And here's part 2 of chapter 4! Enjoy!
The sun slowly rose up, as morning came to Gravity Falls, its people starting to wake up, while most were still sleeping in on Saturday without a care in the world.
The Mystery Shack building remained quiet until much later, where everyone begin to wake up. Joshua was the last one to wake up given how a bit sore that his body was from work yesterday. Despite waking up a bit cranky, the blonde haired teenager sluggishly made his way downstairs and then to the kitchen where Stan and the twins were at.
"Morning."
"Morning Joshua!" Mabel greeted the blonde teenager.
"About time you woke up, shrimp!" Stan complained as he's currently cooking breakfast. "I didn't pay you to be lazy and to sleep all day!"
"You haven't paid me at all,"a deadpan Joshua stated, as he glared at his hypocritical boss.
"Not with that attitude, your not," Stan warned.
This only caused Joshua grit his teeth in annoyance and open his mouth as if he was ready to respond back, but at the last second, decided to not to say anything and closed his mouth, as he took his seat on the table and took his unjustified defeat in silence. "Like I need money from an asshole like him."
The twins stared at their friend, before looking at each other. It was obvious that Joshua was having a rough time liking Stan, which was something that Dipper and Mabel can relate to; it took Dipper a while to finally grow to love Stan for who he was, despite being a con artist and all, though he put up with Stan's questionable antics, now he understand Joshua's frustration though. Dipper hoped things would change between them in the future.
"Anyway, since it's the weekend, I thought it would be a perfect time to go fishing!" Stan announced.
"YAY!" Mabel cheered, while Dipper nodded his head and smiled. Joshua, on the other hand, casually shrugged.
Stan served them pancakes, eggs and bacon. The twins ate their breakfast, while Joshua decided to skip breakfast and just have a glass of orange juice, with Mabel ended up eating Joshua's plate. After everyone ate their breakfast, Stan turned on the TV, to see if anything interesting was on, until he stumbled channel seven where the Gravity Falls news network is broadcasting breaking news.
"Breaking news on channel seven!"
Stan shrugged his shoulder with indifference, as he was about to change the channel. "Don't care."
"An random attack occurred at this very location and the victim happened to be Priscilla Northwest, the family that happened to be descendants of the family who founded this town The Northwests!"
Everyone except Joshua were shocked in hearing such news, as this town has a low crime rate, with Stan even went so far as spitting his coffee and ended up hitting Joshua's face.
"WHAT?!" Mabel gasped.
"Pacifica's mother was a victim of an attack?" Dipper asked. Even though he knows that Priscilla Northwest was a very nasty person, along with her husband Preston Northwest, no one would dare try to attack her as retribution for violence against someone with high status like the Northwests, would be obviously huge as few would have the backbone to attack the founder of Gravity Falls despite he along with Mabel know the truth of them "founding" this small is nothing but a mere hoax.
"Who's the victim of this attack?" Joshua asked as he wiped the coffee of his face with his hands.
"Priscilla Northwest," Mabel answered "She is Pacifica's mother, a good friend of ours."
"Is that so, huh?" Joshua scratched his chin before his eyes widened in realization. "Your friends with the founder of this small town?"
"Yes and no," Dipper replied. "We're good friends with Pacifica Northwest, but the same cannot be said with her parents, as they despise us and practically everyone who isn't rich like them. To answer your other question, no, the Northwests aren't the founders Gravity Falls."
"Pacifica Northwest…" Joshua nodded his head, while at the same time, retreated in his mind with their friend's name still lingering in his head. Meanwhile the Pines family watched and listened the news closely.
"We're now going live with Trisha who is at the site of the attack. Trisha." The news then switched to the new reporter Trisha, who was standing in front of the attack where it took place.
"Hello everyone, Trisha is here in front of the site, along with two sheriff's Blubbs and Durland," The female news reporter said with the camera shirting to the two sheriffs.
"Now, we're still under investigation, but we do know that Priscilla Northwest suffered horrendous injuries I have ever seen," Sheriff Blubbs took of his hat and sadly looked down as he shook his head.
"Priscilla Northwest was horribly bruised up from head to toe, had a black eye and a broken arm," Sheriff Durland stated grimly. "Whoever did this is someone who's not only deranged but also ridiculously strong. We're gonna do our best to find the perpetrator and served him justice!"
The camera then shift back to Trisha. "And there you have it folks. The police will be on high alert until the person is caught. If you have any information about this case or have seen the perpetrator contact the police immediately. This is Trisha with Gravity Falls news sighing out!"
Stan turned off the TV as the news switched to something else. "Okay kids! It's time for us to get ready to go fishing!"
Dipper, Mabel and Joshua looked at each other before facing Stan and nodded their heads, slowly getting up from their seat, putting their dishes in the sink and went to their respective rooms to get ready for the day. After an half hour have passed everyone meet at the door with Stan has on his fishing attire along with all of his fishing equipment.
"Okay is everyone ready? Stan asked.
"Ready Grunkle Stan!" Mabel replied.
"I'm ready Grunkle Stan," Dipper added.
"Whatever," Joshua muttered.
The gang passed a few cars as they were on their way towards their destination, as Stan was driving in his car, with Mabel calling shotgun and Joshua and Dipper were stuck in the back seat. Since Mabel sat in the front, she got full access to the radio, something that she took full advantage of turning every radio station that was playing her favorite songs, much to dismay of everyone else in the car.
"Ugh! Are you kidding me?" Dipper groaned in displeasure with Joshua nodded in agreement.
"So much on having a relaxing trip."
"Aww, come on!" Mabel cheered. "My taste in music isn't that bad! At least it's not country music!"
Dipper reluctantly shook his head. "There's something I can agree."
Joshua however only frowned and rolled his eyes. "How is that any better?! I would gladly take listening country music than boy band music any day."
Stan continue to drive for a good few minutes until they arrived at the lake. Stan parked the car and got out with the trio carrying all the fishing equipment and when they got to the boat rental they met a familiar face.
"Hey dudes!" Soos greeted much to the surprise of the gang.
"Hey Soos!" Mabel sat down the fishing equipment, ran up to him and embraced him in a hug.
"What are you doing here Soos?" Dipper asked.
"Well Stan informed me about you coming out here to fish so I decided to join your guys!" Soos happily announced. "And we can take this huge boat!"
"Sweet!" Dipper smiled. Mabel cheered as she grabbed the fishing rods, Stan just shook his head in disapproval since he wanted to be family time between him and the twins despite Joshua is preset with them but he did had something planned for the blonde teenager to keep him away from him and the twins. As for Joshua he only shrugged his shoulders as he walked towards the boat they're getting on.
"Well. this might be fun after all," Joshua thought.
Everyone board on the small fishing boat and and drove off from the shores with Soos on the helm driving the ship, Stan settling his chair and equipment up to get ready to fish when Soos finds a decent spot as there were several other boats present, Mabel helping her Grunkle Stan by putting on fishing hooks and handling the bait they'll be using today, Dipper scanning out the lake using his binoculars and finally Joshua standing on front right corner of the ship using his phone.
After a few minutes of scrolling Soos found a good spot and stopped there. The spot they picked is perfect for Stan; there was plenty of space for him to fish and there was a good amount of distance from the other boats and lastly they were under a good amount of shade safe from the hot beaming sun rays.
"Nice job for finding the perfect spot for me to have both worlds, Soos; fishing and relaxing on my chair," Stan praised his employer.
"My pleasure. Stan!" Soos exclaimed.
Joshua, who was watching from afar was dumbstruck by the fact that someone would listen and take order for a sorry excuse of a "boss". He understood that employees must always followed their boss's words regardless, but Joshua expected someone o be this mental to follow Stan and put up with his attitude and pay him or her below minimum wage. All of this would deterred anyone from wanting to work under Stan's thumb but Soos seemed content with it.
As he was so into his thoughts that Joshua didn't noticed Mabel was literally next to him trying to get his attention by poking the right side of his cheek. "Boop! Boop! Boop!"
"AHH!" Joshua jumped in shock before tumbling down on the ground with a loud "THUMP!" This causes Mabel to giggle.
"Are you okay Joshua?" Mabel asked in between her giggles.
"Aside from you making me tumble on the ground like an bashful idiot I'm okay." Joshua sneered at the optimistic brunette.
At first Mabel looked at her friend with concern before smiling at him apparently taking his words without second thoughts. "Good! We're going to fish now. You wanna join?"
"Sorry Mabel, I'm gonna pass on going fishing," Joshua declined.
Mabel frowned. "Are you sure?"
"I'm sure, Mabel," Joshua confirmed. "Don't worry, I'll be here if you need me."
"Well…okay. I'll see you then when we're done." And with that Mabel walked back to her family and Soos to joined them leaving the blonde teenager alone and to himself for the time being.
With this in mind Joshua got his phone and stream the Gravity Falls news since he has nothing better to do and wanted to see what other news post aside from the assault case on Priscilla Northwest that is taking front page and center of the news media in this small town. As he scrolled down a couple of ongoing cases caught his interests, before Joshua clicked one of the two ongoing articles.
The first articles were about animals randomly gone missing and never return, with horses and cows being the most profound victims. Apparently it was happening all over Gravity Falls for quite some time as the article goes on revealing about a variety of farmers complaining about the same problems, in fact so much so that things like meat, chicken, roast and dairy products such as milk, butter, cheese are having trouble meeting demand of such things resulting the prices to inflate in a staggering amount that Joshua can recall yesterday when Wendy was showing him around town.
"No way! A single pack of meat cost ten dollars!" A shocked Joshua yelled.
Wendy only shook her head. "It's no surprise dude, we are experiencing a shortage of some kind."
This cause Joshua to look at Wendy. "What kind of shortage?"
"For some reason the stores around here are starting to have low supplies of meat due to farmers not supplying enough," Wendy explained.
"That's very bizarre, happening out the blue like that," Joshua muttered.
"Maybe because one of the cows are contaminated and they are doing the best to prevent an epidemic?" Wendy suggested.
Joshua nodded his head. "That is a possibility, but I'm starting to doubt that considering it if was an epidemic, word would spread all over the town and the media would have a field day. Did you hear anything about this prior before the stores raised the prices?"
"Now that you mentioned it Joshua…" Wendy paused for a bit and think about over the past several months. Despite not being the type who watched the news, she still tried to keep herself informed from time to time and so far, she hasn't seen or hear anything about the unexpected shortage that Gravity Falls was experiencing. "No."
"Is that so huh?" Joshua scratched his chin. "Then something is amiss or foul play is in the works in the shadows."
Wendy didn't hear the last part of Joshua's words. "Did you say something dude?"
Joshua nodded his head. "It's nothing Wendy. Let's just get what we came here and hurry back to the Mystery Shack."
"Of course!" Wendy agreed before letting out a smirk. "But not before finishing showing you around town first."
"Fine by me," Joshua followed Wendy as she resume the tour. "And I do hope that the shortage situation would be solved because if Stan finds out I'm spending his hard earn cash on food that would cost time a fortune whenever he send me to another errand I wouldn't never hear the end of it!"
This caused Wendy to laugh. "I agree with you dude! Stan is very stingy when it comes to money!"
Joshua only rolled his eyes. "Why am I not surprised?"
Joshua shook his head as he thought about the conversation he and Wendy had between them. "Yeah someone or something is behind it but it's too early to say."
Done reading the first article he clicked and moved on the second and last one, this one caught him by surprise and send shivers down his spine; the second article is missing person, or people report in this unique case as the article reveals that several children went missing and they were last spotted back three month and a half ago and despite an intense investigation and manhunt for these children no progress have been made. At the bottom of the are the picture descriptions of the missing children which Joshua counted four in total; three boys and a girl and the phone number which is obviously to the police.
After finally reading the last article Joshua put his phone away and began brainstorming on everything he has read.
"First the teenagers was attacked by a humanoid creature with green skin, then Priscillia Northwest was attacked, then the shortage of meat and dairy products and finally, the missing children," Joshua talked to himself as revelations caused him to turn pale.
"There's no mistake about it. Whoever is doing this is…" Joshua paused for a bit as he conflict between the connections he's established and self denial. "... but do they seriously exist? And living in this small town of all places?!"
Just then Stan stood up. "Oh, I got myself a bite, kids!"
Dipper Mabel and Soos cheered as they watched Stan reeling on the fish that is struggling to get away and it is giving Stan a run of his money as despite his strength he is still struggling with the fish. As this was happening Joshua watched them from afar with his eyes glued on the fishing hook inside the water and for good reason; he's on red alert mode on what might be on the end of Stan's fishing rod as it very well could be the creature that is the source of this small town problems.
"Alright, now I got him!" Stan boasted as he slowly reeling in his prey. "Heh, this one's a fighter, I'll tell ya."
Hearing those words made Joshua's heart jumped with adrenaline. It was his time to act.
"Stan, ahem don't you think you should free that fish you captured," This caused Stan to questionably look at the blonde teenager.
"Are you mad?! This fish gave me a hell of a run but it's time my catch of the day to call it quits."
"Stan listen, there are other fishes that are a lot larger and stronger than the one you caught, so how about we take our losses and let that fish go?" Joshua desperately insisted.
This in turn only made Stan irritated. "Listen shrimp, I caught this fish fair and square and I'm not gonna let some pretty boy persuade me."
"Pretty boy!" Joshua was starting to become frustrated by Stan's behavior, until let out a sigh in defeat. He tried his best to help Stan but seeing how stubborn his boss is it's up to him now to do the job.
"Okay, Stan, I warned you, but I'll cut to the chase," Joshua started to speak in a serious tone. "I began to suspect that this fish is not a fish at all."
"What are you talking about, shrimp?" Stan was at this point losing his patience.
"Yeah, what are you talking about?" Mabel asked as well.
"What I'm trying to say is that the fish Stan caught maybe something else entirely" Joshua explained. "One that might put our safety in jeopardy."
"What?!" Stan was flabbergasted in disbelief at this point. "Shrimp, you're being delusional."
Joshua, now clearly fed up of his boss's stubbornness, pushed Stan aside and grabbed the fishing rod. "Fine, I'll show you what I mean!"
"Stan!" Soos cried as he held his boss.
"Joshua, what are you doing?!" Dipper demanded.
Joshua formed a confident smile as he reeled in the prey. "Oh, I'll prove to you that I'm not delusional starting…" The fishing line is now inches away from the boat. "... Now!"
With enough strength Joshua raised the fishing rod pulling out the fishing hook and whatever it's trapped on the hook and without looking Joshua turned to the others with his confident expression still on his face. "Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you…this!"
Joshua held the fish hook with a proud look on his face as he visualized everyone being shocked, amazed and complimenting him for being wrong and hearing things like "We're wrong Joshua!" and similar praises. But what he got instead we're four different expressions from each of the gang; Stan's expression was beyond anger, Soos had the blankest stare, Dipper shook his head and Mabel gave Joshua a puzzled look before finally spoke.
"A twelve foot red snapper? That's what you were so flabbergasted about?"
"What? No!" Joshua glared at the brunette girl before turning his head and what he saw mentally slapped in the face; It was as Mabel said, a twelve foot red snapper dangling from the fishing hook all while flapping frantically. Joshua instantly went from being confident to feeling completely humiliated.
"Can I have my red snapper now, shrimp?" Stan impatiently asked, more like demand given the tone of his tone.
Joshua just stood there frozen in his own stupidity and try to speak, but due humiliating himself, he couldn't utter a single word and after numerous tries to explain himself, he ultimately threw up his arms in frustration and in defeat.
"UGH! Never mind! False alarm, everyone!" Joshua threw the fishing pole with the red snapper in the air and walked back towards the helm of the ship leaving their group to resume fishing.
"Watch it, shrimp!" Stan called Joshua out for throwing his prized fishing hole and his newly caught fish.
Soos helped his boss while the twins looked at Joshua heading in the front the ship clearly vivid of what he just did and then each other.
"I wonder what was that about?" Dipper asked.
"I'll go checked up with Joshua," Mabel suggested, as she walked where Joshua is only to stopped by her younger twin.
"I think it would be best that you would leave him be to cool off," Dipper suggested.
Mabel nodded her head. "No, I'm gonna check up on him. It seems that Joshua is pretty mad."
Disregarding her brother's words, Mabel ran towards the helm of the ship to check up on her friend, who had his arms folded and retaining his irritated expression even after he began noticing Mabel.
"Oh, hey Mabel," Joshua melancholy greeted. "Do you need me for something?"
Mabel quickly shook her head. "No Joshua, but I noticed that you are steamed about something. Care to tell me?"
"No, you wouldn't believe me even if I tell you," Joshua try to dismiss it but Mabel isn't having any of it.
"Come on Joshua, I promised that I won't laugh or think of you as a liar," Mabel did her best in trying to reconsider.
Joshua stared at his friend for a few moments before letting out a sigh. "Okay, the reason why I'm upset is because-" He started before being interrupted by an excited Soos.
"Hey dudes! I caught something!" Soos exclaimed as he held the fishing rod and slowly reeling in his catch.
"Oh, no way, Soos!" Dipper cheered his friend as he watch happily. "Let's see if Soos's catch is bigger than Stan's."
"I like to see that," Stan begrudgingly spoke, folding his arms. Joshua and Mabel walked outside to join the others while the former is telling his story.
"...And that's why I thought that there were something strange was amiss," Joshua finished before sighing. "You must think I'm insane, huh?"
Mabel nodded her head. "Not at all Joshua, in fact I believe you!"
This caught Joshua by surprise. "You do?"
"Of course!" Mabel replied. "So after gather all the evidence you've got have you figured out the creature is?"
"There's no doubt about about the creature I concluded is a k-" Joshua begin to speak until he glimpsed over Mabel's shoulder and what he saw completely petrified him. "K-K-K-K-K-"
Mabel made an confused look as she witness her friend repeating himself. "Joshua? Are you okay?"
Joshua was too terrified to respond and instead raised his arm and pointed towards the lake. Mabel did just that and turned around to see on what was scaring their friend and what she saw made her jaw dropped. Dipper and Stan were scratching their heads in what to make of the sight of what Soos had caught, but it wasn't a fish a all; It was strange creature that was shockingly humanoid and was the size roughly around a human child, but it possessed very fish-like features such as green skin, green eyes, a large orange yellow beak, a shell on its back and finally, a plate resting on top of it's where for some odd reason, it was completely hairless. The creature gave off a raspy fish odor that was very revolting to bear, as if the creature had swam in some sewage.
"Oh…my…GOD! What is that?" Dipper asked, as he stood there shell shocked.
"Whatever it is, it's stinks!" Stan pinched his nose, disgusted by the odor that the creature was giving off.
Soos stood there and examined his catch. "I think it's a…"
"KAPPA!" Joshua finished Soos's sentence, much to his confusion.
"Really dude?" Soos asked a bit shocked. "Cause I was thinking it's a turtle that was mutated.
"Soos!" Joshua called out to him. "Get away from that thing! Those things are dangerous!"
"What? This adorable thing is dangerous?" Soos burst out laughing clearly dismissing Joshua's warning. "Yeah right, dude! It's so small that you can hug it! You know what, I'm gonna do that right now!"
As Soos attempted to hug the creature the Kappa formed a smirk before quickly charging towards Dipper.
"Whoa, what it's doing?!" Dipper asked before being grabbed by the neck and dragged towards the water.
"Dipper!" Everyone cried.
"Help!" Dipper pleaded for help, as he and the kappa jumped of the boat and into the water.
"Oh no you don't!" Joshua exclaimed, grabbing the harpoon gun that was resting on the left side of the ship, strapped the sharp edge with a fishing net and carefully took aim. After taking careful aim he fired it directly towards Dipper and the Kappa whom were swiftly swam in the water. The fishing net opened up and managed to entrapped them much to the satisfaction of Joshua.
"Got ha!" Joshua let out a confident smile.
"Whoa, nice shot Joshua!" Mabel complimented.
"No time to rest! I gonna need help fast!" Joshua said feverishly.
"Why you need help?" Soos asked. "You totally got this under control."
Joshua shook his head. "No I don't. You may think that but Kappa are water creatures so they are stronger when they are in water so I need some assist-"
Before he could finished talking he was dragged off the ship and fell into the water with his hands still gripped on the harpoon gun.
"WAH!" Joshua shouted the last part of his word before being dragged off in the water as the Kappa is speeding off in rapid speeds much to the shock everyone on board.
"Holy Guacamole!" Stan' eyes wided.
"Follow that water trail!" Mabel commanded.
"Aye Aye Cap'n Mabel!" Soos answered as he ran the helm of the boat and started the engine and before long they were now giving chase. Due to Joshua's head hasn't fully submerged underwater they were able to follow the trail until they reached an area that shrouded in mist.
While Stan have no idea where they were, Mabel and Soos instantly recognized this area; it was the same place where the two of them and Dipper stumbled across this place four years ago, where they were trying to find the rumored Gobblewonker that appeared here where in reality it turned out to be a robot that was controlled by Old Man Mcgucket in an attempts to get closer to his son.
"Ah great! We lost the shrimp!" Stan complained.
"Stan, Joshua has a name ya know!" Mabel annoyingly shook her head. "Soos, head for that small island."
Soos nodded his head "You got it, Cap'n!"
Joshua was currently exploring the forest that he stumbled upon, beginning his search for Dipper. He lost him and the kappa that took his friend several minutes ago, due to a combination of losing his handling on the harpoon gun and exhaustion from the kappa's rapid swimming, doing sharp turns and rough tossing in numerous attempts to shake off its pursuer. He was able to endure most of the punishment that the kappa threw at him except where at the lost moment where the kappa entered inside a small hole that leads to, from what Joshua presumed is it's home. The hole was too small for Joshua to fit in, let alone to keep following and his body was getting badly bruised from being collided with rocks and sea plants, as well as being in underwater and nearly drowning in the process.
Joshua was trending slowly given the reduced visibility of his surroundings as a result of the heavy and dense mist combined that with complete lack of light. Because of this Joshua decided to take everything he does in a slow but caution approach as he didn't want to be caught off guard by the kappa whom he can foresee the water creature using the mist to it's advantage keeping itself hidden and following it's prey patiently waiting the blonde teenager himself to let his guard and strike.
He was so sure about that possible scenario come to fruition that, upon hearing footsteps, he immediately stopped and carefully listen where the footsteps are coming from.
"Oh crap, they're coming from my left," Joshua quietly noted. "I need to hide so I won't be seen but where?"
Joshua look around a saw a nearby tree and instantly ran towards behind it wait start to wait. While this was happening he saw a tree branch and quickly grabbed it; the tree branch is quite surprisingly somewhat heavily but it was enough for him not only to carry it without the weight interfering his handling but also have enough weight to inflict some good amount of damage to his opponents. As the footsteps got louder, Joshua began to take a few deep breaths, preparing to attack. Upon noticing a shadow just a few inches away from him, Joshua cleared whatever thoughts he had and came out and immediately launch his attack.
'I have you now!' Joshua mentally shouted as he began to enter fight or flight mode.
Meanwhile, Mabel and Soos were looking for Stan, as they were separated due to the dense fog.
"Grunkle Stan!" Mabel called out, hoping to receive an answer but to no avail.
"Stan!" Soos yelled as well.
Mabel groaned. "Come on, Stan has to be out somewhere!"
"I'm sure he'll come up." Soos said. "Just keep looking!"
Just then, they heard a familiar voice coming from a distance. "Mabel! Soos! Grunkle Stan! Joshua! Anybody!"
Both Mabel and Soos's eyes wided. "D-Dipper?!"
"Is that you Soos?!" Dipper asked.
"Yes dude! Mabel is here with me! But we lost Stan so we were looking for him." Soos answered.
"Okay, just follow my voice!" Dipper said.
Mabel and Soos did just that and after a few moments of exchanging words, both of them were reunited with Dipper, whom were accompanied by four small children.
"Dipper!" Mabel embraced her brother. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah Mabel, I'm fine," Dipper replied, as he glanced back at the four children, who were frightened out of their minds.
"Dipper? What's with the four children?" Soos asked shocked.
Dipper made a rather sad expression. "It's that sea creature. It kidnapped them."
"Whoa, really Dipper?!" Soos asked being more shocked as ever.
Mabel let out a gasp. "Dipper, these kids…they matched the description of the missing children Joshua mentioned me about."
Dipper stared at his sister in shock. "What?!"
"Yeah Dipper, four children vanished about three and a half months ago and these children that disappeared are three boys and one girl. These children are clearly identical of what the pictures Joshua showed me," Mabel explained.
"Is that true?" Dipper asked the four children. One boy who had black hair and blue eyes nodded.
"Y-yes…"
"We couldn't understand what that things said but it seems like they want to eat us!" A boy with brown hair and black eyes added.
"W-W-What?!" Mabel gasped in shock. "What kind of creature would want to harm children?! Let alone eat them!"
"Well apparently that thing that happened to kidnapped us!" The sole girl with honey light brown hair and brown eyes snapped.
"I just wanna go home!" The last boy with albino white hair and black eyes cried.
Mabel hugged the albino white hair boy. "Don't worry, we'll take you home."
The boy looked at Mabel and smiled as he hugged her, which the brunette returned the hug. Unfortunately the sweet and tender moment was sorely ended when Dipper spoke.
"Okay, we need to find Joshua and Stan."
Soos and Mabel nodded while the children decided to take along with them as they didn't want to be left alone in this unbearable mist. The four children stayed behind Mabel and Soos, while Dipper lead the group. The mist made visibility such a pain for everyone in the group, especially the children, since the kappa could be hidden anywhere and despite Soos, Mabel and Dipper promised that they would protect them the three of them couldn't deny the tension they were feeling from head to toe. Given what they know about the Kappa they would need to be cautious and ready for anything.
After a while of walking they stumbled upon a cave. For the children, it was those dreadful memories of being caged in there for almost four months with all four of the children wish to forget asap. For Soos, Mabel and Dipper it brought them memories of finding out the truth about the fabled Gobblewonker monster being a fake.
"This is the cave that the children and I were held." Dipper spoke as he let out a deep breath. "Soos? Mabel? Are you ready?"
"Ready dude! We have your back!" Soos replied with confidence.
"I'm ready as ever," Mabel agreed as well.
"Okay," Dipper then faced the four children. "You can stay here near the cave entrance. You don't have go inside if you don't want to."
All four of the children decided to wait at the entrance instead of going in leaving Soos and the twins entering in the cave ready to stop the Kappa on whatever they're planning and hopefully find Joshua and Stan and get the hell out of here and get the four children to safety. After a minute of walking, they finally stumbled inside the cave and what they saw shook them to the core. In front of them was a kappa, or rather, three Kappas inside sitting amounts themselves speaking in a language that neither Soos, Dipper and Mabel could understand. While there was the green colored Kappa that took Dipper there were a blue colored Kappa and a yellow colored Kappa with both of them have similar features such as reptilian skin, yellow beak, green eyes, shells of their backs and the plate on top of their heads that were also hairless. Sitting across them was Joshua and Stan whom were tied in seaweed.
"Grunkle St-" Mabel shouted before Dipper covered her mouth cutting her off.
"Mabel!" Dipper whispered harshly as they hid behind a small rock. "We have to keep quiet."
Mabel glared at her brother. "We have to save them!"
"We will, I promise," Dipper nodded as he glanced over the three Kappas trying to figure what they were saying.
"Damn it, I'm trying to figure out what they're saying but I can't!" Dipper groaned in frustration.
Soos then begin to crawl closer to hear what the Kappas were saying, but was unable to understand them. "Nope, I can't figure out what they're saying."
"Why am I not surprised?" Dipper rolled his eyes.
While Soos and the twins were sitting to discuss a plan, the three Kappas are talking amongst themselves.
"Ugh, I can't believe I let the children escape under my beak!" The green kappa groaned.
The blue Kappa glared at the green Kappa. "Seriously though, how could you let that happen?!"
"Well you can thank that brat who was wearing that blue and white cap!" The green Kappa snapped as he was referring to Dipper.
"Excuses excuses!" The yellow Kappa sighed. "At least we fixed your mistake."
The three kappas turn towards Joshua and Stan, who were struggling free themselves, but the seaweed that bind them together is surprisingly tough.
"You had to hit me over the with a tree branch, didn't you, shrimp?" Stan spoke bitterly.
"Hey, I'm sorry, boss!" Joshua snapped. "I thought you were the Kappas!"
"Well, I wasn't and because of that we were easily captured!" Stan argued.
Joshua glared at his "boss" before sighing. There was no denying that his miscalculations ended up with them being captured as a result. Worse, both of them still haven't found the others and they were probably looking for them. As much as Joshua wanted to sulk in guilt, he quickly shook his head and spoke up.
"Okay, I think we can get out of this," Joshua said.
"How, shrimp?!" An irritated Stan asked.
"I can understand what language they're speaking believe it or not," Joshua confessed.
"You speak monster language, shrimp?"
"It's not monster language and stop calling me shrimp! Joshua stated otherwise. "Anyway, the kappas are speaking Japanese, which makes a lot sense, given the mythos of their species as a whole originated in Japan."
Stan only looked at his new employee in slight shock. "Really?" Joshua nodded his head.
"Yes and not only I can understand the language, but I can also speak it as well. I can try to persuade them in letting us go."
Stan look at the three kappas, before looking at Joshua. It was clear that he will have to rely on Joshua to get out of this situation; it was either that or both of them would suffered a fate that Stan can't imagine and he wouldn't want to neither.
"Okay, I'll leave this to you, shrimp," Stan spoke.
With Stan's support, Joshua starts his plan into motion by clearing his throat since he know that he will be speaking another language and talking up a storm. "Konichiwa!"
This caused the three Kappas to look at the blonde teenager in complete shock.
"You…" the yellow kappa began. "... can speak Japanese?"
"Yes, I can speak Japanese," Joshua confirmed. "Anyway, what are you doing? Why did you capture us?"
"Well, we had our meals vanished, no thanks to the boy with the blue and white hat," The blue kappa answered.
"And now we're slowly starving," The green kappa explained.
"That explains your guy's behavior; your only wanted food and all three of you got desperate," Joshua acknowledge their actions. "But still, kidnapping children is wrong."
"We can't help it! Human children is like our favorite food ever!" The blue kappa stated.
Those words made Joshua turned pale and almost sick to his stomach but he continue on. "Look, how about we negotiate a deal okay?"
The three Kappas looked at each other and talked amongst themselves for a moment, until they came up their answer.
"We're listening…" The yellow kappa spoke cautiously.
"Okay, how about we find something that is more delicious than human children? Like cucumbers, for example," Joshua suggested.
The word "cucumbers" caught the three kappa's full attention. If there was one thing that Kappas loved to eat, it was cucumbers.
"Cucumbers…." The green kappa started to drool.
"It's been a while the last time we had our favorite food!" The blue kappa said with excitement.
"Okay human, if you can deliver our favorite food, we won't eat you," The yellow kappa said.
"Deal!" Joshua agreed. "Now can either of you please untie us?"
"Oh alright," The yellow Kappa ripped the seaweed apart ultimately freeing them much to the shock of Dipper, Soos and Mabel who watched the whole from afar.
"Whoa! Joshua spoke to them and they freed him and Stan." Dipper spoke.
"No kidding!" Soos added.
"Joshua, that was awesome!" Mabel praised her friend.
"Guys, they're coming our way!" Dipper said. "Let's get outta here!"
Mabel and Soos nodded their heads and the three of them quickly bolted towards the entrance, where they waited alongside the four children for Stan, Joshua and the three Kappas; after a few minutes of waiting, they showed up. Mabel hugged Grunkle Stan and Joshua. seeing them unharmed. Upon seeing the four children. the green Kappa screech at them.
"Human children!" The green Kappa drool for a bit until it was smack in the head by the yellow kappa.
"We're not eating the human children, as we made a deal with them, remember?!" The yellow kappa scowled.
The green kappa rubbed it's head. "Watch where you hit me at! I don't want my plate to fall off!"
"Oh you'll live, so stop acting like a baby!" The blue kappa chimed in.
The green kappa rolled it's eyes as they followed the rest of the gang through the mist as they walked. Dipper who were near his sister headed towards Joshua.
"Dude, what did you say that made them free you and Stan?" Dipper asked.
"I'll tell you later. Right now, I want you to text Wendy and ask her to bring cucumbers. A LOT of them," Joshua replied.
"Why?" Dipper gave him a confused look.
"Just do it, because they are the key for my plan to work," Joshua stressed, causing Dipper to listen to his demands and texted Wendy for several minutes as they walked.
"Okay, Wendy said that she got the cucumbers and is on her way here on boat," Dipper texted to Wendy.
"Good now all we need to do is to get back at our boat and wait." Joshua said.
Everyone continued on for a few more minutes and finally stumbled the coast, where the white boat was stationed at.
"Where is the cucumbers you promised?" The yellow kappa asked impatiently.
"Relax, you'll get it," Joshua answered.
"Wait…you're trying to trick us, aren't ya?!" The blue kappa became very suspicious.
Joshua quickly nodded in denial. "No, I'm not tricking you at all!"
The three kappas heard enough. "Silence human! Since your tricked us all of us is gonna eat you! Starting you and then the human children!" The green kappa licked his teeth.
"Like hell you will!" Joshua opposed, as he turned to the others. "Guys, take the children and run!"
In an instant, Joshua found himself attacked by the yellow kappa, with it on his chest and bruising his face, much to the gang's shock.
"Joshua!" Mabel cried as she attempted to help her friend only to be stopped by his brother.
"Mabel, get down!" Dipper pointed at the blue kappa charged towards his sister.
It was too late; the blue kappa got on her head and used its strength to tackle her on the ground and dragged her to the water in attempt to drown her.
"Let go of my sister!" Dipper demanded as he and Stan help Mabel leaving Soos alone fending off the green kappa whom were trying to get it's hand on the four children.
"Human children!" The green kappa screamed in delight as it drool immensely causing them to scream in fear.
"Don't you worry! I'm gonna protect you!" Soos declared as he stood bravely in front of the children.
"You shouldn't have tricked us human!" The yellow kappa shrieked.
Joshua was now on the ground with his head inches away from the water. "Damnit, I'm not tricking you it's jus-"
"Lies!" The yellow kappa snapped. "Now I will drown you and then eat you!"
Joshua is using everything to hold out in his own but it's easier said than done; due to the kappa's plate being filled with water and it's head constantly wet at all times the kappa is able to overpower him with ease and have him pinned with every intent on drowning him.
"Damn it! This can't end like this!" Joshua cursed himself.
Just then from a distance a familiar voice is heard. "Dipper! Mabel! Soos! Stan! Joshua!"
Joshua turned his head and saw a small boat heading towards them. "Is that…Wendy?!"
"Omg," Wendy gasped as she got a clear look at the scene, "What's going on?!"
"Throw the cucumbers! Now!" Joshua ordered.
Wendy did what she was told and threw three bags of cucumbers at the blonde teenager. Upon landing next to him, Joshua instantly grabbed them and displayed them out in the air for all three kappas to see. Instantly, they stopped what they were doing and glanced at the bag, before rushing towards the bag, ripped it and begin eating the cucumbers. While this was happening everyone regrouped with Wendy now being among them.
"Whew, look like we're safe," Joshua said.
"Whoa, what are those things!?" Wendy gasped.
"They're called Kappas," Joshua answered causing everyone to look in confusion.
"Kappas?" Soos was the first one to ask.
Joshua nodded as he was about to explain what the Kappa's are only to be cut off by the Kappa speaking.
"Thank you for keeping your promise human." The yellow kappa smiled.
"Sorry for attacking you like that," The blue kappa apologized.
"We hope you can forgive us," The green kappa said in guilt.
Everyone couldn't tell what the kappas were saying, but Joshua, however, could.
"It's okay, I'm glad you gotten some food," Joshua said, before bowing at the Kappas, which resulted the three of them to follow suit and politely bowed back, resulting their plates to fall off their heads.
"Wha?" the green kappa spoke in shock.
"I can't move!" the yellow kappa cried.
"Me either! And what's worse our plates fell off! Without water, we will die!" the blue kappa panicked.
"Yes!" Joshua cheered in victory. "Come on guys let's go home!"
"What did you do?" Mabel asked.
"Who cares!" Stan yelled in laughter. "The shrimp beat these freaks!"
Everyone board on the white boat, while Wendy and Dipper boarded on the wooden boat. As Joshua got onto the former, he glanced back at the three kappas whom were still bend over frozen in place. Joshua thought for a moment or so until he decided to get off the boat and help the kappa by getting all three of their plates and filled it with water, before setting them on back on their heads, much to the shock but eternal gratitude from each of them and much to the dismay of everyone else.
"You saved us, human!" The yellow kappa thanked the blonde haired teenager.
"We would have died, if it hadn't been for you," The green kappa nodded in gratitude.
"For saving all of us we will serve you for all eternity master." The blue kappa swore as it gave him a small light blue orb. "Use this to call us and we will be by your side obeying your every command."
Joshua shook his head, as he took the orb, foreseeing this possibility. "Well, if that's the case, then I ordered you to stop causing problems for this town."
"But why?!" The green kappa whined. "Causing problems for humans is fun!"
"Be that as it may be, a number of people are suffering because you three!" Joshua harshly criticized the three kappas. "The parents of those four children you took are probably drowning themselves in grief!"
The three kappas felt really bad for causing so much trouble for the people who lived in this small town.
"We're sorry, master," The blue kappa sighed. "We won't do it again."
"See that you don't and I'll reward you with anything you want," Joshua promised.
"Anything?" The green kappa eyes lit up.
Joshua nodded. "Yes and as long it doesn't ended up hurting someone in the long run, considered it done."
"Wow… thank you master… we haven't met a human to be so generous to us." The yellow kappa looked Joshua with awe.
"Keep listening to me and you'll be on my good side," Joshua said, before handing the three kappas a few more bags of cucumbers, much to their delight.
"We will, master!" The green kappa promised as the three kappas watch Joshua getting on board on the white boat, before finding their master facing them one more time.
"Oh and last but not least, I heard of an attack of a young woman that occurred last night. While I don't know what was the story behind it, I do know that one of you three may be responsible, since a kappa only attack women who wanted to impregnate them. If any of you three are responsible for the attack, I want to hear any of you confess. Even though I haven't received word of the victim being pregnant…at least not yet anyways, I'll be following closely and keep an eye on you. One more thing, should guys ever try to lie or keep me in the dark, I'll punish all of you."
Joshua formed a dark and menacing glare that gave all three kappas shivers down their bodies resulting all three of them agreed to listen to their master's wishes. After seeing that the three kappas will have his full obedience Joshua took his left with the rest of the gang sailing home.
"Whew! What a day!" Stan stressed. "I'll tell ya, I'm getting too old for this."
'And yet, you have the time to overcharge and make outrageous prices at the shop. Very hypocritical coming from you, boss,' Joshua thought, as he watched Stan relaxing on his fishing chair, before being Dipper called him out from across.
"Whoa! I can't believe you managed to understand and speak to those…." Dipper stopped as he scratched his head. "...What was they called?"
"They're called Kappas, Dipper," Joshua replied as he slightly chuckled.
Mabel ran up to Joshua and hugged him. "Wow, I never thought you be able to speak monster language."
Joshua annoyingly glared at the brunette. "It's not monster language! They were speaking Japanese."
"Really?" Mabel asked shock.
"Yes," Joshua stressed. "You're acting like what I done is a grand achievement."
Mabel scratched her head. "Well, no one could speak a different language like you, so given the pickle we was in, it helped us in the end."
Joshua only rolled his eyes, as he and everyone headed towards shore. Today was an unexpected day for Joshua; from being forced to work for Stan to unknowingly discovered the existence of Kappas whom after saving them swore eternal obedience to him Joshua don't know what to make of the events that happened. A part of him still tell him that it's only a dream and the kappas aren't real at all but after much self testing he realized that the kappas were real and it's not a dream at all.
Joshua looked at Dipper, who was talking with Wendy and Mabel, catering to the four children that were kidnapped. The twins mentioned about this small town and why they love it here and initially, he didn't see what was so special about Gravity Falls, but after todays he quickly realized why: the discovery of creatures that usually exist only in myths and the discovery of Kappas made him to actually look forward his days stay here in Gravity Falls to discover more about this small town, post working for his boss not withstanding.
"By the way, Joshua," Dipper spoke as he drove the small brown boat closer to Joshua, "Are you sure that the Kappa wouldn't cause anymore trouble?"
Joshua nodded. "I'm positively sure, Dipper. After all, I spoke to them in Japanese, remember?"
"Good point there," Dipper let out a sigh and trust Joshua's words. "All right, I'll take you word on it."
Joshua laughed a bit, as he and the rest of the gang continued on to head to the docks and called it a day.
Back at the Kappa's home the three kappa were getting ready to go to sleep.
"Ah, my belly is full from eating those delicious cucumbers!" The yellow Kappa sighed happily.
"The master was very generous!" The green kappa exclaimed smiling brightly.
"Yeah," The blue kappa was sweating profusely.
"What's wrong?" The green kappa asked in concern. "For the past few hours you've been acting weird."
"I have not!" The blue kappa snapped. "Look, let's just go to sleep, okay? We have to be our best condition if we want to serve our master."
"Agreed," The yellow kappa spoke. "We need to meet our master's expectations at all times."
"Right!" The green kappa added.
And so the three kappas laid down on their beds that is literally small shallow ponds and begin drifting asleep. While the yellow and green kappa slept peacefully the blue kappa however, is not so lucky as it started to twist and turn in the water and talking in his sleep.
"No…master…I.. didn't mean to…I was just looking for a person to carry my… please have mercy on me!"
Before long, the blue kappa jolted awake with a loud gasp and breathing heavily before going to back to bed.
"I hope my master would go easy on me," was the last words the blue kappa muttered as he drifted to sleep very anxious of whatever Joshua have in store for them in the months to come.
And there you go! That wraps up of the first mystery since arriving here in this small town. Hope you enjoy the two part chapter and I wanted to announced that the story will have some level of slightly AU but I will keep the show continuity in place to blend and balanced both of them. Hope you understand.
And one last thing, the next chapter will be a bit shorter but still be long enough for a fun and satisfied read.
Until the next chapter is posted, Ciao and thank you for the support!