.

Danny hissed when a bolt of agony went down through his body. "Whe..."

His mouth was too dry to form proper words, and the shadow of the person with him leaned back.

"I don't have any water. And I don't know where we are, either. I only woke up a few minutes ago."

Danny tried to sit up, but something was holding him to the ground. It burned.

"They've got you chained and me in handcuffs," the girl explained, pushing against the cuff around one of her wrists and securing her to the wall as if to demonstrate.

"Why?" Danny whispered. "Why didn't they leave you? You don't deserve this."

Mabel looked at him sadly. "And you do?"

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Dipper's feet pounded against the ground, his heart pounding. The thirteen year old was panting, trying desperately to outrun the six agents on his tail.

He heard a loud bang, and a bullet send bark spraying from one of the trees in front of him. Dipper dodged, feet slipping out from under him and sending the boy tumbling down into a ditch.

He lay there for a moment and tried to suck the air back into his winded lungs. An agent peered down at him and lifted his gun.

"Goodbye. We don't need any more leverage."

Mabel. He was talking about Mabel.

Dipper rolled to the side and started to run again, his chest and legs burning with exertion.

Please. Please let Mabel be okay.

There was a loud snarl, and that was the only warning that Dipper got before a bright red dragon crashed through the undergrowth ahead of him.

It pushed the young teen behind him and reared up back onto its haunches. "Go," it snarled. "Consider it a favor from Lady Wendy."

Dipper smiled gratefully as Rusty roared and spat orange flame at the Guys in White.

He kept running until he came to a familiar tree. Then he doubled over with his hands on his knees and panted for breath.

More footsteps sounded through the trees coming towards him, and Dipper whipped around. The agents couldn't have followed him-Rusty had made sure of that. Who else was here? Dipper crouched down and got ready to start sprinting again.

That is, until Wendy and Ford crashed in through opposite ends of the clearing.

They were both panting, and Wendy was lacking her usual flannel outershirt and there was a bloody gash in Ford's upper right arm, but other than that they were mostly unharmed.

Dipper sighed with relief before his eyes widened. "Where's Mabel?" He rounded on Ford. "You said that you were going after her!"

Ford winced. "I was. But they grabbed her and Danny and put them both in that weird van. I couldn't..."

Dipper stumbled back and felt his legs give out from under him and let his knees press into the wet leaves. Mabel... Mabel was gone. His sister was gone.