Red's face was priceless. He had to keep himself from laughing.
"SOOS?!" Red blurted out.
"Wha-? No! Not Question Mark!" He regained his composure. "None other than the one and only Pinetree."
Red looked irritated.
"You know nothing." She growled, and she stomped off.
Bill folded his arms defiantly and rolled his eye. It was her own fault for not believing him. He sighed and joined the rest of the group. Pinetree was holding up the journal.
"Everyone!" Pinetree exclaimed. "Today's mystery hunt is of utmost importance. As we're all well aware, Gideon is out of prison, and definitely up to something."
"So where do we start?" Shooting Star asked.
"Well," Pinetree began, straightening the cap on his head. "I was thinking we could go into town, look for clues, and maybe see if we can find where Gideon is hiding out...I don't think he's really the type for roughing it in the woods."
"Nope." Bill piped in. "That talking ventriloquist dummy wouldn't last long at all."
Pinetree nodded, he looked a little nervous. Bill scoped his mind. He was scared for his friends. Bill bit his tongue. How interesting! In facing the unknown, Pinetree was more concerned about keeping those closest to him safe, rather than self preservation.
Bill felt awkward all of a sudden. He had always been an outsider looking in, and began to be acutely aware of how little he actually understood about humans.
Dipper glanced around the street. He and Bill had been wandering around the museum, Bill scanning people's minds for clues. Soos, Mabel, and Wendy were in the basement, going through the memories archived in the Hall of the Forgotten, in case if any new memories had shown up.
"Anything?" Dipper inquired, nervous.
"Nothing." Bill mumbled.
Dipper sighed and slouched onto the ground.
"Relax, kid." Bill said. "I could always just slip into the mindscape and explore things that way. It'll take some time, but I'll be able to cover more ground."
"Whatever it takes to find Gideon!" Dipper exclaimed eagerly.
Bill smirked and cracked his knuckles. Dipper watched as he closed his eye, and proceeded to topple to the floor. The lights flickered, and Dipper rushed to Bill's unmoving figure. He had a massive bump on his head, and Dipper frowned. At least Bill didn't seem to mind pain?
He heard a woman gasp from a few feet away and scrambled to his feet. He turned and recognized one of the nurses from Bill's trip to the hospital.
"He, uh, he passed out!" Dipper stammered.
The nurse rushed over, concerned. Dipper tapped his foot impatiently. Any time now Bill!
The nurse checked Bill's pulse.
"His heart's not beating!" She exclaimed.
"What?!" Dipper shouted.
He was genuinely shocked. He wasn't very sure of the logistics of entering the mindscape like Bill had just done. Maybe it didn't matter whether his heart stayed beating during his journey?
The nurse started CPR. In the middle of chest compressions, Bill's eye opened, glowing bright blue. The nurse shrieked and jumped back.
"Right," Dipper began, realizing that it must only be an effect of entering the mindscape. "Bill has a condition. Err, he probably shouldn't have been eating after midnight..."
"Do you think this is a joke?!" The nurse demanded. "I'm calling 911!"
She pulled out her phone and reported what was going on. When the ambulances arrived, Bill suddenly sprang up.
"What the-?!" Bill exclaimed, dusting himself off. "You take a nap in a museum ONE TIME, and everyone just assumes you're dead. Yeesh..."
After all the commotion calmed down, Dipper rushed over to Bill.
"What happened?! Did you find anything?!" Dipper asked.
"Slow down kid!" Bill huffed. "I'm trying to figure out where all the air in my lungs went to!"
"You for the wind knocked out of you!" Dipper explained.
"Right," Bill said. "I knew that. But yes. I found something. Gideon's hiding out at his parents' house. And you're not gonna like what comes next..."