"Dipper!" Raz called, willing he's ears to stop ringing. Desperately, he scanned the dark void.

"Raz, where's Robbie?" Dipper called out of the darkness.

"I don't know. What happened?" The younger boy struggled not to trip on anything as he walked towards Dipper's voice.

"The lightning must have hit the power."

Of course. Raz thought. "Aggie, do you see Robbie?" he whispered under his breath.

"I don't, sorry. I did grab his bag though." Her voice was closer than Dipper's.

Raz sighed at the good piece of news.

"We need to get out of here." Raz proclaimed.

"What about Robbie!" Dipper yelled. A noise that sounded a lot like someone face planting followed shortly after.

"We're sitting ducks out here Dipper. Even if he didn't run away the moment the lights went out there's no way we could fight him." Raz held his hands out so he would not step on Dipper.

When he final felt the other boy's curly hair, his eyes had almost adjusted to the darkness.

"We're fighting someone who knows a lot more about us than we do and to be honest I really don't like this, but Robbie called us Mystery Kids right? So, let's start acting like them."

He reached a hand out Dipper, sitting on the ground.

"Yeah ok" Dipper smiled as he reached for the outstretched hand.

A bump against Raz's leg told him Aggie was in, too.

"Robbie said there are some more kids in some place called the Mystery Shack. Our best move is to head that way." Raz ordered.

"Judging on its name, it maybe be some type of museum or worse option a tourist trap. Either way the town should have something in way of directions." Dipper pointed out.

"Right to town and then to the Mystery Shack" Raz said, tripping on the same stone Dipper had.

If Raz had known how miserable he would be walking through cold rain, he would have opted to stay inside the mall. Beside him, Dipper looked just as miserable and while he was not completely sure he knew where the ghost girl was, Raz was pretty sure she was equally unhappy about the rain.

"You know I think we could get a little closer to the road Dipper?"

"Raz, just stop. If we get to close to the road someone could see us before we get to town"

"I'm just saying we could get a little closer. We're, what, five minutes away from it?"

"That's an exaggeration and you know it. It's only a minute away"

"Yeah but what if the road curves or something? We could just-"

"Raz will you just shut up! You know we can't take that risk! Robbie already used our memoires against us, who's to say others wouldn't. Keep our distance is the best course of action right now, okay?" Dipper yelled.

Raz looked down. He felt, what he assumed to be Aggie's hand, through his soaked jacket.

Dipper readjusted Robbie's backpack before continuing to head straight. From the foot steps behind him, he assumed Raz had continued as well.

It was a few minutes before the goggled boy spoke again.

"It sure is dark out, huh? Almost looks like night time."

Dipper only grunted.

"Maybe it is night time. It's not like we have a watch to keep track of time, right?"

Another grunt.

"But it's pretty cool how the rain could can get this dark right?"

"Raz… we should avoid drawing attention to ourselves"

"… right" Raz mumbled. "Hey, um Dipper?"

"What Raz?"

"Are those street lights?" Raz pointed

Dipper followed Raz's finger. In front of them was the beginning of a town.

"This must be Gravity Falls. Odd name when you think about it." Dipper spoke out loud. "We should proceed carefully"

"But I thought?"

"Assuming it's also not abandoned, there should be more than just one person in the town which means it should be safer."

"By should, I'm going to guess that there is a possibility that the entire town might be in on this."

Dipper bit his lip, unsure of how much he should share. From what he had read in the journal, it had sounded like the author was afraid of something. The words 'trust no one' had been underlined twice.

When Dipper had found the page before, he didn't think much of it. It wasn't until Robbie that he started to pay more attention to everything around him. Both Mabel and Raz depended on him to save them.

Mabel would have fallen for Robbie's trick in a heartbeat. She always tried to see the good in people and her silliness can get her into serious trouble. Raz is the same way. He's been lucky so far but who knows how long that luck will last.

The words 'trust no one' flashed inside his head again. Raz has been lucky. Grabbing a branch just before falling to his death? That only happens in comic books. He did act worried when I asked him about it. What if Raz is like Robbie? What if-

"Dipper, look, we're soaked to the bone. Traveling to a random tourist trap, somewhere in the middle of the wolf infested woods. And to top it all off there is an evil teenager after us. What more could this adventure throw at us? A crazy dentist!?"

Dipper sighed having his thoughts cut off. "Fine but keep an ear open."

"Same to you"

As the two boys, who probably had a creature of the undead following them, progressed through the town they noticed how empty it was. Dipper was not surprised at the lack of people, but at the lack of cars and other objects.

Wonder what happen?

"Dipper" Raz whispered, looking at a nearby alley way.

"What?" he whispered back. 'Please don't let it be Robbie'

"There was something moving over there."

The brown-haired boy nodded. "Do you think it saw us?"

"No, I don't think so." Raz stepped carefully toward the surrounding buildings.

Making as little noise as two boys can, they crept into the alley way. Both flinching as thunder rumbled overhead.

"Raz, no one is here." Dipper announced, doing one final sweep of the cluttered alleyway.

"Yeah, must have been a cat or something." Raz headed back toward the alley entrance.

"Wait up" Dipper cried.

"Guess we were paranoid over nothing huh? And look the rain is finally letting up."

"After all that can you really blame us?" Dipper chuckled.

"Nah" Raz laughing next to him. "Oh, man did you see your face though? You looked like someone had summoned flying monkeys to drag you off to the shadow realm"

"That didn't even make sense Raz" Dipper laughed.

"It's true though" Raz said trying to calm his laughter.

"And yours's was any better?"

"Ha Ha" the two boys froze as they heard laughter coming from behind them.

Mirroring each other's movements, they slowly turned around.

"Ha ha, oh are we not laughing anymore? Is it no longer a thing?" the two boys stared. "Whelp, this is getting awkward"

Standing in front of them, a man with a red hat came up to their waist.

"Yeah, this is awkward…" The man rubbed the back of his head. "But anyways, I need you kids to do me a favor. Or continue doing? I don't know."

"Dipper, are you seeing what I'm seeing?"

"I don't know, did I hit my head or something?"

The man glanced to the side. "Uh, do you two need to sit down or something? You do look like you just got through attacking a minotaur"

"What… who are you?" Raz asked.

"… Yep definitely awkward. But you know what kid, I'm bad with names too. I'm Jeff"

"Jeff the?" Dipper asked this time.

"Gnome… Jeff the leader of the Gnomes… Are you sure you don't need to sit down?" Jeff questioned, looking at the boys' confused expressions. "You walked into my bath once?" No response. "You stuck me on your rival, Gideon or something? You sucked me into a leaf blower? Is any of this ringing a bell?"

Jeff signed. "You know what fine. Fine. I came here looking for help and this happens."

"Do you know where your sister Mabel is?" Jeff smiled at them. "Or that terrifying blue haired girl?"

"Umm… sorry we don't know… we kind of got separated" Raz replied.

"I see… well, I can't really leave you two out here all alone with possible concussions. Not to mention I still need to get someone to handle that little problem of ours… So, is it ok if I hang out with the two of you?"

"Uh –" Dipper started.

"Sure Jeff. We were just heading toward the police station!" Raz jumped in. "Actually, if you could lead the way. Me and Dipper need to talk about secret Mystery Kids stuff."

The gnome shrugged, walking in the direction of the station.

"Raz what are you thinking?" Dipper hissed.

"That no one will believe I had a conversation with a living lawn decoration"

"Raz!"

"And if Jeff turns out to be a bad guy, he's small enough that we can both take him"

"He's a gnome Raz. We don't know what he could do"

"If it's between following a small man with unknown powers verse wandering through town for the next few hours. I'd rather take the small man."

Dipper looked to the ground. "Fine"

"Welp, here we are." Jeff gestured to the police station. "Do you kids think you'll be ok in here? I need to check on the rest of the guys."

"Sure Jeff" Raz replied, focused on the police station more than him. The door squeaked as he pulled it open, swinging it wide enough for Dipper to follow him.

"I'm sorry, did you say rest of the guys?" Dipper asked, letting the door fall shut.

"Yeah, the rest of the guys are in the forest. We've been hiding ever since –"

"Dipper come check this out!" Raz called from inside the police station, cutting Jeff off.

"Hang on" Dipper called back. "Sorry Jeff what were you going to say?"

The gnome man wore a frown, glancing in between the double doors and the boy. "You know what don't worry about it."

"Well yeah but-"

"Don't worry about it Dipper." Dipper shivered, not liking Jeff's new tone.

I didn't think he knew my name. Dipper thought to himself.

"Besides your buddy is waiting for you. Can't let him have all the fun."

Dipper looked at the double doors for a second, when he turned back the gnome was gone. The words Trust No One appeared in his head again.

Dipper darted into the police station, no longer feeling safe in the open street. Inside Raz greeted him.

"Hey, what took you so long?" The boy peered out from behind a desk. "Are you ok? You look like you've seen a gggghhhh- giant floating baby head."

"I'm fine. What did you want to show me?"

"Here." Dipper looked at the tan folder Raz was passing him.

"Raz, I don't think it's legal for us to be looking at case files."

"When there's no cops around anything's legal" Raz said in a gruff tone making Dipper paused. That quote sounded familiar.

Dipper shrugged it off, opening the case file. On top, was a view of an office in disarray. Papers had been scattered around the floor. Office chairs had been thrown haphazardly to their sides, one was caught on the metal bar in between cubicles.

Dipper flipped to the next page. A missing person case. Some guy named Tad Strange. The next page was similar. And the page after that. Dipper frowned, if the police case was right, that meant that eight people had been kidnapped from different offices within an hour of each other.

A plastic bag was taped to the back flap of the folder. Inside was some kind of scale, green in color and about the size of his fist. Someone, probably a police officer, had written "Ask Dr. Ford" next to the plastic bag.

"That's not the only one." Raz, now sitting on the desk, broke Dipper out of his investigation. "There are at least four other similar cases."

"Raz… yesterday, you mentioned that we might have been victims of child abduction."

"Yeah. What about it?"

"And so far, the only human we've meet has been Robbie. Who attacked us"

Raz nodded, not sure what Dipper was hinting at.

"And we're the Mystery Kids, right? We fight other, I guess, supernatural things"

"What are you saying Dipper" Raz's mouth felt dry.

"Raz, what if whoever is doing this. What if they decided to get us out of the way?"

The two boys let the statement hang in the air.

Raz jumped off his perch. Digging through the unorganized pile of papers.

"Raz?"

"Here." The maroon haired boy held out a stun gun.

"What about you?" Dipper asked.

Raz frowned. "There's only one stun gun, and from the newspaper you know how to use it."

"But-"

"Dipper keep it. You're the most resourceful." Raz gave him a smile. "So, what next?"

Dipper sighed. In truth, he didn't know what they should do next. He knew why Raz was asking him, and he really did want to find Mabel.

But this thing. If it's after all of us it would be after Mabel too. We should take it out before it can do anymore damage. Yet if Mabel is okay, she could be a good asset in the fight. And there might be other kids too. Still it will take time to find her, time we might not have. Dipper continued to argue with himself.

"What do you mean you invited her here!" Jeff screamed at the other gnomes.

"Do you not understand our predicament here! Our only hope-" Jeff breathed in deeply. "You know what never mind. You" Jeff pointed to another gnome. "What did she want."

Jeff grew grime as he listened to the relayed message. "That's all huh, well considering who it is it's a small price to pay. Alright boys let's get in formation!"

Happy New Year!