Ok, so this one happens just before Not What He Seems. I had originally intended to put it in the middle of season one, somewhere around Irrational Treasure (which is why, if you're paying attention, you'll notice that Waddles doesn't make any appearances.) However, near the end I realized that there were some questions raised that flowed better with the plotline of the show if it happened right before NWHS. So… yeah, that's what happened. Again, this is simply an adventure fic, hopefully mostly in the same tone as an actual episode of Gravity Falls, though the climactic scene near the end is perhaps a little more intense than GF usually gets. But more on that later. Please enjoy, and do take a second or two to leave a comment letting me know what you think. :D


1.

Dipper tossed the latest issue of the Gravity Falls Gossiper across the floor and flopped back on the rug.

"Ugh," he sighed. "I don't like being famous."

Mabel looked up from painting Waddle's toenails and glanced at the front page of the paper. "Mystery Shack Hero Spotted Eating Boogers," she read. "Ew, Dipper."

"It's a lie! Yellow press! I had something stuck in my teeth, not my nose."

"I don't know, Dip," Mabel picked up the paper and examined the grainy, black-and-white photo. "The evidence is pretty compelling."

"Give me that." Dipper snatched the paper away and tore off the front page, which he then wadded into a ball and tossed in the corner.

"They're just looking for stuff to print," Mabel reassured him. Then she snorted. "Ya gotta admit though – it's pretty funny."

Dipper flopped back again, but the corner of his mouth turned up in a tiny smirk. "Ok. Maybe it's a little bit funny."

The truth was, he didn't really mind being famous – or as close to famous as someone could get in Gravity Falls. Someone had managed to get a pretty epic shot of him catching that giant bat a few weeks ago, and after the little incident up at the Northwest Mansion with Pacifica's family ghost… Anyway, the long and short of it was that Toby Determined was now convinced that Dipper Pines was his ticket to the next breaking story – or at least to Shandra Jimenez's favor. But the paparazzi-stalking thing was getting a little old.

Outside, the sound of a car door slamming announced the arrival of another tourist.

"Ten bucks says old people!" Dipper jumped to his feet and dashed for the window.

"Family with four kids! And a duck!" Nail polish went flying as Mabel raced to get there first.

"A duck? Seriously, Mabel—"

They reached the window at the same time, and Dipper looked out to see a man, maybe a little younger than the twins' parents, walking toward the shack.

"Both wrong," Mabel said. "Good thing too – I'm broke."

"Wonder who that guy is?" Dipper squinted. "He doesn't look like a tourist."

He didn't look like much of anything, really. Generic brown hair, generic blue polo shirt, generic jeans – even his car was a generic green sedan. The stranger's only defining feature was the expensive-looking briefcase he carried and the look of anxious determination on his face.
Then the twins lost sight of him under the edge of the roof.

Mabel rescued her jar of nail polish and blew one last time on Waddles' drying nails. "Wanna go see what he's up to?"

"Do you even have to ask?"

The twins pounded down the stairs just as the doorbell rang. "We got it, Stan!" Dipper shouted, throwing open the door. "Hi there, and welcome to the—"
The stranger stepped inside, brushing past Dipper and Mabel as if they weren't even there.

"—Mystery Shack?" Dipper raised an eyebrow at Mabel. She shrugged, and scrambled to step in front of the intruder.

"If you're here for a tour, visitors are supposed to come in through the gift shop—" she started, but the stranger just held up his briefcase as if it were a badge.

"Visitors are supposed to, yes," he said. "But I'm not a visitor. My name is Sheldon Pines and…" he straightened his shoulders. "And I live here."