Disclaimer: I do not own Gravity Falls, and am not associated with Disney.
The Gravity Central metro was worn down, to say the least. The lights were half out, and those that were on blinked and winked out occasionally on run-down benches and people. Old bus schedules littered the pavement, and rats scuttled about. And most Horrifying was a strange gargoyle- like creature, old and wrinkly, with cataracts clouding it's eyes. The monster crept up on a couple kids, a pair of twins, looming behind ready to pounce on them before-
"Grunkle Stan, we can see you there."
Dipper was not amused by his and his sister's uncle sneaking up on them. He got them the first few times, but it didn't much but a few nights in the city and the sound of gunshots at 3:00 am to get him and Mabel used to furtive surprises from Stan.
"Alright, fine" He slumped back. "you got to let up, kid."
"And you-" Mabel hopped up on a bench. "got to tell us what we're doing in a creepy subway."
Grunkle Stan crossed his arms. "Well, I was thinking at first, why don't we do some family bonding, maybe go fishing or hustle some poor saps together. But then I thought, 'naw, I think I'll just go chase some women'. So you kids stay within 50 feet of me while I flirt and use bad one- liners."
"But grunkle Stan", Mabel groaned. "We don't want to see you get denied happiness all day." Before He could object to that, dipper cut in.
"Grunkle Stan, why don't we just go do whatever, maybe stay at the station or something while you go do that. we'll be totally fine."
Stan pondered this. "You know, a responsible parent would never leave you alone in a dark subway on the corner of abduction street." He grinned slyly. "good thing I'm an uncle! Ok, so this place is full of criminals looking for kids like you. So, go commit a crime so you become one of them. " Just then a voice called out frantically.
"I seen it! I seen it again!" The town mechanic and nut job, Old Man McGucket, was barreling down towards them, knocking things out of people's hands and sending Lazy Susan's pie in her and a few other pedestrian's faces, to her dissapointment.
"It's the Ghost Tram! You gotta get over there before it gets away!" The kook hopped about like a lunatic as Mabel smiled. "Aww, he's doing a happy dance."
"No! It's a jig of great danger!" McGucket screamed, and grabbed onto her.
"I think it's a jig of great lawsuits if you don't go away", Stan remarks as he pulls the twins close. "But I got proof this time, by crips!" The twins looked at each other in disbelief he's even allowed to say that word. Nonetheless, the subway's patrons gazed upon a grainy picture Old Man McGucket pulled out of his beard. It appeared to be a train that pulled in around 9:30, that seemed almost transparent and not attached to the tracks. A fluorescent fog wafted in with it, along with an eerie glow that blurred the photograph. "That's fake. who do you take us for, anyhow?" Lazy Susan scowled and wiped lemon meringue off her apron. The crowd murmured in agreement and went back to waiting for the metro.
Dipper and Mabel had taken interest, however. "That's Awesome! Imagine if we managed to get some real footage of it or even prove the ghost tram's existence!" Dipper was ebullient. "yeah, imagine…" before he could imagine anything, Soos crossed by.
"Hey dudes. did you guys say you need a sort of adult to accompany you?"
"Yeah!" They yelled in unision. "That okay with you grunkle Stan?" Dipper turned around, and saw he was already on a car heading downtown.
"Bye, try not to get run over!"
After taking a look at the photograph again, Dipper started briefing them.
"Ok guys, what's the biggest problem when hunting ghosts?"
"ghost pirates?"
"the beams cross?"
"No" Dipper taps his chin. "Camera trouble. Every time ghosts come along, either the thing goes to static, or the footage is just lost. That is why I have packed each of us 15 cameras. 5 for me,2 spares, 4 for both of you, 3 in this bag and one high- powered flash camera in my hat. ok, let's test em' out." They lose 5 cameras immediately, one out of frustration of losing multiple cameras.
"Guys! try not to lose your cameras. I repeat, do not." The trio then waits, for the tram to come after hours.
Meanwhile, Grunkle Stan was getting his game on in the city's red light district. He then spotted a woman waiting at a ticket booth. Smoothing his suit out he leaned against a beam and made eye contact.
"um, hello sir, may I help you?"
Stan grinned and inspected his fingernails "Y'know, I've been convicted of dozens of felonies. But the biggest would be stealing your heart!" The screamed and ran away, her ticket fluttering to the ground.
"Huh" he looked up. "Not a good pick- up line to use on Organ McStealy street."
He sighed, but just as soon picked himself up to find his next victim.
Back at the subway, They were getting bored. Aside from strange hairy men offering dipper manliness and regularly scheduled trams, nothing had really happened.
Dipper was pacing back and forth.
"Alright, so the train isn't showing up soon. But We just need to stay positive."
"Who are you telling to be positive?" Mabel chided "You're always so serious, like a cranky old judge."
"She's right, dude. like, on a scale of one to ten, you're like a depressed clown" Soos added.
Before Dipper could tell him everything wrong with that, he bumped into a strange bald man in a grey suit.
"Hey watch it dude! Aren't janitors supposed to clean after the tracks are clear?"
The man payed him no attention. "Where is it?" He was scrutinizing the subway floors. "I-I-I-got to find it before it's too late!"
He disappeared around the corner, and had vanished, leaving behind the smell of something burning.
more time passed with still nothing supernatural.
Bored, Mabel started to play with a stray cat.
"Wubbalubadubdub!" She opened and closed the tabby's mouth
"Mabel, stop messing with that cat. It could have rabies.", Dipper chided her
"Aww, don't worry. Maybe I'll give you rabies, dipper", the cat mouthed.
Mabel and Soos laughed as the stray bounded off and Dipper rolled his eyes. He reached into his vest and pulled out a journal- a worn book with a plain six fingered hand as the emblem on the front. He flipped through the pages lazily while Mabel and soos threw cameras at vermin, when the intercom sounded
"The Gravity Central metro terminal is now closing. Please exit the station and thank you for your patronage."
They groaned. "Great. all that waiting, and for nothing." Said Dipper, crestfallen. "let's just go home."
"agreed" They all said. A gust then blew, and Soos's hat blew away, and some cameras with it. "Hold on dudes, I got to go get that." They raced after it, and managed to catch it when it landed onto the tracks. As Soos deftly put the cap back on his head, a roaring VROOOOOOOOOOOM echoed through the tunnel, and lights flashed on the stone of the tunnel.
Dipper gasped. "Come on guys! I think that might be it!" They ran towards the noise of the the shuttle as the gates back to the surface closed.
Stan was not having good luck. Already that night he had been slapped 8 times, 3 by the same woman that took a joke about her and her poodle the wrong way. He was sitting on a stool at a local 1970s greaser joint. He was staring at some old photos when the jukebox began to play some classic jazz tunes from when he was a kid.
Stan sighed. "I remember this. Back when I still had that Manly charm and also maybe a back that didn't always hurt."
"Tell me about it'
He looked across the bar to a lady around his age.
"Where did the times go?", The woman continued.
"Not into your face, that's for sure!" Stan shared a laugh.
"You're funny.", the woman said. "You want to go around the town?"
"Sure, I know a great place where I can blackmail the restaurant owner into giving us free entrees"
"Sounds great" She comes around the bar.
"Say, what's your name, anyway?"
"dakoit",she smiled. And they walked off into the nightlife
The trio was hurrying in pursuit of the tram. but after the initial commotion, all signs had stopped. It was dead quiet at the end of the line, and found nothing but a dead end.
"Oh no!" Dipper inspected the brick. "Nothing here but a missing people posters, a security camera… It's useless. we've lost the lead."
Soos started to make faces at the security camera. "Blealugealalhuglil."
"Soos, you're hilarious!" Mabel exclaims. After they finished and took some pictures for mabel's scrapbook they headed out, Dipper stood before them. "Alright, real talk, guys. I don't think we're not going to find the ghost tram. We have been waiting all night, searched all the rails and it is 9:30. We have to cut our losses and leave."
"But Dipper!" Mabel puts her hand on his shoulder. "We can't give up now. what about that Train noise we heard earlier, huh? That couldn't be our imaginations!"
"I agree with Maple, dude. Like, I Imagine a lot of things, but I'm pretty sure that was real. Or maybe It's not. Oh my gosh, what if nothing is real!? Is this what philosophers feel like all the time!?"
Just at that moment, though, The shuttle made the same noise as earlier- but right behind them. A banshee-like VROOOOOOOOOOOOOOM rose in volume, and a dazzling light shone like an explosion that knocked Mabel off her feet.
"Run, dudes!" Soos called. Dipper grabbed his sister's hand and the three just barely got onto the platform in time to see a flickering apparition of the train charge past. It was just like In Old Man McGucket s photo. In an attempt to get a picture himself, dipper accidentally dropped the bag of cameras and the film suddenly burst out of another.
"It's ok, we still have more, right? 1...2...3…"
"Ok, I am at least like, eighty percent sure I did not imagine that, dudes." Soos panted.
Grunkle Stan was having the time of his life with Dakoit, back in a lone alley.
"Hahahahaha!" Stan was joyful.
"A man like you has got to have children, right, Stanny?" Dakoit leaned in.
"Naw. I've been divorced once, after six hours of marriage, though." Speaking of which, wonder how the kids and Soos are doing. Maybe I should give em a call or something.
"Naw, They're fine", He says aloud.
At the terminal, The twins and Soos got run into a loop.
"The tram should come around at any minute. Be ready." But then the stray cat comes back from behind a trash can.
Mabel perked up "Oh, does Mr. hairballs want to play again? Come here!" She took out a camera and took a photo of it. the flash irritated the cat and it leaped up and spilled the rest of the cameras.
"The cameras!" Dipper exclaimed.
"Don't worry about it, bro bro. We still got like, 50 more." But there weren't anymore cameras. And it was closing in.
"Aaaaaaahhhh!" The sub cam close, and at the last moment Soos stumbled back and hit a railway sign. The Tracks shifted, and the tram steamed down the other way.
"Guys!" Dipper shook them. "did you see that?"
"Wait" Soos says. "The Tram or my life flashing before my eyes?"
"The Train! It switched tracks when we hit the signs! Do you know what this means?"
"I didn't do enough with my life?"
"No", Dipper had new vigor. "It means We can trap it.
They quickly cut across several stations to where the dead end was, and sure enough there was another sign connected to the tracks. They turned it just as the tram peered around the bend . The car was diverted into the closed tunnel, and was stuck.
"Woohoo! We got it!"
"Yeah! I told you we could do it."
"Alright! but do anyone of you dudes have a camera left? I think I lost all of mine running in fear."
"Oh no!" he looked around, under his vest, and panicked until Mabel revealed the high flash camera in his hat. Giddy, Dipper took dozens of pictures. Until he noticed something peculiar. Every time the camera flashed, the train shimmered, almost as if it were a… Dipper leaped down and raised his hand. The tram bucked like a deer as he grew nearer.
"Dipper, what are you doing!?" Mabel's eyes widened.
He reached out. "I think, it might be-" he touched it. His arm passed through, and an entire vertical piece disappeared from the vehicle."- a hologram." And the only true part… Dipper stepped through the veil of light to find Old Man McGucket sitting there, frantically pressing buttons and operating the stick shift of the small cart with his beard.
"Ah, cornswaggles", he says as he turns to Dipper. "Ya caught me" Soos and Mabel stepped in.
"What is this, exactly?" Mabel gestured to the contraption.
"Well, I first had to grease my overall buttons, and then learn to drive this with with only my beard!"
"No, I mean, Why?"
Old Man McGucket scratched his head. Well, I'm kinda lookin' for something around here, and I wanted to make sure no one could find it first by clearing the entire train stations!"
"Well, When did you lose it? And what?"
"About… 6 years ago. I think it was a book. a journal of some kind, with a hand an' a number… uh… fellers, what's the number after 1?."
"I think he means 2" Soos adds in.
"Yeah!"
Dipper steps forward. "Wait, Old Man McGucket. Do you mean like this?" He pulls out the journal and shows it to him.
He cracks it open. "Yeah! But I don't think I ever seen these hoosiwhatsits before."
"Hold on" Something dawns on Dipper. "If there was a '2' on your journal, then maybe…" He pulls out a pencil and paper, and shades on the paper the area where the six-fingered hand is. They found an etching of a number "3". On the paper. "You guys, look!"
"Wait so this means-" Mabel gasps
"Yes, there are 3 journals in Gravity central." Dipper finishes.
"Come on, let's get back."
They met up with Stan back at the terminal.
"So how did your guy's adventure thing go?" he asks as he pops a pitt- cola.
"Yeah, it turned out to be a hologram. You?"
"Great! I had met this great woman, Dakoit, and she was exactly my type! But then…
FLASHBACK
" So I had a great night, Dakoit, best in a while!" Stan said.
"Me too. Say, would you like to keep going? Maybe at your place?" She urged.
Stan turned back to the kids.
"So yeah, when we got back, i caught her calling her boyfriend to rob the Mystery Shop!"
"Wow" Mabel quips, "talk about a backstabber"
"Tell me about it. A Boyfriend! How could she do that!?"
As The tired family made way back to the Shop, a deep rumbling sent shivers along the pipes of the sewers. A tram, at 10:30 at night, had screeched to a stop back at the station. In there were many people, and many more joined in. Only one stepped off as the train passed through the dead end
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Hey guys! Hope you liked this story, it was written by my twin bro. (Ironic, I know). He and I co-write this AU as of this chapter. Rate and review, thx!
DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN GRAVITY FALLS