The paperwork proved to be an intensive dive - another sizable plunge into the dark, bizarre world of Gravity Falls' history. The mines were another honeycomb of burrows and bunkers into the intricate network that seemed to unite so much of Gravity Falls' weirdness.

All the same, as Dipper began to notice similarities in coordinates, grid lines that seemed to perfectly meet - compasses that pointed in exactly the same directions. He blinked and twisted his lip as he arranged more sheets on top of each other, each lit underneath by the scientist's lightbox. Could it be?

It seemed too good to be true. It seemed unreasonably perfect. It was about the most exciting thing he'd seen since the beaver war. He felt his hands tremble - a trickle of sweat trail down his temple.

Together, through Ford's own paperwork, the mine's maps, charts and diagrams created something that would have been enormously useful that Summer. Something, in retrospect, they had discovered far too late.

"Pacifica, look…"

She looked up from her stack of documents (mostly about how a miner had a Napoleon complex and refused to eat anything but baguettes for a month) with a puzzled expression - but soon realised what her boyfriend had managed to discover. "Is that - is that-"

"It's… it's everything." He replied - in a quiet tone that betrayed his disbelief. "Like, literally everything."

The mine shafts matched up perfectly with the old man's own maps and charts - an almost seamless recreation of the numerous caverns, tunnels and shafts that they had visited over the past two months.

To their delight, the hordes of holes and channels merged smoothly with sketches of Curzon's tunnels, with the remains of the Dinkies factory - it was an elaborate hive of bizarre, infected Earth, each more complex and intimidating than the last, spanning the entire town - the entire valley. When placed over lightboxes, ancient parchment and vellum seemed to create a multiple-layer reference of everything Gravity Falls knew, had known and had lurking under its streets.

The deeper they went, the nearer they seemed to crawl towards Crash Site Omega. The closer they got to the crash site, it seemed there were more red marks and crosses, marking the discovery of anomaly and cryptid alike in the old mines.

They felt like they had found the one thing they had really needed - a guide to what lurked beneath, in perfect detail. Dipper slipped paperclips onto every corner with a reverence he rarely reserved for anything - gently smoothing the sheets into an enormous reference map, uniting the maps and tunnels as, it seemed, no historian or researcher had before.

"Whoa. Kevin, Mabel, you gotta see this!" Pacifica blurted out in an excitement she'd have found utterly embarrassing only a month or so ago. "That's insane!"

The chaotic duo scrambled over. Kevin's jaw dropped open in a manner very similar to Dipper's. "Whoa. It's like one of those road maps, but-"

"But full of gold and coal and rocks that look like old-timey celebrities!" Mabel chirped, pointing at some of the handwritten labels, before narrowing her eyes. "..Who the heck is Gritty Garbo?"

"Man, pretty sure my Grandpa Alex was in love with her." Stan grinned, leaning on his cane. The kids almost jumped out of their skin. It never ceased to amaze people how stealthy the burly (yet decidedly overweight) old grifter could be when it lent itself to comic timing.

"H-how long have you been standing there?!"

"Since my back gave out about fifteen minutes ago." Stan shrugged. "Pretty nifty bit of work you kids have here, not bad at all. Pretty sure it'll make Ford's week."

Dipper smiled proudly. "You think it'll be useful?"

"If it ain't this Summer, sure as hell will be next summer." He replied, grunting as Kevin helped push his spine back into alignment. "Make sure you keep it safe, huh?"

The young investigator nodded as he pulled out his trusty magnifying glass to look at the map more closely, tipping his lumberjack's hat forward with determination. Then pushing it back when it almost fell over his eyes.

"Ford's definitely taking his sweet time getting back." Pacifica murmured. "Could've done with this hours ago."

"Hey, Ford's like a homin' pigeon. Always finds his way back. That's how he got through the portal after thirty years, kiddo - he's got that intui- int- y'know, instincts."

Dipper blinked. "He's probably going to need them."

Stan peered over his great-nephew's shoulder and breathed through his teeth. There, in the tunnel marked 'coal seam', a half-eroded set of scrawls seemed to make their message loud and clear.

BEWARE
DO NOT APPROACH
OBNOXIOUS
LOUD
DANGEROUS

"Either something really dangerous is down there - or the broad who ran our bed an' breakfast back in Ireland." Stan said firmly, scratching his nose. "Reckon it's time to get the cavalry down there, huh? Get your spelunkin' boots on, kids."

"Man, I come over for an hour and we're already going down an abandoned coal mine." Kevin beamed as he hopped to the command. "This family rocks!"

Pacifica chuckled and rolled her eyes. All the same, she couldn't deny that little bit of… anticipation? Not excitement, per se, but- well, y'know. Like she'd ever get excited about this kinda stuff.

The thought might have gone through her head - but there was a clear grin on her face.

Together, the group piled out of the Shack - and piled into the golf cart parked nearby the Stan O'War, which was nearing the end of its modification routine. Stan jammed the keys in and put the foot down as the buggy spluttered into life and began juddering down the dirt road on what, surely, would be the rescue mission of the century.

They didn't get very far - only a few hundred metres later they came face to face with Grunkle Ford, contently carrying a sack of coal over his shoulder - somewhat grimy, but perfectly content.

"Where are you going?"

"You uh - you alright, Sixer?"

"Of course. What's the problem?"

"No trouble?"

"It's just a bag of sedimentary carbon, Stanley. Please. You kids are looking even more wide-eyed and excitable than usual. What's going on?"

Dipper peered at the filthy teal bag and narrowed his eyes as Ford squeezed onto the juddering vehicle, his sooty payload in hand. Right enough, the contents were deadly still - deadly silent.

Whatever the maps had warned them about, it wasn't in evidence today.