After swinging through the forest, Randy came to a complete halt.
"You foolish youngling, why are we stopping? Surely that ghost will catch your targets if you keep this up."
"Calm yourself, demon." Randy rolled his eyes. "Look at the branch marks. That's fairly out of place, wouldn't you agree?"
The ninja smirked. These twins may have been clever, but he knew a cover up when he saw one. He began swinging near that path and found himself near a small Creekside. There were more footprints around this area, and even some blood.
Randy's face suddenly grimaced. Surely that stupid ghost wasn't barbaric enough to hurt the children, was he?
He followed the rest of the footsteps until he hear a sniffling sound. It sounded as if someone was crying.
Bingo. The twins. Take that, you undead son-of-a-bitch.
He approached the cave carefully, waiting for a trap of for that ghost to come out of the brush and ambush him. However, the demon assured him that there was no ghostly presence, and the cave didn't seem to be protected.
Randy took off the mask to the demon's displeasure and decided to go with a more innocent approach. He figured his civilian gear would be less threatening and it would allow him to gain their trust, at least until they got back to headquarters.
"Hello, is anyone in there?" He asked quietly. Suddenly the sniffling stopped and the area fell to silence.
"Hey, hey, it's okay. I won't hurt you. Can I please come in?" He stepped closer to the cave and peeked in. He saw a small girl who had hid her head in a sweater. He frowned a bit at the scene. Only one of the twins were here. The ghost could've already captured the other.
"Please, um, please go away! My brother doesn't want me to talk to strangers." She kept herself cradled in her sweater. He walked a little bit farther into the enclosure as he didn't want to startle her.
"You know, my mom always told me that strangers are just friends you haven't met yet." He smiled and sat a little farther down from her. She peeked out of her sweater curiously at Randy and used one of her sleeves to wipe back her tears.
"She did. She was always encouraging me to make new friends. I don't think I would have if I thought that they were all just scary strangers." He looked at her knee and winced a bit. That didn't look good. The scrape had obviously been there for a short while, but she had already bled through the bandage and it was turning a scary purple-blue-green color.
"Oh, well I guess you're right." She lowered her sweater and allowed her head to pop out. "What's your name?"
"My name is, um…" He wondered if he should use a fake name. He would if it was any other target, but she seemed harmless enough. "My name is Randy."
"Hello, Randy," She said, looking relieved and excited at the same time. "I'm Mabel. Mabel Pines."
"Well it's very nice to meet you Mabel." He looked at her knee. "That doesn't look too good, would you mind if I took a look at it?"
"I don't know if Dipper would…" Mabel teared up a bit, and as she tried to turn away from Randy she winced. Randy scooted closer to Mabel and took out his medicine kit.
"I promise I'll just redress it, okay? If I don't you could get infected." She took a moment and then nodded. He began to remove the bandage and inspect her knee. Wow, for two tiny kids the other sure knew how to clean an open wound.
He was beginning to deduce that Mabel was probably in the dark about the whole situation. As they talked, Randy found that her biggest concern was her friends back home and where her parents and brother were. She could just be acting, but he had a feeling that Dipper was the mastermind. That kid knew that people were coming for them.
This could complicate things. Mabel was complacent enough but depending on what knowledge Dipper had he could easily sneak under their noses and escape. It's possible that he could persuade him for Mabel's sake though, as long as that stupid specter didn't already have him.
"Hey Randy, can I ask you a question?" the little girl looked up at him with innocent eyes. He smiled at her and nodded.
"Could you help me find my brother? I don't really know where he went, and I don't know where he wanted me to go. We're supposed to meet at a bus stop, but I don't think I can find it on my own."
The young ninja perked up. Bus station? If he went with Mabel he could catch the elusive twin easy. Even if the ghost boy had found Dipper first, he was sure that the smaller twin would be forced to lead him to the station. If he got their early, he could set a trap for him and then take the twins to Amanda. This was perfect.
"Of course, Mabel. I would hate to leave you alone, especially with your knee. What directions did your brother give you?"
"He said to go to the town right over the ridge. I'm not really sure where that is."
Randy laughed and stood up. "Well lucky for you, I know exactly where it is. I can carry you there tonight and we can stay at a little hotel there. Then you don't have to stay in this cave and we can wait for you brother until morning. How does that sound?"
Mabel beamed at him. "That would be perfect! Thank you so much, Randy. You're my new bestest friend, you know, right after Grenda and Candy."
"Yeah, Randy, we can be best bros!"
Randy stopped in his tracks for a moment and put his hand on the wall for support. No, no, he got over that. He hadn't heard that voice in six years. He's already moved on.
He stood their contemplating for what seemed like hours until he felt a small tug on his leg. He looked down and Mabel had crawled over to where he stood, still unable to walk.
"Randy, are you okay?" He looked down at her little worried face. Still a bit flustered, he let out a shaken laugh.
"Yeah don't worry about me Mabel. I just had a head rush from standing up. Now, let's get you to that bus station."