Chapter 14

"Oh, yes," Pacifica said, grinning evilly.

"Pacifica!" Spud took a step forward. "It's exactly what you think!" Then he stopped. "Oh, wait..."

"Pacifica," Dipper tried. "What do you mean?"

She narrowed her eyes. "I'm not an idiot. I heard what you just explained to Wendy. I know all about this dragon stuff, and that you're a werecat." Then she leaned in toward Dipper, their noses almost touching. "Wait till the papers hear about this."

Dipper ignored the fact that she had just quoted exactly what he had said when found out about her great-great-grandfather. He reached out to take her hand, but she pulled away. "Don't touch me with your dirty cat hands."

"Shut up!" He grabbed her wrist and lead her to the window. "Look outside, Pacifica. Do those look like people who want to make you famous from stuff that always happens in Gravity Falls? If you go outside, you're dead. The least you can do is help us defeat them."

"No!" she insisted. "The least I can do is nothing!"

"And where will that leave you?" Dipper asked innocently.

She didn't respond. She didn't even pull away. Finally she sighed and said, "Fine. What do I do?"

He handed her a wind chime. "First, hang this around your neck. Then get ready. We have twenty-two chimes to hang outside."

She must have heard that they were magic while she was eavesdropping, because she nodded. "Sure. Whatever."

"Let's move it, people!" Dipper pounded his fist into his other palm. "They bring the fight to us? Fine. We'll give them a party."

The kids burst out the window onto the roof, each holding two or three wind chimes. Dipper charged toward the weather vane, tossed a wind chime, silently cheered himself on as it landed correctly, then rolled to the side, pulling his tail out of the trajectory of Wax Robin Hood's arrow.

He looked out the corner of his eye and saw Mabel hanging one on the window, admiring how pretty it looked, then holding another one up as a Manotaur jumped at her.

"Girls are weak!" he shouted as he fell.

Mabel blew a strand of hair out of her face. "Not all rainbows and kittens, now are we?"

Dipper looked to the left. Trixie and Spud stood back to back, each facing five or so resized gnomes stacked on each other's shoulders. As he watched, they both swung their wind chimes, hit the bottom gnomes in the face, and ran as the gnome towers fell down.

"Ok, that's the last chime!" Pacifica yelled, narrowly dodging a telekinesis-powered rock. "Inside!"

The kids dashed back inside and slammed the window shut. They fell to their knees, panting.

"Ok," Dipper said, "worst day ever."

"I know, right?" Wendy groaned.

"What is even going on?" Mabel asked. "How are they all back, and working together?"

Jake sat up stiffly, like he'd been tasered. "I think I know."

He walked to the window, opened it, muttered something, gasped, and slammed the window shut.

When he sat back down, Dipper noticed that, for a split second, Jake had red eyes.

"Gideon," he finalized. "Gideon and Rotwood."

"Figures," Dipper said nervously, his tail sticking up with fear. "Gideon can be pretty persuasive."

"And all of them hate you," Pacifica guessed.

"Wow." Trixie mused. "You're pretty perceptive for an airhead."

Pacifica gritted her teeth. "Whatever."

The house shook. Dipper assumed that the Gobblewonker was pounding against it.

"Ok," Dipper said, pulling out Volume 3, "should we make a break into the forest?"

Haley shrugged. "It's worth a shot. We might be able to find something that can stop them."

"Good." He started toward the window. "On three."

Mabel scoffed. "Just go!"

"Fine!"

They burst out again, and were soon in the forest. They doubled over again, breathing hard.

"Where now?" Spud asked. "A secret hideout?"

"Uh," Dipper mumbled, "we don't have one."

Out of the corner of his eye, Dipper saw a flash of light. He looked to where it had come from, but he only saw dense forest.

"This way!" Dipper took off toward it.

"Wait up!" He heard the flapping of wings, and he knew the Longs had drgaoned up.

It felt like hours, but Dipper finally found the source of the light. It was a weathered old building in the middle of a small clearing.

"Huh." He slowed to a stop. "This doesn't seem like-"

Suddenly the same flash of light came and went in an instant.

"Dipper!" The other seven kids caught up.

"Guys!" Dipper gestured to the building. "Check this out!"

"I don't think we should go in there," Pacifica suggested.

"Come on!" Dipper ran to the front door and almost pulled it open, but there was something attached to the door where the doorknob should have been. It looked a bit like a spider, with strange wires sticking out in all directions. Trinkets like dials and meters connected the wires to the door. And in the middle of it all was a typewriter keyboard.

"What the heck is this?" Mabel asked. "How do we get in?"

"I think... it's a lock." Spud stepped closer to examine it. "I think we have to type something in to open it."

Dipper opened Volume 3, skimmed through it, and tapped the page. "Found it," he announced. "It's called a Vernacularly Fastened Door."

What do you think? I threw in a little ASOUE for a twist. PLEASEPLEASEPLEASE REVIEW!