It was raining. Camo was glad she'd patched up the holes in the roof of her room, and even more so that she'd taken the time to do a good job of it. There was only one hole that dripped at this point, and it was small enough that it barely needed a bucket to keep it safe.
She had been reading quietly in her room until Stan shouted, "Kids! Come quick!" She huffed but came to the living room anyway, where Stan was watching TV. She was a little slower than the twins, but whatever. It didn't really matter. "I need you to laugh at this with me!" He gestured to the TV, and she nearly barfed at the light blue.
"Who's cute as a button, and always your friend?" Gideon sang onscreen, strumming a ukelele that looked as big as a regular guitar on him. "Li'l G-i-d to the e-o-n! Wink!"
The announcer picked up, very clearly Bud. "Li'l Gideon."
"Ugh, Gideon," Dipper grimaced.
"Remember when I wouldn't date him, and he tried to destroy us?" Mabel asked them, and the three kids exchanged a look.
Stan had his own quarrel. "He's always trying to trick me into losing the Mystery Shack!"
"One time, I caught him stealing my moisturizer," Wendy cut in.
"And the only colors he uses are baby blue and lavender," Camo whined.
Soos brought it all together. "And yet, our mutual hatred for him bonds us together."
The sound of Gideon cackling onscreen brought them from their hating session between friends. She glared at the screen for ruining the moment. "Come on down to Li'l Gideon's Tent 'o' Telepathy. Opening soon at this location." A shot of the Mystery Shack. She frowned at it as a picture of the Tent of Telepathy crushed it.
"Uh. Should we be worried about that?" Dipper asked.
"Please. The only way Gideon's taking over this shack is by breaking in and stealing my deed." Stan wore a very cocky, Stan-y grin, at least until there was the ominous sound of breaking glass.
Wendy asked, "You mean, like, right now?"
They went down to the room with the safe, where they saw the broken window and the little gremlin trying combinations. He turned his smug little smile towards them and said, "Well, well, Stanford! My arch nemesis. We seem to have entered a dangerous game of cat and mouse. But the question remains, who is the cat, and who is the . . ."
He was cut off by Stan's "Soos, broom." He grabbed it and went to hit the child.
"Oh, no, not the broom!"
They ran in circles for a second, Stan cleaning the floor behind a terrified Gideon. Camo briefly considered going to get popcorn, but it would probably be over by the time she got back. Gideon hissed like a cat, and Stan smacked him in the face, and before she knew what was happening, Gideon was being chased out of the door. Camo tailed a bored-looking Stan, because this was the best form of entertainment.
"You mark my words, Stanford! One day I'm gonna get that combination! And once I steal that deed, you'll never see the Mystery Shack again!" He paused. "The same sentiment, applied to you too, Chamomile."
Stan looked down at her. "Chamomile?"
She just glared at the kid in the light blue suit. "One of these days, I'm going to murder that child."
They went back inside, and, unbeknownst to either of them, Gideon had pulled out Journal 2 to enact the next part of his plan.
The rain continued. They were watching TV, Camo, Wendy, and the Pines. "He put the 'old' in old west," the television said. "They call him . . . Grandpa the Kid!"
"I'm tired during the day," the grizzled old cowboy character on screen said.
"I can relate to this," Stan said.
"Grunkle Stan," Mabel asked, "why can't we watch a movie that we'll all enjoy? Dream Boy High!" She held up the cassette tape, and the box was in way too bright colors for a rainy day. "Where love is on your permanent record."
Everyone else said, "Boo!" Camo was just upset that the MCU wasn't big enough/Gravity Falls was too niche for there to be any good superhero movies on.
"You'll learn to like it."
There was a great deal of noise and screaming from the hall, and Soos came running over. "Dudes! There's a bat in the kitchen! It tried to touch me with its weird little bat fingers." The handyman was sweating from the creepiness.
"Don't worry, I got this under control," Stan said authoritatively. He leaned back in his seat. "Dipper, take care of it."
Mabel laughed, and the boy looked outraged. "What? Why can't Mabel or Camo do it?" he asked.
"Cause life ain't fair. Now go fight a bat so we can watch TV."
"No way, Grunkle Stan. You always make me do dumb chores. I'm putting my foot down this time."
Camo, who wasn't dumb and could clearly see the growing tension, broke in. "You know what, I'll help you, okay? This movie's no good anyway." He looked at her gratefully, and she rolled her eyes and gestured for him to follow. "Come on." They left the room.
"Thanks, Camo."
"Eh, it's no problem," she replied, shrugging it off. An idea struck her. "Hey, you wanna go get your camera? We could make a montage of all your super-hard shows, so you can look at it sometime in the future and be like, ha, I fought a bat and survived!" She paused and pretended to think. "That is, if you survive."
He elbowed her but went to go fetch his camera.
They crept into the kitchen, Dipper being cameraman and Camo being the movie star. She was narrating quietly, under her breath, with Dipper adding some details. "We're going to fight a bat that has made its home in our kitchen. Hopefully, it can't get me with its 'weird little bat fingers'." She took a deep breath, and went into the kitchen.
Dipper screamed when it flew towards him and he nearly dropped the camera when it scratched the back of his hand. Camo yelped, dove behind it, and grabbed a plastic bag from the counter, pulling it over the creature. "Get the camera!" she ordered. He hastily turned it towards her as she wrestled to tie the bag shut. She turned towards the camera and grinned at it, not really caring about the scratch on her cheek that showed her effort. "This is Camo, awesome bat fighter extraordinaire. See you next time!"
He cut the filming and she yelped again when the bat nearly wiggled out of the bag.
"Swabbin' on disinfectant," Soos sang as he rubbed the brown stuff on Dipper's hand and Camo's cheek.
The boy sighed. "Why does Grunkle Stan always pick on me?" he asked. "I mean, yeah, Camo helps, but think about it. The more painful or difficult the chore is, the more likely it is I'll have to do it. Why doesn't he pick on you guys?"
"Dipper, Stan's personality is one of life's great mysteries. Like whether or not it's possible to lick your own elbow."
"I bet you can't," Mabel interjected.
"I bet I can."
"Lick it! Lick it! Lick it!"
Dipper groaned and turned to her. "Sometimes I feel like Stan hates me."
"He doesn't hate her," she said comfortingly. "He just . . . has strange ways of showing his affection." Dipper scoffed, and she elbowed him.
"The sink's clogged!" Stan called. "Dipper, get in here and fix it!"
"I don't suppose you'll . . . ?" He looked at her, and she shook her head vehemently. He growled and grabbed a Nyarf gun—she still wasn't sure if that was just a Gravity Falls thing or some niche brand—and shot the picture of Stan hanging on the wall. He did end up leaving to unclog the sink, and she meandered outside.
Ugh. Life was so boring sometimes. She wandered around the forest, which was probably not the best idea, until she found a gnome crawling on her foot. She made a face and kicked her foot into the air so it went flying away. However, while she did that, something caught her eye, or rather, her ear. Someone was chanting, and when she spun around, she saw fire in the distance. She crept closer, somewhat afraid that it would be a cult of cannibals.
But no, it was just Gideon. (She did spot Mabel and Soos hiding out behind a different bush, though she didn't think they noticed her.) "Egassem sdrawkcab! Egassem sdrawkcab! Egassem sdrawkcab!" Thunder roared, and the world went black and white, save for the various people. Camo suddenly felt very conspicuous in her colorful outfit. She watched in interest as everything around them seemed to slow down, until time stopped.
A white triangle started glowing out of midair, yellow sparks coming out from it. It grew into a blackish void, surrounded by little yellow flames, and one eye opened from the center. Evil laughter echoed from all around her, but it seemed to be coming from the triangle. Everyone flinched back, including her, doubling near over. When she looked back up, the void had turned into a strange character.
It was a black triangle with a brick pattern, a top hat, a bow tie, legs, and arms, with that same eye in its head. "Oh! Oh! Gravity Falls, it is good to be back!" it said, looking around. It floated down, and its triangle turned back, though the top hat and bow tie remained black. "Name's Bill Cipher. And I take it you're some kind of living ventriloquist dummy?" It, he, laughed. He glowed whenever he talked. "I'm just kidding, I know who you are, Gideon."
"What . . . what are you?" the gremlin asked. She could see the sweat on his forehead even from that distance. "H-how do you know my name?"
"Oh, I know lots of things," Bill said, glowing. His triangle flickered throughout several images, and his voice distorted. "Lots of things." He returned to normal, or as normal as the demon triangle could get. "Hey, look what I can do." He held out his hand, and a mouth of deer teeth floated into it and he gave them to Gideon. She shuddered silently. "Deer teeth, for you, kid!" Bill laughed maniacally.
Gideon gasped in horror and dropped the teeth. "You're insane!"
"Sure, I am! What's your point?" The three from the Shack were just gaping at this point. Thankfully, Bill returned the deer teeth, and the poor creature ran away.
"Listen to me, demon!" Gideon screamed. "I have a job for you! I need you to enter the mind of Stanford Pines and steal the code to his safe!"
Camo felt her blood run cold, and Bill laughed. "Wait. Stan Pines." The triangle turned away and seemed to think for a second. "You know what, kid, you've convinced me. I'm sold! I'll help you with this, and in return, you can help me with something I've been working on. We'll work out the details later."
"Deal."
Blue flame erupted in Bill's hand, and Camo's brows furrowed. That seemed . . . suspicious. She got the impression that Bill wasn't to be trusted, and if the many books she'd read had taught her anything, it was that you wanted to be specific when making deals with suspicious characters. Bill and Gideon shook on it, and everything was cast in a blue light.
"Well, time to invade Stan's mind," Bill said cheerfully. "This should be fun! Remember, reality is an illusion, the universe is a hologram, buy gold! Bye!" Bill disappeared in a massive blast of white light, and the world returned to color. She opened her eyes (had they been open the entire time?) and scrambled to her feet as quietly as she could manage, running back to the Shack.
"Dipper!" she shouted, and Mabel and Soos came running in behind her. She gestured for the younger girl to share.
"We've gotta help Stan!"
He looked dubious. "Wait, what?" He glanced at Stan, who was asleep in his armchair.
Soos was chewing some chips as he explained. "This evil triangle guy said he's gonna break into Stan's mind and steal the combination to his safe! Also, we stopped for snacks on the way here."
"Gideon summoned him," Camo explained.
"Triangle guy?" Dipper asked, pulling out his Journal. "I feel like I've seen something like this before in the Journal." He found the page and started to read. "'Beware of Bill. The most powerful and dangerous creature I've ever encountered. Whatever you do, never let him into your mind.'" Just then, Stan started thrashing in his sleep, and she looked at him in fear. Yeah, he was an old guy, but she'd grown to care about him, and she mostly trusted the words of the Author. If Bill was a threat, she wanted to kick him out of Stan's mind as soon as possible.
"Grunkle Stan!" Mabel cried out. A shadow very similar to Bill floated down towards him, and his eyes opened, a glowing blue. Stan grunted and yelled, moving every which way. "'It is possible to follow the demon into a person's mind and prevent his chaos. One must simply recite this incantation.'"
Dipper started to complain, but Camo had had a thought. Mallory had said she was supposed to 'prevent chaos' in her time wish . . . maybe she was supposed to stop Bill? What was he going to do that required her to stop him?
"Get ready, guys," Dipper said. "We're about to journey into the most horrifying, disturbing place any of us have ever been. Our uncle's mind." There was a crash of thunder, and she didn't bother to correct him on the fact that Stan wasn't her uncle.
"You think I can take these burrito bites into Stan's brain?" Soos asked. "Thumbs up, thumbs down? You know what? I'm just gonna bring them."
Dipper set up the circle and started the chant. They all put their hands on Stan's head. As Dipper chanted, all of their eyes started glowing, tinting everything she saw an electric blue until a massive burst of white light, starting at Stan's forehead and exploding outward. They woke up in his head, a black and white bizarro version of the Mystery Shack, with random things floating and the words all scrambled. It was like the world was static-y.
"Whoa. This is Stan's mind?" Mabel asked.
"Huh. Figured there would be a lot more hot old ladies." That was Soos.
Camo idly wondered if there'd be anything about her in here.
"Remember, everyone, we've got to look out for the triangle guy."
"Yeah, look out for the triangle guy!" Bill's high-pitched voice said. Camo whirled around and saw him spinning a cane around.
Soos gasped. "It's him! It's the guy!"
"You leave our uncle's brain alone, you isosceles monster!" Mabel charged at him, but she went right through and got shot back out a couple seconds later. At least Bill actually was kind of isosceles-ish. It would've been worse if he was an equilateral. "Gotcha. Wait, what?!"
"Ah, Stan's family, we meet at last. Question Mark, Shooting Star, Pine Tree, Hourglass, I had a hunch I might bump into you." Wait. What did he call them? "I had a hunch I might bump into you." Bill shot a laser out of his finger that went right through Dipper and left a massive hole in his chest. The boy screamed and panted, and Mabel stuck her hand through it.
"Mabel!" he complained, then turned back to the triangle. "What do you want with our uncle's mind, anyway?"
"Oh, just the code to the old man's safe! Inside the Shack is a maze of a thousand doors representing your uncle's memories. Behind one of them is a memory of him inputting the code. I just need to find it and Gideon will pay me handsomely!"
"Not if we stop you!" Mabel shouted.
Bill scoffed. "Ha! Fat chance! I'm the master of the mind. I even know what you're thinking right now." The triangle was engulfed in blue fire, and two massive, neon boys appeared next to them. Camo yelped and leaped back, the cut on her cheek twinging from the movement.
"Whoa! Where are we, bro?"
"We must be in heaven, cause I just saw an angel," the blue-haired one said, kneeling down to Mabel.
"I'm never letting go of your leg!"
Bill cockily said, "You're out of your league, kids. Turn around now, before you see something you might regret. Later, suckers!" The triangle left, breaking through the wall.
That . . . hadn't occurred to Camo. She already knew that Stan had a lot of secrets. (He, at the very least, knew the Author, probably more.) There was a high likelihood they'd bump into them. Stan was relying on her not to share his secrets with the twins, so she vowed that she wouldn't leave the twins, and even if she saw one of his secrets, she wouldn't tell them.
Determined, Dipper said, "We're going in." Then he looked back at his sister and said, "Mabel, can we leave those guys out here? Looking at them hurts my eyes." Camo had to squint to even see them in the glare of her watering eyes.
"No! They can help us!"
"Totally!" the dummies chorused. "Arm throne!" Mabel sat on their arms between them and giggled. Soos tried to give Dipper an arm throne, and ended up creepily chasing him. Camo watched all this with a sort of confused amusement. Anyway, they went inside, and it was the coolest place she'd ever been. Things floated randomly, like doors, and stairs floated too, until they ended significantly smaller than when they started.
They walked down one set of stairs. A Stan-bat came and flew by, saying "No refunds! No refunds!" in Stan's voice and scaring Dipper. Well, of course it would. He got scratched by a bat and was probably traumatized from that experience. But the doors . . .
There was one labeled FEARS which glowed red, had a white arm sticking out, and chains covering it. There was a glowing yellow one labeled HOPES with adventure-y things around it. The lowest one, though, was a hallway labeled MEMORIES. The words were only on there because of an old-timey camera thing, she didn't remember what it was called. This was obviously the one they went for.
"Whoa, look! All of Stan's memories," Soos said.
"Great," Dipper said, "sure there's plenty of memories of Stan bossing me around." Aw, man, did he have to keep whining about that? It was seriously getting on her nerves. "Can't wait to see more of that."
"Come on, Dipper," Mabel told him, annoyed. "We've gotta a find the code before Bill does.
One of the neon dudes "whispered" in his buddie's ear, "Mabel is talking!"
"So rad!"
"Let's get searching!" Soos said, and the group turned towards all the doors, running all in.
Dipper opened one of Stan in prison in Columbia. Soos opened one of Stan trying to sell the Stan-Vac: it sucks more than anything. Mabel opened one of Stan on a date with Lazy Susan that didn't go so well. Camo opened one of Stan punching some dude in the face and earning himself a date, back when he was still a teenager. Dipper wanted to open the door labeled DIPPER MEMORIES, but the rest of the group convinced him not to.
That is, until he ran back in there.
Camo sighed but didn't pursue him. He did things like this pretty often, and it almost always worked out. However, when she came to CAMO MEMORIES door . . . well, she knew all of the things Stan thought of her . . . right? And Dipper had snuck off into his own door . . .
Yeah, she totally went in.
She saw them eating ice cream and watching the old-timey opera movie, that day when the twins went to the convenience store. She saw them watching TV in general so much, it was ridiculous. She watched them arguing about Stan's bossing and their deal. She watched herself throwing a ball to hit Stan in the dunk tank (and she was pretty good at it, since that was the only one he knew about . . .) She heard herself screaming at Stan drove the car.
And then there was the day at the lake.
"No . . ." past-Camo said. "You don't deserve to be alone. Plus, they're going to get themselves hurt, and they're going to realize they were being jerks, and I'll be able to rub it in their faces! Ha ha!"
Past-Stan chuckled. Camo felt a sense of deja vu. "Really? I could tell when you found out what we were doing how upset you were about fishing."
"It's just . . . long, and boring, and the worms creep me out." Past-Camo shuddered, and Camo smiled at herself. She really was funny sometimes. "But if you agree to be good conversation and to do the worms for me, then it'll be okay 'family bonding'."
"You got yourself a deal, kid." She watched as they cast their poles and sat in silence. She hadn't heard any of Stan's thoughts on the matter yet. "Have you gone fishing before?"
Past-Camo answered, "Uh, yeah. I used to live in Florida, and my aunt is fishing crazy, so whenever we visit her, it's mandatory. Most of the time, though, I get zero bites and end up wandering around, looking at rocks. Honestly, it's more interesting." As past-Stan laughed, Camo remembered slipping up with the Florida comment. Maybe it wasn't as bad as she thought.
Oh, man, that reminds me of Ford. Stan's disembodied voice echoed around her, and she jumped. That was one of his thoughts. But . . . who was Ford?
She had the horrible feeling she was figuring out something she wasn't supposed to. Stan had trusted her to keep his secrets, and she'd wandered away from the group. As much as she wanted to find out the truth . . . she couldn't break his trust like that. She'd figure it out a more honest way than that.
Reluctantly, Camo stepped out of the memory and went to go find the rest of the group. She found Mabel, Soos, and the shiny boys following a trail of opened memory doors. "What's going on? Has Dipper not come back yet?"
"No, he came back. He thinks Stan hates him," Mabel explained.
Camo's expression turned pitying. "That's not true. I've spent more time with Stan than either of you, and he cares about Dipper."
"Yeah, well, he can't get it through his dummy head."
They saw Bill holding the trapdoor memory, and Mabel shot a Nyarf dart at it so it flew out of the triangle's hand and into the bottomless pit. The little screen thing on Bill's chest had Gideon on it, and the little gremlin said, "The deal's off! I'm switching to plan B!" It went to static, then disappeared. Bill seemed to shatter, and then he came back, but red and white instead of black and yellow.
"You!" he yelled. "You can't even imagine what you just cost me! Do you have any idea what I'm like when I'm mad?" His voice distorted for the last few words, and flames, regular ones, appeared in his hands. Symbols went on his eye, and a circle of flames surrounded the three of them (she refused to count the shiny boys as people). The flames went higher, and a massive Stan face surged out of the ground, forming a massive circle floating in space for them to fight him.
Bill grew to be absolutely humongous, and Soos said, "So I guess he gets really mad when he gets mad."
"Eat nightmares!" Bill shouted, his voice still distorted. She screamed as lightning coursed towards them and she dodged, jumping away just in time to avoid the initial blast. She hit the ground running and managed to stay in front for a while, at least until a black stick-hand wrapped around her and lifted her up in front of Bill's eye. She gasped and squirmed to be released. "Hourglass, don't you know you can never stay away from me?!"
"I don't care!" she screamed back, kicking and punching at his hand with everything she had. "What would you know? You don't even have any DEPTH PERCEPTION!" She slammed both hands down onto a finger hard enough that he dropped her, and she landed roughly on her back. Tears pricked at her eyes from the pain, but she got back to her feet and prepared to run again.
Eventually, the demon triangle got tired of the lightning blasts and yelled, "One nightmare, coming up!" He pointed at Soos.
"Nightmare? Hope he doesn't mean that British dog-man I'm always dreaming about." A second later, a British dog-man appeared in front of Soos, who screamed. "Ah! It's everything I ever feared!"
Then came Mabel. Her head grew massive, green, and pimply, and she screamed, "My cuteness! What did you do to my cuteness . . ." Her voice distorted as she continued to talk and pull at her face.
The shiny boys got obliterated, and Camo was next. She floated into the air and her clothes changed as she did. A top hat, a suit in black and yellow, a cane, an eyepatch . . . wait, what? He expected this to be a nightmare for her? She burst into laughter, doubling over. The hat floated above her hair, and when she lifted the eyepatch, she couldn't see out of her eye, which was . . . not great, but this outfit was awesome!
Then it felt like she was being squeezed. She gasped for air as the clothes shrank and tightened, choking her and cutting off her blood flow. So, he dressed her up like him and then decided it was best to suffocate her in her own clothes? O-kay . . . ow. Ow, ow, ow, this was really starting to hurt . . .
"And now to finish you off, once and for all!" Bill yelled, his finger charging up with lightning, but before their doom could be at hand, Dipper of all people flew up, surrounded with a blue glow. She looked up at him in amazement, despite the fact that her eyes (eye, because the one was hidden with the eyepatch) was watering and made it hard to see. "What?!"
"Nice bowtie!" Dipper shouted, and he used laser eyes to obliterate it, making a hole in Bill's stomach (ha ha, just like Bill did to him!). The three of them ran over, Mabel and Soos happily calling for him and Camo wheezing for breath. Oh, wow, this really, really hurt . . . Dipper floated over to them. "Guys! I just learned that you can conjure whatever you can conceive in Grunkle Stan's mindscape!" Mabel was confused, though Camo perfectly understood. "Just think of cool fighting stuff and it'll happen! Like this."
He used his laser eyes on the dog-man, who vanished, leaving just a hat. Camo was very excited to learn this. She closed her eyes, focused, and the clothes went back to normal size. Her eye flew open and she grinned, turning back to Bill. "What? Who told you that?!" the triangle screamed. "Don't listen to him!"
"We can do anything?" Mabel asked. Her head shrank and her voice went back to normal. "Like have kittens for fists?" Her hands disappeared into her sweater and two pink kitten faces popped out. She started shooting kittens at Bill, who screamed as they hit him.
Camo floated into the air and, since Bill dressed her like him anyway, decided to have some fun with it. She summoned blue fire to her hands, just like she'd seen him do, and shot blasts of it to him. She felt like a superhero! This was awesome!
Why did it have to be only in the Mindscape that she could do this?!
Bill regenerated his bow tie and said, "Enough games!" His eye turned into a telescope with a laser, and Camo floated back to the group, landing on the ground.
"Hamster ball shields, activate!" Mabel yelled, and the other three mimicked it. Purple balls enveloped them, and Bill's laser had no effect. He looked furious at the struggle, and it was hilarious. The laser reflected into his eye.
"Ah, my eye! Ahh!" He fell to the ground and clutched it in pain. Mabel brought back the shiny boys, who brought with them synthesized pop music. "No! Synthesized music!" Bill shouted, covering where his ears would be if he had any. "It hurts!"
"And now to imagine your worst nightmare!" Dipper said, standing like he thought he was courageous. "A portal out of Stan's mind!"
Mabel sang, "Out of Stan's mind!"
"Mabel! Everyone! Together!" They all concentrated, squeezing their eyes shut and grunting. (Camo cracked hers open so she could watch the massive portal grow under Bill, though he flashed everything white and it vanished.)
Bill took off his hat and rubbed it, turning back to yellow. "You know, I'm impressed with you guys. You're a lot more clever than you look. Especially the fat one."
Soos whispered to Mabel, "He's talking about you."
"So I'm gonna let you kids off the hook. You might come in handy later. But know this. A darkness approaches." A blue six-fingered hand appeared in the air above him. "A day will come in the future when everything you care about will change." The hand disappeared in a flash of blue fire. "Until then, I'll be watching you. Especially you, Hourglass—I like your sense of style." Camo was still wearing the Bill clothes. "I'll be watching you." A circle with a bunch of symbols surrounded him, and he disappeared in a flash.
"He's gone, we did it!" Dipper cheered, and they all high-fived each other. Then they all started to flicker away. "Stan must be waking up."
Mabel floated to the shiny boys. "Will I ever see you guys again?"
"In your dreams."
"Good one, bro. Good one."
She opened her eyes, back in the real world. She looked down at herself to check, and yup. Her clothes weren't Bill-ified anymore. Stan woke up and sleepily asked, "What are you all doing here? And why was I dreaming of two brightly colored and radical young men?"
"Grunkle Stan! You're okay!" Dipper said, running over to the chair and hugging Stan, who was confused.
"What is this, a hug?"
"Nope. It's a choke hold." The boy moved so he was holding Stan's neck from the back, and everyone laughed.
When Dipper released Stan, rubbing his neck, he said, "Not bad, kid. Not bad." The two smiled at each other, and it was clear they'd made up, or whatever.
"I'm just glad Gideon didn't get into the safe," Mabel pointed out. "I really love this old shack."
"Group hug!" Soos called. When no one joined him, he hesitated and look around. "No? I never know the right time!"
There was a low rumble, and bits of concrete fell from the ceiling. One of them hit Camo on the head, and she rubbed the spot, annoyed. Dipper asked, "Hey, do you guys feel a . . ."
Just then, the wall exploded, sending all of them flying in a cloud of smoke. A familiar silhouette appeared, and Gideon walked in. "Oh, I'm sorry, Pines family, did I wake you?" He was holding the deed in his hand.
"But we defeated Bill," Dipper asked, confused.
"Bill failed me!" Gideon snapped. "So I switched to plan B. Dynamite."
"What? Bill?" Stan asked, even more confused than Dipper had been. "Who . . . wha . . . What are you guys talking about?"
Gideon grinned maliciously. "Spoiler alert, Stanford. I've got the deed! The Mystery Shack belongs to me! So, get off my property!" He pulled out a walkie talkie. "Daddy? Bring it around the front."
They all stared in horror, and Dipper tried to comfort them. "Don't worry, guys. It's just part of the dream. We're going to wake up any second now. Right? Right?"
Camo was silent, trying to keep back her terrified tears. She could deal with a triangle dream demon, but . . . going for the Shack? That . . . that . . .
They were the good guys. They were supposed to beat the bad guys.
Right?