Back To Gravity Falls: Beware the Beast (Multiverse Crossover)

A Call to Arms

Mabel was the first to wake up, still in her flannel pajamas, and padded downstairs as she poorly stifled a yawn. Wirt was already awake, watching the ticker going crazy across the newsreel. Mabel didn't even ask what was wrong, sitting beside him on the couch, Greg idly poking at a bowl of cereal in the kitchen as he pretended disinterest.

Wirt unplugged his headphones from the TV, so Mabel could hear the male announcer who was visibly fighting nausea as he tried to report.

Tad Strange, the newscaster, forced a smile as he put on his television voice, "--as I said before Jan, another victim found this morning by a jogger. The body was found in the woods nearby the Northwest estate, leading some in town to notice the odd connection of the large expanse of woods all being part of or nearby Northwest forest land. The body was dismembered, although the torso and pelvis are missing, a female head with a pair of arms and legs were found arranged in an unusual pattern. There has been a sketch made of the symbol, here."

The camera zoomed in on the page, a symbol outlined in marker that looked like a crudely drawn circle, with a circle in the center.

The caster pointed to the outer circle with his finger, "This outer circle is made up of two arms and two legs from a single individual formed in a circular shape, with the victim's head face-up in the center of it. It is too early to say, but this vicious murder calls into question if the other murders recently were not animal attacks, but of a serial killer. More on this story as we learn more. Back to you--"

Wirt clicked off the TV with this, his stomach wrenching, standing shakily, "I need to make a phone call."

Mabel watched him leave the room and debated whether she should wake her friends upstairs with the news or tell them over breakfast. Neither seemed like a fun idea. She figured it wasn't exactly meal-conversation, at the very least. As she thought about it, she wondered if she could mentally call out to Tezzy and he would come running. She assumed no, he wasn't a dog or likely a telepath, and (god or not) he was surely bound by at least some laws of nature. She went to the room next door and flopped into a dining chair next to Greg, tousling his hair.

"Heya, Greggers. Whatcha thinking about?" Mabel asked, watching his face with interest. She was desperate to put off the inevitable.

Greg seemed distant, mature, "I heard you on the phone yesterday--" he sighed to interrupt her, "the bathroom on this floor backs to my room."

"Shit," Mabel cursed, then was shocked by herself and apologized. "Sorry, uh, language. Uhm... How much did you hear?"

"All of it," Greg muttered. "After I heard you lock the door and start pacing I put my ear to the wall."

"Eavesdropping is very rude," Mabel scolded, tight-lipped. "Also gross, considering it's a bathroom."

"I've had this lecture before, clearly I don't listen. Besides, you keep your call volume way too high. Now, what's going on with this Gideon guy? He said he saw the murder." Greg muttered like a parent who caught a child in a lie, cheek in his hand as he looked at her with an annoyed expression that rivaled his half-brother's.

"He called the station in a panic, got a hold of Wendy, and convinced her to give him my number. He was conscious, with Xototl commanding his body to do his bidding as a vessel. He couldn't fight it but wanted to warn me of what was going on before Xolotl woke up again. I thought he was having a nightmare or something, or payback for the borderline kidnapping. I guess not." Mabel ran her hands through her hair, "The well just keeps getting deeper."

"And you didn't tell the others, did you?" Greg asked, already knowing the answer.

"I thought it was a joke," Mabel defended weakly.