Hey, everyone, 087-B here with another chapter of Beach Bandits!

After the gang arrived at The Lakes, they found it was closed off to the public. Having to find a way inside, Dipper battled against hostile robots created by EcoTech Industries, then found a map and weapons for the group. Now that everyone is inside, they've found that what Pacifica had told them was true; the water from The Lakes had been drained completely.

In this chapter, their investigation continues as they start to make their ways into the restricted areas of The Lakes, the wilderness areas – with permission, of course. But what will happen then? Read to find out! Or don't, and be boring...

Now, on with the show!

Chapter 5

The Lakes Arc – Part 2

"A Bridge Too Far"

The four continued down the road into the large inner-lake parking lot of The Lakes, near a fairly large picnic site, two docks, and a large cabin. Surprisingly, there was nothing here, not even any robot spawners or general robots, or any people, as far as they could tell. But everyone's eyes were fixated on the drained lake.

Something like that was not what you'd call an "everyday occurrence", and the four were appalled to see that what Pacifica had told them was true. With sand gone from Gravity Falls, and the water missing from The Lakes, they could confirm their suspicions that these events were connected. Now they had to figure out why this happened, and where both the water and the sand had gone, and where to go and what to do from there.

"It's…empty…" Wendy muttered, shaking her head slightly. "I mean…Jesus…"

"How'd this happen…?" Mabel asked, unable to believe her own eyes.

"That damn Tech, I'll tell you what…"

The group of four looked around before spotting the origin of the new voice; a man in a park ranger's uniform, maybe in his thirties, was on the porch of the cabin, staring out at the lake with binoculars. They all approached him to see if he knew anything else.

"Ranger Calloway, pleased to make yer acquaintance, or whatever." He spat rather distastefully. "Never break into places, kids."

"Uh…well, we're sorry, but we're up against Tech too…" Dipper wasn't sure how to respond to the man.

"Good, good, ya gotta be. He's no good, he's just a bucket of scum." Calloway said. He turned to them. "I thought he'd be doing good things when he and his people just marched on in here and said they'd be buying the surrounding land, but nope, now they've gone and drained all the water!"

"So you know it's EcoTech that's behind this?" Wendy asked.

"Well, I know it, but nothing's confirmed." Calloway sighed, stepping towards them and crossing his arms. "I don't know what to do, the authorities have tried to help, but no leads…it's only been a day, and already nothing's going right."

"Well we have a similar problem." Dipper said. "We come from Gravity Falls, Oregon, and over there, the sand has been stolen from the beach!"

"Huh…interesting…" Calloway placed a finger to his chin, thinking. "I wonder what a man like Tech would need a ton of sand and water for…what, is he making a private beach or something?"

"That's what I was thinking!" Mabel exclaimed with a smile.

"Mabel, that's not what he's doing with it!" Dipper sighed in annoyance.

"Listen…I know I shouldn't be doing this, but…" Calloway pointed out to a narrow path between two rocky stags. "Up there is an off-limits area to the public, but it goes towards a plot of land that EcoTech had bought a few days ago."

"Why're you telling us this?" Soos asked.

"Because the authorities are useless, the rangers are useless, you're the only shot we've got at taking Tech down!" Calloway replied. "Just go that way and see what you can find…then come back here if you can't go on anymore."

"Alright then." Dipper smiled and tipped his hat. "Thank you, Ranger Calloway."

Calloway smiled and returned the gesture. "No problem, kid. Now go and make Tech malfunction."

The group ran up the narrow, slightly sloped path, before they finally reached their destination. They entered a small clearing, split by a nice waterfall creating a small river flowing out into a canyon, with stepping stones and platforms allowing the ability to get across. A small cave entrance was to their right, and to their left was a large amount of vines that seemed to lead up to somewhere. The four looked around some more. A few trees were here and there, and across the water was a slope leading up to what appeared to be a bridge.

"So, I'm guessing this is the place?" Dipper asked.

"Why's this place closed off from the public?" Mabel smiled and stepped into the clearing, squatting down by some flowers. "It's so nice here!"

"Well, don't forget what the dude back there said." Wendy began, starting forward. "He said EcoTech has started buying some land around The Lakes area, so of course almost nothing is open to the public around here–"

"Whoa, careful!" Dipper stopped the red-head and pulled her back, pointing at a couple of nearby robot spawners. "Those are the things that create the robots!"

As he said that, a familiar circular robot spawned from it. Dipper stepped forward, readying his weapon, when Mabel stopped him. "Hold on, bro bro; lemme try this."

The robot, hearing the voices and sensing the presences of four individuals, turned to see what it was up against.

It barely had time to process Mabel's very existence before it was destroyed in a single blow as Mabel charged it head on, bellowing a nonsensical war cry and proceeding to hop into the air after its defeat, dealing a landing blow to the spawner and destroying it.

The other three, shocked at Mabel's sudden victory, clapped in amazement. Mabel bowed playfully. "Thank you, thank you! It was nothing!"

Wendy smiled and crossed her arms. "These robots aren't as tough as I thought they would be."

"But still, though we can pack a punch to them, they can still pack a punch to us." Dipper explained. "We still need to be careful around them. Now come on, let's try and avoid them for now and figure out where we need to go from here."

They all went over to the small river and carefully hopped along the stepping stones, making it over to the other side quickly and safely.

"It's kinda weird to see water now when we just saw an empty lake, ya know?" Soos said.

"Gotta agree with you there, Soos." Wendy agreed. "I wonder why water is right here, but not back there…"

"Well, that's…probably something we might find out when we find the water." Dipper responded, adding a shrug, as he led the others up the grassy slope towards the bridge they had noticed earlier.

However, when they got there, they noticed that it had been completely destroyed, and that all that was left were the two rope boundaries, with no connected wooden panels.

"Ugh!" Wendy through her hands in the air and slouched against a rock wall, bringing her arms down and crossing them. "How're we supposed to get across?"

"Hmm…" Dipper looked around the area near the bridge, but didn't notice anything, until something caught his eye from down below.

Sitting on one of the rocky stepping stone platforms was a pile of wooden boards.

"Aha! There!" Dipper smiled and pointed. "There are some planks!"

"So, they just got scattered?" Mabel asked, taking a look at the pile. "That doesn't look like enough to get across with…"

"Well, maybe there are more piles around here somewhere…" Wendy suggested.

"Yeah, we can totally find 'em!" Soos pumped his fists in the air, smiling with determination.

"Yeah, we've gotta, it's probably our only chance at getting across safely." Dipper nodded. "I'll go grab those boards down there, as well as take care of the other robot spawners. Everyone else, split off and try to find others."

"Where should we search?" Mabel asked.

"Hmm…" Dipper thought for a moment. "Mabel, you search around this area, just in case we missed anything walking up here."

"Aye aye, captain!" Mabel saluted.

"Wendy, you climb that ivy over there." Dipper pointed. "You can probably—"

"Wait, why would there be planks up there?" Wendy asked.

"It's obvious that the robots probably dismantled the bridge and tried to hide the planks." Dipper answered. "And it's clear they did a horrible job."

"True…alright, I'll give it a shot." Wendy shrugged.

"Alright, and last, but not least, Soos; you'll check out that cave." Dipper pointed to the cave they had seen coming into the clearing.

"That cave? By myself?" Soos asked for confirmation, gripping his hockey stick.

"Mhm. That cave. By yourself." Dipper nodded. "Don't worry, you'll be fine."

Soos smiled and tipped his hat. "Alright then, dude, I'll do it!"

"Sweet! Now let's build a bridge!" Dipper exclaimed, and they all split up to search for the remaining boards.

Soos readied his hockey stick and eased his way into the cave. He continuously glanced around at everything within, which was just the ivy-covered rock walls, wondering if something was going to pop out, as he slowly walked down the path.

"H-Hello…?" Soos called out. "Is, uh…is a robot dude in here? I kinda don't wanna get blasted by you dudes, heh…"

Then, Soos turned a corner into a slightly larger room with a ramp leading up to another part of the cave.

Sitting on the center of the ramp was a robot spawner.

Appearing from it was a large, top-shaped robot, resembling a tall, narrow, upside-down triangle, hovering in the air via propeller. It let out a strange, robotic cry, as it aimed a laser pointer at Soos.

Soos' eyes widened as he leaped out of the way just in time to dodge three consecutive blasts of energy.

"W-Whoa!" Soos panted as he got back to his feet, preparing his hockey stick for battle. "What is that thing?!"

It fired another three bursts of energy. Soos narrowly dodged the first two, then swung his hockey stick at the third. The forceful collision between solid and plasma sent the energy burst right back at the robot, destroying it in one powerful hit. Soos then quickly ran over and jammed the butt-end of his hockey stick into the spawner, destroying it.

"Man, Dip was right, there are hostile robots at The Lakes…" Soos then quickly continued along the path, seeing light ahead.

He sprinted towards it and found himself standing at a hole in the rock wall, able to jump down from where he was to reach the start of the clearing safely. Nearby was a handful of wooden planks for the bridge.

"Aw, sweet!" Soos smiled and took hold of them, then hopped down into the clearing. Then he started over to the river to cross it. "Now, time to build that bridge!"

Wendy finally reached the top of the vines and saw what she was up against. Standing in a small, rocky quarry, with multiple rock platforms and a large, out of place, rusty metal pipe, she saw a pile of planks on the highest platform, and she knew she'd have to scale the rocks to get there.

"That pipe…could there be water from the central lake running through it?" Wendy quickly brushed off the thought and ran over to the first rock platform.

Hopping on to it, she scaled the rocks with speed, easily making it to the planks. Grabbing them all and carefully hopping down from the rock she stood on, she glanced back over at the pipe.

"Just where is that thing going…?"

Wendy hopped the stones and sprinted up the grassy slope to meet with the others, panting as she reached the top, carrying her set of wooden planks. "We…got them…all…?"

"Yeah, all four sets, it seems." Dipper nodded, starting to slide his planks into their slots and knotting hem with rope, carefully inching his way along the broken bridge as he did.

"Bro, be careful…" Mabel muttered, holding the side ropes tightly.

"He'll be fine, dude." Soos smiled and reassured her, holding the ropes as well.

"Yeah, don't worry." Wendy added, having regained her breath. "It's only a bridge, and if he falls, he'll just land in the water."

"The water that leads into a waterfall, that leads into a canyon." Mabel pointed between the rocky stags near the bridge, out into the large, rather eerie looking canyon.

"Yeesh…" Wendy stared. "Hope we don't have to go down there…"

"It doesn't look like there's anything down there…" Soos said. "I doubt it."

"More planks." Dipper reached towards his sister, who handed him another set. "Thanks Mabes."

After a little more time, all of the boards were in place, and everyone had made it across. The bridge was stable enough to hold for a long while, so if they ever needed to traverse it again, it most likely wouldn't break.

"Well, I wouldn't call building a bridge a huge victory for Team Mystery," Wendy began. "But, as long as it helps us get further into The Lakes, then I say we've succeeded in making progress."

"Definitely." Dipper agreed. "This bridge was obviously broken manually, so whatever is on this side must be pretty secret."

"Then let's go!" Mabel sprinted up another grassy slope between some rocky formations, followed by Soos and Wendy. Before Dipper went along with them, he glanced down at the destroyed robot spawners.

Just why are there so many of them all of a sudden…?

"Dipper…? You might want to see this…"

That was Wendy's voice. Curious, Dipper ran up to where they were. "What is it?"

He saw them all staring out into a small valley, surrounded by large rocky peaks. He looked at what they were staring at, and his eyes widened.

"Oh, geez..."

-(End of Chapter)-

To be continued…

Hmm? What's that? You want to know what it is they have found? Well too bad! You've gotta wait until the next chapter! Mwahahahaha!

Ahem…anyways…not a super productive chapter, but with a new hostile robot introduced, and a cliffhanger ending, some pretty neat stuff happened. So, I'd say this came out okay!

Anyways, I hope you have enjoyed this chapter, reviews are highly appreciated, and as always…

Stay Tuned!

~087-B