CHAPTER 5

The twins, Waddles, and the candy monster sat quietly on the cold metal floor of the underground compartment they had discovered minutes ago. It was a small room. The walls, roof and floor were covered with metal plates. It looked like Grunkle Stan used it as a secret storage room, since there were boxes on shelves and also two medium sized coolers on the floor. A quick look into one or two boxes revealed that they contained various kinds of packaged food. There were cans, jars, bottles, smaller cardboard boxes and plastic and paper bags. There were also some strange drinks and beverages they couldn't recognize. In fact, they realized that all this merchandise had come from other countries, because they identified Spanish, Russian, what they believed was Israeli but which indeed was Thai, and Arabic on some of the labels and even on handwriting. There were products labeled on English, but the kids had never heard of them. Mabel opened one of the coolers. It was full with ice bags, and she jumped scared when she found what looked like a turtle. Probably some endangered species. Dipper thought. I'm pretty sure all this is contraband.

A small vent was attached to one of the walls. There was also a switch connected to a light bulb, but they didn't try to push it for the simple fact that they feared a tiny flash could reveal their position. The only light they were using was coming from Dipper's video camera, which he had been focused in for the last minutes, watching over and over the recorded scenes of what was by now the strangest night of their summer.

Dipper stopped the recording and placed the camera on the floor. It was still illuminating the room with a weak blue shining. Around it, the four individuals sat, like a group of campers around a campfire. Dipper couldn't believe he had been cautious enough to put the small box of batteries on his pocket when they were on the attic.

Mabel looked at her brother expectantly. He was staring at nothing. After a minute, he noticed her. "What?"

"Are we just gonna sit here without thinking on something to help Grunkle Stan?"

"Mabel, if you didn't notice, Soos took away the only thing that could've helped Grunkle Stan."

"Dipper, we still have to do something."

"Like what? I have no ideas at all. I watched that recording over and over, and didn't find anything we could use. And we can't defeat him only with smoke, or with Waddles. The journal was our last hope to get an advantage. Without it I can't…there's nothing we can do." Dipper said, looking away from Mabel.

"Don't tell me you are giving up." Mabel said. Dipper didn't answer.

Mabel frowned and got closer to Dipper. "No, bro bro. That's not the Dipper I know. The Dipper I know always finds a way to get him and me out of trouble."

Dipper didn't react. He was still looking at the floor. Mabel didn't quit. "And the Dipper I know doesn't stay quiet when his family is in trouble, even if it's really dangerous. He has a too much big head to find the danger signal on it."

Dipper let out a small laugh. Mabel knew she almost got him back. "And he certainly never gives up. Not even if he lost his old and ugly journal." With that, he turned his head to her slowly.

Mabel took his hand. "Come on Dip. I know you can take us out of this hole." She smiled at him.

"I believe he can." The candy monster said. He had been watching them from across the little room. "I mean, you've been really brave and smart tonight. If it wasn't for you, we wouldn't be here now."

Dipper smiled and closed his eyes. He took a deep breath and opened them. "Thank you guys. I was just feeling really bad a moment ago." He looked at his sister. "Mabel, I wouldn't be able to do all those things you said if it wasn't for you being there for me."

Mabel came closer to Dipper and poked his nose. "Anytime bro."

...
...

Soos was standing on top of the stairs on the large floor room, which was full of mirrors. Behind him was the door to the hallway. He had been reading Dipper's journal for the last minutes. Now he looked up from the book and contemplated what Grunkle Stan had named the maze of mirrors. Stan had been relegated between them. He was free to move but didn't try to escape.

"You see this Stan? This is the most recent idea you stole from me and benefitted from."

"Come on kid, you loved it too. Maybe we can fix it somehow…We'll name it Grunkle Stan's Soos' Maze of Mirrors! How about that? You just take good care of the mirrors, they cost a little fortune."

"Silence!" Soos shouted. The impact of the sound cracked some of the mirrors and Stan didn't make a move.

"I guess we're not making business then." He said.

"Oh yes we are Stan. We came here because we'll need some of these mirrors. Let's say, one for each creature, including you." Soos said as he read again journal #3.

"Creatures? What exactly is this little project of yours about?"

"One that suits you perfectly. It will let you know how 'good' it feels to work for someone like you." Soos said without looking away from the book.

Grunkle Stan shook his head. "Please Soos. Why are you doing this? You never complain about the work…In fact, you always do your job happily, even when I give you the worst chores. I pay you almost nothing, but you come back every single day, and you don't request employee benefits like Wendy does. You wanting to get revenge on me for all that is…this isn't you at all kid."

Soos stopped reading to look at Stan. There was some surprise on his face. Then he blinked and recovered his evil look. "Of course I never complain! Soos never complains! He just does everything he is commanded, not caring if it's unfair or if it makes him look ridiculous! Complaining is my job, and that's why I'm here. But I will go far beyond from just complaining."

Stan was a little confused. "So, Soos doesn't complain, but you do. But you, Soos, you complain….am I getting it right?"

"I'm like a reflection of Soos! The same as him, but in an opposite way!"

"Opposite? So you are like 'Soos', but reversed. I guess that makes you….'Soos'?"

Soos smiled. "I believe you understand at least the basics."

"Oh yes, I understand." Stan said. "You are the jerk side of Soos."

The smile on Soos was replaced by a furious look.

"You know, you should be more like your counterpart." Stan continued. "That way people wouldn't be so tempted to kick your butt!"

Soos got really mad. "Shut your big mouth Stanford!" The roar of Soos finished breaking almost every single mirror in the room.

"Let's just get to work, Stan." Soos said with a disturbing voice.

...
...

Dipper walked nervously on the little room. None of the ideas they had come up with were likely to work. Some of them were even impossible to put into practice. They had heard a loud sound from the other side of the shack, probably someone yelling furious.

"Ok, let's analyze this again." Dipper said. "Soos has been possessed by an evil force coming from some anomalous candy, which has awakened a very deep side of him that was annoyed for the way Stan treats him, and now it wants revenge on the old man." Everyone else nodded, despite this was the third time Dipper was describing the situation.

Dipper continued. "Now Soos has these powers, which I had to admit are pretty awesome, that make him virtually unstoppable. However, he seems to be limited by his human body. On the other hand, we have nothing to defend ourselves or to attack him effectively. We could alert the police but they wouldn't believe us, and even if they came here, we would probably have to rescue them from Soos. We could try to find some of the magical objects from the journal, but we would get lost in the woods without the book. And, our little friend here doesn't have any supernatural weapon to deal with this stuff."

Dipper looked at the monster, who lowered his face in shame. "On the bright side" He said. "Soos said he had much to do before he can carry out whatever he's planning. So that gives us some more time to think on something, right?"

Just as he finished speaking, a louder yell than the one they heard a while ago filled the shack. It was followed by a long sound of glass breaking.

"What was that?" The monster asked.

"I think that 'was' the Maze of Mirrors."

"Dip, we may not have that much time to think." Mabel said to her brother.

Dipper felt frustration taking over him. "Ahhhh!...There has to be a way!" He yelled.

Mabel was also starting to despair. She had suggested going and finding the shrinking crystals, but Dipper couldn't remember the exact spot where he had discovered them. She made a quick mental note. Never again destroy magical objects that could be useful.

She looked at her brother. He was still walking in circles and talking unintelligible things to himself. "But if we…No…Soos….it's just…his person…..the candy…."

She pressed Waddles to her chest and the pig let out some funny noises. She then looked at the candy monster. He was as out of ideas as everyone. "So, do you have any more magical candy that can help us?" She asked.

"Not really. We could immobilize him for a while with this special chewing gum, or throw at him more exploding jelly beans. But that only gives us time…" The monster said showing the candy on his hands.

Mabel looked at it intrigued. "By the way, I was wondering, where do you get these from? You don't have a magical bag or anything."

"It's more like an interdimentional pocket on my body. It allows me to get things from a space far from here."

"Wow, that is so cool!" She said. "Wait! Can't you ask for help to your friends with it?"

"Unfortunately, I can't. The pocket is not designed to cover that much distance. Right now, I'm grabbing things from a hidden location near the mountains."

Mabel let out a sigh. For a moment she had seen some light of hope. She reclined on the metal wall. "Can't you put him back to sleep with a special sleeping powder?"

"Sleep?" Dipper asked. He turned to face Mabel and the monster.

"Yeah, he looked so inoffensive when he was taking his little nap on the attic." Mabel said to Dipper.

"Take a nap?" Apparently Dipper was talking to himself again.

The monster intervened. "He was just faking that. And, actually I ran out of that powder coming to this place. I found too many people in the streets. Anyway, I don't think it would've had any effect on him."

Mabel felt defeated. She closed her eyes. Now, she couldn't see any exit.

"That's actually a great idea Mabel!" Dipper suddenly said.

"What?" Mabel opened her eyes and looked at her brother.

"Making him sleep! I mean, not literally, but I think it's exactly how we can defeat him!"

"Would you mind explaining a little more?" The monster said.

"Okay, listen." He started. "When we were at the attic, Soos said he was going to take a 'little nap', and he fell asleep. Then, this other side of him said Soos needed to take a rest. As I understand it, 'our' Soos is in some kind of sleep mode. If only we could wake him up, he may be able to take control of himself and stop his dark counterpart, and send that Soos to sleep permanently!"

Mabel and the monster took some time to think on what Dipper had figured out, but it was actually very clear.

"So you're saying we have to find a way to wake him up? And that's all?" Mabel asked.

"That actually makes a lot of sense." The monster said. "But it won't be as easy as just shaking him."

"Yes, I was thinking that too. We need to give him a really strong stimulus in order to bring him back. So, my theory is…what if he ingested something that was really intense?"

"You mean that we have to make him eat something?" The monster asked.

"Yeah. After all, this started when he ate that candy."

"But, what exactly should we give him? And where are we gonna find something intense enough to wake him up?" Mabel asked.

"Just look around you, sis." Dipper said. "We have at hand some of the most exotic food and drinks from the entire world. There has to be something here we can use."

Without hesitation, Dipper turned around and started to open boxes. Mabel and the monster imitated him. They didn't know exactly what they were looking for, but as Dipper said, between all this collection of rare products there had to be something too tasty, or too disgusting, or maybe too unhealthy to blow someone's mind. They gathered some really curious things. On one of the coolers, they found a frozen Japanese blowfish, which was discarded because they decided not to risk Soos' life with a poisonous fish. There was a strange liquor from Central America, but it might take too much time before it had an effect. There was also a bad smelling European goat cheese, which looked promising, some Malaysian ultra black pepper, a jar of pickled turnips from Turkey, which smelt worst than the cheese, and many tiny bottles of oil extracted from different plants.

"Ahhh! This is dumb! What are we gonna do, invite him for dinner?" Mabel said, tired of opening cans.

"Come on Mabel, we have no other choice. Just keep searching." Dipper said, but he was also starting to reconsider this idea.

Candy Monster was not doing very well either. He had decided that a pot of African honeycomb juice was the best candidate. However, he was a bit angry with himself because of not being able to fight against this threat with nothing more than human weird food. It could be said that he had failed on his mission. If not everything was lost, it was because of these kids, who had proven to be braver and bolder than he had heard about humans, and more intelligent than him in a way. If only the improved candy he had brought with him was more powerful, then he could make a difference. Right now, he felt useless.

Something caught his eye. On the other side of the room, there was a very weak shining. It came from some plastic bottles in an almost hidden box that they hadn't bothered to check on since it was probably soda. The bottles had blue bottle caps….Wait….blue bottle caps?….soda?….could it be?!

"What is that?" He said, walking to the box and putting away some bags.

"What did you find there?" Dipper asked.

The monster grabbed one of the bottles. He saw the blue bottle caps and the characteristic yellow color of the soda he knew well.

"Oh man!" He said with joy in his voice. "Do you know what this is? This is exactly what we need!"

The twins looked carefully at the plastic bottle. "What? A bottle of yellow syrup?"

"No, no. This is 'Burbujas Doradas de los Incas'."

"What's that? Whatever language that is." Dipper said.

"It's in Spanish. And here it was known as 'Inca's Golden Bubbles Cola'. It's a popular soda from Peru. It has a ridiculously excessive amount of unhealthy ingredients. That's why it's banned here and even in some parts of Europe."

Mabel took the bottle and opened it. She smelt the interior. "So it's like a very bad soda?"

"On the contrary, it's really good. Unfortunately, that great flavor comes mainly from those dangerous ingredients. It's said they can cause epileptic seizures and even genetic mutations."

Dipper heard a sound and turned his head. Mabel had just taken a big gulp of the soda.

"Mabel, don't drink that thing!" Dipper said alarmed.

"Sweet! It tastes like bubblegum!" She said.

"It's okay. You would have to drink it daily to get one of those harmful effects. Which usually people tend to do after drinking it for the first time. It is a good soda, indeed."

Dipper took the bottle from Mabel's hands, and examined it. "Are you sure this will wake up Soos?"

"Well, alone maybe. But definitely, if it's combined with this." Candy monster took something from his back. "Hypermint!"

He had on his hand some apparently regular mints. "Have you ever popped mints into soda? Well, combine some Hypermints with Inca's Golden Bubbles and you'll have like a tenfold increased effect. Drink this and you'll probably feel like moving at light speed."

Dipper and Mabel looked at each other and smiled. "I guess that would wake up even a dead body!" Mabel said.

"Yeah, now the only problem is how to get close enough to him without getting caught. We can't just offer it to him." The monster said.

"Leave that to us." Dipper said, turning to look at his twin. "Mabel, it seems we'll have to make a little 'incursion' here."

"You mean that…"

"Yeah, prepare to get Nyarfed."

Mabel grinned widely. "Yes! General Dipping Sauce, Sir!" Mabel yelled, making the hand salute from the military.

"Nyarfed?" the monster said.

"Let's just say we have the perfect equipment for this mission." Dipper answered.

He took a piece of cardboard and placed it on the floor. "Mabel, do you have any markers?" Mabel searched on her night gown pocket and took out two colored markers, Dipper grabbed the red one.

"Okay, we are currently here on the gift shop." He started to draw the different rooms on the shack. "Our summer edition Nyarf guns are on the living, and I think we should also get the dart guns. Apparently Soos and Stan are here on the floor room. I'll go on recon mission to know where exactly they are, while you two get the guns prepared."

Mabel and the Monster nodded. "Once we are ready, we have to lure him somehow to, let's see…the parlor. There, we'll set a trap to immobilize him and make him drink this soda."

Mabel looked at the map. "The parlor. That's where we defeated those creepy wax figures. And that's where Soos will fall!"

"That's right sis." Dipper smiled. "Do you have anything that can hold Soos still for some seconds?" He asked the monster.

"Oh yeah, I know exactly what to use."

"Good" Dipper said. "Then, I think we can green-light this operation."

"Hey, I was just thinking." Mabel said to the monster. "And I know this isn't exactly the best moment, but… do you have a name?" Mabel had been really curious about that. "It's just that we're going on a dangerous mission, and we should know how to call each other. And I don't think you would like that we call you 'Candy Monster' anymore."

Candy Monster smiled. "You know, it's funny because I don't really have one. Where I come from, we are called by the name of our occupation. So I'm like Depurator number 6, from sector 18. However, my mom used to call me 'his little bloom'. She said I looked like a flower bloom when I was born, and my family liked it. Also, I'm known as 'The Scorcher' on this awesome game I play with my friends. So… I uh… I think you can call me by one of those."

"Well, we don't really have the time to… "

"I've got it!" Mabel interrupted Dipper. "How about 'Bloomscorch'? It describes you perfectly! And your mom will love it."

"I guess it's quite appropriate." Bloomscorch said.

"And our names are…"

"Dipper and Mabel. I know. It's a pleasure to meet you officially."

The twins smiled widely. Dipper spoke. "Okay, we have a plan. Now let's make it work." He grabbed the video camera, clicked on the record button and pointed it to him.

"Hello everybody. This will no longer be just Dipper's Guide To The Unexplained. Welcome to The Mystery Shack's Night After Summerween Madness. It's about 1:30 in the morning, and we're about to get out of this hideout and face the threat. With the help of our new friend, Bloomscorch here" He pointed it to him. "we're gonna try to change Soos back to normal. In case our plan fails, I hope this recording survives so everybody knows the truth." He put the camera around his neck.

"What about Waddles, Dip?"

"It will be safer for him to stay here."

Mabel nodded and put Waddles on the floor. "We are going to discuss some issues with Soos, Waddles. We'll come back for you soon." She said to the pig and got on her feet.

"Ready?" Dipper asked.

"Ready" Mabel answered.

"Mystery Twins?" He asked.

"Mystery Twins!" She said, and they both fist bumped.

"Mystery Twins?" Bloomscorch said. He let out a small laugh. "You are for sure the weirdest kids on this town."

They both smiled and spoke at the same time. "Yes. Yes we are."