"Mabel!" Mason yelled. "it's a trick, don't give him the—"
But it was too late, the merman took the potion and tossed it to Love God. The cherub laughed triumphantly "Gotcha!"
After that, the illusions disappeared, Mabel made a face of dismay. "Ugh! Curse my over-sized heart!"
"Sorry guys," Love God told them. "But that's what happens when you mess with a god. Only a greater being from the heavens themselves could possibly stop—"
He was interrupted as a crowd screamed around them, as a huge shadow loomed overhead. Love God stared in horror, as the Stan balloon began to plummet towards him. He screamed and accidentally dropped the potion, before the whole balloon collapsed on top of him.
"Oh, he's dead," Mason said, matter-of-factly.
Mabel crossed her fingers, whispering under her breath. "Please be immortal. Please be immortal."
Eventually, a deep groan came from underneath the balloon wreckage, and Mabel sighed in relief. "Thank goodness, he's alive," She sighed in relief, before picking up the potion.
Afterwards, the three made their way to a hill, where Robbie and Tambry were sitting, taking pictures of each other. They hid behind a bush, staring at the two.
"Okay, Mabel," Mason whispered. "Now's our chance. They break up and all of this will be over."
Mabel nodded and pointed the potion towards Robbie and Tambry reluctantly. However, Robbie turned around and made eye contact with Mabel. Mabel instinctively hid the potion behind her back, as the Cupid approached her.
"Mabel!" Robbie beamed. "Mabel, I just wanted to thank you. I've been so miserable since I lost Wendy that I thought my life was over, but you were right. I just needed to move on. I'm... happy? Weird, huh?"
Mabel forced a smile on her face. "That's great, Robbie."
"Robbie, people are commenting on our pictures!" Tambry called.
"See you later," Robbie smiled and turned away.
Mabel looked at him, and couldn't stop herself. "Robbie, wait!"
Robbie turned back to her. "Yeah?"
"Mabel, what are you doing?" Mason demanded.
Mabel didn't answer, she looked Robbie in the eye, then pulled out the potion from behind her back. Robbie looked down on it, his brow furrowing.
"I recognise this thing..." Robbie said. "This is...one of Love God's potions? Why would you need this?"
"It's an Ant-Love potion," Mabel replied, gingerly. "And the reason I need it...is so I could use it on you and Tambry."
Robbie blinked. "Why would you...Oh," His face twisted into realisation, before turning into bewilderment. "You didn't!"
"Robbie, I'm sorry—"
"You used a love potion on me and Tambry!" Robbie yelled, now angry. "I should've known that punk Love God was involved! I should've known none of this...none of this is real."
"Robbie?"
The group turned to see Tambry standing in front of them, looking confused. "What's going on here?"
Robbie couldn't look her in the eye, but instead turned his furious eyes to Mabel. "You said you would help me!"
"I know," Mabel replied, looking ashamed. "I wish I could make you feel better."
Robbie's eyes darkened. "The only thing that could make feel better right now, is ripping the wings off that cherub for playing tricks on my emotions." And to Mabel's horror, he made his quiver of arrows appeared in his hand.
"Robbie!" Tambry exclaimed, in shock.
Robbie made his way down the hill in rapid speed, and Mabel attempted and failed to catch up to him. "Wait, Love God didn't do anything—"
But it was too late, the Cupid was gone in mere seconds, and the female Guardian began to panic. "Oh no! This is bad, Love Guard doesn't stand a chance against Robbie! He's too friend-shaped!"
Tambry narrowed her eyes in determined. "C'mon," She told them. "Help me stop my idiot boyfriend."
Purple feathers began to sprout from Tambry's skin and clothes, before her form morphed into a giant bird. Mason watched in astonishment, then turned to Will.
"You wanna explain that?" He asked.
Will blinked. "Huh? Sorry, I was paying attention."
Mason crossed his arms. "You were staring at me this entire time, were you?"
"Yeah..."
❇️❇️❇️
Bill, Dipper, and Stan looked at the complete chaos of the festival, as the crowds of people ran around screaming, surrounded by the damages caused by the balloon.
"Best day ever," Bill smiled.
"I don't see the problem here," Stan admitted. "Back then, zeppelins we're dropping from the sky like raindrops."
"Grunkle Stan, people could've died!" Dipper yelled at him.
"Oh come on, I'm sure it wasn't that traumatising," The old man remarked.
Suddenly, a teenager crossed their path. One look at Stan's face, he made a horrified face and screamed. "The old man from the sky! He's here!"
More teenagers looked in Stan's direction, before fleeing and screaming at the top of their lungs. Stan looked blankly, before a wide grin spread across his face.
"You know what? Being loved by the youth is underrated, being feared? Now that's priceless!" He laughed manically.
Dipper sighed heavily. "I knew should've considered putting you in a retirement home."
Meanwhile, on the whole other end of the festival, Mabel and the others were searching for either Robbie or Love God, but were no close to finding both. They first check the place where they last saw Love God, but he was gone. While running around, Mabel accidentally bumped into someone.
"Ow!" Thompson exclaimed, rubbing his arm. "What the—Mabel?"
"Thompson? Thompson!" Mabel beamed. "You can help us!"
Thompson blinked. "Huh?"
Tambry landed beside Mabel, transforming out of her bird form. "Thompson, have you seen Robbie?"
The young man shook his head. "No, I was too busy trying to stop these guys from fighting," He pointed a thumb at the group behind him, who were arguing loudly.
"Guys!" Mabel shouted, as she ran towards them.
They stopped what they were doing, before turning to her. Wendy's expression turned from confusion to irritation when she saw Tambry walking towards them too.
"What is she doing here?" Wendy said, bitterly.
"Look, I know it's awkward between you guys at the moment," Mabel started. "But we really need your help—"
"I'm sorry, Mabel," Wendy interrupted. "But, I can't deal with Tambry right now."
Tambry narrowed her eyes at her. "What is your problem?"
"Oh, it's just the fact that you decided to date my ex behind my back," Wendy shot back.
"I don't see the problem, I should be able to date who I want," Tambry argued.
"Yeah, but why Robbie of all people?" Nate chimed in. "He's like the worst possible option, and have you seen how tight his pants are?"
"And who do think is the better option? You?" Tambry remarked, and Nate flushed.
"Don't talk to him like that!" Lee snapped, defiantly.
"Don't defend me, dude!" Nate yelled at him. "I'm still mad at you!"
Almost instantly, the group erupted in incomprehensible shouting, until Mason whistled sharply to get their attention.
"Alright, that's enough," Mason said, coldly. "To be honest, I could care less about this whole disagreement you people have, but it's really getting annoying. It'll best for everyone, if you just kiss and make up already, especially you two in particular..." He pointed to Lee and Nate, whom reacted with shocked expressions. "Not to mention, at the moment, Robbie is currently hunting a man down for sport."
"What?" Wendy gasped.
"Yeah, I should've started with that," Mabel said, awkwardly. "There's no time to explain, we need your help."
"We need to work together," Thompson insisted.
Wendy hesitated, glancing one more time at Tambry, then spoke. "Fine, but just this once."
"You gotta make up one day," Will said, sweetly. "After all, you're inseparable. Just like me and my knife-wielding angel." He embraced Mason lovingly, while the brunet groaned in annoyance.
The redhead stared at them in bewilderment. "Mabel—"
"I'll explain later!" Mabel promised. Hopefully.
❇️❇️❇️
So the hunt for Robbie continued, with the gang trying to cover as much ground as possible. After a while, it seemed all hope was lost, before Mabel heard a familiar voice.
She turned to see Love God fluttering around the corner and heading straight towards her. She felt relief, but it dispersed as soon as she saw the very angry Cupid close behind.
"Love God!" Robbie raged, shooting an arrow at the cherub.
Love God swiftly dodged the projectile. "Leave me alone! Get therapy!"
"We got to stop him!" Mabel told the others.
Wendy acted quick and turned to the others. "Let's surround him!"
The others obeyed, and one by one, they transformed into their animal forms. Nate and Lee were the ones to strike first, the deer and the wolf ran at Robbie, and made him abruptly stop in his tracks. Afterwards, Thompson in his bear form came up and tackled the Cupid in a crushing embrace.
Robbie writhed in his grip. "What is the meaning of this!?"
"Robbie, I don't know what's going on here," Wendy started. "But I can't let you hurt that middle aged man with tiny wings."
"Thanks, dudette!" Love God smiled.
"You don't know what he did!" Robbie snapped. "He and Mabel used a love potion on me and Tambry!"
"Wait, what?" Wendy gasped, then turned to Mabel. "Is this true?"
Mabel rubbed her shoulder, looking down at her feet. "Yeah..."
"I can't let him get away with this," Robbie growled. Then with a burst of strength, he managed to break out of Thompson's grip.
Love God braced himself, as Robbie charged at him. Suddenly, however, a purple blur came down from the sky and collapsed onto Robbie. It was Tambry, as she used her talons to grapple Robbie to the ground. After a few minutes of struggling from both ends, Tambry won and pinned Robbie onto his stomach with his hands gripped behind his back. After that, Tambry changed out of her bird form, panting softly.
"Tambry, let me go!" Robbie told her.
"No!" Tambry snapped. "I know all of this started with a love potion, but why does it matter?"
"Why does it—Tambry, do you hear yourself!? This entire thing between us isn't real."
Tambry regarded him, then took a deep breath and said. "But, it could be."
He stared up at her. "What?"
"I've never noticed how much we have in common before," She admitted. "After this spell wears off or something, maybe we can...start over? I know it's not real right now, but maybe we can make it real?"
Everyone watched as Robbie could only gawk at her, his cheeks turning a shade of red. Finally, he spoke.
"I-I don't know," He admitted. "What if, you won't like me then?"
Tambry responded with a smile, then leaned down to kiss him on the cheek. "We'll just have to try it out."
Robbie gazed at her, but then he shot a look at Love God. "That doesn't change the fact that this guy used his powers irresponsibly."
"No, he didn't!" Mabel protested. "I stole Love God's potion."
"Why did you do that?" Wendy asked her.
"Because I thought I could make everyone happy, but in reality, all I did was pry into everyone's personal lives," Mabel admitted, looking apologetic. "I tried to fix it by stealing his Anti-Love potion, but I think I made things worse."
"You really didn't need to do that, by the way," Love God chimed in. "The love potion's effects only last for like, three hours."
Mabel blinked, then slowly turned to him. "What?"
"It's on the warning label!" Love God noted. "Jeez, why does no one read those things?"
"What's the point of an Anti-Love potion if the love potion wears off eventually!?" Mabel snapped.
"I like to have variety!"
"Well," Robbie started, rather awkwardly. "I guess I owe you an apology, Love God."
"It's cool, man," Love God replied. "Not the first time I've been shot by arrows."
"I also owe you an apology," Mabel said, sincerely.
"Apology accepted, little lady," Love God replied. "Just return my potion to me."
Mabel nodded, and was about to hand over the potion, when Mason took it from her hands.
"Wait a second," He told her, before turning around. "Will, darling, can you come here for a bit?"
Will approached him. "Yeah—"
Mason sprayed it directly into his face, and Will immediately started coughing and gagging.
"Ack! What the heck!?" Will coughed. "What happened!? Why does my mouth taste of cheap Valentine chocolates, soap operas, and depression?"
"Glad to have you back," Mason smiled, handing the potion back to Mabel.
"What about you two?" Mabel asked Robbie and Tambry. "You want me to get rid of the effects of the potion?"
Robbie and Tambry shared a look, then smiled at each other.
"No, thank you," Robbie told her. "We've decided to see where this relationship goes." The two kissed each other quickly.
Will looked in confusion. "Uh, how much did I miss?"
"Trust me, you don't want to know," Mason told him, then began to walk away. "Come on, let's have a bit of fun before the festival ends, my blueberry-haired angel." He winked at Will, whom could only flush in return.
❇️❇️❇️
"Wow, so all that happened?" Will breathed, as Mabel finished explaining the story.
"Yep," Mabel said. "That love potion probably made you blank out most of the time."
"Uh, jeez," Will sighed, embarrassed. "Mason, whatever I said to you, I—"
"It's alright, Will," Mason chuckled, focusing his blue eyes on him. "Whatever you said, I know you didn't mean it, that was the potion talking."
"Yeah...the potion," Will said, softly. He shifted his attention back to Mabel. "You think the gang will make up eventually?"
Mabel frowned. "I don't know, I hope so."
She looked over at the exit, where the gang was about to leave, when Thompson came forward holding a cake.
"Guys, I bought a friendship cake!" He shouted. "So let's all get over this, okay?" He stumbled and dropped the cake on the ground. "Ugh! My cake!" He bent down to pick it up, but his coat rips revealing the hidden snacks.
Two security guards turned their attention towards him, and one yelled. "Hey! Food from the outside!"
Thompson screamed and ran away, while being chased by the two guards. This caught the attention of the others.
"Whoa! Hey, look!" Lee shouted, pointing.
"Is that Thompson?" Wendy laughed, in disbelief.
Thompson was hugging onto a utility pole. One security guard blows a whistle as the security guard tries to get Thompson down with a broom. The group watched, all laughing.
"Yeah, fight the machine, Thompson!" Nate exclaimed.
"Throw snacks at 'em!" Wendy cheered.
Robbie called to him. "Use jerky as a weapon!"
They repeatedly chanted his name loudly. A broom swung at Thompson and he cried out as he fell off, grabbing a rope and dangling down as the two security guards beat him like a piñata with a broom and a large stick. The gang continued to cheer him on.
For a moment, Lee stopped chanting and looked at Nate. Lee playfully punched Nate's shoulder, getting his attention. Nate turned to him. Lee smiled. Nate smiled back, before playfully punching him back.
Tambry turned to look at Wendy and smiled apologetically at her. Wendy does the same. Then, Robbie smiled at Wendy and she smiled back at him.
Mabel watched in amazement. "I think everything just might be all right," She beamed. "Maybe someone up there really is a genius matchmaker." She looked up to Thompson.
Meanwhile, Thompson grinned down at his friends. "All according to plan," He whispered under breath, before getting hit again. "Ow!"