Gravitational Phantoms: After the Storm

Chapter Twenty Four: Goddess of Destruction (Part One)

How about that episode? I totally didn't cry... Totally... I don't know what you're talking about.

After careful deliberation, as well as assistance and and advice from people on other sites, I have decided to make a pairing for this story.

It actually came down to a choice between Danny and Wendy vs Danny and Mabel, but I ultimately decided on Danny and Mabel. Wendy will still be very important (and so will Sam) but the actual pairing for the story will be Danny and Mabel.

Okay?

Okay.

This chapter takes place about a week after the last one.

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Mabel Pines was not patient. At all.

Dipper was fully aware of this, but it didn't make her complaining any easier to bear.

"Ugh," his sister groaned theatrically, flopping backwards onto her bed in the attic. "This is taking forever!"

Dipper rolled his eyes. "C'mon, Mabes. It's only been, like, ten minutes. Maybe twelve at the most. I think you'll survive."

"But what if something happens?" The girl pointed out. "I mean, mom and dad don't exactly know about all of the crazy magic stuff that happens here, just because someone didn't want to tell them."

He sighed. "Mabel, it'll be fine. I'm honestly more worried about what they're going to say when they meet Danny, Wendy, Dani-with-an-i, and Ford, to be honest."

Mabel smiled at the ceiling. "I wanna take pictures of their faces for blackmail purposes."

That was when the head popped up through the floor.

For most people, that would at the very least cause some panicked screaming and possibly a bit of wild flailing, but when you're kinda-sorta living with two half ghosts, you get pretty used to weird stuff happening.

"Do you guys know where Wendy is?" Dani asked, blowing some stray strands of white hair that had come loose from her ponytail out of her face. "She promised me that she'd introduce me to some dragons today."

"I think she's with Tambry and Robbie in the cemetery," Mabel replied. "But she might be trying to keep her dad from breaking their house. Again."

Dani sighed and floated the rest of the way through the floor, sitting cross-legged about a foot off of the wooden attic floor. "So I guess I have to wait for her to come back before I can leave?"

"Yeah, sorry about that," Dipper said apologetically. "The wards would still let you back in, though, so if you really wanted to you could leave. Although I don't think that the dragons would trust you if you came in smelling like death and without anybody to vouch for you."

Mabel elbowed him lightly as she sat up on her bed, pulling her purple fleece blanket up around and over her shoulders. "Well, do you want to meet my friends? They're pretty cool, and I've already told you about Candy and Grenda."

"Sure. Are Danny and Dipper coming?" The Halfa asked.

"I am-"

"Nope," Mabel cut across her brother. "They aren't. Just us gals."

Dipper made an indignant squawking sound. "Mabel-!"

"We'll be fine, Dipper," Mabel sighed, gently shoving her brother. "We'll just be going into town. You know that Candy and Grenda can protect us just fine, and we can take care of ourselves. Besides, Pacifica will be there. If people want to kidnap anybody, they'll kidnap her. And then we can fight them off, and we'll win, and everything will be fine."

Dipper's brown eyes flitted back and forth between Dani, who was trying her best to look indifferent (it wasn't really working), and Mabel, who was delivering an excellent pair of puppy dog eyes-the kind that he had never been able to resist.

The teenager groaned. "Fine. I can't stop you anyways."

His twin cheered and grabbed Dani's hand, startling the ghost girl. "Woohoo! Come on, Dani, let's go!"

She jumped off of the bed and took of, running down the hallway while dragging Dani along behind her. Dipper sighed and pulled out a book, leather with a pine tree symbol stamped into the front and the number '4' written in the middle.

He had some work to get done.

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Mabel rocked back and forth on her heels, glancing back and forth before she ran across the street with Dani behind her. Or in front of her. It was hard to tell because she was invisible.

Anyways, Dani was somewhere around her, actually hovering a couple of feet above Mabel's head. The teenage girl was still in her ghostly alter-ego, white hair once again pulled back into its usual ponytail. Her two-piece hazmat suit had been forgone, to be replaced by a black sweater with her symbol on it, curtosy of Mabel's knitting needles.

The reason for the outfit change was unknown to everybody except for Dani herself.

Mabel stopped in front of the tiny craft store that resided in between the bowling alley and the pet shop, waving in Dani's general direction. "I'll just be a second, okay? I need more yarn."

She pushed the door open, smiling happily at the familiar bell that dinged cheerfully as it swung inwards. "Hi, Mrs. Shelton!"

The woman who owned the store (and lived beside it) looked up from the desk at the thirteen year old. "Hello, Mabel. How much do you think you're getting today?"

For most customers, the business owner asked if she could help them to find anything. But after Mabel stopped by at least once a week all summer long, spending what little money that her stingy great-uncle paid her, she soon realized that the girl could find anything that she wanted and more within only five minutes. And since she always bought something, Mrs. Shelton changed her usual greeting.

"Just a little bit of yarn," Mabel called, heading straight to that section. "I almost ran out over the weekend!"

Mrs. Shelton found that hard to believe. Mabel was her most loyal customer other than that Tad Strange fellow, and he only ever bought grey yarn and hot glue. She didn't know if he ever did anything with it, but he was the most normal person in this town.

He probably just gave to old ladies like Meredith and her wife Sally.

He was very normal, after all.

As Mabel browsed through Mrs. Shelton's wide selection of products, the bell for the door rang again. The woman looked over with a pleasant smile on her face. "Hello, can I help you find anything today?"

The man standing just inside of her store shook his head. "No, thank you. I think that I'll be just fine on my own."

Mabel pulled out a large skein of hot pink yarn and tucked it underneath her arm. The man walked slowly over, standing in a place where he was just out of sight to the front desk. Mrs. Shelton was sure, however, that he would be able to find anything that he needed with Mabel's expert assistance.

She missed their conversation.

As Mabel tugged out a ball of royal blue yarn, noticed that the man who had walked into the store was standing beside her. He was probably a tourist, because she had never seen them around town before. Which meant that she should do her best to make them feel welcome.

"Hi there!" She greeted. "I'm Mabel. What's your name?"

The man didn't answer, instead appraising her with cold blue-grey eyes. Mabel blinked and bit her lip. "Uh, okay. If you don't want to talk, that's fine too."

The man reached out and set his hand on Mabel's shoulder, making the young teenager automatically rest her hand on the stomach of her sweater-or, more accurately, on the grappling hook concealed beneath it.

"My dear girl, I apologize," he said, smiling like a snake. "I was just... Lost in my thoughts for a moment. My name is Vlad Masters, and I'm looking for my son."