Author's Note: This story does not take place in any official canons listed. Think of this series as its own separate universe.
Part 1: The Core Four
"So, uh, kids. How've you been settling in?" Stanford asked his niece and nephew, Dipper and Mabel Pines. "Feel good about spending an entire summer here?"
"I guess." Dipper responded.
"Are you kidding?!" Mabel yelled excitedly,. "This is amazing! I finally have a chance for an epic summer romance!"
"I dunno, Mabel," Dipper replied sheepishly. "I'm just not feeling it. No offense, Grunkle Stan."
"Hey, don't sweat it, kid! Here's a couple bucks. Go visit one of the local stores. Maybe you'll find something to please yourself, huh?" He added with a laughing howl.
"Gee, thanks." Dipper said sarcastically. He decided to take his grunkle on his word. Maybe something in this small town would make himself feel better about spending his summer here.
"Mabel," Stan turned to his niece as Dipper walked out, "Why don't you go and meet some new little girly friends?"
"That sounds fabulous!" Mabel leaped out the door.
"Good." Stan had been looking for a way to get his relatives out of the house for a while. "Now I can plan this out a bit more..." He looked both ways and started punching buttons on his vending machine.
Dipper walked on for a while, and eventually started to get bored. "Well, I for one can't find anything amusing at all. I might as well just close my eyes, spin around, and just walk into whatever I face." He stopped for a moment, wondering if this idea was something he actually wanted to go through with. He had said it in a farce manner, but eventually thought that it may be something he should do. "Oh, what the hey?" He spun around and closed his eyes. Once he stopped, he opens his eyes. "Litwak's Arcade? Might as well give it a try." Dipper walked into the store, where he found it almost completely deserted. "Huh, well, I guess more games for me, then." He looked at the money his uncle gave him. "$5? Classic Stan." Dipper looked around for a game that he thought he would enjoy, when his eyes got stuck on one particular game. "Huh, TurboTime? Might as well give it a try..."
Mabel searched long and hard, but couldn't find anything interesting to her. She looked around for something, anything to do, when she decided to wander into the woods. She walked for a few minutes, and came upon a mysterious building. "The Tent of Telepathy? Sounds like fun! Womp, womp!" Mabel giggled at her own randomness before entering.
"This game is actually pretty addictive!" Dipper said happily. He went to insert another quarter when his hand slipped. When he bent down to look at it, he discovered something carved into the side of the cabinet. "To unleash ultimate power... Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A, Start... Huh, wonder what would happen if I tried that..." Dipper glanced up at TurboTime, pondering whether or not he should go through with it. Eventually, he decided it was worth the try. Anything to make the summer more interesting. "Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A-"
"Kid, stop!" Yelled an arcade machine nearby. Dipper turned with a shock to find a character from a game tapping his hands against the screen. "Don't do it!" He looked seriously worried. Dipper, still a bit off-put, decided to continue talking to this character.
"What if I do?"
"It's a long story. Use that code over here and I'll explain!" The character was pleading, now.
"Uh, alright." Dipper responded in shock. He entered the code and the man exited the game. "What's your name?" Dipper asked.
"Oh, uh, Ralph. Wreck-It Ralph." The no-longer game character answered. "And before I explain, I need to enter that code there a few more times..."
So far, this Tent of Telepathy place was pretty cool to Mabel. She had her mind read by the cutest little boy, who even asked her out on a date. Lil' Gideon... She thought aloud. It was better than her Grunkle Stan's stage name, Mr. Mystery. She decided to run home and tell her family the good news. Step by step, she rushed to the Mystery Shack, where she found the door was locked. She decided to climb through the window, as only she could. Her sweater, with a star on it, gently brushed against the windowpane as she entered the shack. "Grunkle Stan? Dipper? Hello?" She looked around her grunkle's house-turned-tourist-trap, noting the jar of eyeballs, the hiring sign in the window by the checkout, and the vending machine. "Wait, a vending machine?!" Mabel squealed with excitement. She ran up to it to start playing with the buttons, when the device began to jerk. She gasped, the movement catching her off-guard. Then, the machine began to open like a door, with someone emerging from it. "Grunkle Stan?!" Mabel said in amazement.
"KID?! Uh, hey, what's up?" The con-man asked, obviously trying to cover up what had happened. Before Mabel could open her mouth and refute, her twin brother walked through the door.
"Hey guys, guess what I found out in town?" He asked.
"A woodpecker?" Stan asked.
"Ooh, what?!" Mabel asked excitedly. Stan thanked his lucky stars Mabel had such a short attention span.
"These guys!" Dipper pushed the door open, and a large man in brown overalls, a little girl in a green sweater, a smaller man in a blue cap, and a larger woman in black armour walked in. "Everyone, meet The Core Four!"
"Uh, actually," The large man began, "We'd prefer if you didn't call us that. It doesn't really make a whole lot of sense."
"My bad, sorry. Anyway, this is Wreck-It Ralph." Dipper awkwardly announced.
"Heyo! Call me Ralph!" Wreck-It stood up, smashing his head on the ceiling. "OW MOTHER HUBBER-"
"Pardon my colleague, he's not much for a first impression." The tall woman shot a quick playful glance at Ralph, who returned it with an annoyed glare. "My name is Sargent Tamora Calhoun, but I'd prefer Calhoun." She picked up the smaller man and put him on her shoulders. "This is my husband, Fix-It."
"Fix-It Felix, Jr., to be specific." Felix added, then looked over at his wife and gave her a quick kiss.
"Bleh, right?" The little girl added in. "My name is President Vanellope von Schweetz!"
Stan stepped forward. "Hello, nice to meet you, now buy something or get out."
"Stan!" Mabel interjected. "We have guests in our home! Treat them nicely!"
"Sorry kid," Stan cleared his throat. "Please buy something or please get out." He coughed. "Ugh, that word burns my throat."
"Stan, is it?" Calhoun asked. "I'd appreciate this playful gruffness on any other day, but right now we have something urgent going on."
"That's right," Ralph threw in. "We're here to stop a big issue from unfolding in this small town. Vanellope?" The child democrat took a piece of paper out from her sweater pocket, which featured a triangle with a face surrounded by a wheel full of symbols. The symbols contained a brick, a blaster, a Shriner's fez logo, a pine tree, a star with an eye, the letter 'M,' a tie, a hammer, a shooting star, a piece of candy, and a carrot.
"We found this a few years ago, once our arcade began to decay," Vanellope informed the Pines trio.
"Looks like ol' Gene had more than a few Macarena records in his storage closet." Felix said with a slight smile.
"Don't remind me," Ralph shuddered. "Anyway, we've come to expect that all of the symbols on this paper represent each of us. I'm the brick."
"I'd be the candy." Vanellope stated.
"I'm the hammer." Felix added.
"And I believe I'm the blaster." Calhoun finished. "We figure that the gamer's world might have the rest of the information we need to complete the circle. By the looks of it," She pointed to the Pines, "You're the pine tree, the fez logo, and the shooting star respectively."
"Whoa, hold on." Stan stated. "I don't want to mess around with this sort of thing. Count me out!"
"But Stan!" Dipper turned to face his great uncle. "This is finally the chance to have an amazing summer!"
"Not to mention the riches," Felix jumped down from his wife's shoulder. "Where do you think I got this hammer from?"
"Riches?" Stan clasped his hands together. "Uh, you know what? Excuse me. I misspoke. Typo or something. I'm actually totally in!"
Ralph eyed Stan suspiciously. "Well, I guess that we can count you in. That is, if your 'grunkle' here is true to his word."
"'Course I am! I love treasure- Uh, I mean, helping out!"
"I dunno, I don't trust you farther than Stinkbrain can throw ya!" Vanellope said with a laugh. "But in all seriousness, how do we know you can be trusted?"
Stan stood for a moment, not sure how to prove his worth to this group. "Uh... Tell you what. Follow me." Stan turned around and punched a code into his vending machine. It swung open immediately.
Gideon Gleeful was feeling, well, giddy and gleeful! Not only did he have a great day performing, but he had a date later tonight with the girl of his dreams, Mabel Pines! "This is going to be great. I can't wait to show that little lady how much I care!" Gideon approached the address he had been given. 'The Mystery Shack?' He thought to himself. 'Haven't heard of that one before.' He walked up to the door, knocked, and waited. And waited. And waited...
"This is my secret bunker." Stan told the group, leading them down a dark hallway carrying a lantern. "Watch your head, Hamhands."
"Huh?" Ralph was about to ask furthermore when he hit his head on the ceiling. "Ouch!" He turned to Calhoun. "Why do YOU never hit your head on anything?!" Calhoun shrugged.
"Because I'm not nine feet tall with really big hands." She patted Ralph on the shoulder and continued to walk.
"She had to go there..." Ralph said to himself while he started to walk. Eventually, the group approached an elevator.
"Kids, Vanellope, Felix, you take the elevator. Big Guy and Commander She-phard here will take the stairs with me. The elevator can't take the weight of all of us." Stan uncovered a secret doorway, guarded by an animatronic bear with pitch black eyes that scared everyone except for Stan, who gave a hearty laugh before talking to the creature. "Don't worry about these guys, Freddy. They're with me." Freddy stared at everyone suspiciously for a bit, then relaxed, his eyes becoming more human-like with distinct pupils, irises, and the like.
"Hehe-haha, sure thing, S-S-Stan!" Freddy tipped his top hat and allowed everyone to pass.
"Have I seen you somewhere before?" Calhoun asked the bear as she walked by.
"Have you been on the Internet lately?" Freddy responded with a laugh.
"Easy there, Fazbear. Let the lady pass." Stan asserted. The trio descended down the stairs while the smaller four took the elevator. They eventually reached the ground level.
"Alright, tall, dark, and wrinkly, what's the deal down here?" Vanellope asked Stan.
"Don't get your ponytail in a knot. This is all I wanted to show you. Stan opened up another door, where another animatronic popped out, this one appearing like a chicken. "Chica, mind passing me the journals?" Stan told the robotic fowl. Chica, her eyes going through the same transformation as Freddy's, turned around and passed Stan three books, each marked with a number lettered above an 'M.'
Gideon was distraught and upset about being stood up. She showed so much promise, and yet she couldn't even be bothered to open the door?! Insanity! Gideon decided to take his anger out at Litwak's Arcade, a usual hangout of his. When he arrived, he noticed the place was in shambles. He couldn't find anyone, and three of the games looked to be completely ruined. Luckily for him, his favorite game, TurboTime, stood still. He chuckled, remembering the last time he was here. He had used an Ultimate Power Code to release Turbo out into the world. Huge mistake. Lowered the IQ of the whole town, Gideon thought. He popped his quarter in and started to play. Upon starting the game, Turbo looked up at the screen towards the player like he usually did, only this time he saw Gideon and made an angry look. "Are you still mad about me stopping you?" Gideon asked with a smile. "Looks like you're powerless, now!" Turbo got even angrier, then suddenly got a devious smile on his face. He slipped out of his kart and walked offscreen while laughing a creepy, 8-bit laugh. Eventually, Gideon saw a blue spark in the cord leading to a laptop plugged into the wall nearby. He hurried over and saw Turbo enter the desktop. "What are you doing, Turbo...?" Gideon's question was soon answered when he saw Turbo climb into the first application nearest to him;
A desktop shortcut to Five Nights at Freddy's.
"Uh-oh..." Gideon stepped back. A sock doll-esque marionette started to climb out of the screen. Gideon ran as fast as his fat little legs could take him, when he tripped a few feet outside. He turned around and saw the puppet right behind him. Gideon covered his face, ready to receive whatever was going to happen, only... Nothing did.
Gideon opened his eyes out of shock, and saw the puppet had it's hand stretched out, to help him up. He took it, and the marionette pulled him up and patted him on the shoulder.
"So... You're not going to kill me?" The puppet shook its head. "So, you aren't mad anymore, Turbo?" The puppet shook its head. Again, it put its hand on his shoulder.
"I'm not Turbo." A deep voice responded.
Gideon jumped back, freaked out. "How... How are you doing that?" The puppet's hand returned to its place on Gideon's shoulder.
"I'm a supernatural element. That Turbo... He didn't stand a chance of controlling me. I made quick work of him. Consider his game 'permanently out of order.'" The puppet turned its head down, making its wooden face look like an angry smile. Gideon was in shock.
"You... You killed him..."
"I prefer the term, 'derez.'" The marionette laughed viciously. "I've admired you for a while, Gideon Gleeful. I do believe that together, we can take over this town!" The puppet laughed. Gideon responded with a smirk.
"Let's start small, shall we?"
"What did you have in mind?"
"The Mystery Shack, destroying the girl who dared stand me up!"
"The 'M!' You know about another symbol?" Felix asked in surprise.
"Unfortunately, no. I've been tracking down whoever wrote these journals with a vigor. Anyway, I wanted to show you guys these because I'm hoping they'll help you figure out more about the secrets this town holds. Specifically, this." Stan took one of the books, marked "2," and flipped open to a page featuring the triangular figure from Vanellope's drawing.
"Says his name is 'Bill Cipher.' Can't figure out how to summon him, though. It's written in some sort of code. I haven't figured it out yet. Now, we're all going to need to work together. I suggest we split up the journals. I'll take Journal 1, Ralph'll take 2, and I guess you can have 3, Dipper." Stan passed the journals out accordingly. Guard these things with your life, and don't let ANYONE take them. These things are our only clues to figuring out who the author is, and I'm not going to let it go to waste because of you two."
The two accepted their journals, and turned to walk away.
"Hold on," Stan said, "You four will probably need a place to stay until we figure this out." He pointed to the four former-avatars. "I'll make rooms for all of you, and in return, you'll have to work at the Shack. Sound fair?" The group shrugged. What was their other option? "Good. I'll get the rooms ready. Felix, you're the handyman. Vanellope, you'll work register. Calhoun will work security, and Ralph can be an attraction along with Dipper. Now, let's get out of here." Stan turned around. "Chica, enable security mode."
"Sure thing, S-S-S-Stan!" Chica said happily, then her eyes turned black again. "Security mode enabled. Subjects: Stanford Pines, Mabel Pines, Dipper Pines, Wreck-It Ralph, Fix-It Felix, Vanellope von Schweetz, Tamora Calhoun authorized access."
"What's 'security mode?'" Felix asked.
"She won't attack you if you enter the bunker without me. That reminds me; don't enter the bunker without me." Stan turned around and began to walk. The others followed suit, with Stan giving Freddy the same orders, and the group being given the same access rights as before. They exited the bunker. "Okay, Ralph and Felix will share a room, and Vanellope and Calhoun can take another."
"Excuse me, Stanford," Calhoun said, "But I request to stay with my husband."
"Request granted, just don't gross me out with all that lovey stuff. Wreck, you mind staying with Dipper?"
"Grunkle Stan?" Dipper nervously said, "I want to stay in a room with Mabel."
"Yeah," Vanellope said, "And I want to stick with Ralph."
"This is why I don't run a hotel." Stan muttered. "Alright, alright. I'll show you all to your rooms."
A while later, everyone was settled in. Felix and Calhoun took a room with a lovely blue carpet, and Ralph and Vanellope took a room Stan explained he previously used to store wax figures. After running down the information everyone would need to know, it was dark out. Stan suggested everyone get to sleep because of all the work they would have to do tomorrow. The kids got changed, and the four newcomers slept in their clothes, with the exception of Calhoun, who took off her armour and slept in her white under-suit.
"Puppet!" Gideon shrieked. "Why haven't we attacked the Mystery Shack yet?!" The puppet returned his hand to Gideon's shoulder.
"It's too soon now. We need to wait, so we have plausibility of denial. Go to sleep, and we'll strike some other day. Personally, I have some things to do." The marionette let go and flew away. Gideon hopped into his bed and prepared to sleep.
"Good luck, Mabel! We're coming for you! Nobody stands up Gideon Gleeful!"