Gideon's Fall
"I think I get it," said Bill to Soos in a dream, "You're one of my wax figures and you mind-swapped with Soos?"
"Yes, Mr. Cipher," said Soos. "I'm Wax Larry King. Sorry I had to fight you to keep my cover last night."
"No problemo," said Bill. "Glad I didn't destroy you: you'll come in handy. Get away from the others this morning when you can and meet me at my summoning site."
"I'll tell them I'm looking for odd jobs, since the Mystery Shack has been closed down," said Soos.
"See you soon," said Bill. "Buy gold. Bye!"
Soos woke up then, as Dipper screamed and woke up beside him.
"I just had a horrible dream that Gideon stole the deed to the Mystery Shack, and kicked us out, and we all had to move in with Soos' grandma," Dipper said.
"That was no dream, dude," said Soos.
Dipper screamed again.
"Shh. Por Favor," said Abuelita.
She wasn't the real grandmother of Soos, it seemed, just a kindly old lady who had been hypnotized into thinking she was. That was fine with Larry, since it helped cover any mistakes he might make.
The group watched the news together.
Reporter Shandra Jimenez said, "In a movement that has all of Gravity Falls buzzing, child psychic Gideon Gleeful has taken surprise ownership of the Mystery Shack, previously belonging to area shyster, Stanford Pines."
The image of Stan in a devil costume with flames behind him appeared on the screen.
"That picture's taken out of context," said Stan. (It was one of his Summerween scare tricks, using an advanced holographic projector for the flames).
"Now that you have the shack, what exactly are you planning to do with it?" Shandra asked Gideon.
Gideon said, "I have a big announcement to make today, and I'd like to cordially invite all the good people of Gravity Falls to join me. Free admission to anyone who wears their Gideon pins! It's my face!"
"I just can't believe Gideon beat us," said Dipper. "Normally I'm able to save the day. This is all my fault."
Mabel said, "Don't worry, Dipper. Looks like Mabel's going to have to be the hero of the family now. I'll defeat Gideon with my grappling hook!"
Dipper said, "Mabel, no offense but that grappling hook has literally never helped us once."
"Oh yeah? Jelly grab!"
Mabel shot her grappling hook at a jar of jelly, breaking it and splattering jelly on the wall.
"I vacuum the walls now," said Abuelita.
Larry wondered if an obsession with vacuuming was common among people under long-term mind control. Probably so.
They all attended the "Grand Closing" of the Mystery Shack in disguise, so they wouldn't get thrown out by Gideon's guards.
Before the show started, Soos slipped away for a few minutes to meet with Bill.
"I see you're wearing a 'Not Soos' tag on your hat," said Bill. "Very appropriate, since you're really not."
"Ironic, isn't it?" said Larry in Soos. "What do you need me to do? I need to get back to the others pretty pronto."
"It won't take long," said Bill. "I'm going to clone you and send the clone back in time with that time machine you captured."
"It's not a regular Time Baby model," said Soos. "No hourglass infinity symbol logo."
"All the better," said Bill. "I don't need the Time Baby to know about this mission in detail, like how we didn't know where the portal codes were until the last minute."
"So this is a covert mission?" asked Soos,
"Not completely. I put in a request for a punishment outcome for a guy who reneged on a deal," said Bill. "We've got a Time Agent on the future end, a trainee, just to observe and send pictures when we've got an outcome for Gideon we want. We don't want him dead, though: we still need him for the ceremony."
"Won't time, like, fight the changes if we use info from the future?" said Soos.
"Not if we do it right," said Bill. "The agent just observes and reports when the outcome is like we want. If it isn't, we get no report, and we adjust the plan. When it's good, I send back the pictures as images I can show Gideon really fast. That will lock in the outcome for him."
"Cool, I get it," said Soos. "...No, I don't."
"Never mind," said Bill. "Just give me a hair sample and go back to the others."
The cloned Soos (with the mind of Wax Larry King and with minor cosmetic alterations) went back in time as Deuce. It was a significant name, which could mean "two" or "the devil."
He applied for work at the Tent O' Telepathy as a handyman.
"We gotta hire him, Daddy," said Li'l Gideon. "It'll be one more thing that Stan's got that we've got, too."
"If you say so, precious," said Bud Gleeful.
Deuce made himself useful. He was aware that they sometimes used Old Man McGucket for odd jobs. Once he was a gondolier for a date between Mabel and Gideon. At other times he was a shill for Bud's used car lot. He would throw money around (money they gave him) and shout, "I want that car!", which would start a bidding war for the worthless vehicle.
One day Deuce suggested, "Ya know dudes, McGucket's pretty good a buildin' robots. He once built an eighty-ton robot that looked a lot like himself, to follow a dude around saying 'Shame, shame.' Ya oughta maybe get him to build a robot of you."
"I don't know," said Gideon. "Where would I hide a giant robot of me?"
"Like, in plain sight," said Deuce. "Say you put up a big amusement park with the giant robot in the middle, like a statue of you. Then one day you rev it up and..."
"Take over!" said Gideon. "Ah like it. That's better than my idea of puttin' the Tent up in place of the Mystery Shack, once I steal the deed. And all the construction would cover the diggin' for... never mind what for."
"Yep, McGucket could do that for ya, no problem," said Deuce.
"Ah want to test his skills before Ah hire him," said Gideon. "Is the shame bot still around?"
"Nope, but he might have a robot pterodactyl," said Deuce.
"Get hold of him for me," said Gideon. "Ah want him to test his dinosaur against the Pines family."
McGucket agreed; he refurbished the killer pterodactyl bot for hire, and built a baby bot for it as well. He had it do some damage in town like ripping the roof off the police car of Sheriff Blubs and Deputy Durland, and carry off some cattle, to lay a false trail.
Duece told McGucket of an opportunity to carry off Waddles when the pig would be left outside by Stan, wearing a red sweater that could be unraveled to create a trail. The Pines would be led into the area where the sap-covered dinosaurs were in time stasis. The old pterodactyl was torn out of the sap to make the attack seem natural.
McGucket was waiting at the entrance to the Jurassic Sap Hole to follow them in and make trouble along the way. He pretended to be swallowed by the baby bot, and got out easily later with his remote control.
Deuce was fairly sure all would turn out well for Waddles and the Pines, because the timing of the attack was based on knowledge from the future. Soos was forewarned of the attack, and he went along to make sure they were all right. He was told of a weakness in the vision of the baby pterodactyl that would let them leave the nest safely
The net result was that Stan appeared as a hero in the eyes of his grand-niece, and Gideon was convinced McGucket's robots would do the job, even though everyone escaped alive this time.
The trainee agent the Time Baby sent, Blendin Blandin, was there in the Jurassic Sap Pit to take some pictures of the attack in the pit to make sure it went well. He was hidden by his camouflage suit, and the pattern was stored in the suit in case it was ever needed again. After that, Blandin went off to his next watch point. He was wearing his red-labeled trainee tape-measure time-machine so that other agents in the vicinity would be warned to cover for his mistakes.
McGucket began assembling the materials for his next big project, the Gideon-bot.
Because of the time changes, when the Pines and Soos attended the Grand Closing in disguise, they saw Gideon unveil his new plans for Gideonland, with a giant statue of himself as a prominent feature. (Before the change, it was simply the Tent O' Telepathy in the new location, as the old TV ad has promised).
Everyone was praising Gideon for his recent accurate psychic readings, like the horrifying secret birthmark on Toby Determined, and the secret ingredient in Lazy Susan's coffee omelets.
The Pines tried to protest and regain ownership of the Shack.
Stan said, "Listen up, people. Gideon's a fraud! This kid broke in and stole my property!"
"Arrest him, officers!" said Mabel.
"Yeah!" said Dipper.
Gideon said, "Such accusations! Mr. Pines, I recall you gave the property to me. Look, here's the deed right here!"
"Well that's all the proof I need to see," said the Sheriff.
"I love you, Li'l Gideon! Sing them funny songs!" said the Deputy.
The Pines were thrown out by Gideon's guards, after Gideon slapped a pin on Stan.
Gideon said, "Thanks for visiting Gideonland, friends! Don't come back, Ah don't care for y'all."
Mabel and Dipper went to the gnomes for help in raiding Gideon and getting the deed back. The gnomes were overcome by Gideon's whistle and the twins were forced off the property empty-handed. They were out of ideas and would have to board the bus for home that evening.
The plan called for Journal 3 to be lost to Gideon as bait for a later attack with the Gideon-bot which would lead to a fall and an explosion, causing everyone to gather round. There were multiple repeats required to get that outcome.
First, the book had to be dropped. The gnomes who struggled with Dipper were commanded to make that happen (by Gompers, who had previously scared them from simply taking Mabel as their queen when they had the opportunity again).
Second, the book had to be dropped cover side down, so that Gideon would take it for Journal 1, long enough to lead to a chase between the Gideon-bot and the bus with Mabel and Dipper. Blandin was on hand to record when Gideon first saw the cover of Journal 3 at the proper time. This image was sent back to show to Gideon during Bill's "Lots of things" images, to lock in that outcome for him.
Blandin's next mission was out into the valley, under the old abandoned railroad bridge. The Gideon-bot had to fall here for maximum effect, gathering a large crowd.
Soos had to drive the bus and lead the chase in the proper direction. There had to be a way down from the top of the cliff to the abandoned train tracks: a tunnel was provided for the twins.
Dipper had to be primed to make a super android leap to get into the bot after Mabel was captured; this required that Dipper be given dreams of his leaping training by the Manotaurs, which Bill provided.
The robot fell in the right place, and Blandin got an image of that outcome to be sent back to Gideon to lock it in. There were still tweaks to be made: on the first attempt Dipper and Mabel died from the fall. Mabel was given more dreams of successfully using her grappling hook, so that she would try it even if there didn't seem to be anything to attach it to (there wasn't anything, but Callisto's emergency telekinetic flight would cut in if Mabel made the attempt).
Then there was the problem of Gideon. He was fatally wounded in the fall, and he died in the subsequent explosion. All the evidence of his wrongdoing was destroyed, so the Pine twins were sent to prison for his murder. Blandin observed this and didn't send a message of success.
Someone had to shield Gideon, and there was only one other person with Callisto's latent hamster-ball powers available for the task.
Lebam was sleeping happily in her puppy-pile of Sev'ral Timez boys when a strange yellow triangular figure joined her dreams.
"Hi Lebam! I'm Bill Cipher."
"Oh yeah? What do you want, nightmare?" Lebam said. "I'm not afraid of you."
"I'm seeking the downfall of Gideon Gleeful, and I wondered if you would like to help," Bill said.
"Revenge on Gideon: I've dreamed of that before. What did you have in mind for him?" asked Lebam.
"At his moment of triumph, he will lose everything and go to adult prison," said Bill. "That good enough?"
"I'd rather he died," said Lebam.
"Then he wouldn't suffer," said Bill.
"Will he suffer a lot in prison?" asked Lebam.
"Some... but his mind-control powers will protect him from the worst of it," Bill admitted.
"Then no deal... unless... could you make him my personal slave instead? I want to be able to control him the way he controlled me," said Lebam.
"That can be arranged. He has to go to prison first, though," said Bill.
"I want to take away his power to control others, and any other supernatural powers he has," said Lebam.
"We'll break him out of prison, take away his powers, and then he can be your slave for the rest of his life," said Bill. "Is it a deal?"
Lebam hesitated, and thought, "I have a sweet life with the boys right now... but they're getting better and better at taking care of themselves. They have the gig at the convenience store to keep them supplied with food. Soon they might stop needing me and I'll be left alone. But revenge on Gideon... now that would be truly satisfying."
"Deal!" said Lebam.
"Deal," said Bill. He put out his hand and she shook it. Blue flames appeared around their hands.
Lebam woke, wondering if it was just a dream. Then she felt a bolo tie around her neck; it had a blue-green stone.
Lebam was hiding in the bushes when the Gideon-bot fell. She had been instructed how to use the pink hamster-ball power, her legacy from being a clone of Callisto. Just before the bot hit the ground there was a pink flash from her power, followed by a huge blue explosion. Lebam successfully shielded Gideon, the room in the robot below him, and herself. Dipper and Mabel descended slowly, avoiding the shock of the explosion. The sudden stop was still enough to stun Gideon inside the bot.
Once the shock wave settled, Lebam pulled Journal 3 from Gideon's coat with telekinesis (using her amulet, though she could have used Callisto's power) and set it on the ground under a piece of scrap metal from the robot, where it could easily be found by Dipper when he landed.
She gave a feral smile to the fallen bot before walking away.
"Soon, very soon, you'll be mine, 'boyfriend'."
When Gideon woke, things at first seemed to be going his way.
The Deputy ran up to him, very concerned. "Gideon! Oh, good heavens! What on earth happened here?"
Gideon said, "It was the Pines twins! They tried to attack me and blow up mah statue with dynamite! Arrest 'em!"
"What?" Dipper said, "Officers, he's lying!"
Sheriff_Blubs said, "Sorry kids, but we trust Gideon. And nothing short of a miracle would ever change our- "
Stan came racing up in his El Diablo. "Wait! Wait! Stop everything! I've got somethin' to say!"
Blubs said, "Not this guy again."
"Just wait!" said Stan. "Look! You guys all think Gideon is so perfect and honest. 'Oh! I could never tell a lie! I'm Gideon!'"
Blubs said, "He's more honest than you!"
Durland said, "Yeah! And he's psychic too!"
"How's this for psychic?" said Stan. "Bam! Take a good look!"
The lower floor of the bot below the driver's room was full of televisions looping videos, each showing the people of Gravity Falls.
"Wait a minute, is that ME?" said Lazy Susan.
"The secret ingredient to my coffee omelet is coffee!" said her TV image.
Toby Determined said, "And me!"
"I can verify that that birth mark is indeed disgusting," said the image of the Doctor.
"Hooray!" said Toby.
The crowd moved in and each saw themselves. "That's me! That's me!"
Stan said, "That's right, these pins are hidden cameras! And my hearing aid was picking up the feedback! Who's the fraud now?"
The people threw down their pins, which cracked open to reveal hidden cameras in the eye that wasn't winking.
The crowd turned on Gideon, who giggled nervously.
Durland said, "Gideon, we gave you our trust.."
Manley Dan said, "You LIED to us!"
"Please, I... It's not what it looks like... What are you gonna do with me?" said Gideon.
"Tyler?" asked the Deputy.
"Get 'im.. Get 'im!" said Tyler, wiping away a tear.
Blubs said, "Lil' Gideon, you are under arrest for conspiracy, fraud, and breaking our hearts. Durland? The tiny handcuffs."
Gideon found himself handcuffed and marched toward the back of the police car.
"No!" he said.
"Just one more thing," said Stan.
Stan grabbed Gideon and shook him, causing all the objects in his pockets to fall out: keys, candy, a picture of Mabel, an axe, the deed to the Mystery Shack, and Journal 2. Stan picked up the last two items as one.
"I believe this belong to me," said Stan, showing the deed to the gathered reporters.
Gideon was driven away to jail, raving about his hair, how they needed him, and how he would be back.
Blandin captured an image of the prison for Bill to show, signalling a successful outcome.
Bill was satisfied. He thought, "I got Deuce to create a secret level in the Gideon-bot, completely unknown to the boy idiot. Then I led Stan to open it in front of everyone. It was a stroke of genius, if I do say so myself. Getting an enemy to accept a gift that caters to their vanity, with a concealed compartment which allows their weakest point to be attacked. So clever of me. And it was all inspired by that creation of Odysseus to defeat the New Robot Order, the Trojan Horse."