Dipper came down the stairs the next morning, yawning and stretching. It had been a long night.

The first thing he saw upon reaching the bottom of the stairs was Grunkle Stan. He was in the chair in front of the television, still in his clothes from the day before, asleep.

He's probably been there all night. Dipper thought, frowning.

"Hey dude, how—"

Dipper turned back to see Soos, now at the bottom of the stairs. The young man had stopped in mid-sentence when he saw Stan was asleep.

"I'm okay." Dipper said softly. "I didn't sleep much last night—Mabel was really upset and wanted to talk. "

Soos nodded. "It's not fair." He said, lowering his voice. "You guys just get a new great-uncle and this happens. "

Dipper sighed. How would they ever find Great Uncle Ford?

"Hey, guys."

Soos and Dipper turned to see Mabel with a stack of magazines in her arms.

"Whoa, what're you doing, Mabel?" Dipper asked, taking half the stack out of his sister's arms, as she looked as though she were about to drop them from the weight.

"Just getting rid of stuff." Mabel half-groaned. "I didn't know what else to do, so I cleaned my half of the room. "

Dipper glanced down at the magazine on the top of the stack he held. On the cover was a young man with dark hair with enough hair gel in it for three heads. He wore a tight white t-shirt, jeans, and boots—

"Oh my gosh!" Dipper cried.

"Huh, what?"

Dipper, Soos, and Mabel looked to see that Dipper's shouting had woken up their Grunkle Stan. He had taken his glasses off and was rubbing his eye. "What're you kids yelling about? "

"Grunkle Stan." Dipper said in a lower tone, "I think I found something."

He set the stack of magazines in his arms on the floor, then took the one off of the top and brought it to his great-uncle.

Stan put his glasses back on and yawned. When he looked at what his great-nephew had brought over he said, "Eh—Dipper, I'm really not in the mood to be looking at pre-teeny-bopper magazines. "

"No, Grunkle Stan—this guy." Ford pointed to the man on the cover. "I saw this guy in the back of the crowd when you were telling everyone about what happened with the portal and all yesterday. "

Stan's brows drew together. "Wha—what does some model guy have to do with anything? "

Mabel suddenly realized what Dipper was getting at. She slapped both hands on the sides of her face. "Oh, my gosh—Dipper, you think it was the shape shifter?"

Stan shut his eyes tight, then opened them again. "Shape shifter? What are you kids talkin' about? "

There was a knock at the door. Soos went to get it, and upon opening it found Wendy on the porch.

"Hey, guys, I—"

"Wendy, come in! Dipper thinks that the guy who took Mr. Pines' brother is the shape shifter!"

Wendy shook her head as if to clear it. "What? How is that possible? We froze that thing in one of those—chamber—things. "

Dipper went to the door, took Wendy by the hand, and pulled her in. "Wendy, look at this!"

He fairly dragged the older girl over to Grunkle Stan, who still was holding the magazine. Wendy looked over his shoulder at it.

"Uh—it's a guy who obviously likes hair gel way too much. Hey, you know, I think I saw a guy who looked like this yesterday at—"

She stopped and looked at Dipper. "You've got to be kidding me."

"What are you kids talking about? " Stan demanded, thoroughly confused.

In turns, his great niece and nephew, Wendy, and Soos told Stan how they had gone looking for the author of the mysterious journals, and found the shape shifter in the bunker.

"Huh. So—maybe that fire out there melted him out of his cage-thingy? "Stan surmised, rubbing his chin.

"Yeah…and—it really didn't seem to like the author—Great Uncle Ford-at all." Dipper blurted out, then immediately regretted saying it, wondering what thoughts it would put in Grunkle Stan's mind.

Stan's eyes narrowed. "So what you're saying is—some monster may have my brother. "

Dipper drew a nervous breath and exhaled. "Yes, sir—it could be. "

Stan smacked his fist into his palm. "Well. When I get a hold of this shape shifter thing—if it's done anything to hurt Stanford-it's going to be sorry. "