Dipper was on a mission.

Well, for one thing, he had to get Flavor Xtreme or everyone at the Shack would likely cannibalize him or something. For another thing, he'd figure out just what was up with the Flavor Xtreme.

He knew there was definitely something up, and it was the only thing that came to mind that was new in the town; but it just didn't make sense. Dipper had seen some weird things, but a beverage morphing people into animals? That was a whole new level of weird.

Dipper finally walked the couple of blocks it was to the grocery store. One thing he noticed as he entered was that the place looked dead. As he looked around the store, his suspicions became true.

There was nobody. Nobody shopping, nobody working. That was, until he reached the man from before; this time with a much larger booth, selling his same Flavor Xtreme.

Dipper approached the man, getting the twenty-dollar bill out of his pocket and sliding in onto the table. "Um, five twelve-packs, please."

The man looked up at Dipper, and the first expression on his face appeared to be one of confusion, before he forced himself to smile. "You're in luck, kid. These are the last five."

"Yeah, uh, my family's a little nuts for 'em." Dipper replied.

The man let out another chuckle. "Everyone is. Hey, it gets me money!"

"Well, by the way...have you noticed all the weird changes going on around here?"

The man paused, stopped his hand before he grabbed another twelve-pack from under his booth. "Weird changes? No, I can't say that I have."

"Come on, don't play dumb." Dipper replied with a tad of irritation in his voice. "I know you've gotta know something quirky's going on here. People are changing into...like, not exactly animals, but animal-like creatures."

"Hmm. Haven't seen it."

"Come on!"

By now, Dipper had raised his voice considerably, slamming his hands on the table.

"The fact that you're avoiding the topic," Dipper started. "is just adding to my suspicions that the drink has something to do with what's going on."

Dipper pulled a can out of one of the twelve-packs on the desk, waving it in the man's face. "Plus, look at this! There's zero ingredient information on here. I'm pretty sure that's against the law!"

"Look, kid, calm down." The man replied. "How about I give you a discount?"

"I don't want a discount! I want to know what the heck's going on here!"

The man sighed and peered behind him. He came closer to Dipper, slightly making his voice quieter, as if he was paranoid that someone else was hiding in the store. "To be honest, I haven't been let on fully as to what's going on here. I do know a little bit, though. Can I trust you to keep a secret?"

Dipper nodded. "Please, any information you had would help me."

"Follow me."

The man started to walk away from his booth, walking far away from the aisles of the store. Dipper followed behind him.

Dipper looked as the man once again peered behind him and approached a door labeled "Employees Only". The man pulled a key out of his pocket and twisted it into the doorknob, as the door slowly swung open.

"Uh..." Dipper said, looking around in the room. All he saw were crates.

"Let me elaborate on this a bit." The man said, walking along all the crates. "Let's see here...A, B, C, D, E...F, Fa, Fe...ah, Flavor Xtreme."

The man placed both of his hands around the crate labeled "Flavor Xtreme: Handle With Care". He started to pull it down, but was having difficulty.

"Could ya give me a hand?" The man asked Dipper.

"I can, but I've gotta warn you; I don't have much muscle."

Both Dipper and the man let out a chuckle as they both pulled the crate down. Once it finally reached the floor, the man blew off the dust from the top of the crate, revealing its label and pointing it out to Dipper:


Flavor Xtreme

60 cans

Must be sold by 2015-02-11

Property of Bud Gleeful


Dipper didn't see it at first. But suddenly his eyes bugged out of his head as he noticed a familiar name on the crate.

"Bud Gleeful...that's Gideon's father!" Dipper shouted.

"Shush. Keep your voice down." The man whispered, again looking around him. "I think he's got the place wired, to be honest."

"Really?"

"He's mad, man. Mad about his son. Mad about the fact that the town threw him in jail. The guy acts real nice, but he's got a dark side."

"So...he's doing something to the drinks to turn people into animal-like creatures? What's that gonna accomplish?"

"I don't know. That's something you'd have to ask him, on the off-chance you had a death wish. All I know is that it's definitely not safe to drink this stuff."

The man handed Dipper his twenty back. "Go ahead and take this; you really don't want those twelve-packs."

"But my family..." Dipper started.

"You're the Pines, right? Related to Stan the con artist?"

"Wow, he's got that nickname?" Dipper said with a chuckle. "But yes, I'm his nephew."

"The Pines and the Gleefuls will always be at war." The man stated. "I'm sure if you tell Stan what's going on, he'll quit the stuff cold turkey. Heck, he might even go down and confront Bud, figure out what exactly is going on here. I really can't say anymore now."

"Understood." Dipper replied, tipping his hat to him as he walked out. "Thanks for the information!"

"You're welcome, kid. This might be the last time I'm seen alive, after all."

Dipper paused right before he walked out. "What do you...?"

"I've said too much. Goodbye, kiddo."

Dipper simply walked out in silence, feeling fright for the man. As soon as he left the grocery store, he began running to the Shack, ready to deliver the breaking news about what was up with the drinks.

But there was one big question still in his mind: why?


A/N: Back from vacation! Glad to finally get another chapter in; even on vacation I kept coming up with plot ideas with nowhere to jot 'em down. The curse of writer's brain, I guess. Hope you all enjoyed this chapter too; if you did, please rate/review. Thanks in advance! See you all next time!