Summary:
The people of Gravity Falls are left with no choice to evacuate when an old threat returns to Earth.
The hand came down far too fast for anyone to hope to stop it.
Steven's hand, that is, as he slammed it down on the counter of Gravity Fries. "Give me the-" He stopped short when Peedee slid his order over to him before he could even say it: a piping hot bag of fry bits. "Oh! Thanks!"
"Eh, I saw you guys coming," Peedee shrugged, grinning.
"Are you closing up all by yourself?" Greg asked as Steven began digging into his bits.
"Yeah, it's just me tonight."
"Wow, that's a lot of responsibility for a kid your age," Greg noted, smiling. "Your dad must really trust you."
"...Don't patronize me, sir," Peedee deadpanned, turning to close up for the night.
"See you, Peedee!" Steven called as he and Greg headed off down the street. He kept on enjoying his bits as he continued telling his father the chaotic events of the past few days.
"So, like I was saying, Peridot's been shooting these weird robots here from space, and we've stopped them a few times already. But even crazier than that: Lapis is back! She flew here a few days ago, and Dipper found her hiding in the cave behind the waterfall." His smile fell as his story turned a touch more serious. "She told us that Peridot's on her way here to Earth, that she'll probably be here any day now. The Gems say they'll be able to fight her off, but… I don't know…"
Greg frowned as he noticed the deeply worried look on his son's face as he finished his recap off. "Lapis seemed really scared when she was telling us about it," Steven sighed as he looked down. "And to be honest, it is pretty scary to think about…"
"...Yeah, it is," Greg apprehensively agreed. "You know, I'm not so sure if… Do… do you ever feel like all this Gem stuff is too much for you?"
Steven glanced up at his dad, confused. "Too much? What do you-"
His question was left unfinished. A deafening explosion suddenly roared through the later afternoon skies. It burst through the warm summer air, loud and powerful enough to shatter almost every window in town in its wake. Anyone who was out and about heard it, and struggled to stay standing as it rocked the very earth beneath their feet. But this was no mere earthquake, something that became clear as the startling sound faded into an uneasy silence.
"W-what the hey was that?!" Greg glanced around, alarmed. His sights soon settled on his son, his eyes wide as he stared, not at the broken glass on the street around them, but up at the sky. "Steven?"
Steven squinted, trying to make it out. But the longer he stared at it, the more the strange green object hovering high above the town became concerningly clear. "Is that… a hand?"
"And this is from the time we fought a bunch of light monsters–Oh! And that's the time we fought that shapeshifter–basically, we fight a bunch of stuff like, all the time, and that's from-"
"Mabel, do we really have to do all this?" Dipper finally cut his sister's 'storytime' off. She'd been at it for a while now, showing her scrapbook to Lapis to fill her in on everything she'd missed since she'd been gone. A redundant effort that had quickly started to wear thin on Dipper's nerves as he sat on the couch next to her. "Lapis already knows about all of this–I showed her the journal the other day and it has all of the same stuff in it. I'm sure she doesn't feel like listening to it all over again."
"It's ok, Dipper, really," Lapis offered both of the twins a small smile. "I don't mind. And besides, Mabel's take on everything is pretty… unique."
Mabel flashed her brother a smug smirk. "At least somebody appreciates my super fun storytelling. Now," she turned her attention back to the scrapbook. "Where were we…?"
"Um, actually, before we get back to… that," Dipper cut in again as he looked to Lapis. "Can I ask you something?"
She nodded, unsure of why he was suddenly so serious. At least she heard the question he had for her, one she'd been trying her best to avoid answering. "I was just wondering… after all this stuff with Peridot is over with… what are you planning on doing next?"
Lapis let out a long, solemn sigh as she looked away. "Dipper, I already told you what I plan on doing…"
"So… you're still planning on leaving?" Dipper asked, dismayed. "Even after everything that's happened? But… I thought… haven't you-"
"Wait, Lapis, you're not gonna say here?" Mabel chimed in, every bit as upset as her brother was. "But you only just got back! Why would you want to leave so soon?"
"It's… complicated," Lapis sighed again. Of course, she only felt worse when she caught the disappointed look Dipper was still sending her way. "Dipper, look, I-"
"Kids!" Stan's voice suddenly cut through the conversation. He stormed into the den, catching the twins and Lapis alike off guard. "I thought I told you to clean the gift shop; it's still just as much of a wreck as it was the other day when that daycare came here for a field trip! What have you two been doing all day?" He stopped short for a beat when he noticed who was sitting in between the twins. "And who's frills over there?"
"Oh! Grunkle Stan, this is Lapis!" Mabel perked up as she introduced her. "You remember, the Gem we found in that old mirror? Stole the waterfall to try and get back to space?"
Stan raised a critical eyebrow at Lapis. "Oh yeah, the crazy broad who tried to drown all of us? How could I forget…"
"Yeah…" Lapis rubbed the back of her neck. "I've already said I'm sorry about that, so…"
"Um, well, the good news is, Lapis totally doesn't want to drown us anymore," Dipper awkwardly cut in. "Right?"
"Oh, no, of course not."
"So, yeah! That means it's cool if Lapis keeps on hanging out here with us, doesn't it, Grunkle Stan?" Mabel put on the most convincing pout she could muster, eye batting and all. Stan hardly showed any signs of caving other than the annoyed sigh he let out as he pinched the bridge of his nose.
"Ugh, whatever, just don't soak the carpet while you're here, or I'm sending you the bill to get it cleaned," he said, shooting Lapis a warning scowl.
"Um… ok?"
"And as for you two," Stan glanced back at the twins as he headed for the kitchen. "Would it kill you to go one day without bringing some weird Gem home with ya? Sheesh."
"Just for the record," Mabel called after him. "Dipper was the one who brought her home, so if you're gonna punish anyone for it, punish him!"
"Mabel…" Dipper groaned over the small laugh Lapis let out. The levity of the moment didn't last long, however, as a sudden boom rattled the entire shack from somewhere outside. The twins jolted, alarmed, as Lapis shot up from her seat, her eyes wide with sudden terror.
"N-no… not now…" she whispered, shaken. "It's way too soon."
"Lapis, what's-" Dipper didn't even get a chance to finish asking before Lapis took both him and Mabel by the arm. In an instant, her wings were out, and she used to them to dart out of the shack and into the yard. Just as quickly as her flight started, it came to an end as she froze, her eyes locked onto the sky as the twins fell to the ground, disoriented, on either side of her.
"Whoa! What a rush!" Mabel laughed, shaking her head to clear it. "Can we do that again?"
Lapis offered no answer, and Dipper soon figured out why. He followed her gaze upward to find exactly what she was staring at. And what a strange sight it was.
It was a hand–there was no other way to describe it. A lone hand, drifting high above them all, standing out in a stark, vibrant shade of green against the warm colors of approaching sunset. Most of its fingers were curled into a tight fist, but one pointed downward, straight toward Gravity Falls. Toward where it was almost certainly heading to.
"Whoa! Look at that giant hand!" Mabel exclaimed, amazed. "It's so weird and disembodied and green ! I wonder where it came from?"
"I-it's from Homeworld," Lapis finally spoke up, her voice tight and tense. "That's her ship... Peridot... s-she... she's here..."
"Wait, that's Peridot's ship?" Dipper asked as he took another incredulous look up at it. "Huh. I thought it would have been a bit more... I don't know, intimidating?"
"Guys!" Steven caught everyone's attention as he hurried down the hill to meet them. "Have you seen the-"
"The freaky hand in the sky?" Mabel finished. "Sure have. It's pretty hard to miss."
"It's Peridot!" Lapis insisted again. "I knew she was coming but I didn't know it would be this soon! We didn't even have time to prepare or plan or anything ! This is all my fault; I wasted too much time not saying anything and now look at where we are!"
"Well, to be fair," Dipper said, frowning. "It's kind of my fault too since I was the one you were wasting all that time with…"
"So," Mabel cut in. "What are we gonna do about…?" She trailed off, nodding up to the problem hanging, literally, over all of their heads.
"The Gems!" Steven exclaimed, already urging everyone to follow him up to the temple. "They'll know what to do. Come on!"
"Sooo… we don't know what to do about this thing, do we?" Amethyst asked, since no one else was going to. Pearl quickly turned her attention away from her telescope to scold her for daring to say something like that out loud.
"Amethyst!" she snapped, before dropping her voice down low. "Could you try not to be so blunt about it? What if Steven heard you?"
"Pearl is right," Garnet joined the pair on the porch. "We need to stay positive, especially in front of–"
"You guys!" Steven started his way up the porch steps. Dipper and Mabel weren't far behind him, but Lapis lingered back a bit, distrustfully eyeing the Gems all the while. "Have you-"
"Ugh, yeah , Steven," Amethyst groaned, draping herself against the porch railing. "We've seen the giant hand in the sky."
"It's a ship," Garnet confirmed. "We have to assume it's Peridot."
" Assume ?!" Lapis scoffed. "Are you kidding me? Of course, it's Peridot! I've seen that ship before! I was almost forced onto it before I escaped! And now it's almost here, with all of its advanced weapons and whatever reinforcements they decided to give her! And let me guess: you three have no idea what to do about this, do you?!"
The Gems exchanged a glance, none of them too eager to answer that, to lie right to the kids' faces. Still, they found they had no choice but to when all three of them looked to them expectantly, hopefully. "W-we have a plan," Pearl countered, flustered.
"Really? That's great!" Mabel said, relieved. "What is it?"
"We're gonna shoot it a bunch of times with the Light Cannons and see what happens," Amethyst explained, shrugging.
"Seriously?!" Lapis asked. "That's your brilliant 'plan'? It's never going to work."
"Well," Pearl began, glaring at her. "If you can think you can come up with something better, then by all means! Use your water wings and your water towers and your water… water and save the day!"
"I already did save you all just by coming here to warn you about this!" Lapis argued back. "The only reason I'm still here at all is because of them!" She threw her arm over at the kids, who could only stand by and watch this all unfold. "And if you're not going to take protecting them from this seriously, then I guess I'll just have to-"
"Whoa, hold on!" Dipper finally cut in before things could get any wors. "Look, I know you guys don't have like, any reason to get along with each other-"
"They kept me trapped in a mirror for thousands of years," Lapis coldly pointed out.
"Well, she tried to destroy us with her dumb old water clones," Amethyst huffed, crossing her arms.
"…Ok, both of you have… valid points," Dipper continued before muttering under his breath, "Though Lapis' point is a little more valid, b-but still. Don't you think we should be spending our time trying to get rid of that giant hand in the sky instead of arguing?"
"Dipper's right!" Steven jumped in. "We should be working together, not fighting! We all have things that we want to protect, things that might be in trouble if we don't do something soon. I-I know you guys are scared, and… we're scared too. But we've been scared before, right? None of us know what's going to happen, but… that's ok. We can figure this out. Together."
Silence filled the air for a moment as they all took what Steven had just said in. Despite their differences, drastic as they may be, they all knew he was right. They had to do what they could, while there was still time to do it. Which was why Garnet was the first to get them all back on track. "You heard him. Ready the Light Canons."
The Gems made short work of setting up all of the Canons they had on hand. The pair they'd found earlier in the summer was bolstered by the Quartzine Trio from Rose's armory to create a collection of five in total. Certainly, that had to be enough to do something ; it was the least the Gems could hope for as they pointed them up at approaching ship.
Still, they had a feeling they were already hoping for far too much.
"Steven," Garnet gave the order as soon as everyone was clear of the Canons. "Light them up."
Steven nodded, switching his walkie talkie on to reach the distant weapons. "If every pork chop were perfect, we wouldn't have hot dogs."
Just like before, this simple phrase brought all five Canons to life. They unfurled, brimming with power as they fired in perfect unison. It was a beautiful display; five beams dancing alongside each other until they came together to form a massive stream of deadly light. And yet… even that wasn't enough to stop what was coming. The hand ship suddenly shifted as it approached, holding an open palm out to stop the light and disperse it with ease. As it faded, it was clear to see–the ship was undamaged, still set on its steady path downward without any signs of stopping in sight.
"No effect…" Garnet reported as she lowered the telescope.
"Told you," Lapis muttered, scowling.
"So… what now?" Mabel asked the Gems.
They didn't have much of an answer to such a question aside from the most frightening one. They'd desperately hoped it wouldn't come to this, but now, it was clear they had no choice. They had to do this, for the town–the very planet they called home. A planet they would do all they could to protect, even now, against such impossible odds.
"We'll have to face them head on," Garnet said, resolved. "The whole town might be in danger."
"Wouldn't be the first time," Dipper pointed out. The events of this summer so far were more than proof enough of that. Even if none of that could really compare to what Gravity Falls was facing now.
"If all those people are in trouble, then we should do something to make sure they'll stay safe!" Steven insisted, worried.
"Looks like they're already ahead of us on that for a change," Amethyst nodded over in the town's direction. Even from the temple, they could all hear the telltale wail of Mayor Dewey's campaign van as it blared a simple, urgent message through the streets:
"Eva-cuate! Eva-cuate!"
It was more than enough to catch the attention of anyone who heard it, including the sizable crowd that had already gathered in the town square to speculate on the ominous hand in the sky. Dewey parked his van close by, climbing on top of it to address his concerned constituents with an impromptu speech.
"People of Gravity Falls!" he nervously began, clutching his megaphone like a vice. "I need everyone to consider evacuation! Evacuation is something we all depend on in times of-"
"E-evacuate?" Thompson spoke up, alarmed.
"You mean you want us to leave?!" Mr. Smiley asked in disbelief.
"Er-uh... Yes," Dewey nodded. "That is, by definition, what evacuation means, after all."
"Why do we have to leave?! What's that giant hand even gonna do?" Kiki asked, crossing her arms.
"It's the snake people! The Sneople!" Ronaldo cried as he snapped photo after photo of the ship on his phone. "They're finally coming to turn our planet into a ticking time bomb of doom with the help of a magical talking parallelogram!"
"What'll happen once we're gone!? When will we be able to come back?!" Toby Determined dramatically wailed. "All these questions and more probably won't be answered in the next edition of the Gravity Falls Gossiper !"
"Hey! Hey, uh, attention! Attention, everyone! Eyes back on me!" Dewey called as the crowd only continued to grow more and more frantic. "I-I understand that you all might be a little... er—anxious, in this... uncertain situation-"
"WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!" someone screamed over Dewey's flagging speech.
"A-and I understand your concern! After all, as a politician, pointing fingers makes me very nervous myself, but rest assured that I have everything under-"
"I'm not running away from any weird, giant, green hands in the sky!" Grenda roared as Candy cheered in support alongside her. "I'm gonna punch it!"
"I'm not running either! I say, we pelt that thing with packages until it goes back to wherever it came from!" Barb fiercely proclaimed.
"Or we could build a robut of another giant hand, take it up there, and give it a friendly ol' handshake!" McGucket suggested, though his eager smile soon faded when he realized nobody was on board with him. "Anybody? No? Aw, hornswaggle!"
"N-now, now!" Dewey desperately tried to reason. "Let's all calm down here! Remember, things could always be worse! F-for instance, we could be in Velocity Springs!"
"Too soon!" Fryman cried, appalled.
"Please!" Dewey tried one final time. "Consider the state of-"
"Tip the truck!" Nanefua shouted. As manic as the crowd already was, it wasn't long before several people surged toward to do exactly that.
By the time the Gems, Steven, and the twins made their way into town, things were far past the point of chaos. Dewey's van had already been shoved onto its side, leaving the mayor to cower in fear inside while angry townsfolk clamored around it. Plenty more were fashioning makeshift weapons out of whatever they could find to fend off the hand in the sky themselves, while others had gone as far as taking advantage of the situation by looting and pickpocketing. It was nothing short of an all-out riot, an alarming sight to see from a town as usually close-knit as Gravity Falls.
"Yeesh, this is a mess," Mabel noted as she watched an empty car somehow catch fire.
"You know, for how often Gravity Falls is almost destroyed, it's surprising this is the first real riot we've seen break out over it," Dipper agreed as someone threw a cinder block into a nearby storefront window.
"Everyone looks so scared…" Steven said with a sympathetic frown. Because even despite the anger filling the air, there was plenty of fear to be found there too. Fear that couldn't be so easily quelled.
The Gems had seen more than enough. They took to the top of Dewey's overturned van, though most of the townsfolk barely noticed them. Their frenzy only came to an end as Garnet summoned her gauntlets and loudly slammed them together, swiftly silencing everyone. "You all need to leave Gravity Falls as soon as possible!" she ordered far more sternly than Dewey had. "No more questions and no more rioting."
"B-but what about that scary hand in the sky?!" Lazy Susan fearfully questioned.
"We'll take care of that!" Pearl countered. "You can rest assured that Gravity Falls will be safe and secure under our watch while you're all away."
"If it's going to be so 'safe', then why do we need to leave in the first place?!" Kofi shouted as several others echoed in agreement with him.
"Well, you have to leave because… um… b-because…" Pearl trailed off, unsure of how to explain it all. Much less to a crowd of already emotionally unstable humans who certainly wouldn't understand the sort of threat Homeworld posed to them. Fortunately for all three of the Gems, that's where Steven came in.
"Everyone, please!" Steven joined them on top of the van. "I know none of you want to leave your homes. But I also know that you're all going to be ok because I know each and every one of you! You're smart, tough, brave, and resourceful. And you all care more about each other than you do a giant green hand that came from outer space! I know it hurts to leave the place you care about, and I know it hurts to have to face the unknown. But are we really going to hurt each other?"
The crowd had already started to settle, deciding to hear Steven out as he made such an earnest appeal. One that rang just a bit louder than all of the fear and panic stirring among them. "Of course not! We'll face this evacuation and we'll survive until it's all over and we're all safely back here again! So, what do you say? Are we all in this together or not?"
A murmur of agreement was already rippling through the townsfolk, only bolstered by the supportive cheer Dipper and Mabel started to help Steven's cause. Several more people soon joined in, turning outrage to understanding in almost no time at all. All thanks to Steven.
"Hmph, way to steal my mayoral thunder, kid…" Dewey muttered as he clumsily emerged from his van. "Er–what the Universe kid said!" he called through his megaphone nonetheless. "Now, everyone! Let's…" He tapped a button in his van to switch his intercom back on, rallying the town with the first of many more:
"Eva-cuate! Eva-cuate!"
"Eva-cuate! Eva-cuate!"
The call from Mayor Dewey's van echoed even as far out as the Corduroy's cabin in the woods. Wendy gripped her ax even tighter when she heard it, her sights fixed squarely on the hand in the sky. She had a feeling it was related to the Gems, as so many odd happenings in Gravity Falls were, and if the ongoing evacuation had anything to do with it, then chances were, it wasn't friendly.
Still, even if everyone else was heading out to save their own skins, that didn't mean she had to. She had every intention of staying, of helping out however she could–
If only she didn't have her father and brothers to contend with.
The only noise that could rival Dewey's evacuation alarm was the chaos going on inside of the house behind her. Her brothers were a rowdy bunch on their best days, but now, they were a mix of terrified tantrums and angry outbursts that even Manly Dan couldn't calm. Which was why he was quick to turn to the one person he could always count on to do just that.
"Wendy!" Manly Dan burst out of the house as his sons continued carrying on behind him. "Get in here and help me round up your brothers! We gotta hightail it outta here before that hand pokes us all into a bunch of flannel-wearing pulps!"
"I'm not going," Wendy sternly said. She didn't even bother turning around to tell him that; not when she knew how he was bound to react.
Sure enough, she heard her father draw in a sharp, angry breath before asking, "What did you just say?"
"I said, I'm not going, Dad. I'm gonna stay here and help fight that… that thing off before it can totally wreck Gravity Falls."
"No, you're not!" Dan practically roared. "You're gonna get in the truck with me n' your brothers, and we're all gonna hit the road with everyone else."
"You guys can go ahead and do that then," Wendy finally glanced back. Past her red-faced father, she could see her brothers curiously congregating in the door frame to watch another infamous argument break out. This time, it was an argument she was determined to win. "But I'm not going anywhere."
Manly Dan growled in frustration as his burly fists tightened at his sides. "Why do you always gotta be so damn stubborn , girl?! Don't you know how serious this kind of thing is?!"
"Yeah, I do," Wendy turned to fully face her father. "And if you were really as 'manly' as everybody says you are, then you'd be on the same page as me about staying and fighting instead of running away like you always do when things are too much for you to handle. Just like you did when Mom died."
That was enough to freeze Dan stiff. Wendy could tell she'd struck a nerve and she'd meant to. If there was one thing her father could never argue with her about, it was that. What she wasn't expecting, however, was for Dan to take a different approach entirely.
Somehow, he settled his raging temper enough to let out a steadying sigh as he stepped forward, resting a hand on her shoulder. "Wendy, listen," he began, his gruff voice filled with genuine worry and regret. "I may have taught you to be a fighter, but even I know there are some fights you just can't win. And this is one of them fights. Now, I'm not about to lose you like I lost-" He cut himself off, wiping at his face to ward off tears that were dangerously close to coming. It caught Wendy off guard enough to convince her to hear him out, if nothing else.
"You know you're the only thing still keepin' this ragtag group of lumberjacks and lumberjuniors together," Dan nodded back at the house and his sons. "We depend on you, just like we did your… your mom. So, you gotta come along with us and book it outta here until this whole 'evacuation' thing is done. After all, without you, we'd be like a tree without roots: ready to topple over without even takin' a swing."
"You know I never get your weird lumberjack analogies, Dad," Wendy shook her head, though she still managed a smile all the same. "But… I think I get this one…"
She stole another look at her brothers, all looking at her with the same pleading gaze her father was. It took only seconds under that gaze for her resolve to quickly crumble, for her mind to swiftly change. What kind of big sister would she be to let any of them down? Who would she be to abandon her family, right when they needed her most?
"Ok…" She sighed as she slipped her ax back into her belt. Her smile widened a bit as her father patted her shoulder, as her brothers spilled out of the house to bury her in a happy hug. "You guys win. I'll go.".
"Eva-cuate! Eva-cuate!"
"An evacuation, huh?" Vidalia pulled her paintbrush from her canvas when she heard the alarm sound. "We've had pretty much everything else in this town, but I don't think we've ever had one of those... Aw, well." She shrugged as she stood, brushing her apron off as she headed out of her garage studio and back into the house. "Boys, get down here! We gotta go!"
Vidalia stood by the stairs, arms crossed as she waited for either of her sons. Sour Cream was the first to wander down, headphones on and thumping as he nodded along to the beat. "Sour Cream," Vidalia began, but he didn't hear her. "Sour Cream," she tried again, following him into the kitchen."Sour Cream!" Vidalia finally managed to get his attention by lifting one side of his earphones up.
"Oh, hey, Mom," Sour Cream greeted as he pulled a soda out of the fridge. "What's up?"
"You hear that?" Vidalia paused for the sake of the evacuation alarm. "It means it's time for us to go."
"Wait, you mean the whole 'evacuation' thing?" Sour Cream asked, barely concerned. "Yeah, Tambry already texted me about it. But I didn't think we had to, you know, actually go."
"Uh, that's sorta the whole point of an evacuation, SC. To get people to leave ."
"But I was gonna rave to the weird hand in the sky later! That thing's totally sick. It's already inspired me to mix out a ton of new beats and-"
"Well, you can mix them all out in the car on the way to the hotel."
"It won't be the same…" Sour Cream said, sighing. "Hey, what about Yellowtail? Isn't he supposed to get back from that fishing trip tomorrow? What's he gonna think of us just running off like this?"
"I'll be sure to call him once we're settled in for the night," Vidalia assured. "And Sour Cream, would it kill you to call him 'Dad' for once?"
"Meh," Sour Cream shrugged as he headed upstairs.
Vidalia called up to him one last time, even as he put his headphones back on. "Hey, while you're up there, tell Onion to-"
She stopped short when she felt her smock rustle. She grinned as she pulled it up to find her younger son hiding underneath it. "Boo! Found ya!" Vidalia chuckled, though Onion didn't join in. Instead, he stayed as silent as ever, even as his mom rustled his hair. "You ready to deal with a weird alien hand in the sky, my little troublemaker?"
A small scowl crossed Onion's face as he pulled a baseball bat out of nowhere, tapping it against his free hand. "No, not like that," Vidalia laughed again as she took the weapon away from him. He simply let out a soft sigh as she hoisted him into her arms so they could prepare for their unexpected trip out of town. "We're gonna take a… bit of a less hands-on approach. Still, if we need to take on a burglar or a little league team, we'll keep that plan in mind."
"Eva-cuate! Eva-cuate!"
Pacifica stood at the library's largest window, her eyes wide with fear as she watched the skies begin to shift from the familiar shades of dusk to a sickly sort of green. The hand was getting bigger by the second, there was no doubt about it now, which made the evacuation call seem all the more urgent.
Or at least, it was urgent for everyone but the Northwests.
It wasn't long before her watch was interrupted by her parents. They burst into the library, distracted as ever, as servants frantically rushed through the halls behind them. Pacifica couldn't help but wonder if her parents had ordered them to evacuate along with everyone else–or if they were forced to stay here to attend to the mansion's upkeep. Probably the latter, if she had to guess.
"Oh, Pacifica, there you are!" Priscilla exclaimed. "What do you think you're doing in here?"
"I-I was just looking at… at that…" Pacifica pointed at the hand, which in turn, was pointing right back at her.
"Yes, Pacifica, we're all well aware of the 'hand'," Preston rolled his eyes. "But, it's none of our concern. Now, come along. It's time to bunker down inside the panic room until all this nonsense blows over."
"Wait, what?" Pacifica frowned, confused. "We're not going to evacuate like everyone else?"
"'Everyone else' doesn't have the luxury of a steel-doored, double-enforced panic room like we do," Preston pointed out. "And besides, it's not like we can just leave and risk losing our mansion, our factory, our titan's ore mine, every piece of the proud Northwest empire that stands here in Gravity Falls! That would be absurd!"
"But Mayor Dewey said-"
"Mayor Dewey can barely even be considered competent," Preston let out a haughty scoff. "What with him entrusting the safety of the town with those unkempt Crystal Gems instead of actually taking charge of things himself for a change."
"Ugh," Priscilla cringed at the mere mention of the Gems. "They're so tacky."
"But…" Pacifica still tried to protest. Even though she knew from experience that she really shouldn't. "Shouldn't we-"
"Pacifica," Preston cut her off, his patience wearing thin. "We are going to the panic room, whether you want to or not. Now, I'm only going to tell you to come along one more time."
Pacifica watched, dread sinking into her stomach, as she watched her father reach into his suit pocket. She knew all too well what he was looking for, and before he could so much as pull it out, much less ring it, she quickly caved to her parents' demands. Just like she always did.
"R-right," she nodded as she hurried over to meet them. "I… I'm coming…"
Neither of her parents needed to say another word. Instead, they simply turned and headed out of the library, trusting that their daughter would follow after them. Still, Pacifica couldn't help but glance back at the window one final time, at the hand looming high above the town, ready to destroy it all.
Even as they went off to hide from that hand, Pacifica still found herself hoping that someone might actually stand up to it. Someone stronger and braver than she could ever even hope to be.
"Eva-cuate! Eva-cuate!"
"Peedee!" Fryman grunted as he tried to pull his panicking son away from the counter of Gravity Fries. "Come on! We gotta go!"
"But are we coming back?!" Peedee cried, desperate to stay put. Even as Dewey's evacuation alarm only continued blaring through the heart of downtown the loudest.
"I don't know, maybe!" Fryman tried reasoning with him, only to get accidentally kicked in the face. "Ow! Peedee, seriously! This is ridiculous! The shop will still be here when we get back, I promise!"
"But you don't know that!" Peedee wailed. "For all we know that hand could come down here and smash the entire town! Then how are we gonna make an honest living, Dad? How ?!"
Fryman had no answer for his son outside of an exhausted sigh. He was getting nowhere with Peedee, clearly, which was why he was quick to turn to his older son for some assistance. Not that he expected much on that front either. "Ronaldo!" he shouted, peering his head out of the fry shop. "Get in here and help me with your brother!"
"Dad! I can't!" Ronaldo protested, keeping his sights and his phone fixed on the hand in the sky. "I gotta vlog this invasion for my blog! Keep Gravity Falls Weird is gonna explode in followers after I post this! I might even start trending! This is gonna be huge !"
"I don't even know what any of that even means!" Fryman argued, annoyed. "Ronaldo!" He tried again, but to no avail. Ronaldo was far too distracted to even think about pulling away from his blog now. Admitting defeat, Fryman finally let Peedee go as he moved on to finish packing.
"I can't believe this," he muttered to himself as he threw his belongings into a duffle bag. "I spend all these years trying to run a profitable business, trying to raise my boys in a safe, stress-free environment, and what do I get in return for it? A giant hand in the sky, an evacuation, and two sons who don't even have enough common sense to wanna leave during all of it! I swear, if this is the last time some dangerous disaster happens in this crazy town, it'll be too soon…"
Fryman only continued grumbling to himself, completely unaware of the pair of shadows lingering right behind his restaurant. They stayed stealthy, out of sight of the frantic, fleeing townsfolk as their stakeout continued, even in the middle of an all-out emergency like this.
"Powers, these readings are incredible!" Agent Trigger exclaimed as he looked over his satellite monitor. "I-I've never seen anything like this before! It's almost like that thing is extraterrestrial or something!"
"Of course, it's extraterrestrial, Trigger," Powers stoically scowled at the hand in the sky. "Frankly, it could be considered a UFO if we weren't, in fact, able to identify that it's a hand."
"So… technically it's an IFO, then? An Identified Flying Object?"
"Exactly."
"Shouldn't we report this to the higher-ups?" Trigger asked. "If aliens really are on that thing, then this could very well be a matter of not just national, but worldwide security!"
"Not yet," Powers sternly shook his head. "Remember, this isn't what we were sent here to investigate. So for now, we'll just bide our time and see where this so-called 'invasion' goes, but we'll add it to our general report nonetheless. And if this gets out of hand, then we'll call for backup."
"Heh, out of hand," Trigger smirked. "Good one, sir."
"Good what?" Powers asked as his own unintentional joke went over his head.
"Er, uh—never mind."
"Eva-cuate! Eva-cuate!"
"Whoa…" Soos frowned as he peered out the window. "Abuelita, I think that freaky green hand in the sky is getting bigger… Or closer. If it's that second one, then I guess that's why that evacuation alarm keeps going off, huh?"
"Si ," Abuelita nodded as she continued packing for the trip. "Soos, mijo , come help me with this trunk. We must go before the giant sky hand comes and flattens us into pancakes."
"Oo, or tortillas," Soos mused. "Or a flatbread, or heck, even a pizza. Aw, now I'm getting hungry. You think I have time to make something before this whole evacuation thing?"
Abuelita didn't get a chance to answer before the phone suddenly rang on the other side of the den. "Oop, on it," Soos dutifully headed over, only to end up nearly knocking the lamp off the end table. He caught it before it could shatter on the rug, getting tangled up in its cord as he struggled to make it over to the phone in time. He narrowly did, picking it up as he tried wriggling out of the cord, to no avail. Even so, he answered anyway. "Hello?"
"Soos!" Stan's voice was sharp enough to startle Soos to the point he nearly dropped it.
"Oh, hey, Mr. Pines," he greeted, surprised to hear from his boss on his day off. And in the middle of a town-wide crisis, no less. "What's up?"
"I need you to get over here as soon as you can."
"Uh… are you sure about that, Mr. Pines?" Soos asked as he took another look out the window. "I don't think there's enough time for me to make it all the way over there. I'm pretty sure we're all supposed to leave town because of-"
"Yeah, yeah, I know, the big green hand," Stan quickly cut him off. "Listen, I just need you to pick the twins up, take them with you, and keep 'em outta town until this whole 'evacuation' thing blows over, you got it? I'll even give you the money to put them up in a motel for the night and everything, just make sure they're gone by the time that hand hits the ground."
"Wait…" Soos cut in, suddenly concerned "You mean... you're not going with them?"
There was a long, almost heavy pause on the other end, one that made Soos worry even more when Stan finally let out a long sigh and said, "No. No, I'm not."
"Why not?" Soos asked as he finally pulled himself out of the cord tangle. "I mean, I dunno what this hand thing really is, but it's gotta be pretty dangerous if we all have to leave because of it. Don't you think you should go too, just to be, you know, safe and stuff?"
Stan sighed again. Even from the other end of the line, Soos could hear the stress in his boss' voice, though exactly where that stress was coming from, he had no idea. "Listen, Soos, it's… complicated… I-I'll tell you more when all this hand business is said and done, but for now, the only thing I care about is keeping those kids safe from whatever this… thing is. Can I count on you to help me with that?"
Soos hesitated, but only for a moment. Stan was depending on him, and under his orders, Dipper and Mabel would too. And if the entire Pines family was depending on him, then Soos considered it an honor and privilege to help them, in any way he could."You know you can, dude."