Author Notes: this is my first story in this fandom to ever be longer than a single chapter, so I'm very excited to be sharing it! I would also like to note that the first two chapters are going to be entirely setup and background on Carlos, so be forewarned there. Also expect a few OCs as far as Carlos's scientists and past etc, but mostly I plan to stick pretty close to canon. As always, Night Vale belongs to commonplacebooks. Without further ado, let's get to the story!

Chapter 1 - Anomaly

Fate is not a scientifically proven concept. Then again neither is chance. Which is what makes the strange lights in the sky above the little desert town so very confounding.

"We're definitely lost." Carlos said as he used a flashlight to locate their car's location on the fold-out map. "Andie, how did you even get off the highway, you had one job!" He turned the map upside down in an attempt to pin down the last known mileage marker they had passed.

"Do you want to drive?" Andrea asked rhetorically as she took a sip from her oversized foam fountain drink.

"No," Carlos laughed, creasing the map back into some semblance of its original shape.

"Then I suggest you shut your mouth," she teased, reaching across and taking the map from his hands, tossing it into the back seat. "It's really all your fault after all, Mr. I Don't Have A Smartphone." Carlos rolled his eyes dramatically and turned to look at the dark, flat desert outside the windows of the little station wagon. He and Andrea, his best friend since their freshman year of college, were in the middle of a cross-country road trip to his sister's wedding. The road trip was also jointly a bucket list item they were crossing off in celebration of Andrea's graduation with her masters in microbiology. Four years of long days researching and long nights in the practical application laboratory had earned them the much-needed vacation. Though now they were lost somewhere in Arizona with not a single headlight or taillight in sight.

"We really are lost though, Andie," Carlos sighed. "We were supposed to be in Phoenix two hours ago. Brandon is gonna wonder why I haven't called from the hotel." He pulled out his cell phone in what he knew was a futile attempt. The outdated, cracked phone display was still black.

"Seriously, Carlos, how were you even able to break a Nokia, they're practically tanks!" Carlos gave an empty laugh.

"I guess I just have a way of breaking things." He pressed a few buttons on the phone in frustration before slipping it back into the pocket of his denim jacket.

Andrea allowed her eyes to flicker from the road to glance over at him carefully. "How are things with you two anyway?"

"Hm?" Carlos replied distractedly.

"You and Brandon. I mean, it's your sister's wedding, and I'm flattered that you chose to get lost in the middle of nowhere with me, but shouldn't he be your plus one?" Carlos shrugged. "So, how are things?" she pressed.

"They're great," Carlos replied too quickly.

"I can always tell when you're bullshitting me," Andrea retorted dryly.

"Things are, they're good," Carlos said a little less brightly. "We're just going through some stuff right now."

"Oh yeah?" Andrea replied a little more gently. "How so?"

"I dunno, we just never see each other. I mean, it's not bad, it's comfortable. We're comfortable. Just. I get home from the lab, make myself dinner, work on my paper, then he gets home just around the time I'm getting tired." Andrea nodded understandingly. "It's okay though, I mean he'll usually be getting to bed while I'm still reading so it's not like we don't talk. You know, about our days and how things are going." Carlos smiled a little wider. "On Saturday nights we still have movie night every week."

"Mhm, and when was the last time you got laid?" Andrea asked wryly. Carlos felt his face flush.

"You know, not every relationship has to just be about sex, Andie," he mumbled.

"Only people who aren't getting any use that excuse."

"I mean it though, I just like to appreciate the time we do get to spend together, even if we're just sitting together reading. It's the company that I like," he explained.

"Mhm. How long? Two weeks? A month? ...Two months?"

"Andie-" Carlos interrupted.

"Two months?! Damn, boy, I would be kicking him to the curb."

"We're just busy, it's just been a crazy few months. We're both in grad school, working full time, he's got his boards to study for, and I'm formulating my dissertation hypothesis and research plan. It's just been a bit chaotic lately. It's all going to change once we get through this. Everything will be different again." There was silence for a minute as Andie selected her next words carefully.

"Carlos-" she began, but his attention was entirely focused on the sky.

"Andie, did you see that?"

"Did I see what?" Andrea craned over her steering wheel to peer up at the seemingly endless stretch of stars. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary except the silvery moon seemed to be looming strangely close. She assumed it was simply a trick of the flat expanse and the lack of any comparable objects in the distance.

"Nothing, I must just be tired." Carlos removed his wire-rimmed glasses and rubbed at his eyes. He switched on the radio and scanned until he found a clear station. Country music, of course, which was certainly not his preference, but he needed something to help him stay awake. The clock read 11:43. He couldn't help glancing frequently up at the sky where he could have sworn he just saw a flickering light.

"You can sleep if you want, we're bound to find a town along this highway somewhere. I'll wake you up if I get tired, I promise," Andrea offered. Carlos shook his head, but did lean against the window. His eyes felt heavy. Just as his eyelids began to flutter closed, he saw the strange light again - a bright flicker followed by a streaking flash. He would have thought it was a meteor if it hadn't been so slow and low to the ground.

"You saw that right?" Carlos asked, suddenly wired by curiosity. Andrea glanced at him sideways. Giving him the benefit of the doubt, she gazed carefully up at the sky. "There!" Carlos pointed suddenly as a bright violet light spiraled across the sky in front of the car. Andrea swore under her breath, pulling the car over roughly to the shoulder and climbing out. The light flickered momentarily, but did not disappear. Instead it continued to spiral around for a few minutes more. Carlos and Andrea spun around, transfixed by the stunning light. Just as suddenly as it appeared, it vanished, leaving no trace of its existence. They waited for a long time in the dry desert air, searching the skies for so much as a flicker, but the light didn't reappear. After a while, both scientists reluctantly climbed back into the station wagon, at a loss to explain the strange phenomenon they had just witnessed. They continued along the dark road, glancing frequently up at the stars. Eventually they passed a highway sign along the side of the road.

"Route 800?" Andrea asked in confusion. "Where are we?"

"Did you take any turns off the highway?" Carlos asked, turning down the radio that was quickly deteriorating into static.

"No, not that I recall." A mile marker sign read 'Night Vale - 22 miles, Desert Bluffs - 39 miles.' "I wonder if we should stop and get gas. Maybe ask for directions," she suggested, shooting a nervous glance at the fuel meter.

"Sounds like the setup for a horror movie. If we stop we won't survive," Carlos mumbled as he attempted again to smooth out the map he had crawled into the back seat to retrieve. After a few minutes he crumpled it and tossed it into the back again with a frustrated sigh. "Eh what the hell, better than being stranded in a desert," he finally conceded as a few distant lights flickered into focus on the horizon. As the lights grew brighter, shapes began to form in the featureless desert. A large hangar rose up on one side of the road, marking what seemed to be the edge of town. Several small businesses lined the highway, their windows dark and parking lots empty. Finally they found a Chevron station that still had an open sign flickering in the window. The stillness of the town seemed eerie, even for - Carlos checked the clock - 11:52. It seemed like much longer than nine minutes had passed since they were watching the strange light streak across the sky, but Carlos assumed it was just the tiredness of a long day on the road. "Horror movie," he whispered ominously as he and Andrea both peeked through the windshield at the dingy convenience store, large moths flittering around the ramshackle door.

"Rock, paper, scissors," Andrea suggested, equally hesitant to leave the safety of the locked car. They faced off, Carlos choosing paper and Andrea choosing rock. They each had their own theory on why paper winning over rock was invalid and contestable, but Carlos wasn't going to fight it right now. He nestled down into the passenger seat with a grin.

"If you die, I call your Tarantino collection," he teased. Andrea flipped him the bird before she began to pump the fuel and headed into the convenience store to ask for directions back to the highway. Carlos reached for the radio to search for a clearer station, but was pleasantly surprised to hear the static had faded and the music was playing again. It didn't sound quite so much like country anymore either, so he turned up the volume and leaned back in his seat, his eyes still wandering towards the sky. The song ended and a deep, melodic voice came over the radio, announcing the continuation of some news story about a freak accident at a shopping mall. Carlos sighed at the realization that he had only traded country music for some radio talk show. He was about to switch the station, when he heard the announcer mention something about 'life in our little burg of Night Vale.' If the news was local, then possibly someone would have called in about the strange meteor-like lights in the desert only a few miles away. He turned up the broadcast, listening carefully for several minutes as the announcer read off a list of disjointed, seemingly random words. The list ended, and the voice got excited.

"Listeners, this just in! The immense surge of gravity that has surrounded the water fountain down on Stanton Street - you know, the one across from the Chevron station - has finally lifted! This will of course be a huge relief to those younger Night Vale residents who have been unable for some time to stand on their toes or even lift their heads to drink from the refreshing, cool spring of the water fountain. Now, there is a bit of a downside, in that there is now no gravity whatsoever surrounding the water fountain at all, but as long as you hold on tight, getting that cool, refreshing drink should be a breeze!"

It finally dawned on Carlos that the radio show was not actually news at all, but rather some sort of news parody, probably run by some college kids with a strange sense of humor and way too much time on their hands. As he leaned forward to switch off the radio, he caught another glimpse of purple flashing across the sky. He was immediately out of the car and tripping towards the middle of the empty street to get a better look away from the fluorescence of the Chevron station. There were two glowing lights now, glimmering like embers as they arced through the starry sky in a wide circle. Carlos blinked once, twice, three times, even removing his glasses and replacing them to be sure it wasn't a trick of the light. The lights continued to spiral around him as he stood mesmerized in the middle of the highway. A sudden, chilling wind passed through him moving impossibly fast and shoving him roughly down to his knees with a shiver. As he pushed himself back up to his feet, he caught a glimpse of what looked like the red glow of taillights as they vanished into the distance, not quite far enough away. His mind raced with half-formed thoughts as he tried to figure out what was happening to him. The lights were still spiraling above him, gaining momentum. Adrenaline began to course through him as a slew of alien movie sequences flashed through his mind in quick succession. It was silly to assume that lights in the sky were automatically otherworldly, he knew, but something about the night was unsettling him deeply. He glanced back at the Chevron station where the station wagon sat unchanged by the strange phenomenon in the sky and the gust of cold wind on the road. A sudden strange idea occurred to him. The radio announcer had said the water fountain was across the street from the Chevron station. Carlos scanned the dark sidewalk, punctuated only by the occasional street light. There, in one of the pools of dim light he could make out the shape of a small water fountain. He glanced both ways at the street and took a tentative step, half expecting to be knocked down again. Nothing happened, so he quickened his pace towards the sidewalk, stopping when he reached the curb. No gravity. That's what the broadcast had said. It was probably nothing, he told himself, but what if…

He reached out a hand, realizing with odd amusement that he was shaking. The tips of his fingers were just approaching the water fountain when he heard his name called from behind.

"Carlos, what are you doing?" Andrea called as she jogged across the road. Carlos glanced up at the sky, but the purple lights were mysteriously gone again, disappearing into the dark canopy of midnight. He looked back at Andrea, who had slowed to a stop in the middle of the nearest lane of traffic. "What are you doing?" she repeated, out of breath. He was about to reply when he caught a glimpse of dim headlights flickering to life mere feet from Andrea.

"Look out!" he yelled, reaching out to yank her out of harm's way. She tumbled to the concrete, only nearly avoiding being struck by the blur of silver that raced past. Carlos watched as the wavering taillights again disappeared far too close to be possible.

"What the hell?" Andrea asked as she brushed flecks of rubble from her arms. "I didn't even see him, I swear," she said with a shiver.

"I almost got hit too." Carlos offered, for the first time realizing that one of his knees was bleeding through his jeans. "They come out of nowhere and just…" he trailed off realizing just how idiotic the words sounded. "Disappear." He turned back to the drinking fountain that stood harmlessly three feet away. He was loath to approach it, equal parts afraid of something happening and nothing happening at all.

"What are you doing?" Andrea asked again as she hugged herself tightly. She was shaking slightly too, Carlos noticed.

"I picked up a radio transmission, they said there was something about the water fountain," Carlos explained as he took a tentative step across the sidewalk. "They said it was some sort of gravitational anomaly."

"A water fountain?" Andrea asked in confusion, glancing nervously around at the dark street. Carlos reached out, mere inches away now. He closed his eyes and took one last step. Nothing. He felt nothing. It had been some stupid joke after all, he thought.

"C-Carlos, what's going on?" Andrea asked in a worried voice. He opened his eyes and looked at her, but she was his height now, not a few inches taller as she always had been. Her hand was clasped over her mouth, her eyes wide. He glanced down and realized he was drifting upwards, slowly, but steadily. The first feeling that registered was panic. Hold on tight, the voice on the radio had said. To what? He scrambled to reach hold of something until Andrea was finally able to break her trance and reach out for his hand. She tugged him sideways and he stumbled out of the strange weightless zone and back to normality. They wordlessly stared at the water fountain until Andrea finally whispered "I think I'd like to get out of here." Carlos would have liked to investigate, ask why, but something told him there wouldn't be a good answer, not immediately. Hand-in-hand they ran as fast as they could across the road and back to the warmth and safety of the little station wagon. Neither spoke until the lights of Night Vale were fading in the rear-view mirrors. Andrea let out a nervous laugh and breathed deeply. "That guy at the convenience store had spent a little too long watching the Twilight Zone. He kept asking me if I had a valid phantom traveler permit. Said this highway required one, but when I told him we were lost trying to find the interstate, he said he wouldn't turn me in for it." She looked over at Carlos for some sort of reaction, but he seemed lost in thought. "Weird town, huh?" she asked. He glanced in the rear view mirror at the last glimmer of light disappearing into the night.

"There's something about it…" he said finally. "I'd like to come back here. Figure out what's going on. The lights and the gravity and…" a strange smile crossed his face. "I was looking for a hypothesis that hadn't been tested, my own 'Vasquez Theory.'" Andrea eyed him quizzically. "Andie, I think I may have just discovered my dissertation topic."

End Notes: as I said, the first two chapters are mostly pre-NV background, and also Carlos doesn't have a canon last name, so I went with Vasquez because I think it fits pretty nicely together. Comments and critique are always appreciated. Thanks for reading!