Disremembered Tales

Chapter 4

"So what if one of your fancy alien guns stopped working – maybe the batteries just ran out," Stanley said, lounging back in his chair as if the battle they had just fought meant nothing to him. Without their advanced technology, the mermaids had nearly ripped their ship apart, yet Stanford could almost imagine his brother with an ice cream shake in one hand.

"This gun doesn't work on batteries," he tried to explain, "It gets energy from other dimensions! The only way this gun would stop working is if the rift between dimensions was severed."

"How is that a bad thing?" his brother asked, raising an eyebrow, "Last I checked, those rifts was how Bill and all those other monsters were able to terrorize us last summer. All I'm saying is that it might be a good thing that your ray gun thing doesn't work anymore."

Ford ran his hand down his face and groaned. Stanley always had trouble seeing the bigger picture. There was much more going on than what they saw. Someone – someone very powerful – must've done something.

Stanley turned on the radio and started flipping through the channels. Most of them had Stanley's favorite songs, but Ford didn't recognize any of them.

Breaking News: A city in California has been confirmed as the source of monste-

Stanley switched to the next station.

"Wait!" Ford called out, "go back to the news station." His brother grumbled about how boring he was being, but changed it back.

I still can't believe I'm saying it, but the recent monster attacks seem to be centered around a town called Echo Creek in California. There are even reports of a castle in the center of the town.

Ford looked at Stanley with his mouth agape. Stanley looked back at him with one eyebrow slightly raised.

In this time of crisis, the president has enacted martial law and the national guard has been mobilized. It is recommended that everyone stay inside their home. Do not go out and try and confront any nonhuman creatures. I repeat, do not confront anything that is not human.

The broadcast went on to describe some of the horrors that the country was facing and the Pine twins listened intently. There were reports of strange events all over the country. Massive spiders had laid webs across an entire city, rows upon rows of corn had suddenly appeared in Southern California, and an unusually high amount of pigeons.

"Do you have any idea what any of this means, pointdexter?" Stanley asked.

Ford took a minute to respond, rubbing his stubble. He was deep in thought, going over everything he had seen while he was hopping through dimensions. Then he thought about his battles with Bill, and everyone that helped them in the final battle...

"I don't know how," he started, "but those kids that helped us defeat Bill are involved. I've been to their dimension once before. It was full of corn fields and there were people there that seemed human, but there was also so much more. I saw more monsters walking through a forest there than I ever saw in Gravity Falls. The dimension was infested.

"This is bad, Stanley. Real bad. Somehow, it appears the two worlds have combined."

"So what you're saying is that the Mystery Shack could have some fierce competition?" Stanley rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

"What? How can you think about that tourist trap? Do you have any idea what's going to happen in the next week?" They had usually been on the same page since their fight with Bill, but now Ford wanted nothing more than to smack some sense into his younger brother, "Mass paranoia! Riots! Lives will be lost, Stanley! Innocent lives will be lost, and you're worried about some scam!"