Enjoy!:

Twenty One: Necessary Combinations

The next day around noon, Dipper sat in his office with Candy. The two of them were having a small meeting to try to figure out a way to pull themselves out of their current crisis.

Last night, when Clox had gone to break the bad news to the families of those who died last night, things didn't go so well. In fact, he had to use the power invested in him to arrest the families that got rowdy upon hearing the bad news.

And Clox had to make quite a few arrests.

Because of this, Mabel was currently exercising her power as Chief Justice of Gravity Falls at the City jail, handing out necessary punishments to those who were arrested last night.

Meanwhile at the mayor's office in City Hall, Dipper took off his hat and ran his fingers through his hair as he spoke with Candy. "I don't know what else to do," he said as he put his hat back on. "With Brittany in shock, Clox taking the day off, and Mabel at the Gravity Falls jail, it's gonna be impossible to make a good decision on how to defeat The Ghoul or even find the portal out of this place!"

"Well, did you really have to give Clox the day off?" asked Candy.

Dipper shrugged. "After what he dealt with last night, I think he deserved it."

"Valid point," admitted Candy.

"But what do we do now?" asked Dipper. "We're shorthanded in every department."

Candy raised an eyebrow. "Really?"

Dipper nodded. "Most of the council is currently unavailable and out of the thirty guards we had here at City Hall, four were killed by The Ghoul, fifteen were injured from last night's fight, and seven were injured while accompanying Clox last night."

"Wow, you're right," said Candy. "I think we should declare a State of Emergency."

"What does that mean?" asked Dipper.

Candy thought for a moment. "Well, for this current situation, we would draft civilians to replace the twenty six guards we lost, plus some, and create stricter laws to keep everyone else safe."

"I'm fine with stricter laws," said Dipper. "But I'm not comfortable with dragging people into a war that we're losing."

"Well, what else are we supposed to do?" asked Candy. "If we want to defeat The Ghoul, we have to do what's necessary."

"Well, maybe it's time to face the cold hard facts," said Dipper.

Candy looked confused. "What are you saying?"

"I think…I think The Ghoul might me too powerful to stop," admitted Dipper.

Candy was shocked. "You can't just give up like that! Everybody has their weakness. If we can find what The Ghoul's weakness is, then defeating him should be a piece of cake."

"Only one problem: we don't know his weakness," said Dipper.

"Or do we?" said Candy. "Yesterday before the whole Summerween Superstore incident, Mabel had your 3 journal and when she was finished with it, she let me borrow it. I skimmed the pages to see if there was anything useful."

Dipper remembered that yesterday, Mabel had borrowed his journal because she wanted to learn "The Call of the Wild", whatever that meant.

"And as I skimmed through the journal, I saw the prophecy you meant to read to us before we found out The Ghoul was controlling Mason," continued Candy. "And one of the lines state: 'But he can only be brought down with dark and light.'"

"What is that supposed to mean? I'm the only one who has light, and the only person who has dark is…" Dipper paused. "Oh no."

"Oh, yes," said Candy. "If we want to defeat The Ghoul, then we have to team up with Gideon."

"Isn't there any other way?" protested Dipper. "Gideon is a wanted fugitive that will kill me if he gets the chance. I don't feel comfortable with inviting our enemy here to rendezvous with us."

Candy shrugged. "Look, you said you didn't want to lose to The Ghoul anymore. If that is true, then you know what you have to do."

Dipper sighed. "You're right. It's time for me and Gideon to put aside our differences and work together for a greater good."

"Okay. I'll start making some 'wanted alive' posters," said Candy. "And I wand one poster on each lamppost by sundown."

"I agree, and I'll help you make copies," said Dipper. "Because without electricity, we're gonna have to make the all the copies by hand. And if we want a poster on every lamppost before sundown, we'd better get started."

That night, Robbie and Gideon were deep in the forest, and the only thing providing them with light was a small campfire.

"We have to get this!" said Gideon, who was busy taping his left arm to Robbie's right arm. "We've literally tired every idea I can think of to replicate The Ghoul's combo shot with my black energy and your fire, including…" Gideon shivered. "…wearing the same pants."

Robbie sighed. "I don't even get why this is so important."

As Gideon finished wrapping the tape around his arm and Robbie's, he hurled the role to the ground.

"Did you see the destruction The Ghoul was capable of doing when he combined light and dark?" seethed Gideon. "He destroyed the power plant, thus sending the town into a world without power. If we can learn to combine the most feared element in the world, fire, with black energy, we could bring Dipper and the rest of Gravity Falls to its knees.

"Right," said Robbie. "So can we get on with this? Because having my arm taped to yours is kind of embarrassing."

"Whatever," said Gideon.

With his taped arm, Gideon fired a stream of black energy at a nearby boulder while Robbie blasted a stream of fire in the same direction with his taped arm.

The two attacks slammed into the boulder separately.

Gideon stopped the black energy and yanked his arm out of the tape. "This is unbelievable! I can't believe this didn't work! Why won't my dark energy and your fire combine?!"

Robbie calmly pulled the leftover tape off of his arm. "So this Ghoul guy is one person, right?"

"DUH!" snapped Gideon. "Next time you have a stupid question like that…DON'T ASK IT!"

"Well, to replicate the combo shot, we need to become as close as we can to being one person," continued Robbie.

"Gee, thanks Captain Obvious," said Gideon. "What would I do without you?"

"But doing stuff like taping our arms together and wearing the same pants isn't becoming the same person, it's just stupid," Robbie said. "But based on what I've been hearing about The Ghoul, we need a pure connection to pull off the combo shot. And there's only one way to do that."

"And what do you think that is?" Gideon asked bitterly.

Robbie held out his hand.

Gideon backed up a step. "Gee, this is… awkward. But I might as well come out and say it. Robbie, I don't feel that way about you."

Robbie rolled his eyes. "No. Maybe if we hold hands, the combo shot will work."

Gideon shrugged half heartedly. "It's worth a shot." He reluctantly took Robbie's hand.

Robbie held out his free hand and fired a stream of fire toward the same nearby boulder while Gideon held out his free hand and blasted a beam of black energy.

After a couple of yards, the fire and the black energy swirled around each other to form a large ball of black energy that obliterated the boulder Gideon and Robbie were aiming at.

"Oh gosh, it actually worked!" said Gideon as he let go of Robbie's hand. "I can't wait to see the look on Dipper's face when he see's us use this."

"Why don't we do it tomorrow morning?" said Robbie as he pulled out a poster. "When I was in town a little while ago, I found out that City Hall wants us alive."

"Oh, they'll get us alive," said Gideon evilly. "But we won't be surrendering to them. Because once we use the combo shot tomorrow, Dipper and his pathetic council won't stand a chance!"

~Jameer14