Disclaimer: I don't own Gravity Falls
Author's Note: In this chapter, Dipper and Mabel's sibling rivalry get the best of them in this AU version of Chapter 21: Little Dipper.
Family Tree:
Stanley and Carla - James and Jessie Pines
Stanford and Addi - Shauna and Shannon Pines
James Pines and Tara Grayson - Cormac (19), Arya, Aria, and Anais Pines (15)
Jessie Pines and Lillian Prescott - Tanya (21), Stanley Jr aka Junior, (16) and Tyrone Pines (14)
Shauna Pines and Marcus Valdez - Quincy Pines (7)
Shannon is still single.
Enjoy Fellow Gravity Fallers!
In Gideon's room…
Gideon Gleeful sits at his desk in his dark room, alone, with only his desk lamp giving light. He reads the Journal 2 for more sinister ideas of how he can bring his wrath upon the Pines family, talking to himself, "Zombie attack? Never works, I don't think. Blood Rain? No thank you; will ruin my suit. Demon caterpillars, already used them. Drat!" Gideon closed the book, irritated he couldn't find much of what he had in mind to concoct, "There must be a perfect way to exact vengeance on the Pines family. Not enough to harm them; I just need to take something from them. Something that will give me ultimate power." Gideon grinned when he sees the answer right in front of him, holding up a small handmade model of the Mystery Shack, "Wait of course!" he whispered cunningly, "It's perfect."
The next morning at the Mystery Shack…
Stan, Mabel, Dipper, Carla, Ford, Adeline and Quincy were watching Ducktective in the living room when the doorbell rings from outside. Ford and Adeline go answer the door just as Stan and Carla were about to.
The man in a blue suit addressed them, having known who they are, "Stanford and Adeline Pines?"
"Yes?" Ford responds with a raised brow, "What do you need from us?"
The man kept a straight face as he continued, "Mr and Mrs Pines, I'm from the Winning House Coupon Savers contest and you are our big winners!" the man announced enthusiastically. As if on cue, a cameraman and two ladies came in holding up a large ten-million dollar check, one of the ladies throwing up a handful of gold confetti in the air. Stan and Carla were taken by surprise, but Ford and Adeline kept their incredulous expressions.
"There is no such thing." Ford told the man, "I'd like for you, those women and that camera man to leave." Ford crosses his arms, "Now."
"Indeed." Adeline added.
"Ten million dollars...?" Carla gasp in shock of the amount won.
Dipper, Mabel and Quincy were elated from the news, planning on what to do with the money.
"We're rich!" Dipper exclaims, "I'm gonna get a butler!"
"And I'm gonna buy a talking horse!" Mabel grinned.
"I'll… I'll… I don't know what I would do with that much." wondered Quincy, trying to give it more thought like his cousins, "Maybe a dinosaur for a pet?"
"Sign here for the money." the man instructs Ford, but he refused.
"There's not way in hell you're having me sign-"
"You bet!" Stan leaped in to sign, Ford almost getting mad until he caught what Stan wrote, easing to see that Stan was fast on catching the fraudulent act when he did.
Just then, Gideon pops right through the check, laughing in triumph to see his plan worked. The child evilly grinning at the couple, snatching away the contract, "Pines, you fools! You just signed over the Mystery Shack to widdle ol' me!" The boy tap dances in place in victory, horrifying Dipper, Mabel and Quincy as they gasp.
"Nooooo!" Quincy cried out.
Stan grins to his brother, sister-in-law and wife, the adults smile in knowing Gideon didn't win this battle, "Ah, you might wanna take another look there."
Gideon read the contract again as he reads aloud, "This Shack is hereby signed over to... " he was shocked when he reads, "Suck a lemon, little man!" Stan, Carla and the rest laugh seeing Gideon's flabergast expression, but the boy was furious, ripping the contract in two as he yelled, "How dare you! I am not a threat to be taken lightly." Gideon reaches up for the man in the suit to pick him up, "Come 'ere, hun, I need your arms." The guy picks up Gideon with the boy swearing, "I'll get you, Pines, especially Quincy there…" as the guy backs away, Gideon parts with, "I'll get you all!"
Quincy clung to Adeline's side, the momentary silence broken when Stan simply suggests, "Wanna see what else is on TV."
Everyone agreed, heading back to the living room to watch some more TV.
Later that day...
Mabel and Dipper play chess in the Mystery Shack gift shop on a large tortoise shell, Quincy watching the two while Soos stacks some items on the shelves in the background.
Mabel ecstatically announced when she moves the pawn, "Little guy to black space nine!"
Dipper corrects her, having been focus the whole time, reminding her of the rules, "It's a pawn, that's not your color, and stop stealing the tiny horses."
Mabel held all the knight pieces in her sweater's pocket, "But they like it better in here. Don't you, babies?" she made horse sound in delight, making Quincy giggle.
Dipper moves his piece to knock down Mabel's king piece, announcing, "And checkmate!"
"What? Boo!" Mabel did not take Dipper's win with grace. Dipper puts another mark on his notepad as another of many wins in chess.
"Ooooh! Dipper wins again!" Dipper cheered in satisfaction.
Mabel pouts, she never liked Dipper always beating her in games her brother's an expert at such as chess. Quincy frowns for Mabel, seeing how disappointed she was.
Soos calls to Mabel, needing her help with retrieving an item on the high shelf above the cashier counter he couldn't reach from where he had the stepping stool, pointing at the brain-in-a-jar with a blonde female wig, "Yo, Mabel, can you pass me that brain-in-a-jar - the lady one?"
Dipper got up to offer, "I got it."
"I wanna help." Quincy offers as well.
Soos stops them, remarking, "Thanks, but Mabel's taller."
Dipper gasps in disbelief, seeing no difference between his sister and himself in height, "What? No she's not! We're the same height - we've always been." he argued.
Soos doubted, having good, trained eyes to spot the height difference between Mabel and Dipper, "Ah better check again, dude." Soos got off the stepping stool, taking out a tape measure to measure the heights of Mabel and Dipper with the twins being back-to-back, Dipper taking off his hat. Soos concludes that he was correct, announcing, "Yep! She's got exactly one millimeter on you."
Dipper was utterly shocked, putting his hat back on, "What?!" Dipper was not pleased to hear it.
Mabel slowly perks a grin, finally having something to achieve over her twin brother, "Don't you know what's happening, Dipper? This millimeter is just the beginning. I'm evolving into the superior sibling." she celebrates by bragging, rubbing it in her brother's face, "Bigger! Stronger!"
"Yay!" Quincy cheers for Mabel.
"Like some kind of Alpha Twin!" Soos smiles, seeing how happy Mabel became.
"Alpha Twin! Alpha Twin!"
"Oh come on, guys. Nobody even uses millimeters. It only makes you taller than me and Canada." Dipper excuses, trying to act like it's not a big deal.
"You know, Dipper, I've always wanted a little brother. Who knew I already had one?" Mabel mocks, laughing, being snide about her accomplishment, "Yeah!"
"It's alright to be short, Dipper. I mean, I'm smaller compared to all of you." Quincy tries to assure, being humble of his small size.
"You're younger than all of us, Quincy - you have an excuse." Dipper comments, not feeling up to take his younger cousins word.
Stan comes in rubbing his eyes from taking a nap, wondering, "I was awoken by the sound mockery. Where is it? Show me the object of ridicule!"
"I'm taller than Dipper!" Mabel excitedly tells Stan.
"By one millimeter!" Dipper defensively states.
"Hey, hey! Don't get… short with your sister!" Stan laughs in humor, taking him back to his teasing with Ford over the years, and reminding him when his own children and nieces would get into it too. Jessie having cried out in victory over something she knew that James didn't. Shannon having boasted about how great of a manager she was compared to her twin sister at age eleven. "Ah reminds me when I would tease Ford over the years on his nerdiness. I still do it now a bit. All in good fun."
"Oh Gruncle Stan, I hope you don't think… little of him." Mabel mocks some more.
Stan tries to come up with a good comeback, "Yeah! And… and a… he's short!"
Dipper wasn't laughing at all, getting more annoyed as the teasing goes on from his sister.
Mabel and Stan continue to laugh and tease Dipper while Quincy and Soos remain silent on the matter, not wanting to add fuel to the fire, until accidentally did, having felt bad for Dipper, "Dude's, maybe you should lay off him a tiny bit."
"Ha! Tiny! Soos is in on it now!" Stan was enjoying the teasing even more with Soos' input.
"No, no I didn't mean it." Soos frowns, genuinely not having meant to mock Dipper in the slightest.
As the two laugh, Dipper marches up to the attic room to get away from them, Quincy following him to see if he can make him feel better. Carla sees the boys walk off while walking into the gift shop to see the commotion, "What's going on, you two?"
"We were just teasing Dipper. I'm taller than him by one millimeter!" Mabel grins up to her great-aunt, though she wasn't too pleased to here.
"Well Dipper sure wasn't enjoying it, it seems." Carla crosses her arms.
"Ah Dipper will forget. He's got a… three… two… one…" Mabel and Stan say in unison, "Short term memory!" Mabel and Stan high-five each other, Mabel having been hard on the impact, it being a bit painful to Stan's hand. "I high-five hard."
Carla sighs from hearing it, she never did much like the teasing when the person on the receiving end wasn't enjoying it at all.
In the attic room, Dipper paces back and forth in the room, still a bit angry over it and Quincy sitting on the bed watching him, "Stupid Mabel, I'm not short!" Dipper says bitterly, going up to the high shelf where he placed the Journal 3, trying to reach for it but couldn't.
"Need any hel-" Quincy offers, but Dipper declines the request.
"No, Quincy, I got this." Dipper assures, kicking the shelf to make the journal fall into his hands. He skims through the pages to find a solution to get Mabel to stop teasing him, "There's gotta be a way to get taller. Let's see..." Dipper seemed to have found the page he was looking for, reading the page about the height-altering crystals, "Legends of miniature buffalo and giant squirrels have led me to believe, there are height-altering properties hidden deep within the forest." Dipper smiles, closing the book and about to head out, "I'll be back, Quincy."
"Want me to come with? I know where they are." Quincy offers, knowing more about the Journal than he lets on.
This surprises Dipper, "Really? Awesome, Quincy. I'll let you take lead, cousin." he smiles, letting Quincy go out the door first, "After you."
Within the forest...
Dipper and Quincy make their way to the forest, talking all the while on the way there.
"So, Quincy, how do you know the author of the Journals? If you don't mind me asking. And have you used the crystals before?" Dipper politely asks.
Quincy thinks, not wanting to reveal the secret too soon, so he tells the partial truth to it, "Well, I can tell you Auntie Shannon has a crystal at home she keeps with the rest of the rocks she collects. And I know the author from- Whoa!"
Before Quincy could finish his sentence, he trips over a large root, sending him tumbling down the hill as Dipper runs after and grabs him. Dipper too tumbling down with Quincy like a ball, the two holding close together as they reach the bottom, covered in dirt, grass and leaves from the ordeal.
Both boys groan as they got up, seeing a small deer to their surprise.
"Whoa…" Dipper quietly uttered, the deer joining with the rest of the small herd by the mushrooms and pine cone that seem like trees in comparison. An eagle flies right underneath Dipper's nose when all of a sudden, both boys hear the sound of a mountain lion's growl before them. It was indeed a mountain lion, aiming to hunt for its next prey.
Quincy holds Dipper close behind him while the twelve-year tries to determine if it's just a matter of perspective or the mountain lion really was small. It wasn't small at all.
"Is that mountain lion tiny or far away from perspective?" Dipper squints his eyes, however, the mountain lion bounds for the two boys, lunging high in the air to pounce!
"Perspective! Perspective!" Dipper and Quincy scream for dear life as the mountain leaps towards them, not aware that the pinkish light could shrink it to miniature size, getting smaller and smaller to be no more than the size of a child's hand. The now tiny mountain lion lands onto Dipper's chest, climbing throughout the vest, making Dipper giggle from the small paws and Quincy laughing with him. The tiny mountain bit Dipper's finger, it stung to the boy, but it was no more than a sting in comparison, "It still hurts but less."
The tiny mountain lion leaps off Dipper and into the woods. Quincy points right at the cluster of crystals with a huge one right at the center; casting two separate beams of light: the pink light that shrinks and the blue light that grows. The magical power of the crystal was demonstrated at Dipper and Quincy watch a butterfly flutter across both beams, it having become smaller when it passes through the shrinking light, then large when it passes through the growing light.
"Whoa…" Dipper was utterly amazed by the sight, "Thanks for showing me this, Quincy. Does Aunt Shannon use her crystal to grow and shrink things."
Quincy smiles at the mention and answers, "Yep! Mostly to use in her work with shrinking and growing gems and other stones."
Dipper takes out a multi-tool pocket knife, using it to retrieve a smaller size crystal to use for himself. He places the crystal into his vests pocket, "Alright, I believe we're done here."
Quincy follows Dipper back to the Mystery Shack.
Back at the Mystery Shack…
In the attic room, Dipper found a solution of how he could harness the crystal's power when he ties the crystal to the lens of the red flashlight. He smiles as he tests out the function of his new growing/shrinking flashlight.
"That's really cool, Dipper." Quincy comments, wanting to see what his cousin does with it.
"Check this out, Quincy." Dipper points the flashlight at a white pawn chess piece, testing out his new device, "Smaller." the pawn shrinks to minimal size. Dipper turns over the crystal and does the same again, this time, making it bigger, "Bigger." but he made the pawn piece too large when it hits the roof of the attic.
Quincy takes the flashlight to make the pawn smaller again to its original size, "Phew… almost made a hole in the ceiling."
Dipper takes up the flashlight from his young cousin, "Alright, now I know how much not to use on myself." Dipper aims the flashlight at himself, growing at least two more millimeters than his sister. "Do I look a bit taller, Quincy?"
Quincy nods some, though giving him a questioning look, "Are you sure you wanna do this? I mean, it just seems dumb to be going this far to prove you're the better twin sibling through height."
Dipper takes a deep breath and thinks, he hated how Mabel kept teasing about the extra millimeter and being taller than him, "I want Mabel to see she can't tease me anymore for being short." he then adds that comes off as bitter, "You wouldn't understand; you don't have a twin sibling to compete with."
This makes the young boy frown, hurting him on the inside, "I think having a twin would be cool…"
Dipper realizes how off he sounded, seeing how it pained Quincy to hear that, he goes up to Quincy to hug him, wanting to apologize immediately, "I'm so sorry, Quincy, I sounded mean right there, man. I get snappy when I'm frustrated and I shouldn't have taken it out on you…"
"It's okay, Dipper." Quincy shows a little smile, "I've dealt with worse - trust me."
Hearing it from Quincy worries Dipper more than he shows, "Well, I'm going to go show off to Mabel and have her eat her words."
Dipper and Quincy make it inside the gift shop where Mabel was talking to Soos about buying bigger clothes. Dipper grins ear to ear to have Mabel ask, "Hey guys! You notice anything different about me?"
Soos focuses his sight on Dipper, seeing anything that could give him a clue of what changed, to which his height did indeed change from what the handyman could see, "Holy hot sauce! You've grown an extra millimeter."
Mabel was greatly incredulous, finding it hard to comprehend that her own brother suddenly grew a little taller than her in the same day, "What?!" unpleased, she got down from the barrel she sat on as Soos got out the tape measure again to compare their respective heights. It was clear Dipper grew a bit taller than her.
Dipper grins with pride over his accomplishment, "What can I say, sis, growth spurt."
Mabel shows a smile, rubbing it off, adding fuel to Dipper's insecure flame, "Ah mine happen first. I'm gonna be taller than you in the end. It's science, Dipper!"
Dipper couldn't bare to hear that from his sister as he defends himself,"What? We're the same height now!"
Seeing Dipper upset from this got Quincy to be sadden, seeing how Dipper and Mabel's sibling fight will grow, not liking it one bit with where it's going to go.
Mabel chants the phrase, "Alpha Twin! Alpha Twin!"
"Oh yeah? Something tells me I've got another growth spurt coming on right now." Dipper narrows his eyes at his sister as he leaves, Mabel doing the same, as Dipper goes back into the attic room to grow himself a little more, Quincy following him. Mabel bursts open the door, having grown suspicious of Dipper's odd behavior since he came back.
"Give it up, Dipper!" Mabel gasps, noticing how tall Dipper grew since she saw him just moments ago, now figuring something was up, "What happened?"
Dipper rolls his eyes, being casual about it, "Oh you know, puberty and stuff."
"That doesn't make any sense. Just a second ago, you were-" it then dawned on her that magic was involved, getting her to question her brother, growing a little angry, "Wait a minute! This is some kind of magic-y thing, isn't it?" she then looks at Quincy and asks sweetly, "Quincy you were with Dipper, do you know how he's growing so tall?"
"Um…" Quincy thinks, Dipper gesturing him to not tell Mabel about the flashlight.
Meanwhile, Stan answers the door when it rings, opening to see Gideon holding a bat with one hand and a jar full of eerie red glowing termites. Stan is instantly annoyed by the boy, crossing his arms, "Oh, it's you… Here to beat the crap out of great-nephew again? Well that ain't gonna happen on my watch."
"Oh howdy, Stanley! I haven't come hurt Quincy." Gideon fakes a smiles, turning into a more direct expression as he threatens in a low tone, "Listen closely: inside this jar I have one-thousand cursed Egyptian super termites. Have your brother hand over the deed to the property, or I'll smash this jar with a bat, and they'll devour this shack with you and anyone else inside!"
Stan wasn't going to take Gideon's threat lightly. He knew how to handle a brat like Gideon, seeing how the boy underestimates. He tricks him with, "Hey what's that?" Stan points at nothing, making Gideon look for but a moment to knock down the jar, releasing the termites. The termites attacking Gideon instead of the Mystery Shack, eating the bat first that made the boy scream in horror.
"Oh no!" he cries as he runs around with the termites swarming all around him, Stan getting a laugh out of it, "Get 'em off!"
"Hey, Soos! Carla get in here! I wanna take pictures of this." Stan calls to them, but were preoccupied at the moment with something else.
"Y'all may won the battle! But mark my words, Stanley, your family has a weak spot, and I'm gonna find it!" Gideon swears, determined to take the Pines family down and gain control over the Shack for his own ill purposes.
Back upstairs in the attic room, Quincy reveals the truth to Dipper and his activity, "Dipper has a crystal that can grow and shrink things…" he tells, unable to lie in front of his cousin.
"It's true. I grew myself using this magic flashlight." Dipper adds, showing her the red flashlight with the crystal on the lens. Seeing what her brother has, Mabel immediately wanted to see for herself with grabbing hands.
"Let me see that thing!"
Dipper screams, taking off with the flashlight to avoid Mabel getting a hold of the magical item, knowing that his sister will possibly mess up many things with it and his chances of being the taller sibling. Before Mabel takes off, she thanks Quincy. "Thank you very much, Quincy!"
Quincy follows after the twins who were heading outside the shack, Mabel tackling Dipper down to the ground where he lost grip of the flashlight. The flashlight lands with a thud, rolling over to turn on the beam by itself, the growing light hitting a nearby caterpillar, growing it to the size of a car just about. The caterpillar climbs up and down two cars, crushing them right before the children's eyes before heading into the woods. Mabel found it amazing as to what it could do.
Mabel got up to retrieve the flashlight, turning it off, then on to briefly grow her hand to a much larger size, making her scream.
"It's okay, Mabel, it can shrink things too." Dipper explains, shrinking her hand back to normal size.
Mabel takes advantage of Dipper's guard being down to knock the flashlight right out of his hand, "Normal hand karate chop!"
"Hey!"
Dipper and Mabel fight over the flashlight to gain control from the other, Quincy doing his best to make them stop fighting.
"Guys knock it off! You both are acting dumb!" Quincy yells, slapping the flashlight out of Dipper's hand from frustration, the flashlight flying right towards Gideon, "Oopsies…"
"Curse the Pines family! Curse Stan! Curse Quincy! Curse-" Gideon was hit by the flashlight while he was pacing in anger over his defeat. He turns to pick the flashlight up, seeing something off about it, "My, my, what delightful manner of do-hickory is this?" Gideon takes close examination of it.
Mabel whispers loudly to her brother and Quincy, unaware that Gideon was listening to her the whole time, "Maybe he didn't see us use it, and doesn't know it's a magic flashlight that can grow and shrink things." By the time Mabel sees Gideon having been near to hear, it was too late. Dipper sighed in dismay.
"Really?"
Gideon turns on the flashlight, still on the shrinking setting, taking delight of the color it creates and the possibility it has. Dipper and Mabel try to stop Gideon from using it, but too little too late when Gideon shrinks the twins down to size, as well as Quincy who attempted to run back to the shack to get help. Gideon evilly grins as he did so.
Dipper, Mabel and Quincy hold each other close in fear, Gideon manically laughing in victory. The boy uses his empty jar to scoop up all three of them, taking them back to his home as he cooks up another sinister plan.
At Gideon's home...
Gideon's dad, Bud Gleeful was selling his used, barely functioning - if they even functioned to begin with - cars right by the family home and Tent of Telepathy at Gleeful's Auto Sales, showing off not only his charisma but a used car with a possum inside the hood of the car he was displaying to the small crowd of customers.
Bud then sees his son walk past him, inquiring to him about the jar under his son's arm, "Say son, what's in the jar?"
Gideon puts on his fake smile and wide eyes to the crowd, getting them to back off from getting into his ill-intended business, "That's my widdle secret!" making the crowd go "aw" from Gideon's act. As soon as Gideon heads for his house, he mumbles under his breath in bitterness, "Mouth-breathing fools." Gideon didn't even look at his mother while he walks through the kitchen, his poor mother obsessively vacuuming - even though the tile floor was spotless- to not anger her son in the slightest out of sheer fear of him.
Gideon enters his dark room where only the light of his desk lamp shone. Gideon opens the jar's lid to have the twins and Quincy be shaken out of the space, landing on the desk
"You three…" Gideon addresses with a glare.
"Wh… What are you going to do to us?" Mabel asks out of fear, Dipper getting a determined face, and Quincy holding onto Mabel.
Gideon perks a smile, rubbing her head with his finger, "Why, Mabel, I wouldn't hurt a hair on your iddy biddy head… if you agree to be my queen." he threatens.
Mabel pushes away Gideon's finger, protesting, "We live in a democracy! And never!"
Gideon grew furious with her declining his offer, "Maybe you'll change your mind with… this!" he lifts her up by her sweater. Mabel squirming and swinging her arms, wanting to punch him.
"I'll fight you til the day I-" Mabel stops and gasps when she sees a bag of gummy koalas, making her beam, "Gummy Koalas!" Gideon drops her into the bag, Mabel immediately munching on the nearest one.
Gideon then turns to Dipper, "Now as for you, boys." Gideon takes the desk lamp, beaming it right at Dipper and Quincy to interrogate them, suspecting something was up, "Tell me! How exactly did you come upon this magic item, hm? Somebody tell you about it? Did you read about it somewhere? You know about the Journals, Quincy, where did find such an item?"
Quincy didn't reply, not wanting to give away the secret, no matter what, even if his life is on the line.
Dipper glances at the journal he has on him in his vest, coming up with a plan so Gideon wouldn't press him any further, glancing over at the air horn behind him as he gestures Quincy to cover his ears, "Lean closer and I'll tell you."
"Well don't mind if I-" Gideon hears the loud honk of the air horn directly at him, making the livid boy cover his ears from the noise, making him fluster and scream out of anger. Gideon knocks the lamp out of the way, preparing his fist to slam them both, "I could squash y'all right now!"
Dipper and Quincy back away out of fear, preparing to leap to the side to dodge the possible impact. Gideon takes a glance at his fist, getting himself to calm enough to think, "Steel yourself, Gideon. You can use them. You can use them." the boy told himself, smiling even more menacingly to the idea he came up with.
Meanwhile at the Mystery Shack, Soos sets up multiple tall mirrors facing in different directions by Stan and Carla's orders in the parlor room, imitating a funhouse of mirrors; at least that's what they intended as Stan and Carla comes in.
"Soos, this maze of mirrors is the best idea you've come up with!" Carla compliments the handyman.
"We're gonna make a fortune!" Stan cheers, celebrating too soon. He sets down his fez hat for a moment to look at himself, commenting on his appearance, "My ears always been this big?"
Suddenly, the home phone rings as Stan goes to get it while Carla helps manages the mirrors with Soos.
When Soos sees Stan leave, he takes the opportunity to try on his fez, standing proud as he says, "One day…"
"One day indeed." Carla sighs, looking to Soos, "Stan and I know we can't run this gig forever."
"Soos quickly sets down the fez on the vanity mirror, putting back on his own hat, "Sorry, Mrs. Pines, I wanted to try it on."
Carla lightly smiles as she waves a hand, "Oh it's alright, Soos. I have to say you sure do love this place since you were a boy."
Soos nods, "More than anything - well except those I care for of course. One of my all time places to go to unwind and calm me when I'm going through some things, you know. This place is like magic."
Carla giggles a bit, making her happy to hear it from Soos, "You know, since the kids have grown older and pursue their own line of work, as will the grandkids, Stan and I aren't sure if we can keep this up. We're getting older." she looks at her aging self in the mirror and the grey hairs and wrinkles.
Soos frowns, not liking where Carla was going, "You saying you'll shut down the Mystery Shack when you both retire?"
Carla sighs, seeing how broken Soos looks to her like a sad puppy, smiling, "Not for a long time, I can guarantee! Perhaps, if Ford and Adeline are okay with it, Stan and me can have someone we trust to continue the Mystery Shack. Someone we know who will keep this place going and carry on the spirit of it." Carla turns one of the mirrors to Soos, signifying it to be him, "We decided it should be you, Soos. One day."
Soos' jaw drops, not knowing what to say except, he was utterly overjoyed and near tears, "You mean… I can become Mr. Mystery?"
Carls shushes, "You bet, Soos. Let's keep this quiet for now until that day comes. Tanya put in a good word for you and we all couldn't agree more." she winks to him with a smile, "And maybe one day you'll find your Mrs. Mystery too."
Stan answers the home phone with a grunt, hearing Gideon's voice on the other end. Stan was really considering a restraining order at that moment against the brat.
"Stanley Pines, listen to me very carefully: I have your niece and nephews." Gideon begins the ransom, "You and your brother hand over the deed to the Mystery Shack right now, or great harm will befall them! This is Gideon by the way." he added.
Stan just laughs, knowing the kid may be dangerous, but knows Dipper and Mabel are capable of shooing him off, "Oh yeah, this is going to be your worse plot yet. They're fine. I saw them all playing in the yard minutes ago." he drinks his Pitt Cola while listening.
"I have them in my possession, you don't believe me? I will text you a photo!" Gideon yells back.
Stan shows a confused expressions, "Text me a photo? I haven't figured out that function on that damn phone yet. I'll have to get my nephew-in-law or one of the family to show me." he then hangs up before Gideon could say more.
Getting angry again, Gideon throws his phone against the wall, shattering it into pieces, Dipper shielding Quincy from the phone debris. Suddenly, Gideon has an epiphany, causing him to laugh and be beside himself he didn't think of it earlier, "What am I doing?" Dipper, Mabel and Quincy look at each other with worried expressions for their family, "I don't need ransom. I have this!" Gideon raises the flashlight up, coming up with another plan he's sure it'll work, "I'll shrink Stan, along with everyone else, and take the shack for myself! Y'all will be helpless to stop me." This terrifies the shrunken trio as Gideon shows them their doll versions the boy crafted, "And if any of y'all step out of line…" he snaps the necks off the dolls, tossing them aside to show he wasn't screwing around, "Smash!"Gideon laughs evilly. He stops laughing when his dad calls to him.
"Gideon, the ice cream truck is here!"
Gideon got childishly excited, calling back, "Comin'!" but before he goes down stairs, he gets his pet hamster, Cheekums, releasing the pet onto the vanity, "Guard them, Cheekums. I'm comin'!" As soon as the door shuts, Dipper, Mabel and Quincy come up with a plan.
Quincy smiles up at the hamster, petting the animal, "It's alright, Cheekums is friendly, aren't you mister?" the hamster was unresponsive, not doing much but sniffing around.
Dipper nods, going up to Mabel and advises, "We've gotta get out of here and save our family."
"I know!" Mabel smiles, tucking a bit of what's left of the gummy koala in her sweaters pouch, "I will see you later."
Quincy sees the gummy koala and asks, "May I have a piece of gummy koala?"
Mabel grins, fulfilling the request, tearing of a piece of gummy koala and giving it to Quincy when she got out of the bag, "Of course you can, Quincy!"
"Yay!" Quincy takes a bite when given to him.
Dipper paces to come up with a plan, "Alright, Gideon's got magic and like a zillion inches on us. On the bright side, at least we're finally the same height."
"Actually…" Mabel brings up.
Quincy sighs, face-palming, "You two still worried about the dumb height thing?"
"It's very important we know who's taller, Quincy." Dipper inputs while getting a ruler out of Gideon's school supply bag. "Hold this up for us, please." Quincy frowns, doing as he's told.
Mabel and Dipper go back to back against the ruler, comparing their heights revealing Mabel to still be taller than Dipper, much to Dipper's dismay and Mabel feeling proud.
"You're still taller? Ugh, how did this happen?"
Mabel simply shrugs, "I guess it's another mystery."
Dipper pouts, putting his hat back on, "Another reason we gotta get that flashlight back." Dipper looks down the vanity, seeing how far a drop it seems from where they're at on top. Mabel attempts to get Cheekums to move, but not budge from the hamster.
"Onward, Cheekums! To freedom!" Mabel pats the hamster, but he did not budge, "To freedom!" she tries again and it still didn't work. She didn't seem to mind, "Aw, you're just a big ol' dumby-dumb."
Dipper sees the brush and comes up with an idea, "I have a plan." Soon, Dipper, Mabel and Quincy use the hairs and bristles of the brush to mend into a rope to climb down the vanity safely. As soon as all three were down, they made their way to the living room where they watch Gideon interact with his dad while the two eat ice cream.
Gideon demands his dad harshly, "Clean me!" displaying he's even cruel to his own parents who are too lenient to discipline him as Bud caters to his sons whim. Gideon asks in a more polite tone, proving to be quite a manipulator, "Father, can you give widdle ol' me a ride to the Mwystery Shack."
Bud denies the request as he was busy, saying sweetly, "I'd love to, sugarpie, but I have a heck of a lot of cars to sell, I do." he then tickles his son, causing the boy to go off on him when he starts laughing.
"Don't tickle me!" Gideon then throws the quart of ice cream against the wall, causing his timid mother to jump, barely missing her. This making Dipper, Mabel and Quincy cower in the shoe they're hiding in. "Never! Never tickle me! What have I told you?" Gideon gets direct with his dad, "Look at me, what have I told you?"
Bud became crestfallen, replying sadly with, "Tickling… is no laughing matter."
Gideon was pleased from the response, "There we go."
"Do you still need a ride to the Mystery Shack?" asked Bud, willing to give his son a hand after all that.
"I'll just take the bus!" Gideon yells back, getting off the recliner and tipping over the stand with a lamp on his way out, being destructive with his anger with kicking open the door and slamming it shut behind him.
Bud could simply smile and comment, "Ah, precious memories…" his wife, Muriel, vacuuming away in fear, cleaning up the messes her son made.
Dipper, Mabel and Quincy sees the chance to run for the small doggie door to head outside. When the trio get to the car lot, Dipper suggests, "We need to get higher."
Mabel comments, displeasing her brother, "Yeah, especially you 'cause you're short!"
Quincy then points up to the dollar sign balloon with wings, "Over there, guys! Balloon!"
The three head for the large balloon, seeing how they can make it fly for them, but the rope tied it to where it is. Dipper watches the exchange between Gideon and Lazy Susan, the woman smiling at the boy.
"What cute little thing you're off to, you cute little cutie face?" Lazy comments, she too waiting for the bus.
Gideon replies that sends shivers down her spine, "I'm gonna annihilate my arch-enemies entire family. Well a good few first, then the rest of the family."
Lazy Susan didn't know what to think, hearing it from a young boy like Gideon, she simply says, "Oh. Okay. Yay?" she nervously smiles to him.
Gideon gets on the bus heading straight to the Mystery Shack, Dipper thinking fast to make the balloon fly for them, "He's heading to shrink them!"
"Come on, flying discount dollar, if only you could fly us back to the Mystery Shack." Mabel sighs, but then hear a snapping sound from the rope being broken. Quincy cutting off the ropes with his teeth it appeared.
Dipper smiles, "Awesome, Quincy! Let me help you out there, man." he uses his multi-tool scissors to cut the rope completely, making the balloon fly high, drifting in the wind, the kids cheering in victory.
"We're flying!" Quincy smiles, holding on tightly to the balloon as it flew, Mabel and Dipper steering it to the direction of the Mystery Shack before Gideon does, eventually landing on the Mystery Shack's totem pole. The three get off the balloon just in time when Gideon arrives, heading right for the door.
"How are we gonna stop him?" Dipper ponders, a woodpecker pecking at him. Quincy helping Dipper shoo the bird away while Mabel has an idea involving her gummy koala.
"Leave that to Mabel!" Mabel grins.
Gideon grins as he grips the door handle, "I'm comin' for you, Pines." before he could pull the handle, a piece of wet gummy koala gets into his hair, Mabel having shot it at him.
Mabel frowns, having found it hard to let go of her treat, but she knew it was for the best, "I'm sorry, gummy friend."
"It's for the greater good." Dipper sympathizes with her.
"Yeah…" Quincy becomes sad with them.
Gideon struggles to get the gummy koala out of his white pompadour hair, "I can't defeat the Pines family lookin' like this." he then drops the flashlight to go to the nearby mirror to get the gummy koala out of his hair, hair spraying his hairstyle to make it as it was before. This gave Dipper, Mabel and Quincy a chance to get to the flashlight before Gideon were to catch them.
Mabel tells Dipper and Quincy, "Quick, you two get in front and I'll regrow you."
Dipper turns the crystal around for it to get to growing, commenting, "Okay. Wait, you're gonna grow us back to equal height, right?"
"Dipper it doesn't matter right now!" Mabel protests, actually focused on the task at hand.
"Mabel's right, Dipper!" Quincy faces Dipper, having had enough of the whole debate, "It doesn't matter at all right. Mabel grow us back, please!" the boy was practically screaming that was how bad it was. The boy's cheeks were red with anger, breathing heavily from yelling.
Dipper was too late in shushing Quincy who got Gideon's attention, picking them all up, grinning, "I dare say you would've defeated me, if it wasn't for your sibling bicker and Quincy's shrilly screams."
Gideon kicks open the gift shop door, "The Shack is mine, Pines!" Gideon aims and fires the shrinking beam at Soos. Dipper, Mabel, and Quincy distraughtly cry out for their family member. the fez hat rolling away to reveal him, infuriating Gideon more and more as things kept going wrong, "Well, well, looks like I've finally gotten the better out of you- What?"
Soos was unaware he had shrunken at first, looking around while putting on his hat, "Something's definitely different here."
Like before, Gideon puts Dipper, Mabel, Quincy and now Soos inside the empty jar, shaking it up to make them talk when he's done, "Tell me where Stan and the rest of the Pines are!"
Soos shows a determined expression, not willing to tell the boy anything at first until he blurts out, "Never! You'll never find them on the second door to the left down the hall, where I last saw Stan." Soos covers his mouth, uttering an, "Wait, why did I say?"
Gideon evilly grins as he puts the jar of the four inside his coat pocket, "~Staaan! I'm comin' for you~!" he chimes, heading in the direction of the mirror maze.
The four inside the jar do their best to move out of the jar, but to no avail. Mabel sticks her tongue out at Gideon's picture of his elementary school I.D card. Soos crouches down, feeling absolutely terrible for telling where Stan was at least.
"I kinda Soos'd up that one up, didn't I?" Soos frowns, knowing that Stan and the other could be done for.
Dipper admits, taking the blame for everything, "It's not your fault, Soos, I'm the guy that put together that shrinking device." Dipper turns to Quincy, "And I'm sorry for not listening to you when you kept warning me, Quincy, I was supposed to be protecting you from Gideon, but I screwed that up.."
Quincy nods, apologizing himself, "I'm sorry too for not being quiet enough. I just got mad you didn't let it go when things were bad."
Dipper nods, then looks to Mabel, "You kept teasing me, Mabel, like all day, what was that all about?"
Mabel takes out the notepad of Dipper's wins, showing it to him and explain crestfallen, "I guess it's that… you've beaten me at everything, and you always rub it in my face. Chess, checkers, ping pong… I guess I feel like winning at something for once."
Dipper felt guilty for making his twin sister feel inferior to him of all the times he's won, "Ah man, now I feel like a big jerk."
Hearing her brother made her smile as she jokingly corrects, "Don't you mean a little jerk?"
The kids laugh some from the joke, Dipper accepting it, "Alright, I walked into that one. We cool?"
"We're cool." Mabel fist-bumps her brother's.
Soos wanting to join in too, "Am I cool?"
"You're cool, Soos." Mabel replies, doing the same for him, "Yes!"
"Me too?" Quincy smiles.
"You too, dude." Dipper agree, he too doing the same for his younger cousin and Soos took care of Quincy's other hand.
Gideon was taken by surprise to see a maze of mirrors in the room, but as soon as he spotted Stan, he calls for him to get his attention, "Stanley!"
Stan looks up where Gideon stands on the balcony, replying with a smug expression, "Oh hi, Gideon! I've been lookin' for someone to try out my new mirror maze. My lovely wife, and brother and sister-in-law needed to do things so I couldn't ask them. Then again, you're an idiot and a brat." Stan couldn't think of more so say before he went further into the maze, "That's the end of the sentence."
"You come back here!" Gideon tucks the flashlight into his other pocket, going after him with Stan replying back.
"Try ta find me, twerp!"
Within the jar, Quincy pushes with all he's got to get the lid open, finding it difficult as he wasn't strong enough in arm strength. With a little extra boost from Mabel, the lad gets the lid open for all of them to escape.
"Let's get that flashlight before he gets Stan and everyone else." Dipper, Mabel, Quincy and Soos climb out of Gideon's coat front pocket, almost instantly spotting the flashlight, "There it is!"
All of them make their way to get behind Gideon's shoulder and back neck, Mabel becoming mesmerized by how sleek and shiny Gideon's hair was to her. Dipper snaps her out of it to look away from the distraction. However, Soos decides to mess with Gideon's chubby neck, "This neck is really squishy! Hey, look, I'm making a fat angel!"
Gideon feels the movement in his neck, getting rid of the irritation, knocking off Soos in the process as the handy falls down to the carpet below. He thankfully landed safely as it seems he wasn't hurt from the fall. Soos eats a corn chip he found, taking delight in consuming it.
Quincy sighs in relief to see Soos alive and safe as he follows Mabel and Dipper. Gideon became cautious of his surroundings with his observant eyes, watching out for Stan. As soon as Gideon spots Stan, he immediately uses the flashlight to shot a beam at him, but the mirrors reflect the beam back and forth at each other until they hit a nearby moose head mounted on the wall, shrinking it.
Stan laughs at the boy, taking delight the mirrors are confusing him. Gideon will not let it get the better of him as he threw the flashlight at the mirror in front of him, shattering it, making Stan mad, "Hey, watch the merchandise!"
Gideon grins at the awful idea he came up with within moments, using the flashlight to break every mirror he sees. He broken several before Stan finally confronts the boy about the mess he's making.
"You little troll!" Stan was definitely going to have Gideon pay for the damages he caused, though having difficulty to name the price, "These mirrors cost me ten! No, I mean… a twenty-five… five-hundred dollars each, and you're paying for all of them!"
"Oh contraire," Gideon points the flashlight right at Stan, "it is you who must pay!"
Mabel, Dipper and Quincy look at each other, worrying more, "If we don't do something, Gruncle Stan is doomed!"
Dipper smiles to an idea, knowing just the way to incapacitate Gideon, "Not completely doomed! To his armpit!" Mabel and Quincy hesitated, not wanting to go anywhere near Gideon's sticky armpits until Dipper coaxes them to go along with it, "Just… come on." The three crawl down Gideon's clothing, reaching for the armpit area, planning to give him a good tickling.
Stan takes some steps back, seeing the possible weapon Gideon has on him, "Whoa what is that thing?"
Gideon moves closer towards Stan, the old man moving further back as Gideon moves forward, "Finally, after all this time, after every failed attempt. You and your family will be all mine! No one's gonna protect you now."
"I am!" Carla calls out, showing an angry face as she marches towards Gideon, bringing a thankful smile on Stan's face, "So it was you breaking all these mirrors. Shame on you, Gideon!"
Gideon jumps in surprise, preparing to shrink her down when she got close until, he starts laughing hysterically, the tickling caused by Dipper, Mabel and Quincy, making the child rolling on his back while laughing uncontrollably.
Stan and Carla raise a brow from the scene, not seeing what's causing the boy to laugh all of a sudden, "I… I don't know how to respond to this."
Carla sighs, beginning to move the boy, "Well I'm responding by getting this boy out of our house. I'm gonna have to clean up all that glass…"
"Kid needs to get his issues together…" he sees the flashlight being dropped by Gideon, picking it up to take a good look at it, "Now what is this? Hmm… I'll go take this to Ford and see what he can do with it." Ford enters the room, "Speaking of, hey bro, come take a look at this thing Gideon had on him."
"What do you have there, Stanley?" Ford accepts the flashlight, turning on and off, instantly knowing it was an height altering crystal, "Where did you get this?"
"That twerp Gideon had it on him, was gonna use it on me until he started laughing all of a sudden." Stan shrugs, then noticing it was getting dark, "Say, have you seen the kids and Soos?"
Ford shakes his head, "No, Stanley, I… oh no."
"Oh no?" Stan asks, knowing that look on Ford's face that something wasn't right.
It suddenly dawned on Ford of what could have happened with Dipper and them, "We have to find them. The Shack can be a dangerous place for one so small..." he then takes out his magnifying glass, beginning to search all around the floors, being careful with avoiding the broken glass, until he found Soos in the carpet still, "Soos!"
Soos jumps when he sees Ford, "Oh hey Dr. Pines! Wow you have a lot of wrinkles up close." he comments. Ford lowering his hand to pick him up and asks softly, "Where are Dipper, Mabel and Quincy, Soos? Did Gideon do this to you?"
"He did, Dr. Pines, and Dipper and them are probably still on Gideon to stop him from shrinking you guys." Soos was lifted into Ford's pocket, going after Gideon as Carla just got him outside.
As soon as Gideon got outside, Mabel, Dipper and Quincy get off Gideon and leaped into the bushes. Gideon stops laughing as soon as he finds the flashlight went missing, "My light!"
Ford goes straight up to Gideon, lifting him up and demanding, "Where are my niece, nephew and grandson? You better not lie to my face."
Quincy runs up to Ford from out of the bushes, tugging on his pants leg to let him know, "We're down here, Grandpa! Grandpa!" Ford smiles in relief, though giving a good glare at Gideon before setting him down, making Gideon run off in fear and back to his home in a hurry.
Ford takes a deep breath, being careful when he reaches down to pick up Quincy, placing the tiny boy in his hand, "There you are, my lad. Glad you're safe. Where are Dipper and Mabel?"
Quincy sees them heading inside the Shack behind the door, "Inside behind the door, Grandpa. We had a long day."
Ford smiles, "I can tell, my lad, let me get you all back to normal size."
As soon as Ford gets them all together in the living, he turns over the crystal, directing the growing beam right at the miniature Dipper, Mabel, Soos, and Quincy to return them to the height as they were before. Mabel keeping her extra millimeter and Dipper being happy she did as well. Quincy goes up to give his grandpa and grandma a good hug.
"Thanks a lot for getting us back to normal, Gruncle Ford." Mabel thanks with a bright smile, "It was quite an adventure we had."
Adeline and Ford wonder how Gideon got a hold of one of the height-altering crystals, knowing it isn't mentioned in Journal 2. Adeline advises the kids, "Well we're all glad you're safe and sound. I was beginning to worry where you all were. We'll be keeping a more watchful eye if Gideon comes back to cause trouble again."
Dipper, Mabel and Quincy nod to each other, Dipper agreeing, "I say."
Later that night, Ford and Adeline talk with Quincy in their room about today's events.
Quincy explaining to them more about how Gideon got hold of the flashlight, and Dipper having made the flashlight in the first place, among other things.
Ford and Adeline were quite impressed, yet concern for Dipper, knowing how the things Dipper will discover could be incredibly dangerous and life-threatening.
"I haven't told Dipper yet about you being the author, Grandpa. Like you and Grandma said, 'never spoil a good mystery'." Quincy smiles to them, "Although, I kinda want to tell him at the same time."
Adeline strokes her grandson's head, "I believe Dipper will soon figure it out. I mean, the answer is right in front of him."
"I believe he doesn't want to assume it's me in case he could be wrong, seeing how James, Shauna and Tanya have polydactyly fingers like myself." Ford adds, feeling proud of Dipper, "He's an inquisitive boy, I know he'll figure it out soon enough, or I'll tell him if he ever shows the Journal to me." Ford adjusts his glasses, "I mean him and Mabel figured out who the real founder of Gravity Falls was when we couldn't."
Adeline nods, not having thought about that case for years, recounting all the clue they tried to find before having found it too difficult for their serious minds to decipher the code and clues. She sees how late it was getting, telling her grandson, "Alright, Quincy, time to head to bed with Dipper and Mabel."
"Okay, Grandma, Grandpa. Love you!" Quincy hugs both Ford and Adeline.
"Love you too, Quincy." Ford tells his grandson
"Love you too, sweetpea." Adeline lightly smiles
Quincy heads off to join his cousins upstairs for another sleepover, his parents not having mind at all.
Later at the Gleeful house…
Gideon thrashes about his tantrum of his failed attempt to get revenge, the boy pacing back and forth in anger while his dad attempts to calm him.
"Ah son, don't you mind that Stanford Pines and his family, you'll get your revenge one of these days." Bud smiles, but then frowns when Gideon flips over the nearby recliner with all his might.
"No! It's not just about revenge! I want that Shack; the physical building."
Bud sighs, knowing exactly why is son wants the Shack, "It's for them Journals, isn't it, son?"
Gideon grins, going up to sit right next to his dad, replying, "Yes. They hold a secret you couldn't possibly imagine." he then laughs maniacally, think of all the things he would do with such power; such as getting rid of the Pines family for good.
Bud then offers to his son, "Sweetie, you want some ice cream?"
Gideon accepts, asking first, "Did you pick out all the nuts?"
Bud simply nods, giving his son a spoonful before his son starts laughing evilly again, he gives him another when he asks for more.
A/N: Another chapter written by Flight-Of-Hawks/vulpixen! I've been enjoying writing these chapters a lot and helping my friend, sailormew4 out! I'd like to share Ford has known Dipper having Journal 3, him trusting his great-nephew with possessing it to learn about Gravity Falls. Join us next time as Dipper gets a chance to perhaps working up the courage to share his real name to everyone in Chapter 22: What's in a Nickname!