Gravitational Phantoms: After the Storm

Chapter Twenty Two: Recovery (Part Three)

One of the reasons why these chapters are updating slower is because I am currently doing NaNoWriMo. My personal goal is 27,000 words, although I'm fairly confident that I'm going to smash that goal into splinters.

So if any of you are wondering about that, there's my excuse. Writing a novel, yo! It's gonna be great-it's a superhero murder mystery! And the main character (and "hero" of the story) is a villain!

A tad bit of gore in this chapter. Someone gets murdered pretty brutally.

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Two things that Ford did not expect when he climbed out of the basement to see what all the commotion was: a girl who looked like a tiny version of Danny perched on top of him (which couldn't be good for his injuries), and Mabel and Dipper plastered head to toe in mud and leaves.

That one, at least, was a little bit more normal.

The girl clambered off of the ghost boy and narrowed her crystal blue eyes at Ford suspiciously. "Who are you?"

"That's our Grunkle Ford," Mabel said proudly. "It's short for Great-Uncle. Granule Ford, this is Dani. She's Danny's clone-cousin."

Even though he knew that it was impolite, Ford couldn't help the small rush of excitement that he felt at the prospect of a clone. Yes, there was that enchanted copier in Stan's old office, but those clones melted on contact with water according to Dipper and Mabel. This was a clone that may have been unstable at one point in time, but certainly wasn't now.

Then he realized how over analytical and scientific he sounded and composed himself inwardly.

He held out a hand, silently hoping at the back of his mind that she either wouldn't notice or wouldn't care about his peculiar six fingers. "Nice to meet you, Dani."

One of Ford's first lessons (given to him by an overexcited Mabel) was not to say "greetings" anymore when he introduced himself to new people.

The girl didn't say anything and shook his hand, giving his fingers a small confused glance but nothing more. Ford assumed that she had seen weirder than someone who was polydactyl on both hands.

Danny set a hand on Dani's shoulder (it was going to be really fun trying to differentiate them, wasn't it? Even worse than Stanford and Stanley before they realized that they didn't have to call both of them "Stan") and mumbled something in her ear that made her relax slightly and stop thinking about how hard it would be to escape from here along with Danny.

Mabel bounced up, tossing mud everywhere as she waved her arms wildly. "Dani, do you wanna come into town with us? I know that you just got here and all, and you probably want to spend time with Danny, but you'll need new clothes and I need to go shopping anyway."

At the word "shopping," Wendy and Dipper paled and took a step backwards. Ford didn't, seeing as how he usually had nothing to worry about, and Dani didn't know what the horrible thing was about going shopping with Mabel. Danny didn't take a step back either-Mabel had him wrapped around her little finger, but she didn't usually abuse her power over him. Usually.

Dani looked her up and down warily. "Um, okay, I guess... Can Danny come with us?"

Mabel beamed, flashing newly-straightened pearly white teeth at the female half ghost. "Sure! The more the merrier!"

Dipper and Wendy took that convenient moment to escape behind Ford and into the house.

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Agent Z snarled angrily and fired one of his ectoguns at a filing cabinet. It scorched a hole right through, incinerating several rather important papers that he would have his underlings replace later as punishment.

Punishment for letting the Halfa escape.

"Well well well well well well well well," someone said, and Agent Z recognised Bill's voice from before. "It looks like you failed to bring me what I asked for."

"Leave," Agent Z spat. "I don't have time for you. I have to find our rogue experiment."

"I'm afraid that you won't be doing that, Agent Z," Cipher's echoing voice was a dangerous purr. "Because you failed me. And I don't tolerate failure."

Horrifying, agonizing pain swept through his body, and Agent Z's legs crumpled beneath him and carried him down to the floor. He gasped in pain. "What are you doing to me?!"

"Just because you failed doesn't mean that I can't have some fun before you succumb," Cipher said cheerfully. "Let's see how fast I can pull out your intestines!"

About a floor below him, the agent's secretary heard the piercing screaming that echoed down from upstairs. She immediately called for assistance, but by the time the team got there it had stopped.

The team of agents that had responded to the call found no whole body of their commander.

Just bloody pieces here, a stray eyeball there, a chunk of intestine stuck to the ceiling. Every surface was coated in thick red blood, and some of the agents marvelled at how much was in a human body.

At the center of the room, painted in entrails, were two words:

YOU FAILED.

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Dani walked alongside Mabel as she dragged the two Halfas to the mall. Danny had insisted on coming, and personally Dani didn't mind.

She didn't know what to think of the people that she had met.

Ford was... Okay. Wendy seemed nice enough, if a bit intimidating.

But it was the younger twins that really caught her attention.

There was something that just worked with them. They were a dynamic duo, an unbreakable pair. But from what the ghost girl had seen, they were still very different from each other.

Smart and outgoing, sweet and intelligent, bright and kind, nerdy and bubbly. They seemed to fit the stereotype of twins being opposites.

But what was most remarkable was that Danny trusted them.

The twins and Wendy had told her about what had happened. Nothing specific, just that it had been bad.

Very bad.

But he was so at ease with these people. He may be jumping at every out of place sound outside of that weird house, but he clearly wasn't looking for attack from Mabel.

In fact, she was easily able to calm him down with a few well-places words, a small nudge with her shoulder, or simply by distracting him.

She even managed to drag Dani into the (mostly one-sided) conversation, asking her opinion on everything from magic to colors to clothing styles.

Yes, Mabel Pines was an engima, alright.

But Dani liked her all the same.

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"So, she's in Oregon?" A voice mused. "Well, let's see how fast we can catch up. Skulker?"

"Yes?" A mechanical voice replied.

"I've found our prey."